God Favors the Mighty

[Theseus]

I've been playing a mini-tourney with Arrian and Sir Ralph, and I thought I'd chime in with the virtue of being Militaristic (and Religious).

I'd not played as Japan for a while, and forgot how powerful the Rel / Mil combo is.

As it happens, the game we've been playing looks much like an Arrian-fest... take control of your continent, be a builder there, and, following the US Navy motto, go to foreign lands, meet new people, and kill them.

Aside from the straight-out benefit of more promotions, more elites, more GLs, let's look at the other benefits. They seem to primarily benefit aggressive, far-off expansion, where captured or even newly-built cities will suffer greatly from corruption.

* Harbors: I haven't done so many intercontinental wars before... harbors are CRITICAL to get resources distributed, both to the newly conquered distant cities, and back to the mothership (in this game at least, my initial intercontinental invasions have been for luxuries). Cheap as dirt, even when dealing with 1-shield cities.

* Barracks: Again, critical for an expeditionary force. Cheap, cheap, cheap. Also, important for healing of naval units.

* Airports: Haven't gotten that far in this game yet, but I live in mortal terror of the enemy disrupting my shipping routes. In the current game, I've literally got a string of Battleships and Destroyers protecting the primary route.

Sidenote: Militaristic makes STAOW unnecessary.

Add to EITHER Religious or Scientific for quick culture builds, and you've got a warmonger winner.

As a plug for Japan (you're welcome, Arrian), Rel+Mil+Samurai (4d) are one of the best intercontinental invasion packages one could ask for.

[Sean]

Add to EITHER Religious or Scientific for quick culture builds, and you've got a warmonger winner.

This is why the Germans are a good civ to play. Particularly when you consider the benefits of the Panzer, and its extra movement.

[Theseus]

Haven't played Germany yet, but I'm looking forward to it. Might be the MP sleeper. If you can survive till Panzers, blitzkrieg (funny how that works).

[Arrian]

The funny thing is that out little tourney game wasn't nealry ideal for my mongol horde strategy. We had one neighbor, the Americans, and another civ off the coast within galley range, the Indians.

China, England, Zululand and Rome all started on a nice big continent across the ocean.

I wholeheartedly agree with respect to harbours and barracks. Cheap is good. Samurai are great units for invasions, because they stand up really well to counterattack. Perfect for an outpost city with walls & barracks (especially if on a hill). If the AI rolls up with longbowmen, you can sortie out and kill them. If it comes with knights, you can sit back and let them try to attack you. Either way, you have the advantage.

Funny... I hardly used by Samurai in our tourney game. I did take several Roman cities (including Rome) with them, but most of the damage has been done with horsemen.

-Arrian

[Theseus]

I showed up on the other continent with a mixture of elite Samurai and vet Cav.

Whatta combo!!The Cav were my primary attackers, with Samurai finishing off low hp units (NO GLs, @$#!$%$), and also acting as defenders. I also had (this'll sound familiar) two 2xSamurai + 1xCav Armies, which just rained down pain and misery.

I quickly built a barracks there, and as Samurai became damaged, I upgraded them to Cavs for instant healing.

Perfect.

[Harovan]

In our tourney game, I conquered my home continent with Swordsmen and Horsemen, the Indian continent with Samurai and invaded overseas with only Cavalries. Not a good choice, as I got sneak attacked there by 2 civs at the same time and I didn't have shipped good defenders yet. Later, I fought there with the Inf/Arty combo and Tanks. I didn't make it to Modern Armor.

As for naval warfare, I build warships very late only. My overseas transports went undefended and I didn't lose a single ship, in fact I didn't even get attacked. China (my ally) also had not much ships, and all other AIs were such pushovers, I haven't seen a single ship of them (far from some galleys) the whole game. I built 2 airports late in the game, but didn't use them at all (no need).

