PYL VI: Same Start Showdown!

[Bleys]

Very good map for this format TMIT, since I have played through 700 AD, I checked some of the reports and there are some big variations indeed. The map offered a variety of winnable strategies, which is perfect for this format.

Here is my effort so far, I hand-edited Hatty in, since my current SG is Ramesses, and I must say the CRE trait has done a nice job for me:

Hatty, Emperor, Epic, through 730 AD:

Spoiler :

I settled 1E, which grabbed the Pigs and took the coastal tile out of my BFC. Not the strongest food capitol, but it will be a nice production city. I teched Mining, BW, AH, Masonry and built the GW, since I had met 5 AIs pretty quickly. First city went to the Rice-Horses in the East, 2nd to the Marble-Sheep in the SE, 3rd to the 2 Fish, Rice spot in the west. Little did I know that city line would be key to stifling JC.

Spoiler :

Luckily for me, he founded Hinduism, and I accepted it right away when it spread to me. Jaoa is also Hindu, which has made it a lot easier for me to expand, since I dont have to worry about being dog-piled by these AIs.

I also managed to get the GL in my Cap. I really wanted it in that western city, which is going to be my GP farm, but it was getting late and I was slow getting that city developed. No forests to chop into it either, so with Marble and a bunch of forests, I slammed it out in my Cap instead.

I expanded pretty well, I cut off Jaoa with a city by that Elephant, and I captured a barb city in the SE that also helped cut him off. Here is the situation over there now:

Spoiler :

I am applying a tremendous amount of Culture in that area already, and will eventually flip that crappy city Jaoa snuck in there. One of the best things about the CRE trait is you just dont lose these culture wars against Non-CRE AIs. The fast Culture buildings make it doubly hard for AIs to take tiles from me on any border. Heres a look at the Culture situation. This is a big reason Hatty is one of my favorite Leaders:

Spoiler :

One thing I have begun to realize at this level is that I play FAR too many GLH-type maps and not enough Pangaea/Fractal ones. I am weak without my GLH crutch, much the way we seen newer players become overly dependant on the Mids and cant move up the difficulty ladder because of it. I can "win" this level on this kind of map, and its not really hard, its just more of a grind, and takes much much longer to recover a crashed economy. This is what happened here, I fell behind with the slider, was down to 20 BPT at 0 AD (which is abysmal), and had to slam out Libraries just to get to Currency and CoL. Its all good now though, economy is nicely improving, and I should be able to get Lib, take Steel, and burn down a couple AIs with Cannons.

Here are some more random screenshots of my situation.

First up, the Power graph. Ugh, eh, LOL. Looks bad, I know, but I have more troops coming out, and my borders are protected by AIs I am Friendly with, in fact, my diplomacy is good across the board, as the Glance screen shows:

Spoiler :

Tech wise, I have begun to catch up as well. Cautious trading and so forth will allow me to reach Tech Parity at Lib (my goal in most games these days). Heres the tech screen with the AIs I have met:

Spoiler :

Of course, a BIG key to my success will be the Great Wall. With this many AIs packed in like sardines, EP points will be sweet. I have aleady popped and settled a Spy, so I am already starting to see the AIs research. In fact, this game is what got me thinking about that "3 Great Wonders" thread I just started. Only Wonders I built so far are Great Wall and Great Library, since this map is not strong for the Great Light House, heh. 2 of the 3, almost every single game I play, and it sort of "dawned" on my while I was fussing over the GL, wishing I had built it in Elephantine instead of Thebes, LOL.

Spoiler :

I wont bother using any Spies to revolt cities when its time to kill people, because I will have Cannons and they make short work of defenses. Instead, I will keep the EP up on all the AIs so I can constantly moniter their research, and hopefully adjust mine to get some "first to research" techs like Economics, Physics, etc. Since I am cottaging every tile I can, I should run away with this soon. I still have decent spots for 3 or 4 more fill-in cities, which I am in the process of settling now.

I do have a question, and since it shows an important strategic tile, I am putting it into a spoiler as well. Dont peek unless you have already played a set (or arent playing, just lingering and know the answer, heh):

Spoiler :

I got the Greed event on this Copper tile in the North:

I considered putting a junk-city up there to culture flip the tile, but I wasnt sure if it would work for the event. Does anyone know if you MUST take the Greed target by force, instead of just by Cultural pressure? I could have had it pretty easily, but decided I didnt want that much overlap in my Cap (was going to put a city 1SE of Wheat, 1SW of the Copper, so both Wheat and Copper would be in first ring).

 

[Kesshi]

Bleys,

In responce to your question:

Spoiler :

As long as your culture takes over that tile before anyone else's culture does, you'll complete the quest. No war is necessary.

 

[semirami]

@ Bleys

Spoiler :

You just need to own the resource, cultural or via the sword. But the reward isn't that great. 4 unpromoted axemen if I am not wrong. I am not sure, that settling a junk city is worth.

 

[Gocho]

I probably won't have time to post reports as I play but a hilarious event happened right at the start of my game.

