So I'm playing as the Mayans...

[smallfish]

Standard Continents, Standard Emperor, Abundant Resources...

I figured I might be a lone on another lonely land mass...

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Yeah, not exactly the kind of civs I want as neighbors.

But who knows? Monty hasn't tried his usual Jaguar spam routine despite both of us having embassies, and Austria is just Austria

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So I DOWed a CS early on just to steal a worker, and this seems to have led Austria into believing me "a warmongering menace to the world"

She was an enigma wrapped in neutrality, and I just couldn't have that...

So I paid off Mad Dog Monty to have a go at her and lol it was cheap

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Oh did I mention Monty also completed the GL and went into Classical way before everyone else?

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Yeah...

But that's not the best part

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I'm now stuck with an unwanted friend, and I'm getting ready to pump out catapults out of my capital (building a barracks at the moment), and working on that Irons.

Austria is sitting on a ton of irons too, which is making me worry. And she is taking Honor so I presume she is going the warmonger tech approach (IW beeline).

Maybe I'll backstab her soon and then split this continent between me and Monty there

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[Heerlo]

Looks interesting enough.

PS-Did you win your game in the first impressions thread?

 

[smallfish]

Looks interesting enough.

PS-Did you win your game in the first impressions thread?

Indeed I did, though that was due more to AI incompetence than anything else.

 

[Veneke]

Nice start. Any long term game plan or just deal with it as it comes?

 

[smallfish]

Nice start. Any long term game plan or just deal with it as it comes?

Basically I've been dealing with it as it comes - the vague long-term is domination; I wanted to go science, but it looks like its not viable at the moment.

But where did I left off?

Ah yes, the crux of the moment: a good ole Tabarnak

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Except now you actually need siege engines to support your sword rush or else it'll just fail horribly.

Even with those two catapults, I lost a swordsman.

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But Vienna was mine; a forlorn hope, indeed

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I was getting ready to put an end to this insanely overpowered civ once and for all, pumping out or rushbuying another batch of swords and catapults

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Well, he had made peace with Maria the turn after I attacked, but then this was during the deadlock when it expired, so I paid him off to have a go at Maria again.

TURNS OUT he had a lot more in mind...

predictably

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It was a good thing his lands had no iron, because Jaguar Swordsmen would have been a massive headache to deal with.

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I managed to wipe out his invasion force, threatened his recently settled city...

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Nope - crushed another catapult of his, and damaged another two

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Much better

So we had an uneasy peace while I got ready to put an end to Maria Theresa and then Monty did something I rarely see him do

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I guess I shouldn't be surprised given that he built the Great Library, but still - interesting times laid ahead for me.

Then the alarm buzzed

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I was perplexed at first, then amused that an unmet civ who I met through this screen (Russia) had founded Buddhism

Never fear, I thought - I wanted to try something different, and so here it was

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[smallfish]

Right, now we are getting to where things are... different than in Vanilla.

but first, a shot of what happens when you put Austria out of her palace

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Deal with it

Now I had managed to ally myself with a CS on Monty's flank for their sweet, sweet culture (and a sweet, sweet diversion) during one of their Public Works sponsor events

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I thought this was too funny to not share:

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Which is which ???

But then Monty decided he needed "Living Space" in addition to the unofficial no man's land between our territories, and so he decided to attack - yes, attack - city-states!

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Now, I'm faced with two hard choices here. I could let him get away with it, and then my words will become meaningless on the international stage.

OR, I could enforce it vigorously.

Easy enough.

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Sadly alas we didnt take screen of that exciting scene where five swordsmen and some catapults walked into his outpost city, took it and burned it down with salt.

We must say that it didn't discourage him from sending in another settler, but at least we did make him understand what it means to cross our words.

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Our "DMZ"

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apparently it didn't stop him from trying another CS... sigh...

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But he didn't have the highest literacy rate, it seems.

Hmm...

So to counter this mockery of our last war with him, I settled another city in the vicinity.

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By then we were exploring the wider world with really slow caravels, which kinda makes sense given that they are melee ships now and who wants to fight Renaissance melee ships that can zip in and out as they please

Anyways we met her the first, and the veeeeeeeery next turn:

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But I was still first in Literacy, and now that EVERYONE has spies...

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Yeah

Then someone got conquered, someone who I had a feeling I would not shed a tear for

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And Monty of course finally decided he should make peace

Hark our second contact, with an *Incan* capital in tow

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Then we met Russia, and here's what they are doing thus far:

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Short story long (and no pictures to back it up), we decided Monty lived long enough and that if we were going to do anything useful, it would be through conquering the entire continent in the name of Mayan Islamic Communism.

