earth 18civ tutorial

[dankok8]

Just a heads up about a relatively new mod. It includes a Earth18 where you can pick (or randomly) generate any 18 civs from the game!! It puts civs in historically (or close to) accurate locations. Just open the Earthneutral something -sr map as a custom scenario after loading the mod. The link to the thread is below.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=356237

There are a few other maps with hostically accurate starting points.

 

[i_imperator]

I'm not sure if this has already been asked but here goes. If your playing as roosevelt on earth 18 what should you do about that nut monty? Should i warrior rush him or wait till i see Bronze and/or horses and use chariots/axes? I'd like to do a warrior rush if possible but on monarch the AI's start with archery and thats a concern for me. If warrior rush is the way to go then how many warriors do you need to take him out? Settings: Monarch, Epic.

 

[Kid R]

Settle a couple of extra cities first, including one to get the copper, there's loads of places you can settle and get high food and high production. Then hit him with some axemen.

No way you can beat city defender archers with warriors, especially as Monty's capital is on a hill!

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I'm not sure if this has already been asked but here goes. If your playing as roosevelt on earth 18 what should you do about that nut monty? Should i warrior rush him or wait till i see Bronze and/or horses and use chariots/axes? I'd like to do a warrior rush if possible but on monarch the AI's start with archery and thats a concern for me. If warrior rush is the way to go then how many warriors do you need to take him out? Settings: Monarch, Epic.

AIs in WB saves do not start with the usual techs for difficulty. If you are fast you can pick him off with warriors even on emperor.

If you don't like that, it is OK to axe rush him (his copper is a bit far, his archers are very average, and jags suck vs axes) or simply convince him to target a hill city and wall him off.

If you really want to be an ass, move your starting settler near his capitol, settle on a plains hill near there, and execute the warrior rush from that spot.

The hardest spot in Earth 18 is Mali, which has an absolutely pathetic capitol, bad surrounding land with a need for early iron working, and limited food. A skirmisher rush on Hatty can make it all OK though, even on immortal.

Any european except liz can speed rush. Liz has some land to herself and can either settle to her east or work the islands. Mongolia should follow history and rush China. Japan can run GLH and laugh its way to Australia or invade china.

India, Persia, Inca, Russia, etc are easy starts. Sal can push chariots.

 

[Kid R]

AIs in WB saves do not start with the usual techs for difficulty. If you are fast you can pick him off with warriors even on emperor.

But think of the poor kittens

 

[i_imperator]

Thanks for the advice!! I actually tried playing before i posted my question yesterday and i built about 6 warriors to go after monty, of course by the time i got there he had founded a religion and had about 2 archers. I didn't know that the AIs in WB saves do not start with the usual techs for difficulty, so thanks for telling me about that. Of course with 40% city defence, my 6 warriors didn't stand a chance.
I'll try again later today, if the warriors continue to get slaughtered i'll just find copper and build axes. I bet that best Rush/start on earth 18 is Rome! Build preats and kill every1 on europe!!! I have played earth 18 before but only as china.

 

[dalamb]

You don't need Rome. Anyone in mainland Europe can manage a warrior rush at Noble, at which point with several very good cities you can win any way you like. I tried it with Isabella to get the bonus to siege weapons later in the game.

 

[huerfanista]

I've found that the easiest way to deal with Monty is to steal his worker, then fortify your warrior on a forested plains hill next to his capital. Beeline BW and send a couple of axes down there to secure the pin, then take him out once your have IW and construction. Be sure to grab the coastal spots in south america before the AIs have astro. SA is wonderland under state property.

 

[i_imperator]

I've found that the easiest way to deal with Monty is to steal his worker, then fortify your warrior on a forested plains hill next to his capital. Beeline BW and send a couple of axes down there to secure the pin, then take him out once your have IW and construction. Be sure to grab the coastal spots in south america before the AIs have astro. SA is wonderland under state property.

Its nice when you can worker steal like that You can also use that worker to road back to your capital, some garrison may be needed though. I don't really want to wait until IW or construction, i just wanna get him out of my face as soon as i can, its a good suggestion though, but he is a nut after all and thats why i want him gone ASAP!

