First attempt in AW games - Rat's warmongering

[ThERat]

However, I don't give France a break now, simply have to keep the momentum as they seem gassed. Time to go after Marseille. I crawl up the mountain pass to get to the city.

The city doesn't stand a chance and there is no way I will keep it. But even if you raze a city in Civ 5, it will need to shrink by 1 pop each turn until it is gone (and having this annoyance of asking you what to produce there, hell it is going to be razed anyway). In the meantime it will cause an extra 5 unhappiness, nice really

​

No time to ponder and on towards Paris

The city doesn't stand a chance too and I will keep it in this nice central location!

Finally, a look at my French campaign, there are 3 French cities left that will surely fall. However, due to the happiness issue, I am not going to keep them expect maybe one. The rest of the land will be taken by Paris. Civ 5 forces you to keep few cities that expand far. I wish there were more counters to unhappiness, but alas, that's what the designers wanted.

Now for a real shocker, remember that Great Wall I was building. At this turn 170, I am 1 turn away from it and during the IT get the message that the wonder was built in a far away land
What? That is possible. I am so mad. Well, it can't all go right

 

[Methos]

I can't really tell from the screenshots, but it doesn't appear that Marselles was a good build regarding resources. From what I can tell, all the resources it had were also within the cultural bounds of Troyes. If I'm seeing that right, it makes me wonder if the AI built Marselles in order to better support the choke point. Is this correct, or am I not seeing something?

 

[TheBB]

The sheep is unreachable by Troyes. Not that important though. But you're right, it's eerily well-placed for defense.

 

[Rik Meleet]

I have some requests.
* Since this game is new (and I haven't bought it yet) I don't know the food/shields/commerce per tile. Can you please in your screenshots show them on the map ?
* I love maps, can you please post a worldmap ?

Thanks

 

[ThERat]

The problem in Civ 5 is that each city you add increases unhappiness and makes social policies that much harder to get (as the limit is increased every time you add a city). In my mind to penalize expansion that much is wrong. Either more unhappiness or social policy penalty. But to basically make a 3-4 city empire THE way to go is wrong. This simply means less choices.

You will see while I play on that the unhappiness limit is really slowing down things a lot. In my mind this needs serious tweaking. I will post more of my view at the end of the game.

So, in short, I did not keep Marseille as it would just add to unhappiness without gaining me any ground. I would keep maybe important coastal cities or happy resource cities.

 

[ThERat]

France is down to 3 cities and I am not going to let them recuperate. I will simply move ahead and take them out of them game now. The northern lands will all be mine

Moving towards Orleans I promote a sword. I like that ability to heal while still moving or attacking. It is a very powerful promotion in my mind. And don't forget, these units can all be upgraded and keep their promotions etc. Units are something to really take care of in Civ 5. Like pet toys.

Easily, I take Orleans, the last city I am going to keep. The other two cities will simply be razed. Of course, the French cities are all puppets for now as I can't afford the added unhappiness now that I would get by annexing the cities (+5 unhappiness til cities build courts, and let me tell you building courts can take easily 20+ turns)

I consolidate before moving on and take out the second last French city before moving on to Tours.

And finally, The French are no more It was initially a very hard fought battle due to the mountain range with that choke. I have to say, the maps are really superb I feel. That's one very positive aspect of the game.

And for Rik, the world map for now. (By the way, the world map is really ugly as it is, you could think it comes straight from Civ 1) You can see my possessions in the north with 3 + 3 cities. Gandhi in the south seems to have 3 cities himself. I will need to boost happiness before turning on him.

 

[Schalke 04]

lurker's comment:

Hi ThERat!

I was really happy to see a story written/played by you!

I am a Civ3 addict and therefore I know you and your reputation!

Out of all given stories at the moment I like yours the most.

1. For the next time: I would like to see a story from you playing with the Germans. Not for the case that I am German. But because I thought of the German trait of being very weak (a lot of other player thought the same). However, after the release of the game, it went out to be, that this trait could be very useful, especially for early wars (for conquering, AND for getting influence with city states).

2. There is an interesting strategy about ignoring happiness at all, which could be useful for guys like you who are "warmongers at heart". However, I suppose the benefit will be decreased in your current game, as you nearly cleared YOUR continent from unworthy civilizations.

