Conquests for Dummies

[Jason Fliegel]

Can anyone point me to a thread or a link that:

1) Ranks the Conquests in terms of which are the easiest and which are the hardest, and

2) For each Conquest, ranks the playable Civs in terms of which are the easiest and which are the hardest?

If there's no such thread, maybe experienced Conquests players could posty their thoughts here.

As for me, I've played Mesopotamia twice (coming in fourth as the Medes on my firts try and winning as Egypt on my second try) and am currently making my first stab at Rise of Rome (I'm playing as Rome and it's not looking promising right now!)

 

[Pfeffersack]

AoD seems to be the easiest, because of poor AI handling of treasures (for any european country, natives are a great challenge).

WWII Pazific as Japan is rather easy, too.I think Com. and USA have an equal difficulty.China is hardest.

Rise of Rome, medium difficulty in general: Rome easiest, Persia, Macedon, Carthage (hardest)

Don't tried the others and of course it is subjective.

 

[Cuivienen]

The difficulty of each is very subjective to civ and to actual difficulty level. (The Byzantines are the best at Regent in the Middle Ages, but hard at Emperor+.)

Easiest to hardest:

Mesopotamia (Phoenicia)
Age of Discovery (France/Spain/Portugal)
Rise of Rome (Rome)
WWII Pacific Theatre (Japan)
Mesopotamia (Egypt/Babylon/Mycenae/Hatti)
Age of Discovery (England)
Sengoku (Takeda/Hojo)
Middle Ages (France/Abbasids/Denmark/Sweden)
Mesopotamia (Sumeria/Medes)
Napoleonic Era (France/Britain/Russia/Austria)
WWII Pacific Theatre (British Commonwealth/USA)
Age of Discovery (The Netherlands)
Fall of Rome (Franks/Celts/Sassanids)
Rise of Rome (Persia/Macedon)
Napoleonic Era (Ottomans)
Fall of Rome (Huns)
Age of Discovery (Aztecs/Mayans)
Sengoku (Oda/Imagawa/Miyoshi/Date)
Middle Ages (Byzantines/Norway/Fatimids/Turks/Kievan Rus/England/Germany)
Napoleonic Era (Spain/Prussia)
Age of Discovery (Inca)
WWII Pacific Theatre (China)
Fall of Rome (Anglo-Saxons/Vandals/Ostrogoths)
Rise of Rome (Carthage)
Middle Ages (Burgundy/Cordova)
Fall of Rome (Visigoths)

I think I got all of them in there. if I missed any, they probably go somewhere in the middle.

 

[Happyman]

Um, forgive me for being a bit block headed but I did not under stand that Cuivienen... Sry I am probably the obnly one who can't make that out but could you explain it to me... Thx

 

[Turner]

The Conquests on top are easiest (In his opinion). The civs listed next to it would be the civ to play for that difficulty level. So playing the Fall of Rome as the Visigoths would be more difficult than playing as the Franks, Celts, or Sassanids.

 

[Jason Fliegel]

Originally posted by Jason Fliegel
As for me, I've played Mesopotamia twice (coming in fourth as the Medes on my first try and winning as Egypt on my second try) and am currently making my first stab at Rise of Rome (I'm playing as Rome and it's not looking promising right now!)

Good news (for me, anyway) -- I beat Rise of Rome this morning as Rome. I got a domination victory with 2 turns left. In retrospect, I waited too long to go after the Goths. I was intimidated by their large military force and didn't want to get into a two-front war. When I finally did go after them around 10 turns before the game ended, my Legionnary IIIs rolled right over them. I also spent too long fighting over Sardinia and Corsica -- if I replay this scenario as Rome, I'll send my troops striaght across to Africa and Spain and just use some ships to harass the islands and keep Carthage confined there.

One bad thing about my game -- in addition to my starting army, I only got one other army, which I filled with Legionnary IIs. I was hoping to have 4 or 5 armies in the field by the end of the game.

On to the next scenario (Fall of Rome?), though I'll probably play an Epic game or two first.

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

Re: Cuivenen's list

Wow, great

Agree to 99% with her work.

The difficulty of each is very subjective to civ and to actual difficulty level. (The Byzantines are the best at Regent in the Middle Ages, but hard at Emperor+.)

True, true. Same goes for Mesopotamia especially: Egypt is dead easy on Monarch and below, IMHO the easiest Conquest at all, but pretty hard at Emperor already. Similarily for Phoenicia; overall the easiest Civ in that Conquest is Babylon.

One thing to keep in mind: Several Conquests are too easy now because the AI cannot form Armies (it will use prebuilt ones, like Alfred in MA); once that is fixed, some difficulties will rack up immensely - imagine facing 3 Knight Armies, or even a single Imerial Guard Army!

 

[seanos08]

Playing on Regent I had wins as:

Mesoameriaca (Inca)

Mori (Japan - Mori is the easiest Shogun civ too)

Fall of Rome (Celts)

Ancient (Sumeria)

Held singapore as Com vs Jap on Pacific

Britain (Nap)

Note I tend to be a fairly safe peaceful player. I only start wars I am sure to win and play offensive defence.

 

[AnthonyB]

I've been attempting to beat this scenario on Emperor level for a while and can't seem to compete with Persia. In a few games I focused my armies south on the initial enemy, Carthage, and I was able to take the capital with out too much trouble. The hard part is holding it and progressing past swarms of elephants. Building enough troops and transport ships to fight an overseas battle leaves the Mecedonians and Persians unchecked. Carthage usually ends up teaming up with the Goths or Greeks and sending troops north from Spain to harass Romes northern settlements.

To change my strategy I took two cities on the first island, Sicily, and built a defensive force to hold it. Then I focused my armies north to the Goths. The legions and my army crushed them fairly easily and I thought as my empire spread and exotic spices and silk poured in I was doing will. As I was a finishing off the last of the Goths it became apparent that Carthage had increased its assaults on Sicily and the northen Cartahenian cities in Spain wouild be tough to finish off. I would spend a lot of energy just fortifying my new acqiusitions to fend off attackers.

When the Macedonians were bribed into attacking me, I took a look at the score. There would be no way I could fight Carthage and Greece and still compete for scores with the growing giant, Persia. So, this is my dilemma. If I would have stuck it out would the tides change back in my favor, because things weren't looking good. I was able to beat the previous scenario on Emperor level.

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

You're definitely right, that's what is making that Conquest tough, the persian giant.
However, from your write-up I see one big mistake you made:
The Macedons were signed against you! Diplomacy rules here, you must sign them against Carthage by all means. They're pretty helpful with their ships without putting too much efforts in this war, and you must bolster them up against Persia.