Please critique my emperor domination attempt

[futurehermit]

Ok, well, I just can't seem to get my first emperor domination victory, so I'm going to post a game here and request criticism from the community Hopefully I will learn enough from everyone about what I'm doing wrong to get me to the point where I can win consistently at this level

Please feel free to post your constructive criticism. My only request is that if you post recommendations/spoilers that you do so in spoiler tags so that I can go back and read it after. I want to just keep this as how I would normally play so that I can get solid criticism without my play reflecting a boost from the community.

So, without further ado, here's my first round (4000BC-650BC).

Leader: Hatty
Settings: Emperor/Continents/Normal/Standard/Default

Opening:



I settled 1 NW because I thought it was a better position. There was a blue circle there so that solidified my decision.

Tech: Anhusb-Mining-Bronze to reveal horses and copper and to work herdable and gold.

Build: Worker-Warrior-Settler

Opponents:









After researching bronze I discovered...



Yes, that's right, copper in the capital, good stuff!

So, I built upriver...



Which turned out to be a good thing because...



Yes, Monty and Hannibal nearby. First target would naturally be Monty. Psycho.

Next research was Hunting-Writing-Math. Hunting for the elephant and writing-math to open up currency-col-construction path.

I declared war on Monty in 825BC with about 10 axes. I noticed his capital was lightly defended with about 2 archers and 2 jags. Poor guy didn't have any copper and he needed a border pop to get some horses.

His capital fell at the cost of a few axes...



Then I razed a crappy city he built between his two best cities.

Currency came online at 650BC helped along by a couple scientists and the spoils from Monty's capital (I barely staved off a strike at one point before attacking him. I pushed my early army to the limit.).

Then I sacked his 2nd and last decent city Teotihuacan in 650 BC leaving him with one satellite city at size one. I plan on keeping it since it has horses and it's the only source I can see. It has fish so it's not all bad.



If monty has alphabet, which I'm not sure about, I may sue for tech. Otherwise, I'll just finish him off. I can get my tech from the other civs, most notably Issy and Cathy who I'll try and make nice with for the time being, since Hannibal will be my next target. I'm hoping I can take his capital before he gets longbows *fingers crossed*.

My next research priorities are CoL and construction. I'll start trading once other civs get alphabet. Normally I would've GS lightbulbed alpha, but I just didn't want to give Monty any time to get going, so it was pure axes. Turned out to be a good thing methinks.

Instead I'll farm GMs to hopefully get MC and CS first. Then research Machinery for earlyish maces. I have problems working maces into my game, so I'm going to try harder this time!!!

Critique away

EDIT: I'm using imageshack and can't seem to figure out how to make the pictures display larger here, so if anyone can help me out that would be great! Thks.
EDIT2: Woops! Forgot the saves. They are now attached.

 

[Snaaty]

what tech´s do you usually lightbulb?

 

[futurehermit]

Well, when I do my math-currency-col opening i'll usually first lightbulb alphabet and then philosophy.

In my alpha-lit opening games i'll usually first lightbulb philosophy and then next two on education and next two on chemistry (taking printing press with liberalism).

In my first approach, my problem is keeping afloat economically and/or keeping a large enough military to keep expanding (basically, problem is avoiding crippling myself too much).

In my second approach, my problem is a mid-game military slump where I push for liberalism and then I don't have enough cities and military to take over rest of world in time.

 

[Snaaty]

I was asking, because you can lightbulb in the beginning about 1200 beakers, later about 1800 beakers.

When I have a GS early, I build an academy in my capital, because the advantages are bigger then to lightbulb a 300-500 beakers tech (10 -15 beakers more per turn when buiding an academy), so you catch up in 20 -35 turns

Or I save my GS for later techs that have at least 1000 beakers. Cheaper ones I try to trade (so I wouldn´t lightbulb alpha for example).

For education, I would only use one GS and research the rest (same reasons, not to waist beakers) and use the second directly for liberalism

 

[Snaaty]

In my second approach, my problem is a mid-game military slump where I push for liberalism and then I don't have enough cities and military to take over rest of world in time.

do you draft enough? Using the Globe theatre for example is a big help (see multineers actual succession game; with 6 cities (3 of them more or less crappy) they still were able to do lots of damage and warfare)

 

[futurehermit]

I find clearing away the techs needed to lightbulb liberalism is difficult on emperor. Maybe it is easier on deity because the ai has many techs and you can trade for the ones you need, but on emperor the ai seems to delay on some of the techs needed to clear away for lightbulbing liberalism. What is your approach for lightbulbing liberalism directly?

