Many Leaders Game 3 - Prince Domination

[TriviAl]

Pholk

Spoiler :

Seeing your first turnset, I knew that lost settler would hurt. But didn't realise it'd be that painful. It's a really useful object lesson - I can't think of how many times I've done what you did in the same position.

That was a really impressive playthrough to the end. It's painful to get squished like that... I really did think it was going to pull through earlier as well!

 

[pigswill]

Slow slow slow.

Spoiler :

980ad I get my first Great Person - a scientist. Save him till I get prereqs for philosophy (told you I was slow).
In the same year I declare on Isabella, pick off a couple of small cities quickly, take Madrid a bit later then run out of troops and I'm forced to declare peace in 1120 so I can build and bring up some cats. Bitterly disappointed that Bella stil hasn't built the Mahabodhi. I also pick up a GG in 1120 who becomes my medic.
Meanwhile I build Colossus in 1020ad. Don't build any more wonders though people overseas are wonderful.
Restart the war with Bella in 1230 with some cats. It doesn't take long and by 1260 Spain is no more than a chapter in the history books.
Got philosophy and Taoism in 1090. Tech towards liberalism which I get in 1340 and take nationalism. Then start backfilling missing techs. By 1400 I'm one turn from optics. No-one has come to visit. Maybe I'm all alone in a vast ocean .
I pick up my second GP in 1370, a prophet who's en route to Madrid, the Holy but Shrineless Buddhist City.
I've also founded a city in the northern islands, there's a couple more decent sites. Maybe I'll wait for Madrid to complete Forbidden Palace.

Boring stats:
Land 261 (31.11%)
Pop 11,542k
GNP 609
Beakers 413 @ -8gpt
Hammers 159
Food 334
Army 273
Approval 59
Lifespan 60

 

[Bindamel]

Willem the 4th

Spoiler :

The first goal of this turnset was to finish what we had started with Shaka. The war had bogged down, but I got the upper hand, and soon removed him from the continent. This did not however, kill him, so I made peace with him and he can enjoy his little island hideaway or whatever, for now.

As I mopped up that operation, I started my preparations for Isabella. I began by emphasizing my Eps on her. They would just be wasted on Shaka, at this point.

The one benefit of the extended war was that Izzy wasn’t a big fan of Shaka either, so I actually got to friendly with her, which meant trading:



I got myself to Optics, and was building my first caravel in 1270 AD, when:



Always good to stay close in the tech race with Mansa.

In 1280 AD, I captured the last known Zulu city. I made peace with Shaka next turn.



Twenty years later, I got an interesting message:


I’m going to go out on a limb and say there is a formidable opponent on the other continent.



Could this be him?



Probably not. But on the bright side, a trade partner to help me catch Mansa.



Keep ‘em coming Justin.

We did meet Korea Killer near the end of the turnset:



Domination:



and Stats:



Izzy is going down, with a war declaration probably next turn. Then racing to Liberalism/Astronomy, and more military techs, to take down Mansa, who is on his own island in the north of continent two. Djenne is the holy city of both Judaism and Christianity, and I think I want it.

 

[pholkhero]

Pholk

Spoiler :

Seeing your first turnset, I knew that lost settler would hurt. But didn't realise it'd be that painful. It's a really useful object lesson - I can't think of how many times I've done what you did in the same position.

That was a really impressive playthrough to the end. It's painful to get squished like that... I really did think it was going to pull through earlier as well!

Spoiler :

well, i compounded the error w/my misjudgments on settling my 2nd city on the gold, not @ copper, and then, when the barb city spawned, i should've still settled for copper nearby b/c it was painfully needed!

in other news, I am still playing my shadow game, but am ahead by a couple-30 turns, so will wait until you all catch up to post since i'm officially out of the running.

@ bindamel ~ good to see you've spotted procrastinating

 

[mice]

Spoiler :

Bit of a slog, I took out Issey. Won't show the screenshots because we all did that I think . Here's one pathetic moment, a settler trying to make a new life. Didn't get very far.




This guy came in, so I'll be prioritizing the coast cities for a while.



Near the end of the turnset after building crossbows and finally maces, declared on the annoying Shaka again. Elephant fights.



