Sometimes you get lucky

[Boracks]

We've all had some bad luck in this game but I am in the middle of one where I have trouble believing the good luck that occurred.

Marathon, large map, 9 civs, two continents, started on the west coast somewhat north. Settler was beside a river, a blue circle was on the other side of the river, on plains. I figured why not, didn't cost me a turn, so moved there and settled.

Started okay, exploring, got a free first level tech from a hut (been awhile since that happened). Mongols were on the north coast, Spain on the east coast opposite me, Germany below me and Native Americans opposite the Germans (I'm England). After getting BW but no copper, had a quick war with the Mongols, grabbed a couple cities and razed one.

Then one of my wandering archers found a hut, and holy crap! I got Iron Working from it! And the announcement right away that I had access to iron! Turns out by going for the blue circle, my capital was right on top of an iron deposit.

Built swords, researched to build cats, was looking at getting for round two with the Mongols when they declared on me. Keshek, meet spearman.

So I rolled over a couple more Mongol cities and came up against his capital, down to 3 cats, and it was walled, at 50% defense and obviously ready to whip out troops. Then the slaves suddenly decided to revolt! I struck quickly, took the capital and wound up rolling over the rest of the Mongols. Oh, and just before this last happened, the Barbs took out Catherine (one of those massive barb events), so a few turns after the Mongols disappeared, I took a couple of ex-Spanish cities as well, including Madrid.

Then I lined up looking at the Germans. Except the Germans looked at me first and figured they couldn't beat me so asked to join! Vassals without firing an arrow!

If the game keeps on like this, it'll be over too quick!

Any other instances of extra-ordinary good fortune? (Not just winning a battle but long term effects)

[ybrevo]

I have experienced this too, but then the alarm clock rang, the dream was over, and I had to go to work

ybrevo

[prelynmax]

I have experienced this too, but then the alarm clock rang, the dream was over, and I had to go to work

ybrevo

Noble, BTS, Contents, NextWar Revolutioins Mod
My luck consisted on teching Gunpowder around 250 A.D., all because I took out Monty early, and Tokugawa decided to D.O.W. me around 1500 A.D. when I had Modern Armor and Mech Infantry when he only had knights. Needless to say, Toku got slaughtered (my invasion wasn't only a counter-attack, it was a full-on massacare), and I ended up getting a diplo victory around 1600 A.D.

[Dis]

got lucky my last game, got a settler from my first hut. That's a huge turn advantage. And I got gold from my second hut to help pay for the maintenance of having two cities without having to decrease science to 90%. It helped make up for not playing a financial civ. Unfortunately financial civs are my crutch. I kick so much ass with them. Where as regular civs are hit or miss (depends on starting position or other factors).

[slnz]

Was trying for a diplo win in a recent game, where I had vassalized the weaker civs, leaving 4 powerhouses which I didn't really want to attack. My diplo plans were ruined for a few votings since suddenly all the other civs started loving my contender and I couldn't think of a way to raise my relations higher to win them over to me.

I was just resigned to build up a massive military to invade one of these (risky - as they loved each other I might have been dogpiled), when a turn before an election I get a random event notification that the swing vote leader, Cathy, had donated massive amounts of famine relief which gave me +3 extra relations, winning them over and winning the vote along with the game. Now that's a win-win, they allowed me to win the game because they gave me food

Bizarre game... My 2 "closest friends" were Cathy and Ragnar, who were terrified of the military of the big dog, Gandhi. Kind of a reversal from usual AI roles... Had to run Hereditary Rule deep in the lategame to keep myself from being backstabbed

[rah]

As I posted in a thread that I can't find anymore, I had one game where I got an ungodly number of techs from my first dozen huts. The other civs had no chance.

[elrond_imladris]

I was playing a standard game of BTS in Diety, but instead of my usual normal speed decided to play at quick speed. I was stunned when I was offered a diplomatic victory (I had Apostolic Palace) only 100-odd turns into the game, and succeeded, for my only score of over one million. No matter how many times I have tried to play that same map, I'm lucky if I can reach a score somewhere in the 300,000 range. Sweet!

[wodan11]

Score is worthless. The algorithm improperly rewards things such as game speed, which de facto gives a bias of one victory type over another. Did your victory show better game skill than a game where you had to scrape and fight all the way to the modern era? (That's a rhetorical question, I hope.)

[bobbo008]

I've been known to edit the map at the beginning of games by creating a small island in the middle of the largest ocean, finding Montezuma and relocating him there. Does that count as lucky?

[Blaupanzer]

Poor Monty.

Actually better to stick him in the center of a desert mountain region with a diameter of 11 tiles or on a desert tile immediately surrounded by 7 mountains and a desert out his front door. Don't completely trap him, as you make him immortal. Another good site for him is the one tile at the tip of a peninsula wit 2 mountains, then two layers of desert behind him. I you pick "balanced" as opposed to "standard" resources as part of the map type, his strategic resources will end up W/I 5 tiles of the old capitol, not the new. I confess, I have never used the map editor in a game. But Monty is enough of a pain to almost make it worth it.

If you can't get Isabella to spread her religion to you reasonably early, she is also a serious hassle. And somehow, these two NEVER end up repeatedly DOWing each other as opposed to the rest of us.