The reason I was lightbulbing alphabet--although i know it is a bit of a waste--is so that 1) I can sue for tech in my first early war; and 2) so i can trade away math before the ai gets it.

I do draft although I don't draft a ton of muskets for offensive use. Do you do that? I generally start hardcore drafting once rifling comes on board.

I do a bad job of getting globe theatre up early enough That is something I have to work on definitely.

Another main problem I have is building buildings. I always find that I need more military now faster faster! And as a result I always find that I'm taking forever to build all of the buildings that I need (forges, markets, courthouses, theatres, granaries being the main ones).

That is another thing I'm hoping people can help me out

Anyways, rather than go on and on about how I normally play, I'll let my play this game speak for itself

 

[Snaaty]

I find clearing away the techs needed to lightbulb liberalism is difficult on emperor. Maybe it is easier on deity because the ai has many techs and you can trade for the ones you need, but on emperor the ai seems to delay on some of the techs needed to clear away for lightbulbing liberalism. What is your approach for lightbulbing liberalism directly?

I posted a save of the testgame I did last night in your " Beelining optics?" thread where I ended up as Germans with an isolated start on emperor. I think I dind´t trade any techs before liberalism was mainly through, only then I traded for the prerequisits for astronomy (finished the game without any war space-race victory end 18th century)

Basically, it should be possible to get liberalism (including al prerequisits) without trading when you stick to the right research path (emperor and deity).

Since I normally go space race I´m maybe no big help in going domination, but if you would set up a game for vanilla (posting a start and some basic rules like "must go domination", fixed turnsets and so on) on emperor I would join in and play it through tonight and we could compare. But like I said, I´m not really good in domination so good chance I also won´t make it...

 

[futurehermit]

Thanks Snaaty, it's alright any help you can provide is great. I only play warlords now so the vanilla game wouldn't be any help to me. I will be trying out an early optics/astronomy-from-liberalism game soon, so I'll let you know how it goes.

But, right now with this game, the Brennus Happy game, and a succession game I'm in, I've got enough on the go

 

[futurehermit]

Round 2: Ding, Ding, Ding!

475BC to 450AD

475 BC: Trade wheat + crab to Cathy for corn + spices; math to hannibal for ironworking; iron popped up in Memphis BFC. It also popped up SE of our capital in a poor location, and it popped for Cathy and Hannibal...

(I have screens for these sources of iron, but you can just take my word for it, I've got a lot of screens this round)

425BC: Currency to Cathy for alphabet + 10; Currency to Hannibal for Fishing, pottery, archery, masonry, mysticism, and 90; math to Izzy for 70; FINISHED OFF MONTY

That's for all the times you've declared on me you psycho!

(Screen edited out to get to limit; you get the gist of it; his last city is mine)

400BC: Alpha to Izzy for Medit, sailing, +10

375BC: CoL in and...

(Screen edited out to get to the limit; you all know what it looks like!)

Founded confucianism. Not sure if I will get a chance to develop it, but there it is. Feel free to critique me for not developing it, because I seem never to develop religions in my games

Barb city spotted to the SE of my capital. Good, now I won't have to build a settler for that area!



325BC: Col to hannibal for poly, priest, and 10

300BC: Col to Cathy for monoth + 40; adopt org rel; Izzy is WFYABTA; Hannibal doesn't have monarchy, so I don't have to fear longbows yet!!! He looks vulnerable and his capital is within reach...

(Screen from 375BC)



Market whipped in Tenochtitlan with goal of running some merchants there.

275BC: Col to Izzy for 40 in attempt to improve relations. It works, she is now pleased.

225BC: Silver to Cathy for Dye

200BC: Crab to Izzy for 3GPT; Deer to Cathy for 4GPT

175BC: Construction in!!!

125BC: Hannibal is about to build the buddhist shrine!

(Screen edited out to get to limit; he has a prophet in his capital ready to build the shrine next turn)

DECLARE WAR ON HANNIBAL! Let's put those veteran axes to use and take that capital

75BC: Bribed Izzy to help! (Dunno if she actually did anything...)



