Replay #8 4 µ m8s <3

[Seraiel]

Flabbergasted about so many things. You make it sound too easy. I love the fact that you mention things that I would never think about like the wars happening, the settling of cities by AI, the judaism spreading, etc.... Can you explain to me a little more how the score thing works. I never figured that thing out. You got machinery and your score increased with 60 or so. I thought the score was based on size, army, resources and techs.

And thx for mentioning that Stonehenge itself is a very usefull wonder. If you are industrious and have a good production start I almost always build it. I am somewhat allergic to monuments. In my last few games I have started to build them more and 1 pop whip them but the instant culture is just so strong.

Next round pls. Bring out the

Having a good clearview and noticing what happens in the game, is something very powerful, there are numerous chances that plop up during a round, like i. e. remember in Replay #5, when Pericles got the GE and I gifted Theo to him, so that he could build the Apostolic Palace not only in my religion, but also for me, because I conquered his empire soonly afterwards.

Regarding score, there's an awesome score calculator by T-Hawk. Basically, the end-score is made up by the population and the time of finish. Worldwonders only make very few of the score, like tech does, anyhow, this round is still in its very beginning, so a huge tech from medieval era does contribute a lot of points, like getting World Wonders still does.

And don't get this wrong, but Stonehenge is a "so so" Wonder. It's usually not worth building it, or, it only gives as much as saved by monuments, but there are settings / approaches in which Stonehenge gains a lot of power, like i. e. playing a Huge map and having a Super-Shrine, then the from Oracle are the earliest Prophet-Points available, and with very many cities in total, Stonehenge of course also gains in power. On standard / normal, it's probably like I said, but with finding the tech in a hut like in this game, and with these settings, Stonehenge is awesome, it's maybe in the Top5 Wonders for these settings, usually, it's far down the list.

Regarding the , could you explain more what you mean with that?

Seraiel

I'm a bit surprised about the Library and researching Aesthetics, I would have expected you to go full-out war, meaning producing only Cho-Ko-Nus and going for the techs which would extend your warring capability (Construction, Civil Service) in the near future. I know that an Academy can be very strong, but so is starting conquering sooner and not facing Longbows for a longer time. I guess with so many fast-teching AIs (though not in this game) you will be able to trade for these techs before long anyway but I still can see reasons for beelining them.

Hi

To me, going Aesthetics -> Literature was what I supposed to be "the straight road to war" , because Literature gives the Heroic Epic, and that's like the wonder in war games. Construction definately would have been a choice, but the AI is so good at researching it often so it's available early by trade, that I usually don't go for it. Also, Catapults in this scenario are only usefull for bombardement, because Cho-Ko-Nu's deal collateral on their own, and Cho-Ko-Nu's are a lot stronger, and not even more expensive. There are further reasons, like i. e. the small number of defenders AI has in the beginning, making collateral not as important, or the low cultural defense, that doesn't hurt so much anyhow, and if looking at Lizzy in specific, it's Cho-Ko-Nu's facing Swords and Axes, Cho-Ko-Nu's however have 90%+ chances against those units, so Catapults would have even been more expensive (and less powerful) than pure Cho-Ko-Nu's were.

Civil Service is very strong, mainly because of Bureau, Maces aren't that much more hammer-effective like Cho-Ko-Nu's, they're a little stronger, but they lack the capability of doing collateral.

So getting the HE really early, seemed like the most valuable thing to me.

And regarding the Library: I find it very important, to not only see the goal that lies in nearest future, but to see the round as a whole, and getting an Academy is of amazing importance, as with the style I play (1 cottaged Burea capital, all other cities specialized mainly towards Hammers) it gives almost +50% total research. Usual values I know from my Academies are, that they give between 30-40 BPT, that's as much as 4 cities would give, it's hard to conquer 4 cities with the Hammers saved by not building a Library, probably impossible.

Once again excellent! I'm always astonished at how naturally it seems to come whereas I can't apply strategies like that without being 900% focused.... oh well!
On a minor note you circled the wrong Great Scientist when Lizzy got one and you showed the log...

TY for that compliment. I don't know why, but personally I have no problems with applying strategies, even without being focussed, so I don't even really know what you mean with "applying strategies" even. I only had a goal, that was to wipe out all Civs as fast as possible and have fun while doing that, I've got experience helping me to make a good call in difficult situations, and besides that, my plan was only to not destroy my economy, while building as many troops as possible. It's important to do both, because it doesn't help when conquering a lot of land, if the cities cannot support it, and one is not able to keep researching i. e.

small correction. Pacal DoWed DeGaulle, not the other way around. So DeGaukle was probably after you. not that he was ever a threat.

