Biggests Blunders!

[Virtual Alex]

Not sure what you mean about warriors. They had almost identical use in civ2. They were cheap scouts, and upgraded to stuff ... if you got leo's I mean.

What did you build instead? Phalanx?

 

[Reitz]

It had instantly become the Moderately Good and Somewhat Interesting Lighthouse.

Best. Quote. Ever.

 

[drakdan]

the biggest blunda i haf eva dun is wen i dropped a nuke on my capital cause i didnt want to start a war but i wanted to c wat they look like wen the explode

Your biggest blunder was dropping out of high school.

 

[Stazro]

Not sure what you mean about warriors. They had almost identical use in civ2. They were cheap scouts, and upgraded to stuff ... if you got leo's I mean.

What did you build instead? Phalanx?

In Vanilla-Civ3 the upgrade-path of warriors ended with swordsman, so the change is quite big giving them the possibility to become useful units in later times, not talking about upgrading to uus. Dont remember where warriors went in civ2.

Btw, the amassing of warriors for upgrading to uu in vanilla i also did, but as roman for my legionaries

 

[LawOfFives]

I did something similar the other night. This doesn't count as a biggest blunder, but a blunder nonetheless. I had a stack of workers and I was using them to lay roads and mines in a turn. I had forgotten that I had a cavalry unit in the stack and got into a hurry in clicking the buttons. It went something like this:

Build Road
Build Road
Build Road
Build Road
Build Road
Build Road
Build Mine
Build Mine
Build Mine
Build Mine
Pillage Improvement
Doh!
Build Mine
Build Mine

And that there is just one of the many reasons why I never unnecessarily use mouse commands for anything much at all, let alone for worker actions.

Lo5

 

[Virtual Alex]

If I got a shield everytime I accidentally got a ship killed going into deep water for no reason I could have build the pyramids three times over.

 

[Decebalus]

My biggest blunder was attempting a sea invasion once without doing proper reconisance for what naval power the enemy had. A blunder further compiled by the fact that a trireme upgrades to a galeon which basicaly turns it from a warship to a weak transport.

I had a large fleet of triremes in stock, and I was soon able to I upgraded them all to galeons. Which all of a sudden made it possible for me to transport a rather large army, one big enough to try and invade a very pesky opponent that had been me bothering forever. I loaded up a ton of units, we're talking about lets see about 12 Galeons each 4 units so that's 48 units, mostly knights and pikemen, and about 8 crusaders with 8 trebuches.

Wanted a suprize attack that would cripple them, so I sent them out to three different points near their coast. Two places where they had Iron, and one was aiming for their largest coastal city. The majority of the galeons with the majority of the force was headed for the large city. I planted the ships just outside their zone of control so as not to cause trouble.

On my next turn I declared war, and moved my ships in towards their targets. The large fleet had to go into a bay of sorts so the stack didn't make it all the way where I wanted in the one turn so I could unload. I got greedy here actually, because I should have made for the the closest point. But I hadn't seen any naval power for a while so I took my chances. Bad mistake. On their turn a ton of frigates came out, and took out nearly half that stack of galeons. And other frigates came out and decimated my other stacks. Good thing at least those other I had emptied onto land during my turn.

So I lost a large chunk of my main force, and ton of ships which basicaly left the army that had landed safely stranded there on enemy territory. I continued for another round out of curiosity, landed my force that was left, lost almost all the remaining galeons on their next turn and there it was. One big invasion foiled, and a large chunk of my offensive armies stuck on foreign soil, with no hope of bringing over the reinforcements waiting fast enough due to lack of ships now. Not that I'd try it anyways knowing I could loose them all in transit.

I didn't play much after, just went back and restarted from the last safe save.

 

[Abegweit]

What is a trireme?

 

[Reitz]

What they they now call the Galley in Civ1 and 2

 

[Abegweit]

As I recall, the trireme was as pathetic as CivIII's galleys. And none of them qualify as warships. Certainly not in comparison with Frigates. Actually, I'd rather be transporting my troops in Galleons if trying to wade through Frigate-infested waters. Better to have your own frigates of course.

 

[Decebalus]

They do qualify as warships, why not. Power is all relative to what you're comparing to. A man with a STICK is powerfull in a group of those with nothing. But put a gun in some other man's hands, and all of a sudden 100 sticks wouldn't help you.

See, having 12+ triremes around, some veteran from having been in combat, when the whole world is running around in triremes, makes them warships. And with a fleet of 12+ you're pretty much in command just through sheer numbers.

Compared to frigates/galeons/ironclads of course they're nothing. It's an age transition problem. With 12+ triremes I was master of the seas before the new age of ships, upgrading those all of a sudden made me master of ferry boats!

 

[Abegweit]

Your "ferry boats" have the same attack as your "triremes". Building a few frigates would have been a good idea though.

