Regent Help Needed!

[vmxa]

Short answer no, longer test to date follows.

I thought I had some notes on this game, but they must be on the other PC. I started this one after getting the setting you used. I do not have 1.17F, so the best I could do was 1.29F.

A number of changes occurred in 1.21 and 1.29, one is that the map size for large was reduced to 130x130. So this will not come super close to your settings. To that end, when I move from my main PC, I loaded the game in C3C to make it easier on me. The interface is just better by miles.

You would not be able to load the save anyway. So I lost many of the details, but I may get back to the backup PC and find them.

I found the start notes:

I started a game to more closely match yours.

Large - note that I am at 1.29f, so large maps are smaller than 1.17F now 130x130. I do not know

what the impact is on this, except we will be a bit closer.

Max land

Wet - why do you want a lot of jungle?

Cool, ok I went with the temperate here, max jungle and max tundra is no fun.

5 byo

No mention of barbs so I just when no barbs.

Same nations.

I drew a medium continent with 4 others: Germany, England, India and Russia.

One other item of note is that forest chops are 5 rather than 4 as in C3C.

Communication comes with MM in C3, so they can get contacts sooner.

370BC:
Not much so far, I am 1st in pop and 2nd in all the other categories.

All are even in tech, no huts had an impact.

I did have a scuffle with England and Germany as they came into my land and I don't allow it. I

killed them, but made peace soon. No land was exchanged or anything, except England gave their map.

I do expect to attack Russia as they have a settler and spear coming next to my settler, so they

must die. I do not share or play nice with others.

210BC:
Short war with Russia razed two towns and town, some gold for peace.
( yeah I cannot understand this one either. I suspect that it should say captured a town, but not

sure.)

I trade Germany Lit, even though I just researched it, I am not going to make GLB and it is nice if

they would do it for me. They gave all their gold a map and Poly. England and India do not have

lit, but have no money, so they can do without.

130AD:
Game is too easy at this level as you can trade the pants of the AI. At Sid you rarely have techs

to offer. So I trade Germany into the Middle and Greece, oh I have met all on the next continent.

The ability to trade contacts so early kills things.

Greece needed Construct and since it puts them in the next age they pay a lot. Got tech, map

contacts and gold. I then put up embassy and steal their free tech. Do the same to Bismark and used

their gold to do it.

So only Rome is alone on an island and no one knows them, but I am sure I know where to find them

and a ship is en route. I traded no contacts from my continent, so I am the only that knows

everyone, naturally.

470AD:
Finished killing the Russians, they are gone. I have had a short war with Germany way back early and two wars with Russian, before elimination via swords. I had to go to war with England as they saw me autoraze a size 1 town and landed a settler/archer. I had to kill them.

I am not sure if the autoraze is a C3C function or not, I just cannot remember when it came in. Any town with 1 pop or no culture or not native, will autoraze. This shows how lame Regent is as the town was next to the capitol and never got any culture or growth.

I found the last town on an island next to me, so I sent over a sword and a knight and it only had one spear, good night Stalin.

I have just found the last nation, Rome, and no one on my continent knows anyone outside of this land, so I know all nations. This is often true even at Sid. Note I found out later there was another nation, I should have count to 12.

The 5 nations on the other land all have Republic, none on the other lands have it. I have no interest in it. I was actually considering staying in despot for the fun of it, but that would not be a fair test.

I revolted during the war and now I am a Monarch. I have at least one to three techs on all. No one has knights and I have an army with a single knight, soon to get a second. Eng in 4 more turns.

Rome is just dead, they do not even know CB. I am trying to fill in the land now and hoping someone will start a war, but probably they will not. I have pikes and knights and I captured the Great Wall and build Sun Tzu, so I am sure they are afraid.

Once I get the land filled, then some thing will break and then I will probably run everyone off the continent.

I am first in all the rankings, except land and Egypt is 2 tiles larger than I am. I have several settlers on the long path to locations.

480AD:
Well that did not take long. I moved my galley to return the slave and a knight and spotted a Germany sword and settler on the island that had the Russian town. So I off loaded the worker to my land and the knight next to the sword. I sank their galley and off we go. I never liked Bismark anyway.

I will not enlist the others as it is too easy and why should I give them stuff anyway? Let them get bribed in against me and I can have the happiness. The army will be three units strong soon and go ripping.

Engineering will let me cross those rivers, a big boost.

490AD:
Now 1st in all 4 areas and autorazed Brenen. The game had 4 scientific nations, so that is a lot of free techs and cheap lib/uni, but it is not going to let them ever get ahead in tech now. They all got either Fued or Mono and I will have Eng in 2 and already have Chiv.

I may head for ED, just to trade it to Babs as they build the GLB. Not sure as they will no get much from it anyway.

