The Community Deity Game #4 - Spain

[beetle]

I am less optimistic about this map than any of the other recent one -- and they were plenty frustrating for me!

Just had an AI build the SS Engine on T264! Another AI has five parts too.

 

[Sclb]

For the achievement Raze all non capitals, I think the idea there is to raze the city then plant another one in that place to prevent AI from resettling it. Otherwise it'll just be an endless cycle of razing. Except the achievement for finishing ideology tree demands a huge amount of culture so settling too many cities isn't good. Yeah this is possibly the hardest one out of the first 4.

 

[stormtrooper412]

Well I'm thinking the plan is the systematic annihilation of everyone. A bit of an overkill perhaps

 

[beetle]

With the way two of the AI are teching in my game, I think this is actually the toughest game yet. I am going to pass on it for a while as I can’t think of any path to any VC! For a harder map (like the Iroquois DCL), I would usually be happy to pull out a Diplo VC. I don’t think I can do even that with this map. The Iroquois had one AI setting the timer on a quickish CV. An AI working towards to an earlish SV is okay with me two. But two AI on opposite sides of a large map on track for sub T300 SV? I can’t really compete with that!

Well I'm thinking the plan is the systematic annihilation of everyone.

That was my plan. Which could work if SV was disabled. I think Autocracy very much favors annexing over raise-and-resettle -- so I had planned to ignore that achievement.

But I think you really have to get rolling with CBs -- which even on the Shoshone DCL map I struggled with. And I think that map was a much stronger start than this one.

If anyone makes an early rush work, please post screen shots every 15-20 turns or so. I would really like to try emulating that.

Spoiler rant about initial screen shot :

No coastal TR for you...

 

[Blatc]

From the initial screen shot, can anyone see any reason not to SIP?

You're playing as Spain!
I'm moving settler and warrior hoping ideally to get 2 NW first (1 with each) and settle a NW. Will have to go back to Ethiopia CDG later.

 

[beetle]

You're playing as Spain! I'm moving settler and warrior hoping ideally to get 2 NW first (1 with each) and settle a NW.

Yeah. Good luck with that!

There are 2 nearby NWs, i know because i messed my start... so i restarted knowing where the NW were. I moved straight towards the closest ignoring ruins and found it T3, but too late. Then i tried again with the other one (the one inside CS borders) and found it T6 i think, too late.

Sorry if people think the above should be spoiled — but no civs are named.

 

[SooHongLoo]

I played this game out but started the wars around turn 170 which was late. If I was to do this again I would start much earlier. After razing 10+ cities I got tired of moving 3 ground Armies and about 20 bombers in the Air Force not to mention a small Navy. I can easily get all the points on the board but it is very tedious. Fun map though and if you like to burn down the whole world this is your game. I suggest the earlier the better as usual.

Spoiler :

I don't think an early rush would be very hard with map knowledge. I know some of you players like to mess about after knowing where things are so if you head west to Uluru with your settler and south east with your warrior you should be able to get 20fpt and first religion to get Holy Warriors and 600 gold for the 2 NWs plus all the CS gold and lots of workers to buy your archers and upgrade them with ease and have fun killing. I decided to play a 4 city Tradition Turtle game till Artillery and Bombers but got tired of all the killing after 3 hrs or so.

 

[Sclb]

I played this game out but started the wars around turn 170 which was late. If I was to do this again I would start much earlier.

The achievement favors raze and resettle so that requires starting war very early to have time to grow cities. If you don't resettle, the AI either fills up the void or you leave cities not connected.

 

[SooHongLoo]

The achievement favors raze and resettle so that requires starting war very early to have time to grow cities. If you don't resettle, the AI either fills up the void or you leave cities not connected.

I am sure that your way is the best way to play it. I decided to play puppet and raze after I had control. It was working just fine but alot of clicking and I just got tired of the grind. It wasn't hard beating cannons and rifles with Rocket Artillery and Bombers I just lost interest.

You just had to raze 30+ cities but didn't say you had to raze after capture. My plan was to puppet the whole world and burn it down all at once but I was the one who got burnt out

 

[Sclb]

My strategy is good for RP, like how the Spanish burned down Tenochtitlan and have a conquistador plant Mexico City on top of it.

 

[beetle]

I am playing again from initial save, abusing map knowledge.

You're playing as Spain! I'm moving settler and warrior hoping ideally to get 2 NW first (1 with each) and settle a NW.

I should not have been quite so pessimistic.

T9 and I have settled coastal with a faith mountain in the third ring. (I did not get the bonus gold for 1st to discover.) I have OWN and have DOW'd the neighbor, spearman (from upgrade) on scout. T20 Found. I will be trying Liberty this time.

 

[Lord Yanaek]

T9 and I have settled coastal with a faith mountain in the third ring. (I did not get the bonus gold for 1st to discover.) I have OWN and have DOW'd the neighbor, spearman (from upgrade) on scout. T20 Found. I will be trying Liberty this time.

That's where i put my 2nd city. You don't need to settle it with cap, in fact i don't think that spot is so great for capital. That's really not my biggest issue with this map.

