Japan SG

[Mizzenmast]

Fantastic 10 turns!! I’m glad you got the Stable and Workshop, and I support Manufactories even if we don’t take Freedom. I was too concerned about Russia attacking us, her Muskets unnerved me but she is clearly more interested in expanding than conquering at the moment. I had sent the Caravan to Moscow to avoid war before we were ready, but I won’t let it delay us now. I like the Honor plan too, including going for the XP policy. Besides Frigates, we can quickly train up Zeroes in the late game.

150: I switched Nagoya’s Granary to a Lighthouse and worked more hammers so we don’t have to buy it. Bought a missionary in Tokyo to get a Pagoda in Nara before Renaissance. Traded a bunch of stuff for Russia’s Gold to satisfy a new quest.
151: England couped us in Buenos Aires, we lost 39 influence, bringing us down to a mere 38. But after rigging elections in Sofia we had a 78% chance to gain 30 in a coup, which I took (figuring England is unlikely to have her second spy there over her capital) and it succeeded. Since we only had ~10 turns of friendship with Buenos Aires left, I warred England now to lock down the allies we had. Warred Russia too of course. Sent our spy to Mecca to get Navigation as you suggested, putting a few turns into Physics in the meantime. Bulbed our Writer because Culture had dropped this turn. Annoyingly, Rostov grew to take a Cattle tile which blocks our Road, and I started thinking we should use our first Citadel to reclaim it.
154: England builds Forbidden Palace. Captured a fully charged Incan prophet, he walked it right up to our Spearman. Warred the Ottomans.
155: Protection quest from Zurich for a small boost. Spawned our first General, satisfying 4 quests. Converted Nara and bought the Pagoda. Now Arabia had brought us a Prophet, landing it in range of our Samurai on Fuji island. So, despite good deals from them, I denounced and Dowed to capture it. This triggered war with Vatican city, but we had fulfilled their General quest first (I don’t remember if GP quests get cancelled by war, I think they might not actually) and we can get some XP with the Samurai while waiting to peace Arabia.
156: Our Spy would take 25 turns to steal from Arabia, so I just put him in Kyoto for now. Someone stole Compass recently. Bought a tile for 120 to enable our first Citadel in a few turns.
157: Tokyo went into the red this turn, but we prevailed. Warred Attila after bribing him to attack Mongolia and Ottomans. Took the Generals policy. I left our third Samurai at 1 turn in Kyoto because it looks like Attila will pillage Zurich’s Iron and I don’t want the combat penalty.
160: Writer’s Guild has finished in Tokyo. 1 General is in place for the Citadel I had in mind, and the other is nearby to be used at your discretion.

Spoiler :

Notes
You can see our 2 new Holy Sites in the 2nd pic.
We have an open trade slot but I’ve been prioritizing happiness buildings. I looks like happiness might run out soon anyway, but I've been improving production.
Navigation is underway, but you might finish Chivalry this turn so that Kyoto can start a Knight after this Xbow.
We could send a unit to protect Zurich’s iron to safely get more Samurai, or go for Gunpowder so we can stop relying on Iron/use it for Frigates instead.
Our first Samurai has Blitz, and we already have good headway (155/400) on the next General.
You could move our Spy to a CS now to rig elections on t165.
Inca will make peace now with 1k, so will Ottomans with 240, and our treaty has ended with Mongolia to whom I just sold many luxuries for 5gpt each, so you can probably make good money this turn.

Overall we’re still doing really well. Highest literacy is just 42% (England). Attila is not only capturing cities but razing them all, leaving the map bare. Russia is unlikely to threaten our cities again. 60 science from Scholasticism. I’m definitely thinking Domination, the game is well-suited for it and we can check it off our list.

 

[Tiberiu]

Game is going well... we made our first city capture and I set you up for the next one. .
Also, great job with those Holy Sites, I like them and they give us options to buy lots of GP in the endgame!

160. Peace with inca for 10 gpt and I bribe cheaply to DOW England. Also made peace with Ottomans for a few gold.
161. Peace with Arabia for 11gpt and preparing to citadel bomb adjacent to Rostov. I am trying to keep the other general for a while, maybe we can Raze Rostov and this way we save up the general.
162. We receive an Artist and I bulbed him... Again, not bad but not the best either. Prophet spawned and I put another Holy site (in Tokyo).
163. Peace with Attila for 16 gpt and bribe to DOW Russia for 3gpt.
164. One of our sea routes was pillaged. No biggie... I sacrifice a scout to kill off a general that was preparing to citadel bomb us back and maybe even steal our citadel so I think it had to be done.
165. The scout survived! Another General is born.
166. Rigged in Sofia, moving spy in Mecca. We capture Rostov and I puppet it. We can use the city to do some extra damage and create new citadel bombing possibilities. And we can trade it away when/if we want to (to somebody unhappy who will raze it). Annexing and razing (unlike immediate razing) will increase our tech/policy costs permanently so we should be wary of that.
167. Arabia brought anohter Prophet and is using spreads on Florence... We received a Longswordsman.
168. World Congress is founded but we don't get to choose anything. Truffles for 15 from Attila. Buenos Aires was captured by the Inca.

Notes:

Please do a check of how citizen are arranged, we had a few turns of unhappiness and I put them for production.
We can gift 500 gold to Malacca who has gold gift quest and in turn we will fulfil Pocelain quest of Wellington. We should wait one more turn to have 25 basic influence but if you wanna do something else with the gold feel free.
Arabia is probably going to convert our city Satsuma. This isn't all bad, we can buy a Mosque. I built us a Scout there in case we manage to steal that prophet. And colloseum is at 1 turn left there. If we want to, we can then buy mosques in all our cities as this will increase both Faith and Culture output besides the small happiness boost. Sure it's a bit expensive but we have the faith output to make the investment if we want to. Not sure it's worth all the hassle but maybe we can just get 3 mosques for the Fuji Island cities. (using inquisitors to convert them, and then after we do so, using a few inquisitors/missionaries to re-convert to our religion).
Spy is stealing in 15 turns, I think we should let him steal, and try to hurry our way to Industrialization now. We might get lucky and steal Economics if Arabia discovers it by then. I was teching Acoustics in order for the spy to have a better rate so you should change it now.
I've been building Workshops...I am thinking next wave of buildings should soon be Harbors because we need both the happiness and the gold.
The samurai near Fuji Island should be careful as he is injured and a few turns ago there was an enemy caravel around.
We can soon choose a policy... We should consider taking something for happiness (Artistocracy or Exploration for the next-up happiness policy) but going for Rationalism could also work if we manage to stay happy. Taking Honor XP is also fine but maybe we don't need it as much immediately like we need happiness. Choose what you think is best.
We have 2 caravan slots open, but I don't know what's the best thing to do. I would like sea routes instead of caravans, but until we finish the war with Russia or have a fleet, we can't defend them, so if you wanna build land caravans that also makes sense.

