King of the hill - open challange for all playlevels

[Iberian]

I personally love blitz destroyers/battleships and will often save a GG or two to create just such a ship. Should be easy to do in a coastal city in this game to build a navy with enough points to have blitz from the fist build.

That would at least hold Stalin off until he gets destroyers of his own. So maybe till 1700's. If by then you can have tanks taking the rest of the island you have a good chance.

I know I can't beat this but I bet Usun and Snaaty could with enough time. Good challenge. Maybe I will give it a go this weekend.

 

[Snaaty]

1590 AD:

@ Stalin: I see you brough SOME friends over for coffee and are planning to stay

Spoiler :

We now also have officially met Stalin in my game.

His first 3 invasion waves arrived all within 4 turns. There was no warning, they just popped out of thin air.

In total, he brought so far:
38 gallons 5-10 caravels (looser) and 15-20 frigattes

There is a tiny possibility that we actually might loose now some seafood here and there

...

And it feels somehow weird, when you klick on a stack just appearing next to some far away costal backland city and you see on your screen these strainge numbers:
curassiers (30)
maces (50)
trebuchets (20)
and so on, in total about 120 units

Let the party begin

 

[kcmarkwell]

hey all, i am getting the same bug crash screen, i am running no mods but i do have the oos patch, anyone help with ideas?

 

[Sleepless]

- 375AD and quit my first attempt, although I will try again.

Spoiler :

From the 500BC save I was able to keep Rome safe. My plan even worked to get a city built on the hill to the South. Although it was well defended there is no way it would survive against the collateral from the cats and I don't have enough HA's for flanking damage atm. So if I carried on I would retreat from here and station my forces in Parthian. Hopefully I would be able to damage the cats enough to force the AI to attack me without taking down the cultural barriers. But as it is I'm abandoning this one and will give it another go.

 

[d72]

Thanks Snaaty, I will definatly give this try when i am sober trying for the 1500ad mark but I will surley succumb before that.

 

[Unconquered Sun]

I replayed the opener for better results, anyone interested can use those saves:

Spoiler :

1. Forester II choker south of Ulundi, 2720 BC.

2. Four cities + Ulundi's capture, 1560 BC. Those who decide to keep it should use the ~100g plunder to seriously consider Archery, Masonry, or Sailing and set up a strong defense ASAP.

Edit: saves are available here

 

[Captain_Chaos]

Great game. Think I have one of the later defeats - 1610AD. While I was playing I thought that if i made to rifles with my empire intact I could last indefinately... apparently I was wrong. Made a few mistakes and if I try it again i'll definitely get ironworking earlier.

Here's my save and some notes i made while playing.

Spoiler :

