I had tried to prepare for this game by playing the iroquese
on deity but had also accidentally ticked accelerated
production, and got totally stomped on. Azteks, Americans
and Zulu killed me faster than you could say Tomahawk, tech
pace was so furious that I soon fell hopelessly behind, an
unmitigated disaster. So it was with some trepidation that I
started the 6-4 game with PTW1.27f Conquest (Monarch equiv).
The real game started much better and my fears were soon
replaced by a careful sense of hope. The victory condition
(Conquest) was again something my builder's soul does not
usually contemplate, but seeing how well the mongol game
went for me, I hoped that the mounted warriors would be good
enough to at least eke out a powerful start position before
the MA. All my cities got a cheap temple first, to fill the
territory and to give me an edge against later culture flips.
I built on the spot and started to send scouts. They had
extraordinary luck with goody huts, the first one gave me a
city (not a great spot, but a free city is a free city is a
free city
), two techs and one was empty. No barbarians,
though later they would kill all my scouts. The start was
slow with the most natural territory for setteling being
covered with jungle and bounded by desert in the north. I
did put a city north of the desert and built a quick temple
to prevent flipping, hoping that the scatter of egyptian
cities that crept south might flip, but that did not
happen. In the southwest the americans and Azteks were met
with cities and we kept the mountains/desert as a divide for
now. My fringe floodplane cities were set to build workers
and roads were pushed along later potential invasion routes.
Picture 230BC: The circles show my and the egyptian
capitals. Flippin' paradise that is, mate.
First ones to feel the mounted warriors were the egyptians.
I managed to push Cleo up north, took all ciies south of the
capital and included the capital to prevent culture
flips. Then I saw the egyptians were pushed far into the
tundra with isolated cities, no roads, terrible
infrastructure so I sued for peace with two techs and a
northern village.
Next were the Azteks. They had been pushed back by the
americans and had recently put a small village into the
southern desert. I had to wait for a few turns until the
bulk of my forces had been transferred from the egyptian
front to the south. All american frontier cities and the
former egyptian cities got either walls or a reasonable
holding force (one spearman + one regular mounted warrior
for strikes on approaching troops), the rest was pushed
toward the azteks. Zulu and I signed RoP, America was
polite at the time. The Azteks fell very quickly and had no
techs worth making peace for, so they were destroyed. They
left large gaps in their territory into which english and
zulu settlers tried to settle. I set up a worker screen (all
slaves, I had visions of slaves throwing themselves into the
path of the advancing spears to keep their new masters
happy - well, what do you expect from people who were used
to the consequences of disobedience consisting of an
obsidian knife, an altar atop a pyramid and their own heart
in the firepit... ) I managed to avoid enemy settlements
and the fresh temples soon filled the gaps.
In all military strategies one stands out as the most
simple, yet most devastating one of all: Surround your enemy
and you will annihilate him. So of course, rather than
tackling the english first I took on the southern American
territory. The goal is not annihilation, but to also push
the americans into the northern wastes like the egyptians.
So I had four battle groups: three through the gaps in the
mountains, one to start rolling them up from the south. Each
group has two cities to take and hold. And if one gets
stuck, the others are close and can be diverted to give aid.
The circle in red is the city they gifted me for peace, the
dotted line the anticipated cutoff (in the desert!) and the
arrows show my main thrusts. They are doomed. I've blacked
out anything not on my continent in case there are several
spoiler threads for this game. The location of the FP to be
is also indicated.
Finally the americans were beaten (according to plan, I am
pleased to add) and will be mopped up at my leisure. First
we need to look at the english. The Zulu are my friends, and
we still have that RoP, although neither he nor I ever used
it (except for a few minor instances. It really helps not to
have gaps in my territories that tempt settlers. The Zulu
have also been dragged into an alliance against the
Ottomans, but I can't see them ferrying troops across. So it
is easy to get the Zulu to join a MA against the english,
with the hope that they at least tie up a few troops in the
english hinterlands.
At this time I get knights, and the production of a few core
cities has been set to barracks, then knights. Some upgrades
are made (and I finally learn the hard way that an elite
mounted warrior upgrades to a veteran knight
). I still
have not seen a leader and the loss of two elites (they
promote so slowly) to ignorance is tough. I start
construction of the forbidden palace in New York, former
american heartlands, close to the Zulu border. (I intend to
post this when everyone has full world map, happened for me
a long time ago, but I can imagine scenarios where the
second continent is still hidden.) The argument is that the
main problem will be an EARLY invasion of the second
continent with galleys across ocean (Well designed cracker,
I'm sure it's doable, but its certainly not trivial. Very
nice!), and I will need a second highly productive center
pumping military once I have control of my own continent.
