Adv.29 - Domination attempt

[zeka]

hey guys, i have the report written already and have some pics, but i don't know how to post pictures between text. In my last (first) report i posted pictures as attachments but you have to click on the link, and it isn't good for the report. Does anyone helps me? I'll post the report later with or without pictures.

[Swiss Pauli]

Best to upload them at somewhere like imageshack, or photobucket and then copy in the IMG link to the report.

[DaveV]

You can also upload them to Realms Beyond and link them. See this thread:
http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/showthread.php?t=509

[zeka]

thx for the help guys! Here goes the report:

Well, I decided to play this game in Immortal because I never completed a single game in this difficult (i played once an incomplete game with the kmhers and won another game in multiplayer), never played in a boreal map and never played with Stalin, neither against him as AI.
Industrious seems very good with a map crowded of forests to chop and cultural victory may be the best option to pursue. But I decided to go for domination, not because of being agressive (i don’t like it, i’d prefer charismatic or organized instead), but i wanted more action and it would be a challenge.

ANCIENT TIMES

The game started i moved the scout, discover another wheat and a deer, and settled in place a city with 2 wheats, 1 deer, 2 nice grasslands, some plains for cottages and some tundra tiles. Research went to archery for the initial protection until getting The Great Wall. The building of barracks timed perfectly with archery researching and i built 2 archers and a worker before TGW. Agriculture and Masonry were researched, BW and AH i got from huts!
I met Lincoln, the founder(!) of Hindu and started Writing after Masonry hoping for hindu spreading to increase the happy cap. Later i met Justinian, the Budda guy, who spread it to Victoria. Later i found HC, GK and Pericles. After TGW(2120BC) i built some settler and founded St.Petesburg and Novgorod. The workers were now free to make improvements. Hindu finally spread to St.Petesburg at 575BC.


Huayna Capac is having some problems with barbs!



Then i started to mind the initial plans:

1) Expand as much as possible to the south to block Lincoln and to the east to block Justinian.
2) Build The Oracle and get Metal Casting, so i could get cheap forges and start to build military.
3) Build The Pyramids and switch to Representation to increase the happy cap and specialists breakers and later switch to police state to reduce war weariness.

Number 2 suceeds at 875BC and i chop forests to get forges and build some swords. After researching alphabet i made some trades and got Math, Polytheism, Fishing, IW, Monotheism and Sailing (switch to OR and slavery). Some guy built The Great Lighthouse at 725BC in a boreal map! In the same year Francis Bacon (Gsci) is born in a distant land (Pericles)! I got a Great Spy at 675BC and settled him so later i could view later what the AIs were researching.
Number 3 falis at 325BC to Genghis Khan, who adopts Police State! I researched Monarchy and switched to Hereditary Rule.
I got some decent land on the south(Yekaterinburg and Yaroslavl) but 4 barbarian cities appeared to the east and Justinian managed to take one of them, Yue-Chi, my first goal on the later war. I captured Chinook but razed and founded Rostov.


AC TIMES

I landed the Hanging gardens at 350AD with 5 cities and at 540AD “WFYABTA” started yet with HC :mad: ! This lasted till the end of the game (i couldn’t trade important techs like guilds, gunpowder and steel, with HC, GK and Lincoln).

The first War:
Capturing Yue-Chi from Justinian was the first step of all the wars as it was a great city which later would be the Palace and have Moai and Globe Theater. My stack of 4 swords 2 axes and 1 pult marched to Yue-Chi defeating a weak defense of 2 archers and 1 axe. I made peace as the next city was too far from the small stack and got some gold.



