Adv 39 - A Cautious Deity

[Olodune]

Part I

Well, without too much to go on I just dove on into this game:



The start is excellent with irrigated corn and riverside cows. Plenty of green tiles ensures the long term viability of the location, so I settle in place. I was briefly puzzled by the combat I warrior (we’re Expansive and Financial, right?), but then I decided Sullla was just being kind. Sadly he died in his first battle while defending against a panther. One hut was popped for some gold.

After getting the food working I headed for Bronze Working, both for Slavery and chopping power. To me Expansive is one of the best traits for Slavery since granaries are easy to get up with a chop and expansive workers are best whipped to maximize the hammer bonus.

The first settler grabs a great location:


Despite only having a single bananas as a food source this is a killer city – every single workable tile is grass and riverside! Eventually this will be a fantastic commerce generator. Horses are nice too, of course.

Next I grabbed the northern plains location that can share the corn with the capital:


Having Mansa to the south is great since he quickly wracks up the demerits with other civilizations. In fact he would fight an early cold war with Ragnar (Mansa declaring).



A wandering Chariot finds a juicy target:



The hut gave experience! This is wonderful since now the Chariot is at 8/10 and only needs two more experience to enable the Heroic Epic.

Another coastal city, this one with an ocean based fish resource:



There was a barbarian city to the south, however I was nearly too late scouting the city center tile. Expecting to see 3-4 archers I was shocked to see the city defended by warriors! Thanks again Sullla. So a perfect chance for the 8/10 Chariot, right?



And of course I lose! Ouch. That means no Heroic Epic for a long while yet. At least my remaining warriors were able to finish the job and capture the city.

Mansa Musa had spread Hinduism to all my cities and Ragnar was already Hindu. I was also hoping that Mehmed would soon join the Hindu ranks to make diplomacy more tractable. So I agreed to this request:



For more happiness the price was a little steeper:

[Olodune]

Part II

Did I mention that Asoka decided to be a religious outcast? He was quickly declared on by the Incans and the Vikings, so this request seemed like some free diplomatic points. I just hope that the Indian Empire can hold out for a while. At least no one has Feudalism yet.



Aesthetics enabled me to get into the trading game:



The low food surplus outside of Mutal means that Great People are going to be in short supply this game. Still, the first scientist is better used for an Academy than Philosophy since our financial cottages are providing a solid tech rate.



Did I mention I am the most glorious civilization in the world? Lucky timing as I had just started burning gold for Currency research:



Because of religion (Mansa and Ragnar) and Hereditary Rule (Huyana Capac and Ragnar) my main diplomatic concerns are the Confucians Augustus Caesar and Mehmed II. When the Romans approached the bargaining table this seemed a prudent choice:



This wouldn’t be a Deity game without some silliness at 125BC: Islam has been founded in Gao. Mansa is teching …

As 1ad rolls by I am quite pleased with the opening. I have 7 cities, with room for one more filler city to the northeast.



I will also get Music next turn with its free Great Artist, so my tech position is fine (obviously I want Civil Service soon). I have Drama on all the AI's and don't plan on trading it just yet as early theatres will help hold the borders. Ankara has the Hanging Gardens but I'm actually winning the cultural battle with the Ottomans. Mansa is another matter (he will soon have five religions in all his cities).



The diplomatic situation is ok, but certainly not safe. At least Caesar and Mehmed have worst enemies that are not named RBAdventure39. I have a small army of assorted units in case of a declaration of war, but would probably get rolled by a concerted attack.



The religion spamming Mansa also finished a Hindu Apostolic Palace, and I have some sway over the votes too:

[Olodune]

Part III

Mansa is such a nice trading partner that despite his fearsome tech pace I appreciate his presence:



A scouting workboat shows that Delhi has fallen, and that the end of the Indian civilization is nigh:



The former Indian lands have been taken by the Incans and the Vikings, but Augustus is in the process of eating through Ragnar in turn:



Unfortunately, Caesar is getting very strong and takes Ragnar as his Vassal before I can get peace negotiated. And Mehmed declares on Mansa, leading to a the current diplomatic situation:



While this seems great news, Mansa is actually beating back Mehmed with superior units and is threatening an Ottoman city:



I’m not sure what the best move is here, but Mehmed has lots of land and is backwards technologically – so he is the perfect target for a future Mayan military campaign. So I force a very expensive peace treaty. This one stings



I give Mansa a new target to waste hammers on instead:



Meanwhile Liberalism is snatched away from Mansa Musa:



This is good news, but I don’t have the productive capacity to build the Taj Mahal since all my remaining forests are headed into Universities.

Mansa Musa beat me to Economics by one stinking turn



Caesar must be appeased at all costs (he is quickly becoming my biggest threat):



With Universities complete the fantastic city of Mutal can start a ridiculously powerful National Wonder, sped by Bureaucracy and Caste System hammers:



Mehmed declares on Mansa again!



