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Strange Bedfellows...Me and Yang
Hi gang. I just finished a game (I planned on going out yesterday but the weather was awful!) Strangely enough I was teamed up with Yang as the gaians. (I hate Yang! He’s always a thorn in my side and hard to beat! But here’s my thoughts on the fiasco!
I may have to change my opinion about Yang. In the game I just finished he was my ally and he was actually a good one. I expected treachery, but he remained submissive throughout the game after I forced his surrender, even though if he had broken our pact near the end it would have been REALLY hard to beat him. This is the first time I turned the option for trascendence off, so one way or the other I had to fight for my victory. (By “I” I mean the gaians.) Only a few things occured to me while I was playing.
I hate Islands- By that I mean I hate starting off on islands. Its a remnant of my old Civ 2 days. when you started on an island in Civ 2 it was a disaster most of the time. Too make it worse, Santiago was on an island next to me. she threatened me at first, but then signed a treaty. I made sure I got Doctrine: Flexibility before she did and started colonizing other islands and building sea bases all around them. In retrospect, it was easier to defend myself by using islands.
Yang’s surrender- Yang of course declared vendetta on me right after meeting me. He was far enough away that I didn’t sweat it at first, but then he began landing troops at my farthest outposts. I managed to fight him off, but it was close. When Yang surrendered his power was listed as anemic, but I don’t see how. He had a fair amount of bases and Yang always has a giant army. Still, he surrendered and I accepted it. I wonder why he didn’t keep fighting? I was nowhere close to threatening his territory. (Yang controlled the monsoon jungle, which was basically an island unto itself, but didn’t build cities on it! He built sea cities around it!?)
New respect for Miriam- she’s a real b**ch, but she’s tough. I watched as Yang took one of her bases and she would take it right back. (part of Yang’s surrender was to declare vnedetta on Miriam. They were both teamed up against me before Yang gave in.) Even when I got troops over there Miriam made me pay for every inch.
Sunspots are kind of cool- Morgan, Morgan, Morgan. How can he possibly be called shrewd? If he was he would have kept his weak little only four base havin’ ass out of it. but he declared vendetta and I went right after him. I didn’t need him giving any help to Miriam. But Morgan Industries was pretty hard to beat. When the sunspots came up though I nerve gassed him. Heehee. If the AI played Morgan with any common sense he’d be dangerous, but he’s mostly an annoyance.
No Money- I had a ridiculous amount of energy credits. Then just before I was about to mind control two of Santiago’s cities with carefuly placed probe teams an energy market crash reduced my bankroll to a mere 475! AAARGH.
Santiago should have stayed out of everything too, but I knew she’d jump in. So I had several isles of the deep with groups of mindworms off of her cost. I couldn’t buy her out but she surrendered after a turn.
Lal and Zak- Do stupid things. Zak could have kept his mouth shut but he and Lal decided to team up against me and Yang. By this time the believers were down to one base, Santiago had surrendered to me and Morgan was nerve gassed to death. The idiots. If they were going to declare vendetta they should have at least coordinated their attacks and tried to slow us down. They didn’t fight back very hard at all. (at least not well) Zak was easy to beat, since he’s easy to probe. I just mind controlled his bases with defenses and blew away his troops in the others. Lal had no choice but to give in when Zak surrendered since now he had me, Yang, Santiago and his former friend Zak coming at his continent with everything we had. He surrendered right after I dropped troops around UN HQ.
I’m no great expert, but I’ll have to try playing at the next level (Talent). Do the AI players play better or do they just get meaner? There were times in this game when I probably could have lost, but it still wasn’t very hard. After Yang surrendered and started attacking my enemies I had an easy time of it. I just knew it would take a long time to win.
One more thing...I don’t know if this helps in the way I intended it too, but after building the Empath Guild I usually click on enemy bases to see what they have in them and keep track of their research to see when they’re making the breakthroughs. I do this so the AI can’t “cheat” on me and put a dozen troops in a base that was empty a second ago or have my enemies all of a sudden discover shard weapons when their current technology was far behind it. I know they can always find artifacts but its again, a remnant of my Civ 2 playing when my foes would miraculously discover air power and yet the last turn they weren’t even close.
