Monarch Student VII - Mao Zedong

[Phil725]

Monarch - Epic - 1000-1500AD

Spoiler :

Early in this round I finally got my religion:

The combination of OR and sharing a religion with everyone was a big boost as expected. I met Bis the same turn. As anticipated, he's the Confucian founder. What I didn't anticipate was that he's been warring with Toku and Mehmed the entire time. He's hopelessly backwards from it, but he actually held his own militarily, and Toku eventually wussed out and voluntarily vassaled to Mehmed.

First thing I did was press on towards lib. I got education done in a few turns, and got lib with no problem, taking nationalism. You can always count on the AI to ignore this line:

I backfilled some big techs off of Mehmed, also getting a map. The map reveals that Mongolia and France are the 2 other nations, I think Mongolia is bashing France in though, as there was a lot of GG's born in Mongolian cities. This got me to WFYABTA with Mehmed, which was very surprising since I didn't take any cheap techs, plus I've only traded with him twice for I think 6 techs. He must be in the anti-Musa WFYABTA club with Toku.

That wasn't a huge deal though, because soon after lib I finished the Taj, and my economy skyrocketed. My cottages in my first cities are starting to mature, and now I have an entire secondary wave of them boosted by emancipation that should give me a huge boost when I switch into FEUSS or whatever. I popped a GA in Lisbon at a 5% chance, which was fine since I was using that GP for a chained golden age no matter what. Lisbon has gotten killed on GS luck, at 97%, 90%, 90% and 85% for each GS, I've gotten only 1, which was used to bulb education. Not really a huge deal because the merchants are arguably better post lib, but the odds are funny to look at.

The golden ages were a huge boost to my economy, I grew all of my cities a lot, and got universities and other expensive buildings up in most cities. Pulling in 500bpt at 1500AD, I feel I'm in solid position for the future. I got a GPro in Beijing from all the wonders, I'll combine that with whatever GP comes out from my farm for another golden age to do a mass civic switch.

As far as bizarre situations go, Toku is the tech leader. He has PP on Mehmed and all the other techs thanks to being his vassal. I don't have enough of a tech lead to get him with rifles since my cities aren't great production wise. I figure an assembly line beeline may be required. If I can get rid of Toku and Mehmed, the game is won. I haven't met the other continent yet, but if any of them have gunpowder or paper I'll be surprised.

Here's the current tech situation:

I can research everything there in 1 or 2 turns except for economics and astronomy. At some point I'll have to detour down the astronomy line, but I have no motivation to do so for now. I would rather sit at pleased/friendly with the Confu club than have to deal with a crazy, full continent heathen Mongolian.

And here is the city overview:

Beijing is my current powerhouse thanks to Bureaucracy, but thanks to some other cities actually contributing beakers, I'm not as dependent on it as I usually am. Xian and Chinook especially are full of hamlets and villages. And will be forces soon. The only major problem I see is no real production outside of the capital. I may have to workshop over some cities that aren't completely specialized yet.

 

[Phil725]

Played until ~1868

Spoiler :

This round was all war. I continued teching towards assembly line while massing trebs. Once I finally got to AL, I started building infantry in all cities while teching towards steel. Once steel was in I upgraded the trebs to cannons and got a few ironclads for coast protection. It took a few more turns to get enough troops ready to go, but then Toku was the unlucky target. He really should have helped me more when I needed him...

He really had no chance from the beginning. He was in a war with Bis, and had very few troops in general. His two cities closest to me were each guarded by a samurai and longbowman. He got some rifles up by the time I got to his big cities, but a few rifles aren't going to stop infantry. His capital was a decent surprise with wonders, he easily outpaced the wonder hogs. He also got the Colossos and Hagia Sophia in other cities.

I should've razed Tokyo because its useless because of the culture pressure, but either way, Toku's gone.

From there I took a short break to heal, and then it was on to Bis. He was really pressing the culture in the big Japanese cities, plus he's pretty backwards, along with taking up a lot of land.

My stack was still very much intact, and I easily took the cities closest to the Japanese land before moving onto his big 3 cities.

During this attack my reinforcements arrived to take Bis's southern cities:

Somewhere in here, St. Augustine gives us some shocking news, were finally Mao the Glorious for something:

My forces finally take Munich, the Confucian holy city. I opened up the city to see how much money the shrine is raking in:

Apparently, Bis thought it would be a good idea to shrine the Taoist holy city to get 4 gpt, instead of the Confu holy city, which was spread to every city in 4 empires. Gotta love the AI.

Bis is down to only his capital left. My troops converge, and a stack of ~100 units takes down his 5 rifles to wipe him off the map.

I was wrong when I assumed that there was no industrious civs in the game, but 2 of them getting bashed in from the start leads to a similar result either way. the MoM is useless now unless I get 3 more GPs that I need, but at least I don't have to fight against the SoZ anymore.

The first city I took in the war had Hinduism in it, which turns out to be the AP religion. I'm not sure if Louis could pull off a cheap AP win or not, he still needed to get the religion to Mehmed, but I wasn't in the mood to take chances. I bought a bunch of Hindu missionaries and spammed them around, so now i can easily block any resolution I want.

