[GS] [LP] Diplomacy or Domination

[Thibaulthc]

Hello everybody!

Here is the set-up for my game:

• Half-God (from smoother difficulty, less starting bonus for the AI, but bonus scaling with Eras)
• Epic Speed (with 8AoP, slower techs and civs, slightly modified)
• Continents Detailed, Large Map
• I'm playing as Eleanor of Aquitaine, we are 10 players and 15 CS
• Only Diplomatic or Domination (and score after 750t) victories
• 20 DV points, 3 awarded per Congress, every 30 turns from Industrial Era
  
• Slower Grievances Decay and much more Diplo Penalty from grievances
• Diplo Favor from tourism (1 favor for every 150 tourism)
• GS & RF of course, Disasters set to 4
• Resources Costs overhauled (from Zee's mod, quiet modified)
• trying the UC-District themed production mod (each district gives a boost to certain units)
• No Goody Huts, but more XP from Barbs
• and just one cheating mod: I can see the progression of the World Wonders being built (I wished I could modify it to make it related to the Access Level

I think that's it for the introduction.
I'll aim for the Diplomatic Victory, but I might change my mind, although it seems quiet unlikely with Eleanor and on 10 players map in Demi-God difficulty.

Just FYI, I'm a 36 yo Belgian guy, living in the French Alps, working during the seasons only, so I have some time to spend for the next ten days
I have around 4000 hours on Civilization, mostly on the II (1000), V (1500) and VI (1000)
I usually play on Immortal or Demi-God, sometimes on Deity. I used to play with AI+ before GS, but there are some game-braking issues atm imo.
No particular style, I try to adapt my gameplay to the other AI and my environment.
My English is average, so don't count on me for a beautiful text with a lot of Roleplay; I'll just try to expose the evolution of my civilization without too many faults.


Okay, enough with the bullfeathers, let the story begin!
I started along a river just next to the Souffrière Hills Volcano, not really far from the coast. Disasters settings being on 4, and England getting some (poor at the beginning) bonus with the Royal Navy Dockyard, I decided to move away from the river and its volcano to settle on the coast, near some crabs and fishes.
Not a tremendous location, London won't be my best city I guess; but let's do with what Mother Nature has to offer me...

Spoiler starting location :

With a kind warrior from Fez protecting my capital while my soldiers raze barb camps

Few first centuries don't start too well because of some bad priorities, but I'm lucky enough with my first Neighbors: Pericles from Greece first, then Mr Prime Minister from Australia. Couldn't get more pacific ones!
I send a scout to visit the area, meet 3 city states (2 as the first player) and the Delicate Arch in the huge Desert of Danakil.
As for the CS: Kumasi (nice cultural trade routes to CS, Fez (totally useless for me without religion), and Valletta (a good way to spend my faith, on city center buildings, plus a safe opportunity to buy walls in case those pacific neighbors would suddenly want to attack)

Spoiler first surroundings :

As you can see, this desert is really huge; would be nice if I could get my hands on Petra, I'm already dreaming of the yields around the Delicate Arch
Nice Mountains Range in the North, I'll try to settle there and use it as a big defensive border

 

[Thibaulthc]

I founded Liverpool along the river, in between the Grassland on the west and the Danakil Desert. I kept on exploring and, little bit, a bit later, I met a scout from Dido. A little bit more of a warmonger than my two closer neighbors. But she's further than, I have a nice mountain range to defend, and...I crossed the road of a poor and lonely colon! My scout didn't hesitate long, and captured him. I had a path to go back escorting him, and two soldiers a bit further to cut the road of the angry pursuing Carthaginians.

Spoiler the big mountains chain, and the map when I had to decide where to settle :

The area near the volcano is too close from London, and too dangerous. The other spots are too far away...

The Rodope Mountain Chain: will be useful, for science and to defend!

Well,... things really didn't go as planned. First, people hanging around their city state blocked my path, and I lost the pursuit.
But, more surprisingly, the Greek bearded old "wise" declared a surprise war against me. I was really not prepared. I rushed the military production (that's a big word for a bunch of guys with wooden sticks...) but Liverpool fell really fast and my lonely exploring soldiers were all killed. It couldn't be worse...we're in 500 BC and I just have a poor coastal city.
But I like challenge, and trying to make the best from the worst starts. Plus now, I have a very good personal reason hate the Greeks. So I decided to fight back.

Spoiler the big mountains chain, and the map when I had to decide where to settle :

I wasn't prepared for such an early attack, from him.

