Wang Kon vs. Super Gandhi

[Luumi]

Gandhi removed a thorn from a magic tiger's paw or something, and in return was granted superpowers: his civilization was awarded with EVERY single trait. The problem is, all that power got into Gandhi's head, and he became a super-bully: his aggressiveness climbed from 1 to 5! All this fuss really annoyed Wang Kon, and in fact it pissed him off so bad he decided to make destroying Supergandhi his life's goal.

Every victory but Wonder is enabled, but the only thing that will matter to Wang is killing Supergandhi by any means necessary, short of course of pulling up a RoP cheat on him.

To balance Supergandhi's superpowers he will have 2 restrictions, namely he's got no starting techs, and he's forbidden to build Great Wonders (Small Wonders are allowed, though).

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This will be a regicide game, with the following parameters: regent difculty, standard size, 10 civs (India, Korea, and 8 random), pangea, 60% ocean, normal climate, temperate, and 5 billion years old. And as said, I'm forbidden to do a RoP rape on Gandhi, he can't build GWs, and he's got no starting techs.

Since this is my first time playing a game like this (as well as posting a story here ) I decided to play it safe and go on regent. The pangea is to make sure Wang and Supergandhi are both on the same continent (nowhere to run! ), and 10 civs to crowd the map a bit and put some pressure on Supergandhi. The rest of the parameters were chosen for no special reason.

Now I'll look for a good start location and post the first moves within the hour

 

[Luumi]

I came up with these:



Not very good... it has fresh water, but no bonuses whatsoever, no forests, shield-poor, and I see a marsh north. I try again:



Not sure which is worse... it does have 2 whales, and a nice number of hills... but no fresh water, jungles south, no luxs, it's right on a desert... Meh, I'll try again.



This spot seems nice: a river, lots of BGs (you can see when you hide the forests), trees, a gold hill, AND wheat & cattle combo! No luxs, but guess that's okay. Third option it is!

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I move the worker to the wheat, and then Wang N-SW. Amazingly, Wang finds yet another cattle; no need to waste a turn looking for a better spot. Our starting techs are BW and the Alphabet, so I'll try a Rep slingshot. Being in regent, I'm sure I'll pull it off easily! Oh, I also send Wang to travel westwards to do some exploring.



Wang pops a hut up, and they give us a warrior. Nothing special, but at least it's a friendly one! I'm playing regicide here, so I have to be careful not to get Wang wacked, or else. Well, actually I'm not so much worried about petty barb warriors, right now I'm just praying I won't find evil Supergandhi next door!



Wang pops up yet another hut, and gets Pottery from it. A turn later a warrior pops Cerimonial Burial. As you can see in the pic, we've already found 4 different luxs just in our backyard: gems, ivory, furs, and dyes! In 5 turns time I'll have my first settler. Should I send him northwards to quickly start to enjoy those furs, or should I send them to claim those ivories and gems south, but not being able to settle soon, and actually use them only after I finish building a road to there several turns later? Well the furs are already ours anyway, so I'm leaning towards the latter.

 

[Quintillus]

Build south. Growth is far more important now than a few furs.

Nice SuperGandhi idea. But I would've liked to have him be able to build wonders - then he'd be really super. But then again, he might be super-powerful even without wonders, especially if his neighbors build a few.

And...Welcome to CFC!!!

 

[Tribute]

No wonders=Not super.

It's quite a disadvantage, actually. Sorry.

 

[Luumi]

Thanks Quintillus! Yeah, I should had allowed him to build wonders... I guess I was playing too much on the safe side.

And Tribute... I've only managed to win on Monarch once, so he's still super to me...

Well, if it will make it up, then I'll limit myself not to build wonders neither! (Except for one, as I'm already on the middle of building it)


Aaanyways, here goes the rest:



Wang disturbs 2 warriors, and is redlined by one of them He survives though. 2 turns later, our warrior finds some foodplains with 2 wheats. But he gets surrounded by barbs after popping a hut up and dies 2 turns afterwards.



And guess what? He pops a hut and gets WC, and that 3 ages before sanitation! (Sorry, lame joke, I know ) Just now it hits me that it was ghastly reckless of me to pop a hut up with a settler, good thing it turned out alright!

