LSOE 1-Hatshepsut

[EMT]

Does no one have a comment on how well I've actually played? This isn't just for story purposes, I want to improve my game! Any blunders on my part which I haven't noticed?

EDIT: I'll have the next part out tomorrow. I played part of the round. Giggles is in for pain.

 

[lymond]

I recommend putting your images in spoilers if this hasn't been mentioned already

 

[CreeDakota]

I think your block of Zara and Shake out of West AFrica is a good move. I think the key to this map will be diplomacy. With so many Civs you cant keep every one happy.

Luckly for you Shaka switched to Jewish. But you need to get him up to Friendly to be safe. I would expect he will attack Zara eventually, be ready to accecpt a war request and Backstab Zara when it comes.

I cant open the save so no comments on mico or anything.

As far a Giggles, he should be easy to defend from but harder to attack. I think you would get more bang for your hammer to keep around as an object for all the Jews to rally around hating and instead REX out the rest of Africa.

 

[EMT]

Thanks for your advice. The round has been played, and so, here it is. You may have noted that my writing alternates from 1st person Hatshepsut to 3rd person limited. As the game goes on, Hatshepsut's role is going to decrease and direct dialogue from me will increase.

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The start of a new Millennia began when Hatshepsut met a man from Central Asia. He claimed to be the ruler of a mighty empire, but as far as she knew, his empire was downright puny.

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Soon enough she also met a man by the name of Bismarck. He was quite a manipulator, from what she could tell. However, both he and Mehmed proved to be true Jews, so they got the finest wines(Unlike the alien from Asia).

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Oh, and Giggles declares war on Egypt.

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Despite Gilgamesh's stack only containing 2 axemen, a swordsman, and a chariot, Hatshepsut decides to call in reinforcements.

Burger King comes to die in the name of Hatshepsut, but SHAKA makes a demand for us to wage war on Ethiopia!

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We deny his request for now, but we make an effort to keep Shaka happy regardless. My southern cities are my industry after all, and a two front war would not be fun. Meanwhile, Bismarck demans Hatshepsut's Code of Law. Seeing as it basically states that Hatshepsut rules the world, she agrees. But even better, Bismarck had declared war on Gilgamesh!

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Then Zara comes and asks us to declare war on Shaka. Are you out of your radioactive mind!!!!?!?

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We decide to bribe the Romans into our conflict as well to strengthen our relations with them. Stalin also declared war on Charlamagne, but he never took a city. However, we will come to regret having bribed Caesar into the war later on.

Charlamagne comes and asks us for assistance against the Russians. Feeling a little empty inside, Hatshepsut declines but promises to destroy Russia later for it's crimes.

150 years late, our prophet finally comes to deliver a message to us. His message= build a shine for Hinduism? We slave him away to build the shrine himself for talking about such blasphemy.

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I swear, I only bribed 2 people into the war.

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Then Shaka does something he shouldn't have.

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Atleast it's in the right spot. I have plans on how to handle that city later.....But Saladin comes and makes an idiotic demand.....We send him away.

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Then we meet Shaka and propose the following. Heavily one-sided, I know, but we MUST keep the big man happy!

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But how did I trade away a tech I do not have? Here's how:

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To seal the deal, we find two cities this year, blocking Shaka off from his annoying tendency to settle where I want to settle.

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Then to complete Hatshepsut's mad desires, we do the following:

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Which leads to this:

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Which leads to this:

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and this:

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Hurrah for Judaism, Gilgamesh, and some slick maneuvaring!
But then this happens:

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Meanwhile, assembling our army is completed. Boy did it take a while, but Giggles screwed with our ivory, so.....

Giggles has a small force guarding his capital, but we have few pieces of siege and his capital is at 60% culture

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And that's where I end the round. Here are some notable things to see.