Thx Jwitti and WastinTime for the corrections.

Do you realize that there is a yellow tick mark showing the 1-pop whip ammount? There is no need to calculate. The picture shows you can build for 3 more turns and still whip 2. On the 4th turn, you've gone too far.

Thx... I remember when in Replay #3, you told me the shortcuts for changing buildqueues, this tip is again great, so thx...

@Seraiel - Those are eye-wateringly good screenshots! So crisp and well thought out
Not just simple .jpg's I'm sure.

I adjust the window in which I'm playing CIV, before taking screens for my writeups, so that they are in the natural resolution, and don't get scaled down. Scaling seriously hurts the quality of screens, and with the rest, I would not know what you mean with that, that's just normal CIV with blue marble mod on highest possible graphic settings.

But thx for saying that they're well thought out Kai

Seraiel

 

[Killroyan]

Bring out the opcorn" means that I will be ready for a good show (like in a cinema) to get entertained . In short the entertainment value of your game is enormous.

 

[Jwitti]

who doesn't love watching the world fall before your repeating crossbows?

 

[Sun Tzu Wu]

When players say that your replay threads are entertaining, they mean they would rather read and enjoy them more than almost anything else. They also mean that there is great value in your threads, especially this one where it is a virtual walk through of how to win a game with your commentary detailing all the important and even not so important points. The community owes you a great deal of graditude for your replays and this one is a crowning achievement.

No amount of thanks is sufficient for what you are doing in this thread. It is an example for every CFC member to strive for.

Great Job! Looking forward to new chapters as soon as you have the time to prepare them.

Sun Tzu Wu

 

[RagingHordes]

I could say the same about your gentle courtesy and crisp rational logic, STW. Keep it up!

 

[Sun Tzu Wu]

Thanks for your generous comments, RagingHordes.

Sun Tzu Wu

 

[Seraiel]

When players say that your replay threads are entertaining, they mean they would rather read and enjoy them more than almost anything else. They also mean that there is great value in your threads, especially this one where it is a virtual walk through of how to win a game with your commentary detailing all the important and even not so important points. The community owes you a great deal of graitude for your replays and this one is a crowning achievement.

No amount of thanks is sufficient for what you are doing in this thread. It is an example for every CFC member to strive for.

Great Job! Looking forward to new chapters as soon as you have the time to prepare them.

Sun Tzu Wu

Will answer to this later. A big ty to you at this moment already, that's the biggest compliment I ever gotten.

 

[Seraiel]

Bring out the opcorn" means that I will be ready for a good show (like in a cinema) to get entertained . In short the entertainment value of your game is enormous.

Thx. I don't want to appeal greedy, but maybe you could explain, what exactly makes the entertainment value, because I could work on that some more then, which I guess you all wouldn't mind.

who doesn't love watching the world fall before your repeating crossbows?

Hmm .

Cho-Ko-Nu's are definately an amazing unit. They not really strong, because of the mentioned reasons in the opening posts (Machinery not tech one wants to research because it means being late to Currency / Civil Service, low base-STR) , but they're incredible fun to play with, agreed.

When players say that your replay threads are entertaining, they mean they would rather read and enjoy them more than almost anything else. They also mean that there is great value in your threads, especially this one where it is a virtual walk through of how to win a game with your commentary detailing all the important and even not so important points. The community owes you a great deal of graitude for your replays and this one is a crowning achievement.

No amount of thanks is sufficient for what you are doing in this thread. It is an example for every CFC member to strive for.

Great Job! Looking forward to new chapters as soon as you have the time to prepare them.

Sun Tzu Wu

Hi

I already thanked said thank you to you Sun Tzu Wu, and though I know that thats the only right thing one is supposed to say to a compliment, I want to give a little more, because reading something like this is really special to me. (I said that this is the biggest comliment I ever got. )

Reading, my threads are a joy to read, fulfils me with joy, because I put a lot of work in trying to create the atmosphere in them. Getting to know, that this is noticed, from someone who obviously thinks a lot about his choice of words, means to me, that I'm not as bad as I sometimes think, because I really sometimes think things like "omg, WTH have I written, I hope I'll get at least 1 positive comment to that" , but I know that reading something is different to writing it, which I'm thankful for too!

