Lonely Hearts Club, BtS Edition, Chapter XXXI : Bismark

[Bleys]

Good tips dub, but there is one thing:

@Kaytie

Spoiler :

The other trouble with that far of island is that you put four cities there. Had you kept it to three, it'd been a far better economical deal. Colonial expenses sky rockets with the 4th city, with only 3 it's manageable.

Spoiler :

Its the third city that make its colonial expenses jump WAY WAY up. All "other landmasses" should be limited to 2 cities wherever possible

 

[dubrown]

Good tips dub, but there is one thing:

Spoiler :

Its the third city that make its colonial expenses jump WAY WAY up. All "other landmasses" should be limited to 2 cities wherever possible

Ah, yes, my fault, thanx for correcting me Bleys

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Good tips dub, but there is one thing:

Spoiler :

Its the third city that make its colonial expenses jump WAY WAY up. All "other landmasses" should be limited to 2 cities wherever possible

Spoiler :

I never got to communism in my game...so no state property...

Colonial expenses can be significant but that doesn't mean it's not worth it to go past 2 cities (excepting small islands where the option is 2 good ones or 3 moderate ones or something). Having completely wiped out shaka and holding on to ALL of his cities, my income went UP with just courthouses, commerce multipliers, and the forbidden palace!

I'd have kept izzy's stuff too rather than making a colony (she had versailles), but there's some cryptic vassal rules. If an AI shares enough border with another AI, it is considered a "land target" to that AI, and this drastically increases the odds that it is willing to vassal. Basically, I liberated the Izzy cities to make GK capitulate more easily! I'd have just left Izzy there, but she didn't want to communicate .

 

[dubrown]

Spoiler :

I never got to communism in my game...so no state property...

Colonial expenses can be significant but that doesn't mean it's not worth it to go past 2 cities (excepting small islands where the option is 2 good ones or 3 moderate ones or something). Having completely wiped out shaka and holding on to ALL of his cities, my income went UP with just courthouses, commerce multipliers, and the forbidden palace!

I'd have kept izzy's stuff too rather than making a colony (she had versailles), but there's some cryptic vassal rules. If an AI shares enough border with another AI, it is considered a "land target" to that AI, and this drastically increases the odds that it is willing to vassal. Basically, I liberated the Izzy cities to make GK capitulate more easily! I'd have just left Izzy there, but she didn't want to communicate .

Spoiler :

I agree with you completely, might not have been clear from my post, what I did intend to say was an early expansion to a different continent may be a though economical strain to the early economy, thus better to keep it small in such cases, like two cities. When you are so far in the game so you start invading, most likely you'll be able to support the additional cities, if nothing else with the spoils of war until enough infrastructur is whipped into place.

SP is "the easy way out", but it's not always necessary. On this map, I didn't switch into SP, the overseas trade benefit made up quite alot of the negatives, just whip out a harbour and courthouse (and if possible custom houses) in the newly conquered cities and they'll start contributing to instead of draining the economy. In my case though, I had my research mostly based on specialist and settled gps so I could afford running 0% science and still have a good researchrate.

 

[kcd_swede]

The last words are to wish good luck to all . And let the games begin!



P.S We don't have any kind of problem with defeats and reruns. Just play and enjoy

I am curious... is there any way to play these games using HOF-mod? I understand it wouldn't be viable for submission to anything, but the exotic advisers tend to make life easier.

 

[r_rolo1]

You can use it with HoF... this is a WB save after all: unless the mod takes units/terrains/game options/LH out of the regular game , the regular WB saves are usable.

 

[Negator_UK]

@TMIT

Spoiler :

Well you were right about me being slow, but then that advice was good last time you gave it too

Not too sure about turning off barbs completely, civ wouldn't be civ without barbs (but then there is Monte I s'pose). But the 4barb event is daft - still it encourages me to build military units, and its thanks to barbs that I can build HE at the moment (haven't done yet though).

I built one wonder - GL - but missed liberalism (in 1310) by about 10 turns. Missing both of these normally loses the game, but only missing one ? well I'll find out.

@dubrown

Spoiler :

Looks to me you're teching too slowly. Do you have any libs up in Berlin and Hamburg? With the food available to those two cities you should be able to support atleast 1 scientist in each to speed up early research quite a bit.

I'm afraid the speed thing is all too true...

