PYL II, Backstabbers!

[TheMeInTeam]

Cathy: Emperor Epic 1070 AD

Spoiler :

The forbidden palace is so huge! London got it, and all of a sudden I'm actually raking in halfway decent BPT. I've spammed troops, as per Aelfs delightful optimal metastrategy thread. More like, I don't want mr. insane over there to get cute. I've switched religions, because that gives me halfway decent flank protection. Not perfect in a backstabbing game, but these guys do favor weaker targets they hate more, so I might as well make sure they hate other people more (and mass troops!).

Note the tech I'm going for. I'm getting this WAY early in my tech path (though not in time, due to a dark age there). How early? I don't have feudalism or civil service yet!

I don't care. I like getting bogged down in medieval times occasionally. But rarely do I wind up actually bogged down. Engineering is the key tech of the era, because unlike most other units trebs can push through longbows with strong success. Of course, engineering also opens up pikes (so no knight mischief), and machinery is on its path (ahem - no maces hitting my stack at unwanted times). In other words, I'm seriously going to go after captain green insane with trebs, pikes, and xbows as my primary attack force, and I'll be behind in tech. Sorry monty, your reign as the warmongering psycho is coming to an end this game.

 

[Bandobras Took]

@ TheMeInTeam

Spoiler :

Why not place Novgorod 1 NE? It grabs the cows as well that way.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Cathy: Emperor Epic 1505 AD

Spoiler :

Yes, I'm beelining steel here. Screw the lib race. In the ear. France has gunpowder and is pushing for rifles. Before louis gets them, I need to do some damage with my muskets/trebs! On the bright side, I have a LOT of muskets and trebs!

If you look carefully, you'll see that I've switched into a ponderous religious choice. Why did I do this? Because doing it and DoWing louis when I did prevented him from winning an AP diplo victory...barely. Of course, that's not going to be an issue much longer, is it? No, we'll be taking that AP...

By the way, did the land I captured or england and the aztecs help me techwise?!

Er...Well at least I could trade something to SOMEONE. Who cares though, I'm going for either an AP victory myself (jewish block likes me) or domination (I mean, why not? Just keep making zerglings or whatever and hitting stuff...tech be damned). Cannons and Grenades are all that's needed...I don't plan on anybody getting infantry within a meaningful timeframe.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

@ TheMeInTeam

Spoiler :

Why not place Novgorod 1 NE? It grabs the cows as well that way.

Spoiler :

Well, the game's played, so the city placements are final . However, the reason I didn't put novgorod where you suggest is that I eventually backfilled a city between the cows and gold, which wound up giving me a nice bit of commerce. Not sure that was optimal, but at least it's an explanation

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Cathy: Emperor Epic 1728 AD (End Game)

Spoiler :

Hahahaha well...I wasn't done shoving my newly whipped shiny cannons down louis' throat yet, but look what happens. I took a chance here, and went FR. The reason I could do this and still get alex to vote for me was that I completed that "make 7 castles so that everyone goes +3 with you" event. That's right, castles were useful this game! They let me win it! Haha. Hindu was the AP religion, gah what a mess. All's well that ends well...I wasn't looking forward to having to duke it out with alex...I'd have had to sit and tech well into the 1900's to catch up, and then run my "siege cheese" tactic to deal with what was an absolutely massive stack. Sure, I probably could have done it...but he liked me and this felt a LOT easier!

Medieval warfare at its finest! Lots of muskets though. If someone told me I'd use muskets en masse' to win my first emperor game on a pangaea, I'd have probably laughed. I needed to stick louis fast though and muskets wound up being my knife (along with trebs). Towards the middle of french-russian war, I wound up with them vs rifles, which was tough. I quickly took paris and peace and waited for cannons. Fast game for me, as usual. Good to know that emperor isn't any slower for me, just harder.

Eh. No seriously. THIS IS MY FIRST WIN ON EMPEROR EVER. So like, I wouldn't have cared if I had a score of 19. I won . I've learned a lot on the way too, I seriously appreciate the help I get on this forum.

 

[Bandobras Took]

@ TheMeInTeam

Spoiler :

You realize you've just violated about every Civ prejudice out there by using Castles and Muskets to win on Emperor?

Neat game; after seeing the starting positions I really wish I had chosen Catherine myself.

 

[slobberinbear]

Spoiler :

I'm on a peninsula, with no neighbors but Qin to my east. Protective or not, he's going down.

Research to Bronze Working, found copper midway between me and Qin. I get there first. My two cities whip and chop out 9 phalanxes. I had previously gotten the "axe handle" random event, too, so my phalanxes started out with Combat I and Shock, plus a barracks promotion with 3xp.

