The Klaustrophobic Khan (Immortal Diff)

[t0b4cc0r04d]

Hey all,

I'm still rather new to CFC, but I've been reading tons of stuff here as well giving the GotMs and HoF games a shot. Following along with other peoples' documented games is as much fun as actually playing it myself, particularly the challenging SGs.

So I figured I'd give it a shot and document my own game while I test out a few game settings.

Before I begin, I'll preface by saying that I didn't play a lot of cIV (and never really a challenging AI level), but I am playing a ton of ciV and I think I'm getting better each time. I've beaten Immortal a few times now both prior to and after the patch, but I've only ever tried ICS games to win, so I can't exactly say that I 'deserve' to be beating Immortal difficulty games.

Well, I'm still not ready to completely ignore the ICS approach, but I wanted to make the execution of an ICS strategy more difficult so I dropped a ton of AIs and myself on a small map with no city-states. The Small map is designed for 6 AIs so I'm hoping it's harder to expand horizontally this game with everyone bumping into each other. If nothing else, it should lead to some early wars since land will be the most important resource. I just hope all the wars aren't against ME. I also removed CSs because I wanted to try a game without the maritime CS benefit, but I also didn't want the AIs to get that benefit either (hence removing them altogether).

Settings Overview:
Mongols
Immortal
Small
Pangea
Epic
10 AIs (normal is 6 for small, hence the claustrophobia)
No City-states
No Ancient Ruins


Here's the screen:

And here is my start position:

t0: I decide to settle where I start. I starting training a worker and tech AH in hopes of finding horses closeby for early access to my UA (5 movement horsemen YEAH!)

t2-t9: I meet Alex (Greece) and Harun (Arabia) in the southeast and northeast, respectively. Sign a Co-op with Harun.

t13: AH is learned. I start tech on the wheel. My capital has a 2xHorse plot two tiles northeast. There is also a 4xHorse tile much further east next to a desert riverbed that I consider quickly expanding into.

t22-t27: I meet KungWu (China), sell her OB for 50g, and sign a Co-op. My worker finishes and starts on a grass river farm while I start a monument in my capital for 1-turn before my capital grows.

t28-t29: My capital grows to size 3 so I switch production to a Settler. Wheel is finished so I switch to HBR (so close to horsemen I can taste it!).

t35: Adopt Liberty for the settler production boost

t36-t37: Meet Ghandi. Harun quickly wants to sign a Pact of Secrecy against Ghandi, which I decline and it's immediately followed by Wu wanting her own Pact of Secrecy again Harun, which I also decline. It's still too early for me to get mixed up in foreign affairs before I see which powers emerge.

t38: My worker finished his farm and started building a corral for my two horses.

t44: My Settler is finished in the capital so I begin training a 2nd worker. For a second, I'm torn between expanding east in between Harun and Alex or west next two Wu.

Ok, now that I see how small everything looks in this photo, I realize I probably should have left the resources enabled... I'm still learning.

I like the yellow plot because being on the the left side of the river should offer some protection against Harun from the north as well as block him in to that peninsula for good. The vast desert is also useful for my soon-to-be horses for keeping an eye on Alex's army. The major downside to this spot is that I'm POSITIVE it will lead to wars against both parties sooner rather than later.

Ultimately, I decide on the red plot to the west. It also has 4xHorses and is in great position for any Chinese soldiers that try to advance across the river (I don't think you can see it, but Wu's territory spreads right up to the river from the western side). Plus, I hate Chu-Ko-Nu's almost as much as Liz's Longbowmen... speaking of which, at least the scorecard-HUD tells me she hasn't graced us with her presence today.

t48: Worker hooks up horses, HBR finishes in 5 turns.

t51: Settler founds Beshbalik and starts building a monument

t52: Wu is certainly not pleased, but I tell her I won't settle close to her again now that I've been scolded. However, conquering HER cities is not out of the question, but I decide to keep that tidbit to myself for now.

t54: HBR finishes and I start on Mining. I also switch production in my capital from the worker to a horseman [15 turns].Wu decides to slap me in the face by settling Shanghai right next to Beshbalik.

t55-t62: I meet GDubya (USA) west of Beshbalik and he asks me to go to war against Ghandi, which I decline. Hiawatha (Iroquoi) steps in from west of Beshbalik as well... my original plan to settle my 2nd city over here may have been a bad idea. Wu cancels our Co-op. I finish mining and start on masonry for some marble happiness. My lone worker also arrives at the 4xHorse tile and starting building a 2nd corral.