I stopped there, I have enough infantry for Mehmed, but I need to restock my siege weapons. Artillery is in in 6 turns, and it looks to be necessary because Mehmed is the only person in the world close to me in tech. He doesn't have AL yet, but he already built Broadway, and is teching very fast. I'll probably run into tanks by the time he's done.

Here are the victory conditions:

No threats at all, this game is definitely in hand. The only questionable thing is if I'll have to invade the other continent or not. Chances are I'll have to take a city or two off of Louis or GK to get the job done once Mehmed falls. GK has had enough on his hands for some 300 years now, but he doesn't even have the technology to reach me. Although it would be funny to see his ships go up against my destroyers.

 

[michmbk]

Emperor Epic to 5 BC. Something really weird happened in my game - to my benefit, but I still can't fully understand it. I can speculate what happened, but it was really strange.

Spoiler :

I think this is my second Chinese game on BTS, and the other was back when I was still at prince level, so I imagine this will be far different. In that game I vividly remember beelining machinery and abusing cathy, alex and ragnar with cho-ko-nus. Fun stuff. Hoping for an opportunity for similar abuse here.

The start – well, sure looks like this is what bureaucracy was made for. Tempted to move 1S for the hope of even more FPs, but there’s enough food in place to just put cottages everywhere, so that’s the plan. Start with a warrior until size 2, then switch to worker to get the hammer bonus – I think that usually gets both out within a turn or two of when the worker would have arrived had I started worker first. Start AH, then BW, then went toward pottery to get those cottages going fast. A lot of gold on this map – already found three gold mines. Two are unfortunately right next to this guy:

Yuck – he annoys me to no end and is awfully close – I’m already considering early rush. He has a great capital too, it appears, with stone, corn and crab. Pop this from a hut.

Why couldn’t that have been wheel or BW. Nice, but not a gamebreaker like one of those would have been. Also got gold, experience, and a map. Joao must have land to the west he’s exploring, because I got all these huts right east of him. Bears are everywhere – I keep having to evade them. Hit AH and BW, and there’s both horses and copper, but horses are far away and copper locations are a bit mediocre. Rush would be awfully difficult I suspect. Here's where something weird happened with Joao though – he still hadn’t settled a second city by the time I had scouted a fair amount of land – I wonder if his settler might have been eaten by animals or something - you'll see why as this writeup develops.

I saw an opportunity out of this – I could really aggressively get some settlers out, and block one, two, or maybe even three cities to the west, claim copper, two gold, and block off the rest of this side to backfill later, so I think that’s the approach. Trying to grow a bit and then rex fast. Second city goes here for copper and two golds.

I’m really not sure what Joao’s story is, because he still hasn’t settled anything other than his capital. On turn 58?!?!? I have to take advantage of whatever happened to him, so I’m actively trying to get these blocking cities down. He finally gets one settled, but it seems awfully late for Mr. Rex. If it’s just me and him here, this is going to suck a bit. I’m not really interested in playing a lonely game on emperor. City three goes here, to hopefully continue blocking, and now the economy starts to suck - still adjusting to emperor's early economy problems.

You'll see in the shot above Joao settled a city between my two, but I believe once my borders pop, he's boxed in by my culture. It appears to be me and Joao only on this little island, and I think I successfully boxed him in, because he’s not teching all that well, and he demands writing right after I tech alphabet. Sorry Joao, we’re not going to be BFFs. I’m building axes, because I have the only copper on the island claimed, and have blocked him from horses too. So he’ll be in deep trouble - I haven't yet checked to see if he has anywhere west to go, but it doesn't look like he has much opportunity outside of this island. I don’t want to open borders with him though, because I don’t trust him. I figure since he doesn’t have appear to have copper or horses, why not worker steal:

I figure this will let me explore his cities without letting him do much exploring. Fourth city goes here, I figure it’s close and can use the cottages from the capital from time to time to keep them growing.

That's going to be an amzing site post-calendar. This is what I find from exploring:

We are not fully isolated, but I’m going to have to get a galley out to check that out. I didn't do that as of 5 BC, because of barb galleys. Mad about not investigating that, but next round. I then played a fun chess game with Joao. He kept wanting to get workers building around Lisbon, but I moved my axes around and as a result, cornered a worker so his only move is next to one of my axes – two steals!

He has no copper and no horses, so at this point, he’s toast. I’ve pillaged him and blocked him in pretty bad, so not much he can do to keep with me. No peace until he’s willing to offer something for it – he’s not yet willing, so more pillaging. I then find out without exploring over there that Toku is on the next island, so it looks like whatever I want to tech, I’ll be teching myself. Good thing I have cottages and gold everywhere. And wow – I completely forgot I was building this, and was really doing it for the gold.

