NC XXXI: Charlemagne

[L-Plate Ruler]

Sweetness, I've been hanging out for the next NC. Downloaded, and will get into this tonight after work. Cheers dalamb

 

[michmbk]

My gosh. Finally...after 4 hours tonight, immortal normal to the finish. 1935 Dom win. Boy did that take forever - usually my warmongering is much faster. All for a score of 61k. Details in spoiler.

Spoiler :

I had left off a turn from Steel! Tech off, upgrade, and a meeting:

Weird – he’s ahead in score, but behind in tech. Worried a bit if he’s isolated with a big island, because he can catch up fast. Just before I hit Monty, Mansa asks for this:

Fine – he has three cities and isn’t a threat. Besides, he still techs well. Hello Monty:

Cannons cannons cannons. And Statue, which will be useful once I finish Monty.

The war takes awhile, because Monty has to suicide the rest of his outdated stack in a number of varying attacks that are nothing more than nuisances, but eventually it’s adios Monty.

Meanwhile, after rifling, headed to physics/communism – state property and hopefully two great people for a golden age (Monty had built MoM, plus hanging gardens, a nice boost for my health issues). Also thinking this is a Kremlin rushbuy game. Everyone else seems way behind in tech, so should be able to mass an army for an assault.
I take all Mansa’s resources from him and spend all my espionage on him. Can always use spies and direct his research to disrupt him. Amazingly Darius beat me to physics – he’s starting to tech pretty well. Got beat to communism by Suleiman too – slight problem. And he’s built Kremlin – another slight problem as he is HUGE. Fantastic. Oh well, once I pop two great people in Aachen, I switch civics for what I thought would be the last time.

I was wrong...but in the meantime, tech and production just skyrocketed. What’s insane is all these AI have communism and physics, but only me and mansa have replaceable parts and rifling in 1770 AD. And wartime – Shaka first:

Rinse, repeat, rinse repeat, Shaka caps.

My first immortal game where I've sent artillery at pre-rifling units. Think tech was slow because he and Darius constantly fought.

Time to try to quickly chain Darius before heading to the monster Suleiman. A turn after I DOW Darius, this:

Ok, fine – I send a few units back to protect my island, but don’t see a stack from him yet. Just in case, tech goes off to utilize the power of US. Thus began the three hour war with Suleiman. I catch a stack of 5 galleons from Suleiman unprotected….oops. And I hit combustion before he has steel – not good for him from an ocean perspective.

I take Persepolis, and Darius gives:

Now time to get a foothold on Suleiman’s island with Hatty’s cities:

And a GE pops, who gets a big head start on pentagon, which I finish 4 turns later. Tech at 0% now – no need to tech past combustion – all about infantry/artillery to finish now. I proceeded to have the longest war ever with Suleiman. Insane the number of infantry and artillery involved. But finally, the production overcame him. I had to switch to police state to make it happen though - WW was up to 12 red faces in some of my cities.

At long last:

Score was only 60k, probably because it took until 1935. Suffice to say, I built a few artillery:

Hindsight, I should have beelined mass media for UN - probably could have won the vote with my vassals. Still, a win is a win on immortal - I'll take it.

 

[Edzako]

When you see black rivers of iron flood round the city walls like the surging waves of the seas, then you can say Charlemagne is arriving.

 

[L-Plate Ruler]

Noble, to 25AD...

Spoiler :

I settled in place and quickly found the land mass we're on isn't too big. As such I started pumping out axemen with a view to capturing some more land. It took a bit long, damn Skirmishers, but I did capture two of Mansa Musa's cities which will block him in quite nicely.

I'm concentrating on building some wealth now before I take a few of Monty's cities. Typically he's claiming land faster than anything else.

Some screen shots...

 

[cas]

Enjoyed this one. One city attempt (not OCC setting). Prince / normal / Buffy mod. Space win in 2028...not that good for such a primo start location.

