TSG41 Game in Progress

[Nelson Minar]

Turn 100, going great. A string of good luck has allowed me to mostly conquer the Roman Empire. They still have Rome but I just agreed to a peace with them under punitive terms and like my chances.

Sheer luck here. I managed to take out a barbarian camp that made me allies with a bunch of city-states. So when Rome declared war, I had friends to help. Dido and Caesar got into a fight about then so even though there were Legions all over the place Rome was in trouble. My Golden Age popped then too. And I managed to get enough Cataphracts and ranged out to take over Antioch, which was built in the middle of all the gold. Rome almost took it back in 4 turns but I happened to just convert the city and had enough gold to buy Walls to hold him off. Great string of happy events and now suddenly I have more territory than I know what to do with.

Policies + Religious traits are all about culture and partying. Should be a fun time.

 

[flairin]

Turn 115...

I have conquered both Rome and Carthage!!

I have 7 cities (3 are mine and have four puppets). I burnt down one of Rome's cities and kept all from Carthage. My mistake is that I should have burnt down the last one from Carthage cause I'm at 8 unhappiness. Haven't explored to see if there are any close islands. Another mistake... I should have built my 3rd city on the coast ... 3 puppet cities on the coast does no good but at least pearls were already connected in Carthage!!

I picked Desert Folklore as Pantheon. I've got World Church, Cathedrals, and Goddess of Festivals so far for religion. Not producing much faith, only about 7 per turn. Have completed tradition but am not producing much culture either...only 13 per turn. Should double once I get to liberty

Turn 129... Completing Petra, opening up Liberty, and allying a city state jacked-up my culture output to 37. Oh, and my gold is at +50 per turn but now have 9 unhappiness

 

[deckerk]

Not really enjoying this one after GOTM 39 and 40. Thousands of years trapped on an island with a genocidal maniac is not much fun.

I had unintentionally played two culture games at emperor: one I lost to Alexander in diplomacy (I bought all the city states the turn of the vote but apparently the AI goes after you, so Alex bought them all back!!), the second I played OCC (I had a sweet spot in a corner that seemed easy to protect) and won.

This time I guessed (correctly) that I would not have such a nice OCC spot so I planned for 3 cities and a mixed liberty/tradition start. I settled 2nd city north near horses/wine/river around 40 and third city on the coast in the sheep hills (nice monster production city, that!) at 60. A little slow but stuck on an island with no one to trade with except Rome, as Dido is always broke and dies around turn 80. Everyone is Friendly.

Everything fairly smooth-- stonehenge, found Big Birdism at 90 with tithe, cathedrals, itinerant preachers. Got the Great Library, which I have never done at Emperor. Got Petra, HG.

At turn 123 Rome attacks. I easily take out the ground troops but then like 8 ballistas come over the mountain, and I temporarily lose Adrianople (North on river). I take it back only 5 turns later, but Caesar has gutted the city! Everything gone. Monument, library, granary, free amphitheater, free aquaduct, everything. I guess I did not know the AI destroyed the improvements. I take back Adrianople, and then take his city near the gold, and set up a defensive line along the mountains there and pick him off for 500 years.

He never offers peace, nor will he accept it. I use a few Great generals to set up citadels to secure that line, and also claim the sugar. He accepts my religion and I get a big bright green positive for it, but still no peace (really? in all my other games that has kept even Ghengis Kahn happy with me, living next door!)

He eventually gets gunpowder, so I stop culture teching and go back to military. Of course, no RAs, since there is no one on the island, no one to trade with! In retrospect I should have gone to astronomy earlier. Still destroy everything he sends at me. Still no peace.

Another 500 years he discovers the Navy. Sends a huge fleet up to the SheepHills (my only city on the water!). So I have to again bag everything and start researching navy tech. I defend with cannon on the south shore hills that fire at the ships as the go up the coast Eventually he figures to send a fleet from the NORTH, so that does a little damage but at that point I have teched up to frigates/privateers and I use the privateers to capture myself his entire fleet. I even get a free ironside, that I have not researched.

