AU208: Total Eternal Forever War - Reports and Comments

[Konquest02]

I am now in the process of rebuilding my forces and I am about to go hit Rome. They are now deprived of Iron (at least I think, as I haven't seen a single legionary) and they should be a relatively easy target. But I have to watch for the damn Iroquois' MW who are killing me...

I just clinched the GL so I turned my science off and I am concentrating on troops.

I am impressed by the way the AI comes to cut my iron road relatively efficiently. But it allows me to build warriors and upgrade them, making me a nice swordman pump... Something unusual happened when they cut my iron. I was able to finish my swordmen but could not build new ones. It makes a strange view... I have cities producing swordmen and cities producing warriors at the same time. And everything is connected with roads...

[Konquest02]

Here is a screenshot of my current turn. There was a lot more troops in my territory 2-3 turns ago but I managed to kill them outside my cities with swordmen.

Btw, I'm playing Regent with PtW regular rules. I usually play monarch so I stepped down one notch for this one. It's a nice challenge (), thanks alexman!

[Arrian]

"Our leader has been destroyed"

Ahhh! The horror! The horror!

:sobs:

-Arrian

[Konquest02]

Oups... Forgot to attach image. Here it is...

I recently got a third GL and I used him to rush the FP in Rome. 3GLs that tops my all-time highscore, and I'm still in 400 AD!!!

Back to playing!

--Kon--

[Arrian]

Hmm... I wonder if I destroyed my enemies too quickly.

Once I knocked out Rome (the city, not the civ) and Salamanca, I was facing archers & spearmen... against my vet/elite immortals. Perhaps I should have been a tad slower about picking them apart.

Now my target list is reduced to lone English warriors that are dropped off every few turns. I hope the English start bringing some more cannon fodder soon. That, or I'm going to have to take the fight to them (with my rather limited forces, that could be interesting).

-Arrian

[Konquest02]

@Arrian: You could have kept those civs alive and just knock their weak units coming at you to generate GLs. (It feels kinda wierd to say to Arrian that his GL generation could have been better! )

@Dom: Nicely played and, most of all, very thourough AAR. Very interesting to read. Keep up the good work!

@Dave: Good luck on Deity, you seem to be fine right now...

[OPD]

Arrrgh that damn Roman city is on a hill thats just really mean. Have already lost 5 archers failing to take it and now I see a legionary hanging round and it's only 2000 bc.

[OPD]

Played as the chinese on king.

Archer rushed the romans straight away with 2 archers but got there just as they built a spearman and got wiped out. Tried again with 4 archers but got screwed again.

Built barracks and sent 8 archers to the ironquios, the ones that weren't raped by MW were pitiful against another city on hills.

Then the Romans took my second city with a spearman! Killing my stlr in the process.

Being along way from IW I gave up.

[TheArsenal]

not great, not bad

Not a detailed log (my game notes, and screenshots are at home) but a brief overview.

Playing China on Regent even though I am a Regent player. I have lived so far to 210AD and am in okay, but not optimal shape.

Built my city on the very spot I started went for warrior, warrior, barracks, granary, and then began cranking out archers. I garrisoned the first warrior and used the second to explore in a tight short circle around my first city. My strategy was not to make contact before I had a decent archer complement, and my total circle of exploration could not have been more two squares out from Beijing.

I met a Roman warrior and an Iroquois scout on consecutive turns, and earlier than I would have liked (being a huge/large map player I was caught way off guard at how close civs are). Traded techs, went to war. Over the course of the game I managed to seize three Roman cities, destroy one, and seize one Iroquois town and two workers. I cranked out two settlers myself, and placed both cities on the extended land masses adjacent to the ocean. They are both way closer to capital than normal, but are partly protected by the capital's garrison.

Where I stand: I am actively warring with the Romans, meaning I am entering their territory and fighting. I am holding a defensive posture against the Iroquois and letting them throw away units against a fortified, walled city.

What's good: with Beijing cranking out swordsman, and the early victories against Rome, it looks like I may get to Riders. I am producing a healthy amount of gpt. I recently met the Americans and bought myself back into the tech race.

What's bad: despite careful use of elites, and several decisive victories, no leaders. My culture is minimal. I am without a single Wonder.

