Today, I played my most unpredictable and closest game on G&K yet!
I decided to try out the latest version of the Legendary Earth map, trying out the Celts since I've fallen in love with playing against Boudicca in the past and decided she'd probably be fun to play with, too. Starting out in the rather tiny British Isles, I knew if I wanted to have any chance of winning the game, I was going to have to expand rather aggressively. I was playing on Prince, a difficulty I've been favouring on the new expansion thus far as I adjust to the new gameplay. Plus, having never played LEM before, I figured it would be the best chance of a relatively smooth ride. As it happened, this wasn't the case at all.
I started out rushing for naval technologies so that I could get across the coast as soon as possible. My neighbours across the coast in western Europe were the French, Dutch, and the Roman Empire, with Denmark immediately north of the Dutch. Napoleon and William were busying themselves with war from fairly early on indeed, which wasn't too surprising at least since they were right beside each other. I went straight for Honor, knowing early war would either make or break my efforts. Whilst those two plugged away at each other, I produced a fairly sizeable invasion force. After crushing the small French navy within two turns of my DOW (whilst Napoleon was still warring with William and had his army mostly committed to the siege of Amsterdam) I landed on the shores of Paris and captured the city.
With my foothold on the continent secured, I used the new defensive position to kill off the bulk of Napoleon's army, confining him to his second city of Orleans, which was sandwiched between Paris and the city state of Lisbon. I quickly allied with Lisbon to cause the French further problems. However, I soon noticed something rather important: William had lost the war to the French rather badly, and would likely have lost his capital had I not turned up and 'saved' him by seizing Paris. I sued for peace with the French and turned my attention to the defenceless Amsterdam. If the tiny Iceni were to succeed, I knew I'd have to aggressively take advantage of the weakness of my neighbours.. so I attacked the Dutch.
Poor William didn't have a land unit to his name when I struck. His entire army consisted of his naval force of around 4 triremes. A healthy defence force against most, but no much for my navy focused army. My fleet consisted of five triremes and 3 galleass, which punched through his defences in a few turns. I then bombarded Amsterdam from the coast, leaving the city a wide open target for my infantry to sweep in and seize. This effectively killed William. He had another city that I later discovered had fallen far too close to Russian territory and had been seized by Catherine, but he certainly never played any further part in the game. At this point I had two cities on the continent to my name, along with my capital and Dublin back in Britain. I was feeling fairly good about myself. My early aggression had paid off, and I'd given myself the impetus I needed to expand further.
However, there was one problem. Rome. Whilst France and the Dutch had been weakened by their war, Rome had been left unscathed, and had profited from it. They had the largest army in the world by the time I'd conquered Amsterdam. Had they attacked then, they could likely have pushed my fatigued army back off the continent and taken my spoils for themselves. Oddly, however, the Celt's historical enemy seemed content to sit back and wait.. a mistake that would prove to be their undoing. I used my newly found territory well, building up my military as the years ticked by and Rome remained passive. They were happy enough to denounce me, of course, but no declaration of war ever came. I remained focused on my internal affairs, pestered by the occasional denouncement but otherwise undisturbed, as my technological advances kept going.
Soon enough, I had gunpowder. The timely arrival of a great scientist helped me to push on to cannons just as Caesar decided to ask why I had a rather large army lurking outside his borders. There was no need for lies at this point. I told him exactly what they were there for: sacking his capital. A tactical error on the AI's part had the bulk of his forces in the wide open territory of Antium, his second city north of Rome itself. I wasted no time in mopping them up with my technologically superior units. Had Caesar mounted his defences near his capital itself, located on the narrow Italian peninsula, I'd have had considerable difficulty, but in the end, it didn't pan out that way. I crushed Antium and took only minimal losses, leaving Caesar's capital isolated, his army destroyed. At this point I took an offered peace deal. Firstly, to allow my army to recover, knowing Rome would be easily taken when the peace treaty expired (especially because he'd just given me one of his remaining three cities!) Secondly, I had a bit of unfinished business with the French..
