Welcome all to the Game #1 pre game show thread. here i will talk a bit about our settings as well as our first ruler, and leave strategy discussion open to you, as well as any helpful experiences you may have had with our first Ruler- Alexander. Also here is a link to the Locker room thread- where all purpose conversation is welcome and our mission statement is to be found.
The game settings are-
Standard Map
Continents
6 AI civs, all random
Temperate
Noble Difficulty
All other settings Normal
Ruler- Alexander of greece Agressive/Philisophical
A bit about our first ruler-
The alexander AI is best described as Bipolar- He is either your best friend or worst enemy, and often both several times throughout the game. average builder average techer, good in early war with his UU but tends to tail off afterwards. he isnt very religously motivated, and will attack if he sees an opening. keep your power graph above his and outpace his tech youll be fine, no matter how close he gets. Im just telling you this since i like a little backround on my rulers, relevant or not. heres more irrelevant but fun humorous backround-
If i had to put Alex in a catergory in high school, id say he is the jock who is unpopular because he plays a foreign off-sport like soccer instead of football or basketball, and seems to enjoy the post-game showers more than the game itself.
His portrait in-game shows a strong fit young general type, who likely spends too much time at the YMCA- or doing the YMCA for that matter.
His traits are aggresive, which he was very much so in history, providing half cost barracks and combat 1 promos for all melee units. as well as philisophical, which seems less historical considering ive never heard of the great literary/ect works of alexander... lets just say in the civ world he spends so much time getting chased by religous fundies like Isabella for what goes on in the greek camps before the next day's battle, he dislikes religon but still likes to explain the world around him. Philisophical provides cheaper great People, which makes any decently placed city a GP farm, providing flexibility on where you want it to be.
The Greek UU is the Phalanx, an axeman that gets less bonus versus melee, but a bonus versus mounted, making spearmen all but useless. instead of building a stack of axemen with spearmen for mounted defense, just buld twice as many phalanx with promotions tailored to what you are up against.
The UB is the Odeon, which replaces the coliseums and provides extra happy based on where your culture slider is. it also provides another happy if you have hit singles, making going for the rocknroll wonder and turning it up to 11 much more lucrative.
it also allows for 2 artist specialists, hopefully not male actors playing female parts 
overall the UB is more useful if your going for a culture victory, and still mostly useless since many people dont even bother with coliseums in the first place unless happy is a real problem and theres no better source of it. overall i think it is situationally usefull but not general purpose enough to be among the list of better UBs.
anyway i think a basic strategy- map depending and willing, will be to rush and kill/cripple a couple of close AIs early with the phalanx securing plenty of room and go into mega-build mode mid game, getting a tech lead that can either get me a space race win- or advanced units that can pull off a dom/con against AIs still in the rennaisance. but feel free to chime in with your own thoughts.
more useful now however may be general tips any of you have from experience playing alexander, or greece in general using their UU and UB. strategy can only really be discussed in earnest once the map is in front of us, but feel free to chime in with whatever you feel is useful.
ill wait for your imput now, but not before one more off-color greek joke!
How do they separate the men from the boys in Greece?
cheers-
-Jman47
The game settings are-
Standard Map
Continents
6 AI civs, all random
Temperate
Noble Difficulty
All other settings Normal
Ruler- Alexander of greece Agressive/Philisophical
A bit about our first ruler-
The alexander AI is best described as Bipolar- He is either your best friend or worst enemy, and often both several times throughout the game. average builder average techer, good in early war with his UU but tends to tail off afterwards. he isnt very religously motivated, and will attack if he sees an opening. keep your power graph above his and outpace his tech youll be fine, no matter how close he gets. Im just telling you this since i like a little backround on my rulers, relevant or not. heres more irrelevant but fun humorous backround-
If i had to put Alex in a catergory in high school, id say he is the jock who is unpopular because he plays a foreign off-sport like soccer instead of football or basketball, and seems to enjoy the post-game showers more than the game itself.
His portrait in-game shows a strong fit young general type, who likely spends too much time at the YMCA- or doing the YMCA for that matter.
His traits are aggresive, which he was very much so in history, providing half cost barracks and combat 1 promos for all melee units. as well as philisophical, which seems less historical considering ive never heard of the great literary/ect works of alexander... lets just say in the civ world he spends so much time getting chased by religous fundies like Isabella for what goes on in the greek camps before the next day's battle, he dislikes religon but still likes to explain the world around him. Philisophical provides cheaper great People, which makes any decently placed city a GP farm, providing flexibility on where you want it to be.
The Greek UU is the Phalanx, an axeman that gets less bonus versus melee, but a bonus versus mounted, making spearmen all but useless. instead of building a stack of axemen with spearmen for mounted defense, just buld twice as many phalanx with promotions tailored to what you are up against.
The UB is the Odeon, which replaces the coliseums and provides extra happy based on where your culture slider is. it also provides another happy if you have hit singles, making going for the rocknroll wonder and turning it up to 11 much more lucrative.
it also allows for 2 artist specialists, hopefully not male actors playing female parts overall the UB is more useful if your going for a culture victory, and still mostly useless since many people dont even bother with coliseums in the first place unless happy is a real problem and theres no better source of it. overall i think it is situationally usefull but not general purpose enough to be among the list of better UBs.
anyway i think a basic strategy- map depending and willing, will be to rush and kill/cripple a couple of close AIs early with the phalanx securing plenty of room and go into mega-build mode mid game, getting a tech lead that can either get me a space race win- or advanced units that can pull off a dom/con against AIs still in the rennaisance. but feel free to chime in with your own thoughts.
more useful now however may be general tips any of you have from experience playing alexander, or greece in general using their UU and UB. strategy can only really be discussed in earnest once the map is in front of us, but feel free to chime in with whatever you feel is useful.
ill wait for your imput now, but not before one more off-color greek joke!
How do they separate the men from the boys in Greece?
Spoiler :
cheers-
-Jman47
