Civ4 AI Survivor Season 8: Game Seven Writeup

Lizzy was not far behind however, as despite her late bloomer status, she had expanded well and begun the ticking of the Fin/Alive clock. Despite her slow start, she had executed the economic playbook to absolute perfection, made on point teching choices, and had a city count that was rivaling Mehmed - always a good sign for a Financial leader. She also permanently relegated her northern Spanish neighbor to irrelevance by capturing Kassite (keep this event in the back of your mind!). On one hand, the Spanish had all the religious momentum, but on the other hand, Izzy only had five cities - although she did come close to taking Angkor Thom for herself - and that is a recipe for failure. Charlie finally founded the Monotheism of Islam, spreading it to Sury, and perhaps he had a shot at survival. Christianity soon afterwards spread to Mehmed, and the diplomatic lines were forming.

To absolutely no one's surprise, the Jewish Aztecs started the first war of the game against the Holy Romans. Charlie was in huge trouble, as even Protective Archers do little against metal units. Monty immediately ran over the Islamic Holy City of Vienna, and it felt certain that Charlie would be First To Die until... WHOPPER WHOPPER WHOPPER WHOPPER, THE BURGER KING HAD FOUND HIS COPPER. This was a 1/2000 roll, a miracle indeed. Charlie was not remotely close to being out of the woods just yet - Nuremberg also fell to the Aztecs and his religious enemy Mehmed was plotting war. A 2v1 from two of the strongest leaders would end his season early, with or without metals.

Soon after Monty's attack, Sury invaded Spain, although there was no guarantee that he would take the better-defended Seville until Izzy committed a terrible blunder: she sent Seville's defenders to a forest in order to attack the Khmer invaders, exposing Seville when her Hail Mary predictably ended in disaster. She had four cities remaining, and was likely finished despite having made Christianity the dominant world religion - even converting her attacker. Sury desperately needed to conquer Spain. As it turned out, the community may have overestimated the quality of his land - no amount of flood plains and food could compensate for the fact that the Khmer lands were nearly devoid of happiness resources, and the resulting internal strife was wrecking his economic development - Sury was losing gold at 10-20% research. Waiting until Turn 100 to research Pottery had also not helped his situation. Unfortunately for the Khmer, his war ended up stalemating despite having double the city count, with Izzy using the Christian shrine and The Great Lighthouse to maintain tech relevance and Sury's lack of Catapults preventing him from making any military headway. This fighting was all fine and dandy for Queen Elizabeth, who was already nearing Feudalism and thus Longbows, securing her safety for the time being.

The Burger King was putting up a dogged defense, even taking Vienna back, but when Mehmed dogpiled him, his fate was sealed. The Aztecs and Ottomans quickly ripped apart what remained of the Holy Roman Empire. In a sort of historical parallel, Mehmed the Conqueror ended up bringing an end to a self-proclaimed heir to Rome, rendering it so that for once, the obvious First To Die choice ended up exiting the game first. The Burger King was not completely to blame for his demise; anyone would be hard-pressed to overcome a jungle start with Monty as a neighbor. Because the AI cannot cheat when it comes to hidden resources, Charlie was unable to research Bronze Working in time to secure his safety, and it was far too late by the time Copper somehow appeared from thin air. Ultimately, the Holy Roman Empire lived up to its historical meme. Charlie was not very Holy, failing to get an early religion and then getting to Monotheism too late to stop the spread of Izzy's Christianity. The most Roman aspect of his game was in getting conquered by the Ottomans. Obviously, he was most certainly not an empire. Overall, Charlemagne demonstrated why he is generally regarded as the worst leader in the game when human-controlled, as his poor starting package was unable to overcome his tenuous at best situation.

At this point, the Ottomans and English had begun to separate themselves from the rest of the field. The former had built a massive empire off of his initial expansion and his partitioning of Holy Rome, while the latter was continuing the theme of this season of the best techer in the field never getting invaded early and thus snowballing economically. Lizzy just needed to stay in the global religion of Christianity and not further isolate herself by converting to a self founded religion. Nevertheless, Sullla's proclamation seemed to ring true: if Lizzy reached Rifling, she would win. Monte-jew-ma had also benefited greatly from his dismantling of Charlie, but he was a religious pariah and was never going to take any time recovering from his conquests - Sullla was halfway through asking who Monty was going to attack next when the Aztec leader immediately turned towards Suryavarman, exactly one turn after Charlie's demise.

