Well, last week I posted that I was having trouble with Deity level pangea maps.
So I tried the game on Archipelago (though ships annoy me). I hoped I could get over my dislike of naval transport.
First I tried the Byzantines, as suggested, and while scientific is great, it was really annoying to not get the food bonus from agricultural (helps you expand quicker early), and as good as a Dromon is on archipelago, I wasnt really excited about having a ship as my UU.
So then I tried it as the Dutch., seafaring and agricultural, with an ok defensive UU. And I'm doing very well in the game. My first builds were warrior, curragh, curragh, with the curraghs heading out in different directions searching for AIs. Being seafaring really helped, and several times I was able to send them through oceans and reach new AIs, before I lost the first one. Without seafaring, they wouldve had to spend an extra turn in the ocean, and at increased risk of sinking!
I was able to contact most of the AIs before thsoe AIs had found more than 1 other civ. My island had 3 civs, and there were 2 islands with 2 each and one with 1 civ. Because I found them first, I was able to play tech broker (one of the most critical things to success in the game), and thus actually stayed in the front spot in the pack in the ancient age! I got philosophy first, giving me code of laws, then got Republic first, and was first into the Middle ages.
Militarily, I attacked the spanish early on when I got Iron, upgrading a bunch of warriors to swordsmen and taking the spanish out pretty quick. That gave me half my island. I then attacked the hittites, but it was a much more difficult conquest, as they had more preparations, and got to pikemen by the time I made most of the conquest. I got statue of zues to give me an ancient cavalry army. They were down to 2 cities by the time they got musketmen, and thsoe cities were on the very tips of the island, so I let them live.
The vikings had become very powerful by this point, conquering their whole island and half of another, and got ahead of me in the tech race. At the end of the middle ages they were 3 techs ahead. They traded a couple of these techs to the Japaneze and Byzantines. Luckily, I was able to get democracy first, and swapped it to all three of those civs for the three techs I was missing.
Luckily, the vikings got embroiled in a couple wars, with Japan (the other one who is doing well in tech), and I was able to then get ahead.
At one point I sent 6 settlers, some workers, and some military to a moderate sized island that no one was one. 6 settlers was the amount to fill it up. By the time I got there, 2 natiosn dropped settlers down, but then the Vikings dropped units and razed their cities!! The vikings were my frinds at the time, and I got the island. Foolish vikings!
I'm now in the modern age, with a tech lead of Replacable Parts and Scientific Method, and working on the Corporation. I have Darwin timed so that it'll finish just after I get the Corporation, giving me refining and Steel, and getting me a big lead towarsd getting tanks. I plan to get that first, send an army of them at the Vikings to take some of their land and give myself momentum for the endgame.
Overall, I found playing on an Archipelago feels about an entire difficulty level easier than playing on a Pangea...
Its really all aobut being able to find the AIs before they all find each other, and play tech broker...
So I tried the game on Archipelago (though ships annoy me). I hoped I could get over my dislike of naval transport.
First I tried the Byzantines, as suggested, and while scientific is great, it was really annoying to not get the food bonus from agricultural (helps you expand quicker early), and as good as a Dromon is on archipelago, I wasnt really excited about having a ship as my UU.
So then I tried it as the Dutch., seafaring and agricultural, with an ok defensive UU. And I'm doing very well in the game. My first builds were warrior, curragh, curragh, with the curraghs heading out in different directions searching for AIs. Being seafaring really helped, and several times I was able to send them through oceans and reach new AIs, before I lost the first one. Without seafaring, they wouldve had to spend an extra turn in the ocean, and at increased risk of sinking!
I was able to contact most of the AIs before thsoe AIs had found more than 1 other civ. My island had 3 civs, and there were 2 islands with 2 each and one with 1 civ. Because I found them first, I was able to play tech broker (one of the most critical things to success in the game), and thus actually stayed in the front spot in the pack in the ancient age! I got philosophy first, giving me code of laws, then got Republic first, and was first into the Middle ages.
Militarily, I attacked the spanish early on when I got Iron, upgrading a bunch of warriors to swordsmen and taking the spanish out pretty quick. That gave me half my island. I then attacked the hittites, but it was a much more difficult conquest, as they had more preparations, and got to pikemen by the time I made most of the conquest. I got statue of zues to give me an ancient cavalry army. They were down to 2 cities by the time they got musketmen, and thsoe cities were on the very tips of the island, so I let them live.
The vikings had become very powerful by this point, conquering their whole island and half of another, and got ahead of me in the tech race. At the end of the middle ages they were 3 techs ahead. They traded a couple of these techs to the Japaneze and Byzantines. Luckily, I was able to get democracy first, and swapped it to all three of those civs for the three techs I was missing.
Luckily, the vikings got embroiled in a couple wars, with Japan (the other one who is doing well in tech), and I was able to then get ahead.
At one point I sent 6 settlers, some workers, and some military to a moderate sized island that no one was one. 6 settlers was the amount to fill it up. By the time I got there, 2 natiosn dropped settlers down, but then the Vikings dropped units and razed their cities!! The vikings were my frinds at the time, and I got the island. Foolish vikings!
I'm now in the modern age, with a tech lead of Replacable Parts and Scientific Method, and working on the Corporation. I have Darwin timed so that it'll finish just after I get the Corporation, giving me refining and Steel, and getting me a big lead towarsd getting tanks. I plan to get that first, send an army of them at the Vikings to take some of their land and give myself momentum for the endgame.
Overall, I found playing on an Archipelago feels about an entire difficulty level easier than playing on a Pangea...
Its really all aobut being able to find the AIs before they all find each other, and play tech broker...
