Napoleon, Alexandre and their friends

[La Fayette]

There are a few months left before civ3.
What shall we do meanwhile?
Many strong players have chosen to play MP long ago. I suppose they will go on, 'sly as a fox' against 'wise as a Sphinx'. OK.
Most of us will probably go on playing SP, and I suppose that many of us will be willing to go on learning, but also having FUN.
Some play OCC: hat down, they have brought us a whole bunch of precious results about how this game works. OK.
Some play records (high scores, a long time ago = so boring, earliest landing = hat down to solo and samson, earliest conquest = hat down to DaveV, our headlight in the field of bloodthirsty 4legged units). OK.
Here is my proposal to the others:
(this proposal is derived from experience with ww2 and Rome scenarios during the last 3 months; and it is a proposal, which means it is open to criticism and improvement).
Every friday, from today on, I shall name a scenario that I shall be playing next week. Those willing to play will play (the others will do what they want to do = this is a free world).
Next thursday I shall post my results, and those willing to post theirs will do it (the others...).
I don't think I shall send any detailed log (we are not strong OCCers and this is no tournament), but I shall try to explain precisely what kind of strategy I tried to use, and all those posting results will be invited to do the same.
Then we shall play scenario #2 during week #2, and meanwhile shall be free to discuss on this forum the strategies used when playing scenario #1. Then, during week #3, I shall play again scenario #1, trying to take advantage of what has been discussed
(and anyone willing will do the same).
The pattern will be as follows:
Week #1: Playing scenario #1, discussing this post
Week #2: Playing scenario #2, discussing strategy #1
Week #3: Playing scenario #1, discussing strategy #2
Week #4: Playing scenario #2, discussing on topic
Week #5: Playing scenario #3, discussing on topic
...and so on.

In other words, this might be some kind of 'strategy seminar' (but also great FUN: ask EOL, DrFell, Marquis de Sodaq, Fire Dragon, DaveV or anyone of those who have had a try at ww2 or Rome recently).

The first scenario on my list is named 'Alexandre'.
I shall be playing 'Alexandre' next week

[Marquis de Sodaq]

A fine idea. I presume you have chosen Alexandre that comes with CiC. Do you plan to play only the old scenarios that came with the game, or any others that the masses desire?

Unless my succession game turn comes this weekend, The Marquis of Macedon will rein his horse...

[Hermann the Lombard]

Is there a version of "Alexandre" available for 2.42?

[La Fayette]

Originally posted by Marquis de Sodaq
I presume you have chosen Alexandre that comes with CiC. Do you plan to play only the old scenarios that came with the game, or any others that the masses desire?

Are there several Alexandre?
(I have been playing with a very ancient version; named 1.024, up to a few days ago, when I felt compelled to buy a MP game since there was a gauntlet lying on the ground, close to my left foot).
The game I bought is called Ultimate Classic (French). It includes a MP version 5.3.0f, and a number of scenarios, named Conflicts in Civilization or Fantastic Worlds.
I haven't planned to play 'old scenarios'.
What I would like is make it simple for most people, without too much patching, downloading and the like.
I chose Alexandre because it was number 1 on my computer (and perhaps also since I knew YOU would like it ).
The civ is coloured white and owns 3 cities (Athens, Thebes and Pella) in the North West corner of the map.

[La Fayette]

Originally posted by Hermann the Lombard
Is there a version of "Alexandre" available for 2.42?

Sorry, I don't know, but I am quite sure someone on this forum knows the answer... and perhaps also the answer to my question:
Apart from ww2 and Rome (which I think are available to anybody), which are the most common? CiC? FW ?

My purpose is to have fun and discuss strategy with people interested. I think any scenario might serve that purpose (and I have had lots of fun playing Rome with strong advice from DaveV and Xin Yu, or playing ww2 with smaller civs that very few people considered possible to play with before I started).

Scenarios bring some kind of poetry (very far from counting beakers to the last one, hello samson ), and also some kind of lessening the luck factor, hut tipping, mighty wonders and tortured tech tree.
They give us an opportunity to discuss strategy otherwise than 'which is your favorite wonder #2?' or 'how many huts do you tip before founding your city #3?'

I think this purpose would be best served by scenarios 'that go with the game', but this is wide open to discussing.

[Hermann the Lombard]

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I have enjoyed reading the discussion of the minor powers in the wwii scenario, even though I've never figured out how to play the major powers. Well, I haven't tried (yet). The only scenarios that I have are the rome & wwii scenarios (and various OCC scenarios). We'll have to see what's available for download.

[Scouse Gits]

MGE & UCC both contain all the CiC and FW scenarios so are generally available to the MP fraternity as well as to those SP people who have purchased either or both of the add ons.