So, the english. This is now getting hard, because the first
pikemen show, and they put up much more resistance to my
MWs. I push into england from the east, trying to conquer
all cities east of and including London which has built the
lighthouse (immeasurable value for the invasion!). My MWs
are clearly obsolete now, it takes a lot of troops to do it,
and the first knights join the fray on my side, tipping the
tide. York flips back, but is reconquered immediately. I
never park more troops than I need to in a freshly conquered
city close to their former capital, and always keep a few
healthy units outside the city to kill the one (!) defender
present after the flip. Finally I even get my first leader,
he immediately rushes FP in New York. The english give me
two additional cities for peace after the fall of London.
Dangerous, one is a foothold on the far side of the new
continent one on an island, (circles) but I was not going to
turn them down. Rush some culture, and it might just be the
staging ground I need later!
This is the end of my first Saturday of play, I'm on tech
parity with everyone and feel confident that this continent
will be mine before long.
The mopup is easy. I have some 30-40 knights after upgrading
my MWs at a few choice barracks, and take out the egyptians
and americans quickly. Then I position strike forces of 4-6
knights near all major Zulu cities (on neutral or my
territory) and have a stack of 9 knights ready to take the
remaining string of 3 english cities along the coast. Swazi
flips just before I want to declare war and that gives me
even better access to their territory. I forgot about the
metropolis bonus though, and the knights I have near the big
cities are not enough. However, they manage to retreat often
enough that a holding battle can be fought until more
reinforcements arrive. Finally the english and Zulu are
destroyed, with Leo's in Zimbabwe, Yeeha.
I am 14 turns away from Military tradition, and decide to
wait for upgrades to cavalry before the invasion of the
second continent. Embassies established in Rome and
Entremont show that the Celts have only horses, and the
romans have only horses and iron, but I see 6 musketmen, so
they must trade Saltpeter from somewhere. I have 14 galleys
on the south coast and send all my knights to the adjacent
city (not a harbor, but close enough). The lighthouse means
I can make the crossing easily in two steps, and only two
such crossings will be enough to bring the bulk of my forces
across. A better player might gamble on an early crossing
with knights which will rock against the Celts, and save
some turns, then upgrade in a rushed barracks over
there. This only occurred to me afterwards, though. (SirPleb
will be shaking his head here... ) I do have a leader,
though, so if I do find a good spot I might be tempted to
use it for a palace jump across the water, or a later wonder
(Sun Tzu is in Rome, and I won't attack Rome for a
while). If not, he might just create an army. I know this
ought to be planned better, but I seem to be winning
comfortably. My only worry will be the domination limit.
I get military tradition in 1040 AD, and assume that the
conquest will be achieved in 20 turns, unless resistence
gets much harder. I've not tech traded for a while and was
ahead, and with 4 civs gone (Egypt, Zulu, America, Ottomans)
their pace should be slower.
The invasion will be Monday evening, the weekend had to
include some time with the wife (who is VERY good about me
playing civ, especially if I buy her a good new book to read
while I play...
Should that go into the war academy?)
Invasion goes really well. The Keltoi have nothing to stop
me, and get overrun in a few turns with minimal losses. Then
its the romans turn. They have Sun Tzu in Rome which I
really want, and I march on rome with ~20 cavalries. But
rome has a big army of knights and they pound me. It is only
due to my short supply route that constant reinforcements
can be ferried over in time to actually take Rome. A near
thing though, I lose about half my units in the
battle. After that their back is broken and they fall
easily. I am glad I resisted the urge to declare war on the
ottos, but once all is clear they'll be easy. I am running
close to domination, though, so a lot of cities get razed,
even a few outlying ones on my home continent. Immediately
barbs spring back up and actually pillage a former celtish
town for me.
After all that buildup the Ottomans are an easy
victory. They do take one town in my undefended hinterlands
but can't keep it. After the fall of rome it was obvious
that I'd win, and I finally did in 1315AD, conquest, Score
5953. Not great, but thoroughly enjoyable. 28+ hours of
gameplay (Sorry dear.....)
Cheers, and thanks again, cracker!
Hammurodi
PTW1.21f 
and after I will go for Ottomans to avoid their mighty cavs and I will finish by Carthage as they are dealing with me GPT
![[ptw]](/images/smilies/ptw.gif "PTW Icon [ptw]")
1.27
