There are more leaders like Washington that are competent but rarely get to show it because they are bludgeoned out of the game beforehand due to their peace weight deficiency.
UU and UB do not matter at all, except maybe for a few extreme cases.
(August 21st, 2020, 02:07)civac2 Wrote: UU and UB do not matter at all, except maybe for a few extreme cases.
It's really really hard to see the effects of UBs, but I suspect they make a huge difference. Obviously terraces are incredible. I think one reason Gilgamesh expands so consistently well is his courthouse. Mansa's best economy in the entire game certainly isn't hurt by his forges that make money. The effects may be difficult to see but I don't believe they aren't there.
Unique units make a hugely visible difference. Praetorian's aren't up for debate by anyone and could be included in your extreme examples. But recently we saw how powerful bowmen are. They didn't ultimately same him but the power was on display. Skirmishers have consistently helped Mansa in the early game. Alex's hoplites are a big reason he obliterated Zara so effortlessly. These are just off the top of my head examples, I'm sure someone could figure out a way to make this more quantifiable. Long story short I think uniques are just as much as part of the package as the various AI numbers that make a personality.
I was a bit hyperbolic. Most UUs and UBs do not matter but some of the early ones do. (The effect of Mansa's forges is marginal but the Gilgamesh's courthouses certainly make a difference after the expansion phase.)
I suspect Burger King's UB and UU are both doing a fair bit of heavy lifting for him. His UU in particular is forgettable, sure, but given the way the Deity AI tosses units around, having a Pike that can actually sometimes kill everything in its era bar X-Bows probably helps a lot.
Agree on BK's unique stuff doing most if not all the work for him. Actually, that might explain why he's been doing well recently, especially that pikeman. I think that unit is kinda the opposite of the hoplite or impi, in that it doesn't do much for humans but makes an enormous difference for the AI.
In anticipation of tomorrow's Season Five Championship, I went ahead and ran another alternate histories series on Playoff Game Three. Full details are at the following link but I'll toss out some teaser screenshots here: http://www.sullla.com/Civ4/civ4survivor5-12A.html
(Note : "A" column tracks the number of war declarations initiated by the AI, "D" the number of times the AI is declared upon, "F" the points for finish ranking, and "K" the number of kills.)
Thank you to Wyatan again for providing the inspiration for this project.
(August 15th, 2020, 07:51)Wyatan Wrote: So, if Sullla does alternate histories for that one before I get there (that's some pretty long way off), here are my predictions:
Winner: Gilgamesh 60%, Huyna Capac 30%
Runner-up: Mehmed 50%
FTD: Gandhi 60%, Hannibal 30%
Victory: Cultural 50%, Domination 40%
Well, this time I was much closer to the mark.
Been busy at work, and with both last and next week-ends taken up, Season 4 Game 4 results won't be available before late next week. I'm half-way through, and the results so far are somewhat surprising...
Season 4, Game 4 saw Justinian play a perfect diplomatic game, where he leveraged his Christian alliances and the Apostolic Palace to curb and eliminate his rivals. It also saw Charlemagne ride Justinian's coattails to the playoffs, which ultimately would allow him to claim that season's title.
We've got ample proof that Justinian is a strong leader, but how much of that owes to his masterful use of the AP? And although Charlemagne would also reach Season Five's Championship game, was his second place behind Justinian in this game deserved or a fluke?
Let's see:
The first game I played yielded the same result as the actual competition game: Justinian wins, Charlemagne comes second.
And then the narrative completely changed.
Justinian
To no surprise, it would seem that yes, removing the Apostolic Palace from the game did hurt Justinian a lot.
Thanks to the turn order advantage, he would always get an initial religion (except for one game where he opened instead with a worker tech). He also almost always was first to Theology, so the AP would have been consistantly his.
He was a strong performer here, winning 7 games (4 of which being the last four games I played)... but Peter was just stronger on this map.
Justinian had quite a few things going for him:
- a strong capital with two food ressources and a gold tile
- the most land to expand peacefully out of all AIs
- an easy conquest option with Asoka
- a generally safe neighbour with Saladin: in most games, Saladin would pick up Justinian's religion and remain a steadfast ally
- no financial leader in the game, allowing him to leverage his shrines into a tech lead (by virtue of enabling a higher science slider).
But with so many religious-focused AIs in the game, he wasn't able to form a dominant coalition. And without the AP, he couldn't bend it to his will.
Those games also seemed to reveal a glaring weakness in the Justinian AI: with its heavy religion emphasis, it would often get a perfect setup for an cultural win... and it never went for it. Pulling the slider just doesn't seem to be part of the Justinian package, and that cost him several games.
Suryavarman
The Khmer leader was one of the worst performing AIs here, getting the second worst total score (below even Charlemagne's, but surviving more often).
But I believe the map explains most of it.
Suryavarman got a coastal start. Now, coastal starts are often deemed bad for the AI when they don't have Fishing tech for obvious reasons, but I believe that the main issue is that, by definition, they provide no backline.
And that was clearly the case here: the Khmer would cram 6-7 closely packed cities in their corner of the map, and be out of options.
It also didn't help that half of that land was covered in jungles, and that they had no early happiness ressource.
Actually, they had one gold tile, at a very good city site... which they never prioritized, heading deep into the jungle first. So that part was on them.
But essentially, they would try to break out (39 wars declared), and fail (3 kills only), ending up being conquered instead. By Russia, mostly.
Suryavarman's role in this game was to grow future Russian cities, and in that respect, he succeeded admirably.
Asoka
Oh boy.
He has died in every single game, been first to die in 15 out of 20, managing to launch 4 attacks while being attacked 70 times.
That was a marked man, there.
High peace weight AI, in the center of map, with a high religious emphasis, in a game where the only other high peace weight AI was also a religious zealot who would usually run a different religion.
Not much to say, really. The writing was on the wall for him, and there simply was no surprise.
To make matters worse for him, his land had very little hills: most of his cities (and all of his core cities) were on flat ground, and production-poor.
There were two oddities I noticed:
- On several occasions, he was attacked when all he had to defend himself were archers. It wasn't that he hadn't metal ressources. It wasn't that he hadn't researched the relevant techs. He just hadn't bothered to connect those tiles.
- I don't know what could cause that, but there were also several occasions were he focused his military exclusively on Peter, with one particularly egregious case where he had 4 archers defending his capital with two foreign main stacks converging on it, and more than twice that amount of defenders in border cities with Russia that were under no threat.
Anyway, at this point, I think we have enough data for a very simple rule:
If India starts in a corner of the map, we have a contender for the win.
If India starts in the center of the map, we have the grand favourite for first to die.
Charlemagne
Charlemagne haters rejoice: his making it out of that game was a complete fluke.
He has the worst survival rate after Asoka, getting killed in 18 games out of 20. Most games followed a scenario where Asoka died first, and Charlemagne was next.
It's perfectly logical actually: Charlemagne's situation was basically the same as Asoka's. A high peace weight zealot in the middle of the map. Asoka's peace weight is higher, making him the priority target, and his direct neighbours were the strongests AIs on the map (Peter and Justinian), so that explains why Asoka went down first.
And contrary to what happened in the actual competition game, he would more often than not follow a different religion than Justinian.
To Charlemagne's credit, although he faced a lot of situations where he was attacked from two different sides (by Monty and Saladin), it usually took one of the game leaders to get involved for him to succumb. And he did win a game.
He had two good games only, and both followed a similar scenario where Charlemagne launched an early offensive against a metal-deprived neighbour, and could snowball from there.
But his rightful place in Season 4's rankings was way down at the bottom. Certainly not at the very top.
Montezuma
We don't expect crazy Monty to be a strong performer, and that was confirmed here too. He did manage to get 11 kills, and he had two strong games, actually winning one.
But while he did better than Asoka, Charlemagne, or Suryavarman, that still wasn't exactly a strong showing either.
After watching a few games, it did surprise me a little, though: he usually expanded well, he had two weak direct neighbours (boxed-in Suryavarman and dogpile bait Charlie), so why wasn't he doing a bit better?
So I paid close attention to what he was doing in one game (game 15), and that brought some answers:
- First, he's just bad. On turn 30, he had improved a single tile!
- No easy access to copper: a warmonger's successful game relies on hitting a weak neighbour fast and hard, and Monty's metal situation did not allow for it.
- A lack of early happiness ressources: the only one was a Gems tile in the jungle to his south (and "jungle" means that "early" doesn't apply).
