AU 206: Gallic Glory - Stories and Strategy Tips

[Fosse]

After this, the game gets a little frustrating. Barbarian uprisings right in the middle of about three settlers make me very upset. I declare peace with China for two cities (leaving them with two) so I can concentrate on the barbs and settling. Plus, those Indian and Perian settlers walking through my land make me KNOW I will be fighting them soon.

I don't know about the rest of you... but for me barbarian uprisings are the least fun part of the game. They always happen near your most recently built cities, then can wipe out a 2000+ treasury in a single turn, and unless you have an army waiting for them, they take sometimes dozens of turns to up to put down.

Rant over: I deal with the barbs, losing tons of turns to the settler loss. I tell India to get out of my land or declare war. They declare, I take their settler and move my GS forces through the jungle. Then I get greedy and tell Persia the same thing. They also declare war. I figure, Yeah, two enemies, terrible land for GS, but at least their in the same direction. Plus, they are both at war with each other, and India is fighting Rome... so how bad could it be?
Then, of course, my GA ends.

Persia makes short work of the GS armies I set on the mountains outside of their territory. I know I would wipe out those immortals... if only I could attack first!
I send part of the Indian forces to the Persian front, and plan to basically ignore India's three cities, letting Rome take them.

Well, this goes on for about six turns, until Persia pulls the AI trick of landing next to my least defended city with some immortals. I know my regular warrior won't be able to defend, and none of my GSs can get there in time... and luckily Persia is willing to pay me some gold for peace.

Now I concentrate on India... I've made some slight progress, taking one city, and spawning my third leader from a defending GS. He'll probably move my capital. But this is where my game ends for now.



My thoughts:

The GS is fine as it is. The Golden age that comes with using them means you can crank them out at a reasonable rate, and they are basically unstoppable on open land, and still get retreat bonuses in bad terrain.

My city placing has been pretty standard for me. I'll play a few more times with some ralphing or more controled spacing... but that will probably be long in the future, so I can't promise any write ups on that.

[Dominae]

Ralph does the Archer rush

22 hours gone and I've finished yet another AU course. All in all a fun game, at least in comparison to NIC, which sucks the life right out of you (I'll never forgive you badams!). I'll do a very summarial AAR of the key points in my game, since most of these reports necessarily look quite the same. I'll throw in a few "lessions I learned" alongside the regular narrative.

In the beginning...

If you flip back to the first page of this thread, you'll see some screens and the story of how I got really lucky early on by conquering Dehli with only 1 Warrior and 1 Archer. To make a short story ever shorter, I took India out when they only had one city, and got way more out of this than one measly corrupt city (see below). I obtained far too many Workers, techs and Gold from extortion of the Indians, since they had just respawned (along with 2 free Workers and 100 Gold). This set me up for a very very strong early-game. I traded irrelevant techs away for even more Workers (from Persian, China, Rome - whoever had them to "spare"), and grew ridiculously fast. I'm making a point of this, because:

Lesson 1: Super ultra-early Archer rushes, including Settler/Worker "bops", work wonders against the AI. If you're reasonably confident that you'll be safe from the backlash, you can extort your way into a very comfortable early-game.

While Entremont and a nearby city are cranking out Settlers and Workers, my other cities are busy building a real Archer company for use against China. I declare war against China with ~6 Vet. Archers and ~3 Vet. Warriors along the Chinese border. Mao, as expected, sends his available forces, Archers, to meet me in the field. This turns into a target practice exercise for my own Archers, and by the time I advance upon a Chinese city, most of my forces are Elite.

Lesson 2: Unless you have extremely overwheming force (that's a lot), always destroy the AI's standing army in the field before going against its cities.

The zero-bombard ability really helped here, as China's Reg. Archer counter-attacks fell to Archer/Warrior stacks more often than not.

A few turns before I conquer Beijing, it completes The Oracle, which was really quite nice since I'm making a point of putting a Temple in all my cities.

[Dominae]

Ralph makes enemies

As you can see from the screenshot above, I'm saving up money for those oh-so expensive Warrior->Gallic upgrades. I research both Polytheism and Monarchy at 40 turns each, and boy does this take a long time! The timing ended up being perfect, but I'm glad to start researching for real again after 80 turns.

As I finish up with China, I take time to consider my next target. It has to be Persia, I figure, since Rome is too far away and their lands are useless without a Great Leader for a rushed FP. Since I plan to attack Persia, I ally with them against Rome for a bit in order to get their Immortal forces down to size.

