Alright another game report. This game was a funny rage inducing one for me, so decided to have a little fun with it and type up the tale. In the next post I will talk about my thoughts around balance and other notes.
Game was Emperor, India on a Standard Small Communitas Map with Terra start. Lost (Gave up) on turn 440 to China's inevitable science victory. Ultimately it was a pretty good game, I made some clear mistakes that I think hindered me, and noticed several behaviors worth bringing up for discussion.
The Early Game
For Pantheon I tried out Goddess of Beauty, which I had never used before. Ultimately I got my first artist about twice as fast as I normally would, and my first engineer about 2.5 times as fast. Those early works and buildings were pretty nice I'll admit...but ultimately the pantheon scaled miserably...which I consider the first mistake. This seems like a pantheon that may be good to take planning to lose it later, but its definitely not a keep and hold at this point in my book. Maybe...just maybe I could see it for Arabia since they get some great scaling from their GP.
Early on I got squeezed by Morocco and Shoshone early on, but I managed to grab an early 6 horse spot....so a horse rush it shall be! I took a great city from Shoshone, and then 2 from Morroco, including his capital (and holy city!). I also used a GG to take a citadel and squeeze out a little more Shoshone land. I continued on my dastardly ways a bit, managing to tribute 2 CS while I was warring.
At this point I settle down. I've taken tradition due to my great starting spot and the Goddess of Beauty pick. I keep meaning to try a Progress Ghandi at some point but playing to the wheelhouse. Religion I get Cooperation and council of elders....which I consider my 2nd mistake. Ghandi isn't really a spreader, at least not a reliable one. Councils biggest power is being able to time getting those hammers for wonders or key buildings. Ultimately though it wouldn't matter, because Shoshone was playing an aggressive religious game. There is nothing that makes Ghandi sadder....its damn hard to get your passive religion to spread when there are missionaries all around converting those cities. My one saving grace is that Shoshone blows faith trying to convert me...haha good luck!
The Mid Game
Ultimately I play a very TALL focused play. I use my first GP to spread to my core cities, then 2nd to enhance. I take the food bonus and the one that lets you spread farther. 3rd mistake....I'm fooling myself into thinking I'm going to be able to spread my religion around with Shoshone burning faith like its going out of style.
I go into fealty, get a fair number of wonders (especially St Basil....there is no way I am getting an enhancement naturally this game). I take Jesuit Education...as at this point I am feeling a science victory.
And my neighbors....HATE MY GUTS. That early warring I did haunts me for a long long time. I can't even get people to give me an embassy let alone trade with me. I meet Indonesia....hates me. Hello China....oh you hate me. Netherlands you are showing friendly! Oh...that is just a front, you actually hate me (transparent diplomacy).
This part of the game is me playing as friendly as I can while every Civ takes turns DOWing me. Fortunately I am in a great defensive spot. Most of my enemies are to the northwest where I have a wonderful lake barrier with lots of ranged units and marsh. Its a death trap! I try bribes, I don't make any more aggressive actions. I give people things when they ask. I help people in the World Council. But its no good, and the cycle continues for about 150 turns or so.
As this was a Terra start, I take a good look at the new world. Playing as Tall, I am very picky about new cities. I consider this my 4th mistake, I should have been less picky. Even though many of the choices weren't amazing, especially with cooperation I could have afforded to take more. It was hilarious for my explorer to get ruin upgraded into a zepplin and go around barb killing
The Late Game
So as we get into turn 250ish or so...the natives are finally starting to come around. I get offers to make amends and trade begins. A big win for me diplomatically was voting for Shoshone to take the WC host (I had no chance at it at the time). That brought his stubborn butt around and we finally had good relations for some time to come.
Shoshone has converted every other civ to his religion (Terra starts make this a lot easier in general), and managed to get the world religion early when I had no real CS investment. This let him dominate the WC for a long time. Eventually I started an aggressive CS play and finally managed to sneak in a repeal, and from then on things were a lot more balanced.
One of the reasons I chose this game is I wanted to stress the happiness numbers, and see what a very growth hungry TALL player looks like happy wise. I figure if the system can handle Ghandi's growth, it can pretty much handle anyone's.
Until about turn 320 things were good. My happiness fluctuated a lot, generally between +8 to -8. So happiness was never perfect, but it was managed and under control. A big part of that was musicians, I used every musician my capital would generate to give me the tours of happiness. That gave me about 15 happy for this part of the game (obviously more later). That was critical, that is the difference between -8 and -23 happiness. I don't think my Ghandi could have handled it if I had created great works of music, but I recognize when you are going "balls to the wall" growth, you have to make some adjustments.
