Season 4, Game 3, continued (3/3)
Game 11
Suleiman's got this: he's converted everyone but the stubborn French to Islam, so once that issue is dealt with, peace shall reign upon the world.
Shaka pounces on Joao, who cowers into a corner.
At least Tiny Rome got the message and pinches France who swats it away. Tiny Rome goes back to Rome, sulking.
Suleiman decides Shaka's lack of discipline deserves a stark punishment: he invades... right as De Gaulle invades him.
Frederick takes up the Zulu spanking duties as Suleiman turns back to face France.
De Gaulle beats up Suleiman to show whose faith is the stronger one, then shows mercy.
No mercy for Shaka, though.
Tiny Rome stops sulking and goes back to France. No more pinching, punching it is. Turns out Tiny Rome packs a mighty punch. That sends De Gaulle reeling right out of the game.
Big Rome also punches Joao out because he looked at him funny.
Then Big Rome hesitates: it wants to go see the stars. But it also wants to become Huge Rome.
Let's do both: Big Rome launches a ship just as it starts beating up holier-than-you Suleiman.
The ship lands at the exact same moment Big Rome becomes Huge Rome.
The ship is forgotten.
Game 12
In which Shaka gets to start a snowball and Caesar, through absolute bravery and prowess, slows it down before neutralising it with brilliant cunning.
And then he remembered he was a dumb AI and ruined his perfect trap, unleashing a renewed Zulu fury upon the world.
Game 13
After a botched attempt at invading France early, Caesar innovates and conquers Germany.
Shaka does Shaka things by declaring successively on Joao, Suleiman, Frederick, Suleiman again, Joao again, and achieving nothing except for two kill snipes.
De Gaulle conquers the Ottoman and the Portuguese, while Caesar, back from Germany, puts an end to the Zulu antics.
De Gaulle knows running these games takes time, so he speeds things up by declaring on Caesar and losing enough land for a Roman Domination victory.
Game 14
Suleiman succombs to the usual dogpile: Shaka, De Gaulle, Caesar.
Joao snipes Marseilles from De Gaulle through a quick war. And when Shaka declares on Joao, all the fighting happens in France as the Zulus and Portuguese trade the city back and forth between themselves. Somehow Joao manages to blindside Shaka with that craziness, and he conquers the Zulus. Marseilles goes back to France, obviously.
Caesar then cooperates with De Gaulle in the degermanification of the South.
Joao loses the coinflip as Caesar choses to annex Portugal to reach Domination.
Game 15
Shaka is kept in check for ages by the mighty strength-2 Portuguese warriors, but he prevails in the end.
He then gangs up with Caesar to rough up the Ottomans.
De Gaulle launches the most frustrating ever conquest of Germany, but he prevails in the end.
Caesar knows a snowball forming when he sees one: Shaka, on the hand, barely has time to see what hits him.
De Gaulle uses spies to goad Caesar into a Domination win.
Game 16
In which Suleiman rises from the dead to become a major power before being sternly reminded that in this game, Rome is the only major power.
Also in which Frederick puts to shame Willem, Gandhi, and all those early adopters of Rifling tech: while at war, he researched up to PLASTICS before condescending to equip his troops with actual guns!
Game 17
In which Germany suffers an early dogpile while the Ottomans are left alone.
Also in which the Zulus, after conquering Portugal, lay a long and protracted siege on Rome before Caesar proves once again that Rifles are useful instruments of death-dealing.
Game 18
Joao eats a Zulu and conquers France.
Caesar struggles but gets the Ottomans to surrender.
He then wins a tight 3-way spaceship race... only to have Joao call the UN victory vote 5 turns before the Roman ship would land.
Ban the UN!
Also, nukes.
Game 19
Caesar conquers the Zulus while France and Portugal team up against Germany which gets partitioned off.
For once, France ends up with the better eggheads.
Then when France starts annexing Ottoman cities, the Romans make them stop.
Suleiman finds a safe place to hide: a former barbarian city behind Roman borders.
When France redeclares and conquers the rest of the Ottoman cities... there remains one, unreachable.
With France locked in an unwinnable war, Rome is free to annex all of Portugal interference-free, and to overtake France at last.
Big nuclear showdown at the end to determine the winner, but already know who that's gonna be, don't you?
Game 20
Caesar feels he needs to raise the challenge level: he renews his lose-my-third-city-to-barbs-as-it-is-founded trick.
Shaka and De Gaulle team up to carve up Portugal and De Gaulle proves the better conqueror while Suleiman proves the better kill thief.
Shaka doesn't take kindly be being publicly humiliated and declares on De Gaulle. Ensues a protrated war that drags France's economy down, but the Zulus are grindingly, steadily, losing ground.
Then Caesar, who's been left to recover, tech, and build up in peace for 200 turns, wakes up and shows them both who's the boss by quickly wiping out the remnants of the Zulus.
And then whole of the Ottomans.
He wants to leave the French and the Germans duke it out without foreign interference, you see: at that point, De Gaulle and Frederick have both finished second six times.
This is the tie-breaker.
A much larger, medieval France invades a much smaller, modern-era Germany.
Knights and Muskets vs Panzers and Infantries.
And when it seems that "going medieval" could work afterall, Roman armies plough into France...
Game 11
Suleiman's got this: he's converted everyone but the stubborn French to Islam, so once that issue is dealt with, peace shall reign upon the world.
Shaka pounces on Joao, who cowers into a corner.
At least Tiny Rome got the message and pinches France who swats it away. Tiny Rome goes back to Rome, sulking.
Suleiman decides Shaka's lack of discipline deserves a stark punishment: he invades... right as De Gaulle invades him.
Frederick takes up the Zulu spanking duties as Suleiman turns back to face France.
De Gaulle beats up Suleiman to show whose faith is the stronger one, then shows mercy.
No mercy for Shaka, though.
Tiny Rome stops sulking and goes back to France. No more pinching, punching it is. Turns out Tiny Rome packs a mighty punch. That sends De Gaulle reeling right out of the game.
Big Rome also punches Joao out because he looked at him funny.
Then Big Rome hesitates: it wants to go see the stars. But it also wants to become Huge Rome.
Let's do both: Big Rome launches a ship just as it starts beating up holier-than-you Suleiman.
The ship lands at the exact same moment Big Rome becomes Huge Rome.
The ship is forgotten.
Suleiman's rush to Islam (Meditation) is uncontested.
De Gaulle gets a late-ish Christianity on turn 36, right as he completes Stonehenge, which allows him to get his shrine on turn 66. He kinda needs it, because at that point Islam is by far the most popular creed: Caesar and Joao have converted to it, no one to Christianity.
The settlement pattern for Joao and Caesar is back to normalcy, with Joao planting Guimaraes in its usual, Zulu-teasing spot, while Caesar plants Neapolis at the Marble + Ivory spot north of Rome.
The Iron + Oasis spot between them remains empty, though: Caesar had a settler on its way there, but then he pulled it back all the way south to the tundra to found a fishing village with no food and no ressource tile to work. :weed:
Turn 76: Shaka isn't impressed by the Church of Nativity and joins the Muslim brotherhood. He celebrates by declaring on Joao and capturing the offensive Guimaraes. Shaka's notion of "brotherhood" is an very manly one, you see.
Oh, and Joao hasn't researched Iron Working yet, so he doesn't have access to metal. He might be in some trouble, there.
Turn 79: Frederick also converts to Islam.
Turn 99: First win for De Gaulle as Shaka becomes a Christian.
Shaka has taken two Portuguese cities, but a lot of Zulu troops died in a failed assault on Lisbon.
Joao has researched Iron Working now, but hasn't been able to connect his Iron yet.
Turn 102: Caesar can't explain how he went through the last game without fighting De Gaulle. He makes sure it won't happen this time.
Might not be the smartest move, though (aside from logistics considerations): De Gaulle is ahead in power and city count.
Turn 124: Lisbon falls.
Caesar brings an impressive stack to capture Rheims. De Gaulle sallies out and slaughters it. Ouch.
Turn 133: Shaka can't make up his mind about that religion thing. He's back to being a Muslim.
Caesar would be well inspired to sign peace: his offensive has failed, and De Gaulle has now twice his power (118 units vs 62). It's only a matter of time before the fighting leaves France and reaches Roman territory.
Turn 144: Reason prevails, and Rome signs peace.
Suleiman asked me a coupla turns ago to stop trading with the vile French. You know what that means, right?
Suleiman declares on Shaka.
Turn 165: De Gaulle asked me a coupla turns ago to stop trading with the vile Roman. You know what that means, right?
De Gaulle declares on Suleiman.
Turn 172: The game dives further into madness as Frederick declares on Shaka.
Reminder: at that point, everyone is Muslim, except for the French Christians.
Caesar doesn't believe in Knights: he researches Military Tradition and Gunpowder for Cuirassiers, but skips Guilds.
Turn 180: De Gaulle has Suleiman on the ropes. He signs peace.
Good news for Portugal, still hanging there with 3 cities left, and hoping now for some graceful city liberations.
Very bad news for Shaka whose presence on the map is fast receding.
Turn 200: Caesar signs a defensive pact with Joao. Don't ask me why.
De Gaulle is the game leader at that point, with Caesar a distant second. But his diplomatic situation is fragile: although he's built the Shwedagon Paya and could alleviate the issue by switching into Free Religion, he remains a devout Christian in a Muslim world.
Turn 202: De Gaulle belatedly realizes he can't afford leniency and redeclares on Suleiman.
Turn 210: Suleiman's got this now. His doubles his total score by putting an end to the Zulu craziness.
He celebrates by doubling Portugal's territory: Lisbon and Oporto are liberated back.
Caesar's power's beginning to spike: apart from his ill-advised and ill-fated early invasion of France, he's been oddly passive so far. Is he about to make a move?
Turn 220: De Gaulle is ahead, but hasn't reached critical mass yet. He's got cuirassiers, but the fact he'd rather have blimps than cavs and rifles could prove a boneheaded decision. Suleiman needs Nationalism and Military Tradition for cavs, which considering his low beaker count is some way off, but he does have rifles.
Caesar has both, and seems to be rearing up for action...
Turn 235: De Gaulle and Suleiman sign peace.
De Gaulle is on Rifling now, but his power rating is now down to Suleiman's and Frederick's level, while Caesar's has soared ahead.
Also, Caesar and Frederick are researching Assembly Line...
About Frederick: he's just converted to Confucianism (self-founded a while before).
Turn 249: And here we go. Caesar declares on De Gaulle.
Caesar has cavs, infantries, machine guns, railroads, factories.
De Gaulle only has rifles and cavs, but he still has the numbers: 17 cities to Caesar's 9, 194 units vs 111 units.
Turn 257: Frederick's leaving the Muslim fold hasn't made him go rogue. He enters the war on Caesar's side. Au revoir De Gaulle?
Turn 266: Suleiman piles in.
Turn 275: Paris falls to Caesar.
Caesar does the thing where he kills off half his population by researching every polluting tech while ignoring the Biology line.
Turn 303: And just like that, France is gone. Suleiman gets yet another point. La remontada!
A few turns before that, he switched to Free Religion. He's now down to "pleased" with everyone.
Turn 314: Caesar builds the UN. His opponent is Suleiman, and were Caesar to call the victory vote, Frederick might vote for him (friendly at +9, but I believe the hidden peaceweight modifier applies). Trouble is, he's still stubbornly refusing to go the Biology line, so he's short on votes because his people are choking on unhealthiness.
Turn 320: Ok, now he's trying to fix the issue. Three Gorge Dam, Environmentalism UN vote, and at last reseaching Biology.
Turn 349: And... just as it seemed we were headed for a peaceful spaceship win (Caesar's almost through the tech tree), Caesar declares on Suleiman! Which backfires dramatically on Joao as it triggers the Defensive Pact he'd signed with Suleiman earlier on.
Turn 351: And... just to raise the excitement level a notch, Caesar finally calls the victory vote.
Turn 352: ...and nearly loses as Frederick actually votes for Suleiman! Using the UN earlier to force Suleiman into Universal Suffrage, Frederick's favourite civics, wasn't exactly a smart move, Julius!
Turn 360: Caesar completes Shaka's work as the last Portuguese city falls.
Turn 363: Caesar launches. Will Suleiman survive? Will Caesar reach Domination before his ship lands?
Turn 370: Answer is "no" to the first question. Caesar at 72% pop and 62% land.
Turn 372: Caesar at 63.73% land area, with border pops expected on the next turn. So he'll reach the Domination threshold on the very same turn his ship lands!
That means it's down to which victory condition the game checks for first...
...and the answer is: Domination!
De Gaulle gets a late-ish Christianity on turn 36, right as he completes Stonehenge, which allows him to get his shrine on turn 66. He kinda needs it, because at that point Islam is by far the most popular creed: Caesar and Joao have converted to it, no one to Christianity.
The settlement pattern for Joao and Caesar is back to normalcy, with Joao planting Guimaraes in its usual, Zulu-teasing spot, while Caesar plants Neapolis at the Marble + Ivory spot north of Rome.
