Every time I ever play as the americans or aztecs i get HBR from a friendly. Never gotten a tech from a friendly as China, Spanish, Arabs, English, Mongols, or Romans unless it was a friendly hut on an island and way later in the game ( got atomic theory and networking before around 1500 from one once or twice but not one early...and never with china).
One of my friends almost always used the aztecs in a ffa and he would constantly get 2 or 3 free techs and always get HBR.
Last edited by asmodeios; 10-07-2009 at 04:22 AM.
Again, I don't want a tech from a friendly as the Aztecs. Maybe if I could get HBR in 3900BC, and still get a barb w/ the warrior pretty fast, then I wouldn't mind. Otherwise, I'm usually cursing when I get a tech from a hut with the Aztecs.Originally Posted by asmodeios
You can't always predict or influence what you will get from the huts, but there are certain types of huts that will give you free techs more often than others, as well as situation where you will get them more often. It has to do with seed as well. HBR is the easiest tech to pick up from a hut and do it on purpose. Everytime I have tried to get other techs from a hut, especially if I'm need Bronze Working to survive, I don't get it.
I didn't mean to imply they aren't powerful. I just mean that I don't consider it overpowered in the sense that they are almost impossible to beat during Ancient. I think any civ has a shot to take down America during the Ancient era which is usually the best time to strike. The odds are still against you honestly but it's better than after they've expanded in Medieval. At that point, the game is all but over w/o some good luck. So the early game is where America is weakest but I agree relative to everyone else, it's usually still pretty strong.
best regards,
Pedal2Metal
I've been playing mostly Greeks and Aztecs lately. Greeks are a lot of fun and I enjoy them immensely b/c of the unusual Democracy start. I lost with them today against an Aztec player, but I see potential with them if I can just figure out the right balance between super-teching and expansion.
After that loss, I got 3 wins with the Aztecs. They're a bit easy, especially if they have a walk-in. In my last game, against a good top 30 China player, I had just that---a quick walk-in by 3500. After the Zulus, the French were the next cap to capitulate about 1000 yrs afterward. The Spanish were a possibility as #3, but I decided against it. Perhaps a too cautious move on my part. The Chinese decided against the typical horserush. I had most of the mainland, and he had plenty of islands. We were both teching at about the same rate, although he beat me to most of the early techs while I seemed to pick up some good later bonuses. Atlantis definitely helped in that regard, as I found it pretty late. Well, I won't go into much detail, but I'm definitely learning, as many ppl on the boards have said, that if the Aztecs have a good, strong, geographically dominant start, they can do a pretty decent job against anyone. If they don't, those later bonuses may not be sufficient. In this particular game, I got some lucky naval battles toward the end, but it was a close game all the way through.
Last edited by Zefelius; 10-07-2009 at 10:31 PM.
Like my map balance thread said...I didn't find a single barb hut in that game until 2500. It would have been pointless to horserush in this game I would have just wasted time and production. I'm surprised I stayed around in that game as long as I did but I was waiting up on my GF to get home from the bar with her friends so I kept playing.
Hard to beat any civ when they've got two caps before you get any gold at all.
Last edited by asmodeios; 10-08-2009 at 05:49 AM.
well, if you are playing a run-of-the-mill Aztec player that gets two caps, and you've got the Chinese, my money would be on you. But Zef knows about expansion and setting up for the long game, so you were facing a huge up hill climb. Sometimes all you can do is put your best foot forward, take your licks, and then go on to the next game. Usually, if the other guy doesn't take care of the Chinese, no matter how bad the start, then the Chinese player will eventually overcome the other guy.
Sounds like you did what you could, but Zef still had to work to beat you in the long game. The Aztecs can't hold a candle to the Chinese without caps usually. If you had had your 100 gold, and he got 3 caps, I'd still say it could go either way.
I would have had double the amount of cities that I had if i would have gotten that 100 g a lot earlier. My 4th tech was CoL.
Even without that gold, which I'm sure would have given you Spain since they were closer to you than me, you pulled off some good set-ups. In the early going I was excited to find one of your island cities next to a hill, sent my second vet horsearmy after it, fought fiercely, conquered it, jumped for joy, and then was immediately deflated when I saw you flipped it right back!! At that point I knew it wasn't going to be a quick game, especially as you grabbed most of the artifacts (I think they were AoC, SoC, and 7C) until I was fortunate enough to get the last--Atlantis--at a pretty good time.
I agree though: if you didn't have the poor start, the game would have been different. Maybe next time we can play a fun game. I'd like to practice with the Romans, since I'm still trying to get a feel for them.
