After taking a break from this map script, I was thinking what to do. After a few new attempts on huge CIV maps with frustrating game play (you do not play war there but a builder game), I am back at the monster map. Can this be done at emperor and pangaea? We'll see

Decided NOT to take an agricultural Civ as they have too much of an advantage. With Dutch on AWE continents, I could outnumber the enemy early on. I still need a fairly strong Civ, so I chose Persia with great immortals (basically early maces). Persia has fast workers and is scientific, not a bad combo either.

Chose the third start as the first two were unacceptable jungle/desert hells.
Games and a cow aren't too bad for more food in the capital, off we go.
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/3684/awepan1ws1.jpg

Start a warrior and then a settler straight as there is now way to be able to survive if I get earlier contact any way.
How did I get out a settler if the city grows too slow, well, the borders popped and I could work another irrigated cow. Note also the ivory.
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/1420/awepan2nk3.jpg

As the land does not look too good for early iron, my bet has to be to get Statue of Zeus for a good early unit. My second city is next to 2 wheat tiles to take over settler duty from the capital that can go for unit production.
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/9973/awepan3cf9.jpg

Before I can really expand that much I meet the first 2 enemies to the west. I meet England having 4 cities. Note that my petty cash reserves are high as I started on a min run for iron working.
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/5834/awepan4bs8.jpg

Not much later, I meet the Ottomans.
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/2660/awepan5vj7.jpg

Well, where is all the iron? As expected the land has a lot of plains but no iron. I better get Zeus.
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/7237/awepan6wj7.jpg

Before too long, the English start to invade my land and I need to insert warrior code for archers before continuing to research the way up to literature for the Great Library.
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/4421/awepan7du4.jpg

The first chapter closes with me getting the desired wonder. A least I do have some units in th future to attack the enemy. Archers alone won't cut it, I guess.
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/7907/awepan8pz3.jpg

You certainly have plenty of food with 4 cows, 3 fish and 1 game. Is there no iron in all of those mountains?

Yay, new story!

I will definitely follow this, looking forward to some :hammer:

Good luck w/o iron :eek:

Good luck Rat!! :)

Yay! Another ThERat story! Goodluck!

Glad that some people will lurk this story...so let me continue with a little.

Having bagged SoZ, ACav's are my only real means to attacks enemies for the time being. I get the lucky break needed soon after that :dance:
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/4333/awepan9hq3.jpg

I focus on expansion for the moment while trying to fight off 3 enemies (for some strange reason the biggest enemy, India sends in 2 horses + spear and then never appears again (they might be blocked or busy elsewhere)
This is my empire in 430BC after getting literature. Note that the GLib will still take around 25 turns (I merge a worker to get the city to pop 6). I am not too optimistic to really get the Glib, though this is only emperor difficulty and all ancient wonders except for the Great Wall have fallen already.
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/2843/awepan10sh0.jpg

At having 12 cities, I get the expected message. (It really makes a difference to not being agricultural)
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/6707/awepan11nl7.jpg

I finally meet Netherlands (I could see their city for a long time before actually meeting their sailors). I am lucky as England and Netherlands lack iron and horses as well. Only Ottomans have iron.
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/6196/awepan12vm4.jpg

The Dutch are the perfect victims for my Acav army, flat land and only spears to defend, they have no chance against me.

The cities below are all razed and replaced.
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/6353/awepan13do4.jpg

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/2030/awepan15au1.jpg

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/422/awepan16py8.jpg

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/5884/awepan17cv1.jpg

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/2894/awepan18uz7.jpg

The Dutch are severely hit and have around 10 cities left while the attacks get me closer to 20 cities. I am confident to kick them out of the game before they acquire iron and pikes.