Also, contrary to Justinian for instance, Monty is very bad at spreading his own religion, so he would often find himself in a delicate diplomatic situation once Asoka and Charlemagne were gone.
And his teching is usually just awful. I've seen a 10-city Montezuma researching Education... on turn 300!
Peter
I expected Justinian to dominate this game... Peter turned out to be the strongest leader here.
It comes as a semi-surprise: in the actual competition game, Peter rose to a game leading position before Justinian could orchestrate a dogpile on him. And while the Apostolic Palace wasn't involved in the first war which prevented Peter from running away with the game, it was instrumental in his subsequent downfall.
I believe Peter to be a somewhat underrated AI.
Let's get this out right away: no, he's not a top AI.
But he's a competent AI. Good enough to thrive if dealt a good hand, but not good enough to make do with a bad hand.
Take his season 5 games. In the first game, he was given a very strong capital, with much weaker but abundant surrounding lands. And while the main story of that game was Alexander conquering the world, the subplot was a fight between Peter and Justinian (again!). And Peter won that fight. When Alexander's armies came down and swept away the remnants of the Byzantine Empire, Justinian was already on the ropes and going down. So Peter deserved his second place there.
But in the playoff game, he was given a tundra start between a monstrous Gilgamesh and Huyna Capac. And he failed miserably.
So was he given that good of a hand here?
His starting land has two early happiness ressources (Ivory + Gold, although a running gag was that he keeps settling his cities in such a way that he couldn't work the Gold), Stone (which he put to good use by usually building the Pyramids and running an early Representation). He had rivers for bonus commerce, and a coastal site with 2xFish, Clams, Cows, and Horse (certaintly an original starting position that Sulla left as is, without weakening it).
But there were also a lot of "brown" tiles, and he would fast run out of decent city sites and have to settle tundra spots. So all in all, slightly better than average, but nothing to write home about?
It wasn't so much the land as his position: he was neighbouring Asoka and Suryavarman. Asoka would always face a dogpile, and Peter would be part of it, getting a few extra cities that way.
That would help, but Suryavarman was the real boon: the Khmer were weak in nearly every game, and get into a fight with the Russian. A fight that would end with them being conquered. And contrary to the Indian case, Peter wouldn't have to share. He'd get the whole of the Khmer cities.
And that would be enough to propel Peter into a game-leading position.
With Growth and Science as his research flavours, he would also turn his size into a research lead, and get unstoppable from there.
It should be noted that Justinian's religious spreading often backfired: Justinian would usually be stronger than Peter before the Russians could absorb the Khmer, but they would be religious allies at that point (with bonus points for the shared conquest of India).
Then Peter would get stronger, drop into Free Religion, and turn around on Justinian.
Something I didn't expect: Peter's also a member of the Rifling-tech eschewing club. In spite of having a unique unit unlocked by that tech.
It usually wasn't that much of an issue (essentially just slowed his conquest), but he paid dearly for it in one instance at least (game 16).
We've focused on cases like Willem, because it's frustrating to see an AI get into such a tech lead that they have the game in the bag, only to throw it because they won't research the one tech that would make them safe, but I think it's actually much more prevalent than that: basically any AI that doesn't have "military" as a research flavour will delay researching Rifling.
All in all a very strong showing by Peter, who actually was on a course to end up with a Caesar-like score, before weakening in the latter half of the games. He does finish at 100 points, which remains a very impressive score. And with 35 kills for 66 wars declared, he equals Caesar's 53% lethality rate.
Saladin
Saladin had mostly... quiet games?
He has the best survival rate after Peter, surviving 14 games out of 20. He was also the most likely to end up second (although at 30%, that's a weak favourite, as illustrated by the fact the "best bet" has betting on Justinian as the runner-up for the reverse order points instead of backing Saladin).
He never won, getting into a winning position only once but failing to exploit it.
His usual game involved getting Justinian's religion and staying his ally to the end, fighting Charlemagne at some point, and subsequently laying low.
As a leader who cannot plot at pleased, he was basically neutered whenever Justinian managed to convert the world.
His expansion was blocked to the west by Holy Rome, and to the south by the Byzantines. The jungle area to his south east was often key: if he could get it, he'd stay relevant. If Justinian got it, he would become very strong, while Arabia would stay a stunted civ. I guess he was in a similar position to Suryavarman's: a coastal start, with half of his available land covered in jungles. The crucial difference in their games being their relation with their big neighbour.
So, for the most part, he played the role of Justinian's sidekick, and that was basically it.
Finish date and Asoka FTD went according to expectations.
Justinian winning wasn't the most likely result, but not a complete outlier.
Charlemagne runner-up and victory type were extremely flukey (Diplomatic victory always is).
Game 1
Charlemagne calls off Asoka's bluff consisting of defending his civilization with warriors only.
Peter joins up for the kill, and with Asoka's corpse still warm, backstabs Charlemagne. Rather inefficiently as he ends up handing over his two Indian conquests.
Montezum's heresy is purged by Justinian, Saladin, and Charlemagne.
Suryvarman see an opportunity as Peter's licking his Charlemagne-inflicted wounds: wrong move, as Peter rallies and conquers most of his land.
Charlemagne is lacking one Christian virtue: he can't forgive. Peter is made aware of it as Russia is rolled over.
The game ends as Justinian's missionaries start converting Alpha Centauri, right after Charlemagne lets pass an opportunity to be designated World Leader.
Montezuma opens Polytheism (Confucianism). Justinian, Asoka and Saladin race for Meditation. Justinian wins by dint of turn order (Christianity, duh).
Sury is late to found his second city: 5E 2N, by the rice. Scouts spotted site late?
Justinian gets Monotheism (Islam).
Turn 65: Charlemagne declares on Asoka who only has warriors to defend himself (no Archery, no Copper, Iron Working 11 turns away).
4 cities: Justinian
5 cities: Charlemagne, Asoka, Montezuma, Suryavarman
7 cities: Saladin, Peter
Turn 68: Bombay (capital) taken. Asoka's Iron was in its borders...
Justinian plants 3 cities in a row.
Turn 73: Vijayanagara taken.
Turn 79: Agra taken.
Saladin, Charlemagne, Peter convert to Christianism.
Turn 80: Peter declares on Asoka.
Turn 84: Varanasi taken by Peter.
Turn 86: Peter snipes the kill with a roving chariot when Charlemagne comes one unit short.
Turn 87: Peter (11 cities) declares on Charlemagne (8 cities). That was fast!
Suryavarman converts to Confucianism. Considering Monty and he occupy the last two spots on the scoreboard... might not be a brilliant move.
Justinian gets the Code of Laws religion (Judaism).
Turn 98: Charlemagne is winning his war when... Montezuma declares on Charlemagne.
Turn 101: Justinian gets the Theology religion (Hinduism) and declares on Montezuma.
Charlemagne and Peter sign peace. Charlemagne has gained both of Peter's Indian conquests.
Turn 102: Saladin declares on Montezuma.
Suryavarman converts to Christianity.
Turn 120: Suryavarman declares on Peter.
Turn 131: Justinian burns the heretic.
Justinian got 4 cities, Saladin 3 cities (including the Confucianism Holy City - poison pill?), Charlemagne the capital.
Peter is winning against Sury.
Turn 145: Saladin gets the Philosophy religion (Buddhism).
With everybody Christian, lots of pleased and friendly faces around. Justinian, Charlemagne, and Saladin cannot plot at pleased.
Apart from the ongoing war (rapidly drawing to a conclusion as Sury is down to 4 cities), the only possible war would be Charlemagne declaring on Peter (only "cautious" because of Peter's earlier declaration).
Justinian gets the Divine Right religion (Taoism).
Turn 162: Just as Sury is down to two cities, Charlie makes the only potential war a reality by declaring on Peter.
Justinian: 11 cities, 412 bpt (80%), 153 units (39 + 4gpt from Thessalonica, Christian + Muslim Holy City)
Peter: 14 cities, 232 bpt (50%), 170 units
Charlemagne: 12 cities, 282 bpt (60%), 183 units
Saladin: 12 cities, 368 bpt (70%), 158 units
Justinian beats Saladin to Liberalism by 2 turns, picks Nationalism, builds the Taj Mahal. Saladin gets the Economics GM, though.
Turn 186: Poison pill swallowed as Saladin converts to Confucianism.
