Standard Immortal Fractal with Morocco. SV by ~435 (I'm on Turn 423 but I am now in a clear runaway position so I'm calling it).
This was a fun interesting game. Early on I played peaceful progress but with Austria's capital in a vulnerable position I just had to take it. I went springtime this game as I went a Petra rush, and of course didn't found, so I picked up Austria's holy city and several wonders. This put me in second place score wise. What was also weird was that between Austria and Greece, I had the third most votes all game, and because I wasn't host I never got to propose a vote....the entire game! One time I even tried to make Greece the host, just so I could have the 3rd pick. But he chose Sweden!!!! So once again no picks for me. And they used the WC to their advantage, imposing sanctions of me, banning some of the luxuries, and just generally being a royal pain to me.
To my north was China, and the my further north Arabia. I thought I was in a pretty comfortable spot...but Arabia started taking off like a shot!!! Tech, tech, tech, policy, policy, policy....I hadn't seen such a runaway in a long while! Further, my early spies got killed so I wasn't catching up that way. I knew that if I did not act very quickly that he would just steamroll his way to the top, and gain a tech advantage I could not match. So the only recourse....was war!!!
But China was in the way...so first things first. Long story short I had a pretty solid war with china (chu-ko-nus turn into musketmen and just wreck shop), but I was also to carve a path straight north to Arabia's territory. First stop was Bagdad (see picture). I secured the eastern front with my navy and the CS, and used amphiphious landings to shore it up. Then pushed from the south.
This was not an elegant war, it was an absolute slaughterhouse. I had gone Industry vs Arabia's rationalism. I had many more cities than he did, and my income was 4 times higher than him. So I decided to literally outspend him. I threw unit after unit into the meat grinder. Paratroopers took out every road he had, but he had a solid bomber supply (and at first I had 0 anti-air), so he chewed me down. He had a +49% antiwarmonger bonus, and a significant tech advantage. My units melted before his might. I would lose 2, 3, even 4 units a turn....but I knew I could not stop. This was the war that would decide the world....either I stopped him now....or he would take the game with either CV or SV.
And for a time it was not going well. I was making ground, but that damn AI production bonus just letting him refortify, and my extra supply of units started to twindle. War Weariness kicked in...and my supply started to drop. But I knew his was as well, and I felt that it would hurt him more than me. I pressed on!
And started to die....I just wasn't able to hold it. At least, not by myself...for in the nick of time China declared on Arabia!!!! His units were worse than mine, but it took just enough heat off of me to let me establish my siege hold on Bagdad, and enough turns to wear it down. Bagdad falls! On to the capital....it didn't matter what else Arabia had, I knew if I took his capital he was dead....and with it would come the bounty of many many wonders and a tradition capital. I sued for peace to reset my line, and now had Autocracy's power against freedom. I gained the +25% attack bonus for 50 turns....as I knew this would be the war to end all wars. And back into the meat grinder I went. I used whatever airpower I could muster from Bagdad, and even switch to guided missiles to give me the range I needed (which btw if there is no garrison in a city, a guided missile will 1 shot a bomber....not a great hammer trade but exactly the trade I was making this war!)
I don't want to say how many lives were lost, how many units were killed. The tactical geniuses in our forum would sneer at the clumsy way I hammered my way to victory. But when time is not on your side you don't have time for finesse....and I brought the hammer down to Arabia. The capital fell...and my victory gained!!!
I will say that Greece and Japan had not been slouching, and there was a short time when I thought I would actually have to deal with them. But once my industrial might no longer cared about war and switched to research...I took off like a shot. I blew past them in techs, and went on to SV. Victory!
Definitely a fun game overall, and I saw a few key points worth mentioning.
1) Industry: I mentioned this in the policy forum, but even though I was able to make my spending work in this example, I still think Imperalism would have been better overall. I would have gotten a major unit production bonus (which I needed), and even better troops. I think Industry's bonuses come later than rationalism and imperalism, and its at a time when runaways start to occur. I think Industry's recent buffs were good, but come a little too late, and they still don't bring that much distinctiveness to the table. Late game when I build a building I get 70 science and culture....um....woo hoo?
2) Guided Missiles: I will say I put them to use this game, but they still feel too expensive for what they are. I do like the garrison targeting ability, but my god they are so expensive for a single use.
3) Carrier Wars: So as a final treat in this game, I got to see a full scale late game naval war. Both Greece and I came at each other with destroyers (ok mine were missile cruisers) and several carriers with aircraft. I actually had stealth bombers as well (I think there is a bug, because normally you can't put stealth bombers of carriers but I found a workaround with upgrades to allow it).
So what I found was this....the carriers were immediately murdered. They didn't stand a chance, even if my aircraft gets intercepted its not going to die in one hit, so I used even my regular bombers to nail the carriers and take them out. So initiative was everything in this fight. However....destroyers are surprising durable on air defense. Regardless of interception, my stealth bombers were still taking 30 damage a hit, and so in short order my bombers were on fumes, and his much larger navy started to press on mine. Ultimately I had to do some retreating and attacking while my ships healed in the carriers, I eventually won but it was not as one-sided as I had expected considering the stealth bombers. Destroyers are better than I expected!
4) Cities have too much air defense in the late game to me. I never bother bombing them, as my aircraft just get worn down after a few runs. I use them for units only and attack cities with other units.
5) I think the +2 hammer per factory mechanic is working now. At +1 it wasn't great, but at +2 I do notice the difference, and I now enjoy building factors. However, it takes a lot of coal, and with refiners weaker on coal now I did have to be picky about where I build my train stations/seaports.
6) I do think Goddess of Springtime needs a boost...it is very niche and very late to come out. Even a +4 faith for markets would be something to give it a chance to found. I will say it is a large amount of extra gold which is nice, but it requires a laser focused build order to make any use of it....and even then its nothing earth shattering.
