So, how'd your last game go?
- Thread starter Elite
- Start date
Monkeyfinger
Deity
- Joined
- Oct 24, 2006
- Messages
- 2,002
Fastest space race ever.
Was Ramesses. Emperor, fractal, large, epic. Had only one immediate neighbor: Brennus, who was too far away to rush. So instead, I made nice with him and got him up to friendly. Standard marble-in-the-fat-cross-of-Thebes game until the industrial era where I went for military tradition and communism really quickly to get a Defensive Pact, followed by a permanent alliance, with Brennus. I got it.
Washington and Gandhi on another continent had the exact same plan.
So the two pairs raced each other ridiculously quickly to the end of the tech tree. We were going down a bunch of different branches, so I went for computers. Got there first, built internet. Got every tech they beat me to for free. Spammed workshops, built all the components, and launched in 1792. Arrived 15 turns later, but not before Gandhi and Washington got a ship of their own into the sky (I still won the race, of course.)
Was Ramesses. Emperor, fractal, large, epic. Had only one immediate neighbor: Brennus, who was too far away to rush. So instead, I made nice with him and got him up to friendly. Standard marble-in-the-fat-cross-of-Thebes game until the industrial era where I went for military tradition and communism really quickly to get a Defensive Pact, followed by a permanent alliance, with Brennus. I got it.
Washington and Gandhi on another continent had the exact same plan.
So the two pairs raced each other ridiculously quickly to the end of the tech tree. We were going down a bunch of different branches, so I went for computers. Got there first, built internet. Got every tech they beat me to for free. Spammed workshops, built all the components, and launched in 1792. Arrived 15 turns later, but not before Gandhi and Washington got a ship of their own into the sky (I still won the race, of course.)
I just played and won my first game on Prince.
I was expecting a challenge because going from Warlord to Noble challenging, but much to my surprise this game was a breeze and I was rolling riflemen with tanks.
I'm actually considering jumping up to Monarch, but I think I'm going to play a couple more games first before I make that decision.
I was expecting a challenge because going from Warlord to Noble challenging, but much to my surprise this game was a breeze and I was rolling riflemen with tanks.
I'm actually considering jumping up to Monarch, but I think I'm going to play a couple more games first before I make that decision.
Emperor Giulio
King
Warlord to Noble is definitely a jump in difficulty.
Diamondeye
So Happy I Could Die
Conquest Victory with Brennus of Celtia (all random as always), killed off Justinian and Sitting Bull, vassalized De Gaulle, Zara Yaqob, Monty and Charlemagne. Won in 1880 or so.
Willem van Oranje, Normal, Monarch, Tiny Islands.
Managed to get the Great Lighthouse through a combination of chopping and settler whip overflow, and later the Colossus as well. Bee-lined to Steam Power for the Dikes and then to Combustion for Destroyers.
Had a short war with Monty in which I captured his capital but it was then stopped by the AP before I could capture the other city on that island. As a result Technotitlan never managed to push back the culture generated by the other city on the island and suffered regular revolts, so it stayed at size 1 for a large part of the game. Won't be doing that again.
As I was far ahead in tech and production, I decided to skip further was and go for a space race, which I won easily in 1949.
In my current game I moved up to Emperor (same settings otherwise), and although I am somewhat ahead of my 2 neighbours, somewhere else on the globe someone is pumping out wonders like mad and had a size 11 city when my capital was only still size 6. Looks like I might lose this one, but I'd be interested to see what that starting position looked like.
Managed to get the Great Lighthouse through a combination of chopping and settler whip overflow, and later the Colossus as well. Bee-lined to Steam Power for the Dikes and then to Combustion for Destroyers.
Had a short war with Monty in which I captured his capital but it was then stopped by the AP before I could capture the other city on that island. As a result Technotitlan never managed to push back the culture generated by the other city on the island and suffered regular revolts, so it stayed at size 1 for a large part of the game. Won't be doing that again.
As I was far ahead in tech and production, I decided to skip further was and go for a space race, which I won easily in 1949.
