Civ4BtS : STROMBOLI - #43 Pitboss APT

[astrologix]

Los puntos APT correspondientes a cada jugador serán consolidados en la clasificación trimestral del 30 de Junio, de próxima publicación.

[2metraninja]

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Just as she had promissed, Isabel took Yakub's head for his betrayal and stuck it on a stick in Madrid.

[astrologix]

Turno 239:

Por falta de tiempo, el jugador que lleva a Alemania deja la partida. Voy a pasar The Iron Kantzler a la IA. La regla de los 3 turnos se aplica hasta el turno 342 incluido. Quedamos en espera de algún sustituto o que vuelva el titular a retomar la civ.

*****

Due to lack of time, the player leading Germany leaves the game. I'm going to move The Iron Kantzler to the AI. The 3-turn rule applies up to and including turn 342. We are waiting for a replacement or for the owner to return to resume the civ.

--------------------
Reglamento / rule:

En caso de sustitución de un jugador por la IA, sus adversarios humanos no pueden ni comerciar, ni intercambiar tecnologías, ni realizar tratados, ni declarar la guerra a la IA, durante los tres primeros turnos del control de la civilización por el ordenador (los jugadores que no respeten esta regla reciben 3 puntos de penalización).

*****
In the event of a player being replaced by the AI, his human adversaries cannot trade, exchange technologies, make treaties, or declare war on the AI, during the first three turns of the computer's control of the civilization (the Players who do not respect this rule receive 3 penalty points).

[2metraninja]

Apostolyc Palace vote for religious victory.

[astrologix]

Congrats Macedon!

You win the last APT game!!

[astrologix]

[astrologix]

Mapa final:



Mapa Inicial:

[astrologix]

Yo era Dingaan. Salí en hielo. Nunca entendí cómo dejasteis ganar a Anibal tan fácilmente....

[macedon79]

Yo era Dingaan. Salí en hielo. Nunca entendí cómo dejasteis ganar a Anibal tan fácilmente....

THEY ARE people with good soul. And well becasue i let them live so long to see end game. Not like a bravade bu if i wanted i could have won this game dominaton long before now. But i got friends with other players and felt wrong going on rampage.

[astrologix]

THEY ARE people with good soul. And well becasue i let them live so long to see end game. Not like a bravade bu if i wanted i could have won this game dominaton long before now. But i got friends with other players and felt wrong going on rampage.

I know But I think the strong players could have be attack you when you started attacking Yakub. No one moved a finger...

I was always weak. I appreciated so much you let me alive

[macedon79]

I know But I think the strong players could have be attack you when you started attacking Yakub. No one moved a finger...

I was always weak. I appreciated so much you let me alive

Well I had Naps with all strong players and huge army if tey didnt sgned i would have atacked them. I wanted to atack Darius for a long time because if found his diplo very annoying(i belived is you astro), but he signed aNap in my terms so I didnt. Even in end i wanted to atack him becase of that but i didnt had the energy to do that. Loads of work...

[CHINCHIN]

Congratulations Macedon79!! You won with great superiority


I didn't remember that you were playing in this game. I thought you were 2metraninja

[CHINCHIN]

Yo era Dingaan. Salí en hielo. Nunca entendí cómo dejasteis ganar a Anibal tan fácilmente....

Que conquistara tan rápido al Etíope ayudo mucho. A partir de ahí Anibal fue imparable.

[HBHR]

Mil felicidades a Macedon por su victoria. Yo era Julio en esta partida.
He de reconocer que me tomó por sorpresa este abrupto final. Estaba claro que Anibal iba a ganar la partida, pero pensé que todavía quedaba tela por cortar. Sobre todo teniendo en cuenta que era la última partida del campeonato (espero que no).
No sé si pueda sacar el tiempo para una crónica, pero comparto lo que dice Chinchin, luego de que Anibal se quedó tan rápido con la mayoría de las ciudades etíopes, todo quedó cuesta arriba y era difícil que alguno arriesgase su supervivencia en la partida tratando de armar un complot contra Cartago. Como el famoso dicho, "¿quien le pone el cascabel al gato?"

[2metraninja]

Congrats for the undisputed victory, Mack.

I was Isabela of Spain.

I started in not great, but still quite good land. After the initial settling, I realised I dont have enough good land and that I need to colonize new islands and archipelagoes. East of me there was Etiopia, so I headed West. After settling more snacky archipelagoes and some Islands things were looking quite good. I did not felt immediately threatened first because of the sea, then we had good trade with Etiopia and Yakub came to tell me he feels we will be very good friends. We assured each-other in our friendly future and that was it for now. As you know I highly value the given word and often neglect written agreements.