I get a second army as well on defense this time.
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/1317/awepan14no7.jpg

A little while later, the 3rd army is born while fighting in the southwest.
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/7527/awepan19nn4.jpg

All the time I am worried about the GLib. I continue with research after literature to get the wheel, ceremonial burial, polythesim. I decide to switch off research after that as the Glib is a mere 5 turns away when the Great Wall is built and some Civs cascade to Glib (luckily the Great Wall is only 300 shields)

I get the Glib as late as 30AD, this will be game breaking for now I hope. The next turn I get all AA techs except for republic (which I don't need anyway). Being scientific I get engineering as a free tech. Since I don't posses iron, I am happy with engineering as all the rivers make movement very troublesome..no more such hassle.
http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/1033/awepan20nz8.jpg

I revolt and draw 3 turns anarchy. At the same time I am now going after the Dutch core cities. As it is, I have too few settler for raze and replacements and forced to slow my expansion.
http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/3277/awepan21rh1.jpg

Ottoman swords are adding pressure in the western hills now to me, but so far spears hold on a hilly city behind walls.

My exploring spear spots iron inside English territory. :dance:
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/5838/awepan22tj3.jpg

While this is still quite a distance from my current borders, I should be able to get there after a while. Near ex-Dutch land is a horse as well. I hope I can get both resources for knights.

Before stopping the game for the night, I get Amsterdam with the Great Lighthouse (not very useful on a pangaea). The commerce will help me out as well as I plan to keep that city.

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/5416/awepan23go0.jpg


Some stats
Persia (me): around 20 cities
Ottoman: 10+ cities and techleader so far
Netherlands: a mere 10 cities left, suffering big time
England: 10+ cities, not really a threat with archers and spears
India: around 20 cities, but have mysteriously gone into hiding

The destruction of the Dutch certainly was fast :eek: . Or it seemed fast at least. How many years was that?

You are good at civ3

Well done and good luck!

Subscription post. :thumbsup:

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/5838/awepan22tj3.jpg


You're not planning to raise that city too are you? Thats kinda were I live.:mad:

I followed your last two stories- really great stuff. Good luck. I hope you can get iron in time to make your immortals useful!

All 31 Civs?

:eek:

You're not planning to raise that city too are you? Thats kinda were I live.:( I guess the city will be autorazed as it is pop 1 and without any culture, sorry

The destruction of the Dutch certainly was fast Wait, they aren't dead yet.

In fact I played quite a few rounds as the game is still at the early stages with little MM and interturns pretty fast. However, imageshack acted up yesterday and I wasn't able to upload many images. So, here is what I have...

I continue to take out Dutch cities, keeping some with value and razing others.

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/4977/awepan27cz4.jpg

On the other eside of the front, I start to invade England as I need that iron for knights soon.
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/4218/awepan24no4.jpg

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/6783/awepan26cx3.jpg

I get another MGL, that is used to rush the pentagon. On pangaea, one can safely say that 4 unit armies are the way to go.
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/3456/awepan25ou8.jpg

I do not waste a MGL for another small wonder though, as the HE gets handbuilt in my capital.

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/2240/awepan28ha3.jpg

Technology wise, I get the important feudalism, but my prebuild for SunTzu fails as the Iro's take that wonder later on. (They seem to be doing well as usual, the agricultural trait is just too powerful.
http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/7762/awepan31tb7.jpg

Below is an overview of the western front towards England in 390, a turn before I get feudalism. Their cities are no match for my ACav army. The only issue I have for faster expansion is a lack of good offensive troops besides my armies. The English are in the southwest corner of the pangaea, which makes invasion and keeping cities easier, as the only other foe nearby, the Ottomans attack elsewhere.

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/1530/awepan29hi7.jpg

Nice start. Evidently ancient cavalry (at least mostly) make up for the lack of immortals. Looks like you're off to a pretty good start with the Netherlands and English both severely weakened, and the Ottomans being the only other civ interested in fighting you. Not to mention getting the Great Library.

With Dutch and England almost knocked out of the game, it is a little easier for the time being.

I get another leader for a future knight army.
http://img127.imageshack.us/img127/1600/awepan32kj1.jpg

Well, it isn't that quiet any more as I meet the Inca, that still sent out a scout that suddenly pops up next to our borders.
http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/483/awepan33yk8.jpg

Things must always be in pairs, as I meet the Hittites as well. They are more advanced than all the other Civs.
http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/861/awepan34fw1.jpg

I hope both thier initial stacks won't be as scary as my frontlines aren't that properly secured due to fast expansion.