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Shaka's sending a settler towards the lake next to the Sahara, Giggles is more so screwed then ever before, and we can trade for machinery, theology, and paper. I researched paper for a few turns before switching to literature then music. We can definetly rush straight to liberalism, but this is Prince. The AI are rediculously slow at teching liberalism. I've gotten RAILROADS from liberalism before. I'm about to finish music, and then I have some plans for that one city in West Africa. Can anybody say culture flips? Meanwhile, the big thing at the moment. Giggle's capital is going down, no question. I'm fairly sure that this stack could last 2-3 more cities, and we have a supermedic chariot which I forgot to take a pic of. Should I spend 100 years knocking down Giggle's culture, or should I go for it? I'm a bad warmonger, but I've won domination before. Any advice from someone more competent? Finally, here's the save. I'm not running any mods, but I do have BUG installed in the Customassets folder if that makes a difference. Anyways, comments are ALWAYS appreciated. I'm already thinking about the next game and moving up to monarch for this series. Whenever I actually play through to the end on one my games, I usually win monarch. Only have 1 true loss(AP) on monarch anyway. What do you think(anybody?)?

 

[EMT]

I decided to play ahead a little, and it was....interesting.

First off, if I can play tech pimp, then so can the AI apparently. This was the only trade I could make.

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Then Bismarck asked me to declare war on the Khmer, which I agree to.

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We get Music(and the free great artist!) and we begin to pimp techs around. This is Prince after all.

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Oh, and we take Giggle's capital at the cost of 2 cats and 1 elephant.

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Then we turn around and use the war loot to fund this great event.

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And more importantly, Giggles is willing to capitulate.

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Oh, and we got a second Great Prophet which I settle in Mecca.

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Choices, choices..... Do we capitulate Giggles or go all the way to the Indus?

 

[Lyoncet]

Just gotta say: it's so appropriate that you have Hatshepsut lusting after Pericles, given his infamous affinity for the exotic ladies.

Quite an entertaining read along with being a nice playthrough!

 

[Yared]

Take his lands all the way to Pakistan.

 

[EMT]

Thanks for the comments. I actually didn't know about Pericles all that much, but ha! Great coincidence. So far, 1 vote to murder Giggles. Around 12:00 I'll play the round, and will most likely crush Giggles then go for Sal if he doesn't have feudalism. If he does, then he dies at rifles. What about going Giggles -> Pericles -> Saladin? Pericles has been settling North Africa for me. So kind of him. Then maybe take out Zara until he's a city on Madagascar and let Shaka join in on the fun? The more war, the better.

 

[kossin]

At this point you can just beeline military [build more siege] and mass-vassal everyone, shouldn't be hard.

 

[EMT]

Hmmm........okay, I'll play the round now. I'll kill Giggles, Sal, and Zara, then REX into the rest of Africa. Then consolidation -> build up -> backstab everybody, starting with Shaka. Romp time

 

[Lyoncet]

I really hate vassal states (I usually play with them turned off) but I'd say the bigger obstacle to Egyptian ass-kickery is Zulu at the moment, so I'd say unless you think you can break Giggles down quickly, vassal him and then turn on Shaka. Plus, since Gilgamesh is at war with so many civs, there's a good chance someone else will beat you to it.

Kossin's right though; perhaps it would be possible to grab steel from lib? That would be pretty much assured Egyptian hegemony of Africa.

Re: Pericles: well, I actually exaggerated a bit, but his mistress Aspasia was from modern-day Turkey which was a scandal due to his infamous tightening of the citizenship laws (and the fact that their two peoples weren't exactly on friendly terms). Another interesting and irrelevant point/parallel: I found it hilarious that you made up a story about Hatshepsut's head being deformed as a pretext to her having the huge hat, since Pericles actually did have a misshapen head (which many Athenian satirists claimed was the reason he always wore a helmet, but in fact it was a symbol of his position as Strategos).

 

[EMT]

Eventful, but short round. We whoop Giggles even more and sadly, flipping Zulu cities doesn't work the way we wish

Anyway, we start the round with this cheerful note. That is one underdeveloped capital.....

