The Deity Challenge Line-up - Game #11 - Morocco

[stormtrooper412]

Yeah, I estimate you have around til 320ish to wrap it up. Or go to Shoshone and level them

 

[Olodune]

Currently playing this for the future LP. I'm around T100, worker steal forbidden and playing Liberty 6 cities for future domination.

I'll take a no worker steal variant on this one. I'll probably be going for a peaceful VC though.

to t100

Spoiler :

Disclaimer: I have a vague sense of the map here: I know there are some mountains to the east that block off an area with the capital and at least one other city. That is about it. I found El'Dorado early but was not first Good.

Early builds were Scout -> Worker -> Monument -> Settler -> Scout -> Settler

This is a Tradition game with no worker steals. (And no meaningful ruins - but that was just bad luck, not part of the plan).

The initial cities:



By t100 the development is about 10 turns behind a game where I can steal workers, but this shouldn't be a problem going forward. I'll plunk down the 5th city as soon as the NC is finished. Tradition is done, and Civil Service will dramatically boost growth. Boudicca and I are good friends. She just sent be my first caravan which has as much to do with the slightly slower tech pace as no worker thefts.



I would like a 6th city too, but that may not be possible here.

 

[Olodune]

to t200

Spoiler :

The early 10 turn gap to a standard game (one with worker stealing) seems to be keeping steady. The main challenge is a 3 city Ashurbanipal who has gone wonderspammy. t12X Pisa, for instance.

t150



Growth is fine, but I'll miss the extra GPP from Pisa. I don't see too many beakers here so I'm still thinking about adding a very late 6th city. Foolish, but I'll try anyways. Sale is founded on t170.

Plastics t191

By turn 200 the Moroccan empire is solid. Happiness could be a problem soon as I currently don't have any Ideological pressure. I'll try to pass World Ideology: Order next vote. If that passes I should be set.

Low faith, etc, makes me think this game will end up a little sub 250.

 

[Olodune]

This was nearly my first ever late game Deity loss. Nail-bitingly close.

263 SV

Spoiler :

Everything was mapping out for a late 240s win, which I think was reasonable given my earlier positions. Then something new started happening: Every turn Alex would buy 2-4 City states (mostly from me since I had the majority at that point). I need these city states as I am relying on them for happiness, culture AND faith. I'm not worried, I just took out a loan using my GPT and bought them back. Easy, right?



Well pretty soon I'm at 300+ influence but still being bought out every turn. Then my GPT runs out ... and I can't get it back since most of the loans are from Alex At this point I needed to change up my endgame, fix my happiness (zoos, colos, circus maximus) and find more culture. I'll give up on a 2nd GP from faith. Still this is only a delay to launch .... right?


But this is a problem:



I've never had an AI go so aggressively after a diplo win. I have seen this happen in Moriarte's Celt LP though.

With all my remaining tricks I can pool 3k gold. Surprisingly that is only enough to buy two cities states So I buy them and declare on Alex, who will end up just short on the vote.

The launch, and the end of a very close game:

 

[consentient]

Nice one Olodune. I've had Alex do this on occasion as well. I'd much prefer it if the AI was always this competitive, actually. And I don't understand why sometimes Alex will spend and use Gunboat Diplomacy and other times will just sit there doing nothing? Well done for constantly keeping an eye on him and outwitting him.

 

[Wizard452]

T335

Spoiler :

Lost to Greece diplo victory, even after taking and liberating serveral citystates I could only delay 3 WLV. Shoshone and I only had 2 Spaceship parts to go.

 

[stormtrooper412]

Wowzers, that nearly ended in a heartbreak

 

[Olodune]

Alex is a special cat, indeed

@Wizard

Spoiler :

I'm actually impressed Alex got your game - Pocatello looks much more intimidating. Thanks for the report

 

[Acken]

T127 Renaissance

Spoiler :

All cities have (on top of the ordinary stuff):
-Aqueducts
-Stables
-Watermill
-Workshop
-Market (or in 1 turn)
-Universities

My gold suck really bad though. Lack of calendar luxuries, no trade routes toward me...

 

[adcarrymaokai]

If I can say one thing it's that Morrocco's UA is so unreliable... no route = no cookie.

