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AOM III Science Victory.

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  • AOM III Science Victory.

    People who may have been following the great debate will be aware that I have been trying to dispel a myth that AOM is simply a gigantic, rinse and repeat game where you can only win by being a huge war monger, or playing to the end and building a huge empire.

    I normally play a mixture of all victory options, going for points, diplomacy and science, going with the flow of each game. Since I like a bit of conquest, I tend to end up missing the science victory otpions because I go for military and wonder technology.

    I have started a new game of AOM III and I will focus on Science Victory and will post 50 turn reports here for interested people to follow, and comment and ask questions if they wish.



    Settings.
    AOM ultra gig map (about 50% larger than the original ctp2 gigantic I understand). 70% land and continent. Goods 7, 11 opponents, average warm/wet etc. Impossible level, raging hordes, bloodlust and pollution on, no extra units, default surrender (6-1), fluctuations on.

    As always with AOM, map is completely different to last game even though identical settings used. My locality is not so bad but there are mountains to the west and south, jungle and swamp then desert to the SW, Tundra to the north. I do have enough room for early development.

    Turn 50.
    1 spearman from first ruin. 1 city from ruins about turn 20, which I disabnded moved closer. 1 migrant which I sent to London. Couple of advances, then nothing then a scout and a couple of spearman. Just on turn 50 I got a Jav Cav and 2 more spearmen. Built 1 nomad in each city then London went for Stonehenge. Now building defenders in other cities. Have 2 in every one now and 3 in a couple.

    Met the Hexegonians, nice friendly people Hex Happy to exchange maps after I gave them 100 gold. Met the Ku****es to the SW, not so friendly. I gave them 100 gold on first meet but they would not exchange maps. No war so far. I am aiming for Code of Hammurabi in research.

    Thanks to Stan for hsoting these pictures BTW as I never seem to be able to get the Apolyton upload to work.
    Last edited by angrybowen; June 22, 2006, 09:55.
    Also proud to be an AOM Warrior.

  • #2
    SWEET. It'll be cool to follow a saga again!
    Formerly known as "E" on Apolyton

    See me at Civfanatics.com

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    • #3
      Keeping tabs on this.

      At the moment pretty symetrical with how a civ4 game would play.

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      • #4
        As of this morning (played 45 mins before I went to work) I was at turn 270. Just had not put the reports in. I will bring it up to date tonight.

        Couple of points. I build 5-6 spearment to explore with, using a bit of gold to shorten the building for the first 3. Means I have at least 3 explorers by turn 10.

        Playing time for first 50 turns was approximately 75 mins.
        Also proud to be an AOM Warrior.

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        • #5
          Turn 105.



          12 cities. I have pushed some cities out towards the Hexegonians so i do not get hemmed in by them. I will have to build at least 2 cities to fill in shortly. London has built Stone Henge. I have dynasty and my King resides in London to generate his PW and +1 happiness. Have pw on 10% at the moment and research is targeting Herbalism for the Valley of the Kings. Currently building Code of Hammurabi and Pyramids. Many Ai are already fighting each other so I will try for more wonders as they often do not go for wonders so readily if at war. Frenzy is at 2.

          Barbs have been making odd attacks but nothing serious, my exploration did not find any Barb Leaders really close to me which was a bonus.

          I am building Nomads and defenders to get my cities up to the dynasty cap, and a couple of nomads to get advances. As I have decided not to go to war as a larger army will slow down my science, i am building the barest minimum of defenders and explorers.

          I have met the Phoenecians and Dutch. Both are friendly, have exchanged maps and with Hexegonian, have all agreed to mutual withdraw agreements. Kush have however, attacked an explorer and gone to war with me. Also met the Turks who are also not friendly but luckily, they are a fair way to the north across the tundra.

          Early signs are I do not have a lot of good territory to expand in, with the Kush obstructing expansion in the best area.

          I had a purple patch with my explorers, picking up several advances. But then i started getting barbs in ruins and gradually am loosing explorers. However, as I am well away from my borders in most areas, I am continuing to pop the ruins as the barbs will have a long way to walk to me.

          I have been saving as much gold as possible in case I go for more wonders. Have rush bough practically nothing since the first 3 explorers.
          Also proud to be an AOM Warrior.

