Too much science ;)

zxcvbob

Emperor
Joined
May 18, 2015
Messages
1,713
Location
SE Minnesota
I watched a Let's Play about a month ago where Peddro had a pitiful start at Deity level and then conquered the world with tanks (never researched Plastics and maybe not Scientific Theory.) It inspired me to try a new strat of beelining Ballistics and taking over the world with artillery and AA-guns and March-promoted machineguns. No strategic resources required, and it's a pretty fast tech path; you can ignore most of the top row because you don't need oil. (you never even have to research Astronomy unless you need to cross an ocean.)

I tried it this weekend when I should have been doing my taxes. :crazyeye: Emperor, small pangaea map, sparse resources, medieval start, raging barbs. I stacked the deck a little by playing China.

I only built a few wonders: Petra, Notre Dame, Brandenburg, and eventually Big Ben and Prora.

It worked, but I screwed up a little with my social policies: first I filled Honor (right side first) and then I opened Patronage while waiting for Rationalism to unlock. Eventually I took 3 in Rationalism, about 3 or 4 in Autocracy, and filled Commerce. Patronage might have been good, but I should have skipped Rationalism and filled Commerce sooner. Gold was kind of tight until I got a few deep into Commerce, and taking Rationalism delayed Protectionism. I also probably should have built the hermitage sooner to get a few more policies, but I just didn't get around to it (nor a artist guild or a music guild)

I never built any public schools (I rush bought one in my capital but it was a waste of money.) I took out one neighbor (who had Great Wall) with ChuKoNu, pikes, a general, and a trebuchet. Next was Japan using cannons, muskets, and logistics-and-march Gatling guns (I had Brandenburg by now) I lost about half of my Gatlings taking Kyoto because it had Red Fort, plus that annoying bushido thing where Oda's 1-hp units could return fire with full strength. Good thing I had build about a dozen ChuKoNu while I could. Then I had machineguns, artillery, and AA-guns in time to kill everybody else. The AA-guns were nice because the AI's had flight and there was a little oil on this map. I shot down a lot of GW bombers. I captured Moscow last, using MG's, tanks, SAM's and rocket arty. Having oil and aluminum available kind of messed up the purity of my test because I couldn't resist building tanks, RA's, a couple of bombers with Bombardment II and Repair (not GW but the real thing,) and battleships.

I maintained a small tech lead the whole game even with only one school and no research labs, and one of the AI's (Russia) had built Porcelain Tower and was going Order. Once I reached Ballistics I didn't really need any more techs, but they kept coming every 3 or 4 turns (old techs like Astronomy get really cheap) and by the end I had Satellites (but still didn't have Plastics and I think I was researching Radio when I captured the last city.)

All this might go out the window at immortal or deity level. But tonight I really gotta start on my taxes. ;) I may have a strat now that I can use to win at deity.
 
Hmm, small pangaea map.. isn't that just manipulating the map size into your favor?
 
Not for your VC, but don't worry, fun game, thanks for sharing!

Small maps favor tall builds and crowd the human more so they are probably a bit more difficult for science if you can't manage to build the normal 4 cities. Other victory conditions are easier on small though. Culture and domination are both far easier to win with less opponents and against smaller empires.

For a domination victory on Deity playing small is a bit easier because less cities/opponents to conquer and no risk of a runaway expansionst AI that settles more then 10 cities and has enormous armies. The AI is far worse then humans at teching fast with smaller empires. Plus with smaller AI empires they run into the unit cap quicker so can't really create the massive carpet armies they do on larger map sizes on Deity.
 
The pangaea maps I've been rolling lately have all been really weird, with lots of choke points and inland seas and large bays. I started doing oval maps instead for a while, but decided I like the unpredictability of pangaea.

I'm going to try this again soon (next week?) and see if I can win at immortal. If that works, deity. :) I liked the medieval start, but I really should start in the ancient or classical era for a better test. I was trying to hurry up the game w/o using quick-speed.
 
Top Bottom