The Height of Level 9 - Songhai, Asia map, mod Marathon, mod difficulty

[maltz]

Spoiler :

063. Happiness chart on InfoAddicts. Suleiman took a huge hit on Happiness after taking the Egyptian cities, while the other AIs laughed happily.

 

[maltz]

Spoiler :

064. Finally Rommel is here - there is a camp so close to Arabia - and I already busted it once when I first got here. These barbarians are so effective at respawning at the same place over and over. And under the 30HP mod, there is a 90%+ chance that the camp will spawn a helper before it gets destroyed.

 

[maltz]

Spoiler :

065. Now I can buy a Catapult at home - the very first siege weapon. But how to I get it to the rest of the army, which is 40+ turns away?

 

[maltz]

Spoiler :

066. The Mesopotamia isn't a great place for money earning (very few rivers). And now Persian bases are so far apart that trade routes will be way too expensive to maintain. I think this map suits 12 Civs better than 8 Civs.

Also I was surprised that the "free" invisible roads under each city isn't free - each of it takes 1 gold/turn to maintain, too!

 

[maltz]

Spoiler :

067. Egypt is down - who's next?

Now Persia surrounds India, becoming Gandhi's only possible enemy. So it is reasonable to take on Gandhi next. Gandhi usually has very little army, so it shouldn't be much more difficult for Persia's small army of 5.

There seems to be a shortcut from Turkey (Egypt) to Greece (India) by going through some shallow water of the Aegean Sea, if the barbarian fleet does not notice...

 

[Chieron]

God, that AI incopetence is disgusting. But it seems, that the biggest problem there still is not the production, but just that the AI doesnt choose to build workers/settlers/military/other needed stuff when it is clearly the best thing to do, regardless of difficulty. There is simply no strategy to it, the Civ4 AI did a better job of maintaing a semblance of strategy in my book. If they succed in Civ5, its by sheer luck and bonuses, and it is visible.

 

[Save_Ferris]

Wait, so did you puppet or annex the cities from Egypt and Arabia?

 

[Merri]

I've seen this same case of AI performance in my own game that I'm currently playing. AI is very very poor with a map that has a lot of space for barbarians. In my game Washington had zero tile improvements for some 500 turns (!!!), only had their capital and it's size was 5. The city was on a river tile with two nearby resources. Their best unit was Warrior and they had about five of them. I simply sit beside them not conquering them just to see how things will go. He was eventually conquered by Alexander. Other peacemakers are having a hard time as well. Warmongerers are doing great. Actually, it is Persia that is almost a half-continent pile of cities. And we are talking a huge map here!

I'm taking a Culture victory.


Edit!
Btw, isn't the 30hp setting going to make Japan's bushido a superior ability?

 

[shaglio]

Wait, so did you puppet or annex the cities from Egypt and Arabia?

He puppeted them. You can see it in the screenshot from 066 (post #184).

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Based on some of that it might be a good idea to keep some of the worker rate+barb defense boosts (to protect the peaceful AIs)

Also, the AIs need to have a better "pricing mechanism" for happiness+strategic resources. If they have 'enough' happy, then they shouldn't pay much for it, even if they like you. (although they should be willing to do luxury for luxury at most levels of happiness.)

 

[sebajokela]

This is a great story.I would not be able to play that hard game though.

 

[DragonHead]

This is a great story.I would not be able to play that hard game though.

Me neither, I'm actually pretty bad, but I enjoy seeing how long it takes until I burn, or annihlating enemies on teh first 2-3 difficulties.

 

[DragonHead]

Cheers for Maltz's story!(Yeah!)

 

[Save_Ferris]

After this story, Maltz, you should do a game where you play as Germany, delete your first settler, and take over a city with captured barbs.

 

[swmaniac]

After this story, Maltz, you should do a game where you play as Germany, delete your first settler, and take over a city with captured barbs.

Shouldn't deleting your first settler count as losing your original capital?

Come to think of it, I don't know what effect that would have. They didn't put what happens in the manual, possibly thinking "No one would be stupid enough..."

 

[Save_Ferris]

Shouldn't deleting your first settler count as losing your original capital?

Come to think of it, I don't know what effect that would have. They didn't put what happens in the manual, possibly thinking "No one would be stupid enough..."

I tried it for fun back in the IV days, and I automatically lost. However, you could just not settle.

 

[Arilian]

You can loose your first settler to the barbs and it is not a loss. (i actually did it once, recaptured it and won the game ) So probably you can also delete it.

Please continue the story i miss it

 

[filli_noctus]

That would make a good story. Turning complete kills on should prevent instant loss on deleting the settler.

 

[Sparthage]

lurker's comment:

 

[Save_Ferris]

I would try it, but that's basically a death wish for someone who's never played above prince (moi).