The Iron + Oasis spot between them remains empty, though: Caesar had a settler on its way there, but then he pulled it back all the way south to the tundra to found a fishing village with no food and no ressource tile to work. :weed:
Turn 76: Shaka isn't impressed by the Church of Nativity and joins the Muslim brotherhood. He celebrates by declaring on Joao and capturing the offensive Guimaraes. Shaka's notion of "brotherhood" is an very manly one, you see.
Oh, and Joao hasn't researched Iron Working yet, so he doesn't have access to metal. He might be in some trouble, there.
Turn 79: Frederick also converts to Islam.
Turn 99: First win for De Gaulle as Shaka becomes a Christian.
Shaka has taken two Portuguese cities, but a lot of Zulu troops died in a failed assault on Lisbon.
Joao has researched Iron Working now, but hasn't been able to connect his Iron yet.
Turn 102: Caesar can't explain how he went through the last game without fighting De Gaulle. He makes sure it won't happen this time.
Might not be the smartest move, though (aside from logistics considerations): De Gaulle is ahead in power and city count.
Turn 124: Lisbon falls.
Caesar brings an impressive stack to capture Rheims. De Gaulle sallies out and slaughters it. Ouch.
Turn 133: Shaka can't make up his mind about that religion thing. He's back to being a Muslim.
Caesar would be well inspired to sign peace: his offensive has failed, and De Gaulle has now twice his power (118 units vs 62). It's only a matter of time before the fighting leaves France and reaches Roman territory.
Turn 144: Reason prevails, and Rome signs peace.
Suleiman asked me a coupla turns ago to stop trading with the vile French. You know what that means, right?
Suleiman declares on Shaka.
Turn 165: De Gaulle asked me a coupla turns ago to stop trading with the vile Roman. You know what that means, right?
De Gaulle declares on Suleiman.
Turn 172: The game dives further into madness as Frederick declares on Shaka.
Reminder: at that point, everyone is Muslim, except for the French Christians.
Caesar doesn't believe in Knights: he researches Military Tradition and Gunpowder for Cuirassiers, but skips Guilds.
Turn 180: De Gaulle has Suleiman on the ropes. He signs peace.
Good news for Portugal, still hanging there with 3 cities left, and hoping now for some graceful city liberations.
Very bad news for Shaka whose presence on the map is fast receding.
Turn 200: Caesar signs a defensive pact with Joao. Don't ask me why.
De Gaulle is the game leader at that point, with Caesar a distant second. But his diplomatic situation is fragile: although he's built the Shwedagon Paya and could alleviate the issue by switching into Free Religion, he remains a devout Christian in a Muslim world.
Turn 202: De Gaulle belatedly realizes he can't afford leniency and redeclares on Suleiman.
Turn 210: Suleiman's got this now. His doubles his total score by putting an end to the Zulu craziness.
He celebrates by doubling Portugal's territory: Lisbon and Oporto are liberated back.
Caesar's power's beginning to spike: apart from his ill-advised and ill-fated early invasion of France, he's been oddly passive so far. Is he about to make a move?
Turn 220: De Gaulle is ahead, but hasn't reached critical mass yet. He's got cuirassiers, but the fact he'd rather have blimps than cavs and rifles could prove a boneheaded decision. Suleiman needs Nationalism and Military Tradition for cavs, which considering his low beaker count is some way off, but he does have rifles.
Caesar has both, and seems to be rearing up for action...
Turn 235: De Gaulle and Suleiman sign peace.
De Gaulle is on Rifling now, but his power rating is now down to Suleiman's and Frederick's level, while Caesar's has soared ahead.
Also, Caesar and Frederick are researching Assembly Line...
About Frederick: he's just converted to Confucianism (self-founded a while before).
Turn 249: And here we go. Caesar declares on De Gaulle.
Caesar has cavs, infantries, machine guns, railroads, factories.
De Gaulle only has rifles and cavs, but he still has the numbers: 17 cities to Caesar's 9, 194 units vs 111 units.
Turn 257: Frederick's leaving the Muslim fold hasn't made him go rogue. He enters the war on Caesar's side. Au revoir De Gaulle?
Turn 266: Suleiman piles in.
Turn 275: Paris falls to Caesar.
Caesar does the thing where he kills off half his population by researching every polluting tech while ignoring the Biology line.
Turn 303: And just like that, France is gone. Suleiman gets yet another point. La remontada!
A few turns before that, he switched to Free Religion. He's now down to "pleased" with everyone.
Turn 314: Caesar builds the UN. His opponent is Suleiman, and were Caesar to call the victory vote, Frederick might vote for him (friendly at +9, but I believe the hidden peaceweight modifier applies). Trouble is, he's still stubbornly refusing to go the Biology line, so he's short on votes because his people are choking on unhealthiness.
Turn 320: Ok, now he's trying to fix the issue. Three Gorge Dam, Environmentalism UN vote, and at last reseaching Biology.
Turn 349: And... just as it seemed we were headed for a peaceful spaceship win (Caesar's almost through the tech tree), Caesar declares on Suleiman! Which backfires dramatically on Joao as it triggers the Defensive Pact he'd signed with Suleiman earlier on.
Turn 351: And... just to raise the excitement level a notch, Caesar finally calls the victory vote.
Turn 352: ...and nearly loses as Frederick actually votes for Suleiman! Using the UN earlier to force Suleiman into Universal Suffrage, Frederick's favourite civics, wasn't exactly a smart move, Julius!
Turn 360: Caesar completes Shaka's work as the last Portuguese city falls.
Turn 363: Caesar launches. Will Suleiman survive? Will Caesar reach Domination before his ship lands?
Turn 370: Answer is "no" to the first question. Caesar at 72% pop and 62% land.
Turn 372: Caesar at 63.73% land area, with border pops expected on the next turn. So he'll reach the Domination threshold on the very same turn his ship lands!
That means it's down to which victory condition the game checks for first...
...and the answer is: Domination!
Game 12
In which Shaka gets to start a snowball and Caesar, through absolute bravery and prowess, slows it down before neutralising it with brilliant cunning.
And then he remembered he was a dumb AI and ruined his perfect trap, unleashing a renewed Zulu fury upon the world.
Suleiman opens with Meditation (Islam), Caesar with Polytheism (Hinduism).
Joao steals the Marble + Ivory spot.
Caesar, who wants Iron, settles his 4th city right on Suleiman's border, 4 tiles south of Istanbul (Iron + Rice spot) !
Turn 68: De Gaulle declares on Suleiman, captures Bursa (Suleiman's double Ivory spot), and converts to Islam.
Turn 76: Shaka declares on Joao and captures Guimaraes on the same turn.
Joao has reseached Iron Working, but his iron is farmed. Also, still no Mysticism for Joao yet.
Turn 83: After capturing Ankara, De Gaulle signs peace. A quick war which yielded +2 cities, nice job. Suleiman is down to 4 cities.
Turn 84: Lisbon falls.
Turn 95: Oporto and Braga have fallen. Portugal down to three cities, Zulu at 10 cities already. Is this the game where Shaka manages his snowball?
Frederick converts to Hinduism.
Turn 113: Shaka's done it. Portugal is no more.
City tally: Zulu (13), French (11), Germans (7), Romans (6), Ottomans (5).
Hinduism: Rome, Zulu, Germany - Islam: Ottomans, French
Turn 118: Shaka declares on Suleiman.
Turn 123: Caesar doesn't want to leave it all to Shaka, he declares on Suleiman too.
Turn 140: Caesar gets the kill, Istanbul and another city (which he liberates to the Germans a coupla turns later). Shaka got 3 cities.
Shaka's power graph is starting to look terrifying...
Turn 148: De Gaulle, the clear number 2 military power, declares on Caesar... Right as a 96-unit Zulu stack moves towards the French border.
Frederick converts to self-founded Christianity.
Turn 150: Yup. Shaka declares on De Gaulle. Also: Frederick declares on De Gaulle.
Turn 173: This time, Caesar's not dilly-dallying. He beelines and gets Rifling + Military Tradition. Should help him get some cities, as so far, the Zulus are the only ones capturing French cities.
Turn 202: Rome gets a single city. France's last. Shaka reports Caesar for a second kill steal in the same game.
Caesar (10 cities, 108 units), Frederick (9 cities, 104 units), Shaka (25 cities, 300 units).
Caesar and Frederick are technologically more advanced, but well...
Turn 207: Frederick draws the short stick as Shaka's troops invade.
Turn 208: Ballsy move, Julius. Rome declares on the Zulus. Surprise attack + technological advantage (he has cavs and rifles, Shaka has cuirassiers and grenadiers) allows him to net a few initial city captures.
Turn 216: Shaka negates Rome's tech advantage as he discovers Rifling.
Turn 225: Frederick leaves Caesar high and dry. He signs peace with Shaka.
Turn 228: Caesar dodges the bullet and gets peace too.
Shaka (21 cities, 262 units), Caesar (14 cities, 99 units): a net gain of 4 cities (reducing the city gap from 15 to 7) and somewhat narrowing the military power gap... boldness certainly paid off for Caesar!
Caesar is 16 techs ahead (he has Assembly Line now), and although Shaka's beaker rate is climbing fast, Caesar's still ahead for now.
Turn 248: Zulu troops pour again over the German border.
Frederick (9 cities, 110 units) has Assembly Line over Shaka (21 cities, 341 units): that might not be enough.
Oh. Scratch that. Frederick does have Assembly Line, but... no Rifling??
And Shaka's on Assembly Line, now. Barring some Roman action, that can't end well.
Turn 255: OMG, Caesar's done it, without lifting a finger.
See, Rome's territory is wedging into former France, and Rome also has a coastal city on the other side. That left a gap of German culture held by Lyons, that Germany had captured from France. Zulu troops went through that gap.
But when they captured Lyons, all that German culture disappeared and Roman culture filled in the gap. And of course, Roman borders are closed to the Zulus.
Shaka's main stack is now trapped on the German side, cut off from reinforcements.
Shaka is locked into a war that he's now going to be hard-pressed to win!
Turn 267: Or Caesar could ruin his own perfect trap by declaring war on Shaka.
Turn 278: Once again, Frederick slithers out.
And this time, although Rome is fielding tanks, the momentum quickly changes sides: Shaka recaptures the two cities he lost when Caesar attacked, and core Roman cities start falling...
Turn 314: Rome falls.
Turn 340: Shaka wins by domination.
It should be noted that not only did Caesar steal two kills from Shaka (Suleiman, De Gaulle), he also prevented him from killing Frederick, and denied Shaka his own kill by being big enough that Shaka would hit the domination threshold before wiping him out.
Joao steals the Marble + Ivory spot.
Caesar, who wants Iron, settles his 4th city right on Suleiman's border, 4 tiles south of Istanbul (Iron + Rice spot) !
Turn 68: De Gaulle declares on Suleiman, captures Bursa (Suleiman's double Ivory spot), and converts to Islam.
Turn 76: Shaka declares on Joao and captures Guimaraes on the same turn.
Joao has reseached Iron Working, but his iron is farmed. Also, still no Mysticism for Joao yet.
Turn 83: After capturing Ankara, De Gaulle signs peace. A quick war which yielded +2 cities, nice job. Suleiman is down to 4 cities.
Turn 84: Lisbon falls.
Turn 95: Oporto and Braga have fallen. Portugal down to three cities, Zulu at 10 cities already. Is this the game where Shaka manages his snowball?
Frederick converts to Hinduism.
Turn 113: Shaka's done it. Portugal is no more.
City tally: Zulu (13), French (11), Germans (7), Romans (6), Ottomans (5).
Hinduism: Rome, Zulu, Germany - Islam: Ottomans, French
Turn 118: Shaka declares on Suleiman.
Turn 123: Caesar doesn't want to leave it all to Shaka, he declares on Suleiman too.
Turn 140: Caesar gets the kill, Istanbul and another city (which he liberates to the Germans a coupla turns later). Shaka got 3 cities.
Shaka's power graph is starting to look terrifying...
Turn 148: De Gaulle, the clear number 2 military power, declares on Caesar... Right as a 96-unit Zulu stack moves towards the French border.
Frederick converts to self-founded Christianity.
Turn 150: Yup. Shaka declares on De Gaulle. Also: Frederick declares on De Gaulle.
Turn 173: This time, Caesar's not dilly-dallying. He beelines and gets Rifling + Military Tradition. Should help him get some cities, as so far, the Zulus are the only ones capturing French cities.
Turn 202: Rome gets a single city. France's last. Shaka reports Caesar for a second kill steal in the same game.
Caesar (10 cities, 108 units), Frederick (9 cities, 104 units), Shaka (25 cities, 300 units).
Caesar and Frederick are technologically more advanced, but well...
Turn 207: Frederick draws the short stick as Shaka's troops invade.
Turn 208: Ballsy move, Julius. Rome declares on the Zulus. Surprise attack + technological advantage (he has cavs and rifles, Shaka has cuirassiers and grenadiers) allows him to net a few initial city captures.
Turn 216: Shaka negates Rome's tech advantage as he discovers Rifling.
Turn 225: Frederick leaves Caesar high and dry. He signs peace with Shaka.
Turn 228: Caesar dodges the bullet and gets peace too.
Shaka (21 cities, 262 units), Caesar (14 cities, 99 units): a net gain of 4 cities (reducing the city gap from 15 to 7) and somewhat narrowing the military power gap... boldness certainly paid off for Caesar!
