Earth Map Strategies

Aqualung · January 9, 2002, 17:49

Anyone playing on the various Earth maps should have discovered that there's different strategies depending on your civ. Marla, for example, gives us a program which edits starts, so that everyone starts in the right spot. This is what I use. The game plays differently than a normal, random 16 civ huge map.

Europe is crammed with civs. Egypt, Zulu, and China have plenty of expansion room. India, Aztec, American and Iroquois are somewhat limited, but still have much more space than Europe.

For those named, the standard, random-map rules apply. But for Europe:

Make contact with everyone else first. This should be your highest priority in the beginning. Know your neighbors starting techs. If you (Rome) can trade Warrior Code for the Greek Alphabet, then the Germans have nothing to trade with them. But that's basic strategy, and works on any map. The only difference is you know who starts where, and how to get to them first.

Cram as many cities as you can into the space you can carve out. 9 squares per city. Not the full 21 you're used to. Even for Russia, you think you've got plenty of room to expand eastwards... the AI will get there eventually, unless you want to stay at war with them from the moment they send a settler and spearman your way.

The AI places new cities to account for expansion. With your tightly packed cities, you can get more production out of the same space. In my current German game, I've packed 12 cities in the area that the AI (when I'm not European) fills with 7. That's 5 more Knights I can have in production. You won't go past 12 pop for a long time, anyway.

Once you fill your chosen area, stop. Build up your cities. The French and Romans will waste their production sending wave after wave of settler/spearmen deep into Siberia. You can develop your area, build Aqueducts (if necessary, find those rivers!), build Barracks. Pump out the military. There's little point in building wonders. More often than not, the European civs will be the ones who build the wonders, so let them, and then take them. London usually builds Colossus and Great Lighthouse. And they're easy pickings.

And for the Western Hemisphere civs, make contact with them your next highest priority. But DO NOT, under any circumstances, even if it means war, give contact to anyone else. In my last game, I had the Americans paying 260 to trade world maps with me. When I traded maps with the English, and saw that they were exploring in that area, then I sold contact to everyone for everything I could get. Once they got contact with the rest of the world, they ceased to be polite, ceased to have 260 gold to trade, and generally acted quite rude. But until they make contact with the other 12 civs, you can simply trade maps and tech (they'll be WAY behind) for enormous ammounts of gold.

Marquis de Sodaq · January 10, 2002, 11:53

I've played the Marla map as the Aztecs - what a good starting place! All of south america is mine, and I've bullied my way northward and control what is in reality the US.

I'll try some of your tips with a european start one of these days.

One thing about that map that I have edited: I've made tundra uninhabitable except on special resource squares. Seeing the teeming road networks and dense settlement of Greenland and Siberia makes me cringe.

Aqualung · January 11, 2002, 17:21

I played America today. Selling maps works even better from this direction. Aztec and Iroquois still give me everything they've got. The English gave me all their gold, territory map, contact with another, AND a few coins per turn. I made contact with everyone this way. They all gave me the same offer the English did (The Indians threw in Polytheism). I forgot to check how much gold I'm raking in.

But the key to this is contact with Aztecs/Iroquois. Once Europe (and others) can start dealing with them, then the value of my maps plumets.

AJ Corp. The FAIR · January 16, 2002, 14:55

[QUOTE] Originally posted by Aqualung
Anyone playing on the various Earth maps should have discovered that there's different strategies depending on your civ. Marla, for example, gives us a program which edits starts, so that everyone starts in the right spot. This is what I use. The game plays differently than a normal, random 16 civ huge map.

Who is the lovely and apparently mysterious Marla? (Although a regular visitor of this site I can't read everything)

Playing an Earth Map with wrong starting locations is like trying to get drunk drinking non alcoholic beer!

Where can I download this map?

Thankfully yours,

AJ

Aeson · January 16, 2002, 15:32

Here is the link:

Marla's World Map thread

The map also comes with a utility for setting the correct starting positions.

Arrian · January 16, 2002, 16:08

I downloaded Marla's map last night. Wow. It's more polished than the game itself. But I digress.