Spoiler :

I deviated from my preferred tech path to deal with Monty on the continent. Too many games where Shaka or Monty march in with multiple 40+ cav/cannon SOD's late game and win battle of attrition against superior units. Diversions on the war tech path (HA/cats) and no copper/iron slowed the war effort...finally took Monty out in 1070AD. The lack of aluminum for the spaceship parts didn't help late game, but in the end it was research that slowed me the most. I tried a combination cottage (floodplains) and preserves (forests) with a little EP but that was less than spectacular. I keep experimenting but so far I'm thinking non-financial civs the best route is Oracle->CS and lib->bio slings ASAP with nothing but farms and preserves and specialists on non-resource tiles.

I did a decent job of funnelling all EP to Mansa and later recking his 3rd culture city buildings while also bribing him out of Free Speech and stealing superconductors. Slowed him enough to eek out the 2028 landing.

Anyway, final save is attached. Buffy mod 3.19.001 required. I chopped the 6 forest preserves to get the engine built a turn or two earlier and filled with watermill/windmill/workshops.

View attachment cas NC XXXI AD-2028-July.CivBeyondSwordSave

Thanks to dalamb for hosting.

cas

 

[L-Plate Ruler]

I got a bit carried away and lost track of the report dates. Before I knew it we were in the 20th century...

Noble space victory in 2031 (Would have been 20 years earlier except the first SS failed during flight for some reason. I might have launched without life support if that's possible.)

Thanks dalamb, was a fun map

Spoiler :

 

[KaytieKat]

Hi

Prince, Marathon, 1 AD

Spoiler :

I settled in place, didnt try for religion but instead built a scout while teching worker techs, scouts snagged goody huts for like 400 plus gold and cpl of techs including archery and masonry and mining.

I saw my nieghbors are Monty and Mansa. And after JUST getting done with a LHC game in which monty was a MAJOR headache I decided:

That a dead monty would be a good monty

After Monty is sleeping with the fishies I am just sharing landmass with Mansa. But since I DONT like to share:

Mansa was a lil bit tuffer but he went down and I have whole land mass to myself. Even tho I didnt go for early religion Monty did and I got to CoL first so I have 2 holy cities in my empire. Plus CoL meant I could start spamming rat houses. Here is my empire at this point:

Just me and the barbies now. Its 1 ad and I have 10 cities with 1 settler on its way to a site so it ALMOST the 12 cities by 1 ad but still NOT quite hehe. I chopped 'mids in montys cap and started running rep. So between that and gold, gems, and ellies on the map happy isnt as big a prob as health right now. So immdediate plans at this point is after lit all done and GL is building in my cap, tech calandar and and try to settle on coast sites and nab seafood.

The demos looks like this:

So thats it at this point. Game is pretty much a LHC now that Mansa and Monty all gone. But since last two LHC games I played were VERY tuff for me that probably NOT the best thing for me but HOPEFULLY it will work out better this time. Wish me luck

Kaytie

 

[dalamb]

Space win in 2028...not that good for such a primo start location. ... Thanks to dalamb for hosting.

Thanks dalamb, was a fun map

You're welcome! Most of the work was

• figuring out that 2 different map generators, "Full of Resources" and "Planet Generator 0.98" didn't seem to do what I want -- but there is so much to learn from both that I probably didn't set up the options properly. I then reverted to good old Custom Continents.
• learning how to edit the WB save to swap positions with one of the leaders who was in a better start location. I really, really like river starts, and can't draw rivers worth beans* in the WB, so swapping was my only option.

Edit: * - Just occurred to me that this is probably a regional idiom. "can't XX worth beans" means one is very bad at XX. Beans are an "inferior good" where I grew up -- if you get richer, you eat less of them.

 

[KaytieKat]

Hi

Prince, Marathon, 1400AD

Spoiler :

Mostly spent a LOT of turns just playing sim empire. I was getting kinda worried cuz I was filling out the landmass as quick as a could and cuz of that even with rat houses going my bpt was hitting the bottom. So as I started getting further and further into the ad's without getting optics or lib or anything like I was scared I was gonna run into a WHOLE bunch of very adavnced AI's. I finally got to optics and got some caravals going and first civ I meet is Shaka. Grrr I had THOUGHT by killing off Monty I wouldnt have to worry bout unit spamming war mongering whackjobs.

