My newest milk run

[Elear]

Through careful examination I created the "Golden Moscow" plan. Something so out-there that it might just work.

First, I plan to send a javelin pair on a several turn mission to an Sumerian hill. They will land and I will declare war. These javelins have a goal: win one battle, even if they perish eventually. The Sumerians have some boats, but I can deal with landers with horsemen I suppose.

The goal is in a few turns to trigger a Golden Age. I will get peace with the Sumerians as soon as possible after this: I just want to get lots of gold and production bonuses from a Golden Age. This I will need to make sure I have Military Tradition in a timely manner, as well as 50 horsemen, as well as upgrade funds.

That's the 'Golden' part of it.

In the meantime, I give Babylon iron for a ton of gold. I will not attack them first. Instead, I will go after Russia. This seems logical. Russia is a smaller civ, and they cannot afford the massive unit costs of building pikemen. Their main defense is swords and spears. I can handle that.

With this, I should be easily able to get 50 to 60 horsemen, some boats, 9k to 10k gold, and get all the techs I need by about 400 AD, enough time to make a beachhead on Russia by 450.

There are a number of advantages to this:

1) I get to keep Babylon, my trading partner. This ensures a good supply of gold and techs even as I have to focus on war. It also helps with happiness (luxuries + gold = happiness)
2) I'm not left stranded without any means, somehow when it comes time to war.

-Elear

 

[Elear]

10 AD! Time to see where we are.

5000 gold.
Hundreds of GPT to Babylon.
Down Theology, Gunpowder, and possibly Education or Chemistry.
Lining up built horsemen on western part of my island. These horsemen will protect my island from Sumerian assaults.
One turn from loading my Javelins. Two turns after that until my Golden Age is triggered.
Working hard on my core. I'm desperately working them to pump out horsemen. But truly, I need the golden age, as my production is not fast enough yet. If I really do want to have 50 or even 60 horsemen by 400 AD, I will need a Golden Age.

Score wise:

Me: 2495
Moonsinger 88k: 2389
Moonsinger 81k: 3156 (Wow! Just amazing start)
Kuningas 81k: 2489
Pleb 64k: 2205

I highly suspect, however, that 88k is about to rocket up in the next few hundred years, and 81k will steadily fall to match Kuningas. Kuningas score has already gained 100 points on me in the last year. It will surpass within a few turns. Pleb's score will start going up due to Mongol and eventually Arabia conquests. If I start Russia by 450 AD, I should be able to maintain a score like his.

Soon after, by 50 AD, I am at 8500 gold. 9000 by 70 AD, to be sure. 70 AD is my Golden Age start as well.

-Elear

 

[Elear]

I hit my Golden Age by an archer attacking.

My two javelins quickly die trying to take the little island town. No matter.

Now I have +150 GPT, and 2/3 turn horsemen instead of 3/4. Good.

I sign Byzantine into an allliance against Sumeria for 220 gold. This should help to prevent their landings. The Byzantine dromons are everywhere. I immediately pay 13 GPT to get my 220 gold back.

I add more deals with Babylon. Babylon appears to be up Gunpowder, Theology, Education, and Astronomy! Wow! Everyone else (Byzantine, Sumeria, Persia) is only up Theology, Education, and Gunpowder though.

My gold per turn with Babylon:

(3) 56 gold per turn
(5) 13 gold per turn
(6) 23 gold per turn
(7) 25 gold per turn
(7) 44 gold per turn
(8) 13 gold per turn
(9) 6 gold per turn
(10) 10 gold per turn
(12) 38 gold per turn
(13) 58 gold per turn
(14) 12 gold per turn
(15) 16 gold per turn
(16) 26 gold per turn
(16) 2 gold per turn
(18) 19 gold per turn
(19) 3 gold per turn
(20) 39 gold per turn

It's no wonder they are the tech leader and I am the richy-rich

90 AD: My plan of attack is now made clear. Sumeria, Babylon, Persia, Germany, and Russia are all on one big island. I don't care about Russia and Germany, they are weaker and I could beat them tech-wise . But good leader spawning grounds, to be sure.

