Monarch Student XI - Washington

[Tempesta13]

about the map:

Spoiler :

I didn't even try for the great lighthouse since i hadn't scouted enough to realize the map was full of islands. I just saw all the land willem and i had to settle. The tech rate for emperor seemed about normal until later in the game - then the AI's really slowed down. A lot of that was due to war though. Of course if i had the great lighthouse instead of an AI, i'm sure it wouldn't have been close at all - even mid-game.

Everyone seems to hate maps where the great lighthouse basically wins the game for you - but you don't have to build it... I know it's tough purposefully making the game harder when the point is to do whatever you can to win, but if it's going to make it so easy that there isn't any challenge then why not skip it? Could also play 1 skill above your level, if TGL lowers difficulty by about that much it should equal out. That requires knowing it's a TGL map before starting though.

What i don't like about watery maps is how difficult it is to invade someone. I always find that by the time i get an army together, and the ships to transport them it's too late already - either need more troops, or more modern troops. (i play on normal speed) With TGL it is easier since you'll have enough of a tech lead to make it work - but without it it's tough sometimes. Also if i don't have a couple decent coastal production cities building the ships is so slow. I always end up waiting to the next military tech, then the next and so on - then regret not attacking cause i made myself bored with the game.

If we had of started on that other continent i think i would have liked the map a lot more.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I can never be bothered to spam cities to all those little sites and manage them. It's so frustrating.

Anyway, I churned along and won a late space:

Emp/norm

1962 AD.

Spoiler :

As planned, I hit boudica with rifle/cannon before she gets rifles. She has cannons/cuirassers, but they're no big deal.

I WANTED to just roll everything. However, some bull !@#% happened. First, monty capped to Sal JUST at the 47% threshold in both categories. Then, darius voluntarily vassaled to Sal, and he had infantry. Jesus. with his island spam ALL OVER the goddam archipelago crap throughout the map, there was no way in hell he'd cap. His vassals wouldn't break free without excessive damage. All 3 could hit me.

I hate BS map script. That's what Big n Small really is. BS map script.

So, I swap to hindu/theo, force my vassals into that, and ride out hammer economy to space. I actually build most of the space parts in boudica's lands after workshop spamming it. IW went into vienne. I build the internet in 8 turns, then apollo in 8. From there it was just beelining the space techs the AIs tend to reach 2nd. Sal was monstrous with all his islands and he'd have beaten me to space actually, if not for

I sabotaged 4 parts...the last two very inexpensive space parts just to tie him up since I was 3 turns on casings and that's all I needed. I launched with everything but the 2nd engine, almost all built in boudica's land except maybe 1-2 parts. I think sal launched since I let him finish the ship after that, though it never showed it. I didn't care after < 10 turns to victory for me, ships can't travel faster than that.

Horrible score just over 20k. I win though.

 

[Lansky]

Immortal Epic
Long round - 825BC to 1722AD Finish

Spoiler :

380BC – Atlanta is settled to the SE. Lots of Grasslands and food looks like an eventual Oxford site to me.

260BC – Chicago to the west of Philly. Trade route cheesing is about to go into full swing.

55AD – Seattle founded on the northern island close enough to work the pigs. Should end up being one of the few island cities that might not need to whip/buy every last piece of its infrastructure. From here on out just assume that at any given time I’m settling some stupid tiny island city with some random resource near it every handful of turns.

1050AD – Once again I’m coasting along not paying attention and lose out on Liberalism. Games without large mid game wars seem to lose me Liberalism more than anything else in this game. Hitting enter every 15s just becomes habit.

1250AD – Probably my favorite general purpose Wonder.

1340AD – Coming in at a close second.

1365AD – Use a GS to start up another Golden Age.

1430AD – After spreading Christianity fairly well after bulbing it with my last GP I finally get another for the shrine. 40gpt at this point which helps quite a bit. Will also take the pressure off of me spreading it among all the freaking islands manually. Not that I would have done that anyway, but I can play pretend.

1435AD – Preparing for that useless unique building.

