Fighting til the end

[Colm]

This happened in my latest game: I was doing great (ahead in tech, a nice stack of doom) and suddenly, 4 civs started to attack me. I could fend of 1 but the other side of my world was slowly being conquered.
But I did not gave up! Even after 4 cities were taken, I kept on fighting, making units, building walls,etc.
It was no use... I lost all cities...

What do you do in a situation like this? Do you load back an early save, do like me and keep on fighting or do you just say "next time better". Or are you so good that this situation never happens to you?

[Nugog]

I rarely reload.

If I get walloped - then so be it - new game move on.

The only time I do reload is if I am trying out a specific strategy - and then, if I get it to work, I ditch the game and move on.

[MyOlde]

I voted re-load but yesterday I shut down when Saladin moved on me and pretty quickly took two of my cities. I might have gotten things straightened around but I didn't have the stomach for a fight.

[Supr49er]

I almost always stubbornly slog ahead. I have learned more things this way than when things go too smoothly.

I never reload.

[Nikomakkos]

I wish I was cool like Supr49er. But I'm such a perfectionist empire building nerd that I can't handle it when someone attacks me and I'm unprepared. I just load, or sometimes I loose interest and quit. I kinda suck I guess.

[Theben]

Originally posted by Nugog
I rarely reload.

If I get walloped - then so be it - new game move on.

Also invalid poll.

[Blaupanzer]

I evaluate whether I can pull it out. As long as I think I can, I play on. The AI is not so good at consistency. If they get distracted, then I can build up my forces and try again. But in those three-on-one (or more, oh my) events, I evaluate what I did wrong to attract all that attention, then retire. My HOF is mostly losses, but I think I am learning. Restarts from an earlier save seems to me to be cheating somehow, so I seldom do it. I have restarted on occasions where I should have burned a city, but kept it to no real value. Mostly, it's a No-No to me.

[Garth Vader]

I reload often in bad situations. I cheat too often, but hey it's SP.

Playing out a losing situation can be a good learning experience, but so is reloading. Often a disastrous invasion can be stopped with only a few extra defenders. It helps to run through the same situation with slightly different setups to fine tune my build priorities.

[Unimatrix11]

I do reload, if the situation only got that bad, because i was too lazy or not attentive enough. For example i might have seen the invasion coming and where it would come, but didnt, hence didnt prepare for it, because i dont check my borders regularily. Or i might loose a settler which i sent out a couple-of-turns distance - then a barb pops out and eats it. Those are typical reload occasions.

[Blaupanzer]

Unaccompanied settlers, another no-no.

[Unimatrix11]

Well, the city-defender-to-be is always at the planned point of city-founding. So it´s only unescorted en-route, but safe when it gets there and founds.

[Blaupanzer]

I'm too paranoid to try that very often, but using a formerly exploring warrior, et al, to occupy the city point and race the settler to it is a time-honored, if risky, tactic.

[Nugog]

Originally posted by Unimatrix11
Well, the city-defender-to-be is always at the planned point of city-founding. So it´s only unescorted en-route, but safe when it gets there and founds.

I see that as taking a calclated risk (in other words an out and out gamble) - if I do that and the settler gets by a barb - well then I took the risk, and paid the price.

[Blaupanzer]

Eaten by a Panther/Wolf always possible due to their speed, lion and bear a little less often. But once the barb troops begin to arrive, they can pop up anywhere. Not worth it to dash an unguarded settler to a new site unless the settler stays mostly inside my or my friendly neighbor's cultural borders prior to meeting his town guard.

[Unimatrix11]

Well, even when i play with a buddy, loosing a settler to a unit you could have seen, but just didnt due to oversight, is a valid reason for reload. Though the player who had this happen to himself gets scolded. The reason why we do it this way, is because we both think, that the Civ4 map doesnt show units really clearly (as compared to, say, Civ1) and looking around each turn to make sure would take a lot of time. And the little arrows are of little use, when you have no non-automated units to move on that turn and the settler just keeps on walking before you can do anything about it. It´s not a big deal anyways, because at the time you settle, turns dont take long, and replaying a maximum of 4 is no problem usually. Now, scouting around with a settler and stumbling into animals or barbs is a different strory. I never do that and in such a case, i´d totally agree with Nugog: Ones own fault. But if i send a settler from my city to an archer that stands at, say, 8-8-7-7 (all 1MP-Terrain) from that city (guarded as well of course and with BFC), then it´s loosing it, is not due to some risk i have taken, but can only be the result of oversight (unless in the very rare case of 2MP-barbs attacking). That kind of thing. Tho i am not sure how often this is really the case when my buddy is clamoring for reload again (it happens a lot more often to him then to me - which was just once). BTW: The shown walking path of units when you order them, is not always the one they actually take when they move and that can be another cause.