My first try at prince

KaytieKat

Emperor
Joined
Jul 29, 2007
Messages
1,001
Hi

Over the past year there abouts I been playing alot in series like noble clubs and lonely hearts clubs. Excpet for very first NC game which was epic I been playing them all at noble/marathon.

When I first started I was lbrand new to noble level so early on I got munched by the computers a LOT. But last few games I been manage to get wins on more regular basis. ButI guess everybody likes seeing me get whomped cuz now that I AM managing to do ok on noble ppl are saying I need to move up a level :P

So I decided to give in to nagging and give prince /marathon a try. But I wasnt going to be TOTALLY dumb about it. I picked a 2 cont hemis map since that is map I play the most and can usually do well on. I NORMALLY set it for massive cont, low sea level to give LOTS of land but this time I set it to normal cont and med sealevel. I figure those settings would keep AI's from settiling to many cities if/when they ran away expanded on me.

Then I picked Mans/Mali for my civ. I figure financial and mints will help me handle the hire expenses on prince and mali has a nice strong UU that while not overpowering at least is resopurceless so I am guaranteed to get and in a pinch can hold off barbies and stuff if it turns out I dont get any metals.

So tweaking the landmass and sealevel setting to hopefully give her a little adavntage plus picking a civ that is more noobie friendly than others the civ goddess Amarice of the Mali starts a prince level game :)

I ended up on land mass with louis, rosie, and alex. Alex being on same continent was a bit worrisome but he seemed pretty far away. I can uaully get along with rosie so it seemed louis was probably gonna be my main prob.

I started out trying to expand instead of focusing on wonders. NORMALLY GW IS a wonder I ALWATS try to chop but this time I didnt. In lonely Hearts Club games where you ALWAYS start isolated it usually more beneficial to rex out your island asap which means skipping GW. So if nothing else LHC has made me MUCH better at fogbusting to keep the barbies at bay so that route I went in this game.

I picked my civ well I think because copper was waaaaaaaay off so for LONGEST time my military was pretty much ALL skirmishers.

I tried using diplomacy to hold off the AI's. I managed to get things to work out to my benefit. Rosie found christianity. I founded islam through teching CoL but didnt adopt it. And taking page from TMiT recent lets play posts used the free missionary to go over to louis land and spread islam there. And it worked louis adopts islam while Rosie and Alex are christian and then eventually christiany spreads to me so now louis odd man out.

There STILL lil problem of just having skirmishers though so I hook up copper as quick as I can. Once it hooked up I start building axes axes axes. Which made me feel better. There were two nice city sites I wanted to get there but barbies beat me to em. I was too chicken to try and take em with just skirmishers but after louis snuck across and snatched one of em I didnt want to take chance on the other so I sent 8 skirmishers off to the other barbire city and they managed to take it.

Now as I was making my way to IW louis DoW's on me grrr. He didnt even spend ONE turn in wheooh mode and I doubt it was a bribe, Rosie and alex both hate em and it didnt feel like a bribed dow cuz on same turn he declared he sent in his stack so I guess same turned he decided to go after me he decided we had enough military and didnt need to build :/.

He came in with swords and axes but no mounted since he didnt have horsies. My axes and skirmishers hold off his stack and then I make a move and actually take one of his cities. Then I make a DUMB move. One of ways I usually war is if I can go for enemy cap ASAP even if I have to pass a city or two tot get to it. Usually when an AI loses their starting cap it REALLY cripples em especially that early in game. SO I tried it and got CRUSHED. My stack kept getting hit as it marched over and by time it got there it had 60% defence TONS of archers and now way my guys could take it. And I lost even MORE units on retreat back :(. During that fiasco I lose the city I took and Louis takes another city of mine.

But I finally get IW done and rosie actually like me enough to trade construction. I dont think AI has EVER traded me contruction before but I been kissing up to rosie and alex BIGtime whole game and even got em in on war with althought they werent helping with uints at all it at least got me a diplo bonus.

So with cats and sowrds to now go with my skirmishers and axes and try again. I retake my old city louis took, retake the first city I took then lost and even got that barbie city louis snatched. After that it was a long brutal war. I ened up losing that french city AGAIN and having to retake it AGAIN and same deal with paris--took it once, lost it, then had to come and retake it. But I figured if I HAD to be taking and retaking cities better the AI cities than mine hehe. But eventually I took louis last city and he was dead.

Ok that was all done, but now I am all blocked in by Rosis and he is LOTS bigger than what I thought. He was to my south and I didnt scout through his borders cuz I FIGURED the continent ended not too far after that and I was blocking him in. NOOOOOO turns out continet look like a lil fishhook so after ending south iit heads to the east a lil then curves up north again so rosis has TONS of land.

