[SCENARIO] Me, myself, and the (Pit's) World Map shenanigans.

Somebody613

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This is at least the third (if not the fifth) time I'm trying the MAX Difficulty + MAX Speed game play.
Well, almost MAX Speed, since I was told to use Blitz instead of Ultrafast, for technical reasons.
Anyways, being not my first game, I played it smart(er) and reaped a very nice crop out of it, heh.
Here's me reaching Classical - and being in the TOP 5 (actually fluctuating between TOP 5 and even TOP 1).
Well, at least in the Old World, but I've been called "TOP 5 Most Powerful" on turn 200, so I guess it counts.

Hints and tips:
1. Immediately went after Babylon the moment I had Spikemen, lol. It FELL. Read: AI is still crap, duh.
2. Kept building more cities until I reached the Gold Problem. Had been miles beyond it for a long while already, but decided to instead go for eliminating Ottomans. Barely managed to complete it literally a few turns ago. My army is still relocating back to Jerusalem, lol.
3. I definitely SHOULD have built more cities, what with having Gold in the TENS of THOUSANDS. Well, since it's PEACE TIME from now on - we'll see.
4. Also, unless some idiot (AI, duh) attacks me first, I'm NOT gonna fight much anymore. Spy Network, here. I. Come! It's so much more FUN to Spy-Buy entire civs, than to wage endless wars against a few stubbornly entrenched units. You can't ENTRENCH against Espionage, hehehe.
5. Can't wait to activate INQUISITION, though, cause I want to clean this heretical mess, mwahahaha!!!

Any comments, besides telling me AGAIN to "play differently"?
Pit's World Map + geographically correctly placed Jerusalem = a REALLY FUN GAME!
:king::king::king::king::king::king::king::king::king::king:
 

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Wow you aren't beelining, and still you are one of best civs on Nightmare.
I wonder how that would work out on typical Gigantic map though.
 
Wow you aren't beelining, and still you are one of best civs on Nightmare.
I wonder how that would work out on typical Gigantic map though.
Well.

0. No Barbs.
And AI is crap.
Not sure how one affects the other, though.

1. Jerusalem IS a cheaty city.
Not literally cheaty, and you can get it halfway during the Prehistoric with a bunch of nearby civs, but it does provide a faster kick-off start.
Not exactly MUCH of it on such fast speed, actually, but still something tangible.

2. On the other hand, I had to suicide-barrage Istanbul with TONS of units in order to "soften" its defenses (the entrenched unit's, not the city's) enough.
It's just that I had lots of cities to build lots of units fast enough for it to EVENTUALLY work, but it WAS a pain in the ass, ugh.
And I honestly have no clue how to avoid this "strategy" of literally burying the defensive Archer-types with a horde of corpses.
Even units with "Strength against Archers" barely did much damage, for some weird reason.
And no, that was AFTER I reduced the city's defenses to more or less zero - it's all about the unit itself.
Weird.

3. Hence why I guess I need to switch to expansion and espionage (mostly the former).
As in, once I hit Vassalage (after a forever), I'm sure to suddenly have a bunch of losers asking to rule over them, lol.
So I guess my current goal is to literally EXPAND EVERYWHERE - and I do see quite a lot of SPACE for that, indeed.
Eh, the woes of micromanaging a ton of cities, dammit.

4. On the OTHER hand, I'm in yet another era of MERGING, so...
MWAHAHAHA!!!
Oh, and Astrological Signs just ask to be HOARDED by Generals, ya know.
YYYEP.
 
LOOOL!!!
I totally changed my mind.
Just check all the DATA, hehehe.
Also, gonna rebrand my units as [General], [Noble], [Hero] - where [Hero] is [Noble General], loool!
I have a strong feeling that my CURRENT army will be more than enough to pretty much rule the entire Old World AT LEAST.
Just. Check. The. Screens. MWAHAHAHA!!!
 

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Can't wait to activate INQUISITION, though, cause I want to clean this heretical mess
Sorry to disapoint you but you cant use inquisitor on foreign cities, only on your own :(
Only way how to erase religion in foreing city is to use spy or conquer it.
 
Sorry to disapoint you but you cant use inquisitor on foreign cities, only on your own :(
Only way how to erase religion in foreing city is to use spy or conquer it.
That IS my point.
I could clean up the cities I DON'T own, but I need to invent a whole ton more tech to affect my own cities.
If it isn't stupid, dunno what is, lol.
 
That IS my point.
I could clean up the cities I DON'T own, but I need to invent a whole ton more tech to affect my own cities.
If it isn't stupid, dunno what is, lol.
I think at least Divine Cult should be "fully intolerant" as well, I mean, you basically deny that the king is god. That cannot be allowed.
 
