NC XXV: Cyrus

[micbic]

500 AD

Spoiler :

OK after the stack was ready, I... attacked Pacal. Nothing serious, just to show him that I am strongest than him (blocking off reasons as well).
A view of my small stack (3 HA, 3 immortals) and of Pacal's... defenses

I took over Lakamha too easily, then reached Mutal. It was well defended, so I attacked Chichen Itza. I later failed in taking Mutal, but I was satisfied enough. I then took peace easily.
After the war

I then met Bismark. I am easily top at score right now, while good enough in power ratings. I also did some of a build up in cities (a bridge city and a nice one)
Current empire: The Persian core

And the Northern provinces

Tech wise I am doing well. I have Machinery but neither Iron Working (just realized dont have it!) or Alphabet....

 

[Razzlesnaff]

Just a screen shot I thought was pretty funny.

Spoiler :

 

[Crusher1]

How could you ever think Booty was a guy, lol!

 

[Ai Shizuka]

Last round for tonight, I promise. Emp/epic, no events, 1500 - 1854:

Spoiler :

1530 - I finally capture the barb tundra city. It will take a crab from Ergili, so it's not completely hopeless:

1545 - Oh boy, here is the Toker. No CoL at 1545 AD? This guy will never cease to amaze me.

1600 - Bis spawns Mansa as a colony.

1635 - Mao declares war and is dogpiled by Pacal and Boudi (def pact was active again with both). He captures Ghulaman with an amphibious elephant (defended by a lone longbow).

1675 - Corporation stolen from Pacal.

1685 - Ghulaman recaptured.

1704 - And peace with Mao. He's lost a stack of rifles and trebs vs Pacal.

1718 - Bis declares vs Toku.

1722 - Church declares vs Mao.

1764 - I get the free GG from Fascism.

1774 - And Bis creates another colony. Joao this time.

1784 - Tokugawa capitulates to Bis, wich now has 3 vassals.

1798 - First Mayan revolt in Pasargadae, costing me over 120 bpt. I hurry some units there to prevent more revolts. The Music settled GA did a good job in the early stages, but can't stand vs Pacal's wonderspamming.

1810 - I get another GA. Will be used to pacify Mutal. Yes, I'm finally gearing up for war.

1812 - SB has 3 cities in the 15K range with culture. Over 100 turns to go, but he's definitely going for a culture win.

1822 - Industrialism done, research to 0%.

1847 - A few turns of rushbuying and I'm ready. Destroyers ready to bombard culture:

1849 - Holy wonders Batman. Can't even fit them all in the screen, there are the SoL and Cristo as well. Silly me trying to fight this culture with a GA and a Stupa:

1851 - Chichen Itza captured, Jewish shrine this time, generating 15 gpt.

1852 - Pacal completes the Pentagon in Lakamha. Thanks pal.

1853 - Another nice haul in Lakamha. Three shrines for 89 gpt. Kremlin, SoL, Cristo, Pentagon, Broadway, Rock&Roll, all defended by a grand total of 15 infantry units.

1854 - Calakmul captured and Pacal is kicked out of my continent.

The new land:

Pacal has settled new cities all over the islands. He still has 2 decent landmasses. I think I'll capture the 3 NW cities and accept his capitulation (if he's willing to):

Pacal was the only real threat on the tech board. When I'm done with him I'll go and capture SB's culture cities:

Diplo. Boudi loves me for Universal Suffrage. Bis is planning something, but I think he's after Mao. No problem if he attacks me. I've prebuilt a lot of transports.

Absolutely no way to lose this game with the Kremlin and 3 shrines.

 

[Eat_Up_Martha]

Sign me up for this one. Finals will keep me tied up until Saturday, so I won't be posting until at least then.

Initial thoughts: settle in place unless something better comes up after scouting. Go for fishing first and start working the crabs right away for the early gold for research.
Techs: Fishing -> Mining -> BW -> Sailing -> Masonry. I figure if it's a big n' small, there's going to be a lot of coastal cities up for grabs, the Great Lighthouse might come in handy.

