When I left off, my economy was just coming out of the gutter, and Im trying to rex the whole island. Barbs are helping me by founding cities I just finished off a second one, which was slightly misplaced, so I razed it. But got some gold out of it. Now theyve built a 3rd city way up in the northeast, but its a nice site with deer, whale, horse, sheep, so Im waiting for it to grow to size 2 to take it save me a settler.
Im teching towards banking and have finally switched to caste for awhile to run merchants. Ive got a merchant and scientist popped, but not sure what to do with either. The scientist could be used for an academy, but Im not sure yet which city will be my best research city once I figure that out think thats the plan. The merchant could be settled in my holy city, but I think Im just going to save any merchants that come up to me theyre the most useful late game great people, and I think Im going to need to win this one late game. So saving the merchant for now.
Rex rex rex. Im at 15 cities, the barb city will be mine once I hit size 2, and I have 7-10 more sites identified settlers are being built. Im going to go all out with rex and see how many cities I can get built, because I figure I have some catching up to do. Heres the barb city Im waiting on:
That barb city just got longbows, so will probably wait until knights to take it. No real rush. A long stretch of just fixing the economy at this point. Im teching down the bottom of the tech tree, which is atypical for my usual game, but banking is key for me to really right the economy, as I have a lot of cities with decent commerce at this point, so the multipliers will really start to pay off. Also in caste system and running merchants everywhere hoping to continue to pop more merchants, as Im sure Ill need gold to catch up later on.
Whats now amazing to me is its 1550 AD and I havent met anyone else yet usually a caravel shows up by now. Even more amazing is that I havent teched paper yet in 1550. This was the most poorly I think Ive ever had my economy on monarch level, partially due to the overly long war, and partially due to me now deciding to put a ridiculous number of cities on this island. 18 cities and counting at this point Im starting a few more settlers as well, as Ive got 3 more good sites, and several ok sites as well.
Finally, in 1560, lib goes? I could have easily made it there if I had thought itd go that late! Something tells me this isnt necessarily standard civs. Why do I feel like either theres a lot of isolated civs, or some backwards ones like Toku. Should be interesting to see how this plays out. In hindsight, I should have probably gone optics a lot sooner, but at this point, Im starting to get my economy straightened out, and when all these banks go in, should really be in pretty good shape.
And in 1580, first meeting:
Great, hes annoyed, and he already backstabbed me my last game. Guess I need to start spamming units. Tech situation looks great too:
And another meeting too - also not good:
This will be a come from behind win if Ive ever seen it. The great news though neither has astronomy, and neither has gunpowder. Ive halfway teched printing press, and Im moving toward rifles & should get there before an invasion. The bad news is also that Huayna is a vassal of Mehmed already. The other good news is that I now have my tech rate up to 60% and am in the black despite all these cities, so I should be able to start meaningfully catching up. And then a great random event helpful:
I opt for the merchant, since this is my holy city and future wall street city. Ive now gotten my tech rate up to 70%, and am teching fast now. Mehmed is teching toward rifling, not surprising. But so am I
and were going to hit it almost the same time. Hell still need astronomy and chemistry before he can really beat me up. What really sucks is Mehmed is obviously gifting techs to his vassal I couldnt even backfill with Huayna when I hit replaceable parts, because Mehmed gave it to him first. Finally though, I get an advantage I need to backfill despearately:
I can now quickly get lit and get my heroic epic up finally. Meanwhile, Mehmed finishes rifles 5 turns before me and starts on chemistry no doubt hes coming after me. Hes going to have to get astronomy too
so even if he goes for that right after chemistry, Ill have about 5-10 turns of rifling to be able to produce rifles first. Im still 7 techs behind him, but only 2-3 of them are of any use to me
so its not too bad. I finally decide to take the barb city with flanking knights:
And, finally, thank goodness:
Rifles being produced everywhere while I get optics and astronomy up. I also pop another great merchant, so I have 3 sleeping. This game is starting to take off. More backfill with Huayna:
I hate trading rifling, but economics and engineering are pretty useful techs for me at this point. I also run my first trade mission, for 2850 gold. Now running deficit research and massing rifles to protect myself. Meet this dude:
Were actually not that far apart techwise, although he does have scientific method, and I dont yet. But Im not far behind. I decide while Im deficit researching to tech up toward combustion, as I feel like naval superiority would be useful. In 1766, I meet this guy.
