Spoiler Thread for AU 203

[Konquest02]

Ducki, you are probably palying Emperor, where the AI gets a free settler. Rome was founded on the spot then the second settler moved to found Veii...

I started my game and was involved in an ancient age WW. In fact, I think I have been overly agressive with blocking the chokepoints: I ended up by fighting all the AI except England, Persia and the Babs (i didn't know them at the time...) They almost all had alliances between them. I sued for peace but I had to pay a lot... I missed all the wonders up to date, but the race is still open for Glib and Hanging Gardens.

I have expanded as much as I could (using Ducki's first pic, I went up to east of Leipzig and one tile north of the southern patch of furs).

This is my first serious game at monarch and I find this quite hard. I,m sure I'll get used to it!

I have a question: when an AI breaks a deal (let's take when he makes peace with me when he is still allied with an other AI, to take a totally fictious case), does he suffer a reputation hit as we do? It would help me a lot if they did!!

--Kon--

[Action]

Originally posted by ducki
Is that also at Monarch, Action? (just to see how the different levels compare)

Yeah thats at Monarch (thats the difficulty right below Emperor right?).

And heh I might have over estimated how easy it will be to take out the Chinese, it's turning into a full scale modern war era.

[ducki]

Kon, I'm also on Monarch, finding it very difficult, but mosly due to the limitation on warmongering.


Wow, did I really just say that?

[Bluefrog]

I’ve played the hell out of this game this weekend, no doubt putting unnecessary strain my relationship with my girlfriend, heh. But this is my first AU game, and I’m finding I really like having certain goals in the game, and certain rules of conduct to abide by. If I find time, I may go back and play the other AU “classes”, as it were.

That said, last night, on Monarch, I was able to get into the Industrial Age without being forced into war. The Chinese and Persians had 3 wars between them, mostly crossing through parts of my territory. I had totally walled off my chokepoints, allowing them only to move through a city I was able to sneak into the Gem-infested jungles to the south. Trading luxuries to them regularly really helped in staying out of war…they tried offering me MPPs and the like, but I refused each time.

My plan was to get the tech for Panzers, build up an army, switch to Communism and begin the assault on the Chinese. This plan was thwarted after discovering I didn’t have any oil! Thanks, BRC. :P I was hoping to keep my warfares at the panzer-level and above, and didn’t really feel like using Cavalry…this didn’t feel like it was in the spirit of the game, but you do what you must. After checking the map, I decided the most defensible source of oil I could overtake was the Babylonian isle of tundra, which was pretty close to me anyway. So, to communism, then war I went, mainly with infantry and a few cavalry, and took the first city. Mass-produced Panzers formed the second wave (thanks to my Iron Works! ) and soon the isle was mine. Peace was called for, so I could focus on my continental concerns.

I turned my attentions on China, launching a diversionary attack near their capital with the help of the one sea square between me and a beachhead. Also sending in some bombers to disrupt things on their capital helped add to the chaos. By this point I was in the modern age, pumping out MI and panzers, so I swarmed the area south of my western chokepoint, taking the former English cities, and stopped once I claimed the one-tile chokepoint south of the main Chinese holdings. Persia had been at war for quite some time with various points, and was thrust into Anarchy…so I sued for peace with China and assaulted Persia, while it could not bolster its force. By this point, Persia was one tech shy of being able to build tanks, so I was golden. Currently I have St. Petersburg, a size 17 metro, surrounded by panzers and mech infantry, starving it down. I’m several techs ahead of Persia, and am hoping to strike towards Persepolis and nab the wonders therein. I may cut back in science for a few turns to push my treasury up to a few grand, and concentrate on using my elite spies to spread propaganda to their anarchist cities.

All in all, a fun game. I’m oscillating a bit at this point, not willing to overextend myself in any particular direction. Due to their isolation, I’m going to leave Babylon alone for a while…though I might take their luxuries I don’t have. The major thing I’m noticing about Communism is that I don’t have to deal with war weariness. Some cities aren’t as productive as they could be, but with the size of my empire at this point, my outer cities are very productive. I didn’t check my corruption level before the switch, but I should have. And since I prepared myself to be in Communism, and was in it before I started wars, the other civs are caught offbalance when they must switch to a non-representative government when their people start rioting from war weariness. As for tech, my research is a little slower now, but it’s a difference of a couple of turns, so nothing utterly damning by any means. When I play some more tonight, I’ll probably mobilize, and see how fast I can pump Panzers out.

[laissez-faire]

Germany :: Monarch :: AU Mod 1.14

ACT I - A Pacifist Germany

I managed to make it to both chokepoints, but bypassed the furs completely thinking I could fill it in later. Dariush Kabir slipped behind me and claimed that fur bed.

At any rate, this has been difficult just to stay even and I've been playing catch up all game. My diplomacy has been littered with tributes and paying of demands.

There have been three Sino-Persian wars over history, all of them fought on my territory. (I cut off Persia's military in hopes the Chinese would raze DK; they occupied it instead. ) Other than that, no major territory has swapped hands. The other civs have been extraordinarily nice to me, perhaps because of the early temples I slapped into Berlin and Leipzig.

