As many of you are aware, the phenom strategist, Attacko, has had many of his articles posted in the Strategy Articles subforum. Now, opinion is sharply divided as to the nature of this article. Some believe these articles to be examples of divine providence. Others look at them and wonder how they can obtain the drugs that they believe Attacko is using. Many claim that these strategies work fine in multiplayer, but fail at single player. A little while ago, I tried to start a similar thread, but it became a flop due to a) my bad attitude (:(), and b) the fact that I didn't have BTS. However, with some new articles and concepts, I can safely say that this community is ready to play...

The Attacko Challenge I - Power Scouting
based on the article of the same name (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=314597), by Attacko.

I started a map with these settings...(I'll post Monarch/Immortal saves later)

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff136/kamikazeshadow/Civ4ScreenShot0161.jpg

Random leader, Standard Fractal with High sea Level, and the Attacko Empire as our chosen Civilization (;)). Got the start, and we are playing as Justinian I of the Byzantines/Attackos.

Justinian I is Spiritual and Imperialistic. His Unique Unit is the Cataphract, a suped-up Knight with excellent STR, and his Unique Building is the Hippodrome, a Colloseum that receives an extra happiness bonus from access to Horses.

And the start:

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff136/kamikazeshadow/Civ4ScreenShot0162.jpg

Wooooh. Sheep, Clams, what I think is Silk, and a ton of forests. I'll be playing a main game, and if you shadow, please put your reports in spoilers. Here are our 'rules' (from the article), which we'll attempt to implement:

Duet of Forever: Hook up the Scout with a Warrior, and have them scout together. When you find a hut, the Scout pops it, and the Warrior takes the hits.

Medic Eternal: Plant the Scout on a Forest/Hill. Let him survive as much as possible, and rack up Combat I/Medic/Woodsman promotions. Eventually tie him to a Great General.

Barracks First: First build is a Barracks, and the tech path is: Hunting -> The Wheel -> Animal Husbandry -> Mining -> Bronze Working, to implement the above strategies with a Scout. As a bonus, the Scout receives Combat I immediately.

Naval Scout: Once you're done exploring the mainland, plant him on a galley and go island-hopping.

Upgrade: As soon as we research Compass, upgrade all Scouts to Explorers.


Finally, the save (Prince/Epic):

So what exactly are the terms of the challenge? Bee-line Hunting, flood the land with Scouts, and try to implement The Great Attacko's theories?

So what exactly are the terms of the challenge? Bee-line Hunting, flood the land with Scouts, and try to implement The Great Attacko's theories?

Whoops, I'll edit the orginal post with the tenets of Power Scouting Theory. :lol:

As many of you are aware, the phenom strategist, Attacko, has had many of his articles posted in the Strategy Articles subforum. Now, opinion is sharply divided as to the nature of this article. Some believe these articles to be examples of divine providence. Others look at them and wonder how they can obtain the drugs that they believe Attacko is using.
Um, yeah. Mark me down as a supporter of the Drug Theory. :crazyeye:

Whoops, I'll edit the orginal post with the tenets of Power Scouting Theory. :lol:
Excellent. You might also add note that nearly every Attacko thread has some complaint about "cottage-spamming reloaders who lie" in it. Therefore, I would suggest three additional rules:

No Cottage-Spamming
No Reloading
No Lying, Especially About The First Two Points (;))I won't play a shadow, but I look forward to watching your game!

This thread is the superior.

But you need some Venn diagrams (with an even number of sets, due to the binary system) too.

Excellent. You might also add note that nearly every Attacko thread has some complaint about "cottage-spamming reloaders who lie" in it. Therefore, I would suggest three additional rules:

No Cottage-Spamming
No Reloading
No Lying, Especially About The First Two Points (;))I won't play a shadow, but I look forward to watching your game!

No no you've got it wrong. Cottage spamming is ok as long as they're on hills. :lol:

You can't spin up a map and say I am going to apply X strategy now. You have to play the map.

You can't spin up a map and say I am going to apply X strategy now. You have to play the map.

And who on Earth should stop me from playing any strategy on any map as long as i can handle it?

