u/Downtown-Campaign536

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I'll give an example of one of mine that had to evolve multiple times to fit the situation.

I am playing as Norway on an archipelago map. Biggest map, and I got the long ships. All the game modes are on, but not zombies or tech shuffle. Deity as per usual... Marathon for fun.

Here was my plan: Get a nice little island to myself. Maybe plop down 3 or 4 cities. Send out the long-ships and pillage everything before I conquer everything.

I get a decent looking start on first glance. I have the matterhorn to my south, and a highly defensible capital that is surrounded by rivers, and on a nice hill. Sadly, I don't have any luxuries to settle on, but I do have a couple of 4 food tiles, and couple of 2 food 2 production in 1 culture tile ring 2, and several chops and some deer. It's low production in ring one, but I'm just going to feed it fast, and get a monument I do have some 1 food 3 production tiles in the 2nd and 3rd ring I'll buy those tiles to use when needed.

Here is my build plan Monument -> Builder -> Longship -> Longship -> Longship... until the ocean of full of longships. And I start off doing just that.

So, I get to work on my plan. I find a blue city state, and a red one first meet... It gives the owls governor title, but I don't it, and instead I go pingala as I want that culture and science to grow asap. Seems good, but...

Then I meet someone I don't want to meet... It's the Zulu. The Zulu are on my continent. They forward settle me... Not once, but Twice... They place 2 very close to my capital. They are 4 tiles, and 5 tile away. If I didn't have all of that food, and Pingala I'd probably be dying from loyalty. But I got plenty of food at least for now.

I am immediately denounced on turn 2 after meeting the Zulu. They send their entire army at me. So, I can no longer explore. I must return home... But do I switch production to a slinger, to possibly have a second soldier in the battle? No... I keep building that monument. They are not taking my capital this time!

I position my starting warrior on a wooded hills next to my capital. I am hoping that they attack it first before my city when they declare war. They do declare war, and they do attack my warrior twice double tapping it with a pair of their own warriors, but I have solid defensive terrain... Even so, it's 2 deity warriors and I'm at about 50% HP after they both hit it. So, I return to my city to heal after the initial volley.

Barbarians appear to the east on horseback! They are delaying the Zulu attack, but giving them exp at the same time, and the barbarians want to attack my city too. They are fighting over who gets to kill me first...

The two damaged warriors enter my land, and attack from across a river. My monument is completed at this point as well. I haven't found a hero yet, so I do the project to find one... I keep my cities defense high, and take well timed counter strikes with my lone warrior. I manage to stop the 5 zulu warriors with my 1 warrior thanks to a combination of skill, luck with barbarians, and good terrain. The project finishes... And it's Arthur...

I have to use him... I have decided to skip getting a builder for later. My build order has now evolved to adapting to the situation:

Monument -> Hero Project -> Arthur -> Longship -> Longship -> Longship...

I don't normally think of Arthur as one of my top tier heroes. Especially without any units that I can make questing knights with other than my starting warrior which I don't as it has 2 promotions already, and I don't want to lose that unit.

So, I send him out with my warrior trailing behind as my capital is building it's first long-ship, and I think "Maybe I can get a city with Arthur, then one with the longship, and peace the Zulu out?"

When I get to the Zulu cities they only have 10 defense... There are a total of 8 farms... Sadly, no districts or wonders... Arthur is basically a horseman with 5 movement instead of 4. But he snatches those cities with ease...

Arthur managed to take 2 cities, and worked the 3rd one down to about 20% HP then the longship came in and wiped the zulu out!

I went from forward settled twice, and suprise attacked 5 on 1 to taking 3 of their cities in the span of about 30 turns... With Arthur growing old I send him to find that barb camp that was annoying me... He manages to kill it, but also dies in the process which was the plan. With the Zulu gone I now have 4 cities and don't need a settler even.

So, back to exploring, and I immediately meet the Greek Pericles. He has 4 cities to my west.

The capital, and biggest city, and the only one that is landlocked. But I have 4 cities building longships. So, I should be able to take everything but the capital without much effort.

The plan is now:

Take all of the Greek cities but the capital, and park a pair of longships outside of each city I capture for when they flip. Then get some land units to take the capital. I'm thinking a few archers and couple horsemen are needed... But then I realize this is greece, and they love to spam hoplites which kinda beat up horsemen. And build even more longships to go explore the world, grab goodie huts, and pillage and maybe find more targets. All 4 cities are cranking out longships for now, but a couple of them are repairing monuments first but soon...

The plan goes reasonably well. I manage to lock in a golden age. Find Void Singers, and a relic in goodie huts along with that builder I missed out on. Greece is down to 1 city. But, I can't get enough loyalty to to hold any of the other 3 greek cities.... I meet England, Russia, Lady Six Sky, and the always anoying Bablyon... Annoying group of civs that hate me for bullying the Pericles.

