^^Goalkeeper
WOW, that requires a whopping 9% of your team to be able to catch. That leaves the other 91% of the team free to fall down and pretend to be injured.
ALC Game #22 Take 2: Arabs/Saladin
- Thread starter Sisiutil
- Start date
WOW, that requires a whopping 9% of your team to be able to catch. That leaves the other 91% of the team free to fall down and pretend to be injured.
r_rolo1
King of myself
IMHO that is just talk of people that don't know how to use their feet besides running in one direction
American football is a kiddie version of soccer. How do I know this? Because it is, literally, based on a version of soccer designed and originally played by schoolkids.
Football (or, soccer to Americans): designed by men, originally played by everyone.
American football: designed by schoolchildren, originally played by schoolchildren.
OK, so I'm deliberately stoking the fire
while we wait for the next post and I don't actually think American football is that bad... but really, folks. The facts speak for themselves.
Football (or, soccer to Americans): designed by men, originally played by everyone.
American football: designed by schoolchildren, originally played by schoolchildren.
OK, so I'm deliberately stoking the fire
while we wait for the next post and I don't actually think American football is that bad... but really, folks. The facts speak for themselves.IMHO that is just talk of people that don't know how to use their feet besides running in one direction
Football moves in both directions. We simply use different players for different directions. SPECIALIZED players. Unlike the HYBRID players in soccer. And everyone knows City specialization beats hybrids.
r_rolo1
King of myself
Wait... are we talking about dotmapping american football and soccer? 
This is seriously civ nerdie talk .....
And soccer players are specialized... but unlike american football, soccer players have to stay in field most of/ all of the game ( yup, not only 5 sec to shoot a ball ) ...so there can't be so much specialization as in the american football.
P.S. I am a federated soccer referee....
This is seriously civ nerdie talk .....And soccer players are specialized... but unlike american football, soccer players have to stay in field most of/ all of the game ( yup, not only 5 sec to shoot a ball
) ...so there can't be so much specialization as in the american football.P.S. I am a federated soccer referee....
Sam_Yeager
Another Original Geezer
Pfft! Everyone knows that the one true game is rugby football. 
A decent oval ball instead of all these round ball sports not to mention the fact that the ball is not thrown forward unlike a certain game popular in the US.
A decent oval ball instead of all these round ball sports not to mention the fact that the ball is not thrown forward unlike a certain game popular in the US.
r_rolo1
King of myself
^^Everyone knows that rubgy is a stepson of the soccer line , made by cheaters that wanted to continue to grab the ball at leisure
Pieman
Prince
Bah, the one true code of football is Aussie Rules.
... Though Rugby Union's a close second.
... Though Rugby Union's a close second.
DMOC
Mathematician
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2007
- Messages
- 5,594
Soccer is easily the best sport in the world.
I know that I am biased a bit since I play at a high level maybe 3 times a week...
Seriously, though, soccer is very interesting to play, and is one of the few sports where people are allowed to use their feet all the time!
Plus, in baseball, people just stand around spitting in the dirt, etc. etc. etc....
I know that I am biased a bit since I play at a high level maybe 3 times a week...
Seriously, though, soccer is very interesting to play, and is one of the few sports where people are allowed to use their feet all the time!
Plus, in baseball, people just stand around spitting in the dirt, etc. etc. etc....Hereditary Rule
Warlord
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2007
- Messages
- 294
TheMeInTeam
If A implies B...
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2008
- Messages
- 27,995
Soccer is easily the best sport in the world.
I know that I am biased a bit since I play at a high level maybe 3 times a week...
Seriously, though, soccer is very interesting to play, and is one of the few sports where people are allowed to use their feet all the time!
I'm not a big fan of baseball either...too slow paced. One could say the same thing about football...but every player does something every play in football (in theory, if they're no slouching, which DOES hurt the effort for their team when they do).
Soccer and football emphasize different abilities (obviously with some overlap). Football is funny because while the players can certainly affect the game via strategy, coaches have a far greater impact in that sport than in many/most others because they control aspects of gameplay very tightly.
Stamina required in football has nothing on what's required in soccer. Soccer players need amazing endurance. As a wrestler/track distance runner I was often appalled at the stamina level of my football teammates. It was rare I'd get tired in practice and that was mostly because the rest of the team couldn't take it. Obviously outside of kicking mechanics the strength in football is greater (many high school kickers are soccer players actually! It's hard to be a good kicker but what an amazing gig if you can get it!)
