SP1 - Always War, with extra restrictions

It had better work now.

One more thing, the Greeks are about to attack us on thatcity down in the south. The one that is blocking them from getting through. Some units are fortifed outside of the city and you might need to move them in before they attack. They are going to attack with longbowmen who can easily kill out knights. Or at least they have many times in the past.

Also, the Chinese landed a Musketman on our east coast.
 
gunning1: when you upload a zip file, please download it yourself immediately after and look inside it to make sure it works. I always do this whenever I upload a file; saves alot of embarassment if you get it wrong.

LKendter: Building infrastructure while still fighting is the way you win an Always War game. The general strategy I have developed goes something like this:

- Very early on, build military units and settlers in your capital and core to expand and found as many cities as possible before you get bogged down in war.
- Once the warfare starts getting serious, try to build civic improvements (temple,library,marketplace) in your capital, and perhaps another core city, while your other cities concentrate on building military units
- Try to trigger your golden age somewhere towards the end of the ancient era. By this time your capital should have all civic improvements, and should be able to churn out a swordsman or horseman once every two turns. This should be enough to maintain your military size (i.e. you shouldn't be losing more than a unit every 2 turns, if that), meanwhile you get all other cities to start building civic improvements. Your entire core should be "maxed out" on relevant civic improvements by the end of your golden age.
- After your golden age, try to impose a simple rule: cities only produce military units if they have already produced all available and relevant civil improvements. *If* you have a productive civilization, and manage your military units well, you should be able to maintain this rule, and still hold out. If you can do this, then you don't have to worry about expanding too aggressively, since in due course (towards the end of the middle ages) your civilization's economy will simply outpower that of the other civilizations who don't have an economy that's nearly as strong.
- Don't build wonders, leave that to great leaders. This is harder if you're a non-militaristic civ though, as we've found in this game.

In Realms Beyond Epic 6 (see my report at http://www.kalikokottage.com/sirp/germans/) I was surrounded by some pretty aggressive civs - the Zulu to my north-east, and the French and Japanese to my north. Yet I still used this exact sort of strategy.

Managing military units efficiently to reduce losses is particularly important, as it determines the rate at which units have to be replaced. The less units you lose, the less pressure there is on your cities to produce more. If you are aggressive and attack enemy cities, you will inevitably lose units and so have to put more into war production. If you remain defensive you can cut down on losses heavily, particularly with strategic use of artillery, and especially if the enemy doesn't have fast-moving units. In this game, we've been fairly aggressive, which has meant that we haven't been able to develop our infrastructure quite as fast, but it has also meant that we've been able to take one civ out already. The Romans would have been nasty if we had let them survive to getting legionaries (probably the worst unit to have to face in the ancient age in always war).

-Sirp.
 
@Sirp - I ran two sg of always war myself. If possible, I will build infrastructure. I am amazed that you could build that much! LK21 did allow a decent amount of infrastructure to build - however, LK22 was a fight for dear life with even marketplaces being leader rushed as the only way to do it.

This is why I wanted to download the game - I want to see how this position was so strong.

However, a key was mentioned - early death to a neighbor. LK21 has a crippled Rome as the nearest neighbor. LK22 had bowman, immortals and later war elephants. LK21 was much easier.
 
Lee,

The biggest key to this game has been contact with the other Civs. Early on we only had contact with the Romans until they were almost gone. Then we got contact with the Greeks, but had a nice bottle neck with them we could take and maintain while we built. The Chinese built the Lighthouse and so we got contact with them, but not until the Greeks were in check. Now we have one more border peeking over the water at us and the longer we can wait the better. I am really suprised the Egyptians or Greeks haven't sold contact with us to the rest of the Civs! We have also managed to maintain tech parity with the Chinese (noted by virtue of the units they sent our way) and are, by thelooks of it, ahead of the Greeks.
IIRC, in your game that pressed you so hard, you got early contact with at least 3 or 4 Civs and had to deal with the constant trickle of units from all of them. We have only had to deal with one at a time so far. Big difference in luck and placement.
BTW, got it.
 
Yes, I forgot to mention the lack of contacts. I think that playing continents is *much* easier than playing pangea on Always War. Even when you do get contacts across the sea, it's not so bad, because the AI isn't great at sea-bound assaults.

meldor: I believe that the AI will *never* pay for contact with the human player.

