After Actions Thread
TSG_216 After Actions Thread
- Thread starter aafritz17
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fiddlesticks
russia is a terrorist state. Visit u24.gov.ua
Thanks for a fun scenario. I'd never tried a late start, and it made for a unique game. The initial rush for wonders was fun. Here's the ups and downs of my Napoleonic war.
The plan from the get-go was to go domination. I explored a bit before settling, and delayed settling Orleans because I wanted Paris to be set up well for building Petra. Chopping the trees for cocoa and iron helped speed that up.
Paris build order focused on Petra, granary, library, workshop, university.
Orleans was lighthouse, Hanging Gardens, granary, library. I lost out on Oracle and a few other wonders by a few turns.
Science was metal casting -> education -> dynamite (artillery)
My initial attempt at stealing a Moroccan worker was a fiasco, but I made up for it later by stealing several from Sofia.
I set up the conquest of Morocco by buying tiles in trebuchet range. Two trebuchets and two musketeers took care of Marrakech easily. It was recaptured once and helpfully got the population down to 1.
I upgraded trebuchets to cannons before sailing over to attach Monty. He had the Great Wall, but it wasn't too problematic as there was still an unclaimed tile to set up on prior to DoW.
There was a slight pause in Tenochtitlan waiting for dynamite, then the army sailed west to Assur, which was helpfully already being besieged by Shaka. That was an easy take. Unfortunately, I got too hasty, and that same army failed at taking Ulundi. I forgot Impis get the extra movement point and got swarmed after one round of artillery bombardment. I retreated back to Valetta with what was left and waited for reinforcements.
Around the time of the Assur campaign, a second army failed in its first attempt at Stockholm. I attacked straight out of the sea and it went poorly. I had to retreat back to Orleans, build reinforcements, and try again, the second time by landing south of Helsinki and working up overland to Stockholm. That was a much better strategy. Even though Sweden's UU's were on the scene by then, 5-6 artillery took care of them quickly. Then that army circled down to Addis Ababa and took it without any issues.
As the Sweden campaign was going on, new troops (artillery and riflemen) slowly built up around Jakarta. After that fell, they sailed south to Ulundi for the second Zulu campaign. By this time, Napoleon was deep into autocracy and Assur bought a settler and 3 great war bombers to help with the final assault from their new base at Troyes. Ulundi fell on AD 1860 and Napoleon's victory was complete.
The plan from the get-go was to go domination. I explored a bit before settling, and delayed settling Orleans because I wanted Paris to be set up well for building Petra. Chopping the trees for cocoa and iron helped speed that up.
Paris build order focused on Petra, granary, library, workshop, university.
Orleans was lighthouse, Hanging Gardens, granary, library. I lost out on Oracle and a few other wonders by a few turns.
Science was metal casting -> education -> dynamite (artillery)
My initial attempt at stealing a Moroccan worker was a fiasco, but I made up for it later by stealing several from Sofia.
I set up the conquest of Morocco by buying tiles in trebuchet range. Two trebuchets and two musketeers took care of Marrakech easily. It was recaptured once and helpfully got the population down to 1.
I upgraded trebuchets to cannons before sailing over to attach Monty. He had the Great Wall, but it wasn't too problematic as there was still an unclaimed tile to set up on prior to DoW.
There was a slight pause in Tenochtitlan waiting for dynamite, then the army sailed west to Assur, which was helpfully already being besieged by Shaka. That was an easy take. Unfortunately, I got too hasty, and that same army failed at taking Ulundi. I forgot Impis get the extra movement point and got swarmed after one round of artillery bombardment. I retreated back to Valetta with what was left and waited for reinforcements.
Around the time of the Assur campaign, a second army failed in its first attempt at Stockholm. I attacked straight out of the sea and it went poorly. I had to retreat back to Orleans, build reinforcements, and try again, the second time by landing south of Helsinki and working up overland to Stockholm. That was a much better strategy. Even though Sweden's UU's were on the scene by then, 5-6 artillery took care of them quickly. Then that army circled down to Addis Ababa and took it without any issues.