t63-t64: I meet Bismarck (Germany) and sign a Co-op. In the first of many wars, GW declares on Ghandi. As a side note, I really feel sorry for Ghandi. He's usually the first one to get picked on in most of the games I've played against him.

t65: Bismarck wants a Pact of Secrecy against Harun, which I oblige to potentially keep them both off my back while I focus on Wu for now.

t69: I finish my first horse in the capital and immediately start training a 2nd one.

t71-t77: GW asks me to war with him against Hiawatha now, which I decline. I really think he has a predjudice against Indian nationalities. Also, Masonry finishes and I start pottery next. I finish pottery and start calendar.

t79: I meet Askia (Songhai) and sign a Co-op. Alex wants a Pact of Secrecy against Harun, which I eagerly sign in hopes of delaying my own war on that front at least until I eliminate Wu.

t81: Beshbalik finishes building a monument so I start training a Chariot Archer (4-moves archer? YES PLEASE)

t84: Ghandi lost his capital to GW, but he still has a home somewhere else. My 2nd horseman finishes in the capital and I proceed to finish the partially-trained worker from before.

t89: Calendar finishes and I start trapping. I decide it's now or never at attack Beijing with 2-horses and a warrior "meatshield'.

t92: Beijing is mine, but I lost 1 horseman foolishly.

t93: My 2nd worker is trained in my capital and I start training a new settler to protect the eastern desert. My 2nd SP arrives and I adopt Citizenship for the faster workers.

t95-96: Wu offers me 561g for peace so I eagerly take it since I can finish her off 10 turns later. Heck, I can even use the 560g to buy the horseman she killed earlier. Interestingly enough, Wu then complains about me capturing Beijing. Apparently, she thinks I 'settled' Beijing next to her and went against my earlier promise to not settle new cities near her. Chalk that up to a bug I guess.

t99: Beshbalik finishes its chariot archer and starts training a settler to replace Shanghai when I conquer the city in 6 turns. Meanwhile on the eastern front Harun has been busy!

My plan at this point is to finish off Wu in a couple turns and then turn my attention east. Harun has me a bit concerned because of the massive production potential available to an AI with this many cities early on. Granted, this is my first Epic Immortal ciV game, so maybe I'm overestimating their worth right now, but we'll see.

 

[t0b4cc0r04d]

If you decided to stick around for the 2nd installment, I appreciate your attention. Since I'm new to these walk-throughs, I'm still learning how I can best describe my story while making it interesting. I'll try a slightly different style for this next series and include more pictures and less notes. Also, feel free to comment on what works and what doesn't so I can improve future posts.

First things first. I need to finish off Wu's last remaining city of Shanghai, but I have to wait 6 more turns for our peace agreement to end. As I take a break from fighting, others join in. Harun declares on Alex! This is the perfect situation. Hopefully by the time I eliminate Wu, both the Greek and Arabian forces will tear each other apart and allow my horses to command the eastern desert.

Turn 106 finally arrives and with it a new war with Wu. In my haste to finish her off I forget to even take a screenshot prior to battle, but I promise you didn't miss anything tactical. I think she had 1 defender stationed in the city and it fell in a single turn.

Based on how easy it was for me to conquer Wu, you might think the AI is a pushover even at Immortal level. I'll admit that I've been successful at every early horseman rush that I tried on Immortal, but Wu has been by far the easiest. I think it was because she focused on (and completed) the GL, which ultimately doomed her since she was way behind on troops and particularly spearmen. I've had games where I had to carefully consider my attacks based on how vulnerable I'd be to incoming spears.

Having successfully expanded west, I attempt to fortify my new cities and then focus on Harun and Alex to the east. I also found the defensive city of Turfan. I'm very fond of this position because it has great hill cover behind it for my range attacks, it's close to my capital, and I can overlook the desert and efficiently scout with horses. The only downside is the closest luxury resource is 3 city tiles away and I'm already at -5 . You can also see in this photo that Sparta just changed hands. It looks like Harun is winning that war.

I'm all set to move my troops east when Hiawatha insults my army and then declares war on me. Okay, well I should probably hold off on my eastern conquest, but I don't expect any major setbacks from this. However, before I even finish this thought, GW declares on me too! I'm sure he felt threatened by my acquisitions of Beijing and Shanghai, but I'm not sure what to expect from two opponents this early on. Just to be safe, I hire Askia as a mercenary for a whopping 685g + OB to fight Hiawatha for me. This decision was BY FAR the worst decision I could have made in this game as you will soon see.

