Paradigm Shift

[ParadigmShifter]

Dominatrix Cathy - round 10 (to 1530AD) part 2

Nice

I feel I have enough troops assembled now to give Pacal a good kicking. More troops are in the galleons as well.

Time to feel the whip, Pacal!

My caravels occasionally sink barb galleys while they are out exploring. And look, another small island.

After dropping its payload off in the forest, I sink a stray caravel with my galleon.

I get Izzy involved in the war as well.

And I notice she has gems to trade which is handy since I have forges in most of my big cities.

Mansa borders on Pacal territory, I hope Pacal takes Gao so I can take it back and accidentally forget to liberate it back t Mansa

I tell Mansa to have a go at that city as well.

Ding! Economics has arrived. I didn't build any castles. I haven't built any walls anyway

Pacal adopts theocracy, a bit late I think.

I got a great scientist in St. Pete and use him to lightbulb nearly all of printing press.

This is my army

Since most of my army is in place, it seems a good time to revolt to mercantilism.

I up the slider after the anarchy to finish printing press in a single turn. Next up - replaceable parts.

Yet another tiny island group is discovered by my exploring caravels.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Dominatrix Cathy - round 10 (to 1530AD) part 3

Another goody hut. I'm actually thinking of building an explorer, somebody stop me!

Bombarding has finished,and a combat 3 knight gets good odds against a longbow. It wins.

Then it is easy, so...

I cash in my Great Merchant, I'm going to use the cash to upgrade my maces to rifles.

St. Petes is still building infrastructure to run as many GPs as possible.

Pacal has another city over here.

This is the last sighting of my spy before it gets caught. My spies have been useless in this game, Cathy says it is because they are useless men, what tech is it that turns them into hot gingers with leather catsuits?

Shaka comes along with a very uninspiring offer. When I finish teching I will probably have a sale on all my techs to get some money for more upgrades, or else to run the culture slider while I am fighting Izzy. But 60 gold... I don't think so.

Power graph again, overtaken Izzy now. Pacal, not too clever.

Kumbai Sala has a 2 turn revolt, wanting to join the Malinese Empire. Tsk.

Going for Pacal's capital now, I also drop some more troops off on the hill next to it via galleon.

This city is on a hill, so I use a flanking knight to soften up the longbow defender. It dies. I used all my trebs and cats to bombard and wanted to take the city as quick as possible.

But the knight did its job, sacrificing itself for the Russian motherland!

So I have lost 1 knight so far in this war.

And that's his capital taken.

 

[CivMcNut]

Impressive amount of screenshots, never seen a walkthrough with so many. Hopefully the war will go pretty smoothly against Pacal. The only time I had him as a starting Civ in one of my games, he was a real pushover.

I would think you need to reinforce your army with knights, it's easy to do that since they move so well. I often build lots of foot soliders and send the mounted units later to play catch up. Count on Pacal to whip some extra soldiers up once you get in his territory.

The plan tech wise is to get some rifling looks like. Sounds pretty good.

One bit I would offer is don't workshop those tiles that already produce 4 commerce until you're really ready for em. Once you take out those villages and towns they're gone, and if you start having money problems, it will be hard to get that back. Most of your cities are far from size 20, so they can afford to have a variety of tiles still.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Dominatrix Cathy - round 10 (to 1530AD) part 4

This is why you shouldn't build too many wonders kids.

Replaceable parts is finished, I go gunpowder next.

Izzy captures on of Pacal's cities.

And then gets a bit cheeky, forcing me to renegotiate the silk deal for 2 of my resources. I will remember this Izzy, it could be "the war of the silky underpants" later.

I wish I was still in slavery, there are courthouses to be built... This city is pretty poor, but it will save me building a settler later on.

More health buildings at St. Petersburg. I don't need it urgently, so I run a merchant instead of working the mine.

Novgorod needs a harbour as well.

Yikes! I build an explorer... only the second time I have ever done this unless I lose my chariot medic.

Another revolty at Kumbai Sala. I am moving a longbow over ther to try and cut the chance down a bit.

