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**playshogi** · November 4, 2007, 01:58

This was a much tougher game than game 1 because of the large map size and being surrounded by backstabbing AIs. I got a slow start because I built wonders: stonehenge and pyramids. I should have ignored these and pumped out settlers to gain room. The reality was I only had 4 cities by 1AD and only 5 by 1000AD. I did manage to use a Great Prophet to found Christianity, however.

HINDUISM

I was hoping hinduism would spread to me because it was the major religion and controlled the apostolic palace. But, it never spread naturally and Hammy was very slow in sending missionaries my way. I foolishly established Christianity as the state religion and this ultimately led to war when Boudica and Tokugawa attacked me in 520. I defended well enough, but Buddhist Mehmed piled on in 980. I did switch to Hinduism by this time and it saved me when the "stop the war against Boudica"(!) vote passed. That left me free to get a separate peace with Tokugawa and wage war against Mehmed. It was going well. I captured 1 city and razed another, founding my own city in a better location, out of the overpowering cultural influence of 4 wonder Instanbul. I was preparing to move on to my next target and ultimately the wonder capital of Istanbul when Mehmed capitulated to Boudica.

SURROUNDED

I was now surrounded by Hindu or Hindu-controlled civs and I only had 7 cities, 2 of which were under cultural pressure. Nevertheless, I was first to liberalism in 1510, but I didn't see how I could maintain parity in the tech race for a spaceship victory, or any kind of victory, really. In 1665, I decided to go all out for a cultural win, which is rather late to start that. It turns out that 7 cities are just enough on large maps to build key national wonders like Wall Street, while still needing just 3 temples for each cathedral. I had 4 religions to spread, so I could theoretically build 8 cathedrals. I got a lucky break when I got a Great Merchant (70% chance) about this time and used him to found Sid Sushi for food and culture. While I made steady progress, the AI fought many wars. I evened joined a few feeling safe behind Boudica's mighty armies. I got stung though when she asked me to attack Genghis. Genghis was weak and far away, but I forgot he was the vassal of (friendly) Tokugawa. Luckily, Boudica smashed them both, but I lost 2 crab trades with Tokugawa. The next 8 of 9 GP's were artists helping my cities become legendary within 1 turn of each other in 1935. I even had 1 artist left over. I'm not sure if it was diplomatic skill or pure luck that my neighbors, Boudica or Gilgamesh, never attacked me in the late stages. I don't think I ever got better than 'pleased' with either one.

**frenzyfol** · November 5, 2007, 17:33

I expanded as rapidly as I could manage ~ 7 cities without letting my power graph slide too much. Turns out I did let it slide and 5 of my surrounding neighbors declared war on me almost on the same turn.
I knew with all the backstabbers surrounding me that I would have no hope fighting on multiple fronts so I built the temple of Zues (which Hannibal had used to crippled my war effort in game 1). I also built the apostolic palace with the hope that "stop the war" would enable me to survive.
Neither seemed to do anything to my benefit. For over 1000 years 5 nations waged war against my borders. All I could do to survive was built archer after archer.. None of them wanted peace for anything less than a city, so I held out with hope that war weriness and apostolic palace defy resolutions would cripple them. The Palace did nothing for me and it ended up that I didn't have enough population to win the vote to stop both my religious brethren and heathen alike from attacking me.

Eventually the lack of infrastructure meant my archers/longbow were facing huge stacks of elephants and trebuchets, retired.

I think I need to work on my diplomacy game..

Hats off to you playshogi, is it possible to get a copy of your replay game? I'd love to have a look at it.

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