Monarch Student V - Catherine

[djvandrake]

Mm, looks like I've missed that completely.
Ok then, assass1n and Sian want to host a game, so VI and VII are "taken". Just decide who's next and the other will host MS VII.

It's nice to see some enthusiasm about the serie, but we have five different hosts at this point: me, gcm, single malt, assassin and Sian. Enough, I'd say. We'll have to arrange a rotation or something.

Everyone feel free to use the "Aspiring Monarch's Guild" to sort it all out.

(see my signature. Yes, it's a shameless plug but I want a place where I can ask questions without making a new thread everytime.)

Just a suggestion.

 

[FlyinJohnnyL]

Dibs on MS 37! I'll put it in my sig if I have to, but I get to host number 37 dangit! We're gonna use Sid!

On a more serious note-should be playing this one this weekend, the series has been really good so far!!

Oh and I've never played a PYL before, so other than the fact that you get to, well, pick your leader, is there anything unusual about those games?

 

[Tempesta13]

Emperor/Normal to 1 AD

Spoiler :

Only just won my first emperor game yesterday - but figured i'd give it a shot here. Going ok so far.

Just REXed as much as i could - barbarians weren't a problem at all. I still have not hooked up the any of the copper/iron and should soon. Waiting to whip 2 or 3 courthouses in the next few turns, which should save me 10 gold or so and allow me to settle a couple more cities. Power rating is ok with just my chariots for now, but will soon need swordsmen/axemen if i want to have a shot at an early war when i get cats.

Hopefully i can get Confucianism spread to me so i can get zara and AC to friendly (zara is pleased already) - Sury is the obvious target, he hasn't taken a religion either.

Here's what the world looks like...

This is what the tech situation looks like - not too bad. I will have aesthetics on everyone soon - and also will have the marble hooked up in a few turns so i'd have a good shot at the GL if no one on the other continent is going for it.

I haven't made that trade with AC, probably don't want to give away my 2 techs i have on him. I will wait until Aesthetics comes in and see what he'll offer for that. I'll need poly/lit soon or risk missing the GL. I could really use monarchy for HR, and i'll need poly from him or someone else for lit. What do you guys think? Will he offer both for Aesthetics? Zara has CoL and Cur, maybe i can get monarchy from him for Aest, and then hope to get math/poly from AC. I'm still not very good at early tech trading. Sury doesn't have alphabet yet so im sure i could get poly from him easy if i had to.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Dibs on MS 37! I'll put it in my sig if I have to, but I get to host number 37 dangit! We're gonna use Sid!

On a more serious note-should be playing this one this weekend, the series has been really good so far!!

Oh and I've never played a PYL before, so other than the fact that you get to, well, pick your leader, is there anything unusual about those games?

Usually they have a theme (IND, PRO, same start with diff leaders, FIN, backstabbers, etc.). The idea is explained in the intro for most of the games.

I have an idea for it, too.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Monarch/Normal all defaults (yes even ghetto events)

To 1 AD

Spoiler :

I settled in place. Meeting sury wasn't pleasant. I prefer him not near me. Oh well.

Tech path was AG, wheel, pottery (heh), BW, archery, AH, writing.

Early pottery ^_^.

I'm a bit slow getting a 2nd city as a result but we have so much room who cares.

It's monarch and that means the AIs don't tech well. Next tech after writing was monarchy, then I went CoL/trade math CS. I got confucianism despite no true attempt to do so.

1 AD empire

To 1790 AD/Domination

Spoiler :

I got bureaucracy cottage abuse going and then pretty much slept through the rest of this game. I did run the 2 library scientists in my 2nd city enough to grab a 2nd GP, which I bulbed on education. I didn't bulb philosophy or lib like I could/possibly should have. Oh well. Too much effort. I win lib:

The usual nationalism because we have marble and I'll get taj.

From there I just tech cuirassers while setting up oxford in capitol and barracks/stable in other cities (which are largely farmed/mined though I had a 2nd sort-of commerce gold/fp/wine city).

I am ready for sury after mass whipping everything but capitol:

During the beatdown Zara realizes the winning side.

And sury is killed

Simple slider off to upgrade to cossacks and hit AC, also without rifles

Not a long war.

I just stay in slavery. It's a very easy way to amass sufficient navy and smack island warmonger weaklings.

Also not exactly a grind.

I trade bio for physics and put up some blimps. I notice darius is close to rifles but doesn't have them yet, so despite him being bigger I attack him over hannibal.

Easy.

And that puts me to > 70% land and pop each.

Edit: Actually, you DID include one "walkover" AI. And one that has the same unitprob and aggression as monty.