Military:

A General is adjacent to Yaroslavl and ready to bomb. The promoted samurai is also ready to hold the ground there with ease. (he can even attack 1 time, heal up, attack, heal etc - as a side comment, I think I like March before Logistics on melee)
I didn't want to spend gold on upgrading the triremes so that is why I built only Crossbowmen in the capital so that we can defend from enemy ship. There are still enemy caravels around the area but since we can repair our pearls with a Samurai if needed, it's not a big deal if Russia manages to pillage something. I'm not sure it's worth upgrading Triremes, I'd rather buy a privateer instead, or a colloseum in Nagoya (the atoll is also interesting to buy but a bit expensive for 170.
If we conquer Yaroslav and puppet it, then we are in striking distance of Moscow with only 1-2 more citadel bombs and Russia will be finished. Spamming Crossbowmen seems to work fine for us here, since they can be used both offensively and defensively quite well.

 

[Mizzenmast]

This round was a mixed bag. The Russian war is going well: Yaroslavl captured, next Citadel in place, and we're almost ready to take Orenburg. But there was chaos in the East. England launched a successful coup in Vatican City on 171, putting Satsuma in immediate danger, and I had spent most of our gold the turn before (I did upgrade to Caravels, I wanted the extra bulk to keep them relevant and alive, and built a Privateer to go with them). Perhaps it was not a foregone conclusion but I did give Satsuma to Mongolia on t175 to avoid capture...

172: 250g to Malacca for a long friendship; Wellington is about to be captured anyway.
175: Prophet born. Privateer finished in Kyoto and captures a Caravel. Started a Harbor.
178: New policy: Tradition happiness.
179: Great Engineer born in Kyoto. Leaning Tower was still around so I went for it.
180: We got Leaning Tower! What will you pick?

Notes:
2 Caravels are positioned to maintain a safe sea route between Nagoya and Kagoshima. One Cargo ship is sending production already, and another is finishing up in Osaka to time with Nagoya’s Workshop.
We are on time to be able to steal Economics.
Arabian prophet didn’t work out, but we just got an English missionary, so you could try playing with Cathedrals.

Spoiler :

 

[Tiberiu]

Wow, Leaning Tower of Pisa . I didn't see that coming. Very nice!. The loss of Satsuma isn't a big deal, I think. Unfortunately I failed to broker peace between Huns and the Mongols and we can't take back the city with full pop and the buildings but it's not the end of the world. You did very smart to give it to Mongolia, too bad I didn't follow through...sorry

I boosted our economy with a few peace deals, with England (~43gpt) and Attila (20gpt), and increased production especially in the capital where Ironworks finishes in turn 192 and we will have 91 production for producing 1 frigate each 2 turns if we want to. I sent production sea routes to the capital, and a few caravel and the privateer are guarding the area. I saw a caravel a few turns ago to the North of Nagoya so it might try something sneaky, need to watch over the routes.

Militarily I didn't accomplish much beyond holding ground, capturing a galleass, killing off units, and bringing our General into position. Recapturing Satsuma with only a few units is proving too difficult, maybe you can buy one more trebuchet or something. (but we might rather need gold for factories. We can build it in capital and buy 2 of them maybe. There are 2 workers there repairing each turn so that the Samurai can pillage and heal and farm some xp and gold.

180: Peace with England for 43 gpt. Bribe Attila to DOW everybody and DOW him. Bribe Mongolia To DOW some CSs and Ottomans and DOW him. DOW Ottomans.
I decided upon an Engineer and put up a manufactory in the capital. Buy cheap Gems from Inca. I make a small retreat with the units, I would like to conserve as much Soldiers value as possible to try to get Satsuma back in a peace deal.
181. I didn't expect Mongolia to lose capital so quickly, I should have brokered peace with the Huns the turn before. I think this is my biggest mistake in this game so far. Another mistake on my part with Inca settling a city in only 2 tile range of Sofia, I should have bought 1 tile to prevent it. But there are positive side effects too (religious pressure mostly). Bribe England to DOW Mongolia to try to get Vatican to help us there.
183. Donate Longswordsman to Zurich, he was trapped and we need iron elsewhere anyway.
185. We steal Economics. Spy steals in 35 so I just move him to Vatican to try to get it back to us with a Coup. GG born.
186. I just can't press forward to capture Orenburg which has 36 str and a general inside. Lost a pikeman and a scout but captured a Galleass.
Peace with Attila for 20 gpt and with Ottomans for selling pearls 120.
187. Preparing to citadel bomb Moscow... couldn't do anything to Orenburg. Gift 4 gpt to Attila and with free embassy we have some positive modifier. We could buy 3 luxuries cheaply if he changes mood.
190: Attila entered the Industrial with Industrialization and he has 7 coal.