The path is as such... with 50 or 60 cavalry:

Russia (V. Spears/Swords, 450 to 600 AD)
Sumeria (V. Swords/Pikes, 600 to 750 AD)
Persia (V. Immortals/Riflemen, 750 to 950 AD)
Germany (V. Muskets/Riflemen 950 to 1100 AD)
Babylon (V. Riflemen/Infantry 1100 to 1300 AD)

I will ship over some assorted troops during this time. Perhaps about 30 cavalry plus armies from the Military Academy.

After I send over this round of support by the time I am getting ready to fight Persia, I will start building troops to assault Byzantines/Ottomans, perhaps:

Byzantines (Riflemen, 950 to 1100 AD)
Ottomans (Spearmen/Longbows, 1100 to 1200 AD)

Leaving the Mongols left wherever they are for my later attacking.

90 AD (continued): I decide to buy Gunpowder from NOT Babylon. I choose my good friend Lady Byzantine. If she uses up the gold... at least it's for a good purpose... fending off Sumeria . I want to establish some sort of other partner. Babylon is getting a bit too tech-frenzy for my liking. Even if they are rich... The deal is sealed for 3109 gold. I quickly buy back 1170 of my gold with GPT.

And alas I have one source of saltpeter on my isle. Starting next turn, this will go to another civ for lotsa gold for 20 turns, until I need it for my own upgrades. As for the risk of it running out, that's a chance I just have to take, no?

And guess who's the only other with Saltpeter? Yep, my friend Lady Byzantine!

110 AD: Saltpeter is online. Traded it to Babylon for some gold.

Contact with Mongols bought for very cheap. Turns out they are very backwards, they are probably trapped on some small island (9 cities). They have few ancient era techs .

This is a seven civ conquest then... woohoo.

-Elear

 

[Elear]

I progressed through my Golden Era. It was clear that I was easily able to produce enough horsemen. Between 70 and 250 AD I went from nearly no horsemen to 50 horsemen. In addition, my gold was upwards of 12000 at 250 AD.

I made the calculation that it would take me 9000 gold to upgrade 60 horsemen. So I decided to do just that: use 60 horsemen in my attack. This led me to establishing an 8k gold minimum. 8000 gold would get 53 cavalry. I did not want to go anywhere below this.

In addition I needed Astronomy ASAP. Not only for 3 carrying power and 4 movement Caravels, but also because Astronomy would allow me to purchase the remaining luxuries I required during wartime. As for caravels themselves: I planned on running the boats back and forth a bit. I wanted an initial force of 8 cavalry, 4 muskets, 1 settler, and 2 workers. This meant I needed 5 caravels, or 8 galleys. It would take exactly one turn to get across the channel to my proposed beachhead spot. And one turn back. So, two turns per group, and hopefully more caravels and cavalry as I progress. I decided that I would rather go with double the amount I needed: 10 turns to transfer all my units seemed a bit too long. 10 caravels or 16 galleys, therefore. I only would use galleys if I was unable to procure Astronomy in a reasonable amount of time. So I assumed 10 coastal corrupt caravels would be bought.

I am down Theology, Education, and Astronomy though. This posed a bit of a challenge. I figure I will buy Theology and Metallurgy (when available). With this, I should be able to sell Metallurgy for Education and Astronomy.

I also found out the Mongols were squeezed in the midst of the 'big island'. They were next to Russia, Germany, Sumeria, Russia, and Babylon. Squeezed straight in the middle.

(I don't think I'll make my beachhead landing til 500 AD, however)

210 AD: I come across a bit of an opportunity. I spend 2932 gold and 51 gpt for Chemistry with Lady Byzantine. Babylon and Persia have Metallurgy now... that's good for me, I can buy it at a good price from them and resell to Byzantine. I don't risk waiting a turn for anything. By then Byzantine's gold I just gave would have vanished, from support of her massive fleet. I break the bank with a staggering 4841 gold to Babylon. Why Babylon? Because Persia is bigger than Babylon and just as advanced. Persia is taking over parts of Germany. Persia is the doomsday AI.