In my current game I moved up to Emperor (same settings otherwise), and although I am somewhat ahead of my 2 neighbours, somewhere else on the globe someone is pumping out wonders like mad and had a size 11 city when my capital was only still size 6. Looks like I might lose this one, but I'd be interested to see what that starting position looked like.
just started a Epic Huge Big'n'Small on Prince as Khmer and doing surpricingly good ... first goodie hut which was within reach of my settler contained BW so i could go look for Copper right away ... sadly there wasn't anything close by so i had to jump Iron Working as my 3'rd or 4'th tech, placed my 3'th town on top of a Iron Mine and next to my neighbor Spain which had allready discovered Hinduism and Judism and rushed them with two Swordmens while they were still researching Archery (well ... i hadn't researched it either when i charged Mardid but i'd chopped Great Wall (raging barb) and had 1 axemen in each of my two closest cities my first 3 cities all lay in the middle of a gaint forest (and the same with Mardid) so i've been able to chop my way though some of the early good wonders (Gw, Oracle, Stonehenge and almost there with Great Lighthouse ... those 2 workers i stole from Spain while trampling them helped)
Echo of Celts
Just Plain Crazy
My last game..
20 Civs, Huge Map, Hemispheres, Marathon Speed.
I ended up Korea on the draw.
Explored early and discovered I was on a large half of a snaky continent, Boudica was west of me and the rest of the continent was blocked by mountains. With 3 warriors I rushed Bibracte and captured it, taking control of my whole continental reachable by land.
I proceeded to empire build and explore. Was beaten to The Great Wall, Oracle and Pyramids by very few turns on each one. Managed to build the statue of zeus. Fought an extensive war with barbarians to secure the land between Seoul and Bibracte and build a road connecting the two cities. Proceeded to expanded between them and fill in all my land.
Lived peacefully for many centuries. Founded a small colony on a medium sized island to the east.
Decided to become a major player in world affairs. Noticed Ghandi was declared war on by 5 Civs at once. He was a small nation and lacked much defense, but was the only nation friendly with me. I entered the war, ferried in my troops and recaptured and liberated 2 of his cities from Shaka and Catherine. He offered to become my vassal, I agreed, bringing me into war with 7 Civs at once. We had a massive naval battle with our neighbour Gengis, but succesfully negotiated peace with all 7 Civs, getting consessions from each one of them.
By the end of the war, Tiny India loved us and despite being weak themselves, no one would touch them for the remainder of the game due o my protection. Because of the war, Korean military might grew to #1 on the graph, an impressive land force, combined with the worlds largest navy by far and later, the largest air force.
We founded Sid's Sushi Co and Civilized Jewlers both in the same city with Wall Street. Courthouses in all my cities made both companies, especially Civilized Jewlers very profitable after I expanded both to every one of my cities.
In the end we won a space race.
Ironically, our only challenge to victory came from Ghandi... who was nearing a cultural win.
20 Civs, Huge Map, Hemispheres, Marathon Speed.
I ended up Korea on the draw.
Explored early and discovered I was on a large half of a snaky continent, Boudica was west of me and the rest of the continent was blocked by mountains. With 3 warriors I rushed Bibracte and captured it, taking control of my whole continental reachable by land.
I proceeded to empire build and explore. Was beaten to The Great Wall, Oracle and Pyramids by very few turns on each one. Managed to build the statue of zeus. Fought an extensive war with barbarians to secure the land between Seoul and Bibracte and build a road connecting the two cities. Proceeded to expanded between them and fill in all my land.
Lived peacefully for many centuries. Founded a small colony on a medium sized island to the east.
Decided to become a major player in world affairs. Noticed Ghandi was declared war on by 5 Civs at once. He was a small nation and lacked much defense, but was the only nation friendly with me. I entered the war, ferried in my troops and recaptured and liberated 2 of his cities from Shaka and Catherine. He offered to become my vassal, I agreed, bringing me into war with 7 Civs at once. We had a massive naval battle with our neighbour Gengis, but succesfully negotiated peace with all 7 Civs, getting consessions from each one of them.
By the end of the war, Tiny India loved us and despite being weak themselves, no one would touch them for the remainder of the game due o my protection. Because of the war, Korean military might grew to #1 on the graph, an impressive land force, combined with the worlds largest navy by far and later, the largest air force.
We founded Sid's Sushi Co and Civilized Jewlers both in the same city with Wall Street. Courthouses in all my cities made both companies, especially Civilized Jewlers very profitable after I expanded both to every one of my cities.
In the end we won a space race.
