After that grueling game as Mayans without any resources for the first half of the game and too many contacts due to PP contact selling, i's time for revenge and a hopefully better attempt.

I select the Celts as they have a truly powerful UU, hat is fast and strong in th early game. I know expansion will be limited to around 12-15 cities early on until the city limit is hit.
I disable contact trading and the UN in the editor as I don't think i's feasible on demigod to fight that many enemies early on.

Off we go to a food rich start, I move the settler and spot a cow and settle, more cows show up later on. The land fertile and has plenty of hills for iron. This looks like a good start.

I go for BW and immediate iron working. In between, the Germans show up and soon send a lot of archers over, but luckily hardly any pillager spear.

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/3151/awdg1nv6.jpg

My capital is set to be a settler factory early on.

I manage to fight off the early German attacks, with cities on hills it's surely easier
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/9985/awdg2vu1.jpg


Now for the best news...there is iron available...I only need to settle on top of it and build some roads there.

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/62/awdg3hk5.jpg

In 1025BC, the roads are laid and production switched to GS's. Research has switched to masonry for palace prebuild and then straight for literature.

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/1473/awdg4dx1.jpg

soon our first GS victory ges us a GA, good for the palace prebuild and more GS production to get us out of the corner that Germany and that orange Civ have put us in. Luckily we are located far south in a nice position with some tundra to expand to.
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/7404/awdg5ho0.jpg

At 12 cities, we get the dreaded message. Our early UU better gets us some expansion or we face early death.
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/3188/awdg6cu7.jpg

We meet England, the orange Civ. I thought it might be Netherlands. England and Germany are nice opponents early on. In addition both do not have iron but horses. Our 3-2-2 unit can deal with that.

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/8194/awdg7uy3.jpg

I start to assemble a stack of GS and move towards the nearest English city.
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/222/awdg8am4.jpg

They have no chance and we take 2 cities early, of which I keep Norwich.

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/2107/awdg9tf7.jpg

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/2060/awdg10iu5.jpg

With 16 cities (I could settle 2 additional cities due to some war elsewhere), we are in a good position. I need an army and secure the GL, then the game should be more feasible to win than the previous game.

I do have no luxes anywhere near, but the enemy has 2 of them haven't spotted them yet though.

The next message give me a shock, 2 turns before getting literature myself, the AI starts the GL??? :eek: It is not unusual that they shun literature for a long time.

http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/3461/awdg11lt2.jpg

I do whatever I can to speed up the GL, merging a worker and running 50% lux to get as many shields as possible.

As for the breakthrough news, I do get my first MGL and thus, a powerful GS army :dance:
http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/8536/awdg13hh4.jpg

Taking cities has now become easier.

http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/3243/awdg12sl3.jpg
(this city was aken before I got an army)

http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/209/awdg14yg9.jpg

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/4457/awdg15hy8.jpg

These 3 razed cities give me a total of 18 cities, Germany has 15, England has suffered and now only 12 cities left.

All the effort pays off and here is the situation 1 turn before getting the GL. Things don't look too shabby here. I hope I can raze more cities and expand before meeting more Civs.

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/5263/awdg16fs0.jpg

Looks like you're off to a good start, ThERat! Good luck!

Go, ThERat!!! :D :ar15:

(I thought you said you were going to do your next game with the Sumerians? :hmm:)

I thought you said you were going to do your next game with the Sumerians:mischief: well, I had 2 attempts that failed miserable mainly due to th fact that I had no resources...so I tried Celts for now

Yay! Another ThERat story! :D . Looks like a good start, I bet you'll win this one.

This start looks very promising, and I always enjoy the Celts. I'm looking forward to your next installment.

once again, thanks for the encouragement.

Started the second session with the good news. I really need the great Library as zero luxes make life very difficult. Last games no resources, now no luxes...

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/3973/awdg17zr5.jpg

The GL gets me a few techs, Germany is really backwards. I do get the wheel though and have a source of horses.
After this, the period know as Great Leader Times starts

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/8690/awdg18yq6.jpg

http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/9620/awdg20qk6.jpg

http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/3175/awdg21pf4.jpg

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/9333/awdg24na5.jpg

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/5660/awdg25qu0.jpg
At least you can't say, they were not resourceful when it comes to ;leader names. And it must be from this game, where they got the inspiration for CIV4 teenie-dream Boudica :rolleyes:

Well, one of them is turned into this
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/7936/awdg22vx2.jpg

4 unit armies are what I need. Unfortunately I am stuck at 5 armies and I use a leader to rush a market and the Heroic Epic. I wonder whether the Heroic Epic actually changes the odds for the worse.

After this Golden Leader Age, I face a leaderless age however...which lasts until now

All the leaders give me 5 armies in total and I can continue to raze enemy cities, especially English.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/7011/awdg19cb1.jpg

Poor English really suffer
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/913/awdg26pp3.jpg

While exploring the German front line, a yellowish worker comes into view and immediately a tech pops up
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/5341/awdg27ij4.jpg

Well, it is clear that we met another Civ. I get catapulted right into the MA, and get engineering (such a nice thing to cross rivers without slowing down) as well as feudalism. No more GS...

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/2284/awdg28se7.jpg
Ottomans, which have built the SoZ :eek: Luckily thy aren't that big and lack iron as well.

Continue the now slower path of razing towns and replacing them within my borders. A sever shortage of settles is met with a frantic drive for settler popping.
Raze yet another city.
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/2950/awdg30gq5.jpg

One of my armies of destruction spots the first Ottoman stack
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/2194/awdg31lm5.jpg

I can easily handle them though, so far the AI's have been rather kind and didn't really pose a real threat to my fronts. I have 2-3 armies there to accompany settlers to expand and also for zonal defense.

By the way, you can see in this picture, that the English have acquired iron somehow as thy now show pikes defending.

Thus, I raze a German town first and then turn back to the English with a second 4 GS army.

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/2950/awdg30gq5.jpg

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/3695/awdg33ss1.jpg

Finally meet another Civ. Now I know 4 of them, I hope I can handle them. Ottomans started KT and Leo. they are clearly the tech leaders. I wouldn't mind getting chivalry soon as knight armies would be so much nicer. At the moment I am still stuck with 5 armies though I have already 25 cities:

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/1413/awdg34rz2.jpg

At this moment the city count is as follows:

Celts (myself): 25
England: 7
Germany: 14
Ottoman: 12
Carthage: 16

Nice. If you could pull off a victory here... definately would be the craziest AW solo game ever played.

Looks like you're going to win, based on results so far. Also, could we get some kind of world map? Not the mini-map, but one so we can see what your position's like?

Looks like you're going to win, based on results so farDon't haunt me...it's far too early to say that. I have only about 25 cities and there are many other Civs to meet and beat. This is demigod, a different beast than emperor...


For lurkers, that's all i can see at the moment
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/4601/awdg38th9.jpg

and the front in technicolor as I can see it. London is to the east and maybe I can actually keep it.
Germany is in blue seen to the northwest. Ottoman troops appear from the north.

http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/6636/awdg39dm3.jpg

I don't want to jinx you, but it is good work so far, ThERat.

Look at all that grassland and all those cows! :drool:

The Civ III display is in Technicolor color film (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technicolor#Shooting_Technicolor_footage.2C_1934.E 2.80.931954)? I'll grant that the colors in Civ III are rather saturated, and they seem to work very well for their purpose. I certainly enjoyed the Tecnhicolor film I watched today; maybe that's also why I like CivIII so much :p!

It is looked cautiously optimistic. The Great Library should certainly be an advantage over last time, but for all the promises of early on, you aren't out of the wood yet as you know. Good luck gaining the critical edge.

Continued where I stopped with that map overview

Kept on hammering the English and Germans to get them small in size.

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/3787/awdg41pd2.jpg

Finally got another leader for knight army
http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/7976/awdg40ie6.jpg

and because I did not have leaders so long, I got yet another knight army, still short of some taking the amount of cities into account.
http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/232/awdg42ke6.jpg

In 370AD the Great Library gave me gunpowder
http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/2442/awdg43jy7.jpg

I got saltpeter unconnected in my empire, prefect. Thus, I left it alone for a while to continue building pikes instead of expansive muskets

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/9167/awdg44aa9.jpg

In the northwest, I ran into a warrior of the 5th Civ known to me, the Mayan
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/1790/awdg45qk8.jpg

Would I face huge stacks of cheap JT's?

Well, first I had to face Germans, English, Carthage and Ottomans near my borders

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/7817/awdg46ay9.jpg

Well, in case I thought 5 Civs are enough, I met the purple Civ east, not that I was actively looking for them. Worse, these guys have saltpeter. At this moment, I also decided to turn on research to get MT myself. Chemistry is a massive 25 turns at huge deficit. The lack of luxes is now hurting me a lot.

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/9389/awdg47af8.jpg

Meanwhile in the west, the pressure got stronger with Ottoman knights.
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/2711/awdg48bl2.jpg

I decided to change from chasing Germany to Ottomans. I had earlier spotted the southern borders. I do not need to fight sipahis, thy would simply rip me apart. Ottomans have a mere 12 cities...let's take them down

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/3707/awdg49hn8.jpg

Another knight army will help me defend my borders and raze cities.
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/1623/awdg50co6.jpg

And another army getting my army count up to 9
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/8172/awdg51gx7.jpg


Ottoman city #11 is history...nevertheless they are tech leaders of the known Civs. But hat changes as chemistry makes it's round and Korea suddenly has all the money.
http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/3448/awdg53zy0.jpg

Luckily I was wise enough to get chemistry started as education is around before Korea has gotten chemistry

http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/2583/awdg52mm7.jpg

And Ottoman city #10 goes down. IO also take any cent I can grab from razing cities as my tech research is awful.
http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/5763/awdg54kc4.jpg

What did I predict? There are the Maya stacks I did not really need. I will use the strategy of blocking tiles and slowly wear them down, I don't nearly have the units to take them out.
http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/1725/awdg55de0.jpg

Since Korea seems now the tech leader, I also send a knight army out to fight them.
http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/1056/awdg56xh0.jpg

The stats for cities at 570AD:
Celts (me): 45
England: 1
Germany: 4
Ottoman: 9
Maya: 15
Korea: 15
Carthage:16

No luxes must be horrible! Are you anywhere close to grabbing one?