1490AD – Montezuma has been preparing to declare on someone for almost a century now. Not much of a surprise its me and I buy/upgrade some nearby ships to fend off his “attack” The power graph is a bit misleading since while I have maybe 1/3 as many troops as anyone else I can kill them with maybe suffering a paper cut. Another few turns and it would have been Battleships versus Galleons.

Unimpressed the mainland cities continue to wonderspam.

1510 – Albuquerque is now the seat of the UN. Want to be able to control all the forced civics nonsense as well as ensure the first vote is to add that ever popular trade route.

1530 – I knew I forgot about something. He has nothing I’d even want to sue peace over so this works out quite well.

1545 – More happiness to counteract the soon to grow emancipation anger. Not really interested in giving up caste or slavery as they both are far too effective on all the tiny islands.

1550 – Global currency proposed and later passes. Tiny islands everywhere rejoice.

1590 – Running out of ways to delay teching Assembly Line I finally trade peanuts to Willem for Corporations. I lose a trade route but at this point it does not really matter anymore. I just gained 2 in many cities from the UN resolution and rushing in airports.

Just how silly trade based economies can be. The trade commerce is literally doubling the cottage commerce in this case.

1600 – Cristo Redentor! Spiritual trait in a bottle! Normally comparing a wonder to a trait is silly since they stack, but in this case its so damn close heh.

1610 – Yeah I’m going late game wonder crazy instead of killing Willem…

1645 – I was meaning to use the GE to rush a wonder but I don’t seem to be having any issues so I team him up with the GP and start a third GA. This one gives me another 1,000 bpt. Woohoo!

1675 – Without anything else to propose I see how close to a Diplomatic Victory I am. Right now I’m thinking space but then I see that a few pleased AI’s seem to think I’m pretty nifty. Time to wine and dine Augustus. He’s a very high pleased and is not currently running representation (his favorite civic) so I send over my tactical spy force to solve this.

1680 – Best reason to let someone else build the trio of late game happiness wonders.

1685 – Don’t mind if I do.

1708 – In time for the next Diplomatic Victory vote my spies idle in Arretium long enough to get better than 50% odds. In a stroke of luck it only takes one of them. This is my largest “invasion force” ever to leave my own borders during the game.

1722 – Oh look at that. I did not see that one coming.

The power of civics and trade routes on such maps is quite amusing. Lots of small 1-2 tile islands with 1-2 seafood resources supply a surplus of food to run a large quantity of specialists. So to abuse the heck out of this…

With 4+ trade routes a 1 population island city miles from a capital building can now produce a net positive for the civilization. As it grows and only has resourceless water tiles to work it can begin to hire several specialists and so on. I hate managing this many cities (30 in the end, only 2 captured from barbs) but it really is the easiest way to win on this style of map. Clearly did not use any Navy Seals since I never actually fought a war, but the Mall was amazing. I really like the extra gold and happiness it generates. Did not have to move the culture slider at all despite never running Emancipation and the extra 3 happiness was a big reason. Anyway this leads to the final outcome being really ridiculous.

Trade commerce being generated and the final tech screen.

 

[Ai Shizuka]

Lansky:

Spoiler :

Did you ever tried some "soft" Deity game? You have completely dominated the last few games, and this one at Immortal. Ok, GLH makes it easy, but the Charlie game wasn't exactly a cakewalk.

First round, Emperor/Epic, no events, to 55 AD:

Spoiler :

mining - bw - AH - wheel - sailing - masonry - mysticism - hunting - pottery - writing - IW - aesthetics - meditation - priesthood - CoL - alpha (Will) - mathematics - monarchy (Will) - researching CS

3975 - Settle 2S. Workboat - worker.

3775 - Map hut.

3575 - Scout hut.

2525 - Potentially game-breaking stroke of luck: Washington pops gold from a mine. WB it out? No funking way, I take it thankyou

2325 - NY to claim horses:

1475 - HE unlocked by a wood warrior in the jungle.

1450 - GLH done:

1100 - Boston:

725 - Phila:

425 - GS builds academy.

215 - I'm the first to CoL. Founded in NY:

55 AD - I meet Augustus.

Empire with future cities:

I need more workers asap. Esp Phila is badly underdeveloped. I really need to hurry my ass and start settling those islands. I'll settle the cyan city first to prevent Will from squeezing some city in my backyard.
Still to figure a good HE city. Probably cyan city, with some hills stolen from NY, wich is a mediocre city.