You can't spin up a map and say I am going to apply X strategy now. You have to play the map.

It's Prince.;)

You can't spin up a map and say I am going to apply X strategy now. You have to play the map.

The idea is to showcase the particular strategy. Just like any other game on the forum. And, I highly doubt Scout usage is situational by map. ;) Report will be up soon.

Round 1: Strategic Development and a Setback

Well, since this strategy is mostly early-game, I'll carry it out to Industrial era tops (assuming we haven't scooped out a win by then ;)), time enough for Explorers to prove their worth...and I think they will on this map. Anywho, onto the game.

The round began by moving the Warrior 1SE. Not only was that tile a hill (to reveal more of the map), but also had a goody hut on it. Praying that it wouldn't spawn Barbarian warriors, I crossed my fingers and clicked.

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff136/kamikazeshadow/Civ4ScreenShot0164.jpg

AWESOME! :goodjob: Not only did it not spawn Warriors, it provided a Scout! It appears the good fortune of the RNG Gods has smiled down upon us. :cool: I move the Scout 2W to reveal even more. With nothing to suggest to the contrary, I settle in place.

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff136/kamikazeshadow/Civ4ScreenShot0166.jpg

I started on a Barracks to implement the Barracks First strategy. Techpath for the round went Fishing -> Hunting -> Mining. I delayed Hunting considering that we already had a Scout in play. Bad play on my part (I accidentally hit Mining, then enter), but according to his rules we can't reload, so with Mining we went. Yes, it just struck me as I'm writing this post that I could have easily changed techs ASAP, but being a fool I forgot that. Oh well, at least the game started in true Attacko fasion. ;)

The Scout went south, the Warrior north. The villagers handed us maps...

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff136/kamikazeshadow/Civ4ScreenShot0168.jpg

..maps...

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff136/kamikazeshadow/Civ4ScreenShot0172.jpg

and a meager amount of gold.

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff136/kamikazeshadow/Civ4ScreenShot0173.jpg

Kinda crappy. In the second screenshot, I went with the Duet of Forever tactic, as the Warrior a) took a hit from a Bear, and b) skirted round the village to let the Scout pop it. After some more scouting, I used the Duet to bring the Scout safely to the hill (letting the Warrior get mauled by a Lion to take Combat I), where he will stay to become a Medic Eternal.

With that ended the round, as we came to the startling conclusion that the Attacko Empire was, well, isolated. :(

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff136/kamikazeshadow/Civ4ScreenShot0177.jpg

So, what do we do now? :confused:

We draw a really big Venn diagram of course.

No ivory = no amphibious wellies so I guess an enormous stack of archers is the superior.

We draw a really big Venn diagram of course.

No ivory = no amphibious wellies so I guess an enormous stack of archers is the superior.

I´m not really sue about the venn thingies, but since your not even having cows, amphibious cows are also out. Only way I seen now is to try and get some ballista sheep up instead or maye even some navigation deer. Well, on second thought that even seems like a viable strategy to me. Load some stacks of ballista sheep and navigation deer on 5-17 triremes and its immediately game over for any enemies (dont forget to promote your triremes guerilla, or they cant cross ocian tiles):D

Obviously, now you settle that tudra/silver/wheat city, let the barbs raze the capital, and play a 3CC with an ice/crab city and deer/tundra. If you appear to be weak, no one will invade until, BAM! explorer rush.

Go for ampihibious archers!!!
Also GG powered medic 3 catapults may be required :lol:
We also need a Ven diagram to determine wether our amphibious archers can move through the water!!

Fact-There are TONS of good tiles for forts on this continent

Fact-You SHOULD have been Babylon, haven't you been paying attention?

Fact-Venn Diagrams don't apply to isolated starts, since they always have to be displayed with a binary sequence, and well, bi=2 and there aren't 2 civs.

Fact-You should be using more italics

amphibious cows

I lolled here :)

Im sure Troy and his alter ego are proud. This is great stuff!
I can only hope the great Attacko will finally post a game WITH screenshots!

