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Emperor
Local Time: 20:44
Local Date: October 31, 2010
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: The warmonger formerly known as rpodos. Gathering Storm!
Posts: 8,907
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Me too! First game won!!
Hello all, and, thank you very much, I finally completed / won a game!!!
First, to Arrian: Japan ROCKS!!!
OVERVIEW
- Played Japan, large continents on standard map, Emperor.
- Ended up in the southwest corner a supercontinent with Iroquois adjacent, and Aztecs, India, and Russia beyond. Egypt and Greece shared the second largest continent, and France was alone on the third.
- Domination victory in 1806, while researching Synthetic Fibers. Approximately 60 cities, 87.5 m pop, 147k square miles. Score=4890.
THE GENERAL STORY
- I started on a peninsula, which seems to be common post-1.21f (as opposed to the continental center).
- The Iroqouis more or less blocked the headlands of the peninsula... you can guess how I felt about that!! Talk about an early war - first strike with an exploring Warrior before 3000BC!! I then had to make sure they NEVER got Horses... I destroyed a city 3 times at the eventual site of Kagoshima. How can I say this... buh-bye.
- What the heck, I was already at war, and now had Horsemen, so it's time for a little JW-hunting!!
- You know the Meow Mix song?? OK, sing it with the word "war" instead. War war war war, war war war war, war war war war war war war war. I think I stayed at war for almost the entire game, with maybe one exception... the build-up to my massive intercontinental invasion, that won the game.
Some general thoughts below:
OFFENSIVE STRATEGY
- General initial war strategy: With the exception of the Iroqouis, who I just went after like a pitbull (errr, make that an Akita), I pretty much initiated with Defensive War each time. After 20 turns of peace, declare but don;t attack... button up tight, control the high ground, and chew up the AI's offensive forces in open-ground bottleneck kill zones. When they start dribbling in, take the offensive. This worked particularly well when the enemy had strong fastmovers, like India and Russia (if I can figure out how to post the SAV, look at the trap at New Delhi... maaany Cossacks danced for the last time there; and the Indian WEs got slaughtered by the dozen at Tlatelolco... the ground ran red with elephant blood, and victory wreathes were made of ivory!).
- Due to early war, as Japan, I had a higher number of slow-movers than I would have liked, and a loooong way to travel by the time I was attacking India and Russia. I used up a bunch as mixed-unit multi-purpose Armies (see below), others as last ditch defenders in Maginot Lines (see below), and when they were totally obsolete, I used them to seed construction and then rush-bought.
-Offensive Armies: For slowmovers, I created two 2X Swordsmen Armies. I later added a Longbowmen, and then finally an Infantry. Great multi-purpose tool, all units became Elite fairly quickly, and with long-term viability. For fast-mover Armies, my biggest lesson was to NOT mix in defenders. Although theoretically mixing, say, 2X Tanks and 2X MI creates a formidable multi-purpose tool, foregoing blitz is just dumb. I ruined a 2X Cav + 1X Tank Army by adding an MI instead of waiting for an MA or just adding another Tank.
- The Major Intercontinental Invasion:
By about 1780, I had taken control of my entire continent, with the exception of 1 Egyptian and 2 French outpost cities, which I had COMPLETELY boxed in with solid Maginot Lines (see below). All of my original neighbors were DEAD DEAD DEAD, and the world was at peace. I was getting close to a Dom victory anyway, but I decided to experiment. I knew that I would want to purify my land, and then chose France as my intercontinental target. I stayed at peace until Tanks...
Combined forces. Mass AND concentration. Stacks of stacks. I drew up plans for a massive invasion, targeting Paris:
5 Battleships
4 Carriers
12 Bombers
4 Fighters
24 Artillery
8 Marines
12 Mechanized Infantry
22 Tanks
3 Armies
- 4X Tank
- 2X Tank + 2X MI
- 1X Tank + 2X MI
I thought this was maybe overkill, but what the heck. Turned out not to be too much, though...
I placed one humongous stack on a shore mountain 3 tiles northwest of Paris... and, uh, decided not to leave. All ships in one stack immediately adjacent, with the Fighters set to air superiority.