3. Have fun! I'll be following you!

 

[vmxa]

Lurkers Comment:

How could getting free units from barbs and extra gold be weak?

 

[Schalke 04]

Lurkers Comment:

How could getting free units from barbs and extra gold be weak?

Well, NOW it seems to be very powerful, indeed. Now, that we know how barbarian tribes act in the game, and how much city states will like/reward you for killing barbs.

Before release date on the other hand, Germany was widely considered as a low tiered Civ, espespially as other traits seem very powerful at first sight.

 

[ThERat]

Thanks Schalke 04 for the compliment

I do think the German trait can be useful for the early warmongering. In the long run, it is essential to have gold and happiness. Gold is needed to upgrade your units and rush some happy buildings.

I did use both and would like to have more of the money. Not having alliances with city states makes it much harder to accumulate money or food or whatever. The no happiness strategy seems a little extreme to me. It means you fight at less strength. You don't grow and don't build much too then. I prefer the path in between and try to keep unhappiness at least at level 1.

On the other hand, upgrading units is THE strategy for a warmonger game. For example, my swords used in the French campaign were all Jaguars upgraded to swords. They will later become muskets and even rifles I guess. And with all the nice promotions they will simply be awesome units. This means you really got to take care of your units in fight, something that adds to strategic gameplay.

 

[ThERat]

France has been eliminated after an intense fight, it is time to gain some happiness and turn south towards India.

It is turn 188, when I move my first reconnaissance unit south. I am still grappling with happiness + my swords have some time to move from France to India. I can see that India doesn't sport fancy units, archers and spears is all he has. His third city has not even expanded one tile What is he doing?

I wait more than 10 turns until my swords arrive. I always have a General in tow to boost my attacks.

Now, this is what I have been waiting for. It will boost my happiness by 6 (since I have 6 cities). Now I will be ready to take out India.

First city is taken with ease, note also that you keep any culture expansion from the previous owners, a clear deviation from Civ 3/4.

I move on to Mumbai

As India has no real military force to defend itself, it's a foregone conclusion. The initial military India had consisted of archers and spears that my swords ate with ease.

On turn 220, India falls and the whole continent is mine.

In Civ 5 terms, this means I have 3 blocks of cities
North: Ex- France, Center: the core, South: India
9 cities with LOTS of empty space in between and 2 big chunks of land completely void. Welcome to civilization 5

It also means I will have to have units around to fight the ever popping barbarians, which is good for my coffers anyway. Each barb camp I take out gives me 37 gold, add the culture benefit I gain from each victory and I don't mind them being around.

Since there is nobody on my continent left, it is time to heard for astronomy and explore the world. There are plenty of hidden natural wonders that I need for added happiness too. I will try and improve happiness while staying in the green for gold. It would be nice to have Delhi and Paris annexed to get them to produce what I want and not some dumb AI puppet.

 

[Ozbenno]

Nice game so far. Interested to see how it pans out, no problems so far!!!

 

[ThERat]

Ozbenno, taking your own continent poses no problem on this difficulty level.

Taking over other continents will prove far more difficult (you will this here once my reporting catches up).
For now I got to see my dentist for a potential root canal treatment

 

[ThERat]

Well, after beating France and India, the continent is devoid of AIs but barbarians are popping up all the time, good for culture growth and training my new units (which admittedly aren't that many)

To recall this is my continent on turn 221, I seem to lack some production here. Juggling production, happiness and gold isn't an easy job in Civ 5 I can tell. More so since I have no city states free food support and no trade opportunities.

I am heading for the all important tech astronomy now to get some caravel out to explore the world and find my foes. Besides that, bashing up barbarians is the only pastime.

This way, I am gaining the last social policy of the honor tree, which is a real killer in my mind. It will turn my swords into rifles and maybe infantry eventually as well as turn catapults to cannons and artillery.

On turn 259, I finally get astronomy in and do have the money to buy a caravel in the west. It is sent out to explore right away.

Some people would ask why I send out a caravel to actively seek the enemies. Well, I want to fight proper wars and stage invasions. Should be quite an experience with 1upt. And don't forget those natural wonders still waiting to get discovered to give me extra happiness. And, there is land in the west as you can see.

It doesn't take long and I meet Germany to declare war right away.

