Monarch Student^ IX - Darius

[darreljnz]

To 1000BC - probably my best Monarch game to date...

Spoiler :

Here was my initial strategy:

Initial strategy:

Will play on Monarch, Epic with Huts.

Settle 1W to get cow as we're only losing ocean.

Rush if:

• We have horses in the BFC, and
• Opponent is not protective, and
• Opponnet has no metal or has easily deniable metal, and
• Opponent isn't Pacal (he'll have spearman that don't need metal)

Assuming we're rushing I'll look for a worker steal

Initial techs depend on horses so AH first then:

• If horses: Mining->BW->Fishing->Wheel->Pottery
• If no horses: Fishing->Mining->BW->Wheel->Pottery

Economy: Cottages

Very funny that I found Pacal to the west (on a hill!) AND I settled on horses! What a dilemma! I stuck to my initial strategy and did not rush deciding instead to settle the primo spot just east of his borders with a view to hemming him in then worker steal and pillage.

I managed to grab two huts with gold - one very near Pacals border.

Pacal founded hinduism in his capital then bet me to the city spot by 3 turns. I had to settle on the north coast between capital and the primo spot.

No stone or marble around and with Pacal so close it looks like no early wonders for me today.

I sent an immortal by his second city site ready to start pillaging but noticed he only had one archer in the second city. My immortal had 60% chance of winning and with the potential gains so high and the fact we would declare soon I went for it and won my primo site. Yes I was lucky but it was a calculated risk so I think that counts . My next bit of luck came when I realised I had 1 damaged immortal vs 2, maybe 3, archers in Pacal's captial however he allowed me to settle for peace immediately - which was another stroke of luck.

Pacal then founded Judaism one or two turns later. With only one city this means his capital is now the holy city of two religions so is way to juicy to wait until a medieval war.

I sent two immortals over to worker steal. Just as I enter his borders I notice there is only one archer in the capital and his two other archers are each 2 turns away (1 scouting and 1 escorting a settler. I immediately converge on the capital. Both immortals each have about a 20-25% win chance alone so I reckon losing 2 immortals for a chance to win a capital, loads of money, two holy cities, a worker taking refuge in the city AND kill Pacal outright is too good to pass up. First immortal takes archer down to 2.5/3 - not good. Raises my odds to around 30%. Second immortal wins with health to spare and Pacal is dead at 1725BC.

A few turns later I take a barb city on the coast south of the primo spot. 3 warriors are immortal chow earning some promotions.

I'm slightly worried that I already have two religions so there could be an AI love fest. I've yet to meet any other AI's and I'm concerned I'm isolated now I've killed Pacal.

Fortunatley, Kublai Khan turns up soon after then Alex turns up right on 1000BC. Neither of them have religions yet - which is interesting.

At 1000BC I have 6 cities and +27 research a turn.

Possible strategies:

• Cottage up and focus on getting 2 great prophets for my holy cities. That will make a mega Wall St city as its also surrounded by floodplains.
• Spread hinduism to one AI and judaism to the other just to get them nice and distracted. Pick a side when I'm ready to dogpile.
• With 2 religions a cultural game is a maybe and its quite appealing as I very rarely play one.
• Its too late to take immortals to "The Kube" or Alex so I could just prepare for a medieval war (boring!)
• Explore and expand - I am bordering on a desert to my west so I suspect if I explore and expand I'll hit an AI relatively soon. With my early skirmishes I've been using every unit to fight so haven't been able to scout much.

 

[Valivator]

1000bc-800ad

Spoiler :

I settled the blocking city, 1E of the two Iron. I start to settle in behind that, by now i have settled all of it, except that little pennisila behind Persepolis.

I tried for the GLH in perseoplis for three reasons: If i get it, i will have a lot of coastal cities, so it was worth it. Second if i don't get it, then i get the failure cash, which came in handy during my REX. Third, Persepolis grows while building it.
I didn't get it.

I got the music GA for a GA immediatly.

I got the GLIB in persepolis though.

