SirPleb, Going for Sid

[Aeson]

It's obviously different, which in and of itself doesn't mean that's a problem. As superslug mentioned, there are a lot of other factors that are different between the mapsizes. The optimal approach to a Tiny map is going to be vastly different than on a Huge map even if the civ:tile ratio is the same.

 

[Megalou]

Those 432 hours were spent like a croc lying in wait for pray. You never cease to give me new understanding of what strategy really is!

 

[davidcrazy]

really amazing!!!

SirPleb, can you tell us how many days did this game last? (24 hours a day for about 18 days or ..?) and how did you manage to find that much time... and your wife's attitude?
(i guess a lot of persons have asked these kind of questions to the elite players like you... but i cannot find the answers in the forum. )

 

[SirPleb]

SirPleb, can you tell us how many days did this game last? (24 hours a day for about 18 days or ..?) and how did you manage to find that much time... and your wife's attitude?

I didn't note the start date but my computer did on the save files - they tell me that this game lasted 58 days. So the game was running about 7.5 hours/day on average and I was playing it for something less than that.

I'm fortunate to have stretches where my workload is light. (Though this is sometimes offset by stretches where I work flat out.)

My wife and I are very close and Civ isn't a problem in that. I am a lucky man

 

[Sandman2003]

An amazing effort. I just like to add my thanks to the chorus from others, for sharing your thoughts, startegy and post game analysis.

 

[dalwand]

I think the thing I have remembered the most after reading all posts in this subject, is the starting position - next time that I am agricultural and have lots 'o foodresources I'll start 4 settler factories too.. actually doing that now.. The only problem is getting enough production in these cities (especially enough productive other 2-food tiles).

Right now I have a game in which I have the luxury of mij first 4 cities being four-turn settler factories - I can't keep up with the other cities in making warriors for protection !!

 

[sandmandh]

I'd like to echo my namesake above

Well *phew* it's taken me long enough to read this thread, can't imagine how long it must have taken SirPleb to play and then do these writeups and analysis. I salute you for the "sharing" but I suppose you like the positive feedback as well from such a monstrous effort - more than your boss would appreciate your work... lol.

Well hopefully I am ready for taking on games above emperor after reading a whole lot of academy articles and now this thread. Long live the internet, there was never this much insight into the game before. Only thing left I guess is to contact the programmers and ask them the actual formulae they use

Salute!

 

[Rubruk]

Congratulation! Its fine to see that even the hardest level can be beaten. Thank you for saving Bach. You wrote that you played 7,5 hpours a day. (Can one really say play? ) I have may be 10 hours a week, but its enough on Monarch Level.

 

[user37852]

Just thought I'd post to say I'm reading through the thread right now and I am utterly amazed. It has been a wonderful insight into a level I will never, ever get to

Really wonderful stuff, SirPleb!

 

[boogaboo]

I've finally finished reading this thread the last 2 days..

It was a fun experience, and I saw more than a few great things, the eyerollers being -

- The Great Library trick : I still don't exactly get what exactly is the bug (why didn't you wait a long time and then just give the city and conquer it at the same turn, for instance?) .. link to the exploit?

- The Funnel of Doom : This is something I never thought of and admire your strategic abilities!
Putting many of the cannons/artillery on tunnel army tiles would even enable the tunnel to be shorter (require less armies) yet powerful, won't it?
I haven't done a decent game on a standard map in years
I only wrote my "controlling the AI movement" after your game.. and you already responded...

- Conquest of the Zulu... no words

I have to say :

- The AI units : I can see a correlation of about 80 units per city on a grown, undisturbed Sid AI. This may depend on level of tech, but shouldn't change too much.

- I would exploit Communism to the bone. The controlling of AI movement is an exploit. I pay gpt for Iron Working and immediately attack an AI I would have attacked anyway. That's my relatively latest exploit.(yes, shame it's new) .
This game is complex. Playing vs any AI is an exploit... so use it!
I did like the 1 million goal though

- 6+ HP units probably are treated differently (period).
Anyone got experience with elite Indian elephants not being attacked?


I surely missed a few notes... but it's almost 3AM, and I didn't get to play today
I'm also currently on Sid conquest efforts on a small map before moving to standard milking, and this thread was a must I delayed for far too long.

Have fun all!

 

[SirPleb]

Thanks thatinkjar and boogaboo!

The Great Library trick : I still don't exactly get what exactly is the bug (why didn't you wait a long time and then just give the city and conquer it at the same turn, for instance?)

You can only benefit from the Great Library until you have learned Education. After you have learned Education, building or capturing the Great Library will not gain anything.
BUT, if you learn Education from the Great Library you will also in the same turn learn all other techs known to at least two Civs at that time. Even if those techs are later than Education.
So the trick here was to give the Great Library away before learning Education, then to not learn Education for a long time while the other Civs learned things far beyond it, then to retake the Great Library and learn Education plus all those other techs in that one turn.

Putting many of the cannons/artillery on tunnel army tiles would even enable the tunnel to be shorter (require less armies) yet powerful, won't it?

