I just completed a Huge Warlord 20K as the Sumerians. A Warlord game is a little easier than I'm used to, so I spiced it up a little by going against 15 aggressive AI's, all the scientific ones, all the aggricultural ones, and the Mongols.
I was thinking the scientific AIs could at least provide some free techs at the start of each age, but that didn't really work out other than in the Middle ages. I avoided gifting the AIs into the Middle ages to avoid them having access to the Middle Age wonders until I had built them. I researched towards Music Theory/Free Artistry after getting Monotheism as my free tech. The AIs entered the middle ages around the point I researched Democracy, so I at least got to trade for Feudalism/Engineering. The AIs were useless for the latter ages though. The better AIs had barely completed the Middle Ages at the point the game ended!
I was thinking the aggricultural AIs could build me some towns to capture, which sort of worked out with the Incans right next door for a fairly early golden age and 3 or 4 captured towns. The Aggricultural trait wasn't enough to help the puny Warlord AIs with their expansion though.
The Mongols. Well, they're just there so I can beat on them for superslug
. They were on the other side of the continent, across lots of Jungle/Marsh tiles, so it took a while to reach them. In 880AD I took their last Spearman defended town with my Cavalry:
See that Mongol Galley to the West? I did (after not getting the "The Mongols have been destroyed" message), so rushed a couple of Privateers and a Galleon. The Mongol Galley was killed next turn, but not before the Settler had hopped onto a nearby Island. The 4 Elite Cavalry didn't really have much trouble finishing the job though
I had a number of wars during this game, mostly started by the aggressive AIs. This actually turned out pretty well on Warlord as you get the benefits of War Happiness without the worries of being attacked by a strong opponent. Of course, these AIs generally met a sticky end, either via Cavalry or Tanks. The Greeks were the last to go, but dissappointingly they died on me at the hands of mere Cavalry and 1 Tank army in 1555AD, just before I had a chance to use my Modern Armour armies.
I didn't have much luck with SGLS. The first was pretty good, coming in 1870BC to build the Pyramids. The next didn't come until 1010AD to build the Hoover Dam, and the next in 1440AD to build the SETI program.
The start location had a fair amount of shields though. I could just about manage 200 shields for a short period near the end:
Here's my build list:
3950 BC Palace
3350 BC Temple
1830 BC Pyramids (SGL)
1525 BC Library
1200 BC Mausoleum of Mausollos
610 BC Great Library
550 BC Cathedral (Cash rushed)
510 BC Colosseum (Cash rushed)
170 BC Temple of Artemis
250 AD Sistine Chapel
260 AD University (Cash rushed)
360 AD Hanging Gardens
520 AD Shakespeare's Theatre
660 AD Newton's University
770 AD Copericus' Observatory
840 AD Bach's Cathedral
910 AD Universal Suffrage
950 AD Heroic Epic
960 AD Military Academy (MGL)
1010 AD Theory of Evolution
1020 AD Hoover Dam (SGL)
1275 AD United Nations
1320 AD Internet
1320 AD Research Lab (free with Internet)
1340 AD Apollo Program
1365 AD Smith's Trading post
1375 AD Wall Street
1405 AD Manhattan Project
1440 AD Cure for Cancer
1445 AD Seti Program (SGL)
1475 AD Longevity
1485 AD Intelligence Agency
1510 AD Pentagon
1530 AD Battlefield Medicine
1550 AD SDI Defense
When I started this game Huge Warlord 20K was an empty table. Ljdjr and Pentium submitted games to that table this month. Luckily (for me, not for them. Sorry guys!) my end date was ahead of their's, 1595AD. Nothing spectacular compared to the experts, but not bad for a 20K beginner.
I was thinking the scientific AIs could at least provide some free techs at the start of each age, but that didn't really work out other than in the Middle ages. I avoided gifting the AIs into the Middle ages to avoid them having access to the Middle Age wonders until I had built them. I researched towards Music Theory/Free Artistry after getting Monotheism as my free tech. The AIs entered the middle ages around the point I researched Democracy, so I at least got to trade for Feudalism/Engineering. The AIs were useless for the latter ages though. The better AIs had barely completed the Middle Ages at the point the game ended!
I was thinking the aggricultural AIs could build me some towns to capture, which sort of worked out with the Incans right next door for a fairly early golden age and 3 or 4 captured towns. The Aggricultural trait wasn't enough to help the puny Warlord AIs with their expansion though.
The Mongols. Well, they're just there so I can beat on them for superslug
. They were on the other side of the continent, across lots of Jungle/Marsh tiles, so it took a while to reach them. In 880AD I took their last Spearman defended town with my Cavalry:
See that Mongol Galley to the West? I did (after not getting the "The Mongols have been destroyed" message), so rushed a couple of Privateers and a Galleon. The Mongol Galley was killed next turn, but not before the Settler had hopped onto a nearby Island. The 4 Elite Cavalry didn't really have much trouble finishing the job though
I had a number of wars during this game, mostly started by the aggressive AIs. This actually turned out pretty well on Warlord as you get the benefits of War Happiness without the worries of being attacked by a strong opponent. Of course, these AIs generally met a sticky end, either via Cavalry or Tanks. The Greeks were the last to go, but dissappointingly they died on me at the hands of mere Cavalry and 1 Tank army in 1555AD, just before I had a chance to use my Modern Armour armies
.I didn't have much luck with SGLS. The first was pretty good, coming in 1870BC to build the Pyramids. The next didn't come until 1010AD to build the Hoover Dam, and the next in 1440AD to build the SETI program.
The start location had a fair amount of shields though. I could just about manage 200 shields for a short period near the end:
Here's my build list:
3950 BC Palace
3350 BC Temple
1830 BC Pyramids (SGL)
1525 BC Library
1200 BC Mausoleum of Mausollos
610 BC Great Library
550 BC Cathedral (Cash rushed)
510 BC Colosseum (Cash rushed)
170 BC Temple of Artemis
250 AD Sistine Chapel
260 AD University (Cash rushed)
360 AD Hanging Gardens
520 AD Shakespeare's Theatre
660 AD Newton's University
770 AD Copericus' Observatory
840 AD Bach's Cathedral
910 AD Universal Suffrage
950 AD Heroic Epic
960 AD Military Academy (MGL)
1010 AD Theory of Evolution
1020 AD Hoover Dam (SGL)
1275 AD United Nations
1320 AD Internet
1320 AD Research Lab (free with Internet)
1340 AD Apollo Program
1365 AD Smith's Trading post
1375 AD Wall Street
1405 AD Manhattan Project
1440 AD Cure for Cancer
1445 AD Seti Program (SGL)
1475 AD Longevity
1485 AD Intelligence Agency
1510 AD Pentagon
1530 AD Battlefield Medicine
1550 AD SDI Defense
When I started this game Huge Warlord 20K was an empty table. Ljdjr and Pentium submitted games to that table this month. Luckily (for me, not for them. Sorry guys!) my end date was ahead of their's, 1595AD. Nothing spectacular compared to the experts, but not bad for a 20K beginner
.
shields yours is kicking out. 
.
). From that experience I think I might be able to get the AI's under control on a Small map, then go for Spaceship. Without the AI's research help the date won't be spectacular, but Small Sid Spaceship is empty at the moment. There might be a good reason for that though 
.