As the Sweden campaign was going on, new troops (artillery and riflemen) slowly built up around Jakarta. After that fell, they sailed south to Ulundi for the second Zulu campaign. By this time, Napoleon was deep into autocracy and Assur bought a settler and 3 great war bombers to help with the final assault from their new base at Troyes. Ulundi fell on AD 1860 and Napoleon's victory was complete.
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zxcvbob
Emperor
I finished this one kinda late last night. Science victory on turn 411(286). I was going for a culture victory and had that in the bag eventually but it was dragging out forever, so I built the spaceship while I was waiting 
Four-city Tradition, Aesthetics opener and Cultural Centers, Rationalism, finish Aesthetics, Freedom(6), start working on Exploration and more Freedom. I declared no wars, but the AIs kept declaring war on me, two at a time. I took Helsinki in one of the peace treaties. I captured Sofia the second time they DoW'd me because they were blocking most of the cargo ship routes, but I made up for it by liberating Samarkand (twice). Tlatelolco was on the ropes and I could have captured it but I didn't particularly want it so I made peace with Monty instead.
I built Great Lighthouse, Hanging Gardens, and most of the Renaissance wonders in Paris. I built Petra, Machu Picchu, and the Leaning Tower in Orleans. They split later-game wonders between them, with all that had theming bonuses going in Paris.
This was a fun game. As I said in the opening actions thread, I rarely play Immortal, but the later start seemed to really help.
Four-city Tradition, Aesthetics opener and Cultural Centers, Rationalism, finish Aesthetics, Freedom(6), start working on Exploration and more Freedom. I declared no wars, but the AIs kept declaring war on me, two at a time. I took Helsinki in one of the peace treaties. I captured Sofia the second time they DoW'd me because they were blocking most of the cargo ship routes, but I made up for it by liberating Samarkand (twice). Tlatelolco was on the ropes and I could have captured it but I didn't particularly want it so I made peace with Monty instead.I built Great Lighthouse, Hanging Gardens, and most of the Renaissance wonders in Paris. I built Petra, Machu Picchu, and the Leaning Tower in Orleans. They split later-game wonders between them, with all that had theming bonuses going in Paris.
This was a fun game. As I said in the opening actions thread, I rarely play Immortal, but the later start seemed to really help.
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Science victory on 388(263).
Like many, I'm not used to a late start. I found it hard to focus on a victory condition, with so much else to be built. Was somehow an almost entirely peaceful game, I was way behind on military strength and kept getting told that people were planning on attacking me, but the only person who did was the Zulu, and the only action in that war was me destroying a trireme that had got stuck near Paris, that boat plundering a trade route and the whales tile, and me plundering one of their trade routes. I seemed to be safe once I'd built an atomic bomb.
Given I'm France, culture was my vague plan, but that was way out of reach, and I missed almost all the wonders I'd have needed. So I drifted into the only thing open to me, which was building a spaceship.
Like many, I'm not used to a late start. I found it hard to focus on a victory condition, with so much else to be built. Was somehow an almost entirely peaceful game, I was way behind on military strength and kept getting told that people were planning on attacking me, but the only person who did was the Zulu, and the only action in that war was me destroying a trireme that had got stuck near Paris, that boat plundering a trade route and the whales tile, and me plundering one of their trade routes. I seemed to be safe once I'd built an atomic bomb.
Given I'm France, culture was my vague plan, but that was way out of reach, and I missed almost all the wonders I'd have needed. So I drifted into the only thing open to me, which was building a spaceship.