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Nut or not, he's not going to do much with no tile improvements and 1 city.

 

[huerfanista]

Its nice when you can worker steal like that You can also use that worker to road back to your capital, some garrison may be needed though. I don't really want to wait until IW or construction, i just wanna get him out of my face as soon as i can, its a good suggestion though, but he is a nut after all and thats why i want him gone ASAP!

If you don't pin him before he can get a settler out he'll settle on the copper that's not far off and then he'll have shock axes (which are much tougher to deal with than jags). If you do pin him, you have to be able to deal with his jags (which are resourceless once he gets to IW - but that'll take him a while with low-commerce and no improved tiles) - hence the axes. He'll just spam archers until he gets IW, and with a hill capital you can't take him out without building (and losing) a ton of axes, so it's easier to just beeline construction. With collateral, even axes won't have much trouble taking him out (but I'd send some swords as well).

 

[i_imperator]

Ok...so i actually managed a warrior rush, i built the 4 warriors and went after him, he managed to get hind but he only had 2 warrior's when i attacked. I must have gotten a luck win in one of those battles but the important thing is that he's gone. Thanks for the advice...

 

[TheMeInTeam]

If you don't pin him before he can get a settler out he'll settle on the copper that's not far off and then he'll have shock axes (which are much tougher to deal with than jags). If you do pin him, you have to be able to deal with his jags (which are resourceless once he gets to IW - but that'll take him a while with low-commerce and no improved tiles) - hence the axes. He'll just spam archers until he gets IW, and with a hill capital you can't take him out without building (and losing) a ton of axes, so it's easier to just beeline construction. With collateral, even axes won't have much trouble taking him out (but I'd send some swords as well).

With 3-4 axes holding the choke you can just sit on him until you've expanded/teched pretending he isn't there. Construction + cats comes at one's convenience then.

Axes vs swords barely matter when you have a row of units weakened by cats. Both will have well over 95% odds against everything in the city once siege redlines them.

 

[i_imperator]

Axes and cats always get the job done though, or at least until longbows, walls and castles come into play. In my previous post i said monty founded hindu when he actually didn't... thats what i get when posting when tired!Monty's jag's are only 1 strength better than normal swords aren't they?

 

[r_rolo1]

No, the jag is 1 str point weaker than the regular sword, but has woodie I from the bat and is resourceless. For what matters to you, it is easier to tackle than a sword unless you find them on forest.

 

[tim hicks]

I've been playing as England, Rome and Persia on Earth18 (difficulty Emperor), and in all my games China, and Russia are my greatest threats. In Medieval and later ages , they often Vassel like Crazy and gang up on me. Even if I've built up a massive Empire, their mega stacks wear me down.

In my most recent game , playing as Persia, as soon as I had Immortals , I sent two up to Moscow , and destroyed it , before going after closer enemies, this looks like it's a winning strategy, however when playing as Rome (slower UU), or England (further away), it's going to be more difficult to take out one of the big 2 early on.

I have two questions :-
a) can anyone recommend a strategy for England (or Rome) to avoid the late game Russia, China axis of death
b) Vasselage in Earth 18 seems very silly at times, in one of my games, Catherine managed to Vassel Washington, after DOW on him and taking just one of his cities, why can't I do that ?, does anyone play Earth 18 with Vassle'ing turned off ?

 

[Spectrite]

I've been playing as England, Rome and Persia on Earth18 (difficulty Emperor), and in all my games China, and Russia are my greatest threats. In Medieval and later ages , they often Vassel like Crazy and gang up on me. Even if I've built up a massive Empire, their mega stacks wear me down.

In my most recent game , playing as Persia, as soon as I had Immortals , I sent two up to Moscow , and destroyed it , before going after closer enemies, this looks like it's a winning strategy, however when playing as Rome (slower UU), or England (further away), it's going to be more difficult to take out one of the big 2 early on.

I have two questions :-
a) can anyone recommend a strategy for England (or Rome) to avoid the late game Russia, China axis of death
b) Vasselage in Earth 18 seems very silly at times, in one of my games, Catherine managed to Vassel Washington, after DOW on him and taking just one of his cities, why can't I do that ?, does anyone play Earth 18 with Vassle'ing turned off ?