Good thing I can get rid of the first Civ this game, the Dutch.
http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/9546/awepan35kn5.jpg

Against the wishes from one lurker, Brighton is razed and Liverpool taken to free the path to my own iron source.

http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/6946/awepan36oa2.jpg

This is how my conquest in England looks like in the year 530AD. Finally I have iron with York taken and a colony formed. The road for knights is paved.
http://img470.imageshack.us/img470/1066/awepan37pq4.jpg

A short while later, London is taken. All these cities are kept.
http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/8333/awepan38di2.jpg

I manage to take out the first Ottoman city and strip them off their only iron source :dance:. I will have to be quick to make sure, I won't face sipahis.
http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/7793/awepan39zl3.jpg

I get gunpoweder in 560AD from Iroquois and Hittites. I had met the Iro's a turn earlier while taking out an Indian city in the north. The Iro's are strong and scary, working on Cops and Smiths. They are truly powerful with 19 cities. I hope with knights now, I can muster a better army to take their cities as they have a ton of cash.
http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/3453/awepan40mf2.jpg

After getting gunpowder, I start to do self reserach for chemistry as Iro's have education anyway.

I finally eliminate the English and can now concentrate on the northern foes Ottoman, Iroquois and India.
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/2904/awepan41bw0.jpg

I feel, research to cavalry has to be sped up and use an immortal to kick in my Golden Age. With around 50 cities, the GA will really be great. I start and finish quite a few cheap libraries and even universities.
http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/7219/awepan42eg5.jpg

Not everything is that smooth though as Incan galleys start to come from the east and their troops from the north to invade my badly defended nothern towns. I need to rush some barracks and get muskets (saltpeter is connected now)
http://img453.imageshack.us/img453/7546/awepan43vt2.jpg

In the north, Indians sport their war elephants and Iroquois show up with bigger stacks and caravels as well. It will be tougher from now on until I get cavalry. I actually managed to take the Ottoman capital with Bach's, but I need to give it up to Iro's as I don't want to raze the city, but can't defend it for now. I will need to get rid of more Ottoman cities first. The problem is thatr ACav armies are pretty useless against pikes in big cities. I only have 1 knight army, thus my campaign has slowed a lot.

Good job taking out the Dutch and English though. At least the southern front is secure. The Ottomans seem to be weakened as well - so long as more scouts don't find you, it looks like you'll be OK. At least, if AWDG was any indicator.

Is contact trading in this game at all? That's another wild card.

I was about to ask the same thing. Although, you managed the AWE on continents with contact trading, it makes the game significantly more difficult.

I disabled it as I think I would have no chance to survive the onslaught of potentially 20 Civs at the same time

Incas, Indians and Iroquois are now at my borders starting to threaten my cities. Good thing, I kicked off th Golden Age for faster cavalry and more troops.

Stacks getting bigger, Incas pour in with their initial troops, though these are much easier to handle than on demigod.
http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/2529/awepan45ao3.jpg

As Iroquois have a ton of money, I sacrifice a useless ACav army and take one of their cities for more than 700 gold.
http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/8628/awepan46wt3.jpg

Then, I meet the Vikings, yet another foe, advanced too :( As it is a caravel that gave the contact, I expect them to be pretty far away.
http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/7204/awepan47un0.jpg

This is the situation in the northeast in 590AD, Indians and Incas are attacking here. India has their fearsome war elephants. I can only salvage the situation by rushing 2 barracks and upgrading a few spears to muskets.
http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/1003/awepan48pw8.jpg

lady luck is smiling at me as I get 2 MGL's i immediate succession to save the day at that front. I convert those 2 into knight armies to help strategic defense.
http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/2148/awepan49cl0.jpg

http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/7316/awepan50to8.jpg

In the west, Iroquois are the ones pressing on to my cities. More upgrades from spears to muskets help. I can hold the lines while th few armies I have at the front, continue to take enemy cities.
http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/8453/awepan51hm5.jpg

Another of th few remaining Ottoman city goes. I plan to leave them with 1 city that claims horses as I don't want the Iroquois to get those, as they lack horses and saltpeter, my luck.
http://img458.imageshack.us/img458/3080/awepan52pl4.jpg

More armies are gained and those are turned into cav armies that will be needed to make some faster gains on the front.
http://img458.imageshack.us/img458/3775/awepan53yf7.jpg

http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/1935/awepan54cv1.jpg

The image below shows the world as I know it. Little has been explored. My empire is at the southern end of the Pangaea making defense a little easier.

