Recent content by Allemand

Very nice map. I changed the American leader to Roosevelt, since his traits are a little better. Also reduced the deserts in the eastern hemisphere a little, and took out some mountains (mountains are useless in this game). For a really interesting game, put another dozen barbarian cities...

The thing I don't like about Sid is the goodie huts seem to be barren of technology. On Deity they cough it up regularly. Along with Settlers, too.

The Forbidden Palace was ruined, in my opinion. It's another example of taking something away.

I like Republic about 1500 b.c. and stay with it through the 2nd Era. It's a good wartime government. The double tax on the unit maintenance doesn't hurt too much, because of the free units. Just have to keep the military size down a little. If my unit maintenance is higher than the number...

I've noticed this problem, too. First it was Byzantines and Romans switching, then France and Ottomans. I thought maybe the colors had something to do with it.

Regent is the "fun" level, if you're feeling lazy. No advantages for the AI.

I keep a small army in the early game. That guarantees a war.

Make yourself more than 100 custom maps and pull them at random. By the time you see one, you will have forgotten what's in it. Most of the time. Or maybe it's just us old folks that forget.;)

The Zulus are programmed to be aggressive, but if you are nice to them they will be a liitle nicer to you. When I played them, the big decision was whether to send out scouts or impis. The Zulus expand fast and scouts work better against the huts but impis can do a lot of damage to other...

Yeah, that would be interesting. Just call them "military scouts."

I like to destroy their capital, too. If it is in a good position, I usually bring a settler up to replace it. Don't have to worry about that one flipping. If the capital has an important wonder, I consider alternatives, but usually the capital is history.

I would wait awhile before drawing any conclusions. I've found that starting position is the most important factor, and they may have gotten better terrain to work with in your more recent games. Anyhow, there must be some logical explanation.

How many games have you played since doing this? And when do they start becoming strong in the games?

I agree there should be some further benefit to planting forests. However, trying to coordinate cutting them down to take advantage of shields, well, that takes too much effort (read, micromanagement) to be a strong strategy.

In any given game, you can come up short on any strategic resource. I've only had one game where rubber was hard to get, usually it's oil that comes up short. Horses and iron are usually plentiful, although I sometimes have to search hard for iron. Coal has been difficult to find in a few...