AU207: Big Planet - Strategy, Spoilers and Comments

[BigDork]

I usually will make a stack of privateers to sail the high seas. But I think they're kinda weak. But then again, maybe not.

BigD

[Arrian]

Yes, they're weak. But any stronger, and I think they would be overpowered.

Their ability to sink AI ships during peacetime is half of their value.

I've wiped out the entire navies of civs with fleets of privateers. Sure, it's not gonna win the game for you, but it can actually be somewhat useful, and more important, fun.

Heck, if I'd sent my privateers on a slightly more southerly course, I might have delayed or perhaps even prevented an Arab attack.

-Arrian

[BigDork]

Hi everybody...

Well it is a strange world. A lot has changed since my last report. I've now made it up to about 1600AD. But let me go back a bit.

Okay, I forgot to take notes so I'm doing this from my not so perfect memory.

The Zulu are left with one city which is on my side of the choke point. At one point I got to watch as they fought off some samuri. I was actually really cheering for the Zulu. I did not want the Japanese to have a city that close to me. But the Zulu are all but out of the game. Perhaps some day I will call upon Shaka and inform him that he is to join Hammurabi in the dungeons but it is not the time.

I was a busy Hannibal following the war against the Babs. I was pumping out a lot of defensive units and with MT coming up I was building a whole bunch of knights for the upgrade. I got MT and did the upgrades and sent all my cavalry to the chokepoint where the Japanese were. I sent the medieval infantry I had(about 6 or so) over to my front with Germany along with some defensive units. I had little fear that Germany would invade as we'd been friends for a long time but you know that Bismark.

I had a pretty good army of cavalry just waiting to be unleashed on the Japanese but I knew that the Japanese were strong and that I needed to build more cavalry before I could take them on. Well, I didn't get the chance. Good ol' Tokugawa sent me a messanger one day and demanded that I give him the secret of metallurgy. Well, he had made demands in the past but dang it, I was not gonna give in this time. I knew I'd be pressed but I figured that if nothing else, I could hold the chokepoint.

I did however ask Japan's other enemy, Temujin if he would like to draw off some of the Japanese aggres....I mean help fight the Japanese. And what did I give the Mongol's for their support in the war effort? Metallurgy.

So Hannibal unleased the cavalry upon the once Zulu cities now controlled by the Japanese. Cities that were defended with spearmen. In the first couple of turns I already had netted a few cities and I was on the move for more. I knew that my time was limited however. I knew, somewhere out there, was a SoD.(que dramatic music)

A few turns after the war began I was making some headway. I had captured many of the cities that the Japanese had taken from the Zulu. And then, if Tokugawa doesn't have enough to deal with, declared war on Bismark. This actually was a pain in the rear for me. I had been sending some cavalry through Germany(I had an RoP) and when they went to war all the German troops rushing to the front made it slow going for my flanking movement. Not that it mattered in the end.

I made a move to capture a size 6 city when out of the fog came what I had feared. And oh was it fearsom. A 30+ unit SoD. So we're five turns into the war now. I capture the city from the Japanese but have a feeling that this is it. How can 7 or 8 cavalry defend against a stack of 30 medieval infantry and pikemen? It's just too big.

Knowing that this will greatly upset my kind of ally Temujin I convice Tokugawa that he doesn't want to attack me with all the units he has converging on me and that peace would be better. Thankfully he agreed. Eh, whoever said the enemy of my enemy is my friend is an idiot. I knew for a fact that I can never count the Mongols my friends until they are nothing but a note in the history books.

So instead I watched as the SoD made it's way over the Leipzig and all the sweet, sweet ivory. Soon after peace was reached by everybody and the world was again quiet.

[BigDork]

One day Hannibal was sitting in his palace when a message arrived from the Koreans. It turns out that there is another land across the sea and that the Koreans had the means to cross the great ocean and make contact.

It turns out that I was way behind in the tech race. By at least 3 techs. Even worse, several civs were already into the industrial age. And worse yet, the Japanese somehow managed to get all the techs from the civs. I did what I could but could only get one or two. So I got to democracy and went crazy researching techs. I have managed to catch up and am now just about in the lead. I'm one or two techs behind the Arabs and one behind Tokugawa but that's about it. And I'm researching different techs so I have been trading to get what I don't need. I did just get ToE but am obviously not trading that off as I'm still about 10 turns away from the wonder.

I recently checked with my military advisor and he informed me that my military is stronger than the Mongols and about the same as the Japanese. This is good. However, most of my military is riflemen. I've been very busy building up my defense. I guess a little bit of Arrian's insight rubbed off on me. But a big reason is because I have this finger of territory that shoots into Japanese lands. I know that the next time we fight I'm gonna need all the defense I can get. Especially with that damn SoD out there. I'm gonna obliterate it this time however. It's a goal.