So thousands of years later I have like, cannon and crossbowman/gatling guns at LEVEL 7 (I have never seen!): march, range, logistics promotions. Still no peace. I've killed hundreds of his units but he's hardly killed anything of mine.

Now he has bombers, and is able to actually damage my level 7 units. I don't see any alternative except to tech up to flight and antiaircraft, so again leaving culture. My cities spend all time now in science and not culture generation. Game is VERY slow each turn since the constant war requires constant counterattacks, healing, swapping tired units out, this is what is not so much fun (I mean, yes, a war for 50 turns but it's been over 250 turns now of constant war...) Not sure I am going to finish--- experience says I might only have another 60 turns until someone goes for diplo or space victory, and I am way behind what I was even with the Alexander game; I need at least 8 more policies and I'm spending time generating science and building war units, not culture...

Lesson learned? I guess that Caesar is not like Monty or Ghengis and can't be tamed with a religion or beating him up, I should have just switched to straight dominate mode until he's dead (or maybe one city? Seems like some people have him tamed at one city)

 

[tommynt]

why d you not just kill a civ anyoing you?
Or at least take1 city to make him make peace.

You talk even about Zitadels - with them its like taking babies candy to take a city - just plant then offensivly.
Also Ai dont raze buildings - its just that like 1/3 of buildings get lost when a city is conquered

 

[flairin]

Lesson learned? I guess that Caesar is not like Monty or Ghengis and can't be tamed with a religion or beating him up, I should have just switched to straight dominate mode until he's dead (or maybe one city? Seems like some people have him tamed at one city)

I destroyed him pretty easily... burnt down his second city, then marched to Rome and sacked it within a few turns. The trick here was that I first puppeted Dido's second city, sued for peace, let Rome go after Carthage for a few turns so his army was weakened. Then at the right moment I blitzed Rome's beleaguered Legions.

On turn 109 I was in position to start the offensive against Carthage again (had to once again move my troops from Rome to the outskirts of Carthage which took a few turns). By turn 116 I had both her remaining cities.

On my second try of the game (starting from save file on turn 109) I got a culture victory on turn 366, producing about 950 CPT with 4 puppets and 3 proper cities. I abandoned my first attempt since I went rationalism and was only producing 400 CPT on turn 280 so I didn't see the point. I also made the mistake of annexing Rome and founding a 5th city on the small Island south of Constantinople (with wine and Ivory)

 

[scaramonga]

Not really enjoying this one after GOTM 39 and 40. Thousands of years trapped on an island with a genocidal maniac is not much fun.

Yup. Utter nonsense this continual 'spamming' of units and cities at this level. I went to try trade with him (before his genocide 'take over the whole planet kicked in') and he had no gold, 2 turns later I tried to do the same, and he suddenly has 2048 gold?? He must be making a fair packet off they 3 cities he has, or selling at a rate no one can keep up with? I'm at turn 119 and allied with, Brussels, Jakarta and Rio DE Janeiro, all at war with him of course, but he's spamming units everywhere and attacking each and every one, including my 3 cities. Were all holding him off, but its a never ending spam fest, so really, pointless in the long run I guess, unless you get lucky lol

Oh, and I decided to go searching for other Civ's to trade with (kinda stuck after Dido goes, and she does, pretty rapidly) and met Singapore, and guess what? Yup, his ships were there also, fighting the ever regular spawning pirate ones

Just ain't realistic at all at this level, and yes, correct, no fun!


I love playing poker, for example, but not when the deck is stacked in ones favour

 

[scaramonga]

In saying that, lol, this map is pretty tough, as in, lots of rough and desert terrain, with only you and 2 other Civ's (ROME being one of them, unfortunately). I guess I'm being a little harsh? Dunno?

 

[tommynt]

actually land is perfect for 4 nice citiies, and its just made to make good use of Petra.
This whine and insc and maybe desert make cult win more easy with the right religion.