But:

Good news is I seem to be otuteching him.

Then I meet Dari:

Hmmm If I am ahead of Dari I MAY actually have a chance to be in tech lead it just depends on how the other AI's are doing.

I meet Hattie and Sullie and turns out they not much better techwise than shaka and dari soI have the tech lead at the moment.

My empire at this point:

The demos:

I managed to get the AP done so I am getting the hammerbonus (plus I dont have to worry bout it causing me headaches with the other AI's) So I am doing good hammerwise and in most other categories. Im low on power but not TOO bad consider I havent really been building much of a military. So hopefully I can get that going pretty fast.

Tech sitch:

Yay!! a finally a game in which I am NOT totally backwards hehe.

Right now plan is to tech out GP then Mil Trad while building some Galleons and hopefully Curriasors will be enough to put Shaka down. And while my curissors are busy with shaka I will tech on thru to rifling and hope by time Im done with shaka I can then upgrade to cav and take over dari and claim the whole landmass. After that I will see how far I am from dom win and see where to go from there. But thats getting a little ahead since I DO have to take out shaka and dari. If I can keep my tech lead going hopefully I can just go all mounted on at least shaka and hopefully Dari to which will let me get them out of the way FAST. Thats the plan anyways wish me luck

Kaytie

 

[wenamon]

I think I am going to try this one. Looks very interesting. I think I will settle in place and hopefully will have a good site in the S for a 2nd city. I guess this capital would make a good multifunctional site since there is so much food but also hills for production and gold for commerce. Thanks!

 

[wenamon]

Here is my progress thusfar:

Spoiler :

So much for that 2nd city in the south I just haven't had time to get one down there after exploring and building my first settler I decided to take a look at some of the dotmaps (thanks guys). So I went with the copper city in the SW first then off to the N to find the other copper one b/c Mansa beat me to the dye city (he built 1 south of the sugar to grab the 2 dyes leaving me to get 1 dye, 1 Cu and 1 stone). This was followed by the fourth city on the nearby E coast.

I was wondering if anyone has any ideas about where to put my 5th city? should I go for the marble and just build 1 S to stay away from Mali's city but also lose the dyes? or should I build an iron pig city in the south?

I have founded hinduism but not really worked to spread it to my neighbours. Should I be more aggressive about this or should I instead prep to take out monty or a barbarian village that is on the W coast?

 

[Ecori]

All new to the NC series but thought I would give it a go with my least favorite leader Charlamagne. Feel free to comment and give advice.

Emperor, normal speed 800bc.

I usually hate when I start with gold cause it makes my research way to good. My starting plan will be to rex and grap as much land as possible and then recover. The gold should do wonders for that. Btw I'm a big fan of cavalry and early gunpowder wars so a war after the lib race is very likely, depending on the map.

Spoiler :

Got 5 cities, just founded Conf in Vienna and working on a GS in Aachen. Haven't gone ofr any Wonders as I'm lacking both stone and marble. I might give The Great Library a go. Monty and Mansa are hating each other though no DoW has been made yet. I will try to spread Conf to my pagan continent.


My exploration is lacking, but here's a sight for my next city.


And the barb city will soon be destroyed and replaced by a city 1SE.


I'm hoping to have around 8 cities by 1ad. Atm I'm kinda unsure of wich tech part to take. Currency will propably be my choice to get my economy back in shape or should I fear Monty enough to go for Feudalism? Hmm.. An early rush is out of the picture, I'll propably try to turtle in and befriend Monty.

 

[DMOC]

Deity/Normal 225 AD

I really shouldn't be playing but I couldn't resist this awesome start.

Spoiler :

I am currently #1 in GNP and above Montezuma on the scoreboard already. Population is low but should increase by as much as 50% during the Golden Age. I have 9 cities and could easily add a few more. Also, one of Montezuma's cities is about to revolt to me. I really like having Montezuma in games since if there's another peaceful AI around he's really a free asset to the human player. Also, my next Great Person is in 8 turns. I'm not sure whether I want a Great Engineer or a Great Scientist, but I'm definitely not complaining!