Going to try on Monarch, epic. I've won a couple Monarch games so far, but it's still a very shaky prospect.

 

[mwdowns]

1000 B.C. to 1000 A.D.

Spoiler :

Really could use your advice here.

First, I started up the game, and tried taking Pacal out with my Immortals. Didn't work so well, razed one city in the east, then just stalled out. He'd kill my guys, I'd kill his guys and this just went on and on.

I ended up restarting the save, and forgoing the war. And now I'm stuck with a Pacal that seems to spit out a GW every turn, an anemic military and culture output. I don't really know where to go from here.

I've met almost everyone else on the globe. I think there are three unknowns, but I don't know where they are.

What should I do about Pacal? He's a bit ahead of me in tech, he's got a killer capital. Should I just leave him and pick on one of the smaller Civs? I just ran into Bismark on a continent/island I just settled. Maybe take a few cities from him?

Here's a screenie from my game, showing my territory:

 

[Nictel]

So had a bit of time on my hands and decided to play it through.

Spoiler 1000 BC - 1979 AD :

@ Prince, Epic.
So when I left off I was about to start my run for theology. This succeeded and I got Christianity and Confucianism through research about 10 turns later. So I now had 4 founded religions. About this time I met the other civs. Unfortunately most of them were Buddhist...

Managed to build quite a few wonders, tried to win diplo twice first with AP and later with UN. Both were unsuccessful and as my mid to end game warmonger capabilities suck I was looking at armies twice my size. So I decided to go for the old fashioned Space Victory.

One of the AP options was Defensive Pacts which ended up in:

Spoiler :

Which in turn ended up in:

Spoiler :

I peacefully build on and my cities became quite large, I tried my hand at a SE and it was moderately successful as I was able to keep a nice 100% research rating, wasn't enough to develop any sort of big lead though.
At the end not much happened and I got to build my space ship:

Spoiler :

I got an ok score of:

Spoiler :

Next time I'm going to try to be a bit more detailed and go for domination/conquest.

 

[Pohjalainen]

Prince, Epic 4000BC - 350BC

Spoiler :

This game didn't start too good. I think I made several bad decisions and I'm still BC. It's not a complete disaster, but not too good either.

I decided to settle in place after all and started researching fishing. I got mining from a hut near by and then researched BW the wheel and AH. Pacal I met 3400 BC and thought that he would make a nice target for immortals.

Well the fact that there was no copper or horses near I decided to built Pasargadae 2475BC near Pacal to block his expansion and claim those resources. First of all I think I founded it too late and I'm almost sure that it would be better placed on the other coast of the continent where the gold and corn is located.

Next I used my time to explore surrounding islands but didn't find another civs. I might have opportunity to expand on those island later on. I also noticed that there were horses on the tundra island west from Persepolis and the hopes to send some immortals to crush Pacal woke up again.

I built Susa on that horse island 1275 BC. There were also furs, crabs and silver, so not totally useless city I hope.

I built Ecbatana 675 BC next to gold at the desert hill and also hoping that it would keep Pacal from expanding more. I'm not so happy with the location, but it's there now.

After I had built several immortals it strucked me - Pacal might have some annoying UU and checked it from Civilopedia... Damn... Holkan...I can't stop him building them by pillaging the copper only mine...damn . Also Pacal has managed to found three religions and he have pretty high cultural defences. It would require obviously many more immortals than I have now.

I stopped here because I'm not sure what to do next. Our armies are about same size now and I'm confident that Pacal won't attack to me now because he's pleased. So, I could built up my empire and attack him later after I get the cats and probably even maces. On the other hand swordman and immortals might be able to to do trick but I'm not connected to iron yet. It might also be good idea to have someone for tech trading since I haven't met anyone else. On the other hand his culture with those religions is dangerously strong and I missed all early wonders building work boats and immortals which are not very useful right now.

I made a dotmap for the southern part of the continent. I'm not sure if I want to built the yellow city and those other location aren't that good but should be viable anyway. One problem is that I have only a few workers and I just lost my only galley.

