The Patronage League - Greece Deity Tiny Earth, 9 Civ + 9 CS

[maltz]

The Patronage League - Greece Deity Tiny Earth, 9 Civ + 9 CS

Hi,

This is the second story I plan to do for Civ 5. (The first one is here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=406745) After playing a few games to learn the game mechanism, I think Greek (Alexander) would be a good leader to be my next game. Here are my reasons:

I like the way how people put large pictures in spoilers to reduce load time. I will do the same.

(1) Hoplite + Companion Cavalry for a pre-Classical Rush
Before this game, I actually started another one as England. Everything went well until I realized that there is no Iron in the open for me! (But all my AI opponents have iron!) So I told myself, "I can't rely on swordsman to start my expansion". Removing the need to wait for Iron Working in early game also moves forward my expansion schedule. Selling one or two early luxurious resources to purchase a few Hoplites and Archers would be the key.

(2) City States is the New Cheap Diplomacy
AI-controlled Civ are probably the worst friends we can get - they have 100 different reasons to hate us. Friends denounce us at their earliest convenience.
But City States (CS) don't have any of that BS. For them, Money = Alliance = Loyalty = Our Benefits. Too good to be true compared to dealing with AI Civs.
Greek is a CS-friendly Civ. Ciy State's relationship degrades 50% slower and recovers 50% faster. I am also going to try out the Patronage social policies. From experience, I usually get about 4-6 social policies before the game ends. So if I enable "Delaying Social Policies", I should be able to make the most use of the Patronage tree as soon as I enter the medieval period.

My general plan for early game:

(a) Harvest 1-2 luxurious resources and sell them.
(b) Mass purchase Hoplites to bring down my first opponent.
(c) Produce Companion Cavalry to bring down my second opponent.

For mid-game:

(a) Enter the Medieval Period and activate as many policies as possible in the Patronage tree.
(b) Befriend City States and use them to harass AI Civs.
(c) If possible, expand further with a Pikeman + Companion Cavalry/Knight army (while AIs were using Swordsman).

For end-game:

(a) Take over the world with Riflemen (upgraded from Pikeman and Crossbowmen). (I looked up the upgrade path. Cannons are upgraded from Trebuchets.)

Game settings:

(1) Tiny Earth. Earth maps give me more "feeling" playing the game. And my computer cannot handle anything bigger than tiny maps.

(2) 9 Civs, 9 City States. I like wars and diplomacy. There are 19 Civs that comes with my game (didn't bother buying the DLCs). Since I saw 10 Civs in my last story, I manually picked the rest 9 Civs in this second story. To compensate for 1 less Civ, I added 1 City State.

(3) Other settings:
Enable Delayed Policy. I wanted to be able to take the full advantage of the Patronage tree.
New Random Seed upon Reload
I like to test things out from time to time, so New Random Seed gives me a better idea of game mechanism. I recognize that this will make the game easier since I can always reload when extremely bad luck strikes me - and I sometimes do after a short swearing. I will mention in the story if I reloaded to get a different outcome. Otherwise you can assume I went with the game flow.
No Ancient Ruins
I am not a fan of dumb luck.

Here we go, Alex the Warmonger!

***

Chapter 01. The Meeting of the Notorious Warmongers

Spoiler :

000. Alex's starting location is... oh that looks extremely like Saudi Arabia. Middle East = Oil = Fortune! But we probably won't see it before the game ends. In Civ5, though, Middle East is actually rich starting from the beginning. Lots of Sugars and Flood Plains = lots of coins. There is one down side: very little hammer production. I must not chop down any forest! Very interesting place to start.

I don't like the default starting location very much and moved over the Settle on the desert hill. This decision costs me one turn, reduces hammer even further (3 less hammer), and removes the Pearl access (-5 Happiness). So why do I handicap Alex like that...?

Spoiler :

001. There are two reasons. First, I want to make North Africa Alex's backyard until I am ready to open borders. You can see my border now perfectly separates Africa and Euro-Asia. All the Euro-Asian Civs will be unable to send a settler in and pop a city in my backyard.

Certainly there is another route to Africa - Spain and Northwest Africa is connected on the map, leaving a Mediterranean lake in the middle. But from experience I never see AIs marching their settler so far away. Plus some other Civs or City States might have blocked that route.

The second reason is I will have cheaper access to more Sugar. This city location makes all 5 Sugars accessible 2 tiles from the capital. For the old location, I have 3 Sugars 2 tiles away, and 2 Sugars 3 tiles away. Due to AI's agreesive settling, I can almost kiss those two Sugars goodbye.

The lack of hammers can be compensated by NOT making my capital a production center, but a population/research and financial center. I can always purchase buildings there later. The lack of hammer in Civ5 isn't really a big deal, since units and most buildings can be purchased anyway. And we will be rich!

Flood plain + Sugar is 2/0/3 before improvement, and 3/0/4 after. Flood plain + Trade Post (no need for farms since we will have lots of Maritime CS allies) is 2/0/3. A bloody rich Athens!

Spoiler :

002. Alex can't have a Hoplite army unless he gets rich. Alex can't be rich until he starts selling Sugars. Alex can't start selling Sugars unless he researched Caldendar! So Pottery + Calendar is the way to go first. This greatly delays our first expansion, but we will have so many Sugars to sell to sustain our expansion!

Spoiler :

003. I like to start my game with a Worker. Some said they will just steal their first worker from a nearby City State. From my experience on Marathon, the City States won't have a Worker until I have finished 1-2 improvments of my own. So it is better to train our own Workers first. Plus my production is a flat 0 outside the capital, so by the time the Worker gets his working permit, he can pretty much work on the Sugar right away.

Also, I have little use for Scouts (later I like to use them to sabotage enemy's Iron Mine and Horse Ranch) since I have disabled ancient ruins and play on Earth, which I have a pretty good idea of the map.

Spoiler :

004. Here we a greeted by the first Civ. Genghis Khan of Mongolia, a fellow warmonger. He must be close to us. That means we must be ready to fight very soon. We are geared for an early rush anyway.

Spoiler :

005. Met the first City State, Tyre (Military), located at present day Greece! I have a feeling that we will be good friends in the future.

Spoiler :

006. Greeted by Napoleon of France. So our two closest neighbors are both infamous warmongers - 3 plus Alex! I expect a lot of blood early game!

Spoiler :

007. Napoleon immediately came back with an insult! Of course we have no army! Now he is openly Hostile to us; we must bribe him to war someone else first... Warmongers are horrible if they declare war on us. But they also accept bribes to war another Civ for a cheap price.

Spoiler :

008. Met the second City State, Cape Town (Maritime). This one is located at West Africa. No extra resources that benefits us. Maybe we will ignore them.

Spoiler :

009. Saw the Mongolian border just east of Cape Town. So the Great Khan is located at Central Africa. In order to secure our backyard Africa, the Khan would be our first target. I bet he thinks the same way.

Spoiler :

010. Met the third City State, Brussels (Culture). They are located at East Africa. Good Calendar Resources - must befriend them later.

Spoiler :

011. Very soon the Great Khan popped a town SW to Athens. Obviously he is coming after us and the sugar. Luckily Alex was rich enough to drop 150 gold for a Sugar tile, which must be Khan's target. No Sugar for you!

Spoiler :

012. Greeted by the third Civ, Ramkhamhaeng of Siam. What a mouthful name... we will just call you Ramky. The Siam (Thai) seems to be a peaceful and cultural Civ. I don't have a lot of experience with them.

Spoiler :

013. It was turn 22 and some AI Civ had already started denouncing another... Nice. Please keep fighting each other until Alex arrives to take over you one by one.

Spoiler :

014. Saw the French border to the north. So Napolean is at present day East Europe. Warmongers should be dealth with first. So we should expand north after dealing with Khan. (Sounds easy. They will field an army twice as large as ours for sure.)

Spoiler :

015. Started researching Calendar. One thing I like about Marathon is that I can freely explore for a while - early techs take forever to complete.

Spoiler :

016. Greeted by the 4th Civ, Darius I of Persia. The eternal Golden Age Persia, eh? All Deity Civs are pretty much at eternal Golden Age. More Golden Age = more cash. I will certainly remember to sell Darius our Sugar and other resources. Alexander is famous for defeating the Persian Empire (Darius III) in history. Let's see if we can fight a few nice battles in the game.

Spoiler :

017. Met the fourth City State, Seoul (Cultural). They are at present day India.

Spoiler :

018. Our preliminary exploration is complete. Alex is sandwiched by two infamous warmongers, Genghis Khan and Napoleon. An Mongolian invasion could happen very soon. Must rush out our Hoplite army as soon as possible!

(to be continued...)

 

[maltz]

Chapter 02. The Calm before the Storm

Alex established Athens in the junction of Africa and Euro-Asia. He was surrounded by two warmongering Civs, the Mongolian Great Khan and the French Little Corporal Napoleon.

I think Africa is one of the better Earth's starting locations in Civ5. Its flood plains and Sugars of the Nile River (where our Athens was founded) and Niger river (where the CS Cape Town is, and part of the Mongol Empire) provides excellent income from raw harvest and more importantly, resource trade later. The Congo River in middle Africa is another excellent site for a city. That's where the Mongolian Capital is. Southern Africa unfortunately lacks food tiles and usually becomes a barbarian hunting ground.

Once the player successfully conquered the rest of the continent, Africa provides an abundant supply of plant-based Happiness Resources (Silk, Incense, Cotton, but usually not Dye) and very likely to contain Ivory and some Pearls/Whales off shore to sustain the empire's population. Africa is also relatively easy to monopolize compared to Asia, and is much larger than Europe to pop several prosperous cities.

Spoiler :

019. Our exploring warrior was sent east to see the rest of the world, and finally bumped into the first barbarian camp.

I once tried to team up with a Deity AI to observe its build orders and behavior. And I was disgusted by the Deity AIs' insane advantage over barbarians. Their scouts could easily butcher barbarian brutes! But interestingly, the AI's scouts do not actively attack barbarian camps when they walk into one. Instead, the barbarians in the camp actively attack the scouts, thinking they are soft targets. But that always ends in disaster.

That's why our warrior now see a very weakened camp surrounded by AI's scouts. That's nice for us - free 75 gold and 5 exp!

Spoiler :

020. Here comes another Military CS Budapest. This one is located East of France. Certainly we can use their help to distract Napoleon later.

Spoiler :

021. So that's the French Empire. I am glad that Napoleon decided to go north first, not south. Please go east and west next.

Spoiler :

022. We met Ramesses II of Egypt in the meantime. Egypt does not like Persia and now wants to enlist our help. We don't even know where you are! And likely you are far away from us. Please go ahead and fight each other.

We already called the Thai King Ramky, so let's call the Egyptian King Ramey2. That sounds like an email account... (Likewise Darius becomes Darius1.)

Spoiler :

023. Speaking of Ramky... he is back to offer us a Declaration of Friendship! One may worry that we will have to turn on him sooner or later and earn the bad name of a betrayer. But I am pretty confident that Ramky will denounce us first (thus forfeiting the friendship declaration). The bad name goes to him.

Spoiler :

024. Ah that's the true intention of Ramky. He wants us to fight Darius1 together... Not a bad move on AI diplomacy in war preparation. Maybe Siam is not much of a peaceful Civ.

It looks like Persia will be attacked by Siam and Egypt. If I let it happen, we will have to deal with a powerful Egypt or Siam, or both. That can't happen! We have to "help" Persia somehow... such as by bribing Napoleon to backstab Siam. (Napoleon has two neighbors, Greece and Siam.)

Spoiler :

025. The second Maritime CS we met - Genoa. It is northwest of France. So far we have seen 2 Military CS (Tyre, Budapest), 2 Cultural (Seoul, Brussels), and 2 Maritime (Cape Town, Genoa). A good balance.

Spoiler :

026. Another bunch of badly injured barbarians beside AI's scouts. The scouts were laughing because they have magical powers against barbarians. We were laughing, too. Thanks for the gold and EXP!

Spoiler :

027. Turn 66. Calendar researched! Our Worker came out a few turns earlier, and was working on a nearby farm. That tile will get converted to a Trading Post later, though. We will have more than enough food in the capital from the CSs.

Spoiler :

028. 21 more turns until the first Sugar is ready for sale! More waiting. More exploration.

Spoiler :

029. We need to start our military campaign as soon as possible - so we want to research Mining - Bronze Working next. Bronze working also enables Barracks. Since we will be rich from Sugar trade, rush buying a Barrack in Athens could be a good idea.