City placement, you got two, fairly slowgrowing, cities in your initial four. With this being in isolation (we know that don't we, because of the series theme) it's safe to do a bit distant settling than keeping everything close to Berlin.

Good advice, will take it next time Although I was settling close to keep maint costs down and my tech up...

Munich has no food resource, if I see correctly it's 1 of the river, putting it 1W would still make it coastal and have river access. But I would have waited a bit with settling it, maybe as 6th-8th city or so.

The theory was to use grassland farms for food - there was a distinct lack of food resource in the middle of the isle.

Cologne, in the middle of nowhere, only calendar resources available. Sure they'll make a farm a bit better than normally, but still, I'd have waited for almost calendartime before settling that one.

Thats a Roger too...

The tip I can give is to play the map accordingly. You have explored the island. There's pretty good cityspots up north that claims both food and stone for example. With sailing, you'd be able to connect the cities without having to wait for a road to connect them. Spreading the cities out would also make the barb problem easier to handle, you'll quicker remove the fogcover for the whole island and then barbs is no problem anymore.

There's not much to anticipate with a warrior beating up your axeman.. Not sure about the 4barb event. Still Fogbusting is something I did a bit of by putting an axe in the jungle, he's now woodsman III

With the gems being in the jungle zone IW would be a priority here to be able to start settling the middle of the island where there's room for some very strong financial centers with the gems and lot's of cottageable space.

I probably settle the gems too late in hindsight, but the lack of food resource put me off them...

@ALL

Spoiler :

Well I'm down ,but not yet out and I'm teching reasonably quickly at the moment. I usually lose to some hi-tech or hi-culture swine from positions like this, but will play it out and see.

One question.

From my tech list above whats the opinon on my trading away education and the other stuff. All of my techs seem to be owned by at least one other civ, do I trade for some gain now ? or try to maintain my shaky lead over the neanderthal end of the spectrum as long as possible (BTW Izzy doesn't like me).

 

[semirami]

Emperor/Marathon Checkpoint 1 up to 1100 BC

Spoiler :

Decided to settle in place, 1W is a good spot too, plain hill and no tiles in BFC on different landmass, but I want to keep the production potential, because I want to spam wonders. Started with Fishing/BW/Sailing/Myst/Masonry. The huts popped for 400 gold total, the scout found stone too far away from the capital, but I cant resist. Settled the second city on the stone. A forest chop gives 60*2.5= 150 Hammers. 5 forests in the capital for 1/2 Pyramids, 2 forests in the second city for The Great Wall. The religions were founded very early. 3600BC Buddhism, 3500BC Hinduism, 3000BC Judaism.

2220BC:

1960BC:

1670BC:

1560BC:

1260BC:

Got 2 slave revolts in 3 turns fortunatelly I had enough gold to pay, so I'm very pleased to:

The capital pops a great prophet. The GPP pool will be unpredictable as I plan to run a lot of scientists soon, so I decided to:

The dot map:

The plan is to settle aggressive the western area next, explore the land southern and northen from the mailnland. The Hanging Gardens and The Great Library for Berlin next.

 

[semirami]

Checkpoint 2 1300AD or something:

Spoiler :

Well, a picture is worth 1000 words, so I'll talk with pictures:

The increased visibility from Optics, gave me immediate contact with Sal. And few turns later with Shaka. The both are pagan and in war(what a surprise) Sent immediately missionaries to both, before Sal's borders pop. With touching borders religions may autospread, without Astro(not exactly sure). Anyway I don't want Christianity, or Isliam spread to them.

After Astro met all AIs, It's like "Lawless Bismark and the battle of the idiots" 2 ultimate zealots, 3 ultimate idiots and Huayna. Crazy game, ah forgot to mention, that Spanish civilization was destroyed 200, or 300AD.

Lol, they are so advanced...


Ah and I have Spiral Minaret too, that's why I researched DR.