I think you are right. Any incoming unit which gets damaged by bombardment on the way will probably stop to heal. So the bombardment would be doubly effective along the funnel, damaging the units and also slowing them down.

I only wrote my "controlling the AI movement" after your game.. and you already responded...

You are too modest! The puppet strings I found in this game are not nearly as advanced as yours!

 

[Gyathaar]

I have noticed that when making a beachhead city, you can just surround it by armies, and the AI wont attack it..

Something I have been wanting to try, but that I havent tried yet.. is to set up la short funnel of doom.. then when the enemy with railroads sends the entire army inside it in one turn, close both ends... my guess is that the units will just sit around inside the trap and wait to be bombarded down and killed off for leader farming.. alternatively you could just leave them locked up there and then go and kill off all their mostly undefended cities.

Has anyone tested if units that is trapped this way (surrounded by armies) will attempt to break free?

 

[boogaboo]

SirPleb, thanks for the GL explaination...
I was sure you wouldn't get education anyway from the great library, since this is the science that makes it obsolete... now I can see the hole in the sky.. (naa, it's raining madly out here! ).

On my own "puppet strings"...
I've played a lot with many kinds of AIs, and learned to know their moves and priorities quite well.
Of course I abuse this fact to my advantage.
On tactics, however, I can't compare myself to you.
I'm now fighting Sid AIs, and still want to do it with 3-4 cities..

 

[Poly-Akryll]

I have noticed that when making a beachhead city, you can just surround it by armies, and the AI wont attack it..

Something I have been wanting to try, but that I havent tried yet.. is to set up la short funnel of doom.. then when the enemy with railroads sends the entire army inside it in one turn, close both ends... my guess is that the units will just sit around inside the trap and wait to be bombarded down and killed off for leader farming.. alternatively you could just leave them locked up there and then go and kill off all their mostly undefended cities.

Has anyone tested if units that is trapped this way (surrounded by armies) will attempt to break free?

yeah you can trap units that way.
it works very well with beachhead cities in mountains. build a city on a tile with a mountain nearby. then surround it with armies so the ai has to move onto the mountain and stay there. then raze the city, surround the mountain and bombard the units (if you are advanced enough an a-bomb is very useful)

 

[boogaboo]

Hey! Poly-Akryll and Gyathaar - this is the perfect "poof" battle technique!

It means that you can start with "deception", moving the AI back and forth until all the AI's attacking forces (fast and slow) are in 1 place, then surround with a few armies.... then go get the whole AI continent undisturbed with the rest of the forces! (this is not far from what SirPleb has done with the "poof" near the end of his conquests)

 

[GorfTheWanderer]

It took me a few hours but I've read your entire thread all the way from the beginning and I wanted to say thankyou! It was quite entertaining and enlightening. We all appreciate the insight you provided for us all!

 

[Bredero]

Absolutely amazed by your game-playing skills as well as by your wonderful analysis..

This answer may lie elsewhere but do you find C3C more satisfying than Civ 3?

After playing my Civ 3 Complete for only a week I'm ready to go back to 1.29.

 

[A_Turkish_Guy]

great game

 

[SirPleb]

This answer may lie elsewhere but do you find C3C more satisfying than Civ 3?

After playing my Civ 3 Complete for only a week I'm ready to go back to 1.29.

My apologies for taking so long to reply to this Bredero!

Of the three versions of the game (Civ3, PTW, and C3C) I think PTW is the most satisfying to play.

PTW isn't dramatically different from Civ3 but does have additional tuning (removed glitches and improved AI over Civ3.)

C3C is a bigger change and has some new features I really like. E.g. the new traits and armies becoming useful. But against that C3C is very imbalanced in some areas (e.g. armies and agricultural are too powerful), was re-tuned badly in others (e.g. Forbidden Palace and Communism), un-tuned in many new features (e.g. the new governments are largely useless), and has significant bugs (e.g. scientific golden ages don't do anything, scenarios don't have tech rate embedded in them.) The net result of all the defects in C3C vs. the fairly finished and balanced feel of the final PTW version is that I find PTW more replayable. It really is too bad.

 

[Blanchflower]

My apologies for taking so long to reply to this Bredero!

Of the three versions of the game (Civ3, PTW, and C3C) I think PTW is the most satisfying to play.

PTW isn't dramatically different from Civ3 but does have additional tuning (removed glitches and improved AI over Civ3.)

C3C is a bigger change and has some new features I really like. E.g. the new traits and armies becoming useful. But against that C3C is very imbalanced in some areas (e.g. armies and agricultural are too powerful), was re-tuned badly in others (e.g. Forbidden Palace and Communism), un-tuned in many new features (e.g. the new governments are largely useless), and has significant bugs (e.g. scientific golden ages don't do anything, scenarios don't have tech rate embedded in them.) The net result of all the defects in C3C vs. the fairly finished and balanced feel of the final PTW version is that I find PTW more replayable. It really is too bad.

But is this problem sorted out in the patch version of C3C?? I would like to know the answer because I have Civ 3 Complete and the scientific golden age seems to be working for me!