Monster Map reload - Mayan AW on demigod

[ThERat]

The stream of new Civs I get contact with, doesn't stop over the next few rounds.

Especially bad is the fact that I meet the orange Civ, the Dutch. A two front war is now inevitable.

At the same time I continue to raze Ottoman cities and expand my own empire.

I manage to clear the iron city of Edrine. The 4 units JT army is not a bad tool and the JT/LB army combination works wonders, but is a little slow. I have an extra army unfilled waiting for cavalry to be filled to be able to do some real damage.

After a while the Americans finally reach my borders in numbers. These are the first few stacks of their fast movers.

The muskets I gained come in handy now. The picture below shows another impression of the front. The combination of artillery and LB's can still defeat quite a few units. Keeping Ottoman towns for 2 turns also helps to confuse the enemy and I am not yet getting overrun.

In 640AD I finally get MT and swap a lot of builds to cavs. For now iron is secondary as I only need it for railroads later on.

 

[Steel_Khalil]

Omg... those are a lots of units o.o Good luck

 

[Quintillus]

Wow. That is a ton of enemies. Is the plan just try to keep the borders while the armies take out the Ottomans? It looks like you're in for a long, bloody fight on your eastern borders.

 

[ThERat]

Is the plan just try to keep the borders while the armies take out the Ottomans?

The plan is to secure the iron and saltpeter within my borders. Having colonies is a little unsafe though my JT army on the salt has yet to be attacked.
I plan to take the Ottoman capital with Sun Tzu, as this will make life much easier and save some cash.
Of course, overwhelming enemy numbers could nullify this plan.

 

[ThERat]

With Military Tradition in, I hope the Cavalry will tilt the balance in my favor, especially knowing how many Civ will come at us with their initial stacks.

I can only hope they come in phases, maybe then I won't get overwhelmed.
Ottomans have only a few cities left and should be easily taken out.

My attention has to be diverted to the north from now as well as their is a big stack of Korean knights appearing. I shift a Cav army there to help out

Fighting them yields yet another army (my second cav army)

The army helps to stabilize the situation there

In the meantime, the Celts (I spotted their border next to the Ottoman borders before) step up and we got another enemy.

Later on the Egyptians appear and we have a total of 14 enemies at the moment How I can deal with that many enemies and only 38 cities myself is left to be seen.

Nevertheless, I continue to take out Ottoman cities

I even take their capital, but need to evacuate it and let the Celts take it due to overwhelming numbers.

The western border has become a hot zone as well with the Dutch flooding in with force

Let's see whether I can handle all that without losing...

 

[gmaharriet]

I even take their capital, but need to evacuate it and let the Celts take it due to overwhelming numbers.

I want to be I understand what you meant. It sounds like you let the Celts take Istanbul with Sun Tzu's, rather than abandoning the city. This would be so you can retake it from them eventually? or did I misunderstand?

Wow!!! These next turns sound like they're going to be rough. Good luck!

 

[ThERat]

I want to be I understand what you meant. It sounds like you let the Celts take Istanbul with Sun Tzu's, rather than abandoning the city. This would be so you can retake it from them eventually?

That's exactly what I am planning to do.

 

[ThERat]

And the second statement, that the game seems brutal, is also true.... I am still hanging in there though. But I could go down any time.

Continued by getting a MGL. In fact (for whatever reason) I always seem to get a MGL when I just formed a new army and am waiting for one. I reached the army limit long time ago and wait for 4 extra cities all the time.

Another city for our army limit and higher unit support

I build another cav army and get a MGL fighting the many Dutch minnows in the west. Their numbers are strong, but the units are weak and I can eventually handle them.

For added excitement another Civ via PP.

Below is an overview of the expanse in the west. I sent 2 armies out to start razing more cities as we need to expand to survive at all.
In the north is Babylon (and Korea must be there as well as their units come from there)
Dutch are west and to me the Dutch appear weak as they lack fast units. I hope I can make some progress there.

 

[Own]

geez rat... this is out of control. How do you still have the patience to play this after just finishing a monster AWE?

It may appear as though this game is somewhat over, with all the contacts and non iron and stuff... but I think you can still do it, since cavs are just around the corner.

 

[ThERat]

The situation in the east and north becomes more and more desperate however. In the north Babylon and Celts stream in and I need to scramble what I can.
In the east I need to defend the roads as they are my bloodline to saltpeter and iron (which I now connected via a colony).
There the Aztecs increasingly worry me. Americans have cavalry themselves now and create trouble as well.
Below you can see a 9 unit landing by Aztecs, which I manage to take care of.

Expansion needs to progress at all costs and I manage to raze the second Celt city with my LB army.

As mentioned the north gets more and more crowded and I get another MGL.