I take Imperalism for my third tree. More and more, I really like Imperalism even for more peaceful play like I enjoy. With my happiness in such flux, rationalism was a non-starter. I love Industry, but I had a lot of coastal cities, and with China gobbling up the other side of the world I knew Naval combat was going to be important. And further, Imperialism actually generates some very good science. But....there was one other key reason I took Imperalism. I got 2 monopolies even with a TALL civ (thank you East India!). That was 10% production and 10% science, now doubled thanks to Imperalism. Bah who needs Rationalism for science!
Turn 320 or so is when things began to slip. China was pushing to prominence, and had started the carpet of Paratroopers strategy common in VP nowadays. ITs funny...if you had told me a year ago the Paratrooper would become the most powerful unit in the late game I would have laughed....but I think it is absolutely true. Its not that the unit's stats are particularly strong, but its the unit that "takes the gloves off". Until now, China has been held back by terrain and the AIs still fumbling with certain aspects of warfare. But with Paratroopers, the warmonger can just throw hammers at another civ until they go away. This is in real life what happened with Tanks and their ability to blitz past lines...but in VP its the Paratrooper.
Anyway with this in mind, my natural defenses no longer sufficient, I take a detour towards more war techs, and head down the south side of the tree. This means I don't get stadiums right away....and it crushed me.
Boredom balloons and my happiness sinks. And with it...my gold reserve. I will talk about this as a key note later....my GPT this game was abysmal even without the happiness problems. Again more of that later.
I switch back to get stadiums and start to build them. My gold is so bad, I have half of my cities dedicated to wealth and gold focus just to keep me a float. I even use the Imperalism's free maintenance garrison bonus to save a lot of gold. It should be noted that I only have 27 out of my 53 supply used in units....and yet I am still in debt. All of my trade routes are external and active...and I am still in debt. I have traded every resource I can...and I am still in debt. I honestly cannot remember the last game I had so many gold problems!
So half of my cities are building stadiums while the other half is on wealth. And since I have no gold, I can't rush the buildings. 8-10 turns for a stadium...its an eternity at this point in the game as China is starting to snowball and her armies draw closer.
But after an eternity, my stadiums are built, and my happiness starts to normalize. My gold does as well (though its still not great), and I am able to build up my airforce. China...its time to dance!
Late Late Game (Handling China)
China has emerged as the clear civ to beat and is starting to take the tech lead. The policy lead, she is WAY ahead, 3-4 policies at this point. Her culture dwarfs the rest of ours, I honestly believe she had as much culture output as the next 2 civs combined.
She is pushing hard against Shoshone and Netherlands, but my airforce is now strong. I DOW and carpet bomb the armies attacking them. I decimate her forces. The other civs are starting to wake up to China's prowess and are starting to work together. Shoshone made one attempt at a CV, but a travel ban put that to rest. Honestly....China had so much culture there was no chance in hell anyone other than her could get a CV, but it was nice to know there was only one enemy for all of us to beat.
Further, China's cities are weirdly vulnerable to espionage. Generally once Constabularies hit, I find espionage goes out the window in favor of CS coups. Putting a spy in any city that has lower than 3.5 stars is a complete waste of time, and even a 3.5 is pretty bad. But China has 3 cities all at 5 stars! Well....spies it shall be!
The war is going well...but then my happiness slips again...and my bank account with it. Apparently my people think I should be building hospitals and medical labs instead of defeating our enemy and rebuilding pillaged trade routes.
I spiral into debt again (remember my money has never been good). And I realize that continuing this war is not going to work until I can get my internal problems under control. I sue for peace, and get back to fixing the homestead.
Once again I am in a tough balance. I need to rebuild trade routes, I need wealth in my cities to avoid crippling debt, and I need to build medical labs....which also have a big maintenance cost. But I balance my cities again and manage to get happiness back under control. I should mention that I choose freedom as did most of the world (or did eventually once China choose it). I took covert action to try and make the best use of my spies, and economic union because I need every scrap of coin I could get.
But China has not slacked while I have dealt with internal problems. She has conquered many CS and several other cities. At this point there is not enough votes to even go DV without a massive freeing of CS. She is now even more techs and polices ahead, and we are in a clear runaway situation. It will require drastic measures to stop her.
Late Late Late Game (Not Handling China)
Now that police stations have become commonplace, spying is shut down. There are actually so few free CS states left that I literally don't have anything for my spies to really do. I put one on counterspying, I haven't done that in months!
I decide that its time for the hail mary....its time for the bomb! Well missile actually. China's capital just happens to be exactly nuclear missile distance from my west most city, and my capital is nice and safe away from her holdings.
This is the point in the game of WTF! moments. First, China is attacking Netherlands, and I'm not yet ready to face her and her carpets of paras just yet. But...I have this weird vestigal peace of land that just happens to be right in the middle of some netherland property, and I have a GG handy. A citadel will create a major bottleneck for China's forces, buying me some time...and eventually a good forward position when the war comes.
