Fragamemnon
Member
I thought I would post this here-I wrote it for the Epic 13 game for Realms Beyond Civilization, a terrific fansite that allows us Civilization fans to sort of test our abilites against each other and play some games where the rules are mixed up to force us to think beyond our regular play strategies. This game is very conventional in play, but I wanted to post it anyway and let you guys mock my poor play (keep in mind this was done in basically one day with another couple of hours to format the screenshots, upload, and write the report text). Enjoy and ask any questions that you'd like:
Epic 13 : 4000BC-260BC
Hammurabi-Bablyon (Aggressive/Organized traits)
Start is high on food with the pigs and the fish-this should allow me to have a good opening city running two scientists for some early GP points while still allowing
for some production from a couple of mines at size six. I settle in place to get both the pigs and the fish without using up a valuabile production hill tile.
I decide against a start of fishing researched followed up by a work boat and instead choose animal husbandry and a worker as my first science and city builds. The pigs provide so much early food and growth that the fish can not come into the picture until size five or so and not hurt you too much. This city will be happy-capped well before it will be food capped anyway. I decide instead to pursue a pretty straightfoward early teching that gets Bronze Working sooner rather than later-this is so that I can start rolling out axes as soon as possible. Note that under the rules I cannot attack until 1000BC, but right when I hit that point I want a army of some sorts ready to start making trouble. I am Bablylonian, and aggression and conquest suits the Civilization/Leader traits like a glove.
I send my warriors out and get 200 or so gold from huts. This is good, as it will allow me to run research at full bore for 50 or so extra turns once I get three cities up and running. On turn 15 I meet two neighbors, the Khmer and the Portugese:
The Khmer are close enough by that an early strike and conquest would be well worth the effort. They have a tendency to also religion spam early, so I might be able to snag a couple of holy cities in the process. The Portugese actually make interesting trading partners-Joao beelines optics for his unique unit, so you can actually get some interesting techs from him if you get close enough to him. So that's the way I'm going to play this game early-Khmer conquest for cities four and five (three cities instead of two early ones since I can't attack until 1000BC), and then try to get one more to have the great six city at 1AD start that usually results in a runaway win.
I get Pottery for free from a hut. Nice, early commerce is always helpful.
I get a quest to build eight chariots before the Classical age. Not going to happen-if this was not Monarch where the AIs start out with archery, then I might since chariot rushes are brutally effective on low levels, but on Monarch city raider axes are just way, way better. I will still build a couple of chariots for worker-stealing purposes and barb killing, but not as a main attack force.
I meet Justinian around 3000BC. Note at this point the Khmer are Hindu and the Byzantines are Buddist. I find Justinian a great takeover target in the late classical/early medieval period before he gets his unique knight unit out, so he'll be the next to go after the Khmer are gone, with an army of catapults, swords, and elephants.
I finish my first settler in 2475BC. City choices aren't stellar-I need that copper if I want to get the drop on the Khmer. I settle Akkad with a good chunk of overlap with Babylon, which isn't too big of a deal since Babylon will be running specialists for a while anyway. I do get the cow, copper, and spices in the fat cross, so I should have a decent balanced second city, which I will slant for production.
I bump into the Dutch at 2100BC. That means they are further off than the other Civs and it will likely be well into the medieval or period before I really bump into them at a point where I can consider conquest. They are a great Civ to conquer, though-they usually do not build a ton of units and are very science focused, and have wonderfully big pop citys and tons of developed cottages.
Pacal comes in at 2125. He'll be wonder whoring for sure, but I don't see his borders anywhere nearby so I'm not going to worry too much about him.
I build my third city near the horses and sugar/dyes. It'll make a good commerce city. I am avoiding that nice plot near the ivory and floodplains in the hope that the Khmer will build a nice city there for me to conquer.
Of course, somehow they never settle it-the Khmer are probably spamming missionaries judging from the adopted state religions of my neighbors-and the farking BARBS settle it. Right in the perfect spot too. The race is now sort of on to get that city before the AI does.
I get my first scienist out and build an academy in my captial for the extra research per turn. I have decided to go hybrid economy there more or less.
