 |
| |
|
|
Andydog
|
 |
London
Jan 2001
time: 05:34
|
|
Finally my DAR. I’ve found myself insanely busy with annoying RL lately, so this wee write-up has had to take a back burner until now.
Firstly I would describe myself as an ‘intermediate’ civ player, which means that I know enough about the game to beat it on emperor sometimes, but that’s about it. I prefer playing ‘freestyle’, which to me means that I don’t bog myself down with excessive MMing (although I recognise that others enjoy this). I personally like the game to flow, and I do what feels right at the time. We’ll see how this philosophy pays off I guess!
I had been jotting notes as I went along, but they are largely irrelevant now, not to mention boring, so I’ll provide a quick summary:
I started out with two primary objectives:
1. Exploration.
I need to learn about the world. I need to secure iron, horses, and as many luxs as possible before the AI gets to them. I also need to see if there are any choke points where I can cut off AI expansion. I need to meet the other civs and get trading techs etc straight away.
I’m playing that rascal Sabrewolf in a few other games at the moment, and in both of them he incited the world against me in war, so I’m expecting more of the same. I also know that he is a very cunning and talented player, and that he knows more about the game than me, so if I can beat off the AI while keeping up with them and him in research during the ancient age, I could be in with a chance. I did think about getting AI onto him, but decided against it in the end – he would easily be able to beat them off and would probably only serve to generate leaders for him and allow him to settler bop. Better for him to be the aggressor, take the associated reputation hits from the AI, and fork out all his cash.
2. Get some quick cities built before War.
Once he’s got me at war, expansion will be difficult. So I’d ideally like to get a unit city, a settler/worker city, an iron city and a luxury city built before the mangy wolf sends over the AI. After that it’ll be damage limitation until I’ve got enough defence and trade opportunities to keep the AI off my back.
So that was the initial plan.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Andydog
|
|
London
Jan 2001
time: 05:34
|
|
170 BC: I am very nervous. I'm two away from Construction and so are about to move into the next era, getting the free tech. I sooo need it to be one that the AI's don't have! Not because I need peace, but because I need to trade it around and establish the tech lead.
Looks like Sabrewolf is at war with Carthage and the Germanics. He was fishing for information as to whether I had obtained a leader yet from defending against the AI, and he slipped in that he had one. (He may or may not have, I don’t know, he’s given me bum information before so this could well be bollocks). But if he did get one then I assume he will make an AC army – I saw he got SoZ a while back. The question is, will he use this AC army in his AI battles, or will he send it trotting across the world to wreck havoc with my hoplites? I’m also having visions of a big SoD on its way over that involves heaps of Legionaries.
In any case I’m going to stick with my defensive strategy and plug the north and east choke points with units, cities, walls and fortresses. I’ve got my sea city pumping out galleys to defend my shores, but it isn’t producing them very quickly and I just lost one that was on its way down the Celtic east coast. I didn’t see how it died but assume it was barb galleys – it was hit a few times on the northern leg of its journey, and it also lost hps sinking an Egyptian galley, so was pretty weak at 1hp. I need to develop my galley city infrastructure but the bulk of my workers are full on trying to hook up the diamond at the moment.
I’ve been expanding and now have 12 cities, here is how it looks:
 Attachment: image1.jpg
This has been downloaded 110 time(s).
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
Andydog
|
|
London
Jan 2001
time: 05:34
|
|
Well, as I suspected Sabre traded peace for the 2 techs he was missing - Theology and Monotheism.
Persia and myself finished researching Theology on the same turn, and I notice Sabre doesn't yet have it.
I chose Theology to research because Sabre would most likely research the tech that the rest of us didn't have - Engineering. I’m hoping that one of the AI's gets to it first so I can trade Theology for it and then gift Engineering around so that sabre can’t trade it. If he was researching Feudalism (or Monotheism, but unlikely – I think he’ll be going for Sun Tzu’s or the Workshop) when I established the tech lead, then there is a good chance the AI’s will beat him to Engineering.
The big dilemma I have now is trying to determine when sabrewolf is going to attack me. His power graph is massive, I'm sure he must have a few armies by now - leader generation is a strategy I would be using as Rome, and he's been at war for ages. It’s a bummer I never got any leaders. I had 5 elite swords that were administering sever arse kickings, and also elite hoplites, but once again lady luck shunned me.
Interesting how it's all panning out - by keeping me at war he's slowed my expansion, forcing me to balance that with defense, but the war has also helped me secure the tech lead - most of the AI's were only too happy to give me peace after loosing so many troops in my choke point defense, and I'm sure all these alliances must have cost sabre dearly.
