Challenge 1 Conquest Victory by Crossgate2003 (9)

(9) Delaying Spaceship Launch

With Alexander on his way to non-existence, there are only two civilizations that could threaten Persia's conquest victory - England (Science) and China (Culture). The former will happen sooner, so they have to be dealt with first.


0304. Different from the AI, the human brain can process multiple missions! A team of Persian soldiers have arrived at a little gap of English territory. Here, a command center will be established.


0305. Just before war declaration, Elizabeth was bribed to declare war on little City States.


0307. War declaration sold to Egypt!


0310. The Persian Tank, which only has 1 HP, killed three Greek Artilleries in a row! Therefore, not all battles result in the loss of 1 HP (at least not when there is only 1 HP left).


0312. Pillaged Elizabeth's Aluminum mine - A-bomb dual dropped!


0314. Annexed the city and bought a Carrier! This Carrier is critically important to bomb the core cities of England. Unwatned buildings are sold for more cash.


0317. The bombing of Athen has started!

Also, all bigger puppet cities are annexed to build Courthouse. This will further solve happiness problems later. All critial policies have been collected at this stage, so extra policies have very little use anyway. The balance point of the annex is that the happiness buildings of the cities should be able to support the unhappiness contributed by the city. Annexing priorities are given to larger cities (as they can build the Courthouses faster).


0318. Another Great General - burned for Golden Age! Only through a constant Golden Age can Persia afford to purchase A-bombs non-stop.


0319. Athens has fallen!


0331. Elizabeth recaptured Leeds, but of course Darius' units have emptied from the city. Also, the Carrier has departed with a nasty surprise to England's core cities in the back...


0333. Bombing strategy is different here. Persia's priority is to damage England's production as soon as possible, so the bombs are scattered to major metropolitan areas, destroying the mamimal number of tile improvement.


0336. Here is one for London!


0338. Bribed Suleiman to declare war on Wu Zetian. While the price is not cheap, frequent war is required to delay Wu Zetian's culture victory.


0345. Two more bombs dropped - this time on a production rich area, seriously delaying the completion of spaceship components.


0347. Sparta has fallen! Alexander's sea of units are steadily consumed by Darius'Tanks and Artilleries.

Also, Egypt completed the Apollo program. But his progress is far beyond Elizabeth's, so Ramey can wait (to be destroyed later).


0356. Radar is available now. Bombers will make future invasions a lot easier.


0361. Alexander's resistance are quickly devoured by the coordinated attacks of Persia. It is almost over.

Also there was a very good news, Elizabeth was declare war by Ramey and Wu Zetian. Ramey would be able to pack a punch on Elizabeth, and Wu Zetian may further delay her Cultural Victory by a little.


0363. That's the end of Alexander. Now Darius can focus on anyone who could challenge his Conquest victory. Ground units are freed to assault England!


0368. Two more bombs dropped! Three tanks are quite enough for taking severly weakened units and cities.


0370. Another two bombs for London!


0371. Ramey quickly produced 4 A-bombs. Why not let Suleiman eat the bombs? Bribed Suleiman to declare war on Egypt!


0375. Captured London! But Crossgate2003 made a very difficult decision here. After more than a handufl of bombs England will take quite a while to complete the rest of the spaceship parts. The greatest threat to Persia's victory is now Wu Zetian of China.

A peace treaty is signed, and many resources are used in exchange for a small English town. Why is this town so important?

Challenge 1 Conquest Victory by Crossgate2003 (8)

(8) Best Way to Treat the Nemesis

c78b. Crossgate2003 said he never really have a chance to play a nuclear attack game, but he managed to do it very well (thanks to the game's easy-to-understand design). Essentially, A-bomb is not dropped randomly on major metro areas, but used in a batch of 2 to kill ground units and weaken cities to prepare for a grand-scale ground invasion.

The first 2 A-bomb are dropped to the north!

5b96. Took the first city! At the beginning of the turn, this city had 10 population and was packed with enemy units.

99a5. Greek units piled over! But another city is down! Both cities are razed, but here is a little trick that Crossgate2003 used - while the city is being razed, go into the city and sell all buildings. Free cash!

The game is very slow at the point probably due to the large number of units to be computed every turn. (I did it, too.) So most of the operational screenshots will be in hex.

e1e3. As the Greek units pour in, Darius purposely retreated from the two small cities to attract Artillery fire to minimize loss. All of this take and loss is just to buy time for the next wave of bombing.