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And we met warrior queen Boudica who seems to have done the usual English play, but a lot better. We open borders and move along. At this rate, the new world will be empty, and more importantly, the Khmer have free reign over all of Asia!

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We culture bomb our city in West Africa, which doesn't even get us a revolt, but we do snag this city under Caesar's nose.

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Then Stalin comes making a third demand for us to DOW on someone this game. I tell him to go back to fishing me caviar and that some day, both he and the Turks will be my property.

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We get some free spices, always nice, thanks to another lucky random event.

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And we take a peek at Uruk's defenders. Wow is Giggles going to be killed, and then Sal. Speaking of him, he founded a third city in India. I'm going to start massing troops in Mecca, seeing as how this stack can finish off Giggles with ease with 1 or 2 more pieces of siege.

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Then Mehmed asks us to declare war on the Russians. Enough with the war requests!!!!!

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Then Shaka asks for Philosophy. Anything you want big man, anything you want....

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And oh thank god Shaka is now my biatch!

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No, he's not my vassal. Now he's my BFF and attack dog Then Caesar asks me to declare war on the Arabs. Ten more turns, and I would have said yes.

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We capture the city(big suprise):

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And I noticed that our map sucks. Therefore, buying and begging off maps commences.

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Look at that! When did that happen? I never got the pop up....

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I had begun building money to upgrade all my mounted units but Caesar is about rampage to Giggle's next city and possibly take it. It costs me most of the money that I saved up, but Giggles is now mine for the taking, unless he vassals to Sury.

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We get a third prophet and settle him too at Mecca.....I forgot to change the specialists to scientists. Whoops....

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And that's where I stopped. My army is about knock Giggles into India, at which point we can capitulate him, or, (and I really like this option), kill him, kill Saladin, and then we REX into whatever we can of Africa and then kill Sury, giving us most of East Asia for our pickings! Greece owns North Africa as far as Carthage, so we might want to add him in our 'to kill' list. Also, I think the New World is empty, and we are in a bad position to even consider colonization. Meanwhile, we can definetly head towards education->liberalism now. Not much of a race when half the map is doing a 3 city survival challenge. I'm considering killing Zara too. East Africa has a few flood plains. Meanwhile, what to do with Giggle's old capital? It's almost entirely barren. We can obviously turn it into commerce spam, we definetly have enough production in our southern cities. We could also turn into the super GP farm and then watermill/workshop all over it later. Ideas/suggestions?

And of course, the save.

 

[EMT]

Another short round. Like I promised, I chased Giggles past the Indus, and even beat up Sal a little. Here's where we stand.

I started the round by taking Persia away from Giggles. Quite a cramped city, but it works.

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Then we are forced to call Shaka off. He might take a city, and that's a no-no. We do send him after Sury though, to keep him off our backs. We make peace with him soon enough as he got a stack together, and we could do without some pain.

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Oh, and Sal asks for a spanking. Hatshepsut mentioned that she wants to shave him clean then hang him using his now shaved-off beard. A bit harsh, but whatever.

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Shaka culture bombs his city that was under culture pressure, making it even more likely that the city will never flip to us. We'll probably kill him later once Pericles, Giggles, Sal, and Zara depart this earth. But I also want to kill Sury.....

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Pericles makes a demand we would normally agree to, but Stalin is more of a lunatic than Shaka to me. We send him off, telling him to enjoy Corfu while it lasts. Hatshepsut accompanies him all the way back to Corfu. When asked how it went, she turned pink and hanged the poor sucker trying to make small talk.

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Meanwhile, our Jewish friends decide not to help us out. Whatever, Sal dies soon enough anyway.

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Like I said, we make peace with the mutant from Southeast Asia.

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And we settle our GG in future Ironworks city. No temple, forge or monastery, but that city can pump out 2 turn war elephants . I can't wait to watermill it.

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We take Medina after we kill Sal's invasion stack at the cost of 2 elephants and a cat.

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And Hatshepsut learns to count. Mission accomplished

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Then, we finally complete a big goal. We shove Giggles back behind the Indus!

