Acken Challenges - #2 Rome Demigod (7)

[Chum]

Yeah Puhi I'm beginning to think that losing units is not only unavoidable but maybe even optimal, since if it allows you to capture the cities quicker, it might be best for this mod as you need to capture quickly before they can spam even more units than in the basegame, and also they tech a lot quicker.

I lost a few units fighting the E neighbour as well.

Quick update for my game: I loaded the save just to look at it so I could think about my strategy while at work, and saw a Tercio

I guess I need to push towards Cannons, fast

It's just something we've become accustomed to in Acken's mod - you really never have enough units, and you'll lose 1-2 every turn during a seige on a warmonger, and there's just not much you can do about it. You can't move and fortify a meatshield on the same turn, so it invariably ends up taking 4 hits from units/bombardments, and nothing is going to live through that. Even if it does, it probably can't live for the 2nd turn, so you might as well get some damage out of it.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

Well, there is something you can do about it! Cleverly position your units so that only the ones with no promotions or little promotions get hit.

That way not only will you get way, way more instaheals because they require less exp, you also will never lose important units. You are 100% right in your assessment that one will lose at the very least (I usually lose more ) one or two trash units every turn.

The hammers on quite a few units have been reduced, too, so it is not a problem at all in my opinion. We are just so used to keeping every single unit that it's odd for us to sacrifice.

I remember in my first domination victory as Shaka all I lost was like 2 Lancers, 1 Knight and 2 or 3 Pikes in a game of almost 200 turns

 

[Acken]

Tried the honor legion rush, but as I was taking the northern neighbor capital (with ToA and HG!), the eastern neighbor backstabbed me and took a city from me, so things are going to be hard I will probably restart.

The change to warrior code makes tributing in the early game impossible right?

Acken I would love to watch your LP, as without help this game is probably out of my league

And please keep posting immortal games for us poor sub-tier players!

First part :

Spoiler :

Link to video.

 

[Phenril]

well tryed to go back into the game, didnt stay that long...
german refuse peace, and got triple DOW by china, persia and spain, i'll prob try this game again i played too greedy here and didnt expect that much hate from AI.

for the bribe part, even theo refuse any bribe, she's a good friend not deceptive, and leader of the game, i prob didnt make enough units here but i think i was abble to defend against 1 neighbour but 3 of them was just impossible, german had musket turn 115 that's a bit scary.

 

[bonniepbilly]

Thanks Acken, great LPs, I really like this formula (comments over game played at double speed).
Lots of new stuff I hadn't seen before.

 

[consentient]

I played on with this really fun game. I'm learning more and more that what I was struggling with was the mod, not the difficulty level. Demigod is perfect, actually. It's similar to Deity in the basegame, only it's more even throughout the game, the AI techs much better, and diplomacy etc squeezes the player a bit more.

T152 update

Spoiler :

Only 2 capitals left and I'll build Oxford for Dynamite in 8 turns, so pretty good timing. After the slow war with Spain, I made good progress through Egypt and China, while building 3rd and 4th armies for the big push East. Liberating 2 CS and taking one of Askia's expos was quick, but I'm not sure how quick taking Gao will be because he has cities so arranged that they mutually protect one another. And then Theo is like 5 techs ahead of me and we're approaching the Modern Era so I really don't want her to get Flight or anything.

Hopefully I've build enough units to suicide the cities and get a quickish win. If not, Commerce should save me.

T182 Victory - Job Done

The most fun I've had playing Civ ever. I'm really getting used to this mod now, and love the way that Melee units have been reborn. All I can say is I can't wait to play my own game as

Spoiler :

the Songhai

because their UU was a real challenge to wade through!

 

[adcarrymaokai]

First part :

Spoiler :

Link to video.

I also like the faster playtime. I usually get bored after watching many videos of LP, and frankly I don't even have time to watch someone else play a game for hours, so this is perfect and more engaging to watch.

 

[consentient]

Oh well, mine is a dissenting voice that didn't like the sped-up action. I really couldn't follow it at all, and when studying the play of someone like Acken, I really want to know as much as possible about every move, so I can spot the times when he does things that I really wouldn't have done. I learned a lot about the mod from the Byzantium Demigod, but personally found the Rome LP (which I tried to watch after my own victory, so as to compare play) sadly unwatchable.

