TSG21 Game in Progress

[killerloop]

I just finished this (in the end quite) tedious game. Here my notes till turn 115.

I settled on the silver mountain. Build scout, temple, warrior, granary, GLib (t43)
my 1st 3 huts I popped were cult, AH and pop, I don't recall in what order. After that I popped a barb location and an upgrade.
When I got my early settler I didn't find any luxes yet, so I scouted down till I saw the ivory. I wanted to settle next to it, but had to move back because of the CS! That the sugar also felt in the 3-ring I only found out much later (there was a barbcamp NE of it), but the whole game I didn't hook it up as I didn't want to spent the 350 gold to get the tile.

With Glib I bulbed Iron and upgraded my 2 warriors to take on India, which I captured and erased on turn 57. My army went on to Ottomans where I captured the Capital on t72 for a peace with all his gold + Bursa. I then moved on to persia but got stuck in the woods.

Picture of turn 50

Spoiler :

Delhi hooked up the 2 additional iron there, and with two additional swords and a couple of WC's I moved to the east and took on Arabia (t93) and Genghis (t105). At turn 87 I reached Steel so I had LSM's. When I took Genghis I had 5 LSM there.

Delhi build a settler and settled on the 6 iron. So I build an LSM in Delhi and Otto's capital to take on Persia. Persia's Capital fell on turn 113 so 2 capitals to go.......only??

I thought things would go easy from here, as on turn 115 I had 14 LSM's and 3 GG's. 4 in Persia that I didn't need anymore (I thought!), 5 on it's way to the romans and 5 underway to Alex....

picture at turn 115

Spoiler :

BTW, I also build the Great Wall myself to not have to fight this one!

the rest will follow in the after action thread

 

[QuizMan]

T165 and there may be trouble ahead

I have not had much time for this because of other commitments. Until now, I have been pleased with progress being someone that struggles beyond prince. I have taken the cities of Gandhi, Genghis and Augustus in that order (Rome had loads of wonders including GW and PT). I have just started on Darius. Harun and Sully will be easy.

However, Greece has just overtaken me as military #1. I have rather left my front door poorly defended while tackling Darius via my back door. Alex has just DOWed me and has arrived with many troops. Thankfully my capital is well placed to defend having a tile between in and the river that he is attacking across. So far I have seen nothing worse that cats, swords and one knight against my cannon, LS and archer plus one war chariot (don't laugh) that is highly promoted and is a useful sniper. Hopefully I can hold out while I get some more reinforcements built/purchased.

I was hoping Harun would be a buffer. I do not even know where Alex is situated as my east bound scout got mauled. That wasn't my finest hour.

 

[ElWanderer]

I've not played at immortal level before. I've never really gone out for a domination win from the beginning before either - my gameplay is more suited to quick teching. So this has turned into a right slog and I can't see myself finishing in time, unless maybe I go for a different victory condition.

Turn 175 and I'm about to capture a capital (Karakorum) at last, unless the constant waves of keshiks whittle down my riflemen too much. In this push I've lost three pikemen already; I'd love to have been able to upgrade them all to rifles beforehand but I just don't have the money. I am just about first in science, but way behind in most other aspects - I think my largest city is size 11, whereas Mecca is size 21. It's like I'm playing a completely different game to the AI, and to be honest it's not particularly enjoyable.

Historical events:
I settled on the riverside silver so I'd have an early luxury sale opportunity.
I didn't go for the Great Library early, on the grounds that I should avoid such luxuries. Ended up building it anyway after no one else did.
Caesar signed a research agreement with me on turn 58, then declared war five turns later.
I settled three additional cities then hit Legalism to get four free burial chambers.
Khan declared war on India, then shortly after declared war on me and Arabia in the same turn.
Because of the AI advantage in numbers, it took ~100 turns before either Caesar or Khan would make sensible peace offers. A few turns ago, I took a straight peace deal with Rome to focus on Mongolia.

I did build a war chariot but couldn't really see the point - it can move very quickly then shoot, at which point it's incredibly vulnerable to being counter-attacked by whatever you shot at. Somehow, I managed to keep mine alive and upgrade it to a knight.

 

[Mazer Rackham]

I can't see myself finishing in time, unless maybe I go for a different victory condition.

Turn 175 and I'm about to capture a capital (Karakorum) at last, unless the constant waves of keshiks whittle down my riflemen too much. In this push I've lost three pikemen already; I'd love to have been able to upgrade them all to rifles beforehand but I just don't have the money. I am just about first in science, but way behind in most other aspects - I think my largest city is size 11, whereas Mecca is size 21. It's like I'm playing a completely different game to the AI, and to be honest it's not particularly enjoyable.

It's ok (and quite normal) to be way behind in the population demographics in Immortal. If you are on par with tech at this stage, you should be in winnable shape. After you take Karakorum, hopefully you can get a nice peace deal from Genghis. This will enable you to finish your upgrades to Rifles and you can roll on to the next target.

At turn 175, you'll probably start encountering other rifles soon. I would purposefully tech towards Dynamite ASAP with RAs, GS Bulbs, etc. because I think you are going to need Artillery to finish the map.

Historical events:
I settled on the riverside silver so I'd have an early luxury sale opportunity.
I didn't go for the Great Library early, on the grounds that I should avoid such luxuries. Ended up building it anyway after no one else did.
Caesar signed a research agreement with me on turn 58, then declared war five turns later.
I settled three additional cities then hit Legalism to get four free burial chambers.
Khan declared war on India, then shortly after declared war on me and Arabia in the same turn.
Because of the AI advantage in numbers, it took ~100 turns before either Caesar or Khan would make sensible peace offers. A few turns ago, I took a straight peace deal with Rome to focus on Mongolia.

I did build a war chariot but couldn't really see the point - it can move very quickly then shoot, at which point it's incredibly vulnerable to being counter-attacked by whatever you shot at. Somehow, I managed to keep mine alive and upgrade it to a knight.

I didn't build a single war chariot either. I really hate UUs that lose all their promotions when they upgrade. Wish they would implement an alternative to this - some have been proposed on these forums.

The players who sped through this GotM focused on war a lot earlier. They sent out a war party of swords and archers. I even took out Delhi with 2 warriors and archers.

But your game seems to be in good shape for a win. Don't worry about the AI city sizes - they have some kind of magic food on the higher levels and this is common. Since you are used to going for quick science, you probably have the infrastructure to get to Artillery fast and should really roll after that.

 

[ElWanderer]

*Useful stuff*

Cheers

Yeah, from reading this thread it became quite clear I'd not angled myself anything like as much towards early fighting as I should have. Still, it does look like I should win. The problem is it might not be until sometime next month; I don't get much time to play these days, and I'm a slooooooooow player at the best of times.

I seem to be heading for public schools at the moment. With two research agreements about to pop, I really ought to look at beelining dynamite instead.

I even took out Delhi with 2 warriors and archers.

Crikey.

Edit: played on two turns, captured Karakorum (with Hanging Gardens... pity the luxuries are copies of ones I already have) and idly clicked on Genghis to see what he'd offer for peace. ~500 gold, 89gpt, 4 luxuries and 2 cities. Crikey again. Will have to work out which cities I would take (one he's offered is a captured city state, I presume I could liberate it) and hammer out a deal next time I get the chance to play.