The Immortal Aztec – Walkthrough

[BurN]

No time to read atm but just wanted to let you know I'll be lurking. Good luck with this game.

 

[Bleys]

I agree that the length of the reports are actually a plus, not a minus. Very well written Rus, I especially like how you include some VERY deep thought processes about your decisions. Quite often, its a lack of that exact thing that can make other games kind of "run of the mill".

 

[Rusten]

Some responses, thanks for the positive feedback.

Don't worry about the length of the post. I love detailed write-ups.

It looks like the gold mines are really helping the tech rate. Also, the turning off research trick is a great one and had never occurred to me before. Thanks for the new tip!

A couple Q's:
Will you capture the barb city first before attacking Izzy? (Grab some gold and exp.)
It looks like you saved a lot more forests than I usually do. I assume chopping out jags and cats?
You have open b's with Izzy right? Will you be scouting her lands pretty soon?
When do you estimate the start of the war will be?

Thanks.

Yes, I definitely want that barb city, but I might end up taking it by culture before I have jags assembled. One of the defenders is also CG2 now, so it might just be better to wait for 100 culture to avoid any unit losses.

Thought I'd save the forests for the bonus via mathematics as I didn't really need them yet. I want the forests to chop out an army quickly as you've already guessed. By assembling my force over a short period of time I won't have to pay for a standing army without actually going to war for a long time, it will save a lot of gold.

Going to scout Izzy's land right now with a chariot (ETA 1). I'm not sure when the war will be because to be honest I don't usually aim for this kind of war. Most of my immortal games I usually either axe rush early if I'm cramped for space or try to squeeze in some cities and lightbulb towards renessaince units. Still, with the Aztec that would be a waste as the UB shines for this type of war.

I'd also like to wait for Izzy to make her Buddhist shrine (none so far IIRC) but I can't wait too long either. I'd guess I'll go to war +/- 0 AD--maybe sooner as she has ivory.

The game save seems to be corrupted.

That's too bad, they both work for me. Which one do you have trouble with (or both)? Does everyone get this message?

You seem to have got some awesome land there, especially considering the fact Isabella expanded away from you even though I would have expected the immortal AI to be able to expand in all directions at once... Her lands must be spectacular indeed!! (And three shrines perhaps?)

So nice of her to work them for you until you're ready to take them from her!

She must've been busy founding all the religions instead of getting settlers. She is doing some fine work indeed, spreading religion to me for free and possibly even getting the shrine--the setting is clearly reversed here.

I don't think Izzy will be a pushover, she has iron and has founded her religion.
normally I find she is most vulnerable very early when she has been putting her beakers into religion grabbing and doesn't have any decent military techs

We'll see how it turns out. Pushover or not, I should be able to outdo her in unit count with some solid .

Again, thanks for the positive feedback. I'll continue to emphasise the thought process. I figured this would be the way to go as you can't copy immortal games anyway, they're all different. However, you can recognize a pattern and a general idea and use it in a different game, so hopefully this will be of aid in that regard. There's a lot of talk on this forum about how high-level games require extreme micro-management, but that's simply untrue. What you need is a good understanding of the game and knowing how to adapt to the given scenario.

If you want to learn by observing others, don't look at what or when, but try to figure out why they chose the action.

 

[futurehermit]

Nicely played thusfar though and looking forward to the rest.

 

[CivSetä]

Nice start. Waiting for the war!

 

[JBossch]

A couple Q's about flipping barb cities vs. capturing:
You won't get any money but do you get an archer or two? What about any workers they have built? Do you know what the odds for flipping are like after your nearest city got to 100? Is it effected by how many units they have guarding the way it is for humans (and presumably AIs)?

 

[UncleJJ]

Incidently, I managed to open the 725 BC savegame OK. The situation looks interesting and I'll be following your progress. The plan to take Izzy after she builds her shrine is a strong play, if you can wait that long.

 

[Rusten]

A pretty long set, but I wanted to get the war over with, or at least decide the outcome. I start off by checking the wonder screen for shrines and that’s a negative, Izzy hasn’t gotten a GP yet.
Turn 90 / 625 BC
Izzy demands pottery -> I give it to her.
Turn 91 / 600 BC
Zara converts to Hinduism so Izzy’s religions are really getting out there, currently all 3 are used by 2 civs each.
Turn 93 / 550 BC
Got a jag next to the barbarian city, but it only has 25% odds (unpromoted) due to the heavily promoted archer, so I leave it be and wait for my culture to expand instead.
Turn 94 / 525 BC
Settle Calixtlahuaca for wheat and coastal fish.
Turn 95 / 500 BC
Finish CoL but no Confucianism, Egypt has already finished it a couple of turns earlier. I set research to mathematics (only Izzy knows the tech).
Scouted most of Spain (on a lake).