I started it up on Monarch as the Chinese, a civ I had previously never played (I don't like the traits... but with a realistic world map, I figured China would be nice). Oh my GOD, China is nice. I'm HUGE, and have thus far nailed the Wonders I wanted (G.Library/Sun Tzu, 15 turns from Sistine... it's roughly 400AD).

The key, for me, has been NOT selling my world map. Territory map, yes, world map no. This allowed me to get the jump on colonizing Indonesia and the other islands south of me... though the AI has begun to catch up. I now have contact with everyone (I bought contact with the Americans, Iroquois and Aztecs from Joan of Arc for 50 bucks

).

The problem for me, however, is that my computer is REALLY struggling with the map. Huge, 16 civs is kinda rough with a 400mhz/64 MB system. The wait between turns is getting really annoying... and like I said, it's around 400AD.

I have stayed out of wars, which have occurred (Russia v. India, with Zululand and Persia entering the fray). I find myself far too busy building essential city improvements to actually build an army... though I will soon have the ability to pump out some Riders. Mmm... Riders. Methinks India is goin' down.

-Arrian

Aeson · January 16, 2002, 16:43

Something about Marla's map seems to discourage the AI from settling down through Poly/Micro/Indo-nesia and Australia. I was constantly selling my world maps, and the AI seemed to prefer to settle the frozen tundra of Siberia. Only after most of the northern hemisphere was settled did they start to move down into South America or the S Pacific Islands.

It is a really big map (larger than the standard huge maps), and even my 1.33GHz/512 MB system doesn't do too well in the later stages of the game.

I've only played as the Zulu's on this map so far, and definitely map trading works for their starting location. On Deity it was singlehandedly keeping me in the Gold/Tech lead, and making contact with the americas netted me about 1000 Gold in just one turn, plus several Techs. The Zulu's can very easily settle South America first, and/or Austrailia. The key to the Zulu's is to invade the Egyptians early, and take the Horses and Saltpeter along the red sea. I was able to do this in my first game with just Impies, and in my second by sending a few swordsmen (who took forever getting there). I think next I'm going to play with either the Japanese or English, and see how that works out.

Arrian · January 17, 2002, 14:13

Well, I've played on to roughly 700AD, and the wait between turns has gotten BRUTAL. Yet I soldier on. I've got the Sistine, Cop's is done in a couple of turns, and Bach is under construction as well. I have a narrow, 1-tech lead my most advanced adversaries, with others lagging. 1 turn away from Banking.

I have not fought yet, as the Chinese have to pay full shield price for city improvements (well, not barracks/harbors/walls, but whatever) and nearly all of my time has been spent doing that. I do have a small army of riders now, and have been pondering hitting India, but I really need more riders... and one of the AI's has gunpowder now, and will be trading it soon. So war doesn't look likely. I would pick a fight if I felt like I had enough troops to do real damage to someone, to at least trigger my golden age. Then again, the longer I can hold off on that golden age, the more powerful it will be.

I've been trading as best I can... using tech now, and am pulling in a bunch of money (though not as much as I'd like). Many things get rushbuilt, but still I find little time to pump out Riders.

I don't know about the SE Asian islands thing... I'm agressively colonizing it (Next stop - Australia), but the Indians and even the Japanese have put down a city or two (to my 6 or 7). The European civs definitely have a Siberia complex. It's a horrible patchwork quilt of size 1 or 2, influence 1 cities.

Anyway, I will try to continue, but my computer may just rebel and refuse to work anymore

That, or I will get too frustrated with 10 minute turns that will only get longer.

-Arrian

p.s. What I wouldn't give for a normal size world map that was done as well (or even half as well) as Marla's map. Clearly, you couldn't have more than 1 or 2 European civs, but that's ok with me.

Aeson · January 17, 2002, 15:19

Im sure that once Firaxis gets around to offering a usable editor that good maps will become more common. The ability to zoom in and out, along with a mini map would help design a lot. Having to load up a map in game to see how it looks from a global perspective is just too time consuming and frustrating.

Aqualung · January 18, 2002, 01:15

Yes, the waiting is the worst thing about the map. About the only bad thing, it's fun for a while.