Finally, Im ahead of someone in tech yay! Another trade mission means more deficit research, and I pop yet another merchant. Hes off to do a third trade mission. And, not in the least bit surprising to me, in 1802:
I had already pulled all my boats back into my borders, so theyll be upgraded to destroyers in 6 turns when I tech combustion. So just like in my last game, he DOWs me just before I get naval superiority. Fine. And seriously, how does Mehmed build this many ships? 31 ships are headed my way 15 caravels, 9 galleons, and 7 frigates. Im still 6 turns from combustion, so this will be an annoyance for sure. First stack lands it has 3-4 rifles, and the rest knights, catapults?!?!, and crossbows. Mehmeds losses: 25. My losses: 2. He has to be the most inept civ at war ever. He did the same thing to me in the last game. Fine. A nuisance for a few more turns until I get my destroyers up and running. I then just check my whole continent to make sure I have oil
and are you kidding me? The only oil on the entire continent is offshore? Seriously, this cant possibly be the case. So I have to take peace from Mehmed. What a debacle I cant get destroyers because of no oil ugh. Time to head to medicine for sushi.
While I do that, I observe that Huayna, Mehmeds vassal, has settled a tiny size 2 city right by oil. So, that clinches that. I mount a force of galleons, cannons and rifles, and a few settlers, and send them all down to that little island. He has infantry at this point, but I need oil. I DOW Huayna (and therefore Mehmed, and land the troops. Then, they try to immediately stop the war with the AP one turn later. But I get one turn to take the city, and I brought a lot of troops against 2 defending infantry. 6 cannons and 5 rifles too much power.
And success!! I have oil. And the next turn:
So I have oil, and am now starting to upgrade, and I get the inflation event. 372 gold for a 25% drop in inflation. Game over now - that is the most gamebreaking event there is. At 70% with sushi going in most cities, and Im breaking even. Easy domination win coming now
even if it is late game. Teching down artillery and industrialism to get military supremacy. Its 1874, I dont even have artillery, but its not going to matter. Grant my oil colony independence to let them grow
while they give me oil, of course:
Honest Abe made a great deal, and that colony saved my 85 gold per turn. Its all over now - the rest of the world will soon perish. For the second straight game, my intention of moving towards space is thwarted by Mehmed pissing me off. Turn off tech for 3 turns to upgrade my fleet. Mehmed hits combustion too, so it looks like my advantage will come when I hit assembly line and artillery. Guess Ill need to draft at assembly line. I send yet another merchant to Amsterdam for a trade mission. Who knew one merchant could turn 22 cannons into artillery. Awesome. With drafting, I should have about 50 infantry and 40 artillery ready for Mehmed. In 1892, assembly line at last. Spiritual Nationhood unhappiness in a few cities, and draft draft draft
since in HR, not enough unhappiness to matter. Theocracy for a bit too. Slider to 0 for gold to upgrade everything. And the first wave is ready. Second wave is mounting.