Spoiler :

• Size of the map makes a 3-4-city Honor opening difficult (or a 4city Tradition, i tried both) because then AI will see a lot of space and many will ICS.
• Number of different Luxuries (5) is not enough for wide play. It allows 6 cities following Acken's guide, and i think 6 cities liberty < 4 cities tradition (liberty needs 7-8 cities)
• Shape of the map and position of AIs isn't good for early warfare. Only close neighbor will be spamming Mohawk long before you have CBs and you don't have much room to out-manoeuver him. In addition he seems happy to stay at war and not attack you, instead expanding towards "2-city Pacal" so you can't even level your troops for Honor XB rampagne. But if you try to take his cities because you see no troops, whatever you moved inside his borders will be crushed by dozens of Mohawk who don't even try to follow you in your lands. He's #1 military but doesn't try to attack you (even though he did DoW you), he just asks for all your cities periodically. I couldn't even bait him with workers. I would be fine with such a "war" if i wasn't trying to get xp for my troops, but it hurts an HCA game a lot.
• By the time you have artilleries he has so many troops that you can barely advance as he just keeps replacing those you kill. OTOH, if you try to take other lands first, you'll soon get swarmed by tons of low tech units (he still had knights ) that will pillage everything and put your cities in starvation.

I think i could turtle my way to an SV on this map, but domination really seems difficult. Maybe i didn't built enough troops early, but since i couldn't really fight him (only be in some sort of "cold war" state) those would be nothing but a drain on my economy (especially since i didn't have a lot of spare luxuries to sell, only some pearls).

 

[SooHongLoo]

(I did not get the bonus gold for 1st to discover.)

Spoiler :

I think you should try again. I went back to test this out and every time I headed straight for the CS to the South East with Solomons Mines I got the 500 gold. Uluru is always found first by Hiawatha but 600 gold is pretty strong no matter where you want to settle.

 

[mc_norris]

Spoiler :

I think you should try again. I went back to test this out and every time I headed straight for the CS to the South East with Solomons Mines I got the 500 gold. Uluru is always found first by Hiawatha but 600 gold is pretty strong no matter where you want to settle.

Spoiler :

If I head straight for KSM I don't get it, but with a slight delay, I was the first on T10. On another attempt, I got it first on T38. Bit of a crap shoot.

 

[Sclb]

Spoiler :

I think you should try again. I went back to test this out and every time I headed straight for the CS to the South East with Solomons Mines I got the 500 gold. Uluru is always found first by Hiawatha but 600 gold is pretty strong no matter where you want to settle.

Spoiler :

I played around with this by reloading several times. Hiawatha always get Uluru first and plants a city close to it. Some of them got 500 from KSM, some only got 100, and it's always within culture border of a CS. 3 other NW are in coastal shallow water including GBR can potentially give 2k gold if you get optics and beeline them. The remaining NW is impossible to get first due to the distance to it and proximity to another AI.

Also after playing the start, the map is pretty empty and while rushing a neighbor with CB is possible, it also leaves a lot of room and difficult to have the happiness to justify filling the gaps with self found cities.

 

[beetle]

That's where i put my 2nd city.

Never got close if I waited for 2nd city. I am pretty happy with it for my cap. 2nd city went to spot in OP, then one in between.

I was feeling really good, but the map is so big and the AI spam units and cities like crazy. Feels like a chore.

I think this map script might be well suited for MP, but it is just too much land for SP. I guess that makes things a little harder — but it feels more tedious than challenging.

I am loving the choice of civs, lots of RP potential!

Also, starting location has a fatal flaw.

Spoiler revealing map defect :

donut / island sea

 

[Lord Yanaek]

Never got close if I waited for 2nd city. I am pretty happy with it for my cap. 2nd city went to spot in OP, then one in between.

Scout &#8594; Scout &#8594; 2 &#8594; Settler &#8594; done (buy tiles to work it immediately)

I think this map script might be well suited for MP, but it is just too much land for SP. I guess that makes things a little harder — but it feels more tedious than challenging.

I think it would work nicely with +1 AI civ and +2 CS (halfway between normal and large). I used to play on low sea level maps with those settings before i started playing mostly pre-generated maps and it worked nicely.

Also, starting location has a fatal flaw.

Spoiler revealing map defect :

donut / island sea

It's a flaw but not even close to fatal.

Spoiler :

It's a Pangaea map so you don't need a big navy and "Uluru city" can build some boats for you anyway.

Of course you have to settle some cities 3tiles apart but i'm playing HCA so my cities will be smaller than Tradition cities. The inner sea has benefits too. Much less wandering AI and CS units (or barbarians) to pillage your fishing boats or plunder your trade routes

 

[Wild_Woojsha]

When's CDG number 5 coming out? I'm trying number 3 again before I try this one, I didn't lose it but I was not set up to win it either. This one looks like it will take me several tries as well, not one person has posted a win on it yet? It looks like it earns its hard rating...

 

[stormtrooper412]

Well, since I'm not much of a holiday man I plan to post it on the 2nd. After that I have no more maps

 

[Wild_Woojsha]

Well, since I'm not much of a holiday man I plan to post it on the 2nd. After that I have no more maps

Something must be done about that. I've wanted to learn how to make maps for a long time, so I'm going to give it a try and see what I can create. Do you know of any good map-making tutorials or forum posts I can read so I don't submit an unplayable mess? I am still a n00b Deity player but I think I have enough basic understanding to create a challenging and balanced map. I'll PM you the save once I build it, and hopefully have some wins to post too...