Wanna beat emperor? This is it!

Chemical Ollie · October 12, 2002, 17:02

Have you tried emperor but get your butt kicked every time? So have I! Here is a map where you have great potential to make it the other way around. Your starting position is so good you can hardly lose. You have 5 cattles , rivers and several game forest in close vicinity to your capitol. In this particular game it is extremely important to be aware of the strenght and weaknesses of unique units, both yours and the opponents. If you keep those limitations in mind, this could be a game of ultimate power!

Chemical Ollie · October 12, 2002, 17:09

I achieved cultural win at 5000 score about 1805 AD. Most of you should be able to win this.

All victory conditions are on. Barbarians are random, cultural linking off, respawning off.

Have fun!

Chemical Ollie · October 12, 2002, 17:14

Your civ is Egypt. Industrial workers rock, as do the cheap culture and the immediate choice of government! The game is a large map with random land mass and type.

Prince · October 12, 2002, 17:24

I'll have a go at it tomorrow, though it'd be my first emperor game! Starting position looks good, and you chose a fine civ to play with. However, I usually take days if not a week to complete a game, so don't expect any results too soon

Chemical Ollie · October 12, 2002, 17:49

Quote:

Originally posted by Prince
I'll have a go at it tomorrow, though it'd be my first emperor game! Starting position looks good, and you chose a fine civ to play with. However, I usually take days if not a week to complete a game, so don't expect any results too soon

It's fun to hear that I can encourage someone to take a step into the unknown. One minor hint I haven't mentioned: The starting tile is a shielded grass. It's up to you if you wanna waste it or waste one turn.

It took me a week to finish this map, 2-5 hours a day. I have seen slower games. If you are in peace, it's mostly automated workers, city production choices and space-clicks to move on.

Sean · October 12, 2002, 19:32

This might be worth a try. :-) I'll download it.

Theseus · October 12, 2002, 22:49

I'm sure the AU folks, as well as others, would be happy to comment and make suggestions on games in progress if they are posted. Might help those people with a little trepidation about Emperor.

alva · October 12, 2002, 22:54

Same here,

Post your saves !!!

Chemical Ollie · October 13, 2002, 04:13

Quote:

Originally posted by Theseus
I'm sure the AU folks, as well as others, would be happy to comment and make suggestions on games in progress if they are posted. Might help those people with a little trepidation about Emperor.

That would be fun. However I have tried not to post too many spoilers until people have played a while.

But one hint can't be repeated too many times: remember the strenght and weaknesses of your and your oponents unique units! That is crucial on this particular map. If you go early warmonger, pick the right civ to attack!

Chemical Ollie · October 13, 2002, 04:24

Quote:

Originally posted by alva848
Same here,

Post your saves !!!

Here is my save about one hour of gaming before I won.

For some reason, I have always won by culture in all my emperor games. This time I was only 1 turn away from building UN when I unexpectedly won, and in the last game before that (AU106), I won by culture less than 10 turns before my space launch. Perhaps I should play with cultural victory off next time?

Chemical Ollie · October 14, 2002, 10:56

*bump*

Anyone playing the game? Perhaps time to start to post some spoilers?

planetfall · October 14, 2002, 12:33

Quote:

Originally posted by Olaf Hårfagre
*bump*

Anyone playing the game? Perhaps time to start to post some spoilers?

What is meant by "spoilers"? Hints, looking back this is what I would do differently, etc?

-- PF

Chemical Ollie · October 15, 2002, 06:17

Quote:

Originally posted by planetfall

What is meant by "spoilers"? Hints, looking back this is what I would do differently, etc?

-- PF

I did not invent the expression myself, but as I understand it, "spoiler" refers to information that would spoil the moment of surprise in other persons games by revealing location of resources, opponents, unsettled land etc. This is why the start of a tournament and the strategy discussions about that particular game are normally posted in different threads.

Chemical Ollie · October 15, 2002, 07:09

Here is a short resume of my own game. I do not remember all details as it was about a week ago, but I will try as good as I can.

I expanded as fast as I could and packed my first cities close. I had a ring of 6-7 cities at 2-5 tiles from the capitol. Whenever possible, I made sure to settle on rivers. I built plenty of workers, then mines and roads to boost production and economy. A newbie hint: mine all grasslands! I found some spices to the north and filled the north-east corner of the continent.
China settled on the Ivory south of me and blocked me from it, but I settled all around the Chinese outpost and made it eventually flip to me. Greece had a major city on the north shore of the Great Lake, which I took as an offence. But that had to wait because the strenght of hoplites.

