PYL VI: Same Start Showdown!

[Ai Shizuka]

Part II Elizabeth/Noble/10 AD - 1000 AD

Spoiler :

Just a lot of preparation for the upcoming war vs JC.

Tech path: CoL - Civil Service - Metal Casting (bubled with G Eng) - machinery - priesthood - monarchy - feudalism


40 AD - JC beats us to the last decent free spot for a city:

55 AD - Taoism founded away

115 AD - JC joins the Hindu club. Now everyone here is Hindu, so I convert myself too:

175 AD - Trade with JC:

220 AD - Our first GP, an eng, bulb Metal Casting, as we are going for maces.

250 AD - Stupid triremes quest, wich I'm going to ignore completely:

280 AD - Canterbury is founded in the last possible spot (awful, I know, gonna build Moai statues there):

295 AD - Some cash from JC:

325 AD - Stalin wants some tribute. What about not. He's very far away and that's the single surplus resource we have atm:

355 AD - We switch to Bureaucracy. In this period we are trading a lot of minor techs for cash, and getting some gifts from Pacal. Trading is very easy, as nobody has enemies so far. Still no wars, no requests for stop-trading, nothing. It's a Hindu love parade.

355 AD - Switch to Bureaucracy.

415 AD - Christianity founded somewhere.

610 AD - Finally we can make maces and the bad mismatch vs JC's praets is over. Research down to 0% for a few turns to upgrade our swords/axes.

640 AD - Stalin declares war on us out of nowhere:

This is all he can throw at us:

645 AD - Joao completes the Mausoleum of Maussolloss

670 AD - Stalin's stack is destroyed, losing a single catapult.

685 AD - Great Scientist (we are running a scientist in London) builds academy in London.

700 AD - Pacal completes Shwedagon Paya.

715 AD - Research up to 60% again (+6 gpt). Some trading with Pacal:

760 AD - Joao completes the Hanging Gardens. We switch to Police State to pump out more catas/maces.

775 AD - Stalin sued for peace (not that we was going after him anyway). We didn't manage to get any tech from him, but 100 gp are nice anyway:

820 AD - Great Library built far away. We notice a big Roman stack in Mediolanum, but it doesn't look so scary now:

870 AD - Open Borders with Joao, as there isn't any more land. Feudalism done, research down to 0% to upgrade the archers in the front cities.

910 AD - Chichen Itza completed somewhere.

930 AD - JC completes the Colossus.

970 AD - Parthenon BIDL.

980 AD - Joao ask us to switch to hereditary Rule. We accept for the bonus. Gonna change it back soon.

1000 AD - Research up again.


Overall, this isn't going very well and the main cause is our poor starting strategy. But things are going to change pretty soon, I hope.

This is ready for JC:

If we destroy his stack at Mediolanum with few losses, the rest will be easy.

The northern front:

SE front with Joao:

This part of the world:

Tech situation isn't great, but not so bad either. Pacal is getting a strong lead, but if the war vs JC goes well, we may continue on him:

As said above, it's a big Hindu love parade so far. And declaring war on anyone is going to make someone unhappy:

This game is still looking bad to me, but still recoverable, I think. We still are in a decent tech position, despite our limited resources and we are ready to take the Roman lands. After that we should settle down, build some much needed infrastructures and make a rush for redcoats to take over this continent. Joao's front should be safe.
Liberalism race is still open, but Pacal may get it first.

Anyway, I'm going to learn a lot from this one. Kind of a shame, as my last Noble games was pretty good, and this shared one is so poor. Oh well, I hope to get some useful tips from the experts.

 

[dubrown]

Tokugawa, Monarch/Epic 10AD-1080AD

A minor update:

Spoiler :

Played some more, forgot most of the screenies though.

Well, I went with my intelligent option 2 from my previous post, ie convert to Hindu and be part of the worldwide Hindu lovefestival.

It kept me almost out of trouble, Stalin came knocking with a laughable SoD at one point, he was easily repelled.

Now, I'm still lacking alot in research, had some strikes while I Rexed further to backfill all the land, 3 additional cities founded in the space I had open in the middle, 2 by the western coast to claim all the seafood and 1 just south of the bronze.

