Blitz All Challenge

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Good Ship Chuckle

How do you make sure people aren't cheating?

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Part of what I do for proof is I take screen shots, and lots of them.

It's absolutely ridiculous to post over 600 screenshots if you're cheating, because the only person you're impressing is yourself.

Also, I do the challenge myself. And for those that beat me, I ask them vaguely what they might be doing differently. After all, I've shared my secrets.

If they cannot explain their victories, then I know something is up.

Yeah, and trust I guess. But there's no reason to trust, because there is nothing official really about being Blitzmaster. No one has given me any award. It's basically an award I gave myself.

As ATPG pointed out, what would be gained by cheating? Most of us have a pretty good idea what's possible in the game and if it seemed like someone's claim was outlandish you could always go test it yourself. The Challenge is less of a 'who is better' kind of thing, and more of a 'check out this cool thing you can do' kind of thing. A way of pushing the limits of the game's design. Hence why ATPG and some of us others do AARs (Digging yours BTW ATPG, even though my creaky old browsing machine can't even load it :laugh4: ) and stories based on our campaigns.

:egypt:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ramses II CP

As ATPG pointed out, what would be gained by cheating? Most of us have a pretty good idea what's possible in the game and if it seemed like someone's claim was outlandish you could always go test it yourself. The Challenge is less of a 'who is better' kind of thing, and more of a 'check out this cool thing you can do' kind of thing. A way of pushing the limits of the game's design. Hence why ATPG and some of us others do AARs (Digging yours BTW ATPG, even though my creaky old browsing machine can't even load it :laugh4: ) and stories based on our campaigns.

:egypt:

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My advice on loading it...

ummmm pretty much I can't load it either. But once it stops loading photos, hit the refresh button and the old photos might remain and the newer photos might begin loading properly. Even with my massively impressive connection it takes me two loads to get them all properly.

I think there is officially one broken photo link. I'm too lazy to go fix it, as it's nothing special to look at.

Well I had a lot of fun with my Turks game, so gave it a go with the Moors :smash:

Moors 1.3 VH.VH
Objective: 106 province Jihad, military conquest.

Houserules:
-No allies
-No active diplomacy (map info/traderights allowed from AI diplomats)
-No debt
-No assassins
-Passive spies
-Sack/Ransom everywhere
-Massive multiple Jihad armies

Moors empire report, turn4:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Well a fairly sparse start for the Moors. 3 weak provinces, flimsy treasury, 3 generals, of which the sultan is not long for this world... obvious answer is to call a jihad on constantinople :2thumbsup:
https://i207.photobucket.com/albums/...ors_jihad2.jpg

So end of turn 4, 6 provinces captured, slowly building...
https://i207.photobucket.com/albums/...s_faction4.jpg

Moors empire report, turn8:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Turn 8, 12 provinces captured, Spain gone, Portugal about to fall. The heavy castle at palermo secured to underpin expansion plans. Pushing on towards byzantine lands and into western europe and British isles next few turns:
https://i207.photobucket.com/albums/...s_faction8.jpg

Moors empire report, turn12:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

22 provinces captured. Progressing well towards arguin. Stack near constantinople. War on British isles, crushing france soon, sizing up HRE.
https://i207.photobucket.com/albums/..._faction12.jpg

Moors empire report, turn16:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Constantinople falls turn 14:
https://i207.photobucket.com/albums/...jihadwin14.jpg

39 provinces held. It's time to push eastward now and grab the euro heartlands while building for next jihad on turn 24. Cash is a bit tight, but lots of troops on the burning line.
https://i207.photobucket.com/albums/..._faction16.jpg

Moors empire report, turn20:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

53 provinces held. Central Europe mostly locked down. Pushing into Turkey. Planning for holylands/Egypt. Gathering/logistics building up for Jihad launch on turn 24.
https://i207.photobucket.com/albums/..._faction20.jpg

Moors empire report, turn24:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The second Jihad is lauched against Novgorod. Plan is to arc across Eastern europe and Russia, then snap up to finish at novgorod/bulgar/holylands..
https://i207.photobucket.com/albums/...rs_jihad24.jpg

63 provinces captured. Things are going fairly well at start of Jihad 2, not much cash but plenty of troops on the go..
https://i207.photobucket.com/albums/..._faction24.jpg