25BC: The fall of Carthage



GG born in Thebes:



He soon becomes a medic 3 war chariot (too bad war chariots came too late to be of much use this game)



Construction + 30 to Cathy for Monarchy; adopt hereditary rule

75AD: Sacked Hippo, which was an important military town with ivory and iron



100AD: Compass in (AI never researches it, hoping to get astronomy perhaps with liberalism); compass to cathy for calendar + 130; izzy still wfyabta (hoping to get her to friendly once hinduism finally spreads to me or i start taking cathy's cities; she is hindu)

150AD: Cathy demands 140g and I give in wanting to keep her happy. It works, she goes to pleased (she was friends with both Monty and Hannibal so I have -2 for attacking her friends. awww....); switched to caste system to speed up GM. Doesn't work in time to get MC first, so I plan to get a different tech with him instead...

175AD: Cancelled deer for 4GPT with Cathy; get gems for the deer instead

200AD: Cathy builds the GL, too bad if we waited I think Hannibal would've got it, but alas... Crab + pig to Issy for Sugar + 4GPT; Compass to Issy for 100.

275AD: Razed Kerkouane and sacked Hadrumetum; sue for peace (literature). I really wanted to get MC but Hannibal wouldn't give it to me even with only two total cities left...too bad. Fur to Cathy for 7GPT

350AD: GM born in Tenochtitlan (saving him for paper now); city reassigned to scientists to help with education. Too bad hinduism didn't spread to me and I couldn't risk adopting confucianism or taoism or buddhism without offending the zealot izzy so no pacificism...shucks (I would've gone for phil if I could've adopted pacificism, but alas)



450AD: This is where I stopped. Hannibal has two total cities and I have an army of catas, veteran axes, swords, elephants, and a medic 3 war chariot ready to finish him off, no problem. Bleeding a bit economically but keeping afloat at around 50% science and a decent tech rate.

I got CS this round and traded it to Cathy for MC, hbriding, and 30. This allowed me to use my GM on paper. GS due in 8 to help with ED. Research set to machinery (7 I think) for maces. Planning on upgrading veteran axes (4ish are cr3) to maces. This is something I don't do enough of in most of my games!

I'm finding that even knowing that I'm playing this game public and that I am doing write-ups is helping me focus more this game, which I'm realizing now is probably a big part of my problem! However, I am now entering the worst part of my game...So I expect plenty of criticism next round!!!

But pretty please, don't spare the criticism of what I have done to date, it will help me a lot and be much appreciated!

Ok, some more screens to give you a sense of where things are at:

GNP (Umm...yeah, I don't build nor work many cottages...Didn't get many gp this game yet either...got a lot of silver/gold/high gold tiles though...but yeah, it's bad right now)



Production (Dunno what's up with Cathy's massive drop in production...)



Power (yikes)



The Eastern Region



I've drawn in where that Barb city still remains. I'm sending some swords over now to deal with it now that I have some spare moments.

The Northern Region



The Western Region



And the Southern Region



I've drawn an arrow to show where Izzy's territory is. Since she's my buddy, I haven't gotten around to scouting her really yet. Too many other things on the go Will do it soon though.

Please feel free to point out anything I could've done better. Much appreciated!

EDIT: Forgot the save again! It is attached.
EDIT 2: I'm still searching for a spot for my heroic epic. I wanted to get it built already but I just don't see a decent production city at this point...Next round I'll definitely try and build it asap...

 

[futurehermit]

Round 3: Let's keep 'em comin'

Alright, it's been a good day of civ so far!

450AD-1160AD

450AD: Adopt bureaucracy

540AD: Declare war on Hannibal

600AD: This REALLY ticked me off! I had my medic 3 chariot in a stack with a bunch of axes, including combat one axes and yet my chariot was selected as the best defender against a longbow in open terrain??? All the axes were full health? WHAT GIVES?!?!?! Needless to say, I lost the chariot. Man, that sucked! Machinery in. GS born and used on education. Adopt slavery.

640AD: Sacked Utica

660AD: Crapola!!! Hannibal vassalizes to Cathy in exchange for her declaring war on me! Darn! I bribe Issy to go to war with Cathy. All hell has broken lose!!! I sack the barb city finally.

720AD: Razed Leptis (no food)

760AD: The end of the Carthagian civilization!

800AD: Education in.

820AD: Nat Epic in Tenochtitlan. Later than I wanted!

