The Immortal guide (Balance - Combined MOD)

[ezysquire]

Unhappiness is really starting to hurt. So I must take this option.

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To beat this expected partisan, I beat down on Beshbalik and Karakorum evenly, so that I could conquer both in the same turn. With Beshbalik gone first, the partisan appears in Karakorum. then I take Karakorum and it's bye bye longsword.

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It falls, but boy does it make my people unhappy! Go figure. I thought the Russians would be happy that their rivalis conquered.

I quickly move to open up some happiness trading with the west that is in the east.

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Apparently there is a price for becoming awesome on this map.

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More trade for needed.

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And for so I'm selling everything to pay for my conquests.

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The Mongols are more or less obsolete now, so it's just about claiming territory.

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The war rolls on, very quickly now mind you, with attacks on multiple cities simultaneously possible.

He can't be serious.

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Yah! a free bee from my friend in the south.

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This just demonstrates the awesomeness of Moscow.

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Partisans, but this is the last of it.

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All important.

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The last Mongol city is irrelevant. I'm going to ignore it since I have secured my territory now. Time for peace and to fix up my economy. IN this period I will also consider whether to continue war or go for a peaceful victory.

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I held on to my great scientist for ages, but now with the researching of compass, I can use it to bulb any tech available.

I go for banking to get the Forbidden Palace.

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The joy of it all.

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To the social policy window and to spend the free policy I earned by entering the renaissance. Thanks for the bonus Balance - Combined.

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Oh dear, poor Ram Kam. Is this forcing my hand at war?

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So scary!

Tune in again to see me do the Ram Kamargaraina

 

[Tomice]

I tried out your opening strat with great success on emperor level. Thx again!

My biggest mistake was that I sually tried to build settlers and workers like mad while there was still enough space to expand, often having less mil. units than cities. When I had luck, I had 3-5 cities on awesome spots and finally pumped units in all of them to catch up militarily. With less luck, I was often conquered by turn 100.

Now I know how much easier it is to just crush the opponent most likely to take my preferred spots I have to admit, though, that I'm a roleplayer and hate to attack without provocation, but that's just me

I also learned about the awesomeness of chariots, especially as Mongolia, where I can upgrade them to Keshiks later.

And I settled my second city in a great place I wouldn't have seen before. lots of hills and sheep, nothing else. But with Thal's B-C mod and the new smokehouse, this spot really shined as military production powerhouse.

One thing I did differently was to wait for iron working to attack. Alex had 3 cities by then, but I had no problem steamrolling him with one loss. As you said, patience is the key. I'm not sure if I'd have managed to have iron working earlier than Alex on immortal difficulty, though. On the other hand, even if he had it, I'm not sure if the AI would have saved money to upgrade 4 warriors in one turn like I did.

 

[Txurce]

My biggest mistake was that I sually tried to build settlers and workers like mad while there was still enough space to expand, often having less mil. units than cities. When I had luck, I had 3-5 cities on awesome spots and finally pumped units in all of them to catch up militarily. With less luck, I was often conquered by turn 100.

Building both settlers and workers like mad is a roll of the dice, as you noticed. One of the two ought to be downsized in your queue in favor of units, unless you are purposely playing as a small civ.

 

[ezysquire]

I tried out your opening strat with great success on emperor level. Thx again!

Thanks for saying thanks - this makes posting the thread all worth it!

And you are right, on immortal Alex would not have had the gold to upgrade to swordsman immediately so your game probably would have worked then also!

 

[ezysquire]

So it appears good old Ram Kam has a bit more of an army than the singulus swordsman I first saw.

As I move to boogie with Ram Kam, I make the decision to focus on maintaining a happy empire while I fight to keep science bonuses boosted.

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I'm not really interested in a defensive line here. I am too strong militarily to mess around with defence. Push and conquer!

For some reason I don't lead the military stats, but I am doing awesome in most of the others.

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Good old Monty!

