COTM 09 Spoiler 2: Middle Ages or End of Game

[bradleyfeanor]

Predator, Barbs fixed

Congratulations on another spectacular game, Dynamic. You didn't use the teleportation exploit and still got nearly the same finish date as Aeson! It amazes me that you did not even build marketplaces: I would never have thought of trying that in this game. As good as your game was though, I liked this statement even more:

3 volcanoes flow the lava on my head and there are nobody else.

I was planning to do a thorough post, but then I saw that I had been trounced by MiniMe so I think I will make it brief. Great conquest game MiniMe! It looks like the biggest difference in our games was in the research rate. You researched Navigation 13 turns sooner than me: that’s a lot! I was wondering if you could answer a few questions:

How many cities did you build on the home island?
Were you able to make any gpt deals with the AIs?
Did you stick with your 3 granaries that you had at the end of the QSC, or did you build more?

So on to the post. Going for Conquest victory.

I triggered my GA in 110 AD via SoZ and the Mausoleum. I reached Navigation in 380 ad, and then turned off research. I decided not to research on to cavalry, because it would take me about 35 turns to get there. I felt the game could be finished with knights and berserks before then. So that is how I fought my wars for the rest of the game: with berserks, knights and caravels. Also during this time (190 ad), I had a horrific volcanic eruption without warning and it certainly “flowed lava on my head.” It destroyed 10 workers, a roaded and mined hill, and two roaded and mined mountain gems. I have no idea how many total worker turns that cost me, but it was a lot. It also disconnected my gems and made me up my lux rate for about 6 turns. There were several other eruptions that destroyed improvements later in the game, and as a result I had many, many workers redoing work they had already done.

The Hittites destroyed the Dutch around 360 ad. In 440 ad I traded the Hittites for invention and upgraded 22 archers to berserks. The troops boarded ship and headed to meet the Hittites, who had just built the SoZ in their capitol. They were also the strongest civ in the game. War with the Hittites lasted from 500 ad – 600 ad. I then gave them peace because my force of berserks (mixed with knights by this time), had been badly depleted. The peace deal broke my Alliance rep because I had formed agreements with the Celts and Babylonians. I was making around 350gpt at this point, and I was using all of it to rush horses and upgrade them to knights on the foreign continent. The home continent continued to build berserks and caravels throughout the game.

Since my alliance rep was already shot, I decided to use RoP abuse. The Hittites only had five cities left, and with abuse I knew I could capture them all in one turn (they had sent most of their units after the Zulu, and their cities were sparsely defended). So in 650 ad (aka—the First Turn of Treachery), I RoP raped the Hittites and the Chinese as well. I captured all the Hittite cities and took 4 from the Chinese, including their capitol. The Hittites were not dead though: they had a caravel off the southern tip of their continent. I rushed two trebs nearby and sent two caravels down to eliminate them (680ad). The Chinese were destroyed in 720ad because they were mostly defending with spears.

In 710 ad, the Second Turn of Treachery, I RoP raped the Zulu, taking 6 cities (including the capitol) and leaving them with one. I also killed the Babylonians, who had already been reduced to one city by the Hittites and Zulu. I took the last Zulu city in 740ad.

760 ad was, of course, the Final Turn of Treachery. RoP rape x 2 against the last two civs: Celts and America. On the first turn I took 5 American cities (including Washington and the Great Wall), and 7 Celt cities (including Entremont and the Pyramids), and pillaged both civs only sources of iron (no one ever made it to Gunpowder, so I still don’t know where the saltpeter is). After the first turn of war, both civs had 7 cities between them. I took those the following turn. Conquest victory in 790 ad.

Overall, I was quite pleased with the date, although I would love to learn how to kick up my research a bit early on. Also, this marked the third game in a row in which I did not get a leader until the final two turns of the game—and two of those games have been with militaristic civs. The leaderlessness is getting a bit old.

All in all, I really detest RoP abuse. This was my second time using it, and the only reason I did so was because I felt it was necessary to achieve a competitive conquest victory date. I don’t enjoy it at all. I know Aeson believes that it doesn’t have a dramatic effect on final date—and far be it from me to say he is wrong—but to me it seems that RoP abuse has a significant effect. The AI has no time to rush units, no time to bring units back home if they are away, and they lose their most powerful cities and resources on the first turn of the war.