He also have TONS of shinies, he built the mids, ap, angorwat, glh and collossus. pluss his cities are starting to crowd my souther ones with his culture. Now I KNOW smart move would probably just stay friendly with rosie and use him as trading partner. BUt I figure any continent with alex CANT stay peaceful, plus I WANTED those shinies hehe. ONLY wonder i managed to get at this point has been oracle thought I am trying to get hg at this point though. SO with that in mind during last part of louis war while my other cities were still building cats and sowrds INSTEAD of heading up north to louis where I figured at that point I had enough to finish him they went south to get ready for a move on Rosie. And after Louis is dead and my main stack is heald it makes LOOONG 11 turn march down to Rosies borders.

And sure enough they not even started yet when ALex DoW's on Rosie. And AGAIN a DOW with NOOO wheooh time and this time it COULDNT have been a bribe cuz louis is dead, and I didnt do it and I am prtetty sure rosie didnt bribe alex to attack himself hehe. I guess IF on turn an AI decides to declare IF on smae turn it thinks it has enough trrops it will go ahead and declare THEN with NO wheooh warning :/.

Well anyways Alex declares like 12 turns too early and imediately asks me to help. I take the hit and say no just cuz I didnt want to DoW until my troops were ready. But eventually my stack gets there and hooks up with other units I been building and thanks to Alex ALL of Rosies troops off on other side of his empire instead of on my borders. But it not ALL great though. Rosie has egineering and LOTS of cities have castles. So I dont bother wasting a zillion turns doing bomabrds I just send int he cats. They do the job although I ned up losing TONS of cats.

I keep going as fast as I can because rosie is teching fast to longbows and I fgure castles plus longbows gonna be a PAIN. But I get lucky ONE turn after I finish CS a GE spawns and he bulbs machinery and now I have maces so even though Rosie gets longbows soon it STILL war on :)

By this point my BEST city busters all have CR3 awithg a few CR3 C1 and one super sword who was CR3 C2 cover. I HATED to promote him sending him back to 10 exp but I needed to. This war go a little easier mostly thanks to alex keeping rosie busy so I have his best cities including his cap with mids, and ap and New York with GLH and Collosus. And it during this war that I actually see how big my landmass is. ALmost twice the size of that I thought. I eventually take most of rosies cities but then run into a snag. I am now on Alex's borders. Rosie had made peace with him a cpl of turns ago but reall problem was the last few cities I was taking were ALREADY getting cutlure swamped by Alex and Rosies last few cities were on other side of Alex's empire.

Poor Alex. Of ALL the warhappy pyschos in the game Alex has always been one I get to to my side the most. It been more than a few games where I was able to do good with his help by keeping other AI's off my back while he attacks em for me. Unfortuantely in LOTS of those games it ends up at point where he no longer useful and if he on my borders that stupid UB of his make him WORSE than craetive neighbor. ANd sure enough one of rosies old cities already flipped to alex. So I make peace with Rosie and to give me time to regroup, build some more units and promote rest of my swords.

I guess Alex not the only who knows from past experience what is coming cuz he soon making this offer:

alexcap.jpg


Poor alex, if it wasnt for his stupid UB I MIGHT have accepted but his culture just gets waaay too annoying. As a vassal my cities wont flip to him but they would STILL be going in and out of revolt unless I had massive garrisons so it just better for the both of us if we stop being friends and I kill him :)

So when everything is set up I DoW on Alex take his cities until all he have left is a one tile island city. So now that he is off where his culture wont be a pain I let him cap. SO then it just rosie and his last 4 cities. I dow and finish him off easy. So know I have continet all to myself :).

Now during wars with Alex I had teched out optics and set off to see how bad I am doing comapred to other landmass. I end up winning map race and meeting other civs. On the other continent. ONLY civs there are Toku and Monty :/. After a little exploreing I see cities with names like York, Hastings and London but either in green or red so apaarently there WAS another civ on the island but they decided to leave. With those two neighbors I dont really blame em.

And here is where my generosity with Alex come back to haunt me. Since we are diff religions and they not the friendliest of chaps to begin with I am BOTH their worst enemies right off the bat. And JUST as the years of peace bonus kicks in so that Monty at least is willing to open borders which I do in prep to get some trades going once I get astronomy--I let ALex cap to me and BOOM I forgot bout the diplo hit for having a vassal and monty back to worst enemy grrrr.