I'm moving the capital to Mutal soon, for maitence reasons and to take advantage of burocracy.

I traded a clam and a fur to alex for ivory.

I have converted to buddhism, Alex's religion. Kublai is Jewish, and i'm involved in a ghost war with alex against him.

I am 2 turns away from philophoshy, with a great scientist in 4 turns ready to bulb education.

I am in HR, Caste, OR and default everything else. I am getting 135Bpt and 1Gpt at 60% slider.

 

[Meatbuster]

@darreljnz:

Spoiler :

When I read your plans for this map, I flashed myself a grin. I can't believe you mentioned Pacal. As map maker, I already knew who your neighbor was.

Good thing your plans worked out.

 

[mjg5591]

@darreljnz

Spoiler :

Nice game so far. Spreading opposite religions to alex and kubai is a great idea. Hopefully they go to war with each other and you can kill them with huge tech advantage.

Mutal spoiler

Spoiler :

Might want to think about moving capital to Mutal also. Maek it your OU and WS city. Just a thought.

 

[Nares]

Spoiler :

Might want to think about moving capital to Mutal also. Maek it your OU and WS city. Just a thought.

Spoiler :

Or possibly put OU in Persepolis, which is guaranteed to be a GP farm.

 

[mjg5591]

Spoiler :

Or possibly put OU in Persepolis, which is guaranteed to be a GP farm.

Spoiler :

I usually put OU in capital. But this could be a possibilty. In my game i made Persepolis NE/GT combo. After getting my great people to get to lib. I switched to pure drafting. But I can see the benefit in this, If you don't build GT here.

 

[darreljnz]

@meatbuster

Spoiler :

Yeah, that was quite a sneaky thing to do. Now I realise why you mentioned metal denial in the strategy summary. Its a good map so far - really enjoying the challenge. Could have done with some stone or marble in my BFC too tho

@mjg5591

Spoiler :

Yeah, I'm planning on moving my capital to Mutal and running buracracy. I'm not a fan of running both OU and WS in the same city though. The holy cities produce gold, not commerce, so can't help with the research and I don't want the one city to have to build all the gold buildings AND all the research buildings. This is just a personal preference though. I was thinking my GP farm would turn into my OU city once it has pumped out two priests - depends what city sites I find (or capitals I take) in the next phase of the game.

 

[huerfanista]

Wow, this one was insanely easy! Gotta love Darius, King of the Uncrashable Economy. 1786 monarch/epic conquest victory - details to follow soon.

 

[NihilZero]

Wow, this one was insanely easy! Gotta love Darius, King of the Uncrashable Economy. 1786 monarch/epic conquest victory - details to follow soon.

Did you switch of Domination in the victory conditions? I find it impossible to get a Conquest without getting Domination first.

But yeah, this is my first Darius outing and dang but he is easy. Game nearly finished, will report soon.

 

[Meatbuster]

^^
You can get conquest with more razing and less capturing. Or capturing everything early (in a pangaea) before many cities are built.

@darreljnz:
You can get Stone or Marble in your BFC if you play the previous Bismarck game.

 

[Solon70]

This one didn't work out for me...

Spoiler :

Kind of frustrating, after spending all kinds of time working out a dot map and a long-term plan, to lose the game because a Holkan appeared at the absolute last minute! Realistically, I possibly could have pulled back and managed a playable game since I had already captured Pacal's second city, but I was so mentally committed to the idea that my early rush had to succeed that I impulsively threw away all my military units assaulting the capital in vain and then gave up. Not the most impressive performance.

I might try again, since even with the benefit of knowing the initial situation it still seems like there could be an interesting game. Realistically, winning this game via an immortal rush is just sheer luck and seems like it kinda leads to a boring victory if you wipe out Pacal because he never managed to build a Holkan. I'm certainly not going to become a better Civ player by risking the whole game on an early 50/50 gamble, even though it means I'll win half my games and can just restart the other half. I'm more intrigued by the people who decided to coexist peacefully with Pacal for the time being and still managed to win in the end.