I bombed and shelled everything in sight, including creating a no-improvements zone across the continent, cutting it in half - this was to slow down reinforcments, and also to cut off resources and luxuries, although I won before I could complete that by destroying or capturing connected harbors. It later turned out that this fortuitously also destroyed the road giving Joan access to uranium (grins evilly).
I then used my MIs, including the all MI Army, to fortify on a grassland tile one step closer to Paris, and then leapfrogged everyone to a mountain within 2 tiles of the City of Light. I also moved the fleet to within 2 tiles. BWAAHAHAHA! I also, at this point, brought in reinforcements, mostly MIs and 8 more Arty.
Well, I guessed that Paris had built something cultural in almost 6000 years, so I didn't have to worry about razing. How long do you think you could last against (now) 6 Battleships, 12 Bombers (constantly reinforced through re-basing), and 32 Artillery??!!
"Not too long" is the answer. Down goes Paris (1 pop and hardly any improvements) to the power of JAPAN!
You know at the end of The Matrix, when Neo has died and those octopus machines were coming after them, and Morpheus says "Here they coommme..."?
That's what I felt like... Tanks, MIs, Infantry, Artillery, leftover Cavalry... it was a flood. Thank god I had gone in as hard and massive as I did.
I did do one cool other thing though... I had masses of excess workers (don't we all), so I had carted over I think 3 Transports full just for the hell of it... I then realized I could use them to IMMEDIATELY build Paris to 7 pop, and even though a citizen died of starvation each turn I had enough to go around. So this dealt with resistance, flipping, and city defense.
I then moved on Marseilles, and that's all I have to say about that.
My final offensive force in the local French theater was:
6 Battleships
4 Carriers
27 Bombers
8 Fighters
29 Artillery
3 Marines (useless, BTW)
26 Mechanized Infantry
20 Tanks
6 Armies
- 4X MI
- 4X MI
- 4X Tank
- 2X Tank + 2X MI
- 1X Tank + 3X MI
- 1X Tank + 1X MI + 2X Cav
Other offensive stuff:
- Battlefield Medicine: Critical for late intercontinental invasions.
- Healing at sea: BTW, do ships heal if in international territory? Or do they have to go to a harbor?
- Casualty report: Sorely missed.
DEFENSIVE STRATEGY
- I use Maginot Lines quite a lot... not so much as defense, but to guide enemy forces to where I want them (i.e., the killzone). After the local issue has been "settled," I then dump all the troops into captured cities until they are firmly MINE. Prior to the game-ending "big push," I think I had 60 or so Infantry and MIs encircling the 3 foreign cities on my continent.
- Also, not quite a Maginot Line, but rather a "forward defensive positioning route" (I made that up, but I like it) was used in the war on the Aztecs. Look at the arrow of fortified mountains pointing into the heart of their empire, a little north of Nara.
- Must control the high ground, must control the high ground... especially immediately adjacent to my coastal cities.
- Never doubt the value of older "obsolete" units. During the attack on France, Joan slipped a couple of sorties onto my shores (kudos, AI!). Although I had of course maintained some of my offensive capabilities at home, I decided to give the National Guard a shot: a Longbowman killed 1 MI, and my 4 Cav Army (18 hps) killed 2 MI in one turn.
- Defensive Armies: As discussed above, mostly an outcome of maintaining the value of ancient slow-mover Armies. But don't diss the value of 1 Infantry + 1 Longbowman + 2 Swordsmen!! Don't forget that in every individual defensive engagement, the Infantry goes first, with whatever hps are left. Put this baby in a mountain fortress, and watch it turn all elite in no time.
AI STRATEGIES
- Land: Better post-1.21f, but still not great (although I'm impressed in general), gonna have to wait for MP. Not enough use of Artillery, and the attack stacks, while daunting at first, are easily handled. India and Russia should have made better use of their UUs, but I think money was a big problem for them... the AI should be programmed to recognize general belligerence in nearby civs, and sock away a few gold pieces for a rainy day (as in "raining fire and death upon their heads!").