Start for my first prince game was actually slower what I hoped but I can always think that the faster I make all possible mistakes the faster I learn how not to make them

 

[Tempesta13]

Emperor Normal to 1 AD

Spoiler :

Went fishing and switched to work boat when done. Grew to size 2 and started a worker after crabs were fished. Built a few warriors and i think the first settler/2nd worker before getting a 2nd work boat.

Send my first settler here to block - not the greatest positioning but i'm hoping to keep Pacal from getting too much land.

Here is the 2nd city: Not a great start for Cyrus - only 1 neighbor and no horses.

Decide to build TGL since it looks like i have a couple islands and a lot of coast. Finish in 850BC.

Plan is not to rush Pacal since i have no horse/copper nearby. I usually turn events off since i don't really like them - this one will really help get him up to friendly fast. Rushing him would mean no tech trading either - posing the risk of falling behind the other AI's.

Settle the 4th city.

Build an academy in the capital with my first GP. Capital won't have too much research, but it's still probably the best use of him now. I'll most likely use the capital for my GP farm, especially if i can get the great library there.

At 1 AD i'm about to get this decent spot near the barb city. Pacal switched to Judaism, which he has spread to all my cities - i convert also.

Still haven't met anyone else: techs at 1 AD:

to 1000 AD

Spoiler :

Was first to code of laws.

Settled that island city - will be good once the border pops.

Research a couple turns into alphabet to get this trade:

Few hundred years later make this trade: Pacal is up to friendly now.

Meet a couple more AI's finally - they are behind in tech. Settled a GM in capital around this time. I'm assuming they are reachable by galley, so i'm not 100% safe from DOW pre-astronomy like i thought i would be.

Soon after i build TGL in my capital. Started on national epic there after.

Tech at 1000AD:

Empire at 1000AD:

Finally building a couple immortals to take that barb city on the SW island. Have neglected military since Pacal is my only neighbor and he's friendly.

Just traded maps and realized Pacal has a lot more land than i thought which explains how his score is highest. My production isn't great at all - i might try and get steel with lib, then build 10 or 15 cannons while drafting rifles to take all Pacal's cities on my continent then vassal him. Cuirassiers would be faster, but i'd rather use drafting as my production can't handle both cannons and attackers. Then after i have heroic epic built along with guilds/chemistry enhanced workshops (later state property) i should have enough production to build galleons and more units to invade someone else. Hopefully i'll have enough of a tech lead on the other AI's by then to make it possible.

Hopefully i'll finish this and not just start the MS game - getting really bad at finishing games lately.

 

[Ai Shizuka]

Emperor/epic, no events, 1854 - end:

Spoiler :

1860 - I capture those 3 cities on the NW island and take Pacal:

1871 - Time to take care of SB's culture trash:

Yes, those are muskets and longbows in his cities. Poverty Point captured, I don't even bother to land my tanks first. I'll not accept his capitulation right when he offers it. I want to clear his culture away from a nice chunk of land to prevent constant revolts to the end of the game.

1876 - 4th city captured is his capital:

1880 - Bis is planning something. He seems a bit confused and will run around the map for a while with his stack:

1887 - Finally someone (Churchill) builds the UN. I'm obviously n.1 in population and have the votes of Boudi (friendly) and Pacal (vassal). Sitting Bull isn't enough but Mao will do.

1890 - Laser done and research down to 0% again to the end of the game. Mobile artillery isn't exactly necessary vs longbows and Mao's rifles, but I like it. And I think I've lost 2 tanks in the war vs SB, so no need to rushbuy more of them.

1893 - Finally Bis makes up his mind and declare vs Mao, of all the people. He's my next target.

1893 - A dozen cities and I accept SB:

1896 - Stay away from my votes:

1905 - I'm finally ready to declare vs Mao. Wasted A LOT of turns to move my stuff through the maze of islands:

There's a second stack to capture his island cities and a 3rd stack attacking his tundra cities from SB's land.

