MutilationWave
IDDQD
What does your percentage say? Do future techs or civics move it forward? You're going to be super powerful next age... If you get there.
Tell us the story of your first 1.2 game
- Thread starter MutilationWave
- Start date
What does your percentage say? Do future techs or civics move it forward? You're going to be super powerful next age... If you get there.
It ended after around 150 turns with researching future civics. The counter was at 70% in turn 128. I’ll see if it persists in Exploration.
No mods used? If the files are untouched, hovering over the percentage under the circle should say X/240 on long ages.
Eh, many mods used. But none other than UI mods, as far as I’m aware. I‘ll see if I can replicate it with and without my current mods.
Easiest way is to do as I suggested above; hover over the percentage and see that the number is X/240. If it's not 240, and you are using long ages, then there is a mod in play.
MrRadar
Deity
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2014
- Messages
- 2,305
Modern update.
Well, after all those trials and tribulations of Antiquity and Exploration, in the Modern Age Ada was finally left alone to mind her own business. British Empire under her fired not a single shot, not a single engagement was fought, nothing more was conquered or lost. Just 6 IPs had to recognise our Suzerainty over them but that was it. Nothing else was necessary.
The Exploration Age left me with just 2 LPs and the choice of three Dark Ages, I decided to try out the Economic Dark Age, as I havent tried any DA before. While faster building of Railroad stations and Ports was nice, reduced culture was also felt and while I nearly completed the whole tech tree, there was still a lot left in the civics tree.
Anyway, as AI lost all interest in me and went at each other's throats, all I did was buidling and a bit of digging. Reached 14/15 artefacts and hit a dead end - all the possible digs were done, all the overbuilding possibilities exhausted and the Future Civic was far away. I've built half a sattelite when my banker set up the final branch of the World Bank on t113. Game completion by that time was 87% or so, but AI wasn't really threatening to win an imminent victory, so Modern Age was spent in very chill mood with no pressure.
I think FXS should still come up with some ideas how to enliven it, as there's not much thrill in it still, apart from trying to get the fastest win time.
Well, after all those trials and tribulations of Antiquity and Exploration, in the Modern Age Ada was finally left alone to mind her own business. British Empire under her fired not a single shot, not a single engagement was fought, nothing more was conquered or lost. Just 6 IPs had to recognise our Suzerainty over them but that was it. Nothing else was necessary.
The Exploration Age left me with just 2 LPs and the choice of three Dark Ages, I decided to try out the Economic Dark Age, as I havent tried any DA before. While faster building of Railroad stations and Ports was nice, reduced culture was also felt and while I nearly completed the whole tech tree, there was still a lot left in the civics tree.
Anyway, as AI lost all interest in me and went at each other's throats, all I did was buidling and a bit of digging. Reached 14/15 artefacts and hit a dead end - all the possible digs were done, all the overbuilding possibilities exhausted and the Future Civic was far away. I've built half a sattelite when my banker set up the final branch of the World Bank on t113. Game completion by that time was 87% or so, but AI wasn't really threatening to win an imminent victory, so Modern Age was spent in very chill mood with no pressure.
I think FXS should still come up with some ideas how to enliven it, as there's not much thrill in it still, apart from trying to get the fastest win time.
The 240 is shown correctly. It must have not counted one or more of the legacy path completion milestones.Easiest way is to do as I suggested above; hover over the percentage and see that the number is X/240. If it's not 240, and you are using long ages, then there is a mod in play.
MutilationWave
IDDQD
Was it fun? If so, cool. To me it doesn't sound much fun.
MrRadar
Deity
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2014
- Messages
- 2,305
No, not really. All the competition from the side of the AI was just gone, and when there's no pressure, the game becomes boring.
In Civ IV I have the race and thrill going until or almost until the very end, AI keeps up the pressure and will win if human player slacks. And it can win all sorts of victories there. But in Civ VI-VII there's no more final race, it is just a puzzle for adjacencies to set up a structure that will generate high numbers and try to optimize it to get faster win times, but you can also not optimize and leave your victory for later, AI will wait. While puzzle game can have its own merits, I don't think that it alone makes for an exciting civ game though.
