Biggest Blunders?

[Larsz]

There are a lot of great strategies and tales of accomplishment on these forums that are great for learning. What about blunders? Things that you will always remember to not do! I am sure this is a really noob mistake but I built a rush strategy on sieging my enemy with warriors thinking that once I hooked up my copper I would be able to upgrade my warriors outside his city for immediate attack. I am sure it is in the manual, but ... I doubt I will ever forget now that units can only be upgraded in your own territory.

So, let the blundering begin!

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Oh man. I probably have too many. I've already circulated my .4% short of domination for 40 turns space race loss, so how about some others:

1. Warrior rush. I had no intentions of axe upgrades though. I sought to wipe out nearby civs with sheer #'s of warriors. I actually did destroy one that way...you only need about 12 warriors or so to take an enemy capital that has archers . I then had my newly researched keshiks take on...knights and muskets. Hot damn.

2. With Korea at pleased, I marched through them to attack Egypt and brought them along for the ride. I successfully captured 2 cities, using korea as a buffer. Once that war ended, Korea saw that I didn't have enough troops despite my tech lead. Suddenly, Korea had practically won the game .

3. Ever try an archer rush on Monarch? I have. It's cute. Really cute. I've tried it about 5 times, and the only time it worked was when I didn't plan it from the start, but actually expanded peacefully and then had a dual resourceless war against ragnar, who was not ready for 10 archers hitting 2 in 20% culture cities. Every other archer rush? Miserable failure. Archers with cover =/= axes, even with equal shield investment.

4. I trusted Cathy, even after repeated trade slappings. I've come to my senses since that backstab, and now <3 Izzy instead.

5. In one of my rookie games I somehow got it into my head that converting to confucianism would be good, even though I was the only civ running it. Oh yeah, I also didn't have much of an army.

6. I have yet to use a plane or nuke. This will be rectified in my next game, provided I hit modern times.

 

[Johnpecan]

1. Not knowing much about Montezuma and treating him like a normal AI =D
2. Trying to go for a diplo & space & domination win late in the same game, only to wind up barely losing each. Also realizing that if I had focused on one earlier I could have won.

 

[J4Ck]

1. Not knowing much about Montezuma and treating him like a normal AI =D

Been there He'll attack u no matter how advanced are u and he just likes to build army. Nowadays I tend to get rid of him first if he's my neighbor even if 200% friendly.

my biggest blunder: when i tried warring from the start, so i built massive army without bringin economy first and when i declared war i lose almost all of it... i was so pissed

 

[madscientist]

Biggest Blunders

1) Not understanding the game: Having HC cut off in one city on a penninsula and archer rushing him and his Quecha and not understand why I am getting killed!

2) Typical blunder: Forgetting to adopt representation after building teh pyramids.

3) Most embarressing in a posted game: Watching helplessly as Shaka marched on the Russian empire after turning off the science slider

But the worse was probably building the UN, trying to appease a close Mao into being friendly and voting for him as diplomatic victory thus losing the game!

 

[J4Ck]

But the worse was probably building the UN, trying to appease a close Mao into being friendly and voting for him as diplomatic victory thus losing the game!

this is funny

 

[BalbanesBeoulve]

3. Ever try an archer rush on Monarch? I have. It's cute. Really cute. I've tried it about 5 times, and the only time it worked was when I didn't plan it from the start, but actually expanded peacefully and then had a dual resourceless war against ragnar, who was not ready for 10 archers hitting 2 in 20% culture cities. Every other archer rush? Miserable failure. Archers with cover =/= axes, even with equal shield investment.

You must have never played as Mali. Skirmishers = best non-praet rush in the game.

 

[HiroHito]

You must have never played as Mali. Skirmishers = best non-praet rush in the game.

actually they come 2nd to quecha rush imho

 

[oyzar]

Quechas got a bit nerfed in bts, the ai still can't really handle praets though... Skrim rush don't really work all that well at the higher levels...

 

[BalbanesBeoulve]

Works more than fine on emperor.

And yeah, forgot about quechas, i never use them. So 3rd best rush. But at least the skirmishers stay helpful even after the rush.

 

[oyzar]

quechas stay usefull after the rush too, and they are way faster and cost less hammers most of the time as well...

