Epic 14 - Muaziz (Victory in 1818 AD)

[Muaziz]

Introduction
Going into this game, I was worried that I would get beat pretty bad. This was my first ever epic game, my first ever “Always War” game, and my first ever playing on a donut shaped map. As the saying goes, there’s a first time for everything!

I decided to do a little research ahead of time, and since the start of this Epic was delayed due to the launch of patch 3.13, I had a little time. I generated a random “donut” style Pangea with Peaks since I really wasn’t sure what it was. Looking at it with the WorldBuilder, it did in fact look like a tasty donut with a crunchy center. The first thing that was obvious when looking at this map is that I would always be waging wars on two fronts. On the bright side, I would probably not have to worry too much about naval invasions, at least for a while.


Test Game and Initial Thoughts
I played a quick test game over the weekend to get myself prepared for this Epic. All the settings were the same except I played it on Normal, rather than Epic speed. Obviously it was a random map with random civs so the actual Epic 14 would likely have a much different flavor.

For this test game, I did reload a lot since I wanted to get a feel for what the AI would do. After a couple reloads, I decided it would be just easier to play without fog of war. It’s a learning exercise after all.

I was able to expand out to a total of 3 cities relatively quickly. All 3 spots were quite nice so those cities developed quickly. Once my economy was back on track, I expanded to a 4th city which also had a nice location. I was lucky enough to have access to Horses, so I was able to keep units on each of the front lines and have a roving set of Chariots to help out the side that needed it the most. That was very effective early on.

With my first Great General, I decided to make an offensive Warlord Chariot. In games with Charismatic Leaders (-25% XP required for promotions), I do like this approach. My second Great General went towards a Medic III super healing Chariot which I am also a very big fan of. Both of those decisions worked out pretty well, especially since I did not have a dedicated military production center early in the game. In fact, there were many times when I had to whip out units from all cities just to stay in the game. Future Great Generals did all settle in what became my main military city.

As the game went on, I fell further and further behind tech-wise. Since the AIs were allowed to trade, and they all loved each other (because of their mutual military struggle against me), they were able to keep a tech advantage.

After Construction, I had decided to tech to Guilds (Knights). I would get several useful techs along the way: Monarchy (for increased happiness with Hereditary Rule) and Feudalism (for Longbows). The plan was to try to be current with military techs, and hope to squeeze out an advantage with Knights then gunpowder units.

I conceded the game a couple turns before Guilds would have been researched after an enormous stack devastated my southern front. I had just recovered from a smaller attack from another civ, and did not have the time to properly rebuild. There was a decent size stack also approaching the northern front so it was time to call it.

One of the things that really hurt me this game was the unit upkeep costs. Because I was constantly being attacked on both fronts, I had to keep a good number of military units available and that meant 8-10g less per turn that could have been spent on research. Perhaps I should have teched to Feudalism more quickly to get Vassalage as soon as possible. Vassalage is high upkeep so not sure how significant a change it would have made. It did Cottage a fair bit, but it was not enough.

War Weariness was never an issue for me this game since I could barely keep up just playing defense (within my cultural borders). However, I was surprised that the enemy civs suffered no long term War Weariness despite losing a large number of troops in my territory.

Building the Great Wall would have been amazing. I make a note of that in case we have early access to Stone for Epic 14.

Catapults were amazing for me this game. I had underestimated exactly how good they would be at repelling enemy attacks. By the time I had gotten a 3rd Great General in my military city, they were coming out with 3 promotions available (due to Charismatic Leader). Starting with Barrage III sure is nice.

Enemy Spies were an annoyance, but not as bad as they could have been. Every once in a while I would lose an improvement. Fortunately, most Spies stayed away from my developed Cottages. I think that is because the Spies will sabotage the first improvement they see rather than going deeper into your territory to ransack something of higher value. Or it could be that Villages and Towns just cost more EPs than improvements like Mines and Pastures.