A golden age, a bulb for philo has been my use of GPs this game, I haven't generated many, just 3 scientist, 1 got to become an academy (by old habit, I had been better of bulbing it in this game, silly me)

No, I haven't built any wonders, Tokugawa doesn't care for that kind, he likes his shiny troops better.

Ah yes, research, I'm gaining on the rest of the pack slowly, though they're up to maces and I'm still just beginning on Machinery to be able to get my Samurais. But I got impatient and figured I would let numbers speak over quality, So...

He did call in the troops by bribing Stalin and Mao, fortunately he didn't bribe Joao else I'd been in some trouble...

But some turns later, one poorly places city razed and the grand price:

And it netted me my first two wonders, one of which is the AP, easy victory coming up perhaps... And on top of that a neat bonus of two shrines

Without his capital and shrines, Pacal wasn't up for much more fighting

And here we are now, I'm still to get Mao to the peacetable, I'm a bit worried he has a SoD of Maces marching towards me, but hopefully he'll come around soon, we where on pleased terms before so I hope to soon be able to make him talk peace.

To be continued another day.

 

[Ai Shizuka]

Didn't want to stop right there, so...

Part III Elizabeth/Noble/1000 AD - 1320 AD:

Spoiler :

Everything was ready, so we declared war on the Romans.

1010 AD - Mediolanum falls (granary and lighthouse) and that big stack of praetorians is slaughtered, with a loss of 4 catapults and 1 mace on our side. JC's biggest legion is destroyed in the very first turn of war:

1020 AD - Stalin declares war on us. He declared earlier, too, so we don't know if JC bribed him.

1070 AD - Neapolis is conquered, losing 3 catapults. Granary and aqueduct are still intact. We switch back to Police State to quickly replace our catapults. 2-3 cities never stopped pumping units non-stop.

1100 AD - Nice random event, useless now, but will be really helpful late in the redcoats/cavalry era:

1140 AD - We ignore Ariminum and Arpinum, and head straight to Rome and its gem mines. Nasty surprise there, when we find a garrison of Shock Crossbows. Still no match for our CR catapults and maces. Very nice location, and it comes with granary, colosseum, marketplace, courthouse and a settled Great General:

In the same turn, Stalin's pathetic stack appears. He couldn't do anything with that stuff, but can hinder our catapults' replacement. So we propose a cease fire and he accepts. Crossed 2 empires to come to us, and cease fire without even pillaging a cottage:

1180 AD - Angkor Wat completed far away.

1200 AD - Peace mediator event. "We do not want peace!".

1210 AD - 2 catapult sacrificed to conquer Antium, wich comes with the Colossus:

1260 AD - Cumae's turn. 4 dead catapults but we find my fav buildings intact: forge and courthouse.
JC would talk about capitulation, but we want to wipe him out.

1275 AD - Pacal founds Islam.

1280 AD - Ravenna conquered (1 cata).

1305 AD - Arretium conquered (2 catas).

1310 AD - JC vassalize to Stalin and he declares war immediately. Good job keeping your vassal safe.

1320 AD - Arpinum, last roman city, defended by a single longbow, is conquered and JC is no more:

Not as fast as I was hoping, but still a huge success, and definitely a step in the right direction to fix this game.
We jumped from 5 to 13 cities, and some of them are really good:

Northern region of the new empire. Finally some green:

Central region:

Diplo situation is still all peace&love. The single neg score is between us and that idiot:

We are falling behind in research:

The new empire:

Finally some good land, wich could have been under our control 3000 years ago. Still good, this will serve as a future lesson.
The economy is going to slow down even more, but I think the recovery will be very quick, as we already started whipping/chopping libraries, markets and courthouses.
I think we are going to settle down, improve the new land and go for Liberalism, wich isn't lost yet.
After that, straight to redcoats. 17 maces (all CR 2-3) are ready to get upgraded.

I think the target will be our old friend Pacal and his Hindu holy city. With 6 (now 5) Hindu empires, I can only imagine the income.
And then it will be Stalin's time. That single . .. .. .. .. .. .. . in a world of pacifists.