How on earth did I get Oracle that late - weird set of AI on this map, I think. I guess Joao will have to deal with protective longbows – I chose feudalism. And the dummy does it again – he lets me box in ANOTHER worker. I’ve taken three from him. I have so many workers I don’t know what to do with them. I’m sure I’m probably harming myself in the long run, but annoying Joao is too much fun to stop. Meet Mehmed, and make a couple deals with him to catch up a bit in tech. I figure he and I will need to be trading buddies. That gets him to pleased, which is important to keep him that way. I manually tech code of laws, and this:

I’m beginning to think we have some slow techers on this map, as I wouldn't have thought I'd be first to COL in 260 BC on emperor. And with the help of a few longbows, I finally take one of his cities:

It’s not optimally placed, so I’m razing it. He still won’t give me anything for peace – I don’t get it – he’s getting destroyed in this war, but won’t accept peace. Frustrating. Speaking of frustrating, I dislike barb galleys…a lot. They really are the most unfair aspect of civ - pillage my crabs, beat up a promoted galley, and force me to start building another galley and now that I have MC, a trireme or two. This is where I ended up at 5 BC. Empire:

This is a little deceptive, because I just finished 1 settler, and am 2-3 turns from another one, to claim my two marked sites to the south, so I’ll have 7 cities in about 5 turns. After that, I'll have 1-2 more sites in between to fill in, and Lisbon to round out my empire. Joao has his one size 12 city, with 10 archers and 5 workers holed up in it. I’ve already stolen three of his workers, so now once I hit machinery and construction, I can take Lisbon pretty easily. Mehmed has been keeping me ok in tech with a few good trades. I figure in the next 50 turns I’ll get enough power to finish off Joao and will also be able to focus on specializing my cities better and starting to improve tech. I've designated Joao's capital for my GP farm, and my capital for my bureacracy site. Short term next steps are to get machinery and civil service for bureau and chokonus.

 

[Phil725]

Monarch - Epic - 1893 Domination Victory

Spoiler :

Everything went pretty much as planned. I researched the rest of artillery while setting up 3 stacks to take out Mehmed quickly. Each one had ~30 infantry and ~15 artillery. Mehmed was teching very well, the only problem for him however, was that he teched the wrong things. He started teching assembly line, and since he would have it in 5 turns, I figured it was time to attack. He did a lot of damage with airships and flanking cavalry on my initial approach. Unfortunately for him, he focused his damage on my stack with the super medic. He didn't actually kill any units, and they were fully healed in a few turns. I easily took his northern most 3 cities, as well as the city he settled on my continent with a few infantry and a spy.

Only one city offered any real reward:

Free happiness is nice, I was hopeful for some more wonders, but that turned out to be it.

From here he only had 3 cities, and his entire army had been decimated. He did have an impressive navy though, I had a few destroyers, but he easily overwhelmed me and did a lot of damage to my coastal cities, pillaging all my seafood and taking down cultural defense. He never did land any troops though.

I took 2 more cities, leaving him with only Istanbul and 2 crappy island cities. GK finally got his forces together to declare war on me. He landed some cavalry and trebs on my southern city, but I anticipated that and had a good defense set up there. He landed a smaller force up near Berlin, but he didn't kill a single unit on either front before I overwhelmed him with troops coming from all over by railroad. I wanted to take the fight to him, but I'm only .3% or so away from domination. I could have waited the 10 turns for Mehmed's big 3 cities to come out of revolt, but I wanted to finish before 1900, so I let him keep his 2 island cities:

And next turn:

As anticipated, my power was unmatched once I focused on it:

I was right to skip rifles altogether and beeline AL. I was able to keep my military advantage the entire game. Mehmed was 5 turns away from AL when I declared, 7 turns away before I took his capital, and ~50 turns away after he capitulated. The win loss ratio for my army was excellent:

110 infantry, losing 8, 65 cannons, losing ~25 before upgrading them to artillery and then I only lost 2. I was really expecting more from these AI's, they were at a tech disadvantage, but none are really pushovers.

And the score, my best so far:

Comments on the map:

Spoiler :

This map is definitely tailor made for an axe rush. I just don't see how you can get in as dominating of a position fighting for good land with an excellent REXer. There is easily enough good land on the main continent to power you to whatever victory condition you want. The tech pace in my game was weird, the AI's were doing very well before liberalism, but when they got to the point where they usually take off (FEUSS) they just stagnated, leaving them as easy targets. Some people may face more resistance, but nothing a good rush can't fix.

Definitely a fun map though, looking forward to the next one.

 

[FlyinJohnnyL]

Michmbk-

Spoiler :

Joao did the exact same thing in my game! Not only was he not settling any cities, he wasn't even scouting! I think I probably got every hut (including one that popped 6 warriors, that sucked). I actually avoided war with him for a long time just to see how his little OCC would go. I know I would have been better off taking his cap as quick as I could, but hey, sometimes we say screw optimal and have some fun!

What's even funnier, he wasn't building wonders or anything. I don't know if he just was jonesing to use the carrack or what.

 

[michmbk]

flyinjohnny:

Spoiler :

That was so weird - I got every hut as well. Playing at emperor, he should have had an extra settler, which means he clearly should have had two cities up and running rather early. I settled my second city on turn 58, and he still didn't have two as I had several warriors scouting his side of the island.

I agree, optimal would have been to spit out a dozen axes and take him, but I figured I could box him in and peacefully rex while annoying him - no way he could keep up in tech with two cities. That allowed me to settle the rest of my cities at a leisurely pace. Even though it's emperor, it seems really easy so far, as I've started the next round as well. All the AIs I've met are way behind me, and my two main cottage cities still aren't fully mature. I still don't understand how or why Joao wouldn't at least have used his second settler early on - that's why I thought maybe barb animals got it. Very weird game - maybe it was emperor light and he didn't get a free settler at the start?