So, I take this and I sell it back to Byzantine. I get all my 2932 gold as well as 85 gpt from Byzantine for Metallurgy.

So what do I do now? I run to Babylon of course! He offers 1530 gold for my shiny 85 gpt.

The result? 500 gold for Metallurgy

At this point I'm not sure if I'll even get Caravels in time for my mass invasion. I might end up building 15 galley! The problem is, I'm three techs away from Caravels. Techs on Sid level are so expensive!! Once I get peace with Sumeria in a few turns or so, maybe that will ease things a bit.

250 AD (continued): 49 horsemen. I use my corrupt cities heavily for taxmen/wealth combo. It's effective in a Golden Age. I have +80 gpt from these taxmen.

I find something that makes me very happy. Germany has Theology now. I have Chemistry. A rare straight out trade occurs.

This makes way for the buying of Education. You see, I can buy Education cheap from Persia. Why Persia and why cheap? Easy. Persia is the only ones who I am not trading away dyes to. Also, it's cheap because dyes are worth a lot to the AI right now. So I don't have to pay more than Dyes + 1090 gold. This is done.

Now the question is raised. Do I break the Byzantine alliance 11 turns premature to trade Metallurgy for Astronomy? This is tempting... but it would hurt my odds of getting more alliances in the future. These are used often. For example:

If I go against Russia, I will hire Sumeria against her.

When I go against Sumeria, I will hire Persia against him.

When I go after Persia, I will hire Germany against him.

Etc. I just use the civ behind them to draw some troops and weaken both sides This makes each one not insanely much harder even as they get rifles/infantry.

I bite my lip. The thing that worries me is that Sumeria is bound to get Metallurgy within 11 turns. I have a sudden, lurching feeling that the alliance with Byzantine was not such a good idea. The Sumerian gallies were only ever peaceful, and I could have easily fought anyone off. Oh well this is not a major issue.

The thing is, I can't risk the chance of no alliances later just to get Astronomy *now*...

270 AD:

Now lie a few goals:

A) Get Astronomy
B) Get Military Tradition
C) Get 11000 gold. 9000 for upgrades. 2000 for caravels. I might be able to get away with 1000 to 1200 gold though.
D) Establish Byzantine Island Beachhead and transfer troops there as I get ships. Build barracks in this city. With caravels, and this city, I should make solid 2 turn round trips 4 turn round trips if I am getting from mainland though

ABCD are in order of priority at this moment.

-Elear

 

[Elear]

I. Discussing the troops involved with the beachhead

The time for war draws near! I am starting out with 60 cavalries, 9 muskets, 1 settler, and 2 workers. To take all these troops in one turn to a place to secure a beachhead would take 24 caravels! Well that's no good, that would take too long. So I settle for 12 caravels.

I also very much would like some cannons in my beachhead town, perhaps two dozen at least to start out. These two dozen cannons would take additional 8 caravels! That's no good either! So I settle for 12 caravels! Why 12, you ask? That's 36 units for the first go. This is just enough to secure a basic beachhead and clear the surrounding 3 cities or so (8 muskets, 1 settler, 2 workers, 25 cavalry). These 12 caravels can return and pick up the other musket and 35 cavalry. Then they can take one last trip and grab our cannons for the several turn siege!

Whilest this whole rushing around of boats is going on, I will be certainly making more cavalries and cannons. Whilest I make these cavalries and cannons, I will caravel over a few dozen workers to start on Moonsinger's Process(TM) as described in the next section (Culture), and using my boats to get them there. More troops is good troops after all. I hope to have a few dozen cannons as well as 60 cavalry plus about a few cavalry armies, before long.

II. Culture

These Sid towns have a lot of culture!!!!

How are we ever going to counteract that?

