Standard deity playthrough - any advice is welcome

[Pedro78]

Update to 100AD:

Spoiler :

Nothing too interesting going on right now...
Spread irrigation everywhere, realized I hadn't connected the wheat until 50AD even though I had health issues... stupid mistake again...
Traded around (not too much), pulled Sitting Bull off Alexander with Metal Casting
Got National Epic in Kumbi Saleh and just switched into Pacifism (Buddhism) and Caste System, should get at least 3 great merchants by the time I get cuirs
Made peace with Gilga for Metal Casting as well

Overview :

Now the two main questions I have on my mind are :
1. I need to find a way to open borders with Gilga, as he blocks my way to the Maya capital, which holds the Temple of Artemis for maximised trade mission profit
2. I need my horses back from Joao in order to build HAs, but I need his happy/health ressources badly

Thanks to Pangaea, I smashed the river farm and built a cottage on it ^^

 

[dutchfire]

Leira and Oporto are nice targets for your first war. Close to your border and on flatland

 

[Pedro78]

Yeah, Opporto is a nice target, Leiria is a crappy spot though (tundra beavers + no food)

 

[Pedro78]

Btw, I have been wondering for a while, do you guys cottage river tiles outside capital BFC? When playing a non-financial leader, farms are usually a no-brainer for me, but in this case, aren't the 3 commerce grassland cottages better than farms?

 

[dutchfire]

Farms are useful during the whipping cuirs stage too.

 

[Pedro78]

@monkybone :
I was mainly speaking of early (pre-lib) game development.
To be honest I don't have a lot of experience with late game cottages. Usually I just try to find a balance between farms and workshops in the late game, while running state property (usually too lazy for corp planning).
In the late game you shouldn't have happiness cap issues as long as you have a big enough empire (and therfore enough happiness ressources), as well as some happiness buildings (at least a theatre and a couple of temples)

@dutchfire :
Yeah I usually don't think too much about the land outside the capital BFC, I usually just farm everything and whip every city down to the ground during war prep, bureau capital sustains the economy and army during this phase. I am not sure if this is the optimal strategy though.

 

[rah]

I need to find a way to open borders with Gilga, as he blocks my way to the Maya capital, which holds the Temple of Artemis for maximised trade mission profit

I thought GMs didn't need OB to cross through someone's territory. As long as you're not at war with somebody or going to be soon, it's not too dangerous.

 

[Pedro78]

Little update to 450AD :

Spoiler :

Still in caste system, third GM on his way, slowly building up HAs. Going to lib Military Tradition in 4 turns if I can get Music from Pacal, or self-tech music (I hope these guys let me enough time, as Gilga seems to be teching Education already). Then there will be 11 turns for the last GM to travel, in those turns I will tech Gunpowder and go full whip mode on HAs. Total gold from GMs will be 4500-5100, enough for ~30 upgrades. Not too big an army, but Joao still has medieval units, so it should be fine if I manage the war properly and keep whipping cuirs on the other end.

Overview :

So theoretically I am attacking in 15 turns, which will be T148 (760AD), not too bad for what I am used too, probably not too good with this kind of start.

Oh and yeah right, GMs do not need open borders, didn't know that until now lol but it makes it much easier for me as there was no way I could get OB with Gilga unless I switched religion and gifted a bunch of techs

 

[Pedro78]

Update to 840AD :

Spoiler :

My war planning dragged on a little longer than expected. That was partly because I had more cash than expected (6900 total), but mostly because I was a bit lazy planning the HA whipping.

Eventually got ready to attack in 820AD (3 turns later than expected) :

Before I attacked, begged some cash to Pacal, demanded for Gilga but then realized that I could bribe Brennus on him. So I bribed Brennus on Gilga for Education + Gunpowder, Sitting Bull had recently re-DoW'd Alexander so everybody is tied up right now.
Right before I declared, I whipped a couple of theatres in the biggest whipping cities so I could deal with the unhappiness from war + no trade.