The Plan needs to evolve again:

So, it's basically the same plan, but I must capture a city state halfway between me and pericles. This would give the needed loyalty for 2 of the 3 cities I keep retaking to be kept and grow. I'll figure out the 3rd one later...

So, I take the city state with some archers and a horseman, then I am actually able to barely hold 2 of the cities. They are like +1 and +2 loyalty... both with a governor, and the +2 from garrisoned unit card.

Then I consider an entirely new plan!

I decide to stop the war with the greek. I give Russia who is far away the city state I took. I have saved just enough faith to buy a single builder...

I retake the greek cities, and liberate them giving them back! Then immediately sell the disolving diplo favor. I give all but the one back... This one has room for 3 mines & 2 pastures!

I get gold + science from mines & faith + culture from pillages! It has 5 I can farm, and retake... I immeaditely get to work on securing this city. I surround it with horses & longships and 5 builders.

I peace everyone out... I go from last to 1st in science even shooting past bablyon with all of those juicy pillages. The russian city flips to independent and I liberate the city state gaining suzeran.

I generate massive gold + science + faith + culture...

I buy all 4 of the cheapeast great writers before Russia can even get one! And they get them cheap with the lavra! Then I buy some great merchants, and a wonder engineer, and all sorts of great people with this huge influx of gold and faith. I have stopped making units at this point and just buy what I need with gold. My cities work on districts...

I buy other civs relics off of them as I got the relic religion. I still have a huge fleet of longships out finding all of the city states as the barb camps turn... I'm first by a mile to get Caravels and also Privateers are coming very soon...

I haven't finished this game yet... How would you finish it? Every 3 turns that pillage city flips, and I repair it and retake it in same turn. It has 3 science pillages and 2 culture pillages also massive faith / gold. I have the bonus pillage card in as well. So that's 5 pillages every 3 turns free.

Currently the game is in the classical era. I'm in the Renaissance Era both Civic & Tech tree. Bablyon is 1 era behind on tech, and 2 on civics. Everyone else is like 2 eras behind on both.

Option 1: Just Caravel + Privateer them all. Just obliterate them all. Smash smash smash!

Option 2: Culturally Dominate them with my triple strength relics. I already have 10 times more tourism then #2. Just keep expanding peacefully. I'll passively get this at some point automatically I believe.

Option 3: Use this huge amount of free faith to send endless waves of apostles to convert the non believers. I could easily crush every religion right now. I am making enough faith to send an endless wave of apostles.

Option 4: Rush for a science victory. I'm already 5 techs ahead of Babylon who is 5 to 10 techs ahead of everyone else, and I'm accelerating.

Option 5: Since I have the resources to do so... Make a 2nd (or possibly even 3rd or 4th...) city like my pillage city some place else. Basically send in some caravels and privateers to grab a city no problem. Can even peace them out after taking it and letting it flip. Then buy land units and builders out of this city... Maybe plant some woods and build some lumber-mills soon as well as mines. Attempt to get to the GDR while the world is in the Medieval Era.

The settings were Deity, Marathon, Tiny Map, 4 Civs + 6 city States, on a Terra Map... With Zombies, Secret Societies, Apocalypse Mode, as well as Monopolies and Corporations.

I was Gorgo from Greece. I had a beautiful 3 food luxury tile I'd love to have settled on, but I made a judgment call and settled on the wooded hills behind it as it was a tiny peninsula...

Spain spawned directly next to me only a few tiles away, and I had no chance of defending a city that wasn't on a 1 tile impassable peninsula on marathon speed... I met a blue city state first... It gave me Owls of Minerva, and I took it...

I soon regretted accepting owls, as my loyalty started to drop...

So, I backed myself into a corner and got to work on a monument, then a slinger... I had little production, and my loyalty was at about 80%... So I had to buy a tile for the 4 food... That solved my loyalty problem.

Spain never declared war... I was hoping they would, but they only denounced me... Viewing my tiny peninsula is impossible to take. And along comes Tomyris, and Kristina...

Tomyris was busy bullying Kristina. She had taken 1 of her cities just to raze it as I was busy making a devotion to Beowulf....

The Ancient era was about to end, and I was about to enter a dark age. But fortunately, I had been super busy massing forces the entire time...

By massing forces...

I had a pair of archers, my starting warrior, along with Beowulf... Not the largest army ever assembled, but it would do the job! I also had the +25% production on ancient / classical units pantheon. So, more to come once I start getting cities...

With 0 land to settle, and loyalty a forever problem it was on to war with Spain!

Beowulf did his job admirably. He removed a galley that was garrisoned in a Spanish city, along with a Spanish vampire that could have caused me trouble another! His charges can come in handy! You know those can delete vampires right? Well know you know if a vampire is every a problem for you Beowulf is the medicine... He probably did a better job than any other Hero would have given my exact set of circumstances.

So, I took all 3 of Spain's cities, and they had 1 settler for me as well... Giving me a total of 5 cities.