 

[mjg5591]

@Solon

Spoiler :

Yea it's tough to lose that way. Only thing about this game is that I don't think you can grab alot of land without taking Pacal out. In my game his first 2 cities boxed me in. If I hadn't rushed I would only have had 3 cities.

Same thing happened to me. He popped a holkan before I attacked his capital. Being on a hill didn't help either. Fortunatly I brought enough Immortals. His last city though I won a 60/40 battle to wipe him out.

Not much advice to give in this situation, except maybe bring more units, attack earlier, or like you said in your post. Maybe hold of til had more units. Tough loss either way.

 

[Nothingontv]

Finally won

Spoiler :

Well not a really interesting story. After taking out Pacal and building my blocker city it was pretty much an easy game.
I filled up all my land, build up a bit of an army and declared on Alexander. In the end he became a vassal of Kublai when he only had 3 crappy cities left. I took out those last 3 cities (shaka had taken one in the uttermost N-W corner of the continent) and after a couple more turns made peace with Kublai.

After rebuilding my army i declared on Kublai and took him out as wel. Now i had the entire continent except for the little city Shaka had taken earlier. For some reason this really irritated me.
Because of the enormous amount of land and cities i could outperfom the 3 remaining civs with ease. Allthough Huayna was keeping up for a bit. He also had his own continent and was teching pretty good.

I could have gone for a space race which i would have won easily, but that little city belonging to Shaka was annoying me more and more so i decided to attack him.
I took that city and one on his continent and he capitulated. He wasn't very advanced btw, i was surprised that the french hadn't taken him out.

After that i decided to use nukes for once. I figured i would nuke Huayna and take 4 of his cities after which he would surely capitulate. Turned out he didn't.
In the end i must have nuked him about 60-70 times before he finally did. It was fun though

 

[NihilZero]

@ Solon

Spoiler :

I know what you mean, this game hinged on the success of the early rush. which left very little room for varied gameplay. All the writeups I've seen look the same, and mine is no different...

Emperor, Normal, no huts or events as usual.
Start to 1AD:

Spoiler :

Settling 1W is a no brainer. Looking forward to using my favourite UU and finding out just how overpowered Darius really is.

Build in Persepolis: worker, warrior until fishing, workboat, continue warrior, workboat, warrior, workboat, barracks, Immortals
Tech: AH, fishing, mining, BW, wheel, pottery, writing, mathematics, sailing, alphabet

3880 BC: I note that Meatbuster has generously given us Pacal, he of the resourceless spearman UU, as a near neighbour in a sadistic effort to blunt our Immortal rush. Mutal is also situated on a hill for added impregnability. Oh, and it just became the Buddhist holy city too.

I discover that I'm sitting right on top of horses, which deprives me of a decent tile improvement but means they are hooked up fast.

There is only one possible strategy here. The start of this game is pretty much a scripted set piece. The race is on to wipe out Pacal before Holkans spell the end of the fun times.

Pacal is off to a flying start:

DoW in 1360BC, snatch a couple of workers:

and take the first city almost unopposed.

Mutal is tougher due to the timely arrival of a single holkan.



I'm a little worried but I manage to wear him down.



975 BC The Maya are no more. I occupy myself with barbs for a while, capturing one of their cities. After that I need to try to start making a profit from my new cities so I start cottaging those floodplains.

Kublai's rich, gold-filled lands are giving him a tech edge early on.



At 225 BC I finally tech Monarchy and adopt HR. Finally I can get some happiness in this accursed, resourceless wasteland that Meatbuster has dumped us in.

125 BC I am pleased when Bhuddist Al attacks Confucian Kublai. I don't expect him to achieve much but they should keep each other busy. Alexander is a violent chap as I discovered in the MS^ Augustus game and I am much happier to see him occupied in the opposite direction.

75 BC Possibly bad news when Alexander converts to Confucianism. I want to keep those two at each other's throats as much as possible.