Well, we'll capture the cities of course. If they flip, I take them back no problem. But there's a good way to accomplish many things at once. It's a little thing which I call Moonsinger's Process (TM). She said she copyrighted it in the thread I found it in, so there you go Moonsinger

It works like this. We have this great big size 12 Sid city. Well that's no good, we have a lot of resisters! We can use our workers, however, to plant and chop us one settler per turn, until it is a size one city with one resister. Big cities can make many settlers very quickly to fill enemy lands in this way! A big city could make 1 settler a turn for 4 turns straight, for example!

Once we have this one resister, it is very easy to squash the resistance. Plop in a few injured troops to rest and there we go! The resistance of every new town/city is gone within just 2 to 4 turns using workers and a couple injured troops which need to rest anyway! At the same time we get several settlers out of the process.

III. Preparations

So I start building these trebuchets (the horsemen did not take too long to build, I got most of my barracks towns building horsemen in 1 or 2 turns by halfway through the golden age, and that was the end of that project )

What I will do with trebuchets: It is my first priority to get Astronomy, Military Tradition, my upgrade gold for cavalry, and my buying gold for caravels. I may not have the funds to immediately upgrade to cannons. It may be that I end up doing this whilest bunkering down in Russia

290 AD: I decide I must break the alliance with Byzantine. The unfortunate thing is, especially when I get out of Golden Age, I will be waiting too long for gold to get everything I need done. Caravels must be bought (1k to 2k), horsemen to cavalry (9k), military tradition must be bought (several k). I really can't afford to end up actually paying for astronomy!

So Sumerians give World Map + Astronomy for my World Map + Metallurgy + 36 gold. Hopefully this is not too harmful in the long run

What I get is quite shocking:

So Mongols are on an island of their own? Russia and Sumeria are on a tall thin island?

Babylon and Persia and Germany are on a big island... this isn't surprising.

At least I know where their resource are now I can see easily how to cut Russia off from Iron. My beachhead is near one source, the other is at the tail end of their empire, near Sumeria. Both should be easy enough to capture.

And I go to do GPT deals with AI. And what's this, my GPT isn't accepted for lump sum? Whoever told me that breaking an alliance would not affect GPT was wrong.

-Elear

 

[Elear]

You can trade gpt. Your reputation is quite specific when it comes to treaty busting.

Break an alliance, civs won't ally with you...either traditional, or mpp.

Declare war while trading them a resource, they will never trade for your resources again.

Declare war with rop (or without one, but with your troops in their border the turn of declaration of war) and you'll never get a rop again.

Declare war while you're giving them gpt, they will never accept gpt from you again.

If you made peace in your game, the only real effect it would have is that you won't be able to make an alliance or mpp any longer. Perhaps if it's early in the game and you keep a clean sheet for the rest of the game you'll be able to get one towards the end, but don't count on it.

Great advice good sire


----

----

----

But I'm not done I have a few tricks left, we'll see where they get me.

I start cranking GPT. They are not keen to give me lump sums, but they certainly will trade GPT. I start working on my personal GPT. GPT will be the way to money I guess...

The result? 7812 gold +294 per turn.

 

[Elear]

At 500 AD I upgraded 60 horsemen to cavalry with 9000 gold! I also had a few dozen worker and some settlers, as well as 15 cannons. I had about 15 caravel too!

My little island base was ready. It had a temple, library, harbor, and barracks. It was 8 squares away from my beachhead.

Oh and I might add that this game is hard to win at this point. The AIs are rocketing into the Industrial age! Persia, Byzantine, and Babylon already have rifles, railroad, and now factories. *However*, I know Russia and Sumeria is within my grasp. I will be using them to test out Huge Sid war. If I manage to conquer them both, then I will consider my attack on Persia. I must be able to conquer Persia before it is too late, or there will be no chance for me. I'm hoping Persia has no rubber

If I do conquer Russia, Sumeria, and Persia, then I'll be fine. I'll be able to sweep through Germany, Babylon, and the rest without a problem.

Wish me luck

-Elear

 

[Elear]

It's always good to start a war on the Sid level with 'average' military. I had just that at this time! (also I was average with Germany)

Here was my proposed spot for a beachhead landing: It was a hill spot that I thought would make a nice place. In addition, I suspected I could easily destroy Russia from this position. Most of their troops would be a bit north fighting Sumeria...