Good Game, Zef
Last edited by Zefelius; 10-08-2009 at 04:37 PM.
wow, h2h is fun. i experience the challenge to be way harder. don't know what the reason for this is.
last night arabs vs. arabs and i started on a freaking island with 60 gold. took out washington with a warrior army and a galley but before i did, i used a spy to steal his GB. i used it on a spot on my island with 5 water tiles, one with fish, cattle, and 2 grass which later became my gold city. i expanded, teched up to CoL, then to market, then to navigation, and expanded again. i outteched they other guy later on. if he had started a knight rush at some point of the game, he would've easily beaten me. i just got tanks and was 8 techs in front when he quit.
and just now i had a game where i was really nervous and glad it was over with. god i had zulu. this time it was "Buzuc" and i know he is highly ranked in ffa. anyway, luckily he started far away from me with the greeks in between. however, he did find the seven cities in 3500BC and konfuzius shortly after. lame! i felt doomed already now. at least madrid spawned near me so i got navigation and picked up knights templar, now searching for an opponent to drop it off.
meanwhile i was wondering when he would for me, when i saw him standing on a hill, obviously waiting for me to get more far away from madrid. a march impi army - yay! - which walked into madrid. got it back next turn 9-7.5. good day.
so far so good. i finally find him with my galleone trying to double-move him. you haven't expected that, well? i win 8.5-6 and take zimbabwe. hell yeah! he fails in his attempt to take it back and quits. awesome game!
Won another cultural victory tonight. In a game that was China vs Japan.
Took over the Egyptians at 2600 bc with a warrior army from a hill...gave me bw and the oracle. That was all of my aggression in the game except for retaliating the aggression by the AI. The AI was probably mad since I stole david from the english pretty early.
I had 7 cities by 1600 when I got irrigation first. Proceeded to get construction first so got a workshop in thebes. Pretty much got every boni first for the whole game except masonry and steel somehow. I was setting myself up for an Econ. win but had taken over with culture around 5 or 6 cities one of which i made into a pretty strong production city getting about 80 a turn at one point so was thebes. I had 3 really strong production cities...made about 5-7 cannon armies before getting automobile and then building Leo's workshop. Used those to take out London and Delhi since both were harassing me albeit with Legions when I had Modern Infantry.
Built a lot of wonders since I could have them within 2-4 turns generally built but I wasn't planning on going for a cultural win I just built those to keep him from having them. Culture was up to 600 at one point. I was building markets and banks everywhere because i was going for an econ. win and I pulled the RT to look at the numbers and realized okay...i'm 16/20 culture and don't even have 5000 gold yet so I settled the next two gp I got rushed trade fair in Thebes and had the internet built the in another city in the same turn.
Ended up building the HGB, Magna Carta, Trade Fair, Internet, Leo's workshop,Shakespeare's Theatre, getting the oracle from taking over Thebes. But the converting of all the indian and english cities is what made the cultural win possible. In the span of 10 turns I had to have converted like 6 cities minimum.
Long story short. I built the world bank and the united nations on the same turn with my 2 main production cities and won a cultural victory.
Last edited by asmodeios; 10-09-2009 at 08:25 PM.
I'm finally starting to like the Greeks. I typically have a rough time with them, and I'm not always sure why. Perhaps it has something to do with timing the Democracy switch to CoL. Anyway, tonight I thought about switching up my usual strat, which I've mostly borrowed from others, and decided to put an unorthodox spin on it. I can't count my first two games tonight, because they were too short: in the first I stormed Madrid almost immediately, and in the second -- with the same guy -- it froze on turn 1 and so I decided to quit since it was frozen on my side and I had it too easy in game #1. I gained 3 spots from the win and then dropped 13 from the loss! Now I finally know what you guys are talking about when you say that the higher rankings are more vulnerable...
In game #3, against a Zulu player, I finally tried out my new strat and it looked pretty good. The timing seemed to run smoothly in terms of teching. Since the Greeks have an early power city, I decided to delay CoL, which I realize goes against the norm here. But if the techs are timed right, in terms of prep work as well as speed, it's still possible to pull off some early knights and expand at about that point. But we'll see: the Zulu player wasn't the best I've seen, so I'll try it again and hopefully get a better test of it. It's always fun experimenting...