Caesar is 16 techs ahead (he has Assembly Line now), and although Shaka's beaker rate is climbing fast, Caesar's still ahead for now.
Turn 248: Zulu troops pour again over the German border.
Frederick (9 cities, 110 units) has Assembly Line over Shaka (21 cities, 341 units): that might not be enough.
Oh. Scratch that. Frederick does have Assembly Line, but... no Rifling??
And Shaka's on Assembly Line, now. Barring some Roman action, that can't end well.
Turn 255: OMG, Caesar's done it, without lifting a finger.
See, Rome's territory is wedging into former France, and Rome also has a coastal city on the other side. That left a gap of German culture held by Lyons, that Germany had captured from France. Zulu troops went through that gap.
But when they captured Lyons, all that German culture disappeared and Roman culture filled in the gap. And of course, Roman borders are closed to the Zulus.
Shaka's main stack is now trapped on the German side, cut off from reinforcements.
Shaka is locked into a war that he's now going to be hard-pressed to win!
Turn 267: Or Caesar could ruin his own perfect trap by declaring war on Shaka.
Turn 278: Once again, Frederick slithers out.
And this time, although Rome is fielding tanks, the momentum quickly changes sides: Shaka recaptures the two cities he lost when Caesar attacked, and core Roman cities start falling...
Turn 314: Rome falls.
Turn 340: Shaka wins by domination.
It should be noted that not only did Caesar steal two kills from Shaka (Suleiman, De Gaulle), he also prevented him from killing Frederick, and denied Shaka his own kill by being big enough that Shaka would hit the domination threshold before wiping him out.
Game 13
After a botched attempt at invading France early, Caesar innovates and conquers Germany.
Shaka does Shaka things by declaring successively on Joao, Suleiman, Frederick, Suleiman again, Joao again, and achieving nothing except for two kill snipes.
De Gaulle conquers the Ottoman and the Portuguese, while Caesar, back from Germany, puts an end to the Zulu antics.
De Gaulle knows running these games takes time, so he speeds things up by declaring on Caesar and losing enough land for a Roman Domination victory.
Suleiman opens as usual with a rush to Islam (via Polytheism this time). Shaka founds Christianity shortly afterwards.
I haven't mentioned De Gaulle's opening patterns yet.
He has two spots for his third city (Lyons) he alternates with from game to game.
The first is 3 tiles away from Paris, on the coast, just east of the Wheat tile. It brings in Wheat, Clams, Copper and Spices. It's a strong early game city, with a much weaker long-term potential. In this game, this is where he goes.
The other spot is south, further away from the capital (5S, 2E): it brings in 2 Gems, Bananas, Copper, Silk, and is riverside. Long term, it is a much stronger city (far more production and commerce). But short term, it's useless before Iron Working (the gems and bananas are covered in Jungle).
Needless to say, De Gaulle tends to do better when he goes for the first spot, even though barb city spawns then remove the second spot as a later possibility.
On the other side of the world, the Caesar/Joao's border takes a shape to Caesar's advantage: not only does he get the Marble + Ivory spot, but he gets to found Ravenna way up north, 5E 1S of Lisbon, in a spot granting him Corn + Iron (+ Coal way later).
Frederick, on 4 cities (turn 51), is already boxed in by barbarian cities to his north and to his west.
Turn 94: Suleiman (7 cities), Joao (7 cities) and Caesar (8 cities) are Muslim.
De Gaulle (9 cities) and Shaka (7 cities) are Christian.
Frederick (8 cities) has picked up Suleiman's minority religion (Hinduism).
Caesar (66 units, elepults + praetorians) declares on De Gaulle (49 units, no Construction tech).
Turn 100: Shaka declares on Joao, Suleiman joins the assault on De Gaulle.
Turn 104: Caesar accepts De Gaulle's peace offer and goes back home empty-handed.
Turn 112: Frederick realizes that running Hinduism might not be the safest thing to do.
He converts to... Taoism (self-founded)!
On the very next turn, Roman legions cross the border.
Note that as surprising as it may seem, after 12 games, this is the very first occurence of a Germano-Roman early war.
Turn 126: Shaka and Joao sign peace, with no city changing hands. Bad news for Suleiman, I suppose.
Shaka's attack had come a bit later than usual and as a consequence, Joao had metal. That made the difference.
Turn 134: Called it. Shaka declares on Suleiman, who was already in the process of losing his war against France.
De Gaulle's not doing too bad: winning his war, while building in a row Statue of Zeus, Swedagon Paya, the Great Library, and the Parthenon!
Turn 150: Alright, that may change, as Joao declares on De Gaulle.
Meanwhile, there's less and less of Germany on the map...
Turn 151: Shaka makes peace with Suleiman, having achieved nothing there either. Whose turn? Frederick?
Turn 162: Istanbul falls to the French. Zulu stack seen moving through French territory...
Turn 167: Yup, Frederick's the target. What little's left of him, anyway.
Turn 189: The conquest of Germany is completed. Shaka takes revenge for the previous game by sniping the last city and the kill.
Caesar has finally pulled ahead of De Gaulle who was the game leader up to that point.
De Gaulle got the Liberalism prize, but Caesar now has rifles...
Turn 193: Shaka's been at peace for a whole 4 turns. He corrects that mistake by declaring on Suleiman.
Turn 221: Shaka's definitely learnt from Caesar's previous game. He also snipes the Ottoman kill.
De Gaulle has rifles too, now. Unless Caesar comes crashing, that's bad news for Joao who's remained at war with France the whole time.
By the way, peaceweight in action: Caesar (4) is annoyed (-2) with De Gaulle (0) and annoyed (-3) with Shaka (2).
De Gaulle is his worst enemy.
Turn 227: Shaka declares on Joao.
That drops him to -4 with Caesar... De Gaulle remains Caesar's worst enemy.
Turn 255: Paint me genuinely surprised. Caesar declares on... Shaka.
Turn 262: De Gaulle is relieved, not only at not having to face the Roman hurricane (the Zulus are being wiped out fast), but more prosaically at not having yet another kill sniped. This time, he gets to chop off Joao's head.
Turn 275: With a single Zulu city left on the board, De Gaulle takes a proactive approach to what's bound to happen next. He declares on Caesar.
Amazingly, he's on Electricity, but he hasn't researched Military Tradition yet.
Knights and Rifles vs Cavalries and Infantries, at a numerical disadvantage to boot... I guess, thank you De Gaulle for speeding up the game?
Turn 279: Shaka makes his exit.
Turn 308: Caesar achieves Domination as the first Roman tanks roll out.
I haven't mentioned De Gaulle's opening patterns yet.
He has two spots for his third city (Lyons) he alternates with from game to game.
The first is 3 tiles away from Paris, on the coast, just east of the Wheat tile. It brings in Wheat, Clams, Copper and Spices. It's a strong early game city, with a much weaker long-term potential. In this game, this is where he goes.
The other spot is south, further away from the capital (5S, 2E): it brings in 2 Gems, Bananas, Copper, Silk, and is riverside. Long term, it is a much stronger city (far more production and commerce). But short term, it's useless before Iron Working (the gems and bananas are covered in Jungle).
Needless to say, De Gaulle tends to do better when he goes for the first spot, even though barb city spawns then remove the second spot as a later possibility.
On the other side of the world, the Caesar/Joao's border takes a shape to Caesar's advantage: not only does he get the Marble + Ivory spot, but he gets to found Ravenna way up north, 5E 1S of Lisbon, in a spot granting him Corn + Iron (+ Coal way later).
Frederick, on 4 cities (turn 51), is already boxed in by barbarian cities to his north and to his west.
Turn 94: Suleiman (7 cities), Joao (7 cities) and Caesar (8 cities) are Muslim.
De Gaulle (9 cities) and Shaka (7 cities) are Christian.
Frederick (8 cities) has picked up Suleiman's minority religion (Hinduism).
Caesar (66 units, elepults + praetorians) declares on De Gaulle (49 units, no Construction tech).
Turn 100: Shaka declares on Joao, Suleiman joins the assault on De Gaulle.
Turn 104: Caesar accepts De Gaulle's peace offer and goes back home empty-handed.
Turn 112: Frederick realizes that running Hinduism might not be the safest thing to do.
He converts to... Taoism (self-founded)!
On the very next turn, Roman legions cross the border.
Note that as surprising as it may seem, after 12 games, this is the very first occurence of a Germano-Roman early war.
Turn 126: Shaka and Joao sign peace, with no city changing hands. Bad news for Suleiman, I suppose.
Shaka's attack had come a bit later than usual and as a consequence, Joao had metal. That made the difference.
Turn 134: Called it. Shaka declares on Suleiman, who was already in the process of losing his war against France.
De Gaulle's not doing too bad: winning his war, while building in a row Statue of Zeus, Swedagon Paya, the Great Library, and the Parthenon!
Turn 150: Alright, that may change, as Joao declares on De Gaulle.
Meanwhile, there's less and less of Germany on the map...
Turn 151: Shaka makes peace with Suleiman, having achieved nothing there either. Whose turn? Frederick?
Turn 162: Istanbul falls to the French. Zulu stack seen moving through French territory...
Turn 167: Yup, Frederick's the target. What little's left of him, anyway.
Turn 189: The conquest of Germany is completed. Shaka takes revenge for the previous game by sniping the last city and the kill.
Caesar has finally pulled ahead of De Gaulle who was the game leader up to that point.
De Gaulle got the Liberalism prize, but Caesar now has rifles...
Turn 193: Shaka's been at peace for a whole 4 turns. He corrects that mistake by declaring on Suleiman.
Turn 221: Shaka's definitely learnt from Caesar's previous game. He also snipes the Ottoman kill.
De Gaulle has rifles too, now. Unless Caesar comes crashing, that's bad news for Joao who's remained at war with France the whole time.
By the way, peaceweight in action: Caesar (4) is annoyed (-2) with De Gaulle (0) and annoyed (-3) with Shaka (2).
De Gaulle is his worst enemy.
Turn 227: Shaka declares on Joao.
That drops him to -4 with Caesar... De Gaulle remains Caesar's worst enemy.
Turn 255: Paint me genuinely surprised. Caesar declares on... Shaka.
Turn 262: De Gaulle is relieved, not only at not having to face the Roman hurricane (the Zulus are being wiped out fast), but more prosaically at not having yet another kill sniped. This time, he gets to chop off Joao's head.
Turn 275: With a single Zulu city left on the board, De Gaulle takes a proactive approach to what's bound to happen next. He declares on Caesar.
Amazingly, he's on Electricity, but he hasn't researched Military Tradition yet.
Knights and Rifles vs Cavalries and Infantries, at a numerical disadvantage to boot... I guess, thank you De Gaulle for speeding up the game?
Turn 279: Shaka makes his exit.
Turn 308: Caesar achieves Domination as the first Roman tanks roll out.
Game 14
Suleiman succombs to the usual dogpile: Shaka, De Gaulle, Caesar.
Joao snipes Marseilles from De Gaulle through a quick war. And when Shaka declares on Joao, all the fighting happens in France as the Zulus and Portuguese trade the city back and forth between themselves. Somehow Joao manages to blindside Shaka with that craziness, and he conquers the Zulus. Marseilles goes back to France, obviously.
Caesar then cooperates with De Gaulle in the degermanification of the South.
Joao loses the coinflip as Caesar choses to annex Portugal to reach Domination.
Religion-wise, we get an recurring opening: Suleiman to Islam (Meditation), Caesar to Hinduism (Polytheism).
Aggressive Rheims (De Gaulle's fourth city) plant: on Suleiman's copper, 4E 1N of Istanbul.
Caesar went for the Great Wall: he's late for his 4th city which goes into the tundra (Silk + Iron spot) because Joao pretty much locked him out of the northwest by settling the Coal hill next to the oasis.
Caesar founds the Monotheism religion (Christianity) as a minority religion in Cumae (his gems city). Not so minor actually, since at the end of the early game we get the following blocks:
Islam: Suleiman, Joao
Hinduism: Caesar, Frederick
Christianity: Shaka, De Gaulle
Turn 94: Shaka declares on Suleiman.
Turn 95: Caesar captures Minoan, a barb city, in the northern tundra between Shaka's and Suleiman's lands.
Turn 105: De Gaulle joins the war against Suleiman... right as a big Portuguese stack moves next to his border through Ottoman territory.
Turn 106: Indeed, Joao declares on De Gaulle. Unfortunately for him, his stack was next to De Gaulle's. The French win the ensuing battle.
Turn 109: Caesar's missionaries bring Shaka into the Hinduism fold. They can't do the same with France, though: no open borders.
Turn 114: Suleiman breathes better as Shaka accepts peace. Caesar declares on Suleiman.
Turn 116: De Gaulle makes peace with Joao who keeps Marseilles he's just captured.
Turn 119: Shaka declares on Joao (5 turns seems to be his average between peace and a new declaration of war).
Turn 120: De Gaulle peaces out of the Ottoman conflict.
Caesar, who has 3x Suleiman's power, and has just captured Bursa, somehow loses Cumae (his gems city) to the Ottomans.
The Zulus and Portuguese are sending all their armies away, to fight over Marseilles which changes hands several times. Which means, of course, that in the end it'll flip back to France.