 

[Ai Shizuka]

TMiT:

Spoiler :

Good game as usual. And I agree about isolated Alex. Didn't meet him yet, but probably should have replaced him with Augustus or Darius.
My plans for this map was:
- peaceful financial techers on the second continent (Darius and Hannibal), trading techs each others and possibly with Zara.
- Aggressive rexing by Sury, but he probably was too far away. Still, I wanted to keep him far enough to prevent an axe-rush.

I don't know, probably religions will be the main wildcard on this game. In my game we all adopted Judaism, so everything was peaceful until the early ADs. Probably different religions in other games will instigate some early wars in the zara-aug-sury block.

 

[michmbk]

To 55 AD - monarch/epic

Spoiler :

Oh Cathy, what fond memories I have of our days in vanilla – I haven’t played you since vanilla (only by chance), but oh those 18 strength Cossacks with the financial trait made you as overpowered as Rome in my opinion in vanilla. So now my first game with you in BTS, and the Cossacks are down to 15 strength, and we’ve swapped out FIN for IMP, which is a trait I never seem to leverage well. Nonetheless, creative will save me hammers, on libraries and theaters, which I build in the majority of cities, and on monuments in the early game, and I figure that whoever our neighbors are, we need to settle aggressively toward them, because as long as our military is strong, we’ll constantly beat back borders with CRE.

The only risk I see is making sure the economy gets going early, because as long as Cathy’s economy is ok, she’s tough to beat. In terms of the start, I couldn’t find out much more with the scout, but I decided to take a chance that by moving the settler 1 NW, my start would be loaded with flood plains and would be a cottage heaven. That backfired a bit, as I added a bunch of plains, and gave up the rice. But the rice will be left with a great site to share with the cows later, so not that big a deal once I get a settler out. Moscow will still have some pretty solid cottage potential. Start teching AH so my worker will have something to do. First meeting is a fellow creative civ, Sury. Huts give me maps and gold. Finish AH, and horse is in my BFC – barb defense shouldn’t be an issue. Not too upset about moving the capital now because I’ll be able to make two strong cities here instead of one super strong city and one decent city.

Buddhism doesn’t go until turn 25, so no zealots, apparently. My scout is eaten by lions, so my exploring suffers pretty badly. Get this quest.

May be worthwhile later on – we’ll see how the game progresses. And the second scout I build loses its first battle, so barb animals are really stunting my exploration. Finally meet Augustus who appears to be coming from the south. City 2 goes here – 3 food sources and 5 hills – fantastic site for production it seems.

City 3 quickly after that for copper.

Now time to get workers built to start improving. Nothing notable really to report for a long stretch. We all become hindu buddies, and I pop out a couple more cities. City 4 goes here for the gold and some much needed happiness:

Barbs aren’t a problem, because I’ve easily hooked up copper and horses. I need to scout out where everyone is to see if I can take Sury – I think he has two holy cities. I do find it amazing though, how barb spears come swarming toward me the minute I hook up horses – like they know it’s the perfect counter. I’ve seen no barbs other than spears. I got my axes hooked up as well, so it doesn’t really matter, but annoying nonetheless. The next city I aggressively settle toward Sury. Our creative traits will cancel one another out, but that’s ok. Now I need to find out what resources he has.

I start immediately building a library to put some extra creative pressure on him. I also find out there’s a barb city between us, so need to figure out what to do with that city. Time to also start building up the military, as I’ve been focusing a bit more on workers and settlers in the early game. I teched currency earlier than usual to make sure my economy will be on track with Cathy. Also realizing I probably should have looked at monarchy earlier with the wine resources, but oh well. In 600 BC, I meet Zara, another creative civ. He must be a bit further away though. Sury just settled a city right on copper, so he’s sure to soon hook up metals. I’ll have to wait until construction to do anything, which is ok as I focused on the cheap early settlers to claim a good chunk of land. I also have two good backfill spots, and am mounting a force to take the barb city. Barb city taken:

Again, a library is needed to combat Sury’s creative trait. Then, the stupid barb galleys. The worst thing about BTS is barb galleys. I hate them more than anything. Seafood eaten, my galleys destroyed. Seriously sets me back, and it sucks because there’s no counter until metal casting, which hasn’t yet been a priority. I lose 1 seafood and THREE galleys to the first barb galley that shows up, so now one of my coastal sites has to build nothing but galleys to counter the force while I start teching metal casting. How does a barb galley with strength 1.1 attack and beat my galley with strength 2. Really hate this aspect of BTS.

Anyway, I played pretty lazily the last 50 or so turns, as I was rushing to get to 1 AD before I had to go run errands, so I didn’t get to the second barb city I want to take. Need to do that next and get a couple more cities out, as well as start cottaging up. State of the world at 55 AD – just teched construction and starting to build my force for Sury and the barb city Anasazi to the west. I take that city and I’ve blocked a few more decent spots.

