handy900
Deity
HNDY02 - Always War Emperor C3C Itsy Bitsy map as China
Roster:
Handy
T_McC
Yom
Greebley
Barbslinger
Its not as easy as you might think. Tiny maps dont have a lot of resources & luxuries to go around. In one AWE victory there was no iron on Chinas home continent. By the time the glorious Chinese took Iron from the other continent Mao already had the worlds largest cavalry force. Mao is partial to mounted units. Mao has lit a good luck candle for Iron or Horses, or Ivory for that Zeus thing (maybe he needs 3 lucky candles!)
Our early empire will be pitifully small, so if we have none of the 3 early on, we are in for a long, though enjoyable dogfight.
Level: Emperor
Variant: Always War
Civilization: China (I wont apologize choosing a militaristic Civ
) Mao loves mounted units and so do I.
Continents: 70% Water
Size: Itsy Bitsy Teeny Tiny (AWE takes a long time, and the ancient & middle ages are my favorites. Once an AW tips your way, its all mop up which is not as much fun to me as desperately holding on by a thread in the early phases).
Age: 5 Billion (I want lots of hills for city placement yes Im stacking the deck again).
Temperature: Temperate
Climate: Normal (I hate Jungle chops)
Barbarians: Sedentary (We can use the cash)
Rivals: 3 Randomly Selected
AI Aggression: Normal
Victory Condition: All are enabled. Well need to get the UN if it goes that far (unlikely). Well take a win any way we can get it, but conquest or domination are most likely.
Culturally linked starts: Off
Respawn: Off
Preserve Random Seed: On
Cultural Conversion: On
Patch: 1.15 C3C
Anyone have strong feelings about using 1.15 either pro or con?
Always War as described by eloquently Greebley (minor edits by me)
The game is an Always War game. You may only trade when you first meet a civilization, and must declare war on the same turn after trading is complete. If you see a new AI unit, you must make contact & declare war that turn. Absolutely no GPT trades allowed. If you see a new face on F4, you are obligated to declare war that turn (after trading). Players must declare war if they are exploring and see AI units, but are not required to actually attack the units they come in contact with. No peace treaties, ever. You may check F4 as often as you like to spy on the AI's tech, resources, luxuries & city count. We are not allowed to build embassies .
Discuss any move that seems exploitive before doing it with the team. Although there are not too many exploits available in AW, well follow the forbidden blatant exploits banned by GOTM and RBCiv such as no "Free Wealth". Other normal game exploits such as "Baiting the AI" with an empty city to create a kill zone are an AW tradition and are allowed. Also, you ARE allowed to initially keep a city, move a settler to the same spot as the city, and then abandon and immediately resettle. This is considered an exploit in RBCiv rules, but is okay in this AWE game. In addition if you need to build a city one square deeper into enemy territory just to move borders to steal a resource, go for it. We may keep or raze cities, and can keep slaves. You may whip captured cities or cities where all citizens are unhappy. This is not a popularity contest, this is war.
SG Stuff
You have 24 hours for an "I got it" and 72 to play. If you need a one day extension, then mention this before the 72 hours are up. Players can work out skips between themselves, just post a message to the thread. If you can't play within 72 total, the team players can switch places, or you can ask for a skip. We will play 10 turns at first, and possibly fewer later (5) if the turns begin to take too long.
Tips & Tricks for Lurkers interested in AW
In earlier games we learned how strong the new army pillaging abilities are. Pillage early & often. At least one pillage army per Continent will be the key to victory on a tiny map. Bigger maps require more pillaging armies.
Major game priorities:
1. Build the GL if you can.
2. Get a pillaging army to the other continent asap to cripple their production.
3. Pillage AI Iron & horses so your team faces a steady stream of archers & later longbows for leader fishing.
3. Build cities on hills whenever you can. The defense bonus of cities on hills helps out spears immensely. When you settle, try to use rivers to your advantage for the defensive bonus. Also be aware of the movement penalty caused by rivers before engineering. This can really impact your ability to reinforce. Spears on a city on a hill with walls supported by cats can kill a lot of AI units. We are likely to wind up with an ICS type build outside our core ring on this teeny tiny map. Corrupt cites are useful as specialist farms and to increase your city count so you can have many armies in the field.
4. Build walls in all front line cities. Build barracks in any city you plan to build military units in. Build cats in a city without barracks.