So as you can see, I don't have much in terms of defense, only 1 warr, 1 chariot archer, and 2 horsemen. The AI is still struggling a bit by placing the archer 1-tile away from Beijing (why would they make it easier for my horseman to snipe it?). Also, the horseman in Beijing has only 1 move left IIRC, and I didn't want to take out that red warrior to then be exposed on flatland to that spearman right outside of Boston. You might also notice I found Hsia 1 tile east of where Shanghai used to be. This way I can use the river to slow down the enemy similar to how I positioned Beshbalik. I end my turn and...

My stalwart warrior survives attacks from an archer and spearman. I consider my counterattack options and start with city bombardment on the northern 10hp spearman. Unbelievably, I score a 5pt hit from Beijing. I then calculate some different battle odds and at least in theory I should be able to take out the northern (now 5hp) spearman with my northern horse. My chariot archer can finish off the warrior and my garrisoned horseman can snipe the archer...

The warrior and archer both fell, but the northern spearman survived with 1hp. I also used a heal on my 1hp warrior southwest of Beijing. My next turn I mop up his remaining soldiers and move towards Boston. I actually felt like I was cheating in my attack on Boston. With a 5-movement horseman I was able to attack the city AND retreat outside of bombardment range all in one move...

At this rate I'll have Boston in 2-3 more turns. Out of the blue, Askia makes peace with Hiawatha... REALLY?? I gave him almost 700g for 15 turns of war, 10 of which he probably spent mobilizing his army. Then to add insult to injury, Askia and Hiawatha declare on GW! Holy helicopter what have I done here?

Now you'd think Askia couldn't possibly screw me over any worse than he just did these past two turns, but he did with fancy blocking maneuver...

I'm unable to attack the city with both horsemen and so Askia takes the city from me next turn. Sadly, I was left with no choice but to declare on Askia. You might think I'm crazy and just warmongering for the sake of warmongering, but if there's one lesson I've learned so far in this game it's that you CANNOT have long term allies with neighboring AIs. Somehow Askia would twist the story around and blame me for having Beijing and company so close to his borders. I saw the opportunity and I took Boston for myself. The best part about taking Boston is that I receive my first GG in this game. Yay for +2hp/turn heals in adjacent tiles. I also make peace with GW this turn so I can avoid fighting 3 AIs at the same time (currently at war with Askia and Hiawatha).

While I wait for Askia and Hiawatha's armies to arrive, I finish Iron Working and find two 6xIron tiles where else but in the desert between Harun and Alex

Both sources are technically reachable by Turfan, but there's no way it's producing the culture to claim the tiles in a timely fashion... and by timely I mean NOW. I allow the library to finish in my capital and then start on another settler with intentions of founding a city in the forest SW of the Iron (due West of the spices).

A few turns later I see Askia and Hiawatha signed a RA. Seriously, do they even remember who introduced them to each other a few turns back? Askia then offers peace and I take it. I ask for peace with Hiawatha but he still thinks he deserves everything I got.

Things are pretty calm until I see this...

I can't afford to lose out on iron at this stage of the game. I proceed to squat the land to prevent Alex from founding a city close enough to the iron that would prevent me from creating my own city where I originally wanted. I actually bring that chariot archer down to the spices to lengthen my blockade. I was successful, but I know what's going to happen when I share borders with him in a few turns.

To make matters worse...

Harun settles Najran and in his next turn... yep, you guessed it. Fortunately, I was able to make peace with Hiawatha so I could focus entirely on the eastern front for a few turns.

 

[endymion]

very nice write up. I like how u comment on your diplo tactics. U could also just have bought the iron tile. If u did that u could spend hammers on horsemen instead of a setler. keep em coming btw

 

[nebux]

i like it, just buy the land

 

[chrome-rome]

very interesting game. easy read. will be following

 

[t0b4cc0r04d]

Good call on purchasing the tile guys. I don't know what I was thinking. I only wish I read your advice before I played again to take advantage of the tile sooner. Fortunately, I did settle the spot I described earlier, but I'll get to that soon enough.

So it's turn 138. I just made peace with Hiawatha, but Harun declared on me after settling Najran. I leave my spearman and a chariot archer to hold the [peaceful] western front while I station two horsemen, 2 chariot archers, and my GG to the eastern front. Harun leaves a swordsman in the open desert with two defensive archers behind him but on MY side of the river, I use one of my horsemen to snipe them 1 by 1 while the other scouts the desert for spears/pikes that may advance and catch my horses in a bad position.

