Unofficial April Tourney game

[nbarclay]

Originally posted by BillChin
Combined Arms Conquest, formerly Horsemen Conquest
I suggest the following ratio of attacking units:
10% spearmen
20% horsemen
50% swordsmen
10% settlers
10% catapults

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I might note that the "10% settlers" seems to assume at least partly a "raze" strategy rather than a "capture and hold" strategy. Personally, I prefer to avoid the investment in settlers if it is practical to do so. (The "raze or keep" quesiton has already been discussed fairly extensively in other threads, for those who are interested.) Of course I also prefer not to attack unless I'm planning to take out my enemy's entire core empire before making peace with whatever remote outposts, if any, he might have left.

Also, do you have any particular reason for mixing horsemen in with swordsmen and catapults like that? So far, about the only times I've ever mixed swordsmen and horsemen have been when I sent swordsmen in my initial waves and then switched over to horsemen because they could get to the front lines more quickly. I'm curious about what kind of battle plan you use that calls for this type of mixtue.

Nathan

[Giovanni August]

Originally posted by nbarclay
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IAlso, do you have any particular reason for mixing horsemen in with swordsmen and catapults like that? So far, about the only times I've ever mixed swordsmen and horsemen have been when I sent swordsmen in my initial waves and then switched over to horsemen because they could get to the front lines more quickly. I'm curious about what kind of battle plan you use that calls for this type of mixtue.

Nathan

When I switched to Emperor level i founded ancient wars pretty impossible. I asked for strategic help and they told me to mix my Legions with Catapults and Horseman.

Here is the thread, if you want more info

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=44722

Saluti

[BillChin]

Originally posted by nbarclay
Also, do you have any particular reason for mixing horsemen in with swordsmen and catapults like that? So far, about the only times I've ever mixed swordsmen and horsemen have been when I sent swordsmen in my initial waves and then switched over to horsemen because they could get to the front lines more quickly. I'm curious about what kind of battle plan you use that calls for this type of mixtue.

Nathan

You already cited one reason to bring Horsemen, speed to the front. For the strategy outlined, a 10 A. D. attack, cities are spread out. An enemy civ may have ten or more cities by that point in the game, so speed is sometimes very useful. The enemy may launch a stack into my territory. A pure force of swordsmen can not respond quickly. Horsemen are also good for finishing off enemy horsemen, scouting ahead, terrorizing workers, pillaging key resources deep in enemy territory and attacking lightly defended cities in the interior. Horsemen also upgrade to Knights for the next war. A pure force of swordsmen is often one war and done because they can not upgrade.

With the old 1.16f fast retreat rules, I preferred mostly Horsemen with a few swordsmen. With the new rules it is mostly Swordsmen with a few Horsemen.

Catapults help keep casualties down, especially when facing Pikemen, Hoplites or Legionaires.

As for settlers, sometimes it is very useful to plop down a city for troops to heal, when taking another city is not an option and retreat is long and dangerous. At this time window, 10 A. D., two settlers is nothing for a well built empire and can help relieve overcrowding in certain cities.

Then of course there is razing. Razing is more likely on higher difficulties where the enemy culture may be overwhelming, and where total conquest is a not an easy task. On Emperor level, a player may be five or six techs behind, and face a superior army when the war is launched. On any difficulty, a few bad combat rolls can cause the offensive to sputter, and having a city secure from culture flips is a nice security blanket.

[BillChin]

Knight Blitz

This is the last in my series of opening strategies. Again, this is a general strategy tip and may or may not be a good fit for the April game.

Knight Blitz is perhaps the most powerful opening strategy when executed successful. Attack window is 300 A. D. to 700 A. D. Experienced players may be able to attack earlier with better results. Knight Blitz is an excellent strategy for the first war on large or huge maps. It is more likely to be the second, third or fourth war on standard size and small maps.

The basic strategy is to build a modest empire, perhaps a 10 cities, perhaps 20 depending on the amount of open land. The key resources are horses and iron (for Knights). Tiles that yield a lot of gold (gold, gems, rivers) are also desirable, as gold and research are important to this strategy.

The goal is to reach Chivalry with about 20 horsemen units and 2000 gold, then upgrade the Horsemen into Knights. 12 horsemen and 1000 gold are adequate, but for obvious reasons 20+ is a lot more effective. There are many ways to get there. Novice players may have to practice for several games to get the lead up in place.

This strategy is more difficult to pull off than Swordmen Conquest. The building phase is longer, and a lot more can go wrong before a player is ready for war. One road is to go for the Great Library and then turn off research to save gold. A more sophisticated strategy is to buy all techs up to Chivalry then rush research it when it becomes available. It is not important to be the first player to Chivalry. Enemy civs may field two or three Knights if they reach Chivarly first, but with 20+ attacking Knights the enemy has little chance.