The research path is crucial in a game like this since every technology that you need must be researched. It’s possible that you might be able to steal a tech or two over the course of the game, but the only tech I had enough points to steal at the end of the game (after focusing all my EPs against a single AI) was a cheap early tech. So I’m guessing the EP cost of stealing techs is proportional to the research cost of the tech (which makes sense).


Game Plan
Build border cities on hills if at all possible. It is hard to overstate the importance of this, especially playing the Celts with their Gallic Warrior unique unit and Dun unique building, which start with Guerilla I.

If early Stone is available, I am going to try to build the Great Wall. I doubt I will be able to risk it without Stone since 250 hammers without the doubler will take a very long time, and I will need to get defenders ready quickly.

Research wise, I’m opting for early Archery. Maybe not as the very first tech, but early if there are no Horses. I don’t know exactly how much cheaper techs get when they are no longer monopoly techs. I searched for it on the forums, but could not find it.

Setting aside Archery, I plan to start Agriculture → Animal Husbandry (to get the tech discount from knowing Hunting). If there are Horses around, The Wheel will be important for early Chariots. After that, I need access to metals so it’s Mining → Bronze Working → Iron Working. Given that our unique unit, the Gallic Warrior, requires Iron, I doubt Sullla would be so cruel as to not give us Iron close by.

Since I will likely need Fishing eventually (given the amount of coastline on this map type), it probably makes sense to research it before Pottery to get the discount. I will most likely skip Fishing if there aren’t sea resources in my first couple cities. After that it’s Writing → Mathematics → Construction. I will need Masonry at some point for Dun (Walls); the timing of this will depend on whether there’s any Stone or Marble around.

If we have access to Horses, getting Horseback Riding before or right after Construction probably might make sense. Horse Archers are very nice early units, and the mobility is important as we will be defending on two fronts.

Getting Sailing → Calendar somewhere in that mix will probably be necessary to push the happiness cap. That depends on whether we can get an early Gems/Gold/Silver, and how many Calendar resources we have access to.

The next important tech push will be Meditation → Priesthood → Monarchy (Hereditary Rule) → Feudalism (Longbows, Vassalage). Then it’s Metal Casing (Forge) → Machinery (Crossbows) → Guilds (Knights) → Gunpowder.

Looking at the technologies that a Great Scientist can bulb, there’s no way to leverage an early Library to get something we want. We would get stuck bulbing Alphabet or Aesthetics unless we take the time to research both. We’d also have to stay away from Fishing to bulb Machinery which is the first useful tech that we could speed up.

Another option is to get Metal Casing a little earlier and then hire and Engineer until we can get a Great Engineer to pop. The first tech that a Great Engineer can bulb is Machinery. It can also bulb Feudalism after that, assuming that we haven’t research Construction (otherwise Engineering comes first). The downside of bulbing Machinery or Feudalism is that I also want those downstream techs, and they are more expensive. Maybe the plan should be to work on a Great Engineer and worry about what to do with it once we have more information.

And now, on to the real game. Needless to say, it didn’t go according to plan.


Ancient Era
The starting spot looked quite good: on the river, 2 food resources, 4 hills, forests for chopping. The Warrior first moved northeast onto the hill which revealed more of the terrain to the east, but without any special resources there. The coast had no sea resources so it made no sense not to settle in place. And thus, Bibracte was founded in 4000 BC.


With a Corn resource on a river right next to the city, I decided to start with Agriculture and build a Worker immediately. I didn’t feel that it was too much of a gambit since we started with a Warrior rather than the usual Scout. In the meantime, the Warrior was set to explore the surroundings and would hopefully be back in time to protect Bibracte and its worker.

Animal Husbandry is discovered in 3400 BC and reveals Horses within Bibracte’s fat cross. Woohoo! I would have researched Archery next, but with Horses available, I opt for The Wheel instead.


After producing a Chariot, I start in a Settler, the same turn that Bibracte reaches size 6, the current happiness cap.