530AD:
I hate to be such a lair, or at least mistaken. I finished my turn and looked at the techs and see India had about 83 gold and not Monarchy. So I went ahead and asked what they would give and they gave the world map and 80 gold. I said how about an alliance against Bismark and they said sure.

So I did bring in India, I know they do not get hurt too bad or gain much. I autoraze Stuggard and kill a spear/settler and a sword, so a pinch coming to Bismark. The army now is stuck with two slaves and there are 2 groups of 2 swords each around it, so either had to escort or abandon them. Well I guess that depends on the IBT.

Stopping here for some Might and Magic. Oh, Invention in 8 and a pre is going for Leos.

540AD:
The IBT saw two of the swords attack Dacca and die, so Ghandi held his own that turn and I can send the slaves home and let the army whack away.
I had a galley trying to drown, by it make it all the way back to the mainland. Figures, that since I did not care, it would be safe.

I am trying to decide if I want to be nice or slick. I have the army next to 4 German swords, but they are poised next to Dacca and I could let them attack. If they die, fine army heals. If they win, I grab the town from Germany. Yeah that's the ticket, will wait and see how it goes.

BTW the biggest civ, or it was the biggest only has 20+ gold, how they going to research? I have the HE and FP closing in on completion an the pre for Leo going and over 400 gold. I could be farther by just going to war much sooner and staying there, but that is not quite in the spirit of the test.

550AD:
All 4 swords attacked and only one lost. I had a knight close and it kill one of the survivors. The army grabbed Dacca and I see they have several other units close, so it may be a struggle.

4 turn research by the AI? I self researched Chiv and Eng and only 5 turns for Inventions and they have yet to research a single tech in the middle age.

620AD:
Razed a size 3 town for 4 slaves. Gunpowder in 9, but I am not researching as hard as I could. Still no one has learned any techs, unless i traded it to them and all are down at least 3 MA techs, some still in AA. Note I am not in Republic as I would normally have been in the C3 days, I am not trying to use RCP or FP placement so as to not gain any help from those things.

630AD:
Egypt finally research a tech, Theology. I will not trade for it as I do not want to help them and speed up tech over there. I will do it later maybe. I want to be able to get Ed and get it to Babs before they can get much and if I trade techs, they will get them free and the rest will get some.

I decide to whack the England settler pair on the island. It seems to be a nice place to grab free slaves as nation try to drop settlers and I can get them right to the mainland.

So I have another war with the Queen. They have swords, I have knights and pikes with muskets not far off. Very little free land now so war will be common.


640AD:
Looks like Hammi researched Theo on his own as only Egypt knows it other than Babs.

720AD:
Well I broke down and attack Ghandi's settler pair on the island, so war with all three nations on my land, it was a given. I am keeping the slaves there to road the place so I can defend it from landings. It is all snow, so I do not want to use it.

Clear my land and then Rome and then the rest.

760AD:
I had thought the GA would trip on the IBT as Dacca had German and English sword next to it and I had a musketeer. The first sword, regular, killed the 5 defense musketeer, no sweat.

I have razed a few English towns, but there is a lot of jungle in the front, so it will be slow going. Still no one has come up with any techs, either new or known by me. Got another leader.

I think it is safe to say that the AI cannot research at a 4 turn pace at this level. I would say at any level.

800AD:
Poor Rome, it still does not know Math, while I am on Metallurgy. I had given them CB for a map.


820AD:
Looks like Cleo is the other top dog now as they just got ED and are the only ones doing much. She is down Invention, Chem, Gun.

920AD:
Slow going with no MDI, no trebs, armies are less powerful. Babs know ED, I am working on MT. No good reason, but I agree to peace with Ghandi.

960AD:
Not sure if this is a problem with vanilla or it is with Regent, but the AI will give up towns so easy. Bismark gave me two of his 6 towns and I did not try for more as I did not want to be ill, should he give up even more.

England gave up a town a couple of turns back, but I only asked for one as I did not want to make too many holes for others to fill.

I am going ahead and filling up the tundra island now as I do not want to be forced to DOW capriciously.

1060AD:
None of the nations that know ED have learned Astro, which is a few turns away for me. I have an Army build to switch to, if I want. I may just use one of the university builds as I am sure I have plenty of time to finish.

Thinking of going back to war to finish of Germany soon as I now have filled out to England's border.

India has been fighting them since I allied with them.


1230AD:
I eliminated Germany, I waited till Peace deal expired. Greece wanted to trade contacts, so I realized that I had not met America, careless or what? ToG due in 2 turns, others lack even Gun, many do not have tier 1 MA techs.

1270AD:
Babs learned Nav, I am a few turns from Mag and will not learn Nav. Then back for the last MA tech, Banking. No others know Chem. DOW England. Will eliminated them now. I will have to capture most cities as a) they are deep in jungles b) England is at war with India.

