ALC Game 20 Pre-Game Thread: Playing as Ragnar

[KMadCandy]

I'd recommend also putting a unit that can actually get rid of those warrior on board .

spies can pop guarded huts! they don't get rid of the guards, or any hostile villagers that come out of the hut, but they aren't seen by them either. you can put them on caravels if you need to cross ocean before astro to reach a hut

Either archipelago as you recommend, or medium and small (a different base map type, I know; I'm mulling it over). I may generate a few different maps of each type off-line and compare them in worldbuilder to see which type I prefer before deciding.

yeah i do that a lot. quick tip ... when you know you're just researching the map, and not going to play the game, don't bother with WB. just go to custom game and roll a future start game. that way you can see the whole thing without entering WB, and then regen to see it again, rinse repeat. it's quicker and easier on the fingers! i forget who taught me that, one of the very smart folks over in HoF forum.

 

[Boodler]

One thing you might want to consider is the lack of rivers on water based maps, which might cause some surprises with the financial trait and Colossus combination: after astronomy the non coastal water tiles' commerce will drop from 3 to 1.
And with the lack of river tiles, the initial cottages will yield 1 commerce only, instead of 3.

Am I the only one that puts scouts on galleys only to find the goody huts guarded by stationary barbarian warriors?

I thinik spies can collect the treasure from guarded goody huts.

 

[Refar]

Can a hut be popped by a Spy ? Will he get 'no negative' as Scout do ?

Anyway: Galley can take two. A Scout + Warrior - or even Archer - is still cheaper than a single spy.

 

[ori]

Can a hut be popped by a Spy ? Will he get 'no negative' as Scout do ?

Anyway: Galley can take two. A Scout + Warrior - or even Archer - is still cheaper than a single spy.

a spy can pop huts - he will get the negatives like any non-scout, but since barbs cannot see him this is not exactly dangerous. there is no way to have a scout pop a hut that is guarded by a barb anyway and in this way you don't lose that unit even if there are lots of barbs on that landmass...

 

[sylvanllewelyn]

Thank goodness you're playing archipelago: I've had some unpleasent experiences with emperor and aggressive AI on continents or pangaea. I still won, but don't expect to be able to take many cities. What map size are you playing? This could determine whether you could have your conquest victory or not.

I don't really know a good way to leverage the berserker or trading post either. Financial... colossus and great lighthouse maybe?

 

[Indiansmoke]

Archipelago and Aggressive AI favor humans a lot. If you are using Aggressive AI to have a more difficult game then play pangea or continets. If one the other hand you want an easier than usual game then the settings you chose are good.

 

[oldsaxon]

With most of your initial cities, a Work Boat is likely to be your first build.

I disagree. Having a food resource online right from the start is crucial to a city's development. Any necessary workboats should be produced elsewhere and in place at the first opportunity for use.

 

[Morgawr]

- I'd recommend going for a trade route based economy and definitely trying for the Great Lighthouse. You need to pump out lots of workboats in the beginning so they can start exploring ASAP to discover other civs and get the high trade routes commerce with open borders.

- I find that everyone techs faster on archipelago maps due to the intercontinental trade routes which are established very early on. Depending on the water level setting, this also means that it'll be easy for religions to spread to your cities so you can wait and choose what block to join.

- Finally, hammers tend to be very rare relative to commerce so it's crucial to find some good sites for production cities that can build your units. Otherwise it takes forever to build anything on water based maps and science outpaces production easily. Expect most cities to work seafood & mines.

 

[xen01]

I really think its a great idea to also choose your enemy civs. Might I recommend the following civs: Hannibal - Carthage, Pacal - Mayan, George Washington -America, Willem van Oranje - Dutch, Elizabeth - British, Gandhi - India.
I think this ALC game would be most educational for avid readers like me.

Thanks.

 

[TM Moot]

I would rather not pick all the AI civs, lets leave some unknowns in the game. Personally, if we're going for a water based map, I would like to see 2 hand picked AI's and leave the remainder random.