 

[Ai Shizuka]

I don't think the AIs start with an extra settler at Emperor. They should have 2 archers, 2 scouts and the standard settler. Free worker at Immortal and extra settler at Deity.

But probably there is the same issue of the NC games at higher levels, where the AIs still start with warriors. I just generate a monarch game and then save it from the WB.

 

[michmbk]

Ai - is that true? I was going off the BTS reference guide that someone put together, and it says 2 archers, 2 scouts and 1 settler at emperor, but 1 archer extra at monarch. Since it didn't make any reference to settlers at monarch, I assume that meant they get an extra settler.

If that's the case and they only get an extra settler at deity, then the jump to emperor will be hard no doubt, but won't be quite as hard as I thought it would.

EDIT - I just tested with a new game to see what the right answer is - looks like Ai Shizuka is right. The BTS reference guide I was going off of seemed to indicate one extra settler at emperor, but that's apparently not the case. Each AI has two archers and two scouts. So clearly they get more advantage on the goody huts, but if they're not getting settlers, then the advantage isn't quite as pronounced as I thought it would be. So that's actually not too bad - clearly you start a little further in the hole at emperor, but it seems like something that can be made up.

With respect to the current game:

Spoiler :

I still can't believe that an imperialistic civ like Joao wouldn't have settled a second city by turn 58. It seems way late - it was turn 70 before I saw a second city for him, so he was behind the 8 ball right from the start.

 

[Ai Shizuka]

Spoiler :

He was quite slow in my game as well, esp on huts. Probably he starts building workboats when he's coastal.
Still, I managed to let him settle 6 cities . I'm not playing well. My game is definitely winnable, but I think I'll replay it from the start.
Hardest jump so far for me. Noble/Prince and Prince/Monarch was kinda "Oh, that's it?", but this time I have to adjust a couple things and stay more focused.

 

[Ai Shizuka]

Replaying from start, Emperor/epic, to 40 AD:

Spoiler :

First attempt was winnable, but I wasn't happy with that game. Very sloppy and unfocused. Looking better this time.

techs: AH - wheel (hut) - BW - pottery - mysticism - writing - fishing - IW - alphabet - sailing, hunting and meditation (Mehmed) - currency - masonry, math and priesthood (Meh) - monarchy (Joao) - researching CoL


4000 - Settle in place.

3775 - Joao.

3700 - Exp from hut.

3600 - Wheel from hut.

3475 - Map from hut.

3025 - Hostile villagers. A single villager, luckily.

2800 - Shangai:

2250 - Guangzhou:

1750 - Joao captured a barb city, but has a single, half-dead archer there:

Sorry Joao:

1700 - Peace with Joao.

1575 - Nanjing:

1300 - Bismarck.

395 - Mehmed.

335 - GS builds academy in Bejing.

245 - Toku.

40 AD - Xian:

Empire is looking better this time, still with a respectable research output:

Techs:

And diplo. Joao will forget that city accident quickly, now that I'm running HR:

And capital:

I don't see any reason to attack Joao at this moment. Guimaraes is a nice commerce city and he'll improve it for me. He's blocked to 3 cities and will be pleased soon from fav civic bonus. So he will just sit there with his 3 cities, falling backward and hopefully building a couple wonders for me.
I'll found my last city on the southern tip of the continent and then focus on infrastructures.

 

[Fei Kelei]

Spoiler :

I guess he started slow for everyone. I also mentioned in my game how he didn't seem to explore at all, and he barely put up a fight against my axe rush. This was on Monarch, and I suspect with the stone he may have been putting hammers into Stonehenge or the Great Wall before I killed him, but he was still ridiculously weak. If I had to do it again I'd probably do it the exact same way.

 

[michmbk]

Emperor Epic 5 BC to 1425 AD - second straight emperor game that's going really well. I really feel like I got lucky that one civ didn't seem to act the way he ALWAYS does in my game, and therefore wasn't nearly the threat he usually is.

Spoiler :

When I left off, I was antagonizing Joao. Trying to get to my chokonus to finish him off while settling the rest of the island before anyone else gets any ideas. Meanwhile, courthouses are needed, badly. Scientist shows up to bulb Philosophy for this in 145 AD:

Tech rate is still struggling, and I really need Lisbon and courthouses to start turning this game, because it’s such a fantastic GP farm. I didn’t aggressively rush Joao this game when I had the chance, which was my downfall, but he’s really backward, so he’s not a threat. Hit machinery, get a couple chokonus out, and it’s time.