MutilationWave
IDDQD
Every once in a while someone posts about losing and I'm thinking I want to play the game you're playing. One of the reasons I love war so much is the AI can throw more than twice as many units at you as you can produce or buy, then get into a 2v1 and it gets really wild. It more than makes up for their bad tactical decisions. They just can't compete on anything else and I hate that.
MutilationWave
IDDQD
Resurrecting the thread because (in game) tragedy has just struck!
Deity - Charlemagne - Rome -> Mongols - Fractal - Longer Ages
So I haven't had much time to play so I'm probably the last person in the forum on my first 1.2 game
Part 3 or 4 I guess:
Memory is pretty hazy of what happened since the last update so this is gonna be short (edit before posting- not that short). I have been at war with Augustus and Napoleon since Napoleon hilariously backstabbed me. I am allied with Hatshepsut and Catherine.
Neither of my allies has done a single thing to help in this long war. Hattie has had a unit parked in a mountain pass near the front lines. I don't remember when it got there and I've never seen it move. All it does is impede my military movements. At one point Catherine showed up with three trebuchets right when I needed them, moved them aimlessly around behind the front line, then they left when I beat down the district walls with keshig fire.
I can't say enough good about Noyans and Ortoos. The movement of your troops these make possible is nuts. So I've been running a front line of heavy cavalry, Keshigs behind and to the sides, with siege weapons mixed in. Noyans with six movement get to run all over and soak up experience from just about every combat encounter. My enemies kept putting their troops in navigable rivers or in coastal tiles which is a huge mistake when keshigs are around.
I was pretty proud of myself with the fate I handed Napoleon. After his incredible backstab, I took all his cities but one, razing half of them. The last one is off on a little island. That's right, I was able to exile Napoleon to an island out in the ocean.
Augustus put up much more of a fight, but I noticed the age was really going by fast. So I stopped taking cities before I'd get my final military point. Haven't turned in treasure fleets, I might actually get the economic golden age. I'm doing everything I can to delay. Up until a few minutes ago, I had three of Augustus' cities locked down, defeated, but uncaptured. A fourth, Waset, was a dream of a city that I was grinding down to its final districts.
You see, my plan was to delay the age ending because my culture output wasn't great. I wanted to hit all the settlement limits including the one at the end of the Mongol unique civics. At the point of the greatest betrayal, I still needed several civics researched. If I started capturing and razing cities I would jump immediately to at least 85% complete (possibly higher) from 72% by my estimation. I'm already in happiness crisis and some of my cities are at 6 happiness. I wouldn't get my settlement limit increases. Currently at 20/17 with one of those still razing. Razing must be either sped up or not count against the limit.
At the end of turn 99, Augustus made peace with Hatshepsut by giving her Waset. There are seven wonders in Waset. Seven. After a moment of confusion, I literally felt my heart sink in my chest when I saw what had happened.
So I might not even finish this game. I might save scum. I don't know.
Does anyone want to start a new stories thread? I have really enjoyed this, but this one is badly named, I hope that's the reason people stopped posting. If nobody else gets around to it I'll start one tomorrow.
Thanks everyone for participating and if you see Augustus... well due to the forum rules I'm not allowed to say what I suggest you do to him.
Deity - Charlemagne - Rome -> Mongols - Fractal - Longer Ages
So I haven't had much time to play so I'm probably the last person in the forum on my first 1.2 game
Part 3 or 4 I guess:
Memory is pretty hazy of what happened since the last update so this is gonna be short (edit before posting- not that short). I have been at war with Augustus and Napoleon since Napoleon hilariously backstabbed me. I am allied with Hatshepsut and Catherine.
Neither of my allies has done a single thing to help in this long war. Hattie has had a unit parked in a mountain pass near the front lines. I don't remember when it got there and I've never seen it move. All it does is impede my military movements. At one point Catherine showed up with three trebuchets right when I needed them, moved them aimlessly around behind the front line, then they left when I beat down the district walls with keshig fire.
