[SPOILERS] Chumchu and Cheater Hater winning throughout the ages

[chumchu]

I have captured the Jerusalem and the Temple of Solomon instead of attacking a neighbor. There was only 2 longbows guarding the city. It had a castle so it was not worth sieging it down and letting more barbs spawn. In all I lost 3 camels, 1 horse and a catapult to take it. (Lost two camels on 75% =( ). On the other hand it is well worth it if I can keep it. On the positive side I took 3 barb workers which will be very useful. Taking it also opens up 2 more city spots. Now the barbs are countering with 3 CR2 maces. That would not have been a problem with better rolls. But I have a x-bow next turn and a shock camel to deal with them.



Demos are looking great. I have a lot of cities and financial. I'm letting most of them grow in anticipation for a golden age to get me to rifles. The cost are starting to weigh me down so I will need to get courthouses as some cities cost 9 wpt now. But more army comes before that.

[chumchu]

It is time to admit that I am bad at this game =).

Wow, this is bad. I get a coordinated attack by OT4E and TBS by land and sea about 10 turns before I get rifles =(. I have no strategic depth against this and will will die piecemeal, probably before I get to rifles. I was too greedy in building up for my first golden age. I whipped libraries and let my cities grow in bureaucracy and free religion instead of drafting 15 muskets with nationalism and theocracy. That combined with my power drop from my ill advised fight with the barbs made me vulnerable a short while and they saw it. My defense against OT4E was the threat of counter invasion but when too many camels died and TBS attacks me, that is no longer credible. Had I thought about it I should have predicted something like this when I saw TBS make peace with Gavagai.

Had I scouted better early I could have attacked OT4E in force instead of just scaring him and TBS. My scout died to barbs and it took way too long to sent a replacement south even though I suspected someone being there.

[shallow_thought]

I think you can be pretty good at this game and still get killed by players like OT4E and (especially) TBS.

In the short term, non-one else is going to want either of those two to gain, so others may look to pressure them and thus give you a chance. Good luck!

[chumchu]

That is true. But this was also a big blunder on my part. Combined with too little planning.

The map prevents a coalition as OT4E has no enighbour but me and Gav is in a peace treaty with TBS. No one else is close enough. I will fall relatively quickly under their combined onslaught as it deprives me of any backline whereas one on one would be a slog.

[shallow_thought]

Ouch.

I have never played MP Civ, so my thoughts are low value. That said:
- You may have made strategic errors earlier in the game; so long as you've learnt from them your time has not been not wasted.
- My impression is that you were behind, and hitting the barbs was a gamble. However, it was one you had to take because otherwise it would have been certain, slow death. You needed good luck to make it pay off, which you didn't get. Doesn't mean that it was the wrong move, given the position; can't speak as to the tactics...
- If you're right about being about to die, then you have one last duty - particularly as you're being attacked by two players at once. Die hard.

Will be lurking till the end. Have as much fun as you can.

[chumchu]

I'm having fun in a weird way.

I should either have stayed peaceful or attacked them and built more troops at home.

I will whip everything into camels.

[chumchu]

I'm going away until sunday. If some lurker could play a the turns thursday, friday and saturday I would be grateful. There is absolutely no pressure since I have zero chance of winning this.

[chumchu]

If TBS and OT4E starts fighting over my remains before I'm dead then we might have a shot but I do not see how it would be in TBS interest to keep me alive as anything more than a nuisance against ot4e. Therefore I am going for being a nuisance. The objective is to get some revenge by taking or burning Leiden and to turtle down after that to avoid looking too easy to take for TBS.

[Cheater Hater]

I guess I'm still here, and I never came in the last time...

[chumchu]

It did not turn out to be needed last time, so no problem there.

If you could play the three turns I would be very grateful.