I had built some marvelous cities and had set very strong foundation for mid-game explosion in lands and power, but was running really really low on military units. To add synergy to my spiritual trait I got Christianity and the Apostolic Palace. Things were looking pretty good, demographics were quite similar to the other big dog Anibal, who I knew is Mack and luckily he was far away, so I could concentrate on my own development without early confrontation with him. I had Pyramids and was using Representation to great success. Etiopia was looking like the third power in the game and in my mind it was only logical that we cooperate against the top nation, especially when the top nation had such great nation and leader for massive naval map.

I had spread my cities across over 35 tiles distance mostly to thewest and south-west. There I met USA and Russia. Both were surprisingly weaker and backward than me and were not looking like perspective trade and political partners. USA was trying to race with me for good spots and was settling empty and poorly situated cities on my borders. Russia was outright cold and hostile and even refused to open borders to me and did not even answered my message. I wrote both of them in the paragraph "Victim/Food" and started preparing slowly, but methodically as they were not goind anywhere and my own business was going smooth. I started building barracks, stables and lot of units - catapults, pikes, etc, but mainly knights, because of the big distance to my core - as I said 30-35 tiles. I had prepared a lot of galleys to ferry my army from my core and numerous islands on the USA/Russia continent. Those preparations for what was expected to be quick and efficient medieval war shifted my focus a bit and for few turns I neglected checking the internatonal situation. I had scouts in the Etiopian islands, but still had not NAP with him as I did not thought I might need it. And now I felt something suspicious. Someone was heading towards galleons and I did not knew how far that race was. I wrote to Yakub telling him I would like very much to sign NAP to reaffirm officially our good intentions. He wrote me back something like: "There is an alliance against Anibal forming, so I cannot commit to anything before this agreement is signed, I will be back to you in couple of turns to discuss our NAP" I said to mylsef: sounds believable. And if this is true, then it is actually great. There will be organized opposition to Mack, I will easlily double my lands taking USA and some russian cities, economics is developing great, life is good. Little I knew.

I started a golden age to increase my production towards military buildings and units and to help me research Guilds and gunpowder in time for the invasion. I had long rows of prebuilt buildings and units ready to be churned out in all my cities. I had built my Forbidden Palace on my border most south-west city in anticipation of where the geographical center of my empire would had been after I swallow USA and Russia. I had prebuilt and prechopped Hero Epic on that border too, waiting to get unit which unlocks it against tundra barbarians. Knights and muskets were going to start rolling whipped and drafted right after my Golden Age ends and I switch to Police State, my powergraph was going to explode and I was going to have army 3 times stronger than the next one with 30+ knights and USA would be conquered in like 5 or 6 turns. Short regrouping and healing after that and Russia would fall quickly short after this and I was going to be the most perspective nation on the map. And then disaster struck.

Turns out Yakub was the one who was pushing towards galleons. He had in secrecy built quite a lot of galleys, used his money to upgrade those to galleons, used his espionage against me to get full city visibility so he knew my cities are virtually empty - single warrior in each city, even the biggest due to excess happiness from Representation. Yakub had positioned galleons full with axes, chariots and other $hit. But that was more than enough. Having perfect vision he attacked and took like 6 of my core cities, including my size 15 capitol. He also used his galleons quite effectively to blockade my trade routes, so my fragmented on islands and continents cities could not even build anything which requires metal or horses. I was drafting warriors in desperate attempt to defend lol. In the cities where I had metal I was using thousands of money collected for my attack on USA upgrades for knights to upgrade warriors to maces. But etiopians were competend attackes and they were everywhere - their galleons were devastating my all coastal empire. After 2-3 turns I saw the tragedy is complete and I decided to surrender. I told Yakub I admit defeat and I ask for terms for surrender. I still had quite good 2/3 of my cities, despite I had lost most of my marvelous core lands and cities. I thought to myself I would still execute my USA conquest, despite slower and harder, but after this I was going to be some medium sized empire with OK perspectives. I wanted revenge on Yakub of course, but when I am outplayed I can give credit and depending how Yakub was going to negotiate with me, I could become his vassal or even become his ally later. But he said he cannot accept my surrender at that moment. Let him say it how it was, but I bet 5 leva he thought he can fully defeat me and was afraid I will look for revenge later if he leaves me alive. Then I sent him another proposal. I told him I want all my cities back and I will give him his word I will not seek revenge. If he refuse my deal, I will then fight him with all it cost and one way or another I will defeat him and kill him. I am sure he laughed at this considering he was just conquered 1/3 of my empire and was sieging the rest of my core cities and they were about to fall very soon. Yeah, but it is important who laughs in the end. I knew Mack will win this game. Second and third power were fighting each-other on life and death. What a nice surprise gift for Mack.

