4th Apolyton CtP2 SP Tournament: 3 September - 3 November 2002

[Shadow]

Centrifuge, did you slave any of them?
The AI's I slaved are the ones bugging me now...

I just started a fairly comprehensive offensive against the GREEN's, and consequently got my butt whipped! Have to pay out bigtime to build up the army again.

The bulk of my cash is going on stealing technology and holding receptions... and the odd city conversion. I've got 16 cities, none over 11, and lost about 5.
Taken 3 cities over the course of the game and just razed them to the ground. It's amazing how 'expansionistic' the AI is.

Now at about 50AD and still kicking... hopefully I'll catch up in the tech race soon... but I'm about "30" advances away at the moment...!!!

[Jesper Portus]

I "dance" with three empires:
War with green and brown and "close to war" with purple.
Every enemy has on large armie in my terretory and I have two large armies there. We "dancing" round and round - I can only hope they will not attack ...

So long Jesper

[Maquiladora]

I think anyone who gets a diplomacy victory with more than 5 civs left has done very well in this game. Theres only 2 none Agressive Imperialists. I think the most important thing is to stay along side the AI on the Military graph, it can be very costly but as soon as they have a big lead on you, they start sending stacks your way.

[Jesper Portus]

Originally posted by Maquiladora
I think anyone who gets a diplomacy victory with more than 5 civs left has done very well in this game. Theres only 2 none Agressive Imperialists. I think the most important thing is to stay along side the AI on the Military graph, it can be very costly but as soon as they have a big lead on you, they start sending stacks your way.

You are so right!
I have Hamurabi on my side - stacked with 6 slingers and 5 warriors. No chance against the warriors and archers ...

So I must play "peacefull" nd can only defend my citys.

Jesper "the peacefull" Portus

[hexagonian]

I'm glad everyone is having fun with my 'little monster'

I will say this - if you are fortunate enough to be able to hit a civ early, take advantage of that because the one thing the AI needs in Cradle is some time to get established. If it has that time, the game is a lot harder, because the AI is programmed to send forces into your lands. The hard part of Cradle is dealing with multiple civs all who are on a warlike bent. I don't know how many times I set up an offensive task force against a civ just to have another civ in the heart of my territory decide to get frisky.

I would say that Locutus did set up this tournament game on hard settings (land-based maps makes the game harder and huge-gigantic maps give the AI some time to establish themselves)

In my last game, I raced to the city caps for each government ASAP - in fact I usuallly was a little over the cap. At least I was able to field competitive armies and stay competitive in science - I was starting to catch up in science during the Medieval Age. (So in Tribunal Empire, get/build about 30 cities Dread_Doomfist) I also kept building military in new cities, until cities reached a decent size to justify improvements. Use farmers in new cities - and military slaver units in your armies to capture slaves for your cities.
(Janisarries are incredible...)

Try to keep your armies away from enemy forces - if this means retreating, do it - and try to lead them away from your cities. Send small forces to pillage enemy territory.

Make sure you build some forts in key spots because you are at a military disadvantage - you need to rotate wounded forces to conserve your units.

Even then, I was treading water after 700 turns. Then I had to do a reinstall because of work on the War of the Ring Scenario, and I forgot to keep the gamefile. But I was in 3rd place at that point...

If it makes everyone feel better, I have only beaten Cradle one time on 'Very Hard'. I do feel that I could of taken the AI on my last game, but only by having the highest score on the powergraph.

There are some players out there who have beaten Cradle - the settings are based on their reports, so you are playing a game that is based on their skill levels.

[Maquiladora]

Originally posted by hexagonian
Try to keep your armies away from enemy forces - if this means retreating, do it - and try to lead them away from your cities. Send small forces to pillage enemy territory.

