Ecofarm
Deity
I’ve decided to provide a review of these 2 articles. Many of us are not likely to actually go to another thread, then come back and post, etc.
This way, some of the most pertinent material is back into a current thread.
My comments are sometimes difficult to seperate from the quotes, but the quotes are always opened and closed around paragraphs from the previous posts - I dont want to take any credit for these 2 great posts, but it is too much to change fonts.
Regarding http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=176505
The idea of keeping forces behind the front city is a great idea. A surprise defense!
“Forests and jungles, the best cover in the game, can luckily be removed. Hills, on the other hand, cannot. Hills next to cities provide valuable cover for your opponent, so it's helpful to position units of your own on them to hold the high ground. A similar approach can be taken to forests and jungles which you haven't been able to chop yet. It is imperative to chop all of your forests and jungles near the front, especially those on hills.”
Critical advice!
“Lastly, never attack an opponent armed with metal primarily with swordsmen. While the AI doesn't seem to build enough axemen, humans have no problem doing so.”
Additionally, a human will whip them – the AI whips nothing.
“Do not bend your civ around getting a single wonder; waiting to get a second city in favor of stonehenge will only serve to criple you. The pyramids are a similarly often overvalued wonder: they're nice to have, but you'll often want to go with Herdditary Rule anyway, which comes early enough if you focus on it.”
This is especially true because of the almost constant war weariness of MP. One exception, though – wonders (most) work for the entire team in teamplay. Having one civ go police state to protect the others, and another go representation to keep research up can be VERY powerful.
“In a free for all with good players, it's usually a good idea not to appear to be the strongest nation. Keep a sizable military, but slave enough to stay out of first place early on. My limited experience with FFAs with good players indicates that not being a target is extremely important.”
How does slaving reduce your score? Because of population I’m guessing. How much is 1 pop worth in score?
“Creative
Creative is a powerful ancient trait for free border pops. It provides additional score, allowing for access to the "fat cross" without religion or a monument, wreaks havoc with non-Creative leaders' borders, and provides a useful defensive bonus quickly.”
Augustus is such a nightmare. Stop him from getting iron (invite another player to join you) with warriors and archers, or you are all d0ne.
“Philosphical
A very powerful trait, philsophical allows full use of great people. Whether they are for culture bombs, academies, or free techs, it's nice to have them faster and cheaper.”
I disagree with this. Building libraries and running specialists is often at the cost of defense and growth. Additionally, Philo leaders are sometimes targeted like Rome, because once they get started they are problematic.
Sirkris posted a Great addition to the thread:
“3. Humans can be manipulated in ways the AI cannot! This is one you'll have to think about on your own to grasp its full meaning. The AI plays by the numbers, so it probably wouldn't be fooled by a diversionary force. Humans, on the other hand, have a tendancy to send most of their units to the scene of the battle....
That leads us to....
4. Don't forget about the enemy cities BEHIND the front line! Even in this article, you'll notice that the author recommends that you leave your back cities virtually undefended. I've often found enemy capitals, which produce a bulk of the enemy civ's units and wealth, defended only by a lone warrior or archer as late as the industrial era! Make the enemy think you're attacking the front-line city-- stage a few smaller attacks to throw him/her off (also helps make them overconfident, another human weakness). While you're at it, casually pillage the roads behind the front city (about 1-3 squares radius should do the trick).
Then, create a moderately-sized stack and send it to the frontline city. For the sake of your sanity, assume that every unit in that stack will die a horrible death (you know what pawns are in chess, right?). While those units are attacking and keeping the defending garrison busy, if you time it right, you can sneak your super-stack from behind the lines right through (use a road) to the backside of the frontline city. The enemy will have already committed most of his/her units to what s/he thought was the main attack force.
At this point, the enemy may still believe you're planning on attacking that contested city from behind. Then next turn, put your super-stack on a straight course for the enemy capital. Depending on the situation, it may be better to split it up into a few smaller stacks and send a few toward different cities-- that way, the enemy won't know where you're attacking, and thus won't know where to send reinforcements. Also, with the roads pillaged, the remaining garrison units in the front-line city won't be able to give a very effective chase. And if they do, have a smaller backup stack ready to threaten that city in order to force the enemy to either send some of those chasing units back to defend the city or let it be captured.
If you make it to the enemy capital, throw everything you have at it (if practical). When you take it, well, that leads us to the next point....
5. Burn, baby, burn!! NEVER take an enemy city without raizing it to the ground if the enemy is still powerful enough to potentially take it back. Otherwise, your advance will ultimately be haulted, and you'll be put on the defensive. And if the enemy retakes the city, then the whole offensive campaign will have been a virtual waste.”
Burn, baby, burn!! Muhahaha
There are some other good responses. I highly recommend reading the thread.
Now, on to the next one….
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=203782
“-Spiritual- this is good b/c of the no Anarchy. An MP games rarely lasts longer than 100-150 turns and you will switch civics to at least slavery and probably hereditary rule, bureaucracy, and a religion. This means that by being a Spi. civ you can avoid those turns of anarchy. The other benefit of Spiritual is that if you want to you can go to Org. Religion or Caste System. Going Caste System for 10 turns to make a great artists and then culture bombing a border city is a huge advantage on that front, however this strat comes with a large penalty for non-Spi. civs (or non-Philo civs).”