Although he was far from a real threat, Napoleon had been steadily building up an army inside his remaining city of Orleans. Whilst they were several techs behind my own military, the continued presence of a significant force nearby Paris had left me feeling somewhat exposed. I therefore turned my attention to taking the city. It wasn't too difficult. I struck from distance with my cannons and then stormed in and took the city itself with infantry. Standard siege warfare, and Napoleon was finished for good. By the time that was over, I was ready to finish off Caesar, too. So far, things had seemed.. well, easy. The early war with Napoleon had a few hairy moments, and the battle for Antium was intriguing, but I was quickly seizing control of the entirety of Western Europe. Of course, I didn't know what was happening in the rest of the world just yet..
My second war with Rome ended quickly. Caesar's capital was captured in less than ten turns, and his final city was a joke. Located on a one hex big island, surrounded by ancient era navy, I had no problems in simply sweeping the navy aside and capturing it with one of my own ships. With all of my Western European enemies swept aside, I looked appraisingly at the Ottomans, weakened by a war fought with the conquered Romans. The timely arrival of artillery had devastating effects for the Turks. I was able to bombard Istanbul down to low enough HP to be captured on the very first turn of my declaration of war, and then casually took the city itself with a naval sneak attack. The rest of my war with the Ottomans isn't really worth describing. I blitzkrieged across the continent with my artillery until their civilisation was wiped out. The only thing of note was that I trampled over the unassuming city state of Bucharest in the process. They were in the way!
The war against the Ottomans was to be my final conflict of the game. By this point, I had caravels off exploring the world. My new neighbours seemed to want very little to do with me. At this point I maintained the largest standing army in the world by some distance, and I had no intention of disbanding any units. The rest of the world considered me a warmonger. I suppose it was quite the appropriate title. It was only now that I'd conquered a significant chunk of Europe that I realised just how enormous the task of conquest really was. The Russian empire, although militarily lacking, was vast. Denmark to the north hardly looked worth conquering, and Africa was entirely dominated by Ethiopia. I knew I could push on and likely win several more wars.. but a domination victory simply wasn't going to happen. I'd have been stretched too thin and simply ran out of time.
When I encountered Hiawatha, I began to lose hope. My early success had been admirable, but as my caravels began to scout out North America, it became quickly apparent that he'd dominated his neighbours from the start and had become a runaway civ. Soon after I encountered Sejong, who had done much the same to his Japanese and Chinese rivals. His empire was beginning to encroach into Russian territory when I found him. Worse still, they were both technologically superior to me. Soon enough, Hiawatha's army was bigger than mine! I ruled out a scientific victory at this point, thinking I simply wouldn't be able to compete with Sejong, who was rather far ahead at this point. A cultural victory, perhaps? Diplomatic was pretty much dead and gone after I'd killed Bucharest and pissed off the entire world in the process. I had been doing rather well in the cultural department thanks to the Honor tree and all that rampant murdering I'd been doing.
My hopes were soon dashed whenever I bumped into Siam and saw that he had already completed three trees whilst I was still half way through my second. By the looks of it, he was on track for winning a diplomatic victory, too. I was tempted to retire at this point, thinking that I'd have to launch some sort of glorious naval invasion of America to try and kill Hiawatha if I wanted any chance of success. But instead, I pushed on. I worked with what I had, developing my cities. Hiawatha continued to wage war, taking out Washington and then starting up a rather lengthy war with Montezuma. Whilst this was going on, I decided to start trying to catch up with both the Iroquois and Korea in the technological battle. It was a long shot, but it seemed like my only chance to win at this point.
