Conquest 03 Pre-Game Discussion

[dmanakho]

Don't worry SniperDevil...
As Ainwood says AIs are pretty hopless in overseas invasions..
Plus in C3C they can not trade contacts until Printing Press is discovered...
So as I mentioned before you will become a perfect middle man with your fire-spitting dromons...
I do expect that human player should manage early tech lead in this game, even on demigod level, and I do hope Ainwood didn't place any other seafaring civ on this map.

 

[eldar]

Oh, and what's the AI's free unit support level at Demi?
The Conquest bonuses are nice - but I think I'll pass, again. I only did badly at COTM33 because it's a brute of a map that even better players had difficulty with.

Neil.

 

[Sandman2003]

The conquest bonus looks fantastic. How do you qualify for that again?

 

[King Of America]

Qualification for Conquest-class: Never place in the upper half of any GOTM or COTM

 

[grahamiam]

check out this link for Ision's review of Byz. good reading for all -> http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=86993

btw, a demigod AI is NOT hopeless for amphibious landing. In the Gaunlet Revisited (SG Bugs 2.1), Portugal landed 7 cav, 5 crusaders, and 2 rifles using 10 galleons. Not effiecient but definitely too much for the defenders of our meager islands (we only had MDI and Pikes at the time). We lost 3 cities due to this. You definitely need to check your rear at DG if you fall behind in tech's.

 

[samildanach]

Hmm..I'm not sure what my strat is going to be here. It really depends on if there is an other seafaring civ in it. If there is then the likelyhood of being able to pull off the Col/Republic trick is low. If there isn't then I will change to republic real early and use the dromons to trip my golden age.

If there is a seafaring civ then I will go for philosophy after writing and pick one of poly/currency or construction, which ever will take me out of the AA quickest. Hopefully I will get fuedalism as my free tech or be able to trade for it and will become a feudal overlord for the first time. Fuedalisms unit support may be useful in keeping me solvent as I intend to build a huge amount of dromons or rather a huge amount of curraghs and upgrade to dromons. I will try to avoid map making for as long as possible.

Which ever government I go for I intend to switch off research after chivalry and pound coastlines and cities with dromons. I may switch off after fuedalism depending on the nature of the 'pelago. If there are no big continent sized islands I may forego the option to build knights as the dromons should provide the mobility to move my units around.

 

[Ambiorix]

I'm thinking of settling on the spot, and first build two ships, a settler and then start a wonder. My second city, somewhere next to the cow (hopefully) could then be turned into a settler factory. Any ideas on that ?

I haven't played a single game in almost a year, due to lack of time, but I'm thinking of restarting by just submitting QSC's.

 

[dmanakho]

I'm thinking of settling on the spot, and first build two ships, a settler and then start a wonder..

Wonder??? At Demigod Level???? That would be certainly a mistake..
plus i am not sure if you can build any wonders so early in game period.

Plus, how about building few military units before.... remember those raging barbarians??

 

[ainwood]

check out this link for Ision's review of Byz. good reading for all -> http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=86993

btw, a demigod AI is NOT hopeless for amphibious landing. In the Gaunlet Revisited (SG Bugs 2.1), Portugal landed 7 cav, 5 crusaders, and 2 rifles using 10 galleons. Not effiecient but definitely too much for the defenders of our meager islands (we only had MDI and Pikes at the time). We lost 3 cities due to this. You definitely need to check your rear at DG if you fall behind in tech's.

Might have to head off to read the thread!

 

[ainwood]

I do hope Ainwood didn't place any other seafaring civ on this map.

What would be the fun in that?

You need some curragh fodder for your dromons, don't you?

 

[eldar]

What would be the fun in that?

You need some curragh fodder for your dromons, don't you?

Great, next he'll be telling us he's persuaded the AI to actually USE the Curraghs they don't build!

Neil.

 

[dmanakho]

What would be the fun in that?

You need some curragh fodder for your dromons, don't you?

