Strategies as Bismarck

C

ColossusCrusher

Chieftain
Joined
Mar 10, 2007
Messages
20
Self-explanatory really...
I like to play as Bismarck (I can't resist those late game Panzers) on Chieftan or Warlord difficulty with Standard size and Temperate Pangea as my world setting.
My strategy is simple enough:
-stay friendly with as many people as possible early on
-use that time to build up a large production base (Hamburg always becomes my super miltary production base)
-let some sap declare war on me
--crush said sap with superior production, call peace after I take one or two cities
---repeat as desired

More importantly, stay ahead in the tech race, even if I'm going red to stay at 80%+, and sell techs (but never maps) for big sums. That's where the buddies come into play - I ask them for all their gold. Sometimes it works. :)
Last thing: Bismarck being Industrious, get as many wonders as possible, as fast as possible.
One other last thing: try to take cities over culturally.

So, basically, I usually win by space race or time.

Comments?
Other strategies?

Thanks.
 
Not sure about this strategy.

I like the idea of a wonder city using the bonus on wonder production.

Not sure why 80% science is important. Count the beakers per turn not the science rate. 8 cities at 40% will probably produce same as 4 cities with 80% science rate. You should be able to out tech the AI on warlords with a few good commerce cities.

Theres also the representation route using specialists if you build the pyramids. Each specialist then provides 6 science! Is this quicker than cottages. Hmmmm dont go there. ;)

What confuses me is you want to capture cities using culture, build a space ship and conquer the planet using panzers. How about going for just one of these.

For me I would be wiping out the nearest two AI near me asap to grab the good land that they may be sitting on.

For a panzer game:

I would literally only tech the technologies needed for the panzers. There are some techs like codes of law, pottery etc that you will need to ensure you have the basics to expand your empire.

I would happily take out a couple of nearby civs early on to make sure your empire will be comparable to your neighbours when the time is right.

I would build the wonder city as this will be a prouction powerhouse.

My strategy at this point would be to ensure that come the time you get panzers you have not destroyed the other AI civs. How can you have the fun of using the UU if you have already won the game? This will also mean stopping an Ai win by the AP.

Beyond this you may want to invite Ai stack to come at you so you can claim a few great general. 4-5 of these added in a key city will make killer panzers later on. Plus it will help control AI numbers later on.

I certainly think you could have a lot of fun with this.
 
Doesn't Germany start with Hunting and Mining? I would probably do an archer rush with them on a nearby unsuspecting neighbor. I think Bismark is even Expansive, so you can pump out a worker and use your mining tech to mine a hill which would aid in the production of those archers... Send 4 to 6 archers in the rush. Try this out and you might like the extra land it gives you to expand into.

Welcome to the forum :beer:
 
Thanks for the welcome.
Well, the thing is, I like to have as many contingencies prepared for - if they attack me, I roll over them, if they don't, I flip their cities. And a space victory if things last that far.
I dunno, I'm just a tech junkie. For me, the more techs I have the better, especially since I can pawn off lesser techs to bribe other civs to fight in wars.

In my current game, I've only declared one aggressive war. The rest were defensive with my victory (Of course, that may answer why Alexander owns Justinian, Shaka and Monty as vassals, with me separating them from William and Suleiman, who are both free, but small. Funny thing is I still have the lead for a Domination victory :D). I'm just a nice guy, I can't help it if I unleash an unstoppable war machine when provoked. Besides, I have Rifling, most of them either don't have or just reached Gunpowder. I'm thinking I should build up a large force of Riflemen and just smashing that massive block before it gets too strong. I think that if I can knock Shaka down to one or two cities, and punch my way through the Greek Aztec cities to take out one-city Monty, that should be enough for a first war. The second to knock out Shaka and make inroads to Alex, the third to eliminate him as a credible threat (Justinian is too far away, I would have to go through Alex, and he's on a small island). But I'm rambling :).
 
If you are a tech junkie and like Bismarck, you really should run the Wonder Economy. Check the forums for it, it should be easy to find since it's a hot topic right now. Since you are playing on Chieftain and Warlord settings, you should be able to get every Wonder without much of a fight. And abuse the advantages of the Wonders to get a huge tech lead and then steamroll the opponents easily.

With Chieftain and Warlord, I wouldn't even build military units. Your opponents will barely do anything to you.
 
Bismarck is a production monster. Discounts on Granaries and Forges let him use Slavery to great effect.