Spoiler :

Went north with my starting warrior and found Rome, there was an unpopped hut right outside his borders which popped 4 barbs smoking my warrior but 2 appeared inside his borders and about 12 turns in the Romans are no more!

 

[Bleys]

Thanks Kessi and semi, thats kind of what I figured, but I knew the reward isnt that great (either 4 Axes, Swords or Maces, I believe), so I didnt bother with a junk city.

 

[Soirana]

Isabella/Emp. Finished this rather quick

Spoiler :

Setlled in place although did not like it all. Biuld went warior (to size 2), worker, worker. Warrior popped barbs from hut, but survived to instant W2 (almost as good as xp).

Tech: Agr, AH, Mining, BW (unfinished)

Since i got W2 warrior i decided to steal worker from romans. With two gem mines they already had a head start. Apparently JC had a wandering archer not so far of my capital who decided to pay a visit. With no whip and no defenders there was not much i could do.

Set myself a record at loosing at something arround 2500 BC.

 

[KaytieKat]

Hi

Giggles,Noble, Marathon, 1382AD

Spoiler :

Ugly ugly UGLY game.

First I settled in place. I read TMiT's spoiler in opening post so knew pacal was close by and rushable and came out of the west.

The was a goodyhut that popped scout as soon as cap swas settled so scout went straight west and warrior went of north westish looking for pac.

No pac but warrior runs into Julies warrior VERY fast. Then he runs into Julies cap. Poor julies second warrior isnt done yet so my warrior enters and Julie goes bye bye hehe.

My scout and first warrior finish scouting out map and finally find Pac nowhere near the left btw

Meanwhile I had been teching staright to BW and settle the copper city and start getting rdy for vulture rush on pacal.

After I get decent stack going they charge in. I raze cities that dont look nice or settled to close to each other but keep his cap and a cpl of others. I also settle another city and take a couple of barbie cities.

Then my economy CRASHES. I mean crashes BIGTIME. I had been relying MOSTLY on gold from taking cities to build up nest egg while teching at semi decent rate. Then I notce nest egg is running out so No problem I am thinking. I AM running at -28 with only 19 gold left but my slider is at 50% so I will just turn it down a few notches and everything will be coolies and things will pick up once I go after stalin.

I turn it down one notch and -29 turns into like -25. I am like hmmm this could be bad. I slide it down to zero and yep it like -12 or so still with only 19 in bank and nowhere near redy to after stalin.

In two turn my units go on strike. My workers my units EVERYTHING start poofing. By time it over pretty much ALL I have is one unit per city for garrison duty.

ONLY thing that saves me is fact that giggles gets ziggys at priest hood. A hut had popped myst early so I did poly and priesthood early to get Oracle and the ziggys.

Half my cities still needed ziggys so they started working on em while my bpt all 3 of them from a settled great spy make loooooong trip to currency.

It takes FOREVER but eventually ziggys get whipped and then libraries so beakers start to build up and currency gets closer and I start to rebuild units.

FINALLY my economy recovers. I start building up again to go after Stalin. I get a stack and they go say Hi. Stalin gets wiped out but it takes AWHILE . He got kinda huge while I was trying to recover from crash but he finally down. Meanwhile while Stalin got huge Jao got HUMONGOUS.

He spread all the way up to south of stalin and all the way west up to my cap. So I decide he is next target and I start building a second stack to attack him from the west while my first stack moves south out of the north on other side.

Now while all this going my tech rate has been ABYSMAL Beaker per turns not much and any gold I save have been for upgrades as soon as I can. Some things that helped. A gp pops and he builds a shrine in jewish holy city which is nice since Judasim is THE religion for all the civs on the big donut map so that helps gold. Then a ge pops a bit later and bulbs machinery which helps since by this time my swords and vultures and cats and horse arhers are trying to fight Stalins Longbows.

I get buracracy by time I am done with stalin and make trade with mao for feudalism so I can try to get to guilds. Usually I would go for engineering and trebs and maybe try and get Notre Dame BUT both guilds and engineering would take a freaking LONG tiome so I figured amt of turns spent teching would be shorter if I do guilds first then spam grocers so I can TRY to up slider. At very least getting knights and grocers would mean I could at least keep gold high enough stay out of strike and to upgrade my unist I do have to keep on fighting.

Wonders arent helping much since A) too busy warring to try for many of em. and b) I am getting beat to techs soooo bad they done before I can get there prereqs much less the techs themselves.

Stalin hasnt helped much cuz he didnt build ANY wonders . Jao hasnt helped either since ONLY wonder he built has been chicken frickin itza which is like OH JOY when you at war with him.

But slowly but surely my two stacks started making headway taking out jao. WE got over half his cities but he still have quite a few left but at least we got his cap and turned of chicken itza. At that is about point I left off.

This is what known world looks like.

