Noble to Prince - unbearable

[Theben]

BSing is a tech?

[Ben Kenobi]

It's an art form, so why not?

[Boracks]

Its a technique!

Summary of the end game from my original post, I took two American cities and they refused to vassalize to me, turned around and capitulated to the English. I saw they were close to the 50% mark of the master's land and population, so I waited a couple turns (positioning troops) and liberated the two cities I took. Sure enough, that put the Americans over the 50% mark and a few turns later they broke free of England. I promptly DoW'd, took four cities, vassalized them and set up for the assault on the Chinese small continent. Since China had been isolated, they were behind in tech and so it was only a matter of time until they were eliminated and a domination win occurred.

I will also note that my science rate was usually around 20-30% (except for golden ages). Credit to the forum here for learning about a specialist economy with Representation to keep up.

[Ming]

I will also note that my science rate was usually around 20-30% (except for golden ages). Credit to the forum here for learning about a specialist economy with Representation to keep up.

Yep... too many people pay too much attention to the percent vs their actual number of beakers. I've been in many games where my science percentage is in the 20 - 40 % range, and I'm still out teching the AI. It's all about TOTAL number of beakers, not what percent.

[brandonjm8]

Yep... too many people pay too much attention to the percent vs their actual number of beakers. I've been in many games where my science percentage is in the 20 - 40 % range, and I'm still out teching the AI. It's all about TOTAL number of beakers, not what percent.

that is true but not everyone plays the "specialists" technique or knows how too, with big enough cities and enough of them coupled with the civic representation i too often leave my science at 0% to modernize but still keep a good science output. but my most science productivity came from the "cottage" technique, i had well over 4000 beakers that way but my production wasnt the best. each technique has their adv/disadv's. the fact that you have to keep your science low reflects that your army is hurting you, your science would be more than doubled if it were say 70% instead of 30%. with my current game i have 50 cities and univ's obs's in bout 30 of them and my science output is 70% with 2800 beakers w/ +550 gold/turn. i could goto 80% but i have universal suff so i use my money to hurry production now, new york has my own two founded religions and wall street and mining inc. and at 30% gold is cranking out more than 750 gold/turn just for new york, i have many 100+ beaker cities but philly has oxford and is cranking +300 beakers/turn. i went the way of specialists technique this game with some cottages but alot more farmland than cottages, if i went to the cottage technique this game i know i could've surpassed 5000 beakers for myself but my production wouldve suffered but with my current game at least 20 out of 50 cities produce 100 or more hammers/turn, my IW city cranks out almost 200/turn . the only big disadvantage of the cottage strategy is its slower compared to the specialists for producing an army. ive never been this productive but ive had better science.

and before you start thinking "oh his science is too high, he must be weak" come get some lol, i have over 200 infantry, 40 cavalry, 18 artillery, 50+ destroyers, 8 battleships with more coming, 18 airships, 12 fighters with more coming, 10 bombers with more coming. on that little subcontinent i spoke of on one of my earlier posts my army numbers close to 60 for my SoD, the bad thing is now he has sam's and infantry too so im gonna need alot more tanks, got 4 so far with more coming, i aint weak, come try to break my defenses muah hahahahahaha.

[rah]

An army that big should have more siege units/bombers and should be on the battlefield earning it's keep. Not sitting in cities for defense.

[brandonjm8]

An army that big should have more siege units/bombers and should be on the battlefield earning it's keep. Not sitting in cities for defense.

the siege units are coming, i have 14 artillery which is almost enough (will probably go forward when i got 20) and i love using bombers as siege too and weaken enemy stacks, my army's a growing very fast. my navy is huge, im building attack subs and subs with missiles and sending them with my battleships/destroyer stacks along with carriers w/fighters should they get flight while we are fighting, they only have airships at the moment but my SoD aint big enough yet for "Total Destruction" they have alot of infantry so pretty soon now and alotta my cities have airports now so i have about 30-35 fighters and 15 bombers and 6 navy seals(more coming) 8-10 tanks(more coming, alot more) i still need more units, i just dont want to take one or two then defend i want to take them all, one after the other or at least enough to make him my biatch and win, but 2nd(saladin) is quite strong himself and now im getting very close, my navy numbers in 80's now and growing so once i get around 100 for my SoD the war will start while keeping my strong d should he or someone else try to invade. its coming its coming i just like to plan ahead and win for sure not hope. plus i dont have much more than him like i said hes strong too, need more units. ive got 8 million soldiers hes got 6.8 million.

[rah]

I used to do that and usually found that I could have attacked a lot sooner.

[Ming]

Soooooo true. If you're SOD is concentrated, and you take out one of his SOD's at the openning of the war, you can then deal with his other stacks one at a time. It's sometimes amazing how you think you need this hugh "perfect army" and find out later you could have done the same with far less units. Now I just attack, and keep a steady stream of newly built units in a pipeline to the front.

[brandonjm8]

i know what your saying but, the thing is with my airships scouting the invading terrain im coming from hes got over 50 infantry and 10+ sam's and alot of cavalry, and those infantry have 4 promos to start with, most of them have city garrison 3 so they are very tough hence i need more units cuz im going to lose alot plus i need more bombers too to weaken those tough units, my navy can bring the defenses down and then my artillery can cause collateral damage along with the tanks, im 4 turns away from gunships, once there im gonna upgrade my 40 cavalry which will help alot, im building the additional transports i need and in about 10 turns i'll be ready and the advance wont stop, hes got at least 30 cities himself, hes strong not a pushover with very good promos to boot, im going to lose alot of units.

[rah]

Units are meant to be lost
Think how much that will boost your economy.

Gunships are always fun. It's too bad you get them so much later now. Most of my games are over before I get to them.

[brandonjm8]

Units are meant to be lost
Think how much that will boost your economy.

Gunships are always fun. It's too bad you get them so much later now. Most of my games are over before I get to them.

units are meant to be lost but i dont want to run out , hence need more units just to safe, gotta bring defenders too for newly captured cities. and yes gunships are fun but yes they moved it too late now, in vanilla it was usually mech infantry or stealth planes were the last units to get, gunships were basically right after destroyers lol (well, at least for me ). im not much of a barbarian so my games will average longer than yours, im more of an expansionist then conquerer.

[rah]

Yes, as you've said, the longer the AI gets to build up sometimes the harder they are to take out, which is why I don't like to give them the time to buildup.

[rah]

Especially since in a space race, you're subject to little things (like sabotage) which puts some luck into the equation. Where I've found that no little lucky break will stop my armies.

[brandonjm8]

building an early army a big one at that and making enemies outta everyone you better win, should you lose, you lose. a big army is only detramental to your economy, so like i said you better win , id rather divide and conquer and maybe with an ally or vassal, make it easier plus i play only huge maps so AI's will get big.