I played a large, normal speed, immortal time game.
settings :
- archipelago
- aggressive AI checked. vassal are on, random events are on, no barbs, high sea level.
- ancient start.
- willelm of orange for me
- no financial leader as opponents. I hand selected some lame guys, but on large there are quite a few to choose. My opponents were :
1) tokugawa
2) montezuma
3) shaka
4) genghis kahn
5) brennus
6) peter
7) alexander
8) boudica
Probably suboptimal choice here.
first part of the game = tech, growth, peaceful expansion, wonder whoring (great lighthouse, oracle, colossus, great library, dai miao, taj mahal). I missed a few on the way that I wanted = temple of artemis and mausoleum of mausoleos.
This was up to 1535AD. At this point, I was 2nd in score with 1336 points vs 1458 points for Brennus (bad choice of opponent here, I guess). I still had a very large tech lead.
Time for a less peaceful expansion.So I declared on my neighbour Shaka.
Agressive Shaka was a bit hard to defeat. Still got there, having captured his best cities, including ulundi, which I great artist bombed, I sued for peace in 1826 AD. In the meantime I had founded sid sushi.
After that, I wanted to grab the pentagon, but missed it to genghis kahn. I went into another building round.
I got broadway, as a not so consolating wonder.
I was again (still?) second in score with 2536 points vs 2610 for boudica. I decided to go back to the war path. Boudica was too strong (another dubious choice of opponent). I declared in 1874 AD with a few ships full of troops.
A few turns (1876) later shaka declared on me
.
edit: 2nd part added, now that the game is accepted
While I barely get 1 city from boudica, my whole navy gets sinked by celtic magically appeared destroyers.
In the same time shaka takes back ulundi.
I lead my 2 fronts war in a new way (since there was no way I could have built a new navy fast enough): paratroopers for island hopping in celtic land, and air-tele-port in former zulu land.
I take a few celtic cities (quite good ones, loads of seafood), recapture ulundi, then raze a few more zulu cities and vassalize Shaka (1908 AD).
I built the eiffel tower, then christo redentor and finally hollywood while at war with those 2
I also founded civilzed jewelers, cereal mills and standard ethanol.
I finally made peace with boudica in 1935 AD, when there was no more way to achieve anything with paratroopers.
In 1941 I declared on the ******** but wonder rich montezuma.
I immediately took technotitlan, which was the main target because of all the wonders in it.
In 1943AD genghis declared on me. He even captured a (warrior defended) city.
I quickly took back my city (nothing beats airlifting units!)
(I also founded mining inc.)
I finished the main island monty was on, then sued for peace (leaving him on his snow balls) in 1958AD.
I then took foot in mongol lands.
And guess what? Boudica declared on me...and took back one of her cities. Those agressive immortal AIs can be trouble sometimes.
I quickly took it back.
She then took a second city.
I took this second one right back, while growing my mongol foothold.
Genghis took another weakly defended city, I should have payed more attention...
I couldn't get this one back, it was an island I couldn't reach from another of my cities, so airlifting was of no use.
I went on in mongol lands while boudica desperately assaulted her former cities. She took one again, and I retook it right after that.
In 1976 I finally had karakorum, with the pentagon.
I sued for peace (getting my island city back in the trade) with genghis, and focused a bit more on boudica.
After taking 2 of her cities, I sued for peace again (1981).
All this time Brennus had been at war with Peter then with alexander. He vassalized both (that's why I think brennus was a bad opponent choice).
I however wanted wonder filled moscow. So I declared on peter+alexander+brennus. I took it in the first turn of war.
I then took novgored, but peter took one of my cities with overwhelming troops. Too bad, I never could get it back.
I took a few more russian then celtic cities.
And guess what? Tokugawa (the big gun after me) then genghis dogpiled on me.
5 wars in the same time was a bit too much, so I sued for peace with brennus (2005AD).
I focused on tokugawa who was the only real threat at his point.
I took a few and razed 1 of his cities, getting closer to his capital in doing so.
And guess what? boudica again declared on me. Isn't she stubborn?
While continuing my progression in japanese lands, I razed a celtic city and took a few mongol ones.
In 2021 AD, genghis became my vassal.
A bit later Brennus and his vassal peter (alex was free again) dogpiled on boudica, which I had left mostly alone (she was no real threat).
I took back the city whe had taken from me and a few more, and sued for peace in 2026.
In the same year I took wonder rich kyoto and vassalized Japan. I was putting all my EP into japan to disrupt his space efforts, and continued in doing so until the end. His being my vassal made it a lot easier, since my spies could travel by plane and would never be caught while waiting. I destroyed 4 or 5 spaceship parts in the rest of the game... sorry toku, I'd rather win myself.
The was only athens missing in my wonder collection. So I declared on greece in july 2031 AD and took it in the first turn of war.
A few years of war and some yoyo taking of athens later, I vassalized alex in 2040AD. I was somewhere near 54% of land, over 70% of population, and decided it was too risky to go any further in conquest.
So i pressed enter a lot, teched to future tech 30 or so, disrupted all japanese space parts necessary and got a reasonable time victory with something over 23k points...
Was it hard? yes a bit, I had to check the domination threshold, the cultural threshold, and had to keep the space efforts of my neighbours under control.
There is a also the counterpart of selecting agressive trait + agressive setting AIs, I bolded the numerous war declarations I had to face.