Regarding what you say in your last paragraph: I watched the forums quite thoroughly during the past days, and with this writeup being in the HoF forums, it was also a lot easier to see who / how many / which people were reading this thread. I not seldomly observed 6-8 persons reading the HoF forums during the past days, and as I observed these forums before already, I know that those 6-8 persons are 4-6 persons more than normal. When I clicked those users, I saw that basically all were reading one of my writeups, and this is something that makes me proud, because the HoF forum was always one of the places almost not visited by anyone (unless the usual suspects like WastinTime, Kaitzilla, shulec or you and me of course) .

So what I can be proud of, is, that I successfully achieved to make the HoF forums more populated and more popular, and this is a very good reason for me to continue on writing. May there come a time, when more people recognize that HoF is a really fun way to play, and where people say better things than that this forum stinks.

Seraiel

 

[RagingHordes]

Thx. I don't want to appeal greedy, but maybe you could explain, what exactly makes the entertainment value, because I could work on that some more then, which I guess you all wouldn't mind.

Don't change your style and posts! They are already pretty much great! Short of a HD video walk through of your play, I don't think it's possible to give us more insight into the game decisions and your fun playing Civ.
You could give us more!

I know that those 6-8 persons are 4-6 persons more than normal. When I clicked those users, I saw that basically all were reading one of my writeups, and this is something that makes me proud, because the HoF forum was always one of the places almost not visited by anyone (unless the usual suspects like WastinTime, Kaitzilla, shulec or you and me of course) .

It helps that you posted a link in the S&T forum.
I know that myself used to visit only S&T until a month or two ago and many users are probably doing the same.

 

[Jwitti]

I think for me you posted in something else.. probably the Newbie questions thread.. and I clicked the link in your sig

 

[Seraiel]

Ok, I found some time, so I can publish the next part... :

We left here:



This is Lizzy's military, then this... :



Is the train that's rolling towards Lizzy O_o

--------------------

But first, before we come to the war, this is what happened to the Shrine in between:



NN to really comment on that honestly.

Now what's also happening, is: The other Civs are trading Currency beneath each other:



Which means that I can get it easily myself, and I get it from:



Lizzy!

So there we are again. Asthetics was an "almost-monopoly", and I really wanted to get it just before the war, because it allows me to beg money from the other AIs, assuring that Lizzy cannot bribe anybody against me!

Trading a Aesthetics to Lizzy goes with littel risk, because of the usual trading rules, that also apply between the AIs themselves, meaning Lizzy will only trade techs when, I think 40% of the Civs know it (I'm guessing, I actually use that awesome guide that's linked in my signature and that I already linked in the beginning of this thread) , so with only her and me knowing, the "almost-monopoly" is 100% safe, and there are even chances that it'll be safer, once she's gone, so another reason to kill her :

--------------------

Sooooooo: 365 BC!



Way too much information! Let's get a closer look and really focus on the war:



Some things:

• I think about leaving the stack complete, or splitting it up already. Main reason for a split would be, that I'd hope to conquer London and the nearby city guarding the horses earlier. I'm unsure what would be right, and decide that I wait for the next turn. Atm., it's just at the edge, with the city having 6 defenders, and me having more than twice the number of attackers, but I don't know about my chances yet.
• The chariots from the first war again proove to be very useful, and will proove to be even useful in the continuation of the round, because:
  1. As mounted units, they can be specced to Sentry!
  2. With having 2-move-units in the SoD, the AI get's severly disturbed in its attempt to chop Forrests!
  Remember: First war on Deity (almost) always means you have to go all in! Don't leave City Garrisons where they aren't needed, and use every unit that you have! Don't forget, that a kill is a kill, that one sometimes only needs the numbers to conquer someone, and that 2-move-sentry-units are awesome! Also remember to have a good clearview of what's happening!

350 BC (that 1 turn later, don't get confused from epic speed) I DoW Lizzy:



I checked chances for the upcomming attack first, because I didn't know if I already could split stacks:



7 defenders + the one that Lizzy will most likely whip, means 8 defenders, and having 40%ish chances with the Cho-Ku means, that I have to calculate to have about 2 losses probably, maybe even 3 with being unlucky, that makes 11 units needed, and that's exactly the number of Cho-Ku's I have . So you see, this war is a lot closer than thought!