A turn later Wang manages to get Mysticism and finds yet another source of elephants. There's also an orange border south. Later I find out they're the Dutch, but as they haven't any new techs nor money, they're useless. I also make the stupid mistake of settlin too far from the ivory, now I'll have to build a temple to expand the borders before I use it!



This is how our world is so far. Pretty much self-evident, eh? Things are so-so so far, I've made a lot of mistakes in planning, but on the other hand we're by far the most advanced. I'll try to be more careful in the future, as I probably won't have any more goody-huts to back me up.



I've made contact with the Americans and traded CoL for Masonry, The Wheel, a worker, and 90$. After Wang gets redlined for the 2nd time I decide to send him back home. And also finish the road to the ivory and build 3 more cities (Pusan having horses). I'm also building a road to the gems, and when it's done I'll use the american slave to build a colony there. Besides that nothing important.



My priority is to expand west, and as soon as there's no more free land, to prepare for a war with the Dutch. I've also already secured iron and horses, which I guess puts me in some advantage...



It just hit me I completely forgot to out a world map so far, so here it goes. You can see there the Dutch (orange), the Russians (brown), the Persians (green) and the Portuguese (purple). I don't know where the Americans are, and haven't seem Gandhi yet.

BTW, am I doing it too slowly? It's unnecessarily detailed the way it is now, no? I think I'll make it so that each post covers more turns.

 

[Quintillus]

The pace is fine. Good thing Wang Kon wasn't killed while exploring, if he had this would've been a very short story!

 

[Luumi]

The pace is fine. Good thing Wang Kon wasn't killed while exploring, if he had this would've been a very short story!

Yeah, it sure would! The problem with regicide games is that you always feel temped to use your king as a scout.


Oh, I forgot to say in the last post, but I also switched government to republic.

Abe demands Math from me as tribute, but since I don't even know where they are, I bet they aren't near enough to be a threat. So naturally I tell him to take it elsewhere, which prompted him to declare on me. Oh well, I'm not worried.

Then just a turn later my warrior/scout sees an American warrior, and I prepare to my first inter-civ combat. However during the between-turns that warrior suddenly engages with an unknow unit coming from the fog. He looses, and to my greatest surprise that unknown unit turns out to be a Indian swordman.



I finally meet Ghandi, and luckly he is polite to me (no doubt due to our mutual war against America). Techwise he is my equal: he has Polytheism and Monarchy, but I have the Republic. He doesn't want to trade anything though. Now that I've finally discovered where he is, I can start planning my attack against him. Of course, I still have to deal with the Netherlands first, and maybe with Russia too. To win this game I just have to kill him, meaning that my only actual target is Delhi... so locating it naturally makes winning that much close!
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Alot of turns passed, and now we're at 570BC. First things first: when I got word that Gandhi had already entered the middle-ages, I managed to trade Polytheism and Currency for Republic with him. Then I restored peace with the Americans for some bucks and Construction (giving in return Poly). With that I entered the MA too, muuich quicker than I expected... I got Feudalism for free, which aparently was what Gandhi got too. In the end, the phoney war with America was extremely profitable, as it put me and Gandhi on a good standing (allowing me to get such great deals from him), and I got something from America for absolutely nothing (short of a riot in Inch'on due to WW )

That was the good news, now the bad news is that the dutch managed to grab the dyes I was aiming for. Well, it's okay, because soon I'll have some medieval infantries as well as ancient cavalries from the SoZ Seoul is building No need to explain what I'm planing to do with them!



Oh, I forgot to mention I've met Arabia too, they're pink. Here's the world map so far:



It's now 310BC and I'm finally ready to lauch my first war. I've amassed enough troops right at the Dutch border, and they'll be ordered to march into it next turn. Here's how I've planned the invasion:



4 horsemen from Paegam will attack Arnhem, regroup, then procede to Eindhoven. A group of 4 MIs will strike Haarlen, burn it (as its size 1), then turn to Utrecht. Finally, 6 MIs and a Pike are going to march straight towards the Dutch capital. Pretty simple, really. William is still in the middle ages, so there's no way he's going to stand an attack of MIs, even if I commit one mistake after another here. Also, the SoZ is completed, and is already spawing one AC each 5 turns. On the minus side, it's almost time for knights to appear, meaning they won't be good for much longer...

