Conquest Scenario Thoughts and Tales

I really enjoy the scenarios.

Playing the WWII one right now as the Japanese . There must be like 180 units to move on the first turn . So many possibilities I finally went to bed last night about 2:30am. About 2/3 thru the first turn. Wow.

I especially like the Age of Discovery and Napoleon. Middle Ages ends up giving me a headache.

2nd tier to me is probably Rise of Rome and Mesopitania.

Age of Discovery is fascinating to me in the possibilites of playing different ways.

Fall of Rome gets crazy with the sudden collapses of powerful civilizations.

Played a couple hours of Mesopetania last night as Macedon. Was enjoying the building and battles with barbarians and the Hittites demanded stuff from me. Only met them a few turns before and made some nice trades with them. So... war with them.
I don't really understand why they declared on me... tired of watching me build I guess. So much for the Hittites .

I already had several horsemen, a bunch of archers and a couple chariots .

Have got the Pacific Allies in a big bind in the WWII one on Monarch (Japan).
T9 and I have captured China capital, knocked Brits out of Burma and captured Singapore. Guadacanal, Tarawa, Rabaul, and the Dutch islands near the Australian coast. I spent 5 or 6 turns after hitting Pearl Harbor T1 bombing the American coast/resourses/rail-road network. Only problem was after getting attacked by planes a couple of turns... I needed to get my carriers to a harbor pronto to heal up. Now they are prowling around Guadacanal and Port Moseby. The AI is sure tricky in this one. Leave something injured (especially ships) and the AI will pounce... where ever they are on the map .
Also I have been left stunned several times with 1pt infantry in a city beating a full strength veteran tank. I don't think you can just bomb their stuff to pieces... shooting my planes down about once every two turns.

You have to play as the Japanese on solo... the AI just can't handle it. It is a fairly easy win on Monarch or Emperor playing defense as the allies. The two army leaders the J's start with are devastating in human hands too. I think I have like 5 now in my game- one achieved by a Marine, and two by elite infantry. Plus the Military Acadamy a few turns away. I still am going to keep going. Very interested in whether the US will use atomic weapons... if they have the resourses and cities by that time .

T56 of the Napoleon Scenario right now... as the French.

Serious back-stabbing in this one.

Spain even tried a Right of Passage attack on me... dirty rats.

I have about 30,000 VPs right now... with the rest coming out of Spain and Prussia VERY shortly .

I spanked the French last time I played the Napolionic Scenario and ended up bored and launching an invasion of the Balkans just before the end of game, was just under 17hrs playing time which is quick as far as civ goes for me.

Yes, winning isn't that difficult. I like to place certain restrictions on my play as a major power. As the French I don't immediately destroy Britain or crush Spain until later on. Usually go the Netherlands, Naples, Portugal route first.
As Britain I don't invade France until late game. Going the Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Prussia/Russia route first. I like sinking any ship in site too... no invasions of Britain to worry about.

T62 of the Middle ages as Sweden .

I have 2 Relics, and on my way to deposit in Jerusalem.

I just luv to lay the smack down on any Civ that even looks my way wrong .

Fun scenario.

Dang it took a bit to get to Jerusalem . Once there with about 18 Berserks (2 Armys) it was a easy deposit. Gifted Jerusalem to the Germans . On way back to homeland busted a couple of French cities, a couple of English, and one Castille to go over the point total. Next time I will have those points before the deposit. The last 20 turns were boring.

Some things are very interesting to me:

The behavior of the English... fighting life and death battle vs me and the Celts but still sending off an occaisional little ship with a settler in it . Immediate slaughter if both ship and city... or wait a few turns for it to get to size 2 and take it over. Silly.

The AIs (Russia, Bulgars, etc) are also determined to settle 'N Russia'. There is tons of land all around but I had to keep using workers, spears and berserks to block them from getting behind me. I may bust them up some early next try as Sweden.