After the war the research path was: literature (TGL), code of laws, civil service (maceman), machinery, Engineering, feudalism, guilds, banking (mercantilism and banks), gunpowder. Actually i got from trades CoL, Machinery, Feudalism and Theology (switch to vassalage, serfdom and theocracy) and a Great Engineer ligth-bulbed Engineering for almost completion. Research slider did not pass 50% in this times due to maintenance, and in times of guilds researching and 2nd war it was 0% losing money (wealth at some cities some turns...).
About wonders The Statue of Zeus, a very important wonder for my domination victory attempt, built at 800AD and TGL at 1050AD in Moscow, Chichen Itza in Novgorod at 980AD, mostly to avoid AIs 25% city defenses rather then gain 25% defenses to my cities.



With a decent stack in hands i could capture two great barbarian cities to the east, Visigoth and Phrygian.

The Second War with Justinian came after building TGL and now i had more swords, more pults and some crossbows and few trebs to capture mainly 2 cities: Iconium and Trebizond.



Both fell easily and i could continue and go after Nicaea. The Incas built Notre Dame when i was beggining its construction. A Great General was born and i got a medic III chariot, A Great Prophet was born and settled. In this war the War Weariness become annoying and even with furs from trades the cities had to build garrison to avoid unhapiness (i didn’t have drama at this time). Islam was founded in Greek lands at 1210AD (this guy later was researching assembly line while i was researching military tradition). After conquesting Nicaea peace was signed due to high WW and i got calendar and some gold.

Lincoln War: The time my stack arrived near Lincoln borders i declared war on him. Now i had macemen (one with combat VI after general was born) aggainst Lincoln’s longbows as he didn’t have neither iron or copper. Meanwhile i capture and raze two barb cities on the north and found Yakutsk in a nice grassland and gems site and Vladivostok in a crappy tundra land, but with 2 deers and 2 lakes. Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chigaco were easily captured by the time justinian declared war on me.


WW now is giant, “shut up idiots, get to your horses and fight!” horses??” Yes, I made peace with Lincoln getting Philosophy and Guilds.

3rd Byzantine war: The bad part is that the defenses i left on Nicaea and Trebizond were poor and i only had chance to protect one city, Trebizond, by whiping long and crossbows after switching to slavery, and get the garrisons of near cities to it. Victoria would accept Nicaea as a gift so i gave it to her (wrong move here maybe). Justinian waited the bombardment of 1 single pult at Trebizond finish to suicide his stack in my defenses.



A bloody hill tile near Chigaco blocked the way of my stack to Justinian :mad: (Lincoln didn’t want to sign open borders yet) so the death of Justinian was delayed. Though i captured Tartar on the east of Trebizond with some knights. I waited for open borders a little bit before declaring war with Lincoln to pass the stack. I signed peace with him as soon as possible, and capture Nicomedia, Thessalonica and Constantinople. I ask for peace and Justinian offers capitulation and compass, i accepted it.



I’ve made important trades getting gunpowder and banking (switched to mercantilism, and finally I had research) and later getting Nationalism. A big stack of Gengis Khan, who declared war on Lincoln, captured Atlanta, but Lincoln had grenadiers(!) at this time and destroyed GK forces getting back his city.

Pericles and Genghis Khan War: after researching military tradition and lightbulbing 2 GS for Chemistry, Pericles was researching assembly line(!) and this scared me, so the next victim would be him. I made some cuirassiers and send them with knights, muskets, macemen and trebs to the war and this was the most difficult war already, cuz Pericles had a large defense army with muskets and longbows and some knights for offense. Genghis Khan declared war on me and I had some difficult to kill both big knight stacks of GK and Pericles.




Genghis Khan had steel for quite some time yet and it was hard to kill his cannons. I made peace with him when I could. Victoria, my single tech trader completes constitution and I get it for representation booming my research (with mercantilism). Steel is completed in 1740AD and I start building cannons, research is set to replaceable parts – rifling – steam power - railroad. I captured 5 Greek cities before he offered me capitulation and Corinth, a city with the Islam shrine (+11gpt) every possible building already done and Wall Street, even without having corporation!!! Pericles must have been too desperate to give me this city.



