The Mighty Darius

[Tabarnak]

I played a multiplayer game with Darius today on a fractal map with 6 players. I managed to get a golden age from turn 56 and wasn't finished when i quit the game at turn 85. This golden age was going to have a 38 turns lengh.

Early on, it's amazing to get such bonus with lot of cities. Production was awesome.

Too bad the game was lagging too much for some guys and when we were only 3 i began to fly away and when i fought the human Hiawatha i knew he had a few strong army and i didnt upgrade all the swordmen to keep cash for a university rush-buy in capital. With extra movement and 10% bonus, i was fairly strong enough. I burnt the first great general for extra turns of golden age.

I made a liberty 4 cities strategy with iron working at turn 33. I built NC around turn 57. Then i exploded

I begin to think that going Piety with lot of cities and good land position is better than going for Tradition first.

If i wanted rifles, i would get them around turn 92 in this game.

Here some pics:

Main Land

Spoiler :

http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa413/Tabarnak2/MainLand-1.jpg

Bottom Land

Spoiler :

http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa413/Tabarnak2/BottomLand.jpg

Policies

Spoiler :

http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa413/Tabarnak2/Policies.jpg

Demographics

Spoiler :

http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa413/Tabarnak2/Demographics-1.jpg

 

[MasterMishi]

you flew away in score?
How did the Iro war go, he had many/ strong units?
you beeline iron then wrinting?
warriors in new cities then librarys?
got lucky with mining luxuries?

 

[Tabarnak]

you flew away in score?
How did the Iro war go, he had many/ strong units?
you beeline iron then wrinting?
warriors in new cities then librarys?
got lucky with mining luxuries?

1-No. Science, gold and production. Napoleon was first when i attacked.
2-He had iron, but not built enough swords for some reason. I don't remember if he built a wonder.
3-Yes. Early multiple cities let grow science fast enough to get writing in time with maybe another luxury tech before if only 1 kind of happiness mine.
4-Yes. Also monuments in cap and 2nd city, extra worker(s) from capital since i had nice production and no city states around.
5-Well i got gold in cap. I teched trapping(fur in city north of capital) before writting to not let cities stagnant too long. Then i switched all for libs.

 

[Deussu]

Pics should be inside IMG tags. Now I have to copypaste the links to other tabs to see them.

 

[Tabarnak]

Thumbnails.

 

[Smote]

Well done! It seems like it was a big mistake for Iroquois to let you found Tarsus, and a major victory for you once you converted Tarsus's iron to swords.

I would do similar strategy in such a game, with no rivers and clearly production-heavy land. Tech-lead strategy would not be wise, since the land is food limited.

Iroquois should've tried harder to take Tarsus's iron, once you founded it. The major failing of your land was lack of iron and lack of rivers, which Iroquois needed to fully exploit in order to prevent death. Tarsus is one of the best chokepoints I've seen in a while, for that matter. You even get the top route so you can flank, if Iroquois tries to use the chokepoint against you.

Later on, your civ is very vulnerable to frigates, if anyone had reached that point.

Many of my best games, coincidently, have been with Darius. He is a fantastic leader for somoene to fly away with, because the top civ usually has an easier time getting golden ages than anyone else. The +1 move makes cannons especially good, which is something to consider. They behave like crossbowmen in Darius's hands, and are especially deadly.

 

[Tabarnak]

First of all, i had 4 iron from 2 cities before Tharsus. That city was only a bonus. If he had settled there, i would attack from sea. If i had played this game farther, i would not get rifles but Navigation instead....under 100 turns. I would have been the supreme leader of the seas!

Science rate was at 87 when i quit but it would had jumped to over 110 some turns later with all these uniersities.

 

[Tabarnak]

Another game played with Darius. Another insane game. I was going to reach infantry before turn 135!
(i said 12 turns online but it was 17 in reality)

Strongest game so far. Game before i resisted to a 4 jags with GG rush with same early approach. 4 cities liberty is the strongest start with appropriate path of builds, policies and techs combined with early golden ages, for any maps and settings. I entered a 24 turns golden age from turn 58 to turn 83 to establish my supremacy.