Spoiler :

030. Still 30+ turns away from the first Hoplite, but Mongolian warriors were already right in front of Athens' doorstep. I know what that means - the WAR DECLARATION is coming! Genghis Khan covet my land! I can't let that happen (before I am ready)!

Spoiler :

031. First I asked the Great Khan to attack Napoleon. He said it would cost 280 gold (a cheap price for the survival of Greece). But on a second thought I think this is not a good idea, because I am right between Napoleon and Khan. So there will be minimal, if any fighting going on.

Spoiler :

032. So I thought - why not ask the Great Khan to attack a lowly City State? The CS won't hold for long, but at least it will buy me some precious turns. Cape Town is on the other side of Athens, so why don't we start with that... Indeed, Khan agreed to attack Cape Town for the same price!

Immediately, the warriors on my doorstep was recalled. Athens lived another 10 turns or so.

Spoiler :

033. City State Cape Town sent a distress call. I need to kill 3 Mongol units. I have just one warrior... how the heck can I kill three Mongol units? Please wait till I have Hoplites. Good luck, Cape Town.

Spoiler :

034. Another distress call from Cape Town, looking for unit donation. I have only one warrior... how the heck can I give you to you? Especially knowing how the AI throws away its units like they are free... Good luck, Cape Town.

Spoiler :

035. Still a few more turns to Sugar. And I saw the Khan had bought a tile close to me. He is definitely after my Sugar. No way! No worries, we can afford that 165 gold. No sugar for you!

Spoiler :

036. Immediately after the tile purchase, Alex received a personal warning. The Great Khan noticed our land purchase "near his city". I thought it was you who settled near to our city and purchased tiles close to MY city.

But since you have the army, so I will let you do the talking.

Spoiler :

037. Still 24 turns to Bronze Working and we already got the bad news - Cape Town is conquered! They only lasted a few turns! That's bad - the Mongolian horde will turn on us next!

(to be continued...)

 

[Civ'ed]

I salute your bad move. Mongols are GEARED to destroy City States.

 

[maltz]

Chapter 03. Alexander the The Great Sugar Merchant

The bad news of Cape Town's fall reached Alexander's little palace in Athens. Every advisor was trembling, and immediately applied to immigrate to the United States.

But Alex had a strange smile on his face. We will know why probably in Chapter 4.

So Alex put 280 gold in the Great Khan's pocket in exchange for a short period of peace. That didn't go so well - Cape Town fell to the Mongolian horde (anyone remember Shogun Total War - Mongolian Invasion?) very quickly. Cape Town was founded on an open plain with wide access to the Mongolian Empire. And Mongols have a special combat bonus on City States.

It is an interesting mix of fate. The most CS hostile Civ right beside the most CS friendly Civ.

Anyway, now the Great Khan controls the entire Nigel River. That sounds really bad for Greece! How can we defend? We need Hoplites. But Hoplites were still 20+ turns away. 20+ turns is enough for an unchallenged army to bring down a large empire!

That's the beauty of Marathon speed.

Spoiler :

038. The Mongolian horde could return to the west bank of Nile River any time. But it was the glittering Euphrates and Tigris River (they got combined into one on the Tiny Earth map. Let's call it the Euphra-Tigris River, then) that caught Alex's attention.

The Euphra-Tigris River in the east reflects Athens' early morning sunshine. But... it is not water that reflects the sun. It is piles after piles of carbohydrate crystals commonly known as sucrose. Our Sugar canes have been harvested!

Behold, the power of Alexandar the Great Sugar Merchant!
We shall sweeten the world until they all die from obesity!

Spoiler :

039. "Good morning! Great Khan. We are the emissaries of Greek. We brought you Sugar fresh from the Euphra-Tigris River. Since you are our great neighbor - unlike that Napoleon who insulted us - we make you our top-priority customer. Would you like to make an offer?"

"Don't we have some sugar in Cape Town already? One day I can farm them myself."

"Er... but ours taste better."

"Well, we are so bloody rich anyway. Hey you! And you! Go to the treasury tent and carry out my chest!"

"Oh why are you so rich, Great Khan?"

"I don't know."

I don't know either. Blame it on Deity. Actually the richer the AI, the happier we are, so we can sell more resources to them! All their cash eventually belong to us!

Spoiler :

040. After a few exchanges, we used our entire income plus Sugar in exchange for Khan's 1487 gold. He still had 200 gold left would become rich again very quickly. We would love to spend the cash, but we were still waiting for Bronze Working!

Spoiler :

041. "Hey Great Khan, that way you butchered Cape Town really impressed us. Would you like to repeat your feat towards another City State called Brussel? Here are our little gifts to aid you in your campaign."

Khan's price has gone up - 393 gold to attack the City State of Brussel (East Africa). Another 10 turns of peace...?

Giving gold to your greatest enemy to expand their empire is not the best strategy. But I didn't see another way to distract Khan. Plus Alex had a mysterious plan going on in the background.

Spoiler :

042. Just like Cape Town. Brussel sent the same distress call. We need to eliminate 3 Mongol units. Sorry and good luck, buddy! Just a dozen more turns for the Greek's Hoplite phalanx!

Spoiler :

043. Ramey2 of Egypt came to us with an offer of Declaration of Friendship! I was about to agree, but I remembered Siam and Egypt were both against Darius1 of Persia. And I don't like that. I want the three each fighting the other two with no gain for 4000 years.

If Greek joins the Siam-Egypt alliance, these two Civs will get even more friendly to each other. Then, Persia is more likely to fall. That's not good.

So I refused. I already have a friend and that's Ramky.

Spoiler :

044. 14 more turns to Bronze Working, and Brussel's city defense was dropping (apparantly a city's hit points are not hidden by the fog of war). Please hold just a little longer!

Spoiler :

045. 10 more turns to Bronze Working. Ramky declared war to Darius1. Siam did not invite Egypt to join the war? Then Persia should survive this round.

I love seeing AI declaring wars to each other. This will make subsequent war bribing a lot cheaper.

Spoiler :

046. Athens completed its second building project, a Monument. Since I was aiming for Hoplites, I don't want to train any more warrior. Monument was the only thing that had any meaning to me at the moment.

I then queued a scout, so I may sabotage future enemy's strategic resources. The Monument's maintenance let me run on a deficit.

Units in training also costs unit maintenance. Well, I guess we are paying the tuition fee for them. Why can't we just post a job notice and interview those who already have the skill? (Oh yeah, the interviewer needs to get paid, too.)

Spoiler :

047. Brussel survived to Bronze Working! Everything changes from now on - remember turn 104! Alexander's conquest begins now!

Later, I saw that Brussel was a great challenge for Khan's invasion AI. There is a one-tile hill opening for Khan to reach Brussel (but a lot more tiles for the actual siege). But Khan's front unit (an archer) was blocking its own other units' advance as soon as it reaches its range. Khan's units did try an alternative route, but it just took forever for them to get there. Brussel held its own and its hit points never dropped to yellow.

Nice one, Belgian!

Spoiler :

048. I was thinking about Animal Husbandry to locate horses, but realized that I need Archers urgently. Hoplites are slaughtering warriors, but in order to completely kill AI's units without endangering my own, I need ranged attacks to finish off dying units while my melee stays a safe distance away.

So Archery was the next research target!

Spoiler :

049. It was time to declare war! I went back to Khan to see if I could squeeze out any more cash. I had a puny income of +1/turn, so I got 50 gold! Better than nothing.

Spoiler :

050. Immediately after declaring war, I went to Napoleon to sell my first Sugar (the deal to Khan canceled due to the war). Napoleon was the second richest Civ at the time. But he was way behind Genghis Khan so he had to take a loan, too.

Spoiler :

051. And immediately I bribed Napoleon to declare war on Genghis Khan. I was also considering bribing Napoleon to attack Siam, but I need all the possible pressure on Khan so he would sign a treaty more easily later.

The most important purpose of the bribe is to make Napoleon busy with something else, so he doesn't declare war on Greece. I don't really expect Napoleon to send any units over. He is too far away. I heard that pre-patch the AI would march an army half an earth away to join the war. That's two extremes. Both are not good.

Spoiler :

052. Purchased two Hoplites! The plan is to let them defend the east bank of Nile (A and B) to force Khan to attack across the river. Khan was on the aggressive side since he had absolute military advantage.

And Khan's units was losing badly. I was laughing pretty hard when one warrior unit lost all its men in one single attack. But usually they have a little HP left. The tile just west of tile A is within the reach of Athens' fire. That served as the Archer to finish off a dying Mongol unit.

Spoiler :

053. Darius1 wants us to fight Ramey2 with him. Yeah I will agree with you later. Hm actually that depends on which of you is closer.

Spoiler :

054. Sold Open Border to Ramey2 for standard 50 gold. I don't think he will really send a settler from half a world away... or will he?

Spoiler :

055. Ramky came back to ask me to war together... are you really a peace lover? And again, I don't want to fight Persia... oh wait, Ramky is not talking about Persia. He s talking about Egypt! So Ramky had learned to hate Egypt, his best potential ally to destroy Persia! That's just awesome. Keep the hatred going, please.

Spoiler :

056. Purchased the 3rd Hoplite to keep the most damaged unit properly healed.

Khan's attack died down very soon. I thought he had become defensive, so I marched my guys away to see if I can steal back Cape Town while the Khan is distracted by Athens and Brussel. (Khan never made peace with the City State.)

And suddenly four units showed up! Gotta give the AI some credits for that coordinated offense. Now come back, Hoplites!

And our second sugar is ready for sale! The Sugar sale will funding the rise of the Greek Empire!

(to be continued...)

 

[maltz]

Chapter 04. The Hope of City States

The sudden advance of four Mongolian units forced Alex to quickly pull his Hoplites back to defend. Just when I thought the AI made a good move and expected some good fights...

Spoiler :

057. The next turn all but one unit retreated! That lone Mongolian warrior got instantly slaughtered. A veteran-level advance followed by a newbie-ish retreat.

Spoiler :

058. The Greek army again took the defensive position on the east bank of Nile. Now we could really expect a lot more actions since the Khan's units are still around. But the Greeks are smart enough not to throw units across the river. We wait for them to come. And they will.

Spoiler :

059. Just after we killed a severely damaged warrior unit (that Hoplite barely survived the end turn) , we got the message from City State Brussel - we have completed its mission (of killing 3 Mongol units!). We actually killed more than 3 already. I guess those killed by the city defense did not count.

Spoiler :

060. Relationship to Brussel instantly boosted to 100, and drops by only 0.33 per turn since we are Greece! That means 120 turns of alliance (if another Civ does not buy it over)!

Now Alex's mysterious smile has been explained. That is exactly Alex's master plan - bribe AI Civ to attack City States, and then complete the "rescue" mission to win FREE and long-lasting friendship from City States! Free +8 Culture per turn for 120 turns! Now we have a good hope to see the end of the Patronage social policy tree.

Now you can guess what Alex is going to do next - liberating City State Cape Town!

Spoiler :

061. But we have to consolidate the defense of Nile River first. The Greeks have abandoned tile A since it could be attacked by two Mongol units at the same time, and one of the attackers does not have to cross the river. Instead, the second defender is moved to tile C. This spot is also more aggressive than tile A, since I can attack the tile west of tile A wihout crossing the river. Now that is a good death trap for Khan's units!

Spoiler :

062. Our friend Ramky of Siam asks us mutually open our borders. But I am not interested to tour Thailand yet. Sold Open Border to Ramky for 50 gold! Every gold counts.

Spoiler :

063. Archery researched! Now if we actually have some cash to buy Archers...

And we really have to make a beeline to Horseback Riding, or the strength of the Greek army is incomplete.

Spoiler :

065. (Skip 64. Same image saved twice.) The blood of the Mongol warriors have dyed the Nile River red (OK, it still shows blue). If we use that Greek warrior to kill that dying Mongol warrior, that Greek warrior unit will certainly get killed during the end turn. But...

Spoiler :

066. But not if there is a cease fire in effect. It is the best time for the first peace treaty. We achieved a lot! Let's plan for the next step.

Note how much cash Khan had accumulated in the meantime! He was twice as rich as any other AI Civ at the time. And that's after we squeezed 1500 gold from him already. (It seems that Civs that start in West Africa always end up a superpower. Fortunately we are here to stop that this time.)

