Nobles' Club C: Justinian of the Byzantine Empire

[pigswill]

Noble Epic (no huts) 10ad.

Spoiler :

Peaceful rex. Went south west first to stop Sury expanding north, then went south east until I bordered Pacal then backfilled the north. Went for currency then lit, picked up HbR and CoL along the way. Ignored early wonders, got parthenon and glib. 13 cities. 40bpt at break even.

 

[i_imperator]

This map is....

Spoiler :

A Pain in the ass, I actually managed a 1000AD Date for Cataphract's from guids, I dowed on Sury who was at war in the past with monty. I managed to take about 6 of sury's cities, while my tech plummeted. But ofc he decides to peacevassle to monty, who auto dow's on me.

Im getting really annoyed with this now, (and the above attempt was on immortal) I mean what the hell did monty do??? Sury wouldnt in a million years vassle to me,despite my fracking war success, but he'll decide to vassle to the guy who he had a past war with, who he hates, and who didnt do a goddame thing.This is why i turned off vassles in NC Cathy.

Oh and Pacal has a gold capital with nearby access to gems and spices, his start was a million times better than ours, which is why he's currently has access to rocketry in 1500AD when im barely able to get education.

I might retry from an earlier save, maby i over whipped. maby i picked the wrong techs. I dunno but i'll figure it out.

 

[damerell]

Figure I'll have a bash at this. Initial thoughts:

Settle in place, yes please.

Remember we are playing on a Standard size map, not the Small ones I tend to favour. What looks like a big empire, isn't.

I should probably try to build the Oracle.

ETA: At least Justinian's Spiritual. I like Spiritual.

... but it ended in a humiliating barbarian disaster. I don't remember the barbs being quite so feisty last time I played on Noble. Ah, well.

 

[dalamb]

By "barb disaster" do you mean you got one of those stacks of barbarians as an event? If so you should take the no-huts, no-events saves. If it's "just" normal barbarians... what difficulty level were you playing?

 

[damerell]

By "barb disaster" do you mean you got one of those stacks of barbarians as an event? If so you should take the no-huts, no-events saves. If it's "just" normal barbarians... what difficulty level were you playing?

Normal barbarians. Noble. I just didn't build enough military; my own fault, pure and simple.

 

[dalamb]

@damerell: I've certainly been there! The key trick is fogbusting (placing units outside your borders to prevent nearby barb spawning), which I'm still learning, plus building a few defensive axemen or chariots as soon as you can, which I keep delaying too long.

 

[GGS]

Monarch/Normal. Huts&Events. 500 AD.

Spoiler :

This was not a period of peaceful expansion - only Antioch 2S of the N iron in 950 BC.

Suryavarman II declared war in 575. Fortunately, the attack came from his iron city which was the Byzantine greed quest and ran into a reasonable force. Peace came in 325. The Byzantines started the second war in 50 while the neighbour was well-engaged in fighting-off the Aztecs. This was a successful war. Angkor Thom fell providing the extra swordsmen to spearhead the attack on the capital which fell in 220 AD netting the Great Wall and a Great General. As soon as the Aztecs and the Khmer made peace in 325, Byzantium followed suit.

On other fronts, Constantinople has the Great Library and the Nationl Epic; Thessalonica the Pryamids (by accident) and the Parthenon. The world is divided between Aztec Buddhism followed by Summeria and Khmer while the rest of us follow Mayan Hinduism. Third in soldiers, second in land and first in population the home team has tradeable techs and is running HR and OR. The plan? Survival, perhaps prosperity, through the next era.

 

[Timhotep]

Noble/Normal - 1575 AD Conquest

Spoiler :

2000 BC

Spoiler :

Humble beginnings, and a fast settler. I started with a settler first because a) I don't think I've ever really done it before, b) Imperialistic + Hammers aplenty, and c) there was a quality spot nearby on a river so the instant trade route would boost commerce.
I'd be building the Oracle soon after. I think I took Code of Laws.
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350 BC

Spoiler :

Expanded quickly to my neighbor's borders, then filled in the rest. Still running a skeleton military. Might have gotten a little sidetracked while building up the economy, but by this time I was planning to grab Guilds and hit the Mayans with some Cataphracts.
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800 AD

Spoiler :

Guilds reached, and Cataphract production in full swing. The buildup begins on Pacal's border. I pump out a handful of Longbowmen to keep the Khmer from hopping over my back fence.
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1300 AD

Spoiler :

I hit the Mayans hard. Harder then I thought I would. They go down pretty easy. Somewhere along the line, they become vassals of the Vikings, so the war spills over the next border. Against the Mayans I only threw my Cataphracts against the city walls. They were only facing Archers and Walls, so it wasn't a big deal. The Vikings had Longbowmen though, so I went with the "reduce city defenses with Spies supporting city revolts" route. It worked very well, and I managed to make quick progress though enemy lands. The Mayans finally jump from the Viking ship, and Ragnar becomes my vassal. The plan was to eliminate the Mayans, but for some reason they had wandered into the southwest corner of the map and picked off a barbarian city.



Then the lousy Khmer decided it was a good time to get stupid and indeed, hopped over my back fence. I swing my Cataphracts all the way around the map. Thankfully Engineering gets me there that much faster.

1410 AD

Spoiler :

The Khmer get their doors kicked in by the same Cataphract/Spy combo that sunk the Vikings. Vassals were made, cities were liberated. At this point, I didn't want to deal with all of the extra cities, and healthy vassals seemed just as good.
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1480 AD

Spoiler :

The conquests are coming fast now. The Aztecs, of course, needed a little straightening out, but they were cranking out a fair number of War Elephants. Not a deal breaker, but annoying. And Longbows were appearing in larger numbers than I'd like in their cities. Luckily Cuirassiers had just come online, and with their first strike ignorance, I made some mass upgrades. The Aztecs had enough after only three of their cities fell.
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1555 AD

Spoiler :

The Sumerians fell just as quickly, with the same strategies employed. Here I am massing the Cuirassiers for the final war against Charlemagne.
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1575 AD (victory!)

Spoiler :

Charlemagne presents no problem, as by now my hordes of Cuirassiers can't be stopped. After a quick takedown of four cities or so, he's ready to call it quits.


Conquest is achieved the following turn! (I was only at ~62% world landmass)
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Aftermath:
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I'm happy I finished this game. I have a bad habit of leaving games unfinished, to the point where this is only the second conquest victory I've had, and the only one currently in my Hall of Fame.

I don't think this game was ever really in doubt for me, and seeing as others' comments on this map make it seem a difficult one, I think it's time to bump up the difficulty to Prince!

 

[popalopa]

I started to play and was tempted to go for an early religion.

Spoiler :

But based on the neighbors, I think it's better I let them found a religion and then just go to war with each other.

I was wondering. If A founds a religion, and then spread it to B, will B try to found a religion as well? It seems they just give up and then A founds all the religions? Or some leaders like to go for religions? I'm just wondering.