Alamo Testing Thread

[Velociryx]

Hmmm....that's a good point on the leader generation....my gut reaction then, would be to stuff the leader in Washington, fortified with the rest of the reserve troops.

Now the player has an interesting dilemma. You can create a second army and balance out the fronts on turn two (army in position on one front on turn one), or, if navy plays a big role in your strategy (and I can envision that it will), you might wanna rush Magellen's on turn one to keep the AI from getting it, or, build the costliest ship component to jumpstart you on your way to the space race.

That's a truly tough call, though I think that, given the strategy I outlined for myself, I'd opt for the second army...shoot, that'd make for ironclad defense on two tiles, effectively limiting me to having to worry only about two tiles of defense!

Hmmm...now I can't wait to get home! LOL
-=Vel=-

[DeepO]

Vel, fine about the GL, but keep it in the city set to Magellan, or people will automatically go for the army. Washington has the academy, and is building an army already, at that point in time 7 turns away. It's what psychologists(sp?) call priming: when you're asked to say 10 times rapidly after each other "green", quickly followed by the question: "what is the colour of milk?" you can be sure that the majority will say "green".

The same with the army thing: no-one will jump to rush Magellan, but in a city that needs a long time to finish one army, people will go for it without really thinking. There is no need to fortify him, everyone will use him in the first turn

This is just perfecting things, of course. Now, where are my marines

DeepO

[Velociryx]

Marines?! What?! You want me to make this something approaching a fair fight? *G*

Seriously, I hadn't thought about giving the human player any marines, but for spice, I suppose we could add in 3-4....keep the number small so they'd not materially impact the outcome of the opening turns, but it couldn't hurt....besides, when the ai has some 250+ marines collectively, what's 3-4 for the good ol' USA?

-=Vel=-

[DeepO]

euh... I think the joke didn't came around well... I wanted to see the AI marines of course, and how they were doing. But I've been thinking so long on them that they have become mine

Once we need to go to the island for the uranium, I might build a few marines of my own. There is one city there, taking it with marines would be cool, no? after all, if timed right you only need it for one turn if you bring along a worker (for a colony). I don't care if there is a stack of MAs right aside of it, who will take it back on the next turn. But I see no reason why we would need marines now...

DeepO

[Velociryx]

Ahhhh....I got you! Well, I might surprise you with an odd "bonus unit" tossed out here and there for the final release....might even put some extra f-15's on the carriers we've got to give them teeth (probably, these carriers will not be fully stocked, but I can maybe see adding a couple....cos I'm such a nice guy...LOL)

-=Vel=-

[DeepO]

yeah... I was thinking about that one too. those carriers with air superiority F-15s sure can be handy when our navy ventures out to close to the Chinese.

DeepO

[Arrian]

My, my, things appear to be rolling along here. You two are on fire.

Due to the fact that there is a unit named after me, I'll have to give this a shot when it's ready.

I've actually been messing around with the Romans (not my scenario idea, but a regular game) to see how the changes to commercial pan out. They're still not that great a civ, but they're solid now. I love the fact that I have an elite legionary unit named "Praetorian Guards." That little feature, which is mostly cosmetic, really added something to the game.

-Arrian

[DeepO]

Originally posted by Arrian
My, my, things appear to be rolling along here. You two are on fire.

You will be too once it is ready

Due to the fact that there is a unit named after me, I'll have to give this a shot when it's ready.

Not just any unit either... it could become one of the most strategical ones of the game...

DeepO

[phunny_pharmer]

DeepO, I'm not planning on winning by culture. Therefore, I just hope mobilization doesn't affect WW.

Today is Friday, which means that tomorrow is the weekend. Which, of course, means that I will play this game. Can't wait.

[Velociryx]

Total agreement, DeepO! I think it's right cool that Subs...a unit that really doesn't get a lot of play in most of my games, are playing such a pivotal role in America's survival in this one. They're the perfect "sniffer units"....great for leading the task force into dangerous waters...yeah, progress is a little slow, on account of them not moving quite as far, but Magellen's should help that!

