Nobles' Club 352: Joao II of Portugal

[MeowZeDung]

1700AD Conquest, Monarch

Spoiler :

I decided to get a peace deal with mehmet just to regroup for ten turns and it was just what the doctor ordered. Whipped a bunch of cuirs during the peace and rolled him no problem. After ottoman cap, julius folded even easier to cannon/cuir and my first few cavs. Hannibal and Justin were barely an afterthought. This does make me wonder if I should have just taken 100% of the cities on the main continent instead of taking vassals since I think it would have been enough land for domination. I didn't want to micro that much though, so I just built a couple waves of galleons and sent my stacks down to degualle. Not sure that ended up being less micro though tbh.

Pretty easy win once the momentum took over, but I think it was very slow compared to what I could have done with some better decisions in several places. I'm glad I decided to play my first game back at Monarch as a refresher, but I think I'll step up to EMP for the next one.

 

[konata_LS]

Didn't have much time to play BTS in the past few weeks, because a survival game called Valheim is going to release the Ashlands update . Many gamers have tried public test version for a while and shared their gaming experience . Ashlands add exciting new creatures /structures and change a few items as well (like the formerly OP feather cape becoming very weak to fire now ). As a result, I spent most of my leisure time watching Ashlands contents . Finally came back to BTS this week . Before keep playing this game, I had to watch some videos about construction rush and post-war recovery; otherwise I might forget some basic mechanics and make silly mistakes .

From T115 to T195

Spoiler :

Settings as below. No huts

During my war against Roosy, JC started plotting. I though he probably wanted to dogpile Roosy, as he was annoyed towards Roosy. Much to my surprise, JC's target turned out to be Hanni (the First Punic War broke out ? ). He bribed Mehmed on the same turn. Then Hanni bribed Roosy against JC

The diplomacy screen became chaotic

Next turn JC bribed Justy against Roosy (and yes, Chadibal got the free GArtist from Music in 225AD).

Hanni lost a city to Mehmed; I gave CoL and Metal casting to bribe Mehmed off.

Hannibal is usually a strong AI, so I thought the duel between Hanni and JC would become a stalemate. I was shocked when Hanni lost his capital to JC . Had to give Philo to JC to avoid Hanni's capitulation .

When I was only 5 or 6 turns from Cuirs, Mehmed and JC DoW Hanni again (the Second Punic War? ). Reloaded once here: I tried to bribe JC & Mehmed off, but they both asked Nationalism and Paper. I found their requests too expensive so I didn't give the techs to them. As a result, Hanni quickly capitulated to JC, who became a super monster of 10+ cities with a vassal . So I reloaded from the turn of Mehmed and JC's DoW, gave them Nationalism and paper for their peace with Hannibal.

BTW, 1 city Roosy capitulated to Justy in 1060AD.

Attacked with Cuirs. Hannibal was already weakened by the long war with Romans and Ottomans. He capitulated only 3 turns after my attack. Gave 100 to Hanni for his conversion to Hinduism, mostly to improve the relationship with Justy. Justy was pleased towards me but cautious towards Jewish Hanni; Hanni becoming Hindu would keep Justy at pleased.

After Hanni's capitulation, I needed to choose a target among Mehmed and JC. JC's army was less large than Mehmed's. Mehmed had 10+ cites; the demography screen showed he had the highest soldier count. There was his giant stack from his previous wars against Hanni.

Despite of his large land and massive army, Mehmed was the only available target, because - looking at JC's research: he would get riflemen in 6 turns .

Begged 1 from JC before I attacked Mehmed. I whipped like crazy while Mehmed spammed units like crazy . War weariness and whipping anger were soaring. Defying AP resolution of "stopping the war against Mehmed" only made things worse. Angry faces throughout my empire :

^that city had no whipping anger because it was my HE city. But with so many angry citizens, maybe it was time to whip them away .

Lucky discovery of silver improved a little the happiness issue:

During my war against Mehmed, JC got Rifleman in 1350AD - it was the earliest AI rifling that I had seen on emperor

All these AIs except Roosevelt had high "military" flavour . They were the reverse of Willem or Pacal: instead of researching Physics before rifling, they all rushed towards Replaceable parts - rifling and ignored astronomy . Meanwhile I didn't even have banking or printing press

After a tough fight and heavy loss, Portugal managed to vassal Mehmed before my peace treaty with JC expired . An angry face showed up: it seemed the last AI already made contact with Mehmed prior to his capitulation .

Many cities were heavily whipped. AIs sent spies to sabotage some of my farms or workshops. Several workers were sniped by random knights or chariots during the war . I need to take a break here, thinking about the economy recovery and how to build an army of rifles + cannons for the next war against JC.

 

[Gumbolt]

Thoughts on immortal 1140ad.

Spoiler Thoughts :

I had MT and Gunpowder by 660ad. By 1140 ad I had about 50 cuirs and 3 Ai were dead and Justin capitulated. Just Mehmed left who has a 24 strong stack.I think I need all his land for the win. I have 36 cities. Ap win now off cards with so few rivals. I had taken down American capital much earlier. Such a strong start.

