Nobles' Club 247: Sitting Bull of Native America

[Fish Man]

Spoiler :

Just what is this game? Extremely unpleasant on deity, very difficult if not impossible to beat on first try, I would say. Both AIs closest to you settle towards you, and if you don't have a settler out before about t32, Mao will grab the fish/cows spot and doom you to irrelevance. Meanwhile almost all the AIs on this map are crazed bloodlusted warmongers, and everyone seems to have an absolutely loaded capital except for you with your solitary dry corn. If you don't tank your economy spamming settlers, expect to be crammed to 5 cities, maybe less.

It's a good challenge but mildly infuriating haha...I swear you spend every other week posting absolutely the worst starts/maps you can find on deity (Napoleon/Joao's isolation with crappy islands and Huayna-with-no-food-outside-capital are the ones that have come to mind most recently).

 

[AcaMetis]

Spoiler :

Just what is this game? Extremely unpleasant on deity, very difficult if not impossible to beat on first try, I would say. Both AIs closest to you settle towards you, and if you don't have a settler out before about t32, Mao will grab the fish/cows spot and doom you to irrelevance. Meanwhile almost all the AIs on this map are crazed bloodlusted warmongers, and everyone seems to have an absolutely loaded capital except for you with your solitary dry corn. If you don't tank your economy spamming settlers, expect to be crammed to 5 cities, maybe less.

It's a good challenge but mildly infuriating haha...I swear you spend every other week posting absolutely the worst starts/maps you can find on deity (Napoleon/Joao's isolation with crappy islands and Huayna-with-no-food-outside-capital are the ones that have come to mind most recently).

I, eh, actually didn't peg this map as being that much of a challenge . Inland Sea is generally the most balanced map script in terms of ensuring that everyone has a fair shake at getting land (unless both your neighbours aggressively settle in your direction, but I mean, what are the odds of that ?). The only issue is the above average number of barbarians, but, well, you're playing as Sitting Bull. Dog Soldiers, Totem Pole Archers, dude was made for surviving barbarians. Neighbours aren't very nice, sure, but lots of land generally means that AIs spend longer than normal in settler spamming mode, so in theory you should have plenty of time to prepare a small stack of City Raider III archers and a few Dogs behind a wall, until Catapults and Elephants no one is going to take that city. Add to that capitol Iron (Crossbows) and easy to grab Ivory (Elephants) with a neighbour who's likely to build Mids (or, you know, Great Wall ) and I figured that, worst case, you'd be able to just break out militarily if you end up with fewer cities than you'd like. Not the most original of strategies, but it's a great opportunity to use PHI for a quick GS to get an early Math, and PRO archers, even without Totem Poles, are cheap city defenders you can dump whipping overflow into so you don't have to leave behind elephants later. Settling your share of land will crash your economy on higher difficulty levels, sure, but that's preferable to giving that land to the AI. I saw the massive river and figured that between that and PHI you'd be able to recover in time to break out, be it through Elepult or Cannons.

The reality of the map did not match my theories, though, as they so often do .

 

[MasterofDisasta]

Played up to 425 AD (T132)

Spoiler :

Expanded peacefully to 7 cities. Bulbed Math, teched Construction & HBR and then Elepulted China.

Attack was slower than it could have been. Was slowed down somewhat by a DOW from Stalin (had to whip some Dog Soldiers to defend). I also probably could have whipped out libraries and switched to commerce tiles earlier. Still China was weak enough that the attack went off without much trouble.

Gifted a junk city on the edge of the map to Toku to get him to pleased. Bribed him into the China war with me for more diplo boosts and to prevent a backstab.

Currently teching Civil Service and finishing off China. Plan then is to peacefully tech to Cuirs and run over a few more AI's. Feeling good about my chances to win this game.

 

[MasterofDisasta]

Finished the game 1590 AD (T228) Domination Victory

Spoiler :

After finishing off China I peacefully teched to Cuirs and then conquered counter-clockwise around the map.

In the lead up I bribed both my neighbors (Surry & Toku) into wars (vs. Stalin & Charly respectively) to keep them off my back. Surry backfired a little as he made Brennus & Charly vassals. This made it impossible to Capitulate Surry (he wouldn't cap while still having vassals) so I had to conquer far deeper into his territory than I might have otherwise.

Once Surry was dead I cap'd Brennus easily. Charly died before I had the chance to cap him. Napoleon & Stalin were weak and cap'd easily. Then it was a short war with Toku. I hit the land domination limit when he was on his last city.

I basically turned off any research and infrastructure production once I got to Cuirs. I did slowly tech to Steel & eventually State Property to salvage my flailing eco but it wasn't necessary - the Cuirs won the game on their own. I haven't played Pangea-style map in a while. It was nice to not have another continent to worry about keeping up tech rate.

I definitely think I could have improved my win time by fixing a few issues:

1) Tech to Elepult more effectively. Earlier libraries and cottage tiles. Prepare pop to be whipped into libraries while researching writing.

2) Take care to prevent AI vassals. The first Cuir conquest is the hardest and it would have been much faster had Surry been on his own.

3) Think more carefully about domination limit. I'm not sure I always made the right decisions to cap vs. conquer. In the future I should make a plan. I also could have settled junk cities in the tundra for more land percentage once win was close.

Toku was the strongest (and most helpful!) I ever saw him in this game. An early gift city got him to pleased with me and later mutual wars got him to friendly. For once he was an actual useful trading partner! And his unwillingness to open borders with anyone kept my Northern front safe all game. That is why I choose to conquer in the counter-clockwise direction. For others who played this out: did Toku turn out strong in your game as well? Is the diplo tactic of cozying up to him and using him as an impassible buffer state useful?

 

[dankok8]

Good job @MasterofDisasta

Spoiler :

This game is hard from a diplo perspective. Very hard... Maybe it was a good move on your part not to switch to any religion. Like the line of thinking "I'm not gonna be anyone's worst enemy". I also think Elepult boosted your power rating and made you less likely to be dogpiled as a result. All in all well played!

 

[MasterofDisasta]

Thanks @dankok8

Spoiler :

Diplo situation does seem tough here. I agree Elepult helped a lot to not get dogpiled. I was very anxious about a DOW before getting there. Another reason why I need to improve my tech pace to get to elepult quicker.

I did indeed avoid adopting a religion in order to prevent becoming anyone's worst enemy. Stalin still hated me but Toku made a nice shield and later war enemy for Stalin.

After Elepult I bribed to start several wars which did a decent job of keeping me safe until Cuirs could just run over everything.