Or should I say it's too hard on the AI?
The map is huge hemispheres, marathon speed, 18 civs on 3 normal conts, also goody huts are turned off and the advanced start points are set to the default of 2160, of which I receive 1620. I'm playing Washington, but I've customized him so that he's financial and charismatic instead of whatever and charismatic. I start on a coast with a river and 2 clams, 1 ivory, 1 rice (not by water), 1 sheep, and 8 forests. It's a very good start. I put my points into 2 workers, a workboat (the clam is the only resource in my starting radius), and that leaves me with points to buy mining and bronze working.
My first actions are to chop another workboat and barracks while I am researching hunting and archery. With 2 clams I grow fast and at the time the barracks and 1 scout are complete I have the ivory camped and archery has just finished. Also Sitting Bull has met me by now. So my second action is to prepare for the coming onslaught of barbarians, and I chop a few archers. They come just in time, and the terrain is very defensible.
My scout discovers some bronze near Sitting Bull, and some other nice terrain. The place is just loaded with forests and in fact some does grow around me. On turn 60 I see some horses nearby, more inland. So New York (founded on turn 77) will be one a river with 2 flood plains, horses, pigs, and gold. I chop it a monument so I'll get the horses eventually.
Sitting Bull has 24 turns to research bronze working, and I'd rather he not get the copper. I'm building a second settler to get it myself and I'll beat him to it. But all of a sudden his turns shoot up to 70 - barbarians have struck. Later I find out they captured his second city. Now I'm in no hurry to get the copper, I'd rather settle in a place nearer with 3 gold, 3 flood plains, ivory and stone, with river. The settler sets out on turn 97. I have plenty of archers and my borders are secure, but I need the horses because axemen will be coming soon.
But I'm worried about Sitting Bull, he now has less points than me and still doesn't have bronze working. I fear he has been overrun by barbarians so I open the worldbuilder and yes, his second city was captured, and his capitol is surrounded by barbarians. He has 4 archers there, but I know when the axemen come he will eventually fall. I don't blame him, he started inland.
So, that's my story. Now the question is, does this combination of raging barbarians + advanced start put the AI at a disadvantage? There's no way I can do huge raging on deity with a normal start. So if huge raging on deity is what I want, and I do, I need to do an advanced start, which I also prefer as a game setting. I spent my 1620 points well, but looking at the worldbuilder some AIs fared better than others with their 2160. The AI is pretty dumb to dump most points into improvements and culture when the capitol could expand culture in 15 turns and a worker could do those improvements and more for cheaper. Don't forget on marathon, culture costs 227, which is essentially trading 2 workers for 15 turns!
What are the things I can try to play with all or most of these settings? I could double their points, then only spend my half share and edit out the extra gold, but then again some might just expand more and fall harder while others become powerhouses. I could turn off raging barbarians, but that's no fun for me. I could revert back to normal start, but then I'd die and it might not even change anything for the AI, plus I hate the imbalance of starting units.
Any ideas?
Savegames available.
The map is huge hemispheres, marathon speed, 18 civs on 3 normal conts, also goody huts are turned off and the advanced start points are set to the default of 2160, of which I receive 1620. I'm playing Washington, but I've customized him so that he's financial and charismatic instead of whatever and charismatic. I start on a coast with a river and 2 clams, 1 ivory, 1 rice (not by water), 1 sheep, and 8 forests. It's a very good start. I put my points into 2 workers, a workboat (the clam is the only resource in my starting radius), and that leaves me with points to buy mining and bronze working.
My first actions are to chop another workboat and barracks while I am researching hunting and archery. With 2 clams I grow fast and at the time the barracks and 1 scout are complete I have the ivory camped and archery has just finished. Also Sitting Bull has met me by now. So my second action is to prepare for the coming onslaught of barbarians, and I chop a few archers. They come just in time, and the terrain is very defensible.
My scout discovers some bronze near Sitting Bull, and some other nice terrain. The place is just loaded with forests and in fact some does grow around me. On turn 60 I see some horses nearby, more inland. So New York (founded on turn 77) will be one a river with 2 flood plains, horses, pigs, and gold. I chop it a monument so I'll get the horses eventually.
Sitting Bull has 24 turns to research bronze working, and I'd rather he not get the copper. I'm building a second settler to get it myself and I'll beat him to it. But all of a sudden his turns shoot up to 70 - barbarians have struck. Later I find out they captured his second city. Now I'm in no hurry to get the copper, I'd rather settle in a place nearer with 3 gold, 3 flood plains, ivory and stone, with river. The settler sets out on turn 97. I have plenty of archers and my borders are secure, but I need the horses because axemen will be coming soon.
But I'm worried about Sitting Bull, he now has less points than me and still doesn't have bronze working. I fear he has been overrun by barbarians so I open the worldbuilder and yes, his second city was captured, and his capitol is surrounded by barbarians. He has 4 archers there, but I know when the axemen come he will eventually fall. I don't blame him, he started inland.
So, that's my story. Now the question is, does this combination of raging barbarians + advanced start put the AI at a disadvantage? There's no way I can do huge raging on deity with a normal start. So if huge raging on deity is what I want, and I do, I need to do an advanced start, which I also prefer as a game setting. I spent my 1620 points well, but looking at the worldbuilder some AIs fared better than others with their 2160. The AI is pretty dumb to dump most points into improvements and culture when the capitol could expand culture in 15 turns and a worker could do those improvements and more for cheaper. Don't forget on marathon, culture costs 227, which is essentially trading 2 workers for 15 turns!
What are the things I can try to play with all or most of these settings? I could double their points, then only spend my half share and edit out the extra gold, but then again some might just expand more and fall harder while others become powerhouses. I could turn off raging barbarians, but that's no fun for me. I could revert back to normal start, but then I'd die and it might not even change anything for the AI, plus I hate the imbalance of starting units.
Any ideas?
Savegames available.
