2nd game on prince....

[sparkyal]

ok, now i'm on my second game on prince with the new warlords patch. wow, i'm getting killed. so, here are a couple of key things i've learned:

(1) keep the military up. i have the weakest military and I have literally been at war for well over 2000 years. first, germany attacks me, then monty joins in, go to peace with one of them and Mehemed joins the fray. later ragnar. Now it's HDC and monty. monty is so annoying. He is the second weakest and furthest from me. so like 10 turns later his army shows up, less well equiped then mine and I have to deal with him. I'm glad that the AI is so bad at warfare...i would have been gone a long time ago

(2) Economy, economy, economy. You need money. it makes everything run. without a good economy you cannot research, expand, or have a good military.

(3) perhaps wonders are not as important as I make them out to be. i love to build them, but it often hinders my ability to make units and expand

(4) after saying that...the great wall is critical. the barbs are everywhere and they just keep coming. having a break from them is nice. especially since you don't get any great general points from them and can only get a max of 10exp points from them (them = barbs)

(5) i think i'm starting to undetstand when to build my second city, but that s still hard to know when. i think getting cities 2 and 3 out ather quickly is pretty important.

(6) specialized economy, I'm experimenting with it and it may lead to good results. it is more micromanaging then i've done before.

Well, any and all comments are welcome. Suggestions are especially helpful or your experience.

[Harrier UK]

My first game with 208 on Prince - I lost To Space Race on standard time scale. Three more turns and I would have won a lame time victory.

My second at Marathon, I was keeping up until the Mid game. Having wiped out two Civs, I was third strongest and about three techs behind. Then the AI leapt ahead instead of stagnating like they used to mid to late game. The stongest civ Vikings was still pleased with me, second strongest Rome was cautious.

All the remaining civs became vassels of Rome and I was then at war with all of them.

The Vickings although pleased would not gift or sell any techs and I was overrun. I may drop down to Noble for a few games to see how that plays out.

Pre-patch on noble on Marathon I won by domination every time (4/4).

On standard I won about 70% on the time - always losing by space race (in the last 10 turns before time victory) even though ahead in score, culture, land etc.

[sparkyal]

Yeah, it has been mentioned that the mid game is a lot better now for the AI. This has me worried since I'm in the mid game right now on my game. I may loose several times on prince, so we will see how it goes.

the patch is definately a huge improvement for the AI, thanks to blake (he did a great job).

sparky

[sparkyal]

ok, a little later on now. Ragnar will prbaby goto war with me, I'm the one of the last to get INF, but at least I have them! If he attacks it will be tough war. On the good news I had atleast 150 years of peace which allowed me some time to build up my economy and make improvements to my military...of course the AI did the same and I still have the weakest military. Fortuneatly, if Ragnar does attach he has those silly SAM INF which being weakler then regular INF means my numberous calveray regiments will be abel to defeat him with the combination of my INF. But, if I can do serious harm to ragnar (if he attacks) I can expand and be able to make some moves on the rest of the gang of AI (otherwise known as the AI mofia).

On worse news, the Apollo program has been completed bu atleast two players so i will probably loose this game (I just got railroad).

In other news, the AI used spies! I've never seen them do this. the sabatoged a mine...2x, then I put an INF there adn I don't think that will happen again.

sparky

[rah]

Yes, I usually win on Monarch but in my current game the AI is much improved in the midgame. I had a tech lead and did my usual "it's kick butt time" and got stalled in my attacks and the AI caught up quickly and passed me. Much more entertaining. Usually at that point you can just go through the motions. Not anymore. (or at least until we adapt) Who will adapt faster, players or Blake's continuing improvements.

[jbp26]

i find the biggest midgame difference is that the AI economy kicks in and they pump out and support much larger armies. Overwhelming with numbers is not an option anymore, I'm kind of force to assualt their economy first and army second.

[CerberusIV]

Worth noting that Heroic Epic is back down to requiring a level 4 unit (rather than level 5) so you can get the experience to build it just from fighting barbs.

West Point still requires level 6 though.