DemonDeLuxe
Warlord
Ok, I'm not really a warmonger, but more the builder type. However, I do love huge empires, too, and I was curious how a game with a set AI ally would be. So I made a game on "Prince" level, selected Napoleon as an ally on a large terran map, Ghandi for myself, selected 8 more AIs grouped into 4 teams and switched One City Challenge on for me...
I must say: It was the most fascinating game I had with CIV4 yet. I didn't care too much for military for the first 5000 years, but managed to grab ALL SEVEN religions. It helped quite a bit that I could tell ol' Napoleon what to research and just before the final research turn had him research something different - thus all the religions were founded in Delhi. I did send him a fair share of missionaries, though, so there was no reason to complain
War was not a problem: I made it so that Napoleon's empire surrounded my one city, so I had a girdle of protection around me. I got ALL wonders of the world (but Versailles, which you can't build in OCC), had tons of gold from all those missionaries, meanwhile having the tech slider at 100% nonstop until 1900.
When it was time to go to war, the strategy was simple: I told Napoleon where to attack, marched in front with experienced units, killed all defenders but one and let Nappi take the city with ease (only if a city's location annoyed me, I conquered it myself, because in OCC this automatically razes the city).
I didn't quite finish the game that was set to "Conquest only" - when I stopped around 1970 at future technology 7 or so, Napoleon ruled 90% of the world and Delhi had culture somewhere arond 400.000 IIRC.
The game was fun insofar as there was a real job sharing, there was enough battling around and nevertheless, I could build one dream of a city (having all national wonders in just one city is nice for a change, too). A pity that in OCC you can't build cathedrals, though - maybe I could have cracked the 1 million line for culture
One nice thing with a set AI ally is that he agrees to every trade you offer, to every attack plan and every research recommendation. This basically means you have some "gold reserve in the bank" in case of dire need, you have more research power and you have some guard troops when you attack. The only thing one must be aware of is that once HE starts building a wonder, YOU can't build it anymore - so it's a good idea to queue up all available wonders quickly
However, at the end of the day I couldn't help but feeling that it was bit TOO easy with one city only. Makes you think, really: Why on earth should I go through the hassle of nursing those baby cities when I can accomplish the same thing with just ONE city? I will try that these days without an ally, but I know for sure that for 90% of the game, *I* had more tech & gold and better troops than my ally with his 20something cities, as was reflected by my score, which he topped not before 1940, when he had more than 30 cities and had built some stuff in them.
I don't know - maybe CIV4 is *too* balanced? So balanced that building an empire isn't really worth the trouble?
I must say: It was the most fascinating game I had with CIV4 yet. I didn't care too much for military for the first 5000 years, but managed to grab ALL SEVEN religions. It helped quite a bit that I could tell ol' Napoleon what to research and just before the final research turn had him research something different - thus all the religions were founded in Delhi. I did send him a fair share of missionaries, though, so there was no reason to complain
War was not a problem: I made it so that Napoleon's empire surrounded my one city, so I had a girdle of protection around me. I got ALL wonders of the world (but Versailles, which you can't build in OCC), had tons of gold from all those missionaries, meanwhile having the tech slider at 100% nonstop until 1900.
When it was time to go to war, the strategy was simple: I told Napoleon where to attack, marched in front with experienced units, killed all defenders but one and let Nappi take the city with ease (only if a city's location annoyed me, I conquered it myself, because in OCC this automatically razes the city).
I didn't quite finish the game that was set to "Conquest only" - when I stopped around 1970 at future technology 7 or so, Napoleon ruled 90% of the world and Delhi had culture somewhere arond 400.000 IIRC.
The game was fun insofar as there was a real job sharing, there was enough battling around and nevertheless, I could build one dream of a city (having all national wonders in just one city is nice for a change, too). A pity that in OCC you can't build cathedrals, though - maybe I could have cracked the 1 million line for culture
One nice thing with a set AI ally is that he agrees to every trade you offer, to every attack plan and every research recommendation. This basically means you have some "gold reserve in the bank" in case of dire need, you have more research power and you have some guard troops when you attack. The only thing one must be aware of is that once HE starts building a wonder, YOU can't build it anymore - so it's a good idea to queue up all available wonders quickly
However, at the end of the day I couldn't help but feeling that it was bit TOO easy with one city only. Makes you think, really: Why on earth should I go through the hassle of nursing those baby cities when I can accomplish the same thing with just ONE city? I will try that these days without an ally, but I know for sure that for 90% of the game, *I* had more tech & gold and better troops than my ally with his 20something cities, as was reflected by my score, which he topped not before 1940, when he had more than 30 cities and had built some stuff in them.
I don't know - maybe CIV4 is *too* balanced? So balanced that building an empire isn't really worth the trouble?