That's the coolio thing about building scenarios with this or that "slant" to them....you can shine the spotlight on units that really don't get a whole lot of attention sometimes!

Anyway, I can hardly wait to hit the editor when I get home, make the last series of changes, and see what that gets us....I'm thinking that this'll be a pretty memorable game!

-=Vel=-

[DeepO]

Vel, also counting the hours, are you? Well, I'm having fun testing again I still have some proposed tweaks, one that I've mentioned several times before but haven't had any comment on from you (to the positive or negative): get some subs a little more out off the coast. Right now, they are about as far as the main forces, and don't really scout from turn one, except for the two attack subs in the inland sea. It could be a slight advantage given to the human...

I was going to keep my test report to a smaller size as usual, but I fear it is becoming a long post again... so much to tell about this game

DeepO

[Velociryx]

D'oh! Sorry 'bout that....yep...I'll tweak the subs and move them a bit further from the coast when I get to that stage! Only two hours left for me....

-=Vel=-

[Brinoch]

All right, the posts on the Alamo piqued my curiousity and I just couldn't sit by and let DeepO do all the work. Besides, I want a ship named after me, too.
So I played a couple of turns to see how it would turn out.

First off, I just moved the units in Washington, and I left all the other units in place. I wasn't sure if we could move them and once I started, well, I figured what the heck, this sounds interesting, so let's see how this works.

Russo-German offensive

So, the Russians took two forts, in a linear fashion, penetrating to the second tier. They captured my RA's, of course. They also generated a leader.

The Germans took three forts, generated a leader, and basically wiped most everything else out. I also sent all the reserves to the German front for good measure. They took two of the three tier one forts and one in tier two.

They both attacked in the air, and my valiant F-15's shot down plenty of jet fighters. However, their bombers regularly penetrated to bomb my rails and roads.

Frankly, neither one was *that* aggresive. They hit me with some of their forces, attacked my infrastructure and moved a lot of units around. If they give me time, I know I can hold the land fronts.

My Counter-Offensive

There was no way I could dislodge the Germans from the tier one forts, but I did (at high cost) dislodge them from the tier two. They captured my RA, but left them relatively unprotected and I was able to recapture them somewhat easily, and then I employed the RA to eradicate their roads. Granted, this will lose me another MI, but it may be worth the time.

My Navy in the Inner Sea smacked the Russians around and it seems I'll be able to consolidate this.

On the Russian front, I retook all the forts and was able to recapture *some* of my RA, which I brought back to the safety of my forts.

I spread my Navy out to intercept the Japanese and Chinese.

***
Some thoughts. Vel, it might be fun if you gave America some paratroopers. I'm giving some serious thought to nuking the front rank of Russian or German cities and trying to take them and either force a peace or raze the cities. And, if you can interdict forces and wreck havic behind the lines, well, that's just fun.

For Russia, it seems they move a lot of units to Moscow, and that might be a decent move to begin with.

Having some Marines would be nice for taking the Uranium or invading the Russians...

Knocking roads out along the borders is definitely, definitely required. It buys you time and bunches up your enemies...

DeepO, I tested the stealths in Russian and German airspace and all were shot down. All of them.

Some thoughts on war-weariness. I think, and I could be wrong here, that if you start the war, the effects are more pronounced on you. Is there some way to start the game at war without starting it? Maybe not, but just a thought.

Ummm... that's all I can think of now. More playing... er... testing.

[Arrian]

Brinoch's right about the war weariness thing. I have an idea, Vel:

at game start, place one unit from each "enemy" civ in American territory (hell, it can be a ship if you want). Call them up in diplomacy, and insult the hell out of them all be demanding their cities, tech, and the stars in the sky. Get them all "furious" and then demand they remove their units or declare war. With that type of numerical advantage, every one of them will declare war.

-Arrian

[Velociryx]

Hmmm...that's a good point....rather than using galleys, I could post warriors around washington and badger and insult (call them up and demand half their cities and all their gold or something...LOL), then tell them to get the flock out.

And in that case, I might have to rethink my strategy this evening about switching immediately to Republic....good thinkin' guys!

-=Vel=-