I get another great scientist, I don't wnt to bulb scientific method, so I settle him at Moscow. I should probably switch to merchants instead of scientists soon.

Izzy killed the longbow defending this city with her knight. Nice one Izzy!

So guess what happens next...

More naval action. I move all my ships into the city after sinking this to be safe from the other caravel.

Pacal is pretty much finished now, his other cities have 20 or 40% cultural defence, so I put all my EPs against Izzy.

Mansa wants my world map, I don't see any use for doing this deal.

Rifling next after gunpowder

Then Pacal capitulates to Izzy. I was thinking about bribing her to stop the war as well, maybe I should have. Oh well.

Domination stats

That's where I stopped folks.

Here's the save...

 

[mystyfly]

DOW Izzy, use MM as a buffer, capture/raze your way until Pacal breaks free/she capitulates, get two more vassals.
Either start spamming settlers or galleons. Galleons would be better imo and guarantee you dom where I'm not sure if settlerspamming would give you dom. Also you'll want to use those rifles, right?

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Well played Paradigm,

I'm finding your thread very useful! Thanks for going into so much detail with this walkthrough.

I do have a couple questions for you,

Do you usually wait this long before you switch to caste? I always find it too tempting to switch early. It seems that you wait until you have built your main infastructure.

I'm not great at using the whip and it's something I want to learn to do better. In the round gone you were whipping cities to get uni's up. One city you whipped from Size 7 to size 4! Is this the normal way to whip? I never whip to that extreme.

Again thanks for taking the time to write this up.

Sometimes I switch after building courthouses everywhere, but I had such a big tech lead here that I could afford to change as soon as all the universities needed for Oxford had been built.

I don't whip heavily most of the time, but here it was to get Oxford out the way (I chopped 4 forests as well) as quick as I could, Moscow has the Heroic Epic as well and it seemed a shame to waste too much time not building units.

But... if you think that is extreme whipping... wait unitl I change back to slavery after military tradition and whip up an army of cossacks

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Impressive amount of screenshots, never seen a walkthrough with so many. Hopefully the war will go pretty smoothly against Pacal. The only time I had him as a starting Civ in one of my games, he was a real pushover.

I would think you need to reinforce your army with knights, it's easy to do that since they move so well. I often build lots of foot soliders and send the mounted units later to play catch up. Count on Pacal to whip some extra soldiers up once you get in his territory.

The plan tech wise is to get some rifling looks like. Sounds pretty good.

One bit I would offer is don't workshop those tiles that already produce 4 commerce until you're really ready for em. Once you take out those villages and towns they're gone, and if you start having money problems, it will be hard to get that back. Most of your cities are far from size 20, so they can afford to have a variety of tiles still.

I'm not changing any towns into workshops yet, I probably will after teching to mil trad (maybe steel, see how it goes).

 

[ParadigmShifter]

DOW Izzy, use MM as a buffer, capture/raze your way until Pacal breaks free/she capitulates, get two more vassals.
Either start spamming settlers or galleons. Galleons would be better imo and guarantee you dom where I'm not sure if settlerspamming would give you dom. Also you'll want to use those rifles, right?

That's the plan.

Luckily the HOF mod will give me a warning and number of tiles for domination so after finishing off Izzy I will be able to see how much land I need.

Rifles will definitely get used, I'm thinking of having my first golden age after nationalism, and drafting some too. After mil trad is researched (should be able to do that during the golden age), change back to slavery as well.

EDIT: I have 4 galleons now too.

I also got a great general during the war, making a new medic 3 chariot.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Not many comments after I finished posting the round update, I'll try and get the ball rolling with some discussion points:

I think Izzy is the choice for next victim. However, should I wait until rifling is finished in 7 or 8 turns, upgrade my maces to rifles, then attack, or should I attack ASAP, get my macemen promoted a bit more along the city raider line and upgrade after taking a city or two?

An alternative is sailing to the other continent and beating up on weak Shaka and JC. I have 4 galleons, and Izzy is friendly so she wont backstab me. I'm not so keen on this idea really.