The years ticked by. India and China were completely wiped out by Sejong in the east, whilst Hiawatha eliminated Montezuma and conquered the entirety of North America. The Inca's dominated the South, but they never seemed in any great position to challenge Hiawatha. Ethiopia eventually conquered all of Africa. For once, I was grateful for the Russians. Catherine's empire was wedged right between my own and the Koreans. At first, I was losing the tech race rather badly.. but things began to turn around. Comparatively speaking my empire was rather tiny when stacked up against Korea and the Iroquois, but small as my lands may have been, they were good lands, with plenty of resources to work with. I began to catch up. Eventually, I even took the lead!
I was still pessimistic, however. Before I knew it, we were approaching the endgame. My attempts at a cultural victory were valiant but ultimately would prove to be unsuccessful. Siam would beat me to the punch barring some kind of nuclear shaped miracle if Sejong decided that Ramkham's hat was sillier than his own. Technologically speaking I was ahead in number of techs researched, but Hiawatha and Sejong had both built the Apollo Program and started the space race several turns before me. Still, I pushed on, hoping for a miracle. The miracle came in the shape of the Hubble telescope, allowing me to catch up to the North American and Asian superpowers in the race for outer space! Each click of the 'next turn' button had me on the edge of my seat. The parts of the space ships began to fall in line for each of the three civs. Every time I thought I was ahead, Hiawatha completed another part. It seemed inevitable that he'd beat me, he seemed always one turn ahead. I sighed, knowing the end was near... but then, it happened. A great scientist was born in my capital, with four crucial turns left remaining for the final research I needed to build the stasis chamber, the last part I needed for my ship.
It seemed too good to be true. Hiawatha finished his second booster the next turn. He only needed one more. I only needed three turns. Would the production boost from the space telescope be enough? Each turn was nerve wracking. I'd never expected such a close and difficult game from Prince! Just when I was expecting the game over screen to pop up, the stasis chamber was complete, and my space program was finished. Victory was mine!
Phew. That was a super long story. I just wanted to share one of my more memorable experiences with G&K so far with you all. I'm fairly sure Hiawatha would have won the game on the next turn. It doesn't get much closer than that!
I decided to try out the latest version of the Legendary Earth map, trying out the Celts since I've fallen in love with playing against Boudicca in the past and decided she'd probably be fun to play with, too. Starting out in the rather tiny British Isles, I knew if I wanted to have any chance of winning the game, I was going to have to expand rather aggressively. I was playing on Prince, a difficulty I've been favouring on the new expansion thus far as I adjust to the new gameplay. Plus, having never played LEM before, I figured it would be the best chance of a relatively smooth ride. As it happened, this wasn't the case at all.
I started out rushing for naval technologies so that I could get across the coast as soon as possible. My neighbours across the coast in western Europe were the French, Dutch, and the Roman Empire, with Denmark immediately north of the Dutch. Napoleon and William were busying themselves with war from fairly early on indeed, which wasn't too surprising at least since they were right beside each other. I went straight for Honor, knowing early war would either make or break my efforts. Whilst those two plugged away at each other, I produced a fairly sizeable invasion force. After crushing the small French navy within two turns of my DOW (whilst Napoleon was still warring with William and had his army mostly committed to the siege of Amsterdam) I landed on the shores of Paris and captured the city.
With my foothold on the continent secured, I used the new defensive position to kill off the bulk of Napoleon's army, confining him to his second city of Orleans, which was sandwiched between Paris and the city state of Lisbon. I quickly allied with Lisbon to cause the French further problems. However, I soon noticed something rather important: William had lost the war to the French rather badly, and would likely have lost his capital had I not turned up and 'saved' him by seizing Paris. I sued for peace with the French and turned my attention to the defenceless Amsterdam. If the tiny Iceni were to succeed, I knew I'd have to aggressively take advantage of the weakness of my neighbours.. so I attacked the Dutch.
