News: WOTM 04 Pre-Game Discussion

[Vatec]

I don't understand what the fuss is over playing a marathon game. It's like playing 3 normal games, right? Surely most of us plays more than 3 games in a 6 week period, right? Or do I play too much?

Sort of.

I suspect the problem people have with it is the huge number of units you need to manage near the end. Marathon favors warmongering because you can produce a lot more units for any given time period and units can cover a lot more ground before they become obsolete. The downside is, the mop-up stage also lasts three times as long and making dozens of decisions each turn gets old real quick.

That being said, I usually play with Marathon Huge settings. Of course, I usually stop playing any given game somewhere in the 18th century due to tedium, as well ;^)

 

[ferenginar]

I don't understand what the fuss is over playing a marathon game. It's like playing 3 normal games, right? Surely most of us plays more than 3 games in a 6 week period, right? Or do I play too much?

I may manage 3 normal duel games but thats about the limit, it all depends on your circumstances.

I have a wife, 3 kids, a job that requires a good deal of work at home to keep up, and a house with a couple of incomplete DIY jobs. I don't get a great deal of time for CIV.

 

[Asty]

Thanks all for more details on moon's game...although I did read the log and everything else on that page. The only thing I didn't do was load up the starting/ending save.

"what the hell" actually meant the same questions you guys just asked about it. She conquered fast and hard, and then must have set every conquered city to build a settler, then hoped to found the cities before lack of funds disbanding every unit.

Anyways...sorry for hijacking this thread about that.

 

[CivSetä]

Wow, finally a marathon-speed game!

I have tried some GOTMs, but this one made me to register. I really want to give this marathon-WOTM a try! And if I choose a adventurer class game, I think I have a good change to survive, and even win the game. I usually play monarch, but I try to move one level up to the emperor. It's painful though, and I have lot of things to learn, especially with latest patch. Maybe I can do it with a little help from my archer and worker!

As a builder I usually try to grab too many wonders and avoid war, but this WOTM is not for builders, I suppose. I still consider building one, perhaps I chop the Oracle for CoL and cheap courhouses to maintain my expansion. Or can I do without them? Praetorian is really strong unit, but am I fast enough to conquer the whole world before I run out of gold?

I made a plan for the game. I looks like this:

PLAN A:
I'll definetily settle on that place, plains hill and lots of seafood is a excellent start! First I'll research Bronze working, and if there is copper nearby, I'll build my second city next to it. (and if it also happens to be near the fish in the north, excellent!) With copper I can always fight my way to the iron, so I can safely delay researching Iron working and go for Pristhood instead. During the research I'll slowly build barracks in my two cities while working coastal tiles for faster research.

After priesthood and writing I'll go for IW and start building praets. If there is no iron within my borders, I'll let my swords take care of that! I'll go for Currency and Construction, then no more research is needed.

Of course going for Oracle costs some time, but with cheap courthouses I can maintain every good city I capture and spam even more praetorians! It also takes me close to the construction and currency, which are useful when trying to avoid bankcrupty.


PLAN B:
If there is no copper nearby, I won't take any changes - I'll go directly to the Iron Working. I'll build my second (or third) city near it, secure it and start building my invincible army. It is a long way to CoL or currency, but I hope that I can keep a good pace in capturing cities...

PLAN C
In the worst case scenario there is no metal nearby. In that case I'll count on AH and try to find horses. If there is not even horses, I think I have to chop a huge horde of archers. In that case I'm in trouble without any hope of winning, so I really wish that there is lot of metals nearby!

 

[BLubmuz]

Seen the civ and the leader the thoughts af us all jump to a warmonger game.

what if the Evil Viking has (or has not) put some surprise in this map?

Anyway i'll start with a warmonger mind, there's plenty of time to change

hail, Gyathaar, and thanks anyway.

Just a small (very) idea he can feel the Xmas and be a good boy?

 

[thadeus]

If I settle in place, with the city have access to the coast and be able to build water units?

 

[Thrallia]

yes, the tile SW of the settler is coast, which means you are connected.

 

[synthboy]

Marathon and Rome obviously suggests the warmonger route but considering the iron issue (I got burned by the copper last game) and earlier posts it appears that Augustus could be a very nice cultural alternative.

I shall be playing on the wussy Adventurer class as I have never won a fair Prince game (last two games I lost by ONE friggin' turn both times). Although the worker is initially useless I can explore in two directions at once using the warrior and the archer.

I'm not sure about the happiness and haelth caps on Emperor but I figure they are a lot lower than where I've been playing so it's no use imaging a powerhouse capital quite yet. In fact, it'll probably only be worth fishing all three clams for trade purposes for quite some time. To that end I'm thinking work boat to start then either barracks or warrior followed proably then by library. I'd also like to get a galley out protect my clams (something I usually forget to do and suspect the AI won't be so forgiving at this level).

Techwise the obvious choice is Bronze Working which will allow me to chop and mine the hills although I'm wary of chopping too much until I see how health is going. However there is at least fresh water. After that? Agriculture, Sailing and Writing are all important initially and I'm considering the Mathematics, Currency, Code of Law route to open up Forums, Courthouses and maybe catch Confusionism. This does, however, mean ignoring Iron Working and firmly sending me down the cultural route.

Expansion? I guess that will depend a lot on what my units find. As Rome loks like it'll be a nice production city I figure I need to find some good commerce sites, preferably with grassland and some food resources to help kick start growth. I'll also need to start looking for a good GP farm, especially with the Forum and my thoughts of a cultural victory.

Anyway, what do people think. I'm very much the novice at this still and always appreciate help from those cleverer than me.

 

[Murky]

From practice games I've found the main challenge with warmongering is the maintenance cost. You are tempted to keep most of the cities you capture but if you do then you will have a low research rate.

 

[ewokimpi]

Sorry to enter the discussion late, just finished GOMT13.

Unless I'm mistaken, no one has mentioned this yet:

Here we have a Pangaea like map, we are told, with a starting position that ends in the sea to the south, yet the resource pointers are pointing south.

The bulk of the continent might lie to the south of our island.

Methinks Sailing could be important! Praetorians can't swim.

 

[Gyathaar]

yet the resource pointers are pointing south.

All resource pointers point south in warlords 2.08

 

[ewokimpi]

Oops!

 

[igelkott]

Wow, I'm really looking forward to this WOTM. At last a leader who is not spiritual nor expansive. I've really grown tired of these traits

The strategy is clearly suggested - early wars (praetorians + pangaea), early expansion (creative for fast border expansion), large empire (organized). But.. if there's no iron.. well, you all know the story..

It all seems quite challenging. I'll try tu put some things i learned in SGOTMs into practice. Merry Marathon-Speed Christmas :xbiggrin: