Always War SGL question

[jm chen]

So I was playing a little Always War yesterday. Monarch, tiny, continents, as the Dutch. After I had about three cities down, I discovered the Germans, ("You're right! They are scum!") but have managed to route all their incoming archers past a choke city, where I pummel them down with catapults and finish them off with horsemen and swords.

So, chugging along nicely. I have iron and horses, Germans don't. I explored a bit around their side of the continent and they have lousy land with 5 cities, not to mention several tiles made useless by volcanic eruptions. That's the west side of the continent.

As for the east side, I don't really know what's up there, as I was concentrating on the Germans and didn't want to start up a 2-front war. But I do have at least 12 cities with CxxC spacing, fully roaded to each other, and 3 lux to keep the people cheery. It's fantastic land, lots of rivers and BGs. There is a three-tile choke to the east which I have settled and blocked, but I have no idea how many more cities I can fit on the rest of the continent. Could be three more, could be 12 more. It does widen again after the choke so I feel like there's probably a decent amount of space there.

I just got an SGL.

What do I do with it? Great Library or Temple of Artemis?

From SG's it seems to me that the Great Library is a huge help on AW, but in this particular case I wonder if ToA might be a better choice. One of the things I find hardest in AW is building any culture at all, so ToA would help me a) keep cities I conquer and b) maybe get some flips. Also, if I build the GL, I will have to go out looking for the other folks, whereupon they will start sending troops to me and I'd rather finish the Germans while they're on the ropes.

I don't have either of the techs I need yet (still researching Writing) but can probably get there quickly with Philosophy. The Germans are less advanced than I am and although I don't know what else is out there, the only wonder currently being built is the Pyramids in Moscow.

Advice?

 

[Tomoyo]

Great Library! ToA isn't that good, really. You'll get almost no flips since if your cities are close enough to theirs to flip them, one of the cities will die really really soon. The Great Library, on the other hand, will allow you to keep up in research and build up a huge cash sum to upgrade with.

If the Pyramids are still available, take that, of course.

 

[Own]

GL, can't trade and research will be difficult as you are at war with everyone, so you need to be able to just focus on the fight for ancient times and half the middle ages.

 

[vmxa]

You do not need culture in a Monarch game of AW. You will be smashing the AI and taking their cities (raze or capture as you please).

 

[Aegis Shield]

If I recall correctly and SGLs can't block MGLs, then I'd keep it until Leonardos, Bachs, or Sun Tzu's(In no particular order, of course)

 

[budweiser]

Pyramids. Never chose against the pyramids.

 

[Tatran]

If I recall correctly and SGLs can't block MGLs, then I'd keep it until Leonardos, Bachs, or Sun Tzu's(In no particular order, of course)

Wrong!!!
MGLs can't block SGLs.
If you have any kind of leader,you won't get a MGL.

 

[vmxa]

That is why you can only sit on an SGL in an AW game as long as you do not expect to use any elites, or maybe if you cannot build another army right now.

Anyway getting a wonder at AWM is not much of a problem.

 

[Aegis Shield]

Huh...Well, alright then. I'm glad I had that corrected, I'd been thinking this all wrong. Sorry 'bout that.

 

[WackenOpenAir]

First question is the difficulty and progress. If the game is easy enough to win with knights and you can research that yourself without much trouble, Lib loses some of its significance.

If you do not expect to win by knights, then i would rush the library. If in your AW rules it is alowed to trade before you declare, gift the GL city to the next AI you meet before you get education from it (after chivalry if possible) and reconquer it when you think the are getting near MT.

If you decide not to build the library, i would go for the pyramids. Its the most powerfull wonder in the game. (Hooverdam is more powerfull at the moment you get that, but of course by then the pyramids have already benefited you for 200 turns.)

 

[soul_warrior]

Pyramids, G Library and then ToA.
pryamids will give you food forever = more power.
G Lib will get you some money and free techs, but on a tiny world you should win by the time you have Education, so not so effective.
ToA - help with the happiness issues, but get obsolete pretty soon. just keep winning the battles, and the lux slider.
SoZeus is very nice if you have ivory
or Colossus for that extra cash, if you have nothing else to build.

but on monarch you can get almost any wonder you want, with the proper prebuild.

 

[jm chen]

When I grab that game again I will try it with the Pyramids. Hadn't thought of that. I saved right when I got it so I could even try running a comparison.

While I'm questioning, should I take the German cities or just raze them? I lean toward razing. They have a little mountainous peninsula with volcanoes that have already blown... not very productive and not fun to defend. Suppose if I do that I'll want to go for Conquest instead of Domination.

 

[vmxa]

Capture or raze it one of those it depends. You can probably do either as the non religious civs will not have a great deal of culture and you will not to far down the roiad, due to empire size.

So I evaluate each capture for its location and flip chances and my needs. That and do I have settlers to use at that time. Very early it gets hard to crank out enough settlers, if you raze everything.