[BTS] Enter the noob

[krikav]

That looks somewhat nice imho.
You have prioritized getting units and land instead of nasty tech.
Good prio!!

I would wait untill next turn, then suicide all catapults and then take Brennus capital, after that sue for peace.
The major point with catapults is to suicide them and cause collateral damage.

 

[BornInCantaloup]

Maybe not all but at least 3 or 4, yes. You can check the combat odds for your macemen, then, and make a decision as to who should follow up.

 

[prettification]

Here is how's the game:

Funny how my initial peaceful plan was morphed by BornInCantaloup into a full-blown bloody domination of the continent. Cant be thankful enough of the extensive help I got from this person and the forum by the way. Detailed and much appreciated.

(and yes i know about the slavery magic . I tested it out several games ago because of the slavery meme in this forum and I am much more proficient with it,playing with the overflow and all, but I still needs some practice to become fluent with it. I disagree though that it always supersede the good old way, I like to tinker with my cities configuration to optimize production when i need a steady flow of it).

So I crushed brennus, took his map and some techs, and gave him back some cities after vassalizing him (did not know that vassals let you the full city ring, this is awesome, Im addicted now) for him to be able to tech for me (he is slighlty behind so everything is perfect). I traded him printing press to help him and set his research on RP on the way to rifling (I personally went for steel)

I gave up on overcoming the tech lag. What I did is I settled on capitalizing on great merchants to help me research at 40-50 percent and beeline to steel (Im at 30 percent now because im preparing a war), all the while sustaining the great merchants crop and churning out trebuchets for a mass upgrade (along some camel archers into cuirassers) in order to beat mansa up and vassalize him too, hopefully extorting techs in the process.

I plan on vassalizing Isabella after that (annoying conquistadors putt off the project). So I have a direction for the rest of the game now. I dont know about space. Domination would be easy, but I want space so Ill still try it.

Meanwhile I looked and discovered what must have been the cause of my scientific floundering: maintenance cost and inflation are huge in this game. I seriously underrated that. The early expansion and massive force must have completely shot my research capacity.

I still have a poor grasp on the game and need to work on acquiring game vision. But games are long.... I dont know about my civ and civfanatic future. Wait and see...

Ill probably post one or two updates, unless I really fudge up the game. I feel like Its kinda fair to let you know about its fate.

Thanks again for the help.

 

[BornInCantaloup]

Hey, those are good news, props ! Good idea with the merchants.
Also, yes, the eco screen, F2, is very useful to check where your money is going/coming from.

My advice : complete the game at the easiest. So go for Domination. It will save you a lot of time and make use of the overwhelming army you already have - no use having an army if it stands still. You can always start a new game if you feel the urge...
You can raise your science slider at the moment : reach Steel first, then you can lower it if you want and get some upgrades.
Mansa is likely to capitulate after you capture 1 or 2 cities, so the game is well in hand.

For the future : try and work on your economy earlier.
First phase is always expansion (so, do not cottage when you have a single city). Then, from 3-6 cities, if the game is peaceful, economy is the focus : growth and cottage non specials. Then keep expanding, by whatever means is necessary.
Your city placement is ok, so you shouldn't have any trouble improving that part of your game.
Get some infrastructure, especially in your capital. Get Libraries in most places if you do not have anything better to build (better builds : settlers, workers). If I'm not warring, I will routinely build 5+ libraries between Writing and, say, Civil Service (random example).
If you wanna try a space race, Oxford University is a crucial build. You should try to complete it around or before 1000 AD. Means libraries, means universities, probably means using a Great scientist to bulb into Education. Having invaded and killed an AI before that point would be nice.
Lastly : some more attention on your civics and great persons will pay off big time. (not just Slavery : Bureaucracy or Organized Religion are huge eco boosts.)



ps : you can also install the BUG mod (unaltered gameplay) if you want a more user friendly interface (a bar for points is a good reminder that you should produce some...).
BAT mod is another option (unaltered gp as well) but the "improved graphics" are not for everyone's taste. I think forests and jungles look too alike.

 

[prettification]

Hi,

Regarding the game, I gave up not long after the last post because it was wrapped up and I could not bother with toiling towards the end (my first win on prince, if one can call it that).

Actually I did not really intend to come back, for a while at least. I wanted to try things by myself and to amass some experience alone. But in my current game I stumbled upon a really annoying wall.

Its 1867 AD (Saladin on Prince Pangaea again) and I spent the first 300 turns patiently and painstakingly conquering two neighbours, achieving the bulging size of a small half of the continent and planning on overwhelming the rest of the world with gigantic doom, ONLY to witness Budicca (orange) vassaling two neighbours (green and brown) after two small wars, matching with little effort the size of my 300 turns conquest (more like 150).

Its all the more grating since I intervened in one of her earlier war to expand her empire so as to fabricate a comfortable ally.

And now she nullifies my plan with what looks like an outright gimmick.

The clash of two giants seems unevitable, and I dont want that. There is just a painful grinding of a world war looming, whereas I toiled all game long to precisely avoid that, by getting bigger, in a RIGHTFULL way.

It shattered me and Im beginning to wonder if its actually worth to conquer for a long time. Maybe I should just aim for amassing vassals through short surgical wars. It really irks me to be forced into a one way gameplay because of the vassal system....

How do you deal with this "vassal problem"?