Moscow is producing units with 9xp (11xp for mounted), it might be worth switching to vassalage for a bit so I can produce 11xp CR3 maces which can be immediately upgraded to rifles. I'd probably want to use my next GP for a golden age to do that. CR2 maces upgraded to rifles should be good enough though against longbows and knights, so staying in bureaucracy is probably a better choice. Thoughts?

Place your bets on what date I will achieve the domination win as well

 

[mystyfly]

without looking at the save, I think you should delay rifling until you have enought money to upgrade ALL your maces in one turn. I don't think Izzy is near an important military tech (but not sure) so this won't hurt much. You get some more time to split your units into 2-4 stacks, build some siege and spies as well as maces. I don't think the revolution to vassallage would be worth it.

Some turns into war, switch all your coastal cities to galleons and pump them out to invade the other continent. You shouldn't really meet much resistance there (except probabely high numbers). Your units can meet somewhere on your eastern coast and after the last spain city is taken, you can start moving them overseas.

You should consider running Caste system (if you don't already) to get fast border pops.

 

[bestje]

Just a few hopefully helpful suggestions
if you want to stop those irritating give the cities back to MM pop ups, you can do this by disabling advisor pop ups in the options menu
I don't think that a city can revolt back to the civ you captured it from unless you enable this in the starting options menu

also how did you get the culture map you were showing screenshots of earlier?

 

[ParadigmShifter]

@mystfly: got a GM from economics so I have 2100 or so cash available at the mo, not sure how much it is to upgrade maces to rifles (normal speed), but I think I will have enough. I am running caste system but will probably switch back to slavery when I get military tradition to whip cossacks. I'll also get some more cash when I have my first goldn age (next GP to arrive).

@bestje: culture map, it's the globe view, click the musical note icon.

 

[Groogaroo]

Thanks for awnsering those questions!

I think you seem to already have an idea what you need to do next (war with Izzie), I would personally wait for rifling and upgrade your maces before going for her, nut then I'm a wimp

Good luck in the next round.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

I'll play the next round after the derby. Liverpool are 1-0 up so I am going to be on an enraged conquering spree if it stays that way

Could be the last round anyway, I can't see Izzy lasting very long.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Well, despite Everton losing in the Derby yesterday, Cathy achieved her dream of world domination.

I'll do the write up later on I think. I was wrong with my estimated date of 1800-ish, quite a lot faster than that in the end.

I also discovered what happens if you finish building the Mausoleum of Mausollos during a golden age


So, next game will be Cathy Queen of Culture. I'll play on a fractal map for that I think, gives a fair chance of being isolated, or on a continent with one other AI, which means you can go cultural with no distractions. Unfortunately I could also be on a fractal pangaea...

 

[madscientist]

Nicely played, but I think it is inevitable that Issabella has to go down soon. Rifles, cavalry, cannons should do it. Do not accept a capitulation, destroy both Pacal and Isabella completely unless you want to take both Shaka and JC on.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Dominatrix Cathy - 11th and final round!

I haven't put the end date here so as to add an element of mystery for the reader!

I have some more spies built by now so they check out some of Izzy's cities.

They don't seem very well defended.

Meanwhile, my gang of workers are building lumbermills.

This is a city Izzy captured off Pacal. Doesn't look very well defended either.

Not even her capital is defended properly.

I have a GP on the way, so I decide to build another wonder, the Mausoleum. Even if I miss it I will get some cash for upgrading maces to rifles.

I'd better build some defence though, so I start building a couple of longbows and a pike.

I decide that Izy is weak enough to attack before rifling. I can get some xp for my maces so they make better riflemen.

She only drops to cautious after my DoW, silly girl. Here's a look at Southern Spain.

First battle...

It loses... the next knight wins though

I get all the war weariness from fighting pacal back though, and we lose silk (+1 happy, +2 wirth market) and gems trades from Izzy (+1 happy, +2 with forge). Here's a look at the domestic advisor screen showing happiness and current builds.

Moscow hasn't got a theatre yet, soon sort that out.

