GIII-Iota

[AutomatedTeller]

That start didn't get very far - Zulu ended up wiping out Japan and I wasn't able to keep up.

Started another one, which is better - island all to myself, got an SGL for the lighthouse and built the Glib. Unfortunately, arabia is way ahead on techs and mongols/japan aren't cathcing up - so I have engineering, they are building magellans and the other two are just getting into the middle ages.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

well, I am near 1300 in a game with the Byzantines that I'm going to win - japan is the tech leader, but has no resources and I should be able to take her down before rifles. But it won't be ready for the gauntlet, I fear

 

[Marsden]

I'm far too lazy to read through this thread, Did anyone actually get an entry in? All I remember is Elear and AT attempts.

Oh, well, Sid can do that to you.

 

[Elear]

I was too busy on my failed COTM and my Huge Sid attempts.

-Elear

 

[azzaman333]

I tried twice, both as Netherlands. One was 3 rivals, Arabia, Hittites and America and after the Arabs, who had killed the Hittites, built the Great Lighthouse I quit. The other I started within 6 tiles of Germany, and survived until they hit 80k. No surprise though, since I haven't beaten Deity yet.

 

[Marsden]

I saw your screen shot of the second one. Good try, really. I tried the tiny Sid spaceship awhile back and didn't get anywhere. Since then I tried on deity and got crushed, so I really wasn't of the mindset to try this one. I'm happy slug does include Sid, it's important to the HoF, but I haven't attained that level of dedication.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

I will end up with a game for this table, but not for a few more days. I'm at about 1500 - I've wiped out the Mongols (just for superslug , and landed on the japanese - but not with sufficient force to weather an enormous amount of force. I think I will wait until I get rep parts (japan has no resources - they may not even be a threat for the SS, but they have nice land), land with about 40 infantry and artys, and start taking out cities.

 

[superslug]

Moderator Action: Gauntlet concluded. The table remains empty.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

damn, Sid AI's are tough. Japanese have no resources, at all. I landed 20 odd infantry, 20 cav, 20 artilleries in a ROP rape, where I had built a nice secure barricade....

I managed to raze one of their towns and do enough damage that I got 2 others, but my civ almost shut down when the beachhead city I created was hit by wave after wave of longbowmen..... They took down an army of infantry!!! It was insane...

I have yet to be able to successfully invade a Sid home island. My guess is that part of it is that I have been playing without much land, so AI's don't have much space...

 

[AutomatedTeller]

Well, as a little coda, my attempt ended in a very bad domination score (1806).

My last invasion of japan (the one where they wiped out an infantry army plus 10 other infantry and stole much of my artillery) did manage to net me 2 towns on the japanese homeland. Unfortunately, I didn't pay attention to the Dom limit, which i was very near...

But I learned a lot:

A) Invading a Sid Home island with insufficient force is a recipe for disaster - longbows can pretty easily take down a a force of infantry if it's not large enough or behind barricades. That is, if it is a Sid AI in fascism building the longbows, cause boy there are a lot of them!
B) ROP Rape is harder than you think! At least on the settings I was playing (80% arch), just finding a place to land is difficult! and the AI doesn't like you landing a force of cavalry, even if they have ROP - I did it half-assed with the Arabs and lost 10 cavs before I could do anything. Better to land workers to build barricades first.
C) 80% water arch, at least for a small map, has very little fresh water, so electricity has a huge priority.
D) Aqueducts are basically free - they cost 1 GPt in maintenance, but save you 2 GPT in unit costs (in republic), plus they allow an extra specialist. You can get a lot of size 7 towns ICS on grassland...

 

[Elear]

I agree with you there!

The difficulty on such maps is that you need your first army. Get the ball rolling with your army and your stack can be protected.

 

[zerksees]

but my civ almost shut down when the beachhead city I created was hit by wave after wave of longbowmen..... They took down an army of infantry!!!

I recommend a slightly different approach: Do not form a beachhead city. Raze the towns one by one until they are off the island, and maybe not til they are out of the game - then you can build cities. If you have to build one, isolate it with armies so they can't reach it without attacking an army that is outside the city. The AI will not attack an infantry army (or a cav army for that matter) with longbows unless the army is in a city.

Without this exploit it would be even harder to beat Sid

 

[superslug]

One of the advantages of a beachhead city is that if you know your forces are going to get overrun, you can stack them all in your one city and then gift the town to any AI who will take it. Your forces will immediately jump to your capitol.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

The AI will not attack an infantry army (or a cav army for that matter) with longbows unless the army is in a city.

ahh. I had noticed that they took on my ancient cav army, but I hadn't noticed that they ignored my infantry army.

 

[Marsden]

Did you read Sir Pleb's Going for Sid thread. He established that the Sid AI will murder anything in a town, but will not attack armies not in towns.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

That was what I thought, too. It was just wrong - the AI does attack armies that aren't in towns, at least in some situations. I expect it was because it was an army of ancient cavalry and their long bows stacked up well against it.

 

[zerksees]

AFAIK the AI will not attack a unit in the open unless it has a 10% or better chance of winning. There are some "accidental" attacks when AI patrolling units run into your units. The other wildcard is if the AI has bombers then it will attack with them no matter what.

So if your ancient cav army was damaged the longbow could see a 10% chance of winning and go for it.

I have also seen the AI ignore defensive units (rifles or infantry IIRC) fortified in the mountains - presumably because there was less than 10% chance of defeating them. On Sid it is certainly not because they do not have enough units to take them out.