Roman missionaries manage to convert Joao to Hinduism, but Frederick renounces Hinduism in favour of a more local cult, Buddhism.
Turn 135: Shaka loses a core city... and, uh, all his troops? He seems pretty much dead, with 29 units versus Joao's 80.
Ditto for Suleiman: 37 units versus Caesar's 90.
Turn 143: De Gaulle deems he can now safely renew his conflict with the Ottomans. He tries to snipe Istanbul but Caesar sees him coming and preempts him.
Turn 154: In spite of the Istanbul fiasco, De Gaulle's war turns out to be a profitable venture as he quickly nabs two Ottoman cities, including Ankara which is a pretty nice core city.
Then the Germans throw a wrench in the whole operation by declaring war.
Turn 163: Caesar puts an end to the Ottomans.
Turn 176: Frederick should have remained Hindu. Caesar declares.
Turn 191: Well, he took his own sweet time, but Joao finally buries Shaka. He celebrates by liberating Marseilles to France (actually also took longer than I expected).
Turn 196: My, this is turning into a kill steal festival. Out of the whole war, De Gaulle's managed to get only one German city. The last one.
That said, good for him: Caesar's now a monster, with cavs and rifles. Joao's got the "friendly" immunity card, while De Gaulle is allowed to feel dread when contemplating Caesar's "cautious" attitude towards him...
Turn 198: Joao's actually getting some cold sweats now. Caesar's just switched to Free Religion, dropping their relations to +1, while raising his relation with De Gaulle to +4. But with peaceweight, that's still "cautious" towards De Gaulle while "pleased" with Joao.
Turn 203: +5 with De Gaulle, upgrading the diplomatic status to "pleased". Caesar's not plotting yet... so it could go either way, now.
Turn 224: And the winner of the draw is... De Gaulle, as Roman troops invade Portugal.
Turn 249: Caesar wins by Domination, as the Portuguese make it to the finishing line with a single city remaining.
Aggressive Rheims (De Gaulle's fourth city) plant: on Suleiman's copper, 4E 1N of Istanbul.
Caesar went for the Great Wall: he's late for his 4th city which goes into the tundra (Silk + Iron spot) because Joao pretty much locked him out of the northwest by settling the Coal hill next to the oasis.
Caesar founds the Monotheism religion (Christianity) as a minority religion in Cumae (his gems city). Not so minor actually, since at the end of the early game we get the following blocks:
Islam: Suleiman, Joao
Hinduism: Caesar, Frederick
Christianity: Shaka, De Gaulle
Turn 94: Shaka declares on Suleiman.
Turn 95: Caesar captures Minoan, a barb city, in the northern tundra between Shaka's and Suleiman's lands.
Turn 105: De Gaulle joins the war against Suleiman... right as a big Portuguese stack moves next to his border through Ottoman territory.
Turn 106: Indeed, Joao declares on De Gaulle. Unfortunately for him, his stack was next to De Gaulle's. The French win the ensuing battle.
Turn 109: Caesar's missionaries bring Shaka into the Hinduism fold. They can't do the same with France, though: no open borders.
Turn 114: Suleiman breathes better as Shaka accepts peace. Caesar declares on Suleiman.
Turn 116: De Gaulle makes peace with Joao who keeps Marseilles he's just captured.
Turn 119: Shaka declares on Joao (5 turns seems to be his average between peace and a new declaration of war).
Turn 120: De Gaulle peaces out of the Ottoman conflict.
Caesar, who has 3x Suleiman's power, and has just captured Bursa, somehow loses Cumae (his gems city) to the Ottomans.
The Zulus and Portuguese are sending all their armies away, to fight over Marseilles which changes hands several times. Which means, of course, that in the end it'll flip back to France.
Roman missionaries manage to convert Joao to Hinduism, but Frederick renounces Hinduism in favour of a more local cult, Buddhism.
Turn 135: Shaka loses a core city... and, uh, all his troops? He seems pretty much dead, with 29 units versus Joao's 80.
Ditto for Suleiman: 37 units versus Caesar's 90.
Turn 143: De Gaulle deems he can now safely renew his conflict with the Ottomans. He tries to snipe Istanbul but Caesar sees him coming and preempts him.
Turn 154: In spite of the Istanbul fiasco, De Gaulle's war turns out to be a profitable venture as he quickly nabs two Ottoman cities, including Ankara which is a pretty nice core city.
Then the Germans throw a wrench in the whole operation by declaring war.
Turn 163: Caesar puts an end to the Ottomans.
Turn 176: Frederick should have remained Hindu. Caesar declares.
Turn 191: Well, he took his own sweet time, but Joao finally buries Shaka. He celebrates by liberating Marseilles to France (actually also took longer than I expected).
Turn 196: My, this is turning into a kill steal festival. Out of the whole war, De Gaulle's managed to get only one German city. The last one.
That said, good for him: Caesar's now a monster, with cavs and rifles. Joao's got the "friendly" immunity card, while De Gaulle is allowed to feel dread when contemplating Caesar's "cautious" attitude towards him...
Turn 198: Joao's actually getting some cold sweats now. Caesar's just switched to Free Religion, dropping their relations to +1, while raising his relation with De Gaulle to +4. But with peaceweight, that's still "cautious" towards De Gaulle while "pleased" with Joao.
Turn 203: +5 with De Gaulle, upgrading the diplomatic status to "pleased". Caesar's not plotting yet... so it could go either way, now.
Turn 224: And the winner of the draw is... De Gaulle, as Roman troops invade Portugal.
Turn 249: Caesar wins by Domination, as the Portuguese make it to the finishing line with a single city remaining.
Game 15
Shaka is kept in check for ages by the mighty strength-2 Portuguese warriors, but he prevails in the end.
He then gangs up with Caesar to rough up the Ottomans.
De Gaulle launches the most frustrating ever conquest of Germany, but he prevails in the end.
Caesar knows a snowball forming when he sees one: Shaka, on the hand, barely has time to see what hits him.
De Gaulle uses spies to goad Caesar into a Domination win.
Caesar, De Gaulle, and Suleiman open Mysticism -> Meditation. Caesar wins the race (mined his Silver) and founds Taoism. De Gaulle drops out, Suleiman goes Polytheism and founds Islam.
Weird… for the first time ever, Caesar founds Cumae (3rd city) at the weaker Marble + Ivory spot instead of the usual Gems spot up north near the Ottomans. He does get it with his 4th city, beating Suleiman to it by one turn.
Shaka founds Nobamba a bit further south than usual (Silk + Cows).
Frederick also changed his pattern: he founded Munich to his north, on the coast (Pig + Iron spot) instead of to his west (flood plains area). It might actually be better for him, since the northern spot usually ends up being taken over by a barb city.
Turn 67: Shaka declares on Joao.
Joao has no metal, but is researching Iron Working. Oh my, Joao's in some serious trouble, actually: he hasn't researched Archery, and Nobamba's placement means Joao's missing the Horse ressource he usually has, so no chariots either. His cities are defended by warriors only!
Turn 69: Well, if Shaka pulls back a stack of 4 impis instead of attacking a city defended by two warriors, I guess Joao's going to be fine?
Turn 97: De Gaulle declares on Suleiman.
Joao has researched Archery, which helps a bit. But he's unable to connect his Iron. He's lost two cities, but Shaka's level of ineptitude is impressive: repeatedly failing to capture cities defended by a single archer and a few warriors by attacking across a river, with not enough units, or retreating half a stack for no reason while attacking (and failing) with the other half. Just incredible.
On the religious front: Suleiman and Shaka are Muslim, all the others are Taoists.
Turn 109: De Gaulle signs peace and gives away Marseilles. Uh? He wasn't losing! :weed:
Turn 123: Caesar declares on Suleiman.
Turn 124: De Gaulle declares on Frederick.
Turn 126: Shaka captures Joao's last city. He finally did it, but had to pull together a 20-unit stack to punch through, as cities defended by 1-2 archers and 3-4 warriors were proving too tough. What a pathetic showing!
Anyway, however pitiful the way he got there, the result on the other hand is pretty darn good: Shaka is now the proud owner of 13 cities.
Turn 136: Shaka declares on Suleiman, as if the poor guy needed that. He's only lost one city so far to Caesar, but the war's not going well for him. When it started, he had a power rating similar to Caesar's but now Caesar's much higher.
Frederick is faring much better against De Gaulle, but Suleiman being conquered could changed that: he's lost Munich, and like Suleiman vs Caesar, the units exchanges haven't exactly gone his way... but De Gaulle doesn't have open borders with Suleiman, and an Ottoman city (Gariantep) is blocking access to the rest of Germany. So De Gaulle has to send his troops literally around the world to reach his target: up North, then West and South through Zululand, then further South and finally East through Roman territory!
Turn 138: Gariantep falls to Rome. The way opens for French troops.
Turn 164: The Ottomans are no more. Caesar doesn't order the assault on the last city: he wants to remove the last 7% defenses first. Shaka isn't so finicky and slips in for the kill. Shaka also got Edirne, which is significantly as it's the Islamic Holy City, so that anchors him as the only Muslim in a Taoist world.
Also, Caesar's just got a very early Rifling tech...
Turn 173: Get the popcorn, as Caesar declares on Shaka.
Meanwhile, the French assaults keep shattering on Fortress Berlin, as they keep failing to bring up enough siege units for the job.
Turn 189: At last, Berlin falls. This should break Frederick's back.
In another part of the world, Caesar has rifles, but no cavalries (and he's not on the Military Tradition tech path either): his progress is inexorable, but slow.
Turn 208: Germany's gone. De Gaulle is in a strong second position, but behind Caesar in every category.
Caesar's finally researched Military Tradition. Cavalries should speed up Shaka's demise (down from 16 to 10 cities at that point).
Turn 248: As Shaka's in his final throes, De Gaulle converts to Hinduism (self-founded), dropping his relations with all the way down to "annoyed". I guess we now know how this game ends, then.
Turn 250: Shaka's put down. Caesar's at 60% land area.
Turn 263: De Gaulle must be enjoying poking the bear. His relations are down to -8 ("furious")... owing to precisely a massive -8 "Your spy was caught causing trouble"!
Turn 264: Poked bear lashes out.
Turn 269: Caesar wins by Domination.
Weird… for the first time ever, Caesar founds Cumae (3rd city) at the weaker Marble + Ivory spot instead of the usual Gems spot up north near the Ottomans. He does get it with his 4th city, beating Suleiman to it by one turn.
Shaka founds Nobamba a bit further south than usual (Silk + Cows).
Frederick also changed his pattern: he founded Munich to his north, on the coast (Pig + Iron spot) instead of to his west (flood plains area). It might actually be better for him, since the northern spot usually ends up being taken over by a barb city.
Turn 67: Shaka declares on Joao.
Joao has no metal, but is researching Iron Working. Oh my, Joao's in some serious trouble, actually: he hasn't researched Archery, and Nobamba's placement means Joao's missing the Horse ressource he usually has, so no chariots either. His cities are defended by warriors only!
Turn 69: Well, if Shaka pulls back a stack of 4 impis instead of attacking a city defended by two warriors, I guess Joao's going to be fine?
Turn 97: De Gaulle declares on Suleiman.
Joao has researched Archery, which helps a bit. But he's unable to connect his Iron. He's lost two cities, but Shaka's level of ineptitude is impressive: repeatedly failing to capture cities defended by a single archer and a few warriors by attacking across a river, with not enough units, or retreating half a stack for no reason while attacking (and failing) with the other half. Just incredible.
On the religious front: Suleiman and Shaka are Muslim, all the others are Taoists.
Turn 109: De Gaulle signs peace and gives away Marseilles. Uh? He wasn't losing! :weed:
Turn 123: Caesar declares on Suleiman.
Turn 124: De Gaulle declares on Frederick.
Turn 126: Shaka captures Joao's last city. He finally did it, but had to pull together a 20-unit stack to punch through, as cities defended by 1-2 archers and 3-4 warriors were proving too tough. What a pathetic showing!
Anyway, however pitiful the way he got there, the result on the other hand is pretty darn good: Shaka is now the proud owner of 13 cities.
Turn 136: Shaka declares on Suleiman, as if the poor guy needed that. He's only lost one city so far to Caesar, but the war's not going well for him. When it started, he had a power rating similar to Caesar's but now Caesar's much higher.
Frederick is faring much better against De Gaulle, but Suleiman being conquered could changed that: he's lost Munich, and like Suleiman vs Caesar, the units exchanges haven't exactly gone his way... but De Gaulle doesn't have open borders with Suleiman, and an Ottoman city (Gariantep) is blocking access to the rest of Germany. So De Gaulle has to send his troops literally around the world to reach his target: up North, then West and South through Zululand, then further South and finally East through Roman territory!
Turn 138: Gariantep falls to Rome. The way opens for French troops.
Turn 164: The Ottomans are no more. Caesar doesn't order the assault on the last city: he wants to remove the last 7% defenses first. Shaka isn't so finicky and slips in for the kill. Shaka also got Edirne, which is significantly as it's the Islamic Holy City, so that anchors him as the only Muslim in a Taoist world.
Also, Caesar's just got a very early Rifling tech...