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letsgobucs
Chieftain
- Joined
- Nov 25, 2017
- Messages
- 13
Dom victory 312(187)
Settled Paris in place sent other settler south which was bad settled squeezed between Paris and Yerevan. Beelined gunpowder. Then produced 8muskets and 2cannons to attack Monty then Marrakesh. Built second army 8 muskets 3Cannons to send to Swedan. Attack on Swedan got stalled because of terrain. First army was sent to Jakarta. 2nd army finally gets Helsinki. Dowed by everyone. Upgrades to arty and riffle. 2Nd army gets gets bogged down again v ethiopia. first army confronts Zulu and Assyria. Assyria grants peace for 10 turns. Ethiopia falls finally 2nd army migrates south while first army pushes to Ulundi. Assyria falls then push everything to the eventual fall of Ulundi.
Got early workshops to get Notre Dame with GE for happiness to deal with happiness issues.
Research Gunpowder->Dynamite-Replaceable parts. Got plastics on last turn.
Trad opener ->Full honor full commerce 5/6 autocracy.
Some thoughts: A few test games was able to Dom win on turn 150ish but superior terrain for that. I think if you really want to Culture victory Liberty taking collective rule on turn 0 for a third settler would be superior to the tradition opening. Getting metal casting and getting 2 3 GE to spam the early wonders. Tradition opener could be cut but helped get early tiles in honor cities with Military Caste at 4CPT.
Settled Paris in place sent other settler south which was bad settled squeezed between Paris and Yerevan. Beelined gunpowder. Then produced 8muskets and 2cannons to attack Monty then Marrakesh. Built second army 8 muskets 3Cannons to send to Swedan. Attack on Swedan got stalled because of terrain. First army was sent to Jakarta. 2nd army finally gets Helsinki. Dowed by everyone. Upgrades to arty and riffle. 2Nd army gets gets bogged down again v ethiopia. first army confronts Zulu and Assyria. Assyria grants peace for 10 turns. Ethiopia falls finally 2nd army migrates south while first army pushes to Ulundi. Assyria falls then push everything to the eventual fall of Ulundi.
Got early workshops to get Notre Dame with GE for happiness to deal with happiness issues.
Research Gunpowder->Dynamite-Replaceable parts. Got plastics on last turn.
Trad opener ->Full honor full commerce 5/6 autocracy.
Some thoughts: A few test games was able to Dom win on turn 150ish but superior terrain for that. I think if you really want to Culture victory Liberty taking collective rule on turn 0 for a third settler would be superior to the tradition opening. Getting metal casting and getting 2 3 GE to spam the early wonders. Tradition opener could be cut but helped get early tiles in honor cities with Military Caste at 4CPT.
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Got a Culture Victory turn 360.
We're playing as France, so I decided to go culture again (like the last couple of GOTMs). One thing I learned in those recent games is that Culture Victory is basically a race for National Visitor Center and Internet. So I prioritized city growth and science from the start.
Like I said in the Opening Actions Thread, I went 4 city tradition, and spammed all the chateaux that I could.
I was last in military, so I got DOWed by Monty around t100 or so. He didn't stand a chance though, I just wore down his army and once I had 2 artillery I liberated a city that he had previously taken from Morocco, then sued for peace.
One thing I maybe should have done differently for a better win time is to build my guilds earlier. There was always so much to build in the capital though. I got most of the Renaissance wonders, and the double theming bonus was nice. However I never got enough works of Art to get the theming bonus from Hermitage and some other wonder with 2 Great Work of Art slots. (I tried putting Artifacts in them but it didn't work).
Got Architecture a bit late, but still early enough to dig out a lot of artifacts.
At some point I got double DOWed by Ethiopia and Sweden, and the Zulu joined in shortly afterwards. My army was decent by that time (though still the smallest), due to experience with Monty. Ethipioa was culture leader, so I decided to take them out (which didn't work -- see below).
Beat back Sweden pretty quickly. They were basically suiciding their units against my northwestern city. Zulu were quite backward in tech, and my two battleships took quick care of their privateers and riflemen swimming defenselessly in the ocean.
So I made peace with Sweden pretty soon, with the Zulu shortly afterwards. I then got both of them to joing the fight against Ethiopia, which helped a lot.
