Ultimate Power: a more pragmatic approach

[Mountain Sage]

1000AD:
The ‘second’ best: the Russian. At this point, I knew I had already won the game.

[Mountain Sage]

1295AD:
The Germans were down to 3 cities, the Japanese had also 3 and the Persians were expanding NE. Unfortunately for them, the peninsula had 3 Barbarians camps with horsemen. Some settler/spearmen teams survived the trek. Most didn’t.
The Aztec were down to 1 city.

[Mountain Sage]

1295AD: wrong caption above This is the correct one:

The Celts declared war on Hannibal. I didn’t even bother. After 5 turns, we got a nice swapping of luxuries. Instant WLTGD !

[Mountain Sage]

1580AD:
Carthage is growing well. Too much gold. Oh! The Germans and Persians declared (again) war on me a few turn before and lost their best cities. Ah well, they’ll probably never learn.

The Germans and Persians are not the only suicidal ones. Brennus just lost an opportunity to shut up.

[Mountain Sage]

1700AD: there is no point in playing on, the Carthaginian superiority is too, well, superior.

[Mountain Sage]

Now, after all these screenshots, the final question: was it a PUP game?

Well, yes and no: I had planned to have my empire spanning let's say between half and two-thirds of the continent, no more, first before I wanted to keep corruption down and secondly to give the game a better challange.

Unfortunately, I went to war so many times (I NEVER started one!) that the empire growed 'by itself'.
According to my PUP principles, I let the Germans and Persians their core cities, since they were strategically and economically irrelevant. I conquered them only when they declared, again, war on me, but let their civs alive.
I should have done the same with the Japs and not have invaded their peninsula, but this time I was a bit p***** off.
I did not try to invade the Celts, in spite of their 3 luxuries, because I got them by peaceful trading.
The placement of the Palace/FP was quite awful, I admit.

So, not too bad after all. I will post some more screenshots of other games as to keep this thread alive.

[Mountain Sage]

Originally posted by Arrian

You broke your alliances, eh? Interesting. Your rep is shot, then. Not that it matters... you've already got such a lead that they're never gonna catch you.

2GLs! Well done, grasshopper. I think the RNG was kind in this game. I got 14 of them.

-Arrian

Yep, I broke some alliances, but only to get some settler teams. As stated above, I never declared a 'serious' war, I swear it.

I got a total of 7 GL, proof that you rigged tha game, after all.

[Arrian]

Sometimes the AI just won't leave you be. So, from my point of view, if you want your empire to live in peace, you may just have to destroy your neighbors. War is Peace!

-Arrian

[Konquest02]

This is my situation at the end on my REX period. I've been peaceful up to there and managed to expand quite effectively. I went with a wider city spacing than usual (except in the desert) to grab more territory and to turn my cities in huge centers at the end. I've built the GL in Utica and have not really attempted to get the other wonders. Germany got the Pyramids on the turn of this screenshot. I had already decided to attack them, so I started to build some swordmen and horsemen to attack them.

[Konquest02]

I've built a couple of NMs but I tried to delay my GA a couple of turns, so I captured Berlin with swordmen. I triggered my GA at the end of my war to ensure that more shields would go on building infrastructure than just troops.

[Konquest02]

From that 4-5 turn (and low casualty) war, I got this peace treaty...

3 cities (ensuring silks and separating the iron city from the rest of the empire), 2 workers and all their gold. Unfortunately, they did not had gpt...

[Konquest02]

I passed my GA building up my infrastructure and a little more troops to get the germans totally out of the picture. This is where I stand now. For the first time in a while, I have a free night so I'll play a little bit more. I'm having fun with this game!!

--Kon--

[Arrian]

Good work, Konquest. Ah! If only the Germans had built the Pyramids in my game! It was the 1 major (important to me) wonder I didn't get.

Gonna take out the Persians with Knights, or wait for Cav?

-Arrian

[Konquest02]

I intend to go with knights, as I have a nice force of horsemen ready to upgrade. Can you see any advantage for me to wait up to Cav?

I could beeline to MT and let the GL to the rest of the research for me... I will ponder this today.

--Kon--

[Arrian]

Kon,

Knights over Cav for the Persians. The question is really Japan. By the time you get down there, they're gonna have Samurai. Therefore, it's THEM you probably want Cavalry for.

-Arrian