Acken Challenges - #1 Carthage Immortal (6)

adcarrymaokai said:

The aggressiveness is too arbitrary. For example, when I was number 1 in military, I still got DoW'ed, and not once. Why? Does it even make sense to build a big army, if that doesn't matter? How do I prevent every single AI from going to war at me and denouncing all the time? I was backstabbed by Morocco twice, and choosing a different ideology was literally a death sentence.

Also, I think I encountered a bug, but I do not have a save: Boudicca popped into my screen and offered open borders, but when I clicked "accept", she said "unacceptable. there is no way to make it work." Wat?

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Saw that in the base game as well. Not mod related

Acken said:

But if you are 1st in military why not take over your own continent ?

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What's the point? So I can have a duel map with Caesar? That's not very exciting from the gaming point of view.

Anyway, I am think I am going to bite the dust and go for Domination, since this map just doesn't want to leave me in peace. Will try the new Honor. The save should work with v7, right?

Yes it works

T204 Update

Just as Rome was about to fall, Cathy viciously, and fairly effectively, backstabbed me. I had to retreat many units back down the road to protect Mumbai and Delhi. This is only a delay, not a major problem, because I quickly bought a bunch of promoted Cavalry, and upgraded my Cannons. But it won't be the fast finish I wanted. The AI can really fight pretty well on this mod, and I'm still getting used to how best to manoeuvre my units given the relative improvements to melee. Still, with Riflemen and Artillery I think I should be able to finish the game in less than 25 turns. Fingers crossed.

AI has bombers on t190. Is this normal? Also, spying still takes over 30 turns.

I'm seeing 15 turns spying when I open the save. Maybe I didn't upload the last version on dropbox... If you try to use an experimental version to load the save you have to first load the mod and then the save !
Use this if you wish to play on the version I'm working on : https://www.dropbox.com/s/0i8w0qxzc4m26ee/Acken's Minimalistic Balance (v 7).civ5mod?dl=0

As for Rome having a single GWB at T190 it's not that unusual. You can make peace with him until you have anti air or you can try finishing him quickly before he gets more. The AA gun is now closer to get than the base game.
That said its turn 190 and you don't have schools (which are 20turns away) nor an ideology. You have 11 cities but only 3 are in your control as the others are puppets. It's normal to be way behind in techs versus the game leader in that state.
I also find it strange you didn't yet teched compass for the fish boat gold and the route. Also why take Exploration with 3 coastal cities ?

T190 isn't all that early, on DemiGod the AI will get GWB between 170 and 180, on Deity as early as 160 from my experience, so it does not seem out of line.

The AI doesn't use planes very well and triplanes have received a huge buff in this mod, it shouldn't be that hard to deal with. Once they upgrade them to Bombers that's a different story

Acken said:

That said its turn 190 and you don't have schools (which are 20turns away) nor an ideology. You have 11 cities but only 3 are in your control as the others are puppets. It's normal to be way behind in techs versus the game leader in that state.
I also find it strange you didn't yet teched compass for the fish boat gold and the route. Also why take Exploration with 3 coastal cities ?

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Exploration for my units to cross the ocean faster. What else could I take on this map? I honestly expected to finish with riflemen and artillery, but that was obviously a bad idea. I could steal rifling from Caesar, but I decided to research it anyway in case my spy dies. I played 10 more turns, and once I win WF, I buy 3 factories and get an ideology and a quick t2 tenet, as well as scholasticism. Not sure if I should have annexed the cities. I actually removed all roads and did not even touch those cities because I had enough units in the first place. Do they increase science, if you annex them?

Here is 8 turns later: with ideology and stuff. Looks like anti-aircraft guns are now at ballistics? Wait, weren't they always there? Anyway, had I known that the AI's get aircraft so early, I would have saved Oxford for Flight. Maybe I can reload some turns, if I still have the saves.

@Acken: I found the save with 30 turns, as well. The second one. Oddly enough, it's in Warsaw.

