TSG 263 Opening Actions

[Nizef]

This thread is used to discuss the game's opening decisions and strategies through the first 100 or so turns. Here you can post questions related to the game and share your achievements/anger/frustration/victories while you play.

- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
- Where did you settle and what did you build first?
- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
- What were your initial priorities?
- What tech path did you follow and why?
- What Social Policies did you choose?
- What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them?
- Did you get a religion? What religious beliefs did you pick?

 

[qontroL]

Since it's only the first 100 turns, I don't have too much to report yet. It's been a pretty slow start. My scouting has been really bad because the terrain is a bit limited from what I've seen.

My idea starting the game was that I was probably going to do a Liberty -> Honor mixture but it completely depends on the information I was able to scout. Looking at the spawn screenshot I was expecting it was probably going to be a Tradition game.
I settled my city on the Hills next to the Mountains, since it was a pretty insane spot, and then I realized I was probably never going to get Observatories, but either way, the option is there.
I also noticed that my capital has 4 Luxuries in range which solidified my Liberty -> Honor gameplan. I've open Collective Rule and now taking the extra experience from Honor as I'm farming XP on my Warriors for later.
I realized that my Warriors can't get the Barracks upgrades, which means I kinda trolled myself, but the Warriors were gifts from Hanoi so it's fine. I didn't really know how the Zulu Barracks work, I'm learning!

I immediately declared war on Egypt and after a while I also declared war on Florence, sadly he was under protection of 2 Civs so I decided to make peace after taking 1 Worker. I took 7 Workers from Egypt.
I was hoping I was able to get some Wonders from Egypt but at this point it looks unlikely, they have none, I guess that was my own fault for stealing 7 Workers. They are basically dead to rights without me really pushing into them, so I can grab them whenever I want. Prague has been my Ally since practically the start of the game and because of that I'm pretty close to having 7 Policy unlocks, which feels pretty wild for Turn 100.

I've built Pyramids and am close to finishing Oracle, my cities all have Libraries so I kinda trolled myself for not just going to NC first. I didn't expect to build my Libraries so quickly with my 10 Workers rolling on their mass-deforestation plan. The Epic pacing is definitely throwing me off a bit.

My Religion got completely rolled, I have decent Faith generation and there's 3 religions available, but I can't make a Pantheon anymore because there's an enhanced religion, pretty stupid. Egypt has Temple happiness so I guess I'll just roll with that, it's a bit of a bummer and I hope I don't run into money issues.

Not much to see here, but a little screenshot! You might notice there's not as many trees as there used to be xd

EDIT: I took Thebes and wiped Egypt and moved my army to London, 7 fully upgraded Impi and 7 Composite Bowmen with +1 range AND Logistics (I figured after taking an undefended London I could upgrade them to Crossbowmen) with 4 Great Generals. London (33 Defense) 1shot all my Impi, Imma go back to the drawing board, this unit is completely useless because their bonus is mostly against units, which the bowmen kill for free. I completely overestimated how good they were x) It's my first time playing Zulu, gna retry tomorrow and play more patiently, obviously I wouldve taken the city easily if I had not put the Impi in range, but what's the point of even bringing the Impi at that point. I expected more of the unit, so I was limit testing. They failed the test run! (I also learned my Warriors dont upgrade to Impi x) whoops)

 

[Nizef]

London (33 Defense) 1shot all my Impi, Imma go back to the drawing board, this unit is completely useless because their bonus is mostly against units, which the bowmen kill for free. I completely overestimated how good they were x) It's my first time playing Zulu, gna retry tomorrow and play more patiently, obviously I wouldve taken the city easily if I had not put the Impi in range, but what's the point of even bringing the Impi at that point. I expected more of the unit, so I was limit testing. They failed the test run! (I also learned my Warriors dont upgrade to Impi x) whoops)

With Ikandas the Impis have 3 movement. Thus they are well suited for city captures, just keep them out of range until you move in for the capture.