http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/7619/awepan55sc8.jpg

Some statistics in the year 800AD:

Persia: 54 cities 2 turns to banking (4 more techs to the IA)
Ottoman: 2 cities, irrelevant now
Iroquois: 19 cities, 35000 gold in the IA
Hittites: 15 cities, never seen any units so far
India: 18 cities
Inca: 16 cities
Vikings: 14 cities, might be in the IA as well

Wow! You'll be able to make a LOT of gold taking out the Iroquois. Caughnawaga's 705g made a nice start on that. :D

Iroquois: 19 cities, 35000 gold in the IA


:eek: . Kill'em kill'em quick!

It looks like you're dominating pretty well already, thanks to the no-contact trading. Good luck!

http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/8453/awepan51hm5.jpg

Is that a Spearman army I see?????????????????????????

Is it just me or is progress still slow against the Ottomans? Those Ancient Cav will be pretty useless against the Iroquois, good luck getting Cav Armies out on the field. No doubt they're the ripest target, despite (or maybe in part because of) their advancement.

Is that a Spearman army I see?

It is; it was born, apparently, while defending against the Ottomans (see post #8).

The spear army was born in the English campaign and made it possible to free my ACav army to take them out quicker. I know it is pretty useless, but it served its purpose and can still help with some zonal defense, before being disbanded for 100 shields later on.

As I was up in Greebely's monster map, I didn't play that much in this game for the past 2 days.

A few images though from the latest turns. Iroqouis have all the money, but it won't be that easy to take out all their cities as they are now in the Industrial Age. They do not have nationalism yet, but we can see an industrial worker while capturing a city from them.

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/945/awepan56we5.jpg

I decide to take out Ottomans after all, the less enemies the better. I just need to make sure that nobody claims those horses.
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/2419/awepan57au5.jpg

After that, 2 Iroqouis cities fall and gain us the needed money for deficit research. I am still going for astronomy after banking. A little behind in techs :(
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/9896/awepan58eq7.jpg

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/8823/awepan59bp1.jpg

Though contact trading is disabled, the MPP's can also get me new enemies as in this case. Hope the initial stack won't be too bad.
http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/8126/awepan60hr6.jpg

As for the fighting, the Iroquois send in a constant stream of units in the former English zone, while Inca have units in the east. India is sending powerful elephants that even our cavalry struggle to take out.

After playing in SG's, finally had the time again to continue this game. It is very slow going as I do not have enough armies for offense and taking Iroquois cities that have rifles, isn't really easy. So, I slowly inch my way forward why defeating their troops at home as well.

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/7735/awepan61ir6.jpg

I get a much needed leader while defending against th many Iro troops.
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/729/awepan62ed2.jpg

And another city goes for much cash.
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/4159/awepan63tx1.jpg

I also manage to take out Leo. I can' afford to hold it without bogging myself down too much here.
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/705/awepan64iv4.jpg

Again, I get a new enemy through a MPP. How annoying is that. Zulu's are very big by the way and will surely cost me trouble later on. They have 29 cities.
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/4431/awepan65gy7.jpg

I self build the Military Academy, I really need the boost for my armies in strength.
http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/5670/awepan66vc1.jpg

I can feel the difference immediately as my armies lose less health taking out the next city.
http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/1648/awepan67jy8.jpg

It is now the year 940AD. I do have 62 cities, the enemies do have sizeable numbers of cities. Iroquois with their 13 cities left, still have 39000gold. I hope I can get a big slice of that before they will go down.

I am 6 turns from magnetism and still need TOG before I can hit the next era.

Oh, I have now 13 armies

Played quite a few turns, in fact all the way until rails.

It is slow going, but the Iroquois are suffering and my finances are splendid.

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/2738/awepan68rv1.jpg

Of all those cities, I do keep Niagara Falls as I want to keep SunTzu for free barracks. I soon rush a library and taking out more of their cities reduces the flip risk to very low levels.

