Afraid this will be a summary for now. Hopefully there will be a brief report later today or tomorrow.
Result: Domination loss in 1946.
I started without Sirian's help, but managed to found the first two cities in the same positions as him (gold tile, then the plains hill to the SW). After that it diverged a bit.
The early barbarians were unusually nice - I didn't see anything but warriors for ages, which made things a lot easier than they might have been, despite losing my initial warrior to an unfriendly hut. (Did Sirian giving the barbs settlers make them easier early on?)
My expansion went reasonably. I was unable to settle on the iron due to a barbarian city, and ended up never building a Praetorian. Indeed, the first Iron I had connected was the one to the North-East.
Eventually, Qin and Gandhi turned up; they were at each others' throats. I managed to pull off a tech trade with Gandhi by using a scientist to get Philosophy. I would probably have done better to avoid the diplomatic penalty with Qin, but it turned out not to cost.
By 1700 or so, Qin got to Assembly Line and declared on Gandhi. Not too long later, peace was declared and I noticed Gandhi's city on my continent was now his capital. Ouch.
Qin then did the runaway AI thing. He annoyingly settled right by one of my borders and picked up a -3 for close borders immediately. Indeed, this was the problem I couldn't beat. I remember an oldish game which allowed you to cede disputed territory - would have been incredibly useful here. Anyway, I tried to get the city to flip, but without luck as it suddenly got a culture boost from behind.
I'd been holding my own against the barbarians for years, never looking like winning or losing to them, primarily because just as I thought I had an overwhelming advantage, they'd get the next tech and be able to defend again.
Then Qin turned his attention to them.
Tanks poured through my territory and rolled straight over them. I realised he'd be pretty close to domination from there just by settling the available space, and my economy was in good shape, so I built a load of new cities. I pushed my tech on hard, too, in the hope of getting to something which could just about hold its own against Qin if he chose to attack.
I reached Assembly Line, Artillery and then Rocketry, but he attacked in 1932. I had never been able to get rid of that close borders penalty. I did my best to hold him off, but the few SAMs I could produce were no match for his airforce, which was the killing advantage. 14 very painful years later, I had two cities left in the southern end of the starting peninsula as Qin reached the domination threshold. Still, I'm pleased to have lost by domination rather than conquest.
I have a list of his final army, retrieved by using the worldbuilder and placing a very large number of spies and destroyers. (Is there an easier way to do this?) It's quite scary - I'll post it if I can manage to write the brief report.
A fun game on balance. It was often a bit of a scramble to stop a sudden barbarian stack. The AI did its job well (well, Qin at least), and I managed the diplomacy well enough to stay alive until the end. The only shame is that my plan for how to win was never going to be possible due to Qin running away with it. There was no way he should have chosen not to attack at that stage, so my demise was unsurprising.
Obvious AI tactical improvements (I've never defended against an AI who had modern tech before):
1. Attack with gunships before land forces when appropriate: Qin failed to take three of my cities due to this. Only delaying the inevitable in this situation, but it could be significant in some games.
2. Don't bother blowing up defences when there are no units defending a city. Qin wasted a lot of Stealth Bomber turns doing this (not that he was short of them).
3. Don't always pillage. Qin lost a vast number of barbarian (and Roman) improvements due to this. Fair enough when your opponent might have a surprise tucked away, but not when you will walk all over them. Many of the losses were to bombers, so he won't even have gained any cash for them.
Strange fact I've discovered this game: a gunship attacking a city with only workers in will capture precisely one of them.
Thanks for the game, Sirian. Sorry to hear yours turned out wrong. Keep 'em coming.
Result: Domination loss in 1946.
I started without Sirian's help, but managed to found the first two cities in the same positions as him (gold tile, then the plains hill to the SW). After that it diverged a bit.
The early barbarians were unusually nice - I didn't see anything but warriors for ages, which made things a lot easier than they might have been, despite losing my initial warrior to an unfriendly hut. (Did Sirian giving the barbs settlers make them easier early on?)
My expansion went reasonably. I was unable to settle on the iron due to a barbarian city, and ended up never building a Praetorian. Indeed, the first Iron I had connected was the one to the North-East.
Eventually, Qin and Gandhi turned up; they were at each others' throats. I managed to pull off a tech trade with Gandhi by using a scientist to get Philosophy. I would probably have done better to avoid the diplomatic penalty with Qin, but it turned out not to cost.
By 1700 or so, Qin got to Assembly Line and declared on Gandhi. Not too long later, peace was declared and I noticed Gandhi's city on my continent was now his capital. Ouch.
Qin then did the runaway AI thing. He annoyingly settled right by one of my borders and picked up a -3 for close borders immediately. Indeed, this was the problem I couldn't beat. I remember an oldish game which allowed you to cede disputed territory - would have been incredibly useful here. Anyway, I tried to get the city to flip, but without luck as it suddenly got a culture boost from behind.
I'd been holding my own against the barbarians for years, never looking like winning or losing to them, primarily because just as I thought I had an overwhelming advantage, they'd get the next tech and be able to defend again.
Then Qin turned his attention to them.
Tanks poured through my territory and rolled straight over them. I realised he'd be pretty close to domination from there just by settling the available space, and my economy was in good shape, so I built a load of new cities. I pushed my tech on hard, too, in the hope of getting to something which could just about hold its own against Qin if he chose to attack.I reached Assembly Line, Artillery and then Rocketry, but he attacked in 1932. I had never been able to get rid of that close borders penalty. I did my best to hold him off, but the few SAMs I could produce were no match for his airforce, which was the killing advantage. 14 very painful years later, I had two cities left in the southern end of the starting peninsula as Qin reached the domination threshold. Still, I'm pleased to have lost by domination rather than conquest.
I have a list of his final army, retrieved by using the worldbuilder and placing a very large number of spies and destroyers. (Is there an easier way to do this?) It's quite scary - I'll post it if I can manage to write the brief report.
A fun game on balance. It was often a bit of a scramble to stop a sudden barbarian stack. The AI did its job well (well, Qin at least), and I managed the diplomacy well enough to stay alive until the end. The only shame is that my plan for how to win was never going to be possible due to Qin running away with it. There was no way he should have chosen not to attack at that stage, so my demise was unsurprising.
Obvious AI tactical improvements (I've never defended against an AI who had modern tech before):
1. Attack with gunships before land forces when appropriate: Qin failed to take three of my cities due to this. Only delaying the inevitable in this situation, but it could be significant in some games.
2. Don't bother blowing up defences when there are no units defending a city. Qin wasted a lot of Stealth Bomber turns doing this (not that he was short of them).
3. Don't always pillage. Qin lost a vast number of barbarian (and Roman) improvements due to this. Fair enough when your opponent might have a surprise tucked away, but not when you will walk all over them. Many of the losses were to bombers, so he won't even have gained any cash for them.
Strange fact I've discovered this game: a gunship attacking a city with only workers in will capture precisely one of them.
Thanks for the game, Sirian. Sorry to hear yours turned out wrong. Keep 'em coming.