I send my GG out to a spot that is completely surrounded by China's army. The next turn....a barb revolutionary kills my GG!!!! AHHHH!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
I calm myself, I have some spare GG as I never found a good citadel spot and I haven't needed the supply. I send another one (escorted this time) to the spot. And then....realize its an oasis....which you can't build on.....AHHHHHHHHH!!!!
Then 2 turns later I am sending a Great Diplomat to a CS...one I have had good vision of. Then....barb ship kills my GD.....AHHHHHHHH!!!!
So.....this game reminds me to always escort your Great People
So the problem with getting a nuclear missile....you need uranium, and I have none. More oil and coal than I will ever use, but not one drop of uranium. But I found an area filled with it, 5 in total, in an island chain that is not yet taken. And for the first time in I don't know how long....I build an actual colonist to settle it.
New cities are cesspools of unhappiness, literally every citizen is unhappy, and islands grow quick. Looking back, I should have shut off growth and left it a mudball as I just needed it for the uranium.
Shoshone invites to me to war with China, and I ask for 10 turns. This is perfect as Shoshone is also very competitive with me right now, and his cities are between mine and China's. My hope is that I nuke China, China nukes Shoshone, and they destroy each other while I reap the rewards.
First missile built with the 2nd just 1 turn away when Shoshone calls in the marker. I wanted to have both missiles ready but the city is far enough away from China. So...lets do this!
Ultra Late Game (The Fail)
I can't believe I never realized until this game that when an ally asks you to joint declare war on someone, you don't both get to go first. China goes before me! This is very bad, because my very first action was going to be to move a defender onto my critical uranium island. Instead, china paratroops it and pillages it! I have no uranium, and my missile just 1 turn away....dies. AHHHHHHH!!!!!
Well I let the missile fly and it smacks China in the face. Shoshone also nukes China, and China nukes Shoshone! So that plan works.
But then China brings a few old ironclads to my islands door step and snipes it. That is when I realized that for all of the things a colonist gives you....it doesn't give you an arsenal.....or a castle....or even walls!!! My city was utterly helpless and just folded like paper.
I have a small navy of cruisers, but nothing of real worth. I had plenty of supply, but my money was so tight I couldn't afford that many units. I had chosen air power over sea, and was now paying for it. I sent my cruisers to try and soften them up...but he had destroyers at this point, and my navy was mincemeat. So much for the nuclear option.
The war continued...and I continued to have fun failures. I am making a great push with Indonesia, and we are about to free Zanzabar. Then Indonesia vassals to China, turns on me...and rips my forces apart.
I am helping the Dutch protect one of their cities, and the same damn thing happens again.
And then it got worse. China had a revolt...and my little island came back to me! Holy cow, a beacon of light in the dark! But of course, its my little cesspool of unhappiness, and gave me 12 unhappy on the spot, dropping me to -23. I'm like "ok that's fine got to do a little work to get that back up but then nukes are back online!"
And then....my happiness suddenly goes back up the same turn. I am confused....was there just a refresh issue or something? And that's when I realize....my -23 unhappy had put me into a revolt, and my 3rd best city had just flipped to the Shoshone on the same damn turn! That city was on the forefront of the war and contained within it my 6 best aircraft. My aces...the most powerful part of my military. Just.....gone.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
G has told me this was a bug and not intended behavior, which is good, because I was almost in full rage quit mode at that point. I thought about taking it back, but Shoshone and I were thick as thieves at this point, and the only chance of fighting China was together. I had to just accept and move on....after a break from playing to calm down.
The Final Push and Final Fail
With my happy back in line I started to put the uranium to work and started to build my missiles. But in the next WC China called for a nuclear ban. I had the votes to beat her....but SHOSHONE SIDED WITH HER!!! You son of a *****!!!
So once again my missiles died on the vine. I felt like my only real option at this point was CERN. The one thing I did have was a massive hammer factory in my capital, and some Great Engineers on the way. If I could somehow miraculously get to the tech quick enough and get it before China, that might just give me the last push I needed to get back in the game and somehow get a science victory.
Oh....and at this point my capital changes relgion. What!!!!!!!!! Shoshone all game had thrown missionaries at my cities, and the ******* finally did it! And you know what...I let him. Cooperation and Growth wasn't doing squat for me now. His religion came with a hammer bonus, which was fine by me.
And then....oh mother happy came back a callin. And once again my gold tanked. And once again I had to do the dance, while China just sat back and smiled.
On Turn 440 China got the CERN, and I called it at that point.
It was almost a relief, the beatings could finally stop.
So...I hoped you got some enjoyment out of my little hellscape of a game
Next post will be a productive discussion on my thoughts from the gameplay.