But we should love seeing rich AI, especially the one we are fighting with. AI seems to be incapable of purchasing units, or at least treat it as a low priority. So their cash will stay - waiting to be traded to us.

I hold off selling my second Sugar waiting for this exact moment. Sold that to Genghis Khan!

Spoiler :

067. With the cash, I decided not to buy Archers (useless for 10 turns) and cash-rushed Barracks in Athens. Our subsequent fresh units (Archers, Companion Cavalry) will receive one free level.

Interestingly, Brussel never made peace with Genghis Khan. It continuelly to attract Mongol units, leaving our next target completely defenseless... nice.

Spoiler :

068. This is obviously our next target - City State Cape Town! We are just waiting for the 10-turn Peace Treaty to expire. And Khan had very little melee unit left at home to defend Cape Town (they went south to fight Brussel). Any human player would know what the Greeks were thinking if they saw this!

Cape Town, the liberation is coming! And look at that two defenseless workers waiting to be captured... (drool) Please don't work that fast!

Spoiler :

069. 10 turns up! Also got a new loan from Khan to get more cash from him!

Note: if you ignore the diplomatic penalty from constant war declaration, each peace/war cycle generates a significant profit to a human player. After each peace is declared, the human player can again start selling the target AI resources and sign loans to squeeze out any of the AI's remaining gold. All the resource supply and gold per turn is cancelled as soon as the next war is declared, but the cash stays!

This infamous AI exploit happened in Civ3, got fixed in Civ4, but made its inglorious return in Civ5. This is the greatest diplomatic weapon of a human player on Deity, since the AIs are all so rich. Grab the AI Civ's cash, bribe them to fight each other, and get that bribery cash back...

Spoiler :

070. Now we have cash to buy two Archers. That will make a lot of difference.

By the way, I paused the training of Scouts to go for another Hoplites as soon as Bronze Working was completed. But Athens' production was so low (completely rely on the 2 hammers from the Palace) that the Hoplite took forever to finish. I should have just carried on with the Scouts...

Spoiler :

072. (Skip 71. Same picture.) Kidnapped two Mongolian workers, worths 1400+ gold! Our Hoplite quickly surrounded Cape Town and started with the assault. Must bring it down before Khan's reinforcement arrives!

Spoiler :

073. Animal Husbandry done. Started researching Wheel and then Horseback Riding.

Spoiler :

074. There are three tiles to attack Cape Town, one involving crossing the river. Since the city was not long ago conquered by Mongol, its city defense was as low as it could be. That made our job easy. Only five attacks was needed - all Hoplites survived the mission!

Spoiler :

075. This is where Khan's melee units were at the time - tied up in Brussel. Gotta love the City States!

Spoiler :

076. Maritime CS Cape Town liberated. We got two City State allies for free! Now let's 2000 gold saved to purchase units!

Things are looking good for Greece - we are up from 1 vs. 3 to 3 vs. 2. With 3 Hoplites, 1 Warrior and 2 Archers, we have turned the tide to take the offensive stance. All thanks to Khan's cash. (We pretty much bought our entire army on his expense.)

(to be continued...)

 

[maltz]

Chapter 05. The Final Peace for the Great Khan

After countless bodies piled up on the west bank of Nile, the Greek army has severly weakened the Mongols. A strike on the defenseless Cape Town liberated it from the horror of the Mongol Khan.

Spoiler :

077. Cape Town's loyalty to Greece went through the roof - 150! It will take 270 turns for their loyalty to us to drop below alliance. That's about end game! And it is a Martime CS. Free food!

Spoiler :

078. While our Hoplites' wounds were being treated in Cape Town, it was our archers that were defending the Greek workers planting sugar canes. At this point, my number of units were reaching the allowed limit, and I had no use for a third worker, so I went ahead and deleted it. I should be able to capture another one later, such as this one.

Spoiler :

079. But I ended up killing it with my archers for EXP. They just stood still within my range.

Spoiler :

080. Athens grew to population 5, and it was time get a settler. At this point I was already able to see where the horses are, and there is only horse tile in sight. The tile is located far away, so I must pop a new city beside it, or right on it. Further delays for the Scout and Hoplite...

Spoiler :

081. Third Sugar harvested! Sold it to Ramky, who holds the most amount of gold at the moment, for all his cash and some tribute. Strangely, when AI takes loan from a human player, the deal is always worse than a cash deal.

Spoiler :

082. It was time for the second peace period with Khan. Our units were still healing, and it will take a while until we are ready for the next military operation. 10 turns is probably a little too much, but by then Khan will have another pile of gold for us to take...

Spoiler :

083. Something I have wanted to do for a long time - bribe Napoleon to attack Ramky! In order to make sure that nobody is allied against us, we have to create multiple pairs of enemies, and finally make everyone hating each other. (so evil)

Spoiler :

084. Sold Sugar to Khan again! So far we have been selling Sugars to Mongols, French, and Siamese. Two more potential buyers.

Spoiler :

085. Bought another unit of Hoplite to make it four. This way we can surround a city from 4 tiles plus a warrior backup.

Spoiler :

086. Fast forward 10 turns and our army was ready for the invasion on Khan! It will be another blitz action - take the city Beshbalik as soon as possible!

Spoiler :

087. The city was down just on the second turn. And we got a great news - the first Great Greek General was born!

Spoiler :

088. But that brought our unit count just above the limit. Our production suffers from a 10% penalty. (Not that we have any production... only 2 hammers!) At the time we only had Athens, so each city allows 2 units. Athens had a population of 5. So 5 population supports 2 units.

Spoiler :

089. Beshbalik is ours! The Khan almost killed one of our Hoplites (one man left).

Spoiler :

090. With two cities and 5+3 population, our unit quota expanded and the production penalty was removed. So besides the base unit supply of 5, each city supports 2 units. And each 2 population supports 1 unit, rounded down.

Spoiler :

091. Oh man, the infamous Friendly Denouncement had come. Ramky did not hesitate to backstab us. And he was the only Civ we declared friendship with! Now Alex has to carry that "your friend found some reason to denounce you" modifier everywhere he goes!

Spoiler :

092. I hope Napoleon burns all Ramky's cities to the ground.

Spoiler :

093. While the end of Khan was coming, there were still a number of Mongol units. From time to time, the Mongol AI would march an Archer foward... only to be killed by our Hoplite immediately. Thanks!

Spoiler :

094. Egypt also denounced us. All for taking ONE city. (But we did declare war three times. ) So you allow yourself to declare war, but does not allow others to take ONE city. Hm, maybe we should invite Persia to be a friend so we can fight against this pair of hypocrites.

Spoiler :

095. Our army actually was not any big compared to the world. We were only bigger than the Khan and... oh yeah - Ramky! Napoleon must be tearing him apart! That's just awesome. Hm... maybe we will have to deal with the French sooner than we planned.

And everyone's military strength was humbled by the three Civs we have never met - that would be China, India, and the United States! They should be in America. Two of them will probably start fighting soon since they share the same continent. But the other one will have the privilege of the entire continent. Expect the horde of doom by the time we sail across the ocean. Exciting!

Spoiler :

096. Oh now an insult from Egypt? My empire's economy is in sad shape? Now you have made us mad. We are going to take every single coin of yours, Ramey2. (We are going to do this with others, too, though.)

Spoiler :

097. Our hoplites are mostly healed, and it is time to prepare for the final assault. Two units were send to Cape Town (circling from the back), so we can instantly surround Karakorum, the Mongolian capital.

The picture also shows the only free horse - right at the Northwest tip of Africa. That's where our Settlers are going.

Spoiler :

098. The Persian came - I thought he too was going to denounce me, but instead Darius offered to war... France together. Paris is a thousand miles from you! Why don't you focus on destroying Egypt or Siam? That's just ridiculous!

But that's also good for us - we want the AIs to hate each other for the most trivial reason possible - perfectly achieved in Civ5.

Spoiler :

099. ANOTHER Khan's archer offering its life to us. That's just silly. In the meantime, I tried to use my 2 Archers to kill the Mongol warrior on the hill along with CS Cape Town's city defense. But the warrior healed so quickly. At first I thought it was the Instant Heal level up, but I guess it was the Mongol General (Khan) constant healing bonus being amplified in friendly territory. No worries, we took it down with melee units.

Spoiler :

100. Our boys got the Mongolian capital surrounded! (almost, there is an Archer unit outside.) One of our Hoplites were dying, but it happened to be eligible for a promotion. Instant full HP! That's just disgusting.

Spoiler :

101. In the classical Era, no town can withstand the siege of 4 Hoplites, 2 Archers, and 1 Great General. The once mighty Mongolian Empire, the City States killer, fell on Turn 155. The era of the Greeks, the Friend of City States, has begun!

The Khan exited the game with a cool pose with a suspicious lump at an interesting spot.

Spoiler :

102. Surprisingly, we are not the last in techs! Wondering who was this sucker was... Our literacy rate is 0% because we don't know what reading is yet!

And the French had the largest land. Napoleon must had really gained ground to the east. French was also the leader in food yield and hammers.

To the north, Hoplites! Let's bring down this warmonger, too! (So we will be the only warmonger left!)

(to be continued...)

 

[Hornets]

Very nice story! I'll we following

I'm not yet familiar with the strengh value in civ5. What's up with the hoplites? They used to be an excellent defensive unit back in civ3 (1.3.1 I think). Now they defend AND attack with the same strengh or do they have a defensive bonus or something?

 

[maltz]

Hoplite (Greek's unique unit) replaces Spearman.
The same combat strength is used in both offense and defense. But fortification may provide additional defensive bonus. Hoplite's strength is 9, Spearman 7.

 

[maltz]

Chapter 06. The Long March

The Greeks finally saw the end of the Great Mongol Khan, absorbing all of the richness of middle and west Africa!

Spoiler :

103. The Greek Empire instantly dipped into the vallye of unhappiness. Luckily, we had quite a variety of Happiness resources - a Dye, a Spice, a Silk, and a Cotton (outside our territory). There are also four horses at the northwestern tip of Africa. A road is crying to be built between Athens to Beshbalik to setup trade routes with the two Mongolian cities.

But we only had two workers! I really regretted that I deleted the 3rd worker and shot the final Mongolian worker.

Persian had agressively settled a city 4 tiles SE from Athens. To avoid the Persians firing at Athens with a home territory advantage, we purchased the tile right in the middle of the two cities to give us that advantage instead. The Persian city will eventually have access to the Pearl outside Red Sea. We will wait till Darius sending out a work boat to save us the gold...

Spoiler :

104. Quite a disappointment - there was absolutely NOTHING built in the two Mongolian cities. The warmonger Khan never built anything but military units! Well at least he improved the two Ivory tiles. We will be able to admire the beauty of Ivory once we researched Trapping.

Spoiler :

105. Immediately we received the Friendly warning from Darius1 of Persia. Now that we have eliminated one Civ - you have a right to be feared, OK.

Spoiler :

106. But the Friendly denouncement came right after. Taking out a Civ could be huge negative factor to diplomatic relationships. (And Siam was already mad when we took only ONE city.) Maybe Napoleon won't mind.

Spoiler :

107. The settler from Athens was ready to found the second Greek city Sparta. After some thinking, I decided to settle on the northern desert hill.

This tile is just beside the Cotton, which is not blocked by forest or jungle and can be immediately improved to raise Happiness. It is also 3 tiles away from a Pearl. If our happiness drops desperately low, I will be able to buy the tile and purchase a Work Boat. The new city is 2 tiles away from the horses, so we will need to purchase that tile immediately for the Worker to build a ranch. I don't have a need for Companion Cavalry immediately, so I didn't have to sit the settler on the horses and miss out the rare Cotton.

There is a tile of flood plain south of the Cotton. I was planning to purchase it (210 gold only) to build a trading post, but I forgot about it. The next time I checked, Cape Town already claimed it over. Doh! (Riverside Trading Post is 3 gold per turn. So I will start running a profit after 70 turns).

Spoiler :

108. Got an insult from Egypt! Alexander the handsome Warmonger always attracts attention. We are uncivilized brute? Yeah, we are.

Spoiler :

109. Another Sugar was ready for sale. But since Egypt was Hostile to us, that deal only net us 300 gold.

Spoiler :

110. Our only two workers were sent to Sparta to work on the Horse Ranch and the Cotton Plantation. The others all involved hacking down a forest or jungle. That would be 30-40 turns!

