NC CLXXVI Hannibal

[Pengu]

Imm until 1350 AD

Spoiler :

So, I scouted out Zara a little and his stack was not by my borders. I stayed at 12 cities and went for lib. It was getting late so was happy with any. Zara did dow Mehmet which was very nice. They just butted heads. I built the University of Sankore as I had lots of religious buildings(mostly to suppress culture) and libbed nationalism and built the Taj. I was nowwhere near astro as I decided to backstab Zara with Cuirs. Nothing was happening in their war and finally at 1200 AD I declared. I took the backdoor and took out city after city. Then ***** happened which made me reload once. For some reason after I had taken my 3rd or 4th city(including the capitol) Zara just capped... to Mehmet. The guy who had conquered absolutely nothing... That is just bullcrap. I reloaded and gave Mehmet Philo(yes, he is a bit backwards) to make peace. So now Zara is all alone with 2 cities and will be whipped out. Then Mehmet is next. Have only met Darius from the other continent and he seems to be doing well as he is a little bit more advanced than I. By 15-1600 AD I should have control of the entire continent and there doesn't seem to be one civ dominating the other one. Did not know the AI can just cap to another AI without losing 1 city. Just so stupid that I can take as many cities as I want with no cap and then the AI will cap for nothing to another AI.

 

[InovA]

@SammyW1000:

Spoiler :

Think of the slavery stacks like this:
Whipping adds 10 turns to the duration of .
For every 10 turns (rounded up) you will have 1 .
So if it says 22 turns left, you will have 3 , and at 20 turns only 2 . When they were whipped doesn't matter.

Hadrumetum will have a pretty nice economy, yeah I'd add a market there at some point! Perhaps for now it would be better to make a catapult/NC or two first though. Either play is fine, and yes adding the market for 25% increase, rather than the bonus. Markets aren't necessary for most cities, but as a commerce city, Hadrumetum benefits from markets, banks, and grocers much more than others!

My way of fixing the crisis would actually be to go to war ASAP! During the period between, say, 500 BC and 1000 AD the main purposes of raising is through trading for the + resources. In this case, Mehmed doesn't want to trade you his Ivory, so by force it is!!!

Also gj on calender, prep your workers to get that sugar ASAP and with the ivory+sugar+gold, you should be good on happiness for a good while.

I would say to declare on Mehmed immediately and take Ankara or Edirne. If Istanbul seems like it will be a problem, take the other cities with your NCs while you get a few catapults ready. I think you're more than capable of starting war now.


Small note:
Utica would have been better placed 1 tile north of where it is. All cities produce 2 1 1 , plus whatever tiles they work, however cities placed on a Plains Hill actually produce 1 extra ! This doesn't mean you always need to go out of your way for this bonus and to put many cities on them, but the bonus is pretty great!
I'm guessing you wanted the Flood Plains tile badly enough to stay a bit more south, but I would just have made another city between Utica and Hadrumetum, using both Flood Plains and the Pigs. (Even now it's a pretty decent city spot, just unfortunate that Utica will lose the tile if you go that route.)

Also it's a good idea to start 2 scientists in your capital as soon as your first library finishes. The first great scientist can make an academy there which gives +50%! After that, any scientists can be spent on bulbing techs like Philosophy, Paper, Education, pretty much the route to speed up getting Liberalism! And spending them on Golden Ages is good, too.

 

[Gumbolt]

Quick update on noble game:

Spoiler :

Oracled astronomy 100ad .

Even on Noble Istanbul wasn't easy. 4 archers on a hill, 60% defence from Hindu holy city. It cost me 4-5 NC. I can understand wanting cats.

@ Sammy and Pigswill.

Spoiler :

Wars are all about planning. If you attack with 5-6 units and lose 3-4 units attacking the first city you are in trouble. In Sammy's case he could form 2-3 mini stacks of 3-4 units to take out the ring of cities around Istanbul. Then use his spare 2-3 pults on the capital if needed. I would probably just attack with the pults on first turn without bombarding once you reach his capital.

Overall the longer you take to take down his cities the more defences that Istanbul will have. If he has any copper/metal these should be pillaged in first 1-2 turns of war. Worth sending a scouting unit into his land while you prepare a stack.

You have 7-8 NC already. Heal them up. Whip/chop 4-5 more. Then attack once you have 2-3 mini stacks formed. Simples!! Of course if the Ottoman empire had a large stack somewhere then adapt this plan to maybe 2 stacks. I doubt he has any real army.

 

[Pengu]

Imm until 1420 AD

Spoiler :

So, I decided to wipe out Zara completely as he had 5 or 6 wonders in his capitol and no use keeping him with 2-3 cities. Even if I lost a few techs by doing it.
The war vs mehmet wasn't that hard as he is backwards with no cuirs. He had a big stack but only phants, knights, pikes etc. After that was gone and and I took a few cities he was willing to cap. But now I am at a crossroads. Do I kill him off completely losing guilds+banking+economy, but gain the entire island for myself. On one hand I can get a ton of cities by settling the island, but I loose time and tech. He has like Stonehedge but not that many wonders.
He will be uesless in wars, but he can help me tech.
I will mull over it....