Haile put up quite a fight though, and it wasn't until I got rocket artillery (which I teched to after reaching Internet) that I got the military advantage and was able to take his capital.
I was influential over all the other civs by that point, and some 37 or so turns were left for Ehtiopia. Got a Great Musician in the capital and sent him for a concert tour.
I could have taken out all of Ethiopias cities on the continent, but it wouldn't have helped my victory because they had one crappy little city that I didn't even know where it was. It was hidden somewhere in the fog of war in an as-yet unexplored part of the ocean. So there was no chance of taking them out before I was going to become influential over them anyways.
Consequently, I spared one of Haile's cities on the continent and sent them a faith-bought second Great Musician, who concert-toured me to victory.
(After winning the game I took that crappy little city in a peace deal, just out of curiosity to find out where it was. It was on a one-tile island somewhere east of Prague, near some Whales and Oil ressources.)
We're playing as France, so I decided to go culture again (like the last couple of GOTMs). One thing I learned in those recent games is that Culture Victory is basically a race for National Visitor Center and Internet. So I prioritized city growth and science from the start.
Like I said in the Opening Actions Thread, I went 4 city tradition, and spammed all the chateaux that I could.
I was last in military, so I got DOWed by Monty around t100 or so. He didn't stand a chance though, I just wore down his army and once I had 2 artillery I liberated a city that he had previously taken from Morocco, then sued for peace.
One thing I maybe should have done differently for a better win time is to build my guilds earlier. There was always so much to build in the capital though. I got most of the Renaissance wonders, and the double theming bonus was nice. However I never got enough works of Art to get the theming bonus from Hermitage and some other wonder with 2 Great Work of Art slots. (I tried putting Artifacts in them but it didn't work).
Got Architecture a bit late, but still early enough to dig out a lot of artifacts.
At some point I got double DOWed by Ethiopia and Sweden, and the Zulu joined in shortly afterwards. My army was decent by that time (though still the smallest), due to experience with Monty. Ethipioa was culture leader, so I decided to take them out (which didn't work -- see below).
Beat back Sweden pretty quickly. They were basically suiciding their units against my northwestern city. Zulu were quite backward in tech, and my two battleships took quick care of their privateers and riflemen swimming defenselessly in the ocean.
So I made peace with Sweden pretty soon, with the Zulu shortly afterwards. I then got both of them to joing the fight against Ethiopia, which helped a lot.
Haile put up quite a fight though, and it wasn't until I got rocket artillery (which I teched to after reaching Internet) that I got the military advantage and was able to take his capital.
I was influential over all the other civs by that point, and some 37 or so turns were left for Ehtiopia. Got a Great Musician in the capital and sent him for a concert tour.
I could have taken out all of Ethiopias cities on the continent, but it wouldn't have helped my victory because they had one crappy little city that I didn't even know where it was. It was hidden somewhere in the fog of war in an as-yet unexplored part of the ocean. So there was no chance of taking them out before I was going to become influential over them anyways.
Consequently, I spared one of Haile's cities on the continent and sent them a faith-bought second Great Musician, who concert-toured me to victory.
(After winning the game I took that crappy little city in a peace deal, just out of curiosity to find out where it was. It was on a one-tile island somewhere east of Prague, near some Whales and Oil ressources.)
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I didn't know how I wanted to win at the start, so I went for the classic 4 tradition cities. After I had gotten my universities up I decided to rush for artillery, so I could make use of musketeers.
Monty decided to pay me a visit with his army, but he just hung around for 10 turns or so without declaring war.
I got artillery on turn 229 (104), but unfortunately I didn't have enough money yet to upgrade anything. I took Tlatelolco with cannons and musketeers.
Once I got artillery the Aztecs and Morocco were easy pickings. Sweden had already conquered Addis Ababa and Assyria was destroyed by Indonesia, so there were only three civs to go. I also finally got the three musketeers achievement!