Turn 173: Get the popcorn, as Caesar declares on Shaka.
Meanwhile, the French assaults keep shattering on Fortress Berlin, as they keep failing to bring up enough siege units for the job.
Turn 189: At last, Berlin falls. This should break Frederick's back.
In another part of the world, Caesar has rifles, but no cavalries (and he's not on the Military Tradition tech path either): his progress is inexorable, but slow.
Turn 208: Germany's gone. De Gaulle is in a strong second position, but behind Caesar in every category.
Caesar's finally researched Military Tradition. Cavalries should speed up Shaka's demise (down from 16 to 10 cities at that point).
Turn 248: As Shaka's in his final throes, De Gaulle converts to Hinduism (self-founded), dropping his relations with all the way down to "annoyed". I guess we now know how this game ends, then.
Turn 250: Shaka's put down. Caesar's at 60% land area.
Turn 263: De Gaulle must be enjoying poking the bear. His relations are down to -8 ("furious")... owing to precisely a massive -8 "Your spy was caught causing trouble"!
Turn 264: Poked bear lashes out.
Turn 269: Caesar wins by Domination.
Game 16
In which Suleiman rises from the dead to become a major power before being sternly reminded that in this game, Rome is the only major power.
Also in which Frederick puts to shame Willem, Gandhi, and all those early adopters of Rifling tech: while at war, he researched up to PLASTICS before condescending to equip his troops with actual guns!
Suleiman's run to Polytheism (Islam) is uncontested. Shortly after, Shaka wins the race against Joao for Meditation (Taoism).
We're back to usual settling patterns, except for Joao who's apparently learnt his lesson from the previous game and founds Guimaraes 5E 2N of Lisbon (Corn 1st ring, Horses + Silk + Cow + 2xDyes 2nd ring) instead of his usual provocative site just south of Ulundi. Shaka gets said spot with his 3dr city.
Actually, we do get a cheeky Roman plant: Ravenna, 4S of Istanbul (Rice + Iron). Suleiman answers by planting Bursa 3E of Ravenna, for added culture pressure.
Rome founds and converts to Judaism (Monotheism).
The conflict between Rome and the Ottomans seems even more inevitable than usual.
Islam: Suleiman, De Gaulle
Taoism: Shaka, Joao
Judaism: Rome, Frederick
Turn 94: Shaka declares on Suleiman.
Turn 97: De Gaulle, who had been plotting for some time, piles in.
Turn 129: Well, apparently, sometimes "worst enemy" trumps border tensions. Caesar is cautious towards Suleiman at -4 and has huge border tension with him, and a close capital. He's annoyed with De Gaulle at -2 whose capital is further away and with whome he has no border tention whatsoever... He declares on De Gaulle.
And to add to the list of De Gaulle's troubles, Suleiman signs peace with Shaka.
Turn 135: Everyone saw that one coming. Shaka declares on Joao (a well-timed war from a narrative perspective since Joao renouced Toaism and went for Judaism on the very turn before).
Turn 157: Shaka and Joao end their fruitless conflict. Defenses are double-checked along the German border.
France is on its way out: only 3 cities left.
Rome has built a sizable force before attacking, but what's more surprising is the Ottoman rebound: they were slowly losing their war before Rome intervened, and now they're almost matching Rome in power.
It probably helped that Shaka hadn't captured a single city, while French captures were liberated back by Rome.
But still, Suleiman is shaping up to become a strong second in this game.
Turn 160: The Germans sign in relief as Shaka declares on Suleiman.
Turn 171: That was a fast defeat. Shaka's initial stack is slaughtered by Suleiman's troops. He signs peace, giving away Ondini.
Caesar is the tech leader by far. He got the Liberalism prize, built the Tal Mahal. No beeline for Rifling this time, though: he goes for the Democracy line first.
Turn 177: Shaka is the weakest civ at the point (even in power). He doesn't care and declares on Joao.
Turn 178: Caesar introduces De Gaulle to the First to Die club.
Turn 192: Shaka has started losing core cities to Portugal, and he's everyone's worst enemy.
In particular, Caesar, whi is researching Rifling, is friendly with Joao, pleased with Suleiman and Frederick, annoyed (-5) with Shaka.
He asks me to cancel trades with the vile Zulu. Here it comes, I guess...
Turn 193: Caesar declares on Suleiman. Sometimes border tensions trump "worst enemy".
(Note: I actually had to go check relations on a previous autosave, because even after witnessing all those games, it still took me by surprise, as I was certain that was it for Shaka).
Turn 200: Joao captures the Taoist Holy city and converts on the spot. He loses his immunity card with Caesar in the process, though.
Turn 205: What a waste of perfectly good popcorn. Suleiman and Caesar sign peace. Caesar's only gain is Bursa.
Turn 211: Suleiman declares on Shaka. The end is nigh for the Zulu.
Meanwhile, 8-city Frederick has managed to match 13-city Caesar's teching power and is only a coupla techs behind. And he's going to be the first to Assembly Line (although... with Rifling still missing: he wants the UB, not the infantries).
Turn 221: Joao sunsets the Zulu line.
Turn 243: Suleiman declares on Frederick.
Now here's the sad thing: Frederick is researching Industrialism. Suleiman is two full eras behind... and yet, with Cuirassiers, he has the military tech edge!
And you know what Frederick goes for after that? Surely, in the middle of a hot war... Plastics!
Willem, Gandhi and co are but amateurs. Frederick is the undisputed master of the art of eschewing Rifling tech (and Military Tradition) !
That said, with Suleiman repeatedly opting to attack a city on a hill, from across a river, without dropping its defenses first... Frederick doesn't get to pay for it. Well, he does lose Munich in the peace treaty they sign 10 turns later, but he sure gets off lightly.
Turn 261: Joao and Suleiman sign a Defensive Pact. Could be significant? Caesar's the game leader, but his position is not as overwhelming as it usually is at that stage.
So, after Plastics, Fredericks goes Fascism -> Liberalism -> Communism
Turn 273: The Great War starts. Caesar declares on Suleiman, triggering the DP. Joao declares on Caesar. But also, not wanting to be left out, Frederick, who's built an oil platform off Berlin, sends his knights and macemen at Suleiman.
The Great War turns into The Geat Stomp as the more technologically advanced civs brush aside their opponents (and yes, Frederick did end up researching Rifling).
Turn 306: Suleiman bows out. Frederick gets the kill... his first kill in 16 iterations of this game! A round of applause, please.
Caesar wins by Domination 2 turns later.
We're back to usual settling patterns, except for Joao who's apparently learnt his lesson from the previous game and founds Guimaraes 5E 2N of Lisbon (Corn 1st ring, Horses + Silk + Cow + 2xDyes 2nd ring) instead of his usual provocative site just south of Ulundi. Shaka gets said spot with his 3dr city.
Actually, we do get a cheeky Roman plant: Ravenna, 4S of Istanbul (Rice + Iron). Suleiman answers by planting Bursa 3E of Ravenna, for added culture pressure.
Rome founds and converts to Judaism (Monotheism).
The conflict between Rome and the Ottomans seems even more inevitable than usual.
Islam: Suleiman, De Gaulle
Taoism: Shaka, Joao
Judaism: Rome, Frederick
Turn 94: Shaka declares on Suleiman.
Turn 97: De Gaulle, who had been plotting for some time, piles in.
Turn 129: Well, apparently, sometimes "worst enemy" trumps border tensions. Caesar is cautious towards Suleiman at -4 and has huge border tension with him, and a close capital. He's annoyed with De Gaulle at -2 whose capital is further away and with whome he has no border tention whatsoever... He declares on De Gaulle.
And to add to the list of De Gaulle's troubles, Suleiman signs peace with Shaka.
Turn 135: Everyone saw that one coming. Shaka declares on Joao (a well-timed war from a narrative perspective since Joao renouced Toaism and went for Judaism on the very turn before).
Turn 157: Shaka and Joao end their fruitless conflict. Defenses are double-checked along the German border.
France is on its way out: only 3 cities left.
Rome has built a sizable force before attacking, but what's more surprising is the Ottoman rebound: they were slowly losing their war before Rome intervened, and now they're almost matching Rome in power.
It probably helped that Shaka hadn't captured a single city, while French captures were liberated back by Rome.
But still, Suleiman is shaping up to become a strong second in this game.
Turn 160: The Germans sign in relief as Shaka declares on Suleiman.
Turn 171: That was a fast defeat. Shaka's initial stack is slaughtered by Suleiman's troops. He signs peace, giving away Ondini.
Caesar is the tech leader by far. He got the Liberalism prize, built the Tal Mahal. No beeline for Rifling this time, though: he goes for the Democracy line first.
Turn 177: Shaka is the weakest civ at the point (even in power). He doesn't care and declares on Joao.
Turn 178: Caesar introduces De Gaulle to the First to Die club.
Turn 192: Shaka has started losing core cities to Portugal, and he's everyone's worst enemy.
In particular, Caesar, whi is researching Rifling, is friendly with Joao, pleased with Suleiman and Frederick, annoyed (-5) with Shaka.
He asks me to cancel trades with the vile Zulu. Here it comes, I guess...
Turn 193: Caesar declares on Suleiman. Sometimes border tensions trump "worst enemy".
(Note: I actually had to go check relations on a previous autosave, because even after witnessing all those games, it still took me by surprise, as I was certain that was it for Shaka).
Turn 200: Joao captures the Taoist Holy city and converts on the spot. He loses his immunity card with Caesar in the process, though.
Turn 205: What a waste of perfectly good popcorn. Suleiman and Caesar sign peace. Caesar's only gain is Bursa.
Turn 211: Suleiman declares on Shaka. The end is nigh for the Zulu.
Meanwhile, 8-city Frederick has managed to match 13-city Caesar's teching power and is only a coupla techs behind. And he's going to be the first to Assembly Line (although... with Rifling still missing: he wants the UB, not the infantries).
Turn 221: Joao sunsets the Zulu line.
Turn 243: Suleiman declares on Frederick.
Now here's the sad thing: Frederick is researching Industrialism. Suleiman is two full eras behind... and yet, with Cuirassiers, he has the military tech edge!
And you know what Frederick goes for after that? Surely, in the middle of a hot war... Plastics!
Willem, Gandhi and co are but amateurs. Frederick is the undisputed master of the art of eschewing Rifling tech (and Military Tradition) !
That said, with Suleiman repeatedly opting to attack a city on a hill, from across a river, without dropping its defenses first... Frederick doesn't get to pay for it. Well, he does lose Munich in the peace treaty they sign 10 turns later, but he sure gets off lightly.
Turn 261: Joao and Suleiman sign a Defensive Pact. Could be significant? Caesar's the game leader, but his position is not as overwhelming as it usually is at that stage.
So, after Plastics, Fredericks goes Fascism -> Liberalism -> Communism
Turn 273: The Great War starts. Caesar declares on Suleiman, triggering the DP. Joao declares on Caesar. But also, not wanting to be left out, Frederick, who's built an oil platform off Berlin, sends his knights and macemen at Suleiman.
The Great War turns into The Geat Stomp as the more technologically advanced civs brush aside their opponents (and yes, Frederick did end up researching Rifling).
Turn 306: Suleiman bows out. Frederick gets the kill... his first kill in 16 iterations of this game! A round of applause, please.
Caesar wins by Domination 2 turns later.
Game 17
In which Germany suffers an early dogpile while the Ottomans are left alone.
Also in which the Zulus, after conquering Portugal, lay a long and protracted siege on Rome before Caesar proves once again that Rifles are useful instruments of death-dealing.
Similar opening to the previous game: Suleiman gets to Islam (through Meditation here) with no one else opening Mysticism, then later on, Shaka and Joao race for Polytheism, with Shaka narrowly winning and founding Judaism.
Joao once again goes for the Horse + Corn spot for Guimaraes instead of the coastal spot.
Suleiman gets Stonehenge, so an early shrine (Turn 67) coud make Islam the dominant religion this time.
Shaka actually converts to Islam when a second border city gets Islam: si far, he's had no luck with Judaism spreads.
Caesar founds the Monotheism religion: Christianity.
Initial religious split: Islam (Suleiman, Caesar, Shaka, De Gaulle), Christianity (Joao, Frederick).
But there's a good chance that Shaka will revert to Judaism at some point, and Caesar convert to his self-founded Christianity.
Turn 80: De Gaulle declares on Frederick.
Turn 85: Caesar declares on Frederick (very unusual!).
Turn 89: Shaka declares on Joao.
Suleiman looks nervously and incredulously around.
Turn 100: The Ottomans join the anti-German party. Caesar converts to Christianity (while Joao went to Islam a few turns before).
Shaka is winning his war against a metal-deprived Joao (IW still not researched), having captured two cities already.
Turn 117: Caesar captures Berlin and ends Germany. The Ottomans led a very profitable campaign, capturing 3 cities (same as the Romans). The loser there is De Gaulle, with a single capture.
De Gaulle is the AI the most likely to join a dogpile instead of taking the initiative... That should comfort him in that behaviour, since taking the initiative clearly didn't pay off here.
Turn 136: Caesar declares on Suleiman, taking advantage of the fact that the whole Ottoman army was send in the Arctic after a barbarian settlement.
Turn 144: Shaka completes his conquest of Portugal.
