Longbows, and Trebs do work as a warring stack. 
I have to admit I easily gave up on this one...
Spoiler :
Anyway, thanks for hosting, I really learned some things from my failures
shakabrade said:
this reminds me how I trained myself in dozens of this kind of games before.
The available space of this game is a little less than normal, but the diplomacy is easier to handle. You are bordering with Monty only, who is the easiest neighbor.
) for someone who really want to taste the victory and claim to be a deity player.
@shakabrade
Nice to see a map with full warmongers,
Glad you see what I am trying to achieve with games like these. Ok, this is first game like this for me, but I intend to drill much more.
The key point of this setting is that you can't expect of Renaissance era units alone to win the game. 2 reliable ways --
- Nukes, except that a AI complete Manhattan project, this is usually one of the last two choices (another one is AP
Yes, a bit cheesy but I am still not at that skill level that I can dismiss nukes on maps like these. I also win with nukes on some maps I could win with conventional army but simply go for nukes because it is faster.
- Bombers + fighters in carriers
Never a bad thing but I'd need better economy for that.
It's probably too late to rescue from your near 1900AD save. However it should be easily winnable from your earlier save, such as before 1700AD, or the best point where you had about 10 good cities. You need to turn your economy to espionage and focus on economy, but not kept warmongering.
Not really. I didn't want to warmonger and would be happy if I had opportunity for some real economy but Monty's SoD was unstoppable from the point when he vassaled Shaka. He whipped too many units and with his Buddhist shrine has taken tech lead. Then he promoted all those units and started conquering the rest. I managed to capture more cities than he did, but he had the option to cap people while I couldn't since that'd make me his target. I needed to keep on warmongering to deny him some cities for AP win, and I did that successfully. With cities I captured from Genghis (last cities I captured in the game) I managed to avoid AP defeat by 3 votes and UN defeat by less than 10 some turns later (saved by Biology beeline, which delayed my espionage techs). So that's why I kept warmongering. My only chance on winning with this save would be turning against Monty while he was in war with Raggy and taking his core cities and shrine, maybe even more. That was a mistake. Instead I allied with him and helped him win. I did recognize power of espionage in time, but couldn't do more than this, since my mistakes before that set the course of the game. I'll win this game in my second attempt once I get some time and computer with civ on it.
The main reason why BTS is considered easier than Vanilla and Warlord is that you have the espionage to catch up in situation like this.
I didn't have much experience with vanilla and warlords, but I'd agree, espionage makes BTS easier. However cavalry could be obtained much easier, iIrc and it won the game.
), 1 AI got Rifling ~700AD.
). This thread alone has enough material to back it up.You might get a different feeling after you try more of this kind of maps. Less space makes the game harder, but the harder diplomatic situation is deadly. In most of this type of maps where you are bordering 2 and more AIs, it's the 2nd wave of wars which are deadly. When those warheads stop their wars and in 10 turns of peace treaty, you are their natural targets and the worse part is that they will usually bring cats this time.
What I felt throughout this game was simply lack of bpt and production. Everything I got, I got from bulbing. One more good city would mean a lot to me, like enabling Steel with which I could dispatch . Being LT of 2 warmongers is harder setting, but I have never played a game like that. I can only say I'd try to get them to pleased, gift them or their neigbours cities in a way they become land targets and beg in most dire circumstances.
That's why I suggested that you focused on economy when you have ~10 cities. You can also have something to bribe Monty out of the war.
I think you are understimating how this game turned out a bit.
Monty was unbribable since his first war with Zulu: We'd rather win the game, thank you very much... Also, we know bribing from the war is only cease fire. And Monty had so many units, he'd redeclare immediately.
Also, those cities I captured were very highly culture pressed and my core cities didn't have enough economical power to pay for their maintenance and let me research for a long time.
I had not noticed the situation that you were in danger of losing in AP and UN. However, I guess there are other ways than warmongering to prevent the loss. For instance, the Radio and Medicine line techs are usually available for you bribe Monty leaving the war so that he can't grow too big.
Again, he couldn't have been bribed, and I couldn't tech so far since espionage was priority. I had no other options but to deny Monty some cities. I don't think I could have done much from the point where Monty got cannons and rifles, and very soon infantry.
Horse is not always available. Moreover, Vanilla and Warlord AIs start with more bonus. While you can field cavs before 1000ADs, AIs are also able to have Rifling before 1000ADs. WOTM38 (the challenger save) was a representative game, I'd rate it 3/10 in term of difficulty. My 2nd target got Rifling ~900AD. In another deity WOTM I played (I rated it as 0.5
. But if anyone has any rights to brag...
