First attempt in AW games - Rat's warmongering

[ThERat]

Anyone who knows me from Civ 3 or even Civ 4 succession games, knows I am a warmonger at heart.

I decided to give this a try at Civ 5. Will the new 1upt rule make things different? Surely it will.

I chose the Aztecs as they give 3 culture for every victory in battles, which should be just right for AW game. I disable city states as they would make no sense here. I decide to play on continents as naval invasions with 1 upt should pose some real challenge I guess.

The settings are:

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And what I start I get (was the first roll)

Two luxury resources with some production potential, very nice.

As for my plans:

I am going to explore the land a bit as I know the AI won't be so aggressive and cities can defends themselves after all. The ruins can't be just left to the AI, no way. As for techs, I am going for the Oracle for a free social policy, which I plan to spend on the honor path first and foremost. For those who forgot, it gives you combat bonus versus barbs, a free General, double experience from fights and other useful stuff for a warmonger.

Mainly, I am hoping for a great experience and fun game

 

[ThERat]

Decide to settle in place as it looks pretty good. Now, since this is an Always War (AW) game, I start with a Jaguar first before anything else. Build plan is Jaguar, worker, Jaguar and then maybe a settler before Oracle.

I send out my starting Jaguar to explore the area and get Mining from a ruin while researching Animal Husbandry to find horses first.

Not much later I meet the first enemy, India . That's pretty fast. MY decision to get a Jaguar first was right after all.

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India has a warrior nearby that is no match for our city and the Jaguar.

Let the fun begin!

 

[Rik Meleet]

Good luck !

 

[planetary]

Subscribed!

 

[vmxa]

I wish I had thought of AW with no city states, next game. Well that is presuming yours goes well.

 

[Sparthage]

lurker's comment: Subscription Post

 

[PEM8000]

Wow, it's going to be a lot of fun !

 

[ThERat]

By the way, I forgot to mention, as you can see the first Jaguar has been upgraded to a spear by a ruin. I don't mind that. In addition, look at all those horses around Good for production and units.

Let's continue with the story though

I continue to roam the nearby area and get an additional citizen in my capital, wow, that's huge! City goes from 2 to 3. This will help my plan to get the Oracle.

Now, I am playing AW and that would be no fun without any enemies, so the addition of the French is welcome. War is declared.

Just like in Civ 4, it seems the initial battle is against barbarians, who pop up from all sides. It does need some tactical play, you can't just beat them up as they often come in pairs here. With 2 units, I am building a worker to get all those resources up. The computer also chose the right tile for the first cultural city expansion for me. (I think it would be nice if you could actually chose it yourself, as the computer usually thinks grassland is better than hills, duh)

One other positive side effect of the barbarians is my culture. With all those battles raging, I can choose my first social policy and as mentioned earlier, I am going to go for the Honor path first. This will give me an initial bonus against barbs.

 

[ThERat]

Well, after connecting the horses, I don't want to farm grass for growth first, I need those gems up and running for production (and money + happiness). Culture takes too long to expand my city, what better way than use the all important factor in this game, money. I purchase the gems tile as I got a healthy sum of money in the bank

Zooming a few turns forward where we neither meet Indian or French units in our territory (not surprising given the costs of units), I have gotten out a worker and settler and decided to move east to found another city. I purposely settle next to the lake to benefit from Aztecs UB.
The capital is now going for the Oracle (not the GL) for a free social policy. Research set for calendar to connect that sugar tile next to my capital.

The generated map is very interesting indeed. It has that beautiful mountain range in the north shielding us from the French with a single tile choke (where I parked my spear). In the northeast there is another 1 tile choke. However, no unit came from there and I suspect India is in the south. I purchased the horse tile in my second city as I plan to leave that monument out (it costs 1 gpt to maintain, I rather buy those needed plots initially. In addition, while building a wonder, I need my second city to get another Jaguar out.

I am happy with the first opening moves (surely can be improved), but things seem to go fine, if only I can grab that wonder.

 

[ThERat]

I make a new discovery. Ruins can give you a tech that you are currently researching Never mind, at least it saved me a few turns of research. It also seems that the northeast isn't populated at all.

Hmm, seems I am not very productive after all yet. Well, AW games are always come backs from behind. But my immediate enemies aren't much better. means that later on it will just get more difficult to invade them.

The Aztec special ability pays off, fighting all those barbarians gives me another social policy. I chose the General not so much for his fight support, but more for the path it opens later on (hint: double experience from fights)

And here we go, finally I spot where Gandhi is hiding. Seems he has some quarrel with barbarians too.

In the meantime, my strategy to grab a wonder has paid off, the Oracle is mine.

What do I get from it? The said double experience for fights. Now, don't forget that units in Civ 5 do not lose the experience nor promotions when they get upgraded. This means that you better don't waste units in the field for nothing but really take care of them. In the current state, it is much better to build cheap units such as Jaguars and then upgrade them as this is overall cheaper and faster. maybe this needs to be addressed in a patch as it seems a bit broken.

