Spoiler Thread for AU 203

[trickey]

It is 150 B.C the German republic has just been set up.

Funny, in Bluefrog's game, England was destroyed by China, in my game, England was destroyed by Rome. I guess nobody likes old Lizzy anymore


I'm playing on Monarch, and i am the largest civ in terms of cities. China is a close second.

I am ahead of everyone in techs, except Persia, I am even with them. At the start of the game, i was running 10% science. It surprised me how good it worked. I bought 5 techs for ~250 gold. That catapulted me to the front of the tech race. Ever since I was running 90-100% science. I decided to head for Republic asap, not touching the lower branch of teh tree, not even going for currency.

It worked out great, got republic (do the AI civs ever value that tech) and traded it for 3 techs (currency, construction, and another one, forget it now) to China. Then I traded republic to Xerses for Monarchy and 10 gold.


I got quite a scare from Rome when they declared war on me while I was still in major REX mode. They came into my territory with about 3 spearmen and 2-3 archers. Were they ever a pain. I killed all Rome's units but one spear, and did that spearman ever act strange. First it started making its way to my source of Horses. Good move right? I thought so too. But once it got there, it just sat there for a few turns instead of pillaging. Then it made it's way to my furs, only to sit there for a few turns aswell. After that, i made peace with Rome, forcing him to give me 20 gold for peace, even though I didn't have its territory map, had a smaller army than him, and hadn't attacked one of his cities yet.

Btw, i think i made my switch to Republic too early. I was loosing 1gpt running 90% science in despotism. Now, im struggling to break even running 10% science as a republic

[ducki]

It's your military upkeep that's killing your treasury, most likely. If you don't need them all, try disbanding some to get it under control.

Or found more cities.

[BRC]

Anywho, it seems that there have been two Killer AIs spawned from this game, and I'm in the middle. Wars broke out around me, and due to my central location, I had foreign troops marching over my soil quite often. The English were the first to dieby the Chinese. Russia fell under the might of Xerxes. Rome, who had been hanging on to its only city the whole game (it really would have been nice to see the AI move its initial settler to frtile ground), bought into a military alliance it shouldn't have, and was summarily squashed byt he Persians.

Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can anyone else tell me if they have had similiar experiences?

[trickey]

China and Persia are the top civs besides me in my game (China may even be ahead of me).


ducki, Your right, im gonna have to start disbanding some units. I've got plenty of cities

[ducki]

China is going to be very hard to catch in my game.

It's only 610BC, but they are consistently 1 tech ahead of everyone else and 4 techs ahead of me, keeping everyone poor.

[Nor Me]

I won't say much about my game; not much has happened in it.

One thing I did do differently is build the Pyramids instead of the GL. This is the first time I've even considered doing this on Emperor but it makes too much sense from this start (lots of space and luxuries.)
I don't know why alexman might have thought a reduction in corruption in Despotism would have a small effect. I know in this game we need a decent Communism but I'm sure that some will find it unbalancing.
In this case it meant that I was able to build the FP just as fast mainly in despotism as I would have had switching to Republic earlier. Even if I'd had the GL I would not have been in Republic early enough for buying a courthouse to help. In despotism, I was able to do things like pop-rush a library in every city that couldn't build one. When I did switch, the gain was surprisingly small. I'd expect that in more warmongering games even Monarchy might not be worth it.
This basically meant that my considerable tech lag caused few problems. Now it looks as though I'll be able to discover Education and have my FP up by the time the other civs have Education. The cities around my FP all have libraries and are size 6 in well developed land.
It looks as though the Pyramids was a better choice than the GL. Of course it doesn't go obsolete yet. I suspect that an AU communism might bear some resemblance to pre-patch despotism.
etc.( Y'know all that is just so clear. oh well.)

Of course China are the most dangerous civ. They've reduced the Aztecs to one inaccessible city. Killer status may not be far away.

