Trouble on Warlord with AI...

[wodan11]

Often I wait until somebody asks me to change to their religion. You can pretty much plan for that request, like clockwork. And, if you accede, you get what amounts to a +2 diplo instead of a +1. (Varies depending on the leader.)

[rah]

Yeah, but it depends who's doing the asking. With certain civs the +2 doesn't matter.

[Brael]

I usually take an AI religion since they'll spread it around for me and I can get some diplomacy out of it. I like founding my own though because I can spread it for coin. I just don't follow them.

[Ming]

Yeah... it is nice being next to one of the religious zealots... they do all the work for you if you adopt their religion. Any missionary you build will be purely for coin. There is really no need to be of a certain religion, even if you founded it.

[rah]

Sometimes just being the first to build a shrine will be enough for it to become the most dominant religion. If you can get it built before all the missionaries get on the board. If i've got a civ pinned in, I may not open borders with him until I have completed a shrine so my religion can get a leg up.

[Norselord]

Broken record alert:

Spies can force a civilization to adopt your current religion.

Civilizations that share your religion have a reduced cost for spy missions.

[rah]

Actually since I play no tech trading, alpha is not a priority so in the early game spies are not available so that's not an option.

[Theben]

I would think with no tech trading Alpha and its spies would be a high priority- if you target Great Spies.

[Brael]

I have to say, it's a different way to play but I'm loving tech stealing. For 800 espionage points I can steal a 1700 beaker tech, and generate almost as many EP as I could beakers due to the percentage modifiers, and cottages being the same for beakers/spy points. The only place I really lose out is in that 3-5% chance to fail a mission, and 1 vs 2 science specialists.

It's a neat way to play though, a 40-50% EP slider lets me steal the same research (and even trade it around) that I would need an 80% slider for otherwise.

It also provides me some innate espionage defense that a research based economy doesn't. I'm basically getting tech for a lower cost and then selling it off so another AI can't. Then I get a huge diplomacy boost for it as well. It's an interesting type of game, especially since it only gets stronger as AI's become better at research on higher difficulty.

[rah]

I would think with no tech trading Alpha and its spies would be a high priority- if you target Great Spies.

No I don't target great spies, I target cannons, which doesn't require alpha

[rah]

I'll have to try an EP targeted game. I'm sure I'll learn something .

[Brael]

It's certainly an interesting way to play. I think I need a few plays of them to really learn though. I keep noticing things I could do better/different. That guide I linked in some other thread gives you a good starting point however.

Oh, to the thread starter, rereading your thread I noticed you mentioned barbarians and them giving you trouble. At that level with regular barbarians they tend to be pretty easy going. It sounds like you aren't making enough defense. One good way to break that habit is to go up a couple levels and just play a few games out to 1 ad or so. But turn raging barbarians on. You'll know you have enough units built when you can defend your cities and keep barbarians out of your territory easily. That's the best method I've found to learn how to deal with them. Once you know what it takes, you can drop back down, but remember the building lessons. I guarantee you barbarians (or early war for that matter... offensive or defensive) won't give you any problems.

[Norselord]

since i am an espionage fiend, i usually will get the GW as soon as possible. This allows me to peacefully expand.

In games where i don't play for an espionage type game and therefore don't care so much for GW, i LOVE when barbs invade. They usually amount to some free promotions for my units. In my opionion Horse Archers and chariots make wonderful barbarian beaters.

The other options you have for keeping barbarians away is to post some units on hills so that there is not so much 'fog' around your borders. The barbarians spawn in the fog.

A last thing I appreciate the barbs for is that they build little cities...with two archers defending...and no cultural defense. Building two axemen is so much cheaper than building a settler.

[wodan11]

The first time you're playing on Immortal with trading on, get a Great Spy early game, send him to Mansa or some other trading whore and take the points, then "send in the clones!" and steal (literally) 8-10 techs, you really have your eyes opened to espionage.

[Brael]

It happens later too. I'm backfilling techs right now in my current game. I got drama for 571 EP. Not bad for something that would have been 1449 beakers. It seems to be strongest with tech fiend neighbors. Mansa would probably be an ideal.