Turn 150: OK, I didn't see that one coming. Shaka declares on Caesar. And although Caesar's power is a lot bigger than Shaka's, the Zulu took a page from the Roman book: they attack while the bulk of the Roman forces are busy far away, in former Germany. But they improve on the model by going straight for the core cities.
Turn 165: Caesar signs peace with the Ottomans. He got to unify former Germany out of that war.
Rome is under siege by the Zulus.
Turn 189: The stack besieging Rome is finally destroyed. Rome has been hard-pressed so far, the fight concentrating around the two Roman cities bordering former Portugal, and seeing their ownership frequently change.
But Rome is 1 turn away from Rifling tech...
Turn 194: There's a new, 45-unit strong stack besieging Rome. Will the rifles earn their pay?
Turn 197: They do. Shaka's power rating takes a nosedive.
Turn 225: Neapolis and Arpinium have been recaptured, all of former Portugal is now under Roman jurisdiction. Shaka is down to his originial cities, with Roman troops converging on them. A complete reversal of momentum. Yeah, Rifling tech is pretty nice.
Caesar shouldn't tarry by the way, as the Ottomans are getting antsy on the border, and about to get their own rifles...
De Gaulle, happy to be ignored, has slipped into a comfortable second position.
Turn 247: I don't imagine Shaka enjoying his custody at Roman hands... If Suleiman was to make a move, he's too late now. Rome has Assembly Line, and is just too big (50% land area). Suleiman had better prepare for a move being made against him.
Turn 259: Caesar declares on Suleiman.
Caesar wins by Domination on turn 275, just as he takes down Suleiman's last city.
Joao once again goes for the Horse + Corn spot for Guimaraes instead of the coastal spot.
Suleiman gets Stonehenge, so an early shrine (Turn 67) coud make Islam the dominant religion this time.
Shaka actually converts to Islam when a second border city gets Islam: si far, he's had no luck with Judaism spreads.
Caesar founds the Monotheism religion: Christianity.
Initial religious split: Islam (Suleiman, Caesar, Shaka, De Gaulle), Christianity (Joao, Frederick).
But there's a good chance that Shaka will revert to Judaism at some point, and Caesar convert to his self-founded Christianity.
Turn 80: De Gaulle declares on Frederick.
Turn 85: Caesar declares on Frederick (very unusual!).
Turn 89: Shaka declares on Joao.
Suleiman looks nervously and incredulously around.
Turn 100: The Ottomans join the anti-German party. Caesar converts to Christianity (while Joao went to Islam a few turns before).
Shaka is winning his war against a metal-deprived Joao (IW still not researched), having captured two cities already.
Turn 117: Caesar captures Berlin and ends Germany. The Ottomans led a very profitable campaign, capturing 3 cities (same as the Romans). The loser there is De Gaulle, with a single capture.
De Gaulle is the AI the most likely to join a dogpile instead of taking the initiative... That should comfort him in that behaviour, since taking the initiative clearly didn't pay off here.
Turn 136: Caesar declares on Suleiman, taking advantage of the fact that the whole Ottoman army was send in the Arctic after a barbarian settlement.
Turn 144: Shaka completes his conquest of Portugal.
Turn 150: OK, I didn't see that one coming. Shaka declares on Caesar. And although Caesar's power is a lot bigger than Shaka's, the Zulu took a page from the Roman book: they attack while the bulk of the Roman forces are busy far away, in former Germany. But they improve on the model by going straight for the core cities.
Turn 165: Caesar signs peace with the Ottomans. He got to unify former Germany out of that war.
Rome is under siege by the Zulus.
Turn 189: The stack besieging Rome is finally destroyed. Rome has been hard-pressed so far, the fight concentrating around the two Roman cities bordering former Portugal, and seeing their ownership frequently change.
But Rome is 1 turn away from Rifling tech...
Turn 194: There's a new, 45-unit strong stack besieging Rome. Will the rifles earn their pay?
Turn 197: They do. Shaka's power rating takes a nosedive.
Turn 225: Neapolis and Arpinium have been recaptured, all of former Portugal is now under Roman jurisdiction. Shaka is down to his originial cities, with Roman troops converging on them. A complete reversal of momentum. Yeah, Rifling tech is pretty nice.
Caesar shouldn't tarry by the way, as the Ottomans are getting antsy on the border, and about to get their own rifles...
De Gaulle, happy to be ignored, has slipped into a comfortable second position.
Turn 247: I don't imagine Shaka enjoying his custody at Roman hands... If Suleiman was to make a move, he's too late now. Rome has Assembly Line, and is just too big (50% land area). Suleiman had better prepare for a move being made against him.
Turn 259: Caesar declares on Suleiman.
Caesar wins by Domination on turn 275, just as he takes down Suleiman's last city.
Game 18
Joao eats a Zulu and conquers France.
Caesar struggles but gets the Ottomans to surrender.
He then wins a tight 3-way spaceship race... only to have Joao call the UN victory vote 5 turns before the Roman ship would land.
Ban the UN! Also, nukes.
De Gaulle loses the early Meditation race to Suleiman. He drops out, but with no one else showing the slightest bit of interest for the Mysticism line, he picks up Polytheism and a late Christianity (Turn 40). Stonehenge provides him with an early shrine, too.
Caesar gets the Monotheism religion (Confucianism) and converts to it.
Third city placements are entirely back to usual (including the Guimaraes spot as Zulu bait), with the exception of Nobamba (Zulu), placed as in game 15, which means Joao may be lacking metal and horses for quite some time...
Another oddity of note is the Ottomans settling 1S of the rice tile south of Istanbul, thus claiming territory that usually goes to Rome.
But the biggest oddity of all is De Gaulle failing to expand: he usually gets to 8-9 cities, here he got stuck at 5. Parts of the explanation are the Ottomans settling spots in the north that De Gaulle would usually get, and Frederick capturing all the soutern barbarian cities when they usually end up French.
Caesar Oracles Theology, weird choice.
Turn 73: Shaka declares on Joao. But, surprise, Joao has researched Iron Working and connected his Iron!
Turn 83: De Gaulle declares on Suleiman.
Religious landscape: Islam (Suleiman), Christianity (De Gaulle), Confucianism (Caesar, Joao, Shaka, Frederick)
Turn 99: Caesar declares on De Gaulle, but pulls out 13 turns later.
Turn 109: Germany captures Phrygian, in the Arctic, next to Ottoman and Zulu lands.
Turn 125: De Gaulle and Suleiman sign peace, with Ankara becoming a French city.
Ulundi falls. Looks like the Portuguese are about to get revenge for the repeated abuse they were dealt by the Zulus.
Turn 140: Caesar declares on Suleiman.
Turn 144: De Gaulle declares on Frederick. He hasn't paid attention to a previous game, because should he take Germany's border city, Ottoman culture will trap his troops and block his access.
Turn 148: The Zulus become but a bad collective memory.
Turn 165: Joao declares on De Gaulle.
A weaker than usual Caesar is struggling vs a stronger than usual Suleiman. He's captued Sakae, the encroaching city the Ottomans settled early, but beyond that, both opponents have mutually exhausted themselves into a stalemate.
So Caesar sets his research to a beeline for Rifling. Not there yet (his research is slower than usual, too, although he's still the tech leader), but it's coming...
Turn 181: Caesar discovers Rifling.
Turn 245: Joao is starting to take a liking to that conquering business. De Gaulle leaves the game in disgust.
With the conquering of the Zulu, Portugal had set itself up as a major power. France and Germany were comparable in power when De Gaulle declared, so France had no hope versus the combined forces of Germany and Portugal.
Turn 253: Suleiman stubbornly refused to die, but Caesar prevails in the end.
Caesar (17 cities) is leading the pack for now, but Germany (16 cities) and Portugal (21 cities) especially are pretty strong too, and not far behind.
Caesar's friendly with Portugal, pleased with Frederick. Is he heading for Berlin or Alpha Centauri?
Turn 307: Berlin it is.
Joao has slowly taken the beaker count lead, though, so there's a now a chance Alpha Centauri could become a Portuguese-speaking colony.
Turn 338: Peace is signed. Germany in the age of tanks is tough. Caesar couldn't punch through. He built the Manhattan Project, but the world stayed surprisingly radio-activity-free.
All three leaders are now about the same at the end of the tech tree (Caesar a bit more advanced), and with a similar beaker count (slight Portuguese edge, though).
If it comes to another war, though, Portugal now has had time to build up quite the lead in military hardware.
Turn 365: Caesar launches a spaceship and an attack on Frederick.
Although the others have been catching up on him steadily, Caesar's managed to keep just enough of an edge to launch first. One reason his tech rate was lower than that of his opponents was because he's been busy building units instead of research, and he's putting them to use now.
On the first turn of the war, Frederick is the one resorting to nukes, to devastating effect as Caesar's power plummets.
But on the following turns, German cities start falling.
Then, on turn 370, Joao calls for the diplomatic vote... and wins!
I went back to a save before the war to check whether Caesar threw his game with that war declaration, but no. Frederick was already friendly with Joao, so would have voted for him anyway, and Caesar was at 34% population before the war, and at 37% when the vote took place, so if anything, it had improved his situation.
After the removal of the AP, could we also get a UN-free competition, pretty please?
Caesar gets the Monotheism religion (Confucianism) and converts to it.
Third city placements are entirely back to usual (including the Guimaraes spot as Zulu bait), with the exception of Nobamba (Zulu), placed as in game 15, which means Joao may be lacking metal and horses for quite some time...
Another oddity of note is the Ottomans settling 1S of the rice tile south of Istanbul, thus claiming territory that usually goes to Rome.
But the biggest oddity of all is De Gaulle failing to expand: he usually gets to 8-9 cities, here he got stuck at 5. Parts of the explanation are the Ottomans settling spots in the north that De Gaulle would usually get, and Frederick capturing all the soutern barbarian cities when they usually end up French.
Caesar Oracles Theology, weird choice.
Turn 73: Shaka declares on Joao. But, surprise, Joao has researched Iron Working and connected his Iron!
Turn 83: De Gaulle declares on Suleiman.
Religious landscape: Islam (Suleiman), Christianity (De Gaulle), Confucianism (Caesar, Joao, Shaka, Frederick)
Turn 99: Caesar declares on De Gaulle, but pulls out 13 turns later.
Turn 109: Germany captures Phrygian, in the Arctic, next to Ottoman and Zulu lands.
Turn 125: De Gaulle and Suleiman sign peace, with Ankara becoming a French city.
Ulundi falls. Looks like the Portuguese are about to get revenge for the repeated abuse they were dealt by the Zulus.
Turn 140: Caesar declares on Suleiman.
Turn 144: De Gaulle declares on Frederick. He hasn't paid attention to a previous game, because should he take Germany's border city, Ottoman culture will trap his troops and block his access.
Turn 148: The Zulus become but a bad collective memory.
Turn 165: Joao declares on De Gaulle.
A weaker than usual Caesar is struggling vs a stronger than usual Suleiman. He's captued Sakae, the encroaching city the Ottomans settled early, but beyond that, both opponents have mutually exhausted themselves into a stalemate.
So Caesar sets his research to a beeline for Rifling. Not there yet (his research is slower than usual, too, although he's still the tech leader), but it's coming...
Turn 181: Caesar discovers Rifling.
Turn 245: Joao is starting to take a liking to that conquering business. De Gaulle leaves the game in disgust.
With the conquering of the Zulu, Portugal had set itself up as a major power. France and Germany were comparable in power when De Gaulle declared, so France had no hope versus the combined forces of Germany and Portugal.
Turn 253: Suleiman stubbornly refused to die, but Caesar prevails in the end.
Caesar (17 cities) is leading the pack for now, but Germany (16 cities) and Portugal (21 cities) especially are pretty strong too, and not far behind.
Caesar's friendly with Portugal, pleased with Frederick. Is he heading for Berlin or Alpha Centauri?
Turn 307: Berlin it is.
Joao has slowly taken the beaker count lead, though, so there's a now a chance Alpha Centauri could become a Portuguese-speaking colony.
Turn 338: Peace is signed. Germany in the age of tanks is tough. Caesar couldn't punch through. He built the Manhattan Project, but the world stayed surprisingly radio-activity-free.
All three leaders are now about the same at the end of the tech tree (Caesar a bit more advanced), and with a similar beaker count (slight Portuguese edge, though).
If it comes to another war, though, Portugal now has had time to build up quite the lead in military hardware.
Turn 365: Caesar launches a spaceship and an attack on Frederick.
Although the others have been catching up on him steadily, Caesar's managed to keep just enough of an edge to launch first. One reason his tech rate was lower than that of his opponents was because he's been busy building units instead of research, and he's putting them to use now.
On the first turn of the war, Frederick is the one resorting to nukes, to devastating effect as Caesar's power plummets.
But on the following turns, German cities start falling.
Then, on turn 370, Joao calls for the diplomatic vote... and wins!
I went back to a save before the war to check whether Caesar threw his game with that war declaration, but no. Frederick was already friendly with Joao, so would have voted for him anyway, and Caesar was at 34% population before the war, and at 37% when the vote took place, so if anything, it had improved his situation.
After the removal of the AP, could we also get a UN-free competition, pretty please?