- Naval: This surprised the hell out of me. Strong naval strategies in general... in fact, I got my head handed to me several times. Till now, I've sort of ignored the seas due to the lack of anything but military application (I still miss spies and caravans). Jesus Christ, losing Battleships to Bombers and Subs sucks!! And France and Egypt BOTH positioned fleets of Battleships, Carriers and Bombers off the coast of Suo (northwest tip), and played merry hell with me until I could build a retaliatory force from scratch!!! Way too many Ironclads though... nasty little buggers bombing my land...
- One thing I didn't like: at the end, having captured Paris, there were still two French fleets harassing me at home, when everything should have been sent back to repel my invasion, and then, even more important to re-capture Paris and Marseilles. I watched Apocalypse Now Redux the other night, and one of the great newly restored scenes is of French colonists in Indochine hanging on with determination and great purpose... although the avalanche of land units in counter-attack blew me away, the French Navy should have been recalled as well (BTW, ANR also has that "one more turn" feel!!).
MISCELLANEOUS
- Even though I stayed on Republic, warweariness was killing me. Even in the cities where I had build everything (most) I could to help with happiness and corruption.
- I did my first Palace jump, but hadn;t planned it all that well way back when I built my FP at Nara. My original core cities went to the toilet in terms of production.
- Evidently, I was much hated in general... trading was absurdly impossible. As I mentioned in another post, Greece, when they still had 5 cities or so, and with whom I never fought nor betrayed an agreement, refused to trade Rocketry for Iron, Saltpeter, Coal, Oil, Rubber, Wines
Furs, Dyes, and Incense. I know part of the dynamic was that I was the big dog, but sheesh. Also, down to 4 civs at the end, trading techs sort of lost its luster.
GREAT LEADERS and GREAT WONDERS
- I had 16 GLs throughout the course of the game. Proper handling of offensive units created a vast corps of elites... at the few points where I had a GL already extant, finding vets to give a chance for promotion was sometimes difficult. I did generate 2 GLs near Paris... it's a pain that they can't be transported; I used one for the UN, and one to create the second all MI Army.
- I stand by the slow approach to continental unification (talking to you, Arrian!). Delhi was a GW powerhouse... very gratifying to capture.
WINNING and the ENDGAME
- Man, what an epic. Especially in thinking through this post, I feel like I gave birth. But the end rewards? A ****ing barbarian swinging a sledgehammer?
- The final battles, with scores of units, produced an interesting feeling, or I guess lack thereof... I felt like Monty, or some of the US commanders in Vietnam, with a total lack of regard for the survival of my units. "Well, there are more where those come from." I think the naming conventions or unit assignment concepts discussed on some other threads could help.
GAMEPLAY MECHANICS
- The game seems to be really clicking (no pun intended). I made a lot of use of city governors for happiness, and Shift-A for workers. Most of my complaints would relate to having very large numbers of units. Auto-bombard. Loading and unloading ships. Stack fortify. "J" for re-basing.
OTHER THOUGHTS
- Again, I am impressed with the elegance of the research model. Having the cost of techs decrease with the number of civs already in possession is brilliant... look at France, who would have been crushed otherwise (oh, wait, they were... nooo, that's just bloody warmongerer me!).
- A couple of other things occurred to me in terms of possible improvements: 1) Bridges - there's a crap island 1 tile away from my eastern coast; 2) I'd like absolute vassals; 3) bring back Partisans.
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All in all, a fantastic gameplay experience, with just a couple of nits.
I was surprised that I liked the endgame as much as I did, even knowing that I had reached the point of winning momentum probably a thousand years earlier. I'm re-reading "Guns, Germs, and Steel" and am put in mind of the "winning" modern civs, who look to be Western European and Asian... maybe so, but there's a long and interesting road.
I look forward to a Spaceship win, so I can play with the final aspects of the Modern Era.
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The greatest delight for man is to inflict defeat on his enemies, to drive them before him, to see those dear to them with their faces bathed in tears, to bestride their horses, to crush in his arms their daughters and wives.
Duas uncias in puncta mortalis est.
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