Looks like the Germans and English are out of it. Good luck with the Javelin stacks. Keep beating up those Ottomans.

No luxes must be horrible! Are you anywhere close to grabbing one?There are dyes close in the west and east, but I can't reach them with cities just yet. I decided to sacrifice a GS army and hooked up a dye colony during the few more turns I played last night. After that game as Maya, I know that the enemy won't attack a healthy army on top of a colony.
This way, I have reduced luxes to 10% with some sacrifices. My top 6 pop 10-12 cities actually have cathedrals in them. Still, I need to employ a number of scientists and growth is somewhat hindered.
There are some ivory spots in ex-Ottoman and German land, but again, it would take a while to get them via city expansion. Once I have dyes within my borders, I will set up an ivory colony. By the way, my continent has a third lux (gems). 3/8 luxes means that theoretically there should be 3/8 Civ on this continent, means around 12 including myself.

The story of Brennus, the brave continues...

Remember, Germany and England are on the verge of elimination, Ottomans sending annoying knights and ACav's. Korea and Carthage coming from the east and Maya monster stacks harrassing our western edge.

Start by taking out another Ottoman city, now they have 8 citoes left only. I really hope, I can wear them down before they acquire sipahis.
http://img463.imageshack.us/img463/9458/awdg57ya6.jpg

Finally the first Civ of this game is eliminated and Norwich can get rid of it's unhappiness. In fact the very turn I elmininate them, they had landed 3 units way south to threaten some towns.

http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/3910/awdg58rp0.jpg


The main attention however, lies in the west. Those huge Maya stacks cause me some headache. I block their pregress and they actually start to attack my cities. Luckily I have a GS army inside and we hold out. This screenshot is taken during the interturn attacks, but it doesn't really show.

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/51/awdg59lk0.jpg

In fact I gain a MGL on defense, turn it into a knight army to help me defend there. Two turns later the situation doesn't look that much better.

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/3061/awdg60sa8.jpg

At least their units are weak. This gives us plenty of elite attacks, which result in MGL's. Another knight army is born.
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/6083/awdg61pj4.jpg

And yet another one. Would you believe it, I accidentaly automatically turn it into a barrcks while trying to creat another army. We have reached the limit though. Well, we can use a rax there anyway since we still get attacked on interturns.

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/8292/awdg62xt9.jpg

Has anything changed here? Their stacks start to spread out a little and pillage while I simply don't have enough units to cope with all that.
http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/3866/awdg63ui0.jpg

You can also see that Korea and Ottoman join in the messy front there making things more complicated.

Raze Pusan and the only Korean iron source, no knights for the time being will make things a little easier.
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/4370/awdg64zo7.jpg


I still have time to raze some cities and down goes Ottoman city #8. It also gives us cash which we urgently need to fuel deficit research. Keep this city for 2 turns to heal the armies.
http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/5382/awdg65cp4.jpg

Well, I reached 50 cities now and the FP message pops up. I will wait a long time for the FP though to get a really nice city up for production. This one will not need to be rushed.
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/5743/awdg67kr9.jpg

I built a galley for fun to attack the English galleys. Well, England won't ever come with their UU, but Korea shows up with 3 caravels and all of them sink against the tiny hero here :D
http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/3043/awdg66ba2.jpg

My smily face turns a little worried soon as we bump into the Incas. they look big and strong. They even have banking and navigation as can be seen by potential map trading. Another wave of attackers will appear sooner or later.

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/9104/awdg68uw5.jpg

To finish off the lenghty turn, I gain another army. I already have a 1 knight army there, add this and we are sorely lacking knights to fill these armies. You can see that the westernmost town had the roads pillaged, courtesy of JT's. Luckily I have another road connection from another part of the empire to the dye colony in the west.

http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/7808/awdg69zm8.jpg

The stats for cities and techs at 640AD:
Celts (me): 50 cities
Germany: 3 cities, technologically backwards
Ottoman: 7 cities, up astro and music
Maya: 15 cities, backwards
Korea: 13 cities, up astro and metal
Carthage:16 cities, up astro
Inca: around 16 cities, up astro, music and banking

woah... 50 cities >.< it gotta take hours just to manage all of them and how long does IBT take? :)

woah... 50 cities >.< it gotta take hours just to manage all of them and how long does IBT take?;) well, 50 cities is manageable and I go cycle through all of them every second turn for proper MM. Doesn't take too long.

My computer had been considerably spiced up to be able to process demanding games like Civ4 (who would think that a strategy game needs resources like this). I also had the issue with crashes as Civ4 made my computer too hot in this climate and forced to play with the airconditioning switched on, is crazy...in both environmental and $$$ terms.
So, the new computer is fast and those interturns are pretty fast. When it gets slow (for example seeing literally hundreds of JT's move about), I disable unit animation for the AI (I never switch on animations for my own units) and it speeds up things a lot.
So, I have a spiced up computer and play C3C and not Civ4 which is still a huge let-down for me. These days I can hardly play a game without getting fed up and worn out, even BtS is made for a very different crowd

So how many armies are you up to? I'm guessing 12, if you have 50 cities?

Played a few turns last night, it's the story of a Korean horde and slow progress. In the previous turns, attention was mostly on Mayas. Once I had dealt with them by slowly wearing them down (and them stupidly attacking my towns with their JT's), a bigger Korean stack shows up. The problem is that his stack is made up of pikes, maces, LB's and muskets. With few artillery units around, this will be tough to deal with. Take the hilly terrain and the stack will be able to spread and survive.

First I start by taking out two cities

Ottoman's city #7
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/3962/awdg70bw3.jpg

and a Korean city, note that I almost lost an army here, left 1 hp...I always use 2 armies for those muskets defending so that one army can cover the other in case of heavy injury.
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/3444/awdg71qr7.jpg

I also get another knight army in the east while defeating some random Carthage units. I have 52 cities and thus get a 13th army.
http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/2135/awdg72nm7.jpg


Now, let's focus on the west. At this picture the stacks do not look scary, but they are made up of up to 20 units and have a lot of pikes...I have 3 knight armies and 1 GS army in the area to help defend. And they are truly needed.

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/4950/awdg73nt6.jpg

Clear some other units in the area and get a MGL which is sent back to the core to rush a university (so far only our capital has a uni as they are expensive and cost more to maintain)

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/9046/awdg74zg6.jpg

Below is a big overview of the western and nothern frontlines. The major action takes place in the west with Korean units appearing from the woods. Ottomans also add a few stacks of knights. This is a tough time and I need to play things really careful in order not to lose towns and roads. In the meantime I expand to the east towards Korea as there is some sort of choke (picture next time)

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/9499/awdg75qp5.jpg

After some turns of healing the northern army combo is ready to take out city #6 of the Ottomans. They have no more money. They had accumulated around 1000gold the turns before, which I was hoping to recover. However, they got banking and must have spent all their money on that :mad:

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/922/awdg76qd5.jpg

The eastern amry also takes out a Korean town. In addition a lone knight army eliminates the second last German city and move northeast to help with Ottomans.
http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/3577/awdg78zi5.jpg

Once the knight army actually reaches the last German city, it runs into China. As if I had needed more enemies at this point where the big Inca stacks have not even shown up yet.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/6343/awdg79jw7.jpg


The Korean units move further into my empire and I need to try and block them and take them out on flat land where losses will be less.
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/7510/awdg77ad2.jpg

I need to hurry to clear those Korean stacks before the Inca show up, otherwise I might be in trouble. As for China, I don't know where they are, but I can actually spot their borders close to the last German city. I do not hope to face many of their units so soon.

It's still another 4 turns to go for metal and then I need to hurry to get Military Tradition to turn the tide a little. Cav armies will rule and help me to gain some land I guess.

Nobody has it yet, but someone might acquire it sooner or later and I need to hurry to take out the Ottomans before that happens. Korea and Ottoman both have saltpeter though I took out their sources. At this map size, the AI tends to build a lot of colonies and I won't be able to pillage them all. I got better things for my armies than run around pillaging the immense mass of land.

The stats for cities and techs at 710AD:
Celts (me): 56 cities
Germany: 1 city technologically backwards
Ottoman: 5 cities, up astro, banking, metal and music
Maya: 15 cities, backwards
Korea: 12 cities, up astro and metal and music
Carthage:16 cities, up astro and metal
Inca: around 16 cities, up astro, music and banking
China: around 10 cities, technologically backwards

As you can see I just built the 56th city and could gain another army.

In the last session, the big Korean stacks were really troubling. At the same time, I was waiting for the Incas and Chinese to show up with their first biogger stacks. I would like to clear the Korean stacks first before handling the others.

First off, the knight army that ran into China takes out the last german city and we elimintae the second Civ from the game.
http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/5077/awdg80fc6.jpg

Unfortuntely the turn after, that army runds into a Hittite unit and we get yet another enemy. I wonder how many more there are on our continent.

http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/9726/awdg82pt3.jpg

At the same time, razing enemy cities continues. Inca are clearly the strongest now, but Korea needs to go as it is close to our land and also advanced.

The pictures below show the next Korean city that I manage to raze and replace.

http://img61.imageshack.us/img61/240/awdg83qk4.jpg

Then, I find the reason why there are quite a few Chinese units around. They apparently fought Germany as can be seen here. Of course I take out Cologne afterwards.
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/4142/awdg84lo0.jpg


Finally the first Inca stacks arrive with the fast units leading the way. I have anticipated that and was able to remove most of the Korean units. With 3 knight armies and 1 GS army in the vincinity, I should be able to deal with them.
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/3408/awdg85oy9.jpg

Below is a picture of the diminishing Korean units at the front. They managed to pillage quite a few roads though.
http://img61.imageshack.us/img61/7130/awdg81dt6.jpg

This part end with me finally getting metal

http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/7019/awdg86vz6.jpg

17 turns to Military Tradition :eek: Well, I can increase research to 50% and it drops to 12 turns, that's what I like better.