An ok start, but I really got hurt badly by the barb animals eating all my scouts, and the barb galleys shredding my seafood and galleys. Absent those two items, I probably would have been able to hit Sury with an early rush or do a better job of blocking early on. I also didn’t leverage imperialistic all that well, as I only got 6 cities (one by capture by 1 AD. Should have been trying to more aggressively crash economy and get to 8-9 cities by 1 AD.

 

[Tempesta13]

To 55 AD - monarch/epic

Spoiler :

Oh Cathy, what fond memories I have of our days in vanilla – I haven’t played you since vanilla (only by chance), but oh those 18 strength Cossacks with the financial trait made you as overpowered as Rome in my opinion in vanilla. So now my first game with you in BTS, and the Cossacks are down to 15 strength, and we’ve swapped out FIN for IMP, which is a trait I never seem to leverage well. Nonetheless, creative will save me hammers, on libraries and theaters, which I build in the majority of cities, and on monuments in the early game, and I figure that whoever our neighbors are, we need to settle aggressively toward them, because as long as our military is strong, we’ll constantly beat back borders with CRE.

The only risk I see is making sure the economy gets going early, because as long as Cathy’s economy is ok, she’s tough to beat. In terms of the start, I couldn’t find out much more with the scout, but I decided to take a chance that by moving the settler 1 NW, my start would be loaded with flood plains and would be a cottage heaven. That backfired a bit, as I added a bunch of plains, and gave up the rice. But the rice will be left with a great site to share with the cows later, so not that big a deal once I get a settler out. Moscow will still have some pretty solid cottage potential. Start teching AH so my worker will have something to do. First meeting is a fellow creative civ, Sury. Huts give me maps and gold. Finish AH, and horse is in my BFC – barb defense shouldn’t be an issue. Not too upset about moving the capital now because I’ll be able to make two strong cities here instead of one super strong city and one decent city.

Buddhism doesn’t go until turn 25, so no zealots, apparently. My scout is eaten by lions, so my exploring suffers pretty badly. Get this quest.

May be worthwhile later on – we’ll see how the game progresses. And the second scout I build loses its first battle, so barb animals are really stunting my exploration. Finally meet Augustus who appears to be coming from the south. City 2 goes here – 3 food sources and 5 hills – fantastic site for production it seems.

City 3 quickly after that for copper.

Now time to get workers built to start improving. Nothing notable really to report for a long stretch. We all become hindu buddies, and I pop out a couple more cities. City 4 goes here for the gold and some much needed happiness:

Barbs aren’t a problem, because I’ve easily hooked up copper and horses. I need to scout out where everyone is to see if I can take Sury – I think he has two holy cities. I do find it amazing though, how barb spears come swarming toward me the minute I hook up horses – like they know it’s the perfect counter. I’ve seen no barbs other than spears. I got my axes hooked up as well, so it doesn’t really matter, but annoying nonetheless. The next city I aggressively settle toward Sury. Our creative traits will cancel one another out, but that’s ok. Now I need to find out what resources he has.

I start immediately building a library to put some extra creative pressure on him. I also find out there’s a barb city between us, so need to figure out what to do with that city. Time to also start building up the military, as I’ve been focusing a bit more on workers and settlers in the early game. I teched currency earlier than usual to make sure my economy will be on track with Cathy. Also realizing I probably should have looked at monarchy earlier with the wine resources, but oh well. In 600 BC, I meet Zara, another creative civ. He must be a bit further away though. Sury just settled a city right on copper, so he’s sure to soon hook up metals. I’ll have to wait until construction to do anything, which is ok as I focused on the cheap early settlers to claim a good chunk of land. I also have two good backfill spots, and am mounting a force to take the barb city. Barb city taken:

Again, a library is needed to combat Sury’s creative trait. Then, the stupid barb galleys. The worst thing about BTS is barb galleys. I hate them more than anything. Seafood eaten, my galleys destroyed. Seriously sets me back, and it sucks because there’s no counter until metal casting, which hasn’t yet been a priority. I lose 1 seafood and THREE galleys to the first barb galley that shows up, so now one of my coastal sites has to build nothing but galleys to counter the force while I start teching metal casting. How does a barb galley with strength 1.1 attack and beat my galley with strength 2. Really hate this aspect of BTS.

Anyway, I played pretty lazily the last 50 or so turns, as I was rushing to get to 1 AD before I had to go run errands, so I didn’t get to the second barb city I want to take. Need to do that next and get a couple more cities out, as well as start cottaging up. State of the world at 55 AD – just teched construction and starting to build my force for Sury and the barb city Anasazi to the west. I take that city and I’ve blocked a few more decent spots.

An ok start, but I really got hurt badly by the barb animals eating all my scouts, and the barb galleys shredding my seafood and galleys. Absent those two items, I probably would have been able to hit Sury with an early rush or do a better job of blocking early on. I also didn’t leverage imperialistic all that well, as I only got 6 cities (one by capture by 1 AD. Should have been trying to more aggressively crash economy and get to 8-9 cities by 1 AD.

