Let's Play Immortal! #02: Louis XIV

[Loz]

1804 Diplomatic Win.

Spoiler :

The whole world except Monty went into islam. Was simple enough to bribe people in on him early while he was still a threat. Frederick also capped Alex removing that danger.

Not a particuarly impressive game from me, I only got two cities. Luckily I got to cannons first and managed to make enough of them to take out darius and mansa. A little anticlimactic that I got the diplo win half way through the final war but oh well.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Will post officially on youtube starting tomorrow, but...

1500 AD

Spoiler :

SIP, AH ----> mining. I find some horse nearby and with a commerce rich start my eyes spy horse archers.

Darius makes a demand for HBR (he has noooooobyphants too) and I tell him to shove it, so he goes WHEOOHRN (!).

He's my first target. Monty looks stabby so I bribe brennus on him. Bribe alex on darius too.

Then when darius is down to TWO cities he PEACEVASSALS to MM (what would the mali get from this arrangement?) Mali SPAM GIFTS HIM TECH, including longbows, but I finish him off anyway. I then stab monty, bribe brennus out of the fight, and with some adept tactics wipe the aztecs off the map w/ horse archers.

The world has settled into 2 religious blocks; taoist (me/brennus/alex) and confucian (german/mali). Mali vs celtia and greece vs germany are repeat themes. Meanwhile, I'm starting to run away in tech in the middle and have largely stopped trading while running mercantilism. I'll probably UN my way out of it early (via gifting UN techs to fred and farming brennus for votes) although honsetly with 33% land and 33% pop with democracy in place for quite a few turns, rifles, etc already and around 900 beakers/turn (and quickly growing) I could probably just tankstomp people or run space or even culture if I felt like it. HA FTW.

 

[Noogai]

1200 AD

Spoiler :

Monty couldn't vassal to me, but he vassaled to my ally...Some kind of AI cheat with AP?
I am going for domination win for sure now, or conquest if I don't manage to get any vassals.. I have nice tech lead, Mansa vassaled Darius (Yes you read correctly, Mansa vassaled someone!) and Frederick vassaled Monty. Both Frederick and Mansa are friendly towards me. Brennus and Alex are outsiders.
I got steel from liberalism:

Spoiler :

 

[ahcos]

Holy Crap, that "Chose Religions" setting scares the out of me... ~3500 BC Confu, WTF? But seriously, that map is too easy. Barbs, what?

Spoiler :

They're not building wonders, there are tons of guys you can bribe on each other, the start is fabulous ... got alpha before 2000 BC, tradet around for every basic tech and pretty much consider this to be over already. Didn't even bother with the horses, they're too far away, i've archery now so screw the barbs even if they might appear. Don't know if i want to play this out, just seems way too easy... Creative alone provides almost enough room for ~5 cities, which should be more than enough to kick Fredies ass if i might have not enough land. My only concern would be iron, but then again that's something you can find almost on every map...

Spoiler :

A little bit further, Iron secured blindly with my second city and i bribed Monty on Mansa so he won't go after me. Don't know if i want to play this out, seems trivial somehow... Currency is almost in (~1000 BC) and i can start a worldwar right away if i want to. Map is too easy, but somehow funny with all these warmongers.

 

[Burning Stone]

My first immortal attempt, so please, advice is welcome. Normally I'm on Emperor, where sometimes I dominate the AI and sometimes I get kicked around; I haven't figured out what I'm doing so differently.

I haven't looked in any spoiler tags, but it would appear people are finding this fairly easy. A good first map, I guess.

To 100 AD:

Spoiler :

The game intro and speed I meet people suggest I'm going to have to hustle for city spots, so I don't look at wonders. My warrior was quickly eaten by a bear, which was unfortunate, but not before he spotted the corn + 2 gold site next to Monty.

I wasn't sure of the best way to improve Paris. I ended up teching AH - mining - bronze working. My worker pastured the pigs, then mined the riverside gold, then farmed a floodplain, stopping in the middle of that, when BW came in, to chop for my first settler. I settled that location next to Monty.

