Emperor Level

[Krill]

Got a nice Emperor level save people might like to play, if you are trying to move up difficulty levels. Native Americans, No Vassals, Agg AI. Large Map, Continents, normal #AI, Medium sea level.



I've played it through to 1470 AD, got into a land lead, now trying to figure out how to win it, as this was my first attempt at a war orientated emp level game. I'll post a basic right up with a few pics later, after dinner.

[Addled Platypus]

many thanks Krill

keep us updated as much as possible

[jbp26]

aggressive AI really makes a difference on emperor especially. it makes the bonus the AI gets to maintenance and unit costs much more noticable.

[Krill]

I ended up moving for a few turns, up north, looking for food and a nice river spot with a few flood plains. Well, I found the latter, but not the former. Turns out I should have moved 3, would have given me an awesome city site, but would have left me without a centred capital, and further from my northern competitors.



I went worker first, and got pottery (no food to improve, so I didn't want to grow to size 2 and then slave, it would take me ages to regrow). With hindsight I should have irrigated an fp, but I cottaged all fur, and considering that I don;t have problems with growth but with money in the mid game, I suppose that all the cottaging paid off.

I stole a worker off saladin and made peace asap, as well as two workers off Tokugowa. I settled my second city so that it could grow and use all of the flood plains and both golds (though my fourth city was planted so that it could also utilise one of the golds). My third city was planted on the coast, able to use the rice, grasscow and the three plains hill. For quite a bit of the game it sat at size 5 building units, then it built the HE.



This screnshot shows that I settled some quite poor land, because it misses off the irrigated rice that the northern city can use when the borders expand. Unfortunetly, that barb city sprang up down south before I could even get my thrid settler out, so I couldn't get that city site. I actually came quite clsoe to losing it to Boudicca; I just got a HA to attack the city after Bouddica had killed the first two defending units, and had backup ready to take it the next turn.

I was researching alphabet, and when I got it, I found that unfortuneatly for me, Peter was the only Ai willing to trasde with me, though I can;t say that I blame the other three AIs (I was shortly to declare oppurtunistically on Bouddica to take a city on the eastern shoreline. And another 2 workers). This city then got captured by Saladin when he decalred war on me, then 3 turns later I recaptured it from him, and we agreed to peace.





Dot marks Mecca

One of the major problems that I had in this game was trading tech. Bouddica I had shoved into a corner of the continent and never tech, just constantly built stacks then invaded, and I repulsed her, never quite in a position to destroy her cities for a reason I'll outline shortly. Saladin hated me because I wasn't Jewish, and I stole a worker and we have another war on top of that. Tokugawa was just his normal self. This left me with a single AI to trade with, and he was the most powerful AI on teh continent, so I was stuck trying to research techs that no one had so I could sell them to a loan AI for other techs, never really getting enough to justify it, except by getting far enough ahead to then crush the AI who wouldn't trade with me. Which is what I tried to do. I wanted to use the Artist from Music in an attempt to culture bomb Saladins flank and gain easy access to his western cities, and at the same time march on Mecca, which I'm going to do this even...

[Crossfire]

Cool, I don't usually warmonger so the aggressive AI might be a bit of a challenge for me, but I enjoy the challenge at Emperor. I will try playing a bit tonight and see how I do.

[rah]

Well if you were looking for a war filled game, having Bouddica, Saladin and Tokugawa as neighbors must have made your day. All you need is monty and queen H to make it a complete bloodbath.

[Blaupanzer]

Don't forget Shaka, the ultimate mercenary. "What's in it for me, up front please" seems to be his motto. 3 nasties as immediate neighbors justifies picking a protective civ, although you couldn't have known that when actually selecting the Sioux/Irroquois, er, Native Americans.

[Krill]

Originally posted by rah
Well if you were looking for a war filled game, having Bouddica, Saladin and Tokugawa as neighbors must have made your day. All you need is monty and queen H to make it a complete bloodbath.

Yeah, I can't kill boudicca with my entire army for fear of Toku taking all of the northern possesions. I've left the game for a few days so I can think about it, but Saladin is down to one city, with getting most of the western cities, but Peter got Mecca and the Jewish Holy city. Which unfortunately means that I'm probably going to lose the game, because he also has a much bigger army that me, a better economy and better land. I'm considering abandonning it and starting a new game (I have a good one as catherine going on a different machine, but then, Catherine is just so much easier to play than the NA if one can keep the peace for a bit. Though I do have Ragnar and Nappy for neighbours there...)

[jbp26]

Originally posted by Blaupanzer
Don't forget Shaka, the ultimate mercenary.

in my current game, with unrestricted leaders, i ran up against ragnar of the zulu. it was just scary.

[Blaupanzer]

Originally posted by jbp26
in my current game, with unrestricted leaders, i ran up against ragnar of the zulu. it was just scary.

There's "scary," and then there is downright showdown evil. You will have to have a showdown with that Ragnar before his magic barracks make you a footnote of history.

[jbp26]

already happened. he was on a peninsula so i was able to restrict his expansion to about 6 cities on mediocre terrain. also i had an incredible start with 6 gold mines between my first two cities. but it was still close. he declared war on me with stacks of axemen and impi who somehow all had 4 promotions (this is before 1AD). i had praetorians, but combat 3/shock axemen ate them for breakfast. the only thing that saved me was that bottleneck, which i could just fortify around until i churned out enough catapults to break his back.

[rah]

That's one reason I like random personalities. It takes a little longer to determine if they're pyscho or not.
Instead of, oh gee, it's Monty, I might as well start building a stack now since I'm going to need it real soon.

[Theben]

Originally posted by jbp26
in my current game, with unrestricted leaders, i ran up against ragnar of the zulu. it was just scary.

Try Zara of the Holy Romans. Can you say CoL=unrestricted growth?

[Hauptman]

I think you ruined that capital bu moving it... that start location was magnific!