In an instant, Monty's rabid band of Jaguars had sacked Nagara Jayasri, followed immediately by them trampling through THE KHMER CAPITAL OF YASODHARAPURA. In a flash, Sury's winning chances had gone poof, his palace entourage forced to flee to the Southeast Khmer corner city of Angkor Wat (the city, not the wonder). The Aztec army had not yet incorporated Catapults - their ransacking of the Khmer heartland was purely through the brute strength of numbers. Thus, the Aztec wave receded as fast as it had risen, as it was nigh impossible to reinforce the massive losses he had incurred. Sury pulled his forces out of Spain to escape the 2v1, retook his lost cities, and chased the Aztecs out of his mainland, bringing the fight to the border city of Hariharalaya, far away from his once proud former capital. This was little consolation to the people of Yasodharapura left to pick up the pieces from the utter Aztec devastation.

Izzy, being one of the crazier leaders herself, went back to war, sending her forces to attack her fellow Christian Elizabeth in a rehash of the Catholic vs. Protestant conflict. In a way, this was good for Lizzy, as it forced her to maintain a military to eventually be ready for a likely future Ottoman conflict. To tack on, Izzy was not at all a dangerous foe. She had a paltry six cities, and it could have been worse - she had made up for the loss of Seville by settling one city and culturally flipping the former Holy Roman city of Mainz. Despite the surprise Spanish invasion, Izzy's initial attack of Fort Kassite went about as well as the real life 1588 Spanish invasion of Elizabethan England, with English Longbows shredding the Spanish invaders. The war sputtered out, and Lizzy was free to continue running away in tech. Mehmed had to make some sort of move ASAP in order to keep his winning chances alive.

That move would be made for him. Monty peaced out with Sury, ultimately gaining Nagara Jayasri from the conflict, and then he met the love of his life and dedicated himself to world peace and feeding the homeless... actually, he immediately went back to war, against the far stronger Ottomans. Monty was certainly living the good life! However, the Monty train had officially run out of steam. The Ottomans obliterated the Aztec forces and immediately began trampling through the Aztec core as if it were Turn 250 and Tanks were rolling. Having Janissaries versus outdated units was not much different, as the primary schtick of Civ IV Janissaries is to destroy Medieval Era units.

Speaking of unique units, Redcoats might honestly be one of the best ones regarding this tournament, due to how they pull leaders towards the crucial Rifling tech. There was no Willem Gambit; Lizzy decisively leveraged a double golden age to beeline Rifling. The tech leader really begins to take off in the Renaissance Era, when the combination of Great Person generation peaking and nabbing Taj Mahal creates a long Golden Age that helps secure all the crucial Renaissance prizes, like the Liberalism free tech, the Economics Great Merchant, and the Physics Great Scientist. Lizzy was no different in that regard. Having her newly minted Royal Army of Redcoats, she decided to get back at Izzy, declaring war and letting her Redcoats destroy the Spanish army at Fort Kassite before the Cavalry arrived. The Royal Army charged into Spain, netting the Christian Holy City of Barcelona as a wonderful gift for their Queen. The disintegration of the two historically linked civilizations of Spain and the Aztecs was on, with Monty being the first to go.

Twitch community member indigolamp put it well: Monty was here for a good time, not a long time! This was a classic Monty game: found a religion, never spread it, and then try and kill as many heathens as possible until someone finally locks him back into the insane asylum that he belongs to. Not only did Monty put out the peak entertainment we know and love him for, but also, he legitimately played well by his standards, as during his brief moment of sanity, he was a strong player who was getting some hype to win the game in the Twitch chat. If he had exercised SLIGHTLY more restraint - for example, waiting a few turns to incorporate Catapults into his Khmer campaign - he could have been a force in this game. Otherwise, to paraphrase a wise man, he Montezuma'd quite well this game, getting every single leader in the world to absolutely hate his guts, a sentiment which he gladly reciprocated.

Speaking of Catapults, fret not about Lizzy's one singular Catapult in the Royal Army, for the Royal Navy was also involved, with English Frigates laying the smackdown on Madrid. Sury then came for a piece of the Spanish pie, further quickening her conquest. However...