Moors empire report, turn28:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Pope gregory not impressed with me, so calls a crusade on Rome. Not many catholics left to answer...1000 mile eastern front saw to that :inquisitive:
https://i207.photobucket.com/albums/..._crusade26.jpg

89 provinces held. Stack headed for jedda. fast horse stacks rushing through Russia, with inf following, conquest of the Holy lands begins (4 heavy armies land at Acre next turn) Tick tock...
https://i207.photobucket.com/albums/..._faction28.jpg

Moors empire report, turn32:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Long victory at turn 29, this may be possible turn 17-18 if set as main objective. This was fairly academic for me having 90+ provinces when Jerusalem fell..
https://i207.photobucket.com/albums/...torylong29.jpg

Novogrod falls to my merciless Sultan's Jihad:
https://i207.photobucket.com/albums/...jihadwin32.jpg

106 provinces held, 32 turns :2thumbsup:
https://i207.photobucket.com/albums/..._faction32.jpg

:clown:

Not bad at all, Grog. I myself was never too good with the Moors, but then again I never really played as such.

4 turns shy of the current record is a great achievement! Given the yuck that the Moors start with...

I hereby crown you Moorish Blitzmaster!

The biggest problem with the Moors IMHO is that you have to wait for gunpowder to get their best units. For anything else I'd rather be Egypt or Turkey.

That's an impressive blitz with 'em though. They're one of the 'harder' factions to play VH/VH. :laugh4:

:egypt:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ramses II CP

The biggest problem with the Moors IMHO is that you have to wait for gunpowder to get their best units. For anything else I'd rather be Egypt or Turkey.

That's an impressive blitz with 'em though. They're one of the 'harder' factions to play VH/VH. :laugh4:

:egypt:

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Yep, the Moors unit roster was just starting to look interesting as the game finished, and yes the turks are better by miles early game. Sipahi/Turkoman vs desert cav, whose your money on? I have not played as egypt yet so cannot comment :egypt:

Still the desert cav are very fast, so great for when you want to make sure you kill/capture every single man of a city/castle garrison AI reinforcement when hitting an army by a settlement to allow same turn rush in.

Also, a few units of desert cav can cause some reasonable damage to marching mailed knights/generals etc, although in conflict all other horse faction units send them packing in fairly short order. I just used 2+ generals in most serious stacks as my heavy cav with desert cav support, by the time I had the moors next level cav available it was virtually all done. My general units were regularly cut down to the slim end of single figures, although I only lost 10 or so generals overall.

I again relied on mercs wherever I could grab them. I rolled western europe fairly early so only spears/xbows available. The Jihad recruitable troops are only consistant in the south and east, although a wall of Ghazis rolling down the hill into the enemy as my generals smash into the flanks/rear usually worked wonders :smash: .

My main strategy for the Moors was to fight as few battles as possible (179 wins total for 106 province), I did this by basically rushing past and attacking weakspots wherever possible, relying on secondary waves to snuff out hotspots that develop. In the screenshots above you can see at various points I had 'hotspots' at bruges, nottingham, zagreb etc ie: AI had strong enough army that it was easier to rush past and draw them after me, then hit them with a secondary wave army :laugh4:

An example of my 'light' miltary style with moors. My first Jihad is to Constantinople. I only send 1 general+ 7 mixed units. His objective was to capture most of north african coast+ palermo etc, grabbing troops wherever then take constantinople singlehanded around 12/13.

Ok but Byzantine has a fair bit of land to raise cash from, and decent-ish armies early on, but they are usually fighting turkey/venice/hungary by turn 10 on VH, so I am gambling on 3-5 garrison + small floating army on Corinth as they have moved armies north/east. I get 4 units.

Sieging/sacking Corinth makes AI byzantine head its free armies down towards corinth by land/sea. However, I have now hopped back on my merc cog and sped across to rebel smryna? (castle below nicea). siege/sack creates another hostile border with Byzantine. They divert armies again, and also land a small HA army and siege corinth. I ignore it.

I then step my general out of the jihad stack and grab more non jihad mercs, these are set off to cause mischief/reinforce corinth. I then rejoin stack and sail on constantinople (I always coast hop with jihad/crusade armies ie: end of each turn on dry land). As I siege constantinople with a full stack, a captained HA unit 'false' sieges Nicea to draw any Byzantine loose armies - most of their forces are 2 turns out from constantinople that I can see...