Currently, an exploit is either banned or allowed. I don’t suppose we could add a third category regarding exploits: a list of things that are allowed or disallowed on a game-to-game basis?

Thanks for the very unique map Renata! I was pleased to discover that Berzerks are more effective than I realized, although it does take quite a few boats to keep them near the frontlines of the battle.

 

[MiniMe]

How many cities did you build on the home island?
Were you able to make any gpt deals with the AIs?
Did you stick with your 3 granaries that you had at the end of the QSC, or did you build more?

Two small turns before you. MiniMe very happy

I built 10 cities + 1 on nearby island. When I saw Dynamic's post I regretted I didnt build more His approach to squeeze in cities everywhere and take advantage of cheap harbors to increase research was just great.

I only built 3 granaries. But built libraries, marketplaces and aqueducts almost everywhere. And universities in the main cities with sufficient production.

I put a lot of focus in research and was lucky to get Monotheism as free tech from babs. I triggered early GA just after entering MA to get Theology down to a decent number of turns.

I gave republic and all techs to AI civs so that they could become meaningful partners (for a while). Got several gpt but mostly small deals, 37gpt being the best one.

You were much better prepared for war when you got to navigation / invention. I had to handbuild almost all the berserks since I had none to upgrade. I never had an overwhelming force, but it helped once I could upgrade some horses to cav and create an army of them. I guess it was also in my favour that I played open and you predator.

 

[Dynamic]

How many cities did you build on the home island?
Were you able to make any gpt deals with the AIs?
Did you stick with your 3 granaries that you had at the end of the QSC, or did you build more?

I have volcanic eruption in deep BC only so I didn’t lost workers. But my workers cleared pollution on the most north tiles for using it by cities.

As I understand you asked MiniMe but I can say I built only 2 granaries in QSC period and didn’t build it later. My main goal in my cities was harbor, then library and aqueduct before wartime. Harbors are absolutely necessary because 13 of my 15 cities were on the coast and without harbors it can’t grow. Libraries give me science gain and culture for preventing AI flips. Aqueducts let my main cities to grow over 6 and increase its power. I not needed marketplaces in the early game because had only 2 luxuries and after the war starting I haven’t possibility for it.

I didn’t build military units before AD after reaching Republic and even disband all my warriors. So I not paid for units for a long time and can concentrate on science. I met AI very late in comparison to other players, researched Map Making myself and in summary have 19 turns with science off. It delayed my science of course but I have money for embassies and some rushing in my cities.

My GA started in 70AD and my core cities built 26 horsemen before Chivalry. Trondheim, for example, produced horsemen every turn. So I have a short period with high amount of units and low cities.

About RoP rape: I think it’s very helpful tactics end sometimes it gives significant result. In my game I really needed RoP rape in my first attack against Zulu because I hadn’t Berserks but only horsemen and must attack Zimbabwe with 6 spears. If I should declared war before landing I should spend several turns for reaching target cities and Zulus could collect more units and my attack could be much worse. Really I lost 5 horsemen in this attack but without RoP rape I think I should loose twice more. Other wars had a less benefit from RoP rape but it also was helpful.
Without RoP abuse I should wait for at least half horsemen upgrading and start war after that. I think it costs me about 10-15 turns delay for all wars.

Very interesting map Renata!
But I hope the next will be slightly more size and in such case I will try one of the culture victory type.

 

[JonnyMo]

...but it isn't accomplishing anything here except to give me agita.

Renata

Renata, your map is giving me agita.

I've been playing for years, but this is my first GOTM/COTM. I'm surprised that I made it to the IA, since I didn't make landfall on the continent until I attained Nav. (The Dutch found me, and then I traded for comms.) As a result, I've been playing catch-up for what seems like the entire game.

I've almost given up repeatedly, but now I have a goal: lowest winning score. We shall see.

 

[Jove]

Predator, Barbs fixed.

Arrrr, I made up my mind to go for Space from the start. Entered the MA at 430BC. I thought this was a good date- exactly the same as GOTM39, and I had floodplains wheat in my capitol on a pangea map that game!