 

[Megalou]

- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
I really wanted to take a big bite out of an AI early enough to make our conquered cities really matter in terms of production and science. But I recalled qontroL's words that early deity wars can backfire, so I was happy to be able to sabotage Egypt's progress in favour of my own. It was a really good start. I got hut culture at precisely the right moment, going from 5 culture to 35 in one big jump. I could capture 2 very early workers immediately after each other, not even having to heal the scout. I stopped Egypt from settling southeast of us: Their settler and warrior escort really shouldn't have walked by so close to Ulundi. I was able to take a lot of pot shots at Egyptian units, so that on turn 100 a great general is imminent.

- Where did you settle and what did you build first?
We settled on the marble. Build orders IIRC were scout, scout, granary. Shrine was rejected as Uluru was spotted rather early. A rather quick city was built between the salt and Uluru. The third and final city, so far, was settled 2W of the whales to the southeast.

- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?
I think it was a bit crowded, so I decided to go for Tradition. This wasn't an easy choice, since the settlers would have been much easier to build on Liberty. Seeing that Egypt was rather weak made me settle for 3 cities, however.

- What were your initial priorities?
Growth of course, and worker stealing. We had 8 workers on turn 100, 2 of them taken from Florence, 1 from a camp (English settler), and the rest taken from Egypt, who behaved very defensively. They were probably slowed down a bit by building Great Library.

- What tech path did you follow and why?
IIRC Pottery, mining, writing, masonry, calendar, AH, trapping, philosophy, then on towards construction. I think writing and philosophy were researched too soon, in the hope of building an early National College. Getting early libraries in all three cities wasn't bad, but on turn 100 I haven't yet started either National College or Oracle, prioritizing military.

- What Social Policies did you choose?
I saved Aristocracy to last, which turned out to be correct since I haven't started any wonders. Happiness was good enough to allow for Landed elite (growth) before Monarchy.

- What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them?
None and nope.

- Did you get a religion? What religious beliefs did you pick?
Pantheon was Palace King after collecting 6*6=36 faith. Founder belief was initiation rites. Tithes was taken and I also wanted the instant 150 gold to afford a couple of upgrades from archer to composite bowman. Follower belief was Religious community (+1% production per follower).

Although the geography has been frustrating, no major disasters have occurred. As you can see in the turn 100 screen shot below, Memphis is in trouble.

 

[lerrocco]

As I am sure those that read my posts already know, I only play quick domination. I have never played Shaka, though I have played against him far too many times hehe. What did I read once, the best thing about playing the Zulus is that you dont have to face them on the battlefield.

This game is on the cusp of what's possible in a quick domination scenario, and probably it is not possible with a quick domination. The problem is that the Impi come too late and are too fleeting when they arrive. So I guess the traditional approach of a strong base and later war is the way to go...

However..Quick domination it is. Epic speed will help a lot. Might need marathon though.

I actually have a DOF with Egypt I have never been on such friendly terms with another AI in all my games in civ 5. I will let him build all his wonders, I dont think he will sneak attack me.

I went 2 city Liberty to the free worker, then left side honor.

I didnt know how the Ikanda worked, so I built some anyway, thinking I might get special promotions for my archers, but no, just standard ones. So I built a stack of Spearmen instead, ready to upgrade to Impi later.

I see the buffalo promotions are 'jack of all trades', and by way of comparison, my warrior was upgraded to a spear in a ruin. I stole a worker from Hanoi and just left the unit in the hills. He has 3 rough terrain bonuses and blitz, and I never moved him! He just sat there, every single turn making xp.
My freshly promoted spearmen with 2 buffalo promotions can only take 2 hits from the CS before they have to retreat and heal.

I am parking all my units next to Hanoi, without attacking it, while they get the free xp.

Following from NIzef's comment in the recent Japan game (I am still playing that too, hehe).. You have to take england before or long after the longbows.

So that's my plan. Keep egypt as an ally. Go for Liz, then the Dutch, then either cash in on my wonder city by attacking Egypt or trusting to keep them sweet in my back yard while I venture further afield.