1AD to Lib:

Spoiler :

Stonehenge gives me a prophet in Mutal, who builds the Bhuddist shrine in the same city. Then at 300AD I start doing something I have rarely done before, and that is relocate my capital. Mutal will make a nice cottaged Bureau capital in the near future. Persepolis will be my GP farm.

I finally adopt Bureaucracy at 450AD.

500: Manage to convert the Greeks back to Buddhism with a steady stream of missionaries.

580: The music race gives me a GA. He starts a golden age which will help me build some things and fill in a lot of techs before I start on the Lib trail.


First GS from my GP farm which houses the Great Library (the only wonder I have built thus far), he is used for a Philosophy bulb.

980 Second GS bulbs Education.

By 1000 AD my traits and cottaged bureau capital are starting to pay off and I have a comfortable tech lead on my neighbours, who are too busy fighting each other. My lands look like this (including two former barbarian settlements):



Demographics are simply awesome. I have never been first in GNP before unless it was a golden age, very near the end of the game, or I was outputting massive amounts of culture. None of these are the case here. I never have as easy a time on this, and I'm not even very experienced on Emperor yet.



1100 We meet DeGaulle and convince him to give us his map.

1190 Brings Liberalism and Steel.

To the end:

Spoiler :

Now that I have secured a massive advantage, it's time to put the rest of the world out of its benighted misery and lead them into the shiny high-tech brilliance of the Persian way of life.

Before I get around to that, however, I meet the last civ. Huayna has a big empire, fourteen cities, and is my closest rival techwise.

In 1430 I take the first steps on the path to world domination. I never did trust Alexander, the psychotic swine. It's time to smite him.



I capture Knossos quickly, but sure enough you can always rely on Al for a good scrap and he shows up next turn with a nice looking stack which I will enjoy splattering.



There is a massive clash of stacks as Alexander tries to liberate Knossos, but he is worsted despite inflicting significant casualties.

In 1470 I tech Rifling. Switch to Nationhood for drafting and Mercantilism since everybody else is running it and there is noone to trade with.

Just as I am exterminating Alexander, Kublai takes him as a vassal in 1560, which constitutes an act of war.



This demonstrates something of a lack of perspicacity on the Khan's part. A few Mongol stacks stray into the warzone and get annihilated by rifles and cannon.

The Greeks are wiped out in 1620. I continue to fight Kublai, since he has no hope of stopping me, but it takes a while. My Great general supermedic is slain in this big battle outside Beshbalik.



He shall be avenged! This is pretty much the closest thing to a setback I face in this war.

Meanwhile in 1700 Shaka betrays his Jewish buddy DeGaulle and attacks. They fight for a while, nobody gains anything, and then they make peace. Shaka delegates control of his island near Persepolis to Asoka.

I continue to steamroll Kublai in a manner devoid of tactical subtlety, eventually eradicating the last of the Mongols in 1814.

My strongest rival is Huayna. He has a higher power rating than me and is in WHEOOHRN mode. I'm building a navy to conquer the world. 1836 I notice that Shaka is also in a violent mood and WHEOOHRN. I'm about to attack, DeGaulle is my target.

1840 My invasion fleet is just about to land on French soil, when I spot an Incan armada just off my shores.



Looks like I'll be invading Huayna instead...I cancel the plans for a French invasion and redirect the fleet, currently en route for Paris, to Cuzco instead.



I chuckle as Huayna attempts a half-hearted amphibious assault and suicides several frigates to take down a single empty transport.



Little does he realise that the wrath of god is about to fall upon his capital city!

The small Incan landing party appears with fortuitous timing just as my first bomber is built. They make a nice target for its test flight.



After a further artillery strike these unfortunates are mopped up by cavalry, and then my destroyers and transports amuse themselves by destroying a second wave of frigates and galleons coming up the rear. So much for the Incan invasion.

I park an imposing strike force at Cuzco, giving notice to Huayna of his impending doom.

While all this is going on Shaka attacks DeGaulle again, which doesn't concern us.

Cuzco meets its inevitable fate.