The power of collateral (from Cho-Ku's) anyhow is amazing:



And because of this, Hastings falls with only 1 overall loss, thus allowing 3 Cho-Ku's and 3 Chariots to move towards London!



I'm hoping to capture that city really fast, because I traded for HBR, as it was on the free market from T0:



Making this trade was really important, because if I hadn't given Peter HBR, Lizzy would have traded with him! So it's really important, to not lose the clearview for the overall game, when being in war, because Lizzy getting Horse Archers would be the worst which could have happened. Keeping a good clearview btw. also means, that I'm trading Aesthetics, for which there is no way to keep it from the open Market anymore to Asoka, as he's accidentally got 330g atm., and I always try to maintain +4 through trade-relations, he was only at +2, and him going only up to +3 shows that it was a really good trade:



And it's now, when I realize, that one of the biggest chances that would absolutely break the game and destroy the AIs on the map, is open:

Peter... :



Is generally willing, to join my war against Lizzy, should I offer something with enough value, and Peter, has Lincoln as a Worst Enemy.
AIs bribe, when they get the chance to it (and when they feel threatened enough) , and Lizzy atm. had no chance to bribe someone against me, but now, I have the possibility to get Peter involved in the war too, and Peter and Lizzy are annoyed towards each other, while Lincoln is friendly towards Lizzy and annoyed to Peter... :



And, believe it or not, but it's just that Lincoln has to be friendly towards someone and annoyed to the other, so that a bribe would be possible...

I check the tech-screen, to see if Lizzy would have any tech with which she could bribe Lincoln against Peter, and find:



And I think that you're now already knowing, what I'm about to do / is about to happen: The question is, how much will this cost me, so what do I have to give?



You're probably knowing already, that I'm going to hand Peter Literature, because paying 600 gold would mean me losing my complete treasury. I don't like to do that, because Literature is a monopoly, and I've just decided that I can win the war against Lizzy without problems and build the Great Library on top...



But AIs in war heavily produce military units, so I doubt very hard that Peter has any chance to beat me to that wonder, and the advantage of trading Peter Literature is, that he could bribe in AIs on his own, and I could tell a lot more, but this is what happened after I hired Peter as a mercenary for Literature + 100g to fight against Lizzy:



lol.

Now at that screenshot, it's worth to look in detail, because it's not only that all AIs are in war now (Frederick joined afterwards against De Gaulle, but the AIs are also in different wars, so it's not that they all gang up on Peter and get friendly towards each other, but with a single bribe, I just got the AIs caught in a world-war totally destroying their tech-rate, screwing their diplomatic relations and eating up their units!





The effects of this could be shown in much greater detail, but these are / were basically the important things.

--------------------

This shall be the end of this post, because it is / was imho long enough. It kept the beginning of the first war and contained a lot of information, and if I would continue writing now, I wouldn't know how to handle the ongoing things with the tempo at which I'm currently writing. I don't know if I told already, but I took over 3000 saves when writing up the thoughts I had in this round, so it is going to take a lot of time still, to finish this writeup still, I have to find a way to report in larger and faster steps, anyhow, I found this part was really important.
I hope this didn't demotivate you, it didn't demotivate me, I'll try to finish the next part still today. As always, your comments are welcomed, they really help.

Seraiel

 

[Lone Wolf]

while Lincoln is friendly towards Lizzy and annoyed to Peter... :

Small correction: your screenshot shows Peter annoyed towards Lincoln and Lizzy being friendly to Lincoln, not vice versa. It was still a good decision that worked to your benefit, though.

 

[BornInCantaloup]

This shall be the end of this post, because it is / was imho long enough. It kept the beginning of the first war and contained a lot of information, and if I would continue writing now, I wouldn't know how to handle the ongoing things with the tempo at which I'm currently writing. I don't know if I told already, but I took over 3000 saves when writing up the thoughts I had in this round, so it is going to take a lot of time still, to finish this writeup still, I have to find a way to report in larger and faster steps, anyhow, I found this part was really important.

Props on your write-up! 3000 saves is amazing I had 90 in a recent game and thought I had gone over the top... Aaaah! That's all relative and a question of referential, I suppose

Turn per turn is very nice to report the beginning of the game, when things aren't over-complicated. Keep it up as long as possible
However, when you feel the need for a change, then consider switching from a chronological reporting to a thematic one.
If we consider themes, then there's a lot of overlap from one turn to another. Switching from a chronology of events to a thematic approach would save up a lot of your time, promise!
Maybe it wouldn't result in as glamorous a read but it shouldn't get any less interesting. It might even allow you to consider some particular topics with more depth.