I only just made a religion, and only holy warriors was available, which is kinda nice, I can pop out units on demand every 15 to 20 turns or so. I also have tithe, but I wont be spreading the religion, its enough that my capital can produce units. I have one with nature, and have 10 faith per turn, with no other religious infrastructure.

My 4 comb bows and a stack of spearmen and warriors are about to take on england.

I have an idea to capture hastings (will be easy) build a work boat, then raze the city and use my general to grab the whales. I like the movement of the spearmen and warriors, so the massive forests around Nottingham wont be the usual pain to wade through, though my comp bows might struggle to keep up. I have to attack now or be at the mercy of longbows. After england I should be making logistics, on my way to range. By the time they get there, I hope to have the impi army in full swing.

England has a lot of trade routes, I have left my scouts close to them, and will try and make much money as possible in the attack. I will also have to wade through CS loyal to LIz, which is a bonus actually, more free xp.

I used my first general to reach the truffles east of Egypt. I was going to plant the citadel further west, but I wasnt allowed to! I didnt realise the DOF prevented such actions.

I am going to build the NC next, but I only have small city populations, so it wont be very effective, but at least it is out of the way and I can concentrate on more fighting units. They are cheap! I am not short of gold or happiness, so far.

 

[qontroL]

With Ikandas the Impis have 3 movement. Thus they are well suited for city captures, just keep them out of range until you move in for the capture.

Oh for sure, though at that point I'd just be using them as a Horseman, which removes the value of the Impi mostly. I'm about to launch my second go around after testing out the Impi. At this point I'm a bit torn between 2 army compositions, since I feel like Impi+Bowmen isn't that great, synergistically, since they both specialize in killing units. I might go with Impi + Seige or Horsemen + Bowmen.

 

[lymond]

Spoiler nizef' ?s :

-

I thought very little other than I would perish in the fiery pits of Hades. My approach was to mainly survive and try to play as tight a game as possible

- Where did you settle and what did you build first?

My first instinct was to settle on marble. I moved the warrior to the marble and notice I could move right onto a mountain adjacent desert hill instead. Figured that Observatory would pay off later

- How did the terrain and map settings affect your early decisions?

I found Uluru rather early next to a very nice spot, so that would be my first settle. Plus, it made me decide to build a shrine. Got Desert Folklore and a reli.

- What were your initial priorities?

In general, get expands up as fast as i can. Not used to this speed AT ALL. Sooooo slow, but I basically followed a rather normal build pattern:
Scout>Scout>Shrine>Settler>Settler ( I think i built an archer b/w settlers due to work stealing) Never built a worker as I stole many, but that had its own issues

- What tech path did you follow and why?

I mainly focused on most ancient/classical techs, trying to time to Philosophy with library builds, which were all slow built. I teched construction before philo, as I was fighting Rammbo since pretty much the start of the game.

- What Social Policies did you choose?

I did a 3-city tradition, as there really was not room for a 4th city early anyway. I would get those by conquest. Completed Trad and opened Commerce. Culture was crap this age, but at least I got an early culture pop.

- What Wonders did you try to get and did you get them?

I honestly don't remember thinking about wonders until I teched guilds. I was fighting the whole time, so early wonders were not a priority. I did get Machu Pichu in Ulundi, which is my favorite wonder outside Petra. When I took Thebes I got Hangin' Gardens and Hagia Sophia. I just figured I would be capturing most wonders anyway, but Machi is always nice to get asap.

- Did you get a religion? What religious beliefs did you pick?

I did get a reli. In fact I think I was 2nd to reli. Tithe>Pagodas>Shrine happies>Rel Texts though I think Itinerant would have been better here if it was still there.

