Strategies on a Highlands map?

[OscarWildebeest]

Just out of interest, I thought I'd start a game on a Highlands map. It's Noble, normal speed and size, nothing fancy.

Any general tips? I've noticed that movement is an issue; with all those hills, your units can usually only move one space at a time. Also there are hardly any resources, although I've been lucky enough to get iron right by my capital.

 

[KMadCandy]

i don't like that map. at all. i'm currently doing an HoF gauntlet that's on large highlands, 14 civs, med start, prince, quick speed, aiming for time victory altho all are enabled. i doubt i'll be able to win a game, but i have a few weeks to try and so far it's more fun than frustrating.

one general thing i do (i consider it research, some might consider it cheating) is for all the maps that are preset types (highlands, plains, oasis and such) i fake a game without LMA and open up WB to check out the map. helps me check which particular settings i want (i'm not a random type). i don't ever play those games, it's just a test to get a feel for how to set it up so help preserve what little sanity i have. your game is already started so that's not much use, and not a tip for playing the game itself anyway. obviously choppers seem that they'll be absolutely key for movement for my game, dunno if yours will go that long.

i've been doing seas, to try to slow the AIs down with limited land area. so much of the land is crap anyway. lots of forests for chopping in most areas, but at least 2 civs start out in tundraville (i've had starts where every square in my initial BFC would be tundra, water, or snow), not a ton of happiness resources on the whole thing. med start, i can see iron/copper/horses and have calendar to know if i'm too far in the corner for my taste, that helps, given the endgoal for the game.

and on large map seas with lots of civs, looks like just about each time, someone gets a start like this:

if it's me, i regen!

have fun! i try most maps once but the ones i don't like, i don't play again (except as needed for gauntlets, i'm addicted to them).

i'll be following this thread myself in the hopes of picking up pointers for my own game

 

[curtadams]

SE works well on Highland because irrigable land is at a premium. You also need to make a point of building roads to AI players to get foreign trade routes - unlike normal maps, they don't pop up with Seafaring.

I like the Highland map - so much I made a wraparound Arctic to Antarctic version since the boundaries irked my aesthetic sense (and reduces balance, since some players get advantageous corner positions.) Highworld, basically.

 

[jeremiahrounds]

resources are everywhere! though they are usually in ones and twos. I like the highlands map however one big thing about it is all starting squares are ~far~ from equal. A bad northern position is ~bad~. For HoF regen until your comfortable. For everything else the randomness is part of the charm?

 

[OscarWildebeest]

I figure I have to run SE, because there's nowhere to put cottages.

 

[InvisibleStalke]

Highlands is fun. Protective leaders can really shine as the barbarians come from everywhere and if you don't have copper, getting protective archers up quick really helps. Korea plays really well with financial and protective. Brennus is also a good leader due to the UU/UB (neither are great, but they get to shine more on a highlands map). Organized also does really well - you will tend to have more cities but individually they will be smaller.

Food is generally in shorter supply - a specialist economy may suffer as you might not get enough good food sites to run lots of specialists. You need to plan the food sources of each city more carefully than in a normal game - food is the most important resource.

Religion and alliances will be key - you are likely to be surrounded by several potential enemies and you don't want to fight on all fronts at the same time.

I found that I would consider terrain improvements and city roles differently too. I had more production cities than normal - with production cities building research or wealth when I wasn't raising an army. Windmills were much more worthwhile to build too.

 

[InvisibleStalke]

I figure I have to run SE, because there's nowhere to put cottages.

I find the reverse - there is rarely enough food for specialists. But I have to build cottages on grassland hills at times, as well as putting up windmills if the city won't have enough food for a cottage on a hill.

But generally what I will have is lots of production cities that can build wealth or research. Any city with reasonable grassland I will cottage. Cities with mainly hills and a food special or river /grassland get farms, mines and windmills.

 

[OscarWildebeest]

I've already found myself building more windmills than usual. And you're right - not enough farmland for an SE. Building cottages on hills is a bit scary, but the extra mines are really helping my production.

Doesn't look like a promising map for a Conquest or Domination win, because it takes so long to get to your opponents. But we'll see.

