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My first victory against the Tougher AI! Download page:
Picking random as always, I got Japan. The computer pulled Mehmed II Khan Gazi out of its hat, leading the Turks from Istanbul (not Constantinople). We landed in the Himalayas.
Things started out peacefully enough on my side. I began my usual Science-Civics expansion. The Turk was out for blood. He picked Military first. Some kind of intuition must have led me to build a temple first to boost my city defense, because I normally hold off for Commerce and build a market to get the money flowing. I especially like to go for the market when there's a resource nearby, as there was in this game: some nice plump woolly baa-baas just on the other side of the woods from Kyoto.
3:45 - My second city is up, and I'm building a temple there, too. A market is going up in my first city, too. By this time, little did I know it, but the Turk had a welcoming party already more than halfway across the map.
4:20 - My Scout spots hoplites, but I missed it. (Was zoomed in on Yonago for some reason?!)
4:45 - Just as I start to upgrade to the Classical age... Attack alarm at Kyoto! A rush before the 5 minute mark. Yow! Fortunately for me, my caravan distracts some of the invaders, and they follow it to my other city. I lost the caravan, but it helps me kill them more quickly with two cities shooting at them. I don't garrison merchant or caravan, figuring the more distractions, the easier the invaders would be to kill.
7:08 - The attack was repelled. The bloodthirsty invaders killed my merchant and caravan, but spent so much time running between my two cities that the sticks and stones pelted by my townsfolk did them in. Surprisingly, being off resources for a couple minutes didn't seem to hurt that much, as I still had a 20 point lead on the Turk. I didn't have any mining going yet, but I had a university started before the first battle was over, and a second shortly thereafter. A minute later, it was as if nothing had happened -- my merchant and caravan were back in business, my scholars started scholaring, and I had a nice little mining operation staritng up.
11:00 - The Turk has a bit of a research lead on me now, but I've been spending my money on efficiency -- a granary and mill. After wandering by Karapinar, my scout narrowly escaped becoming a Pinar-cushion for the Turk's rebuilt army. I sent him on a little waypointed trip back home.
13:25 - I get up my 3rd city, Miyakonojo, lagging a minute behind the Turk's Trebizond. He also aged to Medieval 2 minutes ago, but again, I'm focusing on efficiency, have 2 universities going, and a couple of towers rather than barracks, stable & factory. The Turk does have a nice little army sitting outside Trebizond at this point, but my boom is booming, producing nearly twice the resources of the Turk.
15:00 - Not wanting to wait too long, I put up a barracks on my side of my border city Miyakonojo, and start pumping out my unique heavy infantry. Meanwhile, the Turk has taken full advantage of his cultural abilities, putting up 2 siege factories and scoring 4 free trebuchets. I finally hit Medieval a minute later... a full 3 and a half minutes after the Turk.
21:00 - Each of us finish our 4th cities at nearly the same time. Not much has happened in the past 6 minutes, except a general buildup. I've got my military buildings all up and producing, he's got a second set closer to the front. The Turk has his first castle up, and has been at Gunpowder since 17:34.
23:23 - I've finally reached Gunpowder, and have put together an invasion force near a castle I built to secure a rare resource. The Turk's 5th city, Corum, just went up.
24:35 - As the Turk reaches Enlightenment, I start my 5th city. Also, I'm just now putting up smelters! Damn my forgetfulness ... My army is now upgraded, and I'm ready to move on Trebizond.
25:35 - I advance and kill the vile Turkish merchant who had been corrupting my Papyrus. Then for some reason I decide against continuing on to Trebizond. Probably I was thinking it would be a good idea to wait for Gun Samurai and a couple more bombards.
29:00 - Having reached enlightemnent, upgrading and reinforcing, I finally advance. Meanwhile, the Turk has started building the Colossus, which reminds me to start up on my favorite wonder, Versailles. The Turk comes to meet me at Trebizond... leading with his Basilica cannon?! My light cavalry makes short work of those monstrosities, and the siege of Trebizond commences.
29:40 - I'm pushed back by the Turk's Fusilliers and Crossbowmen. My cavalry were able to take out a couple of cannon, but they were slaughtered by the Turk's infantry. My samurai made a valiant effort, but one was bribed and several more fell to the superior numbers of the Turk's army. Time to regroup and return with a larger force, and with the healing power of my soon-to-be completed Versailles palace. To add insult to injury, the Turk reaches Inudstrial as I fall back to my fortress.
Halfway through this game, I'm in dire straits. My army is barely reinforced following its defeat, and the Turk is pressing his advantage with his remaining artillery, assaulting my front line fortress mid-map. I am outgunned, out-citied (he just built his sixth) and outresourced. I have more universities, but fewer scholars. He has an age advantage, to boot.
I'm forced to fall back and let the fortress go.
As I fall back to my stockades at Miyakonojo, the Turk's sneaky general plans an ambush. His tracks in the snow give him away, though! That and the total lack of an army where I just saw one ...
I hit Industrial and start drilling for oil and upgrading as fast as I can. He advances on the southeast of Miyakonojo and pounds a stockade to dust. Unfortuantely for him, I swing around the mountains south of the city, and catch him with his pants down in a full flank attack with my entire army. He tries a minor flanking action of his own, with scattered reinforcements, and a spy, but they are too late. My heavy infantry meet the attack, and the cavalry--my newly upgraded tanks--start rolling in.
By the 34 minute mark it's just about over. My boys are shooting at generals' jeeps and supply trucks. Only two wounded Turkish generals and a commando make it back to Karapinar.
I spend a little time catching up on some research and letting my Versailles-enhacned supply trucks do their thing. The Turk sends a few token troops at me.
36:15 - My troops are recovered and reinforced. Time to start another major offensive. I head in to his central Redoubts (yes, the bastard has hit the Modern age before me, too). The Turk sends in some air cover, but they fly right over my troops, heading for Versailles. Dumb. I quickly put up some AA and forget about it.
The bombardment of the Turkish Redoubts is quite a challenge. They're situated in the mountains so that in order to hit one of them, you have a good chance of being pounded by the other one. I have to carefully maneuver my artillery to avoid losing any of my big guns.
37:55 - Mehmed II Khan Gazi (Turks) is developing NUCLEAR WEAPONS!
Ooooh I HATE nukes. First Redoubt is down.
38:40 The Turk attempts a little flanky-panky of his own, supported by a Helicopter. Fortunately, my alert infantry, supported by a couple AA trucks are up to the task, and repel them as I finish off the second Redoubt. Curiously, his smaller invading force completely ignores the fortress being built immediately behind them. Maybe they didn't want to turn their back on me again.
39:02 - Mehmed II Khan Gazi (Turks) has developed NUCLEAR WEAPONS!
And his troops finally woke up and took out my fortress construction project. Then my sizeable force started bearing down on them, leaving them disorganized and turning around to face me. I guess they didn't learn their lesson after all. The battle was noisy, but ended quickly.
40:28 - A Turkish Terra Cotta Army begins construction, I start up Modern age research. He returns to the front line with a reinforced army. I slaughter it.
40:58 - NUCLEAR LAUNCH DETECTED!!!
The nuke takes out most of Miyakonojo, but fortunately leaves Versailles intact. I immediately commence repairs, and start up Lady Liberty, in anticipation of all the yummy upgrades of the Modern age. The Turk's surrounded army is in rout.
The Turk sends some fighter-escorted bombers to finish the job his nuke started at Miyakonojo, but my AA were out of range of the nuke, so I pick up a little extra metal as it starts raining Turkish airframes.
Then, as if to goad me into attacking, he sends a small force at me outside Trebizond, which succeeds in killing a few of my troops and--as if the nuke wasn't enough--in pissing me off.
43:40 - Lady Liberty just finished, I start pounding Trebizond, and ...
NUCLEAR LAUNCH DETECTED!!!
This time the target is Kyoto. It succeeds in taking out a few farms, a university, and reducing my capital to about 1/4 strength. And it succeeds in pissing me off even more. (As does the fact that the only "Battle Lost" that show up in the timeline are these nukes dropping on my cities ... even though the AI lost plenty of conventional battles!)
44:48 - Trebizond--and a large part of the Turkish economy, and indeed the game itself--is all mine in a couple minutes. From this point on it was just a matter of keeping my sizeably superior army reinforced and keeping my edge with research. As I secured the city and cleared the surrounding area of military buildings, I caught up on some secondary research and kicked out some reinforcements. I don't like going into infinite production in the end game, because I don't like being at my population cap. It's good to have a little bit of room to pump out any last minute counters you might need, or perhaps leave room for some air power for the coup de grace.
Oh, one more thing I neglected to mention. There was an extended dogfight going on over my easternmost city of Shimonoseki for most of the last 15-20 minutes of the game. Fun to watch, but in the end, had little impact on the outcome.
After taking Trebizond, it actually took me several pushes on Istanbul to finally make it in. The Turk continued pumping units constantly, and was gunning hard for my infantry. I found that each time, just as I was ready to advance and dig in around the capital, I was low on infantry. Course, there may have also been an element of revenge for all those nukes. It was pretty satisfying to level all those buildings
Finishing the Supercollider was the thing that really kicked me in the pants to take that capital. The wonder clock started ticking, and I did NOT want my first win on Tougher to be a Wonder victory!
57:01 Reduced! Capture with Infantry!
59:29 - The Wonder clock ran out 35 seconds before the conquest clock, but I consider it a moral victory nonetheless.
Now to tackle Toughest...
Picking random as always, I got Japan. The computer pulled Mehmed II Khan Gazi out of its hat, leading the Turks from Istanbul (not Constantinople). We landed in the Himalayas.
Things started out peacefully enough on my side. I began my usual Science-Civics expansion. The Turk was out for blood. He picked Military first. Some kind of intuition must have led me to build a temple first to boost my city defense, because I normally hold off for Commerce and build a market to get the money flowing. I especially like to go for the market when there's a resource nearby, as there was in this game: some nice plump woolly baa-baas just on the other side of the woods from Kyoto.
3:45 - My second city is up, and I'm building a temple there, too. A market is going up in my first city, too. By this time, little did I know it, but the Turk had a welcoming party already more than halfway across the map.
4:20 - My Scout spots hoplites, but I missed it. (Was zoomed in on Yonago for some reason?!)
4:45 - Just as I start to upgrade to the Classical age... Attack alarm at Kyoto! A rush before the 5 minute mark. Yow! Fortunately for me, my caravan distracts some of the invaders, and they follow it to my other city. I lost the caravan, but it helps me kill them more quickly with two cities shooting at them. I don't garrison merchant or caravan, figuring the more distractions, the easier the invaders would be to kill.
7:08 - The attack was repelled. The bloodthirsty invaders killed my merchant and caravan, but spent so much time running between my two cities that the sticks and stones pelted by my townsfolk did them in. Surprisingly, being off resources for a couple minutes didn't seem to hurt that much, as I still had a 20 point lead on the Turk. I didn't have any mining going yet, but I had a university started before the first battle was over, and a second shortly thereafter. A minute later, it was as if nothing had happened -- my merchant and caravan were back in business, my scholars started scholaring, and I had a nice little mining operation staritng up.
11:00 - The Turk has a bit of a research lead on me now, but I've been spending my money on efficiency -- a granary and mill. After wandering by Karapinar, my scout narrowly escaped becoming a Pinar-cushion for the Turk's rebuilt army. I sent him on a little waypointed trip back home.
13:25 - I get up my 3rd city, Miyakonojo, lagging a minute behind the Turk's Trebizond. He also aged to Medieval 2 minutes ago, but again, I'm focusing on efficiency, have 2 universities going, and a couple of towers rather than barracks, stable & factory. The Turk does have a nice little army sitting outside Trebizond at this point, but my boom is booming, producing nearly twice the resources of the Turk.
15:00 - Not wanting to wait too long, I put up a barracks on my side of my border city Miyakonojo, and start pumping out my unique heavy infantry. Meanwhile, the Turk has taken full advantage of his cultural abilities, putting up 2 siege factories and scoring 4 free trebuchets. I finally hit Medieval a minute later... a full 3 and a half minutes after the Turk.
21:00 - Each of us finish our 4th cities at nearly the same time. Not much has happened in the past 6 minutes, except a general buildup. I've got my military buildings all up and producing, he's got a second set closer to the front. The Turk has his first castle up, and has been at Gunpowder since 17:34.
23:23 - I've finally reached Gunpowder, and have put together an invasion force near a castle I built to secure a rare resource. The Turk's 5th city, Corum, just went up.
24:35 - As the Turk reaches Enlightenment, I start my 5th city. Also, I'm just now putting up smelters! Damn my forgetfulness ... My army is now upgraded, and I'm ready to move on Trebizond.
25:35 - I advance and kill the vile Turkish merchant who had been corrupting my Papyrus. Then for some reason I decide against continuing on to Trebizond. Probably I was thinking it would be a good idea to wait for Gun Samurai and a couple more bombards.
29:00 - Having reached enlightemnent, upgrading and reinforcing, I finally advance. Meanwhile, the Turk has started building the Colossus, which reminds me to start up on my favorite wonder, Versailles. The Turk comes to meet me at Trebizond... leading with his Basilica cannon?! My light cavalry makes short work of those monstrosities, and the siege of Trebizond commences.
29:40 - I'm pushed back by the Turk's Fusilliers and Crossbowmen. My cavalry were able to take out a couple of cannon, but they were slaughtered by the Turk's infantry. My samurai made a valiant effort, but one was bribed and several more fell to the superior numbers of the Turk's army. Time to regroup and return with a larger force, and with the healing power of my soon-to-be completed Versailles palace. To add insult to injury, the Turk reaches Inudstrial as I fall back to my fortress.
Halfway through this game, I'm in dire straits. My army is barely reinforced following its defeat, and the Turk is pressing his advantage with his remaining artillery, assaulting my front line fortress mid-map. I am outgunned, out-citied (he just built his sixth) and outresourced. I have more universities, but fewer scholars. He has an age advantage, to boot.
I'm forced to fall back and let the fortress go.
