RLC#1. Suryavarman of Khmer.

[Shaandore]

I would go for Railroad for the production boost. Artillery has no immediate benefits to you other than as a prereq, but you can't skip railroad either.

Regarding your other question: I find that some spoilers are nice. IMO the best is to have 1 or 2 non-spoilered detailed screens that show your land and what your cities are doing, the others (such as civic change screen, or AP vote screen) can be spoilered to minimalize scrolling.

[pigswill]

I've been tweaking slider and research/wealth builds so we're now producing 2300bpt +4gpt which ain't too bad.

Railroad is tempting mainly for the production boost on mines. On the other hand I'd like to get started on Apollo fairly soon so there won't be a delay on building bits of a spaceship.

More generally I've been looking at which techs we don't need to research and there's quite a few:

We don't need DR, milsci or miltrad. Chuck will trade miltrad which could be useful for Westpoint, possibly to be built in Bibracte which has 2 MI and enough production to become a naval base once it has a dockyard (and we get to construction for oil (or fission for uranium)).

We don't need fascism because we probably have enough generals already.

We need either flight or artillery for rocketry though not both. Flight would need combustion first which would delay rocketry by a few turns but would give us airports. I'm not sure how useful airports would be tbh, free trade route is the main attraction.

We need computers or refrigeration for fibre optics but not both. Refrig gives supermarkets for health, computers lets us build modern armour and opens up robotics for space elevator though if we're going for that we need to get it built early enough to make a difference.

We don't really need mass media but UN does enable stuff like open borders, extra trade route and non-proliferation treaty which is much cheaper than SDI if the AIs get as far as Manhattan which is a possibiity I suppose.

We can live without laser, advanced flight and stealth.

My inclination would be to skip flight and go something like RR>arty>rocketry>combustion. Is Three Gorges Dam (3GD) worth building?

[pigswill]

I'm a noob when it comes to spaceship victory.

Played another 8 turns up to 1715.

Got RR, arty, rocketry, combustion. Oil is connected, building my first tank in Eridu (HE city). Started Apollo, completes in 9 turns.

Research is up to 2500bpt.

But I have no idea which tech path to follow at this point:



Haven't got medicine yet which I'll need for genetics, I'm not sure I need hospitals however and I'm staying Communist.

I will indeed need computers for fibre optics which I'll need for fusion (or could go satellites>laser).

Superconductors would be nice because I'd launch my next GA, swop to US and cash rush observatories and labs.

I could get superconductors fairly quickly through refrig but I don't need refrig otherwise. Alternatively I could go plastics>radio (or radio>plastics) > computers >superconductors. I can't decide which is better .

[vranasm]

what I find best is to get factories first and industrialize

then aim for superconductors while spamming observatories, then industrialism to see aluminium (secure it)
then rocketry, then for casings (at times I was skipping casings to let them build last, but it seems that going casings before fusion nets similar results), then straight for Fusion (Engines are the most expensive tiles) and then backfill for the other things.

if you really starve health you could look at putting somewhere genetics as priority.

I like to put grocers and supermarkets everywhere too, they should easily give you 6-8 health.

well not sure if this is the most optimal way, but that's how i do it ;-).

Usually my bpt peaks around 3.5k out of GA, over 5k in GA.

[pigswill]

I was reading through Duckweed's SSV thread in the strategy sub-forum and it reminds me how much I still have to learn. Quite depressing really . (even though Duckweed is a seriously good player).

But despite this I shall persevere with frig>supercon>GA>cashrush.

[pigswill]

Not in a literal sense but my objective was a spaceship victory before 1800ad (or soon after).

I've still got another 19-20 turns of research, completing final parts and arrival at AC, probably looking at 1860-1870.



Maybe I'll finish this off at some point but I'm a bit too disheartened to continue today.

Maybe its time for a post-mortem.

[pigswill]

I'm still smarting from the pain of defeat but some thoughts on my poor display.

The biggest problem was not settling enough cities early enough to make a difference. There were 3-4 unused food tiles that could have supported a city each. There were also quite a few unsettled islands but I didn't prioritise astronomy. I could of course simply have expanded onto the western continent. But any way I look at it I didn't have enough cities.

Blocking Brennus was in retrospect a mistake (as was pointed out at the time) because he just sat there spamming defenders in between the occasional wonder. If I'd given him a bit of space he could have spammed settlers and workers instead for me to take from his cold dead hands.

On the other hand ben-jamin gave a very useful tutorial on early mounted warfare.

So while the game was not a success in terms of achieving the victory I was pursuing I have at least learned some things which I can hopefully take forwards to other games.

Is there any interest in me pursuing the Rest of the Leaders, maybe a repeat of monarch spaceship or maybe immortal just win? Or should I abandon the project at this point and let someone else take over?

[Revent]

Originally Posted by pigswill

I'm still smarting from the pain of defeat but some thoughts on my poor display.

The biggest problem was not settling enough cities early enough to make a difference. There were 3-4 unused food tiles that could have supported a city each. There were also quite a few unsettled islands but I didn't prioritise astronomy. I could of course simply have expanded onto the western continent. But any way I look at it I didn't have enough cities.

