The Immortal Alphabetical Game #1 - Morocco

First Run with no map knowledge

Spoiler :
Full Liberty into Piety. At turn 170 and just took Didos Capital. 1 turn away from Navigation but I need two more into Piety and I dont think i can swim my army all the way to the other Cont and win in less than 30 turns. Ill mess with it later but it was fun for awhile.

Shaka hyper expanded which slowed me down a bit and I had to kill two expos with his Capital. Egypt next and onto Askia who was way behind and I crushed him. Dido was tougher since the land but some Log/Range Comps got her after a long siege.

I used GE for Petra and hard built my NC late around turn 110 with 3 cities.
 
T200 Update

I have five capitals. I think and hope I can get the other 3 inside of 40 turns. It's definitely possible if you prioritise warfare from the start. I only started warring with cannons and spent a lot of SPs going for an abandoned CV attempt (got bored and wanted to kill the neighbours).

I'm definitely rusty on overall strategy, but am pleased to see my troop manoeuvring has stayed sharp. :)

T228 Domination

I was worried when I sent my Cannons and Berbers to sea that they would face tough opposition, since I was behind in tech to 2 of the 3 remaining civs, but yet again, they forget to build or upgrade adequate troops.

And when I upgraded the Cannons, it was just totally game over.

Time to try a Deity map again...

[EDIT: Oh, and I got all the achievements. There didn't seem to be any competition for Petra, and I completed Piety first so I could get one of the 3 Reformation policies worth getting]
 

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My first run was a T252 cultural victory. In fact, I actually think sub I think all three achievements are doable, but I only hit one (Petra).

Mistakes made in the spoiler:

Spoiler :

- Got complacent after knocking out Shaka. Screwed around instead of getting focused / busy with exploration. I let Ramsses live until t150, but I actually am OK with that as he built about a dozen wonders on my behalf, and denied them the other AIs.

- Didn't tech Astronomy fast enough.

- As soon as I realized that the Ethiopian, Persian and Byzantine caps were coastal, I should have started pumping out warships.

- Built archers before a shrine ... urgh

 
It is great to see these Immortal games back! I am not a Deity player and will have enough issues beating this level so I won't go out of my way for the achievements.

Spoiler :
Hmm Shaka in my backyard. Gotta kill him prior to him getting those Ikanda upgrades and god forbid, Impies.

Started out with Honor as knew I'd be at war. Took a settler from Ramses for a worker and soon he made peace. Took Ulundi with compies and shot up his coastal expo so Dido's ships could take it. She raised it. Got Petra which is still OK even though I settled 2 tiles east for salt. Honor is finished and am going after Ramses with X-bows


I won't finish this for a week or so as am on holiday.
 
t267 DomV - [edit] Achievements 1 and 2. Could easily have finished by 240 if I went hard navy... This game took so long because of some travel and also because I started replaying the old Lego Star Wars, which is very silly and fun!
Spoiler :
I pushed on against Dido and took her cap, in peace she gave one of three cities which I sold to Egypt to slow him down. Swam quite a few troops over to take Addis Ababa, then swam them back and over to Darius - 2 cities. Then 2 cities of Theo's, then back for the Grand Finale of overkill against Egypt with the GW.

I had so many of every unit, and that included pumping out almost every wonder available and RLabs, even though I had more than enough tech to win long before. Egypt did surprise me with 2 Fighters after the DOW - in a more competitive game I always build some Fighters before Bombers.

Broadway, Globe, Big Ben, Eiffel, Kremlin, Pisa, Petra, Brandenburg, Machu, and Neuschwanstein. Forced WR and WI: Order. Egypt was the only other civ with an Ideology, and surprised me by going Order before the vote.

It was an interesting map with the placements of CS and no city spammers. I was finding ruins in the NW island of the map way later than usual. Thanks for the map, Gustavus!
Spoiler :






 
T 251 and way too slow. I am not good enough to easily win by Dom with a routine civ from an Honor start playing Immortal.

Spoiler :
After Shaka was gone(expo taken by Dido and raised), Dido then turned her ships on me, losing many and giving me gold thx to Honor. I took Thebes about T160 and raised the city from the peace deal and used a GG to take some tiles from his remaining city)

Then I went after Askia and lost units to his two allied CS. He gave me Tombouctu in the peace deal which will be a very useful base vs him and Dido.