Well I had just finished connecting all my cities with railroads when a sudden aggressive feeling came over me. The Germans were a few techs behind and had yet to get nationalism. Otto had been my friend for 1000's of years. Since the very beginning we have not shed each others blood. But that was soon to change.

[BigDork]

I divided my forces up into four groups. Task Force A(TFA) was my medieval infantry. Their job was to take two cities that were surrounded by mountains and defended by spearmen. TFB was about 4 or 5 cavalry who's job was to take a couple of cities that were taken when the rest of the world ganged up on the Zulu. TFC was a group of about 8 cavalry who's job was to take the two German cities east of Berlin. TFD has about 15 to 20 cavalry and is job is to push up northward taking all cities up to and including Berlin.

TFA performed wonderfully. On the first turn one of the cities fell(my borders had pushed back the German borders) and I moved into striking distance of the other. On the second turn, TFA was done.

TFB took about four turns to complete it's objectives. Having to deal with some jungles didn't help much. But it met no serious resistance. There was a small counterattack but nothing more than one horseman and one medieval infantryman.

TFC completed it's objectives but had a little trouble. The damned RNG was against me and we took some serious casualties on a counterattack. It turns out the Germans had some cavalry hidden in the mists and almost managed to take back one of their cities. That would have been a pain in the butt because all my other forces were tied up fighting their own battles.

TFD was actually split into two groups. They took city after city and then converged on Berlin. It was quick and rather painless, at least for me. In less than ten turns I managed to capture 9 cities and got one more in the peace deal.

I left the Germans with a couple cities to act as a kind of buffer with the Mongols. I already have a pretty big front with the Japanese, I don't need one with the Mongols too. I know that eventually I'm gonna have it but not yet.

Soon I will have tanks and then, I'll control the world, muhahahahhaha. Okay, maybe not. But I'm gonna kick some Japanese and Mongol butt. That is unless that big desert we have has no oil in it. Then I'm gonna have to kill me some Vikings first. I guess I'll let you know what turns up.

BigD

[BigDork]

Sorry for the lack of screenshots but I still haven't found a program that I can use. I had a trial of Photoshop 7 but it ran out. Maybe some day.

BigD

[BigDork]

Hi everybody...

Well it's a slow night in the Comm Center so I think I'm gonna ramble some.

I am coming to the conclusion that I do not like huge maps. Before I started playing in the AU games I was playing only on large maps and enjoyed them. I consider myself to be more of a builder and definatly not a warmonger and I feel a large map gives me a lot of room to build and expand without having too much room like in this game.

In this game at the point I'm at I control almost half of the continent. Maybe more like 40% actually. And I think about just how much more I have to go until I control it all. And then I have to manage that empire. It's a lot. Do I have to continue on and take the rest of the continent? No, but I loath to leave the Mongols and the Japanese around. I know that until they are gone there's gonna be war whether I like it or not. And so I have to deal with the fact that I'm on a huge map.

Don't get me wrong. I'm having a good time with the game but it's a lot. And I am learning some about having to deal with such a large front open to invasion. Luckily the AI has to deal with the same thing too.

My future goals are to get tanks and remove my neighbors from the continent. I think the Zulu have lived long enough and they are gonna be gone next turn. They have one more city that could be mine. Also I think after the 20 turns of peace is up I'm gonna hit the Germans again. They only have a few cities left and shouldn't be a problem.

Then once I have a good size army of tanks I'm gonna enlist the aid of Temujin to hit the Japanese and then once Tokugawa is gone turn on the Mongols. Then perhaps I'll take out the Vikings or perhaps not. But either way I'm gonna just keep building and probably win with a SS victory. Maybe I'll risk a diplo victory just to live on the edge. The other continent likes me so maybe I have a chance.

BigD

[BigDork]

Possible Problem

Hi everybody...

Okay guys I'm gonna need a little insight on this one. So I just got replaceable parts and am going along upgrading to infantry when all the sudden it won't let me anymore. Okay, so I check and make sure I have a barracks and that I have rubber. Check and check. So I look and see and I can't even make infantry. Only riflemen. WtF?!? I tried to attach the save but it said it was too big. Any ideas?

BigD

[BigDork]

Odd, now it will let me again. I went to the next turn and I could upgrade the rest of my riflemen and build infantry again. Hrm, that was strange. I wonder if it has anything to do with PtW 1.21. Whatever.

