User:Zinker/cool
| Cool Junk |
The Portugese are first to explore the stars!
Rewinding a bit, in the 1900's, the Ethiopian army rules supreme, as does the Portugese navy. The Ethiopians build the Manhattan project. Wanting to ensure their ambitions are properly focussed we bribe them to attack Sumeria. We continue teching and start building spaceship parts while the Ethiopians throw nukes at Sumeria which quickly bribes them to peace. But Mali has broken away and continues to get nuked and quickly vassalizes to Ethiopia.
Our teching is slow - around 8 turns a tech. Our economy is essentially a hybrid economy - not enough good cottage or specialist sites for either to shine, although the capital is a very good super science city and GP farm. Eventually I get a reasonable ironworks city up.
We found Aluminium Inc - which we didn't need but we gained some turns by building Apollo faster before we had industrialism. We are first to robotics and rush the space elevator with two engineers (one from fusion).
Then Ethiopia declare war on Sumeria again. This time they are devastating - nuke after nuke goes off and cities fall rapidly. Soon Sumeria is reduced to a single city.
During all this the UN is built. Our beloved vassal Roosevelt saves us from having to switch into Universal Sufferage by voting NEVER! Augustus attempts a diplomatic win but can't muster enough votes.
Then it happens. Two casing parts left to build and Ragnar asks me to join in the war against Sumeria. OK, we think, free alliance points with the Ethiopian monster. We declare. Sumeria vassalizes to Ethiopia in the same turn. We are now at war. With Sumeria. And the Vikings. And Mali. And the Ethiopian war machine. Our spaceship will launch in around five turns and have fifteen turns to travel. We have probably won - but we must hold onto against the onslaught.
Next turn our capital is nuked. And an island city too. Thats it we think - time for total war. Four ICBM's launch on Ethiopias capital and nearby cities. Nuclear missile submarines slip from their bases under the northern ice and are joined by a punishment fleet of destroyers and missile cruisers to launch tactical nukes at their homeland.
Submarine warfare becomes king. My hunter killer subs and destroyers try to kill his submarines before they get close enough to launch nukes. Ethiopias aircraft carrier and battleships advance only to be nuked from a sub and slaughtered by missile cruisers.
Meanwhile the holy city we captured in Mali which is totally surrounded by Malinese culture comes under an enslaught of marines and mobile artillery attacks. Homeland forces are airlifted in rapidly to replace casualties - the mechanized infantry manage to hold on despite being outnumbered and a heavy SAM presence protects us from their bombers.
Our spaceship is completed and launches from the radioactive ruins of our capital. Our production at this point is entirely devoted to military and we build our STI defenses. We still have ICBMs in reserve and a tacunit fleet ready should the Ethiopians come back.
Eventually we can talk peace with Ethiopia and the world calms down. Global warming is rapidly destroying our land and Ethiopia and Sumeria generate a nice glow on our western horizon. Two of our cities were nuked but our fleet successfully prevented both landings and further nukings.
Our spaceship reaches Alpha Centauri. The Portugese are first to the seas, first to the air and first to the stars.
Spaceship win in 2008.
Post mortem thoughts:
- This was an absolute marathon. I simply did not have good cities beyond the capital. I wasn't able to get far enough ahead ever to have enough of a tech lead to overcome my poor production. I'm very glad I played Monarch and not Emperor.
- There were a lot of firsts for me in this game.
- First time I saw an isolated AI ahead of me in tech (Mansa got liberalism).
- First time I saw an AI make a serious cultural play (Mansa)
- First time I saw an AI make a serious domination play (Ethiopia)
- First time I saw an AI effectively make a blitz style war on another AI.
- First time I have needed / used a navy effectively. My early navy saw me taking islands from Saladin before I even had Astronomy. Then my Privateers killed 53 caravels. Then my galleons and destroyers carried a beachhead force to attack Mali (which was reinforced by bombers and airlifts). Then my modern navy held Ethiopia at bay and fought against their submarines.
I'm very pleased with the game - I enjoyed it immensely and it will go down as one of my most hard fought victories, despite the late win and low score (8900 or so). - Invisiblestalke in a civ 4 bts game.