Now our units are fully healed, and it is time to take on France, which is located in present day central and east Europe! There are two routes to France:

(1) Athens - present day Turkey - north. Passes through Tyre. Greece never get the Trespass penalty from City States. But we might be blocked by Tyre's own units. Then we will have to backtrack a bit and use the second route:

(2) Athens - present day Georgia - north. This is a little risky since we will emerge right in the middle of Napoleon's territory. This passage is long, narrow, and full of hills. Our frontline may start engaging the enemy while our back units have not left Athens! With just one unit blocking that path, we could be talking about a thousand-year war. A poor option really. We want Napoleon to attack us from this route. Oh no, we want Napoleon to attack others.

(3) North of Sparta - present day Spain - northeast. This is the safest route (there might be some barbarians, but they are no match to us). And we will be able to circle to France's northwest to borrow the City State Genoa's territory as our base of operation. CS Genoa is Maritime, and had been friends with Ramky2 of Siam.

Option (3) seemed to be the safest but also the longest. Here goes Alexander and his brave Hoplites of Greece! We left the starting Warrior in Africa to explore south Africa for any worthwhile site for a new city.

Spoiler :

111. Our warrior killed an injured barbarian unit, which was being shot by CS Brussels' defense. 5 free influence to Brussel! With the Greek specialty trait (50% slower influence reduction), that +5 influence equals 15 turns of free +8 culture. 120 free culture, even better than stepping on a +90 culture ruin.

Spoiler :

112. We want to keep France busy while the Greek army quietly circle to France's back without being detected. There are three CSs close to France - Genoa (northwest, Maritime), Tyre (southwest, Military), and Budapest (east, Military).

Since Genoa will be our base of operation, the least we want to see was a large French army coming to this direction to block our way to Napoleon's defenseless cities. So the best choice for Alex would be to ally with both military states Tyre and Budapest.

I actually tried to bribe Napoleon to declare war on Tyre, but he would not even consider. French was once an ally of Tyre, and their relationship was still Friendly at the time. So Napoleon was reluctant to attack a Friendly CS. It is OK, we just had enough cash to buy Tyre over.

Spoiler :

113. And who thought we didn't have the gold to buy over Budapest to war France? The rich Napoleon is paying.

Spoiler :

114. I forgot to bribe Napoleon to war Budapest - so I proceeded with the standard 1000 gold alliance deal. (Or maybe I tried but Napoleon said no... I forgot.)

With two military CS allies, we are ready to declare war on France! The very convenient truth of CS influence is that once this CS declares war on CivA (since the CS is allied to CivB, which is at war with CivA), the target Civ's relationship with that CS instantly drops to hostile, no matter how friendly it was to CivA before. Poor Napoleon - at least your gold to Tyre had been flushed down the drain.

Spoiler :

115. Paris was still hidden in that cloud. Our primary target should be Orleans, which is closer to Genoa and is a smaller/less defended city than Paris. That will make our surprise assault easier.

Spoiler :

116. It didn't take long for French Swordsman (the Greek army was already outdated compared to the French!) to kill off CS Budapest's ancient units and surrounded the city. We could only hope that Budapest delays their return to Paris for a few more turns!

Also, since we had the maps from CS Tyre, we could see that Napoleon concentrated his attack on Budapest, but left Tyre alone completely. Gotta give some credits to Napoleon's AI, which did not separate its army to achieve nothing from both fronts.

Spoiler :

117. Horseback Riding researched! With the addition of Companion Cavalry (Strength 12), Alex should be able to hold off the French Swordsman (Strength 11).

Spoiler :

118. I used to get excited about advancing an Era... but we were the LAST Civ to enter the Classical Era. The others entered Classic 50-100 turns ago! They are almost Medieval! The Greek gods help us!

Spoiler :

119. I had a few choices for the next Research. Picked Trapping so we harvest the two improved Ivory from the Mongolian cities (and sell the extra one).

Our warrior explorer finally reached the tip of South Africa. That barbarian camp was an easy picking since the barbarian Archer did not shoot at us when we got close.

There is indeed a potential city site with access of 2 Spices and Incense. Or we can settle further south right in the middle of the Fish and the Incense. Incense is lacking in the rest of the Greek Empire, so the new city will be a net gain of Happiness. It will not be a big city due to the lack of food, but rather a place holder to prevent some aggressive Civs from popping an annoying cities here later.

Spoiler :

120. Right after I picked Trapping, I noticed that some CS were already supplying Ivory to us! Well at least we will be able to get more Happiness from Fur. And look what Orleans have! Half of our troops are already in assault position, but half were still a few turns away...

Spoiler :

121. And that was the end of the short-lived alliance with Budapest! The French swordsman could be back to defend their home very soon!

To add to the trouble, Napoleon put some extra cash in CS Seoul (Cultural, present day India) and the CS had declared war on us - the best friend of City States! Instant -60 influence!

Spoiler :

122. No time to waste - the Greek army emerged from the forest northwest of Orleans and surrounded the unwalled city. There is no way that we cannot take the city this turn!

(to be continued...)

 

[Sparthage]

lurker's comment: *Subscribes*

 

[maltz]

Chapter 07. The First World War

Alexander's Greek army marched from Africa to Europe, taking the least noticeable route and circled to Napoleon's defenseless north. They took Orleans with ease, while Napoleon's army was out fighting our allied City State Budapest.

Now Napoleon had conquered Budapest. His superior Swordsmen could overpower the Greek Hoplites...

By then, Siam, Egypt, and Persia already had brief wars against each other. Alarmed at the expansion of Greece and France, they are ready to shift their attention...

Spoiler :

123. While our Worker was still building a ranch north of Sparta, we received two units of horses from Orleans! Immediately, we purchased a unit of Companion Cavalry from Athens (one free level from Barracks). Due to its superior movement range, the Cavalry will join the siege of Paris in a few turns.

We had been training Settlers in Athens for a while. Since our Happiness was often negative, the extra food offered by Maritime CS Cape Town would be wasted anyway. In total we trained two settlers from Athens during this "unhappy expansion phase". The idea was to make the settlers follow our main army, and pop new Greek cities on important resources or strategic location (such as a choke point).

In history, Alexander also founded Greek cities as he conquered more land to the east. I guess he had some settlers following his army, too... The first Settler had been completed. This is the start of the second Settler.

Spoiler :

124. Paris is in sight, and unbelievably there was no defender! (But it did have a wall.) Our troops must heal as quickly as possible and lay siege before the defenders come back (if the AI is this smart)! The Archer of Tyre had also arrived to help us distract the enemy.

Paris also had a number of Happiness resources: forest-covered Silk and Dye and a desert Incense (now we don't need to pop a city in South Africa to get an Incense). The three captured French Workers do not have to make a long march back to Africa and will start working right here - once we take Paris!

To our surprise, immediately after Orleans fell, Ramky of Siam and Darius1 of Persia both declared war on Napoleon! This was the best possible news for Greece, and the worst possible news for France, the once leader of the game! Siam probably felt threatened since Napoleon occupied his close CS neighbor Budapest. And Persia seems to be dragged to war by France. Or maybe Napoleon founded a city too close to Persia. We knew France was going east.

Spoiler :

125. Paris surrounded! Our Companion Cavalry had joined the fight in time. But Cavalry is not particularly good at siege (33% penalty, making it exactly on par with a Hoplite). One extra Hoplite can't hurt! Paris' defense was high.

Unfortunately, the Archers from Tyre occupied a precious tile SW of Paris doing nothing - it was not shooting at the city! If you are not helping, please don't occupy a precious siege tile! We spent 1000 gold for this traitor/idiot?!

But even more incompetent was Napoleon, who only dispatched ONE unit of injured spearman to defend his capital. There wasn't even an Archer from the city! Where were the swordsman? Maybe they were still healing up in Budapest. And maybe they have been killed!

And finally the Tyre Archers shot at the French spearman once... well that's a little helpful.

By the way, I started researching Sailing, thinking there was a Pearl accessible by Sparta.

Spoiler :

126. The siege of Paris was not easy. But 2 Archers + 4 Hoplites + 1 Companion Calvary finally managed to bring down its wall! The day is ours!

Spoiler :

127. Hm... a another disappointment for us. There was nothing interesting in Orleans and Paris. The 3 captured French Workers were quickly sent to build Plantations on the Silk, Dye, and Incense.

Spoiler :

128. Napoleon begged us for peace! While normally we would love to destroy a Civ in one big blow, in this case, we actually wish to let France LIVE further to consume the military strength of Siam and Persia. We can use a few turns to heal up anyway.

By the way, Deity AI almost never ask for peace with any goodies. But we can always sell our resources again...

Spoiler :

129. Napoleon can lose his capital and second largest city but cannot live without sugar. That's all Napoleon's cash plus a little loan. Nice.

Spoiler :

130. Immediately, we made peace with CS Seoul. Due to Greece's special CS advantage, our relationship recovers twice as fast. 45 turns back to neutral.

While at the time it seemed to be a good idea, later on, I realize peace with Seoul was quite inconvenient strategically, because it prevents Greece from declaring war on France for 45 turns (or Seoul will declare war on Greece again, and this time permanent), unless we are willing to spend 1000 gold to buy over Seoul's alliance. We are not really as rich as you would think - most of our cash still come from the AI Civs. If they are not rich, we are not.

Spoiler :

131. Thing were going unbelievably well - we sit in Napoleon's home to recover, watching him being slapped by Siam and Persia on two fronts. Since we can still see city's HP even if it is covered by the fog of war, we know that Budapest is going to fall again soon...

But but but... if Siam liberated Budapest, Ramky may choose to liberate the city from France. Then, he will gain 150 points of influence and our 1000 gold to the CS would be completely wasted (or at least we will have to pay more).

Spoiler :

132. I tried to bribe Ramky to make peace with Napoleon, but he did not agree. That's it! Siam is NOT a peace loving Civ! (Actually it was because it had been only 8 turns since Siam declared war on France. Peace cannot be negotiated in the first 10 turns.)

Spoiler :

133. But Alex -ed when he saw Siam OCCUPY Budapest instead! What a hypocrite! Siam actually gets bonuses from allied CSs, but it seems to have nothing to with a Military CS like Budapest.

Poor Budapest, its population was reduced to 1. And we are actually planning another attack on the city... Our soldiers have recovered! Let the action resume!

We cannot finish off Napoleon because of CS Seoul. There is only one city to attack, Budapest! Now we have a perfect reason to declare war on Siam. The hypocrite who occupied our allied City State Budapest! Let's overthrow that puppet regime and return the CS to its rightful rulers!

Spoiler :

134. As usual, we will empty Ramky's bank account before declaring war. Ramky was so poor that he only had 69 gold... we are taking that, too.

Spoiler :

135. Actually one turn before we declared war on Siam, Egypt went first! Now every Civ in the old world was fighting each other! The First World War started at 1650 BC!

Ramey2's aggression saved us some bribery gold. Anything to distract our target is a great plus.

And probably because of Egypt's war declaration, when our army marched into Siam territory, we saw very little defenders left. And Ramky protected his workers in the city and let out an undefended Great General?! Are you a newbie, Ramky?

Spoiler :

136. Our Cavalry easily captured the unprotected Thai GG the next turn. (My first Great General was captured (and killed), too. I didn't know it cannot fight on its own!) Since Budapest's defense was so low, our veteran soldiers ran over it with the utmost ease.

Interestingly, there were Persian units on the southern border of Siam. Are they here to declare war on Siam as well?

Spoiler :

137. Resesarched Writing next, so our puppet cities had the option to build Libraries - and they usually do build Libraries after the Monument.

We are only three techs away from Medieval - the Patronage tree is not that far away!

Spoiler :

138. After liberation, we checked our influence to the greateful CS Budapest... 253! That's 193 x 3 = 579 turns of alliance! That goes five hundred years after the end game!

(to be continued...)

 

[maltz]

Chapter 08. The Great East Campaign

Alexander took France's base in Europe and liberated the twice-occupied City State Budapest. The survivors of Budapest was extremely grateful of Greece.

Alexander faced a important strategic decision. In history, Alexander's east campaign stretched as far as India, and did not stop until it had to. Now for the Greeks, how much is enough? Our Hoplites had already been outdated (since France had fielded Swordsman). Can we push a little further? Or is the extra territory actually going to help us? Can our happiness sustain the extra territories?

Spoiler :

At the time, Greece had owned and allied with pretty much all the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. This could be an excellent home base to settle down and develop for at least 1000 years. Our eastern borders are filled up by weak Civs (France, Siam) and City States. This is pretty much like the US using smaller pro-US countries to wrap around Russia and China.

