AOS9001
Slightly over 9000.
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2009
- Messages
- 784
Yo, AOS9001 here. You may remember me from such stories as 3000 Years of Rome, or Spain: Medieval to Modern. That last one I never will finish because, in simple terms, things happen that I can't control. Mostly due to the inferiority of this organic body and the tyrannical things known as final exams. But this here is a story of me sharing my epic failure and lessons on how to avoid that epic failure. The beginning sounded simple: Go for the Byzantium UHV on Monarch difficulty.
Needless to say, it didn't go as planned. Well, actually, they kind of did. But my improvised soundtrack for the game descended, on a scale of grimness, from Lord of the Rings, to Downfall, to Schindler's List, to reflect my mood. Yea, over-dramatic, but that's how I roll. Without further ado, let class begin. Kind of. Not really. Keep in mind, this isn't so much as a story, as a general outline of what happened, how you can avoid it, and what you should definitely do as Byzantium in this mod.
Here we go, the first screenshot. Nothing all that special: Plague hits Tyre, plague hits the rest of my cities, it doesn't hit Arabia at all, so I'm at the immediate disadvantage.
But the important part is manor houses. Manor houses and courthouses, +1 stability each. You need these playing Byzantium. They're as not optional as a powerful navy in an archipelago map.
If you're going for the UHV, founding Medici banks is extremely helpful, due to the insane amount of sheep sitting around Greece and Anatolia. So I kept my first great merchant around, just in case I never got another.
As for historical goal 1, you need three things in Constantinople: Improvements that maximize food, an Orthodox Cathedral for the +50% culture, and the tech that grants that. Until you can build the cathedral, culture spam to stay ahead of that pesky Pope.
Great prophets: These guys may very well be your key to long term victory. Orthodoxy's special bonus is a boost to stability and a decrease of maintenance costs when you make a great prophet a saint. I didn't make all my GP's saints, and that's not a good idea. Maybe I haven't played enough games, but if it was me, I'd saint all the great prophets you get, especially on harder difficulties.
See? +6 stability, -11% maintenance, from 18 points of faith here. I haven't tried it myself, but according to the nerds, er, experts (by my standards, I'm just a noob to most of them) in the RFC:E playtesting thread, you can milk this bonus for all it's worth. I intend to, as you will soon see. By soon, I mean a few days.
Here we go, goal 1 done. Easy! Well, kind of. Despite getting 40 culture a turn, and the Pope getting 14, it was still a very close race. In an early try, I was beaten by independent Alexandria by 100 culture. That was my first "FFFFFUUUUUUUUU-" moment of this game. The first of many. So be careful on this one, you never know who may be beating you.
"Seljuqs! I hate these guys!" If I was Indiana Jones, these guys (and the Turks) are my Nazis. No, Turks aren't Nazis, don't get offended anyone. So, how do you deal with stacks of 2-5 of these guys spawning in multiple points every single turn for about 10-20 turns? Well, find out how to (not) deal with them next time, or the time after that, as we see this game's long slide into a humiliating decline defeat for me (or it's triumphal rise).
...Which is where the "apply" part of this thread comes into play. I learnt my lessons the hard way, and I know what mistakes to avoid. So it's up to you, who may or may not comment, to tell me which way you'd prefer this to go: Lesson, and then applying the lesson, or sections of the lesson, and sections of applying the lesson, doing both as I go along. The choice is yours.
Needless to say, it didn't go as planned. Well, actually, they kind of did. But my improvised soundtrack for the game descended, on a scale of grimness, from Lord of the Rings, to Downfall, to Schindler's List, to reflect my mood. Yea, over-dramatic, but that's how I roll. Without further ado, let class begin. Kind of. Not really. Keep in mind, this isn't so much as a story, as a general outline of what happened, how you can avoid it, and what you should definitely do as Byzantium in this mod.
Spoiler :
Here we go, the first screenshot. Nothing all that special: Plague hits Tyre, plague hits the rest of my cities, it doesn't hit Arabia at all, so I'm at the immediate disadvantage.
But the important part is manor houses. Manor houses and courthouses, +1 stability each. You need these playing Byzantium. They're as not optional as a powerful navy in an archipelago map.
Spoiler :
If you're going for the UHV, founding Medici banks is extremely helpful, due to the insane amount of sheep sitting around Greece and Anatolia. So I kept my first great merchant around, just in case I never got another.
As for historical goal 1, you need three things in Constantinople: Improvements that maximize food, an Orthodox Cathedral for the +50% culture, and the tech that grants that. Until you can build the cathedral, culture spam to stay ahead of that pesky Pope.
Spoiler :
Great prophets: These guys may very well be your key to long term victory. Orthodoxy's special bonus is a boost to stability and a decrease of maintenance costs when you make a great prophet a saint. I didn't make all my GP's saints, and that's not a good idea. Maybe I haven't played enough games, but if it was me, I'd saint all the great prophets you get, especially on harder difficulties.
Spoiler :
See? +6 stability, -11% maintenance, from 18 points of faith here. I haven't tried it myself, but according to the nerds, er, experts (by my standards, I'm just a noob to most of them) in the RFC:E playtesting thread, you can milk this bonus for all it's worth. I intend to, as you will soon see. By soon, I mean a few days.
Spoiler :
Here we go, goal 1 done. Easy! Well, kind of. Despite getting 40 culture a turn, and the Pope getting 14, it was still a very close race. In an early try, I was beaten by independent Alexandria by 100 culture. That was my first "FFFFFUUUUUUUUU-" moment of this game. The first of many. So be careful on this one, you never know who may be beating you.
Spoiler :
"Seljuqs! I hate these guys!" If I was Indiana Jones, these guys (and the Turks) are my Nazis. No, Turks aren't Nazis, don't get offended anyone. So, how do you deal with stacks of 2-5 of these guys spawning in multiple points every single turn for about 10-20 turns? Well, find out how to (not) deal with them next time, or the time after that, as we see this game's long slide into a humiliating decline defeat for me (or it's triumphal rise).
...Which is where the "apply" part of this thread comes into play. I learnt my lessons the hard way, and I know what mistakes to avoid. So it's up to you, who may or may not comment, to tell me which way you'd prefer this to go: Lesson, and then applying the lesson, or sections of the lesson, and sections of applying the lesson, doing both as I go along. The choice is yours.