I never thought either as difficult as wrestling...fun on the other hand...well I like everything though.
IMO mixed martial arts has probably the best mix of athletic abilities and player strategy, but it takes some nerve to risk the consequences of participating in that...although I'd happily do it over boxing because a broken arm is much nicer than permanent brain damage.
IMO, spread of sports following isn't unlike the spread of religion in Civ 4. I suggest "free sporting", because god knows what that khmer guy likes. I wouldn't want to guess wrong.
Pfft! Everyone knows that the one true game is rugby football.
Further proof you are a BACKWARDS nation.
Sisiutil
All Leader Challenger
Round 13: 1784 AD to 1868 AD (56 turns) - Part 1
Okay, enough my-sport-is-better-than-your-sport off-topic BS. Back to the only game that matters!
As I started the round, I decided to accept Suryavarman's capitulation.
Neither he nor Zara were very useful on the tech front, unfortunately. But I hadn't left them with much land, and I hadn't gifted them with as many resources as I could have to raise their happy and healthy levels--something I'll have to remember to do in future games if I want my vassals to be useful. Nevertheless, I figured it was time to move on to the next and hopefully last phase of the game--the last war against the last enemy for a domination victory.
Towards that end, I researched my next military tech.
I also scouted Montezuma's land, taking advantage of OB as suggested to base an Airship over there for a few turns and fly around for a look-see.
Once I had enough gold set aside, I began to upgrade my veteran units.
My next tech was researched to earn a free Great General, but also to give me a way to combat war weariness. I had a feeling it would be a problem in this last, late-game war.
I used the GG for a military academy, IIRC.
I then started back-filling techs the AI was not trading to me, because Pacal had a monopoly on them.
My armada first made its way to Sugar Island and evicted the barbarians who'd been squatting there for centuries in short order.
Another day, another military tech...
And I also used my new production powerhouse ironworks city of Medina to build a military wonder:
Pacal got a little annoying by plunking his own city on Sugar Island, tempting me to attack him instead of Monty.
The nerve of the little jerk!
Now at this point I started hop-scotching around the tech board a bit, in moves I'm sure some of you will criticize. I probably should have gone straight for military techs, but as I mentioned, I was concerned about the effects war weariness would have on my civ, so I went after some non-military techs that would help me in that area.
Broadway's hit musicals would ease WW, while Electricity would also give the economy a wee boost thanks to the enhanced watermills. Yes, I wanted Medina to churn out wonders. I like my fun.
As it happened, just as I was about to declare war on him, Montezuma declared war on Pacal. Again. Conveniently, the first thing the Aztec did is capture that new Mayan city on Sugar Island.
My armada was in position, right outside the city where, thanks to my espionage points lighting up Montezuma's cities, the Aztec had the greatest concentration of his forces.
I always like to attack the best-defended city first if I can. I find it significantly reduces the strength of an enemy counter-attack. An amphibious strike force is particularly well-suited at swooping in on a target like that.
Ask not for whom the shrunken head rattles, Monty... it rattles for thee.
Yes, by the way, this now meant that, thanks to all the master/vassal relationships, Montezuma was at war with everybody in the whole freakin' world. That seems appropriate, doesn't it? And even though he was about to get crushed, I thought that if Monty were a real person he'd want to go out this way.
The first city fell quickly on that same turn; my Cannon attacked from aboard ship, followed by Infantry.
Meanwhile, several units I'd left to secure the two former barb cities on Sugar Island took care of liberating (and razing) the former Mayan city there.
I guess I could have kept it, what with that fish tile. But I just couldn't be bothered. Nubian's borders expanded to claim those tiles pretty quickly anyway.
I got back on track, for a while, to military-oriented techs.
...and then I went meandering off again, researching Radio next for its bumper crop of wonders.
Speaking of wonders, I polished off another one in Medina.
Despite the musicals, war weariness was indeed mounting, as I had feared. Not all of my cities were suffering--just my best, largest ones, of course, especially the former Ethiopian and Khmer cities where there was still "motherland" unhappiness to deal with. I decided to take advantage of the Spiritual trait yet again, and changed my religious civic:
I didn't do it for the building bonus, but for the ability to churn out missionaries without monasteries. I now had several religions present on my continent, and when I switched back to Free Religion, each religion I spread would give me one more happy citizen.