The rest of the wars went largely the same way, since I got artillery early enough that I had 50-60 turns before any of the AI's could get it. I was mostly slowed down by all of the rough terrain, though that also gave me a lot of production to keep pumping out more artillery. I brought as many workers with me as I could to keep building roads between all of my conquered cities.
I finished off Shaka in 1856 on turn 298 (173) with two more bombers and battleships, since the narrow land bridge between his capital and the mainland made it difficult for my artillery to get through, and he had quite a powerful navy of frigates and caravels. I upgraded some of them to rocket artillery as well for overkill.
At the end of the game, only Montezuma had managed to enter the Modern Era, and none of the AI civs had managed to get riflemen or artillery in time. The New World was almost completely empty, except for Casablanca, a 2 pop city. I would have expected an AI like the Zulu to take advantage of all that land, especially since they had already researched navigation.
Monty decided to pay me a visit with his army, but he just hung around for 10 turns or so without declaring war.
I got artillery on turn 229 (104), but unfortunately I didn't have enough money yet to upgrade anything. I took Tlatelolco with cannons and musketeers.
Once I got artillery the Aztecs and Morocco were easy pickings. Sweden had already conquered Addis Ababa and Assyria was destroyed by Indonesia, so there were only three civs to go. I also finally got the three musketeers achievement!
The rest of the wars went largely the same way, since I got artillery early enough that I had 50-60 turns before any of the AI's could get it. I was mostly slowed down by all of the rough terrain, though that also gave me a lot of production to keep pumping out more artillery. I brought as many workers with me as I could to keep building roads between all of my conquered cities.
I finished off Shaka in 1856 on turn 298 (173) with two more bombers and battleships, since the narrow land bridge between his capital and the mainland made it difficult for my artillery to get through, and he had quite a powerful navy of frigates and caravels. I upgraded some of them to rocket artillery as well for overkill.
At the end of the game, only Montezuma had managed to enter the Modern Era, and none of the AI civs had managed to get riflemen or artillery in time. The New World was almost completely empty, except for Casablanca, a 2 pop city. I would have expected an AI like the Zulu to take advantage of all that land, especially since they had already researched navigation.
Picking up where I left off here, I closed out a CV on turn 283(158). I had to build hotels and museums, gold purchased the broadcast tower in my capital, then full production into International Games. Took a long time, 8+ turns maybe, since I was pretty much the only person putting hammers into it. That left no time to ever get factories up in two of my cities, nor any hydro plants, and I was just finishing research lab tech as the game ended, so none of those either. I built the Louvre just after I won the Games, so I snuck in a few turns of that juicy theming bonus, but the game was pretty much over as soon as I got the 100% tourism boost. Just clicking next turn and watching the tourism gobble up everyone's culture.
Overall, for wonders, I got in order: Hanging Gardens, Sistine, Leaning Tower, Globe (rushed with Leaning engineer), Uffizi, Broadway (rushed with faith-purchased engineer), and Louvre.
After finishing Tradition, Aesthetics, and Freedom, I stuck a point in Explo for the Louvre capability, then a second for the coastal city production since basically all I was doing at that point was trying to finish International Games asap. I put a couple more points into Rati while waiting for the game to finish.
Near the end, a Moroccan prophet rampaged through my lands, converting all 4 of my cities. That forced me to spend 500 faith on a prophet to convert back my capital and Uluru city (I didn't mind his desert faith in the eastern expands, but I wanted my natural wonder pantheon, world wonder faith, and follower production in the main cities). Otherwise, I might have been able to shave off a turn or two with a musician purchase.
My theming bonuses:
Demos:
Winning turn:
Overall, for wonders, I got in order: Hanging Gardens, Sistine, Leaning Tower, Globe (rushed with Leaning engineer), Uffizi, Broadway (rushed with faith-purchased engineer), and Louvre.