Was it harder than a future start? not really. Just a lot longer.
settings :
- archipelago
- aggressive AI checked. vassal are on, random events are on, no barbs, high sea level.
- ancient start.
- willelm of orange for me
- no financial leader as opponents. I hand selected some lame guys, but on large there are quite a few to choose. My opponents were :
1) tokugawa
2) montezuma
3) shaka
4) genghis kahn
5) brennus
6) peter
7) alexander
8) boudica
Probably suboptimal choice here.
first part of the game = tech, growth, peaceful expansion, wonder whoring (great lighthouse, oracle, colossus, great library, dai miao, taj mahal). I missed a few on the way that I wanted = temple of artemis and mausoleum of mausoleos.
This was up to 1535AD. At this point, I was 2nd in score with 1336 points vs 1458 points for Brennus (bad choice of opponent here, I guess). I still had a very large tech lead.
Time for a less peaceful expansion.So I declared on my neighbour Shaka.
Agressive Shaka was a bit hard to defeat. Still got there, having captured his best cities, including ulundi, which I great artist bombed, I sued for peace in 1826 AD. In the meantime I had founded sid sushi.
After that, I wanted to grab the pentagon, but missed it to genghis kahn. I went into another building round.
I got broadway, as a not so consolating wonder.
I was again (still?) second in score with 2536 points vs 2610 for boudica. I decided to go back to the war path. Boudica was too strong (another dubious choice of opponent). I declared in 1874 AD with a few ships full of troops.
A few turns (1876) later shaka declared on me
.edit: 2nd part added, now that the game is accepted
While I barely get 1 city from boudica, my whole navy gets sinked by celtic magically appeared destroyers.
In the same time shaka takes back ulundi.
I lead my 2 fronts war in a new way (since there was no way I could have built a new navy fast enough): paratroopers for island hopping in celtic land, and air-tele-port in former zulu land.
I take a few celtic cities (quite good ones, loads of seafood), recapture ulundi, then raze a few more zulu cities and vassalize Shaka (1908 AD).
I built the eiffel tower, then christo redentor and finally hollywood while at war with those 2

I also founded civilzed jewelers, cereal mills and standard ethanol.
I finally made peace with boudica in 1935 AD, when there was no more way to achieve anything with paratroopers.
In 1941 I declared on the ******** but wonder rich montezuma.
I immediately took technotitlan, which was the main target because of all the wonders in it.
In 1943AD genghis declared on me. He even captured a (warrior defended) city.
I quickly took back my city (nothing beats airlifting units!)
(I also founded mining inc.)
I finished the main island monty was on, then sued for peace (leaving him on his snow balls) in 1958AD.
I then took foot in mongol lands.
And guess what? Boudica declared on me...and took back one of her cities. Those agressive immortal AIs can be trouble sometimes.
I quickly took it back.
She then took a second city.
I took this second one right back, while growing my mongol foothold.
Genghis took another weakly defended city, I should have payed more attention...
I couldn't get this one back, it was an island I couldn't reach from another of my cities, so airlifting was of no use.
I went on in mongol lands while boudica desperately assaulted her former cities. She took one again, and I retook it right after that.
In 1976 I finally had karakorum, with the pentagon.
I sued for peace (getting my island city back in the trade) with genghis, and focused a bit more on boudica.
After taking 2 of her cities, I sued for peace again (1981).
All this time Brennus had been at war with Peter then with alexander. He vassalized both (that's why I think brennus was a bad opponent choice).
I however wanted wonder filled moscow. So I declared on peter+alexander+brennus. I took it in the first turn of war.
I then took novgored, but peter took one of my cities with overwhelming troops. Too bad, I never could get it back.
I took a few more russian then celtic cities.
And guess what? Tokugawa (the big gun after me) then genghis dogpiled on me.
5 wars in the same time was a bit too much, so I sued for peace with brennus (2005AD).
I focused on tokugawa who was the only real threat at his point.
I took a few and razed 1 of his cities, getting closer to his capital in doing so.
And guess what? boudica again declared on me. Isn't she stubborn?
While continuing my progression in japanese lands, I razed a celtic city and took a few mongol ones.
In 2021 AD, genghis became my vassal.
A bit later Brennus and his vassal peter (alex was free again) dogpiled on boudica, which I had left mostly alone (she was no real threat).
I took back the city whe had taken from me and a few more, and sued for peace in 2026.
In the same year I took wonder rich kyoto and vassalized Japan. I was putting all my EP into japan to disrupt his space efforts, and continued in doing so until the end. His being my vassal made it a lot easier, since my spies could travel by plane and would never be caught while waiting. I destroyed 4 or 5 spaceship parts in the rest of the game... sorry toku, I'd rather win myself.
The was only athens missing in my wonder collection. So I declared on greece in july 2031 AD and took it in the first turn of war.
A few years of war and some yoyo taking of athens later, I vassalized alex in 2040AD. I was somewhere near 54% of land, over 70% of population, and decided it was too risky to go any further in conquest.
So i pressed enter a lot, teched to future tech 30 or so, disrupted all japanese space parts necessary and got a reasonable time victory with something over 23k points...
Was it hard? yes a bit, I had to check the domination threshold, the cultural threshold, and had to keep the space efforts of my neighbours under control.
There is a also the counterpart of selecting agressive trait + agressive setting AIs, I bolded the numerous war declarations I had to face.
Was it harder than a future start? not really. Just a lot longer.


