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"Hammurabi cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision -- he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath:" 'The horror! The horror!'
_____________________________
The Babylonians and the Japanese knew that the Egyptians were a peaceful, cultural people. Throughout known history, they had only engaged in one war, but even that was a war supported by the world community when the evil Aztecs had threatened all.
(Little did they know that the Egyptians kept close a dark secret: The rape, pillage, and dastardly destruction of a Roman people, far in ancient history. The Egyptians, soldier and civilian alike, reveled in their ancient martial past, and held strange, arcane rituals celebrating the fall of Rome, and the ancient heroes Ramses and Cheops.)
Strangely, since the Egyptians had developed and sold the technology of Steel, they had gone incommunicado. No word for hundreds of years...
"Tokugawa, have you seen the reaaally big Destroyers that Cleo just positioned in all of Egypt's key straits and seas?"
"Those aren't Destroyers, Hammy, you idiot. Those are called Battleships... my scientists have been working on the concept for some time now," said the Japanese ruler.
"Well, aren't you worried that these Destroyers, or Battleships, WHATever, represent a threat to our sovereign nations?"
"No, not really. I'd keep an eye on those big bastards, but number one, Cleo's never gone to war except when we asked her to take on that psycho Monte-zoom up your a$$, and number two, I don't know about you, but my Infantry and Cavalry forces are strong enough to deal with anything she can dish out. I am a little worried that she's got 15 of the 18 Great Wonders, but we always knew she could build like crazy... it's too bad she picked up Leonardo's Workshop from Monty, but, hey, she deserved it."
"By the way, have you spoken with her recently?"
"No, it's been a while... she's probably busy building stuff. I really wouldn't worry."
"OK, Toke, I'll relax; you cover my back, and I've got yours... let's talk about who gets what part of China."
Many, many years past. Egyptian cities were truly well developed, and could support a balanced effort of building, researching, and increasing the Royal Treasury. Cleo refused any contact with any other ruler, for fear that even a hint of her rapidly developing technology would become known to the world. Her scientists developed Tanks, and she set her mind to building a huge force of them.
And yet still Egypt remained isolated.
Her scientists developed Flight and Rocketry, and her cities built Fighter Jets.
And yet still Egypt remained isolated.
Her scientists developed a vision of radically improved Tanks, called Modern Armor... they developed new materials, and Cleo gained the approval of the Egyptian people to spend practically the entire Royal Treasury on a one-time military splurge.
The first "communication" came in 1864-66 AD, when both the Japanese and the Babylonians were introduced to Modern Armor.
The Japanese were unprepared and devastated, as their forces had overextended in a bid to capture much of China.
Hammurabi thought his continent secure, as he had left as homeland security the Longstanding Longbowmen Reserve, over 50 strong... nothing on the planet could possible overcome his Infantry and ready reaction Reserve!
'The horror! The horror!'
____________________________________
Having failed miserably in the 2nd mini-tourney, I tried my hand at Nathan's June Tournament game. For those that haven;t played it, I don;t know all the settings, but here's what he wrote in description:
"Here's the set-up: Monarch setting, standard size map, archipelego with maximum water, other map settings random. (Don't worry, it didn't come out warm and wet. No barbarians, so the only thing you have to guard your cities against is other civs. (Also, there aren't any goodie huts, so don't waste your time looking for them.)"
SPOILER BELOW
You start in a pretty good spot, sharing a continent with Rome. Buh-bye Caesar, here's a pack of slavering Swordsmen... SPQR my a$$.
Got lucky with two GLs in the final stages of the massacre (BTW, thanks Arrian for the tip on "cleaning up your home continent messes before the rest of the world finds out what a psycho bastard you really are"), and build my FP and the Lighthouse.
So then I went builder / settler. A good break from the military messes I've gotten myself into lately. Saved my GA for later, too. Expanded like crazy, got a lock on various resources... I think at one point I had 4 out of 5 Horses!!
I built a force of 40-50 WCs for later upgrade, and didn;t really touch them until I had gotten Military Trad... who has that kind of money??!! 100 gps a pop!!! I scrambled to pay for the upgrades.
As time went on, the Aztec became the only serious competition. A surgical strike with Cavs and Rifleman took out their top 2 cities, also netting me Pyramids, Hanging Gardens, Leonardo, Bach, Sun Tzu, and furs!!