So it look like I am not going to do much trading with the other contient since due to religion and vassal hits and just fact they not very friendly to begin with neither toku or monty all THAT eager to be friends. (Ok MAYBE they MIGHT just be a little concerned about what happened to last two civs who got friendly with me this game but I DID assure them they were different so that COULDNIT be it hehe :P) So if I want their resources that badly I am going to have to take em or tray and cap either toku or monty--and then I realize the OTHER mistake of letting Alex cap. Before an AI caps one of things they take into account is their power rating compared to the AVERAGE power rating of ALL the civs. ANd with ALex stuck on one tile island he bringing that vaerage down BIGTIME so capping anyone else is gonna be a pain. GRRRRRRR.

There was still some upisde though. A) since I been in major warring most of the game I had TONS of units so my power rating was bigger than theirs. And B) both Toku and Monty not exactly techwhores and with the ONLY other civ who might have helped them get adavanced long dead they not the most modern civs in the world at this point. I beat them to lib then to gunpowder then to rifiling.

I figure monty has most resources so after upgrading my guys to rifles, cavs and cannon I load up and head send off to Monty since he has biggest empire and the most resources.

Then something really crazy happens. Monty make a SMART move. When my fleet of frigates and galleons just ONE turn from his borders--First out of BLUE he DoW on toku. Second since that war seems to drop me from his worst enemy status NOW all of sudden he just happy as pie to trade his wine, deer, spices, anything else I may need ol monty willing to deal hehe. (Honestly it probably not as much a smart move on monty part as a DUMB move on toku's part. Toku had settled a lragish island of his coast and just then he had spun off a vassal and not learning from me what a vassal hit can do to realations with monty it dropped monty from friendly status and monty being monty JUMPED at excuse to DoW on SOMEONE)

So now with resources coming in from my new BFF monty my flest makes a right turn and heads toward Toku. They take two cities by which time I finish teching AL and do mass upgrade of my guys to Infantry. Toku STILL being a little stubborn and I have to take 3 more cities including Kyoto before he finally reasonable and caps. ANd when he caps hes new vassal Wang decides indipendence not all it cracked up to be and he caps to me too.

That left me VERY close to dom win threshhold like 62% out of 64% land needed. Close but not close enough. SO monty bought himself a little time with his backstab of Toku he didnt get free and clear just yet. My guys load up head back to montys cap and I dow and take it. Now cuz during all this time monty been at war with toku hhis units waaay on other side of continent on tokus borders. SO I leave a little garrison in montys old cap and load up rest back on ships to go after another city when all of sudden a HUGE stack is headded toward montys old cap. SO I quickly unload my guys and good thing to next turn a loooooooooooooooong fight happens as monty sends unit after unit on my stack. Unfortuantely while monty have the quantity he doint have enywhere NEAR quality. First he unloads TONS of cats and trebs NONE of which survives. Then he sends in a HUGE ammount of Knights but again NONE of them win and only one withdraws and fater that it just a long stream of junk like HA's and crossbows and a few pikes all of which dies. ANd I dont lose a single unit. But the BEST thing about that is Monty loses soooo many troops in that mass suicide he willing to cap so I take it, hit shift return and :

domwinnotic.jpg


My VERY first win on prince :)

My final score:

finalscore.jpg


This is like my thrid highest all time score :)

So I didnt get crushed like I was scared I would but I still it I did get lucky in in the map and the neighbors and fact when I went to other landmass it was being teched by dumb and dumber but it still nice so I will stick with prince for now and see how it goes :)

Oh and before I go I have to give props to this little guy:

genparacutie.jpg


Gen Paracutie here was my level 7 sword that dropped from 37/50 exp to 10/50 exp when he got rpomoted to mace. The goddess Amarice HATED to do that to him but desperate times and all that. But the brave little guy didnt complain he kust kept on smacking longbows and anything else his goddes sent him after. To the point that when it was time for him to be a rifle he got back up to 41/50 exp. I just DIDNT have the heart to send him back down to 10 exp again so he got blessed with a GG. First time in like FOREVER I atatched a GG to a nonmedic unit but he deserved it I think :)

So thats it. Im just glad I didnt get crushed but the fact that AI seems to be able to DOW with NOOO wheoonh warning at all is gonna be a little scary. But if this game any indication I THINK I can still manage to win at least some games on the higher level if maybe not as many as I was starting to on noble. At least I hope so and at very least now maybe ppl will stop saying I am not playing at my level hehe :P

Kaytie
 
Everyone said Kaytie was too good for Noble and like she tries Prince for the first time and wins and we were like OH MY GOD! ;)

Congratulations, once you sort out the correct amount of troops for an early rush against a creative civ you should be able to beat monarch no probs.
 
I told you your tech rate/warring was at LEAST monarch-emperor class :p. And here we have another 17th century blowout :lol:.

Congrats though!
 