 

[DMOC]

Here is my progress thusfar:

Spoiler :

So much for that 2nd city in the south I just haven't had time to get one down there after exploring and building my first settler I decided to take a look at some of the dotmaps (thanks guys). So I went with the copper city in the SW first then off to the N to find the other copper one b/c Mansa beat me to the dye city (he built 1 south of the sugar to grab the 2 dyes leaving me to get 1 dye, 1 Cu and 1 stone). This was followed by the fourth city on the nearby E coast.

I was wondering if anyone has any ideas about where to put my 5th city? should I go for the marble and just build 1 S to stay away from Mali's city but also lose the dyes? or should I build an iron pig city in the south?

I have founded hinduism but not really worked to spread it to my neighbours. Should I be more aggressive about this or should I instead prep to take out monty or a barbarian village that is on the W coast?

View attachment 225080

Spoiler :

I recommend a city 2 south of the banana or 1 south of the westernmost gems. Gems are great for research. In my game, I settled my fifth city in the latter placement.

 

[wenamon]

Spoiler :

I recommend a city 2 south of the banana or 1 south of the westernmost gems. Gems are great for research. In my game, I settled my fifth city in the latter placement.

Thanks for your help. I think I'm gonna go ahead with that later today. Do you guys tend to pursue cities near your neighbours very aggressively? I always find it just pushes them to war or flippin my cities via culture.

This is a fun map so far!

 

[Ecori]

Update at 500ad, emperor, normal speed

Spoiler :

My setling is finished and I have gotten 9 cities up - the same as monty, although he will propably expand further. My economy is recovering and I completed the Hanging Gardens in Nürenberg after I got the stone resource close to Mansa. I have gotten 2 GS and used the first to bulb Philo and found Tao in Mainz and the second to build an academy in Aachen. I spread Conf to Monty who converted and so did I. Shortly afterwards he declared on Mansa and when he asked me to join in I did for the diplopoints.




My military is weak, but I'm catching on, other than that it looks good.


I think the other AIs on the other continent are beckwards. I founded both Conf and Tao while Christianity has only just been founded. The wonder building is really slow to..

The tech situation:


Now I have to descide weather I go for lib right away or go for Landsknechts und Trebuchets to conquer mansa...

 

[Ignorant Teacher]

I'll have to restart. I lost my save.

 

[DMOC]

Thanks for your help. I think I'm gonna go ahead with that later today. Do you guys tend to pursue cities near your neighbours very aggressively? I always find it just pushes them to war or flippin my cities via culture.

This is a fun map so far!

I almost always settle aggressively, even against creative AI's. However, the exception to this rule is if there's an aggressive AI that I would possibly be a target for a Declaration-of-War.

Spoiler :

In this game, there's no threat of Montezuma since he's targeting Mansa Musa anyway. Again, he's such a free asset.

Don't get your cities flipped. In my game, I settled my second city right by Mansa's city, right before it had a border pop, so my city was really pressed hard. However, I built a wonder and other culture buildings and I am now winning back tiles, even on deity.

 

[wenamon]

I almost always settle aggressively, even against creative AI's. However, the exception to this rule is if there's an aggressive AI that I would possibly be a target for a Declaration-of-War.

Spoiler :

In this game, there's no threat of Montezuma since he's targeting Mansa Musa anyway. Again, he's such a free asset.

Don't get your cities flipped. In my game, I settled my second city right by Mansa's city, right before it had a border pop, so my city was really pressed hard. However, I built a wonder and other culture buildings and I am now winning back tiles, even on deity.

Spoiler :

so I think I will have to shore up my culture in my northermost city. It's too bad bc with the stone and cu I was actually thinking it might make a nice military city. Oh well. Thanks dmoc

 

[DMOC]

Spoiler :

The stone is great because you can use that for Oxford University later.

For my cities that are culturally pressed, I try to whip libraries, monasteries, theatres, etc. Generally, temples are kind of expensive so I save those for last.