Elizabeth completed her first spaceship component!

2289. Another bomb dropped!

7264. Follow up! Two bombs are needed to kill a unit.

11eb. While most people develop a lot of highly experienced soldier, the advantage of the contrary is that just purchased soldiers can be frequently instant healed! As Crossgate2003 can afford to purchase new units at very discounted price, he could utilize this instant heal advantage to the fullest.

adca. Severe happiness problem. Sacrificed another Great General for Golden Age (to carry on the war and to avoid loss on the accumulated happiness points). Gave Catherine two new cities to keep cities happy. But before giving the cities away, all buildings are sold!

The small city on the northwest changes hand every turn. Every turn, a Greek unit is killed in the city, and all Artillery fire fell on the city. There is no loss for the Persian troops. That's how clueless the AI's sea of units are.

f070. Catherine unexpectedly gave Open Border to Alexander, and one Persian tank was killed. But that won't slow the progress of the Persian army as Alexander's defense is getting thinner and thinner.

4940. Captured Corinth even without the help of A-boms! Also liberated Tyre (for occupation increases unhappiness.) The tanks charge on the Greek defenders!

2478. Another bunch of Greek units wiped clean! And the Tanks can safely retreat.

4898. In the northwest city, Alexander's melee units are almost killed off. The large bunch of Artilleries looks intimidating, but they can't do anything but to keep firing on the city.

0302. Fierce fighting continues just north of Athen. The AIs usually put up a heavy defense in their capital. Strange news arrived - Warsaw is conquered (only possible by Alexander). That's how smart the AI is - the capital is threatened and the AI still diverts its army to attack a City State.

0303-1. Finally, Theocracy! Crossgate2003 had been battling happiness for a few dozen turns. But that worry can be completely ignored from now on.

With the help of Atomic Bombs, the completely destruction of Alexander has been scheduled. However, the real threats to Persia's glorious Conquest Victory are not dealt with yet... until now!

Challenge 1 Conquest Victory by Crossgate2003 (7)

(7) Dawn of the Nuclear Age

My Diplomatic Victory is like a short cut to reach the end of the game. I feel that this is almost the "mainstream" of playstyle as people are always saying "you need to win before xxx turn or the AI will beat you to it". And we are all driven by the impression that an earlier finish generally produces a higher score. And most players are obsessed with the Hall of Fame rules that an earlier finish is a greater finish.

That's generally true for the SAME type of victory. However, a late-game Conquest could boost the raw score so high that the end score may actually be higher than an earlier diplomatic victory. It is unfortunate that currently Civ5's score calculating system is completely messed up so people can only compare their finishing turns.

Late-game Conquest Victory in a large map and not slowed speed requires a lot of planning. So far, Crossgate2003 had finished the following preparations:

(1) Two policies and 1 wonder (Big Ben) required for the best purchase discount (67% off). This is extremely useful late game.
(2) Oil for Tanks (very high movement under Golden Age). Since Crossgate goes through the bottom route of the tech tree, he wouldn't be able to upgrade Infantry to Mechanized Infantry for a while.
(3) Knowledge about individual AI's victory goal and decide the order of attack.

I am going to discuss (3) in the next section.

e232. Made peace with Harun, who is almost completely wiped out already. Alexander's invasion doesn't seem to be particularly powerful and was dealt with easily. The counterattack force, blessed by the high movement points in the Golden Age, will capture the small town on the northwest.

b5a4. According to Crossgate2003, Elizabeth finished Manhatten project long time ago. (She didn't build it in my game.) But Elizabeth has no Uranium at home! Actually Ezliabeth is going after a Science victory. The fact that Elizabeth was distracted with the power of A-bombs will slow her down a little.

b1b7. More Greek units show up! Greek and Persia is separated by Zagros mountain, and there aren't a lot of openings in this section. This could limite Alexander's advance, but will also make Persia's counterattack more difficult.

fffa. Took both small towns! Here Crossgate2003 discovered a very powerful way to consume a large AI army. Whenever we take a city on their way, they will concentrate on attacking the City. This means that if the human player takes a city and then retreats, all of the AI's artilleries will bombard the city instead of the human player (that would be a disaster), and the melee will come up to recapture the city.

So the human player is free to take the city back on the next turn, killin the defender and a few more units!

03e7. Denounced by China for Persia was allies to City States' of China's interest. Happened in my game, too.

