So I just had two AI players flip out on me in two different ways. The Chinese decided to convert almost every tile that wasn't a resource into a workshop, and the Russians decided to just stop working tiles altogether.
It seems like it's way too easy to get a space victory. Unless, of course, the intent is that if getting a space victory is trivial, then you're probably going to win some other way and getting into space just ends the game there so you don't have to bother crushing your foes.
Space victory is only really trivial if you managed to stay out of wars(or at least have enough of a tech advatage to require small numbers to protect your cites) for most of the game, otherwise the other Leaders that likes to research will be racing with you to get that thing off the tarmac and into space.
So I just had two AI players flip out on me in two different ways. The Chinese decided to convert almost every tile that wasn't a resource into a workshop, and the Russians decided to just stop working tiles altogether.
It seems like it's way too easy to get a space victory. Unless, of course, the intent is that if getting a space victory is trivial, then you're probably going to win some other way and getting into space just ends the game there so you don't have to bother crushing your foes.
I think Mao's favorite civic is State Property so the workshops think kind of makes sense.
In my experience the Space victory isn't really a timesaver. If you are doing well, in many cases you'll be in position to win by Domination or Culture before you finish researching all the spaceship techs.
So I just had two AI players flip out on me in two different ways. The Chinese decided to convert almost every tile that wasn't a resource into a workshop, and the Russians decided to just stop working tiles altogether.
It seems like it's way too easy to get a space victory. Unless, of course, the intent is that if getting a space victory is trivial, then you're probably going to win some other way and getting into space just ends the game there so you don't have to bother crushing your foes.
I think Mao's favorite civic is State Property so the workshops think kind of makes sense.
In my experience the Space victory isn't really a timesaver. If you are doing well, in many cases you'll be in position to win by Domination or Culture before you finish researching all the spaceship techs.
I do believe that the problem is that we have too many cities.
I do believe that your belief may be accurate. Also, my understanding is that an army, understandably, needs to be paid.
Can we manufacture money yet? That might go a ways towards fixing the economy a touch.
Nice writeup, by the way, Funky. I've got to say, I was expecting Bumtrumpet to turn into a cottage economy when I founded it. Either way, it's good to see some infrastructure getting built!
Once I saw that the Pyramids were still up for grabs I became fixated on the idea of running a specialist economy, hence the farms at Bumtrumpet. Unfortunately we still need to raise the happy ceiling some more before that can possibly work. Not real sure what I was thinking putting the science buildings at Catfood.
Turned out pretty weak, much harder than I thought. But at least game went well, whoever wants next turn should have good economy to either continue building economy or attempting to conquer the Native Americans.
Turned out pretty weak, much harder than I thought. But at least game went well, whoever wants next turn should have good economy to either continue building economy or attempting to conquer the Native Americans.
Holy shit, we were first to Liberalism? After we were beaten to Philosophy, which we traded around and then went down the banking line before going for Education?
And wasn't Antium (which you razed) the Confucian holy city? Epic lulz.
Not gonna get to this until sometime this weekend, got a busy schedule ahead of me at the moment. Hope you all aren't dying to see what happens next...
So I've been thinking, should we perhaps try to plan for a win condition now that our empire is more or less up and running? Domination is probably the simplest but I don't know how everyone feels about warmongering (not too keen on it myself).
Maybe we should just wait for someone to unilaterally commit us to a strategy during their turn.
Not gonna get to this until sometime this weekend, got a busy schedule ahead of me at the moment. Hope you all aren't dying to see what happens next...
Like, a lot of dick. I'm playing on some fairly easy difficulty at the moment, and I mean I'm creaming the AI, but I realised that I could have militarily won the game hours and hours ago. How do I play militarily? Heck half the time I don't even have an army so to speak until gunpowder units. How do I get into shape so as to be able to go to war early?
The best way to field an early army is by using slavery. Switch to it as soon as it's available and take advantage of its ability to turn unhappy citizens into soldiers. Don't forget that the unhappiness penalty is per use, not per population spent, so try to whip for two pop when possible so you'll get a net happiness gain.
From what I've found, it also helps to actually pay attention to how much your cities can produce. If you build a really large one, odds are it can churn out troops in one or two turns if you actually use it for that. Wonders are nice, but a stack of 20 units is just as nice if you use it correctly.
That's right. Every time you go to build a wonder 'just because', ask yourself whether it's actually going to help you. Most of the time, they don't; they just look pretty. You're better off thinking for a moment and building something that's overall more beneficial which, until you can produce money or science, is often going to be military units.
Also, if you're warmongering, you can skimp on archers and archery. They're good on defence and much quicker to build than, say, axemen, but you're better off investing in more aggressive units and tech paths if you're planning a war.