Dido again attacked with many ships, accomplishing nothing and then took a straight peace deal. Soon she wanted a DOF and later asked me to attack Askia, but my units aren't good enough to take a 52 defense city.

I made peace with him and raised a trash city he gave me, but didn't make peace with Hanoi so I can use it for naval target practice. Double attack frigates rock.

I have 3 artillery now and should finish off Askia soon.

OMG Persia has over 100 tourism/turn and I fear losing a CV.
 
Spoiler :
T91 Petra
T225 Reformation Belief (Charitable Missions)
T239 Diplomatic Victory

The Reformation Belief achievement forced me to change a little bit my usual game plan for diplomatic victories and in retrospect I think this new way might be better in most circumstances. Usually aiming for Treaty Organization (if World's Fair is won) after the important Rationalism policies, I think aiming for a late Charitable Missions instead is better in most cases if you founded a religion and if it is still available for taking. It is especially better if the CS you are missing are not in range for Trade Routes (it is usually the case since you are more likely to ally nearby CS through quests).

I went full Tradition > Patronage Opener > full Rationalism > Philanthropy, Scholasticism > Piety to Reformation
(also got two free Freedom tenets)

I didn't go to war all game, except at the very beginning when I stole a worker from Egypt. Of course, Shaka was a major threat, but I bribed him to DoW neighbors as soon as he started to look dangerous. Surprisingly, I only had to bribe him 4 times all game. It took quite a while each time before he made peace and as soon as he did I followed with a new bribe. I was making a lot of gold so this was not a problem. He all accepted my bribes against Ramses, Askia and Dido. Perhaps converting all his cities to my religion made him more docile against my civilization.

In my game, Askia and Dido had also founded a religion on my continent. I was able to convert both Zulu and Egypt to mine quite easily by denying Open Borders to both Askia and Dido. Pretty much all their missionaries died from attrition trying to get to Egypt passing through my territory. It was quite pathetic seeing the AI send wave after wave of missionaries to their death.

The other civilizations seemed pretty gimped this game. Only Egypt and Persia opened Tradition and no civilization opened Liberty. All other civilizations opened Honor or Piety. I only did one Research Agreement early game with Egypt and it provided me a big whooping ONE turn of research! Before the end of the game, no other civilization had adopted an ideology.

Civ5Screen0014.jpgCiv5Screen0015.jpg
 
Close but No Cigar! Turn 206 Domination Victory!

Edit: Oh I see they changed it to turn 240 Dom... so I guess I got all the Achis. I did use a GE for Petra and last Policy was Reformation but I still feel I didn't get the 3rd. I could do it with knowledge but on the first try, it didn't happen.

Spoiler :
I got around to the end of this game after a week or two break from SP. I actually thought it would take me longer to take all three Caps so I was thinking I might break the 200 turn mark for a few mins there but in the end Shaka's rapid expansion slowed me down just enough to push me over 200 turns. Dido's land didn't help and since I took it with Comps that took some time too.

So after Dido, I swam the Xbows over to Ethiopia and rushed some Frigates to Theo's Capital and took them both at about the same time. After that I bought some more boats and killed Persia on turn 206... GG
 

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Close but No Cigar! Turn 206 Domination Victory!

Edit: Oh I see they changed it to turn 240 Dom... so I guess I got all the Achis. I did use a GE for Petra and last Policy was Reformation but I still feel I didn't get the 3rd. I could do it with knowledge but on first try it didn't happen.

Spoiler :
I got around to the end of this game after a week or two break from SP. I actually thought it would take me longer to take all three Caps so I was thinking I might break the 200 turn mark for a few mins there but in the end Shaka's rapid expansion slowed me down just enough to push me over 200 turns. Dido's land didn't help and since I took it with Comps that took some time too.

So after Dido I swam the Xbows over to Ethiopia and rushed some Frigates to Theo's Capital and took them both at about the same time. After that I bought some more boats and killed Persia on turn 206... GG

Impressive! Maybe t200 was doable after all!
 