1290AD:
Start banking it is due in 4 turns, it is known by a couple others. Well someone will do a 4 turn tech, but it was not the AI.

1350AD:
England gone,
Steam next turn.
AI has:

Gun 4
Bank 4
Astro 6
Chem 3
Phy, Metal, ToG, Mag, MT none.

They have several optional Middle Age techs, that I won't have, unless a deal is done sometime.

Looks like I have about the same amount of land as the next two combined. I am making little effort to manage the towns and to place them optimally. I am building temples every where or nearly so as I would expect others to do, so as to not be too war like.

There is only two lux on this continent as I recall. I could trade for some, but why give them techs or lux?

I have some frigates and galleons and making more ships. I was not able to gather workers for rails as too much jungle to clear/road to connect towns and too much land with no roads. Will start soon and still a bit short on settlers to go after Ghandi. With Astro and Nav, we may soon get landings wanting to fill any hole.


So I think it is quite clear that it plays close to what I remembered, that is the AI will not be able to hold it is own after the second tier techs in the middle age, if it was doing so to that point.

It surely cannot do 4 turn research and doe little trading from this point on with other civs, unless there is a bribe. No one has any money. If they had some, I would trade it away.

 

[vmxa]

Since you cannot load the game, here is the screen shot:

 

[vmxa]

1450AD:
Finished RP, start Ind. Push Ghandi to the coastal towns only. I am trying to get towns down as I go, so no one will land, but I have yet to see anyone?

Three have Metallurgy and Egypt has Physics. I have at least 6 techs on them, but they will get a boost from the free ones for the new age. I have not used my GA.

I have had another leader, but I have not been working to get them. Several elites have not fought after being promoted. I have even upgrade elite knights.

I have captured GW, Colossus, GL, Oracle not sure if any others. Oh yeah Pyramids. Build Sun Tzu, Leo, Copes, Newton and the small wonders FP, MA, Pentagon. I think that is the whole list. 5 armies, 2 knights and 3 cavs. These do not have a 4th member, so they can go into galleons.

Trying to get ships around to the point where they can hit Ghandi on his island and then to Rome. After that I hope to have transports for the big push. Making infantry now for the main invasion.

Very strange that I have not seen anything with 2 moves. Only ran into a few pikes. They have had horses all this time and I think Ghandi knows chiv now?

I see now I have 12 galleons and 3 more close to finished, so that is enough at this level.

1460AD:
India is off the continent and it is all ours now and all filled in. Ship gathering for the main invasion, while the island campaign is organized. All towns, except the last two are connected by rails. Capitol has all tiles railed and mined, not the wheat. Will switch army build to factory and then coal plant after Ind comes in.

1470AD:
I saw some ships moving out pass my borders, did not see whose, so looks like I got the land secured in time as no landing spots.

1475AD:
It is an American ship. A galley.

1490AD:
Rats US triggered a GA, I thought Hoovers would be the trigger, oh well. Ship on the way to India.

Medicine is 4 turn during GA.

1500AD:
Razed Indian capitol and found town. Grab next town. They do not even have a single road on this island. Ships are ready for main invasion, but I do not have enough troops to go yet. I went ahead and trade maps with Hammi, since I have filled all my land. Just being nice. I am going to go in with just one opponent on that land, if I can.

1505AD:
Medicine will come in with an over run. dialed down to 50%. Paris can make infantry in a single turn and armies in 5.
1530AD:
Gathering troops for Rome now. Corp is a 4 turner. Started ToE with no pre as it will only take 7 turns. I have railroads up on the entire circumference now. Trying to get roads on all towns in the Indian island.

1540AD:
Just as I send the boats off to see Rome, Cleo lands a pair of knights on my shores. I dial her up and she DOW's me. Thanks sucker, now I get happiness. I am going to have to decide if I want others in, not to help. I just do not want to have to have all at war with me when I land.

I can handle them, it is easier to get a foothold against one. I will have to think on that a bit. I do not want to have anyone over there to gain a lot.

1560AD:
After landing on Rome I had seen a horse land on my island, but now it is gone. So I guess they had to disband for cash. Ships are headed for Cleo.

1565AD:
Taken a few towns from Rome. Have Ghandi's island up with roads at least all the way around and 3/4 with rails.

1570AD:
Land on Cleo's land.
Techs:

US and Rome way back, well Rome is really way back.
The 5 on the other continent all have MT now.

China and Egypt have ToG.
Egypt Mag.

No IA techs yet for any.

Me:
Steam, Medicine, Ind, Electric, Sci Meth, Corp, RP, AT, Electronics and Refine with Steel in 5.

