Epic 4 - Uberfish report

[ThERat]

excellent game I think I was a little unlucky that Gandhi grew too big.

However, my computer wouldn't have been able to handle the late game slugfest anyway. And your domination date is fabulous!

[Ug the Barbarian]

Congratulations on an excellent game. Certainly some points I should learn from...I think your move to settle next to the gold initially and then develop it was a key early one.
I had the same problems flipping cities through culture and can appreciate the frustration. Well done

[Sirian]

Somehow you managed to expand a lot more efficient than I did against the barbs.

He had the gold hill. That extra seven commerce per turn... Huge.

That you and he both got workers out much earlier than most of the rest of us was another key, putting you ahead of most, but still behind uberfish with his worked gold mine.

Just goes to show the critical nature of maximizing early growth curve.


Two other things I noticed were that those fortunate enough to see Gandhi or Qin found a religion faced a much easier time of keeping the peace long enough to have a chance -- and that for some reason, some of you got to fight Archers a LOT longer than I did. I only faced a few, with the AIs moving to Axe and then Sword rapidly, then deluging me with Horse Archers. Not sure if this had to do with what the main AIs were up to or not, or perhaps to where the barbarian cities happened to pop up randomly.

Certainly, the next time we try one of these "vs the Barbarians" games (and there WILL be more of them), I'll have to be less timid with defensive city placement and more proactive with Archers and early workers.


- Sirian

[uberfish]

I was ready for axes and swords, too... The barbarians just skipped them and went straight to HA and longbows, leaving my Shock axes useless, much to my annoyance.

Another strange thing was the barbarian unit mix in medieval - it was consistently longbows and HA from the west, longbows only from the north, and HA + macemen from the east.

But certainly the strangest thing was that I seem to be about the only player not to found on the gold hill. Was it the floodplains that swayed people towards that decision?

[roland of gilead]

He had the gold hill. That extra seven commerce per turn... Huge.

That you and he both got workers out much earlier than most of the rest of us was another key, putting you ahead of most, but still behind uberfish with his worked gold mine.

Just goes to show the critical nature of maximizing early growth curve.


Two other things I noticed were that those fortunate enough to see Gandhi or Qin found a religion faced a much easier time of keeping the peace long enough to have a chance -- and that for some reason, some of you got to fight Archers a LOT longer than I did. I only faced a few, with the AIs moving to Axe and then Sword rapidly, then deluging me with Horse Archers. Not sure if this had to do with what the main AIs were up to or not, or perhaps to where the barbarian cities happened to pop up randomly.

Certainly, the next time we try one of these "vs the Barbarians" games (and there WILL be more of them), I'll have to be less timid with defensive city placement and more proactive with Archers and early workers.


- Sirian

im playing it again and trying different things and the barbs have gone strait from archers too longbows no axe no sword no horse archers.

needless to say this has been alot easier to deal with not lost a unit yet.

[Kylearan]

Hi,

But certainly the strangest thing was that I seem to be about the only player not to found on the gold hill. Was it the floodplains that swayed people towards that decision?

For me, it was both the floodplains and not wanting to lose two turns. It's not really rational, but I already hate losing one turn already, let alone two. I was considering founding on the hill, as I was considering founding one tile north of the starting spot (to get the river combat bonus). In hindsight, I think I should have tried to settle 1N, but I had absolutely no experience with Deity.

-Kylearan

[Rowain]

Congrats to your impressive game and that early Victory-date is realy amazing.

If there were a Hall of Fame for Civ-games this would belong there.

[rho21]

Wow. Great game.

I was also dissuaded from your settling site by the waste of a turn. As it turns out, I think yours fits better with the best options for later cities, too.

I'm not sure how you managed to kill off all of those barbarians. I guess as you get going it slows them down too. I never felt I had much of a chance to attack more than one city.

I'm wondering whether you would have done better to go to Feudalism much earlier. With this much military, I found Vassalage to be a huge boost to my economy. Any thoughts, anyone?

Anyway, exceptionally well played.

[uberfish]

Thanks again guys.

in response to rho21:

Rome in my game had five commerce specials. That city was pumping out huge amounts of commerce and doing over half my research by itself with an academy, so bureaucracy was always going to be my goal for midgame. If you look at the screenshots on the second page, you can see the increase in research rate after switching to bureaucracy. Vassalage would provide a second promotion, but there were lots of longbows and HA to kill for XP anyway. With a more dispersed economy, Vassalage with Organised might have been tempting.

For me the key to defeating the barbarians in medieval period was Cover promo + Formation/elephants for general fighting, mixed with a few CR3s to kill the top defenders and 1 medic warrior per stack. Having these specialized promotions was really important to keep the amount of damage taken from counterattacks down.

[Compromise]

Great execution and a great writeup on this Epic!

I just have one question and one request: Question: How many RL hours did it take you to play this Epic? Request: On your main page, it says you'll write strategy articles if there's interest. There is interest!