AU 101: Crowding & War

[Harovan]

Here's part 2.

In 1000AD, I landed 6 caravels with samurai in egypt and continuously shipping reinforcements, took the southern part of the island (ex-Rome). Immediately after this, I shipped lots of my brand new cavalries over, in my brand new galleons, and took the northern part of the island. A leader one of my samurai made, became my first cavalry army. I switched from a prebuilt university to Heroic Epic and built it quickly. Hoped I get one more leader, but negative on that. So I could not jump my palace over as was planned. Oh well.

After this, a peaceful buildup phase followed. I entered the industrial era the same turn like the Greeks. The French were ways behind, and the Egyptians, well, gone. After researching Steam power I beelined for Scientific Method and then for Electronics. I sold new techs immediately to the Greeks, for gold per turn, of course except Scientific Method. This sucked them dry and their research slowed down. Soon I built Theory of Evolution, which consolidated the Tech lead I had meanwhile.

I sold Scientific Method to the Greeks for some optional techs I had avoided to research. Now I made a risky decision, that turned out a good one. I sold Atomic Theory, which is an awful expensive advance, to the Greeks for nothing but gold per turn. IIRC it was more than 200 per turn. I went short to the limit ("They would never accept such a deal"). I intentionally bankrupted them. About 2 turns later, they declared war, not on me, but on the French . A few turns later, both AIs were Communists, and I had the game 100% in my pocket.

After I researched Espionage (I had to do it myself, since the AIs stopped researching), I planted a spy in France. When I tried to plant one in Greece, I got busted and Alex declared war. Ok, I was prepared. I invaded the little continent west of me with the cav/inf/art trio. Awesome. The little island in the south I invaded with inf/art, and the tiny island south of ex-Egypt already with a tank army. It got killed on the way back, because I had sent the transport unprotected and it run into a greek ironclad. Oh well, I have the Academy, no big deal.

After I secured a 2-city bridgehead on the greek/french mainland (and made my 7th luxury), I made peace. The final showdown will come with MI/MA. It's 1665AD, I'm in the modern age, and here's a minimap:

[Theseus]

I just finished. 4861 in 1650AD.

Rather than extend the game as did Aeson, I decided to go for it, pedal to the metal.

I didn't bother with the small island to the south, but instead went for the jugular. After reducing Cleo into an OCC (on the southern isle), I went for Rome, which was obviously a snap. Caesar actually lasted until the end of the game, with one city on the southern isle, and one city on Diego Garcia.

I got only 1 GL out of both campaigns, which I used to rush the Palace in Pi-Ramesses (early FP in Tokyo, whihc was on the Iron hill north of Kyoto). I'll tell'ya, Japan's traits are absolutely GREAT for this kind of aggression... Temple, Barracks, Cathedral, and then Courthouses and Police Stations for corruption. I got the second continent HUMMING! I only wish I could play Rel, Mil, and Ind... for once, as of the end of the game, I still had not fully improved the home continent.

The situation among the other 3 civs was very different in my game though. France, Persia and Greece all had pretty equal territory and score.

When I landed my attack force on the hills between Paris and Rheims, I had established a pretty solid tech, resource, and $ lead. I bribed Alex into an alliance against Joanie, and all hell broke loose... France enlists Persia, and the two of them wiped Greece off the continent in like 3 turns. Unfortunately for me, the escalation of hostilities means that both France and Persia had significanlty built up their respective forces, so I was facing Cavs off against maaaany vet Infantry.

ARTILLERY-MAN to the rescue!!! Urgent messages were relayed back to the home front, and EVERYBODY starteded pumping out Arty. Coupla turns later, 30 or so are landed, and death rained from the sky.

BTW, I have continued my approach of intercontinental attacks always being a 2-city capture... no flips since I started (it also helps if one of the cities is the capitol!!).

Greece and Egypt both ended up with OCCs on the southern isle... the musta pissed Xerxes off, as he killed'em both in one turn.

