Rat19 - Middle Age scenario AWDG

[Greebley]

Preturn: It doesn't look hopeful. There are 9 swords about to attack our town guarded by 3 units. I will play it and see.
I think we want our Dromon near our cities and helping by bombarding. Its the only bombardment we got. [Edit: Except we also need them to kill enemy ships. Ugh!


IBT: Lose our sword near Sinope to an Archer. Lose our Spear in Adrianople. Kill a Warrior and a Sword.

1026 AD: Our Armies have Atrocious RNG. One loses 10 hp to a Spear. the other is pretty badly hurt as well.
We are going to need a lot of luck in the IBT to survive. Many enemy units.

IBT: Adrianople does poorly and falls easily.

1029 AD: Two Horsemen kill 2 Spear that would pillage our Horses. Two Swords both lose to a single Spear.

IBT: A Berserker grabs our Island city. We have Spear walking our lands and the Horses fall again and will surely be pillaged.
Actually we have coastal cities with no unit guarding near the Berserker boats.

1032 AD: Attempt to sink the invading boat so it cannot bring back more zerks, but lose even though odds were 2 to 1 in our favor.
I could probably give up now - no way we can win this, but I will play a little longer to prove it.

IBT: One of the coastal cities I mentioned above is taken by a Berserk. The Spear on the way wasn't fast enough.

Our capitol and Nicea are going to fall soon. We don't have enough units to defend. I think I will stop here. A win is impossible.

Notes: My RNG has been attrocious this game. Don't think it mattered this second turn though - we just wouldn't have lost so quickly if we had average luck.

I suggest trying Monarchy. I also don't think I like our location. Hard to defend with the resources exposed and vulnerable. Wouldn't mind trying another civ.

 

[ThERat]

ouch

well, demigod was too steep...

so, is the rest in far try at monarch with a different civ...I guess the central europeans are out due to too many contacts. Zerks rock, but even Norway has many contacts early on...we could try that though if we want

who is up for it?

 

[choxorn]

If you want to avoid contact, play as one of the Arabic civs. If you want cool units and buildings, Play as a Viking civ or the Kievan Rus. If you want an all-out slugfest and a challenge, play as one of the European civs.

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

My 5c:

Byzantium was by no means a bad choice for AW; this even is somewhat historically correct. Also, this is the only Civ in this conquest that starts with (at least marginally) developed cities and lands...

Any Civ with immediate contact to one of the Viking Civs + AW = You will loose all coastal cities. Germans and Franks may be able to cope with that, since of course you can recapture Boulonge or Bremen about as easy. 'Zerks aren't good at defending, and expensive...the initial units won't last long. But the Middle European Civs, well, have to face the other Middle European Civs as well.

And, there is another important 'ugly' feature in this conquest: Have you checked the Barbarian stats? For example, the true enemy for Sweden and Fatimids are the Grey Folks here...especially the first uprising on the era change!

Civs I consider doable, even on Monarch:
Byzantium (really doable), Turks (best traits IMHO for AW, the only MIL/COM Civ in that conquest), Abbasids.
Maybe Sweden, maybe Fatimids (but the later will have to deal with Dromons and Berserks!).

And well...I actually have retired from SGs, but if you look for one more player for this...I may be interested, if you want me.

 

[Greebley]

I for one would welcome you doc

Sounds like the other civs are worse then - not an easy scenario for AW. I think Byz would be playable at Monarch. I was playing around with the start and notice they start with more cities than some of the other civs which would be a real advantage at an easier difficulty level.

My thought on tech was to go for Catapults early. I can see why going for MDI first is good in that you do go for cats as a prereq.

 

[Empiremaker]

I was playing a test game as the Rus (not AW). I liked them. They start with lots of forests, zerks, and are 2 techs away from smithing. On the downside, they have no immeditate luxries and are very spread out. I would be willing to try Turks or Abbassids.

 

[ThERat]

Doc T in my SG, that would be an honor for me!!!

pindicator and pat4 have not indicated their interest yet, but we have 4 players already here

I played around with some Civs to test. I found Norway impossible due to the spread and many early contacts. But Sweden was really doable if one is fast and swiftly takes out Danes and Norway to prevent more zerk attacks.

Russia's initial cities are terribly spread...a for AW

What would you guys think of Sweden? Initial turns going after Danes, then Norway?

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

Sweden...you know, I predict that'll be a painfully boring game...

It'll be pretty much that way:
We will loose Staraya Ladoga, of course; no big deal.
We will get rid of Danes and Norway soon; since this is Regicide, they only problem should be to get enough Longships (IIRC we only start with 2, and can't build any before turn 40). And here, it's a question of pure luck, if the Market and especially the Harbor in Hedeby survives.
With no Harbor there, we will have no Horses or 2nd luxury in the homeland EVER (the only other Harbor in the North is Dorestad, but this place is near impossible to defend), and no Iron or Furs on the main landmass.
OTOH, we are pretty much untouchable on our continent - until the 3rd era, nobody in the vicinity can build anything but Curraghs (capacity 1).

Thus, I see us building Wealth for like 100 turns, since we cannot afford more units and with no structures available, only making some hit-and-run attacks on larger settlements until we've reached the 30k. Considering a size 12 city (London will reach that size pretty fast) yields 1.2k already, those won't be even hard to come by...

Rus - interesting unit selection, and interesting techs. And impossible to play - they're so spread out, they're nearly unplayable above Emperor in a normal game!

Turks - more the classical "hiding in a corner". With a neat problem: No Horses nearby...

Abbassids[/tag not closed for good reason] - Guess we'd never ever face anyone but Byz, Turks and Fatimids plus the odd Berserk.

The real problem with anyone but Byz and Abbassids is research capacity, IMHO. With Sweden, you could as well turn of research after Blackmiths (120 turns, no way around...) or even Longships; with the Turks, we at least benefit from a neighbor researching in the same direction.

I'd vote for Byzantium or Abbassids.

 

[ThERat]

thanks for the update...I didn't know tech research is so terrible for Sweden

I'd say lets go for Byz again on monarch then. Will start the game later on today in a new thread

 

[choxorn]

lurker's comment: as soon as you do, post a link to the new thread from this one.

 

[pindicator]

Hey, I'm at least moved in enough now that I have my comp up and running on the internet again. I would love to give this a try at a more manageable dificulty level.

 

[ThERat]

great news pindicator...hope your new place is nice

anyway started the new game
check it out here
Rat20

 

[pat4]

I'd be up for another game.

 

[ThERat]

ok pat4, just saw your comments, will add you to the Roster in Rat20