The Immortal Challenge Lineup - Game #2 - Poland

@Grendeldef

Ok. So you won easily but why didn't you build an army? :p

That is the largest X-Com drop I've ever seen by a factor of at least 4. :lol: What was your super religion? How much GPT are you making from it, I wonder. With that much faith I would be tempted to go for the "buy any GP" or Jesuit Education reformation ...

Who needs an army for domination? But yeah, I slightly overdid it as I didn't lose units much at all - few W Hussars ran into severe trouble before I remembered how to use them when the turn is ~250 and AI doesn't dry out it's marshes.
In the end I had 29 XCOMs, 13 M Armors & quite a few lesser units.

My religion was Earth Mother pantheon, Mosques, Pagodas, Tithe, Holy Order for enhancer & Evangelism for Reformation - I was much more worried about money, happiness & potential for early spreading than science or military. I even gave a few seconds of thought what to pick but I doubt it made any difference.

The problem with picking the perks was the lack of experience so I took what looked the safest option for converting the world without religious NWs. On Deity I've tested it once but then I was Isabella & hit jackpot on T3 or something like that; I even made a thread about it but I don't remember anyone else trying it out.

Tithe gave me ~150gpt in the end and as I only annexed Ulundi & Palenque I bought 6 Pagodas & Mosques. By the time of Palenque I didn't need happiness but a city to buy the last prophet & few missionaries and an inquisitor as it was too risky to walk them around Russia. Also 3 GSs, last prophet cost 2300 faith and quite a few missionaries & half a dozen inquisitors. GMoD helped out early on but I didn't build Hagia S nor Borobudur.
 
First domination at this level and a slow but "easy" win.

Learned quite a bit at this one, replayed the first 100 turns several times because I wasn't quite happy with how things turned out.

First try went for a tradition build, that was defeated by two glasses of pizzolato (sparkling wine) and a staying up late daughter. I got greedy by stealing too many workers and my economy couldn't afford the composite bows necessary.

Next day I tried to be creative and go for a liberty/honour (got scared by the raging barbarians). Failed this three times in a row for different reasons. Too many cities too early, got bankrupt from too many units and Shaka said hello.

Fifth attempt was to make a pure tradition build again but messed up the settlements and got the NC waaay to late.

Sixth attempt was to go pure liberty again ( read the guide), but again messed up the settling somewhat. Settler went to pearls north east instead of north west, and that made the library too late.

Seventh time. I thought to myself, don't be so damn greedy. That turned out to be a game winning move.

Went scout, monument, scout.
Warrior went west, and got culture ruin (I used the same movement every game), went liberty. Spear upgrade for warrior next.

Roughly build:
Shrine (Earth mother), Granary, bought a worker with gold. Free Settler went plains north at the natural wonder. Stole two workers from mombasa really late due to barbs. Shaka cleared north barb camp, but I got the western one.

Struck unhappiness while teching for philosophy. Sugar wasn't for sale, so I guess Arabia had problems with barbs them too. While unhappy built two settlers since there were no growth for quite a few turns, so why not now. Meanwhile I bribed Shaka to attack Arabia.

This might have been what won the game, because then I took said settler and forward settled Shaka and Persepolis on the hill next to the river with the two cottons. Shaka was upset. I bribed him into war with Persia, and gave Persia open borders. This messed up the AI quite a bit. This time Persepolis almost stod a chance agains the Zulu. They continued to battle while I beelined Education into Dynamite. Persepolis got razed roughly when I had muskets. Earlier game without my city placement, shaka had by this time already conquered Persia and where halfway through Arabia. But not this time.

Built some four or five cannons and upgraded them. Built hussars, and that's it for Shaka, Persia, Arabia. Meanwhile got so much social policys that I'd filled out the whole Liberty, Honour and Ratio trees.

Should've stabilized and built up a better economy again, but I didn't have the patience at the time. Felt abusive somehow, so the war pressed on slowly but steadily. Went the path through Knossos down to Athens. America refused to let Zürich go. So I had to go throgh Chicago Moscow. Settled peace for New York. Bombed the hell out of Washington in two turns. Victory.

Could've been way faster. But it was nice to know what kind of compositions the Ai uses while they've got bombers. Used a fighter for the first time ever.

It was a nice map to exercise on, but the moral of the story. Don't deviate from the long term strategy, or else all will fail :)
 
Should've stabilized and built up a better economy again, but I didn't have the patience at the time. Felt abusive somehow, [...]

Hah. That is one of my favorite traps to fall into :king: Shaka brings out the best in all of us.
 
I finally managed to find some time to play some of it. I decided to try a OCC here and settled the rivered hill with the mountain. Soon after that found Cerro de Potosi and kinda regreted my decision :D

I took a worker from Tyre, made one myself and made Stonehendge, NC and Oracle. Found and later enhanced a nice religion : faith from salt + tithe + Divine Intervention + 15% production + Reliquary. Got inquisitor too, just in case :)

Shacka's first attack was T77 and it took around 15 turns to slaugher everything.