Not interested about the 7th mysterious civilization. This continent will be more than enough for any kind of victory.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

An easy rule of thumb for "was that civ bribed to declare, or did it do it on its own?":

If it declares and you have a huge stack in your borders on the same turn...probably on its own. If it declares and you don't see anything for a bunch of turns (or ever)...probably bribed.

 

[Ai Shizuka]

Yeah, makes sense.
Kinda obvious if you ask me, but I didn't realize it before

Spoiler :

So he was definitely bribed, and didn't do anything at all. Good times for JC.

Edit: sorry, forgot to put spoilers.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Still might want to put actual leaders in spoilers, though .

 

[Capellan]

Sitting Bull. Prince/Epic, Choose Religions, No Random Events. To 1365 AD.

Spoiler :

Pacal on the continent = everyone in one religion. Peaceful snooze fest for 4000 years before Stalin attacks Pacal and Mao attacks Stalin (before Pacal ends "the war on Mao" with the AP). War between Pacal and Stalin continues for several hundred years. Nothing actually seems to happen, though, until I send a force through JC and declare on Pacal, razing one city and heading for Mutal.

JC and Mao declare on me. JC kills a few of my units, and has a few killed in return. I get a little lucky when a Roman Knight dies attacking a city defended by a sole archer ... though to be fair the city had 60% cultural defense, and the archer was CG3 and fully fortified. The next turn, Pacal uses the AP to stop the war against Julius. What about the war against YOU, you turkey?

I take Mutal. It's very shiny.

Get peace with Pacal, watch Mao suicide 4 units on a city with 100% cultural defense, get peace with Mao. Start building up for round 2.

1365 - Julius and Pacal declare on me. They appear to be sending stacks straight towards my two best-defended cities, and I have a higher power than either of them, individually. I don't feel like fighting the war right now, though, so I save and take a break. I'll continue later.

Pacal and JC are the tech leaders, but I won Lib, which allowed me to take Printing Press and revolt to Free Speech. Coupled with taking Mutal, I was able to go from 50% science rate to 70-80%, so I hope to catch up.

Joao has circumnavigated, but I haven't built a single naval unit yet so I don't have contact with anyone who is over there, yet. Will have to address that.

 

[Bleys]

No love for Spain?

I am going for Ramesses, to try a religious WWE economy at Emp level, see if it works out. I dont play it strongly enough to do more than grab Taoism and build the UofS, SM, and have the AP religion in my lands.

Glad you managed to pull this off TMIT. Which is easier, the other version or this one? I appreciate it though, fun to play a lot of games like this, I love the series concept.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

The other way is much easier. Only have to cut archery out/in...only need 1 version for below monarch games, and you don't need to get all the leader data to paste into the WB save.

Still, once you know what you're doing this isn't all that bad either. I had some practice when I wanted HC in immortal churchill instead of wang kon, so I got a feel for not screwing it up as much...miffed on the starting techs here but fixed it pretty quickly .

 

[Capellan]

No love for Spain?

I'm playing Izzy is my current offline game, or I would have considered her here.

Spoiler :

Going for an early religion with her would probably make the diplomacy a lot less placid.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I'm playing Izzy is my current offline game, or I would have considered her here.

Spoiler :

Going for an early religion with her would probably make the diplomacy a lot less placid.

Spoiler :

You read my summary yet ? Doubt that'd considered placid...so much war!

 

[Capellan]

@TheMeInTeam

Spoiler :

Only to 265AD, since I'm not up to 1605 myself. I'll check it out when I get that far. And I wonder how much of that lack of placidity can be laid directly at your door?

 

[MkLh]

I took this on Monarch, Epic & Izzy. From 4000 BC to 745 AD:

Spoiler :

Izzy is a leader with strong UU and interesting UB (I've almost never built castles). Spiritual is always a good trait, but I can't see Expansive very useful.

Settled one tile to west from start. Worker->Warrior->Warrior and AH->mining->bronze->archery (just in case). Met Rome, Russia, Portugal and China. The only source of bronze i saw appeared to be just next to Caesar's capital. I was able to hook it, but that city was in danger of flipping.