But then the masses come and I can not assemble enough defenders to fight against this. City #40 is in serious trouble. I put in more defenders and cross my fingers...

 

[ThERat]

How do you still have the patience to play this after just finishing a monster AWE?

believe it or not, this kind of game is a sort of relaxation for me...I can watch my soccer games and even chat with ppl while doing that...

 

[ThERat]

well, crossing my fingers didn't really help

Time to regroup my defenses there to avoid losing more cities. It actually works and I avoid losing more cities there for the time being.

for a change I meet more Civs...fun really to have so many enemies
At least this lady is backwards. But she knows plenty of other Civs. I have a feeling this is a Civ from another continent

Vent my anger by taking this Babylon city and hope to spot the ocean in the north. I could use some narrow front.

Well, currently I have 44 cities and 11 armies. I know 16 nations and they seem all more or less on our continent.
I will post an overview another time and maybe a better world map (If I still live that is)

 

[Quintillus]

Impressive - survival still seems possible. City #40 looked doomed from the start without walls, though. I would've been inclined to just abandon it and pull the troops back to New Lagartero or Miss the Celts.

How's the expansion towards the saltpeter going? It looks like you're finally at the southern edge of the huge desert.

 

[ThERat]

How's the expansion towards the saltpeter going?

Well, not that great. I face a lot of units in the north and east. Thus, I have been expanding west as much as I could. The main worker force is there to road and improve tiles. The Dutch have been pushed back after taking out their initial stacks.

At the moment, I am struggling to keep the road intact that lead to my saltpeter and iron colony. I covered both with a JT army and they have been left alone so far.

The other reason for expanding west is the jungle there. I will go for steam immediately after hitting the next age for rails and I guess the highest chance for coal would be the jungle. I don't want to end up with 3rd colony. Coal is notoriously rare.

Generally I thought that the game is manageable on demigod, if only the AI would not sell contacts. dealing with too many AI units at one time is suicidal. Currently I simply lack the amount of units to kill the Aztecs advancing troops. If I can't win this game, I am thinking of replaying the game without the ability to sell contacts and maybe also without the UN. I might lose the game due to the fact that I can't take out the UN in this huge world.

 

[Quintillus]

Didn't even think of the U.N. - that seems so far off. But, assuming you do survive, I guess it is a realistic threat - no one's going to be voting for you!

 

[ThERat]

In order to keep up with my expansion and armies, I am always getting a MGL whenever the last MGL has been converted into a new army.

After this short success, it's getting crowded again at our northern front, with plenty of Babylon units streaming in. I beat up a few and then they divert west which might spell trouble later on for me.

In the east, a huge Aztec stack is approaching threatening our roads and basically hitting us in too many numbers to be able to defeat them all. I can only ping as much as possible and then try and get rid of them slowly without losing roads to pillaging.

Despite all the drowning in enemy units, my armies continue the slow razing march and 2 cities fall.

These cities get replaced in the west where the Dutch aren't as scary as enemies anywhere else.

 

[ThERat]

When I thought this could go on for a few turns and I could actually hang on until rails, more and more enemies keep pouring in 930AD.

The situation becomes very bad in when I face huge stacks on all fronts...This is the situation at the beginning of the turn. Note that those stacks have big numbers...how am I going to survive this? Maybe not at all

In the east, you can see many Aztec units that i couldn't clear move on to my core. At least I managed to keep the roads intact via pinging units with my artillery.

In the north, the Celts threaten in numbers but are actually moving westwards rather than attacking.

In the west my newly founded cities are under siege by Babylon and Korea, with Babs sending knights to boot. In fact the new city you see in this picture (with a cav inside) is abandoned and replaced a little to the south to avoid an unnecessary loss. But there is now no room for further evading.

I manage to defeat quite a few Aztecs and some Celts, but I might not be enough to save the west. I think I could fold any time right now.

Taking out another Dutch city gives me 48 cities and a 12th army, which will be sent westwards to help slowing down the inevitable defeat.

 

[Aabraxan]

Man! That was a HUGE Aztec stack! Good luck.

 

[Quintillus]

^What Aabraxan said. Those guys are everywhere.

 

[ThERat]

short update without pictures:

I played 2 turns last night. The Aztecs still pour in but I am slowly getting the upper hand. The healthy LB's will simply move further in to get eventually defeated by my units.

It is the north and west that is a problem at the moment. In the north, the Celts have big stacks. I was moving an army back and forth between north and west to prevent losses of cities. It worked but the Babylons have too many units where I have too little defenders and artillery.

I also have the problem with expansion because the Dutch show up in bigger numbers now and I can't just send settlers out easily without protection.

I hope I can hang on until I get steam, It is now another 6 turns to ToG and then another 15-20 turns to steam (I estimate)...Of course, I need coal for that as well...