Monarch Student XXI - Montezuma

[Lansky]

Monarch/Normal
1903 Domination

The 3 saves I remembered to take are attached. Before/After my second war and then just the final one.

Spoiler :

Carthage started out as my GP farm this session popping out scientists. Fairly early philo bulb and I did not trade it around. Had the tech lead and once you take a religion the AI is less likely to research it and in this case delays their own attempts at Lib... not that I'm really worried about it in this game.

Always good to have in your GP farm.

2nd GS bulbs Education.

Wanted to bulb Chem but screwed up by trading for machinery thus opening up the Printing Press bulb. Instead I use this one to put an academy in the capital which also got Oxford. On that topic The HE went down in Hippo. A marginal city until biology really, but one day it will produce modern ships in one turn Not sure where to put the NE though as Carthage is not going to be the GP farm long term but rather the IW/WP city.

Go ahead and bulb Printing Press with this one.

Take steel with Lib and head to Communism after a detour to Nationalism.

Start a GA to speed things up.

Lets extend that GA.

Use cannons and whatever else I have to take out Victoria. Convert to State Property and start setting up the western cities as production centers. Plan is to now simply overwhelm the heathens and leave Caesar and Zara be.

Went after Astronomy in order to kill Shaka. He voluntarily capitulates to Hammurabi and now I'm at war with both of them. Meh. Hammurabi has 4 cities. Four. Not much of a worry. They both go down along with Degaulle whom was bribed into it by Hammy. All three were relatively backwards and were steamrolled by cannons/artillery, rifles/infantry, and cavalry mostly with some airships mixed in for fun. After taking their land I added a couple filler cities up by Shaka's old island, cranked up the culture slider to pop some borders and game over.

 

[Maronae3]

Played till c. 1220 A.D.; Monarch/Epic.. Not much to give since my notes AND pics are gone. (Ghosts? )

Spoiler :

Decided to start with peaceful expansion because of what seemed like a good capital site. Out of pressure I ended up moving the Palace to the only spot I could find on the southern half of the continent with much green at all.

No wars whatsoever broke out until I was teching paper, I was able to REX enough to block off about 1/5 of the continent in total (not bad I thought) and kept Zara from coming south.

Later (while I had started lib beeline and was on paper) the whole Jewish sect (4 AI's and me, even though I had no jewish cities pre-liberalism) dogpiled Hannibal who was dumb enough to DoW the Jewish founder. I joined in and took 1/2 his cities and left him with bad spots.

Won lib and currently planning a draft-bananza against backwards Lizzy (her and Hannibal were excluded from the peaceful tradespam of me and the Jewish bloc). Beelining rifles before she gets her UU...

As for developments, the land is very awful in my opinion. The good cottaging land seemed to be in the northern part of the landmass, and in the south, especially around the start, there was little except desert and plains. Using the capital with library and scientists was my only hope for winning liberalism, and is why I couldn't get it till ~1100. Still, things are looking very winnable.

 

[Single Malt]

Monarch, Normal, to 1960BC checkpoint 1

Spoiler :

Lots of food and forest start, techs were agri, mining, BW, AH, pottery(in progress). Popped Masonry from hut.Nice capital, bad surroundings. Will whip chop an army, and take Hanny, as he is close, and head for CoL and construction, and get rid of Zara with Cats/jags. If he is heavily forested I may even choke him with jags while I tech construction.

The discovered world so far

 

[Single Malt]

Checkpoint 2, to 25AD

Spoiler :

In the previous checkpoint I was preparing to beat on hanny. More opponents were met, Zara aked be to be buddist, I obliged. I have a feeling Zara may be boxed into a small bit of land between me and Ceasar. I hope so, he won't tech too far ahead then. In 1160BC I DoW Hanny

My economy tanked proper after I took 3 and razed one of Hannys cities. With him eliminated I had a good chunk of land secured. My economy tanked. Through the war I was running on 0% research, the unit and city maintenance was killing me. After the war I Chopped.whipped libraries where possible, and used scientists to research part of maths, later turning to 100% research when all libs built to get max mutipliers on commerce. The gold amassed through conquest and 0% research lasted till 2 turns off currency. Demanding sailing as tribute from Vic also went a long way(I may as well make the unit maintenance count for something)

Anyway, the world as discovered in 25AD

the 25AD tech situation

Now I plan to keep up the binary research, and go aesthetics and literature. I have marble, and the GL would fit nicely into my capital. I may nab construction and take the 's off Viccy too

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Immortal/Normal

1 AD

Spoiler :

I just settled in place. AG ----> BW, pretty typical. What wasn't was that I SPED OUT 3 settles, 2 west one east, to block some land from hannibal/zara. In order to get these sites, I built the settlers before workers...at one point I had 4 cities and 1 worker, putting major strain on the treasury since that made me lose gold at 0%. I didn't have writing yet, either.

So, what does one do there?

"Cottages!!"

Capitol started working its riverside cottages, and the sheep site is also good so I worked a lot there. Gold raised cap, then I traded for fun, then horse for silk/dye. Then I used aesthetcis to broker for alphabet, monarchy, iron working, sailing, and masonry.

