The ultimate challenge deity part II, Liz

[Duckweed]

You only have 5 cities and even the capital stops at ~size 10 in the Toku game. You situation in this game is way better.

 

[Dirk1302]

Short update until 1 AD.

Spoiler :

Captured Hurrian unlocking HE. I decide on the music race after all. No one has literature/drama yet.Trade for Poly (wouldn't normally do that but i'm in a hurry here). Self research lit/priesthood (so i can trade for monarchy) in 3 turns. Bren has lit now. With some science production i can get music in 5 turns. 1 AD it's in together with the ga. Bren is willing to give me meditation for it so it was very close after all.

bpt = ok at 180 bpt. I need to settle every reasonable city asap now. They'll pay for themselves immediately (ftm that is, foreign routes are depleted at some point). Maintenance is killing already despit the 6gpt from GM and some 35 gpt from resource trades. I think i'll need more markets and courthouses than normal as i won't be able to continue at 100% this game.

Techwise i need to read up on music. If Bren gets it will he trade it? If not i should go compass now hoping to trade music/compass for cs. If he does i can't count on this and cs immed might be best. I don't know when to start the ga now. I need civic switches soon to boost the empire and befriend others. But some of my cities aren't working too many tiles as of yet.

UOS could be a strong wonder in my situation. It would need many temples/monasteries which will probably profit from AP too somewhere in the future. Oxford won't be too difficult too with stone on this map. I'd be very good research wise in this case but troop production might be a tough so maybe i should plan for this early as in DW's warmonger thread.

 

[Fluxx]

I felt so sad to see that you never saved the 2x crab, 2x silver, 2x fur 1x corn start

Sigh

well good luck with this game

 

[Dirk1302]

That one's gone forever i fear.

 

[Sleepless]

@Dirk1302

Good to see some of these old threads revived. I can remember just losing out on the GLh and giving up in this one. Might have more of a chance now (though I doubt it ).

I'd definitely fancy a win in the Hattie one this time though, much easier than this one.

 

[Dirk1302]

Liz's revenge continued to 880 AD.

Spoiler :

Begin building a sizable worker stack as i'd like to have everything improved before 1000 AD. I'm not going to build a single cottage, i'll farm/shop/mill everything. As i hoped i can trade music for CS 100 ad. Start my GA and switch to HR,BR,SL,OR. Research is set to paper->education. Build UOS in capital. After edu i self research guilds-> banking. I trade for machinery optics very early so i meet Gilg and Ghandi around 500 AD. These 2 are very backward and share a very nice island.

Forced to win lib race around 800 AD (could have won it earlier) and take rp.Build Oxford 840 AD, 860 AD i win the economics race. I didn't bulb anything as i just have no gpp base despite being philo. So i'll just get some merchants and these'll be used on TM's.

Despite no cottages i have great research now, GLH is really a beast of a wonder, at least on this map. Unfortunately Sulei is growing very big again and he matches my research speed. I only have RP on him so i don't think i can take him on anytime soon. I think i'll need to pick someone else first, the Gilg/Ghandi island looks very appealing.

Since i was busy building unis i haven't build so much hindu monasteries/temples. I have to catch on this now as each building produces 2 beakers/2 hammers now. Once this is finished i'll begin to build troops.

The plan from here is to research straight to combustion, flight. I'll be able trade sp/steel/railroad for sm/comm/physics at least. I'll build cavs/airships/galleons/frigates. A lot of Gilga/Ghandi cities are coastal so i plan to bombard with frigates or destroyers(depends) Cavs shouldn't have too may problems once cultural defence is gone. I'll use airships to soften interior defenses.

My lands

Future property (hopefully)

The others

Tech ea

This is going to be a long game.

Save is just a 3.19 save. Don't know how i did this as i begun playing with 3.17 and i thought 3.17 saves were not readable in 3.19. The reverse applies, this save isn't readable in 3.17.

 

[Dirk1302]

Not much comments but i can see there's some interest in this game, we''ll continue our mission until the year of 1340 AD.

Spoiler :

In my last save i had almost all the research modifiers except UOS/AP buildings installed. So i researched on at 800 bpt average. very good at first as i build up a rather big techlead along the SP->-RR->CB line. Backtrade this for things like SM, physics and communism. 1340 AD i have run out of steam in this respect, Sulei has overtaken me and he will be out of sight soon techwise.

Proceeded as planned, have just declared on Gilg, my force is more impressive than visible in this screenshot.Transports are so fast that i decide to bring in the cavs in 2 waves. 20 cavs are ready to attack Uruk this turn. 4 destroyers have bombarded defense to 0. On the background i have 13 cavs waiting and 4 airships. Can't use airships now as Gilg and Ghandi have ob. Once i have Uruk the first 4 airships will be stationed there, once i'll take my second city 4 further airships will be installed there.

