• Civ7 is already available! Happy playing :).

conquest, new alliances

TheGrinch

Chieftain
Joined
Oct 10, 2024
Messages
21
hi, ive been trying to play this conquest for weeks now as the dutch, no matter what i do the Germans just spam me with everything, i build 3 new cities straight away to get more troops but i cant even hardly get into their territory, i drop down to regent level an get to knights pretty quickly but as soon as my 1st knight is built they are at my city with knights themselves even though ive not seen them all game, they spam pikes everywhere so i waste most med infantry trying to get rid of them which constantly leaves me nothing to attack with, i got Gunpowder 1st and salt n pepper in my area but musks arnt showing so must be a bug there so that is a waste to aim for

anyone done this conquest as the dutch yet who can give me any tips please
 
What do you mean by "THIS conquest"? Civilization 3-Conquests?
What I know for sure is that some tribes, like the Germans and the Aztecs are insufferable as neighbors and need to be killed ASAP.
 
Oh, I see. For starters it seems important to follow a different research path from your ally!
 
think the only thing i havent tried so far is spamming a load of swiss mercinaries and sending them over to keep their attacking units busy
 
OK, I gave it a closer look. This is technicaly a two-player situation, always war and acc production. In two players situations the rules are different. In multi-parties games, when two sides are in war, the rest are gaining ground. It is bad to be at war. Here, this rule does not apply. This means that things that are favourable to do in multi-parties games, like settlers, workers, research slider, libraries, marketplaces may not be the best option here, because they may never pay off the investment. To put it differently, if one side builds libraries and the other side builds swordsmen, the first side is going to lose, because the libraries have no time to pay off the investment.
I do not claim that everything mentioned above is a mistake, but most probably are. My first instict is to build 3-4 setllers and 2 workers but only military units afterwards, perhaps barracks in new cities. All commerce to money in order to rush stuff. I will give it a try right now and try a second approach if this one fails.
 
Update. Oh, I was influenced by you saying about 3 new cities and the visibility of the start. There is a LOT of land! Keeping a defensive stance in the beginning while settling around should do the trick. As many cities as possible, close together. The AI will not settle properly and he will lose.
 
i got Gunpowder 1st and salt n pepper in my area but musks arnt showing so must be a bug there so that is a waste to aim for
The Dutch do not get muskets I think, because the swiss merc already have defense 4.
 
AH right so go straight for knights is best bet then, i normally build 3 cities straight away and a couple of workers then try blast out my attacking units and get them inthe city closest to Germany ready for when they try come past. problem is its just constant battles then near that city,

what level you playing on, ive been on monarch and they constantly spam pikes
 
On Emperor. But there is a lot of luxuries around and constant need for settlers (keeping population low), so it is not remarkably hard at the beginning.
 
no ive not even checked them out, they get murdered by the byzantines pretty quickly normally so no help
 
conq.png

OK, I played for quite some time and I can share some experience. Despite the running time, the game remains completely stalemated until now, no city has fallen for all 4 parties.
1. As I said, there is a lot of land. Good land. It does need to be settled fast. Tight city placement also seems favorable in these settings, I regret not building another city in the vacuum E-SE of Croningen. Space needs to be grabbed. Settle all corners like I did and choose Haarlem and Harlingen wiser than I did (they will both need an aqueduct, which could have been avoided). The desert SW of the capital is an ideal founding site, getting rid of the desert square and exploiting the wheat fast to build settlers. Playing defensively around Rotterdam is the trick until you get the land.
2. We need to get the gems, Maastricht is in a very accurate position, allowing the gems to be shared with the allies. We need to get the spices fast and we need to settle approprietely to get the silks. For me on emperor, I am still trying to get the ivory close to Lisbon before culture traps them forever. I wonder if my city will be flipped towards my ally in these settings....
3. I fortify the hills south of Rotterdam, AI loves walking through them to the East and the rivered gold-iron hills must be protected from pillaging. This forces the AI to come against Rotterdam uncovered in the grasslands. A combination of med infandries, swiss mercs and trebuchets kept them in place until now. The two bonus grasslands must be kept safe from pillaging at all costs so swiss mercs can fortify there and protect injured med inf that just killed something there.
4. The Dutch have an advantage in the beggining, which I exploited by adding libraries to my cities. The swiss is very strong and offers a golden age. I am now in the point that the Germans get the advantage with those UU knights of his. I was in fact surprised to see them. I am holding properly until now. But during the swiss golden age, one must either hold defensively and grab land/build libraries or make a quick rush.
5. The Portug are holding until now. They are for all reasons that matter a part of our empire. Do not igonre them in a "ah, those guys jusst suck, I do not care" manner. I would not hesitate to send reinforcments if I spot they are in trouble. If they lose a city, it is very bad. If they conquer a city, it is very good. One may win the game without capturing a single city. They keep building lots of galleys unfortunately. It seems I cannot change techs with them. Or it just happened we discovered engineering together...
6. The river-crossing and the trebs from engineering helped of course, but perhaps a posteriori getting knights was better. I was hoping to trade with my allies. I will now ignore that stuff and head straight for cavarly.
7. I built libraries/aqueducts, but I never found time for marketplaces/courthouses, the Germans were pressing a lot. I was only now struck from the plague, which I have never faced before and I am not sure how it works. This is why I ordered marketplaces, perhaps troops from an infected city must not spread the disease? Like total war and other similar games? Not sure. I hope I will not be overrun with two less unit producing cities.
I liked this scenario quite a lot in general. How did you choose it? I will play it to the end.
 
