Emperor save game analysis.

[Sir Og]

I have decided that it is time to finaly move to Emperor level I am fairly comfortable at Monarch and feel that I can win almost any game at that level.

So here is my current Emperor level game (Standard speed, continets map):


I need some tips from the veteran players where should I go from this point on.

This is the first game where I am not last in points after 0 AD. I managed to get CS with my first GProfet and now I am 5 turns away from Machinery. This means that soon I will have a very signifficant advantege over the AI's axeman. If this was a Monarch game I would know how long my advantage will stay and I have a good Idea how many cityes I can capture without putting too much strain on my economy.

I need your advice considering the situation in the save game should I start a war and who with. Saladin is the weakest and closest but he is protective, a friend and has some rather poor land, Mansa and the new guy are too far so it seems like a potential war should be waged against Cyrus. Do you think such a war is worthwile, are his cities too far, will I be able to support them if I mange to capture a few?
If you think that I can't gain nothing from a war please advise on what is best course of action from this point on.

[Sir Og]

Here is a screenshot from the game:

[bobshiznit]

Well you have some serious problems in this game if you are planning on declaring war soon. You have a lot of wonders and not using their advantages yet but that is alright. You don't have an army. You are going to be attacked it's only a matter of time and who. Here is what I would do before ending this turn:


Carthage: Clear everything past the Great Library in the que. Turn off avoid growth, you are running Monarchy and Bueracracy and have A TON of gold sitting waiting. Turn off avoid growth turn the city gov on to emphasize commerce and production. Even if you get beat to the GL you will have gold to upgrade your worthless warriors. Put Barracks, Axe Spear in the que.

Utica: Take everything except the lighthouse out of the que. Poprush the light house. But Barracks Axe Spear in the que. Send a worker over to chop and mine the forest grass hill. City gov to emphasize f-p-g.

Hadrumetum: Take everything except the courthouse out of the que. Pop rush the courthouse and put axe spear in the que.

Hippo: Take everything out of the que. Put axe spear in the que. Change the tile you are working to the horse.

Next bring back your two chariots.

Now you will have properly garrisoned cities.

I am going to do this and play a couple of turns then advise on how I would build your attacking army. I know construction is the next tech. Feel free to criticize my strategy and offer your own opinions.


Bob Shiznit.

[bobshiznit]

Here's what I did.

My tech path of choice:
Construction Engineering Feudalism done. Guilds HBR next. The only trade I considered was Lit to Mansu for Mono+ for post war building.

We are preparing to war with Saladin because he is closest, weakest, and the only one that cannot launch a Devistating offensive. After the suggested builds above. as garrisons what you want is:

Add A Cat for defense in each city.

1-2 pikes and 2 macemen stacked. This group will be your pillage group. Send them to Mecca and take out the iron first then start taking food down(mines can't function without food)
You can sneak them very close to the city (in the ice hills) before starting the war.

1 Pike 5 Mace 3 cats 2 Trebucts (a crossbow wouldn't be bad do add) This is your first raider group. By the time you have this ready there is probably going to be longbows against you. The first stop is Baghdad, one turn of bombardment followed by a Treb Mace attack and burn it down. Now you will have more experienced units.

You probably want 2-3 triemes sometime but don't give them priority.

From here i would suggest taking Medina next while producing strictly units in all of your cities. I made LongBows to replace the former garrisons to be updated and sent to the field. The only building I would consider building during the war is a market in the capital.

If you are didn't get hosed you will still have an army with a bunch of reinforcements on their way. send it to hold down Mecca while waiting for Knights. In the meantime you can easily slap together firepower to Take Damascus (I did it with upgraded former garrisons).

If you can take Mecca do it and call peace/possibly vassal.
If it seems Mecca will be impossible to take anytime soon call it good after taking Damascus. I thought I was unable to take Mecca efficiently so I never launched the attack. I sued for peace after taking Damascus because I wanted to preserve my army so I could launch another attack soon after a little building.

With some strategic poprushing in Utica I was ready to launch my war in 700 AD. I could have done it earlier but I am annal about garrisons in my cities. You do need spears/pikes ready to take care of the innitial rish of HA's.

I hope some of this is useful. I tend to win in emperor/continents/standard map/random leader about 70 percent of the time. Most of my wins are Space and Culture. This game seems like space is the way to go, very good economic start. Although you are going to need some of Cyrus's cities and a war ally to help you achieve this (Mansu probably the best bet). Just my thoughts let me know what you think.

Shiznit

[Sir Og]

Hi Bob thanks for the datailed response. I haven't played this game any further yet.

I loaded the save game again and I see that Cyrus has no horses but he has ivory, one iron and one copper.

My experience with wars on monarch is that once you have maces and cats vs archers and axes you can take out the AI with a relatively small force. (once he has thrown at you his field force of course)

I am going to play it out but I will take on Cyrus just to see how this will end. I am counting that Saldin will keep my back (beeng the same faith and all)
I will change change my build ques accordingly. I will head for Engeneering too.

[bobshiznit]

The good news in this game is you can afford to take alot of cities if you can. Your capital can generate a lot of gold and you can pop some graneries and courthouses in the cities you take, if they are not already built.

Be sure to look and see how far he is away from machinery. Crossbows will ruin any mace attack. Although if you can get to his iron and get knights up soon it should be a winnable war. One thing I forgot to include in the pillaging crew is a chariot or HA. When it moves the group can pillage and go to the next square.

Good luck warring.

[Sir Og]

I totally blew it.
I did not manage to produce enough troops while I had a tech advantage. After longbows is was almost impossible to do what I had planned.
Now that I think about it I should have probably build a force around cats and trebs maces should have only played supporting role.