Bronze Working is researched in 2600 BC. There is no Copper anywhere that I can see. Our scientists are strongly encouraged to find Iron real soon, otherwise heads are going to roll.

Here is the territory to the east. The red circle seems like a real nice spot. It’s on a hill, by a river, has a food resource, and a Calendar happiness resource as well.


And here is the territory to the west. Neither of those spots seemed as good as the spot in the east.


Vienne is founded northeast of Bibracte in 2350 BC. I hesitated a lot over the placement of this city. My other considerations were cities to the west to pick up either Gold or the Wine. I figured the Wine could wait since I was still a ways from Monarchy. I plan to pick up one of those two resources with my third city.



Classical Era
Iron Working is discovered in 2050 BC. Fortunately, there is Iron next to Bibracte so disaster is averted.

That same year, Wang Kon’s Warrior makes an appearance. Probably safe to assume that he is on the other side of the donut, all the way to the north. As a special welcome gift, I decide to kill his Warrior. All five adversaries are now known. Here is the order in which they were met: Suryarvarman II, Augustus Caesar, Churchill, Montezuma, and much later Wang Kon. I’m really, really not looking forward to Praetorians.

Scouting reveals that Montezuma is my closest foe even though he was the third opponent that I met. On the bright side, I’d rather face Jaguars than Praetorians.

Here is the satellite view in 1850 BC. You can see Monte’s territories to the northeast. It’s not clear how far west/northwest the next civilization is located. Looks like we have some breathing room though.


I was planning to settle my next city to the west. There were several options. In the end, I would choose the purple dot since it was on a hill, next to a river, had a food resource, and would give me an additional happiness resource with Monarchy. I was tempted to settle at the green dot to grab the Stone, but I was really worried about being able to defend a city so far from my capital, and also worried about the maintenance costs.


Tolosa is founded on a hill to the west in 1725 BC.


In 1350 BC, espionage reveals what the Khmer are researching. I had put all my espionage against this civ since it was the first one I met. I figured it would be better to know what at least one of them was up to.


With another Settler ready, it was time to decide the location of the next city. Note that the yellow dot was moved on square to the west when a Sheep resource turned out to be hidden in the fog of war which I had forgotten to scout earlier.


Being king seemed like a good idea, and so Monarchy is researched in 525 BC. A revolution to Hereditary Rule follows.

In 470 BC, Montezuma finally shows up with some troops. Surya had sent a small dispatch quite a while back, but I hadn’t heard from Monte, and that was beginning to worry me. He brings forth: 1 Jaguar, 2 Chariots, 2 Spears, and 1 Archer. After approaching the city and realizing that I now have quite a few more troops than before, Monte decides to wait for a couple reinforcements. I had queued 1 Gallic Warrior and 1 Axe with only 1 production turn to go for an occasion such as this. That way I was able to save a little on upkeep costs since I had reached the cap. Upkeep costs really hurt me in the test game I had played so I decided to try to use this approach to minimize some of those costs here. When the AIs start sending really large stacks, this approach won’t be quite as good, but every little bit helps.


Here is the defense in Vienne. It has little difficulty in defending the city.



Medieval Era
In 320 BC, a small miracle occurs. Code of Laws is discovered and The Oracle is completed. Needless to say, Civil Service is online. Confucianism is founded in Vienne to boot!

The first Khmer forces arrive near Tolosa in 155 BC. You can also see the young city of Gergovia to the southeast, where the yellow dot had been.


Those forces sat around for the most part. And some years later, the Koreans are approaching Tolosa as well.


On the eastern front. The Aztecs and Romans are lurking near Vienne, reluctant to attack a well defended city on a hill.


The English show up shortly thereafter. And they face the same uphill battle.


Unfavorable dice produce this fine result.


At this point in the game there is a steady steam of enemy forces arriving on both fronts. Here is the situation outside of Vienne in 55 AD when three enemy stacks find themselves together.