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          • #6
            Forgot to add, playing time for next 55 turns, 80 minutes.
            Also proud to be an AOM Warrior.

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            • #7
              Turn 171, time for next 65 turns approximately 110 minutes.



              Have 18 cities, nomads in train for 2 more. I did switch to wonder production because I was not at this stage seriously threatened except for a few barbs and getting reports of lots of ai wars. Main thing was the peace treaty with hexegonian is holding. Ku****es are at war but not threatening yet (althoug 2 stacks of 3-4 units are approaching from different directions from the S and SW). Frenzy under 25 as I have done no offesnsive action, not my strategy for this game.

              I had to compete with France for Valley of the Kings but I got a Princess which I used for a production boost. Ended up rush buying with 5000 gold. I connected all cities by Roads. I have an outpost just off map where I got bronze working on copper. Another nomad is enroute with a migrant and defenders to get me city state from an iron resource, also off the south edge. I am building Nomads and defenders, and started on Forge/Granary in a couple of cities.

              Increasingly obvious I have only room for about 20 cities, then will have problems with space. Resources are varied. i do not have access to ANY medicinal goods close by, not a poppy or spice. Very unusual since I have a fair bit of grassland and some plain.

              My explorers are gradually disappearing due to Barbs and an odd ai (the Turks started a war and killed one). I am down to about 4 so I am going to use my Patriarch to explore. Don't want to use him in conversions as i am still saving every gold in case I need to rush buy wonders.

              Main problems I see is lack of space, no medicinal goods and proximity of the tundra to the north. in the past this has been the breeding ground for Barbs.
              Also proud to be an AOM Warrior.

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              • #8
                Good to see an experienced player play. (Now I know what I'm doing wrong. ) A little amazed you can push out a dozen cities by Turn 105. I guess you build nothing but nomads in the early turns. (Which would frighten me, when I meet the neighbors weak, )

                I've been getting production times in the early game of 23 or so turns per nomad, so I've had trouble churning them out. I am not seeing any ruins still, even though I turned up barbs to highest at StanK's selection. (Still not playing on "impossible" though.) Hmph. Curious what you scout with, early and how far?

                The space thing is what scares me about this setup. All these cities could grow to five squares out in a fat cross by late game. (I guess most of you AOM grognards win before the late game though.) Manchester is already crimping London. some of those newer towns on the fringes look like they can hardly grow at all. I'm a little surprised none of that broken jungle to the west and south couldn't support some of those towns. I have nice spacing in my current, most successful (for me) game, but of course I have a tendency to get eaten alive by barbs and AI!
                Last edited by Generaldoktor; June 19, 2006, 22:10.
                You will soon feel the wrath of my myriad swordsmen!

                Comment


                • #9
                  I am not seeing any ruins still,
                  Ah, maybe it is the difficulty level (beginner, not barbs). Try starting a test game and go up one level (to intermediate I think).

                  Angry uses a very similar early strategy to me. Build a few explorers then one nomad per city, you will have enough time to build and get them in position before turn 50 and build another defender. Then beef up your defenders till you have 4-5 per city. Then build another nomad in most cities. Escort the nomad out with say 2 defenders, then build more defenders. This is pretty safe. In Angry's case he got a nomad by about turn 20 from ruins, then built another in that city before turn 50.

                  That gives him 3 at turn 20, 6 at turn 50, 11 by turn 100 fairly comfortably. Depending if the barbs or ai are too close and aggressive.

                  Once you build granaries in every city, then silo, food is not such a big issue, unless you have jungle/swamp/hills and mountains. Forest, grassland are good, plains nearly as good. Stonehenge also helps.

                  I build cities 5 tiles apart except if they are diagonally opposite, then they can be 4. But I adjust that if there is a good handy. Don't build a city next to a ruin unless you check it first. If it was going to be a city, it will come up empty.

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                  • #10
                    This is to let everyone know I am going overseas tomorrow for 45 days.

                    I am taking my lap top with me and will make every effort to keep up to date with all matters, but it may not be as regular as normal.

                    I apologise in advance for any inconvenience it may cause.

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                    • #11
                      Well this explains where I'm going wrong. In real life, I've been accused of having Attention Deficit Disorder and jumping continually from one thing to the next. My production habits in these historical progression games, or whatever they're called, is unfortunately similar. (My Civ production also has flaws, in both C3 and C4.) The discipline here seems to be, "build nomad and protectors, exclusively, for early game. Ignore all other glitter stuff." Hard for me; and perhaps some others. (There's so much "glitter stuff" to be made; bling, bling.)