[Nor Me]

Did I say the Chinese were dangerous? Thanks to the silly rules we're playing with I'll have to wait for a flip or hope that another AI razes my former cities so I can replace them.
Adequate defences? Are there any against riders and cavalry? I thought I had enough but a stack of units with defence 3 can easily be overcome even on a hill.
They also seemed to have gome most of the way to MT before discovering Education. Looks like I should have gone with the GL after all.

[Bluefrog]

Originally posted by Nor Me
They also seemed to have gome most of the way to MT before discovering Education. Looks like I should have gone with the GL after all.

The same happened with me, except I had the GLib built instead of the Pyraminds. China and Persia, the tech leaders at the time, went pretty far toward MT before going after the more scientific branch of the tech tree.

[Nor Me]

Noone has Banking. I reloaded the autosave to check that China didn't (I know this is minor cheating but how exactly will knowing the Chinese didn't have banking be a game winning advantage?)
According to my understanding of alexman's formula, this is impossible. Monotheism,Theology,Education and Banking should all be researched before Chemistry which is more expensive and allows nothing. What is going on?

[trickey]

well, after realizing republic wasnt gonna wokr for me, i did something i normally would never do. I made another revolution happen. Republic->Monarchy. Monarchy is much better for me in this situation.


I just nabbed Sun Tzu's (mostly just to keep the AI from getting it.) It will also help with upgrading.

[Nor Me]

Originally posted by Bluefrog
The same happened with me, except I had the GLib built instead of the Pyraminds. China and Persia, the tech leaders at the time, went pretty far toward MT before going after the more scientific branch of the tech tree.

Exactly how far?
The Great Library is in Tenochtitlan (which the Chinese have captured.) This may be the reason why they researched Chemistry before Education. If this theory is correct, you won't have got Chemistry from the GL. This may have to be tested. EDIT: They have the Oracle too.

So the Chinese have virtually eliminated the civ on a peninsula behind them, captured the GL, beelined to MT and blitzed me with riders and cavalry. I'm fairly sure this sort of thing didn't used to happpen.
The few small tweaks of PTW,v1.14 and AU MOD don't make empreror as hard as deity in Civ3 v1.29f but it's nice to lose, if you are going to lose, to an AI that behaves sensibly rather than relying on 20 swordsmen SODs.

[jshelr]

The Persians and Chinese are the big civs in my version of this game. We have been pumping up the Babs research effort by funneling all our research gold through them. So, we are behind only the Chinese.

Persia declared war as we exited the middle ages. We bought an alliance with Russia which basically sacrificed them. We then arranged rights of passage and then mutual protection pacts with China and England. (Recall Persia has the fur bed in the SE in this game.) We bought our way out of the middle ages, received nationalism free, and put a scientist on Communism. Bought steam, started prebuild, and will wait for medicine and electricity.

Let them tear each other up for awhile.

[ducki]

Persia and China are strong here, too.
I wonder how much their starting terrain influenced this, or perhaps their traits (both Industrious).

I am 2 turns away from Completing either the Pyramids or the GLib, and can't decide which to do. I think probably the Library, since I can't keep up in research yet and I've just about expanded to the geographical limit, so I don't really need granaries everywhere any more.

Decisions, decisions.

Oh! And England has just demanded Literature. I'm debating telling her to stuff it and hoping for a war, even though I'm not prepared.
Decisions, decisions.


This is a really fun scenario. Not warring at all, even for an ex-builder, is pretty tough. Especially as Germany.

[Jawa Jocky]

I'm playing the AUmod on Monarchy since I've never; played the mod, used communism, or been a very good builder.


Here is the only hut I got to pop. Having expansionist neighbors really makes you realize how good that trait is at the start.

[Jawa Jocky]

Persia and China are both killer AIs here too. Here I am trying to protect my lead on the GL, otherwise I have given into their demands everytime. I brought the Aztecs and English into the war (China brought Rome into it and the eliminated Liz) and got peace on the turn my alliances had expired. Which was good since China had 10 units 2 turns from my border.