With the help of Agoge (well, isn't that a Greek word ?!?) I made as many warriors and archers as I could, and as soon as we were 5, we rushed back to take my city. Still unwalled, it hasn't been too hard to get in again, but boy what a fight to keep it again. Périlclès' armies were numerous, and things couldn't get worse when he took the suzerainty of Fez and Valletta, just behind my troops. I know had two fronts to fight on. I took advantage of the terrain, and finally pushed them back, on both sides.

Spoiler the big mountains chain, and the map when I had to decide where to settle :

Just 5 warriors and archers, but that should suffice

Then, finally, a good news came: my new envoy was enough to take the suzerainty of Kumasi, and, more interesting, I could levy their small army just next to Valletta: indeed, in the meantime, Dido attacked all the CS surrounding her and took Mexico and Valletta: she must be tired now, I'll try to Liberate one of those.
Pericles, him, wants peace now: but I'm still blood-thirsty, my soldiers need some pillaging to reward them for their good fighting-spirit, and I'm holding almost 200 grievances against him, which is good to keep his Flavor earning low.

Spoiler the big mountains chain, and the map when I had to decide where to settle :

Kamusi, and it's warrior I'll use to liberate Valletta

 

[Thibaulthc]

Well, that action of levying Kumasi's troops was a total waste: Pericles managed to send one more envoy there, took the suzerainty, and made my levied troops stand down. 360 gold lost and my hopes to liberate Valletta pushed way further. Note to myself: stop levy armies when you don't have 2 or three envoys more than the closest competitor, moron. The only good side there is the 2 era points, since I'm aiming for a golden age in the Medieval era. Which I missed for a few points...

The battle around Liverpool lasts long. Greece is harassing me for peace but I have other plans: Taking Fez, of which he's suzerain, keeping him loosing flavor for all my grievances against him, and pillaging what I can from his lands (well, not a lot, he already researched bombards and his City Strikes are deadly). In the meantime, I'm settling a new city in the Danakil desert.

Spoiler settling in the desert :

I bought asap as many tiles to stop Perilcles' territoral expansion

I took Fez, which awarded me an emergency joined by Australia, Greece and Phoenicia. Jon Curtin's troop are far away, I just saw a couple of warriors. Dido probably lost too many troops taking all those CS. And Pericles,..well, I'm taking care of him.
I'm loosing a lot of brave soldiers in the fight, but I'm holding him. The bad news is that, now that he has allies, he doesn't want to sign peace any more, unless I pay him.
I stayed on very defensive positions for the whole Emergency, and when it finished, Australia and Greece finally agreed to sign interesting peace deals.

Spoiler holding positions and taking Fez :

Time to develop. I know have five clustered cities, finished my only wonder, Petra, which should give nice results in the Danakil desert.
We entered the Renaissance, I still couldn't score better than a normal age, I'm way behind in science and have no culture, but I should now be safer from attacks thus get some production to develop, and my first Caravels are exploring the new world.

Spoiler Petra :

nice yields in perspective, with Petra and the Delicate Arch

 

[Thibaulthc]

I've had to sign peace with Dido as well a bit later, because of War Weariness plunging my empire in unhappiness.
We had a quite more calm period for a few decades that. I used that lull to develop my few cities and I settled two more on tiny islands in the middle of the Ocean.
The Souffrière exploded again and again, but the last one was deadly: 4 casualties in London, but a nice Aid Emergency coming from all around the world to fulfill my treasury.

Spoiler I knew that starting area was dangerous :

.
But the war started soon again: an Emergency was declared against Dido for taking Sydney (there was an other proposition for the Mexico City State, but it's in the middle of her empire, nobody dared to get in).
Since Australia has a good advantage in tech,I thought that would be a good opportunity; meh, the guy barely moved any troops, and I was quite alone against her! I managed to move three Ironclads and a Frigate next to Sydney, but with a Tank stationed in the city, I don't think I will succeed. I am desperately looking at the three Australians tanks on the border, but they never joined, probably because he was out of oil.

There are good news though: I finally scored a Golden Age! And Dido is in a Dark one...her cities on our border are falling one after the other, with the help of a few Great Works in my cities.
I also managed to get two times three Diplomatic Victory points in the two first Industrial Congress. I had to buy around 50 flavor just before the first one (when other civs still agree to sell them) and I just had enough for the second one.
Third one will be impossible to get though, because of the failed emergency.