On the same turn, I take the barb city. I use a cover promotion instead of a CR promotion for one of the axemen, and I wind up killing all three archers without at loss-sorta luck for 70% odds in my favor over three discrete combats.
I send a chariot over to scope out the Khmer. Oh my god they only have one archer in each city. The problem will be cultural defense-both of their cities are holy cities. I crank out more axemen to compensate. I also note that the Khmer is sending Hindu missionaries to help me spread my future state religion for free. Awesome.
In 750BC I DOW the Khmer. I have a small army that will be reinforced, but it should be enough to get two cities-I'll tech rape him for peace when I bring him down to the last man, then finish him off ten turns later. Standard operating procedure for an early war.
I take down the junk city and got this lovely event:
I got lucky-this would have been nastier if he was in the Classical Age, where he would have gotten axemen.
I snag the north khmer city first-the south one spammed up tons of archers w/ 60% cultural defense. I was hoping that my move from teh south city to the north would allow me to both take the north city and draw out some of his archers he whipped, and sure enough I was able to reduce it down to enough where the peace treaty got me three techs.
He dies in ten turns though! In the meantime, I start working towards construction with my access to ivory and then calendar to open up my spices, dyes, and sugar. Code of Laws will come in after these techs, and I hope to trade for Monarchy and Currency along the way.
I declare war on the Khmer again ten turns later. Note that both construction and Iron will be coming in the next few turns. This will allow for us to build a real classical army-elephants, catapults, and swordsmen. Justinian is lagging hard in tech and I hope to snag or raze three of his cities before he can recover. This should deal a pretty huge blow that he will have a hard time crawling out of.
The Khmer Civilization comes to a bloody end on 260BC. I guess that would make it my civilization's Carthage. Ugly Asian man delendo est or something.
260BC-900AD
So here is what Justinian has at 125BC. Tons of shit cities, which is what he always seems to do. I think if I can raze the one nearest me, then capture two to the north, I'll be in good shape. That's my goal for the first war. The second war will cap Thessolonica to the north and then his capital. I'll either capitulate him or let the Dutch culture expand to finish him off.
I get calendar in and immediately start builing planatations on my happy resources-I should be able to get +4 happy cap when I'm done, which will be huge in getting my cities large. Once they start hitting the health cap I will just build my unique building-the Garden (Which is a fancy Colliseum with +2 health added on) to allow me to get up to the 12-13 city size super fast. A good set of core cities that big that fast should make for a powerful midgame push. Meanwhile, I am researching Horseback Riding for Elephants and massing catapults to hit Justinan with.
I DOW Justinian. I'm tired of his lame city spamming ass as I see yet another Settler running around.
Three turns later, Joao DOWs me from Pleased. Ughhhh.
He's so dead down the road. I start whipping defenders like mad in my south area to slap him back osme.
I am able to hold of Joao in the south thanks to some whipping of defenders and the fact that I was able to muster out Bowmen against his assault on a city on a hill. I even toss a Great General attached to a Bowman just to get
some fast experienced units to defned Akkad. In the end Joao dorks around, then slinks back to pillage my copper. Whatever, you fruity Portugal freak.
In the north against Justinian, I have far better success. His annoying city near me is easily dispatched, and both Nicaea and Antioch fall next. I have what I want out of this war, so I sue for peace.
Now I have a ton of elephants coming out in the next ten turns. If I can make peace with Joao by then, they will go up Justinian's ass. If I can't, Joao will get reamed for two cities.
At this point whipping out Courthouses-something that can be done easily thanks to the Organized trait of Hammurabi-is a must. I have eight cities and upkeep is killing my science. After I finish whipping them out, I should go from a income deficit of about -20 gold per turn to breakeven. That's awesome, and cheap courthouses are one of the best traits of an Organized leader.
I get a break around 400AD when I am able to make peace with Joao. It's only for 10 turns, and he still hates me, but maybe he can find something better to do, like sail somewhere. In the meantime, I send my stack of catapults, swordsmen, and elephants up north to hit Justinian a second time at Thessolonica and then hopefully Constantinople. I need to hurry-if I want to wipe Justinian out, I need to do so before he gets Vassalage and then capitulates to another Civ.
