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One good thing about despotism is the ability to eliminate the foreign population through rushbuilding. The hard part is getting out of disorder to be able to do it.
I'm not sure this game is long for my hard drive. Last night I played the Babylonians (scientific and religious) with the hope of finally getting some techs to trade. Starting location was at the end of the continent, so I could only expand one way. Unlike other games, however, the ai seemed far away and I was able to expand pretty well without interference from anything other than barbs. I got 6 cities down and still had a swath of "unclaimed" land varying between 3 and 4 tiles wide between me and the nearest ai's. So far, so good, I thought.
I get contact with most of the civs on my own and trade anything I can, which isn't much. Constantly 4 to 6 techs behind. Anytime they ask for something, I give it. I buy contact with the two civs I haven't met, and give them anything I can. I manage to stay out of wars until I can get decently mobilized, with vet longbowmen and horses patrolling the unclaimed land and gunpowder on the way. I'm in the middle of the pack scorewise, but I can tell from the map that I have more land than anyone but the Russians, who have about the same amount of territory and don't border me anyway. Still in pretty good shape, I think.
The Germans plop a city down in the unclaimed territory near one of my cities. I was willing to let it stay if they gave into a demand for techs (it would have been assimilated eventually), but they didn't, so I took it. The Germans weren't neighbors anyway, so their response wasn't threatening. I keep giving into the other ai demands in an effort to maintain peace, b/c no one was allied with the Germans.
Just about the time I settle another city, the Aztecs start sending masses of whatever their two move unit is into the unclaimed land. They line up on my border and declare war. No demands, which is fine. I win enough early skirmishes to keep them at bay, but now my entire civ has to be producing horses and longbowmen at the expense of everything else. Next thing I know, the Persians and Aztecs ally and the Persians declare war also. By now, even the Germans have had enough time to get a few units into the area. Persian horses start approaching my most recently settled city, which has nothing but a spearman for defense, so I empty out another city that is inland about 6 squares away, but connected with roads, and send a longbowman and another spearman for support. Naturally, as soon as I do that, the Persian horses divert course and make a beeline for the empty city. Both of those cities had crappy production b/c of corruption (one or two shields each), so there was very little hope for them to withstand the wave of attackers approaching, and I couldn't send reinforcements from elsewhere b/c they had their hands full at home.
I decide that the only way out of this is to go on the offensive with the nearest Aztec city, take it and maybe get peace with them after taking the city. I send a stack consisting of two elite longbowmen and two veteran horses, followed by a stack of one elite and one veteran longbowman and one vet horseman against the city, which is size 2. Can I take the city? Hell no, and it wasn't defended with musketeers either.
Now, out of the blue, the Iroquois and Americans announce an alliance against me and declare war.
I had managed to rush a spearman in the empty city that the Persians diverted to, but he didn't last long and the Persians took the city. The second wave was now approaching the last city I had settled, and the Persians also had a unit left over to approach from the rear. I had three units in that city, though, and was hopeful I could hold them off until I had enough money to rush a musketeer there.
Now comes the confluence of three things that really pissed me off. First, I had been building a wonder since God knows when in one of the cities. Of course, every time I got close to something, the ai built it first. I switched production to different wonders 3 times, and finally got stuck trying to build the Lighthouse for lack of anything else to do. When I switched to that, I had 6 turns to go. One turn before finishing it, the ai builds it, and I get another 300-something shield cathedral. I mean for chrissake, can't these idiots at least convert the shields to cash or disperse the unused ones to your other cities? Second, I fortify a vet musketeer and vet longbowman on my saltpeter source. Two horses show up and kill the musketeer, followed by a stack of units who finish off the longbowman on the next turn. This is ridiculous, I can't take a city with the crap I threw at them and they kill a fortified vet musketeer with two horses? Finally, I lose the city with 3 defenders to two horses and a longbowman. See previous comment.
End of game 5.
I do not like:
1. The way the ai knows what's going on in your cities that are not in view of units. Obviously the ai knows where they are when you exchange maps, as I had done, but it has no reason to know the city is empty or underdefended if you change the defense structure after exchanging the maps. That's completely bogus. The ai should take its chances just like we do when we attack a city.
2. The effect of corruption on shields is ridiculous. My 6th and 7th cities were essentially worthless, producing 1 or 2 shields even at sizes 3 and 5. What's the point of even having cities like that. They can't produce enough shields to build anything to reduce corruption and they can't even produce enough shields to build units to help defense or the war effort. It's impossible to keep up with the ai when it throws swarms of units, even if they are inferior units, at your cities when your entire military must come from 4 cities. There is no way the ai suffers corruption like the human player. It's not like I had 30 cities on different continents. I had 7 cities on one continent, all connected by roads.
3. The wonders crap is, well, crap. In 5 games, the only wonder I've ever been able to build was Oracle and I'm sick of seeing shields wasted time and time again. Maybe part of my frustration has to do with the fact that I have NEVER gotten a great leader, despite winning at least 20 or 25 battles with elite units. Granted, I haven't played militaristic civs, but that shouldn't be the ONLY way to win.
Finally, although it doesn't yet constitute a "dislike", I question the level of unjustified ai aggression I've seen in the few games I've played. Unpredictable, irrational and aggressive behavior is fine to a degree, but if the game won't allow you to produce enough shields to defend yourself, what's the point? And does every civ have to think of itself as the Mongols?
This is at monarchy level. I guess what this boils down to is that if the only way to win this game is essentially to conquer the world by 1000 BC, I'm not interested.
