[BTS] My First Emperor Win!! I Did it! Read Game Review Here

[CGQ]

I did it!! I won on emperor!! I remember winning on monarch and after trying several games I finally won!!! I feel like I've been getting much better at this game since I started in the summer!

I think the map was the best one I ever played, lots of gold and a lot of great food really helped. I've attached a couple of files if anyone wants to play it curiously and a couple saves across several periods to critique what I could've done better. Unfortunately huts and events were on, but the only thing I got from them was the rest of agriculture (saved 3-4 turns since I was teching it as I got it) and popped free scout.

Spoiler Details of the game :

Settings:
Leader: Sury of Khmer (Randomly chosen)
Huts and events on
Standard Speed
Low Sea Level
Normal Map size
Temperate Climate
Emperor Difficulty

With gold in my capital for the first time, this map was an obvious keeper! Though it wasn't the best in terms of food, the wet corn definitely helped. The gold in my capital was amazing, big help for sure! With expansive, I got my worker out in just 12 turns.

My tech path was first agriculture, which I half teched-half popped with a hut. Then I teched AH for the cow, and my worker improved the farm, cow and then gold in that same order as I teched BW. At size 3 I slow built a settler in just 9 turns and sent him up north. I also found what I considered cottage heaven:


My pupils were immediately replaced with dollar signs and I knew what I could do! Pity I wasn't a financial leader though.

I ultimately claimed both the stone and marble and had over 200 BPT at 100% tech before 100 BC! By 1 AD I had 11 cities, though research was really costing me a lot, so I built a couple stone wonders to 1 turn then switched for "fail gold." I also moved my capital to Angkor Wat shortly after bureaucracy, since I also used my first scientist to build an academy there. This was the first time I ever moved the palace anywhere lol. Angkor Wat became my Cottage science capital and with academy+Oxford+Bureaucracy it produced over 700 BPT by itself! National Park was also built here to offset unhealthiness from floodplains or it would never be healthy LOL.

The city of Avar was a barb city which I was able to capture culturally with my creative trait. I prepared some swordsman to take it but it revolted to me after haha. First time that ever happened with a barb city!

My neighbors were Isabella and the William the Dutch guy. I was nervous about Isabella at first but she has been very nice to me the whole game when I converted to Buddhism and I like her! (She's also one of the hottest leaders, along Hatchy, Cathy and Boudica hehe)

I also built the National Epic and Great Library in my original capital. Though it probably should've gone in Angkor Wat, I wanted to use the original capital to focus on great scientists so that Angkor Wat can always work all those cottages.

Around 1100 AD, I conspired to backstab Isabella, though I was very hesitant. She was at Friendly with me and has been extremely nice and I actually felt bad lol. Unlike William she never tried to send spies on me or anything. She was my best friend and I really didn't want to betray her. But then again, I want to win...

I had about 30 Cuirs parked outside of Isabella's borders, in groups preparing to take her border cities. She had an amazing capital of 3 corn, 2 of them wet! But I didn't want greed to get the best of me. In light of our friendship, I would take her cities until she capitulates, then in good spirit give them back and make her my vassal.

Just as I was about to declare...



She finally asks to become my vassal! With only 6 cities she came to me! I could've easily wiped her out but I didn't want greed to get the best of me. I had plenty of land and knew that I could still easily win with her as a vassal so I took the offer! I knew now who I really needed to attack...

William Van Oranje!

Though his cities are spaced out and his land isn't all that great. Lots of jungle so I decided to take maybe half his cities and hopefully he'd capitulate. I sent Cuirs up and in the mid 1100 AD and took some of his cities. I took his capital and two more cities before he finally surrendered and became my vassal. By 1360 AD I had two vassals and 22 cities! Normally in the past I would've started my cuir rushes as late as 1400-1500 AD! 1360 AD and I finally have control of my continent, through vassals. My economy recovered and I built more workers to improve the new mass amount of land I had. I could've gone and conquered the other continent but I was lazy and decided to do space race.