Five hundred years later, it’s the same old sh*t, different century.


I had researched Feudalism in 490 AD, but still did not have Archery. While Longbows are great at defending, I was finding almost never attacking the well fortified city. Enemy troops would literally park out in front of the city for centuries on end. Often times, they would not even bother pillaging the pasture. To get them to attack, I would usually have to move into the wooded tiles north of the city.

Research wise, I can see that I have a lead right now on the Foreign Advisor screen. No one has Civil Service, Code of Laws, or Metal Casing; only Caesar has Feudalism; and only two enemies have Monarchy. I am lacking Fishing, Archery, Polytheism, Alphabet, Aesthetics, and Currency. That’s not too bad.

In 655 AD there is finally a Praetorian sighting. I’ve had Macemen for a long time now, so they are not nearly as dangerous as they could have been. In hindsight, they were a complete non-factor during this game. I wonder if the Romans did not have any Iron near their starting spot. I took a look at this after the game. There was only a single Iron resource to be had in the northern part of the map. Unfortunately for the Romans, it was grabbed by the English when they expanded west towards Rome.


The Romans bring a large stack in 730 AD.


And the Romans are massacred after a couple of Catapults soften them up.


As you can see in Event Log, Guilds is discovered in 730 AD. I had spread Confucianism to all my cities by this time, so I decided to research Polytheism then Monotheism for Organized Religion. I probably should have done that before researching Guilds. I still don’t have Calendar yet either, but only have access to one Calendar happiness resource otherwise I probably would have prioritized it higher.

Here is the satellite view during this time.


Somewhere during this timeframe, a Great Engineer appeared. I opt to research Engineering (not immediately, but after I get some smaller techs out the way) rather than bulb it. Instead, I decide to save the Great Engineer for Notre Dame. Since I still don’t have any Stone, that seemed like the better option.

Monotheism is discovered in 790 AD followed by double revolt into Organized Religion and Confucianism. I probably should have switched religions a while ago, but forgot about it. I think happiness was not much of an issue though.

Currency and Horseback Riding would be the next two technologies, followed by Engineering, and then Banking for the power Mercantilism civic. I kept a close eye on the Foreign Advisor screen to make sure I was not in any danger of being beat to Liberalism.

Engineering came in 1050 AD followed by Notre Dame in 1060 AD. A Great Prophet is born that same year and settles in Bibracte.

By 1100 AD, my two border cities, Vienne and Tolosa, had a Dun, a Castle, and benefited from the defense bonus of Chichen Itza (built in 980 AD). Oh yeah, and they were on hills. Until Gunpowder comes along, there is nothing that can take those cities. I wouldn’t be surprised if one properly promoted Longbow could not hold off 10 enemy invaders. Not that I want to find out immediately.

My plan was to further build up the economy with Banking, then gear up the war effort.

In 1010 AD, there are several stacks lurking in familiar places.




Not going anywhere for a while?


Having insane city defense allowed me a lot of time to reinforce as needed. It also allowed me to stay near the unit cap without paying a lot of extra gpt for no reason. I would always keep at least one unit in the queue with 1 turn to complete, and sometimes a second unit with just a couple of hammers. That allowed me to whip out a unit and be sure I could get a second one on the next turn. I was thinking of it as “just-in-time” defense.

In 1170 AD, I check up on enemy techs. Guilds is the only tech I have on Wang. Caesar is still missing Civil Service and Code of Laws, while the other three also lack Engineering as well. This is the first game I have ever seen Wang no dig himself in a huge technology hole. I guess that if you get on his good side, he starts to act like Mansa Musa.

1200 AD sees more of the usual.




In 1345 AD, George Patton arrives, the eight Great General of the game. With early access to Stone for the Great Wall, things would have been even more insane. The previous generals had all joined Bibracte to impart their war wisdom on the troops being trained there. Military Science is still a ways away, so waiting for a Military Academy is not an option. With 7 Great Generals and a Barracks, units start off with 17 XP; that’s good enough for 4 promotions, and 3 XP shy of the 20 needed for the fifth.