 

[semirami]

double post/deleted

 

[semirami]

Chekpoints 3 and 4 Conquest victory

Spoiler :

I am now pleased with all, except Monty, but he is Huayna's vassal, need only +1 with Huyana for friendly and once Khan revolt to free religion I'll be friendly with him too. So peaceful victory is possible and easy, military oriented victory too. Now decided to pay honor to german's UU and UB and win conquest with panzers, not that I'll meet any tanks. So

Liberalism: Got bored to wait for an AI to compete for the race, so I finally took this:

Some more wonders:

and

for no WW war (jails+MR+PC)

and

This is the first time I see a healthy C2 marine to lose against catapult I can imagine the picture, the sodiers come from the ships and are all killed with rocks

next

and sorry Khan:

This one was great. Panzers versus longbows

And the vengence against Shaka, who declared a suicide war to me before, after nuking him to death:

and

Recap: Super powerful capital. Food+Hammers+Ind+Stone+Marble. It has 11 great person settled. All great persons were produced there. 6 settled scientists, 2 prophets, 2 engineers, 1 merchant + the shrine with the first prophet and 2 academies for old and new capital. 6 GP for 3 golden ages and I still have 2 fortifyed scientists and 1 spy. Crazy AIs, If Huayna was with Mansa and Haty, instead of Khan and Monty, the game would be very different. I would miss the most wonders and will find a huge tech lead, instead of huge tech hole.

 

[dubrown]

Monarch/Epic 1875AD Domination Victory

Spoiler :

In my short recap that I named checkpoint 3 I was in the middle of getting rid of Sal and Shaka. That one went easily, but took some time due to traveling all over the continent, the lack of horses on the mainland did drag things out a bit, with some cav, it'd gone pretty quickly.

Well, anyway, I didn't bother research MT anyway so even with horses I only had knights...

Now, here's the strategic situation after Sal and Shaka been expelled from the world

As you can see, it looks pretty good, will likely not be too hard to invade the other continent. For some strange reason I still don't know I did research Communism at this point instead of Assembly line. I may have figured I needed SP for a while but it was quite unecessary, economy was pretty good anyway, 0% on the scale but rep + Caste and lot's of scientist was all that I needed. I had to run a few % culture as ww and with democracy spreading on the last continent, emanicipation unhappiness was forming.

Anyway, to make a short story longer, I had now decided to invade the last continent at the point I gained Inf. But a few turns before this happened

Well, looks like it's Khan first then... My destroyers made short work of his invasionforce of galleons, caravels and a few frigates. I sent over my "not quite finished" invasion force, figuring it'd be enough.

And one taken city later the tech that secured my victory was finalised and some thousands of gc later my invasionforce looked quite alot stronger

Ghengis was soon beaten and capitualated.

Now, a few turn from Artillery but I did only wait long enough to heal up my troops before

It did went quickly here as well, Izzy had Cavs as strongest troops, but for some reason she didn't have many landtroops, but her navy of frigates was enormous, I guess I killed atleast 40, they're no match from Combat 3 + Blitz destroyers, unfortunately I did loose 1 when she suicided a bunch of them against a wounded destroyer I left in the wrong place...

When Madrid fell Izzy was finished, she'd gone for culture but only Madrid had reached legendary, a pretty decent collection of wonders here, actually her other cities had quite a few wonders as well, guess she was the wonder hogger this time (I didn't bother much about wonders after the early era...)

Taking Izzys land and popping the borders was all that was needed.

And some final statistics
The world at the end(I figured this was the easiest way to show it)

some small diagrams

And more numbers

Note the amount of frigates killed below...

And did we do well?

Atleast decent.


To recap, a good game if I may say so myself. Rep + Caste kept my research up during all this conquest, no need for SP here. To be fair, I had some cottaged cities + wallstreet city to help as well. After Forbidden palace on Shaka and Sals continent economy became good again, I almost exclusively built economical beneficial buildings in all those cities (except a few where they'd settled quite alot of GGs for me...)

I guess in the beginning, the lucky break here was the GLH, settling the nearby islands for overseas trading, the tradeincome combined with specialist made me keep up and get ahead in research. Also, it'd been quite a different game if Shaka and Monty hadn't been on their respective continent, with all the wars they initiated, the AI was slow researching. I guess had it been Asoka or Mansa or even Zara instead of Monty on the south continent, I'd been behind in tech when I met them.

 

[mirthadir]

Immortal 1953 Diplo (dom) victory.

Spoiler :

Well this one was a complete gimme. I began by teching fishing and starting on a warrior. My first hut popped fishing and I swaped to a WB and BW. After that it was WB -> worker -> settler. Tech ran BW -> Sailing -Masonry -> Poly and then I was going to try for Judaism (stone, industrious begs for a RE with a shot for an early AP win) when some AI got it early (at the time I knew I most likely had one "normal" religious civ, HC or Izzy based on the fast Hinduism founding, and most likely another fanatic due to the early Judaism). Instead I then went for priesthood and worker techs.

