KRYS01 - PTW 1.21f - Deity, Americans

[Rik Meleet]

I can't beat even Regent in AW. I must pratise more so I will not play your next game. I will be lurking.

 

[kryszcztov]

Hey, I've never attemped an Always War game !! That's why I will try in an SG. I plan to "rule" it, but in fact I'd like an AW veteran from CFC to play with us, so as to advise us... So far, I've almost never played games with variant rules (modded games or not), that's a drawback I want to change. So KRYS01 was a standard Deity game, designed at a time when I was just starting to be able to beat this level. Now that Deity seems quite OK for me (and for you all !), I want more challenge, and so want to try a standard game (no modded rules) but with this special rule that stands we have to be at war for the whole game. Regent seems to be a little too easy, so I think I will try Monarch. If a vet shows up, I'm pretty confident that we can win.

But back to this game. Waiting for samildanach's turn...

 

[samildanach]

Well done guys - got it.
I'm up for an Always War game - I've won three - two on monarch using th the chinese and babs and one on emperor with the Romans all on standard sized panagaeas with max rivals. Monarch AW is pretty straight forward - AWE however is a complete bastard - there is virtually no room for error.
I think for the standard of players on this team regent AW is just too easy on any random map, Monarch as well unless its on a panagaea, Emperor AW is just too hard on panagaea for team play it would have to be on continents or archipelago. Incidentally I used a close RCP build for my games - which was my only crutch - I would prefer to use RCP over choosing a favourable map ie. giving ourselves a fat easily defended peninsula and the like.

 

[Rik Meleet]

I lost my AW on Regent, playing the Chinese. I conquered my continent, destroying the English and the Koreans. The other Civs, Babs, Germans, Arabs, Americans and Iro's where on a similar sized map, far far away (A galley had to survive 2 suicide rushes behind eachother to reach it in the 3rd time; didn't happen). We made contact late in the game (after my Leader-rushed GL had already been obsolete) and I was so far behind in tech that I couldn't keep up anymore. I faced cavs when I had riders, MA when I just had Steam etc. I had already faced tanks and I was 6 turns away in researching Motorized Transportation. I had started transports and was going over in about 10 turns. When the UN was build that turn a vote was called for immediately;

You don't have many friends, so don't get many votes in AW .

 

[samildanach]

1410 AD Rushed 5 settlers. Bombarded Lugdunum and Ravenna - both have fallen razed another roman city whose name escapes me. GL Grant emerges build tank army. Still 650 + tiles to go till domination- as I have upgraded to 1.27 map stat may not be reliable .
1415 AD Seige of Rome begins - now 417 tiles till domination.
1420 AD Rome Falls- now have leos. Now 321 tiles till dom.
1425 AD Egypt has destroyed the ottomans . Now 294 tiles to limit.
1430 AD 284 tiles till limit
1435 AD Now have sistine chapel. 276 tiles till limit.
1440 AD Romans destroyed. Declared war on France signed ROP with Egypt. 211 tiles till limit
1445 AD Tiles till limit- 164
1450 BC Have rushed settlers in Avignon and pithom to fill in spaces of newly conquered French lands. 130 tiles to limit.

THE SAVE

 

[kryszcztov]

OK, samildanach, you did the job !!! I don't know about Map Stat, as I have just started to use it in my GOTM 22 (with PTW 1.21f).

The roster :
kryszcztov
Doshin
Yndy (skipped)
samildanach (just played)
Rik Meleet (upnow)

Always War on Monarch, too easy ? Ahem, so... let's move to Emperor !! samildanach, would you call yourself an AW vet ? If so, I won't need to search for one ! It's just that I have never tried those kinds of variants, and want to take advantage of the friendly concept of SGs to try them. So, the harder the level is, the more we'll learn ! Also, it could require some more discussion, to be sure everyone involved in that game would stick to a general plan (it's more important) ; so, with a slower pace for that game, I might start another one in parallel, about the other great variant (never played it too) : OCC ! This one would be much quicker to play, so that could balance it.
As for RCP..................... isn't this a feature that shouldn't be there ? It may look nice to have a geometrical city pattern, but is it fun ? I'm not sure... And it gives the human player too much of an advantage, as far as I know. Combine this with the newly discovered exploit about palace jump, and the game is not fun at all. What do you think ?

Anyway, still have to finish this game !

 

[samildanach]

As far as winding up our current game we may have enough tiles with cultural expansion and in-filling to win without attacking the Egytians .. but maybe not. I signed an Rop with Egypt so I could take out the bulk of the French cities in a pincer move in one turn.
If we need extra tiles is the next player allowed to break the RoP agreement Krys? I think it should be allowed if RiK declares war first and doesn't rape them or else it will delay our victory.
As regards your AW game RCP is great for it as it allows you to support a large military as well as being able to do some research also a tight 3/3.5 inner circle is great defensively allowing you to shuttle units between your cities and your workers to develop the tiles within it unmolested.
AW at monarch isn't easy - it should provide more than enough of a challenge for us at the moment - having not played an AWE game on anything other than panagaea all I know is that we wont win it if we play on a panagaea I don't know if its easier if we play emperor on continents - I imagine it has its own set of problems.

 

[Rik Meleet]

IBT rushed settler in Hearkleia, Rouen, Babylon, Salonika.
Renew Chinese Dyes deal; Dyes <=> Iron, Saltpeter, furs.

1- 1455 AD Declare on Egypt; breaking our 17 turn RoP, I want this game finished.

Rush temple in Besançon, Paris, Chartres, Poitiers,
Rush Library in Tours, Cumae,

Organise the troops. Plant Spy in Egypt: succesful. Safely steal their troop plans for 4k gold. Got Leader => tank army

IBT counterattack costs us some tanks.

