Continued from 1AD spoiler
Things did heat up. Not just a bit, but a lot.
Atfer taking Sparta, I was not able to press on to Athens and secure that as well. Two or three times I go and raze new greek cities, but I just can get out to kill Athens. Sparta are just SW of the mountains, and there is a big 4 tile wide desert in front of them giving access to stacks from Mongolia, Russia, and Rome. Greece can’t mount much resistance on her own, but it’s a real bloodbath anyhow. My mace and WE and spear can pretty much take care of the attackers, but them having a forest hill on Sparta’s doorstep means my losses are not insignificant. I have a few LB’s that take the hits, then counterattack and kill the stack that lives. My LB’s are like CG3 and Drill4 by now. I could really use a great general to make a supermedic… but this is vanilla, so I’m forced to use not-fully-healed units.
Keshiks are really annoying, and are able to get behind Sparta, so I must split my forces. Roads get pillaged, workers get killed etc. I’m frustrated because the opportunities to make sortie and finish off the greeks are few and far between.
At this point, I decided to hunker down in Sparta, and open a new front in China. Engineering was a key tech, because getting troops out of the valley got 50% faster with better roads. In contrast to the Greek front, the Chinese front was very soft. I ripped through them very quickly, even though about half my units had to go west for defense of Sparta, and prep for attack on Athens. I was able to completely eliminate China, and was pleased to see a nice handy choke point there. Defending the Chinese holdings was therefore relatively easy. Keshiks tried to dance around my defenders there, too. But by then, a few pikemen made easy work of them. I was a little disappointed that eliminating China did not help my war weariness situation at all that I could notice. I’m not using the culture slider (um, well, I still can’t use it, actually), and HR isn’t an attractive option. But I can build some buildings that hold my folks happy enough for now.
I lost a big stack just 1t from finishing Greece off… hit from behind by I don’t know what. Very sad day. War weariness is no longer insignificant. Police State is used… slowing my tech progress. I had tons of settled great people in Dehli… first few were great scientists for academy and them settled. Had Glib as well. But the rest were mostly prophets. I had so many settled, I decided that Angor Wat would be a really nice wonder, and built that too. Notre Dame, built out of need.
Guilds in 740AD, HBR in 760AD, now its knight time. Nanjing was captured in 800AD. Athens finally fell (captured) in 1010AD. Heroic Epic built 900AD (better late than never). Guangzhou falls in 1060AD, Beijing in 1080AD. I clearly should have started the fight in this direction. Now China is gone and its as easy to defend as the valley itself. Besides, Cyrus is not really building units, and he’s the closest neighbor. Mongolia can mount offensives here, but that take some load off Athens/Sparta, which is good. In fact, Cyrus is the only AI to have learned alphabet. Its 1000AD folks, no joking! We can forget about space race I think.
I don’t now the exact date, but I’d say around 1400AD I take Military Tradition from Liberalism. This is just about the same time the AI are bringing substantial amounts of LB’s, Pikes, Cats, and maybe some knights. So it couldn’t come at a better time. Lets ROLL!
You want to see a slow global tech pace? Check this out (screenshot from 1510AD):
View attachment 272616
My first four cavs are sent out early to explore the Persian territories (find choke points… I learned my lesson the hard way). More importantly, pillage cottages like mad to keep my economy afloat. And I learned something else… even better to pillage roads! Once their movement is as slow in their territory as yours is, they are sitting ducks. Also, the rate at which the stacks you have to defend against can approach your cities is greatly reduced. So these four horsement of the apocalypse reduced Persia to rubble in short order, so that when the reinforcements finally arrived, Cyrus is removed from the continent by 1740AD, all cities captured. I can’t get to his island because I have no boats. (Optics learned in 1854AD) He later finds land to settle in the west, too.
From this base… now its only Mongolia and Russia that come at me in Persia, (I razed my first Mongolian city in 1595AD). Cavs versus LB’s, for the most part. This takes Russian and Mongolian pressure off Athens, so down there its now Rome versus me, and that doesn’t bode well for Rome/Greece. Razed a couple Greece upstarts along the way. His two major cities are too close to Rome in the great wide open spaces where I don’t have the forces to go… Roman mobility and numbers can overwhelm my sorties with Pikes and WE’s and cats.
IN 1880AD, I make a lightening strike deep into Russian territory (pillaging roads along the way, by-passing lesser cities) and raze Moscow to the ground. One of the sweetest moments of the game. Burn baby burn! Mongolia was finally eliminated in 1894AD. Didn’t notice much effect on war weariness, which is keeping me at 20% science, to hold 20% culture. Note, WW in Dehli is 21 unhappy faces, mostly countered by wonders, civics, buildings and resources. But not all. I WISH vanilla had jails like BtS does… I need them. (Oooops… I later figure out that Constitution is needed to build jails… but I’m just crawling along towards Railroads, and will need that soon since Rome is now bringing cavs and rifles on line (and catching up in tech… how long will my lead hold???).
