Adventure 19 TheArchduke - Treehugging Mao

[TheArchduke]

A free tech, like many others I spent quite a bit of time contemplating which tech to choose. And after careful consideration I came up with 4 possible ideas.

.) Rifling (Although hammerwise, axeman are more effective, those guys would never get out of date in a quick conquest game.)
.)Astronomy (Conquer that 2nd continent soon)
.) Communism (City Sprawl)

But in the end I decided on Medicine for Enviromentalism. Not only do you get free health but +1 happiness for every forest in the city radius, even if the borders haven´t popped! And who can actually say that they used Enviromentalism in one of their games? So Medicine it was.

The early years

4000 B.C. In a move I hope I didn´t regret, I settled my settler north to get those cows into my BFC. Enviromentalism was adopted asap, to make use of that wasted turn. Onwards you peaceloving, treehugging Chinese.



3980 B.C. Worker, Hunting->AH and warrior starts exploring.

3600 B.C. Turning South I encounter Huyana.

3300 B.C. Worker finished, starting scout. Worker snatches a hut before building a pasture, to get my cities bigger.

2760 B.C. Huyana snatches Buddhism, Victoria is encountered, and I decide to settle my first settler on a possible copper nearby.

2360 B.C. My scout perishes in the west to an archer, but my settler is done and on the move.

2320 B.C. Copper near the capital, a nice gesture, my settler goes south to get a cows city on the river, to thwart Huyana.

2120 B.C. Buddhism spreads to Shanghai. Most excellent, no obelisk will be needed. Barracks enroute in Peking, to build Axeman.

2000 B.C. Hindu Tokuwaga shows up, hating me already. A 2nd worker goes in between, to hook up the copper more quickly.

1640 B.C. My third settler will establish a economy city in the floodplains to the west. Whilst I start granaries/barracks/axeman in my core.

1440 B.C. Axeman or stonehenge? Axeman. I decide to show my unfriendly side and conquer the Incas.



875 B.C. Belated with 6 axeman, I go to Cuzco, as Buddhism is massive.

#

At that point Enviromentalism really began to shine. Whilst normally my cities would have been capped at size 7-8 at this stage, my cities were on a non-stop growth curve upwards, making any whipping unnecessary, as Shanghai soon became a turn 2 axeman city which lateron built the Heroic Epic.

When you think everything goes right, a suprise comes along


625 B.C. The second city is conquered.

575 B.C. My 4th settler is finished who should have settled near the marble. But the japanese were quicker, and as they are hindu, plans are taking them on next.
Saladin adds the oracle to his stonehenge, pops a GP, builds the Kong Miao and has Confucianism. I fear he will become quite the hassle.



450 B.C. Monarchy is started to combine my enviromentalism with hereditary rule for huge cities.

400 B.C. My belated attempt at the pyramids is thwarted. Manchu Pichu is razed as it is one tile away from the coast. The Incas are gone.

350 B.C. The lack of wonders gets me started on specialists, one GP to start.

The intial aztecian suprise assault comes close to taking cities and seriously throws back my cities as I am forced to whip axeman that late in the game.

300 B.C. If not for my inca-war axes, the aztecian attack would have killed me. But I whip 1-2 spearmans. My southern axe gets lucky against 2 chariots. beijing begins axeman building in 2 turn intervals.

75 B.C. I take my first aztecian city, but at a cost, several cities have been whipped for axes, and my only GP points are from a lone priest. Not one wonder has been built by me so far.



The huge buddhism bloc I invisioned has broken apart. Saladin as Confu, Victoria as Christian and the Americans having one city and the Aztecs fighting me as my only "friends".

25 A.D. Alphabet comes in. Despite marble being in japanese hands, I decide on Literature for the GL. Monotheism, Mathematics and Sailing secured against Monarchy in tech trades.

125 A.D. GL started, finished in 22 turns in Beijing. As my only unwhipped city, she is huge. Tlateloco and Monty´s source of horses is taken? Do I get peace? No.

200 A.D. I am slaughtering Monty by now, nearing his capital, but does the mad hatter accept peace, no? I am on -28 gold per month on 80%, but CoL comes soon.