Overall, the hardest part of the game so far - other than not being a regular Deity player - is dealing with and adjusting to the game speed. Could only get 1gpt for horses/iron. Luxes seemed to still be 7gpt, but i could actually get more than usual from allies, like a 2gpt/261 combo for a lux

Short summary.
1) Worker stole from Egypt, England and Hanoi (twice). (I belong to Worker Stealing Anonymous but it has not helped )
2) Could not use English worker as I was SW of London and then realized I was blocked by willie/mountains. Eventually, after a long time, was able to use move worker backup after peace.
3) Egypt and her city-states kept feeding me workers. But it was annoying that I was a war with those 2 closest CSs for so long. Good XP though.
4) Rams settle just SW became my 4th city. Thebes took a lot longer. He was just hitting very hard from that city and could purchase units every turn. Had to wait for Xbows. But it did fall and meanwhile my former worker farm Hanoi was now my ally and actually made short work of Memphis to finish off Rammses.
5) Surprisingly, and I am sure it is a first, but I have a DOF with Lizzy since a bit after the war. She is such a sour lass, but has been a great ally so far. I dread facing her LBS anyway, and to top it off, she built TGW.
6) Next stop will be Ethiopia as I DoF'd Songhai and agreed to dow in 10 turns. Bribed Liz on Willie just for fun. Hallie has been wars with Morocco and Carthage.
7) Carthage is maaaaaassssive

Honor is probably great for Shaka, but IMO not necessary. His abilities are like Honor anyway, and my units are leveling up so fast. I had 3 logi/ranged composites before xbows.

Note: yeah, taking Liz early is always a good idea, but she built TGW very early in my game, so friendship was better for me. I'll take her out with artillery later, plus I should have a lotta generals by then for citadels

 

[lerrocco]

For all the comedy AI defending, Liz just allied the 2 city states between her and me. I am bogged down, not making the most of the epic speed. I could have lost units to the english several times now, but she always backs off, she is playing a really defensive game.

I missed a trick, with the map:

Spoiler missed this.. :

The pyramids have been available all game, I should have built them early and taken out the forest between me and Nottingham.
Not only is this a big production boosts, but it removes the difficult terrain for easier combat

What's with Dido in this game? I think she is tired of being the whipping girl, and is making amends.

My original ideas were way off. Egypt is losing friendship, so is now a potential target, and he has the Gt wall, which would be good to capture, with the Gt Library and Hanging Gdns.

I am amassing a lot of troop xp, but really slow progress. Current ideas are to sail direct to London, or see how quickly I capture Florence and put a feint to Nottingham in.. or attack Egypt.

NC is a few turn away, I am going to Impis rather than xbows. My xbows should be powerful, range and logistics by the time I have them.
Are the impis any good I wonder? I am maybe 20 turns away from them. Even if I only manage an impi rush in this game, and no more progress, it will be a new experience.

My map hasnt changed, and at this turn on quick, its still inside the opening actions,

I really don't think I will manage to win this, but it was a fun game. I really should have read the map better. Poor strategy on my part so far. But I am getting better at leaving troops to be hit by enemy fire, the xps mount up, but then the healing is slow. No instant heal on epic speed, which is one reason I ignored the pyramids.

AI always falls for the lone worker trick, sends out a unit whatever is surrounding it kill it, retake the worker (great with 3 movement!), rinse and repeat. This trick will get my compbows to logistics.

I am playing carefully, I manage about 10 turns a day. This game is gonna take me a while. (off topic, but I am still playing the Japan game, for experience, and it is now good to see how Japans ability to attack at full strength really does make a difference in combat ).

 

[sebtanic]

I went for Liberty. Settled on the Marble, then 2 expos on the coast. Got Pyramids turn 69, that's the only wonder I've attempted to build.

I stole a worker from Florence, was hoping to steal more but never got the opportunity. DOWed Egypt just to use him as an XP farm for my archers/CBs, but later I saw an English army closing up on my capital. My units were all half-dead from getting shot at by Memphis on the coast, so my only way out was to pay England to DOW Egypt instead of me. He only wanted my Marble for it, so I came off cheap. England razed Memphis and helped a lot to wipe out the Egyptian army, so at turn 100 my units are marching upon Thebes. So far with little resistance.

I didn't build a Shrine since I saw Uluru, however at turn 100 my cultural borders still haven't expanded to it and I lack the money to buy the tile. I am prioritizing upgrading my archers to CBs. So I don't even have a pantheon yet.

Ruins were: Pop, scarcher, 75g, map, 30c, 50g, camp, Calendar (nice!)