Luck Factors: No volcanic eruptions on my island in either the AA or MA. Whew! Also, a curragh survived 2 barb attacks to allow the full exploration of the other continent. Nice.

Anyway, I gifted up Babylon immediately, and they got engineering. That's fine, Feudalism in...11 and counting.
410- Lighthouse in Trondheim. For awhile I concentrated on Archers where there was no science upgrade to build.
210- Feudalism. Get Engineering in trade.
150- Invention. At this point I decided to go the gunpowder-chemistry route. I figured, being religious, Babylon would certainly learn Monotheism, right? Well, yes, but not until 400 AD! So I saved the turns researching that, but my Navigation date was pushed back too much. Probably a mistake.
110BC- My ship-chaining operation begins! My method was to send a galley toward China. If it lived, I'd send it a second time toward China (still in the sea and vulnerable to sinking) and send another one out. On turns when I had 2 surviving ships in the sea-and ONLY then- did I ship units across, guaranteeing that no units were sent to Davey Jones' locker. Once a ship made it across, I considered it worthy of my permanent navy, and just left them over there to handle my amphibious assaults. It was a sort of distillation process. Lost a lot of galleys, but it did work. Initially I sent some archers and a pair of settlers across to take some unclaimed Chinese land on the continent. Had fun with Ainwood's suggestion to rename my boats- went through the names of the months, the Nereid, Mermaid, Lollipop, Nina, Pinta, etc. Made ship chaining much easier to keep track of.
10AD- Statue of Zeus completed in Oslo. I just couldn't resist SOZ Enter golden age.
70- Back off on science. Hated to do it, but Invention was coming, I was going to need Berserkers, and if I didn't get more land my economy was going to tank Badly anyway. I had no choice.
90- First city founded on other continent.
150- Invention. Gunpowder in 18. Yikes! But I gotta upgrade my 14 archers to attack China ASAP.
310 AD- War on China! Capture or destroy 4 or 5 cities on first turn. Capture Dyes. Enjoying my Ancient Cavalry.
320- Gunpowder.
330- Golden Age ends.
350- Forbidden Palace
360- Capture one Chinese city, destroy one. Make peace for another. China has 2 inland cities. Berserkers rock! I don't think I lost even one in this campaign. I was fighting spearmen though... I wanted to take a whack at the Celts before going after the Hittites. Sure, the Hittities had the Pyramids, but the Celts seemed dangerous, and my Chinese colonies were vulnerable.
400- Trade for Monotheism. From the Americans!
410- War on Celts begins. 1st berserker casualty. I still haven't upgraded all my archers. Reduce science for more cash. I eventually took most Celt coastal towns. Suffered some culture flips, make peace in 490. 2 more cities flip- sheesh!- but at least I have a peace treaty with them now.
430- Chemistry.
490- Theology.
550- Education. 6-turn research is... okay. War on Hittites. This was a tougher opponent, they had a handful of muskets. My first leader appeared in 640. Even though it's been posted a hundred times, I still sent him back to the home continent to rush Copernicus'. Ooops! Can't! Led to a nasty military disaster in which I lost 3 or 4 berserks, a musket, and 1 or 2 ancient cav. If I'd built an army on the spot (which I later did, after making peace), I would have wiped out the Hittites. As it was, I got the Pyramids and my weak forces had to make peace in 740. Their capitol flipped back soon after, along with one other city. I honored my peace treaty rather than re-take it to keep the option of gpt deals alive.This obviously slowed me down a bit.
630- Astronomy.
690- Physics.
740- Navigation. Sure, a non-essential tech, but the AI would take forever, and it caused a real renaissance, opening up luxury gpt deals and whatnot. I wish I'd got here sooner...
780- Banking. War with China again. Have some Knights now, plus a super-duper Berserk army. China falls apart like a house of cards, being destroyed in 840.
860- Magnetism. Copernicus' is just a few turns away in Trondheim. Preparing to take out the Celts once and for all.