920AD: Razed snolenisk, couldn't keep it due to cultural pressure; caste system to help with GS production

940AD: 2nd GG born in Carthage.

980AD: Optics in. Sacked Rostov, Muslim holy city!

1020AD: Medic 3 chariot again, let's not make that mistake again! Founded Heliopolis NE of Memphis (fish, deer, coast)

1030AD: After losing a number of troops at good odds! I am forced to sue for peace without taking Yakutsk. That really sucked!!! Got 110G. Am FINALLY able to convert to Hinduism. Good grief Issy, why didn't you send me a missionary??? Founded Elephantine E of capital to work marble and claim another iron via border popping. Will work wheat from capital to work production tiles.

1050AD: Issy is friendly so I can trade with her again! Optics to her for drama, 1 turn of philosophy, world map, and 50. pig to cathy for spices (she is pleased with me after i became hindu). something (can't read my writing!) to issy for 3gpt. Am now 1st in score!!! I also have the most cities!!!

1070AD: GS born, will use on PP

1080AD: Forb Pal built in Hadrumetum. Not the best place, but the better places had very low production. It still helped.

1140AD: Mehmed met. Mono, CoL, Drama, and CS to him for Eng (now pleased with me). Ragnar met. Compass for 40 (now pleased with me). Then medit, mono, col, drama, and paper to him for feudalism. They have NO RELIGION on their continent!!!! They're also buddies. They also have massive power but are backwards on tech. Should be easy to invade them after finishing Cathy ftw. Could even keep Issy as a trading buddy although we shall see...

1150AD: Liberalism!!! Astronomy as free tech!!! GS used on PP. Ed to issy for music, wmap, and 130. Crab to ragnar for 6gpt. deer and fur to mehmed for silk and 7gpt. Paper to mehmed for wmap--> Nets me circumnavigation!!!

1160AD: PP in 1. Issy will again go to war with me against Cathy. Our respective power will be too much for Cathy to handle assuming Issy does anything to help me out. Regardless, I anticipate taking Cathy down soon. She has guilds and will not trade it so she will have gunpowder soon for muskets. I will be using my next GS on chemistry but plan on going to war and doing solid dmg to Cathy before then. Hopefully with mass I will be able to override her even if she gets muskets. I especially don't want her getting cossacks, so I will be keeping an eye on that.

I figure I can build 4 more cities as well, which should also help with unit production. There is space for them in areas I razed or simply didn't build yet. They are all low food areas, but irrigation should help somewhat. Once I build those cities and take a couple more from Cathy I will have a very clear cut city lead, which I hope to leverage for victory!!!

Some more info:

Updated power graph:

Caught up to Cathy nicely!

My continent:

The other continent:

Tech Situation:

I have monopoly on Astronomy. Only techs I seem not to have are theology and guilds. So far so good.

Any criticism welcome. I think this game is going better than most of my games! I think just playing publicly is helping me to focus more which is great. Still, I think there are many aspects of my game which can be improved, so your thoughts would be appreciated!

EDIT: Forgot the save yet again!

 

[Unconquered Sun]

About Monty - as psycho as he is, my experience on the highest difficulty levels suggests it is best to attack the least defended AIs (often builders).

 

[futurehermit]

True, I could've probably attacked Hannibal first, especially since Monty had such crappy terrain around him. But I worry about getting bogged down with Monty during the middle ages, which is the time period where I suck the worst in my domination attempts

p.s., thanks to carl corey who helped me figure out how to get the images bigger! i switched to photobucket and it works great!

 

[carl corey]

futurehermit, use the IMG photobucket links in your posts, not the URL nor the HTML ones.

 

[Snaaty]

About Monty - as psycho as he is, my experience on the highest difficulty levels suggests it is best to attack the least defended AIs (often builders).

I´m with you there, the builders tend to be the most dangerous ones in mid-/endgame because sometimes they run of in tech, so best to go for them when they are weak. The warmogers can be taken out more easily later in the game due to tech lead (in some of my games, when Kathy is around, she proved to be the most dangerous foe because she normally techs up quite fast and still is able to do terrible wars (kossaks...))

 

[futurehermit]

Yeah, good point. Take out builders early when they are weak and warmongerers late when THEY are weak. Makes great sense...

The only problem is when the warmongerers dictate to you early on...I guess getting a leash on them might be the best way to go...

