Pointless things I do

[vmxa1]

First thing I would say is to make a trade to get Spies. I would want to know what Rome has in the way of troops. I would swap some tech for all that the civs that are at the bottom have that I do not. Especially England as they are going away very soon.
I would have taken the peace with Babs and gone to war with Rome as I dislike a big civ on my land mass. They should be easy as they do not have RR and will be hard pressed to bring all they have to bear and you can. You will soon have a bunch of new cities and lots of land for those workers to work on. It is fine to go the other way as you are, but I really do not like to share my land late in the game. Once I have all the contient RR no one can ever land and take a piece. As it is Babs could make MPP/ROP and come in via Rome and make things rough.
I see lots of unhappiness, so that can jump up. Why not give some luxs on the slider, you can spare it. Going with the current war, I would like to see a rush of the airport in Hastings to allow air drops. I would have 4 or more airports so I can slam tanks and MI to the front and bombers. I would not have done fisson first, the UN and Man can wait a bit. I would prefer Computers to get labs and MI. Depending on what was going on I could hold off on Fission for a long time. I want to get Eco and Fibers next if I can get away with it. I see a transport unescorted, that can work if you know no danger exist. Anyway you are in great shape and can do as you wish.
One other thing, some cities are on wealth and have many unhappy people, I would build Police Stations and if not building units, then set a few people to entertainers, you could do that and not use the slider. No need to risk disorder as war is going to last a while.

[Golden Bear]

Thanks for the comments, folks!

So many things... remember that the save I put up was immediately after the war started. Of course I converted all the "wealth" builds to other things - mostly Police Stations at first.

I sent troops in unescorted transports because I had bombarded all the Babylonian ironclads and they were off the seas - plus, I was taking a chance. As it turned out, submarines sank one transport later, but none of the others.

I took over the Bab possessions in the north first and paid for airports in the first two cities. At the same time I got a ROP with Greece and started building up for an attack on mainland Babylon. After cleaning up the old English possessions, I turned around and wiped out the mainland Aztec cities and made them all my own... the Greeks took one town.

The attack on Babylon was messy at first because the Babs kept throwing out waves of marines and infantry - no armor, no cav. But lots of foot soldiers. However, rather conveniently, the Greeks would polish off these guys before my turn would come and I could concentrate on taking cities. BTW, from the Golden Bear recipe book - uses for obsolete cavalry: don't throw them away against infantry, save them and use them as pacification troops. A pile of 8 cav in a city does a nice job and frees up your armor for real work! Plus with 3 movement they can get up to newly taken cities at the front despite broken road systems.

The Romans are worthless as allies and have contributed nothing except a couple of ships that are getting in the way. I could have a war with them, but I want to see if they have the guts to start it. I have a few reserve troops on the main continent, but my production capacity is large enough now that I am certain that I can produce modern armor fast enough to stop any Roman attack. I have peace with the Aztecs now, but they just declared war on the English again and I may have to clean out their last two rats holes on islands - I will move transports that direction just in case.

I have stopped military production in favor of Mass Transit and Research Facilities. Another 8 cities and the Babylonians will have become "good" neighbors.

Thanks for letting me share the game with you.

Carlos

[vmxa1]

It is funny how you can go in so many different ways. I finished he Fisison and made the UN with the leader you had and then researched Compputers, Eco,Fibers,Rocket/Recyle/Mini/. Put up labs and mass trans and then recycle to reduce all the pollution and how much time the workers had to spend on clean up. The first turn signed peace with Babs they gave 100/ greece/ trade radio for Esp/AW/thier map/ 150 /urn. Trade it to someone else for something. Reset a few citizens to get more shields and later gave 10% lux. By 1752 all upgrade to MI done. Spies on all by 1762. Made a few fighter/bombers and 1790 went after rome.

[vmxa1]

It went swell, got 5 leaders in 4-5 turns, made peace after cutting them down about 10 cities, they had no planes left, no MA except ones they make on a given turn. Eliminated england to insure all land was contiguous. This means no landings without a war, no sneaking in settlers for any open spaces. 1806ad. WW is the reason for the peace. Thanks for the fun.

[Bambul]

Long post

I love playing a 16 player civ game in prince or warlord mode (my skill level is around at monarch and I find emperor challenging in 16 player situation) and establish quick dominance by the time I enter industrial era by declaring war and chewing them one civ at a time. When I have the selected cities that I want as my empire, I simply give away the others to the weakest. The goal of this weirdie game is to keep all 16 player alive. usually some do fall in the beginning though. If game slows down too much, then I start relocating empire based on what I feel they should be. Then I create super empire by giving cities mostly to one civ when it gets even more boring. That way i can topple down another challenging civ again.

I just can't resist posting my rather lengthy anacdote. My current game is emperor with 16 Civs on a small map. There are only 3 of us left, myself (Americans), the Aztecs and the Germans (with 2 cities on an island).