I guess it went okay. I wish I could have had another leader, but with that horrible military blunder against the Hittites, I guess I didn't deserve one. And really, I didn't need one that badly. Also, looking back, I got good use out of the SOZ. My focus on science kept me from building a large military, and what I did build was mostly archers and berserks, until Chivalry. It was great to have free extra units to take out that odd longbowman or to quell resistance while the berserks went about their business.

BTW, I really enjoyed the map, Renata! Nice! It had me scratchin' me noggin.

 

[Jason Fliegel]

Open, Barbs fixed.

Well, the flu slowed me down this month, so I wound up taking a sabatical from this game. Earlier tonight, I booted up and played through the Middle Ages.

When I ended the Ancient Ages, my plan was to use my Great Lighthouse to allow my invasion force of berserks aboard galleys to conquer the mainland. I guess I was delirious (early flu symptom?) when I came up with that plan, because even with the Great Lighthouse, I would have probably lost too many galleys to make it worthwhile.

Anyway, my new plan was to spend the Middle and Industrial Ages as a merchant prince and coast to a diplomatic victory. And that's what I did -- at least throughout the Middle Ages (I'm 3 techs into the Industrial Ages, and I don't think it's breaking any rules to say "so far, so good.")

At the start of the Middle Ages, I only knew China, the Hittites, the Dutch, and the Babs. The one suicide curragh that had made it to the main continent had fallen to barbs. So an early priority of the Middle Ages was to get some galleys across. I wound up doing so and met everyone else. And then it was trade, trade, and trade to make sure I was always a tech leader. I stayed at the head of the science pack, in part due to a well-timed Golden Age: I built the Statue of Zeus right as I learned education, which triggered a Golden Age and helped me build my universities quickly. Lots of wars on the mainland also helped keep the tech pace slow enough to allow me to keep up.

Speaking of wars, I had quite a few myself. Most were cold wars, although I did have to kill one Zulu Medieval Infantry who landed on my shores, and there's a Dutch MI standing in my territory, where he's been ever since we declared peace. I also landed a caravel full of Ancient Cavalry on Hittite soil, but all they managed to do was redline a couple of musketmen before dying.

Toward the end of the Middle Ages, I built Magellan's Voyage. Unfortunately, my attempt to build Newton's University failed, and while I tried for my second choice (Adam Smith's) and my third choice (Bach's), it looks like I'm going to wind up with the world's most expensive rifleman. That, by the way, is the point at which I decided to call it a night.

In terms of my diplo goal -- assuming I can build the UN, and I've got a productive city all ready for a Forbidden Palace prebuild -- it looks like my rival is likely going to be China. They've already eliminated America, and are clearly the guys to beat. Fortunately, they also seem to have a lot of enemies, so if it does come to a Ragnar vs. Mao election, I don't think Mao is going to have many friends.

 

[chunkymonkey]

Open

We entered the Middle Ages in 570BC desperately searching for a safe passage to the other continent. The Lighthouse would have been instrumental in our plan, had the Dutch not built it in 530BC! Our Lighthouse building city switches to the Forbidden Palace and finishes it in 450BC.

We would head down the bottom of the tech tree whilst trading for the top half, mass produce Berserks and then head for Navigation so we could launch an assault on the home of the Pyramids - Babylon. Invention is researched in 30AD, and Navigation is learnt in 510AD. Our berserk-filled caravels head across the ocean and reach the coast of Babylon in 580AD, giving the opportunity for our warriors to spill their first drops of blood. The Scandinavian Golden Age begins.

We hire Mursilis as a mercenary since we need to weaken him. He will be our next target. Pyramids are captured in 740AD, and the rest of the Babylonian empire is subdued in 780AD, just as Golden Age ends. The Hittitte warriors are scattered across our lands, so we make some outlandish demands and force Mursilis to declare war on us. We massacre the stray Hittites and then hire the Dutch (cultural monster) to deal with them.

Trondheim builds Magellan's Voyage in 830AD which is useful. The Hittites start to take a bit of a battering from the Dutch, so we take our cavalry through Dutch lands and manage to pick up a couple of Hittite cities. 980AD sees the emergence of the first Great Leader of the Vikings. He is used to prepare a cavalry army. In 1000AD, the Hittites are desperate, so they make the Celts (land monster) declare on us. We ask America and the Dutch to declare on the Celts to keep our northern border trouble-free, but we are uncertain as to how long the Americans can hold out. We buy Banking from the Americans in 1030AD to propel us into the Industrial Ages.