Finally, constantinople falls on turn 14 as the Jihad ends, Byzantines turn and rush back to retake constantinople, but by now I am sieging Nicea properly after a quick hop on my speedy little cog! Byzantine Ai is really dithering now so I snap back and take Thesslonica with a weak garrison before they can defend in strength. Disheartened, the Byzantines trudge back down through Turkey to their last remaining Island..

On a final note, never underestimate the power of an enraged faction leader :furious3:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

So after leaving my newly promoted general to oversee the siege of london, my Sultan heads north with a loyal family member engage in a spot of falconry and see the lie of the land (ie: check notts garrison and see if any mercs in reigon, spys too slow to keep up)

Suddenly I am ambushed by a gang of merry men! I actually clicked a bit nearer to nottingham than intended, and could have withdrawn, but the 'odds' made me go for it:
https://i207.photobucket.com/albums/...s_ambush12.jpg

Still after a tough fight, my faction leader emerges bloody but victorious:
https://i207.photobucket.com/albums/..._victory12.jpg

Victory has its price...
https://i207.photobucket.com/albums/...rs_death12.jpg

General Grog approaches the weapon rack. He ponders his choices, whilst scratching his recently healed decaptitaion scar.

Taking up the HRE rapier, he makes a few idle swishes in the air, smiles, then replaces the weapon back in the rack. Then his eyes alight on a curved eastern scimitar. Grinning, he takes it from the rack, turns on his heel and shouts "Horse Archers, the more the merrier" as he strides out to meet his captains...


Turks 1.3 Vanilla VH/VH
Objective: 106 province Jihad, military conquest.

Houserules:
-No allies
-No debt
-Minor spying and diplomacy
-Sack/Ransom everywhere
-Massive multiple Jihad armies

Turkish Empire Report, turn 5:

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Jihad called Turn 2 against Baghdad. Turn 1 was used to form up armies for this.
9 provinces taken by turn 5, starting war on the Byzantines while Jihad stacks head to Russia and the Holy Lands/Egypt.

Turks always slow for the first few turns as they need to overcome economic/logistical problems of the east...

https://i207.photobucket.com/albums/...T5_faction.jpg

Turkish Empire Report, turn 10:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Jihad vs Baghdad is successful turn 9. I needed a fast first Jihad to carve out a base economy, and to get me north/west far enough to overcome logistics. Now we have 10 turns to build for Jihad 2...

https://i207.photobucket.com/albums/...9_jihadwin.jpg

31 provinces captured by turn 10. Sultan Jalal begins the long dusty trek to Timbuktu, leaving the empire in the safe hands of his dreaded son, Mustafa. Starting to tie up the NE/SE map corners. War on moscow. Southern Italy is taken, rome captured, armies head north and west into europe/med.

https://i207.photobucket.com/albums/..._faction-1.jpg

Turkish Empire Report, turn 15:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Long campaign Victory turn 14 as Sofia falls, after a two front curve and switch attack on byzantines.

https://i207.photobucket.com/albums/...14_victory.jpg

45 provinces captured by turn 15. My armies spreading into Europe. Sultan Jalal nears timbuktu.
SE locked. NE getting close. Skirting round Russia for now and ravaging westwards. HRE being rushed. Florins a bit scarce, all buillding work dried up a few turns back, its all going on troops atm for Jihad 2 turn 19...

https://i207.photobucket.com/albums/...15_faction.jpg

Turkish Empire Report, turn 20:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The second Jihad is called on novogrod on turn 19. I just wanted somewhere the AI would not get to before me, plus I always get held up in Russia :beam:

63 provinces captured by turn 20, but the Jihad is in full flow now. stacks pushing ahead to danes/brits, creating a nice patchwork blitz effect. My plan is to zerg in, grab all NW europe castles then explode everywhere! Bloody big fight vs Hungary soon, poles on the ropes, russia surrounded.

https://i207.photobucket.com/albums/...20_faction.jpg

Turkish Empire Report, turn 25:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The world falls to the Turkish Horde, turn 25, 106 provinces :smash: :laugh4: :whip:

Note: 106 provinces taken in 155 battles won and <40 generals :inquisitive:

https://i207.photobucket.com/albums/...25_faction.jpg

The second Jihad is won at Novogrod.
https://i207.photobucket.com/albums/..._T25_jihad.jpg

Faction rankings, turn 25:

https://i207.photobucket.com/albums/...25_overall.jpg

Die Infidels! :clown:

Necromancy is bad :no: