Lonely Hearts Club, BtS Edition, Chapter LIV: D. João II ( take 2 )

[Silu]

Reason why I don't give Joao much credit is probably due to me using the whip less than I should. IMP I just don't like, especially in isolation, and while EXP is a nice supporting trait, it doesn't go very far by itself. Outside favorable conditions like a Terra map the UU/UB are pretty horrible IMO.

Immortal / Normal, To the end:

Spoiler :

Well my play from here on was shaky at best. Still having growth pains from changing to Marathon to Normal - warfare is like a totally different game.

So, I was aiming for Rifle/Cannon conquest, but when I got it everyone (except Monte) had Rifling. When I got AL, everyone had AL or Artillery. When I got Artillery, some Civs were pushing on Industrialism. The tech pace is crazy. So I do the only thing I can pretty much, which is bash Monte's head in. I tech to Tank/Bomber, and shut off research after Radio for massive rushbuy (no Kremlin).

Shot is taken some time after I shut research.

Monte fell very fast, after which I was eyeing Cyrus as the next victim. Then he peacefully vassaled to me. Must be the first time I've gotten a useful peaceful vassal.

At this point I notice Willem is 40 turns away from Cultural, so I aim for him next. Thankfully he didn't have Fission yet. He fell in quick 2 turns, when I take Amsterdam.

Kremlin! Happy days. Too bad the UN is there as well, I would probably have been able to get AC to vote for me. Then again it could have screwed me over, as it happened.

So I land on Wang next, in various places to not make a huge stack as Nukebait (is there some simple formula to know if a Civ is going to nuke a stack? Like a soldier threshold?) After bashing some garrisons, he capitulates to me as well without having lost a single city. This puts me a few votes over the Diplo threshold. And not a minute too soon:

It was only missing a single Engine, too. So it would have arrived 1911. AC was the secretary as well up to this point: I got the secretary seat after a few turns and...

I got extremely lucky here. Had the secretary change been a vote later, or had Cyrus not peacefully vassaled to me, or if a million other little things hadn't lined up, I would have lost, no question. The tech pace was one of the fastest I've seen on Immortal. Without Monte it would have been even crazier; at least he kept Cyrus in check (fighting a winning war with Cuirassier/Grenadier against Artillery and SAMs!). Up until Scimethod I was at parity or in a slight lead, after that the AIs just took off. Probably didn't help that WvO and AC had intercontinental trades the whole game

Endgame tech:

 

[Sleepless]

Checkpoint 1 - Noble/Normal

Spoiler :

As I've played all the LHC's at Emp/Imm level I though I'd drop down a few and try something different. I think I read someone doing this in a succession game so I though I would give it a go.

Basically I can only build what the computer recommends.

First build has to be a warrior or Settler. I'm glad we don't have hunting otherwise we would have a scout there instead. A couple of lucky map pops gave me the wheel and pottery which will help and the last one a map.

Tech choices.

Normally I would go worker/agr but here without the worker it has to be BW.

My warrior is built. Next choice. Just what I need.

I think I'll forgo the barracks for the moment. So settler it is.

At long last I get to build a worker.

Second city down.

Guess I'll be getting another settler then.

Not in 7th place in something.

I might have set the level a bit low for this but I played around with the idea this afternoon starting with Emperor. Not funny when you have undefended cities, barbs heading for you and the AI recommends building a scout. 1 lost city later.

Heading for checkpoint 2. Military wise I now have an axe and spear so should be safe from the barbs. Just be interested to see how I do. One other condition I put on was that the city governor must be on in all cities at all times. No massing scientists, starving to max hammers etc.

 

[Silu]

Sleepless:

Spoiler :

Funky idea, though I would imagine it induces great amounts of frustration

Do you have to place cities on the idiotic blue circles? Or do they give away some information and cannot be enabled in BUFFY?

 

[Meatbuster]

I see the blue circles on BUG mod, though.

 

[Silu]

Yes, but in BUFFY (as in, the HoF mod part) some such automatic game functionality has been removed AFAIK because of possible exploits. For example, the popup advisor can (at least could) advise you to build a scout OR warrior depending on if there's another AI on your landmass, so you could know exploitatively early if you have your own island if you know these mechanics.

Dunno if this is the case with the blue rings (as in, do the blue rings have magical knowledge about hidden strategic resources, for example).

 

[bestsss]

BUFFY shows the blue circles.

 

[Ignorant Teacher]

Silu

Spoiler :

I was reading your last checkpoint and I see I'm really lucky. It's 1920something and no AI is remotely close to completing the ship.