To be continued...
Okay, enough my-sport-is-better-than-your-sport off-topic BS. Back to the only game that matters!
As I started the round, I decided to accept Suryavarman's capitulation.
Neither he nor Zara were very useful on the tech front, unfortunately. But I hadn't left them with much land, and I hadn't gifted them with as many resources as I could have to raise their happy and healthy levels--something I'll have to remember to do in future games if I want my vassals to be useful. Nevertheless, I figured it was time to move on to the next and hopefully last phase of the game--the last war against the last enemy for a domination victory.
Towards that end, I researched my next military tech.
I also scouted Montezuma's land, taking advantage of OB as suggested to base an Airship over there for a few turns and fly around for a look-see.
Once I had enough gold set aside, I began to upgrade my veteran units.
My next tech was researched to earn a free Great General, but also to give me a way to combat war weariness. I had a feeling it would be a problem in this last, late-game war.
I used the GG for a military academy, IIRC.
I then started back-filling techs the AI was not trading to me, because Pacal had a monopoly on them.
My armada first made its way to Sugar Island and evicted the barbarians who'd been squatting there for centuries in short order.
Another day, another military tech...
And I also used my new production powerhouse ironworks city of Medina to build a military wonder:
Pacal got a little annoying by plunking his own city on Sugar Island, tempting me to attack him instead of Monty.
The nerve of the little jerk!
Now at this point I started hop-scotching around the tech board a bit, in moves I'm sure some of you will criticize. I probably should have gone straight for military techs, but as I mentioned, I was concerned about the effects war weariness would have on my civ, so I went after some non-military techs that would help me in that area.
Broadway's hit musicals would ease WW, while Electricity would also give the economy a wee boost thanks to the enhanced watermills. Yes, I wanted Medina to churn out wonders. I like my fun.
As it happened, just as I was about to declare war on him, Montezuma declared war on Pacal. Again. Conveniently, the first thing the Aztec did is capture that new Mayan city on Sugar Island.
My armada was in position, right outside the city where, thanks to my espionage points lighting up Montezuma's cities, the Aztec had the greatest concentration of his forces.
I always like to attack the best-defended city first if I can. I find it significantly reduces the strength of an enemy counter-attack. An amphibious strike force is particularly well-suited at swooping in on a target like that.
Ask not for whom the shrunken head rattles, Monty... it rattles for thee.
Yes, by the way, this now meant that, thanks to all the master/vassal relationships, Montezuma was at war with everybody in the whole freakin' world. That seems appropriate, doesn't it? And even though he was about to get crushed, I thought that if Monty were a real person he'd want to go out this way.
The first city fell quickly on that same turn; my Cannon attacked from aboard ship, followed by Infantry.
Meanwhile, several units I'd left to secure the two former barb cities on Sugar Island took care of liberating (and razing) the former Mayan city there.
I guess I could have kept it, what with that fish tile. But I just couldn't be bothered. Nubian's borders expanded to claim those tiles pretty quickly anyway.
I got back on track, for a while, to military-oriented techs.
...and then I went meandering off again, researching Radio next for its bumper crop of wonders.
Speaking of wonders, I polished off another one in Medina.
Despite the musicals, war weariness was indeed mounting, as I had feared. Not all of my cities were suffering--just my best, largest ones, of course, especially the former Ethiopian and Khmer cities where there was still "motherland" unhappiness to deal with. I decided to take advantage of the Spiritual trait yet again, and changed my religious civic:
I didn't do it for the building bonus, but for the ability to churn out missionaries without monasteries. I now had several religions present on my continent, and when I switched back to Free Religion, each religion I spread would give me one more happy citizen.
To be continued...
Sisiutil
All Leader Challenger
Round 13: 1784 AD to 1868 AD (56 turns) - Part 2
Sorry, CivCorpse, I just had to throw in one of my favourite BtVS quotes to finish off the previous discussion:
Monty was true to form, even to the end. He landed a punitive force next to Askam and then proceeded to kill all the Frigates and Galleons that had brought them there by flinging them in suicide attacks at the Destroyers I had protecting the local fishing grounds.
Maybe Monty was taking a page out of the book of his historic enemy, Cortes? Burning his ships on reaching the "new world" so his men would be properly motivated? Or maybe he was just being our favourite psycho with big cojones but absolutely no sense of self-preservation.
