Adv 45: novice whips that crack (or something) - Kremlin/Globe Theatre

[novice]

I played with Kremlin + Globe Theatre. Currently in the 1200s AD and a couple of turns from domination.

Settled high food locations (preferrably with food resources in first ring) for super-fast early expansion (which led to some awkward filler cities later).

Settled as far as ivory and iron towards Egypt and copper towards Mali. Also settled stone island. Prioritized worker techs early, which meant that I missed out on Stonehenge and Oracle (and thus Colossus, which I captured later). The rest of the wonders I whipped in Carthage. Carthage got the National Epic to go with all the wonders. Missed a few irrelevancies like Hagia Sophia and Schwedagon Paya. The only wonder I remotely wanted that I didn't get was Angkor Wat.

I built a Moai/HE city and whipped a ton of units all over the empire. When my power started spiking Mali vassalised to me, so I conquered Egypt (knights vs archers), then Byzantium (cuirassiers vs longbows/muskerts) and then Greece (cavalry vs longbows/muskets). Settled the central islands to reach the domination limit.

To maintain my empire I ran a number of mausoleum-powered golden ages, and built the holy quartet (Sistine, AP, UoS, SM). A single seafood resource or a few grassland tiles was enough to build an economically viable and productive city. I built the Versailles in Thebes and the forbidden palace in Byzantium.

My wonder combination was extremely powerful so the game played like an easy monarch game. Consequently I didn't put a lot of effort into it and made many suboptimal micromanagement decisions, as well as conducting a lazy campaign. My best game decision was probably the initial wonder selection. I easily had the power to wage a two front war in both directions around the ring, but couldn't be bothered.

Thanks to the sponsor for a fun game!

I'd just like to reiterate that the Kremlin was extremely powerful. Carthage could whip a population point for 44 hammers (not 45 unfortunately, due to rounding errors) multiplied by (1 + 0.25 (OR) + 0.25 (forge) + 0.50 (BB)) = 88 hammers. (EDIT: That doesn't sound quite right, not sure where the Kremlin bonus is applied. Anyway, it was powerful stuff.) At that pace, whipping even wonders was a cinch, especially with both marble and stone readily available. My other cities could also whip like crazy, I had plenty of happy resources + Notre Dame, religions and representation. My military pumps all had ~15 unhappy from whipping.

[darrelljs]

Very nice Novice...going with a mounted approach to mitigate the long supply lines and teching fast enough that Calvary were able to finish the job .

Darrell

[Profane]

Very nice indeed!
I wasn't in time to use Cavalry effectively, so I had to go for Modern Era fast movers for my Domination win.

Looking forward to your full report!

[novice]

Well I haven't actually finished the game but I don't have the time. Here's a fuller report, not much thrilling narrative, though.

I went workboat first while researching bronze working, and immediately revolted to slavery. Whipped the workboat and overflowed into an instant second workboat. Grew to size three on a warrior, 1-pop whipped a worker, and then I don't really remember. Carthage was nicely set up by t38, at least:



Apparently I researched agriculture, the wheel and pottery after bronze working, and then sailing. Growing back from the settler/worker whips that followed I built warriors and a galley. (I only needed a few turns to grow back from a whip, as you can see.)

My western border at the end of the expansion phase:



Eastern border:

[novice]

So here's the wonder situation at 100AD:



I proceeded to whip some more wonders:

Sistine Chapel:


Notre Dame, rushed by a low-odds Great Engineer:


I think I also rushed the Apostolic Palace with an engineer. The RNG punished me by giving me lots of Great Artists later on, but I found a use for them in bulbing Nationalism:



Angkor Wat, being built in the above screenshot, was delayed for Taj Mahal, and ended up being Built In A Foreign Land.

Completing the holy quartet of Sistine, AP, University of Sankore and Spiral Minaret:

[novice]

I got this quest early on but forgot about it and somebody else actually beat me to it.



I wonder what the reward was, I seem to remember that it is 4 of your best mounted units, or something. :headslap:

How to build the Heroic Epic in one turn:



First blood was drawn in 475AD:



Middle of egyptian campaign:



Middle of byzantium campaign:



Start of the greek campaign, really the only tactical moment worth mentioning. Alexander had all his surplus army in his border city. I could have just blitzed it but opted to declare and wait for him to move out. I could then wipe out the stack at no losses and flank away his siege.

Alexander's stack:



1 turn into the war. Alexander moved is stack 1 SE of Ephesus to the fogged tile. My combat 4 cavalry have great odds...



After taking the city, Alexander's stack was exposed on flatland, and my attackers could attack from Ephesus.



Am I a tactical genius or what?

Kerkouane and Leptis, two of my military pumps, whipped mercilessly throughout the game:





Middle of the Greek campaign:



Settlers moving out to settle the center islands:



Latest screenshot, and my latest wonder completed. I finally got a Great Priest out of Carthage for the Jewish shrine (yielding 40-something gpt.). I also have the Buddhist shrine in Constantinople yielding 30-something gpt.

[novice]

Since nothing much is happening on the forums today, I completed this game just to get a finish date, even though this is clearly a shadow game by now.

I declared on France to take two island settlements on the center islands. As I was eeking out the final few percent through border expansions I noticed that Louis was willing to capitulate just based on losing those two cities and based on my huge army (and navy). My troops were already en route to the hexagone in case I needed more land, but this saved me some time.

Thus, domination victory in 1290AD.

[T-hawk]

Nice work. Glad to see a solid military victory and kudos for sticking it out. It does seem like Kremlin abuse was better than even a dedicated military wonder like West Point.

[novice]

Yeah, actually in my pre-game analysis I thought that the Kremlin was the most powerful wonder but I wasn't really sure what victory conditions it was most suited for. I wanted Globe Theatre because it seemed the most synergetic thing to take with the Kremlin, and I figured fastest domination was more likely than fastest space, as the research wonders would have a solid lead on space. I figured if anyone selected military wonders they would go for conquest rather than domination, as they would be starting the warring earlier.

As it happened, the map was probably a bit large for conquest, and not many people went for domination either, it seems. (Or those who did never came close to finishing.)

[Profane]

I wonder what the reward was, I seem to remember that it is 4 of your best mounted units, or something. :headslap:

The Horse Whispering quests gives you the choice of either:
1) 6 (I think) unpromoted Horse Archers
2) Free Sentry promotion for all Mounted units
3) +1 Food for stables

Anyway, nicely played - you won Domination 586 years ahead of me!