The Immortal Challenge 3: The Gathering Storm

[Solver]

Good job with Germany, but the situation is still looking pretty grim. Peter is teching like mad and his army is big enough to make invading a pain. Not that you can invade before you can get Astronomy anyway.

You should hope Peter doesn't build the Statue of Liberty as well. If he does, that may just be the bit that makes him too powerful to handle. It's clear, IMO, that he has his sights on a space victory, so he should probably be your prime concern after Germany is vassalized.

 

[Yeekim]

Ouch
(@Bismarck's power graph)
Really good job there! I'll try and check the save out later.

 

[JoeBlade]

Expertly done aelf

Great going showing the benefits of redcoats + protective for a change as well. It's usually not the best of traits but I suspect it helped you a great deal on the defensive part this time.

Peter's graphs are outright frightening though. I'd suggest trying to keep Montezuma and Brennus at his throat as much as possible, no matter what sort of lopsided trades that may require.
I would even consider bolstering naval forces and joining in on the war though not truly partaking, merely defending your coast from invaders should any arrive. The mutual struggle diplo bonus should reduce the cost of future bribes which, I suspect, you will sorely need.
Brennus and Montezuma should stop bickering as well then due to the mutual struggle bonus again. Heck, you might even pull off a diplomatic victory eventually thanks to good relations with the crackpot and the Celt combined with vassals.

Hmm, 'The Crackpot and the Celt', that'd be a nice title for a succession game although I'd be damned if I knew what it might be about. But I digress

 

[EEE_BOY]

save the GP for a GA.

as u said, the war is almost won, so researching railroad makes sense for trading. is it possible to bribe the aztec to make peace with the celts? or maybe u should join the celts to make him friendly for the defensive pact.

 

[aelf]

It might be a good idea to save the GP for a Golden Age if necessary because +5 gold per turn could have less benefits than a GA if we need it.

Good idea, also considering that the rate of our GP generation isn't very high.

Good job with Germany, but the situation is still looking pretty grim. Peter is teching like mad and his army is big enough to make invading a pain. Not that you can invade before you can get Astronomy anyway.

You should hope Peter doesn't build the Statue of Liberty as well. If he does, that may just be the bit that makes him too powerful to handle. It's clear, IMO, that he has his sights on a space victory, so he should probably be your prime concern after Germany is vassalized.

Peter is one of those things I don't like about higher-level AI - random runaway civs that cannot be actively stopped by the player. It doesn't seem to be fair when you've put so much effort on your side and some cheating little AI on the other side doesn't need to do much to clearly beat you.

But I must say that Brennus did a good job trying to slow Peter down. I think we should plan for more of such overtures in the future, roping in Monty as well

Peter's graphs are outright frightening though.

Not as frightening as Bismark's was, though.

I'd suggest trying to keep Montezuma and Brennus at his throat as much as possible, no matter what sort of lopsided trades that may require.
I would even consider bolstering naval forces and joining in on the war though not truly partaking, merely defending your coast from invaders should any arrive. The mutual struggle diplo bonus should reduce the cost of future bribes which, I suspect, you will sorely need.
Brennus and Montezuma should stop bickering as well then due to the mutual struggle bonus again. Heck, you might even pull off a diplomatic victory eventually thanks to good relations with the crackpot and the Celt combined with vassals.

Diplomacy will be like treading on thin ice. The problem is we don't have bargaining chips and have potential allies that fight each other. Assuming we get Steam Power before Brennus and Monty, that might give us the ability to bribe them to attack Peter, but that's assuming they have stopped fighting by then and that being friendly to both wouldn't have damaged relationships with either too much. And we would be depriving ourselves of the opportunity to trade for techs to help us catch up. I'm leaning towards trading Steam Power for techs from one and for peace and maybe a tech or two from the other and waiting for a future opportunity to bribe them both to attack Peter, but that would of course increase some risks.

I hope we can slow Peter down before he gets Research Institutes, which would allow him to zoom even further down the tech tree. Diplomacy might not be a victory goal in this game, but it would almost certainly be instrumental in helping us win a space race.

Anyway, if it comes down to that, there's still the Internet.

 

[Lord Chambers]

Anyway, if it comes down to that, there's still the Internet.

Aye. Free pornography is like a shoulder you can always lean on when things are looking down.

