Prepare to cringe - bad maps (deity)

[krikav]

Some random screenshots from last turnset.

Spoiler :

First GPerson was a merch (settled), then two SCI for astro, then I got "unlucky" and got another merch who went for a trademission.
Academy at T180 isn't common!

Attack at T215.
Was trickling in abit into steampower as I had Monty/Shaka as a target (then Hammy) and wanted steampower from WvO in a trade. (Didn't happen until he was vassal).
The samurai did good in combat imho, but the fighting was tough and far more had to take defensive promotions than I like.

Shakas backstab. >_< Alot more units falling back for defense, but with those shaka-stacks I think things would have gone south quickly.

Apparantly noone really wanted this war.
Nasty Shaka hammered my city one more turn though and killed almost half a dozen innocent units.

Sure thing I can follow Islam Saladin, whatever the leader of mighty Arabia says!! (Just you wait untill I have tanks/bombers/nukes *grumble grumble*)

The upkeep situation became problematic.
I didn't fully realize how bad it was before this city got out of revolt.
Started making plans for getting forbidden palace up on my homeland, and move palace to the main continent. But I got really glad once I was what wonders Hammy built!

Situation got MUCH better with versailes.
There was some nice stuff in Babylon too, historically fitting hanging gardens the only thing out of significance.

Utlizing the cultural chaos after Hammys cities had fallen to sneak in a spearhead city.
This will probably be totally engulfed in culture, but if it doesn't flip I could load it up with units before a war declaration, gaining valuable time.

 

[krikav]

Spoiler A cringe map contribution :

Now, it was some time since I played this one. I think it was between my Fredrich and Kublai games I have put up (https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/deity-fredrich.645258/, https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/a-game-of-kublai.645867/) or it was between turnsets in the Fredrich game, that I rolled this map to play some more Fredrich.

I think I can recall that I played on untill about T100-T150 or so and throwed in the towel, but I do remember a cringe moment quite early in the game.

 

[krikav]

@Fish Man

Spoiler :

I think the map would be quite abit harder with settlement 1W (the most natural spot, which ruins fish) instead of 1NW. The only reason I spotted that was because of the conext of the map being in this thread. Playing blind or on a random roll I would have gone 1W and suffered even more.

I don't really like my play, especially early on I'm quite set back by the GLH attempt, and that punished me even more later on when I didn't get the GScis I needed.
I more or less only got some pre-astro trades from monty, and had to self-tech calendar too. Only got some nice stuff after astro (astro for engineering+feud with hammy) but after that I also self-teched guilds, gunpowder and chemistry. The extra traderoutes from GLH went straight into techs that could have been had for "free" with faster play.
Going CoL was even dumber, it got me a religion that I didn't really need the happines from, and apart from making the western fish easy to settle it didn't do much for me.

 

[Fish Man]

Oh noes, pro mech inf...that's the stuff of nightmares, man. Half a dozen CR3 artillery might barely even put a dent in one of those, and that's before considering his actual stack. I think it's times like these that nukes seem perfectly fair and balanced...that is, if you can manage to reach them.

As for me...well, you know the drill by now.

Coincidentally, I also hit the t258 mark not ago.

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

Making over 1100bpt at 100%. Monty and Hammy are dead (Hammy...died to Saladin without capping in a war long ago. Which was surprising because Saladin was so much stronger; I guess he died too quick to raise the white flag!). Everyone else is my vassal. Saladin right now:

Along the way I picked up some fine spots. Madrid was both a commerce and production powerhouse with 3 settled GPs. And Amsterdam was a killer ironworks city.

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

Nice to finally get some mileage out of shale plants. I think there were 3 key things that made the difference between our saves:

1. Being able to trade steel for RP from Willem and then for rifling from Saladin. This was HUGE, as when I starting whipping cannons my bpt plummeted, so reaching rifles essentially by reaching steel was a very important thing to be able to do.

2. Communism! I traded for it from Izzy, and that right there brought my economy back from the dead. I now believe SP is so critical for deity iso that one MUST make a break for communism immediately after getting rifling. Otherwise, every city you capture is going to cost you 50, even up to 100 gpt, and no amount of settled GP, holy city shrine madness, or cottage heaven will be enough to compensate for that. Sure, you might limp your way to artillery, maybe take out a dude or two with that...but it ain't gonna cut it against gunships and mechs, that's for sure. Ideally, as I did here, you pawn rifling for SM, and then vassal someone who has communism, or tell your first vassal to go for it. Don't feel too bad about it, at this point any potentially dangerous AI can just pick it up in 2-3 turns whenever they feel like it, so you're not giving away too much of a lead.

3. Preemptive war-decs. How do you prevent a peace-vassal form Izzy? By declaring before you are ready, but while you are on good terms with the would-be master, so that Saladin will be "unwilling to betray his close friend." Saladin is excellent for this because he doesn't plot at pleased, so you can lock someone from peacevassaling to him when you're only pleased with him.

