AU207: Big Planet - Strategy, Spoilers and Comments

[nbarclay]

Once the Theory of Evolution was completed, Egypt wanted another leader for the Hoover Dam. Unfortunately, a quick war to finish off Germany was not enough to give us one.

[nbarclay]

With the main continent and its nearby islands divided among only three powers, and with Japan and Mongolia posessing reasonably modern forces, Egypt turned its attention to the Scandanavian island to the southwest. Four transports unloaded a total of eight infantry, seven elite cavalry, an elite swordsman, and sixteen tanks on Viking shores. That seemed more than sufficient against a rival that was only about halfway through the medieval era.

[nbarclay]

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.)

[nbarclay]

In 1480 AD, the greatest project in the Egyptian military since the invention of the War Chariot bore fruit. In 1485, the upgrades were complete. Only Japan's 29 elite tank units that had not yet produced leaders were allowed to keep their tanks. The other 195 modern offensive units in Egypt's arsenal were upgraded to or completed as modern armor.

[nbarclay]

In a single turn, it was effectively over. Only the island city of Sapporo was left under Japanese rule, and Sapporo had six elite tanks and two mechanized infantry sitting outside of it. By the end of the following turn, Sapporo belonged to India, since India already controlled the other half of the island and current Egyptian policy at the time held no interest in the other continent.

[nbarclay]

Mongolia, Egypt's sole remaining ancient rival, was next. Egypt's forces stopped for a little well-deserved R&R, and then launched an attack. Mongolia's terrain was more of an obstacle than Japan's had been, so the annexation required two turns.

The image on the left has its colors shifted to make it clearer which lands the Mongols still held after the first turn of the conflict. (Mongolia's pre-war borders were essentially the same as in previous minimaps.)

[nbarclay]

Here is an artist's conception of the battlefield after the war was over. Seven leaders were produced in that conflict, six the first turn and one the seventh.

[nbarclay]

And something very interesting happened with two of those leaders: they were generated from modern armor units that had previously generated leaders as tanks. (The units that produced leaders in the Viking war had been given designations "Supreme".)

[nbarclay]

After defeating the Mongols, Egypt would have been quite happy to trade with its overseas rivals and coast to a cultural victory. But Arabia had other plans. They demanded incense, and instead found themselves facing a rather incensed queen - especially when they declared war over Egypt's rejection of their demands. Egypt enlisted the entire world in an alliance against Arabia and started short-rushing transports for an intercontinental invasion.

Rather than sail to Arabia, Egypt sailed to Ottoman shores and had its modern armor travel to the Arabian front on an overland route. A Russian worker got in the way part of the time, slowing the MAs down a turn, but otherwise, the operation went wonderfully. Before long, a great leader rushed an airport to provide an additional way to bring reinforcements in.

The image below shows the route and landing strategy, but it's based on a screenshot from after Arabia was conquered.

[nbarclay]

Misfire

[nbarclay]

The image below shows the progress of the battle against Arabia, leaving off when the Arabs were down to a single city.

[nbarclay]

With the Arabs defeated, my troops who arrived relatively late started to get upset that there was no longer anything for them to do. Cleopatra decided that she could not possibly let such a situation stand, so she sought the Ottomans' cooperation in a joint campaign against India and the Celts (whose treaties with Egypt ended with the Arab conquest). The Ottomans refused, and soon found themselves added to Cleopatra's target list instead. England joined in on the enemy side, and Korea was brought in on our side, but water limited the activity of both of those nations. Ever-growing numbers of Egyptian forces rampaged through the territory.

[nbarclay]

If you look carefully in the 1565 screenshot above, you will see that Russia, the only country that had been neutral in the world war, took one of my cities. That called for revenge. Russia was added to my army's target list. Also, when free troops were available, I took out England in a single turn (using a Right of Passage agreement with Korea to get to two cities that I could not reach directly).

[nbarclay]

Not surprisingly, that last bit of conquest put me over the top for a domination victory. The screenshot below shows my culture graph with my current culture inserted after I won. Guess what would have happened in the following turn if I had not won by domination first?

[nbarclay]

The F11 picture at the end of the game is a bit interesting. That's what I get for building troops while Korea was no doubt building libraries - world domination with only one city among the world's top five cultural centers.

[nbarclay]

The score graph:

[nbarclay]

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.)

[nbarclay]

And finally, here's my overall military at the end of the game. By the way, most of the armies are empty; I preferred having the units fight as individuals, both to get a greater number of attacks and because armies don't (to the best of my knowledge) produce leaders. Some of the armies come from leaders, and some from the Thebes Military Academy.

[nbarclay]

Is that a huge enough AAR for a huge-map game?

[BigDork]

nbarclay...

Good God man but that's a long AAR.

Good read however. I'm impressed, 42 leaders. I don't know if I've gotten a total of 42 leaders out of all my games. Great job.

BigD

[Konquest02]

I finally managed to finish my AU 207 game yesterday. I played the French on Monarch and won by a spaceship launch in 1838, with a fairly respectable score of 4295 (but who cares about score?!?). Give me some time to put up a good AAR together and to finish my exams and I'll report it to you.

Impressive game Nathan. 42 leaders is a he11 of a lot of leaders! Keep up the good work!

--Kon--

[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?

42 GLs... sheesh.

[Arrian]

Nathan, great AAR! And 42 leaders! Wow. Then again...

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.

35 of them were generated with blitz attackers. Impressive, nonetheless.

What I found to be more impressive was the attack you launched on Zululand & Germany AT THE SAME TIME. That's ballsy.

Also, managing to recover from the Japanese attack.

Anyway, good job! The warmongers have made a pretty good showing. Waitin' on Theseus now!

-Arrian

[badams52]

Great AAR Nathan,

42 leaders! And how many of those did you get when you actually had nothing you needed them for?

It seems to me from all these AARs that there are definite advantages to the huge map game, and it does seem especially easier for the warmonger and builder alike.

[nbarclay]

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

[Theseus]

Well well done, Nathan.

I've been starting to look back at the early Mini-Tourney and AU games (thanks, badams!!), and, as usual for almost a year ( ) 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.

All that said... I FINISHED AU207!!!



Dear G*d... feels like I gave birth.

[nbarclay]

Looking forward to your AAR, Theseus.

[Arrian]

Ditto.

What level did you play on again, Theseus?

-Arrian

[Ubergeek]

Originally posted by nbarclay
In the game, I had a total 42 leaders:

Ummm, I got 3 GLs in a game once.

That's what I get for never fighting a war unless absolutely necessary and then fighting the shortest war humanly possible.

[BigDork]

Hi everybody...

Well I was gonna go back to before my awful decision to hold the UN vote and see how my game would have ended up anyways. But with the site going down and all I decided against doing it now. And now I don't have time since it's vacation time for me. But I will be back to join in on a AU game again.

BigD