Game 19
Caesar conquers the Zulus while France and Portugal team up against Germany which gets partitioned off.
For once, France ends up with the better eggheads.
Then when France starts annexing Ottoman cities, the Romans make them stop.
Suleiman finds a safe place to hide: a former barbarian city behind Roman borders.
When France redeclares and conquers the rest of the Ottoman cities... there remains one, unreachable.
With France locked in an unwinnable war, Rome is free to annex all of Portugal interference-free, and to overtake France at last.
Big nuclear showdown at the end to determine the winner, but already know who that's gonna be, don't you?
No one opens with Mysticism. Suleiman goes Hunting -> Archery, leaving the door open for De Gaulle (Christianity) and Caesar (Buddhism) to found the initial religions.
Joao founds Guimaraes at the sensible Corn + Horses spot. Caesar gets the Gold + Sheep spot in the tundra (there's usually a barb city there instead).
Caesar bungles his Cumae settling by founding the city ON the gems.
Shaka's settling pattern forms a wedge into Ottoman territory, which leads to:
Turn 72: Shaka declares on Suleiman.
Buddhists: Caesar, Suleiman, Frederick
Christians: De Gaulle, Shaka, Joao
Turn 87: Suleiman defects to Jesus.
Turn 96: Shaka signs peace. Caesar's power's spiking.
Turn 106: Caesar declares on Shaka. Was Shaka expecting it? You'll note that he's been an unprecedented 10 turns at peace.
That said, it's one more example of the randomness of those war declarations: Caesar's cautious at --4 with Suleiman with whom he has huge border tension, his worst enemy is De Gaulle, and he picks... Shaka (although, to be fair, I believe that "worst enemy" simply isn't a factor in the algorithm determining the target).
Also, De Gaulle is the tech rate leader at that point, when Caesar usually is...
Turn 116: Alright, this is gonna be an across-the-map military ventures game, I see. Joao declares on Frederick.
Turn 126: De Gaulle declares on Frederick who just might be in trouble, now. Also, next DoW on turn 136?
Turn 138: Suleiman, two turns late, declares on Shaka.
Well, that's it for Shaka, who's just lost Ulundi to the Romans.
Turn 149: Indeed. Caesar closes the history book on the Zulus.
Turn 155: Suleiman declares on De Gaulle.
Turn 165: De Gaulle puts an end to the rivalry between France and Germany.
It's a pretty even split between France (4 cities) and Portugal (3 cities, including Berlin). Although Essen (Portugal) might end up Roman as it's swallowed up in Roman culture.
Funny: A barbarian city in the southern tundra has been working a hill for ages... and it's popped gems! Barbarians as part of the land improvement project, whodathunk?
Turn 171: Caesar declares on Joao. A... sensible attempt at unifying his territory?
Free from the distraction of the German campaign, De Gaulle recaptures Rheims from the Ottomans. He's also surprisingly still the tech leader, and Rifling tech's on the way. Starting to feel like a bad situation for the Ottomans...
Turn 186: Caesar realizes that a sensible war is a mistake. He makes peaces with Joao, just as he's about to be able to field rifles and cavs.
Turn 193: Kinda knew this was coming when Caesar made peace. He declares on De Gaulle.
They both have rifles, but Caesar has cavs, which De Gaulle doesn't have. Caesar also has a slight city count edge: 16 vs 13.
De Gaulle's a bit more advanced, but he's on the Physics line, not Assembly Line or Railroad, so for now his tech advantage translates as a military tech disadvantage.
Turn 196: De Gaulle makes peace with Suleiman, getting another city in the deal. Normally it would be the sensible thing to do (to avoid a 2v1), but in this case... Caesar can use Suleiman's territory to attack De Gaulle's border cities (especially the recent Ottoman conquests), and De Gaulle won't be able to retaliate on the units threatening him (attacking from Ottoman culture tiles). It also means Caesar gets much shorter supply lines. So De Gaulle might have been better off staying at war with the Ottomans?
Turn 201: Suleiman may die happy. He settles an ice village in the Arctic, researches Divine Right that the rech leaders have ignored... and founds Islam! At last! His!
Could be significant if Caesar and De Gaulle stop fighting and resume their previous conflicts (with Joao for Caesar, with Suleiman for De Gaulle): Suleiman captures the barbarian city on the southwesternmost tip of the map, strangely ignored so far by Rome. That makes it an Ottoman city out of reach for France...
Turn 224: France and Rome sign peace. At the onset of his offensive, Caesar captured two former German cities, but the war had since then turned into a stalemate.
France has increased its tech lead... but is still ignoring Military Tradition.
Turn 239: De Gaulle declares on Suleiman.
Turn 254: As Suleiman is down to 4 cities and has lost all his core cities to the French, Caesar renews hostilities with De Gaulle.
He's taken advantage of the peace period to build up a consequential military edge (250 units vs 200 units).
Tech-wise, Caesar beelined Assembly Line, has upgraded his units, and has factories in place. Whereas De Gaulle just got there.
De Gaulle, on the other hand, went the Combustion route first, so he has canons, machine guns and destroyers, while Caesar just got started on Railroad tech.
But De Gaulle is still missing Military Tradition!
Turn 268: They sign peace after a short and bloody war. Caesar comes ahead in city count: he got three, including Munich and Istanbul. He's now leading 20 cities to 18 (although De Gaulle should match that soon with the capture of the two remaining Ottoman cities he can reach). But surprisingly, he suffered heavier losses: the unit count is now 180 Roman units vs 155 French units.
Turn 280: Those Ottoman cities fall. De Gaulle is now locked at war with the Ottomans while unable to reach their last city.
He's got tanks now, and has finally, very belatedly, reasearched Military Tradition. He's leading Caesar by 1100 bpt vs 770 btp (both at 90% science). But Caesar will get to chose the timing of their next conflict, and more importantly, he gets to do this:
Turn 285: Caesar declares on Joao.
Turn 312: Caesar completes the annexation of Portugal. That gives him a decisive city count advantage over De Gaulle: 30 cities vs 20 cities.
De Gaulle is 5 techs ahead, and still has a better beaker count, though. Trouble is... it's partly owing to research builds, while Caesar's been building units, units, and more units.
His military numerical advantage is now huge: 452 units vs 292 units!
Turn 326: Nuclear holocaust as Caesar opens up on De Gaulle.
They launch 9 missiles each at each other, and since none of them has built an SDI, they all connect.
De Gaulle actually comes the better off out of this exchange. He captures two Roman cities, but mainly levels the military power difference. The unit count is now 338 Roman units vs 220 French units.
Ok, that's still bad. A 50% advantage to Rome. But at least, De Gaulle isn't down several hundred units as was the case before the war. Plus, he's about to hit Robotics and mechs.
Caesar started the war at 56% land area.
And although France had mechs and gunships over him, his numerical advantage gradually paid off. De Gaulle also only used tactical nukes on the frontlines, while Caesar used ICBMs on the French major cities, cutting down France's production capacity while Caesar's remained largely intact. He started taking cities, and hit Domination on turn 350.
Suleiman survived in his iceball village, sheltered in the shadow of Rome.
Joao founds Guimaraes at the sensible Corn + Horses spot. Caesar gets the Gold + Sheep spot in the tundra (there's usually a barb city there instead).
Caesar bungles his Cumae settling by founding the city ON the gems.
Shaka's settling pattern forms a wedge into Ottoman territory, which leads to:
Turn 72: Shaka declares on Suleiman.
Buddhists: Caesar, Suleiman, Frederick
Christians: De Gaulle, Shaka, Joao
Turn 87: Suleiman defects to Jesus.
Turn 96: Shaka signs peace. Caesar's power's spiking.
Turn 106: Caesar declares on Shaka. Was Shaka expecting it? You'll note that he's been an unprecedented 10 turns at peace.
That said, it's one more example of the randomness of those war declarations: Caesar's cautious at --4 with Suleiman with whom he has huge border tension, his worst enemy is De Gaulle, and he picks... Shaka (although, to be fair, I believe that "worst enemy" simply isn't a factor in the algorithm determining the target).
Also, De Gaulle is the tech rate leader at that point, when Caesar usually is...
Turn 116: Alright, this is gonna be an across-the-map military ventures game, I see. Joao declares on Frederick.
Turn 126: De Gaulle declares on Frederick who just might be in trouble, now. Also, next DoW on turn 136?
Turn 138: Suleiman, two turns late, declares on Shaka.
Well, that's it for Shaka, who's just lost Ulundi to the Romans.
Turn 149: Indeed. Caesar closes the history book on the Zulus.
Turn 155: Suleiman declares on De Gaulle.
Turn 165: De Gaulle puts an end to the rivalry between France and Germany.
It's a pretty even split between France (4 cities) and Portugal (3 cities, including Berlin). Although Essen (Portugal) might end up Roman as it's swallowed up in Roman culture.
Funny: A barbarian city in the southern tundra has been working a hill for ages... and it's popped gems! Barbarians as part of the land improvement project, whodathunk?
Turn 171: Caesar declares on Joao. A... sensible attempt at unifying his territory?
Free from the distraction of the German campaign, De Gaulle recaptures Rheims from the Ottomans. He's also surprisingly still the tech leader, and Rifling tech's on the way. Starting to feel like a bad situation for the Ottomans...
Turn 186: Caesar realizes that a sensible war is a mistake. He makes peaces with Joao, just as he's about to be able to field rifles and cavs.
Turn 193: Kinda knew this was coming when Caesar made peace. He declares on De Gaulle.
They both have rifles, but Caesar has cavs, which De Gaulle doesn't have. Caesar also has a slight city count edge: 16 vs 13.
De Gaulle's a bit more advanced, but he's on the Physics line, not Assembly Line or Railroad, so for now his tech advantage translates as a military tech disadvantage.
Turn 196: De Gaulle makes peace with Suleiman, getting another city in the deal. Normally it would be the sensible thing to do (to avoid a 2v1), but in this case... Caesar can use Suleiman's territory to attack De Gaulle's border cities (especially the recent Ottoman conquests), and De Gaulle won't be able to retaliate on the units threatening him (attacking from Ottoman culture tiles). It also means Caesar gets much shorter supply lines. So De Gaulle might have been better off staying at war with the Ottomans?
Turn 201: Suleiman may die happy. He settles an ice village in the Arctic, researches Divine Right that the rech leaders have ignored... and founds Islam! At last! His!
Could be significant if Caesar and De Gaulle stop fighting and resume their previous conflicts (with Joao for Caesar, with Suleiman for De Gaulle): Suleiman captures the barbarian city on the southwesternmost tip of the map, strangely ignored so far by Rome. That makes it an Ottoman city out of reach for France...
Turn 224: France and Rome sign peace. At the onset of his offensive, Caesar captured two former German cities, but the war had since then turned into a stalemate.
France has increased its tech lead... but is still ignoring Military Tradition.
Turn 239: De Gaulle declares on Suleiman.
Turn 254: As Suleiman is down to 4 cities and has lost all his core cities to the French, Caesar renews hostilities with De Gaulle.
He's taken advantage of the peace period to build up a consequential military edge (250 units vs 200 units).
Tech-wise, Caesar beelined Assembly Line, has upgraded his units, and has factories in place. Whereas De Gaulle just got there.
De Gaulle, on the other hand, went the Combustion route first, so he has canons, machine guns and destroyers, while Caesar just got started on Railroad tech.
But De Gaulle is still missing Military Tradition!
Turn 268: They sign peace after a short and bloody war. Caesar comes ahead in city count: he got three, including Munich and Istanbul. He's now leading 20 cities to 18 (although De Gaulle should match that soon with the capture of the two remaining Ottoman cities he can reach). But surprisingly, he suffered heavier losses: the unit count is now 180 Roman units vs 155 French units.
Turn 280: Those Ottoman cities fall. De Gaulle is now locked at war with the Ottomans while unable to reach their last city.
He's got tanks now, and has finally, very belatedly, reasearched Military Tradition. He's leading Caesar by 1100 bpt vs 770 btp (both at 90% science). But Caesar will get to chose the timing of their next conflict, and more importantly, he gets to do this:
Turn 285: Caesar declares on Joao.
Turn 312: Caesar completes the annexation of Portugal. That gives him a decisive city count advantage over De Gaulle: 30 cities vs 20 cities.
De Gaulle is 5 techs ahead, and still has a better beaker count, though. Trouble is... it's partly owing to research builds, while Caesar's been building units, units, and more units.
His military numerical advantage is now huge: 452 units vs 292 units!
Turn 326: Nuclear holocaust as Caesar opens up on De Gaulle.
They launch 9 missiles each at each other, and since none of them has built an SDI, they all connect.
De Gaulle actually comes the better off out of this exchange. He captures two Roman cities, but mainly levels the military power difference. The unit count is now 338 Roman units vs 220 French units.
Ok, that's still bad. A 50% advantage to Rome. But at least, De Gaulle isn't down several hundred units as was the case before the war. Plus, he's about to hit Robotics and mechs.
Caesar started the war at 56% land area.
And although France had mechs and gunships over him, his numerical advantage gradually paid off. De Gaulle also only used tactical nukes on the frontlines, while Caesar used ICBMs on the French major cities, cutting down France's production capacity while Caesar's remained largely intact. He started taking cities, and hit Domination on turn 350.