The occupation of Babylon has given the new-world Vikings a new lease of life. They wish to construct a vast, sprawling culture-rich empire, so they start work on various cultural projects across the new-world with the goal of beoming a formidable cultural entity.

The world at the end of the Middle Ages:

 

[Redbad]

-- assuming I can build the UN, and I've got a productive city all ready for a Forbidden Palace prebuild --

If you can do a FP prebuild than you can do a normal Palace prebuild too. The normal Palace is a much larger reservoir of shields.

 

[Jason Fliegel]

If you can do a FP prebuild than you can do a normal Palace prebuild too. The normal Palace is a much larger reservoir of shields.

See, but what you have to keep in mind is that I'm really stupid. Doing a Palace prebuild makes a lot more sense, plus I could actually build my FP (not that corruption is a problem on my tiny island, but I might as well, right? Does the FP have any maintenance costs?)

 

[Redbad]

@Jason,
Yes, if you haven't any urgent stuff to build, you might as well build the FP, even if corruption is low. Build it in your most productive city to maximise productivity in one place.
And no, wonders great and small don't require upkeep.

btw I didn't see any stypidity in your write-up.

 

[Jason Fliegel]

@Jason,
Yes, if you haven't any urgent stuff to build, you might as well build the FP, even if corruption is low. Build it in your most productive city to maximise productivity in one place.
And no, wonders great and small don't require upkeep.

btw I didn't see any stypidity in your write-up.

I just meant I was stupid for planning to use a FP prebuild instead of a palace prebuild.

I did wind up building the FP. And then, since Trondheim was still by far my most productive city, I wound up jumping my Palace so I'd be able to use the Palace as a prebuild in Trondheim. And then, when the time came, I used the Intelligence Agency as my prebuild instead of the Palace!

 

[civ_steve]

Entered the MidAges in 570 BC, only one at this time. Decided to take Renata's challenge up fully - goal is to win by Berserk Conquest! At this point I have 3 Warriors, 1 Archer (Barb Patrol), 8 Curraghs and 1 Galley (to colonize the southern island.) I've got a long way to go!

Planning: I wasn't really enamored with Suicide chaining to the other continent; even with Great Light it would be 3 movements to cross with Galleys; with Caravels it would be only 2, but you're so close to Navigation anyway, by that time. Anyway, I was beaten to Great Lighthouse, so after some thought, I converted the Shields to SoZ; this way I'd have a small number of fast ground units to complement my Berserks. I'm going for Navigation directly, build up an Archer force, save some cash for upgrades, then start my GA for more upgrade cash, and roll around the other Continent from Hittites to Chinese. I was keeping the North at war (Celts vs China, Babs and America vs Zulu), so I thought that taking on the South first would lessen the chance that Gunpowder would be widely known since they'd likely research it first. So, keep wars going, research as fast as possible, and leave Invention for the AI to discover.

City Development: My central cities had already built Libraries, and a few others were ordered to help speed research. I was going to need a lot of cash, so Marketplaces were in order. Barracks in central cities for Vet units. A few Aquaducts seemed in order (only built 3 or so). Harbors for almost all cities; especially peripheral cities to get access to all the gold available with Coast and Sea spaces. I never built any Universities; I would have them for so short a time before I turned off research, that they weren't worth the Shields or maintenance cost. Also, as I got close to my research goal (Navigation), I skipped Library builds and went straight to Marketplace for some of my secondary cities; again, not much use.

Execution of Plan: I entered the Middle Ages in 570 BC. I finally researched Navigation in 510 AD, or 67 turns. I revolted shortly after entering the MA, for 5 turn period of anarchy, so 62 turns of research, or just over 12 turns each to learn Mono, Theo, Educ, Astro and Navigation (slow but steady). Babylon and the Hittites entered after me, Babylon getting a Free Engineering, which I traded Mono for. The Dutch built the Great Lib, so they caught up with the other two. The rest trailed (as I thought they would). Later on I traded Theo for Feud, and to keep the wars going; this way I could keep an eye out for Invention. Sure enough, the AI learned it in the mid-400's, so it was available when I learned Navigation in 510 AD.