And fighting ai it this lvl really isnt THAT hard, just get like7 (more if u really want - cant never have too many archers) unnits (3 bow 1 siege, 2 horse 1 melee) suround a city spot (dont go that close that city can shoot you) - take out his units for 1-3 turns with hurting them with horse and killing of with ranged - advance to city, heal fortify or pull back the unit which gets hurt by city and attack it with other - city is yours ...

heal for 2 turns - repeat ...

you dont have to be like rocket scientist clever to do that, as said if you add a citadel plant right at his city spot in its like stealing candies.

The gold he got as bribe for being a nice guy from an other ai - maybe you should have tried to meet them 1. to trade with them

 

[Arnold_T]

At T151 and doing pretty well I think. I settle in place, and settled my second city pretty close to where Tabarbak put his (just on the other side of the river though). Rome DoWed Carthage before me so I settled a third city quickly and I figured I'd want a coastal city for boats and SOH, so I settled my third city on the sheep north of the pearls and fish before Carthage could get there with a settler. also bought up the land north to snatch the sugar. so the site has three luxes (sugar, marble and pearls).
The hammers are pretty good there since it's in range of the marble and stone, and there are three hills. buildings like the Stable to get more hammers out of the sheep and cows, and Stone Works to get more hammers out of the rocks in the grasslands help a lot. Due to defence priotities vs Rome I was a little slow getting my fourth city set up to the west in the sheep/hills dessert area, but was really pleased to manage to get Petra there atound T133! After playing Boudicia last GTOM I was a little annoyed to see how slow my Faith was coming along this game, so I got impatient and built Stonehenge as my first Wonder in my Capital (thinking that would mean I would miss the Great Library), but the Great Library didn't go early so I decided to take a run for it too, and managed to get it around turn 70 or 80. I missed getting Colossus by about 7 turns in my coastal city, but ended up builing the great Mosque there. got oracle in my second city so the 33% bonus for wonders in all cities is kicking. I got really lucky with quests from the city States this game. there was one Barb Camp that I took out that pleased three of them simultaneously!

Rome took the Utique (sp?) city from Carthage, but then I took it from Rome, so I have one puppet now, and have been trying to get Antium from Rome, but he keeps sending ballistas and Legions at me to push me back. I think I may have to wait for Knights, Trebuchets, etc.

For SPs I went Tradition opener, then Liberty to get to the free settler, then Aristorcacy to get the wonder building boost, then finished Liberty to get a free Great Artist (which I settled in the Capital, then opened Piety, then took Legalism when it would get me four free Opera Houses. don't know if this is better than Tab's all tradition opener or not, since my city growth is definately slower, and my science seems a little low. but got lots of shrines, temples, ampitheatres, Opera Houses, monastaries, mosques going, and adding cathedrals soon.

I think this game could be good if I can manage to take Caesar down another notch.

 

[Glassmage]

Cool games everyone!

 

[Ribannah]

Turns 0-100


The highlights of the early Byzantine rule.

Turn 13
We meet Rome and pop a tech from a ruins. Could it be - could it be ...? No, it is Sailing, and we are not on the coast.

Turns 75-76
Rome approaches and declares. They have many Legions. We buy two Archers in Nicaea and hope for the best.

Turn 82
The AI completes the Hanging Gardens.

Turns 87-88
Carthage, prevously friendly, denounces and attacks, just as the Roman lines are thinning.


Still, we stick to the plan, which is all-out Tradition, then Piety. Constantinople, with no less than 5 Wines within the city radius, starts with a Worker. We are going for free Monuments, rather than free Broadcast Towers later on! The policy is on the way to better ones. Later, the capital builds Stonehenge, Great Library, National College and Oracle, in that order.

Adrianople, also on a river hill, overlooks the vast desert, thinking it fertile. After all, it has Petra. Even without Hanging Gardens, this is going to be a powerhouse.

Nicaea in the east just completed the Terracotta Army and will claim three different luxuries.

And finally there is Antioch in the south, our one coastal city with Pearls. Recently it began work on the Colossus. It was tough to get there with lots of barbarians in the jungle, but we figured we needed one more city.