There was just one exception, a Persian city beside Athens. As long as we could keep Egypt and Persia fighting each other, we will be safe and strong.

The other way is to push as far as we could. With Companion Cavalry (just purcahsed the second unit, by the way) and some good tactical decisions, we should be able to conquer Siam with ease, and maybe handicap one of Egypt or Persia. If we get very lucky, neither of them will have a lot of Swordsman. We should be able to find some City State to ally, distract the AI's army, and take down some of their cities, even steal their capital if possible.

Finally, I decided to go for the latter simply because it is more exciting. (In the real world it is definitely better to play safe.)

It is the game for Alexander the Great. Conquest for the win!

Spoiler :

139. Ramky begs for peace. Since we have decided to go for war, there is no peace for Ramky. The backstabber is going down.

Spoiler :

140. Had some extra resources to sell. We got one extra fur from Napoleon's home. Every Civ hates us at the time (strangely except Napoleon, who has the best reason to hate us), we are only selling the resources in 1/3 of their worth (900 gold).

Spoiler :

141. Surprsingly, a better deal this time from Ramey2. (He only offered 300 gold last time.)

Spoiler :

142. Napoleon's income was so low that he should had only one city left. That means some of his new cities have been conquered by Persia! And he was offering iron to us! We have no use of it now, though. Took it anyway since Napoleon insisted.

Spoiler :

143. While we started to surround the Siam capital, we captured a worker that originally belonged to Budapest. I didn't really need to increase our influence to Budapest any higher, but I have no use for another worker anyway. New influence: 283! Try to bribe that over, Deity AIs! (Ops, I forgot they have no cash anymore.)

So how would citizens of Budapest express their gratitude to Greece? They can all wear Omega watches. Or wear Alexander T-shirts... Or watch the movie 300 over and over again...

Spoiler :

144. Speaking of 300, I have been waiting for this line forever.

This - is - Sparta!

We were still running on a negative happiness - so there was no point to harvest that fish tile. See the flood plain tile was still available for purchase at that time? (sob)

Spoiler :

145. Military CS Tyre gave us a random unit - spearman. Not useful at all. Gave it right back to Tyre for 5 points of influence. Interestingly, Tyre already had so many units that some have been spreading out in North Africa.

And we have been delaying social policies since the very beginning. Very high expectation usually means very large disappointment, though...

Spoiler :

146. With all the fighting going on in Europe, the second Great General of Greece was born! Sent it to the front line to better cover the field.

Spoiler :

147. The Siam capital was surrounded and waiting for its final blow. I reloaded a couple of times here to avoid losing a Hoplite to 2 Archers + City defense.

The AI was smart enough to bombard the unit that they can most likely kill in a turn, so it was quite a challenge to keep every unit alive. The trick was not to have any unit at risk when the turn ends. My solution was to wait UNTIL the second Archer spawns, kill it, then start attacking the city. Not really a new random seed, rather than knowing what is bound to happen next in advance.

Spoiler :

148. That was the end for Ramky! We have no respect for this backstabber. Go away.

Spoiler :

149. This is.... Sukhothai! The capital of Siam. Still no wonders, but the Library is nice. The Wines are new to Greece - the captured Siamese workers got their first perfect assignment.

Spoiler :

150. Napoleon finally denounced us after seeing us destroy 2 Civs. He would have been the second, but we did't want to waste 1000 gold on Seoul.

By this time, every single Civ on the Euro-Asian continent had denounced the others - except us! Alex never denounces anyone. Alex just takes over their cities and enslave their children.

Spoiler :

151. We were one step closer to Medieval! But let's finish all the happiness tech first. We have Marbles in the Siamese capital - Masonry next.

Spoiler :

152. I didn't know what to build next in Athens, so I queued a Work Boat. Since Athens had such a low production output, I just purchased the Library instead. The more population, the more useful a library is.

By the way, I found that the earlier-queued scout and hoplite had been "forgotten" by Athens. So my two dozens turns on them were totally wasted!

Spoiler :

153. Companion Calvaries are great scouts, they only get stopped by river. We have explored further east and found another Culture CS, Kuala Lumpur at present-day Northern China. They were allied with Persia. So we must not fight Persia unless we have bought over Kuala Lumpur.

And with the latest knowledge of the far east, we have nailed down our next target.

(to be continued...)

 

[maltz]

Chapter 09. To the End of Land

While the Greek army and Egypt, with their unknown contribution quickly made Siam history, Persia was still fighting France and CS Seoul. It was amusing to see Napoleon manage to build a Catapult and start sending Persian units flying.

Spoiler :

From Siam's capital (Siam_1), Alex had to first march northeast to reach a former Siam city (Siam_2), which had been occupied by Egypt. Then Alex march east-southeast to conquer the Egyptian homeland. If the campaign is successful, the Greek Empire will span the entire Euro-Asian continent.

Spoiler :

154. Just to make sure that Egypt will have little army at home, we bribed Ramey2 to declare war on Darius1. Only 275 gold for the two remaining large Asian powers to fight each other.

Spoiler :

155. And of course we are not going to let Egypt keep that 275 bribery gold.

Spoiler :

156. This is Siam's second town, Si Satchanalai. Founded in such a remote location, the town had very limited population growth. The city was popped here probably because of its access to horses. Took it with ease.

Spoiler :

157. Razing the city was an easy decision - there was no luxurious resource here. Our happiness dropped to -14 at the moment we started razing (since that involves annexing the city first). This gave us a 33% combat penalty (fortunately for just one turn). But even with morale penalty, our veteran Hoplite could easily dispatch a nearby Egyptian Spearman.

Spoiler :

158. All happy techs researched. Normally I would go for Mathematics and Construction to enable Court House and Colosseum in occupied cities. But we have another priority now - to enter Medieval Era. Out of the many possible tech routes, Civil Service enable the upgrade of Hoplite to Pikeman, a miserable upgrade from power 9 to 10, but still good if we just need a little extra power.

Spoiler :

159. Before invading Egyptian's homeland, I used the demographic table to check up how many units Egypt have left. Very few! Probably two or three and that includes workers! Let's go!

By the way, the chart revealed that Persia had the highest production (probably in a Golden Age as usual?) and Egypt was the leader in tech. A tech leader with no soldier is begging to be knocked back to Bronze Age.

Spoiler :

160. A CS Seoul spearman making a lonely attack on the Persian city Tarsus, which was aggressively founded just beside Athens.

And the in-game news said Napoleon had entered the Medieval Era (while Egypt and Persia had made it long time ago). We were still about 30 turns away from Medieval!

Spoiler :

161. Egyptian capital Thebes surrounded! Some Persia units were watching the show. Egypt fielded minimal resistance. We only saw one unit of spearman, and they hid inside the city and did nothing.

Note that our Settlers from Athen had been following the main army. No good location for founding any new city yet. We don't want any extra population. We must see a new luxurious resource.

By then, the Plantations in Paris had been completed. Our CS allies had been supplying us with their own local products. Our Happiness had returned to positive!

Spoiler :

162. The Egyptian capital is much nicer than the others', a Great Library, a Library, and a Water Mill. Our first wonder! Great Scientists, who can rush techs, is one of the best Great People in Civ5. (Personally I find Great Generals the best, but that's because I like wars. )

Spoiler :

163. Ordered the workers to convert farms to Trading Posts. Since our number of cities are constantly growing, we don't really need the extra food to put more population and positive happiness in jeopardy. We can get all the food we want from Maritime CS anyway.

Spoiler :

164. The last strike on Memphis. Although there were only two tiles immediately accessible for the Greek army, our Cavalry units were able to move away immediately after their assult, freeing up the tile for second attack from Hoplites. Speed is great!

Spoiler :

165. Ramey2 the tech leader met his sad end. Indeed, the Deity AIs can be defeated because they are full of flaws. Kinda like our Greek gods.

Spoiler :

166. Memphis could harvest Pearl! Our happiness was boosted to +11! Got another Library and a second wonder - the Colossus. Probably the least useful wonder in the game. But due to the Pearl and the Library, we decided to keep the city.

Spoiler :

167. The new demographic ranking showed that Greece was 1st in land, GNP, and crop yield. There is only one great enemy remaining in the old world - Alexander's nemesis Persia! It will be a fitting war for the pair. (Oh and there is still Napoleon. Nobody cares about him now.)

Spoiler :

168. Persian navy had started exploring our shores! But we had not sent out any single working boat yet...

(to be continued...)

 

[Triskelli]

Read and loved the Rome playthrough, and I'm really enjoying this one too. Sadly, I think you'll be able to blow through Darius1 too. Here's hoping you'll have a few good turns of growth and development before you head for the New World... and hoping that there's someone worth fighting over there

 

[maltz]

Chapter 10. The Disappointing Nemesis

With the fall of Egypt, there were only two powers left in the old world - Greece and Persia. Alexander must hurry - the Hoplites were already serious outdated. Luckily, Persian immortal is also a unique unit replacing Spearman. This means that the Persian will be building more of them and less Swordsman - hopefully.

Spoiler :

169. Before declaring war on Persia, we must bribe over its City State ally Kuala Lumpur. This our second Culture Civ ally. It will help us get future in the future Patronage social policies.

Spoiler :

170. Immediately, Napoelon told us that he wants to protect Kuala Lumpur. But... you are so far away. This thing with Civ5 AI is annoying. These AIs are so egocentric that they always find ways to blame you.

Spoiler :

171. The eve before the invasion of Persia. The first city to grab was Susa, a small city between the capitals of Siam and Egypt. Kuala Lumpur's minimal military power should help us distract Persia for a while.

Spoiler :

172. As usual, took all Darius1's remaining cash.

Spoiler :

173. There was no Persian defender! Susa is ours! This town had nothing spectacular. The wine tile was already purchased by Siam, so there is actually NO extra resource from this city!

Raze!

Spoiler :

174. Darius lost quite a lot of army in his previous wars on France and CS Seoul. Then he sent almost all of his man to fight CS Kuala Lumpur. Eventually the army of the City State was eliminated, but we got there in time to finish off the Persian army.

Four turns later, we easily took another underdeveloped Persian city to the west of Susa, Troyes. Troyes was founded right in the middle of a giant desert with absolutely no food available (Darius1 farmed two desert tiles, prodcuing a miserable 1/0/0.) This city is only good for its 3 units of Incense. We already had an incense from Paris, so the only benefit of the extra Incenses is to sell them to AI Civs. But we only have 3 Civs left after this (China, India, US). We will have lots and lots of extra resources for sale after this.

Raze!

Spoiler :

175. Darius1 lost 4 or 5 units in Kuala Lumpur, and 3-4 to us. With a steady pace, we pushed south. Another four turns later, we captured Pasargadae. This city is different - two food (Sheeps), three luxuries (Gold, Gem, Marble. The first two are new to us!), and a free Library. An instant boost to the Empire's happiness (now at +18)! This one definitely stays.

Spoiler :

176. Our relationship with Cultural CS Seoul has finally returned to neutral (45 turns up). After that 1000 gold, it was no longer an ally of France. Since we were getting closer to Medieval, we want as many Culture points as we could get.

Spoiler :

177. The Korean gave us their map, and it showed another City State Edinburgh. That's the 8th CS we met already. While most of its territory was covered by the fog of war, we could make a good estimate of where Edinburgh is - present day South East Asia - that's the only area we haven't explored! Since we already had Cotton and eliminated Darius' extra army, there is no need to throw cash at a military CS now. We took the lesson from CS Tyre and the siege of Parris. We don't want its stupid soldier to occupy precious tiles of the Persian capital when we lay siege.

Spoiler :

178. The last strike on the Persian capital. Wasn't really difficult. The Companion Cavalry was a great help since they could retreat after strike, making the tile available again for another melee unit.

Spoiler :

179. Another wonder - the Oracle! Plus free but useless Granary and a Watermill. Too much food surplus, too much unhappiness. But were are running on a huge happiness surplus thanks to the Whale just offshore.

Persia is not elimiated yet. It still had two weak cities.

Spoiler :

180. A great news from Athens. The trans-continental highway... a trans-continent muddy road has been connected between Athens and Paris! The merchants were on their way! Tourism flourished! We immediately received 10+ gold from the trade route. That should pay for the road maintenance with a little profit that grows with time.