View attachment 194311

Rome had gems and spices and for short time I planned an axe rush, but at 1500BC, praets were all ready there (probably indicating Caesars gem-boosted teching speed). So I decided to go for cats to see if sticks and stones can broke Praetorian bones. ;-)

View attachment 194312

I had 4 cities. I planned first to snap construction from Oracle, but lost it. So I had to tech it manually, and not so surprisingly, Caesar DoW:ed first, at 245 BC.

View attachment 194313
View attachment 194314

I took my defenders away and allowed Caesar to took Barcelona, but took it back after few turns with catapults and axes. Then I whipped more cats, and after a while, counter stack hit Rome.

View attachment 194323
View attachment 194316
View attachment 194317

I managed to pillage Caesar's only Iron source, and eventually Antinium fell with some of the lasts Praets. The rest was mostly cleaning, allthough it took for centuries... Eventually I took peace when Caesar has supposedly one city left, because he offered Metal Casting (will kill him after 10 turns). Tech situation is not so great, but in many of my early war games, it has been a lot worse at this point...

View attachment 194318
View attachment 194319
View attachment 194320

 

[PaulusIII]

Well, exams are finally over so I can play civ again...

Signing up for Izzy, Emperor/Epic.

 

[Kesshi]

Ramesses, Noble, Marathon, 300BC to win.

Spoiler :

I teched towards Civil Service, but stopped over at Music for the free Great Artist. I figured the 3 GPT would be worth it. I then went down to CS and Machinery. Followed by Monarchy and Feudalism. Once there, and after a bit of wonderspamming I decided to go full force militarily. Police State, Vassalage, and Theocracy. Virtually every city was spamming Macemen, and my opponents didn't even have Alphabet yet! (Though neither did I ) Along the way I finished what I started:

Spoiler :

I had my old SoD up north, so I figured I'd just use them to finish off Pacal. I only had Swordsmen and Axemen here. However, I finished him off quickly as he only had two weak cities left. Because my economy was doing just fine I decided to keep them both.

I had a SoD at Joao's doorstep, and I was going to wait a few more turns to finish up some wonders and have about a dozen Macemen but he gave me this opportunity I couldn't pass:

Spoiler :

I DoW'd and claimed my prize. I even found another worker on his boarder and took a city the same turn. That's 5 workers and 1 city the same turn I DoW'd...one turn after I destroyed the Mayans.

The Portuguese finally fell to my onslaught of superior firepower in 715 AD:

Spoiler :

You can see that my economy was starting to get into trouble. Only a few turns earlier had I learned Construction, and at this rate Engineering was going to take forever....but I didn't let that stop me! My army of Macemen pushed forward!

Stalin did the same thing to me. I was going to wait, but wow, how could I pass this up!

Spoiler :

Note this is the same turn I defeated Joao.

The Russians weren't too bad, and I had 4 exp Macemen taking out their wimpy cities. Because my goal was an early Domination win I tried to avoid attacking cities that only had 1 population so that I could take the cities, not raze them.

I pushed, and I pushed, and I pushed, and I took out a lot of Chinese and Russian cities. Until this happened in 915 AD:

Spoiler :

Look at that economy! -gold per turn at 0% science. That's what unit spamming will do to you! In fact, I had been losing gold at 0% ever since I had about 1500 gold...yet my gold kept going up from pillaging cottages and capturing cities. I was taking cities so fast my gold was rising while in the red. Sometimes I was even 40 or 50 and up to 70 GPT in the red at 0% science! Who cares, I have macemen!

I waited for the final Chinese city to come out of revolt, and then kicked up the Culture slider to 100% to pop out those boarders, and it worked!

Spoiler :

Domination Victory in 940AD!

And the final score:

Spoiler :

Not my highest score, but a decent one nonetheless. To be honest I should have forced Stalin to captulate (I'm not sure if he would have) and taken all his techs the turn before winning. That would have boosted my score up a bit...but ah whatever, a pre 1000AD Domination win is a good win in my opinion!

Here's the same 1 turn before winning, just in case anyone wanted to check out how my empire was setup.