Germany entered the industrial age in 1345 AD. They have the GL, SC, STC, and ToE to their name and missed STWA, NU and HD all by a total of 4 turns. I just discovered replaceable parts and have begun amassing arties and infantry. Not sure what my next move is. The Germans are currently slightly behind China, Persia, and Babylon who are all on even keel with each other. The Aztecs linger on the other side of the globe.

Now the real adventure begins...

[Nor Me]

Bad news, comrades. The AI still hasn't learn't to win by domination. The Chinese razed all the Russian cities and did not resettle their territory.

This is the second time I've used Communism and I've used it for the same purpose: industrial age REX. Its the perfect goverment for this but it just just doesn't happen often enough.

So while the Babylonians and Chinese have been having an on-off nuclear war, I've been expanding my territory and building. Just one problem: time is running out. Its 1900 and I've not got Steel or Scientific Method. I don't think I can avoid a Histographic loss but I will probably try and do as much damage to the Babylonians as possible, hopefully (very) eliminating them.

[trickey]

Ok, I'm not in too bad of a situation.


I have just got communism. I am about 4 techs behind China, Persia, and Babylon.


My next move is too take out Russia. I have about 30 Cavalry and 10-15 muskets in a stack Right outside my Border with Them. here is the situation.

[trickey]

Here is what i have outside Russia (I have more, but can't show all at once, see the shift up/down thing)

[ducki]

Would it make more sense to attack China and at least get a couple of techs out of the deal? Or are they too strong for you to take 2-3 cities?

It seems that attacking the weakest will only get you further behind, though I may not know what I'm talking about.

[trickey]

Btw, 2 turns after i Got into Communism, I destroyed Russia (China actually got credit though, cause they declared war and then took the last Russian city) .


EDIT: Nevermind, i got my Cavalry right outside my border. When i moved my first one in, i didnt like what i saw. The Chinese city was defended by Infantry. I dont really want to take m chances with Cavalry vs. Infantry in size 12+ cities.

Maybe Babylon??

I'm assuming Persia has Infantry also, so they are out of the question.

[Action]

I'm really liking this game. Why? This is the first time for me that I've ever had a full scale modern era game which wasn't just trying to build a spaceship or cleaning up.

I'm in a full scale modern war which is really a stalemate so far. I've got the better tactics but he has about 5x the units I've got. I'm confident I'll win eventually, as long as he doesn't nuke me too many more times. The AI even built a ton of modern armor, good job AU mod. Hes used bombers extremely effectively too. He bombarded a luxury I only had one of and sent half my cities into civil disorder.

Communism has seemed pretty effective. I only switched once I built up my core and learned the vast majority of techs I planned to. I then added about 2x as many cities as I previously had and corruption remained managable throughtout the empire. Unfortunatley most of the captured cities had been devestated into uselessness, but the ones that weren't and are located in good sites are now extremely productive, rivaling my core. While I would never switch to communism as a non religious civ in a space race game (unless I wasn't going for the spaceship) but it seems like it could be almost overpowered if I had been able to expand before communism. For example, Perseopolis is producing 100 sheilds and 11 waste. (Not in WLKD) BTW, total corruption number includes a ton of crappy little cities with no police station or courthouse yet so it could go even lower.

Red = Palace, Purple = FP, Green = Extent of Pre communism territory. China = Enemy, Babs = MPP, Almost All post communism territory gains are from Persians.

[jshelr]

The only game that I can recall where I'm rooting harder than for Nor Me in this one was when someone was beaten early but "escaped" with a settler on a galley and proceeded to try and survive for a comeback.

Now that the Giants have been eliminated from the NFL playoffs, Nor Me is all I've got.

[joncnunn]

Since there's still 125 turns left (starting in 1950, it's 1 turn = 1 year), my guess is your much more likely to lose both via Culture (Chinese starting their razing of cities a few cities short of Domination) and via spaceship than histographicly in 2050.

Originally posted by Nor Me
Bad news, comrades. The AI still hasn't learn't to win by domination. The Chinese razed all the Russian cities and did not resettle their territory.

So while the Babylonians and Chinese have been having an on-off nuclear war, I've been expanding my territory and building. Just one problem: time is running out. Its 1900 and I've not got Steel or Scientific Method. I don't think I can avoid a Histographic loss but I will probably try and do as much damage to the Babylonians as possible, hopefully (very) eliminating them.

[trickey]

Ok, this is going to be risky, but if it pays off, i could win.


I am going to go after Babylon. Babylon has a mpp with Persia. I have a Mpp with China. I'm *hoping* they will beat each other down. If one clear winner emerges, im screwed. But, if they both get weakened, then fall into communism, i should be able to come through.

[Konquest02]

Originally posted by joncnunn
Since there's still 125 turns left (starting in 1950, it's 1 turn = 1 year), my guess is your much more likely to lose both via Culture (Chinese starting their capture a few cities short of Domination) and via spaceship than histographicly in 2050.

Only Domination and conquest are allowed victory type. I think Nor Me is going to lose by histograph, although he did a great job with the Russians and Persians!

But I guess I'll lose much more pathetically... as a combination of first game on monarch and restrictions we've imposed ourselves. But it's OK, I'm having fun!

--Kon--