Emperor games C3C: how to improve your skills

[Mountain Sage]

Hi everybody,

I'm glad you like it. I did not want to make it difficult, just fun. After my latest exploit, I needed a break.

Unfortunately, the AI is really bad on archipelago. I had planned a 'twist' with the resources, but the AI is just too stupid. It's not even able to research Alphabet on an archipelago map.

Ah well, hope you have fun, I'm almost finished (domination, of course), but won't post anything yet.

Oh, I went directly from Despotism to Feudalism and stayed there. Somebody had to pay for those 200+ units...

Warmongering? had the Viking become converted, they would have been as meek as lambs. Unfortunately, they still worship Odin, Thor & Co.

[Mountain Sage]

'No friend, don't ask me which twisted godling created this world, because some names are best left unspoken. But what I do know is that this world, as crazy as it is, is a world of plenty and of perils. Discover them at your risk, and reap the rewards.'

Mountain Sage, Foreword to 'The SerpentWorld'

Here we go for the latest, and craziest, Emperor game. No hints, spoilers or other information this time. This is a world of extremes and you will love, or more probably, hate it, every turn you spend on it. Good luck and 'see' you next week.

Map provided by MS Fancy Maps, Inc. (Patent Pending).

You can play it as Egypt...

[Mountain Sage]

Or Scandinavia...

[Mountain Sage]

well, maybe Russia...

[Mountain Sage]

... or even the Zulus.

[Aqualung71]

I'm going to give this a whirl as the Zulus, to practice my crappy pillaging skills. Any other takers?

[Goethe80]

Ouch!
Not going to post any spoilers, but has anyone played the current MS map - 'SerpentWorld'?
I ran it for about 45minutes, just picking up literature via philo (GL about 10 turns away).
Comments - not as impossible as it initially seems. resource rich. but it's going to be tedious. but I suspect the AI will be really bad at this though.

[Aqualung71]

Yep, I've got to the Industrial age. And yes, tedious is the word! And yes, the AI sucks on this map!

And of the tribes MS gave us, my Zulu choice must be the worst of all for this map! My Scout sat around twiddling his thumbs until I disbanded him!

By the way MS, did you disable leaders in this game? I've won countless Elite battles and zip!

[Mountain Sage]

Well, the game is not impossible. in fact, it should be quite easy.
And no, I did not disable leaders.
The AI sucks on ANY archipelago map.
You have a Scout idle??? The point was to build two of them and scout the whole world.... I'm doing it with Curraghs....
Since players often complain about the lack of resources/luxuries, I wanted to try something new (no spoilers here!).
I'm playing Scandinavia and going for a conquest win, but I'm still in the Ancient Times....

With your AAR's, please try not to show the map.

[Aqualung71]

It's a bit hard to scout the whole world when there are many parts of land only 1 tile wide where the AI has placed a city Curraghs yes, I did that. But it took forever, since I'm not seafaring!

But no, I wasn't saying it was impossible nor even very difficult. Just tedious, meaning it takes a long time to build stuff for obvious reasons

Conquest? You'll be playing forever...good luck!

Anyway, interesting map - must have take you some time. Thanks again!

[Goethe80]

Well , to be fair, once you get some decent transport ships, with some co-ordination, you should be able to very rapidly transport units across the map. I'm still in the midst of my exams, so I can't really devote the time to play the game (and I guesstimate that it'll take upwards of 16hrs play time). As mentioned though, I've more or less secured the GL. (Philo-Lit, 10 turns to GL from pre-build). I figure once I have the GL, the game is more or less over. Zero research, stacks and stacks of archers / catapults...

[Aqualung71]

Well without wanting to give too much away, I would advise that relying on the GL for tech advancements in this game could be a big mistake.

In my game I let another civ take the GL, then gifted them all the way to Education to make it obsolete before they could move too far on the lower branch

[Goethe80]

I dunno, wouldn't the GL allow you maintain tech parity (assuming you have full contact) while supporting a massive army? I would go so far as just staying in despotism and constantly pump out swordsmen/archers/catapults. I know that I don't need the GL to pump out the units listed above, but I see it more as a backup measure in the off-chance that I seriously struggle to win by conquest.

As for why I would choose conquest for victory is because the map makes it rather tedious to go for a space/culture win (despite it being rather easy since I don't foresee significant AI competition), and I don't really want to play all the way until I can win via diplomacy (which is also going to be rather hard).

[Aqualung71]

Perhaps I'm wrong....try it and see. But the way I see it, relying on the GL for tech advances when it's fairly easy to get a tech lead by yourself just keeps you with the pack instead ahead of it.

But you could be right - save the cash and spend it on units for conquering - but surely not in despotism!

I'd like to see someone win by conquest on this one...I gave it up as too hard, so please prove me wrong.

[mahi]

I am trying as the Russians. I entered the Medieval Age and luckily got my first leader with my first elite-MI building an army. My northern neighbour the Incas entered my territory recently, but he observed that I already have muscets and knights, so he pulled his units back. I am at war with three or four other nations, so I let him go this time. The Germans will not be on the map much longer. They defend with spears and swords against my knights and his reinforcements are used up. The same will happen to the Americans who constantly land troops, but it is not much of a threat as their troops are gone as soon as they land. I built the GL, but afterwards thought that this was not that clever as most of the AIs are backward anyhow. I should have used these shields for more troops as I just can go forward as I have superior units.