Emperor games C3C: how to improve your skills

[Krill]

But it is harder than a usual game. And trust me, I know how to use the Mayans.

[ducki]

harder than a usual game

Hmmm... my l33t w@rm0ng3r 5k1llz must be improving because I didn't find it any harder than normal. I don't think. Maybe I just have forgetten after cresting the peak, wishing to purge the early struggle from my mind...

[vmxa1]

Originally posted by Krill
But it is harder than a usual game. And trust me, I know how to use the Mayans.

I can't address that, since I have not seen it. I suspect it is just like the non AU mod versions here. That is to say that the creator (Kon?) probably tweaked the map here and there. It could have been made easier or harder or it could even depend on your play style, how it was affected.

IOW, if the builders are short on luxs or resources, they will suffer, but warmongers will probably be less impacted.

[vmxa1]

Krill I should have asked you, but are you playing the game with your normal level or did you recently move up?

As a rule maps posted for communal play tend to be made harder. It is some sort of macho thing.

[Krill]

Sorry for the late reply, I've been away and had work to do. I went up to Emperor about six weeks ago, and I can dominate a normal game on this level by the late middle ages. I like the Mayans. Best starter in the game, but no archers.

And I do play builder strat, so I got hit harder than I expected

As a rule maps posted for communal play tend to be made harder. It is some sort of macho thing.

Too true, but I'll get there in the end...:

[vmxa1]

Originally posted by Krill

And I do play builder strat, so I got hit harder than I expected

It does happen.

[Mountain Sage]

*bumped* for Lancealot.
May you use it wisely...

[Mountain Sage]

Ah, EarthSea, who does not know this wonderful world? Its thousand isles, islands, coves, innlets, straits, shoals, from the tropical jungles to the icy wastes, from the ondulatings grasslands to the mighty volcanoes. Home of a score of tribes, as diverse and peace-loving as tropical birds.
But in the deep forests and frozen glens, far in the North, a new power has arisen. An old war-cry, long thought forgotten, echoes again in the deep fjords and sends shivers of fear down the whole of EarthSea.
‘Lets go a-viking!’

Mountain Sage, The Chronicles of the Rise and Downfall of EarthSea


Settings: 1.22, huge map, extreme archipelago, edited. All the rest to be discovered, oh brave adventurers.

EarthSea: The Ultimate Archipelago
(Patent pending, MS Fancy Maps, Inc.)

[Mountain Sage]

The Beginning:

[Goethe80]

aarrrggghhhh... exams in 4 weeks. need to brush up on silly topics such as 'recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments under the Brussels Regieme'.. and this pops up..

oh well.. an hour every night to de-stress can't be too bad....

*clicks download*

[Goethe80]

Ok, I've played this abit last night, and here are some brief comments.

*warning, spoilers for M.Sage's new archi map*

It's too easy! Having 3 luxury resources, bunches of wheat and 1 cow on your starting island, together with a linkable iron resource via coastal tiles on the nearest eastern island is just ridiculous.

So anyway, I've picked up the GL, Lighthouse, Hanging Gardens (decided to take a break from building archers and galleys) and the SoZ. My core cities on the original island are all fully developed (well, fully meaning temple, barracks, harbour where available, library and courthouse), have about 1500gold in the bank (without reducing research to 0% post-GL), some 25+ archers, 25+ spearmen, assorted warriors and about a dozen galleys. Am still founding new cities occasionally. I would say that 90% of the islands on the northern 25% are mine. Have about 17% pop domination and 10% area domination (vs. 7%/6% for the nearest AIs). Also leading by culture and score (800 vs 450). Oh, have found all civs (I think, unless there's some civ stuck on a 1-tile island). Timeframe = 200AD or so.

Future plans = expand army to 60 archers and 30 galleys before invention. Pre-buld L.Workshop. Complete FP (island to the west, the one with 2 cows, 3 wheat, 1 horse and 1 sugar on plains. Target to expand land area to 35+% including some desert/jungle areas. Might take out the 2 neighbouring isolated civs of England and Arabia using A.Calvary before advent of Invention and the Viking Berzerk.

Finally, this game so far doesn't really feel like the classic viking sweep from the north
Full contact, leading civ by the long way, etc etc. Not quite the isolated, barbaric, unknown civ from the far north sweeping through scores of dandified musketmen

[Aqualung71]

Man MS, you've given us a rollicking swashbuckling adventure here, even though as Goethe80 says, it' is a tad too easy. But it sure does show how badly the AI sucks at archipelago maps!

I guess because there are just so many civs to meet, it's very easy to get a tech lead. After that though, trading stops and it's all about developing your core with Libraries. Key wonders in this one are the Great Lighthouse (a no-brainer on this map!) and SoZ for the first wave of invasions. By the time I had got to Philosophy and taken Map Making as the free tech, the die was cast, and with those 2 wonders it was going to be hard not to win from there. Switched quickly into Republic (I recall you mentioning this is tailored to Feudalism, but Republic works fine). Built the GL as a denial strategy cos it sure as hell wasn't going to benefit me with techs.

It was fun meeting all the civs, but each one brought a new disappointment as they had nothing to trade and were always several techs behind. The climax on the contacts for me occurred in around 750AD when I finally met Catherine in the far south-west corner of the map. I was just finishing off Astronomy and she didn't have Writing, Ceremonial Burial or HR! I even declared war on Egypt simply because they dared to settle on an island that Ragnar felt was his by birthright.

Anyway, we swooped on the Dutch and the Germans immediately south with AC....a few turns later the first Beserks started rolling out of the Barracks with their axes flying dangerously, and it wasn't long before the Dutch were down to their capital somewhere so remote that Ragnar couldn't even find it on the map so had to make peace instead of obliterating them! All coastal cities were taken amphibiously....not because we needed to, but because it's more fun that way Then one of their captured cities flipped back (we had about 4 times their culture, their capital was nowhere in sight, 2 pop, no resistors and garrison of 3 - now that's gotta be low odds!)...so we declared war again out of spite and retook it!

Ragnar then looked at the histograph and saw that Egypt was running second, so they were next. The Beserks descended on a major coastal city and it was no contest. The Caravel's sailed into port and there were suddenly about 14 Viking units stationed inside to repel counter attacks. The strong Egyptians then sent about 10 Archers covered by about 15 Spears inside our new territory and to their deaths.....MGL fodder. Speaking of which, our first Beserker Army was born.

From now on we will just attack whichever civ gets within 5 or 6 techs of us.

Good fun, this one. Takes away some of the painstaking planning required by normal games!

[Goethe80]

I'm actually in Monarchy for the slightly better unit support vs. Republic, as well as MP effects on isolated islands which won't get linked up for lux until quite awhile later. I was tempted with holding up for Feudalism but decided that it was too long a wait and also that I liked being able to rush buildings with gold instead of pop.

and Aqualung71, you mean there are actually civs that *only* 5 or 6 techs behind you? At 200 AD in my game, there are still some civs that don't have the alphabet!

[Aqualung71]

Well, I don't recall offhand how many techs in front we are because frankly checking 19 civs is a pain in the rear end We're researching Economics for Smiths, and the closest is probably at Invention. Most are still in the ancient age.

[Theseus]

Sounds like a cakewalk... might be a good tool for teaching warmongering!!