*The most maddening thing was any city I had captured early game (no matter how far from their capital)- mainly England, France and Burgandy... would suddenly flip after I had worked on it for like 20 turns and it's population was like 4, 5 or 6. I may not keep any next game... or only the ones giving me an advantage. Take a settler with my attacking forces next time maybe.

Everybody was furious with me... but nobody would attack me first. So... many stupid AI things but at least one thing it did right .

I am having a hard time finishing my Nap games... both the French (T62) and the English (T32) have unstoppable forces that make finishing just a matter of time.
Not exciting at all.

May start Mesopotamia, Rise of Rome or Sweden (or other Viking) in Middle Ages again. Or finish up Nap. I also have a WWII that is boring at this point too... Japan mashing up the Allies.

keep up the reports, Old Buddy

Hey friend .

Playing Rise of Rome now... T26. Just saw my first Carthaginian War Elephant. Selling tusk shortly.

Sure does piss me off when someone like the Celts or Goths declare war with about 2 archers and 1 spearman. What the heck?

2 turns to go for Great Library... hope to get. Have completed Heroic Epic a couple of turns ago. Carthage is worrisome dropping off about 3 or 4 swordsmen each turn in Sicily. Can't invade him when he keeps invading me tho . Getting many elites out of it. Just got Heavy Cav too . Fun start to game except for AI foolishness.

To T38 in Rise of Rome:

Have 5 Armies so far . 2 in Africa, 1 against the Celts, 1 just starting out in Spain, and 1 just formed up near core. At war with Carthage (taken capital and they relocated it to Spain), Celts (slaughtering them as they keep sending archers), Persians (they drop a couple of Imortals on my islands about every other turn), and the Goths (they send 4-1 Axmen at me and I play defense/offense when they leave openings). I am still behind in points to Persia about 3,000 to 2,000.

Some thoughts:

How the heck do the Persians get so many points... they haven't done anything as far as I can tell???

Carthage and the Celts have a bad habit of sending units out of cities that I am attacking... thus making it easier to take.

I haven't figured out why some size 1 cities are destroyed when you take them but every now and then a 1 size one is takable???

Why do the Celts declare on everybody... even when they are already being smashed?

To have such a large military... Macedonia AI doesn't do alot either .

Macedonia, Persia and Carthage sure do like to build boats. IBT turns takes forever with the ships moving around. Why don't they go at it on land more?

Egypt's AI behavior is odd the entire game. Declare on friends, far-away Civs... but getting hit by the Persians every turn.

So turn 43 is right at 1/3 of the game. Got to figure out how to keep Persia down. Just got the Scythians to declare against them... but they already lost 1 city. Dang.

Whew. Domination Victory on T83/65 AD.

Area
Rome - 20%
Persia - 6%

Pop
Rome - 56%
Persia - 18%

Scores
Rome - 5,181
Persia - 3,364
Macedon- 2,381
Carthage - 1,110
Scythia - 834
Goth - 604
Egypt - 550
Celts - 413

I had about 10 Armies in the end... the AIs were at my mercy. Once I built the Bac.
so many citizens were happy that my area expanded/production boost/and WeLoveTheKingDay everywhere .

Never switched to Imperialism... stayed in Republic.
I passed Persia in points about T65. I had been keeping Persia busy with Scythia, Macedon and Egypt... keeping them happy and up to date in techs. By games end I had knocked out Carthage and the Celts, and captured Alexander/2 other cities that Carthage had taken from Egypt at some point.

Goths had about 20 axemen running around my territory the entire game until I got tired of shadowing them with a couple of armies. I can't believe they built that many, they hung around for about 70 turns, never did ANYTHING, and got slaughtered when they refused to leave when I finally asked. I lost like 2 garrison troops the entire war and got 2 more armies.

And Egypt... JEEZ . We are going to declare on everybody even tho we don't have iron OR horses. We take 1 Persian city and lose 4. We take 1 Carthage worker and lose 3 cities. We declare on the Goths, Celts, Macedon... not to mention Persia and Carthage. We don't have a coastal city. We may walk a few archers across the map to eventually be slaughtered in the hinterland.