Spoiler :

I think you are right to say you didn't REX fast enough - but really you did a pretty good job anyway. I REX'd as fast as i could - getting the slider down between 0 and 20% awhile, and i really only ended up with 1 more city than you at 1 AD. Basically the barb city in the SW (same spot as my game i think) - i captured that early to make sure i had my land blocked off. It was very expensive (i think 9 gold upkeep before i got a courthouse in there). So waiting later to take that probably would have been a better idea.

The nice spot where you put St Petersburg i waited forever to settle (probably around 500 AD) so i was lacking that good production spot for most of the early game.

There's really no rush to take out Sury i don't think. You are #1 in land without taking his cities - so you can peacefully settle for awhile still with no rush to attack. You should hook up the marble and go for the great library. In my game Sury didn't adopt a relgion for awhile - while the rest of us all shared one. He later founded christianity so he's not liked very much - in your game you will probably take a diplo demerit for attacking him since you're all hindu - but shouldn't matter too much since you have all the shared religion bonuses with JC + Zara.

On the other hand, Sury founded hindu in your game - so taking the holy city could really help you out (if he got a prophet). I'd take that barb city, maybe settle 1 more somewhere, hook up marble, build GL, then attack Gilg and you should be in a position to win this one easy.

I didn't realize Sury was also creative - that's why i was still haven't trouble beating his culture! I put a city in the same spot you put Yaro and he took over the rice there...

JC without iron isn't so scary, is he? I kept waiting for his power to shoot up, getting ready to build up my own army also, but it never happened. Then i checked and sure enough - no iron... He probably wishes he could re-roll the start.

 

[assass1n]

Spoiler :

I think you are right to say you didn't REX fast enough - but really you did a pretty good job anyway. I REX'd as fast as i could - getting the slider down between 0 and 20% awhile, and i really only ended up with 1 more city than you at 1 AD. Basically the barb city in the SW (same spot as my game i think) - i captured that early to make sure i had my land blocked off. It was very expensive (i think 9 gold upkeep before i got a courthouse in there). So waiting later to take that probably would have been a better idea.

The nice spot where you put St Petersburg i waited forever to settle (probably around 500 AD) so i was lacking that good production spot for most of the early game.

There's really no rush to take out Sury i don't think. You are #1 in land without taking his cities - so you can peacefully settle for awhile still with no rush to attack. You should hook up the marble and go for the great library. In my game Sury didn't adopt a relgion for awhile - while the rest of us all shared one. He later founded christianity so he's not liked very much - in your game you will probably take a diplo demerit for attacking him since you're all hindu - but shouldn't matter too much since you have all the shared religion bonuses with JC + Zara.

On the other hand, Sury founded hindu in your game - so taking the holy city could really help you out (if he got a prophet). I'd take that barb city, maybe settle 1 more somewhere, hook up marble, build GL, then attack Gilg and you should be in a position to win this one easy.

I didn't realize Sury was also creative - that's why i was still haven't trouble beating his culture! I put a city in the same spot you put Yaro and he took over the rice there...

JC without iron isn't so scary, is he? I kept waiting for his power to shoot up, getting ready to build up my own army also, but it never happened. Then i checked and sure enough - no iron... He probably wishes he could re-roll the start.

Spoiler :

NO JerkC but Augustus who is very loyal and doesn't declare at pleased and off course without iron he is not much of a danger neither him nor Sury
I will post screenshots of my city placement soon it differs a LOT

 

[Tempesta13]

Emperor/Normal 1 AD - 1000 AD

Spoiler :

Not much going on - close to liberalism - and really need to focus on taking over more land (looking at you Sury) very soon. Finally getting around to taking out a barb city up north and putting one of my own up there.

Since the 3 AI's on our continent have so little land, they are teching very slow. I have compass, and need to think about getting optics soon to see what's going on elsewhere. Not even trying to build any sort of army yet, and still somewhat keeping up with power - so when i do decide to pump units i imagine it won't take too long to have enough for an attack. Haven't gotten around to getting machinery, construction, feudalism or horseback riding yet - so i will look to trade for those with paper and education probably.

Not sure how Sury is pleased with me - he's a different religion and i stopped trading with him when he became AC's worst enemy.

 

[michmbk]

Tempesta:

Spoiler :

I loved that St. Pete spot - became even more powerful as a result of me moving Moscow NW at the start, so it can use all the resources all game. I think the only major mistake i had was not getting 1-2 more cities, but those stupid barb galleys really distracted me toward the end. This is why it's good to take a break between rounds, see what others do and get some feedback - helps make the next round better, which I think it will be for sure.