Had another good night with the Greeks. I'm starting to think they don't need a lot of cities at the beginning. I know it's a risk with GAs out there, and in fact I was flipped in the BC tonight in one game, but I got the knight rush out just in time to grab the city right back. I'm surprised by how quick they can get the knight rush out with Democracy (better than the Japanese imo). You can do it w/ or w/o extra preps, depending on the game. Irrigation is obviously one of those preps, but that one doesn't really slow down the tech rush b/c it adds trade tiles to compensate for the time-investment. If you have time, construction can follow rather quickly as BW likely gets backfilled. If you don't have time, then Monarchy and Feud really don't take too much effort at all. CoL is probably the more popular path, I'm guessing, but so far I've found that taking a couple of quick cities can serve a similar interest in expansion (after which I go right into Republic). Athens is already equal to approximately 4 cities (depending on irrig, etc.), so I don't think it's impossible to reliably have the usual amount of cities by 0 AD if you count it that way.
Well, anyway, I'm sure there are plenty of flaws with this approach. I still like experimenting and I hope to get a true test of it soon. I think most of my competition has been average or above average, but unfortunately I accidentally froze a game with Headless today which otherwise would have been great practice for me. I took out England with a galley walk-in at around 3200 BC, carefully remembered to switch out of Democracy a turn ahead instead of the same turn, but then stupidly switched my gov't on the same turn of conquest. Dumb, dumb, dumb!!! Well, if someone is going to get a win from me, I'm glad it's Headless!
Later taters,
Zefelius
Zef, why have you been dodging me in the H2H lobby? I saw you there earlier today and you left right away, and I seem to remember it happening last week sometime. Dont blame you though, I was all jacked after the Dawgs and seahawks games and was ready to roll. I ended up playing chief rocka spanish(me) vs americans. I had a very average start gold wise but was able to rush 3 settlers from my cap and free city before grabbing the AoC. about the same time he takes the Roman ai, and I notice he has a culture tick. With one of my galleons I spot washington and see he got a GL. The games not 30 turns in and I can already see the waves of elite knights storming across the map. I was able to get gold out of the 2 remaining ai every 10 turns and expanded as efficiently as I could to the closest 6 island spots w/ whales. The strange thing was during all of this he had teched past 5 techs and didnt get any bonuses or switch to republic, maybe he thought he could beat me lazily or something, but I just took it as a good sign and kept expanding. Then some where in the late BC he finds the 7 cities and goes into anarchy. I was feeling a little desparate knowing how fast he could climb out of the hole he was in with that much cheeze and republic when the Arab ai made me an offer i couldn't refuse, religion for navigation. The timing was great, the next turn I get a 3rd horseman from barb huts near the ai and find KT. I settled the GE i got (free market) and rushed a galleon fleet asap. With a horse army, cannon and a handful of archers and warriors loaded up I make the switch fundy and set sail for america. First city I see is empty, I drop it just as a settler runs out. The next turn i try to grab it but hes too quick so wait with my horses for the galleons and single units to catch up. I attacked with my cannon and lost with the advantage, then attacked him with a single vet warrior from a hill and won 8 vs 12(I swear the upsets balance out) upgrade to march and attack again and lose an upset(funny right?), no biggie though, I killed his last archer with my archer 3 vs 6, and send my horses chasing that settler. At this point the game goes into a freeze and being that I blew my last chance to take down the number 1 player I leave the box running and go about my life for a few hours. When I started up the game again I had jumped 6 spots in rank so I guess I got the win. I dont normally even make an attempt to wait people out during freezes but that was a grudge match I thought I had a really good chance to win. All in all it made me realize how lackluster the GL start is for the americans(took him about 25 turns to rush Rome) and how well that naval combat bonus works with naval support, I didnt build a single offensive unit but was able to press and capture cities, never really focused on that bonus but I'm realizing its good for more than just smashing boats.
It's funny you mention that, because I was just about to PM a friend to make sure you're ligit. I know that sounds rude of me, but I seem to recall that there were some issues b/c of one of your previous roommates, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to take the chance. Well, perhaps I was wrong to prejudge another player w/o having played a game with that person myself, and so I apologize for avoiding you. Next time I see you we'll play, if you're still up for it. I've actually wanted to play you b/c, if I'm not mistaken, you use more than one civ. That's definitely a trait I respect in other players.
Sincere apologies,
Zef
had one of my best showing against a fellow board member, asmodios, over the weekend. my spain vs. his china. one of those games where luck is everything. my first barb showed me egypt. i used the gold to rush a warrior army and took it 4.5 to 2.5. it had collosus and i got every first to bonus, including his literacy bonus. he quit about when i would have. i'll take any win i can over the chinese bullies.
in my last game of the night i got japan and was smack in the middle of 2 human chinas. both my warriors were killed by horses. i was right to 95 gold but had to rush archers to stay in the game. basically i was never in the game. luck is a double edged sword.