1585AD:
Rome is OCC and will be out next turn.
Cleo has not attacked so far. I razed a city and founded my beachhead. I am not able to go out on the attack as my offensive armies are still in Rome. Ships are bringing replacement units there and will loaded them.
GA will end during IBT.

1615AD:
Got a couple leaders so far on Egypt and will go for a second town to get incense as 2 luxs is making it a strain.

Rome is long gone and secure. The 5 armies from that campaign are soon to land.

1645AD:
Japan still not in the IA.
3 have ToG
4 have MAG
I have added Steel and Combustion with Flight in 9.
I now have the Incense.
Got another leader, lost track of how many. More troops will land next turn. Armies should get their ships upgraded to transports then as well.

Here is CA tech list:

 

[vmxa]

Maybe I should mention that the black ones are ones I know and no one else does. Red is current research. Grey are know to me and some others. White are not know to me, this are all optional techs I skipped.

 

[capnvonbaron]

I see. Seems like you are probably doing yourself a favor by eliminating opponents... fewer AIs means less research power among them, giving you quite an advantage!

Also; something I did not really consider until now was that my city placement has not been good. Only recently did I discover some of the CxxC conversations around the forum, and I think my typical CxxxxC habit has been hurting me a lot. When I get back to my other computer I'm going to start a new game with the new city placement and see what I can do from there.

 

[vmxa]

Do get patched. The reduction of nations has a very minor impact on the formula. I did not even eliminate them till out of the AA iirc. They just do not make any use of placement or workers.

You see we are or rather I am about to go into the modern age and still they do not have roads on core cities.

Anyway at no time in the game have they done much research, just a bit and some trading.

You are correct that some closer placement is strong. I was looser in this game than I would be in a high level. Anyway I will play it out some more to see if anything changes.

Here is the current status:

1670AD:
Took longer than I expect to get the armies over. I guess C3 has 5 move transports? I remember they held 8, rather than 6 units. Got another leader and brought an empty army over.

So I have 5 armies with a spot open and two empty. I will have to make another inf army as I have few cavs over here right now. Waiting for flight to fly some here.

I razed a toown a few turns back and founded replacement so as to cut of the end of the land. Will be able to start moving some now, better once cavs land.

So I have 12 armies now. Armies are not as good as in C3C, but still better than not. I had to kill two rifles so 4x cav armies are needed for that. You could do it with less, but will take losses.

1675AD:
Hum, Hammi has sent two knights to my new found home. Wonder if he is feeling froggy? I say leap, if you feel froggy. I have walls and rax up in the three towns with an infantry army in each.

Deadly for knights and I have whacked a lot of Egyptian cavs trying it.

I am not going to build any more armies from the MA, just do not need them as much as cavs. I am only using three cities to build troops. No hurry to crush them. The test is to see if they can ever get a decent research going, so I wanted to not run over everyone.

I finally finished the rails on the old Indian island and planting trees now.
I have rails about 1/2 of Rome, but I have only a few slaves there.

I just realize there are no airfields in C3, dang. Now I will have to put up an airport on both ends.

Razed another city.

1680AD:
Yup, Hammi leaped. I am not going to go after him and will give peace when he is ready. Again, this is to give them a chance to get better. He is one of the two remaining science nations.

I cannot leader fish right now as I have no elites and no cavs to get promoted.

Razed Oryx. Area behind front is clear now.
I started attacking Tanis and I see China has three units close by, so I may get another DOW.

1685AD:
China comes into my land during the IBT, so I tell to leave, DOW. Just Greece and Japan on the land have not declared. I do not want to buy them into the war for fear they will get hammered.

Sending the last army built over with some more troops. Flight during the next IBT. Will make an airport on both continents.
Razed Tanis.

1690AD:
China gives me a bunch of WLTSD, thanks guys.

1695AD:
Trade Medicine to US and traded Mag and ToG to Japan to get them into IA. Then I traded them Medicine. I got no lux or gold to speak, just optional techs I did not want. I did this to prevent Cleo or someone from buying them into the fight and forcing me to kill them next.

Now most have the first Tier techs, though Cleo is missing Steam and Medicine. I will fill the back area this turn.

1700AD:
I knew better, when Japan would not trade me a lux for two lux and a tech, so China bribed them into a DOW. I got a bunch of WLTSD notices.

IBT:
Hammi wants peace, so he gets it. I am so nice.
Lots of attacks at the newly captured Egypt town and an infantry army and 2 cav armies get very very red. They were all damaged on the prior turn. A 4th army of cavs was at full health. Japan and Egypt send in cavs.

1720AD:
Mass Prod in one. I will go ahead and do some MM this turn. I was trying to not do much to make it fair, but I fear peace will trigger some riots as I will lose war happiness.

Whoops caught again by C3 differences. Made some bombers for nothing as they are not lethal. Will stop making them now.

