ThERat plays AW (Always War)

[ThERat]

For those that know me from the C3C days playing SG (succession games) with the grumpy old men and some solo AW games on huge maps, know that I am a warmonger at heart.
I am currently playing a AW game on prince (as Kongo) and it turns out to be quite fun (sure, the AI is braindead, but in numbers when you face 5 enemies + a few city states, even the worst AI can get daunting.

I am planning to play another AW game and report it here. There are a few things to decide for me. Shall I increase the difficulty a notch or make it harder by playing on a bigger pangea map? Which nation to use?

I will start that game probably coming weekend, so if you want me to play with any particular setting, let me know here

 

[gunnerxtr]

Sounds really fun, I will follow along. I enjoyed following your games back in Civ3 days

I think a Continents game could be fun to see how the AI uses navy? But of course it is all up to you!

 

[ThERat]

Continents? How about an island map then maybe playing as Norway?

 

[gunnerxtr]

I will follow along either way! Which ever you are more interested in.

I personally really enjoy Archipelago maps as they remind me of my first love, Colonization.

 

[barbslinger]

Good to see you still here ThERat! Looking forward to this. Still pretty lost in this whole thing but wanting to learn it.

 

[ThERat]

1upt takes some time getting used to, if ever. Great to see you still here. Have a look at Civ 3 SGs. Some are still active.

 

[grandad1982]

If you go for a water map I'd definitely kick the difficulty up a level. My suspicion is the AI will be even worst at naval play so give it some bonuses.

 

[ThERat]

I am planning to play on King. Emperor might end up with an early rush. Of course, they will be terrible on naval play.

 

[ThERat]

I found out to my delight, that barbarians can be unchecked! That setting will be much more suitable as I want to fight the other nations and not the crazy barbarians. It gives me the option to raze cities without occupying every single space. I can then move troops much more efficiently.

I think I will got for Emperor, Archipelago, no barbs, large map size and epic speed. As for my Leader, wither Japanese or Norwegian.

 

[ThERat]

And so it begins. After playing a little with settings and maps etc, I decide to go for:

Norway, Emperor difficulty, large Island map, Epic speed. NO barbarians to be able to raze land without getting swarmed by annoying barbs, no goody huts as well. We don't need more luck factors in such a game.

The first roll (when I played around initially I got Islands with space for 1 city on regular map sizes). This does look promising



That's a great location on a river with 3 luxuries in sight, hills, mountains and horses. If the whole Island looks great, this is a prefect start. I send out the warrior to roam the land and it turns out to be a rather big Island, there is a natural wonder too. Below a screenshot at turn 38/750. The settler west of the capital will go to the west to settle on the river/coast. I would like to send another settler east to claim the natural wonder with its nice benefits.

 

[grandad1982]

Thats a pretty sexy start with all those luxury's and grassland hills.

Do you plan on settling directly on the coast or say 1SW of the cows? Obviously being on the coast allows you to build naval units without a harbour but being 1 inland gets more land tiles to play with.

I have to say that I really dislike the new fog of war. It just makes reading the map harder and looks bland

 

[ThERat]

I decided to settle directly on the coast to be able to send some boats out sooner and for the bonus for researching sailing:



on turn 59/750, I have explored the entire Island and settled two cities. There is no city state present on the Island. Space enough for some core cities before hitting the AI is that will ever be possible.

 

[ThERat]

On turn 78/750, we set sails with the Norwegian longboat. Let's see what is around us, even if that means meeting AIs for war.



A few turns later, we meet our first foe, but it's not our longboat that causes this:



It's their trireme, that passes the spot that I choose for the third city.



Well, maybe we need to get a little more than just warriors and slingers. Archers would be good enough I reckon, to defeat any incoming threat. Next, we meet Seoul. The policy here is to not befriend them, but fight them too. I would have disabled city states, if I could have done so.



We find that Japan is located to the east obviously. I have been building a wonder in our capital and manage to grab that. Since wonders do take away real estate, I don't think I can afford to build more (besides the fact that only the capital is a real production powerhouse). Later in the game I sort of regret this choice as population growth is impeded by amenities and housing in my case.

 

[ThERat]

And then, in quick succession, we meet two additional 'good friends'.



Below is the situation on turn 101/750. We have 4 cities, to the north is a second city state, Buenos Aires, Japan's white borders to the east, Seoul in the west.



That's when the first attempts of the AI, to invade our land, start. Buenos Aires from the north with warriors and Japan with little more in the east. As we have upgraded the slingers to archers + the support of longboats, we manage to repel them.



