PYL V: Builder Blast (IND leaders!)

[brades]

Well I holed up with my 4 cities as Egypt, luckily I settled three island cities to the east and think I have a shot at this one. I've got a friend in DeGaulle and Stalin, but the Inca are huge right now and headed towards a cultural victory. If I can actually pull this one out I'll be very impressed. Emperor/Epic.

 

[brades]

hahaha I feel so dirty... I just back doored a religious diplomatic victory. Probably one of my all time low scores and still a victory, only 20k. I was 5th place in basically every category, the #1 GNP was more than double mine, and the Inca had two legendary cities, and Qin was getting ready to launch a spaceship.

The only reason I won is because roosevelt never took a barb city on his trio of island, I took it real late in the game, converted it to Christianity and gifted it to him. I was holding one city deep in the Incas culture, because he neglected military techs and I was able to get a city in a much earlier war. Finally with flight I flew in a missionary and then gifted that city back to him, that was the icing as I had friends in Stalin and DeGualle.

 

[pigswill]

De Gaulle. Monarch. Epic. 1290ad.

Spoiler :

Zat Hyuna, he is Le Rosbif in disguise.
We 'az ze Taj Mahal and ze Musketeers.
Soon he will catch nasty cold.
Zere is a draft in ze room.

 

[Groogaroo]

Sorry for the lack of updates! I kind of played this through in just two sittings!

Qin - Monarch/Epic - Cultural Victory 1863AD

Report...

Spoiler :

After realising Qin's start was isolated and chossing cultural as my victory choice, I decided to focus at the start on getting both Stonehenge & the Oracle which helped me generate early Great prophets for bulbing religions. I managed to found Judaism, Christianity and Confu which handily are 3 of the religions that offer Cathedrals boosted by stone or copper (which were available to me) it was then a case of squeezing as many cities onto Qins tiny continent as possible while spamming wonders in my soon to be legendary three.

Victory

Here's our little continent...

Managed to get 9 cities which works out nicley with 3 religions.

Also managed diplo well this game, despite being very low in power & score had no problems with any silly AI war declarations.

talking of power, here's the power graph.

Top 5 cities

My first win at Monarch


PS - @TMIT

Spoiler :

What was with the MeInTeam/Rome leader? Or was that just a little suprise?

 

[TheMeInTeam]

It wasn't a surprise, it was mistake . I made the map and left my player name in by accident . He's not even very effective on average on this map so I don't like it. At least I got to joke about murdering my impostor in my summary!

It would, however, be interesting at a future date to give an XML for leaders with some...modifications to it. Like - a TMIT with a very high ibuildunitprob that will declare at any disposition (with low peace weight), a *very* wonderspammy AI which is given stone/marble to be effective and starts next to a default Mansa Musa, an AI that massively expands and cottages, etc etc. Looking at the XMLs this actually appears easy to implement with just a few tweaks! I could make an AI with twice the unit spamming of shaka!

However, my appearance in this game is entirely accidental so feel free to beat down that idiot with impunity. How DARE he build ANY wonders!

Edit: Actually, this could be combined with Bleys' idea of a start position where you get to choose a leader to put there, with the map otherwise identical. If there is sufficient interest I can define a map that has some AIs XML'd to behave in a manner giving tribute to forum players (or just erratic tendencies to make it interesting if we don't have enough). If there's enough interest, I'm open to suggestions for who/what to include. Keep in mind that it would play like a normal game otherwise, the AI tendencies would be all that's changed! Well, maybe some civ colors too .

 

[Groogaroo]

It would, however, be interesting at a future date to give an XML for leaders with some...modifications to it. Like - a TMIT with a very high ibuildunitprob that will declare at any disposition (with low peace weight), a *very* wonderspammy AI which is given stone/marble to be effective and starts next to a default Mansa Musa, an AI that massively expands and cottages, etc etc. Looking at the XMLs this actually appears easy to implement with just a few tweaks! I could make an AI with twice the unit spamming of shaka!

That was what I was worried about at first, I actually thought you might have edited Augustus to play like you! Luckily that wasn't the chase!

Edit: Actually, this could be combined with Bleys' idea of a start position where you get to choose a leader to put there, with the map otherwise identical. If there is sufficient interest I can define a map that has some AIs XML'd to behave in a manner giving tribute to forum players (or just erratic tendencies to make it interesting if we don't have enough).

That actually sound like a great and really fun idea!

 

[Bandobras Took]

Incans
Settler Plus (using the Monarch file)
Quick Speed
JUST FOR FUN!

Spoiler :

Ooh, lots of cottages on the floodplains, I’m thinking. Pottery will be a priority; I’m not seeing a lot of production sites for wonders.

On the other hand, I don’t start with the Wheel, so I’ll build Stonehenge while researching all my worker techs.

