Adventure 3: Unaghy´s report

[unaghy]

Adventure Three: War Paint

I was just finishing my reports for Epic 1 - Honorable Wonderful French, when I saw Adventure Three announcement. Conquest for this time with Scythia. As it is open to spoiler reports I have decided to start the game and post my report as game goes on.

First look on game conditions revealed immortal difficulty and pangaea map with 5 opponents. My initial strategy will be to build up army of slingers and jumpo on first closest opponent. Later on upgrading it and roll over them one by one. Lets start.

Session 1
"Eye for an eye only makes world blind" 
Gandhi

Turn 1
Turned continent lens and found out river creates border between two continents. Low hills start. Moved two tiles south to get hills in first ring and to allow more cities to be founded around. 

Turn 2
Found Pokrovka. Starting with working the hill. Interface still does not adjust when tile is manually selected. Started work on slinger.

Turn 5
Met Greece south to Pokrovka.

Turn 6
First to met Hattusa east to Pokrovka.

Turn 9
Found Shroud of turin relic in tribal village. Wont have that much use for it though.

Turn 10
Greece warriors massing south of Pokrovka, expecting war declaration next turn. Slinger 1t to completion. Warrior sprinting back to defend.

Turn 11
War declared by Pericles. Slinger just got completed. This wont be easy

Turn 13
Three greece warriors are trying to put siege on Pokrovka. River fork made it more difficult, but now city is under siege.

Turn 14
City got attacked and lost half of the health. Slinger finished off one warior and siege had been broken. Warrior back to attack next turn.

   

Turn 15
Greece not attacking anymore. Pantheon "God of the Forge" selected to be able to train units quicker.

Turn 16
New warrior came from Greece and my slinger cleaned badly wounded warrior in the forrest next to river.

   

Turn 18
Cleaned another warrior with my new slinger. One left. Next in production is slinger.

Turn 20
Met Gandhi east to capital. Chasing last Greece warrior.

Turn 21 
Greece begging for peace and offering horses, 1gpt and 8 gold. Refused.

Turn 22
Finished off last Greece warrior.

Turn 26
First builder completed. Tribal village gave +1 pop.

Turn 28
First to met Hong Kong.

Turn 29
Med peace with Greece for 13 gpt and 3 gold.

Turn 32
Bought trader. India found city Chennai east to my capital. It will be first target.

Turn 33
Met Zanzibar.

Turn 34
Met Rome.

Turn 44
Signed friendship with Greece and massing army of slingers & warriors around Chennai.

Turn 48
Declared war to India. Surrounded Chennai with slingers and warriors.

   

Turn 52
Chennai captured. At the end of the siege first Varu showed and killed Slinger with one hit. Ups. Immediatelly finished Archery tech and upgraded all Slingers to Archers. Still, it took 4 Archer´s attack to kill Varu.

   

Turn 59
Gandhi came with generous offer for peace 1 Dyes per turn, 14gpt & 127 gold. Refused.

Turn 62
Gandhi came with even more generous offer for peace 1 Dyes per turn, 16gpt & 182 gold. Refused again.

Turn 63
Attack on Madurai. 
   

Turn 68
Slowly wearing down Madurai. Varu makes attacked taking longer.



Turn 78
Delhi under siege, Vilnius helping India by charging on Madurai. Decided to ignore them as after capturing their last city suzerain status.

[img] https://s30.postimg.org/9qfhvvh5t/Turn_7..._Delhi.jpg[/img]

Turn 83
I need to bring down Delhi quickly as I can loose Madurai. I had to divert my attention to Vilnius units to prevent siege.



Turn 84
Gandhi down. That was close.



Turn 87
Consolidating units and cities. Sparing money for upgrades to crossbows.

Turn 97
Working on builders to utilize builder policy.



Turn 102
Mount Everest found. Building up cash and waiting for Mercenaries for upgrade policy.

Turn 105
Trying to block Roman settler, I wonder how long I will be able to block it.



Turn 107
Met Egypt.

Turn 108
Suzerain of Hong Kong.

