Civilization: Persia
Game Settings: Epic Pace / Fractal Map / Standard Size
Relative Rank: Easier (Immortal)
Outcome: Domination Victory
Version: 6/15, I think
Quick background:
I only recently began using this patch, and usually play Deity in the base game. This was my second Immortal game, the first being a Babylon game that I quit at the end out of boredom - I intentionally attempted a mostly peaceful Science Victory, and didn't realize at that time just how long that takes at the end, especially on Epic pace.
Game summary:
Interesting map, as is usual with the Fractal setting. There were 3 continents:
1: Myself (Persia), Spain, Siam
2: India, Babylon, China
3. Egypt, Greece
I went Authority (Finish) > Tradition (3 - filler) > Rationalism (Finish) > Autocracy (3)
I had a coastal start on a thin continent with Spain close by. Spain started off forward settling me to get Fountain of Youth very early. The thin continent and awkward placement of city states made it so I really only had 2 expand options, and neither were strong: a mostly Tundra location to the north, and a large island shared by a city state to the south. Spain DoW me early, which put me in war production early, and I wiped her out in a counter attack. Went on to conquer Siam > China > Babylon > Greece and was prepping to take out Egypt when I got in a two front war unexpectedly.
Ghandi was my bro this whole game, despite my genocidal tendencies. His capitol was right next to the Babylon cities I took, and was WIDE open terrain wise, though he was ahead of me in science and had a very large navy and land army. I thought he would be my friend right to the end when I could quickly buy some artillery and blitz him, but he surprised me with a DoW right when I DoW'd Egypt. My entire navy and land army was on another continent, and I only had a few conscripted untis from the Authority finisher to defend the Babylonian conquests, and my capitol was wide open to his navy. Turtled hard, flipped a border city several times, and he got my Capitol in the red at one point...but I counter attacked taking both Thebes and Dheli around the same time on turn 460.
I plan on trying deity next. If I can be honest I've found this patch to make the game easier if you play wide and are super aggressive. The base game discouraged aggressive play through a very harsh happiness mechanic, and without that mechanic I feel like I snowball quickly.
We'll see what happens in Deity though
