Challenge 1 Conquest Victory by Crossgate2003 (1)

I sincerely recommend Crossgate2003's Conquest Victory attempt (still in progress, looking healthy) of Challenge 1. I have seen numerous Civ5 game walkthroughs but no one, including my own stories, matches the intensity and excitement of Crossgate's conquest especially towards the end. This is a classic example of end-game nuclear warfare.

I am going to extract the finest bits of Crossgate2003's walkthrough (the original and full version can be found here, if you read Chinese) and make some simple commentaries in English. The images are directly linked from Crossgate2003's sources, and the numbers are his original numbering for my ease of editing.

(1) Anti-diplomatic Opener

Crossgate2003 adopted a very unusual and brave opening - conquering three of the closest City States' of Persia. The river-filled territories provided a strong fundation of his Persian empire's economy. This "anti-diplomatic" opener is especially suitable for Mesopotamia because,

- Most AIs are far away and won't even know the players' conquest of the City States
- Rich lands nearby are very limited, and conquering the nearby city states makes a huge difference in income

1871. Capital on the Gem (I did this, too).

1872. Rushed Bronze Working, bought and upgraded a few Immortals, and conquered Geneva. Vienna is skipped at first, due to its marshy terrain that could be a little slow to develop.

1874. Policy goes Liberty first for free Workers and the free Great Person.

1878. Still skipping Vienna, but conquering Rio de Janeiro next. Warsaw declared permenant war. But it makes little difference.

I especially liked Crossgate2003's tactics of "pillage before occupation". This way the new city will not be able to recover its population quickly, effectively reduce the happiness pressure on a rapidly-growing empire.

1881. Declared war by Harun! Harun was the only one to hear City States' cry for help. But there is no mission for him to complete - the City States are already conquered.

The AIs in the level 9 MOD are very aggressive probably due to their superior army.

7ab7. Policy goes to Great Scientist and sit the Academy on the Deer southeast of the capital.

c0f1. Harun sent 6 warriors to attack. Easily defeated. (As the AI invasions are mostly whack-a-mole wars.)

1af0. Conquered Vienna! The Immortals are just great for Ancient-era Rush against City States! And they will be awesome against civilization, too.

2d5a. Made unconditional peace with Harun, sold Sugar at discounted price and... got denounced immediately.

a375. Alexander turned hostile. That's the sign of an incoming invasion! The hostility happens a lot earlier in Crossgate2003's game than mine, probably because he occupied the buffering City States, making him a direct neighbor of Alexander (actually still 20 tiles apart!).