This short session starts by getting another knight army for the east where Koreans now start to come with muskets for pillaging duties. I am settling the hills there and eliminating muskets on hills is painful.
http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/3770/awdg87vl0.jpg

Remove another Korean city from the game and replace it with a city that finally gives us dyes within our borders. This means I can use the GS army covering the dye colony to go for ivory soon to give us a second lux.
http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/5151/awdg88jh8.jpg

I moved the knight army towards the Ottomans (and sent another knight army over there as well). I want to speed up their elimination as they have MT already. While taking out their city #4, I spot their first sipahi. The unit is defeated and city #4 taken out.

http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/4568/awdg89rs4.jpg


The last 2 pictures show an overview of the eastern and western frontlines. The eastern front has been pushed north and east. Dyes are now within the borders and I am very close to Korean land. My defenses there are a little limited though. Currently only Korea and Carthage show up at these borders.

http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/4144/awdg90nc4.jpg


The west has far more killings witnesses in the past turns as the Koreans have taken their toll. but pillage some roads. Now Incas are streaming in while Maya also send in some units. Ottomans have still some units in the area but this will stop soon I hope.

I have to watch out for the Chinese and Hittite stacks that will ultimately arrive somewhere.

http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/5972/awdg91kx3.jpg

The stats for cities and techs at 790AD:
Celts (me): 62 cities
Ottoman: 3 cities, up astro, banking, music and MT
Maya: 15 cities, backwards
Korea: 10 cities, up astro, banking, music and MT
Carthage:16 cities, up astro, banking, music and MT
Inca: 19 cities, up astro, banking, music and MT
China: around 10 cities, technologically backwards
Hittites: around 12-15 cities, technologically backwards

4 Civs are up military tradition, this can pose a real problem soon. I will get that tech myself in 8 turns. So far, none of them is in the IA, but that is just a matter of time. Once I have taken care of Ottomans and Koreans, I will send some Cav armies to deal with Incas before they get too big. They do have 19 cities already. I assume they must have fought someone else before.

You haven't seen any offensive cavalry yet, though, right?

Well-done, as always.

played a few turns only, saw the first units of cavalry coming and the Inca showed up with some stacks, but nothing that scary yet. My main aim was to take out the Koreans and Ottomans

Here goes the 3rd last Ottoman city
http://img115.imageshack.us/img115/6204/awdg92kz9.jpg

On the other side, Korea suffers
http://img50.imageshack.us/img50/5157/awdg93tg0.jpg

And back to ottoman, now left with 1 city only. In fact I got a real shock when a sipahi actually attacked a yellow knight army, but lost :eek:
http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/6342/awdg94jb2.jpg

Luckily I have 3 armies there now and am able to take the Ottoman capital after removing a mere 3 muskets. I also get all their remaining cash. One big threat is removed
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/5169/awdg95it9.jpg


The overall situation is little changed. Maya and Inca move in from the west and I sent out an army to find their land. In the east, Korea and a sizeable Carthage force are moving in and I have trouble dealing with all the units. In the north China has come with the remaining force that beat Germany. Hittites are sedning in their fast UU.

I will get MT next turn and then hopefully some more leaders. I didn't get them for a long time.

I will post a nice big map and the enlarged min map tonight.

With Ottomans eliminated, attention can be turned to Korea. In the west, a knight army has followed the stream of Inca units and spotted Maya land.

In our homeland, Inca are harnessing us in the west. Lucky that we get Military tradition in the following inter turn.

http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/2038/awdg96lj8.jpg
The Academy will be a further boost for our armies, but we are still short of 2-3 cav armies before using a MGL for ha purpose.

In the west, Inca now show up with their slow stacks and that is the biggest of them. A combination of knight armies and other assorted stuff is able to deal with it slowly.
http://img66.imageshack.us/img66/6499/awdg97mr1.jpg


Thus, I can also turn attention to the rich Koreans. It's nice to see my deficit research (a 50% I make a deficit of around 60gpt) funded by them.
http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/7984/awdg98ug3.jpg

Just on time, the leader luck comes back and I get cav army #1 and #2
http://img476.imageshack.us/img476/3042/awdg99cb5.jpg

http://img108.imageshack.us/img108/424/awdg100gm5.jpg

Finally our knight army in the west, can raze the first Maya city
http://img108.imageshack.us/img108/3546/awdg101lf0.jpg

The Inca are slowly getting beaten and start to spread out. It's a good thing their muskets are not that numerous and once they are worn down, it gets easier. Newly minted cavalry helps a lot here.

http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/6205/awdg103in7.jpg

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/4929/awdg104wf7.jpg

Korea is getting richer and richer and this allows us to keep research at 50%. Banking is only 9 turns from scratch and I hope with more cities, research can get faster soon. With a OCN of 50, I still do no have science farms. I guess they will come once I have RR.
http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/7976/awdg102nr4.jpg

http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/3052/awdg105cc1.jpg

I get 2 more armies via MGL's and have now a total of 18 of them.
http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/4610/awdg106ed4.jpg


At the end of this post, an enlarged minimap with the known world. I actually only know the borders of Korean and Maya land, the rest has to be an estimate.
Carthage is somewhere east of Korea, Hittites seem to come from the north. Inca are of course near Maya land.

http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/649/awdg107hd2.jpg


The stats for cities and techs at 930AD:
Celts (me): 72 cities
Maya: 13 cities, down MT
Korea: 4 cities, up astro, banking, music
Carthage:16 cities, up astro, banking, music
Inca: 19 cities, up astro, banking, music
China: 12 cities, up astro, music, down metal
Hittites: 19 cities, down theology, metal

Very nice. The lack of communication trading is looking like it might just be enough to make Demigod achievable. 72 cities is certainly an improvement over last time. Those Inca will be a pain, though, being so far away and being advanced and relatively large.

Things seem to be going pretty well. I always enjoy most the part of the game after getting cavs...then rails...then arty. :)

I hope you guys are correct. 72 cities is surely better than last time and I can keep up with the AI at least to acceptable levels. Also has something to do with my early powerful UU and the fact that I got all 3 resources so far. Only thing that hurts me is the low level of luxuries.

Anyway Played until a new millennium (1000AD).

The western front looks so stable now, it's a blessing. I get another MGL that turns into the Mil Academy in our capital. Stronger armies are always positive.
http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/4553/awdg108im1.jpg


Then, when I think enemy units are under control, the Hittites come in full swing at us. That's their real initial stack of units, truly impressive.
http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/4736/awdg109gd7.jpg

I scramble my armies to defend and indeed, Hittites attack my city and casue some real damage...this was a close shave.

http://img104.imageshack.us/img104/5301/awdg110lc9.jpg
It's a good thing they lost their initial attack force and are left with pillagers only. Time for me to rest the armies and regroup.

In the wild west, in Maya land, I spot a bad sign, Incas entered the industrial age and I am still 4 techs away from it.
http://img104.imageshack.us/img104/314/awdg111vw3.jpg

In addition, I meet 2 more Civ's there, Vikings and the Dutch. the Vikings are huge with 24 cities :eek: though technologically a bit behind.

http://img104.imageshack.us/img104/4219/awdg112dy0.jpg

http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/9537/awdg114fk6.jpg

Meanwhile in the east, Hittites and Carthage keep on streaming into my territory with more troops. Without cavalry. I would be doomed here.

http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/3379/awdg113yg8.jpg

I enter the new millennium with 75 cities, 4 turn to astronomy and the hope that I can weather the initial Viking and Dutch stacks without too much harm. I need to be faster with conquest now. Hopefully the cav armies will help.

The eastern part of the front, Korea can be seen in the northeast, down to 3 cities by now. Carthage and Hittites come from this side.
http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/2904/awdg115io9.jpg

The western part of the front. Way northwest is Maya land. Inca seem to come west from Mayas. In the north you can see the ivory colony that I established some time ago. Nearby is Istanbul. which I did not raze. It has a mace army inside and has been completely left alone so far, pretty strange
http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/4117/awdg116or9.jpg

Yikes, the Inca are gonna be really tough.

Let's hope the Hittites cannot put together another stack like the last one. :eek:

Eek, they're certainly threatening to become overwhelming like last time. You could really use Rifles. It looks like it'll come down to, can you finish them off/weaken them beyond hope before they break down your borders? Victory, though more threatened than on Page 2, still looks possible.

It all depends now whether I can get fast to steam. This will take another 30 turns to get to the IA + steam technology turns, which is quite far off.

It looks like it is possible to fight off the enemies as long as your #cities match the number of theirs as a whole. So far this works out.

Whatever comes of this, you've done an amazing job so far, ThERat!

With plenty of time this weekend, I played the turns from 1000-1100AD.

The demise of the Korean empire was inevitable. What made that even nicer is the fact that they have a lot of money.

We really milked them.
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/6968/awdg118qy1.jpg

And after this there was only 1 city left
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/6098/awdg122wp0.jpg

The last Korean city and one enemy less in the east.
http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/8527/awdg123du3.jpg

Without Korea, the situation can only get better. There is a lot of action going on in the east. Carthage knights and Chinese riders keep on coming, add Hittite pillager units and the mess is guaranteed. (picture taken before Korea was eliminated)
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/7351/awdg121ns7.jpg

At least I gain another MGL this way
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/3267/awdg119fb0.jpg

I spot the Carthage borders right next to Korea :D This way I can continue with razing cities pretty soon.
http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/5781/awdg125wi8.jpg

In the west. I started to move on to Mayan cities
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/3135/awdg120xw0.jpg

I pillage their only source of saltpeter and hopefully will face pikes soon instead of muskets. Both are way better to defeat than rifles though.
http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/4170/awdg127kl4.jpg

The vikings must be really nearby as they have units ready to dusturb me very fast
http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/5299/awdg124fu9.jpg

The stacks are getting bigger. I do have plenty of cavalry in the west to attack though.
http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/5938/awdg126qq3.jpg

and the stats at the end of 1100AD:

The stats for cities and techs at 930AD:
Celts (me): 85 cities
Maya: 6 cities, down banking
Carthage: 15 cities, up physics
Inca: 19 cities, up physics
China: 12 cities, down banking
Hittites: 19 cities, down education, metal
Netherlands: 14 cities, down banking and Mil tradition
Vikings: 24 cities, down banking

I will get physics in 3 turns at 50% science with -70gpt deficit. Thanks to Korea I have 1300gold though.
I also have 20 armies now, mostly defending the super wide front we have.