Ironically, our only challenge to victory came from Ghandi... who was nearing a cultural win.
Monarch game, Hemisphere, and it turns out that the random map roll has give 3 huge continents, with 2/3/2 on... And it looks like I'm on course for my first ever monarch win, as I get an incredible start; I begin a Praetorian rush, and after the second pops out, I get the Swordsman Quest, which I complete and get 8 Praetorians with City Assault I.. Woot woot! I smash the other Civ on my continent, and slowly expand to take all the scrumptious land. I then discover that the second continent has Victoria and Monty, but they spend almost the entire game just fighting each other, and ignoring everyone else; handy for me as I can ignore my military and further boost my economy.
Then, it starts to go wrong, with the usual enraging Civ cheating. The other continent has Mao, Gilgamesh and Zara Yaqob on, and warmonger bonus kicks in. Thus, apart from a little border skirmishing, they don't do much except trade techs, and get a ridiculous lead over me. And of course, as the game passes by, even though I have all the other Civs at "Pleased", the hidden modifiers actually means "We Just Don't Like You Enough" to ever trade with me. Hnngh.
But I spot a way I can counter this, and for a while it looks like I can pull it back; Gilgamesh has only 5 cities, and is relatively behind in military tech, even as he sits on the AI bounty; so in the Gunpowder age, and using the Praetorians who are now up to CR III and more, I manage to take one city and his capital, and so force him to capitulate, then give him the cities back so he's a viable trading partner once more. This puts me at 2500 points to Zara's 2000, the best I've ever done on Monarch, but unfortunately Zara is still always one or two military techs ahead of me. I go to sleep pondering on the game, and overnight I calculate that with the an entire continent behind me, and with Gilgamesh now vassaled on his, I should be able to start a defensive war as soon as I catch up with the important military techs (Infantry, Tanks then Modern Armor), and whilst he puts his troops into the field, I can wear them down with cannon etc whilst quickly massing the new stuff, and I should be able to take one or two cities at a time through superior attrition rates.
And it almost worked. I got lucky when the Infantry became available, because Mao finally started a war with Zara; which I didn't join when asked, so Zara moved all his troops north to fight Mao... then I joined the war the next turn myself, and got the mutual struggle bonus with Mao, but also had free reign in his southern lands for a little while. I also managed to nuke 4 or 5 of Zara's cities before he got the SDI up too, and no one else seemed to be building them at all. Via such short term advantage wars, I manage to expand my lead to 3500ish to 2200 But alas, it was all to no avail... I got nailed by that most enraging of problems; Despite having an entire continent, there wasn't a single aluminium on it. There were two right in the middle of Zara's lands, right where I couldn't ever get too of course. And some for both Victoria and Montezuma too. But none for me. DAMNIT.
So I swapped to building a large naval fleet, and throwing Gilgamesh to him piece by piece, in the hopes I could convert my continental material wealth to a Space Race victory. Might have got away with it too, if it weren't for the fact that Victoria, when I was on the last 3 pieces, sailed all the way around the map to declared a pointless war whilst still "Pleased" natch, thus leaving my people constantly War Weary, and sapping my economic strength just enough for Zara to launch his ship 8 turns before mine.
Came second in the points, by 300 in the end too. I was furious.
Then, it starts to go wrong, with the usual enraging Civ cheating. The other continent has Mao, Gilgamesh and Zara Yaqob on, and warmonger bonus kicks in. Thus, apart from a little border skirmishing, they don't do much except trade techs, and get a ridiculous lead over me. And of course, as the game passes by, even though I have all the other Civs at "Pleased", the hidden modifiers actually means "We Just Don't Like You Enough" to ever trade with me. Hnngh.
But I spot a way I can counter this, and for a while it looks like I can pull it back; Gilgamesh has only 5 cities, and is relatively behind in military tech, even as he sits on the AI bounty; so in the Gunpowder age, and using the Praetorians who are now up to CR III and more, I manage to take one city and his capital, and so force him to capitulate, then give him the cities back so he's a viable trading partner once more. This puts me at 2500 points to Zara's 2000, the best I've ever done on Monarch, but unfortunately Zara is still always one or two military techs ahead of me. I go to sleep pondering on the game, and overnight I calculate that with the an entire continent behind me, and with Gilgamesh now vassaled on his, I should be able to start a defensive war as soon as I catch up with the important military techs (Infantry, Tanks then Modern Armor), and whilst he puts his troops into the field, I can wear them down with cannon etc whilst quickly massing the new stuff, and I should be able to take one or two cities at a time through superior attrition rates.