Early build order was scout, scout, monument, then I stopped taking notes. I think I got an early Granary, then started building archers and then the Pyramid.

Population at turn 100: 7, 4, 2.

I have loads of workers, mostly stolen from Egypt. One's from Florence, 2 from Pyramids and 1 from the Liberty worker policy. They are being a bit expensive and have run out of tiles to improve, but I think they will come in handy later to build roads to the front and do the pillage/repair thing.

 

[lerrocco]

You've all being playing a long while, so maybe you know this trick. I have been using it all game.

Its not a spoiler, just a tactic.

Liz already sent her compbow to pick up the worker. Killing that unit gave me one compbow with range and logistics and killing this swordsman will give me another. No doubt, next turn she will send another swordsman. She had the place so well defended as well. Compbow plus 3 swordsmen.
I now have 2 comp bows with range and logistics.

 

[qontroL]

You've all being playing a long while, so maybe you know this trick. I have been using it all game.

Its not a spoiler, just a tactic.

Liz already sent her compbow to pick up the worker. Killing that unit gave me one compbow with range and logistics and killing this swordsman will give me another. No doubt, next turn she will send another swordsman. She had the place so well defended as well. Compbow plus 3 swordsmen.
I now have 2 comp bows with range and logistics.

I did a similar thing, though somewhat different. I stole 7 Workers from Egypt in the early game, and after chopping all my trees and improving all my tiles (which doesnt take very long with 10 Workers + Pyras) I just gave them back to Egypt and basically did all that. It also helped me secure my alliance with Florence for the entire rest of the game because one of the Workers I gave back was stolen from my (now) Ally Florence.

 

[raider980]

In the beginning I planned on trying to get Impi as fast as possible. After moving the warrior to the Marble, it looked good on the other side so settled there. (Should have settled on the hill next to the mountain for an observatory and a 4-lux capital but alas didn't see the Truffles before settling.) Upon exploring a bit I realized we were in a corner, which was find with me, so it solidified my full Tradition choice. Early game was standard but the Epic speed threw me off a little. But then I did remeber the trick - divide the turns by 1.5 to get the equivalent standard speed turn. (So my screenshots are from T51 (Standard Equivalent T34), T125 (SE = 84), T139 (SE = 93))

Since we are The Zulu I decided to play a little more aggressively than I normally would so stole a worker from Egypt on T16. And Ramses refused to make peace for anything less than a city - until I had acquired a sizable army of Ikanda promoted Spearmen and CBs, but then it was too late for him to change his mind; The Zulu were on the warpath, he will come to regret that decision.

• Tech path was standard to get my luxes online, I did take Iron Working earlier than usual to get a couple swordsmen with the Ikanda in play.
• Ruins were pretty good: Pop, Gold, Culture, Scarcher, Map, Barbs, Pop
• Didn't try for any wonders, on Deity I can never get them early (except Oracle but that went very early this game).
• Didn't try for a religion either despite finding Uluru early. Figured I'd need all my production for an army.

Its going well so for - especially for Deity. As I was attacking Memphis, I spotted a sizable English army heading towards my cities in the east; darn, she picked the perfect time to attack my eastern flank, while I was busy in the west. As I was completely defensless over there, I had to bribe her to attack William. (Stupidly I bribed her with Wine when it was Spice that I had multiple copies of). I took Memphis T134 (SE = 89) and am now closing in on Thebes. After taking Memphis a Pikeman appeared so I hesitated, but I haven't seen any more so even though I'm still a ways off from getting Impi, I closed in and hopefully can take Thebes in a few turns.

As much hype there is around the Impi, the Ikanda deserves a lot of praise too. Ikanda promoted Spearmen are awesome; I'd put them up there with the Persian Immortal (and I usually am able to use Zulu Spearmen better than the Immortals so they're actually better for me).

