Old World (pka Ten Crowns) from Soren Johnson

… and you refer to the source code to clear questions up as well.

A+ post. Subtle good natured snark, plus it’s true! :)

Civ IV did this (no music until after the Ancient era). I’ve been pleasantly bemused by how it’s really struck a chord (sorry) with people this time around but was kind of uncommented on for Civ IV. (I prefer the game to start very quietly, and the music has more impact when it suddenly appears.)

Actually, I think this is the A+ answer. Everything is explained in the source code.

Captain obvious observation from my current campaign: The application of military force is not just a matter of number of units and their attack numbers (and promotion attributes), but also the number of orders you bring to the battlefield each turn.

I’m currently decimating Persia to my south because I’m bringing 64 orders to the engagement every turn. As a result I can not only hit them more often I can at my leisure cycle out and heal units from the front lines.

Again, I know this is probably obvious, but it’s also to me at least another glorious example of how cool orders are.

4 posts were merged into an existing topic: Old World: Post your gameplay questions here!

Assyria needs a UU upgrade.

They are the the undisputed badass villains of the early iron age, incredibly over the top “evil” by our modern world view, but far enough removed temporally that we can appreciate what they accomplished and how they did it without having to consider or account for the price paid in human suffering.

No one is going to be offended if you opine that Sargon II “did a lot of good things.”

They are bad guy cool in the way that Darth Vader was cool - before the prequels.

The “beast of the East” as Dan Carlin calls her, deserves better.

I agree. It is probably the #1 reason I don’t play them. The 2 orders/unit killed is an interesting mechanic. But when I want to play a conqueror, Rome is my nation, with the Greeks a possible 2nd choice. The UU are important part of the game, and the Assyrian UU is just too situational. You really only have the orders to attack one city, perhaps two. So if each army has 2 siege engines you are only building four max.plus replacements.

Has anyone found a good strategy for Babylonia? Usually I do well with science focused civs, but I feel like here I have a much easier time with Rome, Greece, and even Egypt

Babylon is ridiculously powerful at science-inspired conquest.

They have growth bonuses to crank out early Settlers better, especially pay attention to sites near Game/Fish/Crabs. Found a Hunter city there and it will have very high growth.

The redraw ability means you can actually beeline techs. Your main tasks are to get Strongholds and Lumbermills. Strongholds give you Akkadian Archers, which have splash damage and are incredible at softening up enemy armies. You start with Administration and Rhetoric, so Garrisons are coming soon. Chariots work together extremely well with Akkadians - the Akkadians do damage to many units, and Chariots should always prioritize Bloodthirsty if available, and this combo is set up to rout enemy armies like nothing else in the game.

Thanks for the suggestions! I have been starting hunters and churning out early settlers, but I was hoping for a path that didn’t require an early offensive (except for fighting barbs and maybe one tribe.) . Is there an effective way to get to 5 or 6 cites and then turtle and make nice until you’ve gone through much of the tech trfee?

Forget the UU, their ranged units are monsters.

Getting 5 or 6 cities is tough without attacking tribes. You usually have 2 free city sites available, on most difficulties. Then 1-2 you can snag from Barbarians, but it’s more effective to grab at least a couple of Tribal sites. As I see it, any tribes that are close by basically exist to be taken over.

But depending on the map, you can get 5-7 cities if you clear out barbs and one tribe, which as Babylon means you can have a fair bit of science. Use your rural specialists and courtiers to keep boosting science, and then you can sit back until the middle of the tech tree. Onagers make it far easier to go on the offensive, so you can try to turtle until you have your Onagers, backed by a regular army.

Of course in Old World you’re never safe from an attack. You can adopt a defensive posture, but you can’t be sure that wars will only begin on your terms.

sorry I was unclear, happy to fight a tribe at the start. but I’d like a path that doesnt involve constant fighting

“A conquering army on the border will not be stopped by eloquence.”
- Otto Von Bismarck.

In my experience, the AI is strategically aggressive and opportunistic, and as alliances are impossible at start, the trick is peace through strength.

It seems nearly impossible to keep all the AI players happy - which is probably a good thing; the only way I’ve found to keep them from declaring war is to maintain a significant military. There seem to still be random event driven declarations of war that can screw your day, but that is out of your control.

For a peaceful game, just keep pumping out the troops to achieve and keep “similar” military level.

In practical terms, if my first city has good growth resources, I’ll keep it on settlers and workers nearly non stop, while the second city, ideally with champions, riders, or hunters and shield resources which do not require workers (correction: do not require specialists), almost non stop train troops. Place barracks, ranges, shield producing shrines, etc as quickly as possible for additional shields with the goal of being able to churn out troops as fast as possible. Every once in a while, you can probably spare the 4 or 5 turns to mix in a shield producing specialist.

Your remaining empire can focus on the tech/eco boom.

To avoid that, the disjunction map with one continent per team (or Archipelago) will achieve that goal

i havent yet tried either teams or that map, thanks for the suggestions!

and thanks all for the many suggestions. i feel like I have figured out how to play Rome and Greece, so I’m going to keep on trying to improve my Babylonia game.

Game of the Week - 7/19

Egyptian One City Challenge

After a b-b-b-brutal game last week, Mohawk returns with something a little more reasonable. I never play One City, so this was a interesting change of pace game.

[spoiler]I won an ambition game with about 20 turns to spare. I used the Land Barons family and aggressively bought tiles to expand while simultaneously kowtowing to every foreign delegation to avoid conflict while knocking out non-military ambitions.

One city sprawl…
image
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Hah, nice. I recently discovered the power of buying tiles with Colonization and I ain’t even mad about it.