5. Try not to build a city more than 2 moves from the nearest city. If a city is 3 tiles away, it cannot be reinforced on the same turn. Two tiles between cities also allows you to "chain" units built in productive cities to the front lines on the turn they are built, without leaving any cities exposed or short of police. If you are unable to shuffle units & reinforce, it's a killer for front line cities. You want a dense build anyway for the free unit support offered by despotism & monarchy. The exception to the 2 tiles between cities rule is late in the game you are going for domination.
6. The kill ratio goal is 10 to 1. This is done early on playing mostly defense using spears, cats, hills and keeping your cities tightly packed. Avoid attacking unless you have bombarded your opponent down first. You can't afford to waste units on offense on AWM or especially AWE.
7. Dont attack the last unit in an AI stack if it means you will be exposed to counter attack by another AI unit on the IBT.
8. Don't underestimate archer armies. They work fine early on against size 6 & under cities guarded by spears.
9. If you want to win, pillage first & expand second. If you fail to pillage, you'll face the AI's strongest units (swords in stead of archers) and the AI numbers will overwhelm you. You can deal with 6 archers, 6 swords or MDI is another story.
10. Set up a kill zone. Induce the Ai to attack you on flats where he has no defensive advantage.
11. Build a lot of cats, trebs, cannon.
12. Avoid building regular units. They lose too easy.
13. Learn how to leader fish if you don't already know.
14. There is a big difference between AWM & AWE.
15. Learn to play on a continents map. Pang maps are much harder since you'll be fighting everyone all game long.
What to expect:
Your team will be way behind in tech. Higher levels means further behind. The GL, pillaging & specialists will help you catch up.
At Emperor, dont be surprised if at some point after the GL expires you are running 0/0/0 on the sliders with a lone scientist doing 50 turn research. Unit support will cost a lot of money.
Stay in despotism for a while until you get a decent city count for the lesser free unit support of monarchy, then bite the bullet & go to monarchy and stay there.
Notes and observations on pillaging:
1) It takes a long time for armies get out-dated, so 3 spear armies can pillage for centuries.
2) Cutting off the capitol will eliminate AI trade deals, so finding & isolating the capitol is always a good idea.
3) If you can, capture AI workers. Kill them if they cant get back to your lands safely & quickly.
4) Remember that in Conquests an army can pillage as a free move, and gets +1 movement over the base units used.
5) If you get an army to each continent to pillage, you can usually win the game, so leader fishing is important.
Roster:
Handy
T_McC
Yom
Greebley
Barbslinger
Its not as easy as you might think. Tiny maps dont have a lot of resources & luxuries to go around. In one AWE victory there was no iron on Chinas home continent. By the time the glorious Chinese took Iron from the other continent Mao already had the worlds largest cavalry force. Mao is partial to mounted units. Mao has lit a good luck candle for Iron or Horses, or Ivory for that Zeus thing (maybe he needs 3 lucky candles!)
Our early empire will be pitifully small, so if we have none of the 3 early on, we are in for a long, though enjoyable dogfight.
Level: Emperor
Variant: Always War
Civilization: China (I wont apologize choosing a militaristic Civ
) Mao loves mounted units and so do I. Continents: 70% Water
Size: Itsy Bitsy Teeny Tiny (AWE takes a long time, and the ancient & middle ages are my favorites. Once an AW tips your way, its all mop up which is not as much fun to me as desperately holding on by a thread in the early phases).
Age: 5 Billion (I want lots of hills for city placement yes Im stacking the deck again).
Temperature: Temperate
Climate: Normal (I hate Jungle chops)
Barbarians: Sedentary (We can use the cash)
Rivals: 3 Randomly Selected
AI Aggression: Normal
Victory Condition: All are enabled. Well need to get the UN if it goes that far (unlikely). Well take a win any way we can get it, but conquest or domination are most likely.
Culturally linked starts: Off
Respawn: Off
Preserve Random Seed: On
Cultural Conversion: On
Patch: 1.15 C3C
Anyone have strong feelings about using 1.15 either pro or con?
Always War as described by eloquently Greebley (minor edits by me)
The game is an Always War game. You may only trade when you first meet a civilization, and must declare war on the same turn after trading is complete. If you see a new AI unit, you must make contact & declare war that turn. Absolutely no GPT trades allowed. If you see a new face on F4, you are obligated to declare war that turn (after trading). Players must declare war if they are exploring and see AI units, but are not required to actually attack the units they come in contact with. No peace treaties, ever. You may check F4 as often as you like to spy on the AI's tech, resources, luxuries & city count. We are not allowed to build embassies .