Thanks Hex. Moving forces around constantly wasnt something i had considered much. Ive been defended a line about 2 tiles away from my border lines to give me time, rather than leading their troops all over. Conserving troops is greatly important, especially with 2 or more enemies. Great work on the mod btw, i wish hoplites upgraded to hypaspists though

[Dread_Doomfist]

hexagonia:

*gggggg*
I have no war with anyone nation...i'm trading advances....and have no problems yet with only 15 citys..it's 1750 AD and in the score i'm on place 5..but give me a little time and i kick all the nations out of space..*ggg*..i research advances now in 6-7 turns..actually i research economics...my infrastructure is perfect and if anyone of the nations try to hit me i destroy their armys before they can attack me...

thx for the hints..and i think they are very helpfull..(no question..you're the modmaker ;-) )..but my strategy is completly different...and so i can't use any of them

you can see if i finished the game...

maquiladora:

hypaspists are offensive units...your hoplites will be upgraded to legions....and thats even better as upgrade to hypaspists...

...my opinion to slavery...it's baaaad..really bad..your citys would be less efficient...and starts revolutions if the AI research the age of reason...and that comes really quick...i don't need slaves..my biggest city is now a 38er...and i grew up very quickly...

ok...enough for now...it's cool if everyone have another strategy....and now..have to play....

DD

[Maquiladora]

Originally posted by Dread_Doomfist
hypaspists are offensive units...your hoplites will be upgraded to legions....and thats even better as upgrade to hypaspists...

Yeah i was just saying because i had ALOT of hoplites when id reseached barracks for hypaspists and i needed a defensive advantage. I had plenty of gold but nothing to spend it on.

[ETB]

Originally posted by hexagonian
Try to keep your armies away from enemy forces - if this means retreating, do it - and try to lead them away from your cities.

Yes, I was rather pleased when I led some Greek troops into Persian territory and left them to fight each other! It’s been great fun playing so far!

Originally posted by hexagonian
(Janisarries are incredible...)

Agreed. But I also got a lot of use out of my Tectonic Knights. They were fast and powerful. Also, the Tin Woodsman is a strong unit – they seemed to do well against horses.

Originally posted by hexagonian
I will say this - if you are fortunate enough to be able to hit a civ early, take advantage of that because the one thing the AI needs in Cradle is some time to get established. If it has that time, the game is a lot harder, because the AI is programmed to send forces into your lands. The hard part of Cradle is dealing with multiple civs all who are on a warlike bent. I don't know how many times I set up an offensive task force against a civ just to have another civ in the heart of my territory decide to get frisky.

Tell me about it! Three of my invasion stacks didn’t even get outside of my territory because of the AI forces roaming around. These AIs are tough, although I have got the Greeks and Persians under control. But the others are constantly after me, breaking treaties, and are just plain offensive!

Originally posted by hexagonian
Make sure you build some forts in key spots because you are at a military disadvantage - you need to rotate wounded forces to conserve your units.

Forts have saved my forces many times. I only recently started using them in other mods, but I like the idea in Cradle where you need a fort to rapidly regenerate forces. I noticed a couple of forts in the water (on beach tiles) – are these forts for ships?

[mnbryan37]

Hexagonian,

You've created a monster alright. Just what was needed to take the game to the next level. I had played enough games of regular CTP2 to begin to lose interest. I think it will be a long time before I master your mod.

Thanks for the tips. Do troops mend faster in forts than in cities?

[ETB]

Originally posted by Shadow
And one last thing, I have a peace treaty with one of the Civs, but when I check the diplomacy manager the word 'Bloodbath' appears at the top of the screen with a few other of the details.
What does this mean and why is it there???

The Persians got me so mad that I did Bloodbath on a few of their cities. I checked my regard and all the AIs said “Bloodbath” toward me. That’s been there for over 100 turns now, so I guess that it’s not something that they easily forget!

Originally posted by mnbryan37
I will modify either the Dynasty government, to allow maybe 15 cities and a moderate increase in production, or the city-state government to be less sensitive to unhappiness. As it stands now, by the time you increase the number of entertainers to keep your cities from revolting, their production levels are lower than they were in Dynasty. It also seems to take too long to get to Monarchy.

I had the opposite experience. I was over the city limit for Dynasty and changing to City-State reduced my unhappiness allowing me to free up workers and get much better production, gold, and science! It was a good match for me because I wasn’t expanding at the time. It’s tough to balance all the coefficients for the governments, but I like the balance that I have seen so far!