I can't say enough good about Noyans and Ortoos. The movement of your troops these make possible is nuts. So I've been running a front line of heavy cavalry, Keshigs behind and to the sides, with siege weapons mixed in. Noyans with six movement get to run all over and soak up experience from just about every combat encounter. My enemies kept putting their troops in navigable rivers or in coastal tiles which is a huge mistake when keshigs are around.
I was pretty proud of myself with the fate I handed Napoleon. After his incredible backstab, I took all his cities but one, razing half of them. The last one is off on a little island. That's right, I was able to exile Napoleon to an island out in the ocean.
Augustus put up much more of a fight, but I noticed the age was really going by fast. So I stopped taking cities before I'd get my final military point. Haven't turned in treasure fleets, I might actually get the economic golden age. I'm doing everything I can to delay. Up until a few minutes ago, I had three of Augustus' cities locked down, defeated, but uncaptured. A fourth, Waset, was a dream of a city that I was grinding down to its final districts.
You see, my plan was to delay the age ending because my culture output wasn't great. I wanted to hit all the settlement limits including the one at the end of the Mongol unique civics. At the point of the greatest betrayal, I still needed several civics researched. If I started capturing and razing cities I would jump immediately to at least 85% complete (possibly higher) from 72% by my estimation. I'm already in happiness crisis and some of my cities are at 6 happiness. I wouldn't get my settlement limit increases. Currently at 20/17 with one of those still razing. Razing must be either sped up or not count against the limit.
At the end of turn 99, Augustus made peace with Hatshepsut by giving her Waset. There are seven wonders in Waset. Seven. After a moment of confusion, I literally felt my heart sink in my chest when I saw what had happened.
So I might not even finish this game. I might save scum. I don't know.
Does anyone want to start a new stories thread? I have really enjoyed this, but this one is badly named, I hope that's the reason people stopped posting. If nobody else gets around to it I'll start one tomorrow.
Thanks everyone for participating and if you see Augustus... well due to the forum rules I'm not allowed to say what I suggest you do to him.
MrRadar
Deity
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2014
- Messages
- 2,305
Yes, the uselessness of allies is just another stain on the latest installments of Civ franchise. What a contrast with the Old World, where an allied AI actually came in to help me with impressive force and saved my a** in a tricky situation.
I started a second Deity game in this patch, with Xerxes, King of Kings, and man, does it go completely different from my first one. No problems with AI unit spam, all wars in Antiquity staggered and managed, territory acquired, AI keeps donating settlements in peace deals. I have reached mid-Exploration and got the thing again, where I was declared on on the first contact with a new civ: first comes the DoW screen, and after it the contact screen with greeting options, in case I want to do a friendly greeting after being DoWed.
I checked, and the Civ was of course allied to the Civ I was at war already, so that probably means autowar on new contact. Nevertheless, I think that the sequence should be improved: the contact screen should come first, and then the newly contacted Civ should have the opportunity to leave the current alliance if it does not want to go to war, like in other cases. Anyway, after ten turns of zero military action between us, I got a peace deal and they ceded me the largest exchangeable settlement on their landmass just like that, thus giving me a beachhead in the New World, to which I still don't have a clear route without the fog.
In the next Civ, maybe they can drop AI altogether, as part of the 1/3 of things left out and openly state it? For the second installment already it does not play much role anyway.
MutilationWave
IDDQD
For what it's worth I save scummed one turn, took three cities, one for razing. A city with two districts and roughly five rural tiles that is going to take 22 turns to raze. Then I made peace with Augustus for Waset. The city, under resistance, is producing 300 gold per turn. Then I had a little management crisis being seven settlements over the limit. First time I've hit the penalty cap.
A cool little tip to remember once you're under such a happiness deficit is regarding temples. You should already have moved resources around to roughly equalize happiness in your cities where it's the worst. Then you go buy a temple. Damn, still -2 happiness. Don't forget you can move a relic into that temple to get an extra +2 bonus.
In one turn we jumped from 72% to 88% age progress. I think I've got enough time to get enough treasure fleets. I'll get all 4 legacy paths complete this age. What I'm still worried about is getting the last 4 settlement limit increases. If I have time I'll beat on Augustus a bit more, I've got a blitzkrieg all set up. I've got to be careful not to get too many cities so I can still have fun destroying the world next age. I should start the age with 30 ships of the line and a ridiculous amount of cuirassers and field guns. I'm assuming keshigs turn into field guns. Otherwise just an absurd amount, probably about 80 cuirassers. I was getting two free heavy cavalry every ten turns from Charlemagne and one free from each settlement I took.