1345 AD is also the first time in thousands of years that the Celtic borders are free from foreign invaders. This is short lived as Khmer forces approach the following year. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.

In 1355 I decide to upgrade this 49 XP Gallic Warrior into a Maceman. In general, I tend to wait until the next XP threshold before upgrading since you revert back to 10 XP anytime you upgrade (except for Warlord units).


One turn from discovering Liberalism, I ponder whether it would be better to research Gunpowder first in order to allow Chemistry as the free tech. It’s a 3564 beaker tech, same as Nationalism. I was originally planning on going Gunpowder and Military Tradition next in order to get Cuirassiers and eventually Cavalry, but then I realized I would need Music for Military Tradition. Ouch. To get Music, I would need Aesthetics, then either Lit or Drama.

Another option would be to research Printing Press first, and then use Liberalism for Replaceable Parts. I have a lot of Villages and Towns, so the Printing Press will be nice. And given the headache that would be getting to Military Tradition, I might be better off avoiding that for now. I will still need Nationalism eventually for Constitution and Democracy, but that doesn’t seem too pressing.

[Continued next post]

[Muaziz]

My lifelong goal of a Liberalism to Fishing slingshot is finally accomplished!


Errr… Scratch that plan. I actually had decided to research Printing Press first, I just wanted to take that screenshot. Wang did not have Education yet, and had just acquired Nationalism, so I was in no danger of losing Liberalism.

Printing Press is researched in 1420 AD, the same year Wang learns about Education. Liberalism (which only had one turn to go) arrives the next turn and gives me Replaceable Parts for free. First time I’ve ever done that.

A Great Engineer, my third Great Person, is born in 1385 AD. He can contribute 1731 beakers to the research of Gunpowder or I can save him for a future Wonder. Hmmm. Possibly the Taj Mahal if I decide to get Nationalism sooner rather than later. I’d like for two other civs to have it so it is cheaper to research (I think that’s how that works, but not certain).

In the meantime, enemies kept flowing into my territory, and most of the fights went like this:



Offensive Against the Aztecs
In the 1400s, I was finally ready to go on offense. My economy was in great shape running at 80% research with a slight surplus, and most of my veteran troops had been upgraded to Knights and Maces. I would wait for one more stack from the Aztec and then would counter-attack immediately.

I had chosen to attack the Aztec first since they were a little closer and were the weakest enemy as indicated by their score which was more than 20% lower than the next civ. That meant they had the fewest cities and would be easiest to conquer.

In 1445 AD, my forces reach Tlatelolco. In addition to the Aztec troops garrisoned in the city, there is a nice Roman stack hiding underneath the Aztec Pikeman.


After dispatching the Roman stack, the English show up before I can focus on taking the city.



As you may have noticed, all my forces are almost fully healed despite having just defeated the Roman stack. The Chariot in the mix is a Warlord unit with the Medic III promotion, and all my units have the March promotion which allows them to heal the same turn as they move or attack.

1510 AD Great Prophet builds the Kong Miao. It was a tough call between that and joining the capitol because of the Bureaucracy bonus. I felt the shrine would be better in the long run however.

Perhaps the most dangerous moment in the game came right after I had captured Tlatelolco and was moving towards the Aztec capitol of Tenochtitlan. I had to keep forces in Tlatelolco to prevent it from being taken back, and I had to bring forward enough forces to finish off the Aztec. Much to my chagrin, English and Roman forces travel south towards Vienne rather than confront my troops in the heart of Aztec territory.



During this time, things are not much calmer on the western front with the usual dose of crappy stacks from the Khmer and the Koreans. Except for the occasional Knight, there were no forces capable of even killing a single defending unit.