My initial invasion force is loaded onto the boats. 34 cavalry, 9 musketmen, 2 settlers are shipped off to Russia for 520 AD landing.

520 AD interturn:

A privateer attempts to sink part of my fleet. Lady Luck must be on my side, as all my boat survive

520 AD:

D-day! War is declared on Russia! Maya troops SWARM onto the hills near Smolensk. I have a 'Strong' military compared to Russia!

A Palace prebuild for the Military Academy is started in Copan.

520 AD Interturn:

The Russian counterattack is a joke. One longbow throws itself at a musket, and dies, yellow lining my musket. I strongly suspect some of their troops are trying to hold off Sumeria in the northern front.

530 AD:

I settle the city of Foothold. Barracks rushed. I fortify my units in it. Of course, that's crazy flip risk. So here we go:

Razed the Russian city of Smolensk.
Razed the Russian city of Tver'.
Razed the Russian city of Magadan.
Razed the Russian city of Kazan.

These cities I am razing to remove culture risks from around. The workers aren't quite here, so I can't quite begin Moonsingers process yet! Luckily I brought along a few settlers, eh?

5 cavalry dies in these assaults (freaky fortified pikemen can be quite tough if there is a trebuchet/longbow there in the city too, I'm not bothered by this, it happens). 3 promote to elite.

Here is a screenshot of my beachhead now:

Last thing I do is pillage my saltpeter at home. It's quicker to upgrade to cavalry than make them I'll want to bring reenforcements for when I attack Sumeria, as surely some of my troops will be depleted fighting Russia.

540 AD: One cavalry dies interturn. Many cavalry set themselves up at a few points. My main goal next turn is to take their iron city. I take a Russian trebuchet and kill a few stray pikes this turn. One promotion to elite.

550 AD:

Maya capture the Russian city of Yakutsk.
Maya capture the Russian city of Krasnoyarsk.

Things look good. I can rapidly rush cavalry in my core using my +615 gold per turn.

Russia isn't much of a leader generation Sid AI. They are weak and depleted for the most part. I do hope to get an army or two by the time I have to fight Sumeria, however. It would be good to have a couple armies to pillage Sumerian resources and/or cover my stack.

560 AD:

Maya capture the Russian city of Rostov.
Maya capture the Russian city of Vladivostok.
Maya capture the Russian city of Khabarovsk.

2 cavalry lost.

570 AD:

Maya capture the Russian city of Chita.

580 AD:

Russia capture the Mayan city of Rostov. (culture flip)
Maya capture the Russian city of Rostov.
Maya capture the Russian city of Moscow.

The Sumerian Grand Army shows itself I look forward to perhaps attacking it on its way back to Sumeria.

590 AD:

A ridiculous amount of Sumerian troops show themselves. It's okay... they are sitting out there all dressed up ready for me when I want to attack They are all trying to get to Russia, but I don't really think any of them will make it by the time I defeat Russia.

Maya capture the Russian city of St. Petersburg.

600 AD:

Positioning troops and resting (I don't want to lose them for no reason of course )
Getting a bit annoyed at no leaders yet, I mean I know it's 1/12 but usually I get a leader before the 12th battle

610 AD:

Sumerian troops turn their backs and start flooding back to Sumeria. Apparently they sense Russia's defeat.

Maya capture the Russian city of Novgorod.
Maya capture the Russian city of Yaroslavl'.
Maya capture the Russian city of Yekaterinburg.

Grr! I had a few more elite victories this turn, and nothing. But I will be patient. If I am not getting many leaders now, I will surely get more later. It all evens out in the end.

630 AD (11 turns since start of Russian war):

Russia capture the Mayan city of Yekaterinburg. (culture flip)
Maya capture the Russian city of Yekaterinburg.
Maya capture the Russian city of Orenburg.

