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nbarclay
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Huntsville, Alabama
Dec 1999
time: 23:26
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The first turn or two of the Viking war went much as would be expected - successfully. But then dozens of spearmen, archers, horsemen, and even chariots swarmed into view. If the Vikings had attacked my tanks on a hill southeast of Stockholm instead of trying to go past them through their zone of control (taking damage along the way), they might actually have managed to take a bite out of my attack force in spite of the immense disparity in power. As it was, my tank reinforcements were left undamaged to counterattack. And as my forces grew from reinforcements and the Vikings' dwindled, the tide swung to a point where finishing the Vikings off was as easy as the whole war had been expected to be.
The good part about the unexpectedly heavy Viking resistance was that it produced eight leaders (three of whom rushed SETI, the Internet, and Longevity) and well over twenty elite tanks besides the ones that produced leaders. The death toll was higher than expected, but so were the rewards.
(Unfortunately, I didn't think to grab a screenshot of the Viking resistance. It can be seen mostly in the fact that the 1525 and 1530 minimaps are omitted because they would show no additional conquered Viking posessions.)
 Attachment: ad 1400 viking invasion.jpg
This has been downloaded 49 time(s).
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nbarclay
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Huntsville, Alabama
Dec 1999
time: 23:26
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And Arrian's four-elite* cavalry army inspired me. In the game, I had a total 42 leaders:
2 vs. the Zulus
1 vs. America in my first attack
3 vs. the Mongols in my second war with them (the cavalry-era attack)
1 vs. America finishing off their last two cities
8 vs. the Vikings
3 vs. Japan
7 vs. the Mongols in my final war with them
17 in various wars on the second continent.
Arrian's putting four elite cavalry that generated leaders in a single army is quite impressive, considering that cavalry don't have the blitz advantage that tanks and modern armor do for becoming elite quickly and getting extra shots once they're elite. But in terms of raw hitting power, it's hard to beat this. (They're all MA's; the two that say "tank" had previously generated leaders as tanks in the Viking war and kept the name they won their initial fame under.)
Attachment: four leaders-only armies.jpg
This has been downloaded 77 time(s).
Last edited by nbarclay on 20-04-2003 at 12:39
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nbarclay
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Huntsville, Alabama
Dec 1999
time: 23:26
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quote:
Originally posted by Theseus
Great game, Nathan, and yes, big huge AAR... good one, lots'o fun.
What kind of building did you do along the way?
How about diplo and trade? |
Plenty of early granaries, of course.  And temples to fight a cultural battle with Babylon hoping I might be able to flip a city before our fight started, but that didn't pan out. But other than that, until the war with the Germans and Zulus was taken care of, I focused mostly on barracks and troops. (You don't build your WC force size up to eighty-someodd while fighting a two-front war by building libraries!) So when that war ended, I was horribly behind on peacetime infrastructure.
Here are a few snapshots of my situation from various saves:
530 AD (after the American/Japanese war fiasco): Few if any aqueducts, so only a few river cities are over size 6. Mostly building libraries and then marketplaces (with the libraries being the higher priority because I'd built up a huge cash surplus during the war and was researching at a massive deficit trying to catch up in tech using branch leads). Netting 50 gpt from other civs.
820 AD (as I started my successful attack on America): Most core cities working on Universities (since I have plenty of troops for the invasion). Researching Physics at 50%, but probably still a long way away from a 4-turn research pace. (Four turns are left, at 50%, the best I can do without a deficit, but at 100%, it would be two. I'm not sure how far I was into my research at the time.) Having to run the luxury slider at 20% due to a lack of luxuries definitely doesn't help! Netting 112 gpt from other civs.
910 AD (after negotiating deals with the other continent): Core cities working mostly on cavalry, cathedrals, or universities (listed in reverse order of priority). Still no luxuries being imported quite yet because I hate paying cash for them (especially with how much territory I controlled), but raking in 333 gpt from other civs. Researching Magnetism at a six-turn pace, but don't have Theory of Gravity yet.
1030 AD (after the Mongol war fought with cavalry): Four turns away from Industrilaization at 100% research, thanks to 648 gpt from other civs, and running a 200+ gold surplus that I can use for some rush building. It looks like I traded Magnetism to start importing wines, dyes, and gems the next turn after my report above. Building mostly cavalry and banks in my core, since I can't do factories or infantry yet.
1150 AD: Starting research on Corporation on a 4-turn pace at 70% science, with a surplus of almost 1600 gpt - 1499 of it from other civs. Needless to say, I'm rushing improvements like crazy in outlying areas. Thebes is finished with its factory and started on what will ultimately be an unsuccessful attempt at Smith's Trading Company. The other core cities are pretty much all working on factories, except for El-Amarna, which is working on our Iron Works. I'm now importing all five luxuries not readily available on my home continent, obtained in tech-for-luxuries-plus-whatever-else-I-can-get deals.
I won't keep going past that on the economic front, but my foreign income stayed in the 1500 gpt range for a long time. That helped me rush enough improvements to make essentially my entire empire, even including most of the Viking cities once I conquered them, at least marginally productive. By the end of the game, my economy was so strong that I could do four-turn modern research with the luxury slider at 20% and still make a profit even if I didn't have any foreign income. (At that point, my foreign income was down to just 101 gpt from Korea because there wasn't much else left in the way of foreign civs to trade with. )
Regarding diplomacy, I had no interest in alliances in any of my wars until I got mad at the Arabs (and my alliance there was as much to keep them from getting alliances or MPPs against me as anything else). I would have loved to get the Mongols in on my first war with Japan, but it wasn't worth committing to a 20-turn war for. I used ROP agreements with Japan in my first two big assaults on America, and let Tokugawa talk me into a MPP (something very rare for me) not long after the second American war. I figured with me between the Mongols and Japan and no other major powers on the continent, the odds were against my actually being called on to fight, and it would't exactly have broken my heart to have Japan fight the Mongols even if it would mean my getting dragged in. Also, a MPP was a lot cheaper than building a solid defense; my military strategy allowed for the fact that if Japan attacked, I would almost certainly lose cities, but I could draft ample troops to prevent further progress if the worst came. I also had a ROP agreement with the Mongols for quite a while, which, as I noted before, I used in my attack on America.
One more note on trade: I was quite happy to sell luxuries to anyone who could still afford them after the exorbitant prices I charged for tech, or who I could get all available gold and gpt from selling luxuries instead of tech.
Nathan
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20-04-2003 10:28
42 leaders! And how many of those did you get when you actually had nothing you needed them for? 
) you have been more efficient / direct than I. And it's interesting, in certain ways we play out similar strategies (although I have always played most similar to Arrian (CP notwithstanding), but invariably end up with very different games.
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