I thought that I should share a little experience in playing huge or small maps lately - as it is not really a story, I thought it best fits in the strategy board as there is some strategy involved.
I've played Civ for the first time on the Commodore Amiga 500, some 16 years back - and have played all versions of the game since then - but exclusively single player games. Over time, I found my way to play it:
- always the biggest map there is
- always a generated map (discovery time!)
- minimum ocean coverage (land, land, land!)
- max. 4 civs (myself included).
- temperature: temperate (tundra or desert? no way - grassland rules!)
- barbarians: raging (Barbarian uprisings are cool
)
- climate: wet (more jungle > more grassland...)
- difficulty: warlord or above
I guess you can already see the result of that configuration - enough space for giant empires, and epic battles. Hell, yes - even if you spend most of your time tweaking your cities, it's just great to feel the awesome power you hold in your hands
. Because this kind of game means confrontation a lot later than on smaller maps, and also because your opponents are generally not far behind you (or even ahead of you) in terms of technology, a conquest is not an easy matter and can take a very long time.
I have found out that these games are not very strategic - it's mainly brute force, and you usually don't have to fight for resources as you have so much land under your control that you've got them all. And you never really have to fight for survival - the challenge lies in the sheer size of it all.
Building on that insight, I decided to try something new, and started a small map with 9 civs. Well, that made for a real challenge and a very big mess indeed: by the time I had three cities going, I was in a clinch between the babylonians and the russians. No space left for additional cities - me, the builder of empires!
A decision was badly needed, being well aware that I would not be able to keep up with research, and would soon be maimed to pulp by units I could not defend against. So I went for the Babylonians to the north who were less powerful than the russians (yes, always hit the small ones first, that's a lesson history has taught us). The first two cities I was able to rush with a constant flow of archers (I had no iron), but then their cities were too well defended for my puny archers.
I was already quite happy to have two more cities, bringing it to a total of five - but that was not enough. I needed more space, so I used my whole treasury to get maps from the other civs and find some iron. Luckily, some distance east there was a patch the russians had not settled yet where I could send a settler by sea. The settler got there safely, but just in time - a russian settler was already on its way there
.
Things were beginning to run more smoothly and I had a goodly army of swordsmen when the english popped out of nowhere and declared war on my little patch of green land. That was a bit of a problem, as they were quite far away and the russians were between us. Apparently the english had a right of passage, as they sent masses of troops through the russian territory. I had to postpone my plans to conquer the rest of babylon to concentrate on survival. Luckily, I discovered Invention at that moment and could build Berserkers, which helped in defending my positions.
The english, however, are well known for their tenacity
. They kept sending swordsmen, which were soon followed by knights. My defenses slowly diminished, and I had to change my strategy. I decided to follow the advice I read in the civ strategy forum and built a city on the path of the english troops - I found a very handy location being a single square of land with ocean on two sides: either you went through the city, or you didn't cross. I massed all my troops there, hurried walls and added a few catapults for fun.
My defenses held, and I could start to think about a counter-attack. I built some knights and Berserkers and when I had a score of them I went for the russian cities that separated me from the english... to discover that they were in bad shape already, as the japanese were hacking away at them with all they had, including samourais. God, I hate these things when it's not me who's using them! I took two left-over russian cities whose defenses were already weakened, and strengthened my positions there. The japanese continued their assault and conquered the whole russian empire except one city, the one they had built beside my "iron colony". Apparently they quickly got bored after that, running around in circles and all: they attacked me a short time after their conquest of the russians
.
Now that was a slight problem, as you may imagine - having the english AND the japanese against me was about the last thing I needed. Luckily, my recently won russian cities were holding, even against the repeated attacks of the japanese. I started thinking dark thoughts
. The japanese, however, seemed to have some dark thoughts of their own and started sending all their troops east in the exact direction of my "iron colony"... darn, that was unexpected!
And not good at all, because without my iron, I would certainly lose this battle very fast. That city HAD to hold.
Unfortunately, that city, not being connected to the rest of my empire, being in enemy territory and all, had only its own resources to work with: two pikemen as defense, and one berserker as attack force were stationed there, so hardly a defense at all. I had to do something, and quick. Build a boat with troops? No, I only had galleys, and they would need way too many turns to get there. So the idea came quite naturally: I needed a diversion
.
The diversion came in the form of an army with three elite knights, some more knights and a few berserkers. This little elite force made a skirmish to one of the nearby japanese cities, and instead of capturing it just killed a few defenders. And O joy! it worked - the japanese rushed back to my position to defend the city. My iron colony was safe for a few more turns
. To my dismay, the problem was not so easily solved: the english were moving troops that way too now, probably taking example on the japanese. Darn and re-darn, the first english cities were miles away, out of reach for a diversion. On top of it all, my lone berserker in the iron colony died attacking a veteran english warrior (7 attack vs 1 defense, go figure) - some hell of a warrior!
