Playing the Game on Warlord and Higher

[Lord of Elves]

What should city placement look like? I've generally understood that using CxxC makes cities weaker as they have to share tiles.

(And how is one supposed to get an army by 400 AD? I find most of the time I can't get a large enough military up without significantly hurting my income to challenge the AI)

 

[vmxa]

When I say army, I mean the army unit. You get one from an elite unit winning a battle. If you have had few battles and even fewer elites and still fewer elite victories, you won't have a leader to form an army.

I have had them in the first 20 turns. I have gone past 400ad with out, just recently at Sid no less.

PS:

I always focus on getting a leader as soon as I can to get that first army. Then I want to get to 3 armies, so I can built the Pentagon. Armies will make the game a walkover.

 

[vmxa]

The talk about city placement is an on going debate. Not with me though. I use CxxC in all levels and all maps and all victory types, with only a tiny deviation.

The short answer is that it provides the ability to cover towns with 1 move units as long as you have roads and no rivers to cross (prior to engineering). It restricts most towns to less than 12 tiles to work.

This is fine as you only need a few towns with 12 tiles being worked. The rest can get by with 11, 10 or even 9.

Wider spacing means, more than 21 tiles in most towns. Any over 21 will not be used, ever. Over 12 will not be used prior to a hospital. That is a long way off and you have all those dead tiles that could have been used by some other towns.

I seldom have Sanitation and rarely research or trade for it. If I do have, I still do not make hospital, except for rare games and then only in a few of the best cities.

You find defending is harder as you cannot get 1 move units to the next town in one turn. You need to waste a lot of worker turns to road the extra tiles, just to get from place to place.

 

[Lord of Elves]

When I say army, I mean the army unit. You get one from an elite unit winning a battle. If you have had few battles and even fewer elites and still fewer elite victories, you won't have a leader to form an army.

I have had them in the first 20 turns. I have gone past 400ad with out, just recently at Sid no less.

PS:

I always focus on getting a leader as soon as I can to get that first army. Then I want to get to 3 armies, so I can built the Pentagon. Armies will make the game a walkover.

I know what you meant. I was saying that you can't really generate an army without warfare, and I can't assemble an army of units in the early game, or haven't figured out how to do so yet. And without that going to war with the AI is suicidal.

 

[vmxa]

790AD:
Got an SGL. KT had just finished, I switched Leo to GLB and rushed Leo in the capitol.
I have embassies with all nations, except one unmet one. F10 would tell me.

820AD:
Met Hannibal. Check and see we are at the bottom in score. Need to get a few workers off the front and launch a war with France or Spain. I have Muskets and Knights.

1000AD:
Waited for cavs. Start on Theo in 4, Ghandi has it. He is down all techs from Invention to MT on that line. I finished GLB.

1010AD:
Tell Joan, it your a.., I mean rear. Three cavs capture Lyons.
1 cav captures Chartres. Grab a worker near it as well.
Grab a worker near Lyons and Furs are next to Lyons.
5 cavs land on mountain next to Orleans and grab a pair of workers at the same time.
Send cavs to get Avignon next turn.

IBT an MDI attack the cavs and 1 retreated. Another MDI came out and killed it.

1020AD:
Cav kills the offending MDI.
3 cavs take Avignon, with the last one going red on an archer.
6 cavs take down Orleans as I can now see a better route.
cav kills sword in the open.
3 cavs capture Rheims.

1030AD:
Healing, kill 2 MDI wandering around and grab a worker.
I decide to not trade for Ed and research it in 4.

8 cavs take down Paris with Pryamids and Great Wall and 2 slaves.
Found town on hill to fill in near Rheims.

1050AD:
Got a leader and form Cav-1st.
28 towns
Carthage 20
India 19
9,8,8 for the rest and France has 2.

18 slaves added to the 26 workers, Not enough, making more.

1060AD:
1st and an elite capture Tours. Must have fallen on hard times to be left with 2 defenders. I have killed a few units in the field, but most came from the south.

1080AD:
Trade for Astro, hated to give Ghandi Invention and gold. I am going to go for Bachs.

Start MA and HE. Have a Pre going for Copes.

1st captures last town with only 1 defender. French gone.
We move from last to first in score.
Game is going to be a walk over.

 

[vmxa]

I know what you meant. I was saying that you can't really generate an army without warfare, and I can't assemble an army of units in the early game, or haven't figured out how to do so yet. And without that going to war with the AI is suicidal.

I was not sure. Anyway going to war with Warlords civs is a piece of cake. They do not know how to fight. I just took down France in a handful of turns. Still have not kicked of the GA, so that is not even needed to roll on them.

I am surprised at how many wonders now built or controlled and it did not trip. Need to check on what ones do it for Celts. Have not played them in a long time.

 

[vmxa]

I see we picked up Gems with Mareilles for 5 lux now.

1130AD:
found a few towns to fill in the borders.
DOW Theo and 4 cavs kill units in Tolosa, spears and swords.
1st kills spear in Constantinople and 9 others arrive on scene.

Start on Bank, but do not have JS started as I have too many wonders/small wonders going now.
1st kills 2 and 4 others kills 3, 1 retreated and we have Constan.
cav captures Tolosa.

1st clears spear from Constan.
cavs kill 2 swords next to Tolosa.

1150AD:
2 cavs take Varna.
kill spear near Tolosa.
cav kills sword next to Constan.