Anyhow, to truncate an already long story… I was able to build machine guns just in time to save my Persian holdings from a back-door attack by Rome. His cavs had already razed two very good commerce cities before I even NOTICED that he had 6 cavs and a handful of grens in Persia. Whip baby whip… save my Forbidden Palace and Versailles. Other than that, it was grind it out, protection of stacks and captured cities by machine guns was extremely cost-effective. By the time I crush Russia, Rome must not have any source of horses left because he’s coming at me with WE’s again. Huh??? Why not build rifles, you dope? Anyhow, wouldn’t matter. I crush you sooner or later no matter what. RR’s for mobility would have been very good to have earlier. But tech pace was so slow, it took 20 turns to research it. My only tech after that was Constitution (1940AD), which I really should have gotten much earlier. If only I’d known about the jails… And then my final tech was Economics… Assembly line and combustion just too far away.
Result was Domination Victory in 1984AD. Really lousy score under 20000. I feel really satisfied though with a victory. And it was a very exciting game the whole way… never felt confident of victory until Rome (which had reached near tech parity and was teching faster) started coming with WE’s again, instead of Cavs. Whew!
Check out the stats.
View attachment 272617
Things did heat up. Not just a bit, but a lot.
Atfer taking Sparta, I was not able to press on to Athens and secure that as well. Two or three times I go and raze new greek cities, but I just can get out to kill Athens. Sparta are just SW of the mountains, and there is a big 4 tile wide desert in front of them giving access to stacks from Mongolia, Russia, and Rome. Greece can’t mount much resistance on her own, but it’s a real bloodbath anyhow. My mace and WE and spear can pretty much take care of the attackers, but them having a forest hill on Sparta’s doorstep means my losses are not insignificant. I have a few LB’s that take the hits, then counterattack and kill the stack that lives. My LB’s are like CG3 and Drill4 by now. I could really use a great general to make a supermedic… but this is vanilla, so I’m forced to use not-fully-healed units.
Keshiks are really annoying, and are able to get behind Sparta, so I must split my forces. Roads get pillaged, workers get killed etc. I’m frustrated because the opportunities to make sortie and finish off the greeks are few and far between.
At this point, I decided to hunker down in Sparta, and open a new front in China. Engineering was a key tech, because getting troops out of the valley got 50% faster with better roads. In contrast to the Greek front, the Chinese front was very soft. I ripped through them very quickly, even though about half my units had to go west for defense of Sparta, and prep for attack on Athens. I was able to completely eliminate China, and was pleased to see a nice handy choke point there. Defending the Chinese holdings was therefore relatively easy. Keshiks tried to dance around my defenders there, too. But by then, a few pikemen made easy work of them. I was a little disappointed that eliminating China did not help my war weariness situation at all that I could notice. I’m not using the culture slider (um, well, I still can’t use it, actually), and HR isn’t an attractive option. But I can build some buildings that hold my folks happy enough for now.
I lost a big stack just 1t from finishing Greece off… hit from behind by I don’t know what. Very sad day. War weariness is no longer insignificant. Police State is used… slowing my tech progress. I had tons of settled great people in Dehli… first few were great scientists for academy and them settled. Had Glib as well. But the rest were mostly prophets. I had so many settled, I decided that Angor Wat would be a really nice wonder, and built that too. Notre Dame, built out of need.
Guilds in 740AD, HBR in 760AD, now its knight time. Nanjing was captured in 800AD. Athens finally fell (captured) in 1010AD. Heroic Epic built 900AD (better late than never). Guangzhou falls in 1060AD, Beijing in 1080AD. I clearly should have started the fight in this direction. Now China is gone and its as easy to defend as the valley itself. Besides, Cyrus is not really building units, and he’s the closest neighbor. Mongolia can mount offensives here, but that take some load off Athens/Sparta, which is good. In fact, Cyrus is the only AI to have learned alphabet. Its 1000AD folks, no joking! We can forget about space race I think.
I don’t now the exact date, but I’d say around 1400AD I take Military Tradition from Liberalism. This is just about the same time the AI are bringing substantial amounts of LB’s, Pikes, Cats, and maybe some knights. So it couldn’t come at a better time. Lets ROLL!
You want to see a slow global tech pace? Check this out (screenshot from 1510AD):
View attachment 272616
My first four cavs are sent out early to explore the Persian territories (find choke points… I learned my lesson the hard way). More importantly, pillage cottages like mad to keep my economy afloat. And I learned something else… even better to pillage roads! Once their movement is as slow in their territory as yours is, they are sitting ducks. Also, the rate at which the stacks you have to defend against can approach your cities is greatly reduced. So these four horsement of the apocalypse reduced Persia to rubble in short order, so that when the reinforcements finally arrived, Cyrus is removed from the continent by 1740AD, all cities captured. I can’t get to his island because I have no boats. (Optics learned in 1854AD) He later finds land to settle in the west, too.