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At this point, I stop. We've run out of catapults on the eastern front, but Giggles has cities defended by 2 archers. Giggles is dead, no question, and I don't think Sury can vassal hm either, since we have a peace treaty. Then I'll most likely take Damascus in India, and the city in Oman is fried as well. Giggles and Sal will die next round! This, I swear! Should we kill Pericles next, then Zara, then possibly Shaka, then Sury? Anyone have a kill order they would like to suggest?

And the save, of course:

 

[EMT]

Has anyone noticed how I've been making short, thorough updates? It's been because war requires more indepth detail, and there's good news and bad news. Giggles is down, but not dead. He'll die later, but for now, he can continue to meet with the Dalai Lama up in Tibet. Saladin is doing his OCC down in India and close to dieing, and Pericles is now his master. North Africa east of Tunis is mine. ALL MINE MUAHAHAHAH......erm, excuse me. Well, Pericles is going to die next after Saladin, then I'll finish off Giggles and begin planning for war against Shaka, then Zara. Shaka fell to pleased because I refused to DOW on Sury, and because he tried to sabotage one of my cities(and failed). Shaka's going to die fo' show. Now, on to the pictures.

I start by founding my last city in Africa that I will found myself in this game. Boudicaconfused ended up taking the spot to the northwest of this city.

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We get ANOTHER prophet and use him to found the Confucian shrine down by the Nile. Hatshepsut's cult is gaining ground alongside Hinduism. Any opinions on which to make my Wall Street city? Their income is basically identical.

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Stalin made another idiot demand which I decline, and I later ended up getting Bismark to DOW on him. I'm really disliking Stalin at this point. But the big news is that the AP would have voted to end my war against Giggles unless I had defied, which sent my cities into unhappiness.

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Boudica asks for education, and we agree. Another friend for me, at the cost of losing liberalism. She traded it to Isabella, who wound up getting liberalism.

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We capture that city in Oman, which is nice. It had quite a big garrison in it too.

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And here is where Shaka drops down to only pleased. If I had agreed, I imagine I wouldn't have kept India due to Sury's constant wars against everybody.

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And it's at this point where I begin automating workers. I can easily win diplomatically at this point, if I ever get the pontif's seat/UN, and I have enough cities pumping military that I don't think it will be a problem for me to automate them. Just to be safe, I check the appropriate settings.

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Skipping a few pics that would exceed that would push me past 30, Caesar culture bombed the city he captured from Giggles, I traded for banking, and Giggle's current capital is well defended because of mass whipping. I cut off his metal and then began to amass siege. Eventually, this happens.

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We also make a few trades with our good Jewish buddies, because the economy is beginning to falter. I need moar cottage spam!

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That last one is filler, proposed by Boudica, although I do start Versailles in my future Ironworks city. Maybe I should move the capital east? Anyway, I swap a few civics, and notice something interesting on my map.

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Crap, Aztecs. This makes conquest/domination all the harder Oh, and Stalin briefly takes the city from JC, but he gets it back the next turn. If only I had a few spare units....

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We trade some Incense to get furs from Bismarck, AP unhappiness is killer! We also gift Astro to Mehmed, scoring us another Friendly.

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However, a resolution comes up which I can agree to, curing most of my unhappiness problems. Truth be told, I've never been that scarred by unhappiness before. Maybe that's why I undervalue happiness resources.

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Rome recaptures Kish from Stalin, and Burger King offers Economics in exchange for Divine Right and a few gold. I new that tech would come in handyp). Around this time I unleash my inner bad self and bribe Bismark into a war with Stalin and Shaka against Pericles. The more war bonuses I can get, the better, until I'm ready to kill Shaka.

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Bismark also comes begging for Astro, which I agree to. The better cultivation of relationships I can get with other AI, the better. I could really use free religion about now to help raise my beakers...Oh, and I amass another superstack using my veterans from Arabia into a North Africa stack that will go kill Pericles out of Athens later. However, I settle to start by killing Sparta.

