When you know this is a game the AI has decided you will not win.

[Pengu]

Just rolled a normal Immortal pangea map for a nice and relaxing game. Well, what a nightmare it turned out to be. Boudica is the leader and the other leaders I met were Shaka, Sury, Ragnar, Toku, Wang Kon and Justinian. Sury and Shaka being my neighbors I thought Shaka was going to give me trouble. Well, no but everything else went to *****. Sury and Shaka expanded like crazy settling on my borders. I knew I was going to get attacked so I couldn't expand too much. And sure enough, Ragnar just decided I was a target even though he wasn't my neighbor. So, while finding off that ***** Sury and Shaka took all the land and ended up with 12 cities each, to my 4.... I had elephants so I had no choice and went for Shaka. And obvioulsy it turned to be an insanly tough war slugging through stack after stack, city after city. Then while taking cities from Shaka space open up and Sury plants another city... And starts plotting... We do share a religion and I get him to pleased and beg gold. No problem I thought... Slowly but surely I am grinding down Shaka and just before I can cap him Sury declares... And thankfully Shaka caps a few turns later so I can turn around my army. I have at that moment 11 cities even after that insanely long war. And then Sury bribes in Ragnar and Toku on me....
I somehow fend of Sury and take back my cities. Just before the AP vote to stop fighting goes through Sury snipes a city from me... I manage to fend of Ragnar and Toku and sue for peace. It's 1200 AD and for the 1st time I have peace. I go as fast as I can for cannons and meanwhile Ragnar vassals to Sury....
The buddist block of Wangkon and Justinan are totally protected being to the easy of me and I have to be best buddy with Sury to the west. Wang kon Starts plotting...Just as I get steel he declares war on me. I though fine, I was going for him anyway as the only on not having rifling. The war starts well, takes out his stack and starts picking of cities. But he refuses to cap of course. Then he vassals to Justinan and brings him into the war. immediately Justinan gives rifling to Wang kon. Then Toku peacevassals to Sury...
So I am not close to rifling, I have a huge monster to the west in Sury and his vassals and in a 2 front war to the east with Wang kon and Justininan. Just haven't got one single break this game. Insane...

Starting file included

 

[krikav]

Haha, awesome!
Thats about how I felt in the beginning of NC209 too, but things got abit more calm for me after a while.

Such games are quite enjoyable even if you lose imho. You go out with guns blazing, giving everything you got and die with honor.

 

[Excal]

nice and relaxing game

Shaka, Sury, Ragnar, Toku, Wang Kon and Justinian

not with neighbors like that

 

[Pengu]

And now I am in an almost hopeless situation. I was desperate and bribed in Sury on Justinian as I thought it would be hard to repel him. Of course it backfired as by the time I was done with Wang kon and went into Justinians land he capped to Sury...
Wang kon capped to me but Justinian's land was twice of Wang's so that war was a disaster. Then Ragnar and Toku broke free again and I immediately went for the weakest one in Toku. Even if he had infantry he had only 6 cities. so he capped.
But now at 1800 AD I have a superpowerful Sury to deal with with tanks and Justinian as a vassal. Ragnar has also tanks and is too powerful for me. I have still no assembly line or artillery. I have no clue what to do but to tech for those 2 techs and go for Ragnar. Sury likes me at least so I guess I'll go to the bitter end....just crazy

 

[Gumbolt]

Nice story but pictures and saves really add a better picture.

 

[Pengu]

I know, not that good with pictures and my saves with the bat mod makes it so others can't load them

This is just the craziest game ever. So I trudge along trying to get to AL in the 1800... And then both Ragnar and Sury stars plotting. Rag kan only be plotting on me and begging does work and Sury is pleased with both but it is probably me.
They both reject my beg of gold and I fear the worst if Sury declares. Then all off a sudden both stop plotting.... Then the stupid UN forbids slavery so no more whipping. I finally get to Al and artillery and I start to feel hope. But I am also noticing that Sury's culture has slowly started to pressure my cities. I check to winning board and see that Sury is less than 50 turns from a culture victory. I rush to Rags border and declares. I have 50 units left and it's enough to get rag. No peacevassal to Sury which is surprising considering how this game has gone. So now it's 1900 AD and in 20 turns Sury wins his cultue victory. I have to try to burn his city with culture and some how deal with modern armor with infantry and artillery, still a few turns from tanks...
Well, going out in a blaze of glory.

 

[Pengu]

If only... I think it's time to throw in the towel. I sent in my stack and started burning Sury's cities. The problem is Mech Inf and the fact that my eastern flank was totally exposed. For every city I burned Sury took at least 1 from me.
And I keep losing way more units compared to him and there is no way to whip out a new army. What really killed my was losing my super medic as i no longer can heal up my army. And once I run out of units I might have taken out 4 cities from Sury but I will have lost 6-7 and he will still have an army. So frustrating when you are close but so far away...