I'm not sure this game is long for my hard drive. Last night I played the Babylonians (scientific and religious) with the hope of finally getting some techs to trade. Starting location was at the end of the continent, so I could only expand one way. Unlike other games, however, the ai seemed far away and I was able to expand pretty well without interference from anything other than barbs. I got 6 cities down and still had a swath of "unclaimed" land varying between 3 and 4 tiles wide between me and the nearest ai's. So far, so good, I thought.
I get contact with most of the civs on my own and trade anything I can, which isn't much. Constantly 4 to 6 techs behind. Anytime they ask for something, I give it. I buy contact with the two civs I haven't met, and give them anything I can. I manage to stay out of wars until I can get decently mobilized, with vet longbowmen and horses patrolling the unclaimed land and gunpowder on the way. I'm in the middle of the pack scorewise, but I can tell from the map that I have more land than anyone but the Russians, who have about the same amount of territory and don't border me anyway. Still in pretty good shape, I think.
The Germans plop a city down in the unclaimed territory near one of my cities. I was willing to let it stay if they gave into a demand for techs (it would have been assimilated eventually), but they didn't, so I took it. The Germans weren't neighbors anyway, so their response wasn't threatening. I keep giving into the other ai demands in an effort to maintain peace, b/c no one was allied with the Germans.
Just about the time I settle another city, the Aztecs start sending masses of whatever their two move unit is into the unclaimed land. They line up on my border and declare war. No demands, which is fine. I win enough early skirmishes to keep them at bay, but now my entire civ has to be producing horses and longbowmen at the expense of everything else. Next thing I know, the Persians and Aztecs ally and the Persians declare war also. By now, even the Germans have had enough time to get a few units into the area. Persian horses start approaching my most recently settled city, which has nothing but a spearman for defense, so I empty out another city that is inland about 6 squares away, but connected with roads, and send a longbowman and another spearman for support. Naturally, as soon as I do that, the Persian horses divert course and make a beeline for the empty city. Both of those cities had crappy production b/c of corruption (one or two shields each), so there was very little hope for them to withstand the wave of attackers approaching, and I couldn't send reinforcements from elsewhere b/c they had their hands full at home.
I decide that the only way out of this is to go on the offensive with the nearest Aztec city, take it and maybe get peace with them after taking the city. I send a stack consisting of two elite longbowmen and two veteran horses, followed by a stack of one elite and one veteran longbowman and one vet horseman against the city, which is size 2. Can I take the city? Hell no, and it wasn't defended with musketeers either.
Now, out of the blue, the Iroquois and Americans announce an alliance against me and declare war.
I had managed to rush a spearman in the empty city that the Persians diverted to, but he didn't last long and the Persians took the city. The second wave was now approaching the last city I had settled, and the Persians also had a unit left over to approach from the rear. I had three units in that city, though, and was hopeful I could hold them off until I had enough money to rush a musketeer there.
Now comes the confluence of three things that really pissed me off. First, I had been building a wonder since God knows when in one of the cities. Of course, every time I got close to something, the ai built it first. I switched production to different wonders 3 times, and finally got stuck trying to build the Lighthouse for lack of anything else to do. When I switched to that, I had 6 turns to go. One turn before finishing it, the ai builds it, and I get another 300-something shield cathedral. I mean for chrissake, can't these idiots at least convert the shields to cash or disperse the unused ones to your other cities? Second, I fortify a vet musketeer and vet longbowman on my saltpeter source. Two horses show up and kill the musketeer, followed by a stack of units who finish off the longbowman on the next turn. This is ridiculous, I can't take a city with the crap I threw at them and they kill a fortified vet musketeer with two horses? Finally, I lose the city with 3 defenders to two horses and a longbowman. See previous comment.
End of game 5.
I do not like:
1. The way the ai knows what's going on in your cities that are not in view of units. Obviously the ai knows where they are when you exchange maps, as I had done, but it has no reason to know the city is empty or underdefended if you change the defense structure after exchanging the maps. That's completely bogus. The ai should take its chances just like we do when we attack a city.
2. The effect of corruption on shields is ridiculous. My 6th and 7th cities were essentially worthless, producing 1 or 2 shields even at sizes 3 and 5. What's the point of even having cities like that. They can't produce enough shields to build anything to reduce corruption and they can't even produce enough shields to build units to help defense or the war effort. It's impossible to keep up with the ai when it throws swarms of units, even if they are inferior units, at your cities when your entire military must come from 4 cities. There is no way the ai suffers corruption like the human player. It's not like I had 30 cities on different continents. I had 7 cities on one continent, all connected by roads.
3. The wonders crap is, well, crap. In 5 games, the only wonder I've ever been able to build was Oracle and I'm sick of seeing shields wasted time and time again. Maybe part of my frustration has to do with the fact that I have NEVER gotten a great leader, despite winning at least 20 or 25 battles with elite units. Granted, I haven't played militaristic civs, but that shouldn't be the ONLY way to win.
Finally, although it doesn't yet constitute a "dislike", I question the level of unjustified ai aggression I've seen in the few games I've played. Unpredictable, irrational and aggressive behavior is fine to a degree, but if the game won't allow you to produce enough shields to defend yourself, what's the point? And does every civ have to think of itself as the Mongols?
This is at monarchy level. I guess what this boils down to is that if the only way to win this game is essentially to conquer the world by 1000 BC, I'm not interested.
i should be the one who is most upset about them being left out of the game 
in ancient times groups fought over resources all the time....
..regent,regent,monarch.Have a deity game on the go...not so good.
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