Notes:

We can buy that coal for 4 gpt each but I wonder if it is even worth it. I am on the fence, do as you think is best. We might rather buy his 8 iron and spam some frigates now. We should be able to catch a 2-tenet ideology, I think. Especially if we start saving up gold now. A 2 tenet ideology would be nice, I think it doesn't matter which one it is since we are doing quite well with any of them so if you choose take what you like.
I suggest that we don't make peace with Russia until we capture Moscow at least. And also I think moving the General Adjacent without a strong unit with cover might be risky. (we don't have a drill/cover unit at the moment.)
We could instead citadel bomb safely in 1 tile range of the city and this way all of our crossbowmen will get to take turns shooting and soon they will gain the upper hand, as I also build us a fort there. Once we have 3-4 crossbows with Logistics and March they will start draining Moscow on their own, and if we bring 3-4 frigates, we can maybe capture Moscow in the next 15 turns without a citadel adjacent to the city. (as a side comment, this type of position is where Swedish Lancer shines, it can allow generals to move on hills and bomb safely). If we move adjacent we can bring a few cheap units as sacrificial decoys.

important: Inca is top army and he is at war with England and the Huns but once he makes peace we should expect a nasty DOW, possibly with Arabia too. Please look at his options to bribe...some are a bit expensive but we could avoid some headaches by putting him at war with Arabia or Russia too (around 30 gpt). Then, after we capture Moscow and make peace with Russia, we can DOW the Inca and focus on them.
Spy arrived in Vatican and has 71% chance to coup, also rigging in 5-6 turns. Fingers crossed . If you don't feel like couping we can just rig and move away maybe.
The Missionary with Protestantism couldn't even convert cities if we wanted to, delete him if you want or we can at least buy a cathedral in satsuma if it still costs 300.

 

[Mizzenmast]

Unfortunately I failed to broker peace between Huns and the Mongols and we can't take back the city with full pop and the buildings but it's not the end of the world. You did very smart to give it to Mongolia, too bad I didn't follow through...sorry

Please, it didn't even occur to me to get the city back in a peace deal, but that was a good idea. I just didn't want a CS owning it when we wanted to re-capture it.

190: Tinkered with citizens/builds to get the best Aqueduct timings. Successful coup in Vatican City! Didn’t bribe Inca yet, I think he might stay at war with England for a long time and he’ll be easy to fight off anyway. I would rather save the gold to buy quest/King day luxuries from Attila before warring him again. On the battlefront, I saved our General for now. The combat bonus will be nice, and I am worried we could overextend ourselves easily and get the 2nd citadel taken by a Russian general if we can’t hold position, and promoted units may die needlessly.

191: Catherine gets Rifling. Pearls + 2 horses for Hunnic Citrus, fulfilling a quest and 2 king days. (He’s offering decent trades now.)

192: Pearls, Sugar, + 9gpt <> Incan Furs, for a quest.

193: Recaptured Satsuma. I was blocking Vatican City’s units with Workers and the Missionary and I think this prevented them from capturing it. The city kept a lot of buildings, including Pagoda, and Genghis even built us a University. I will miss him... Bought a Mosque + discounted Inquisitor. 23gpt, horses, + new duplicate marble <> Hunnic wine, for 3 king days and a quest.

194: Pachacuti built Sistine. I bulbed our Writer and took Military Tradition now that we’re getting Frigates out. Gave our first Frigates Bombardment because we might need it against Rifleman, and it will be useful later too. Annexed Rostov, which now has a King Day, massive food potential, and a Library, and grabbed a Pagoda.

195: The Citystates gave us a Khan! But it spawned all the way in Satsuma. Mosque in Kagoshima. Arabia and Ottomans sign a RA. Interestingly, Attila will give us Open Borders for free, so I sent a Scout towards him to explore.

196: Influence fell in Sofia after elections. But we will generate an Admiral for them soon, hopefully no one coups us while our influence is low. I sent our Spy to Mecca. Barracks finished in Osaka, started a Samurai so we can defend against Inca when we want to war them. I remembered Attila’s Coal- He has 6 now so I think he started 1 Factory and he will definitely take Autocracy. I bought 5 Coal for 12gpt, hoping he’ll be stuck at 2 Factories until he finds more. Plus we’ll have Coal secured for our own Factories in a few turns if we don’t have another source.

197: Russia’s first Riflemen have appeared, thankfully we have some naval support by now.

198: Attila got Autocracy, not sure how - I guess he had more Coal at some point and already built a couple Factories with it. Voted against Sciences Funding. First Crossbowman takes Logistics, there aren’t good spots to use Range and he has March so he’ll make a nice Gatling gun.

199: Sciences Funding ties and therefore fails. I’m pleased, anything that slows down the game is good for us, we want the maximum turns to profit from a well-managed, experienced army. Embargo Inca passes too, ending 2 trade routes. Nagoya Mosque purchased, 1 turn before Industrial. Russian Caravel intercepted.

200: Industrialization researched; we have 7 Coal immediately from a Holy Site! No need to keep peace with Attila, we can war him right away if you want. Spy will steal from Mecca in 19 turns; I say let him.

Spoiler :

Notes
We just got a Sofian Longsword in Osaka. This is good, I have been working to gather a little force there to war the Inca with in the next couple turns: 2 Samurai, a Frigate, a Treb, and the Khan. You might also bring the latest Frigate there. We can war Attila first to get back some GPT, then see if we can bribe Inca before we war him too.
All of our ranged ships so far have Bombardment. We could continue this trend and just use melee/Subs for anti-sea, the other civs don't seem to care much about ships.
I think we should go for Gunpowder now so we can start upgrading Samurai and freeing Iron for more Frigates. But we should leave 1 Iron free so we can continue building and upgrading 1 Samurai at a time until we get Rifling for tons of value. And I think we should still take Autocracy if we can get the Spy tenet immediately, but I agree they'd all be strong. We have been so good about neglecting science, from no Universities or NC to chopping all jungles including Bananas, so I am leaning towards Spies... Yet the highest Literacy is Araba with 49%, so maybe not. That is shockingly low for t200.
I was thinking we would have to buy a Courthouse in Rostov but its production is better than I thought, so it can just build one after the Monument.
We might not try to convert our cities back from Islam. They can get an extra 2 happy by building Temples. Now that it's the Industrial we could even buy a Muslim prophet to spread the religion to our remaining cities.

 

[Tiberiu]

Well done Mizzenmast! I think we nailed this game overall.
(edit2: I never actually finished the Samurais you were building because those were our best production cities and I simply switched to Factories in both of them so as to get us an ideology asap.)

