AU207: Big Planet - Strategy, Spoilers and Comments

[nbarclay]

Dominae, you only think you ruined War Chariots' ability to be effective. I'll wait until later to post screenshots, but as of 330 AD, Babylon is gone and Germany and the Zulus are down to a single city each. (Edit: Germany also has a couple island cities I didn't know about at the time of the peace talks.) Next up: a ROP with Japan to get in good striking range of America's heartland. After all, I still have 17 swordsmen, 20 horsemen, and 82 war chariots to use. (I'd have a lot more if impi weren't so good at killing WCs and horsemen.)

The down side is that I haven't done any serious research in centuries, so even after extorting the Germans and Zulus, I'm behind everyone but America in tech. (The reason America is my next target is that they're the only other civ on the continent that doesn't have Feudalism yet.) I also don't have a single library, aqueduct, marketplace, or harbor, although I've recently started on some.

This game is completely backward from how I normally play, focusing so heavily on the military and so little on economics. But it's been interesting.

[Arrian]

I expect the Germans will fold like a house of cards when I hit them. I should have a lot of Knights when that happens. They are the weakest of the AI civs I know, partly because throughout the course of the game, I've traded tech for 2 of their workers. They are still in the ancient age at this point, and I think their iron is via trade, not local. That should be easy to disrupt.

The only credible threat I see is Mongolia. They have good land, and the Pyramids. Of course, that means they are the next target, once I've gutted Germany. I figure I'll rotate through clockwise (Germany, Mongols, America, Japan, Zulu).

-Arrian

[minke19104]

Arrian, are you going to upgrade these chariots to horsies?

[Arrian]

WCs upgrade directly to Knights. I have mostly WCs, and some horsemen (during my GA, production is such that some towns can produce either a WC or a Horsie in the same number of turns. So I choose horsie in that case).

Therefore, what I'm looking at is upgrading ~50 WC's and some Horsemen to Knights. That means slightly over 2000 gold. I have ~1200 saved up.

I will switch to Monarchy as soon as my GA ends, because my military is getting pretty expensive, and because I intend to go on an extended campaign.

But that will have to wait a week, since I'm going on vacation. I won't be able to play again until the weekend after this one.

-Arrian

[Konquest02]

I played quite a while this afternoon and I am now in 1070 ad, in the mid medieval times (just researched astronomy)... Things have been quite eventful.

First, I nailed the Babs with swordmen. I boxed them in their little peninsula and then could expand much faster than them. When I reached IW, I was able to upgrade a couple (~10) swordmen and went after Babylon. Some turns later, they were down to a respawned city in the jungle and I was in possession of the Colossus in Babylon. Their decision to go after that wonder probably cost them their life because they could not pump as much military units as me...
When going after their last city, I got a leader when attacking with an archer. I turned him into an army of 2 swordmen (which were all that I had ready for the moment... probably a bad decision). It won a battle against a lone unprotected spearman but got down to 1 hp!! It then got defeated the next turn by a Bowman. Fortunately, I was able to build the Heroic Epic. Barely though...

As you may see in a previous post, I have a revenge to take on the Mongols... They provoked me in a war (see screenshot) and I allied with America to act as a buffer between Mongolia and me. Then, the turn before I would sign peace (my alliance would have expired on that turn), The Mongols ally with the Zulu and pledge for my destruction. Since I had just reached chivalry, I upgraded horsies to knights and went to hit the Zulus. I took 4 cities, including Zimbabwe and the Pyramids, before WW was after me. So I had to stop, only for a while... Those impis are sure hard to kill!! A knight without retreat ability is good, but not that great!

--Kon--

[Konquest02]

Sorry, forgot to post the screenshot!!

[Arrian]

Go, Konquest, go!

COME GIT SUM, TEMUJIN!

Hmm, actually, the people who actually said things like that died rather horribly

-Arrian

[Konquest02]

Thanks Arrian!!

They are in fact on the other sid of the continent and I need to crush the Germans before the Mongols, so it might take a little while... I think I'll beeline for cavalry and take most of the Reich and relocate my capital in Berlin... What do you think? My FP is built and is located 4 tiles due south of Paris... With my new palace in Berlin, I will have a steady base to launch my attack on Mongolia with either cavalry or a beeline towards tanks...

I'm going at the restaurant with my g/f tonight, so no civ for me... But I'll sure think about it over supper!!

--Kon--

[nbarclay]

Well, America turned out not to be the next civ I warred with after all. The Mongols had a warrior and archer wandering around behind my front lines, and they moved next to an undefended city that I couldn't bring defenders into in time. I politely asked them to leave, and they declared war!

Immediately, I killed the warrior and archer and bopped a settler with its swordsman escort. I then realized the Mongols had two cities south of their core that hadn't been hooked up as of my most recent map, so I took those (all the while prepositioning forces for my war with America). The Mongols didn't have any gold when peace talks came, so all I got from the peace talks was a map. But two cities (even totally corrupt ones) and six slaves at a cost of two war chariots killed and a few units injured isn't a bad trade.

I researched Engineering, but not in time to be the first to get it. That meant I had to throw in the better part of a hundred gold to get Feudalism in exchange for it from the Zulus and 320 gold to get Republic from Germany. Now I get to try fighting America as a Republic; I hope the war goes quickly.

[BigDork]

Hi everybody....

Defeat!!! My first game on Monarch ever had ended in the fall of the Spanish civilization.

I had managed to pop 2 warriors from goodie huts so I was using them with the 2 I'd also made to explore. Well I had a conscript and a regular warrior down near Babylon when I saw a spearman and a settler headed out. I figured 2 on 1 so I went for it. No luck. Didn't even scratch the spearman. So on their turn outta the blackness comes a warrior headed right for my capitol. I quickly built a warrior to defend. And he dies!!! The RNG was not working for me at all.

So now I've lost Madrid and have 1 city left to the west next to the game or cattle or whatever. Well I refuse to beg for peace. I had lost my capitol and I was either gonna take it back or go down in flames. With my other regular warrior explorer I attack a wondering Bab warrior. Yep, he dies. And now the Babs have a veteran warrior. So with my last warrior, a conscript I rush him towards Madrid from the mountains to the north. Also I'd just finished a barracks and was starting my first Archer. I think the barracks may have been a bad idea. I probably should have used those shields to get out several units first and then build the barracks. Anyway, I knew the conscript was gonna die at Madrid but I had to try. Then it was over. 1 warrior against my 1 archer. I didn't manage to kill a single Bab unit. Oh well.

I have a screenshot but my trial of Photoshop ran out and Adobe's website is having problems right now. Does anyone know another program like Photoshop I can download? Then you can see my crushing defeat in all of 9 minutes.

BigD

[Dominae]

Oh no!

For your own sake, BigD, I hope no finds a replacement for Photoshop for you!

You must, of course, try again.

In my experience (2 games), the Spanish are pretty bad at Archer rushes. Just a thought.


Dominae

[BigDork]

Dom...

What's really great is going into this I decided to play a relativly peaceful game. My last AU mods where far too bloody and I decided to give it a different angle. But the opertunity was there and I couldn't pass it up. So now I have a decision, give Spain another try or go for the Aztecs and punish all who oppose me. Decisions, decisions, decisions...

BigD

[nbarclay]

I'm up to 520 AD now.

My war with America was a disaster. No sooner did I attack America than a Japanese spearman escorting a settler picked off one of my undefended Zulu cities in violation of a ROP agreement. So my forces found themselves trapped far behind the lines. Worse, Japan had Samurai and I didn't have Chivalry yet.

I captured Philadelphia, St. Louis, Detroit, Washington, and the remote city of Chicago in the first couple turns of the war. I quickly handed Philadelphia over to the Mongols so Japan couldn't capture it and move through quickly (at least without declaring war on my other main rival), and, not long after, handed Washington over to the Zulus (thereby teleporting my largest concentration of forces to my capital). St. Louis also went to the Zulus not long after, and as the Japanese advanced, I also handed Tugela along the Japanese border back to the Zulus and gave them the major ivory center of Leipzig and the former Mongol city of Choyr. Detroit held only because Japan was reluctant to challenge the three-swordsman army defending the city. And I lost over a third of my mobile forces during the conflict.

But the war did accomplish its primary purpose: it gave me a leader to rush Leonardo's Workshop. I'm too late to make much use of the Workshop against my main rivals in the knight era, but when the cavalry era comes, that will change.

Tech-wise, I just traded Invention for Monotheism and sold it for significant quantities of Mongolian and Japanese gold. The Mongols are ahead of me only by Chivalry, while Japan also has Theology (and possibly something beyond). Japan is also in its golden age; I just hope the Mongols don't decide to pull themselves into their GA by attacking me too. I'm well on my way to researching Gunpowder, and as much as I hate to do it, I'll need to trade it to stay in the tech race.

Nathan

[badams52]

Originally posted by nbarclay
This game is completely backward from how I normally play, focusing so heavily on the military and so little on economics. But it's been interesting.

I wonder if this isn't the effect of a huge map. More cities to conquer = longer wars = less peace = less focus on economics.

I know for me, when I go to war, I usually have a set goal in mind what I want out of it which is usually most if not all of the rival civs cities. If my rival has more cities, my war lasts longer. WW doesn't usually stop me either. What?? My citizens are tired of war!?! Well then, let's see how they like Monarchy instead!

That just seems wrong in so many ways...

[BigDork]

Hi everybody...

Well I'm giving it another go. I decided to stay the Spanish. I thought about going militaristic and punishing everyone but decided against it. My lost 2 AU's were far too bloody.

Well I wussed out and stayed at Regent. I've decided that one more game at that level will probably do me good. I still have some to learn before I move up. Besides this is my first huge map game. I've done a few large maps but never a huge.

I've started out fairly well. I settled to the south first to block the Babs from getting too much territory. I managed to explore a lot of land with my warriors popping many a hut. Like last game I had an oppertunity to take out a Bab settler. But this time it was guarded by a warrior and I took them out. I fought a quick war and went for peace.

Well it's been a while since that war. The Babys keep trying to march settlers through my territory and I'm boxing them in with my units. I'm not quite ready to fight a war with them just yet. But soon.

The friggin' Mongols decided to declare war on me. The wanted contact the Babylon and I wasn't about to give in to their threats. I figured that since they were on the other side of the continent that it wasn't a big deal. Well then the went and got the Germans involved and now I have a little problem. Luckily I have a city at the choke-point and it's pretty heavily fortified. I had a small problem with a barbarian uprising and lost 2 settler to them. After that I rushed a few spearmen and horsies there to fight them off. I'm ready to teach the Germans a little leason I think. I also think I'm gonna finish off the Babys really quick. They only have a few cities and I have a bunch of horsemen ready to rush over the boarder.

And then it'll be back to the building phase. I plan on focusing on building up with small periods of war. Eventually I'm gonna clear off my continent and then focus either on culture or diplomatic victory. If all else fails I'll launch a space ship but I've done that the last 2 AU games. Also I've never won using UN and think I may just give it a try. And without bribing everyone the turn before too.

Grr....the damn Koreans(no offense to real Koreans out there) They got the Great Library 1 turn before me. I hate them. Hate them, hate them, hate them. I plan on nuking them someday. "You remember 2000 years ago when you got the GL? Well, here's your payback." Yeah, that'd be great. Oh well, more later...

BigD