From this base… now its only Mongolia and Russia that come at me in Persia, (I razed my first Mongolian city in 1595AD). Cavs versus LB’s, for the most part. This takes Russian and Mongolian pressure off Athens, so down there its now Rome versus me, and that doesn’t bode well for Rome/Greece. Razed a couple Greece upstarts along the way. His two major cities are too close to Rome in the great wide open spaces where I don’t have the forces to go… Roman mobility and numbers can overwhelm my sorties with Pikes and WE’s and cats.
IN 1880AD, I make a lightening strike deep into Russian territory (pillaging roads along the way, by-passing lesser cities) and raze Moscow to the ground. One of the sweetest moments of the game. Burn baby burn! Mongolia was finally eliminated in 1894AD. Didn’t notice much effect on war weariness, which is keeping me at 20% science, to hold 20% culture. Note, WW in Dehli is 21 unhappy faces, mostly countered by wonders, civics, buildings and resources. But not all. I WISH vanilla had jails like BtS does… I need them. (Oooops… I later figure out that Constitution is needed to build jails… but I’m just crawling along towards Railroads, and will need that soon since Rome is now bringing cavs and rifles on line (and catching up in tech… how long will my lead hold???).
Anyhow, to truncate an already long story… I was able to build machine guns just in time to save my Persian holdings from a back-door attack by Rome. His cavs had already razed two very good commerce cities before I even NOTICED that he had 6 cavs and a handful of grens in Persia. Whip baby whip… save my Forbidden Palace and Versailles. Other than that, it was grind it out, protection of stacks and captured cities by machine guns was extremely cost-effective. By the time I crush Russia, Rome must not have any source of horses left because he’s coming at me with WE’s again. Huh??? Why not build rifles, you dope? Anyhow, wouldn’t matter. I crush you sooner or later no matter what. RR’s for mobility would have been very good to have earlier. But tech pace was so slow, it took 20 turns to research it. My only tech after that was Constitution (1940AD), which I really should have gotten much earlier. If only I’d known about the jails… And then my final tech was Economics… Assembly line and combustion just too far away.
Result was Domination Victory in 1984AD. Really lousy score under 20000. I feel really satisfied though with a victory. And it was a very exciting game the whole way… never felt confident of victory until Rome (which had reached near tech parity and was teching faster) started coming with WE’s again, instead of Cavs. Whew!
Check out the stats.
View attachment 272617
). The resistance is quite low, so I decide to keep Nanjing, Beijing and Shanghai. Shanghai turns out to be an awesome city built on a hill east of the valley. I station my entire army there as the enemy stacks start coming
and coming
and coming. There is no end in sight. My turns are taking 10 minutes each due to all of the battles. I kill 25+ units of every colors each turn while sitting in my hilled city gaining promotions without losing any units. There is a break in the enemy reinforcements with two smaller stacks of 10ish units on each tile instead of the usual 25+. I ready my workers. When the first small stack hits the desert tile just west of Shanghai, I wipe it out. I then build a road segment on that tile and wipe out the next stack behind it on the forested hill on that same turn. I suffered quite a few losses, but I wiped out that stack too and moved most of my army to the forested hill. Some enemies attacked my army on the hill, but most went around. My units still in Shanghai took care of those that went around. My attack army finally got to a forest two tiles further west, which was a perfect choke point and kept the enemy from getting around me. All of a sudden, the stacks stopped coming. I built roads to speed up my army for it's push north and west from Shanghai while my units healed.
. One more tile and Im sunk. I put all of my cities into full-growth mode to increase my score just in case. I vacate a city near Alex and another near Khan. They arent taking the bait. I accidentally trigger domination in 1988 AD with 62 turns left to play. I had all but 2 or 3 space ship parts built and was learning a tech every 2 or 3 turns. I was hoping to get to Future Tech 10 or so, but alas, it was not to be.
My game was much like Fluro's: I went on the warpath once I got cats and phants (and soon Xbows?), took one Chinese city (the one with the horses and stone in the BFC) and then all hell broke loose. I whipped walls and a castle in that city and held on by feeding in Xbows. Eventually a couple survived long enough to accumulate enough promos that they were untouchable so I could build up enough forces to go on the offensive again. Took out the rest of China (except for those pesky island cities up north) and fortified the NE chokepoint, then took out the guys to the west. I built pretty much every wonder up to mid-game except Chichen Itza and Sistine, with lots of settled GPs in Delhi and a couple Eng's in our iron city (with Heroic Epic). Notre Dame helped with the WW; I only had one city that was significantly bothered by that. Took Railroad with Liberalism [edit: so I could build Mguns and railroads--nicely taunting placement of the coal, by the way, CP!]. I might as well have quit teching after Chem (for grens) and Steel (for cannon). Those fight-to-the-death cannon in Vanilla Civ are great; BTS requires more finesse. 
)
. At that point, I was growing pop like crazy, so this certainly cost me some score. Finished with around 4800 raw score.
Gee, I wonder what that's like?