 

[A Revolutionary]

William is still in the middle ages, so there's no way he's going to stand an attack of MIs, even if I commit one mistake after another here.

I'll assume that you mean Ancient Times, not the Middle Ages. Other than that... War!!!

 

[oneperson]

Well, looks like an interesting story so far. Keep up the good work!

 

[Luumi]

I'll assume that you mean Ancient Times, not the Middle Ages. Other than that... War!!!

I probably meant "he still hasn't reached the middle ages" or something...

And thanks for the feedback too, oneperson

Now back to the war:


Arnhem's defence was thougher than I expected, having 4 spears. Who the hell guards a size 3 town with 4 spears anyway?! I guess he really wanted to protect those dyes over there. The four horsemen attack, but each Dutch spear takes 2 of our horsies to kill, the last one taking one of ours with him. So much for my jokes about them bringing plague, famine and so forth Oh well. Humiliated, they then fall back to Paegam, hopefully to take Arnhem another day.

On the other front though, Haarlem falls to the first MI, so the others proceed straight to Utrecht.



Arnhem can't survive the second strike, and finally falls, triggering a wave of happiness all throughout Korea. Although I suspect it wasn't because of our victory so much as due to the dyes Arnhem had... Well, happy faces are happy faces, I suppose

Arriving at Amsterdam, 2 MI fall, 4 win. There's still at least 3 more spears defending the city, so I'm going to send my 2 ACs and redirect most of the attack force sent to Utrecht (which has already fallen)to help them. I also sent a settler to replace Utrecht.

Soon they lose both Holwerd and The Hague, but Amsterdam turns out to be better defended than I thought. So I decide to wait untill the next wave arrives. When it finally does, they manage to destroy all of William's personal guard, leaving him completely defenseless.



A moment later:



Yup, that's it. After William's death, a misterious fire raged through every last remaining Dutch city and burned them all to ground. Go figure.

Well, here's the histograph of the end of the turn:



We apparently managed to surpass India's score by exctly 43 points, although they're still ahead of us in military power.

I've also finshed researching Gunpowder, which I traded with Gandhi for Monotheism & money. Now I'm planing to stay in peace until I get Metallurgy, then use my hwach'as to start a GA, probably against Russia. And then, finally against Gandhi.

 

[Tani Coyote]

Interesting so far! I'll be following this. :3

 

[A Revolutionary]

Remember the Hwach'a has lethal bombardment, so use them in large numbers. Good job on the war. Make sure you send settlers to go claim the former Dutch territory. Overall, things seem to be going well, so keep up the good work.

 

[Quintillus]

Good job so far. Too bad Gandhi isn't becoming a superpower across the continent, though.

 

[Slaughter]

Looks like fun! Also, you coulda have powered Ghandi's leader unit, after all, he's super, isn't he?

 

[Luumi]

Thanks to everyone who replied! It's nice to know this thread is being read, specially considering its flaws.

As for India's disappointing performace, I can only guess it's either because of the no-wonder thing, or a bad start location, probably both. Or maybe I should had tried on monarch...

I also did think of powering up Gandhi's unit, as well as the war-elephants. But I had already started the game by then...

Oh well, I'll remember those things next time



Now the UPDATE!


Lots of uneventful turns passed, and we're now in 440AD. Metalurgy is already mine, and I check with Gandhi if he's any thechs ahead of me. It turns out that he's got Chivalry, but since Military Tradition is just 11 more turns away, Knights are somewhat useless by now...

With William's demise, all of Netherland's cities burned, leaving behind a vast extension of ownerless land. Although we succeed to quickly reclaim most of it, Persia did manage to pass a settler through and build Hamadan right next to Haeju. However, it backfired: since our culture was a tad stronger, our borders won over their's, putting Hamadan in a very awkward situation.

Also, we beated the Persians to what would most likely be their only sorce of iron, and therefore, of immortals.



I wasn't planning to start a war untill all my hwach'as get position, but when I most politely requested Xerxes to remove that archer from our territory, he lost it and declared on me. To much caffein, probably.

