New challenge: Conquest victories

[AnotherPacifist]

So started a German emperor conquest game. Have Reval, Faustindorf, Warschau, Zagreb, Copenhagen, Utrecht and Frankfurt (my capital). Spawned a great spy and got 500 free spy points from an incident against France, so stole Engineering, Guilds and Literature from them. Got Divine Right from Mali. It's 1470, I have Aztecs as a capitulated vassal (I kept Oaxaca and razed Tenochtitlan), while I'm debating whether to induce the Incans to be my vassals voluntarily (they won't right now because my land's too far away, but I'm about to steal Astronomy from the French in about 5 moves, so that may change). I'm second in score to Turkey but should top them soon.

Unfortunately France conquered Rome while Venice is still independent which encloses the iron, but apparently they have access to some iron I don't know about and have knights. Mali is a Spanish vassal.

Next steps will be to circumnavigate (in about 4-5 moves), get Khmer as a vassal. Liberalism hasn't been discovered yet but I don't even have philosophy or education so I doubt I'll be able to get it. Printing Press should be next.

 

[Quotey]

When Frankfurt flips and becomes your capital do you get a massive stability hit? I get it on Monarch and it's annoying because anything I can settle other than Budapest I don't really like as the capital.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

I get a hit initially because I switch civics with 2 turns of anarchy, and you have "foreign" culture without any cities founded. It's easily corrected afterwards, especially if you kill the Dutch at start. I forgot to mention I got lucky and Frankfurt had 2 catapults and 1 axeman already built (probably in response to French aggression), so I just needed to build 1 extra catapult which was promoted.

 

[onedreamer]

Intersting, I will give a try to Ethiopia.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Emperor is so darn hard, even with Germany. I have so many damn stolen wonders by the AI (2 turns from Statue of Liberty, 2 turns from Mt. Rushmore, nowhere close to being first for physics, communism or fascism). I did get my 1/3 UHV in 1870, the same turn I discovered industrialism and upgraded everything. Now in a winning war against Russia (their ally Turkey has just collapsed), and planning to steal Railroad from England (they've already got combustion, flight and researching plastics right now).

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Only used 3 nukes in the end since I researched Rocketry really late. The Japanese islands were decimated because the AI forgot to build bomb shelters/bunkers even though they knew fission for the longest time!

I would love to post a screen shot but the game crashed after I took my obituary in the hall of fame. In lieu of that, here's the save from the move before.

Remember, Lincoln waged war to bring peace and freedom.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

So I have pondered this long and hard...how to best use the 3rd settler that the Romans start with? I use Canusium as a (temporary) capital, building Singidunum (modern Belgrade, which is right outside the German flip zone--doesn't overlap with Canusium but does with Constantinople, which isn't a big issue since the latter will grow big anyway with seafood), and then the 3rd settler to 1SW of Paris and eventually building another palace there to preempt the French. Got VERY lucky in that Greece did not have iron working and left both their cities guarded with mere warriors!

Traded for agriculture (Greece), monarchy and archery (Babylonia), monotheism (Egypt) and most important of all, calendar (India).

Unfortunately the Temple of Artemis was built somewhere else, but I
got Moai Statues in Canusium, Great Lighthouse and Mausoleum in Athens, Colossus in Constantinople, and to my great amazement, both the Colosseum in Mediolanum and Great Wall in Canusium!! (The reason is because China has collapsed, but not before they built the Hanging Gardens)

In this pict, I've just built the Great Wall, and killed a stack of 6 swordsmen NE of Caesarodunum (modern Tours). I have to kill them to prevent them from flipping to the French later. I still don't even have currency, which sucks because I'll never get to feudalism in time. But as long as I have numbers and time (it's at least 20 moves until the Spanish appear), I plan to prove the Empty Europe lemma again.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

I forgot to mention the reason I didn't build a city in Spain is because the barbs appear there, and it's too far away from Italy to effectively bring troops there. The French city is reasonably close to Mediolanum and blocks any spawn of gallic warriors. (I only saw maybe 2 axemen and 2 gallic warriors), and it's closer to the Germans and Dutch. I do plan to place one city in Spain and Germany, and I won't make the same mistake as last time of placing 2 cities in Russia which prompted a respawn--just Ryazan is enough.