I settled on the incense with two seafood in the BFC. Cap was going to wonder whore so I chopped out SH and then built GLH (islands make this huge), Oracle (took MC), and Colossus. My Woody II scout popped IW from the final hut. I then found cities: up north at stone/fish (iron not in the BFC), on the first island south at the clam, on the second island south on the river hill next to the marble, and at the rice/single gem location. A barb city pops at the Cu, seafood/gem location just to the north of that and I raid it with swords. The MS are built in my second city. I fail to nab the mids but meh, my economy is rocking regardless.

My first GP is a prophet, I bulb theo. Tech is out to Lit (I nab TGL), I finally get Monarchy for DR, then out to Philo (I miss the religion, get AW), I bulb most of DR (build SM in cap, Verseille next to the marble) and then on to Paper (I build UoS), Edu, (90% of lib), Nationalism (I build the Taj), Lib finished (take Constitution), I go back and research currency and calender, then on to Democracy (I nab the SoL with my second city).

Most of my cities are devoted to ringing my island with cities where ever there is a food surplus and then getting up religious buildings and my lovely cheap infra buildings. I place a third city on the tip of the southernmost island. When culture allows me, I send a settler off to the island next to Saladin and settle the centre of the island (Saladin's border pops before I can pop mine to claim the clam). Just as a note, I was sorely tempted to break isolation early by settling at the eastern most point on the mainland and then using the culture to bridge out to the fish; I don't know how much work it requires but is it possible to check for locations where cultural bridges are likely?

Shaka declares war and I have to whip a spear on the only city he can attack. I divert production into getting up 6 swords, 2 axes, and 6 spears to stand off his assualt (mostly HA and pults when it finally lands).

By the time the Incans and Mongols meet me, I'm the tech leader outright (Saladin is the leader; I knew this was easy when I saw GG after GG getting popped in the early eras). Unfortunately for me, Saladin has chosen me as worst enemy and every so often suicides his navy into mine I cannot keep up with his naval production (I'm cottage spam everywhere except in the capital, in my second city, and in the final mainland coastal city I founded on the plains square on the river with no resources - future IW city). This is annoying as I can throw back his assualts, but I can't stop my boats from being burned.

After Demo I settled the nothernmost tip of the northern island (I'm hoarding a GM and GE for Sushi/Mining or Sushi/CreCon; my three RE wonders also mean that even marginal locations are viable for me) and one inland city using the two sugars and having access to most of the remaining river squares. Saladin manages to finally take a city of mine after blowing through a few dozen curis (if I can reopen borders with the Mongols and Zulu I might be able to pull off an AP win; if not it's a one tile city right next to a wonderpumped capital and I can vote it back to myself at any time).

I tech out railroad and then bid goodbye to the GLH to found mining in my MS/WS city. I try vainly to get missionaries to everyone for an AP win, but HC spreads Christianity to all his cities and I've backed the Aztecs in that feud (Monty is garbage, but huge with a Mongolian vassal). Early AP win is out the window (I have 4 theocracies, 2 of which don't like me and the simplest method would just be to lose cities). Shaka declares war and throughs away hoardes of caravels (I get a great general from the fight, but my frigates get killed by hoards of caravels). I really want to go slap around Izzy, she's skipped rifling, hates everyone, and is going for a cultural win with only LBs and a few Muskets guarding her. I dick up majorly by not noticing that the Arabs were due to strike again and that they just had gotten combustion. My wooden invasion fleet dies to Arab destroyers. Tech has been out to medicine, then out to assembly line, then industrialism and flight.

I end the Arab war via event, and now I have infantry. It is a quick war against Izzy, I take Madrid (stocked with good wonders like Broadway and the MoM) and 4 military instructors; Izzy capitulates (I later trade her into Christianity). About now I opt for a conquest/dom win. Truthfully it would have been far superior to tech out to space; I have both Mining and Sushi, I have buckets of resources, and it will be a royal pain to kill off Monty or Saladin but Saladin has been an annoying priss. So I opt to begin by hitting Shaka with Panzers. He starts with rifles (and one city he took from Izzy before I bribed him to peace out), but gets infantry right after I land. I had intended to airlift in my invasion forces, but my settler is killed by Zulu forces when I accidentally offload it with some rail pillaging Panzers (they die to hoards of cavalry. This gives Shaka another 20 turns of freedom as I now have to build up a naval invasion force and divert my IW city to build CG III infantry to airlift.