200: Move new spy to Attila's Court. If he doesn't steal fast I'll move him to rig Sofia.
I think that now with access to Gatling guns and already having one with Logistics and March, using up the General with a citadel is the fastest way to conquer Moscow and I think it's worth taking the capital faster. This is safe now since a general can't bomb our citadel, it would have to survive 1 turn on that hills and I don't think he can. While I am at it, I want to not care about Inca for the next turns and I put them at war with the Ottomans for expensive 19 but if I can conquer Moscow in this session it will be worth it. Switched Nara (starvation mode) and Osaka to building Factories while the capital is building more Frigates with Iron bought from Attila. I decided to stay at peace with Attila for the Iron and bought Incense for a King day. I plan to first take the small Russian cities on the coast before reaching the capital.
201: We have the most votes (9) for becoming the Host of the World Congress. I exchange the newly acquired Gold for Silk and buy Truffles from Attila. Incence never got to us, Attila lost it or something.
204: We capture Tver and Puppet it instead of Razing because we might be able to sell it for profit after we conquer one more city nearby. Gatling gun is injured and has to retreat but thankfully I have enough gold to upgrade the Scarcher to Gatling. With Survivalism and Cover it should be able to tank well in the citadel. Time to put my calculations to the test as the unit is surrounded.
Lvl 1 spy steals in 35 from Attila. There is time to move and rig the next elections, I go to Sofia, I think this is our most important CS overall.
I continue with Gunpoweder and going to Fertilizer, I think we would benefit a lot from it.
205. Russia finally wants to give us tribute but I refuse! The S-gatling bravely tanks damage and remains with 49 HP, a sign it can tank one more turn fortified until the other one is ready to replace it. Khan is now here for healing and defense. Russia is lowest in army strength, even lower than the super-crippled Ottomans. Expect full capitaluation soon at this rate. However I brought us to bankruptcy. -34 with no treasury, I'm building Wealth in minor cities and next turn golden age starts, saving us. Next turn Ottomans should also capitulate and give us some gold. GG spanws in Tokyo, I am sending it to Incan area because I've brought the Khan to Russian area. We capture a Caravel! I sold our only Dyes to Attila for 7, we still have 5 positive happy and I hope to get more with Ideology soon. And as much as I hate it, Pearls for only 2 to Arabia...
206. Artist spawns and I bulb, no point in keeping as we really need some gold now. 68 gold and ~350 cash from Ottomans who capitulate. Right when we needed the gold, here it comes! Russia is now giving tons of cash thanks to our positive economy. We could take 123 gpt but I think the capital values a lot more than this. Sea route diverted to Osaka instead of capital to have ideology 1 turn faster than otherwise. Buy 6 iron for 6 gpt from Ottomans, great! I paid tons of gold (60 gpt) to put Attila at war with everybody again. Not sure it's the best approach but I really like it since it slows the world down and I also buy 5 iron cheaply. We have 14 iron excess. Most likely you'll have to DOW at end of golden age, though, of whenever you want to.
207. We capture Krasnoyarsk and I set to raze and delete happiness building. I gift Tver to Attila for free and sell Krasnoyarsk for 71 gpt. He razes both cities! We should keep it peaceful with Attila now! I delete out Land caravan even though I could have completed a Geneva quest for route. I think having a sea route is worth more than 500 gold at this point. I could have sent to Nara and have ideology 1 turn faster but I think that is also less value overall. Ife almost kills one privateer of ours but I retreat to safety. Arabia steals Lhasa from us but I don't see the value of taking it back for now. I prefer to upgrade 2 more crossbows who are close to Range to gatlings (I think we can use Range better than Logistics here)
I denounce the Ottomans just for an extra positive modifier with Attila.
208. Russia capitulates giving us 4 cities including Wellington. I'll take the capital and take their cities after. We capture an Ife's Privateer.
209. We put the flags of Japan over the city of Moscow! Russia took Rationalism but their empire is now over, having no World Wonders. I buy Russia's open borders and their 2 iron. We have 21 Iron now.
We take Wellington (liberate), Orenburg and Byriansk and raze them. There is a work of art in a cathedral in Byriansk but we can't take it and will get lost. We sell these cities to Attila for 92gpt and Sugar.
Damn,, I realize I should have moved the units near Ife before making peace. There was a chance to capture one more Privateer...
210: Time to choose Ideology

notes:

Attila is giving tons of cash so we shouldn't DOW him, especially since he also likes us and we might get a DOF.
You can choose an ideology and I am ok with whatever you feel like going for but in my opinion, the fact that Attila does not even influence us at this point (He is at around 8-9%), coupled with the fact that nobody is a science runaway to be able to use Industrial Espionage that much, means that we could benefit more by taking a 2-tenet ideology. However regardles of what we do, we should first take some happiness because we are running a bit low on it.
My suggestion is to go for Order because you'll get to choose a policy soon and we can take Factory tenet to speed both production + science in the cities. However Freedom for the Statue of Liberty + Voluntary army+ New Deal is also cool.
If you want to go to Autocracy, maybe let's try to also get Brandenburg Gate and pump out 60 XP units right out of the box. I think an engineer soon spawns and if we beeline Military Science we should get it.
While we are making tons of gold now, we could buy all the CS that are vital to us and DOW both England + Arabia. They will capitulate 100% in 6 turns because we have massive army, and we can take even more tributes and snowball.
I've sent units on the sea so that you can move them where you want. We could re-DOW Russia in 10 turns to get more tributes from them too, so maybe keep a few units here too.
please check citizen a little, I've been boosting production and gold.
(edit - about Islam - not sure I like it now, I like Religious Community at least in the capital for 15% prod but do as you like to, it's obviously a mix of advantages and disadvantages in both cases.

 

[Mizzenmast]

Great work!! Meanwhile, I've not just been busy, but had player's block for a while. However today I figured it out and the game continues to go well.

