ALC Game 18, Take 2: Spain/Isabella

[Sisiutil]

this is off topic, may i ask Sisiutil, where you r from?

Originally Edmonton, now Vancouver BC.

I'll try to play and post the round tonight.

 

[carl corey]

Anyone know how the AI decides to use Great Generals to settle vs. lead a unit? Now that Great People remain in a city after the city is captured, it would be absolutely amazing if we could get into a war with Rome, give him a couple of Great Generals and then take the city with those Great Generals settled. A "free" West Point is nothing to sneeze at.

In one game I've seen a captured city with 2 GIs in it and another one with 3 GIs settled in it. (the last one was an AI's Heroic Epic city, I could see it through espionage) So there's hope we'll get some "free" military cities.

 

[Sisiutil]

In one game I've seen a captured city with 2 GIs in it and another one with 3 GIs settled in it. (the last one was an AI's Heroic Epic city, I could see it through espionage) So there's hope we'll get some "free" military cities.

The Portugese city of Oporto came with a settled Great General and a settle Great Prophet. I intend to make it into the West Point city, though that will have to wait. It also has several cottages of reasonable maturity that I will have to farm or workshop over once the rest of the economy can handle the loss of revenue.

 

[popejubal]

The Portugese city of Oporto came with a settled Great General and a settle Great Prophet. I intend to make it into the West Point city, though that will have to wait. It also has several cottages of reasonable maturity that I will have to farm or workshop over once the rest of the economy can handle the loss of revenue.

It may well be okay to allow Caesar to get a couple of Great Generals. It would make the war more difficult, but with a greater up-front investment you would be getting a potentially significant reward.

Probably not worth deliberately prolonging the war, but if Caesar happens to get a Great General, then so be it. With Gus getting 4x the GG points that you'll be getting, it's likely.

Also, don't forget about fighting in your own territory. If you DOW on him, you could potentially allow at least some of his army to come to you so that he suffers the war weariness instead of you.

 

[Andvare]

I must confess, I have yet to notice any AI generals leading their troops in battle. I'd say about 50-50 academy and settling, but with the patch, the academy ain't available, right? So settling would be the only choice.
That doesn't mean they don't lead, just that I haven't noticed it yet .
But, considering how badly the AI preforms during wartime, that the romans get more GGs are more of a boon IMHO. Think of it this way, finally one of the main points of the Great Wall gets to be utilized.

And jumping of off high things can be fun. My favourite is planes.

BTW Sisiutil, thanks for these threads, great learning experience. (Sisiutil = the utility of a sisi/girl? )

 

[Sisiutil]

I must confess, I have yet to notice any AI generals leading their troops in battle. I'd say about 50-50 academy and settling, but with the patch, the academy ain't available, right? So settling would be the only choice.
That doesn't mean they don't lead, just that I haven't noticed it yet .
But, considering how badly the AI preforms during wartime, that the romans get more GGs are more of a boon IMHO. Think of it this way, finally one of the main points of the Great Wall gets to be utilized.

And jumping of off high things can be fun. My favourite is planes.

BTW Sisiutil, thanks for these threads, great learning experience. (Sisiutil = the utility of a sisi/girl? )

Sisiutl

My spelling merely ensures that I can use it on pretty much any message board I join. Besides, it's not an English word, so I can argue that my spelling is as valid as anyone else's.

I must confess that I haven't seen an AI Warlord unit myself, but they do exist. I get messages every now and then that a certain GG has "died in combat", which doesn't happen to military instructors or military academies.

Speaking of which, Military Academies, in BtS with Solver's patch, are only available to a civ once it has researched Military Science.

 

[Andvare]

Thank you. Always informative.

 

[KMadCandy]

i saw nappy make a GG horse archer once. i know i've actually seen 2 other AI GGs in the field, but i can't remember what they were. those were in warlords, i haven't met any in BtS. i love their keeping settled great people. more than half the celtic cities that i captured in my current game had settled GP in them, some more than one!

Edit: Don't forget that Imperialistic + Great Wall = 4x Great General point. The bonuses combine to form Voltron instead of being added Civ-style. This has been confirmed with Worldbuilder in Warlords AND BtS.

yeah that's what i meant by double it again but i didn't want to get all math-y. or confusing to the old folks like me. voltron, is he one of the transformers?

ps ouch Winston! now sit safely still and get better!

 

[Gooblah]

Reminds me more of the Pokemon Volteon...but that's off-topic.

Anyways, I dunno about the Strength of Triremes (lack of BTS really stings). I'll go with what you said. Also, Sisutil, what are your thoughts on war strategy? Haven't seen u post much...

 

[xanadux]

Haha, clicked on the Sisiutl link. Who added our ALC leader to wikipedia?