D4
I may have to change my opinion about Yang. In the game I just finished he was my ally and he was actually a good one. I expected treachery, but he remained submissive throughout the game after I forced his surrender, even though if he had broken our pact near the end it would have been REALLY hard to beat him. This is the first time I turned the option for trascendence off, so one way or the other I had to fight for my victory. (By “I” I mean the gaians.) Only a few things occured to me while I was playing.
I hate Islands- By that I mean I hate starting off on islands. Its a remnant of my old Civ 2 days. when you started on an island in Civ 2 it was a disaster most of the time. Too make it worse, Santiago was on an island next to me. she threatened me at first, but then signed a treaty. I made sure I got Doctrine: Flexibility before she did and started colonizing other islands and building sea bases all around them. In retrospect, it was easier to defend myself by using islands.
Yang’s surrender- Yang of course declared vendetta on me right after meeting me. He was far enough away that I didn’t sweat it at first, but then he began landing troops at my farthest outposts. I managed to fight him off, but it was close. When Yang surrendered his power was listed as anemic, but I don’t see how. He had a fair amount of bases and Yang always has a giant army. Still, he surrendered and I accepted it. I wonder why he didn’t keep fighting? I was nowhere close to threatening his territory. (Yang controlled the monsoon jungle, which was basically an island unto itself, but didn’t build cities on it! He built sea cities around it!?)
New respect for Miriam- she’s a real b**ch, but she’s tough. I watched as Yang took one of her bases and she would take it right back. (part of Yang’s surrender was to declare vnedetta on Miriam. They were both teamed up against me before Yang gave in.) Even when I got troops over there Miriam made me pay for every inch.
Sunspots are kind of cool- Morgan, Morgan, Morgan. How can he possibly be called shrewd? If he was he would have kept his weak little only four base havin’ ass out of it. but he declared vendetta and I went right after him. I didn’t need him giving any help to Miriam. But Morgan Industries was pretty hard to beat. When the sunspots came up though I nerve gassed him. Heehee. If the AI played Morgan with any common sense he’d be dangerous, but he’s mostly an annoyance.
No Money- I had a ridiculous amount of energy credits. Then just before I was about to mind control two of Santiago’s cities with carefuly placed probe teams an energy market crash reduced my bankroll to a mere 475! AAARGH.
Santiago should have stayed out of everything too, but I knew she’d jump in. So I had several isles of the deep with groups of mindworms off of her cost. I couldn’t buy her out but she surrendered after a turn.Lal and Zak- Do stupid things. Zak could have kept his mouth shut but he and Lal decided to team up against me and Yang. By this time the believers were down to one base, Santiago had surrendered to me and Morgan was nerve gassed to death. The idiots. If they were going to declare vendetta they should have at least coordinated their attacks and tried to slow us down. They didn’t fight back very hard at all. (at least not well) Zak was easy to beat, since he’s easy to probe. I just mind controlled his bases with defenses and blew away his troops in the others. Lal had no choice but to give in when Zak surrendered since now he had me, Yang, Santiago and his former friend Zak coming at his continent with everything we had. He surrendered right after I dropped troops around UN HQ.
I’m no great expert, but I’ll have to try playing at the next level (Talent). Do the AI players play better or do they just get meaner? There were times in this game when I probably could have lost, but it still wasn’t very hard. After Yang surrendered and started attacking my enemies I had an easy time of it. I just knew it would take a long time to win.
One more thing...I don’t know if this helps in the way I intended it too, but after building the Empath Guild I usually click on enemy bases to see what they have in them and keep track of their research to see when they’re making the breakthroughs. I do this so the AI can’t “cheat” on me and put a dozen troops in a base that was empty a second ago or have my enemies all of a sudden discover shard weapons when their current technology was far behind it. I know they can always find artifacts but its again, a remnant of my Civ 2 playing when my foes would miraculously discover air power and yet the last turn they weren’t even close.
D4
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