From there I teched pottery - writing - alphabet, figuring the gold would get me there in time to trade it around. Indeed, only Persia even had writing! So I traded for some back techs, and started the one war I could - Alex attacking Darius. I wanted it to be Mansa, but I couldn't afford that. Fortunately, Brennus and Monty joined in the fun - as did I , once Monty and Brennus demanded it.

My second settler grabbed the elephant/floodplain site to the west, one turn before Fred got it.

On turn 60 the barbarian floodgates opened, and half a dozen barbarians appeared to my north. In the end, I got a little lucky and they didn't do anything more than pillage a couple of tiles before dying to my warriors or the AI's archers. I had gambled that barb defense wouldn't be a big problem, but I was a little fortunate to have it work out like it did.

I didn't see a spot for a 4th city that I liked and wasn't already taken, so I teched math - construction - horseback to get a catapult/elephant rush going. As it turned out, it wasn't much of a rush, as I didn't start the war on Fred until turn 108 (175 BC?). However, I was able to bring Alex in on my side.

I've just taken a second city from Fred. He has a number of junk ones, but I'd like his capital, too. There's also a nice city of his just south of there, but it's under huge culture pressure from Persia and Greece, and, even though I'm creative, I think it would just collapse if I took it.

Looking back, I'm not happy with my tech path after horseback. I went Currency (which was fine), then Machinery, then Code of laws, and just started Civil Service. Really, I should have Feudalism in there somewhere.

Everybody is at war: me and Alex with Fred, Monty with Mansa (I bribed that one) and Brennus with Darius. Overall, I think I'm in a pretty good position. With all the war everybody is running slow in tech; Mansa is the only one who might have a lead on me. I'm winning my war (elephants are great). Nobody is collecting a lot of land.

 

[i_imperator]

If time is not a problem, i'll give this one a try... sining in.

 

[Noogai]

Spoiler :

I screwed up something... I don't know why, but no one vassaled to me, and now everyone is vassal of Freddy or Mansa and it seems that I don't have enough stuff to bribe Freddy against Mansa. Diplo is out of question too since Mansa has so many vassals there is not enough UN votes for me. I also somehow lost my tech lead (Mansa got 6 techs in 5 turns, wtf?!), so I will restart..

 

[champ82]

1260AD

Spoiler :

I’ve never played a decent game before on a Cookbook or Let’s Play or whatever. This was a weird game. Also this write up isn’t so hot. You’ve been warned.

Settled in place.

Paris build went worker-> warrior -> barracks until size 4 -> worker -> settler, wait I think I must have forgotten to record a warrior or 2, 2nd settler -> ax -> ax -> ax -> Aqueduct -> Hanging Gardens then I stopped recording

Turn 4 meant Monty and Fred

Turn 7 I see elephants




Turn 8 I see Alex. I mistake the gray to my west for light blue and think that it's Alex so I get into a mindset to get elephants soon cause Alex is trouble. But of course directly to our west is Fred, which I realize a thousand or more years later.

Turn 13 – no horse in the BFC

Turn 17 I meet Mansa

Turn 23 I meet Darius

Turn 30 I see horse

Turn 32 I see Fred about to take the horse. There's a settler with that archer. This when I realize Fred is Fred and not Alex.




Turn 41 I see Iron

And that's right I don't found my 2nd city until 1960BC (turn 51)



Turn 58 I found my 3rd city



Turn 61 - Massive Barb Attack!



I have built some axes at this point but not enough. Oh no, Orleans is screwed!



Ah well...the curse continues. I just can't play a good game when I know I'll share it online. But wait...



Darius saves me. Huge deal.

Tech order: Animal Husbandry (get that piggy), no horses, Mining (get that gold), Bronze Working (no copper), Iron Working (cause there are some mean AIs on this map), Writing, holy nobody has Alphabet OK Alphabet, Time to get those elephants so Mathematics, Construction, HBR, Aesthetics and then I stopped recording.