Turn 0 - 4000BC: Settled in start location. Worker first build, researching agriculture.
Turn 8 - 3680BC: Researching bronze working.
Turn 20 - 3200BC: Found Zulu to my south, could potentially block him from expanding with enough units in the forests outside his capital.
Turn 23 - 3080BC: Bronze in capital. Researching wheel. Built 2 warriors, now another worker to be followed by a settler.
Turn 27 - 2920BC: Researching pottery. Pilliaged a mine and road in Zulu land for 10 gold.
Turn 32 - 2720BC: Researching Mysticism. Will switch civics to slavery next turn after the settler is built in Rome.
Turn 35 - 2600BC: Antium founded on the coastal plains hill by the river to the SE of Rome.
Turn 37 - 2520BC: Researching polytheism for religion, will switch to animal husbandry if another civ founds the religion. Barb city to the NE of rome, sending a warrior to scout it.
Turn 44 - 2240BC: Hinduism founded in Antium. Researching Preisthood. Will adopt religion next turn.
Turn 49 - 2040BC: Researching masonry, will try to get monarchy with the oracle and monotheism do switch 2 civics at once. Took Carib, a barb city NE of Rome.
Turn 59 - 1640BC: Got the oracle, took monarchy. Judaism founded in Carib. Researching animal husbandry. Will switch to monarchy and monotheism after a few mor axes and a settler. Zulu has send 4 archers and there are barbs everywhere.
Turn 64 - 1440BC: Reseaching iron working. (ps. founded cumae around this time, forgot to note it)
Turn 73 - 1080BC: Iron discovered in capital, already mined and roaded. Researching hunting.
Turn 75 - 1000BC: Researching Archery.
Turn 77 - 950BC: Researching writing.
Turn 79 - 900BC: Great General born, settled in Rome. Viking stack approaching Antium.
Turn 82 - 825BC: Researching mathematics.
Turn 86 - 725BC: Big mongolian stack aproaching Antium, mostly 2 movement units.
Turn 88 - 675BC: Great general born, settled in Antium.
Turn 91 - 600BC: Researching construction.
Turn 96 - 475BC: Great General born, used for healer scout.
Turn 103 - 300BC: Neapolis founded on the ivory to the south. Researching Aesthetics.
Turn 111 - 100BC: Great general born, settled in Cumae. Missed the statue of zeus. Researching horseback riding.
Turn 114 - 25BC: Ravenna founded W of rome on the coast.
Turn 117 - 50AD: Researching sailing.
Turn 119 - 100AD: Researching metal casting.
Turn 122 - 175AD: Great general born, settled in Carib.
Turn 128 - 400AD: Researching code of laws.
Turn 134 - 475AD: Great General born, held until use found.
Turn 136 - 520AD: Researching civil service.
Turn 141 - 620AD: Great general born, held until use found.
Turn 149 - 780AD: Researching machinery. Great scientist born, academy in rome. Switch to bureaucracy. 2 GG's settled in rome, with stable makes 3 promo units.
Turn 152 - 840AD: Great general born, held until use found.
Turn 156 - 920AD: Researching literature, follow 1 turn later by currency.
turn 165 - 1050AD: Reasearching guilds. Great general born, held.
Turn 172 - 1120AD: Researching gunpowder. Great scientist born, will hae a golden age when i can make muskets.
Turn 174 - 1140AD: Great general born, held.
Turn 179 - 1190AD: Researching banking. GOlden Age.
Turn 182 - 1220AD: Researching Alphabet. On the rifling tech line.
Turn 184 - 1240AD: Great scientist born, held for second golden age or possible bulb.
Turn 186 - 1260AD: Great general born, settled in Antium. 2 cities with 4 settled generals, 2 with 1, 1 attached to scout = 11 GGs.
Turn 188 - 1280AD: Ragnar has rifles. probably the beginning of the end for me as I am still about 30 turns from rifling.
turn 199 - 1390AD: Great prophet born, use for golden age. mongolia has cavalry...
turn 202 - 1420AD: Great general born, held. getting over-run, will probably lose neapolis.
turn 211 - 1505AD: Rifles!!! And no cities lost, yet. now to upgrade what I can and tech for cannons and MGs.
turn 214 - 1520AD: Lost neapolis. will stack up defenders in my 4 main cities and hope for the best.
turn 217 - 1535AD: Russian galleon spotted. Will likely lose Antium soon. Great engineer born. will use to rush heroic epic in rome once antium falls.
turn 218 - 1540AD: Great general born, used to upgrade warrior.
turn 219 - 1545AD: Lost ravenna to russian naval drop. 28 galleons off my shores, doom aproaches.
turn 228 - 1590AD: Only Carib left, probably 4 turns.
turn 232 - 1610AD: Defeated.

 

[mzprox]

I gave it an other go, this time i have reloaded ( a lot ). The result: that sneaky Stalin won a space race victory.. just when i was to destroy his capital...

ok, the latter is a joke, but what is important i lived thru the game (Stalin won in 1903)

Spoiler :

I did very similary as last time except now i made more cities and decided not to stop at military science/greanadiers but my goal was to get the machineguns. The research went well and i could even get the infantries and antitanks before shutted down my research.
As i said i have reloaded a lot I havent counted, without that i couldnt hold all my cities (for example the russian invasion in 1350 got me totally off-guard.
Interesting that when i finished researching railroad i got the message that someone got liberalism.. i was suprised no one took it (it wasa around 1500) so i reloaded and researched it for railroad
I made great effort to get the antitanks but (maybe because of this?) they didnt bring tanks only 5-6. However they brought mechanised infantry instead quite early..
Most of the time during the game my economy looked like this: every city except the capital produced wealth/had merchant specialists as many as needed to 100% research. My capital was the only city which produced military units and it did very well: all the GGs were settled there (16 by the end + 1 used to build the military academy), the base production was around 60 and it got 225% bonus . so not only i could produce lvl 6 units in one turn but i generated lots of money from the overflow production ( if i understand well the overflow production can be maximum the base production and the rest is converted to gold)

Here is the final screenshot and one about my country in its former glory (the coastal cities already starved from the blokade). In the lastpicture there are (among others) 30 mechanized infantries next to my city so i wouldnt have lived so much longer (actually 3 more turns, i tried it ) . My biggest defense force in the capital was 60+ units around 50-50% infantries and machineguns with a few antitanks.

 

[Snaaty]

@ all:
Scorelist updated

...

@ mzprox:

Spoiler :

Only way to best this I see would be to slow stalin down in winning (or to win yourself)
Picking one of USuns starting saves might help to get early domination on own conti, then to turn to stalin later... ...maybe

 

[Yenish]

First I'd like to thank you snaaty for having posted that game. I found it very fun. So fun I decided to create an account on that forum (I read it for a loong time) to share my feelings.

I am an emperor level player. I managed to reach 1500 several times, but it is hopeless after that mark.

Simple strategy : mass praetorians, city on hill, reinforce, wait for AI to get riffle or stalin to arrive, resign.
My main issue is that I am far behing in techs. I really don't understand how some of you managed to create a good economy while staying alive. I can safely grab one wonder. I found a way to get GW and mids quite safely, but more than that is out of question.
Result is I can't match the tech superiority when praets become outated.
I gave a look at snaaty save. How on earth is it possible to be so advanced?!

In the 1500th, I can reach 200-250 bpt, That is bad...

I tried a spy economy, but shaka is too far. The specialist economy is better, but I am still behind...

I also hate when smart khan ignores my bloking city and goes straight to my warrior defended capitol
Or when a huge stack with 1 catapult waits outside of my city, and another huge stack arrives and they decide to have a party in my city at the same time...

 

[Halt]

Well I could not get it to load but looked like so much fun I went ahead and reinstalled my game without my addons

Unsun

Spoiler :

I have tried to take Ulundi several times but can't get my Axemen down there fast enough before Shaka has 8 Archers sitting in town.

Mzprox

Spoiler :

I agree The King of the Hill Strategy works well and can defend a long time, BUT it is not a winning strategy.

Economy

Spoiler :

"IF" you can get the "hill" is a CE with no pillage worries better than a SE spending a lot of hammers on Mids? I also agree with Snaaty on GW being good for early barb control and GSpy, the combat benefit never got into play in my tries so far.

Winning

Spoiler :

Is the only way to win IMHO take out Shaka early? which I tried but can't bring enough forces in time. Maybe a "Sacrifice pillage" force "4-5" Axe sent down early to strip the land?

 

[Duckweed]

To 500BC

Spoiler :

Capital:
Worker->War->Bar(part)->Worker(3pop)->Worker->Bar->Axe->Axe->Settler...

2nd City SE Pig
3rd City Southern Corn/Wine plain hill

Tech:
Agri->BW->Wheel->Hunting->Pottery->Mys->Poly(Interesting no one get Hindu until now, so I go for Poly instead of cheaper Med and I found Hindu even delay one turn until my 2nd city build)->Priest->Writing->Col (from Oracle) ->IW->AH

1520BC Confu is found in my 3rd city

After I destroyed a couple of SODs near this city, I moved my SOD down south since a jungle has spread to the blocking hill site, which will give much better defense.

500BC Empire

 

[Unconquered Sun]

@duckweed

Spoiler :

I've been praying for a jungle spread in my game Awesome luck there, holding the AIs will be very easy, especially if you manage to take out Ulundi and spread culture for fort over it.

 

[Unconquered Sun]

Unsun

Spoiler :

I have tried to take Ulundi several times but can't get my Axemen down there fast enough before Shaka has 8 Archers sitting in town.

Spoiler :

Well, that's a complex one. It's about timing production, XP milking on barbs, AI behavior on the defensive, etc. Feel free to use the save I provided and win from there

 

[Halt]

Unsun - Tried to download the save it gave me an error message.

 

[Unconquered Sun]

Weird. I tested them yesterday and they were OK.

 

[Halt]

Thanks Unsun!

 

[Duckweed]

@U Sun

Spoiler :

Yeah, There is some luck. However, there should be good chance if you pillage early enough. I checked your 1120BC screen shot, you still left road there, which lower the chance of spreading.

This is the reason I did not mention in my guild since this is the best opening but not general.

 

[Unconquered Sun]

@Duckweed

Spoiler :

At the time I hoped to be able to keep Ulundi. I pillaged the road after the reload. The hill borders only 1 jungle tile, so the chance is the lowest possible.

Speaking of low chances, has anyone been lucky to pop gems from mines?

 

[ABigCivFan]

My main issue is that I am far behing in techs. I really don't understand how some of you managed to create a good economy while staying alive. I can safely grab one wonder. I found a way to get GW and mids quite safely, but more than that is out of question.
Result is I can't match the tech superiority when praets become outated.
I gave a look at snaaty save. How on earth is it possible to be so advanced?!

In the 1500th, I can reach 200-250 bpt, That is bad...

I learned alot about EE from this game. When you can not trade techs, EE is by far the most efficient way to acquire techs. Take a look at this pic, I could not believe my eyes when i saw this...

Spoiler :

Steam power, I could steal a 5408 beaker tech for only 892 EPs with 97% chance of success!

Stalin took my border city on my conti, i took advantage of that.