My poor cities . I like making nice big happy and healthy cities BUT WW is so bad now that most of my biggest cities all have -10 or so sad faces from ww. it even worse in Pacals old cities. since up see he has ONE last city left that is waaaaaaaaaay away from rest of his empire. At time I had NO idea where it was so took peace from him so I could focus on stalin. So that measn all of pac's old cities not only have ww but also we yearn to join mother land unhappiness PLUS since veryone jewish my cities getting we wont fight against faith too it is just ugly

But I am pushing on with jao. Withover half his empire gone including his cap you'd think he might want to cap.

Nope he is being stubborn.

Too bad for him though cuz even if he wasnt here is what vic conditions show:

It seems rest of Jao's empire is EXACTLY the amount needed for dom win so even if he begged to cap I'm afraid Im gonna have to say no and just take em all for win .

Which SOUNDS easy but not as easy as it looks. I have two stacks going.

This one from west going east:

And this stack that came in from the north on east side of donut:

Can you believe BOTH those stacks started out with oiver 20 plus cats and now they down to 10 and 6 respectively. Ppl say chicken pizza is a sucky wonder but it is a MAJOR pain in you know what when you have to fight a civ who built it. Both stacks are waaaay to far away to make building new ctas helpful and captured cities get whipped to bone to whip carrisons so the attack stacks dont have to waste attack units guarding cities.

About only units I building for reinforcements are Knights since they can get up to front fastest to be useful. Which would be ok except Jao been pumping elles like crazy. I thought taking the ellies near lisbon would stop that but he has elleis and iron right in middle of his empire. I am making a cpl spies to go pillage it which I SHOULD have done MUCH earlier. But by time they get there it probably gonna be over.

Even if it is gonna be hard since it seems quickest plan would make taking out the cities that still have iron and elles the last few cities taken.

My plan looks like this:

I have one stack in Leria and one in lisbon. Leiria stack will take Faro, Lisbon stack will take guimaraes then they link up at Evora. Then they will combine to take out rest of Jaos empire. They will head up northwest to take the 2 or 3 cities up there I havent found yet ten back east to take that last city on chinas border then take out pacals last cit just cuz he annoys me. Hopefully by then borders will pop and game will be over

Which would be helpful since china is so far ahead in tech it is silly. Mao got GL and I havent even STARTED trying to tech aesthetics. He got lib race done and I dont even have paper or phil. He won race around the globe and I dont even have compass yet :/

Tech sitch:

Nope this isnt prince or monarch I am getting WHOMPED that badly on techs in noble diff

Power rating:

ONLY thing I got going for me is HUGE stack of outdated units trying to take what they can get before it too late--just call me monty hehe

Power graph also shows spot where my economy and power and everything else just flatlined for a looong time.

My ONLY nice city:

Only city I have over size 15 not drowning in sad faces. But only managed to build 3 shinys GW, Oracle, and HG. All my other cities are ugly and have sad faces .

Demos at this point:

I really cant figure out this game. I have had games where I have had nice pretty huge cities with TONS of happiness and tons of health but end up dead last in apporval rating this game where I have sad faces all OVER the place I am number two???

Oh wells thats where I am at this point. Hopefully I can get a dom win. It would be kinda funny if I do manage it since it would mean getting win without ever metting final civ. Dont know who they are but they been wonderwhoring too big time. it seems whatever wonders Mao hasnt built they have. Wish me luck

Kaytie

 

[MkLh]

To KaytieKat:

Spoiler :

Then my economy CRASHES. I mean crashes BIGTIME. I had been relying MOSTLY on gold from taking cities to build up nest egg while teching at semi decent rate. Then I notce nest egg is running out so No problem I am thinking. I AM running at -28 with only 19 gold left but my slider is at 50% so I will just turn it down a few notches and everything will be coolies and things will pick up once I go after stalin.

I turn it down one notch and -29 turns into like -25. I am like hmmm this could be bad. I slide it down to zero and yep it like -12 or so still with only 19 in bank and nowhere near redy to after stalin.

In two turn my units go on strike. My workers my units EVERYTHING start poofing. By time it over pretty much ALL I have is one unit per city for garrison duty.

To me this doesn't sound an extreme serious crash. How many cities you had? If you have like 10 cities, -12 deficit is fixed by just changing one citizen in each city to work with 1-2 -commerced tile.

 

[Roxlimn]

Katiekat:

Spoiler :

I've run into that problem one time - but one time only! After that, I ALWAYS turn my research to 0 science every turn just so I know where I stand on the money issue. It costs nothing to change the slider every turn for information or to find out optimal settings.

 

[PaulusIII]

@ Kaytie:

Spoiler :

While China looks scary with all their fancy techs it's really nothing to worry about because you outnumber him about 3 to 1... at least. Simply kill Joao and Mao and you win domination, economy doesn't matter anymore now.

If you're looking for economical advice... spam less units. What you've got now is overkill - and to be honest, that's an understatement. Keeping a huge military eats in your tech rate.

 

[Soirana]

Spoiler :

-12 deficit? Look at your caps screenshot - take a guy from plains mine and grassland hill (-2 gold) for two merchants (+6). That is 4gold +1 for market 25%. Doing so in three cities will instantly prevent strike.

okay, reread it. Still sound good time to move to caste and use merchants to pay bills, and scioentists to do science. You do not need market to run merchant, Casre is enough.