Techs:

Capital:

But I'll play the Peter LHC first.

 

[Lansky]

Ai -

Spoiler :

No clue what a "soft" deity game is. Turn off barbs? WB out the extra settler? haha.

I am only about 50/50 in immortal games right now and lower on pangeas. This one was just a bit flukey I think. Willem is easy to get to friendly with civics and he doesn't build an army anyway.

Make the next MS something evil with lots of warmongers! Maybe give one of them Mansa Musa to capitulate and tech for them.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Ai -

Spoiler :

No clue what a "soft" deity game is. Turn off barbs? WB out the extra settler? haha.

I am only about 50/50 in immortal games right now and lower on pangeas. This one was just a bit flukey I think. Willem is easy to get to friendly with civics and he doesn't build an army anyway.

Make the next MS something evil with lots of warmongers! Maybe give one of them Mansa Musa to capitulate and tech for them.

That's been done to death lately. The formula is get 1-2 warmongers to pleased, then bribe them against pretty much anybody, then duck! If you can stay out of war very early on (or rush a potential problem away), the game turns into a bloody, tech poor mess. Different, but not necessarily harder than otherwise.

 

[Lansky]

Hmmm. I see. Well there is a reason I play the games and do not set them up I suppose. Can always use what I see as the "intelligent" warmongers for no clue what else to call them. Best one I can think of is Cyrus. You can get him happy, but its not that easy and if he doesn't like you it could get really ugly. Shrug.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Hmmm. I see. Well there is a reason I play the games and do not set them up I suppose. Can always use what I see as the "intelligent" warmongers for no clue what else to call them. Best one I can think of is Cyrus. You can get him happy, but its not that easy and if he doesn't like you it could get really ugly. Shrug.

Cyrus doesn't even declare at pleased. It's a matter of accepting one demand or fair trade, or religion etc etc. The only possible issue is if he's boxed in by you and mighty close.

 

[Ai Shizuka]

"Soft" deity I mean a strong leader (say Liz, Darius and the likes) on good starting position, maybe picking decent rivals. That's just my impression from your last games anyway. Of course I don't know about your "real" winning ratio.

About "intelligent" warmongers, it's hard to find the right balance. I think about people like Mehmed or Cyrus, but then they don't declare at pleased and it becomes much easier. I think Nap is the most balanced of the "psychos".
But it's hard to balance anyway. Put him too close and he can screw you in the BCs. Put him far away and he can go on a capitulation spree.

If I pick a lot of good techers everyone is going to wipe them with rifles vs lbows while they are teching physics and democracy.
Probably it's just better to pick a mixed bunch of techers/rexers/warmongers, tweaking a bit their starting locations.

 

[Phil725]

Emperor - Epic - 10AD

First game on emperor and first game on this map script, so hopefully it really is just as simple as get the GLH and win.

Spoiler :

Settled 2S on the ivory, that looks to be the best starting option. Got gold and hostile villagers from the huts. Since I knew the map was B&S, I got 2 settlers out before teching sailing and getting the GLH built in the capital. I popped gems on a hill in Washington, so that's a huge boost to research, and helps with happiness.

Nothing else of much interest this round though, I've only met Willem so far, he founded Confu and spread it to me. He isn't very aggressive, but he is a huge backstabber, and I think I have him completely boxed in, so a war wouldn't be surprising.

Other than that, barbs slowed me down a little, but weren't a huge problem. They started coming about the same time as Monarch, and I was able to take forever to get horses hooked up. They did hit a lot harder than they usually do on monarch though, I had to whip some chariots in the capital to stop the second wave of barbs. Fortunately, no galleys yet, but I'm sure they're coming.

Here's my land at 10AD:

I saw that nice spot above Willem's land with the 3 food sources, and managed to beat him to the spot. There is still a lot of land to settle peacefully. After teching off lit, I'll build the GLib, and then I'll probably start cranking out settlers for the small islands.

Techs are pretty normal for this point in the game:

Not much point in trading aesthetics for alpha until I need to either bulb philo or trade with someone else. I don't have much infrastructure, and I haven't even started running scientists yet, so I'll catch up eventually.