In all of those cities there was only a single district, and 0 wonders... Pyramids looked about 90% done, but I had to take it before it was completed losing all of that production for nothing... The lone district was a pillaged holy site.... At least it was something right?

Valletta was found. That city state that can give you the ability to buy city center and encampment buildings with faith. I put Amani in there, and offered it 2 envoys... It's abilities may come in handy.

With Spain down, I figured it was time to turn my attention towards Tomyris ... Tomyris had 2 Holy Sites, and already gotten the first great prophet... She was about to found a religion, and I just couldn't have that spreading to me...

So, yet again... War it is! My capital built Hoplites as 3 other cities built archers, and the last one was busy working on the holy site.

I managed to take 2 of her cities easy enough, but that last 1... It was the biggest one by far, but It just wouldn't budge... At least not in the classical era... Especially as Beowulf had just died of old age after forging my empire for me...

See, she kept spawning archers, and pairs of Horsemen... Her final city had walls, and an encampment. It was like my starting peninsula city on steroids... It did have good production, and 3 districts, Holy Site, Encampment, & Harbor...

I had no Navy, and it was a sea city I'd never be able to besiege at this point. it only had a single path to get to it on foot... If I sent in a pair of hoplites they would be facing down an encampment with walls, and archers in there... for at least 3 turns before actually getting in close enough to slam the city. It would be a suicide mission... So I called the war off.

I now had 7 cities to work with. Her last city was her holy city, and her only one with her religion... I had taken her other holy site city before she founded her religion.

So, we made peace... Then the zombies came... I hadn't really dealt with them much up to this point, but all those wars had left plenty of bodies on the ground that started to reanimate...

I still had to amass forces even in peace time! I nearly lost a city to 3 zombies with +25 mutagen strength. But, I got walls up just in time thanks to Valletta.

I finally got my religion, but it only started in 2 of my cities. But one was my biggest city, and in the middle of many cities. A good place to make a holy city. I took the +faith from relics, and +25% religious pressure abilities... I stuck Moksha in my Holy City & Ran holy site projects in it for the remainder of the game.

Moksha + Holy City + Holy Site Prayers + 25% religious pressure is a lot of passive pressure.

But, I didn't have the most faith generation only about 20 per turn...

As soon as I got enough faith I bought a missionary... I sent it directly to Tomyris only city and knocked her majority religion out of it!

I was saving up for a 2nd missionary to convert Kristina... Then I sent it on it's way to do it's job... But just as it's on it's way to Kristina More Zombies show up... This time in my Holy City...

If they had spawned 3 turns later I would have been fine. I'd have had enough faith to buy walls again with Valletta... But I was too busy using that faith to spread religion asap...

So, I sent my archers over to help support the city, but this time the mutagen strength was 32... Even with a hoplite in the city it was just taking too much damage by the 4 zombies that surrounded it... They razed it to the ground and I was getting wrecked by the zombies...

I looked at the religion page... It said my holy city was named "Conquered" which is a funny word for razed...

The missionary did accomplish it's mission... Perhaps I Should have delayed the mission to get walls in my holy city first? But, a win is a win...

RIP to all of the brave martyrs of Seville... First you were my enemy... Under that cowardly Spanish tyrant Philip... Eventually, I liberated you... And together we spread the joys of your glorious religion "Unbitten"... Gone but not forgotten. Mission accomplished even in death! Moksha lived on to tell me their tale... Now, I tell it to you! There was a lot of biting of the "Unbitten" in the end...

I just found a new one yesterday.

If you capture the last city of an AI, but it's not their original city and you liberate it. You do not suffer the 150 grievances to everyone penalty. In fact, you lose grievances.

I just had a weird one. I was playing as Gitarja, and the AI in question was Georgia.

Deity Difficulty, We had an Archipelago map.

I opened monument, slinger, settler. I clear a couple of barb camps, by this time I have got religious settlements. So, 3 fast cities!

Turns out Georgia is on the same land mass as me. This is bad, but I do have a nice choke point...

Plop a warrior on there. Turn my slinger into an archer. It's now a death point for them. They stand in this marsh while my warrior is up on a wooded hill, and I got an archer tossing arrows at them... Warrior after warrior dies until they only have a galley left. But I had 2 galleys and 2 archers at this point.

I nullify their entire army, and navy...

The send a settler out, and I pluck that too. I was already building a settler so now I'm up to 5 cities in the ancient era. They have their starting 3.

I'm able to hold loyalty and I start taking cities one by one. They were building holy sites... They got the first great prophet, but never used it.

Ancient Era ends. They have 0 military, lost 1 builder, 1 settler, and 2 cities to me.

Their capital is currently being hit by 5 arrows each turn.

When the era rolls over I enter a golden age just barely thanks to a barb camp. They enter a golden age with me...

I earn 5 era score wiping them out the same turn that we bother enter a golden age...

Tell me... What was golden about their age? They had 0 wonders, they didn't found a religion although they got the prophet. They did get the first ship, but it sank immediately...