akots against arghis **SPOILER**

[akots]

Well, kinda delayed this one. The game is played on a standard map with 6 AI and 2 humans which are Arghis as Xerxes and me as Mao. Map was made by Beam and the level is Demi-God.

Overall, one of the most difficult games against AI I have ever played. Reason: no food bonus on start. Start was really the crapiest crap of all craps. At least it got grassland and not tundra. There were 2 cows at some distance but before I settled the cows I was already cornered by Zulu. Evil Shaka seized my Chinese iron and built his cities in the suburbs of Beijing. This was no fun at all. So, I had to go for dense build and managed to accumulate some military.

Research was going also rather bad. Most of the techs I got for gpt from Portugal. Another neighbor, agricultural Ducth, were not so aggressive and even traded with me their luxury.

So, horsemen against knights it was. I built lots of cats (and still am building them, waited for a while and when some impi sneak in Chinese borders (around turn 100 or so), ask to go away and Shaka declared war. It has been a war since then. Now we are at turn 152 and the situation in the game refers to this turn.

The war is actually proceeding slowly but rather well. I have got 3 MGLs from horsemen and built 2 armies (horsemen) and Herioc Epic. Bad thing is that the AIs are close to Industrial Age and I learned only Feudalism a turn ago. Good thing that Shaka has built The Great Library in Zimbabwe and this is my primary goal for the moment. I'm not sure whether I should try to capture it ASAP or postpone before AIs get Steam Power. It would be nice to have some cavalries running. But this is only a perspective.

[akots]

This is the current minimap. Arghis is green in the north-western corner of the map and I'm blue in the south-eastern corner.

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/akots/2004109134154_vsarghis-1.JPG
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For "a casual emperor level player" Arghis is doing surprizingly well. Bet he can beat Deity easily. He has apparently badly crippled Inca and built a formidable empire. I have not yet traded for the contact with him. Waiting for him to pay for it. :)

This is the pic of Persian holdings. I just traded WM from Portugal for big bucks.

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/akots/2004109134534_vsarghis-5.JPG
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[akots]

This is my core. Most of the cities have markets and libraries and of course barracks and are pumping out horsemen and catapults. I decided to play this game in Monarchy. Really, don't know why. It is China, so should be Monarchy and that's it.

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/akots/2004109134919_vsarghis-2.JPG
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And this is the quest for the Great Library in Zimbabwe. 36 units, mostly cats with 2 horsemen armies:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/akots/2004109135212_vsarghis-3.JPG
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The situation in to the north is more quiet. Dutch units are moving to attack the Zulu and brave Chinese settler settle the land in place of the razed Shaka holdings. Cultural situation is probably 10:1 in favor of Zulu, so there is no way to keep the cities.



http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/akots/2004109135526_vsarghis-4.JPG
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And this is tiny Chinese military according to F3 guy. Surprizingly, it is strong against Shaka but he has been hammered for 50 turns now mostly by me but by Portuguese and Byzantines, lost 3 large cities, iron and horses and should be apparently pretty much gased.

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/akots/2004109135931_vsarghis-6.JPG
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[akots]

The plan is to get the Library, trade some freebies for big bucks, upgrade horses to riders first just to trigger Golden Age and then to cavalry. Wage some wars against Henry and the Dutch, make peace for techs or big bucks. And then it should be pretty straight forward to landing a few cavalries in Persian borders from galleons.

An alternative may be to hammer more of the AIs but it is very tough of Demi-God with this cruel map and can last until tanks or even nukes.

Would be nice to know what more experiences people think on how it should go from now. :)

[akots]

As expected, Zimbabwe has fallen to our glorious troop and China got all Middle Age techs except Physics and beyond and Military Tradition. Unfortunately, there were no tech trade opportunities to get substantial cash. Some horsemen were upgraded to riders and I'm hesitating whether to build caravels and get to Persia with Riders or continue hammering the AI. Arghis just entered Middle Ages and got Monotheism as his free tech. Have no idea how he can catch up.

[akots]

An update of turn 182. After capturing Great Library, horsemen were upgraded to Riders, Golden Age was triggered, Zulu were finished and Military Tradition was purchased. Then, Riders and Cavalry were loaded onto caravels and traveled overseas to visit with our Persian adversaries. Made alliance against Persia with Inca, and RoP with Inca and Maya to get the troops there. It took a few turns but was well worth it. Arghis is apparently desperate because his military gets somewhat reduced. Three Immortal armies lie dead on the field, and cavalries are closing onto Persepolis. Arghis said he will resign the game but still have played the turn, probably last one. There are 5 Cavalries and 4 Riders as well as healing Cavalry/Rider army ready to assault the Persian capital in about 2 turns. Looks like the game is essentially over. Just in case Arghis will somehow manage to buy alliance with the Dutch or Portugal, some troops were diverted for defence of the northern border of the Chinese Empire. Here is the situation in suburbs of Persepolis:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/akots/200411244110_arvsar-182.JPG
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[akots]

The game has been ended on turn 188 when elite Rider walks in undefended Gordium and Persia is destroyed.

I'm not sure if these is a possibility of claiming a ladder victory. All depends on Arghis. I'm fine either way.

[Arghis]

hi

no prob for the victory. you deserve it.

Even if my start position was more "quiet" than Akots one, i was hammered by swarms of incans during all the game. All in all this was interesting.
I never achieved interesting relations with IA; perhaps i shall have explored more and sooner ... i waited too long for seizing the horse on Machu Pichu (being focalized on north spices ressources), and i've been bypass by Maya for taking control of the Incan iron spot.

That was a good game