For as backwards as they are, those Hittites sure are being annoying. They've got gazillions of units in there.

That's a fearsome Viking force, too. Thank goodness they aren't technologically advanced - but Berserkers are no desirable opponent. Good luck taking out the Maya and Carthaginians quickly.

And is that a city named "Beach Soccer" that I see?

I played 2 turns and if you wonder, what kind of monster stacks I am talking about, take a good look at this one...

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/3393/awdg129vy0.jpg

Hope I can survive this :eek: :eek: :eek:

:eek: :eek: :eek: is right. I don't know what to do in the face of those stacks. Is Crocket by any chance on a hill? I sure hope the appearance that it is isn't a false appearance. If so I guess I'd batten down the hatches in there and cross my fingers. The alternative is to get as many Cavalry as possible over there and attack the stacks as much as possible and try to kill the Zerks before they can attack...but you'd need an awful lot of Cavalry.

How to survive such an onslaught actually.

Well, there are several issues. As long as the AI thinks you have cities not defended in the hinterland with strongly defended border towns, it will ignore these and head for the core. Now, add to that the ability of cavalry and armies to flank unit and damage them as they pass, huge stacks can be slowly divided and worn down. This takes patience and the ability to stay calm and not panic.

Of course there is only so much one can do and if the forces are overwhelming and the front too spread, nothing can be done.

Here is the series of movement by Vikings and then additionally Dutch and Inca from 1140AD to 1170AD.

The Vikings take the route through the woods as expected. They reach Crocket in 1140AD. I have a full health knight army that I dare not move.
http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/1268/awdg132hc1.jpg

As can be seen, they bypass the city taking some hits. The Dutch knights move towards Erlangen, but bypass it as well.
http://img108.imageshack.us/img108/5576/awdg133rq8.jpg

In 1160AD many units have passed Crocket, but made the mistake to split themselves into 3 stacks that are much easier to handle. I aim at the weakest with the fewest pikes on top and take them ou as good as I can.

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/3160/awdg135zw1.jpg

In 1170AD, another cav army has been pulled in to help take out more of their units. So far no single attack has been witnessed. I can take out the unwounded units. Some of their units are no making their way back to neutral land to heal. However, there are Dutch foot soldiers approaching as well and I might well see many more units :eek:
http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/6748/awdg137ka3.jpg

The intense fighting on the other side of the front, the east, yields a 22nd army. Of all the 22 armies I have, a mere 5 are used to attack and take out the enemy. the rest is busy defending the huge frontlines.
http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/1107/awdg134bw3.jpg



On the other hand, I refuse to give up and razed a few more Maya and Carthage cities. Below are more victims of my campaign. However, Mayas still send over many units and their cavalry gives me more headache as they go after the lightly defended north.
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/355/awdg130nt8.jpg

http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/4093/awdg131qe6.jpg

http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/9113/awdg136yl1.jpg

Stats at the end of 1170AD:

The stats for cities and techs
Celts (me): 90 cities
Maya: 4 cities
Carthage: 12 cities, up ToG and magnetism
Inca: 19 cities, up ToG and magnetism
China: 12 cities, down banking, physics
Hittites: 19 cities, down banking, astro and metal
Netherlands: 14 cities, down banking, physics and Mil tradition
Vikings: 24 cities, down physics

I will get magnetism in 5 turns at 50% science with -80gpt deficit.

Do you have any idea where the viking core is? It seems like those five attacking armies are better used taking out them, because those stacks are only getting bigger and bigger.

This game is making me think that always war sid on tiny or small pangaea is possible, because it looks like you're getting way more units than a sid would send you on a small map, but on the other hand, the higher OCN allows you to build more defenders.

Do you have any idea where the viking core is? It seems like those five attacking armies are better used taking out them, because those stacks are only getting bigger and bigger.Well, I am currently dealing with the initial stacks of Vikings and dutch (soon). After that, Vikings will be powerful no doubt with 24 cities. However, until I have taken care of those initial stacks, I can not afford to go after them. My armies are way too far from them. I rather continue to take out Maya and then Inca.

This round of turns was very intense, no wonder if you have to face hundreds of units, literally.

The Viking/Dutch front kept on being a real hot zone. Unfortunately, the east saw some very intense pressure from China/Hittites and Carthage as well. As the Maya came with annoying pillager sacks, I wanted to get rid of them as fast as possible.

A few more pictures from our western front first. Increasingly, the Dutch start to block the Vikings and vice versa, letting me slow them down and take out. Of course, this is the ideal kill zone as well and I am never short of MGL's when I need them.

This is the situation in 1190AD, few Viking units left at this moment.
http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/4519/awdg139rc7.jpg

I decide to give up that town that sticks out a bit to consolidate my front. It is much easier to defend and it makes no sense to park a knight army there with no real purpose. The army I gain here is sent to help fight the Maya, though it will be some time to reach the borders.
http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/4083/awdg141bu4.jpg

In 1210AD the Dutch now start to come into our territory.
http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/1386/awdg143vx1.jpg

In the meantime, I continue to take out Carthage and Maya cities. Carthage still has immense number of their mercs harassing me. It is pretty annoying.

http://img124.imageshack.us/img124/1588/awdg138bt5.jpg

And another Maya city is gone
http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/8411/awdg140pd9.jpg

Taking out Tikal, leave Maya with 2 cities and I try and speed up the efforts. The additional cavalry army is speeding as fast as possible to help out.
http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/2425/awdg142fe3.jpg

Will I be able to take them out. In the meantime, more Mayan units keep pouring in and pillage some roads in our north. There is no point to try and take out the stack of JT's, muskets and spears. I simply have to wait to take their remaining 2 cities.

Just to give you an idea what I face in the north and east, take a look at this mammoth battleground. It's 1230AD and I am now researching he final MA tech before going for IA and steam. ToG is known by 2 civs and takes me 8 turns.
http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/2329/awdg145nf0.jpg


However, taking out more Carthage cities shows some effects finally. First of all, they lose production and secondly, they now produce expensive cavalry rather than cheap mercs.

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/1166/awdg144lv4.jpg

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/4264/awdg147xo0.jpg


But, the more important issue are the Mayas to get rid of their last 2 cities. I take the second last city and keep it 2 turns to fully heal before assaulting their capital.
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/8640/awdg146tt2.jpg

In between, th fighting gives me 2 more leaders, the first turns into army #24 as I have now 96 cities. Th second is sent to the core to rush a bank.
http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/6423/awdg148is0.jpg

The moment of extreme joy :goodjob: :dance:
http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/8720/awdg149pw0.jpg

I now own the pyramids. I plan to keep this cites for free granaries.

The statistics at 1255AD:

The stats for cities and techs
Celts (me): 97 cities
Carthage: 9 cities, up ToG
Inca: 19 cities, up ToG and show railed roads..thus have nationalism and steam
China: 12 cities, down magnetism
Hittites: 19 cities, down banking, astro and metal
Netherlands: 14 cities, down physics
Vikings: 24 cities

I will get ToG in 4 turns at 50% science with -80gpt deficit.

Next targets will be Inca and Vikings. Incas have started to hit a coastal town with a myriad of frigates. the once blooming city is now size 1 :(

I will go for steam -> electricity, medicine and sci methods if the ToE has not fallen by then.

Would the balance of power now shift for me, now that I have one enemy less?

well, it turns out that it is still the cliffhanger it has been since quite a while. But I am slowly gaining the upper hand

Vikings are always a danger due to the zerk attacks from the sea. I am no able to defend every coastal town with 2 defenders. In fact, they are looking for the weakest link here,this town wasn't defended at all in order to lure Vikings and Dutch to bypass the other cities

http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/4199/awdg150en3.jpg

I retaliate by taken out a first Inca city. these guys have money and gaining more each turn. I am sure they get gpt payments from the other. Good for us as long as they make more money.
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/5249/awdg151ua5.jpg

We do not mind more money :D Two cav armies are still fine to attack against rifles. I simply have to ensure they do not get infantry.
http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/3850/awdg154bk8.jpg

Then, alll of a sudden Vikings decide to strike Crocket and almost eliminate 2 armies and some other units. :eek:
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/3922/awdg152xa7.jpg

In case you wonder what the front looks like in 1280AD, here is an overview of the immense frontline I have to defend in the west. This takes up most of the armies I have. I am on my way to steam which takes a total of 12 turns at 50% science.

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/6846/awdg153nt7.jpg

The Inca get more annoying with cavalry and rifles. I have to shift my cannons and trebuchets north first before bing able to fight them off better. Luckily the pressure from Vikings and Dutch eases a bit.

Incas decide that it is fine to attack a defense 2 army and we lose the army and the town.
http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/1830/awdg155ti5.jpg
I regroup and send newly gained cavalry armies north to help out. This does help some.

At the same time, I continue to get at them to gain more money and make them weaker as they are the tech leaders with all 3 first tier IA techs.

The towns are pretty close together and have 2-3 rifles in them, easy targets for my 2 cav armies combo.
http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/8023/awdg157gs2.jpg

More money for us :goodjob:
http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/7797/awdg159yj2.jpg

With the target rich environment, I do not need to wait long for more armies. In fact whenever I have 4 more cities, an army will soon be added.
http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/2782/awdg158cv3.jpg

Don't forget Carthage, Hittites and China. Carthage seems to throw their last contingent at us just like Maya did. I have to fight off a big number of their invaders/pillager. China and to less intense degree Hittites add to this.

However, Carthage faces the onslaught of 3 cav armies by now and they do suffer with few towns left.
http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/5277/awdg156zh5.jpg

The statistics at 1305AD:

The stats for cities and techs
Celts (me): 105 cities
Carthage: 5 cities, up nationalism and medicine
Inca: 15 cities, up nationalism and medicine and steam, 11000 gold :eek:
China: 12 cities, down ToG
Hittites: 19 cities, down banking, astro and metal
Netherlands: 14 cities, down physics
Vikings: 24 cities

I will get steam in 6 turns and hopefully have some source of coal somewhere. In fact I suspect there is coal in Carthage land as they have plenty of jungle.

The world as we know it
http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/8352/awdg160jl4.jpg

Oooooohhh, that gives me the whim-whams in my belly, just reading about it. :eek: Still, I always look forward to the next installment. Good writing! :D

Intense as always. Good thing Crocket held. Looks like you're finally gaining the upper hand. Keep up the domination!