I cannot swear to it, but it seems jungles do more death than in C3C as I have had so many. I have about 5 gangs working jungles now. The AI is so inept.

Egypt has many tiles that do not even have roads at this late date. Not far off towns, but in the core.

I tweak pop and it is a mix bag in C3. I make many scientist and sold off most temples. Income went down from the workers no longer working and science went down in spite of the beaker heads.

Ent went down as some jokers were fired. Maint went down. My expenses went down farther than income so I gained 21gpt. I also gained no concerns about happiness now. I also gain 251 gold in the treasury from sales.

I further gained a one time boost of 200+ from being able to reduce the research 20% and still getting the break through. I had already reduced it, but after the shuffle was able to do it two more clicks.

I dropped corruption from 700+ to barely more than 500.

1725AD:
start Motor due in 5 turns at 80%.
razd Helio with Smiths. I think I have two banks, so it will be of no value to me.

1750AD:
Start radio not sure if this turn or the last. It was removed for C3C. Will make a few tanks now.

Grabbed the town with Ivory so many happy pop now.

I had trees up on Ghandi's island, so shipped some workers to Rome. That island does have rails all around, but lots of tiles without roads. Went back to making armies for the tanks.

Techs, they have not gone past Steam and Medicine. They have Nat, so it is likely they have Commie. I do not have nat so I do not know and who cares.

 

[vmxa]

I have finished the test and here is the final report. I am sorry to have spammed the thread, but I was curious when I come across some thing that does not coincide with my expectation. IOW I could not see how a Regent Ai could do 4 turn research.

1768AD:
Moved back to my backup PC today and found the starting notes.

Got more leaders, just got one last turn and now I have 15 armies. The 15th has only 2 tanks so far, 14th is 4x tanks. I have slowly been razing and replacing. I did hold Thebes for Bachs and will crank out settlers from there to reduce pop.

I was tops in culture, but I sold most of my temples, but for sure I am not in an inferior position. I am considering doing a holding action on this continent after I clear the towns behind Thebes.

I would then have a border with no land on the sides for them to come from. My purpose here is to rush America and gain their lux and also remove them from my back. They have an island just off Alexandria.

If I drop 6 to 8 armies, it should not take long. I can just raze the towns and move on as it is an island. Not like here where I can get troops from many quarters. They would have to land them. I have long ago position transport for this purpose. (later I decide to come from a different location)

I am in the modern age and have a couple of turns on Computers. Mechs will mean armies do not have to defend towns. This is what is slowing things down. I have to have 3 armies sit on a town until I can move the borders with another town.

Two mechs will hold a town just fine now that all the nations I am at war with have sent their initial rushes. Only China has learned Ind and no other techs have been gain by them.

1774AD:
Finally got the homeland cleared of jungle and I have trees in the tundra there, so I am shipping workers over to the new land.

1780AD:
Got two leader this turn. Seti is done. Have MI up on all islands and on new continent.

Boats ready for a tiny island of Cleo's.

1800AD:
Doing Ecology now. Third MA tech.
Ind 4
Electricity 4
RP 2
Sanitation 2

So they are down 12 IA and 3 MA techs right now or about a whole age. Of course the techs are more expensive as you go forward. I will say China is doing well and so is America. America is on a smallish island and not at war. China has lots of land and is at war, but I have not attacked their cities.

1806AD:
5 of the 6 nations are in democracy. Only Egypt is communism. They have been reduced down to 5 cities. Will start on Modern Armor next turn. China and Japan are demo and in war.

Hammi wanted a trade for Industry, man that is sad. All islands of mine have rails and trees now. I have rails on most of the new land, but the parts that could be reached by cavs.

I have 20 armies full and one empty. I have a number of elite cavs and and 1 or 2 elite tanks. Tanks are hard to keep as I get leaders and need to fill the armies.

The cavs I use on red line units to get elites or leaders. Only if they are in my land. I never made many arties here, I think I have 8. I think 5 on the main land. A couple on one island or may 2 islands. I did not want to get to much of an advantage.

I have been running with less than full throttle to give them some chance. One problem they have on vanilla is they seem to make far more towers than what I am use to seeing.
It could be the level, not sure. I think this has hurt them more than anything else as they burn up their workers.

If you have 26 towns and 24 towers, no wonder they cannot make roads. Egypt is starting to sprout a couple of rails.

Did I mention I now gave Dyes?

1816AD:
More leaders now have 21 full armies and 3 empty, waiting for Fibers.
Cleo is OCC and Japan is now losing cities. They have furs, so that is going to put me over the top.

1818AD:
Cleo is gone. Tokyo had only one rifle and now I have cut off Japan from all the rest of the continent. They have 9 cities, not sure if I will take any more out this turn.

1826AD:
MA armies out. Japan down to last city and it is surrounded. Recycle going to use in the few places I have factories.