As I move my stack to position, I get another Great Scientist from Babylon. I use him to lightbulb Philosophy-generally a good tech to lightbulb. I don't get Taoism, but that's OK. Now what I am wondering is how the hell the Dutch are teching at their rate given that they have three cities. WTF, they must be rolling in commerce resources. They are next on the death list when Justinian is dealt with.
In 445AD my stack is in position and I DOW Justinian again. My objective is Thessolonica and Constantinople.
I grab Thessolonica fast-the War Elephants just demolish the city's defenses since there are no spearmen. I lose one catapult in taking a big, developed city. Can't beat that. We'll see how Constantinople goes, but I may just be able to "run the table" with Justinian.
Meanwhile, most of my cities now have Gardens and Courthosues and are nearing size 10 or so and are maturing nicely.
At this point, I get an alarming notice-Justian has adopted Vassalge. That is BAD, because now he could capitulate to the Dutch at any time. I'll pretty much have to take Constantinople in one turn.
I meet Zara Jaqob and Sitting Bull while I besiege Constantinople. I get Feudalism from Zara, and am still first in total score, which is good news.
I take down Constantinople but it shatters my army. Still, I do get a nice consolation prize of a well-developed holy shrine for Buddism for +14 gold per turn. That cash income will come in handy.
At this point, my classical army and tech has run out of gas. Longbowmen are hitting the field and elephants just aren't enough to roll over them without big losses. It's time to move on to knights, maces, and trebuchets-then to finish off the Byzantines and smash the Dutch. If I do it fast enough, I might be able to get the Portugese too before I have to move to Riflemen-Joao is a slow techer.
Here's my city screen at 880 AD.
Ten cities at 880 AD is a good number. I am teching for guilds then banking for trade bait and the added commerce. I have abandoned the Liberalism race somehwat since the Dutch have managed to beat me again and again to tech despite having only three cities. I think there's some seriously incestual trading going on between Zarob, Pacal, and Willem. Given that every Civ is playing kum-ba-ya with each other, I doubt that I'll be able to start too many wars to slow their teching down.
In 900AD, I get a map from the Dutch as part of a tech trade, and now I see this:
That's why the tech rate and religion spread have been so fast. With this knowledge, my victory plan is set, fitting
perfectly with my play so far and my leader traits.
A) Demolish the Byzantines
B) Demolish the Dutch
C) Demolish the Portugese
D) Demolish the Mayans
E) Win via domination
900AD-1812AD
I continue to mass trebuchets, knights, and macemen-they will get me through the Dutch, the rest of the Byzantines, and then the Portugese before rifles start to show up.
At 1040AD, I have a small army ready in Antioch, and it's time to cream Justinian again. Note that I am using trebuchets heavily at this point now-really, for the medieval conquerer, there is nothing better than weakening up cultural/phyiscal defenses with trebuchet bombarding, then using city-raider promoted trebuchets to wear down the longbowmen until your macemen or elephants can get good odds against the defenders. It means that more often than not you'll be reinforcing your siege engine supply in your stack of doom as the war goes on, so make sure you have the road network set up and that you have a few units to guard the trebuchets once they get near the enemy territory, as enemy mounted units will pick them off if they lack escort.
Nicodemia falls very quickly and I force Justinian to capitulate after taking every city but the one furthest to the north. That wound up being a huge mistake later on due to some terrible luck, but oh well.
I look at the Dutch's nearest city. It has two longbows and a worker in it. LOL time to chow down, I knew they would be weak as hell.
By 1305AD the Dutch are gone. It was dirt easy and I got some Wonders (Colossus, Shwedagon Paya) out of it. Also, I was first to liberalism at 1270AD, without really even trying. I could have had it 40-50 turns before if I did the proper beeline, but it wasn't a huge priority since I am going for a domination win, where tech is only important if you fall behind in military techs.
Next up are the Portugese. The first city falls to my stack in 1365, but I get a very annoying surprise from up north when my vassalized Byzantines culture flip one of the captured Dutch cities.