I should be able to stay peaceful until cuirassiers/cavalry. I don't have enough info for my plan after that, but there is definitely a good chance that Willem will die at some point.

 

[Tempesta13]

I don't think you need to worry about putting in a mix of AI's to make it a tough game. I do agree on hand picking them though but only to make the game interesting and to ensure it's not too easy. To make it hard, we can always choose a higher skill level.

And for Lansky... Didn't you post a little over a month ago saying you were playing your first game above noble? That's a pretty impressive learning curve. I think i moved up to monarch just before MS IV, and emperor 2-3 weeks after that. I do think monarch to emperor is pretty easy, only because once you learn all the basic strategies monarch AI's can't compete - emperor is where you really have to start optimizing everything or you'll be behind. To now be winning 50% on immortal though, that's impressive.

I'm playing my 2nd immortal attempt now (leveraging vassalage game). It's a fairly easy map, and i think i have a shot to win. Around 1300AD and i've got a tech lead, and about to war with rifles - depending on how that goes i might have a shot to win. Some other AI's are somewhat big and scary though. Without nice land, and a way to get enough peacefully in the BC's i don't think i could compete - most likely i'll be on emperor for awhile more. Immortal is quite a bit tougher. (philosophy in 300 BC!?!)

 

[Lansky]

I started playing CivIV not that long ago, but I'm by no means a new comer to computer games or turn based strategy games in particular. Immortal is giving me a rough time for sure though. My wins are still quite ugly and panicky on more standard maps. I can have everything go right and still end up in a bad situation. Need to stop playing such a standard game I think. There are a few things I always seem to rely on, like bulbing Philosophy before any AI can and such tenants just no longer hold true.

 

[Phil725]

1st try post mordem:

Spoiler :

I ran into some bad luck here. I got beat to every big tech that I wanted to trade, and eventually Willem beat me to liberalism. Not too long after that he declared on me, along with Boudica. I had spent the last thousand years spamming settlers to all random islands, leaving none of my cities guarded by more than one outdated unit. I wasn't doing terrible, but it just wasn't a great idea to try a new level on an unfamiliar map with a leader who, while solid, isn't anything special.

So that leads to try #2, Monarch - Epic - 550AD

Spoiler :

Strategy for this run was basically, get the GLH, and then get revenge on Willem. After teching AH and the prereqs for GLH, I teched off HBR while building the GLH in the capital. I had some spare time, and stone hooked up, so I built TGW in 7 turns. After that I got enough HA's out to deal with Willem.

Much later than I wanted to get my war started, but luckily Will had possibly the worst war strategy I've ever seen from an AI.

He had 3 cities, his capital and another were guarded by 2 archers, and he recently settled The Hague, guarded by an axe. First turn, I declare and move my main stack towards his capital. He responds by moving that axe onto a hill and fortifying him there. I think he was guarding a resource or something, but either way, he left that city unguarded, so I took it with a random horse unit, and it autorazed.

By the time I got to Amsterdam, he had whipped a few more defenders. Unfortunately for him, he whipped triremes. I took the city easily with a few HA's, and moved on to his last city. It was guarded by two archers and a whipped trireme as well. I took that city easily and wiped him off the map, unfortunately his cities weren't anything special. I razed 2 of them, and his capital would have been better 1E, but it was the Jewish holy city, so I kept it. At least now I have a ton of land to myself.

I spent the rest of the round cranking out settlers and workers. I still have tons of land to settle, and I haven't even explored all that much. I'm a few techs behind the AIs that I've met, but all my land should push me to an easy win.

I don't know what is up with these AIs. Boudica settled a city on my land with a chariot, and then sent the chariot off to explore, leaving the city unguarded. I think it may be worth it to do some city stealing here if it gets up to size 2 and is still unguarded. Nothing else of interest yet really.

 

[Tempesta13]

1st try post mordem:

Spoiler :

I ran into some bad luck here. I got beat to every big tech that I wanted to trade, and eventually Willem beat me to liberalism. Not too long after that he declared on me, along with Boudica. I had spent the last thousand years spamming settlers to all random islands, leaving none of my cities guarded by more than one outdated unit. I wasn't doing terrible, but it just wasn't a great idea to try a new level on an unfamiliar map with a leader who, while solid, isn't anything special.

