I did not manage to finish this game, which is becoming an unfortunate habit of mine for RBCiv events. I don't think the holiday season will help this trend, but we'll see. The Colonization game looks interesting....
Summary - retired in 160 AD with four cities, all AI civs still alive. My position was decent overall (solid defenses, tech parity) but my economy was terrible. I had a strong military and probably could have lasted a while before the AIs crushed me with more advanced troops. But the time required for an always war game was just not available.
The biggest issue was probably that I was not aggressive enough. I have always been more of a builder, and although I tried to emphasize military more in this game I just did not do so enough. I should have eyed the 1000 BC restriction as the starting line and been ready to start conquering then. Instead I was still developing my core (having expanded to 4 cities early on) and playing defense. I had founded Buddhism in a risky opening gambit which paid off (Wang Kon founded Hinduism the same turn), and my cities were developing well. But I should have been busy taking AI cities, not building my own.
I did move to raid enemy lands after 1000 BC, and my pillaging parties did quite a number on Monty and the Khmer. I was raiding with stacks of three and four units, with two stacks working over each of my two closest neighbors. I burned several newly founded cities, and pillaged Aztec and Khmer lands clear. The money helped greatly in keeping my research going, and the Oracle enabled me to grab Monarchy early for more happiness and larger cities.
But the other three AIs were growing in strength, and I think they would have hit me with stacks I could not defeat in the near future. I had my first catapults heading towards the Khmer capital, and my raiders had caught Angkor Wat with only two archers and burned it to the ground in 145 AD. The next turn saw the first incoming stack of Praetorians, and I ran out of time for the reporting deadline. So I retired in 160 AD, probably able to stay alive for a while longer, maybe even finish off the Khmer and crippled Monty. But my eventual fate was unlikely to be a pleasant one.....
Thanks to Sulla for sponsoring this game -- it was fun. But the always war format makes for time-consuming turns, and I just could not complete the game. I'll try to learn from the other reports, and maybe I'll try Always War again sometime.
Summary - retired in 160 AD with four cities, all AI civs still alive. My position was decent overall (solid defenses, tech parity) but my economy was terrible. I had a strong military and probably could have lasted a while before the AIs crushed me with more advanced troops. But the time required for an always war game was just not available.
The biggest issue was probably that I was not aggressive enough. I have always been more of a builder, and although I tried to emphasize military more in this game I just did not do so enough. I should have eyed the 1000 BC restriction as the starting line and been ready to start conquering then. Instead I was still developing my core (having expanded to 4 cities early on) and playing defense. I had founded Buddhism in a risky opening gambit which paid off (Wang Kon founded Hinduism the same turn), and my cities were developing well. But I should have been busy taking AI cities, not building my own.
I did move to raid enemy lands after 1000 BC, and my pillaging parties did quite a number on Monty and the Khmer. I was raiding with stacks of three and four units, with two stacks working over each of my two closest neighbors. I burned several newly founded cities, and pillaged Aztec and Khmer lands clear. The money helped greatly in keeping my research going, and the Oracle enabled me to grab Monarchy early for more happiness and larger cities.
But the other three AIs were growing in strength, and I think they would have hit me with stacks I could not defeat in the near future. I had my first catapults heading towards the Khmer capital, and my raiders had caught Angkor Wat with only two archers and burned it to the ground in 145 AD. The next turn saw the first incoming stack of Praetorians, and I ran out of time for the reporting deadline. So I retired in 160 AD, probably able to stay alive for a while longer, maybe even finish off the Khmer and crippled Monty. But my eventual fate was unlikely to be a pleasant one.....
Thanks to Sulla for sponsoring this game -- it was fun. But the always war format makes for time-consuming turns, and I just could not complete the game. I'll try to learn from the other reports, and maybe I'll try Always War again sometime.