Not just that.. the values are simply too small. +3 gold and +1 culture for a trade route, really? You are going to have 3 trade routes for the first 100 turns with AH, Sailing, and Engineering. That's +9 gpt and +3cpt. 3 cpt. That's literally nothing.

 

[Olodune]

@Acken

Spoiler :

Great Rabat location - that's the way to make room for those cities I didn't scout your Fes location until too late.

I'd ask about what you did with the Liberty finisher, but I'll just wait 'til you upload the LP

And, uh, is that a catapult you are building? On Deity?

 

[Acken]

I have honor as a secondary tree so I told myself I may upgrade it to artillery at some point and park it for happiness meanwhile.
The fact is I don't really know what to build in my cities right now. I'd make the religious stuff if I had more gold... but as you can see things aren't great on that side.

 

[consentient]

is that a catapult you are building? On Deity?

This is a much better strategy than you think if he has Honor as a 2nd tree. Building a Classical era unit and upgrading it to Trebs, Artillery will be much cheaper.

I'm very surprised by the way Acken is going about this, but eagerly await the LP.

 

[Acken]

Turn 251 Domination

No AI abuse:
No worker steal
No bribe (wasn't threatened early though)
No deal + dow (actually did one when I dowed the last guy remaining since he was my friend)
No pillage repair

6 cities NC 6 Liberty, 6 Honor, 2 Rationalism, 8 Autocracy. Artillery/Cavs domination (into GWB and bombers).

Took a long time getting through Alex and especially Shoshone with their wall of unit.

Spoiler :

 

[stormtrooper412]

Is that an update to the EUI that I seem to have missed?

edit: as I can see, the spreadsheet updates itself when I enter new data

 

[consentient]

Great win Acken. Can't wait for the LP. I am sure I will learn a lot from it.

 

[peddroelm]

what a perfect tank roll map (lotsa open fields and Kilimanjaro) .. Will play this one next trying to (very poorly) imitate Acken's liberty opening .

Acken's LP shows how utterly WW1 air units suck - landships are miles better ..

 

[consentient]

Great! It would be like Dutch pt. 2 but with a far worse UA but slightly better dirt. Interesting to see how it would play out.

 

[peddroelm]

after a few misfires (unwanted DOW from jealous neighbors caused restarts) made it to the mid game with both Celts and Danes in DOF ..

Managed to drop 7 cities (forgot to make last settler for a while, forgot I could barrow money for last library for a few turns .. ) Way poorer CS game than Acken's (ability, and perhaps a bit of bad luck with barb quests - had better luck with the city states in my previous failed attempts )..Currently building banks -> economics-> Industrialization .. Decided to try and stay put all the way to combustion ..

 

[peddroelm]

T283 liberty-honor-commerce tank domination win

Spoiler :

I take back what I've said about it being perfect for tank warfare.. Perfect except for Athens - flanked by two lakes packed with battleships and missile cruisers ..Alex was in great form (T133 industrial) and I was not. Should've went 3 in commerce earlier for discount - could not buy factory so Alex stole on autocracy policy (getting clausewitz's legacy late hurts tanks ) .. My city state game in general was subpar as it tends to be when I put in 3-4 hour playing sessions ..

When I reached combustion I did not have infrastructure ready (production, gold, science, +XP and happiness buildings) .. Poor CS game - need to waste hammers on happy buildings and have less gold to rush buy heavy stuff to save hammers ..So I saved Oxford for combined arms which I've got T237 with 6 or 7 landships on the field (didn't have time to build a single cavalry unit)..

By the end of the game I've probably build/brought over 70-100 tanks - but I've lost most of them suicide chipping at 167 defence Athens with full airport and missile cruiser, battleship and helicopter spam (there were multiple turns with 6-8 units lost per turn so the LP might have some entertaining value ) .. Did not watch Acken's last episode so Athens position was a surprise to me (I guess I'm a lost cause when it comes to scouting or I trust tanks abilities too much ) (did not bring machineguns to deal with the ships) .. Rest of the AIs, were easy (Pocatelo eliminated by Alex, Kame eliminated by a later weak Denmark that almost took out Celts too, Assyrians were weak)..

First video should be done soon.. The rest hopefully by Tuesday ..
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