Now that's horseshit-Justinian took a city via culture flip with three of my units as garrison. Vassals gained in a peace treay should have no way of exerting cultural pressure on your cities usable tiles. They have capitualted to me, and should service me as I see fit, not take my cities as they wish. I hate the vassal system in this game, it's just broken up and down, left and right. For a better game, just turn it off entirely.
Back to Portugal. Lisbon falls in 1510AD and gives me literally half the wonders built so far in the game. I eject Joao off the peninsula in 1525 and accept his capitulation. Three turns later, I get a key tech, rifling. Rifling is the point at which you go from medieval to modern era.
This opens up both cavalry and riflemen for me. I should be able to press this advantage and take down Pacal with this technology. I drop my tech spending to next to nothing and start using the cash to mass upgrade my knights, cuirassers, and macemen to their new upgraded units. I want to upgrade the existing ones since some of them have things like City Raider 3 promotions or Combat 3 promotions. City raider 3 rifleman are just beastly.
In 1585, I'm ready and DOW pacal.
I snag two cities before the Apostolic Palace-Joao is still leader, even though I am the "owner" of it geographically-puts an end to my fighting at 1630AD. Pacal gets ten turns, then back to war. In the meantime, I research Biology and Steel, two very key techs for both civilian and miitary purposes. Biology increased my food input to the point where I can draft without impunity (free rifleman), and steel gives me cannon, which ignore city walls and just tear stacks of defenders apart. By the start of the next war, Pacal is looking at a stack of 15 cannon, 25 cavalry, and 15 riflemen.
Yeah he's screwed. I DOW him in 1680.
It takes a while, but I clear his little bend of this pangea by 1732. I'm very close to my 62% required for domination, but I'll need to take down a few cities of the Ethiopeans. After some flubs and mistakes along the way there, I finally get the 62% required in 1812AD, mainly due to mass cavalry spam from Sitting Bull causing problems. I figure if I could do it over again I could shave a good 30 turns off that number.
My score is still a good one:
Anytime I get over 100k I'm happy. I could have played better, but it was a one-day playthrough and a real rolling domination win from a faction very much suited for it with the traits. After whipping my first round of courthouses did I never suffered because of expansion, and my science was able to stay strong even in the face of all the upkeep. With a strong and balanced economy and constant production of units by six or seven cities, it was impossible for the AI to stop me after I took out the Dutch and the Byzantines-my war machine was just too strong.
edit: added new screens to the lategame, photobucket account ftw
Epic 13 : 4000BC-260BC
Hammurabi-Bablyon (Aggressive/Organized traits)
Start is high on food with the pigs and the fish-this should allow me to have a good opening city running two scientists for some early GP points while still allowing
for some production from a couple of mines at size six. I settle in place to get both the pigs and the fish without using up a valuabile production hill tile.
I decide against a start of fishing researched followed up by a work boat and instead choose animal husbandry and a worker as my first science and city builds. The pigs provide so much early food and growth that the fish can not come into the picture until size five or so and not hurt you too much. This city will be happy-capped well before it will be food capped anyway. I decide instead to pursue a pretty straightfoward early teching that gets Bronze Working sooner rather than later-this is so that I can start rolling out axes as soon as possible. Note that under the rules I cannot attack until 1000BC, but right when I hit that point I want a army of some sorts ready to start making trouble. I am Bablylonian, and aggression and conquest suits the Civilization/Leader traits like a glove.
I send my warriors out and get 200 or so gold from huts. This is good, as it will allow me to run research at full bore for 50 or so extra turns once I get three cities up and running. On turn 15 I meet two neighbors, the Khmer and the Portugese:
The Khmer are close enough by that an early strike and conquest would be well worth the effort. They have a tendency to also religion spam early, so I might be able to snag a couple of holy cities in the process. The Portugese actually make interesting trading partners-Joao beelines optics for his unique unit, so you can actually get some interesting techs from him if you get close enough to him. So that's the way I'm going to play this game early-Khmer conquest for cities four and five (three cities instead of two early ones since I can't attack until 1000BC), and then try to get one more to have the great six city at 1AD start that usually results in a runaway win.
I get Pottery for free from a hut. Nice, early commerce is always helpful.