And it almost worked. I got lucky when the Infantry became available, because Mao finally started a war with Zara; which I didn't join when asked, so Zara moved all his troops north to fight Mao... then I joined the war the next turn myself, and got the mutual struggle bonus with Mao, but also had free reign in his southern lands for a little while. I also managed to nuke 4 or 5 of Zara's cities before he got the SDI up too, and no one else seemed to be building them at all. Via such short term advantage wars, I manage to expand my lead to 3500ish to 2200 But alas, it was all to no avail... I got nailed by that most enraging of problems; Despite having an entire continent, there wasn't a single aluminium on it. There were two right in the middle of Zara's lands, right where I couldn't ever get too of course. And some for both Victoria and Montezuma too. But none for me. DAMNIT.
So I swapped to building a large naval fleet, and throwing Gilgamesh to him piece by piece, in the hopes I could convert my continental material wealth to a Space Race victory. Might have got away with it too, if it weren't for the fact that Victoria, when I was on the last 3 pieces, sailed all the way around the map to declared a pointless war whilst still "Pleased" natch, thus leaving my people constantly War Weary, and sapping my economic strength just enough for Zara to launch his ship 8 turns before mine.
Came second in the points, by 300 in the end too. I was furious.
Dragon Reborn
Chieftain
It was my first ever noble game, 12 other civs almost everything on random, playing as England
We ended up all on the same island, my neighbours were Greece and Byzantine. I had a few short early wars with Greece but it took me a while to get used to the increased difficulty so I fell well behind Portugal, Mali and Byzantine. As soon as I got the redcoats I declared on Greece and manged to wipe them out. Things then started to go very well and I was catching my rivals before Byzantine sent over four huge stacks of infantry, Artillery and Cavalry. I lost London but then won it back but I am having to draft five infantry every turn just to hold onto London and the other stacks are decimating my empire. I think it's time to start a new game
Lessons learn:
- Espionage is very important
- Don't neglect my military in order to catch up in the tech race
- Never trust Byzantine.
We ended up all on the same island, my neighbours were Greece and Byzantine. I had a few short early wars with Greece but it took me a while to get used to the increased difficulty so I fell well behind Portugal, Mali and Byzantine. As soon as I got the redcoats I declared on Greece and manged to wipe them out. Things then started to go very well and I was catching my rivals before Byzantine sent over four huge stacks of infantry, Artillery and Cavalry. I lost London but then won it back but I am having to draft five infantry every turn just to hold onto London and the other stacks are decimating my empire. I think it's time to start a new game
Lessons learn:
- Espionage is very important
- Don't neglect my military in order to catch up in the tech race
- Never trust Byzantine.
I have blundered in my last Monarch game. Basically it came down to two civs going for cultural victory and me going for space race. Had to make a raid into Russian territory to raze one of the legendary culture cities. Succeded, only to look at victory screen and see that Pacal is close to cultural vicoty too, that guy had mech infatry, while I still had normal infantry and tanks. Well I managed to raze one of the culture cities in suicide attack. Made peace. Pacal had now two cities with legendary culture and one with 30000 (epic game needs 75k for legendary status) and growing fast. When it was at 60k, I completed manhatan project and couple nukes.....war followed. That city was nuked to like 4 pop and no buildings, some of his other cities too. My border cities were almost anihilated with tactical nukes he launched. That slowed him.
By next round of war my spaceship was in space, so I just had to delay his cultural victory. I managed to build an SDI and a healthy arcenal of nukes. By that time global warming was ravaging the surface. Miraculously his 3rd city was still gaining culture at about 300-500 per turn (I have no idea how, buildings blown up with nukes, fallout all around it..). Well when my space ship finally arrived that city was at 70k culture after about another 5 nukes landed in it....That was a nasty game, with all the hiatus spaceship arrived in about 1985, but a win is a win.