Sury down to a single city, but Peter's ignoring him to focus on the war with Charlie which he's slowly losing (down 2 cities, 164 units for Charlie, 127 for Peter).
Turn 195: Moscow taken. Peter doesn't seem broken yet, but it has to be a hard blow.
Turn 205: I see... Peter and Charlie had researched Military Tradition at the same time... but Peter didn't have Gunpowder. He gets it just as Charlie gets Rifling. And instead of going for Rifling himself, he's off to Astronomy (11 turns).
Justinian is starting to settle the Antarctic.
Turn 234: Saladin takes pity on the Khmer. He declares on Suryavarman and kills him in the same turn. Technically a kill steal, but Peter's too busy dying himself.
Peter finally on Rifling tech (he went Scientific Method after Astronomy). Too late to matter, unfortunately.
Turn 259: Charlemagne has conquered Russia.
Justinian is the clear tech leader, ahead of Saladin (2200 bpt vs 1250 bpt, 5 techs ahead).
Charlemagne has the city count advantage (25 vs 19 for Justinian), but has now fallen too far behind in tech (14 techs behind Justinian).
Justinian is still pleased with Saladin, but down to +1.
Charlemagne is already "cautious" and could declare war. Saladin can't as he's "pleased" with both of them.
Saladin, who is smaller (13 cities) is building science to try and keep up in tech. As a consequence, he's falling far below in military power.
Turn 293: Saladin researches Mass Media. If he builds the UN...
Turn 299: Charlemagne is plotting... Also, Justinian is 4 tech away from launch, but will win by culture in 22 turns, without even trying.
Turn 304: Charlemagne declares on Saladin. He has 523 units vs 209 for Saladin.
Saladin has started building the UN (3 turns away).
Saladin had also started the Manhattan Project, but the city is now on unit build.
Turn 307: Justinian launches his spaceship. It will arrive 3 turns before he wins by culture, unless he pulls the slider.
The UN is built. Charlemagne is elected. Will he call the vote? Also, what happens if he captures the UN city? Does that trigger a new Secretary General election?
So far Charlemagne hasn't captured any city, and Saladin seems to be getting the better of the exchanges? He has researched Composites but not Robotics, so his only military tech advantage is Gunships and Jet Fighters.
Oh I see. Charlemagne has brought a single artillery piece for the siege...
Also: Cultural victory is no longer in play for Justinian. Half his culture output was from Creative Constructions. He's swapped into State Property.
Turn 314: Charlie's an idiot. He calls for a vote... for trade routes.
Turn 317: Justinian's ship lands.
Game 2
Charlemagne and Asoka race for first to die. Charlemagne wins.
Justinian introduces Montezuma to the Christian virtue of Sacrifice as he lets his only Christian ally be torn to shreds by the Muslim block comprising all the remaining AIs, while he's teching ahead.
Unfortunately for the Byzantine leader, Peter, who's got the bulk of the spoils from India and the Aztecs, has grown bigger and teched faster than him.
So when Justinian decides to boss around Saladin, Peter shows him who's actually the boss.
Asoka wins the Meditation (Buddhism) race vs Saladin, Justinian Polytheism vs Montezuma.
Suryavarman settles his first two cities in a straight line, to the east, into the jungle, instead of going for the Gold + Rice + Cows spot to his northeast. Might explain why he's not doing so hot? These cities are useless before he cuts down the jungle. And his 4th city goes on the Stone to the north, with zero food ressource.
Peter founds Rostov right on top of Asoka, 3 tiles from Varanasi. Looking for a fight?
Turn 63: Peter declares on Asoka who has just researched Iron Working and built his first metal unit.
Charlemagne founds Islam (Monotheism) and converts.
Islam spreads to Saladin who also converts (a Muslim Saladin, what a surprise).
Turn 76: Peter and Asoka sign peace. So Peter just moved his stack back and forth, letting Asoka build up his defenses, and then gave up?
(It might be the opposite of Shaka, with Peter being too cautious. Getting caught in a loop of not liking his odds, moving back to reinforce his stack, moving forward again, not liking his odds vs the reinforced Indian city, moving back to reinforce his stack, etc...)
Turn 81: Charlemagne declares on Justinian.
Turn 85: Montezuma declares on Charlemagne.
Buddhism: Asoka
Christianity: Justinian, Montezuma
Islam: Charlemagne, Saladin, Suryavarman, Peter
Turn 118: Suryavarman declares on Asoka.
Charlemagne seems to be dying. He's lost two cities to Monty, one to Justinian, and he's last in power.
Turn 121: Saladin declares on Asoka. Seems like Asoka cannot bear the prospect of not being first-to-die?
Turn 126: Peter declares on Asoka. The race with Charlie is on!
Turn 131: Saladin signs peace with Asoka. Hmm, I suppose he'd been bought into the war?
His main stack is taking a scenic detour through Justinian lands on the way home. Is he mapping the land? Is Justinian whom he's really after?
Turn 139: Yup. Saladin declares on Justinian.
I see. Justinian had got Islam's Holy City from Charlemagne. And that's the first city Saladin takes from him. Figures.
Turn 158: Sorry Asoka, Charlemagne had too much of a headstart. Monty gets 4 cities and the kill credit, Justinian gets 3 (minus one he's lost to Saladin for now).
Peter is the research leader (420 bpt vs 215 bpt for Monty/Sury). He's just founded Judaism (Divine Right): will he convert?
Turn 163: Must have been heart-wrenching for Saladin to give away his prized conquest in the peace treaty.
Peter builds Versailles... on the coast, next to Moscow. Well played.
Turn 169: Montezuma declares on Peter.
Turn 170: Asoka exits the game. Peter got most of the spoils, and the kill. This is bad news for Monty, since Peter's power is higher than his, and his armies are no longer distracted by the conquest of India.
Turn 192: The Muslim nations start cooperating as Suryavarman declares on Montezuma.
That said, Justinian's power been spiking and he's topping the power ranking chart now. And he has cataphracts.
Turn 195: Which turns out to be bad news for Saladin (as he gets declared upon) and for Monty (as there's no help forthcoming).
Is Peter pulling a Willem? Communism, Physics... but still no Rifling or Military Tradition.
Turn 229: Monty is 16 techs behind Peter. They get Rifling at the same time.
Justinian's power edge over Saladin is staggering. He has yet to capture a city, though: he has *one* catapult in his main stack, taking down a castle defense, 2% per turn... Saladin's used that reprieve to get his own rifles.
Turn 235: And just as that plodding catapult is about to finish the job, Saladin spares his troops and the rest of his kingdom by giving away the city for peace.
Turn 243: The Aztecs are now facing the whole Muslim world as Saladin declares on Montezuma too.
Turn 262: As Peter scores his second kill and secures his position as the game leader, Justinian's seemingly strong second place is undermined by the fact he is now the sole Christian nation in a Muslim world...
Turn 264: Justinian declares on Saladin in an attempt at weakening the Muslim alliance while enlarging his power base.
He's renounced the lone catapult approach, and is using ironclads to drop city defenses, with much swifter results.
Turn 276: Peter does what Justinian did not do. He chooses to help his ally and declares on Justinian.
Russian tanks, assisted a bit later by tactical nukes, quickly rout the Byzantine forces.
Will Justinian survive before Peter hit Domination?
Turn 313: He does. Barely.
Game 3
As a true gentleman, and having won the title in the previous game, Charlemagne lets Asoka be first to die. Justinian and Montezuma perform the deed. Then the Aztec leader, his bloodthirst unsatiated, joins up with Saladin to murder Charlemagne.
Justinian and Montezuma are the two alpha dogs now. That's one too many.
Peter has taken his own sweet time, but he's beaten up Suryavarman into submission. He's become an alpha dog too in the process.
He teams up with Justinian to omega Montezuma.
Doesn't solve the issue, though: there are still two alpha dogs. They start ducking it out.
In an attempt at wooing the pack (reduced to the sole Saladin), Peter swaps to Saladin's religion.
The wooing works as Saladin woofs and barks at Justinian, then bites him. Justinian is shredded to pieces.
In the process, Saladin's become an alpha dog too.
But that's not issue because: Peter's now an alpha centaur.
Asoka wins the Meditation race vs Charlemagne, Justinian wins the Polytheism race vs Montezuma.
The Rice + Cows + Gold spot is made unavailable to Suryavarman by an early barb city spawn (Vandal). He founds his 3rd city 3E 2S of his capital (Fish + Wheat), in a spot that would have made a better second city than his customary jungle settlement.
