Polish/South Korean vacation succession

[Kaiser]

It is looking great, when do you think the others will surrender?
Are you soon double their empire score?

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Soon, hopefully. Hungary is going nowhere, Japan is out, Germany has all of 4 cities. India might not be paying attention, though. He needs dealing with. 




So far I've gone Walls -> Water Mill -> Aqueduct in this city, each time boosting Construction -> Engineering and now grabbing the boost to Niter. Then I can go back to districts in this city.

Elsewhere, I have 3 swords, 3 horses, and 3 archers available for BB. The Ram will be ready in two turns. If I can pick off some units first, I will. Taking BB will boost Feudalism, in turn, which will boost Stirrups. 

Right now the game against other players is over, so it's just a matter of trying to hit as many boosts as possible before my science/culture overruns them. 

I also estimate 5 more settlers over the life of the game, then I'll just focus on science and military, probably, to end the game via Domination or concession.

[Kaiser]

Sounds like a plan, great work by Japan to drag down Hungary.
The unescorted Settler in reach of the barb spear is ballsy, do you bait it?
When is your religion incoming?

I would love to check a save if you can upload one :D

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Sounds like a plan, great work by Japan to drag down Hungary.
The unescorted Settler in reach of the barb spear is ballsy, do you bait it?
When is your religion incoming?

I would love to check a save if you can upload one :D

Sloppiness, mostly. I stopped paying much attention to micro a while ago, and just sent the settlers to their destinations. Even though there was no barb camp, that settler revealed the barb spear in the fog. He got captured, but he's surrounded by Polish units and will be reclaimed in a turn or two. It's a sloppy move that delays my city by 5 or 6 turns, but not a big deal right now. 

As for religion, we got that back on turn 51, right after my big overview. I took Work Ethic and Tithe, which will both come in handy as I start to branch out and invest in holy sites. Or did I take DotF? Hell, I can't remember. DotF seems unnecessary now, while Tithe will goose our gold advantage even further! India has several Commercial Hubs down now but none are complete. His GPT is 12. 

Here's the latest turn:

...shoot, I forgot to turn on FRAPS even though I had it on this morning for PBEM19! Frustrating. That also means my latest PBEM19 screenies didn't take. Freaking game, 3 turns a day for the last 3 days or so. I can't keep up.

Anyway, here's a save instead. Big news:

1)We're now in our "settle the south" phase. I'm prioritizing this area over hte more lucrative far north because we have to claim it against Canada. There are 5 sites in the north that I want, and those will be my last settlers. After the current market/trader builds finish, I'm going to do one more stint in Colonization to get those out. Then it's military/science/etc. until victory, which shouldn't take long.

2)Research-wise Military Engineering is coming next turn when our aqueduct finishes. Civil Service is going to be hard-researched since we wont' hit size 10 (nearest city is at 7) in 6 turns. Feudalism will be inspired the moment Bandar Brunei falls.

3)Speaking of, I declared war on BB. We have 5 swords, 3 horses, and 3 archers available nearby. They have 1 archer and 3.5 warriors that I can see. I want to get him before he finishes upgrades, then move north quickly for Cardiff. I might even reach Nazca before Muskets, but it's hard to say. Online speed nerfs war by obsoleting units quickly. 

4)Speaking of, Hungary declared war on Germany! He has 1.5x Germany's military strength, but is still at war with Japan who has 1.5x his strength, and he's losing hsi encampment in addition to all of his Japanese conquests (already lost). Bad fumble of the game there by Hungary. He's absolutely out of the running now along with Japan, Germany, and Canada.

save below.

[williams482]

I feel a stirring of misplaced civic pride following along with this casual drubbing of less obsessive players. Keep it up!

[Kaiser]

Sloppiness, mostly. I stopped paying much attention to micro a while ago, and just sent the settlers to their destinations. 

Or did I take DotF? Hell, I can't remember.

...shoot, I forgot to turn on FRAPS even though I had it on this morning for PBEM19! Frustrating.