I will continue to find more enemies before deciding where to stage my first invasion. Let's see how that will play out

 

[ThERat]

Having met Germany, I continue to explore the world and get another caravel out in the east.

The western caravel finds a natural wonder while rounding the German continent. Germany seems to be alone.

In the meantime even though I battle only barbarians, the fact that I didn't really expand anymore let's me choose another social policy. It will be tough for here on to get more as invasions mean more cities = tougher to get social policies. I choose commerce as I really need more money for upgrading and some rushes. Surely order or autocracy would be nice to have but they aren't unlocked for quite some time to go.

I continue to explore and find all the remaining AI's as can be seen from this statistic. Yes, I do have little money, but that also means I am making good use of what I have.

During the relative lull of getting to astronomy and exploring the world, I started 3 wonders, all them get built by myself, no more Great Wall disaster.
The first wonder gives +5 happiness, though I wonder whether the many beakers invested in it is worth the effort. However, pumping out more units would have meant more maintenance, same for building more infrastructure. I feel Civ 5 needs quite some polishing here, it doesn't feel right to get penalised for anything you do.
Build more cities, get whacked with happiness problems
Build infrastructure, get drowned by maintenance issues
Build units, get issues with unit support (and by the way, does anyone know the mechanics of unit support, it seems rather erratic to me at this point)

The second wonder gives more money and with many cities that I have, this should provide quite a boost to my economy.

While exploring, I find more natural wonders just by sailing past the land

 

[Ozbenno]

The line of sight of naval units seems a bit too much, with policies and wonders you could easily have 6 tile line of sight!!

 

[ThERat]

Sailing past Russia I spot something that starts to scare me

They are sporting frigates. Given how strong naval units can be, I am a little rocked that the AI seems to be slightly ahead in techs. No good


Finally for a proper world map (by the way, Firaxis, can you do a decent job please, the mini map looks atrocious). You can see Germany on a continent, Russia is alone too. The third continent is populated by 3 nations. I think the choice for my first invasion is pretty clear. I rather go for a one Civ continent. Russia seems too advanced. Germany is not far. Bismark, you better start worrying now.

In the next picture you see a former sword that got upgraded as there were 2 ruins next to Siam on small Islands. I got the unit upgrade and a +1 pop for another city. The AI should really be able to simply send over a unit to pop those ruins. I move my unit closer to Siam but get beaten left and right and decide to ship it back home. Again the AI doesn't seem to know how to use naval units to intercept me.

And finally, D-Day is looming. My terrifying invasion force of 2 knights, 1 general and 1 crossbow (?) is standing on the shores of our homeland, waiting to sail across the rather large channel. I plan to send the units onto the forest tiles next to the barb camp. I hope terrain will help me to fight off the German defense force. I hope it won't turn into Omaha beach though.

 

[Olav]

Oooh, this will be exciting!

 

[ThERat]

D-Day:

I don't really have that big an army, but the spot I select to land isn't that suited for a mass invasion, neither does Civ 5 cater for that anyway.

I select a site with forests and a hill for my ranged units maybe. units are approaching the target area

One knight is dropped off the take out that barb camp. The moment I set my foot on German soil, they come running. A sword approaches. I can see that my knights are fast but for this sort of combat they might be useless

A quick exchange of my ranged attack and their attack leads to both units being yellow.

I take out the wounded sword after changing positions of knight and crossbow. I also bring over another knight. I am starting to feel confident.

However, Germany brings in another sword, I swap the wounded knight with my healthy one thinking the sword can do nothing against a knight in the forest. I get really shocked to see my knight almost being killed

I can see that this is going to lead me nowhere. I have more units on the way, but the landmass allows for only so many units and if I move forward I get into Germans city control and get bombarded etc.

I decide to pull out the units, use that small Island to heal them and then move over to a bigger piece of land. In the meantime, I got another crossbow over. It doesn't look that much better. Germany seems to have units everywhere. My knights should be more mobile here though.

At least they are stupid enough not to produce any navy that could harm my sailing units. This gives me the option to pull out in the worst case as long as I stay near the coast.

 

[Nutteria]

Quite nice scenario! I look foreward in to reading more.Also From personal exp. I can tell having 14 citys by the 1200 AD is a problem you can not get out of easly.-22 happynes literally kills your civ momentum.