WOTM29 - Final Spoiler

[shyuhe]

Ugh, that was a drag. Finally finished my slog through a very late domination win (1900's). The game was more or less in control by the first spoiler point, but it's just so painful pounding through AIs that beeline rifling and enjoy the full 5% unit upgrade cost Ragnar went down (vassaled) to a combination of cannons, cavalry, rifles, and grenadiers. Then I took out Toku but forgot to make Genghis stop attacking him, so he got vassaled. I ended up having to backstab my buddy Genghis to take out Toku, but never saw any troops from Genghis since he couldn't pass through his hated enemy Izzy. I then finished my game by vassaling Stalin. My warring in this game was horribly inefficient - the combination of long distances, large AI empires, and bad city management led to a really slow pace

 

[Duckweed]

@shyuhe

I have thought you have been a skillful gladiator in the battlefield, especially after the AW SG.

 

[leif erikson]

Finally finished my slog through a very late domination win (1900's).

Congrats on your win.

 

[shyuhe]

@shyuhe

I have thought you have been a skillful gladiator in the battlefield, especially after the AW SG.

I'm just mad at myself that it took me so long to hit domination on emperor! Although from the looks of the reports, it looks like many people were struggling with this map.

 

[evanevanevans]

I quit and won't submit.

After attacking Monte again and making really good progress, I was attacked from the North by Ragnar. It was no contest. It really makes me want a feature in CIV: appeasement. You know when an a civ declares war and the screen says "So be it."? There should be another selection, "Can't we work this out?" which will give you a one-time only chance to appease the civ and avoid war. You might have to give techs, cities, gold, or change civics, and you might not be able to do it. But, you'd have a chance.

I still haven't learned to keep border cities well-defended.

Same happened to me ... Monte out and was having to and fro with Ragnar then Isabella becomes vassell to Gengis and soon its all over bar a miracle ... and having lost many (and I mean many) battles at 90-99% I thought I'd spend my time elsewhere

 

[neilmeister]

This was a hard slog, but to be honest, I was just glad to win!

With the first 3 AI's being Monte, Ragnar & Toku, I knew this was going to be tough. Went to war with Monte very early for me, as I knew it was him or me. Took 2 cities he founded on my side of the bottle neck with Axe's. Later on Cats/Maces took 2 more, including his capital, but couldn't finish him off.

Traded a few techs with Ragnar & Alex, before I stupidly aceded to GK request to go to war with Izzy. She was sooooo far away, and everyone hated her, so I thought I would take the diplo bonus with GK (he had some sweet techs). BIG mistake, as Izzy had signed a defensive pact with Stalin only a few turns earlier. So, I was now at war with Stalin as well, who had settled the jungle to the north and was a mighty power. Ragnar & Toku were his buddies, so that meant NO more tech trades for almost the whole game. On the plus side, the drafted rifles and built Cavalry took the jungle cities and then stomped what was left of Monte.

After that, I just tried to out tech Ragnar, but failed. At least he never attacked me, I expect the stack I left parked near his border dissuaded him. Ragnar was the monster of my game, at no point was my power even half of his.

Ragnar built 4 Casings and 2 thrusters before I got Apollo built, but I still beat him to launch.... and victory

Ragnar almost won a Diplo victory, but thankfully Toku didn't like him enough and the two of us were just able to stop him winning.

Strangest stat of my game was that my most built unit was WB's (26). Toku & GK both went to war with me 3 times, and pillaged my fishes & clams almost every time. Fittingly, the unit I lost the most was Frigates!

 

[Conquistador 63]

Before starting to play, I thought to myself: “A game featuring the Zulu when the FIFA World Cup is about to begin in South Africa? I can’t fail to play and submit it!” And yet, I almost abandoned it a few times while playing. Not because it was boring (on the contrary), but due to my own mistakes. If I were to give my game a subtitle, it would be “a comedy of errors” – but at least it had a happy end.

I settled in place and went fishing/wheel/pottery to cottage all these FP’s then went mining/BW. But was slow to fogbust and failed to get GW and/or some impi for barb defense: As a result, lost my city#3 (fish/copper/wine) to a barb archer before 1100BC – and it took me another thousand years to recapture it! This nasty event hampered my expansion, and Monte could settle a couple cities towards me.

But at some point my investment on cottages started to pay off and I was able to DOW Monte in 600AD. I quickly captured 2 cities and settled another one towards him near the deer resource. He quickly got his LB’s up and my advance towards his capital stalled, so I took peace around 900AD. But shortly after cease fire I teased him with some tribute demands and he eventually declared on me in 1080AD. It actually served me well, as I was able to kill his troops easier near my own chokepoint city. After his SOD was gone, my army of grenadiers/trebs/cavs proceeded to finally eliminate Aztec in 1430AD. At last, after 1500AD or so I had a source of iron to start building cannons, even though I had taken Steel from Lib ages ago (1150AD).