By the end of 1575 AD, the Aztecs had been completely wiped out. Of course, there would be no peace, but perhaps a period of relative calm before the next battles. It was time to consolidate the Celtic territories and rebuild the military. The Heroic Epic was now built in Bibracte, so troops would now come more quickly.

Here is the satellite view after the Aztec conquest.


With the Aztecs gone, I was very confident that I had the game in hand. The worse I could face right now would be Cuirassiers and I hoped to have enough Rifles by the time they arrived. No other civs had Replaceable Parts yet so I had some time before I had to worry about Cavs. The plan was to pump out Rifles until Railroads became available (I’m hoping there’s coal somewhere). If worse came to worse, I could probably tech to Tanks and plan to win the old fashioned way. In hindsight, Tanks were actually much further off than I thought because of the Oil issue with this type of map; since there is no Desert and no Jungles, Oil can only be found in the sea, and that requires Plastics for the Offshore Platform.


Industrial Era
In 1625, Steam Power is discovered… And Wong Kong adopts Emancipation… Yikes. At least I know what he’s been up to. I guess that means I have to get to Democracy as quickly as possible. And I still don’t know the secrets of Nationhood… This will certainly slow down the economy and delay getting rail for many decades. It’s going to take about 20 turns before we can get to Emancipation. I hope the populace doesn’t get too upset about that. On the bright side, we do have access to Coal. I had decided to research Steam Power ahead of several other good options because I felt that the Levies would be very good this game. There were a ton of river tiles, so it seemed like a great way to boost productivity.

As a side note, for some reason, reaching the Industrial Era makes your Spies a lot more attractive. Go figure.

I had not prioritized Military Tradition is because I would not be able to build West Point in my military city. Bibracte already had Oxford University and the Heroic Epic. I felt that in this game, it was a trade off I was wiling to take. I was more worried about living now then about maximizing long term city potential. It’s another reason I did not research Corporation (for Wall Street) sooner. In hindsight, I think this was a good choice. Tolosa became my powerhouse production center with Ironworks, while Bibracte remained as my military factory throughout the game. The central location of my capital really made it an ideal military center since we were constantly waging war on two fronts.

I did end up building the Taj Mahal in the mid 1600s with that Great Engineering I had lying around. I had forgotten about it when I first discovered Nationalism, but was reminded as soon as I saw a Great Person announcement from another civ a couple of turns later. The Golden Age from the Taj Mahal actually delayed my conversion to Emancipation since I did not want to waste any Golden Age years to revolt.

1706 AD, Wang has completed research on Scientific Method. He is the only player whose research I cannot see with Espionage having never spent any EPs on him. Too late to start now. So I track his progress using the Foreign Advisor screen.

After Democracy came in, the plan was to get to Railroad while building Cannons. I had plenty of Rifles right now since Bibracte had been building them at the rate of one per turn during the Golden Age. This meant conceding Physics to Wang, but that was fine by me.

During this time, the most threatening stacks I face are from the Romans.


The turn before Railroad is researched, the English show up with a couple Redcoats in the territories previously known as the Aztec kingdom. I had completely forgotten about the pesky Redcoats. It would make wiping the English a little more difficult. I was confident that I would have enough Cannons and Rifles to get the job done. I had a lot of very well promoted troops from years of picking apart pathetic stacks.

In 1734 AD, another Great General is born. I was planning on saving this one for a Military Academy since this would most likely be the last Great General I would see for a while. I would need 390 more Combat XP before seeing another one. I didn’t have Military Tradition yet, but would probably research it soon.

In 1748 AD, Vienne completes the Statue of Liberty. I had worried that Caesar would beat me to it when he researched Democracy a couple turns back since he had gotten a Great Engineer not too long ago, but that didn’t happen. It would have given me plenty of cash though. Either way it wouldn’t have been that bad.

I was now about ready to take on the English, but decided to wait for their next wave of attackers, and then counter-attack.