Long summary:

Spoiler :

I started with an early rush on Rome. To be honest I didn't do my best here. I didn't find Rome until late, even though he was right there. My scouts went around him, and by the time I was ready to rush him he had Iron hooked up and Praetorians coming out! Luckily he only had time to build one. That's what double gems will do for you! So I took Rome and used it to build a wonder then spam military units.

Next, I aggressively settled while wonder spamming. I had quite a few decent production cities, and while I didn't have any of the appropriate resources, who cares? I just built them like mad! Later on I even decided to build things like the Colossus and Statue of Zeus just because. No reason, just because. I barely did any fighting in my own boarders, and I only built 2 or 3 lighthouses total, so virtually no sea tiles were being worked. That's the fun of Industrious!

After most of the settled spots were occupied, I took a good look around and weighted the two opponents. Pacal to the north had a few cities, the Hindi holy shrine, and and quite a few wonders. Joao to the east had the 1st largest empire in the world (I was 2nd) and no wonders. The choice was obvious. I could get in, strike Pacal quick and hard, and get the Hindi holy shrine which would pay for the war itself, let alone the coastal ToA (works well in conjuction with TGL.)

I prepared for war with Joao well before I DoW'd. Then once he gave me the golden opportunity of 4 workers in my territory, I backstabbed him and quickly ripped through his empire. Along the way I started preparing another SoD for Stalin, and went through his empire, but this one was going to be a much longer war.

While fighting Stalin in the north, I used my leftover Joao attack party to take on Mao's SoD head on. That's right, I found his SoD, and moved my guys right next to it, taunting him like the littly panzy he is. And it worked. He suicided his entire SoD into my 13 Macemen on a hill. They rested up, and I brought in 6 more (right behind them) and while the original 13 were resting, the next turn the 6 behind him took the city that Mao's SoD originally resided in.

To keep my economy afloat I used 3 of the 4 religious holy cities I had. At first I started off with only one city spamming Missionairies. But eventually I was dropping down further and further into the red, so I started 2, and finally I had 3 cities spamming the 3 religions I had shrined. Each city had its own religious missionairy it was spamming. Due to the fact that I had mostly ignored spreading any of these religions they went out fast, so I almost never reached the 3 unit cap, and they continued to spam missionairies until the end of the game.

When I was close to winning, I pumped up the culture slider and let the boarder pops do their thing to push me over the edge, and I won!

Short Summary:

Spoiler :

Rush neighbour
Recover
Wonder spam
Aggressively Settle
Rush next neighbour
Recover
Beeline Civil Service and Machinery
Switch to military civics (PS + Vas + Theo)
Spam Macemen
Spam missionairies to keep economy afloat
When close enough to a domination win, kick up the culture slider for a few turns
WIN!

Ta-da!

 

[KingMorgan]

4000BC - 1802AD Monarch/Normal

Spoiler :

Fancied a nice wonderspam game with my old pal Ramess, setted 1SE for the production. Headed mining-BW.

Found a great GP farm, might well settle it quickly. Plenty of Production so would make a good second wonderbuilder as well.

Found Rome.
Spotted 2 Gems + spices and other calender goodies, on a river with great production. I circle the city and decide i might change plans to early rush. Not keen on no bronze in the BFC, 2nd city required. AH is nearly in so i'll wait for the location of horses.

Horses in the BFC, i DOW rome and steal worker. Set up a choke, slightly late as there is a 2nd city, a bit close to rome for my liking, but a keeper if the rush works. Worker heads back to chop me some chariots.
I return to rome with 6 chariots, i take rome, lose 3. I see there is a mine on a plains tile, got to be iron. Pillage and pray i'm quick enough, don;t fancy Paets on my case. Pillage was in time, i leave rome undefended and take his 2nd city. Rome is dead.

I quickly slave granries and courthouses, CoL from Oracle. whip a settler and block pacal SW of the corn. I know i can dominate him cuturally with a monument even though he has relgion.

Due to a few vodkas my REX is slow and messy, Joao take s the majority of the inner coastal sites and south at the marble. I have my GP farm in and running scientists. Spread Confu to Joao as he will trade, he'll be my BFF for the moment at least!