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Moving to get Cossacks as soon as posisble seems like a sensible thing to do.

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This will definitely help. These happiness boosts really make a big difference.

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He looks a bit strong for chariots to fight. With my open borders with Monty I can move my whole army closer... I just need a couple of turns to get there!

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Honestly? Who throws their shoe?

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It's time to fill out my homeland. Really i should build three cities to fill this area, but in the interests of happiness maintenance I choose two spots that best cover the terrain area and provide access to the best resources.

Dominate.

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BUT, I am weary of how Ram Kam measured first for soldier rating, so I opt to ally with Warsaw. This enables it to become my buffer state that will produce decoy units for my army.

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Works out well...

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REALLY WELL

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Land filled.

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Heavy fighting.

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Scored a friend - nothing like lady love.

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Epic

Pwned. Flanking the city is a good defensive line.

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Concessions are great, but no thanks Ram Kam.

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Push!

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Thank you.

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Time to take the cities down.

 

[ezysquire]

In Balance - Combined the yields from the great person built buildings are buffed a bit with certain technologies; as seen here:

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Next,

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My army is totally kickin' it at the mo.

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Another friend!

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That's a nice bonus since I hardly ever build this wonder.

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Now he bets the farm, but his empire is too much for me to take and to take all his cities will cripple my happiness.

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I team up with Bucharest to access dyes and to boost my ailing happiness.

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I offer a peace deal that Ram Kam will accept and one that does not crippple my happiness. I really don't need all his cities at this stage and I prefer to keep him as a buffer civ to the powerful ENglish and Americans behind him.
Really, geographically, I need to go after Monty.

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http://i351.photobucket.com/albums/q464/esquire1982/russians/240a.jpg

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Seems peace is not what the rival civs wanted to see.

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Monty is just plain in the way.

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Is this gang up on Catherine turn?

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These ought to help in 990AD.

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Let's do it!

Massive happiness boost.

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I got some serious military power on the way now...

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Not everyone is as impressed as me though...

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More enemies, this time it's dem damned sandal wearers.

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Forward March!

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A territorial breakthrough.

This fight is a bit ominous, although I have ruined the city's defence.

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GP HAPPY!

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It's cosssack time.

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I think hurry production on a wonder is probably a better use for this engineer than building a manufacotry. I suspect this game will be over before a manufactory earns more prodcution than a rushed wonder.

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Sweet.

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And the war grinds on.

So this game seems pretty much unlosable from here. Catherine's military might is awesome by comparison and so either a domination or science victory will be a walk in the park.
As such, I think I will end posting about it here. I have explained a good number of the Balance - Combined adjustments and shown how to create a winning a position on immortal level of difficulty.
Good luck to you all and happy Civving!

 

[Tomice]

Thx! I'll surely come back to this thread for inspiration from time to time. Sadly, since a new patch is on the way, the strategies explained here will be of short value. Not that I would prefer not having a patch! I'm curious how Thal will react to the changes that go in a different direction than his fixes.

BTW, I expect the patch to be out before the next DLC comes, to make people more likely to invest into the game. And I expect the DLC to be here before christmas (better sales).

 

[Txurce]

Sadly, since a new patch is on the way, the strategies explained here will be of short value.

BTW, I expect the patch to be out before the next DLC comes, to make people more likely to invest into the game. And I expect the DLC to be here before christmas (better sales).

Agreed on the patch and DLC estimates. But I think these strategies will work very well post-patch. A lot of what the developers seem to be doing mirrors the Balance mods.

 

[ezysquire]

Agreed on the patch and DLC estimates. But I think these strategies will work very well post-patch. A lot of what the developers seem to be doing mirrors the Balance mods.

Yes. Yes. And yes. It does seem that Firaxis is just copying the Modders. Creativity is king in this business and seems the devs have less of it than the best modders.
They should really pay Thal for what he has done for this game.