UPDATE.

Oh, boy, REVOLUTIONS are FUN.
Well...
NOT.
LOOOL!!!

As in, literally the next turn after I eliminated the bothersome Arabs, a bunch of my own cities decided to give me more free Experience - and rebelled.
Not that it's gonna matter whatsoever, but it REALLY annoys me, since each turn takes me several minutes, gah!
Which means I'll have to WASTE a bunch of time cleaning up that mess, ugh.
IMPORTANT ADVICE:
Never forget to keep track of your Revolt Status, DAMMIT!!!

Also, my entire army is already [Nobles], which means each unit can attack 3-4 times per turn, lol.
And many of them are also [Heroes] aka [Noble Generals], giving them yet another edge over the Vile Enemy, mwahahaha!!!
(Well, not 100% entire army, I think, but I can simply build those 1-2 missing Nobles in exactly as many turns.)

NOW the game is actually REALLY FUN, hehehe!!!

Also also:
Check out my SCORE!
As in, do the math what it was the PREVIOUS turn, loool!!!

Ooohhh, totally forgot to mention:
I.
CAN.
BUY.
CITIES.
NOW!!!
YESSS!!!
 

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Small UPDATE.

Decided to roll back the breakdown revolution turn, still got 2 cities rebelling, but that's much less ANNOYING.
Recaptured them, now keep spending tons of gold on keeping the idiots "happy".
Some STILL rebel.

Anyways, I finally have *ALL* the (surviving) contacts in the *ENTIRE WORLD*.
And I'm at place #3, while the other 2 guys have *vassals* (and are less than 25% above me), loool!
Plus, I'm literally one of the most powerful civs in the game (nobody is above 1.1 of me) - and that is totally MISCALCULATED.
Because MY units can attack 3-4 times per turn and are maxed out mergers, UNLIKE, ya know, the AI ones (AI suuucks big time, lolrofl).
Great game, hehehe.
 

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Heeelllooo!!!
Finally. Finally! FINALLY!!!
I managed to reach Fundamentalism and mostly clean up the mess that was ruining my Empire with tons of instability.
Kinda, it's a bit early to celebrate yet.
Anyways, this also made more or less EVERYONE hate my guts for "oppressing their poor believers", never mind that I never invited them in the first place, lol.
So, most probably, ANOTHER serious war (or a few) is brewing on the horizon.
But, well, my [Hero]ic Horseys are RH-H-H-E-E-EADY!
I hope so, lol!

Complaint note:
The DAMN turn TIMES are annoying beyond belief.
Each turn WAIT is 2-3 minutes at the least, damn!
And it's not a bug (the MAP is crowded like heck, lol), it's just how it is - SLOW and ANNOYING.
D.A.M.N.

Interesting note:
I'm literally a whole ERA behind in tech, yet I'm TOP 3 (was TOP 1 a couple turns ago) even on my own.
 

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Oookay...
I think I've had enough.
The turn times became literally unbearable (at least 3 minutes per wait), and I already made my point:
If I used all of my 30 cities to build Horsemen (of whatever kind), I could overrun anyone in a very short time.
If only I didn't have to spend 90% of my play time on TURN WAITING, dammit.
So, nope, Game Over (for now, I kept the save).



NEW GAME IDEA!!!
Solo survival against randomly popping up ex-Barb civs under the hardest gameplay rules (all techs strictly in order, max difficulty, max allowed speed, tech leaks).
And to make it more of a survival, also (single city challenge, no city razing, angriest barbs, neanderthal cities).
Also, since this is me against unknown civs, I used the map "cheat" with ALL Regional Culture types, to "represent the entire humanity being stranded on an alien Earth", loool!

So far I've reached Ancient Era, have 4 more ex-Barb civs somewhere on the map (haven't met yet), and I'm clearly behind in tech already, lol.
And turn speed is AGAIN refreshingly FAST, loool.
Thus, this is my CURRENT game (and I'm not quite sure whether I will go back to the previous one EVER, because it bores me in less than 5 turns).
 

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If only I didn't have to spend 90% of my play time on TURN WAITING, dammit.
If you're playing with the new advanced routes option, it was recently discovered there's some severe perf issues on larger mapsizes; turning that off may help turn times, if it's on of course.
 
