The Community Deity Game #10 - Denmark

[Redaxe]

This is a great question. I switched to taking Cover 2 before anything else (with a couple of Medics thrown in) and my warmongering has improved markedly. It really helps with formation attacks as the meat shields last much longer. Not only that, but being able to just stand there and take hits allows them to get XP much faster and you can get March and Blitz relatively quickly.

I think there is good logic for using Cover 2. It's easier to get to for one thing. Shock/Drill 1, Cover 1, Cover 2. I start getting the benefit at 30exp... and more at 60exp. So I start saving damage much earlier. With March you have to get to 100exp first (unless you're lucky enough to get Alhambra).
Also shock3/drill3 is useless for attacking cities and although you're going to be forced to attack enemy units around their cities you'll get the benefit for sure - but you'll also take a lot more damage from city & ranged attacks - so i think that cover is all round a better and safer option.

You lose the march promotion - that means you can't heal as quickly in your own lands so that can slow you down a bit. However the free movement cost to pillage (combined with a +50% worker speed bonuses) means that with enough workers you can heal every unit by 25-50hp per turn in enemy lands.

The other advantage with cover 2 is that it probably saves you from human error. It's easy to misplace a damaged unit near a city and risk losing it from several ranged attacks. Once the AIs start building Castles it gets nastier. Plus if someone has Red Fort or the Great Wall.
Typically I went for March and then Blitz. Blitz ended up being mostly useless. You attack a city on a hill and still lose 2 move points - once you've upgraded past Beserkers you can't really take advantage with all that extra movement to get a damaged unit out of harms way.
You have to ultimately tank the damage - The cover promotion is the best bet here.
So yes I'd be interested to see if people try it again opting for cover promotions and see if they get better results.

 

[Shark Diver]

You lose the march promotion - that means you can't heal as quickly in your own lands so that can slow you down a bit. However the free movement cost to pillage (combined with a +50% worker speed bonuses) means that with enough workers you can heal every unit by 25-50hp per turn in enemy lands.

I don't usually use the pillage/repair tactic/exploit. This has nothing to do with any moral standard against exploits.....I'm not good enough to have morality in this game and will use anything I can to get an advantage. No, I generally avoid pillage/repair because it makes the Dom-grind even more time-consuming.

That said, I really should use it for this game. I'm currently trying to take out Northern neighbor and did not take Liberty, so it's not going to be very useful. Still, any edge one can get.....

 

[donkeyfish]

However the free movement cost to pillage (combined with a +50% worker speed bonuses) means that with enough workers you can heal every unit by 25-50hp per turn in enemy lands.

This was how I immediately thought Denmark would shine, I spent all my resources rushing Pyramids and had 1 worker pr melee in the attack until I got artillery. My Berserkers (especially with cover, which I also tend to prioritise) in this game didn't get 1-shot until late in the game and with 15 workers on the front every melee can easily find a pillage every turn

Also, with a lot of workers its possible to make a "field hospital" - a razed city area with road spam and "worker-medics". One might think this must cost a lot of maintenance, but no - pillage gives gold as well The extra movement makes all this stuff so much easier, a Berserker which pillages during a turn is basically a really resilient horse (4 movement).

E.g. in this game, I razed a

Spoiler :

Zulu city right east of Ulundi. During the siege on Tenotchitlan, Berserkers could easily move from the front to that spot, pillage, and be back at the front next turn.

I don't know how to quote twice in one post, but I wanted to comment on "how Denmark is supposed to be played":

I agree. Going to war in this game is almost always a +gold EV (I think), especially with Denmark. Even in completely peaceful SV games, there´s often 200gpt waiting to be had if you take a city from your neighbour (50-75gpt in peace deal and 100-125gpt to sell the city back e.g.). If one assumes the net is around 150gpt (a cautious estimate), its 4500 gold gained. A Public School costs around 900 gold I think, so this would finance 5 of them. Alternatively: 4500 gold is close to 50% of the SS buying cost.

In addition, there is pillage gains. I don't actually know the specifics of pillage, but it seems to pick a random number between 1 and 30 (please correct me if I´m wrong). So EV is 15gold pr pillage. Not that difficult to hoard another 1000gold during a war with this (with repairs of course). The AI builds improvements everywhere (like flat desert farms and such).