I build TOE and Smith's, which triggered my GA. I had it all... Ultimate Power (tm).
So I decided to experiment a little with the late game, rather than just a Cav / Tank domination win.
MY GOD, have you seen MAs in action??!!
And we thought Samurai cut through Spearmen like butter?? MAs are unbelievable, crazy strong, juggernauts.
24-16-3.
Just think about those stats for a second... knowing that the AI civs are slow to upgrade unless they gots lots o' dough.
Take along a few Arty just too wear down the top defenders, and NOTHING can handle these guys.
When Hammy threw a huge stack of Infantry, Rifleman, and Longbowmen (!) at me, I had too laugh. Bang bang bang... all elite, all the time, and I finally had 1, 2, 3 ARMIES. Can;t believe I played almost a whole game without them!! BTW, Do NOT put a lot of MAs in Armies, as you lose individual unit blitz. So, 2xMA Armies, and some 3xInfantry Armies. Voila, quick late game builds of Heroic Epic and the Academy, it only gets better.
I'm beelining for Robotics, just to see what kind of mayhem I can commit with RAs as well. I mistakenly researched Rocketry, thinking that the picture in the tech tree was of RAs (instead of SAMs). Jet Fighters, big whoop.
I don;t know how I'll score in the tournament, but boy am I having fun!!
Fun and games with MAs: otherwise known as late-game unstoppable evisceration.
Sidenote #1: I'm experimenting with just taking major cities. I am NOT bombarding them back into the stone age... if you can handle flipping, it seems bigger captured cities maintain many more of their buildings, including Marketplaces and Harbors, which are both obviously invaluable. Also, being 7 pop or higher is very useful for the counter-attack.
Sidenote #2: Related to some other threads, I think we are all in for a big surprise when it comes to MP. I staged two invasions that were more or less the same: show up out of nowhere and land on a Hill with 24 MAs, 8 Arty (should of used 16), and 4-8 Infantry. Actually the Aztec invasion was the same, but with very early usage of Cavs and Rifles. This is more or less unstoppable.
_____________________________
The Babylonians and the Japanese knew that the Egyptians were a peaceful, cultural people. Throughout known history, they had only engaged in one war, but even that was a war supported by the world community when the evil Aztecs had threatened all.
(Little did they know that the Egyptians kept close a dark secret: The rape, pillage, and dastardly destruction of a Roman people, far in ancient history. The Egyptians, soldier and civilian alike, reveled in their ancient martial past, and held strange, arcane rituals celebrating the fall of Rome, and the ancient heroes Ramses and Cheops.)
Strangely, since the Egyptians had developed and sold the technology of Steel, they had gone incommunicado. No word for hundreds of years...
"Tokugawa, have you seen the reaaally big Destroyers that Cleo just positioned in all of Egypt's key straits and seas?"
"Those aren't Destroyers, Hammy, you idiot. Those are called Battleships... my scientists have been working on the concept for some time now," said the Japanese ruler.
"Well, aren't you worried that these Destroyers, or Battleships, WHATever, represent a threat to our sovereign nations?"
"No, not really. I'd keep an eye on those big bastards, but number one, Cleo's never gone to war except when we asked her to take on that psycho Monte-zoom up your a$$, and number two, I don't know about you, but my Infantry and Cavalry forces are strong enough to deal with anything she can dish out. I am a little worried that she's got 15 of the 18 Great Wonders, but we always knew she could build like crazy... it's too bad she picked up Leonardo's Workshop from Monty, but, hey, she deserved it."
"By the way, have you spoken with her recently?"
"No, it's been a while... she's probably busy building stuff. I really wouldn't worry."
"OK, Toke, I'll relax; you cover my back, and I've got yours... let's talk about who gets what part of China."
Many, many years past. Egyptian cities were truly well developed, and could support a balanced effort of building, researching, and increasing the Royal Treasury. Cleo refused any contact with any other ruler, for fear that even a hint of her rapidly developing technology would become known to the world. Her scientists developed Tanks, and she set her mind to building a huge force of them.
And yet still Egypt remained isolated.
Her scientists developed Flight and Rocketry, and her cities built Fighter Jets.
And yet still Egypt remained isolated.