You stole the only barb hut I had near me in that game when I had it down to one flag and was attacking the next turn despite myself being the host somehow you got to attack first.
I'm starting to get really tired of this game. Anytime I play someone who I know is skilled I end up with some of the crappiest maps possible plus my opponent getting the AoC + AW + 7SoG in the first 20 turns...yet when I play a noob to average player I'll get 5+ barbs and the 7SoG.
My best starting points like last night in a game I started with 3 forests 2 grasslands and 3 water tiles....wouldn't you know my opponent quits in the first 15-20 turns. So when I get a great start I can't even utilize it.
Not to mention I played the same map 5 times yesterday. Each time my opponent gets the 7SoG in the first 10 turns. I've yet to figure out where the 7SoG is on that map.
Last edited by asmodeios; 10-12-2009 at 08:26 AM.
I hate it when that happens!!
If you can keep it that close against ChiefRocka's Americans, that's very impressive. I've also heard that you're strong with the Romans. I'm definitely looking forward to playing you, as I think I'll pick up some good tricks from a solid player. Hope to see you around...
No worries, I've thrown in the towel against several players here and wouldn't freeze it on you. I get so freaking pissed when people try to freeze me I could kick their mother in the face. And besides you're from seattle right? I wouldn't do something like that to a fellow seattlite. PM or send me a message on XBL if you want to play. I'm on at pretty random times.
I had two (actually 3) games against headless last night. It was fun to play a good Arabs players, because I can count them on one hand.
All matchups where Arabs vs. Arabs.
I actually had just got back into the top 10 the game before I faced headless for the first time. So briefly there were two Arabs in the top 10 in H2H.
The first game froze on my end on the first turn, so I quit.
The second game I started at the north end of the map. Not where I like to start on the map. I'd rather be right in the middle of the map with the Arabs, so you can be closer to all the other civs. I started on a patchup land to the north with one entrance to the mainland. I got three 2 barbs pretty quickly, both giving me 50 gold, so I got my 100 gold pretty fast.
Headless got HBR and his 100 gold pretty quickly too, as well as the Greek cap. Not good. A barb told me where the Americans where, but headless was at war with the (not by their cap, since he made peace with them, and the American cap was empty). I had a warrior army and a single warrior, so I decided to load a galley up and head south, since I could see he was taking a barb that was at the only entrance for me to the rest of the mainland. I put a warrior army and headed south, while I sent a warrior army to the entrance of the mainland. I still had 2 cities at 2 pop, and I knew that I would be at a disadvantage if I went for horsemen, since he'd have more than me, and probably more gold due to more land and more cities.
I found that he was settled pretty close to the landbridge, and I made it to a a set of 3 hills with my warrior army and he moved his horsearmy right next to my warrior army, and had another horsearmy 2 sqaures away. That next turn would be a matter of reflexes as to who would win. I let the timer run for a second, and then ended the turn and a tried to attack the horsearmy, figuring that I was the host, I would have a slight advantage in attacking him. It didn't work, and he got the attack in a nanosecond before me, winning 9 vs. 4.5.
I was heading for the Americans with my vet warrior army on my galley, but decided to to sneak up on him from behind with my galley, since I figured he'd send horses to me and I'd be ready to kill them from a hill close to my cap. He did send one army my way, and I guess the other army out towards an AI. I was waiting for him atop a hill and killed the horses that were coming my way.
I dropped off the warrior army as close as I could from my galley, which was two sqaures from his border. At the end of the next turn, I moved my warrior army next to his city, only to be dissapointed that it was his 100 gold city that was empty. That sucked, a cap with higher than 2 pop would have been great. But I took that city the next turn, and got Democracy from him. But, he had his horsearmy ready to kill that city 2 turns later, and I didn't have the gold to get a pikeman there.
So, with no gold, two 2 pop cities, and no land, I decided to quit.
The last game we played I got a barb in 3600BC, and it gave me a galley, so I decided to load my warrior up on the galley. The next turn he got 7 cities of gold. That's not good. Then I sent my galley east, only to find that headless was the player there. That sucked, I was hoping to find an AI that I could galley drop before 3000BC. He brought his galley towards mine and attacked, and won. That was a good call, since he could have rushed a few more galleys and tried the same.
I quit after the only other barb I was getting to had one flag, and the Russians took it. It was in a choke. I could have killed the Russian choked warrior, but not much I could do with 2 warriors in 3100BC, no gold, a 2 pop cap, and at least 3 or 4 more turns before I could get any more gold. Chalk that one up to the map, plus a good call by headless to attack the galley.