1832AD:
Gave China peace for a town. Filled all the land that was Nippon. I should have sent my ship over to be in position to invade America, I do so now.

Techs:
Stream, Medicine, Ind known to all
Electricity, Sanitation*, Corp, RP know to all, except Hammi. I do not know sanitation.
Refine, Steel, AT, Combust, Flight, Mass, Electronics, Motor and Radio know only to me.

Modern techs known to me only:
Rocket, Computer, Eco, Fiber. Recycle in 2 turns.

It will take three turns for the boats to get into position and 1 to land. I would expect America to be gone in 3 turns as I will land 3 MA and 8 tank and 8 cav and 3 inf armies.

That will probably be enough land to get domination, it will close for sure. I have 65% of the pop now and 55 of the land. Some borders will expand here to gain a bit more.

So I think that wraps the test up. In my experience the Ai is not able to do research at your pace and surely not at 4 turns on any settings at regent. It cannot do 4 turn research on any level as far as I can tell.

I have seen one Sid nation own all of a huge continent on a huge map and not be able to do it. They can get down to 6 turns on modern techs and that is very strong.

Again I took it easy on them and did not use Republic and they still fell back about a full age.
If you get patched and see that behavior, please post the save, I would love to see it.

 

[vmxa]

Plus, since I *have* gold reserves, I can do fun stuff like hurry buildings and conduct espionage...

I would not even research Espionage or for that matter Nationalism. I certainly would not bother with any spying. To what end?

Sorry I missed this one earlier, but I do not want to have new players wasting turns on spies or the tech.

 

[vmxa]

Remember my post way back that I would not expect them to get to Recycle and maybe only the middle techs in the IA. Well that is what happened.

 

[capnvonbaron]

yeah I meant more in the way of embassies, and not really anything else. I've kinda graduated away from those, in any case.

So, I do have 1.29f. I'm currently conducting an experiment... I'll be playing the Persians (best case scenario for me), and I've set up 7 non-scientific AI on a standard map, pangea, 6bil. I will play both Warlord and Regent games to see how I fare against the computer science-wise.

Right now, I am most of the way through the IA , with my closest competition (America) in the middle/late MA. I eliminated France in the AA, the Romans are down to one city (because they were nice and coughed up 3 techs when I negotiated peace, so I let them live), and China has a city on an island surrounded by Japs that I may go get later. Also culture robbed two cities from China and one from Japan before I went on the offensive against China. Only America and Japan share my continent now, with the Aztecs and Ghandi on their own decently sized chunk of land. I own more than half of the land on my largish continent. My score is around 1300, the next closest is Montezuma with around 450.

So far, I was neck-and-neck with the Americans for techs up until the late AA. I started pulling ahead as soon as my "pointy stick research" with the Romans was up and running. I made the mistake of not starting the Forbidden Palace until early Mid Ages, and got an annoyingly early GA since I used a horde of Immortals against France. Two mistakes I will not make again. No GLs in my conquests either, even though I made almost two dozen attacks with elite Immortals. I feel I'm getting the shaft.

The next war will be against Japan once I get tanks (I am researching motor transport as we speak), since Tokugawa sneak-attacked me just as I was going to war with France. I had three or four immortals at ready, so it was no issue fending off the 6 or so warriors he threw at me, but I couldn't counter-attack because he was all the way across the continent at the time. America I will keep around because they were nice and allied with me against the chinese (in that they abosorbed the chinese main offensive whilst I made off with several outlying chinese cities), although I will probably culture-rob a few of their cities in the meantime.

I will post the tech status once I hit the modern age.

 

[vmxa]

Sounds about right to me. One of the prices you may have to pay for a strong early UU is an early GA. Sometimes you can get away with not using the UU against them in the AA.

The elite business is not uncommon, they run in streaks and as I remember in C3 they are a bit harder to get. The odds are the same, but I play an dread a ton of games and you often seen player go a whole game with one or two. Although I was got 55 in a C3 game that was not AW.

I figure I am due about 1 in 18 elite wins, but that can be in any sequence. I may get 2 back to back and them go 30 win and get none.

To me Immortals are a poor UU and I do not like the Persians, especially in C3. They have no upgrade path. I can get by with swords, exception is the Legion as it is a strong defender as well.

 

[capnvonbaron]

Well, that was too easy. It has been awhile since I've played a warlord game... playing regent so much has made Warlord seem like cheiftan, lol.

So, here's the game rundown. Watching the histograph, I apparently fell behind in the early game, something I think may have been a problem of mine a lot. I had only four cities built when three other civs plopped down their 6th, something I'm not happy about. However, I did rally past them after capturing/destroying many french/roman cities, both of which happened before 0AD. I also saw that the Aztecs reduced the indian cities on their continent by half around the same time I was in a tussel with Rome, which I think is why the Aztecs did so well in the mid-game.

