Cross and Crscent Strategy

[Cal]

I'm having a lot of trouble with B. Brosing's great Cross and Crescent scenario.

I start out playing with the Germans on the "King" setting (Emperor renamed) and no matter what I do, my territories always get flooded with a lot of units from other European civs. I kept the byzantines out of the top half ofpresent day italy with strategically placed Armored Cavalries, but then both the English and the Franks will flood my territories in west europe with spearman and their own armored cavalries.
What should I do to stop this? Should I send out any units I have to block them with ZOC rules, or should I just declare war if it happens to such an extreme?

Any help would be appreciated... it's a wonderful scenario.

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-Cal

[Cal]

Erm... just forget that I misspelled the topic please...

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-Cal

[PolarisGL]

Cal,

Patience, as I tend to do the following this weekend:

1.) Compose a scenario guide on Cross & Cresent.
2.) Compose a scenario guide on Struggle for Empire (although I don't know if you had trouble on this one )

So, thus, be patient, and all shall come in time.

[BeBMan]

Cal, I´ll not destroy Polaris´work, so here are only a few hints: You don´t need many units to secure the borders of your kingdom. All you need is a combination of new cities in strategic positions and some cheap units (spearmen) between them to create a "frontline" early in the game that is impassable for other units.
Later, if you are strong enough, you know what you have to do...

And George, it´s great that the Art of War is now at Apolyton. When follows The North Star?

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Civ2000

[Xin Yu]

Please tell me where to get the scenario. Thanks.

[BeBMan]

Xin Yu, Cross&Crescent is available on a couple of websites, as St.Leo´s Ziggurrat, J.Balsindes Spanish Civsite, George´s North Star and of course my own (see signature).
It´s also in the "For Review" section of the SLeague...

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Civ2000

[Xin Yu]

Thanks. Downloaded. No time to play now, but checked the rules and events.

Events could have problems: maprect definitions did not look right.

From rules.txt, settler, diplo, and trade units are available. Two continental trading + diplo inciting revolt and bribing barb units are possible. Arabian units have high attack factors -- the player doesn't need to attack Arabian cities, just wait outside (settler build fortresses) and let the defense units attack him.

300+ turns. Should be an easy scenario.

[BeBMan]

Xin Yu, diplos aren´t available (if all works well), so you can´t bribe cities/units...
It would be nice to hear something about the difficulty, some players reported that it is easy, others that it´s not, so I´m not sure if the difficulty is too high or low (I´m not a great civ general, so for me it´s just right ).

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Civ2000

[Cal]

Well, for me, all scenarios are extremely difficult. (Except for Red Front... but that's only because so many people have written extensive strategies for that.)

Thank you for the advice BeBro. And I look forward to reading the strategy Polaris.

[Xin Yu]

If you play at King level, I have some hints:

Sell churches, they have no effect, at least at the beginning.
Build the "tournament ???" improvements (barracks) immediately, but in front cities only.
For each 2-3 cities close to one another, build 3 spearmen in one city, settlers in the others, and add the settlers to the spearman city so it can reach size 5. Then, every other turn, hire all citizens as scientists until seafaring is discovered.
tech tree: bookbinding, Dukedom (Monarchy), crop rotate, barter (Trade), seafaring, Feudalism, Kingdom.
After Kingdom, disband spearmen and rush build crossbowmen.
After barter and seafaring, use two continental trading to get science.
Set science rate low so the AI civs won't get techs too fast.
German is the most difficult since its cities are not close to one another. French is the easiest. English has fewer cities, but it already has seafaring.
[This message has been edited by Xin Yu (edited September 08, 2000).]

[BeBMan]

Xin Yu, this is very interesting, especially your tech tree. I also go for dukedom very early, but then I research better units to make the first conquests...
I agree that the Germans are a bit more difficult to play, also because the Byzantines are so strong.

Hint: barracks are tournament fields

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Civ2000

[Xin Yu]

I don't think it is difficult. Once you set up the two continental trading system, you get techs very fast. Head for 'heavy equipment' and get those 18a, ignore city wall units. If you have a dozen of such units, plus a dozen of crossbowmen, plus 2 constructors, who can stop you?

[Xin Yu]

I just found out that AI civs never builds longbowmen (has ignore city wall flag) in this scenario. This means that even vet spearmen behind city walls can hold out.

Hence, for the original question of this thread: You can rush build barracks in front cities, build a couple of armored cavalry units, then sneak attack the AI units and let them suicide against the walls. That will save your problem.

[Cal]

Thanks Xin Yu, I'll add that one to the list.

By the way... where is Polaris? He never posted his promised Cross and Crescent strategy...

[Xin Yu]

Cal: After dukedom and seafaring, build 6 vet longbowmen and 2 hulks. You can safely move your longbowmen along the sea and occupy the two Northern barbarian cities (longbowmen can land and attack since they have move 2). Afterwards you can expand your territory westwards (especially along the northern coast line, using hulks to carry settlers).