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Joining the Gang - An Emperor's Tale
I usually play at Monarch for a bit of a challenge or Regent for either a more 'chilled', or an experimental game, but tried Emperor once on a standard, continental map. They quickly overwhelmed me in land, cities, tech and military, and I had to hand over everything I earned to the bullies. I was the Iroquois starting near to the east coast with a juicy spice-cluster near my capital. Abe, to the north-west, was soon running around with 20-30 Swordies & Spearmen, with Shaka (ouch) to the South on the phone constantly extorting every last drop. The Babs lay South-West, and the Aztecs dominated the far South.
1. The Zulus get what comes around.
Getting maps from the others was difficult as I had nothing to bargain - only a small map and no chance of exploring without ROPs which I could't afford - having relatively little land. The rest were literally trampling over me and if I dared complain about their muddy boots upsetting our womenfolk it'd be game over. Obviously I had no chance of defeating such an enemy with my modest Mounted Warrior stack, tiny empire and build penalties. All I had was the advantage of a human General in combat, and the knowledge that there's nothing the Civ 3 AI's love more than ganging up on an rival. Given the relative beligerence of Abe, Hammy and Shaka, I could guess which AI would be the most unpopular with the others. (As I didn't have a border with Montezuma he was less hostile and got him to like me with a few voluntary 'protection' contributions.)
There was one other card that I wasn't used to finding in my hand - my spices were *unbelievably* valuable. You know when the AI insists that it would be a grave detriment to them to recieve only three luxuries, one resource, four techs, all your cash and credit in return for Incense? This is because the price of a luxury is not 'fixed' but dependant on civ size (total pop and/or no of cities, I guess). So, it actually works the other way round. Once my roads were hooked up, my spice-fields virtually closed the tech-gap for me and brought in more luxuries. Of course, I was running science at zero plus one scientist (rotated round my cities) and buying tech to just stay in the game, but I was so thrilled at getting the one-to-many ratio in my favour for once, that I'm keen to try a minimalist strat one day - based on getting what your puny land doesn't include by great trade deals. (So many games, so little time)
The next thrill was Abe & Shaka going to war. I had the best seat in the house, as they fought and died in huge numbers in my land while I built my infrastructure and heightened the MW stack. Abe was pushing forward - slowly and expensively, but it was more expensive for Shaka, and I started mustering my forces on the southern border, near that one-silk city I coveted since his damn settler 'plopped' it two turns before me. The America-Zulu war had moved out of sight and I couldn't send observers (no ROP, no scouts) but a fringe Zulu city changed hands a couple of times. Sensing that Shaka was running out of troops I called up Hammurabi and suggested that he might like to join the coalition against the Zulu terrorists, and naturally he was happy to oblige at a very reasonable price. I blitzkrieged the Zulu empire - the MW's faring excellently, even against the Impi defenders - and had soon ripped away over half the core. The Aztecs soon joined in on their own steam, and they and the Babs got a fringe city each. The Golden Age kept my armies well supplied, the coffers full and I even got first to a tech. No GL, but a couple of Wonders and a *river* in the Zulu capital.
The Iroq's have a culture advantage over the Zulu's, so with my cheap temples flipping wasn't a problem, and after regrouping, healing, resource-denying, and picking off the attrition-attacks, I was ready to finish them off. With no GL I had to build the FP the hard way - after building culture & happiness improvements to get a size 6 WLTKD, then build the FP.
