Anyone else have a hard time with pangea type maps?

[JTMacc99]

I tend to do MUCH better on maps with a lot of water, or at the very least, three continents.

In the game posted below, I chose a random leader (ended up as K-Khan) and chose Balanced from the map type. (I wasn't really sure what that meant, but as it turned out, it meant we're all on the same land mass.)

I managed to drop down TWO cities, and then as I was gearing up for a rush on France to give myself some room to breath, the AI completely settled the whole damn continent before I had a second to even reconsider my plan. As you'll see, I wiped out France, the economy went deep into trouble, and I decided the only way to pull myself out of this mess was to make the Incan cities mine as well. (Holy cities, including a prize shrined capital city.)

By the time I launched my first invasion of Incan lands, I was able to capture two nice commerce sites, but I stalled out at his capital. I took peace and built some more units and SLOWLY researched towards construction. At the point you see here, I managed to build about 6-7 cats, and just sent them with a few swords, a bunch of axes and lots of Horsemen up to Cuzco and capture it with not too much trouble.

It looks like I should be able to knock out the rest of his cities now, and the 23 GPT from the shrine will at least pull me out of the gutter for a little while. However, I am SO far behind in techs right now, that I'm not sure if I'll be able to recover. Everybody else has something like a 6 tech lead on me. I don't even have currency or code of laws yet, and have opted for Aesthetics in an attempt to have something to trade with somebody.

Everybody else has Longbows, but I'm hoping that my superior numbers will do the job against the Incan advanced weaponry. I'm also at war with Victoria, which is a direct result of my DoW on HC. She hasn't really shown any interest in marching troops into my territory at this point, but I'd be kind of hosed if she marches some cats and elephants into my land before I'm done with HC.

So, while it doesn't look bleak for me, it certainly feels like I could be doomed.

What would you do in this situation, and what is your general advice for success in a Pangea game that differs from any other map type?

 

[batavier]

You aren't in a bad situation at all.

Victoria is willing to pay 30 gold for a peace treaty. You should be able to squash Huyana like a bug. You can research aesthetics in 2 turns at 100% and then trade it for currency after 2 more turns of research in that, spending all your gold. After you have currency you can earn 85 BPT and +4 GoldPT with a 30% Slider.

With the amount of troops you have, you only need more catapults.

I think you should have settled the first great scientist. Because your science slider is so low, an academy wasn't worth it. You could have built an academy with the one that came out now. This one will bulb alphabet, so I would settle him in the city with an academy.

 

[Skallagrimson]

Pangea favors (demands) a more warmongering/diplomatic gaming style. Continents favors more towards cultural or space race (with water as a barrier).

 

[TheMeInTeam]

For a longtime pangaea was the easiest map type for me. You capture enough cities without getting killed and the AIs hold each other at bay. Game over once those cities come online.

Alternatively, one can just chain capitulations, which I used to do frequently but can do even better now that I understand the broken and poorly-implemented vassal mechanics.

 

[Bleys]

I know what you mean JT. For me, its all about time. If I have time to grab some land without urgency, I can usually tech and REX at a decent, solid rate. But when I feel rushed to compete for the best city spots, I always feel more out-there, more stretched.

Pangaea and other 1-landmass types of maps are usually a race, but continents or water maps means there is likely more land for few AIs per "area" or landmass.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I know what you mean JT. For me, its all about time. If I have time to grab some land without urgency, I can usually tech and REX at a decent, solid rate. But when I feel rushed to compete for the best city spots, I always feel more out-there, more stretched.

Pangaea and other 1-landmass types of maps are usually a race, but continents or water maps means there is likely more land for few AIs per "area" or landmass.

Although this could make pangaea arguably easier on high difficulties. If each person has less land on average, then the AI has less cities and land to apply its bonuses, and it's easier for the human to capture cities and suddenly have enough to overcome those bonuses.

The human can adapt to less land with laughable ease compared to the AI, or just leverage a power UU or strong start to get more land early anyway.

 

[azzaman333]

Ironically, I've always found Pangaea easier, even though I normally play continents-type maps.

 

[Andvare]

Pangaea are easy. You just have to be aggressive and remember not to take every last AI city, as your economy mind tank if you do.

 

[JTMacc99]

You know, I think I've got a finger on my problem. On a Pangea map, I am bound to see at least one, if not two other capital cities in striking distance. When I see that on a continents map, there is almost no shot that I wouldn't shift focus early on towards some sort of rush.

The reason this almost always works, is because once I eliminate my nearest neighbor in a continents game, I will then have almost no problem with filling in all that territory with as many as 10 cities, but certainly with 6-8.

In a Pangea game, I see that other captial, shift focus to a rush, and therefore fail to aggressively settle what little land should be mine if I used my capital to produce workers and settlers in the early game. By the time I've eliminated my nearest neighbor, the entire rest of the landmass has already been settled by the AI.