Somewhere along here I stopped making Cavs, and focused the home front on building an Industrial Juggernaut (tm). My goal was two-fold: 1) to run out of Cavs just as Tanks were coming on-line, and 2) to have 10 cities at home able to produce at least 50 shields per turn on Wartime.

I think we all have done the same "milking" at one point in this game... with a commanding lead, forcing a given Ai civ to declare war is sooo easy. Xerxes, shmerxes... it took a while, but I basically Artied him into rubble.

I swooped down to take Athens and Corinth from Joan, thus capturing all remaining GWs.

My first Tanks arrived in Rheims, just 6 of'em (with 20 more in transit, and thus never used), and with those and my remaining Cavs I was able to take the last 3 French cities on the continent in one turn (barely... I'm talking a 1hp vet Cav did the final job), and thus hit domination.

Re the first goal, I did pretty well finishing with only 5 Cavs and one 3X cav Army. No GLs sucked btw... I, THESEUS, only had the one Cav Army, and one empty!

Re the second goal, I only got up to 9 cities able to pump Tanks every 2 turns.

I ended with 50 cities. I built or rushed 8 out 18 GWs... Paris and Athens were the treasure cities for capture.

I ended in the Industrial era, with Sanitation, Radio, Amphibious Warfare, Flight, and Advance Flight still unknown.
________________________

I can;t think of anything remarkable, although the game was fast and fun.

Ultra-early war, with just Warriors and Spearmen, works... something for us all to add to our repertoires. W4r_Machine's early GL is still remarkable to me.

I did see a lot more Cavs from France and Persia... seems like 1.29 helps. Other 1.29 stuff I REALLY like include the * and all of the "all" choices... can't wait for rally points in PTW.

I will say that to be a successful warmonger, you have to be a builder. Especially if you want to be super-aggressive... that means being able to take max advantage each time technology delivers new relative strength, which means either massive gold for massive upgrades or an ability to pump out hordes of a new kind of unit ASAP.

[Theseus]

BTW, my IW city was a disappointment... I built it in the NE tip of the home continent, and never even got it to 50spt. Note to self: don't bother on a weak site.

[Aeson]

Sir Ralph -

I really like how you got Persia to declare war by bankrupting them. It's funny that they attacked the French instead of you first!


Theseus -

My IW city worked out well, I had it built inland on one of the hills along the river though. It was crowded, but ended up being my second most productive city (never built any hospitals). I even built a IW city in the "Babylon and on" game, which only was able to max out at size 9, and it still ended up being a worthwhile city. I would always build it if it is in a non-corrupt area, even taking away from tiles that already founded cities were using.

The new stack commands will really help out, the '(un)fortify all' option is a dream come true when building up and first deploying huge Artillery stacks.

[Harovan]

The funny thing is, the teal civ is Greece, not Persia. They seem to have completely reworked the team colors in 1.29f.

I will finish my game this evening, with MA's. I easily could finish now with infs/tanks, but then I would have an important offensive unit (MA) without a capture, which was the spirit of this game (at least 1 city with every offensive unit...).

[Arrian]

I'm in the 16th century, I believe, and am using masses of Tanks.

Lemme back up a bit. As of my last report, I was preparing to discover MT and pump out Tanks so I could take down Egypt or maybe Greece. Well, 2 turns before discovering MT, Joan sneak attacked me. That *****!

Ok, FINE then. I used massed artillery and infantry to chew up her island possesions (the Island east of the French/Greek continent) while waiting for my tanks to come on line. I got a leader and made a Cav army. HE quickly built. I have 2 or 3 cities which produce a Tank per turn. I had to switch over to Monarchy once Cleo joined her fellow wench against me. So many of my Tanks were re-routed to Egypt, and I've destroyed about half of it. Alex is my ally in this... not that he's doing anything.

