Me, Hannibal and Prince...again : /

[xxsyrusvb]

::Saved Game Below::

So Prince lvl game 2 was up and running with suggetions from you kind folks about game one i posted issues about.

I decided to give hannibal a try (prince, 3 conts, no time/space). As his traits seem to benefit my weakness's in prince (money and happiness).

So it turns out the game really gave me a what for, by putting me, HC and Julius Caesar on the same cont (talk about be strong or die....at least monty wasnt there haha)

Anyway, i basically wiped out JC except for one city way on the other side of HC (it was nothing at the time so i spared him...which i think is worse). Then I was going to use the remaining army to wipe out HC.

I need advice wheather to build up my army a tiny more (I am number 1 on the power chart w/ HC at the 2 spot), or if I should just go now and take out his closest 3 cities with what i got.

If anyone has a quick sec to check it out..here are some info on my situation:

-running at 60% with a CE...I know its bad but war and keeping up that pace seemed to cost me time with cottages. Although i placed them pretty early but I guess not enough.

-Just finished war with JC 10 or so turns ago.

-My offensive army is broken down into 3 stacks, each spaced at the north boarder. These stacks consist of Swordsman, catapults, pikes and maybe a few mounted.

-My defensive army is quite smaller but I think it could hold if need be. These are broken again into 3 stacks and consist of Hannibal UU (Navidian cav or something?), a few pikes and an elephant..maybe a archer. These stacks can be found close to the offensive stacks (which i thought would be his attacking points...actually close to those points since ill be stationing them 1-3 squares away when war happens)

Any advice would be nice. Should I war now and take him down a bit just to weaken him...then come back sometime soon. Or to wait and build a few more units which would give him a chance to do the same (we are friendly by the way...but i want this cont to myself X D
or should

thanks for the help....

 

[xxsyrusvb]

using warlords pre patch btw.

 

[mice]

You seem in good shape. Great production city in Hippo. I upgraded your swords to maces, and after this I think you just need to dedicate yuor cities to building elephants ,to counter the horse archers that HC might send to you until you get pikes, and more maces/crossbows
. He has mainly longbows. A defensive army. you can take him out and your econ is fine.

 

[Severus]

I agree with mice, attack him now, or very shortly after building a few pikemen/crossbowmen to counter any attacks you might face. You can easily take Corihuayrachina and Machu Pichu with the forces you have on the northern border but i would do this with one stack rather than two, taking Corihuayrachina first, while moving your reinforcements up to machu pichu and a couple of specialized city garrisons to Corihuayrachina. This might also draw his counter attacks to your invading stack rather than them pillaging your territory.

I only had a very quick look but a couple of quick observations i'd make are that you should be building the heroic epic in hippo rather than an aqueduct to quickly churn out those city garrisons firstly, and then further attackers.

Also build a road on the silver mine north of hippo as this will allow Cumae to continue growing through the additional happiness.

Also on a side note how come there's a floodplain grassland tile which gives five food when unfarmed north of hippo?? I can quite honestly say i have never seen such a tile before.

Anyway i hope this helps.

 

[xxsyrusvb]

Thanks for taking the time fellas. Greatly appreciated.

Your comments all seem to make sense to me.

To Mice:

1) thanks for the advice, the upgrade might just be good enough.
2) do you really think my economy is fine right now? I thought 60-70% or lower was bad in a CE. (albeit I am using that lower rate for war supply.

A few points to Severus:

1) thanks I was quite proud of hippo's production myself ; )
2) I didnt realize there was a aquaduct going there. it must have finished all the military units i qued up and i must have left that there pre-war.
3) I plan on the heroic epic in hippo. just wanted to make sure i have a big enough army so ill wait till the HC war is "in the bag" or when i could shut down the city to build it.
4) yes that flood plain doesnt make sense to me either. I was like WTH when I first saw it. I am using smartmap so who knows if an anomaly happened.
5) thanks for your thoughts.

