Level up: Emperor & Immortal with 4 games

[Gumbolt]

To be fair the 3 courthouse cities were on wealth anyway and had mostly completed the CH. Yes feudalism looks to be quickest and easiest way to win here. So ceasefire with Russia would not be needed. Nice to see you took my axe advice.

Yeah with huge power advantage vassels were easy here. Did you actually take any more cities?

 

[elitetroops]

I put all cities on building research, slider to 100% and moved 2 HAs each into position to attack London, York, Moscow and Novgorod. Then only pressed end turn until 1 turn before feudalism, when I gifted the 4 cities first to Ragnar, declared and took them back, then to Alex and again declared and took them back. Next turn feudalism in and they were willing to capitulate (except Ragnar who apparently needs 2 turns to talk, should have declared on him one turn earlier). Demographics reveal that this is guaranteed to work, as all AI are below average power rating and your land area is more than twice that of the biggest AI. With all other conditions met, all you need is 40 war success, which you get from taking 4 cities.

 

[Gumbolt]

Well The 40 point cap trick is always a quick way to make Ai capitulate. 10 points for each city captured. Always thought it was more an abuse but I did use it in one of the Noble Club games. To be fair his power rating here must be 2.7-3.2 times more than the other Ai. Which is why the AI cap so quickly here. There is a thread on how to cap Ai recently and I think you details most key points on how to do this.

Reasearch for feud was a good plan. I assumed he was planning to actually fight the good fight here so assumed more than 5-6 turns. I suspect he could of tried this cap trick much sooner. 425ad would be a great finishing date for a learning emperor thread. lol

 

[elitetroops]

Yeah, not necessary to cheese it by gifting cities. But teching feudalism asap is good. Economy is in good shape, can avoid strike by building wealth. So definitely slider to 100% until feud is done. Stop building anything but wealth or research.

If you go full speed to feudalism, you can ignore the rest of Peter's cities and immediately head for Rags/Alex. Peter will capitulate when you get feud in 3 turns.

 

[Gasp]

The last turnset for this game. I took elite's advice to build research in order to get Feudalism ASAP.
And it went well but not as fast as if I had used the city gift technique. I preferred not to, the worker stealing technique was enough trick for this game

Spoiler To a victory T139 - 580 AD :

T129 - End
Let's try to vassal them for a faster victory. Slider to 100%
I follow Elite's technique to build Research. It's necessary because at 100% I'm at -307gpt which allow me 3T of research with 998 Just enough to reach Feudalism.
I have a GG this turn. I'll use it on a stack of units this time.
I see no point in finishing Peter so I DoW Ragnar this turn
T130
I take Hasting and keep (I assume it's better to keep rather than raze for the vassal system)
T131
I move to Birka
T132
With Feudalism I vassal Peter
i now mostly build Wealth to avoid imminent strike
I put my workers on auto (don't need them)
T133
DoW on Alex
T135
i take Birka fro Ragnar (2nd city)
T136
I take Corinth from Alex
Ragnar capitulates and his my 2nd vassal
T138
I take Argos
T139
There's no one left to fight Conquest victory 580 AD

I don't have a save for this turnset. I didn't save it. But it doesn't not matter.
In my HOF this is my earliest victory and also my biggest score. Sweet

The aggressive strategy for this game was mainly elite's doing and I had fun playing. I'm surprise how easy it was in that particular game (not sure I can reproduce it on my own).

So maybe I'll play on IMM my next online game as someone suggested. If you have any suggestion about difficulty, leader and/or map I'm listening. I was planning to play on another Pangea map but maybe continents or fractal would be better to learn other aspects of the game.

 

[elitetroops]

I told you stealing those workers would turn this into easy mode.

Seriously though, I really think those worker steals were very important to this easy victory. It was also a bit of a lucky map with most AI squeezed into a small area in the east. Had for example Vicky started in the large empty NW area, they would all have expanded more and become tougher opponents. However, regardless of map, emperor AI will be quite pushovers at least until they get longbows. Now when you've learned some secrets to early warfare, you should be able to put yourself in a winning position on most maps.

You could still try something different on emperor, like for example an Inland Sea map. They have more land and it will be quite evenly divided, so no boxed in AI stuck at 3-4 cities. On such a map I would expect at least cuirs are needed. Overall it does get a lot more challenging when the AI has more room to expand. Or you could move up to immortal, all up to you. If still another emp game, avoid the strong leaders. Maybe one of the weaker SPI leaders, like Monty, Saladin or Brennus, to play around more with civic changes?