Actually, knowing you and past experiences, i had zero hopes, just wanted to cheer up the rest of the folks

 

[danman]

Ision's review is great--really gets you excited about this civ. Definately a must-read.

 

[bed_head7]

Will their be Sid level GOTMs? Since I have joined this forum, I have played COTM1, COTM2, and then GOTM33, with COTM3 next up. For a steady upward progression in difficulty. Since I came here as a player making a successful transition from Regent to Monarch (I think I was 2-0 on Monarch after a lot of games at Regent), it is hard to believe I won at Emperor and now have confidence in my ability to win at Demigod, especially since the Byzantines are so well suited to our map.

 

[ainwood]

Will their be Sid level GOTMs? Since I have joined this forum, I have played COTM1, COTM2, and then GOTM33, with COTM3 next up. For a steady upward progression in difficulty. Since I came here as a player making a successful transition from Regent to Monarch (I think I was 2-0 on Monarch after a lot of games at Regent), it is hard to believe I won at Emperor and now have confidence in my ability to win at Demigod, especially since the Byzantines are so well suited to our map.

Well, I'm not a Sid player, so playtesting at that level might be a bit difficult.

From the advise I have read from the very best players, I think that having a sid level game would be a bit of an ask, so I don't think we will.

As a flavour of what a Sid level game is like, try looking in the hall of fame forum. SirPleb (among others) wrote a very good write-up of playing sid, and it looked like it was very difficult, and very drawn-out. For example, IIRC he mentions attacking cities with >50 infantry defending (bit foggy on that), so it might impose a time constraint on those that can beat that level as well.

Yes, the difficulty has been streadily increasing. It may have been a bit too steep for some (most likely we'll drop back to monarch for Conquest 04), but the idea is to try and get players to realise that they can play on higher levels and win If you look at the current emperor game, the majority of people won, and a large proportion of those that didn't win at least didn't get smoked too badly (cultural and space race defeats rather than conquest defeats). To me, when I lost my first GOTM at deity (from a rubbish starting location), I think I lost by space race. Just getting through to the modern age was something that I took a lot of confidence from, and looking back at the game I was actually quite dominant - a greater reliance on using artillery and I could possibly have won it. I hope people playing 'above their weight' will get the same confidence boost.

 

[Dianthus]

Will their be Sid level GOTMs?

@bed_head7, I hope you're going to play this GOTM as Predator class if you're that confident .


@ainwood, you've told us what the Conquest class "Bonuses" are, maybe you could give us a hint about the Predator class "Obstacles"?

 

[denyd]

You could always set big human advantage game for SID. Playing as the Mayans with lots of nice terrain and setting up the AI in bad starting locations or on solo island or give the human Open player an extra starting location (ala the Mongols game).

 

[bed_head7]

Just wondering. I am not anxious to try Sid yet, but it seems like it might be a possibility at some point. I have read SirPleb's thread, along with Moonsinger's thread and Arathorn's "I came, I SAW..." I thought we might make it there eventually, but I forgot to consider time constraints. But I think Sid might be somewhere down the road for me, even if not part of the GOTM. It is my goal to at least play a decent Sid game, if I can't win one, before the fourth installment comes out. Which should give me some time.

 

[Sandman2003]

Qualification for Conquest-class: Never place in the upper half of any GOTM or COTM

I guess I had better play open then, just in case Ainwood checks these things.

Seriously, though it is nice to get games at a variety of levels. I have found that playing harder levels only enhances the addictive elements of the game. Also a 'pelago map with a sea faring civ really is the softest intro when stepping up a level. Tech brokering between isolated AI is definitely the way to stay in this game.

Ainwood - you have ruled out Sid (I suspect fortunately), but what about deity? Is Deity going to be amongst the chosen levels for the COTM at some stage?

 

[denyd]

Sandman2003: We've had a couple of Deity games before, so I'd expect some in the future. Usually you'll get a winnable setup (though there were a couple of exceptions), so it's fun to try those. If you can manage to keep up with the tech race (via trading), you've got a chance to win it.