Anyways, good games. I rarely get to play Arabs vs. Arabs. It can be a slugfest. I love playing players that are currently higher rated in the leaderboards, it doesn't happen too often, and there's less pressure to win, since the drop in points isn't as harsh. I also don't mind giving those points to headless, as he's getting pretty high up in rating right now, with a non-power civ no less. I only dropped 35 points or so for those 3 games, which starting out with a 1528 rating, that's the best 3 game point drop I'll probably ever have. About 2 months ago, I dropped with this account losing 1 dumb game, and 2 freezes, and dropped 80 freakin points. That wasn't fun.
I can't understand why I lost 30 points losing to Bren psu3
Obviously, I had 35 cities, and he had 2
My bad.. I never attacked him until.. My bad.. I used a spy trying to destroy his walls.
It became a bit boring after that to play h2h and earn points.
yea i finally got some REALLY good competition. this guy, "darkmending", knows how to play and, thus, gave me my 2nd loss.
ok i just found out that this guy is techtree who was a forum member i think.
my arabs vs. his aztecs. i do a usual warrio start but know that he has hbr from 3500BC on. i see his horse army and try to prepare with warriors but he takes out the ai instead and kills my barbs. later on he kills two of my lone horses (my fault), my warrior army, and two lone warriors. i'm done already now. bad luck, next time i win
Morte,
Isn't this one of the guys who is known for cold fronts?? Why torture yourself playing him when you know how it's going to end? Too bad about that spy though...
it would be tempting to beat him but you can't attack. now we know even spy attacks can be used by these ***** to trigger freezes....um i mean cold snaps.
i am so pissed right now. i get island starts with arabs all the freaking time and now i had it two times in a row. it destroys all my game. how are you supposed to use fundamentalism if you're trapped on an island while in my first game the spanish expands to all the islands and in the 2nd the american kills the ai and expands like a maniac. if it's an exception to be spawned on an island it's ok, it's like a challenge. but with the arabs i suffer from the island-disease every tenth game on average. and it always gets rough, even against players i else would beat easily. now i could turn the game against the spanish around and was glad i did it but next game i'm again on an island and against america. that SUCKS! 3 losses now because of this cr*p.
It's cool he's still playing. Since I didn't start this game until this year, and not seriously until the summer, I always kind of wonder what happened to the old school players. Besides Morte and HGB, it seems like the rest of us didn't start until late last year or early this year.
i bought the game on release day but wandered thru the valley of suck for many months. i still visit it but i try not to dwell there.
yeah, there were a lot of older forum players that left, but I think Techtree came after me and a lot of us.
It seems like a lot of the former posters that were regulars, who no longer post, were on PS3. I know techtree, dio3d, and icecube were all on ps3, and posted a lot here, and then stopped.
I always wonder about xbman, because he was here a lot, and then stopped posting, and I've never run into him online. He was an opinionated person, and I almost never agreed with him, kinda immature, but he was someone who I wanted to play but never got to.
I know I play PS3, but I wont play H2H. Since I stick to the private matches if possible with certain guidelines
Okay, that was an awkward attempt at an allusion to a death metal/goth band called Cradle of Filth. They're fun to listen to when you're full of dark despair. As to the game which filled me with despair:
I was playing an Egyptian player last night -- while I was Greeks -- when I noticed not too far into the game that I couldn't make galleons. Nope! No option for it whatsoever, even though I had the tech. Nor could I make galleys!! I'm sure it happened after a resynch, and I think I may have lost a GB as well that I was saving up, but I'm pretty sure I've never seen a glitch like that one before. I guess the longer I play Civ Rev the more crazy things I'll see!
Luckily I won. It wasn't easy, since I couldn't expand to islands the way I wanted to with the Greeks in the midgame. I was pressing the enemy with knights, took over a couple of cities, lost one of them to a flip and another to a knight cruiser combo. I still had one elite knight in that area, and kept pressing even though I was nervous about the tech race w/o Steam yet. He sent his cruiser fleet over to my territory and took over a coastal city, but when he lost to two knight armies he quit. How odd. It was a close game since I couldn't do much without boats --- I was hoping the game would give me cruisers by the time of Steam --- but I guess he didn't like the idea that I actually had the nerve to prepare some defenses for him by the time he attacked. Many ppl don't like long games, that's for sure.
