First attempt in AW games - Rat's warmongering

[ThERat]

While dealing with the last civilization on the bigger continent, I want to finish the game fast by sending a first convoy to Russia with the aim to absorb all their units to do my final push after that.
The first convoy consists of 3 infantry together with naval support.

I land the units near Smolensk, a hilly location which will be ideal for naval bombardment support and digging in my own units.

In the meantime, England having nothing to offer to counter my attacks goes down rather fast. I am keeping only the capital, London.

 

[ThERat]

Russia brings in their units as expected. However they do not have infantry at this moment and this will not get them far.

Now, have a look at this. I don't even have destroyers, but our barbarian friends seem to be technologically superior to anyone.

I manage to take Smolensk with a combination of brute infantry force (some of them are evacuated to heal on my home land) and naval bombardment. I also ship in a tank (though tanks seem to be not that great). The AI should be trained to get at least some navy going, somebody forgot to tell them.

Wow, I even manage to get yet another policy, not that I really need it at this moment.

 

[ThERat]

I can see that Russia is far weaker than the other AI's or I am too advanced? I easily move forward to take the next city.

There is now really nothing stopping me from advancing. It is only a mater of time until I win this game. As you can see, my 4 naval units have been upgraded to destroyers now and pound anything in their way (remember they got 3 tile range, double attack). Real monsters.

The only thing that keeps me from being faster is the rather narrow continent Russia is on. Russia has acquired infantry too, but my sea bombardment simply rips those units apart.

I clear all those units in my way and move on.

I reach the gates of Moscow and realize that with the new game rules, taking the capital will be good enough.

In 1950AD, I take the Russian capital and win the game.

Overall it has been a nice experience and fun game. I will get into my analysis in the next post.

 

[ThERat]

Ok, time to analyze the game experience a little.

The good:
- 1upt really makes you approach the game in a new way and warfare is different, fun
- naval warfare has gotten a new emphasis and I find that personally great. It is now essential to have naval support for your landings.
- unit promotions are really powerful and it pays to 'nurture' your units throughout the game.
- social policies are a nice addition, if only they don't punish you for expanding so much
- no WW to ever bother you. Huge improvement over Civ 4
- the generated maps are very nice indeed. Sirian has done a fantastic job in my mind.

The bad:
- Too much emphasis on happiness, you're constantly forced to build happy buildings.
- Courthouses to quell unhappiness in newly conquered cities take forever to build leaving you with 5 unhappiness for a long period.
- Puppets build useless buildings draining your economy.
- Barbarians are too powerful in later stages and annoy you due to the big empty spaces that are crated.
- Somebody got to teach the AI how to use a navy
- Maintenance of improvements is too high. It leaves you to only build happiness, economic and science buildings. Who would want a wall/castle/barracks etc.

The ugly:
- city razing takes up to 4 turns giving you nothing but unhappiness and artificially slowing the human player down

 

[vmxa]

I agree with nearly all of it, except maybe the raze part. It is not great, but not unreasonable as they don't want us to conquer it would seem.

I really hate the courthouse requirement and the maint and not being able to sell off buildings. I dislike not being able to even see what the puppet is doing and if you had city states in your game you would be in a mess with a bunch of them to bring your econ to its knees.

At a minimum we should be able to view the puppet. I could not make rational choices with a worker to help it as I do not know what tiles going to be worked or what is needed.

The barbs late in the game can be a killer, if you do not have units to jump on them right away and you cannot fill the land with towns to deprive them of spawn sites.

Could use a sentry, but if I do that I may as well let them spawn and get the gold.

 

[THE_COW_IS_OK]

On my last immortal game, I found the best way to manage happiness with new conquered city was selling them to the weakest AI. Beside the obvious raze advantage, you have a place where enemy can't reach you. Not sure how can this apply in AW situation. Neverthless there IS a solution ultimatly

 

[ThERat]

AW means always war with the aim to defeat everyone. No deal ever. So, your solution isn't viable.

 

[Ozbenno]

Nice game TheRat! Good win. There are a few wrinkles in the game to be ironed out.

 

[Itstoearly]

- no WW to ever bother you. Huge improvement over Civ 4

Still learning my abbreviations here... what does WW stand for?

 

[vmxa]

War Weariness.

 

[Itstoearly]

War Weariness.

Thanks!

 

[Methos]

Excellent game TheRat. It was an enjoying read. I'm glad they made naval units so powerful, but as you said, the AI needs to understand how to better use them.

 

[endymion]

a very nice read, keep them coming. I actually had a game on king where the ai did use a navy. I had 1 city on their continent that i protetected with 2 frigates and they came at me with 4 of them.

 

[ThERat]

Thanks for your kind comments, folks

As for another iteration, I actually planned to play an SG with old grumpy men, but it seems the support is lacking.
I tried another AW game on emperor and boy, it is tough. I took my til around 1750AD just to clear my own continent (rifles did the job). However since you are restricted to a few units that are highly promoted, losing them in a overseas invasion is highly discouraging. I just couldn't set a foot on enemy land without plenty of attrition. I am now thinking that from emperor onwards, city states are needed to help out in the food department (maritime city states).

Going to try that out.

 

[Akbarthegreat]

As good as Lemmy's Babylonian playthrough

 

[Salarakas]

Great read. I tried a similar game but quickly met 4 civs and had no horses or iron anywhere near my towns. Trying to capture cities with only spears is quite costly.

 

[Rams]

Thanks for taking the time Rat, good stuff.

 

[Mercade]

I decide to sacrifice a general as a citadel which does take a little pressure away. Any unit that move next to it get -3hp which does help a little.

Perhaps a late question, but what's the consideration for putting the citadel immediately west of the city? Wouldn't the citadel have a bigger reach if you put it two tiles west of the city and thus keep the enemy away further?

 

[Sparthage]

A possible reason could be that he put it there was so that the wounded units would all be within the city's bombardment range after they already lost 3 hp. I'm no ThERat so I don't know exactly why. Just an idea.

 

[ThERat]

If I had put the citadel 2 tiles away, it would have come under far more enemy attacks. Remember that those English longbows can shoot 3 tiles. And the enemy would have been out of reach for my naval bombardment support. I think it was simply a desperate measure to prevent the AI from attacking the city. Slowing them down so I can bombard them did the job