I've found the answer: CONQUER! My Romans have just driven the Indians completely out of Asia (they're the only ones who DIDN'T settle in Siberia). Seems the wait isn't so long if the AI doesn't have any cities left. Doesn't actually speed the game up, because now I'M the one taking 15 minutes to move.

I've tried non-Europeans, but it's just not as fun. I blocked the French from settling in Spain with 2 warriors while I grabbed all the available spaces in the rest of Europe and the Morroco/Carthage area in Africa. Then I went to war. The only time I've stayed at peace was while I was moving my Legionaries, Knights or Cavalry to the next border.

Arrian · January 18, 2002, 11:10

Aqualung,

That's quite a bit of fighting. Yeesh. I find it ironic that, in my experience, playing a militaristic civ has generally SLOWED my war readiness. This is because I am not, by nature, a warmonger, so I demand that cities build their libraries and cathedrals and such prior to beginning a troop buildup. Thus, I am only now (970 A.D.) preparing for war. I have roughly 30 Cavalry massed at the Indian border, with some Riders for backup (I have yet to decide whether or not I want to trigger my golden age now, or hold off even longer...). All I need now are a few extra musketmen and some settlers, and India's TOAST. Then I will ponder Persia... and maybe Babylon. There is a large stack of ancient Indian troops on my northern border (Manchuria/Siberia) - 1 pikeman, 4-5 spearmen, 5 or so archers and a horseman. I investigated a couple of cities, and they're pretty lightly defended by musketmen. My military advisor tells me they "have the archer." I wonder if, because they are spending upkeep money on those ancient troops up north, they haven't built any up-to-date (for them, elephants) attack troops? If so, this is gonna be a cakewalk.

THe problem is that turns have now gotten to 15-20mins each. Ouch.

-Arrian

Aqualung · January 18, 2002, 23:41

In my case, I guess, it's because I'm in Europe. I claim what I can, then I build up my cities. Once I'd gotten the basics (barracks, temple, marketplace, aqueduct if necessary) I started pumping out the Legionaries. The AI continued to pump out settler/spearmen and send them off to Siberia. Their cities are underdeveloped and low pop. What's even better, they only have a small cluster next to me. The rest of France is in Siberia, and so are most of the units which my advisor says "Compared to these guys, we have an average military". I take their European cities and then make peace. Europe is amazingly vulnerable. The toughest battle was for England, because it's an island, and they don't expand as much as the continent, so they've got slightly more defenders than usual.

I also did some alterations to the rules. I made Temples, Cathedrals, Marketplaces and Banks reduce corruption. It was incredibly helpful. I didn't need to build Forbidden Palace until I went to war in Asia. I built it in Delhi. But now that I've taken half of China, Moscow's corruption has nearly tripled (2 shields wasted, now up to 5). Without this change, I probably would have had to build my FP IN Moscow. This has certainly been one of the reasons I've been able to go rampaging across the world. I've got better production than normal.

Arrian · January 21, 2002, 12:35

That's a pretty significant rules change. Probably fun that way, though.

As for me... India was pathetically easy - and I managed to goad them into declaring war on ME! Hah. I slaughtered them. In fact, it was so easy, I was seriously worried that I wouldn't generate a leader. Luckily, I did get one, which was used to rushbuild the Forbidden in a newly built city on the eastern coast of India (so that my indochinese cities would get some of the effects... maybe I should have held off and battled my way to Babylon and built it there. Oh well.). "India" is now a city in Australia (Delhi) size 1, built on and completely surrounded by desert. I would have killed them, but after destroying what I thought was their last city, I couldn't find them and feared the dreaded "1 setter on a boat somewhere" phenomenon, so I made peace. The next turn, I could see Delhi... which was in the same place as a city I had wiped out not 5 turns before.

As the war wound down, I switched to Democracy and used a Rider. I'm now in my Golden Age. I just built Shakespeare's and Theory of Ev. on the same turn. 3 turns from Industrialization, gaining 1000gold per turn. I think it's 1270 AD. I have to make a decision about whether or not to attack Persia and Babylon BEFORE the S.O.B.'s get Nationalism (and thus MPP's). I'm leaning toward leaving them alone.