I also agree with Shark Diver, the worker brigade is by far the most boring thing to manage The last 25 turns I tend to move them to the front to let them die, just to end the turns faster

On a historical note, I would like to point out that the Norwegian vikings deserves a mention: Stronger, faster, smarter, richer and better looking than the Danes
They should have made this civ the other way around: Norway as the civ, giving room for the worst Unique Unit of the game - The Danish Ski Infantry

 

[tarafran]

Spoiler :

great game
I opened with tradition 3 cities and the full h0nor tree,then commerce one more tradition for garrison and 3 freedom tenets for happiness.
Shaka did all the work for me as I gave him one lux each to declare war to everybody.


Win a DomVC without ever having trained* a ranged unit: 3 pts.yes
Keep 10 Berserkers alive to the turn of victory. You can upgrade them, obviously: 3 pts.
Each cap conquered before Metallurgy: 4 pts Moscow and Tenochtilan
Each cap conquered before Replaceable Parts: 5pts I never got to it
Melee attack an inland city starting w/ embarked units: 1pt for Tubini
Total 16Pts

 

[Shark Diver]

@Tarafan

Nice game.

A Couple of questions:

Spoiler :

Did you conquer East or West first? I'm at decision point and figure I've got to knock Shaka back to the Stone Age before heading West as he's got a bunch of cities up in the NE corner and I just know he'll be able to regroup and hit me from behind seeing as he has no place else to go.

At the same time, I've got Cathy tied up with Monte right now and I might be able to steal his capital with a rush, but I'd have to backstab to do it.

 

[beetle]

...he's got a bunch of cities up in the NE corner and I just know he'll be able to regroup and hit me from behind seeing as he has no place else to go.

Just in case you don't expect it -- Lakes maps wrap from left to right. That was a nice surprise as I think Great Plains maps (which look quite similar to me) have hard borders on the left and right sides. This map has no corners.

 

[Redaxe]

I agree. Going to war in this game is almost always a +gold EV (I think), especially with Denmark. Even in completely peaceful SV games, there´s often 200gpt waiting to be had if you take a city from your neighbour (50-75gpt in peace deal and 100-125gpt to sell the city back e.g.). If one assumes the net is around 150gpt (a cautious estimate), its 4500 gold gained. A Public School costs around 900 gold I think, so this would finance 5 of them. Alternatively: 4500 gold is close to 50% of the SS buying cost.

In addition, there is pillage gains. I don't actually know the specifics of pillage, but it seems to pick a random number between 1 and 30 (please correct me if I´m wrong). So EV is 15gold pr pillage. Not that difficult to hoard another 1000gold during a war with this (with repairs of course). The AI builds improvements everywhere (like flat desert farms and such).

Haha - well its interesting to hear that people seem to agree that Denmark is best used as a hit and run civ. There is a cost of course of having to build a sizeable army to ransack a neighbor but I think over the course of a game this should more than pay for itself. You sacrifice some production on units but if you get the gold back as you say that can pay for a tonne of buildings. Perhaps a liberty or tradition/left-Honor/left-commerce is a workable strategy. A combination of early production, military bonuses and the gold purchasing power from commerce.

You certainly can wreck an early civ though. Pillaging their land, stealing all their workers, plundering their trade routes, razing or ransoming a city or two is enough to handicap them for the rest of the game. Doing so to a capital also destroys all the national wonders so thats an even bigger loss.

Someone should have a try of this and see if you can get a competitive science victory win time.

 

[Shark Diver]

Just in case you don't expect it -- Lakes maps wrap from left to right. That was a nice surprise as I think Great Plains maps (which look quite similar to me) have hard borders on the left and right sides. This map has no corners.

I did not know this. That certainly changes strategy, as I should be able to take out

Spoiler :

Shaka

with the tail end of my Berserker spam, and then go East after

Spoiler :

Monte

.

Here I was thinking what a lousy location to start in, dead center of a closed map, when you'd be dead center no matter where you started.

I'm glad you posted that Beetle, as I'm still early enough (t99) that my ignorance didn't affect strategy too much....although I may have scouted more if I didn't think it was a closed map.

 

[tarafran]

Spoiler :

Did you conquer East or West first? I'm at decision point and figure I've got to knock Shaka back to the Stone Age before heading West as he's got a bunch of cities up in the NE corner and I just know he'll be able to regroup and hit me from behind seeing as he has no place else to go.

At the same time, I've got Cathy tied up with Monte right now and I might be able to steal his capital with a rush, but I'd have to backstab to do it.