There wasn't as much action from Harun after he lost those 3 units so I then sack Najran. Unfortunately, this was my 2nd big blunder of the game (1st one was losing a horseman in the Chinese campaign). I was so eager to settle the iron tile with my settler that I completely ignored my happiness (or lack there of). By capturing Najran and founding Old Sarai, I pushed my happiness to -10. That's a big no no, ESPECIALLY while fighting a war because in addition to drastically reducing your cities' production, your armies also take a -33% combat strength modifier. I ended up having to raze Najran to maintain a >-10 happy score. It's unfortunate because Najran could have been a useful frontline city controlling any pushes along that coastal hills path (the 1-tile wide 2-sheep path). Sorry to recycle the last image, but I forgot to take a new SS of Najran after I captured it.

Now is probably a pretty good time to talk about my empire's happiness in this game. In my previous games I pretty much ignored the happiness score because it was easy enough to buy a CS alliance when I got into trouble. CSs are definitely a crutch that I admit I've taken advantage of in most of my previous games. I'm happy to not be playing this game with them because it certainly is more challenging and it's forcing me to play differently... although I've been rather stubborn and slow to adapt so far in this game. The effect of playing without CSs is really two-fold: without maritime CSs, cities grow much slower (this part I expected), but I really was naive to how important CS resources were in my other games. All is not lost however, as I will restore happiness not too far down the road... but I really should have addressed this issue sooner than I did in this game.

Okay, back to diplomacy. In the turn following my founding of Old Saria, Alex tells me it's rude to settle in his backyard. I'm just counting down the turns before he declares on me. Hopefully I'll get some meatshields to counter his hoplites in time. Oddly enough, Alex is not hostile towards me, but I still can't convince him to fight Harun with me. I think losing Sparta to Harun a few turns ago really hurt his ego.

Next turn I see that GW made peace with Askia and Hiawatha AKA the Dynamic Duo. GW really took a hit and is now near the bottom of the scoreboard (remember he was in 1st place when he declared war on me awhile back!). A few turns later Bismarck shows up and asks me to go to war with him against GW, but I decline. Talk about being opportunistic!

The eastern front is very quiet... I wonder what Harun is up to? I've been picking off an archer here or there and sniped a few workers, which were quickly reclaimed or killed, but overall Harun hasn't done much. Still, I try and bribe Alex one more time to fight Harun this time just seeing if he would go to war for marble AND 600g... he still refuses. It's not even that I need his help, I just don't want his troops attacking me.

Right after Alex refuses my offer, he once again insults my army... his passive agressive attitude is getting out of hand and now I want him to declare on me just to end the suspense, but he won't. In a power play of the nobody's, Ghandi now wants retribution and asks me to declare on GW too, but again I decline.

It's turn 149. I receive a pop up telling me that peace with Hiawatha has ended. I hope he ignores that memo when it's his turn. Negative, Hiawatha declares the first chance he gets and this time he brought a friend. Amazingly it's NOT Askia, but rather he convinced Caesar to gang up on me this time. So I'm 5th in score and #1 & #2 both want me eliminated. Now I have a two front war on my hands. The two strongest powers from the west and #4 Harun in the east. Not to mention I anticipate Alex joining the feeding frenzy any turn now.

I hold off from splitting my forces for the time being because I don't immediately see any forces near Beijing or Hsia. I'm hoping to intimidate Harun and force him into peace before reinforcing the west. There still are a few troops stationed in my Chinese puppets, but I don't think it's enough to hold off a long term assault.

It's turn 152 and Caesar shows me his warrior and archer. After my chariot archer softens up his archer, I plan to send in my spear to finish it off. But I look at the combat odds and see his archer will do about 4pts of dmg to my spear. That doesn't make sense to me even with the +25% terrain modifier, but then I see my spear is being penalized for crossing a river... huh? The river is SE and E of my spear, NOT on the path my spear is taking to the archer. I chalk that up as another bug (unless someone else sees what I'm missing here?) and keep my spear in Boston this turn.

On the eastern side, Harun sneaks a pike in to capture a worker improving spices. I have a pep-talk with my other worker in the area and I convince him to play decoy and set a trap for Harun's pike. The pike doesn't fall for my trick, but still ends up in the open desert where my 2 chariot archers and a horseman can easily kill him. After killing Harun's pike, I see a very vulnerable Sparta so I start an offensive on the city. Just for my curiosity, I see if Harun will make peace and see that he will. Neither Caesar nor Hiawatha will even negotiate though. I decide to hold off on peace with Harun this turn because I'd like to take Sparta first. Alex is salivating on my southeastern border, however, so if he drags me into war next turn I might have to make peace with Harun sans Sparta.