1852 Sees the addition of Tiwanaku and its numerous wonders to the Persian empire,
as well as the exotically named Ollantaytambo. Meanwhile Huayna has teched Combustion and is working on Assembly Line and so he remains confident that the loss of his wonder-spammed and multisyllabic metropolises is merely a temporary setback and by no means enough of a problem to warrant surrender. Silly him. My bombers and tanks flock to the new bases by air in an ettempt to convince him otherwise.

After losing a couple more cities, bringing the total to five in a few short turns, Huayna begins to see sense and concludes that discretion is the better part of valour.



Now I'm a few percentiles away from domination. I invade France in 1864, supported by bombers that I have stationed in neighbouring Zulu lands (incidentally, Shaka is still at war with France). Softened up with heavy aerial bombardment it is an easy thing to roll ashore and squash the hapless defenders flat. And yes, that is a Great Spy of mine standing around looking smug in the screenshot.



Three cities including Paris are taken in the blink of an eye and DeGaulle lays down his arms, acknowledging Darius as the Ruler of the Entire Universe, saying Uncle, and generally grovelling in an unseemly manner.



And that's it. Bit of an uneventful game, but I guess it's nice to win by a blowout for once instead of the usual bitter, knife-edge struggles I usually seem to get myself into in these forum games. Thanks to Meatbuster as always.

 

[huerfanista]

^^
You can get conquest with more razing and less capturing. Or capturing everything early (in a pangaea) before many cities are built.

Well, I took the 3rd way, which frequently gives me conquest victories: keep most or all of your first victims' land, after that vassal and give back all their cities, use them as tech partners.

checkpoint 1,2,3 to 960AD:

Spoiler :

Looking at the start, I decided to settle 1W to grab more land tiles while retaining the seafood. As a bonus, this gained a plains cow. The starting tech order was fishing> AH> mining> BW> wheel> pottery> sailing> writing. Horses were found under the city tile, and Pacal is close by, so I decide to rush him and hope that he spends his time founding a religion, like he usually does, before heading to BW for his UU. I start by building a warrior, the 2 workboats when fishing is done, followed by a worker and a barracks. I order up 10 immortals, and attack in 1750BC when 7 of them are in position to take his first 2 cities:

Mutal and Lakamha fall easily, each guarded by a single archer, with nothing whipped. I guess Pacal spent too much time on the religious path and never completed BW, which is great. I get some poor rolls of the RNG and lose 5 immortals taking the 2 cities. As fresh troops come online, I take his final city, also guarded by a single archer, losing 2 more immortals. The Mayan civ is destroyed in 1525BC, and I keep all 3 of his cities, capturing 2 workers.

Floodplains are cottaged everywhere, and I immediately start moving the palace to Mutal once it comes out of revolt. It is centrally located, so maintenance will be reduced, plus it's a better bureau capital. Persepolis becomes the GP farm, and I hope to build the GLib there. In the short term, I tech alpha and masonry while build a lighthouse there and then start the GLH. Even though all of Pacal's cities are inland, my settling plan will have every additional one on the coast. Here's a shot from 70AD that shows the proposed (and, in some cases, settled) city sites:

Pacal founded judaism in Mutal, and it starts to spread to the neighbors, Kublai and Alex. In 775BC I trade alpha to Kublai for math and found the city of Pasargadae to block off the peninsula to the west. Alex offers IW for alpha, and I agree. 2 sources of iron pop up side by side on the western side of Pasargadae, and another inland. In 700BC the GLH is done.

The next techs researched are currency, CoL, mysticism, meditation, PH (to open up a trade for monarchy). I convert to Judaism in 380BC just after Alex does, so we are a bunch of happy jews on this continent. I looks like I'll be able to live we these guys peacefully for a while (although Kublai can be a backstabber), so the preliminary plan is to try to take steel from lib and then attack with rifles/cannon and take over the continent.