So that leads to try #2, Monarch - Epic - 550AD

Spoiler :

Strategy for this run was basically, get the GLH, and then get revenge on Willem. After teching AH and the prereqs for GLH, I teched off HBR while building the GLH in the capital. I had some spare time, and stone hooked up, so I built TGW in 7 turns. After that I got enough HA's out to deal with Willem.

Much later than I wanted to get my war started, but luckily Will had possibly the worst war strategy I've ever seen from an AI.

He had 3 cities, his capital and another were guarded by 2 archers, and he recently settled The Hague, guarded by an axe. First turn, I declare and move my main stack towards his capital. He responds by moving that axe onto a hill and fortifying him there. I think he was guarding a resource or something, but either way, he left that city unguarded, so I took it with a random horse unit, and it autorazed.

By the time I got to Amsterdam, he had whipped a few more defenders. Unfortunately for him, he whipped triremes. I took the city easily with a few HA's, and moved on to his last city. It was guarded by two archers and a whipped trireme as well. I took that city easily and wiped him off the map, unfortunately his cities weren't anything special. I razed 2 of them, and his capital would have been better 1E, but it was the Jewish holy city, so I kept it. At least now I have a ton of land to myself.

I spent the rest of the round cranking out settlers and workers. I still have tons of land to settle, and I haven't even explored all that much. I'm a few techs behind the AIs that I've met, but all my land should push me to an easy win.

I don't know what is up with these AIs. Boudica settled a city on my land with a chariot, and then sent the chariot off to explore, leaving the city unguarded. I think it may be worth it to do some city stealing here if it gets up to size 2 and is still unguarded. Nothing else of interest yet really.

Spoiler :

As for your first game - it's hard to tell without too many details of the game but here are a few ideas: There was a lot of good jungle to settle, which you blocked off pretty well. I think with a whole lot of workers you should have been able to build up enough to be ahead of willem. He is easy to please - just build 8 or 10 units quick (by 1 AD or so) and put them in the closest city to him with walls in it and you're set. Also, not teching alphabet before aesthetics is definitely something you can do when you only have 1 AI to trade with - but remember it also lets you build research in addition to trading. Once you have your 8 or 10 guys to be safe from DOWs, switch a hammer city or two to research, and you can get to code of laws and currency faster. This really helps a lot in settling that land quicker. It's amazing how quick you can get them sometimes building research in addition to running your two or four scientists for early GP's. When there is land to settle this usually is the way to go.

For the 2nd game: You look like you're in a good position with willem gone early, and can catch up quick but i think you would have been better off leaving him for later. Since he can be blocked off, and doesn't build a lot of troops i think you would have been better off waiting until he built some wonders and infrastructure to take him out. Then you wouldn't have had to spend all those early hammers building units, and teching horseback riding - you could have used them all to get currency/code of laws quick, and some settlers with a whole bunch of workers. Then you'd be better off in tech, and can spend hammers later in the game building the army to take him out. After your land is settled and all important buildings are built, it's a much better time to devote time to spam troops - you'll have more hammers and less important buildings to build. Also the maintenance cost for them doesn't hurt you as much.

I'm not saying the early HA rush didn't do the job - certainly if it was a more dangerous AI that would have been much better than waiting - just that it's something to think about.

Anyway, you're probably in a pretty good position - just make sure you have lots of workers and get courthouses down quick.

 

[Phil725]

@ Tempesta

Spoiler :

I probably could have salvaged the first game, but it was my first real try at emperor, and it was just one of those games where everything that could possibly go wrong, did go wrong. I do need to get better at coming from behind, so maybe I should have played it out though. I was just pessimistic of my chances since I know the AI takes off more on emperor later in the game.

Regarding the second game, it's definitely better to leave Willem until he at least has a shrine. I was just going after him in a sub optimal situation to change things up, since I figured with knowledge of the map and everything it would be pretty easy on monarch.

