Secrets to an easy Always War Sid victory

[handy900]

Offa I do not want to do so much thread jack. Sorry Handy.

But I never win on pangea, but I have not tried many. I can do contients about 1 in 4, so far.

Islands are much higher, all you need is a fair start and not too large of an island. The key is to remember you can grind them down if you stay tough. I fear a xeno neighbor and a really large island ( too many civs will settle).

I am sure many can do better. I do play other levels when I get a game from one of the forums or a friend.

No problem, I'm glad someone is reading this.

Have you won an AWS on continents? That is truly a hard game and im my limited experience requires a really good map and the right civ to go with it.

The only way I see AWS Pangaea as even possible is if you manage to get a map like THIS with a one tile choke between you and the AI.

 

[bed_head7]

Maybe a lurker knows the SID free support #.

24 per civ, and then 8 additional free units per city.

 

[handy900]

24 per civ, and then 8 additional free units per city.

Hey - don't you have a test to study for or something.

Thx for the info.

 

[bed_head7]

Eh, I had serious allergy problems last night/this morning, so I took the day off school and actually got some studying done.

 

[handy900]

Eh, I had serious allergy problems last night/this morning, so I took the day off school and actually got some studying done.

Well that is not anything to joke about and I truly hope you feel better. I use nasonex and it works like a charm for me. Heavy pine pollen around here.

 

[bed_head7]

Every nasal thing I've ever tried gave me nosebleeds, so for the most part I just try to ride it out. The thing about school isn't a joke, though. I have found that I actually learn more at home sick than I would at school, since I feel like I have to get something done while at home, and when motivated I can be relatively productive.

 

[vmxa]

handy900 yes I would want some very special breaks to do pangea, not surrounded, in a place that could be cut off early. It would be some grind.

I have not tried to win AWS on a contients, but it pretty much seems to be nearly the same thing. I have to go to war pretty soon and clear the land and by then I am at war with someone and I do not give peace after I take down the first civ.

I have not read your main thread, but I bookmarked for later, maybe I can start tomorow. I hate stop reading them, once I start. But I just finish my current game, so probably as good as a time as any. I hope it is not more than 35 pages, but I have a hunch it will be.

 

[handy900]

handy900 yes I would want some very special breaks to do pangea, not surrounded, in a place that could be cut off early. It would be some grind.

I have not tried to win AWS on a contients, but it pretty much seems to be nearly the same thing. I have to go to war pretty soon and clear the land and by then I am at war with someone and I do not give peace after I take down the first civ.

I have not read your main thread, but I bookmarked for later, maybe I can start tomorow. I hate stop reading them, once I start. But I just finish my current game, so probably as good as a time as any. I hope it is not more than 35 pages, but I have a hunch it will be.

Well, I hope you like it. AWS continents is just hard. You need a lot of things to go right. Good lands, good civ (Sumeria offers 10 shield spears), early army, RNG luck, access to iron, and on and on and on.

I think for continents AWDG to AWE is a good blend of challenge with a chance to win but also the chance you can go home a loser.

Maybe we can hook up in an SG sometime.

 

[vmxa]

I got the first page in today. I was wondering why you mite not let in a galley load now and then. Let them land to try to get some elites and maybe a leader. If they send too much, sink them, but a boat here and there may lead to something good. You control where they can land.

 

[handy900]

I got the first page in today. I was wondering why you mite not let in a galley load now and then land to try to get some elites and maybe a leader. If they send too much, sink them, but a boat here and there may lead to somethign good. You control where they can land.

That is a very good idea which just did not occur to me. I think there is alot of room for refinement of the Byzantine AWS island strategy. I'm definitly not the best player around here. Farming for elites on an island somewhere is a good idea. You could create a "funnel of death" for the AI boats to sail. I like this idea so much I'll add it to the "article" and give you the credit.

 

[vmxa]

Thanks. The landing of other civs in a piece meal fashion, is one of my cornerstones at Sid. I want to see them in small numbers at a steady pace to get promo and leaders.

I do not want to see them in large numbers and I do not want to see them before I have the island under control. That is why a large island is a problem for me. Too many landings and I can not get the land under control fast enough.

Now yo have those nice Dromons to take off a hit point or two for you troops to smack 1HP units.

I will hope for Horses to do the job in most cases as I need the speed. I will not have the ships to funnel them as you have.

Now I will normally land on the first civs with at least one army already and as you know it make life hard on the AI.

 

[vmxa]

BTW I meant to ask you why you picked Sed Barbs? If you wanted to slow down the tech race, go with no barbs.

You are not going to get many good items from huts, so why let the AI pop a few techs?

You will still be seeing barbs very very soon, so you will have the chance to farm them, if that is a goal. I have had them show up on turn 7, even with no barbs on a Sid pangea map. In fact it was my down fall. They kill my units and brough the AI right to me.

Anyway some funny lines. I admire people that can tell any story woven around the game.

 

[handy900]

BTW I meant to ask you why you picked Sed Barbs? If you wanted to slow down the tech race, go with no barbs.

You are not going to get many good items from huts, so why let the AI pop a few techs?

You will still be seeing barbs very very soon, so you will have the chance to farm them, if that is a goal. I have had them show up on turn 7, even with no barbs on a Sid pangea map. In fact it was my down fall. They kill my units and brough the AI right to me.

Anyway some funny lines. I admire people that can tell any story woven around the game.

I agree. It is better to select either none or wandering. After I started the game I wished they were roaming for the cash potential. I could have farmed them all game long on the remote islands. But, basically I was too scared to select roaming, and should have selected none so the AI got no techs.