225 A.D. Despite a wounded army I decide to take on Technolitian as only 3 archers are left of the jaguarman/chariot madness. If this was warlords I would have been dead by now thanks to zounds of Chariots.
I take Tech, with 6 axes lost against 3 archers... But Monty is finally ready for peace. I decline his offer of a jungle city, but he gives up Construction.
I start on 5 workers in my cities and my new Great Prophet heads to Cuzco.

To be continued..

[TheArchduke]

The Japanese War and even more Treehugging

I haven´t chopped on forest so far and as every one of them makes one citizien happy, I probably won´t chop a single one of them. Trees and Peace for everyone!

250 A.D. The Mahabodi brings in 12 very needed gold per turn.

300 A.D. I go for MetalCasting, to perhaps get one wonder.

540 A.D. The GL is nearly finished, and Machinery comes up next after Metal Casting which again Saladin has. But my economy is catching up, thanks to the Buddhist Shrine, Super Beijing and the Cottage city on the western floodplains.

620 A.D. The GL is finished, my first wonder.



660 A.D. Academy built in Beijing, I really don´t need Philosophy..

840 A.D. Amazing.. 1-2 turns before I wanted to, Tokuwaga declares war on me.

The Japanese war was really nasty, reminding me of the close aztecian war. Once I was close to loosing Beijing.



880 A.D. My advancing forces suffer some staggering losses, still with Elephants and Chukonus on production everywhere, things should turn out well.

920 A.D. Civil Service comes in, enabling Macemen, still the japanese Horse Archers are pressing me hard.

940 A.D. My first turn without losses as I retreating into Beijing..

1040 A.D. I finally advance on Satsuma with several 2 turn built Shanghaian Elephants.. I have to take that bottleneck to regain control of my eastern country.



1070 A.D. Paper comes in and I burn one GS on Education. Satsuma is connected and reinforced by an endless stream of Elephants and Chokunus.

1100 A.D. An Elephant dies to a catapult, yeah, the RNG really dislikes me after a good early start..

1130 A.D. Edo is taken, and I make peace, to build a bigger, fatter army. I have officially given up making nice with those guys, whilst Victoria has actually more GNP. Everyone on this continent will be conquered now.

1150 A.D. Beijing has only 2 national parks, so growth is stopped at size 14 for the moment. But the nice thing is how I have zero happiness issues in cities with 4-5 forests, as Beijing since day 1 had only 2. Universities come in in all cities.

1170 A.D. Liberalism in 7 turns, next target Kyoto with its Pyramids, as soon as I can dow.

1190 A.D. For the lack of better academy sites, I begin a golden age with another Prophet from Cuzco.

1210 A.D. Building 2-3 Stupas as I actually still don´t have any health issues.
Despite having 4! cities of which 3 are crappy, Roosevelt manages an wesome tech trade of 3 versus 3 techs.. Nice!

1230 A.D. Liberalism comes in, Nationalism as a freebie, Drama next in 1 turn. I guess from now on it is mop up time.

1240 A.D. Silver is popped near Beijing, in celebration we declare war on Japan. Furs and Optics are secured from Victoria. And as expected Japan has not yet recovered from the war, there is no huge assault like last time.

1280 A.D. With heavy losses, Kyoto is taken, the Pyramids are mine.



1370 A.D. The first new civics change since a long time, theocracy, representation, caste system and free speech is done. And the last.

1515 A.D. The economy is thriving, cavalries are built in all cities, replaceable parts in in 3 turns.

[TheArchduke]

The Mopup


1560 A.D. Victoria, the only opponent still left who has economic power asks for a fish-horses trade whilst I amass cavalries. No chance.

1570 A.D. Saladin circumsails the Globe, mass upgrading of Elephants to Cavalries finished.

1575 A.D. Saladin #3 and Victoria #2 are dowed on the same turn with 3 cities overrun as they got longbows.

1640 A.D. Peace is made with both, 8 cities have been taken, including some english cottage powerhouses. Next stop Galleons to get rid of those pesky island cities south.