In the meantime Louis has converted to confu, this'll make my task that much more difficult. Sulei will have none of this, he goes wheoohrn before i even have time to redirect spypoints on Louis intending to convert him back. He's sure to attack Louis now and i don't have anything left to bribe him to peace again. He's already big (french Chehalis has flipped to him), he'll have 20+ cities after war with Louis. More and more it comes back to me now why this game was so difficult. Still i'm in a solid position myself so nothing's lost yet, the game's just beginning.

 

[Ignorant Teacher]

^

Spoiler :

Sully's gonna crush Louie. He's already got AL and Louie doesn't. Same thing goes with Combu and there's also Brennus.

 

[Duckweed]

Not much comments but i can see there's some interest in this game, we''ll continue our mission until the year of 1340 AD.

I have more interest to see your play of the DIE game or the abandoned SG deity game of Cathy with isolated start -- looking forward to see why you think isolated start is easy.

 

[Dirk1302]

I see what you mean. I don't think a cav/bomber combo is on against Sulei as he'll be flying around with gunships and the like. I will have > 20 cities myself though after Gilg/Ghandi are mine. Human player can in my experience always win the game with so many cities by teching to laser and build a > 100 unit stack, also if the ai to be fought has > 20 cities itself, well possible on this map. Collateral doesn't have much effect on these sort of stacks, sure the ai sacrifices some 10-20 MA's on it but this doesn't hurt much. If ai MA is gone it's just steamrolling.

 

[Olodune]

@Dirk1302

Spoiler :

I agree that once you take the Sumerian/Indian lands you should be fine against Suleiman (not that it would be trivial). I'm still curious to see how the island takeover goes. Have you scouted Gilgamesh enough to know his main force is in Uruk?

 

[Dirk1302]

^

Spoiler :

Actually no, but it doesn't matter that much, in the field cavs are twice as strong as any unit Gilg can field. Pikes are the exception but Gilg will never massively attack my cav stack with loads of pike. One cav with shock already laughs hard at those pikes. The problem with cavs is to dislodge the defensive units in a city, they reign supreme in open field.

With cannons/muskets for instance the opposite is true, reigns supreme once attacking a city but very vulnerable stack in field.

 

[Dirk1302]

Until the end 1904 AD,

Spoiler :

Took over the whole Sumerian/Indian island without too much trouble. Sumeria took some time as i lost some units on is inland cities. Bombarding the coast makes these cities easy. When i got to Ghandi i had fighters and this was really a blitzkrieg. Had to bribe Sulei to peace though before he actually took cities from Ghandi. Sulei is now at Louis's throat before i had enough spypoints to convert Louis back. So we got into an endgame where i had 26 cities and Sulei 22. Researched all the war techs for the grand finale and built a 120 unit stack backed up by jet fighters and stealth bombers. Sulei was really strong, He attacked with lots of stealth bombers,then smashed a lot of MA on my stack. It has so many units that i always have enough healthy defenders left. From there on it's a slow steamroll as Sulei has many units left. Win domination 1904 AD, Liz took her revenge. I think we actually overestimated difficulty degree of this map, i'd now rate it 6 on a scale from 1-10, 10 being hardest. The first Duckweed warmonger game is more difficult for sure.

 

[bestsss]

Great game, Dirk.
Gratz!

 

[Dirk1302]

Thx bestsss

 

[Ignorant Teacher]

Really good Dirk! Congratulations on your win!

Spoiler :

(If you say that map is difficulty 6 and you're up for a challenge, why don't you play King of the Hill 2?)

 

[Duckweed]

^ Some deity games are called impossible. You're generally defeated if you involve in 2 wars in the same early on without help.

 

[DMOC]

Don't worry everyone, I have an old map that my brother made for me which has Mansa, Elizabeth, Gandhi, and Darius on one continent and you starting on a continent with Sitting Bull, Tokugawa, and Montezuma. You're Huayna Capac with a great start, but is winning possible?

I can give you the saves if you're really up to the challenge. The University of Sankore was built in 500 BC. I've only played up to 1AD, but I'd rate the map as 9/10 or 10/10 in terms of difficulty.

 

[Dirk1302]

Yes, put it up. See how it goes.I could also play King of the hill II as IT suggested but i like games where there's at least a chance for peace more as i like diplo and trading.

 

[DMOC]

I put it up. I'm a little worried that it might be too challenging, actually. I lost. No surprise.