I was getting very upset with the whole thing when the english contacted me, and proposed a peace treaty. Huh? Well, lemme think... oh, okay. (goodies!) I was a little safer now, and quickly sent reinforcements to my solitary iron colony. As the japanese seemed to finally have given up altogether, I spontaneously turned my attention back to the babylonians, who must have hoped I had forgotten about them. They were no big challenge, and that gave me some extra room I needed.
While I was slowly rebuilding the former babylonian cities, the japanese asked for a peace treaty which I accepted, and after a short inquiry understood why: the english had decided they would wipe them from the face of the earth in my stead. They were evenly matched, however - they had about the same amount of cities, and the japanese had a terrifiying number of samourais. While those two were hacking away at each other, I concentrated on my cities and military. I was busily researching and building units at the same time.
In the meantime, the japanese were quite successful in their campaign and took a few english cities. The english took some back, and for some time it was an endless back and forth. Some cities were destroyed in the process, it was really interesting to watch. The tide turned, however, when the english introduced the cavalry and the samourais painfully learned that being on foot against cavalry means painful death, even if you're equipped with two wakisashis
. The english campaign progressed mightily from then on, and when they ceased their attacks, the japanese were in bad shape.
I, as spectator was beginning to worry just a bit: I had a goodly technological advance, but the additional power the english had gained in the battle could well help them to catch up, and they could even decide to turn against me in the process. In the event of a war with the english, I wanted to keep the front line as small as possible, so I decided to attack the japanese myself and take the cities on my part of the continent - that way, only two of my cities would face the english empire.
The japanese did not put up much of a fight, and clearly were no match for the freshly built tanks that I sent out to teach them some manners. I felt sorry for them: their encounter with the english cavalry was their downfall, and now here I came with tanks... I was able to close the front line to the english this way, and felt much safer. Now come what may, I thought, I'm ready for it. Well, for the first next thing I was, anyway: the last russian city which was lost somewhere in my territory suddenly felt offended, and they declared war on me... with archers!
I felt even more sorry for them than for the japanese, so I dug up a few old units I had kept because I lacked the funds to upgrade them, and sent them there - I wanted them to be able to make a last stand with honour. They fell honorably to my swordsmen, and the last gap in my territory disappeared. I now had fifteen cities, and was building out my technological advance as well as I could - with much success. The second next thing, was one I wasn't really prepared for: the koreans came to my shore, and said "hello, we're the koreans from accross the sea, and we're here to crush you real bad".
Now that was a suprise, mainly because I had never had any contact with them before - but it all got much clearer when the english joined the battle: I figured that they must have had a military alliance. Buggers. I got rid of the english problem in the first turn by contacting them and asking for a peace treaty. They seemed relieved, and accepted right away. Apparently, they did not support the koreans as much as those would have wanted.
I constituted an expeditionary force comprised of tanks and mech. infantries and set out to conquer the koreans. As I explored the continent they had settled on, I noticed that conquering them would take some time... they had been very busy all this time and had nearly conquered their whole continent. Only bits of zulus and indians were left here and there, and a slightly larger chunk of Carthaginians. I nevertheless chose a good spot to land which would be easily defensible, and started making my way to an average-sized korean city that would be a good starting point. At the same time, the koreans were sending all their naval forces (frigates and ironclads) to bombard the shores of my homeland
. Some very dark thoughts and a few battleships later, they gave up on that entirely.
I had just conquered that first korean city when the carthaginians attacked me from the north on that same position. I did not understand why they would do that, and was not in a mood to try to understand. The next shipment of troops bound for the korean continent just happened to land in the middle of the carthaginian territory. By way of modern armors vs musketmen, the six carthaginian cities were bent to my will in a flash.
Now I was able to really concentrate on the koreans, but they asked for a peacy treaty before I could launch any attack. Darn and Re-Darn! As I only wage war if provoked first, I accepted and suddenly found that I had nothing else to do.
I sent out my workers to plant forest in all the parts of my territory that was out of reach from the cities, and built all spaceship parts except the exterior casing to be able to continue playing a little, and toyed with espionage missions during which a few english and korean cities flocked over to my side. I started making plans to finally get rid of the english, as I thought I should have done much earlier, and see what kind of resistance they could come up with. They must have read my thoughts, because at that exact moment, they started building a spaceship of their own. That did it. I finished mine in a whirl of manufacturing plant machinery in just one turn, and won the game. It only gave me a "Syrkos the Fair" rating, but the game had been a lot better than those I finished with the highest scores on huge maps.
Conclusion: I guess I'll be playing on small maps more often now, even if I can't quit playing the big ones - it's a different experience alright. It is outright amazing how many ways there are to play this game. After 16 years of civilization, I'm still mesmerized...
Well, this has become a longer post than I thought I would write, I hope you enjoyed it nevertheless
Aeon Of Time
)
