AU208: Total Eternal Forever War - Reports and Comments

[ZargonX]

The Story of the Joyfully Aggressive Chinese:

The early years of the Chinese empire were filled with a desire to go forth and explore the world, find new civilizations, and beat on them for a while. Our early explorations brought great fortune immediately: a settler wishing to join us quite close to our capital. This was an extra fortunate find, as a turn later, an Iroquois scout arrived next to the former hut. Filled the joyous spirit of war, our warrior destroyed the scout, entering us into what would be several thousand years of non-stop battle.
Meanwhile, in the east, our scouts spotted the Roman borders, but avoided contact so as to give us time to prepare. In readying for the upcoming war, our industrious people engaged in the mighty public works project: War Road to Rome. With the war road complete, we made contact just in time to flood a small horde of archers onto the Roman capital, which fell easily. A side benefit of the war road was that the Iron that turned out to be under Rome was quickly connected to the rest of the empire.
From this point on, the Romans would be a non-issue, as deprived of iron, they were a second-rate empire.

[ZargonX]

With the Romans effectively out of the way, and with mop-up swords soon to finish them off, we turned our full offensive attention to the Iroquois menace, who were more menacing with their now rapidly appearing mounted warriors. So, to combat their speed and mobility, it was time for War Road II: The Road to Salamanca.



This road was more of a challenge to build, with assaults from Iroquois raiding parties threatening to steal way my workers. A heavy dose of swords and spears managed to hold them at bay long enough, however, for the Chinese to make some good progress into the Iroquois territory.
Then, in an odd but beneficial occurance, one my forces destroyed the Iroquois city shown in the above image, the Iroquois never produced another mounted warrior. I don't know why, as their horses were not located there, but it happened nonetheless. This made the rest of the conquest very simple, and in a few hundred years, the last vestiges of both the Iroquois and the Romans were wiped off the continent. During the remaining years of war, we gained but a single Great Leader, who gave his life to speeding the completion of the Great Library, the only wonder in my people's possesion. Also, the English made a few attempted settlements on my southern lands, but were met swiftly and escorted off the island in caskets.

[ZargonX]

Following the securing of my home continent, I was allowed a brief period of rest to regroup and build up. The English were no direct threat, and I was not quite ready to assault them on their home island yet.
My respite did not last long, however, as soon the Babylonians came calling on my western shores. They landed and settled before making contact, though once contact was made, it proved a double-edged sword. The Bab contact brought, of course, another war, but it also brought a flood of technologies thanks to the GL, propelling me onto equal footing with the rest of the world. However, it also brought 3 more civs into contact with me, which meant 3 more wars.
However, with our new Riders ready to march out, I tackled the new invaders and pushed them off the island. Also, with better ships, I staged an invasion of the English island, taking their northernmost cities. Half of my invasion force was pushed back, but thanks to the most amazing defenses of "Lucky" the rider, I held on to Dover against massive 3 civ-assaults, as well as gained a new GL.



During his defensive streak, Lucky killed of 10 Indian war elephants, 7 med. inf., and a few varied swords. His name will live on in the annals of history for that feat.

[ZargonX]

Things were looking tough for the Chinese, as we had assaults coming in on all sides, and little forces left to spare to try and invade abroad. On top of that, no saltpeter at home meant we'd have to stage another push into England to get some. This would have been possible, but then some bad news showed up on our doorstep...



English cavalry... Lucky's chances of holding out against them were slim. And simultaneously with that several American riflemen and cavalry landed on my NW coast, with my cities still only defended by pikes. Though they have made no gains yet, I fear this is only the beginning of an upcoming massive onslaught. The Chinese people may be forced into fighting a long, losing battle for our homelands. Unless somethign amazing turns the tide, I think our glory days may soon come to an end...

[ZargonX]

And with that story told, King me

[vmxa1]

ZargonX that sounds about as good of a shot as any so far. It seems to be going about as I had expected. A good job would be to be able to hold on till the game ends and lose by not being eliminated.
All of those that failed to get the GL and not have much contact are in real trouble (me). No GL means all (except the contact trade) tech must be researched.
I am not so sure I have the fortitude to take another run. I do see how if you could get the GL and had saltpetter, you would have a chance. Otherwise, I am dubious.
I will get back to it tonight and probably met my demise then (I predict 1800'S, that will be a morale victory).

[badams52]

Originally posted by 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

Look forward to seeing your results as you seem closest to finishing with a victory.

What I'm learning from all your reports: no trade + lack of resources = very tough scenario. Denying resources and having your own are two of the most important items for winning wars. That and fighting the AI one at a time.

Good luck all, and I cannot wait to see your reports of victory!