Peter founds Novgorod (3rd city) 6W 3S of Moscow, a crazy spot (Clam + 2 Fish + Cows + Horses + flood plains) which seems to be a map-generated capital spot (observer civ?).
After 4 cities, Suryavarman already looks boxed in: he needs to capture Vandal to open up the peninsula to his northeast.
Charlemagne founds Judaism (Monotheism).
Turn 72: Charlemagne (4 cities) declares on Asoka (8 cities) who has just researched Iron Working (no metal unit yet in his cities) and captures Agra.
Peter hasn't researched Mysticism yet: 5 out 8 of Rostov's first ring tiles are Indian tiles.
Monty captures Vandal, locking Sury out of any northeastern expansion.
Buddhism: Asoka
Christianity: Justinian, Saladin, Peter
Judaism: Charlemagne, Montezuma, Suryavarman
Asoka is now tops in power.
Turn 89: As the Indians recaptures Agra, Peter (7 cities) declares on Asoka.
Suryavarman converts to Buddhism.
Turn 100: Saladin (6 cities) declares on Asoka.
Turn 107: Suryavarman (6 cities) declares on Peter who then signs peace with Asoka.
Turn 113: Charlemagne signs peace with Asoka.
So far, although a couple of Indian cities changed hands a few times, Asoka got them all back, so Peter and Charlie's wars were for nothing.
Now, isn't Montezuma supposed to be in this game?
Turn 117: Right on cue, Montezuma (9 cities) declares on Asoka.
Turn 118: Justinian (8 cities) declares on Asoka (probably bought: no apparent stack).
Justinian is far ahead on power, both he and Monty have Construction: not good for India. Not good at all.
Turn 132: Charlemagne declares on Saladin.
Turn 146: Monty delivers the killing blow. The Aztecs got 4 cities, the Byzantines got 3, the Arabs only one, but they're winning against the HRE (Prague already captured).
Justinian (11 cities) and a surprising Montezuma (13 cities) are the scoreboard leaders.
For now, the war between Peter and Sury is going nowhere.
Turn 153: Aachen falls. Charlie seems to be on his way out.
Turn 154: Montezuma declares on Charlemagne. That settles it, I guess.
Justinian on Guilds.
Turn 161: Saladin captures Charlie's last city. A first Khmer city has fallen, and it looks like Sury's back is broken now.
Justinian has pulled ahead on the scoreboard, but Monty has pulled ahead on the power graph. That said, the Aztecs are the only practionners of Judaism in an increasingly dominantly Christian world. Although... Saladin now holds the Jewish Holy City. Will he convert?
Turn 171: Montezuma declares on Justinian. I guess the game's going to be decided right there.
Suryavarman is in full collapse mode now.
Turn 191: Peter completes his conquest of the Khmer. He now holds the most cities (15), was the first to Liberalism, and has just overtaken Justinian's beaker count. Looks like we have another contender.
As expected, Saladin converts to Judaism.
Turn 216: Peter declares on Montezuma.
Monty started his war 60 units ahead of Justinian, but then he lost the attrition war, lost his main stack deep in Byzantine territory, and has been losing ground since (2 cities down) while his power rating has plummeted below Justinian's. This move by Peter is probably the coup de grâce.
Saladin, who's just researched Rifling, and although it seems it would be too late for Monty anyway, could make a move... if he weren't pleased with Peter and Justinian.
Turn 260: And then there were three. Peter delivers the killing blow. He's still ahead of Justinian, both in city count and beakers.
Turn 268: Peter converts to Judaism, dropping his relation with Justinian to "cautious".
Turn 282: Popcorn time. Peter declares on Justinian.
Turn 294: Meh, they sign peace. Peter came ahead, though. He nows has 27 cities to Justinian's 16.
Turn 314: Peter builds the UN. If he calls the victory vote, Saladin will vote for him and he'll win.
Turn 316: Justinian declares on Peter.
Turn 328: Saladin declares on Justinian.
Fun fact: With the two game leaders lobbing nukes at one another, their respective power has dropped below Saladin's.
Fun fact 2: Before Justinian started what's clearly appearing to be an ill-advised war, Saladin was friendly (+12) with Peter, and pleased (+1) with Justinian. The nuclear exchanges have dropped his attitude with Peter to +6 because of a -6 "you nuked our friend". So I learned something. "Friend" for "you declared war on our friend" means attitude >= "pleased". While "friend" for "you nuked our friend" means attitude >= "cautious".
Fun fact 3: So Saladin clearly disapprove of Peter nuking Justinian. Well, he started his war with a salvo of 5 nukes aimed at Justinian!
Turn 339: Peter launches his spaceship.
Justinian's dying. If it weren't apparent enough at his borders disappearing from the minimap, his vetoing a Universal Suffrage resolution is a telltale sign.
Turn 345: Indeed, Justinian doesn't make it through the nuclear barrage, with Saladin delivering the killing blow. Saladin timed his war perfectly since he managed to get the most cities. He's now neck and neck with Peter in city count (27 vs 29 for Peter).
Not that it matter, though: Peter's ship lands 4 turns later.
Game 4
Wars are fought, but everyone knows it's just for fun and captured cities are to be given back as soon as peace is signed.
Everyone but Peter.
He kills Suryavarman.
Then Asoka.
Then Charlemagne. Then Montezuma.
Saladin and Justinian give up.
Asoka beats Saladin and Montezuma to Meditation. Justinian and Charlemagne open Agriculture, then race for Polytheism, a race Justinian wins.
Peter builds Stonehenge. No border pop issues for him in this game.
Suryavarman does get the Gold + Cows + Rice spot with his 3rd city (he still founded his 2nd city deep in the jungle, though).
Charlemagne gets the Monotheism religion (Confucianism).
Turn 75: Peter (5 cities) declares on Suryavarman (6 cities) and captures Angkor Wat (Fish + Wheat, 3E 3S of Sury's capital) right away.
Suryawarman has copper, but hasn't connected it yet (no road), and he hasn't researched Iron Working yet (on Sailing at the moment). Sury could be in trouble, but it could also be an opportunity for Gandhi's other neighbours not to have to share with Russia.
Turn 83: Suryavarman loses his capital.
Asoka has failed to expand. He's at 5 cities and pretty much boxed in now, with the icy South as the only expansion avenue left.
Christianity: Justinian, Peter, Montezuma, Saladin
Confucianism: Charlemagne
Buddhism: Asoka
Saladin founds Islam, so he'll probably convert at some point.
Turn 101: Saladin (5 cities) declares on Asoka. Not very likely to achieve much unless someone joins up.
Turn 102: Montezuma (8 cities) declares on Charlemagne (7 cities). Neither of them's going for Asoka then. Could be excellent for Justinian (10 cities) who's already leading the game.
Turn 113: And there it is. Justinian declares on Asoka.
Saladin's fine with letting all the spoils to Justinian: he signs peace. Peter's war had stalled, but now that he's got catapults, Sury's cities start falling again. Meanwhile, Montezuma's war versus Charlemagne is yet to achieve anything (apart from massive casualties on both sides).
Turn 137: Saladin declares on Charlemagne.
Justinian, who has twice Asoka's power signs peace without capturing a single city. What a wasted opportunity!
Turn 141: Peter ends his war. Sury's gone.
Saladin joining forces with Montezuma has changed... nothing: Charlemagne is still holding fine, thank you very much.
Saladin makes the same assessment and peaces out. Not his game: he got squeezed hard by Justinian who also captured the barb cities in Arabia's backyard, and he failed to expand military. Twice. His 5-city civilization is starting to fall into irrelevance.
Turn 155: Well, since nobody's taken India yet, Russia will have it, then. Peter (132 units) declares on Asoka (51 units).
Meanwhile, Monty may finally have broken through: he's captured a first city, and Charlie's power's dipped.
Turn 163: Saladin tries again. Saladin declares on Asoka.
Turn 175: Justinian realizes that letting Peter annex the whole of India might be a bad idea. Justinian declares on Asoka.
Nope, Monty hadn't broken through. He signs peace, giving back his only conquest. I believe that the technical term for the whole operation is "Fail".
Turn 191: Peter gets his second kill and 3 cities. Justinian's late joining the war paid off very nicely since he got the Indian capital and the Buddhist Holy City. Unsurprisingly, poor Saladin got nothing.