The one big omission from the patch though is improvement to resource yields. The yield from different resources definitely needs to be varied - or in the least offer some building benefits to the resources (eg smokehouse). Tile use has always been a key part of Civ and resource diversity sprouts decision making oppportunity!

But on the 'smokehouse' issue. I actually like to have the granary building named as such. Bring back the yellow beehive ones from the original game!

 

[Txurce]

The one big omission from the patch though is improvement to resource yields. The yield from different resources definitely needs to be varied - or in the least offer some building benefits to the resources (eg smokehouse). Tile use has always been a key part of Civ and resource diversity sprouts decision making opportunity!

Yeah, it does look like that one is falling through the cracks. That's one mod that will likely be surviving!

 

[harry_flashman]

Good article. Starting a Egypt game with the mods.
When the patch comes out I imagine it will ruin my game.
Completely agree about the tile yields. And the only thing I don't like in the mod is the renaming of the granary. How can you bring back the aqueduct but not have a granary. It's like having an ironclad which is actually useful.

 

[bobbyboy29]

Ezysquire, great game! very amusing write up. If you're wondering why all the civs DOW'ed you I think I know why, this happened to me in my most recent game.

You said you were happy to sign pacts of secrecy against Ram Kam because you were at war with him. However, when you accepted the peace deal you no doubt received gold and resources as part of the deal. The AI views this as "trading with the enemy" so naturally they become very annoyed that you have violated the pact of secrecy (even though, of course, that deal very much undermined siam's strenghth). Then all it takes is one AI to decide to DOW you and the rest will be happily bribed along.

Now i know, as a general rule of thumb, unless you plan on wiping them out completely, NEVER accept a PoS against a civ with which you are at war because the peace deal you get violates the pact. Thankfully, in the new patch you will be able to see exactly what constitutes a violation of a pact of secrecy.

 

[Buccaneer]

Pros:
better thinking time.
better game immersion.
better use of military units.
improved opportunity to achieve domination on larger maps.
new technologies carry greater value as their impact lasts longer (not just military techs)
improves value of a production focused city, instead of just gold.
Gives human player a slight handicap over ai.

Cons:
It takes much longer to complete.
Mistakes hurt more as it is harder to recover.
Combat is less challenging with less of a rush needed to achieve military goals.
Gives human player a slight handicap over ai.

To me, all of the pros are good, as well as most of the cons (I always play long Civ games). Combat being less challenging is a con but hopefully the patch will improve that. Thanks for the good list, even if you are playing a mod.

 

[Buccaneer]

The crux of the MOD's balancing is in nerfing some of the OP units and in providing some improvements to the economic and cultural game in an attempt to allow players an empire-building focus as opposed to a predominantly militaristic one.

Somewhat ironic given the predominant military game so far.

 

[Txurce]

Now i know, as a general rule of thumb, unless you plan on wiping them out completely, NEVER accept a PoS against a civ with which you are at war because the peace deal you get violates the pact.

I always wondered about that.

I wonder how that ties in to the AI asking me to sign a PoS against someone they're about to make peace with? They do it a lot with me.

 

[ezysquire]

Somewhat ironic given the predominant military game so far.

Ha! indeed. Although I don't usually start out with a victory condition in mind. i just play the map and do whatever seems the best thing to do at the time. This usually leads to winning one way or another.

And of course, it is not the point of the MOD to diminish the military victory, it is intended to adjust the economy so people can be like: "Hm, maybe i should buy a granary now instead of my ninth warrior."

 

[Tomice]

What I still wonder about:

Which buildings do you build in which oreder, if there's no urgent problem to solve?

I tend to build monuments first, as they are cheap and the SPs and tiles are very useful. Then I often build a colloseum, followed by the specialization buildings (barracks, library, market,...). Libraries are a high priority in every city, though.

I tend to delay food buildings when I'm not yet finished with horizontal growth, to have more happiness for new cities.

Would you guys agree?

 

[Butterball]

seasons Greetings & Happy New Year to all!