A cool little tip to remember once you're under such a happiness deficit is regarding temples. You should already have moved resources around to roughly equalize happiness in your cities where it's the worst. Then you go buy a temple. Damn, still -2 happiness. Don't forget you can move a relic into that temple to get an extra +2 bonus.
In one turn we jumped from 72% to 88% age progress. I think I've got enough time to get enough treasure fleets. I'll get all 4 legacy paths complete this age. What I'm still worried about is getting the last 4 settlement limit increases. If I have time I'll beat on Augustus a bit more, I've got a blitzkrieg all set up. I've got to be careful not to get too many cities so I can still have fun destroying the world next age. I should start the age with 30 ships of the line and a ridiculous amount of cuirassers and field guns. I'm assuming keshigs turn into field guns. Otherwise just an absurd amount, probably about 80 cuirassers. I was getting two free heavy cavalry every ten turns from Charlemagne and one free from each settlement I took.
Yzman
Deity
Keshigs count as Calvary. Hard to tell with thr mixing but I didn't think they upgraded to guns. I thought I got all my guns from the legacy path.
MutilationWave
IDDQD
Perfect, I'm down to go all cavalry and artillery in modern and just forget the field guns etc. I'm a sucker for a range upgrade. Upgraded battleships were my favorite unit in 6 and I like them in 7 as well, paired with a commander with the range upgrade. Naval commanders level up super fast too.
I don't really like modern much but maybe I'll make this game my scorched earth play and see if I can take or raze everything before the age ends. I've never seen a score victory yet anyway. Wish we could even see our scores.
Anyone want to vote on a modern civ to destroy the world? I've already played Great Britain and the Revenge(s) were great but I'd like to try something I haven't done yet. I've also done Mexico, France, and Prussia. I'm saving Bugunda for a different save file.
Yzman
Deity
I did Prussia on mine. Works well from Mongolia imo.
Been taking my time playing a Deity Benjamin Franklin game for the past few weeks. I finally finished today and it was probably the most fun I've had with the Modern age so far, but probably for the wrong reasons.
Started out as Greece, continents + and all default settings and no mods just to see how it is vanilla. My plan was to play the diplomatic game as Franklin gets double the endeavors so I decided to not build up much military as I expanded from my little corner of the continent. I started on the very south among peninsular tundra with desert to the north of me. First two expansions were to a navigable river to the East and the middle of the desert among lots of rough terrain and resources including tin to my North. I met Himiko and Frederich, but ignored them for the most part as I focused on developing the independent powers into City States. It was a pretty slow start with the Deity AI getting noticeably ahead of me despite my best espionage efforts and the many city state allies I had. I wanted to try to go for the Cultural Legacy path, but honestly my production was not very good and the rest of the AI were adding on to the Age tracker very quickly. At some point, I met Ashoka and he instantly hated me. Turns out, dumping all of my influence into city states rather than trying to develop relationships with the rest of the AI was a bad idea and they all declared war on me, seeing a weak target I'm guessing. Though I managed to hold them off of my desert expansion, my city state allies kept falling to their armies which was probably their aim from the start. However, with the barbarian crisis at our doors, everyone's armies were caught up defending our territories and hostilities ended. In a quick attempt to gain some legacy points, I produced 3 more cities and settled them along the southern peninsular chains that were abundant with resources like wild game. I managed to get an Economic Golden Age along with enough points for level 2 legacies for the rest of them. In the end, diplomacy had failed. And so, I moved on to the Exploration Age with a new plan in mind.