After finishing Tradition, Aesthetics, and Freedom, I stuck a point in Explo for the Louvre capability, then a second for the coastal city production since basically all I was doing at that point was trying to finish International Games asap. I put a couple more points into Rati while waiting for the game to finish.
Near the end, a Moroccan prophet rampaged through my lands, converting all 4 of my cities. That forced me to spend 500 faith on a prophet to convert back my capital and Uluru city (I didn't mind his desert faith in the eastern expands, but I wanted my natural wonder pantheon, world wonder faith, and follower production in the main cities). Otherwise, I might have been able to shave off a turn or two with a musician purchase.
My theming bonuses:
Spoiler :
Demos:
Spoiler :
Winning turn:
Spoiler :
Cargo ships (and caravans if you are inland) can be used to send a lot of food to any city. I usually send 2-3 of them to my capital and send the rest to any city that is low in food. They can also be used to send production to a city that lacks it. You need a granary in a city to send food, which is why I build them first whenever I settle a new city (except my capital). You should also get as many workers as you can. At least one per city, but two or even more per city are worth getting. The goal is to only be working improved tiles. The cheapest way to get them is to steal them from the barbarians, citystates or other civs. You can declare war on a citystate once without angering the others, so use that to steal its worker(s).I always struggle with small cities and low population. How do you keep your cities growing? And please dont tell me to keep empire happy
If you want to grow a lot, the policies in Tradition are by far the best. Happiness is also important of course, since it is a cap on how much you can grow. If you don't have a lot of happiness and you have chosen Tradition, focus your growth on the capital since only the even amounts of population not divisible by 10 give unhappiness. Any city that is on 9, 19, 29 etc. population can also grow since every 10th pop is free.
Hospitals and especially medical labs come very late in the game, so by then your cities should not need to grow a lot anymore. It's better to focus on getting other buildings at that point.
Perfect. Thank you. I will more focus on homeland caravans.
raider980
King
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2010
- Messages
- 735
I finished later than everyone else with a CV on T427. A fun game, I actually got to use modern units for a change and it didn't feel like it was taking forever due to the late start. And even got into a nuclear war with Ethiopia, which I usually try to avoid.
For some reason I thought the target victory condition was Cultural so that's what I went for. Picking up where I left off in the Opening Actions thread where I had just conquered Morocco on T230.
I peaced out with Ahmad and went about trying for a peaceful cultural victory. But on T283 Monte and Halle joint DoW me out of nowhere; I thought Halle and I were buddies. At this point I had neglected my army of the west and was worried that Halle might take Troyes. So I bribed Shaka to attack him. Shaka of course was more than willing to oblige even though he was already at war with Ashur and Gajah. Shaka wasn't really near Ethiopia so I also bribed Gustav. I think that saved the day because I was able to fight both Halle and Monte off. Sweden didn't fare too well though and he lost 3 cities including his capital to Ethiopia. Turns out bribing Gustav might not have been the best idea becasue that only helped Halle get even more culture.
Sometime in the early T300's I began to worry I wouldn't be able to overcome the Ethiopian culture; he was by far way ahead of everyone else. So I began to plan to take him out. Luckily, around T350 Shaka asked me to joint DoW Halle; I said give me 10 turns. I quickly built up/bought a modern army and was ready when those turns were up. It was rough going though. There was a mountain range and lots of hills between France and Ethiopia. And his capital, with its defense bonus, was the closest city to try and take.
(Side note: I thought something was wrong with the game because all my units could only move one hex inside Ethiopian territory. I didn't realize that railroads didn't work in enemy territory. How I have played Civ 5 as long as I have and not realized that I don't know but I was flummoxed until I looked it up.)
I had to change strategy. I started producing only Paratroopers for melee units and also sent all my workers to build a RR through a small mountain pass to the north so I could attack Adwa before taking on the capital. I sent half my Paratrooper army and a couple of battleships with a carrier and some Bombers to take back Sigtuna and Stockholm on/near the far norther coast. This plan worked and I was able to capture both cities (I had planned on liberating them but Sigtuna had oil which I had run out of building Bombers and Stockholm had Aluminum and two unique luxes that I didn't have.). After a long, long multi generational struggle, I finally took Adwa.