I went thru east first with a little excursion on Turbini that I took with a swimming berseker
I sue for peace with Askia and got some gold.Took Moscow and all of cathy cities but one then went thru Monty and wiped him out.Meanwhile I was paying the Zulus with lux to war with everybody else even though he was hating me.
By that time I was at war with evybody but Ashkia and the Zulu.
Made a go at Cisco as the Zulus where also ganging on him.
In the same time I was starting an attack on Thea.
Then on the Zulus that at conquered Gao by that time.
Cathy woke up and Dowed me so I had to finish her.
Mid battle with the zulus my artillery kicked up ,sued for peace after the 2 caps and Theas Cap.
Next was the Swedes in a few turns
I managed to get most of the CS allied around me ,opened the Cs tree before commerce.
I was pretty quick getting a religion that I use for happiness and buying units.
Only my cap was with my religion as I was focus on making berserkers every 2 or 3 turns and later canons.
My only scare was Thea getting bombers 4 turns before I took her capital.
Delaying the war with the Zulus I never got to fight an Impi as they were all upgraded.
I never built universities ,was very late in tech but manage to pass the" faster research when all Civ have already discover it "
After that i kept proposing my religion and did not participate in the world fair at all
Got to be third on tenets and picked Freedom,the last on untouched.
picked the first 2 for happiness and the second level one for specialist/happyness/food

 

[yung.carl.jung]

Hello, I have played this game for a long time but mainly on my own. But I thought I might try to play a couple of these CDG´s and GOTM, starting with the most recent ones.

My game:
DomVC t272 13 points

A: Win a DomVC w/o ranged units: 3p
B: Keep 10 Bersekers alive: 0p (I lost count after Metallurgy, but anyways they died like flies in the end so probably not)
C: 4p (2 caps)
D: 5p (the rest)
E: 1p (for fun 2 turns before I won with a cavalry)
Sum = 13p

A fun game, but a terrible grind at the end. Had atrocious science, gold, culture, faith and everything else the entire game except army

I liked Bersekers and free pillage, especially with Pyramids. The embarkation movement was not very useful to me. Never seriously played a game with Denmark before, but Bersekers and Crossbows will probably be very similar to Impi/Crossbow and could clear a pangea without ever building a library (If there´s enough Iron). Difficult to kill and 3 movement. My problems in this game was because of the siege units, not the Berseker. It was also a spanner in the works that Ski Infantry apparently is not a melee unit, hence no free pillage. That cost me some units...

I wrote some details and attached some ss, they are (if I did the technical stuff correctly) in the spoiler below.

Spoiler :

I settled across the river next to the Salt. Great spot until 13-14 pop, more pop shouldnt be necessary Contemplated doing Honor, but free pillage and Pyramids seemed very tempting. So went Liberty and only settled one additional city between Gold and Oasis north. Build was:
Scout-Monument-Scout-Granary-Scout-Warriorx2-Pyramids-Barracks-Units-Heroic Epic-units- ... - eventually caved and built Library.

In my new city I built monument, granary and barracks then units. Eventually I caved here as well and built a Library around t120. Barbs made it impossible to use caravans before I had Swordsmen to clear the camps. Got food from camps pantheon for free from scouting.

I teched Pottery (had a +7 food granary!) - Mining (since I stole a worker) - AH - Archery - BW (found 18 iron!) -> Iron Working (for swordsman) - Sailing -> Metal Casting -> Physics (for Trebuchet) - then Philosophy and stuff like that.

Had 8 workers at t55, so I started a road from Aarhus to Askia/Shaka borders and put my Swords and eventual Catapults on bother Kathmandu-duty to gain xp and pillage/heal. It felt fitting to finance the Berseker upgrade with loot. I got Metal Casting very late I think, I was hoping to get it in the range 60-80 but it was more like t90. Lack of early caravans (and libraries) delayed things quite a bit. When I got Metal Casting I captured Kathmandu to upgrade my units, and had road to the edge of shaka/askia.

Shaka and Askia fell easily, but slowly, with Berskers and Cat/Treb, Berseker stood up to the Impi well, but not every game there´s 18 iron to spam them. Took 3 cities from Shaka, got 100gpt in peace deal, killed Askia and then took Ulundi and Umgungundundundlovu (or whatever its called) quickly. Almost 40 turns to take out these guys made me abandon hope of clearing map with Berseker+Trebuchet.