1170AD - 1370AD, I and the Americans kicked the Chinese off our island. The Americans were minor help... they basically blunted the Chinese offensive as I moved north to conquer and pillage, aquiring the great wall, the colossus, and leo's workshop... w00t!

1500AD, I hit modern age. A check of the AI revealed America and Aztecs did not know nationalism, steam, or med, and Japan was still researching physics. India didn't know print press, magnetism, or military tradition. Rome was back on theology

1540AD - 1575AD, I kicked the Japs off the continent. Got a GL on my first tank blitz Attack one, vet - elite, attack two, GL. Great. Well, now I have armies at least. Japan gave me military tradition and print press in turn for me letting them have their three-city island (shared with the last chinese city) aways off in the ocean. Detroit and Baltimore (American) culture flipped to my civ.

1695AD, Aztecs landed two knights next to an un-guarded city on my continent, probably started on the way over when I was in anarchy between my republic-> democracy transition. I steamed two transports worth of tanks, mech inf, and arty right up next to their continent in response, and put units in all the cities the knights could reach in a turn, then ended my turn. On the IBT, Montezuma told me to get out of his territory, I said "ok". I told him to remove his troops, he declared war. Yay! War happiness! His knights were destroyed in the next turn, the galley that dropped them off was sunk by a waiting battleship, and I off-loaded the transports next to his 12-pop city.

1700AD - 1745AD, I established a beachhead and landed more transports across the continent from my original spot. The early war period didn't see a whole lot of action, mainly because of the lack of units on the island, and I had to counter a bunch of cav the aztecs kept throwing at me. I eventually got the war machine rolling, tho, and finished research on syn. fibers, allowing me to turn all the damaged/healing tanks on the aztec continent into full-health modern armor. Three turns later, the Aztecs were no more. The indians, who had foolishly signed an MPP inter-war, also lost three of their cities before pleading for peace. Most of my cities were still celebrating "we love emporer" day right up until war's end.

1730ish AD - 1750AD, I spammed the former Aztec territory with new cities and started building libraries. After a turn or two, I had enough money to rush them all, and after they all expanded a few turns later, I achieved domination in 1770AD. Final score: 2572, nearest to me was Aztecs with 545 History remembers me as Xerxes the Lion-Hearted. The americans were still researching sanitation when I got the victory. I had genetics, synth fibers, and was researching space flight... not my usual course, but I didnt really put any effort in late-game due to the impending win.

I will likely take a few days off before starting the regent game to see how I do. Also, I realized this whole time I've been playing with accelerated production... I'm sure that had a lot to do with the computer's ability to keep up. Will keep ya posted.

 

[capnvonbaron]

Oh yeah... and I ended up getting a second GL in the war with the Aztecs. Both tanks that produced them were renamed "Hammer of Allah" in honor of my Persian jihad vs the infidels

I think my record for GLs was 6. That was back in my cheiftan days, when I didn't use a lot of artillery and had modern armor as the AI was still throwing rocks at me. The result was a lot of repeated attacks with elite units, thus many more chances for GLs. Although it wasn't uncommon for me to wipe out entire civs in three turns, start-to-finish.

 

[vmxa]

If you want a lot of leaders go with AW. I made 7 one turn and 5 the next in GR23. Yeah AP distorts the game. It was meant for MP to speed up the game.

 

[capnvonbaron]

Well the regent science test is going fairly well. I don't have any "science farms" or anything, but I am up two or three techs from the AI in the mid-IA. I'm in the middle of researching electronics and most of the AIs are still bugging me for medicine and nat'lism. India and china have all the first tier, but only a few second-tier. It has been a funny game so far...

The map and AI civ setup is the same, but my starting position was terrible compared to the warlord start. My capital is only two squares from jungle, and I got hemmed in by the Chinese to the NW, a big inland sea and the Indians to the S, France and Aztecs to the SW and the Japs/Americans to the E. I fortunately out-expanded all of them, and again France kindly (although unwillingly) provided me with some cities early in the game , as did America around the 0 AD mark. I have also culturally aquired five chinese cities, two aztec, and one american city (baltimore, again )

Unlike last time, the map generated as one giant continent with a little vacant continent off to the side, and me right in the middle of everybody. That helped though, because I met the Americans, Indians, French, and Chinese before they met each other and got a lot of free techs and a lot of gold early on since I first established writing and intro'd them all to each other.

It has been a very tense game... really early, a horde of chinese showed up right after I caved to Mao's request for some stupid tech, but they kept marching as I built up tons of units and not enough workers/settlers. After I realized they were after France, though, I gladly sent all those extra units south to help out. Mao turned gracious, even though he ended up razing the couple of cities he attacked, I kept three, and laid settlers all over the former france territory.