Then around T410, Halle nuked Troyes. I lost 5 highly upgraded Bombers and 2 Fighters. He also nuked Adwa but couldn't take it back and Sigtuna for some reason. I wasn't going to be the first to use nukes but I would be forced to retalliate. I nuked the northern most Ethiopian city, which I razed (the radiation can be seen in the screenshot still lingering many years later in the tundra and snow). And I nuked Addis Ababa, which helped in its capture. Halle nuked it back after I captured it but by that time his army was exhausted and he was done. I was able to capture Harrar and liberate Kuala Lampur easily.
During the war I had decided to see if it was possible to overcome his culture with Music bombs. So I faith build two Musicians and got to 80 something percent. I had naturally grown to 90something percent by the time I was about to take the last mainland city of Lalibela when another Muscian was born. Halle had two small cities on islands to the west which my Navy was steaming toward but it would still have taken 15-20 more turns. So I held off taking Lalibela to see if one more music bomb would do the trick. And it did! I got to 106 percent, Influential and won the game!
For my SP: I went full Tradition into full Aesthetics. Opened Patronage, Commerce and Exploration and Rationalism. Ended with 8 in Freedom. I almost finished Honor which I went back and started after the Ethiopian campaign was going so badly to try and get some bonuses and I think it helped.
Its great to see all the screenshots for comparison. Looks like most people settled in place and were able to expand to the nice desert to the east; and also found a city near Uluru. I got the Uluru city but Morocco beat me to the desert and that's why I had to conquer a couple of his cities. I'm always interested to see how some players can finish the game so much faster than I can - that's just amazing and mind boggeling at the same time.
For some reason I thought the target victory condition was Cultural so that's what I went for. Picking up where I left off in the Opening Actions thread where I had just conquered Morocco on T230.
I peaced out with Ahmad and went about trying for a peaceful cultural victory. But on T283 Monte and Halle joint DoW me out of nowhere; I thought Halle and I were buddies. At this point I had neglected my army of the west and was worried that Halle might take Troyes. So I bribed Shaka to attack him. Shaka of course was more than willing to oblige even though he was already at war with Ashur and Gajah. Shaka wasn't really near Ethiopia so I also bribed Gustav. I think that saved the day because I was able to fight both Halle and Monte off. Sweden didn't fare too well though and he lost 3 cities including his capital to Ethiopia. Turns out bribing Gustav might not have been the best idea becasue that only helped Halle get even more culture.
Sometime in the early T300's I began to worry I wouldn't be able to overcome the Ethiopian culture; he was by far way ahead of everyone else. So I began to plan to take him out. Luckily, around T350 Shaka asked me to joint DoW Halle; I said give me 10 turns. I quickly built up/bought a modern army and was ready when those turns were up. It was rough going though. There was a mountain range and lots of hills between France and Ethiopia. And his capital, with its defense bonus, was the closest city to try and take.
(Side note: I thought something was wrong with the game because all my units could only move one hex inside Ethiopian territory. I didn't realize that railroads didn't work in enemy territory. How I have played Civ 5 as long as I have and not realized that I don't know but I was flummoxed until I looked it up.)
I had to change strategy. I started producing only Paratroopers for melee units and also sent all my workers to build a RR through a small mountain pass to the north so I could attack Adwa before taking on the capital. I sent half my Paratrooper army and a couple of battleships with a carrier and some Bombers to take back Sigtuna and Stockholm on/near the far norther coast. This plan worked and I was able to capture both cities (I had planned on liberating them but Sigtuna had oil which I had run out of building Bombers and Stockholm had Aluminum and two unique luxes that I didn't have.). After a long, long multi generational struggle, I finally took Adwa.