 

[Chum]

Oh well, mine is a dissenting voice that didn't like the sped-up action. I really couldn't follow it at all, and when studying the play of someone like Acken, I really want to know as much as possible about every move, so I can spot the times when he does things that I really wouldn't have done. I learned a lot about the mod from the Byzantium Demigod, but personally found the Rome LP (which I tried to watch after my own victory, so as to compare play) sadly unwatchable.

Turn off sound, and set playback speed to half.

 

[consentient]

Turn off sound, and set playback speed to half.

I tried that, and actually it's still too fast for me. Plus, hearing the man's explanations in a weird David Lynch voice kinda defeats the point. Oh well, just throwing my opinion into the mix. It doesn't matter much either way

 

[Acken]

Ive recorded part 3 in 1.5x instead i think its more balanced.

 

[Redaxe]

Interesting looking map - I'd like to try this but I can't for the life of me fathom why the Ballista was removed.

The Ballista was the early game support unit for the Legion for city sieges. A bonus of 1 defense strength over the catapult enhanced its durability and an extra 4 (I think) strength against cities made it far more powerful then Crossbowmen.

It wasn't particularly valuable if you tech straight to Mathematics as you probably don't have the hammers to rush them out too fast but by the early medieval era you should be able to build them every few turns and easily whittle down cities of more advanced civs more easily. That has the advantage of extending your conquest time before you are forced to rely on crossbowmen and Trebuchets/cannons... Then it also saves your legions from having so spend so much time healing after attacking cities.

Relying on Legions alone for conquest isn't a recipe for success and sounds like micromanagement hell, I think you need the ballista to make this work. The legion and ballista have a sort of synergy that each unit needs the other to truly excel.

 

[nmp0098]

I have to say, Demigod is hard. I played through 3 times, and each time fell out of position at some point and started losing hard to

Spoiler :

Egypt

That same AI has beat me up in the other Demigod games I've played with this mod, and I'm probably not going to play this map again for a while (if at all). I may play my next Demigod game as that AI just I so I don't play against them.

Quick summary of my defeats: I conquered my two closest neighbors with legions and cats/trebs, then got rolled. The first two times it was miles of riflemen, the third I played much better only to get beat up with GWI through to tanks.

Oh well, I played a few other Immortal games and won (trad/piety and lib/piety culture), and I like the way the mod plays. When I play civ now, I play with this mod even over those juicy quick science maps.

@consentient - my hat's off to you for your game!

 

[Fluphen Azine]

Played up to turn 216. I might finish it out. The game is over. I played my usual style and am slogging through it. I could save myself a lot of trouble by just going Order but more fun to fight. Tech is close. I killed off Germany early and Spain got killed by Songhai. China is no threat and neither is Egypt. Byzantium and Songhai Double Teaming me but not too much trouble. Rocket Arts up soon. I wanted to try out the Mod and I would say this is what I would expect if we had a level in between Immortal and Deity. Nice tweaks to the AI though making them more aggressive and Nice touch on changing things around to balance things out. I went Full Liberty first and dipped into Tradition taking 3 policies and 3 into Commerce as well. Full Rationalism and 4 into Autocracy. A little too easy to hold all the CS's though compared to Deity base game and way too easy to win the Worlds Fair and Olympics. All and all a great MOD of the game... nicely done Acken!

 

[Acken]

Thanks. I'm not very active during the summer. I'll probably release an Immortal map soon though.

 

[adcarrymaokai]

Finished the game on t216. Would have been much faster, if Persia, my first victim, did not build GW and become the highest-scoring civ. But once I cut through Persia with artillery and riflemen, the rest was a walk in the park. Theodora was the next runaway and even dropped a few atomic bombs, but at the end I just threw units at her, so it did not matter. Liberty-Commerce-some Rationalism and some Order because all AI's went Order, and I did not want unhappiness issues. Artillery rush is so easy it never fails, even in Acken mod. Though I also got lucky that somehow China resisted Theodora's cultural influence, or else I might have lost. o_O