Warlords 3 - Swiss Style

[Swiss Pauli]

Given we’re on Prince and facing AI who don’t have Mysticism, I think it’s a pretty safe bet that many players will look to grab all the religions, then try to push their UN opponent into a heathen religion, and use shared religion to shore up the vote. As the Swiss as followers, not innovators, I shall be conforming to type. Not sure about voting for my opponent, as the AIs voting decisions can be rather, erm, idiosyncratic, and I wouldn’t want the embarrassment of voting myself a loss!

As expected, we bag all the religions. Three double Holy cities, and one single.










I used Judaism and Pacifism to spam out Prophets, two of which we’re burned on techs (Divine Right and Theology). Unfortunately, I had quite an even spread of religions which does not suit me so well. A dominant religion would allow far more manipulation that a world where Judaism, Christianity and Confucianism all have many followers. However, the silver lining to this cloud is that I can build three shrines:

[Swiss Pauli]

As to my opponent at the UN, I was strongly hoping for Mao: he’s a pain to befriend whereas Boney has REP as his favourite civic, as well as being a keen religionist. Roosy has MERC as his preferred choice and is easily pleased, Liz – if one can keep her out of Free Religion – can rack up the modifiers quite handily. Stalin is a bit of a dead loss (as I should have realized when playing): AGG and State Property as his favourite civic. And border pressure from my holy cities.

Unfortunately, as 1AD rolled around, Mao was not the AI pop leader: it’s Napoleon. On such a small map, with no chance to expand oversees, I don’t see the positions changing very much, unless war re-arranges the map. Mao seems to have some decent land and some biggish cities, so I think I’ll need his vote. Bugger. Time for Plan B: State Property for Mao, Free Religion for Liz, and maybe some gifting and all-round charm for Roosy and we’ll be home. Might even try to get pally with Joe: he seems to have lost out in the land grab and is likely to be backwards, so maybe I can win him over with gifts and SP.

Our empire fills out, and I add Colossus to the Henge in Seoul. I decided to make the capital coastal for cash mainly, but extra health from the Harbour would be quite useful, too, as resources weren’t in huge supply. Our empire gets a few filler cities added, and we’re well set. I won’t be rushing towards the UN, as I’ll need time to build up the relationship with Mao, so I won’t make too deep a play with Liberalism. Physics is a dandy tech to grab because of the free GS that can be used a lot earlier than if one researches the tech by hand.

Mao is teching quite nicely, which is another reason not too risk a grab for Radio.



I’ve been giving in to demands left, right, and centre, but I still seem to be racking up ‘worst enemy’ penalties all the time. I made a mistake in not closing borders with Boney sooner, but Roosy, Liz and Stalin seem to change their worst enemy more often that Italy changes governments. Amusingly, Liz lost York to Barbs, but I was able to wrest it back after a few hundred years, exactly one turn before Roosy would have taken it. Thought about giving it back to Liz, but I decided that would be a questionable move regarding the city-gifting rule, so I kept it for the GLORY OF KOREA, KOREA! (sorry, attack of another game)

I think I’m choosing unwisely with my gifting to Stalin: I’m sure Liz is not impressed with my largesse, and Joe is not falling over himself with joy since I switched from a shared religion to Free Religion. Speaking of choosing unwisely…

[Swiss Pauli]

STALIN DECLARES WAR ON ME (and I forget to take a pic)

My army may be rubbish, Mr. Evil Dictator, but I have a huge pile of cash, a whole bunch of Slavery-convertible pop, and tech rate that will give me Chemistry in 3 turns. So we soon go from this:




To this:







Boney has been able to maintain a (narrow) pop lead over the other AI. In my attempt to convert Roosy to FR, I send him too much Judaism and he switches to this faith. Ooops, but I can always make him switch when I control the UN. Now all I have to do is to stop any cities changing hands, and get Mao to convert to State Property. The first chance he has, he switches to…….Free Market, the muppet, and stubbornly won’t let me bribe him to change civics. Eventually, he switches of his own volition, though it might have been a request from Liz, whom I bribed into SP on the off chance she’d ask Mao to join her.

Oh no you don’t, Mr. Chairman…




Having based my tactics around Boney being my opponent, I don’t need Mao redrawing the map.




A quick check of the relations reveals Mao at plus three with Boney and net plus six with me. Not enough for him to vote for me, methinks, but surely he’ll abstain at worst. Wrong! He votes for Boney. So it will be a long fade out for the game, as I wait for the glacial shared-civic bonuses to accumulate. I’m trying to court Roosy too, and they’re worst enemies. Marvellous.

[Swiss Pauli]

Eventually, something turns up:



That should stop him voting for Boney…but it only leads to an abstention in 1800. Oh, well, let’s try to wrap this up, courtesy of MMS:




Just to prove we weren’t merely lurking without intent:



Well, you didn’t expect the Swiss Army to take too many risks, did you?


More demands!?!




I decide not to give in, but to get Roosy involved as well. Let’s go to the vote…




Finally! I was getting a bit worried as Boney has thrown a whole bunch of obsolete units against Mao’s small army, but it wouldn’t be long before a Chinese offensive materialized and I would have had to consider bribing him to make peace.
Net relations:

Boney –8, Stalin -3, Roosy +3, Mao +9, Liz +11: Total +13

30.89% of World population. How’s that for well judge pop control?



Or complete luck. You be the judge. Score me 50 for that. And 100 for the win, so 163 all in.

Very enjoyable game, which highlighted how clumsy my attempts to curry favour with, or to avoid annoying, the AI are, especially when I play in a hurry!

[Ruff_Hi]

One question - did you have fun playing this game or was it more frustration? Well done on getting the win and good to see that you actually sent in the troops.

[Compromise]

I can't believe your cannons were picking on those poor helpless elephants! And that has got to be the shortest Sino-American war imaginable.

Way to play through this one. It's a bit ironic that a "peaceful" diplomatic victory so often requires "mutual military struggle" bonuses.

[Swiss Pauli]

One question - did you have fun playing this game or was it more frustration? Well done on getting the win and good to see that you actually sent in the troops.

It wasn't too frustrating as I knew Mao can me quite a pain to befriend, but it did begin to drag somewhat at the end. Hence the war-bribe, and as Stalin had a DP with Boney I expected Mao to ask me to join, but he didn't.

The even spread of religion meant I was prepared for a long march(!) to victory and not a shared-religion early finish.

Overall, I was very interested to see a range of opponents in the reports, which I guess is down to the balanced map.

[sooooo]

Lol, 30.89% of the population. I also found it interesting to see the range of UN opponents. In my game Napoleon boxed off Mao and Roosevelt, getting the whole north west to himself. I even saw elizabeth as UN opponent in one game, whereas she was reduced to 3 or 4 cities in mine. Though universally Stalin was short of space. P.S: I'm posting this from Switzerland and my name is Paul. Scared yet?

[Swiss Pauli]

P.S: I'm posting this from Switzerland and my name is Paul. Scared yet?

Mildly concerned. But Switzerland is a big country. If you flatten all those mountains.

And my underground lair is all but impenetrable.

[KMad]

And my underground lair is all but impenetrable.

that's what all the evil geniuses think...