Well, I don't know how motivated his troops felt, but I do know how dead they soon were.
After the Airships weakened them, the other units killed some... and then I had a couple of Tanks roll in and finish them off. It wasn't a fair fight, but then again, I hate fair fights.
I then finished researching my next tech:
Actually, I shouldn't apologize for researching Radio. It's a tech that has great synergy, I think, with late game warfare. The three wonders it unlocks can all help out, especially the Eiffel Tower and Rock 'n' Roll increasing happiness. Cristo Redentor is handy even for a Spiritual civ, just because it reduces the wait time between civics changes. And, of course, there's something to be said for denying wonders to the AI.
On the military side, this tech unlocks no less than four military units. The best one, of course, is the Bomber... for which I also needed Flight. Ah well, that was on the priority list too. I'd get to it eventually.
I had spread religions to several cities with happiness issues, and now I switched civics to take advantage of Free Religion's happiness boost.
Once again, leveraging Spiritual... which, what with my fondness for civics changes, is definitely one of my favourite traits. So yes, it was odd to have it paired in this game with one of my least favourite traits, but in another way it was consolation, too, and therefore I tried to take advantage of it as much as I could.
I kept capturing cities, sending my ground pounders east through Aztec territory, inching toward the capital and the other core cities. Monty was researching Combustion, after all, and I wanted to slow him down.
Medina was able to churn out wonders inside 10 turns a pop.
Another turn, another Aztec city falls.
This one was a nice one to capture, since it contained a wonder.
Not that the Spiral Minaret was going to do me any good, but it really hurt Montezuma. The GPT he had available dropped significantly, by over 12, IIRC, after losing this city.
Finally, another military tech!
I'd snuck Artillery in there earlier as well. As I said, I anticipate that some of you will argue that my late-game research should have been more focused (come to thing of it, some of you were saying that about my research all game). At this point, I don't know if it would have made that much of a difference, but I suppose someone could try a shadow game and prove it one way or another.
At any rate, I now started building several Bombers and a few Fighters and sending them into the fray. Monty had no anti-aircraft units to speak of, so the Bombers had free reign to do a number on all the city defenders.
Meanwhile, I was having fun with my wonder factory:
And that did help with WW, frankly.
With my ground units busy in the Aztec east, I sent an amphibious task force against Monty's west.
Marines are fun. Well, not if you're on the wrong side of their cross-hairs, I suppose, but you catch my drift, right?
The Aztec capital fell next.
And this was another harmful blow for Montezuma, as he had now lost his shrine city.
The Marines were still busy out west.
Three cities were captured by that task force in as many turns. That's the big advantage of having an extremely mobile amphibious force.
I have to admit that I wasn't really checking the victory screen to see how much further I had to go. I knew I had to keep taking Aztec cities to open up space for the captured ones' cultural borders to claim.
The only problem for the amphibious task force was that the casualty rate for the Artillery units was quite high. Now that all the coastal cities in the west were under my control, I planned to swing my ships around to the east, where I'd pick up reinforcements from the ground stack, where I had several highly-promoted Artillery that had once been Cannon... and may have, for all I know, been Trebuchets at one point as well. Having all those Bombers out there to do the initial damage had helped those Artillery units' survival rates as well.
I kept rolling up wonders back home...
...and capturing cities from Monty.
And then it happened. It kind of snuck up on me, like I said; a bunch of my cities came out of revolt or expanded their borders on the same turn, and...
Stick a fork in this game, 'cause it's done.
The post mortem will follow.
Sorry, CivCorpse, I just had to throw in one of my favourite BtVS quotes to finish off the previous discussion:
Anyway, back to the game...
Monty was true to form, even to the end. He landed a punitive force next to Askam and then proceeded to kill all the Frigates and Galleons that had brought them there by flinging them in suicide attacks at the Destroyers I had protecting the local fishing grounds.
Maybe Monty was taking a page out of the book of his historic enemy, Cortes? Burning his ships on reaching the "new world" so his men would be properly motivated? Or maybe he was just being our favourite psycho with big cojones but absolutely no sense of self-preservation.
Well, I don't know how motivated his troops felt, but I do know how dead they soon were.
After the Airships weakened them, the other units killed some... and then I had a couple of Tanks roll in and finish them off. It wasn't a fair fight, but then again, I hate fair fights.