With this strategy, a government switch may or may not be appropiate before war is launched. Switching governments is often a key point in the game. As a rule of thumb, Republic requires marketplaces in the core cities and three or more luxuries. Monarchy is a good wartime government. Remaining in Despotism has the advantage of four units supported per town and pop rushing.

With 20+ Knights and some supporting units, a player has enough force to conquer several civs, sometimes enough to conquer the world. Knights move fast, hit hard, and defend well. It is best to keep the Knights in large stacks instead of spreading them out. It is best to take out one civ at a time unless a player has overwhelming superiority.

A variant of this strategy is to use archers and longbows. This is not as strong, but it is an effective strategy for maps where there is no iron or no horses. Longbowmen move slowly and defend poorly, but have the same attack rating as Knights.

Enjoy.

[nbarclay]

Governments and Golden Ages

In the spirit of BillChin's posts, this is general information that may or may not prove useful for your particular situation in the April tourney.

One of the potential down sides to playing a race such as the Zulu with an early-game UU is that they tend to get their golden ages very early. One thing I don't like about that is that in despotism, a tile with a base production of two (e.g. plains with mine or grassland with shield with mine) still only has a production of two during the golden age. Thus, for some number of tiles, the golden age does not yield the production benefit it normally would. (Another consideration regarding early golden ages is that regular grassland you're using but haven't gotten around to mining yet yields no production, and thus no production bonus.)

If only a small percentage of tiles are affected, that may not particularly matter. And an early golden age can be useful in attacking an opponent whose golden age will only come later (if he lives long enough) or in defending against an opponent who is in his own golden age. On the other hand, if a significant percentage of your tiles will not receive increased production in a golden age under Despotism, it may be worth trying to get a different form of government early and hold off the golden age until you do.

Nathan

[BillChin]

Here is a summary of all the tips that I have posted on this thread (there is another one from Nathan, thanks).

0) Dense build of three core cities. Initial build queue: 3 warriors, settler, 3 more warriors, 2nd settler. Plant settlers very close to capital. Connect all with roads. Works better the worse the terrain. Applies to all starts with the possible exception of Warrior Gambit. For novice players, I suggest planting the settlers very close to the capital, one square away on the diagonal or two away on the straight. This start almost guarantees that a player survives the first age on Emperor difficulty and below. With the number of early losses already posted on the spoiler thread, this is a good way to go for players that have not started the game.

1) Warrior Gambit. Send the first two warriors together looking for an enemy. Attack. Capturing a settler is good. Storming their capital is better. Works best on Monarch difficulty and below. Odds for two warriors vs. one are about 70%. The percentage is more like 30% if there are spearman defending. A player is usually better of waiting for archers or better is there are spearmen. If there are hoplites, try something else. Warrior Gambit is not recommended for novices, because it often means disaster if the Gambit fails and there is a 30% chance of failure.

2) Swordsmen Conquest. Research Bronze then Iron. Build 4 to 6 cities. Claim iron with the fourth or fifth city. Build a stack of ten units to attack, mostly swordsmen. Attack nearest enemy. This is an excellent strategy for novice players because the odds of success are above 99% with a stack of swordsmen and the build out phase is short. If no iron, use archers (and capture iron if possible). Attack window 900 B. C. to 500 B. C.

3) Combined Arms Conquest, formerly Horsemen Conquest. Techs required include Iron Working, Horseback Riding, Mathematics. Build 8 to 15 cities. Build an offensive force of 20 units. Choose one enemy. Bribe the others. Attack in force. Crush the enemy. Attack window 300 B. C. to 200 A. D.

4) Knight Blitz. Tech required Chivalry. Resources needed Iron and Horses. Goal is to get 20+ Horsemen and 2000 gold. Upgrade Horsemen to Knights, conquer the world (hopefully ). Time window is 300 A. D. to 700 A. D. There are many roads to Chivalry. Novice players may have to practice for several games before he/she can execute the build up phase. Knight Blitz is an excellent strategy for large and huge maps. Also good for a second, third or fourth war on standard size and smaller maps. An effective variant is to build Archers and upgrade to Longbowmen for maps with no iron, no horses.

Enjoy.

[Fossil]

Just an FYI, BillChin

The accessory "Paint" program with Win '98 (and above) can save in jpeg format.

Just print-screen, open the Paint program, edit/paste.

You can clip the image, or otherwise edit as desired. Adding text on the image is one possiblity.

File/Save, and select "save as type" - jpeg

There you go!

[BillChin]

People still playing the April game may finish the game with 1.17f, or download the new patch, 1.21f and then complete the game. Overall, the rule changes look like they will have relatively little effect on the scoring and play balance on this particular map.

As of this writing there are 61 downloads, 4 submitted games. If you ever wanted a top ten finish, that looks like a virtual lock if you submit a game, even a losing game.

The spoilers and results thread is:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=46274

Thanks.

[punkbass2000]

"If you ever wanted a top ten finish, that looks like a virtual lock if you submit a game, even a losing game."

Yay!