The slavery civic is really useful, but I feel you'd be better off getting some wartime experience first. I'd recommend playing a reasonably tough difficulty, something you know you can win, and turning on aggressive AI. That way, if you don't go to war, it'll come to you! You can get some hugely entertaining world wars that way - I had a brilliant game that split the globe into a massive 4v4 kill-fest for about 2000 years!
I disagree about the archery units. I like to have a lot of variety in my unit stacks because otherwise the computer only has to build one kind of counter unit (and every unit has a counter). Putting archers in your ranks not only gives your stack some variety, it enables you to leave a strong defense unit behind in any cities you decide to take.
This extends to every wartime strategy I employ. Lots of times I stick trebuchets behind the walls of a city I know will be attacked by a large group so that I can soften them up and eliminate them on the offensive, then carry that offense into their own territory once I've smashed their aggressive military. Usually they didn't leave enough units behind to stop my advance.
Variety is good but you don't necessarily need archers to have variety in an offensive stack. In my most recent game I never bothered with archery, and only missed it because it popped from a hut in 1000AD instead of a more up-to-date tech.
Archers aren't a specific counter to any unit and are relatively poor performers at anything except city defence. Early on, axe and spear groups make similiarly effective defenders that can just as easily be used to press the attack. Of course, they're also much more expensive, which leaves archers as the superior choice if you're only looking for a good, solid defence.
I just bring them along as cheap city defenders, since I always give them the city defense bonuses.
The question is really whether investing the beakers in the Archery tech is worth it. If I've got the tech, archers are a pretty good investment in hammers.
Well I don't beeline to Archery or anything, but once tech trading starts it's a good idea to trade the same tech to every other Civ for a fair deal in order to gain diplomacy points with them/gain techs before the other Civs start passing it around. I'll take Archery for an already traded tech over allowing the AI to gain something from trading it.
And that doesn't even take into account the fact that Archery is easily obtained from huts early on.
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It seems like it's way too easy to get a space victory. Unless, of course, the intent is that if getting a space victory is trivial, then you're probably going to win some other way and getting into space just ends the game there so you don't have to bother crushing your foes.
I think Mao's favorite civic is State Property so the workshops think kind of makes sense.
In my experience the Space victory isn't really a timesaver. If you are doing well, in many cases you'll be in position to win by Domination or Culture before you finish researching all the spaceship techs.
It wasn't Mao, though, it was the other guy.
I do believe that your belief may be accurate. Also, my understanding is that an army, understandably, needs to be paid.
Can we manufacture money yet? That might go a ways towards fixing the economy a touch.
Nice writeup, by the way, Funky. I've got to say, I was expecting Bumtrumpet to turn into a cottage economy when I founded it. Either way, it's good to see some infrastructure getting built!
Like 80% of your cities should be commerce cities working dozens of maturing cottages to fund your empire.
Also make sure you have enough workers so none of your cities are ever working unimproved tiles... (including forests)
Turned out pretty weak, much harder than I thought. But at least game went well, whoever wants next turn should have good economy to either continue building economy or attempting to conquer the Native Americans.
Holy shit, we were first to Liberalism? After we were beaten to Philosophy, which we traded around and then went down the banking line before going for Education?
And wasn't Antium (which you razed) the Confucian holy city? Epic lulz.
Maybe we should just wait for someone to unilaterally commit us to a strategy during their turn.
I forsee... us building the UN, becoming the General Secretary... all to make sure nukes are never banned...
Of course, everyone does that!
So... any progress?
Like, a lot of dick. I'm playing on some fairly easy difficulty at the moment, and I mean I'm creaming the AI, but I realised that I could have militarily won the game hours and hours ago. How do I play militarily? Heck half the time I don't even have an army so to speak until gunpowder units. How do I get into shape so as to be able to go to war early?
Also, if you're warmongering, you can skimp on archers and archery. They're good on defence and much quicker to build than, say, axemen, but you're better off investing in more aggressive units and tech paths if you're planning a war.
The slavery civic is really useful, but I feel you'd be better off getting some wartime experience first. I'd recommend playing a reasonably tough difficulty, something you know you can win, and turning on aggressive AI. That way, if you don't go to war, it'll come to you! You can get some hugely entertaining world wars that way - I had a brilliant game that split the globe into a massive 4v4 kill-fest for about 2000 years!
This extends to every wartime strategy I employ. Lots of times I stick trebuchets behind the walls of a city I know will be attacked by a large group so that I can soften them up and eliminate them on the offensive, then carry that offense into their own territory once I've smashed their aggressive military. Usually they didn't leave enough units behind to stop my advance.
The question is really whether investing the beakers in the Archery tech is worth it. If I've got the tech, archers are a pretty good investment in hammers.
And that doesn't even take into account the fact that Archery is easily obtained from huts early on.
It will probably be sometime tonight.