Monster Map reload - Mayan AW on demigod

[ThERat]

After the relative breeze on emperor playing the Dutch, would it be possible to survive and win this game on demigod.
Demigod is quite a different beast when it comes to AW games. If I could survive long enough to build up enough military before meeting too many enemies, this might be possible.
I rolled quite a few starts. It is clear that without a food rich environment one will not survive since the city limit will be hit very fast.

Once I had a good start with ivory as a lux, I was set to go and expanded as quickly as possible until meeting the first foe, that is relatively nearby, the Vikings

At this moment, I have a mere 5 cities. But I have my UU and that will mean slaves. I am also trying to get SoZ with a started palace prebuild...

Trying my luck with a warrior, I attack the city the Vikings just settled and got it razed. Hoepfully that will curb their expansion a little. In fact I can keep up with theri progress in terms of cities, which will be crucial.

Not long after that, I enter the early Golden age due to JT's. I rather have an early GA and get a lot of slaves, than purposely delay that. It will also spur expansion until the city limit is hit.

I get bad news during all that expansion however. The Americans finish SoZ 6 turns before I do Swap my prebuild back to a palace and try and time it to get the GL, which surely will be crucial now for my success.

An overview of the empire in the midst of the Golden Age. I have 10 cities while the Vikings have a hard time keeping up.

Soon after that however, I hit the city limit at 13 cities, while Vikings end up with 12. If I can manage to take them out, I would have 25 cities, nice for a chance to survive. The other good part is the fact that the Vikings only show up with archers and spears, they don't have iron apparently.

 

[Quintillus]

Not a bad expansion phase. 16 cities is average for 31 civs with the 511 limit, so 13 on Demigod is quite decent. The Vikings look like a good early foe for you with their lack of Iron. Do you plan to keep using Javelin Throwers to gets lots of slaves or switch to Swordsmen for their attack?

Also, could you remove the URL tags around the IMG tags in your post? The images are quite small now and it would be easier to read if they were larger.

 

[ThERat]

Early fighting is easier due to the fact that only spears and archers show up. Combine JT's with catapults and nice leader/slave possibilities are open.

Not long after the real fighting starts, a first JT army is born

Here is a picture of the early fighting of Viking stacks

Using my first JT army, I manage to capture Hareid, which I keep as a magnet for the AI to attack

With Hareid secured, the army then moves on to Stockholm to further hurt Vikings.

Early expansion seems promising. Vikings have been contained so far. But I will need iron for further expansion and the land doesn't look good for that. There is a distinct lack of hills and mountains in my lush land.

 

[Tasslehoff]

I agree with Quintillius. Doesn't imageshack let you paste the full-size image?

I'll be watching this story, too.

 

[ThERat]

If someone can tell me how to get the images up without the thumbnail link, that would be great...too stupid myself

Anyway, let's continue the story...

Golden Age got us nice expansion and a real shot at the Great Library after missing out a vital SoZ (I could have really used those ACav's). By the way, there are 3 luxes nearby and that can only mean that our continent must be pretty big. With so many resources connected early on, the capital can quickly grow to size 12. During the GA it churns out a JT every second turn.

The JT army moves on to Stockholm and takes it easily (fighting spears is no real issue). I redlined the army but archer won't attack even the 4hp army. They simply ignore it...

Things get even better while taking out more archers and spears and another army is born

More vital, I get the GLib (and I was really MM a lot to get the GL in time). It was exactly at 1 turn to the palace when literature came in, then the switch to GL took another 11 turns.

While waiting for the GL, I researched the wheel and CB at 4 turns each. I have 2 horses connected, so at least we have them for knights and cavalry. The GL did not give me anything yet as I only met Vikings and no other nation.

In the meantime, I took out the next city tilting the balance even more in my favour at 16-9 cities.

Then I saw a unit rush by in the IT, clearly a new Civ. It took another few turns before the scout came into view for contact and Portugal is met. In the meantime I got IW and no iron anywhere in sight This can pose a real problem. How am I supposed to fight without swords/pikes and maces? JT's won't really cut it

Meeting Portugal shows several things:

First, they actually have iron, but with a scout, they might be far away. Second, they also have another 4th lux, this means the continent might be huge. Third, they do have 14 cities and might not be so overpowering. In fact so far none of their units has shown up.

 

[ThERat]

So, we have currently 2 enemies with 9 and 14 cities, Vikings resourceless and Portugal has iron and horses.

Two armies allows me to attack with more ease as I can cover one army while the other attacks. This way I am able to take the Viking capital.