This could be THE showdown. Mehmed vs. Elizabeth. With the bulk of Lizzy's army off in Spain, the Ottoman timing would have been perfect had he not been bribed into this war in a desperate attempt by Izzy to save herself. Despite having Cuirassiers and Janissaries against the English Redcoats and Cavalry, Mehmed had nearly twice the number of cities and ALMOST THREE TIMES THE NUMBER OF UNITS, and this was potentially enough to even things out. The Khmer ended up taking Madrid - Sury's playoff prospects were definitely not out of reach. Despite near-crippling levels of unhappiness, he was able to somewhat recover, develop his cities, and be a loyal sidekick for Mehmed. Mehmed was a great benefactor for Sury to have, as even if one or both of them were to drop Christianity, peaceweight would likely still keep Mehmed at Pleased, enough to ensure the Khmer's safety. Ultimately, Mehmed v. Elizabeth Part I would end in a cliffhanger when Lizzy shrewdly captured the border city of Ankara and handed it back for peace. The English had recently researched Railroad for Machine Guns and Assembly Line for Infantry, and Mehmed understood that those units would slaughter his Cuirassiers and Grenadiers.

That was the end of Spain, as Lizzy capturing Santiago was followed by Sury getting the final Spanish city of Toledo for the kill point. After yet another extremely disappointing performance, there is a valid argument that Isabella is a bottom five leader for AI Survivor purposes. In this game, Izzy actually played quite well in many facets, notwithstanding her disastrous defense of Seville. In particular, her religious spreading was so effective that despite the fanatical nature of her competition, her Christianity was the unrivaled religion in this game. She also churned out a good economic performance, leveraging her Christian shrine and a Great Lighthouse coastal economy with great efficiency. Unfortunately, all of this did not matter, because Izzy only ended up with five cities after the opening phase. At the end of the day, that just does not cut it in Civilization IV, and by failing in the most essential component of her game, her performance ended up being a pathetic one. Expansion is the hallmark of the Civilization series, and a leader who cannot expand is like a basketball player who cannot shoot, a singer who cannot sing in tune, or a writer who cannot spell. This has been a consistent theme in Izzy's games, in which her imbalanced religious personality causes her to neglect some other aspect of her game. Being too geared towards one thing - religion in Izzy's case - has been proven time and time again to be detrimental, and it should come as no surprise that as of this writing, Izzy has THE SINGULAR WORST survival rate among all leaders of 11.1%, a figure quoted from noted AI Survivor librarian, historian, and archives expert LinkMarioSamus.

Taking stock of the remaining three leaders: Elizabeth was essentially in a 2v1 for the remainder of the game, as the Christian Eastern leaders loved each other and hated those darn peace-lovin' English atheists. At the moment, Lizzy was on pace to launch her spaceship by Turn 300, although Culture was another possibility. Sometimes, having enemies can be a good thing. The inevitable Ottoman v. England sequel would greatly reduce the likelihood that Lizzy would foolishly opt for an early Culture win, a move which carried far more risk than was worthwhile. Her victory was not at all secured, as even though she had Infantry, Mehmed was about to pick up Rifling, and an army of 200+ Rifling Era units were definitely capable of bulldozing their way through Infantry.

Funnily enough, it was Sury who fired the first shot, attempting to take the rest of former Spain for himself. Lizzy had advanced units, but her army was smaller, and each loss weighed quite heavily on her. Thus, when Mehmed started the Ottomans v. English: The Empire Strikes Back, he had the initiative, with THREE TIMES the number of units as the English. Mehmed needed to research Steel, however. 1755 AD Trebuchets?!?! Nevertheless, the Ottomans finally broke through the walls of Fort Kassite, splitting the English Empire into two. While the AI usually have a tendency to build too few siege units, Lizzy had the opposite issue, building far too many Artillery as city defenders - Artillery do not get cultural defensive bonuses, making them poor defenders against 200 Cavalry. The massive Turkish army was poised to run over Warwick, and all the momentum was on the Eastern Christian side.