@konata_LS

Spoiler Thoughts :

Stop gifting the AI so many techs. This is why they now have rifles. I suspect if you had teched better and secured more land you would of had cuirs much sooner. Personally I would of joined in 1-2 of these wars. Carthage capital is a great city.

Not a difficult map you just have to beware that the Ai got to alphabet early and were all bribing each other into war if they could.

 

[Gumbolt]

I was all done at 1200ad. Final Ai stack slaughtered on a hill.

 

[konata_LS]

@konata_LS

Spoiler Thoughts :

Stop gifting the AI so many techs. This is why they now have rifles. I suspect if you had teched better and secured more land you would of had cuirs much sooner. Personally I would of joined in 1-2 of these wars. Carthage capital is a great city.

Not a difficult map you just have to beware that the Ai got to alphabet early and were all bribing each other into war if they could.

Spoiler :

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions. Yes, giving paper to JC and Mehmed definitely opened their ways to rifling. Thinking back, I played a little too conservatively since the ancient era . I was too afraid of the strikes after the early wars. Also I'm clumsy with empire management and teching: I barely got CS and philo in 660AD while you already got Cuirs. With war elephants, dogpiling Hannibal would probably have been a better choice. Carthage is great city especially after Hanni built TGL there .

 

[Gumbolt]

Spoiler :

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions. Yes, giving paper to JC and Mehmed definitely opened their ways to rifling. Thinking back, I played a little too conservatively since the ancient era . I was too afraid of the strikes after the early wars. Also I'm clumsy with empire management and teching: I barely got CS and philo in 660AD while you already got Cuirs. With war elephants, dogpiling Hannibal would probably have been a better choice. Carthage is great city especially after Hanni built TGL there .

Spoiler Spoilers :

I was playing immortal so that will slow tech rate a bit but AI will reach alphabet and other techs quickers.

Missing out on TGL is a major issue.When you saw Carthage had this I would of been attacking him asap as he will tech crazy as financial.

Your cities at 25bc are far too small.

 

[Mairt]

1660 Domination Emporer
Decided after 10 odd years of lurking on these forums, time for me to make a post!

Spoiler :

Strong but hemmed in start, straightforward SIP. Early war with Roosy inevitable as soon as I saw his borders. Despite that, I went for GLH early doors gambling on getting overseas routes (got it in 1960BC). Probably a mistake in hindsight but didn't harm me too much I think. That affected my tech path of BW -> Sailing -> Masonry -> Hunting -> TW -> Pottery (1960BC also). Funny game in that I didn't discover agriculture until nearly 1AD.
Saw the elephant near the flood plains and couldn't resist an elepult attack. Executed poorly tbh, Roosy got 3 settlers off while I was taking him out and settled annoyingly far away. Made the clean up messier than it should have been but finally got it done by 880AD after a peaceful intermission.
While that operation was underway, I busily teched towards cuirs reaching the holy grail at a not completely disgraceful 900AD. From there I swapped into whip mode (poor Oporto took the worst of it ). A recent Darius of Persia NC game had taught me the lesson of not vassalling everyone when not on a pangea. Looked to me like I would need most of the land on this continent to get a dom victory and I wasn't far wrong.
Hannibal was the first to go and put up very little fight. During that war JC had vassaled to Mehmed which made my life a little harder. I probably should have handled the diplo better on that... Only play was to go for Justinian. That war was a bit more of a slog but most of his cities were flat land so losses weren't staggering. Major moment in the game came when Justinian bribed Mehmed and JC in on me. Luckily, I was only three turns from finishing Justinian off by then so I killed him and wheeled my main stack around just in time. I had been building a stack north of Washington to hit JC in the rear when the war started. Came in very handy with lots of large Ottoman stacks lumbering disjointedly towards me.
JC was quite backward so, once I had regained the upper hand, it didn't take him long to fall. Just Mehmed left... Noticed while defending againt Mehmed that Janissaries are not the most fun unit to cuir rush against. Before I'd finished JC off I got to rifling and upgraded to cav. War with Mehmed was easy after that and I took the last of his main continent cities in 1645. Ran culture for a couple of border pops and I got to the land target for dom

Kudos to you Gumbolt for grabbing the copper and executing an Axe rush to get the ball rolling. I feel like that was a much better strat than my later elepult war. Or perhaps I just needed to get to contruction faster and be more aggressive. Either way, this is a PB finish time on Emporer (on an admittedly easy map) so happy enough with my run!

Thanks very much for the game!

 

[awost1]

I'm not quite done, but I'm in an absolute dominant position at about 1550 AD. This was a really fun map, if not a little juiced.

 

[konata_LS]

Emperor from T195 to T274

Spoiler :

Justy started plotting on T249

Justy's target must be de Gaulle , because Justy was pleased towards me and friendly towards my two vassals. He was only cautious with de Gaulle.