And since my Island still has plenty of land available, Japan thinks, it's a great idea to settle that. Too bad for them, that those settlers will serve me just fine

 

[grandad1982]

Those Japanese settlers will be very handy!

The natural wonder that gives science and culture is a nice early game boost.

 

[ThERat]

I manage to snatch one settler with my archer, warrior, longship combo



While fighting the Japanese in the east, we run into yet another enemy in the west



We face now 4 AIs, I hope that they will not attack in numbers or we would be toast. At the moment, it's a trickle which we can handle just fine while trying to expand a little more.

On turn 122, we get encouraging news, England and Germany are fighting.



Not much later, while outsmarting the AI, we manage to get the second Japanese settler, which will help our own expansion.


Below is the situation on turn 135: We now have 6 cities thanks to the Japanese donations. I have decided that my first real expansion target will be Buenos Aires to clear that little nuisance before moving on to Japan.

 

[ThERat]

Time to try and expand. As this is a new game, I am not sure what I will face. It's Emperor difficulty and there are some penalties even with troops strength.

First we meet yet another AI enemy, the Indians. This is getting tough now with so many enemies. My luck is that they come in trickles.


I slowly build up forces, upgrading archers to crossbows and building units. We can build berzerkers now too. It takes a whole 60 turns of little skirmishes until I am able to reach Buenos Aires with a sizeable force.



We take the city easily, it doesn't even have a defender in it. After taking Buenos Aires and setting my sights on easterly Japan, I explore a little and run into enemy #7.



On turn 203/750, we land on Japanese shores. It's a small force to start with, 2 crossbows, 1 berzerker and 1 catapult. It's the ratio I find rather useful to take out enemy cities 3 ranged units versus 1 melee (or knight). And if you count, we now have 8 enemies (met Egypt in the meantime).


Let's see how the battle will turn out to be. There have to be added troops for sure. We're not gonna invade Japan with a handful of units. However, the additional troops are hurting our finances. I will have to build more markets and caravans to stay in the green.

 

[ThERat]

The battle for Takamatsu (visited the place June last year, nice Islands to explore, actually). Ok, anyway. The AI does show with a knight. Not that I fancy that, but who said something about warriors and slingers? I am only on the verge of researching them and here they stand. They get a modest +2 strength bonus due to Emperor difficulty. That's fine with me.



Luckily my crossbows fend off the knight which runs off to the south. I am able to move forward to the city, where we get in range of the city bombardment. And to be fair to the AI, the city actually targets the biggest threat for them, my catapult. Smart move here. Moving in caravans isn't that smart though. Helps my depleted coffers



I am able to take the city ultimately after bombing down the defenses and then attacking. As you can tell, I lost my catapult due to their bombardments. That's something to keep in mind. I might have to sacrifice them in the process. For taking down the walls, we need them, crossbows need far too long for that. Time to regroup and rest after taking the city. It's a big change for me that all the former city borders remain. It results in a nice zone for healing.



I can see the next target city, Osaka to the south. Let's move on to take that town too. In terms of offensive troops, Japan doesn't have much to show beside that knight and a crossbow. However, at least these troops are the latest technology for them and not some outdated nonsense.



We now field 3 crossbows, a catapult (in the back) and 1 berzerker. We try and constantly replenish our forces with the little production on our homeland. Really, besides the capital, other cities can churn out units in a mere trickle. Production is a huge issue in Civ6. However, my siege of Osaka seems to succeed. By the way, Osaka targets the catapult in their defense yet again.



We gain another victory here


In the screenshot above, I opened the minimap for some rough idea of my rising empire. There are 8 cities on my own Island, one former city state and 2 Japanese cities.
Finally, let's have a look at the happiness index. This is a big problem in Civ6 as there is no non-war weariness government option. Don't ask me how they work out the war weariness as it defies logic (at least in my eyes).

 

[Mark1031]

Hey Rat I remember you from the old days. I also am a fan of the AW game. After one practice regular game on King I did AW on Immortal continents/standard with the Aztec's which are a bit overpowering but was quite fun. Never had to build a worker or settler till late in the game just spam units. The early game is quite difficult and fun but took the whole continent by like turn 130 and the rest was just cleanup. Got to completely eliminate civs to make their cities useful ie. grow.

 

[ThERat]

Hi Mark,
I remember our AW games . Civ6 is a different ballgame. I don't fancy the war weariness and limited mechanisms against it. And the limited troop movements. More like chess than civilization.