Then, a huge reprieve came for Lizzy: Sury peaced out, freeing up the bulk of the Royal Army to run South to deal with the Ottoman threat. Then, with his foot on Elizabeth's throat, Mehmed inexplicably retreated his forces from Warwick in order to try and form an even bigger stack. Although he eventually used his massive numbers to take Warwick, those few extra turns were monumental for Lizzy. She retook Fort Kassite (capturing that barb city early on was crucial for her) and was about to research Industrialism for Tanks. Nevertheless, the Ottoman army smashed its way through Hastings and was on the outskirts of London. The Battle of London was THE ULTIMATE BATTLE. Take the English capital, and the dam would break: it would be difficult to imagine Tanks saving the British. Would the Ottoman numbers be enough to achieve their most important victory, or would the English Tanks decisively defend their homeland for their Queen?

LONDON HOLDS! The Tanks were CLUTCH. The Battle of London was a catastrophe for Mehmed, his armies finally pulverized by the double-attacking Tanks. The Ottomans were now becoming crippled by domestic problems - one should look no further than this game as proof of the importance of the Statue of Zeus wonder. Mehmed's cities were dealing with a staggering TWENTY unhappiness from war weariness. Twenty - one could not imagine the terrible unrest that was taking place in the Turkish cities. Mehmed sorely needed Police State to quell the riots. Like how enemy war weariness played a major role in the English winning World War I, it had become a key factor in this conflict.

Lizzy was smartly not attempting a Culture Victory - she had researched Plastics, the tech that leaders usually cash in their Culture chips on, and was continuing to march down the tech tree to keep the Royal Army modernized and the Royal Air Force formulated. The war had greatly slowed down her Spaceship - it was Turn 300 and she was nowhere close - but it seemed like some English victory was going to happen one way or another. Except, Lizzy's victory was not quite assured yet. If Mehmed and Sury could not stop her through military, they could through diplomacy. Lizzy needed to be very careful with the United Nations - Mehmed would control it, and combined with the Khmer, could potentially be elected World Leader and win.

Not so fast. Sury foolishly decided to attack England again, despite not having even Rifles yet (yes - Turn 300 and no rifles). With Police State barely keeping the protesters at bay, Mehmed was finally forced to bow out of the war, leaving the Khmer to defend themselves from Mobile Artillery with MACEMEN and CUIRASSIERS. Talk about trying to fight Lord Voldemort with a rubber duckie. Sullla pulled out the classic Ralph Wiggum "I'm In Danger!" meme for the livestream. Here is my own:

For the third time this game, core Khmer cities fell. The key difference was that there were zero prospects of recapture - Mobile Artillery are game wreckers if reached. A Mehmed UN victory had instantly become out of the question. The only uncertainty was going to be how Lizzy could win: the Spaceship was going to be even further delayed as the English were prioritizing end game military over spaceship parts. It appeared that the Wildcard Game was not going to get any new members, even with the Ottomans coming back for Round Three.

From the finale of the Figaro trilogy to Return Of The Jedi, from the Godfather Part III to Spiderman 3, third installments of franchises have tended to disappoint. Mehmed v. Lizzy 3: The Last Stand was no different. The Turkish riots immediately restarted, as Mehmed was out of Police State and would eventually enforce Universal Suffrage with the UN. That was not the end of the United Nations influence: the once proud Khmer Empire had been reduced to the one Arctic city of Pre Rup, and Mehmed had initiated a Stop The War resolution that could save Sury. Oh Joao! Lizzy struck it down. So long, Sury! Unless...

A miracle! Lizzy had decided to ignore the meaningless Pre Rup, turning her full wrath onto the northern Turkish lands that once comprised a large Burger King joint in a time long past. Her warring and prioritization of military techs had prolonged the game so much that her victory was most likely going to come by CULTURE, despite having never touched the Culture slider. Lizzy was giving the community flashbacks of playing on Settler difficulty and passively researching way ahead of everybody else before accidentally winning by Culture. As a matter of fact, seeing how close she was to a Culture Victory, Lizzy decided to salvage some picking contest points and switch on the Culture Slider for one turn, netting herself an atypical Turn 362 Culture Victory.

