080. Although I am always looking for new ways to play Civ 5, I find myself usually ending up back on the similar path (since it is more efficient than others I tried). The path of this game can be summarized as the following:
(1) National College fueled Longswordsman
(2) Porcelain Tower + Univeristy G-Sci rushed Rifleman
(3) G-Sci rushed Artillery
(4) G-Sci rushed Infantry
(5) G-Sci rushed Mechanized Infantry
(6) G-Sci, Oxford University, Policy, and G-Eng rushed United Nation and Diplomatic victory
In a nutshell, I prefer a strong backbone of melee units. The best advantage of melee units is that they are very defensible. The AIs usually have the numerical advantage, and they would love to dogpile on any unit that the AI estimates that it has a chance to kill on a single turn. By having melee units defending on their favorite terrain, I hardly lose any units to the AIs throughout the game.
I also hardly spend any promotion on Instant Heal. At mid-late game, I will have a good number of March + Blitz shock troops that grant me a dominating military status for any victory. But I have to admit that, in a regular (non-Cultural) Deity game, the game is already won long, long before that stage (usually at the Rifleman stage - latest at Artillery). So this strategy is, unfortunately, an overkill.
Let's see how Level 9 goes!
Back to the walkthrough. I am now at the intermission between Rush 1 and Rush 2. I already built the Workshop in the capital to start accumulating Great Engineer points for the Porcelain Tower. And I need to go full speed for Education in order to start accumulating points for the first Great Scientist.
The Immortal-promoted Pikeman army pushed the Spanish invaders back, and gloriously returned to Persia... only to find more barbarians to fight. Indeed, barbarians are a constant threat in early-mid game. Eventually the civilizations will outgrow and outgun them.
081. More gold goes to Bucharest to renew my alliance. (Along with Hanoi and Rio de Janeiro, totally 3 CS allied.) Since I can sell my own Gem, essentially I get the free renewal with Bucharest.
082. Here comes my biggest investment in the game - cash rushed a University in the capital! It should pay off in the future.
083. The immediate benefit of the University is that my Science goes up by 25 points from the University and the two filled specialist slots. And my Rifleman rush countdown has officially started.
084. The trans-Persia highway is completed. While I lose 8 gold per turn from the maintenance of the road, the road allows me to defend Persia with only half of my entire army - as long as the AIs don't attack me at the same time.
085. The two most profitable cities in Persia are both former Egyptian cities. The Longswordsman rush was used on a worthwhile target. I can also go for Arabia or Ottoman and can probably take it down as well. But I like Stonehenge too much. And Egypt is still the closest to Persia (on this map, 20+ tiles apart is considered close.)
086. One of the key elements of the Level 9 MOD is to double AI's tech rate (while removing their population growth bonus). Although Persia has jumped to the no.1 spot in terms of flasks per turn, each of AI's flasks are equivalent to 2 flasks. So Persia's real place is close to the bottom of the rank - only beating the bankrupt Spain and the completely amputated Egypt.
Each gold deficit in the budget at the end of turn hurts 1 point of Science. Essentially, the bankrupted civilization gets "free" maintenance of its starving army at the cost of Science. So Spain's research is retarded by its bankruptcy.
087. Rushed Porcelain Tower with my first Great Engineer. Since I didn't have enough population in the capital for the rush (number of instant hammer = 300 + 30 x population), I had to pre-build it for 4 or 5 turns in the capital first.
088. Persia is not particularly powerful, just very wealthy. The AIs also generate very good incomes, but they build so many buildings and units that eat their revenue away!
Not surprisingly, Greece is on its way of super-power again. Alexander is a perfect nemesis in a Persia game on Mesopotamia, isn't it?
089. Charts on AI's net gold per turn. Ottoman is also bankrupt! But the AIs' frequent Golden Age (even without their unhappiness discount) actually will keep Suleiman afloat for a long time. Alexander, although already having the largest army in this world, still manages to keep a positive income.
090. I have received numerous concerns on whether the removal of AI's unhappiness cheat on the Level 9 MOD will hinder the AI's new city spawning rate. Now Ottoman has 10 cities and Greece has 9. So the AIs are still spawning their new cities rigorously as long as they have the land available. And there are plenty of land on Mesopotamia.
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