I then finished researching my next tech:
Actually, I shouldn't apologize for researching Radio. It's a tech that has great synergy, I think, with late game warfare. The three wonders it unlocks can all help out, especially the Eiffel Tower and Rock 'n' Roll increasing happiness. Cristo Redentor is handy even for a Spiritual civ, just because it reduces the wait time between civics changes. And, of course, there's something to be said for denying wonders to the AI.
On the military side, this tech unlocks no less than four military units. The best one, of course, is the Bomber... for which I also needed Flight. Ah well, that was on the priority list too. I'd get to it eventually.
I had spread religions to several cities with happiness issues, and now I switched civics to take advantage of Free Religion's happiness boost.
Once again, leveraging Spiritual... which, what with my fondness for civics changes, is definitely one of my favourite traits. So yes, it was odd to have it paired in this game with one of my least favourite traits, but in another way it was consolation, too, and therefore I tried to take advantage of it as much as I could.
I kept capturing cities, sending my ground pounders east through Aztec territory, inching toward the capital and the other core cities. Monty was researching Combustion, after all, and I wanted to slow him down.
Medina was able to churn out wonders inside 10 turns a pop.
Another turn, another Aztec city falls.
This one was a nice one to capture, since it contained a wonder.
Not that the Spiral Minaret was going to do me any good, but it really hurt Montezuma. The GPT he had available dropped significantly, by over 12, IIRC, after losing this city.
Finally, another military tech!
I'd snuck Artillery in there earlier as well. As I said, I anticipate that some of you will argue that my late-game research should have been more focused (come to thing of it, some of you were saying that about my research all game). At this point, I don't know if it would have made that much of a difference, but I suppose someone could try a shadow game and prove it one way or another.
At any rate, I now started building several Bombers and a few Fighters and sending them into the fray. Monty had no anti-aircraft units to speak of, so the Bombers had free reign to do a number on all the city defenders.
Meanwhile, I was having fun with my wonder factory:
And that did help with WW, frankly.
With my ground units busy in the Aztec east, I sent an amphibious task force against Monty's west.
Marines are fun. Well, not if you're on the wrong side of their cross-hairs, I suppose, but you catch my drift, right?
The Aztec capital fell next.
And this was another harmful blow for Montezuma, as he had now lost his shrine city.
The Marines were still busy out west.
Three cities were captured by that task force in as many turns. That's the big advantage of having an extremely mobile amphibious force.
I have to admit that I wasn't really checking the victory screen to see how much further I had to go. I knew I had to keep taking Aztec cities to open up space for the captured ones' cultural borders to claim.
The only problem for the amphibious task force was that the casualty rate for the Artillery units was quite high. Now that all the coastal cities in the west were under my control, I planned to swing my ships around to the east, where I'd pick up reinforcements from the ground stack, where I had several highly-promoted Artillery that had once been Cannon... and may have, for all I know, been Trebuchets at one point as well. Having all those Bombers out there to do the initial damage had helped those Artillery units' survival rates as well.
I kept rolling up wonders back home...
...and capturing cities from Monty.
And then it happened. It kind of snuck up on me, like I said; a bunch of my cities came out of revolt or expanded their borders on the same turn, and...
Stick a fork in this game, 'cause it's done.
The post mortem will follow.
Sam_Yeager
Another Original Geezer
Nice finish! I'm glad you followed the advice to DoW Monty rather than Pacal.
Looking forward to the imminent Princes update.
Looking forward to the imminent Princes update.
Sisiutil
All Leader Challenger
Post Mortem
First off, the tale of the tape. Let's start with the victory conditions.
Now some of the graphs, starting with the one I have come to believe is the most telling--the production ("Manufactured Goods") graph:
You can clearly see my two consecutive golden ages in there, which I used to build up to war with Sury--whose own production drops off significantly after that, while mine takes off into the stratosphere.
GNP:
This one is never as steady, but nevertheless, you can see a steady rise in the late game--especially after I captured all those mature and semi-mature cottages from Sury.
Power:
Once again, it makes sense to leave one of the warmongers (Monty, Genghis, Shaka) until later if you can. They'll fall behind in tech and production and eventually become sitting ducks for your more modern and powerful units.
Demographics:
Sigh. First in everything except approval rate. Why don't my people love me? They should be proud to see their sons coming home in flag-draped coffins!