After taking a break to start May's GotM, I come back to my Ben Franklin game with the intent to establish a large empire in Distant Lands leaving my homeland cities behind as that becomes my main center of the empire. I choose the Chola for their big naval bonuses hoping that their unique unit and commander would help me take over the other continent. I send my first ship eastward in search of new lands along with a few missionaries once I unlock my religion. I find a medium sized island close to the south of the map and rest there before heading eastward again, this time with a settler. During that time, Himiko and Ashoka declared war on me again but I was more concerned with overseas expansion. However, other than another medium sized island with two treasure resources on it which I settled and a smaller chain of islands with an Independent Power guarding the waters around it, there was little to no distant lands for me to conquer. The southern part of the map was nothing but island chains, north of which was a large ocean that covered most of where the distant lands should be. I met Charlemagne settling one of the southern islands, presumably from some other landmass on the far north of the distant lands, and tried to befriend him but Himiko has gotten to him first and he instantly hated my guts. About 30 turns into the Exploration Age, things were looking very grim. I had only one new settlement in distant lands, I was trailing in science and culture, my new eastern capitol and the northern desert city were besieged by Himiko and Ashoka's armies, the rest of the southern islands were settled by Himiko and Charlemagne, Ashoka's navy had just arrived on my southern peninsular towns, and I had just received a denouncement from Catherine who I met by sending a missionary through deep water to the north. I stopped playing to finish up the GotM.
Returning to the game after a week or so, I started buying as many ships as possible every turn I could. The navigable river on the eastern edge of my empire was the perfect length to defend both my capitol and the northernmost desert city that was under siege. I built about 30 ships and 5 of my unique Fleet Commanders which, along with a small force led by my one free commander from Antiquity, managed to beat back both Himiko's army and Ashoka's navy. However, my city state allies were not so lucky and the all fell one after the other, including one right by my borders. The rest of my diplomatic influence was spent trying to appease the other AIs into staying out of the war while simultaneously stealing tech and civics from them. Eventually, I launched an offensive to take a few cities from Himiko as it was the only Legacy Path I could feasibly complete at the pace I was going. After taking one settlement from Himiko, both her and Ashoka decide to send peace treaties and I get 1 more settlement from each of them which lets me complete the Legacy Path after converting them to my religion. I end the age with only a single legacy path finished, an economic dark age, and the level 1 legacies in Science and Culture.
I took another break from the game since I didn't know how I wanted to proceed. Even though I had fought my way back, I was still way behind where I wanted to be in the game. I asked my brother which victory I should go for and since I was Ben Franklin, he told me to go for Science which I agreed to despite being the most behind in that category. I knew that I would start the age with a large navy due to my many fleet commanders, so I wanted to leverage that too and finally build that distant lands empire I had planned for the Exploration Age. With that in mind, I chose America as my Modern Age civ and started with +10 production in Distant Lands, a few attribute points, and changing my capitol back to its original spot.
Utilizing the fleets saved from last age, I declared war on Ashoka ASAP targeting the cities on the northern distant lands continent he had that were next to the one I got from the peace deal last age. Himiko soon declared war afterwards, but I had the sheer numbers on my side combined with Fleet Commanders who quickly gained experience due to a Greek Tradition policy I slotted in. I took 3 settlements off of Ashoka and razed 1 which gave me a good foothold on the northern continent and I took 4 settlements off of Himiko and razed 1 which solidified my control of the southern and central oceans. Meanwhile, I chose hub and mining specialties for most of my towns which gave me lots of money and influence to work with and dispersed a cultural and militaristic independent power for early culture and explorers. I used my influence to win over Catherine giving me a good trading partner and target for research endeavors to catch up on Science. Frederich and Charlemagne didn't play along though with the latter declaring war on me. I ended the wars against Ashoka and Himiko before sending my fleets to start shelling the main coastal settlements of Charlemagne's Bugandan empire. In my homelands, I managed to build the Oxford University and used another Greek Tradition to easily befriend a few science city states to start spamming Institutes everywhere. The Cholan traditions helped a lot too boosting my gold income too which helped with converting cities and buying Institutes and other science buildings. I delayed getting an ideology to unlock America's unique production buildings as well to boost my science with Franklin's ability and to make it less likely for the AI to be mad at me. But, of course, Himiko and Ashoka declared war on me once again.