Eventually I take four southern Zulu cities in addition to Ulundi in the north and get Shaka to Capitulate (I had actually only wanted a city in the south which I could access by sea that also bordered the Arabs; aside from Ulundi). I rush built three airports (having liberated two cities back to Shaka), and then invaded. When I hit Saladin has rocketry, flight, and no industrialism. I grind him down with mass airlifts of panzers; he refuses to surrender even after I sink his navy (twice), take half his land, and have 3 dozen Panzers roaming freely. Tech for me has been radio -> genetics -> composites (3GD in my IW city where I also nabbed Pentagon) -> laser (bombers weren't cutting it and I wanted MSAM/MA). Saladin manages to prolong his defeat by finally getting Adv Flight up. This costs me a half dozen turns from healing as I've already got enough tanks to take all his land and have begun stockpiling panzers and other units in Madrid. Idiot refuses to capitulate even when he retains only one tile of land and has 3 units defending it.

After that I just overrun the Mongols and Aztecs until I get the option to vote myself into victory.

All told this was a gimme. Too many fanatics with too many differing religions. HC was the only AI who normally techs well and Monty kept mauling him. Stone, Marble, and Cu with an IND civ? Seriously. Space for 5 island cities with an easy start for GLH?

Mistakes made:
1. Not either nerfing Saladin earlier or making peace with him.
2. I always either build too much navy or too little. This game was too little and boy did it hurt when Saladin burnt my Sushi boats while blockading my coast.
3. Not getting a missionary to Shaka when I had the chance.
4. Giving HC my first overseas missionary.


All told I think this was the easiest LHC games I've played, I could have won space much sooner or culture for that matter; but I decided I just had to kill warmongers with massive unit spam.

 

[IPEX-731BA5DD06]

I give up...no much hope.

Spoiler :

Once Shaka had eliminated Saladin in 1040 ad, he had more land, more resources and just turned into a monster.

Along with Hyuana heading to Infantry and my having to support Genghis with gifted tech's...I can't pull it off.


Shaka's only now just getting his economy rolling, I'm 2nd in production/3rd in army and just falling behind now. Can't trade due to creating another monster on the main land mass. Can't constantly defend against Shaka's maniacal attacks.

I'll start again, and see how it all unfolds.

Oh yeah, Shaka ACTUALLY attacks in TWO places at once, multiple attacking points.

 

[IPEX-731BA5DD06]

Yes I tried again, and its a huge difference

Spoiler :

Our favorite Zealot Izzy, was eliminated in 920BC..good riddance I say

Saladin is actually still in the game, no thanks to Shaka, and I've just had to support him with a gift of Civil service, gifting some iron, and gifted machinery as well, well, i got 20 gold for civil service.

The relations on the other continent, well, as you know Izzy has been eliminated. So who do you think is top dog then.

Yes none other than our favourate dog soldier. Strange thing is his two vassals are different religions, I think some further fun is install.

I've tried to play this one as a 'wonder spam game, only 2 wonders I've missed out on being the Shrewagon pagoda (completely forgot, once I had a religion) and the MoM (messed about with currency)

I've got all the others, and I have 3 settled great engineers by 1120 ad...

2 wonders missing are the Apostolic palace and the Great wall. Statue of Zues, Great Lighthouse and Colossus are all built in the city over by the marble, the Parthenon is built in Moai statues, which was going for Sheragon pagoda rather late.

I've wall street set up 2 inland from the Coastal gems, building cottages all over that city, and farms in all others to get pop up quickly, then its workshops/watermills.

I'm still settling a few cities on my own landmass and the out lying islands, mainly for the trade and increased mass.

Genghis is top dog in score, but woeful in tech, I'll actually look to wait for a panzer rush against him.

