AU208: Total Eternal Forever War - Reports and Comments

[Nor Me]

vmax1, Imtoops, are you sure this is that hard at Emperor?

I've not played since Thursday and am far from the end but it still looks as if I'm going to do O. K. even with what I've read here.

Of course, I wouldn't think of playing this or any AU game designed by alexman now at Deity.

[Dominae]

Nor Me, in this scenario, do not assume that conquering the home continent is even close to sealing up the game. You should have an interesting time ahead of you.


Dominae

[Panzer32]

Continuing my game...

In 110 AD, Babylon gets the great library. I go for the Great Lighthouse, as it is the only other wonder I can build. But the next turn, someone else gets the great lighthouse. I have to waste 168 shields on a plain library.

280ad: I'm slowly making process on expanding my empire while shrinking the empires of the others. I have a plan in place to connect to Iron soon, and since I have been saving up money, I'll make alot of warriors to upgrade to swordsmen. Hopefully then I'll be able to deal with Rome.

310ad: GREAT LEADER!! I don't have any wonders to complete, so I'm making a Numidian Mercenary army. 1 elite and 2 veterans.

[Panzer32]

400ad: Progress is going well, just a few turns until I get hooked up to Iron and upgrade all the warriors I'm churning out. I have 1775 gold currently; I start to research at full pace (only at 40% without losing gold). Researching polytheism after I finished mathematics.

Just got another leader!! The problem is that I don't have any wonders to build, and I don't have a good FP city settled. But first, before I decide what to do with "Mago", I have to get him home safely!

I decide to hold onto him for a bit, until I conquer or build a good FP site.

430ad: My army is victorious! I take a big bite out of the Iroquois by razing their second largest city, Niagara Falls. See pic.

[Panzer32]

450ad: Iron connected. 17 warriors upgraded to swordsmen. Heroic epic rushed in Carthage (still need to wait for a good FP site).

520ad: Attacked Rome with 16 swordsmen, 3 numidian mercenaries, and 2 archers... and after 7 swordsmen died in the attack, my elite numidian mercenary took the last Roman legion standing. No leader though See pic.

Rome is crippled. I have taken their source of iron, and it will be only time before I have destroyed the remains of their once great empire.

540ad: I meet the Indians after they settle a city in the place I was going to... this means war! Of course, I must exhort tech first... I get construction, monarchy, philosophy, horseback riding, and currency for a mere contact, world map, 172 gold, and 29 gold per 0 turns!!

At this point, I decide to beline for chivalry. I currently do not have horses in the strategic resources box, and thus cannot use knights until I get them hooked up. By that time rolls around, I hope to be well on my way to chivalry.

560ad: Indian City destroyed; one roman city captured, another destroyed.

600ad: Mincemeat made of Ravenna; Romans struggling witout Iron.

680ad: Contact with the Americans and Babylonians. Techs before war! Also, Salamanca taken and razed.

710ad: Romans destroyed.

More to come later!! Time for builder mode

[CorpusScorpius]

It is 1275 AD in the Zulu Empire & according to The histographic chart Shaka is leading but I get the feeling that the Powers that be will change that

[CorpusScorpius]

Update 1390 AD, I have managed to gain & lose a few cities on the English homeland. I made a few mistakes in my game so far
1. I didnt milk the Roman & Iroquois Cities for leaders
2.I built way too many cities too early.
3. I destroyed an English city that was really IMPORTANT & had to rebuild one in its place.
4.I didnt scout out the english city in question & could of had saltpeter alot earlier.

[vmxa1]

Originally posted by Nor Me
vmax1, Imtoops, are you sure this is that hard at Emperor?

I've not played since Thursday and am far from the end but it still looks as if I'm going to do O. K. even with what I've read here.

Of course, I wouldn't think of playing this or any AU game designed by alexman now at Deity.

Well I suspect it will be be extremely hard, but I have been wrong before.
As was mentioned by Dom, getting your land mass under control, is not given you the game. In fact I think you will find the bad news is not far away at that time.
Now I played this game too conservatively, that hurt me.
I have possibly mismanaged things, as I will probably never get another wonder after the Pyramids. I had 10 leaders so far, but could not do much with them. No wonders available, so I used them for structures to allow the chance to get more. I have cleared all but one Roman city out on a finger area. No civs eliminated as they must have at least one city elsewhere.
I have a Rider army and two sword armies and 1 mixed army. I have the Epic and the Pentagon. These are 4 unit armies. Basically Iroq and Rome could do nothing against them.
Now the prolems will start to show up.
1- cities are hard to keep from disorder
2 - way behind in tech
3 - no saltpeter
4 - not built any navy
5 - Americans must be super strong as they have gotten nearly all of the wonders.

Good news is that I have not had contact with other civs, so they have not come after me yet.
No fleet as it is pointless to make galleys with others having Man O war and probably ironclads.
I have not been able to switch goverments, due to pressing need for units.
I have prepared for it by slowly getting most cities into wealth. The switch wll not hurt as much and I will do it now. I have no real need of more units as nothing much is coming until some one else shows up.
As we say in the poker clubs, I am drawing dead. It is just a matter of who will show up with Calv or MI and smash me. No saltpetter so having Gunpowder is not much of a help. Riders were able to turn the tide on MW and Legions with ease.