Without the element of surprise, my tech disadvantage started to show. Their forces once again started a siege on my north desert homeland city, this time aided by Howitzers and Landships. I was still lacking a significant land army but beelined towards airplanes so I just needed to hold on onto I could get my planes online. Luckily, one of my fleets was stationed close by and would harass Himiko's army from the coasts before retreating as their ships tried to chase me off. As soon as the tech was researched, I bought an Aerodrome and Trench Fighter and started sniping Himiko's Howitzers with them and my own landships. With the fighting at a standstill, I managed to negotiate peace with Himiko by giving up a small island settlement that I had taken previously and, after finally choosing Democracy (for flavor purposes since I was Ben Franklin of America), Ashoka followed suit. My two former enemies became very friendly with me and I would use those two for Research endeavors for the rest of the game. I could finally focus on taking Charlemagne's wonder filled cities which I had been slowly whittling down of units and wall defenses. Three of his cities fell, granting me tons of wonder bonuses at the cost of another city state ally falling to his navy. At this point I was at about 500 science per turn and building up legacy points for all 4 paths and decided I might as well finish the Modern Age with all paths completed.
With the last two wonder filled settlements falling to my Battleships and Catherine's land army, I went full in on developing my cities. Catherine, despite choosing facism, never went past unfriendly due to our shared war and many past endeavors and trade routes and Frederich was content to just stay hostile without declaring war so I could focus fully on completing the other three legacy paths. A few cultural city states helped me push my yields up with Open Air Museums and I started filling museums with the bonus artifacts from being the first to hegemony and from natural wonders. I also got really lucky getting at least 3 artifacts from overbuilding. My factories were filled from my Modern Age conquests and that became the second legacy path to finish. Science was still going pretty slowly despite getting about 1k science per turn at this point. My capitol and the desert city I kept fighting to keep were essential in completing all of the projects, each having just a bit over 100 production per turn which was the highest my empire could muster. However, by the time I finished researching rocketry, I noticed that the Age tracker was already above 80%. With the end of the game fast approaching, I just barely had enough time to finish the final project; 14 turns to finish with about 15 turns left. In those final turns I managed to build grab 3 more artifacts for the Cultural Legacy path, finish the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan Project, get 1 turn away from winning an economic and military victories, and finally at 200/200 age progression the crewed space launch project finished finishing off the age at the last moment with all 4 legacies completed.
Overall, I had more fun than I did initially. Normally exploration is my favorite age with antiquity being a close second but this time around I got to experience a full modern age playthrough and really enjoyed it. This was mostly because of how badly I did in the previous two ages, but I'm glad I stuck it out. The photo finish ending felt really cool to pull off despite being built on my mistakes. The AI felt like way more of a threat in the Antiquity and Exploration ages and, although I was never at a big disadvantage in the last age, fighting against them in Modern was fun. I still never got to fight a prolonged aerial battle, but the naval tactical AI was definitely more present especially in the Exploration age. The new resource changes were nice as well; tin was very useful and wild game is cool though I wish it lasted into the Exploration Age. I want to try another game soon but actually pull off a fully diplomatic peaceful victory.
TLDR; playing from behind is fun
Started out as Greece, continents + and all default settings and no mods just to see how it is vanilla. My plan was to play the diplomatic game as Franklin gets double the endeavors so I decided to not build up much military as I expanded from my little corner of the continent. I started on the very south among peninsular tundra with desert to the north of me. First two expansions were to a navigable river to the East and the middle of the desert among lots of rough terrain and resources including tin to my North. I met Himiko and Frederich, but ignored them for the most part as I focused on developing the independent powers into City States. It was a pretty slow start with the Deity AI getting noticeably ahead of me despite my best espionage efforts and the many city state allies I had. I wanted to try to go for the Cultural Legacy path, but honestly my production was not very good and the rest of the AI were adding on to the Age tracker very quickly. At some point, I met Ashoka and he instantly hated me. Turns out, dumping all of my influence into city states rather than trying to develop relationships with the rest of the AI was a bad idea and they all declared war on me, seeing a weak target I'm guessing. Though I managed to hold them off of my desert expansion, my city state allies kept falling to their armies which was probably their aim from the start. However, with the barbarian crisis at our doors, everyone's armies were caught up defending our territories and hostilities ended. In a quick attempt to gain some legacy points, I produced 3 more cities and settled them along the southern peninsular chains that were abundant with resources like wild game. I managed to get an Economic Golden Age along with enough points for level 2 legacies for the rest of them. In the end, diplomacy had failed. And so, I moved on to the Exploration Age with a new plan in mind.