War Preparations: When I played GOTM22 as the Vikings, I'd built 20 Archers for upgrades, and maybe hand-built a few more; in that game this number of Berserks let me take out 2 strong civs, and a 3rd weak one. So I decided I wanted 40 Archers for upgrades, and I would continue building Berserks afterwards. In 510 BC, I had 17 Archers, with about 250 Gold in the bank. I started building Archers in my 5 cities with Barracks, turned off Research, saving about 150 gpt. In 610 AD I had 39 Archers (close enough), and 1800'ish Gold. The AI with Invention had also learned (and traded) Education, so I traded Astronomy for Invention, a few hundred Gold (and some gpt), and a couple Luxuries. I upgraded 8 of my Ships, and 12 or so Archers, and was ready to set sail in 620 AD with 12 Ancient Cav and 12 Berserks as a first wave.

Tale of the Axe: First landings in 650 AD. I had ROPs with almost everybody, and landed the 12 AC's first, then moved them adjacent to the Hittites capital. As Berserks overpowered the two closest Coastal Towns, the AC's were unsuccessful at taking the Capital. Oh well, I supplemented them with a Berserk Landing, and took it the next turn. The AI had learned Gunpowder in the interim, and I was facing a few Muskets with the Hittites. At home, my GA increased my gpt income to 250ish, so I was upgrading 1 or 2 Archers every turn. Keeping things simple (doh!) I didn't shipchain them over, but simply kept a Stack of Caravels off the Viking Island; as one filled up it went off to find plunder and new tales to tell. My core cities were building 3-4 turn Berserks, and the peripheral cities were building Caravels. Getting China to ally vs the Hittites (so Mao could capture a remote Hittite city), they fell in 730 AD.

Next the Dutch. Of course all their defenders were strength 4! Big deal - Throw enough Berserks at them and they'll fall! Most of their cities were on the South coast or SW corner of the continent; I started switching my Caravel load point to the East side of Viking continent to transit that way. Other than one interior city (Berserks marching overland), and a far off distant city near the Celts, the Dutch were gone by 800AD.

Babylon - you're up! They fell pretty quickly (few hills). Berserks were winning a bit more than 50% of the time against Muskets in non-hill terrain. My forces were floating along both the inner and outer coasts of the 2nd continent. I got the Celts and Chinese to ally vs Babylon and the Dutch; hoping they'd weaken themselves a bit, and take out the one Dutch and 2 Babylon cities between America and the Celts.

Zulu's - alway tough. Still it's tough to recover when half your cities are taken on the first round. I kept the Berserks moving, so they'd capture a city on one turn, then load up the turn after. This didn't work so well with the Zulu's Impi with movement 2, so I started Abandoning their cities after capture, so they couldn't take it back and I could focus my defense. Up to this point I'd seen almost zero offensive units; The zulu tried to retake one of their cities, and had a stack of 4 MedInf, 2 Swords, an Impi and an Archer adjacent to it. By this time I'd captured Sun-Tzu's and Great Wall, so I stuck 4 Berserks and an AC to defend it; I only lost 1 Berserk during their Attack.

Abe - America had gotten the worst of it against the Zulu; they were down to 3 cities. I still had an ROP in place, so after positioning some units, Abe fell in 1 turn - 880 AD. I moved through to menace the last Dutch and Babylon cities. I captured one Babylon city, and China got the Dutch and other Babylon city (with Riders), so by 900, 910 or so, the Zulu, Dutch and Babylon were gone.

My GA was over by now; I'd already upgraded all my Archers, and was using the cash to rush Berserks, mostly in the Hittite region; I shipped some Caravels over there to transport these Berserks. Viking Island is still building Berserks and Caravels (at a slower rate), and shipping them over from a Western debarkation point now to move towards and around China.