By next round of war my spaceship was in space, so I just had to delay his cultural victory. I managed to build an SDI and a healthy arcenal of nukes. By that time global warming was ravaging the surface. Miraculously his 3rd city was still gaining culture at about 300-500 per turn (I have no idea how, buildings blown up with nukes, fallout all around it..). Well when my space ship finally arrived that city was at 70k culture after about another 5 nukes landed in it....That was a nasty game, with all the hiatus spaceship arrived in about 1985, but a win is a win.
Diamondeye
So Happy I Could Die
Last game I won on Prince! It is not the game I am walkthroughing atm in this forum, though, t'was just a quickgame (I had options on Prince because of my prince attempt, search the forum if you want to comment on what I should do next), And I randomed Willem. I built a solid 5-city empire, ultimate CE and some gemmines. Everyone was Hindu, except for Izzy, who got slaughtered. I won a space race in 19-something, before any other rivals could launch, and nobody could attack me as we had used AP to sign DPs with all other members. Clever, huh?
stachnie
Theorist
Prince, Large, Continents, high Sea level, Huayna Capac. I started with Hatty next to me and Peter and Tokugawa at the other side of the continent, divided by a large Swamp area. Hatty had no horses and her copper was a bit far, so an excellent opportunity to do the Quechua Rush. I won but I concentrated too much on wonders and religions (founded 3 of them), so I got outexpanded by Pete. However, I was the tech leader. I have discovered the other continent with 5 civs, with Saladin as the leader. They were behind in techs but they started to chase me, especially Saladin (for some time he gained the leadership, now we are equal). The leader in territory was Pete.
My first attack on Pete gave me some more room: I captured one his city, razed 3 another (they spoiled my city placement plan) and found 2 own ones. Then Toku tried to capture my isolated marble city but it was heavily fortified, I had tech advantage and I supplied it with my newely built fleet of Galeons.
My second attack on Pete was planned much more careful. When he was down to 3 cities and war weariness was way too great, I declared peace. The next turn the war was redeclared: Pete had become a vassal of Toku who attacked me. Fortunately, I had enough troops to defend captured cities and quickly eliminate Pete and thus most of WW has gone. After I destroyed Toku's invasion force and razed one of the Japanese (former Russian) cities I made peace - for now.
My plan is:
- to get a good defence in my coastal cities, especially important ones
- to supply Victoria (on the other continent, strongly beaten by Ragnar and Hannibal) by outdated, but CG II troops (Musketmen, Grenadiers and maybe also Riflemen)
- to build Mt. Rushmore, enough Infantry, some Bombers and eliminate Tokugawa, just to own my continent
- to build MUCH stronger navy and upgrade an existing one, get a good invasion force and if Victoria is still not eliminated but the war is still going on, join the war on her side (e.g. vassalizing her) and recapture and give back her former cities.
Perhaps it will be enough to win via UN; if not, I would try Domination or Spaceship.
S.
My first attack on Pete gave me some more room: I captured one his city, razed 3 another (they spoiled my city placement plan) and found 2 own ones. Then Toku tried to capture my isolated marble city but it was heavily fortified, I had tech advantage and I supplied it with my newely built fleet of Galeons.
My second attack on Pete was planned much more careful. When he was down to 3 cities and war weariness was way too great, I declared peace. The next turn the war was redeclared: Pete had become a vassal of Toku who attacked me. Fortunately, I had enough troops to defend captured cities and quickly eliminate Pete and thus most of WW has gone. After I destroyed Toku's invasion force and razed one of the Japanese (former Russian) cities I made peace - for now.
My plan is:
- to get a good defence in my coastal cities, especially important ones
- to supply Victoria (on the other continent, strongly beaten by Ragnar and Hannibal) by outdated, but CG II troops (Musketmen, Grenadiers and maybe also Riflemen)
- to build Mt. Rushmore, enough Infantry, some Bombers and eliminate Tokugawa, just to own my continent
- to build MUCH stronger navy and upgrade an existing one, get a good invasion force and if Victoria is still not eliminated but the war is still going on, join the war on her side (e.g. vassalizing her) and recapture and give back her former cities.
Perhaps it will be enough to win via UN; if not, I would try Domination or Spaceship.
S.