Having an ally on his flanks proved to be quite the soaker

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Trying to take that CS ate up a huge chunk of his musket-based armies.

but then came terrible news

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If we are reading this correctly, it definitely means Monty has been focused on the bottom line of techs for so long that he didn't even bother getting Unis up and running.

Amazing

But I was still running around with swords and catapults, and the first city we took (Tlatelolco) taught us the importance of having a tech-updated armed force (took it with Longswords and Trebs, because 1-2 hits from the city/defenders and your swordsman was dead.

So we went in

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with muskets

And even then it took a while since we wanted to get cannonae up and running to maximize siege damage

But then the Chinese stole the secrets of Steel from us

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We were actually a pretty forgiving bunch, despite her being hostile for so long. And she had a whole continent to herself to runaway in.

So we let it slide

But the Aztecs were problematic as hell

Great Wall and Himeji, how were we ever going to break through it without breaking our treasury with purchases?

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Between my gunpowder armies to the north and this fleet of city-takers to the south, the Aztecs' days of non-consequence warmongering were over

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In between that same amount of turns, our lone man stationed in Palenque caught and shot this Japanese spy after a heated gun battle right out of a Renaissance-era James Bond flick

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We had denounced him at the request of a CS whom he was bullying, and so...

we forgave.

But for Monty, it was Tuesday

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But it didn't stop there

Not until we fully let him know the price of warmongering on our continent (and not getting Unis asap)

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[smallfish]

One thing my first two games and further reading in this fora have taught me is that I really should have used my Great Scientists to settle Academies instead of "rushing" a tech. It would have led to a much better long-term investment than me having to chug along everyone else (and getting techs stolen lol)

Me thinks that will be the theme of the next game, whoever I play as (probably Netherlands)

 

[Heerlo]

Looking good so far.

 

[Veneke]

Attacking with naval units from the south was a pretty neat trick. I see Monty had at least one Frigate but did he have much of a navy at all otherwise? Also, is it fairly normal to lose a number of techs due to foreign espionage even with a spy defending the capital or was your spy off elsewhere for the Aztec+China tech thefts?

 

[rakun666]

yo dawg i heard you like chitzen itza, so now you can build chitzen itza in chitzen itza.

 

[smallfish]

Attacking with naval units from the south was a pretty neat trick. I see Monty had at least one Frigate but did he have much of a navy at all otherwise? Also, is it fairly normal to lose a number of techs due to foreign espionage even with a spy defending the capital or was your spy off elsewhere for the Aztec+China tech thefts?

Nah, that was a Galleas, the new Medieval-era ranged unit; he didn't have irons to churn out Longswords or Frigates then (and I kinda doubt he had the tech to churn out Frigates, given the timing he stole Education from me lol), which was a very good thing. He did have a ton of Caravels though, which he rushed back from the oceans once I began my naval assault (was surprised to see 4 of them instantly). They proved a stumbling block for me Privateers and Frigs to handle, and combined with his capital's defenses, that's why I lost a chunk of them. (it seems he was relying heavily on Great Wall and Himeji to boost his units too)

Also if you are in the tech lead from Renaissance onwards, placing your spy in the capital (or not initiating embassies) seems to be a good idea because everyone will want to steal from you

Everyone

And they will use them to spy on what wonders you are attempting to build and then beat you to it.

 

[Veneke]

Also if you are in the tech lead from Renaissance onwards, placing your spy in the capital (or not initiating embassies) seems to be a good idea because everyone will want to steal from you

Everyone

And they will use them to spy on what wonders you are attempting to build and then beat you to it.

So the days of the AI hoarding Caravels and Destroyers (I presume) from BTS is back? Sweet.

Better than everyone hating you all the time I suppose, a constant cold war is preferable to a constant hot one.

 

[smallfish]

So the days of the AI hoarding Caravels and Destroyers (I presume) from BTS is back? Sweet.

I guess - I haven't seen how much Wu is building up on her navy, but her ally Quebec City has a ton of Privateers roaming around the waters between us.

Better than everyone hating you all the time I suppose, a constant cold war is preferable to a constant hot one.

Indeed, this new spy mechanic gives more of a cold war-vibe, and you can get into wars over diplomatic faux pas as having your spy caught trying to steal techs from them.

 

[smallfish]

So the days of the AI hoarding Caravels and Destroyers (I presume) from BTS is back? Sweet.

Well, I spoke too soon

She did have a navy, and she wasn't hesitant in showing me just how outmatched I was.