What a difference this game is compared to the first one. I just hope Saladin can stand up to Shaka, with my boost I hope so. I may even gift a few pike men

 

[cripp7]

Finally Noble/Normal 1949 Dom

Spoiler :

I did the WE/SSE route on this, settled in place started fishing>BW>Sailing>Masonry>all the worker techs. Built SH,GW,Mids,Oracle(MC),TGL,Colossus,(missed HG by 2),Chicken Pizza,Parthenon,The GL,Oxford I founded Sushi/Mining Inc in the Conf holy city which had a shrine pumping out big money.
I settled the island a little later than expected, but it worked out. Since I was the first to Astro I stocked up on galleons,privateers,frigates. Loaded up an invasion force to take on Sal, which he capped. Next to Shaka(hate that guy), rifles/cannons vs maces/trebs which killed Shaka. I just kept teching, applying EPs towards Huayna to steal some techs. Beelined to panzers, which by then it was pretty much in the book. 1949

Capital

Score, which could've been higher

Demographics

Info Screen

My world

I need to tighten it up, not being able to set repeating queue's and waypoints slows me down a lot(Firaxis disables the 'sticky-keys' for windows, so I'm just limited mouse or single key on keyboard) Overall it was a lot of fun

 

[IPEX-731BA5DD06]

Yes, those little black and white vechicles are about to hit the high seas

Spoiler :

I've decided to go for a panzer blitz against Genghis, who joined in a dog pile attack upon me, instigated by of all People, Saladin (who finally grew a pair)

anyway, I've a clear tech lead, I've built Industrial plants in my most important cities, and finishing off a few, builds now are;

I'm just ramping up for a rampage across Genghis's lands

Strategically, is this;

Genghis has created a vassal, Ho hum

The tech situation;

I'm way out in front, no ones even close to combustion, Steel is as far as Monty went, and he was actually going for a cultural victory, till his esteemed master, demanded he research Artillery for him.

Shaka and Saladin are non entities, I'll just leave them be for the moment, Genghis, has to die, I plan to assault Madrid first, take another city above it simultaneously, and culture bomb Madrid with a spare great Artist I have. I will launch a golden age with a spare Scientist, and switch to Vassalage, Theo, Police state. I'll do all this once I have the Great general from Fascism, and set research to zero.

 

[Zindaras]

Well, this looked interesting (I love building and peaceful expansions, so these games are great for me), so I decided to give it a whirl. I go with Prince difficulty on the Monarch save, Marathon speed.

Spoiler Until Checkpoint 2 :

General strategy is to become a war machine and invade the other continents. I want religious wars on the other continents, so I won't go for Hinduism, Buddhism or Judaism and only one of the later religions. The starting position is reasonable, though it could be better. I go Fishing first (Clams need to be worked) while my Scout explores the continent. One of my favoured strategies in the past couple of games has been to build Stonehenge and use the Great Prophet from that to lightbulb Theology, giving me an easy religion. Stonehenge would also free my cities up for an early border pop, so I don't need to build Monuments everywhere. I'm kind of piecing the game together after playing through most of it (turned out to be a bad idea), so not everything will be right.

Turn 1: I settle in place (I don't like settling anywhere else, I think you should play with what you're given. Scout to explore. Research Fishing.

Turn 40: My noble scout has managed to map the continent for me:

Yeah, I don't know why Berlin is not building a Work Boat either. No dotmaps because I don't like making them (though they would probably help me a little bit). I plan on settling a city on the east coast, one 2N of the Incense, one directly south of the two Gems, one S of the Pigs and then a couple others to fill up the continent. I'm rather disappointed with the production capabilities. It's reasonable, but definitely not the kind of production I would like to use for a mass invasion. Space Race could be an alternative, though I guess you need a lot of production for that as well. However, I should be able to tech pretty well here. There's also the possibility for something interesting on the other islands.

2340 BC (Turn 116): Berlin has finished Stonehenge.

Turn 145: First new city (late for my standards, but I just switched to Prince and I didn't want to miss out on Stonehenge). Hamburg is founded 4N, 2E of Berlin.

Turn 175: Great Wall done in Berlin. That'll keep any Barbs off my back. Great General Emergence is also great.

Turn 180: The Spanish Civilization has been destroyed. Woah. Isabella is a religious nutjob who has the tendency to go mad with power. The fact that she's actually put out of the game this early is kind of scary.

Turn 203: The Oracle is built. I can't get Theology yet (I haven't researched all the prerequisites yet, so I choose Confucianism as my religion for the game. It's founded in Hamburg.

Turn 215: First Great Person, and I get a Great Spy, which is a bit of a shame (I would've preferred a Great Prophet for the Shrine. I settle him, though I don't know if that's the correct choice (if anything, all those nice Espionage Points are going to waste as long as I don't know anybody else).