Last edited:
ive never even thought about building that many cities close together in any game i played, ive always thought best to leave 3 moves between cities otherwise i find you cant build as fast.

Malaga normally gets taken by the byzantines pretty early on and they only ever enter my land with mainly pikes to cut off my iron and horses

i normally have rotterdam heavily defended with both defensive and attacking units ready to stop the Germans coming through but like you said i'm constantly in a stalemate with them, there pikes eat up my med infantry and constantly replen. when they get the UU knights i start struggling to hold then

i dont normally play coquests so thought id give them a try, enjoyed the rise of Rome playing as the romans the found this 1, only thing i dont like about them is the time limits
 
ive never even thought about building that many cities close together in any game i played, ive always thought best to leave 3 moves between cities otherwise i find you cant build as fast.
Yes I know, but tighter is better. I am myself a fan of CxxxC (that is 3 tiles between cities) but CxxC and even CxC is better, especially here with such a time limit and always war situation. The point is that you have some land available and you are not going to exploit many of those tiles with cities that will barely reach max size (mine are still 6-8 sized and I am halfway the game). By building tighter, one will be able to exploit all available squares and thus become more productive. In fact, I had not noticed the time limit of 100 rounds. When I restart the game, I will build even tighter. Only barracks, workers, settlers and units. The libraries are not in fact paying off I think. What happens when time runs out I wonder?
Malaga normally gets taken by the byzantines pretty early on and they only ever enter my land with mainly pikes to cut off my iron and horses
Well, I am very lucky then. They are fighting inside port territory, but my allies are holding their own.
i normally have rotterdam heavily defended with both defensive and attacking units ready to stop the Germans coming through but like you said i'm constantly in a stalemate with them, there pikes eat up my med infantry and constantly replen. when they get the UU knights i start struggling to hold then
Yes, me too, it is a slaughterhouse there...
i dont normally play coquests so thought id give them a try, enjoyed the rise of Rome playing as the romans the found this 1, only thing i dont like about them is the time limits
I am glad I was attracted to this one, I enjoy it
 
IIRC, this Scenario was one of those intended as a test/showcase of the new multiplayer settings (added in Conquests?). So it's not really (at all?) balanced as a solo-game, because it was supposed to be played with/against a human partner/opponents, not the AI (where your locked "Ally" may be Gracious, but will nonetheless still treat you as an opponent when it comes to pricing their techs and resources for trade with you).

So yeah, you can't play it the same way as you would a solo game, you need to Settle fairly tightly, and basically just crank out nothing but units to capture the Victory Point locations (obelisks) and enemy towns (including those lost by your "Ally"!).
 
conq.png

Finaly...on round 58...
conq2.png

We are losing 2401-1989 but it is now going to turn around.
conq3.png

Beleive it or not, the portugals building this harbor was the beginning of the end. On Emperor this sudden unexpected connection of my 4th luxury gave me amazing freedom on the spot, since I had (mistakenely) built marketplaces but had no worker power to connect myself.
 
conq4.png

It is over. Germany is 3 cities down and even the portuguese are starting to bring the war in Byzantine lands. I enjoyed it but I will stop now. Too much war-time for too long.
Seeing what happened during the game, the correct strategy seems to be
1. Hold ground defensively around Rotterdam while grabing space founding cities. Rush for gems near Malaga. Rush for spices in the east. Rush for silks in the east, especialy at higher levels. Even rush for stealing portuguese ivory near his capital (I eventually grabbed that one, the town dod not flip), he doesnt need them so much himself at higher levels.
2. Most cities only build barracks and units. Some cities, ideally eventualy the initial ones that already have a granary, build granaries, workers, settlers. Using lots of workers DOES pay off, the game is short, but not too short.
3. Found as many cities as possible in the acquired space at cxc formation. Connect iron and spam units at huge quantity. Enter golden age. Counterattack and overrun.
4. Do not allow the portuguese to start losing cities, help them if needed.
5. Science is not needed. Only chivarly for knights and engineering for crossing the multiple rivers and using trebuchets may count in the scenario's timeline. I won without knights using med inf/swiss merc/trebushet stacks but it is better to go for chivarly (and trade with the allies that research engineering) or make NO research at all. It is not paying off. Libraries are a mistake. Courthouses are a mistake. Marketplaces and aqueducts are a mistake unless it is high level and not CxC. Just spam units and overrun.
6. Barbarians are irritating. Dromons are irritating. Plague is irritating. Teutonic knights are irritating without knights to hunt them around.
 
1. [...]Rush for gems near Malaga. Rush for spices in the east. Rush for silks in the east, especialy at higher levels. Even rush for stealing portuguese ivory near his capital (I eventually grabbed that one, the town dod not flip), he doesnt need them so much himself at higher levels.
[...]
5. Science is not needed. Only chivarly for knights and engineering for crossing the multiple rivers and using trebuchets may count in the scenario's timeline.
There is a bit of a contradiction there. If science is barely needed, then luxuries by extension are also barely needed. They are not a priority. Workers however are. 3 or more per city are a top priority early on.
 
Hmm....why do you say so? Gold is important for supporting big armies and luxuries for happiness.
Why 3+ per city and not 2 for example? What are the specifics of the scenario that lead you to this conclusion? Are we talking about CxC or CxxC?
 
Top Bottom