He lost his stack soon after that but he has a lot of units in his little cities.

I founded here but a stray horse archer destroyed it a few turns later.



Met the neighbors , and again I wont show screens of them. Good relations with most because I switched out of Buddhism to trade before meeting them. I'm behind, Philosophy, Paper, Music ,Guilds, after trading.

Shaka will need a few more turns yet, and I'll accept capit I think. He will be good to have as homeland defence.

I'm playing a messy game without using the Philo trait at all, but financial is doing it's job.

 

[pawelo]

Won't show the screenshots because we all did that (...)

and again I wont show screens of them (...)

I will try this one for my next round - wait for a few days and report in a mice-style way

 

[Ralph_Jackson]

Spoiler :

Well as we rejoine Pacal how were we positioned…

Genuinely different from other games as although we had eliminated Isabella we had a very strong economy but compared to others a pretty weak Military.


The key difference had been we had expanded in land and hammers less than others (due to leaving Shaka alone) which has let us build strong research. With 20 20 hindsight I should have had slightly less emphasis on my economy and more on military in my previous set so I could attack shaka more quickly but things are fine because a tech lead is no bad thing.

This in some ways is a classic conundrum for a Financial Civ going for conquest / domination how do you either:

1. Use your Research advantage to later gain a land / hammer advantage
2. How / when to transition from pure research commerce (where we are now) to a more aggressive expansion set-up.


Now as we are going for Domination I do need to now deal with Shaka. Although I think he is a good ally when he has someone else to attack when he is cooped up on an Island with just the human for company he has no natural outlet for his aggressive tendencies….and we all know what that means

So order of play was.

1. Get Caravels out to meet the AI which happened very quickly..
2. Build Trebuchets (after researching Engineering) and have a good old fashioned Mace / Treb method for dealing with Shaka
3. End the set with key techs close to completion and ready to expand overseas.

Now meeting the rest of the AI happened quickly once the Caravels were launched and it became clear they were not a threat technologically speaking, we of course secured the circumnavigation bonus.

However I had paid insufficient attention to Shaka and when he had feudalism (to complement his Elephants) he proved a tough nut to crack. Anyway Military was ready in 1170 and we attacked.

To add to the irritation factor Shaka had built the Statue of Zeus and until I captured it it was beginning to hurt.

So this was a long slow war but eventually we booted him off our home island (he had fishing villages on the islands to the north.). I am sure you have seen enough Shaka being conquered screenshots to not need any more. The only interesting fact was how key trebuchets were, with them I ended up with lost of highly promoted maces & trebs, Without them I would have had to either sacrifice a lot of catapults or be risky my Macemen in lots of marginal battles

Our economy stood up during the war but is suffering a little indigestion from absorbing all Shaka’s cities..

So where are we now..

We have an impressive Military and just need a few more galleons to really pound the AI hopefully. Liberalism is a lock and I will probably hand research Chemistry with the aim of taking military science from Liberalism. Our troops are highly promoted and when turned into grenadiers ought to be powerful.

Techwise we have all the predecessors and these techs researched.

So what’s next

1. Lots of Galleons
2. Decide what we want from liberalism (Steel for cannons, or go for grenadiers or maybe Nationalism for future Rifle drafting)
3. Bash some AI’s. Haqving been slow to expand compared to others the question is can I overtake them now having all the key techs I need? I should be able to turn off research to upgarde troops if I wish..

 

[Ad Hoc]

Book 4 of the Trials and Tribulations of the Mongol Horde

Spoiler :

My Biggest concern was my economy which basically stank, so after metal casting i beelined for CoL for the Courthouses.

You may of noticed i haven't mentioned whipping the Pyramids which is because i forgot... but luckily four turns in they was completed in Turfan.

After CoL i beelined for first Optics and then Liberalism/Astronomy

i have had three great people, the first a Prophet which i used for a Golden Age and then Two Engineers one of which i used as below and one for Sankore



Right or Wrong i'm still undecided, i've also managed to build The Hanging gardens, Mausoleum and Angkor Wat

I built three caravels which i sent exploring and discovered our neighbours and traded as much as possible to catch up.