Emperor Giulio
King
It was my first ever noble game, 12 other civs almost everything on random, playing as England
We ended up all on the same island, my neighbours were Greece and Byzantine. I had a few short early wars with Greece but it took me a while to get used to the increased difficulty so I fell well behind Portugal, Mali and Byzantine. As soon as I got the redcoats I declared on Greece and manged to wipe them out. Things then started to go very well and I was catching my rivals before Byzantine sent over four huge stacks of infantry, Artillery and Cavalry. I lost London but then won it back but I am having to draft five infantry every turn just to hold onto London and the other stacks are decimating my empire. I think it's time to start a new game
Lessons learn:
- Espionage is very important
- Don't neglect my military in order to catch up in the tech race
- Never trust Byzantine.
Dreams & Nightmares of Manifest Destiny on Noble
Currently I am playing a game on Noble; I am used to playing on Warlord. Playing as the Romans with Augustus I started on a fairly large continent with Arabia as my neighbor. I sent many Axe men and Praetorians off to fight, and I completely annexed their country. They had already founded Judaism and Hinduism in their capital, later I founded Christianity. I missed the AP by a few turns but I built that wonder (can’t recall the name) that enables all religious civics and I set it to free religion. In fear of another Civ settling in my continent I built many new Cities and completely settled the continent. As I figured I would be struggling financially due to the rapid expansion. I met with Charlemagne who is the founder of Buddhism and the AP leader, the rest of the world except for one other country is Buddhist as well. Thankfully due to the Free Religion civic he does not hate me and I am on good terms with him and most of the world. I am backward technologically and poor, yet I have the highest score and I am 300 points ahead of my closet rival Charlemagne. This should be an interesting one.
Probably my most satisfactory win ever, as Frederic on epic Noble, large fractal map came out as 2 continents, everything else random.
This is how it went:
Got rid of my next door neighbor, Mehmed, in the Chariot/Axeman time, then expanded on our common real estate to become #1 in rank.
Was best friends with Joao II, my next door neighbor, for the longest time from sharing religion and trading a lot, and also initially quite friendly with Qin, the other remaining power on my continent (also in confucianism, which I had founded).
Built a huge army as soon as Panzer became available and eradicated Qin in about 15 turns, who at that time was #2 on the leader board and had become cautious towards me.
That went fairly quickly because he had not built a big army - probably because he was friends with Joao as well, whom I used as staging area for a multi-pronged assault, since I did not share a border with Qin. Coastal cities were attacked with destroyers whilst Qin could only field frigates, and my Panzers and Cavalry faced nothing beyond grenadiers and riflemen.
Qin had graciously built Mining Corp for me in his capital, which I spread to good effect in my cities, at that time having like 8 coppers and 4 irons.
Then only Joao remained on my continent, still pleased with me although we had some close border issues because I surrounded him from both sides, and I apparently had attacked a friend of his ...
He was the new #2 ranked by score, but nonetheless, his army was minimal and I mopped him up with panzers even quicker than Qin, now augmented by fighters and bombers to bring down city defenses. He started building anti-tanks just before I attacked, but they were no match for my highly promoted tanks (abt. equal numbers of city raider, barrage or drill). Also had a medic 3 GG and a couple of medic 2 Cavalry that healed everybody in 2 turns between city attacks.
From Joao I got the creative corp, which I spread to my peak cultural cities, being instrumental in my eventual cultural win.
Between the two wars on my continent, Stalin attacked from the other one out of the blue with a big stack on about 8 galleons, but my infantry and panzers were attacked by cannon, curaissiers (sp?) and riflemen - he could not even get a foot on the ground successfully.
After I had eradicated his attack stack and the fleet, he (much to my surprise) agreed to become my vassal, although I had not even started to counterattack on his soil.
In the end I followed a dual strategy, building a spaceship whilst also running 100% culture in my three peak cities, incidentally the first 3 cities I had built. Had so many cities at that time that I could pay all my bills from some creating wealth, whilst others on research made sure I acquired the necessary techs for the space race.
Won a cultural victory around 1970 while my fully equipped spaceship was underway and had 6 more turns to arrive. Had sufficient share of population but not of land for a domination victory and had fallen exactly 6 votes (less than 1% of 700+ votes required) short of a diplomatic victory as the builder of the UN shortly before - might have made it next time too.
That was very satisfying - my first big win on Prince
- and I could have won it nearly any way.
Key lessons learned:
- follow a defined strategy,
- clearly define role of each city in your empire (production, military, commerce, GP farm),
- don't overbuild your secondary cities with buildings they don't need,
- play to the strengths of your leader and the UU/UB, and
- test each strategic decision on fulfillment of the ultimate goal.
