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Hi everybody,
Here we are. I finished editing and cutting/pasting. Some chapters are really excellent, some a bit short (look for the last one).
Have a pleasant reading and don't forget that nothing is 'final'. Your comments are always welcomed, even this late.
To everybody who helped me in this (I should say you did it and I helped you!),
Settings:
Playing on a huge map usually means:
- The next civ is at least 20 tiles away,
- Exploring and contacts with other civs take much longer. You will probably contact some civs only during the Middle Ages (after Navigation).
- All Empires will have 30+ cities (except on a small isolated continent),
- The AI will fill any empty terrain anyway.
You can be picky: take your time to choose the best spot and space your cities as far apart as possible. You can be assured that there is plenty of space enough and that nobody will attack you for the next 40-50 turns (unless…).
Specificities:
Actually, the map size makes not the difference in game play. It's the number of civs that makes games on huge maps different. Good diplomacy is much more important. You don't want 10 or more AI civs to gang up against you. The likelihood to get good resource or luxury deals also sinks drastically, because the landmasses are bigger and it's harder to gain a monopoly.
The biggest difference between a 16-civ huge map and an 8-civ standard one is that corruption is much less of an issue. Your civ is roughly the same size in absolute terms unless and until you start conquering other civs, but the corruption rates make allowance for building a significantly bigger civ. Of course, AIs also benefit from the lower corruption, which can result in AI armies' tending to be significantly bigger relative to the size of the civs than on standard maps.
In general, the lower corruption rates may tend to make earlier GAs more profitable on huge maps. On a standard map, waste and corruption eat away a lot of benefit from a despotic GA and a pretty good chunk from an early Monarchy or Republic GA if there aren't lots of courthouses in place yet (of course, the flip side is that a GA can help build courthouses0. But with waste and corruption lower in the early game, the degree to which those factors undercut the GA's value would tend to be lower.
Best civs to play:
On huge maps (maybe except archipelagos, but they have their own rules anyway), Commercial is definitely an awesome trait. You can settle/conquer gigantic empires and suffer remarkable less corruption than the others. Expansionist is also a very useful trait, along with Industrious. The former is the better, the larger your landmass is and the less civs are on it. The latter is the better, the younger the map is (in terms of 3,4,5 billions years). This puts Civs like France, Carthage and England ahead. These civs are completely missing in the below analysis.
Militaristic is a mediocre trait on huge maps, especially when the map is undercrowded (less than, say, 12 civs). This vastly increases the distance between the different theatres of warfare and makes the usage of troops less efficient.
Religious and Scientific are still good traits, but hardly reach the importance of the top 3. Scientific is additionally hampered by the presence of many civs. This means increased research cooperation and tech whoring, which leads to a general devaluation of techs as a whole. There's just too many ways to keep up even without or with low research.
The French are a great early wonder machine – not only can you begin the Pyramids right away if you choose, but with Masonry as a starting tech, you have immediate access to a palace pre-build.
China, A+ Arguably the best civ in the game for a huge map. We all know "the virtues of being industrious," and for those of you who don't know the virtues of amassing 12+ riders to annex other civs as soon as you get Chivalry, you should try it once. These riders can be unstoppable. They trigger the GA at just the right time (to get Sun Tzu's, Sistine, Leo's, JS Bachs... hereafter referred to as the "Big 4"). During your GA, build the Big 4 and whatever else you need, and more riders. With their 3 movement rate, they'll put you in a position to double or triple the size of your empire. Your industrious workers will handle the rest. By the time your GA ends, you ought to be unstoppable!
One exception: if you are stuck on an island, unless you want a challenge, quit and start again! Here your riders will not help you much.
Ottomans, A After China, probably another favourite, and for the same reason. They are industrious, with the added benefit of scientific, which can give your early REXing a boost when you slay your citizens building libraries to keep your culture up to par. Unfortunately, their UU cannot come at the same time as the Chinese riders, but c'est la vie... they still completely kick ass if you have wars to wage by the industrial era... and the chances are, unless you really cleaned up with your knights, you do!
Iroquois, A- It's always a risk playing as an expansionist Civ, but assuming you start on the biggest continent, your Mounted Warriors can trigger you a GA at a great time (late ancient/early med. age) and do a lot of conquering to put you in a good position to dominate in the middle ages.
Don't miss your window of opportunity with the MWs! Use them when you're about to build, say, the HG, or the GL, and expand, expand, expand. When feudalism comes into play, the MWs loose a lot of oomph (although you can use them up until Nationalism).