:king:Gratz!:king:

was an entertaining story to read (i love to read how people's games go)
and it looks like you stormed it!

by the looks of this you can go straight to monarch :goodjob:

Look forward to reading about that!
 
I was in a very similar situation of you for ages! By the time I decided to go up, I saw how ridiculously easy Prince could be, mostly. I play Monarch now.

But I ain't much of a warmonger(mostly by choice). My games are almost always won by culture without an offensive war declared by me.
 
Hi

Thanks everybody :).

Unfortuantlely my second game on prince isnt going anywhere near as well as first :(. Im soooo far behind in tech the AI's done finished lib and I dont even have philo. They have banking on me and I dont even have guilds yet. And that lil runt pacal who won the lib race has astronomy on me so I probably gonna get whomped BIGTIME this game :(.

Kaytie
 
Ah, brings back memories of my victory as Augustus back in Warlords, when I moved on up. Congrats!
 
Hi

::sigh:: In one game I go from undefeated to .500 on prince :(.

I think my main prob was just over expanding to early. This time I played a big and small game picking the ottomans and mehmemd. I ended up on a continent with just me and hanni. But it was ok at first it was a good size continent and I managed to block hanni in and I I rexed out all over the place. And that hurt my tech rate BAD. I want TOO worried at first cuz I chopped out GW got a gspy sent him on hanni and stole a TON of techs. but when I met the other AI's and saw how far behind I was I knew it was time to get more focused but by then it waaaay too late.

I send a stack after hanni in like 1440 AD Pacal already won lib race and still hadnt even tech philo. Mostly cuz it in 1400 AD and my civ is doing like 70 bpt :/. But I take hanni's cap which has like 'mids, glh, colossus, Hanging gardens, norte dame, and chicken pizza, all in one city. That and stealing banking before I killed him off was enough to get my beakers up to almost 500 bpt. Still pathetic but waaaay better than what I was.

I had a gspy left and had a plan, tech gp for janni's, while sending gspy over to pacal and steal astro then load up the galleons with jannis and maces and trebs and ellies and take pacal down a notch or too.

I wasnt too worried bout the other AI's even though they included monty and rags. Pacal was only one who had astronomy and my power rating was number 1 in world and pacal controlled AP and just started a holy war on Lincoln which I joined in to try and get some diplo points with everybody else at once.

Biggest hitch in plan was even with gspy doing a mission he couldnt steal astronomy so I figured I would tech it out myself which was ok cuz it meant more time to build jannis and to build up bank. Meanwhile up to this point neithe rme nor hanni founded any religions but in 1400's after Pacal got astronmy some started to pop up in my cities--all EXCEPT the AP one. But as I got to hanni's last city it was rinky dink lil 2 pop city on ice and tundra but it was hindu which was ap religion. I probably SHOULD have razed the stupid thing but LOTS of times in past noble games one of WORST things AI can do is let me get hold of their AP religion when I am number one in land and pop. I spread it all over then I end up controlling it and getting all the hammer boosts.

BUT USUALLY I dont try to do that with a 1 pop (after dropping by one when i took it) city running NO religion at all. I had to swqitch to org for 4 turn anarchy and when I got out land was sooo suck even though it was gonna take over 50 something turns it was STILL gonna be done before it grew to two pop so no whipping it :/. And sure enough round 15 turns or so later diplo vote comes up and even my pop is over 25 million which is 30% of the worlds population, the 10,000 hindus in that junk city are enough to get me involved and even though I abstained pacal still had the votes and:

pacwins.jpg


I lose :(

It kinda annoying losing while being number one in score, land, pop and power. But I was still playing awful I was just getting further and further behind pacal. But he was teching out stuff like const and econ and corp so I figured it ok if he techs out thoughs while I tech out chem, astronomy and gunpowder but the vote ended THAT plan.

So I guess I am not as good on prince as some may think :P but hopefully I will get better. :) so I am gonna stay on prince at least a cple more games and not go back to noble. Hopefully next game I can get back to a pluss 500 win % :)

Kaytie
 
Congrats on the first game! :clap:

I've started playing prince a month ago and second game got a mean Boudica axe rush. Last game Inca got 6 gems in starting capital plus corn and rivers. I was so jealous. :p They techd way ahead of me but got beat down by Catherine and I picked up a Domination victory.
 
So I guess I am not as good on prince as some may think :P but hopefully I will get better. so I am gonna stay on prince at least a cple more games and not go back to noble. Hopefully next game I can get back to a pluss 500 win %

Don't get discouraged Kaytie. Stick with it. Moving up a level is always tough so be patient.


I'm 5/12 on Monarch btw. :lol: :p
 
Congratulations on the win! And even though you lost, the second game confirms that you are more than able to tackle Prince...
 
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