China always seems to be strong, probably because it has great land and is surrounded by relatively weak neighbors. There isn't much you can do about China unless you're playing an Asian civ. Russia, on the other hand, doesn't seem to be as frequently threatening. Sometimes it is, sometimes it's not.

So as for your two questions:

a) If you're playing as a European civ, Russia is usually fairly easy to take out. Rush everyone else in Europe first (Izzy, Louis, Freddy, etc.) and tech your way to catapults. I usually hit Cathy with a stack of swords/cats, no matter who I'm playing. Usually this is right around the time Cathy starts to switch into expansion mode, so she will have lots of recently settled cities that are poorly defended.

Except if you're Rome (see below).

China, you can't really do anything about; they're just too far away. You can either try to attack them late-game (generally difficult and it could a long war, but doable), or focus on dominating everyone else and simply ignoring them.

b) America is usually very weak because Monty almost always declares on Roosevelt and takes his land. That's probably Roosevelt was so quick to capitulate. The Americas are usually behind in tech, so it shouldn't be hard to take cities from them.

Now, if you're Rome, you don't need to worry about anything. You can conquer at least Spain, France, England, Germany, Greece, Russia, Arabia, Egypt, and maybe Persia with Praets alone (depending on difficulty). And you should be fine from there. Just beeline Iron Working to get Praets ASAP. Neal's King of the World #16 is pretty helpful.

 

[DMOC]

If you want a modified version of the Earth Map with the 3 civs removed from the new world (they don't have a chance of winning without human intervention) then you could consider adding Shaka to southern Africa, Wang Kon to east Asia, and Suryavarman II to south Asia. It really made the game a lot more interesting for me.

This also creates more balance vs. the Chinese.

 

[huerfanista]

First, consolidate Europe ASAP. It is the best land in the game, with everything you need to get a big tech lead and which will make China nothing more than a late game mop-up operation. Rome is a fabulous GP farm, Germany is cottage spam, Spain and Yugoslavia are military, Paris is wonder-spam with great commerce to boot.

Second, take out Russia no later than maces/trebs. If you're Rome, just roll over her with praets/cats. Russia has the best production land in the game - either Moscow or St. Petersburg always becomes my IW city, and both are great for spamming units (especially once you can run State Property).

Third, hit the middle east/Egypt to grab holy cities and flood plains cottage-spam sites (Babylon and Thebes/Memphis). This can usually be done with either maces/trebs or cuirassiers.

Fourth, take out Persia and India with cavalry and cannons.

Fifth, Roll-up China/Mongolia with your choice of cavalry/infantry/paratroops/bombers (I like paras/bombers to grab all that land very fast).

By now, you should have capitulated every civ outside of the americas. They'll be extremely backwards, and any VC is yours for the taking.

EDIT: State Property is a must for a huge eurasian empire. I generally try to take MilTrad from liberalism, as once you get past Russia you have a big logistical challenges, and 2-move units are a must (and the fact that they are insanely strong when gotten early doesn't hurt either). RR is extremely important when fighting a land war in asia, for obvious reasons. As soon as it comes in I set my dozens of workers to building the Pan-Eurasian Railroad, which will greatly speed up conquest. SoL is a very powerful wonder with the huge number of cities you'll have. Then flight/AL/fascism/elec/radio for paras/bombers.

 

[Kid R]

If you want a modified version of the Earth Map with the 3 civs removed from the new world (they don't have a chance of winning without human intervention) then you could consider adding Shaka to southern Africa, Wang Kon to east Asia, and Suryavarman II to south Asia. It really made the game a lot more interesting for me.

This also creates more balance vs. the Chinese.

The early posts in Neal's games always contained a few ideas like this for balancing out the map. Neal tended to prefer small tweaks here and there but IMO larger things like you suggest are more effective and fun. An alterternative to taking out the new world civs altogether is making a decent land bridge to asia. (One game I also put a railroaded land bridge from Chile to Australia. HC didn't colonize OZ - preferred settling no-resource cities along the bridge - but at least it gave him contact.)