The following is not in pefect order: Everyone goes Muslim, including me except Brennus and Monty. I make some tech trades. I don't build any more settlers. With 3 cities, I invade the Aztecs with elephants, catapults and requisite ax defenders. I build The Great Library. I get all of Monty's cities but one when he vassals to Mansa. Everyone gives Darius hell, proof that no good deed goes unpunished. I build Masoleum and Taj in Orleans. Darius builds the AP. I get elected head. I win Liberalism in 1020 AD, pick Nationalism cause I had an Engineer for Taj from Hanging Gardens (which I rarely build in immortal) yada yada I'm building musketeers and crusaiers and teching towards rifling, can't decide if I should go after Brennus or Fred, probably Brennus, sign a Defensive Pact with Alex, don't trade resources with Brennus cause he's 3 civs worst enemy, People are fighting each other a lot



That pic is from 200 AD but these guys were going at each other's throats, especially Darius. Thanks again Darius.

And then they're like "Hey Pope, want to win the game?"

And I was like "Sure."

And I won in 1260 AD, not really even trying to appease my Muslim brothers.

Previous earliest record on Immortal was 1820s I think.

 

[Jester Fool]

Hey Gwaja. Just sayin' - your maps have been FUN (don't really care if *some* people consider them too easy) and that is all you can really ask for. (If I wanted to get beat like a dog, I would just play deity. ) I think you should try Kossin's Barbarian Challenge - I could hang but it was just too much! Hopefully, I can finish this game and post a neat write up (although it is quite possible I may forget - when I play, I like to play if you get my meaning). Rum and coke FTW. (On second thought, maybe that's why my scores are pretty terrible? )

 

[Gwaja]

@Jester,

Yes, I do have lots of maps. Most of them are the ones I already played by myself alone. Though the past couple of days, I was deliberately trying to create an evil map or two. ^_^

That barbarian challenge I want to get started on that, but I am working on an offline game at the moment... actually the next LPI game with Burger King. So far that map looks quite okay to be posted as online game, so once I finish it, I will upload the auto save and get the next game in the series rolling.

And I love rum and coke too. ^_^ But nothing beats beer.

Quick note to TMIT: You cheated! You used the World Builder! ^_^ Seriously though, I hate it when that kind of thing happens to me.... bad mouse click due to mouse wanting to do its own thing. I am waiting for your next set of videos.

Oh and be sure to try out the 2nd map I made for Mylene in that thread dedicated to yours truly. ^_^ You will love it!

 

[Noogai]

Conquest Win 1876 AD

Spoiler :

I did everything about the same as in the first attempt expect that I declared wars earlier.
Mansa vassaled sooo easily and Freddy suicided his non-rifling stack (he declared. Cavalries took good care of muskets, cannons and conquistors).

Win screen:

Spoiler :

Power:

Spoiler :

Score:

Spoiler :

 

[TheMeInTeam]

@Jester,

Yes, I do have lots of maps. Most of them are the ones I already played by myself alone. Though the past couple of days, I was deliberately trying to create an evil map or two. ^_^

That barbarian challenge I want to get started on that, but I am working on an offline game at the moment... actually the next LPI game with Burger King. So far that map looks quite okay to be posted as online game, so once I finish it, I will upload the auto save and get the next game in the series rolling.

And I love rum and coke too. ^_^ But nothing beats beer.

Quick note to TMIT: You cheated! You used the World Builder! ^_^ Seriously though, I hate it when that kind of thing happens to me.... bad mouse click due to mouse wanting to do its own thing. I am waiting for your next set of videos.

Oh and be sure to try out the 2nd map I made for Mylene in that thread dedicated to yours truly. ^_^ You will love it!

That was not a mouse mis-click. That was my unit moving WITHOUT BEING ORDERED TO MOVE THAT TURN, and it happened before I gave a single order that turn, acting on orders on the previous turn.