It's funny, because I can usually do a really good job aggressively settling towards my neighbors when there is plenty of land to grab. But when there's only a little bit of land, I decide to just go take the other cities by force, which has the distinct disadvantage of not getting to choose where I build, not getting to choose how I improve the land, and not getting to choose the buildings in the cities. All of those things are very important in the early game, at least from an economic standpoint.

You aren't in a bad situation at all.

Victoria is willing to pay 30 gold for a peace treaty. You should be able to squash Huyana like a bug. You can research aesthetics in 2 turns at 100% and then trade it for currency after 2 more turns of research in that, spending all your gold. After you have currency you can earn 85 BPT and +4 GoldPT with a 30% Slider.

With the amount of troops you have, you only need more catapults.

I think you should have settled the first great scientist. Because your science slider is so low, an academy wasn't worth it. You could have built an academy with the one that came out now. This one will bulb alphabet, so I would settle him in the city with an academy.

Well, thank you. I went ahead and followed this advice with good, but not perfect, results. The peace treaty with Victoria was useful, as I really didn't need to waste any more effort patrolling my borders. I kept cranking out the cats, and had captured all but Machu Pichu and that other little Holy City on the hill in the middle of the map when the English peace treaty expired. Unfortunately, HC immediately became a vassal of Victoria and the war was back on with England. She's the only one with a higher power rating than me, (given that at the time, she had longbows, pikes, crossbows and war elephants and I had none of those things, and only longbows coming in the near future.)

What was even worse was that when I captured new Incan capital city Machu Pichu on the very next turn, the little holy city did not turn into the new Incan capital. CRAP. I have no idea where his other city is.

Anyway, I went ahead and captured that city as well, so I am now in complete control of the eastern portion of the continent, which includes three holy cities. The Islamic shrine in Cuzco is CRANKING out the gold at close to 30 GPT, so we're going to whip out the market there as soon as possible.

As for the war, Victoria wasn't willing to talk peace at this point, so I sent my stack of highly promoted axes and swords, as well as a half dozen cats down to a city she squeezed in under my newly captured French territory before I could pop the borders back out to capture all three fur resources. The English city now controls two of the furs and a fish, so it's actually not a bad city for a tundra site.

It was guarded by two longbows, an X-bow, and a pike. Killed three of my catapults in the process, but I captured it without any losing any ground troops, which was pretty good considering that axes and swords don't really do so well against longbows and crossbows..

She's willing to talk peace now, which I think would be pretty permanent. We're good friends when she's not being dragged into war with me.

 

[Skallagrimson]

Ironically, I've always found Pangaea easier, even though I normally play continents-type maps.

Same here. The game's tendency to shove you into a corner of the land mass actually works in your favor on Pangea, because then you only have one front (usually) to defend, and then any ability to over-REX is taken away so it's a no-brainer to REX, REX, and REX (and then WAR, WAR, and WAR). Not much thought needed to boost the strategy.

Axemen, axemen, axemen, t3h winz. On to Deity ::smirk::.

 

[dorkynorky]

I've not liked Pangea maps much in the past, feeling squeezed. For most of my years of civ experience I've applied standard continents reasoning, 'first mine then yours.' However, last week I played a pangea map as part of an attempt to improve my diplomacy skills and I've got to agree with the posters who've suggested that pangea is probably easier.

You've got everyone as a possible trade partner. You can readily attack any civ in the game and if you can manipulate the diplomacy system appropriately you can get a lot more help keeping potentially threatening civs in line until you're ready to deal with them.

 

[Gumbolt]

I think pangea can add more interest. It really depends on map size you play.

On a huge map with 11 Ai on a higher level this can be more of a challenge. its almost impossible to take out more than 2-3 Ai early on leaving the other 7-8 to grow peacefully. I have seen Ai with 17-20 cities on huge maps.

Unless of course you tech so far ahead and bribe all the Ai to DOW on each other. Then you are laughing. Although vassels can be a pain.

Set up a game with 10 of the most aggressive Ai and yourself on an island and see how you do. Perhaps Mongals, Romans, Sury, Vikings, Monty, Persia, Holy Romans and anyone i missed out. I might of added shaka and the Greeks.

Then place your civ in the centre of the Pangea and play the game out.

On the flipside continents allow the Ai to grow without your invading forces nearby. hmmmm.

I would suggest if its too easy try a higher level.

 

[KingMorgan]

Balanced is a multiplayer type pangea map, all players should have balanced resources, i.e. every one has bronze.

 

[JTMacc99]

Balanced is a multiplayer type pangea map, all players should have balanced resources, i.e. every one has bronze.

Ahhhh, thank you! Yet due to my dragging my feet early, I had to go and get both horses and iron by force.

 

[CrusaderKevin]

For me, it's always the opposite. I always do the best of large, Pangea maps. I'm no admiral whatsoever, so I usually try to win by the end of the middle ages