More cities are taken and I get very rich :D . This way i can easily afford to go for deficit research and get magnetism and ToG in 6 turns each.
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/9581/awepan69ms8.jpg

The picture below shows my empire around 1000AD. I have captured a scout that has uncovered some ugly jungle to the northeast, certainly I won't expand there.
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/6025/awepan70hg2.jpg

I decide it's time to retake Istanbul though the wonder is obsolete by now. It might be a good location for the FP for great commerce.
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/9691/awepan71fn0.jpg

I enter the new era after that turn and draw steam as a free tech :dance: I scan frantically for coal, but can't seem to find any first. There are actually 3 coal sources nearby with a potential Iron works location. I connect the coal via a colony after 2 turns. I have far too few workers though and need to spam some of them.
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/5452/awepan72we2.jpg

Research is set to electricity, nobody seems to have that, in fact only Iroquois have steam and nationalism, they also have medicine. Zulu's are fast becoming a monster as they swallow the Viking cities (I can tell via city counts). They do have 33 cities and once their war is over, I will face their units, not a good prospect. They don't have nationalism nor steam yet.

I continue to take on Iro cities as well as some India cities. The India cavalry is th most dangerous unit on the battlefield at the moment. I have not seen any Chinese or Viking unit.
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/6308/awepan73fg5.jpg


As for my coffers, i do have more than 30000gold. Electricity will take a total of 11 turns, I am confident that I can afford to go for RP before heading for scientific methods.

Whoa, crazy game dude! :cool:

Good luck :goodjob:

As for my coffers, i do have more than 30000gold.

:eek: :eek:

That's a LOT of deficit research. Do you know where the Zulu are yet?

You're super-rich! Surely there's no reason for 30% tax as in the 1050 AD screenshot at the top of the most recent post? Even at 100% spending it would take a very long time to spend 30,000 gold.

Do you know where anyone beyond the Iroquois are yet?

The next few turns see me getting new contacts and new borders, though attacks on me are still far from scary.

I saw blue borders before behind the Iroquois lines, so I am not entirely surprised to meet them. hey have around 20 cities and are quite advanced too with rifles.
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/1554/awepan74qq2.jpg

I continue to pound the rich people as long as it is worth that. With 2 of their cities in my possession, it is essential anyway to take them out.
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/533/awepan75ji6.jpg

And that's what I do soon after.
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/1817/awepan76po2.jpg

Now, I can focus on India that sends annoying cavalry to our borders. they aren't that scary in the first place. Monster Zulu is still hidden from me.
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/9332/awepan77fc6.jpg

I also spot green borders, that sort of green Celts have. However, it seems as if Korea is fighting them as the colors in the fog change. I start razing cities in that direction and it seems China and Korea fight the Celts.

Finally I spot something like a challenge, a bigger Chinese stack. I spot some Zulu knights soon after, they all appear from the west.
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/1995/awepan78ht6.jpg

That doesn't prevent me from expanding and I start razing he Indian core cities.
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/4200/awepan79gj8.jpg

Below is a picture of my western extension, where I connected all the former Iroquois cities. There are Korean cavalry looming in the dark and I need to be careful not to expose cities. Infantry will help here.
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/8256/awepan80gj4.jpg

Manage to raze his town and take out the Korean source of horses.
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/1929/awepan81ou5.jpg

The number of cities as we know them:
Persia: 92
China: 13
Zulu: 33
India: 8
Korea: 15
Hittite: 15
Inca: 16
Vikings: 1 (not taken by me but they lose big time in wars)

So far, the game has posed far less of a challenge than the last game, I reckon that emperor and demigod are HUGE differences for an AW game.

I make steady progress against the Civs I know.

The Vikings gt finally destroyed by some unknown Civ as the main suspect, Zulu, have not gained any more cities. Viking had quite a few wonders.
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/912/awepan82wq8.jpg

Immediately I meet another Civ, the Celts. I knew that they must have gotten beaten badly as thir borders disappeared almost in front of my eyes. They only have 4 cities left by now.
http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/880/awepan83hu5.jpg

Well, if I meet a Civ, then another soon follows, I noticed that pattern at times already. The Arabs are bigger and stronger as Celts and have 20 cities.
http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/2623/awepan84fj3.jpg

Here is a view of the map as I know it. I have no clue where the biggest threat, the Zulu are.
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/567/awepan85vq2.jpg

Here is a picture of my western front, a far cry from what I faced in the AWDG game, I can easily handle that.
http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/7399/awepan86sl2.jpg

Maybe it is getting more exciting soon as I meet the nearby Spanish, whose borders I spotted near Korea.
http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/469/awepan87gx5.jpg

I take out the India soon after that. In between there were a lot of turns without much excitement.
http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/976/awepan88ss2.jpg

I am well on my way to medicine and scientific methods, as Zulu have electricity and medicine and I don't want them to steal ToE.