 

[sooooo]

Research early archery. Highlands is larger than normal map, so lots of space for barbs to approach. And also you can't have coast block off one of your flanks. I don't like to gamble on copper in highlands, much prefer archery before BW.

Financial is a good trait. Obviously for the cottages, but not much food and lots of hills mean windmills, and financial river windmills are 3 commerce even before electricity.

 

[darrelljs]

Research early archery. Highlands is larger than normal map, so lots of space for barbs to approach. And also you can't have coast block off one of your flanks. I don't like to gamble on copper in highlands, much prefer archery before BW.

I'll second that...for some reason on Highlands maps I tend to have trouble with barb supression.

Darrell

 

[Galileo44]

The barbs come out because the ocean is gone. They are spawning everywhere where civs aren't, not just 1/2 or 1/3 of the map.

 

[InvisibleStalke]

Also you have no natural barriers from coast - instead of a couple of fog busters, you would need 360 degree fog busting which is much harder. The great wall is well worth getting on this map.

Later on once you expand you may have borders with 4-5 other civs - which can make conquest a lot harder. And since the cities don't bring as much revenue, domination is harder to sustain. Space is probably the easiest win on this map. Culture for a hard challenge.

I agree with the early archery - if you start with mining you have time to try bronze and then go straight to archery if you can't find copper. If you start with agriculture or hunting I would try animal husbandry for horses and then go straight to archery otherwise. You want to get defenses up within the first three techs.

 

[sooooo]

Another thing is serfdom is actually useful. Nearly all cities have decent production, so slavery is rarely needed. But you have few resources. So serfdom is excellent for getting quick cottages and mines up. You want to research feudalism rather than trade for it.

 

[cabert]

I never played highland maps, but I played the chinese unification scenario. If there are as many hills in highlands than in the scenario, the best promotions clearly are guerilla.
Maybe the celts could be usefull for once ?

 

[InvisibleStalke]

I never played highland maps, but I played the chinese unification scenario. If there are as many hills in highlands than in the scenario, the best promotions clearly are guerilla.
Maybe the celts could be usefull for once ?

Its probably the best map for their UU/UB. Unfortunately its a big map and there is a lot of distance between you and the AIs. So by the time you are ready to take on an AI, they will probably have longbows - and guerilla 3 gallic warriors aren't very effective against longbows behind walls on hill cities.

Maybe you could build a strategy around using the GW's for fast pillagers to knock AI contenders back into the stone age while you tech up to maces and trebs.

 

[OscarWildebeest]

I'm certainly finding barb suppression is an issue much more than normal, but they're more of a nuisance than anything else. What's more of a problem is that map size and difficult terrain makes it much harder to move quickly into AI territory and take them on. I'm into the 1500s and I haven't wiped anyone out, although I've crippled two other civs.

Maybe I should try and knock all my competitors down several pegs and then win on Space Race?

 

[jeremiahrounds]

barbs are easy to deal with when you get going. after doing a raging barbs on a highlands i will never again fear normal barbs. The trick is that barbs rarely stack units so they are vulnerable to a combined arms offense (ie keep counter units around instead of stacks of the same unit)
chariots pwn axemen
horse archers pwn bowmen
axemen pwn swordsmen
spearmen pwn horse archers
that sort of thing.. once you get rolling with it youll have these really highly trained units that almost never die.

Spearmen ended up being the most important on raging barbarians on highlands becuase they had to go out and defend. A barbarian horsemen can move and pillage wear as everything else you can wait for them to get in road range and hit em at your convenience.

trick is you need bronze and horses and a bit of time to really get a solid barbarian defense going.

 

[CliftonBazaar]

90% of AI cities are on hills so they get 25% defense bonus. So turn up with extra military units wwhen warring as you will need them.

 

[Hero]

Great Wall.

 

[OscarWildebeest]

I'm playing Vanilla, so Great Wall doesn't come into it, I'm afraid.

Anyway, I'm limping my way towards a Time Victory. In retrospect, I should have quit the warmongering after wiping out Isabella, upped the research and hunkered down for a Space Race victory. Might still manage it but it's already 1938.