In between turns I'm greeted with this...

So, during this turn I am currently at war with 4 AIs... none of which I started. Maybe I'm at fault for the Askia fight because I did backstab him earlier when I took Boston from him (I don't care what you say, it was rightfully mine). But really, I did nothing to instigate Caesar's and Hiawatha's wrath (well unless loose-lips Askia told Hiawatha about my bribe).

Up until this point in the game I was pretty 'comfortable'. Not that I felt like I was guaranteed to win, but I felt like I could pick things up and maybe win a space race.

At the start of this turn however, I didn't know what to think anymore. Right now I'm spread too thin on both fronts, my happiness is pathetic, preventing my cities from growing into useful centers, and I'm at WAR with 4 AIs - Harun to the east, Askia, Hiawatha, & Caesar to the west. I need to make peace with one of these AIs so I sack Sparta and offer peace to Harun, which he accepts, thankfully. This SS below is from the next turn because I forgot to take one earlier, but you can see I starting moving most of my units towards the Chinese puppets. I also vacated Sparta because I was/still am worried Alex will cut it off from my other cities, stranding my horseman.

Here's what the western front looks like. You can see Askia northwest of Hsia, Caesar west of Boston, and Hiawatha south of Beijing.

The worst thing about this SS above is that puppetting Sparta put me at -10. I was actually at -10 in turn 155 (1-turn prior to this) when I had to consider my options. I really am getting pinched on all sides from the west and even though my troops aren't yet obsolete, they are fighting an uphill battle with the -33% unhappiness modifier. One short term solution would have been to raze Sparta and put me back at -7. I really considered doing this to better hold my western cities, but then I realized Sparta was working whales... which was great except I still hadn't teched SAILING! Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Big Blunder 3. It's made worse by the fact that my capital's 2nd Lux resource was Pearls this whole time, which I completely ignored.

Enough with the self-loathing. As soon as I realized that 10 was right around the corner, I switch tech from metal casting to sailing [3-turns] and figured I'd buy as much time as I could with handicapped soldiers. On top of the 2 lux's, I also have the Meritocracy SP arriving in 6-turns, which will bring in another ~8 (assuming I connect my trade routes by that time). And lastly, I have a circus in Beshbalik and a colliseum in my capital due in the next 5-7 turns. A happy civ is just ahead, as long as I can hold the lines a bit longer...

 

[aukrest]

Nice work so far, will follow!

 

[t0b4cc0r04d]

Thanks for the kind words everyone.

So I last left off deciding to deal with the -10 for two more turns before sailing finished and allowed me to receive the pearls and whales lux resources. I was able to hold my own on the western front. The river northwest of Hsia worked perfectly at slowing down Askia's soldiers. Even with the unhappiness penalty, my horseman and city bombardment was more than enough to keep Askia away.

I was at war with Askia, Hiawatha, and Caesar but none of them seemed very eager to push into my territory... only ever sending small 2-4 unit parties which I could easily handle. A larger concern appeared to the east as Alex kept showing off his army.

As you can see in that photo, I'm now up to +4 and in the next few turns I'll actually reach +14 from the meritocracy SP, a circus, and a coliseum... finally gives my cities a chance to grow up a bit.

Turn 174 arrives and I'm sitting 3rd in score and 6th in army. Caesar has the largest military force, but I'm actually more worried about Hiawatha who hit the Renaissance Age a few turns back and will probably start sending muskets. Not to mention Alex's soldiers just outside my borders...

I've been trying to make peace with any/all of my western enemies, but no one will enter negotiations. I consider declaring war against Alex now just so I can strike first and end the suspense, but I first see if Harun can be bought...

BINGO! Drawing Harun into war with Alex will hopefully weaken both armies, allowing me to sweep in later and take them both out.

Meanwhile, the western front finally sees some action as Caesar makes a half-hearted push to Boston.