1906 - Bejing falls first:

1908 - Counter-stack killed and Mao is done:

Check votes. Enough.

1912 - Win:

Power:

Demo:

Stats. Yay rushbuy:

Score:

Techboard:

Diplo. Mansa and Joao are Bis' colonies:

Capital. Not reporting other cities, they are all the same. Cottage-spammed all over the place to buy my stuff.

Actually I have a decent HE city, building CR3 tanks in a couple turns.

Persia:

Cowland:

My games are all the same lately. UN win from vassal abuse in the late 800s/early 900s because I'm too lazy to get a real domination. Oh well, I'd rather play more games.

 

[Sian]

@Razzlesnaff

Spoiler :

there is only the intented civs for standard mapsize (which it is) ... but as its a big'n'small with tons of islands they're splitting off colonies like no tomorrow

 

[Pohjalainen]

350BC - 1495AD

Spoiler :

Just short update. Build cities I intented, got construction build some swords, axes and cats and started a war with Pacal. I didn't went too good because my preparations were insuffient but I was able to pull it off after I got machinery and civil service and also managed to pillage his only source of copper. So, I threw Pacal out from my continent and made peace with him 1210 AD. Mean time my galley explored the world and I met everybody except Toku who I met few hundred years later. Somehow I got circumnavigation but I couldn't understand how because I wasn't able to go around the globe and map trading wasn't possible yet.

Next I expanded aggressively on the island north of my initial continent which nearly crashed my economy and my tech rate slowed down significantly. Luckily I was first to discover liberalism and took astronomy as my free tech. I also started building cottages on the new island while whipped and chopped courthouses nearly every city I had.

Here are three screenies of my empire by 1495

I'm leading in scores but I'm not very confident right now. My tech rate is lagging behind although when those cottages mature I'm able to pick up some speed. More severe problem is that I haven't properly specialized my cities and my military is small and obsolete. I haven't decided yet what victory condition I'm aiming. Diplomatic might be an option if I could take some vassals. But I have to built my economy again before I can start cranking troops for invasion army.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Immortal/Normal

~ 1500 AD no pics

Spoiler :

Well, this one is annoying. I hate water micro tedium something fierce. I expanded to about 13 cities, made cottages in one city (to the east near the corn), and ran mass specs in capitol. No mids...just specs. I was doing well through lib when pacal gayly just SPED through education/lib w/o even so much as a bulb. Little rat ass was held to 3 cities on our continent though from my settling and moved palace off somewhere else.

Around 1300 AD boudica declared on me just as I was prepping with caste/guild/chem workshops to hit pacal. I just bribed bis/churchill to war on her and she never landed vs me. I then declared on pacal, and took his 3 cities on my land before he could blink (I was sure to trade him steel the turn I declared for SM, to spite him...only to blast him to pieces before he could make cannons in any meaningful #'s.

My problem with this game is that while I am score leader and middle of the pack in tech, and have the best production even with immortal bonuses factored in, I'm only now building a navy. Boudica has been in RTT for like 30 turns despite doing absolutely nothing and being at war w/ 2 other civs. Pacal will talk peace but won't capitulate even though I've bent him over. So, I have to prep a navy of galleons/frigates (will take a little while), call peace with boudica, land on pacal's 2nd best land mass and take cities en masse until he caps, then turn on bismark, then boudica, then tokugawa ALL with nothing but cannons/muskets (later I'll get rifles). Nobody except pacal was teching quickly, so this map is an utter annoying slogfest and along with big/small easily my least favorite kind. I HATE galley hopping. A lot.

Maybe I'll finish, maybe not. I have a strong position so I'd probably just go mass-vassal conquest.

 

[Pohjalainen]

First prince victory


Diplomatic 1930, 32760

EDIT: added more detailed update

Spoiler :

Just shortly. Capitulated Pacal, Toku, Boudica, Mao, Suleiman (Mao's vassal). Then had long war with Sitting Bull but he refused to capitulate even I crushed him pretty badly. Built UN and started war with Bismarck (who was second that time) to make sure that Chruchill who was war with Bismarck, would vote for me.