Spoiler :

Spoiler :


Problem is that he did pillage most of my tiles, at least I was not too late for HG.
Teched to Education - got it T119, finished Tradition and Patronage. Got also Hagia Sophia and late Mausoleum of Halicarnassus and just got Astronomy, when he attacked me again, right when I entered Rennaissance ...
Spoiler :


Spoiler :



Spoiler :


War didn't last long, as the city is so well defended, that I can hold him forever ...
Especially if I sacrifice the salt in front of it and just make a citadel on top of it.
Still, pillaging my tiles hurts me, and I lost around 20 turns of good growth because of these wars. The problem is, that if I pay him to attack Persia, with his huge force the continent will be his in no time ... I guess now he is gonna attack the Persians for sure, but who knows.

I should try to become friends with him when the world congress starts by making him host or something I guess, as otherway there will be a risico losing diplo to Alex.
 
I would play this but seeing as game 3 is literally tommorow I might as well wait
 
Turns 0-129

Spoiler :
Once again I see how Immortal is 5X easier than Deity. Not much of a plan for me as usual. I just figured I would clear my Cont out and go from there. It was easier than I thought and I haven't met any of the other Civs yet so no warmonger hate for taking Shaka, Persia and Arabia out of the game. I haven't been playing much Civ lately since Im a bit busy with real life and out of town. Poland is so OP and since it was Immortal I figured I could breeze though this game without much thought.

I started out with scout, scout and went full Tradition, 1 policy into Patronage now. I never tried to get a church going but I think I can get one if I want since Shaka did not have one ( I think ). Im sure that will not matter anyway but the bonuses are nice. I just built an army and stole some workers from shaka and CS's. I never gave him peace and took him out first. After that I moved over to Persia and Arabia. I didn't focus on anything really. I made sure to improve all my salt and what not. I should of had 3 cities but barbs stole my unprotected settler and the CS's cleared it out before I could rescue them.


Turns 130-244

Spoiler :
Not too much to report. I could of built a Navy and disembarked all my troops over to the other Conts to get an earlier Dom win but Im pretty lazy. I just sat back and built up. I built a few wonders like Eiffel and Cristo. Alex and Pacal are at war and America is just sitting back. I decided to beeline for a Diplo Vict but Im getting bored with that now and might just go late Domination. I may decide not to finish as well since the game is over and is just a matter of how and when I want to win via next turn, next turn!
 

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Turns 245-296

Spoiler :
I just sat back for 100 turns or so, relaxing and building stronger. Im pretty lazy to go over to the other cont, but I decided to head over after getting some nukes and a larger army than needed. I plowed my way through America and ended up with a Diplo Vict at 296. Ofcourse I could of finished sooner but Im just glad I finished since I was about to abort this game after I took over my Cont on turn 129.
 

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That was my first and probably last OCC at Immortal ...
Longest game I ever played and the scariest endgame :)

Launched at T414, after I switched to SV .... Maybe CV would be an option, but with Zulu hating me, sending Musicians around would not really be an option, so I played it safe.

Interesting things during the game:

- 5 wars with Shacka
- he stole a lot of my land (I've never seen that many great generals ...)
- Patronage finisher gave me a total of 5 Great Generals, 3 of em - Khans. Can't say it was very useful.
- finished tradition, patronage, aestetics, rationalism, commerce and the whole freedom tree (total of 120k culture).
- survived 6 world leader votes
- purchased 5 GS, 3 GE and 2 GMerchants (these 2 were the thing that saved me from losing diplo to Alex).

- major mistake -> with OCC Academies seem to actually be way more useful than I thought, and I only had one. The science from allies I counted on was not really there with strong Alex on the map.

- its good that Zulu was kinda afraid to do anything more than stealing land after I got nukes ... I thought I am safe after I passed nuclear ban (having 2 missles and 1 bomb). Later on I saw the big picture (see screenshot from T389).
Spoiler :


Spoiler :
 
I settled on the desert hill to access the mountain, as I imagine most people did. I also built Petra later, even though it only slightly benefits this start. I went 3 city Tradition, fighting off Shaka long enough to get the tech advantage in the Industrial/Modern era. At that point, Shaka had wiped out Persia and Arabia, so he decided to attack me again. Tired of defending myself every few dozen turns, I built a dozen Great War Bombers and some Infantry and proceeded to wipe Shaka out. Washington had basically taken over the other continent (you can see only Russia survives with one city). I was about 15 techs ahead of Washington, but a domination with GDRs and stealth bombers would have been both a sure thing and a long slog (my computer can't handle the late game turn times very well), so I decided just to build the spaceship.

I had about 10000 faith at the end of the game, so just for fun I faith bought 4 great writers and popped them for culture. You can see that I finished 5 trees (Tradition, Honor, Patronage, Aesthetics, and Rationalism) and have 12 tenets in Freedom including all three tier 3s. With the 2 points in Commerce this sums up to a total of 44 social policies. I am pretty sure that I will never again get even close to this many policies in another game.
 