T380 :lol: and suffering :cry:

Spoiler :
I took Gao T261 and Dido soon finished off Askia and asked me to join her vs Ramses' last city. I did and Antanarivo quickly took it and raised it, sparing me any more WM hatred. Dido, in spite of a DoF was getting hostile and then denounced me so I took Carthage T301.

Persia and Ethiopia both having gone Freedom were going after Theo so I joined in and took Constantinople T317.

All the while, Ideological pressure was getting worse and worse, although I hadn't neglected culture. A CV loss to Persia looming on the horizon. I felt that the nuclear option was my only choice! As I was gearing up to hit Persepolis I was doubled by the two Freedom civs on T347. At that point I was losing 46:( to Ideology! Much of my Navy was near Persian waters and I destroyed many ships but my destroyer was lost to their initial double DOW. However, nukes made a mess of Persian lands and slowed Darius' CV attempt.

They took Constantinople back from me after a while but lost many units to nukes. Peace was soon made.

T381 now and maybe I can win in 20 turns or so using more Nukes and X-Com men. Hopefully, I can position units to take all 3 caps about the same turn. This assuming a CV isn't lost to Persia. I may have to nuke him very soon.


Anyhow, some good late game war experience for me. Of course I've made tons of mistakes to be this slow, one of them being thinking I could win earlier with Clausewitz's Legacy which has no expired. Another typical mistake was not having enough units, even though I had strong upgraded ones.

Edit: A sickening blunder was thinking my 3 nukes (waiting on carrier build) were safe in my cap once Persia had been pushed off my continent. He nuked me from a carrier just like I am doing to him.
 
T403 update :eek:

Spoiler :
For a while Ideological pressure has been less as my culture improved so now it is only -25 so my happiness is not an issue. I had to take Persepolis using 3 nukes and an X-Com or lose a CV soon. I did that and netted 6 GW and for the moment there was no VC worry even though I had no chance to hold the now ruined city.

Darius just beat me to building the Int'l Space Station and thankfully I easily beat him to hosting the Int'l Games (failure would have meant a CV loss unless I could somehow take a few of his cities.

Dido asked for DoF then denounced me then DOWed me. I needed to spend a nuke to save Carthage. As I am raising one of her cities, she's given me another for peace. Darius took peace as well.

Darius has 3 space ship parts built but likely lacks the tech to build all 6 for now. No one has built Hubble I need weapons more than GS as I've popped several and bulb instantly. LOL I have only 1 aluminum from somewhere so only 1 Stealth Bomber.
I need to look around, perhaps I can use GG and steal some.

I expect I can win this in 20 turns or so, by taking all 3 caps in one turn. I am still suffering for the idiocy of losing 3 nukes when my cap was nuked from a Persian carrier.
 
One of my first serious attempts at a game and my first game not on Pangaea...

1AD:
Spoiler :

After meeting Shaka within the first 5 turns I knew going for peaceful expansion had a low chance to succeed. So I forward settled him on the gold hill in his direction and rushed him with Composite Bows off of 2 cities. Kept Ulundi and razed Umgungundlovu. From there I continued on to Egypt, and just captured Thebes at 1AD. I have a bunch of decently upgraded Composites that I'm planning to upgrade to Crossbows and take over the rest of the continent with. From there I can probably win science or whatever easily, but I'll try to do an overseas domination even though I don't even know how to make my units swim across the ocean yet. :hammer2:

Lost desert folklore and got a late religion with Religious Idols, Tithe and Religious Centers. Egypt got the Mosques and an overseas civ got the Pagodas. Got Petra quite late, Hanging gardens too, so my capital is going to be quite nice eventually. Religion is acceptable I guess, but I don't think I should learn to rely on it too much anyway, because on Deity religions are going to go fast, or so I would assume.

Overview
Spoiler :


Social policies
Spoiler :

 
DomV T421 :nuke:

Spoiler :
Nukes, More Nukes, X-Coms to take the 3 caps the same turn and some help from Stealth and Guided Missiles.

Darius had 5 space ship parts and had almost beaten me with tourism. I was very close to a loss. Usually an Immortal AI has won by this late.


Achievements, OK I built Petra in my cap as it was useful.
 
Another immortal series, thank you so much for putting this on. I like the added idea of achievements/goals, what have you.

