The Deity Challenge Line-up #29 - Dido's swimming pool

[stormtrooper412]

I applaud you for getting the cargo ships across without them getting stomped by relentless barbs, on my first attempt I lost god knows how many, their galleys were all over the place

 

[Olodune]

Update: T247 Culture with defensive wars that boosted science and sped up victory

I think that is a very solid result on this map.

Spoiler :

I don't think this map is nearly as easy as you made it look. So nicely done.

Perhaps I am having an off game, but I'm behind where I usually am on Deity. It is true that the capital is significantly better than any other self-founded options, so OCC is relatively better than usual, I suppose. The HG and Petra gambit is great when successful.

We'll see how others find this game.

 

[stormtrooper412]

I'm absolutely lost when it comes to water maps, I haven't played a water map since forever. No victory in sight though, went a Rationalism/Patronage combo, just won the WF and now I'm storing money for god knows what :/

 

[beetle]

Messenger of the Gods is where its at

Sadly, this never occurred to me before today! I have not tried Dido since GnK, so I am looking forward to being a good community member and giving this DCL a run!

I will go Liberty looking for 6+ cities. Early shrine for MofG and after Lighthouse beeline for The Wheel. I think Tradition Opener after free settler might be the sweet spot, so I will be trying that out too.

I am sorry not to see mountains in the starting screen shot. I love gimmicky UA, no matter how useless!

My usual play is a late SV after with as much pointless warmongering as I can manage, so that is my plan...

 

[Acken]

That may not be the ideal game to go liberty wide (DCL 28 is more suited) but you could always attempt the experience.

 

[Olodune]

t236 Domination

Spoiler :

After the Frigate war to punish Askia the Age of Sail continues with an attack on Sejong. This battle was surprisingly rough since those turtle ships can take a pounding. I lost 3 Frigates and 2 Privateers taking down 4 of the Korean cities.

The Korean attack force:



Busan houses the Notre Dame and the Taj Mahal and is unfortunately out of reach. This meant that when Freedom spouting Pacal starting churning the culture (causing happy problems) he labelled himself as my next target.

I have battleships, but no capture unit at Palenque. Luckily this three move elephant can cross mountains Rivers and hills make it otherwise impossible to capture without putting my obsolete land unit in harms way.



Just when the game was getting easy my good friend Oda and his pawn Ashurbanipal DoW'ed me. Now I'm fighting three AIs. Good thing my city state allies are taking the majority of their fury:



While the Navy pounds Japan and Assyria, I build up an XCOM backstab squad for dear Catherine, leading to victory:



Thoughts on this interesting map later.

 

[consentient]

@Stormtrooper

All the early cargo ships went accompanied by Quinqeremes, and only to

Spoiler :

Songhai and Turks

, so not far to go. You can tell very easily when the barb ships are gone. All the quests are gone and every coast is teeming with AI ships.

 

[Acken]

@Olodune I'm proud of you to have used Elephant and crossing mountains at least once in the game

 

[stormtrooper412]

I tried to

Spoiler :

remove kebab

using Frigates, had him dead to rights but the capital was tucked in safely and I couldn't get the ships close enough for a pounding, I had to wait to pick Range, at which point I lost interest and tried a different approach. Which also doesn't seem to be working that well.

 

[Olodune]

@Olodune I'm proud of you to have used Elephant and crossing mountains at least once in the game

had him dead to rights but the capital was tucked in safely and I couldn't get the ships close enough for a pounding

Spoiler :

Thanks Acken - but what really makes this map fun is the other parts of its geography:

1) We have accessible islands that are actually worth settling (unique luxuries, fish, some production). With the free Harbour UA these are solid additions to the Carthaginian economy. I enjoyed the settling decision making in this game.

Edit: I think medium-wide Liberty is an option. 5/6 cities are there (I self founded 5) - but we need Optics. Kailash could give a solid shot at a religion. The UA means Meritocracy kicks in instantly (with The Wheel, I think). Liberty is not the easy road, however.

2) Most of the AIs have capitals that are fjord accessible - it is possible to get ships in there, but not quickly or easily. Deciding who to attack is more complicated than usual on a watery map.

3) Korea is attack-able which is also nice since one way to deal with his beakers is to break them.

I think you must have done some deliberate world building on this one, and I like the result. Next time maybe you can remove a little from the capital so Consentient can experience more of the map

 

[beetle]

I am sorry not to see mountains in the starting screen shot. I love gimmicky UA, no matter how useless!

@Olodune I'm proud of you to have used Elephant and crossing mountains at least once in the game

I have not started yet, and now I really am psyched, but careful with the spoilers!

 

[stormtrooper412]

Turn 299 resign

After missing out on UN by 2 turns because one guy decided to delay his Atomic era by that much, I had to wait 30 turns to spin around.

I then found myself in a conundrum because none of my loved allies wanted to vote for me (I only needed to convince one), so I beelined to nukes.

After making everyone afraid by nukes, I figured they will be persuaded then.

Nope, still nothing. So I quit. It was a very sloppy game and I thought I could have pulled it off. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, welp. I can definitely do better than this.

I'll try a kb approach next time and try to pull off a culture win. Very disappointed in myself :/

 

[consentient]

Did you beeline the Information Era?

 

[Olodune]

@stormtrooper

Spoiler :

How many cities did you fit in?

Islands?

 

[stormtrooper412]

Pic included. I managed to fit in 4 (in total) semi crap cities, sea resources make for fast early growth but around 15ish it kind of hits its ceiling and stop in its tracks.

I didn't beeline the info era but in hindsight, I should have. The entire game hinged on being able to buy votes from AIs instead of trying to get to Globalization quickly enough. I did that with Rome, Babylon, Celts and Arabia but not this time, seems fairly arbitrary.

Went full Tradition, 2 in Patronage (+ opener), Ratio + Secularism, Commerce opener but I also wanted full Exploration. It was my second time using that tree and while it's obviously highly situational, it's definitely the crappiest of the trees.

If someone can figure out what exactly is the threshold for AI wanting to vote in the UN, that would completely break Diplomatic wins

 

[beetle]

Well that was quick. Resigned turn 94. MotG was rocking though.

Spoiler :

Odo backstabbed and captured 2nd expo in one turn. But I deserved as it was placed terribly because I could not count. I will try again with 2 city NC.

 

[stormtrooper412]

Yeah about that. I think I have well over 700 hours of this game and I'm still waiting to see

Spoiler :

Japan

backstabbing me. They are always allies all the way

 

[consentient]

You two must be playing a different version.

Spoiler :

Oda

is #1 psycho backstabber in my games. I will sometimes make DoF with him but I never believe it.

I really urge people never to trust the AI...

 

[stormtrooper412]

Top 5 psychos in my games:

1. Dido
2. Askia
3. Alex
4. Poca
5. Monty

I had a grand total of one war against that guy, and it was my fault because I attacked him

The perennially hated Suleiman is also high on everyone's lists but he only wronged me once the entire time, in one of the earlier DCLs, which was again my fault because I cheesed him off and had nothing to defend myself against Jannis

 

[beetle]

Monty is a crazy warmonger, but I have never had him DoW me during a DoF. He's a stab-you-in-the-face-not-in-the-back kind of guy.