As I fall back to my stockades at Miyakonojo, the Turk's sneaky general plans an ambush. His tracks in the snow give him away, though! That and the total lack of an army where I just saw one ...
I hit Industrial and start drilling for oil and upgrading as fast as I can. He advances on the southeast of Miyakonojo and pounds a stockade to dust. Unfortuantely for him, I swing around the mountains south of the city, and catch him with his pants down in a full flank attack with my entire army. He tries a minor flanking action of his own, with scattered reinforcements, and a spy, but they are too late. My heavy infantry meet the attack, and the cavalry--my newly upgraded tanks--start rolling in.
By the 34 minute mark it's just about over. My boys are shooting at generals' jeeps and supply trucks. Only two wounded Turkish generals and a commando make it back to Karapinar.
I spend a little time catching up on some research and letting my Versailles-enhacned supply trucks do their thing. The Turk sends a few token troops at me.
36:15 - My troops are recovered and reinforced. Time to start another major offensive. I head in to his central Redoubts (yes, the bastard has hit the Modern age before me, too). The Turk sends in some air cover, but they fly right over my troops, heading for Versailles. Dumb. I quickly put up some AA and forget about it.
The bombardment of the Turkish Redoubts is quite a challenge. They're situated in the mountains so that in order to hit one of them, you have a good chance of being pounded by the other one. I have to carefully maneuver my artillery to avoid losing any of my big guns.
37:55 - Mehmed II Khan Gazi (Turks) is developing NUCLEAR WEAPONS!
Ooooh I HATE nukes. First Redoubt is down.
38:40 The Turk attempts a little flanky-panky of his own, supported by a Helicopter. Fortunately, my alert infantry, supported by a couple AA trucks are up to the task, and repel them as I finish off the second Redoubt. Curiously, his smaller invading force completely ignores the fortress being built immediately behind them. Maybe they didn't want to turn their back on me again.
39:02 - Mehmed II Khan Gazi (Turks) has developed NUCLEAR WEAPONS!
And his troops finally woke up and took out my fortress construction project. Then my sizeable force started bearing down on them, leaving them disorganized and turning around to face me. I guess they didn't learn their lesson after all. The battle was noisy, but ended quickly.
40:28 - A Turkish Terra Cotta Army begins construction, I start up Modern age research. He returns to the front line with a reinforced army. I slaughter it.
40:58 - NUCLEAR LAUNCH DETECTED!!!
The nuke takes out most of Miyakonojo, but fortunately leaves Versailles intact. I immediately commence repairs, and start up Lady Liberty, in anticipation of all the yummy upgrades of the Modern age. The Turk's surrounded army is in rout.
The Turk sends some fighter-escorted bombers to finish the job his nuke started at Miyakonojo, but my AA were out of range of the nuke, so I pick up a little extra metal as it starts raining Turkish airframes.
Then, as if to goad me into attacking, he sends a small force at me outside Trebizond, which succeeds in killing a few of my troops and--as if the nuke wasn't enough--in pissing me off.
43:40 - Lady Liberty just finished, I start pounding Trebizond, and ...
NUCLEAR LAUNCH DETECTED!!!
This time the target is Kyoto. It succeeds in taking out a few farms, a university, and reducing my capital to about 1/4 strength. And it succeeds in pissing me off even more. (As does the fact that the only "Battle Lost" that show up in the timeline are these nukes dropping on my cities ... even though the AI lost plenty of conventional battles!)
44:48 - Trebizond--and a large part of the Turkish economy, and indeed the game itself--is all mine in a couple minutes. From this point on it was just a matter of keeping my sizeably superior army reinforced and keeping my edge with research. As I secured the city and cleared the surrounding area of military buildings, I caught up on some secondary research and kicked out some reinforcements. I don't like going into infinite production in the end game, because I don't like being at my population cap. It's good to have a little bit of room to pump out any last minute counters you might need, or perhaps leave room for some air power for the coup de grace.
Oh, one more thing I neglected to mention. There was an extended dogfight going on over my easternmost city of Shimonoseki for most of the last 15-20 minutes of the game. Fun to watch, but in the end, had little impact on the outcome.
After taking Trebizond, it actually took me several pushes on Istanbul to finally make it in. The Turk continued pumping units constantly, and was gunning hard for my infantry. I found that each time, just as I was ready to advance and dig in around the capital, I was low on infantry. Course, there may have also been an element of revenge for all those nukes. It was pretty satisfying to level all those buildings
Finishing the Supercollider was the thing that really kicked me in the pants to take that capital. The wonder clock started ticking, and I did NOT want my first win on Tougher to be a Wonder victory!
57:01 Reduced! Capture with Infantry!
59:29 - The Wonder clock ran out 35 seconds before the conquest clock, but I consider it a moral victory nonetheless.
Now to tackle Toughest...
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