Agamemnus
Warlord
Warlord Agamemnus's
**Legion Strategy in Tiny Map (Deity Level, Conquest Victory, no Barbarians)**
1) Step-by-Step (sort of)
I tried this 3 times, and I was able to neutralize 2/3s of my opponents in the first two games with Legions. In the 3rd game, I neutralized all of them with Legions. (and a sprinkling of Knights)
What I did, basically, was start Roman and trade gold for Iron Working as soon as possible. (I traded money for tech since the AI gets tech MUCH faster, at least early on, in Deity level. I traded tech in singles when I needed them, because individual tech, compared to bundles of tech, is cheaper)
Then I looked around and found all the iron spots. I noted them down in my memory, especially the closest. Then I went back to turn 1 and set my 1st worker to build a road to the closest iron-filled tile (which isn't visible yet) after some irrigation and other roads were complete in my 1st city.
I set luxuries to 0% and science to 0%, and then increased luxuries with my second laborer (not worker, laborer!) in the first city. (s/he's gonna be unhappy)
Meanwhile, I created a warrior (to make contact with other civs and open goody boxes--make sure it's a non-angry warriors goody box first! [save and test]), then a granary in my 1st city. I traded for all the techs I needed (for granary especially)
After the granary was complete, I set my city to produce a settler. When it was complete, I marched it EXACTLY ON the iron square. I set my second city on Granary, set Rome (1st city) on Legion, and waited. Then, I set both of my cities to produce Legions. After I got two-three Legions, I sent one to a nearby enemy city (pick a small one!) and one to the nearby mountains to watch for intruders. (The enemy will have a large Warrior military, but it will attack the Legion at the mountains nd lose many men.)
By the time the enemy approaches your capital, you should be killing with both other Legions and have yet another Legion at your capital. Save often and have 3 or 4 different time periods! Then you'll know where the enemy was heading!
After you've neutralized the enemy offense, head towards their cities and take them all, one by one. (and I mean, ONE by one!) Don't worry if some of your cities don't have defense. As long as it's not close to an enemy city or unit, it doesn't need defense.
Take the capital, which will probably have at least one wonder. Take all surrounding cities. Don't worry if a city flips back to the other side, just conquer it again. (make sure there are no units of yours in the city when it flips -- use saving & loading to know when it flips!) Leave a few isolated cities to the enemy and then..
Ask another civ for tech that opens up many other tech (for $$, of course). Sue for Peace and take all the tech the enemy has, plus all the enemy gold (which isn't much), world map, territory map, workers, and cities. If you don't get a deal with cities in it, don't worry, but you must take all the tech you can possibly take from them. Otherwise, take another city and try again.
You should have set all your captured cities on temples and all captured workers to connect your captured cities with your own.
When your captured cities have built temples, set them to build Legions.
Go on to the next civ, repeat procedure. Go on to 3rd civ (3 is max on tiny.) If you're lucky, you should have most of the world under your domination. Try not to let one civ take over another, because you'll have a super-civ with musket men to go up against. (and you won't have the technology for that, either)
2) Tips for Founding, Taking & Keeping cities:
*Raze very large enemy cities that are far from your capital, have no wonders, and have been caught with minimum Legions. (the enemy will take it back again if it's right in the middle of their territory, militarily or culturally.) Later, replace that city with your own settlers from your capital & second city and send some workers back down to your capital and second city. (Reminds me of the Babylon capture of Jerusalem..)
* Try to take all cities that have access to Horses and Iron or build cities on their squares if unclaimed. No horses, no Iron = no horsemen or swordsmen. Legions usually can't kill horsemen (they're too fast) and swordsmen give Legions a hard time.
* Take one legion to the capital ASAP and raze all the terrain improvements (the ones made with the imaginary workers..you'll see), starting with connection to enemy cities. It cuts off any connections to luxuries or to advanced military in the enemy capital and even in Deity, the enemy will rebuild these tiles slowly.
*Don't let the enemy get Deserts, either! Peat is found in Desert squares 99%, if not 100% (unverified) percent of the time. No peat = no gunpowder = no musket men!
3) Tactics
* The random factor first goes one way then the next. Time attacks so that if the random factor favors the enemy, the attack you make is easily won. If it favors you, attack the enemy where it's iffy who will win. (How to find out who gets advantage first? Save, try it, and load back)
* Very rarely can you win versus an enemy unit on moutains. Wait until he leaves the mountains, then attack. Better yet, TAKE the mountains first! Outmaneuver your opponent!