Spoiler Phoenicians cities falling to my cause :

And this bad boy helped me to score the four last missing points for a GA

I finally get a source of niter (France was a great help till then, exchanging niter for iron at quite a good rate (10 irons for 7 niters). And we settled two cities on small islands on the West, for coal.
All the world wonders are being built before I can even reach their tech...BUT, I'm almost finishing the Sankore University, the Venitian Arsenal, and, much more surprisingly, the Statue de la Liberté ! (two first ones because of their complicated requirements for placing them (desert next to a campus and coast next to an industrial zone, but I don't understand how I could finish the Statue..)

Spoiler cities on the East tiny islands :

 

[Thibaulthc]

Well well, things went better than I thought: I managed to liberate Sydney at the very last turn of the Emergency! I faith-bought a Great Admiral who can transform in a battleship, a tech I'm far from, and its last canons hits helped a lot. 200 Flavor, +5 healing, and, mainly, no 200 flavor points for her, my biggest competitor in the Congress.
After the liberation, we signed peace a few years later, for unhappiness reasons but overall because she offered me a couple of luxuries and of Great Works in the deal, seemed too good to be refused

Spoiler Emergency won with 0 turn left :

Meanwhile, I declared a Defensive Pact War against Pericles, aiming to take Phersalos, a big city with the Great Bath, in the middle of my newly acquired cities by Loyalty.
I refused Kumasi to Liberate it myself, and I took suzerainty of Geneva.

The Venetian Arsenal, Statue of Liberty, and University of Sankore (meh) are now finished, and I already secured a second Golden Age in a row. I'm now looking at the Bolshoï Theater and the Hermitage, trying to find nice places for them on the border, in order to take advantage of Eleanor special ability (-1 loyalty in every enemy city within 6 tiles for each GW)

Spoiler 2 more points! :

I denounced Kongo and will declare (a Liberation, can I?) War against him to liberate the 4 City States he conquered. Dido and Whilema attack my ally Spain, so I'm at war with Netherlands as well now, but won't do much about that excepted if she takes some of his cities. My first spies are tacking place in Phoenician cities to kill the governors and then Foment Unrest to give her more Loyalty troubles. But with Phoenicia special ability, there are no many more cities I can threaten though.

Spoiler preparing for Kongo :

I took Phersalos very easily, and Perciles proposed peace the next turn: again, two GW and a lot of money: I could go further but Geneva's bonus is too great to be at war for no big reason, so I accepted.
Which actually awarded me an Emergency the very next turn... Here we are again, me VS Greece and Phoenicia.

War's lasting long, none of them are willing to agree to interesting peace deal, despite their cities falling one after the other, by Loyalty mostly.
But my citizens are getting really unhappy because of WW, and I'm running out of niter, which is more and more difficult to trade.
I Liberate two more Australians cities in the North, and Valletta and Antioch in between our empires.
After taking Phersalos, Athens and Corinth fell by Loyalty, and I'm keeping them for the Potala Palace.

Spoiler :

letting cities rebell from Loyalty to Liberate them

shouldn't I get some Grievance when capturing a city during a Defensive Pact War ?


those Volcanos are really deadly when settings are on 4, pillaging everything up to two tiles away. Liang has finally the Reinforced Materials promotion, should help.

 

[Thibaulthc]

I liberated all CS from Dido, plus a few Greek cities that I let rebel then attack. All the congress votes for DV points were won quite easily with all that flavor.
Dido has a big pack of submarines, and I lost a couple of veteran units. Time for peace.

Spoiler Dido's pack of submarines :

War is declared against Kongo, because he attacked one of my allies, so I'm going for the CS he captured.

Everything is going allright now, excepted for the city of Sbr't that I captured for its niter source: despite sacrificing all my policy slots for Loyalty policies, I'm not able to keep it. I wished I could have a cultural alliance with Australia, but he already has one with somebody else. Tried to set trade routes for food, but the city went to unrest (-100% yields) too fast. I'll just keep it to the last possible moment to accumulate as much niter as possible...

I managed to get one more DV point with an Aid Emergency, at an expensive price, but then of course I lost the next Congress for Diplomacy, despite my 2000 flavors...
I ceased my long term cultural alliance with Spain, because he's too aggressive with my other ally Harald; my spy managed to recruit a big bunch of partisans in a former Norvegian city, and I'm coming to Liberate it after he took care of those angry citizens

Spoiler Good Job Mr Spy :

I thought the next one would give the same result since I still had only 3 points missing (17/20) but nope, just had a few votes against me an this time my 3000 flavors were enough to win.

Spoiler :

That's a large Drough! 18 tiles, with the food loss set to -3, gives more importance to Aqueducts