2 - Attack Thebes, conquer it and a Leader = > Army. Another Leader => Pentagon, And Another => Battlefield medicine.

Thebes isn't happy; I have never seen such a bad tempered city:

IBT Sign in Chinese against Egypt for spices + incense.

Finish our Palace.

3- Got tired of all the workers; shift-A them (automate) I would never do this if we hadn't already won.

IBT Egyptian counterattack, minor succesful.

4- advancing. Rush temple in Ur, Orleans, Neapolis, Hippo Regia, Nicomedia, Seleucia,
Lib in Maseilles. Sign RoP with China. Let them get busy with Egypt.

IBT Egypt couterattack fails. Thebes flips back to Egypt.

5- advancing

IBT neapolis flips back

6- attack, Leader => army.

IBT counterattack, mildly

7- capture more cities

IBt:

We've done it !!!

The last part wasn't difficult, but I feared for the game when Samil declared war against the Otto's and let me do the war, without units and far, very far behind in tech and numbers and units; but I've managed.

I feared also earlier; when we had no room to expand caused me to think we didn't have a good future. I've made some moves, but thanks to you guys we've won.

I've learned a lot in this game (my first Deity). I now know how to play Deity (a bit) and you've taught me what to neglect (Wonders) and what to focus on (not becoming thé target).

Especially thanks to Krys for the game and to Yndy for the feedback.

I do'n't think it's a reflection of skill to let me finish the game off (I was the weakest player) but the most important is:

We've von !!!!

Just to complete the story; a piture of how much land we had before my trn and 1 turn before I finished:

 

[kryszcztov]

We've won !!!

Fantastic, you guys ! I really wanted a victory to start the KRYS series ! I guess you know the game was a bit crazy, but in the end you all saw that the AI is no match for a good team of human players when tanks come online.

Of course, Rik, the most important thing is that you may have learnt tips and strategies here. And there is no place for a weakest player here, just a team that unites again the evil AI. Well, as I've said already, the only thing that I wasn't pleased with was the way we built our core cities, but that is due to misunderstanding about it, and due to the aggressive AI settling. In my last turn, I noticed we didn't have the 5 required hospitals to build the Battlefield Medecine, because there was no need to build a hospital in a city that was way too much overlaping with other cities. At some point, I thought we were doomed, when Osman attacked us. But some of you did a very good job at the beginning of the war, and I must say I'm impressed by our defense at that time. Also, I don't know if it's you, Rik, but the Maginot Line isn't too useful in this game, you could have packed those infantries in our cities ; the AI will always target undefended or barely defended cities (that's what cost me Epic 34, maybe), and often counter-attack cities it has lost in the previous turn. So the AI is in fact quite predictible, you must know that, and learn more by yourself what the AI could do, though you are never 100% sure (otherwise, stop playing solo games !!). Now I'm not sure about my point of view on the Maginot Line, maybe I'm wrong. All I know is that the real one forced the Germans to cross the Ardennes deep forest with their panzers to crush France in a blietzkrieg, and so was of little purpose. Ahem...

RIGHT !! Thanks guys for teaming up with me, and hope to see some of you in a next game.
Now, I'm gonna think about what the settings (of which our civ) could be in my next games. So, unless something wrong happens (?), I will start :

KRYS02 : Always War Game on Monarch or Emperor (to be decided) ;
KRYS03 : OCC game on Emperor or Deity.

Anyone interested can register here...

 

[Rik Meleet]

Originally posted by kryszcztov
We've won !!!
Also, I don't know if it's you, Rik, but the Maginot Line isn't too useful in this game, you could have packed those infantries in our cities ; the AI will always target undefended or barely defended cities (that's what cost me Epic 34, maybe), and often counter-attack cities it has lost in the previous turn.

Since I was the one which had the most time during our Maginot line I do feel I need to comment on this. I have drafted a lot of conscript Infantry and put them in our Maginot line. The Ottoman tanks went to attack one of the weaker spots in our line and when captured turned on the defender in the Maginot directly next to it; not going for the cities. This happened on several occassions. The Ai does go for the weak part; but not automatically for cities. A loose unit always gets attacked by the AI.

And yes; the AI is predictable, but it's not doing exactly what you express here.

Krys: I'm not joining in on an AW war game or an OCC game. Those are far over my head. I'm glad that I've beaten Deity once with you. I stick to learning to beat AW on Regent (got destroyed again after a promissing start; I must do something fundamentally wrong). I will be lurking them.

If you really want a challenge try a 1CC Domination-only challenge (only possible if colonies count as tiles).

Rik

 

[kryszcztov]

Originally posted by Rik Meleet
And yes; the AI is predictable, but it's not doing exactly what you express here.

Well, then I don't know what the AI does in general, that's good, cause I can still play without asking "what is the AI actually gonna do ?" But it's always useful information...

I think I will open threads soon enough so as to discuss settings and everything, and recruit enough people. I'd like to really start in one week at most.

 

[Yndy]

Nice victory. Thank you for a great game guys.

Actually it was me who started the Maginot line. The main reason was that the workers had nothing to do and the Infantries were just stacked in cities.

The second reason was the fact that we had a lot of RoPs. With rails, if the AI decides to brake a ROP they can strike virtually everywhere in one turn and I wanted to control that.

I never played an AW game but I don't have the time to join any new game in the coming month at least.

 

[Doshin]

Great going guys! Things were a little rough but we pulled through. Another deity victory

As for an AW game... I'd happily join but I have no real AW experience. If you're still happy to have me I'll play though, but I can understand if you'd rather have AW vets Anyway, good job!

 

[kryszcztov]

KRYS02 is starting now. Continue your Civ trip here. Have fun reading !