Sandstorm - Maya - Deity (G+K)

[formivore]

Okay so the idea here is to abuse desert folklore to rack up massive amounts of faith on a desert map. Ideally then this will fuel a holy warriors religion for a domination game. I'll use the Maya because of their UB and because their REXing style suits my gameplan.

I guess I'll reroll if I miss out on desert folklore, but I should have a decent shot. I've played some Deity games on G+K but not to completion. This is my first time with the Maya.



Settings: Maya, Sandstorm, everything else default.

Spoiler :

Start looks pretty good: 4 luxes, a river, sand. Normally I would settle on a cotton, but I don't want to waste any time and that oasis tile looks juicy. I settle in place.

Spoiler :

Turn 9 I meet Ghandi. A gpt trade for all he has gives me just enough to rush buy a pyramid. No one has found a pantheon yet; it's 5 turns until my first chance.

Spoiler :

Mr. Atl-atl runs into a culture ruin letting me grab Liberty, and another ruin brings me up to 3 pop. Then on turn 16, it's game on:

Spoiler :

 

[Patchy]

I'd be pretty exited if you managed to pull this off. So far it looks like you might.

Out of curiosity what other beliefs are you picking for your religion?

 

[formivore]

With desert folklore already we are generating 7 fpt. Time to expand. As soon as the monument completes, Palenque starts starving out a settler. Waiting for Collective Rule is too slow, so we grab a free worker instead and start developing all our luxes. Turn 33, Tikal is found in the shadow of Mt. Fuji - more faith.

On turn 42 the Mayans are first to religion. I actually got the prophet 3 turns ago, but delayed so that my third city would start with the pantheon belief.

Spoiler :

The domains of Maya at the founding of Zoroastrianism:

Spoiler :

* * *


A quest and a returned worker gives us alliance with Sidon, the military CS north of us . I dump 500 gold into a Maritime CS during a gold temporarily more effective phase - we are desperately food poor and need to grow.

At turn 50 I take stock. I now think I have gone about things the wrong way. Even liberty may have been a mistake. I had planned to quickly REX out to 5 or 6 cities. Each city would get a pyramid; together these would make up for a delayed National College. But now, looking at the city sites that remain, they aren't very attractive. Whale, fish, and flat desert stone eh... and now they wouldn't even immediately boost my faith by starting off with the pantheon. Meanwhile the international situation is not what I had expected. When I picked the sandstorm map, I figured it would be a sandy pangea with enemies all around, but instead it's a sandy continent with Ghandi, Catherine, and then me at the bottom of it. Ghandi has built the GLib and the just now the Hanging Gardens and is booming. He my only path of expansion and oh, he doesn't like me.

Spoiler :

I had planned to REX out while accumulating faith for a medieval push. I had been teching towards Theology to activate my UA, as a good little Pacal should. But Theology can wait. The emanations and penumbras of the calendrical cycle, the endless disputes over the nature of God... Ours is a different sort of faith - a faith of steel and joyous conquest. Well not, uh, you know actual steel. Iron in 15 turns or so though. I set the research bar towards mathematics.


* * *


I rush a composite bowman, a catapult, and a spearman with faith; Sidon sends me a Mohawk Warrior. It's research that's the bottleneck, and I belatedly start on the National College. On turn 79 I have waited long enough. First we bribe Catherine into war. Sadly she is unwilling to pay me anything to go to war in return. I DOW Ghandi the next turn.

Spoiler :

I am cautious at first, hoping the Russian DOW has drawn troops away north. I will stay back and destroy anything India sends my way by the borders of my ally Sidon. But two turns later, seeing nothing, I advance - only to be swarmed. All the elephants India had - they have become Knights! My Mohawk Warrior quickly gets knocked down to red health and has to retreat. My bowmen reply, not focusing fire but just trying just to damage everything enough so they won't kill me next turn.

It's quantity (me) against quality (Deity AI). Gold and faith are now streaming in and losses can be replaced. My reward shall be glorious in heaven!

Spoiler :

 

[formivore]

I'd be pretty exited if you managed to pull this off. So far it looks like you might.

Out of curiosity what other beliefs are you picking for your religion?

It's quite an exciting war with Ghandi. This is the religion I got which was pretty much my first choice:

Spoiler :

 

[Patchy]

Nice, although i'd wish you'd alternate more often to the standard map layout. It's just more friendly to the eyes and makes seeing units and judging the battlefield a lot easier.

 

[formivore]

I defeat his knights. My sword is red healthed, insta-heals, and is red healthed again, but but another is already coming up to replace it. Ghandi retreats back towards his capitol. Even an era behind, melee + ranged defeats melee. Those knights probably would have been a lot more effective if they hadn't all had ranged promotions though .

I advance. Ghandi's cities form a solid front that can't be surrounded, but there is one weakness. Vijayanagara is a weak city to the east, separated from the Delhi by hills and mountains. I can attack it while holding off Ghandi's main body of troops across a river from his capitol, just outside of city firing range. There isn't much space to attack Vijayanagara, but with a push of catapults and a trireme I've brought up, it should fall. I'm lucky that this late in the game Ghandi's cities still have poor defense. Even Delhi only has 22 defense.

Spoiler :

I move in. City + archer kill a catapult the first turn - my first casualty. It will find it's true reward in catapult paradise. Next turn a bunch of knights swoop around onto my left flank. Brilliant counterattack, or just a really silly time to send out a settler?

Spoiler :

Vijayanagara is mine! A few bow shots and a blocking move from reinforcements declaws Ghandi's counterattack. That settler and his escort can go off do their thing. He must be headed for that whales-fish site I passed over when I planned my attack .

Spoiler :

* * *

Vijayanagara's fall opens Delhi to encirclement through the northern hills. But first I will have to whittle down the body of troops surrounding the capitol. Ideally, I will do this at speedier rate than Deity replacement. Surely many Indian soldiers are being sent off north to fight Catherine? Meanwhile, Ghandi allys with Marrakech which lies astride my supply line, ugh. I rush buy walls and a bowman to defend Tikal from the city state.

Spoiler :

I whittle away, while streaming in reinforcements through Sidon's territory. My army is at high tide and I start the surround to the north. Finally I push in and sacrifice some melee, but in return I am able to remove the remainder of Delhi's defenders. Meanwhile someone has hit the Renaissance and I get a spy, I send it to steal from Catherine.

Spoiler :

All in.

Spoiler :

To the righteous go the spoils. Judging by the bank, Ghandi must have been the one who entered the Renaissance.

Spoiler :

* * *

Mumbai and Paliputra suffer the same fate.

Spoiler :

There's a bit of a fiasco towards the end though. Marrakech takes my city Tikal! It's stupid, I had already spent walls and a bowman to defend it. I was too irritated to play it safe and buy even more units when the CS launched a second attack on the wounded city. Now I will have to run back south and retake it before I can sign a peace deal with Ghandi.

Spoiler :

 

[formivore]

Nice, although i'd wish you'd alternate more often to the standard map layout. It's just more friendly to the eyes and makes seeing units and judging the battlefield a lot easier.

Yeah my computer is pretty chuggly so I prefer to play in strategic view. By now I find strategic view a lot easier to see especially for battles. But not being able to see city builds and defenses is a minus. Maybe I will go back and try to replace some of the screens with normal view.

 

[Patchy]

Just a few important shots done in important view would make the LP more comprehensible. Without it we don't know if an attack against a city would be a cakewalk or a suicide mission. And we can't tell which enemy city holds the wonders at a glance, so there's that too.