He apparently managed to settle some city off of the island, which is entirely frustrating, but no matter, I have Lisbon. Now time to finish settling the important island spots – two more settlers accomplish that, and off toward civil service, which makes Beijing a super city. Starting the beeline. It’s amazing what a difference a few turns makes. At 5 BC, turn 173, I was parked outside of Lisbon waiting for machinery, with 5 cities (and 2 settlers heading to their new sites. Just 40 turns later, by chopping out 3 chokonus, 1 more settler, and taking Lisbon, here’s the empire:

9 cities, and I’m about to try to settle 1-2 more of these sites once a couple courthouses go down. I failed on colossus, which was ok as I needed the gold, and succeeded on this:

That’ll help tech a bit. I decided to start trying to wonderspam in my bureau capital a bit. Meanwhile, since Joao has a city still, I figured I might as well tech trade with him, getting HBR and construction for civil service. Pulling ahead in tech – wonder how the other continent is going, as it looks like things are starting to take off for me. I was really aggressive with cottages, especially around Beijing, and it appears to be paying off. Another wonder in Beijing – it’s producing wonders only for awhile.

I also have been running scientists in a few cities for a long time – thanks to that, a scientist shows up in Guangzhou – hello education.

It’s now done running scientists, and focused on all those nice cottages. Pop an artist in Lisbon, which will help get rid of some of the cultural pressure it’s facing, and then turn it into a powerful GP farm. Sankore finished in Beijing, so I really need to get my Confucian buildings laid down now too. In 990 AD, I’m one turn from lib, and have to decide how far to take it. No one I’ve met even has paper yet, but there is the matter of the other continent. I decide to try for economics first, so I can use lib-nationalism to head down the democracy path. Slight risk the other continent beats me there, but I'm starting to tech well and there's no risk that my neighbors get there before me, so it seems like a reasonable risk to take - Econ is only about 20 turns away. On monarch I know I’d be safe, just don’t know about emperor, but this is how you learn.

Meanwhile, Toku is pleased thanks to religion, so at some point I need to think about using him as an attack dog – maybe right before I switch to free religion and lose the civic bonus with him. Another scientist in Beijing – bulbs part of PP – always a good bulb to me. Joao finds another way to annoy me:

Fine – I’ll just take it later. I can’t believe he is continuing to have all sorts of cultural pressure on Lisbon with his stupid city on the other island – check it out – this is about 100 turns after I took Lisbon, and with a settled artist in Lisbon too!

I’m trying to get an artist in Lisbon for a culture bomb to take the borders back, but I pull a merchant instead on 20% odds. I was actually rooting for an artist over a merchant – isn’t that a first. When Bismarck (who has Joao as a vassal) DOWed Mehmed, I came up with a nifty idea to beat back Joao's borders. Say hello to my pleased attack dog:

Why do your own dirty work when someone else can for you? He's bordering Joao's city, so of course he'll go for it, right? Bis hates me anyway, and both Mehmed and Toku are pleased with me, so this probably helps diplo overall. Meanwhile, lib success – time for Taj.

And how is this for a beautiful move – my bribe paid off perfectly.

Joao’s culture city is gone. Now Lisbon will be free to be a powerhouse, and the great artist I was building for with my GP farm will now be saved for a golden age. In fact, I may go ahead and finish off Joao quickly – why not? This was not a good time for Joao to renounce Bismarck’s protection:

One turn later, my golden age starts, and Joao is finished. Nice timing. I pop another great artist on low odds, which is slightly unfortunate. So one will be settled in Lisbon, and the other will make this a 20 turn golden age, which is always a nice way to vault ahead in tech. I’ve really specialized pretty well in this game. A super GP farm, four heavily cottaged cities, and three production focused cities. The other 4 or so cities are kind of hybrids, but that's ok.

I got my sushi merchant partway through this golden age, and cut off at the end of the 20 turn golden age. My plan for the next round is to move forward towards statue, hopefully getting emancipation penalty for some civs, and then starting towards key military techs. The only drawback to emancipation is that Lisbon doesn’t have enough key buildings yet for full specialists, but once it builds a bank and wall street, it’ll be ok. Joao settled a few merchants there, and I’ve settled two artists and a merchant, so it’s a great wall street city. The nice thing during the golden age is it confirmed that we’re more advanced than the rest of the world, so not too worried about them right now. Empire at 1425:

Thanks to map trading with Mehmed, I can see that Mongolia and France are the other two civs. Unlikely that they got along, so I suspect they’re very backwards. At this point, I just need to tech down the military line, get steel, rifles, frigates and galleons, and then invade, probably starting with Bis since no one likes him. Tech looks pretty good:

None of them have nationalism, which means it’s a long way to democracy for all of them. Always a slight fear with Mehmed because he's bound to have a ridiculous stack of both naval units and land units. I may have to make sure I actively scout his land before hitting him.

I do think that after blocking Joao, this did become pretty easy, because I had all the benefits of being isolated (no invasions or backstabs) without the drawback (no tech trading). Like dropping back down to monarch in a way. But it was only that way because I aggressively blocked off Joao, and he was an idiot early on, focusing too many hammers on the great lighthouse. That set the stage for me to block him in. Not to mention he built pretty much all my workers for me.

