Broken Star

This mod is hilarious. The description of it is "Fight for dominance with the other powers, by capturing cities from the weak and disorganized rebel forces". Yet, in reality, the rebel forces are this vast and well organized superpower, and you have to use every trick there is to survive against them. Rmendis and Emilie devised super complicated strategies for doing this... good job guys.

I think I've figured out the real meaning of this scenario. "rebel leader" isn't the rebel- you are. I mean, why would the rebellion be spread across so many cities, while you just have one? In fact you're some sort of crazy terrorist leader, who must use guerrilla warfare (blowing up infrastructure/pillaging) to keep the government at bay, while desperately searching for nukes.

Yeah that's a good way to put it. Apparently it was not like that before the patch.

Ha! It took a while, but I finally beat it. I pillaged like crazy, and spent it all on my air force, while grabbing oil as fast as I could. Then I bombed them unmercifully, and their military was stuck huddling in fear inside of their starving, unhappy cities.

did the new patch made the rebel leader (barbarian) too strong? The rebel leader has like lvl 4 units while I am stuck at level 2. All other states dont have oil, and the barbarians have conquered the purple and red states...with stealth bombers 4, mech 4, helicopter 4 and armor 4.... I am playing on prince epic

Also, it is about to control one of the nuke station within 5 turns...


Edit: After playing 50 more turns, I got overwhelmed...the rebel captured all other states and took over 3 nuke stations. I got blasted with nukes and I think I lost...

The rebels are too strong, they start with too many cities. In the beginning I can take over 3 cities but then stalled because they produce way more numerous and more powerful units.

The rebel leader isnt barbarian. thats the problem. its a regular AI player like the Nato player set to 'minor civ' that you are always at war with and cannot speak to. therein lies the problem becuase a Barbarian AI has limits set to itself on how it acomplishes military attacks, city building and research.

The 'Rebel Leader' simply is another AI civ with a massive amount of cities with Oil and Aliminium to fuel it... Unfortunetly.

Any way to mod this into 10 copies of the rebal leader to that every rebel city is a civ?

because it is annoying to the "Disorganized" rebel leader airlift in enough capacity to the city I attack to make it impossible to take

Ok. I finally got around to playing this again this bank holiday weekend.

FYI: This time i had the latest patch (as of today).

I played the game at Marathon/Immortal and i won an Arsenal Victory at 2020AD fairly easily (with ~130 turns to go

So the game is and must be playable at the Deity level. Another time...

Highlights
======

Same strategy as i've described before.

I played Oksanna (Imperialist, Aggressive).
This meant i had a steady flow of Great Generals whom i turned into warlords to give me Medic III (aka "supermedic") and Moral (+1 movement gor gunships).

Military Strategy
==========

Additions to previous post:

1. I decided first to make contact with the other generals (using spies - the only units i ever built - cos you can't buy them).
2. Then i took the small rebel cities between the generals, so that i could trade with them.
Note, that when pillaging and attacking, don't destroy the roads/railroads you will later use, just pillage the improvements - towns/villages/hamlets/etc in particular.

FYI: These were Irksutsk, Omsk, then Volgrad.
These three cities allowed me to trade with the other generals.

3. The cities were each strategically located a few squares from a Nuclear silo. So along with Amur (which i had taken as described in a prior post), i had secured 4 cities nearby the silos.
This is very important also, as one can transport units from the HQ (which had an airport) to these cities in the event you need to beef up security at one of the captured silos.

Changes from Earlier Strategy
==================

1. Initially i did buy a fighter jet in addition to a stealth bomber. They are totally worthwhile to take out the resources of the rebel/barbs.
2. I did purchase christian missionaries to spread religion to my first to captured cities (Vladivoskok and Amur) - and this paid off - along with my gr8 person optimised civics : pacifism + cast system + mercantilism (later state prop to minimise costs of the distant cities + enamcipation), i got a great merchant each from those to cities. (In fact i spread christianity to all my cities. I got an extra great merchant from a third city, as i won the game).
3. Leter on in the game, the money traded by a Gr8 Merchant was mostly spent on promotions and stealth bombers and a unit here and there when needed.

Notes from Gameplay
=============

Essentially this was a classic devide and conquer strategy.
In the end, the rebels were split into 3 or 4 disjoint sections.
Three of the other generals became my vassels.

All in all i can confirm that this Mod is not broken (anymore at least).
It's a very fun and playable scenario. Thx.

Is there any progress on a mod of this mod where the different districts are more diverse and the rebels are actually disorganized and are not one massive civ? Or any other improvments?

OK, I just finished my first successful Broken Star game. In the beginning I had the same experience others described here before - I wasn´t defeated, I was blown into pieces.

So, the first thing I did was to change my starting position. I used to start with Jekaterinburg in the Ural (which I´d still prefer, but it´s just too tough).