Spoiler :

181. Only three cities left before Alexander completes his conquest of the old world! And even now we want AIs to keep fighting each other! Bribed Napoleon to declare war on Darius1 (about 20-30 turns ago they already reached a Cease Fire) with an incredibly cheap price.

But it turned out that Napoleon didn't really do anything... His army was tiny but elite - a Swordsman, a Horseman, and a Catapult.

Spoiler :

182. Civil Service researched! The food bonus in riverside Farms is nice; the Pikemen upgrade of Hoplite is marginally significant. But those are not what we are looking for...

Spoiler :

183. We are looking for this! The Medieval Era! Patronage tree unlocked! After 235 Turns of waiting, the Era of the Patronage League of Greece had arrived! (We were still the last Civ to enter Medieval.)

But we will catch up with the help of City States!

(to be continued...)

 

[maltz]

Chapter 11. The Era of the Greek Patronage League

Medieval, finally. 234 turns was a long wait - long enough for Alexander to had almost conquered the entire Euro-Asian continent. It looked like we were winning the game even without the Patronage social policy. But the Patronage tree will make us finish the race in a dashing style. Oh yeah.

Spoiler :

184. I really had nothing to build in Athens. I sailed my first Workboat to Europe to explore. And now my second workboat is complete. I sent it to explore the east. Time to build a real Navy. First Trireme queued.

Spoiler :

185. The start-off bonus for the Patronage social policy is a 25% reduction in City State influence. How does it stack with the Greece's unique 50% reduction? It might be a simple addition (1-(25%+50%) = 25%, so the new rate would be 25%), or a multiplication (50%*(1-25%)=37.5%). We definitely like the former better.

The worst, of course, would be no change at all due to a bug.

Spoiler :

186. The new rate of influence reduction for Brussel became -0.24/turn (used to be -.33/turn). That fits the multiplication model perfectly. 37.5% is not much better than 50%. But still saves us 0.09 relation per turn. Since each gold buys about 0.10 influence, this policy save us about 1 gold per turn for each City State, or 9 gold per turn for all 9 CSs eventually. Not bad.

Spoiler :

187. We had enough Culture points to activate three policies, the fourth in 10+ turns, and the fifth and final in about 60 turns. The best Patronage policies are:

Spoiler :

188.

(a) Scholasticism: 33% research of City States contributed to us. That's undoubtedly the killer policy in Patronage on higher difficulties, since our Happiness are badly restricted by our own population and cities. Now for every 3 fat City States allies, we will have an equivalent of a large city in research. This tech is awesome in Deity since even City States are Deity City States! They grow like weed! They probably get some intrinsic research bonus! And Scholasticism is actually not the two ultimate techs of the Patronage tree!

Note that our research was +53/per turn. We will see how much bonus we get later.

(b) Cultural Diplomacy: 100% extra resources offering, 50% extra happiness from luxrious resources. I am not sure what that "100% extra resources" means - perhaps it means Strategic Resources. It makes little difference since our gigantic empire will have so many Horses and Irons. The best thing is the that 50% extra happiness from luxury resources. I once worried that if we already posses the same luxurious resource, the bonus will not apply. But after testing I realized it does. Each luxurious resource gives an extra of +2.5 Happiness, no matter what our Empire already has it or not. (Ancient people also think IMPORTED products are better than domestic, even though they are the same thing!) If I befriend with all 9 City States, and each offer me one luxurious resource, I will have a 2.5 x 9 = 22.5 extra Happiness. Can you imagine one policy giving +22 Happiness?! 22 Happiness = 22 extra allowed population! That's a killer policy.

(c) Educated Elite: City States may give free Great People. Free techs. Free wonders. Free Golden Ages. I am speechless.

Cultural Diplomacy has two prerequisite policies, and Educated Elite three. Since after activating the Patronage tree we only have 3 policies left, we have two options:

(1) Educated Elite 10+ turns later, Cultural Diplomacy ~80 turns later.
(2) Cultural Diplomacy now, Educated Elite 60 turns later.

Picked the second option for instant gratification, and a faster last policy.

Spoiler :

189. Activated Cultural Diplomacy. The Cultural Bonuses from three Cultural CSs increased from +8 to +12 each per turn, with 13 Turns to the next policy.

Our researched rate became +83/turn after activating Scholasticism. From +53 to +83, that's a 57% increase! Can you imagine any policy that gives you 57% faster research? And we haven't befriended all City States yet (only 6 out of 9).

Spoiler :

190. The happiness bonus from luxurious resources was instantly +12! Our Empire's Happiness was pushed to a historical high of +26! Now I feel like a Deity AI!

Spoiler :

191. The Chinese exploration team arrived before 1000 BC! A little too early - we still haven't knocked out France and Persia...

Spoiler :

192. That means we have to sell Wu Zetian as many resources as possible before she dislikes us (and reduce the price she is willing to pay). Four resources for all of her cash and turn income! Wohoo!

Spoiler :

193. I delayed the "purchase" of CS Genoa since it is Maritime, and we had no use for the food since we were running a negative happiness most of the time. Not anymore! 1000 gold for 125 influence. That means (125-60)/0.24 = 270 turns of alliance! Enough to last to the end.

Spoiler :

194. Back track for one turn - this Persian city was established on an odd tile. It is on the tip of a short, downward peninsula (present day Taiwan with its ice-age linkage to China) shaped just like an important floppy organ of mankind.

Althouth there was only ONE contact tile, we were able to use Cavalries to allow two attacks per turn. There were also two tiles for Archers to shoot. So it still wasn't difficult to take the city.

Spoiler :

195. Finally we started the research of Iron Working! We still had no need of iron, but at the time I was planning for a few new Greek city sites. So it would be handy to know where the iron is.

Spoiler :

196. A new unit from Tyre - a Chariot Archer. I tried to give it a ride but there was no way for it leave Tyre! All exists from Tyre was occupied by its own units for two tiles! I had no choice but to give it right back for +5 influence (or I could wait for Optics for them to swim back to Africa).

Spoiler :

197. It was time to finish off Napoleon. He showed magnificent recovery with just one city left and all his income shipped to us for some resource. But we are taking that back as well...

Spoiler :

198. It would be inconvenient for us if the Catapult defends Lyon. So we must destroy it before that happens! An easy demolish for the Pikeman, formerly known as Alexander's Phalanx.

Spoiler :

199. A third Great General was born in Athens! Sacrificed him immediately for our first ever Golden Age!

Spoiler :

200. Iron Working finihsed - there is a rich Iron tile right in the middle of the Sahara desert. Thanks, we will skip that.

Spoiler :

201. Another iron is in west Europe, present day Spain/France border. A good place for Greece's own 3rd city can be founded NW of the iron (only 2 units), with access to Fur, Deer, and the most interestingly, the artificial English Channel. The passage on both sides means extra capacity and safe shelter for repairing damaged ships. This city will serve as our Navel base in our future invasion and defense of North America.

Spoiler :

202. Alexander also came up with a grand plan of Old World Cargo Expressway, a extended trans-continental muddy road that connects the existing internal roads built by all previous civilizations. (The Deity AI's workers were so efficient - thanks!)

Now we have connected Mogol to Greece and Greece to France. We will then connect Siam to Egypt. Since Persia spawned some cities right in the middle, we will use those roads to connect France with Perisa, and Persia with Egypt and Siam!

Note: Cannot connect France with Siam since there is a city state blocking direct access. I learned from the previous Roman game that the trade route only gets connected if none of the road tiles belong to a City State, even if an ally. With 11 workers in the entire Empire, we will see its completion!

(to be continued...)

 

[maltz]

Chapter 12. Wrapping up the Old World

The Greek Empire welcomed its Golden "Patronage Age", a 50+% boost of research and an eventual +18 happiness boost from its City State allies. The giant empire that spams Africa, Europe, and Asia was about to experienced unmatched rapid growth.

Spoiler :

203. Puppet city AI always likes to build the useless Wall, right after Monument and Library. Now we have the cash to rush Court House (1380 gold each), it is a good time to annex puppet cities and direct them to build something that is actually useful. I find that in Civ5 I no longer have to specialize one or two production cities (hammer rich), since units can be purchased instantly. I only need one city with Barracks and maybe Armory, usually the capital. In Civ5, every rationally-placed city is a population/research + money-making city. I don't have a particular build order, but generally these are the only buildings I ever consider:

Monument
For culture and slow, free land grab. Only important in early game, when most turns are spent in waiting. The puppet AI prioritizes Monument, no matter how late the game is.

Library
For 50% extra research. The puppet AI usually builds this right after Monument. A very good choice even after the .135 nerf.

Colosseum
Provides +4 Happiness (or +N, N = city's population if < 4). The puppet AI usually skips Colosseum, which is critically important for a large empire. This is the first building I queue after annexing a city, if a Circus is not an option. (Circus takes a shorter time to complete.) In desperate times (Happiness drops below -10), I purchase Colosseum in larger cities.

Circus
Available if Horse and Ivory is nearby. +2 Happiness. Effect per gold (if purchased) is not as good as Colosseum, but does not require maintenance money. A good building to build/buy as early as possible. (Cirus - Colosseum saves more money than Colosseum - Circus).

University
50% extra research. Too expensive for direct purchase. Good for population+jungle cities. I cut down almost all jungles in Rome in my last game and regretted a llittle. A jungle tile along river is (2/0/1) without improvement. If chop down to make farm, it becomes (3/1/1, assuming on plain, or 4/0/1, assuming on grassland - but I have never seen jungle reduced to grassland before). If not chopped down to make trading post, it will become (2/0/2) and eventually (2/0/2 + 2 research with University). For capital, keeping the jungle is certainly better since Maritime CS will supply so much extra food in the capital, making it an ideal location to invest in +research buildings.

On Marathon, a 240-hammer unit/building takes about 1000 gold to directly purchase. Each hammer therefore is worth 4 gold. So chopping down jungle to plain (-1 food, +1 hammer) is not a bad deal considering the city has enough food.

Observatory
Another 50% extra research if the city has access to an inaccessible mountain within two tiles. A little unreliable. I have not yet completed an Observatory before my game ends...

Market
+25% gold. A bit later in the game, Athens produced 33 gold per turn. A market would get an additional +8 gold per turn. If I purchase the Market directly (1320 gold), I will need 140+ turns to break even. I decided not to buy it since the game would be pretty much over by the time I start to earn a profit. So why not use the gold to buy something that actually makes a difference?

Mint
Good for cities with 2 or more precious metal/gem resources (+3 gold per resource). Also unreliable as such city is rare. Among my half a dozen games in Civ5 so far, I only saw ONE such city. The AI loves to build a Mint as long as there is ONE such resource. For small cities that does not need research type buildings, this could be a good way to spend hammers.

I know there are more nice buildings, but my game always ends before they become available. I almost never build wonders because they are weak and the higher-level AIs usually beat me to it. The national wonders seems to be a good choice for a one-city challenge game.

Spoiler :

204. Not long after we sold resources to Chinese Empress Wu Zetian, we met Washington's US exploration team. Washington was quite rich. We will keep your cash and turn tribute to good use.

Spoiler :

205. The last attack on Napoleon's second capital, Lyon. With so many accessible tiles around the city, the siege ended on the second turn.

Spoiler :

206. Napoleon's come back was shortened. The key of Napoleon's defeat was his decision to march all his more-advanced units to invade Budapest, leaving Alexander a much defenseless Europe for Alexander to steal over. Even when Alexander conquered the rest of Euro-Asian Civs hundreds of years, the Greek faced NO more swordsman than the France ever fielded.

Some respects to Napoleon. I guess the other AI Civs thought that their special Classical-era unique units were good enough.

Spoiler :

207. Other than two units of Ivory (we already had two back in Africa), there was nothing special in Lyon. Razing it seemed to be a no-brainer, but our happiness was so high! I kept it anyway to accelerate research.

Spoiler :

208. Since both China and the US witnessed us eliminate France, I checked Diplomacy to see how their attitude had changed. Interestingly, Washington thought we were a warmonger, but Wu did not. Later on, I found that Washington could easily be bribed to attack City States and other Civs, but never did China.

What does that mean? That means Washington think it is ok for the US to take over others, but it is NOT ok for others to take over others. That's... exactly the United States of America the World Police! Gotta give some credits to the Civ5 team for simulating the reality. Any other warmongering Civ had a high tolerance of others' violence. Not Washington!

And I started to research Currency after Mathematics (Court House) and Construction (Colosseum) so the puppet city AI has another useful building (Market) to choose from.