Justinian's friendly with Peter, Saladin, Montezuma, cautious with Charlemagne.
Peter's friendly with Justinian, Saladin, Montezuma, annoyed with Charlemagne.
Saladin's friendly with Peter, Justinian, Montezuma, cautious with Charlemagne.
Montezuma's pleased with Peter, Justinian, Saladin, annoyed with Charlemagne.
Care to bet on who's next to die?
Turn 202: Charlemagne declares on Saladin.
Turn 203: Montezuma declares on Charlemagne.
Turn 208: Justinian declares on Charlemagne.
Turn 212: Peter declares on Charlemagne.
Turn 214: Observer civ declares on Charlemagne.
No. Just kidding.
Turn 222: Peter gets his 3rd kill of the game! The Russians, the Aztecs, and the Byzantines get 2 cities each. And Saladin gets... his first city capture! Charlie's capital, even!
Everyone's friendly, except for Peter towards Monty (pleased), and Monty towards Peter and Justinian (pleased).
Peter's ahead in every category except culture, with Justinian a close second.
And then Peter goes Free Religion.
And then Saladin, who had bravely and wisely resisted his instincts so far, succumbs to temptation: he converts to Islam.
By the way, this is the fourth game in a row where Peter obstinately refuses to research Rifling, so add him to the club.
Turn 253: Montezuma declares on Peter. Suicide.
Turn 278: Peter gets his 4th kill of the game!
Justinian has pulled slightly ahead in tech, but Peter now has 33 cities to Justinian's 17...
Peter's "cautious" with Justinian.
Turn 316: With only 3 techs spaceship left (to Justinian's 4), Peter declares on Justinian, triggering his Defensive Pact. Saladin declares on Peter.
Turn 330: Strangely enough, Peter's the only one who went nuclear. Not that he needed it, with his 400-unit advantage. He wins by Domination.
Game 5
After a practice round where winning a war means immediately granting your opponent peace, things start in earnest.
Montezuma and Saladin collaborate to take down Charlemagne, with the Aztecs killing the units and the Arabs taking the cities.
Justinian and Peter both to it solo, victimizing Asoka and Suryavarman respectively.
Saladin could win the game now, but his lawyer reminds him of the "Cannot Plot at Pleased" clause in his contract, so instead he watches Justinian take Aztecs cities and the lead.
And then he stops watching as the flash from 27 nukes launched simultaneously at his cities make him blind, then dead.
Peter doesn't fancy the notion of Russia glowing at night, so he readily concedes Justinian's domination.
Justinian beats Saladin and Montezuma to Meditation. No one opens Polytheism, with Charlemagne going Agriculture and Asoka… Masonry. Suryavarman opens Mysticism, and then ends up in a race with Montezuma for Polytheism. Monty narrowly wins (Islam).
For once, Suryavarman does not send his settler in the jungle. He goes 3N 2W to the small jutting slip of land (Clams + riverside). Not exactly a great spot (doesn't claim territory for instance), but at least the city is semi-useful. His 3rd city goes 3N 1E: no food, major overlap with his capital and second city, and still claiming basically territory. Suryavarman is really struggling with his settling pattern.
Asoka claims the Monotheism religion.
A barb city (Assyrian) spawns at the godly southwest coastal spot before Peter can claim it. This could slow him down.
And since we're mentioning Peter, his 2nd city went 3E 4S, and his 3rd city 3E 2N. Meaning he's carefully kept the 3E 1S gold tile outside of the fat cross of every city! :weed:
Saladin and a coastal barb city have locked Justinian out of his customary notheastern expansion, so he's expanded towards Charlemagne instead.
Which probably explains:
Turn 71: Charlemagne (6 cities), although he's Christian, and in spite of the fact that Justinian (6 cities) is tops in power, declares on Justinian.
He captures Antioch right away.
Turn 80: Peter declares on Asoka.
Could be good news for Suryavarman: the godly barb city is still up for grabs, and with Peter busy in India...
Turn 92: Peter and Asoka sign peace. I guess that was just for practice, then?
Christianity: Justinian (5 cities), Saladin (7 cities), Peter
Buddhism: Asoka (7 cities), Suryavarman (5 cities), Charlemagne (7 cities, and yes, he changed his mind about being a Christian)
Islam: Montezuma (9 cities)
Turn 99: Suryavarman declares on Peter.
Turn 102: Charlemagne, who's led a successful war (+1 city, power ratio with Justinian inverted)... signs peace and gives away Antioch. Sigh.
Turn 104: Montezuma declares on Charlemagne. Maybe Charlie's spies know their job and that's why he accepted a bad peace treaty with Justinian?
Turn 109: Saladin declares on Charlemagne.
Turn 121: And while the rest of the world is busy, Justinian makes his move. Justinian declares on Asoka. Although... he doesn't seem to have an attack stack? This game is officially weird.
Turn 143: Peter's broken through as he captures Angkor Wat and Suryavarman's power plummets down. So of course, he signs peace. What's up with this game?? At least he didn't give Angkor Wat back.
Justinian, in spite of his woefully poorly prepared attack, is winning decisively against Asoka who's lost two cities. Asoka's indeed defended even more poorly.
And in the North, Charlemagne is in the process of dying.
Turn 156: Peter declares on Asoka.
Turn 158: Saladin kicks Charlie out of the game. When the war started, Montezuma was way ahead in power. Saladin fought the better war by far, though: he got 5 cities, Monty just one. Saladin is now the scoreboard leader.
Turn 164: The Khmer do indeed end up capturing Assyrian.
Turn 168: Justinian completes the conquest of India. Peter's late involvement got him on city, but the Byzantines got all the rest.
Saladin and Justinian are now the game leaders. Peter and Montezuma are a step below, with Suryavarman dead last.
Turn 172: Peter declares on Suryavarman. A fast conquest is his only chance at staying in the run for this game.
Turn 177: Well, not this time apparently. Montezuma declares on Peter.
And this is why leaders who can't plot at pleased are bad at winning: Saladin is the current military leader, he could become the runaway leader by ploughing into the Aztecs while their main stack is in Russia. But in spite of the religious difference, he's pleased (+3) with Monty as a result of their shared war against Charlie. So he can't. Instead:
Turn 189: Saladin declares on Suryavarman. Sury only has 2 cities left, with one under siege by Peter, and he is on the other side of the map. But he's the only one Saladin isn't pleased or friendly with, so he's the only choice available.
Turn 192: Peter and Saladin each capture a city on the same turn. But because Saladin plays last, he snipes the kill.
Peter is now free to focus on defending versus Monty, but he's already one city down, with Monty's main stack about to capture a second city.
Justinian is annoyed (-4) with Monty: will he get involved?
Turn 204: He does. Justinian declares on Montezuma.
Turn 210: Peter lets another chance pass him by as he signs peace with Montezuma.
Monty is now last in power, but he's done quite the number on Justinian's troops, with the Byzantine's power dropping precipitously to barely above the Aztecs'. Saladin is way ahead in power, and is about to be the first to Rifling. Too bad he can't use it.
Turn 221: Peter realizes his mistake. Peter declares on Montezuma.
Justinian is a prick. Peter had lost two cities to Monty. One he got back in the peace treaty, the other was captured by Justinian at the start of his offensive. Well, not only has Justinian *not* liberated it back to Peter, but he's used a culture bomb in it.
Turn 237: Saladin tries to get out of his impasse by converting to Taoism. Bad news for Peter, he's the only one Saladin's dropped to "cautious" with.
Turn 245: Peter's in full dilettante mode in this game. He signs peace. Also, as usual, he's staying well clear of Rifling tech. If Saladin comes calling, it won't be pretty.
Justinian, on the other hand, has gone for Rifling and Military Tradition, and after actually dropping below the Aztecs', his power rating has risen sharply to way above. It hasn't translated yet into city captures and an Aztec full rout, but it should be heading that way very soon now.
Turn 263: Saladin is now "cautious" with Justinian too. And he's plotting...
Turn 266: Indeed, Saladin declares on Justinian. Trouble is, Justinian has gone more or less straight for Assembly Line, while Saladin hasn't.
They both lose a lot of units but stay even. And then Saladin loses a stack.
Turn 282: Which leads him into accepting peace. Kinda feels like a missed opportunity. Then again, if your opponent has infantries, get your own instead of Broadway!
Techwise, Justinian is 3 techs ahead of Saladin and 8 techs ahead of Peter. All three have a similar tech rate (~1300 beakers). Monty has rifles and cavs, but he's dropped far below in tech.