Yes, that’s indeed a GP in her capital and the next turn she made the Buddhist shrine, so I’m good to go for the rush, now I just need an army. You can also see a lot of jungle/forest, so I should have safe surroundings while moving my army into her territory by heading SE and then SW onto Madrid. Neither Barcelona nor Madrid is on a hill, that’s good news too. I didn’t win back that flood plain south of the gold yet, but I made it about 5 turns later.

Also note Tarsus, formerly Persian. It must’ve flipped by culture because Izzy and Darius have not been at war.

Turn 101 / 350 BC
Darius wants priesthood -> I obviously give it to him
Turn 102 / 325 BC
Finish mathematics leading to the following tech screen:

Izzy has masonry and mathematics which means she could research construction for catapults and elephants. However, all of her ivory tiles are nearby Barcelona, and if you look below you’ll see that I can move right next to her city the same turn I declare war. With that in mind I plan to strike into Barcelona first instead of moving right onto Madrid. I’ll get the crossing river penalty, but hopefully I won’t face many defenders. Here’s an updated map:

I also trade pigs to Egypt for wine.

Turn 103 / 300 BC
I’m about to take out the barbarian city with culture (95% culture or something). It seems the AI is programmed to be aggressive vs that city in such scenarios, because suddenly 2 of the 3 archers are dead (including the one with CG3 now) and it’s left with only 1. This is good for me because I can take out the city with my Jaguar instead of flipping it (I don’t think flipping yields cash, but I’m not sure, can’t remember atm). My Jaguar succeeds and Goth is mine.

The captured 97 gold is very helpful as it will speed up construction a turn or two. I have started getting Jags slowly at this point, but no massive whipping yet as I need to get the UB up.

Turn 109 / 150 BC
Things get tense as I’m ETA 1 from construction and something big happens—Darius declares on Izzy as he’s apparently boxed in. While you usually want the AIs fighting each other this was pretty bad for me as that means Izzy will start prioritising military and possibly military techs (construction). I’m going to have to declare pretty soon to avoid this. She spawned a GP this turn and because of Darius she decided to lightbulb theology and adopts theocracy rather than making another shrine for me.

Turn 110 / 125 BC
Izzy asks for CoL -> I obviously refuse
The Pyramids are completed (Ethiopia).
Darius takes back Tarsus, but I don’t think he’ll be winning the war, he probably got it just because Izzy didn’t have time to route troops there.
Turn 113 / 50 BC
I’m almost ready to attack. I have a lot of Jags and Tenochtitlan has been making catapults every turn since construction due to chopping. I got so much production there that I had to make sure I didn’t exceed 100 hammers and have it turn into gold. Izzy still doesn’t have construction (nor does anyone else) so I should be able to take her out with ease.
Power at 0 AD; I’m getting close to leading.

I declare the following turn (25 AD) and take Barcelona (75 AD) losing 2 catapults but no Jags. It was guarded by 3-4 archers and a spearman IIRC. I did the final attack with an unpromoted Jaguar, which means that I now have a woodsman 3 healer already. My current attack force consists of about 12-15 Jags, ~5 catapults and 2-3 axemen as stack defenders on open terrain. Izzy made peace with Darius the following turn.

Turn 119 / 100 AD
Fred demands CoL in tribute. I just got a negative random event with him (and demand is different from asking for help IIRC) so I give it to him. It’s known by several AIs by now anyway.
After currency I decided to set research to Aesthetics for the Schwedagon Paya (or whatever it’s called) as Taoism has been founded by Darius already. I’d rather avoid bulbing philosophy. Egypt already researched aesthetics though, so I can’t say I’m very confident in getting it.
Zara brings forth a great deal on the IBT. I wanted to research monotheism next for organized religion anyway—this saves me the trouble (he has part-researched construction).

200-300 AD:
I’ve started moving onto Madrid. There’s a forest tile 1 west of the city so I should be safe while bombarding the city’s defense. By 300 AD I’m ready to sack the city, here’s a quick look at the opposing the armies.

