My name is Ozymandias, King of China: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!

[NobleHelium]

Ooh, nobes posted to the lurker thread. Probably some variant of "stop fucking around and kill these newbs already so you can move on to bigger and better things". Sevenspirits castigated me earlier about this as well.

[CFCJesterFool]

Where are all his god damn cottages!?

What on earth is going on!?

I didn't like the capitol...it sucked...so I was moving it to a fully cottaged spot with great hammers.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Final, self-aggrandizing update!

What JF had before I attacked.

What JF had after I attacked. In summary, lose a C1/Cover mace at 73.6% odds, killed archer with a second mace at 95.5% odds. Captured a worker on the jungle hill with a Chkonut. Captured a second worker with a chariot on the Stone. Murdered a Taoist Missionary with a chariot, then covered him with a spear (the only retribution was a horse archer). Killed a settler on board that galley with my trireme at 88.1%, JF hadn't loaded up an archer to garrison his southern city for whatever reason. Sitting at 58/60 on the Great General counter (if only I hadn't lost the first fight mace vs archer fight ).

Revolted to Caste/Pacifism because I could handle anything JF whipped up in the next 5 turns

Capital. One issue is that I could have hooked up rice earlier, but I delayed it for other improvements in my southern city. All that'd do is cost me some food and slow my growth to size 19. Otherwise, the University was probably a mistake, I was unlikely to run my science slider for long after Oxford, hence I was better off ignoring Oxford. But if I did go for it, it'd have been quick.

Next Great Person. If Artist, save for final culture push. Otherwise, fire a long-overdue Golden Age.

An excellent unit pump, 1-turning maces for now, and with a little growth and some workshops, I could probably have 1-turned Knights. A shrine would have been only +19g, and I would have never spared the hammers to get gold multipliers into this city.

This city would have been on wonderspam mode. Once my Golden Age would have appeared, I would have exclusively worked Caste Workshops to spam out mid-game wonders.

I had some hammers in the University, anticipating a 4-pop whip. But again, mistake, I wouldn't have needed Oxford. But nonetheless, a really nice city, the Great Lighthouse was totally worth it (despite being an afterthought).

Colossus city. Rather weak in the grand scheme of things, but good at what it does. Next turn, I would have swapped to Winery and grown. It would have started working some specialists with its food surplus.

Another weak filler city, but it's done its job growing the capital's cottages. I would have otherwise grown another 2 sizes once the Wines were fermented.

A nice filler city, with a ton of food surplus. Just finished whipping a settler, while growing on the same turn, meaning it was effectively a 1-pop whip. It would have hired 2 merchants (taking off the unimproved plains and the plains hill), which would have finished the monastery in 2 turns (and still grown in 2 turns).

Final GP Farm/Cultural City #3. It would have grown another 2 sizes and started working on Artists. Also has the Forbidden Palace, which saved me ~20g maintenance.

Draft Camp. Also would have worked on Artists in the short term, while working on finishing the Globe Theatre.

Lighthouse finally completed, so growing onto Colossus Coast. Otherwise, junk.

Sian's old capital, worked a whole bunch of specialists to reclaim the Plains Sheep. I'll fire the artists and get growing again. The Courthouse would be totally worth it.

My most mature southern city. It would have gone for growth.

I made a mistake and forgot to whip . Oh well, Moai city would have looked great in a Golden Age, but it would have been a bit slow.

Sian's last stand. It would have worked a Winery next turn. No need for a lighthouse, I had plenty of good land tiles and workers.

Fairly immature city, but it's been helped along by Org Rel chops. It would have made a good Moai, but that position has been taken.

More southern cities. Some bad granary timings here Both cities have 2 workers, to connect resources and chop.

And for some masturbatory shots of my land in a golden age (I've been saving artists for a cultural victory, but obviously that no longer matters):

Hmm, maybe Oxford would have been worth it, as the sheer quantity of commerce going through my land would have raised my break even beaker rate to ~45%, meaning Oxford would have been +70 beakers or so. Otherwise, my beaker rate was ~25%.

Real demos.

That's it, and thanks for reading this ridiculous thread, I still hold onto a thesis that this game's condition is due less from my own skills, but from the decisions of my opponents!

[flugauto]

Looks like this one is officially over. Congratulations!

[waterbat]

yes congrats NC. well done.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Thanks, guys.

Looking back at it, I was pretty vulnerable to getting attacked by Tankra's dogs. And they could have very much taken my capital.

But I'd assumed I'd be safe because Stick was insane and tried to choke Tank and forced him to be stuck on 1 population for half a dozen turns. If Stick hadn't done that, I probably would have done something different in response to Tank's power spike. Maybe. I dunno, I would probably have taken that farmer's gamble any way

[thestick]

Yeah, I definitely botched the early game by prioritizing military, then expansion, without economy.

I probably should've just rushed to Aral Sea and built up defences.