Turn 301: As Byzantine tanks put an end to Monty's resistance, and Aztec cities start falling to the Byzantines, Peter declares on Montezuma.
Turn 311: ...and snipes the kill !
Saladin (19 cities) has nearly caught up in tech with Justinian (22 cities), while Peter (16 cities) founding Ming Inc. has caused him to run more gold.
Turn 320: Peter declares on Saladin.
He manages to captures Saladin's well-defended enclave in his territory (the former Khmer city), but then Saladin's overwhelming tech advantage starts taking its toll.
Turn 335: Justinian declares on Saladin. He was bought into the war since Saladin gets to move first against him and captures a city.
Then, on the following turn, Justinian answers by firing 27 (!!) nukes at him and capturing 4 cities.
Turn 354: Ash to radioactive ash, Saladin's gone. Justinian deservedly gets the kill.
Saladin would have made it had it not been for the nuclear barrage: the captured cities' population was so low that while Justinian hit the land area Domination threshold before completing Saladin's conquest, he didn't have enough population to win.
Ten turns later, after some population regrowth, Justinian wins by Domination.
Game 6
Peter and Justinian partition India.
Then Justinian goes off conquering the Khmer while Peter, assisted by Montezuma and Saladin, annexes the bulk of Holy Rome.
Peter's conquest is faster. He's now bigger. And nastier.
A whole lot nastier.
Justinian beats Asoka and Montezuma to Medition while Saladin, unchallenged, gets to Polytheism first.
Suryavarman picks the same weak spot as the previous game for his second city. Ditto for Peter and Saint-Petersburg: 4S 3E, with no food in the first ring.
Justinian always founds Thessalonica in the same spot: 4E 1S, at the river mouth. A decent spot, with lots of flood plains, but away from the center of the map.
Charlemagne goes as usual 4S 1E for Prague: jungle spot with 2 Bananas and Ivory: strong post Calendar and Iron Working, very weak before that. But at least it claims territory. Saladin founds Medina on the hill 2N 3W towards Charlemagne. It claims Wheat, Cows, Horses, Incense.
Montezuma is probably, along with Sury, the AI whose second city spot is the most variable from game to game. Here he goes 3E 2S, Stone + flood plains.
Asoka, as usual, goes 3E 3S, a strong commerce site (Corn + Spice + rivers), but low on production.
Charlemagne founds Judaism (Monotheism).
Turn 93: Saladin declares on Charlemagne.
Christianity: Justinian (8 cities), Montezuma (6 cities)
Islam: Saladin (6 cities)
Judaism: Charlemagne (8 cities), Peter (9 cities), Suryavarman (6 cities), Asoka (5 cities)
Sury converted 2 turn before founding Buddhism, the Code of Laws religion, so he may yet cancel his membership to the Jewish club.
Turn 102: Montezuma declares on Charlemagne.
Turn 113: Suryavarman declares on Montezuma. Now that's something new.
Turn 115: Justinian declares on Asoka.
Turn 117: Peter declares on Asoka (most likely bought in by Justinian since he doesn't have a stack ready).
Turn 124: Suryvarman does indeed convert to Buddhism (his self-founded religion).
Turn 129: Peter converts to Christianity.
Turn 134: Bad news for Saladin as Charlemagne signs peace with the Aztecs.
Asoka has lost 2 cities to the Russians, and one city to the Byzantines, who are besieging his capital (Bombay; Delhi is the observer civ's in this game).
Turn 141: Saladin gives away a city in a peace with Charlemagne who has somehow managed to come ahead in spite of being the target of a two-front war.
Turn 144: Justinian delivers the killing blow to India. Peter got 3 cities, Justinian got 4 (and arguably the higher-quality cities).
Remembering Justinian's pettiness from the last game, Peter answers in kind by culture-bombing his Indian conquest the closest to Bombay, flooding it in Russian culture. It flips to him a dozen turns later.
Turn 153: Charlemagne declares on Peter. With the Russians being tops in power, Charlie may have chosen unwisely.
Turn 159: The war between Sury and Monty ends with Sury having gained one city.
Turn 164: Justinian declares on Suryavarman. Montezuma declares on Charlemagne.
Turn 177: Aachen (Charlemagne's capital) falls to Russia. Seeing a safe opportunity to make up for his earlier failure, Saladin declares on Charlemagne and recaptures the city he'd lost in the previous war.
Turn 186: Peter captures Charlemagne's last city. The Russians got 5 cities, the Aztecs and Arabs got two each.
Peter is now the undisputed game leader in every category, with Justinian a distant second. That said, if Justinian can absorb the whole of the Khmers, he could possibly be in a position to challenge the Russian hegemony.
Turn 197: Montezuma's revenge. Montezuma declares on Suryavarman.
Turn 206: Peter goes Free Religion, and drops to "cautious" towards Justinian.
Turn 217: Justinian gets credited his second kill of the game. Monty got one city for his participation. Justinian is up to 16 cities, but Peter is at 22 cities and ahead on techs, beakers, and military power.
Turn 229: And there we go. Peter declares on Justinian.
Turn 237: Montezuma, Justinian's best friend, backstabs him. Montezuma declares on Justinian.
After Peter destroyed Justinian's main stack in former Khmer territory, he turned his main army (a 100+ infantry / cossack / cannon mix) to the Byzantines mainland. That allows Monty to snag pretty much all of the former Khmer cities.
Turn 272: Montezuma reported for kill steal.
With his culture snagging the few missing tiles, Peter wins by Domination on turn 280.
Saladin, thanks to his much better teching, beats Monty to the second place by 160 points.
Game 7
Monty proves he's not just a comical figure by murdering Asoka, Charlie and Saladin while Peter conquers Suryavarman and Justinian.
They both end up at a similar size and power, but Russian scientists provide their boys with the better toys for the inevitable confrontation.
Justinian nabs Meditation, Montezuma Polytheism (Confucianism) as no one else goes for a religion. Too bad for Monty that he went for a northern spot for his second city (3E 2N, hill Deer in second ring, flood plains). Towards the center would have been better for religious spread, but at least it's on a major river that connects to Russia.
Sury is back into the jungle, Peter still doesn't want to be able to work his Gold tile.
Asoka gets the Monotheism religion.
Saladin, helped with barb city spawns, blocks Justinian from expanding to the northeast.
Peter doesn't believe in Mystics. Quacks, all of them.
Asoka gets the Pyramids (Peter usually gets them): nice prize for whomever conquers him.
Monty expands well: Sury ends up boxed in early.
Turn 89: Justinian declares on Asoka. One of the many issues Asoka faces in this game is that nearly all of his cities are on flat ground, in particular all of those facing the Byzantines.
Turn 93: Saladin declares on Charlemagne.
Turn 96: Montezuma declares on Asoka. His power had been spiking, so no big surprise there.
Turn 101: Peter declares on Asoka. Poor guy.
Turn 115: Peter researches Mysticism. He was right to be wary, as this coincides with: Suryavarman declares on Peter. Bad timing for the Russians as they were about to capture a second Indian city but Peter elects to sign peace right away with Asoka to face the Khmer invasion. At least the one city he got from Asoka allows him to work his Gold tile! Also, Peter converts to Confucianism.
Monty and Justinian have yet to capture a city.
No city changing hand either in the Saladin vs Charlemagne conflict, but the power ratio is increasingly turning to Arabia's advantage. And then obviously, as I write this, a coupla turns later Saladin loses a big stack in Charlemagne's territory and he is the first one to lose a city.
Turn 142: Saladin and Charlemagne sign peace. In a shocking development, Charlie does not give away the city he's captured.
Turn 155: Montezuma gets to capture Asoka. Got to put those sacrificial altars to good use I guess. The Aztecs got 3 cities, the Byzantines got 2 (and the Russians one before they had to bow out of the war).
Turn 164: Peter has conquered the Khmer. So in the time it took the combined Aztecs and Byzantines to overcome an already weakened Asoka's five cities, Peter's captured all seven Khmer cities. Not a runaway yet, but heading in that direction...
The Eastern, Christian block (Saladin + Justinian) is not looking good versus the Confucian block. But, Monty's only "cautious" (+5) with Charlemagne with whom he's sharing an extensive border. Sure, he's annoyed (-3) with Saladin, and cautious (+1) with Justinian, with a complicated border situation in former India, but... let's say that the unity of the Confucian alliance doesn't seem rock solid.
