brennan
Argumentative Brit
Hi all. Playing PTW again, I may have a couple of HoF submissions over the next few weeks, but wanted to describe an ongoing game to get a few suggestions:
Firstly: I just tried mapfinder, and after the first iteration it tried to save every map (none of them matching my specifications), and all on the same filename.
Why?
Anyway, I got bored generating maps manually and started a 20k Culture game (Large, Pangaea, Chieftain - Mongols) on the first half decent start I found (On the coast, by a river, at least 1 cow), I figured following a couple of trial runs that having an uber-productive start point was less important than getting leaders to rush wonders.
My basic tactics have been:
1) Take the Mongols. Expansionist for popping huts, Militaristic for farming leaders. My opponents are all Scientific so that I can trade techs with them at the start of each age.
2) To scout like crazy, intending to pop the entire Ancient Age from barb huts while accumulating cash from being at 0% research until the Middle Ages. This has been a total success so far as I can see - I easily gained every AA tech from huts, and my Capital has used the cash to 2 turn rush a Colosseum, University and Cathedral; can't remember if I rushed the temple or library.
3) Following my first settler build to dedicate my capital entirely to the construction of culture builds. In actual fact my initial scout popped an advanced tribe after only about 3-4 turns so I didn't even bother with that first settler.
4) As my scouts cleared each of my opponents' territory I declared war, and have stayed that way almost the entire time, trying to leader farm the incoming units. As usual however i've had no luck getting early leaders - after I got irritated and started counting I made 28 further successful attacks with Elites before getting my first Leader (around 900AD.)
By my calculation assuming I had 36 attacks total and turned my first leader into an army to obtain the Heroic Epic I could have turned the next 24 elite attacks into 3 Leaders = 3 Wonders. Damn I hate the RNG.
5) I picked my research goals to aim for popping monarchy (choosing to research Alphabet at the start blocks off most of the other options), which I switched to early and have stayed in due to the ongoing wars. I'm fairly sure that switching to Republic after 4000 years at war would be a major mistake...
As things stand I saved last night at 1000AD, my empire has grown a lot slower than usual, thanks to less than perfect expansion potential, my decision not to use my capital to aid the expansion, and the fact that i've made sure I have plenty of veteran units built to turn into elites and keep all my opponents at bay rather than go all out for growth as I normally would.
My capital is at a paltry 84 cpt - total culture around 8400, i'm definitely not going to be high on the table, still 140 odd turns from that 20k, hopefully things will accelerate from now on - the incoming tide of enemy units has become about a kill every turn for me, if it keeps accelerating I should be getting a decent rate of leaders now I have the Epic. I hope.
I researched the entire top half of the Medieval tech tree, for all the Culture Wonders, once I ran out of other options I opened negotiations with the AIs, found that they had all recently entered the Medieval and took all their gold and maps for peace, traded someone Theology for Engineering and Feudalism and then instantly declared war on them all again.
That was just a couple of turns ago. Now i'm researching Chivalry at 4 turns, and making a fair bit of gold at the same time, not sure how fast my research will be at the other end of the table though, but i'll probably beeline Newton's as the only major Culture Wonder I don't have access to this age. I researched Printing Press, Democracy and Free Artistry at about 6-8 turns each, not sure how this will translate down to the bottom half of the tree, my research potential is growing all the time however.
Karakorum has built The Great Library, Oracle, Hanging Gardens, Colossus, Sistine Chapel, Pyramids, Great Wall, Shakespeare's Theatre. I've always gone for the wonder that produces the most culture, regardless of whether the older, cheaper wonders were available. I only built the pyramids because I noticed the Babylonians were trying to build it and didn't want to potentially lose a culture build. Now a couple of AI cities are trying to build Sun Tzu's, but Babylon just built a settler and dropped from size 7 to 5, Persepolis is in the middle of the jungle IIRC and is only size 4. So not much to worry about there.
I may post some screenies tomorrow, but any thoughts for now?