Cities increase science regardless if you annex or not. It is culture that is not increased by puppets. (same as base game)
I cannot guarantee good spy times everywhere. It depends on the city bpt as well as spy levels and buildings.
Yes antiaircraft has always been at balistics but the key difference is that it does not require flight. Makes getting AA a bit faster. Getting Triplane takes longer due to needing biology.


I just finished the map with a science victory on turn 248 (with the official version 6). I think I was a bit lucky not having too much trouble after T150 or so once my continents was clearly in my control while the other one had Rome and Russia at a stalemate.
Catherine was the furthest in the tech tree, starting to nuke Rome around T230.

Not a perfect game due to me not really knowing what victory I should go for.
I used the following policies :
Piety Opener, Liberty Opener, Organized Religion, Republic, Mandate of heaven, Meritocracy, Representation (waited for a natural GA first), Theocracy, Religious Fervor, Reformation (Jesuit)
I then spent 4 policies into honor but that was stupid since I didn't really use it that much and played peacefully after the midgame. Should have went Commerce or Exploration instead.
Later on I went Freedom and Rationalism.

I used Elephants and a few Triremes to take out Harald then later on used Musketmen to take out the Celts. I also had to defend against Morocco but that was easy.

I also let Russia pass World Ideology Order like an idiot and had to deal with -73 happiness at the end lol. My gold management was also bad at the end losing 8 turns while waiting for the gold.

Peak science was in the 2900

Note :
Jesuit education was simply too good and will get a 33% nerf in the next version. But also the AI let me take both Pagoda and Mosques so the faith was through the roof.

I have to say I think that cities are too weak. I was DoW'ed in a recent game and my expansion was captured by two warriors and an archer. That seems much too small a force, even for T40. I had units and they were a few tiles away, but for my city to be captured in 2/3 turns by such a small force seems a bit tame.

Hmm that seems a bit surprising that 2 strength 8 units and an archer can get down 250health of a strength 6 city (size 1 on flat).
Also v7 will give +1 to early cities.

Will you continue the lets play of the map or just finish it by yourself ?

Nah I won't continue any LP until I get a computer that can reasonably handle it. My overheating problems are getting worse and worse, actually. I think there are some more parts of the LP that I did record that I could upload, though.

About that city capture: I think the AI warriors may have had a promotion each, and they used instaheal, but still, it shocked me.

Acken said:

Makes getting AA a bit faster. Getting Triplane takes longer due to needing biology.

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Never understood why biology is not a prerequisite for flight. You discover planes, but not the fuel to run them? How does it even make sense.

I think you were also lucky to get Jesuit Education. Honestly, I have never been able to pick it in your mod because JE and Patron of the Arts are the first reformation beliefs to go, and in this particular map even Denmark went piety.

Acken said:

I cannot guarantee good spy times everywhere. It depends on the city bpt as well as spy levels and buildings.

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I can post a save with 100 turns to steal a tech with a level 3 spy in a crappy city (industrial espionage reduces it by 1/5, like from 19 to 16 turns). I am currently replaying, and for some reason Rome does not have bombers.

Whoa, I finally beat this map on t239. For whatever reason Caesar did not get aircraft, and it was an easy roll with infantry. After that Moscow was taken in a couple turns. Weirdly, my spies were stealing techs from Russia in 3-4 turns...

Acken said:

Getting Triplane takes longer due to needing biology.

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Apparently you don't need biology. City-states gave me oil before I researched biology, and I was able to build aircraft with it. I think you get these resources as soon as one civ discovers them and CS hook them up.

Mistake 1: Not realizing that a single berserker with cover2 is enough to kill a city with walls.
Mistake 2: lol

Yeah you gotta take that Dane down ASAP before he gets those units :S

You can survive with LS but thats never a good idea to fight a UU in general. However on this map its really easy to kill denmark usually.

I think Acken maybe have gone a little overboard with buffing melee units and debuffing cities/ranged haha. Well it's different.