The good news is that all cities have Aqueducts since turn 76 and that we drove back the invaders. Our archers are now well-promoted Composite Bowmen and kill everything that moves.
Carthage gave up, but Rome is still at it.
A Missionary just brought our religion to Adrianople and now the true faith is booming.
Last turn our first Golden Age began, without Chichen Itza, Oh, well.


Cities
1 Constantinople (5x Wine, Ivory, Horses, Iron)
40 Adrianople (Incense)
47 Nicaea (Marble, Gold, Sugar)
63 Antioch (2x Pearls)

Size at turn 100: 15, 9, 7, 9 (40 pop).


Policies
8 Tradition
15 Legalism
22 Landed Elite
40 Aristocracy
59 Monarchy
76 Oligarchy
99 Piety
99 Mandate of Heaven (Oracle)

Religion
43 Goddess of Festivals
77 Tithe, Cathedrals, Desert Folklore

Builds

Spoiler :

Constantinople
11 Worker
15 Monument (policy)
19 Granary; Worker 310g
24 Shrine
27 Scout
33 Worker 310g
35 Settler
43 Settler
52 Settler
62 STONEHENGE
67 Water Mill
76 Aqueduct (tree)
77 GREAT LIBRARY, Great Prophet
88 NATIONAL COLLEGE
92 Missionary
99 ORACLE

Adrianople
40 Monument (policy)
53 Granary
60 Shrine
68 Water Mill
76 Library; Aqueduct (policy)
91 PETRA
95 Christianity (missionary)
96 Stable

Nicaea
47 Monument (policy)
60 Granary
73 Library
75 Archer 200g
76 Aqueduct (tree); Archer 200g
84 Stone Works
100 TERRACOTTA ARMY

Antioch
63 Monument (policy); Worker 310g; Workboat 240g
76 Aqueduct (tree)
77 Library 400g
80 Granary
90 Lighthouse
97 Workboat

Technology
9 Pottery
13 Sailing (ruins)
21 Calendar
27 Animal Husbandry
35 Trapping
43 Writing
48 Mining
53 Masonry
56 Archery
60 The Wheel
67 Mathematics
76 Currency
77 Philosophy (GL)
78 Optics
81 Construction
86 Drama & Poetry
87 Bronze Working
89 Horseback Riding
93 Civil Service
96 Iron Working
98 Engineering

 

[Resonance]

My first try on a TSG as well. I am now on turn 202 and doing quite well. I chose a different way to go than most it seems. My initial policy tree was liberty, followed up by patronage. I am allied to every city state on the map.

I started with a worker, but found a pop ruin turn 3 and 5 - changed build to settler and settled my second city turn 15.

All in all I went for a 3 city play. I got petra on my desert city, lost CI by 3 turns and nevery tried for terracotta army or alhambra. By now I have a comfortable tech lead, and took 3 cities form caesar so far. I will detour a bit for the military techs to overun Rome and proceed with a puppet empire from there.

My five trees are: tradition, liberty, patronage, rationalism and freedom.

( I would like to upload some screens but I do not have software to compile the screenshots. Any recommendations?)

 

[Ribannah]

On turn 132, Constantinople produces a Great Artist, a Great Engineer and a Great Scientist simultaneously. We make a Landmark and an Academy. The Great Engineer is saved for later.

Made a key decision on turn 153, to settle a fifth city at the two Wines on the City State island south of us. Perhaps it delayed victory by a few turns, but it is fun seeing Varna grow at record speed.

Exploration went quikcly with our +2 vision Scout and a Caravel. The last rival we met was France. They have a large army of Pikes but improved hardly any tiles. Isn't this supposed to be emperor difficulty?

Income is fantastic thanks to Tithe, with our religion spread by Djenne-empowered Missionaries far and wide, a favourable peace deal with Rome, and trade with all the AI. The cultural CS's have allied with us. Eventually, we intend to ally with all City States to profit from Scholasticism.

