AU204: Spoilers, Reports and Comments

[yxhuvud]

yes, it looks really nice.

Except for the yellow ooze

[BRC]

Nice game BD.

[badams52]

Nice game BigD

Another thing you could have done, since you had the army, is to take Paris and destroy the French spaceship ensuring that yours would lift off first. The AI is terrible in coastal invasions.

[BigDork]

Thanks all. Actually, I definatly wouldn't be anywhere near as good at this game as I am if I'd never found this site and never read all the advice in this forum. Probably would never have gotten off chieftain and gotten bored by now.

Originally posted by badams52
Another thing you could have done, since you had the army, is to take Paris and destroy the French spaceship ensuring that yours would lift off first. The AI is terrible in coastal invasions.

Actually, you can't see it because it's covered by a battleship but I have 4 transports due west of Paris all loaded with MA's. If I thought they were gonna launch first I was going to land my MA's, totally throw the RoP out the window and then nuke them into oblivion before they get too many ICBM's of their own. However, didn't have to.

Can't wait for the next time.

BigD

[badams52]

Originally posted by Dominae
Looking at BigD's screen of France, is everyone thinking what I'm thinking? Look at the city placement!

We've got ~3-tile spacing along the coasts, and slightly more in the interior. That's pretty close to what most veteran players would do with that terrain! Wow!

Take a closer look Dominae, those aren't France's cities, those are cities he captured. So I believe the spacing is due to tight quarters for rival civs rather than a planned 3-tile. Which surprises me since often when I play, France is a punching bag

[Dominae]

True, but most of Babylon's cities look pretty good. France's spaced a bit further out, but nicely along the coast. You're right that it is probably due to the geography, but it's impressive when it happens...


Dominae

[Konquest02]

Finally...

I finally got some time to finish this game... In my last update, I concluded with "More updates soon!" Well, it's not soon, but it's better now than never!

You can read the beginning of my game in the earlier part of this thread.

With the lead created by my GA, I was catapulted into the industrial times. I knew peace was the way to go, as I was not overwhelingly powerful enough to try a continental invasion of either Egypt, Babylon or France.

Japan, with two cities left, dumped a spearman and an swordman near my city on the northern island, which was only defended by an archer. The rifleman in production had 1 turn left. Quite miraculously, my archer survived the swordman attack (Newcastle is located on hills) and the next turn, defeated the spearman. This sent me in a war with Japan

[Konquest02]

I then got Egypt to ally with me in my war against Japan. (I was too lazy to send troops to a city I would not have been able to defend anyways...) The Japan were killed in two turns... It was a matter of time before Egypt took over all of its continent so I gave them a good opportunity.

Tech brokering was at its best. I sold my techs for a lot of gpt to the AI allowing:
1- My research rate to be higher
2- The AI's research rate to be much lower
3- My tech lead and my gold pile growing really fast.

My people were happy and I was sailing merrily towards a Diplomatic victory...

[Konquest02]

But then...

But then... I had built the UN and called for a vote. There were three candidates and only 4 people could vote (China had been destroyed by Babylon) which ended in inconclusive votes everytime. Everyone was voting for themselves except Babylon who was voting for me.

So I went into high gear to complete the space ship before everyone else, which happened in 1960, before anyone could build a part probably... see next post).

[Konquest02]

Lessons learned...

I learned quite a few things in the AU course. Here is the summary:

1- Being all alone on a small island with the Greeks (especially being the English) is really evil, Dominae...

1a- While alone with the Greeks, try to destroy them before they can expand and get hoplites. They are really dangerous and only a good deal of luck allowed me to beat them as I did.

2- Expansionist may be good even on archipelago maps because Pottery is a prerequisite to Map Making, making it possible to reach MM faster than most others.

3- You have to be careful with the wearly wonders as the English as The Colossus (which I really like to build) and the Great Lighthouse immediately trigger a GA, typically a despotic GA (which is often not a good thing)

4- The AI is terrible at overseas invasions. The most I got is a swordman while defending with a spear and later a swordman and a spearman while defending with an archer (rifleman with 1 turn left...) Therefore, an island scenario is good for diplomatic and SS win because you can keep you military relatively low and not fear too much for an invasion.

5- Use your GA wisely, it can lead to great things and most of the time, win the game...

6- I got two killer AIs in my game Egypt and France. Babylon was a major power too, up to the end of the medieval times. France got 4 leaders in their wars against Babylon while the Babs only got 1. I think this is why my eastern continent is all pink.

7- China even took a city while they were fighting the Babs with the French. However, their lone horseman got killed by the Babylonian infantry and Cavalry the same turn...

8- No AI ever researched Espionnage, even well into the modern times. I guess they thought it was not worth it... Anyone got this result too?

9- I had fun and my score was not good, but I was a dominant force, so score can be totally forgotten (I think it was ~1450 points...)

--Kon--

[Nor Me]

Re: Lessons learned...

Originally posted by Konquest02
Japan, with two cities left, dumped a spearman and an swordman near my city on the northern island, which was only defended by an archer. The rifleman in production had 1 turn left. Quite miraculously, my archer survived the swordman attack (Newcastle is located on hills)

It's a size 7 city and you have Nationalism. Why didn't you draft? You were lucky this time.

1- Being all alone on a small island with the Greeks (especially being the English) is really evil, Dominae...

1a- While alone with the Greeks, try to destroy them before they can expand and get hoplites. They are really dangerous and only a good deal of luck allowed me to beat them as I did.

...


3- You have to be careful with the wearly wonders as the English as The Colossus (which I really like to build) and the Great Lighthouse immediately trigger a GA, typically a despotic GA (which is often not a good thing)

As the Spanish, I thought it was best to take advantage of 3 to solve the problem of 1. The Colossus and a despotic GA enabled me to get the gold for a swordsmen rush without slowing down my research too much. So the Greeks weren't a problem. In fact, I was lucky and got a Leader which became the Great Library. All I needed for it was a few upgraded warriors and fewer swordsmen. So, overall, I gained in shelds and research from the war having used my GA for a large advantage over the Greeks.

Updates may be coming shortly but now I'm at the start of the industrial age with a tech lead. So there are alternative approaces to 5.

Anyway, you won easily and that's what counts .

[Konquest02]

Re: Re: Lessons learned...

Originally posted by Nor Me

It's a size 7 city and you have Nationalism. Why didn't you draft? You were lucky this time.

Totally forgot about that... I (almost) never used the draft button so I forgot I had the option...

--Kon--

[Dominae]

Well done Kon, and thanks for the "things I learned" section; those are always the best (ok, the screenshots are usually cool too). Sorry for being evil, but getting paired with the Greeks on a smallish island happens almost never with a random map. So I thought I would make the scenario even more "random" that it already was...!


Dominae

[Konquest02]

This was my first game where I went hard on screenshots. (when I take 3 or 4 I am happy) This game I took over 40 screens... I will eventually put them on my website at http://nomis80.org/~jmarchand/. I also have an AAR there but it's only in french...

Thanks again for the map Dom!

--Kon--

[Dominae]

Konquest, your web site provides quite a good AAR, but I'm glad you posted the important stuff here too (did I mention I'm originally from Québec, alors moi aussi je parle francais?!). Good stuff.


Dominae