I start by using my city bombardment to attack the closest roman legion and end up doing a whopping 7dmg. I check to see how much damage my chariot archer can do to the other legion and am shocked to see a kill prediction until I notice Caesar's legions are hit with the -50% strategic resource penalty. I'm really confused as to how this happened because AFAIK, Caesar wasn't in any other recent wars so any iron resources he had should not have been pillaged. And if his resources weren't pillaged, I'm not sure how he could have trained/bought more iron-dependent units than his resources allowed? I didn't dwell on this issue for too long and I quickly wiped out his units. You can also see 2 of Hiawatha's troops south of Beijing. I've been picking them off slowly for a few turns now with my Beijing bombardment and chariot archer and Hiawatha doesn't seem to care.

Back to the eastern front, Alex marches towards Harun and I see how exposed he's left his empire. I may have to take advantage of this opportunity sooner than originally expected.

I finish Civil Service and my first GS pops at the same time. I decide to save the free tech for banking (unless I find myself in a dire military situation before that and I'm forced to spend it on steel for longswords).

Out west Hiawatha and Caesar have been quiet, but Askia finally made a pike push from the north. He'd been hanging hanging out just beyond the fog of war, but when I concentrated my army closer to his lands he decided to push me back. We actually never engaged in combat, instead agreeing to a "no-fly zone" near the desert between our empires.

Back east, Harun and Alex have been engaging in small scuffles and I become a bit concerned that Harun might try and capture another one of Alex's cities. I determine that my window of opportunity for taking Alex's lands is closing so in a potentially foolish move, I declare war against Greece and start attacking Alex's capital.

A few turns later, I puppet both Athens and Knossus and I'll move in to take Corinth once my army heals up a bit. Tragically, I lost my 2nd horseman during my Athens offensive when he got stuck on a desert tile in range of a Companion Cavalry.

The western front is rather quiet again, although you can see Hiawatha does indeed have muskets. Fortunately, my chariot archer is doing decent damage to any units that step in range. I make peace with Askia since I have no intention to expand in his direction just yet, but Caesar still won't negotiate and Hiawatha is asking for way too much at this point. In other news, GW has just been eliminated and now Caesar and Ghandi are going after Askia.

At this point in the game, I think my best bet will be to eliminate Alex and then make my move on Harun. If I can completely eliminate the AIs on my eastern flank, I should be able to catch up to Hiawatha and Caesar and then slowly spread into their lands.

 

[t0b4cc0r04d]

It's now turn 195 and I started executing the plan I ended with yesterday. Alex has been eliminated and I can now turn my attention north across the desert towards Harun.

In an interesting plot twist, Hiawatha has become fed up with Askia and declares war. For some odd reason, a few turns later Askia thinks it's a good idea to re-declare on me. Apparently he's tired of me hogging all the enemies because now he's at war with Hiawatha, Caesar, Gandhi, and me. I'm more than happy to relinquish the crown of "most current wars with AIs" to Askia and so I make peace with Caesar. Around this time I was also surprised to see Gandhi reclaimed his capital... I guess he's not completely out of it after all.

I finish Chivalry as I reposition my troops to Arabian lands and upgrade a few of my horsemen and all of my chariot archers to the other Mongolian unique unit, Keshiks. I wasn't quite sure what to expect from these range units, but WOW are they powerful when level'd up a bit. A few turns later and I have my army poised to strike. Here's a before and after shot of Harun's army on the outskirts of Medina... the first of many Arabian cities I will claim...

Before:

After:

Things are progressing well on the Arabian offensive and then in a truly desperate move (probably trying to impress his friends) Gandhi declares on me. On the next turn, my trading buddy and as-close-to-a-friend-I've-seen-from-an-AI, Bismarck, greets me with this:

Now I'm officially convinced that there's no method to the AI's madness. I haven't done ANYTHING to upset Bismarck to the point where he should attack me. Heck, I don't even know where his cities are located. All of my previous DoW's made sense since my borders may have interfered with my opponents' expansion plans, but not Bismarck's DoW. And for those of you having trouble keeping up with my wars, this picture should explain everything...

Fortunately for my soldiers, I'm finally able to make peace with Hiawatha and he must be swimming in unhappiness because I'm able to sell my extra Lux's for 390g each.

On the eastern front, Harun's army looks to have been destroyed, but I later find out he still controls a few camel archers and catapults. Still, I'm able to capture Mecca, Damascus, and "2nd" Najran in the next couple of turns and I decide that's enough Arabian cities for now so I make peace with Harun. I really want to bolster my western front and these experienced soldiers from the Arabian campaign should do the trick.

Out west, this is what it looks like...