Seriously, you should pump out those scouts and fog bust the land mass EXCEPT for 1 corner, which you use as your experience well.

Develop those cities, resources and tech to Optics and get off your land mass. As its only Prince, you should be easily able to gain optics and get off and trade with other world.

Show us those Caravels laden with those explorers, have those MIGHTY scouts fearlessly fog busting the land, fearlessly develop the lands with those hardened workers.

Seriously, develop your lands, send out those Caravels with Explorers, hardened from battles from Barbarians.

But lets say you teched slowly, no religion, your armies lost every battle, your on tundra with one wheat and a whale with no bronze or horse and your not sure how to play the game or what a library does and an enemy stack of axe just wiped out one of your three cities. Most would quit, reload, or cry home to mama. But should you?

You need archers and lots of escape galleys :D

This is one of the more interesting games lately! Just dl'd it.

Fact-There are TONS of good tiles for forts on this continent

Fact-You SHOULD have been Babylon, haven't you been paying attention?

Fact-Venn Diagrams don't apply to isolated starts, since they always have to be displayed with a binary sequence, and well, bi=2 and there aren't 2 civs.

Fact-You should be using more italics

http://www.gifbin.com/bin/g655115633g6.gif

Update will be coming tomorrow or Tuesday.

Anywho, the thread was meant to showcase only one strategy - in this case, Power Scouting - later threads will be devoted to othes.

FACT - it is the intersection of Attacko's great strategies in Venn diagram form that creates the superior tactic.

FACT - The Byzantines are a horrible civ for this map. The grey color of the borders imply a early rush and/or elephant warring (amphibious or not). A more acceptable civ would have been Persia, whose cool colors give the advantage for turtling and teching, and whose UU is perfect as a forward scout.

Keep it coming guys. :rotfl:

This is already a five star thread and can only get better!

http://www.gifbin.com/bin/1233928590_citizen%20kane%20clapping.gif

Round 2: Manifest Destiny (Part 1)

Well, I managed to find time and squeezed in a quick round. Another one will have to wait a week. I'll begin by thanking those that have posted and rated this thread with five stars, but I truly hope it's for the wit, not the game. :D Anyways, this was another relatively short round, but we achieved a lot in the way of humor and true Attackoism. The puns involving random events and the adjective used to describe our empire (Attacking) were few, but made me snort a bit, but I failed to take a screenshot...

I set up a quick dotmap, allowing us to utilize as much land as possible. Unfortunately, the dearth of food resources in the west will force us to head for Civil Service, to chain-irrigate if possible.

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff136/kamikazeshadow/Civ4ScreenShot0178.jpg

Now, note that most of our cities will be using Specialists, since Attacko hates cottages. Anyways, I sent our intrepid Warrior south to see if he couldn't find a Fish/Silver city or something. In the meantime, the Barracks finished up in Constantinople, so I dialed up a Worker. Our warrior was brutally ambushed by Wolves (whom I had been playing hide-and-seek with in an attempt to move them towards the Scout),...

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff136/kamikazeshadow/Civ4ScreenShot0181.jpg

...but he survived. From that encounter, he somehow learned how to effectively combat stick-throwing weapons which he had never seen (:crazyeye:) and would not be seen for much time (centuries, perhaps) on the Attacking Continent. That, my friends, is an example of the divine providence of Attacko himself! :goodjob: However, our deity proved to be a bit bipolar:

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff136/kamikazeshadow/Civ4ScreenShot0184.jpg

I took the first option, which led to a nice line (Fire has raged through a forest near the Attacking city of Constantinople). With Bronze Working in, I switched to an anarchy-free Slavery, but we have no Copper. Animal Husbandry was set for research. The Warrior finally scouted out the southeast, and he found a fish, but not much else.

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff136/kamikazeshadow/Civ4ScreenShot0186.jpg

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff136/kamikazeshadow/Civ4ScreenShot0187.jpg

I added the above dotmap (the northern city was shifted 1SE, and the southern city 1S). Animal Husbandry came in a bit later, and do we have horses?