Anyway, here's a save instead. Big news:

1)We're now in our "settle the south" phase. I'm prioritizing this area over hte more lucrative far north because we have to claim it against Canada.

Admit it, you are subconciously sabotaging your game here to get it back to a challenge.
I will check the save later, but I remember the S to be a dry hell showing a nice piece of AI city placement crazyness by Canada. What made you prioritize this over the NE where you compete with India?
You can probably roflstomp Canada with Muskets or even quicker Knights in 15 turns, no?

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Sloppiness, mostly. I stopped paying much attention to micro a while ago, and just sent the settlers to their destinations. 

Or did I take DotF? Hell, I can't remember.

...shoot, I forgot to turn on FRAPS even though I had it on this morning for PBEM19! Frustrating.

Anyway, here's a save instead. Big news:

1)We're now in our "settle the south" phase. I'm prioritizing this area over hte more lucrative far north because we have to claim it against Canada.

Admit it, you are subconciously sabotaging your game here to get it back to a challenge.
I will check the save later, but I remember the S to be a dry hell showing a nice piece of AI city placement crazyness by Canada. What made you prioritize this over the NE where you compete with India?
You can probably roflstomp Canada with Muskets or even quicker Knights in 15 turns, no?

Probably. I moved the settler and spotted the spear on the same move - I'll reclaim it next turn, though. Delay of 3 turns in founding the city, no worries. 

As for the NE, we're not really in a race with India. He's miles away from the land on our side of the CSes, and if he tries to forward settle he'll get crushed by Loyalty. By the same token, I'd run into the same thing if I pushed to HIS side. Plus, the south has some coastal spots we can take on the salt lakes taht will make a nice border. To the north there's no competition for teh good spots.




We get niter, and its' nowhere to be found in our borders, despite us having the largest land empire by far. There's some by the coast in the north, where my last settler is going, and some by Canada in the south - if I can settle there before the AI does. Otherwise I'll need to attack Canada sooner rather than later to get Musketmen. 

Annoyingly, Bandar Brunei pulled in its lone surviving archer, and upgraded 2 warriors to swords. Bah. I wish I knew how city-state upgrades worked. Obviously it's not based on strategic resources, since they can never expand, but what triggered the sword upgrade on the same turn I attacked? 

oh, well. I have an overwhelming amount of units. I injure the sword and place the city under siege, while my remaining units approach. We'll finish the sword and start on the walls in 3 turns when the ram gets there.

Chasing down my errant settler:




5 swords, 4 horses, 3 archers total now. My military is tops in the game, well above Japan and Hungary, the two warmongers. I could just roll and attack Germany if I wanted...hmm...




Overview. With such a strong army, against mostly AI, I do a round of infrastructure - temples, districts, traders. I also stretch for the Oracle at OCISLY, which will boost the campus, CH, and, later, the theater square I might throw down next to the Oracle. Just for fun, since I can't build a horse or sword and don't feel like a Xbow or catapult. It's due in 10 turns, less than a new Commercial Hub at my baby cities. 

Up to 12 cities. Two settlers on the map (counting the barb settler), so I'll hit 14 soon. India almost tied my science, but I'm not running Rationalism, I'm unlocking Universities in 3 turns, and I've got 2 more campuses placed. He's running Choral Music to tie my culture. Not sure how I'll best go about leaving him in the dust:

1)Natural pop growth + lots of monuments will get me about 10-20 culture. 
2)Theater squares in the central core? I have two good spots for another ~8 culture. 

For now, monuments + pop will do. The TSes will be luxuries.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Reclaimed settler. BB under siege, ram arrives next turn with 3 swords and 2 horses adjacent ready to go to work.

Finishing a temple to recruit apostles and start spending this faith on Tithe, probably, then missionaries to start spreading the faith around Poland.