Regards, cheers!!

 

[sinimusta]

That diplo trick amazed at least me. Requires good knowledge of the ai behavior, but shouldn't excpect anything less from Seraiel.

Which promotions are the best for cho-ko-nus?

 

[georgjorge]

Very nice diplomacy here. I often bribe AIs into this or that war, but bribing someone with the intent of having someone else bribed onto him is some levels above that. Again, a great case of how powerful all that information can be if you take the time to digest it.

Minor question: why gamble on Lizzy not getting Horseback Riding by not including at least a single spear in that Choo-train?

 

[Seraiel]

Small correction: your screenshot shows Peter annoyed towards Lincoln and Lizzy being friendly to Lincoln, not vice versa. It was still a good decision that worked to your benefit, though.

Hi

Thx for making me notice, that I posted the wrong screenshot. I always check diplomatic relations in both directions, and I was a little confused when doing that writeup yesterday. Here is the right screenshot, showing that Lincoln was friendly towards Lizzy and annoyed towards Peter, like written in the text:

Props on your write-up! 3000 saves is amazing I had 90 in a recent game and thought I had gone over the top... Aaaah! That's all relative and a question of referential, I suppose

Turn per turn is very nice to report the beginning of the game, when things aren't over-complicated. Keep it up as long as possible
However, when you feel the need for a change, then consider switching from a chronological reporting to a thematic one.
If we consider themes, then there's a lot of overlap from one turn to another. Switching from a chronology of events to a thematic approach would save up a lot of your time, promise!
Maybe it wouldn't result in as glamorous a read but it shouldn't get any less interesting. It might even allow you to consider some particular topics with more depth.

Regards, cheers!!

TY for that inspiration .

I think, I'll keep up reporting about the moves that I did, maybe with a little less detail, because reporting on over 3k thoughts would make a book out of this thread, maybe even one as worse as the SGOTM books, but with the difference, that I would be the only one having to do all the work, and I havn't yet decided on writing Civ books .

You telling me that turn to turn is a good approach gives confidence, and there's a first time for everything, maybe I'll switch over to a thematic approach once I understand, how I should do this, and what i. e. would be a good theme. I find sticking to myself still the easiest approach until now, and the only thing I'd wish for, would be that I could be a little less tight, and keep the same focus that I have, without making me head explode sometimes.

That diplo trick amazed at least me. Requires good knowledge of the ai behavior, but shouldn't excpect anything less from Seraiel.

Which promotions are the best for cho-ko-nus?

Thx for the compliment .

Regarding promotions, it's important to have a Medic, and it's important to have 1 unit that get's purely promoted towards Combat, so that it's base-STR is higher than the one of the Medic, so that it prevents the Medic being chosen as when defending.
Later in the game, when the AI also has more siege, it's very usefull to promote some units to Drill, because Drill-promoted units take less collateral, and they level extremely fast, making the game choose them as the defenders, so with i. e. 6 Drill IV units, a stack basically gains "invulnerability" to collateral.
Besides that, I prefer those promotions, that get me the most in offensive combat, so mainly CR, but as Cho-Ku's cannot skill CR, Cover, Shock and Combat are the best choices.

At this point of the game btw., most of the Stack was unpromoted, because many units came ouf of cities not having Barracks. I think from the 11 units you see, only 4 had 3 XP, all others were 0 XP units. Besides the defense promotions of which I've talked, it's generally best to promote right before the combat, because then one can see what promotion will get one the biggest bang. Only thing one has to pay attention to is, if Combat or Cover / Shock will be best, and one can find out by selecting a unit that got that promotion already. Often, when selecting a Shock / Cover unit i. e., a different defender gets chosen, then with a Combat unit, often making Combat the best choice, because it works against all types (of units) . CR-units of course don't have this problem, which is one of the biggest advantages of CR as a promotion itself.

Cho-Ku's with CR, that would be something, but the developers already made themselves some thoughts about units getting overpowered through promotions, I still remember a time, when it was still possible to promote Tanks to deal collateral damage, of course they patched that as it simplifyed the game down to needing nothing but tanks in sufficient numbers *lol* . I still wish those times back sometimes, because they really were funny, sending in 1-2 tanks and then all defenders hurt so bad already that the tanks afterwards had 99.99% chances. I think I didn't fint out about this myself though, but that I was already reading CivFanatics as a lurker back then.