Korea is suffering by now big time as I take their capital as well. It is the Zulu, I would like to go after. Must find their land first though.
http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/9040/awepan89hc8.jpg

While stepping into blue land, I realize it is not Spanish, but Mayan. We got another foe now.
http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/698/awepan90hk0.jpg

And finally, Celts are taken out of the game.
http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/4452/awepan91lz4.jpg

You mixed up the Celtic and Indian destruction pictures ;) .

The city count in 1280AD, the turn before getting medicine.

Persia: 115 cities
Korea: 6 cities
Hittites: 15 cities
Zulu: 33 cities
Inca: 16 cities
China: 6 cities
Arabia: 22 cities
Spain: around 20 cities
Maya: unknown

You mixed up the Celtic and Indian destruction pictures:lol: I mixed up the text, not the pictures

No! You killed the Celts! I thought you liked them! ;)

Even though your fronts are less active, I think you might be at bigger risk of a spaceship loss this time. Pangea promotes faster tech rate, and the AI do build the spaceship.

Well, maybe I shouldn't have been so confident as now the game seems to come to life (I did play 2 more turns yesterday).
It seems all the Civs I met recently are advanced and in good shape. They all are up to at least nationalism and industrialization and sport cavalry + rifles. One Civ even has RP already :eek:. This is rare at this stage, but well...Marsden is right.

Worse, Spain is sporting their dreadful UU and that will make defense that much harder.

...Marsden is right.


I'm sorry, of all times to be right, it's only bad news. Maybe you can set a few, maybe 5 armies on long range pillage missions ignoring enemy units and destroying all roads and disrupting trade? That should certainly slow them down, although it would slow your outright conquest as well. :hmm:

Well it's good to see the game having become more of a challenge. :D

I didn't mention it, but I have a city not too far away from my core, that has this ability. After border expansion I can finally get the small wonder
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/472/awepan92rv5.jpg

I am sending cav armies to find the Zulu's in the west. but all I find is desert and some other enemies, maybe not such a good idea after all.
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/8485/awepan93fe7.jpg

The next guys I am running into, are the Russians, just as advanced :eek: They are even having cossacks already.
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/3959/awepan94bz2.jpg

Speaking about UU's, here is the very annoying conquistador...my border citeis better watch out
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/2858/awepan95va3.jpg

While attacking China in the southwest, I run into ye another enemy, just as strong as well
http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/4185/awepan96vj4.jpg

The lady is apparently fighting China, no wonder the Chinese are so weak. I decide to leave China alone and rather raze the French cities taken from China.
Maybe that was a bad, bad idea as I am at war with another Civ.
http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/8247/awepan98pt6.jpg

As for the good news, I manage to take out Korea and I face now 10 enemies, while having 128 cities myself.
http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/1503/awepan97vr3.jpg

I will get sci methods, that nobody has and Hoover is virtually guaranteed for me. That's the only positive aspect now. Of course, I should mention that I still have more than 30000gold for nice upgrades and rushing factories later on.

well, maybe I shouldn't have said a thing about ToE and scientific methods as the AI go it the same turn as myself and I get this scary message :eek:

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/4903/awepan99ex6.jpg

Luckily, US has been done before and no cascade can follow, I should be pretty safe. I adjust research and go for industrialization in 6 to coincide with ToE.

