Conquest Ladder: Emperor to Sid

I have been looking at the Hall of Fame for a while, and now that I have got the hang of using MapFinder, I think it is time to start playing games for submission. Having played Games of the Month for over a year now, I thought I should give the HOF a try.

The games that looked the best to start out with were the Conquest games on a Tiny map. These would not take much time to play, and I prefer playing for conquest anyway. (Where would such a perference come from? It must be left over from Civ2.) I looked at the conquest tables and saw that for the lower difficulties, conquest dates were VERY early. After downloading some of the saves I saw, as expected, that for Chieftain, Warlord, and Regent the early victories were the result of rushing fast warriors at all cost and catching the AI before they could build additional troops. Sacrificing growth is the best strategy in these cases.

However, I downloaded and looked at the higher difficulty games and saw that the strategy is more complex. I tried a couple of Sid games with Egypt and the Aztecs, but found out quickly that I will need more practice to complete a game at this difficulty. "So, self." I said to myself, "Why don't you work your way up from, say, Emperor to Sid." And that's what I will try to do.

I generated a bunch of Tiny Emperor games and found a nice looking start. Check it out.
Oh, and all of these are Civ3 Conquest games. For some reason MapFinder does not work for me with Play the World. Anyway...



I decided to move my settler NE and my worker SW. The reason I moved the settler is because he is standing on top of a BG. The plan is for the worker to chop and help with the Barracks, and then irrigate a cow and build some roads. Then just pump out Jaguar Warriors (JW) and Archers. At the Emperor level I should not have too many problems, as long as I don't try anything stupid.

I ran into the French first (a warrior from the south) so I sent my first JW that way. The French were nearby, so I focused on them. I captured a French settler guarded by a warrior a few turns before 3000BC and captured two French workers. That was really good. Then I waited around Paris for reinforcements, which meant 4 JW. While the 4th JW was on its way and and another JW was healing just outside French lands, a French warrior approached my capital from the east.



Thanks to the French not having spearmen, I took Paris which was guarded by two warriors.

I sent out my new JW from home to find the Arabs who were north. I took out an arab town with the JW in 2670BC.



Then I moved in on their capitol. I quickly signed for peace as I did not want to lose my Archers to possible battles with warriors. The arabs had spearmen, so I was careful to move ALL of my troops in place before attacking. I also used my workers to lure some of the excess troops away.



Conquest victory occured in 2270BC. This map was nice, as both Civs were not too far away. I know that I can win at Emperor level. Next up is Demigod.

Congrats, that looks like the quickest non PTW/Vanilla game on the Tiny Emperor table.

Welcome to the HOF.

yeah, up to the point where the AI gets free units to start, the strategy is simple on a tiny map:

Be the incas.
Have barbarians on.
Settle in place.
Merge worker.
Send scout out to find the AI and pop a warrior
Poprush a chasqui scout
Send chasqui out to find the other AI and kill.

that's it. Your win date depends on A) finding a barb hut with a warrior right next to an AI and B) winning the battles.

Once the AI gets free units, the strategy is harder.

Welcome to the hall! Demigod will be a big jump from emperor, I fear.

Welcome to the HoF! We're friendly here, if not talkative.

Thanks everyone. I am glad to be part of the Hall.

As it turned out in the end, this map was not ideal as the French were quite far away and behind jungle. However, I took care of the Arabs so fast, I stuck with the game. I actually played a few games before getting a good one. The first ones I tried were island starts. There were quite a few considering the maps were supposed to be pangea.



This start had a river and a cow. I found the Arabs quickly, took a town, and then captured an additional settler. For peace the Arabs gave 2 more workers. Then I waited for Archers before attacking Mecca. Even so, I lost all three Archers I used on Mecca.



Mecca fell in the same turn (2390BC) that I crushed a newly founded French jungle city guarded by one warrior. With the Arabs out, I focused on France, but they had spearmen, so I could not attack and had to wait for more Archers. France was not willing to trade cities after the first war, which make the final stage take even longer. Getting Archers to France took a long time even with roads.



I made a big buildup and took Lyons, and then surrounded Paris waiting for peace. Peace got me Orleans and I walked into Paris once I had more Archers. Conquest Victory in 1450BC. This last picture shows my troops waiting for peace so that I only needed to take Paris. Also, a few turns after this picture, a swordsman came out of Orleans. Luckily Paris was building a wonder or there would have been more.

What was your winning date?

Marsden said:

What was your winning date?

Click to expand...

spiffykeen said:

Conquest Victory in 1450BC.

Click to expand...

Welcome to the HOF too.

D'oh! I missed that, thanks.

Ya need to point these things out to me, I'm a little slow.

Now that school is out, Civ3 rules the day!

It turns out that this was a really good map. The start was nice, and another cow was hidden in the darkenss. On top of that, France and Arabia were close by and not behind jungle. There were also many mountains to work with.



France was the first target. I captured Orleans guarded by only a single warrior. Peace came 4 turns later and with it came two workers and Lyons. I kept the French troops busy by moving a JW on and off the mountains near Paris. Here is the western world in 2550BC.