Very nice diplomacy here. I often bribe AIs into this or that war, but bribing someone with the intent of having someone else bribed onto him is some levels above that. Again, a great case of how powerful all that information can be if you take the time to digest it.

Minor question: why gamble on Lizzy not getting Horseback Riding by not including at least a single spear in that Choo-train?

What I wrote, is basically true, AIs will bribe when they have the chances, and they will bribe with 99%, when being attacked by more than 1 opponent at latest, so you can count on that. Trying to let AI do the bribes instead of onesself bribing, is very valuable, as every bribe is -2, and those are -2 that AIs should get, not you.

I also admit, I did think about building a Spear as a Stack-defender, but that Spear would have been almost worthless after taking the Horses from Lizzy, and there's a mechanic called "attack-courage" , saying that an AI having low courage (like i. e. Lizzy) will not attack with chances lower than 50%. That courage can be raised, like i. e. when AI notices that its lost, or when one threatens a city from 2 sides, but none of this was the case back then, and I also was quite sure that Lizzy wouldn't be able to aquire HBR because Peter was the one having it, so HBR had to first be traded to someone else, and then make the way towards Lizzy over a 3rd AI, and I was sure that the chances for me taking out all the cities near those horses would be possible before that would happen.

----------------------

Writing next part now!

Sera

 

[Seraiel]

Btw.: I find it funny, that noone reacted on me building the GL (and also i. e. a Judist Missionary, which can be seen when reading the log) while being in war ^^ .

Sera

 

[BornInCantaloup]

It's a good build, well done!

As BUG mod says: don't build 50 units when 15 will do.
Being able to assess how many troops are needed to wage a war is a great quality to the warmonger.
Being able to distinguish between a limited war and a total war is another, that is linked to the first trait but easier to assess. Implementation is the tricky part with limited numbers.

 

[Seraiel]

Time for some backfill information:

I already mentioned building a Missionary in my last post, and the reason for that is, that I want to spread Judaism to De Gaulle. De Gaulle is not sitting that far away, he's basically the nearest of the bad AIs on the map, and those bad AIs of course also have the chances to aquire certain techs, and with having a holy-city, I'm getting huge discounts on Espionage, especially from Civs not running my religion! Of course, I also hoped that De Gaulle would spread that religion to his other cities, so I hoped for that Missionary to multiply, so that the Shrine could gain even more power.

Also: Peter has built the Colossus! Good that Pacal didn't score that one, AIs getting GLH + Colossus can be more evil than you would imagine. Basically, having GLH alone is already something putting an AI in a seriously special role, it's important to take a look at the demographics!



Being able to read the demographics, is something revealing some really valuable information. What this screen i. e. tells us, is, that Pacal is doing 230 GNP atm. GNP is basically the amount of Research, Gold and Culture a Civ is making, and I know that the 230 is Pacal, because he's the one having the GLH, and the GLH-Civ almost always is the #1 Civ in this discipline. I can subtract the amount of Culture that he's generating, unfortunately, that's not really much, because I'm the one having all those Wonders. Hmm. Me is only doing 160 GNP atm. and this implies the Culture I'm getting, really no good position atm., I'm lower (and with subtractig a lot lower) than what the average AI is making... This of course is cause of me having way to few cities still, and because not having an Academy yet.
The next things of great importance, are the values for Food and production. Here, they tell unfortunately, that there's a Civ having twice of our production (which can be compensated by chopping though) but a Civ having 3 times of our Food is something I should worry more about...
The value for population is something interesting, but has to be read the right way, as population is a square-function of the pop, so to read it correctly, one has to take the root of the number at first. Root of 4M is 2M, we have 500k, so someone has got 4 times as much pop as we have (showing that our empire is working with great efficiency, because with 4 times the pop, the values for Food and production are explainable, but only having 50% more GNP from 4 times as much pop, shows how bad AI is at working those) .

I also wanted to post this screenshot, to give you an impression again, at which speed I'm playing currently:



9h = 540 minutes, so I'm currently playing with a speed of 1 turn / 3 minutes. Of course, this isn't true, because the first turns only take like seconds, so probably realistic would be to say, that 1 turn currently takes me about 10 minutes.

