Queen Elizabeth (game #2)

[pavel1269]

I want to use my difficulty level in a thread title. This time I play on King, and I had to use Queen just to let you know, what I mean with that.

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So, here is my game settings. Pretty much everything standard. I picked archipelago map, as I want to use Elizabeth to finish over 300 enemy ships. And sea map is just good for that purpose.

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My start location seems to be a decent one. Two silvers and marble. That's a extra luxury for a trade just from the start. Also fishes, which are good with money (+3) and after lighthouse the food output is also nice (+4).

First of, I started to build worker, hence I am on an island. Why would I need extra warrior or scout. Also I started to tech straight to Optics, to be able to expand fast, as my start island is a funny small. On the picture, there is all the land. So you can see it looks like a torch, which is twisted at the bottom.

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So now its 25th turn. Looks like AI have some bonus happiness or they just managed to get a luxury resource. Also I achieved my first policy. I picked Honor as my plan is to kill over 300 ships. My plan is to have technological over my enemies at least in naval units. Then finish a domination or technology win.

By the time I can embark my units, I traveled with my warrior to another island as there was a barbarian encampment and 3 barbarian units. I found a strange thing, I can call it as a bug. I attacked with mine warrior their as he was in city-states territory and I got a 5 points towards the city-state. Problem is, that after turn, I got a trespassing penalty and my points were gone.

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I think, I just found a new spot, don't just know the exact spot yet, for my next city. I also met Oda of Japan. He was friendly. Well, we just met, it would be strange if he would be angry by this time. I traded him my extra silver for 100gold, 5gold / turn and he even gave me some horses (they are not worth for me, but why I wouldn't take them).

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I got my warrior to explore the island I thought it would be my next place to settle. He got a ruins and a nice upgrade. As I searched through the island I found other ruins and the same benefit, so I got a pikeman. There was a another ruins nearby so I headed towards them, this time over water. After second move in water, I got message, that the unit was destroyed. Damn!

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So here is the map I have explored so far. I traveled to the south with trireme you can see on the image and I met a "Iroquois". Oh, I will call them further Indians. Now I know the true reason, that Americans whipped them. They have 2 gems on Island, also wine, which is a real luxury in this game, at least for me.

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Here is my another settlement at the cotton island. You can even see a settler unit, which created the city. The first thing I did was to buy that ewe (dictionary says ewe, I would type sheeps), to block the city-state spread.

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I also explored world to the west and met Darius. He really get my admiration and sympathy. Also, I gave a 500Gold to a friendly cultural city-state. By now I unlocked another two policies. The first column in Honor. Warrior code, which I thought, that's completely useless, as a great general appears outside my capital. I understood that, the future GGs will spawn somewhere else, but it showed my that I am wrond as I found a GG outside my capital :-D . Also Military tradition, which is doubling gained experience. And finally, my happiness was enough to start a golden age, my first one this game.

 

[pavel1269]

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I found another city on a kinda small island. But 4 fishes, whales, iron and a cows, that's a nice!

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I managed to find a nice Island to settle on, thus the island was kinda bigger than usual in this world. But then I found this one. Six fishes is just insane, that will make a huge income in money and in food. The true reason are the pearls.

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Here is my game map so far. I met the ice ring at the south, but I have not even met a tundra at north. I wonder how bigger the map will eventually get, but it can not be a great difference than now.

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Ouch, I looks like Darius is not happy about my new city. You can see on the map that they are next to my newly settled island, on the west to be exact. Also on the north from here, there are french whores. I just must raze them out of the game.

 

[Estarrioll]

Good story, keep it coming!

 

[fr3nchy117]

Very intriguing and ambitious goal. 300 ships?
I shall follow this thread with great interest.

 

[pavel1269]

This game seems like its going great for now. The problem is, I hardly see, how I will force other nation to launch naval attack at me.

Now I am focusing on the Great lighthouse. +1 movement and +1 sight for naval is just necessary for me. I know someone built that, but heck I can not find him.

I was also kinda forced to buy some expensive land around York, because the city-states did not have other opportunity, but take land I plan to have and use.

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My new city. Look horrible, doesn't it? This will be just my little piece of nothing in the middle of the seas. 2 fishes, gems and I hope, I will be able to gather the wine. I know city can't work it, but it can get to the influence and then get worked. Now I am thinking, that I should buy the wine instead of this solution. Late.

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As I was exploring the north, I met china. Seems like it can be a friend.

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Here is my map so far. It get really bigger, but I finally met the north ice belt.

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So china has a Colossus. Lucky for them, that they don't have Great lighthouse. If they would, I will try to get it ASAP. Well, that's just unlucky for me, because china has 0 in soldiers strength according to demographics.