 

[futurehermit]

Ok, I have one question:

Am I teching too fast? I.e., am I not going hardcore enough on military such that my tech would be slower? Or, am I not teching fast enough since I haven't been working enough cottages?

 

[futurehermit]

Round 4: The fall of Russia

Well, a few hiccups along the way this round, but overall things are progressing nicely!

1160-1640AD

1160AD: Deer to Cathy for dye; preparing a galleon and caravel and 2 buddhist and 2 confucian missionaries to hopefully convert mehmed and ragnar to opposite religions.

1170AD: Printing Press in. Mehmed converts to islam? Hmmm...must've been Cathy or Issy, probably Issy, but why islam? PP to Cathy for 300.

1210AD: Alexandria founded 1N of where I wanted to put it but Issy was about to settle so it was settle or lose it. GS born. Wanted it for Chem, but turns out it would be Sci Meth. Ok. Physics race I guess.

1230AD: Gunpowder in. Pi-Ramesses founded. LIberalism to Issy for Guilds, map, and 50. Mehmed now annoyed because I traded with Issy.

1240AD: Pig to Ragnar for 2gpt; corn to mehmed for 2gpt. PP to Issy for banking + 10.

1250AD: Giza founded; free religion and free speech to help research and culture for some cities

1260AD: War on Cathy!!! Bribe Issy with gunpowder to help. Ragnar converts to confucianism just before i get my missionaries there. Turns out it WAS issy doing this. Darn! Spread 3 buddhist missionaries to Ragnar anyways, I have the shrine after all (I canceled the confucian ones once Mehmed went Islam).

1280AD: Issy demands astronomy. I give it to her and she is friendly without me being hindu. I ask her for theology and she accepts. fair is fair. Crap, Cathy has muskets! Oh well, I'll do what I can...

Sacked Yakutsk and killed a stack of Cathy's troops in the open field. This now puts me ahead of her slightly in power!

1310AD: Sci meth in. Reject Mehmed's request to stop trading with Issy (annoyed). Oil S of memphis, offshore near heliopolis, at tlatelolco, and offshore at byblos. No shortage!

1330AD: Sacked Krasnoyarsk

1350AD: GS Born, helps towards physics. Sacked Yaroslavl'. Issy is actually helping out with her conquistadors!!!

1360AD: Getting HAMMERED by war weariness (WW) but trying to finish taking a couple more cities while pushing for physics...

1380AD: Sacked St. Petersburg; Sci meth to Issy for chem + 410 + map. Yes! Grenadiers! I do pretty well with siege + grenadiers!

1400AD: GA born in Teno...Not sure what to do with him...

1410AD: 1st to physics! yes! Cathy now has rifles, crap! Sacked orenburg (kept it cuz it's taoist holy city although i wanted to raze). Ceasefire with Cathy didn't sign peace because she wouldn't give tech...(seem not to have taken a screen of taoist holy city. it is just nw of moscow.)

Cathy now has only 4 total cities (although she will eventually settle on an island near the other continent so I don't get to finish her off, too bad).

Uranium found at piramesses. A few more splotches of it around, but end up being absorbed by Issy...Methinks I will try and beeline Manhattan and ICBMs this game. I've never done that in all my games. Should be fun.

I try everything I can for awhile to get a trade embargo between Mehmed and Ragnar. I adopt their religions, I try and bribe them, but nothing works Their trade is the only thing that keeps them pleased with each other. Crap!

1420AD: Mehmed cancels open borders. Issy asks us to go to war against Cathy. Crap, WW again! I don't dare refuse however, I need an ally still.

1430AD: Spanish revolt in Yakutusk or whatever it's called. Blech. (Note to self, I should've used my GA for a culture bomb in this city. I forgot about it and it ended up costing me the city as it flipped to spain, crap!)

1440AD: Cathy takes back Yaroslavl'. Crap! I forgot that movement along roads becomes insane later in the game...Oh well, I take it back with some knights same turn.

1450AD: GG born in Tenochtitlan.

1460AD: Mehmed requests Educ. I give it to him to try and massage relations...doesn't really work.

Globe theatre in tenochtitlan. I really need to work that into my games sooner somehow! Not to mention in a more front-line position for whipping factory. There just wasn't a great site for it! Convert back to Hindu for relations with Issy and Mehmed cuz Mehmed converted to Hindu. That's more like it. Ragnar converts to Buddhism, that'll help my $$$. Could switch to Buddhism later perhaps.