 

[KaytieKat]

Hi

giggles,noble,marathon, 1460 AD, dom win.

Spoiler :

Ok I continue taking Jao's cities. I adjust my plan a little. Instead of linking up my two stacks I keep em seprate to keep on going after multiple cities at a time to try and get it done faster.

My cats are dying fast but luckily spies I had been making to use as seige on Mao are starting to get near front lines so I use them to drop defenses and just justone or two cats per city and then let attackers finish it.

I goes pretty smoothly except for one city where I use the spy hit the garrison with one cat the odds still seem pretty steep so I hit it with that stacks last cat and odds still seem steep. So I go in first with a cple of Knights hoping they would withdrawl. One does but two die and odds are STILL kinda low. But I have TONS of units so I keep pounding and eventually my guyts start winning while I am thinking sheesh it doesnt look like its on a hill. Then I figure it out. My spy FAILED the stupid mission so the defenses were still up. Oops sorry fellas everybody who died that attack gets gold star on tombstone for xtra credit .

Eventually Jao is all dead so now it just matter of waiting for borders to pop. However LOTS of the area Jao had was covered by some cities after their second and even thrid pop. So to wrap it up faster I decide I am gonna need to have to take out Pac or Mao.

Now NORMALLY I would have killed off Pac loong time ago once I finally found his last cities just cause he a little snot and annoys me not to mention it would have helped with the sad faces in all of his old cities. BUT I been lketting him live for two reasons. One Mao doesnt like me but he HATES Pac so I figure kepping Pac around would make backstab by Mao less likely while I am busy wioth Jao. And Two Pacs cities are all in middle of culture war with Mao so even if I did take em they would be SWAMPED by Mao's wonder whore backed culture and would be revolting left and right unless I kept em stacked with TONS of units that would be better off helping finish off Jao.

And one of my reasons seem justified since turn before I finish off Jao Mao DoW's on Pac. SO as my units are recovering I diecide that Mao would be next target. Partly because he has nicer cities but MOSTLY cuz even though he DoW'ed on Pac and SHOULD be focusing on him the lil dillhole starts sending settlers into the open gaps that Jao's old cities havent covered yet.

Now when AI does things like that they might as well send message to me saying "ooh ooh kill me next please" Cuz it IS gonna get same result

I gather combine my two stacks along with spies. Mao OF COURSE has ellies too but with WW from Jao all gone I can up the slider a lil to finish off engineering then lower it again to upgrade my last swords to maces and my spears to pikes. After that I pretty much set most of my cities to wealth since I dont think I will need more units and they aint anything left for em to build since my tech been SOOO sucky they dont have that much building options after they finish grocers and castles ehhe.

One Knight goes off on his own cuz Mao manages to settle ONE sneaky city BUT he leaves it undefended. So as opening of war that Knight steps on it. Main stack takes one of Maos cities then heals and starts to make trek to next city.

But before they get to second city more cities pop their borders and I get dom win

Now this is just where I dont understand the game sometimes. I would consider this one of my WORST games playwise. My cities are UGLY. My Tech is SUCKY. I barely have ANY wonders built. My economy has been soo bad it even collapsed in strike for a looong time at one point. But how does game rank me?

Highest score I have EVER gotten in noble game. Now usually I get WHOMPED but I do get lucky have good games once in while. I have had games where I have had TONS of huge 30 pop cities all happy and healthy and growing and so far in tech I am sending destroyers while other civs dont have frigates yet. Where I have built or captured almost every wonder in game. My hammer cities are making modern armore at rate of 1 per turn. WHere I even started teching future techs. Games where I think I am doing GREAT. But but those games NEVER got anywhere NEAR that high a score

I guess this really is a warmonger game since ONLY games I have had scores over 90k have been games where my cities are ugly and I been warring pretty much entire game :/

Final demos:

Still number two in approval. And number two in life expectancy. I think how those two rankings are figured need to be adjusted just cuz personally I think getting a bunch of high pop cities with no are unhealthyness and no unhappiness should rate higher than bunch of ugly cities with more sad faces than happy faces and lower healthy caps.

I did manage to get three cities in final top five:

No Idea why Kish is ranked that high other than I think it highest pop city in world when game ended. Also NOOO clue how a non indy leader like washington could wonder whore THAT much with an 8 pop city :/

And yeah wash turns out to be final civ even though I NEVER met him whole game hehe.

Last but not least final props to my boys. They werent the most technologically advanced army in world but they did conquer all war around the big donut

Only 4 cats left but by this point my seige weapons where these gals:

And momet of silence for cat squads:

4 lived but like 39 gave their lives for the cause.

I know I also built TONS of monuments even tho giggles is creative but I ahve always kinda felt that tho you CAN skip em when creative they work even BETTER when youre creative. Faster border pops (which is VERY nice when you waiting on border pops to get a dom win hehe), more defense early on and help make anybody regret settling too close to your borders.