And sure enough:
Turn 170: Montezuma declares on Charlemagne. As if on cue, Charlemagne switches side by converting to Christianity.
Turn 171: But also... Peter declares on Justinian.
Montezuma vs Charlie: 11 cities, 165 units vs 8 cities, 68 units.
Peter vs Justinian: 17 cities, 186 units vs 10 cities, 106 units.
Both wars are fought on all sides with all medieval military techs except for Guilds.
Turn 172: Saladin declares on Charlemagne. I guess the late conversion was too late.
And since I've done it for the others: Saladin has 8 cities, 90 units. He's at the same tech level, but he's researching Guilds.
Well, Justinian's strategy consisting of not attacking at all but instead cramming his whole army into the city targeted by Peter pays off as Russia's main stack is slaughtered and Peter's power superiority melts away.
Things aren't going so well for Charlie, though...
Turn 213: Montezuma gets his second kill of the game as his troops enter Aachen. The Aztecs and the Arabs got four cities each, but Monty's got to a respected size now and is closing in on Justinian on the scoreboard.
Peter's production edge allows him to finally grind the defenses of Paliputra down (that former Indian city was Justinian's only city bordering Russia and his rally point for his stack building effort) and take the city. That said, this is precisely the kind of situation where he could end up rueing his careful avoidance of military techs.
Turn 216: Montezuma declares on Justinian. Byzantine prospects are looking grimmer, especially since Monty doesn't share Peter's reservations about guns: he's beelining Rifling.
Turn 220: Saladin declares on Montezuma. The Byzantine Diplomatic Corps at work.
Turn 226: Strike two for the BDC as Justinian gets Montezuma to the peace table. It might be too late, though, as Peter's gaining momentum, and he's on Replaceable Parts.
Nevermind, he wants Steam Power, on his way to Combustion. Cossacks? Who needs those. Justinian, on the other hand, is about to get Rifling. But he's lost cities, and Russian troops are about to invade his core, so can even rifles turn the tide now?
Turn 258: Constantinople falls. The Byzantine rifles did slow the Russian advance a little, but couldn't contain it. Now the Russians have them too, and are on Asembly Line.
After a staunch defense, Arabia is now rapidly melting away before the Aztec armies.
Turn 292: Justinian is out.
Turn 304: So is Saladin, Monty's third victim in this game!
Peter goes Free Religion, their relations drop to "pleased", which both can plot war at.
Their size and military are similar (28 Russian cities to 27 Aztec cities, 400 Russian units to 450 Aztec units), but Peter's technogical edge seems decisive: he's 13 techs ahead (in the Modern Era while Monty's still lacking factories), researching at 2,700 bpt to Monty's 1,650 bpt.
Turn 321: There we go. Montezuma declares on Peter.
And 10 turns later, Peter wins by Domination. No nukes, though.
That was a solid and impressive performance by the Aztec leader. But ultimately, he's proven once again that he's out of his league.
Game 8
After the customary dismemberment of Asoka, Justinian conquers the Aztecs while Peter annexes Holy Rome.
A first war between the Byzantines and the Russians turns to the former's advantage but merely evens the field.
Then the Russian scientists start heeding their generals' pleas and the next war sees the much better-geared Russians completely rout the Byzantine armies.
Nuclear fireworks over Arabia celebrate Russia's Domination.
Unusual start right off the bat. Peter and Suryavarman both open with Mysticism. Montezuma and Asoka race for Meditation (Asoka wins). Saladin and Charlemagne race for Polytheism (Charlie wins). Justinian opens with… Hunting.
Suryavarman settles deep into the jungle: 6E.
Justinian settles his 3rd city (Adrianopole) right on top of Prague, Charlemagne's Holy City. Aggressive plant, or like a moth to the light, is he inexorably drawn to Christianity?
Peter plants his 3rd city (Novgorod) far to the east (lake by the Pigs + Ivory), beating Asoka's settler there. Asoka reroutes his settler to the north, for the other Pigs + Ivory (+ Spice + Dyes + river) spot. If you ask me, Asoka got the better deal in the end.
Peter's weird choice for his 3rd city is already having a nasty consequence: Goth, a barb city, pops up at of his usual godly 3rd city spot on the coast. Not only is it bad that he doesn't get the spot, but that barb city is causing a constant influx of barbarian archers to Moscow who pillage its tiles and cause all sorts of nuisances.
Asoka wants all the Ivory on the map: he plants a city just 3 tiles north of Novgorod, getting all the Ivory there in his first ring.
Charlemagne narrowly beats Saladin to Monotheism (Hinduism). Only two major religions for this game?
Peter gets the Pyramids and swaps into Representation.
Peter captures Goth with his last, wounded sword, while a Khmer stack had just moved next to it. Close call.
Justinian's expansion has been blocked to the northeast (Saladin), and his land grab just seems less successful than usual.
Turn 93: Justinian declares on Asoka.
Turn 106: Peter declares on Asoka.
Turn 107: Charlemagne declares on Asoka. Popular man, this Asoka fellow.
Turn 119: Saladin declares on Asoka.
Turn 120: Montezuma declares on Charlemagne. Communication chain hiccup?
Turn 127: Peter comes up one unit short of taking the Indian capital. Justinian says thank you.
Turn 133: The scenario isn't repeated at Indian's last city, with Peter nabbing the kill. Two cities for Russia, two cities for the Byzantines, one city for Charlemagne.
Turn 144: Peter declares on Charlemagne.
Turn 146: Justinian declares on Montezuma. Proxy wars much?
Now it should be noted that Asoka founded Judaism in Paliputra on the very turn it was captured by Charlemagne. That city was then captured by the Russians just before they spawned a Great Prophet who proceeded to build the missing shrine. Is the Temple of Solomon's home going to prove a poison pill?
Turn 154: Saladin declares on Montezuma.
Turn 157: Suryavarman declares on Montezuma. Justinian seems to have convinced the others that the AP was still in play.
The diplomatic situation isn't looking good at all for Peter, down the line...
Turn 173: Justinian expels Monty from the game.
Turn 189: Aachen falls. Charlemagne is down to 4 cities, Peter is the clear game leader... but he doesn't seem dominant enough to handle the dogpile which should get started anytime now.
Turn 195: Charlemagne down to two cities. Justinian is plotting.
Turn 201: Holy Rome is dispatched.
Peter goes Free Religion, which cements Saladin's relation to him at pleased (+9).
Turn 205: Justinian declares on Peter. Peter is ahead in city count (20 vs 15) and in beakers (~800 at 90% vs ~400 at 80%), their military power and military tech level is similar, but Justinian should be able to get Sury to join into the war.
Trun 233: Peter has pulled decisively ahead in tech... but once again he's researching everything but Rifling, while Justinian has set his research path to it.
Turn 234: And then they sign peace. Justinian has clearly won the war: they now stand at 17 cities each. But Peter is 11 techs ahead.
Turn 235: Suryvarman converts to Taoism (self-founded, ages ago). That might not be the wisest move...
Turn 240: Justinian signs a Defensive Pact with Saladin. Suryavarman declares on Justinian. Saladin declares on Suryavarman. That timing...
Turn 257: Peter declares on Justinian. He has cannons, Cossacks, infantries. Justinian is on rifles, cavs, and catapults.
The Russian attack seems to have completely blindsided Justinian: the Byzantines just crumple. Fast.
Turn 301: Peter racks his 3rd kill this game.
Saladin is winning decisively vs Suryavarman.
Peter is at 72% population and 53% land area. He's only "cautious" with Saladin, so this might not end with an Alpha Centauri landing...
Turn 316: 18-city Saladin signs peace with 4-city Suryavarman.
Turn 327: Peter is 4 techs away from launching. He's mapping Saladin's territory and has started plotting, though...
Turn 332: The warhorn sounds. Saladin declares on Suryavarman. Sheesh, this isn't the show we've been promised!
Turn 337: Ok, that wasn't a war. More of an execution.
Turn 339: Nukes! Peter declares on Saladin.
... and wins by Dominations three turns later.
Game 9
A weaker than usual Peter lets Justinian conquer the whole of India and Azteca while he painstakingly conquers the Khmer.
Charlie's spies fail to inform him of the treaty Saladin's signed with Justinian, so his offensive on Arabia results in Justinian conquering him and winning the game.