 

[michmbk]

Monarch Epic 55 AD to 1150 AD

Spoiler :

First things first – the barb city needs to go – it’s far from the capital, so will cost me until I get a courthouse in, but it’ll block another nice stretch of land for me. Quickly send the troops:

no casualties, which is nice, and some nice gold to allow me to get the courthouse built Zara is starting to scare me a bit, as he’s teching really well. Then, after I take the barb city, Sury settles between my cities, which seals his fate. His tech rate sucks even though he has the hindu holy city – must not have gotten his great prophet. Anyway, I can’t have a creative civ settling between my cities, so I quickly amass my force to get him pre-construction – he’s 10 turns away when I start to mass my troops. Trying to do two things at once, which doesn’t always work out for me – I want to get the great library built while beating up Sury. Here we come:

My goal is to take a minimum of two cities this time, and the rest next time through. Think that’s reasonable given how far behind in tech he is. Quickly the first city goes – a nice start:

I like horse archers - reminded of how much I liked them from the Kublai game where my keshiks killed everything until I finally petered out. No casualties, and all my troops move into that city to heal. Building units everywhere except Moscow, which has started the great library, and with marble and all my chopping, it should be an easy get. I hit the random event, and I decide that 7 horse archers is too good to pass up when I’m in the midst of a war. They’re off to Sury’s cities. Another city quickly bites the dust:

And, good old marble and a few chops helps this – my research rate needed it:

And I take peace for 10 turns for a bunch of gold. Need a few cats to finish the job, as he whipped spears everywhere. And 11 turns later, as I’m running out of gold, it’s time. I DOW him again. And meanwhile, sometimes I build things that don’t really fit with my strategy, but I do it just because – it’s a mistake I need to stop making, but hey, it’s a wonder, and Moscow is running a lot of specialists, so probably ok.

And a couple cities quickly go:

And I decide to let him off the hook.

It’ll take too much time to finish off the rest of his cities – I figure the one sandwiched between mine will get beaten back culturally, and I have the holy city anyway, so now I just need to figure out how to rebuild my economy and get a prophet. And how to fix the economy….cottages everywhere – chopping courthouses in Sury’s cities, and cottaging up everything I can. I get my scientist to bulb half of education, and start teching down guilds/banking, as another great person is coming in 12 turns – I assume it'll be a scientist to finish education, and then I can head back to lib. As you can see, the economy is a problem:

Losing money at 20% - I thought I’d be toast until I got FP built, which was going to take 20-25 turns, and I’ve really crashed my economy this game, but I’m realizing with each monarch game I play how quickly you can turn it around with cottages, courthouses and libraries. Especially if you build/steal enough workers, which I'm very cognizant of doing these days. I have about 15-20 workers, and they're all chopping or cottaging – all trees on the map are going bye bye while I get these courthouses, libraries and FP built. I popped that second scientist to finish education, and am starting on lib. And this is where I stopped this round – FP is 5 turns away, and Lib is 14 turns away, or less, because I presume tech will soar once FP built. Empire:

Check out how in 19 turns I got the tech rate from 20% to 40%, and still have FP, which I assume will allow me to comfortably hit 50%. Another trick I've been doing is since I'm 10 techs up on Sury, trading him one each 5 or so turns for 50-60 gold. Not trading him alphabet yet though - might as well try to keep him trading only with me. With my size, and my anticipation of hitting lib first, looks like I will be able to start taking a commanding tech lead, and run roughshod with Cossacks. Only slight issue is cultural pressure Sury is placing on my border cities - I need to leave military there right now, and am building culture buildings to flip those borders back. But I assume I am significantly larger than any other civ at this point, and Augustus and Zara are pleased and friendly, so no worries about backstabs. Should be able to really take over soon, especially if I hit lib.

 

[djvandrake]

Monarch / Epic 4000 B.C. to 10 A.D.

Spoiler :

I settled in place and did a little poking around. I had AWFUL luck with bears. And I mean Awful. I lost two scouts and an archer to bears.

Anywho, this is the state of things.

I took advantage of that marble up there and built the Oracle in Moscow.

I then took Code of Laws as the free tech and founded Confucianism. The holy cit is St. Petersberg up in the cold hinterlands.

Using the marble and chopping out two forests I also snagged.

The GPP brought a quick Great Prophet in Moscow and I used him to build the shrine for Confucianism.

In hindsight I regret this decision. I should have bulbed Theology instead. My economy is humming along but I would have preferred the second religion since I'm considering a cultural strategy for victory.

The only neighbor I've met is Sury to my south (and he's encroaching fast) due to my aforementioned difficulties with scouting.

And as usual I'm off to a slow start militarily. However, I do have horses for horse archers and I just hooked up iron. So, I'm going to build a swordman and then go after that barb city. I'll raze it and build a city one west of it to get the iron. I have to hurry to beat Sury to it. Then I'll fill in that awesome coastal spot in the northwest.