Physics to Issy for replac parts, divine right, map, and 50.

1470AD: Mehmed declares war on me! Crap! Oh well, I doubt he'll bring a bunch of loaded galleons. Put out some boats for line of site just in case. Build military academy in Hippo.

1510AD: MOSCOW SACKED!

WW is insane 15+ in some cities! Crap!

1530AD: Deer to ragnar for 3gpt. Divine right to him for 110.

1535AD: Cow to Issy for 3gpt.

1540AD: Couldn't take Yekaturinburg or whatever it's called so I ceasefire after some losses. Adopt vassalage and slavery, upgrade some cr3 maces to grens and prepare for an empire-wide massing of 2-promotion grens and catas. With as many cities as I have it doesn't take long to shoot up my power graph! Land is power. Land is power. Land is power.

1555AD: Yakutsk revolts to Spain. Crap!

1560AD: Culture bomb in Hippo to try and flip back Yakutsk eventually...

1585AD: Cathy becomes vassal of Ragnar. Oh well, guess it's me + Issy + sorta Mehmed vs. Cathy and Ragnar for the time being. Cathy demands chemistry and I tell her where to go. My power is now 2x Cathy's no wonder she vassaled. That didn't take long! Phil to mehmed for peace. Nice to have backwards opponents! Dye to mehmed for 9gpt.

1590AD: Biology in. War on Cathy/Ragnar. Spices to Mehmed for silk. Liberalism to mehmed for war on Ragnar! Yes, finally relations shattered between them! Bio to Issy for Nationalism, map, and 320. Chem to Mehmed for wm and 200 (WFYABTA). Lots of WW still!!!

1595AD: Cossacks appear! Must eliminate her one source of horses asap!

1610AD: Sacked Yekaturinberg or whatever

1605: Sacked Novgorod, so much for cossacks

1620AD: Something (can't read my writing) to Issy for incense.

1630AD: Issy razes vladivostok, Cathy's last city on this continent. She has one lonely city on an island near other continent...

Too bad she got that one city out. I really should've got more navy to prevent that--another thing I'm not great at. I really wish I could've finished her off. Maybe I'll have to pay her a visit later...

Adopt free speech to help stop bleeding. Whip empire-wide to eliminate WW effects.

1640AD: 60g to ragnar for peace.

This is where I stop. Seems like taking out Issy will be enough for domination win...

But then I don't really have a reliable trading partner for the rest of the game since I've wracked up neg mods with both Mehmed and Ragnar. Methinks Mehmed (Exp + Org) will be weak late game, especially since Ragnar's been beating up on him. So, I could take him out, but he probably wouldn't give me enough for the win...

Looks like I'm going to try and win outright vs. Issy early. Try and keep Ragnar at war with Mehmed. I'll probably adopt buddhism to keep relations with Ragnar in the meantime. Since I have the shrine, I guess I'll try and spread it to the rest of my cities so I can use theocracy.

I'm currently 1/2 way to steel and have a bazillion catapults. I'm planning on halting research after steel and upgrade them all to cannons. Then I'll try and do a two-pronged fast assault to tip the balance further in my direction between me and Issy. Sue for peace then build up again and try and finish her off.

The super crappy thing is that Cathy was so tight-fisted and wouldn't give me rifling for peace. Mehmed is WFYABTA and Issy didn't have it when I traded her my last tech (bio). Now she has it but I don't have anything to give her. Ragnar won't trade with me since I'm his worst enemy for declaring on him. So, no mass-drafting of rifles, which I really want to do in case Issy gets cavalry...

Crappy deal. Hopefully I can correct that situation...

I think I've built enough banks that I can start wall street soon. I built enough universities that I can now build oxford as well. So, next turn I'll work on getting those up. Probably pretty late to be doing it, but I've have military matters on my plate! It's really hard to balance all the military and builder priorities!!

I don't want to give Issy steel so hopefully ragnar or mehmed will give me rifling for steel and not trade it to Issy...we shall see...

EDIT: Apparently, I never remember the save!

 

[futurehermit]

Ok, here's my end-game strategy:

1) Have a period of peace. Get wallstreet, oxford, and other infrastructure in place.