 

[BalbanesBeoulve]

Useful for barbs and monarchy happiness? Completely worthless against AI attackers.

Skirmishers are great defenders, and great for your power rating. Worth 4,000 soldiers, twice as much as a regular archer, as much as a pikeman, praet, longbow or crossbow.

 

[oyzar]

You are not suposed to defend against the AI, but attack. Quechas are not useless as fooder against longbowmen and it takes a long time before the AI gets them, ofc if there are any axemen or similar defending they are obviously not best but those can usually get removed by other units anyways... Skrimishers are useless in attacking the AI, quechas are not(after initial rush)...

Not to mention that in bts the AI builds up its power rating if you build up yours so keeping it high is not always a good thing. Though on the higher levels this doesn't matter that much as the AI power ratings are almost always way too large for their own good.

 

[Groogaroo]

Well I've made plenty of blunders, but here are a couple of my most annoying,

When running caste system, assigning an artist on a newly settled city to pop the borders quickly then forgeting to take the artist of. Had on game were one of where one of cities spent 100 turns at size 1 before I realised.

This is the most annoying, pressing the enter key by mistake when an AI offers me a rubbish tech trade and thus gifting them some of my best techs. I still accidently do this now and again, and it really annoys me.

 

[Killroyan]

I just got BtS and started playing as the dutch. Teched to economics and got a great merchant. Teched to medicine for sushi cooperation which I loved in the threads I read here. When I got to cooperations it didn't add a thing because I didn't have any seafood or rice. Arf. There wasn't even one resource of that on the map I can't even remember wether I build the cooperation or not but I didn't get the lovely food bonus in all cities Stupid me.

 

[dubrown]

Blunders, I guess I've done quite a bit of those. Biggest one must be right at the start, exploring with the lone warrior, finding a close by AIs capital undefended, declaring war to get a first, quick kill and then seeing his warrior a step closer to my , undefended capital than my warrior is to his.

I've done some screwups with religion as well. In one game I got the AP, figured I would try for a religious victory and when Free religion came around, switched to it.... Now, i won that one with the UN instead but somewhat irritating, ofc I could've switched back but didn't want the anarchy all over again.

Minor blunders there's plenty of, don't know where to start really. Putting cities on high production and no growth just to get the important wonder first, then forgetting it and the poor city is at a standstill in growth for many turns, pressing wrong buttons etc.

 

[Winston Hughes]

Ignoring the dangers posed by the Apostolic Palace is my #1.

Also, getting dogpiled because I failed to notice that my 'victim' had a Defensive Pact is dumb as hell.

Some less serious, but equally stupid ones:

Micromanaging to use hammers for Expansive settler builds. It's Imperialistic that gets the bonus for Settlers, you moron!

Using a Golden Age for civic changes with a Spiritual leader. That's just plain embarrassing for someone who sings the praises of the trait so frequently.

Not realising that, thanks to that desert tile, there is in fact no way to chain irrigate that city, so it will be nothing but a drain on my economy for the forseeable future.

And last, but by no means least idiotic, there's misreading the tech screen, burning a Great Spy on an infiltration mission against the most backwards civ in the game, then wondering why I can't steal any techs from him.

 

[JTMacc99]

I axe rushed Egypt once. Didn't research Hunting, since I was going on the offensive, I didn't think I needed to get to archery at that point. I'd just leave one axeman behind to defend the homeland.

My axe-stack got eaten alive by War Chariots. It was a bloodbath. Mental note: Next time, research hunting and bring spearmen to this party.

 

[VenomKnight]

My main blunder is turning off growth in the 1st 3-4 when I reach the happy cap then forget to turn it on after I get monarchy or hook up a resource.I will sit at size 4 or 5 for like 50 turns and wonder why I cant work cotteges or produce units fast. It makes me so mad cause I do every game.Im not moving from noble to prince until I can start paying attention.grrr

Another one is setting up specialists.I havent messed with caste system cause I like slavery too much right now but I always mess around and get like 3 or 4 prophets when Im wanting scientists but I never change them to what they need to be after i build library.

 

[eewallace]

Sailing a great merchant half-way around the world in order to bring in a huge pile of cash, then starting a golden age, thinking that the computer would somehow UNDERSTAND that I wanted to use the two useless great artists siting at home to start the golden age rather than the great merchant...