Victoria is the only casualty: next war was with weak Victoria and my cuirassiers took important resources in the war, silver and furs, and the rest of her crappy land too. This war was not difficult but it surprised me. I thought the lady didn’t have army and I sent alone cuirassiers with trebs to her territory, but some pikemen and even some cuirassiers killed a dozen cuirassiers. Over-confidence… Rep.Parts and Rifling were discovered and Victoria had time to enjoy my combat VI (upgraded) Cossack! She was dead in 1818.



Grenadiers are no problem anymore: Lincoln survived quite some time due to early grenadiers, but now I had Cossacks so it was his time. Cannons were largely used in this war and I had some Cossacks killed trying to beat numerous grenadiers. In 1844 I ask for peace and Lincoln offers capitulation and Seattle. He at least remains with his capital and New York.



Last War for victory: I check the F8 screen and 10% of land is remaining for domination. After researching railroad, I set research to zero, inside cities to wealth, border cities to culture and culture slider to 30%, but it is not sufficient and some Incan land must be taken. The Cossacks and cannons go to Incan borders and defeat a giant stack of knights (he didn’t have nationalism and steel) defending across a river. Every single unit is hurt but the medic III chariot heals them in 3 turns.



After this suicide, HC becomes weak and my cannons bombard city defenses and Cossacks kill riflemen to take 2 cities. Peace is signed and I receive the city of Arequipa. The next turn I get the marriage event and a domination victory in 1872! What a happy ending!



Power screen along the History describes the war times and my biggest loss is in Vicky war, when she killed a lot of unprotected cuirassiers. Halmicar Barca is my new XP record!



Statistics shows me I killed 86(!) longbows and built 43 muskets and 42 cuirassiers. I expected forge to be the most built and next barracks, but theatres were built 32 times.



Conclusion: Some points to be emphasized:

- TGW really lowered the difficult of this game since the workers could work in peace.
- I think getting Metal Casting instead of Monarchy and building early forges was a good move. After building them my army could conquest the other civs.
- The lose of Pyramids to GK showed to be very negattive for my economy. There were times i was runnig 0% research and losing very money.
- Pericles was pumping great leaders every 10 turns and he got assembly line very early. The war against him was the most important move in the game.
- This was a game with very action, even between the AIs (Victoria vs HC and GK, Lincoln vs GK and Pericles, GK vs HC, ...) and this made things easier.


That’s it, I enjoyed very much this game and I hope for another challenging game. Thanks to Sullla for this great game!

[Swiss Pauli]

Well played and well reported

[Sullla]

Congratulations! An impressive result. I will add your game to the results list.

[sylvanllewelyn]

Wow, this is an absolutely impressive game. What I find interesting is the way you used your great general. Most people go straight for Medic III, but you chose to go combat 6 so you could break through city defenders. My shadow game trying domination went along a similar game plan, except Pericles was too powerful to stop.

[zeka]

What I find interesting is the way you used your great general. Most people go straight for Medic III, but you chose to go combat 6 so you could break through city defenders.

Actually, in my games, I use the first Great General to a medic III chariot, generally 3 or 4 GG to combat VI units (maceman, knight, cuirassier, cavalry,... it depends on the difficulty) and most of them settle in the Heroic Epic and West Point cities.

[T-hawk]

I'll third the plaudits - very well done! Excellent report too, with a good narrative and use of pictures. I hope you'll keep joining us for more games!

Nice military tech beeline, I always get caught up in the economic techs like Education and get to Gunpowder way too late.

Was the Statue of Zeus that important? It raises enemies' war weariness against you, which only happens when they're attacking in your territory. Did that happen a lot?

[zeka]

Was the Statue of Zeus that important? It raises enemies' war weariness against you, which only happens when they're attacking in your territory. Did that happen a lot?

Oh i didn't know that, i thought WW was based on time of being at war. But when i was bombarding city defenses and preparing to attack, the city's population decreased considerably and i thought it was starvation due to unhapiness. Maybe the AIs were whiping some military instead.