Large SID domination, is it possible?

[osi]

As currently there is only small and tiny domination victories.

Anyway, I already have all the other large domination victories except SID level. But so far I have only suffered humiliating losses when the AI have decided to walk over me (without a good reason).

My current setup:

Archipelago 80% water, wet, cool, 3bilion (I'm trying to slow down the AI here).

Ottomans selected as it does have semi usefull UU and as scientific we will at least get one free tech now and then and also the libraries will be cheap.

Opponents Korea, Spain, England, Babylon, Egypt and Germany.

AI aggression normal (or should I set it as most aggressive?).

Should I change the parameters?

 

[Bartleby]

Try using a dry world and an agricultural civ, but I don't know how much that will really help--I'm not much of a Sid player.

 

[Gyathaar]

possible, sure.. it should be easier than a huge sid histograph game (where you also want to reach domination limit as soon as possible)

 

[osi]

Seems that once again this is going to fail. Spain (our next door neighbour) recearched literature and started building the Great Library. Altough I have a prebuild ongoing, I'm pretty sure that it won't be ready before AI.

But I'll check that before starting on next map as I have iron and horses and managed to settle the whole island.

Edit: whoops, quite wide picture (and don't know how to fix that)...

 

[EMan]

@osi: Welcome to the CFC.

Couple of points:

1. Luck Helps! (A continent with lots of grass & resources and of course no AI would be good.) I'd make a river mandatory in the start position! (Use MapFinder.)
Be prepared to restart.

2. "Obtaining" Great Library: One option is to form a battle group, even with weak offensive pieces + "catapults-line"....then make a beeline for the city that built the GL.........hold it for a turn............put all your units in the city and "Gift" it to a friendly AI............this will Teleport your military units back to your Capital city!

Good Luck!

 

[killercane]

I would posit that its quite nice your neighbors are building the library for you. Better them than someone far away if it is a key to your strategy.

Just be prepared for your naval invasion. When they cant expand those sid civs just keep building units upon units upon units. You are forced to build many more defensive units than you normally would to invade.

Ive never used the Ottomans on Sid. I have had fun using the Vikings, the Byze, China, Greeks, and all the agricultural civs however. A UU with a long useful lifespan is ideal imho.

Your map (all those mountains!) will make it a bit harder on you.

 

[Denniz]

Opponents Korea, Spain, England, Babylon, Egypt and Germany.

Would it make sense to go for the maximum number of opponents? That way some of them would mess with each other instead you. Or would that just create more bullies to kick sand in your face?

 

[killercane]

I dont think max opponents would be better. It would increase their research speed and give you more home islands to invade/units to destroy. I would avoid seafaring and scientific civs and opt more for the expansionists as opponents. The mongols and americans are some of my favorite whipping boys.

I would think you could open up a bit of a tech lead in the Middle Ages by limiting contacts. Sipahis vs. spears and pikes would be much more tolerable than vs. muskets and rifles.

 

[Kuningas]

Consider Pangaea. Military Alliances are really powerful. I waited 2-3 turns Babylon stack of deaths. Here is screenshot of my 81k game. What's wrong with this picture?

They sent stacks to north. I had MA with the Ottomans against Babylon.

 

[Moonsinger]

AI aggression normal (or should I set it as most aggressive?).

Should I change the parameters?

I normally set my games to least aggressive mode. What can I say...I want them to go easy on me as much as possible. As for the Sid level goes, it's really much easier to beat Sid than the Deity level in vanilla Civ3 or PTW. Like SirPleb said on the other thread, C3C is very unbalance! Once you figure out the correct button to push (figure of speaking...it really isn't about pushing button), you will be like a god to the AIs; most certainly, their armies are really your armies, all their gold are really your gold, and all their techs are really your techs. PTW is much more challenging and much more fun.

Btw, at any level, you should build more workers and irrigate your land. According to your screen shot at 430BC and not even one tile get irrigated, that really isn't a good thing!

 

[EMan]

You are forced to build many more defensive units than you normally would to invade.