After taking a break to start May's GotM, I come back to my Ben Franklin game with the intent to establish a large empire in Distant Lands leaving my homeland cities behind as that becomes my main center of the empire. I choose the Chola for their big naval bonuses hoping that their unique unit and commander would help me take over the other continent. I send my first ship eastward in search of new lands along with a few missionaries once I unlock my religion. I find a medium sized island close to the south of the map and rest there before heading eastward again, this time with a settler. During that time, Himiko and Ashoka declared war on me again but I was more concerned with overseas expansion. However, other than another medium sized island with two treasure resources on it which I settled and a smaller chain of islands with an Independent Power guarding the waters around it, there was little to no distant lands for me to conquer. The southern part of the map was nothing but island chains, north of which was a large ocean that covered most of where the distant lands should be. I met Charlemagne settling one of the southern islands, presumably from some other landmass on the far north of the distant lands, and tried to befriend him but Himiko has gotten to him first and he instantly hated my guts. About 30 turns into the Exploration Age, things were looking very grim. I had only one new settlement in distant lands, I was trailing in science and culture, my new eastern capitol and the northern desert city were besieged by Himiko and Ashoka's armies, the rest of the southern islands were settled by Himiko and Charlemagne, Ashoka's navy had just arrived on my southern peninsular towns, and I had just received a denouncement from Catherine who I met by sending a missionary through deep water to the north. I stopped playing to finish up the GotM.
Returning to the game after a week or so, I started buying as many ships as possible every turn I could. The navigable river on the eastern edge of my empire was the perfect length to defend both my capitol and the northernmost desert city that was under siege. I built about 30 ships and 5 of my unique Fleet Commanders which, along with a small force led by my one free commander from Antiquity, managed to beat back both Himiko's army and Ashoka's navy. However, my city state allies were not so lucky and the all fell one after the other, including one right by my borders. The rest of my diplomatic influence was spent trying to appease the other AIs into staying out of the war while simultaneously stealing tech and civics from them. Eventually, I launched an offensive to take a few cities from Himiko as it was the only Legacy Path I could feasibly complete at the pace I was going. After taking one settlement from Himiko, both her and Ashoka decide to send peace treaties and I get 1 more settlement from each of them which lets me complete the Legacy Path after converting them to my religion. I end the age with only a single legacy path finished, an economic dark age, and the level 1 legacies in Science and Culture.
I took another break from the game since I didn't know how I wanted to proceed. Even though I had fought my way back, I was still way behind where I wanted to be in the game. I asked my brother which victory I should go for and since I was Ben Franklin, he told me to go for Science which I agreed to despite being the most behind in that category. I knew that I would start the age with a large navy due to my many fleet commanders, so I wanted to leverage that too and finally build that distant lands empire I had planned for the Exploration Age. With that in mind, I chose America as my Modern Age civ and started with +10 production in Distant Lands, a few attribute points, and changing my capitol back to its original spot.
Utilizing the fleets saved from last age, I declared war on Ashoka ASAP targeting the cities on the northern distant lands continent he had that were next to the one I got from the peace deal last age. Himiko soon declared war afterwards, but I had the sheer numbers on my side combined with Fleet Commanders who quickly gained experience due to a Greek Tradition policy I slotted in. I took 3 settlements off of Ashoka and razed 1 which gave me a good foothold on the northern continent and I took 4 settlements off of Himiko and razed 1 which solidified my control of the southern and central oceans. Meanwhile, I chose hub and mining specialties for most of my towns which gave me lots of money and influence to work with and dispersed a cultural and militaristic independent power for early culture and explorers. I used my influence to win over Catherine giving me a good trading partner and target for research endeavors to catch up on Science. Frederich and Charlemagne didn't play along though with the latter declaring war on me. I ended the wars against Ashoka and Himiko before sending my fleets to start shelling the main coastal settlements of Charlemagne's Bugandan empire. In my homelands, I managed to build the Oxford University and used another Greek Tradition to easily befriend a few science city states to start spamming Institutes everywhere. The Cholan traditions helped a lot too boosting my gold income too which helped with converting cities and buying Institutes and other science buildings. I delayed getting an ideology to unlock America's unique production buildings as well to boost my science with Franklin's ability and to make it less likely for the AI to be mad at me. But, of course, Himiko and Ashoka declared war on me once again.