Well, if I was playing this game it'd already be long over. Awesome job, and I like how you're telling the story more with screenshots than anything else. Also, it's good that you're not just telling us every battle, but rather giving a summary of the major events. Of course, there are probably so many battles that telling them all would take hours, but you get the idea. :crazyeye:

EDIT: I just realized that my first sentence oculd be misinterpreted. I mean, I would have lost a long time ago if I was the player here, rather than you. ;)

There aren't many people who could survive this long AWDG on this map. Very well done so far, ThERat, and keep it up :goodjob:

Thanks guys for your compliments...

Lexicus, nice to hear that you like my reporting style. I surely cannot talk about individual battles on such a scale. I have so many battles every turn alone...it's the bigger picture and strategy that matters and that is what makes such an epic game so nice.

For now, I just hope I have coal and can start to rail. It's getting tougher to get settlers to destination. However, I still can't afford to keep enemy cities as my defenders aren't strong enough. If I had infantry, it would be a different picture.

@ Tasslehoff: I know that. ;)

@ThERat: Anytime. I've read the stories of SirPleb's Sid game, and handy's Byzantine Always War game, and both were pretty similar. Still, though, you are brief about the massive volume of fighting, which is always good.
As an aside, how many enemies do you have in total?

As an aside, how many enemies do you have in total?In total there are 31 nations, the maximum allowed.

I have not met a large number of them due to me disabling the PP contact trading.

So, far, I took out Germany, England, Ottoman and Maya
I know Carthage, Netherlands, Inca, Scandinavia, Hittite and China.

Thus, there are still 20 other Civs out there :eek: I sure hope they are on different landmasses and not on one continent together as this would speed up research a lot.
I estimated the number of Civs on my continent to be 3/8 * 31 = 11.6 and so far it's quite accurate with 11.
Even the number of cities on my continent are quite close to the overall. At the moment, there are 204 cities I and the known Civs have. 3/8 *512 gives 192 cities.

Thew trend that started during the last session continued and it is looking better for me now in terms of military domination on my continent.
The fact that no new enemy appears, helps a lot as the initial stacks are eliminated. My razing campaigns also do show some effect on the AI.

I sent one cav army north to find new enemy territory once Carthage is taken out. Hittite land is closest and I start attacking there. It's a little risky with only 1 army and I do attack only with a fully healed army, thus progress will be slow initially.
http://img112.imageshack.us/img112/8300/awdg161gt9.jpg


It's of course, far more lucrative, to attack Inca with their mountains of cash.
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/2730/awdg162se5.jpg

In the meantime, I have been producing a few frigates to fight off Viking boats. However, 2 frigates sail east and discover a new enemy on the Island to the east. they are no worry as thy are backward and resourceless

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/481/awdg163at1.jpg

I also take out Carthage city #4 left. Carthage has been clearly slowing down by now and in fact the eastern front is much more quiet compared to 20-30 turns ago.
http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/814/awdg164bz5.jpg

I finally get steam. It was sped up a little by 70% research due to the abundant cash I gained. Best part is, that coal is already connected, though I can' seem to find it. It must be hidden under some city.
http://img379.imageshack.us/img379/4582/awdg165nk0.jpg

RR is extremely slow due to the fact that I simply could not afford to have more workers. This will change now and I insert a lot of worker builds.

Of course, I do not set the research to nationalism. I still have hope to get ToE and set research to electricity, which can be done in 12 turns at 60% science. I get the following message that gives me mixed feelings.
First off, I am really hopeless according to this statistics. However, Inca are most advanced and they do NOT have electricity yet. The do have fascism and industrialization.

http://img112.imageshack.us/img112/2969/awdg166xh0.jpg

All the more we need to keep taking their cities. Despite all this, their bank account keeps on rising and they do have more than 20000gold by now

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/2260/awdg167in9.jpg

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/3175/awdg169ne1.jpg

Carthage is almost down, this is their third last city
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/9284/awdg168hp0.jpg


The statistics in 1350AD:
Celts (me): 114 cities
Carthage: 2 cities, down steam, up nationalism and medicine
Inca: 12 cities, up nationalism, industrialization and medicine (+fascism), 19400 gold
China: 12 cities, down ToG
Hittites: 17 cities, down banking, physics and metal
Netherlands: 14 cities, down ToG, magnetism
Vikings: 24 cities, down steam
Spain: 6 cities

I will get electricity in 8 turns. I will then head for medicine and scientific methods and start prebuilds for ToE and Hoover on time

http://img466.imageshack.us/img466/8594/awdg170qw6.jpg

Good god. 31 Civs on Demigod? That map must be massive. Is corruption altered in some way, or do you have mostly 1-shield cities?

He set the Optimal City number really high (50 I think) so there is less corruption.

I set the OCN to 50, otherwise here are too many 1 shield cities and that's not fun with 512 cities.

I still did not build the FP, I am waiting for the right city on the other side of my continent so that I have another good production base there.

Having myself dug out of the relentless attacks, it's time to expand and take out the other Civs. If I can eliminate Hittites and China, I have the east of the continent for myself.

On the other hand, Inca have so much money, I need to take them out. of course, as they are the tech leaders so far, I do need to prevent them from spreading techs and getting RP. Fighting infantry would really be unpleasant.

The first message is not pleasant. Inca have espionage apparently and will try and upset my citizens or do other stuff.
http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/3671/awdg171lf7.jpg

Thus, I double my efforts and start sending over more cavalry armies yo deal with them. Two armies ain't enough.
http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/7742/awdg172py4.jpg

And there they go one by one, giving me a lot of cash in exchange.
http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/4015/awdg174xt5.jpg


Then soon after that, I manage to take out Carthage, this will make the fight in the east that much easier.
http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/2603/awdg173hs8.jpg

The image below shows an overview of the western front in 1375AD. I am 2 turns from electricity on the way to scientific methods. It can be seen that the activities are rather little compared with some time ago. In the upper corner my railnet workers can be seen. With rails connecting the core to each front, defending is much easier and more armies can be freed to move to the enemy cities.
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/4383/awdg175ay7.jpg

With both fronts easier to handle, I can afford to use a knight army to gain my third lux. Now, I am able to reduce lux spending to 0%. This is needed as unit support hits 200gpt at the moment with many more workers produced for my railnet and project science farms.
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/1450/awdg176st1.jpg

I continue to move into Inca land taking out their cities.
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/5935/awdg177fi4.jpg

Electricity comes in and medicine is 8 turns away (later reduced to 7 turns due to more scientists and huge deficit research)
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/3456/awdg178qe7.jpg

Immediately a very funny message comes up. As I have disabled contact trading, MPP's seem another way for more contacts. I don't even know those fellows. Arabs are advanced though, as hey finish US soon after that. So far, i do not know where they are and how many cities they have or which techs.
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/7859/awdg179ly2.jpg

Well, I had better take care of the Inca faster

Another city gone
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/1231/awdg180al8.jpg

What are they thinking? This doesn't mean much to me as I abandon this city anyway as all the others including the Newton city. I can't afford to keep i as it would cause huge flip risk and occupy my armies.
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/7461/awdg181rz2.jpg

And to my big surprise, there is another Civ hidden in the fog in the west. I moved an army towards Vikings and see this. :eek: Another huge stack of units will storm towards me. It's just a matter of time until we get the contact.
http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/2739/awdg182xj5.jpg

In 1400AD, the known world looks like this to me:
http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/9173/awdg183qv3.jpg


The statistics:
Celts (me): 124 cities
Inca: 7 cities, up nationalism, industrialization and medicine, fascism,espionage, ironclads 14000 gold left
China: 12 cities, down ToG
Hittites: 14 cities
Netherlands: 14 cities
Vikings: 24 cities
Spain: 9 cities
Arabia: unknown number of cities and techs

I will get medicine in 4 turns. Prebuilds for ToE and Hoover started.

Truly amazing. I'm playing the Emperor COTM right now and it reminded me how tough even Emperor is (I've yet to win on it), and here you are winning on Always War Demigod.

Rome might not be on your continent. They could have just dropped off a Settler there and later trained a worker to create a colony. Like you said, the odds of them not having found you are so low it's almost impossible to believe.

Rome might not be on your continent. They could have just dropped off a Settler there and later trained a worker to create a colony. Like you said, the odds of them not having found you are so low it's almost impossible to believe.I'd say this is almost impossible as well, as the would need a coastal town. Remember how early the city limit was hit. Nobody would have had the means to cross an ocean. Unless they are very closeby on a small island maybe.

By the way, AWDG is winnable, we have done that quite a few times. AWD is really a killer, but the last AW game with the old handy crew was won on a standard size pangaea in AWD. It is a nice read, if you check the old SG's.

Inca: 7 cities, up nationalism, industrialization and medicine, fascism,espionage, ironclads 14000 gold left
THAT ought to finance a whole lot of deficit research!!! :eek: How many scientists do you have at this point?

Played another 10 turns (yesterday was a public holiday here for Indians called Deepavali).

I am well on my way to get medicine and scientific methods. The pre build is nicely timed for the ToE to come in at the same time.
But, Inca do not think that's appropriate and do this

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/8237/awdg184rs8.jpg
:eek: That's amazing and very bad for me. The first time I see a really great espionage mission by the AI. Bad thing is they use their money I want to grab for this as well. I start to massively rail Alesia and get it to 40spt. However, his won't be enough to get 600 shields on time now. :mad:

Continue to milk them instead. Though they have less cities, money is still abundant.
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/3368/awdg185lp0.jpg

http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/7941/awdg188un1.jpg


I finally start to take out Viking cities. It is slow going with one army there. They do have muskets as op defenders only luckily.
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/5181/awdg186rx1.jpg

At about the same time I start to move on to China. I now want to get rid of Hittites and China fast so that I can concentrate on the west and send many armies there.
http://img104.imageshack.us/img104/1746/awdg187bp3.jpg

Then all of a sudden Inca have no more money and a new tech called Replaceable Parts. At this time, they have only 3 cities left and luckily no rubber. Even Arabia is behind them in techs lacking RP. They must have gotten it from someone else wasting around 5000gold...