2) Tech: Rifling-artillery-electricity-fission-rocketry

3) Try and generate at least 1 GM for upgrading siege to cannons or better artillery if possible.

4) While manhattan project is building, go to war against issy with sole objective of securing her sources of uranium (I think she has around 3, I have two). Depending on how many sources of uranium exist on other continent, I may consider sending a force over there as well, not sure. Would prefer to keep them busy with each other.

5) Once manhattan project is built, use mass nukes to finish Issy off.

I've never used nukes before and I want to try them out. I might be able to win faster if I attack her outright earlier, but this will be more fun

EDIT: Did I mention that Issy has weapons of mass destruction operations in place Can't have that now can we

 

[Galileo44]

This is looking good. I can never get domination because I never go hard enough on the military front. I always build too much and am wary of going below 50%. + the 15 unhappies from WW are scary! All in all, i think you will win easily now with so many cities and so much area.

 

[futurehermit]

Ok, I'm too tired to post a full update for the endgame, so I will just write out the gist of it.

Basically, I changed my mind and decided to keep Issy as a friend and attack overseas. I would need to take out Ragnar and most of Mehmed.

BIG MISTAKE.

Issy launched in the 1960s. I needed literally about 2-3 more turns to win. I had the land size in the end, but was short a few % of pop. SUCKS!!!

I was a nuke warlord this game. I was secretary of UN so no one could stop me. I rained holy terror of nukes. It helped me take out Ragnar pretty bad. The thing that REALLY sucked was that I didn't think that Issy would trade with Ragnar, but she must have because he had infantry long before I expected them and it really bogged my war with him down

I made a huge freakin' mistake in the end and thought I had 2-3 nukes in reserve to delay Issy's last space part but I must've used them all up!!! Cost me the game right there...

But although this game was lost in the end, it really was lost much, much earlier when I decided to go to war overseas instead of against Issy. And also to wait for nukes.

If I had followed my original plan and attacked Issy post-steel to cripple her and then follow up with a mop-up I would've won for sure since neither Mehmed or Ragnar was any credible threat this game. I tried spies in the end, but had too many failed attempts If one of them succeeded near the end I would've won.

Ok, here are some things I learned this round:

1) I have no idea how to fight modern era warfare. I don't usually play the modern era so I had no idea what I'm doing.

Please help!

What is the best way to fight in the modern era? I figured out that bombers seem pretty good to have around. What about fighters and gunships and whatever else planes there are? Should I mass any of them?

What research approach do people usually take? I was researching haphazardly because I figured I was safe, didn't know Issy was trading to freakin' Ragnar, crap!

I also should've stopped trading with Issy much earlier, but again, I figured things were ok. Blech, so many small errors in this last round that led to my demise...

2) Nuclear warfare is really quite effective. I used a pile of nukes to nuke Ragnar's empire and followed up with tanks to clean him out pretty early. Yeah, global warming kinda sucks, but when going domination it's no biggy. I think I will plan it in early into my subsequent domination attempts. It's really fun too! I think that if I had known what the heck I was doing and had planned out my attack much better with a larger force supported by nukes and bombers I would've mopped up that continent MUCH sooner. I never seem to take enough troops when I go overseas

3) FOOD!!! I got so focused on land % that I forgot about pop %. I had cottages pretty much everywhere at the end and just couldn't grow fast enough...Another stroke in favour of FE/SE. Again, if I knew what the heck I was doing, I would've farmed over those cottages much sooner!!!

4) Plan in advance. I really thought things were good so I stopped planning (which I had been doing all game to great effect imo) and just played for fun. I shouldn't have thought things were so safe.

Summary: I died a death of a thousand cuts this end game. However, although I'm crushed because I literally came so very very close to my first emperor victory, I'm confident that I can win next time!!! I learned a lot from this game and I just need to freakin' figure out how to fight in the modern age and I should be ok. Tanks seem great with blitz and city raiders. I think I will have to beeline them much sooner. I think I've corrected my middle-ages problem of not working in enough maces. That really was my problem I'm quite sure of it now.

Another thing that really, really killed me this game was insane WW. It crippled my growth/pop for centuries. I really needed to get to fascism much sooner and constitution for jails. That was really really killer!!! I had +18 from WW in most of my cities...grrr...

Anyways, very frustrating end to a game that was going well until my late game decisions put this one in the tank.

I look forward to any and all criticism. It will help my game a lot

Save attached this time!