Poor William didn't have a land unit to his name when I struck. His entire army consisted of his naval force of around 4 triremes. A healthy defence force against most, but no much for my navy focused army. My fleet consisted of five triremes and 3 galleass, which punched through his defences in a few turns. I then bombarded Amsterdam from the coast, leaving the city a wide open target for my infantry to sweep in and seize. This effectively killed William. He had another city that I later discovered had fallen far too close to Russian territory and had been seized by Catherine, but he certainly never played any further part in the game. At this point I had two cities on the continent to my name, along with my capital and Dublin back in Britain. I was feeling fairly good about myself. My early aggression had paid off, and I'd given myself the impetus I needed to expand further.
However, there was one problem. Rome. Whilst France and the Dutch had been weakened by their war, Rome had been left unscathed, and had profited from it. They had the largest army in the world by the time I'd conquered Amsterdam. Had they attacked then, they could likely have pushed my fatigued army back off the continent and taken my spoils for themselves. Oddly, however, the Celt's historical enemy seemed content to sit back and wait.. a mistake that would prove to be their undoing. I used my newly found territory well, building up my military as the years ticked by and Rome remained passive. They were happy enough to denounce me, of course, but no declaration of war ever came. I remained focused on my internal affairs, pestered by the occasional denouncement but otherwise undisturbed, as my technological advances kept going.
Soon enough, I had gunpowder. The timely arrival of a great scientist helped me to push on to cannons just as Caesar decided to ask why I had a rather large army lurking outside his borders. There was no need for lies at this point. I told him exactly what they were there for: sacking his capital. A tactical error on the AI's part had the bulk of his forces in the wide open territory of Antium, his second city north of Rome itself. I wasted no time in mopping them up with my technologically superior units. Had Caesar mounted his defences near his capital itself, located on the narrow Italian peninsula, I'd have had considerable difficulty, but in the end, it didn't pan out that way. I crushed Antium and took only minimal losses, leaving Caesar's capital isolated, his army destroyed. At this point I took an offered peace deal. Firstly, to allow my army to recover, knowing Rome would be easily taken when the peace treaty expired (especially because he'd just given me one of his remaining three cities!) Secondly, I had a bit of unfinished business with the French..
Although he was far from a real threat, Napoleon had been steadily building up an army inside his remaining city of Orleans. Whilst they were several techs behind my own military, the continued presence of a significant force nearby Paris had left me feeling somewhat exposed. I therefore turned my attention to taking the city. It wasn't too difficult. I struck from distance with my cannons and then stormed in and took the city itself with infantry. Standard siege warfare, and Napoleon was finished for good. By the time that was over, I was ready to finish off Caesar, too. So far, things had seemed.. well, easy. The early war with Napoleon had a few hairy moments, and the battle for Antium was intriguing, but I was quickly seizing control of the entirety of Western Europe. Of course, I didn't know what was happening in the rest of the world just yet..
My second war with Rome ended quickly. Caesar's capital was captured in less than ten turns, and his final city was a joke. Located on a one hex big island, surrounded by ancient era navy, I had no problems in simply sweeping the navy aside and capturing it with one of my own ships. With all of my Western European enemies swept aside, I looked appraisingly at the Ottomans, weakened by a war fought with the conquered Romans. The timely arrival of artillery had devastating effects for the Turks. I was able to bombard Istanbul down to low enough HP to be captured on the very first turn of my declaration of war, and then casually took the city itself with a naval sneak attack. The rest of my war with the Ottomans isn't really worth describing. I blitzkrieged across the continent with my artillery until their civilisation was wiped out. The only thing of note was that I trampled over the unassuming city state of Bucharest in the process. They were in the way!
The war against the Ottomans was to be my final conflict of the game. By this point, I had caravels off exploring the world. My new neighbours seemed to want very little to do with me. At this point I maintained the largest standing army in the world by some distance, and I had no intention of disbanding any units. The rest of the world considered me a warmonger. I suppose it was quite the appropriate title. It was only now that I'd conquered a significant chunk of Europe that I realised just how enormous the task of conquest really was. The Russian empire, although militarily lacking, was vast. Denmark to the north hardly looked worth conquering, and Africa was entirely dominated by Ethiopia. I knew I could push on and likely win several more wars.. but a domination victory simply wasn't going to happen. I'd have been stretched too thin and simply ran out of time.
