InvisibleStalke
Emperor
I'm playing the Warlords upgrade with Persians (Charismatic and Imperialistic), Monarch, standard speed and settings. While they lend themselves to a conquest / domination win, I've had a few of those recently and decided to play more as a builder for a change. What has been tremendous fun for me is how the additions of Vassal States change the way a builder can play.
I started at the end of a long landmass with Elizabeth next to me, then Ghengis Khan, Bismarck and Alexander, then Brennus and Mehmut at the other end. Egyptians were also there but they were taken out by Alexander before I met them.
I had decided to play a trade focussed game. Get the Great lighthouse and the Temple of Artemis and see how they played together. Started with an early war with Elizabeth and used my first great general to create an uber immortal for the final run on her capital which I wanted to get the marble to build the temple (and to carve out enough room early for some solid building - no reason a builder can't be aggressive).
First lesson - don't waste great generals on cavalry units. They don't get the city attack promotion and its hard to get good odds for attacking cities with entrenched archers. In this case it was a necessary gamble - she had CG1 archers on a hilltop city with 40% defense. My regular immortals were getting very low odds. My great general got a 45% chance once promoted, survived taking out the toughest defender and then I had enough surviving immortals to take out the remainder.
So worth it to get the capital and end the war. But later on that particular great general never shone. I wouldn't waste the GG at less than around 90% odds and I wouldn't get those odds attacking cities so the GG was restricted to cleanup duty. Also the promotions never shone particularly better than my regular cavalry units - the unit simply wasn't that much better.
Then build the temple of artemis. Second lesson - the temple only gives the +100% to the city where it is built. And to get it done quickly I built it in my main military city (later for Heroic epic). Duh! Still getting the lighthouse was really good. Later I was able to build the collossus and I spammed as many costal cities as I could without dropping science below 50%. Later on my economy was an absolute powerhouse - teching on average every four turns through renaissance and industrial eras.
So now I'm in builder mode. And my economy is built for trade - I don't want to try and dominate everyone and go state property. Ghengis Khan shares the same religion and I sent a token force to aid him in his war against Bismarck, so I have good trade with him. Bismarck of course hates me. And Alexander doesn't like me either and won't open borders. Brennus would be a great trade partner as he has better cities than Genghis Khan, but I don't have astronomy yet and Alexander is blocking trade.
So - he dares to block my trade - thats war! I have a tech advantage with macemen and knights vs horse archers and swordsmen. I also have a good war ally in Ghengis Khan who owes me a favor. Normally I would be all for conquering him outright, but its a stretch with Ghengis Khan's land sitting in the middle.
So my new doctrine of limited / commercial war. Send out my expeditionary force to raise a city or two and capture the capital. It includes a great artist and a worker. The expeditionary force is focussed on taking cities rather than pillaging. Ghengis Khan is flooding him with Keshiks so it proves fairly easy. We capture the capital after which Alexander capitulates.
I culture bomb the city and then camp a sizable portion of my army there. The theory is to keep an outpost next to Alexander that can keep an eye on my new vassal. I get open borders and the much needed trade with Brennus. And trade with Alexander to. My outpost city doesn't cost too much in maintenance - not compared with taking and holding his empire. And I can manipulate what happens in that area, if necessary strengthening Alexander with more modern troops from my army without necessarily teching him up too high. He can't grow back to break out of vassalage because my culture bomb fills in enough space.
Stategy works so well I decide to repeat with Bismarck. I can turn a hated enemy into a compliant, trading vassal while letting my core cities go ahead on their building program without paying crippling maintenance. The vassal concept lets me undertake a limited war - for the purpose of furthering my trade goals - without it turning into an all or nothing grind that saps my economy with war weariness and maintenance. Taking the enemy capital and razing a city or two seems enough to break through. Great artists are fantastic for kick starting my outpost city.
Of course it gets interesting later when Ghengis Khan discovers cavalry (I have teched to riflemen but not yet to infantry) and changes religion (I'd neglected to promote my religion enough as I hadn't popped a prophet for the shrine). He then attacks Bismarck which draws me and Alexander into the war. What fun! He seems to have an endless supply of cavarly - I guess a lot of military academies from the large number of great generals he has created. He must be creating at least four cavalry every single turn.
I'm stretched to defend my new vassals - teching them up a little quickly and sending some troops from my outposts to defend their cities. And also engaged in an all or nothing war right on my borders. Imperialistic seems pretty good to me - Ghengis Khan seems to have an awesome supply of troops and I am frantically creating riflemen with four promotions from my Westpoint/HE city to counter them.