Angkor Thom became my production city from the beginning and built the pyramids, which got me early monarchy and allowed me to work more cottage tiles. I also built the Parthenon for faster GP, MoM for the longer gold age (I always go for this wonder when possible) and Taj Mahal. Later I built the iron works, Kremlin and Cristo Redentor. I had to self-tech iron (took about 3 turns) to get the pigs since AI wasn't trading it and I needed it, though maybe I shouldn't have I know it goes against the forum lol

Moai statues built in Jayendranagari since it seemed like the obvious place, and factories+coal plants were built in every city that could get them. Same with Levees (especially my new capital), hydro-dams and nuclear plants in cities I wasn't afraid to lose. Towards the end I was teching at nearly 4000 Beakers per turn!

My tech path was: Agriculture > AH > BW > TW > Pottery > Writting > Alpha > Currency > IW > Aesthetics as far as I remember.
I also teched CoL and used caste system. teched calendar cuz no one would trade it with me. I was also the first to music and used my artist for a gold age after building MoM for 12 turns. I bulbed Philosophy, saved me a bunch of turns and used pacifism during GA to get me another scientist, which I used for chemistry later for the workshops. I Libbed Nationalism and built Taj Mahal in production city for another 12 turn gold age. I teched gunpowder while waiting for scientist for philosophy, then after libbing nationalism I teched Military Tradition during the GA and was ready to make cuirs. From there I teched to optics and met the AI on other continent. Turns out we were in the peaceful continent!

I teched astronomy in about 5 turns, giving me over 100 GPT after getting it! That helped a lot! I gave my vassals some techs so they could research stuff I wanted that wasn't high priority, then trade for it! It's so cool you that can tell them what to research, I didn't know you could do that until now haha

By the late game, I was teching like mad and got communism which gave me a free spy. Got physics first which gave me a free scientist. Did a third MoM gold age late game and by 1838 AD I finally launched my complete spaceship! The earliest launch I ever done! Thanks to Cristo Redentor, I switched between Hereditary Rule and Universal Suffrage to pay for laboratories and used two great engineers to build the Space Elevator in one turn.

I also completed the UN in that one city the Dutch dude gave me during his capitulation for peace, Cimmerian. Cathy (second hottest leader in this game haha) and Joao became friendly to me towards the end, turns out the global defensive pact that was voted through really helped ensure world peace.

Final Turns:


With the space ship launched I knew the game was won but then 2 turns before victory the UN asks me which vote to pass and diplomatic victory was one of them. I decide what the heck and press it and vote myself. Next turn...

Diplomatic victory! Just one turn before reaching Alpha Centauri! Two victories in a row! By a landslide, it was over 1000 votes!

I gotta hand it to everyone here on the forum, I don't know how the hell it's possible to launch a space ship in 1500s or earlier like I've seen around here LET ALONE 90 BC, like how is that even possible, do you need like 5 gold tiles in your capital?

Maybe I could've won this much earlier but it's my first Emperor victory and on Christmas and I'm proud of it! Thank you everyone for helping me here! Hopefully I can win immortal here one day!

Take a look at some of my saves to critique them if you please

Save files:
4000 BC Start
2560 BC About to send settler for third city
1720 BC 4 cities, building two settlers to take two more good spots
1360 BC 5 Cities, had barb troubles and lost copper twice. Settler on his way to city 6. Gotta improve my spawn busting!
1 AD Rexxed to 11 Cities
300 AD Palace under construction in Angkor Wat
600 AD Building Universities everywhere and teching gunpowder while waiting for GS to bulb Philosophy
1110 AD Peparing to attack William, Isabella became my vassal a couple turns ago.
1360 AD Dutch just capitulated. Up to 22 cities now. Teching communism.
I delayed SM so I wouldn't lose my scientists. Thanks to a quest I got a third scientist in my great library city and I didn't want to lose him yet.
1580 AD Economy much better here
1700 AD How am I doing here?
1800 AD More awesomeness
1854 AD The turn after I voted for diplomatic victory. Next turn the game is won.

If you guys want anymore save files from this game I have a whole bunch more, just ask for a specific date and I'll find the closed one I have.

I only reloaded 3 times early in game when I kept losing one of my cities to a stupid barb archer lol. Hopefully next game I can win with no reloads at all!

 

[CGQ]

The rest of the save game files

 

[Wrathful]

Congratulations on the win CGQ!

I played this one out to T50.

Spoiler :

Excellent land and a great leader to boot. Didn't see any reason to move the settler, so I settled in place. Worker first obviously and I started with Agriculture.