210: Took Order. I picked Monument & Workshop happiness, skipping GP% for now. Bribed Inca to war two more civs, then denounced and warred him, stealing his worker to get a pillage/repair engine going with our new Pyramids. Denounced Russia. Paused our Fuji factories to get a couple Workers (and Aqueduct in Satsuma) while waiting for the double hammers from Order tier 2, to make the most of that and because we want many Workers to prepare Fertilizer farms and set up pillage income vs. Inca. Sent a Cargo ship to Attila because if we can secure friendship, he has at least 5k we can borrow. Food ship to Kagoshima. Bought a Prophet in Tokyo for religion quests.
211: We reached 1k to be able to buy out the last English ally, and she had a Privateer in range of our ships. So I bribed her to war Russia and Ottomans, denounced and DOWed. Also, this turn I finally realized that Samurai do not upgrade to Muskets but to Rifles. The tech tree made me think otherwise... but it shows how little I’ve actually played Japan!
212: Arabia bought out Zurich (they have the CS reformation belief now). I moved our spy there who had recently rigged the elections in Sofia. Russians recaptured Orenburg. Chemistry unlocked, started Fertilizer. Russia/Arabia friendship.
213: Policy: Worker’s Faculties. Redirected production from Kyoto to Satsuma. Engineer born, but I will save him for Brandenburg Gate, unless you want to do something else with him. But Brandenburg would be nice for spamming Zeroes later.
215: Redirected production from Kyoto to Moscow, thinking we will annex it soon.
216: Musket from Sofia. Two new friendships between the AIs. They will probably all sign RA’s but we have already begun our domination snowball. Finished University in Kyoto and worked its specialists. We should generate at least 1 Scientist because we’ve been accumulating points from Oracle and there’s a quest out. Spy arrived in Zurich, I spent 250G to ally (not worth coup risk for 14 influence) and will leave him there for now to prevent coups. Zurich is valuable to us for happiness, Iron, and military aid against Russia, whom we should surely war again for profit and to finalize her irrelevance. Captured and razed Nasca.
218: Captured Arequipa. England will offer Nottingham, her only city besides London, for peace… I took it, sight unseen, and it sucks, but it will temporarily give us Furs for 3 King Days, and we had just enough happiness to start razing and selling off buildings.
219: Stole Metallurgy from Arabia. Writer born, but no reason to bulb him yet, next policy is far away and our culture will increase once we liberate Buenos Aires.

Notes:
We can sell Nottingham back to England if we need happiness or gpt. Or we could burn it completely, and once our Frigates are finished with the Inca (who are already capitulating, but the deal is inferior to pillage gold), sail East to capture London for Forbidden Palace and ToA, and prevent any more coups from her. I saw 3 Ships of the Line in Nottingham’s radius.
The city of Arequipa will burn in 1 turn but you might consider annexing it now so that we can sell it to Attila in tandem with the 2 cities below it for lots of gold. He'll probably raze all 3, so they should all be sold in the same turn. Then if we annex Moscow after selling Arequipa, our policy/tech costs will be at the proper level.
Peace with Russia has expired, and I left plenty of units there to protect our holdings. (She has Cossacks out, maybe she will go for Brandenburg?) All units are fully upgraded, we made a lot of gold from pillaging this round. There is a small Artic navy in position to capture ships from Ife and Russia, and we have full sight of entrances to our local ocean. But I think there may be an Arabian caravel in there somewhere. However I don't think we should war him yet anyway because of all his CS's.
I forgot to check how long the next steal time in Mecca is, so please investigate.

Spoiler :

 

[Tiberiu]

I am glad we finally dealt with the Inca before they got the chance to become strong! Now we are crushing this game and it feels like Immortal or even Emperor. We are leading in most demograhics and are only 4% of tech leadership.
I played my first 5 turns on another computer and didn't take notes but I liberated Buenos Aires and captured more Incan cities. I did not want to stop the razing of Arequipa, though, but we are still managing to drain Attila of huge amounts of GPT now.
I also captured Orenburg from Russia again.

225: Captured another incan city and puppeted it. Attila DOFs us and I take his ~6000 gold in loans. Used up Writer and taking Skyscrapers. I buy markets, some banks and prepare to steal some CS (Ormus, Malacca and Riga for around 4500) from Arabia and DOW them for tributes. Sydney would have required 2500-3000 and I think it was not worth it even if we had the gold.
226: Attila got Brandenburg Gate. DOW Arabia. Take Khabarovsk and Wellington as tribute from Russia. Sell Khabarovsk for 130 gpt to Attila who razes it. We capture one more incan city and sell 2 incan cities for 25 gpt, Attila razes everything. We received a Merchant which will build a custom house in our capital.
227: Inca gives us 4 cities: 3 of population 7 and one of 20. Machu with 20 is quite a good city with a lot of buildings and even a musician guild, I think it's good to keep it. I get rid of the others for gold. I build one more Manufactory, and a Holy Site.
I sold Vilcas back to Inca because it is a trap city for them: they are wasting tons of production there to build Frigates and Caravels in an inland sea that they can't even use for anything.

notes:

Game is won in around 30 (or maybe 40 since we also need Istanbul+Karakorum) turns, we have 2 options
1) spam frigates + artillery and win this way, keep Attila for last since he is DOF and giving us money. Use 2-3 citadels against him in the endgame if he gets too strong. (we have Khan+General now)
2) Hard focus science everywhere and get to Flight and maybe also Electronics.

I went for the first option and this is why we are teching to Dynamite now instead of Acoustics line, but if you feel like changing plans, feel free.

-- I promised to Inca that we will attack England. He should ask to do so in turn 239. The idea is that we should DOW England by ourselves in turn 234-235 so that on t239 Inca will also attack. By then, we might be ready to snipe the English capital or simply tribute them again without being forced to stay at war
-- Our fleet is close to Syndey and we could capture it and sell it to Attila for yet more gold, or even annex it and use it as a base of attack on both Arabia and Attila, with Artillery + fleet as support. Or skip Sydney and go directly for Baghdad which is only 40 str at the moment but easily conquerable with our ranged Frigates, and then slowly make our way to Arabia's capital which is 90 defense and requires artillery to take it. If we bring our Khan and our Great General we can double citadel against Attila and conquer his capital before he has Great War Bombers. But we should drain him of money for a while still.
-- Machu is a good city but still taking a lot of time in resistance (16-17 turns or so). If you want to sell it to Attila for around 50 gpt more, go ahead. We don't really need it. But it does produce Musicians for us right now and it will help boost our culture a bit. And we can use it as a base of operations in the area, maybe for GWBs if we don't capture England/Cusco by then.
-- Second spy is in Russia's capital and stealing in 75. They are building Public school. If you switch tech to Rifling, and move the spy in the same city in the turn when we are 2-turns away from discovering Rifling, it will mean the Spy will only be able to steal Acoustics from Russia (unless they get Dynamite but it's unlikely), and it will steal in around 15 turns by my calculations. And we could use this steal for Scientific Theory at the very least. Otherwise, we can continue to Dynamite and simply conquer Russia's current capital city with a few well placed Artillery. Move the spy away somewhere else in that case.
-- I got rid of our puppet city near Moscow...I don't know if you'll approve but it seemed like a city we don't need. I annexed Moscow to buy the Gold and the Citadels again.
-- All cities are focusing growth -- move them how you like if you want something else.
-- Artist is spawning in 1-2 turns and we should maybe sell the guild and rebuild it in Rostov where it can cover more ground. Or not, since we'll capture Russia's city nearby anyway. But we would do well to wait for our Natural Golden Age to start, we have a lot of happiness and we only need around 12-13 turns or so. However if you need the gold boost for something else it's not a big deal to bulb immediately.
-- Capital is building Heroic Epic and I put 1 turn in the 3rd XP building too. So we can get the Frigates out with 45 XP + Morale if you wanna go this war path.