The war was so hard and tedious to fight, my precious cities being captured one by one, my plans ripped, my whole world collapsing, but my desire for revenge was keeping me awake and motivated. I sold my soul to the devil and asked Mack for help. He was laughing his ar$e off from such great surprise present. He himself was worried about Yakub attacking him, then he planned how he will oppose me, as I was doing so good and he was seeing my potential. But now I came aksing for help and he was happy, because there were no one else who could threaten his win and he knows that if I accept his help, I would never turn against him or try to trick him. He gave me 1-2 crucial technologies, I researched myself with the help of what was left from my Golden Age. Later some techs I stole from Yakub and some techs Julio gave to me as investition in our good future relations. I think Julio knew who I was and it is good to have reputation. People invest in your friendship. At that moment too I felt a bit of shame when USA messaged me asking what is going on and offered me his help. But situations change and objectives change. He was not anymore in the paragraph "Victim/Food". Russia was still non-responsive though, even he was letting Etiopians to travel their lands and waters to attack me and raze my cities from the back, so Russia can then resettle those lands. He made the transition from paragraph "Victim/Food' to "Must revenge" category.

Fights were very hard as Yakub / Kerkus is good fighter and I was taken by total surprise, but after 2 good ambushes for me and retaking one key channel city and 1 failed siege of my new capitol for him, somehow I managed to stabilize the front He saw he will not be able to take all of my cities with blitzkrieg and the next phase of the war begun. He was accumulating forces and was harrassing my back cities, I was defending as much as I could in my back and was preparing counter-attack to retake my core. In that time I was coordinating with Anibal and told him I prepare counter-attack. He told me he plans to win the game then and there by conquering Etiopia while he is busy in fight with me. Yakub tried one more time to take my new capitol, but I was waiting for him. I anihilated his landing party and even managed to sink few of his galleons with my horde of galleys and caravels. Yakub got Fregates and that was serious problem for me. Anibal settled one city in my back lands and I gave him 10-15 caravels, which he upgraded and then he attacked Yakub. Those fregates managed to clear my waters, I launched my counter - attack against Yakub in my ex-core. With the generous help from Julio and Anibal in techs I mentioned, I already had rifles and cavalries.and killed the main Etiopian stack and started quickly to take my ex-core cities back. Popping culture helped me very much and that was too much for Yakub. He ran away with his remaining lands units and ships, leaving small garrisons in my ex-cities. I took back everything what was mine and Yakub lost his core due to the Carthagenian attack. Yakub ran away and settled a town size 1 on small tundra island, but I found him. I embarked ready to kill him, but in the last turn he offered me Astronomy to sign peace. I hesitated a lot, as I was burning from desire to take his head, but I accepted the tech. I saw it as a gesture of goodwill. Also I would had needed it and he was not going anywhere. 10 turns later I killed him and methaforically put his head on a stick. My revenge was done.

Meanwhile Anibal was unstoppable haegemon. Few times I was contacted with questions what I plan to do about it - people were trying to form opposition to Anibal and were seeing me as important participant, but I could not do that both for moral reasons and because Anibal was already unstoppable. I was looked what can I do to improve my own position, but it was not much. Germany also helped me with what he could when I was in need, so no way I return him with evil. USA also, despite he used the razing of my back cities to steal my land and settle on the ruins of my cities. Well, Russia was still there. So here I come. I prepared quick army and attacked Russia. I took what I could and he was dead. At that time I saw I can get to third and even second score while ending the game with AP vote for Anibal. Germany player left, so now was AI. I prepared expedition corpus and took Germany capitol Along with some other preparations, I climbed to third position in the score for bronze. I could had taken even second place - we had less than 100 points difference with Julio and I knew when exactly the game will end due to me being the Pope and proposing votes so I could had prepared score for second place, but I felt it will be unfair towards Julio, who did helped me when I was in need, so I had the chance to return the favor.

That is all from my perspective. Again, congrats for Mack and HBHR for the medals. Also to Kerkus for executing his beautiful plan, but also as I told him, it was a bad play to use it against me.

GG all.