Shadow Game - First Time at Monarch

[OldDude]

I couldn't resist. I played some more, up to 720AD. At 500AD Mansa peace vassaled to me before I could get my troops over to him. So I reversed course and got in position to declare on Joao. Took 2 cities and then he capped. So now I've got 4 vassal states and it's only 720AD!

While all that was happening I started a GA 1t before CS was in and switched to Buro right after that. During the GA I teched Machinery in 2 turns. I gifted that one city back to Pacal. I gifted a few techs to Monty and Pacal and now they are both pleased with Mansa being friendly. I just started Edu as I want to get Lib for a free tech. I've been letting my cities grow during the GA. 1t left in the GA. Happiness is good, although health is becoming a little problem. I've got scientists working in some cities.

I'm thinking my next target is Hammy. I've got all my troops just now positioned in Essen and I'll be moving them out next turn.

Spoiler 720AD :

Next turn I'll put my EPS on Hammy.

Thank you.

 

[Fish Man]

I couldn't resist. I played some more, up to 720AD. At 500AD Mansa peace vassaled to me before I could get my troops over to him. So I reversed course and got in position to declare on Joao. Took 2 cities and then he capped. So now I've got 4 vassal states and it's only 720AD!

While all that was happening I started a GA 1t before CS was in and switched to Buro right after that. During the GA I teched Machinery in 2 turns. I gifted that one city back to Pacal. I gifted a few techs to Monty and Pacal and now they are both pleased with Mansa being friendly. I just started Edu as I want to get Lib for a free tech. I've been letting my cities grow during the GA. 1t left in the GA. Happiness is good, although health is becoming a little problem. I've got scientists working in some cities.

I'm thinking my next target is Hammy. I've got all my troops just now positioned in Essen and I'll be moving them out next turn.

Spoiler 720AD :

View attachment 531847

Next turn I'll put my EPS on Hammy.

Thank you.

Good job, I think you got this game in the bag! Trade for guilds for knights to REALLY seal the deal.

I feel comfortable spoiling the ending to my game now, so here it is: a t234 (1620AD) space win, with communism. Was just under the dom limit at the end, which is ideal for a fast space win as more land almost always means more research, production, food, everything, especially in the late game. How I got there that fast is a discussion we can have later if you're interested, but regardless - thanks for the map, and hope you learned something!

Spoiler :

Oh, and thanks @lymond for offering much better and in-depth step-by-step advice than I did. I'm more of a strategic type, but also I'm really impatient, so I didn't look over extremely detailed stuff like whip timings, micromanaging tiles worked, worker turns, etc, which you did.

 

[jerza]

@lymond another thing I never really thought of is gifting captured cities back to your vassal after he caps to make him stronger. do you always gift back all of the cities or how do you decide? thanks.

 

[lymond]

ha..well OD...you are a juggernaut in your game at this point. Well done in many respects. There are a lot of things I could point out on the previous two reports, but as fish said this game is in the bag. Your army should immediately go take care of Hammy and Asoka..possibly at the same time.

I'd probably even just gift my vassals military techs and CS and dow both Hamster and Asoka right now. Vassals will upgrade units and star whittling away at their forces.

You've done admirably here on Monarch level. However, I would probably have given you some advice to handle some things quite different as a forward thinking view of playing higher levels in which you would not have such a significant tech advantage. For instance, how you are handling your golden age at present - not switching to caste system and focusing on great person production (which is boosted 100% during a golden age) Again, irrelevant in this game but extremely important when you move up.

Also, things like machinery and engineering you would likely trade for and more ais would likely have long before now on higher levels. But engineering is helpful in this case no doubt.

Also, on the previous save there was a lot of gold up for grabs on that turn. Did you check that? Are you checking resource trades?

Regardless, well done. I think you have learned a lot about some of the finer details and mechanics of the game. Fine tuning your gameplay and strategy. Still a lot to learn and even more attention to the details, but you are on the right path.

I'd just move forward now and bring down Ham and Asoka and this game should be over in a few turns or so. Let us know the result. It's all or ..well..all now!

@Fish Man Impressive space win!

@jerza Very situational whether I gift cities back to the AI. First, it may depend a great deal on what type of victory I'm pursuing. If going for Space it is more advantageous to have more land so I want as many cities as possible. If Conquest or Dom, it is really more about speed. I ask myself in that case what this city or cities do for me. Is the city under extreme cultural pressure? I want to keep my troops moving rather than suppressing revolts. With that said, I tend to want to keep good cities with wonders if I can.