 

[The_Black_Vegetable]

My game is going ok. I settled three tradition cities, in what I see are the most common locations. I got two early worker steals off Egypt, but after that not so many. The nearby CS did not have any workers when I wanted them, and when they finally built them and my units were near, they had quests that I did not want to lose. So I ended up building a worker or two (not ideal of course), but thankfully I managed about 4 more from Elizabeth, so my tile improvement are not too far behind. William asked my to joint declare on her, so I accepted, since I've never (maybe I should say rarely) been friends with England anyway.

The map is a bit tricky. It feels like you either need optics and/or open borders to scout past a few choke points, so other than my immediate neighbours I've only met Dido. I do have optics, and just realized that instead of letting my scouts hang around until I can get open borders, I should just walk back to my lands, given the epic pace of the game. As I mentioned, the game feels like it's going Ok, though looking at all the other reports I'm a bit envious of all the XP that has already been farmed by the other players, and the progress made towards Egypt. I have leveled only a single unit (the starting warrior, pictured) on an English scout that kept fortifying on my borders for the duration of most of the war (I've just made peace when the trireme you see in the east entered my seas - I was lucky my work boat and cargo ship did not get pillaged).

I'm not sure how I will approach this game, whether to keep simming for longer, or try to switch to war focus as soon as possible, and using which units. After NC I think I will still try Oracle in case Egypt is still not building it, after that I don't know. I hope my expands will be strong enough to help build units, so my capital maybe can get off a wonder or two (I would like Borobudur for example).

PS I thought I was in trouble when Egypt showed as "Friendly" but only wanted to buy my iron for 1gpt, but I since realized that is due to the epic game pace. I think you can still sell 2 for 3gpt.

 

[Bol]

I'll report up to T150 since it's equivalent to T100 on Standard speed.
Not much to say really, it was a pretty standard early game all things considered.

I settled on the Marble as anyone else since it's the best spot, and again as anyone else settled the two eastern expansions.
I was lucky enough to get 2 early pop ruins, which helped me build a fast 3rd settler: since I planned to rush Egypt with Impis, and the land has plenty of happiness, imho it's a no brainer settling on the river to the west towards Egypt.

I went Tradition because why shouldn't I (finished ~T125), build queues were fairly standard: I'll only mentioned that I managed to squeeze in Water Mill before Library in every expansion (thanks to 1st Caravan to Bulawayo), and I built Ikanda only in Capital + "Uluru" (which contributed only 1 Spearman).
NC done T126, which I think it's quite fast...but this land is insanely good, so it's not surprising.

I stole one worker from Florence and two from Egypt, and allied Florence by completing two quests (Natural Wonder with Gibraltar, +Caravan which I was ok with given the large amount of food the land offers).
I got Desert Folkore as soon as I settled Uluru, got Tithe and Pagodas. I grabbed a Missionary asap to convert the "contested" Bula, then bought 3 Pagodas already; next step is enhancing, finally.

I DoWed Egypt ~T120 way before I was ready, but he walked a fully charged Prophet next to my city so I felt obliged to take it and plant it (on the Buffalo in Nobamba, as the Deer Camp in Bulawayo is too important for production).
Skirmish around Bulawayo (with 1 Sperman + 2 Scouts) was very prolific, as I farmed XP, kill 4-5 units, 2 filthy Missionaries and even snatched a Worker.
As soon as I had 5 Spears (~T140) I finished CS, upgraded to Impis and took Memphis on the coast in 3 turns, while I started building 3 Composites; I razed the city since it was gigacrap.
Then I quickly dismanted Thebes with the help of a freshly generated General, although I lost an Impi because I wasn't careful enough.
Sadly Thebes only had the Great Library, Temple and Market.

And now there are a lot of questions to answer:
- should I transition to a peaceful midgame immediately, or try to take at least London? The land around is mostly flat, so it could be an easy take; she has built "only" Colossus though.
- if I go for it, should I build more units or is 4 Impis + 4 Compos + General enough? Or should I wait for Xbows maybe? I almost never make offensive wars early, I usually play Immortal which is much easier, and I've never played Zulus so I'm not used to the timing.
- if I go for it and I build reinforcement, should I at least stop for Workshops and/or Forge?
- Policywise, what should I open? I'm leaning towards Piety, as it would help me get a dominant religion on the region (neither England nor Dutch have a religion);
I'm skeptical on Honor since I hope to get only 2 filler policies before Rationalism, so Military Tradition feels too far away, Warrior code is meh since I don't have any use for a General, and Discipline feels underwhlming in general, despite synergizing with Impis.