 

[Sleepless]

@Silu

I did think about settling only on the blue circles but might try that next game.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

EXP is constantly underrated because other than the health, the benefits it offers are harder to quantify. A granary 10+ turns sooner than usual and cheaper workers means a developed empire working its tiles a lot sooner, however.

I agree IMP isn't at its best in isolation but it serves far better than AGG, PRO, etc because you do at least build more settlers than average.

 

[Silu]

EXP is constantly underrated because other than the health, the benefits it offers are harder to quantify. A granary 10+ turns sooner than usual and cheaper workers means a developed empire working its tiles a lot sooner, however.

My gripe with this is twofold - first, early game maybe half of your Settler/Worker production comes from surplus food, dropping the worker bonus to 12.5% (yay, 9 workers for the price of 8). Chopping & whipping gets the full bonus, but still. Second, with a lot of maps I find that early game Granaries aren't very beneficial since cities grow over the happy cap after whipping even without a Granary (yes, you get the pre-happy cap citizens faster, but that's more of a marginal advantage). Often I don't feel the need for Granaries until I run out of healthiness, which is counter-synergic with the other half of the trait.

With a play style (or an unskilled player, like me ) that doesn't optimize the whip to the last, EXP can be pretty dull at times. I think it's underrated because you have to play to it more than the other traits that I consider "supporting" ones (CRE, CHA, SPI, ORG, PRO) and it takes more skill and thought to milk out the advantage from it.

 

[bestsss]

I agree IMP isn't at its best in isolation but it serves far better than AGG, PRO, etc because you do at least build more settlers than average.

I like aggressive for the cheaper drydocks, though. Plus it does grant an edge w/ the rifle/cannon invasion.

By the way, what is considered top trait in isolation.

 

[Sleepless]

Chekpoint 2/3

Spoiler :

Continuing on I haven't had to many problems. Not being able to build workboats for a long time in a couple of cities is a bit of a pain though.

Had some good events. Popping iron/silver/and a few extra commerce in a couple of tiles.

Missed out on some wonders I had been trying for which gave me some cash so my tech speed hasn't been to bad comparitively. Built a few though.

Lisbon hasn't done to bad and also have built A Wat and SoZ.

Tech screen not to bad.

Demographics helped by me just finishing Astro.

Some problems you can get as I was waiting a long while for this tech to come up.

Especially as I had missed out on the Mids. Also the AI wants me to keep building settlers with nowhere left to settle.

Unsure whether to play this out violently or peacfully. WK seems quite a juicy target and I've already built a few galleys (no choice ) which can upgrade to Galleon and go on a cat/phant war but likely to try and head for space although this isn't the greatesr island.

 

[Sleepless]

Checkpoint 4

Spoiler :

As expected I coasted to a very late space victory 1950s. It took me a long while to realise that the restrictions I put on myself I never had the option to build Apollo (I guess all projects are the same) come up so after 100 years of waiting I decided to build it myself. Same happened with all the ship parts so I'll know about that in future.

The good thing is you don't have to worry/think about what to build next as your choices become restrictive. I'll try this again but probably Monarch level and put the restrictions that I have to settle the blue circles as well.

 

[Rooftrellen]

Spoiler :

Checkpoint 3 (Noble, marathon)

Monty decided to be a total pain in the back end! He declared on me, while already in war with Augustus. Not long after, he had his second vassel and I lost my city that was going to be his downfall.

It was ok. Wang Kon was teching pretty well, but I had just gotten a few good techs from trading lib...ahh, how many more techs it is worth than the free one if you are first...

Anyway, onl Will had astronomy, and he was my good buddy, so I had a chance to declare on someone for a pretty free shot.

Monty was getting too scary, so the Koreans were my target.

This is my idea of a decent pre-astro intercontenental invasion force. Unfortunately, my island was all cottaged up, so there wasn't much production to be had.

Spoiler :

It got the job done. Unfortunately, my economy totally tanked in the process. And while I was over there, Monty had another pair of wars, one against Will, one against Frederick, with Frederick becoming Monty's third vassel.

I have a feeling I should maybe have gone after Monty for a few cities and maybe freeing Augustus, as opposed to wiping out Kon.

I finally got my resources all hooked up. I figured it was about time for astronomy anyway, and once the forbidden palace was finish, my economy came back like a bad horror movie "Revenge of the Return of the Economy."

However, Monty is knocking on the door of domination, and Will has already landed on the moon.