So I dont know how game went over all. From score stand point it says it one of my best games ever THE best game ever in fact. But I LIKE the big shinys and didnt get to make many. But from war mongering stand point I guess it was a good game.

I definitely should have handled my economy better. Someone mentioned checking slider every turn so I dont get surprized when money runs out. I SHOULD have done that it just when I am warring it hard not to just want to hit return asap so you can keep on fighting hehe.

Someone mentioned going caste system. Well at time of big crash I didnt HAVE CoL yet so caste wasnt option. And after I did have CoL I wanted to stay in slavery since I prefer being able to whip during war time. Not just attack units and garrisons in captured cities but also to have option to whipxtra defenders in case something shows up in my main cities.

BUT if I am gonna be honest in self evaluation while I THINK I can justify staying in slavery during all the warring going on. There probably two other civics I SHOULDNT have been using. I SHOULD have switched from beauacracy to vassalage after I got fuedelism. Just so used to trying to wonderwhore too much in my cap I just hate giving up the xtra hammers there but this game it would have been better move playwise if I did.

Second civic I shouldnt have been using was OR. I should have just switched back to paganism. I doubt OR lowers op needed on whipping monumnets and baraacks THAT much which were buildings I was whipping the most by time game got to point I was at war with jao. Most of my big cities were whipping units which OR doesnt halp at all and like 99% of all the cities were alredy religion of my one shrine city so I never built one sinlge missionary.

Sheesh more I think bout it more I realize I really had NOOOO business being in OR giving game sitch and how much money staying in paganism would saved. DUMB moves like that are why I really want to get better b4 even thinking of going up a diff :/

But I am getting better. I think now I am getting more ugly wins now when before they would have been ugly losses. So hopefully I will keep learning and keep improving

Kaytie

 

[Roxlimn]

Score is definitely tilted toward conquest, so if you like score, go for war! I don't pay attention to the score, so I like a variety of wins. Culture is my favorite.

 

[Bleys]

Look at the year Kaytie. 1460. Have you won many Domination games that early? Thats what gave you such a huge score.

You really dont get extra points for having a neat, tidy Empire with a bunch of OCD type attributes, heh, sometimes ugly is better because its FAST.

 

[huerfanista]

Rameses, Monarch, Marathon through 1145AD:

Spoiler :

Settled in place, worker first. AH>mining>bronze.
After worker completed I built warrior x2. Found Julius to the north, Joao to the east. Horses popped up in the BFC, and Rome became target #1. After 2nd warrior I built a barracks while waiting for BW so I could chop. When 5 WC were done I sent them to Rome. Lost one, no other Roman cities built yet (it was pre-2000BC).

After Rome was done I chopped out 'henge in Thebes, and built a settler for the marble/flood plains to the SE (for future wonder building and to block Joao, who was expanding like crazy). Barbs settled 3 cities nearby, which I took once iron came online: 2 to the SW (a coastal city in tundra near the beavers which auto-razed, another due W of my 2nd city with grass, gold, corn -yummy), and a great GP farm to the west with rice, fish, clams. That saved me 2 settlers.

Built the oracle in Thebes and took CoL, founding confucianism but not converting. Joao and Mao are hindu, and I converted to that as soon as it spread to me. Built the 'mids in Thebes next, switching to rep. GP from henge/oracle popped and I built the confucian shrine (in Rome - 2 gems + grassland riverside cottages, perfect Wall Street spot with great production as well).

Tech path after writing was math, aesth, construction, poly, lit. Built the Shwedagon Paya and GLib in Thebes, Parth in Rome (I think). I saved the next GP when he popped, teched mono and bulbed theo. I had forgotten to spread hinduism to Thebes, so I built a quick monastery in Memphis and sent a missionary to Thebes, then started the AP there, and the Hagia in Rome. When hinduism auto-spread to Rome, I swapped the AP/Hag in those 2 cities (Rome had more ). A GE popped in Thebes and I sent him to Rome to finish the AP, switching back to confucianism for 5 turns so nobody else would get the vote or hammers, then back to hinduism for diplo.

Pacal was sabotaging improvements right and left in Rome, so once I had teched MC, mach, CS, eng I DOWed him with a big stack of trebs/maces. Traded theo to Mao for feud so I would have good city defenders. I steamrolled Joao, who only had cats/HAs/axes/swords. He capped to Stalin for an auto-DOW. Stalin had DOWed Joao earlier, but they made peace and Stalin converted from buddhism to hinduism. He sent a weak stack through Portugal, which I wiped out. After taking 3 of Pacal's cities, I took peace to 10 turns, then DOWed again. I bribed Mao into war with Stalin, and they're still at it. I wiped Pacal out and took 2 Russian cities, but Stalin had knights, which we becoming a problem (I had them as well, but my supply lines were a lot longer ).

It's 1145AD, I'm the clear tech leader. I won lib and took Nat, then teched guilds/banking/PP (partial bulb)/ gunpowder. I started on rep parts, but decided to change to mil trad for cuirassiers. I popped a GSpy earlier, which I settled in China. I stole banking, astro, music, and drama from Mao. I have a clear tech lead (DR is the only AI tech that I don't have), a big score lead, power is 1.5 times Mao and Stalin (Joao is lagging). Once mil trad finishes, I'll head to rifling, but cuirassiers may be all I need to wrap this one up.

