Next AU course

[Dominae]

If you want to determine the power of the Enkidu, then a builder theme is not the way to go IMO. It's role then is only as a deterrent, and therefore it's impossible to know without a comparison game whether it actually makes a difference (put another way, builders can do just fine with just Warriors, so what exactly does the Enkidu add?).

The Enkidu's cost was raised to 15 in an arena where early-game combat is standard. So if you want to figure out if it's too powerful in SP, you have to put it to the test in early rushes.

I think this is a good theme as it is:

Don't conquer cities, build as many Wonders as you can, and try to win by spaceship, to show how much the luxury shortage affects that style of play.

Playing as the Sumerians would confuse things. How about the Portuguese?

[Nor Me]

Really? I'd have thought no conquering cities would make early warfare almost essential. If it's hard to get rid of AI cities after they've built them then the obvious solution is to slow them down before they do.

At the very least, my experience from the last offensively restricted AU game I played means that I'd invest heavily in defence (no retaking cities either!) and use war actively to try and balance the AI.

That might just be my style. I've certainly lost OCC games I think I could have won with more war.

[Jawa Jocky]

Re: Next AU course

Originally posted by Rhothaerill
So...AU502 was a great course and many people have played it, but it seems to be waning in interest now.

It looks like interest in AU503 is already waning and we haven't even started yet

[ducki]

Yeah, I was surprised my proposal for the MilAcad didn't get more argu... er, debate, but perhaps many folks are preparing for finals/summer vacation?

[Aqualung71]

But we just had our finals....the AU quiz!

Everyone seems busy at the moment. Anyway, my suggestion for trying Korea next also got a pretty lukewarm response (errr....none actually).

Any more takers for the No Tech Trading Challenge setup by Dom in the strat thread maybe?

[Grazzit]

Next au course

What i would like is a game that makes the computer extremly hard but without raising the difficulty lvl or without withholding IRON.

When I make epic games i play on emp or monarch, raise their aggression levels, and don't play the overpowered civs (Mayans,Celtic)

When i play Monarch i won't make any cheesy deals.
one tech for one tech.

The deal making can't be hard coded so i suggest:

1. Premade map, 3 islands and a large land mass
2. you have your own island that will hold 7-10 cities
you have access to 2 Iron, 1 horses, 2 coal
3. Each of the land masses near you have 2 saltpeter close to the coast but not right on it.
4. Play as a race that has 2 of these: Comercial,Religious,Seafaring,Scientific,Explorer
5. Make your island far enough away to require Navagation.
6. Give the computer an abundance of resources so they can support large armies and populations. Give them different resources so they trade.
7. Raging barbarians
8. Raise the aggression levels of the other civs.


I think these 8 steps would make a monarch game fun and challengeing to all, even those that play on harder levels.

(question, is it possible to givethe computer 4 workers to start with without changing the difficulty level? If so id add that)

[MrWhereItsAt]

Following on from Aqualung's idea, and also from the 'Most Valuable Resource' poll in Civ3 General, why not a game where the only Iron is near the capital of each AI civ, and distanced from us by quite some way. The question could be answered - is Iron the hardest resource to get by without?

[Mountain Sage]

Originally posted by MrWhereItsAt
Following on from Aqualung's idea, and also from the 'Most Valuable Resource' poll in Civ3 General, why not a game where the only Iron is near the capital of each AI civ, and distanced from us by quite some way. The question could be answered - is Iron the hardest resource to get by without?

In my next Emperor game (coming up soon), all civs had no resources on their islands. Al were scattered on small islands around. It made a nice scramble for all those 'Paradise Islands'...

[Jawa Jocky]

I'm warming up to a "No Tech Trading" game for the next AU course

[nbarclay]

Here's another possible thought for the next AU game: "Pillage and plunder." The idea is to destroy the growth of neighboring AIs early through pillaging. Players would have a choice of playing the Aztecs, Incas, Sumerians, or Greeks. (The Aztecs and Incas have fast-moving UUs that they can pillage with, while the Sumerians and Greeks have UUs with a major cost/power advantage over anything they can be counterattacked with.) The map would be Continents, designed to provide very little fresh water to support the use of the Agricultural trait in REXing (and no fresh water at all near the human capital).

The goals of the game would be for us to learn more about early-game pillaging tactics (something I've used exactly once in my entire Civ 3 career) and, in the process, hopefully to find out more about how the Enkidu compares with other good pillaging UUs.

[Mountain Sage]

Nathan,

Interesting. Make it Pangea with a few choke-points and call it EPPG (Eternal Pillage & Plunder Game).

[nbarclay]

The reason I specified Continents rather than Pangea is that on Pangea maps, players would be a lot more likely to choose the Aztecs or Incas for their UUs' speed of exploration. On a Continents map, the difference in scouting ability would be less of an issue, which would keep the focus more on how well the UUs do at pillaging.

I'm also skeptical as to whether large-scale pillaging makes sense any time other than early in the game on normal difficulty levels. (Use of armies to pillage on Deity and Sid is a somewhat different issue.) The Enkidu Warrior, Hoplite, Chasqui, and Jag all have special advantages as pillagers that are not paralleled later in the game. Further, the concept of "destroy a neighbor's REX so you have more room to REX yourself" is something specific to the early game. So I'm skeptical (to put it mildly) as to whether "eternal pillage" makes sense in any case.

Nathan

[Chemical Ollie]

Pillaging would be more fun if you got some gold from it. Now I hardly ever do it, as I intend to capture that land anyway. But let's give it a try.

[Aqualung71]

Originally posted by nbarclay
....early-game pillaging tactics (something I've used exactly once in my entire Civ 3 career)

Once more than me

Not a bad idea!

[Mountain Sage]

Nathan,

I fully agree with you, but to have a real crazy game we can set the rule that at any given time we must have 3-5 units actively pillaging another civ.
Makes another Eternal War scenario...

PS: just provoking, of course.... for the sake of, well, discussion.