War Preparations (little long)

Solomwi · June 24, 2003, 20:50

Okay, tell me I'm a freak for going to these lengths

, but I've got to share this and see if anybody sees a flaw in my plan or has any other feedback. Playing huge map, Regent, 8 Civs and there are only four Wines on the map, all on the other continent and the only free one already traded away.

Now that I'm approaching the Modern Age, I'm gearing up for an invasion of Scandinavia and made this operations map. When you see a Division notation (1st Marines, etc.), know that it's denoting eight units of the same type. Each assault force also includes a fourth transport filled with 6 Infantry, 4 to occupy the city and two to escort the Artillery, and two Workers. The Vikings have RP and Rubber and have only upgraded/built 4 Inf (I do have a spy), but the invasion is still about 15 turns off (waiting for ships to be built/moved... all my great shipyards would be on the other side of the continent). Their rubber source is on the far end of the country, so taking it out early isn't an option. Their navy is all sail-powered and, with this plan, I'm thinking a two turn campaign will net me my wines, once I get the colony up, then rush a few cultural improvements in Bodo.

Geopolitically, they aren't tied into any MPP's and I have one with Lizzie, who has one with Izzy, but both of them are separated from the Vikings by Arabia. My major geopolitical concern is keeping Arabia out of the war, or making sure they come in on my side, since they're not only the Vikings' only neighbor, but my sole source for Dyes. And yes, I am playing a Southern civ I created

.

EDIT: Okay, the dang host server doesn't want to cooperate. I'll try again

vmxa1 · June 24, 2003, 21:47

As to the freak part, I can not say anything. I once spend 5 hours mapping out all the moves I need to get all of my fleet (scattered all over) to a choke point to launch an assault in Ascendancy.
Well it was only the second PC game I had every play and I did not know the AI was helpless at the time.

bobbo008 · June 24, 2003, 22:06

i'm thinking anything less would be random attacking?

johncmcleod · June 24, 2003, 22:15

I don't get it. Are you posting a screenshot of the world, posting a save, scanning your battle plans and posting them hear? BTW I've always thought of drawing out battle plans, but how would you print out a big picture of the map? Do you take a screenshot of each area you need, print each one out, and then tape them together?

Solomwi · June 24, 2003, 22:43

I'm trying to post a screenshot, which is a picture of the Scandinavian core, with troop movements overlaid, landing spots, etc. Unfortunately, I'm trying to host it myself on AO-Hell and the server isn't having any of it right now. The picture's too big to attach. As soon as the server acts right, I'll put the screenie in.

vmxa1 · June 25, 2003, 00:19

Is it a bitmap or a jpeg? Make it a jpeg at 800 pixels and it should be fine.

vmxa1 · June 25, 2003, 00:20

Quote:

Originally posted by bobbo008
i'm thinking anything less would be random attacking?

Now that was very funny.

dexters · June 25, 2003, 00:51

Wrong forum bud. this is Civ3 general.

Solomwi · June 25, 2003, 00:54

Quote:

Is it a bitmap or a jpeg? Make it a jpeg at 800 pixels and it should be fine.

It's a jpeg, but I don't have any software that lets me get it down to 800 pixels.

Quote:

Wrong forum bud. this is Civ3 general.

I know, but it really didn't start out as a strat post (I promise!

), just kind of developed into one. Originally, I was going for some catharsis and wanting to give everybody a decent chuckle once I sat back and realized I had actually just made the map.

dexters · June 25, 2003, 01:04

Well, if you're looking for advice, it's automatic candidate for strat forum. Just so you know for future reference.

Anyways, to post that screencap Use the attachment feature.

vmxa1 · June 25, 2003, 01:18

Ok Irfanview is free and it will resize it for you.

dexters · June 25, 2003, 01:34

http://www.irfanview.com/

Stable, small and not a memory hog. You can have it running in the background with Civ3 on.

Solomwi · June 25, 2003, 04:41

Dang, didn't even think of IrfanView, and I already have it installed. It just doesn't get used anymore with XP's little preview deal. Here it is, though kind of hard to read anything on. Oh, well, it looks great at 1024x1280

.

dex, like I said, the whole advice part was an in-post change of direction, and mea culpa on not going back and rethinking which forum it should go on.

In any event, the war is well underway, all landings were successful except Molde (2nd from left along bottom), where the 2nd Marines were practically wiped out, but took down enough of the defense and kept enough units alive (2) to take it the next turn. It wound up not mattering as the 3rd Armor was able to take Trondheim and get a little help from units not needed at Birka.

bobbo008 · June 25, 2003, 13:29

woah, what happened there?

Solomwi · June 25, 2003, 23:41

1024x1280 screen shot reduced to 640x800 so it could be attached. Tough to see, but you can make out four circles along the coast denoting amphibious targets, then the redlines denoting armor movement to main objectives once said beacheads are secured. The faint red circle inland is the Viking wine source, my ultimate objective. Starting at the bottom left and working northeast, the beacheads are Risor (only Iron source), Molde, Rykjavik and Copenhagen. The three armor objectives, again SW to NE are Bodo, Trondheim and Birka. Birka has the Colossus and Trondheim has the Oracle and Great Library. I really don't care about anything west of the mountains, except to create enough of a buffer to keep Bodo and Trondheim from flipping.

johncmcleod · June 26, 2003, 00:14

I can tell that you are American and that you are modern warfare. First off, Americans give their units boring names (no offense or anything, I'm just stating a fact