Obviously, Constantinople remains the cultural centre, but Adrianople has far outgrown the capital in production and is the designated Utopia location.

All five cities have a Cathedral and a Monastery.


Cities
1 Constantinople (5x Wine, Ivory, Horses, Iron)
40 Adrianople (Incense)
47 Nicaea (Marble, Gold, Sugar)
63 Antioch (2x Pearls)
157 Varna (2x Wine, Ivory)

Size at turn 160: 24, 20, 13, 16, 3 (76 pop).


Policies
112 Organized Religion
125 Reformation
132 Religious Tolerance
137 Theocracy
144 Patronage
151 Philanthropy
159 Scholasticism

Religion
113 Monasteries, Religious Texts

Wonders
102 PYRAMIDS (Adrianople)
111 COLOSSUS (Antioch)
113 CHICHEN ITZA (Constantinople)
113 HAGIA SOPHIA (Adrianople)
128 SISTINE CHAPEL (Adrianople)
135 GREAT MOSQUE OF DJENNE (Constantinople)
138 IRONWORKS (Adrianople)
144 NOTRE DAME (Adrianople)
147 MACHU PICCHU (Nicaea)
149 ALHAMBRA (Constantinople)
151 FORBIDDEN PALACE (Adrianople)
157 HERMITAGE (Constantinople)
160 NATIONAL EPIC (Constantinople)
160 PORCELAIN TOWER (Adrianople)


Technology
102 Metal Casting
105 Theology
110 Education
117 Acoustics
122 Compass
127 Astronomy
133 Machinery
136 Physics
139 Chivalry
143 Banking
150 Architecture
156 Navigation

 

[Ferchalurch]

I'm at about 100 AD, not sure what turn but in the lower hundreds, I think. Have only built two cities, trying to capitalize on the lower culture requirements for policies for as long as I can. The first is on the far hill, so that I could have as much vino as possible. The second city is down by the ocean, so I can use Byzantium's awesome Dragoons a bit.

Built up a strong army of archers and now composite bowman to keep Augustus at bay.

Ol' Octavian moved his troops in on me pretty early, but I kept the giant area of forests open so that I'd have a nice defensive buffer between Dido and Caesar. Worked really well—I saw Augustus moving his warriors in on me and was able to pull off enough maneuvering to make his army completely ineffective by the time he got around to DOWing me.

He and Dido don't really get along. They were at war within the first 50 turns. I allied Dido, after Augustus got all pissy and hostile toward me. She hasn't stabbed me in the back yet, but I've never had a game where Dido didn't betray me.

Brussels is my BFF and has already given me whales. I missed the Great Library, because I put it off too long, but snagged the Oracle. Religiously, I went with Desert Folk, +1 gold per 4 followers, Cathedrals, and Vino and Incense bonus. Should be fun.

 

[tomaalimosh]

Wow. This map was made for Petra. settled third city on the hill in the middle of the sheep hills in the northwest, and rushed Petra with the liberty engineer. Has access to 2 fish tiles, made the colossus too, because it now has some mad stats. the river hill mines have 1 food and 2 gold and 4 prod, and the 3 sheep hills have 3 food, 4 prod and 2 gold. It's insane!

 

[Aznable]

First Emperor game. Just started a bit late to the game, settled across the river SW after finding the coast. Decided to get the God of the Festivals pantheon. Dido DoW'ed early, repealed her after Rome declared on Carthage. Rome DoW'ed turn 93 or so, right after I built my second city in the north for more wine.

Going to try 3 cities, 3rd in the forest with the Marble. Rome is going to be Hostile most of the game I'm sure, and I'm sad that I won't have a coastal city, so trading will be small. If Brussels wasn't a Culture CS, I'd be really tempted to take it.