About the time I made peace with France, I started a war with Arabia. I had to use Archers as the Arabs had Spearmen already. I destroyed one city, and after peace received another. Peace also brought me Bronze Working. Here is the eastern world in 2390BC. This war left the Arabs with 3 cities, France still had only one.



I refocused on France. I thought I would be able to take both Paris and Rheims at the same time, but that did not happed. I defeated 3 Spearmen in Paris with 3 Archers and 2 JW. However, I could not even defeat one Spearman in Rheims with an Archer and 6 JW. When I made peace with France a second time in 2070BC, I managed to get Iron Working and found iron right next to the road I was building to Arabia.



I moved more archers into place, declared, tempted the French troops away with undefended Orleans, and removed the French in 1675BC. On that same turn I had another stack of doom waiting to take Mecca. This included 4 Swordsmen and 4 Archers. I took Mecca, got a great leader, and took out most of the remaining Arab army (Mecca had been building the Oracle). This included 2 Archers, 2 Warriors, and a Settler. Next turn I had a Swordsman army. I achieved a conquest victory in 1550BC.

My first JW was completed in 3450BC. I sent it West and eventually found the Arabs. I destroyed one of their cities a few turns later. Then I found a Warrior guarding a Settler and attacked, but lost the JW. Peace got me a few Workers but no cities. My second JW went South and found France. I destroyed two French cities when in 2470BC I noticed that the Arabs were helping me.



After the Arabs destroyed a French town, I made peace in 2350BC and received Orleans.



At the same time I was building up Archers to take Damascus.



I managed to take Damascus and keep it. I sent JW even farther west to scout out the lands and keep the Arab troops busy. In the mean time, the Arabs continued to build two wonders! Oh well. Peace bought me Basra and Najran in 2070BC.



I was at peace with both opponents, but France and Arabs still were going at it. This time France was helping me against the Arabs.



Just after the French destroyed an Arab city, I declared on France, got a leader and created an Archer army. In 1910BC, I took Lyons. Peace later got me Chartres, leaving them with Paris only. In the west I had to stop Arab Settlers. That threat was gone by the time I took care of the French. Of course, my army died attacking Paris against a Regular Spearman. But France was gone by 1650BC.



Now I could focus on the Arabs. To help me out, I had connected iron and was ready with Warriors to upgrade to Swordsmen. There was about a 100 year (4 turn) seige of Mecca. I didn't even think about keeping it. Then another seige for Medina. I used JW to pillage the land. I achieved victory in 1250BC.



I hope to put together some stats and graphs for this game. Right now I am studying my troop history in this game. Post to come soon.

congrats!! that gives you a 3rd place on the sid hof!

Yeah! It is kinda hard to believe. Now I just need to find a better map, get a little bit better as a player, and then push the date back.

OK, so here is history of my units in the Sid Conquest game. As is indicated in this graph, my Golden Age was used to, at first, build Archers every two turns, and then JW every turn towards the end of my GA. Once the GA was over, I switched back to Archers every two turns with some Workers.

I built some Spearmen after my GA was over, mostly to protect my workers building roads. My other cities rushed Archers, JW, and Warriors on occasion. The Warriors were upgraded to Swordsmen and I also built Swordsmen. Taking Paris and then Mecca lost me a lot of Archers, but by then I was in control and the loss of Archers resulted in the destruction of a Civ and a powerful capital.

I tried again, but the win date was going to be later than the last one. So I switched over to 20k. I managed to find a way to control the Arabs. It took until about 400AD, but I eventually put them in a cage.



I built up a bunch of culture in the neighboring cities to do this, otherwise it would have happend earlier. I gifted them the city in the middle, and after that it never passed size one. My science was really slow, and that hurt my culture, but not as much as the late start hurt me. I was able to build what every wonder I wanted (minus Pyramids and Oracle which the Arabs built before I crushed them). I achieved the 20k mark in 1802AD.

That's a funny picture!

Congratulations! I'm too scared to try Sid. I beat deity once and I think it was a fluke. My opponents had bad luck, either small island or no iron.

Good job!

I don't know what causes AI civs to fight early on, but I do know that it helps me! I beat my old time and the record set by Obormot almost entirely because the French went after the Arabs before 2500 BC.

My attempt at conquest followed the normal steps. In fact, in this case, the start was not as good, for my first war with the Arabs did not get me any cities in exchange for peace. However, I did capture one from the Arabs, while the French gave me one city for peace. The difference was that France went after Medina.



I remained at peace for many turns as France and Arabia went at it. The result was the destruction of Medina. I quickly destroyed two more Arab cities and waited for peace. In 2550 BC the world looked like this.



And both AI civs were wasting away building wonders.



I received Baghdad for peace and then collected Archers on the Mountain outside Mecca. Mecca fell in 2350 BC. That is when I knew I was on my way to a personal best.



Paris fell in 2110 BC.



Rheims became mine in a peace deal, and I finished off Lyons soon after that. I achieved victory in 1790 BC. The best part was that the Pyramids and the Oracle were finished just a few turns before I took Paris and Lyons. In this case, the AI wasted production on wonders that immediately became mine.