1160AD:
2 cavs take Nicaea.
3 cavs capture Adrianople.
crusader and 2 cavs clear 3 from Constan.
1st kills two and grabs Heraclea.
39 towns, with several settlers coming out next turn.
cav and 1st take Caesarea.

1200AD:
3 cavs take out Smyrna and goodbye Theo.
I now have twice the score of India.

Going for the next one means invading as each has at least 1 island town. Hammi would be best as Isabel has already been pruned a bit.

 

[vmxa]

1240AD:
1st and 2 cavs take Uruk.

1250AD:
Start on ToE in 4.
Hammi is very weak as a single elite cav takes Akkad and another elite takes Eridu.
1st and a cav take Ashur. Note this was only 2 spears. I have only seen spears so far.

1260AD:
Take Babylon with 3 spears in it. HE and MA are done.
All swamps cleared and the last jungle will be next turn.
Not a single counterattack by Hammi so far. Well he seems to only have spears, not even an bow?

1265AD:
finally run into a bowman as we take down 2 spears and a bow grabbing Nineveh.

1270AD:
Start on Steam.
1st gets in one attack on last town on continent.


1275AD:
2 cavs take out Ellipe. Short rush two boats.

1290AD:
I prefer to not break deals, but the map has a 1 tile island. Hammi had it. So I pull this bit of exploiting. I make peace for the 1 tile town. When Hammi ask me to leave or DOW, I declare. Took the last town and they are gone.

My rep should be fine as no one has contact with Hammi AFAIK. If Spain does, oh well. I am not going to make any trades anyway.

Copes finished and triggered the GA. I switched the army build to Newtons.
I Ghandi now has Nav, but I do not intend to trade for it.

As soon as I recover the army and move the cavs to the Spanish border, will go for them next. They have 3 island towns. I use to try to get others to go to war with my enemy to hope they would take down those little island towns, but they rarely do.

So not going to bother. Will just come and get them later.

 

[vmxa]

1300AD:
Electricity in 4. I see Iron Works could be build in a decent town, but I skip it as I do not want the pollution and do not really need more shields there.

54 towns, Spain 9, Carthge 20, 19 and 13 are the rest.

1310AD:
2 cavs and 1st take Toledo.
6 cavs kill 4 4 and take Santiago. A pike and a sword killed cavs.

1315AD:
take Barcelona.

1320AD:
Madrid is a bit stiff. Lost a couple cavs and several redline. Kill about 6 units, even 1st is red now.
Start RP in 4.

1325AD:
A knight sweeps out and killed a cav on the IBT.
We take down Madrid and get three wonders.

1335AD:
Take Seville and now have the continent.
Bach is done.
Newton was done last turn, iirc.

1340AD:
start Medicine.
send out boats to finish Spain.

1360AD:
Start Sci Meth in 4.
Raze one of the Spanish towns.

1375AD:
Raze another Spanish town, 1 left.

1380AD:
Start Industrial in 4.
Switch palace to ToE.
Finish rails to all towns. Start improving troop towns and the ToE town.
Land on the last Spanish town.

1390AD:
Razed the last town and Spainis out.
Got a leader finally. Had to disband the elite as I had to make room for the leader.
Troops coming back to gather for the invasion of the other continent.
Building frigates and galleons and troops.

Have a few settlers ready as well as a few artillery. Muskets are now infantry.

 

[death505]

what level is that on

 

[Lord of Elves]

what level is that on

Warlord. To note, I'll be attempting a new game in a bit. Most of the starst I've attempted have been mediocre or just plain bad.

 

[vmxa]

If you do not like to ones you are trying now, maybe go back to the 400AD and play it out. I stopped after landing on Ghandi's turf.

1405AD:
Start Corp in 4.
Fleet not yet back.
2nd army from MA a few turns back.
Will hold the leader for Pentagon, when the 3rd finishes.

1425AD:
Sick, got an SGL from Sci meth and rush Hoover.
ToE finished and I took AT and Electric.
Start US for giggles.
Start on Refine in 4.
Start clearing the last jungle I inherited from Spain.

1435AD:
Start factories in 3 places.
Leader rushed Pentagon as we now have 3 armies.

Send out the invasion force.
Rather small:
3 frigates
9 galleons
1 cav 3x army
2 army empty
2 artillery
1 settler
10 infantry
17 cavs

Have not even figured out who to hit or where. Most is in fog.

1445AD:
start Steel in 4. The research is 50% for 3 turns and as low as 10% for the last turn. I have so much cash.

1460AD:
Razed one of Ghandi's towns.
Found town, rush wall.

Send out 2 other armies and kills some phants.

I was tempted to go for Shaka as he has 2 lux, but he has jungle everywhere. I probably can poach Ivory and Ghandi has Wines.

 

[vmxa]

Lord of Elves, I finished the game, let me know if you are interestedin the finally save.

1475AD:
razed Bangalore.

1485AD:
Give Music to Shaka for an Alliance vs Ghandi. Just to speed up the killing. I doubt it will matter much, but some damage to both. I had no optional techs to offer Hannibal.

Upgrade to transports.
Start on Flight.

1510AD:
Ghandi took a coule of Shaka's towns and I razed them. Have Ivory online now.
Start Mass Prod last turn. Just marking time till 50k VP. I have 47976.

All mainland flat tiles are railed and improved. I irrigated the mines on towns that do not have universities.

1530AD:
VP met, game over.

 

[Lord of Elves]

Yeah, I'd definitely be interested in seeing the final save.

 

[vmxa]

Here it is I hope: