Learning Emperor

[futurehermit]

I would say gun for space. However, if you are able to get a tech lead at some point you could consider warring again a bit later. If you can keep the peace for awhile trying to outtech at least someone is a good idea then you could consider wiping them out and re-evaluating.

e.g., if you can get to tanks/bombers before someone then you could engage a reasonably quick war against them and re-evaluate.

 

[BurN]

Good to see you decided to not forfeit this one. Dealing with bad luck or mistakes, makes you a better player.. There's still a good shot at winning here.

I "think" grabbing land from monty should give you enough to go for space. It's hard to see without a map but I think kublai looks kinda weak in land and is close to you. Might be an option to attack him once you dealt with monty. IF you can keep surya of your back of course. What are the options in terms of bribing? If you could start a mutual war with surya against monty or kublai later, that would be nice for diplo.

 

[quill18]

This is the post I started typing when everything went pear-shaped. Expect to re-read events I've already discussed.

After taking some time to consider my options, I've decided to take the warmongering route and finish Monty. Part of the reasoning for this is to prevent Charlie from grabbing those cities himself and vassalizing Monty.

Here's the plan:
- Adopt Vassalage and Mercantilism (keep HR, Slave, Theo)
- Research Rifling
- Get all cities to build a cannon, then get some hammers into a Musketman
- Use the whip to rush a second (and third?) wave of Riflemen

Turn 346 - 1630 AD

Charlie adopts FREE RELIGION. Wow, really? You'd think he'd be programmed to shy away from such a thing. It seems so out of character.

Well, I think this works out really well for me. I wanted to stay Buddhism to power Theocracy, so this removes the biggest diplomatic threat to me. Charlie's now +7 Pleased with me, but still -8 Furious with Monty. If he's feeling like warring, his attention should still be on the Aztecs.

I will want to join Charlie in FR as soon as I'm done building units/crushing the Aztecs.

This is also the turn we slip out of Anarchy. Wow...the city governor really likes to prioritize Spies, huh? I set the Mercantilism specialists to scientists where I can to try to boost our flagging research rate.

Turn 346 - 1630 AD

Monty dials us up:

Yeah, I think not.

Turn 347 - 1635 AD

Uh oh.

I get sneak-attacked by Sury/Stalin at one of my squisher coastal cities. Luckily, my 2xARCHER , 1xMaceman fends off the amphibious assault - though I lose both archers.

Aw, man...this REALLY wasn't part of the plan.

It's a good thing this was such a poorly executed attack. Well, the military build up continues as plan, though with a few defensive units queued before the cannons. Building ships and hitting Russia would not be unreasonable -- though I don't know if attacking a colony affects the master's decision to sue for peace. Keeping territory on Sury's island might be more difficult, and I dislike razing.

Turn 352 - 1660 AD

Sury bombs Glittering Pigs down to 0% defense and then attacks with a Crossbowman, loses, and stops his assault. I guess he's not very confident...

Meanwhile, I continue to reinforce the city.

Turn 353 - 1665 AD

NOW he attacks with his 3 Trebs, and follows up with the rest of his stack, which DOES capture the city.

But then I recapture it with a longbow.

In-between turns I lose it again.

Turn 358 - 1690 AD

Well, this will buy me a little time:

Silly of Sury to not defy... 5 votes? That couldn't possibly have been that painful...

Clearly, many of my cities desperately need defenses -- I also lack a navy.

Turn 360 - 1700 AD

Kublai spins off a colony: Mao Zedong

And Kublai has also decided to run emancipation.

Here's where I stopped the round, certain that I was defeated. After some rallying by the good folk in this forum, I continued on. Normally I type these as I play, but last night I just took screenshots. I'll do my best to recall what was going on.

Kublai wants me to cancel deals with Fred. Fred doesn't like me, and Sury hates him too. Seems like a good move -- let's alienate Fred and hope to cater to the other civs a bit more.

