AU208: Total Eternal Forever War - Reports and Comments - Page 12

Mountain Sage · July 18, 2003, 04:32

Oh boys (and girls) ! This has been the longest and most frustrating game I ever played. I even managed to hate Civ3.
But let’s start from the beginning….
My first game was on Deity: ‘interesting’ and very short.
The second was on Emperor: I was just holding my ground, so I quit in 500BC.
My third try was on Monarch: in AD 500 I re-started it, since I was playing a half-builder, half-warmonger style, which was a very good way of committing suicide later on.
My fourth try, still on Monarch, went well until AD 1500, when the gods of Civ3 decided they were fed up with Carthage (and the others civs as well), and wiped them out from the earth (they used The Gods’ Holy Virus, followed up by Total Rebooting). At least I had saved Adam and Eve (4000BC save), and Carthage got another chance.

Then, this was my fifth try, I started to read the posts. And I got depressed. If people like Arrian, Dominae and others would quit, then what could I do? Well, I stopped playing.

Then I started to think how to win the game, without playing of course!, and below you’ll find my 10 tips for a successful TEFW:

1. Use a C-T-C pattern (except for the fringes); more cities mean more units.
2. Go for Monarchy and stay there; you also have 3 techs less to research.
3. Forget about perfect city management; crank out units.
4. Cities improvements would be: barracks, temple, cathedral (if we got Sistine), harbour, factory, hospital, airport. Period.
5. Research as fast as you can, but slow down in the MA; you need to update all those tanks.
6. Take the Romans out, and especially Rome, asap.
7. Take Salamanca, then fight a ‘lazy war’; the Iroquois are good for leader-farming.
8. Take the English out with Horsemen and Knights.
9. Take the Americans out with lots of Cavalry; check their ambitions with your war-fleets.
10. Take Egypt out with Modern Army; sink their ships in the meantime.

Now there was just one small thing to do. Test it.

Mountain Sage · July 18, 2003, 04:33

Fifth try. Monarch. All victory conditions except Domination off.

2510BC: my first classical move: Rome is out before even a Legion was built.

Mountain Sage · July 18, 2003, 04:34

2030BC: first surprise: GL no. 1
I got a total of 10 GL before the invasion of Egypt and I built: Pyramids, Hanging Gardens, Glib, Sun Tsu, Sistine, Leo, Newton, ToE. I finished Hoover by myself (looong pre-built) and captured the Oracle (from the Iroquois), Magellan’s (from America) and the GLighthouse from the English. Of course, I missed the MA wonders.

Mountain Sage · July 18, 2003, 04:35

1550BC: the Romans are history.

Mountain Sage · July 18, 2003, 04:35

900BC: Salamanca is taken. This starts the ‘lazy war’ against the the Iroquois..

Mountain Sage · July 18, 2003, 04:37

730AD: the end of the ‘lazy war’; all the island is settled. The English are a nuisance, no more (all my coastal cities are building galleys).

Mountain Sage · July 18, 2003, 04:38

770AD: with the fall of the last English city, my only NM gave us our GA. Time to go for lots of cavalry (upgraded, of course).

Mountain Sage · July 18, 2003, 04:39

1460AD: the day before the invasion of America began: the 5 Frigates and 11 Ironclads are the remnants of my 50-strong fleet. Ugly losses, but the American navy is no more.

Mountain Sage · July 18, 2003, 04:40

1515AD: Hoover Dam was too important to have it fallen to some other hands…

Mountain Sage · July 18, 2003, 04:41

1580AD: the Americans are history. Look west, Egypt declared war to America and captured Detroit. I sent a ‘thank you’ message to Cleopatra, but she beheaded my envoy… The war vs. America was also ugly. I lost about 80-100 Cavalry against size 12-18 cities, but I wanted to capture them intact. I had plans for a Palace jump with my next leader, which I did the same year. The Egyptian were strangely passive after I got control of the seas (I had about 15-20 cities building warships since ages). The Babs and Indians were almost non-existent (some boats, not ships, from time to time) and even managed to go at war with each other. Had I only the possibility of building alliances…

Now it was time to start building tanks, tanks, tanks, and more tanks…

Arrian · July 18, 2003, 10:58

Konquest02 · July 18, 2003, 11:08

Great game MS!! Keep it coming!

Mountain Sage · July 18, 2003, 19:44

1800AD: D-Day -1:
I just wanted to be on the *winning* side for once.
I just lost 12 battleships +15 assorted other boats but the seas are clear. Time to go.

vmxa1 · July 18, 2003, 19:44

Yahoo slap them down MS.

Mountain Sage · July 18, 2003, 19:55

1812AD: the Egyptian capital just surrended. It was protected by 3 MA armies.... UGLY!

P.S: Sorry for the por quality of the pic, but I am not used at managing traffic jams involving 200+ MA

Mountain Sage · July 18, 2003, 20:00

The end of Egypt. And still no Domination victory

I'm off for 2 weeks, so I have a question for all of you.
When I'm back, shall I be considered a winner of this AU or do you want proof (i.e. the heads of Ghandi and Ammurabi on a pike) of my victory?

Until then, happy Civing (I REALLY need those holidays...)

