Open Challenge Game - A lamb in the horde of wolves

[shyuhe]

early railroads (for machine guns and railroads) are key to survival. If you plant a bunch in a city, the AI will wreck itself trying to take the city and you'll get a very good tradeoff.

This is what it did to Alex's power graph:

 

[MrFelony]

ya, it's almost easier to beeline railroads than it is for rifling lol. plus canons? yes, please. what'd you empire look like Shyuhe? was i the only one who moved their settler? I think that was probably the best thing to do in the entire game. having a much better starting city gave me a big advantage over most of the other civs. did you all look at their starting spots? kahn had 2 desert tiles in his starting location lol.

 

[shyuhe]

I moved my settler 1N. I spammed settlers like mad in the early game and ended up boxing Khan, Ragnar, and Joao into very small empires (3 good cities). Unfortunately, Alex grew very large because there weren't any AI nearby him! I'm guessing somebody worldbuildered us into the middle when we should have been off to the east near Alex?

 

[MrFelony]

lol, well the lamb wouldn't be in the midst of wolves if he had a nice coast at his flank . i actually liked being near the other civs cause i wonder spammed in my capital and flipped 3 of kahn's cities that way. of course i moved almost directly next to his capital, which i also flipped lol

 

[pawelo]

Unfortunately, Alex grew very large because there weren't any AI nearby him! I'm guessing somebody worldbuildered us into the middle when we should have been off to the east near Alex?

I wonder who did it

Anyway, great games guys, I will give it another try from my T200 save, trying to beeline Railroads instead of waiting an eternity for the AI to get Rifling.

I think my cities would have flipped several mongol cities also, if I weren't suddenly the main dish of the global war

 

[r_rolo1]

I'm replaying the game from my 1300 AD save and I discovered a way to get around the rule of 0 military upkeep:
- have a war with GK ( in my game he's cramped, with no place to expand except towards me and culturally pressed )
-Ask for a cease fire ( not a peace treaty )
- The stupid guy redeclares in the next turn ( I've done it 2 times ATM , will see if it stands ( P.S I think that is happenning because he can't see my power graph ( I suppose ), so he's taking a wild guess about my power ( and you know how AI tend to overestimate their strenghts )

Will report victory/loss , don't worry

 

[pawelo]

Will report victory/loss , don't worry

Was it a promise ?

I haven't replayed mine, leaving it as a honorable loss - though with shyuhe's and Mr Felony's advice I think it was manageable to be victorious.

 

[r_rolo1]

I played until 1800ishs..... Wiped Ragnar ( that foolishly kept demanding a city until the end ), and Pleased with GK ( go fetch doggy... ). I stopped because I was so advanced technologically that was not having fun at all ( the AI wasn't even trying to attack me ). Will see if I finish it

 

[pawelo]

Thanks for your update

Some sparse thoughts about the game:
I think this game was a tricky b**ch for the most part of it. Early ages are all about expansion - you have to grant yourself as much land as possible. With GK, Ragnar and Joao you better be fast
Afterwards, it's all about teching and developping your defense infrastructure - getting every buck out of Protective, while keeping everyone around happy by gifting some useless tributes and outdated techs.
The most difficult part was the Rifling limitation. Several players have countered this problem by making their cities defended with Machine Guns - that saved their *$$ when the AI checked in with huge stacks of Knights.
I didn't see it at time, and got myself happily eaten by every AI around
As r_rolo1 pointed it, once you're in the late ages, the game is much easier as the AI cannot match your defenses, even with huge SoD.

I hope you have enjoyed this one a little bit.
I had a nice idea or two for next challanges but they got stolen (well, no, invented in parallel) by another guys setting them into SGs. Therefore, you'll have to wait a little bit
Btw, as I see around we don't lack entertaining games on this forum. And if you check on Realms Beyond, there are also highly entertaining events to follow. The problem is always the same - time...

 

[r_rolo1]

^^If I continue the game, I'll face 2 problems:
-I'll have to downsize seriously my army ( with the necessary DoW consequences )
-Victory type: Conquest, Dom, Diplo and cultural are out.... That leaves Space... But how am I going to make a SS if I have to wait for the Agressive AI to research Industrialism?

 

[pawelo]

Let's call it a technical win then, due to the rules problems

Well done surviving that far!

 

[shyuhe]

the industrialism limitation actually makes it possible for the AI to catch up to you militarily in the modern era. So depending on the power structure, you could still end up in a war. Although you probably won't have to face an Alex who'd vassalized everybody else in the world like my game I just spammed missionaries and cottage spammed 3 cities, then pumped the culture slider and waited a very long time. I didn't turn cultural until pretty late in my game (I'd say 1800's ish).