I have moved into the core of France, with 8 tanks poised to take an already beat-up Paris, and a leader used to rush my Palace in another city next turn (we'll see how that works out... it may hurt at first). My tanks forces in France are a bit thin at the moment, as I lost a lot of tanks in an all-or-nothin' assault on what is to be my capitol. Still, I have nearly 100 total - it's just a question of the transports getting over there.

-Arrian

[Arrian]

Finished in the 1660s, won via domination (almost conquest, there were 2 or 3 Greek cities left). I did use a RoP violation at the end. Not because it made things easier, but because it was faster. Being hit with 100 or so Tanks all in one shot was tough on them.

The only attack unit I did not use was Modern Armor... because I didn't get there (I had computers, Greeks were still 2 techs from the Modern Age. Silly commies).

My score was unimpressive (4200 and change). I got a total of four leaders, I believe (FP, Army, Palace move, SETI).

I enjoyed this quite a bit. It is my first Emperor win. One thing it really helped me realize is that the Wonders I so love aren't that big a deal. I ended the game without the Sistine Chapel. That's almost inconceivable to me.

-Arrian

[Theseus]

Originally posted by Arrian
Being hit with 100 or so Tanks all in one shot was tough on them.

You are a master of understatement.

Imagine if an AI civ showed up with 100+ Tanks on one of us! Unlimited beer for Soren.

R

[Harovan]

Holy sh|t, is domination left on?? I'm about 60 tiles under the domination limit in my game... Theseus? I thought it was off?

[Arrian]

Nope, it's on alright.

By the way, I lied (unintentionally of course): I also did not use chariots, longbowmen, marines or paratroopers.

I used:

warriors
archers
swordsmen
horsemen
samurai
cavalry
tanks

I also used infantry in at assault role briefly, with artillery support.

-Arrian

[FrustratedPoet]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
Holy sh|t, is domination left on?? I'm about 60 tiles under the domination limit in my game... Theseus? I thought it was off?

cut-and-pasted from Theseus first post in this thread:

Settings: Standard, continents, 80% water, 8 civs, warm, normal, 3B, raging, Emperor. Not culturally linked. Conquest and domination wins.

(emphasis mine)

RTFM Sir Ralph?

Seriously, though, I just wish I could get that far. I've become really bogged down in the middle ages somewhere. I spent too long fighting England and let the Iroquis get too strong ... I then attacked them too soon and suffered a big MW attack which lost me a couple of cities. I think I've got the situation under control now, but I might go back and start this again.

I suppose this is what the AU is for ... trying thing out and learning from what works and what doesn't.

What I've learnt:

i) I am not really good enough to play on Emperor yet (i knew this already though)

ii) The Iroquis are dangerous. The English are terrible. If you start next to both of them DESTROY THE IROQUIS FIRST!

[Arrian]

FP,

You will note that my very first attack was on Salamanca. The Iroquois rate a 10/10 on my "scares-the-crap-outta-me-o-meter" They had to die quickly. I didn't even try to "milk" them. I just straight-up wiped them out.

The English, OTOH, rate about a 1/10 on my STCOMOM. They're a really weak civ, w/o an ancient UU.

-Arrian

[Theseus]

Sorry SR...

Arrian, the STCOMOM is now an official AU term.

Couldn't agree more about the Iroquois. In 101, I hit the English first, but that was just happenstance when a Settler wandered by protected by a mere Warrior (heh).

The Iroqouis were the total priority.

I had fun playing last night though (just a random game), when I realized that the nearby Iroquois didn't have Horses... the one resource was about halfway to my territory, so every time they built a city near it, off to war my boys went. Sheer torture, for fun and profit.

[Harovan]

No problem with domination, although I'm forced to disband half of the captured greek and egyptian cities then in order to be able to capture the wonder cities, but its not too late yet. I'm just in the mood to finish this thing, and it seems I have no desire to wait for modern armor.

[Theseus]

Go for it... I finished having hardly used Tanks.

BTW, Aeson, we finished in more or less the same time frame, and you had advanced MUCH further in tech. Any tips?