Turn 23 finished Stonehenge. Just for kicks, I’m avoiding any purely religious techs until I have no other choice. Worker, Quechua, Settler to get that nice production area 1 North of the Wine.

Popped Aesthetics from a hut, met Stalin. Don’t want to do Slavery on quick speed.

That Deer/Stone city on the Peninsula looks like quite a prize.

Turn 49:
Ooops, founded Confucianism. I should really pay attention to things like that. Tiwanaku’s working on the Pyramids, I’ve got a second settler ready to go and then I’ll build some more workers. I wonder how long it will take to get to gunpowder?

Turn 58:
A Great Prophet will shrine Tiwanaku.

Built the Pyramids on the same turn I discovered Gunpowder through Education. Looks like it’s Alphabet to Printing Press now.

Turn 87:
Seems there’s another prereq for the Printing Press. Silly me. I’d better research Fishing and Sailing, since I’m about to settle my fifth city on the coast.

Turn 95:
Midway through Printing Press, I had to lower my science slider to 90%.

Got Biology and realized I needed Hunting to camp the deer in my Deer/Stone city.

Turn 131:
Still resolutely avoiding Polytheism and Meditation, my two choices are Drama and Compass. Let’s see what Compass will do for me.

Heh, turns out Optics will let me research Medecine. Who knew?

Turn 138:
Got Medecine and immediately switched to Environmentalism for uber-health. Next up, Astronomy.

Turn 165:
Somebody built the Apostolic Palace; good thing I’m 7 turns away from the UN.

Turn 172:
Finished Genetics, will finish Fission, then it’s on to Drama. After I’ve maxed out the Drama path, I’ll see what I can do with Meditation and Polytheism.

Oops, Fission leads to Ecology. Looks like Drama will be delayed, though I might still have a shot at Liberalism.

Turn 180:
That’s it. I’ve got Music and there’s nothing for it but to learn either Meditation or Polytheism.

Can I win the Liberalism race?

Yes! I won Liberalism and chose Communism as my Free Tech. Now to go through the Nationalism branch of things.

Well, I’ve researched Univeral Suffrage and Military Tradition. Better go through Priesthood and finally enable Guilds and Replaceable Parts and all that junk.

Well, I was the first to Economics and used the free Merchant on Cereal Mill since I don’t have a whole lot of Seafood.

Better not build the Internet. Don’t want to get Polytheism too early.

I’m researching Fusion, but I really ought to get Rifling so I can get my Apollo Program going. I might be too late.

Turn 228
Stalin wants to be my vassal. What a weirdo.

Turn 233
A couple of saved up Engineers let me build the Space Elevator in 1 turn instead of four. Getting down to crunch time, but I’m in good shape to launch soon as I’m about to discover Composites.

Turn 242
Upgraded my Quechuas to Mobile Sams

Turn 251
Space Race Victory, 1 Future Tech, and still haven’t researched Polytheism.

Maybe I should do a more serious one. Nah . . .

 

[JTMacc99]

Checking in as Stalin -- Prince/Epic.

I don't think I've ever been Stalin before, so I'm putting on the fuzzy hat of dictatorship and having a go at it.

Spoiler :

I forget what turn I've played through, but I just settled my fourth city and have set course for Alphabet to see what kind of progress I can make with some tech trades. I've basically got the Russian empire going from the Northern coast to the Southern coast and a couple cities in the middle. The northern city picks up the stone, fish and a gold. The southern city is two west of the tundra horses, which I think also puts it two east of a food (sheep or deer, I forget.)


Amusingly, the wonders are flying off the board faster than I can read. I do think I will research Aestetics next, just so that I can control the Statue of Zeus, as I am pretty sure where this game is heading for Stalin.

The arid conditions are a pisser. I'm thinking that this is going to slow down the AI more than it slows me, but time will tell on that one.

Ideally, I would set my sites to the East right now. There are so many civs clogging up the western side of Russia, three of which have founded and are practicing their own religions , that it should be fairly easy to let them deal with each other while I build an army to secure some new territory in the other direction. The downside of that, as you know, is that the eastern cities are Roman. Stupid extra powerful UU is going to be a problem. Having said that....

... does anybody have a suggestion for the best way to go on the offensive at this point in the game with that particular UU standing in my way? Would axes with C2 + Melee be somewhat competitive? I can mount some horse archers with Flanking II as well. Or, am I just better off building all of those things while reasearching towards construction?

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Checking in as Stalin -- Prince/Epic.

I don't think I've ever been Stalin before, so I'm putting on the fuzzy hat of dictatorship and having a go at it.