Here are the graphs.

My start was slow but Pacal's cities provided enough edge to gain lead in tech after renessance and when I put military techs immidiately in use after I discovered them I didn't have many problems with the warring.

EDIT:

More in detail:

I started the war with Pacal because I wanted to keep up good relations with Bismarck who came to asking for help with Pacal. Bismarck was no good, but Pacal was already weak and I easily conquered his two cities on the island east of my continent.

Then I sent the army up north where Pacal three cities were. He capitulated immidiately after my troops landed next to his capital. Next I sent my army to fight Toku. I thought that it would be waste not to use the tech lead and upgraded units. Toku was very soft this time. When I have met him before he haven't gave up so quickly. I only razed one of his cities and he capitulated after that. My army was basically unharmed after these two short wars and I sent it to so hello to Booty. That war was also quick and easy. I captured Boudica's capital and sent my ships to bombard next city when she accepted capitulation.

I gave her capital back and headed to China. No-one liked China and it one more war didn't harm my relations with others. Bismarck, Churchill and Sitting Bull were pleased because I had cut my trade relations to China little before when SB came asking. The war with China was a bit tougher than the earlier. He had quite a large army but my riflemen and cavalry could easily handle his knights and longbows although his vassal Suleiman gave me some trouble. Sully suprised me and managed to sank two of my unprotected galleons while they were bringing replacements. I must say that I totally underestimated him on that case, but he had only two cities on an island which was divided by barb city.

Well, Mao accepted capitulation after I destroyed his military and conquered four of his cities. I decided to keep the cities as a beach head for possible war against Sitting Bull eventhough my initial plan was to aim for UN victory without going to war against SB.

SB practically forced me to attack because he cut down his research and strated to aim for cultural victory. The battles went fine, artillery bombarded the city defences and there is basically nothing that could stop loads of C1+CR3 upgraded infantry, but his strong cultural influence gave me some headache. My borders didn't pop untill I conquered several main cities and my breathing room was still narrow. After I captured Poverty Point, his last city that was nearing legendary culture, I offered cease fire and he accepted it. I was a bit disappointed that he didn't accept capitulation but the war had been long.

When I finished UN I noticed that my own and my vassals votes wouldn't ensure me the diplomatic victory. Bismarck was the other candidate and he was war with Churchill who was in trouble by the way. Luckily Churchill was already pleased towards me and his voted pushed me over the limit after I dow to Bismarck. By this stage Bismarkcs army was extremelly strong but fortunately he didn't have time to put it in use.

I'm very happy with the scores because this was my first prince game . The AI was of course tougher than on noble but not quite as tough as I expected. One reason might be that I played slowly and planned my action more carefully than before. Thanks for the game. I'm looking forward to next one.

 

[Amao]

OK. I'm trying a varient today. Noble/Quick

1AD

Spoiler :

Studied the map from other's maps and moved 1S. Well, on quick speed, it could be costly. Anyway, got GLH and spamming only to 7 cities now. I pushed up right into Pacal's face while with weak military. So I had to exchanged Archer from Bismark for my own safety. Archers means less workers... Teched Alphabet/Currency/CoL/Maths all by myself and working on CS now. Couldn't use my first GS to bulb Philosophy because I had IW already... Another setback. Built Academy in the cottage city.

Plans: going to expand as much as possible as long as I can hold Pacal off. Then maybe wipe out Pacal and maybe the whole world? We'll see.

Spoiler :

 

[Bisque]

Noble, Epic, My first ever Diplomatic Victory, 1916 AD.

Played Noble again since I have never won with a non-financial civ on this level. having done fine, I'll go to Prince with a financial leader I'm comfortable with and try for first win...

Spoiler :

Spotted the horses on nearby island with luxuries, had to go get that ! this allowed a late immortal rush on Pacal, but his UU had appeared and this ground to a halt on his capital. Waited for Ax/Sword reinforcements and finished him off.