Firstly: I just tried mapfinder, and after the first iteration it tried to save every map (none of them matching my specifications), and all on the same filename.
Why?
Anyway, I got bored generating maps manually and started a 20k Culture game (Large, Pangaea, Chieftain - Mongols) on the first half decent start I found (On the coast, by a river, at least 1 cow), I figured following a couple of trial runs that having an uber-productive start point was less important than getting leaders to rush wonders.
My basic tactics have been:
1) Take the Mongols. Expansionist for popping huts, Militaristic for farming leaders. My opponents are all Scientific so that I can trade techs with them at the start of each age.
2) To scout like crazy, intending to pop the entire Ancient Age from barb huts while accumulating cash from being at 0% research until the Middle Ages. This has been a total success so far as I can see - I easily gained every AA tech from huts, and my Capital has used the cash to 2 turn rush a Colosseum, University and Cathedral; can't remember if I rushed the temple or library.
3) Following my first settler build to dedicate my capital entirely to the construction of culture builds. In actual fact my initial scout popped an advanced tribe after only about 3-4 turns so I didn't even bother with that first settler.
4) As my scouts cleared each of my opponents' territory I declared war, and have stayed that way almost the entire time, trying to leader farm the incoming units. As usual however i've had no luck getting early leaders - after I got irritated and started counting I made 28 further successful attacks with Elites before getting my first Leader (around 900AD.)
By my calculation assuming I had 36 attacks total and turned my first leader into an army to obtain the Heroic Epic I could have turned the next 24 elite attacks into 3 Leaders = 3 Wonders. Damn I hate the RNG.5) I picked my research goals to aim for popping monarchy (choosing to research Alphabet at the start blocks off most of the other options), which I switched to early and have stayed in due to the ongoing wars. I'm fairly sure that switching to Republic after 4000 years at war would be a major mistake...
As things stand I saved last night at 1000AD, my empire has grown a lot slower than usual, thanks to less than perfect expansion potential, my decision not to use my capital to aid the expansion, and the fact that i've made sure I have plenty of veteran units built to turn into elites and keep all my opponents at bay rather than go all out for growth as I normally would.
My capital is at a paltry 84 cpt - total culture around 8400, i'm definitely not going to be high on the table, still 140 odd turns from that 20k, hopefully things will accelerate from now on - the incoming tide of enemy units has become about a kill every turn for me, if it keeps accelerating I should be getting a decent rate of leaders now I have the Epic. I hope.
I researched the entire top half of the Medieval tech tree, for all the Culture Wonders, once I ran out of other options I opened negotiations with the AIs, found that they had all recently entered the Medieval and took all their gold and maps for peace, traded someone Theology for Engineering and Feudalism and then instantly declared war on them all again.
That was just a couple of turns ago. Now i'm researching Chivalry at 4 turns, and making a fair bit of gold at the same time, not sure how fast my research will be at the other end of the table though, but i'll probably beeline Newton's as the only major Culture Wonder I don't have access to this age. I researched Printing Press, Democracy and Free Artistry at about 6-8 turns each, not sure how this will translate down to the bottom half of the tree, my research potential is growing all the time however.
Karakorum has built The Great Library, Oracle, Hanging Gardens, Colossus, Sistine Chapel, Pyramids, Great Wall, Shakespeare's Theatre. I've always gone for the wonder that produces the most culture, regardless of whether the older, cheaper wonders were available. I only built the pyramids because I noticed the Babylonians were trying to build it and didn't want to potentially lose a culture build. Now a couple of AI cities are trying to build Sun Tzu's, but Babylon just built a settler and dropped from size 7 to 5, Persepolis is in the middle of the jungle IIRC and is only size 4. So not much to worry about there.
I may post some screenies tomorrow, but any thoughts for now?
My borders are relatively clear and I see that switching Karakorum to the Great Lighthouse will complete in 4 turns, so I decide to keep the leader for a few turns before using him to rush.