Overall, thanks for the comments, ill let ya know what happens. Also any more tips are always welcome and needed. Have a happy thanksgiving (americans...obviously lol)

Take Care

 

[mice]

2) do you really think my economy is fine right now? I thought 60-70% or lower was bad in a CE. (albeit I am using that lower rate for war supply.

If it's higher than that then you're probably not expanding enough.It's not % anyway it's beakers/turn and you are ahead of all of them in tech except Huyana, and he is about to take a turn for the worst. Huyana being financial builds cottages. so your economy is about to take over a lot of them.Your econ will benefit from this attack. The upgraded maces just need a pike or crossbow for protection. City raiders are vulnerable in many cases. It's units and hit time.I wouldnt wait to long.

 

[xxsyrusvb]

If it's higher than that then you're probably not expanding enough.It's not % anyway it's beakers/turn and you are ahead of all of them in tech except Huyana, and he is about to take a turn for the worst. Huyana being financial builds cottages. so your economy is about to take over a lot of them.Your econ will benefit from this attack. The upgraded maces just need a pike or crossbow for protection. City raiders are vulnerable in many cases. It's units and hit time.I wouldnt wait to long.

Lets just say the war ended and was completely one sided
I left him with 2 northern pop 7 cities (same as i left julius which i which i just killed off). But i made HC my vassel since its my first capitulation (sp?), and wanted to check it out. I plan on finishing off but wait till my economy recovers..i was down to 20% towards the end.

How can I find out specific info like my total beakers/turn and all that? You also said that I was ahead in techs, I have NO IDEA if I am ever ahead (other then rough guess's based on what techs they are willing to trade.

Is there a screen that lists possible all my info and stats, as well as other civs info (besides the graphs screen that also shows wonders built and such).

It seems like if I can find our more specific info like your suggesting, my game would probably improve 3 fold.

Thanks again for the time/tips/suggestions.

*after the war, I am way ahead in points and my power is just scary compared to the rest, though i havent check power graph in a bit. Seems like i should be able to be confident at prince lvl in 1-3 more games, which is good for my playing speed.

 

[UncleJJ]

How can I find out specific info like my total beakers/turn and all that? You also said that I was ahead in techs, I have NO IDEA if I am ever ahead (other then rough guess's based on what techs they are willing to trade.

Is there a screen that lists possible all my info and stats, as well as other civs info (besides the graphs screen that also shows wonders built and such).

The financial screen (F2 I think) shows a lot of important information such as the total beaker and gold you get from taxes and the value of your resource trading and then (very important for you) how your costs are broken down. Just hover over the costs of various civics and your units. You will soon learn how to raise more money and also how to save costs.

 

[cabert]

going for HC.
He's a nasty one, if left alone.

Don't forget to finish JC, since you have troops and he won't trade with you anyway.

About economy,
60% science is very good if:
- you're very large
- you've got growth potential (meaning room under happy/ health cap for more pop in your current cities, and other good tiles = cottages to work)

It's not good if you're small and without growth potential = badly shaped empire.
It's too high if you're small with growth potential. Too high means you could afford territorial expansion (by war).

I have another limit for expansion. It's around 0% .
Of course, when you find yourself unable to fund your units, you're trapped.
The only way out is to use those units for razing cities, and pillaging whatever you find.


When to stop expanding and start building up your territory?
2 options:
1) - warmonger's option : when you have no more targets or not enough troops
2) - builder's option : when you have room for growth and economy building in your cities.

In situation 1), you're going for a military win anyway, so economy isn't the most important thing in the game. You just need to keep up on tech, to be able to crush your next target, and to build and pay your troops. Building gold, or running a few merchants is often enough to pay the troops until they pay for themselves (see above).

In situation 2), the military is there to give you breathing room and security. You're goal is to tech to mass media for diplo, or to liberalism for cultural or towards space. You need big, profitable cities. So the key is to have enough happiness and health resources. As soon as you have the landmass and the resources, you don't need anymore wars.