I like attacking capitals first - so we head to Istanbul. Back to vassalage to finish the deal. Lots of XP for everyone. DOW and go time! Mehmed of course gets artillery the turn before I DOW, so Im sure hell upgrade every unit for like 3 gold, but it shouldnt matter. Mass production of units in every city plus sushi should be too much. Sitting bull is huge too, but hes 2-3 military techs behind, which is bad news when I get to him. By the way, I got the sushi quest about settling unsettled crab there was a barb city with crab, so I sent a few infantry down to take it, wait for borders to pop, and got the 20 gold in my corp HQ, then gifted the city to Lincoln to cut down on maintenance. I click end turn after landing my forces, waiting for some sort of devastation from mehmed
and I lost 0 units. Not good for him. I of course forgot my super healer in the first wave, so hell join in wave 2. Istanbul is mine:
Sankore, guess thats ok Ill get to tanks 1 turn sooner. 2 more cities, and midway through the golden age my merchant started, he gives in.
Faster than I ever expected. I promptly give him his cities back, and load up the troops for sitting bull. Ill come back to Huayna later, since hes technologically pretty advanced. Need to get my tanks forces strong. He only has about 8-9 cities, and apparently only 2-3 of any value, which are all coastal, so hell be quickly destroyed. I assume his capital has pretty much every wonder on earth, so I may send a force to quickly take it once I DOW sitting bull. Amazes me HC can tech so well when hes so weak on cities, but I guess he was Mehmeds vassal for a long time, so they tech shared not anymore. Here we come SB:
Rifle defense. I like rifles against tanks, artillery and infantry. Its going well meanwhile, I send a stack toward HC to take his capital. Either hes going to capitulate quick, or I assume I get lots of wonders. Suffice to say, this is war booty:
Then, out of nowhere comes the cavalry stack of doom from Sitting Bull. It takes back a city, and its a pretty huge stack, so Im going to have to wait for reinforcements. Thankfully, Im producing a ridiculous number of units, so theyre coming. I take 2 of HCs cities, and hes ready to capitulate. Im not giving them back though. Theyre too nice, so they build culture and 10 units stay in each.
Meanwhile, sitting bull manages to take back his cities amazing since hes using cavalry and rifles, and I had about 30 infantry in one city. Well, lucky for him reinforcements are coming - lots of reinforcements. I basically have a pipeline of units coming now every 6 turns, more ships show up with 30+ units. Taking cities, slowly but surely. He has tons of infantry now, which are protective, and probably have loads of CG promotions. But nop match for the sheer quantity of tanks and artillery showing up. About his only hope will be if he ever techs industrialism and gets tanks online. But its not happening. Meanwhile, Im in police state, have rushmore built, and jails in most cities, so war war war. Every new city builds nothing but culture to keep beating back borders as I move toward domination. Once SB capitulates, I should get there, so its simply time now. One think that has always driven me nuts about SB is that he takes forever to capitulate. So I have to keep mowing down cities, one after another. And finally, after what seems like an eternity:
I have about 15 of his cities too. And off to Willem and Horn head. Oh gee, I built this in wonderspammers capital why not!
Speed speed speed Willem says night night:
Churchill (I think Willem colonized him, but it took me about 3 minutes just to even find him on the map:
And finally:
Amazingly, Horn head wouldnt capitulate 7 on 1 and he wanted to fight. Power of sushi:
Note the lack of wonders. I built 2 wonders all game, Oracle and Hollywood, and Hollywood was just for fun. Mind you, I also had about 15 other cities size 20 or more.Think I built a lot of units:
9 great merchants sure helped the cause, especially since I saved them for more gold later. The game really didnt take 17 hours I left it on all day yesterday while home
but still was probably a good 10 when all said and done, because of all the overseas warring. Score was 35k, mainly because of land, not finish date. At the end I had a total of 66 cities. Crazy game overall nearly sunk myself due to the long war with Giggles, and then crashed while rexing the whole island, and then used the ridiculous production of that island to steamroll the world.
, warrior, Mining, AH. 2 good techs. Found Giggles up N so queued up 2 more warriors and an archer, took a worker from Giggles then captured, Giggles dead and have the whole continent to myself.
Also meet Ragnar.
I sign peace with Gilg since the other cities are marginal and are not worth warring for.
. SB had all the land that he has in your game, plus all of ragnar's except ONE city when rag finally capped 