Now, the enemy is sending bigger stacks as well. here is a particularly big stack from Spain. For strange reasons, they have been denied all sorts of resources and their best defenders are spears. :D
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/8448/awepan100xa7.jpg

This is what I have to face now, infantry defending cities. I will need more armies at the front as this will be slow and tedious. Russia though gets its rubber disconnected.
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/1723/awepan101iq1.jpg

A big relief for me when this happens. I set research for a 4 turned corporation after that.
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/8606/awepan102lx1.jpg

As you can see, the AI now starts to accumulate money again after having little once Iroquois were gone.
http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/5291/awepan103hj8.jpg

In fact some have a lot of money. Below an image of the world as we know it. Hittites, Inca and Maya are to the eastern side of the world, the rest to the west. if I can manage to cut off both sides, I should have an easier time to defend my holdings. You can see that currently Babylon has a lot of money. Well, I have not even reached Zulus yet, no need to talk about Babylon borders.
http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/2500/awepan104um8.jpg

I just got corporation and decide to go for espionage as the AI have refining and sanitation, both techs I can steal with the tons of gold I still have. I am pretty sure, by the time I have espionage, the AI as steel as well.

nice but 1 think i find rather desterbing is how much of a no mans land it there, wouldnt a foren civ try to sneak some setelers there? Your doing great, hope you dont find a hord of Zulu's heading toward you, i remember seeing 4 stacks of 25+ come towards me from a isolated nation i declared war on, they were technologicly dumb but there was a mass mob of them if 2 or 3 stacks mearged.

Great job building Iron Works in Iron Works.

nice but 1 think i find rather desterbing is how much of a no mans land it there, wouldnt a foren civ try to sneak some setelers there?

The max number of cities for all civs is 512, and the 512th city got built a while ago, so that is not an issue :)

yes, a map this big without city limitations wouldn't be playable. Imagine an empire with 1000+ cities...512 is enough.

Played more turns yesterday and made some real progress. First off, I took out China, that had been battered by so many other nations down to 1 city.
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/6922/awepan105zh9.jpg

In exchange, met another Civ in the east. I did not expect more civilizations to shop up in the east. Well, Greece is at war with Mayan and appear weak.
http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/2334/awepan106bi0.jpg

In the west, I can start to take out infantry defended cities as I slowly got more cavalry armies to the front. This is slow as the enemy is blocking the path.
http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/5664/awepan107us3.jpg

In the east, Mayan and Hittites have been badly hurt in the recent rounds and finally make their exit from the game.
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/644/awepan108nk0.jpg

http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/7951/awepan109zh2.jpg

Then, after 5 turns for nationalism and 4 turns for espionage, I get the Intelligence Agency. I try and plant spies and fail with every advanced Civ except Babylon. I steal the world map safely and succeed :dance:
Proceed to steal 2 techs carefully for 4000-5000gold each and both succeed as well.
I get refining and sanitation. The AI still does not have steel, thus I go for self research in 5 turns. Now I am par with the AI on techs in the upper path. I am ahead with regards to AT and electronics however :D

http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/7687/awepan110gh5.jpg


Finally, the world map. The land is huge and Babylon is miles away. That's a pity as they have a lot of gold (around 35000). Annoyingly the map generator failed again and there is an offshore Island :mad:
http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/5608/awepan111ys9.jpg

lol america is a island nation, good luck evicting them, let me guess their technologicly behined because after completly upgrading all their citys they spent all their money on a large army because the AIs never know how to use the wealth button, Sry for any nasty spelling im never good at english class + i hit alot of wrong keys in the dark.
Id recomend geting a fleet of transports when you get combustion researched and useing them to send a few armies to the other side of the map.

No offence, Light-Giver, but that's a really bad idea. Sending transports voer means that he meets all of the rest of the civs, which means huge stacks come and kill him, because he has to DoW on all of them.

Well done on the two civs killed, Rat!

Well, first off I think I can send a navy over from the east without meeting anyone. However, I don't need to do that now as there is no point attacking without air fields. I don't want to commit armies at this point. American, besides having an island full of spices, is really low priority.

World Map!!! :woohoo: It was becoming extremely difficult to figure out where everything was going on with only one or two enemy cities visible at once; this will help a lot. Money well spent.

Will expansion keep being to the west or will the Greco-Romans meet the Persian blade? Only time will tell.

Oh, attacking America is fine, if unimportant. What you wouldn't want is to send transports over to the West side of the continent.

The one thing that continues to amaze me, are the masses of gold that the AI can accumulate. They do sometimes use it to sabotage something or cause unrest, but most of the time it just idles around waiting for me to pick it up.