Turn 109
5 archers upgraded to crossbows and one warrior to sword. Three more to upgrade.

Turn 111
Blockade of Roman settler still working, how silly.



Turn 112
Met Germany.

Turn 113
Found new city Kostromskaya.

Turn 114
Rome denounced Scythia. Made the one turn Diplomatic league swap. Doubled my 2 envoyes.

Turn 116
Still blocking Rome settler. Declaring war and capturing it. Heh.
Trajan has denounced me few turns back, so I could use casus belli with moderate warmonger penalty.



Turn 117
Starting attack on Lugdunum.



Turn 118
Found Pazyryk with captured settler.

Turn 119
Siege of Lugdunum. Fall imminent. Lugdunum captured. Met Laventa.



Turn 120
Denounced by Greece and Germany immediately for warmongering. 

Turn 122
Attack on Rome. No resistance so far.

Turn 123
Rome under siege. No unit lost so far.


Turn 124
Found city Kul Oba. Rome almost captured. First to met Amsterdam, really?

Turn 125
Rome captured nine turns after declaring war. One turn later planning to sign peace and get generous war reparations.



City looks great - it has 4 districts built with one world wonder. It is nice addition to Scythia empire.



Few pics of Scythia empire on turn 125 after capturing Rome.





Next goal will be capturing Germany capital and then later on fall of Egypt & Greece.

Session 2
"I have defeated enemies ten times as powerful as you."
Frederick Barbarossa

Turn 126
Trajan lost two cities, but wont sign peace.

Turn 127
Rome is under siege. What? Rome is mine and only roman unit around is great general. This has to be some kind of bug. Got peace offer, 1pgt and 1 gold, what a joke.



Turn 128
Lost full HP crossbow to a Roman Pike!? Nevermind. Met Toronto.

Turn 129
Pike down. Siege of Ravenna and Antium. Need to bring spear there to actually capture the city.

Turn 130
Merchant republic government researched and swapped to it immediately. Both cities under siege are now redlined.



Turn 131
My full HP double upgraded catapult was killed by pike built during interturn, so I couldn't see that coming. Ravenna fell anyway. Sulfur appeared near Ravenna, Kul Oba and Delhi. Just to improve it.



Turn 132
Rome has only 2 cities left, so I decided to take them out instead of signing peace. It will take only few turns more anyway.

Turn 133
Rome came with generous peace treaty offer. Declined. Trajan will pay for my two units lost in this war! Antium is fully surrounded by ranged units, so I cant put it under siege, but it serves like training ground for my units.

Turn 134
Roman Legion just one shooted promoted Saka horse archer. Damn. You will pay for this Trajan. Meanwhile built 3 new trade routes that will help to develop newly acquired cities. Also building some cash for upgrades to Musketman, Bombards and Field cannons later.

Turn 135
Trajan throwing everything he has in peace treaty offer. Too late buddy.

Turn 136
Mediolanum captured. None of captured Roman cities can grow due to occupation status. Antium will fall next turn and that will change.



Turn 137
Bought 2 catapults for 800 gold. It was tough call, as that much money would be enough for upgrading 4-6 units. I need to open 2 fronts in order to speed up. My income is +50 gpt, so I should be able to upgrade everything within 5-10 turns. Trajan down.



Turn 138 
All other civs are pist-off Healing up units & preparing for upgrade. Also built engineer to place 2 forts to get to field cannons asap.
Meanwhile, I was blamed to be warmonger, penalty -84 



Turn 140
North part of world is in my hands (insane laugh) 

Turn 141
Swapping to Professional army. I will not upgrade my units immediately, but in two steps to spare on maintenance costs.

Turn 143
Moving half of the army to east to prepare for Greece capital.

Turn 144
Germany declared war. A little complication. Toronto, thier suzerain is too far, so I should be fine. Selling excess of luxuries to Greece 1gpt each.

Turn 145
Loosing city states. I need to get more envoys, so I will finish theology and swap to policy with double envoyes for first one and also gets one extra from tech itself.