Similarly when I attacked Aztecs next, very slow progress using worker bait to avoid heavy casualties. Had to wait for cannons, which with my tech rate took a loong time (ca t150). Got Metallurgy 5 turns before I took his cap, didnt focus. In addition, Shaka declared war again costing me 15 turns to clean up his newly recruited throng of Impis. As usual, he decided to throw away his Deity production advantage having two 4-pop cities and 35 units. Made sure he was removed from the game this time. Finally finished with Montezuma around t175.

Then I picked Russia (Inca had GW and DoF). Also made a second army to take Constantinople. Was kind of a standstill from t175-210, cannons only gave me Adrianople and Rostov + some other crap russian cities. Had to sell an aztec city to Inca (more GW) to avoid going bankrupt, for 6000 (!) gold. Really awful game except military, so had to sell cities, pillage/heal, sell lux in razing cities, getting people to pay me to DoW etc. Every "cheap" trick I know to stay solvent. During this period I had 2 Bersekers and 6 workers in a razed area next to Ulundi pillage-farming gold. At t212 I got art and mowed through byzantine and Russia by t230. Kinda dumb that I decided to fight Shaka at t100 and Russia at t200, could have picked the other way around

T230 I declared on Inca, merging my two armies. Had to make peace just before getting Cusco due to bombers around t245, they were 1-shooting my artilleries. 10 turns and 4 citadels later I could one shoot Cusco (120 defence city) as revenge . A little bribe made sure the Incan airforce had moved east to conquer the Swedes, so the other Incan cities fell easily as well. Had 25-30 artilleries at this point, 4-5 elite ones (with logistics/range/volley etc). In the meantime I had built a third regiment that started to pick on Sweden. Rest was really just mowing through Incas last units to get to Sweden, who had no military left after a longtime (staged) war with Inca and Byzantine. And, importantly, make this extended embark attack on Sigtuna for 1 point!

After Liberty, I picked Commerce. Had to concede and put two in Rationalism at some point as well. Stealing art made my culture flourish eventually so I got Protectionism right before the end.

I think if you´re using archers, its perfectly viable to play completely illiterate (like I did in this game), but with siege units I think it would have been a lot smarter to settle 3-4 cities, get NC and then start a war. Would have probably given me Metal Casting max 10-15 turns later. With artillery on t160-180 I would have been done probably 50-70 turns earlier and I would have never seen a Great War Bomber. I did get rifles first though, which was silly (just because of the Unique Unit). Despite the strong start land-wise, I just finished before Inca ran away too far.

Some screenshots:

Spoiler :

View attachment 405714

Spoiler :

View attachment 405715

Spoiler :

View attachment 405716

Loved your write-up. I might play this map just because of this. I really like how you pulled through even though you were constantly faced with low beakers and negative gold. I woulda probably quit. I also love how you abused pillage-repair, selling cities and peace deals. Personally I go out of my way to abuse every single game mechanic there is - it's only fair when the opposition is starting with all those bonuses

 

[donkeyfish]

Haha, glad someone enjoyed it. For sure had to pay the price for some subpar early decisions in this game. But its fun to play games were its not just auto-win from the get-go. It feels better to win when there´s risk of losing.

Nice game Tarafran! Didn´t cross my mind to bypass the menace next door, keeping him to stir the pot. Good call

 

[Nigel_Tufnel2]

On a historical note, I would like to point out that the Norwegian vikings deserves a mention: Stronger, faster, smarter, richer and better looking than the Danes
They should have made this civ the other way around: Norway as the civ, giving room for the worst Unique Unit of the game - The Danish Ski Infantry

Spoiler :

I'm 1/4 Norwegian and 1/4 Danish FWIW

 

[stormtrooper412]

I tried this map a few days ago and I was I guess too late to Berserk the lot but then again it might have not been. 3 city Tradition into Commerce and make a Berserk/Treb kind of mayhem. I might want to try it again

 

[yung.carl.jung]

96 turns in.

