Monarch Student^ XVIII- Ragnar

[mariogreymist]

No, I did not build any siege...not a single unit. I killed a fair number, but didn't build any.

The real strategy involves getting to berserkers while they will be dominant for a long time to come. Maces are great, and Berserkers are just Maces on PCP. The real key is to not Rex, play a cautious diplomatic game while those FIN cottages, GLH and a couple GMs carry you to Machinery/CS.

Then go nuts with berserkers and spies.

 

[Magus Zarkara]

Hello there! This was my first Emperor win, I tried to win a Diplomatic Victory on the last Monarch Student but missed a few votes and just gave up on the game. I guess I need to learn more about diplomacy... Anyway!

Emperor / Normal

~1000 bc

Spoiler :

I settled 1 SW to avoid the sea. Washington was really close so I thought about a chariot rush. I don't remember my tech path but I tried to get Alphabet quickly to help me recover from capturing Washington. Building research + scientists really helped when I had to put my research to 0%.

Anyway, after settling 2 city I started to build chariots. I settled one near the horses at NW and one near the Ivory at south.

Washington had the Great Wall so I didn't have to worry about barbs anymore. At 425 bc he was defeated.

After that I decided to expand fast to the south to get more land and captured some barb city on the way.

~1898 Domination Victory

Spoiler :

A little after getting Liberalism I circumnavigated the globe, it might be useful later (it was). The other civs weren't advanced, only Augustus Caesar was doing fine but he was enemy from everyone in that continent, Saladin was Cyrus vassal.

I rushed the Taj Mahal and changed to Nationhood. I started drafting and building Beserkers and muskets while I teched for cannons. After that I moved my stack to attack Shaka, i decided to attack him first merely because I dislike him. But 1 turn before I declared on him he declared on Churchill. So I decided to attack Churchill too, not sure if it was the right choice... But anyway...

Stack too big for just one city but yeah. I used that spy over there to revolt it and got it. Got the Angkor Wat with the city.

I captured a few more city but Shaka capitulated him. ¬¬ So I decided to build more troops and defend better my border cites before I go on. In the mean time:

Time for some rush buying fun! ... or not.
I went for Communism before Democracy because I wanted State Property and I didn't want to loose the Kremlin. I'm not sure if this was a good choice or not. Anyway, it didn't take me long to get Democracy. So I declared on them and went to finish off Churchill first. I already had Democracy by now.

He didn't have Rifling yet so it was really easy, he got wiped off at 1750 ad. After that it was Shaka's turn.

So I started to build Transports and Destroyers to start my intercontinental invasion. The transports started with +3 movement, it was amazing.

9 turns later:

Then I captured a city from Cyrus and capitulated him. After that I organized my troops and after a little while went for Pacal, got 2 cities and capitulated!

~Victory Pics

Spoiler :

 

[NihilZero]

Hello there! This was my first Emperor win

Nice job, a very convincing win for your first on Emperor.

I need to post more updates on my game, it has been extremely lively and entertaining.

 

[champinoman]

1973 Defeat

Spoiler :

I thought I was going to get my maiden Monarch win on this one but sadly fell over at the final hurdle with AC landing his ship in 1973 with mine at launching point. I may have been able to launch a few turns earlier but started spamming nukes once he launched his ship in a last desperate attempt to save the game. I launched about 15 nukes at his units and capital to try and allow my raiding force to get within range of his capital (ready to nuke again and capture the following turn) however his tanks came from everywhere and wiped me off his continent sealing his victory. I may have been able to get a UN victory but the vote was due 3 turns later so never got the chance.

General Notes about game: Capitulated Shaka ~1850AD followed by Churchill in about ~1920AD and then went mad of spaceship parts. Is it worth getting the space elevator? Looking back at it I could have finished 3 other parts in the time it took to build it making me think it probably wasn't worth wasting the hammers on it which only completed after half the parts were made anyway.

It was a good game however and I learnt a few things (or more so, re-learnt a few things)

1) Never stop troop production on the expectation your current troops can handle that last city. It took me an extra 30 turns to wipe Washington off the map after a stupid decision to switch back to economy too early.