I fear my only hope may be to rush for a spaceship at this point. I am fairly confident that with Will's small land area, I can launch the ship before him, and Monty will need to take me down if he wants domination. So the only question is, really, can I build a military to stand up to Monty...since war will certainly break out soon.

I leave you with a small screenshot to show the current world map...and how many relisions Kon managed to give me (and him...I need some monostaries now before scientific method so I can take advantage of his founding 4 religions and Will being the only other non-Monty-Vassel).

Spoiler :

 

[Rooftrellen]

Checkpoint 4 (Noble, Marathon)

Spoiler :

So there were 3 major players. Monty and Will had a number of short wars. Willem lost a single city on Monty's main island, and, otherwise, it seemed to be a stalemate.

My plans for victory started to fully form. Frederick was building a number of wonders, and though I soon passed him in technology, these wonders would keep him afloat, particularly as he would always be fighting along side Monty. Will was not a big problem, or so it seemed, since his tech lead was being quickly erased between his small land area and constant wars.

So Monty was the big problem, and I started to prepare proper defenses (I had railroad when he got astronomy, so I thought machine guns would do well enough) and a proper stack of death (infantry and artillary, mostly, after buying the correct techs from Will...lots of cash is nice.)

However, as if everyone folding like wax paper to Monty wasn't enough, Will decides to help out by building the UN! This made Monty quite a threat for winning. I made a decent army as fast as I could and sailed over with my old carracks, without time to build any better ships. I declared, and the war was on!

I had no trust in myself to hold the land I was taking. Monty had a huge amount of power compared to me, and while his little minions weren't too threatening, Fred and Augustus were nothing to sneeze at.

I took down 3 Aztec cities, and had to pause for a moment when I took a boarder German city that had both the Three Gorges Dam and the Pentagon, but I razed it to the ground anyway. Then the vote I feared came up...diplomatic victory. Will and Monty were up, and Willem didn't have a prayer, since he was at war with everyone else, as well. Monty, however, had all his vassels from war...reinforcements landed...if Will and I held enough votes to hold him off, I could kill Frederick and Cyrus and cripple Monty beyond recovery. I swapped back over the science at home, and ended the turn.

Monty won a diplo victory by 5 votes in 1925. I was in the process of making a spaceship of pure gold (bought the apollo program after 1 turn, just got the needed tech, and then set science to 0 to buy the parts ASAP, due to my total lack of production

It was fun. I have serious problems in isolation. I will certainly play again next time. Even if it was a loss, I had fun, and I learned a bit.

 

[Ignorant Teacher]

Immortal / Normal - Checkpoint 4

Spoiler :

Cyrus won the space race and I don't understand very well how this happened. I guess I did everything right, but I couldn't get the votes in the end. If anyone has an explanation, I'd love to hear it.

I started by vassalizing the weak civs:

Augustus launched and I went there to vassalize him:

In the middle of the way, my expenses were unbearable. I had been forced to Environmentalism by the UN and was running Vassalage to avoid being Cyrus' worst enemy so I did what was probably my defeat:

I liberated the old Roman lands. Roosevelt, the idiot, gifted back a couple of cities to AC, but not enough for him to break free.

Oh, I mentioned I had become Cyrus' WE because I nuked Augustus Caesar, but how can that be? Before nuking him, I checked this:

Spoiler :

How come they get mad if you nuke someone they're cautious to? Shouldn't they be pleased at least? That's the way DOW penalties work...

And, of course,

We just couldn't get the votes:

Then Cyrus launched

Step by step I was closing in:

One turn before Cyrus' victory there was an election in which I was mere 5 votes from the required to win. Too little, too late:

Anyway, two funny things happened:
1-Willy, the bomber:

Spoiler :

2-I found out that Fighters can defeat Jet-Fighters. Never again I'll run from a fight just because of the Jets.

Spoiler :

 

[JTMacc99]

I like aggressive for the cheaper drydocks, though. Plus it does grant an edge w/ the rifle/cannon invasion.

By the way, what is considered top trait in isolation.

Well, since isolation means that you have to pretty much build your own first 7-9 cities, and improve all the land around them, and you need to fund your own research for the critical early portion of the game, you'd like traits that help you do all of those things.

So, Financial doesn't hurt. Expansive is nice for the workers, the granaries and the health (since it will be a while until you can actually trade for the rest of the health resources you don't have on your rock.) Philosophical and industrious round out the top ones for me. I tend to run more specialists in isolation, so Philosophical works well with that idea. Industrious, which is not a favorite of mine normally, comes in very handy when I'm isolated. More than a couple of the wonders are extra useful in isolation. I especially welcome the pyramids.