Spoiler :

I gotta admit I am a little disappointed with this map. The starting location is fantastic (if you move, which I did), but the rest of the map is extremely lackluster. I moved my settler east for 3 turns, settled on Sheep iirc and ended up with 6 or 7 Salt in my cap. I built three scouts, popped a bunch of huts, got the Salt pantheon and went Liberty. Pumped out three Settlers for 4 cities total at around T50. Honestly, I would have been better off just not settling at all. All the possible spots are rather bad. I settled all of them NW of the cap, seeing as that is the only space without insane amounts of Tundra that is not taken by a city state. Barbarians were annoying as hell this game. There were literally 4 camps right next to me and since no AI was near to help it took me forever to get rid of them all. At least I managed to get a whole lot of CS workers this way, but I had an abundance of workers anyway. Built Pyramids after settling all my cities which helped greatly. City States in general were more of a problem than a help. I built up an army of 6 Swords, 2 Spears, 3 Composite Bows, a Catapult and two Triremes. After finding out the ocean on the right was just a big lake I was really salty. Put a lot of early hammers into those ships and just deleted them, seeing as they were completely useless. The water on this map did not help me much at all. Maybe for Theo it will. I went for a full-on assault on Songhai after I bribed them into a war with Shaka. Took their expo in a matter of two turns, which would have been that much faster if there weren't CS units blocking my every move. Seriously, CS were so close I couldn't maneuver at all. It took me about ten turns to get my units into position, then the first Songhai expo and the capital fell in about five turns. Rather anticlimactic, but I'll take it. Zulu took out his last expo, Songhai was removed from the game before T100. I bribed Shaka into a war with Theo, probably going to go after her next since the terrain Shaka is in is absolutely atrocious. This map is going to be such a grind. At least I got to test the Berserkers (first time playing as Danes) and they performed immaculately. My tech path was essentially getting all the techs for tiles improvements and then beelining Berserkers. Worked out pretty well.

 

[Redaxe]

I tried this map a few days ago and I was I guess too late to Berserk the lot but then again it might have not been. 3 city Tradition into Commerce and make a Berserk/Treb kind of mayhem. I might want to try it again

I think if you want the best policy combo for this game take Liberty, Citizenship then Republic (you don't need collective rule if you're only going to have a couple expo's - there's not enough luxury diversity around to really support 4 cities anyway).
Then open Honor and take Miltary Tradition and Discipline.
Then as you are conquering you can go back and take Meritocracy. From there you can either finish Honor or open Commerce. Probably Honor is the best bet as it saves you a lot of gold anyway.

 

[beetle]

Sorry for not being more timely with this question. Question is not just for gobbledydook. Spoiler for naming a civ.

Spoiler :

Berserkers are crazy, they stand toe to toe with impis with buffalo upgrades, which is saying a lot.

I am curious why this should be true? Berserkers have the same strength as Longswords (I thought it was higher, but no). The extra move is nice (especially since Impi have that) but the amphibious promotion and free pillage hardly matter on the field. So unless the extra move is critical, I would think Longswords can stand toe-to-to with Impi just fine. Am I missing something?

My own experience facing any AI, but Shaka in particular, is the difficulty of countering unit spam, and thus getting swarmed. The problem is not that my units are weak, it is that they get surrounded (and Impi, with their extra move, are particularly good at flanking).

Might the terrain (this being a lakes map, with extra hills) be contributing more to nerfing this typically problematic AI than the UU/UA?

 

[donkeyfish]

Spoiler :

I´ve actually never tried Longswords against Impis, because Steel is such an awkward tech. I would much rather go for Civil Service and Education after Machinery in a "normal" Domination game.

That Berserkers are available at Metal Casting makes the timing much smoother. Perhaps even more so in these non-archer games, when you need an early detour to Physics relatively fast.

In addition, 3 movement makes it easier to not be surrounded. If you have 6-7 melee on a line its difficult to flank. If it takes 7-8 turns to make that line because of rough terrain, it can be a problem. +1 movement made that a lot easier in this game.

Also, its more forgiving. Extra movement makes it easier to escape after a lacklustre move

 

[beetle]

I would much rather go for Civil Service and Education after Machinery in a "normal" Domination game.

Sure, but your XB need a melee screen. Are you using Pikes for that? As much as everyone hates Pikes, I think I avoid them even more than most!

That Berserkers are available at Metal Casting makes the timing much smoother.

Absolutely. That is probably the biggest perk of the UU. I also very much like that they can be still be built after Gunpower, just because I am sucker for the free Amphibious promotion.

In addition, 3 movement makes it easier to not be surrounded. If you have 6-7 melee on a line its difficult to flank. If it takes 7-8 turns to make that line because of rough terrain, it can be a problem. +1 movement made that a lot easier in this game.

Spoiler :

In my games, Songhai wiped out Shaka before I even met him, so I did not get to try Berserkers vs Impi myself.