 

[cabert]

good fight on bismarck
I wouldn't let him go before he surrenders, though.
He still is powerful and losing momentum now could turn out wrong.
+ I'm pretty sure (make it 60% odds) he'll surrender after Berlin falls .
Having 2 vassals (even the lowly romans) will help you if you want to go on fighting.

 

[oyzar]

why vasalise him when you can take his land and leverage it towards space? only reason to vasalise him is if your certain of a diplomatic victory.

 

[Chrispy]

Peter is definitely frightening in a space race, particularly once he starts setting up the Research Institutes for the space race. I don't know if diplomatic can be done because both Brennus and Monty have (different) religious civics for their diplomatic bonus. Joining up against Peter is the best way to bump up the relations and slow down Peter.

I like Steam Power as the next step both for trading for other techs and finding coal. Izzy has it, but she's not dealing. Given Bismark's annoying navy, this is a good situation to utilize Ironclads as seafood protection. Make sure you get Scientific Method in one deal as well because you want to get rid of Bismark's oil, both to deny the advanced navy and Panzers. Without oil, Bismark would need multiple frigates to take down an Ironclad.

 

[sylvanllewelyn]

A little too late, but the next time anyone asks you to join the fight against Peter, join in. He's powerful, but no AI's good enough to launch a successful naval invasion. You'll need mutual military bonuses anyway for a (slight) chance at diplomatic. But it'll probably be space race anyway, so make sure you finish off Bismarck actually, because you'll need the land for the commerce and production. Worse comes to worse, internet and send in 4 spies into Peter's city that's building the engine.

 

[cabert]

you shouldn't go to war with another AI before finishing bismarck.
It would make him a lot less generous in a peace deal.

 

[TheArchduke]

Time to drop by.

Excellent game with a lot of action, it makes me itch to finally leave monarch behind and go up to Emperor. I especially liked the part where you give Caesar a worthless city, although how sweet would it have been if Bismarck wiped him out.

Then again, maybe the AI was smart enough not to do you this favour.

 

[50_dollar_bag]

Peter is definitely frightening in a space race, particularly once he starts setting up the Research Institutes for the space race. I don't know if diplomatic can be done because both Brennus and Monty have (different) religious civics for their diplomatic bonus. Joining up against Peter is the best way to bump up the relations and slow down Peter.

I'm pretty sure Monty's fav civic is Police state, and Brennus' is Org religion, no conflict there. But getting Monty into Police state and then staying there yourself for long enough to generate a big enough bonus is going to be the hard part. So I agree that Mutual Military struggle bonus is the best way to go about it, considering Brennus is also in Free Religion.
There's also the possibility of defensive pacts during peacetime too, and Military struggle bonuses hang around long enough to help bump up relations.

 

[Yeekim]

A little too late, but the next time anyone asks you to join the fight against Peter, join in. He's powerful, but no AI's good enough to launch a successful naval invasion. You'll need mutual military bonuses anyway for a (slight) chance at diplomatic. But it'll probably be space race anyway, so make sure you finish off Bismarck actually, because you'll need the land for the commerce and production. Worse comes to worse, internet and send in 4 spies into Peter's city that's building the engine.

Every another continents game I play, I get Ragnar landing craploads of Cavalry and cannons next to my holy city when I am some 10 turns from getting Rifles. Just because I thought "heck, he is not going to invade my from another side of the world while his neighbors on HIS continent are getting at him..."

Declaring on Peter is necessary only of we plan to go for Diplomacy seriously...

 

[DNK]

I've found it's always a good rule to make some advance-notice caravels and a decent defense navy for such inevitabilities. The only times I've regretted it is when I've failed on both accounts. Of course, you have to take -diplo for preempting his strike by taking out his navy before it gets to your shores, but it's better than having a stack of advanced troops razing one of your main cities and wrecking the place up.

Of course, I'll defer to the more experienced players on this matter, but that's just my experience.

 

[uberfish]

Well played on the battlefield, I think this position is winnable - even immortal AIs are less good than you'd think at winning a space race when they're tied up fighting each other, and the human player holds the diplomatic initiative.

 

[aelf]

Hmm... I wonder if it's better if I don't say anything or if I say that I've finished playing the next round

 

[cabert]

Hmm... I wonder if it's better if I don't say anything or if I say that I've finished playing the next round

May I ask why you spend time posting this instead of writing your report?

 

[r_rolo1]

He's teasing ...

 

[PericlesOfAthen]

Aelf you certainly know how to build up people's interest by teasing them!

I'm getting my butt kicked in my current game and I need some good news to cheer me up.