Theseus · July 18, 2003, 20:03

"Holy Obsession, Batman!!!"

"Wait, Robin, I've got a Warmonger Antidote pill right here in my utility belt!"

And this from the Peacenik!!

Bravo, sirrah, bravo.

/me is *almost* inspired to re-visit 208... not yet, my friend, not yet.

vmxa1 · July 18, 2003, 22:01

I would say that is good enough. I had the same stupid thought Theseus. I laided down until the feeling passed.
I think it could be beat at Emperor, now that you know you have to get to England right away. Without that knowledge it could be too late, when you findout you have no lux/saltpetter etc to speak of.

Rhothaerill · July 19, 2003, 03:11

Whoo hoo! I'd say you definitely have it beat MS! You certainly did better than I did.

Mountain Sage · July 19, 2003, 03:38

Thanks folks,
I might just invade India for the pleasure of seeing the 'You won' screen.
Now, some final thoughts:
This game is winnable (at Monarch level at least), if you stick to my above city improvements. Remember that this is not a PUP game. Production is more important than everything else. I had 0 happiness and about 2 entertainers in each city, but I managed to build all of those military units. The same for the tech race. Egypt (and the others) had at the end a 10 tech lead, but this did not save them.
Then, military specialization: all inland cities would build land military units, all coastal ones ships. This was the key in fending off all the enemies' naval units. I had to tell myself time and again that I had only to inflict 1 HP; the ship would then go back to its harbour and come back later (10 turns min. wasted). In the meantime, I could build another one if the first was sunk.
Then, of course, the AI is bad at planning invasions. The worst Egypt did was to land 3 transports on ex-America (got me a new GL!). The AI is also less focused on winning a war. Had the others civs really banded together... And, of course, Egypt going to war with America, and now India being at war with the Babs... there is no logic in it.
Finally, an industrious/commercial civ is better at minimizing corruption, thus freeing gold for the tech race and the units' upkeep.

So, that's it, *see* you two weeks from now.

CorpusScorpius · July 19, 2003, 10:46

Outstanding MS

badams52 · July 19, 2003, 14:49

Good show MS. Gotta take it down to the bare essentials in your cities I see. Reminds me of the NIC game that I will not ever do again.

zorbop · August 2, 2003, 03:08

i tried this the celts, on monarch.

my oppening move was barracks, warrior, and 3 archers.
i was able to lure some iroquois units away from salamanca with the warrior before moving my archers near.
i quickly captured the city and paused for some daydreaming. (imagine what could be done if I had that starting location. it was not long before the 2 remaining iroquois cities- both on the coast- were attacked, i captured one, destroyed the other.
this is when rome moves a reg archer next to my capital. i had a vet archer defending.

i had a brilliant idea right about here... i moved my archer away from entremont and had an iroqois worker join salamanca, making it size 2(largest in my empire) I purposely let the romans have my capital, entremont.

sacrificing my capital worked very well. Salamanca, with a river, a cow, a beaver, and god knows how many +1 grassland, was now my capital! at this point i reconquered entremont, now a city entirely lost to corruption.
this is where the game is now.

CAPITAL-SACKING: it worked great. made salamanca, which is in a far superior location, my new capital.i recomend someone else tries this...

lastly: how do you take screenshots?

Rhothaerill · August 2, 2003, 05:06

Interesting tactic Zorbop. Not only did you not have to worry about losing the vet archer but you get your capitol in a very good location in the middle of the continent.

Keep it coming.

As to screenshots...press the print screen key to take the picture...press the windows key to escape from Civ without having to exit...start a graphics program (I prefer Adobe photoshop but others work too, MS paint is okay, Irfanview is a free one but I don't have the link...vmxa1 will have to help you there)...start a new file...paste in the screenshot...resize to maximum 800x600 pixels ('Poly's max)...and save as preferably a .jpg file because that's the easiest to fit into 'Poly's file attachments.

Good luck.

vmxa1 · August 2, 2003, 12:42

zorbop I would recommend you get Irfanview for free. It will capture screens and then resize them to 800 jpgs that can be posted.

I never thought about trying that tactic. I do see one poossible issue.

***** stop now if you have not already looked at other DAR's
********

You will need to get to Engalnd ASAP, this is best accomplished from your starting location. You will need a coastal city near that location. If you no longer have your capitol there, the coastal city will be non productive.
Attacks will come from this side of the island as well.
So it will be interesting to see how it works for you. Good luck.

Mountain Sage · August 4, 2003, 03:05

Hi everybody,
I'm back from my holidays, time for civ again.
The below pic is just for the records.

Mountain Sage · August 4, 2003, 03:08

Oh, why civil defense in my cities? To give me a break for a few turns, I was juggling with 250+ MA. Not that I needed more happiness. I had 7 lux and happiness at 40%.
Now, TEFW should be played...

Mountain Sage · August 4, 2003, 03:09

... to the very bitter end.

Mountain Sage · August 4, 2003, 03:13

And so Hannibal found himself as the only ruler of his world.
And after a while he found it very boring...
And he told himself that in his next incarnation he would NOT play such a game again

And this is the final pic for me with AU208.

badams52 · August 4, 2003, 14:32

Simply amazing MS. Now take your

and wear it with pride.