Leira had only 3 defenders, had 0 losses here. 840AD taking Opporto

Not too many defenders in there, his "stack" outside the city isn't too impressive either :

Took the city and got a great general the same turn :

Realised I hadn't even built a barracks in my ex-GM farm,

And Opporto is a pretty nice spot

The bad thing is that I now don't have a single foreign trade route as my only neighbour is Joao.
Next update coming soon...

 

[Pedro78]

Until 1030AD :

Spoiler :

The great war continues...

880AD -
I move a ~20 cuirassiers stack into his territory to take Lisbon, and smart Joao decides to suicide his stack against mine :

980AD -
A couple of trades - badly needed mercantilism as I don't have any foreign trade routes anyways, Sitting bull still lags behind in tech :

After healing for 2 turns, I take my stack to Lisbon and take it without too many losses (lost 6-7 cuirs on a 20 stack), the place is pretty damn nice :

Got a second great general here (oh and I switched to theocracy btw) :

1030AD -

I realise stupid Alexander just capitulated to Sitting Bull... should have watched closer.
Okay so now it is time to OB with Gilga, so I need to get him back to cautious. He is the only one not having Military Tradition yet, so I give it to him for ~400. I also convert to hinduism (still loving spiritual Mansa). I didn't check what his favorite civic is, but it seems to help out a bunch. Now he is back to cautious and I can OB with him. Why? A river crossing issue :

That was a pretty nice undefended city... Joao even grew towns for me, how could he be nicer?

 

[DrCron]

Your lib date was earlier than I would have expected with that map. I have been playing with non FIN leaders lately and I forgot how strong that trait tends to be.

Looks like you are doing ok...

Spoiler :

You should be able to get another 3-4 cities from Joao before capitulating him. I would let him keep a relevant border with Gilgamesh, since Sumeria is probably your next target. That way he'll keep some Sumerian troops busy.

 

[Pedro78]

Next big update till the end of the Joao war (1120AD) :

Spoiler :

Still on my way to Steel, teching really slow now as I have to run 30% culture to avoid unhappiness. The end of the war was pretty much a piece of cake. The fact that Joao got Gunpowder really late sure helped out. Even when he got it he kept on building cuirs instead of city garrison muskets. Basically after killing his stack and taking his capital all he had was 3-7 units per city (+ a couple of catapults) and a few wandering units.

1050AD Guimarães :

Guess I could use the University of Sankore as I get cheap temples, esp if Pacal spreads me the AP religion.

1070AD Lagos :

Pretty nice place as well, will probably end up smashing the villages to put workshops though.

1000AD Faro then 1110AD Avar :

He leaves such big cities with so little defense, usually AIs are tougher even on immortal...

1110AD he is willing to capitulate, but I still want his last city on the south of the continent :

1120AD -

Best luck ever in combat :

Got capitulation + Printing Press from Joao :

After some trading with my new vassal, switching civics around (I think free speech is worth it as I have tons of towns + need culture in recently captured cities) :

That's how the world looks like now (finally at the top of the score board ^^) :

Future plans :

War :
Next stop is Gilga. I still have 30 cuirs across my territory, so I could hit him pretty hard in 2-3 turns. HOWEVER, he is pretty close to rifling (he might even be teching it at the moment), so if he gets rifles I am screwed. Plus he is no longer at war with Brennus. So I think the best would be for me to wait for the end of his peace treaty with Brennus and bribe Brennus on him, then wait 2 turns and backstab him. Then, even if he gets rifles, I will have cannons pretty soon and it won't be much of a problem.

Economy :
Here's the biggie, as I suck at managing late game economy. I'm pretty sure I need Oxford, Heroic Epic now that I have marble, and IW. I think the best would be for me to tech to Communism to get State Property + Kremlin, while slowly conquering Gilga, Brennus and maybe Pacal. Then sit back and tech, and finally whip/rush buy a bunch of tanks to kill Native America. The biggest problem will be to sustain teching while building tons of troops. Recently conquered cities will take ~20 turns to be completely usable, and then I still need Oxford, not too sure about how to manage this.