Meanwhile, Stalin was beating Alex and Genghis was doing the same to Izzy, the weakest civ (as always, isn’t it?). Since my troops were in Aztec lands, it seemed natural to cross the ocean and accept Genghis’ invitation for the party. It should have been cakewalk, if I wasn’t so stingy and had paid 200g or so to bribe Stalin the turn right after he vassalized Alex. Instead, he accepted Izzy’s request to be a vassal next turn and all of a sudden my cavs, grens and cannons who were celebrating the fall of Madrid and its shiny Pyramids, noticed that they were surrounded by angry Cossacks! Time for a Dunkerque-style retreat, but they left promising to return for revenge soon. Factories and power plants were being built everywhere in homeland, and research went towards industrialism (tanks!). I started to amass a fair amount of infantry, marines, and even a few tanks (every other turn in the HE city) around 1700AD.

But that revenge never came. Submission deadline was closing in dangerously (and so was World Cup which will bite most of my spare time in the next few days) so I switched gears and went for a quick (in RL time, that is) space race win. Launched in 1844AD, before any AI had Apollo. From the spaceship window I could see Genghis (now helped by Toku) still fighting Stalin and his vassals. And for the record, was it really Ragnar my neighbor to the north? He never entered any war in my game, he seemed more like Gandhi in disguise with a horned helmet and a long beard.

Fun game, keep’em coming Leif!

 

[Ronnie1]

So I should really take some lessons from C63....I had no comedy of errors, played about how I wanted to, and got beat to space by 25 years by someone who wasn't even trying to get there.

Sad...sad...sad...sad............

 

[Htadus]

Awsome games C63 and Ronnie1, I too ended in space in 1852.

I played this game in 3 sessions (I think). First I was heading to Space with cottage path. Attacked Monty early and got 5 cities before stopping the session.

Since I was hoping to go the cottage path , I decided to take Democracy from Lib. in 1260AD during the second session and finished off Monty earlier too. Then I move all my units to Ragnars border and left them there for the rest of the game. I have yet to run emancipation.

Next I decided to use state property, so I went for Bio and Commiunism to run a hammer economy. Never changed to state property. Then I got serious during this last session. Just focused on getting the right techs with the hope of getting the spaceship in 18th century but when that did not happened I realized that my wondering all over the tech chart caused me to go past the 1800's.

I am disappointed with my self for not focusing on one path and working diligently on it. And Since I did not have that many cities to justify SP, I should have not focused on the communism either. I hope to play from my first save with focus to see how pure cottage economy would turn out.

I was able to run 100% science most of the game due to tech selling and producing several GM's for gold trade missions. Only GK would trade techs with me and each AI had there own religion too to make things sticky.

 

[BLubmuz]

I was convinced that with that set up, my space in 1884 was a great date.
Perhaps it is, but someone did better .

Settle in place, fishing first, sent the scout as north as possible, met Ragnar, popped some hut for money and masonry. Once borders expanded i noticed land W, so i sent my WB to explore instead of build the net. That net would have waited some hundred years.

I was constantly to the happy cap, so no point in having another food source.
Then an Aztec scout arrived, to introduce me the Buddhist founder. Few turns later found copper in BFC. Impi-rush. No second thoughts, no mercy. 1 warrior, WB, 2 workers, barracks and Impis, more Impis.
The problem was that Monty has 3 cities, all well placed. Took them pretty easily, but i got my economy ruined.
Chopped Pyramids in his former Capital (later built the FP there). I has OB with all but Ragnar (will have later in the game) and of course Toku. They cancelled the deal, then offered back.
GK was my best trading partner and i managed to trade some minor tech even with Alex (the last i met) and Ragnar later, much later.
I managed to finance my research selling obsolete techs to the AIs.

Once CoL and CHs went online my problems decreased, so i settled all the continent until the choke point near Iron/Spices. Took a barb city near the Ivory/Pigs, razed another near the sugar to place mine better. Settled the jungle. And backfilled some nice spot between me and former Aztecland.
Founded Tao with a GS, first to Lib and, Economics and to circumnavigate.
By the time of Physics is wasn't a race
Choosen Nationalism from Lib, i has a GS for some 70% of Astro, so no point in have it for free. Burnt another GS for some 70% of Chem (well aware to not complete Astro) to have frigates ASAP.
I've tried to have more from Lib, but seen Toku (the most advanced AI 'til Renaissance) having both prerequisites, so better safe than sorry.
Built the GLib in Ulundi and the Parthenon in the former Aztec city near wheat/gems (not sure on this). GAge from Taj helped to push me to the tech lead.

Space was decided right after i met Monty.
Never adopted a religion, despite i was the Buddhist founder (OK, not me exactly, but i owned the Holy city).

Then, some trouble and some fun, too. I got rifles and GK traded me MT.
Alex was the first to DoW me, and his pitiful stack was wiped by my superior troops or sunk by my navy. Then i got Infantry, transports and destroyers.
Toku dowed me and the same happened to his stacks. Also destroyed a lot of ships and razed a coastal city with Marines, just to teach him something.

In both case they payed a nice sum for peace. When i was completing my SS some destroyer was sighted, but i has battleships, tanks and marines.

Ragnar offered OB, ok why not? He was never involved in a war. and he was the only AI with a couple of SS parts built when i launched.
GK (Confu) was fighting against Izzy (Hindu like Stalin), but not much more for what i remember.

When i was completing the game i took a glance to the first spoiler, so i thought to be in great shape.
Not great enough i think.

I know that Aggressive AI in Warlords means "let's go after the Human" and Aggressive by trait will help this. Almost an AW game.
Fun? yes i like fights. Mainly when i win.