 

[Sisiutil]

Reminds me more of the Pokemon Volteon...but that's off-topic.

Anyways, I dunno about the Strength of Triremes (lack of BTS really stings). I'll go with what you said. Also, Sisutil, what are your thoughts on war strategy? Haven't seen u post much...

A good point.

Well, first off, as Winston Hughes suggested, I think sending a couple of HAs into Roman territory to view troop deployments would be a good idea. I also think that I should pull all my Caravels back from exploration to do what they can to protect my seafood tiles. And I want to produce a few spies, some to protect key cities like Seville, Madrid, and Barcelona, others to perform missions against Augustus.

I'd still like to get Economics' free GM even though the tech will obsolete Isabella's UB. So I think a pre-war buildup of both Trebuchets, Longbows, and Knights, followed by a civics switch to boost their XPs even further, would be in order. Many of the Knights will remain in their build cities for protection and to lower war weariness, but some will be needed on the front. I may research both Liberalism and Economics to within 1 turn of completion, then use espionage to tell me when I should finish both techs. Look for me to run a few turns with the espionage slider as high as it can go while running several spy specialists so I get research visibility on everyone.

When the war starts, I would frankly rather not fight the first battle on my own soil simply because that's Seville's food supply (the corn tile) we're talking about. I plan to use the stack to quickly capture Neapolis and absorb any counter-attacks there. Then I plan to drive the stack straight into the heart of Augustus' territory, at Rome itself. Deprive him of his capital quickly and I render him a much easier target. Plus I then get the GG benefit from the Great Wall.

Next on the list would be Cumae. This should eventually grant me access to the spices and hopefully the dye as well; I should imagine war weariness will start to become a problem at this point, so the additional happy points will be welcome. I may have to think about getting Astronomy at this point too, so I can trade overseas for even more resources.

Following that, I plan to send the stack around the coast clockwise, capturing Antium, Ravenna, and finally Arretium.

I'm leaning towards on keeping all the cities, though I have my doubts about Ravenna. It seems too close to Rome and Antium to me. A city on that SE desert tile instead would be able to claim and work the fish tile just off the coast, which is currently wasted.

 

[LingLinsRevenge]

Dude -- You have a Wikipedia entry !!!
-- most excellent --

 

[Elrohir]

Sisiutl

My spelling merely ensures that I can use it on pretty much any message board I join. Besides, it's not an English word, so I can argue that my spelling is as valid as anyone else's.

I must confess that I haven't seen an AI Warlord unit myself, but they do exist. I get messages every now and then that a certain GG has "died in combat", which doesn't happen to military instructors or military academies.

Speaking of which, Military Academies, in BtS with Solver's patch, are only available to a civ once it has researched Military Science.

I once saw a Warlord catapult..... In BTS too.

Yeah, the AI does make warlord units, just not as often as it makes Academies and Military Instructors. (In my experience)

 

[Sisiutil]

I once saw a Warlord catapult..... In BTS too.

Yeah, the AI does make warlord units, just not as often as it makes Academies and Military Instructors. (In my experience)

Well, if it's attaching Warlords to Catapults, it's probably better off with the academies and instructors!

 

[slobberinbear]

Dude -- You have a Wikipedia entry !!!
-- most excellent --

 

[Rancid Sushi]

Agreed. The ALCs and other strategy articles are the only reason I come here. Sisiutil deserves a mention on wiki.

Sorry I haven't been participating much in this thread. I've been rather busy with work and school. I follow the updates though, and I've now decided that religion is the way to go for warmongering. Nothing funds large armies like shrines can. Spiral Minaret and Angkor Wat are also great wonders for a religion-oriented war machine.

 

[Sisiutil]

Haha, clicked on the Sisiutl link. Who added our ALC leader to wikipedia?

All right, that's embarrassing (and kind of sweet, too, I guess). Fess up. Which one of you did that?

And by the way, you misspelled "Civilization".

I suspect the Civ powers-that-be will have it removed before too long, so I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

 

[Tyrael]

You should take a screenie.

Also, wasn't me, I never mispell anything.

 

[TRJS]

Kant ave bean mee. I dunno howe ta spall Wakipedie.

 

[KMadCandy]

All right, that's embarrassing (and kind of sweet, too, I guess). Fess up. Which one of you did that?

hmmz. i thought it was really recent, probably even after you posted the link, knowing this crowd . i know it wasn't there the first time you told me what your name was based on. but the page says it was last edited august 8th.

i made a wiki account to correct that spelling. mom's an english teacher, i don't use caps, it was the least i could do. that did update the "last modified" date, so i guess somebody found you impressive way back then

edit: i also added a link to civ4's wiki page. if somebody who's looking for the sea monster checks that out and ends up buying a copy, maybe firaxis stays in business longer, right?