A little while later, tons of Jap warriors/archers appeared at my borders. Again I had to ramp up unit production, and never got enough workers to deal with the tangle of jungle all around my cities. Toku actually just wanted a peice of Mao, and simply passed by me and attacked them for no good reason. Mao's counter was massive; and of course he had to march right across my mainland to attack the Jap center. So the whole time I'm just worried one of the bastards will jump me. Then the Romans declare on me, and legionaries/knights begin showing up in droves near my outer territory. I was getting close to losing some cities.. just couldn't produce units fast enough. With very little persuasion, the Chinese allied aganst the Romans with me and helped beat them off my turf, which was nice of them considering all their cities I'd absorbed already.

Currently I have infantry coming out and Mao is annoyed, his riders/cavs keep dancing around the border. I am holding a dozen workers of his hostage that I rounded up with some of my extra immortals just in case he does something brazen. The little jerks came streaming across my territory when Mao conquered a jap city next to some incense. So, we'll see where it goes, how far ahead in techs I can get. Now that I'm all railed I'm not afraid of anyone anymore. The jungle is finally under control... I'm currently researching a tech every 6 turns or so... probably will do better soon since many of the cities I absorbed are near the FP and are improving nicely (large pop growth and universities in 12 turns or less!) I'm already 200 points in the lead on score... chances for pwnage in the near future: 90%

 

[Exwing17]

I just looked at your screenshot. I have to salute you for continuing to play with that start location. Swamps & Jungle...mate i would have restarted that hell hole!

 

[vmxa]

What does tons mean? In some games during AA, 8-10 would tons. In my current set of 10 turns in GR23 I have already killed nearly 600 units and it is not tons.

 

[capnvonbaron]

Tons = enough to cause worry So yeah, in the AA, something around the 10-20 mark. Mao's counter-offensive was even more than tons, though... he must have sent forty or fifty mounted units at the Japs

The game is a runaway now... last check showed that the indians were still researching motorized transport, just got done with flight... Mao is close to that, he still needs flight. I'm researching fission so I can get the UN and keep the comp from getting a lame diplo win. Already have the whole first tier otherwise. Synth fibers will be around in about 10 turns. India is down to five or six pathetic cities on the little subcontinent kinda far from me, thanks to their little not-so-surprising surprise attack, I had to pull out a can of whoop-ass on them and destroy their culture and power center. They won't be competitive anymore. Just china and japan now, and japan is currently at war with us both so they won't be much of an issue for long, either. At least, not after my 50 or so tanks get to them.

I did have to do a restart one turn tho, admittedly. I was digging up old units to disband for shields and accidentally hit the little "end turn" button, so the turn ended while a couple of cities on my border were left poorly guarded. Japan busted a move and ran in with cavalry, took several cities and razed another. I could only shake my head and watch it unfold... if it hadn't been an accident, I would've accepted fate, but I wasn't about to let them get away with what amounted to a cheap ambush because of an ergonomical issue with my laptop touchpad...

 

[capnvonbaron]

Well, I'm going to have to agree that regent just gets to be too easy in the later parts. I never did any taking-over with japan, I merely let them send units at me to be destroyed and I made two leaders out of the deal. Rushed the UN with one, let the other one chill in case I needed him for a spaceship part. EDIT: also took over Rome's core at this time. They kept sending worker/settler pairs and declared war on me when I told him to get out. So, I got war happiness and aquired all his turf plus Sun Tzu's, leaving him with some stupid cities on the distant subcontinent with America and India.

Made peace with everyone, got tired of waging war (too much work moving units, workers, razing/resettling, and it was getting late at night...) I sold rocketry to the japs and chinese for everything they were worth, got close to 3000 gold and 100 gpt as well as amphib assault and adv flight. Had some difficulty with the Aztecs, I wrote another thread here about that ordeal. Set the science slider and got nuke pwr and laser each in 4 turns while all my top-producing cities made all the other spaceship parts, and one started on an intelligence agency. Finished all the other parts by the time Laser was done, and switched intel agency to space lounge, which was done one turn later. Acheived space-race victory in 1842AD, 10 turns after finishing apollo, no other civ even had space flight yet. Constructed every wonder after (and including) Bachs cathedral, and aquired many ancient ones thru conquering. Think maybe I should move up a level of difficulty?? I dunno, I think I kinda like having run of the world... I blame my Napoleonic complex

 

[vmxa]

well it just depends on what you enjoy. I had a friend that never stopped playing Monarch as he like the same domination that you mentioned. He was a very good, player that never challenged himself.

I prefer to get into as big of a hole as I can and still get out of it. Hence I like to play lots of Sid games and AW games. They put you under pressure and you have to dig out of trouble.