Anyways, as I said, Persia has got no iron (meaning no immortals), so he's probably trying to get it by taking Suwon. I have a few hwach'as, musketmen and MIs to use against a ironless Persia, but they're all slow-movers, and I can't afford a slow war... I have to get as many cities from Persia as I can before striking Perserpolis, or else the same thing that happened when I defeated the Dutch will happen again. And then no doubt that America, Russia and god know who else are all going to jump in the wagon for free land, on my expense!

I actually have many spare horsemen from the war with the Dutch, but with 2 attack points, I'm not so sure if they'll be able to hold on their own. So I decide to make the deal with Gandhi after all: Metalurgy for Chivalry, 250$& 37$p/t. Oh well, at least I'll be able to use those bucks to upgrade the horsies...

Here's a screenie a few turns later:



I've already captured Hamadan, and the MIs are heading towards Arbela. The knights are going along the shore, and capture what they can, as fast as they can. Gotta make those 9 turns count! Oh, and as soon as I can, I'll try to start a golden age which my hwach'as.

 

[tdawg82]

great story

 

[Slaughter]

Hey, why are you dealing with Super Gandhi if he's your mortal enemy? Should't both be at eternal war?

Bessides that, great history! And the fact that if you kill the enemy leader, all his cities magically catch fire and are destroyed is funny!

 

[Luumi]

Hey, why are you dealing with Super Gandhi if he's your mortal enemy? Should't both be at eternal war?

Bessides that, great history! And the fact that if you kill the enemy leader, all his cities magically catch fire and are destroyed is funny!

Well, that was the plan, but things didn't turn out the way I planned... I mean, I expected that by now Supergandhi would be already by the indutrial ages, controling half of the world and waging war on everybody. Instead, he's just sitting there as everyone surpasses him! Since the war with America on the Ancient Ages, he has been permanently at peace. In fact, it seems that eveyone else is trigger happy but him, as I've already been declared on 5 or six times.

I was hoping that if I kept with good relations with him, he'd turn to one of his neighbours and finally expand a bit, although it didn't work out that way. Next time I try something like this I'll remember not to give the super leader any shortcomings, like no wonders and no starting techs.

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The attack party proceeds south, and encounters a lone spearman, who is aparently trying to sneak in Suwon. (What he thinks he can do there, I have no idea ) Be as it may, he happens to end up right near 4 hwach'as, meaning I've finally got my chance!



Each hwach'a manages to score a hit, the last one sending him away for good, propelings us to our Golden Age.

Also on that same turn, our MIs are ready to strike Arbela. The stack is made by 9 MIs and 1 longbowman (which I produced by accitend ). No siege support, but hopefully I won't need it, seeing as Persia has no iron.



Sure enough, the Persian garrison falls, though not before before taking with them an elite MI, and redlining another 4. On another note, that's the 5th town I've enncountered which is defended by 4 spearmen. Although, unlike the backwater Dutch cities, Arbela does lie in a strategical spot, being right outside Persepolis.



Here you can see the aftermath of the battle of Arbela, and the knights preparing to attack Pasargadae (there ARE knights there, they're just beneath the musketman )



The knight-blitz went remarkably well: in about 5 turns, they managed to capture 3 cities. It's still 2 turns untill I get cavalries, so I guess that deal with Gandhi was worth after all. Apart from a few random suicidal sorties of bowmen, all the fighting took place in cities. Now, the only thing left for the knights to do is to capture Sidon, which I'm sure, they'll do in the next turn. The MIs are currently defending a strategic spot on a hill right on the outskirts of Persepolis, and all the hwach'as within range are being diverted towards there. As soon as the last Persian city (besides Persepolis, of course) falls, they'll be ordered to carry out the assassination of Xerxes.

On another note, Abu once again tried to shake me out into giving him chemistry. Honestly, the bloke probably don't even has knights, yet he's trying to extort the most powerfull nation around (yes, apparently I've already beat Gandhi, so my scenario is pretty much ruined... ). Anyways, of course I suggested him to do something more appropriate with his threats. Apparently, he got offended by it, so much that he declared on me. Oh well. It gave me the idea of bringing Gandhi into this war: maybe if he scores a GA too he'll finally take off :/ . Be as it may, he actually charged for it just the pitiful amount of 1$ per turn, no doubt just a simbolic amount.