Beijing went down, defended by two archers. I lost two phalanxes (promoted with cover ... I knew they'd die, but I wanted to hurt the archers as bad as possible). Second city, same story, but Qin had an axe too. Replacements of mine sufficient to maintain offensive. Kept second city. Razed third and final Chinese city, as I was hurting for cash (five cities total, had founded another city of my own to get gold to the west of Athens). Also third Chinese city was getting choked by Cathy's culture.

I'm in last place , but wiped out Qin.

There is tons of stone on the map. I may try to chop out the Pyramids in Beijing if I have time. I need cottages badly.

 

[Nares]

@Bandobras

Spoiler :

Neat game; after seeing the starting positions I really wish I had chosen Catherine myself.

Vicky has really nice terrain too.

 

[Nares]

Victoria (the ugly one)
Emperor/Epic
4000BC-2375BC

Spoiler :

Techs researched: Bronze Working (turn 3; hut pop), Agriculture (turn 13), The Wheel (turn 26), Pottery (turn 38), Masonry (turn 50), Mysticism (turn 56)

Found York at cow/gems/copper site.

Spoiler :

I don't think there's a question as to who got the best start. This land is ridiculous. I choose to settle in place, and queue up a worker (23). The Wheel and Pottery would take a combined 32, IIRC, so I go with Agriculture, to be followed by The Wheel and Pottery.

The hut popped for a scout, which proved to be very useful. I sent the warrior north, towards what turned out to to be the coast. The scout went south. Shortly after, both warrior and scout were staring at huts. Warrior pops for some gold, and the scout gets lucky...

I'm not complaining. Both units continued reasonable careers scouting. The scout continued south and...

...on the very next turn. That's a nice site down there. Gems, cows and copper, on a river no less. I might even build my first Scotland Yard there.

That is, assuming I could grab the site.

It's right on someone's doorstep. Guess who.

Creative down the throat. At least she's sexy, and talks dirty too.

I soon meet another buddy.

He's off to the east, by the looks of his scout. Speaking of scout, look at what I hadn't noticed until now.

The warrior confirms Monty's whereabouts later.

And finally, the last kid on my side of the world.

Poor guy. I can already see this turning out poorly for him. Many thanks to my scout, who popped a map, of all things, from a hut near Moscow, making the scouting much, well, easier.

As soon as I met Monty, I made my first real espionage move.

I bumped Cathy up to my primary focus, and made a note. With only four points against Cathy, I already have a positive EP ratio with her. This meant she knew others.

My first worker completes, and I begin on a warrior. Worker farms the wheat, then builds a mine on the riverside grassland hill. After the warrior, I start on a second warrior and grow to size three. Pottery comes in, and I swap to a second worker, which completes shortly after the first worker starts on a second cottage. Both workers complete the cottage, then together mine the riverside plains hill. The city grows to size 4 while building the second warrior, then starts on a settler. I 2pop whip and start on the Great Wall.

I research Agriculture, The Wheel, Pottery, Masonry, Mysticism, and I am currently researching Writing. Bronze Working was a lucky pop.

I settle York on turn 64.

The copper isn't currently contested, but I suspect Cathy will be putting some pressure on it very soon. In response, I've already researched Mysticism, and have already started on a Monument. I'm currently researching Writing, so that I can follow the Monument with a Library. I'm determined to keep that copper, even though I probably don't need it.

Nothing exciting so far. I've also met Alex and Qin, who's faces I didn't care to put up because they're not near me. No one's come from the NW, so I'm guessing it's coast, and I'm looking to settle to the SE.

I missed the marble with York, and I think I'll skip it again. I see silk towards Louis, wine towards Monty, and fur, gold and whales in what I'm guessing is my terrain. I want to at least settle that silk, and then perhaps the gold. And I still need both Iron Working and Animal Husbandry.

 

[slobberinbear]

Spoiler :

Chopped out the Pyramid in Beijing. Great Spy sent to infiltrate Cathy. Stole Currency from her, then DoW'd her ... she is the score leader and building right up against my new Chinese territories. Cathy founded Hinduism and I had earlier converted ... so when I DoW'd, not only did I get the unhappy faces, BUT I drew the Holy Crusade quest -- take her capital for bonus goodies! Louis joined in the war on her side, but I've not seen hide nor hair of him.

Razed three of her encroaching cities, kept a fourth, and just took Moscow, her capital and holy city. Got her shrine (22 gpt) and took quest completion option to convert up to 7 of my cities to Hinduism.

Cathy on the ropes, but she had been REXing strong. I may try to steal Feudalism from her (or demand it from her for peace), then vassalize her. Or just take her out.

 

[Bleys]

Pretty well divided this month, almost all the Leaders have 2 or more playing them except Cathy, so when I get a chance today, I am going to have a go with Cathy, Monarch, Epic. I want to start reading some spoilers, heh.