Turn 196 Dom Vic
Spoiler :

Achievements
Petra
Win before T200.
No reformation, I put my points into Rationalism -> securalism and my last point into exploration for quicker domination.

Morocco, coastal start and not a bad one. Continents map. I chose to settle in place and hope to find some other coastal areas to settle for a trade route or two. Around turn 5 Shaka reared his ugly head. I quickly took one of his workers as a prisoner, and got lucky enough to snag a settler shortly after. Upon seeing my most hated enemy, Ramsees. I decided for a dom vic.

I forward settled the gold/river tile, near Shaka's capital. My 3rd city I place close to my capital for a quick and guaranteed food trade route. Also another city to pump ships out of, if need be. The ole' 1, 2 as I like to call it. Composite rush into Shaka's face and he fell over. Ramsees shortly after, which was a bountiful capital, one I was thankful for.



At this point my science was coming around, and I beelined to frigates. Noticing the severe lack in iron, I backed them up with privateers. The plan being to capture any coastal capitals that I could. Askia and Carthage were next up. Askia was a breeze with 5-6 pikemen, and 6-7 composites. I slid in an xbow upgrade after frigates and Carthage fell to my battle experienced xbows. It wasn't long at sea with my caravels that I found the remaining civs, and was happy to see they were all coastal civs. My frigates/privateers made quick work of their cities, and I held the cities with musketmen and experienced xbows.

All in all it was a fairly easy game. Production and food was bountiful and I could staff my universities, giving me enough GS to rocket myself to my desired techs. I didn't need to use oxford in this game. Just mass produce units. Very fun map, although I don't enjoy continents map that much, I find them much easier for dom vics.



 
Turn 114 Petra
Turn 131 Reformation for late universities
Spoiler :

Liberty to settler, then Piety to reformation, was able to get Jesuit Education so that I can save some gold/hammer for universities. Pretty sure game will end before schools. Religion had DF, happiness to temples, mosques. Hard built Pyramid for workers since AI was too slow, later also hard built Petra since production should be good enough and no real competition. All the extra GE points means I would spawn extra GE so it'll be used on oxford for free tech. Didn't bother with any other wonders.

Finished liberty later for a GS to bulb navigation, and oxford cannons just for fun. By that time I don't really need the land army since frigates can clear the capitals on the other continent. In the end I did swim my army over and managed to capture 2 extra city by the time frigate took out the 3rd capital.

Immortal AI's army is fairly outdated and on the light side, so pretty much cleared Shaka then Ramses with CB. I'm not even sure what Shaka is doing with 1 city, he's a joke. Ramses forward settled Shaka and I soon bribed him to DoW Ramses, maybe that slowed him to much. Ramses built GW, so took a while to worker bait until he ran out of units. Waited for Machinery for Askia and meanwhile Dido is doing some real work in taking out all his expo. Gao is easy but it was a pain to get through the jungle to Dido, meanwhile got Navigation online and used a few frigates to help take Carthage. Took peace immediately took the frigate navy for the remaining 3 capitals, which were easy except for Darius's tradition cities with 30% ranged combat religion. I forgot to take a GPr to clear his religion.


Spoiler :


 
T278 Domination Victory Achievements AB

Spoiler :



Short story is I suck. This is immortal and I can't count how many times I reloaded.
Forward settled Shaka and killed him with a composite bow rush. Then teched to Philo then Machinery, and killed Rameses. His Great Wall sure is nice to have.
Then I tried invading Dido, who had killed off Askia already. My machinery not-very-promoted crossbows took Gao, but then they couldn't do anything to the Carthago Nova right outside that chokepoint, so I waited for cannons, then took Carthago Nova while I teched frigates. Then I couldn't get past Saguntum which was right on top of the choke, so I had to get artilleries to get through that and kill Carthage. By that time it was turn 200.

Haile was very easy, but by the time I turned on Darius he had battleships and a couple bombers and so I reloaded and waited for my own Electronics and Carriers...

The end was pretty funny. Theodora, friend of mine till the end, lost Constantinople to Darius (while i was taking his capital). The capital traded hands a few times till it was 3 pop on Darius's side, so I just bombed it a couple times and took it with a Berber cavalry. Don't even need to backstab to win!

 
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