Turns are now probably in the 20-25 minutes each range... getting worse of course. But there's no way I'm giving up now.

-Arrian

Harovan · January 21, 2002, 12:50

Arrian, I admire your patience!

I also enjoyed a game at Marla's map recently (by the way Egypt rules on Marla's) and buried it, after the AI's turns got over 15 minutes. My computer is not the fastest, but I have heard that even with a newer machine with more than 1 GHz and 512 MB the AI turns take unacceptable long.

Arrian · January 21, 2002, 13:29

Sir Ralph,

I'm actually not blessed with much patience. I've discovered that you can do other things while the computer is chewing on the AI's moves (like re-read the Simarillion or wash dishes), and at this point, I'm unwilling to give up. I've already put a LOT of time into this thing, and I WILL see it done.

Egypt is definitely a strong civ on Marla's map. My friend, who is playing India and is roughly pacing me (I think I've moved a few turns ahead because he didn't play yesterday), mentioned they are #2 behind him - just like they are for me. They are, in fact, the only competition I really have. I don't know if I'd like playing them, since they lack a good production center. They have lots of food and luxuries available, but despite being the most advanced of the AI's, I don't think they've gotten a single Wonder, due to low shield output. Meanwhile, France - a weak, but industrious civ with some hills nearby - has two of the best wonders in Paris (Pyramids & Bach).

India and China are good places to start, especially if you are the peaceful builder type. If you wanna kill people, playing a European civ is a good idea. If you want a challenge, I'd say any of the Amerindian civs would be good. If you can claw your way even in tech by the time it really matters, you can do pretty well - especially if you take your continent by force. You wouldn't have many luxuries, though (3 types, I think... dyes, furs, gems).

-Arrian

Jumping Choya · January 21, 2002, 13:29

I've been playing as the Chinese on Marla's map as well. Great start position.

Everybody on earth is annoyed with me. Everybody. Must be that lead I have. Unfortunately, my military might has been lacking for most of the game. The Japanese demanded horses from me. Ghandi has actually threatened me several times for maps and such.

I let them have what they want. It doesn't bother me too much. Their time is coming.

Harovan · January 21, 2002, 15:21

Arrian, If you are lucky to grab the area SW of the sahara desert (roughly Guinea...Nigeria) and build your FP there, you have a wonderful production area. The Nile plains give plenty food and (with industrous workers quickly) mined deserts quickly produce settlers for a T-REX.

You can build Suez and have a definite strategic advantage. Plus, this is a nice choke point to build some fortresses to protect you from warmongers. A paradise for a peaceful builder. May be on the new version (1.17) of Marla's, I will try an asian civ too. Definitely not a European (I'm not masochist

). But the AI's did not fight wars there, they built a patchwork over the whole Eurasia. By the way, the AI was too dumb to build Panama at my map, how about yours?

Arrian · January 21, 2002, 15:46

Hmm, good point about subsaharan Africa - it is a nice place (and the Egyptians do have it in my game). Panama? Well, Panama (as in the country) is Aztecan, but I don't know if the AI was smart enough to build in such a way as to create a canal - I'll have a look next time I load the game.

The most hilarious city I've yet seen? An English town in the middle of South America - that just happens to have 2 coal within it's size1 radius (the English do not have steam power... I'm the only industrial age power). The Zulu have gotten over there too. The southern 1/2 of the continent is still empty, but given the size of the Pacific Ocean, by the time a settler team of mine could get over there it will be full. The Egyptians plunked down a city in northern Australia, as have the Zulu and the aforementioned Indians, which I also find pretty amusing (I've got 7 cities down there now, and am preparing to colonize New Zealand).

The Eurasian patchwork is the one thing I don't like about this map. Something has to be done to prevent the AI from spending tons of time and resources on colonizing worthless tundra. Maybe tundra should be flagged as terrain you can't build cities on. If the AI ran out of room earlier, I suspect they would do more fighting. As it stands, Europe has been entirely peaceful.

-Arrian

Arrian · January 21, 2002, 16:01

Quote:

Originally posted by Jumping Choya
I've been playing as the Chinese on Marla's map as well. Great start position.