Spoiler :

 

[Mizzenmast]

Nice work, I will certainly keep Machu and I think it was smart to get rid of the puppet.

I decided to split the fleet, a larger group to take Baghdad, a smaller group towards London, and healed along the way.
In the cap, I built a couple Cannons to upgrade. I meant to take Volley on both but gave one Shock II.
Since we have Skyscrapers, I bought some buildings, mainly science, and I started the Circus Maximus and NC in satellite cities.
Brought the Prophet with 1 spread back towards Fuji island. I think we should buy 1 more Prophet of our own religion when we get enough faith, and convert back our 3 cities and the CS’s there. Or maybe Inquisitors are better, in which case we should buy them this era.
I almost finished a road to Machu, and we have troops moving there, so we can DOW Inca again soon.
I should have left another Worker or 2 on Fuji island to fulfill the Road quests. Also, I think I sent Florence a Cargo ship confusing its Road quest for a trade quest, but the gold is still good because we can take more loans.

231: Generated an Artist, and happily sold the guild to rebuild in Rostov, less for the border growth there, more because Tokyo has been wanting to work Farms so badly. I held onto the Artist for the natural Golden Age as you pointed out. Split our delegates 4 against Spice Ban, 12 against World Religion.
232: Both proposals failed! Proposed World’s Fair.
233: Arabian caravan plundered. Our Scout there has been pillaging leftover improvements from razed cities, and our Chariot Archer is doing the same near Russia. Berber Cavalry from Sofia.
234: Inca have declared war on England already. Russia took Order.
236: DOWed England to pillage 2 Cargo ships.
237: DOWed Russia, stole Architecture from Arabia. (I liked your idea with the spy, and did switch to Rifling and re-move into the Russian capital, but the upcoming steal from Arabia meant we were better off finishing Acoustics right before). The Russian spy would take 50 turns to steal now but I will leave him here for vision/intel.
239: Elizabeth built Big Ben, good. DOWed Ottomans.
240: Dynamite finished.

Spoiler :

 

[Tiberiu]

Hello and good job on your last session Mizzenmast. Nice set up to capture London. Good plan.
Our empire is more and more powerful after each session now. Not much to say at this point, we got good army, good economy and we'll be tech leaders in 1 turn due to Oxford being ready timed with Steam Power.
In this session I captured London + Cusco and once again went crazy on the growth in the cities.

240-241: Took Baghdad and started attack on London and Russia's cities.
242: Took Medina in peace deal from Arabia. I wanted to captured Damascus first but they were threatening to re-capture Baghdad and it has good buildings inside... Gave Medina to Attila for 50 gpt.
243: Captured Bursa and sold for 65 gpt to Attila.
244: Took Order Party leadership. Captured Novgorod and took Wellington (liberate) and another city (puppet) as tributes.
The city has good buildings so I just keep it. Since we have the happiness now from Forbidden Palace.
Peace with England so that she can use her army vs Inca. No real point in eliminating her completely, maybe she'll send a sea route or something. She is done for.
247: Russia enters the Modern Era with Flight by building Porcelain Tower and bulbing the Scientist.
248: Bought an inquisitor in Nara to prepare to use it on London to get rid of their religion.
249: I have lost a (basic) rifleman in the attempt to Capture Cusco faster last turn . Capturing it now. Made peace with Inca and took a city, sold cheaply to Attila to get rid of it. Need 1 happiness but thankfully there is gold to buy some zoo.
Bought an inquisitor in Osaka to send to Cusco to get rid of their religion.

Notes:

There are multiple simple ways to continue. In a few turns you can DOW England and eliminate them because they have a few ship and will try to take back London and they seem to have a spy in Sofia doing rigging. Also in a few turns DOW Arabia and capture their city and sell to Attila for more gold maybe.
We still have the Artist but by the looks of it we won't make it any time soon to our natural Golden Age after all. So bulb the Artist right away if you want. We'll get another one and we'll have a golden age on standby for World Fair with Liberty Representation.
Oxford is ready in 1 turn timed with finishing Steam Power. You can choose Flight or Railroad but I think Railroad makes more sense since we can increase our production with the Harbors and also get one more sea route. Plus, in 7 turns we'll have an engineer to bulb Neutschwanstein and build Kremlin or vice versa. I left Archeology to be stolen from Arabia but don't forget we don't need Biology to make Great War Bombers, surely some CS can provide Oil for us already or very soon. So if you wanna go Flight for us to be ready to spam GWBs that's also a good option. We'll have both techs soon enough anyway. Our National College is soon ready too. I like how you built it in the Fuji city.
I've built one more Holy Site and bought 2 inquistors for you to extinguish London/Cusco. I've been building us temples. (which give +2 happy in islam cities from fuji island) I didn't use the prophet to spread because it seemed we have temporarily lost domination with our religion so it was feeling like a possible waste. But we can try with the next one, coupled with the Grand Temple and extinguishing 2 religions and we will be very dominating.
right now we just have to find the right moment to DOW Attila. He has 2200 gold and 330 gpt. You can sell Machu+Cusco for all this gold I think (I don't know if it's the best) OR you can sell 2 cities near Moscow to Russia for some 50-70 gold or something, and after Artist bulb, to get more gold from Attila until we're ready to DOW.
Elite land units are ready near Russia to once again DOW and cause trouble in their empire.
citizen are on massive food focus...put them how you like if you want to. I think it's good having good pop since we are safe from Public Opinion, our Tourism is also pretty good.
Attila has at least 2 Privateers in our inner ocean area.... so you have that in mind in case you wanna Backstab him...

