Predator145
King
- Joined
- May 22, 2020
- Messages
- 636
Since stock game even on a competitive difficulty is mostly decided in industrial age, we rarely get to see a proper modern age. This is a test version of my epic game mod aiming to improve the the epic game itself. This thread will show case modern age warfare (with C3X applied of course) and the things I've found out.
First mystery first: How the heck does Khotan get to size 13? There is absolutely no improvement allowing it to do so. I've checked in the editor if any of the improvements have accidentally have allow city size 3 checked. But no.

To confirm, I drafted Khotan down to size 12, irrigated to allow a food surplus and then tried to join a worker to see if it can get back to size 13. The city couldn't. So strange.

Back to the game. I play as the Mil, Exp, Com Turco-Mongols. The traits are geared towards con/dom victory so I aggressively weakened my neighbors with alternating wars. I'm very pleased with the changes made including ptw style targeting, fixed fortification improvements, nerfing of armies, C3X perfuming of improvements, nerfing specialists, increased number of beaker multiplier improvements.
No longer could I simply keep going and taking out technologically advanced AIs with an SOD of ancient catapults and swordsmen armies while losing next to nothing doing so. This is on Deity. I tried my best to wage war and my stock games on Deity usually don't go past 1500 AD. The game lasting this long is due to the improved AI performance.
Also, the main reason I couldn't just destroy my neighbors is that Egypt needed to be contained. For that, I needed their production. Keeping them at war with Egypt slowed down that run away AI's science and city development. I fought Egypt at the 1 tile isthmus with high ground choke point. The frustrating thing is that the allied AIs even with ROP will fortify a unit on that 1 tile, preventing others from joining the fight. So I had to choose between not having allies fight, or let the Egyptians flood past the isthmus. They have 80 tanks and a huge artillery stack. The moment I venture out in the open they will run me over. The plan is to hold the mountain fortress near Thermopylae, bait the AI to flood their tanks past that and bombard them. But even that may not be enough now that the AI knows how to use artillery. I'm not even sure with the combined artillery and air power bombardment that I can hold the mountain fortress.

It doesn't look like this can be won by brute strength. If militarily this can't be won then I can have a save where I go for diplo or space. But I wanna use this game to showcase competitive late game warfare. I will need to somehow cut off their their strat resources. Strategic bombardment will be needed. And even tactical nukes.
Also, being mobilized means the AI can't build factories or size allowing improvements since they're not flagged as militaristic. Do you think that's worth it for the AI? Is the short term boost in shield output worth their cities being delayed for a very long time? A smart human player will keep the AI forever at war. I know that the AI doesn't stay mobilized forever even if they're at war and will catch war time breaks to build some heavily perfumed improvements. But as you can see here, Egypt still has yet to allow many of their core cities to grow into metros. I may need to give size 3 allowing improvements the militaristic flag. Maybe militaristic civs build their own version with no discount.

First mystery first: How the heck does Khotan get to size 13? There is absolutely no improvement allowing it to do so. I've checked in the editor if any of the improvements have accidentally have allow city size 3 checked. But no.

To confirm, I drafted Khotan down to size 12, irrigated to allow a food surplus and then tried to join a worker to see if it can get back to size 13. The city couldn't. So strange.

Back to the game. I play as the Mil, Exp, Com Turco-Mongols. The traits are geared towards con/dom victory so I aggressively weakened my neighbors with alternating wars. I'm very pleased with the changes made including ptw style targeting, fixed fortification improvements, nerfing of armies, C3X perfuming of improvements, nerfing specialists, increased number of beaker multiplier improvements.
No longer could I simply keep going and taking out technologically advanced AIs with an SOD of ancient catapults and swordsmen armies while losing next to nothing doing so. This is on Deity. I tried my best to wage war and my stock games on Deity usually don't go past 1500 AD. The game lasting this long is due to the improved AI performance.
Also, the main reason I couldn't just destroy my neighbors is that Egypt needed to be contained. For that, I needed their production. Keeping them at war with Egypt slowed down that run away AI's science and city development. I fought Egypt at the 1 tile isthmus with high ground choke point. The frustrating thing is that the allied AIs even with ROP will fortify a unit on that 1 tile, preventing others from joining the fight. So I had to choose between not having allies fight, or let the Egyptians flood past the isthmus. They have 80 tanks and a huge artillery stack. The moment I venture out in the open they will run me over. The plan is to hold the mountain fortress near Thermopylae, bait the AI to flood their tanks past that and bombard them. But even that may not be enough now that the AI knows how to use artillery. I'm not even sure with the combined artillery and air power bombardment that I can hold the mountain fortress.

It doesn't look like this can be won by brute strength. If militarily this can't be won then I can have a save where I go for diplo or space. But I wanna use this game to showcase competitive late game warfare. I will need to somehow cut off their their strat resources. Strategic bombardment will be needed. And even tactical nukes.
Also, being mobilized means the AI can't build factories or size allowing improvements since they're not flagged as militaristic. Do you think that's worth it for the AI? Is the short term boost in shield output worth their cities being delayed for a very long time? A smart human player will keep the AI forever at war. I know that the AI doesn't stay mobilized forever even if they're at war and will catch war time breaks to build some heavily perfumed improvements. But as you can see here, Egypt still has yet to allow many of their core cities to grow into metros. I may need to give size 3 allowing improvements the militaristic flag. Maybe militaristic civs build their own version with no discount.