Who said Jaguars suck (at attacking cities)?

Madrid holds nothing except the Buddhist shrine unfortunately (currently 15 gpt). A GG is born (renamed to Quetzalcoatl later on). He’s going to get attached to one of my woody3 Jags. As you can see I’m 1 turn away from literature. I noticed no AIs have it so I’m going to pursue the GL (lost the SP to Egypt this turn). I still don’t have any marble, but Germany has 2 sources, so I make trade.

Boosted by the marble and organized religion the GL and the NE will be made quickly in my capital. I will cancel the deal afterwards.

Izzy’s power after taking her capital—the remainder should be quite straightforward.

Spawn a GS on turn 131 (400 AD). I lightbulb philosophy for Pacifism, I’m going to use that to get another tech lead. I sack Seville easily at 400 AD and the turn after my GG has caught up with the army.

I finish the GL 425 BC. While that wonder is better the earlier you get it I decided to grab it anyway this time because I’m also planning to get the UoS which means I’ll be delaying Sci. Method a little anyway. It was also dead cheap with marble and OR. The culture of the GL/NE combo will also help me claim that wine tile next to Essen.

I make another deal with Germany. CS is known by several civs anyway.

Turn 138 / 560 AD
Sack Toledo. I’ve hardly lost a unit in the war other than some catapults. As a result I’ve been getting infrastructure most of the time instead of reinforcing my army. By keeping my cities at low size WW is less of an issue and the whip anger hardly exists with the Aztec UB, so it’s a good time to get monasteries and other so-so buildings up.

I’m now at 580 AD and I have a long walk to the next Spanish city. Further, Izzy has shown up with a decent stack next to Goth (the barbarian city) and I’d have to go through a lot of trouble to reinforce it, so instead I decide to take a 10 turn peace treaty. I wouldn’t have been able to attack the next city for quite a while anyway and this way I get a neat tech too.

She didn’t sign peace for both, but I did get theology for the peace treaty (nobody else knows it). There are other reasons for peace as well; I’m getting very close to paper and as mentioned earlier I want to construct the UoS. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to hook up my stone yet as it’s right next to Spain so a peace treaty saves me a lot of trouble and turns getting the wonder. I guess I could make the AP as well as only the Buddhists know theology. I will probably re-declare on her soon enough. She doesn't have many good friends so I won't get many diplomatic penalties.

Here's the current tech screen (you can add theology--not updated yet)

As expected I'm not leading in that category, but I'll be able to lightbulb education and liberalism soon enough. Maybe I should keep the marble deal and go for the Taj Mahal too--not decided yet. Next up 'm going to get some much needed workers and chop/construct the AP and the UoS in Tenochtitlan with the bureaucracy bonus. I'll also adopt pacifism very soon (maybe even right away). I'm also going to trade for calendar with Darius as espionage shows he's almost done with feudalism. I'll grab it for feudalism+literature+20 gold.

 

[timmy827]

@ JBossch:

From http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=225927


Anyway, let's move on to the topic of revolts. A revolt in a city can occur if the owner of the city and the person who would own the underlying square if there were no city are different. In other words, a city might revolt if a neighboring city belonging to a different civilization has it within its cultural radius and that civilization's plot culture under the city is greater than the city's owner and that of all other civilizations with a city in range. You don't have to have a majority, you just have to have more of your nationality than the other guy. If a revolt can occur, there is a flat 10% chance each turn of making a revolt check.
During a revolt check, a random number between 0 and the city's revolt power is compared with the garrison strength. If the number is greater than the garrison strength, the city revolts. Barbarian cities always fail this check, so will always revolt. If a city revolts there are several effects. All units in the city lose half their current hit points, the city's cultural radius becomes 0 and it produces nothing for a certain number of turns. Also, there is a possibility that the city may change sides (called a flip). A barbarian city will always flip, period. A non barbarian city won't flip if this is the first revolt (there is always one warning revolt). It also won't flip if the option "no city flipping" is on (this by default is off). It won't flip back to someone who has previously owned it, regardless of reason for ownership change, unless the game option "city flipping after conquest" is enabled (this is by default off). If a city flips, all units belonging to enemies of the new owner are destroyed. If the units aren't at war with the new owner, they simply get expelled unless the new owner has open borders with the units' owner.


