AU 103: Island hopping

[alexman]

Despot GA? I tried to avoid that situation so I missed the Colossus.

Island? What Island? Hehehe...

[Theseus]

Yeah, it triggered, so I just sucked it up, and committed to playing it out... it did, however, get me into the tech lead, where I have remained.

[Theseus]

Oooooh, you are a tricky devil!!!

I found Traps #1 and 2.

[Theseus]

I know Printing Press, Music Theory, Education, Astronomy, and Gunpowder...

YOU BASTARD!!!

[alexman]

Naval Mission #1: Galley Raids

Wouldn’t you declare war if you were the Romans and an English tourist refused to tell you how to build aqueducts and coliseums? How embarrassing! So Caesar declared war, even though he had no idea where England was.

The entire English army consisted of exactly one Warrior and one Spearman. We promptly upgraded the Warrior to a Swordsman, loaded them both into a Galley, and dumped them onto a mountain in Rome. The goal was to kill a few Romans, and perhaps get a Great Leader in the process.

Everything was going as planned. But after about a century of hiding in the mountains, swarms of legionaries started hunting us down. And as if this weren’t enough, Rome completed the Great Wall, making it all but impossible for us to attack their cities. ‘Later Caesar! We’re outta here! Call the galley service! No great leader, no captured cities, but for the price of one spearman we killed about 10 Roman units and forced Rome to sign a peace treaty shortly thereafter. Such a victory would have been unthinkable without the Royal Navy to bail out the raiders!

[alexman]

Originally posted by Theseus
YOU BASTARD!!!

sadistic bastard, to be precise...

[Catt]

I downloaded earlier today and am now far enough along that spoilers won't spoil it. BTW - downloaded the standard version since once again the killer AI version had a solid download lead over the standard.

alexman - did you rework the map extensively? A devilishly clever map for a naval exercise. Rarely do my random archipelago maps produce such challenges.

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SPOILER BELOW

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Only a few spoliers I'll give now: (1) After my recent experience with a despotic GA with Hippie Sam I vowed that it wouldn't happen again - Tourist Tina built the Great Lighthouse shortly after emerging from anarchy as a Republic; and (2) Rome is also the early leader in my game - but would have to be, right? With all that land. I may have discovered the enitre map (landmasses anyway), but I've found enough one-tile islands out there that I suspect that I could be missing a few. It's about 200 AD and I'm researching Engineering with one scientist and the Great Library working for me . I have the tech lead, and I may not even get many free techs from the GL since I've refused to trade my communications with others and seem to have a solid tech lead, but I like the culture and the opportunity to stockpile cash and rush buy everything I need ).

Catt

[alexman]

Catt, you know that this time there are more differences than just AI build preferences between the two versions, right? The one in the initial post uses the AU MOD.

Speaking of which, there is another bug in that MOD. Because we made musketeers upgrade to infantry, musketmen are also affected. So you can build musketmen and riflemen at the same time. And musketmen upgrade to infantry too. This was not the intent, and I'll fix it for the next AU MOD version.

Actually, I already fixed it, and made another change too: Coastal Fortresses, not harbors, now produce veteran units.

So here's the same map with those changes, in case anyone hasn't started yet and wants to give it a try.

[Theseus]

... eeeeevil sadistic bastard!!

Although you did leave some 'backdoors' to the traps. I'm trying not to put up too many spoilers, but it's hard.

Here's one cool naval screenshot though... I've helped the Greeks cut Rome in half.

[alexman]

Naval Mission #2: Grab and Run!

Well Caesar declared war again because he wanted our Territory Map.

What to do this time to make him give us some peace? How about a fur raid?

[Theseus]

I'm just at the point of massive Privateer fleets... any suggestions?

It seems to me that the strength of a powerful navy, including 'hidden nationality' units (btw, how great is it that in RL somebody thought that up), is in three parts:

* Projection of force
* Colonization (alexman gets a Sid Meier Valorous Cross)
* Disruption

Re the last, disruption, I believe that I'm on the verge of total control of the seas... I will say that a lacking point in Civ3 is not just the overall weakness of naval issues, but the absence of trade routes, whether from actual trading (I miss the caravans), or from the RL impacts of seasons, prevailing winds and currents, etc. That said, I have enough Man-of-Wars to keep an eye on the key approaches, and they are strong enough to deal with most anything threatening.

Anyway, the game is mine... I just need to decide where to strike next.

"Because it has a navy; because of this, the English go where they please and strike where they please and this makes them great."

And for a future game:

"My lord, I think... I think your book is right. The desert is an ocean in which no oar is dipped and on this ocean the Bedu go where they please and strike where they please. This is the way the Bedu have always fought. You're famed throughout the world for fighting in this way and this is the way you should fight now!"

[Objectivist]

Ah, naval power!

This picture proves the value of naval forces, once you eliminate the opposing civs navy (which most comp civs and players keep rather small) your free to destroy many centures worth of worker and city improvements. (The Babylonian continent I surrounded was covered in railroads, irrigation, and mines)



Many people in MP would rather give into any tech/money/reasource demands made of them then have to deal with losing centuries worth of work in the cities and surrounding countryside. If they refuse the use of the fleet to cut their rail lines will make it impossible for them to concentrate their land forces against any land forces you bring to conquer their territory. In addition, the destruction of their city economic improvements and the elimination of their roads will hurt their economy badly, severly limiting their ability to suporrt their units, and maybe causing many of them to be disbanded, making it even easier to conquer them when you bring in land forces. All in all, any intelligent MP player would just give in to the extortion and hope to make up their disadvange on another day. Its hard to believe that people think that you can't eliminate land units with naval units.

[IMG]c:/download/navalpower.jpg[/IMG]

Long live Her Majesty's Navy! (If only she had a better name then Tourist Tina.........)

[Theseus]

No picture, O.

[Objectivist]

Ooops

Ooops, forgot to attach the file and I accidently reposted the topic with the picture in a new forum topic. If I cant delete it just go on over there and view it.

[Theseus]

Blockading for fun...

See the new American capitol of Houston...nothing goes in, and nothing goes out. Pesky privateers!