With more armies to spare, I have stopped forming 4 cav armies to fill them with 3 units only so that we can ship them somewhere else. The obvious target, in fact the only overseas Civ I know of, is the victim. The only units they have are archers and spears, not really that impressive. They would not even attack my cavalry.
http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/1997/awdg189di2.jpg

In 1440Ad, when scientific methods is 2 turns away, the Roman fast units come towards my land. They forgot, that I have massive artillery (more than 100 pieces) and enough cavalry that can defend almost anything by now
http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/1153/awdg190jh0.jpg

Meanwhile I assemble 6 armies to take out the final 2 Inca cities. The strike is successful and RP removed from the known enemies for now.
http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/4149/awdg191ap6.jpg

With the biggest threat for now removed, forces can be diverted to attack Netherlands after that which have cities next to Inca in the west. My armies only need to heal.

In 1450AD, scientific methods comes in and we still need 4 turns for ToE.
http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/6854/awdg192dm7.jpg

Now, I have to convert all scientists (around 200) to taxmen for 4 turns as I can't get any useful tech in such a short time. Sanitation takes 6 turns. Thus, I will get a budget surplus of 800gpt.

And finally, the mini map with the information about cities. None of the AI on my continent have nationalism now. taking cities should be fast. In fact I have a hard time replacing cities with my own as I have to keep up with settler production. I will try and keep as many Hittite and Chinese cities as possible.
http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/6606/awdg193il6.jpg

Wow. I've never actually seen the AI sabotage anything. Was that a ToE prebuild in Alesia that they hit? Bad for you, but it looks like they got what they deserved for it.:hammer:

Was that a ToE prebuild in Alesia that they hit?Yes, it was the prebuild and since my capital army prebuild was matched to that, Hoover will be done so much later. Well, since I need factories and industrialization anyway first, this will be fine.
I will go for RP first before that.

Conquest of my continent is gaining speed. With 150 cities, there are potentially 37 armies possible. At the moment, cities are taken very fas and I can't keep up with MGL events...

Start to attack Netherlands, they do not have rifles, thus it should be a little easier.
http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/9625/awdg194nn5.jpg

However, progress in the northeast is much faster. I am sending a lot of armies there now and keep the cities. Bigger cities give me more unit support and more scientists. Since I am on the southern side of the continent, I also suspect that it is good to have some production capacity there in the north for my navy.
http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/1921/awdg195cp0.jpg

After 4 turns, I get ToE (I was a bit worried that some unknown Civ might build it)
http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/1417/awdg196ml7.jpg

Hoover will take another 18 turns though. I am going for RP in 7 turns.

I then take out another Civ, the Hittites. Only China is left in the northeast.
http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/3877/awdg197cd0.jpg

Progress in the west is much slower and my 6 armies there aren't doing the best job, getting injured far too fast.

http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/5910/awdg198on4.jpg

All my attention is focussed on the north anyway as I prepare for a full scale assault on China. I put down rail track all the way there to be able to send troops over. I am not so worried about my borders anymore as China has very few units to attack.

http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/7466/awdg199bc7.jpg

I manage to take almost all their cities except on last city on the tip of the continent.
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/8403/awdg201ze5.jpg

Of course, thy have no chance and using only cavalry (no armies) I am able to take them out :dance: Now my continent is split into 2 and I only face one front. This will make it easier for me to focus my attacks on the 3 remaining Civs there.
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/3732/awdg202ls0.jpg

In the meantime, the Roman foot soldiers have arrived to invade my land. Massive artillery attacks wear them down.
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/3768/awdg200pq7.jpg

I manage to finally take out one of their cities. Romans are still in democracy and this will rock their happiness...
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/8098/awdg203gc6.jpg

That's quite a Roman stack! How's your treasury for upgrading the cannons after RP comes in?

A few turns ago I started to explore the waters a little as we soon need to find another landmass for expansion. Arabs must be somewhat north to me as they keep on bombarding my shores. I run into a Japanese convoy

http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/555/awdg204cd2.jpg

So, they think we are backwards? Well, that will change my friend. Anyway, just like the Arabs they still lack sci methods. Due to this new contact, research to RP drops by a turn and I can get it in 6 turns after all :D

My conquest in Spain is completed. They had no chance with such lousy units and I played them put by luring them to the wrong places thus emptying their cities.
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/7040/awdg205ah1.jpg


It's now the year 1500AD, the situation in the west is like this. A bit crowded, but I can take care of the units with massive shelling. I have now shifted a lot of armies towards the Viking land and hope to speed up my progress there. I do have 40 armies now. Quite a few of them are fragile with 3 units only, but I will keep them for shipping purposes. Industrialization takes 5 turns from scratch. I will then head for flight immediately for faster conquest.

http://img161.imageshack.us/img161/1224/awdg207zz1.jpg

The world as I know it now. I have not yet discovered any other landmass.

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/185/awdg206ij5.jpg

My treasury? As you can see I have a lot of money, but rather keep it for deficit research until I find another Civ to milk. I do not need artillery yet as no AI on my continent has infantry (they are far away from that and won't ever get it I guess)

The next ten turns from 1500 - 1550AD bring us more contacts and first sight of other landmasses.

One of the frigates that started their journey eastwards hits a shore. Finally we have some idea where to travel.
http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/1507/awdg208dl2.jpg

Meanwhile the home front is somewhat quiet as I can easily repel the attacks. They do give me many leader so that I can rush builds such as factories or the FP.
http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/5913/awdg209qu7.jpg

I decide to build it way north where we could use some decent shipyards. At least we get now 3-5 shields in those former Chinese coastal towns. Overall income also improves with the FP.
http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/7100/awdg210yn7.jpg

A plethora of contacts follows. I meet Sumer in the northwest, somewhat closer to our land hat the first sight of land.
http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/7808/awdg211uj4.jpg

We meet America not far from the first spot and our exploring frigates get attacked and sunk :(
http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/6859/awdg212pf7.jpg

More 'friends' show up. Babylon isn't that far from America,.
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/2196/awdg213fd4.jpg

Near Sumer land I meet another decently backward Civ. Sumer and Mongols seem to be th right targets for our first landfall and I rush some navy to sail over.
http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/742/awdg214hr4.jpg




At home, I finally get some momentum going in the west and take out 5 Vikings cities in one turn. The image below shows 4 of their inner cities, another city is in ex-Dutch land.
http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/2211/awdg215hu3.jpg

Dutch equally suffer and I get to their core. It is time to move west in a swift campaign, the time is ripe and next turn should see a massive blitz attack on all 3 remaining Civs.
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/1698/awdg216cy1.jpg

The known world, distances seem far but I spotted a very short passage to a green Civ I avoided to meet. I want to settle opposite there, rush a navy and surprise them with a landing before they can attack my navy.
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/2343/awdg217th7.jpg

As for techs, I am now researching steel in 5 turns. Corporation was done in 4. The AI is up both steel and refining, I do hope they aren't that much further up the tech tree. Arabs are now fascist as they seem to fight some war. The rest of the advanced Civs there are democracies. I will go for techs until flight myself, then go for nationalism and maybe espionage.

I actually have a lot of cash and might go for espionage straight after refining when I get a better idea about the state of the AI. None of them has atomic theory though.

So, would I be able to eliminate the enemy on my continent in just a few turns? By the way, in the picture it says 3 Viking cities, but there are actually 6 of them left.

I start the turn and RR my way towards the remaining Dutch cities. Since they have a mere 3 cities left, I manage to take them out in 1555AD.

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/8968/awdg218dl8.jpg

I frantically look for almost every available army and cavalry unit. There are also not enough workers to be able to take out the enemy in 1 turn. Still, having eliminated the Dutch and only started to take Viking and Roman cities in the first turn, flip risk is non existent. I then proceed to take the remaining cities, again using all forces I have available (and many armies are wounded). In the whole process of the 2 turns, I lose 2 armies, but gain this. (Somehow lost the picture of the Viking elimination).
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/3457/awdg219nc9.jpg

This is the former Roman land, that I have acquired. I keep all the cities that I gained in the last 2 turns except for 2 that are replaced at the northwestern beachfront to sail over to the green Civ. I take our 28 cities in a swift 2 turn blitz.
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/8302/awdg220mt1.jpg

Not much later I get Hoover. I will swap my core cities slowly to factories (or have done so). Alesia now makes a whopping 80spt and can churn out 1 turn cavlary. I set it soon to a IA prebuild though as I decided to go for nationalism after steel. There are too many techs known by the AI, that I could grab.
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/3825/awdg221af0.jpg

Having cleared my own continent and owning 230+ cities, it is time to focus on the other landmasses (?).

I land a first army next to the last Sumer city. Sumer must have been getting a beating as they have lost their entire cities in the last few turns. In fact, I am witnessing the elimination of Sumer by Arabia straight after the landing (what a timing). The good part is that Arabia having taken the city, leaves it very lightly defended. I can take it out with ease and draw first blood on the other continent.
http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/2994/awdg222gj4.jpg

I also meet 2 more civs and I get the feeling that I am facing a huge landmass. The Portugese have a colony way west and also a ton of units fighting Sumer.
http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/6492/awdg223td1.jpg

So, it turns out that green is actually Persia.
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/5619/awdg224pk8.jpg

The I meet an isolated Civ, the Zulu, completely backwards on a useless Island. If only it had some luxury that I would love to have.
http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/2074/awdg226eo1.jpg


Back to the other continent, I invade the green Civ and land next to their impressive cities.
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/3326/awdg225hs8.jpg

I continue to ship over more armies and spot a Portugese destroyer (means the AI has combustion while I am still getting nationalism). I am lucky that the AI only attacks sporadically with some ironclads. Settling 5 cities at the coast opposite, I churn out quite a few frigates and galleons to ship over armies.
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/7696/awdg227gl4.jpg

I manage to take out 2 Mongol cities that are really lighly defended. I have shipped in 4 armies there, but all are still filled with only 3 cavalry.
http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/431/awdg228ql6.jpg

http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/8919/awdg229yu2.jpg

I snatch my first victory in Persia. I have shipped over additional cavalary and all 4 armies are filled with 4 units each. Attacking with a healthy cav army is slightly risky, but should be ok. Strangely the razing of the city nets a mere 4 slaves
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/994/awdg230hq0.jpg

The next few rounds will be interesting. The homefront is pretty quiet (only babs landed some 10 units so far). I am maximising my science farms (currently around 500+ of them)

I got nationalism in 4 turns while making some profit. Espionage will be done in 2 turns at 0% science. This gives me more cash for steals and rushing a navy. I have been disbanding cannons to partially rush them.
The palace prebuild is ready and I will get IA the same turn I get espionage. I hope I can steal my way up to combustion. This means, I have to steal 3 techs (refining + combustion + sanitation). I do hope that the AI is no further than that. Once the AI gets flight, things can turn pretty ugly. Bombers will relentlessly attack armies.