While taking out more of their archer/spear combos, I get a third MGL. Three armies will mean the pentagon is available (the HE is already hand built). This might be huge in this game as I have no iron and might be forced to attack pikes with JT armies, I am even thinking of LB armies on the way to a more plausible saltpeter.

While moving out and founding new cities, I spot 2 new borders. An orange border in the west (which I leave alone as I don't need a 2 front war). The other border is sandcolor and turns out to be the Ottomans.

Now, these guys have iron as well (which seems to be much closer than Portugal). This might be a chance in the future to acquire that metal. They have 17 cities compared to my 20 at this moment. Meeting them catapults me into the MA (giving me feudalism and monarchy).

I decide to revolt seeing no better time than now with the Ottoman initial onslaught a few turns away. I draw a mere 4 turns (remember I set the OCN very high). I can see Ottomans starting to move their units towards our land, they have pikes and maces against my JT/cat combos. This will be quite a fight I reckon.

I manage to take out a Ottman city however, with 2 armies attacking pikes is feasible if slightly risky. But attacking on flat ground in cities should be fine with healthy armies.

I switch government after a pleasant anarchy period (3 luxes help a lot)

My treasury is at 2000gold with 60gpt added every turn. I hope this will get me gunpowder before making my way to cavalry. I hope the desert around Viking/Ottoman land has some salt around.

For now, I got no choice but to try and locate the Ottman iron and pillage it to get lighter attacks. This way i will hopefully eventually attack spears in cities. 2 armies are moving east locating hills already. Once I have taken out the iron, I can resume trying to take out cities.

At the moment I have 22 cities, Vikings 4 and Ottomans 16.

 

[Tasslehoff]

When you upload a pic to imageshack, copy the link on the page that shows for "Forums 2." If you aren't on that page, find the picture you want the link for under "My Images", click the I button next to it, and select the code in the BIG box, under full size, instead of the lower one, which is under thumbnail.

 

[ThERat]

When you upload a pic to imageshack, copy the link on the page that shows for "Forums 2." If you aren't on that page, find the picture you want the link for under "My Images", click the I button next to it, and select the code in the BIG box, under full size, instead of the lower one, which is under thumbnail.

that did the trick I agree it's much nicer to lurk and read

 

[Aabraxan]

lurker's comment: Spamming to subscribe. Good luck, ThERat!

 

[gmaharriet]

lurker's comment: Subscribing also. This should be an interesting game. I'm enjoying it already.

 

[Quintillus]

No iron - that makes it even more difficult! Good luck surviving the inevitable barrage this two-front war brings. The Vikings look dangerous in that last screenshot even with four cities, and I'm sure the Ottomans are a danger.

Just wondering, can you get slaves from a Javelin Thrower Army winning?

 

[ThERat]

Short recall before moving on:

I have NO iron, but horses, I got 3 armies and 22 cities. 3 foes at the moment all located in the east.

Start the next session with a success taking out another desert town on flat from Ottomans. With fully healed JT armies, it is possible to attack.

Not much later I move on to the east along the mountain/hill expanse and spot the Ottoman iron source In the picture below, I inserted the mini map to roughly see how far this is from my core. It will take a while until this source of iron will be mine.

I pillage the iron and just to make sure, dial up Ottomans. Yes, this is their only source of iron so far. I can't afford to attack Edrine though, because it is on a hill. 3 JT armies against pikes on hills do not sound promising.

Back at the homefront, fighting the many units Vikings throw at me, pays off. I get a 4th army. And yes, JT armies will enslave units as well. This pays really off as I have plenty of slaves at the moment.

It doesn't take too long and the Ottmans have reached my borders with their initial stacks. I had expected them and prepared plenty of defenders (one good thing is that spears and JT's are relatively cheap and can be replaced quickly. Ottomans decide to come from 2 directions and I have to strategically place my catapults and units to be able to react to the threat.

 

[ThERat]

In the Ottoman land I spot the next city on flat land and taking the right moment and patience, raze the city after taking out 2 pikes and 2 spears (pillaging the iron has paid off already)

I also manage to take Oslo and by this time, Vikings are down to 2 cities already while I have 26 cities at this moment. It is still surprising how many units Vikings can field. Thye must be able to churn out a unit per town each turn.

At home, things are starting to really heat up and I am happy to have avoided an 2 front war so far (by the way the landto my south is ocean, thus I am safe from there). Below you see the stacks approaching. I do my best with catapults to ping the pikes and soften the stacks. It takes all good timing and precision as my attackers are quite weak. I can't afford heavy losses at all. Playing defensive and taking on small stacks is the way to go.

