Nightmare Run, Struggling by Medieval Era

[VCrakeV]

I have been playing games on Nightmare for a while now, and I always seem to run into issues by the Medieval Era. I have lost a peripheral city, and another seems to be on the verge of conquest. That first city was very important, because it gave me the mammoths I needed to conquer their cities (and reconquer my own city, which is hard without the mammoths). I have crusaders, but they aren't enough, even with the promotion that reduces enemy strength for group size differential. The mammoths were able to crush the enemy with the "bully" promotion and merging them up. I'm currently producing a stack of crossbowmen, ancient flamethrowers, and mounted infantry (better stack idea?) to fight off the invaders, and building buildings that damage enemy adjacent units every turn. However, the reinforcements are slow coming.

C2C Gods, what ought I do? Keep pushing with this strategy? Ask for peace, abandon the North, and colonize islands in the South? Reload an earlier save or restart all together? Perhaps someone has an idea I haven't considered? I've attached a save file of my game.

 

[miccal2000]

Keep building those mounted infantry, as they do get a ton XP to start. Then specialize them (hills experts, forest experts, etc).

If you're not playing with Size Matters, keep them in groups of at least three of the same specialty.

Other than that, fortify any choke points, force them to come at you from one direction.

 

[Somebody613]

If you aren't the Map Boss by Medieval (or earlier)... I'd say you LOST the game already.
I may be wrong, but my experience says what it says.

 

[VCrakeV]

If you aren't the Map Boss by Medieval (or earlier)... I'd say you LOST the game already.
I may be wrong, but my experience says what it says.

Thanks, but I have since reconquered my city, and conquered one of their's. I'm now in the lead.

 

[Somebody613]

Thanks, but I have since reconquered my city, and conquered one of their's. I'm now in the lead.

I'm now playing a random Duel map 40 civs Nightmare Eternity challenge.
I just closed the game, and I was in the process of discovering Sedentary, while having 8 cities (2 still in revolt), and some +30 gold/turn at 100% research, lol.
Not to mention the [9 STR] Neanderthal Obsidian Axemen guarding each of my city, of course.
Or the same type unit upgraded to [15 STR] via Might and Quality, loool.
So, while my "soldier stat" is actually below the map average, my ACTUAL soldiers can rip through a bunch of enemies without breaking a sweat, mwahahaha.
If you ask me - I'd say that this is what I consider a "win": Stable economy, unbeatable (per unit) army, more cities than any 2 or 3 (or 5) other civs combined.
Yeah, I'd call it a WIN, even though I only control less than a fifth of the actual map.
But it's "highly unlikely" that AI is gonna suddenly unlock units that can beat a [15 STR] Hulkerthal, ya know.

 

[VCrakeV]

I'm now playing a random Duel map 40 civs Nightmare Eternity challenge.
I just closed the game, and I was in the process of discovering Sedentary, while having 8 cities (2 still in revolt), and some +30 gold/turn at 100% research, lol.
Not to mention the [9 STR] Neanderthal Obsidian Axemen guarding each of my city, of course.
Or the same type unit upgraded to [15 STR] via Might and Quality, loool.
So, while my "soldier stat" is actually below the map average, my ACTUAL soldiers can rip through a bunch of enemies without breaking a sweat, mwahahaha.
If you ask me - I'd say that this is what I consider a "win": Stable economy, unbeatable (per unit) army, more cities than any 2 or 3 (or 5) other civs combined.
Yeah, I'd call it a WIN, even though I only control less than a fifth of the actual map.
But it's "highly unlikely" that AI is gonna suddenly unlock units that can beat a [15 STR] Hulkerthal, ya know.

Obsidian can be very powerful, and even stone can go so far if they have enough units to overwhelm the opponent and/or merge the units. The AI is likely ahead in tech, and probably has arsonists in its arsenal. Keep going, see how it goes.

 

[Somebody613]

Obsidian can be very powerful, and even stone can go so far if they have enough units to overwhelm the opponent and/or merge the units. The AI is likely ahead in tech, and probably has arsonists in its arsenal. Keep going, see how it goes.

Nope, AI even on Nightmare is dumb as... AI.
I closed the game before coming to post here, and my current state is like this:
Got a second Great General, used it on another Neanderthal Obsidian Axeman, lol.
Now I have two of them, one with [12 STR] and one with [18 STR] - because I also built [Way of the Warrior].
I was also the first one into Sedentary, so AI definitely doesn't have much what to defend with.
I did see Elephants in one civ, but they still would die to the [18 STR] unit, just at a slower rate.
My current "problem" is rather "what to do with the cities I capture".
I mean, I clearly can't afford them yet, so I have to donate them immediately.
Thus, I'm now simply mowing down smaller (in city numbers) civs and wracking my head around how to make the best "joke" out of this.
I have a funny idea that I might implement - to "behead" a civ (capture its capital), and then keep donating EMPTY and REBELLING cities to it, until it's the only other civ ALIVE, lol.
This would leave it as just a huge bunch of barely functional (or worse) cities without a CAPITAL to do anything worthwhile.
Will take me a while, because I essentially use nothing but those 2 Super Generals, so it's ssslllooowww, even if unssstopable.
But it's a fun goal, even if silly.

 

[VCrakeV]

Nope, AI even on Nightmare is dumb as... AI.
I closed the game before coming to post here, and my current state is like this:
Got a second Great General, used it on another Neanderthal Obsidian Axeman, lol.
Now I have two of them, one with [12 STR] and one with [18 STR] - because I also built [Way of the Warrior].
I was also the first one into Sedentary, so AI definitely doesn't have much what to defend with.
I did see Elephants in one civ, but they still would die to the [18 STR] unit, just at a slower rate.
My current "problem" is rather "what to do with the cities I capture".
I mean, I clearly can't afford them yet, so I have to donate them immediately.
Thus, I'm now simply mowing down smaller (in city numbers) civs and wracking my head around how to make the best "joke" out of this.
I have a funny idea that I might implement - to "behead" a civ (capture its capital), and then keep donating EMPTY and REBELLING cities to it, until it's the only other civ ALIVE, lol.
This would leave it as just a huge bunch of barely functional (or worse) cities without a CAPITAL to do anything worthwhile.
Will take me a while, because I essentially use nothing but those 2 Super Generals, so it's ssslllooowww, even if unssstopable.
But it's a fun goal, even if silly.

How do you stay ahead of the AI in tech on Nightmare? What's your general strategy, settings? I play on large map, long speed. I research whenever I can, don't always have cities to conquer before tribalism. I guess that's different with 40 civs on a map made for 2...

 

[Somebody613]

How do you stay ahead of the AI in tech on Nightmare? What's your general strategy, settings? I play on large map, long speed. I research whenever I can, don't always have cities to conquer before tribalism. I guess that's different with 40 civs on a map made for 2...

Read around here: https://forums.civfanatics.com/thre...culture-going-ballistic.690586/#post-16629243
Neanderthals are a MUST, then just beeline for N. Spiked Clubman that has Hidden Nationality, then keep killing units and getting Captives, then use them on building stuff.
Though THIS run, it was all about CITIES (see the above link about the "city donation recycle" not-really-cheat).
It was relatively easy (after getting a General) to capture cities with this N.S.C. unit, but the most science comes from the "cycle", where you outright steal technology progress from others.
I also invested some serious micromanaging into economy, so I did a rather not bad research of my own as well.
I wasn't even expecting to become The Most Advanced so easily - I was rather focusing on buffing up my Super Units instead, tech progress was just a nice byproduct of it.
None of it is foolproof, obviously, but it seems to have worked for me this time, lol.