Suleiman survived in his iceball village, sheltered in the shadow of Rome.
Game 20
Caesar feels he needs to raise the challenge level: he renews his lose-my-third-city-to-barbs-as-it-is-founded trick.
Shaka and De Gaulle team up to carve up Portugal and De Gaulle proves the better conqueror while Suleiman proves the better kill thief.
Shaka doesn't take kindly be being publicly humiliated and declares on De Gaulle. Ensues a protrated war that drags France's economy down, but the Zulus are grindingly, steadily, losing ground.
Then Caesar, who's been left to recover, tech, and build up in peace for 200 turns, wakes up and shows them both who's the boss by quickly wiping out the remnants of the Zulus.
And then whole of the Ottomans.
He wants to leave the French and the Germans duke it out without foreign interference, you see: at that point, De Gaulle and Frederick have both finished second six times.
This is the tie-breaker.
A much larger, medieval France invades a much smaller, modern-era Germany.
Knights and Muskets vs Panzers and Infantries.
And when it seems that "going medieval" could work afterall, Roman armies plough into France...
Alright, this last game seems like it's going to be full of surprises.
Suleiman opens with… Pottery? No one touches Mysticism for the first 20 turns, and Suleiman ends up getting a late (turn 30) Islam through Meditation. Then Joao founds Christianity on turn 40. We miss up on having neighbouring Holy Cities as it pops in Joao's second city, on the coast.
Shaka gets the Cow + Fish spot south of Ulundi, which leads Joao to the better Corn + Horses spot for his third city.
I was surprised to see Caesar found a late third city in the Marble + Ivory spot instead of his usual Gems spot by Istanbul... when I noticed city ruins there. Going back to earlier autosaves to check it out, yup, that's right: he founded it on turn 26, but it got immediately autorazed when a barb archer got a lucky attack roll !
He still got to the spot on turn 53, closely beating an Ottoman settler to it, but at the last moment he diverted his settler 2W 1S to settle between the Gems and the Iron (he couldn't see the Iron earlier), which is IMO a much weaker spot: no fresh water, no Dyes, missing on a lot of grassland tiles. The only upside (if that's one), is that it won't generate the border tension with the Ottomans that the usual spot does (edit: scratch that. Suleiman settles 3 tiles away).
Anyway, rough start for Rome!
Joao has settled in a very ambitious way, founding cities far to the northeast, between the Zulus and the Ottomans, and pretty much boxing in the Zulus.
No surprise then when:
Turn 67: Shaka declares on Joao.
Joao has just started researching Bronze Working (and remember, he doesn't have Copper, his only metal source is an Iron source close to the border wiith the Zulus), so... trouble?
Caesar founds Confucianism (Monotheism) and converts right away to... Islam? Note that this is actually a smart move since the whole world is Muslim, except for the Christian Portuguese who might not be long for this world.
Turn 80: The capture of a barb city just north of the Zulu-Ottoman border brings France's total city count to 10 already, and cuts off Suleiman's access to the northern tundra.
Turn 112: De Gaulle declares on Joao. As if the poor guy needed it. He then proceeds to show Shaka how it's done by capturing Lisbon right away.
Turn 125: Suleiman piles in on 2-city Joao.
Turn 131: Suleiman shows them all how to perform the perfect kill steal.
With everyone Muslim, and some shared military struggle bonuses, lots of "pleased" and "friendly" faces.
Only De Gaulle's merely "cautious" with Suleiman and Frederick.
Well, and Caesar's "pleased" with everyone... which doesn't really matter to him.
And of course, this can always happen:
Turn 133: Shaka declares on De Gaulle.
Caesar seems to have recovered from his disastrous start: he's way ahead in beaker count (350 bpt vs 200 bpt for Suleiman/Frederick).
Turn 166: The war between De Gaulle and Shaka rages on, with cities changing hands left and right. France is more powerful, but has much longer supply lines.
Caesar is decisively pulling ahead in tech, with a surprising 7-city Suleiman close behind, and who even matches him at the top of the military power graph. I suppose that a shrine bringing in 46 gpt helps some...
Turn 176: Frederick is the first to Liberalism. Caesar is the first to Rifling.
Caesar switches to Free Religion, he drops to cautious with De Gaulle and Shaka (who's clearly losing now vs France now).
Turn 192: Caesar is plotting...
Turn 205: Shaka was slowly dying, now he's going to die like real fast, as Caesar declares on him.
Turn 223: Another kill steal as Caesar finishes off Shaka? Hard to say... France deserved the kill, but they at least got a sizable share of the spoils, and Caesar's intervention certainly sped things up.
France is now the biggest civ with 18 cities to Rome's 15 cities. But the protracted war (90 turns!) has dragged on its economy for so long that De Gaulle's fallen pretty far behind in tech compared to all other AIs.
Interestingly, the shared military struggle bonus has raised Caesar's status with De Gaulle to "pleased", while Suleiman's and Frederick's spy activities have lowered theirs to "cautious".
And sure enough:
Turn 230: Caesar declares on Suleiman.
You know what's nice? Over the course of the first 19 iterations of this game, De Gaulle and Frederick have each finished second 6 times.
There's no doubt at this point that Caesar'll win, once again. But with Suleiman in the process of being eliminated, that means one of De Gaulle or Frederick is going to finish second, so we have a tie-breaker there.
Turn 260: De Gaulle wants to force the issue by declaring on Frederick.
He has 20 cities versus Frederick's seven, 300 units versus Frederick's 70.
But he's waaay behind in tech. Knights and musketeers (he's going Physics instead of Rifling) vs panzers, infantries, and machine guns.
This. Could. Get. Ugly.
Turn 263: Frankfurt is captured. One down, six to go. It's "only" cost him 50+ units (he's down to 246 units).
But wait, what? Frederick is down to 37 units. Can De Gaulle really brute-force his way through?
Turn 267: Munich is captured. Five to go. De Gaulle down to 228 units, Frederick up to 42 units.
Turn 271: Essen is captured but immediately recaptured. De Gaulle down to 200 units, Frederick stable at 40 units. De Gaulle researching Communism (sigh).
Turn 272: Munich recaptured. Unit count stable.
Turn 281: Caesar eliminates Suleiman.
Frankfurt recaptured. De Gaulle one turn away from rifles. 192 units vs 43.
Turn 282: Frankfurt falls again. Unit count stable.
Turn 287: De Gaulle has cavs now. It may have been for nothing, though: Caesar's plotting.
Turn 288: Munich falls again. Berlin has 6 military instructors!
Turn 295: De Gaulle loses the coin flip. Caesar declares on him.
De Gaulle has a 2,000 point lead over Frederick, Caesar's at 47% land area. Can De Gaulle maintain a lead to the end?
Turn 300: De Gaulle down to 11 cities, his lead over Frederick down to 1,100 points. Caesar at 55% land area.
Turn 307: Caesar achieves Domination. De Gaulle remains in second place... with an 18 point lead (1862 vs 1844)!
Suleiman opens with… Pottery? No one touches Mysticism for the first 20 turns, and Suleiman ends up getting a late (turn 30) Islam through Meditation. Then Joao founds Christianity on turn 40. We miss up on having neighbouring Holy Cities as it pops in Joao's second city, on the coast.
Shaka gets the Cow + Fish spot south of Ulundi, which leads Joao to the better Corn + Horses spot for his third city.
I was surprised to see Caesar found a late third city in the Marble + Ivory spot instead of his usual Gems spot by Istanbul... when I noticed city ruins there. Going back to earlier autosaves to check it out, yup, that's right: he founded it on turn 26, but it got immediately autorazed when a barb archer got a lucky attack roll !
He still got to the spot on turn 53, closely beating an Ottoman settler to it, but at the last moment he diverted his settler 2W 1S to settle between the Gems and the Iron (he couldn't see the Iron earlier), which is IMO a much weaker spot: no fresh water, no Dyes, missing on a lot of grassland tiles. The only upside (if that's one), is that it won't generate the border tension with the Ottomans that the usual spot does (edit: scratch that. Suleiman settles 3 tiles away).
Anyway, rough start for Rome!
Joao has settled in a very ambitious way, founding cities far to the northeast, between the Zulus and the Ottomans, and pretty much boxing in the Zulus.
No surprise then when:
Turn 67: Shaka declares on Joao.
Joao has just started researching Bronze Working (and remember, he doesn't have Copper, his only metal source is an Iron source close to the border wiith the Zulus), so... trouble?
Caesar founds Confucianism (Monotheism) and converts right away to... Islam? Note that this is actually a smart move since the whole world is Muslim, except for the Christian Portuguese who might not be long for this world.
Turn 80: The capture of a barb city just north of the Zulu-Ottoman border brings France's total city count to 10 already, and cuts off Suleiman's access to the northern tundra.
Turn 112: De Gaulle declares on Joao. As if the poor guy needed it. He then proceeds to show Shaka how it's done by capturing Lisbon right away.
Turn 125: Suleiman piles in on 2-city Joao.
Turn 131: Suleiman shows them all how to perform the perfect kill steal.
With everyone Muslim, and some shared military struggle bonuses, lots of "pleased" and "friendly" faces.
Only De Gaulle's merely "cautious" with Suleiman and Frederick.
Well, and Caesar's "pleased" with everyone... which doesn't really matter to him.
And of course, this can always happen:
Turn 133: Shaka declares on De Gaulle.
Caesar seems to have recovered from his disastrous start: he's way ahead in beaker count (350 bpt vs 200 bpt for Suleiman/Frederick).
Turn 166: The war between De Gaulle and Shaka rages on, with cities changing hands left and right. France is more powerful, but has much longer supply lines.
Caesar is decisively pulling ahead in tech, with a surprising 7-city Suleiman close behind, and who even matches him at the top of the military power graph. I suppose that a shrine bringing in 46 gpt helps some...
Turn 176: Frederick is the first to Liberalism. Caesar is the first to Rifling.
Caesar switches to Free Religion, he drops to cautious with De Gaulle and Shaka (who's clearly losing now vs France now).
Turn 192: Caesar is plotting...
Turn 205: Shaka was slowly dying, now he's going to die like real fast, as Caesar declares on him.
Turn 223: Another kill steal as Caesar finishes off Shaka? Hard to say... France deserved the kill, but they at least got a sizable share of the spoils, and Caesar's intervention certainly sped things up.
France is now the biggest civ with 18 cities to Rome's 15 cities. But the protracted war (90 turns!) has dragged on its economy for so long that De Gaulle's fallen pretty far behind in tech compared to all other AIs.
Interestingly, the shared military struggle bonus has raised Caesar's status with De Gaulle to "pleased", while Suleiman's and Frederick's spy activities have lowered theirs to "cautious".
And sure enough:
Turn 230: Caesar declares on Suleiman.
You know what's nice? Over the course of the first 19 iterations of this game, De Gaulle and Frederick have each finished second 6 times.
There's no doubt at this point that Caesar'll win, once again. But with Suleiman in the process of being eliminated, that means one of De Gaulle or Frederick is going to finish second, so we have a tie-breaker there.
Turn 260: De Gaulle wants to force the issue by declaring on Frederick.
He has 20 cities versus Frederick's seven, 300 units versus Frederick's 70.
But he's waaay behind in tech. Knights and musketeers (he's going Physics instead of Rifling) vs panzers, infantries, and machine guns.
This. Could. Get. Ugly.
Turn 263: Frankfurt is captured. One down, six to go. It's "only" cost him 50+ units (he's down to 246 units).
But wait, what? Frederick is down to 37 units. Can De Gaulle really brute-force his way through?
Turn 267: Munich is captured. Five to go. De Gaulle down to 228 units, Frederick up to 42 units.
Turn 271: Essen is captured but immediately recaptured. De Gaulle down to 200 units, Frederick stable at 40 units. De Gaulle researching Communism (sigh).
Turn 272: Munich recaptured. Unit count stable.
Turn 281: Caesar eliminates Suleiman.
Frankfurt recaptured. De Gaulle one turn away from rifles. 192 units vs 43.
Turn 282: Frankfurt falls again. Unit count stable.
Turn 287: De Gaulle has cavs now. It may have been for nothing, though: Caesar's plotting.
Turn 288: Munich falls again. Berlin has 6 military instructors!
Turn 295: De Gaulle loses the coin flip. Caesar declares on him.
De Gaulle has a 2,000 point lead over Frederick, Caesar's at 47% land area. Can De Gaulle maintain a lead to the end?
Turn 300: De Gaulle down to 11 cities, his lead over Frederick down to 1,100 points. Caesar at 55% land area.
Turn 307: Caesar achieves Domination. De Gaulle remains in second place... with an 18 point lead (1862 vs 1844)!
Fascinating stuff.
I put your latest post into HTML and added it to the Season Four Game Three report: 
![[Image: survivor5-10-24.png]](http://www.sullla.com/Civ4/Survivor/S5/survivor5-10-24.png)
![[Image: survivor5-10-25.png]](http://www.sullla.com/Civ4/Survivor/S5/survivor5-10-25.png)
![[Image: survivor5-10-26.png]](http://www.sullla.com/Civ4/Survivor/S5/survivor5-10-26.png)