One turn I have to deal with a stack from the east, the next from the north where quite a few troops pour in. I ping the pikes and some maces, but inevitably a few will attack. My fortified JT's behind walls aren't doing a bad job and the kill ratio stays very high.

In between all the fighting I get this message which is a boon. It will cause more experienced Ottoman units in the short term, but the city will ultimately by mine in the long run and save a lot of support cost

 

[ThERat]

The heavy figthing continues and is bound to give me more MGL's. The next MGL comes in...

and turns into this building

4 unit armies might have a much higher chance of survival. These JT armies will be useful throughout the game as they will continue to generate slaves. I estimate that I currently have around 60-70 slaves.

Fighting continues and gives me a 5th and 6th army. The attention shifts a little to the east as the initial wave from the north subsides.

Here is an overview of the front. Ottoman units mixed with few Viking units and the new threat, Portugese stacks as well. This makes fighting a little tough as there are still many forests. In the meantime I am able to found a city out of the blue as the AI's are fighting somewhere else.

I take Bergen, Vikings second last city and keep it for the time being as a connection. I also use this opportunity to send 4 unit armies to the front and bring back those 3 JT armies.

Last picture shows an overview over the front. In the far northeastern corner is Edrine with the iron I need so badly.

I have acquired engineering from the Great Library. Portugal has invention and monotheism. If Ottomans get monotheism I will have to venture to the west to meet the orange Civ to maximise my Great Library. I do not want to get stuck with the slow progress of the Ottomans. I hope that I will get quite a few techs from the GL and hopefully gain gunpowder from it. I will simply have to have saltpeter in the vast desert to the northeast.

Some stats:
29 cities and more than 4000gold for deficit research in future
Vikings 1 city
Ottomans 13 cities
Portugal 14 cities

 

[Ansar]

lurker's comment: I cannot express how great your stories are, ThERat.

 

[ThERat]

first off, thanks for all the encouraging comments

I played a few turns tonight ans will not be able to play until Sunday as I am going for a retreat. The little bit I played was shocking though and I might not survive...

What happened?

First I spot Portuguese knights, I haven't seen any move 2 units so far. Anyway that was expected so no big deal...

But then after the next IT, it comes big...I have contact with 2 new Civs that are advanced. I smell something fishy

These guys here have 21 cities

Now I know what is going on, the AI knows PP and has sold contacts and thus I get to know America as well. These guys have SoZ and KT, this will mean plenty of awful enemy units...

In addition they have plenty of more contacts. If I meet them all in a few turns, I am doomed by the initial attacks that I will simply not able to absorb.

The next IT gives me this contact

The only positive news is that I acquire techs up to

I start research and manage to get metal to 13 turns at a large deficit. I badly need cavalry and that needs gunpowder. In the desert there are 2 source and one is outside of Ottoman borders since I took another town there. If I can manage to found a colony to start on cavs, I might have a chance.

For now, it is building spears and LB's. In fact I got another army, which will be formed into a LB army for some better attacks.

 

[Ansar]

So still no iron? :suicide:

 

[Quintillus]

:gulp:

Hopefully the RNG will be extra-super-nice and have an AI run out of iron and have it relocate within your borders.

On the plus side, America only has 7 cities. And maybe, just maybe, America and the Aztecs are on another continent? You did say that they had printing press.

 

[ThERat]

On the plus side, America only has 7 cities. And maybe, just maybe, America and the Aztecs are on another continent? You did say that they had printing press.

Well, America has 21 cities and is definitely on our continent as they build th SoZ...

The others also seem all on our Island as nobody had navigation yet when I got those contacts...

 

[ThERat]

despite all the odds against me, decided to continue. Even if I go down in flames...

In 480AD managed to take the last Viking city. I have one enemy less now

Unfortunately after that we get even more contacts...

I wonder how many more contacts I will get before being destroyed.
At the same time I am still trying to expand and defeat the Ottoman. Metallurgy is soon in and I badly need cavalry. Maybe I can survive.

Another contact

Via creative roading I manage to connect the saltpeter in 530AD and switch a lot of builds to muskets. Better defenders are really good for me with unit cost starting to mount.

The Civs that I face are now:
Aztecs: 21 cities
Korea: unknown number at the moment
Carthage: 21 cities
Portugal: 14 cities
Ottomans: 10 cities
Babylon: 22 cities
Byzantines: 15 cities
America: 20 cities