Lesson 3: Always try to get other civs to do your fighting for you. Allying with a civ then turning on them can hurt your rep, but the "softening up" effect makes up for this.

And this is how the timing was just awesome. In 470BC, I discover Monarchy, conquer China's last city (Nanking), and get a Great Leader in the process. I've upgraded all my Warriors, and my 18 or so Gallics are just waiting around, watching Rome and Persia go at it around Bactra (see screenshot below). My Leader builds an Army, partly because a Gallic Army sounds too cool to pass up, and partly because I figure the Heroic Epic will really pay in this game (true). A 1-turn period of Anarchy later I'm in Monarchy, and my Gallics are ready to pounce on the unsuspecting Persian forces, which will trigger a wonderfully non-Despotic Golden Age.

I know the screenshot below is somewhat confusing, but only a few things are important: 1) the lack of Persian forces - they're all down South fighting the Romans, 2) my Gallics are creating a barrier at the isthmus to the Persian heartland, and 3) other Gallics are ready to conquer the cities South of this area. Since I was able to funnel all the Persian forces through a small, non-roaded area after Arbela was razed, the Gallic against Immortal battles were quite one-sided.

[Dominae]

Ralph laughs at the opposition

I have to break a 20-turn Military Alliance with Persian against Rome about half-way when I declare war on Persia, but when I contact Rome the same turn and ask for Peace, Caesar is Polite with me! My reputation may be shot, but nothing makes friends like a common enemy.

The ensuing battle against the Persians goes quite well, and the Golden Age sees the production of many more Gallic Swordsmen. Xerxes was too greedy with his high-Shield lands, and built more Wonders than he could defend: by the time the Persian campaign was over, I was in control of the Pyramids, the Great Library and the Colossus.

Around this time India is making its presence known again; Ghandi actually managed to come back from his early defeat to a reasonably strong position. This will not do and I declare war on India as soon as they land a Spearmen/Settler duo on my side of the channel.

As I turn to Rome, it occurs to me that Rome has a pretty good UU, and that I've not seen one of them yet. A quick CTRL-SHIFT-M reveals the situation: India's respawn denied one of Rome's two Iron sources by right, while the other was connected, but was not yet within Rome's borders! A source of Iron was well within Rome's reach, but the AI did not realise that it was not accessing it (see screenshot). I thought this was pretty funny, and took full advantage of the situation. I walked right on to the Iron with a big stack of Pikemen. My Knights arrived a few turns later and Rome began to fall rather quickly.

Lesson 4: This lesson added at Catt's request.

[Dominae]

Ralph counts his Armies

The campaign against Rome saw Great Leaders appearing almost every other turn. I had already built my Forbidden Palace in Beijing with a Great Leader from the war with Persia. I chose Beijing because I felt Rome would take too long to conquer, and I really like the tempo advantage an early FP gives, even at the expense of "perfect" positioning.

Since I was doing a Military Tradition beeline, I did not have access to all that many Wonders (Sun Tzu was completed a long time ago). So the four (yes, 4) Great Leaders that I got from warring with Rome all became Armies. These did not participate in the battles, but went to a safe position to wait for Cavalry.

Lesson 5: Armies are a quite viable choice for an Great Leader. If you're doing a lot of fighting and have the Heroic Epic, there is not much point in waiting to have access to a good Wonder to do something with a Great Leader. Armies are better than any "normal" city improvement, too.

In 740AD, mainland Rome was destroyed, and I proceeded to India the very next turn. 840AD saw the big continent clear of all nations other than the Celts.

[Arrian]

Lesson 1: Super ultra-early Archer rushes, including Settler/Worker "bops", work wonders against the AI. If you're reasonably confident that you'll be safe from the backlash, you can extort your way into a very comfortable early-game.

That is the most valuable lesson I learned when I jumped up to Emperor back before PtW came out. I was having trouble in the early game, so I started taking chances, and then discovered that those "risky" things weren't as risky as I had thought. Settler bopping is a relatively easy way to do serious harm to a neighbor. Even just running around his territory breaking things with an exploring warrior can cripple them, and gain you concessions.

Once I made that discovery, I think my journey toward the Dark Side was complete.

-Arrian

[minke19104]

Arrian, do you declare war before bopping Settler and/or going in enemy territory to capture or destroy city improvement?

Do you try to keep your reputation clean or you sneak attack them all the time early in the game?