Thus, I have to be very quick to make sure, the Persian cities are gone by then. If they get bombers, they can attack almost anything in sight. (bomber range is enhanced on the monster map)

Nice 28-city blitz. I'm surprised you're able to advance against Persian metropolises with Infantry garrisons without excessive casualties. Do you have any plans for Artillery over there - once you get Replaceable Parts at least?

The Zulu aren't a total loss. They've got 10 cities the more advanced and dangerous civilizations can't settle. And when it comes time to conquer them, they shouldn't be a danger at all.

Nice 28-city blitz. I'm surprised you're able to advance against Persian metropolises with Infantry garrisons without excessive casualties. Do you have any plans for Artillery over there - once you get Replaceable Parts at least?Oh, I got RP long time ago, before even heading for industrialization. The blitz would not have been possible without the more efficient workers.

I am producing a lot of artillery right now and will ship them over as well. I have started to pillage the land while waiting for more armies. I would like to establish a town there shielded with armies so that the AI won't attack. However, I need to clear more of the Persian cities first to do that.

And, yes, I do not have any casualty yet, but I have attacked only 1 city so far and that was on grassland without river with completely health 4-unit cav armies. As you can see on the picture, the army is redlined but all 3 survived (there were a mere 3 infantry inside). I am sure there will be some casualties as I had especailly blitzing Vikings and Romans. I did lose quite a few cavalry and 2 armies then.

I just checked the odds of the army attacks and it doesn't look that bad

Formula for armies:
New 4-Cav Army w/MA Bonus: 18 hp, Attack factor of 12 (6 attack for the cav, bonus of (4*6)/4=6).

So, my cav armies have an attack factor of 12 as I have the Mil Academy.

As per combat calculator the odds are 95.8% that I defeated those units. No wonder, I did not lose. :D

Now, make that a city with civil defense behind a river and odds are 87.8%. not too bad either.

Shouldn't it be,

4 Cav Army w/18 hitpoints: Total strenght of 18*6 = 108

4 Hitpoint Infantry Fortified in a Metropolis on Grasslands: 40 * 2.35 = 94

I'm not sure it's exactly 108/94, but it shouldn't be 95%, should it?

The Combat Calculator (http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3/combatcalc.php) I'm using says a 15-hitpoint Cavalry army should win 51.4% of the time, so an 18-hitpoint one should be somewhere between 55 and 60% based on that, I'd think.

INew 4-Cav Army w/MA Bonus: 18 hp, Attack factor of 12 (6 attack for the cav, bonus of (4*6)/4=6).

So, my cav armies have an attack factor of 12 as I have the Mil Academy.


The Military Academy gives a bonus to armies? I thought it just let you build veteran armies? And from what I read in the CivEditor, all Veteran status does in 3 is give an extra hitpoint and additional chance to retreat. Did I miss something somewhere?

The Military Academy gives a bonus to armies? I thought it just let you build veteran armies? And from what I read in the CivEditor, all Veteran status does in 3 is give an extra hitpoint and additional chance to retreat. Did I miss something somewhere?

In this calculation:

Formula for armies:
New 4-Cav Army w/MA Bonus: 18 hp, Attack factor of 12 (6 attack for the cav, bonus of (4*6)/4=6).

the division by 4 in the bonus is actually a division by 6 if you do not have the Military Academy. See this article in the War academy:
Basics of Armies by Theoden (http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3/strategy/armies.php)

@Quintillus: I think you are using the wrong combat calculator (looks like vanilla type to me).
Armies have been further boosted in C3C. You can fill them with 4 units via pentagon and the Mil Academy gives the said bonus of a smaller denominator in the formula. Thus, it results in a attack strength of 12.

combat calculator (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=75765)I used this one and it seems more realistic to me judging from battle results.

Huh. Apparently armies do get a bonus in C3C. Seems rather cheap to me to get that bonus on top of the extra movement and AI almost never attacking it, but oh well. Now it makes even more sense why you're building tons of armies.

Nice VB combat calculator. Much more flexible than the HTML one. Nice link :goodjob:.

What a set of turns :eek:


Everything starts out very quiet by taking a lightly defended town from Portugal in ex Sumer land. Not that I mind every extra city. I MM to maximse my cash flow. I have now more than 20000gold and hope that it can get me those 3 techs.
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/6348/awdg231hs8.jpg

The interturn I get espionage sees me getting some extra cash (50gpt are always nice)
http://img239.imageshack.us/img239/2046/awdg232wj2.jpg

Of course, more important is this building that will let me steal some stuff I hope.
http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/5078/awdg233ek5.jpg

First I fail to plant a spy with Arabia, then success with 4 Civs that potentially have techs I need. (America, Babylon, Japan and Persia).
I start to try and grab some stuff, fail 2 times with a map losing my spy with Persia. Finally succeed with Babylon on two techs :dance:
http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/6086/awdg234ez6.jpg


Left with only 10000gold, I assume that sanitation is the next tech, I dial up the AI and spot this from Japan and get a real shock here. They have flight and mass production :eek: :eek: :eek:
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/2046/awdg235bx5.jpg

I have to try and grab those techs but might run out of gold doing so. I go for 2 careful steals and succeed both times leaving me with a mere 800gold.
http://img67.imageshack.us/img67/6359/awdg236ia5.jpg


I dial them up again and spot no more additional techs. I am on parity now and they don't have atomic theory. However, I don't even have enough money for a world map steal.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/2701/awdg237pb4.jpg

I go through every single city selling all granaries (from ex Viking and Romans cities, sell all walls and some barracks in super corrupt towns). This way I have enough cash for a steal for a world map and succeed

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/680/awdg239bo1.jpg


So, this is what the world looks like. There is a super continent there. I have landed on the closest gap in fact. But, the superpowers with flight, Japan and apparently Iroquois (can see their airports) are in the middle and not that far away.

I micromanage again and get motorized transport in 4 turns at s light surplus. I then decide on my strategy. Take out Persia and establish a beachhead there and conquer Japan and Iros from there. They have bombers and it will be tough to fight them as they will attack my armies without fail.

In the east, 2 armies will take out the remaining Mongol cities, no need to invest many units there.

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/7719/awdg238th9.jpg

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/3642/awdg243fn8.jpg


The initial landfall spot is used to extablish an airfield to lure the AI out of their cites and gain some upper hand in Persia.
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/8259/awdg240uj6.jpg

This works well, but I did not really expect to see this. can you believe this monster stack of 250 units :crazyeye:

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/1420/awdg241en8.jpg

In Persia, I slowly move on the AI bringing over some artillery. Unfortunately I lose all cash I had and can't upgrade my galleons. It will be slow progress first.
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/4953/awdg242pf0.jpg

I am now building bombers and more artillery. My plan is to wipe out the nearby Persian cities and then plant a city myself shielded by armies, so that we can open and close a gap at will. This way i might be able to create a funnel of death :D

250 units...wow. 250 units from a bunch of civs I wouldn't have been surprised with, but in one stack? :crazyeye: I hope you've got an awful lot of troops there.

Did you take those 250 units on or did you poof them?

This is absolutely insane rat. I'd almost dare say that this is the greatest AW game ever played, even greater than the deity pangaea game.

Did you take those 250 units on or did you poof them?

This is absolutely insane rat. I'd almost dare say that this is the greatest AW game ever played, even greater than the deity pangaea game.well, thanks but I do think the AWD on pangaea was more difficult since we had no chance to shield ourselves.

I left the SoD alone as there is no gain for me at the moment. In fact, the proper strategy for such a game is to let the AI choke on units. The proper way for this is to reduce their cities to rubble while leaving their stacks out in the wild.
Arabia is surely suffering already. They had been fascists, then changed back to democracy once their war with Sumer was over. Apparently my razing of their fringe cities has thrown them back to anarchy :D

The other Civs are mainly democracies, hence their immense tech speed. Imagine, I have 238 cities and yet, am behind in techs. This is insane. But, taking their units and cities will kill their happiness and overthrow governments. Persia has lost 2 metropolises already and is still a democracy. It would be interesting to see their clown allocation.

Since I still have a spy with Japan and America (all others lost during the stealing period), I know how many units Japan has.
They have around 150 cavalry, 100 guerilla, 250 infantry amongst other stuff with a mere 19 cities.

Compare that with my army, which consists of 200 cavalry, 30-40 infantry, it looks clear who is better. But, I have 53 armies, which will hopefully tilt the balance. I left the last 2 armies empty waiting for tanks to fill them.

In this game, I am pretty certain, nukes will be used to take out their cities and stacks. It will be fun. I might suffer too, though, as nukes will strike me as well I guess.
I am still debating which techs to go for in the Modern Age.

I will go for rocketry first to get aluminum and then head for modern armor (the ultimate killer unit). After that, I would tend to go for the lower 2 techs for their wonders (imagine the internet with 300+ cities, what a science and culture boost). Then go for nukes. Any opinion?

Are the most advanced AI civs now three techs (atomic theory, electronics and radio) from the modern age? Soon after that you'll be facing either mech or tow infantry and cavalry armies don't really cut it against them without the help of artillery/bombers.

How are you going to deal with the AI bombers? Are you going to make a super stack of armies and hope to destroy all/most of them by razing the nearest towns (of the AI civs that have them) where they most likely will be parked? Or are you going to build flaks and advance more slowly? Luckily you'll be able to ship your armies over to the other continent safely. It would be quite unpleasant having to travel 10 turns by boats first.