 

[Mizzenmast]

Hello friend, sorry for my latest delay, but the game continues.

250: Popped the artist, and between the Golden age, working all gold tiles and specialists, we were able to go from -120gpt to taking all of Attila’s 2200 gold.
251: I missed Oxford because I had sold the University in the burning Russian city... However, it won't make a difference for the Railroad wonders. We will still get Oxford by the time the Engineer appears, to use on Kremlin. And Neuschwanstein we can take our time hard-building in Nara, since vadalaz recently discovered that the AI are coded to never attempt this wonder. The CS's gave us another Khan!
253: Attila gets Flight. DOWed Arabia.
255: Finished Oxford, picked Railroad. We also stole Archaeology from Arabia, revealing a good number of AS. We’re now the tech leader. Peace expired with England, DOWed her.
256: Eliminated England. Paid 1500 to steal Ife and DOWed Russia and Ottomans.
258: DOWed Attila, we've drained all his gold and have a large debt to him.
259: Great Writer generated, to save for World's Fair.
260: Our Scout plundered 3 Arabian Caravans last turn by accident! Worlds Fair passes.

Notes
Inner Sea is clear of non-CS ships.
I lost some units this round from foolhardy unit positioning, sorry... An artillery to England, samurai & Gatling to Russia, and just now a Frigate to Attila, but none was too elite. If you want, we could create a safe zone against Russia right away by capturing Petersburg and selling it to Arabia who will make peace now, but I think we could press onward too. Ottomans got Wellington this time and they have a decent army near there. And Attila has more melee ships than I expected in the Southern sea.
Took Universal Healthcare at some point to keep us happy, and now we can pick our next policy. I think either Five Year plan or Academy of Sciences would make sense.
If London doesn't build the Harbor next, we could annex the city and get a Pagoda there too.

Spoiler :

 

[Tiberiu]

Hey. We're closing in... Made a few mistakes myself but we're doing great. Don't worry about the yields, I promise we're fine
I focused culture in this session, if I had focused bombers and army instead I could have set you up to win in this session. I've also diverted the tech path to get Biology because CSs weren't giving us Oil fast enough. I then took Electricity so we can boost our gold and production further.

260 - Policy-Liberty Representation. I want to hard focus culture to make the best of World's Fair.
Annex 4 of our puppets and buy Courthouses. I'm maximizing World Fair production with overflow. Peace with Arabia. Bought 2 pagodas. Buy 3 coal for 30 gpt from Arabia and buy 3 factories. Liberate Sydney.
262. We have put 2201 production into World Fair. Peace ottomans to liberate Wellington.
263. Aesthetics Opener. Buy Use Inquisitor and buy Moscow Pagoda.
264. Because the game is approaching victory and I wanted to rush it, I made a mistake. I DOW Inca, they seemed weak and I wanted to get rid of them. They don't seem to build Statue of Liberty any time soon. But I lost a rifleman and a general. Captured a city from Russia and one from Attila.
266. Riga is captured by Attila.
267. Honor Discipline. Used inquisitor, buy Pagoda.
270. Lost an elite Ironclad, unfortunately. Sydney was also captured.


Notes:

Empire is much better than it looks. For emergency gold Tribute Malacca and Wellington. Or just make peace with Attila who is giving some tribute, there is Artist spawning in 4 turns for Golden age and there are lots of stuff to sell around the empire. Some Galleass, Caravels, Workers, unessential buildings (gardens where no person will spawn, shrines maybe, etc.) And Attila has a city near his capital that belongs to us and we could sell it to him for a lot of his GPT I would expect.
Engineer is coming and Kremlin can be bulbed for one more policy.
If you need more ways to fix the economy, there is also a Writer that can be bulbed for 7000 to help you. You can use him to take Artist policy from Aesthetics and bulb a golden age instantly but that will push back the normal Artist which comes in 4 turns and would feel like a waste, not that it matters now though since the game will end soon. There is some stuff to pillage, maybe also extra stuff to sell to the civs who are not at war with us.
Armies are divided around the place but it's clear the simplest way now is to get the gold to buy 6 bombers in Baghdad and capture Arabia's capital for the Wonders that he has, and then simply press forward to Attila after the peace treaty expires.
I didn't set you up well enough to win in your next 10 turns but I expect the game to end in my next session if you manage to capture Arabia's capital in your session.

Good luck

 

[Mizzenmast]

Hello.. In addition to the war, I focused on gpt-raising this session. Lots of excess road deletions, Stock exchanges, petty trades, and I filled Kyoto with Trading posts and sold its Aqueduct now that it can work every good tile and specialist slot.

The war is going well, Karakorum has been captured, and we are holding off Attila’s endless Ironclads (captured 3 of them) but I think we might need Battleships to take his cities. The Citystates gave us a Scientist which we can use for Electronics soon, and I finished the Honor tree for cheaper upgrades. We also got a Golden Age from an Artist which is giving us a lot of money and boosted WF culture. I started bringing land units to Baghdad so we can take Mecca, maybe with Citadel help (and we can now buy Generals anywhere with Faith.)

270: Sold Chelyabinsk to Ottomans, it looked hard to defend for now and I wanted to condense the naval battlefront to the Istanbul bay. Moved our highest rank spy to Kyoto to block steals. Started moving the Incan defense force towards Baghdad so we can attack Mecca.
272: Liberated Sydney. Gave Inca extra Gems to DOW Ottomans to keep them both occupied.
273: Ottomans took Order. Artist, Musician, and Engineer born. We have 9 turns left of WF so this is perfect timing for a Golden Age, although we are once again very close to the natural one, but not close enough. I will save the Writer for you to bulb at the start of your session for maximum culture. Took Military Caste policy. Finished Radio, used the Engineer on Eiffel in Nagoya. Went for Refrigeration for the option to buy Stadiums as needed and connect our plentiful Sea oil. I have been selling what we have at 3:2 to several civs.
275: I lost a very elite Gatling Gun near New Sarai... But, we have surpassed Attila in Soldiers now. Killed an Incan spy. Paid Ottomans to DOW Russia. DOWed Arabia.
276: Great Scientist from the CS’s!
278: I changed our citizens to work Scientist slots to get more from our bulb. I’ve been holding onto him, I imagine you will use him for Electronics. Many Frigates got Logistics this session, but we are stalling trying to kill Atilla’s endless ships and recently his city defenses shot up. Finished Honor tree for cheap upgrades and Faith Generals.