 

[assass1n]

I just choked the AI and it lost a lot of settlers trying to send them through my blockade I think I had 15 workers while building just two

 

[Ai Shizuka]

Emperor/epic, 40 - 1400 AD

Spoiler :

Amazing how a different early city placement can change a game completely.
In my first try Joao settled 6 cities and I had to take him out in a long and painful medieval war, tanking my economy and falling behind.
This time I blocked him to 3 cities, peacefully teched to renaissance and now I'm ready to take him out in a quick spies/cuirassiers war.


techs: CoL - calendar (Bis) - MC and archery (Joao) - philo (bulb) - aesthetics - polytheism - literature - CS - monotheism (Meh) - paper - education (bulb) - compass (Meh) - machinery + feudalism (Meh) - liberalism + nationalism - guilds - banking - construction + theology (Joao) - hbr + engineering (Meh) - economics - printing press (bulb) - gunpowder - music + optics (Joao) - mil tradition - researching astronomy


145 - GS bulbs Philo

295 - Chengdu:

520 - Great Library in Bejing:

1020 - Liberalism:

1180 - Taj done:

GS bulbs printing press. I have 2 GM coming soon: the free one from economics and another from Xian.

1180 - Meh DoW Toku and Bis joins the war vs Toku as well.

1250 - Economics GM jumps on a galley, heading to Istanbul.

1280 - GM from Xian-->golden age.

1350 - 3150 gold in Istanbul:

Empire at 1400:

Capital:

Techs:

Amassing cuirassiers and EP to attack Joao. He has longbows and maces:

 

[Benny Benzen]

Okay, since I don't seem to manage a proper quote -->

@ Fei Kelei: Dong Fang Hong, eh?

 

[Fei Kelei]

Props. We're playing as Mao, after all. (I didn't think about it before, but winning a cultural victory with this guy is about as absurd as winning a conquest victory with Gandhi.)

 

[Ai Shizuka]

Emperor/epic, 1400 - 1655:

Spoiler :

astro - sci meth - communism - rep parts - rifling - constitution - democracy - chemistry

1450 - DoW Joao and 2 cities captured in the first turn.
Oporto with Spiral Minaret:

Guimaraes, Islam shrine and Scotland Yard:

1455 - Toku declares war and I keep him busy at home:

1455 - GM born in Xian. Will start a golden age with the Communism GSpy.

1470 - Success on this event. The other option was +1 from that tile:

1475 - Lisbon has a nice set of wonders:

But Joao is not dead. Lisbon culture flipped Kagoshima.

1505 - Joao is dead:

1510 - Meet Genghis.

1525 - GM and GSpy start Golden Age.

I'm still at war vs Toku:

A few turns to upgrade to cavalry and regroup:

To avoid vassalization bs:

1545 - Last AI is Louis.

1585 - Cuirassiers upgraded, DoW vs Toko again. Nobody likes him, so no diplo hits.

1595 - A lone SAMURAI kills my cavalry at Nara and recaptures it.

Kyoto:

1605 - Completed in Bejing:

1610 - Nara recaptured.

1630 - Lame-ass opportunistic Bismarck declares war vs Toker, down to 2 cities.

1630 - Nagoya captured.

1650 - Toko is dead:

Nice stack there, Bis:

1655 - Another GM out to get some cash at Istanbul:

New land at 1655:

Techs:

Diplo:

I think I'll adopt Nationhood to push Bis to friendly and be 100% safe at home, board my cavalry and go wipe the cavemen on the other continent. Louis and Genghis hate each other and are not liked by anybody else. They have a lot of coastal cities, so I think I'll go with frigates to bomb culture and cavalry. Should be easy, they are not even close to rifles.

Edit: Genghis entered wheoohrn mode right when I refused some idiot demand for 2000 gold. He still doesn't have astro.

 

[Ai Shizuka]

1665 - 1886, end:

Spoiler :

chemistry - steel - physics - artillery - steam + corp (Bis) - rocketry - electricity - fission -


1655 - Didn't notice it, Mehmed vassaled to Bis a couple turns ago.

1685 - Switch to Nationhood and Bis is friendly.

1708 - Def pact with Bis.

1722 - GE born somewhere, will rush the Ironworks.

1722 - Meh breaks free. He's cautious with me now.

1728 - I convert to Hinduism. Now Mehmed is pleased (safe) and Bis is more friendly. I can focus on the idiots on the other continent.

1740 - Apparently Genghis has discovered the secrets of astronomy and declares war. His galleons are defended by caravels:

1742 - "Oh crap" moment. My cavalry is 1 turn late. I upgrade the two defenders in Bactrian to rifles, but GK has landed a lot of junk:

1744 - The idiot bombards Bactrian's culture, giving me the chance to wipe his stack with no losses.

1748 - GK is moving in more garbage:

1750 - GK ships don't make it to the coast. In the same turn Mehmed (vassaled again to Bis) captures a mongol city, so I bribe them out:

1762 - Frigates bomb culture, cavalry attack and New Sarai is captured.

1766 - Ning-Hsia captured.

1770 - Karakorum captured and GK is out:

Cities gifted back, open borders and he's friendly.

1776 - GE rush Ironworks in Bejing.

1782 - DoW Louis. He's researching physics and still doesn't have rep parts.

1784 - GK captures Rheims, frigates+cavalry capture Lyons and Avignon. Enough:

1802 - Bis switch out of Nationhood and adopts free religion. He's pleased now. No problem, my plan is almost completed. What plan? Should be pretty obvious from the tech path.

1818 - Bejing completes Broadway right when Fission is done and starts building the Manhattan Project. Research down to 0% and all my cities are building wealth. Hint: I have the Kremlin and running US.