Then I languished too long, settled on nearby islands but not enough, and didn't strike out to find neighbors fast enough. This slowed down victory a lot, IMO.

Built the AP in a non-preferred religion, then switched out. tried to spread this religion but couldn't get it to everyone, but at least I was safe from an AP loss.

So I struck out militarily on the 2 highest scores/pops... and capitulated Mao and Sitting Bull after getting about half their territory. Boudica only had 3 cities and a defensive pact with Toku. Bad partner.... Took those 3 cities fast, and then raced around to take out Toku. Didnt bother with capitulation, just took them all, he was so weak.

this left me shy of the land limit for domination, but a victory of some sort was not in doubt. Bismarck had infantry and was researching radio.... it would be a long bloody war. I decided to try it different. Space or Diplo.... well... with two vassals, one friendly, and the non vassals outnumbered in pop by a good margin... I went for the UN. rushed it with a GE, and with my huge pop that put me over the edge winning on the first ballot.

time for Prince, but Im scared. I fear change.

Not sure what to do with screenies.. I play at 1600x1200 which makes them big, but shrinking them makes them unreadable. What's the etiquette here ?

1600 x 1200 screen of victory below

Spoiler :

 

[Trystero]

After being swamped with much RL-related activity for past few weeks and missing Wang Kon, I finally got a chance to give this NC (featuring probably my favorite UU) a whirl.

Also, I finally tried BUG, and am now happily on the bandwagon.

Noble/Normal to 1000 BC:

Spoiler :

The starting location looked good, so I decided to settle in place (still my default position, I'm afraid. I need to revisit the WC game and apply the great feedback I got in that thread).

Tech path for this round: Fishing > AH (to find horses) > Mining > BW > Sailing (to get to the horses ) > Mysticism (for SH, mostly) > The Wheel > Pottery > Masonry > Writing

Build order for Persepolis: Worker > Work Boat > Settler > Warrior > Warrior > Worker > Work Boat > Settler > Worker > Stonehenge > Galley

I popped some gold, a scout, and experience from huts. The Persian Empire shares a mid-sized island with Pacal. I don't have enough experience with him to know what to expect, but he seems OK so far (not that that will stop me from wiping him out, if I can). He's founded Buddhism and it's spread to my cities, but I haven't adopted it yet, since I'm waiting to see who else shows up.

Horses for Immortals are on a galley-reachable small island just offshore from Persepolis. Close, but just far enough to prevent a rush. At least that island also has silver, fur, and 2 clams (all in one BFC), to make settling it worthwhile.

I also went for (and got) Stonehenge to help with early expansion and the extra Cyrus gets from Charismatic.

The map of the South of the island at 1000 BC:

and the North:

I used a cheap Imperialistic settler to grab the gold/silk/corn city right on Pacal's doorstep. That gold really helped fund my early research, so I figured it was worth risking the annoyance to Pacal.

There was no copper in my territory, and Pacal has the only source on the island. I hope Immortals deter any Axemen, but I'm researching IW and hoping for better luck.

Where things stand at the end of the round:

I'm last in production and population due mostly to generous use of the whip. I'm also waiting to get horses online before building up my military.

I've played through 1 AD, so I hope to get that update posted soon.

 

[Jet082]

After I get done my current game, I might give this a try. I was actually looking for a way to improve my gameplay, and I'm currently at the Noble skill level. This is perfect for me!

Any suggestions for some previous games in the "Nobles' Club" that I could try out?

 

[Trystero]

After I get done my current game, I might give this a try. I was actually looking for a way to improve my gameplay, and I'm currently at the Noble skill level. This is perfect for me!

Any suggestions for some previous games in the "Nobles' Club" that I could try out?

Hi Jet082, and welcome!

You can find various discussions of NC games in this thread. And try this post for a list of previous games.

 

[Jet082]

Hi Jet082, and welcome!

You can find various discussions of NC games in this thread. And try this post for a list of previous games.

Awesome, thanks for the links!