My espionage has been so bad, I can't even get a power graph on Sury. Time to fix that:

My poor Glittering Pigs, and some trouble in Canterbury since I had to pull away many of its police:

Sury is annoyed, though still willing to help my research rate!!

Forces being upgraded to Riflemen, and a mouseover of Sury's troops:

I declare war, take move adjacent to the city. Next turn, get a vote. Good old Charlie keeps looking after me!

I reclaim Glittering Pigs. The vote results come in and...Sury's no longer on the list? I guess this was his only Buddhist city!

One of the few positive events for me this game:

Liz contacts me with a request I'm more than happy to agree to! It would be nice to be able to swap multiple civics when the AI requests a change though...

Rifling is already making its rounds through the AI (Sury had Riflemen when I finally got my city back). I'm not against giving out this highly-valued tech to keep pace and get some brownie points -- not that Liz needs to be catered to exactly.

Since the AP vote fell through, what does Sury want:

Yeah...no. Now here's where I'm confused. I assume that, when asked, the AI puts in the minimum it's willing to accept. In my mind, asking for a city is HUGE. And yet, when I renegotiated, Sury was willing to accept peace for my cheapest non-military tech, Constitution. (Keep in mind that Kublai already has Democracy.)

Our relations:

 

[quill18]

The map:

Score (yes, my EPs suck):

Civics, which need to be changed soon:

Rep/Bureau/Free Market...I want to get Democracy for Emancipation before I do.

 

[quill18]

Next round!

Let's start things off with a cheery picture:

Uhg. This doesn't bode well. Meanwhile, I'm trying to use any tech edge I can to maintain a semblance of parity:

State Property would really help with our distributed empire, and I have a handful of workshops and watermills:

The Dike production begins:

The bad news is that the AI has beaten us to several good spots:

Now here's something I wasn't expecting:

Charlie has been gearing up for war for AGES now, but still hasn't declared as I'd hoped. Remember, my ideal was that Charlie would declare on Monty and I'd swoop in and snatch a couple cities quickly while his forces were directed elsewhere. But now, I have to fend off Monty's assault, heal up, and fight a war against a well defended front.

Charlie, meanwhile, is too "busy" to join the battle:

We still don't have the EPs for proper demographics, but we get this:

We do get a chance to pick up the last piece of our civic puzzle:

Continued...

 

[quill18]

Monty has an impressively large stack, but my superior troops fend them off with relatively little trouble.

Meanwhile, the Great Civic Change takes place, allowing us to rush-buy some dikes in our low production cities.

The HRE/English alliance FINALLY declare war on Monty, just as my troops march toward a poorly-defended Aztec city.

Two turns of careful bombardment later, to ensure that the British don't beat me the city and........

Yes, Monty has been vassalized by Charlie.

I'm not sure if I dropped the ball somewhere there. I didn't check Monty this turn, but previously he was unwilling to talk, let alone capitulate.

Meanwhile, Sury spins off another vassal:

And here's something which should have been expected, but after worrying so much about Sury and Monty, it caught me by surprise:

Charlie is unwilling to barter for (or spare) some help in the war:

This is ONE of Kublai's two stacks. The Keshik makes me chuckle. The rest....not so much:

I've been doing "some" drafting:

Another stack, which conquers The Hague:

Peace, but at what cost?

Well, there you have it. The save is attached, but at this point I'm absolutely certain that my doom is coming -- either by Kublai's hand or from Sury's (or maybe even Fred). Even if I manage to fend them off, there's no possible chance for any form of victory -- I've squeaked out everything I can tech-wise and have officially fallen behind with no hope to catch up.

With the number of of super-powers around me, there was no one to make everyone happen enough to ignore my feeble power base.

Still, it was a very informative game in spite of/because of the number of early mistakes I've made.

I'll be sure to post another soon.

 

[BurN]

Aw, yea this seems hopeless. Kublai can wield some crazy armies. It's hard to tell but I think somewhat better diplo could've made this a lot easier. And I would've drafted the turn you got riffles.

Nonetheless good try and it was a good read. Maybe next time..