Another example of someone who doesn't like a long game, or long turns at least: I was playing a top 100 Egypt player today who chose Greeks this time around, while I went with Aztecs. Bad choice on my part----I started with an island. And NOT just any island---the kind of island that really has no close access to the mainland, but actually requires that you go around the top of the map before you even begin to see anything that vaguely looks like a continent!!! I had loaded up my galley with a horse army in the 2000s hoping to still take an early city from an AI, but only later discovered that the quickest I could find the Zulus was by the mid-1000s... and even then it would have taken a few more turns to disembark, move toward the cap, and finally attack. So instead, luckily, I found some Mongol settlers, kidnapped them like the evil tyrant I am, and started settling the mainland. Before that I had also settled my entire mid-sized island with 5 cities, a smaller one with 3, as well as a single tile island right next to my original one. So I had about 11 altogether when I started catching up to him in tech, as I was almost always 7 or so behind.
There's no reason I should have caught up against a Greek player. He still could have won the game, but I think more and more players want a short game, even when they choose the Greeks! Or he wanted me to shorten my turns, as he hit pause a couple of times, but if you're playing from behind I think you have a pretty good reason to take a bit longer than usual in making your moves.
So 2 wins based not on genius strat but on the laziness of others. Yay!
Hopefully, however, I never get that galleon glitch against a good player. That would be ruinous.
Just finished a game that took less than 5 minutes. I was English and he the Zulus. He takes over Moscow before I have a warior out. By the time I get that warrior to a barb village, he takes it. I attack as I have 1 to his .667, but he heals before the attack (b/c of the time it takes for game introductions between civs, etc.), and I lose 1-1. My other warrior only has access to a village across a river, but I decide to attack since I have nothing to lose. Actually, I do have something to lose, namely, the battle. I lose that one .5 to .5. The next turn he's at my cap with an army: game over at 3100.
the zulu are worse than an episode of family guy, the zulu are worse than and aztec horserush, the zulu are worse than aunt jemama!!!!!
haha, old school.. it sounds cool..
dan you werent mentioned because your post count doesnt compare to mortes lol
grayson, i have xbmx as a friend in myspace, he sold the game, he will never ever play again!!!!!
Yeah... I can't stop contributing to this thread!!
Well, this was another short one. I don't like playing against Americans, and half the time I choose not to just out of some weird, inexplicable distaste I have for them. I guess the way I feel is sort of like how ppl used to feel toward the Zulus before I started playing Civ Rev. And even though I wasn't planning on using a top civ tonight (I've been planning my civ choices out in groups of 5 or 10 with my new account), I decided to go with China when I saw a top 50-70 American player in the lobby.
My start was horrible: No $$ in the first 9 turns even with 2 warriors out there. He finds Beijing at 3100. Uh-oh: looks like my last game against the Zulus just a few minutes ago!! But I have some trees saved up. So I set my prod to warrior instead of horse, and he appears just before the attack (he had seen my empty cap the turn before, obviously) which I win (isn't that 1.5 versus 2?). Whew!! I start piling up some money with two villages I had been attacking, send out my first horse in the direction of the Americans, but just before I attack his warrior which had taken over a village, he quits!!!!!!!
Wow: another player who doesn't want to face a challenge. I guess that makes up for the loss to the Zulu. I'm happy again.
Played one more game tonight.
Me (arabs) vs. GIMMEACHALLENGE (Spain). I like playing this guy, because he always uses non-power civs. He used to only use the Mongols, but also plays a lot with India, English, and Spain. So it's always a good time, and power-civ free. The only time he has beaten me was this exact matchup, so I figured I'd try for some redemption.
I started the game out in the middle of the map, which I like, my only problem was that there was 5 directions to go. I ended up sending warriors in all five directions, which is kind of dumb, but it payed off in gold. I got little gold at first, then in a matter of 3 turns, I amassed over 200 gold. I expanded out to three cities, formed two horsearmies, had 2 warrior armies that were elite, and I found Germans to the north and Greeks to the south. I had my warrior army to Athens at about 2400BC, and took it. I then got my horsearmy up to Berlin, but Spain declared war on them so I wouldn't get them so quick, and it did slow me down a few turns from taking it.
He was a little slow to get his 100 gold, but he got it around the time I got Athens, but he was slow to tech at first, which is normal for this guy. He usually expands a whole lot in the Ancient, then gets his beaker count over 20 before advancing to the Medieval, which can be smart.
I loaded my other warrior army onto a galley and headed south, finiding the Chinese cap, which was at 5 pop with a hill next to it. I got the warrior army on the hill and took it in about 2 or 3 turns. That very next turn I got Irrigation, boosting my 5 cities. I took Berlin the next turn, giving me 6 cities. I got to Code of Laws and Curency first, and started to expand. I noticed that there was green borders right next to Berlin, so I rushed a galley to find a Spanish 1 tile city right to the north of Berlin, I flipped it was the GA I had just got.