This is what I'm up against:

Spoiler :

Looks scary, but I'm well on my way to the Manhattan project. All units, from the lowliest warrior to the strongest mech inf, are equal in the eyes of the Great ICBM. And when I start raining fire, there will be bloodshed. No matter how fast he techs, he won't be able to outrun my nukes. Dread it, run from it, destiny still arrives. For I am...undefeatable. And I am...inevitable.

('scuse me, got way too carried away there for a second)

 

[Fippy]

Actually the Freddy start looks nice

Spoiler :

Scouting south was given, and cows prefered over workboats early so i moved ~~
Another good ph city with crabs soon. Along with wheat, gold and stone this looks good.
I think another worker before the first settler makes sense here (if going BW like me, which seems obvious), will be lots to do and can settler double chop.

 

[krikav]

@Fish Man

Spoiler :

Yes, not going for communism was clearly a mistake here. I had alot of cash and excellent techrate and noone of the AIs had physics and a pair had communism I had also popped a GSci so I made a run for it and bulbed part of physics and got a GSci for a GSci, did some good trades with that physics too.
But then I got to greedy and started going for artilery and things grinded to a halt.

Regarding war declaration, thats a nice advice! Haven't thought much about how that works.
I think it would't have been possible here though as saladin also hated me due to confu.

I'm on my way to Shaka now, but I didn't realize earlier that he does have assembly line, so this will be entertaining. Good thing that he is throwing units at Montys grenadiers/muskets while I get into position.

I will try to take these guys down as soon as I can, while simultainiouly building up the economy. No clue if either bomber/tanks or nukes is the way to go, or if I'll reach it in time, but I'll make a try.

 

[krikav]

@Fippy

Spoiler :

I can't remember, but I think I settled 1W on the beaver plains hill. Either that or SiP.
The cringe moment was when I saw tundra/ice to the west. Desert to the southwest and a creative leader in the southeast.

I haven't posted that map in @Lain s thread, because I don't think it's a extremly hard map, but at least I found the starting realization that you where stuck up in the icy north between tundra, desert and sury was a "Arrrrgh"-moment.

 

[Fippy]

Yup, nice going on the Toku map

That Sally map looks outright terrible, 11/10 difficulty?
I would know some of the surroundings cos i have to check cringe maps for being really cringy,
but can be found out with scouting anyways (i have no clue about AIs and so), and i might try to see how bad this will end.

 

[krikav]

Toku map was perfect imho, annoying and challenging but not impossible, you are allowed some mistakes while still being in the game is lovely.

I have not yet taken a look at the Sally map, but will likely do.
Abit in the mood for RP too, so might jump of to the NC game with Isabella. Too many fun things to play!

 

[Fish Man]

I won, t301 domination! Had the option to go diplo but was feeling bloodthirsty; besides, who needs sleep anyways.

Spoiler :

Saladin proved to be a tougher nut to crack than most, and this was a late-game war so difficult I wasn't sure I would be able to pull it off at some points (in fact, probably one of my hardest wins to date, up there with the Charlie and Boudica maps). Saladin had gunships, SDI, mobile artillery, and I had no idea if he would start pulling modern armor and mechs out of his butt at any second. Still, I made it! He refused to cap ofc, because his power was just too far above the world average (my vassals were weak, seeing as how low sea level means taking 3-4 cities effectively cripples an AI).

 

[krikav]

Spoiler T322 :

This kind of put a hard deadline on my move... Now, I can't remember how many turns it was before it reaches, is it 12? 8?

Not that sinking his spaceship would be the end of all troubles. Have bribed him out of free speach (and into state property, so he doesn't benefit from his creative constructions) so still some turns left. I HOPE that the cities he have conqured from Isabella isn't as close as his core cities.

Looks like we are in the endgame.

But Toku twirls his moustache, he got a trick up his sleeve.

It's quite seldom that I get to this stage of the game, but the idea is to nuke everything in a city dead and then capture it. I will raze all cities as I don't think I have much hope of keeping anything I take.
Also, I think the retaliation will really hurt, and I have no idea how to proceed after the initial 2-3 turns of my attack.

But I'll try to rain down some fire now!

 

[AcaMetis]

I believe on Standard speed it's 10 turns before a spaceship arrives, 15 if it only has one engine? Or 12 in the latter case? I'm not sure, I don't think the AI will ever launch an incomplete spaceship so it rarely comes up.

 

[Fippy]

With nukes used i will grant you a 50% win
I think that's fair, in real life nukes would see no real winner as well ~~

 

[krikav]

T374 final!

Spoiler :

Since I razed Mecca with UN, AP played a role for a longer time.
Could declare and destroy some of his cities and then AP shut down the war and gave me 10 turns to build more nukes, rinse and repeat.
Saladin re-built his spaceship and I had to make a run inlands to capture Madrid which became his new capital after Mecca was razed.

Razed.

Gross happines problems.
I also had troubles with alot of cities having culture pressure from both WvO and Shaka, in my patchwork of cities.

In the end I had the option to go for a AP victory, and the game was getting quite tedious so I took that route out.
Look at my diplomat skills!!

