Best strategy for terra maps?

[viktorn]

I'd like to ask for your experience with terra type maps: When playing on terra how much shall I focus on the conquest of the "new world" or shall I rather expand on the "old continent"?

This weekend I started a game (Monarch, Germans - Frederick, classical Civ4 - not Warlords) on the Terra map (it is the first time I am not playing on continents). I usually build only a few ships during a continents game and I thought that on Terra I will be motivated to build a bigger navy.

Anyway, on the old continent I managed to build a healthy empire, having 7 cities and couple of important wonders. I am running second closely behing Isabela. As soon as I could I sent out ships to scout the ocean to find the "promised land". When I discovered the other continent I found that it is flooded with quite developed barbarians (macemen, longbowmen) and barbarian cities with 40% defense bonus. Moreover, from what I have discovered so far the continent is not very special in terms of resources.

It took me some effort to conquer one barb city and establish a secure beachhold on the southermost tip of the new continent, which is otherwise filled with barbs. Now I am not sure, whether I should have maybe used my military to expand my empire on the old continent instead of sending it accross the ocean. I found that support of my city on the new continent requires constant sending of reinforcements, which I could have used to potentially threaten my neighbours.

I guess that with my recent development of rifling and chemistry the situation will change and I'll manage to drve the barbs out, but I still think that expanding on the new continent is not easy at all.

BTW, Spanish also tried to build a city several times on the new continent, but they were always destroyed.

Any similar stories and experiences with Terramaps?

[Dis]

terra maps are fun. As each situation can be different. I'm not sure how helpful I can be, but I'll mention a few things.

As you have sed, with chemistry, you'll find your grenadiers to be sufficiently strong to wipe out the barbs. It's tough before them. As longbowmen can get chewed up. Even cavalry struggle against large numbers of barbs.

One problem I have is after getting 1 city up, they all beeline for that city. I have this problem most on the earth map that shipped with vanilla. I had to face onslaughts of like 30 to 35 barbarians.

The terra maps are supposed to have resources in the new world that aren't in the old world- I think. I believe I read that somewhere. I would found, or conquer cities with new resources. Especially happiness resources. You should be getting oil to pop up soon, so you may need to secure that as well.

Maintenance costs can be pretty hefty until you get courthouses up and running. Though I suppose you could run state property (have yet to do it, but I think I will try it my next game- people say it's a great civic).

As for expanding on your own continent, use your discretion. You want to keep the AI's from getting too big, but unless they have resource which you really want, I'd just go for the new world.

The toughest part for me is deciding how much military to send over. I hate to get attacked when my military is overseas, and my homeland is weak. So this requires a healthy buildup of troops. It's a delicate balance you must play. Same with expansion in the new world. You have to balance things out. Once your cities overseas are up and running, they can build military troops, while your core cities concentrate on wonders and later spaceship parts.

[Quillan]

From my past experience with Terra maps, I have to say when it comes to the choice of settling the New World or conquering it, use the military. It's much more efficient to send over a half dozen galleons loaded with troops than it is to send over the same 6 galleons loaded with settlers, workers and defenders.

As to the choice of expanding in the old world or the new, I'd have to say that'll depend on the game. In most games I played, I'd carve out as much space as I could in the old world, then sit there until Astronomy, and then concentrate on the new world. I always played huge/terra maps, so I could generally get anywhere from 10-20 cities down in the new world, FAR more than I could build in the old. The AI would always get there at some point, but I'd have the bulk of the territory.

[ben04]

Probably the following wont work on Monarch, only did it at Noble. It could also be possible on Prince.

I build a healthy civ on the old continent 4-5 cities. Long before I had Astromomie I started building lots of settlers and mazemen. Then I bleeded to Astromomie. The goal is to get to the new world before the barbs have longbows. Cruch the barbs and found many new cities.

If upkeep gets too big place your settlers with a mazeman on the spots where you want your cities but don't found them. This lifts the fog of war and in case the AI came round you still get the city. After that bleed to state proprety, you will need it.

In my last game I managed to have the whole new world settled before anyone else discovered Astronomie.

The rest of the game was pretty obvious. I build up the new world and by the time it was fully productive tanks were around. With the new world producing about 5 tanks a turn the outcome was pretty clear. Especially because the Pentagon and Theocracy helped.

[CarnalCanaan]

I usually beeline for Optics so that I will be the first to discover the New World and circumnavigate the globe. That makes a transoceanic empire easier to defend.

Maintenance is, as expected, an enormous problem. And Organized leader helps ALOT. So does Versailles. Putting your Forbidden Palace in the New World's not a bad idea. Universal Sufferage or Slavery can make building those courthouses easier. (Sound familar? ...)

Staying technologically up on the barbarians is necessary, but they will constantly improve, so it's an arms race. You WILL be faced by an onslaught upon your first city - with one huge exception: the Caribbean! Most terra maps have a "Caribbean" with small islands scattered between the two main land masses. The barbarians can't reach you here and you can build a good base for further inroads on the continents. (Sound familiar again? ...)

As for the Old World, these maps cram lots of civs onto half the map. The result is undersized civs. If you're aggressive enough, you can take this opportunity to crush the smaller civs. But this necessarily limits your ability to hold a New World empire. Also, if you get to the party late, you can always play the Germans: Find that one oil, aluminum, or uranium resource in a bad area, set up a subpar city there to work the resource. You now have the all important modern age resource but you probably have a smaller (cheaper) empire. Rock like it's 1941!

[viktorn]

Thanks for your replies. Let me finish my story about my first terra game:

I lost the space race to Isabella (I was Frederick). I needed another five turns to win the cultural victory. This makes my score on monarch 2:4 (two wins, four loses so far). I am not very good in playing non-financial Civ. I also guess that I need more careful planning in the secod half of the game.

As someone posted here, the terra map was a big fun indeed. Although I am not sure about the value of expansion to the new world. Isabella had such a bad access to the sea so she was not able to colonise the other continent very efficiently, but she won in the end anyway. My four cities on the new continent were highly developed (incl. forbidden palace), but it didn't help me very much.

Looking forward to the next game.

[N35t0r]

I often build the forbidden palace early on in the center of my old world civ and then jump the palace to the new world as soon as I have a decent colonial empire.

I also seem to finish improving the new world (pre-railroads, that is) just about the same time I acquire my first cities on the new world. So I ship them over. It does require lots of resources, so I pick the best area and concentrate there, slowly kicking the barbs back, razing their misplaced cities and building new ones on better locations, and capturing the well-placed ones.