Sury joins the ranks of Cathy, Joao, and Pericles as cute little city states that somehow survived to the Wildcard Game. This may be a controversial opinion, but I am of the belief that Sury did play well in some moments, and that his strong AI Survivor personality was the difference maker regarding his staving off of elimination. The major reasons for his seeded leader status (Creative trait, good diplomacy with fellow villains, good balance of econ and military leanings) were on full display. He forged a rock-solid alliance with Mehmed, made strong moves on weak Izzy, and at least tried to hold off Lizzy with the Ottomans. However, he completely bungled his opening, particularly by crashing his economy from building far too many Warriors. This was his central error, as it created a cascading effect of disasters: he was too slow to The Wheel, making him too slow to metals, hurting him even more when he had to slow down his tech to upgrade all those warriors - which then put him in a position for bad luck to strike when the barbarians took Angkor Thom. From there, he further tanked his economy in the process of retrieving his city - Turn 100 Pottery and Turn 150 BARBARISM and DESPOTISM says it all - before stalemating against Spain and allowing Monty to wreak havoc on his empire. By the time he recovered - an impressive recovery no doubt - he was too far behind to be anything more than a second fiddle, and unfortunately, his peaceweight alignment ended up placing him on the wrong side of history, leading to his foolish war declaration that nearly eliminated him. Another hot take: Sury is going to be a 2nd or 3rd tier leader in Alternate Histories. A big factor in his game was that his land may not have been great. An Immortal or Deity human player would jump in joy at his start, but for AI Survivor, having low production, an overabundance of flood plains, and, worst of all, little in the way of luxuries is not a recipe for success. Perhaps we need to learn to not view tournament starting positions from our own lenses.

One noteworthy trend this season: the silver medalists have put up strong performances in their own right. Mehmed was no exception here. He played by far the best opening of the bunch, and used it to maintain a consistently strong position in which despite always being behind Lizzy of the Fin/Never-Attacked-Before-Rifles-Except-By-Irrelevant-Spain traits in tech, Mehmed was always in contention to win for 90% of the game. If it were not for having Monty as a neighbor, he could have trampled over England in time to have a dominating finish, and he still came close to beating her even when she had reached Infantry. His errors were primarily of a tactical nature: mainly taking far too long to get Cannons when Lizzy was already halfway through the Industrial Era, and taking too long to capture Warwick in his decisive 2nd war against England. We can make meh-med jokes all we want, but the Season Five Champion (you read that right!) has shown that he is not a meh leader, and he would be a borderline Pool One leader if he was able to plot at Pleased. In fact, he has secured a spot in Pool Two next season.

Six. That's the lowest peaceweight of an Opening Round victor this season, and that winner was the legendary Justinian. We have seen the entire gamut, from playing Always War and still somehow winning (Hammurabi G1, Standing Bull G3) to never getting touched and completely running away (Mansa Musa G4, Vicky G6). Lizzy's victory falls somewhere in the middle. When the big baddies finally came calling, she was strong enough to fight them off. It was a struggle however, and it felt like if she reached Tanks any later, she would have collapsed against the Ottomans. Luck is when talent meets opportunity, however. Lizzy was always on top of keeping her Royal Army well equipped, researching Feudalism, Rifling, Assembly Line, and Industrialism in a timely manner. Her continuing to focus on military techs in the end game was also a smart move. This was not just because of the Ottoman specter - if her Khmer conquest went any slower, she might have lost to a Mehmed Diplomatic victory. Another point that needs to be made: although the AI generally do not use Philosophical well, Lizzy bucked this trend. She showed why she is one of the best techers in the game, using Financial and Philosophical to maximal effort, especially by using the latter to bulldoze her way through the Renaissance Era. Perhaps she was lucky, but Lizzy did the best she could to create her own luck. Mansa Musa is certainly going to appreciate her presence in his playoff game.

Regarding Fantasy: Stock Up goes to Henrik and Kjotlek. I stated last week that Henrik was irrelevant, and perhaps, with Mehmed's strong performance, that was a tad premature. If the Wildcard Game goes in his favor, he may have a chance after all. Meanwhile, Kjotlek has 80% of his team in the playoffs and all of his team is still alive and contributing - even Sury scored a point, and I am liking his Wildcard position considering the other contestants. He is still the biggest frontrunner. Stock Down: antisocialmunky. I do not think Mansa Musa will be enough to carry him. Meanwhile, Bellomorphe's team was saved by his steal of a bid on Lizzy, and perhaps Qin and Lizzy could be a winning combination for him.