From personal experience: Rusten is correct that you don't get gold. You get 1 archer (I've never flipped a barb city once they got to a stronger unit type; presumably you'd get 1 of whatever is in there at the time)

 

[ungy]

Rusten--thanks for the great thread and for sharing your ideas.
I've rarely attacked in this time period for the obvious reasons but it's great to see you do it. A few questions:

If you did not have the Aztec, would you have blocked Fred with the 2S of corn city and played nice until renaissance? Seems like there was enough land with 7-8 pretty good cities. Also did getting the gold and also having the commerce you did with the silver/fur enable this expansion or would you have done it anyway and figured you could lightbulb your way back into tech trading?

I'm a little surprised you're so anxious to get into pacifism. You've got a pretty large empire, and still another cleanup war so it's not that cheap and also most of your GP will come from the GL/NE capital. I guess this is something I miss as I would stay in OR.

Nice game by the way--you've obviously got it in the bag.

A comment about picking the gold city for #2 (which was my choice)--I don't think the culture pressure was a deal breaker. Even had you backed off your rush, you had 2 gold that you could've kept (4th ring for her) so still a pretty good outcome.

 

[Rusten]

Rusten--thanks for the great thread and for sharing your ideas.
I've rarely attacked in this time period for the obvious reasons but it's great to see you do it. A few questions:

If you did not have the Aztec, would you have blocked Fred with the 2S of corn city and played nice until renaissance? Seems like there was enough land with 7-8 pretty good cities. Also did getting the gold and also having the commerce you did with the silver/fur enable this expansion or would you have done it anyway and figured you could lightbulb your way back into tech trading?

This is a gambit best played with aggressive and a good reason to attack early rather than later. In this case it was to level up and use the Jaguars, get a lot out of the UB and to claim that shrine. This is a very versatile map, you can choose a lot of strategies. If I had a peaceful UU/UB/civ combo it would perhaps be a better move to play nice for now. However, as mentioned in my OP, I wanted to play in a way that shows the strenght of the Aztec civilization, I could've easily chosen a different approach.

The gold has surely been great, but it would've been doable either way. If I hadn't settled the gold I would've had several matured cottages on the flood plains and be running scientists instead. If I had a high-food 2nd city then the capital wouldn't have had to make as many workers/settlers which would lead to an early GS which would've had much of the same effect, so the expansion was possible either way. The gold is just a very easy and obvious way to get commerce/research, if it hadn't been there I'd find a different way. All 3 gold are desert hills and the corn is unirrigated, so the city has just been standalone fueling commerce, it didn't contribute much otherwise.

I'm a little surprised you're so anxious to get into pacifism. You've got a pretty large empire, and still another cleanup war so it's not that cheap and also most of your GP will come from the GL/NE capital. I guess this is something I miss as I would stay in OR.

Very true, but I don't have much left to build at the moment. I'll have to think about it some more before playing on. You're right about Tenochtitlan going to carry a lot of the GPP though. I was planning on doing it in 5-turn bursts to make work of the spiritual trait (combined with CS), but we'll see, maybe I'm too lazy for that MM.

Nice game by the way--you've obviously got it in the bag.

Don't jinx it!

A comment about picking the gold city for #2 (which was my choice)--I don't think the culture pressure was a deal breaker. Even had you backed off your rush, you had 2 gold that you could've kept (4th ring for her) so still a pretty good outcome.

Yea, I would only get into trouble if she changed her state religion and made a shrine there. If so it could've gobbled up most of my BFC.

 

[quasarsphere]

I'm totally digging this one, and looking forward to future installments!

 

[JBossch]

@Timmy:
Thanks, that makes a lot of sense and basically answers all my Q's. (The main article looks like a good one, just a little dense. I will bookmark it for later.)

Who said Jaguars suck (at attacking cities)?

Somebody who didn't have cats backing them up.

The game looks great. I won't hassle you with any more questions for the moment. Good luck with the rest.

 

[UncleJJ]

Nice play. I opened the savegame and have a few comments.

War Elephants would be a good way to bolster your SoD and just needs Horseback Riding. That tech would also allow HAs to be built for faster moving defenders and it boosts your power rating. Built with stables WE are great attackers and stack defenders at this stage of the game and are long lasting being effective until the age of cuirassiers.

Madrid is a very valuable city. All that food makes my mouth water, +16 food and growing 1 pop per turn. That is an Aztec dream whipping city, so many people to sacrifice, so much blood And it's a double holy city with one shrine already built. I would be tempted to run some priests under Pacifism and make it a double shrine city, for extra gold and the ability to play religious games. That would fairly obviously be the eventual site of Wall Street. A completely different use of the city would be as the site for Globe Theatre and a drafting super city, a combat1 rifleman every turn sounds good.

I'm not sure how well Hinduism has been spread so far but you could use it as a back up to Bhuddism as your state religion and then use espionage to switch another civ into it (as long as he has 1 Hindu city). Then you can switch to another religion leaving him with diplomatic isolation. It can also give more culture in critical border cities if you need.

Barcelona looks a good city too. I'd be interested to hear what you've got planned for it in the long term.

The espionage aspect of the game is gradually forming and could be a very useful in future. Manipluating multiple religions and espionage are a great game for a Spititual leader to play and you have a near perfect opportunity here. Sacrifical altars are beginning to make an impact on EP production. If you can run a few spy specialists in a few cities that will boost EP output. It would be good to see what the other civs are researching, so concentrate on them one at a time until you can see what they're doing, rather than spread the points evenly. What are your plans for espionage in this game?

Great game, keep it coming

 

[Rusten]

Nice play. I opened the savegame and have a few comments.

War Elephants would be a good way to bolster your SoD and just needs Horseback Riding. That tech would also allow HAs to be built for faster moving defenders and it boosts your power rating. Built with stables WE are great attackers and stack defenders at this stage of the game and are long lasting being effective until the age of cuirassiers.

Agree, I should probably research HBR after paper. I don't think I'll have time to field many war elephants for my 2nd war with Izzy, but they'll be nice for my power graph and I see my next war being with cuirassiers, so I want the stables anyway. Maybe I'll wait for war elephants if Izzy grabs feudalism during peace.

Madrid is a very valuable city. All that food makes my mouth water, +16 food and growing 1 pop per turn. That is an Aztec dream whipping city, so many people to sacrifice, so much blood And it's a double holy city with one shrine already built. I would be tempted to run some priests under Pacifism and make it a double shrine city, for extra gold and the ability to play religious games. That would fairly obviously be the eventual site of Wall Street. A completely different use of the city would be as the site for Globe Theatre and a drafting super city, a combat1 rifleman every turn sounds good.

I'm in love with Madrid as well, truly an Aztec city of dreams. Seems to be the best spot for my WS as I have other options for the GT (Goth has rice, fish and the possibility of borrowing pigs while doing the main drafting and Seville has pigs+banana). According to the religion screen Hinduism only has 10% influence (Buddhism and Judaism 20%), so I don't know if the shrine will do much. I guess I could spread it manually with whipped missionaries though.

I'm not sure how well Hinduism has been spread so far but you could use it as a back up to Bhuddism as your state religion and then use espionage to switch another civ into it (as long as he has 1 Hindu city). Then you can switch to another religion leaving him with diplomatic isolation. It can also give more culture in critical border cities if you need.

Hindu has 10% influence as mentioned above. I don't think I'll be changing my religion around as I'm planning to get the AP/UoS. Even if only for 5 turns it would make me lose a lot of hammers/beakers. I think I will aim to spread Buddhism to Germany and Persia the coming round and befriend them. I can attack Zara or Hatty instead.

Barcelona looks a good city too. I'd be interested to hear what you've got planned for it in the long term.

I think I'll make it my HE city due to lack of other good cities for it. It has a lot of river squares when the leevee comes into play and several forests to chop or save for health. While it will need some industrial techs to become a major hammer city I can just use surplus food and whip cuirassiers there for now.

The espionage aspect of the game is gradually forming and could be a very useful in future. Manipluating multiple religions and espionage are a great game for a Spititual leader to play and you have a near perfect opportunity here. Sacrifical altars are beginning to make an impact on EP production. If you can run a few spy specialists in a few cities that will boost EP output. It would be good to see what the other civs are researching, so concentrate on them one at a time until you can see what they're doing, rather than spread the points evenly. What are your plans for espionage in this game?

I'm leaning to a cuirassier war next, so that means espionage will be extremely useful to take down cultural defense. If I won't have to wait for siege a war can be won quickly. An early renaissance war is especially great with the Aztec as you can whip out more units--you don't have to wait for drafting. I will probably start allocating EP towards Zara as he appears to be a good target. I will try to map out his land soon.

On a more long-term note; getting Fred/Darius to Buddhism means I'll get a lot of discounts on espionage missions (due to holy city), so I might focus a lot on espionage later.

 

[Fi$h]

This might be the best walkthrough game i have ever read on these forums if only for your detailed explaination of motivations (sorry obsolete )

I for one wouldn't have had the balls to found the gold city, but it obviously paid off quite well

So please proceed

 

[pigswill]

Obselete obersvation: I was thinking that the best spot for gold city would have between the gold and the pigs (grassland just north of the oasis) which would have got two gold and food to work them within first ring of the city. It would also have prevented overlap with the horsefood city.

But what do I know? I can't even beat emperor on a regular basis!

 

[Rusten]

Obselete obersvation: I was thinking that the best spot for gold city would have between the gold and the pigs (grassland just north of the oasis) which would have got two gold and food to work them within first ring of the city. It would also have prevented overlap with the horsefood city.

But what do I know? I can't even beat emperor on a regular basis!

Not as good because you'll only have the pigs and gold until you take the Spanish city (and then get monster overlap). By settling for the corn you'll have a lot of grassland river tiles to grow with in addition to that flood plain. The city would be stuck at size 4 when working the 3 gold if settled north of the oasis.

 

[Rusten]

Finish the NE in Tenochtitlan and put some hammers into the AP while awaiting paper. I made the following deal (as planned) with Darius. WFYABTA only counts for received techs, so there’s no problem in giving him 2.

I shift my EP to Fred to be able to see what he’s researching in the future. I will do the same with Zara afterwards. Unfortunately Egypt seems to be putting a lot of EP towards me, so I think I’ll just try to keep enough on Zara/Fred/Darius and skip Egypt for now.

Turn 141 / 620 AD

I’m now able to change civics again. My initial thought was to get stables and some WE for power, but I don’t think I can afford it—I’m already spending 18 gold per turn on units in Org. religion, and pacifism will make it even worse. I don’t have any brothers in faith, so I need something cost-effective to stay safe. As a solution I decided to make walls in all of my cities, this seemed to be the best idea because:
- I just hooked up stone.
- I haven’t gotten many GPs yet, so I could use a quiet phase without war.
- I’m already paying a lot in unit maintenance but walls don’t add to that (yet they do add to power).
- I want to adopt pacifism which means even more unit upkeep if I get more units.

I adopt pacifism temporarily, disband 2 chariots and assign a lot of specialists. I didn’t get CS as I need to whip my newly conquered cities—I ran some merchants instead. After changing my civics unit upkeep went up to 35 gold per turn, clearly not preferrable, so I need to grow my cities. However, even with the added unit upkeep I don’t lose much more money than in Org. Religion as it’s a no upkeep civic compared to high upkeep. I do lose the 25% bonus to buildings, but I feel GPP is more important right now.

I can already see what Fred is researching. He’s currently at ETA 2 for paper so I decide to trade it away while I still can. I’m confident I’ll be the 1st to the UoS anyway with stone, bureaucracy and 2 forest chops. I give Darius paper and get his world map, 20 gold and metal casting in return.

I spawn a GS the following turn -> academy in Tenochtitlan.

Turn 144 / 680 AD

Zara asks for paper -> I give in as Fred/Darius knows the tech already.

Turn 146 / 720 AD
Thanks to spiritual I revolt back into Org. Religion and whip some stuff. An added reason was that I completed 4 forest chops this turn (2 of them for the UoS).

Look at the current tech situation:

I decide to make the philosophy+drama for machinery+50 gold trade with Fred. Zara/Darius knows the tech and it’s going to be hard to trade for it later as my new techs will be much more expensive than machinery. The downside to grabbing machinery is that I can’t lightbulb liberalism (GS will choose PP), but I’m not worried enough about losing liberalism to avoid the trade. Due to Pacifism I should be able to lightbulb education and get there first even if the AI targets it. The tech pace is quite fast despite me slowing it down early with the war and not trading much.

I re-arrange my ivory for marble deal with Fred to get an added 6 gold per turn (now 7).