Tech Path has been:

Archery
Agriculture (popped from a hut!)
The Wheel
Mysticism
Pottery
Meditation
Preisthood
Masonary
Bronze Working
Animal Husbandry
Polytheism
Horseback Riding
Monotheism
Fishing
Monarchy (in progress)

Someone else got the mids.

I'm going for Aesthitics next to build a the Parthenon and Statue of Zeus. Then it's units, units, and more units. I'm not a fan of Sury, and he's got to go.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

 

[Phil725]

Played the next round.

Monarch - Epic - To 1000AD

Spoiler :

Sury going into WHEOOH mode turned out to be a false alarm. Buddhism spread to both of us, and now the continent is a giant love fest.

This round was pretty much limited to recovering my economy. I got the key techs and got courthouses and markets in the needed cities. I settled 4 fill in cities, and my economy should be great once I get the infrastructure up in all of them.

Vladivostok looks like an excellent commerce city with gold, 2 wines, some flood plains, and a lot of riverside tiles. Unfortunately it's still going to take a while to get going. I really should have settled here sooner. The other cities aren't as good, but are more to pick up resources.

Unfortunately, I can't shake the feeling that I'm doing terribly in this game. It took me too long to recover my economy, and my tech rate is now just climbing up to average. Zara seems to be on a liberalism beeline that I haven't seen the AI do before. He bulbed philosophy, has civil service and paper on everyone, and he's actually researching education. I have 1 GS saved, but unless Zara loses focus, I'm not going to get a free tech.

My cities aren't that good on food either, keeping me from running a lot of specialists. Civil service should definitely help though.

On the military front, Sury has a ton more land than I thought, and he has some big longbow stacks in some of them. A war before cannons or rifles is out.

I'm thinking that my best option now is to just beeline a big military tech, backstab and blitz Sury, and then just overwhelm the rest of the continent with numbers.

This game could still go either way. Hopefully I can pull it out though. The other continent being very backward would help, but I doubt it since I haven't seen a single GG yet. I'm guessing it's a Hindu lovefest.

 

[Ai Shizuka]

Monarch/epic, 1000 - 1760:

Spoiler :

techs: drama (Zara) - machinery - guilds and optics (Zara) - eng and banking (Aug) - gunpowder - economics - ppress (Aug) - mil trad - rep parts - astro (Aug) - constitution - democracy - rifling - chemistry - steel - mil science - steam power - railroad - corporation (Aug)

1130 - Ready to declare war on Sury:

1190 - Double golden age with the free GA from muskc:

1255 - Harihasomething captured (settled GS and academy).

1260 - Alex shows himself. Very backward.

1295 - Rajavihara captured and I get some cash from peace. Captured 3 cities, but he suddenly has magic longbows and castles everywhere. Need some trebs and more maces.

1395 - Free GM from economics. Will found Sushi.

1540 - Meet Hannibal. Kinda backward as well.

1540 - DoW Sury again, with trebs and maces. Nobody likes him, so I can declare multiple times without diplo penalties.

1550 - Yasodharapura captured. Good production potential with some workshops and 2 settled GGs. Will be my future IW military city.

1675 - Angkor Wat captured.

1685 - Alex declares war and bribes Hannibal to declare as well. He shows up with some galleons between Yaroslavl and Moscow. I make peace with Sury and run back with my stack.

1695 - Alex captures Yaroslavl. Moscow is at risk, but a lot of rifles are converging there.

1702 - I bribe Zara vs Alex. Yaroslavl recaptured, but there are still 8 units at Moscow. Knights and siege.

1704 - Sury DoW Zara.

1706 - And Augustus DoW Sury. Greek stack at Moscow is destroyed. Luckily the idiot wasted a couple turns pillaging and bombarding.

1716 - I declare vs Sury AGAIN. Alex and Hannibal don't talk yet, so I'm still at war with both of them.

1720 - Pre Rup captured and I bribe Zara to sign peace with Sury. I don't want nasty vassalization surprises.

1726 - Peace with Hannibal for 45 gold and peace with Alex for nothing.

1736 - Angkor Thom captured.

1744 - Isvarapura captured.

1750 - Jayendranagari captured.

1758 - Banteai Kdei captured and Sury is dead.


Techs:

Glance:

I was thinking about no-stop war until the continent is under my control, but it doesn't make sense now. Zara and Augustus love me, Alex and Hannibal hate me. So I'll probably amass a bunch of galleons and wipe Alex with Cossacks. He doesn't have rifles yet, so it will be quick. Then probably Hannibal and I think UN win.

 

[Tempesta13]

Emperor/Normal 1000-1500 AD

Spoiler :

Finally having my first war of the game - it's about time. I really should have taken him out earlier (maces/trebs). He built Versailles for me here, which is nice. Caesar and Zara are ahead of me in tech - that won't make it any easier to take them out later if they are going to have rifles/infantry. Hopefully it goes ok and i won't need to wait for tanks.