If this was a monarch game and the AI didn't have flight advancing would be fairly easy (relatively speaking of course). Now it's just nail-biting stuff :)

This (and your previous games as well!) has been an amazing read. As they say, one picture is worth a thousand words. You've written quite a long book by now! :goodjob:

The years until 1660AD are mostly spent establishing a new base at the second continent. Progress is very slow due to this.

First, I acquire the last compulsory tech to reach the Modern Age. I start research on rocketry that I can get in 6 turns at a reasonable deficit (70% science). I am still working on my science farms and get it up to 700+ of them.

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/3793/awdg244ea5.jpg


It helsp to keep on taking out some fringe cities slowly. I can then add proper fast growing science farms on my own continent.

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/562/awdg245vn5.jpg

http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/6994/awdg246fi4.jpg

As for Persia, I need to clear some space in Persian land before being able to establish a city there. A combination of bombers/artillery and completely healthy cavalry armies can do the job.

The armies are in position with a few artillery (around 3-4) for support.
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/3260/awdg247sj8.jpg

The cities are only defended by 3-4 infantry. However, the capital Persepolis is a harder nut to crack with 6 infantry defending. I still get the job done.
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/7486/awdg248bw4.jpg

Thus, I establish my overseas city. I am shielding it completely with armies for now so that nobody will attack. I can not afford that at the moment until I have far more artillery and units there including a funnel of death. The good thing is that transports can reach the city in 1 turn from my mainland. Unfortunately I only have 2 transports at the moment :(
http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/9494/awdg249ww8.jpg

uh... feel akward giving the rat advice but the AI will attack those armies because they are in the way of it's target. Better to leave them a path but pillage so they can't reach it in one turn.

Do the AI Destroyers ever attack your boats?

With the new city established, more units can be shipped over and cities can be taken out. The newly minted tank armies (3 of them so far, progress is faster as they can take out 2-3 infantry in 1 turn without getting too damaged). I manage to take out 3 more cities, but it is still only 1 a turn. I need to speed this up.

http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/5830/awdg250td5.jpg

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/6286/awdg251ik6.jpg

http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/1883/awdg252iw1.jpg


In the meantime, Iroquois declare war on me due to an alliance with Arabs. The bad parts is that they have a city near Arab land and start to bomb our armies. This is what I feared. I have 5 scattered 3-cav armies east of Persia near my initial landing. Now, I need to make a decision. I do that and decide to move on to that Iro city to take it out even if I will lose all my armies. It would remove the bomber danger as Arabs are still away from flight for a bit.


Below 3 screens for information. The first shows you a rough comparison of forces between Japan and myself. It only shows cavalry and infantry, they still have 200+ guerilla.
http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/8893/awdg253zj8.jpg

Number of cities, I am nearing 50% of all cities. Iro cities aren't known yet. But from the world map, I know they have more than 20 cities.
http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/9940/awdg254rp1.jpg

The tech situation. Japan is most advanced (we don't know about Iroquois yet). Japan has only 1 tech missing from the modern age in 1660AD. I am one turn away from rocketry before heading for ecology and modern armor.
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/6388/awdg255ge9.jpg


I also establish a proper funnel now with a few armies shielding and have opened the city to one side where I put an airport. Shipping over tanks and other stuff should help me to fight the stacks. I can always close the funnel if the situation gets too critical.

uh... feel akward giving the rat advice but the AI will attack those armies because they are in the way of it's target. Better to leave them a path but pillage so they can't reach it in one turn.The AI units are too far away to accidentally run into me. This scenario would happen only if there are plenty of units around. Anyway, I already opened the blockage and have a funnel of death there. In the end, the AI will start to block each other.


Do the AI Destroyers ever attack your boats?The destroyers seen in the pictures are convoy support and won't ever attack. That's one of the weird issue of C3C. However, I lost quite a few frigates. I have now destroyers on the way and transports safe in harbors every turn, so this should be ok.

The slow demise of Persia

The turns are getting noticeably slower. I only manage 3 turns last night. I keep on attacking Persia and taking out their big cities

http://img108.imageshack.us/img108/7899/awdg256hl8.jpg

http://img108.imageshack.us/img108/4919/awdg257rg6.jpg

Sometimes I simply raze them for more slaves, sometimes I keep them and abandon for more cash selling the improvements inside

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/6889/awdg259dg5.jpg



I also set up the funnel properly. However, the AI doesn't go for it yet as they chase 4 slaves that run through jungle....4 of my armies that are filled with 3 cavs only get shredded by Iroquois bombers :mad:
I swear I will get back at them

http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/3784/awdg258db1.jpg

I continue to take out their cities and assemble a proper SoD with some SAM inside. Hopefully this will help absorb the bomber attacks.

http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/7701/awdg261qc3.jpg

http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/4066/awdg262sp8.jpg

http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/4753/awdg263sd3.jpg

Last picture shows my battle plan for the following turns to take out that Iro city with bombers. This is their only city nearby
http://img103.imageshack.us/img103/7643/awdg264ck4.jpg

SAM should help with the Bombers; four Flak can take down half of an enemy's bombers in two turns IIRC.

I was thinking the same thing Own was thinking, that the AI would just send gazillions of Cavalry to attack your armies in the first city you took, especially with railroads leading right up to it. In the September GOTM I had an Infantry Army, a bunch of Infantry, and Artillery in a walled city on a hill and the Celts attacked it with more than 50 units in one turn despite the army. I'm surprised your defenders escaped that one unscathed. Surely at least Persia was close enough to reach it? Or had their rails been pillaged just outside the view of the screenshot?

n the September GOTM I had an Infantry Army, a bunch of Infantry, and Artillery in a walled city on a hill and the Celts attacked it with more than 50 units in one turn despite the army.your key word is city. The enemy will always attack cities no matter what's inside unless there are weaker targets as well. They won't attack my armies outside the city. They will now try and head for the city ignoring the armies. So far very few units passed by as they chase 4 slaves in the jungle (which they can't reach :lol: )

I will post pictures to show you what will happen in the funnel later on

Are you sure it's the Iroquois and not the Portuguese that are attacking with bombers?

you are right, the Portuguese also have flight now but I can follow the sequence and it's Iro so far that bombard me

Oh, I see now. You block the roaded way to the city with armies, and leave the unroaded ones open, later flanking them with armies, so the only way they can get to the city is through the funnel of armies. And they aren't able to get there before you kill them. Or at all if they keep chasing slaves in the 3-movement-per-turn jungle.

Slow progress, this won't be a steam roller. The AI has flight and bombers and that makes it all much slower. Attacking metros that have infantry inside isn't that easy either.

As laid out in the last picture before, I want to take that Iro city which lies east of Arabia. I need to take out some cites on the way there.
http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/5404/awdg265ex5.jpg

http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/6678/awdg266re2.jpg

Now, we have access to the city to attack next turn.
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/1432/awdg267jr7.jpg

he next turn, I attack th city and get this message. Another new enemy, I know there are still a few Civs we have no contact with, nobody being as advanced as Japan and Iro though. Both have completed all IA techs and should have tanks as well by now.
http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/8931/awdg268vf2.jpg

If I though taking our Marad would turn out an easy thing, I was completely wrong. After beating a few infantry, I decided to spy on the city and find that there are at leas 20 defenders inside :eek: I wait for all armies to arrive and attack a turn later depleting almost all of them.
http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/1694/awdg269gi3.jpg

I succeed however after a bloody battle. Iro's have money and get some of it

The situation at the landing site is changing. I have set up the funnel, but the AI ignores it. They always find a reason not to enter properly, be it slaves or some wounded units. I establish a fur colony to get a 4th lux to help my happy problems at home.
http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/7690/awdg270aq6.jpg

The colony attracts the AI far more than my funnel :( I put a ToW army on top hoping to discourage the attacks, but that does not work also.

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/46/awdg272ij6.jpg


Meanwhile, I finally kick out another Civ from the game. I do have around 260 cities by now, more than half.
http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/4925/awdg271xg3.jpg

I manage to remove the Portuguese cities that were nearby including some bombers inside. Happy that there are no bombers nearby now, I find out that Arabia just learned how to fly as well.
http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/2682/awdg273ei7.jpg

So, we need to get to Arabia as well on the way to Japan and Iro land anyway.
http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/3384/awdg274jx0.jpg

The AI really loves the colony and sends in massive stacks. We can so far repel all attacks. In the picture below you can see some Byzantines units actually making their way into my funnel as there are some slaves removing the orange goo.
What we can't prevent is the Japan using obviously 2 aircraft carriers to attack the armies that took out Arabia and some that try and make their way through the jungle towards Arabia. We lose 2 armies cav that way :mad:

http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/5130/awdg275um2.jpg

There is one nice thing about all the AI units swarming around. Tanks can double attack and create a host of leaders. As you can see, I have parked quite a few empty armies that wait for modern armor which are now almost done.
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/6647/awdg278kc3.jpg

I need to progress though, even if it is slow.
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/4784/awdg276fa0.jpg

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/6489/awdg277kp6.jpg

Finally a map of the world. All that lies between us and Iro/Japan is Arabia now. I try and keep my armies close together and cover with Sam's for some protection.
Iro's have rocketry now and I am 1 turn away from modern armor. I will switch to the lower paths then for the internet wonder.

http://img239.imageshack.us/img239/455/awdg279qx5.jpg

I have 268 cities now, which give me more than 800 scientists for a proper research speed :)

How many filled armies do you have now? With 268 cities, you should be allowed, what 57?

EDIT: I meant 67 :P

We're looking forward to a "100 armies of the Celts" screenshot!

Having many armies are not an issue. Getting them to the front will be as there is only 1 railed road through the think jungle between ex-Persia and Arabia and as you can imagine.

268/4 = 67...I have around 60 loaded armies right now.

:lol: at the colony that must be captured. Who'd've thought such an inoccuous fur colony would stir up so many troops?

Though I keep making progress, I feel it is too slow and the AI might beat me to a space ship launch (I am definitely not going for SS victory, it must be conquest).

By now, here are 5 Civs in the modern age and it looks very scary.

In Mongol land, 2 Iro tanks come and I know they are going to attack our 3 unit cav armies. I use one to raze a city, the slaves build 2 airport and ship out 2 slaves. One army flees into the mountains. As expected, the wounded cav army gets slaughtered.
http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/4770/awdg280ms7.jpg

In Arabia, my many armies c