Turn 146
Greece declared war. Another 2 city states in war against me. Bit sooner than planned, but so be it.

Turn 147
Preparing my units for defense. Captured unescorted germany settler just wandering around. 
There was lot written about unescorted settlers, but why would anyone send settler towards his enemy?



Turn 148
First GP great merchant recruited. It will construct market and bank in Kostromskaya next turn.

Turn 149
Harassing city states units and upgrading swords to muskets.
My spearman got caught on German territory, now on constant run.



Turn 150
Starting to march on Greece. They sent their Hoplites to meet my Muskets. Guess who got upper hand?

Turn 151
Hoplites learned quickly  I have huge excess of luxuries, but nobody to sell them to.

Turn 152
I got 2 bombards down to Athens, but saw corps of Hoplites. I hope I wont be running back home.



Turn 153
Nope. Combined damage from city, Hoplite and Catapult took only 1/3 of Bombards HP. Field cannons are almost there to help.

Turn 154
My two Bombards took 140 hp off from Athens fortification. I lost lot of gpt by been in the war with 2 civs. I cant upgrade my army group west.

Turn 155
I have made peace with Germany for 45 gold. Not much, but I can at least upgrade archer to field cannon.

Turn 156
It will take forever to upgrade army group west. I need to roll trough Egypt even with Crossbows. War declared to Egypt.



Turn 157
Pericles begging for peace. Said no. He will loose his capital next turn. City Cheromlyk founded by captured German settler just north of Germany.



Turn 158
Both Athens and Ra-kedet conquered at this turn. It took only 2 Bombards and one Musket to do so, so why did I even bother with Field Cannons?



Turn 159
Terracotta army completed. Upgrading spree in progress. Bombards can now shoot after moving and field cannons have "exercise zone of control". Neath.

Turn 160
Made peace with Pericles. Need to march on Aachen asap. Signed open borders, but it will take ages to get there.

Turn 161
Lost one crossbow as I was in hurry and carelessly wandering trough Egypt territory.

Turn 162
Passing by Egypt cities and ignoring them. I can upgrade Saka horse archer to Filed cannons. Lol. But bit late.

Turn 163
Moving towards Germany borders. Btw. I haven't built single campus district. Why for? Enough cities make enough beakers to keep up.

Turn 164
Almost at Germany´s borders. I will capture border city Shedet to heal up and upgrade Bombards to Artillery.



Turn 165
Germany has denounced me. How convenient He also complained about my army group west at his borders. Usual answer, "we are just trespassing"!

Turn 166
Shedet captured. I have lost interests to pay attention to my cities or builders. I´m running city projects to skip tedious micromanagement.

Turn 167
Final preparations for attack on Germany. Made peace with Egypt. Declared war to Germany. "I have defeated enemies ten times as powerful as you." Sure. Tell me again in three or so turns 



Turn 168
Aachen under attack. Positioning my Artillery.



Turn 169
Some resistance showed up, especially from encampment district. Can I make it on turn 170? Lets see.



Turn 170
Surely can. Germany is down. Could I have finished earlier. Definitely! I shouldn't have stop to heal or upgrade, I should just run trough them with what I had at the hand.



It took two 4 hour session plus 2 hours for report. Some final thoughts about the game itself.

Overall, it was not difficult to win. Most problems I had were in the beginning, when I got attacked on turn 10 by Greece and when I attacked India and Gandhi started to produce Varu. Afterwards, it was just one man show. I believe that crucial was to focus only on military and to consume India and Rome completely in order to have more cities. I did not even need any campus district, few inspirations fulfilled and strictly military techs gave me edge against AI. In general, there was no need to build any district, building or units later on. Most of my units are from first batch of Slingers. Only added few archers soon as researched Archery and 2 catapults (bought additional 2 prior to researching Bombards). Then I have just upgraded them each time. AI cant handle units properly, not even city defense, while that should be easy to program. One more thing - I didnt use Saka horse archer that much. There were merely fast scouts. Problem is their only 1 range vs archers and cannot be upgraded to Crossbows.