Originally posted by centrifuge
ETB, have you tried to make treaties with any of the AI's? From my experience, they stay happier for longer when you have some form of treaty with them.

I have negotiated a few treaties, but the AI is quite willing to break them. The Persians did honor their no trespassing treaty, but they kept a very low regard for me. They attacked me after I started stealing technologies, so I can’t fault them for that! They won’t forget the bloodbath either.

Originally posted by Dread_Doomfist
ETB: in this mod..treatys makes your enemys not happier...all of my opponents are angry with me..hmm..not all..but all except 2...;-)..and gifts don't work...don't be aggressive..hmm..it's only my experience in my actual game....and for now..it works fine...

I think that’s very interesting! You and I are taking nearly opposite approaches in this game. Although I have given up on diplomacy so I am not giving out any more gifts. But I am being very aggressive with the AIs and they have shown me their displeasure! They don’t like me and I don’t like them, but I am (obviously) not going to achieve a diplomatic victory.

Originally posted by Dread_Doomfist
government: tribunal empire

I love the tribunal empire government! I have been squeezing the most out of it for the past 100 turns or so. I am trying to decide whether to go with a Democracy next, but I am leaning toward Communism so I can build troops and (try to) capture more cities. Only the Persians and Greeks are weaker then me at this point. I am starting to get to the point where I am past most of the Cradle modifications so maybe things will start to look more familiar. Actually, I want to start a new Cradle game because there is so much in the mod that I really didn’t have time to fully understand. I was in the Great Library on almost every turn checking out a new advance or trying to identify the unit(s) that just killed my troops, etc. The pdf files for the governments, units, and tech tree were also extremely helpful – somebody did some good work on those!

Originally posted by Shadow
I think the only thing saving me from going downhill is all the sneak/stealth attacks I making, although some bad choices of government have proven quite costly...

Also, I think a large negative aspect of my playing is that I don't tend to attack much.
Anyway, can't wait to see how your games turn out!

I can’t recall a game where I have changed governments so often, but then it’s actually a much longer game too. Take a look at the governments pdf file – I think they have all been adjusted…. I think that I was extremely lucky to have attacked when I did. I may have caught the Persians right after they sent out all their invasion forces and then the Greeks right after the Persians had weakened them! Despite the luck, I have managed to lose each of my original cities at least once at some point during the game. But I have all but two of them firmly under my control now. I’ve been more aggressive in sending out my forces in this game than I have in any other game and it has (fortunately) paid off so far. But it sure made me nervous!!!

Originally posted by mnbryan37
Thanks for the tips. Do troops mend faster in forts than in cities?

Absolutely! Better yet, your troops will heal in an enemy’s fort too! That’s how I was able to keep taking enemy cities – by leaving my troops in one of their forts “overnight” and they were ready to go on the next turn! I even fought some Persians from inside one of their forts and I easily defeated them because they were battle weary and my troops were fresh.

[Dread_Doomfist]

enough playing for today...it's 2000 AD and i start my offensive..but i think i can't kill all nations during the end...the greeks have researched all and they build on gaia-controller..but they can't finished them..i destroy all oblisces that i can found...and the greeks build new ones...and i destroy them..lol....it works...i sending out my revolutinarys...and capture city for city and destroy them and hold only the citys with wonders...for the points ;-).....i think you can't kill a nation faster..in 1 or 2 days i know more..and if my points are bad i restart a new game..hehe..and be a little bit faster...

[Dread_Doomfist]

LOCUTUS:
aehm..a little question ...i read in the game details for this tournament that the pollution is ON..but..i have factorys and oil rafinerys and ZERO pollution...no civ have pollution....is it a writinig failure or is it a bug in the game???

[mnbryan37]

Houston, I have a problem. I'm at 35AD and when I try to go to my next turn, my government changes from Republic to Anarchy, and I lose a bunch of my troops. None of my towns are in revolt. Is this a feature of the program, or a bug?

[Shadow]

mnbryan37,

The only thing I can think of (other than it being a bug or currupted file) is to check all your happiness levels.
Hope you don't lose the game...!