It should *not* be impossible to interrupt unit actions and prevent your units from moving into suicide danger. If the game is going to cheat and move my units against my will, then I will "cheat" and move them back.

Firaxis screwing things like this up and NEVER fixing it is one of the reasons I've lost faith in them and hope the civ franchise gets passed to somebody competent .

 

[Wulf38]

1836 Cavalry Diplomacy

Spoiler :

With a high commerce start, industrious leader, and warmongers around, I decided to oracle alphabet. Got it in 1960BC and went to town with war bribes. I also used the prophet from the oracle to bulb theology and buy even more trouble. I instigated a total of 7 wars, 4 of them against our friend Monte . Amazingly, none of the AIs ever capitulated in any of these wars, even though they were definitely fighting and exchanging cities.

While everyone was busy, I sat around teching. Picked up great library, sankore, and taj mahal along the way to liberalism, took military tradition in 1030 (the race wasn't even close), and started chain capping the world. Only Darius managed to get rifling, so I left him for last, bought steel from one of my vassals, and hit him with cavalry + cannons. My vassals voted me into an AP win a couple turns before I would have capped him too.

Overall, a lazily played game on my part. Early alphabet and war bribes won it, as it kept me completely safe while destroying the world's tech rate.

Spoiler :

 

[NihilZero]

I forgot to post the rest of my writeup, so here it is (continued from http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=10358219&postcount=15 ).

Spoiler :

After losing their first tussle (instigated by me), Alex decided it was time for a rematch with Darius and he attacked him again and recaptured Thebes straight off.



Darius stopped the war the very same turn with the AP!

Liberalism was in 1140, all I got was Nationalism as Darius was teching well and challenging me for it. It did let me build the Taj.

Brennus was the top dog at this point and I got him to friendly. Monty was WHEOOHRN for a while but went after worst enemy Darius rather than me. Brennus and vassal Mansa dogpiled along with Alex. Attacked on all sides, his strong teching availed him little and Darius got owned comprehensively. He capitulated to Monty.



No sooner was this over than Monty instantly went WHEOOHRN again, and this time he had to be after me. I was about to get military tradition so I considered just making defensive pacts with my friends and waiting for Monty to start world war, but Darius had a very strong culture city near my capital that was stealing tiles from me and was about to start causing major problems to Paris itself. It had to go, so I needed to take matters into my own hands.



Next turn Brennus bribed Alex into the fray, and then asked me to join, which I happily accepted.

Unfortunately Brennus really tore Monty a new one, cutting a swathe through his cities.

This happened, which was handy:



Resulting in this breakdown of vassals and masters:



I seized the offending culture city which was the cause of the entire war:



Alex gives a very good account of himself, capturing Corinth (which went from Greece to Persia to Aztecs and back to Greece again) and Persepolis. Sweet. I got the rest of the Persian cities.

Brennus was about to take Pasagardae after grabbing a couple of Aztec cities, so I bribed him to make peace. Then I took Pasagardae myself, finishing Darius. I added another Aztec city into the bargain and took peace to reorganise my forces.



The once mighty Monty is now reduced to five cities. Sic transit gloria mundi. I need the ten turns to move my units around, then I'll finish him.

Things were pretty straightforward from here. I built another army and capped Monty. Had to peace-bribe Brennus yet again, because he dogpiled (yet again), opportunistically helping himself to Kumbi Saleh. By now he had converted to Islam and didn't like me any more. So I had to kill him.

He had bazillions of units so it took a little while, but eventually:



And that was that. Oddly enough, Mansa refused to surrender despite having only one tundra city and about two units.



Not that it mattered.





A very amusing map!

 

[amanbe]

1660 AD Conquest

Spoiler :

SIP AH>Mining. Saw Horse/Gems near Fred, built settler at size 3 and went for it. Thought about HA rushing Fred but then I saw all the great land and didn't want to let Monte take it all. Then saw the Corn/Golds near Monte and got that spot which pretty much sealed the game. 2 Gems+4 Golds = game over. Got barb trouble from North until I could get chariots in but with this crazy tech rate it didn't even faze me. Teched Alpha early, bribed everyone to war with each other and kept them at war throughout the game with a huge tech lead. Also got Marble from the barb-city I captured North of Monte.