1 down, 5 to go. (Ottomans and Mongolia won't stop my win)

Oh wait, there's a Russian boat. I see the boat too. I can't get at it. Grr!! How annoying.

Still that's the end of Russia land war. I can start looking at Sumeria and lining my troops up there.

Zero leaders in the Russian war. But I have a number of elite cavalry, so hopefully I get something early on in Sumeria. I need an army to cover my stack.

By 650 AD, 'The Persian army has infantry'. Wow?

Over the next few turns I continue to get cavalries to the Sumerian border.

I get rather annoyed at Russia. I'm two turns away from reaching their island town, but now a mainland city has flipped! How long will this go on, really.

670 AD: Thank goodness! Babylon and Persia go to war. This almost certainly means slower tech. Maybe I won't be fighting Mech Infantry

700 AD: Russia is dead.

700 AD: War declared on Sumeria.

-Elear

 

[Elear]

My 86 cavalry force declares war on Sumeria in 700 AD.

It's time to really ramp it up. I will be trying my best to leader farm. (as I did in Russia, with two dozen elite victories)

I don't know if I can even stand a chance against Persia, but I would rather go down fighting them, than chicken out. Thus, I need a dozen armies to pull off a Funnel of Deception.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

Until you get Heroic Epic, it's 1 in 16

Leaders will come!

 

[Elear]

Update:

Well, this game won't be won.

Sumeria is one of the more advanced civs, and as it turns out, one army and 70 cavalry isn't quite enough to manipulate hundreds of muskets/cavalry/riflemen flooding at you...

I think my big mistake was not making enough artillery, for one.

Another thing was that I truly was too aggressive with my cavalry for Sid level. This is a mistake I repeated from Monarch level HoF run.

The other thing about this game I can't quite explain, is how fast the tech moved. It could be the scientific civs but in my little experience, they did not get infantry until closer to 1000 AD...?

I know I certainly got something out of this game, a first-hand experience at the Sid level There's a lot of things I might do differently now. Here were some major points about this game:

1) Be more careful (troop and peace-wise)
2) Railroads are key... don't let myself fall way behind in tech after I get Military Tradition. It's a huge loss not to have Railroads.
3) Also, starting out on my own island was nice, but in retrospect, I'm not sure how much I like it. The process of building and shipping units back and forth is time consuming, and many ships are sunk by enemy frigates and privateers.
4) The war with Russia, was quite easy, honestly. Russia was so... dead, that it was a waste of time. I should have been attacking someone like Sumeria first, before they could get Rifles. Then again, due to Sumeria getting the better of Russia, Sumeria had all resources.
5) In this game, the winners/losers were quite clear. The big AIs were able to get the better of a neighbor, and they had all the resources. Babylon and Persia were out of reach for me by the time I could have done anything.

There's millions of other things I could list about this game too.

Unlike that previous Monarch game, there's no question of winning of this one... Persia has it in the bag. The whole world is allied against Babylon and soon Persia will get mech infantry (no way to stop them with my current state) and become too mighty. Persia will win by space race before I even know it.

I only hope my account of Sid level benefits at least someone else out there.

This isn't a failure for me. In contrast, it was a great success! I was able to get to the warfare stage and make many great trades early on. I had a great early game, and for someone who has no Huge Sid experience and only a deity level player, I think my result was not so bad . In a little while, I hope to try again... we'll see where that brings me indeed!

Signing off,
Elear

 

[AutomatedTeller]

A valiant effort!! My first Sid victory was a 20K game - I had to completely rig it - Byzantines, cold, arid. I had to play a whole bunch before I didn't just get wiped out, and i was never able to invade. I once landed a stack of riles - maybe 20 of them - on a hill against a civ that had no resources and was still in the middle ages. They were gone in a turn - wiped out by some longbows and a whole lot of archers.

I think in a game like this, you have to start on your own island. If you don't, you will get eaten up by the AI who does start on

 

[Bartleby]

I found it a fascinating read; I hope you'll continue to document your games.