1847 - Manhattan Project completed and I have some 20k gold:

1858 - I see Bis cities now and he has a huge stack in Berlin. He's researching rocketry and has stolen Electricity, so is a single tech away from nukes. I need to hurry.

1860 - A few turns of rush-buying. Tactical nukes in the japanese cities and ICBMs at home:

12 nukes launched in the first turn of war, to destroy his U tiles, his main stack in Berlin (40ish units) and a few extra cities.

1861 - Osaka razed.

1862 - Nuked the incoming little stacks, but Bis manages to sneak in a couple infantry and captures Satsuma.

1864 - Stuttgart captured and tactical nukes rebased.

1866 - A couple extra nukes on Berlin and Bis is done:

1867 - 3% for domination. Culture slider up.

1868 - Hangzhou, to claim a few extra tiles:

1870 - . .. .. .. ., 0.3% short on domination:

1877 - Still 0.3%, slider up again to research Mass Media. I have a GE ready to rush the UN.

1886 - A border pop somewhere is finally enough. 64.02% :

Demographics:

Stats:

Power in the last 50 turns:

Score:

Techs. I turned off the slider after rocketry/fission. Didn't even research AL. Cavalry has good odds vs nuked infantry :

Wanna be friends again Bis? Look at good old Genghis:

Now something weird. This is Bis' empire. It was completely covered by fallout and he didn't have Biology. Apparently global warming removes fallout:

Not posting an overview of my cities, turned into shitholes by some MASSIVE global warming. No less than 4-5 tiles/turn at the end.

 

[michmbk]

Boy, my third round of this game really blew up. I tried for a diplo victory and failed miserably. Now forced to warmonger and I blew a HUGE tech advantage while trying to win diplomatically. Going to suck if I lose this one after being so far ahead in tech in 1400 AD. I'll be warmongering awhile tonight.

 

[michmbk]

1425 to 1908 - diplomatic win. This was topsy-turvy for sure - I thought I was going to lose for a stretch, and then turned it back around.

Spoiler :

First things first this round – let’s keep Mehmed busy:

I know I run the risk of him vassaling Bis, but they both usually build a lot of units and are decent warmongers, so let them beat each other up a bit. Toku is in WHEOOHRN mode right now, but I figure it’s at Bis and not me since we’re pleased and my tech rate is sky high. I also have a fair number of units as I’ve had to produce a bunch in HR. Then of course, Mehmed converts to Islam – he must have teched divine right, so I lose the religion bonus with him. My whole point of not being in free religion was keeping both him and Toku happy. He’s still pleased, but I have to watch that, because he can be scary late game if you’re his enemy. I’m trying to figure out a possible way to make both of them friendly for a potential easy diplo victory (vassalize Bis, get them to vote for me after gifting UN to Mongolia or France). I may have to run vassalage and mercantilism to get them both to friendly, neither of which are optimal civics for my cottage-laden and coastal empire.

Mehmed soon makes this demand:

Sure – Bis doesn’t have astronomy, and hates us all anyway – why not. Sure enough, Toku DOWs Bis too. So it’s a 3 on 1 dogpile, even though I have no ability to send meaningful units over there. I took peace from him 10 turns later by giving him 10 gold. Fine – meaningless to me, but made Mehmed happy. Rifling in 1515, and still plodding towards Statue, which I finally finish:

And who would have thought that Toku might actually beat me to physics – he’s teching sci method before I even started it. I’ve never seen him teching as well as this – he’s actually second in tech right now. Incredible. I guess it did help him that I’ve fed him a number of techs throughout the game. I was going to finish steel, then go down the astro-sci method physics path, but not much point if he beats me.

After steel, I’m now debating whether to go for sushi (I have a waiting merchant) or to go down the state property path, as I do have a number of workshops built in several cities. After counting my sushi resources, I was leaning SP. I figure I’ll tech toward the always useful biology and then decide whether to go state property plus a trade mission, or sushi.

Thanks to a good trade or two, I beat Toku to physics for the GS – he’s not terribly smart as he traded me sci method, so I beat him by 5 turns to physics. Pop a GS along the way, for a third academy. Having the physics GS sleep for a bit as I think I’ll hit communism first for the spy – another golden age might not be bad for another civics switch. I decided on SP over sushi, since it meant SP plus a trade mission and 3000 gold. Finally meet Genghis – he’s a bit backwards:

Louis is not quite as backwards, but close. Immediately gift each of them a tech to get them to cautious – they both seem to hate Bismarck as well, which is perfect. Unfortunately, Bis capitulates to Toku, so I really missed my window on a military plan. As you’ll see below, going for this stupid diplo victory really backfired. The plan was to get Mehmed to friendly and gift Genghis the tech line up through mass media, so he/Louis would build the UN.

Very convenient pop of a great engineer – wall street was going to take 60 turns in Lisbon, so that’s a no-brainer. I also use my sushi merchant for a trade mission since in SP, so now way ahead in gold, and even after my golden age ends, and after having switched to vassalage to try to get the civics bonus with Mehmed, I still am in the black at 80%. I’m now building some spies to try to get Mehmed into vassalage with me. In 1744, I start the mass media beeline to gift it to Genghis, although there’s risk in that because Toku is pleased with Genghis. He’s friendly with me, but there’s risk he might vote for Genghis in lieu of me if he got friendly with him too. Finish this in Beijing – mainly because I’m trying to build my espionage up a bit now - boy, did this come in handy later though.