Spoiler :

209. Stupid puppet Paris was also building Wall. Why do you need a Wall when you are in the middle of our own continent? Annexed and redirected the hammers to a Colosseum.

Spoiler :

210. With the completion of Currency, all of the basic infrastructural techs have been researched. We now have two general research options that decides our strategy in mid-late game.

(a) Upper route Navy first - Optics, Compass, Astronomy, Navigation. A powerful Navy will allow us to control the oceans, settle on any of the remaining useful land un interrupted, stop any of the remaining Civs from threatening us, and seriously weaken the defense of costal cities. This is the safest route.

(b) Lower route Land unit first. Machinery to upgrade Archers to Crossbowman, Physics to upgrade Catapult to Trebuchet (we had no Catapult at the moment), Chemistry to upgrade Trebuchet to Cannon, and Rifling to upgrade Pikeman and Crossbowman to Rifleman. Plus a middle route Chivalry to upgrade Companion Cavalry to Knight. An invasion to North America can start as soon as Optics (only a couple of turns required) due to the connected shallow seas between Siberia and Alaska.

In my previous Roman game, I went for route (a), which was quite successful. My land army of Long Swordsman was somewhat lacking at the end, but that was made up by an absolutely overkilling navy. This time I decided to go for (b) with just barely enough Navy. I will develop my Navy to Carvel (Astronomy) so I can sink AI's Trireme to protect my land units. Then I will put all emphasis on land unit upgrades to get Knights, Crossbowman, Trebuchet, Cannon, and then Riflemen as soon as possible.

Spoiler :

211. The last strike on Persia's last city Tarsus, aggressively established close to Athens but un-aggressively did not produce any army while Athens remained pretty much defenseless - I left only the starting Warrior (now Swordsman) in Africa to fight barbarians.

Spoiler :

212. That's the end of Persia, the last Civ of the old world. Persia was quite successful. They grew very well under the hostility of Egypt and Siam in early game. (The hostility probably comes from Persia's active expansion strategy.) They even gained ground from France (Troyes was a French city, the one with three tiles of incense and almost no food), but was unable to conquer Lyon, the last city of France, and even its weakling ally Cultural CS Seoul. Persia never had a large army due to its constant wars.

Spoiler :

213. Turn 253 saw the unification of Asia, Europe and Africa under Alexander's Greek Empire. Our population was booming (and quickly eating up the surplus happiness); our research advanced at a rapid rate and had caught up with an AI slow runner (China). During the first Golden Age, our production and gold surpassed any Civ in the New World.

That would be the end for the Pangea map. But we are talking about Earth. There is a New World out there. We have met two of the three final Civs - where is India? And we even had no idea where China and the US were located. Any question mark in the demographic chart means India. So India had the most population, the biggest army, and most advanced technology. Perhaps India has its own continent while China and US are stuck together...? From experience, invasion of the New World could be a challenge if any Civ had the sole possession of a continent. Enemy units will fill up every tile. Are we going to see the infamous carpet of doom? Can we bribe them to fight each other?

Spoiler :

214. The nice thing about being Greece - I rarely have to extend alliance with City States. Here the alliance with Brussels (our earliest CS ally) finally required renewal. Under the bonus of the Patronage social policy, 250 gold will give us 30 influence, enough for another 125 turns! (2 gold per turn, contrary to 10 gold per turn with other Civs without Patronage.)

Essentially, Greece only needs about 20 gold per turn to stay allied with 9 City States to enjoy +18 Happiness, 50% extra research, +48 Culture/turn (later on we discovered the 4th Cultural CS), and from time to time some free units that's actually useful. What a deal. (But we do forfeit the benefits of other policies, especially some useful ones at the beginning).

Spoiler :

215. The fourth Patronage social policy Aesthetics unlocked - minimal influence to City States increased from 0 to 20. That saved us about 200 gold per un-allied City State. At this point, we only had two unmet CS, so this policy saved us 400 gold. Not bad for an early-game policy... but it is only activated in the Medieval Era! I skipped it to go for Cultural Diplomacy as early as possible. Now we are 43 turns to the ultimate Patronage policy Educated Elite.

Spoiler :

216. With Aesthetics, I could buy the alliance of Edinburgh with just 500 gold. I didn't bombard it with 1000 gold because the game would have ended long before the alliance expires. Maybe I will need to renew with 250 gold before the game ends, but I still save 250 gold.

Spoiler :

217. As planned, I will first research the upper line to go for Astronomy to control the sea. It looks like the Greece Empire will welcome a few hundreds years of peace and growth (unlike Civ4, in Civ5, war and growth goes well together, too). The age of exploration has begun!

(to be continued...)

 

[maltz]

Chapter 13. Chokepoint Alaska

Peace has come to the Old World. But human beings are a peculiar species. When there is war, they crave for peace. When there is peace, they find excuses to war. I guess there is only one consistent human nature - change. Soon after they get what they wanted, they will want another change.

Alexander the Great Warmonger likes to change, too. He reads new strategy. He tests new tactics. He looks for new conquests. Alexander never rests until his heart stops beating.

Well, actually it is I getting bored of waiting. I lose the motivation of playing in the lack of war. I have never had a non-domination victory in Civ games! Maybe I should try a Deity one city challenge some time.

So far I have read numerous OCC victories with diplomacy. Is it possible to win an OCC cultural victory on Deity? Or somebody will always build a United Nations too quickly and force us to go for diplomatic? Or can we actually conquer everybody else's capital... and what will happen if we cannot keep it?

Spoiler :

218. Settling time for the peace period! Our exploring Working Boat (didn't have a Trireme yet) reported that there is a great number of Cotton in southern Australia, plus some other nice resources to help boost a new city in the continent's southeast.
There is another nice site that is present day Indonesia and Malasia, right on the horses. There will be two units of Fish to the north (one is not visible - blocked by the research panel), a gem to the south, plus 4 tiles of land to work on. That's some rapid growth for a medium-sized city.

But none of the sites contained any new luxurious resources. So it is just a land grab. Alex decided to settle in Australia first for a larger land coverage. If happiness allows, we will cover Indonesia. (It turned out that our Happiness ran out too quickly to ever look at Indonesia again.)

Spoiler :

219. A new unit from Budapest - a Catapult! We had no catapult at the time, so this was a great addition. Catapult upgrades through the Siege weapon line and will become Trebuchet and the formidable Cannon. Cannon is especially good because it enjoys a long period of invincibility before every infantry (Warrior line, Spearmen line, Archer line) gets upgraded to Rifleman.

We didn't liberate Budapest for nothing...

Spoiler :

220. After burning one or two barbarian camps, Alexander led his army to the eastern tip of Siberia in the hope to personally greet the ruler of present-day Alaska.

It was Empress Wu Zetian. The Empress was not happy to see Alexander's army, thinking we are here to harm China. Although ultimately we will harm everybody , at this point we COULD actually mean no harm - we are just here looking for an easy city to steal. So if your cities are well-defended, we will just pass by.

Spoiler :

221. Since we had an Open Border treaty with China, our Companion Cavalry enjoyed a tour in North America. Soon we met the long-awaited Gandhi of India. I have a lot of respect for the real Gandhi. But Civ5 Gandhi is quite capable of offering insults.

Spoiler :

222. Of course, the greeting wouldn't be complete if we do not extract all of Gandhi's cash. It seems that Ghandi is richer than Wu Zetian.

Spoiler :

223. And that's why. India has the better part of the North America, while China is confined to the northwest tundra. I am surprised that China managed to stay alive for 270 turns in Canada! I am actually Canadian. We survive because of furnace heating. We just had a -20C day. Not funny.

In my past Roman game, Arabia and German were arranged in the same way - Arabia is now China; German is now India. Interestingly how things could change. In the previous game, Germany quickly settled all over and started warring Arabia, which was way behind in score. In this game, though, India and China coexisted peacefully for thousand of years. Perhaps China was able to have just enough military so that the peaceful Ghandi never consider them a soft target.

I tried to bribe India to attack China, and China to attack India. But none of them even bother to name a price. It seems that the two Civs had determined to enjoy peace. (Or the leaders' minds are not set on domination victory.) Actually, none of China, India, and the US (alone in South America) have ever denounced each other! Must be the influence of Ghandi.

It seems to Alexander that China's Guangzhou was an easy prey even without the support of a powerful navy. There are two tiles to land that is free from bombardment, and the city only had a defense of 9. And there were so few units around Guangzhou. We should be able to steal it in two turns.

At this point, I first left China alone and found somewhere else to invade. But while my army was away, Wu Zetian researched Optics, started shipping settlers to Asia, and popped one city after another around Greece AND then accuse me of SETTLING CLOSE TO THEM, and marched a lot of army to my direction. I was so extremely annoyed by this that I decided to come back to an early save to eliminate the problem before it can even occur.

My solution is to take Guangzhou to block China's access to Asia.

Spoiler :

224. Even though Greece was a clear front runner at this stage, I still didn't want to see India and the US declare war on us at the same time. Luckily, unlike China and India, the United States is always ready to attack another Civ.

Let Alexander spawn the evil seed of hatred among the peaceful leaders of America. The US was the weak link.

Spoiler :

225. Guangzhou was not a difficult city to take - I forgot that melee units can make attack while sailing, just that their power will be largely reduced without the Amphibious trait. Ranged units cannot fire while on water.

Spoiler :

226. Wu Zetian soon launched her counterstrike to reclaim Guangzhou. But the narrow passge of Alaska made it extremely difficult to advance, even though she probably have a great pile of units lining up in the back. Chinese units arrive at tile (1) and (2).

Tile 1 was our dedicated "tile of crossfire", since it will be shot by the city's defense, the Catapult garrisoned in the city, and the Archers on the hill at the same time. And there was the Pikeman to block the unit's advance should it survives.

Tile 2 was an ideal place for an Companion Cavalry ambush. The Cavalry charges whatever comes to tile (2), usually killing it in one attack, and retreat to friendly territory to receive the +2 healing during end turn (for it had received the useful March promotion after 3 levels of open terrain combat bonus). That catapult in the picture was instantly demolished.

Spoiler :

227. The Chinese Swordsman proofed to be a difficult target. Tile (1) was actually a hill, so our Archers, who have been promoted through the open terrain bonus (Accuracy) route, dealt very little damage. I promoted the Archers through the Accuracy route in order to be eligible for the Range +1 promotion later on. On the poster that comes with the game, Range + 1 only comes with Accuracy III but not Barrage (rough terrain bonus) III.

But strangely, later on I was able to promote the Archers with Logistics (the awesome double attack), which should not be available to Crossbowman according to the poster... Maybe the patches have changed the promotion route...?

Spoiler :

228. Development at did not stop while we had a little fun with war. It just quietly went on in the background. (That's why development is boring.) The trans-continent muddy road has finally been completed! All major cities under the Greek Empire had been connected!

Spoiler :

229. That's how the trans-continental trade route looks like.

This picture clearly shows that the trade route is connected to City State Seoul, which actually made a request of connecting our capital to them. But that request was not completed when the trade route had established.

So it is a bug (I was on .141). The CS trade route request can never be completed.

Spoiler :

230. Connecting the trade routes of the Empire gives us 66 gold per turn, compared to the net income of +178 per turn. Quite a nice boost to our economy. I like this interface for it tells me which puppet city is building something completely useless, so I can annex it, rush a Court House, and redirect it to build a Colosseum or a Circus.

Spoiler :

231. Another free unit! But a lowly archer from Edinburgh. Later on I discovered that the giving of units are bound to happen for the CS - but the unit CHANGES when I loaded the save (I have "New Random Seed on reload" activated). I didn't test it further because it already took a long time for me to load a game at this point. But I guess theoretically, one can make a CS to give you whatever you desire, maybe restricted to whatever you are technically capable of building. At least it won't give you some garbage that you will return it right back!

Spoiler :

232. After about 10 turns, I killed enough Chinese units that new units stopped showing up. I thought it was a good time to make a cease fire since my units are too weak to advance to the Chinese capital Beijing (the choke point acts both ways). My purpose is to block endless Chinese settlers from settling in Asia. And I have achieved that.

Cease fire of course is followed by another resource trade. WU was dirt poor that she was already bankrupt with a -10 gold/turn deficit before the Alaska war (but was still paying me the gold from nowhere)!