 

[Elear]

Thanks

Just look for in the future 'Elear v. Sid'... I'm already working on more starts as we speak

I did notice that too. The *entire* key to Sid level is armies, to be honest, and I noticed this. Due to my attack on Russia and getting zero armies, I might as well have not attacked Russia! The only reason you attack these civs after all is to get armies so you can fight the KAI. That's my observation.

--detailed analysis follows--

About islands: It is helpful to start on your own island, to some extent, I must admit. Both Moonsinger's 81k game and my game had good starts: we were able to expand peacefully awhile.

However, Kuningas 81k, Pleb 64k, Moonsinger 88k. Those three games had something in common: There were other AIs on their starting landmass, and a good number of them too. In fact, there's a pattern, if you read on.

If I recall correctly, Kuningas 81k had Russia, Germany, Greece, Babylon, Ottomans, Korea on his starting landmass.

Pleb 64k had Mongols, Arabia, America, Zulu.

Moonsinger 88k had Persia, Germany, Greece, Byzantine.

Notice who I bolded. That was the most strong/'killer' AI in the game.

Ironically, all three of their first attacks Mongols, Russia, Persia... were civs missing a crucial resource: horses.

More ironically, the second civ was a decent strength civilization. One who could be a good leader farm but no one too strong. This civilization tended to be a good 'territory' grabber, giving a new good chunk of terrain which often had more strategic or luxury resources in it. (Germany, Arabia, Greece)

Extremely ironically, the KAI was the one all three players launched a primary attack on third. (Babylon, Zulu, Germany) This was generally the point when they reached cavalry also, with the exception of Kuningas, I believe. At this point, all the players had many armies to help them, a strong railroad network, and the three army small wonders going.

Insanely more ironically, all three had golden ages near 1 AD to stimulate early wars.

Coincidence? I think not.

(It goes far past this in some of the parallels and trends I found... this is only the tip of the iceberg in what I feel is the 'key' to not only beating Sid, but completely destroying it)

P.S. - Another thing is banking. Banking is quite powerful but you must know how to do it right. The extent I did it with Babylon was so extreme that I made Babylon a world power from just 'stronger'.

 

[Tone]

I found it a fascinating read; I hope you'll continue to document your games.

I'll second that! Looking forward to the next attempt already.

 

[Elear]

You may not have to wait very long

Something very funny to me, in retrospect, is this quote from myself:

The path is as such... with 50 or 60 cavalry:

Russia (V. Spears/Swords, 450 to 600 AD)
Sumeria (V. Swords/Pikes, 600 to 750 AD)
Persia (V. Immortals/Riflemen, 750 to 950 AD)
Germany (V. Muskets/Riflemen 950 to 1100 AD)
Babylon (V. Riflemen/Infantry 1100 to 1300 AD)

This is completely ridiculous. Persia had riflemen FAR before my 'estimate date'. I was able to get Russia down by a similar date, however.

I gave up research after cavalry. What I really needed was artilleries though. I just saw Moonsinger's artilleries article, I'll have to try that next game! It's apparent to me that Sid level is cavalry versus infantry for a good chunk of the game, so this must be part of the solution.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

IN Moonsingers game, she said that the end was cav/artillery vs. infantry and mech inf!!

 

[Elear]

Correction. She said infantry and TOW infantry. (mech infantry would be insanely difficult without bombers)

Still, I can see the point of artilleries! Why face a 3 or 4 point infantryman when you can get 1 point. Any veteran cavalry can take one point off an infantry usually. The odds go way, up from something like 10 percent to 90 percent of victory!

BTW, Sid level is my favorite level now. No other level can quite give me the thrill of playing against an AI that scares the heck out of me! Deity feels 'tamer'.... Sid is just wild

 

[Marsden]

I'll second that! Looking forward to the next attempt already.

I'll third that. You play Sid and I'll stay on Monarch.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

yes - you are right - she said TOW.

You might be able to still win this game. In any case, it might be interesting to keep going, see how far you can get... or has the evil Sumerian horde already wiped out your cavs? You could just heal your army and hide the cavs underneath it until they are all healed....