). It's the 3rd Marines and the 5th Armor. The British (and Canadians, Australians, etc.) give their units cool names. One of the infantry units that landed at Juno beach was the 'Royal Winnipeg Rifles'. Another one was the 'Nova Scotia Highlanders Regiment'. The British units were like 'East Yorkshire Regiment' and stuff like that. And American units (the practice stopped after the civil war when units weren't made of guys from one city) were named after where they were made, such as the 116th Massachusetts Regiment or the Rhode Island Volunteers. It's way more interesting than just plain Jane 1st Infantry. Just a suggestion for someone into naming things.

vmxa1 · June 26, 2003, 00:14

Try to capture the screen with Irfanview and then resize it. I use that and have no distortion.

johncmcleod · June 26, 2003, 00:18

BTW, on your screen it said the government was a confederacy. Just to be overly picky in civ3 it's impossible to have anything like that. You're (a centralized government) in total control, which is the opposite of a confederacy. It doesn't matter at all, but I just love to correct people.

Vince278 · June 26, 2003, 02:39

Quote:

Originally posted by vmxa1
As to the freak part, I can not say anything. I once spend 5 hours mapping out all the moves I need to get all of my fleet (scattered all over) to a choke point to launch an assault in Ascendancy.
Well it was only the second PC game I had every play and I did not know the AI was helpless at the time.

Wow. You still play Ascendancy? I can't even find the disk anymore. Great game with bad press.

Vince278 · June 26, 2003, 02:51

Quote:

Originally posted by johncmcleod
I can tell that you are American and that you are modern warfare. First off, Americans give their units boring names (no offense or anything, I'm just stating a fact

). It's the 3rd Marines and the 5th Armor. The British (and Canadians, Australians, etc.) give their units cool names. One of the infantry units that landed at Juno beach was the 'Royal Winnipeg Rifles'. Another one was the 'Nova Scotia Highlanders Regiment'. The British units were like 'East Yorkshire Regiment' and stuff like that. And American units (the practice stopped after the civil war when units weren't made of guys from one city) were named after where they were made, such as the 116th Massachusetts Regiment or the Rhode Island Volunteers. It's way more interesting than just plain Jane 1st Infantry. Just a suggestion for someone into naming things.

No offense taken. When you have so many units and and for a short duration (like in WWII) numbering them is convenient and logical. Our elite units (82nd AirBorne, 11th Mountain Div., etc.) may still be numbered but develop character with time.
In contrast, one of my favorite English units, the Coldstream Guards, has a long history and tradition.

vmxa1 · June 26, 2003, 11:59

Not to thread jack or anything, but Yes I get in a game once or twice a year. It plays on XP and Win98 with sound.
I got a replacement form Ebay with the guide, even though the guide is lame.
It had the best sound effects at the time and grahpics were good. Too much micromanagement and the AI was very poor. Still I enjoyed it.

Solomwi · June 26, 2003, 15:19

Quote:

And American units (the practice stopped after the civil war when units weren't made of guys from one city) were named after where they were made, such as the 116th Massachusetts Regiment or the Rhode Island Volunteers. It's way more interesting than just plain Jane 1st Infantry. Just a suggestion for someone into naming things.

You don't have to tell me, my great-great grandfather was part of the 37th Alabama Infantry. However, for these purposes, I don't care where they're created (wind up with all my Inf units from a handful of cities). No offense taken, I just like the logical order and adaptability of my system, and add the "color" once a unit produces a leader. Before then, they don't DESERVE more creative names!

Quote:

BTW, on your screen it said the government was a confederacy

Slight misread on your part, and too little explanation on my part. I'm playing a modded game, with a Southern civ I created (UU- Raider, Cavalry with 4 move, probably going to change it to 5 attack to balance). I've been referring to my empire as the Confederacy since Despotism, but definitely understand the distinction.

Quote:

Try to capture the screen with Irfanview and then resize it. I use that and have no distortion.

I tried that, with the undistorted bitmap as my capture, then pasting into I-View and still got distortion. To do it from the game loses all my markings, but I'll probably do one just for reference purposes from the game and see if it works. Okay, tried it with a capture from the game and got a whacked out coloring when I pasted.

Maybe I need a tutorial on IrfanView screenshots. (Btw, when I resized that one, I still had the distortion).

Quote:

11th Mountain Div.

Since we're in correction mode, I think you mean 10th Mountain

.

vmxa1 · June 26, 2003, 16:20

Sorry to hear that it did not work for you.
Here is a test running 1280x760 or what ever the values are and resized to 800 with Irfanview.

vmxa1 · June 26, 2003, 16:21

Maybe you have some sort of mods that are behind the problem.

Solomwi · June 26, 2003, 16:54

Two things that may contribute to it: I'm using Snoopy's tileset, and the area was under fog of war. Other than that, I haven't done any mods that should affect graphics. Of course, the tileset "should" translate better into IrfanView regardless.

Doing the same with a shot of "seen" territory and resizing in Irfan gave the shot below.

vmxa1 · June 26, 2003, 16:59

Post a save and I will try it.

M. le Comte · June 26, 2003, 17:07

Waoh ! An art gallery !

Solomwi · June 26, 2003, 17:51

Here you go...

And thanks for the help, vmxa.

http://apolyton.net/upload/files/Sol...ners1545AD.SAV

vmxa1 · June 26, 2003, 18:04

Seem ok to me.

vmxa1 · June 26, 2003, 18:10

Of course I do not have any terrain mods, but ...
I see lots of post with different mods applied in the forum.
What is the OS, destop properties, video card and driver?
Are you running 32 bit true color?
KeepRes=
VideoMode=