I was halfway through the industrial age with 4 cities (having played a peacelovers role, going to war with the Russians twice when they declared war on me, the later went on to be my closest allies - a USA/Britain during WW2 type of relation - only to be conquered by the Aztec later when I made peace with them) when I realised that the Aztecs were really dominating the map. They were allied to China (#2) and systematically conquering all other nations, England, India, France, Rome, and so on.

There were 7 Civs left, with everyone but me at war with the Germans. I put together my master plan. I built a Settler and sent him sailing to the other side of the continent next to the Aztecs, founded a city and named it The Alamo. I then got a MPP with every Civ except for Germany (because I wanted everyone against Aztec, not me) and China (who refused).

My lucky break came 2 turns later when I got a message from the Aztecs: "We want your map and 40gp". I said no and the war started. By the next turn Aztec and China were at war with America, Greece, Russia, Persia and Germany. None of my allies had more than 3 cities (plus my 4th had just been taken, which was on a 3 tile island, but had my only source of iron), and I needed to take the Chinese city of Niagara Falls to get rubber to build infantry.

I was on an upside L shaped corner of my continent, with the Greeks to my West, Chinese to my North and Russians to my East. The Chinese were also to the East of Russia. The rest of the continent was a big blob to the south of that, mostly under Aztec control (but the South-West was held by the Persians and Germans).

I got a few turns facing just the Chinese while the Aztecs took on their close neighbours, which gave me the time I needed to prepare myself for an offensive on Niagara Falls. I had few riflemen or cavalry (about 10 of each) but closer to 20 artillery, plus Russian ground troops. I didn't have espionage, but I estimate that the Chinese had 20 Calalry and 20-30 offensive riflemen/infantry. Artillery did its job of softening them up as they moved onto my territory, Cavalry finished them off, then I would do what I could on Russian soil (unfortunately there didn't appear to be too many Cossacks).

Forts also did a good job of softening up their cavalry. One time I had 2 forts on mountains between hills. The Chinese sent a Cavalry, it got hit by both forts, attacked New York, losing 1 HP to my artillery, then lost its last HP to my Infantry.

I finally made peace 3 times (twice with the Aztecs because they wouldn't get off my territory), getting quite a few advances in the peace treaties. I had also increased my size from 4 cities to 16. But with myself out of the war, the Aztecs had no limits on them anymore, so they took Russia and Greece, then declared war on China. Since I had signed a MPP with Aztecs (as insurance to keep me out of a war with them again for 20 turns) I was also in. I took as many cities as I could so that the Aztecs wouldn't plus I stole some 4 advances with the 6,000gp that I got with my previous peace treaty with China, then signed another peace treaty. A few turns later the Aztecs took that last city.

But China also took an alliance with Germany against Aztec, so now the third last Civ is at war with the two remaining superpowers and unlikely to remain for long.

Once Germany is gone, the MPP disappears and my insurance is gone. And the Aztecs have tanks (only 4 right now though). And with only 2 Civs, the UN is useless!

And I was looking forward to a UN vote with 16 Civs!

[Theseus]

Re: Long post

Originally posted by Bambul
And I was looking forward to a UN vote with 16 Civs!

Good story, Bambul, but I gotta ask... has anyone taken a chance on a 16 civ UN vote?

Not me.

I'm starting to follow Catt's philosophy... I'll pull every trick out of my big bag of strats, but I make myself stay within the diplo / relation rules. I guess that's what I'm shooting for... play as good a game as I can, including all of the strats I employ, and yet still be able to pull off a 16 civ UN vote.

I've always thought of Aeson's SVC as the premier performance to date... I would consider this kind of diplo performance right up there too.

[vmxa1]

Golden Bear, I forgot to mention, I went lazy and shot the space launch at 1882. I did not know it was in the game as I never use it until I saw Xerxes building, it and forced my hand. Score 5483.

[Meshelic]

I often times enjoy picking a weaker civilization who is about to be crushed and then I ride in heroicly and save their day, even though it pits me against the rest of the world. And sometimes that 'satellite' state you choose to protect joins with them and attacks you as well, but it makes little difference as they just end up killing themselves as well.

It's happened to me a couple times, but most civs end up hating me anyways for some dumb reason.

[jubilation]

Pointless Display of Ocean Discipline

As for pointless...

1. Create a huge fleet of privateers (Arr!) (This isn't the pointless part yet; privateers are romantic)

2. *After* clearing out the enemy's navy, send your caravel transports escorted by a ring of frigates. (This is the pointless part; the enemy is floating supine upon the waters. Avast!)

3. Maintain this discipline throughout the whole arduous process of ferrying your army over to the enemy's continent. It's What Good Britons Do!

4. Pray for the occasional barbship to liven up the frigates' day.

[Meshelic]

Never quite had the patience to make it to a UN vote with 16 civs. Most die before that can happen, or I get relatively bored with my situation. Either way, I'm still looking forward to something like that.