I get monarchy in trade from Alex and convert to HR. I then start up the aesthetics> polytheism> literature line and start the GLib in Persepolis. Since I don't have marble, I clearcut the area around the city in order to get t, finishing off with a 3 pop whip at size 7. In the meantime, I trade currency to Kublai for construction and Alex for metal casting, and reseach civil service. In 310AD the Glib is completed, and in 325AD I revolt to bureaucracy and caste. Persepolis runs 6 GS off of the 3 crabs and cow at size 10.

The first gp born is a GM (from the GLH), which is settled in Pasargadae (the blocking city) for the additional food and commerce. The research order is machinery (for maces and xbows in case the neighbors get frisky), calendar, mono and archery via trade, HBR (trade), paper. In 625AD a GS is born, used to bulb part of education (which is completed in 700AD). I get the greek marriage event, and pay to get +3 relations with Alex. Both he and Kublai are now friendly. Lib is guaranteed at this point, although Kublai is teching well. I research philosophy (founding taoism in Bactra) and all but 1 turn of liberalism, and then start on gunpowder. Kublai asks for paper, and I give it to him. This starts him on the education/liberalism research path, but I've got enough to finish engineering and chemistry before he gets there.

A shot of the Persian empire in 960AD:

 

[huerfanista]

@Solon

Spoiler :

I didn't feel that attacking Pacal was anything like a 50/50 gamble; more like a 95/5 certainty. The key is to attack very early - mine was in 1750BC. Since he founded Judaism, it means he probably went med/PH/mono. He never adopted slavery, so that was a clue that he likely would not have holkans. I took 3 cities without ever seeing him whip a unit.

 

[huerfanista]

1784AD conquest victory, monarch/epic, final checkpoint:

Spoiler :

To recap a bit, after finishing philosophy I switched to pacifism. The first GP out of Persepolis was a GM, due to the GLH influence. Next came a scientist, who built an academy there. Alex was willing to trade me marble, which helped in buildin the 2 epics (Heroic in Lakamha and National in Persepolis). In 1020AD we trade for feudalism from Alex, while continuing the chemistry beeline. After gunpowder we research engineering, checking to see that we will still beat Kublai to liberalism. Finally, in 1180AD we complete chemistry and finish liberalism the next turn, taking steel. Now it's a run down the rifling line: guilds, banking, a detour to economics (for the free GM, sent to Athens for a trade mission worth 1650 and a revolt to free market), PP (partially bulbed with a GS), rep parts, and rifling in 1385AD. We pop another GM out of Persepolis and use him to start our first GA as we upgrade muskets, maces, and trebs while building rifles everywhere. Cavalry are also on our shopping list, so we research nationalism and Mil Trad, while getting compass in trade from Alex (I want to grab everything that he had that's useful before I DOW him ). Mil Trad finishes in 1450AD and I upgrade my 1 knight, while switching production to cavalry everywhere (I was pre-building knights in several cities, and holding them off the queue with 1 turn left until MT finished).

A quick look at the tech standings shows that we have a few techs on Kublai, but Alex is gonna be hurting in the upcoming war:

Power ratings (very misleading, since Alex's units can't stand up to rifle/cannon) show we're well prepared. It's unusual to see Kublai so weak; he usually builds a lot more military than this:

The Greek War starts in 1460AD, the same year that I find out that Alex is willing to sign a defensive pact. Sorry, pal, not this time.

We start taking his cities with no real opposition; all the has are knights, lbows, and maces. I lose maybe 2 cannon the entire war. Our research path is aimed for constitution (we revolt to rep) and democracy (for the SoL). KK already has constitution, but he doesn't head for democracy, so the SoL should be in the bag. I research optics next, so I can hook up the whale in one of our northern cities for more . Alex bribes Shaka into the war, but since he doesn't have astro he can't do a damn thing. In 1580AD Alex capitulates after I've taken 6 of his cities, including Athens (pyramids and shwedagon paya) and Sparta, giving me a tundra city, gold, drama, and theo. He's a pleased immediately, and I give him back his crap tundra city (he's got a bunch of them ). Interestingly, KK was friendly with me the entire time, which was a smart move on his part. In fact, the turn after Alex caps, KK is willing to become my vassal. Hey, what the heck, it'll speed up the win and he'll be a very good tech partner.