Turn 241: I found Munich, 2N of the Incense.

Turn 253: Geronimo (Great General) has been born in a far away land. Keeping a lookout for Great Generals is a good idea. It means that the other people are at war. I noticed a lot of Great Generals being born in far away lands, so I figured that the other civilizations were very warlike (or my religious strategy was working out perfectly) and decided that I wouldn't make finding the other people a priority.

Turn 261: Iron Working is in, and I immediately get Iron. Turns out I settled Munich right on top of it. That sucks. It would've been a nice production spot.

Turn 288: Cologne is founded south of the Gems. I plan to build cottages everywhere and let this be my science capital.

Turn 301: I love getting to know what's happening every 50 turns. This time, the Venerable Bede tells us who the largest civilizations in the world are. Bismarck the Pathetic is bungling at last place. Ouch.

Turn 308: Great Prophet. Finally. He builds the Shrine in Hamburg. Every gold point counts. I also have a Galley now, who maps out the islands to the south:

I'm thinking 3 cities. One on the nearest island and two on the other, one being Scythian. It's good to see some flood plains, too.

Turn 401: I am, apparently, the most advanced civilization in the world. That is definitely great. I don't want to be too backwards when I meet the rest, and definitely make a couple of important techs first (especially Liberalism).

Turn 424: I build the Colossus in Hamburg. Why? I don't know. In retrospect, it's an awful waste of hammers.

I'm having trouble deciding on my inland cities, so I make up a little dotmap:

Turn 451: Bismarck the Pathetic is the least powerful civilization in the world. To be honest, the power rating doesn't interest me at all at this point in the game, but I do start building a couple more units. I don't want to be too much of a wuss when they meet me.

Turn 469: Mausoleum of Maussollos is built in a far away land. That one really hurts. This was one wonder I was definitely shooting for.

Turn 492: I raze Scythian and found Essen 1N of the Marble. Sure, two cities would've captured all the resources, but a fish and a whale isn't enough to keep a city afloat. Besides, Marble in the first ring means quicker access for whatever wonders I still want to build.

Turn 501: I am the second most advanced civilization now. That's still good.

Turn 519: I make Music first. This gives me a Great Artist, who I put to sleep to use in a later Golden Age.

Turn 525: Statue of Zeus is mine.

Turn 528: More importantly, the Great Library is mine. For some reason, I built this in Hamburg, which was probably a bad decision. Meh, it obsoletes with Scientific Method anyway.

Turn 590: The University of Sankore is mine.

Turn 606: There's our first friend. It's definitely not who I was expecting. Genghis Khan, our favourite slavering horde-leader, finds me first (kind of surprising when you associate Genghis Khan with the Earth18 map, where he just sits there and declares war on everybody. Here, he actually won the circumnavigation race). He has a couple of techs on me, but nothing too bad. Because it seems like I'm falling behind tech-wise, I make a short bee-line for Liberalism first. The free tech will really help me get back into the tech-race. This will also allow me to go Free Religion before sending out my Caravels, which is important because I don't want to get negative modifiers from religion.

Turn 654: I am the first to Liberalism. My free tech is Printing Press (I can't get Astronomy and I personally prefer Printing Press over Nationalism: the extra gold from villages and towns will help, and it usually takes me longer than Nationalism anyway, as Nationalism gets a couple of turns off if you have Divine Right. It is also far more tradable than Nationalism, which is one of the AI's favourite techs).

A couple of turns later, with Optics in hand, I build a few Caravels. They strike out east and quickly find Saladin. A couple of turns later, I get a real surprise. Saladin converts to Confucianism. A double check tells me that, indeed, Saladin is now Confucianist. Apparently, Shaka (his continent-buddy) and he never got a religion, which is surprising, as Saladin usually gets one. But who am I to complain? Besides, Shaka and Saladin are at war, which is always good for me.

Turn 680: Saladin asks for aid against the vile Zulu. Saladin has the advantage in score and seems like less of a warmonger (he's mostly the guy you turn to for religious crusades rather than Shaka's all-out warring. Shaka actually declared war on me three times in one game, even though I beat him all three times and reduced him to two cities and being my vassal, until I even took him out of the game completely by out-culturing his capital), so I am delighted to assist. It's not like he can do anything to me anyway. Caravels don't get you very far. A quick check of the power graph shows me that I'm actually a little bit more powerful than Shaka. Building units in a couple of cities really paid off.