My production gets another huge boost. I have been building quite a lot of factories in the productive cities and with Hoover, they simply rock now.
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/7554/awepan112xr2.jpg

Ironworks itself is at close to 10spt already.

Another issue quite characteristic for late game AI behavior...there are war declarations and alliances flying around in sheer madness. Below is just one example, though maybe my cutting off Moscow from everyone else might have hurt their rep :mischief:
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/796/awepan113cx2.jpg

While taking out Greece, it is inevitable that I meet Rome, but they should not pose any threat and I hope to eliminate them before any of their stacks can reach me.
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/5441/awepan114qm0.jpg

Babylon and France are the nations with a lot of money and I get some taking out one of their conquered cities.
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/5751/awepan115px8.jpg

I don't know whether this is that important on this type of map, but having the BM won't hurt. This also means that I do have some hospitals in cities, that can grow.
http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/3571/awepan116vh8.jpg

I make a big railroading push to the northeast and eliminate the Inca, now there is only Greece and Rome left with few cities. After that I can all go out for war in the west. You can see that i research combustion now. The turn I got steel, a few other Civs also got it. I guess France must have researched it as they got a lot of money suddenly. I plan to go for tanks before flight as they are more vital on this map.
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/2442/awepan117cm9.jpg

An overview of the city situation and the money (shown for France and Babylon only)
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/1368/awepan118jy2.jpg

well, over the last 2 turns (they took ages to play), the game has turned into a steam roller. Once I have tanks, I will just run over the enemy. They kind of self destruct by the multiple wars they fight. Everyone is now fascist and that doesn't really help them.

First, I take out the Spanish and as you can see, they managed to take one of my cities with their dreaded UU. It had to happen at one point, but doesn't really hurt me now.
http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/2159/awepan119vg4.jpg

I sail to America with a privateer, just out of curiosity, not because I want to fight them now.
http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/7509/awepan120iu1.jpg

I then decide to put in a massive railroading effort to reach Greece and Roman cities with my armies. Their stacks have just arrived at my borders and I need to free up forces for my western campaign. Everything goes well and I take them both out in a swift blitz.
http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/85/awepan121zh8.jpg

http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/6615/awepan122pi7.jpg

This means that I am owning half of the cities (250). Nothing can stop me from here.

so, let's focus on the west. First, I finally take the pyramids, another great wonder for a pangaea game.
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/4663/awepan123fs4.jpg

The next turn, I rail to connect the front to my core, occupying each railed tile with a infantry (my iron works city is churning out an infantry a turn)
http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/2973/awepan124uc8.jpg

Form there, I can now reach th Zulu core easily, they stand no chance against the cav armies. With so many armies at my disposal, even infantry defense has no chance now.

Taking out many of their cities, Smith's is a trophy I cannot afford to disband. It results in 150gpt savings. And putting in 10+ armies to heal reduces the flip risk to almost zero as well. :D
http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/2723/awepan125wl0.jpg

Zulu's have only 10 cities left after 2 rounds of devastation. I continue straight into French land, as they got a lot of money. They will be the next victim, before heading for Arabia and Babylon.
http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/4125/awepan126jf2.jpg


In fact, as this game is almost in mopping up mode, I am thinking of the next real challenge. Maybe an archipelago game?

Always War Sid on Archipelago with Byzantines? Certainly would make use of the UU.

How many armies are you up to now, about fifty? Now that it's all west, I'm sure it must be easier. Looks like you'll win before the AI get significant numbers of tanks and bombers, as well.

Maybe Always War Monarch Pangaea No Armies? Would throw a bit of a monkey wrench in your usual strategy.

There's already been AWS Archipelago, Byzantines. I think you should do AWD on Continents (w/o contact trading, of course). Or you can do AWD Archipelago first.

think you should do AWD on Continents:eek: I think I would be lucky to get 5 cities before hitting the city limit. I don't know whether that is feasible. Only with an early army, a strong UU and the GLib.

I like the idea of AWM without armies.

Played another turn this morning. I reduced the Zulu to 5 cities in a big sweeping move. It's really just mopping up mode and not rally as exciting as I expected.

I started the suggested no armies AWM and that is pretty exciting as I have to use new strategies without the army cover and attack.

I will open a new thread soon.