Mongols, B This really depends on your location, and your early scouting. It's a real bummer not having cheaper temples or libraries, but if you can secure your early position, the Keshik is a good unit to conquer with, trigger your GA and acquire the big 4.
Greeks, B+ Any civ with the commercial trait stands to profit on a huge map. Frankly, any civ without the commercial traits won't do as well as one with it on a huge map. After a certain point, conquest is no longer that profitable (except to acquire resources or wonders, obviously) unless you can keep corruption down.
The Greeks can do that - and they can defend themselves quite well in the ancient age, without irritating upgrading until Gunpowder.
If the clever player can trigger an attack on his/herself as the medieval age is beginning, the Greeks can be in a position to truly dominate.
Of course, the destiny of any Mediterranean power depends upon how well the Carthaginians are doing. THE CARTHAGINIANS MUST BE CHECKED AT ALL COSTS!!! On a huge map, a Carthage that isn't crippled is just too powerful - and aggressive - to deal with!
Romans, C Other players might disagree, but the Romans are one of the worst choices for a huge map. Sure, if you rock early on, later in the game you can build a truly massive empire. But rocking early on could be difficult. The Carthaginians alone are bad enough, but your Legionaries aren't going to do much damage against NMs -OR- Hoplites. Your best bet is to cripple EARLY... destroy Utica, Elephantine, etc ... REX like crazy, and get into a war during the early medieval era. At this point, use 1 Legionary to trigger your GA, and besides that, forget the damn things!
If you can overcome the early hurdle, and "box in" your potentially well-defended neighbours, then you can move on in a meaningful way.
Spanish, B Also a tough civ to get started as, though not as hard as the Romans. Surrounded by generally 3 expansionists, and potentially more, the Spanish are likely to fall behind in the tech race unless they send out plenty of warriors, get good terrain and do a lot of trading. That, and the lack of a good UU to trigger a GA, hold the Spanish back somewhat. Other than that, however, a great civ to play with. The commercial trait allows for a great empire, and the religious trait makes it easy to quickly subdue conquered cities.
Vikings, C- Unless you're a master technician, skip the Vikings. Sure, you can get a whole continent to yourself after wiping out the opposition, but then you'll be left behind in the science race, likely. On a large continent, you better be ready to conquer. Over REXing will leave you exposed to numerous enemies, and if you're near the Celts (and they have iron), forget it!
Even if you're crafty enough to come up from behind and conquer wonders that your more-likely-than-not more-advanced-than-you neighbours have built with horsemen or swordsmen, you'll most likely achieve only a slight edge. The Berserker comes too late to trigger a GA in time to get the big 4, and even then, as awesome as it is, you can only fit 2 in a galley! The expansionist trait can rock, but then again, with the English and Russians around most of the time, it can also prove a waste.
Diplomacy
Diplomacy is crucial. You must think long term on a huge map. Build those relationships. Be honourable, never actively make them hate you. Sooner or later you will have something they don't have and they will slowly become annoyed.
You should spend a lot of time on diplomacy. Try to trade something at least every other turn with almost every civ. It is a chore but it lets you notice trends in AI behaviour and attitude. You should initiate the formation of alliances with groups of civs that for obvious reasons should be allied. Geography dictates a lot of your choices. Also choose the alliance members based on what resources they control and on the natural affinities of the civs involved, (referring to ethnic affinity). If one or more civs are becoming a problem you have the mostly sure way of controlling the situation, wars by proxy. They are tool of choice for keeping the AI occupied while you prepare your own offensive.
The thing that you should try is to plan an outcome early. Start the diplomatic efforts early. Have a goal in mind when dealing with any other civ (about 100 to 300 turns into the future). Everything you do should be geared toward the decided upon goal for that civ. Whether that goal is to use that enemy civ as a tool to keep a resource out of some other civs hands, or to destroy that civ completely. Don't just make plans for yourself, plan what you want to accomplish with the other civs as well. Bend them to your will. It can be done. In fact, it’s the description of another aspect of the process of gaining Ultimate Power.
Espionage is your friend. You have lots of opponents. You must find out what they are up to. Plants spies, keep trying. Get a spy in every opponent’s capital.
Information is power. If at all possible, establish embassies with rival civs as soon as practicable – not only does it give you a view of their minimap locations, it also enables: (1) knowledge of capitol city productivity possibilities (if you see 5 cows on grassland, you know you're never going to outrace that particular city to a wonder without a substantial tech lead); (2) specific city investigation; and (3) diplomatic agreements and alliances.
Diplomacy (in the sense of relations / attitude, etc. leading to a UN vote) is more challenging, if only because you’ve got to keep your eye on XX civs instead of X civs.