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Then Shaka definetly joins my 'to kill' list. Guess who was behind this one? Although why Shaka gives ME negative diplo I'll never understand. Did I run around Ulundi naked and rape and slaughter and pillage? No, not yet, but soon.

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I forgot to take a pic of me capturing the city in central India, but we finally push Giggles out of India and into Tibet!

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We agree to peace for now. Giggles is a permanent cripple now that he's stuck in crappy Tibet.

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And here is where I finished playing. Not killing Giggles may seem incredibly stupid, but I ran out of siege(again) and had to suicide some 'phants to take that last city from Giggles. Meanwhile, Saladin and Pericles have chosen unwisely.

I plan on taking the city in Tunis that Pericles has, then taking that stack northwards all the way to Athens, while I begin a buildup near the Karachi area to take out Saladin. Then I'll proceed to take out Giggles, and maybe steal a city from Sury in Bangladesh to better insulate my cities from attacks coming from him in the possible future. That's my immediate plan to secure me some peace, but don't expect peace forever. Africa belongs to me, and while I'm content to let the Euros play pied-noir in North Africa, SHAKA AND ZARA ARE GOING DOWN FOR BEING BAD NEIGHBORS. The save is below, and don't forget to comment on how good/bad I played!

 

[Stewie0416]

Wow, nice job killing "Giggles".
My first piece of advice for you is your research. Why are you researching Chemisty right now. Have you gotten rifles yet? If anything, on a big map like this you would want to get Cavs and upgrade those old chariots.
2nd- Could you please post some world shots or something. I'm trying to sqint at your minimap I think i see a Europe with a lot of Spanish pink in it...
3rd- Do NOT I REPEAT DO NOT GO AFTER SURY FIRST. You have much greater priorities in Africa. Get riles and Mil. Trad. then do a TMIT-styled Cav rush and secure Africa for yourself. THEN go after Asia.

 

[EMT]

My bad

Here's a picture of the globe:



The reason I'm researching chemistry atm is because my economy isn't doing too well. I have 2 shrines and I'm at 50% kinda shows it. But you are right. Replaceable parts is next followed by either rifling or steam power. Both help in getting my troops out faster. Meanwhile, Bismark has nationalism, meaning the Taj is doomed to fall to him. But the next phase is to kill Greece/Arabia/Sumer then to consolidate my position+build up. Hopefully, I'll be prepared to DOW on Shaka/Zara before 1500 AD. I'm thinking have Shaka DOW on Zara, go in, and then attack his stack while it's in a city with no cultural defense. Hello draft

 

[EMT]

Well, another round where everything blows up in my face. But, nothing absolutely catastrophic yet.

We start the round by getting Chemistry

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Followed by an Ottoman demand for me to DOW on sury.......I am too cruel a diplo manipulator I must say.

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Oh, and we built Versailles, although now that I think about it, more troops would have been nicer.

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I get voted Big Jew, which is always nice. Sadly, it won't be too helpful later on as I think Zara has no Jewish cities. Isn't his favorite civic theocracy?

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Oh, and we capture another city from Pericles, who's down to Western Sahara and Athens now. Do we kill, or do we capitulate?

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More annoyingly, Giggles capitulates to Boudica

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And Sal founds a city on the Philippines; Now I have to build a small fleet too?

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We finally get a GS, which is nice. We build an academy in Thebes which nets me an extra 50 beakers/p. turn, always nice.

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And we convert Shaka back to Judaism, which bumps him back up to friendly. No backstabs from him, for now. But Isabella converts to Christianity(why ) and drops to cautious. No big deal, but Charlamagne has Rifling, and I can't trade for it.

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Oh, and Zara accepts Saladin as a vassal, meaning me and Shaka are now at war with the radioactive moron. Shaka is gonna him.

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He sent a stack towards my industrial capital in the lower Nile/Sudan, but it's almost entirely mounted and a maceman. Thankfully, I can kill all of them easily. Just to be safe, I'll build two longbows in that city as well.