But if he sends over a few AC armies before I get Gunpowder then he probably has the game – I don’t think I’m in a position yet to beat off that sort of power.
So this is why I've been trying guess when he'll attack. He could either be adopting the 'sledgehammer strategy' (build all the military small wonders and then slam your opponent with multiple armies) or he could adopt a 'wounding strategy' (send over an army or two to cause as much destruction as possible until they're both dead, thereby crippling your enemy severely).
So what would I do then if I were sabrewolf? He knows that the AI wars against me haven't been effective, other than to slow down my expansion. He knows that I have lots hoplites and he's seen my choke points. He knows he can out produce me and I know he likes to build. This would all suggest he'll take the sledgehammer strategy, perhaps using knight armies? Or he may decide to wait until he gets Cavs, and hit me with Cav armies, maybe unloading a few onto my shores via Galleons.
So I'm going to risk the possibility of a short-term attack in favor of anticipating an attack in the medium/long term. I will maintain my current strategy.
Expansion within my territory has been on hold – I’ve been building my primary core into a massive research factory with markets and libraries, but this is nearly finished and so I can now pursue some serious rexing while maintaining the research momentum.
I will set enough workers to have fortresses in place within the choke points by the time I get to Gunpowder - I can then immediately populate them with Muskets and Trebs.
I will soon start a pre-build for the Observatory in my Gem city – I’m getting tingles at the thought of how much science that one will be pumping out!
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Andydog
|
|
London
Jan 2001
time: 05:34
|
|
quote:
I haven't been bothered to read the AU rules at what stage can you read Sabre's DAR to see where it went wrong? |
I haven't properly read sabrewolf's DAR yet, these past few weeks have been very busy for me socially and at work. I’ve barely been able to keep on top of my other PBEMs. I'll spend a bit of time going over his DAR this weekend, to see how I should have done things differently.
However the game is now over, my heartiest congratulations go to Sabrewolf. 
He took me by surprise, not just by attacking early (I mentioned above I was anticipating the attack to come a bit later), but by the route he took to get to my lands.
I hadn’t been able to explore through the Persian lands, (I was mostly at war with them and I think 3 curraghs were lost that way to barbs), and for some reason didn’t expect him to come from that direction. From what I’d seen of their land, it looked to be an island, so the bulk of my forces were concentrated in my northern choke point. I did have some defense in the eastern choke point (just enough to keep Persia at bay), but not enough to fend off the power and speed of sabre’s AC armies.
The AI lost masses of troops in my northern choke point, but it was only a matter of time before they punched through - I kept having to send hoplites south.
So where did I go wrong? I guess not exploring enough (although I tried), maybe not REXing enough early on? This was difficult due to being at war with the AI’s.
What do others think? I’d be interested.
Anyway it was a great game, enjoyed this one and trying to second guess my opponent. It was a game that always had me on my toes, and I was always looking forward to receiving each turn.
So thanks to Sabrewolf, that’s three games he’s beaten me in now! Thanks also to the AU team for making it possible.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
sabrewolf
|
 |
turicum, helvetistan
Jun 2002
time: 06:34
|
|
andy, thanks for the game and thanks for the happy end (well, sort of  )!
when you get a chance to check out my thread, you'll see i took a more careful look at war wariness. by having the AIs repeatedly attack you, you gained a lot of war-happiness... but eventually every single wasted AI unit harmed you. my legionary up north had seen dozens of war chariots entering your lands and none came back.
every single attack "costed" you 2 WW points, so even after 15 unsuccessful attacks, your war happiness was compensated.
but i guess my city-capturing gave you the rest there. with 16 points for each city, the 4th first cities alone already threw you over +30WWP.
generally, i'm not sure republic is a good idea in such a PBEM (especially when you saw me war-whoring from the first moment on), also because the AUmod weakens republic. and with the 3gpt per unit, it will have eaten up you trade bonus from republic.
but you did get me worried at one time... when i saw you getting construction in about 7 turns. had you gotten engineering... life would have been a lot harder for me.
and with some leader farming you may have had the right counter-measures against my AC armies (i needed a total of around 60 offensive elite victories (and maybe a half a dozen in defence) for my 4 leaders).
|
|
| |
|
| |
All times are GMT. The time now is 05:34.
Apolyton Time is 00:34. |
top of page
|
|
|
Forum Rules:
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
|
HTML code is ON
vB code is ON
Smilies are ON
[IMG] code is ON
|
|
|
|
|
|
06-08-2004 12:23
Not keeping your DAR up to date?
|
