Noble's Club II - Ramses II

[KaytieKat]

Hi

Coolies Gratz Groo

Kaytie

 

[grandad1982]

Nice win Groogaroo. And everyone else whos finished. It looks like some fun games!!

I've playe up to 1750ADish and am back on track - lots of workers built and things became ok! Cheers KatieKat

I can probably go for space if I want but I also want to have some modern wars. I'm not sure Dom or conquest are viable now, but I'll try for dom whilst keeping an eye on space.

I probably can't play or report much more for a couple of days - RL - but I'll try to sneak in a bit of play after work tonight.

 

[Krick19]

Spoiler :

Wow, that was interesting. For some bg info, Willem and I and the colony I created on the northern island were all Confucian. I was pushing for AP, so I spread a couple missionaries to the other civs earlier. SB was the only one to spread it around more, and he had quite a few votes. Willem became my vassal, but he still voted for himself. Eventually Stalin declared on SB, I joined the war on SB's side, and when I asked SB to convert, he did. This meant SB was now replacing Willem as a candidate, and Willem voted for me, and I won.

 

[Groogaroo]

Hey Krick19, nice one.

Spoiler :

I never get diplomatic victories, Although I normally avoid them, the Ai's normally hate me!

 

[Bleys]

Thats the ticket Groo!

My space plan is going fine.I will be finishing it up tonight and writing it up tomorrow, then looking into Game 3. Anyone who has input on a leader/map to play in Game 3, head over to the other thread and make a suggestion! Gandhi came up as a possible for Game 2, but we have played both PHI and SPI, so maybe someone with a trait we havent played, CRE, or CHA, maybe, or EXP. Anyone is fine, but lets move the conversation to the other thread for continuity.

 

[Bleys]

My final checkpoint:

Spoiler :

Well, I was going to go for space, and it would have been a cinch, but my poor computer just couldnt handle the turns, LOL. I have never had so many big cities in one game. With about half the spaceship built, I ended up taking a UN diplomacy win in 1902.

There were 2 keys to this game early on. One was the Great Wall. Having such a huge continent relatively un-populated (only us and Zara on the main chunck), I could tell right away Barbs were going to be a problem. I actually switched off the Oracle to build the GW (and ended up losing the Oracle altogether, but got a chunk of cash for it). The 2nd key was the gaps in my culture left by my 3rd and 4th cities. I noticed in some other games where there was no real "gap" that Zara ended up settling the little island to the north. He didnt do that in my game, he sent his standard settler + archer combo into the gaps in an attempt to settle behind me. Since the barbs couldnt enter my territory, they were also using these gaps to try to get to the only attackable AI on the continent, and every single city Zara settled in my backyard got smoked quickly by roaming packs of Barb Swords and Axes.

That made Zara a real wimp when it came time to eliminate him, and I had all that juicy land to myself. I quickly settled it, and was only attacked twice on my soil, once by Willem trying to take a coastal city near him with Cats and Axes against LBs and Maces, he lost the battle, and I had 4 Triemes in the area so he lost his Galleys too, heh. Then Joao took one of my weakly defended SW coastal cities, but didnt have enough to stop the wave of Muskets and Knights that swarmed in from neighboring cities.

I eventually just took Willem out, he was so weak, and never had another war. I simply played it cool and watched my cities grow. I kept my military up to my tech level and deleted old units, and no one even bothered me. In the end, I had over 20 cities with 25+ pop, and was teching 3000 Beakers without even pushing it. Built the UN, and took the Diplo win when the turns were taking 5+ minutes to churn through. I had 10 Transports full of Infantry, Tanks and such ready, but never bothered.

For those who wish a "filler" game until the next installment, rolo actually made 2 maps with Ramesses, and I used the 2nd one. Here is a link to the first one he made. I havent looked at it, he made the 2nd one because this one had one of our previous Elizabeth opponents close. Same deal as before, stick the file into your BTS/Saves/WB folder and play as a scenario with your fav mod on your preferred speed and difficulty level. Feel free to discuss the game and ask for tips in this thread, sort of "Ramesses Part II" for the quicker players, while others finish up the first one. All I request is that you clearly state the post is from "Part II". I do think it would be a good exercise, playing a leader you just played on a new map with new opponents and new situations. Even if you dont finish, it might be worth seeing how well you can leverage your start with this leader after just playing a game with him.

 

[r_rolo1]

@Bleys

This map certainly has a diferent flavour than the first one.... I would advice strong to give it a try.