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Hmm. Another ruins and pikeman -> rifleman. Isn't that two upgrades? What about musketman or I am missing something? Well, I am transporting them to samewhere "safe" with 2 triremes. Hell, I don't want to loose them as I entered medieval not too long before, and this is late renaissance unit.

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Oda, you are going to be eliminated. Prepare for your destiny.

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And the city is not even far from my empire. Just great. Moving my rifleman to take the city. :-D ...

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Haha! They must heard about my rifleman. Lucky for them I am heading towards Japan. Then will become my victim later.

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So here is my demographics so far. I am at turn 118, that's 75 AD. Also I researched Theology and going to build Angkor Wat. The 75% discount for cultural gain is just too useful for my vastness empire.

 

[pavel1269]

Bad thing is, there is no counter at all, so I have only a little idea how many ships I sunk so far. Also, the number is 357. Exactly

Ruler of the Seas
As Elizabeth, sink and destroy 357 enemy naval units, across any number of playthroughs.

There is a sentence telling, that I don't need it to complete it in one run. Good thing is, that this is my first Elizabeth game, so if I will really sunk that huge number of ships, I will know .

Just one turn later, from where I ended, I got a new policy. I choose the "Military caste". +1 happiness per garrison in city. I will just complete the Honor tree and then I hope I will go for the commerce, but I am not entirely sure about that.

Meanwhile I prepared for a battle with Japan for the Great Lighthouse. My one unit, the Rifleman was stationed. I also brought a GG, which I got from honor policy. Also I had a open border with him, so it was easy to take right positions to get battle started. He had like 5 workers, on that small island. 3 spearmans, 3 archers and a chariot archer.

Before the war started, I built the Angkor Wat. As the war started I started to attack immediately with my rifleman. A problem occurred, as I captured a worker and my GG remained undefended.

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I could attack two other archers with my rifleman, and I choose the one, where I will not get any damage. Problem was, the other got my GG. Damn! Also 3 archers + a city bombardment took one my trireme down plus one damaged. Next move, as you can see, Great Merchant spawned, well, was a easy decision, kinda feel sorry for him.

Also, he was negotiating a peace like every turn. Giving me all he got and leaving him with only one city. As I captured city, those archers and a spearman almost captured it. That would cause me to loose my rifleman, so I quickly attacked the spearman and leaving only archers. I hoped that archers are not able to capture city, just bombard it. And I think, that's true, because the city, remained my.

I took another his city in just one turn. Osaka, immediately going to raze it. Also got another policy, so I finished my honor tree. The last spot in honor for me was "Professional Army", which is halving the price for unit upgrade.

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The tokyo took to take down 2 turn. I feel sorry for him, as a GG spawned there as I just was capturing a city. 2 great persons lost, hahaha. Tokyo is going to be razed as well.

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Here is a demographics table so far. The low approval I believe is because, my empire is so big (on number of cities). Also my first research agreement run out and gave me a Civil service. That's nice, as I was heading towards navigation, to build my UU.

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I also made a piece with Oda, leaving him with this the only city he got. I hope he will produce some triremes for the future, as I sunk hes two.

At the moment, I think I sunk 20 ships, most of them barbarian, so far. So I should improve a lot the number. Also I hope, barbarians count.

 

[Shinian]

interesting game I think barbarians count, yes.

 

[six blade knife]

Also on the north from here, there are french whores.

of course you meant "shores" right ?

thanks for sharing the story, looking forward to see how it ends =)

 

[pavel1269]

Sure I mean, french ... #hores

So, I got my rifleman to gather another ruins, this time just a +1 pop for one city. Also I "bought" a city-state with intense, as I Annexed the japan capital, which is flooding me with unhappiness at the moment.

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My scout reached another ruins, 100gold. I know that the upgrade is kinda tricky and I can call it even as a cheat, but I was kinda praying for that. But my technology progress is not even for a rifleman so, I might be still happy thought.

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I DOWed Darius and the french ... As I must try hard for the whole game for the 357 ships. Also I gained another policy. This time I unlocked commerce. Even the +25% for capital is nice, as I have two silvers in capital.

I managed to built Notre Dame in my capital. Like +1 luxury, nice, as I was kinda in trouble with my happiness. This brought me to the 6 happiness.

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Here is my demographics at turn 185.

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Darius launched an attack at me. I feel like I will have some trouble, but the city is hardly attacked, as most of it is surrounded by water, so they must use ships to capture this city. My UU Ship of the Line managed to kill in one turn the Perians UU and I bombarded those swordsmans with my city. Next turn, they were flying, but I managed to kill those two triremes, as I really needed that.

Napoleon offered me a peace treaty, giving me everything he has, except cities. I agreed as the spices he has and 100gold will really help me.

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Wow. China is abusing me from warmongering? Hell, they are true! But I will not forget this. Another turn even darius offered me a peace treaty. I did not want that, but he offered 500! gold, 17gpt (17 * 30 = 510), and two luxuries. Wow.