I don't think teching HBR slowed me down too much, I traded it for I think math, meditation, priesthood and maybe something else, although building about 3X more units than I needed definitely slowed my expansion. With the GLH and all the land to settle it should be an easy win, hopefully I can get a win on emperor next try though.

 

[Tempesta13]

@ Tempesta

Spoiler :

I probably could have salvaged the first game, but it was my first real try at emperor, and it was just one of those games where everything that could possibly go wrong, did go wrong. I do need to get better at coming from behind, so maybe I should have played it out though. I was just pessimistic of my chances since I know the AI takes off more on emperor later in the game.

Regarding the second game, it's definitely better to leave Willem until he at least has a shrine. I was just going after him in a sub optimal situation to change things up, since I figured with knowledge of the map and everything it would be pretty easy on monarch.

I don't think teching HBR slowed me down too much, I traded it for I think math, meditation, priesthood and maybe something else, although building about 3X more units than I needed definitely slowed my expansion. With the GLH and all the land to settle it should be an easy win, hopefully I can get a win on emperor next try though.

Spoiler :

That's true that horseback riding can be a good substitute for going alphabet early - if you got math from trades it evens out. Also the gold from capturing cities makes up for paying maintenance on the troops. So maybe your tech is ok, but it really looks like you should have more land improved by 550 AD and more cities. Any wonders you let willem get are a bonus to you also. I think if you replayed it (on emperor even) just blocking him off and clearing that jungle you'd find yourself in a better position at 550 AD. Then just build 10 macemen and 10 trebs and he's gone. If you can get a jungle guarding barb killer warrior up to 10 xp heroic epic would make this even easier. Having code of laws to be able to whip courthouses right away in willems cities helps also.

With the great lighthouse you will still be way ahead later. I took willem out late (like 1400 or so), and didn't fight any other wars so all i had was the starting continent to work with - also didn't build the great lighthouse or settle the islands except the 2 close ones (didn't think it's worth the trouble without TGL) - the emperor AI's were still behind me late game. Sal was close in tech, but i was building spaceship parts much faster than he was with mining inc and a few great production cities. Everyone else was way behind. There was a lot of war in my game to help me out though - and this kind of map makes the ai's put more effort into expanding than they usually do. They don't know how to exploit trade routes like a human so it just wastes their time. I've never used worldbuilder to look, but i'd guess they lose cash doing it, not prioritizing courthouses, harbors, custom houses where they should - add to that you stealing the great lighthouse from them.

 

[Phil725]

@ Tempesta

Spoiler :

Well, you convinced me, I'll give the map another shot at emperor. I think my main error in my other try was I was way too obsessed with horizontal expansion. I was trying to settle every little island, which is probably why I had so few/underdeveloped cities. If I settle out the main continent, and an island or two, I should be able to do a lot better.

 

[Phil725]

Emperor - Epic - 200AD

Hopefully third time is a charm.

Spoiler :

Started the same way as my other tries. This time I got better luck with huts, getting gold from all 3. I decided against going for the GLH. It's probably optimal, but it was throwing me off having to change my tech order and slow my expansion.

There wasn't that much else of interest really. I aggressively settled 3 cities to block Willem in. That crashed my economy down to 0-10% on the slider where it would have been 40-50% at monarch. Libraries everywhere was enough to get me out of the hole though.

I still have plenty of land to settle, my economy is recovering, so I'll get some settlers out soon. I was surprised those little fishing villages were an immediate profit even without the GLH. Once I get libraries up so they can run some scientists they will help some more. I got IW a little later than I should have. I traded aesthetics to Boudica for alphabet, but held off on trading aes for IW to Willem to make sure I got the GLib. Either way, the jungle should be completely cleared out soon.

I just whipped the GLib in the capital, a nice boost to research. Currency was a huge boost to the economy, taking me from 0% to 30% on the slider, CoL will be a nice boost as well. Techs are pretty good:

I just finished the GLib, so I traded lit for the rest of currency and ~250 gold with Willem. He's teching very well, despite being limited to 4 cities. He has a double holy city, with the Jewish shrine. That will be a nice boost to the economy. I have a GS standing by to bulb philo once I tech off the prerequisites. I think I'll found Taoism, the tech pace on the other continent isn't great, I think Monty is responsible for that. Either way, the path to lib looks clear. I'll probably take nationalism and then maybe run over Willem with cuirassiers.