When I encountered Hiawatha, I began to lose hope. My early success had been admirable, but as my caravels began to scout out North America, it became quickly apparent that he'd dominated his neighbours from the start and had become a runaway civ. Soon after I encountered Sejong, who had done much the same to his Japanese and Chinese rivals. His empire was beginning to encroach into Russian territory when I found him. Worse still, they were both technologically superior to me. Soon enough, Hiawatha's army was bigger than mine! I ruled out a scientific victory at this point, thinking I simply wouldn't be able to compete with Sejong, who was rather far ahead at this point. A cultural victory, perhaps? Diplomatic was pretty much dead and gone after I'd killed Bucharest and pissed off the entire world in the process. I had been doing rather well in the cultural department thanks to the Honor tree and all that rampant murdering I'd been doing.
My hopes were soon dashed whenever I bumped into Siam and saw that he had already completed three trees whilst I was still half way through my second. By the looks of it, he was on track for winning a diplomatic victory, too. I was tempted to retire at this point, thinking that I'd have to launch some sort of glorious naval invasion of America to try and kill Hiawatha if I wanted any chance of success. But instead, I pushed on. I worked with what I had, developing my cities. Hiawatha continued to wage war, taking out Washington and then starting up a rather lengthy war with Montezuma. Whilst this was going on, I decided to start trying to catch up with both the Iroquois and Korea in the technological battle. It was a long shot, but it seemed like my only chance to win at this point.
The years ticked by. India and China were completely wiped out by Sejong in the east, whilst Hiawatha eliminated Montezuma and conquered the entirety of North America. The Inca's dominated the South, but they never seemed in any great position to challenge Hiawatha. Ethiopia eventually conquered all of Africa. For once, I was grateful for the Russians. Catherine's empire was wedged right between my own and the Koreans. At first, I was losing the tech race rather badly.. but things began to turn around. Comparatively speaking my empire was rather tiny when stacked up against Korea and the Iroquois, but small as my lands may have been, they were good lands, with plenty of resources to work with. I began to catch up. Eventually, I even took the lead!
I was still pessimistic, however. Before I knew it, we were approaching the endgame. My attempts at a cultural victory were valiant but ultimately would prove to be unsuccessful. Siam would beat me to the punch barring some kind of nuclear shaped miracle if Sejong decided that Ramkham's hat was sillier than his own. Technologically speaking I was ahead in number of techs researched, but Hiawatha and Sejong had both built the Apollo Program and started the space race several turns before me. Still, I pushed on, hoping for a miracle. The miracle came in the shape of the Hubble telescope, allowing me to catch up to the North American and Asian superpowers in the race for outer space! Each click of the 'next turn' button had me on the edge of my seat. The parts of the space ships began to fall in line for each of the three civs. Every time I thought I was ahead, Hiawatha completed another part. It seemed inevitable that he'd beat me, he seemed always one turn ahead. I sighed, knowing the end was near... but then, it happened. A great scientist was born in my capital, with four crucial turns left remaining for the final research I needed to build the stasis chamber, the last part I needed for my ship.
It seemed too good to be true. Hiawatha finished his second booster the next turn. He only needed one more. I only needed three turns. Would the production boost from the space telescope be enough? Each turn was nerve wracking. I'd never expected such a close and difficult game from Prince! Just when I was expecting the game over screen to pop up, the stasis chamber was complete, and my space program was finished. Victory was mine!
Phew. That was a super long story. I just wanted to share one of my more memorable experiences with G&K so far with you all. I'm fairly sure Hiawatha would have won the game on the next turn. It doesn't get much closer than that!
