Ecofarm
Deity
I remember a post some time ago about the use of caste system. Lately, I have been using it in a particular manner. I research construction and while building a handful of catapults (although I usually go for barracks first despite city raider -10% is almost nothing against strength 3 archers) I research code of laws. When I can relax the catapult production in my capital (which almost always has a couple of food resources), I switch to cast system, level my population growth on mines for reserves (cats/eles/axes), and hire 2-4 artists (this causes massive culture for this city as well as recipient of the GA) . If my timing is right, I will create a great work of art the turn after I take a capital. If you have already been producing GPP in the farm_city (library, etc), then you also stand a chance of getting your originally intended GP way early and waiting a few turns for the artist. It is sometimes amazing what 4-5 cats, 1 axe, 1 spear, an elephant and a great artist can do:
I burnt 2 of Monte's cities because they were in terrible places and GA'd the cap.
I was tired of playing the same leaders/gambits in multiplayer and long emporer games and decided to improve my skills overall by working on less utilized traits/leaders. For this I use the following settings:
Custom game "FFA Pangea"
Random leader
No regenerating, no saving, no loading (I won a game with an accidental warrior-scout DoW recently)
Tiny map, Pangea, high sea level, random climate but it always is "randomly" temperate (I only want a 2-4 hour game; quick gamespeed movement cost)
Quick speed (I almost always go for domination/conquest victory, this is the common speed for MP, I find games take less playtime on this setting)
+3 AI (complicates diplomacy, prevents early rushs from ending the game, provides for possible AI vs. AI war, creates MP-like starting space of 3 cities)
No Technology Trading (although I have become much more proficient at trading in SP, NTT is a standard setting in MP and has an interesting impact on the game: eras last a long time, even on quick speed; troops are not quickly obsolete)
No Barbarians (standard MP setting - starts are unbalanced enough without an additional factor)
No Goody Huts (standard MP setting - starts are unbalanced enough without an additional factor)
Agressive AI (no hiding from a fight if you ignore military)
Random Personalities (I'm tired of playing a particular way in prediction of a an enemy's course of action - If I do things because the code tells me to, I have already lost and am turning into an AI).
Prince/Monarch difficulity (Prince because it causes the AI to progress at the rate of a relativly efficient human opponant and is only 1 happy/health lower than noble - the standard MP setting -thus making those strats when played at noble easier.
Half the time I know I've won an hour into the game, a quarter of the time it takes another hour to be sure, and 1/4 of the time I lose because I failed to utilize the leader well (or had one of those supposedly "bad starts"). Anyway it ends, I learn to be a better player by improving my overall ability to use traits/starting tech and gauging my progress/efficiency against MP-like competition in regard to tech advancement/production). To make it more realistic, perhaps raginging barbs (no wall allowed) and 1 less AI (to represent that warrior/archer rushing bastard)...
Why don't I just always play MP? Learning a leader is not much fun against perfected scripts and worse when your team suffers.
My favorite leader is Hannibal. I think he is the only leader that you really cannot predict what you will do until you see the environment, he's great in a team because of financial, gets +2 happy with monuments, and cats that withdraw promote to hit again.
I burnt 2 of Monte's cities because they were in terrible places and GA'd the cap.
I was tired of playing the same leaders/gambits in multiplayer and long emporer games and decided to improve my skills overall by working on less utilized traits/leaders. For this I use the following settings:
Custom game "FFA Pangea"
Random leader
No regenerating, no saving, no loading (I won a game with an accidental warrior-scout DoW recently)
Tiny map, Pangea, high sea level, random climate but it always is "randomly" temperate (I only want a 2-4 hour game; quick gamespeed movement cost)
Quick speed (I almost always go for domination/conquest victory, this is the common speed for MP, I find games take less playtime on this setting)
+3 AI (complicates diplomacy, prevents early rushs from ending the game, provides for possible AI vs. AI war, creates MP-like starting space of 3 cities)
No Technology Trading (although I have become much more proficient at trading in SP, NTT is a standard setting in MP and has an interesting impact on the game: eras last a long time, even on quick speed; troops are not quickly obsolete)
No Barbarians (standard MP setting - starts are unbalanced enough without an additional factor)
No Goody Huts (standard MP setting - starts are unbalanced enough without an additional factor)
Agressive AI (no hiding from a fight if you ignore military)
Random Personalities (I'm tired of playing a particular way in prediction of a an enemy's course of action - If I do things because the code tells me to, I have already lost and am turning into an AI).
Prince/Monarch difficulity (Prince because it causes the AI to progress at the rate of a relativly efficient human opponant and is only 1 happy/health lower than noble - the standard MP setting -thus making those strats when played at noble easier.
Half the time I know I've won an hour into the game, a quarter of the time it takes another hour to be sure, and 1/4 of the time I lose because I failed to utilize the leader well (or had one of those supposedly "bad starts"). Anyway it ends, I learn to be a better player by improving my overall ability to use traits/starting tech and gauging my progress/efficiency against MP-like competition in regard to tech advancement/production). To make it more realistic, perhaps raginging barbs (no wall allowed) and 1 less AI (to represent that warrior/archer rushing bastard)...
Why don't I just always play MP? Learning a leader is not much fun against perfected scripts and worse when your team suffers.
My favorite leader is Hannibal. I think he is the only leader that you really cannot predict what you will do until you see the environment, he's great in a team because of financial, gets +2 happy with monuments, and cats that withdraw promote to hit again.
