Any new strategies for 2.08?

[bovinespy]

Hello all. I guess everyone is busy trying out the new patch, but have any of you figured out yet any new tips/tricks/stratagems to take advantage of the extensive rules and AI changes? New slingshots? New rushes? Anything?....

I'll check back later - now back to the game....

[Nilmerf]

Step 1: Pick Augustus.
Step 2: Win.

Domination is the victory to go for. Praetorians will crush 2 or 3 civilizations, no problem.. and with creative and organized, your newly captured cities will grow fast without slowing down your economy. I find myself keeping more cities than I raze now, because the AI puts them in better locations.

[ohcrapitsnico]

Originally Posted by Nilmerf

Step 1: Pick Augustus.
Step 2: Win.

Domination is the victory to go for. Praetorians will crush 2 or 3 civilizations, no problem.. and with creative and organized, your newly captured cities will grow fast without slowing down your economy. I find myself keeping more cities than I raze now, because the AI puts them in better locations.

I used to raze every ai city that was horribly placed and didn't go with my city plans for the world.

[bovinespy]

Originally Posted by Nilmerf

Step 1: Pick Augustus.
Step 2: Win.

Domination is the victory to go for. Praetorians will crush 2 or 3 civilizations, no problem.. and with creative and organized, your newly captured cities will grow fast without slowing down your economy. I find myself keeping more cities than I raze now, because the AI puts them in better locations.

That's for sure! I posted in another thread that I think he's my newest favorite leader (used to be Qin in Vanilla and Hannibal in pre-2.08 Warlords). But I'm trying to get a little more under the hood:

1. Did you used to play as Augustus pre-patch? What level?
2. Do you find yourself building more libraries now? When and in what cities?

And I've also definitely noticed that the AI has gotten a lot better at placing cities than they used to be. I would think that, all things being equal (which they never are), this would benefit Cre and Org leaders disproportionately, since they have traits which match up better with keeping cities, rather than razing them.

Conversely, I think that Agg and Imp may have gotten a downward bump, relatively speaking.

(Then again, with more GGs now, all warmonger traits seem enhanced. Of course, with those cheap Expansive workers.... )

[Barney's_Soul]

Originally Posted by Nilmerf

Step 1: Pick Augustus.
Step 2: Win.

Domination is the victory to go for. Praetorians will crush 2 or 3 civilizations, no problem.. and with creative and organized, your newly captured cities will grow fast without slowing down your economy. I find myself keeping more cities than I raze now, because the AI puts them in better locations.

THat's not a new stragigy, people always knew about the overpowered Preytorion :P

[drkodos]

Originally Posted by Barney's_Soul

THat's not a new stragigy, people always knew about the overpowered Preytorion :P

Check your shoe, you may have stepped in something.

[Nilmerf]

Originally Posted by bovinespy

1. Did you used to play as Augustus pre-patch? What level?
2. Do you find yourself building more libraries now? When and in what cities?

1. No, I thought he was weaker than Julius pre-patch. With the boost to Creative and better city placement, the capture and hold strategy with Augustus is more attractive than a raze and re-settle strategy with Julius. I play mostly Monarch, but dropped to Prince first 1.08 game.
2. Yes.. I build a library in pretty much every city. It's good to help get a second border push, and more science is always good. Like I said, the saved hammers equals more Praetorians!

Unfortunately, so far the better AI city placement looks like it won't knock you down difficulty levels as originally thought. The AI just doesn't seem to build many units.. which just means you're going to have better cities to capture than in 1.00. Of course if you're a pure builder, it could be trouble.

My second game, the shoe is on the other foot.. as I'm now Hannibal with Augustus as my neighbour. He even hooked up iron and had Praetorians out before I had 4 cities. Unfortunately, he didn't understand the concept of building a lot of them, and I wiped him out with mere axemen. Alas, the AI is still dumb!

[GoodSarmatian]

Aah, I dropped from Monarch in vanilla to Ptince in Warlords, and was just abou going back to Monarch.
Now with the patch I'll stay at this level for some more time. Dependet too much on the CS slingshot...
Currently looking for a way to get Feudalism early, now Bureaucracy has high upkeep and Machinery lost some of it's importance.

[Stolen Rutters]

Only have one game in progress since the patch. It seems different but I can't put my finger on it.

The starting screen gave me Qin and a continents map versus Julius just north of me and Ragnar farther north on my continent. I always play standard size, normal speed, random everything and shuffle map to keep the game more like a box of chocolates.

I have been playing more resource denial on this game, but I think it's more to do with this particular map than the changes to the AI. I didn't stop him from settling near copper since it was closer to him but I successfully made a mad dash to keep the local Iron and horses out of the hands of the Romans and cut him off from the southern end of the continent. Perpetual war to keep that copper unusable and to keep them from expanding around my borders to the wide open fog to my south (at least six decent city spots to settle at my leisure... a veritable builder's dream), and I plan to capture that city before they get longbowmen but they seem to spit out archers faster than I can take them out. RL gets in the way so I am still growing through Alphabet. That Iron should help matters.

[pholkhero]

Originally Posted by GoodSarmatian

Currently looking for a way to get Feudalism early, now Bureaucracy has high upkeep and Machinery lost some of it's importance.

Oracle sling, w/GP popping Monarchy?

[DrewBledsoe]

Originally Posted by bovinespy

Hello all. I guess everyone is busy trying out the new patch, but have any of you figured out yet any new tips/tricks/stratagems to take advantage of the extensive rules and AI changes? New slingshots? New rushes? Anything?....

I'll check back later - now back to the game....

My tactics (monarch / huge / marathon) have always been pretty much the same, as I've never bothered with slingshots (tried them, used them, found most boring and nowhere near as effective as some people believe).

Just expand and then expand some more, and then some more..Its not important being particularly scientifically advanced as long as your not too far behind miltarily. The science will ALWAYS come later (as Civ is still basically won by having more land than anyone else, with the point being that with a huge map, and all tiles on an average basis being equal, that more tiles to work equals more commerce, food and production), and most games are for all intents and purposes won around 1700AD, when you can out produce, and outtech anyone else easily. The main problem then comes with newly formed permanent alliances.

Every game is different, so this can be accomplished through culture, diplomacy, trade, alliance and conquest, and generally a mix of them all.

I don't advocate this as a particularly brilliant or sound strategy, but it generally works for me, and doesn't rely on anything (slingshots, slavery exploits, unique unit rushes or particular nations) as some examples.

Adjust on the fly, play each civ on its own merits, but expand...huge maps/ marathon/ monarch / shuffle / random civ / aggressive ais / permanent aslliances / lock modified assets.....produce a decent enough range of games to keep me coming back for more

[Meatbuster]

I hate fractal and when combined with the new patch makes for a really tough game.

I played as Alex recently and because the fractal script made a 70% land 30% water pangaea-like map (real Earth, for reference is 30-35% land) coupled with the stronger AI made me go to space. What's ironic is that 16 turns before I launch, Gandhi builds the UN and I vote myself winner 8 turns later, which means I don't win by space.

Strategy hasn't changed much. Except I build less trebs and more catapults now when both are available.