Everybody on earth is annoyed with me. Everybody. Must be that lead I have. Unfortunately, my military might has been lacking for most of the game. The Japanese demanded horses from me. Ghandi has actually threatened me several times for maps and such.

I let them have what they want. It doesn't bother me too much. Their time is coming.

Hmm, everyone annoyed at you? Very different than my experience. Except for a brief time at the beginning of the Sino-Indian war, everyone was polite with me. Cleopatra was, in the beginning of the war vs. the hated Ghandi, annoyed, but she came around. Despite the "politeness" of the AI, I have received 3 demands, all of which I have rejected - none lead to wars. Keep in mind that if you're really big, they fear you and will probably back down. Especially the Japanese. Compared to you, they're GARBAGE! Don't gift them things! Say no, and then sell them the thing they demanded.

Maybe part of the reason the AI likes me is the round of tech trading I did. I sold everyone Astronomy and Music Theory once it became clear that Egypt had both (though I wonder if the French would have gotten it if I hadn't sold it to them... they did beat me to Bach). I raked in an obscene amount of cash and everybody was quite pleased with me.

You will find that the AI on Marla's map generally has a terrible military, because all of its energy is spent trying to build more cities - wherever it can. Thus, when I attacked India, I saw something like 7 musketmen... after which I was killing pikemen and spearmen. NOT ONE WAR ELEPHANT, despite the fact that they had Chivalry. Late in the war, a stack of troops appeared north of a city I'd captured in the himalayas. It consisted of 5 archers, 3 spearmen, a pikeman, a horseman, and a warrior. That was the Indian offensive capability, which had been wandering Siberia for thousands of years. It was destroyed in 2 turns.

-Arrian

Harovan · January 21, 2002, 17:59

Quote:

Originally posted by Arrian
The most hilarious city I've yet seen? An English town in the middle of South America - that just happens to have 2 coal within it's size1 radius

I know the city, I own it as I also managed to discover steam power first and Egypt has no other coal. Plus, I own a 2x Dyes city in S America. All my other cities are in N Africa. That the English own it in your game before steam power sounds strange. Let's not call it cheating, let's call it, well, a lucky coincidence

Quote:

Originally posted by Arrian
The Eurasian patchwork is the one thing I don't like about this map. Something has to be done to prevent the AI from spending tons of time and resources on colonizing worthless tundra. Maybe tundra should be flagged as terrain you can't build cities on. If the AI ran out of room earlier, I suspect they would do more fighting.

As far as I know (didn't check it yet), in version 1.17 Marla has increased the food production of all terrain except tundra and desert by one, and increased the food per citizen to 3. As was stated in her thread, this prevents the AI from building worthless desert and tundra cities. Also, she gave a few civs (English, Romans and Japanese) an early ship (pirogue, transports 1 unit, Pottery needed).

I will give it a try after I assembled my new box in 2-3 weeks. I won't play Marla's again at my 350 MHz machine.

Aeson · January 21, 2002, 22:27

I found the Egyptians to be in a somewhat bad starting position. The flood plains are great for pop-rushing, but I like my core cities to do as little of that as possible. Also the barbarians come quite early from northern Africa, maybe tracing the coast to get to the Romans? Sending a couple military that way early is a good idea, but also slows down contact with Eurasia. In the first game I played the Egyptians were the early losers, but that was just because I was the Zulus and needed some Horses and Saltpeter.

I think the Aztecs and Zulu's have the most advantageous starting positions. The Aztecs get a good portion of N. America, and have a monopoly on S. America if they want it. The Zulus only have to contend with the Egyptians for Africa, and with all the Barbarians, Impies do the best exploration job of any early unit.. I was able to stake out good claims on Austrailia and/or S. America with all the Civ's I've played with so far though, so any position is quite playable on Marla's map.

I've seen the Indians and Chinese with huge armies on this map. I had Africa to myself, and the Indians wiped out the Persians. The Persians respawned in Africa, and a force of about 50 War Elephants were headed towards Suez right before I was able to block the neck of land off with a couple of Impies. Also the Chinese went to war with the Greeks, and I saw comparable number of Riders passing some of my "AI gift" cities. All this before 500BC. I beat the Chinese to the Greeks though, all that way for nothing

Tech advancement is very quick on this map. Part of it is just all the food/commerce available, but that doesn't explain it all. I set everything back to normal in the editor, but Tech advancement is more like a small or standard map, definitely not the 40 turns for the first advance that random Huge maps always seem to have. Maybe it is because the AI makes contact so quickly in Europe and the Tech trades between them. It does seem off though.