I figured with 4/5 caps, and flipping his city, he might quit, but he kept on, and actually started to somehow beat me in tech.
I got a GS from Monarchy, which I decided to save for later. He was staying ahead of me in tech, because he got to Democracy quickly. I expanded out to about 12 cities and switched to democracy, and just when I felt I was gaining the edge in tech, catchign back up 16-17, he went out and got Atlantis.
I got engineering so I could access Steam, and decided that I wasn't going to just turtle anymore, I needed to press him, and knew his cap and an island city was to the south of me. I finished feudalism, GS'd Steam Power and got the free cruiser, and switched all my cities to gold, and made 3 knight armies and loaded them up on to 2 different cruisers.
I headed south to his island city right next to his cap, and attacked with my knights right off the cruiser, beating his single unit there, and taking that city, which gave me gunpowder. I then found another island city that was empty with my other cruiser, took it with a pikeman that i had put on board, and sailed south to unload my knights next to another one of his island cities. He quit right after that. He was beating me 25-20 in tech, and had got the EIC a few turns before, but I'm sure losing 4 of his cities would stop him from teching so much, so he quit.
It was a fun game, I was impressed what he did with so little, though it was probably just due to him not building many units at all.
2 games tonight, of wildly different types. in the first its my arabs against america (again, really?). this time its different as i get a 1 flag barb that shows me the american cap. next turn i have an army on the way and walk in on it a few turns later. i get a little worried when he doesn't quit, the bammo, i'm disconnected from live on the following turn. i don't know what kind of mod you need to do that but i'm guessing who has one. he wouldn't answer my message afterwards.
next game is my greeks against aztec. he pulls ahead early as i have 6 plains and am focused on growth. i get a good 1 tile with 2 whale/fish, and a production city with iron. i steal a gl from france and am doing good. then france, who only has 1 city, flips my island. this sets me way back. i form an elite cat army but can't get inf. and lose 9-6. i'm about to take it with an inf. cat when aztecs come along with 2 knight armies on a cruiser. i flee and he takes the city. i return with a cruiser fleet and take it from him. he sneaks in with knights and takes it back. i kill his cruiser and this time i gs combustion and take it for good with a tank army the next turn. he finally quits after i take bejiing from him. he play good but never left fund. after getting it. a big mistake. 1 more turn and i would have finished hgb which would have made athens 24 pop. no other city had over 10.
With so many noobish players* in the game these days -- maybe it's b/c of school -- I've recently learned how to make H2H games a bit more exciting: fall way, way behind and then play catch up. I didn't do this on purpose tonight, but nonetheless it definitely gave me a scare and actually made for an enjoyable, thrilling game.
I was Arabs, this guy was Spain. I had a horrible start: Send warriors in two directions, attack separate villages, and in each case -- no lie! -- an AI stole the goodies from me on the last flag. Russia from one direction, India from the other. So I have no gold early on. I therefore stay with warriors, and opt out of the horserush. I furthermore diverge from the traditional logic (see Grayson's strat) of making warriors only until 3000 BC. I do this b/c I figure I've got a shot at two caps if I can reach them before 2000. I get to each one at about 2200 and 2100, but only take one: Moscow. I retreat from India. Bummer! Now, usually getting one cap isn't such a bad thing. Better than none, right?? But as I mentioned, I put most my money into those two warrior armies and didn't get much in the way of huts or villages, and likewise didn't start growing my cap until later than usual. Eveything was just basically very, very slow in terms of develoment. Only about 5 cities by 0 AD, I think. It was the kind of game where everything was snatched away from me early on --- as when I was hoping to get the AoC which wasn't too far from Moscow but of course a Spanish galleon shows up, sinks my galley, and takes the AoC along with the AW and Atlantis later on. But I suppose that's the norm for Spain. I got SoC later on...
So with my slow start I missed almost ALL the bonuses!! The only early ones I got, besides Religion, were IW, Construction, and Engineering. He was always ahead in tech by at least 5 and up to 10 for most the game. He also GSed Invention and Steam, and got Atlantis at around that time as well---just when I was catching up. In the late game he also got Industrialization, Railroad, and Corporation!!!! Geeeesh!!!
Luckily this guys's tactics were fairly horrible. That's the weakest part of my game, imo, so that's saying something if I think he wasn't so good in that regard. I failed in a couple of early attempts to press with warriors and then knights, but since I had some very good trees and hills with iron and 2 workshops and barracks, along with those production bonuses (including Communism at the end) which were almost equal to his gold bonuses since he had less cities, I was able to finally take over some great gold and science cities of his toward the end of the game as soon as I made Leo's for several vet tank armies to go with my cruiser fleets.
The whole game was intense, from beginning to end, and I had to fight for every inch, even though I was playing against someone who was passive and just a step above noob---perhaps at the level of bad to average.
So if you're looking for a tight game and the competition is low, just give 80% of the bonuses to your opponent, including all the gold and GP ones!!
ZEF
*No disrespect. I've been there myself...
Last edited by Zefelius; 10-14-2009 at 08:05 PM.
Playing a matchup of China vs Americans (Chief Rocka)
So it starts out with him getting 2 free techs in the first 4 turns (Pottery and HBR). He got masonry quite early as well perhaps before BW. I get my 100 gold really early like 3200 I call that early since I had just used 2 warriors to get it. Got 50 gold from one barb 30 from another....3rd gave me a caravan that I got to Madrid and also named 2 tiles along the way. 2500 bc he shows up at my capital with a horse army. I have 2 archers and 2 settlers in my capital. He beats my fortiefied archer (his non vet horse army btw) but I significantly damage the horses. Rush an archer the next turn...he heals...next turn rush another archer and he runs away to go after the french (already sold BW to the french and spanish and had declared war). He never got an AI cap.
He went the normal Masonry-Irrigation route...meanwhile I teched to get to 5 techs so my 2 settlers would be pop 4s...6th tech was COL got the free trading post...although in my capital which didn't have a desert within the normal 8 although my 100g city had one right next to it...weird. I had defenders in it....should have given the trading post there.
Get currency first on my 1 tile island city that had 2 fish and 1 whale.
Start teching to mathematics...he has 1 more tech than me. The spanish city a city next to my 100 g city....so I take it over with my Lightning Ninja warrior army and get a hard freeze.
Pretty sure it was giving me navigation too. Felt pretty good about this game considering I'm expanding to a good rate and have the gold to do whatever I want getting 30 something gold per turn from my gold city not to mention I got up to 200 gold from all the caravans and barbs.
Part of me thinks I should quit since It is a hard freeze on my end and every single game I've had with Chief Rocka ends up in a freeze. Last time was on his end I assume since I wasn't frozen. But then again I'm doing very well....held off his attacks and prevented him from taking the AIs by selling them BW and declaring war.
Last edited by asmodeios; 10-15-2009 at 07:12 AM.
Sounds like you did pretty well. Just curious, do you think it would've been better for you to horserush than to go for archers? I know you managed to keep your opponent from taking out the AI, but it still seems like he should have used his army to press you in the early game and make it tough for you to settle cities. If you go to the seas, no problem. Send some 30g galleys at you and eventually he'll sink all your boats and should be able to keep you to a few cities.
But if you had your own horse army, you could counter his and kill it, then help yourself to some caps or press him. Basically I'm saying it kind of sounds like your opponent didn't make the most of aggression.
No, because I find lately when I horse rush that the cons vastly outweigh the pros. I don't have good luck horse rushing. The last time I did I lost a ninja horseman army attacking from a hill vs a single fortified archer (15 vs 5).
I took most of the barbs in the area...one of the few times I play a good player and got more than 1 or 2 barb huts.
I ended up quitting as it was a hard freeze on my end. It kinda pissed me off that he sent me 3 messages that I received when I rebooted saying I should quit blah blah blah....I'm pretty sure I was going to win that game if not for the freeze. I just got navigation from the spanish. Had mathematics on the next turn and was already building a barracks in a city with 3 trees and I would have had the gold to rush several catapult armies and a galleon fleet. I knew where all the capitals were. Not to mention getting navigation was going to make my gold city keep growing....already at a pop 8 when the game froze.
Going after a horse army of my own in this game would have just hampered my game a lot. He would have been on my capital without me having the defenses to defend myself. I usually lose to horsemen armies when defending with warriors...not to mention if I have a horseman army together it is never sitting in a city but out trying to conquer others.
He was starting to expand at that point but I would have expanded just as much if not more since I had navigation...knew where atlantis was and had plenty of gold and knew where a lot of single tile cities with fish or whales were. I had 6 cities when the game froze with 4 more settlers on the way.
I think he lost his horseman army to the french. And I think he lost another one to the Spanish.
I expanded by using a galley I didn't risk running the setters along land.
Last edited by asmodeios; 10-15-2009 at 08:53 AM.
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