Offensive Against the English
I approach the border city of Hastings with the following stack of doom. Keep in mind that I would promote these units even further before attacking.


The English defense was rather underwhelming.


The English city of Hastings is captured in 1754 AD. Pinch promoted Redcoats prove to be the only difficulty. I plan to attack the Greek city of Arretium next since its cultural borders will expand out and impede progress otherwise.

Judging by the Roman defense, you can probably figure out what happened next.


The last two English cities are more heavily defended.



But the result is the same, although with greater casualties. York falls in 1776 AD, as does Nottingham two years later, but not before a Spy steals the secrets of Theology. Only Nottingham remains as an English enclave.

Here is the satellite view of the former English territories and the soon-to-be-former Khmer territories.



I had started advancing on the Khmer in the west. Things would be slower here since I did not have a Medic III unit and because the bulk of my City Raider III units had been sent to the eastern front. But my western forces were getting complacent so I had decided to let them see some action as well.

In 1776 AD, I encounter the first enemy Cavlary. The Romans had had Military Tradition for a long time, and had Gunpowder for at least a century. Not sure what took so long. I have a fortified Drill IV Machine Gun sitting on the hill, so I don’t think this Cav is going to cause much trouble.


Two years later, the Khmer city of Nagara Jayasri is captured. I expected a little more from the city that founded Christianity.



The End Game
In 1780 AD, I finally promoted my last Classical Era unit into an Infantry. 51 XP would be the highest I would get with a Gallic Warrior, although I am sure I could have gotten more than double that had I made one a Warlord and never upgraded it. There were plenty of Trebs willing to sacrifice themselves to teach my units how to fight better. The highest XP unit I would have this game would be a 109 XP (twelve promotions) Knight.


Fascism was due in 2 turns. I had decided to research it after Assembly Line because I really wanted the reduced War Weariness from Mount Rushmore. Another Great General couldn’t hurt either. After that the plan was to get all the northeastern forces healed then run max currency to upgrade most of the Rifles into Infantry. That would make it trivial to wipe out the Romans.

The game was now on full cruise control.

When the English cities will come out of revolt, my territory will look like half a donut. Pretty tasty…

By the time I was ready to take on the Romans, they had managed to get some reasonable defenses. My Rifles of course all were very well promoted which gave me a big edge despite the defensive bonuses.


Nottingham, the last of the English cities, fell in 1782 BC and came with the Mausoleum of Maussollos. This would boost the Golden Age that I would start soon with my previous Great Person, a lazy artist with too much time on his hands.


In the age of Infantry, the Khmer were still inclined on fighting with Elephants and Knights… Bad idea…


In fact, there’s a lost Khmer Axeman roaming about the countryside. Someone never got the memo.


Here is the powerhouse production city of Tolosa as it builds Mt Rushmore. This was just before the Golden Age was started.


The year 1790 AD gives me quite a scare as a “Diplomatic Victory” vote is cast. I would have been really upset to lose in this way. Fortunately, Wang and Caesar split the vote despite their true love for one another.


Meanwhile, the Khmer and Roman cities continue to fall like dominoes.



It’s too bad that the Blitz was moved to Military Tradition. In Warlords, any unit could learn Blitz as long as it had the prerequisite promotions. With a Charismatic leader, that could lead to some completely degenerate units. When you factor in the double XP with the Warlord “Leadership” (+50% experience from combat) promotion, things would have gotten even more out of hand in this game. I would have easily had at least two Warlord units running around with 200+ XP (which is about 17 promotions with a Charismatic leader). So I guess making Blitz have a technology prerequisite does make sense.

The last of the Khmer and Romans fall in 1810 AD. I’m at 52.71% of the 66% needed for a Domination victory. I doubt I will be able to take all of the Korean cities before the Domination victory kicks in. Another Great General is born. This would surely be the last of what has been the most Great Generals I have ever seen in a game, and that includes games played with Imperialistic (+100% Great General emergence) leaders. It’s really too bad there wasn’t any Stone early on for the Great Wall.