 

[Karl_t_great]

Excellent article,
at first I wouldn't believe You could achieve conquest on sid with Bysantines. So I had to give it a try:
- first couple of tries on tiny map failed (the AI was too close)
- then switching to small map paid off, there was room enough for me to build my navy before the AI started coming (i had delibarately picked non -seafaring opponents). When I ruled the seas, I started building military and took the opponent one-by one.

My modest test at demigod paid off conquest a 1500 ad (300 turns) with decent score of 4600. Still I wouldn't call it easy, getting my hands sore with 50X300 naval bombard clicks.

Strategy/tactics comments:
- tech pace was amazingly slow, i was able to cut the contact between the 2 groups of AI, so they could not make contact and trade.

- I also pillaged their shores massively, and as soon as I was able to stack some dromon (30+) I started wiping their cities back to pop 1.

- I was able to steal some of their workers, when they left them unguarded in coastal positions. It seemed that the Ai then builds a setteler or military unit instead and remain without a worker for a very long time (ruining their economy).

- On my first attacks I used "hit and run tactics" entering the most remote part of their island first, wiping a minor town there, and when they were chasing me, I entered the opposite corner to wipe a major city. This way I could do with very few defenders by re-embarking before the major forces returned. The final wipe required an army, but You odds for MGL are better when attacking.

- Instead of archers/LBs I used MI as my main attack force, upgrading my MP warriors for starters (I got Feodalism when entering middle ages -- and I was still a few turns from invertion when the game was over).

- I stayed in depotism for the entire game mainly for the better unit support, had only few productive core cities, in all others I was whipping dromons.

- For my beachhead city I used dromons to hurry walls & barracs.

Now I am wondering was I only lucky, or is the small map particulary well suited for this strategy (i'd call it "the dromon rush"). A small archipelago map with 80% of water leaves major part of AI terratory open for naval bombardment. Also the separation may be well suited for dromons.

I think I will give this strategy an another try now that I better understand the dromon power. Peeking the HOF -revealed only 1 Small map SID entry (and only 1 Bysantines entry as well).

Post any ideas for HOF attempt game setup.....

 

[Gyathaar]

Using byzantines on archepelagio maps is an easy way to get 20k victories at higher levels...
You dont have to play always war, but with dromons you control the tech speed, and make the AIs build mostly units instead of wonders, so you can easilly get most of the wonders.

 

[Offa]

I am sorry if this post seems to be threadstealing, but as I have now completed a game played very much following this strategy I will descibe it here.

I won with a 1545ad domination win. It was reasonable easy although I did have quite a struggle keeping the AI to their islands at times, despite building the Lighthouse and having LOTS of dromons. I turned off battle animations during my turns, and sometimes forgot to turn them on for the AI. In addition I pressed shift for the AI turns so it was hard to spot escaping AI ships.

I had only 4 AI (min required by HOF), and one of these nearly got wiped out at the start ( left with 2 cities) so this minimized the benefit of the Great Library. In the end I didn't even get engineering from the Library. After that I self researched to gunpowder only to find the deficit research and increasing unit support (in monarchy) left me with only enough cash to upgrade 18 musket. My only saltpeter was on a distant island so upgrading was tough, and I couldn't build muskets at home. I would have been better off attacking earlier with pikemen.

As a result of the above mistakes I couldn't maintain positive gpt and so went into deficit for a long while during the early war phase. This only eventually resolved when I learned navigation and banking, and founded lots more towns.

As I had naval control I settled almost all initially empty islands and got to 37% land without any wars. I hoped initially to attack the relatively weak Egyptians who had an island with 12.5% of the land, but they had packed their island so tight I couldn't land (at least not on a hill). I therefore took on the Americans who were pretty strong (26% of land). As suggested I landed a big force on a hill, founded a town and rushed walls and a barracks. The American heartland was at the other end of their island, and I had bombarded their improvements pretty well so it took them a while to attack in force. The defence went to plan and soon I counterattacked and then rolled over them. I had built the SOZ (ivory was one of my 2 lux) and the Knights Templar (failed prebuild for Leos wasting loads of shields) so ancient cav and crusaders formed my main attack force. Lots of trebucets too. The American towns were relatively sparsely defended (~4 musket/spear each). I basically razed everything apart from wonder cities and then filled up the island. Some culture rushed and pinched a couple of 2 tile islands from the babs and Egyptians put me over 66% land. I joined all my workers in and then shortly pushed up to 66% pop. I still hadn't learned chemistry, but the AI were industrial age by then.

I landed 2 musket armies on babylon, egypt, and Japan during this game and they all got attacked straight away. The japs only had archers but still attacked with these. The potential for pillaging was minimal anyway as there was no room to move. The relative absense of empty squares in Egypt and Babylon reduced the value of dromon shore bombardment as well, and eventualy I gave up with this.

I allowed myself gpt deals for masonry and pottery at the start, but now I see always war enthusiasts frown on such tactics. Well, I didn't know that at the time. Frankly always war isn't really to my taste anyway, as it removes one of the best bits of the game (diplomacy).

 

[Own]

I have found that I actually learn more at home sick than I would at school

How? How could you resist playing Civ3?

 

[handy900]

I won with a 1545ad domination win. It was reasonable easy...

Congratulations.

 

[zerksees]

Handy - do you think this will work on a huge map? The main problem I see is the ability to control a much larger sea to keep the AI's isolated.

 

[handy900]

Handy - do you think this will work on a huge map? The main problem I see is the ability to control a much larger sea to keep the AI's isolated.

I think it will - it actually may be a little easier on a big map with lots of water than a small map.The big map might keep the AI away from each other longer.