 

[Virtual Alex]

That was the whole point of the blunder Abe. He didn't do recon, so he didn't know what he was getting himself into. He said he hadn't seen any naval power from the AI so he thought it safe to invade without support from frigates.

 

[Abegweit]

The proper abbreviation of my name is Abbie. Please do not call me Abe.

Aside from that, my point was that upgrading the 'triremes' from warship to ferry actually increased their survivability. I cannot get my head around the notion that a 'trireme' is a warship.

 

[Virtual Alex]

Haha sorry Abbie I had no idea.

I am sure you know this already, it's just a perspective. When everyone has only Galleys (I am actually not sure if we are talking about galleys or caravels.) then galleys are the warships of the time. Since they are the only ship, they are the only means of measuring naval power and are therefor, warships. Although it's true that when they upgrade to gelleons they get better stat-wise. But since now frigates are around, they are not warships anymore.

 

[Decebalus]

Yes, Alex you get me.

And I'm talking about galleys. I can never remember what they're called. They look like a trireme so I call them that. And I bypassed caravels, didn't feel the need to spend the money to upgrade to those for the fun of it.

And Abbie, you've never used galleys as warships?? I know the AI mostly uses them for transport, and I think most human players do too. But enmass they can be quite usefull.

For example, I often create blockades in key areas just so I don't have foreign ships enter my waters. Or I keep stacks off shore in different directions from where an invasion might come from. And, although most of the times it's useless because the AI doesn't invade with galleys very often, I have on occation caught an invasion force on it's way and stopped it before it ever reached my shores.

The biggest way I use them as warships however is to basicaly cleanup the waters of foreign ships. See I love transporting things by sea along the coast, especially early in the game when roads are sparce. I find that it's usually faster than having units walk to their destinations. And I get really antsy when I see my galleys passing by foreign ones. I mean at any moment I could be at war with that civ, and if they happen to be within striking distance I could loose a galley or two and units out of sheer chance and bad luck.

So what I sometimes do is declare war on the civ with the most boats in the water and go ship hunting. Tends to be expensive because it's literaly a 50%-50% chance each time a galley attacks another, and I loose quite a few. But with enough of them in the end I end up cleaning the waters and I feel more comfortable and safe with the transporting.

 

[Abegweit]

And Abbie, you've never used galleys as warships?? I know the AI mostly uses them for transport, and I think most human players do too. But enmass they can be quite usefull.

For example, I often create blockades in key areas just so I don't have foreign ships enter my waters. Or I keep stacks off shore in different directions from where an invasion might come from. And, although most of the times it's useless because the AI doesn't invade with galleys very often, I have on occation caught an invasion force on it's way and stopped it before it ever reached my shores.

Blockades are occasionally useful and certainly galleys have to be used for barb clearances. You can also accompany your invasion force with empty galleys for protection. Put your troops in regulars and defend with vets. One should be enough. However, I see no point in using them against foreign warships invaders. It is far more efficient to let them make their pathetic landing and kill them. Or, if you are afraid of them (= Berserks), ping them with arty to send them home.

 

[Kiowa]

Blockades are occasionally useful and certainly galleys have to be used for barb clearances. You can also accompany your invasion force with empty galleys for protection. Put your troops in regulars and defend with vets. One should be enough. However, I see no point in using them against foreign warships invaders. It is far more efficient to let them make their pathetic landing and kill them. Or, if you are afraid of them (= Berserks), ping them with arty to send them home.

Using galleys in chokepoint situations is very effective, if first, the offending AI galley is red- or yellow-lined by an on-shore catapult. Then the galley mops up. I've fought off AI attacks using this approach, and had one galley sink an AI galley on three consecutive turns.

I've also used this approach for galleons to sink a fleet of frigates, except substituting cannons or artillary for catapults. Artillary works fto defend against any AI shore invasion. I feel best if the frigate is red-lined before attacking with a galleon.

 

[Abegweit]

Using galleys in chokepoint situations is very effective, if first, the offending AI galley is red- or yellow-lined by an on-shore catapult. Then the galley mops up. I've fought off AI attacks using this approach, and had one galley sink an AI galley on three consecutive turns.

I've also used this approach for galleons to sink a fleet of frigates, except substituting cannons or artillary for catapults. Artillary works fto defend against any AI shore invasion. I feel best if the frigate is red-lined before attacking with a galleon.

In general, I'm happy to kill them on landing or ping them to make them go away if I don't want a landing. See the AWD SGOTM for an effective use of pinging. I agree that, if you can manage to redline the boat and happen to have a galley nearby, closing in for the kill is OK. But simply making it go away is 99% of what you need.

 

[Luthor_Saxburg]

Age of Discovery Conquest... I'm playing France and ahead of the game... just to prove my worth, I decide to conquer the European territories of Spain and Portugal... piece of cake... I'm SOOOO strong no one can stop me...

Wait! what?! I lost around 5 turns after that???? Go figure why...