I had plans to attack Rome before they got too many legions, so I built up a force of 45 War Chariots (WC) to deal with them. However, Mao was foolish enough to attack me before that, perhaps offended by the city flipping. That was the end of him, and China was soon reduced to one city in the spice field to the south and a couple of outposts on nearby islands. War Chariots rule! I wasted the golden age under despotism, but I was already the strongest civilisation, so it didn't matter so much anyway.

Then Rome attacked me (just like I wanted). I pillaged their only iron and razed a couple of cities. They had not built enough legions to be able to stop my WC hordes. After peace, I quickly resettled on the razed land.

Now it was the Greeks turn. I waited for Knights before I attacked. 25 of them attacked the city on the north lake shore (task force N), while a diversion force of 2 knights and 5 swordsmen went south of the lake (task force S). Surpricingly, task force S was most succesful and razed 2 cities while losing only 2 units. This land was soon settled by Rome. Task force N was met by stubborn resistance of at least 7 muskets and hoplites fortified in a size 12 city. Half of them was lost and the rest wounded, while the hoplites only brushed the dust of their shields and awaited the next attack. The Greeks sent a massive knight counterattack and took one of my cities, which I soon reclaimed. I was in trouble. It took a while of fierce fighting, but the Greek attacks eventually thinned out, probably thanks to the 2 cities razed by task force S. By relocation of reserve troops from the Roman border in the south and by having a much higher production capacity, I could finally kill all defenders in the same turn and the stubborn city was razed. The size 6 cities to the north-west was easily razed by just a few knights, while Athens was a harder nut to crack. I awaited cavallery and finally, Alex was expelled from my continent and reduced to 4 useless cities on tiny islands to the south. Still, he refused to give me any tach (navigation) in the peace deal.

The Romans tried to walk through my land to settle in former Greece. When I asked them to leave, they declared war. Stupid of them! They were soon in OCC on a tiny island they shared with China.

Well, my lunch break is over. More to come later.

Chemical Ollie · October 15, 2002, 17:16

I decided to expell China as well, which took just 1 or 2 turns. They were now in OCC on a southern island. The whole continent was now mine and I filled it with my own cities. France had planted a city in the wine fields, which soon flipped to me. I sent out a caravel and made contact with the rest of the world. They were far behind in tech.

I was planning a peaceful game and finish by diplomat or space ship. I sold old tech for luxuries and gold per turn to them who had something to give me. Then suddenly, the Babs made a blackmail request which I refused, so they declared war. I quickly got alliances with the strongest of the others (Iroquis and Germans). The whole world turned into a big clusterf*ck and I was on the stronger side. India declared war on me but was soon wiped out by someone else. However, it took a while for me to prepare an invasion fleet of infantry cavallery and artillery. I eventually filled 5 galleons for the first wave and sailed away. I took a chance here and sent them without escort. It took foooreeeever to get there and when they arrived, one of them was sunk by a Babylonian ironclad. Lucky to me, it contained only artillery. I quickly took a city with furs, but hordes of Babylonian cavallery took it back after perhaps 10 turns. I landed the second wave, with an infantry army on top and took the city again. The army held the city a few turns until I got flight and the Babylonian destiny was sealed. I rushed an airport and then flew in perhaps 10 infantry per turn, plus plenty of bombers. These helped me to turn the tide and start to expand from my bridgehead. Just a little later, it was time for tanks and the Babylonian glory days were definitely over. I went for the other luxury, took it and decided I had all I needed. They were very willing to make peace.

This is the position of my savegame above.

The rest of the game I was bribing all AI by luxuries, obsolete tech or lump sums of 100 gold to make them vote for me in UN. I was only a few turns from building UN when cultural win sneaked up on me.

Anyone had a completely different game on this map? I bet.

Chemical Ollie · October 17, 2002, 15:14

*BUMP*

Am I the only one who has tried this map? 14 of you have downloaded it. How did you perform?

Arrian · October 17, 2002, 15:59

Olaf,

I recently finished my first really successful Emperor game, also as Egypt. I don't really like large maps (games are just too long), so I fished around for a good spot on a normal map.

What I got was 5 cows with a river (well, I had to move 1 tile to get them in the radius). I believe I have the 4000bc save... want it?

Let's just say that things went well for me. Very, very well. Not that there weren't dicey moments, mind you.

-Arrian

alva · October 17, 2002, 16:18

Next step, normal start

Arrian · October 17, 2002, 17:07

Normal start... that's when you only get 2 cows, right?

-Arrian, seeker of really nice start spots

Chemical Ollie · October 17, 2002, 19:25

Quote:

Originally posted by Arrian
Olaf,

I recently finished my first really successful Emperor game, also as Egypt. I don't really like large maps (games are just too long), so I fished around for a good spot on a normal map.

What I got was 5 cows with a river (well, I had to move 1 tile to get them in the radius). I believe I have the 4000bc save... want it?