Fear the culture bomb! I haven’t used that effectively vs an AI since Civ3.
“Oracle Tech path- this puts you a number of turns to construction behind a team taking the purely military tech path
->Bronze W.->Animal H.->Archery->Pottery->Iron W.->Meditation->Priesthood-> Masonry->Writing->Mathematics->Construction
Pure Military Tech Path (my favored)
->Bronze W.-> Animal H. -> Archery->Pottery->Iron W.->Writing->Mathematics-> Construction
Chokes- This is where you put units into your enemies territory with the idea of preventing your opponent from improving his/her tiles. Chokes are best when put on a forested hill tile, but (depending on the unit/promotions) can be put on any defensive ground. The standard choke is an archer choke on a forested hill tile. Chokes are most effective when you have more than one unit on that defensive tile. This is because if you have an archer on a forested tile and I attack with an archer and lose, but do enough damage to attack and win with a second archer then you and I have merely traded units (and hammers), but now I have a promoted unit. Multiple units in a choke can prevent you from merely trading units as previously described. A few particularly nasty types of chokes can be done with Skirmishers, Jaguars, and guerrilla promoted archers (protective archers to a lesser degree).
Breaking a Choke- The key to breaking a choke is to not panic. Do NOT start throwing units at it, this only promotes the unit or has you trading 40 hammers worth of units for 20 hammers worth of units (a losing proposition). Since chokes are often done by archers they can sometimes (depending on the type of terrain and defense bonus) be broken by cover promoted swordsmen or axes (this option is really only available to Agg. civs though). The other way to break a choke is just to wait on Construction and catapults and then use catapults and collateral damage to get rid it. If you find yourself being choked, you have to work around it. Don’t let them deny you all the tiles, only let a choke deny you the tile(s) that the units are actually on. To do this you will need a few units to accompany your workers, but do that, just make sure that you have enough units defend your workers. To prevent chokes the first thing that you need to do with your worker(s) is chop forests (especially those on hills).”
Elephants are good at breaking chokes.
I’m starting to think that starting this thread could have been a bad idea. I was kind of enjoying (in a pathetic way, sure) the slaughtering of ignorant newbies!
Nonetheless, read up people, get to the multiplayer lobby, and LET'S GET IT ON!
This way, some of the most pertinent material is back into a current thread.
My comments are sometimes difficult to seperate from the quotes, but the quotes are always opened and closed around paragraphs from the previous posts - I dont want to take any credit for these 2 great posts, but it is too much to change fonts.
Regarding http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=176505
The idea of keeping forces behind the front city is a great idea. A surprise defense!
“Forests and jungles, the best cover in the game, can luckily be removed. Hills, on the other hand, cannot. Hills next to cities provide valuable cover for your opponent, so it's helpful to position units of your own on them to hold the high ground. A similar approach can be taken to forests and jungles which you haven't been able to chop yet. It is imperative to chop all of your forests and jungles near the front, especially those on hills.”
Critical advice!
“Lastly, never attack an opponent armed with metal primarily with swordsmen. While the AI doesn't seem to build enough axemen, humans have no problem doing so.”
Additionally, a human will whip them – the AI whips nothing.
“Do not bend your civ around getting a single wonder; waiting to get a second city in favor of stonehenge will only serve to criple you. The pyramids are a similarly often overvalued wonder: they're nice to have, but you'll often want to go with Herdditary Rule anyway, which comes early enough if you focus on it.”
This is especially true because of the almost constant war weariness of MP. One exception, though – wonders (most) work for the entire team in teamplay. Having one civ go police state to protect the others, and another go representation to keep research up can be VERY powerful.
“In a free for all with good players, it's usually a good idea not to appear to be the strongest nation. Keep a sizable military, but slave enough to stay out of first place early on. My limited experience with FFAs with good players indicates that not being a target is extremely important.”
How does slaving reduce your score? Because of population I’m guessing. How much is 1 pop worth in score?
“Creative
Creative is a powerful ancient trait for free border pops. It provides additional score, allowing for access to the "fat cross" without religion or a monument, wreaks havoc with non-Creative leaders' borders, and provides a useful defensive bonus quickly.”
Augustus is such a nightmare. Stop him from getting iron (invite another player to join you) with warriors and archers, or you are all d0ne.
“Philosphical
A very powerful trait, philsophical allows full use of great people. Whether they are for culture bombs, academies, or free techs, it's nice to have them faster and cheaper.”
I disagree with this. Building libraries and running specialists is often at the cost of defense and growth. Additionally, Philo leaders are sometimes targeted like Rome, because once they get started they are problematic.
Sirkris posted a Great addition to the thread:
“3. Humans can be manipulated in ways the AI cannot! This is one you'll have to think about on your own to grasp its full meaning. The AI plays by the numbers, so it probably wouldn't be fooled by a diversionary force. Humans, on the other hand, have a tendancy to send most of their units to the scene of the battle....