After his early rifling, JC beelined Steam power - corporation - AL. He also grabbed the free GGeneral from fascism when I didn't have steam power . I only had rifles + some medieval junk while JC upgraded everything to infantries. Despite of my puny stack, I had to zerg JC immediately; if I waited for my own infantries, JC would probably have a legion of tanks .

The war definitely slowed down to some degrees JC's research. When my pathetic army was marching towards JC's core cities, the at the bottom right corner showed he was 5 turns from marins and tanks. He had Combustion for a long time and founded Mining Inc. as well. Meanwhile I was still trying to get AL; no Railroad .

He indeed got tanks. The war beginning with "rifles against infantries" became "rifles against tanks" .

And yes, I know some deity players will tell me "on emperor you should be the one who get tanks when AIs only have rifles." But rifles zerging tanks did happen in my game .

Captured the Hindu holy city which generated 100+ per turn, that explained JC's insane tech pace :

JC was a MoM enjoyer as well Checking the events log prior to the war showed he built the Pentagon before I got AL

Killed nearly 50 inf., 30+ cavs, and 10 tanks in the war against JC.

And yes, the statistics showed I had some inf.: I finally got AL thanks to the capture gold . Built 0 tank because I didn't have the required technologies .

JC's "resists capitulating" was above average. I had to beat him down from 10+ cities to 3 cities.

Even when JC capitulated, I was one era behind him (I didn't have electricity so I couldn't see Industrialism or Radio in JC's trade table ). Caveman gaming due to my skill issues, I know .

Next step is to zerg Justy and his vassal Roosevelt .

 

[JSS]

Deity/1790/Diplo

Spoiler :

I played this maybe a week ago, so don't have all the details fresh in my memory. Contrary to what some other players would do, I settled 1W and lost the PH start in order to gain fresh water and at least 1 more river tile. Maybe not the optimal move but I hate having early unhealthiness in my capital. With imperialistic my settlers would be fast enough.

Tech path went BW -> Wheel -> Pottery (I think). I chopped a settler at size 1 to get the copper/fish site before Roosevelt could get to it. 2nd settler went to the west to block him off from the other direction, and then I settled up to 7 cities.

I think I libbed Replaceable Parts and went for a rifles/trebs attack to take out both Roosevelt and Hannibal. Mehmed attacked me while I was working on Hannibal, so I had to capitulate him even though my plan was to take his nice flood plains cities for myself. I gifted everything back to him because I couldn't be bothered to deal with the revolts, and switched my attention to Mehmed and wiped him out to get a decent power base. After that I took a breather and built up some infrastructure and teched to infantry and as soon as I was strong enough I took out the rest of the continent.

Plan was to invade De Gaulle with tanks and planes but UN vote made things simpler.

1AD

Spoiler :

940AD

Spoiler :

1790AD

Spoiler :

 

[konata_LS]

From T275 to T294

Spoiler :

Justy DoW de Gaulle. When Justy's main army landed in de Gaulle's island, I dogpiled Justy and his vassal Roosevelt. Once again massive backward units zeging . AP religion was Hindu, and it randomly spread to some French cities, which activated AP victory. During my war against Justy, I chose the "religious leader" and the resolution passed:

The VC screen on the turn of victory showed I was quite close to domination, and all the AIs were far from culture or space victory. As shown in the screenshot above, Justy already lost his capital Constantinople to me (although he immediately poisoned that city's water). Plus, the AIs and I all had many units moving around; the late game became really laggy. So I just took the AP win to end the game quickly.

Admittedly I didn't play very well . Looking back into my earlier saves, I think one of my mistakes is shown in this picture:

It's a screenshot in 1320AD. Before the classical era, I only built 5 workers. After construction rush Roosevelt, I got 10 cities but still only 5 workers. 2 cities for 1 worker, such ratio lasted until the renaissance era. The lack of workers made many of my cities work unimproved tiles for a long time. Many forests left, jungle not cleaned. After getting currency, when there was 10+ per turn under 0% (= no risk of the strike anymore), I should have made some cities stop building wealth and switched the city production to workers.

There was also some bad luck in my game. I checked some others' screenshots and write-ups, they all showed Justy and JC or Mehmed under different religions. But the events at the end of my game showed something really weird:
Justinian converted to self-founded Buddhism in 3680BC

But he converted to JC's Hinduism in 1520BC :

Justy remained Hindu for the rest of the game, which is indeed bizarre - normally AI Justinian is a zealot who diligently spread his own religion instead of following someone else's faith. I wonder how it could happen. Did JC ask Justy to convert to Hindu? I don't think it's possible, because according to "Know your enemies", AI Justy never accepts such a request unless he's a vassal. Did JC use spies to switch Justy's state religion? But JC didn't have alphabet before 1000BC. Regardless of the reason behind it, Justy joining Hindu block turned my continent into a disgusting Hindu lovefest; all the Hindu AIs teched like crazy and traded unlimitedly between them. I guess the game would have been less tough if Justy had stayed Buddhist.

Thanks for the map