However this time I’ll let it stand. With Oxford I quickly can get a few key monopoly techs. When Rifling is finished the tech screen looks great:



Time for War

I’ve slowly been building catapults under Theocracy with any excess hammers. Nationalism is adopted and I plan to run the culture slider as high as 40% to counter triple-draft unhappiness (all my large cities have theatres+ball courts). With a handful of drafted rifles combined with a couple mace->rifle upgrades we march:

[Olodune]

Part IV

The Hindu AP has done very little this game, and despite any manipulation on my part I actually had an opportunity for an easy victory – having the largest block of votes with near certain votes from Huayna Capac and Ragnar and likely a likely vote from Mansa:



I abstain as it just seems a little silly.

While I was busy with Mehmed it’s good to keep our neighbours involved to prevent any nasty surprises:



Mehmed’s back is broken with the fall of Istanbul (which will become an excellent Heroic Epic city):



I wanted all of the Ottoman cities since none were under cultural pressure and I didn’t relish “Motherland Unhappiness”. So a full 31 turns after the start of the war I capture the final Ottoman city:



Running the culture slider and general war mobilization has thoroughly killed any ideas of a tech lead, so this game is far from over:



To make matters much worse I get some horrible news:



I can’t fight Mansa, Ragnar and Caesar at the same time so the plan is to build up some infrastructure and hope Mansa breaks free. With 5 religions, Mansa will soon start a push towards Culture too. I may decide to fight HC in the interim.

The Roman’s have the same plan:



I REALLY cannot allow the Incans to capitulate as well, so this is a no brainer (even if it is the only tech I have on anyone):



Who says luck is better than skill:



With Mansa standing alone I head into his territory with two stacks of Infantry, Artillery, Machine Guns, and Anti-Tank guns (the smaller stack is highlighted). Mansa has tech parity, but with nearly even power the initiative is all mine. I heavily used rush buy to speed up the army building time.



While we fight monotonous trench warfare, a scout gets hit by a Nuclear Meltdown – and I notice Caesar is already fielding Gunships. Hmmm.



Mali is also eliminated rather than vassalized with the fall of their last city:

[Olodune]

Part V

With Mehmed and Mansa dead I plan on heading into Inca hoping for a relative quick war before turning my eye towards the other superpower. So I industrialize and spend ~5 turns rush buying tanks, heading in with half my army as soon as its healed and in position.



HC counter stack never really materialized so the “reserves” also pile in, fighting the first major city battle:



The main stack faces a similar story at Tiwanaku:



Then we have a fireside chat:



So the world is entirely in thrall to me and Augustus, both with a single vassal. I have a production advantage but he has a large tech lead and has been assembling various components of a space ship. The world:



I cut all trade routes with Rome hoping to slow down their beaker accumulation. AC has only ~4 tech to go if he focuses on the spaceship path. All his cities have Aluminium Inc and Jewelers providing a boost …

He sticks to the path remarkably well, finishing Composites. Uh oh:



I do have a plan, however, it’s going to be awfully tight:



I had stored about 10k gold while finishing the project, but largely wasted it buying too many ICBMs instead of Tac Nukes – AC finished the SDI two turns after enabling it. Sheesh.

Anyways, it’s time:



Naturally, I wanted a monopoly on Nuclear weapons so a carefully constructed network of spies and sub-launched cruise missile will be busy disabling certain mineral mines:



By the way, Submarines are fantastic since they give tremendous range to Cruise missiles and Tactical Nukes. Upon re-basing to a coastal city a missile can be loaded into a Sub even if it has no movement remaining.

I have a large southern Army (that still has most of the Accuracy Catapults from the Ottoman war), but it is obsolete compared to Caesar’s Mobile Artillery, Gunships, Jet Fighters, and Mobile SAM. He’ll even have Modern Armour in a few turns. Since his main offensive stack went into Incan territory (as expected) I can’t nuke it. Luckily collateral still rules in modern warfare, so after sacrificing most of my siege I eliminated his advanced stack losing ~10 Tank->Gunships battles before gaining battle odds.



Hmmm. Caesar lauches a ship



So the game is simple now – I either have to get Caesar to capitulate or capture Rome by turn 291 (292?).

The front is moving quickly as Tactical Nukes render defending stacks into radioactive dust :catapult:



As long as a city is close enough we can leapfrog stacks moving the front at 3-4 tiles per turn:



Getting into range of Rome is a little awkward due to the settling pattern, but with the help of a Submarine attack the final battle looms:



One turn before I get Rome and 2 (or 3?) turns before Caesar wins, Domination is triggered:





I had a large manufacturing base, even without considering the heavy use of Rush Buy towards the end:



Power was closer:



I almost never play “Wait … Just One More Turn”, but I had to end the game with a vindictive strike against Rome:

[Cyneheard]

Impressive win.

Can't say I've ever had the opportunity (or desire) to play around with nukes. But that part really looked like fun.

And thank the designers for the SS delay.

[timmy827]

This may be the first game I've seen where the SS delay actually mattered

Masterfully done.

[Olodune]

This may be the first game I've seen where the SS delay actually mattered

Those late game wars are actually a lot of fun when they are contentious and have that time pressure -- I did appreciate that SS delay

[Dantski]

Did Rome 100% complete their ship or was it sub optimal?

Also great game and well played. Seems keeping the AI's at war helps enormously

[darrelljs]

Bravo! Thank goodness my hat is made of chocolate .

Darrell