Any 2 of these for me - Willem, Joao, Hannibal.

Gamewise - try and grab GLighthouse and Colussus if possible. And early doors knock out lots of Workboats, for tucker and exploring. I wouldn't bother with a second scout.

 

[Tyrant Roger]

I recommend against the Archipelago map. The AI does not compete well on it and there is simply too much water for interesting play. And too much futzing with ships.

I would love to see the Dutch and Portugese in the game with the rest random.

Thanks again for the ALC series.

 

[RockTheCazbah87]

The AIs need to be all random I feel. If we're so interested in Joao and Willem, then Sis should play with them (if/when he gets there) on an Archipelago.

 

[Verge]

Having one AI pre-selected isn't a bad idea. Lately I've been having what I call a "guest star" in each of my games to bring out leaders that haven't made recent appearances in previous plays. Boudica is my current guest star, since she hasn't cropped up in any of my BTS games.

 

[xen01]

Exactly lets have at least 5 guest stars

 

[RockTheCazbah87]

Exactly lets have at least 5 guest stars

Well then if you think about it, there'd only be one guest star, because we know who everyone else is going to be.

I think the ALC's need to keep some variety at least.

 

[Verge]

Exactly lets have at least 5 guest stars

Nah, just one. Otherwise, the game lacks the mystery of unknown civilizations and leaders and the unpredictability that entails.

 

[Daedal]

Woot! Another ALC! I don't play on emperor so this may be a dumb suggestion, but I'll toss it out there anyway:

Assuming that the proposed map settings give fairly small islands, you'll probably have little threat of an early war (even with Agg AI) and very few good city spots on your initial continent. Maybe even just one really awesome capital..? Also there seems to be debate about the Colossus vs GL and whether to go for GW... would it be feasible to start this out as a WWE and expand later into a hybrid economy? How many early wonders can Sisi reasonably expect to grab if he focuses on it at emperor difficulty? I'd love to see him grab Oracle (maybe even Stonehenge ) for the great prophet and then the two coastal wonders. The Oracle could be used to grab metal casting in that case making the sweep easier. GW would be nice for the eventual great spy, but not necessary IMO. Pyramids, if stone is available, would be nice for the civic switch.. Anyway, once the capital is a wonder powerhouse with a few settled GPs there should be no problem pumping out an army, conquering/settling a few neighboring islands, and vassalizing the rest of the world. Sound like a plan?

On a more general note regarding work boats and fishing as a starting tech, not only can you start building them on turn one, but they also allow your city to grow while building them (unlike workers) and they build tile improvements instantly giving you that many more turns use of the tile (unlike workers). Also I've noticed that random events tend not to destroy water tile improvements while land tile improvements are constantly destroyed in my early games to my great frustration. So actually fishing as a starting tech is pretty nice, especially if your capital has one or more seafoods in its BFC.

 

[xen01]

Mystery and unpredictability is indeed a nice novelty. I just think it would be most educational to match up with the civs that are most suited and adapted to the archipelago map. Sure it would be a pleasant surprise to see all agressive/protective leaders but perhaps those civs would be likely easy meat once they loose the inevitable tech race. Fellow avid readers, don't you think it would be a boring game to just hunker down and tech up then kill the technologically backward civs later on? We players gain our skill not by playing with easy opponents but with skilled ones.

 

[Julian Delphiki]

Wonderspam is better saved for some upcoming IND leader ALC than Ragnars round.

 

[RockTheCazbah87]

Mystery and unpredictability is indeed a nice novelty. I just think it would be most educational to match up with the civs that are most suited and adapted to the archipelago map. Sure it would be a pleasant surprise to see all agressive/protective leaders but perhaps those civs would be likely easy meat once they loose the inevitable tech race. Fellow avid readers, don't you think it would be a boring game to just hunker down and tech up then kill the technologically backward civs later on? We players gain our skill not by playing with easy opponents but with skilled ones.

I see your point xen01, and it is a good one. I just think that pre-selecing tech fiends gives Sis a big disadvantage, and would make the game unbalanced IMO.