1665 A.D. A GA is born in Beijing and my galleon forces are nearing the islands.

1695 A.D. The Aztecs are no more.

1715 A.D. The English are dowed

1725 A.D. My forces advance on London, I didn´t play it pretty with Cannons or Riflemen, I just romped over riflemen or longbows who stood in my way with cavalries.

1755 A.D. With heavy losses the English are destroyed, next on my list America, Japan and then Arabia.

1780 A.D. War is declared on Arabia and America, although Saladin has fortified his southern island with 8 troops..

1808 A.D. America is down, but Saladin proves to be quite resistant as he has 3-4 islands fortified with riflemen, I call for a ceasefire and prepare for a full scale invasion later on.

1818 A.D. Japan has gone the way of the dodo, after a quick invasion, only Arabia and one american city stand in my way now.

1842 A.D. The SoL is built and America is gone, Arabia down to 2 cities.

1848 A.D. The world is free.



The Conclusion



The game setup was much fun.

Not only did the Terra Map allow for weird conquest of a 2nd continent early on, but also for a quick and massive conquest spree, if not for those pesky islands south which cost me 50 years to take in the end.

The game was a nailbiter for me. As expected my axes did a good job of Huyana but both the aztecian and japanese invasion made the game a rough ride at the onset of the war, but in the end provided me with much needed room for expansion.

The game was quite unusual as I didn´t chop one forest and apart from 1-2 emergency whips of axeman in the aztecian war, I didn´t sacrifice one pop for infrastructure. If you have no happiness limit, you just grow along.

Imo, apart from state property, nothing comes close to Enviromentalism in the ability to create HUGE cities early on. I am quite anxious to see if someone else choose Medicine as a free tech as well and to read the other reports.

[EricStratton]

That was great. What an interesting choice in Medicine. Seemed to work out well!

[TheArchduke]

Thanks, though I am suprised that so many took Communism, which has its uses only later in the game. But then again I am not a fun of a massive city sprawl.

I hope that someone else took Medicine, so that we can compare.

[T-hawk]

Well done! I was hoping somebody would go with Environmentalism. Looks like it worked out really well with huge military-producing cities (though Rifling probably would have gone faster.)

You had trouble with Japan? I rolled right over them in my game, with macemen and then grenadiers against longbows. What units were on each side? Did you use spears to counter the horse archers?

[TheArchduke]

Well done! I was hoping somebody would go with Environmentalism. Looks like it worked out really well with huge military-producing cities (though Rifling probably would have gone faster.)

You had trouble with Japan? I rolled right over them in my game, with macemen and then grenadiers against longbows. What units were on each side? Did you use spears to counter the horse archers?

The trouble with Japan was that I decided to roll over Huyana first and I didn´t have too much time to prepare for the war with Japan as Monty occupied me soon afterwards.

I used war elephants and crossbowmen excessively against Japan, but Tokuwaga produced quite a huge number of units to attack me. Horse Archers and Macemen. In retrospect, taking out Japan first would have been easier. But Buddhism proved to be more tempting then Hinduism.

Enviromentalism paid off really well as it resulted in a 1/3 higher populace right from the start, which meant a better production and commerce.

[Sullla]

Glad to see that Environmentalism civic worked out so well! Maybe we should run a succession game someday to test things further in that area, hmm...

For Treehuggers, your people were pretty violent, weren't they?

Most interesting to me was that no civ managed to plant a city on the eastern continent in the whole game. You didn't make the attempt, and my guess is that the AIs who tried got taken out by the barbs. Truly it remained an undisturbed barbarian paradise!

[TheArchduke]

As I seldom play games out, I had yet to have a single conquest game finished and even without the new world I had about 58% of the landmass at then end of the 61% I needed. So I could have squeezed 1-2 cities on the new world without risking domination.

And don´t mistake treehuggers for being non-violent. Non-Violence is reserved for all forests. As other civilizations chopped those down, they choose so unwisely, as the wrath of Mao showed them.

[darrelljs]

Yes! I was hoping someone would get a Conquest victory. One of the nice things about the Terra map is you can play "Domination" style and still get to see the cool Conquest video if you move fast enough . Environmentalism was a tech I had considered initially but it did seem to add something to the game. I wonder how Sirian's "Miller Time" SG would have gone with Medicine from the start?

Darrell