If you're playing with the new advanced routes option, it was recently discovered there's some severe perf issues on larger mapsizes; turning that off may help turn times, if it's on of course.
It's not, and I didn't say it was a bug.
In fact, I openly said (one more post back) that it's due to the map being OVERCROWDED already.
It's PREDICTABLY NORMAL - and yet it's AWFULLY ANNOYING.
The two points are compatible, sadly enough.
Hence why I'll try at least to eliminate MY OWN micromanaging by limiting myself to ONE CITY.
And as of everyone else - there are only FOUR other civs so far (but it's bound to be more eventually), so it'll take a while for the map to get overcrowded.
By then, I should be able to have a say in what happens, one way or another.



QUESTION:
When "No razing" and "Single city" are BOTH ON - what happens to the cities I CONQUER?
I'll probably know that soon enough myself (gonna meet someone and eventually conquer a city), but wanna know in advance what to expect.

Note: Despite huge time intervals between my real posts, I hardly play Civ much, so I can post a whole day later about something that took me only 10 turns to happen.
Though this should be lessened in the CURRENT playthrough, at least somewhat.
 
In fact, I openly said (one more post back) that it's due to the map being OVERCROWDED already.
That is my bad then. To be perfectly honest though, I have sufficient trouble reading your EMPHASIZED writing (as you've explained before that's just how you're used to, I know) that I mostly just skim your posts.
When "No razing" and "Single city" are BOTH ON - what happens to the cities I CONQUER?
I believe Single City Challenge takes priority, and captured cities will be razed regardless.
 
Thanks.
But see below.


UPDATE.
Well, it's Turn 200, and there is a total of 18 civs on this Alien Planet (17 of which are ex-Barbs, or most probably ex-Neanders-turned-ex-Barbs, lol).
Yet I haven't met a single one so far!!!
I've just recently launched an expedition towards America (after losing all my primitive Canoes, I rather went for War Galleys, lol).
And a very beefed (x9, +General) Hittite Chariot is trudging through the Asian jungle East-ward.
FUN.
GAME.
So far.
LOL!
 

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MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

What?
THIS!
Finally, after more than 300 turns, I've found a city I could actually ATTACK.
And.
I.
CAPTURED.
IT!!!
[Single City] LOST to [No Razing]!!!

MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Also, there's literally THE FULL ROSTER (40!) of ex-Barbarian CIVS (well, one down now, obviously, but that's temporary).

MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

No, really, I literally feel like MADLY CACKLING now.
Because WHY NOT?!

MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

I LOVE THIS GAME!!!!!
 

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Sounds definitely funny! Tells us more how it goes!
The point is that the only REAL downside of the Max Difficulty is pretty much GAME SPEED (or lack thereof).
In the previous playthrough, I've literally been an entire ERA behind in Tech compared to the top civs (Medieval vs Renaissance).
And what?
Nothing, my army could still trample their defenses, if I actually put ALL of my cities into unit production.
That's 30(!!!) cities, most of which could produce way more than 1-2 units per turn.
Meaning, I could EASILY churn our some 100(!!!!!) units per turn, even if with somewhat different starting EXP.
Yeah, *AI*, let's see you tackle THIS many units suiciding at your defenses, loool!
I just CHOSE not to, because I was beyond annoyed by 3-minute-long TURN times.
Which would mean that (during a war campaign) my turns would last for easily 10 minutes each.
And THAT is just... UGH.
Thus, my current playthrough has me limited to ONE city (except, I'm *NOT*, lol), and enemies are randomly spread all over the map.
Which is why I'm still in Ancient Era on turn 300, but my turn time are still in seconds, not minutes.
Though, of course, it IS bound to change eventually (and maybe even quite soon), since I've seen some warnings that foreign civs started EMERGING already.
If I get it right, it means going from Minor to Full Civ - and that also probably means a huge increase in produtivity.
Probably.
We'll see.
As of now, I'm just *madly cackling* at my newly acquired SECOND city, lol.
Haven't played yet today, so no news for now.
 
SMALL UPDATE.

Mostly to complain about Innovative being either bugged or bad with description.
Namely, I can build Quintiremes in all of my cities, but I can't upgrade my Triremes out in the seas.
It still works for other units, though those were on the same landmass as my cities.
Not sure whether this is a bug or a bad description case, though.
 

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SMALL UPDATE.

Mostly to complain about Innovative being either bugged or bad with description.
Namely, I can build Quintiremes in all of my cities, but I can't upgrade my Triremes out in the seas.
It still works for other units, though those were on the same landmass as my cities.
Not sure whether this is a bug or a bad description case, though.
If there are bonus prerequisites it can keep units off the trade grid from being able to upgrade 'anywhere'. This is something I'm giving more thorough consideration to in some unit planning details right now. Also strongly considering adding another level to that unlocking of anywhere upgrading to another layer of Innovative so as to even invalidate that need.
 
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