So after my somewhat boring first Deity win, I'm trying again to do a more interesting (IMO) Domination victory as the Incas. I'm doing a 3 Billion year Pangaea because the computer is terrible at boats (so, yawn) and this is my first Deity Domination attempt. So far, it's taken me so much longer on Deity than it does on Immortal or below.
I do think I'll win but it took me so long to get ahead in tech to be able to beat Poland's massive Winged Hussar army that I expect almost all the warring will happen in the Information Era, unless I bail to SV.
tl;dr how do you beat the AI without UU or waiting for Artillery on Standard speed?
I'll post screenshots of a few different turns later when I get home.
One of the few Let's Plays I was able to find that doesn't abuse UU for combat was This one on a Continents Map, but it was almost entirely abusing Frigates into Logistics into Battleships which works on Continents but not on Pangaea. And certainly not on 3 Billion years.
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My current situation is that I started with England about 20 tiles to the north of me in the southeast corner and Poland about 20 tiles to the east of me, with a mountain range separating me and Poland. Due to lack of good spots I forward settled England for two bananas, a cow and two unique Cocoa, and she hated me for most of the game but never DoWed me. I also sort of forward settled Poland to grab a Marble and a really good, very defensible spot just south of the mountain range.
The problem I had is that, before I even settled my second city, I got a "Poland covets your lands" with my starting spot, so I spent most of the game expecting him to DoW me. Even though London would have been much, much easier to take, expecting this war from Poland caused me to play a bit paranoid and I ended up just building infrastructure and basic until the Renaissance. In the Renaissance I was less than 4 techs behind when Poland finally did DoW me, and I pushed him back and had a decent army of Trebuchets, Crossbowmen and a couple Longswordsmen when I tried to advance on his cities.
I think the reason Poland didn't DoW me sooner is that he had Boudicca on the other side of him who's lands he coveted more, and who he basically eliminated with Japan's help. I reloaded an earlier save twice, here are each of the things I tried:
The first time I was not ready and got rolled by really heavily upgraded knights. The second time he had Winged Hussars which kicked my ass. The third attempt worked (and I got Battleships and Bombers in the meantime), but it meant that I didn't take my first Capital until the the late Modern Era. In both cases I never really had enough troops (not enough cash or time) to be able to take a lot of losses of my Trebuchets and Catapults getting destroyed from full health and just replace them. Maybe the problem is that Poland is always a civ with a large army of Winged Hussars and they are so OP, if I had a different neighbor it would be easier?
I'm currently the tech leader but only by two techs, and Japan has an enormous empire with double my soldier count and almost double my tourism output. I'm sure I would kick his ass if I went to go fight him, but I'd have to go all the way around the world and then I'd be ignoring the Ethiopia Freedom close to home and I won't be able to take most capitals until the Information era. It would be so much easier to just stop fighting and bail to a Science victory at this point, it just seems exhausting. Or I could capture his capital and use that to power a CV.
I've watched a lot of Marbozir's Let's plays and he always plays on Epic game pace, which usually means that he's wrapping the game up around the Atomic era or so. In a few games I've watched he's just gotten nukes and he rarely has to worry about the AIs having had nukes for very long. What might I be doing wrong? How does one win wars against AIs that have decently defensible positions before Artillery? Is the key to start the war much earlier so you end up with Trebuchets / Cannons with +1 range?
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Edit: Ha I just realized how similar this thread is to this one.
I do think I'll win but it took me so long to get ahead in tech to be able to beat Poland's massive Winged Hussar army that I expect almost all the warring will happen in the Information Era, unless I bail to SV.
tl;dr how do you beat the AI without UU or waiting for Artillery on Standard speed?
I'll post screenshots of a few different turns later when I get home.
One of the few Let's Plays I was able to find that doesn't abuse UU for combat was This one on a Continents Map, but it was almost entirely abusing Frigates into Logistics into Battleships which works on Continents but not on Pangaea. And certainly not on 3 Billion years.
----
My current situation is that I started with England about 20 tiles to the north of me in the southeast corner and Poland about 20 tiles to the east of me, with a mountain range separating me and Poland. Due to lack of good spots I forward settled England for two bananas, a cow and two unique Cocoa, and she hated me for most of the game but never DoWed me. I also sort of forward settled Poland to grab a Marble and a really good, very defensible spot just south of the mountain range.
The problem I had is that, before I even settled my second city, I got a "Poland covets your lands" with my starting spot, so I spent most of the game expecting him to DoW me. Even though London would have been much, much easier to take, expecting this war from Poland caused me to play a bit paranoid and I ended up just building infrastructure and basic until the Renaissance. In the Renaissance I was less than 4 techs behind when Poland finally did DoW me, and I pushed him back and had a decent army of Trebuchets, Crossbowmen and a couple Longswordsmen when I tried to advance on his cities.
I think the reason Poland didn't DoW me sooner is that he had Boudicca on the other side of him who's lands he coveted more, and who he basically eliminated with Japan's help. I reloaded an earlier save twice, here are each of the things I tried:
- Attack Poland with Trebuchets and Crossbowmen
- Attack Poland with 1/2 frigates, Cannons and Gatling Guns
- Attack Poland with Artillery and Riflemen and 3 Frigates
The first time I was not ready and got rolled by really heavily upgraded knights. The second time he had Winged Hussars which kicked my ass. The third attempt worked (and I got Battleships and Bombers in the meantime), but it meant that I didn't take my first Capital until the the late Modern Era. In both cases I never really had enough troops (not enough cash or time) to be able to take a lot of losses of my Trebuchets and Catapults getting destroyed from full health and just replace them. Maybe the problem is that Poland is always a civ with a large army of Winged Hussars and they are so OP, if I had a different neighbor it would be easier?
I'm currently the tech leader but only by two techs, and Japan has an enormous empire with double my soldier count and almost double my tourism output. I'm sure I would kick his ass if I went to go fight him, but I'd have to go all the way around the world and then I'd be ignoring the Ethiopia Freedom close to home and I won't be able to take most capitals until the Information era. It would be so much easier to just stop fighting and bail to a Science victory at this point, it just seems exhausting. Or I could capture his capital and use that to power a CV.
I've watched a lot of Marbozir's Let's plays and he always plays on Epic game pace, which usually means that he's wrapping the game up around the Atomic era or so. In a few games I've watched he's just gotten nukes and he rarely has to worry about the AIs having had nukes for very long. What might I be doing wrong? How does one win wars against AIs that have decently defensible positions before Artillery? Is the key to start the war much earlier so you end up with Trebuchets / Cannons with +1 range?
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Edit: Ha I just realized how similar this thread is to this one.