GePap · January 22, 2002, 00:41

Since I am a slow player, who likes to take things easily, I decided to p[lay the Aztecs alone in the new world, which meant getting all of North America for myself (Sout America just too far away due to corruption, except for a city at the mouth of the Amazon to get at all those gems. Well, being all alone certainly shows some of the strenghs of the game (the few there are). First, when I finally contacted everyone -by way of triremes to japan, I was of course, way behind tech since I was trying to climb alone. I also had to pay for horses, since Marla gave me none, which is fine. So now, as I jockey to join the world community from far away, i am dependent on my competitiors for horses (The Russians cancelled the first deal, now my suppliers are the egyptians) and since I have yet to get Navigation, I certainly can't mount an invasion of the old world (triremes too slow).

By the way, how to the iriquois do on this map? I mean, their UU is meaningless since they have to tared for horses and they won't find anyone to trade with for a while into the game.

Harovan · January 22, 2002, 10:45

Aeson, I think I've seen your game. It's great. You posted a savegame somewhere. I wondered how you could get into industrial age and discover steam power roughly 500 BC. But in the top difficulty levels the tech speed is higher, I think due to the AI advantage. I am mostly playing at the "fun" levels Monarch or even Regent.

Personally I am sure, a good player can make an AI look bad in all of their possible starting positions. And except for 1 galley (needed to secure one of the islands in Atlantic, not to have an unsinkable carrier before my coast later) I did not pop rush at all.

Flood plains have some advantage over grassland. It's not useless to irrigate them in despotism, and irrigated and with a wheat resource (plenty of them at the map) they give food like crazy. And the effect increases after getting rid of Despotism. Mined deserts grant a sufficient production for the early game. You can easily compensate the loss of food with the food you get from the flood plains. And terrain improvements are a charm with those industrous workers.

In my game, I contacted the Zulus about 500 AD. They hadn't met anyone yet (the AI was busy with Siberia, and my Suez guard blocked some German and Bab explorers and settlers) and were hopelessly back in tech.

EDIT: As for horses

, Egypt has plenty of it and I sold them to the American civs. They paid LOTs of bucks, in due time!

Arrian · January 22, 2002, 12:08

I also believe that Marla changed the Tech rate. In my (Monarch) game, it's 1280 A.D. and I've just discovered industrialization... 4 turns to atomic theory. Tech is FLYING. Part of that is the fact that there is a lot of silk and other great trade squares China. Part of it is that I have a SSC (well, no colossus, but Cop's and Newton) that is pumping out ~200 science/turn - I'm at 90% science. Part of it is that the AI does trade tech agressively, and their science advantage early on sped up everything... and then the Great Library caught me up.

Aeson, the huge armies you saw are no doubt part and parcle of Deity level. They were probably "free units" given to the AI when it founds cities (isn't it 4 per new city on Diety? A defender or two, an attacker or two?). I have seen Japanese island cities in my game defended by Samurai - which are the only Samurai I've seen.

Ok, I have a decision to make in my game. The Americans just entered the Industrial Age (first AI civ to make it). They have yet to discover any Ind. Age techs, but it's only a matter of time before either they, or one of the "scientific" civs gets Nationalism... and then proceeds to trade it to everyone else. MPP hell is just around the corner. The Persians are my western neighbors. They are one of the weakest civs. They have 1 incense and some horses... and that's it. I don't have incense, but I'm trading with Greece for it - iron+9gold/turn for incense, which actually isn't too bad. Part of me wants to just whole up and race for the SS launch... but part of me wants to take down the Persians (and thus gain 5 local luxuries) first. Decisions, decisions. I really should just tell my 50 Cavalry regiments to mount up and ride. I don't know why I'm hesitating...