Opinions are very welcome and appreciated!

 

[The_Black_Vegetable]

if I go for it, should I build more units or is 4 Impis + 4 Compos + General enough?

I have by no means mastered the art of waging wars with the minimum number of units, but I think 4 comp bows will not do enough damage.

 

[lerrocco]

- should I transition to a peaceful midgame immediately, or try to take at least London? The land around is mostly flat, so it could be an easy take; she has built "only" Colossus though.
- if I go for it, should I build more units or is 4 Impis + 4 Compos + General enough? Or should I wait for Xbows maybe? I almost never make offensive wars early, I usually play Immortal

I built 4 compbows early to get them to range and logistics. I added 2 more as soon as I could.

I am all out for war, and I have already struggled to get past Florence. In a quick domination, it's usually required to focus all the troops on capitals, but in this case, I wanted the xp, so i wasnt too unhappy to engage the CS.

If you build 4 compbows now, you wont take london as you wont get past her longbows. Similar problem with xbows. Liz is really had to take down while her longbows are current, so before or after them is optimal. Hence my push. Without the CS intervention I would already have taken London and be onto Egypt..

Because of her longbows she was my first target, I thought I could keep egypt sweet, and I was wrong, hes about to attack my capital I think hehe..

my 4 comp bows now have range, I usually always go logistics then range (double xp with logistics gets to the combo faster).. against liz I went range first.
I have 4 comb bows with range, 2 with range and logistics, and my later 2 builds in support.

I will take london, but can I get back in time to save my capital...?

My Impis are online, at least

And even if I take egypt I am way behind then, on tech, and my science production is low...QED I think I missed the quick domination rush in this game, and there is no plan B.

This screenshot is more or less T150, so ok to post I think, to give an idea. I saw a longbow to the south of London! I am 30 turns away from crossbows!

(PS. In a normal game I would only build compbows, maybe 8 or so. In this scenario I wanted to play in character and try out the impi rush.)

 

[sebtanic]

As I mentioned, the game feels like it's going Ok, though looking at all the other reports I'm a bit envious of all the XP that has already been farmed by the other players, and the progress made towards Egypt.

As for progress towards Egypt, I got lucky that the English helped me out. You have great population at turn 100 though, and twice my science!

I wonder how my game would have gone if I'd taken Tradition. Maybe I'll try it in a replay after I finish this one.

 

[Bol]

If you build 4 compbows now, you wont take london as you wont get past her longbows. Similar problem with xbows. Liz is really had to take down while her longbows are current, so before or after them is optimal. Hence my push. Without the CS intervention I would already have taken London and be onto Egypt..

Are Longbows that threatening though? Sure they have range, but my Impis are full Buffalo with Shock, so their strength vs range attack is 16*(1 + 10% + 30% + 25% +15%) = 28.8 without fortifying; they should take like 25 dmg from full health Xbows/Longbows, which is not that much.
In return, they have 3 move points and surely oneshot them on offense.

Also she is still on Compos T150 and I can get Xbows on T165, although it's like 10 turns walking to her land, so I could start an invasion ~T175 I guess.

 

[lerrocco]

My first time with impis.. try it .. and let us know. hehe

She will have longbows by T175, my guess is she will have them before you have xbows. She brought 4 longbows to London, but too late..
She does set up well, defensively, try dangling a worker. Yes, the range can be devastating, especially when you are taking hits from units you cant even see. I have used my scouts a lot in this game.

I took London before T165, and she has a stack of them already.

 

[Bol]

Ok, I definitely underestimated Longbows...
I managed to capture her 2nd city on T180 using 4 Impis and 6 Xbows, but I lost 3 Impis and 2 Xbows so I had to stop; I'll come back for London with Frigates I guess, and then I'll start warring again at Bombers.