Spoiler :

233. Right next turn we got Wu's denouncement. I swore there was no melamine mixed in our Sugar...

Spoiler :

234. And that was followed by Gandhi's denouncement. I guess China and India were friendly enough to coordinate their denouncement? Or Gandhi was waiting for the war to be over to see who deserves the denouncement. (The winning side, of course.)

Oh right! We promised China that we were just passing by. Ops!

Spoiler :

235. I was trying to see if I can circle to Beijing's back. But judging from the shape of the border, there must be a Chinese city (arrow), which will be able to bombard Greek units on their way to Beijing. Plus I will have to wait for India's sea of units to give me the space to squeeze in...
So I decided to leave just one catapult to defend Guangzhou, and ship my units to somewhere else that they can be useful. China's army had been crippled that they would need a some turns to recover.

There must be something else for Alexander to invade... how about we explore further south?

(To be continued...)

 

[maltz]

Chapter 14. Unsolicited Reinformcement

The first Greece-China war ended with Alexander's occupation of Guangzhou, the gateway between the Old and New Worlds before the arrival of Astronomy - for the three Civs stuck on America!

Spoiler :

236. Interestingly, I received a reminder from Gandhi. India indeed had the largest army... but not that much larger than mine.

When I first played the game, I thought the AI Civ was very friendly to me so it reminds me to watch out for some Warmonger. Then I realize that they want me to watch out for THEMSELVES because a declaration of war usually comes right afterwards. Why does the AI bother to advise you to hire more soldiers if they want to invade you? Shouldn't they encourage you to build a Pyramid or other craps that don't mean a thing militarily?

Spoiler :

237. In the meantime, my exploring Trireme found a small US city Atlanta further south. (Interestingly, India had not settled on the west coast of North America. It was full of hills and had no food resources like fish. Perhaps Ghandi thought it was not worthwhile. This should gave us a chance later...

Spoiler :

238. I forgot to ask for an Open Border from the US earlier, but now it would cost us so much... I guess the American protectionism was in effect (as usual). It is fine. Soon we will be able to sail in the deep sea because we could watch the stars to get sailing directions.

Spoiler :

239. And that's it - Astronomy researched! We were the first to enter the Renaissance Era! I entered Renaissance almost 50 turns earlier compared to my last Roman game. Greece + Patronage is indeed powerful. But the Roman combination of Ballista + Legion could have easily conquered a Pangea map in one go, if they are not stopped by the sea.

Spoiler :

240. As planned, we are going to upgrade all of our units as fast as possible. The fastest upgrade is Companion Cavalry to Knight (1 tech), followed by Crossbowman and Trebuchet (2 and 3 techs). Then I can make a beeline to Chemistry (Cannon). In my last game, I skipped Cannon to go for Rifleman, and ended up not seeing any of them. This time I want to at least fire a few Cannon shots.

Spoiler :

241. I have been saving up for this - bought two Caravel from the two Atlantic costal cities.

Spoiler :

242. What now, a denouncement from the US. We possess weapons of mass destruction? We don't, but we will.

Spoiler :

243. With the help of Caravel, I took a good look of the East coast of North America. All India and no China. And that culture is insane. I wonder why India's score was only marginally higher than China even if it had possessed 85% of North America. Perhaps Ghandi had very few cities?

And Gandhi's iron seems to be hard to pillage considering how much Indian units there are. Perhaps we will have to kill off their units from some other choke points... that mountain range in the west looks interesting. Hm...

Spoiler :

244. The second Caravel found the American capital Washington, in the same spot as my last Roman start. The American had built the Great wall at this point. That will slow down our advance greatly. The American iron is located in a much more exposed location, though. We should pillage it as soon as the war breaks out.

Also we also saw the boundary of the last remaining City State. Can't wait to meet them!

Spoiler :

245. Cultural CS Geneva! Currently allied with India. Of course, we immediately bought it over for the added cultural points and an earlier activation of the last Patronage policy Educated Elite (free Great People). I imagine Gandhi to be steaming, but he already denounced us and could not denounce us again. Ha-ha!

Spoiler :

246. Seeing the Alaska choke point, a sea of Indian units, and an interesting (and quite respectable) peaceful partnership of China and India, Alexander realized that there is very little to do in North America until some extensive upgrades of Greek units.

So he had to sail south, where he could safely land in CS Geneva's territory... and take out the US first instead. I don't like any Deity Civ monopolizing a continent. They always end up with a carpet of doom (unit occupying every single tile possible).

Spoiler :

247. A good reason for Alexander to go south is that US was still at war with India and strangely, CS Geneva even after we bought it over to our side. Perhaps US was at war with Geneva before, so their war this time becomes permanent? Or Washington thought he must conquer Geneva to unite South America, so he was unwilling to make peace?

Our Caravel reported that CS Geneva was indeed on the losing side. It had lost almost all its units, but Washington had also suffered great losses. That was a great opportunity for Greece:

If the US conquered Geneva first, we will liberate it.
If the US got pushed back, they suffered a lot of units and will make our job a lot easier.

So here the Greek army sail south! Even if we had not receive a distress call from Geneva. Perhaps we allied with them too quickly, and such requests were never issued to allies. Perhaps the request only issues right after a war declaration. Since we did not know Geneva at that time, we skipped the request.

Spoiler :

248. And Washington noticed our army's advance. I thought everyone had warned everyone that Alexander the Warmonger could not be trusted?

Spoiler :

249. After some more exploration we had a good idea of Washington's empire in South America. There are three costal cities and perhaps one more covered by the cloud (since the Great Wall border had extended over the mountains). The Greek army will make a landing on the west shore of Geneva and went north from there.

Spoiler :

250. Several turns later, we were ready to declare war. Geneva successfully defeated a few more US units and remained safe (shame on Washington, who had 4 times more soldiers but only used 1/4 of them) But there is one more thing before the war declration, to make AI's cash our cash...

Spoiler :

251. This unit of American archers was about to be destroyed.

I find it extremely useful to specialize melee units into either Open Terrain or Rough Terrain, since the March (heal every turn, extremely useful) promotion only becomes available after three levels of the SAME promotion. Another benefit is that we can plan the placement of units to match their specialty for the best outcome.

Spoiler :

252. My happiness was running dangerously low, so I rushed a Colosseum in Knossos. I forgot there was horse, or I would definitely go for the cheaper and maintenance-free Circus. Knossos's population was 3, so a Colosseum only offered +3 happiness. That's one of the patches' prevention of the Infinite City Spawn (ICS) tactics (many Colosseums = many +4 smiley faces = new cities (+1 red face) at population 3 (+3 red face) does not generate red face at all). Now the human players can't use it effectively, but the Deity AI uses them happily...

Spoiler :

253. Our Trireme hunted down an American spearman sailing aimlessly in Asia - close to the oddly shaped peninsula of Persia we discussed earlier!

Spoiler :

254. Encouraged by the Knights (promoted from Companion Cavalry), our troops advanced and found the once-hidden American in-land city Boston. It should be an easy job for us even if there is the Great Wall to slow us down. We have two easy tiles to make melee attack - ideal for the Knights, and two easy tiles to make ranged attack. Boston's defense was a little low for a population 6 city.

The iron mine was quickly pillaged. American Swordsman were instantly paralyzed.

Spoiler :

255. Took Boston after 4 turns! The knights were just great. By the way, I promoted both my Companion Cavalry through the open terrain bonus route (Shock), since their movement advantage is best used on open terrain, when they can retreat after attacking.

At this point, I was not interested in keeping non-capital cities unless it has a unique luxurious resources. My happiness will soon drop below -10 if I keep every city.

(to be continued...)

 

[maltz]

Chapter 15. Alternative Landing

Seeing that there was nothing much to conquer in North America, Alexander sailed his army south to aid City State Geneva, which was under attack by the obviously more powerful American. With superior Knights, Alexander was able to take the first, rather weakly defended American city.

Spoiler :

256. The Chinese were slowly gathering an army close to Guangzhou. A unit of Settler was visible, too. AI settlers are one of the most hated units in the game!

But now they can't advance because my Trireme blocks their way! In Civ5, a non-military unit (Wettlers, Workers, Great Person) CANNOT pass another Civ's military unit. But a military unit can. So my Trireme completely blocked the Chinese settler's advance. Nice! Keep waiting!

Spoiler :

258. (Skip 257 for it was from a wrong save game.) After taking Boston, the Greek army was able to kill off a few more American units in the vincinity. However, we could not advance further to take any other American city, since our movement was slowed down by the Great Wall wonder. Alexander had to look for another way of entry. And that requires some sailing work. 10 turns of peace first!

Spoiler :

259. Washington hated us so much that he wanted almost all of our extra Luxury resources for his cash and income. Sure. Go ahead and enjoy your Golden Age (from the growth of its gold per turn I thought they were already at a Golden Age). We will take it back after 10 turns...

Spoiler :

260. Another free unit from Budapest. A Knight! Go to South America and help!

I wonder whether influence to the CS makes a difference in the rate of free unit production. Is there a "free unit meter" that gets slowly filled up? How is its rate determined? Those information would definitely help in planning.

Spoiler :

261. We welcomed the final policy in the Patronage tree - Educated Elite. Can't wait to get a Great Person. I have never had this policy before. Actually I have never got a Great Person other than Great General in Civ5! Maybe there is a "Great Person" meter to fill up in City States like those in our cities? (That's not good, because I certainly won't be able to see them.) Or maybe it is a random roll of dice? Can one reload the game to get the desired type?

Spoiler :

262. Gandhi made the second warning about our "weak army". Obviously Gandhi would declare war on us soon. Fortunately, Gandhi's sea of army is far away from us, so Alexander has nothing to worry for now.

Spoiler :

263. Alexander divided his army into two. One half stayed in Boston, and the other used the sea route to circle to Philadelphia's shore. When the war was declared again to Washington, they quickly made the landing and were ready to start the siege. The other half of Greek units from Boston also advanced to block the reinforcement.

The Greek Carvel had also circled from the southern tip of South America to the Pacific Ocean to pick off American Triremes. One shot fired, one ship down.

Spoiler :

264. The fighting in South America quickly gave birth to the 4th Great General of Greece. Sacrificed too for the 2nd Golden Age of Greece!

Spoiler :

265. Philadelphia was taken with minimal damage on our units. The splitting strategy worked! Now we are in a great position to advance to New York to the northeast.

Spoiler :

266. A warning from Wu Zetian. This one worried me a little more since Chinese army could actually march to Guangdown. The Catapult in garrison should keep them away for a few turns, plus I can always annex the city and rush a few more units.

Spoiler :

267. The last attack to change the ownership of New York. I left Washington last because at the time it already built a Wall, had a Great General in the city, and was surrounded by the Amazon River on our side. Taking New York would allow us to ignore Washington's river advantage by attacking from the northwest.

After the march promotion, I usually give the Blitz promotion to melee units to allow the unit to attack twice. This is an invaluable promotion, especially during city sieges where number of attacks are limited by the availability of accessible tiles.

Spoiler :

268. The Greek Crossbowmen was also experienced enough to receive one of the extremely useful promotions - Range +1 (Range) or an Extra Attack (Logistics). The game's poster manual didn't list Logistics as a possible promotion for ranged units... so I picked it first thinking it is a "bug". Two attacks from a ranged unit is just too good to pass up. And for its added experience earning rate, I will get Range +1 sooner, too. (Range 3 and 2 attacks? That's beyond Deity...)

Spoiler :

269. The last attack to take down Washington's capital... Washington!

Spoiler :

270. Washington built two wonders in Washington, the Great Wall and then the Pyramid. I don't know why the AI would want to build the Pyramids (+50% Worker efficiency) so late in the game - considering the Deity workers had run out of jobs to do 2000 years ago! It is a good addition for us, though, since our Greek Workers had so much jobs accumulated on their "to be completed" list.

Spoiler :

271. Having expelled Washington from its homeland South America, it was time to sign another peace treaty so we can extract Washington's gold once more...

Spoiler :

272. The demographic chart told us Washington was extremely low in soldiers. I am sure he only had 2-3 units left! And we were holding a huge technology advantage over them, too. Shame on the Washington AI! He owned the entire continent and he managed to technologically trail behind Wu Zetian, who only owned the worse 1/5 of North America.

Spoiler :

273. And here comes the THIRD warning from Gandhi. He probably had made little dolls of Alexander and stick needles through his eyes every night.

With three South American cities engulfed in flame, the Greek army shall return to North America and finish its conquest in a great clash between technology and India's sea of doom!

(to be continued...)