 

[Solon70]

Alexander, Monarch/Normal, through 300 BC. I just got my first win on Monarch yesterday so I'm hoping I can follow through with another.

Spoiler :

The RNG had some fun with me this game. I had some good fortune (two worker techs from huts) and some bad fortune (two scouts AND a worker eaten) so I'm hoping it evened out in the end. I find I get really nervous during the early stages as it always seems like I'm falling way behind.

After settling in place my scout found Qin almost directly to my east - obviously way too close. After researching Ag I beelined BW in hopes of finding some copper, and I did, to my SE very close to Qin's territory. I quickly got it hooked up and started cranking out my UU, figuring I'd need lots to overcome Qin's Protective archers. Meanwhile I met Cathy directly to the east of Qin, and Ragnar to the north somewhere. Monty and Louis also seem to be to the north somewhere although I have no idea where. I have a little tundra so I assume this is the south part of the map.

Once I got OB, I scouted Qin's territory and found he had no metal, so I felt good about my chances. I've never played Alex before and I was a little perplexed by the UU, since it seems to have no point unless the other guy is building chariots, and chariots aren't normally a big unit in this game. Then the turn before I attacked Qin, I opened trade with him and he was boasting about having chariots. Hee hee!

My stack of about 10 Phalanxes took Qin's 2 main cities fairly easily, leaving him with only a single size 2 city that he'd recently founded to hook up iron (I pillaged the iron right off the bat, just in case). I normally like wiping out enemy civs because it makes the culture issue go away in the captured cities, but I decided to camp outside the city for 5 or 6 turns while I waited for alphabet to finish, to see if I could make up some of the tech deficit I'd surely accumulated. I got this:

which was surely better than nothing, so I signed peace figuring I can wipe him out any time. Here's a big-picture look at my world in 300 BC:

As you can see, Beijing has the GW, so it's mine now. Cathy and Ragnar are both Hindu, and she's been spreading it aggressively, so I'm probably going to convert for the relations edge. Monty has Buddhism and Vicky and Louis, wherever they are, have Confucianism, so hopefully in the event of any religious wars my neighbors will serve as a buffer. Between the two Chinese cities I've captured (I plan to raze the third) and the open territory to my west, it looks like I should have plenty of city space once I get a few economy techs online. The tech situation looks like this:

This doesn't seem awful at all, but obviously Vicky has CoL so I'm way behind at least one person. I'm currently researching currency which I've found is a good tech to shop around and pick up all the stuff I missed, and obviously it's good for the economy as well. (You know what else is good for the economy? Pillaging cities!)

I really have no idea if this is a decent start, but if I play the diplomacy/religion game well then I should have some breathing room to get everything up to speed. I was hoping to be able to fight more than one war with my UU, but Cathy seems strong so I don't think this is an option.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Yay! Someone else IS doing Cathy! I'll keep a close eye on your game, Bleys .

 

[patagonia]

Qin, Emperor/Normal part 3: 680AD - 1080AD

Spoiler :

680AD - Time to make peace with Alex, this offer is too good to pass up:

680AD - Revolt to Hinduism to boost relations with Cathy.

740AD - Victoria builds the AP; I vote for Cathy as leader.

920AD - With some courthouses whipped and some semblance of an economy, it's time to finish off Greece.

940AD - Ragnar declares again. Handy since I won't get any diplo hit from turning against him once Alex is done. Knossos is captured without any losses and kept since it has gold.

1000AD - Zhou captured.

1020AD - Pharsalos autorazed.

1060AD - Argos burned; Alex is no more.

1070AD - An AP vote to stop the war against Ragnar comes up. I vote no (can't afford to defy at this point).

1080AD - AP autopeace is signed, giving me 10 turns to get some cats together (Ragnar has finally managed to get to Feudalism, but I'll have trebs before I reach a city on a hill, so war against him should go well).

I've got no doubt in my mind that Ragnar has to die in this game. With his lands too, I've easily got enough land for a come-from-behind space win (heck, I've got more than enough for that already with 10 cities). The alternative is to slug through Russia (probably a tech era back unless I wait until the industrial age). Cathy does have 3 cities only one tile across the border though, so I could do her some serious damage after only 2 turns of war.

As a side note, I've unlocked WP with a 27XP CKN. Drill IV on these puppies is sick

 

[Solon70]

@slobberinbear:

Spoiler :

From your spoiler it looks like I'm at about the same spot as you. I had started getting up a couple of cottages to work on the economy, but then it occurred to me - with a PHI leader, shouldn't I be more focused on starting an SE? What do you think?

 

[slobberinbear]

@slobberinbear:

Spoiler :

From your spoiler it looks like I'm at about the same spot as you. I had started getting up a couple of cottages to work on the economy, but then it occurred to me - with a PHI leader, shouldn't I be more focused on starting an SE? What do you think?