After taking out Sury i should be able to build some observatories, and the necessary infrastructure in newly captured cities and be #1 in research easily with all this land. Maybe that will allow me to get a tech or two up on those guys soon. I have a feeling this game will get ugly at the end.

 

[Sleepless]

Monarch - Normal - 1795AD

Spoiler :

First off really enjoyed this game so onto a few details. I settled in place and managed to settle a good bit of land. Sury founded Hinduism and spread that to me, AC and Zara so the first 5600 years were spent peacefully on our island although I eventually found Zara and Hannibal were having a few wars.

I managed to build most of the early wonders. I actually bulbed a GM on machinery (a first for me). The original plan was to attack using cossacks/curr but I abandoned that idea in favour of tanks quite early on. My tech rate was very good in this game. I had cottaged up Moscow and a few more dotted around. I know in the 1200s (Admittedly in a Golden Age) I was putting out 1200+ beakers per turn.

I did think of delaying Lib but took Astro quite early then teched most of the bottom of the tech tree including combustion before SM. Although Zara had Sci Meth before me I used 3 x GS to grab Physics first and the GSpy from Communism as well.

There was one big problem with delaying Sci Meth for so long. No oil

I did miss it first of all but there was some on mine and Surys borders so although I had saved a GS for Standard Ethanol I thought it was time for the Russian military to start expanding. So in 1660 I started my first war. LBs and knights against Inf/Cannons. No contest. I took 2 of his cities, gave one back but obviously kept the oil city and gained my first vassal.

No rest for the wicked so straight on to AC. 2 of his cities fell and with my oil hooked up and tanks coming on line he decided his rifles weren't enough defence so vassal number 2.

Zara did have Arty/Rifles but after taking his capital (which I gave back) vassal number 3. I had built a few galleons which I upgraded to transports as soon as I could so sent a small task force to Alex. Took Sparta and with my tanks heading towards Athens he bent the knee as well. Kindly gave him his city back so my forces could head towards Darius/Han.

A bit more fight from Han had to take 6 cities of his before he gave up and on the same turn Darius capitulated. So in 1795 Cathie gained her conquest by vassals victory.

 

[Tempesta13]

Monarch/epic, 1000 - 1760:

Spoiler :

I was thinking about no-stop war until the continent is under my control, but it doesn't make sense now. Zara and Augustus love me, Alex and Hannibal hate me. So I'll probably amass a bunch of galleons and wipe Alex with Cossacks. He doesn't have rifles yet, so it will be quick. Then probably Hannibal and I think UN win.

Spoiler :

I'm going to have to agree with this - my game is currently in a very sloppy war with Zara and AC (around 1860)- AC is down to 2 cities and capitulated to Zara (hate when that happens) so i'm at war with him sooner than i wanted. I got indust. but didn't have combustion for oil. I really wanted to turn off research after indust. since war weariness is horrible (8 or 10 per city) but since i can't pump out tanks yet i have to wait.

I can scrap along and beat Zara eventually - being in a position to still win no problem since Zara is the tech leader and i'm not far behind. Or if i can get peace for awhile i can probably out produce him 5 to 1 at this point, plus tanks vs infantry.

Point is, i was in your position earlier with having both them at friendly/pleased, and think building galleons instead of backstabbing might have played out easier.

 

[Ai Shizuka]

1760 - 1896, end:

Spoiler :

Techs: railroad - combustion - sci method - biology - medicine - communism (Zara) - physics - electricity - radio - mmedia - al - industrialism - fascism (Aug) - fission - refrigeration - plastics


1776 - Alex declares war again.

1778 - But his first stack is quite pathetic:

1780 - Second stack fails as well:

1792 - Annoying Alex with a lot of scattered galleons/frigates, so I get some cash for peace. Still need a few more transports to attack him.

1796 - Alex and Hannibal sign defensive pact.

1822 - I get a GE at very low odds and found Mining Inc in Moscow.

1830 - I declare war vs Alex and Hannibal.

1832 - I bribe Augustus vs Hannibal and Knossos is captured.

1834 - Corinth captured.

1836 - Sushi founded in Moscow.

1846 - Thebes captured.

1847 - I propose AP dogpiling vs Hannibal and the resolution succeeds.

1852 - Athens captured.

1855 - Argos captured.

1859 - Sparta: Colossus, Chichen Itza and Confu shrine (20 gpt).

1863 - Peace with Hannibal. He's still at war vs Augustus and Zara. They have a huge tech advantage, but somehow can't do any serious damage. Hann lost a single city at some point, but that was it.

And Alex is dead:

1880 - I win UN secretary, but can't get the diplo win right now. Darius needs 1 more point to get friendly. But if I adopt his fav civic (free religion), I'd lose both shared religion and fav civic with Zara (Theocracy). So I sign a defensive pact with Darius to push him to friendly.