Saladin, Montezuma and Charlemagne race for Meditation. Monty wins and founds Hinduism. Asoka opens Masonry, Justinian opens Agriculture then gets Polytheism unchallenged.
Suryavarman settles again 6E, deep into the jungle. Note that although a useless city, it does largely prevent Russia from expanding north.
Incredible: Peter founds Yaroslav on the Marble (4E). First game I believe where he'll get to work his Gold tile with one of his early cities!
Charlie plants Augsburg northeast of Yaroslav (Pigs + Dyes + Spices), a spot that so far had always gone to Russia or India. Monty later crams Tlacopan between Augsburg and Yaroslav (3 tiles away from each), stealing both of Russia's Ivory tiles!
Charlemagne gets the Monotheism religion (Confucianism).
Justinian expands better this game: he gets part of the northeast, and founds Nicomedia where Saladin usually places Najran, a mere 5 tiles from Mecca.
Turn 80: Charlemagne declares on Montezuma... and razes Tlacopan, which is great news for Peter!
Turn 89: Peter declares on Asoka.
Turn 100: Saladin declares on Charlemagne.
Asoka founds Buddhism (Code of Laws) and converts.
Turn 111: Suryavarman declares on Montezuma.
Turn 118: Charlemagne signs peace with both his opponents.
Peter seems weaker than usual, and can't seem to be able to break through Asoka's defenses.
Justinian has a sizable lead on the scoreboard now. And his power is spiking...
Turn 125: Justinian declares on Asoka. Between his much stronger military and the fact Asoka keeps sending all his units to defend vs Peter while leaving skeleton crews elsewhere, Justinian has no problem breaking through.
Turn 135: Charlemagne declares on Asoka.
Turn 142: Saladin declares on Charlemagne.
Turn 149: Suryavarman and Montezuma sign peace. That war achieved nothing.
Turn 155: India is conquered. Charlemagne has managed to grab the capital, Justinian got all the rest (and delivered the killing blow).
Peter got nothing. Clearly not his game. Justinian is now far ahead, already looking the runaway civ.
Also: Montezuma declares on Charlemagne.
Turn 171: Peter declares on Suryavarman. The correct move, but he doesn't seem strong enough to make it work.
Turn 172: Justinian declares on Montezuma. Number one decides to kill number two before he can become an actual threat. Did I forget to mention it? Monty's in second place, far below Justinian, but clearly above the rest of the field. That's purely the result of a great expansion phase, since his early wars were stalemates.
Saladin and Monty are tearing Charlemagne apart though. But with Justinian's intervention... could be an opportunity for Saladin.
Turn 214: Saladin makes peace with Charlemagne. He couldn't sieze his chance, and Charlemagne's recovered.
Justinian is putting the finishing touch to a campaign that left the Aztecs no chance. He's now the runaway leader of the game.
Peter's got his game together and did punch through Sury's defenses. He's now in the mopping-up phase, and seems to have laid a strong claim to second place.
Turn 234: Monty's excommunicated from the game.
Turn 238: Suryavarman follows.
Justinian: 4355 points, 19 cities, 1745 bpt, reasearching Assembly Line, 337 units
Peter: 2307 points, 13 cities, 567 bpt, 18 techs behind, 181 units
Yeah, that's how much ahead Justinian is.
Turn 268: Charlemagne declares on Saladin... triggering the Defensive Pact the Arabs have signed with the Byzantines. Justinian declares on Charlemagne. Bye, Charlie.
Turn 273: Shark feeding time. Peter declares on Charlemagne.
Turn 277: It took less than ten turns for Charlemagne to be wiped off the map.
And a few border pops later, Justinian achieves Domination (turn 282).
Game 10
Justinian tries a passive-aggressive approach while Peter, who's somehow forgotten to settle his own cities settles for conquering cities instead.
If only someone had informed Justinian of the "culture slider" thing!
Justinian beats Saladin and Montezuma to Meditation while Asoka gets the Polytheism religion.
Suryavarman goes ones again 6E.
Charlemagne gets the Monotheism religion (Islam).
Peter goes for the Pyramids way too early: he gets them, but remains stuck on 3 cities while Montezuma is up to 8, and lets Asoka settle 4E 2N of Moscow!
Turn 87: Charlemagne declares on Asoka. Of note is the fact both are tied for military power, largely above the rest of the field.
Montezuma converts to Christianity.
Turn 101: Suryavarman declares on Peter, but they sign peace 10 turns later.
Peter converts to Christianity.
Turn 108: Montezuma declares on Charlemagne.
Turn 115: Saladin declares on Asoka and nets the first city capture of the game.
Turn 125: Peter declares on Asoka.
Aachen falls to Montezuma. The Aztecs are tops in power, Charlemagne is last.
In this game, Peterclearly thinks Wonders are more useful than settlers: he's built the Great Wall, the Pyramids, the Great Lighthouse, the Parthenon, the Statue of Zeus, and the Hanging Gardens.
Turn 132: Suryavarman declares on Montezuma.
Turn 139: Saladin had come just short of taking Bombay (India's capital since Delhi is observing), Peter, who plays before Saladin, takes advantage.
Turn 156: Asoka is ousted. Peter got 5 cities and the kill, Saladin got 3 (including the Buddhist Holy City: poison pill?).
Scratch that: Saladin got only two since he gifts Lahore to Justinian who immediately culture bombs it, trying to flip Calcutta from Russia.
Turn 169: Saladin declares on Montezuma who's beginning to have a hard time with his two-front war (well, now a three-front war). Monty has lost Aachen back to Charlie, and a border city to Sury.
Saladin and Peter are the major military powers, Justinian is a tad below, and Monty, Sury, Charlie are tied in last place way below.
Calcutta flips over to Justinian, who has thus got two cities out of a war he didn't fight.
Peter is the first to Liberalism, Montezuma signs peace with Suryavarman.
Justinian is playing the passive-aggressive variant: he culture bombs Calcutta!
The Aztecs' star is now fast waning.
Turn 200: Peter declares on Charlemagne.
Peter captures 4 cities in the first turns of the war, and for once he's on the Rifling path (he did get Communism and Physics first, though).
Peter is two techs ahead of Justinian, but Justinian has a slight beaker edge (1055 bpt vs 863 bpt, but the numbers are fluctuating). As usual, Justinian is helped a lot by his shrine(s) which allow him to keep the science slider at a higher percentage: the Christian shrine alone is bringing in 46 gpt!
Turn 222: As Montezuma is down to one city, Saladin converts to Christianity in a very wise move.
Turn 226: Suryavarman declares on Charlemagne, trying to vulture a city or a kill from the dying HRE (down to 2 cities).
Fun fact: The dying civs never signed peace with one another.
Turn 230: Saladin kills off the Aztecs.
Turn 237: Peter foils Suryavarman plans and gets Charlemagne's last cities.
Peter is at 19 cities while Justinian, who hasn't fought a single war in this game, is at 14 cities and poised to flip more (some of Russia's recent conquests, and Saladin's Buddhist Holy City which can work a single tile).
Turn 266: Peter declares on Justinian. I guess he got tired of Justinian's culture pressure.
With the world's Christian harmony a shattered dream, Saladin changes his mind once again: he converts to Buddhism.
Turn 281: Constantinople falls as Thessalonica reaches Legendary status. Justinian never pulled the culture slider and he would probably have won by now if he had. Just to give you an idea, Vijayanagara (Saladin's conquered Buddhist Holy City) had broken the 5,000 culture threshold... and it controlled only one of its first-ring tiles!
Turn 286: Suryavarman declares on Saladin. Suicide: 8 cities vs 17 cities and Saladin has more than twice Sury's power.
Turn 299: Peter gets his 3rd kill. That was an impressive conquest: he started with a clear but moderate edge (250 units vs 180 units, cossacks and infantries vs cavs and rifles) and that was enough to completely rout the Byzantines. He kept the technological edge: when Justinian got his own infantries, Peter fielded his first tanks, when Justinian got tanks, Peter got gunships. And of course, once Byzantine cities started falling, Russia's production edge only got bigger.
Turn 313: Peter declares on Saladin. Saladin's conversion to Buddhism may not have been wise afterall. And I suppose that Peter, who conquered Justinian to remove the Byzantine cultural pressure on his Holy Roman conquests, must have been pretty miffed at Arabia culturally crushing half his Byzantine conquests...
A few nukes and a mere 3 turns later, Peter achieves Domination.
Suryavarman, cowering in his two remaining cities, actually lives.
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