Oh no, It's Asoka!

[botski]

One would think that this lovable peacenik Asoka would be a great competing civ, as he is not apt to get angry enough at you to start a war and destroy your grand schemes. Yet based on the events of two recent game I now feel the need to attack him SOON after meeting him.

It seems that NO ONE is ever upset at Asoka and he is never upset at anyone else so he is always able to concentrate on everything BUT war. Last night as I destroyed my 3rd CIV going for a domination victory, I saw the message that Asoka has completed his first spaceship part at around 1890 or so. Whoa! I was MANY years away from rocketry and had been concentrating on war research. After the cultural borders expanded from the last civ I destroyed, I was only sitting at 45% of the map and at the rate he was pumping out ship parts, I wasn't going to be able to eliminate another civ in time. I thought of attacking him but by the time I found him he had enough modern armor that I didnt bother. (I generally avoid modern war because the turns take forever)

Another game I played with two continents, he had a whole continent to himself and won with only 8 cities.

Granted, in both of these cases I *SHOULD* have had a better idea of where he was at. Sometimes I dont pay attention to the messages flying by and I should have explored more to find out where he was, though last night he was totally on the opposite side of the map and no one would give me open borders.

As of now, I see Asoka as being the most dangerous CIV in the game. Has anyone else had experience with "Asoka's Cakewalk"?

 

[Cookie Crumbs]

If either of the Indian civs are close to Boudica, Genghis Khan or any other similar warmonger, they are toast. They focus on tech at the expense of their military. If they have peaceful neighbours and they do survive to the late-game, then you're in trouble. By then they're so advanced beyond the warmongers that they have industrialised and can pump out lots of advanced troops to thwart any invasion.

That's my experience.

 

[whiplash_CDC]

If either of the Indian civs are close to Boudica, Genghis Khan or any other similar warmonger, they are toast. They focus on tech at the expense of their military. If they have peaceful neighbours and they do survive to the late-game, then you're in trouble. By then they're so advanced beyond the warmongers that they have industrialised and can pump out lots of advanced troops to thwart any invasion.

That's my experience.

Osaka will also win EVERY cultural victory unless he's stopped.

 

[Verge]

Asoka is indeed a cunning foe. Fortunately, he's usually pretty easy to smack around, so if I feel like he's going to be a threat in my games, I don't have any reservations waylaying him.

 

[DeaExMachina]

I've gotten fed up with the Indians from the amount of times Gandhi has back stabbed me. He has ruined more then a few games were we were Friendly and so I've left my borders with him lowly defended while the rest of my troops were out crushing someone else. Then he gets the idea that our friendship would be better served if I was a permanent guest in his dungeon.

 

[reverend oats]

Try to find the OCC many leaders challenge game in the Successsion Games Forum. Read the reports. Asoka was killed of by some combination of Ragnar, Montezuma, and Gilgamesh in nearly every game. I felt sorry for the guy.

 

[TheTemplar]

I've had this problem with Asoka too much. While I'm off on campaign with my Praets, Asoka has already hit Medieval and getting Longbows and Macemen. Luckily, Praets have equal attack to Macemen, and numbers overwhelmed him. Now I've realised that the peaceful civs can be more dangerous than the aggressive ones, in some cases.

 

[TheLastOne36]

Try to find the OCC many leaders challenge game in the Successsion Games Forum. Read the reports. Asoka was killed of by some combination of Ragnar, Montezuma, and Gilgamesh in nearly every game. I felt sorry for the guy.

or in other cases, Vassalized by Ragnar. I still can't believe i lost my first OCC game though...

 

[Refar]

He tends to be teching like crazy, but he often defends very sofly, so even when he has a decent tech lead, he is still a rather easy pushover (As long as he does not hit Rifling while you are early medieaval ).

 

[Rotty]

My experience with Asoka is that he's an utter fiend below Friendly. First time I tried the Earth map, I was Qin going for cultural victory. I chariot rushed Karakorum before there was a second Mongol city, had Beijing produce a pair of settlers to settle on the marble and next to the copper to the south, built the Great Wall (back when it gave GE points ) and Oracle for CoL, Toku became my Confucian buddy as soon as a trade route spread the religion across the sea to him, and assumed that my only geopolitical concerns were settling the Korea and Manchuria areas before him and being prepared for Catherine or Cyrus to DoW against my steppe cities once we shared borders. Oh, if only! Instead, I eventually discovered that the Romans had signed open borders with Greece, Persia, and India and were walking Praetorians all that way to invade me. At Pleased, Asoka didn't like me enough for "Cancel your deals with the Romans" to be an option I could ask for, and I noticed that Asoka and Julius shared several techs that Asoka's other neighbor AIs lacked...

 

[King of Town]

I never let him or mansa survive if they are close, no matter if they are of my religion or not. I have to do it qwuick too, or I will face at least you declared war on our friend midifiers and usually a couple of his freinds jumping me. I tend to take out his friends first if I have waited too long just so he'll be alone.

 

[TheDS]

Just kill 'em all and be done with it!

 

[Gumbolt]

One of the things i love starting by Asoka is he nearly always gets a starting religion. Thats if the Spanish dont beat him to it. This is a good thing if you plan a early war to knock him out or just want the religion to spead into your empire.

Although in my current game the French who happen to have biggest military (only just ) on map didnt seem to like him much. An early Ai war!!! Ackkkk!!!