Here we are. I finished editing and cutting/pasting. Some chapters are really excellent, some a bit short (look for the last one).
Have a pleasant reading and don't forget that nothing is 'final'. Your comments are always welcomed, even this late.
To everybody who helped me in this (I should say you did it and I helped you!),
Settings:
Playing on a huge map usually means:
- The next civ is at least 20 tiles away,
- Exploring and contacts with other civs take much longer. You will probably contact some civs only during the Middle Ages (after Navigation).
- All Empires will have 30+ cities (except on a small isolated continent),
- The AI will fill any empty terrain anyway.
You can be picky: take your time to choose the best spot and space your cities as far apart as possible. You can be assured that there is plenty of space enough and that nobody will attack you for the next 40-50 turns (unless…).
Specificities:
Actually, the map size makes not the difference in game play. It's the number of civs that makes games on huge maps different. Good diplomacy is much more important. You don't want 10 or more AI civs to gang up against you. The likelihood to get good resource or luxury deals also sinks drastically, because the landmasses are bigger and it's harder to gain a monopoly.
The biggest difference between a 16-civ huge map and an 8-civ standard one is that corruption is much less of an issue. Your civ is roughly the same size in absolute terms unless and until you start conquering other civs, but the corruption rates make allowance for building a significantly bigger civ. Of course, AIs also benefit from the lower corruption, which can result in AI armies' tending to be significantly bigger relative to the size of the civs than on standard maps.
In general, the lower corruption rates may tend to make earlier GAs more profitable on huge maps. On a standard map, waste and corruption eat away a lot of benefit from a despotic GA and a pretty good chunk from an early Monarchy or Republic GA if there aren't lots of courthouses in place yet (of course, the flip side is that a GA can help build courthouses0. But with waste and corruption lower in the early game, the degree to which those factors undercut the GA's value would tend to be lower.
Best civs to play:
On huge maps (maybe except archipelagos, but they have their own rules anyway), Commercial is definitely an awesome trait. You can settle/conquer gigantic empires and suffer remarkable less corruption than the others. Expansionist is also a very useful trait, along with Industrious. The former is the better, the larger your landmass is and the less civs are on it. The latter is the better, the younger the map is (in terms of 3,4,5 billions years). This puts Civs like France, Carthage and England ahead. These civs are completely missing in the below analysis.
Militaristic is a mediocre trait on huge maps, especially when the map is undercrowded (less than, say, 12 civs). This vastly increases the distance between the different theatres of warfare and makes the usage of troops less efficient.
Religious and Scientific are still good traits, but hardly reach the importance of the top 3. Scientific is additionally hampered by the presence of many civs. This means increased research cooperation and tech whoring, which leads to a general devaluation of techs as a whole. There's just too many ways to keep up even without or with low research.
The French are a great early wonder machine – not only can you begin the Pyramids right away if you choose, but with Masonry as a starting tech, you have immediate access to a palace pre-build.
China, A+ Arguably the best civ in the game for a huge map. We all know "the virtues of being industrious," and for those of you who don't know the virtues of amassing 12+ riders to annex other civs as soon as you get Chivalry, you should try it once. These riders can be unstoppable. They trigger the GA at just the right time (to get Sun Tzu's, Sistine, Leo's, JS Bachs... hereafter referred to as the "Big 4"). During your GA, build the Big 4 and whatever else you need, and more riders. With their 3 movement rate, they'll put you in a position to double or triple the size of your empire. Your industrious workers will handle the rest. By the time your GA ends, you ought to be unstoppable!
One exception: if you are stuck on an island, unless you want a challenge, quit and start again! Here your riders will not help you much.
Ottomans, A After China, probably another favourite, and for the same reason. They are industrious, with the added benefit of scientific, which can give your early REXing a boost when you slay your citizens building libraries to keep your culture up to par. Unfortunately, their UU cannot come at the same time as the Chinese riders, but c'est la vie... they still completely kick ass if you have wars to wage by the industrial era... and the chances are, unless you really cleaned up with your knights, you do!
Iroquois, A- It's always a risk playing as an expansionist Civ, but assuming you start on the biggest continent, your Mounted Warriors can trigger you a GA at a great time (late ancient/early med. age) and do a lot of conquering to put you in a good position to dominate in the middle ages.
Don't miss your window of opportunity with the MWs! Use them when you're about to build, say, the HG, or the GL, and expand, expand, expand. When feudalism comes into play, the MWs loose a lot of oomph (although you can use them up until Nationalism).