@DrCron :

Spoiler :

Yeah financial is awesome, I don't think I would have been able to handle this map with Toku lol
I don't think letting Joao keep an important border with Gilga was an option, as all his big cities (and all his good land) were on Gilga's border. Plus I think taking more cities is better on the long term. This post-jungle land is awesome after communism.

I think the game is in a winnable position now, let's hope I won't blow it stupidly ^^

 

[Major Tom]

Thanks for your write up. Well written and interesting to follow.

 

[Pedro78]

The game didn't turn out as sexy as I planned it... (update to 1615AD) :

Spoiler :

Basically Gilga got rifles by ~1150AD so there was no way I could kill him with cuirs, and It would have been quite hard to whip an army of cannons, especially as his cavalry would have wiped them out
So I healed and prepared for ~6 turns, went all the way south-east to reach Pacal, who was pretty far ahead in tech but didn't have rifles yet, and DoW'd him in 1210AD...

He had pretty nice places so I kept his cities with stacks of cuirs so they didn't revolt.

Cap in 4 turns :

Then I went ahead and did the same to Brennus, who was really weak as he got his ass kicked by Gilga :

Then I slowly got to communism for State Property + Kremlin (which I realised much later that Sitting Bull had already built it a looong time ago...)

Built Oxford, IW and all that stuff, spammed every flatland tile that wasn't farmed or didn't have a town on it with workshops, then begun building factories and coal plants everywhere while I was teching my way to tanks, got them 1585AD :

Now building up tanks and cash slowly, will rush buy a lot more once I finish the Pentagon in IW city :

Oh and I am also building many spies, not sure if that will be really useful against rifles+cavs though...

@Major Tom : I'm glad that you like it ^^

 

[Pedro78]

Update till the end game (1/2) :

Spoiler :

1650AD - DoW Gilga... I'll just post the pictures here, the spies helped out a little as he turned out to have infantry, but I didn't have enough EPs to really use the spies to their full potential, was a rather short an expansive war, I didn't plan much here as I had the numbers :

Then I switched all the EPs to Sitting Bull and waited for a big enough army to attack... attacked in 1695AD, again an ugly war, not much strategy here, factories + coal plant + CS workshops & State Property really make a 15 cities empire pump out tons of tanks

Gifted back many captured cities to Gilga, was a bit lazy checking if they had enough defenses to last every turn, really not too keen on late game war, esp when the ennemy is far behind...

End of the update next post...

 

[Pedro78]

Update till the end game (2/2) :

Spoiler :

The war against Sitting Bull goes rather well...

Until I really stop paying attention and he takes his capital back... stupid me lol (his vassal had already revolted and joined me, I was only waiting for him to capitulate...)

He eventually capitulates without me having to take his city back :

Finally...

The stats (that's a lot of misused tanks, probably could have ended much earlier) :

Well that was my first conquest win on normal speed deity, hope it was an entertaining writeup ^^

Thoughts on the map :
Surprisingly not too hard a map, although the starting positions were weird (some AIs boxed in and some with lots of land), but it turned out well.

Spoiler :

Joao not becoming a monster was probably due to all the jungle land he had to improve, and his useless tundra cities up north

 

[DrCron]

Nice game. I think without a FIN leader it would have been much harder due to the lack of food in your land. Anyway, you did well. Interesting strategy for me since I personally never go for tanks. After rifles and cannons I usually try to help my troops with airships, maybe get infantry, and win the game with that (or planes if it gets there).

 

[Pedro78]

Thanks!
Well the FIN trait sure did help a lot, especially pre-lib. The SPI trait also synergises very well with this type of strategy, as I kept switching civics/religions.
I really like to go to tanks in the situations where I can get an easy tech lead, as the war with them goes so much faster (by that time you have huge production and you can just send build up huge stacks carelessly)

 

[ManUnited4Ever]

Entertaining and well written write-up! I always enjoy watching people tear the Deity AI limb from limb. Never been able to pull off something like this myself.

 

[Pedro78]

@ManUnited4Ever thanks!