1896 - And 2 resolutions later I have Darius' votes:

Demographics, boosted by Sushi and Mining Inc.:

Power spike when I started spamming marines to attack Hannibal:

Stats:

Score:

Techs:

Glance:

Moscow. Oxford/Wall Street:

Sury's capital. IW+HE. Forgot to assign that N cottage to the northern city:

And Moai city:

Tempesta:

Spoiler :

Continental warfare is obviously easier, but both Hannibal and Alex have been total jerks in my game. And they was very backward, compared to my friends Aug and Zara.
So, backstabbing AC or Zara would have let me vulnerable vs Alex right at Moscow's doorstep. He actually managed to capture one of my cities.

 

[michmbk]

1150 AD to 1655 AD – Domination victory. Ended up being my second highest score yet - just behind my JC Earth 18 game.

Spoiler :

When I last left off, I had crashed my economy a bit while beating up Sury, but had started to pull out of the crash. My plan at this point is finish FP, lib---nationalism, build Taj because we have marble. Unless there’s an industrious techer on the other continent, should be a lock for Taj, then in the golden age, switch back to slavery, mass whipping of cuirassiers while moving towards Cossacks, and take over the continent. Then find out who else we have on the map, and beat them up with horsies too.

First things first, FP:

Instant economy relief – from -4 GPT at 40% to +21 GPT at 40%. Amazing. I then see Augustus has completed Spiral Minaret – that’ll be nice when I take that, as I’ve built a bunch of hindu buildings for the hammers since it’s the AP religion. He and Zara don't have enough cities - I have 15 compared to 6-7 each, so this should be easy now. And lib:

Time for Taj. Which finishes as I’m building all the rest of my hindu buildings, and conveniently, as I finish military tradition.

Now civics switches as I get military ready. Augustus is teching chemistry, so he’s trying to stay with me from a military perspective, but he doesn’t have enough cities to keep up once I get cuirassiers up. A GS pops and bulbs part of printing press, as I’m looking to speed the arrival of my Cossacks. I can now see Darius and Hannibal on the map, but haven’t met them yet. In due time, I guess. No real rush for me. Pop another GS at the end of the golden age, and figure back to back golden ages are worthwhile, since I need cash to upgrade. Then this random event.

It’s really not even fair now. Time to whip and hit Augustus.

First city goes:

Off to Rome next.

And, that’s the city I wanted:

Augustus’s wonderspamming pays off for me big time. The shame of it all is, if I waited for my golden ages until after Rome, they would have been 50% longer! He’s ready to capitulate, but I want to keep Rome, so I need to take 1-2 more cities to get Rome to not be surrounded by his culture. This turned out to be a mistake as I clearly could have finished significantly earlier if I had tried. I severely overestimated the other civs and their militaries. Research turned off to upgrade to Cossacks. Meet Alex – he’s way behind. 2 cities on the same turn:

And:

Augustus is finished. Right as I meet Hannibal, who appears to have been constantly warring with Darius, because he’s pretty backwards. Next up – Zara, who is peacefully teching away, but neglecting military techs. Bad idea.

Cossacks are coming from everywhere now. I realize I do need to divert one city into producing galleons to finish off the other continent. It doesn’t take long for Zara to realize he’s overmatched. 3 turns, and capitulation.

Every city that can switches to galleons, and every single city is getting whipped. Forget happiness now – speed is all that matters. I need to get my Cossacks over to Darius and Hanny. Hannibal is first because he doesn’t even have astro or chem., and his capital is closest. Cathage:

Hannibal took all of 2 turns to capitulate:

Off to Darius:

And he lasts 5 turns – impressive in comparison to Hanny. And we’re all done:

Stats - check out the power of flanking - I lost 16 mounted units out of 100 built, despite using them almost exclusively to attack cities - I only built 14 siege weapons all game:

This game was really easy once we hit lib – this was my second highest score yet. Too many cities and too much production for me, especially with crowded AIs.. I think the AI was way too crowded to ever get dangerous this game. No one had enough land to ever get big, except me by settling towards Sury and taking him out early. The less land there is, the easier a monarch game is if you have a creative civ and rex properly. Didn’t help that Hanny and Darius appeared to hate each other, so they were way backward when I met them and constantly warring. Neither of them were even close to rifles when I hit, which meant no chance against cossacks (who all got a free flanking promotion). The other thing that made this easy was the random events and quests. For a russian civ to get the stables quest and the flanking random event, it's not even fair. I got 7 free horse archers early on, and a free flanking for my already overpowered cossacks.

I rexed too slowly early on, or else this would have been ugly even faster. What amazed me was that everyone would capitulate after just a few turns – they didn’t have enough cities or enough production to keep up with the swarms of cuirassiers and Cossacks. Fun game - I hadn't used the creative trait in awhile, and it was nice to not worry about getting resources in the first ring of the BFC.