8 Turns from Liberalism with Astronomy as the preferred tech.

Time to Build up the military and pick a Target with Mansa being no 1 i think

PS are we sticking with 50 or going down to 40 now.

 

[azaris]

Spoiler :

Shaka will need a few more turns yet, and I'll accept capit I think. He will be good to have as homeland defence.

No vassal states. You have to kill the bugger like the rest of us.

This game actually raises the interesting dilemma of when to kill your neighbors when playing Continents or any other map with two largely separate landmasses. Ralph_Jackson seems to have the best results so far with the "live and let live" strategy, but I think Shaka in pholkhero's game is also doing pretty well with the "kill the player" strategy.

 

[pholkhero]

Spoiler :

No vassal states. You have to kill the bugger like the rest of us.

This game actually raises the interesting dilemma of when to kill your neighbors when playing Continents or any other map with two largely separate landmasses. Ralph_Jackson seems to have the best results so far with the "live and let live" strategy, but I think Shaka in pholkhero's game is also doing pretty well with the "kill the player" strategy.

DOING pretty well ~ more like DID pretty well ~ i have to tell you, in about 3 of my last SP games, i've been next to him and that bugger seems to have it in for me! maybe my it's my low power rating ~ nah! couldn't be that!

i'm just looking forward to being able to post again. But, as I think i mentioned, i'm @ around turn 230 and want to wait a bit.

 

[Ozbenno]

PS are we sticking with 50 or going down to 40 now.

I was thinking 40 turns next, as a few people are going to bogged down in intercontinental war, so up to turn 240.

Anyone got a clue as to what that would be?

...wanders off in search of Ori's turn graphs...

 

[mice]

No vassal states. You have to kill the bugger like the rest of us..

Spoiler :

Hmm. I thought he was just playing hard to get. So that settles it, all the yellow land has to go.

 

[yena]

Babylon: 800-1400

Spoiler :

To sleepy to write a long report, but both Shaka and Isabella are dead, the continent is mine, I have met the neighbours, and I have prepared a nasty surprise for them

940: DoW on Shaka. He has three small cities left.
960: Machinery -> Optics
1000: Shaka is dead.
1040: Optics -> Education
1100: Taoism + GS (builds an academy in Babylon)
1120: Get statue of Zeus
1140: Meeting Justinian & Suryaravaman - quite behind.
1180: Calendar->Liberalism. Meeting Mansa - also far behind Proved that the world is round.

1200: Liberalism -> Astronomy (free) -> Engineering (for trebuchets)
1210: DoW on Isabella who has one island city left.
1250: Engineering->Gunpowder->Chemistry->Steel
1300: Another GS, this time used for a golden age.
1400: My invasion fleet leaves port.

 

[TheLastOne36]

Lurkers comment:

Bindamel and the rest of you guys:

Spoiler :

Bindamel, did you see how isabella was friendly to you? Then ask meditation for a good friend. Or any other tech that you don't already have. (obviously not something expandisve, but stuff like meditation, metal casting etc.)

 

[mice]

@yena.

Spoiler :

That's a nice early invasion. who's your target ?

 

[yena]

@mice

@yena.

Spoiler :

That's a nice early invasion. who's your target ?

Spoiler :

I plan to take a Khmer city or two to get land on the other continent where I can build up my main invasion force until I'm ready to strike out for domination.

 

[pholkhero]

Spoiler :

Hmm. I thought he was just playing hard to get.

oh that shaka ~ what a tease!

 

[pigswill]

40 turns takes us up to 1650ad. I know that just I've just finished my set.

Report to follow at some point.

 

[Ozbenno]

OK, next round is up to 1650AD.

We have 11 saves submitted, hopefully we can get 1 more soon to trigger the Dominatrix limit and get started

FB, where are you at?

 

[FeedBack]

FB is here, but without candy.
I negotiated with my wife a full civ time at Wednesdays, which would last for 2 hours and a half, but I was too wasted to play. To be honest, I played about 5 turns and after realizing I was a little too much, I saved and called it off for the day.

You said "don't worry" and I really didn't!
I'm just dying to read all these spoilers... Sorry again.