-Arrian

Aeson · January 22, 2002, 13:40

I just checked the starting tech rate of Marla's map compared to a randomly generated huge map, and then a tiny map. On the random map with 3 beakers, the first tech's all took 40 turns to research. On Marla's map, all of the tech's were in the 8-20 turn range with 3 beakers. The tiny map had slightly longer research times than Marla's map, because there were less Civs and less starting techs. Setting the Tiny world size tech rate for Marla's map in the editor to 240 puts research back on par with a huge map. I guess she used a tiny map at 256x256 instead of huge.

Aeson · January 22, 2002, 13:44

I guess changing the optimal number of cities for a tiny map would be in order too. I just reset all the values and turned on standard rules before I played, so I don't know what values were originally set for the map.

Flight · January 22, 2002, 14:50

damn i feel like im really impatient now

I was playing as England ont his 1.4 tbird w/ 256 and turns were taking just over a minute at around 800AD, so I got bored. If it was longer i could do something else but a miunute is hardly enough time to concentrate on something else but also too long just to sit, ah well

So then i started a new game with only 6 AI civs; the Americans, English, Germans, Russians (me), Zulus, Indians and Japanese. On Monarch

I assume that england and japan had the piroque but they didnt expand beyond the islands surrounding them, no cities on the mainland. Ah well, bash them later

Germany attacked with severe numbers of swordsmen taking my cities around the caspian and eventually moscow, but my horsemen were eventually able to reclaim my cities and push into Germany. They declared war again, later and I got help from the Indians and Zulus. Great help they were; after taking everthing up to Spain and leaving them with Dresden on Corsica and 3 Spanish cities plus one in the Canaries I made peace and watched a stack of 30+ Indian units moving through my land

Meanwhile the Americans Have simply overwhelmed everything. They have filled North America and have about 6 colonies for various things in South America. They also have a tech lead of 1 or 2 which they will not trade for anything. I guess I'll have to invade them with tanks when the time comes...

The zulus captured a couple of the small German cities on the North coast of Africa. I dont remember what year it is but I have recently got my cossack machine started up. and took over the UK with lots of knights. Whilst doing this the Indians asked me for an alliance against the Germans, so I took all of Spain while a stack of more than 50 Indian units tried to make its way through my terrain.

I'm now deciding whether to invade the zulus or the Indians. I'm edging towards the Zulus due to that 50 unit stack of war elephants.

awesome map

Harovan · January 22, 2002, 16:03

Playing on Marla's with only 7 civs sounds funny. I guess it will take till 1700-1800 AD, before the AI has filled the last hopeless corner of the map with junk cities.

Arrian · January 22, 2002, 17:03

Wow, since I've been slogging through my game on the map, Marla & Co. have gone up to version 1.17 - with some interesting changes. The most important, I believe, is the increase in food/pop to 3 and making settlers more expensive to build. This ought to deal with the "infinte siberia sprawl." If I had "infinite patience" I might start a new game on the new version of the map... but it's gonna take all I've got to finish the one I've got going.

-Arrian

Flight · January 23, 2002, 05:38

Actually the siberia sprall was worse with more civs, as they had no space to build. The AI's (apart from england and japan) have plenty of fertile land to build on, and although their cities are still farther from the capital, it is a lot better to look at than the tartan siberian wastes. I thought in this version, 17b, that people could not settle tundra, but you still get 2 food on the city base quare, so you can - it just isnt worth it for lots of size 1 cities - but the AI doesnt know this

As an update...I really want an implementation of stacking units. Moving over 60 units from europe to africa and then manouvering them in a big military campaign could've been a lot easier. I had Army group East, West and centre going South into Zulu territory, taking all their new size 1 cities. The Indians have a massive train of units going down the eastern coast which should help a lot...ATM I'm just coming up to their larger 6-10 cities. I might relocate my capital there with stalin and see what kind of production i can really get out of it. Oh and Lenin got killed when my cossack retreated

Oh yes and my golden age from the first attack of a cossack netted me 4 techs in 4,5,6,4 turns and 2 grand in the bank. I now have a tech lead over the Americans, which is perfect. I am also constructing a navy of ironclads to upgrade later to aid the culling of the Americans