krc
King
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2010
- Messages
- 891
I got distracted while reading some posts about steam achievements and decided to look at where I stood by perusing the "achievements_debug.log". I realized that I only needed about a dozen victories to complete the "Shafernator" achievement. I then decided that the fastest way to accomplish this was to play a series of Pangaea Duels (on King). So I did.
All of which is prelude to the real point of this post. I soon realized (4 out of 6 duels) that the AI is extremely fond of constructing the Great Wall. Before this set of games, I rarely prioritized the Great Wall. And, playing with 8 civilizations, I had not noticed that it was a high priority for many AI civs. I also learned that a Duel map where the AI gets the Great Wall is going to make it a lot harder to get a quick domination victory....
So, in later Duels in this series, I started going for The Great Wall myself. My basic strategy was to aggressively pump out three early settlers and plant them in positions to limit the AI's room to expand. Built early walls in those cites. Inevitably, the GE from Liberty popped around the same turn that the AI decided to DoW, and I used it for the Great Wall. Bought a couple of archers, and could hold off any assault while developing and building the rest of my empire. (Note in particular that a few Chinese Chu-ko-nus with the Great Wall are nearly indestructible. I held off a Russian assault by destroying ten units in three turns with 4 or 5 Chu-ko-nus. And not only lost no units, but suffered 0 hit point losses in the process.)
And so, the question: do you ever make it a point to try to get the Great Wall? Does it make sense to do so in more typical situations with more AI civs?
All of which is prelude to the real point of this post. I soon realized (4 out of 6 duels) that the AI is extremely fond of constructing the Great Wall. Before this set of games, I rarely prioritized the Great Wall. And, playing with 8 civilizations, I had not noticed that it was a high priority for many AI civs. I also learned that a Duel map where the AI gets the Great Wall is going to make it a lot harder to get a quick domination victory....
So, in later Duels in this series, I started going for The Great Wall myself. My basic strategy was to aggressively pump out three early settlers and plant them in positions to limit the AI's room to expand. Built early walls in those cites. Inevitably, the GE from Liberty popped around the same turn that the AI decided to DoW, and I used it for the Great Wall. Bought a couple of archers, and could hold off any assault while developing and building the rest of my empire. (Note in particular that a few Chinese Chu-ko-nus with the Great Wall are nearly indestructible. I held off a Russian assault by destroying ten units in three turns with 4 or 5 Chu-ko-nus. And not only lost no units, but suffered 0 hit point losses in the process.)
And so, the question: do you ever make it a point to try to get the Great Wall? Does it make sense to do so in more typical situations with more AI civs?