 

[Bleys]

Heh, well I opened it up, and I see now why you created the 2nd one. I am also very glad you did, I would have hated to play another game with SB so close (yes, its a bit of a spoiler for the 2nd Ramesses game, but one you will discover before your first Worker is done, LOL).

 

[r_rolo1]

@Bleys

Spoiler :

But you have a nice chokepoint to get a nice penisula for yourself... and SB has so much jungle to clear before he can get his land useful. Not a scenario for heavy UU usage ( unless he starts doing Dog warriors ) but a nice one for SSE and big push after Gunpowder

 

[Groogaroo]

@Bleys, just read your report.

Spoiler :

Interesting, I never thought of the great wall as an weapon more as a defense but in your game it clearly made the barbs go after Zara. In mine, even with the wall I blocked Zara in pretty much protecting him from barbs, and as it happen making him settle the small island.

Something worth remembering for me,

Well played!

 

[Bleys]

Groo:

Spoiler :

I agree, I will remember that trick forever now. I tend to build the GW in games where I have a LOT of land (for barbs) or a LOT of AIs (for the spy points more than the barbs). It acutally WAS a weapon though, my replay is funny, it shows these little green spots popping up behind my cities, then POOF, they are dust, and I didnt do a thing, LOL. There were packs of them moving by my cities all the time, heh.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Spoiler :

4000BC - I chose to wuss out a bit myself and went with Prince. I've been struggling on Monarch since the switch to BTS, though I managed a garbage cultural win once at least. Looking at the starting position, I settle in place. I almost always settle in place, unless there's a glaring reason not to.

2000BC - Still one city. I've encountered Zara and Willem, my explorer got eaten so i had to wait until my archers came out . Fog busting with the archers in all directions. Note that I usually do something along the lines of a Snaaty blocking REX with archers. This game was no exception, although I decided early on I wanted to use the UU to kill somebody if I had horses, and man were they nicely placed! I've deliberately opted out of wonders despite being industrious, because I like warring and Egypt's UU is strong.

10AD - I've just DoW'd Zara the 2nd time with a bunch of flank II war chariots (some have combat I pinch). He's nearly gone. Unlike many of you I did not rush instantly, but rather had 3 cities and they were at or close to happy cap when I attacked. Yes, this caused me to run into some spears and axes, though the latter are a joke obviously. I actually teched HBR for the stables, so my chariots were all 40% withdrawal or shock. Pretty quick war actually. At this point in the game I had not yet realized that Willem wasn't on my continent, so I went looking for him after I polished Zara off. Priority tech prior to 2nd DoW was currency, so I could build wealth to stay afloat!

1000AD - Doing ok. Expanded to most of the land taking barb cities here and there and actually settling one. Between 1000 and 1500, Willem DoW's me to try to take one of my barb cities. I mostly have a couple knights and war chariots over there, but he's only got a stack of catapults, xbows, swords, and one mace. I lost a lot of my leftover chariots, but held. Took his only city on my continent. Planning a Domination victory here.

1500 - I went a different direction. I wanted to see if i could cap Willem with just blockading frigates. The answer is...no. I couldn't. However, they utterly screwed him. Even east indiamen don't hold up very well against frigates. At least my WW was minimal. Still, this took away any hope of domination. I took a look at the political landscape and WOW...other than stalin, everybody likes me! I also noticed that Willem himself had a couple positive modifiers for me, and the only negative was "this war spoils our relationship". Long story short, when I finally took peace, he instantly jumped back to pleased!

1900's - Bit of diplo cheese here. Asoka is friendly so I left him alone. Since Stalin is the other pop leader and basically the only person who hates me anyway, I took a look at favored civics after a Mass Media beeline. Look at that! I can actually run EVERY OTHER AI's favorite civic! Score! Lots of trade relations bonuses, open borders, sharing resources, and so on. Joao took some caressing. I gave him around 3k gold and a bunch of resources, and mass media since by then I had no reason to hold onto it.

Sure enough, Diplo win. Only sitting bull abstained (stalin voted for himself obviously). I had enough votes by around 15 votes. Kind of a cheese win, but then again I ran through it in a couple hours, so I'll take what I can get. Had I gone a little more agressive on Willem I might have been able to quickly cap him and then move on to Stalin (a lone AI that everyone hates is a perfect, sitting duck target). I had the tech lead by then so dual promoted marines en masse would probably have been enough. I'll take a win, though.

 

[Rub'Rum]

Okay so I played tonight, up to 1375 AD. I still only have met two AIs. I played through the checkpoints before posting since I'm late here.