Although I still lack currency or CoL @ 1 AD, my position is pretty good.

"Your first priority is to expand to middle-of-the-pack in size, your second priority is monarchy and cottages".

So there you have it. I have room for 2 more decent cities (marble/fish and 2x seafood south of the cap) and probably 1 junker to get rice. So 10 peacefully. I've been checking war mode since hannibal is a threat, but I have about 6 axes and some archers on the way and he's not in war mode yet. Zara is pleased and also not in war mode, and if he went he'd probably target someone he likes less (pleased with me, cautious with quite a few).

This game is set up for me to choose one religious block and attack the other. At the moment, it's looking like I'll go theocracy + Judaism and hit hannibal. I'll have to see if I go the $$$ buy route or draft + cannon.

 

[Single Malt]

Checkpoint 3 Monarch/normal to 1210AD

Spoiler :

All binary research. The land is quite food poor and commerce poor. After CoL I beelined the lit tech and built the GLib. I eneded up being first to Philo with a GS bulb, and paper finished. Bulb half of Edu, research the rest, take Nat from Lib. Bulbed PP with 2 GS while beelining steel (vic has no Iron, so cannons won't be countered for quite a while) At this point I still have monopoly on Nat.

There is an extra civ on the map (Shaka, I can see part of his border). I intend to send a caravel and buddist monk over asap, and ap cheese a victory.
My capital

the discovered world

and the cities I have

 

[Single Malt]

Final Checkpoint, UN win AD1838

Spoiler :

Shaka wouldn't take the AP cheese of gifted caravels and monks, leading me to beeline Mass media. I still was short a few votes (30ish), with the UN, So I think space, and start on the prerequisites. The lightbulb flashes in my head, DeGaulle, he is hated by everyone, so I come knocking with tanks and infantry and cannons

In three turns he caps (one city, and eliminate most of the counterattack, leaving me with this a few turns later

the final demographics

The diplo relationships, glance:

and civic

and the final tech situation

If the penny had dropped earlier I could probably have shaved off 100 years

 

[Blue Boy]

This is the first time I have followed a shadow game and posted. Not sure how to present the screenshots with individual comments after each one!

Spoiler :

Playing on Monarch, normal speed. Upto 125 AD. Hannibal has just declared war on me again. I dont really have a big stack but dont think he can do much damage to me either.
Was thinking of converting to Judaism to join the big block but also a bit worried this could leave me open to an invasion by Ethiopia. Still not sure exactly how I'm going to win from here but thought that maybe if I could knock Hannibal and Viki out then I might have something to play with.

Any advice from anyone would be great!

Have also attached a save game

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Haha! I lost. I tried to go medieval on someone, and didn't have enough pikes to hold off the cuirassers. I am beginning to understand the window that exists for medieval warfare though, and the circumstances under which one might actually attempt it at high levels now.

 

[Outlandish]

Giving this one a go on emperor/normal.

Too lazy for screens this time, so a nice boring wall of text spoiler:

Spoiler :

Initial techs: Ag>Mining (hut)>BW>Whl>Pot>Fish>Writ>AH>Mas>Poly>Priest>Alpha
Builds: Worker>Worker(misclicked, was supposed to be warrior!)>warrior x2>settler>Stonehenge

The start:

2nd city settled at the NE choke point right in the spot where later iron popped, so I'm right on top of the iron. wanted to block Zara while getting fish+gold.

2200BC: Stonehenge in capitol.
1520: Hinduism founded by Zara spreads to me, don't convert.
1360: Settle SW city for sheep/whale/copper/marble
1120: Convert Hindu when asked by Zara
950: 1st GS, academy in capitol

The religion:

675: Oracle, take CoL, Conf founded in that SW city. Send missionary to religionless Hannibal, who was already in a hateful relationship with Buddhism founder Victoria. Now they really don't like each other. DeGaulle and Zara also hate each other. Switch to Conf after a trade with Zara.
50AD: GS (75% chance of prophet for shrine )settled in capitol
500: GL complete in Capitol, MoM complete in NE iron city (thought I'd fail for gold)
660: Prophet for shrine.

The Liberalism race:

840: GS bulbs most of Edu.
1040 1 turn from Lib, no one has Edu, switch to gunpowder.
1040 GS born, 2/3 of printing press bulbed
1120 Gunpowder, still no one with Edu, start chem. Have been actively backfilling with paper and philosophy trades.
1140: GS born, 1st golden age started, will have chem in 6 turns
1180: Hammurabi gets Edu, 2 turns to chem; switch production to research to make it 1 turn.
1200: Get Lib, take steel, start teching to rifling backfilling a bit with Edu.