T1 and I already found a fantastic second city spot:

Planning to expand quickly. Sury lends himself to REX (rapid expansion) thanks to his traits. And the gold will fund it all quite nicely.

Popped a scout from a hut on T5.

So many flood plains to the east...but I'll probably stick with the corn/pigs as my second city.

Met Isabella on T7. Her scout came from the east. A great neighbor if you end up in her religion. Builds the Oracle very often.

And yeah, she founded Buddhism two turns later.

Met Willem on T9. A powerful AI that techs well and tends to get pretty big too.

I assign my spy points to Willem for now.

Finished Agriculture on T10. BW or AH next? I picked AH.

After farming the corn my worker mined the gold. I also found another hut. It gave my scout experience points.

Finshed AH and the gold mine on T21. I found another great spot for a city. I think I'll go here next actually. Dry corn and pig like the other spot, but horse and stone too and more forests to chop. After producing this warrior I will start on a settler.

After the cow pasture was completed my worker didn't have much to do. Yeah, BW first might have been better. I ended up farming a wine for a couple turns.

Finished settler, finished BW, and revolted to slavery on T31. Going for The Wheel > Pottery > Writing next. Or I might get Masonry (thinking about the Pyramids here).

My capital got out another worker after the settler. Only took four turns thanks to the expansive trait.

Did this with my second city...

Can't grow very fast anyway, so I'll use this time to invest hammers into a worker. I'll switch to the pigs after my border pop I think.

By the way, I imagine barbarians would be pretty brutal here on Deity. Low sea level and all. If I was more scared of them I would hook up the horses...but it's only Emperor.

After growing to size 4 I whipped a settler in my capital. Overflow from that + a chop will be invested into another settler probably.

That brings us to T50:

Decided to make a play for Pyramids here. I mostly want the happiness from Rep. Not to mention Rep merchants being very powerful as well.

So I'll go for Masonry, hook up the stone, and chop out the mids in my capital probably.

Next city will probably be in the flood plain area. Then the river corn + copper, then the gold + deer + sheep southeast possibly.

 

[lymond]

Congrats on the win. That's a nice space win on your first attempt. Something you can improve on. My only comment after a quick glance at the final save is that Nuclear Plants are redundant...waste of hammers.

 

[Wrathful]

Spoiler Continuing to T115 (1 AD) :

I did end up getting the Pyramids at around 1000 BC or so. A very late date for Deity of course. I was unsure of what to tech for a bit but eventually decided on Myst > Med > PH > Code of Laws. Aesthetics was another option. But with only two other people, it would be much weaker trade bait. Besides, CoL can be traded around as well. I was also suspicious that Willem would go for Aesthetics himself.

Screenshot from T92...Willem demanded PH (I gave it to him). Waiting for a couple libraries to come online before turning up my slider. Up to 9 cities. Will probably stop expansion for a while now. Note that I'm close to tripping the population limit for Domination. Was kind of funny to see that so early in the game.

After I got CoL, I traded for Alphabet with Willem.

I wanted to trade with Izzy too, but she didn't even have Writing yet.

Next turn she got it, and I was able to make a trade.

I'm sure I have iron somewhere (it turns out I have two).

Got 50 failgold or so from the Oracle...Izzy missed it.

Bulbed Philosophy on T102, switched into Pacifism + Caste. It was delayed a bit because I had some stuff to whip (lighthouses and a couple Barays.) I am taking a shot at Hanging Gardens here or at least some failgold.

This trade here might be questionable...but he was going for Monarchy anyway.

I was successful in building the Hanging Gardens. That was completed around 225 BC I think.

After getting Civil Service, I raced to beat Willem to Music. Even on Emperor he can tech like a beast.

Screenshot of my capital on T112...a decent capital. I may or may not move the palace like you did.

I did beat Willem to Music. Got it at 1 AD.

The plan here is to conquer the continent with Cuirs. I already have 1 GS and the great artist. Could start a golden age now and farm a few more. Will probably settle the marble and go for the Taj.

 

[Hamilton321]

I do not know how many years it took me to win on emperor for the first time. I don't really play that often, particularly on the high difficulties and that makes it more challenging. I think it was two or three years after I started playing regularly that I won on Emperor for the first time.