Another knight arrives to take care of some catapults Izzy moved out of the city, because she is rubbish at war...

Then the macemen mop up...

So first blood to me. This city has the statue of Zeus too, which is an unexpected bonus!

I now have enough EPs against Izzy to have visibility in most of her cities. Here's a screenshot showing the top defenders in each city.

Meanwhile, this is the city I am really after, Izzy's only coastal city on the west coast.

After a few suicide trebs it's time for the knights...

And then all she has left is a catapult and some boats

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Dominatrix Cathy - 11th and final round (part 2)

I finish the catapult off with a pike which I promote to anti siege.

War weariness is getting quite bad now so any city without a theatre starts building one, ones with a theatre get colisseums.

I use a spy to cause this city to revolt. Capturing this city will give me those gems back.

I wont be able to capture it this turn but the defenders will be sufficiently weakened for me to take it next turn.

Another revolt in Kubai Selah. I'm nearly at 50% culture here anyway so that will put an end to them. I'm finally building the forbidden palace here as well.

Hmm not good odds the turn after the revolt...

But the RNG god is kind, I win!
Thta's the longbow taken care of anywhere, and more guys are on the way.

I start attacking here as well, more on the way also.

And my main stack is going for Cordoba

So it falls pretty easily.

Sorry Shaka, I'd rather win the game...

A bit of fighting on the way to Salamanca

And this knight mops up

Part of the main stack which didn't attack heads for Madrid.

Rifling is done, Nationalism next.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Dominatrix Cathy - 11th and final round (part 3)

You'll notice I have been upping the culture slider gradually to 30% by now.

The caravel that dropped off my intrepid explorer has some naval action near the unexplored islands.

And I get 44 gold from a hut thanks to the explorer. Meanwhile, the rest of my fleet is making its way from the west of the continent to the east.

Woohoo! A great person arrives. I immediately start a golden age...

And I start spending cash upgrading maces to rifles.

Pacal sends a chariot to its doom

Cathy decides she has had enough of representative government, and uses the golden age of the Russian people to install herself as the goddess dictator dominatrix!

That should help with the war weariness anyway, and the +25% troop building bonus is nice too.

Still have some unhappiness problems though.

I complete the Mausolleum. Note to self: wait until after you have built this before starting a golden age. Well, I'll have to use 2GPs for the net one to make this build worthwhile, or build the Taj.

Still attacking Toledo. My first rifleman will get some action soon.

Another great general appears and is settled in Moscow.

Madrid has been bombarded to no defence, and most of my stack is here now.

Meanwhile Izzy does the sensible thing and goes to attack Mansa.

Toledo is getting a battering as well.

And my first rifle gets to shoot some people in the face.

Next turn, more of the same...

Meanwhile, back at Madrid...

I get some more cash from selling aesthetics to Shaka.

And this is the last defender at Madrid.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Dominatrix Cathy - 11th and final round (part 4)

2 shrines at Madrid, should help me get some cash for more upgrades.

I also sell banking to Mansa.

Forbidden palace is done too now, and this city wont revolt anymore now it has 50% Russian culture.

More pain in Spain...

And I drop off a rifle over here since it is only defended by mounted units. I have a settler in the boat as well, that's going to head off to the unsettled islands. Looks like Mansa's capital is in trouble too.

Here's the next target...

My knights can pick off stray catapults anyway

Toledo is still putting up a fight, not much of one.

This knight finishes off the last defender at Seville.

I use an injured rifle to mop up the last defender at Seville.

Another city about to fall...

Well, next turn anyway.

Salamance comes out of revolt, nice gems city.

Rifling is finsished, military tradition for cossacks next. It doesn't look like I will need them. Note: I an a huge deficit this turn so I can change to Nationhood civic at the end of the golden age, mainly for the happiness from barracks. I wish I hadn't started it before the Mausolleum built

I capture the formaer Mayan city.

Izzy captured Mansa's capital as well during her turn. That's quite a good result actually!
And she has only mounted units there...

I get a warrior from another goody hut! Hooray!