[no players] CiVI Lurking Part II: Sophomore Slump

[Mardoc]

That 300 power differential is the reason why Alhambram is able to keep peace with Woden for more than 100 turns. If he kept just a skeleton military, Woden would have eaten him way back. A lot of players are always complaining that the some other player got easier neighbours to eat. In this game, Alhambram didn't give Woden any advantages (City State scouting is random luck, pretty much), and he even forced Woden to spend hammers in religious and military defence. What do we hear from the other players: Alhambram is not attacking Woden, he's so bad.

Next thing we'll be seeing complaints that "X player is not in my house playing my turns for me, he's so bad, etc.".

I mean, the main question is whether he had enough of a military lead to decisively win a war.  If he didn't, then holding off was definitely correct - and he did force Woden to abandon Mahabodhi and to build some military.  I admit...the main relevant fact about OleDavy and Archduke is they haven't yet decisively won a war.  Maybe their stalemates gives enough perspective that they can judge this, but maybe they're being overoptimistic about Alhambram's chances too.

I sincerely think Alhambram's chance to win through religion is the best he has.

...

Remember, the whole east has no religion to combat Alhambram's. Passive spread can probaly work its magic there (though I don't have much experience with how long this takes), especially since growing cities is so hard in Civ 6. He doesn't need to convert everything with Apostles/Missionaries and it seems he's already making his way in Archduke cities. He'll get some Oledavy cities too, apparently. That's actually quite close to a victory, I'd say.

The funniest thing here is all the people saying stuff like 'religious victory is super easy to stop, I'll totally get around to stopping it...uh, just as soon as I resolve this thing that's more urgent that requires me to sign another DoF with Alhambram'.

It's starting to seem quite possible that you're right, that Alhambram will pull this off simply by using his military might to force people to not defend against his religious might.  He'll likely get the east due to a combination of 'that's Woden's job' and them otherwise being unprepared, and then it's just a question of whether Woden can deconvert his cities in time.

[Rowain]

Everyone says that Woden is winning but I wonder how.

With Alhambrams culture I doubt Woden can get enough Tourists. Conquest is a lot of work especially if Oledavy can finally capture some cities in the east. Science takes along time and can become quite difficult if you figure in Spies. A lot depends on what Great People are in the mix and who gets them. Alhambram with his huge Faith-production can more easily patronize a needed GP than anybody else.

I'm only sure that neither Singaboy nor Archduke will win this game but the rest is still open.

[Kaiser]

I am not even sure about that, but for the moment these two are the least likely.

If Alhambrams religious victory will be stopped, the next fastest option is likely a cultural victory, however Alhambram and the cheap Akropolises are making that unlikely.

So we can expect this game to last until a Science or Domination victory if there will be bo concession. In that timeframe anything is possible. For example:
- Archduke could swallow Germany
- Oledavy could separate Greece with Singaboy
- Woden/Alhambram/Oledavy could fight it out and change their relative position
- Woden builds his way to win

So unless they will let Woden win this game peacefully with a Science victory, there is nothing decided yet though he has a strong position.

In my Rome game I realized that Thermonuclear bombs work very well to stop a Science victory and to destroy some wonders. Maybe we will see some?

[MJW (ya that one)]

I'll LOL forever if he actually wins a religious victory.

If that doesn't happen ether oledavy or woden wins.

[Commodore]

Doesn't seem to be clear-cut. The inquisition will be online "in time", meaning before Singaboy goes full Weedy, but with all that pressure and faith production can't Al make a fair push anyway?

[MJW (ya that one)]

Doesn't seem to be clear-cut. The inquisition will be online "in time", meaning before Singaboy goes full Weedy, but with all that pressure and faith production can't Al make a fair push anyway?

Not really, inquisitors are OP enough that religious victory is not possible unless a sucker-punch happens or something. NoQuitters mod nerfed them hard.

[pindicator]

Gotta agree with Singaboy's frustration regarding Great Generals. Making them invincible makes them so OP

[Rowain]

Gotta agree with Singaboy's frustration regarding Great Generals.  Making them invincible makes them so OP

For one they only support units from 2 times so they have only a certain lifetime. And if they are soooo overpowered how come Archduke was not able to get Aachen or anything meaningful from Oledavy?

Besides face it: Civ 6 (as was the case with Civ5) has no interest in balancing. If you want a balanced game go play chess not Civ 6 or see edit. There are so many things unbalanced/luck-based in it that taking it as a serious measure of skill while allowing City-states, different civs, different Leaders, random starts, etc etc is stupid. It is a nice passing of time with some interesting puzzles but a balanced game it is not and won't ever be.


Edit: You can of course get a balanced game in civ6: Just play one of the multiplayer maps with no city-states and balanced starts (if possible) and everybody with the same civ and Leader.

[MJW (ya that one)]

Rowain, GGs stacking is at least on par with industrial zones stacking so it's silly for Firaxis to ban them. As I said before the real problem is likely Beach not understanding movement (Persia).

And now he has officially been stopped form winning religious victory. LOL

Even though his silly 80 gold attack failed Archduke has done enough damage to Singaboy that Oledavy will easily eat him too. Because Woden will have a much harder time and taking cities from two people is better than one I'm actually going to set it to Lean Oledavy.

[Esteon]

Rowain: You're kidding, right? The bulk of TAD's army was 6 crossbowman. He managed to annihilate Sing's forces, take a city and stopped at the second, heavily defended, only because of Alh's and ODavy's threat. And the second part of the war was against significantly superior musketmen.