[Arrian]

I've played up to 1305AD now. I've just hit the Industrial Age (nationalism free, researching steam power).

The AI (mostly America... damn they're strong) is dropping off rifles & cav with increasing frequency. The Americans have a huge fleet of frigates and are bombarding my West coast. So far it isn't too bad. I'm holding.

I made an exploring/pillaging landing in England with knights & a pike or two. I broke some things and can now see nearly all of their land. But I did lose the entire force, and most of the caravels that got them there. *sigh*

The Americans and English are DEMOCRACIES! Damnit! They were republics for a long time, and now are demos, all the while fighting me. WTF?!?! I don't think I can beat 'em unless I can get them down into Monarchy (or Commie).

-Arrian

[AJ Corp. The FAIR]

Alexander became Shaka

After two first shots with Greece on emperor, I've decided to give the Zulu a try, as they're militaristic and have a fast, good defender, the Impi.

Zulu, emperor, first game.

To be short: already much better than with Greece, but not good enough as I didn't have iron, and didn't take Rome from the beginning, crucial for success. I abandoned in 510 AD, had 1 army, 16 Impi, 12 catapults and some archers and warriors. I've resisted a long time to Legionaries, especially with catapults, but I've decided to start a second time, because I could do much better with Zulu.

Zulu, emperor, second game.

Yes, yes, yes, I've razed Rome around 1650 BC!
I only focused on building barracks and archers and did the good old archer rush on them. I was lucky however to have exploited AI's 'unintelligence'. Roman armies were following one single archer always moving up one tile and descending one the next turn, so they couldn't kill it, meanwhile allowing me to mass archers in preparation for a deadly assault on Rome, which I've immediately razed. I've later found my own city on the 'ideal' site. Iron soon was to be mine.

AJ

[AJ Corp. The FAIR]

Around 1525 I had around 11 archers which I sent to the Iroquois as I wanted to take their capitol too, but I soon realized I didn't stand a chance with their tougher than expected resistance. So I used them to take out 3 minor border cities, razing them and forcing the Iroquois to lose time resettling these sites.

With a granary in Zimbabwe I soon started REXing. As I wanted to postpone my golden age, I didn't build Impi yet. By the time I had around 6 cities and good defenders became totally needed, I started building them in large numbers, effectively triggering my GA in 550 BC.

Man, was I proud on my first swordsmen after 3 other AU208 attempts.

AJ

[AJ Corp. The FAIR]

In 330 AD I got wheel, ceremonial and literature from Cleopatra for 10 gpt and the English 'gave' me mysticism, maths, philosophy, map making, code of laws and horseback riding for communications.

To my great disappointment, in a total war scenario with a mil civ !!!!!!, I got my first -so far only- Great Leader in 450 AD, a couple of truns after the English built Great Library

Right now it's rather difficult to finish the Iroquois fast, as my attacking forces are not large and Iro MW's prove stronge as counter attackers. But Impi, I just love them.

So far I've managed to settle quite some cities, razing/capturing a couple minor Iro border cities, as I hope that I can take them out one at a time, to eventually take their capitol.

Right now I'm trying to have some temples built, delaying my mil output, which might not be the best bet I've taken so far. Also wondering how to use my Great Leader, The best site for FP is not yet in my reach, wonders unavailable.

AJ

[UnOrthOdOx]

Ill get some screenies up later.

My second game is going much better in some ways, and much worse in others.

I again chose Mongols on Emperor more out of stubborness than any real thought...

The Expansionist crap shoot did not pay off this game, 4 huts, 1 warrior, ceremonial, 50 gold and a map...

My archer rush on Rome faired much better - NO LOSSES, and I immediately turned them north to destroy Rome completely then east to meat up with newer troops to take out the Iriquois. Leaving the Iriquois with a few cities I thought I would milk them for leaders.

This is where my luck has sucked completely. At present, I have had 63 elite victories and 0 leaders. I lost the library by 3 turns to America, and things are not looking very good in terms of my losing the tech race. I did make a killer deal with England when I met here gaining 4 techs for Lit + 60 gold and contact with the Iriquois (course there was about 30 GPT mixed in there as well, but we need not worry about that now do we?). I have a large swordsman army and England is still in Ancient age, my first galleys have come into being and I am moving to take England on a small island to the SW as a stepping stone to the larger England. 5 turns to Monarchy.

[badams52]

Some great games out there and I love reading all of your AARs,. but would somebody please win this game?!?!!? I keep waiting and waiting for a report of someone who actually wins!

props to alexman for such a difficult scenario

[Arrian]

badams,

I intend to try. But it's getting nasty. I'm not gonna lose militarily, but the American fleet is getting annoying, and the Anglo-American democracy phenomenon is really pissing me off. I desperately need to snag ToE. I might even forgo Industrialization for a bit to make sure I get it (prebuild or leader - I have the HE now). Steam Power is taking my something like 8 turns at a small loss of gpt, and of course I have almost no reserve of cash.

I need infantry/artillery/transports/destroyers and lots of them. Then I'm going to break things. Slowly. Carefully. And I'm going to enjoy it.

-Arrian