I am playing a large map, continents with lots of water, dry, temperate, 5 billion years, Monarchy, Mayans, raging barbarians.
As background on myself, I have won all the way through Diety. ( pangea, exploration trait, world science re-seller strategy)
For this game I wanted to do an build strategy, but early aggression to secure lots of space.
First, omg is agricultural trait nice. Especially in a dry world. I started in a desert next to a river (flood plain) with 2 wheat squares. I almost fell out of my chair in shock at the beautiful start. I got 5 cities before I was out of expansion room. (There were 4 civs and the continent is not that big.) I had the americans to my south and the japaneese to my north with the koreans beyond them.
I pumped out a bunch of spear throwers and went after the americans first. (got a military leader. woohoo!) They rolled over relatively easy. Then turned around and picked on the Japs, who were a little tougher. By this time ironworking was researched, but I had the only 2 iron spots on the continent secured. Instead of building swordsmen I stayed with spear throwers because I knew they had no swordsmen.
OMG are armies nice now. My spear thrower army got to move 2 a turn, and got to attack twice a turn. However, I did not see a strength boost as I expected. With a 1/6 boost of total strength, and each of the three beeing 2/2, I expected a boost to 3/3 and did not see one. (Maybe it just isn't visible, because it seemed the army was a little lucky.)
Net result, all the japaneese were wiped out and i owned most of the continet. I left the koreans alone because I had enough space (for now) and wanted to build. I had a bunch! of slave workers. I used a second military leader to rush a palace on the north side of the continent near the koreans after building my hidden palace (or whatever that thing is called) just south of my original capital.
I am about 3 techs from finishing the second age now. The rest of the world is only about 4 techs *into* the second age. I have never before had such a run-away tech lead on Monarchy.
Some of it was just luck. Nice start, early leader. But I think I will never again play agriculture trait on a dry world. I can plop a city in the middle of a desert and make a beautiful city of it. That is incredibly powerful. Enslavement. Wow. Between barbarians and 2 wars (I had an iron monopoply so could use spear throwers longer) I have a bucnh of slaves. I only have 4 workers of my own nationality. And yet I have already finished the entire continent. I filled on the whole march, mined all mountains, everything. It is just incredible. I will point out that it is a little balanced by having the industrial trait, since the industrial bonus no longer seems to help slaves. Still, the mayans are incredibly powerful, and adaptable to many strategies. Even on diety, where I wouldn't dream of taking on the computer with spear throwers, the industrial trait would pick up in usefulness (more home grown workers) and there might be a few barbarian slaves to pick up.
Next I am going to check to see if any civs have agriculture and military. I think that would be my favorite combo.
As background on myself, I have won all the way through Diety. ( pangea, exploration trait, world science re-seller strategy)
For this game I wanted to do an build strategy, but early aggression to secure lots of space.
First, omg is agricultural trait nice. Especially in a dry world. I started in a desert next to a river (flood plain) with 2 wheat squares. I almost fell out of my chair in shock at the beautiful start. I got 5 cities before I was out of expansion room. (There were 4 civs and the continent is not that big.) I had the americans to my south and the japaneese to my north with the koreans beyond them.
I pumped out a bunch of spear throwers and went after the americans first. (got a military leader. woohoo!) They rolled over relatively easy. Then turned around and picked on the Japs, who were a little tougher. By this time ironworking was researched, but I had the only 2 iron spots on the continent secured. Instead of building swordsmen I stayed with spear throwers because I knew they had no swordsmen.
OMG are armies nice now. My spear thrower army got to move 2 a turn, and got to attack twice a turn. However, I did not see a strength boost as I expected. With a 1/6 boost of total strength, and each of the three beeing 2/2, I expected a boost to 3/3 and did not see one. (Maybe it just isn't visible, because it seemed the army was a little lucky.)
Net result, all the japaneese were wiped out and i owned most of the continet. I left the koreans alone because I had enough space (for now) and wanted to build. I had a bunch! of slave workers. I used a second military leader to rush a palace on the north side of the continent near the koreans after building my hidden palace (or whatever that thing is called) just south of my original capital.
I am about 3 techs from finishing the second age now. The rest of the world is only about 4 techs *into* the second age. I have never before had such a run-away tech lead on Monarchy.
Some of it was just luck. Nice start, early leader. But I think I will never again play agriculture trait on a dry world. I can plop a city in the middle of a desert and make a beautiful city of it. That is incredibly powerful. Enslavement. Wow. Between barbarians and 2 wars (I had an iron monopoply so could use spear throwers longer) I have a bucnh of slaves. I only have 4 workers of my own nationality. And yet I have already finished the entire continent. I filled on the whole march, mined all mountains, everything. It is just incredible. I will point out that it is a little balanced by having the industrial trait, since the industrial bonus no longer seems to help slaves. Still, the mayans are incredibly powerful, and adaptable to many strategies. Even on diety, where I wouldn't dream of taking on the computer with spear throwers, the industrial trait would pick up in usefulness (more home grown workers) and there might be a few barbarian slaves to pick up.
Next I am going to check to see if any civs have agriculture and military. I think that would be my favorite combo.