What I'd like to try sometime is a super-hard Always War variant in which the game is modded in the editor to make the human have contact with all the other civs from the very first turn of the game. I'm not sure how exactly the AIs would react to having war declared on them so early, but it'd be interesting to see. Also very, very difficult for the human.

-Sirp.
 
Sirp: I had a game where three neighbours did early attacks - not good!!!! On Regent, when I had two Warriors, they started showing up and from then on a constant trickle of Warriors, Spearmen, soon Swordsmen came in. I couldn't protect my worker so he had to stay in the city. 3:1 is not deadly, but it does keep you from expanding. So i guess your idea would make for a very tough game......
 
1090 AD (Pre-turn)
We have made absolutely no progress with the Greeks since the last time I played. We are only building a few military units. We won't last this way for very long. A look at the wonder screen shows that we are way behind in tech. We need to bee-line for Cav and we need to take the Greeks out. I veto half of the Universities and change them to Knights. We need to build the infrastructure in rotation. May goal will be to hurt the Greeks and take their lands. I wake up a knight and kill the Chinese Musket. I wake some more Knights and kill 3 Greek Longbows, there are still two more with a Hopi. Hopefully we can go on the offensive in about 5 turns.

1100 AD (1)
Movement and rest. Kill Hopi and one Longbow, the other one had retreated to Athens. We finish Banking and start on Chemistry. Drop science to 40% as we have a ton of units to upgrade. Chemistry in 11.

1110 AD (2)
Our meager 6 knight attack force is assembled on the Greek border. The Chinese finish Magellan's.

1120 AD (3)
Kill four Longbows lose one knight. Upgrade two Pikes.

1130 AD (4)
Movement and getting ready. 10 Knights assembled.

1140 AD (5)
Troops approach Athens, we attack next turn. Chinese drop off three CAV!! on our west coast. Two Greek Longbows attack our Kinights, one Knight retreats, the other doesn't even get a scratch.

1150 AD (6)
Lose 3 Knights killing to of the Cav and taking the third down to 2HP. Kill all of the Hopi in Athens, it is defended by an archer. Unfortunately we are out of attack units. Five Knights retreated, two Died and three are left with almost full points. The last Chinese Cav attacks one of our knights and dies. Greek Longbow takes one of our good knights but has only one point left. A second Greek Longbow tries to kill one of the retreated 1HP Knights and dies, Knight promotes.

1160 AD (7)
We raze Athens gaining 9 workers and 3 cats. Kill 1HP Longbow. Chinese land two more Cav.

1170 AD (8)
Found Bubastis on the ashes of Athens. Manage to kill off one of the Cav, but can reach the second. Unbelievable, on the Chinses turn, our 4hp Knight gets knocked down to 1 HP with no harm to the Cav, and then wins 4 start and promotes.

1180 AD (9)
Troops advance on Corinth. The Greeks land a single Archer between two Knights moving south. :)

1190 AD (10)
Corinth is taken. The Greek Archer is no more, and we nail two more down south.

1200 AD (11)
Rest and healing. Another Chinese Caravel is rounding the coast, expect more visitors in a couple of turns. There are at least 5 Knights in the area of the last vist.

1210 AD (12)
Kill Greek Longbow. Rest and repair. We get Chemistry and start on Metallurgy. I had upgraded the spear at the Giza (our FP location) and brought in a second musket. The Chinese caravel changed directions. I wonder were our new "weak" spot is.

1220 AD (13)
We capture Argos and another worker.

1230 AD (14)
Rest and Repair. Chinese caravel sials off for parts unknown.

1240 AD (15)
More of the same.

1250 AD (16)
Kill two Longbows, get another Elite.

1255 AD (17)
Healing and busting fog in Greece.

1260 AD (18)
Capture Ephesus and two more workers.

1265 AD (19)
Thermopylae is captured, no worker. Captured Pharsalos.

1270 AD (20)
Herakleia taken. Pharsalos captured.

1275 AD (21)
Thessalonica captured, only one more Greek city is in view.

I took one more turn to even out the years. There is only one Greek and one Chinese city left on our landmass. The next person should be able to take them out without any problems. However, until the defnses are built up in the area, I expect the Chinese will continue to drop off Cav to try and get a foothold. For those who like to see the units:
Workers - 16 (+ 0) These are the ones we pay for, I captured 12 additional freebies.
Spears - 6 (-15) I almost got them all upgraded.
Swordsmen - 1 (+ 0)
Pikemen - 12 (- 4) I got some of them upgraded too.
Musketmen - 36 (+35) Only 19 of these were upgrades, so I built some too (16).
Knights - 34 (+14) My loses weren't too bad.
Catapults - 5 (+ 3) Captured, the best kind.
Galley - 1 (+ 1) Trying to stay away from those caravels.