I get a quest to build eight chariots before the Classical age. Not going to happen-if this was not Monarch where the AIs start out with archery, then I might since chariot rushes are brutally effective on low levels, but on Monarch city raider axes are just way, way better. I will still build a couple of chariots for worker-stealing purposes and barb killing, but not as a main attack force.
I meet Justinian around 3000BC. Note at this point the Khmer are Hindu and the Byzantines are Buddist. I find Justinian a great takeover target in the late classical/early medieval period before he gets his unique knight unit out, so he'll be the next to go after the Khmer are gone, with an army of catapults, swords, and elephants.
I finish my first settler in 2475BC. City choices aren't stellar-I need that copper if I want to get the drop on the Khmer. I settle Akkad with a good chunk of overlap with Babylon, which isn't too big of a deal since Babylon will be running specialists for a while anyway. I do get the cow, copper, and spices in the fat cross, so I should have a decent balanced second city, which I will slant for production.
I bump into the Dutch at 2100BC. That means they are further off than the other Civs and it will likely be well into the medieval or period before I really bump into them at a point where I can consider conquest. They are a great Civ to conquer, though-they usually do not build a ton of units and are very science focused, and have wonderfully big pop citys and tons of developed cottages.
Pacal comes in at 2125. He'll be wonder whoring for sure, but I don't see his borders anywhere nearby so I'm not going to worry too much about him.
I build my third city near the horses and sugar/dyes. It'll make a good commerce city. I am avoiding that nice plot near the ivory and floodplains in the hope that the Khmer will build a nice city there for me to conquer.
Of course, somehow they never settle it-the Khmer are probably spamming missionaries judging from the adopted state religions of my neighbors-and the farking BARBS settle it. Right in the perfect spot too. The race is now sort of on to get that city before the AI does.
I get my first scienist out and build an academy in my captial for the extra research per turn. I have decided to go hybrid economy there more or less.
On the same turn, I take the barb city. I use a cover promotion instead of a CR promotion for one of the axemen, and I wind up killing all three archers without at loss-sorta luck for 70% odds in my favor over three discrete combats.
I send a chariot over to scope out the Khmer. Oh my god they only have one archer in each city. The problem will be cultural defense-both of their cities are holy cities. I crank out more axemen to compensate. I also note that the Khmer is sending Hindu missionaries to help me spread my future state religion for free. Awesome.
In 750BC I DOW the Khmer. I have a small army that will be reinforced, but it should be enough to get two cities-I'll tech rape him for peace when I bring him down to the last man, then finish him off ten turns later. Standard operating procedure for an early war.
I take down the junk city and got this lovely event:
I got lucky-this would have been nastier if he was in the Classical Age, where he would have gotten axemen.
I snag the north khmer city first-the south one spammed up tons of archers w/ 60% cultural defense. I was hoping that my move from teh south city to the north would allow me to both take the north city and draw out some of his archers he whipped, and sure enough I was able to reduce it down to enough where the peace treaty got me three techs.
He dies in ten turns though! In the meantime, I start working towards construction with my access to ivory and then calendar to open up my spices, dyes, and sugar. Code of Laws will come in after these techs, and I hope to trade for Monarchy and Currency along the way.
I declare war on the Khmer again ten turns later. Note that both construction and Iron will be coming in the next few turns. This will allow for us to build a real classical army-elephants, catapults, and swordsmen. Justinian is lagging hard in tech and I hope to snag or raze three of his cities before he can recover. This should deal a pretty huge blow that he will have a hard time crawling out of.
The Khmer Civilization comes to a bloody end on 260BC. I guess that would make it my civilization's Carthage. Ugly Asian man delendo est or something.
260BC-900AD
So here is what Justinian has at 125BC. Tons of shit cities, which is what he always seems to do. I think if I can raze the one nearest me, then capture two to the north, I'll be in good shape. That's my goal for the first war. The second war will cap Thessolonica to the north and then his capital. I'll either capitulate him or let the Dutch culture expand to finish him off.
I get calendar in and immediately start builing planatations on my happy resources-I should be able to get +4 happy cap when I'm done, which will be huge in getting my cities large. Once they start hitting the health cap I will just build my unique building-the Garden (Which is a fancy Colliseum with +2 health added on) to allow me to get up to the 12-13 city size super fast. A good set of core cities that big that fast should make for a powerful midgame push. Meanwhile, I am researching Horseback Riding for Elephants and massing catapults to hit Justinan with.