Then around T410, Halle nuked Troyes. I lost 5 highly upgraded Bombers and 2 Fighters. He also nuked Adwa but couldn't take it back and Sigtuna for some reason. I wasn't going to be the first to use nukes but I would be forced to retalliate. I nuked the northern most Ethiopian city, which I razed (the radiation can be seen in the screenshot still lingering many years later in the tundra and snow). And I nuked Addis Ababa, which helped in its capture. Halle nuked it back after I captured it but by that time his army was exhausted and he was done. I was able to capture Harrar and liberate Kuala Lampur easily.
During the war I had decided to see if it was possible to overcome his culture with Music bombs. So I faith build two Musicians and got to 80 something percent. I had naturally grown to 90something percent by the time I was about to take the last mainland city of Lalibela when another Muscian was born. Halle had two small cities on islands to the west which my Navy was steaming toward but it would still have taken 15-20 more turns. So I held off taking Lalibela to see if one more music bomb would do the trick. And it did! I got to 106 percent, Influential and won the game!
For my SP: I went full Tradition into full Aesthetics. Opened Patronage, Commerce and Exploration and Rationalism. Ended with 8 in Freedom. I almost finished Honor which I went back and started after the Ethiopian campaign was going so badly to try and get some bonuses and I think it helped.
Its great to see all the screenshots for comparison. Looks like most people settled in place and were able to expand to the nice desert to the east; and also found a city near Uluru. I got the Uluru city but Morocco beat me to the desert and that's why I had to conquer a couple of his cities. I'm always interested to see how some players can finish the game so much faster than I can - that's just amazing and mind boggeling at the same time.
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I always struggle with small cities and low population. How do you keep your cities growing? And please dont tell me to keep empire happy
In this particular game, I built granaries immediately with all 4 cities, since the medieval start grants us free monuments and shrines. My first expand at Uluru built a worker after granary because I wanted to improve the copper asap for happiness to settle the other two cities, then a cargo ship third to feed the capital. The other two cities built caravans immediately after their granary to also feed the capital. I also got Hanging Gardens with +6 food which is always helpful for growth, though in this game I was more concerned about the free garden for my fresh-waterless-capital. In a normal, ancient-era game, I would also build granaries first in my expands as Tradition, since I'm still getting free monuments from their policy. If I was Liberty, I would build a monument first, then a granary. It would also take a bit longer for me to get trade routes out, since I don't start with 3 spearmen, there are barbs and ruins so I need to scout and defend more, etc.
Beyond that, just micromanage your tiles. Prioritize improving and working farms on fresh water tiles after your wheat/deer/etc since they get the extra food at civil service. Do the production focus trick, and lock your new population to a growth tile every time it happens. I generally almost always feed my capital from every other city I have with my trade routes. It's rare that I find gold more useful than growth. I also fed the Uluru city from my capital with my fourth trade route, since I could see it would struggle with growth due to having few river tiles, and no wheats or anything. Everything in this game is predicated on growth, which is why I prioritized it so hard here. Production? You need population to work the hammer tiles. Science? Directly tied to population. And so on.
I should also mention workers. You want generally 2 workers per city in Tradition, and 1-1.5 as Liberty. The reason is your Tradition cities grow faster and work more tiles therefore need more tiles improved, and Liberty builders work faster because of their policy and especially if you also get Pyramids. After my granary/trade routes in this game, my next priority was building 8 workers (2 per city, Tradition). Again, this was much easier to do this game starting with 3 defensive units and not having barbs. In a normal game you'd have to mix in some scouts and defensive units. I ended up with 11 workers at one point, because I stole an Aztec settler and a few Sofia workers. That's fine, once I got my roads up and tiles mostly improved, I started deleting them. But again, you are getting a ton of extra food from improving your farms, and growth is king, so not delaying your workers is fundamental. There were something like 8 forest tiles to chop around the cap this game which helped me rush out the settlers and HG much faster.
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