(nothing new there but really the first time I actually followed these rules stringently)
Bringing down cultural city protection through spies did not really work very well, although I tried it a lot and had sufficient espionage points, but in most cases I had to resort to the old fashioned bombardment.
Using my air force to first destroy cultural protection and then reduce defender's hit points was very effective in suffering minimal losses with my ground forces.
Will have to try my first one on Monarch soon!
Nansen
This is how it went:
Got rid of my next door neighbor, Mehmed, in the Chariot/Axeman time, then expanded on our common real estate to become #1 in rank.
Was best friends with Joao II, my next door neighbor, for the longest time from sharing religion and trading a lot, and also initially quite friendly with Qin, the other remaining power on my continent (also in confucianism, which I had founded).
Built a huge army as soon as Panzer became available and eradicated Qin in about 15 turns, who at that time was #2 on the leader board and had become cautious towards me.
That went fairly quickly because he had not built a big army - probably because he was friends with Joao as well, whom I used as staging area for a multi-pronged assault, since I did not share a border with Qin. Coastal cities were attacked with destroyers whilst Qin could only field frigates, and my Panzers and Cavalry faced nothing beyond grenadiers and riflemen.
Qin had graciously built Mining Corp for me in his capital, which I spread to good effect in my cities, at that time having like 8 coppers and 4 irons.
Then only Joao remained on my continent, still pleased with me although we had some close border issues because I surrounded him from both sides, and I apparently had attacked a friend of his ...
He was the new #2 ranked by score, but nonetheless, his army was minimal and I mopped him up with panzers even quicker than Qin, now augmented by fighters and bombers to bring down city defenses. He started building anti-tanks just before I attacked, but they were no match for my highly promoted tanks (abt. equal numbers of city raider, barrage or drill). Also had a medic 3 GG and a couple of medic 2 Cavalry that healed everybody in 2 turns between city attacks.
From Joao I got the creative corp, which I spread to my peak cultural cities, being instrumental in my eventual cultural win.
Between the two wars on my continent, Stalin attacked from the other one out of the blue with a big stack on about 8 galleons, but my infantry and panzers were attacked by cannon, curaissiers (sp?) and riflemen - he could not even get a foot on the ground successfully.
After I had eradicated his attack stack and the fleet, he (much to my surprise) agreed to become my vassal, although I had not even started to counterattack on his soil.
In the end I followed a dual strategy, building a spaceship whilst also running 100% culture in my three peak cities, incidentally the first 3 cities I had built. Had so many cities at that time that I could pay all my bills from some creating wealth, whilst others on research made sure I acquired the necessary techs for the space race.
Won a cultural victory around 1970 while my fully equipped spaceship was underway and had 6 more turns to arrive. Had sufficient share of population but not of land for a domination victory and had fallen exactly 6 votes (less than 1% of 700+ votes required) short of a diplomatic victory as the builder of the UN shortly before - might have made it next time too.
That was very satisfying - my first big win on Prince
- and I could have won it nearly any way.Key lessons learned:
- follow a defined strategy,
- clearly define role of each city in your empire (production, military, commerce, GP farm),
- don't overbuild your secondary cities with buildings they don't need,
- play to the strengths of your leader and the UU/UB, and
- test each strategic decision on fulfillment of the ultimate goal.
(nothing new there but really the first time I actually followed these rules stringently)
Bringing down cultural city protection through spies did not really work very well, although I tried it a lot and had sufficient espionage points, but in most cases I had to resort to the old fashioned bombardment.
Using my air force to first destroy cultural protection and then reduce defender's hit points was very effective in suffering minimal losses with my ground forces.
Will have to try my first one on Monarch soon!
Nansen 
r_rolo1
King of myself
Last game I played was the on deck LHC in Monarch... 11,5 h in a standart size normal speed game 
.... the details are posted in the LHC, but fighting almost non stop agaisnt at least 1 civ from 1650 to 1997 is quite a blast.... not good for the hall of fame , but who cares? 