Our tech path is steam, astro, corp, assembly line. In the meantime, I've built West Point in Lakamha (the HE city), and it starts turning out 3-promo infantry. I give them all C2Amphib and they can call themselves marines. I have galleons loaded with rifles just inside my border when assembly finishes, and I upgrade them to infantry and set sail for Shaka (yes, we're still at war). In 1700 I finish sci meth with a partial bulb by a GS, and start communism. The SoL finishes in Mutal, while my troops are busy taking Shaka's cities. When communism finishes I start a GA using the free GSpy and a GS that I'd saved, and switch to emancipitation (KK is already running it), free speech, theocracy, and state property. Watermills and workshops have been pre-built in many cities, and my production really takes off.

After taking 4 of Shaka's cities he's had enough and caps. I gift his cities back and move our healed troops to DeGaulle's border. The first city we take after the DOW is Bulawayo, captured from Shaka in one of their many wars. I immediately gift it to Shaka and it restores the old Zulu cultural borders, giving our troops a nice buffer to work in as I advance to the next 2 target. I take one of them by land, and the other using our amphibious infantry, and DeGaulle caps in 1734AD. I give him back his cities and prepare for the final assault on Huayna. Tech path to this point was RR and combustion, and I upgraded all galleons to transports. My cities were pre-building galleons/frigates/ironclads and taking them off the queue until combustion completed, so I had some quick destroyers. I also upgraded a couple of C2 frigates as well.

In 1744AD Sparta (I think) finishes the Kremlin while I sail to Cuzco. In 1754AD I DOW HC, taking his capital and 2 other cities on his southern coast in rapid succession via amphibious assault. Unknown to me, he had spawned a colony (Roosevelt) on a large island east of Shaka, but I never saw any action from them. Huayna is pretty stubborn, despite having nothing better than a few muskets and lots of lbows, so I continue circling his coastline taking cities. The real prize is Tiwanaku:

He finally caps in 1782AD after I've taken around 75% of his cities. Roosevelt caps the same turn, and we have a conquest victory in 1784AD (we were about to go over the domination limit on the next turn).

Manufacturing:

GNP (the drop to 0 at the end was due to being in anarchy while switching to US):

Power:

Mutal:

Persepolis:

Lakamha:

In retrospect, I was a bit sloppy. I never made an effort to get a GP for the jewish shrine (just forgot, to be honest) which would really have been over the top. I was late in starting AW, which is the best way to get a late-game GP, and Kublai ended up building it (he had stone). But Darius is just so powerful, with fin and org, that it almost feels like playing noble.

 

[darreljnz]

^^
@darreljnz:
You can get Stone or Marble in your BFC if you play the previous Bismarck game.

I think I'll live

Spoiler :

My game is going well but the tail end of cultural victories are full of hard maths so I'm taking it slow. Should have it done by the weekend. Aiming for a 1600AD finish. Could have got AP victory in around 1100AD if I'd got optics sooner and saw the religious situation overseas. But more on that when I write my end game summary.

 

[pigswill]

10bc. Monarch epic.

Spoiler :

Met Pacal while still researching fishing, decided to go BW instead of AH. Pacal got second city where I was planning on settling, he also switched to slavery in 2600bc. Settled city2 on copper just north of Pacal's city and built axes. Lost nine axes, gained 3 cities, 5 workers and Stonehenge by 975bc.
Captured barb city, spammed settlers. At 10bc I've got 10 cities, currency/CoL, breaking even at 50% (financial floopdplains help).
Got Alex to the west and KK beyond him. KK is the tech leader. He got war elephants by 500bc! However its been peaceful so far. No early religions. KK founded confu which has spread to Alex though not to me.
One more city to found (settler being built) then grow cities, expand economy and see what happens.

 

[Meatbuster]

Hey pigswill, welcome back!

Spoiler :

Seems like you're the only one who axe-rushed in this thread.