1fc8. The stand-off continues. Every turn the small city changes hand. More Greek units show up, but more and more Persian units are purchased and brought to the front line. So the time of the frontal assault has come!

b975. Glorious victory for the Persian army! Push forward!

a338. On top of the Zagros mountain there are two small Greek cities. Not a very easy terrain, but not difficult for high-speed tanks!

62e8. Took the mountain city! But countless Greek units (according to Crossgate2003, more than 50) await on the other side of the mountain. The Persian army cannot advance and will be stuck here for a while.

Elizabeth completed the Apollo program. In my game, at this point Elizabeth already finished one spaceship part. Why the difference? Crossgate2003 had been actively bribing and dragging Elizabeth to various wars, with Arabia, Russia, and China. We can see that this strategy has been quite effective even though Elizabeth was given a few free techs from the RAs they signed. That's probably Elizabeth was distracted by Manhatten and did not go for Apollo straight.

0b91. Policy numbers. Wu Zetian has finished 21 policies - which is still quite far from Utopia Project.

In my game, at this point Wu Zetian has finished 27 policies. Why such difference? This is my own wrongdoing - I wiped out the wonder builder Egypt for Wu Zetian, so she can build 80% of the wonders in the world. Also, Crossgate2003 has been bribing others to attack Wu Zetian (I did, too, but not this much). Of course, every game could be different even if based on the same initial save.

cc3e. But the stalemate will soon be broken! Persia now has A-bomb!

a31c. 670 gold each bomb! Very cheap!

4cc7. Bombs can't be dropped without knowledge of the target. Use an airplane to survey the best drop spot. Alexander does have Uranium, but he is not smart enough to use it yet...

That will make the nuclear attacks on Greece a one-sided massacre!

Challenge 1 Conquest Victory by Crossgate2003 (6)

(6) Going for the Bomb!

Well, Alexander's sea of units did not show up at Persian border immediately (but they will eventually). I guess Alex was again bribed to war, or his mind was occupied with Harun. That kinda happened to me in my game, as my shock Mechanized Infantry could burn down half of his cities while he had a sea of units stuck on Harun's border. One mission at a time for the AI. This could be used to the player's great advantage.

6ec3. Alexander's lack of advance gives Darius a golden oppurtunity to complete destroy Harun. Medina has fallen! The city has the Statue of Liberty!

d2b2. Mecca is about to fall next!

c303. Mecca down! Also, Ramey has declared war on Elizabeth. Total chaos!

a9bf. This is all Alexander has for invasion - a puny city... And maybe a puny Persian army will be enough to get rid of it.

7eac. To Bagdad! The Infantry promoted from Immortals doesn't need any rest!

b545. Next policy - two more policies! The policies go to Autocracy's Militarism - another 33% on puchasing units. All three elements of the great discounts are combined. Crossgate2003 gave the detailed formula of:

(100 - Mercantilism Discout - Big Ben Discout) * (100 - Militarism Discount) = (100-25-25)% * (100-25)% = 33%
Too bad, it is not 17% (100-25-25-33), but better than 37% (0.75 * 0.75 * 0.67).

2a97. Declared war by Ramey! This was quite disgusting as the two countries had a great relationship in the past, and the only negative impact was a refused ridiculous demand.

But I think I understand why Ramey is so compelled to declare war on Darius - he has been eyeing for Harun's land just as Harun has been eying Ramey's land. In my game, the latter happened. Harun declared war on me 4 times while being friendly in an attempt to get a piece of Ramey's land. So now Ramey must declare war non-stop to get Harun's land.

That's... very stubborn.

0b56. Immediately Egypt declared war to Ottoman! This is... very insane. Why would anyone keep declaring war on neighbors?

6ca5. Here Crossgate once tried to attack Alexander with airplanes and tank, but it didn't work. (Possibly got nuked? I don't know.) So the final version is Atomic Theory! The bombs will speak louder than any weapons in the world.

709a. But more oil is still required for Tanks. Even used a new settler to sit on oil directly.

7ba3. With all three policies in place at the right time, tanks can be purchased directly at a very cheap price! But 18 more turns are needed to finish the Manhantten project.

83b0. Burned another Great General for Golden Age! Not only does it accelerates the Manhatten Project, but also a new Golden Age is needed for a very important reason...

9026. Alexander's sea of units have shown up! In my game, I am already counting down to the Diplomatic Victory at this time. But the real war of a perfectly executed Conquest Victory has just begun!