Districts - Campuses, IZs, Holy Sites, Commercial Hubs - in progress around the empire to put my massive pop lead to use.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

We begin the serious work of reducing Bandar Brunei. It should take about 2 turns. I might lose a sword if the AI concentrates on it, but I'm accepting the casualties and plowing ahead. On online speed, units obsolete quickly and are cheap to replace, so speed matters more than efficiency. From there, we'll swing north to Cardiff, which has thrown in with Hungary and declared war on Germany and Japan. Notice that my military power is 33% above Japan, the next highest power. No one else fields as many modern units as I do - and my army is already about to obsolete itself, with niter available and gunpowder units on the horizon. Swords will do for Cardiff, but I am saving for Mercenaries and then a few musket upgrades to carry on to the religious states to the east. 




BWC buys an apostle. We're going to start evangelizing our belief. I do need many more Holy Sites to truly make this religion work, though. India pulls in 54 faith per turn, dwarfing my own output. I also need to have a sufficiently robust faith economy in place that he can't sneak a religious victory on me. 




I also get some final use out of monumentality before it ends in 2 turns. Traders are cheap and get the new cities up and running early. I should have bought this in another city, though - I mistakenly thought that JPT still needed a trader, but I was mistaken. I think I intend to take Free Inquiry in my next golden age, which is going to do STUPID things to my science output. I'd say it'd lead to me running away with the game, but let's be honest that happened 30 turns ago. This all stems from snowballing out to those early settlers while everyone else dragged their feet. By the time India and Germany reached 4 cities, I was finishing settlers to push me to 8 cities, and then 12 and 16 while they're still faffing around with districts or something. No idea. Poland has grown exponentially and the others have not.




The northeast at the end of the Classical Age. I intend one final city on the river here, at the Devil's Tower, which will be a good Faith city. Work Ethic + a Holy Site + Petra will be a great city up there. No more settlers are planned for the wilderness beyond - lots of land but the return on investment is low. Instead that production will go to military units to finish the game. 




The southwest. I'll get a couple final settlers to head up the Bene Youssef into the wild lands north of Germany. This will cut him off from the north coast, be a stepping stone to Hungary, and let me come down on Germany like a ton of bricks in what may be the very near future. 




The far West. Hungary has stabilized his front with Japan, and his Encampment is steadily healing. He's also founded another city, his first in ages, but it's a dry plant and is working on an aqueduct, of all things. Japan still holds only his capital of Kyoto and the city of Fukuoka, which must be in the fog beyond flooded Nagoya. It'll be Japanese again in 4 turns, for the first time in ages. This bloody, inconclusive war has done nothing but remove Japan and Hungary as serious threats. I'm heading south to grab a tribal village, then I'll head back east towards Germany to map out that area and find CSes and natural wonders. 




The "contenders," although India is already slipping far behind in science, and that's without Free Inquiry coming up. I'm also unlocking Universities in 2 turns, which will be a big oof. His culture is competitive, though. He has Choral Music and a strong faith economy driving that, while I'm just rocking natural population and monuments. My culture has a much higher ceiling than his, though, once I seriously push it. 




The losers. Should I skip the city-states and invade Germany? If I wanted to, I could seriously put an end to this game very quickly. Attack Germany, roll over the plains to Japan, then reduce him and Hungary. Finally march on India, alone and isolated to the East. I'm debating doing it, or delaying a bit further to take Cardiff. The religious states I might churn out a second army for and I'll strike in every direction. Cocky, but also fun!

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Brunei falls and is renamed Home By Christmas.

Next turn I'm founding two more cities, both for Niter, and continuing Campuses/Commercial Hubs and now Encampments around the empire. When the Oracle finishes, I'll engineer a policy swap into Colonization and churn out 5 more settlers from my core cities (the original 4 + BB), while the rest continue infrastructure.

Science stands at 90 bpt, nearly twice India in second place at 50 and fully 10x what poor Japan is making.

It might be most efficient to just scratch build 2 new armies - one for Canada, one for the Eastern city states. Marching that distance is insane on online speed. I think I'll scratch out some Muskets and Hussars for Canada and run over him next, then follow up with an army for the East. The Canadian and Northern armies will then join to squash Germany from two directions and roll onto Hungary, while the Eastern army and reinforcements will plunge into India. By the time everyone else catches up to Muskets, I should be hitting Cuirassiers/Infantry.