.... the details are posted in the LHC, but fighting almost non stop agaisnt at least 1 civ from 1650 to 1997 is quite a blast.... not good for the hall of fame , but who cares? I wanted to win my first conquest victory so I disabled domination. I usually go to war to gain more land so I've been keeping most of the cities. I started pretty late because I'm a builder and I was playing the Incas, concentrating on wonders and my economy. When I had a tech lead I attacked my weakest neighbor, Mao. That was easy because he was the only one with Judaism. After he was gone the world was split between Hinduism (me) and Buddhism and with the help of my Hindu brothers I annexed Buddhist, Byzantine and Germany. By then I was so powerful and so far ahead in tech that I could comfortable turn on my Hindu brothers (Koreans and Mongols). Now I'm in the process of destroying the last civilization (Koreans) with modern armors and they are still using riflemen and Cavalry.
Dragon Reborn
Chieftain
My latest noble game is going very well, I started on a medium sized island with the Germans and I manged to trap them in a small corner (they only had room for four cities). About 1400AD I sent a large group of knights over to take Berlin, Munich and Hamburg and leave Freddie with only Cologne as my vassal state.
I am now winning as I have a booming economy and I'm out teching everyone, Plus, as I'm a island it will be very hard for anyone to invade me. Now I just need to take out Shaka and Isabella.
I am now winning as I have a booming economy and I'm out teching everyone, Plus, as I'm a island it will be very hard for anyone to invade me. Now I just need to take out Shaka and Isabella.
running a noble game with Big and small (but otherwise randomized) as Napoleon controlling India (underrated) started out on a fairly small island together with Monty in lead of China and grabed his land with my first couple of Axemen (getting his Hindu Holy City) and went Buildermanic ... had some problems up to around 400 AD with Barbs interpecting the land areas between old china and my original area due to loads of deserts ... founded confucianism and started spreading it all over India, after i'd got started with building and i deemed that it should be able to take care without to much micromanegement i started exploring east and west ... discovered that to the southwest there is a small continent with Babylon and Korea (in a pretty permanent stalemate war) and that there to the east was Russia and Egypt which was quite friendly to each other though Russia had a small lead (even though Booty was leading Egypt) ... annoying it wasn't confucianism which i've spead all over india that was speading to the others ... it was hinduism (both Korea, Russia and Egypt became Hindues quite fast) ... even though i kept on good terms with them, partly because i traded a lot with them, our open borders and that we was to far from eachother for anyone bothering to attack the other ... Babylon went as the only party for confucianism together with me (guess partly because their ancient enemy Korea went Hinduist)
It all went well with no major stuff happeing, other than building cities around on my island and two small neighboring abandoned islands, and Babylon and Korea warring each other ... chose that Babylon would proberly be my first target and started spreading Hinduism though, and founded Taoism due to tech lead ... at around 1350AD i got optics and started exploring abroad ... found Maya and Celtic on an island (with the rest of the religions, Buddism, Judaism Christianity and some time later Islam) on the last stages of a seemly long war with Maya winning ... and also found Summeria and Spain, neither with any religion but otherwise the same story as Maya and Celtic, where Summeria is winning
at the moment its 1700 AD, just went to hinduist because i popped a golden age where i changed all my civics to better (had just gotten Democracy), and i've a major techlead (would guess around ~10 techs in front of number 2) and about to tech to Rifles and Cannons which i'm going to use on Babylon and after that Korea which is the two smallest lands not vasselized ... and planing on getting Sids Sushi since i've in my own lands something like 13-15 seafood)
It all went well with no major stuff happeing, other than building cities around on my island and two small neighboring abandoned islands, and Babylon and Korea warring each other ... chose that Babylon would proberly be my first target and started spreading Hinduism though, and founded Taoism due to tech lead ... at around 1350AD i got optics and started exploring abroad ... found Maya and Celtic on an island (with the rest of the religions, Buddism, Judaism Christianity and some time later Islam) on the last stages of a seemly long war with Maya winning ... and also found Summeria and Spain, neither with any religion but otherwise the same story as Maya and Celtic, where Summeria is winning
at the moment its 1700 AD, just went to hinduist because i popped a golden age where i changed all my civics to better (had just gotten Democracy), and i've a major techlead (would guess around ~10 techs in front of number 2) and about to tech to Rifles and Cannons which i'm going to use on Babylon and after that Korea which is the two smallest lands not vasselized ... and planing on getting Sids Sushi since i've in my own lands something like 13-15 seafood)