SP1 1275 AD Saved Game

A picture of the Empire Formerly Known As Greece...
 
Two things I forgot to note:
1) There is only one Hopilite left in the last Greek city and it is hurt. (I almost got them!
2) There is a Chinese caravel off the coast of the last city I captured. It needs to be watched carefully. If the Chinese land more Cav, take the offensive, we can do better attaking them tan we can defending.
 
here it comes:

(1) micromanage all cities - more production/trade. Veto Courthouses around new captial - 2 out of 17 prod lost is NOT worth it right now. Rather, Libraries for research (need to catch up a little).
Taking Mycenae prooves difficult - the defending Hoplite kills our first Knight w/o HP loss. As a very satisfying revenge, oru second attacker does the same to him :D Greece is no more. Getting the place to become productinve will be hard though - especially given the current Palace location. Since we cannot hope fo a leader soon, building former Rome up, then switching the Palace out is not an option. :(
An elite Knight kills the Musketman in Tatung. Anoher and a vet one are brough into position to take the town (1 Spearman) next turn.

(2) Avaris buzilds a cathedral, now Bank. Will send workers to give the city options to grow. Tatung taken. Lux to 0% (entertainers in 4 large cities necessary - all can't grow anyways.

(3) Tough decision - should we go for Military Tradition now, or try to get Nationalism? I opt for Astronomy in 5 at 70%

(4) Edfu starts University. Chinese start Newtons Uni.

(5) Thebes starts Cathedral. Giza starts university. Two Chinese Caravels near Tatung and Alexandria - the first one should be the empy one.

(6) Rome starts University, Alexandria a Knight, Antium Cathedral. Hieraconpolis starts a Musketman. Nottingham buils Bachs, Konigsberg builds Newtons. Tsingtoa gets Sahkespeares.

(7)Chinese land 1 Cavalry near Argos. London builds Smiths. Several towns start Cannons. The Chinese Cav is killed with 0 HP lost.

(8) Physics in 5 @ 70% (-58 Gold).

(9) Chinese Galleon covered by Frigater approaches Argos. Another Frigate near Alexandria is on the way there - no Galleon to be seen.

(10) Frigate and galleon turn back and go towards Thessalonica - shift knights accordingly.

(11) Second Friate has teamed up with Caravel, now near Alexandria.

(12) Chinese aim for Pharsalos now- do not land troops.

(13) magnetism in 6 @ -14. Chinese again didn't land, going sotuh along Greece.....

(14) Chinese now going east at south coast.

(15) two Riders land near Bubastis. Both loose a HP to a bombarding catapult. 1st kill gives promotion.

(16) 1st shore bombardment - no hit. I'll hand of here (time constraints).


Aim is to have a Cannon handy everywhere to get ships off our coast. We should beeline for infantry best we can.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads/sp1-1355ad.zip
 
While there is a lull in the action, we need to get contact with the rest of the Civs and get them on war footing. Hopefully this will slow down the rate of research for them and we can play some catchup. I would advise sending galleys as soon as possible to find them and declare war on them.

Also, since we can not trade maps on first contact, we need to get them out there to give us the intelligence to know who to attck next. Hopefully, the rest of them are stuck on a single mass and are fighting among themselves.

The slow contact at the beginning was a big help, but now it becomes an enemy.

Since we have only seen the c
Chinese come across, and they have the Lighthouse, we can assume that the gap between us is larger than three squares. Send out the suicide galleys. At least we have a clue as to were the shortest crossing point may be.
 
Sorry, I've been busy, and am going away for the weekend. If someone else would like to play, they're welcome, otherwise it'll have to wait until next week.
 
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