GCB's Civ 5 LiveBlog: Caracalla's Revenge

[GoldenCityBird]

Welcome to my Civilization 5 modded live-blog let's play! Now, I'm a bit new at this, so I'll run you through what I did off-camera:
I am playing as Rome, led by Caracalla. This civ is very war-focused, and, to move myself away from my usual strat of "Turtle and Pray," I have disabled all non-Domination victories. The game ends when someone owns all eighteen capital cities.
I am on the archiapelago map mode. There are a lot of islands, so building up a navy should be everyone's priority. I started here:

Yep, that is ice. I am in the south pole of the map, stuck between tundra and desert. Hey, at least there's a lot of fish, and the promising chance of gaining oil.
Here are my nearest opponents/allies:

For the keen-eyed Jojo fans among you: Yes, I am going up against Diavolo's Passione. He started off on a landmass with the Shoshone, but somehow managed to found at least five whole cities.
Also present are two city-states: Sidon (see that purple dot on the map? That's their one-tile-island kingdom) and Wittenberg. Wittenberg is a religious city-state, but that ain't my priotiy (ignore the faith output I built a shrine for religion but missed the tundra belief). What IS my priorty, however, is the military, and Sidon can help with that if I ally with them.
In terms of non-civ mods, I have some mods that add to espionage, late-game military, and governments.
I have just converted my government from a lowly tribe to a functioning Democracy. This gives me a few buffs, including a free writer. Everything in my empire's on hold for now due to anarchy, but it'll be fine next turn.

(Insert image of unclaimed island with Old Faithful on it and my embarked Warrior next to it and I definitely succeeded in screenshotting it.)

Diavolo has not discovered boats or Old Faithful. I have discovered boats and Old Faithful. In short: for happiness and science, as well as horses, I want to settle there.
Now, turn 104. I'm just doing some basic stuff: securing a route to the new city, allying Sidon, and starting to research Iron Working to get a Heroic Epic to put my Great Work in. I also met Japan, who are apparently Diavolo's neighbours. I feel kinda bad for Oda right now.
Turn 109: Those ruins near Old Faithful? Gave an extra population to one of my cities. How did they get there so fast?
I was joined on the island by a Shoshone scout. Seems like they know how to embark. Let's hope they don't beat me to the ruins.
I also discovered another island! Ivory, horses, ruins, and some minor XP gain! This place has it all.
Some time has passed. I won't clog everything up with images, so here's the long and short of it: Diavolo took the Monarchy government, Oda took the Poetocracy government, I cleared out the barbarian camp on the smaller island, and I discovered Iron Working. I'm starting to lose grasp of Sidon, though. Maybe I should wait a little while.
Oh, and, turns out there are barbians on Old Faithful Island. Joy...
Now it's turn 119. Vatican City, another religious city-state, has been discovered in the snow. I'm sending a settler to Old Faithful, and it should arrive in a few turns.
Turn 121. I am selling whales to Diavolo, and I have completed the Liberty policy tree. Gained a great artist, getting me some more culture (couldn't pick a scientist for whatever reason), as well as a free settler.
A couple of turns later, I have entered the middle ages. One free spy, sent straight to Sidon to rig elections, has been grabbed. I found the Moors, led by Abd-ar-Rahman III. Like me, they're in a chilly spot.

Pictured here is Cumae, the city near Old Faithful. If needed, I can rename the city, but for now, here's a happier, richer empire.
The small island near it also now has a city: Neapolis. Both cities are important for controlling these seas in the early game. I mean, nobody's got anything that can go into deep ocean yet, so... I'd better use it while it lasts.
I've also met the Iroquois. They're far away.
Sidon sent me a catapault. Thanks, I guess.

DIAVOLO YOU F*CKING BASTARD! HOW DARE YOU TAKE AN INNOCENT CITY-STATE? HOW??? Oh, yeah, I almost forgot you were a gangster who deals drugs to kids. Yeah... that's it. Invasion plans are a-go. I'll build up my navies and armies at Cumae, invite Pocatello or Oda to help with the war efforts, and... boom! I swoop in. I'll aim for his capital, Venezia, and, if he still wants war, liberate Valletta. This is all definitely for helping out my friends and allies and not just because I want to control the inevitable world congress. No-sireee...
Anyway, that's it for today. If you have any questions, suggestions, or anything else, don't hesitate to comment.

[GoldenCityBird]

Episode two! Now, quick recap: I want to take out Diavolo. I've founded a few frontline cities to assist in building a navy and army. Now, I shall wait patiently and build up resources.
I've moved my second spy from Sidon to Diavolo's capital, Venezia, in the hopes of nabbing tech and being a nusciance. That, and the Iroqouis are doing a better job of rigging Sidon's elections than I am, so I have decided: Sidon't bother.
I have established a temporary trade route between Neapolis and Venezia, just for a tech boost.
Speaking of the devil, he came to me with a declaration of friendship. I said no, since I don't want backstab penalties.

Here's my current empire. Yeah, that's a settler moving up on my island. I plan on building a brand new city - Ravenna. It'll have access to a lot of iron, which is an important resource early game - and trade fodder later on.