 

[Fish Man]

With nukes used i will grant you a 50% win
I think that's fair, in real life nukes would see no real winner as well ~~

Not if the other person staunchly refuses to tech fission! Which is what Sally did on my map. He could've gotten it anytime, and made my life miserable. So nice of him not to .

 

[krikav]

Spoiler Sally map, T31 :

1N must be a resource, likely coal.
Want to move inlands (west looks like end of land), possibly on that PH south of cow, but will scout there first, if not, probably just settle on that grassland.

Nothing of interest is revealed. There is room for a city in the far west if there is seafood there.
Suspect that there is fish in the south that I ruined and that settlement on the incense could have been better.

A lion on the silk, so I dare to move east abit. That land doesn't look too shabby, but really far away. Have almost completed agriculture here (going ag->AH I think, wild chance to pop horses on that plains tile, but also our plains cow is the only thing we have. Good that there is another cow east though.
Just checking what tech founded christianity (it was meditation).
That feels kind of typical of Isabella who seem to go for meditation in almost all my games and she favours christianity.
Realize here that I have again forgotten to check demographics!

T15, Met SB only 1 esp point on me, he knows some other AIs.

I thought SBs scout would scout toward me and went out abit, but he tricked me and followed, causing a barb warrior to spawn. Thats good, he will do spawnbust duty for me and I can look abit more.

There is gold there!

This looks really nice, why couldn't I have spawned here instead?

Either @Fippy forgot to add barb techs, or I have been very lucky because I haven't seen a single barb archer yet.
Selected warrior had to retreat 1W since there was two barb warriors there. Building another one and will start settler at pop4.
I'm going BW now and taking a chance that I can claim some of that gold.
Have just met Napoleon and have not yet seen any AI borders so I'm crossing my fingers that they are far away.
Settle that PH for goldmines to pay for the insane upkeep, and then try to get c2 for cows and then c3 can borrow cows (or if capital can make a workboat).
No wonder have been built, and monotheism religion isn't founded, so there might even be a slim chance to go for late pyramids if I get the stone.


SB and Napoleon have very different peaceweights and they will hate each other, so that at least adds something to my short term safety. <3

If I get boxed in shortly and only get cows fish I'll try to cottage up and do something with catapults.
If I don't even get the cows spot, then I think it's gg.

 

[krikav]

Spoiler To T48 :

Realized when I came back to the game that I had not scouted the northern shoreline, and I'm truly blessed to find yet another source of delicious whale.

Nappy is comming and cleaning up the barbarian mess.

And as usual, the AIs come and spoil my dreams. No gold for me! Now I'm in a commerce trap too, as I took a gamble that that gold would pay for my AH->BW sin.

Resort to this settlement instead. Now worker will road before improving cow. Need to get economy going asap.
Fishing->Pottery next.

Finally a lucky break, we have metal!
Now I'm thinking that I should also settle the fish spot, and possibly also the eastern whale for chops(?).
Cottage up and save forests and then go crazy with chopping/whipping out an axe/catapult army.
If the stars align right, Napoleon will throw away his abundant supplies of units on some hill city of SB.

Thanks @Fippy for a interesting challenge! This is certainly not an easy map!

 

[drewisfat]

I tried the Sally map out and walked my settler all the way to the gold, but then decided that kind of defeats the challenge. It wasn't an unreasonable cheat move though, given that you know it's a fractal map and can pretty clearly tell on t0 that you're at the edge of a terrible peninsula.

 

[krikav]

Sally game:

Spoiler Throwing in the towel at T134 :

T112 Napoleon attacks Cyrus.
I had started to chop alot of catapults and more spears/axes around that time.

A few turns later, I backstab Napoleon.

Tech was not looking good. I didn't get any trades from maths/construction. Also had problems reaching construction in time, settled a GSci I got too, perhaps I could have planned better and perhaps bulbed math while saving up cash to sprint construction. But I'm not sure.

I did eventually get to aestethics and got alfabet from Cyrus with that (could not use it to bribe him off Napoleon. , and during a ceasefire I also got IW from Nappy.

And just after a redeclare from me, he runs into the arms of Cyrus.

Tech is not looking good. Everything is crawling forward... I'm losing cash at 0% slider and I don't have currency.
Maybe I can reach drama and bulb philosophy in 14 turns time (less if I gamble and pollute pool with madrassa-priests)
Cyrus has engineering and SB has Guilds. Only one I can hope to attack has just vassaled.

Really have no clue how to proceed here, had alot of fun with the catapults/axes war, but now I'm not too tempted to continue.

Maybe I should have gone aestethics earlier and traded for math and some other stuff? Things would have been way better if I had something like calendar/currency/monarchy.
Perhaps one could do some trick declaring and continuing on Nappy for abit and somehow get a peacetreaty with Cyrus? Wouldn't be fun if he came rolling with trebs/maces though. >_<

@Fippy did you have much success? And did you do something radically different?

 

[Tobiyogi]

Now, it was some time since I played this one. I think it was between my Fredrich and Kublai games I have put up

From all the maps in that thread, that one looks most appealing and maybe doable for me. At least a good capitol & Freddy is one of my favorite leaders