 

[Maxym]

Fighting Rome since T70, repulsed first legion/ballista wave around my 2nd city next to lake and three gold. I figured he will be a pain so I took it and both him and Dido did not like it a bit. Fortunately Dido settled Utica just north of Carthage towards him and he went or her first leaving Carthage as the only city until now. He has not entertained any serious peace offers so we keep fighting. I have 3 comps and a SM, now a cap and two cataphracts are coming to allow me to counter attack effectively. I took Utica from Rome three times now but each time it's retaken within few turns. Lost Yerwvan to him as well just after I paid 500 for their alliance

Got 4 cities now, other two , one on desert with sheep and Petra and one south in jungle with two pearls. Culture is slow in coming as I was beat to two pantheons and one religion and monasteries were gone. Should have taken tithe instead ceremonial burial. I have no worries now even though Octavian is ahead in military tech and keeps stealing other ones.

 

[AE_]

This is my first GOTM, so to goal is to just get trough it alive. It has been a while since I played for a Culture victory, and I have never done it without France, so I don't have any high expectation on a good result.

My tactics from the start was to play a peaceful game with four cities and I wanted to get NC and Representation before building my second city. Other than that I had no real tactics for the game.

Turn 1-60:
Most things goes according to plan, I sell my first wine resources and the elephants to the neighbors. I find barbarian encampments close to Brussels and Quebec and let them live in hope for a quest. I finish GL around turn 45 and NC 10-15 turns later. Brussels wants me to kill the barbs and they become my ally. My first policy is the Tradition starter, and then I go strait for Representation. I save some money to be able to buy monuments in my future cities. My pantheon is the one that gives culture and faith bonus from whine.

Turn 60-120:
I wan't rapid expansion now, so I build two settlers directly after NC and get one from policy. The Romans starts to look angry but i hope for peace and Dido is still my friend. I settle my second city to the east, and some turns later Dido builds a city next to the sugar and DoW me. My very small army is occupied on killing barbs for Quebec and I only have one warrior at the front, but it still looks ok since I have a very strong defensive position and my barb "army" (1 warrior and 1 archer ) arrive in time to handle the situation. I also settle two more cities, one to the west and one in the south. I buy monuments for the new cities and grab Legalism for free temples.

This is where things starts to go bad. Rome DoW me, and have my capital surrounded for a while since my "army" is occupied with Dido. It forces me to build a lot more units than I wan't to, and i must take a GG from finishing Liberty. Also a civ founds a religion 2 turns ahead of me and steal my monasteries. The war with Dido is soon over, but Rome defies peace despite being screened of from my lands by a new city built by Dido. I make a mistake peace with Rome (by pushing the wrong button), which puts me in unhappiness for 15 turns and forces me to build colosseums. My economy is really bad from not being able to trade with my neighbors and a costly peace, so I can't afford to stay ally with the two culture CS. At least I manage to build some wonders during this time: Petra to the west, Pyramid and Oracle in capital and Stonehenge to the east.

Turn 120-180:
I start to trade again, both with my neighbors and with some new friends I find after researching astronomy. I manage to ally most CS on the continent both with money and by completing quests. My economy is really good since the entire continents is following my religion and I Have the belief which gives me gold for every fourth religious citizen. During this time of peace my cities grow fast and I manage to finish some more wonders: Sistine Chapel, The Hagia Sophia and The Hanging Gardens.

I finish Tradition and go for Piety. Dido try a second war with me, but it is short and does no real damage.

This is the current state of the game at turn 183:

Spoiler :

I am currently exploring to try and find more CS with culture. I am also building Hermitage and will soon go for porcelain tower for faster discovery of Archaeology with GS. I am quite happy with my position now, but would have liked to arrive at this point 20 or 30 turns ago. To only thing that worries me is that Rome has just killed Dido and maybe starts looking west...

 

[luniz]

Got off to a good start with four cities. Rome declared early and then declared on Carthage and I had to defend stupid Dido because she sucks. Rome is rolling out unbelievable amounts of units turn after turn and won't give peace even though he is falling behind. And then he steals two techs back to back turns even though I have a spy at home and gets Jakarta as an ally. I don't really see how you could win this map, Rome will just drag you down in a war all game and let somebody else win, standard emperor AI tactics.