I DOW Justinian. I'm tired of his lame city spamming ass as I see yet another Settler running around.
Three turns later, Joao DOWs me from Pleased. Ughhhh.
He's so dead down the road. I start whipping defenders like mad in my south area to slap him back osme.
I am able to hold of Joao in the south thanks to some whipping of defenders and the fact that I was able to muster out Bowmen against his assault on a city on a hill. I even toss a Great General attached to a Bowman just to get
some fast experienced units to defned Akkad. In the end Joao dorks around, then slinks back to pillage my copper. Whatever, you fruity Portugal freak.
In the north against Justinian, I have far better success. His annoying city near me is easily dispatched, and both Nicaea and Antioch fall next. I have what I want out of this war, so I sue for peace.
Now I have a ton of elephants coming out in the next ten turns. If I can make peace with Joao by then, they will go up Justinian's ass. If I can't, Joao will get reamed for two cities.
At this point whipping out Courthouses-something that can be done easily thanks to the Organized trait of Hammurabi-is a must. I have eight cities and upkeep is killing my science. After I finish whipping them out, I should go from a income deficit of about -20 gold per turn to breakeven. That's awesome, and cheap courthouses are one of the best traits of an Organized leader.
I get a break around 400AD when I am able to make peace with Joao. It's only for 10 turns, and he still hates me, but maybe he can find something better to do, like sail somewhere. In the meantime, I send my stack of catapults, swordsmen, and elephants up north to hit Justinian a second time at Thessolonica and then hopefully Constantinople. I need to hurry-if I want to wipe Justinian out, I need to do so before he gets Vassalage and then capitulates to another Civ.
As I move my stack to position, I get another Great Scientist from Babylon. I use him to lightbulb Philosophy-generally a good tech to lightbulb. I don't get Taoism, but that's OK. Now what I am wondering is how the hell the Dutch are teching at their rate given that they have three cities. WTF, they must be rolling in commerce resources. They are next on the death list when Justinian is dealt with.
In 445AD my stack is in position and I DOW Justinian again. My objective is Thessolonica and Constantinople.
I grab Thessolonica fast-the War Elephants just demolish the city's defenses since there are no spearmen. I lose one catapult in taking a big, developed city. Can't beat that. We'll see how Constantinople goes, but I may just be able to "run the table" with Justinian.
Meanwhile, most of my cities now have Gardens and Courthosues and are nearing size 10 or so and are maturing nicely.
At this point, I get an alarming notice-Justian has adopted Vassalge. That is BAD, because now he could capitulate to the Dutch at any time. I'll pretty much have to take Constantinople in one turn.
I meet Zara Jaqob and Sitting Bull while I besiege Constantinople. I get Feudalism from Zara, and am still first in total score, which is good news.
I take down Constantinople but it shatters my army. Still, I do get a nice consolation prize of a well-developed holy shrine for Buddism for +14 gold per turn. That cash income will come in handy.
At this point, my classical army and tech has run out of gas. Longbowmen are hitting the field and elephants just aren't enough to roll over them without big losses. It's time to move on to knights, maces, and trebuchets-then to finish off the Byzantines and smash the Dutch. If I do it fast enough, I might be able to get the Portugese too before I have to move to Riflemen-Joao is a slow techer.
Here's my city screen at 880 AD.
Ten cities at 880 AD is a good number. I am teching for guilds then banking for trade bait and the added commerce. I have abandoned the Liberalism race somehwat since the Dutch have managed to beat me again and again to tech despite having only three cities. I think there's some seriously incestual trading going on between Zarob, Pacal, and Willem. Given that every Civ is playing kum-ba-ya with each other, I doubt that I'll be able to start too many wars to slow their teching down.
In 900AD, I get a map from the Dutch as part of a tech trade, and now I see this:
That's why the tech rate and religion spread have been so fast. With this knowledge, my victory plan is set, fitting
perfectly with my play so far and my leader traits.