 

[ThERat]

And for those of you who wonder why there is no fighting action going on yet, don't worry, it will soon start and not too shabby, promised!

More of that tomorrow

 

[Thormodr]

Very entertaining.

I'll have to try an Aztec Always War game sometime. Looks like fun.

 

[Ashigaru]

Ooh! Looking forward to how this pans out, should be a lot of fun

 

[ThERat]

Now, exploring towards the Indians, I can see some What on earth are they doing? Can't even explore the nearby land...well well

I get my Jaguar upgraded that way and receive 70 gold that way. Too bad for Gandhi

The money is used to purchase another horse tile next to my second city.

To top all the ruin hunting up, I get another tech from it, trapping, a rather cheap tech by now. The ruin is way south of India at the southern end of the continent. It seems I am together with India and France only, with myself in the center, which should be easier for me with regards to troop movement.

In the meantime, I sent that upgraded spear towards India and get constantly hit. Each time it takes a hit and survives, the experience goes up by 4 and not 2 thanks to my social policy choice. The spear is at 60 exp already and could be a real killer later on.

India is asking for peace though I didn't take too much out yet. I think this needs some tweaking as his offer seems a little too much to me

To round up this session, I finally reached iron working and have quite a few sources next to my capital. It's turn 122 (950BC). It is time to connect the iron, churn out some Jaguars, upgrade them to Swords and then go after either of my foes. Let the fun begin in the next session.
You can also see I founded a third city next to some resources, the ocean and near the choke point towards France.

 

[ThERat]

After the long initial phase of beating up barbarians and some skirmishes here and there, it is time to prepare an assault.

France has built Troyes just north of the choke point that I have occupied with a spear and General for quite some time. It is time to gather some units to go after them. Happiness is also in the green, so we can get some more cities. And I got money too to upgrade a few Jaguars to swords.

You can see, Troyes has expanded the borders fast and grown too. Time to get going. I pull in another archer and 2 swords (in this picture still Jaguars). The problem is that with 1upt, that choke will be very hard to pass through foe me.

Now, the tactical play begins. France pulls out a spear when I step closer with a sword. I don't want to attack on a hill and let him make the first move which he does by attacking my sword. I counter and just beat him.

This gives me the chance to pull other units in as well. However, the situation is very difficult as France has set up a perfect defense. As you can see, France has 2 cities that can bombard my units while they try to pass through that choke. Lucky I got some medics promotions and my units are strong due to prior fighting. I have to try and maneuver very carefully here. You can see the situation at turn 146. France has pulled in another archer for more range attacking.

On turn later, he even pulls in a spear to attack my wounded units. I have pulled one sword out of their territory to heal while my archer takes the brunt of the attacks this round.

Wow, can I sustain this bombardment and fight units at the same time?

 

[ThERat]

I get a lucky break, as I have accumulated enough culture for adopting another social policy and the added strength in combat is just right in time.

I decide to attack the spear with my healthy sword, while pulling back the spear and archer to heal, while another sword in still healing at the sideline

Next turn, I swap and heal while getting bombed by those cities. Especially my spear is pretty beaten as you can see. I swap it with the archer. You can see that he has a new sword in the game that attacked on of my swords, which I swap with the now healed sword that rested outside for a while. I use it to take out the spear. This is all really tight and one wrong move and my units will vanish I assume

In the last picture for now, you can see that France pulled in another 2 archers. My spear has retreated all the way back into my territory. There is another sword that is coming forward + one more in the making and out soon. My 2 swords can easily handle those archers I am sure.

However, I got only 3 units on the battlefield now, which means less distribution for the enemy bombardment. This has been one of the more exciting battles I fought in a civilization game. Usually would just roll in with a stack of units. Not here though
I can also sense that France has pulled in quite a few of their units, but of course, the AI has real issues in terms of tactical play. If I had to play against another human, there is no way I could pass that choke without far superior units.

 

[Methos]

Very impressive game, TheRat.

 

[bestrfcplayer]

Nice job so far! Can't wait for you to destory the French!

 

[Ashigaru]

Loving this so much. Keep up the reporting Rat, it's very interesting as I've never seen this tactic before!!

 

[ThERat]

Will I finally be able to break France? Well, it seems that they threw in most of their units to prevent me from entering their territory. I am able to bring in my 3rd sword while the wounded archer dies a heroic death

I captured a worker as well. However too many workers are no use in civ 5 as they can kill your economy.

I kill the spear and surround Troyes with a 4th sword following from behind.

Finally on turn 157, I am able to take the first french city

This is how my land looks the same turn. I have 4 cities, my capital is building the Great Wall for better defense in my own territory. Happiness is still acceptable but one city is building a Colosseum to prepare myself for further annexing of cities.