For capturing GL purposes: If you can get a Right-Of-Passage Agreement with the AI that owns the GL, you can land your Army (NO defensive units), grab the city with the GL.....and hopefully, if the AI doesn't have any Fast Units in the area, you can hold the city just long enough to get the GL benefits........then Teleport outta there!
(If you lose a few cheap offensive units in the Battle, and it's ONLY 1 battle, so what?)

 

[Gyathaar]

I prefer to use the least aggressive setting too...
Feels much safer to have them at polite or gracious to me untill I want them to declare on me.. then just demand a tech or a city from them till they get furious before asking them to leave my territory

You definately need more workers yes.. as comparison.. in my current huge sid milkgame I had 33 (industrious) workers in 1000BC (with 27 cities, 66 population, and 2 settlers)

 

[Moonsinger]

Feels much safer to have them at polite or gracious to me untill I want them to declare on me.. then just demand a tech or a city from them till they get furious before asking them to leave my territory

It's really that easy! Of course, don't forget to empty their pocket and clean their lab first, before doing what Gyathaar said.

 

[osi]

OK, the first (actually it's ~10th try already) did fail. Perhaps too many mountains...

Next setup is as follows:

I play as Maya and AI will mostly have expansionist and some other useless traits.

- Pangage 80%, Arid, Cool, 5 billion, Barbs sedentary
- Mongols, America, Hitties, England, Spain and Portugal, Least Aggressive

I have tried pangage before and have always failed (strage thing is that it was easy on demigod?).

Current status 1000BC:

There is a great war (everbody against mongols except portugal) going and portugal just decalered war on me. Good thing is that I managed to ally hitties against them and then hitties recruited england (money well spent)... So, if I survive this one there is a minor change that I will make it to midleages.

And Lisbon has Pyramids + Temple of artemis

Then how do you prevent your own cities flipping to your neigbours? This is quite severe problem in SID level (except archipelago maps). Already lost one city...

 

[Gyathaar]

I play as Maya and AI will mostly have expansionist and some other useless traits.

- Pangage 80%, Arid, Cool, 5 billion, Barbs sedentary
- Mongols, America, Hitties, England, Spain and Portugal, Least Aggressive

expansionist is not a useless trait if you leave barbs at sedentary.. they will get lots of free techs from them..

players can only get barbs, gold and maps from goodyhuts at sid, so unless you want to speed up AI tech rate (like for fast diplomatic or space) it is usually better to leave barbs totally turned off

 

[EMan]

Then how do you prevent your own cities flipping to your neigbours? This is quite severe problem in SID level (except archipelago maps). Already lost one city...

It's the same problem at ANY level............there is a "Flip Calculator" here (Download from Post #1):
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=53157&page=1&pp=20

The only way to totally prevent a Flip is to have enough Military Units (viz. Attack Value > 0) in the city. Sometimes this is just not practical. You could leave the city empty and stage enough units adjacent to the City Center to recapture it in case of a Flip (Of course this would cause War!)..........OR, just accept that it could happen and be prepared for it........OR, you could gift the city to a NON-adjacent AI which will please them AND give you a Buffer Zone between the Big Bad Neighbor and you!

 

[osi]

expansionist is not a useless trait if you leave barbs at sedentary.. they will get lots of free techs from them..

Hmmm, I assumed that also AI would only get maps and gold. No wonder they got so fast trough ancient age (and also midle age).

 

[osi]

The only way to totally prevent a Flip is to have enough Military Units (viz. Attack Value > 0) in the city. Sometimes this is just not practical.

Yes I know (I use mapstat), but 58 units is not practical and that was my own city "Kaminalju" and it was my friend spain (at that time).

Perhaps the solution is to build tightly and avoid distant cities deep in the enemy/friend territory.

 

[Gyathaar]

Hmmm, I assumed that also AI would only get maps and gold. No wonder they got so fast trough ancient age (and also midle age).

I am not sure what changes AIs has of getting different awards.. but I assume it would be roughly same chances as humans has at regent.

 

[osi]

OK, removed barbs from the setup and allowed mapfinder to find some maps (1, 2 and 3).

Allready played map number 1 (and failed). Around 400AD my horsemen charged against spanish cavalry.... well you can guess the results.