Nobles' Club 363: Pacal II of the Mayan Empire

[Build2Much]

Fun game, played on Emperor and had a big decision to make at 500BC that worked out. Definitely curious if anyone was able to do this without an early war.

Spoiler :

500BC was when I realized I had no iron and I either needed to buy it, hope it popped in a mine, or try to take it right now. Luckily Tokugawa wasn’t plotting so I had some time. Started building HAs while growing into unhappiness and researching calendar and construction to lift the happy cap (ball courts were put to good use). After a lot of whipping and a little luck I had all but 2 Japanese cities and a new vassal.

It was basically over then if I didn’t mess up, Genghis was very strong the whole game and I avoided conflict with him as much as possible until I was unstoppable. Took out Justinian via Cuirs (after he completed the AP for me to lead - which really came in handy to stay in war with him and out of wars with GK) which also gave me the English cities - London was really good to have from that point on. China was teching well, but skipped gunpowder. I got several of those including Beijing before they capped to Ghengis.

Tried to go culture then because I wasn’t positive I would wipe out Genghis at that moment. Founded some corps and would have been happy to just play out my days but wound up in wars with Genghis and his vassals, taking enough cities off the rest that I eventually won via domination 5 turns before I would have won via culture - had Mutal, Chichen Itza and Uxmal all producing >1000 culture per turn

 

[aitkensam]

Immortal Domination
(Thanks for hosting!)

Spoiler :

Peacefully settled 7 cities by 600BC. 2nd was 1S of Horse. 3rd 1NE of Corn to block Justinian. Also got Wheat/Silk, Fish, Clam/Cow and Copper/Dye. Spammed cottages as haven't done that in a while so didn't whip much. No wonders.
Was slow to build an exploration Work Boat so didn't meet all of the AI until late in the BCs.

Realised after getting Lib -> MT (580AD) that I had no iron... D'oh! Never seen AI try to charge so much for an iron trade - over 100 GPT!! Didn't feel like paying so given tech was decent (Cap was size 17 or so at that stage) I just teched to Cavalry and did a later war.

Declared on Justinian first (1130AD) to get the good wonders (MoM, Mids). Got backstabbed by Toku while still building up forces. Could have prevented it given he was pleased but got lazy. Not a huge deal given tech advantage and all under control after a couple of turns more whipping. Carried onto the rest of the map without facing anything harder than Muskets with Bismarck. Was helpful that Genghis was attacking Mao so I took half his cities while his army was in China...
Domination (and Conquest) in 1490AD.

 

[CGQ]

Spoiler Turn 146 720 AD IMMORTAL :

Settled capital 1SE corn and 2nd city N of pigs. 3rd City S of horse, then 4th city 2E of wheat (To share corn.) I whipped 10 HA's and 2 chariots (to deal with axes) and decided to rush Justy:

Now granted, I tried rushing Toku, and I got my ass handed to me with his many spears and swords, so I admit I had to reload and change my target a bit. 10 HA's plus 2 more reinforcements on the way.

His cities fell fairly easily. He hasn't built spearmen so mostly a mix of axes and archers. He didn't have any stack so most of his cities had 2-3 units defending and thankfully...no hill cities.

Decided to sue for peace after taking his cap so I could build more horses. I planned on finishing him off in 10 turns.

I gifted Toku multiple resources. I had to reload the game several times since he would plot and DOW on me multiple times and it would basically ruin the game but gifting him stopped him despite him not being pleased.
No iron in my lands? Time to do something about it!

I managed to get music first and started GA with free artist. Bulbed PHIL with my first scientist and switched to Hindu, CS + Pacifism.

During the war I also settled 3 more cities to grab some land, including two fish cities.
Turn 136 520 AD: Bye Bye, Justie. See ya next game!

I have taken all 8-10 of his cities (he settled two between wars lol). I started with 4 cities, took 10 of his, settled 3, now turn 146 I have 17 cities. I'm about to get Nationalism and plan on switching to CS again for another scientist or two after I whip some forges, Lib Military Tradition, upgrade my 10 remaining HA's to Cuirs, whip 20+ more of them, and finish off Elizabeth, then everyone else. I have horse, iron, and 17 cities now so it's doable. Toku became Buddhist so I converted to it (Justie founded it so it's better anyways) and Toku finally became pleased.

 

[sylvanllewelyn]

@CGQ

Spoiler :

On immortal difficulty, why didn't you go construction and catapults instead? There is only one animal food source nearby. I am not sure if I would have even gone animal husbandry, even if I knew horses existed.