Only 2 iron and it was from a Maritime CS.

Here some pics.

 

[RRtexasranger]

Darius is my favorite leader to play as mainly because I LOVE his long Golden Ages. I feel like the I'm in a Golden Age just as much as I'm not in one. Couple Darius with that one Wonder that makes Golden Ages last longer and your set.

Plus, since I'm real big in commerce in the first place, the Persian building that replaces the bank adds two happiness, so I never have a happiness problem while playing with him enabling me to easily form very large empires.

 

[Smote]

That's a nice beaker per turn, without observatories and public schools! Well done!

 

[Tabarnak]

I might start a new thread explaining how to get Rifles under turn 100 without Oracle or Great Library. The last thread ''Riflemen turn 104 with new patch'' is outdated a bit.

I begin to think that a 4 cities + Liberty is superior to Tradition(Oligarchy) and Piety is superior to Tradition(Aristocracy) too. If you are not France, it's hard to get oligarchy early when starting with Liberty and spam cities.

I will talk about getting 3 golden ages and 1 great scientist(Rifles) before turn 100. This package can propulse you far far away in the game, in 6 players FFA. For 2 or 4 players, expanding to 4 cities can be problematic (early war slowing you down) but the good side is that going for 4 cities + Liberty is strong everywhere.

After that, you can go early war oriented or simply turtle for stronger units later.

I will post a grand strategy with some screenshots this week or next week-end. English is not my native language, this may take time.

 

[comablack]

I might start a new thread explaining how to get Rifles under turn 100 without Oracle or Great Library. The last thread ''Riflemen turn 104 with new patch'' is outdated a bit.

I begin to think that a 4 cities + Liberty is superior to Tradition(Oligarchy) and Piety is superior to Tradition(Aristocracy) too. If you are not France, it's hard to get oligarchy early when starting with Liberty and spam cities.

I will talk about getting 3 golden ages and 1 great scientist(Rifles) before turn 100. This package can propulse you far far away in the game, in 6 players FFA. For 2 or 4 players, expanding to 4 cities can be problematic (early war slowing you down) but the good side is that going for 4 cities + Liberty is strong everywhere.

After that, you can go early war oriented or simply turtle for stronger units later.

I will post a grand strategy with some screenshots this week or next week-end. English is not my native language, this may take time.

looks good, my biggest issue is having money to upgrade units with no Ai to sell stuff to

 

[Tabarnak]

It's one of the biggest problems in multi. If you keep a lot of units(which is needed sometimes), you pay a lot of maintenance, but you can't sell stuff to bring money at home. Upgrades can be a problem later.

The path i will propose bring some good solutions to these problems. Piety can offer an opportunity to build and keep more units. If you can keep 25-30% more units, you just created yourself the oligarchy policy and you have much more time to build other buildings as well. Theocracy bring happiness, making coliseums a lot more useless. And god knows how they are expensive for both hammers and maintenance. Delaying or completely ignoring coliseums in big empire is very strong. In fact, coliseums bring more problems than solutions!

In my last game showed, i only built 2 coliseums and still got a +6 happiness and was building courthouses in 2 cities at the same time.

 

[Smote]

I had a funny game on Settler difficulty with Darius... turn ~25 golden age. It was OCC. Ended up with 4 turn 81 rifles (upgraded from immortals -> pikemen).

Darius is even better on Settler because you get a lot of extra happiness, so darius's golden age bonus helps even more than usual.

 

[Tabarnak]

Well we gonna have a new patch. Obviously, i will not post a strategy until then, it's a waste of time. I will certainly buy DLCs if i need them in multiplayer. If they become the ''must have civs'', i will need them.

 

[Smote]

Well we gonna have a new patch. Obviously, i will not post a strategy until then, it's a waste of time. I will certainly buy DLCs if i need them in multiplayer. If they become the ''must have civs'', i will need them.

My thinking mirrors yours. I will enjoy Inca, I expect.