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I'm taking my fun shot at this. I wasn't around when the early Imm challenges were posted so I missed many of them.

Hmm..Continents and raging barbs. Do I want to go with Honor? Well Shaka was quickly noted so yes, that clinched it for Honor. I see no long term peace for me if Shaka is around.

If I can kill Shaka quickly...ie pre-Impis, I expect to then have an easy time wiping out the other two civs. Then I will have 4 capitol locations and their nice dirt and can hopefully farm barbs to my heart's content with Honor complete and also can have 8 little CS friends.

Early BO: scout/scout (bad terrain I need a 2nd) monument/shrine/granary/archers.

Early SP: Tradition (quick ruin) then right side of honor, then finish honor.

I stole a worker from Tyre. I made no settlers and only expect to make one for a coastal city to go find the other continent. Perhaps I'll settle a 6th city or not raise an enemy expo if it is a fantastic spot.

T88 and Ulundi has just fallen. I had to raise a couple crappy Zulu expos and he just built another. I captured a worker and settler and now have 3 workers. Honor is complete and I will either go Patronage/Consulates or start my way thru more of Tradition. I lost one of my 6 compies by not being careful enough taking Ulundi. I think I have enough along with a horseman or two and my scout to conquer the rest on this continent. I may need another compie to ward off barbarians.
 
I would like to participate in the immortal challenges but I do not know how to dl that file and make it a usable save file. I get a php file and im not sure what to do with that.
 
I would like to participate in the immortal challenges but I do not know how to dl that file and make it a usable save file. I get a php file and im not sure what to do with that.

This happens to me too on this backup computer I am now using since my main rig is down. Win 7 on both. Perhaps it is a setting? I dunno, not that smart.

Anyhow save as all types of files and rename as you save to ICL #2 Poland.Civ5Save

As long as you save as a .Civ5Save there should be no problems.
 
T130 and the continent is mine! So much to do now and I need to concentrate on my build up and science and religion and go meet the others (hopefully with printing press done first).

I raised all but the capitols except for Medina which had Old Faithful for 3 free :) and great dirt in general. I will settle a good coastal spot soon for city #6 as I think a caravel will make it easier to find the others, although my 4 promoted scout will also go to sea. (3 defense promos and medic).

Although I got the first religion and took Pagodas (need :)) and tithe, Arabia's religion has reformed and with Jesuit Education is better than mine. I captured a missionary and am converting nearby expos to that religion with plans to faith buy universities cheaply as well as other faith buildings.

If Harun had reformed with Sacred Sites, my plan would shift to Liberty, Piety and 30+ small cities on my continent for a SS win once I meet the others.

Anyhow, lets see how much I can build up now. Barb farming will help greatly with culture and cash. I'll only destroy camps when CS want me to.
 
Well this was certainly easier than I thought. I am an Emperor player (always win) and was looking for an easier game to tackle immortal, which I have struggled with. In addition, I haven't played in 8+ months so I was very rusty. I made tons of mistakes such as forgetting about Oxford-free-science, not picking correct cities to spy on, having draught periods with little to build, being unaware that it was a continents map rather than pangea- but I won boringly- I didn't dare conquest and decided it would be Science or Diplo unless I conquer later on.

What I did was I killed a Zulu settler at the beginning. He declared war on me, I thought he would do that anyway so sooner rather than later. This stifled his settling, which went horizontal instead. He never sent units up, never attacked, I always kept units around to keep the Impis in check. Got only denounced once (by Zulu), no wars, nothing.

I had only 3 cities, they grew quite late, and I started burning GS's too early. I added the graph to show how Washingtons science ecplises me for the latest game due to his conquest. I had a fraction of his production- but I was eras ahead in science, got tons of wonders etc- really didn't feel like Immortal.
 

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Far from being the best, here's a reference if anyone cares. Man, this is easy compared to Deity :D
 

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I'm playing this one too, now, inspired by recent activity. Am also making an LP. Not much to say so far. Will upload when I have a stable connection.
 
Ooh, nice. I'd like to compare but you're likely going to smash the continent before anyone overseas can intervene :D
 
Actually, I'm purposefully avoiding a CB rush. I am toying with our skirt-wearing friendly neighbour but might get pulled into full-on action when his UU comes online. So far 3-city NC, bought settler for 4th city. Might do XB rush, or something completely different. Might even risk losing. Something to make Immortal a bit more interesting. Exploration-Archaeology-Wide empire-many museums-CV perhaps?
 
After all these games with Shaka next door, I decided I am not having any of that today and slowly killed him by t85 before he even got to Impis. Next on the menu: Persian delight and Arabian nights.
 

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The trolls are going to war. (c) Now what? I guess I should research Astronomy asap and meet the world. Our of habit, I went for Machinery, but then realized the cities were too weak and I could still roll on CB's, so midway I switched to Education. Out of habit, I am also going for Printing Press. Probably will go for CV. Somebody else in the world lost their capital, so it looks like there will be only 3 civs to influence. Shouldn't be that bad, considering Arabia and Persia are usual runaways.
 

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