COTM45 - Spoiler #2

[civ_steve]

COTM 45 Spoiler2: End of the Middle Ages

Reading Requirements:

1. Must be able to research an Industrial Age Technology.
2. Must have contact with all remaining civs and full knowledge of the map.

Posting restrictions

1. No maps showing Industrial or Modern resources.
2. No discussion of Industrial Age (or later).
3. Absolutely NO discussion of any other active 'X'OTM Contest

By the end of the Middle Ages all the specialized UU's should have presented themselves. So, what impact did they have on the game? And if you're playing Open or Conquest, did the beefed up Sipahi make a bigger impact than normal? (And how about the Chinese Riders? Potentially very powerful, with FOUR movement points, but they started on their own island so perhaps not a big impact ...) Oh yeah and how's your game going in general?

 

[eldar]

I'll be posting a full spoiler later, but the Chinese didn't even make it to the Middle Ages in my game. I think they might've been better off swapped with Carthage as 4-move Riders on that large Celts/Carthage continent would've provided a bigger challenge.

Likewise it might've been more fun had the Celts been on the Persia/Egypt/Rome continent. 3-move GW's in what would've been most people's early conquests would certainly have made life more interesting.

 

[ignas]

Predator, going for fast research

MA was entered in 1000BC. Sci civs are gifted and they get 2 different techs. I buy their techs and get Theology for free.

First MA tech Education takes 10 turns to research, Engineering takes 6, Invention 6 which i get in 530BC. 530BC is a special date as Greece finally research Monarchy, I trade for it and switch palace build to Hanging Gardens wasting 86 shields and triggering Golden Age next turn (Mausoleum was built a bit earlier). While in GA Chemistry and Banking took 5 turns, after that all techs are learned in 4 turns.

Incredibly AI researched Astronomy in 130 BC for me in this game (after i got Education in 800BC gifted it to 3 AI's with highest income so they had a lot of time to research Astronomy for me).

Declare war on Egypt in 550 BC and ally Persia vs them. At this date i have just 6 vet archers and a spearmen, though more units are soon to be built. War as usually goes well and in 190 BC peace is signed leaving them with just one town. After peace with Egypt declare war on Rome. Spot few defense 4 legionaries but they are no match for my stack of longbows.

Research Magnetism in 130 AD and enter Industrial age

 

[Smirk]

The Chinese were a non-entity in my game, they got their island and a few north on the the Celt/Carthage landmass but their land is so poor that research never kept up with everyone else. Thats more to do with my trading patterns than anything, the lack of and luxuries mean they are a weak trading partner. The same goes for the Greeks, also no luxuries, although they kept with the rest of us upto the middle ages no doubt because of their trait.

The rest were all about in balance, luxuries were fairly even on the other two landmasses and Persia was kept in check by frequent world wars. I was at war with them (they declared after a threat) from the early BCs until 500 AD at least (for the negative war weariness). This only changed because Hannibal "sneak" attacked me. So I got peace with X and got the rest of the world against Hannibal.

I say sneak, but really it was pretty obvious, a stack of ancient horses unloaded on top of my saltpeter is a pretty clear signal of an impending ROP-sneak attack. That was easily stopped, despite having only 4 warrior on that island.

I've since been easily walking over Carthage cities with Sipahi. They are about as effective as you might expect, they are always really effective against slow teching AI.

All in all and interesting change, but I'd much rather had played one of the other civs on one of the other islands (Perhaps the Celts, I love the regular sword and these are even faster). Thats a personal preference, I'm sure this wouldn't be fun for some.

 

[eldar]

ignas: Great luck with the techs going forward - IIRC the two AIs in my game got Engineering (which I was able to trade for) and Feudalism (which I could not get for any price), and I got Feudalism for free.

What price did you have to pay for Feudalism? In my experience Republic+Lit+Engineering+all my treasury wasn't enough!

 

[ignas]

ignas: Great luck with the techs going forward - IIRC the two AIs in my game got Engineering (which I was able to trade for) and Feudalism (which I could not get for any price), and I got Feudalism for free.

What price did you have to pay for Feudalism? In my experience Republic+Lit+Engineering+all my treasury wasn't enough!

Firstly traded Rep+Lit for Mono with Greece and then two monopoly techs (Persia and Greece didn't know eachother when i entered MA) Monotheism+Republic was enough to get Feudalism from Persians. I guess in your case AI didn't value Republic because probably AI had nearly researched it; also it might be that Greece and Persia knew eachother so after you traded Rep for Engi nor Republic, nor Engineering was a monopoly tech so their cost dropped and weren't enough to buy Feudalsim.
You could have traded all your techs+gpt to buy Feudalism and then declared war to get out of gpt payment, reputation doesn't matter much in military games, especially on monarch I do that very often

 

[eldar]

Ah, I assumed that Greece and Persia knew each other in your game, I guess those 20-ish turns between your 1000BC date and my later date meant they could make contact. They definitely knew each other in my game, so neither Eng. nor Rep. would've been "monopoly" techs on the second trade.

And of course to really rub it in I got Feud. for free myself, I probably could've swung a trade for it with Mono(monopoly)+Eng+Rep+Lit.