Spoiler :

I forget what turn I've played through, but I just settled my fourth city and have set course for Alphabet to see what kind of progress I can make with some tech trades. I've basically got the Russian empire going from the Northern coast to the Southern coast and a couple cities in the middle. The northern city picks up the stone, fish and a gold. The southern city is two west of the tundra horses, which I think also puts it two east of a food (sheep or deer, I forget.)


Amusingly, the wonders are flying off the board faster than I can read. I do think I will research Aestetics next, just so that I can control the Statue of Zeus, as I am pretty sure where this game is heading for Stalin.

The arid conditions are a pisser. I'm thinking that this is going to slow down the AI more than it slows me, but time will tell on that one.

Ideally, I would set my sites to the East right now. There are so many civs clogging up the western side of Russia, three of which have founded and are practicing their own religions , that it should be fairly easy to let them deal with each other while I build an army to secure some new territory in the other direction. The downside of that, as you know, is that the eastern cities are Roman. Stupid extra powerful UU is going to be a problem. Having said that....

... does anybody have a suggestion for the best way to go on the offensive at this point in the game with that particular UU standing in my way? Would axes with C2 + Melee be somewhat competitive? I can mount some horse archers with Flanking II as well. Or, am I just better off building all of those things while reasearching towards construction?

Spoiler :

Rome's no fun early. I'd wait till cats to tackle rome (or hit before iron). You'd actually want combat I SHOCK axes, which of course you'd have access to. Nevertheless, they'll be hell holed up in cities, but a barrage/CR cat combination should put that down.

I'd probably go west or try to rush the hell out of rome on this map (chariots or axes pre-IW), otherwise just wait till construction. I forget whether you have access to jumbos but probably not.

 

[JTMacc99]

First, thanks!

Spoiler :

I should point out the fact that the leader of Rome in my game is named TheMeInTeam, so should I be taking this advice with a grain of salt?

I meant to say SHOCK, but had a brain-freeze. I also think waiting for cats is a better way to go about this, but I have this feeling that the desert conditions are slowing down the Roman military build up. I suppose I should send somebody over there to take a look. I should also probably see if he's got any of those wonders for me. It seems that if I act quickly, I could probably block the iron (although I'll need to research it first to find it) and grab the entire half of his continent for myself even at this rather late date for an axe-based rush.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

First, thanks!

Spoiler :

I should point out the fact that the leader of Rome in my game is named TheMeInTeam, so should I be taking this advice with a grain of salt?

I meant to say SHOCK, but had a brain-freeze. I also think waiting for cats is a better way to go about this, but I have this feeling that the desert conditions are slowing down the Roman military build up. I suppose I should send somebody over there to take a look. I should also probably see if he's got any of those wonders for me. It seems that if I act quickly, I could probably block the iron (although I'll need to research it first to find it) and grab the entire half of his continent for myself even at this rather late date for an axe-based rush.

Spoiler :

The use of my name for Rome was an accident in this one. It prompted me to consider hosting an alternate PYL series with AI's coded to have XML similarities to forum players, but that isn't the case on this map - that's just plain ole' augustus soiling my name.

I actually used axe/spear/HA on this map as germany well into 700 AD (on emp), but I didn't fight Rome then and that would have been a little harder (not really harder than attacking longbow cities with that stuff though). So you *can* do it, the question is if it's easier for you that way or with siege. I'm a very heavy warmonger and I know the AI tendencies @ war in situations very well. I also am very familiar with HA use/abuse, attack priority, etc etc. You might try it as practice, but cats will prolly make it easier for you. That said, if you feel like you can win an attack, ATTACK! .

A large part of your decision will also come from who will backstab you vs who won't. I'd attack the people who will first, since they'll not have help then. This is both leader-personality based and relations based. You said the 3 guys to the west are differing religions, but if they're not at war you're not immune to a declaration, especially from france for example.

 

[JTMacc99]

Spoiler :

The fact is, I can see war breaking out all over the damn place on this map, especially given the religious situation at the moment.

I am deeply concerned about not only who I am going to attack, but also about who is bound to attack me. It's exactly the reason I think Rome should become part of Russia first. I've already got him boxed in. If I start sending my troops off to the west and NW, I could probably capture better land and deal more significant blows at this point.

However, it seems that I would be pretty much be begging Augustus to use his UU for what it was meant to be used for, and a big stack of them on the attack would be a damn disaster for me. It's way better for me to get him before he decides to build an offensive stack. There's simply no other place for him to use such a stack but on me.

I'd rather just claim the entire Eastern half of the continent now, and just try to make sure I have a decent defense set up in my core cities should France or Germany get frisky. A few walls and some good defensive units ought to be enough to deter them during the time it takes me to take out Rome and send the troops back to the western front.

 

[JTMacc99]

Turn 242
Upgraded my Quechuas to Mobile Sams

Heh. Shouldn't be too hard if you think about it. Just teach them how to drive and how to hit the "fire rockets" button. The computers take care of everything else. They could even keep their fancy outfits; it's not like they need special armor or anything.