Mongols, B This really depends on your location, and your early scouting. It's a real bummer not having cheaper temples or libraries, but if you can secure your early position, the Keshik is a good unit to conquer with, trigger your GA and acquire the big 4.
Greeks, B+ Any civ with the commercial trait stands to profit on a huge map. Frankly, any civ without the commercial traits won't do as well as one with it on a huge map. After a certain point, conquest is no longer that profitable (except to acquire resources or wonders, obviously) unless you can keep corruption down.
The Greeks can do that - and they can defend themselves quite well in the ancient age, without irritating upgrading until Gunpowder.
If the clever player can trigger an attack on his/herself as the medieval age is beginning, the Greeks can be in a position to truly dominate.
Of course, the destiny of any Mediterranean power depends upon how well the Carthaginians are doing. THE CARTHAGINIANS MUST BE CHECKED AT ALL COSTS!!! On a huge map, a Carthage that isn't crippled is just too powerful - and aggressive - to deal with!
Romans, C Other players might disagree, but the Romans are one of the worst choices for a huge map. Sure, if you rock early on, later in the game you can build a truly massive empire. But rocking early on could be difficult. The Carthaginians alone are bad enough, but your Legionaries aren't going to do much damage against NMs -OR- Hoplites. Your best bet is to cripple EARLY... destroy Utica, Elephantine, etc ... REX like crazy, and get into a war during the early medieval era. At this point, use 1 Legionary to trigger your GA, and besides that, forget the damn things!
If you can overcome the early hurdle, and "box in" your potentially well-defended neighbours, then you can move on in a meaningful way.
Spanish, B Also a tough civ to get started as, though not as hard as the Romans. Surrounded by generally 3 expansionists, and potentially more, the Spanish are likely to fall behind in the tech race unless they send out plenty of warriors, get good terrain and do a lot of trading. That, and the lack of a good UU to trigger a GA, hold the Spanish back somewhat. Other than that, however, a great civ to play with. The commercial trait allows for a great empire, and the religious trait makes it easy to quickly subdue conquered cities.
Vikings, C- Unless you're a master technician, skip the Vikings. Sure, you can get a whole continent to yourself after wiping out the opposition, but then you'll be left behind in the science race, likely. On a large continent, you better be ready to conquer. Over REXing will leave you exposed to numerous enemies, and if you're near the Celts (and they have iron), forget it!
Even if you're crafty enough to come up from behind and conquer wonders that your more-likely-than-not more-advanced-than-you neighbours have built with horsemen or swordsmen, you'll most likely achieve only a slight edge. The Berserker comes too late to trigger a GA in time to get the big 4, and even then, as awesome as it is, you can only fit 2 in a galley! The expansionist trait can rock, but then again, with the English and Russians around most of the time, it can also prove a waste.
Diplomacy
Diplomacy is crucial. You must think long term on a huge map. Build those relationships. Be honourable, never actively make them hate you. Sooner or later you will have something they don't have and they will slowly become annoyed.
You should spend a lot of time on diplomacy. Try to trade something at least every other turn with almost every civ. It is a chore but it lets you notice trends in AI behaviour and attitude. You should initiate the formation of alliances with groups of civs that for obvious reasons should be allied. Geography dictates a lot of your choices. Also choose the alliance members based on what resources they control and on the natural affinities of the civs involved, (referring to ethnic affinity). If one or more civs are becoming a problem you have the mostly sure way of controlling the situation, wars by proxy. They are tool of choice for keeping the AI occupied while you prepare your own offensive.
The thing that you should try is to plan an outcome early. Start the diplomatic efforts early. Have a goal in mind when dealing with any other civ (about 100 to 300 turns into the future). Everything you do should be geared toward the decided upon goal for that civ. Whether that goal is to use that enemy civ as a tool to keep a resource out of some other civs hands, or to destroy that civ completely. Don't just make plans for yourself, plan what you want to accomplish with the other civs as well. Bend them to your will. It can be done. In fact, it’s the description of another aspect of the process of gaining Ultimate Power.
Espionage is your friend. You have lots of opponents. You must find out what they are up to. Plants spies, keep trying. Get a spy in every opponent’s capital.
Information is power. If at all possible, establish embassies with rival civs as soon as practicable – not only does it give you a view of their minimap locations, it also enables: (1) knowledge of capitol city productivity possibilities (if you see 5 cows on grassland, you know you're never going to outrace that particular city to a wonder without a substantial tech lead); (2) specific city investigation; and (3) diplomatic agreements and alliances.
Diplomacy (in the sense of relations / attitude, etc. leading to a UN vote) is more challenging, if only because you’ve got to keep your eye on XX civs instead of X civs.
).
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