Diplomatic (!) Victory in 1818 AD
Well, that certainly isn’t what I expected. When the “Diplomatic Victory” vote came up from the Apostolic Palace I was worried that Wang would squeeze out a cheesy victory. The AP had actually been built in Rome, so I had plenty of Hindu cities between the Roman conquest and the Aztec cities to which Hinduism had been spread. A Domination victory was probably about half a dozen turns out. But an outright Conquest would have come before that anyways. I played it out, and finishing off the Koreans would have taken an additional 3 turns.


Looking back at this game, there were only a couple times when the situation got very dangerous. Anytime stacks from two enemy civs arrived at the same time would cause problems. The other danger came after I had taken over my first Aztec city and was pushing towards the capitol. I had to keep the newly taken city while still pushing forward. That left a gap to the west that the Romans used to sneak past and get to Vienne. Vienne only had two units at the time, but had 125% defense (if not more). I had enough warning that I was able to finish the current unit and whip another before the forces arrived. When they did show up, they decided to lower my defenses with Trebs, but that was an effort that would take 25 turns. That gave me enough time to get some more troops (from Bibracte) and eliminate the Roman offensive.

I did eventually research Military Tradition, mostly because I had half a dozen Knights with 50+ XP that really need to be promoted to Cavalry to be of any use during the end game.

Here is the Power graph from the Info Screen.


I killed 140 Trebuchets in this game. The fact that the AI kept sending old tech stacks constantly allowed my forces to rack up free XP for centuries. By the time I finally went on offense, I had a lot of very well promoted troops. I probably could have held off the AI indefinitely without every capturing any enemy cities. I imagine that most seasoned Civ players attacked the AI sooner than I did. It’s hard for me to get a good sense of when it is safe to attack. As a result, I played it pretty safe.

First to construct a Dun (Celtic unique building): not sure, but I did not one build one that early so I didn’t write it down
First to generate a Great General: 125 BC
Highest XP total reached on a Gallic Warrior: 51 XP
First to have a naval unit reach elite status (Combat V promotion): none, highest naval unit did have Combat IV though
Most cities controlled in 1500AD: 9 cities
First to build a Tactical Nuke: none

Looking back at the replay, here are the starting locations. As you can see, we had quite a buffer zone between our starting location and the enemy civs. I imagine that Sullla may have adjusted that to give us a little extra breathing room. We certainly had a lot of room to work with.


Here is the view before the offensive against the Aztecs. At this time, all of the territory has been nicely filled out.


Here is how the game ended in 1818 AD. There were two Korean cities remaining and I had quite a few cities still in revolt.


Great game, and thanks again for the tasty donut!

[Zeviz]

Diplomatic victory in AW game?! That must be some kind of record.

Congratulations with winning the game without an early rush. I like some of your tactical tips, like keeping a unit with a couple hammers invested in case it has to be whipped out.

By the way, in BtS there is no anarchy during Golden Ages, so you didn't have to delay Emancipation switch.

[Sam_Yeager]

By the way, in BtS there is no anarchy during Golden Ages, so you didn't have to delay Emancipation switch.

Drat, Zeviz has beat me to it. A very nice report and a victory condition I'm very surprised to see. Quite why the AI called for a vote is an interesting question. Maybe Blake or some other knowledgeable person can tell us.

[Muaziz]

By the way, in BtS there is no anarchy during Golden Ages, so you didn't have to delay Emancipation switch.

I had no idea. Thanks for the info.

Quite why the AI called for a vote is an interesting question.

I had actually taken over the AP at the time the vote occurred, but I did not get to choose which vote to try and pass. I think that in an "Always War" game, almost all of the possible votes are disallowed, since most of them have to do with either forcing people to declare war or make peace. Those options would not be fair in an AW game. As a result, I was very surprised when ask to vote for a Diplomatic Victory.