[SPOILERS] Yuris125 tries to win a game of Civ5 before it fades away

[T-hawk]

I went through Notre Dame happiness much faster than expected.

This happens in every Civ 5 game I ever play too, even after adjusting my expectation for this fact.

[chumchu]

You can never have too much happiness in civ V. If you have a big surplus you should be growing taller or wider.

[yuris125]

As I said, I don't think new cities would pay off at this point. So taller it is

Here's my empire at the end of the golden age




I think I strengthened the empire well enough during the GA. However.. here are the current demos




I'm concerned about not being able pull ahead of Ichabod's production (I assume the demos account for 20% production bonus during GA?). It's close, and I was ahead for most of the GA, but the fact that he matches me is scary

I'm less concerned about GNP - Ichabod went for the top part of the tree, with Education and Banking, while I'm going for military techs at the bottom. But that's the big reason why I seriously need to make progress against Nic very soon. As things stand, I won't be able to compete with Ichabod economically in the late game, I already can't really compete with him

(worth noting that my cities are currently microed for max growth, and that's also a reason for weak GNP)

Meanwhile, Nic's units are nowhere to be seen this turn, and that's also worrying, he's got to be planning something




And HAK is likely to take Milan, maybe even this turn

[T-hawk]

(I assume the demos account for 20% production bonus during GA?)

Yes. Everything is included, even temporary boosts like +100% to a Piety shrine.

Interesting to note that the map shows you 2 beakers on the jungles around Harar, meaning it's got a university there, built even in the middle of your war.

[yuris125]

well, it hasn't really been a hot war ever since Nic got access to Crossbows and if he is indeed using Holy Warriors, he does have production to spare. As do I - it's been a while since I slow-built a unit. Although I do intend to go to full military production once I get Gunpowder (n 7 turns I think)

[yuris125]

Nic may have made a mistake (or maybe it's a trap)




My Worker was improving the stone with a Longsword protecting him, and Nic went ahead and tried to shoot the Longsword. Not only did he not have enough damage, but that gave me the second great general

Catching Nic's units like this, uncoordinated and out of position, is a dream come true. I even sent the Scout as shown on the screenshot above to check there were no units behind that Crossbow on the left. There weren't. So....




I couldn't kill it because there's was only one flatland tile between the Crossbow and my road, so only one melee unit could hit it. But this should be a reasonable setup for killing it next turn. Plus, the sight of this many units all together is impressive I will also faith-buy another Longsword in Hanoi next turn and add him to this force

Don't know how much progress I can make, but this gives me a chance... and Muskets are 6 turns away

Post-golden age demos




Pretty much as expected. Leading in food still gives me a chance to fix the rest of the stats - I do have decent tiles to grow onto. Ichabod being 6 techs ahead of me is concerning (he has 8 on me, I have 2 on him), but I will start backfilling after finishing Gunpowder, hopefully cheap techs will fly by fast enough to improve this position. But beelining Gunpowder was important not only for access to Muskets, but also to unlock Rationalism. I'm currently 6 turns away from Gunpowder and 7 from the next policy, so that's working out

[T-hawk]

You need more mobility on those melee units. Would you be buying more horsemen and knights if not for the strategic resource bug?

[yuris125]

Yes definitely, lack of resources has had a significant impact on the game. I had to forgo my UU, which is a Knight replacement; and I believe Nic founded his newest city just to get an extra horse resource

[yuris125]

Things are not going well. I may have the strongest melee unit, and will get an even stronger one shortly - but Nic has Crossbows and Knights now, and there's very little I can do to counter




Last turn, I lost 4 units, two I expected, didn't think Nic could get the other two. Worst, he was able to kill one of my great generals

I feel I don't understand Civ5 war properly. I keep losing more units than I should, and more units than my war opponents

My best hope at this point is to leverage the military tech advantage. Build a dozen Muskets and half a dozen Trebs, at least.. however tactically skilled Nic is, however much mobility he has, that kind of force should be too strong for him

We'll see if I can do it. That's going to be the priority for now. I wanted to build Circus Maximus to avoid happiness problems, but it has to wait - I have to use my superior units while they actually are superior

[chumchu]

Civ 5 war is a lot different against human opponents and much more fun in my opinion. This is where 1upt really shines. If they had spent more resources on the MP-aspect it might have had a big MP-scene. As it happened, it took them 3 years to get it reasonably stable and there was no MP-balance testing as far as I know.