Wonder-whored while peacefully teching, and built Great Lib, MM, Swegadon, Sistine, Sankore and Taj. And we got the AP religion.


Lib>Military Tradition, Built Cruis' then Cavs, I didn't even bother with siege until late with cannons or with spies. Darius and Alex vassaled to Mansa mid game but right before I declared on Fred Darius broke off with 3 cities, which signed his death certificate. Killed Darius, Vassaled Fred then declared on Mansa/Alex, wiped their stacks. Mansa vassaled first, then Alex a turn later. Found Monty's stack close to Brennus and declared on Monty and wiped his stack then took couple cities and he capitulated. With the whole world against him, Brennus didn't have a chance of course. He vassaled like 2 turns after I declared on him iirc. Gallop in the park. 1660 AD Conquest:

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

 

[Brilliant]

well, after a hectic weekend I managed to finish anyway. The final tally for my game was a 1780 AD Domination victory

Spoiler :

I finished off Frederick and Darius with my cataphant attack which hit around 1 AD for fred and only 10 turns later for darius. Took all cities except for Frederick's polar junk to get me up to 13 cities. Spammed workers and used my 14 cities to tech for cavalry. Picked up Great Library in my capital for good measure. All this time the world remained at war. Mansa eventually died to dogpile, so that prompted me to bribe Montezuma into attacking Brennus. When I finished my cavalry stack the most advanced AI was Alexander who had just hit education. I took him out first since he was conveniently close and I didnt want to run into muskets. Then the vassalization of montezuma sealed the deal on domination. No screenshots alas, I'll get some if I play another forum game.

 

[lymond]

Finally, got around to playing this one. Wow, this is one of the more fun games I've played in a while:

I'll report more later. Wish I did this one as a LP.

450AD

Spoiler :

So much going on in the BCs and a very nice Cap we have here. I Oracled Alpha and put the continent in a constant state of warfare. Stayed at 3 cities for a very long time until I attacked Germany. I just took out Freddie and have an very strong tech lead. Time to Mace/cat/phant Darius.

 

[Jester Fool]

1842 Domination

Spoiler :

Decided to try some war bribe nonsense. Built 3 core cities and teched up a storm. Oracled Currency and bribed the world to war except Alex.
275BC :

Spoiler :

I built up elephants and cats to attack Darius, declared and during the festivities, Monty declared on me (he had peace treaty with Brennus). So I had to take peace with Darius to deal one on one with Monty. I took one of Monty's cities, lost it and retook it. Since I wanted to defeat Persia first (and Monty had hordes of units) I let him give me stuff for peace. Soon after, Brennus demanded a free tech, which I gave to him, and in return, he restarted war with his best bud Monty. Moral of the story, when red fisty people demand stuff, giving in means you pass the target check.

Anyway, this allowed me to cap Persia and when Alex attacked Frederick, I jumped on the bandwagon and capped him too. Next up was Monty. By this time, I had Cavalry and was researching Steel. I took a lot of cities and during this time Brennus declared war on Mansu. Mansu cap'd ofc to Brennus so I quickly cap'd Monty. Mansu went AL but didn't have Rifling and wasn't trading to Brennus the backwards. Or should I say the red fisty. I located his stack and was able to fend off his troops when DOW came. Once I had enough cannons I killed off Mansu capturing the Pentagon in the process. Alex decided he wanted to join the empire by DOW on the mighty French. Brennus cap'd a few turns later.

I should have done much better than I did given the overwhelming tech lead I had the entire game. I think the back and forth between Darius, then Monty and back to Darius really slowed me down since I had only 4 cities when I first attacked Darius, expecting to expand out using his cities. I neglected infra a little too much as well and didn't even get unis until the 1700's.

Victory stuff :

Spoiler :