* A moderately damaged Legion, if attacked by an archer over a river, will most likely survive.
4) Strategy
* Don't let the enemy creep into your undefended cities (all your Legions should be at war, except those closest to other rival cities--kind of like rapid response)
* Use galleys to move Legions around. Often, your cities will be connected one turn away from enemy encampments across the "bay". Take this opportunity to ferry Legions to the war grounds, instead of forcing them to take the long land road.
* Declare War on especially powerful enemies when they're already at war! This means they have to split their forces, or defend only on one front!
* Try to always use your Regular or Veteran Legions for easy fights so that they upgrade. Get all or most of your Legions to Elite ASAP!
* Never use leaders for improvements. Always for armies. If you use a Leader for a Forbidden Palace, make sure it doesn't flip to the other side! This destroys the small wonder! (save and see)
5) More City Build Strategy
* As mentioned before, the Rome build (1st city) should go: Warrior, Granary, Legion.
Then: Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, cultural improvement, Legion.
* As mentioned before, your second city should go Granary, Legion, Legion, Legion, etc, cultural Improvement.
* All conquered cities should build Temple first!!! Rush build Temple if price is not too high! After Temple, build a Legion/Granary/(you probably have captured Pyramids already), and cultural improvements.
6) Government Strategy
Until you have control of 60% or more of all cities, switch to Republic. (switch during Peace-time only!!)
With Despotism, you can rush-build Legions, but with Republic, you'll have oodles of money. After you have many cities, you should have already a sizeable force and be able to rush-build Temples and military with ease.
7) Besides Legions..
*Catapults are good for cities that have extremely good defenders (such as Greek Hoplites (is it Hoplites?) Make sure they don't get captured. Keep them with your major attacking force.
*Of course, Knights are even more viable than Legions when you can get them. Same for Cavalry. You'll probably be using Knights, though, because you'll either be annihalated or dominate everyone by the time you can make Cavalry.
8) That's it
Comments? Questions? Outrages?
**Legion Strategy in Tiny Map (Deity Level, Conquest Victory, no Barbarians)**
1) Step-by-Step (sort of)
I tried this 3 times, and I was able to neutralize 2/3s of my opponents in the first two games with Legions. In the 3rd game, I neutralized all of them with Legions. (and a sprinkling of Knights)
What I did, basically, was start Roman and trade gold for Iron Working as soon as possible. (I traded money for tech since the AI gets tech MUCH faster, at least early on, in Deity level. I traded tech in singles when I needed them, because individual tech, compared to bundles of tech, is cheaper)
Then I looked around and found all the iron spots. I noted them down in my memory, especially the closest. Then I went back to turn 1 and set my 1st worker to build a road to the closest iron-filled tile (which isn't visible yet) after some irrigation and other roads were complete in my 1st city.
I set luxuries to 0% and science to 0%, and then increased luxuries with my second laborer (not worker, laborer!) in the first city. (s/he's gonna be unhappy)
Meanwhile, I created a warrior (to make contact with other civs and open goody boxes--make sure it's a non-angry warriors goody box first! [save and test]), then a granary in my 1st city. I traded for all the techs I needed (for granary especially)
After the granary was complete, I set my city to produce a settler. When it was complete, I marched it EXACTLY ON the iron square. I set my second city on Granary, set Rome (1st city) on Legion, and waited. Then, I set both of my cities to produce Legions. After I got two-three Legions, I sent one to a nearby enemy city (pick a small one!) and one to the nearby mountains to watch for intruders. (The enemy will have a large Warrior military, but it will attack the Legion at the mountains nd lose many men.)
By the time the enemy approaches your capital, you should be killing with both other Legions and have yet another Legion at your capital. Save often and have 3 or 4 different time periods! Then you'll know where the enemy was heading!
After you've neutralized the enemy offense, head towards their cities and take them all, one by one. (and I mean, ONE by one!) Don't worry if some of your cities don't have defense. As long as it's not close to an enemy city or unit, it doesn't need defense.
Take the capital, which will probably have at least one wonder. Take all surrounding cities. Don't worry if a city flips back to the other side, just conquer it again. (make sure there are no units of yours in the city when it flips -- use saving & loading to know when it flips!) Leave a few isolated cities to the enemy and then..