So I changed that and began in the far east. I used strategy combining elements of what emilie and rmendis (thanks to you guys) suggested. I bombed the rebell leaders infrastructur where ever it was possible (having lots of fighters and stealth bombers everywhere on the map) - I felt bad about it, because bombing doesn´t give you a financial benefit and later on I could have used all these towns, but anyway, the rebel´s production must be kept low.

Then I built a little force that was strong enough to finally face the enemy (I conquered all cities in the north east and made it to Tobolsk by then - and I lost two cities due to Nukes, which didn´t matter much, since i developed the cities I conquered to $$$ production and I could pillage the surroundings of the nuked areas. )

At some point I had broken the rebel´s strength and with my bombers bombing all his units and cities and my fighters still destroying his infrastructure my little force was able to take city after city and went for the remaining nukes in the meantime. I made four other civs my vasall, I attacked and conquered one other (Ural).

Unfortunately I ran out of time (although I really had the rebel on the run in the end - 6 or 7 more rounds and all Russia would have been mine) - so it was just a time victory.

By the way: I use my generals to promote my units to "leadership" and "combat VI". I see no use for "morale" or "medic III". "Medic II" is enough and instead of "morale" all my units get "commando" and can use the rebel roads and railroads.

SerriaFox said:

Any way to mod this into 10 copies of the rebal leader to that every rebel city is a civ?

because it is annoying to the "Disorganized" rebel leader airlift in enough capacity to the city I attack to make it impossible to take

Click to expand...

I dont think that is a good idea, cause i think the rebels will bash the heck out of eachother, it would be funny to wach but the rebels shouldn't be fighting themselves... or should they???

Hmm, just tried this mod recently, playing on Noble/Epic (BtS 3.17). Haven't run into the same 'stomped flat' issues everyone else seems to have, though the other MDs are pretty much useless turtles.

I'm playing as the Far East one (Imp/Agg), and rushed the nearest 2 Rebel cities right off the bat. The second one, to the north, I basically turned into an XP-farm while I got my infrastructure up and running by parking a handful of Mobile Arty and Mech Infantry on the hill road leading to my territory.

I used my Great Generals on Military Academy then Great Instructors in my capital, so I was pumping out level 4 Mech Infantry at a rate of 1 every 1-2 turns before long. As a very nice alternative to the Medic III super-medics, try Woodsman III + Medic I, it's also 25% heal rate to same tile, but they can be mass-produced and fight better too.

Anyways, the only other MD that's accomplished anything is the one that's right next to me, mainly because I've killed off most of the nearby Rebel forces. I left him alone as a buffer state to the west while I sent large stacks of MI and Mobile Arty to take nukes. I haven't seen the need for using any other ground units, since the 3 promotions mine were built with were more than enough to specialize them. CG III for garrison troops, Woodsman III/Medic I (with a promo purchase) for medics, Combat III/Pinch or Ambush for primary attackers, Interception II + Combat for antiair. The Rebels got level IV troops very quickly, but +6 strength is still less than the +50%ish from promotions my MI were getting.

Finally, is it just me, or do Offshore platforms not work? I founded a city just to get the oil to the NE of starting location, but found I didn't get the resource once I built the platform.

Thinker19930602 said:

Is there any progress on a mod of this mod where the different districts are more diverse and the rebels are actually disorganized and are not one massive civ? Or any other improvments?

Click to expand...

Any Progress on this, anyone?

Light-Giver said:

I dont think that is a good idea, cause i think the rebels will bash the heck out of eachother, it would be funny to wach but the rebels shouldn't be fighting themselves... or should they???

Click to expand...

They should, but the lag might be bad. maybe 8 leaders. But if your PC is fast you might be able to crank it up so every rebel city is it's own "nation".

I Loved it! I was the Southern Fraction. Got the Caspian Sea Oil and Crushed all of the Rebels. I pushed the front North, then East. Then this guy declared war on my and I pounded his soldiers with 100 or so units. Then the way washed across and all the Rebels are mine!

Then, all the Remaining begin to turtle up, got bonuses and Gold buying units. As I lost most of my 1000 or so army on a few Coalitions they all crawled over me. Thousands of Units. I cried when I saw a 50 Str Modern Armour kill my 40 Str Armour and my 32 str Mech. It was over in a flash. The allies when they are done began to cut themselves into pieces...

At least I killed over 5000 Units.

I think I know what the problem is with this mod.

Expert players will be able to beat almost any scenario, no matter how hard it is, by using the fact that the AI is stupid. They find an effective tactic that cripples the computer (bomb improvements, for example) and then exploit it to maximum effect. Good for them. However, I am not an expert player, and nor will I ever be. I have played civ for at least two years, but I am still playing on medium difficulty, and do not plan to go any higher.

Anyway. The Rebels act as the AI should (using coordinated attack patterns and going for the win), and the AI act as the Rebels should (doing nothing but build up strength). I tried this game four times, and got stone-walled every time. I read these posts, and found out I was not alone.

Somehow the Rebel-scripts have been mixed up with the AI-scripts. I have not looked at the mod-files. I have no programming skills whatsoever. Still, by looking at the information and player reports, this is what must have happened.

