Minor Annoyance
Deity
I was on an iceberg and found a book that was either in Swedish about French spies, or French about Swedish spies. This was the night before G&K came out so it was on my mind. I was going to play as Byzantium but decided to play as Sweden instead and have France in the game. I didn't think of it at the time but I should have played on a colder map to fulfill the prophecy.
-This is just the story of the game now
I played going for tall, great people, and patronage since that all fits with Sweden's bonuses.
My first city was up near a bay and my second was down by this mountain that gave faith. Soon while scouting I saw a French army moving north and I was the only thing north so I bought some walls for that city I had only an archer (which started as a scout and lasted the whole game to become a machine gun with ignore terrain movement cost and 2 range) two warriors and a scout and they had at least twice that and mounted units. I had the mountain blocking and some jungle round back so I held them back and killed some units and they eventually backed off which surprised me, but I guess they would have heavy losses if they did take the city.
That was the start of a war that lasted the whole game, save for a 10 tune brake. I built a citadel with my first GG (stealing some land too) and that helped hold them off. I stole industrialization to even the tech race that I was behind in and I sometimes took a border city and burned it but they often rebuilt when I couldn't hold the empty space for long. Korea launched a ironclad attack from across the ocean and I did want to split my focus so when France offered peace without and demands (they usually asked for the disputed city and one more plus lots of resources). I was getting ready for a sea attack anyway so I had ships to defend. I think they bay confused the AI because they could have waited until they were right at my capital to declare but dis so early and landed units at the entrance of the bay and islands so they delayed themselves and I took them out with my ships.
It was then I discovered that fighting me was all that kept France from taking out Austria and America because they lost like three cities each in those 10 turns. My spy said France was already plotting against me anyway so I went right back to war. I started taking cities with ships and amphibious units. I always said the amphibious promotion had to take less exp to get (enough that you could build new units with enough) or they'd never be used. Who wants to risk elite units on a risky sea attack? I took cities on there east coast and burned them while taking the former American cities by land. By now I had managed a tech lead so I could finally make some progress rather than just hold for 30000 years. I noticed I had enough CS allies to win diplomacy (I didn't even get them through spending gold) so I beelined for the UN after getting planes.
Eventually I took their west coast as well (most of which was formerly Austria) without mcuh resistance and by land with air support I finally broke into some of there own cities (not counting the small boarder cities I burned before) and finally they were broken and I was taking another inland city every 2-3 turns. I got to Paris and offered peace. They still would only give me an even trade. I thought maybe it was flawed AI that they would still make demands after I burned cities and held them off continuously only occasionally offering no terms, but it may have instead been personality. Napoleon not willing to give anything up.
Shortly after I won by diplomacy. Getting almost a unanimous vote from city states, and my only other serious rival voting for me.
So it was a good first game. I had a consistent threat so it wasn't always an assumed victory. Took a whole week and 60 hours though, partly because I'm just indecisive but also because of that perpetual war where I had to constantly guard and try to advance to give clear me some more space for a buffer.
Moderator Action: Moved from Strategy and Tips
-This is just the story of the game now
I played going for tall, great people, and patronage since that all fits with Sweden's bonuses.
My first city was up near a bay and my second was down by this mountain that gave faith. Soon while scouting I saw a French army moving north and I was the only thing north so I bought some walls for that city I had only an archer (which started as a scout and lasted the whole game to become a machine gun with ignore terrain movement cost and 2 range) two warriors and a scout and they had at least twice that and mounted units. I had the mountain blocking and some jungle round back so I held them back and killed some units and they eventually backed off which surprised me, but I guess they would have heavy losses if they did take the city.
That was the start of a war that lasted the whole game, save for a 10 tune brake. I built a citadel with my first GG (stealing some land too) and that helped hold them off. I stole industrialization to even the tech race that I was behind in and I sometimes took a border city and burned it but they often rebuilt when I couldn't hold the empty space for long. Korea launched a ironclad attack from across the ocean and I did want to split my focus so when France offered peace without and demands (they usually asked for the disputed city and one more plus lots of resources). I was getting ready for a sea attack anyway so I had ships to defend. I think they bay confused the AI because they could have waited until they were right at my capital to declare but dis so early and landed units at the entrance of the bay and islands so they delayed themselves and I took them out with my ships.
It was then I discovered that fighting me was all that kept France from taking out Austria and America because they lost like three cities each in those 10 turns. My spy said France was already plotting against me anyway so I went right back to war. I started taking cities with ships and amphibious units. I always said the amphibious promotion had to take less exp to get (enough that you could build new units with enough) or they'd never be used. Who wants to risk elite units on a risky sea attack? I took cities on there east coast and burned them while taking the former American cities by land. By now I had managed a tech lead so I could finally make some progress rather than just hold for 30000 years. I noticed I had enough CS allies to win diplomacy (I didn't even get them through spending gold) so I beelined for the UN after getting planes.
Eventually I took their west coast as well (most of which was formerly Austria) without mcuh resistance and by land with air support I finally broke into some of there own cities (not counting the small boarder cities I burned before) and finally they were broken and I was taking another inland city every 2-3 turns. I got to Paris and offered peace. They still would only give me an even trade. I thought maybe it was flawed AI that they would still make demands after I burned cities and held them off continuously only occasionally offering no terms, but it may have instead been personality. Napoleon not willing to give anything up.
Shortly after I won by diplomacy. Getting almost a unanimous vote from city states, and my only other serious rival voting for me.
So it was a good first game. I had a consistent threat so it wasn't always an assumed victory. Took a whole week and 60 hours though, partly because I'm just indecisive but also because of that perpetual war where I had to constantly guard and try to advance to give clear me some more space for a buffer.
Moderator Action: Moved from Strategy and Tips