Carthage was razed after I captured Greece, and all those barbs will eventually collapse Egypt/Ethiopia and kill Mali.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

The best Roman units for this purpose are, in descending order:

1. Praetorians promoted against archers, with 10% strength and first strike (only unit that can routinely defeat horse archers and crossbowmen)
2. Catapults with 30% collateral + 10% against melee (you know why)
3. Axemen with 10% strength and 25% against melee (against swordsmen and pikemen)
4. Chariots with 10% strength and 25% against melee (to wipe out the barb axemen)
5. Spearmen with 10% strength (against horse archers if needed).

Almost didn't make it to kill the Russians (hard to allow Moskva to flip and then reconquer it, with the loss of about 6 troops and their 2 workers/former settlers). The freaking Vikings didn't get wiped out by barbs because I killed all of them (stupid me) and they captured Inverness, which means I had to get that taken care of and won't be able to build London (to avoid later respawns). Maybe I'll get Ireland for more fish and sheep.

Decided to build Germania Superior (outside Dutch flip zone and relatively close to my new capital, Tours), and plan to build another one in the zone between Russia and German that is flip-free later on (preferably on a river, I think it's going to be close to Minsk). I don't think I'll be able to get the Mongolians since I don't even have feudalism yet, much less engineering for pikes, don't even have horseback riding yet!

I did build the Parthenon though, and I'm probably going to be first for Shwedagon Paya and Statue of Zeus. Unfortunately the Great Library has already been built, but I need some great people for techs, so I'll aim for the Leaning Tower.

Next up, Portugal, Inca and Aztecs (if I can get to optics in time). I'm only shaky right now...

 

[AnotherPacifist]

So I'm top in score (i.e. Japan can't win), having just circumnavigated, and in a furious war with Babylonia because Turkey decided to vassalize to me! I got both conquistadors and since I had gunpowder, I got cannon too. I have so many workers (read: slaves from former conquests) that they're just building the Roman highway to Mongolia right now.

I've built the Shwedagon Paya which means I can do free religion. Switched to bureaucracy and FR after using a great priest and great scientist, which I'm regretting right now because I'm going to be beat by Japan to liberalism (they had education for about 6 moves already). I need some more science, so edu isn't wasted.

The Vikings are acting very unusually, building into Russian territory, which isn't good for me since more than 2 cities in Russia means they can respawn. I need to kill them quickly...

 

[blizzrd]

If I were to read between the lines, would this Roman game tend to mean that testing of the new patch is yet to begin?

 

[AnotherPacifist]

If I were to read between the lines, would this Roman game tend to mean that testing of the new patch is yet to begin?

You're so perceptive blizz.
I just got the new version from Rhye so I'll probably do it either tomorrow or Thursday.

 

[KaiserBenjamin]

You're so perceptive blizz.
I just got the new version from Rhye so I'll probably do it either tomorrow or Thursday.

How did he figure it out???

 

[blizzrd]

Just call it a lucky hunch.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Well, I hate to hold up Rhye, so I started a Japanese game with the new patch, I'm playing right now around 1740. So far so good, although this no tech brokering thing is SOOOOOOO slow.

 

[LukeUeda-Sarson]

Well, it will be up to you to determine (at leaqst initially) exactly how slow, so I look forward top you comments - elsewhere of course.

Regarding the Vikings - an entirely historical expansion path ofc ourse, even if you don't see it normally because of the "Russians" being in the way - the Slavic school obviously holds sway in RFC-land

Cheers, Luke

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Luke you're right--I looked on the settler map and their Aldujuburg(?) (can't read the writing their with that font) is actually purple, i.e. favored to be founded. Thank god no further intrusions in Russia should happen based on that settler map.

 

[blizzrd]

Got a conquest victory as France around 1900AD.

But why does the game tell me that I won a historical victory? Is this a bug that could be fixed?

 

[Tigranes]

5:35 AM ?!

Man, you really had a busy night!

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Because there's a bug and Rhye said he has fixed it in the new patch.

You didn't really give enough cities to your opponents to buff your stability, since the world is so unstable when you won. In my wins I'm usually very stable while maybe one or two of my vassals are unstable, never collapsing.