BigD

[AJ Corp. The FAIR]

Re: Possible Problem

Originally posted by BigDork
Hi everybody...

Okay guys I'm gonna need a little insight on this one. So I just got replaceable parts and am going along upgrading to infantry when all the sudden it won't let me anymore. Okay, so I check and make sure I have a barracks and that I have rubber. Check and check. So I look and see and I can't even make infantry. Only riflemen. WtF?!? I tried to attach the save but it said it was too big. Any ideas?

BigD

You were upgrading your infantry and had barracks and rubber?

...

Maybe you just ran out of money that turn?

AJ

[BigDork]

Re: Re: Possible Problem

Originally posted by AJ Corp. The FAIR

Maybe you just ran out of money that turn?

Heh yeah, I kinda figured that out after I took a little nap. I guess that's what I get for playing civ3 on only 3 hours of sleep. My mental capacity definatly wasn't at its best.

But then again, why couldn't I build them in my cities?

BigD

[nbarclay]

After completing the conquest of my continent, I'd planned a nice, peaceful end-game, but the Arabs decided not to cooperate. Now granted, giving them the incense they wanted woudn't have been any big deal. But it's the principle of the thing: a civ that makes demands of a nation that just wiped out one of the world's next greatest powers in one turn and another in two has no business living. And that goes double if they actually carry through on the threat and declare war.

So what did I do? I short-rushed* a bunch of transports and set sail for Ottoman lands. Okay, now I can see you scratching your heads wondering why in the world I'd do that when my target was the Arabs. But when you consider that I'd just signed alliances against the Arabs with everyone and ROPs with the Ottomans and Celts, it makes sense. Rather than risk having Arab ships attack my transports while attacking directly, I landed my troops way on the other side of the continent where the Arabs couldn't do a single solitary thing about it. It turns out I miscalculated and had to buy a ROP with the Russians to get all the way through, but once my troops hit Ottoman shores, it just took them a couple turns to get to the Arab front. Once I got a leader to rush an airport, I could bring reinforcements to Arab lands directly. And better, by the time my transports arrived, other civs had done a fairly effective job of drawing off Arabia's offensive forces.

*Short-rushing is a technique in which you set the build to something cheaper than what you ultimately want to build, rush that, and then switch to what you really want. In this case, I set my build to cavalry, if necessary disbanded a cavalry to get started without paying double (since with around 200 MAs, I could live without a few cavalry), rushed the cavalry, and then switched to a transport. For cities that can produce twenty or more shields, that's a bit cheaper than rushing a transport directly and gets the job done just as quickly.

[Dominae]

Originally posted by nbarclay
Rather than risk having Arab ships attack my transports while attacking directly, I landed my troops way on the other side of the continent where the Arabs couldn't do a single solitary thing about it.

Nice move!

[nbarclay]

Arabia fell in 1545, just 35 yars after their insane demand. But since I already had troops on the continent, I decided to finish taking it. Initially, I had hoped to engage the Ottomans in an alliance against the Indians and Celts, but when they refused, I got irritated and declared war on them. England was brought in through a MPP, so I ended up fighting the Ottomans, Indians, and Celts, and English all at once. Four against one really wasn't fair, but even so, I decided to make things even more unfair by bribing the Koreans to come in on my side. That left only Russia neutral.

I quickly took three Ottoman cities, but the terrain in their area was not well suited for mobile warfare. Most of my fighting was against the Indians and the Celts, both of which I drove from the continent. Then, just as I was starting a really serious offensive against the Ottomans, the Russians stabbed me in the back (violating multiple agreements including a ROP). Two minor cities fell to the evil Russians, but I immediately recaptured them and took a few other Russian cities while I was at it.

That's where things stand now, in the middle of 1565 AD. I'm about four turns away from a cultural victory, so it will be interesting to see how much more I can capture by then and whether I might even manage to trigger domination first. By the way, I've already used leaders to rush the Apollo Program and the two most expensive spaceship parts; I'm embarking on a "How many spaceship parts can I rush with leaders" experiment. (Not that I have the techs for anywhere near all of them.)

[badams52]

Originally posted by nbarclay
*Short-rushing is a technique in which you set the build to something cheaper than what you ultimately want to build, rush that, and then switch to what you really want. In this case, I set my build to cavalry, *snip*.

Very nice game Nathan. Too bad with the huge map the cultural victory comes earlier, and it doesn't sound like you'll get too many opportunities to rush the spaceship with GLs. Can't wait to see the map when you finish, but I was wondering...

Why did you short rush with cavalry when there are cheaper options (workers) to get over that 2x initial build price? And if you were disbanding cavalry, why not use that to short-rush?