 

[Pengu]

Decided to finish this one off

1635 AD domination

Spoiler :

So, having only met Darius from somewhere else I decided to just cap mehmet as I wanted to save time and his cities weren't that good. Darius was closing in on rifling. But I was shocked to find out what what happening on the other continent. Ragnar had capped Hammurabi and both were very backward, even worse than Mehmet. And Darius+ Gengis was at was with Rag+Hammy which was perfect for me. Gengis was big and winning with Darius, but he had knights and trebs, noting else and not close to anything. Then the choir started of building galleons and shipping over my cavs. I did wan't to backstab Darius 1st to avoid him getting rifling but I was just too late.
Then when I had my army almost in place Darius and rag just closed borders on me just like that. Well, my army ended up close to the north pole by gengis border so it was more or less decided Gengis was going to get it. And he folded like a deck of cards as his outdated units could do nothing. After that I just gifted back his cities and went for Rag+Hammy. Decided to wipe out Hammy 1st to "persuade" Rag to cap. And after taking out Hammy 1 city from Rag and he folded. Now it was 1580 and I was sitting at 60% land mass which was annoying. And Darius was very close to infantry.
So I just dowed him and slammed my cavs into his rifles hoping to get him before Infantry cause that would had been a nightmare. After heavy losses on both I started to grind my way into Persian land and after a couple of cities fell and his stack Darius had had enough and with a couple of turns from Assembly line he also gave in.
So this was a game where playing it nice really went well.
Rexed to 12 cities, got Mehmet in my religion and backstabbed Zara. Thankfully no lovefest or Mansa on the other continent.

 

[Gator Country]

@ Pengu - Congrats!

HOF table updated.

 

[Powerfaker]

Last time period 1515AD to conquest victory at 1595AD.

Spoiler :

Need to redefine my definition of quick wars.
- Ragnar capped after 5 turns at 1565AD, didn't try any sooner.
- Invaded Darius with Infantry, he capped at 1590AD after 2 turns.
No rivals left => victory.

Built Taj at 1540AD. Still had 11 turns of GA left at finsih date.

Forgot to mention I ewached Lib 1140AD => tokk RepP.

Got to see now in replay some stuff that happened on the other continent.
Conflict between Ragnar and Darius 1100 to 700BC, no benefits. From 400BC to 500AD Hammi got trampled by GK and Ragnar. 100years later they turn against Darius, who withstands. Peace is signed when I enter the stage ±1200-1300AD. Rough environment here for a long time. Nevertheless they managed to tech well and build wonders.

Thanks to Gator County for hosting this game. Appreciate the effords to entertain people visiting this forum, Adds another dimension to show how you played a game. I might try to keep posting once or twice a week, more than that will be undoable for me.

How do you post pics and saves by the way? Ctrl-Print scrn does not work fe, nor does drag and drop file.

 

[Gator Country]

@Powerfaker

If you enable the advanced editor (the Go Advanced button), you'll see a button below the text box that lets you attach files to your posts. This is the best way to share saves.

(One note on sharing saves - if you play with the BAT mod, most people here won't be able to open your saves (they need BAT, too). If you install BUG in your Custom Assets folder, you'll get all of the UI enhancements, and you can share saves with anyone who posts here.)

You can attach images as well, but if you do you get a thumbnail of the image below your post. Since we prefer to keep screenshots within spoiler tags (at least in NC), your best bet is to open an account at an image hosting site (I use Imgur) and upload your screens there. You can then copy the url (pick the BBC Code format option for your link), paste it right into your post and then wrap spoiler tags around it and any other text you want to hide.

BTW - congratulations on your win! We post a new NC game every two or three weeks (our current game features Shaka, and the next one will be Napoleon), and I hope to see you playing them.

 

[Izuul]

Played a little ways into this on Deity and this map really needs one extra AI. Or maybe just tweak the starting locations a little bit.

Spoiler :

There's just sooo much room for Mehmed to expand. Zara gets boxed in early with something like 5-6 cities and Mehmed has at least half of the continent to settle. I'm guessing he could get like 15 cities here if left totally unchecked.

 

[shakabrade]

Played a little ways into this on Deity and this map really needs one extra AI. Or maybe just tweak the starting locations a little bit.

Spoiler :

There's just sooo much room for Mehmed to expand. Zara gets boxed in early with something like 5-6 cities and Mehmed has at least half of the continent to settle. I'm guessing he could get like 15 cities here if left totally unchecked.

I don't have much from this game as I played this long time ago, but this screenshot (screenshot is from 1360AD if you don't want to spoil it for yourself):

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

Anyway, Izuul, indeed, I thought the same and that's why I attacked Ottomans while they were still expanding and their army too thin. Half of the Numidians died anyway, but they served their purpose. It was really piece of cake afterwards. I often find myself attacking those Imp leaders early not because they will become runaway if I don't, but because they really are vulnerable to early rushes.

Failing to see that Ottomans must be taken out ASAP could make thing very complicated.