cleverhandle
King
(Warning: kinda long, probably more info than is necessary - sorry. Also, a save file is attached.)
Game info: Iroquois, Monarch, standard continents, vanilla. By 1600 or so, I had achieved the set up for my usual Space Race victory - I had built ToE and Hoover, controlled enough cities on my home continent to eventually enable a giant economy through brokering a slight tech lead, and could eventually take advantage of the AI's abominable production and planning in building SS parts.
Since I'm familiar with that route, I decided to make the game more of an instructional exercise in mounting modern invasions and controlling resources. That is, I *know* all the following stuff is not necessarily the most efficient strategy. My goal now is control every important resource cluster, leave the other civs in the dust technologically, and launch a SS at my leisure after I have developed my cities into happy Iroquois paradises. Rome is on my hit list since they were bold enough to raze one of my island cities earlier in the game - the other civs I don't particularly care about except as far as nabbing their useful resources and keeping them powerless. I also don't care about gaining more land outside of strategic bases, since any new cities I create on other continents are ridiculously corrupt.
I rolled through the Aztecs to my south with cavalry/artillery, and established bases to control wines and gems. England has about 8 cities to my NE, but has no economy nor any valuable resources. America is north of me with about 12 cities, but has few resources of value and never fully recovered from my Ancient Age beatdown.
My concerns after the Aztecs were with Rome and China, each with about 20 cities and each on their own continent across the ocean. At the time of military planning, the two of them seemed about equal, so I chose China as my next target since they had oil, dyes, ivories, silks, and were a bit more accessible by sea. By the time I had tanks, a shipping chain to China, and everything ready for a strike it became clear that Rome was in fact the stronger economy and faster researcher, but at that point changing targets was no longer feasible due to troop positions and standing resource deals with Rome. I started the war with China and MA'd with everyone else. I'm now 10 turns into the war, have established a beachead and outpost, and destroyed 3 or 4 Chinese cities with minimal losses. I'll have the silks in the next turn or two, but the oil is near Beijing and the ivory is at the other end of the continent. Rome just got tanks and I almost have Computers, so I'm about a tech ahead of him. His tech pace seems a bit slower than mine, but not tremendously so.
So, how to proceed? I want ultimately to destroy most or all of Rome as payback, taking his incense in the process of course. But I'm concerned that by the time I finish working through China that he'll be far enough into the Modern Age (ModArmor and MechInf) that an effective invasion will be impossible. But perhaps I'm too worried there and I can simply overpower him. I'm particularly wondering about whether I can use War Weariness to my advantage (we're all democracies). I got my first round of WW last turn, but it was no problem except for one pop 17 city that didn't have a Colosseum or Police Station. The others are fine and will probably go one more round of WW without issue. Also, I have 6 luxs and will soon have China's silks. I'm guessing I can get to China's ivory in 20 turns or so, at which point I would have eliminated all or nearly all of China. Rome has only 3 luxuries, so he's running something like 7 entertainers in a pop 17 city. If I keep up the war with China to the bitter end, will I be able to provoke a collapse of Rome's democracy into Communism? Or will his lack of luxs at least hurt his tech and production enough for me to take a decisive tech lead on him? Or is the better strategy to make peace with China after the MA's are up in 10 more turns (by which time I'll have Beijing's oil and the silks) and use that new territory as a base for an invasion of Rome? Or maybe something else I haven't thought of?
In any event, while this has certainly been an instructive exercise, I'm left amazed at how people can stand playing for Domination or Conquest victories on continents. The time involved for each turn is just ridiculous. I'm getting faster at it as I become more familiar with the moves, but it's still a lot slower than just going for a fast SS. Is there really no other option on the higher diffs? It seems like Domination/Conquest is the way people generally win.
Game info: Iroquois, Monarch, standard continents, vanilla. By 1600 or so, I had achieved the set up for my usual Space Race victory - I had built ToE and Hoover, controlled enough cities on my home continent to eventually enable a giant economy through brokering a slight tech lead, and could eventually take advantage of the AI's abominable production and planning in building SS parts.
Since I'm familiar with that route, I decided to make the game more of an instructional exercise in mounting modern invasions and controlling resources. That is, I *know* all the following stuff is not necessarily the most efficient strategy. My goal now is control every important resource cluster, leave the other civs in the dust technologically, and launch a SS at my leisure after I have developed my cities into happy Iroquois paradises. Rome is on my hit list since they were bold enough to raze one of my island cities earlier in the game - the other civs I don't particularly care about except as far as nabbing their useful resources and keeping them powerless. I also don't care about gaining more land outside of strategic bases, since any new cities I create on other continents are ridiculously corrupt.
I rolled through the Aztecs to my south with cavalry/artillery, and established bases to control wines and gems. England has about 8 cities to my NE, but has no economy nor any valuable resources. America is north of me with about 12 cities, but has few resources of value and never fully recovered from my Ancient Age beatdown.
My concerns after the Aztecs were with Rome and China, each with about 20 cities and each on their own continent across the ocean. At the time of military planning, the two of them seemed about equal, so I chose China as my next target since they had oil, dyes, ivories, silks, and were a bit more accessible by sea. By the time I had tanks, a shipping chain to China, and everything ready for a strike it became clear that Rome was in fact the stronger economy and faster researcher, but at that point changing targets was no longer feasible due to troop positions and standing resource deals with Rome. I started the war with China and MA'd with everyone else. I'm now 10 turns into the war, have established a beachead and outpost, and destroyed 3 or 4 Chinese cities with minimal losses. I'll have the silks in the next turn or two, but the oil is near Beijing and the ivory is at the other end of the continent. Rome just got tanks and I almost have Computers, so I'm about a tech ahead of him. His tech pace seems a bit slower than mine, but not tremendously so.
So, how to proceed? I want ultimately to destroy most or all of Rome as payback, taking his incense in the process of course. But I'm concerned that by the time I finish working through China that he'll be far enough into the Modern Age (ModArmor and MechInf) that an effective invasion will be impossible. But perhaps I'm too worried there and I can simply overpower him. I'm particularly wondering about whether I can use War Weariness to my advantage (we're all democracies). I got my first round of WW last turn, but it was no problem except for one pop 17 city that didn't have a Colosseum or Police Station. The others are fine and will probably go one more round of WW without issue. Also, I have 6 luxs and will soon have China's silks. I'm guessing I can get to China's ivory in 20 turns or so, at which point I would have eliminated all or nearly all of China. Rome has only 3 luxuries, so he's running something like 7 entertainers in a pop 17 city. If I keep up the war with China to the bitter end, will I be able to provoke a collapse of Rome's democracy into Communism? Or will his lack of luxs at least hurt his tech and production enough for me to take a decisive tech lead on him? Or is the better strategy to make peace with China after the MA's are up in 10 more turns (by which time I'll have Beijing's oil and the silks) and use that new territory as a base for an invasion of Rome? Or maybe something else I haven't thought of?
In any event, while this has certainly been an instructive exercise, I'm left amazed at how people can stand playing for Domination or Conquest victories on continents. The time involved for each turn is just ridiculous. I'm getting faster at it as I become more familiar with the moves, but it's still a lot slower than just going for a fast SS. Is there really no other option on the higher diffs? It seems like Domination/Conquest is the way people generally win.