In the meantime, my Caravels find the last two civilizations. Here, everything's a lot more like the Earth18 map. Huayna Capac is Montezuma's vassal. It seems like Huayna Capac ends up paying his respects to Montezuma wherever he goes. To be honest, Huayna Capac was always going to be in trouble, being surrounded by warmongers like Montezuma and Genghis Khan.

And that's checkpoint two, so let's end with an overview:

The diplomatic web can become so simple when there are only 6 Civs left. Montezuma's Pleased with me, and he's definitely the most important Civ on the map. I also plan on buddying up to Saladin a little. Monty should be enough to keep Genghis Khan off my back.

Power-wise, I'm not doing bad. Monty is probably a bit stronger than Genghis Khan, but I can take on the guys on the next continent, and they will be my first objective.

Score-wise, I'm even better. Montezuma's 400 points ahead of me, but for the rest, no complaints.

And I was afraid I was going to lose the Liberalism race. Apparently, you don't have to worry too much about that on Prince. Shaka doesn't even have Theology yet.

I'm afraid I can't get an easy victory here. Montezuma's better than me on all fronts, basically. I might be able to beat him research-wise to the Space Race parts, but can I produce them quickly enough and keep my borders protected? I am stuck with a bunch of people who like war. A lot. Maybe I should talk to them in the only language they understand: the language of big booms.

 

[r_rolo1]

Very concise checkpoint Zindaras

Spoiler :

Really, you have the ideas all in place.... it is not that common to see that in someone playing prince ( I surely didn't had )

I really don't like your green city though it is in the middle of the jungle and it has too much riverside tiles to not being able to build a levee. But as long as you have the light blue city you can't have it better ....

E por falar nisso, boa sorte

 

[IPEX-731BA5DD06]

Yes the great German Empire has achieved domination

Spoiler :

1st up, I didn't attack Shaka or Saladin till the end, I went the way of taking out the top dog, who had me in a power rating of -0.3 when I attacked.

I first went in through Madrid, Seville and Barcelona, to give me the western edge of the continent. Genghis, was limited to 3 movement troop re-reinforcements, so I time to consolidate, and 2 of the cities he attacked were only 3 tiles apart so I could move my main defense to counter the attacks.

One stupid thing the AI did, as none of them ever got to Combustion and kept the oil, OK Monty did for 2 turns, was the constant spamming of Frigates and Galleons, to try take the oceans from my Destroyers/Battleships

The screen shot doesn't show it, but Genghis, had 10 listed ships and another 20 bulk frigates at the bottom.

Production was just a monster once I started on the Assembly lines, I was actually declared on by all and sundry at one point Maybe I was getting too far ahead, but medieval troops V's Infantry is no contest.

for interest sake, here's a shot of the domination victory screen

And here's one of the builds I did in my cities.

I deliberately waited till I gained Panda's BEFORE I attacked, I could have done so with Rifles, but production would have been the problem against the unit spam of Genghis.

In order of Elimination it was;

1) Majority of Genghis's empire. Both Monty and Huyanua broke free from vassalage at this point, I bribed Monty into way with Huyanua too keep the both busy.
2) Quick elimination of Monty (I had a 3 person war going, as they either asked me to join, which suited, or I had to take a city to finish another) Monty actually build Versailles for me as well, in the NE Corner of the continent, and I built my forbidden palace in Genghis's old capital.
3) Elimination of the final 3 cities for Genghis.
4) Elimination of Huyanua, I was watching his only source of Oil, right next to a city I'd taken previously, for just this very purpose. Once he got within 2 turns of building a well, war it was.
5) Vassalization of Quin, who was created by Genghis on Island to the NE of the continent
6) Attacked Shaka, in the highly cottaged grassland and floodplains to the SW of his and Saladin's continent. I just sent in Panda's and city raiders/pillagers and left Marines as defence, as they did such a horrible job taking cities.

City raider 3 Combat 1 and Pinch promoted panda's out of the box are par excellence city takers, even without taking down the culture.

Thanks Rolo,

Spoiler :

Oh yeah, Shaka eventually vassilized Saladin in 1800 I had to support him with gifted iron, tech's and bribing Shaka to make peace.