![[c3c]](/images/smilies/c3c.gif "Civ3 Conquests [c3c]")
1.22f
Ancient Age Report
Entered MidAges in 150 AD after making contact with 2nd continent. Korea had all the Techs I was missing, and I traded Republic to get those plus all his money (about 800 gold). So I became Medieval, but he didn't! Similar transaction with Portugal. China was fairly primitive so I just made contact.
Well, I got this devious idea. Since we had the Tech Bug in play, I thought I would see if I could use Temple of Artemis for a 100K try. My plan was to conquer my continent while stifling research on the 2nd continent. I would pack in cities as tight as possible, and build up an army to invade the 2nd continent. If my plan worked, no one would ever learn Education, and the TofA would never expire. The 2nd continent was missing Polytheism and I sure didn't plan to trade it to them.
So I used Republic to get their Techs and Gold, and Literature to get China and Portugal to declare on Korea. Korea seemed to be the Tech leader so I wanted to slow him down as much as possible. China had built the Temple of Zeus, and the Ancient Cav worked their magic. Korea eventually did get Polytheism, and gained Engineering for free. I researched Monotheism on the 50 turn plan, and managed to eventually get 3 scouts over on suicide Galleys. They gave me a comprehensive map of the continent. Korea learned Feudalism in 700 AD; I signed a peace deal and traded Monotheism for Feudalism. In 750 one of my scouts watched China take Korea's last city. People marveled at the Engineering displayed by their cities, but no on remembered the technology!
I of course used Mono and Feudalism to learn Chivalry in 760, and the Knight build up was on, but a lot of things happened on my continent first.
1st Arab war went from 730 BC to 330 BC; I used a small group of Swordsmen (8 initially with some reinforcements) to gain the Horses in the upper NE corner of the continent. Mecca completes Temple of Artemis in 110 AD; this is when my plan starts to take serious form.
1st Babylon war went from 70 AD to 300 AD. I start out with 10 3-Man Chariots, 5 Swordsmen and a Settler (to penetrate the Jungle) and use the 3-Mans to trigger my GA and build my force up. 3 cities with Barracks are doing 2-turn, 3-turn and 3-turn production respectively. I end up razing Elippi, Ninevah and Babylon and take 4 small towns as part of peace negotiations. With my plans to use TofA, I plan on signing peace treaties to get small cities.
Meanwhile, 2nd Arab war happens, from 170 AD to 250 AD; I capture Mecca and TofA, and Basra, and gain 2 small towns during Peace negotiations. Arabs are down to 3 cities in the Northern Tundra zone.
320 AD, finally contact Zulus, and use Republic to get them to join China and Portugal in attacking Korea. Only Korea is also Medieval at this time (270 AD is when note of massive barbarian uprisings were received.)
1st Sumerian War, 390 AD to 530 AD. (Don't be surprised, you knew it had to happen!!) Made an error using 3-Mans. I split my force between Sumer (in the Sumerian heartland) and Agade (on the Babylonian coast). End result, neither one was taken!! 3-Mans are not an exceptional attack unit, and I should have overwhelmed Agade, then focused on Sumer afterwards. Another thing learned; the Ekidu Warrior is cheap, and during Sumer's GA they were churning them out. It took 4 assaults to finally take Agade. Meanwhile I held off forces from Sumer, took 2 towns in the middle of the open desert, and briefly lost and retook Shruppuk (a Babylonian gift). Even though the Sumerians had a culture advantage with the Wonders they had built, the TofA quickly made that up and I never suffered a culture flip, during the entire game.
My final assault on Agade earned me my first MGL. I moved him back to form the FP. Not sure of the best place to put a FP in Conquests, so I placed it near the original Hittite/Arab border to perk those towns up a bit.
