First game played :)

[snoopy369]

1750, and it's almost time to attack the Indians. Well, not almost, but in a dozen turns or so.

I'm six turns out from the West Point nat'l wonder, and that wonder makes me very glad that they let you keep production on units and buildings while switching production ... I did something you could never do in civ3, which is delay producing SEVERAL units, and then simultaneously (1 turn for each, of course) produce them all I only did it in a few cities, and for a few units, but it ensures all of my units get the bonus +4

Attached is what I have so far. It's not a huge force, but in the next 12 turns i should have a much bigger one ... and I may have a golden age by then also (Not sure, it's 1600 for a GP now, and i have 1 Great Merchant and 1 Great Engineer, and i'm thinking i should save the engineer for a wonder ...)

[snoopy369]

Well, I'm now about to get the West Point completed. I have Project Worker Espionage going ... and I'm noticing a bit of a trend in Indian cities. 3-4 riflemen defending them, nothing else. At all.

Then I get to this city ...

Wonder where they want to send this fleet

[snoopy369]

Went off and started a few succession games ... now back to my game

1795, and i'm in a golden age I decided to use the Great Engineer, i don't really have any wonders coming up soon, and i have several cities about to pop with reasonable GE potential. (GE = great engineer, convinient given the other non-game meaning it has to most people )

I've nearly built up enough forces to feel safe going to war (especially with my Golden Age). This may be an interesting war

See all the pretty units Lots of cannons this time, i think those will be very useful, especially with +2 collateral damage (+50% net)

[snoopy369]

Okay, i'm taking the plunge

Three stacks. One is at bangalore, hoping to win that right away. 7 Cavalry, 4 cannons. One is going to Circassian, but hoping to get some of those cavalry away from Bangalore, where it shouldn't take me 7 cavalry to beat them I hope ... only 3 cavalry, 2 cannon, and 1 grenadier heading there. Finally, there are 6 cavalry, 2 cannon, 2 grenadier heading to Lahore by way of Osaka (which I'll probably just raze).

I intend to keep these first 3 (border) cities; I may either make peace, or just raze after that, but I don't want too many cities. I'm not going for a domination victory after all... just to hurt the Indians, who are getting too far ahead in the tech race for my comfort. I'd like to draw a few techs out of them, which I may or may not be able to do...

The 'big' Bangalore stack is mouseovered (listed in the left side of the screen) here, the second-biggest Lahore/Osaka stack is currently selected (listed along the bottorm w/icons only).

[snoopy369]

Bangalore is Mine!



Lost only 1 cavalry, retreated two. Two were able to go to Circassia, which looks to be easy to take.

Probably the real difficulty will be in *holding* these towns ... I don't have rifling yet, although i'm one turn from RR and that means... machine guns

[Solver]

Sadly, I was within a 0.1 pt longbowman of defeating them; but the next turn they brought in 2 full longbowmen. Sigh...

I love this AI .

Try to get printing press. I haven't built it myself, due to other wants, and the thought that someone would trade it to me. Nope, the AIs won't, none of them ... nor education. Odd, since i'm at most 2 techs ahead of the 3 leading AIs ... they all consider me too far ahead. Heck, 2 techs ahead and 2-3 techs behind (printing press + rifles+education for india; education + liberalism for greece, at minimum) ... maybe they need to re-balance this feature of it. I'd think an AI should trade when you're equals in tech ...

You wish . The AI isn't stupid, in fact. It knows that Printing Press is a major economy boost, and Education is a major science boost. Therefore, it's very fair that they see no reason to give you these boosts - as long as you don't have these techs, you're at a disadvatnage. This won't always happen, but this is actually a clever AI move.


Looking at your unit stacks, I love the unit promotions and I see you're a fan, too . Cavalry with Flanking II, Cavalry with Combat I - Pinch, Cannons with Barrage II, ahh, the versatility!

[snoopy369]

Circassian is mine

Hah Lost a few cavalry this time, the defenders had more experience, and only 2 cannons. Bah. But, i'll have a decent supply to send to Lahore when the other pincer force comes in. I delayed the 3rd group one turn, so that hopefully India will attack my stronger bangalore force, while the other two wrap up lahore; then that group can hit Karachi while bangalore wraps up the counterattack and pushes forward to hold the narrow passage to the main indian homeland.

[Atahualpa]

I've noticed Asoka comes out #1 in all three games that I started so far.

[Nikolai]

Same here, in the games I don't win, he wins.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Atahualpa
I've noticed Asoka comes out #1 in all three games that I started so far.

I don't think that's going to happen here ...

Although I'm still concerned about no counterattack. Into turn 3, and ... nothing. He doesn't have a LOT to attack with, definitely build up mostly defensive (riflemen), but he has a dozen knights or so, which if he wanted to could make things a trifle hairy... have some machinegunners coming though

Also, i'm building ironclads in Medina. Nothing says "eek" properly like a few well loaded galleys ... except an Iron clad reception ...

[snoopy369]

Hmm, thought I saw an attacking unit ... guess it was just a Greek Elephant...

Speaking of Elephants, I figured a good razing was in store ... lost only 1 grenadier, and that barely.

[Nikolai]

I see you only have cavalery in that stack, isn't that somewhat risky?

[snoopy369]

I have cavalry, cannon, and grenadier. Cavalry just moved in first I have grouped the three separately (using ctrl-3, ctrl-4, ctrl-8 for the 3 groups) and i move them en masse

Also, the only offensive weapons i've seen so far are knights, so i'm not too worried about all-horse groups. If they want to engage me w/riflemen in the open field, that's a happy day for me, as the riflemen have to be engaged inside cities otherwise ...

[Solver]

There's a good promotion mix on those Cavalry. While Riflemen are very strong vs. Cavalry if the Riflemen are in the city, but Pinch-promoted Cavalry are a match for Riflemen in the field.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Solver
There's a good promotion mix on those Cavalry. While Riflemen are very strong vs. Cavalry if the Riflemen are in the city, but Pinch-promoted Cavalry are a match for Riflemen in the field.

Yeah, although I did lose one to a rifleman in the field Nothing to be done about it though, losses happen

I've found that using Flanking(2) cavalry to start with, even though they're much weaker (-35% relative to the Combat1+pinch group), is effective because both are likely to lose - but flanking(2) have the advantage not only of no first strikes against them, but also of retreating 60% chance, meaning they can soften up the riflemen (taking maybe 5-6 points off of their 14, on average, and as far as down to 3.5 once out of 3 attacks) and not actually die nearly as often - after all, who cares if my first cavalry takes the rifleman down to 2 or so, if he dies 75% of the time, while a 60% chance of survival still brings the rifleman down within range.

Anyway ... guess what? Another turn, another city, another VICTORY ... this is getting easy Although I have to wonder what's waiting for me at Karachi - and if I don't see it there, i'm going to panic and start poprushing ironclads ...