That leads us to....
4. Don't forget about the enemy cities BEHIND the front line! Even in this article, you'll notice that the author recommends that you leave your back cities virtually undefended. I've often found enemy capitals, which produce a bulk of the enemy civ's units and wealth, defended only by a lone warrior or archer as late as the industrial era! Make the enemy think you're attacking the front-line city-- stage a few smaller attacks to throw him/her off (also helps make them overconfident, another human weakness). While you're at it, casually pillage the roads behind the front city (about 1-3 squares radius should do the trick).
Then, create a moderately-sized stack and send it to the frontline city. For the sake of your sanity, assume that every unit in that stack will die a horrible death (you know what pawns are in chess, right?). While those units are attacking and keeping the defending garrison busy, if you time it right, you can sneak your super-stack from behind the lines right through (use a road) to the backside of the frontline city. The enemy will have already committed most of his/her units to what s/he thought was the main attack force.
At this point, the enemy may still believe you're planning on attacking that contested city from behind. Then next turn, put your super-stack on a straight course for the enemy capital. Depending on the situation, it may be better to split it up into a few smaller stacks and send a few toward different cities-- that way, the enemy won't know where you're attacking, and thus won't know where to send reinforcements. Also, with the roads pillaged, the remaining garrison units in the front-line city won't be able to give a very effective chase. And if they do, have a smaller backup stack ready to threaten that city in order to force the enemy to either send some of those chasing units back to defend the city or let it be captured.
If you make it to the enemy capital, throw everything you have at it (if practical). When you take it, well, that leads us to the next point....
5. Burn, baby, burn!! NEVER take an enemy city without raizing it to the ground if the enemy is still powerful enough to potentially take it back. Otherwise, your advance will ultimately be haulted, and you'll be put on the defensive. And if the enemy retakes the city, then the whole offensive campaign will have been a virtual waste.”
Burn, baby, burn!! Muhahaha
There are some other good responses. I highly recommend reading the thread.
Now, on to the next one….
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=203782
“-Spiritual- this is good b/c of the no Anarchy. An MP games rarely lasts longer than 100-150 turns and you will switch civics to at least slavery and probably hereditary rule, bureaucracy, and a religion. This means that by being a Spi. civ you can avoid those turns of anarchy. The other benefit of Spiritual is that if you want to you can go to Org. Religion or Caste System. Going Caste System for 10 turns to make a great artists and then culture bombing a border city is a huge advantage on that front, however this strat comes with a large penalty for non-Spi. civs (or non-Philo civs).”
Fear the culture bomb! I haven’t used that effectively vs an AI since Civ3.
“Oracle Tech path- this puts you a number of turns to construction behind a team taking the purely military tech path
->Bronze W.->Animal H.->Archery->Pottery->Iron W.->Meditation->Priesthood-> Masonry->Writing->Mathematics->Construction
Pure Military Tech Path (my favored)
->Bronze W.-> Animal H. -> Archery->Pottery->Iron W.->Writing->Mathematics-> Construction
Chokes- This is where you put units into your enemies territory with the idea of preventing your opponent from improving his/her tiles. Chokes are best when put on a forested hill tile, but (depending on the unit/promotions) can be put on any defensive ground. The standard choke is an archer choke on a forested hill tile. Chokes are most effective when you have more than one unit on that defensive tile. This is because if you have an archer on a forested tile and I attack with an archer and lose, but do enough damage to attack and win with a second archer then you and I have merely traded units (and hammers), but now I have a promoted unit. Multiple units in a choke can prevent you from merely trading units as previously described. A few particularly nasty types of chokes can be done with Skirmishers, Jaguars, and guerrilla promoted archers (protective archers to a lesser degree).
Breaking a Choke- The key to breaking a choke is to not panic. Do NOT start throwing units at it, this only promotes the unit or has you trading 40 hammers worth of units for 20 hammers worth of units (a losing proposition). Since chokes are often done by archers they can sometimes (depending on the type of terrain and defense bonus) be broken by cover promoted swordsmen or axes (this option is really only available to Agg. civs though). The other way to break a choke is just to wait on Construction and catapults and then use catapults and collateral damage to get rid it. If you find yourself being choked, you have to work around it. Don’t let them deny you all the tiles, only let a choke deny you the tile(s) that the units are actually on. To do this you will need a few units to accompany your workers, but do that, just make sure that you have enough units defend your workers. To prevent chokes the first thing that you need to do with your worker(s) is chop forests (especially those on hills).”
Elephants are good at breaking chokes.
I’m starting to think that starting this thread could have been a bad idea. I was kind of enjoying (in a pathetic way, sure) the slaughtering of ignorant newbies!
Nonetheless, read up people, get to the multiplayer lobby, and LET'S GET IT ON!
Anyway, a good tip in this sense is to use chariots or other units with 2x movement to look around during war, and of course do some pillaging. To be offensive when others attack is crusial. You won't win playing protective (if you're not a protective civ settled on hill with early longbows).
