The Immortal Challenge 2: For the Fatherland

[ungy]

Thanks for the thread Aelf and I hope you continue on immortal.

 

[aelf]

I did play a shadow game from the 1685 save & got within 4 turns of launching, but Brennus beat me to it. So the Internet-space race strategy would have still been hard to win with, but it was winnable from the 1685 time point. See Immortal Challenge 2: Alternate Ending for copious details & the save right before Brennus launched.

I read your thread. Kind of suspected it already, though (that Internet space win was possible but would be close). The problem was it would be rather boring. And micro would be very important to be as efficient as possible...

Anyway, I'd like to float the idea of playing as Churchill but on Epic speed next. Charismatic is a very good trait in the early game at this level and he has decent UU and UB. The latter helps make the prospect of going builder in the late game very reasonable, although of course domination remains an option. Epic speed would be helpful for the times we need to war to expand (less 'time' spent moving around, less 'time' spent in war).

 

[Galileo44]

Ooh, I hope that a new challenge starts soon. Churchill Epic sounds great, I don't think many strategies have been discussed with using charismatic yet, and on a high level, 4 vs 3 happiness early is huge. 5 with monuments, that is a 66% increase. Could be interesting to see either whipping or running a lot of cottages early.

 

[lilnev]

Aelf,

Thanks for the game. I've been lurking, even if not posting much.

I took a look at the last posted save (1848), and I have a few suggestions that might be helpful next time:
1) Coal Plants. Most of your cities have Assembly Plants, which is good. But none of them have power! I switched all cities to Coal Plants (except one that's still building the Assemby Plant and one very-low-hammer coastal city). They'll take between 2 and 7 turns to permanently increase your empire's production by a third. In general, every city that wants a factory also wants a Coal plant, and it wants it right away (once in a while a health building has to come in between, or you get DoWed and don't have time, but otherwise).
2) Drafting. You're in Nationhood, and you've got large cities working marginal tiles (coast, plains farms, miscellaneous specialists). Turn 'em into infantry. Look at it this way: would you spend 140 hammers on something that returns 4 commerce per turn? That's the choice you're making by working two coast tiles instead of drafting an infantry. Oh, and build the Globe. It really is nuts.
3) Railroads and mines. Several hills have windmills, and you even have several bare hills in formerly American lands. Unless a city is really food limited, you want mines at this point in the game. Together with Coal Plants, you could have production about equal to Brennus'.
4) Biology. Not sure exactly when this should have been worked in, but fairly early (before Combustion? before Physics even?). You have a lot of farms, so it would have supported more specialists in addition to drafting.

Anyway, I enjoyed the game. Have fun with the epic Redcoats!

peace,
lilnev

 

[Sisiutil]

Good try. I don't think I'd survive as long as you did on Immortal level, let alone win.

Churchill sounds like a fun game. Charismatic encourages warmongering, and Redcoats are a fun unit with which to do that, even if the did get nerfed in Warlords.

 

[aelf]

I took a look at the last posted save (1848), and I have a few suggestions that might be helpful next time:
1) Coal Plants. Most of your cities have Assembly Plants, which is good. But none of them have power! I switched all cities to Coal Plants (except one that's still building the Assemby Plant and one very-low-hammer coastal city). They'll take between 2 and 7 turns to permanently increase your empire's production by a third. In general, every city that wants a factory also wants a Coal plant, and it wants it right away (once in a while a health building has to come in between, or you get DoWed and don't have time, but otherwise).
2) Drafting. You're in Nationhood, and you've got large cities working marginal tiles (coast, plains farms, miscellaneous specialists). Turn 'em into infantry. Look at it this way: would you spend 140 hammers on something that returns 4 commerce per turn? That's the choice you're making by working two coast tiles instead of drafting an infantry. Oh, and build the Globe. It really is nuts.
3) Railroads and mines. Several hills have windmills, and you even have several bare hills in formerly American lands. Unless a city is really food limited, you want mines at this point in the game. Together with Coal Plants, you could have production about equal to Brennus'.
4) Biology. Not sure exactly when this should have been worked in, but fairly early (before Combustion? before Physics even?). You have a lot of farms, so it would have supported more specialists in addition to drafting.

We were having severe health problems from the outset of the war. Coal plants would have sent our food stocks into free fall, reducing productivity and nullifying whatever benefit it would have given us. Same with mining all the hills. And I did draft a lot of troops, if you read what I said carefully. That's where we got the numbers for the human wave assaults. If you are talking about further drafting, it wouldn't have helped much in the face of mech infantry, and that at the cost of productivity once again. We needed Panzers and artillery more than green infantry.

About Biology, as it was our window of opportunity was short enough. Researching it is generally a good idea, but in this case it would only worsen an already hopeless situation. Not that the end result could be worse, though

Anyway, the next game will be up today.