(Hmmm... there is a lesson in here, methinks, for real-world leaders...)
Top 5 Cities & Wonders:
Statistics:
And score:
Not bad--not my best ever, but it's up there, especially as it broke the 100,000 barrier.
Okay, now on to the post-game analysis. Despite the high finish, this was not one of my best games. The time it took alone--the time length of this thread, I mean, not the gameplay time itself--indicated a lack of focus on my part, as did my meandering approach to research and overall strategy. To be honest, for much of the early game, I was playing off-line games as Caesar and Alexander, out conquering the early world as is my wont, and that meant I was not all that focused on this one. As I said, the whole lay-back-and-wait approach to leveraging Protective did not sit well with me. And I'm not much of an early game wonderholic--I tend to turn into one in the late game, as you saw--so building two early wonders may have thrown me off a little too. If I had not had stone in the capital's BFC, I think this would have been a very different game.
Should I have pursued a religion more aggressively? I think it was established that I would have been beaten to both Meditation and Polytheism, but I've heard it said that the human player can be first to Monotheism rather handily, if you put your mind to it. Though I must admit I never have. On the other hand, when I think of what I'm proudest of in this game, it's how I handled the challenge of early game diplomacy without an early religion. Granted, I would not have stolen Roosevelt's Worker, had I known that my continent would lack any religions for such a long time, but hindsight is 20/20. And Roosevelt wasn't that much of a bother; furthermore, his declaration of war was a much-needed kick in the pants that got me going down domination road. And hey, I kept Suryavarman "Pleased" with me and out of my hair until I declared war on him. Based on many of your experiences with Sury, that's not the easiest thing to do--but I did it without a shared religion. So yes, I'm patting my own back about that.
I can't say I'm overly impressed with the Arabian UU. I had horses, as I commonly do. If I hadn't, in most games I'll go to war early on with gaining a strategic resource like horses as a main objective. But having horses meant I didn't benefit from the Camel Archers' freedom from a resource base. As for the additional withdrawal bonus, I didn't see it much, at least not any more than a normal mounted unit. My CAs did win several low-odds battles, but that has nothing to do with Flanking ability.
The UB, on the other hand, was very useful and I do like it. It's not overpowered, but then again it shouldn't be. The extra culture was handy next door to a Creative leader like Zara. And the ability to run priests was very useful, especially when I didn't have the ability to build temples for a long time. The Madrassa is especially nice when combined with Angkor Wat for super-powered priests specialists, something to remember for any future games with Saladin: that wonder should be a priority.
As for Protective--no, I probably didn't leverage it properly, and given how I avoid that trait like the plague in my off-line games, I possibly never will. Nevertheless, this game--the first ALC as a Protective leader--has proven instructive, so I'm hoping that the next ALC with a Protective leader (#27 with Churchill, I believe) will show me being a little more comfortable with the trait.
So now I await your views on this game. The next ALC will feature me playing as Lincoln... but I'm going to take a break for a few days before starting that one. And I would like to update my long-neglected Princes of the Universe thread before getting distracted by another ALC. So be patient!
First off, the tale of the tape. Let's start with the victory conditions.
Now some of the graphs, starting with the one I have come to believe is the most telling--the production ("Manufactured Goods") graph:
You can clearly see my two consecutive golden ages in there, which I used to build up to war with Sury--whose own production drops off significantly after that, while mine takes off into the stratosphere.
GNP:
This one is never as steady, but nevertheless, you can see a steady rise in the late game--especially after I captured all those mature and semi-mature cottages from Sury.
Power:
Once again, it makes sense to leave one of the warmongers (Monty, Genghis, Shaka) until later if you can. They'll fall behind in tech and production and eventually become sitting ducks for your more modern and powerful units.
Demographics:
Sigh. First in everything except approval rate. Why don't my people love me? They should be proud to see their sons coming home in flag-draped coffins!
(Hmmm... there is a lesson in here, methinks, for real-world leaders...)
Top 5 Cities & Wonders:
Statistics:
And score:
Not bad--not my best ever, but it's up there, especially as it broke the 100,000 barrier.