 

[Gumbolt]

Looks like you cruised this in the end. Very bizarre having a large chunk of the map pretty much left to barbs for the whole game. The AI being very limited in size here really helped. Only Portugal really tried to expand greatly.

No harm trying an immortal game. You seem to like the micro so with some forum help you should be able to win at that level. Maybe even on your own.

 

[Gasp]

Yes land was a critical point in the game so I'll follow the advice to play an Inland_sea map.

I was originally thinking about Gandhi. He's SPI also but starts with Mining and is PHI (which is far better than Protective or Aggr.). I am not sure how much Fast workers make the game easier though.

Inland_Sea I rolled 2 maps to see how they look like. I don't recall playing such map with non-iced polar limit in a very long time (if ever). Hence my question: does it matter much if the starting location is at the bottom/top/side of the map or on the coast?

 

[Gumbolt]

Fast workers make Indians one of the best warring civ to play. Essentially you can move on grassland forest/jungle and chop on same turn. Phi is a strong trait too. I have had crazy games playing Indians.

I would just roll a map and start a thread. Being in centre of map will give you more of a challenge. Tucked away in corner means you can play more risk free from an Ai dow.

 

[lymond]

Fast workers = Best UU in the game

 

[elitetroops]

Yeah, Gandhi is definitely top tier. One of the best in the game. Super strong traits and the only UU that is guaranteed to be useful in every single game, right from the start to the very end. I suggested some weaker leaders if you play emperor again, since the last game seemed so easy for you.

On Inland Sea it doesn't really matter at all where you start. You'll always have 2 neighbors, no matter if corner or more central position. Coastal starts are very rare and not something you'd want to look for.

 

[Gasp]

Alright we start our 3rd game with these settings: Saladin / Emperor / Inland-sea / Normal speed / NHNE

Spoiler Here is the start : :

Where would you settle here?

SIP seems like a good choice. Settling 1N we lose forest. 1NW could be good it gives more riverside tiles. I'd move Warrior 1W to see if there is food hidden.

 

[Fippy]

You should really play Imm

 

[Gasp]

#3 - Saladin (SPI-PRO): Immortal / Inland-sea / Normal speed / NHNE;
As long as I keep receiving good advice here I could play any level and do fine I guess
I don't want to jump too fast though. But I could just change level and play this one on Immortal :

Spoiler Do you want that IMM start? :

Or do you move Warrior 1S?

 

[Pedro78]

As long as I keep receiving good advice here I could play any level and do fine I guess

Deity might still be a little tricky

This start looks just fine. Everyone loves AH starts with Saladin

Warrior 1SW looks good, settle 1W if nothing is found imo.

Oh and I think Continents/Hemisphere would be a better script for learning purposes than pangea-typed maps

 

[Fippy]

Going up fast in diff levels is benefical in all games, we learn much more from tough situations or even losses
Especially with the difference between Monarch, Emp and Imm not being all that great.
Only deity really stands out as big jump, but even here it's useful trying a couple games after winning one on Imm, just for fun and seeing what's going on there.

 

[elitetroops]

I like the second start more as well. Immortal is fine. The main difference is that the AI starts with one worker and is a bit better at building units.

Warrior S. SW reveals only one more forest. Kind of hoping there would be something useful down south, because I'd much rather move towards the rivers than away from them for the PH. If there's nothing good in sight, then 1W can be considered. Though from the looks of it it really sucks. You get a fast worker, but what then? Build roads until AH? Settle SE you'd at least have 2 flood plains to farm. Though that spot isn't very spectacular either if there is no other food.

 

[Gasp]

Then we'll play that Imm start. Harder level with a start that doesn't look as good as the Emp one.
Moving Warrior 1SW reveals Corn

Spoiler :

We have plenty of forest Sheep and Corn. We kill the sheep if we settle 1S. SIP looks ok?

 

[elitetroops]

I'd settle 1SE, north of corn. Expect this to be a longer game, so the better long term capital with more river will pay off. Wet corn and 2 flood plains is enough food, then you can delay AH and instead go AG-BW.

The map has a lot of land and immortal AI is quite capable of expanding. You want to be quite efficient with early REXing on this map.

 

[Fippy]

The most likely settling spot for me would be 1s of corn (plains hill).
As personal "rule", i dun mind moving for 2 turns if i can get my worker quicker and make up for those turns.

If the warrior finds something nice when looking 1se next turn, moving even further might be an option too (and fully into river).
But plains hill offers plenty river tiles already.