Notes:
Writer is still around, he should be bulbed in 1-2 turns for about 10k culture. There are many good policy choices. If we want more gold, Tradition garrison or Commerce opener (now that Kyoto is full of Trading posts) could be good, or we could finally take Rationalism, or 5-year plan, or chase Golden ages from Liberty/Aesthetics.
We have strong cashflow now, which will remain decent (~150?) once the Golden Age ends.
We have a pretty good trade relationship with the Ottomans at the moment and should not rush to war them.
I started playing with Farms==Trading posts in Nagoya and Satsuma as well but technically these each have a few more useful population that they could grow to, so you may pause that. But Nagoya in particular lacks food so I think we can stagnate at 20 in a few turns and sell Aqueduct. Many of our other cities still have a lot of growth potential.
I started razing Ica and sold its few buildings but if you think it's strategical to hold on to the raw territory, then stop the razing. But, I don’t think Istanbul will need Citadel help once we get Battleships.

Spoiler :

 

[Tiberiu]

We finish the game with a T 292 Domination Victory. It was a good game, I think. We dominated the game from start to finish without any real setbacks and accomplished our goals nicely.

Building Forts on improved Bananas to increase production is something I haven't figured out before. Another trick learned from @Mizzenmast

280. Bulbed the writer for 10k culture. Fine Arts. Peace with Attila, Liberate Riga and Kyzyl and then finally meet Kyzyl too. Take New Sarai and Oidu too and puppet them.

281. Cultural Heritage Sites passes and Scholars in Residence not. Proposed International Games.
282. Artistic Genius for a new Golden Age.
285. We deprive the world of a great beacon of beauty of enlightenment (Arabia is eliminated). We get 6 more wonders.
287. We built Broadway
287-292. Just moving units around Istanbul and Attila's Court. Peace treaty expired on t 291 and we captured both cities in 2 turns with ease using the Battleship.
It was total overkill since we had a lot of generals and extra firepower and everybody was Medieval era compared to us.

 

[so_what]

Looks cool. Let me know if you guys still having another game? I'm abit lazy so to do a full game, so looking around if there are any new SGs to hop onto.

 

[Mizzenmast]

A very strong and fun game, with many things that were new to me. I had never used DOWs so near-constantly. The gains from it were huge, not only from peace deals, but keeping everyone's Literacy abysmal, which let us ignore science ourselves. (I also got the achievement for finishing Patronage so I guess I had never actually done that before.) I agree, it was a very powerful tree for us - especially for domination, using the CS armies to fight alongside us, make us more threatening to the AIs, and give us border security. Speaking of the AIs I think we got lucky with them overall. Knowing now that Attila will raze every single city we give him makes him a uniquely beneficial AI to have in the game. I saw @vadalaz recently post that he checked the code and it seems this rule is true, as long as he has 3 cities minimum. But, it was not as if we got all easy AIs. Arabia and Russia are both science-focused and dangerous if unchecked, and England proved annoying with her CS shenanigans.

I liked that we temporarily lost Satsuma due to a coup. It added a little drama although it didn't have any noticeable negative effect long-term - the city actually had better buildings when we re-captured it. It's true, there were no real setbacks during the game. Also, I'm glad we went wide after thinking to stay small, and settled cities well into the 100's. That was a nice organic development which I think neither of us planned for, it just sort of happened after we found Fuji island, and even after Fuji we founded Nara very late. Proved to be a very robust approach. Even if we had lost all our frontier cities we would have retained a nice Tall empire, but it worked out fine and set us up for an overpowering late-game, even with zero (early) National wonders and no Rationalism. We had really good luck with our pantheon/religion which made everything easier. Also, the supremacy of happiness-giving policies is again reinforced in my eyes. Being able to keep giant cities like Machu and never having happiness problems was the key to smooth domination and our great yields. We had a massive empire eventually - 300+ pop throughout our "main" cities for the final stretch of the game, that is a lot!

 

[Tiberiu]

Looks cool. Let me know if you guys still having another game? I'm abit lazy so to do a full game, so looking around if there are any new SGs to hop onto.

Hello and welcome! We would like to play another game. I would be ok with just us 3 but Mizzenmast would like us to be at least 4 players this time so it would be nice to have one more player before we start. So maybe we can create the game and wait a bit to see if somebody else joins. About settings, I am ok with any. I suggest we could try to create the conditions for a more challanging game by not choosing a powerful civ and/or choosing strong rival civs. But having mystery and randomness is also good.

@so_what , would you like to create the thread and roll a map to play this time? ideally not Japan or Sweden because we've played these already before . If you want to do it go ahead or if you're feeling lazy let me know and I'll prepare a game.

 

[so_what]

Hello and welcome! We would like to play another game. I would be ok with just us 3 but Mizzenmast would like us to be at least 4 players this time so it would be nice to have one more player before we start. So maybe we can create the game and wait a bit to see if somebody else joins. About settings, I am ok with any. I suggest we could try to create the conditions for a more challanging game by not choosing a powerful civ and/or choosing strong rival civs. But having mystery and randomness is also good.

@so_what , would you like to create the thread and roll a map to play this time? ideally not Japan or Sweden because we've played these already before . If you want to do it go ahead or if you're feeling lazy let me know and I'll prepare a game.

Hi, I am fine to wait for more players. We can create the a thread with the map and ask around if anyone is interested. Feeling a little lazy to roll the maps so go ahead and prepare a game. I don't want to play an OP civ too, so perhaps we can like to try a mid-tier Civ on standard size maps (my com is quite old and can't handle large/huge maps well).