GR14 - AWDG on an Ultra Big Map (31 Civs)

[Northern Pike]

550 BC, end of turn

 

[Northern Pike]

750 (0): This looks grim. Agedincum is doomed if the French choose to move in that direction, and Verulamium is at great risk too.

I whip Verulamium's walls, as suggested.

More foul RNG luck. The Arabs go four for four attacking Verulamium and take the city, though three of their four archers are regulars and all their attacks are cross-river (0-4).


730 (1): I evacuate Agedincum, which we can't possibly hold against the eight adjacent French units.

The French auto-raze Agedincum, and ride down an archer attempting to escape (0-5).

Alesia walls --> spearman.


710 (2): Entremont walls --> spearman.


690 (3): We try to found a town in the northwest and get the "too many cities" message. So we're stuck with the six cities we have, and the situation looks hopeless, though I'll play out the round.


670 (4): Lugdunum walls --> spearman.


650 (5): We're able to shoot down a French horseman outside Richborough (1-5).

We abandon Second Chance so as to found Bad Times on a better site in the northwest.


630 (6): Two French horsemen attack Lugdunum and retreat.

North Town barracks --> spearman.


610 (7): With the French now rather strung out between Entremont and Lugdunum, we're finally able to counterattack, killing three horsemen and a warrior (5-5).

We slay a horseman and lose a spearman as the French attack around Lugdunum (6-6).


590 (8): After several turns of quiescence, the Arabs appear in great strength in the north.


570 (9): Sixteen Arabian archers close in on North Town.


550 (10): We slay two French archers outside Lugdunum (8-6).

Two elite victories didn't produce a Great Leader this round.

 

[Northern Pike]

If we lose North Town in the next turn or two, we can resign. If we get good RNG luck there our position may remain stable for a while, since we're defending walled cities with spearmen now. But since we can't found any more cities due to the global limit, and given also that we can't make any progress on a pre-build under this kind of pressure, the long-term prospect seems completely dismal.

The lesson of this fiasco, I think, is that BW/spearmen should come before WC/archers in AW, unless research times are very short. Early in the game it's easier to set up good odds with a defensive than an offensive unit.

 

[Northern Pike]

The last stand:

 

[vmxa]

Wow too many towns already. That means they can freely build and send units. I wonder how we fared on the placement. Did we get a bad break and not have much starting room?

I mean the French do not have scout, but they found us quickly for 362x362. Even with 31 civs.

We could have stood some luck in the fights, but with defense of 1, you get that. The spears, I guess no one expected to be in up to our necks quite so soon or we would have changed the order.

 

[Greebley]

My feeling is DG was a mistake with so many AI's. I am more inclined to restart an Emp game than sink more hours into a DG game that is going nowhere. GLib for example seems very improbable now.

What do the rest of you feel?

Also should we go with no huts if we restart? I am inclined to say yes. I hadn't thought it through, but it speeds up tech way too much to have them.

 

[ThERat]

I think this game should have been either on emperor or without barbarians to prevent those exp Civs to grab all the techs via huts.

I stand by this. Let's not waste time on this and restart.
AG3 was hugely different as a expansionist Civ that popped so many techs or settlers and didn't have to defend.
I think emperor might get difficult enough initially. We might want to try with a good starting location on DG without barbs (and thus no huts)

 

[Northern Pike]

I agree with all of that--a new start, Emperor, and no barbs.

 

[vmxa]

Sounds good to me, so I guess no need for me to play this turn. If you want to try it at DG I think you would need a few tweaks.
1- start with BW and one of these (Alpha,Masonry,WC).
2- strong traits and a good UU

Not sure if any civ meets those requirments.

3- no expansion civ near us and a good distance to the nearest civ.
4- no huts. Not so much for the techs, but they also get settlers and advance towns.

 

[M60A3TTS]

I agree that emperor/no huts is the way to go. Put this one to bed.

 

[Greebley]

Ok, I have started a new thread.

Gr15 Thread

 

[markh]

Well, I really spoiled the game and I am very sorry for this. When I came into the situation whether to whip the archer or the walls in Virula... I was acting really dumb and I mean it like I say it. It took me some minutes to finally decide and the moment I decided to whip the archer I realized it was the totally wrong decision.

Just out of curiosity I replayed my turns whipping the walls instead of the archer and Ver.. stood well and furthermore I got an army. I lost Agedincum once, but rebuilt it, so it was my fault and my bad play that got us into this bad situation.

 

[vmxa]

I doubt that we would have liked the outcome anyway, so don't lose any sleep over it.

 

[M60A3TTS]

Clearly we thought we had enough time given the map size to ignore BW and spears. That was the big mistake.

 

[markh]

@vmxa : we will not know, but my decision in that situation was bad and it should have been obvious to me. I will not lose any sleep. It is just a game.Still it makes me angry about my bad play.

@M60 : it was close, but the early walls against that many attackers make a MGL quite likely and that was what happened to me when I replayed the save 100%, but whipping the walls instead of the archer. I think a defensive army is huge in such a game.

 

[ThERat]

markh, I don't think whipping the archer instead of the walls was the game breaker. We had so few towns, 2 enemies on DG, no spears, lost a town early, popped no techs but barbs. I think this game was doomed anyway.

 

[Northern Pike]

I think this game was doomed anyway.

Yes. Had we held Ver. and Ag. and hit the limit at eight towns rather than six, we would just have wasted more time before realizing the hopelessness of the situation.