I just happend across this scenario and I liked the looks of it. And it´s quite inspiring for seeking out strategies. So I read all the posts here with great interest, but I found nowhere a word on spys simply blowing up the nukes. As far as I know that works. Of course it´s somehow against the idea of this scenario, but maybe I´ll really dispose of these spoil-sports, cling to one city crammed with defenders and wait for a time victory as the last surviving Civ.

i won this scenario pretty easily. Here is the tactics to beat it :

civics : favors military prod and experience : police state, vassalage, caste, state property and theo. This way you'll have super +4EXP and super workshops
workers : don't keep cottages (even matures), build workshop/mines everywhere
GG : only academies in taken cities
sliders : move culture slider to keep cities happy (until you have to switch to emmancipation civic about half game)

very important for a good start : turn 1 or 2 take the nearest barbarian city (use all your initial units promoted with all your starting money)

science : research future techs or whatever appeals to you, it has no importance as your science will be low and you will use culture slider to get happiness

production : build all production buildings first (forge, factory, electricity) then barracks then ALT build mech inf in capital and mobile artilleries in second city. Never build settlers. You should soon procude 1 unit/turn easily. Build happy buildings when needed.Do the same in all cities : only build production building first then mech.inf/arties then tanks, no need for aircraft or else.

general strat :
* cities should work all their workshoped tiles (build as many workers as needed to workshop taken cities fast)
* attack barb cities (weaken with arties) one by one till the nearest oil city (to make tanks) then cities near siloes next.
* No need to attack siloes early, keep units to take cities as fast as possible. You can start fighting for nuclear siloes when you'll have 5 or 6 cities, not before.
* Buy missionaries with your money for each new city (to get the happy and +2exp bonus)
* keep money to promote super healers (+25%/turn) mech infs (wood 3 and medic 1)
* keep GPs for golden ages (to change civic to emmancipation for exemple) to boost production when you'll have at last 4 cities

So this Mod is still alive and provoking new ideas . What difficulty/speed did you play and what kind of victory was that? And you thought no good of hurling out a merchant? I play the East and I think I got one in 9 rounds and received 900 gold for it immediately because of the direct contact to the neighbour. The little army I bought then is still taking towns by now (OK, it just stopped doing so when two modern tanks suddenly materialized in the sieged city. Airlift, I guess). Btw I play emperor/normal.

i tried my strat yesterday on deity level (speed normal), worked like a charm, this time i used the eastest general (near vladivostok), the first time i played that scenario i played the central general.

The only difference with the strat i described earlier is i put the science slider at 0% to get money faster and used it to buy lots of workers and promotions (a wood3 medic 1 healer for exemple)
At turn 30 when i stopped i had 8 cities (3 big barbarians (12+ pop), 1 big general city (12 pop) and 3 newly founded cities (8+ pop)) and about 1000 gold in reserve. My 2 starting cities (capital + city taken at turn 2) are around 20 pop.
3 cities are already upgraded (factories, temples, barracks etc) and are pumping out tanks/mech.inf/artilleries and 4 GG have built academies.

I have one nuclear siloe in the middle of my territory (north of capital) that i should attack in somes turns and i am ready to take a barbarian city in 2-3 turn with another nuclear siloe near

I already used a golden age (still in it) and i have another GE ready when the next GP pop

Game is pretty much win with something like 15 mobile artilleries, 3-4 tanks (got oil late, i had to settle near coast), about 20 mech inf, 12-13 workers and soon (less than 10 turns) i will churn out 7-8 units/turn and will start to divide my army in 2 to attack 2 fronts. The only difficulty is that barbarians are attacking me with level 4 units (ouch it hurts!), but some good promoted units at choke point stop them with no loss

Gratz, I´d say the scenario is really broken or cracked now. Sounds just too easy to try for oneself. Maybe State Property should be excluded to make it a challenge again.
But I´ll still finish my attempt, I still like the setting. The settler going for the sea oil is exactly what I did, btw. I´m not too much aquainted with the AI, so I hope that my strategy to destroy all the units in one city without taking it, wait for a new army to come and destroy that without a loss again will work. But so far the AI sent only one Artillery as replacement, so I´ll maybe have to look for trouble somewhere else.

i thought sincerely the game was won but i played again yesterday more 4-5 turns and even if i took a 9th rebel city they attacked my 8th city the same turn with a horsehockyload of units and took it back (protected by like 10 mech inf !!)
So maybe the rebel won't be so easily defeated, they have already crushed 2 other generals (3 staying with 1 almost dead). It can be done that way but it will be hard.
IMO the best bet would have been to keep the general east of my country alive, like a buffer between rebels and me (they do constant improvement destruction with planes, harrassing me) and instead concentrate early and only on rebel cities.

Should be fun but deity maybe allow too much production capabilities to rebels on the long term (and too much science power as they are at level 4 units very very fast)