The first war:
1200: Am worst enemy of 2 civs, Vicky and Augustus. considering FR, but not yet as neither can reach me really.
1240: GS, will bulb 1/2 of Sci Meth, holding for now for GA instead.
1380: another GS, no GA for now have been running pacifism pretty much since Philo, hence all the GPs. Now switching to FR; running HR/Beaur/Slavery/Merc/FR.
1480: give DeGaulle steel for Nationalism+him DoWing Zara (I'm still at peace). Switch to Nationhood and start drafting rifles as rifling finishes next turn.
1535: Prophet, starts 2nd GA. Have taken Gondar from Zara, the enshrined Taoist holy city with a whopping 4gpt from the shrine! so not worth the prophet.
1580: Take Aksum, enshrined Hindu city, a bit better at 33gpt from the shrine.

stopped here for now, ahead of most civs in power other than Hannibal and perhaps Victoria; can't see her power. Hannibal and her have not had a war yet, despite close borders and hatred, and Hannibal wants too much to be bribed into it. Need them to get into it a bit to slow down Hannibal a little while I'm trying to crush the rest of the world.

No idea yet what I'm going to do with Zara; his culture is so strong that Aksum will be useless if I don't take at least 2-3 more cities, at which point he won't be worth capitulating and I'll be having close borders with Hammurabi and have to watch another front while fighting Zara still. Also worried Zara will vassal to Caesar or Hammurabi; more likely Caesar which wouldn't be a convenient fight.

Also, am wondering just how much you'd be willing to give to get 2 AIs into war; for the war I want to start it would take Chem+Edu+some 3rd tech I forget which, but not insignificant. As much as I want to start that war, it would be giving the current power and score leader instantly near tech parity and my troops are busy in the other direction so I couldn't even take advantage and backstab once the war had started.

 

[Andii]

I could not find the worldbuilder binary, i don't know where that POS is, but I put this save in the saves/Worldbuilder folder and I was able to start the game by choosing scenarios where I found that this one had miraculously appeared. Nice! Oh, because I couldn't find the world builder, I ended up binding CivBeyondTheSwordWBSave extension to start civ4. Seems to still work. Using Vista 64.

 

[Outlandish]

bleh for hitting F5 and refreshing away everything i'd typed. anyway, finished Domination Victory in 1936.

again, no screens:

Spoiler :

The Roman war:

1600: Take Gaul
1650: Raze Ravenna, settling there a couple turns later
1670: Take Rome, nothing special but 3 settled GGs
1700: Take Antium, peace w/Caesar, get DeG's city of Orleans in settlement which I liberate to him
1755: G.S.
1850: back at war with Rome a couple turns ago, took all but the 2 cities he had of DeG's
1852: DeG vassals to Hannibal, making endgame a bit more annoying. Am 5-6 techs behind Hannibal. hanny gets last 2 rome cities, Caesar gone, hanny keeps the cities rather than liberating to DeG. That's what DG gets for vassaling to him instead of me, more consequences to come.

The Babylonian war:

1854: Hammurabi finishes Apollo. Vicky afraid of Hanny's military. I'm 6 techs behind my own vassal Zara
1862: DG uses AP to steal Arretium from me with 415/401 votes needed.
1864: Vicky finishes Apollo, Hammurabi gets Eiffel, I DoW Hammurabi.
1868: Zara swoops in and steals a Hamm city which I failed to take with one defender left; the city is surrounded by my Roman cities and will be worthless to Zara and would have been nice for me. Learn to bring enough troops!
1874: Hannibal finishes Apollo.
1882: AP election, I abstain hoping no one wins it and DG just misses at 204/240 votes. This turn I capture Akkad, enshrined Judaism center (38gpt) and home of the AP.
1894: Take Babylon, gaining the Kremlin and Eiffel tower.
1900: Hammurabi dead, prepping to DoW Hannibal+DG.

the Carthaginian war:

1913: Switched to police state after some rush buying, DoW Hannibal+DG.
1920-1: Orleans, weakened by my attacks and controlled by hannibal, taken by Zara. Then taken by DG, 3 owners in one turn. I steal it for good in 1921. 4 city owners in 2 turns has to be a record, for me anyway.
1923: hannibal builds UN
1924: I get UN Sec Gen despite Shaka supporting hannibal.
1927: finally finish radio, yay for bombers; i think this game would have gone faster if I had just stopped research.
1930: end of DG, northern troops head to help the push vs hannibal.
1933: Shaka DoW vs Vicky
1935: Hannibal capitulates, might push me over the land limit, if not i will just need one vicky city.
1936: it was enough, Domination win.

Hannibal had finished about 3/5 of the necessary spaceship parts, no one else had gotten much done.

 

[Single Malt]

I could not find the worldbuilder binary, i don't know where that POS is, but I put this save in the saves/Worldbuilder folder and I was able to start the game by choosing scenarios where I found that this one had miraculously appeared. Nice! Oh, because I couldn't find the world builder, I ended up binding CivBeyondTheSwordWBSave extension to start civ4. Seems to still work. Using Vista 64.

The saves/worldbuilder folder is correct. The public maps folder works too. The game is supposed to appear in the scenario menu.

 

[Andii]

I've played up to 1900 and done by best to succeed. Its a close race but I still feel the potential for the win. Playing Monarch / Normal. I'll post some saves soon, does anyone know the screenshot hotkey?

 

[Single Malt]

Shift+Print Screen

 

[Andii]

Damnit, vassalized second civ and the game crashes that turn, gotta reload :/