About 20 turns later, my fears on Genghis and Toku being buddies are eliminated, as Genghis backstabs him. Should have known the warmongers wouldn’t play nice in the sandbox. Of course, 2 turns later, Toku wants me to join them at war – fine. The only drawback is that Genghis has about 25 frigates and a dozen galleons coming toward me. Since he doesn’t have rifles, they can’t be filled with anything too strong. I haven’t built any frigates, so I’m sure my seafood will get pillaged for awhile. Neat spy tricks:

Mehmed and I share his favorite civic and share religion now. Then all this bad stuff happens:

Mehmed DOWs Toku, and Genghis takes one of his cities. Guess I’m going to have to pitch in, at least on Toku’s continent. I was hoping to avoid war, but I can’t have Genghis beating up my UN vote. So, quickly at least get peace with Mehmed.

This has really gotten risky because Toku is now at tech parity with me – I gifted him steel to help him deal with Genghis and now he’s caught up. Genghis beats up a bunch of my seafood, and I give him 165 gold for peace after awhile. Fine. Next time he tries that I’ll have destroyers anyway. Mehmed switched back to Islam and bureau, so I have to switch him again. Spies steal steam power from Mehmed, and also get him back in vassalage and Confucianism. He stays in vassalage, but converts back to islam, so I guess maybe he needs more Confucian cities – I send a bunch of missionaries over to get him to stay Confucian. I’m going to need his vote to win. If I don’t win diplo, this is going to be a real struggle. I’m used to warmongering, but really thought I could pull a diplo win. Another tech from Mehmed and another switch to Confucianism. Espionage is paying off nicely right now. And an all important wonder:

My efforts at diplomatic win were fruitless, because waiting for Mehmed to get friendly with me is taking FOREVER! Mehmed switches back again, catches a couple of my spies for diplo penalties, and I then give up – he’ll never get friendly with me. Time to knock some heads – unfortunately, I missed the great window I had when I was way ahead in tech, and I gave Genghis a lot of techs along the mass media line, which have now made him dangerous.

Finally once the UN is built, another bad break – Toku is apparently slightly larger than me, so he comes up in the UN vote instead of me – he had 194 votes to my 191. Arrrgh. I’m now going to have to warmonger now big time, and I made it WAY tougher on myself because I gifted too many techs to others to try to win diplomatically. Plus – I’m not even sure I can get to nukes in time to nuke the world before a resolution comes to ban them. Ugh – complete disarray. So, steal two more techs stolen from Mehmed – assembly line and fascism - I am abusing espionage right now, and after 5 turns of building cash, it’s go time – going to do this the old fashioned way for awhile. I have no idea who to hit first though. I think I made another tactical error here, because I could have easily hit Mehmed quickly, taken his 4 remaining cities and blew him away, but I opted instead for Genghis, who is huge. After really playing very well the first two rounds of this game, this round has gone terribly.

Further problems - as I’m sending my stack toward Genghis, Mehmed capitulates to him anyway, so I either go 1 on 3 against Genghis, Louis and Mehmed, or 1 on 2 against my friendly Toku and Bis. This is going to be a tedious game to win after my diplo screwups. It looks like Genghis will get assembly line right as I get there, so I might as well try to eliminate Mehmed’s cities first – I think in 10 turns I can pull that off and then have tanks ready by the time Genghis’s fleet arrives. My best shot is to hit industrialism, use the power of cristo to switch between police state and US, and rush buy tanks on the cheap thanks to Kremlin. If I do win this, it will be because of Cristo. Here goes:

One city was easy. I then decide that I need some help – let’s make this 3 on 3:

And Toku helps me finish off Mehmed’s cities. Hopefully he and Genghis can bully each other too. And Mehmed is done:

I finish off that island, taking back my city from Genghis, and then 10 turns of peace to regroup. Tanks are on their way Genghis. Oh and Cristo is being manipulated big time. 1 turn in PS, free speech, free religion, the next in US, vassalage and theo, and unit rush buys. My production is about to go off the charts. I’m sending my stack first at Genghis’s vassal – no sense going after him until I’ve decimated his vassal first. I have time – no chance Toku could ever win a space race. And after all this, I take over the UN – first shot at diplo:

I’m close – just need to beat up Louis and take cities and I will get over the hump. Here we go:

Go ahead and counterattack me Genghis – I’m building 6-7 tanks every 2 turns. Of course, me not paying attention allows him to take my Moai city:

Frustrating since I had 15 tanks on the mainland ready for any landing. I take it back, take one more Louis city, and get a diplo vote – yes sir!

Thank goodness. I swear it would have been about 10 more hours of warmongering to finish off Genghis AND Toku. This is much cleaner. I found this humorous:

Louis, Genghis and Bis are all furious with me. Awesome diplomacy. Score:

Not a great score, but I will take the win, after having a huge tech lead, then blowing it, then having to claw back to victory. I built 7 chokonus – missed out on the fun of them for sure.