2) Get to those 3 critical techs early (monarchy, currency, col) to avoid very large negative cash flow on 0% research. It got very close as I was expanding south after finishing off Washington

3) Don't presume barbs are gone with that solo settler... *facepalm*

4) AI has more of a brain on Monarch than Noble. So many times I thought 'she'll be right' and then regretted it soon after.

5) End game is no walk over. I got lazy and should have won quite easily. Paying attention and taking time is worth it.

Monarch: 0 out of 3. 4th times a charm

 

[Inso]

emperor/normal

->150AD

Spoiler :

I moved the scout but didn't find any other food resource so decided no to risk moving in case I lost the other food resource(s) in the BFC. Settled in place then wished I'd moved the scout to a different tile since there was irrigated rice there . Oh well never mind got plains cow and loads of riverside grassland. Researched AH first of course followed by mining while building a worker. Scouted around a bit and found washington very close by with a source of horses right next to him, so a chariot rush was impossible to resist. I settled a not so great city with the horse in first ring then turned off the slider to accrue some gold for the impending massing of chariots. I made sure to research the wheel before this of course.

I built one more worker in the capital for extra chopping power, then ~1100BC I had around 10 chariots and went straight for his capital, which after a few losses resulted in this:

Followed by this:

The final city next to the coast I also captured and Washington was no more. For some mad reason I razed this city when in retrospect it should have been kept for a great early GP farm, didn't look at it properly. Managed to net 4 workers from his cities too which helped greatly in economic recovery. Now there was a lot of good land which needed settling so I began building/chopping masses of settlers and workers to claim it all, while researching pottery and laying down delicious financial cottages everywhere to pay for it.

My tech after pottery went myst-writing-IW. I was going to go for alphabet first to trade for IW however Churchill already had it and Shaka never wants to trade early on. I needed it fast to make the lovely jungle land viable so had to take the plunge and self-research it. After this I went for poly-mono for OR and to open up monarchy which I want quickly since there are only 2 happy resources available. Its now 150AD and I have 11 cities with room for 2 more which will be settled very soon for a total of 13. I have been keeping a steady supply of axes/swords from washington's capital just in case of a Shaka DOW since he is only at cautious and although I will have him pleased soon from sharing religion that means nothing to this madman!

Techrate has been crappy with this rush+REX spree, but this will all change once monarchy comes in and I grow into many more cottages. Will now peacefully tech while keeping a careful eye on Shaka, and take him out with cavalry or rifles later on. Also in my excitement of settling all this land I managed to forget to run any scientists and only realised this a few turns ago, so won't have my first GS until ~300AD which is a bad oversight on my part.

Pics of current empire:

 

[mariogreymist]

Monarch/Marathon to 1486CE, domination victory

Spoiler :

From the point of possessing the continent, victory here was easy. I simply recovered the economy and ran a liberalism/steel maneuver followed by teching to rifling. I then cashed a GM, upgraded my elite berserkers, and put them with cannons onto galleons. Here, I made a nearly fatal mistake (not kidding) when I attacked AC just before an AP vote, and cyrus ran a diplo victory vote, which he lost (wasn't really that close, but there was no need for me to take that chance. After taking Rome and two other Roman cities, accepted AC's capitulation. Just after taking Persepolis and one other persian city then razing Susa (AP), the domination land limit was reached.

Victory is mine! (stewie is a viking at heart)

 

[BigTime]

Dang Mario, nice score and game! Now you move up a level, don't be like kaytiekat

 

[mariogreymist]

Thanks. I already am playing primarily Emperor now. And now my top 3 scores are all Ragnar!

 

[Nothingontv]

19.. space victory

Spoiler :

I forgot to take the pictures with me so i'll post some tomorrow.

Once i got cannons i attacked Churchill and took 3 cities. Shaka took 1 city after i destroyed about 20 units and only 2 were left in it. I gave 1 of the 3 cities to Shaka and kept the other 2.
Churchill capitulated after this.

It turned out that Augustus was leading in tech, i was catching up fast but he beat me to The Internet, The Space elevator and that last tech that gives you a free engineer by a few turns each time.

There was no way i could attack Cyrus or Augustus (Pacal was a vassal of Cyrus) so i agreed to a defensive pact with Cyrus and started on my spaceship.
It was pretty close but i won in the end.

Looking forward to the next one