Pocatello forward-settled me. That, needless to say, annoys me slightly. So... I asked Diavolo to help me with the war (totally not to start weakening him), and he denounced me.
Fine, I'll do it myself.
The war was over and done with as quick as I expected - defenceless city? Mine. Pocatello? Paying me.
Now, the Iroqouis and Japan are scouting around my lands for city locations, I guess? THERE'S ONLY SNOW! (And maybe other resources but y'all don't know that.)
Now that the war's over, I can focus on what's important: victory! If the Shoshone empire turns out to be smaller than I expected, I might aim for Moson Khani first. Otherwise, it's war against Diavolo.

JAPAN? EXCUSE ME???
I don't think I'll bother with those yet.

Done some exploring, and... yeah, this is like... no wonder you're all forward-settling my rich, bountiful lands.

To end the update within four images... Japan is now sieging Diavolo's capital city. This is... fine, maybe? I mean, good luck, but Diavolo's going to be a little exhausted after all that war (and he's fighting two fronts, too). There are just a few problems:

1: My taskforce is rather small right now (three ranged boats and a longswordsman, with a pikeman on the way), and
2: Due to not being ready for war, and Diavolo being super-sensitive to my units' placement, I had to pinkie-promise to not attack him.

I'm going to take a break for today, but I'm fairly certain that I will be able to invade Diavolo in the next update. Stay tuned, if you want to.

[GoldenCityBird]

Alright, part 3! This time, I'm going to be adding a few things that Caracalla might've said, or exchanges that may have occured between characters.

"Yes, Licina, I trust my scientists. Every single catapault in the land shall be replaced by a trebuchet as soon as possible. Now, go back to defending the city. The less you know the better. Now, what's the news?"

"...What in Mars' name is a Tails?"
Yeah, I expected someone far away to lose their capital, but I'll take this as a warning about the lil' foxo.
Moments later, I decided to scout near Nara to see what Japan was up to. Oda saw me, and...
"We're in a national happiness crisis, and there's marble down there. MARBLE! Do you have any idea how happy that'll make our citizens? So, I declared war on him. What's he going to do? He's far away."
Nara was a relatively easy capture for my longswordsmen, in spite of my composite archer being sabotaged by someone's spy.
Izumo should be an easy capture, even if it's somehwhat useless, but Japan's other cities, including their capital, are a little far away.

Oh, wait, never mind. Japan made peace, and gave me the city. I'm burning it to the ground since I don't really need it.
And then Diavolo crashed the game. Lovely.
I got back to where I was with relative ease. Let's hope that doesn't happen again.
On the plus side, I've just discovered gunpowder. That makes my troops a lot better.

The fateful hour is upon us... I am invading Passione, and I intend on taking Venezia with me.
Valletta? Liberated. They're thankful, but the world's denounced me. It was a calculated risk.

Milano was captured by me, then taken back by Diavolo. I took it back and started razing it to the ground. It doesn't seem worth keeping around and just kept getting in the way of my conquest.
And Tails took anothert capital. "Whoever this Tails is... they must be a strong, fierce warrior."
Sweden has been discovered. Gandhi hasn't, but his diplomacy screen showed up with him denouncing me.
S. M. F*cking. H.

And with a final push, one dead musketman, and a peace offer, Venezia is now mine. One down, sixteen to go.
On that note, it's time to end. See you all tomorrow, I hope.

[awe921]

"and then Diavolo crashed the game."

so this is King Crimson Requiem's power?

[GoldenCityBird]

Welcome back to Civ 5! Last time, I took a capital!
"Alright, so what if the world hates me? It'll all change in a few moments."

"Caracalla, are you alright? You seem a little shocked by-"

The world congress has been founded by Sweden! Let's meet the other civs:

Now, there are 16 civs in-game. Tails has 3 capitals. So either Tails has the Mayan capital, or he wiped out two entire nations.
Anyway, a lot of people denounced me and I was tired, so... I took a long break. Sorry for the delay.
Anyway, we're back now!
I messed around with the modded espionage options a bit, tried to do some well-poisoning in Tails' Workshop (He was scary at the time), and now I'm in an inconsequential war. Lovely.

I made amazing amounts of money by botching a crime and basically the AI's stupid.
The World's Fair is now a thing that's being worked on by the world. Fair... I might try to put work into it this time.
The world congress is having a leader re-shuffle because it now recognises city-states. Tails is the option I hate the least that actually stands a chance, so I'm voting for him.
At this point, I felt that I couldn't get enough content to justify daily updates for now.

And thus started a very long break 2.

I deeply apologise for the very long time it took for this to come out. I had all this stuff saved up for a while, and didn't have much motivation. I'll try my best to get out more updates out soon-ish. (assuming much of note happens because right now I'm just spending time at peace watching the World's Fair's percentage meter go up)

[GoldenCityBird]

Just a quick update about this liveblog's short-lived fate; my save wound up crashing far too much. I may start a new LB with just the base game and DLCs some time, but don't expect it too soon.