                      I will check the unit types again, but I am still not sure what an "explorer" is. I used warriors early on and then tried to replace them with scouts (in mountains) and javelin cavalry later, but that intervenes (and interferes) in the production order also.

                      With a solid start, I think players with all kind of playing styles can do well and get satisfaction from this game. For me, it has just been getting that start.
                      You will soon feel the wrath of my myriad swordsmen!

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                      • #12
                        Well I managed it. I am jumping ahead to the end and will fill in the details later. It was one of the hardest games I have played. I admit, i probably really did not focus enough on science till after turn 300, could not resist getting wonders and building outposts. I had it all worked out by turn 380, turns to get there, had 2 turns to spare. Then I got a plague and suddenly I lost one turn. Sat on the edge of my seat for the last 20 turns.

                        As a matter of interest, I was too slow to realise I may have pulled off a diplomatic victory well before turn 400 as at one stage I had peace treaties with every ai except one, the Arabs. But concentrating on science meant only a smaller army for defence, and gradually the AI built up and the Arabs started to give it to the Hexegonians, then went for me and were actually level with me on the power graph at turn 400.

                        5 turns to turn 400 (the first science victory date), 4 turns to research the last advance-Plate Armour.



                        2 turns to turn 400, 1 turns to get Plate Armour.

                        Also proud to be an AOM Warrior.

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                        • #13
                          Never mind the Science Victory; 400 turns in 48 hours! You must have had sleep, work and social life on hold! Take a rest!
                          You will soon feel the wrath of my myriad swordsmen!

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Sorry I am delayed in my next reports but i had trouble getting my posts to display the pictures. Somewhere, the file extension between what was uploaded and what I was posting got mixed up between .jpg and .JPG. I did not relise it would make a difference.

                            Turn 200 report. At this point I lost 75 minutes play time due to a minor problem. My computer had a hiccup and the game crashed (sure it was a windows thing). Actually, everything died, including windows media player in the background. I had to replay 23 turns which was annoying but my computer is in need of a reformat I think, I have a lot of junk on it now.The playing time used since the last report is approx 75 minutes (for 30 turns) not including the crash time.Being a bit careful and getting ready for the next lot of barbs.

                            City state with 22 cities, heading for Oligarchy. I got the theatres feat and cranked up production for 25 turns. It has just ended this turn. I am building 3 wonders. I continued to get an odd advance from my explorers and actually built and sent out 2 more scouts to keep looking.

                            I have withdraw agreements with Hexegonia, Phoenecia and Dutch, at war with Kush and Turks still (althout they are so far away they are not threat) and have met the French who are very advanced and not friendly. I have continued to save gold as much as possible, only expenditure has been an odd 100 gift to my friendly ai, to rush buy wonders to beat the French, and to upgrade some units for bronze working, archery and citizenship.

                            In the first picture, it is the main centre of my empire, the 2nd smaller one, the east front.The Kush have continued to attack on 2 fronts. I have had to build a little more military than I intended as they keep coming even though i have never attacked them on their territory nor trespassed on their land. Their first incursions were before frenzy even reached 25. In the past 15 turns they have sent 2 small stacks towards Portsmouth, 2 large stacks towards Newcastle and a medium stack towards Leeds. I went out to meet them and ran 1-2 rounds of combat then resupplied and came back and finished them. It still cost me several units and a fair bit of supply.

                            There is very little good land in my near vacinity except due east towards the Dutch. Also there are 2 barb cities over there. I have decided to build in that direction as there are some medicinal goods there as well. the risk is i will have an elongated empire that is hard to defend. But I reckon once the next barbarian incursion is over, I will have enough time to complete that expansion and push back the borders enough to defend them. The only other option is to go into a full war with the Kush or attack the Hexegonians which will mean a big military and decrease my science. I still have not really cranked up the science, will do so once I have Oligarchy and Aristotles Lycaeum. Also buiding my first diplomats, to go to the hexegonians and dutch to reinforce our relationship and to try to start trading advances.

                            Also proud to be an AOM Warrior.

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                            • #15
                              Also proud to be an AOM Warrior.

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