--------------------

To get back at the round:



Screenshot giving away the important information again and showing, that my focus from building units to conquer Lizzy has already switched to the time after the war, a time when I'll have 15+ cities for which I have to pay.

Peter takes a city from Lincoln:



And I notice that I've made a really nice friend with him being even higher in score than Lincoln, who has 3 more cities than he's got.

I wanted to post this earlier already, it's a demonstration of the power of Cho-Ko-Nu's:









This is something that amazed me the 1st time already, when playing with Cho-Ku's! They're not really the strongest of all units, the first Cho-Ku only has 30%ish chances, but it's once one starts to attack with them, that they suck themselves upwards with every single attack! The first 30%ish Cho-Ku of course died, but the next had already 40%ish chances, and he survived, and after that, it's only 1 more Cho-Ku, until chances are almost 100% for win! 3rd or 4th Cho-Ku having 99%ish chances, is a really very common picture one gets, when playing with China as a Civ.

290 BC, which is only T4 of the war and which is the turn in which London gets attacked, is a great year for the chinese empire. It is the year where London falls with very small losses (only 1 Cho-Ku and 1 Chariot) :



It's the year in which we discover, that Lizzy did really build an Academy for us, taking away all our needs to hope for a Great Scientist ourselves:



And it's the year, in which a Great General emerges:



You can guess by the name already, what's going to follow now . I've decided, that this round is good enough, to be a continuation of what was Replay #5, and that this time, I'm in it myself .

Now while I, Seraiel, make my way towards the frontlines to help healing the brave soldiers which have conquered 2 cities now already, I, the player Seraiel decide that I can really decide how to specialize the cities that I have, and that I'm going to get:



Screenshot already gives away part of the scheme, after which I choose the roles of the cities, and about how I'm going to improve / specialize the land. Very much information on that screen, but still acceptable I think, city-dots help with seeing the radius which a city can work better, and tile-yields are shown to display whether cottages are already villages, or below.



Giving away further information on how and why I specialize the cities like I'm doing.

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275 BC, so 1 turn later, newly produced troops have reached Brighton (the city you know as "the southern city" from the screenshots before) : It's 3 vs 3, I still attack it because chances are 80%+ for the Cho-Ku's against this city, that doesn't have Walls like London did:



Unfortunately, 2 Cho-Ku's fail, the 3rd again had 98% chances, so the city does not fall, neither can it fall in the next turn.

It's also the turn, where "the Missionary of Doom" has arrived at De Gaulle:



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Again 1 turn later, GG-Seraiel fuses with an Archery-unit, and I choose my usual promotions for a Medic, which are Medic III and Championship. It's really good that I started on producing Archers lately, because as a GG-unit, I have no upgrade-costs, and you can discuss, whether Championship, which I always choose so that GGs can level faster, was the right choice, or if I should have chosen Morale, to reach the frontlines faster.



I also split stacks, to attack Dover and York simultaniously and and by that eliminate the risk of running into Horse Archers:



And, I whip the GL



It's a 4pop-whip bringing down the city to size 4 again (it'll regrow to size 5 on next turn though) , but I've seen AI sometimes build Wonders in amazing speed (at this point of the round, the SoZ i. e. is already gone, and it wasn't long from when I traded Aesthetics) , and the GL really is the Wonder for GP-Generation and I don't want to miss it by any chance. If I would have had Marble on my own, I could have checked if Peter had some, but without any chance to know that, I didn't want to gamble at this point.

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Dover falls 245 BC without any losses: (First Cho-Ko-Nu already had 90% chances because it was only a 20% city. )



I razed the city, because it basically had no good tiles to work, but those that would have belonged to London.

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York falls 1 turn later:



And Brighton falls also! There's a legend arising in the chinese empire atm., the legend of "the single Cho-Ko-Nu that conquered Brighton all on his own, only to become the Master of the Worker who hid in there!" That Cho-Ko-Nu is known to the Chinese by the name of Tachywaxon, and she said the famous words "That Worker wanted me to be its Master!"[/b] when she got asked for the reason why she conquered that city all on her own:



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So good times for the chinese! Empire's up to 9 cities now, a strong capital conquered that had an Academy, and still very minor losses.

So I hope you enjoyed this part, and will enjoy the next one too. Cya,

Seraiel

 

[Sun Tzu Wu]

Bravo, Seraiel! Excellent chapter. A gold mine of playing tips!

Sun Tzu Wu