I'm actually happy Gandhi declared on me a few turns ago because I was in the process of settling a new city 1-tile southeast of where he settled Pataliputra and now I have a good reason to capture/raze it to make room for my own. I actually prepare 3 settlers to make a triangle on these western lands... this also means that once I capture Pataliputra I'll also raze Boston along with it to make room. Here's what it looks like on turn 225...

Defensively, it doesn't get much better than Tabriz and Samarqand with the impassible mountains separated by lots of troop-slowing hills. Samarqand has the added benefit of keeping watch over the southeastern river where Hiawatha has been known to stalk earlier in this game.

Right around this time I use my GS to bulb Banking and my capital starts on the Forbidden Palace, which will come in handy with the collection of cities I've recently acquired.

26 turns after Bismarck declared war on me, he finally asks for peace and I accept. I failed to see a SINGLE troop of his during this time and I still don't know where his borders are located. Turn 242 arrives and it's the first time in forever that I'm NOT at war with ANYONE... we'll see how long that lasts.



8 turns to be exact, before Hiawatha declares on me. Here's what the map looks like along with turn 250 demographics...

Western Front:

East:

Demographics:

Interestingly, Hiawatha never captures my settler with his knights so I found Kazan and now his soldiers decide to go around the city instead of through it. I'm also able to bribe Caesar into declaring on Hiawatha for my pearls... actually, Caesar threw in 145g AND OB, which I gladly took.

Things get a little scary a few turns later when Caesar realizes how bad that last trade was and he declares on me.

I'm not too concerned with Caesar's army, but I do have to be extra careful when using my Keshiks' moves because I need to engage, attack, and still leave 1-2 moves available for my retreat. I almost lose Tifus while performing this "dance", but I do barely hold on. You can also see near the bottom of this picture that Hiawatha captured Kazan and it appears he has an infinite supply of soldiers to send at me.

But unfortunately for Hiawatha, he doesn't use them properly as seen by his embarked muskets. It really is sad that he maneuvered his units this way because I'm not sure how well I would have fared if he had charged towards Beijing or even Almarikh. As it played out, his units passed through a slaughterhouse and never set foot on solid ground again.

Further west towards Nabriz, Caesar has trouble with my defenses. You can also see Gandhi's obsolete army trying to make a stand, but failing miserably. His early-game struggles have set him so far behind that he really won't ever catch up.

I continue to fight off both Caesar's and Hiawatha's armies until I see an opening to push forward. I've also completed the Forbidden Palace around this time and my happiness jumped to +26. Now it's definitely time to fill in the gaps with new cities and speed this game up a bit. Confidence is at an all-time high right now and I've decided that the quickest victory will most likely be Domination now that I've weathered the too largest armies remaining in this game (although my army is still ranked 3rd).

 

[evrett37]

nice read..be sure to build Mongolian wok diners in every city

 

[Qin Shi Huang]

Awesome well done

 

[neilkaz]

Great write up here and excellent tactics used in this game. In spite of a few mistakes (nothing major) you have this game wrapped up, IMO.

.. neilkaz ..

 

[generalwar]

Really great thread, I can't wait to see glorious Khan's triumph.

 

[t0b4cc0r04d]

I guess it's about time to wrap this story up. I left off last time with a foothold in Hiawatha territory and an army on the verge of capturing Washington from Caesar. Unfortunately, my Iroquoi campaign was put on hold when Hiawatha showed up with about 5 rifles just outside of puppeted-Osininka. I knew I didn't have the strength to hold him off (without suffering substantial casualties myself) so I offered peace and he kindly accepted. With things now quiet on the Iroquoi border, I directed my attention to Caesar and started to spread north and west. I was able to capture Arpinum and Arretium with little resistance and Washington fell as well, although it was short-lived as Caesar soon countered with his own army and reclaimed his forward post. During this time, Washington was traded back and forth 3-4 times before I it occurred to me that I'd probably run out of troops before Caesar at this pace. I'd have to find another way to Rome, and so I repositioned my army to attack Caesar from the north instead of the east. As my soldiers were on the move, a few of them were attacked by Gandhi (who I COMPLETELY forgot was still at war with me). Maybe attacked was the wrong word, it was more like bitten by a mosquito, but regardless the Indian spearmen and war elephants were no match for my musketmen and keshiks. I rewarded his aggression with a quick exit from the game...

I was quite pleased with Mumbai's location (plenty of hills and even a 1-tile lake to funnel Caesar's troops as they approached from the south). Also, my recently upgraded artillery should have plenty of targets to aim at from this position. From here, I planned to take New York and then circle back to reacquire Washington once and for all.