This is fun and a good change to the way I play a builder. I like the way we can use Vassals as a strategic tool to further trade and builder objectives (Alex's stone was very helpful for getting West point and Oxford built).
I started at the end of a long landmass with Elizabeth next to me, then Ghengis Khan, Bismarck and Alexander, then Brennus and Mehmut at the other end. Egyptians were also there but they were taken out by Alexander before I met them.
I had decided to play a trade focussed game. Get the Great lighthouse and the Temple of Artemis and see how they played together. Started with an early war with Elizabeth and used my first great general to create an uber immortal for the final run on her capital which I wanted to get the marble to build the temple (and to carve out enough room early for some solid building - no reason a builder can't be aggressive).
First lesson - don't waste great generals on cavalry units. They don't get the city attack promotion and its hard to get good odds for attacking cities with entrenched archers. In this case it was a necessary gamble - she had CG1 archers on a hilltop city with 40% defense. My regular immortals were getting very low odds. My great general got a 45% chance once promoted, survived taking out the toughest defender and then I had enough surviving immortals to take out the remainder.
So worth it to get the capital and end the war. But later on that particular great general never shone. I wouldn't waste the GG at less than around 90% odds and I wouldn't get those odds attacking cities so the GG was restricted to cleanup duty. Also the promotions never shone particularly better than my regular cavalry units - the unit simply wasn't that much better.
Then build the temple of artemis. Second lesson - the temple only gives the +100% to the city where it is built. And to get it done quickly I built it in my main military city (later for Heroic epic). Duh! Still getting the lighthouse was really good. Later I was able to build the collossus and I spammed as many costal cities as I could without dropping science below 50%. Later on my economy was an absolute powerhouse - teching on average every four turns through renaissance and industrial eras.
So now I'm in builder mode. And my economy is built for trade - I don't want to try and dominate everyone and go state property. Ghengis Khan shares the same religion and I sent a token force to aid him in his war against Bismarck, so I have good trade with him. Bismarck of course hates me. And Alexander doesn't like me either and won't open borders. Brennus would be a great trade partner as he has better cities than Genghis Khan, but I don't have astronomy yet and Alexander is blocking trade.
So - he dares to block my trade - thats war! I have a tech advantage with macemen and knights vs horse archers and swordsmen. I also have a good war ally in Ghengis Khan who owes me a favor. Normally I would be all for conquering him outright, but its a stretch with Ghengis Khan's land sitting in the middle.
So my new doctrine of limited / commercial war. Send out my expeditionary force to raise a city or two and capture the capital. It includes a great artist and a worker. The expeditionary force is focussed on taking cities rather than pillaging. Ghengis Khan is flooding him with Keshiks so it proves fairly easy. We capture the capital after which Alexander capitulates.
I culture bomb the city and then camp a sizable portion of my army there. The theory is to keep an outpost next to Alexander that can keep an eye on my new vassal. I get open borders and the much needed trade with Brennus. And trade with Alexander to. My outpost city doesn't cost too much in maintenance - not compared with taking and holding his empire. And I can manipulate what happens in that area, if necessary strengthening Alexander with more modern troops from my army without necessarily teching him up too high. He can't grow back to break out of vassalage because my culture bomb fills in enough space.
Stategy works so well I decide to repeat with Bismarck. I can turn a hated enemy into a compliant, trading vassal while letting my core cities go ahead on their building program without paying crippling maintenance. The vassal concept lets me undertake a limited war - for the purpose of furthering my trade goals - without it turning into an all or nothing grind that saps my economy with war weariness and maintenance. Taking the enemy capital and razing a city or two seems enough to break through. Great artists are fantastic for kick starting my outpost city.
Of course it gets interesting later when Ghengis Khan discovers cavalry (I have teched to riflemen but not yet to infantry) and changes religion (I'd neglected to promote my religion enough as I hadn't popped a prophet for the shrine). He then attacks Bismarck which draws me and Alexander into the war. What fun! He seems to have an endless supply of cavarly - I guess a lot of military academies from the large number of great generals he has created. He must be creating at least four cavalry every single turn.
I'm stretched to defend my new vassals - teching them up a little quickly and sending some troops from my outposts to defend their cities. And also engaged in an all or nothing war right on my borders. Imperialistic seems pretty good to me - Ghengis Khan seems to have an awesome supply of troops and I am frantically creating riflemen with four promotions from my Westpoint/HE city to counter them.
This is fun and a good change to the way I play a builder. I like the way we can use Vassals as a strategic tool to further trade and builder objectives (Alex's stone was very helpful for getting West point and Oxford built).
