Nigel_Tufnel2
King
t229 DomV
Spoiler :
Thanks for the map, Acken! I can't believe only 29 turns elapsed since my last post, it took me days to slog through this (I am slow). After taking Ondini I sent Army Group North E to liberate Samarkand (216), DOW'd Real Shaka t217, and seized Jeonju (226). I had Ragusa to 0 health but couldn't liberate it. Army Group South liberated Yerevan (208), and plowed through 2 more Teal cities, capturing Umgungundlovu t224. Captured a port t226 to get GWB with range promos to hit Real Shaka's Ulundi, but they probably weren't needed as I had 9 BBs, most with range, who did most of the damage from offshore.
It really helped to get Great Galleases promo'd up on the N coast against Red Shaka - I mostly took Bombardment, so they were excellent killing machines through all the upgrades. That navy, along with some melee boats, took 6 cities on or near the N coast. I razed two, but once I liberated White Shaka I mostly just gave/sold him all my extra cities. I did puppet Vancouver with a late MoV just to be sure of a land base in case Real Shaka was too tough - never needed it.
I left Red Shaka with 3 cities, and Teal Shaka with 2 - yet on the last turn he DOW'd Red Shaka, all he had was an unnamed pop 5 city next door to Red's border. Real Shaka had 6 cities, White Shaka had 7 cities.
I didn't take any Autocracy happy tenets until the last turn, but I did buy a bunch of happy bldgs the last few turns as I finally went in the red. I took Mobilization for my free tenet, then Elite Forces, as I didn't want to spend much time healing. Then 3rd Alternative as this map sucked for oil - it would have been a much worse slog w/o the extra BB/Bombers. Got Infantry t226, which came too late to be very useful - I took Electronics first as I knew the BBs would be way more useful. I thought I would have to spend many turns wiping out Real Shaka's coastal cities to eliminate his naval threat, but he did the "hide the navy at the bottom of the map" move. He even sailed 5-6 Frigates near Sidon, but with no melee he never attacked anything. Pretty stupid that the AI doesn't leave one Frigate in port when BBs show up.
Real Shaka was a bit tough as he had GWI and Canons our entire war, whereas Teal Shaka never got past Muskets/Trebuchet, although he did field Gats late.
I must have built about 7 Archeologists, and the first city did work the Landmark, but the second didn't, so I just made GWs after that. I never did get all my TRs going, as I just didn't care - gold was ridiculously plentiful, and most cities were working plenty of specialists. I basically just built TPs and repaired very few farms. I also had a ridiculous amount of roads as I always want max maneuvering.
Full Trad, Full Honor, 2 in Rat, 2 in Commerce, finish Rat/Commerce quickly (WF 2k hammers, saved GWs, and policy wonders), 4 in Autocracy. Faith bought 2 GE, 2 GS, 1 GG, GP were up to 1700, might have bought one. Popped at least 2 GE, maybe 3 in Venice. Ended up with 25 wonders in Venice.
One other thing I did that I've never had the chance to do before - since I bought a Cav almost every turn, after the 3 Drill promos I almost always took Mobility - I read somewhere that movement it is the most useful aspect of horse units, and it sure helped to have 5 move Cavs!
It really helped to get Great Galleases promo'd up on the N coast against Red Shaka - I mostly took Bombardment, so they were excellent killing machines through all the upgrades. That navy, along with some melee boats, took 6 cities on or near the N coast. I razed two, but once I liberated White Shaka I mostly just gave/sold him all my extra cities. I did puppet Vancouver with a late MoV just to be sure of a land base in case Real Shaka was too tough - never needed it.
I left Red Shaka with 3 cities, and Teal Shaka with 2 - yet on the last turn he DOW'd Red Shaka, all he had was an unnamed pop 5 city next door to Red's border. Real Shaka had 6 cities, White Shaka had 7 cities.
I didn't take any Autocracy happy tenets until the last turn, but I did buy a bunch of happy bldgs the last few turns as I finally went in the red. I took Mobilization for my free tenet, then Elite Forces, as I didn't want to spend much time healing. Then 3rd Alternative as this map sucked for oil - it would have been a much worse slog w/o the extra BB/Bombers. Got Infantry t226, which came too late to be very useful - I took Electronics first as I knew the BBs would be way more useful. I thought I would have to spend many turns wiping out Real Shaka's coastal cities to eliminate his naval threat, but he did the "hide the navy at the bottom of the map" move. He even sailed 5-6 Frigates near Sidon, but with no melee he never attacked anything. Pretty stupid that the AI doesn't leave one Frigate in port when BBs show up.
Real Shaka was a bit tough as he had GWI and Canons our entire war, whereas Teal Shaka never got past Muskets/Trebuchet, although he did field Gats late.
I must have built about 7 Archeologists, and the first city did work the Landmark, but the second didn't, so I just made GWs after that. I never did get all my TRs going, as I just didn't care - gold was ridiculously plentiful, and most cities were working plenty of specialists. I basically just built TPs and repaired very few farms. I also had a ridiculous amount of roads as I always want max maneuvering.
Full Trad, Full Honor, 2 in Rat, 2 in Commerce, finish Rat/Commerce quickly (WF 2k hammers, saved GWs, and policy wonders), 4 in Autocracy. Faith bought 2 GE, 2 GS, 1 GG, GP were up to 1700, might have bought one. Popped at least 2 GE, maybe 3 in Venice. Ended up with 25 wonders in Venice.
One other thing I did that I've never had the chance to do before - since I bought a Cav almost every turn, after the 3 Drill promos I almost always took Mobility - I read somewhere that movement it is the most useful aspect of horse units, and it sure helped to have 5 move Cavs!