I was very impressed with the tech race in my game. The Chinese were ahead in tech till mid of the industrial age. They did their own research, trading techs only with me, and even that was rare, as I was behind. All other civs were so far behind and pitiful poor, that they could not compete at all. I don't know how China could manage that research. They were much less than me, about half of my score in the powergraph, and built non-overlapping cities, while I followed the distance-3 rule. Probably, being industrious and having a good GA did it.

[Sava]

Theseus, that's a pretty bad-ass strategy. If I were playing with you, I'd be hitting my computer.

[Harovan]

Originally posted by Theseus
Haven't played Germany yet, but I'm looking forward to it. Might be the MP sleeper. If you can survive till Panzers, blitzkrieg (funny how that works).

I have played with "my" Germans a couple of times. Although they come late, Panzers are killer units, and militaristic/scientific is a good combo. We could use them sometimes in the next mini tourney. Arrian might disagree though (not religious ).

[Arrian]

I would prefer a different civ, actually, but Germany could be ok. If Cultural linking was left on, the neighbors are nice and weak (mmm, France, England, Russia) in ancient times. You two could use the early archer attack, and I could wait for my horseman rush.

Just a thought... but I gotta finish our Japanese game first.

-Arrian

[Lawrence of Arabia]

Arrian, which units do you use primarliy in your bid for a continent? I tried archers, but it seems you need like 4-6 of them to take out a city. I tried horsemen, but they are always retreating and they cost a lot. I tried swordsman, and they worked until they were greated by masses of AI horsemen. It seems that I only have a chance to conquer a continenet when I get Knights.

[punkbass2000]

LoA,

Try a mix of them. Also throw in some catapults. A lot of people think catapults aren't useful, but their cheap, they don't die, and they will hit almost every time in open territory. That's right, they're not useful for sieging cities (oddly enough) but they're great for hitting the units the AI sends after you, and most will run away after losing jyust one hitpoint. Catapults are also good for defense, as they will usually take one hit point away from the attacker. Essentially, go for combined arms, every unit has its place.

[Arrian]

Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia
Arrian, which units do you use primarliy in your bid for a continent? I tried archers, but it seems you need like 4-6 of them to take out a city. I tried horsemen, but they are always retreating and they cost a lot. I tried swordsman, and they worked until they were greated by masses of AI horsemen. It seems that I only have a chance to conquer a continenet when I get Knights.

LoA,

Glad you asked. I use horsemen. Lots of them. Here's how I go about it:

*note* Monarch level, Standard map, continents, 8 civs. Other settings would require some adjustment*

I play as Japan, but you can modify the tech path to use just about anyone. I build a core of 6-8 cities, road & mine so they're productive, connect up horses, and start building (veteran) chariots. Tech path: bronze working, iron working, warrior code, masonry, horseback riding. After masonry, I set science to 10%, or 0% w/1 scientist. I deliberately take my sweet time discovering HBR, because until I do, I can built 20 shield chariots instead of 30 shield horsemen. Meanwhile, I'm hording gold.

I will most likely also have a source of iron (2nd tech discovered... not too hard to find one and build a city near it), but I will not yet hook it up. I will build a few vet warriors first. Then I hook up the iron, upgrade the warriors (probably about 5, maybe more if I got rich off barb encampments) to swordsmen. Upon discovering HBR, I upgrade my chariots (I aim for 20-25) to horsemen.

Then, we ride.

-Arrian

[alexman]

Re: God Favors the Mighty

Originally posted by Theseus
I've been playing a mini-tourney with Arrian and Sir Ralph, and I thought I'd chime in with the virtue of being Militaristic (and Religious).

Could one of you post the 4000.B.C. savegame so we can follow your discussion, and maybe play along?

[Theseus]

Sure.

I finished last night... be aware that we've been sporadically writing spoilers here and there.

Tremendously fun game though. Felt like Civ2 in certain ways... but with Civ3 positives.

Here ya go:

[Arrian]

Just finished it myself. For those who don't want to play, but would like to see the result, here is a late save, 85 yrs. before I won via domination.

-Arrian