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And I have two men willing to capitulate to Hatshepsut. Mehmed and Pericles. Pericles is somewhat disliked, plus he tried to save Saladin's ass after he DOWed on me. Same with Zara. So, do I accept vassalage from Mehmed/Pericles? I'm thinking accept Mehmed, but take Athens, letting Pericles die to Shaka who's sent a stack there. Mehmed is a nice ally to have. I remember one time playing permanent alliances on, and I was stuck on a tiny little continent while Mehmed owned 60% of the main continent. Permanent alliances can be fun. But in this case, Mehmed has 8 cities and lots of flood plains. Maybe we can send him after steam power while I tech towards rifling, then upgrade my units and kill Zara/Saladin/Pericles? I really need opinions, but one thing's for certain. No vassal states on is on whenever I play from now on.

Anyway, here's some pics of my current offers.

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I'll most likely accept Mehmed. Any strong opinions for/against?

And the save:

 

[Yared]

If you have no plans on attacking Mehmed I suggest you vassalise him.

 

[dualmaster]

Fighting wars in 1200AD with catapults and phants? Ouch.

You should learn the power of mounted wars. Curasieers are effective until bad guys get rifles (even without siege). With two moves your wars are much faster (less unhappiness, AP votes, etc). No need to waste hammers on siege. Any civ without engineering will get slaugtered (pikes are the only decent counter unit). At Prince difficulty, if you beeline curasieers you can probably roll half the world without a problem.

You're running Organized religion, but don't have the state religion in a lot of cities.

Why Free Speech? You hardly have any towns and don't need the culture boost. Other civics would be more useful.

You ARE abusing the spirtual trait, right? With Hatty you can swap civics every 5 turns. Swap to OR+slavery for a round of whipping buildings. Swap to Nat/Vassalage+slavery+theocracy for a round of drafting and whipping military units. Swap to Caste+Pacifism to push out some GPs.

I would work on being more focused. It looks like your empire is trying to do a lot of different things at the same time and end up doing none of them especially well. Are you trying to consolidate your empire and recover your economy? Build workers, courts, markets, wealth, etc while whipping in infrastructure and running economic civics. Are you going to war? Have all cities work on pumping military units, whip/draft, run production/military civics. Are you racing to take Steel from Liberalism? Stop warring, run economic civics, build wealth instead of infrastructure, beg/trade for gold to deficit research.

 

[EMT]

This is exactly what I was looking for.

I just played the next round, and I think I capitalized on some of what you just mentioned. I have some cities spamming units, while other cities are building infra. My main cities are pumping out units and have Judaism in them, and much of India also has Judaism, which will help get it up and running infra-wise. This was the first game where I truly used elephants in any meaningful war, so I'm elephant happy atm and I still have a lot of veterans that have yet to be upgraded. 1/3 of my attack stack heading towards Zara is made up of elephants.

I have been using mounted war, just not the kind I should be. I do have quite a bit of money atm from taking several cities and building wealth modifiers in my holy cities. I plan on upgrading all my phants to cavalry and the assorted maces/muskets to rifles. I also have steel atm, should I prioritize upgrading my siege or my attack units? I'm thinking siege; Zara likes to make castles + creative makes taking down defences intolerable. At this point, I'm at steam power and gunning for communism. These civics will make my life A LOT easier regarding cash problems. With so many cities, I'll probably head for the statue in my IW city while my other cities work on units. Regarding free speech, you are entirely right. Thebes has an academy+all the science modifiers minus oxford(War is slowing me down here), I should be running Bureau. I've been at nonstop war since the early ADs, so I've had to improvise my civics management. I've been spamming civic swaps to make friends though, when demanded to. I list liberalism because I've been DOWed on so many times. They all DOWed unwisely in the end. At this point, once Zara goes down, I WILL press my tech advantage to kill/vassal Shaka. Hopefully vassal, he's good at war. I'm going to post how things stand at 1545 AD within an hour. Hopefully, you and anybody else can point out mistakes/idiocies on my behalf.