 

[dubrown]

Tokugawa Monarch/Epic, 1585AD-1700AD Domination victory

Spoiler :

Yes, my worktrip got a bit shorter so I'm already back, lucky me. So, time to finish this one.

We left of fighting Stalin and Joao. This continued for some time, it took some time to get reinforcements up from all over the continent to get a few strongholds stalin had, after these fell, he was finished.

First though, Joao renounced Stalins protection, so

And right after

Unfortunately, this was not enough, only ~55% of land area. So I had to regroup to take on Mao.

3 stacks lined up on the chinese border to strike hard and fast. He did have something called Airships which I really didn't know what it was yet, but I wasn't worried.

So I call Mao up

One of the stacks marching

A few turns later

The world at the end:

Some stats

More stats

Top cities, yes, I didn't build any wonders, why bother, I did capture most of them anyway (I did build 3 national wonders though, HE, NE and Moai)

Quite a decent score

And finally to show how backwards I was, keeping to the true faith of Tokugawa philosophy

I didn't even bother with what I researched apart from Military techs after Guilds...

Fun game, a breeze actually. The Samurai is a really powerful unit if used correctly. The though part with Tokus traits is that economy is a strain, no bonuses whatsoever for anything but Military. If I had gone any other route than constant war I'd been lost. Sure, economy got a bit better after capturing some shrines but it was never any good.

 

[huerfanista]

Rameses monarch/marathon Technicolor walkthrough.
Part 1, War and Peace, 4000BC - 410AD:

Spoiler :

4000BC Settled in place, started a warrior until size 2 and then worker, researched AH.

3475BC AH completes, mining next. I have horses in the BFC, will rush Rome. Start improving horses and cows once worker is out, then build a barracks and a bunch o' war chariots.

3175BC mining completes, BW next.

3025BC Shields are issued to all melee units (free cover promo).

2905BC Exploring warrior pops pottery from a hut.

2665BC BW done, mysticism next. Plan to chop out 'henge once chariots are built.

2515BC Mysticism done, meditation next. Start chopping 'henge. Plan to oracle CoL.

2420BC Egypt has a breakthrough on meditation (35). 5 Chariots are ready to take Rome (it's so early, I doubt I'll need more). JC is DOWed, I lose 2 WCs, Rome is dead.

The city of Thebes in 2330BC:

2310BC Priesthood is done, writing next. Thebes is still finishing 'henge.

2240BC Stonehenge is built, Thebes starts on the Oracle.

2200BC Writing is done, Math is next.

2190BC Mao founds hinduism. This will be the dominant religion in this part of the world. (Joao founded buddhism, but later converts).

1970BC Oracle is done, Code of Laws is the free tech, Confucianism is founded in Rome and the missionary is sent to Thebes. A settler is started in Thebes.

The city of Thebes in 1850BC:

A barb city pops up near my future city of Memphis, and is surprisingly well-placed.

Another is founded on the coast west of Thebes, and will become my future GP farm. It,too, is well-placed.

1820BC Math is done, currency is next.

1620BC Memphis is founded near the marble, silk, and 3 floodplains SE of Thebes. A worker is started there, and another is sent from Thebes to quarry the marble.

1460BC Joao converts to hinduism.

1410BC Currency is done, IW is next.

1360BC A Great Prophet is born is Thebes, thanks to the GP points from 'henge and oracle. I send him to Rome to build the shrine.

1330BC The Kong Miao is built in Rome, the confucian holy city.

1250BC IW is in, fishing is next. Scythian, my future GP farm, has 2 fish.

1240BC Scythian is captured from the barbs. With 2 fish, rice, and cows.

1190BC Heliopolis is founded east of Thebes to block Joao, who has been expanding like crazy. It has rice, pigs, and grassland.

1160BC Fishing is done, sailing is next. I need a navy to protect the fish in Scythian.

1090BC Sailing is done,aesthetics is next. I'm making 44 thanks to the 2 gems in Rome and the gold in Thebes.

1020BC The Pyramids are completed in Rome, I adopt Rep.

880BC Aesthetics is done, Metal Casting is next. I need triremes for the barb galleys. I'm currently building swords to take Hittite, which has 4 barb archers on a hill. It has iron, sheep, corn, gold, and 8 grasslands. Thanks, barbs!

780BC Preparing for the attack on Hittite:

A shot of Scythian, my GP farm:

720BC Hittite is captured. 1 sword is lost in the battle. I took this in 2 stages to insure that Pacal couldn't poach it from me with his chariot. I ended up with 2 CR2 swords.

660BC Traded PH to Mao for hunting and

580BC MC done, construction next.

490BC Pillage 28 from Parthian, a barb city that auto-razes/

420BC Construction done, poly next (for Lit).

360BC I convert to hinduism for diplo with Joao and Mao. They love me.