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff136/kamikazeshadow/Civ4ScreenShot0189.jpg

Hell yea! :goodjob: As a bit of celebration, Barbarian Lion assaulted our Medic Eternal. He survived with nary a scratch and received Combat I. In the meantime, Constantinople had finished the Worker, who had chopped out a Work Boat and a Settle, while pasteurizing the Sheep. The Settler headed to the northern city:

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff136/kamikazeshadow/Civ4ScreenShot0191.jpg

I have high hopes for this city. I went for Agriculture after Animal Husbandry to support Specialists, then for Sailing. Thessalonica got a Monument (chopped), then a Worker (built), finally a Work Boat (in progress/chopped). Our Medic Eternal was attacked once more...

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff136/kamikazeshadow/Civ4ScreenShot0192.jpg

But with 85% defense (combat I + forested hill) he survived. Toyabee (who is he :confused:) rated our great empire fourth in land area. Clearly, this is a plot by the AIs against us! They will burn! :scan: That was the last real event. I finished a second Work Boat, then a Worker, then began a Settler in Constantinople. After the Work Boat, Thessalonica will build a Settler and a Library. I hope to finish settling the continent soon. Techpath after Sailing went Writing -> Pottery (for the Granaries, not the Cottages!). I have beakers tentatively set into Mathematics, though there are more options (namely: Meditation, Polytheism, Aesthetics, Alphabet, Iron Working).

Thoughts?

Babylon would be the superior.

Fact - You should have used the Babylonians.

Famous British historian Arnold Toynbee, who said such things as:

The Hellenic Greeks' legacy to the Byzantine Greeks was potent and massive. In the course of the three centuries (AD 284-602) of cultural overlap, during which the Hellenic civilization was not yet extinct, while the Byzantine civilization was already in being, the Byzantines rejected a number of key elements in Hellenism. City-states had already become devoted to serving as power scout generators rather than training grounds for phalanx armies, while villages were built on easily defensible hills rather than the flat grasslands of the progenitor culture. While this was less effective in terms of contemporary orthodox military doctrine, and certainly inferior from a modern perspective, the dynamic uncertainty generated by these strategies created a competitive disadvantage in Byzantium's opponents - a sort of aweful catastrophism - which led to the final collapse of Hellenic culture in the face of Byzantine civilizational innovation.

Arnold Toynbee, "The Greeks and Their Heritages" (1981).
as excerpted in http://www.historytoday.com/MainArticle.aspx?m=12419&amid=12419

You can't spin up a map and say I am going to apply X strategy now. You have to play the map.

Only if you haven't read your Attacko.

I will not waste time chastizing these attacko noobs requesting amphib phants or the more basic tactics of attacko theory.

Gooblah, attacko's disciples, of which I include you in their hallowed number, request cottages on the green hills - of which I count 3 (three) in current bfc's - that currently lack them.

Brother of the faith, why would you protend to advance only one of the master's dogmas whilest also neglect his promised course of victory?

FACT - it is the intersection of Attacko's great strategies in Venn diagram form that creates the superior tactic.

Fact: Venn dynamics implies the superior city placement pattern is that of a nth-binary Venn diagram, with each city receiving its original 8 tiles and the rest overlapping in a grid pattern. :scan:

Wait a minute. The white tiles...

They can only mean one thing: ice archers!

TBH, I'm feeling a wee bit unmotivated, but i should have a round up by Sunday. ;)

Arnold Toynbee- historian

"serving as power scout generators rather than training grounds for phalanx armies"

"the dynamic uncertainty generated by these strategies created a competitive disadvantage in Byzantium's opponents - a sort of aweful catastrophism "

yes, a good find beestar. Echo's of "Attacko's Strategy Guide" no doubt.
Immanuel Kant, Bobby Fischer, and Attacko, heralds of their age.

@Gooblah

Regarding power-scouting, you might try to take advantage of DanF's recent advice (in the thread "When do barbarian units enter cultural borders") that barbs cannot spawn within 2 tiles of any unit, regardless of whether any of those tiles are in the fog or not. You can fogbust a huge amount of land with very few units if you space them 4 tiles apart.