2. The Babylonians make a foolish mistake.
Ever culture-bombed the Babs? I had no choice - it was self-defense - I mean, they plopped a city two squares from my iron on the border, so I had to build the city two squares from them. Well, obviously they weren't going to like it, so I was going to have to build culture like the clappers in that city to defend myself. After a long time I got the edge (Copernicus helped, thanks to the GA of the Zulu conquest) and eventually the bright lights of my culture were dazzling the enemy city. It was going to flip, I could feel it, and it had just built Newton's. So they attacked. Of course, my culture beacon was well defended against this expected eventuality, and I got Abe to join in as well (I was still on good terms with my former tormentor since I joined his fight against Shaka), and Monty of Mexico was keep to jump in too. We carved Hammy up, with me getting a good share of the spoils, and Abe spending a fortune of offensive units getting the well-defended Bab city which had gotten twitchy and caused the war. It flipped two turns later to me - thanks Abe, yer a good can-opener! It was as if Stalin, after Zhukov took Berlin at a great price, had to withdraw because the German survivors suddenly got heavily into Swing-Jazz and the Blues. Abe's efforts limited his sucesses elsewhere in that theatre, so I got the lion's share of the goodies. Once again, making the best of the AI's penchant for ganging up on anyone who looks like pickings.
3. Abe's revenge - and punishment
Lincoln stayed 'gracious' for centuries until he stabbed me in the back (MPP, ROP, several trade deals and all) with a stack of tanks against my one weak border city (the only one without four vet infantry - I was just getting to it with the upgrades) which he trashed. It was a toughie - our border was huge, but my columns of pillaging infantry (one or two vets plus three conscripts) headed unmolested on the high ground to their resources. Eventually the streams of their Infantry became trickles of rifleman and their city defenses weakened to enable my patient tanks and artillery to kill them off - a city at a time.
4. Space is the Place
So, after establishing full-spectrum dominance of my continent (still mates with the Aztecs), it was a space race against the more advanced Greeks on the other continent. I'd had enough major wars by now and fancied a vacation on Alpha Centauri but was still behind. Somehow, though, Alex's heart just wasn't in it, and he built half a spaceship and then got destracted by stealth and other frivolities which cost him the game.
It was far more of a challenge than Monarch - and more rewarding to finally chalk up the victory - but I got rather stressed out whilst under pressure at the start. I suppose regular Emp players enjoy seeing the AI run around with huge stacks while the human is still trying to build settlers, but it takes too long for me to play as I agonise over every move to survive. I'm a 80/20 builder/battler - I enjoy combat in Civ but it takes me forever to finish a game if I'm at war most of the time.
I usually play at Monarch for a bit of a challenge or Regent for either a more 'chilled', or an experimental game, but tried Emperor once on a standard, continental map. They quickly overwhelmed me in land, cities, tech and military, and I had to hand over everything I earned to the bullies. I was the Iroquois starting near to the east coast with a juicy spice-cluster near my capital. Abe, to the north-west, was soon running around with 20-30 Swordies & Spearmen, with Shaka (ouch) to the South on the phone constantly extorting every last drop. The Babs lay South-West, and the Aztecs dominated the far South.
1. The Zulus get what comes around.
Getting maps from the others was difficult as I had nothing to bargain - only a small map and no chance of exploring without ROPs which I could't afford - having relatively little land. The rest were literally trampling over me and if I dared complain about their muddy boots upsetting our womenfolk it'd be game over. Obviously I had no chance of defeating such an enemy with my modest Mounted Warrior stack, tiny empire and build penalties. All I had was the advantage of a human General in combat, and the knowledge that there's nothing the Civ 3 AI's love more than ganging up on an rival. Given the relative beligerence of Abe, Hammy and Shaka, I could guess which AI would be the most unpopular with the others. (As I didn't have a border with Montezuma he was less hostile and got him to like me with a few voluntary 'protection' contributions.)
There was one other card that I wasn't used to finding in my hand - my spices were *unbelievably* valuable. You know when the AI insists that it would be a grave detriment to them to recieve only three luxuries, one resource, four techs, all your cash and credit in return for Incense? This is because the price of a luxury is not 'fixed' but dependant on civ size (total pop and/or no of cities, I guess). So, it actually works the other way round. Once my roads were hooked up, my spice-fields virtually closed the tech-gap for me and brought in more luxuries. Of course, I was running science at zero plus one scientist (rotated round my cities) and buying tech to just stay in the game, but I was so thrilled at getting the one-to-many ratio in my favour for once, that I'm keen to try a minimalist strat one day - based on getting what your puny land doesn't include by great trade deals. (So many games, so little time)
The next thrill was Abe & Shaka going to war. I had the best seat in the house, as they fought and died in huge numbers in my land while I built my infrastructure and heightened the MW stack. Abe was pushing forward - slowly and expensively, but it was more expensive for Shaka, and I started mustering my forces on the southern border, near that one-silk city I coveted since his damn settler 'plopped' it two turns before me. The America-Zulu war had moved out of sight and I couldn't send observers (no ROP, no scouts) but a fringe Zulu city changed hands a couple of times. Sensing that Shaka was running out of troops I called up Hammurabi and suggested that he might like to join the coalition against the Zulu terrorists, and naturally he was happy to oblige at a very reasonable price. I blitzkrieged the Zulu empire - the MW's faring excellently, even against the Impi defenders - and had soon ripped away over half the core. The Aztecs soon joined in on their own steam, and they and the Babs got a fringe city each. The Golden Age kept my armies well supplied, the coffers full and I even got first to a tech. No GL, but a couple of Wonders and a *river* in the Zulu capital.
The Iroq's have a culture advantage over the Zulu's, so with my cheap temples flipping wasn't a problem, and after regrouping, healing, resource-denying, and picking off the attrition-attacks, I was ready to finish them off. With no GL I had to build the FP the hard way - after building culture & happiness improvements to get a size 6 WLTKD, then build the FP.
2. The Babylonians make a foolish mistake.
Ever culture-bombed the Babs? I had no choice - it was self-defense - I mean, they plopped a city two squares from my iron on the border, so I had to build the city two squares from them. Well, obviously they weren't going to like it, so I was going to have to build culture like the clappers in that city to defend myself. After a long time I got the edge (Copernicus helped, thanks to the GA of the Zulu conquest) and eventually the bright lights of my culture were dazzling the enemy city. It was going to flip, I could feel it, and it had just built Newton's. So they attacked. Of course, my culture beacon was well defended against this expected eventuality, and I got Abe to join in as well (I was still on good terms with my former tormentor since I joined his fight against Shaka), and Monty of Mexico was keep to jump in too. We carved Hammy up, with me getting a good share of the spoils, and Abe spending a fortune of offensive units getting the well-defended Bab city which had gotten twitchy and caused the war. It flipped two turns later to me - thanks Abe, yer a good can-opener! It was as if Stalin, after Zhukov took Berlin at a great price, had to withdraw because the German survivors suddenly got heavily into Swing-Jazz and the Blues. Abe's efforts limited his sucesses elsewhere in that theatre, so I got the lion's share of the goodies. Once again, making the best of the AI's penchant for ganging up on anyone who looks like pickings.
3. Abe's revenge - and punishment
Lincoln stayed 'gracious' for centuries until he stabbed me in the back (MPP, ROP, several trade deals and all) with a stack of tanks against my one weak border city (the only one without four vet infantry - I was just getting to it with the upgrades) which he trashed. It was a toughie - our border was huge, but my columns of pillaging infantry (one or two vets plus three conscripts) headed unmolested on the high ground to their resources. Eventually the streams of their Infantry became trickles of rifleman and their city defenses weakened to enable my patient tanks and artillery to kill them off - a city at a time.
4. Space is the Place
So, after establishing full-spectrum dominance of my continent (still mates with the Aztecs), it was a space race against the more advanced Greeks on the other continent. I'd had enough major wars by now and fancied a vacation on Alpha Centauri but was still behind. Somehow, though, Alex's heart just wasn't in it, and he built half a spaceship and then got destracted by stealth and other frivolities which cost him the game.
It was far more of a challenge than Monarch - and more rewarding to finally chalk up the victory - but I got rather stressed out whilst under pressure at the start. I suppose regular Emp players enjoy seeing the AI run around with huge stacks while the human is still trying to build settlers, but it takes too long for me to play as I agonise over every move to survive. I'm a 80/20 builder/battler - I enjoy combat in Civ but it takes me forever to finish a game if I'm at war most of the time.
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