Turn 150 / 800 AD

The peace treaty with the Spaniards has expired and as Izzy does not have feudalism yet I immediately declare war moving my stack towards Cordoba and steal a worker. As you can see below I’m also keeping track of what the AIs are researching, and seeing as I know they’re going for Engineering I decide to set research to Nationalism instead of Education as I don’t have to hurry towards liberalism yet. My plan is to lightbulb education with 2 GSs and to take constitution as my free tech for representation.

Upon declaring war I face my old WW and I’m forced to make some trades for happiness resources.
- sugar to Hatty for spice.
- rice to Zara for wine.

Turn 151 / 820 AD

Heroditus has completed his greak work, The Most Powerful Civilization of the World.

Spawn another GS in Tenochtitlan -> save him for education bulb later.

Turn 152 / 840 AD

Finish the UoS in Tenochtitlan and start bombarding Cordoba’s defenses.

Turn 154 / 880 AD

Capture Cordoba.

Turn 157 / 940 AD

Darius asks for drama -> I grant his request. It bumps him up to pleased, so it’s a very good deal for me too.
I miss the AP, I knew I shouldn’t have attempted to get this wonder, I usually stay clear of it for a reason. Still, it’s pretty good news that Germany made in (instead of Hatty) and even more so that he made it in Frankfurt. If I want to attack him or Darius I can raze it if necessary.

More good news is that I have the holy city so it’s almost as if I made it myself. I decide to spread Judaism to all of my cities. The temples are a good investment anyway as they’re only 40 hammers and don’t obsolete. I also have incense, which means that I’ll gain a lot from Cathedrals. I could choose to spread Judaism everywhere and then change my state religion for diplomacy. The UoS isn’t stuck in Buddhism to my knowledge, but rather to the current state religion, so changing won’t have any negative effect (other than losing the bonus for my Buddhist monasteries, but they’ll obsolete soon anyway).

I also swap back into Pacifism this turn (thank you spiritual) and start running priests in Madrid. I definitely want another shrine now as Judaism is already quite big and will only get bigger as I start spreading it to my cities. Furthermore, as I don’t want to hurry into sci. method due to my wonders I’m not worried about getting some prophets because my GSs won’t be put to great use as they will soon want to lightbulb sci. method. I definitely need it for huge techs such as Biology, but it might be good to move towards rifling and another war first.

Turn 162 / 1020 AD

I capture Santiago leaving Izzy with only 1 city now. I spawn another GS (wheat+fish city) and lightbulb education. I set research to liberalism (5 turns).

Turn 166 / 1060 AD

Spain is no more, I capture Salamanca.
I spot a good deal. Fred researched nationalism already so I decide it’s time to trade it to Zara as he has a lot of surplus gold. The final offer came at giving him nationalism and receiving 725 gold and engineering.

Turn 167 / 1070 AD

Finish liberalism and take constitution. I’m currently getting the Taj Mahal in Tenochtitlan so I’m still in bureaucracy. I think I might want to change this soon, nationhood should be a pretty good civic for my large empire but as of now I think the commerce and academy there is doing a fine job. I’ll have to take a closer look before continuing the game.

Demographics:

Got a random event I’ve never seen before, it’s pretty good too.

I still didn’t get my Judaism shrine down, but it’s only 2 more turns for the GP (odds at ~80&). As you can see I’m also getting the FP in Madrid—it’s nicely located.

Upon a final inspection of the game I also notice that Fred is ready to convert to Buddhism and to declare on Zara, I'm going to have to think about that one for a while.

I decided to stop there as there are a lot of options again. I’ve almost completed MT so I could choose to go for a cuirassier war somewhere (immune to Zara’s 1st strike oromo’s). I'm not so sure if I want a war just yet though as I'd gain a lot from running pacifism for a little while longer. I have enough land to tech to space, but I guess I would be wasting the aggressive trait if I don’t draft some riflemen and take out some civ.

An idea would be to make 2 stacks to avoid a long war. If so one stack with drafted riflemen, my healer and some siege and another stack with fast-moving cavalry and spies (to take down city defense) could prove very effective. Also, as mentioned earlier, I don’t want to hurry into sci. method without being able to grab biology swiftly which makes the upper part of the tech tree and another war very intriguing.

Bottom line is I’m at a point where I can pursue any victory condition I want (even cultural due to religions), so the question is what would be the most fun. What would you like to see? Be aware that I might veto the majority if I feel different about it.

 

[Roxlimn]

Cultural. We rarely see cultural wins around here, especially after major wars and keeping up a sound tech and unit level. It'd be nice.