Spoiler :

Yeah, I ended up whipping out libraries in my three cities plus Qin's two captured cities ... thank Jeebus for the Pyramids, which allowed me to grow the cities bigger to support some scientists, otherwise I'd still be in the stone age. That, and infiltrating Cathy with Qin's Great Wall-generated Great Spy helped a ton.

I don't know that you can do an early conquest with Alex at a decent difficulty level and NOT have a SE ... as it was, I only barely avoided striking units.

 

[BalbanesBeoulve]

Finished my Montezuma game. Emperor Marathon.

Spoiler :

So since my last post Louis vassaled to Catherine. Catherine declared on Qin, Qin vassaled to Alex causing Alex to declare on Cathy, and this was a backstab as alex and cathy were pleased. They made peace, then Alex declared on Ragnar, and Ragnar bribed Cathy to attack Alex. Qin broke away from Alex and vassaled to Ragnar, but he was left with almost no cities because Cathy took them all. Everybody made peace. Ragnar was teching well and beelined the military techs, declared on Alex and almost wiped him out.

I thought i was going to do a space race victory so I beelined superconductors and the health techs because I was really low on health resources. But Montezuma's economy sucks, so i decide to go for domination instead, plus cathy founded sid's sushi and creative contructions and her culture was going up fast. Probably would have won cultural before i got to space. I turn off research and upgrade all my old units to infantry, and declare on cathy. Note that this was a backstab on my part as she was pleased, she switched to free religion and out of HR so she dropped down from friendly. Ragnar dows her too, and cathy loses a bunch of cities. I bribe ragnar to stop so she doesn't capitulate to him. I wipe out all of Louis's cities on the mainland and he capitulated with 1 island city left, then i vassalize cathy. She built a ton of wonders, though I didn't take the one with the eiffel tower and 3 gorges dam. I take a sick double holy city double corporation HQ city. Then i declare on ragnar, and fight a tough bloody fight. He has a tech lead on me and has advanced flight. I only have tanks infantry and artillery. Eventually after losing a bunch of cities he capitulated and I win.





Overall not too bad, but I definitely made a mistake by not beelining the military techs and starting my conquest earlier instead of aiming for space. Space is boring and doesn't fit a leader like monty at all. I'm glad i finally got my first emperor win without having to rely on financial.

 

[semirami]

Monty: Emperor/Marathon 4000BC-1240BC

Spoiler :

Good, but not great start. A lot of sea food in the capital. I seetle in place. Now I know that I am the only civ starting with Mysticism. I can go for early religion, even for cheaper Meditation. No, with these guys around, the religion will be useless. Another point is I need fishing desperate.

Turn3 The hut pops for:

Great! I abandon the scout in the capital and order work boat. Research path:
Mining-BW-AH. The capital builds work boatx3- worker- warrior- settler(chop/whip). The second city will claim cows, gold and silk.

Very soon I meet these guys:

Obviously we have pangea map. Vicky is at west, Louis and Cathy at southwest. The english queen has some nice land. She founded Buddhism and there is a copper next to her. Well, she must die.

2650BC: AH is done. Horses in the capital BFC!!!
1780BC: Some great news. The mine in the capital pops gems!!! Well, gold and gems. I can pay for early rush/REX. This is also +4 happy with forge.

I fortify a warrior next to the copper. 1800BC Vicky builds a city on the copper! I cant wait more:

Finally I meet the last AI:

1660BC: London is captured, 1630 BC York is captured. I keep the both cities

1590BC: Good bye english rose!

Well, I have some jags and C2/C3 chariots. Louis is pathetic, he has half of my power and built a nice city next to my second city. And he has 1 archer as garisson. It is time for him to try my units.

1330BC: I capture Lyons and raze Orleans. My trops are arround Paris. I cant capture Paris right now and make peace to bring reinforcements

1240BC: Louis is no more. I capture Paris and The Great Lighthose

I really expected more from Louis. He was so pathetic and has nice capital with copper and iron.

We are happy Jewish family. I plan to play peacefull for now, REX to block Cathy and build some infrastructure. She already has Alphabet:

 

[AluminumKnight]

Haven't noticed anyone playing Ragnar, so I'll give him a shot (even though I've never played with him!). I'll probably play on straight up Prince, though I'm of that Prince-learning-Monarch class, because I'll probably use the Revolutions mod, and that makes the game a bit harder.

 

[pigswill]

Alex. Epic Emperor. 5bc.

Spoiler :

Did the almost obligatory phalanx rush vs Qin (annihilated 650bc). Kept two cities, razed two cities, captured Great Wall, haven't built any wonders. Founded confucianism and taoism but joined the hindu majority. Up to seven cities, got CoL and currency, researching CS. Aiming to backfill couple more cities to the west then see what next.