Without the element of surprise, my tech disadvantage started to show. Their forces once again started a siege on my north desert homeland city, this time aided by Howitzers and Landships. I was still lacking a significant land army but beelined towards airplanes so I just needed to hold on onto I could get my planes online. Luckily, one of my fleets was stationed close by and would harass Himiko's army from the coasts before retreating as their ships tried to chase me off. As soon as the tech was researched, I bought an Aerodrome and Trench Fighter and started sniping Himiko's Howitzers with them and my own landships. With the fighting at a standstill, I managed to negotiate peace with Himiko by giving up a small island settlement that I had taken previously and, after finally choosing Democracy (for flavor purposes since I was Ben Franklin of America), Ashoka followed suit. My two former enemies became very friendly with me and I would use those two for Research endeavors for the rest of the game. I could finally focus on taking Charlemagne's wonder filled cities which I had been slowly whittling down of units and wall defenses. Three of his cities fell, granting me tons of wonder bonuses at the cost of another city state ally falling to his navy. At this point I was at about 500 science per turn and building up legacy points for all 4 paths and decided I might as well finish the Modern Age with all paths completed.
With the last two wonder filled settlements falling to my Battleships and Catherine's land army, I went full in on developing my cities. Catherine, despite choosing facism, never went past unfriendly due to our shared war and many past endeavors and trade routes and Frederich was content to just stay hostile without declaring war so I could focus fully on completing the other three legacy paths. A few cultural city states helped me push my yields up with Open Air Museums and I started filling museums with the bonus artifacts from being the first to hegemony and from natural wonders. I also got really lucky getting at least 3 artifacts from overbuilding. My factories were filled from my Modern Age conquests and that became the second legacy path to finish. Science was still going pretty slowly despite getting about 1k science per turn at this point. My capitol and the desert city I kept fighting to keep were essential in completing all of the projects, each having just a bit over 100 production per turn which was the highest my empire could muster. However, by the time I finished researching rocketry, I noticed that the Age tracker was already above 80%. With the end of the game fast approaching, I just barely had enough time to finish the final project; 14 turns to finish with about 15 turns left. In those final turns I managed to build grab 3 more artifacts for the Cultural Legacy path, finish the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan Project, get 1 turn away from winning an economic and military victories, and finally at 200/200 age progression the crewed space launch project finished finishing off the age at the last moment with all 4 legacies completed.
Overall, I had more fun than I did initially. Normally exploration is my favorite age with antiquity being a close second but this time around I got to experience a full modern age playthrough and really enjoyed it. This was mostly because of how badly I did in the previous two ages, but I'm glad I stuck it out. The photo finish ending felt really cool to pull off despite being built on my mistakes. The AI felt like way more of a threat in the Antiquity and Exploration ages and, although I was never at a big disadvantage in the last age, fighting against them in Modern was fun. I still never got to fight a prolonged aerial battle, but the naval tactical AI was definitely more present especially in the Exploration age. The new resource changes were nice as well; tin was very useful and wild game is cool though I wish it lasted into the Exploration Age. I want to try another game soon but actually pull off a fully diplomatic peaceful victory.
TLDR; playing from behind is fun
Yzman
Deity
I'm amazed that you were behind and went on to finish those and AI never completed anything.
Charlemagne had the most culture and science per turn (about 800 for both) before I took over his core cities and Himiko also had spaceports up and also completed the Economic Legacy Path so she must have had a Great Banker around. If it wasn't for me and Frederich (who was at war with both of them at the end of the game and actually got enough cities to complete the Military Legacy Path) draining their resources and distracting them then one of them definitely would have finished a victory project.
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