Discuss any move that seems exploitive before doing it with the team. Although there are not too many exploits available in AW, well follow the forbidden blatant exploits banned by GOTM and RBCiv such as no "Free Wealth". Other normal game exploits such as "Baiting the AI" with an empty city to create a kill zone are an AW tradition and are allowed. Also, you ARE allowed to initially keep a city, move a settler to the same spot as the city, and then abandon and immediately resettle. This is considered an exploit in RBCiv rules, but is okay in this AWE game. In addition if you need to build a city one square deeper into enemy territory just to move borders to steal a resource, go for it. We may keep or raze cities, and can keep slaves. You may whip captured cities or cities where all citizens are unhappy. This is not a popularity contest, this is war.
SG Stuff
You have 24 hours for an "I got it" and 72 to play. If you need a one day extension, then mention this before the 72 hours are up. Players can work out skips between themselves, just post a message to the thread. If you can't play within 72 total, the team players can switch places, or you can ask for a skip. We will play 10 turns at first, and possibly fewer later (5) if the turns begin to take too long.
Tips & Tricks for Lurkers interested in AW
In earlier games we learned how strong the new army pillaging abilities are. Pillage early & often. At least one pillage army per Continent will be the key to victory on a tiny map. Bigger maps require more pillaging armies.
Major game priorities:
1. Build the GL if you can.
2. Get a pillaging army to the other continent asap to cripple their production.
3. Pillage AI Iron & horses so your team faces a steady stream of archers & later longbows for leader fishing.
3. Build cities on hills whenever you can. The defense bonus of cities on hills helps out spears immensely. When you settle, try to use rivers to your advantage for the defensive bonus. Also be aware of the movement penalty caused by rivers before engineering. This can really impact your ability to reinforce. Spears on a city on a hill with walls supported by cats can kill a lot of AI units. We are likely to wind up with an ICS type build outside our core ring on this teeny tiny map. Corrupt cites are useful as specialist farms and to increase your city count so you can have many armies in the field.
4. Build walls in all front line cities. Build barracks in any city you plan to build military units in. Build cats in a city without barracks.
5. Try not to build a city more than 2 moves from the nearest city. If a city is 3 tiles away, it cannot be reinforced on the same turn. Two tiles between cities also allows you to "chain" units built in productive cities to the front lines on the turn they are built, without leaving any cities exposed or short of police. If you are unable to shuffle units & reinforce, it's a killer for front line cities. You want a dense build anyway for the free unit support offered by despotism & monarchy. The exception to the 2 tiles between cities rule is late in the game you are going for domination.
6. The kill ratio goal is 10 to 1. This is done early on playing mostly defense using spears, cats, hills and keeping your cities tightly packed. Avoid attacking unless you have bombarded your opponent down first. You can't afford to waste units on offense on AWM or especially AWE.
7. Dont attack the last unit in an AI stack if it means you will be exposed to counter attack by another AI unit on the IBT.
8. Don't underestimate archer armies. They work fine early on against size 6 & under cities guarded by spears.
9. If you want to win, pillage first & expand second. If you fail to pillage, you'll face the AI's strongest units (swords in stead of archers) and the AI numbers will overwhelm you. You can deal with 6 archers, 6 swords or MDI is another story.
10. Set up a kill zone. Induce the Ai to attack you on flats where he has no defensive advantage.
11. Build a lot of cats, trebs, cannon.
12. Avoid building regular units. They lose too easy.
13. Learn how to leader fish if you don't already know.
14. There is a big difference between AWM & AWE.
15. Learn to play on a continents map. Pang maps are much harder since you'll be fighting everyone all game long.
What to expect:
Your team will be way behind in tech. Higher levels means further behind. The GL, pillaging & specialists will help you catch up.
At Emperor, dont be surprised if at some point after the GL expires you are running 0/0/0 on the sliders with a lone scientist doing 50 turn research. Unit support will cost a lot of money.
Stay in despotism for a while until you get a decent city count for the lesser free unit support of monarchy, then bite the bullet & go to monarchy and stay there.
Notes and observations on pillaging:
1) It takes a long time for armies get out-dated, so 3 spear armies can pillage for centuries.
2) Cutting off the capitol will eliminate AI trade deals, so finding & isolating the capitol is always a good idea.
3) If you can, capture AI workers. Kill them if they cant get back to your lands safely & quickly.
4) Remember that in Conquests an army can pillage as a free move, and gets +1 movement over the base units used.
5) If you get an army to each continent to pillage, you can usually win the game, so leader fishing is important.
see the screen shot below
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