Strategy variations for Huge Continents maps at Standard speed

[CivPurist]

I'm at the point now where I'm trying to play odd groups of settings to keep things interesting. I chose this combination (Huge/Continents/Standard) as I think . . .

- Huge/Standard nerfs DomV - still possible of course, but quite a bit slower to get to everyone
- Continents nerfs Sacred Sites, at least relative to Pangea. (Yes, this means I'm interested in strategy at lower levels than just Deity, although Deity strategy is interesting too.)
- Huge seems to require some strategy alteration for "optimal" play. (I'm sure a 4-city Tradition empire can still win, but seems less likely to be fastest.)

Thoughts? I've mainly been playing with Egypt so far, and seem to be getting better results with a delayed sprawl - a traditional Tall empire seemed limited to turtling strategies by the Industrial Age, and an early sprawl was having trouble keeping up in tech around the Renaissance. (I imagine that would have worked itself out once the sprawl matured, but I felt too vulnerable to play it out.)

Also, at least at lower difficulties where a Modern or Atomic Age CV is feasible, I'm still finding SS to outshine Jesuit - particularly if it means I can slip the Tradition opener in before Collective Rule -> Reformation. Assertion: I'm happier to end up with Jesuit if I wanted SS than to end up with SS if I wanted Jesuit, so a (non ICS) gameplan that's based on SS can afford to get to the Reformation a bit slower. Given I'm always sprawling with Liberty on Huge, Glory of God might come in handy for music bombs before finishing Aesthetics or Engineer bulbing things like Broadway/Eiffel, but, again at lower difficulties, I think I'll be winning before the Modern age wonders become important.

 

[claudiupb]

I don't know how fast the map will get covered in huge maps, but I assume a little slower than on standard, so a strategy with heathen conversion might work better. If you play Egypt and have gone into piety, you get the half hammer cost temples that actually produce gold for you (and have 0 maintenance) so you afford get a nice army, usually halfway to your target, making warfare a little better.

Unless you switch to playing at slower speeds I don't think pre-modern era warfare would be interesting unless you get some civ with a fast UU like the mongols, so you are limited in strategies.

You could try not getting into piety at all, even though Jesuit education is quite strong in this scenario. Finish liberty as soon as possible, get an admiral from it to meet the other continent and then go into commerce for the discount on purchases, and later happiness boost. For variation you can skip rationalism entirely, the bonus from Order with factories is pretty good, and you could also manage without it.

If you want warfare I think naval in renaissance is the best choice since frigates have such a long usage time and are very fast. You might try to get Great Lighthouse and open exploration for the extra movement, which will be really helpful on a huge map. But you are limited to coastal cities.

 

[Kriogen]

Austria or Venice for DomV.

At start do the usual. Go tall or go wide. Build a solid, stable empire. You want solid reserve of happy faces and gold.

Take care that no other AI gets out of control (diplo, bribes and stuff). Be good with CS.

When you get Airports:
- buy (marry or merchant if Venice) a CS that is near AIs capitol
- CS will have some units. Teleport(airport) extra. Rush buy some more if you have enough gold
- 'snipe' Capitol
..
- sell CS if you don't need it anymore
- repeat

 

[CivPurist]

I think that poses an interesting question. Presuppose that we're going for a CV, and have gone CR->Reformation, optionally preceded by opening Tradition. Also suppose that we get Sacred Sites.

Are you better off finishing Liberty into an Admiral to meet the other continent ASAP, or finishing Piety for faith/culture/gold? (If you go the latter path, I'm assuming you'd get to Astronomy before you could also finish Liberty to get your Admiral.)

Prioritizing Liberty seems like a solid win - faster workers and cheaper policies sooner - but if I'm at a difficulty level where I could use the Liberty finisher on CI or PT or Sistine . . . that seems hard to pass up. A sprawling piety empire really saves a lot of faith with the building discount, too.

I will note that I've generally needed a second caravel to discover everyone on the second continent on a huge map (in a reasonable amount of time) - with the Admiral, you might have to wager on heading the right way around the far continent to meet the culture leader in a timely fashion.

Last reflection from recent play, in relation to the "delay" in "delayed sprawl" - I've gotten measurably better results from sprawling only after a 2-3 city NC. As noted above, the Huge map generally means you have a bit more time before the AI fills up the land, and sprawling post-NC has given me a much better tech outcome - and the cap can really pump out settlers if you let it grow (and have mines to work.) Delaying has meant I've had to war a bit in the Renaissance to capture land I might have otherwise settled first, and even after paying off victims to DoW others the resultant city captures have put me in a worse political position than early sprawl . . . but I think it's worth the tech advantage. I haven't tried sprawl->Liberty Finisher NC->sprawl; I suspect that would have more appeal on difficulty levels where the Liberty Finisher can't get you CI/PT/Sistine.

 

[adsin15]

This is pretty much how I play every game and I don't think I've ever won a game at higher than Emperor level difficulty. Huge map, standard speed, 12/24 civs/CSs, random map type.

The map is simply too big for Domination Victory. Too many enemies. The AI tends to annihilate you in science bc there will always be a large science heavy civ on the other side of the world that you can't do ANYTHING about until Combustion comes out...if you're lucky. By then it's often too late to stop the runaway on the other side of the globe bc the AI is so incredibly inept at warfare and diplomacy. Even when one AI is on the verge of building the spaceship you can't pay 200 GPT for any civ to war them. The AI only cares if the PLAYER is going to win..then they all DOW you. If the AI is going to win the other AIs all ignore them unless they are going for the same victory type.

The only way I can find to make this type of game competitive at high levels is to disable Science Victory.

Also in this type of game I'm a fan of using Liberty. I tend to go for 3-5 cities (depending on start conditions) then rush build my NC with my free GE, then plant 3-5 more cities prioritizing city location for defense. I shoot for between 6-8 cities .

 

[consentient]

Watch some Moriarte videos where he wins Domination on Huge maps on Deity

 

[BlackWizard]

Watch some Moriarte videos where he wins Domination on Huge maps on Deity

If remember correctly he doesnt have video from winning domination on huge map on deity. He lost one with Celts(or called it loss) and started one with russia but never continued that one. You can prove me wrong if you want and I will happily watch that sort of video because I almost exclusively play Huge maps now. However I usually play small continents(continent are still quite big on that) I have also taken science victory on huge but never domination.

 

[CivPurist]

I'll give these settings a try on Deity to see if I have anything to report. The last two times I tried - months ago - I did it once on Marathon, which isn't fair to the AI, and once got steamrolled by the AI in the Modern/Atomic era, just out of silly under-militarization on my part; I had gone into cruise control mode. I also hadn't tried to fend off an AI carpet+armada in that era before . . . but if I'd succeeded, the CV was looking good. AI didn't seem to be any good at getting artifacts.

I can say that the strategy I've referred to here - which I've of course lifted wholesale from other posters on the forum - significantly outperforms the HoF times posted for middling difficulty levels. I suspect that's mainly because no one has been trying too hard to post HoF-qualifying results with these settings, but still. (I was certainly reloading to try different strategies out.)

 

[Chum]

Watch some Moriarte videos where he wins Domination on Huge maps on Deity

Woohoo, Consentient is back!

The forums are a better place with you here.