The sacking of "new" York was going slower than I had hoped, mostly due to a constant supply of Roman troops, but you can see in this next picture that the city is almost broken. More importantly, however, you can see Hiawatha's replenished army setting their sights on Osininka. It appears the cease-fire with Hiawatha is about to expire...

It doesn't take long and at turn 308 Hiawatha declares war and makes his final assault in this game.

This is all that's left of the Iroquoi army, however, you can see it was good enough to retake Osininka a few turns ago and it's still good enough for one last minor victory as his rifleman stationed in the city wipes out my Keshik left of the lone mountain. I actually had to go back to this screen shot after I lost my unit because I thought it was safe when I ended my turn. I had forgotten about Hiawatha's UA, which allows his units to travel through jungle/forest as if they were roads. So what looked like a safe ending position for my Keshik ended up being in the rifleman's backyard. Ah well, hopefully I learned my lesson.

Staying with the UA topic for a moment, so far in my ciV games, the only other leader that makes me paranoid during war is Darius (Persia). I've lost a good supply of soldiers to the "+1 movement during GAs" when at war with him. Now, every time we're at war I force myself to do a "yield-check" in his lands to see if he's in the middle of a GA before I plan my attack.

On the Roman front it looks worse than it is and I'm actually able to hold my ground while picking off his riflemen. Also, if you look on the minimap, I forgot to mention that I went back and finished off Harun on the east coast, but there really isn't anything worthwhile to say about it.

The end is near and it's not long before I capture the Iroquoi capital and incorporate 3 more American cities into my empire. The remaining Iroquoi cities will soon fall as well with Rome not far behind...

I apologize for this next screen shot because it's the last one I took of the Roman war. I could sense the game was over and finishing these remaining turns were just a formality so I impatiently rushed through them. If it's any consolation, the Roman resistance was over once I finished off Caesar's riflemen outside of New York and the rest of the Roman campaign was rather anti-climatic.

Unfortunately, I didn't even remember to save a screen shot of conquering Bismarck's Berlin. He was tucked away on the coast northwest of Rome. He really had a terrible starting position because he had Caesar extremely close to him on the south, ocean to his west, and a mountain chain that ran southeasterly... he was blocked in probably before he trained his first settler.

With Rome and Germany out of the picture, I relocated my battle-weary army one last time to the northern front in a final face-off against Askia.

Using some scouts as 'cannon-fodder' and with some rush-bought artillery, upgraded infantry, and double-attacking range-3 keshiks I destroy 90% of his army in one turn and move in for the final capital...

All in all, I enjoyed this game. The Mongolian UUs were a blast to play with. The most fun/challenging part for me was back when I had wars on both my eastern and western fronts. Anticipating/dreading more AIs declaring war against me when I was already spread too thin really made each "end-turn" exciting and full of suspense. I understand that some people hate the diplomacy coding in ciV, but at least for me and THIS game, I had fun with the randomness. Additionally, I am glad I removed city-states from this game. It definitely was more challenging having to grow my cities and balance happiness the old-fashioned way.

And lastly, thank you all for following along.

 

[generalwar]

It was a really interesting game, I guess that i feeled for te first time that feeling, you know" What's going to happen to me? Who will backstab me?" You had to be ready for war on 2 fronts without any help from maritime CSs. I could try this on pangea oo, it could be interesting.

 

[Paradigne]

KHAN!!!!!!

Great read. I'm glad you had as much fun playing it as I did reading about it

 

[a barbarian]

Hi, I have question. How do I get the list of civilizations with the current points in the UI, or which mod is it?

And thanks for the interesting story!

 

[t0b4cc0r04d]

Hi, I have question. How do I get the list of civilizations with the current points in the UI, or which mod is it?

And thanks for the interesting story!

From the options menu, go to the 'interface options' tab and it's the 4th option down called "Single Player Score List".

I like the feature, but I wish it only showed the scores for Civs that I've already met in-game. The way it's set up now, I can see everyone on the list at turn-1 even if they're on a different continent.

 

[a barbarian]

Thanks for the info!

Maybe someone will create a mod so that it displays only the Civs which you have already met, that would be nice.

 

[G4zMan]

A very good read, thanks very much. I really like the way that you described your tactics and made the reader fully aware of your objectives throughout the game.

I enjoy reading other more experienced players strategies and seeing how they tackle various situations. Like i said, thumbs up to your read through.

I will keep an eye out for any more that you may post