Celts were next; they actually had some Cavalry (maybe 3 or 4 showed up). I was still able to get China to ally against the Celts (and they even signed an ROP, just before I attacked them!) My Berserks on ships were a great response force; they could capture a city, then attack the Celtic Cavalry that came out to retake the city. I had more Berserks to lose than Brennus had Cav; and it seemed the War Weariness that occurred due to losing the city, was immediately reversed upon retaking it. I got my first Leader in the early part of this war, and formed my one and only Berserk Army. As I got the Celts down to 2-3 cities, I signed the ROP with China, and pretty much took out their Western Holdings near the former American Celtic and Zulu borders, along with 2 or 3 coastal towns. Now I've got Berserks streaming through what's left of the Celts, transporting in towards the Chinese from all directions. The Celts are gone by the early 1000's AD. China has a few Riders that have to be dealt with, but they fall as soon as they are committed. Here's a picture from the end of 1030 AD, where the Chinese are down to 2 cities.

Beijing falls in 1040 and Nanking in 1050. Conquest achieved in 1060 AD!

This was fun! And only just over 13 hours. I used ROP abuse 3 times - ineffective against the Hittites, but did the Americans very quickly and allowed my Rear Echelon troops to clean up the Chinese in the West quickly. I rarely did Ship Chaining, but on one occasion I sped 3 Vikings from America to the Celtic/Chinese border in one move to Amphib Assault the last Celtic city. My thoughts about limiting the number of Muskets I'd be up against didn't work, but neither did it really matter; using the Berserks in sufficient quantities just allowed me to steamroll the AI. Thanks, staff! Looking forward to the next Renata special!

 

[Dynamic]

You justifyed Berserks civ_steve!

If you had enough force before start of war may be was better to start from Zulu and going by 2 ways for increasing conquest speed?

 

[civ_steve]

Thanks, Dynamic! Not as good a result as your Domination Win (or the 700's Conquests of MiniMe or BradleyFeanor, or Klarius' 800 Conquest), but I really enjoyed using the Berserk for a Viking Theme Victory.

Most of my force was still Archers that needed upgrading; it still took another 10 turns to upgrade them all, plus I needed more Caravels in operation. And I really was playing a two-front conquest already, since I had to keep forces in operation on the inside and the outside of the other Continent. As it was there were times I had to slow down to let Berserks heal, or to get fresh reinforcements from Viking homeland. The Berserk is a powerful unit, but the lack of retreat does lead to a lot more losses vs Knights. I think I maxed out at about 45 Berserks on the Board at any one time; I still had 35 or so in play at the end.

I was looking at differences in my game, places where I could speed up the result. First of all, you said you had 12 cities (3 more on the way) and 47 population when entering the MA! Let's see - I had 8 cities (5 more to still found) and 19 population. Might have to build a few Granaries! Also, I was playing "keep the AI out of the MidAges" game; the earlier victories got Babylon into the MA, and generally traded for his free Tech. Also, earlier GA's were the Norm; I didn't start mine until the first Berserk hit the shore. I'd say those are the main things; an earlier attempt with Berserks would find the AI not as prepared, so even though it might not be as powerful, I wouldn't have had as much to overcome.

Great Games, everyone!

 

[SirPleb]

(Rater a late post, I'm trying to catch up this week...)

(predator)

Going for diplomatic victory.

Link to Ancient Age spoiler

In 490BC I traded with Hittites to bring both of us into the Middle Ages. I gifted Babylon forward and she got Monotheism as her free tech. It was a good bet at this point that Hittites and Babylon were researching Feudalism.

I was in Republic. I didn't have Literature yet so I researched that first taking four turns to learn it.

Next I learned Engineering in 10 turns, Theology in 9, Education in 9, Astronomy in 9, and Banking in 7 at 360AD. Slow progress!

During that time I traded with the other Civs to keep a few of them researching productively. I was able to get Feudalism, Invention, and Gunpowder from them.

I stayed quietly on my little island building universities, aqueducts, etc., trying to get my research pace up.

Next I learned Chemistry in 7 turns, Physics in 6

In 500AD I was able to trade for Navigation, maps, and to finally see the world:

I researched Magnetism in 5 turns, then Theory Of Gravity in 5, then started on Metallurgy. Two turns later, in 610AD, Babylon had learned Metallurgy and I was able to trade for it instead of completing my research. And thus I entered the Industrial Age at 610AD.