I find a Specialist Economy that relies on whipping infrastructure for specialist slots instead of Caste System is the best use for his abilities... of course, supported by a nice collection of wonders.
 
Actually started a German game today. (phil and organ.)

I have built about 12 cities. My science rate is close to 80% around 900ad. I have 3 great people sitting in my cities. I am building MM wonder and if I beat the Ai to this I will try to set off 3-4 Golden ages in a row. I am popping a Great person each 12 turns at present. I could perhaps of saved 4other GP early on but I wanted to grab Christianity, philosophy and do a culture bomb. I also wanted the Conf holy building. Wasteful really :(

I have 3 cities producing close to 50GPP per turn and one should soon reach 90+ once the national wonder is built. Once i am in the GA I will tech like crazy for Liberalism then for Panzers. i have just started to develop education ahead of everyone else although I dont have feudalism.

All in all I have held back a bit with only one early war stealing a fantastic GP farm with 5 farm resources.

I am also using Hamburg as a wonder city and I managed to beat the AI to the great library chopping many forests to do so.

Cant complain but i could of been much more targetted but so many possible objectives to go for.


My advice is set a task and keep to it.
 
Eh, in my game I just had a quick Blitzkrieg against the Alex bloc (Shaka/Monty/Justin as vassals). I nabbed three Zulu cities, two Greek Aztec cities and one Greek Zulu city. I was gonna knock out Monty but I decided to play it safe due to a Stack of Doom that Alex had (even though I had Infantry, Marines and Panzers, and his SoD had Cavalry, Riflemen and even Horse Archers o.O). I plan to take him a few more pegs in the next war.

I do set a task and keep to it: WIN! :D

I used to like Freddy more than Bismarck, but then they took away his Creative trait, so I decided to go the 'realistic' German route - production base.
 
Dont forget to post the game!!! We like to see work in progress. (well I do anyway)

To bee honest i started the German game to test out the GA strategy i saw from another thread.

May do a game with the French next to try out a production game. Although the Germans do have the factory. If I play the Germans again it breaks my rule. I have never played the same civ twice in a row. :)
 
Up to 1400ad on my game and i have riflemen. No one else has replacement parts yet. Although i have taken a barrage of attacks from 4-5 civs. Had 5 great generals so far. I am not even on imperialist leader.

My empire is struggling to grow in size past 12-13 cities. All the AI surrounding me have huge empires of 12-13 cities.

MY GA strategy went well. I managed 4 in a row. This was helped by rushing the Taj mahal with a great engineer.

I messed up slightly as i have 3 Great Merchants left. Still I was in a golden age for 60 turns. I might add the merchants to a GP farm or rush Economics. I am falling slightly behind on some techs.
 
How do I post games?
For pics I know to use print screen and save it onto Paint, and then upload to Photobucket.
Does F11 take pictures, as it does in another game I have?
I assume GA is Great Artist?
 
GA = Golden Age. For golden ages it takes several great people. so 1st take 1, 2nd takes 2 etc. So for the fourth Golden age you will have used 10 great people. My downfall was I didnt expand my empire fast enough and most of my 60 turn golden age was spent producing troops to fight off a barrage of attacks from outdated AI units. The English had 40+ units. Zulu 20-30 and my attack on Jaol II was soaked up by strong defences and mass of units.

I need to work on a new battle system by where i have settlers to lay cities near where i have razed AI cities. The AI is far too efficient at laying new cities where old ones laid.

Anyway.

Save your game as you normally do during game play. When you are writing your posts there is a small paperclip above the typing area. (next to font and sizes) Click on that and browse for your saved game on your hard drive.

Once you have attached the file and posted it on the forum with your comment your done.
 
Problem with the germans if I play an attacking game from the start the game is finished before the Panzers arrive. The UB factory arrives too late too for me.

You seem to have arrived at the winning post and to be at war with 2-3 AIs. Not too sure about your 1-2 units defending many of your cities. Yet they do say attack is the best form of defence. I think this game will end as a domination win.

Loving Berlin with 2 gold resources and a nice food resource. Commerce rich.

I dont understand why you left bronzeworking so late to develop. I am like a machine when it comes to chopping down forest for the production bonus. I do need to use slavery and whipping more to improve my game.

If a forest gives you 30 production as standard. If your building a wonder this turns into 45 when you chop down the forest with the German traits. Add stone and marble into the equation and you are looking at some fast production early on for wonders. I think your great people count in Berlins was slightly poor at 42 a turn but production cities are not always GP farms.

Still I would move up a level for more of a challenge.
 
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