320BC Polytheism done, lit next. A GP is born, saved to bulb theo.

250BC Literature done, mono next (so I can bulb theo with my next GP).

180BC Elephantine founded NW of Thebes, grabbing wheat and iron.

70BC The Great Library is completed in Rome.

30BC I belatedly adopt caste system and pacifism for gpp generation.

10BC The Parthenon is completed in Thebes.

1AD Monotheism is completed, machinery next.

10AD Theology is bulbed with with GP in Thebes. Christianity is founded in Hittite and the missionary is sent to Rome.

30AD I start on the AP in Thebes and the Hagia Sophia in Rome. A few turns later I find that Rome will build the AP faster, so I swap these 2 builds. This has good economic consequences.

100AD Machinery done, Civil Service is next.

260AD Trade Mao for monarchy.

300AD Get the hinduism spread event to 4 cities.

340AD Civil Service is done, calendar is next. A GE is born in Thebes and is sent to Rome to complete the AP.

350AD I adopt bureaucracy.

360AD I convert to confucianism for 5 turns so that the AP benefit will be mine alone.

370AD The GE finishes the AP in Rome, and I get 108 in Thebes from the swapped builds.

380AD The Hagia is completed in Thebes, and I get 131

390AD Stalin DOWs Joao. I start thinking about a war with Pacal, who foolishly settled near Rome. Now all that roman culture is swamping his cities. They should be mine.

400AD Stalin converts to hinduism. :shocked:

410AD Calendar is done, engineering is next (trebs!). I switch back to hinduism, and start building maces for the coming war.

Thebes in 410AD:

Rome:

The world as we know it:

 

[huerfanista]

Rameses monarch/marathon
Part 2: The Growth of Empire, 460AD - 1360AD

Spoiler :

460AD Trade CS to Mao for feudalism.

510AD GS born in Rome.

515AD Bulb philosophy, taoism is founded in Memphis.

550AD Engineering is done, paper is next.

575AD Joao makes peace with Stalin.

580AD GS born in Scythian, saved.

585AD Paper is done, education is next.

590AD I switch to theocracy in preparation for war, lots a trebs are being built.

660AD Trade Joao for HBR and compass.

715AD I declare on Pacal and take Oxhuitza with a stack of trebs and maces. He bribes Stalin into war with me.

720AD Angkor Wat is completed in Thebes.

725AD Mayapan is captured, Pacal vassals to Stalin.

760AD Chichen Itza is captured. The remainder of education is bulbed with a GS, liberalism is next.

765AD Pacal builds the Sistine Chapel for me, how nice. I guess he's a glass half-full kinda guy.

770AD I adopt slavery for the first time in the game to whip units for Stalin's back-door stack coming through Joao's land.

775AD A GG is born and I make him a super-healer chariot after cleaning his diapers.

790AD Peace (for the moment) with Pacal and Stalin.

795AD Switch back to caste system and reassign specialists in Scythian.

825AD A great spy is bron in Scythian which has been running all scientists (or so I thought). I am irritated with the city manager and threaten to dock his pay, but this turns out to be a VERY fortunate event, so I give him an extra-large Xmas bonus. I send the Gspy for Huangzhou, the closest chinese city and have him infiltrate the city. I also focus most EPs on Mao at this time.

850AD I get the motherload event for some

890AD I win the liberalism race and take Nationalism for later drafting. Guilds is next. Thebes starts the Taj.

905AD I DOW Pacal and Stalin. The hindu marriage event gives me +3 relations with Joao.

925AD Mutal is captured.

955AD Stalin attacks Heliopolis with a stack of cats, HAs, and chariots. I wipe them out after sacrificing 2 cats.

960AD Lakamha captured. I bribe Mao into war with Stalin for nationalism. That should put an end to his back-door attacks on the homeland through Portugal.

975AD Guilds is done, gunpowder is next. I've been building spies and sending them to Huangzhou. That Great Spy "mistake" is about to pay off big-time.

990AD Uxmal (Maya) is captured.

1010AD I steal music from Mao.

1015AD The Taj Mahal is completed in Thebes. A GS from Rome partially bulbs PP, and I switch from gunpoder to finish it for the economic boost.

1020AD Calakmul (Maya) is captured.

1025AD I steal banking from Mao. Banks are started in high-commerce cities.

1040AD Mao get a GG! Definitely not a phony war. He is benefiting me every which way, which is only fair since my hindu cities are giving him lots of

1045AD I steal drama from Mao. PP is done, gunpowder is next.

1050AD Rostov (Russia) is captured. I'm still using my mace/treb army, but knights are starting to arrive. Stalin also get knights around this time. I take peace with Stalin/Pacal to consolidate my gains.

1065AD I steal optics from Mao.

1070AD I DOW Stalin and Pacal again.

1080AD Santarem (Russia) is captured. I steal astro from Mao.

1095AD Xukpi (Maya) is captured. The maya civ is no more.

1100AD A russian counter-attack at Santarem kills most of my stack there, including my super medic. I rush trebs and knights there to save the city.