A) Demolish the Byzantines
B) Demolish the Dutch
C) Demolish the Portugese
D) Demolish the Mayans
E) Win via domination
900AD-1812AD
I continue to mass trebuchets, knights, and macemen-they will get me through the Dutch, the rest of the Byzantines, and then the Portugese before rifles start to show up.
At 1040AD, I have a small army ready in Antioch, and it's time to cream Justinian again. Note that I am using trebuchets heavily at this point now-really, for the medieval conquerer, there is nothing better than weakening up cultural/phyiscal defenses with trebuchet bombarding, then using city-raider promoted trebuchets to wear down the longbowmen until your macemen or elephants can get good odds against the defenders. It means that more often than not you'll be reinforcing your siege engine supply in your stack of doom as the war goes on, so make sure you have the road network set up and that you have a few units to guard the trebuchets once they get near the enemy territory, as enemy mounted units will pick them off if they lack escort.
Nicodemia falls very quickly and I force Justinian to capitulate after taking every city but the one furthest to the north. That wound up being a huge mistake later on due to some terrible luck, but oh well.
I look at the Dutch's nearest city. It has two longbows and a worker in it. LOL time to chow down, I knew they would be weak as hell.
By 1305AD the Dutch are gone. It was dirt easy and I got some Wonders (Colossus, Shwedagon Paya) out of it. Also, I was first to liberalism at 1270AD, without really even trying. I could have had it 40-50 turns before if I did the proper beeline, but it wasn't a huge priority since I am going for a domination win, where tech is only important if you fall behind in military techs.
Next up are the Portugese. The first city falls to my stack in 1365, but I get a very annoying surprise from up north when my vassalized Byzantines culture flip one of the captured Dutch cities.
Now that's horseshit-Justinian took a city via culture flip with three of my units as garrison. Vassals gained in a peace treay should have no way of exerting cultural pressure on your cities usable tiles. They have capitualted to me, and should service me as I see fit, not take my cities as they wish. I hate the vassal system in this game, it's just broken up and down, left and right. For a better game, just turn it off entirely.
Back to Portugal. Lisbon falls in 1510AD and gives me literally half the wonders built so far in the game. I eject Joao off the peninsula in 1525 and accept his capitulation. Three turns later, I get a key tech, rifling. Rifling is the point at which you go from medieval to modern era.
This opens up both cavalry and riflemen for me. I should be able to press this advantage and take down Pacal with this technology. I drop my tech spending to next to nothing and start using the cash to mass upgrade my knights, cuirassers, and macemen to their new upgraded units. I want to upgrade the existing ones since some of them have things like City Raider 3 promotions or Combat 3 promotions. City raider 3 rifleman are just beastly.
In 1585, I'm ready and DOW pacal.
I snag two cities before the Apostolic Palace-Joao is still leader, even though I am the "owner" of it geographically-puts an end to my fighting at 1630AD. Pacal gets ten turns, then back to war. In the meantime, I research Biology and Steel, two very key techs for both civilian and miitary purposes. Biology increased my food input to the point where I can draft without impunity (free rifleman), and steel gives me cannon, which ignore city walls and just tear stacks of defenders apart. By the start of the next war, Pacal is looking at a stack of 15 cannon, 25 cavalry, and 15 riflemen.
Yeah he's screwed. I DOW him in 1680.
It takes a while, but I clear his little bend of this pangea by 1732. I'm very close to my 62% required for domination, but I'll need to take down a few cities of the Ethiopeans. After some flubs and mistakes along the way there, I finally get the 62% required in 1812AD, mainly due to mass cavalry spam from Sitting Bull causing problems. I figure if I could do it over again I could shave a good 30 turns off that number.
My score is still a good one:
Anytime I get over 100k I'm happy. I could have played better, but it was a one-day playthrough and a real rolling domination win from a faction very much suited for it with the traits. After whipping my first round of courthouses did I never suffered because of expansion, and my science was able to stay strong even in the face of all the upkeep. With a strong and balanced economy and constant production of units by six or seven cities, it was impossible for the AI to stop me after I took out the Dutch and the Byzantines-my war machine was just too strong.
edit: added new screens to the lategame, photobucket account ftw
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