This game should be an easy win, I'm already first in land, and have a lot more to settle. The main obstacle could be the AI who got the GLH if they take off once they start settling islands.

 

[Phil725]

Emp - Epic - 1400AD

Spoiler :

I started this round by filling in some more cities and peacefully teching towards lib. Will went after lib again, but I beat him to it pretty easily, taking nat ~1000AD. Nothing else of interest really, except I started building up for war on Will.

The other continent has been warring this entire game. AC is the main whipping boy, how he's avoided capitulating yet is a mystery to me, he's been declared on ~15 times. Monty and Darius have taken time away from going after AC to go after each other though, so no one is teching very well.

This warring led to some weird wonder activity:

The Pyramids after the Spiral Minaret? That's a new one to me. I was going to build them in 7 turns, but I figured it would be faster to tech off constitution

Anyway, I used back to back golden ages to finish my build up for war against Will. His cities were really starting to press some of my stronger cities, and he has some nice wonders. It took me longer than I wanted, but I was finally ready to declare around 1400.

Same old Will. He was teching along very nicely, unfortunately for him, his cities were all guarded by ~3 longbows. He managed to muster up some quick reinforcements (HA's are better than triremes I guess,) but it didn't slow me down too much. I wanted to take Rotterdam my first turn, but thanks to his culture and his reluctance to chop that forest, I had to go over the hills, but I still took the city easily.

I left some injured cuirassiers there to heal, since his SoD (2 maces and a pike that were exploring,) was hanging out around there. I moved the rest of my cuirassiers down to his capital. It was guarded by a few longbows and some other outdated units. I sent it into revolt, and took it easily.

Not a ton of wonders (I have no idea how he didn't get the pyramids with stone in his capital's BFC,) but the wonders there are nice. With the Colossus and SH, I'll probably put off astronomy for as long as possible, and Notre Dame is always a nice boost.

Anyway, I pressed on to his double holy city, by this point his garrisons are even more embarrassing. I had a bunch of EPs on him, so I threw Utrecht into revolt and took it.

The two shrines pretty much make it my Wall Street city by default, although it only has 3 land tiles. It should have OK production as long as I put Moai Statues there though.

Anyway, take a few turns to heal since I didn't get a GG medic before the war, and on to his last city on the continent. I used the last of my EP and my healthier cuirassiers to claim my continent.

He had some island cities in addition to his mainland cities. It would have been a huge pain to take those, so I took him as a vassal instead.

I'm usually against taking vassals because they screw up everything, but in this case there wasn't that much of a downside. He still has enough research that he can help me tech things (I think he gets corporation in 15 turns,) and since he's in free religion, he isn't going to make me any new enemies. The motherland unhappiness is partially offset by the vassal happiness. He should also be able to help protect my fish if someone declares on me.

I stopped playing there. Will's land:

Not a ton of land, but it's nice to get the continent to myself.

And techs:

Willem was the only one teching better than me, and he's no problem now. Darius is doing well for being in war constantly (GLH is helping him,) but I should be able to pull away pretty easily. Maybe I'll "help" him by giving him corporation.

 

[Tempesta13]

@phil
I'm glad it's going so well this time. Especially since i was the one that convinced you to up it to emperor and try again!

Spoiler :

I think you played it really well without having the great lighthouse. Willem is a soft target here and you hit him at a good time. Didn't cost you much, and you now have all his shrine income, and those wonders. Since you were doing fine in tech before this, with his land and the shrines you should have no problem pulling away, even with those emperor era bonuses.

Get oxford up (if you haven't yet), cottage techs and civics going - bank/market in the double shrine city (plus harbor/custom house since it's coastal) and your beakers should start looking good.

You should be able to win space no problem from here - if you want to go for domination that should work too, just a lot of moving around troops. Maybe AC first, then Sal, then monte, then Darius/Boudica with navy seals. (diplo situation might change this order though) Expecially if you're ahead in tech, you really only should need 20-30 units or so to take 2 cities right away and get quick capitulations. Just get a couple stacks of 4-5 full galleons with riles/cannons or whatever.