I was going to play this as a private game, but the game was so fun that I decided to post this summary, even if only to thank Sirian for setting up such a fun scenario.
Remembering the power of Keshiks from the no-promotions SG, I intended to start with some early aggression based on Keshiks, and proceed as quickly as my economy would allow. That plan worked out quite well, allowing me to conquer enemies at a slow, but steady pace, while maintaining slight technological edge.
At the start, I left production on the Worker, but switched research to Agriculture, because I'd need it to connect rice, and it would make Animal Husbandry cheaper. The barbarians were turned off, so I didn't have to worry about military protection for my island. My second city went in the same location as everybody else's to immediately connect the horses. This city became cottage center. The third city was a production center in the south-west with as many forest and grassland tiles as possible while keeping the city coastal. Fourth city was built much later to complete cultural control of my continent. It went on the sourthern shore with no food resources, but several grasslands in its radius. I founded as few cities as possible, because with no city razing, I'd have too many cities anyway.
My early research went into Agriculture -> AH (horses and pasture) -> Fishing -> Sailing (Galleys) -> Pottery (Cottages) -> Mining -> BW (copper, which wasn't there) -> Writing (Libraries) -> IW (iron) -> Mysticism -> HBR.
Meanwhile, I met Toku in 1270BC, when his Hinduism had spread to me, and noticed his borders to the north-east. I immediately attacked him with Chariots, facing mainly warriors and archers. First city fell in 685BC and, with a couple swords to soften archer defenses, Japan was destroyed in 445BC.
Kyoto became my main production center, building most of my military. Karakarum and Turfan (in western forests) also trained some units, but focused largely on missionaries and infrastructure. The rest of the cities built only infrastructure for the entire duration of the game, trying to keep my economy afloat. I didn't cut any non-hill forests, which might have been a mistake, relying on whip for production.
The main challenge was keeping up with AIs technologically, because my research rate fell to 0 after conquering Japan and remained in the 20-30% range for a large portion of the game. One of my problems was discovering CoL (560AD) and Currency (1055AD) relatively late, because I was focusing on military techs, ignoring CS. My military priorities included Feudalism (1148AD), Machinery, Guilds (1310AD), Banking (for Mercantilism), Optics (1490AD, after I got tired of losing too many Galleys to Caravels), and, finally, Military Tradition in 1628AD, followed by Gunpowder in 1643.
During this time, my military campaign proceeded at a slow, but steady, pace. Russia was crippled using Keshiks and Cats when I captured its southern half up to and including Moscow by 770AD. This left Russia with a few small cities, but no workers or improved tiles. After that I turned my attention east, capturing all of western China with Keshiks (and later Knights) + Cats (and some axes/spears for defense) against ancient units. Western China and all of Persia were captured with Knights + Cats against Longbows. Cyrus had Engineering for a while, but I saw only one Pikeman. After that I came back to finish off Russia and started attacking Gandhi with Cavalry + Cats v. Longbows and Pikes, but a few border expansions gave put me over domination threshold in 1676, right after I've captured my first Indian city.
Domination Victory in 1676AD.
I had some good luck because Persia and China were at war when I found them, but no cities changed hands and they've made peace shortly after I had landed a couple of units on their continent. A large portion of my losses was due to terrible tactics (sending units one at a time through enemy territory, losing pillaging stacks by splitting them, attacking a Russian city with a stack that was too small, etc.), so I should have been able to win even faster, but 1676 is still not too bad.
This game forced a very unusual game plan, with CS and Liberalism made worthless by variant rules and military dominated by mounted units. I want to again thank Sirian for a very fun experience. (Fun enough to convince me to return to CIV for a few games.
)
Remembering the power of Keshiks from the no-promotions SG, I intended to start with some early aggression based on Keshiks, and proceed as quickly as my economy would allow. That plan worked out quite well, allowing me to conquer enemies at a slow, but steady pace, while maintaining slight technological edge.
At the start, I left production on the Worker, but switched research to Agriculture, because I'd need it to connect rice, and it would make Animal Husbandry cheaper. The barbarians were turned off, so I didn't have to worry about military protection for my island. My second city went in the same location as everybody else's to immediately connect the horses. This city became cottage center. The third city was a production center in the south-west with as many forest and grassland tiles as possible while keeping the city coastal. Fourth city was built much later to complete cultural control of my continent. It went on the sourthern shore with no food resources, but several grasslands in its radius. I founded as few cities as possible, because with no city razing, I'd have too many cities anyway.
My early research went into Agriculture -> AH (horses and pasture) -> Fishing -> Sailing (Galleys) -> Pottery (Cottages) -> Mining -> BW (copper, which wasn't there) -> Writing (Libraries) -> IW (iron) -> Mysticism -> HBR.
Meanwhile, I met Toku in 1270BC, when his Hinduism had spread to me, and noticed his borders to the north-east. I immediately attacked him with Chariots, facing mainly warriors and archers. First city fell in 685BC and, with a couple swords to soften archer defenses, Japan was destroyed in 445BC.
Kyoto became my main production center, building most of my military. Karakarum and Turfan (in western forests) also trained some units, but focused largely on missionaries and infrastructure. The rest of the cities built only infrastructure for the entire duration of the game, trying to keep my economy afloat. I didn't cut any non-hill forests, which might have been a mistake, relying on whip for production.
The main challenge was keeping up with AIs technologically, because my research rate fell to 0 after conquering Japan and remained in the 20-30% range for a large portion of the game. One of my problems was discovering CoL (560AD) and Currency (1055AD) relatively late, because I was focusing on military techs, ignoring CS. My military priorities included Feudalism (1148AD), Machinery, Guilds (1310AD), Banking (for Mercantilism), Optics (1490AD, after I got tired of losing too many Galleys to Caravels), and, finally, Military Tradition in 1628AD, followed by Gunpowder in 1643.
During this time, my military campaign proceeded at a slow, but steady, pace. Russia was crippled using Keshiks and Cats when I captured its southern half up to and including Moscow by 770AD. This left Russia with a few small cities, but no workers or improved tiles. After that I turned my attention east, capturing all of western China with Keshiks (and later Knights) + Cats (and some axes/spears for defense) against ancient units. Western China and all of Persia were captured with Knights + Cats against Longbows. Cyrus had Engineering for a while, but I saw only one Pikeman. After that I came back to finish off Russia and started attacking Gandhi with Cavalry + Cats v. Longbows and Pikes, but a few border expansions gave put me over domination threshold in 1676, right after I've captured my first Indian city.
Domination Victory in 1676AD.
I had some good luck because Persia and China were at war when I found them, but no cities changed hands and they've made peace shortly after I had landed a couple of units on their continent. A large portion of my losses was due to terrible tactics (sending units one at a time through enemy territory, losing pillaging stacks by splitting them, attacking a Russian city with a stack that was too small, etc.), so I should have been able to win even faster, but 1676 is still not too bad.
This game forced a very unusual game plan, with CS and Liberalism made worthless by variant rules and military dominated by mounted units. I want to again thank Sirian for a very fun experience. (Fun enough to convince me to return to CIV for a few games.
)