Macedon and Persia might have beened locked in war... I am not really sure .
I think they traded a couple of cities back and forth... and destroyed a couple of each others also. Scythia gave Persia fits for a bit... then Persia started to get the best of them and they made peace about.

I was giving Persia the business by games end... taking about 5 of their cities with Army uppercuts to their belly. I captured the Holy Land and had taken Bagdad when the game ended. They were more than willing to make peace but would not give me but 1 crappy city and 250$... so I just kept hurting them.

Since the AIs rarely mess with Armies unless they are already severely wounded... I was getting bored by the end with all the settler rushing to fill out my empire, settle Spain, and fill out Africa. I don't like settle rush very much... but I do like making cities .

Celts were stupid too. Declaring war on me for no reason with nothing but about 2 Gallic Swordsmen and a bunch of spears. Didn't take long, got me some leaders, alot of elites and some new land. I still haven't figured out why some cities size 1 are destroyed when you take them... and others you move in to your new home . Sure does make future planning difficult. Like every Goth one I took was destroyed and ones that were owned by Egypt but Carthage had take I could take over. Maybe that's it... no barbarian size 1 stay alive .

Only took 36 hours . No wonder my wife was so happy the last few weeks... I have been sunk into my game . More thoughts as they come to me.

Mesopotamia Wonder Victory on T136 (340 BC as Mycenea).

Did not declare war on anyone tho about 4 different civs declared on me about T125 for no reason. I then dropped a Hoplite off in Phoenician territory. He survived one attack ((Starting my Golden Age)) then died. I had already made the Colossus and The Temple of Zeus... then with the production increase made The Great Lighthouse a few turns later for the win. I blocked the land bridge between my empire and the Hittites very early... I had my entire 'continent' to build up. Interesting late in the game barbarian huts would pop up right in the middle of my territory ... on tiles with roads and everything. Weird to see. Garrison Hoplites ate them up.

Weird not to fight wars and win. I kept a decent size force of horsemen/hoplites and archers at the choke-point vs the Hittites... they didn't dare attack. I was threatened about 4 or 5 times by different civs but refused each time. Only declared war on me very late, by the time their dudes got even close to my area the game was over.
I still made peace before the game ended... just for the spirit of the scenario. I did pillage many AI tiles between their cities... especially the Hittites/Phoenicians/and Babylon. Seemed to hurt them.

Nice relaxing game for the most part... probably very many different ways to play and still win the scenario.

Scores:

Mycenea 4140
Babylon 2380
Summeria 2300
Medes 1910
Egypt 1630
Phoenicia 1535
Hittites 1205

4 Wonders built by Rivals. 6 Hours/7 Min/38 Sec.

Might play this one again soon... and war anyway. I see an archer rush with a horseman or two working nicely . Seemed the AI were not shy about a war with each other... which was nice.

dgfred said:

I haven't figured out why some size 1 cities are destroyed when you take them but every now and then a 1 size one is takable???

Click to expand...

A size 1 town is not destroyed, if

• one of its former owners has accumulated 10 or more culture points in it.
• the lone citizen is of a nationality that you are currently at peace with.

So if you see on the map, that a town already had its first culture expansion, it is safe to capture. But also if it is still only a 3x3 square, it could be that the current owner captured it from another nation and while it was under the rule of that nation, it had a temple or lib and reached the first culture expansion. In that case the culture expansion cannot be seen, as the current owner has not yet built a temple or whatever, but it will nevertheless not be auto-razed for the rest of the game.

Another example is foreign citizens: assume the Carthagineans have captured a Celtic town and the single remaining citizen in that town still has Celtic nationality. If you are at peace with the Celts when you capture that town from the Carthagineans, the town will not auto-raze, even if it never had any culture in its history. (You can probably view it like this: you are not capturing an enemy town, you are liberating a friend's town...)

Awesome Info

Thank you Sir ... as in Sir Lanzelot .

I am happy to see people posting here again. I love Civ IV and V, but I always come back to III for the scenarios.