Let's just say that things went well for me. Very, very well. Not that there weren't dicey moments, mind you.

-Arrian

Sure, post it, I'll give it a try. I'm currently playing as Iroquis on Marla's Earth, doing well so far on emperor level. Expansionist comes to it right on huge maps and those mounted warriors are unstoppable. Got about 10 techs and 2 settlers from huts. But I think my old 450 MHz CPU will stall when the game reaches the industrial age, so then I might try your map.

Arrian · October 18, 2002, 10:53

Olaf,

Damn, I may not have time to post the start before next week. It's just as well you're playing another one.

By the way, I tried out Marla's Map once too, on Monarch as China. What a start spot... if only I was the warmonger I am now. But I digress. I have a 400mhz machine. By the time I hit the Industrial Age, the turns were taking 45 minutes each. I warn you now! The horror! The horror!

-Arrian

Chemical Ollie · October 19, 2002, 19:46

Quote:

Originally posted by Arrian
Olaf,

Damn, I may not have time to post the start before next week. It's just as well you're playing another one.

By the way, I tried out Marla's Map once too, on Monarch as China. What a start spot... if only I was the warmonger I am now. But I digress. I have a 400mhz machine. By the time I hit the Industrial Age, the turns were taking 45 minutes each. I warn you now! The horror! The horror!

-Arrian

Yeah, I remember my last game on Marla. Each AI turn took 30 minutes. In this game, I just went industrial, and the AI still only need less than 5 minutes each turn. Is something wrong? Perhaps it's because they have made war on each other and thus don't have huge stacks of troops to move around. By the way, I have over 1700 score in 800 AD. I can't recall having more points this early, ever! I will play this game to the end, even if the AI would take 2 hours per turn. I have finally learned to turn cultural win off. Otherwise, I will win when I least expect it. This game will be a milker, so that I grow bored of CIV3 and spend more time with my kids. (see this link: http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...7&pagenumber=1)

But when I get my 2.56 GHz CPU in late November, Marla will be my lover.

vmxa1 · October 19, 2002, 20:12

I have never seen turns of more than 2 minutes, even when they were moving over 150 tanks. It is boring. Once I played on Huge 16 civs and only 3 ever were eliminated and I play a domination, so it went to 2050 and the turns were quick. I was at war with all civs most of the time. This is on just a amd 2100+. Not even my fastest pc.

alva · October 19, 2002, 21:07

don't worry about the processor, make sure you have enough memory

Quote:

This is on just a amd 2100+. Not even my fastest pc.

showoff

vmxa1 · October 19, 2002, 22:58

In a world of 2.6G or moe, mine is not much.

Wizard55 · October 20, 2002, 12:13

Olaf,
You are either a great game player or a great story teller.
It is really hard for me to believe you can win on emperor level in 1805 AD.
Example: you rush an airport and then flew in lots of infantry and bombers.

Over what amont of time. My hat is off to you sir.

These are my thoughts, thanks for listening.

Chemical Ollie · October 20, 2002, 19:22

Quote:

Originally posted by Wizard55
Olaf,
You are either a great game player or a great story teller.
It is really hard for me to believe you can win on emperor level in 1805 AD.
Example: you rush an airport and then flew in lots of infantry and bombers.

Over what amont of time. My hat is off to you sir.

These are my thoughts, thanks for listening.

Well, I have learnt a lot by playing the tournaments and reading the hints on Apolyton.

You can fly as many units as you like into one city on one turn, as long as you have enough airports to fly them from. This is a common strategy for oversea invasion from the late industrial era and on.

I think I flew in about 10 new units every turn over 10-15 turns. Tanks in the later stage. Look at my modern era savegame and count the units I have on the Babylonian continent. Most of those arrived by air.

Have you tried the 4000 BC save game?

Datajack Franit · October 20, 2002, 22:44

Exactly- enough practise and anyone in this forum could beat emperor

Arrian · October 21, 2002, 10:38

Wizard,

You also have to bear in mind that the game just moves faster on the higher levels, because of the AI's increased science rate. So when the human catches up (via the Great Library and/or beating tech out of the enemy, err... AI), you're way ahead of where you would have been on say... Regent. Therefore, Bombers and Infantry in 1805 isn't really that big a deal.

I just finished an Emperor game in the 1600 or 1700s, I forget which, and I was several techs into the Modern Age (mmmm, 3xTank+1 mech inf armies... wow, those rock. I had 4 of 'em).

-Arrian

alva · October 21, 2002, 11:03

wining emperor around 1700 sounds normal to me (standard map)
Like arian said, just breaking modern (I have yet to build a spaceship part/sdi/oil platform?/....)