Hey there all, I have been reading these forums for a couple weeks now but only recently got myself registered. I wanted to share with everyone the details behind me beating the diety setting...as well as find out (from you guys replying) wether its been done before many times (doh) and is nothing new...or wether I have accomplished something after all!
For the record my score was 13,700 (rounded)
I believe this is over 3 times what you need for the highets ranking
. It was done basicly by a very barbaric techless despotism horde that swept across the world in BC, run by slave labor and primitave technology.
---
First off, when I started the game I had one objective: "Beat Diety" That means pick all the pre game settings (that the game allows) that could best suit my goal. I knew because I would fall behind in tech my the late middle ages that I had to win this thing BC (I barely did it by around 100bc) this meant Tiny map, Pangea (70%) and the Iroques.
Why Iroques? Well first off they are expansionist...that means a free scout (so I dont have do build an extra warrior) as well as pottery at the beggining. Granery is key to my strategy. Next they have the mounted warriors, at attack 3 and movement 2 these babies can "last" even towards the days of gunpowder. They also upgrade to knights (which is strange as I though special units are out of the upgrade tree)
My plan was to ignore expansion, Ignore technology (well almost, I did need Horseback Riding for the Special Unit) and simply focus of slave laboring my main city under despotism to get Granery, Temple, Barraks, and then units units units. With these units I would proceed "UrQuan" style and hit enemy cities...and as quickly as possible forcing them through a similar enslavement (A defender, Temple, then units units units). Captured workers would connect my slave cities with roads and then join cities to be wiped to their deaths (into units).
Corruption is a *****, but since I almost ignore production entierly this isnt too much of a problem (Despotism means I have enough unit support without needing cash, and Once I start building I stop tech all together).
If you want to know how my game went, read on, otherwise you can just skip to the file and check it out for yourself
. One thing to keep in mind is the "save/reload" issue, right away I am going to say I did not reload at any point to improve combat outcomes...I can't stress enough how much I object to this kind of playing. even though there were cases where I made the dumbest no brainers out of rashness (I can't believe I charged that pikeman over the river and up that mountan with my spearman....)
All and all I am sure this strategy can be done with any of civs with strong early game units, or even standard units (swordsman) can do the trick. A couple things are esential though, Pottery, Iron (working), and lots and lots of food. (Get Corpulent middle ages style)
Now then...this next part goes into unessesary detail:
-------
How my game went
------
My game started very well as I got ploped next to a river (under despotism while Irrigated Grassland still gives 2 food, Flood Plains DO upgrade to 3) as well as a wheat on a flood plane (5 food). With the wheated, irrigated, flood plane alone I could go from pop 1-2 in 2 turns. I build my warrior to keep me happy at pop 2, once I got there I got a granery out, then traded tech with the comp (I had to give 2 techs and gold for each tech with those bastards) so I could get a temple out, then I got a barracks and before I knew it I was pumping out a swordsman every 2 turns. (I was near Iron but not horses). I realized my next step was to get access to horses asap, and then begun my "mongolish" campaign. After assembeling an army of a not so impressive 6 swordsman I began a march on the egyptians....this was somewhere around 1500 bc I believe...also Keep in mind that these other 3 civs each had some 20 cities between them while I had only 1, granted it was on a hill and they were spread thin...but at the time it looked like a suicide attempt. So anyway I sent my swordsmen on a march, and wiped clean the Spearmen Defenders of that first city, after defusing the rebels, and forcing their population to pop out a couple more swordsman I continued on to the egyptian capital...they probobly could have rallied their forces if they had more time, but as it were that population 8 capital couldnt do much againsed 7 swordsman. As fortune would have it...that city had the Great Library built in it....I don't think I every recieved so much simitanious tech (something like 12 technologies in 1 turn) of course none of it was any good to me...I planned to stick to despotism and didnt need things like courthouses. So anyway the next 1000 years, once I got my hands on the first couple cities (the hard part) were a piece of cake...atleast comparitavly. I continued to output 1 Swordsman or Mounted Warrior each 2 turns out of my capital, and have the other cities drop to pop 1 as I sucked them dry of all they were worth....the campaign was pretty much self sustaining...each conquered city would produce about as many units as I had casualties. And before I knew it I stood at the gates of the last free city on the planet in 110bc with my dozens of Knights.....13,000 points and a domination victory. Oh and if you noticed the art of war in my capital, I didnt get that untill the very end with a general
----------
End
---------
I hope my blabber was somewhat enjoyable or insightfull, and I hope this is something more or less rare rather than another "been there done that" Ultimatly the expirience was very reminisant of Attila the Hut or Genges Khan's march on civilization. My barbaric and backwards horsemen swept through these rich cities, and pillaged or enslaved them. Although odly enough my culture was fairly high...I guess my people were a sort of warlike religious cult!
Unfortunatly the file is 591k, and as I just found out that is 91k over the limit to upload...so this combinations of screenshots will have to do. Contact me directly if you want the save file, I have it in 4000bc too if you want to follow in my footsteps and try yourself
(awww)
-Elrad