3rd Arab War (570 AD to 710 AD). Medina managed to build the Great Wall, so I was a little concerned. My first assault failed. I regrouped and took Kufuh in 620 using a massive 3-Man pile-on. (20+) Same for Yamama in 670 and Medina in 710. The Arabs were officially out. Odd RNG results: against Yamama, a size 2 city, their 2 spearmen killed 5 3-Man chariots; against Medina, a size 7 city, their 4 Spearmen and 1 Archer killed 0 3-Mans (I did have 3 retreats).
So in 760 AD, I know Chivalry, I have nearly 60 3-Man Chariots to upgrade and lots of gold left over from my GA to do it. Korea and Arabia are history, can Babylon and Sumeria be far behind?
2nd Babylon War (800 to 830). Knights make short history of Babylon; they never got their free MidAges Tech!
2nd Sumerian War (850 to 910). They actually declared war on me! Didn't matter. I gained Pyramids (although a bit too late to make a huge impact), Hanging Gardens (nice) and Great Lighthouse. A light dawns on me; I can now safely cross to the 2nd continent. I was building a Drazek style galley force, but that wasn't necessary now. A priority is to fill in as many towns as possible on my continent to get the free Temple culture.
2nd Continent: 1070 to 1465 AD. Start off by landing 42 Knights on Chinese coast near Beijing followed by a 2nd wave of 20 Knights in 1140. Captured Temple of Zeus in 1090; I was happy to see it start producing AncientCav's once I got Ivory hooked up to my road network, even though my capital was not part of the network. China was eventually reduced to 2 island cities. Declared War on Portugal in 1260, finally taken out in 1375. Portugal was the only one to have some Pikemen, MedInf and even a few Knights. Declare on Zulus in 1410; by this time I have 4 Armies of Knights, and add another during the conquest. Zulus had a total of 2 Musketmen; they can't build Pikemen and their Impis were no match for my Knight Armies. They are gone in 1465 and its just me and the two Chinese cities. Portugal managed to match me in Techs (I'd learned up to Gunpowder on the lower track), but they never had access to Saltpeter to build Muskets. Zulu's matched me, and even learned Theology. My tactic to squelch research was successful.
Culture growth: I'm packing in as many cities as possible. I rush Libraries on my main continent first, converting citizens to Taxmen and production to Wealth as I do so. My income goes up to about 1000 gpt and stays right around there. Then I start rushing Libraries and Temples in the Chinese/Korean zone. I keep myself to 63-64 % of landmass owned to stay below Domination (using F8). Finally, I rushed a few Cathedrals at the end. 100K Culture reached in 1580 AD; I was earning about 1470 cpt at the last turn. Here's my final mini-map:
Couple of other things learned. Temples gained by TofA do NOT double after 1000 years (rats!). However, cities that had a Temple in them before TofA was built/captured DO double after 1000 years. Also, it appears that a Civ with a loose Settler when the last city is captured is not destroyed if that Settler can found a city in the current turn. Check out this screen capture; I've already destroyed Portugal's last city, but I didn't get this message until I captured the Settler (now just 2 Workers.)
My first Conquest game; very fun and I've learned a lot (still much to go, though). The 3-Man Chariot is kind of Mediocre for a UU, it's 2-2-2 rating is somewhat bland. Compared to Spearmen or Archers it's quite an improvement, but it's 2 defense advantage is offset by it's inability to enter unroaded Mountains, Jungles and Marsh when compared to a Horseman. It's best to use them in large numbers and overwhelm the defense; I learned that a little late, especially against the Sumerians.
Thanks, Ainwood, inc! Looking forward to COTM2 (although it looks like I'll need my swim gear!)
Scrounge around here and in the SGs for pointers... set a realistic goal for your next game, and see if you can reach it. It will come, stick with it.
If Histographic victory at 2050 is what you wanted to play for, you need to have more Irrigated squares and less Mined. Happy citizens is the most important part of a high score; the more citizens to make happy, the better. Your cities are widely spaced with little competition for space; many should be +30 in size. That would give you a higher score. I also see unused Floodplains squares in your picture; those also help considerably in getting a large number of citizens.