Spoiler :

I can't say much is happening in my game. Lots of barbs in the beginning, but I had seen complaints of this here. I tried to go for the wall but someone stole it. Still, I had a lot of production so I could easily fend them off. I had an uprising in the north though

But they decided I had too much defense and changed direction...

hehe, showing the nice units of Avain's mod...

With the Parthenon and all these priests, I started to pop up a lot of great prophets, I settled 3 of them I think... I used two of them to either give me religion techs or get close to them anyway

I also got Divine Right (Islam) in the same way. I haven't quite taken care of the spreading though, I have to work on that next time I play...

Then I got an event I had never seen

Nice, it even builds the road and the plantations and all.... More happiness! I also somehow managed to get the pyramids quite late... So running representation now.

I think I'll just tech my way to the end, unless some crazy AI shows up later on!...

My egyptian elephants are having a chat with ethiopian swordsmen outside of Thebes...

Suddenly Willelm declared war on Yara and asked me to join. Yeah, sure, why not. I want this island for me eventually. I settled northward rather quickly in the game so I have loads of territory... And a good mix of territory too. But now, dogpiling on Ethiopia will just give me more I guess.

I stopped after I conquered one city. I wasn't quite ready for war so I may ask for piece now and come back in 10-20 turns when I have more sieged and a better grouped stack. The city was almost empty, and somehow, is close to the capital. Anyway, current map

Thebes

Wonder-whoring for the win.

Anyway, I've been in the lead since the beginning, there must be some competition somewhere else in the world...

 

[Groogaroo]

@Meinteam

Spoiler :

I'm feeling the wussing out with BTS. I had to drop a level when I first got it. Only with me it was from Noble to warlord . Nicely played.

@SimonL

Spoiler :

You seem to be in control of you game, did you go for prince in the end? You seem to be able to take care of the barbs better than I did, I had to go back and build the great wall in my game.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

If you were used to monarch on warlords, BtS is alot easier in my opinion.

It does tend to build more troops though so noble/prince makes it a close call.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

If you were used to monarch on warlords, BtS is alot easier in my opinion.

It does tend to build more troops though so noble/prince makes it a close call.

I have a warmongering crutch though, so more troops hurt me on monarch. Not that I didn't eventually find a way to um...still use the warmongering crutch.

From what I understand the highest levels are easier in BTS now, because while the AI is a bit smarter etc., they no longer get quite so ridiculous production and upgrade cost advantages. Also, didn't they make the happy/health caps less oppressive? I'm still a long, long way from winning immortal or deity though, probably. Need more time for that...probably get there over summer when I have more time.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

As I see it, the AI techs slower and doesn't beeline liberalism as early.

They build alot more troops but you can normally soak up their stack by staying put or retake a lost city pretty quickly. They tend to be 1-hit wonders (Shaka can be tough though).

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I did notice that. I've won liberalism in 1400 AD! What the? Lol.

In warlords I was used to staying around tech parity, but defeating the AI with #'s and tactics (AI tactical decisions in war are downright terrible, both then and now). Now, I'm noticing that I can sometimes get tech leads while straight up warring most of the time. I have gotten better as a player, but that would still have been much harder to accomplish in Warlords. I must say though, having your first GA available with only one great person (and the free civic swaps) is a very, very big change for me. I'm always bailed out like that...if I get into economic trouble and have close to or more than 10 cities, it's time to burn a GA and queue up infrastructure! Having religion, and freely switching to OR and less warlike techs, only to switch back just before the GA ends, seems almost unfair =P. In tough times, a GA is good for about a 20-40% increase in the slider! I love BTS GA's!

 

[Rub'Rum]

@Groogaroo

Spoiler :

Hey I was checking where people hosted their pictures and noticed you had an arts website, cool man

And yeah, I went up to Prince. Anyway, I don't know if I would have been ready for the barbs without realizing from other people's comments that it may be trouble. That being said, the game is far from won!

@everyone concerning pre-1375 AD game... Having read the corresponding reports

Spoiler :

It seems I'm one of the few who played peace towards Ethiopia. They seemed so far to me and I felt like I had so much space that I just didn't bother. Maybe because I had just had two games with lots of war... But I was just too lazy to bring an army up there.

Hopefully I have the time to play a bit more tonight or tomorrow...

 

[Groogaroo]

@SimonL

Spoiler :

@Groogaroo

Hey I was checking where people hosted their pictures and noticed you had an arts website, cool man

More of a hobby than anything else

These spoiler boxes are driving me crazy I end up putting everything in spoilers even daft stuff like this.

Hope you get a chance to play the game SimonL, also that graphics mod you use is rather nifty, what is it again. I could browse through the previous posts, as I'm sure you've mentioned it, but I'm too lazy