Tricky start (imo) I have struggled with - little help?

[Gumbolt]

I think you jumped quickly to turn 192. Not sure what you did to grab the captured Russian cities. I assume Beserkers and catapults? However Russians had knights and elephants? Lots of unknowns here with no save.

Looks like you took Oracle and Monarchy.

Your city count is double your closest rival. So you should not be losing this now.

A slower approach would of helped you learn more here.

 

[sampsa]

I think the map served it's purpose.

 

[Build2Much]

@Gumbolt I took notes but just felt that part was overkill - not sure if you saw or not but I replayed the T51-T94 section (the Barb attack and road to Monarchy). In neither version did I get the Oracle, and I was actually still missing Writing in v2 but that was a much better position - I had been able to keep settling cities up the river all the way to Crab & Silver during that time and had 8 up and running with double the cottages the second time through. A wise player had told me earlier in this thread that fogbusting with cities is always a better play

The next 100 turns was me continuing to settle towards Peter, razing a barb city and settling on coast instead (but losing a spot I wanted to Peter), Settling another city to box him in. Taking a final Barb city to put me at 14, scouting him out and realizing he had all his units way down south because he didn't like Wang Kon who settled 2 cities in Russian lands. I beat him to Engineering, had enough units and Cats, big whip of Trebs and went for it. Was pretty quick, he had left some forested hills about halfway into his territory and I was able to hit his stack with cats from there to soften him up, my reinforcements kept moving down and I made it to Moscow, which was the goal, although even getting halfway down would have been worth it because of the happiness resources that were there.

edit: Just looked it up to jog my memory - I built Longbows off some of the whips (and then Whipped longbows in captured cities) because he had so many hills available on my path and they protected my guys, plus had woodsman promotions on barb fighters. Lost 4 Berserkers on the way down, promoted 4 axes or swords to replace them. Most of my lost units were Cats in open field and then I threw a ton of Trebs at Moscow because I was almost out of Cats and I was ready to end the war.

My struggle on this map was getting to T100 in a good enough position. How I had tried to play it previously (and even my first time through turn 51-94 with help) I wasn't strong enough and fell behind. This time I had taken (and started developing) enough land.

 

[Build2Much]

So I had previously done one of these threads and while it was different (isolation that time) it was similar in that there was no happiness, barbs were an issue, and a financial leader (Hannibal) which is a combo that creates a starting environment I clearly struggle with a little bit still. The good news is that I'm much better at transitioning from the start to the later part of the game at this point and as we all know, it is tough to beat CR3 Amphibious Infantry hiding on boats with overwhelming air support. Game is almost over now.

Spoiler quick synopsis :

Ran the back-to-back GAs which fit perfectly together and reached State Property on T210, 1500AD. Teched my way to Flight and Infantry peacefully. There wound up being a 3rd GA in 1650AD because I couldn't help myself.

I prebuilt my navy of Galleons and Frigates to upgrade when the time came so I could concentrate on Carriers and Planes once I hit flight (1675AD).

I know this is not usually wise...but I actually skipped rifling intentionally and let Peter get it for me, traded for it 3 turns after I got flight.

Started teching towards tanks once I had fighters, reached Industrialism 3 turns after my short war with Zara.

War started 1755AD, ended 1785AD. Upgraded most of my Frigates>Destroyers but didn't bother with the Galleons. Had 12 full carriers of fighters and just went down the east coast, bombard with destroyers, bomb with fighters, kill units with CR3 Amphibious Infantry from the boats. I took only 1 city at the start that I could defend with guys from the mainland, kept leaving 1 guy in the other cities and moving on so I didn't have to leave my boats (and my Woodsman3 Medic3 GG who was hanging out there with them. When I reached Aksum I took that and Laibela on the same turn without a threat of a counter attack, which allowed for some movement and I could mop up the rest with Cavalry, Cuirs, Knights after hitting them with the planes.

Next up is Wang Kon once I have about 30 tanks to dump in Seoul (should just be a couple of turns, Moscow is 1 turning them and I'm building them in any city with good production). He has planes and infantry, should fall very quickly. His culture is strong, so I will wipe him off of his peninsula. After that we move to Hammurabi who doesn't have oil. I did just stop automating my workers, have a tedious turn coming up next where I will double check that biology isn't going to force any cities to grow into unhappiness, just to practice that.

And a couple photos if this is interesting to anyone following

Spoiler the pics :

Maybe finish by tomorrow, definitely by this weekend. Fun map, which I knew it should be, once I could get past the beginning.