[Dominae]

Ralph grants the Celts Panzers

I spend the next few hundred years gaining control of all the islands surrounding the mainland, as I'm sure Domination is within easy reach. It just so happens that you need to conquer some of the other continent to trigger Domination, but I was ready for that possibility.

I do something weird with research and avoid getting Military Tradition once I get Metallurgy, going back to Theology instead. My Knights are doing just fine against the weak Romans and Indians, and I want to be as far ahead as a possible when I meet the other civs (no contact as of yet).

When I finally do meet the other civs, all my neighbors are still kicking around except for China. In sort of an Arrian Deception in reverse, I do some preliminary trading with America, Russia and France, who are all Polite, but give them Contacts with my neighbors, and when the dust settles the whole world is Furious with me.

Lesson 6: Periodically saying "You want a piece of me?!?" really puts you in the warmongering mood, and breaks the monotony of late-game micromanagement, making things more bearable.

I'm enough techs ahead that I decide to go back and get Military Tradition after Steam Power, since Cavalry will do just as well as Infantry against my technologically backward opponents.

I then do something really fun. Remember those four empty Armies I just had sitting around? I load them all up with Vet. Cavalry (3 each initially, so that they can cross the ocean on a Galleon), and smile at my creation: I now have 4 Panzers!

I ship these and some Musketmen across the ocean to pick a fight with Russia. Why Russia? Another quick CTRL-SHIFT-M shows that they do not have access to Saltpeter, and there's not enough on that continent for them to trade for some.

Lesson 7: When deciding whom to attack and where to strike, CTRL-SHIFT-M offers the best advice.

[Arrian]

minke,

I formally declare war first.

Dominae,

I love it! WANNA PIECE OF ME? The Dominae Declaration.

Aren't Cavalry armies fun?

-Arrian

[Dominae]

Closing thoughts from Dominae (not Ralph)

The Russian cities fall quite quickly, and just as I'm gearing up to take on MPP-buddies America and France (empowered by numerous repetitions of "You want a piece of me!?!?"), the Domination victory appears in 1400AD, with 7014 points.

Some general comments:

1. The Gallic Swordsmen (and the Celts) are just fine as is.

2. My experience with NIC has taught me something important: once you're starting to pull ahead of the competition, you can usually just produce military units in your core cities until you've won. Most of my big cities produced Knights, Cavalry and Musketmen for about 1000 years. I did build a few improvements in my key cities (just for fun's sake), but on the whole my military was bigger than it usually is in my games. This helped a lot.

3. I'm not a big fan of UP. There, I've said it. When I conquered the main continent, I simply had no desire to get all my cities to a nice productive level. I guess I need a challenge to mask the fact that there is a whole bunch of micromanagement in the late Medieval and early Industrial age (moreso if the goal is UP). I did the "redemption" strat in cities that were mostly corrupt. Sure, I could have moved my Palace around and rushed Courthouses, but I had already won...I did not see the point. This is just me, of course: anyone is free to enjoy UP if they want. But I'm not big on it.

4. Nice map, alexman. The geography was really interesting to play with. However, I did miss the presence of any KIA (perhaps you expected one of Russia, America or France to pull ahead?).

Ok, that's all...until next game!


Dominae

[Dominae]

Originally posted by Arrian
I love it! WANNA PIECE OF ME? The Dominae Declaration.

Heh, I hope you're getting the Seinfeld reference (it cracks me up!).

Aren't Cavalry armies fun?

Oh yeah! Recently (up until to this game), I've been skipping out on Cavalry (favoring Infantry/Artillery) and had completely forgotten that Cav. Armies can blitz!


Dominae

[Arrian]

I'm not a big fan of UP. There, I've said it.

UP - at least my version of it - definitely involves building up your empire well beyond what is needed to win the game. If you are a "cut to the chase" type of guy, UP isn't for you.

I actually enjoy tinkering with my civ to getting it running like a well-oiled machine, even if it's obvious I could just build some more units and put the AI out of its misery.

-Arrian

[Arrian]

Actually, I'm one of the heretic minority that didn't think all that much of Seinfeld. *gasp* So I'm not getting the reference. (ducks)

Re: Cav armies & blitzing... I love Rider armies too.

-Arrian

[Dominae]

Originally posted by Arrian
Actually, I'm one of the heretic minority that didn't think all that much of Seinfeld. *gasp* So I'm not getting the reference.

Not a problem, I got a laugh out of you anyway...

[Arrian]

Yeah, I know, I'm easily amused.

-Arrian