MPorciusCatoCivver
Chief Windbag
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2023
- Messages
- 311
I'm playing a game as Carthage (Emperor difficulty) where I'm in a resource rich, very fertile land to the north of my own continent. The only problem? No iron. Just some horses in some distant islands I intend to colonize.
The main questions are...:
1 - Should I mass build longbowmen in anticipation of a future iron-saltpeter war with my neighbors Japan and Sumeria, or should I just stick with building the horsies (2:1:2)?? In my experience horsies are fast but tend to suffer against spears and pikes, however longbowmen are tractors and they even tend to cut thru muskets like butter. Knights are also great but very expensive shield and resource wise, I can't build them.
Is it any good to build horsies except perhaps to rush a small and weak neighbor? Or is waiting for the medieval heavy hitters a more plausible stance?
2 - In this situation, is it better to wait for cavalry?? Or supposing I lay my hands on the iron, can I build a few knights?? Or just, like I want to and like I prefer to, specialize in longbows this time and just spam them?
3 - Numidians despite their cost are an excellent unit. They only really get obsolete with gunpowder but knowing most medieval wars I've been into, they retain their usefulness later because the AI rarely fields large numbers of cavalry or muskets until early industrial age.
4 - I'm not going to build a (real) navy until after Ironclads, playing on Continents 70% water. However I've been impressed by Carthage's Seafaring prowess, as in, the Seafaring trait is extremely powerful. I built most of my cities on the shoreline and also among rivers, and the extra commerce so far is making me tech very fast and stay ahead in the tech race. I'm on 200 BC, btw, just one tech short of Middle Age.
In your experience, how can I maximize Seafaring's boni??
Also despite being on Continents 70%, do you think I should build Magellan's to complement Seafaring? Reason is, well, later I might build a modern navy, and all of that is very neat. 60% of my neighbors seem on the other continent, that also plays a factor.
In what situations does building Magellan's become truly feasible?
5 - Should I trigger my GA in early middle age, with my UU, or should I wait until later?
The main questions are...:
1 - Should I mass build longbowmen in anticipation of a future iron-saltpeter war with my neighbors Japan and Sumeria, or should I just stick with building the horsies (2:1:2)?? In my experience horsies are fast but tend to suffer against spears and pikes, however longbowmen are tractors and they even tend to cut thru muskets like butter. Knights are also great but very expensive shield and resource wise, I can't build them.
Is it any good to build horsies except perhaps to rush a small and weak neighbor? Or is waiting for the medieval heavy hitters a more plausible stance?
2 - In this situation, is it better to wait for cavalry?? Or supposing I lay my hands on the iron, can I build a few knights?? Or just, like I want to and like I prefer to, specialize in longbows this time and just spam them?
3 - Numidians despite their cost are an excellent unit. They only really get obsolete with gunpowder but knowing most medieval wars I've been into, they retain their usefulness later because the AI rarely fields large numbers of cavalry or muskets until early industrial age.
4 - I'm not going to build a (real) navy until after Ironclads, playing on Continents 70% water. However I've been impressed by Carthage's Seafaring prowess, as in, the Seafaring trait is extremely powerful. I built most of my cities on the shoreline and also among rivers, and the extra commerce so far is making me tech very fast and stay ahead in the tech race. I'm on 200 BC, btw, just one tech short of Middle Age.
In your experience, how can I maximize Seafaring's boni??
Also despite being on Continents 70%, do you think I should build Magellan's to complement Seafaring? Reason is, well, later I might build a modern navy, and all of that is very neat. 60% of my neighbors seem on the other continent, that also plays a factor.
In what situations does building Magellan's become truly feasible?
5 - Should I trigger my GA in early middle age, with my UU, or should I wait until later?
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