1105AD Gunpowder is done, Rep Parts is next. After a few turn, I switch to mil trad to get cuirassiers on line.

1110AD I steal economics from Mao. I adopt free market and take peace with Stalin.

1145AD I adopt Free Speech for the economic benefits. I have lots of mature towns now. The state of global relations:

The tech situation (only Mao is competetive, but not for long):

The growing Egyptian empire:

1185AD Mao takes peace with Stalin.

1230AD I switch to mercantilism, as trading partners are becoming few and I don't want to give Stalin any trade-route benefits.

1245AD Military Tradition is done, Rep Parts is next. Knights are upgraded to cuirassiers. I guess you know what comes soon.

1295AD Rep Parts is done, rifling is next. Rome is building Oxford U.

1315AD I DOW Stalin.

1320AD I start sabotaging Stalin's horses, now that my EPs on Mao have been used up. A GG is born and I make another super medic. Stalin attacks Rostov when my main stack of cuirassiers/trebs leaves for St. Petersburg.

1330AD St. Petersburg captured. I rush muskets, LBs and pikes to Rostov to save the city.

1352AD Faro (Russia) is captured. Stalin retreats his damaged stack from Rostov to Yaroslavl to heal. Wang Kon vassals voluntarily to Mao. I send my main stack from St. Pete to Yaroslavl to take out Stalin's stack.

1358AD Yaroslavl captured. Stalin can't keep up with my new empire's production, and except fot knights his units are outdated (he doesn't even have civil service yet ).

1360AD Stalin becomes a vassal to the Egyptian empire.

Rifling will be done soon, and I will start drafting rifles and building cavalry. Cuirassiers will be upgraded to cavs and Joao will be the next target. I assigned all merchants in Heliopolis to try to get a GM next for upgrades.

 

[huerfanista]

Rameses monarch/marathon
Part 3: Domination! 1368 - 1480

Spoiler :

1368AD Rifling is in. Sci Meth, already partially bulbed, is next. Many cuirassiers are update to cavalry. Thebes and Rome are set to auto-build cav until the end of the game. Research path is to get communism ASAP to reduce the drain of maintenance on the empire. Joao is the next target.

1380AD Sci Meth is done, communism is next. Highly promoted CR maces are upgraded to rifles.

1388AD Switch to nationhood and draft rifles in 2nd tier cities. Here's the stack in southern Russia:

1398AD DOW Joao. I have 2 main stacks, one attacking from southern Russia westward, and another from Heliopolis going east. Aveiro is captured on the first turn of the war.

1400AD Change to Police State to keep WW in check. Viseu is capured.

1402AD Coimbra captured, while Joao manages to capture the Russian city of Braganza. Stalin soon takes it back. I start feeding Stalin techs to make him competitive.

1412AD Leiria captured.

1416AD Lisbon captured. Joao seems paralyzed by the 2-front war and puts up little resistance.

1422AD Hurrian captured.

1436AD Guimares captured. A GG is born and I make another super medic chariot.

1440AD Evora and Braga captured. Communism is done, chemistry is next. I doubt that I'll make it to steel before this one is over.

1442AD Switch to state property and burn a GSpy and GS on a GA.

1448AD Oporto captured. Portugal is dead.

A view of the globe:

The tech situation:

The power graph says it all:

Espionage. I wonder when I infiltrated that Great Spy into China?

1460AD A GM is born in Heliopolis, and he is sent to Moscow on a trade mission which nets 3900 .

1464AD I declare on Mao, attacking with 3 stacks in western, central, and eastern (former) Portugal. The stack in southern Russia:

The stack in central Portugal:

1468AD Hangzhou and Tianjin captured. The AI just doesn't know how to handle multiple attacks. Mao's units just sit huddled in their cities, waiting for the end. How sad!

1478AD Xian and Guangzhou captured.

1480AD Some Portugese borders pop and I win domination.

My personal best score.

Rome in 1480AD:

Thebes:

Some graphs. Power:

Mfg goods:

Score:

Finally, some thoughts on the game. Thebes wasn't that great as a capital, good production but short on food. Getting horses in the BFC was huge. War chariots are a superior UU, as long as you're not facing a civ with a spear based UU. Rome had no chance against a very early rush, but it should be noted that the romans had iron in their BFC, and they would have been very tough if they had been allowed to hook it up. Rome was a huge boost to the egyptian economy, especially once it became a holy city.

I was very fortunate with barbs founding cities. Both Hittite and Scythian were perfectly located, and this allowed me to do some wonder building in place of settlers.

Finally, the long-odds Great Spy popped just when I needed him. China was the only other civ that was teching well, and I stole a boatload of techs off of Mao: music, banking, drama, optics, astro, and economics. This short-circuited my path to rifles without having to give away and techs, and allowed me to focus on gunpowder and military tradition instead of going down the banking line. This gave me overwhelming military superiority and quickly ended the game. Lots of fun! Thanks, TMIT.

 

[cripp7]

@huerfanista

Spoiler :

wow, great game! That industrious trait really showed there. It's amazing how fast Mao was teching in that game, mine too!