First to Lib, mean;t to delay it at one turn and take steel later on - i have big tech lead. Not build many cottages, mainly gold,gems and scientists getting me through. Few good trades, first to Phil, bulbed Part Edu, PP,Sci Met, Chem. Took Nat from Lib, due to drunkeness. Damn you Absoulte!!
Headed to Commism, needed SP as didn;t find a good site for the FPal.
Rome recived HE, this and Capital and another prod city built a huge number of Maces 20-30. 7 Trebs and lots of spies. Teched Steel, then built cannons 20. Teched Mil Scien, then 0% slider for the upgrades.

Made a huge mistake by not taking out Joao and Mao, instead i ripped apart Pacal wiped him out, then once city of Stalins was enough for his capituation, Pacal capped to Stalin, signing his death warrant.

Halted at 1802 as coming back to this game from last night, i can;t be arsed to finish it.

Game is won, power is huge, 3 times the land of anyne esle, bit of a tech lead althoug Mao is doing well and has a few tech on me.

Save if anyone wants to finish it. I have a Gaunlet to lose again!!


View attachment KingMorgan AD-1802.CivBeyondSwordSave

 

[popejubal]

Tokugawa does have one advantage over every other Civ in the game - and it's potentially a huge one!

Spoiler :

...you are guaranteed to never start next to Toku when you play him yourself.

 

[DMOC]

Elizabeth, Immortal, Normal

This is a very brief report to about 1400 BCand I'll include pictures later, possibly next weekend when I play again.

Spoiler :

Settled in place, and went Agr - BW - AH - Wheel - Pottery - Writing - Sailing - Masonry. I don't like the capital but I'll live with it.

I meet JC and see copper right outside of his capital. However, he will get to the site first so I abandoned an early rush and decided to settle two coastal cities to my far west. One is a fantastic GP farm and the other has plenty of hills, so building the Great Lighthouse is an option, especially since wonders are going LATE on this immortal difficulty level game. The Great Wall was built by whoever was the last, isolated civ in about 1500 BC! That's good news -- I hope the civ in isolation can hog all the wonders to deny my continent mates of it.

By the way, how do I change the color of any civ in this game via the WB? I find it hard to tell two certain civs apart in this game (should be obvious who those two are once one plays).

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Before you start a game, got into the WB save with notepad. Scroll down to your leader.

Where it says playercoler=, you can switch the colors there.

It can not be done via worldbuilder in game...nor can you put Sid in the game any other way but via the WB save text edit (or modding).

 

[semirami]

Ramssess/Emperor/Marathon 2000BC-990BC

Spoiler :

Well I sent my war chariots to explore and they found Pacal. I saw an unguarded worker, so can I resist? Of course no. I captured the worker and saw, that Mutal is guarded by single archer. What is he that stupid? He knows, that the human is around, he knows that the human has war chariots, he has resourceles spearman and he has only archers? Well I have 4 war chariots and have good odds to capture the city, even if he whip a holkan. Wait, the idiot doesn't have Bronze working yet. I lose the first war chariot at 80% odds, but the second has no problems. So:

I don't want to capture more cities yet, so I make peace with both Pacal and Stalin. So do I need to play this game till the end? I guess no, but I will. I have 3 capital locations and 3 different types. Mutal is a great GP farm, Rome is a great commerce city(will be the new capital), Thebes is a nice production city. Well, I whip an obelisk in Mutal. I want the shrine ASAP. Barbs were very generous by settling on very good spots. So I just used my C3 promoted war chariots, instead of settlers. Decided to try the mids in Thebes, but lost them for 5 turns to unknown AI, the AI that I still don't know. I get 1100 gold instead.

1190BC:

Joao converts to Buddhism. It's now 1000BC and I have 10 cities and have room for at least 5 more:

Mutal is building the great lighthouse, because it has nothing to do right now. I'll probably lose it, but the gold is worth.

Well, I can bulb Theo with the next prophet and go for easy AP victory. I can lock the AP to Christianity, but stay in Buddhism and Joao will vote for me. He is in my religion and has easy favorite civic. or I can just win via sowrd. We'll see, but the game is 100% won.