ALC Game #8 Pre-Game Show: Playing as Alexander

[VoiceOfUnreason]

In fact, in a non-cultural game, I sometimes never build the Globe Theatre. I know it has benefits for whipping/drafting, but by the time I have it available, I'm usually productive enough to not have to rely on the whip anymore.

That might be a symptom, rather than Great Truth[tm]. Which is to say, it may be an indication that you have been slowing your economic development by converting too many food into hammers. The Globe Theater, paired with surplus food, takes care of all of your transferable hammer needs (ie, military, workers, settlers, missionaries), so maybe you should be giving that tech a higher priority than you have been.

Rough game plan: research Monarchy and Drama, switch to Hereditary Rule, and whip military units every other turn, applying the overflow to first the theater, then the Globe Theater. now that that is finished, you can switch out of HR, and whip military every other turn, applying the overflow to the Heroic Epic. Then you just get silly, whipping out units every turn until you are bored with the whole thing.

You are going to be running high food low population most of the time, so you don't need particularly good terrain aside from the food tiles. Sneak this combo into a coastal location, and you don't need to worry about building a navy when the time comes to cross the seas. Once nationhood comes available you can start drafting instead (less flexibility, but cheaper).

 

[UncleJJ]

@ Sisiutil,

I have finished my comparative game playing the period from 720 AD until 1530 AD in ALC #7 and have posted my analysis in that thread. You and anyone else interested in my version of the SE might like to study my savegame and analysis. It would be good to get several points established before you try another SE. Here we have a concrete demonstration rather than people arguing from theoretical positions

In summary my comparative game clearly demonstrates 2 things.

1) Slavery is superior to the the Caste System for a SE
2) It is better to run your research slider at 100% rather than 0% and a properly run SE needs to build up its gold generation as well as its beakers.

In the words of the 1992 Clinton campaign manager

"It's the Economy, Stupid"

 

[BARBEERIAN]

Wow, alot of people out there really underestimate the potency of the Phalanx. I'd say it's one of the strongest defensive units in it's era, and even though you won't want to do your city raiding with it, it's a perfect addition to your stack.

For starters, they are much more combat capable than standard spearman ( 5.5 Str -vs- 4 ). Aside from axemen, there isn't any early unit that poses a major threat to the Phalanx. They're only 0.5 Str below a Pikeman, but available in the ancient era. They eat Elephants for breakfast on attack or defense, compared to spearman which are only 50-50 when attacking an Elephant. They can even defend against Knights with relative success.

The +25% Hill defense is very useful, especially if you're like me and make ALL your frontline cities on hills. A Phalanx fortified in a hill city beats an axeman handily, where a spearman gets massacred:
===================================
Phalanx->(5.5 + 50% for hill, + 25% fortify, + city bonus )
= 9.6'ish + city bonus
===================================
Spearman->(4 + 25% for hill, + 25% fortify)
= 6 + city bonus
===================================
Attacking Axeman-> (5 + %50 shock )
= 7.5
===================================

They make a fantastic 'immovable object' to choke out an enemy as well. Find a forested hill in enemy territory, then have fun watching your enemy waste axeman trying to kill him. Forest hill + Phalanx = +100% defense. So that's 11 Strength WITHOUT the fortify bonus. It will take an enemy 2/3 axemen to remove 1 Phalanx from that wooded hill. Normal spearman again get eaten alive by axes even on a wooded hill, the spearman is lucky to kill one axeman.

 

[Lance of Llanwy]

Congrats on moving up to Monarch. I recently moved up to Prince myself(though I'm back to Noble for the moment to acquaint myself with Warlords). I think a Conquest victory would be a great way to go. Something difficult and new in your last Prince game, and true to Alexander himself! Conquer until there is nothing left to conquer!

 

[Sisiutil]

Thanks for that comparison in the other thread, UncleJJ. The Monarch game I'm playing off-line now, which I'm likely to win, does not have a SE, but I did use the whip extensively. (I even played much of the early game with the help of a calculator! The horror!) After getting my butt handed to me on my first half-dozen Monarch games because I was lackadaisical with the whip, I have had my trust in it renewed. So look for it to be a feature in this upcoming game.

I may also try to go for Drama and the Globe Theater earlier to implement the suggested whipping strategy in a high-food, no-unhappiness city. Especially if I want a lot of units.

Gnarfflinger, your post seemed contradictory. In the first paragraph you seemed to warn me off the Pyramids; in the second you recommend it. Which is it?

 

[Dr Elmer Jiggle]

Gnarfflinger, your post seemed contradictory. In the first paragraph you seemed to warn me off the Pyramids; in the second you recommend it. Which is it?

I also read it that way at first. "Pyramids only ties up one of your cities." It seems like he's saying all The Pyramids does is tie up one of your cities wasting hammers that could be used for something more useful, but he isn't. His point is that only one of your cities is tied up working on The Pyramids. The others are still free to work on other things like military units.

I'm not sure I really agree with that. At the point when you should be building The Pyramids, you only have one or two cities including your capital, so "only" tying up one of your cities is fairly significant. "The other two to four that you get from the initial land grab can fire out military units." I'm not sure how you're planning to beat the AI to The Pyramids after building two to four cities.

 

[Sisiutil]

Well, in my most recent off-line game, the map lent itself to an approach that could work towards achieving both ends.

The capital was, as usual, a very good city site with a top-notch food resource (grassland wheat next to a river), and copper too. A little north was a good production site (a cow tile, rice, several hills, lots of forests, grassland and plains), where I put the 2nd city. I built Stonehenge and the Oracle in the 2nd city, relying heavily on chopping, while the more-developed capital used the wheat and copper to churn out units and settlers.

My point here is that I've usually used the capital to build early wonders, since it's the best-developed city. Yet the capital is also, usually, best equipped to churn out settlers. So if I'm lucky enough to get a map like the one I describe, I could devote the 2nd city to the Pyramids while the capital continues to fuel the expansion.

Ideally I'd want to have stone nearby as well. As I said before, you seem to have to rely on luck with Alex more so than with other leaders.

 

[Gnarfflinger]

Dr EJ did have my point.

Basically when you do your initial land grab, have one city start right on the Pyramids. It only ties that one city up, and the other 2 or 3 that you get would be used to fire out military units.

It's a question of whether you want the SE (which I still stand behind...) to keep you in the tech race...

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Well I personally think the better strategy is get CS through the slingshot and then run a hybrid SE. (unless you have stone) Those 450 hammers could easily be almost 13 axes/11 Swords, much better for Alex.

 

[Eggolas]

Well I personally think the better strategy is get CS through the slingshot and then run a hybrid SE. (unless you have stone) Those 450 hammers could easily be almost 13 axes/11 Swords, much better for Alex.

FWIW, my best Monarch level games have been not with the Pyramids, but with the CS slingshot in non-Warlords games. It's so much easier to conquer territory early and end up with mid-1700 to mid-1800 victories.

Warlords is too new for me to have a good feeling, but an early Great Wall can lead to Pyramids with a GE when playing a philosophical leader. The lack of barbarians in the cultural boundaries helps a great deal also with early expansion.

 

[Sisiutil]

Off topic:

I started a thread in GD on what to do with all the old ALC saved game files. I'm edging towards my maximum, kiddies!

 

[aelf]

I think a Philosophical leader should normally be geared towards generating GS. If you plan well, you'll get either a lot of GSs or GPs. You'll get more GPs that you can think of what to do with while the GS will always be better at lightbulbing techs when building Academies is no longer worth it.

 

[Sisiutil]

ALC Game #8 is now underway! Go to it, gang!