 

[pigswill]

Asterix de Gaulle 1450ad (monarch,epic).

Spoiler :

Ze musketeers, zey carve Les Rosbifs.
Sure zey die, but zey die for la France!

Zat Capac he vassalise to Red Jo.
He give 'im ze gunpowder.
Zat no help much. 'e die quick.

Jo now 'ave ze cuirassiers.
Zey 'elp 'im a bit,
But zen 'e quit!

Spoiler :

1450 domination victory. Annihilated HC, vassalised Stalin. Built/drafted 99 musketeers. Lost 55 of them. With a double move they're almost as good as knights, no flanking but they ignore walls and you can't draft knights!
Sure I built wonders: HE, Globe, Taj Mahal.
No reloads.

 

[brades]

So, have we had victories with every leader? I nominate you TMIT to do a summary

 

[TheMeInTeam]

So, have we had victories with every leader? I nominate you TMIT to do a summary

We have not. I haven't seen an Egyptian win (did I miss it?). Also, Inca was started then quit due to "probable victory".

I have not seen ANYONE win with roosy, in my first playthrough I came close but attacked too soon and screwed myself.

Anyway I'm playing in LHC, SGOTM 8, and taking a look at the XMLs and what's the limit for play balance this weekend (and I actually have some real-life stuff believe it or not!), so a summary will have to come from someone else .

 

[cheffster]

I know I'm kind of late, but I just started an Emp/Epic game with my fav civ: Inca.
Update soon.

 

[cheffster]

Extreamly entertaing game so far, I'm playing on emp/epic.

The land that the Inca's start with is just perfect to leverage HC's financial trait. Floodplains, Floodlains, some gold, wheat, and more floodplains.

Spoiler :

As what I often do, since Quecha's are extreamly powefull in the ~2-4000BC era I immediately stole a worker from the nearest Civ, in this case it was from the French:

Shortly after this, having chopped off Stonehenge and a few more Quechuas I was able to take out his capital

This put me a very good situation.

I was able to also complete the oracle the very same turn I discovered pottery which I used to grab metal casting since it's by far the most expensive tech available and enables me to further leverage the Industrial trait with cheap forges.

I whipped/chopped a few settlers and some more workers ASAP after this to start taking advantage of the incredible commerce opportunities with the gorge of floodplains/gold directly to the south.

While doing this I also razed all the land dry that had trees on it near Cuzco to you know help with carrying all that stone while I cracked the whip so we could complete the Pyramids.

I also founded Ollantaytambo directly ontop on the Marble to the SW of my recently captured city of Paris:

This gave me access to marble just in time to build the great library in Cuzco, and then in Paris I built the parthenon, along with Statue of Zeus in Paris. That dirty Great Artist pollution must be kept far and away from my main city of Cuzco, the ONLY acceptable GA pollution in your capital is from national epic, otherwise I avoid it like the plague, GA's are good for 1 thing and 1 thing only: Golden ages.
I also plan to build Maeoleum of Mass, Heroic Epic, and any other +GA producing marble wonders in Paris so that I can reap the cultural benefits by pressing my borders in that area all the while making to sure to only farm great people in cuzco (the Engineers/Prophets, etc).

Here's where I am currently, 175AD, 1 turn away from Music. My plan is to whip the remaining in order to rush MOM in Paris then use my free Great Artist from Discovery Music to begin a 15 turn golden age. During this time I also plain to change civics (Beurocracy once I have CS and I'm thinking of adopting Hinduism as well, this saves the wasted turns I'd otherwise to labour out with anarchy)

edit:
Game is really FAR too easy right now. It's 1330AD and I'm cranking out 1500 /turn
Think I'll mass Cavarly and take over the continent, or maybe wait wait a couple turns and mass tanks, but not really sure if I have the pateince
for all the micromanagement that ensues.

capital:

 

[JTMacc99]

I've actually put my attempt with Stalin on the back-burner here. I tried a couple different late rushes and stalled out before completion both times. I'll see if I can come up with a different strategy and pick it up from there. Even though I crippled the other civ, I just can't get the prize without falling hopelessly behind the rest of the world.

 

[brades]

We have not. I haven't seen an Egyptian win (did I miss it?). Also, Inca was started then quit due to "probable victory".

I have not seen ANYONE win with roosy, in my first playthrough I came close but attacked too soon and screwed myself.

Anyway I'm playing in LHC, SGOTM 8, and taking a look at the XMLs and what's the limit for play balance this weekend (and I actually have some real-life stuff believe it or not!), so a summary will have to come from someone else .

I won with Egypt, backdoor religous victory, scroll to the top of the third page.