Ask another civ for tech that opens up many other tech (for $$, of course). Sue for Peace and take all the tech the enemy has, plus all the enemy gold (which isn't much), world map, territory map, workers, and cities. If you don't get a deal with cities in it, don't worry, but you must take all the tech you can possibly take from them. Otherwise, take another city and try again.
You should have set all your captured cities on temples and all captured workers to connect your captured cities with your own.
When your captured cities have built temples, set them to build Legions.
Go on to the next civ, repeat procedure. Go on to 3rd civ (3 is max on tiny.) If you're lucky, you should have most of the world under your domination. Try not to let one civ take over another, because you'll have a super-civ with musket men to go up against. (and you won't have the technology for that, either)
2) Tips for Founding, Taking & Keeping cities:
*Raze very large enemy cities that are far from your capital, have no wonders, and have been caught with minimum Legions. (the enemy will take it back again if it's right in the middle of their territory, militarily or culturally.) Later, replace that city with your own settlers from your capital & second city and send some workers back down to your capital and second city. (Reminds me of the Babylon capture of Jerusalem..)
* Try to take all cities that have access to Horses and Iron or build cities on their squares if unclaimed. No horses, no Iron = no horsemen or swordsmen. Legions usually can't kill horsemen (they're too fast) and swordsmen give Legions a hard time.
* Take one legion to the capital ASAP and raze all the terrain improvements (the ones made with the imaginary workers..you'll see), starting with connection to enemy cities. It cuts off any connections to luxuries or to advanced military in the enemy capital and even in Deity, the enemy will rebuild these tiles slowly.
*Don't let the enemy get Deserts, either! Peat is found in Desert squares 99%, if not 100% (unverified) percent of the time. No peat = no gunpowder = no musket men!
3) Tactics
* The random factor first goes one way then the next. Time attacks so that if the random factor favors the enemy, the attack you make is easily won. If it favors you, attack the enemy where it's iffy who will win. (How to find out who gets advantage first? Save, try it, and load back)
* Very rarely can you win versus an enemy unit on moutains. Wait until he leaves the mountains, then attack. Better yet, TAKE the mountains first! Outmaneuver your opponent!
* A moderately damaged Legion, if attacked by an archer over a river, will most likely survive.
4) Strategy
* Don't let the enemy creep into your undefended cities (all your Legions should be at war, except those closest to other rival cities--kind of like rapid response)
* Use galleys to move Legions around. Often, your cities will be connected one turn away from enemy encampments across the "bay". Take this opportunity to ferry Legions to the war grounds, instead of forcing them to take the long land road.
* Declare War on especially powerful enemies when they're already at war! This means they have to split their forces, or defend only on one front!
* Try to always use your Regular or Veteran Legions for easy fights so that they upgrade. Get all or most of your Legions to Elite ASAP!
* Never use leaders for improvements. Always for armies. If you use a Leader for a Forbidden Palace, make sure it doesn't flip to the other side! This destroys the small wonder! (save and see)
5) More City Build Strategy
* As mentioned before, the Rome build (1st city) should go: Warrior, Granary, Legion.
Then: Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, Legion, cultural improvement, Legion.
* As mentioned before, your second city should go Granary, Legion, Legion, Legion, etc, cultural Improvement.
* All conquered cities should build Temple first!!! Rush build Temple if price is not too high! After Temple, build a Legion/Granary/(you probably have captured Pyramids already), and cultural improvements.
6) Government Strategy
Until you have control of 60% or more of all cities, switch to Republic. (switch during Peace-time only!!)
With Despotism, you can rush-build Legions, but with Republic, you'll have oodles of money. After you have many cities, you should have already a sizeable force and be able to rush-build Temples and military with ease.
7) Besides Legions..
*Catapults are good for cities that have extremely good defenders (such as Greek Hoplites (is it Hoplites?) Make sure they don't get captured. Keep them with your major attacking force.
*Of course, Knights are even more viable than Legions when you can get them. Same for Cavalry. You'll probably be using Knights, though, because you'll either be annihalated or dominate everyone by the time you can make Cavalry.
8) That's it
Comments? Questions? Outrages?
. A good strategy is ROBUST :mutant: , that is one capable of dealing effectively with more-or-less random events (and random placing of resources). The latter is much more a test of skill, ability and sound strategy than the former. 