Epic 17 - sooooo's report (Gandhi)

[sooooo]

Hi, just a placeholder because my five week old son does not quite understand RB report deadlines. Details of Gandhi's domination victory will follow some time.

EDIT: The date was 1090 AD.

EDIT2: Report is now up, see below.

[sunrise089]

Hi, just a placeholder because my five week old son does not quite understand RB report deadlines. Details of Gandhi's domination victory will follow some time.

EDIT: The date was 1090 AD.

!

[Kylearan]

Hi,

... my five week old son ...

Congratulations! So you're playing on Marathon now I see...

-Kylearan

[tycoonist]

1090!!! wow!

[sooooo]

Epic 17 - Gourmet Menu

OK, this is a monarch pangaea game. Results are classed by fastest finish according to each victory type, and you have to chose the leader you play with! Culture is a no-no for me for fastest finish on a pangeaa map. It enourages a risky no-military gamble. Conquest is pretty boring, diplo is a bit of a lottery and out of space/domination I fancied going for a domination win. I chose Gandhi, because spiritual is great for domination for all those caste system/slavery, theology/pacifism and nationhood/vassalage switches you need to make. Philo should make the best use of my specialists and India is just a great civ because of the fast workers. Specialists are almost certainly better than cottages for a domination on pangaea.

I started with a fast worker and agriculture. We have sheep, so I went for a horse gamble with a pasturable food tile. That means that I research AH and if we have no horses I go for archery. With no pasturable food tile I would instead have gone for BW, hoping for bronze. It turned out we have no horses so I researched archery next. Then wheel, bronze working, fishing, sailing, pottery etc.

I didn't actually build a single cottage - the only ones I owned were ones I captured.

The first cities went here:



I note the change in indian city list order from warlords. With plenty of room to expand I build many more cities before attacking my nearest victim, who by the map layout would be Kublai Khan. I'm even making a great library; such a builder!



The ideal scenario panned out in between these turns: Kublai has build the pyramids. Now when I chose a philosophical leader for a domination win, the dream scenario is for your nearest neighbour to have stone in their capital and therefore build the pyramids. It actually happened!

I actually declared on Kublai next turn, earlier than I was planning to because Monty had already declared on the mongolians and had taken a city. I was planning to wait for war elephants. But swords had to do. Inter-AI wars would be a recurring theme in this game, with Alexander/Julius going at each other all the time, and Hannibal pounding on Mansa for most of the game too. This stopped anyone actually teching anything.

Yes, please note I'm declaring my first war while making +1 GPT at 30% science ...

The mongolians didn't put up too much resistance, I think Kublai used up his attacking stack counterattacking the city that Monty took. Here's the situation the turn before his last city fell, note I now own pyramids!



Hokay, so I'm now in some economic trouble, losing money at 0% science and not knowing CoL or currency. 2 civs knew currency but neither would trade with me! Grr. I had to sell them techs to keep myself afloat, all the while building research and teching to CoL before my units went on strike.



Err, the time for CoL went down considerably when I remembered to revolt to representation next turn - doh!

Finally when CoL came in I was able to hire lots of merchants. CoL was for caste system, not courthouses. That kept me steady between 0% and 10% science for the rest of the game, while still teching at a reasonable rate. My original thinking that spiritual would be good for the caste system/slavery swapping turned out to be false because I couldn't afford 5 turns in slavery or my units would strike! I needed those merchants all the time, so no more slavery for me. Then only time I could sustain higher science was in a golden age (30% science then) or when I got cash from loot or a trade mission.

Anyway, my philo trait and need for caste system kept me with a steady stream of great merchants who went for trade missions to the temple of artemis city. That kept me teching quite well. Other GPs were used for golden ages, as I had knocked out a 9-turn mauseleum thanks to marble and bureaucracy.



My capital got the Heroic Epic and pumped out 1-turn elephants. Monty got squished by them. When you don't have longbows or pikemen, elephants are just unfair.



For the Roman war I had macemen and trebs too. Julius only got feudalism just before I declared, and didn't much money to upgrade his archers. When the knights came pouring in too, he died very quickly. I was pretty good at building settlers instead of military once I knew I would have enough troops. My capital kept building the 1-turn knights, but every other city went to settlers. After banking for mercantilism I stopped research to save up enough money for a 5-turn switch to slavery, then whipped a load of settlers (like, over 12) and went back to caste system to not go on strike. Then on one turn I settled them and caste system/mercantilism meant the borders popped in 2 turns. I razed and replaced 2 greek cities and then went over the domination limit for a victory in 1090AD.



I see from reports that that's a competitive date, but I think I got lucky here. Chosing a philo leader and having your neighbour build the pyramids is very lucky. If I hadn't has representation I would have had to be much more cautious. Also the AI wars meant that they used their attack stacks on each other and didn't have the techs for feudalism or construction until fairly late. Thanks for the game, Sullla!

[Swiss Pauli]

A triumph of economic mismanagement. Huzzah!

[SpazzMaticus]

Impressive.

[LKendter]

I never would have selected Gandhi for domination. I am amazed how well you did with him. For domination I prefer a good UU, or organized to whip cheap courts in my new conquests to avoid economic disaster.

[Deceptus]

Why not, LKendter?

He sounds as a very good leader for military wins. Spiritual is a great boon with it instant swaps, something that I loved (and that's why as a tribute I decided to play with Brennus!), and Philosophical with Pyramids will keep your economy at a high science level, which won't be reduced by warmonging because most of your beakers will come from the specialists.

While I'm not by any means an expert in this game, I think that Gandhi is well prepared for conquering - his UU is not a military one, but its use can speed up growth in your cities and thus economy, which fits quite well for a buildup-then-attack style.
Philosophical can even help your economy trouble if you go over the board with wars - by creating very fast Great Merchants.

Besides, Mausoleum is a pretty good building, which works in peace times and in war times.

[sooooo]

I never would have selected Gandhi for domination. I am amazed how well you did with him. For domination I prefer a good UU, or organized to whip cheap courts in my new conquests to avoid economic disaster.

Also a perfectly fine method. I prefer organised and financial for domination on a continents-like map.