Also, I managed to camp a barbarian camp, which is spawning every two turns a trireme. The ship of the line is sunking them in one turn. I also spotted a Chinas trireme near my borders, that mean war!

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Hmm. I liked you, but this time you signed yourselves to the line. I sank Chinas trireme or three and got a GG. Immediately used him for a Golden Age. Also I used my stationed one, as I really need here a GG. Next turn I was also given by a Great Artist. Wanted to use him for a golden age, but then, Ii figured out, I need to capture land around Japans capital to disallow everyone from settling there.

I sank all the Chinas triremes thus some units and they offerend me a peace with 2 luxuries which only china has. Accepted.

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I also DOWed japan, making me an opportunity to experience my units on his only city.

I also got the treaty bug, leaving me an opportunity to DOW darius and frenchies. But I think I figured it out.

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At the moment, turn 200. So treaty really is off, but there is the gpt and and whales which are for 30 turns. And those not expired yet. I will see.

I also bought another city-state with influence. Even then, I still have surplus money. Not just a bit.

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Just nice. I hope, I will find use of them, and I am kinda sure, I will find it in near future.

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Hmm. King difficulty is nothing. I can have no allies at all and still winning. The approval seems to be comparing only culture "income" so, nothing really illustrative.

Also, my ship sunk counter should be now at 45-50. I sunk in "this post" 15 barbarian triremes minimal. 5 china triremes. 2 darius and like 4 embardes units. Also 4 french embarked units. I am in a first 1/7 of my goal. :-D

 

[DosCiv]

nice work! hope you manage to find some more trireme spawning barbarian camps!

 

[pavel1269]

Nothing really special is happening, since I am owning this game. I got new policy, which I adopted Naval Tradition, making my ships to go even faster thus visible more. As I have spare cash, I bought another cultural city-state. Also I made a peace with Japan, which is just a sitting duck there.

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Also, as I scouted with my rifleman another ruins, I got another weapon upgrade. Now I have Infantry.

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I decided to destroy France, as they are not doing anything, except building up a culture. They made 1 naval unit so far.

France was a piece of cake. Few crossbows, nothing special for my blitz-heal anytime infantry. Then I attacked Egyptian Capital plus one city with access to gold, which I have not got myself. My happiness dropped significantly, forcing me to buy some luxury from others.

Another policy unlocked. I choose merchant navy, +3 production in coastal cities, well I have only coastal cities. Also, as I had a space cash, from now on, I just bought some happiness building to remove it. I left Egypt with 3-4 cities, which I am not interested in. War was boring, but at least, I saw my first enemy frigate from enemy.

Then I attacked china, their unique unit is just great. I moved my Infantry next to their capital after capturing one of their cities, and two of them plus one city attack left my Infantry unit with 2hps, forcing me to flee at least for a moment, but it's ability to heal every single turn is just great. Also I hit the 10th level with my infantry.

I was watching my puppets which I had from Egypt, France and China. As they started to build something really bad (barrack, who would need them?), I annexed them. No problems with happiness, I just buy some building for it and done.

Oh, I met an Arabian trireme. War! I also made war with the Indian, as I saw his trireme somewhere. I started to block their cities trade routes, but hey, they have roads, I can't block them with ships, right? I hit also with multiple ships of the line, level 10.

This time, another policy, unlocked Order. As from the commerce, I would only need the last one.

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Ha! I found the whole Indian naval. They at least upgraded it, so I can not sunk it with one movement point, but with two.

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This is really funny. Tyre gave me Infantry unit, which I had no use for, so I gave it to Brussels. But, they managed with it to capture Indian city and they are pushing forward. Also, on the picture, you can see the bug. They captured city, which is showing, that it is producing culture, which is not true at all.

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Here is my map so far. My sunk ship counter must be around 70-80. So I think I have no chance at sinking over 300 ships. I think, I will try it again, but with much higher difficulty, or wait for patches to repair this game. Current status of this game is just sad.

 

[pavel1269]

Here is the last part.

As the game progressed a bit, I found out, that I have no chance to hit 300 ship in this game. Even 200 would be problematic, so I decided to capture every other capital. I just gave up.

First was Darius, took 3 turn, even with wrong orders for my Infantries, as I sent them to opposite direction. They managed to get 11. level.

Then I took Indians one and last was Arabs. No big deal anywhere. The game was pretty damn easy and boring this times. Its kinda frustrating, as I really thought that I would be able to accomplish that, but as AI is not doing any naval at all. I hit like 110-130 ships at the end, but most of it was barbarians.

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Here is demographics after win. Also one strange thing. In Rankings I had 3069 points of score, and in HOF, 2925.

I suggest to never play below King difficulty. Start directly here and go up. I will try to reproduce this attempt as they would bring us some patches, also I will then have a paper with counter .