It should be noted that most people will be playing these scenarios using the MP version of the game - the actual CiC and FW executables have a number of subtle distinctions from both 2.42 & MP - in particular if the appropriate scenario flag is set - it is impossible to change government in FW whilst in both 2.42 & MP there is a small window of opportunity on the move when a new government is discovered or acquired. There are similar (IMO too literal) restrictions on the actions of Diplos and spies in some scenarios.

I don't know whether i will be able to find any more time, but Alexandre here I come ...

[DrFell]

Sounds good fun, if I can find the time ill give it a go (busy time of year).

[La Fayette]

Alexandre

I played FW (I suppose), Deity level (of course) and stopped after having conquered all objective cities (10 of these IIRC).

3 stages.
Stage 1 = conquest
Starting with 3 cities (Athens, Thebes and Pella), I conquered Sparta and Military Camp swiftly, then built a new city on an island close to Rhodes, then conquered 3 more cities nearby. Total: 9 cities.
Stage 2 = peaceful growth (I thought it might be a good idea to build elephants and/or frigates before going on conquering new cities).
Stage 3 = conquest of the remaining objective cities.
I post some more details tonight or tomorrow.

[DrFell]

I tried it a couple days ago, I had no peaceful growth stage Can I post the details now?

[Marquis de Sodaq]

In MGE, only 9 objectives are listed, but the scoring shows 30+. Can somebody with an older version post the full list of objectives so that we MGEers know where to go? Thanks.

My first start was disastrous, so I abandoned it to retry. Sparta was a deathtrap - their catapult killed everybody I sent. Better to wait until the Greeks sail him to anatolia. I went after Ephesos? by dropping an infantry and catapult on the adjacent mountain. Both got blasted away immediately. Alexander died trying to kill an inferior unit. Enough of that...

I restarted by sailing a veteran infantry and catapult to capture poorly defended Rhodes. I waited on the Thracian military camp until it grew a size and I could capture it instead of destroying it. From there I entered anatolia and sacked all the cities there. The Greeks are poorly defended and can't counter attack after you kill their catapults. After Sidon (on Cyprus) grew, I captured it; I disbanded it and moved it one square west to the 3 whale site.

The Phoenecians were easy to pummel with heavy cavalry bored from the easy Greek conquest. I've built up a force with eyes turned to Tyre, my next target. They had built a city to the north, which was easy to capture. This turned out to be a boon, as the Persians have sent a few units after it. Each has been easy to kill in the open fields outside the city.

How big a force do we need to march on mesopotamia? I plan to keep a few extra heavy cavalry around to pick off any reinforcements moving in from the south.

[La Fayette]

Originally posted by DrFell
Can I post the details now?

You post when you will, DrFell.
My idea is that this is not a challenge (unless we decide otherwise later on). It is some can of 'strategy seminar' where we can compare the results obtained with the different ideas we had in mind and try to learn from the others.

Here are some details about the game I played:
End of stage 1 (9 cities = 3 from the start + 1 built + 5 conquered): october 334
End of stage 2 (conquest of Ancyra, after 3 years of 'peaceful' growth): october 331
End of stage 3 (conquest of Susa = 9th objective city): august 329

My opinion about my game:
The period of 'peaceful' growth (by 'peaceful ' I mean fighting defensive wars against anyone attacking me,... which means almost anyone) might be much shorter (I did a lot of unneeded research and earned so much money that when I started conquering Ancyra and the remaining objective cities, I decided almost any time to buy them ).

[DrFell]

Objectives:
Miletus
Ephesus
Gaza
Susa
Ecbatana
Sardis
Ancyra
Bactra
Thebes

Objectivesx3:
Pella
Halicarnassus
Persepolis
Sagala
Memphis
Tyre
Athens

Total: 30 objectives

[Scouse Gits]

Thanks very much - I thought I was losing it see http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=20615 despite what everyone else was saying I could only find 9 or 10 objectives!!!

[La Fayette]

The game I play (UCC or FW?) does not mention any of the x3 objectives (bug?). Only the 9 x1 objectives appear in the 'find city' list, and that is what I played last week.
Thank you very much to you DrFell for giving us the complete list. If anyone agrees, we shall play in accordance with your list when we play this 'Alexandre' scenario again, after having discussed our first game.
Meanwhile I shall play the scenario named XCom next week. There are 3 XCom bases to start with and 8 alien objectives to conquer (hope it is the same for anyone of us ).
I shall play that scenario with special pleasure, since UFO was THE game that made me love computer strategy games. ...and those aliens are tough nuts to crack .

(BTW Marquis, it seems that your first try at 'Alexandre' also was quite painful )