[AAR] AoD2 v1.04 - A New Age

[Dale]

v1.04 is not finished yet. This AAR is a play-test.

As to what happens next, with those numbers of dragoons versus that REF, it's a forgone conclusion. But the King pulled out a major surprise for me during the war (I've got one soldier to kill then it's finished).

[Dale]

So here's my civic choices:











Got another FF before the start of battle too.



The first wave of REF was spread over 5 turns, and was dispatched rapidly thanks to my overwhelming numbers of dragoons in the open. A couple of amphib assaults on Jamestown and Plymouth, but nothing too threatening. There were a couple of FF spread through that time too. The wave saw me finish with over 50 successful combat resolutions.

























Then came the round of quiet as the MoW's went back to England to get the rest of the REF. Time to heal and redeploy ready for the next wave.





Then the King through a curve ball in! Instead of coming from the north towards Jamestown and Plymouth, he came from the south towards the old Inca lands where there was open space and Boston and Baltimore. Boston fell to the REF!





However our fast moving dragoons were able to move to meet the new threat from the south and were able to repel the REF at Baltimore then push them back into the sea. Final victory saw the reclaiming of Boston from under the iron fist of George!

















Independance Roundup!















The game progressed a bit slower than I would have liked, but the forgone conclusion at the end was expected. I mean, I was only playing Conquistador level. But that's a good level to test-play.

[PrinceMyshkin]

Ownage. :P

Only significant factor, which I have seen changing between conquestador and revolutionary is the indians.

I tend to use them a lot, and it hurts when I lose my training centers. With mass missionaries, it's still ok...

BTW is there any chance we can upgrade John Paul Jones to something usuful for the navy? As it is I never take him. Like free promotion veteran I? Or at least a SoL...

Oh... well... some people just like to play with navy.... ::whistles::

[Dale]

Lol, give me a good land war.

[PrinceMyshkin]

Dale,

With my play style (mass production and many cities), I usually end up with a HUGE REF of 2000-3000 land troops.

You can't touch this force, unless you sink the bastards who transfer it.

I can post you screenies of REFs, which I had fought in the past, and you will freak out. Once I remember I've hit 4000...

The whole REF scaling up sucks in my opinion. It is a totally wrong system, implemented in a totally wrong way. One of the biggest blunders Sid has ever made in gaming, maybe together with Civ3 corruption model. Otherwise game is rock solid.

One could suggest the following:

A. REF should scale up with time and sentiment and not total LB production, as actually the game itelf suggests "King has been alarmed by rebel sentiment and bla bla bla...".

B. REF should scale up exactly as it does, but with maximum cap (eg King cannot add more than 30 units per increase, and for ships /2). I had a game King added 400 man-o-wars in one increase, just hillarious!

I have noticed the following; there is a window around 1650, by the time I usually produce my first SoLs, where if I decide to go DoI and get some land army instead, I win the game. But this is too easy and not enjoyable for me.

Or that’s simply not my style, I want to develop my colonies more, and this is where the game starts to scale up in a funny way.

Going for a massive fleet was not an option, but the only way the game itself lets me win with my play style.

Against 3000 troops, let’s say we will pump out muskets massively. According to my notes we can produce around 40,000 muskets by 1720, which is enough to equip 533 soldiers. But simply we don't have so many colonists! We will have a total population of around 300-400 colonists, so even if we arm with muskets EVERYBODY, we won't have enough colonists to fight the King! And I can confidently say 200 soldiers cannot win 3000 soldiers. I usually fight for 1:8 ratios, but 1:15 is not winnable. Not in any way I know of at least.

Thanks

[Dale]

Yeah when you put it like that, I can see your wish for a naval battle.

So the changes I made to REF scaling are better or wose in your opinion? I:
- tripled starting REF
- increased threshold massively
- lowered percentage increase

In my observation this creates a much more even spread of REF increases, and results in a much fairer REF. Whereas the old method resulted in a race just to keep up with it.

[PrinceMyshkin]

Dale,

What you did was really good; a move in the right direction for sure. But still I see problems, the more you expand, the wilder the King expands.

Please have a look at the game I've posted. REF is HUGE and it is only 1674. I can win this but using not so direct methods, playing tricks with navy and cutting down REF transfer rate.

And I know for sure, even like this way, I have to declare DoI by 1720, because if I pass this date King will start piling up some 100s of Man-o-Wars and 500s Regulars and Dragoons at a time...

I would like to see a drastic change.

[PrinceMyshkin]

Hmmmm... and the problem is if we lower more the threshold and the perecentage increase, game will become easier in the beginning...

Unless we increase starting REF further...

Seriously, what about applying max cap on REF increases at a time?

[Dale]

I was just thinking that myself whilst reading your post. "Sounds like a cap on REF increase size is needed."

[PrinceMyshkin]

If you show me how to do it please, I will practice with it, and give you some feedback.

[Dale]

It's a DLL code change.

[PrinceMyshkin]

Ouch... thanks

How do you edit these? Aren't all DLLs compiled files?

[Dale]

Yeah they are, but Firaxis supplies the source code in the program directory (\CvGameCoreDLL\). This gives us high-end modders the ability to change pretty much everything.

[PrinceMyshkin]

Oooh! Thanks

[Asmodean]

How about a cap on total REF size? Or would that make it too easy? Something like REF can never equal more than total rebel population*5 (random factor...playtesting would give a good number)

Asmodean