[TheArsenal]

A few observations:

This is fun, but the most insane game I have ever played.

Games go a little faster when (after your initial meeting) diplomacy always goes like this:
"The Romans have requested an audience." "No not now."

Being a warmonger unable to extort techs puts puts one (me at least) at a serious disadvantage.

[Arrian]

It puts us all at a disadvantage. Believe me, I miss extortion. I'd be at least even, probably ahead, in tech right now if I could've used extortion. Instead, I'm lagging badly.

I wonder, can I get away with skipping Mil Tradition? I have control of my island. With a good road system (already mostly complete), bombard units (building cats now), and Immortals/Knights, I think I can. I don't think I could skip Chivalry too, though. Well.... maybe...

Those "optional" techs are tough sells when you cannot trade or extort.

GROG WANT TANK!

-Arrian

[Nor Me]

3 pages have appeared while I've been away for 15 hours. I played this yesterday but didn't have the time to post. So there's no chance of a proper AAR.

Emperor, China, as everyone else.

Realising that I may have to fight very early and had little to gain from exploring, my first build was a barracks. My worker first cleared the game forest to help with the first archer. Then came the second worker which might pay off for an inudtrious civ.

I met the Romans fairly quickly and realised they were close so I'd need a few more archers before thinking about expanding.

[Nor Me]

I know that alexman might not have seen AU401 so I can forgive him that.

But don't you ask yourself why did I meet just those 2 civs?

As a result, I've not seen either UU so far!


When I met the Iroquois, I guessed that:

1) the Romans had Iron

2) The Iroquois had horses

3) I had neither

I can cope with Mounted warriors, they are easy to kill but Legionaries need lots of catapults to stop them doing damage and they need tech.

So I had to archer rush Rome as fast as possible. As with AU207 and AU401 this meant no settlers even though I don't have the luxury of a free settler.

So Beijing built 7 archers and a spearmen before building a settler or granary. One worker built a road towards Rome.

My first attack on Rome was unsuccessful but fortunately they were unable to counterattack so I lost only one archer. It soon fell. Things started looking up when I got a great leader taking Veii which consequently build the Pyramids in 1750BC.

A spearman in the mountain range was always able to tell where the Iroquois were heading but even so defending both cores meant settler production was slow.

Gambling that Rome was built on Iron, I prepared to swordsmen rush the Iroquios. In 1600BC, I got a second leader from counterattacking Iroquois archers near Veii. That became an army of 1 archer. On reflection, I should have rushed the Colossus as the Heroic Epic is abit expensive for my poorly developed empire.

In 1250BC, a swordman travelling towards the Iroquois produced a third leader! On the same turn, the Babylonians built the Oracle. That leader became the Colossus in Shanghai.

It's 1075BC, I've taken Salamanca so probably have little to fear from the Iroquois. I've yet to see if it was founded on the only accessible horses but if so then I'm not going to face MWs as well as legionaries.

From F11 literacy, no-one has literature. Only the Great Lighthouse could be being used as a prebuild so I think I'm likely to get the Great Library.

I've got a couple of settlers wondering around but I desperately need more cities to approximate sensible development.

[BigDork]

Originally posted by OPD
Arrrgh that damn Roman city is on a hill thats just really mean. Have already lost 5 archers failing to take it and now I see a legionary hanging round and it's only 2000 bc.

That sounds just like my first game.

BigD

[Nor Me]

Originally posted by Arrian
I wonder, can I get away with skipping Mil Tradition? I have control of my island. With a good road system (already mostly complete), bombard units (building cats now), and Immortals/Knights, I think I can. I don't think I could skip Chivalry too, though. Well.... maybe...

Those "optional" techs are tough sells when you cannot trade or extort.

GROG WANT TANK!

Yeah, I'm wondering about that. Do I skip Riders in favour of a GA after the Great Library is obsolete which is when I'll need the tech? But that would also mean skipping Sun'Tzu's and Leo's since I have the Pyramids.

The other thing I'm wondering about is:

Despotism -> Republic -> Communism

If I can hold off contact until I get a large jump from the Great Library while hording cash and then be able to steal tech with it later on.

If I can build enough courthouses, Communsim might be better than Monarchy in the AU mod even with reasonable FP+Palace placement.