Okay, now on to the post-game analysis. Despite the high finish, this was not one of my best games. The time it took alone--the time length of this thread, I mean, not the gameplay time itself--indicated a lack of focus on my part, as did my meandering approach to research and overall strategy. To be honest, for much of the early game, I was playing off-line games as Caesar and Alexander, out conquering the early world as is my wont, and that meant I was not all that focused on this one. As I said, the whole lay-back-and-wait approach to leveraging Protective did not sit well with me. And I'm not much of an early game wonderholic--I tend to turn into one in the late game, as you saw--so building two early wonders may have thrown me off a little too. If I had not had stone in the capital's BFC, I think this would have been a very different game.
Should I have pursued a religion more aggressively? I think it was established that I would have been beaten to both Meditation and Polytheism, but I've heard it said that the human player can be first to Monotheism rather handily, if you put your mind to it. Though I must admit I never have. On the other hand, when I think of what I'm proudest of in this game, it's how I handled the challenge of early game diplomacy without an early religion. Granted, I would not have stolen Roosevelt's Worker, had I known that my continent would lack any religions for such a long time, but hindsight is 20/20. And Roosevelt wasn't that much of a bother; furthermore, his declaration of war was a much-needed kick in the pants that got me going down domination road. And hey, I kept Suryavarman "Pleased" with me and out of my hair until I declared war on him. Based on many of your experiences with Sury, that's not the easiest thing to do--but I did it without a shared religion. So yes, I'm patting my own back about that.
I can't say I'm overly impressed with the Arabian UU. I had horses, as I commonly do. If I hadn't, in most games I'll go to war early on with gaining a strategic resource like horses as a main objective. But having horses meant I didn't benefit from the Camel Archers' freedom from a resource base. As for the additional withdrawal bonus, I didn't see it much, at least not any more than a normal mounted unit. My CAs did win several low-odds battles, but that has nothing to do with Flanking ability.
The UB, on the other hand, was very useful and I do like it. It's not overpowered, but then again it shouldn't be. The extra culture was handy next door to a Creative leader like Zara. And the ability to run priests was very useful, especially when I didn't have the ability to build temples for a long time. The Madrassa is especially nice when combined with Angkor Wat for super-powered priests specialists, something to remember for any future games with Saladin: that wonder should be a priority.
As for Protective--no, I probably didn't leverage it properly, and given how I avoid that trait like the plague in my off-line games, I possibly never will. Nevertheless, this game--the first ALC as a Protective leader--has proven instructive, so I'm hoping that the next ALC with a Protective leader (#27 with Churchill, I believe) will show me being a little more comfortable with the trait.
So now I await your views on this game. The next ALC will feature me playing as Lincoln... but I'm going to take a break for a few days before starting that one. And I would like to update my long-neglected Princes of the Universe thread before getting distracted by another ALC. So be patient!
@ Everybody - Your all wrong about sports. The TRUE sport, which is the most grueling, most mind blowing, most intense sport of them all, is ping-pong. Nothing even comes close.
There is nothing funnier than watching a professional ping-pong match... you never would imagine people could sweat so much playing that game.
Back on topic
So very true. Cheers to Monty, whos sanguinary personality and highly inferior tactics always cause him to not only start a world war, but lose, horribly, every time. 干杯!
Well, Saladin is done Sis, nice work. Lets all be happy that we can move on to the next one.
I really think that one thing you did pretty poorly was mobilizing your army. When you did go to war, you came in with completely overwhelming odds, which is great! Dont get me wrong on that, but usually, you could have gone to war much earlier without it, and still easily win. You said yourself that the AI beats you at everything, but never at war. Even with vastly inferior odds, you could still pull off a victory.
Just figured I would venture off the style of profusely congratulating you "on a fine win." Or something of that nature. But, nice job.
There is nothing funnier than watching a professional ping-pong match... you never would imagine people could sweat so much playing that game.
Back on topic
Sisiutil said:
So very true. Cheers to Monty, whos sanguinary personality and highly inferior tactics always cause him to not only start a world war, but lose, horribly, every time. 干杯!
Well, Saladin is done Sis, nice work. Lets all be happy that we can move on to the next one.
I really think that one thing you did pretty poorly was mobilizing your army. When you did go to war, you came in with completely overwhelming odds, which is great! Dont get me wrong on that, but usually, you could have gone to war much earlier without it, and still easily win. You said yourself that the AI beats you at everything, but never at war. Even with vastly inferior odds, you could still pull off a victory.
Just figured I would venture off the style of profusely congratulating you "on a fine win." Or something of that nature. But, nice job.