Her scientists developed a vision of radically improved Tanks, called Modern Armor... they developed new materials, and Cleo gained the approval of the Egyptian people to spend practically the entire Royal Treasury on a one-time military splurge.
The first "communication" came in 1864-66 AD, when both the Japanese and the Babylonians were introduced to Modern Armor.
The Japanese were unprepared and devastated, as their forces had overextended in a bid to capture much of China.
Hammurabi thought his continent secure, as he had left as homeland security the Longstanding Longbowmen Reserve, over 50 strong... nothing on the planet could possible overcome his Infantry and ready reaction Reserve!
'The horror! The horror!'
____________________________________
Having failed miserably in the 2nd mini-tourney, I tried my hand at Nathan's June Tournament game. For those that haven;t played it, I don;t know all the settings, but here's what he wrote in description:
"Here's the set-up: Monarch setting, standard size map, archipelego with maximum water, other map settings random. (Don't worry, it didn't come out warm and wet. No barbarians, so the only thing you have to guard your cities against is other civs. (Also, there aren't any goodie huts, so don't waste your time looking for them.)"
SPOILER BELOW
You start in a pretty good spot, sharing a continent with Rome. Buh-bye Caesar, here's a pack of slavering Swordsmen... SPQR my a$$.
Got lucky with two GLs in the final stages of the massacre (BTW, thanks Arrian for the tip on "cleaning up your home continent messes before the rest of the world finds out what a psycho bastard you really are"), and build my FP and the Lighthouse.
So then I went builder / settler. A good break from the military messes I've gotten myself into lately. Saved my GA for later, too. Expanded like crazy, got a lock on various resources... I think at one point I had 4 out of 5 Horses!!
I built a force of 40-50 WCs for later upgrade, and didn;t really touch them until I had gotten Military Trad... who has that kind of money??!! 100 gps a pop!!! I scrambled to pay for the upgrades.
As time went on, the Aztec became the only serious competition. A surgical strike with Cavs and Rifleman took out their top 2 cities, also netting me Pyramids, Hanging Gardens, Leonardo, Bach, Sun Tzu, and furs!!
I build TOE and Smith's, which triggered my GA. I had it all... Ultimate Power (tm).
So I decided to experiment a little with the late game, rather than just a Cav / Tank domination win.
MY GOD, have you seen MAs in action??!!
And we thought Samurai cut through Spearmen like butter?? MAs are unbelievable, crazy strong, juggernauts.
24-16-3.
Just think about those stats for a second... knowing that the AI civs are slow to upgrade unless they gots lots o' dough.
Take along a few Arty just too wear down the top defenders, and NOTHING can handle these guys.
When Hammy threw a huge stack of Infantry, Rifleman, and Longbowmen (!) at me, I had too laugh. Bang bang bang... all elite, all the time, and I finally had 1, 2, 3 ARMIES. Can;t believe I played almost a whole game without them!! BTW, Do NOT put a lot of MAs in Armies, as you lose individual unit blitz. So, 2xMA Armies, and some 3xInfantry Armies. Voila, quick late game builds of Heroic Epic and the Academy, it only gets better.
I'm beelining for Robotics, just to see what kind of mayhem I can commit with RAs as well. I mistakenly researched Rocketry, thinking that the picture in the tech tree was of RAs (instead of SAMs). Jet Fighters, big whoop.
I don;t know how I'll score in the tournament, but boy am I having fun!!
Fun and games with MAs: otherwise known as late-game unstoppable evisceration.
Sidenote #1: I'm experimenting with just taking major cities. I am NOT bombarding them back into the stone age... if you can handle flipping, it seems bigger captured cities maintain many more of their buildings, including Marketplaces and Harbors, which are both obviously invaluable. Also, being 7 pop or higher is very useful for the counter-attack.
Sidenote #2: Related to some other threads, I think we are all in for a big surprise when it comes to MP. I staged two invasions that were more or less the same: show up out of nowhere and land on a Hill with 24 MAs, 8 Arty (should of used 16), and 4-8 Infantry. Actually the Aztec invasion was the same, but with very early usage of Cavs and Rifles. This is more or less unstoppable.
), and all the MA you can load up, and any city is UNTOUCHABLE. Period. They'll never take it. They'll throw EVERYTHING at it, and it will never, ever fall.
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