 

[Gumbolt]

It's an interesting map.

Spoiler Thoughts. :

Early on it's quite possible to rex to 6-7 cities.

You do have several neighbours who could declare at any point. You also have some metal about which should allow you to protect your borders early on. Land in places is poor but it's the same for the AI.

Most Ai will be restricted to 6-7 cities here. I think it is a case of finding a military advantage and abusing it to take down neighbours. Cuirs? Phants? That or joining Ai wars.

I think getting AI to pleased here will be very important.

I think if you are waiting to 1800ad to win this map this is where you have fallen on your own sword. I would expect many workshops by then so slavery should be a thing of the past. You really have to pick your battles here and try to keep the AI fighting eachother.

 

[Pengu]

Spoiler game :

The big problem was that Ragnar started plotting early, on me it turned out. I had to focus on building some units to repel him. That game Sury the chance to take a barb city N of me and got to 12 cities. He is damn good at expanding. And Shaka also took advantage and got to 12 cities. So when I finally made peace with Rag there was no other choice but to attack Shaka.
I did play it again just to see how it would go. This time Rag started plotting early but went for Toku which is more logical as they are neighbors. Thanks to that I got to 7 cities peacefully and went into Sury's and Rag's religion and made sure they wouldn't attack me. Then I bribed Shaka on WK and went for lib. No dows possible so that was nice. Then I bribed Toku on Shaka, Rag on WK and Sury on Justinian. Then I attacked Sury when I got cavs and capped him.
So an early dow is just so crippling. And then all other things happened which ruined me. And I was still almost able to make it....

 

[Gumbolt]

In terms of early wars. You just want a suicide city. A City the AI can spend stacks on. You then need a peace option. Often if you have no techs or gold they will want a city. So far only 1 Ai is plotting in my game and I am not sure who the target is. Albeit I have quite a few axe and spears wondering about. 2-3 axes in a city when you are aggressive and char are a huge help.They quickly pick up promo allowing shock axes and spears that can have C2 and 25% against mount.

You certainly don't want to be involved in early wars too long unless you can win. Ragnar is a nasty warmonger. I gifted him 2-3 resources very early on. Need to get him to pleased asap. Difficult without a religion or shared civic. Gifted techs normally help.

 

[Pengu]

Which is why early dow before you can get him to pleased is so troublesome. In my 1st game Ragnar started plotting early, wasn't my neighbor and it was just before I had the ability to even gift resources. I had few cities and just on the off chance it was me gifting a city would also had been costy as Sury and Shaka expanded like crazy early on.

 

[Gumbolt]

Played this up to 400ad.

Spoiler Thoughts so far. :

Played this peacefully till 250ad. Lots of possible danger from Ai but no DOW followed albeit Korean plotting war against someone. Not sure my capital is in a great position.

Agriculture/AH/Mining/BW/The Wheel/fishing/pot/sailing writing and alphabet. Expanded to 7 cities and captured a barb city or 2. Razed on.

Traded for IW and masonry. Teched Maths and HBR. Bulbed compass. (Vikings have teched really fast here.)

Headed towards phants. Kyhmers kept asking to trade HBR but I was not having that. Captured 3-4 wonders in his capital. I did consider attacking Zulus but they are backwards.

Still short on techs but Sury will give me 2 techs for peace.

Played a bit further on to 720ad. Sury now dead and music in bag. Ragnar heading towards Koreans. I have 15 or so cities.

Shaka and Koreans wasting units on eachother. Main threat is likely Byzantiums.

 

[Gumbolt]

I think your key mistake here was early expansion. I had 8 cities by 575bc. Sure economy struggled a bit. Had to use cottages, libraries and some melee units to ensure safety.

Must be warm today. I failed to notice a problem on my 720ad save. Vassals can be a pain! Dangers of being at war with an AI that has 1-2 cities left.

I played on a bit here. Having not spotted that Khmer had vassalled to Toku with him joining the war. I quickly had to start bringing back my stack towards him. On top of this one of my cities had flipped to him and naturally he had LB too. He had a 5-6 strong stack. I had 25-30 units. Thankfully come 1050ad he is now vassalled. Heading towards cuirs. Everyone has engineering. Game is pretty much over and I have 18 cities to whip cuirs. Plus 18-20 phants to upgrade to cuirs..

 

[Gumbolt]

Someone explain this. Look at the Korean city. AP has just gifted this back to Korea. The Zulu stack is still sitting in the city albeit they are at war with them? Hmmmm.

 

[Gumbolt]

1420ad all done. Score 262237. All Ai capitulated.