Blocking Brennus was in retrospect a mistake (as was pointed out at the time) because he just sat there spamming defenders in between the occasional wonder. If I'd given him a bit of space he could have spammed settlers and workers instead for me to take from his cold dead hands.

On the other hand ben-jamin gave a very useful tutorial on early mounted warfare.

So while the game was not a success in terms of achieving the victory I was pursuing I have at least learned some things which I can hopefully take forwards to other games.

Is there any interest in me pursuing the Rest of the Leaders, maybe a repeat of monarch spaceship or maybe immortal just win? Or should I abandon the project at this point and let someone else take over?

Definitely some interest on my side However, it'd be nicer to have a higher difficulty. Monarch is a bit of a cakewalk. Or, maybe have an ALC challenge, but rather than having winning the game as a target by itself, you could be a bit more creative and set certain objectives to be met? For example: No cottages may be built throughout the game. The idea of the ALC was to learn more about the games and the leaders so you could even make historical based scenarios.

I had a look at your save, and JUST monarch seems a bit too much of a cakewalk for you You're EASILY blowing the AI out of the water.

[vranasm]

I don't think this should be described as failure.

Make next game on Immortal, I know you can do it and it will bring more tension and most probably even discussion.

You have to realize that after certain point the game tends to be a drag anyway and about playing it out and the discussion is less, so don't be distracted by this.

I think you were in couple SG's with me now and I think you can clearly see the pattern here why. (I think it was the Sid's one we played? which died a bit after first few AI's dead by cats? or maybe another one...)

[Soirana]

Originally Posted by pigswill

Not in a literal sense but my objective was a spaceship victory before 1800ad (or soon after).

Heh, 1800AD is actually tough date to reach unless you really know how to build spaceships. need to actually launch at near 1750AD i believe, personally never pulled that myself.
I don't think monarch as level helps much either, yes, you have less penalties, but from certain point you need to self research everything. On save AI's are not even reaching Scientific Method yet.

And I would also add vote for playing on difficulty which is challenging rather than cruise through.

[pigswill]

I'm pretty sure that pre 1800 SSV on Monarch is more difficult than just-win immortal. Its not enough to simply blow the AI out of the water, you have to crush them ruthlessly before 1000ad and then build a huge empire in a short space of time.

The next leader on the list would be Gandhi. Should I cheer myself up by playing immortal which will be challenging but I'd have a good chance of winning if I play carefully and actually listen to advice (for once)? Should I totally demoralise myself by trying diety?

[vranasm]

good dates for SSV are indeed challenging, you need oftentimes cooperation from map.

good capital (or better said excellent), enough AI capitals nearby for quick capture etc

I had couple of 1600 AD noble space ships. The best at noble was in one of the NC games which was done on the fantasy map script (aka full of food) which was barely sub-1500 AD or close after (not sure now).

I think maybe if you did the ben-jammin's HA rush with taking out Gilga and Brennus and then quickly fill up map you had chance.

From what I saw I think you would have around 1900 AD SSV from your last save.

[Mylene]

Well you are playing around on Monarch, it's only natural you are not satisfied ~~
Iam not sure why peoples often shy away from challenges, only reason for playing vs. compis for me and i'd rather lose than win too easy.

[Abegweit]

Originally Posted by pigswill

The next leader on the list would be Gandhi. Should I cheer myself up by playing immortal which will be challenging but I'd have a good chance of winning if I play carefully and actually listen to advice (for once)? Should I totally demoralise myself by trying diety?

The ALC was always about mastering a level before moving on to the next one. So Monarch is too easy and Deity is too difficult. If you still have problems with Emperor, play that. Otherwise Immortal.

Also, I think that you go too fast to get the real ALC feel. In particular, wars need to be planned in advance and explained in detail. You have a pretty good writing style so I think that this series could be quite a success if you let your audience into the game.

[Mec AntiKythera]

Originally Posted by Abegweit

The ALC was always about mastering a level before moving on to the next one. So Monarch is too easy and Deity is too difficult. If you still have problems with Emperor, play that. Otherwise Immortal.

Also, I think that you go too fast to get the real ALC feel. In particular, wars need to be planned in advance and explained in detail. You have a pretty good writing style so I think that this series could be quite a success if you let your audience into the game.

I would agree with this post. I think that you should continue if you enjoy doing so. You seem to be looking for more interaction with the reader, to achieve that I would suggest slowing down and adding more detail and more questions. That does increase the workload quite a bit so I don't know if you are up for that or not. In any case, thanks for your efforts here.

[LuCiver]

I'm joining the party late but I loved the original ALCs because we got to watch Sis improve his game. There were wins and losses and all were learning experiences. Did a great job going Ballistic on your neighbors, that was ALC right there. Bump it up to Emp or immort and persevere! I will try to join the Pnut gallery in time for the 9 pages of argument over SIP vs move settler.

[pigswill]

Encouraged by words of encouragement (and the silence of the detractors ) I shall plough on with RLC#2: Immortal Ghandi.

[Mec AntiKythera]

That's a sound decision. I look forward to it.

[cseanny]

gonna start this later today/night. Plan to settle 3N1E/PH for 5C start and quicker worker makes up for movement.