[Nor Me]

I didn't mean to imply that this game is easy. It's just that there are some players whom I would be surprised to see lose either before or now on levels below deity. I still think that a hypothetical good enough civ player would have a very decent chance of starting well and a near certainty of winning given that on Emperor.

This is my position at 800AD. Can someone tell me why it's supposed to be hopeless .

On tech, no one has physics, the Babylonians have Democracy and I suspect another civ has metallurgy. I have saltpetre and just have to hope that alexman has not been so cruel with coal, oil or rubber. The English are down to 0 cities but have a settler on a boat somewhere. The Iroquois are still alive; I'm thinking about killing them soon . On wonders, I've just lost Smith's but otherwise have only dropped the less important Oracle, Great Lighthouse and Copernicus'. I've built almost everything pre-Education even having cathedrals almost everywhere which is overkill considering all my happiness wonders.

Here's the minimap:

[BigDork]

Good Lord Nor Me, you're kicking some butt. I kinda put 208 on the back burner while I finished up a game I had started previously but I intend to get back soon and get utterly humiliated some more.

BigD

[Dominae]

I still think that a hypothetical good enough civ player would have a very decent chance of starting well and a near certainty of winning given that on Emperor.

Your overconfidence is your weakness...

[vmxa1]

If I were in the shape your are in I would feel better. I have had only one wonder inspite of 10 leaders so far. No tech, only got one from Iroq and one from Rome upon contact, none from England they had nothing. I have yet to meet any others, even though I have seen a few ship pass by.
No saltpeter so far and I control all but one city on my land mass.
Since I have not learned navigation, I can only make galley. They can not be upgrade, so why bother? England would have sunk them. I guess it may have been worth trying for contact, not sure. I took the position that contact would mean more troops coming my way. This may be an error, I may have benefitted from a few more techs, if I could have gotten them and cheaper research due to more civs with discovered tech.
Anyway without the saltpeter, I see doom.
I do not think the level is all that important, if all the other things come to pass (low tech trade, low contact, no early resources, 1 lux). Speaking of lux when I stopped last night, I killed a city out on a finger that had gems near it.
So has soon as my culture border expands, I will have that. I may send one of the tons of captured workers to make a colony.
I have workers with nothing to do, I have so many.
Anyway I do agree that I did expect a few players here to be able to handle it, but it is going to require some breaks and good play. It looks like I am going to miss on both accounts.

[Theseus]

HOLY CR*P!!!!!

Of course, this had to happen to me, Mr. Mixed-Unit Army!!

I've played out the start, um, 3-4 times so far, as Scandinavia on Emperor.

I'm trying again tonight, having built on the furs, gotten two (!!) Settlers from huts, and just going after Rome as hard and fast two Spears and eight vet Archers.

I've destroyed two Roman towns, and am now approaching Rome itself... 1500 BC, and what do I behold?

[Theseus]

Ahhhh, but all is not lost!!!

Soren obviously never read "On the Utility and Use of Armies"!!!

[Theseus]

First, the northern Legion took out my 4hp vet Spear.

Then, the Army attacked...

The Legion takes two hps off of my 4/5 elite Spear... the Legion retreats, and the vet Warrior takes one hp... REDLINED...

And then that tough SOB took the next 7 Warrior hps in a row... DAMN, best thing I ever saw.

[nbarclay]

I'm too tired to start on a full-scale report right now, but I've played (Monarch, AU Rules) to 10 BC and just secured full control of my continent. Getting iron hooked up was a bit problematical - this is one of only a handful of times I've used a colony - but once I finally got the forces to feel comfortable defending a colony, it was all downhill. My first immortal strike force swept around to take out the Iroquois, and then a second force moved in on Rome. (Through the early part of the war, Rome's legions tended to commit suicide against heavily defended spearmen.)

I have two leaders so far, more or less bookends on my military campaign. The first, I think from my first elite battle (using an archer), got me the Pyramids. The second, obtained as the fighting was winding down, built my Forbidden Palace near the center of the continent. Interestingly, it appears that I built my FP in exactly the same place Arrian built his.

My problem is that after researching Pottery ASAP, I dropped back into a 40-turn pace for Iron Working, then Mathematics, and then Construction (which I'm currently five turns away from). So my research position is an absolute disaster. The question is, how much ground can I make up with a gold surplus of a little over 1200 (to which another 250 or so will be added by the time I get Construction)? (I'd originally thought I would probably cut my iron in order to upgrade more warriors to immortals, but I ended up not needing to.)

My current plans hinge on going into Republic (once I research the techs) and confining my fighting to defensive operations for quite some time. I'm currently second in GNP and Productivity and first in Mfg. Goods in spite of having enormous amounts of open space near my FP and practically no city improvements (other than barracks, of course), so I think my prospects of getting back in the game are good. And having the Pyramids will certainly help in building up new cities now that troop production is no longer such an issue.

Nathan