 

[OldDude]

ha..well OD...you are a juggernaut in your game at this point. Well done in many respects. There are a lot of things I could point out on the previous two reports, but as fish said this game is in the bag. Your army should immediately go take care of Hammy and Asoka..possibly at the same time.

I'd probably even just gift my vassals military techs and CS and dow both Hamster and Asoka right now. Vassals will upgrade units and star whittling away at their forces.

You've done admirably here on Monarch level. However, I would probably have given you some advice to handle some things quite different as a forward thinking view of playing higher levels in which you would not have such a significant tech advantage. For instance, how you are handling your golden age at present - not switching to caste system and focusing on great person production (which is boosted 100% during a golden age) Again, irrelevant in this game but extremely important when you move up.

Also, things like machinery and engineering you would likely trade for and more ais would likely have long before now on higher levels. But engineering is helpful in this case no doubt.

Also, on the previous save there was a lot of gold up for grabs on that turn. Did you check that? Are you checking resource trades?

Regardless, well done. I think you have learned a lot about some of the finer details and mechanics of the game. Fine tuning your gameplay and strategy. Still a lot to learn and even more attention to the details, but you are on the right path.

I'd just move forward now and bring down Ham and Asoka and this game should be over in a few turns or so. Let us know the result. It's all or ..well..all now!

@Fish Man Impressive space win!

@jerza Very situational whether I gift cities back to the AI. First, it may depend a great deal on what type of victory I'm pursuing. If going for Space it is more advantageous to have more land so I want as many cities as possible. If Conquest or Dom, it is really more about speed. I ask myself in that case what this city or cities do for me. Is the city under extreme cultural pressure? I want to keep my troops moving rather than suppressing revolts. With that said, I tend to want to keep good cities with wonders if I can.

LOL, yeah sorry @lymond for pushing on. The point is I really don't get a lot of time to play this game, 30 minutes here, an hour there, and so sometimes I get a little impatient...not with you or anybody else here helping me. Just wanting to move the game forward, which I think is a reason for missing micro things fairly regularly.

Your point on DOW before moving out is a good one, and of course I never thought of it. Also, regarding switching to Caste in a GA...never thought of that either. Great points both.

I won't get a chance to get back to it until Sunday probably so I'm just going to finish it out and I'll post back with the final results and some thoughts.

Thanks!

 

[lymond]

Oh..you were fine to continue. Just saying there were some pointers to learn. But really in this case they do not apply. The game is almost over anyway so great people ain't doin' ya much here.

Just keep in mind that the reason to DOW before you arrive is you have two vassal between you and them..and well..you've vassaled everyone but. Otherwise, I'd rather surprise them. But they will send troops to your vassals, and vice versa, just killing each other. Also, it effectively stops any trading between your vassals and the two remaining chumps.

No point in not giving vassals all the techs now... you have to give any prereqs to give things like Machinery>Engineering if they don't have metal casting. CS and Machinery will give them Maces. And they will upgrade units pretty fast. Engineering gives them trebs and faster movement. They may start some bombarding work on cities for you.

(oh..and i'd note that backtracking troops to attack Mansa was not a great idea. We'd already discussed peace vassaling him, which did in fact happen..ha ...that essentially delayed you a bit here)
Still going to be a very fine game. You dominated this game.

 

[OldDude]

Finished the game. Took a conquest victory at 1280AD which is by far the earliest I've ever won a game. I couldn't have done it without all of the help I got in this Shadow Game, with a special shout out to @lymond. Thank you all very much.

I feel like I learned so much more in this game, mostly about timing whips and chops, switching builds around to take advantage of things, trades, managing the tiles being worked, being a bit more aggressive, and a little about espionage. It was fun.

Spoiler Victory Screens :

From here I'm going to play some more games at Monarch to try to get a good comfort level and then move up! Thanks again everybody.

 

[lymond]

Excellent, OD! Nice score too!

How much did your vassals help out?

You are becoming dangerous

Keep playing and practicing

 

[Fippy]

Cheers, you are ready for Emperor ~~
Not a big jump, that would be Immortal.

 

[OldDude]

Excellent, OD! Nice score too!

How much did your vassals help out?

You are becoming dangerous

Keep playing and practicing

My vassals didn't help out that much so it was pretty much all me. I'm not so sure about becoming dangerous!!! LOL.

Thanks again!

 

[OldDude]

Cheers, you are ready for Emperor ~~
Not a big jump, that would be Immortal.

Thanks @Fippy!