 

[donkeyfish]

Yeah, I usually use Pikeman and worker/horse unit combo. Not because I think Pike is such a great unit, more because I don't like delaying Universities. This is sort of a risk-averse move, since it tries to get some growth/beakers after the initial army.

If I'm in a cocky mood thinking "Of course I can beat this silly AI with crossbows only", I´m more inclined to pick Chivalry and Steel -> Gunpowder. But when I´m stuck with 50bpt and my Crossbow/Musket army is obsolete, I tend to be quite regretful...

Each game lives its own life huh. In my game it was the other way around. Playing and reading these threads really reveals that even on the same map you can have two completely different games.

 

[Shark Diver]

This game took quite awhile in real and play time (of course, I didn't turn off combat animation until quite late).

Win a DomVC without ever having trained* a ranged unit: 3 pts.
-Yes. I had one Scout-Archer and one CS CB gift. Both kicked bootie all game long.
Keep 10 Berserkers alive to the turn of victory. You can upgrade them, obviously: 3 pts.
-Nope. I built 10 but one got single-shotted while swimming by a GWB.
Each cap conquered before Metallurgy: 2pts ea..
-1 only. Byzantium.
Each cap conquered before Replaceable Parts: 1pt ea.
-2 (Zulu and Russia). I almost had Gao also, but Shaka had a big navy poised to re-take it so I had to spend some time sinking ships.
Melee attack an inland city starting w/ embarked units: 1pt for the lulz.
-I killed off a CS late just for the lulz.

Spoiler :

Moved settler to river spot in reach of 6 salt. 3 city Tradition-Honor. Not much to discuss early as I worker stole from Byzantium and stayed at war for awhile to grab XP. Russia and Inca were early friends and stayed that way until my alter-ego decided I'd seen enough yellowish cities on the map.

This was the slowest tech and culture game, by the AI and myself, that I can recall. I was tech leader from around t200 onward and still hadn't finished Satellites at t313. I also didn't even finish Rationalism, but culture was slowed by annexing several cities, which I needed as airbases.

This game was all about unit spamming. After taking out Constantinople (great defensive location) after getting range on a couple of cannons, I fought a 2-front war with Shaka and Cathy for what seemed like 100 turns. I took Ulundi relatively easily, but had to give him peace before taking Gao as his first GWB hit the battlefield about 15 turns before I was to get flight. At the time, I was researching Oil, so the Eastern army sat around for awhile waiting for the scientists back home to figure out how to fly.

Russia was spamming hard as well, and my less experienced army took Moscow and rolled up the rest of her cities once arties hit around the same time as my Freedom Foreign Legions.

Once I got my advanced airplanes, I was able to roll up Shaka's huge nation pretty quickly. I waited around for about 5 turns for Rocket Artillery and then steamrolled Inca and Sweden very quickly with very advanced units taking on Industrial Age units.

Long, slow, but the outcome wasn't really in doubt after taking out Ulundi. Incense had some thought about a CV, getting influential with one civ. When I started the invasion that took out all Incan cities in something like 6 turns, he was only at 60% on me.

I beelined for Berserkers early and stayed on that lower half of the tech tree for the most part (NC t105, Universities t120-ish). I was thinking had I used a more normal science path I could have gotten to the advanced units significantly quicker, but I'm not sure that strategy would have worked with all the unit spamming warmongers on this map. Turtling would have just invited an invasion, and both Shaka and Cathy are much easier to deal with when they are back on their heels.

It was my first time playing on a Lakes map, and, although it was a nice change of pace, I don't think I'll be doing so again anytime soon. Just moving around the map was a painstaking process and I could have shaved about 10 turns off the finishing time if I didn't have to navigate around some ill-placed mountains and angry CS.

I used Berserkers aggressively early and often and they held up very well against Impi, but definitely needed siege help. By the time they became Infantrymen, they could all absorb about 5-6 hits/turn and the game became a route.

I was lucky enough to Ally 3 CS who were perfectly positioned to help out in the mid-game war, and I swear Shaka must have lost 30 units to one of them. The sole ship I build to help defend Constantinople almost ended up generating a Great Admiral all on its own by the end game.

Happiness was an issue prior to taking Russia's Wonders and Freedom's tenets. Inca joined me in Freedom (Shaka was 1st and took Autocracy so I took Freedom 2nd for the FL's as usual). Gold would have been a huge issue all game but I finished Honor early and never had a turn of peace. I spend countless turns killing units just to keep my gold from going negative.