Epic Forty-two: Summer Breeze - Reports

[Kylearan]

Hi,

welcome to RB, it's always nice to see fellow CFCers over here.

Your land-grab was very similar to mine, but your AIs were a lot more aggressive - I wonder why. Reading your report, the number of AIs sneak-attacks makes it hard to believe this was a minimal aggression game! I had more luck in that department, though I don't think more wars would have changed much. And my playstyle seems to encourage AIs to remain peaceful somehow, don't know exactly why.

And wow, needing three votes to win sure was a surprise; but at least it made the end-game a bit more exciting...

-Kylearan

[Kylearan]

Hi,

welcome to the Epics! Good to hear you enjoyed this one; I hope we see you again in the next Epic.

I found it very hard to read your report; black letters on a dark background are too low a contrast to read comfortably. Maybe you could use a combination of colors with a higher contrast?

Regarding your game, I hope you don't mind some comments...

* You said you tried to get the oracle for its effects, but I think you should be lucky that you got beaten to it. :P Except maybe for 20k games, it's a very weak wonder. In this scenario, the extra happiness from temples wouldn't be needed anyway, given the 50% lux slider rule and the luxuries found nearby. Given the large landmass we started on, the pyramids were the most powerful wonder in this scenario, greatly speeding up growth.

* Why have you revolted into monarchy? Monarchy is only useful for war-heavy games, and even there, republic is superior most of the time because of the lower corruption and the extra commerce you receive.
Most of the time, the best strategy is to beeline to republic ASAP and revolt immediately, and then stay in republic until the end of the game. Exceptions are very war-heavy games like always war, where monarchy might be better; if you are religious and know you don't want to wage many wars, in which case you might consider switching to democracy once it's available; or if you have a large, wide-spread empire where communism's different corruption model might shine.

* Have you built the forbidden palace? Maybe I've missed it in your report, but I cannot remember you mentioning it. It helps your economy, and thus your ability to keep up tech-wise, immensely to build it early.

* I'm glad you decided to try to win this game anyway, even if you were so behind in tech. Well done! (Note to Gris: We need a smiley here! I cannot remember a game where someone won a vote held by an AI. B) So keeping good relations with the other AIs paid off, and IMHO you are the one that deserved the 100 bonus points for victory the most.


Congrats again on your victory, and looking forward to read your next report!

-Kylearan

[Kodi]

Haha, your right, man I'm smoking like... pig dung or something.

1- No FP
2- Wrong Wonders
3- Wrong Government
4- Wrong Tactics
5- Wrong... Brain
6- Wrong Expansion Strategy

I'm replaying the game to see what kind of results I get with a brain that isn't roasted. I know the score won't count, but I'mm interested to see what (better?) result I get from it ^_^

~Kodi

[Justus_II]

Lacksidasical => lackadaisical (I did mispell it): Lacking spirit, liveliness, or interest; languid:

Basically a multi-syllable way to say Lazy! :P I had a good tech lead, and was more focused on watching my workers decide where to rail, and lost my focus on research. I still went for Sanitation, but it took me a long time, I think I lowered reserach a few times to get cash for rushing other stuff instead of focusing on hospitals like I intended. I did have a number of pre-builds ready when it did hit, but I could have done better then. Going for Steam first, though, inevitably set me behind by several turns, and I also never did have as many cities as some of the more rapid expansions like yours.

[Kylearan]

Hi,

if you finish your second try, consider posting a short summary...

-Kylearan

[Sir Bugsy]

We do need a good job smiliey. Way to hang in there and play it out. A lot of folks would have quit. I was surprised you didn't upgrade your NuMercs for more modern defenders.

[T-hawk]

You almost fooled me on that second-to-last page, I was going to say "well, okay, good game anyway", until I saw that there was still a forward-arrow button at the bottom and wondered what it would do.

Here's some smilies for you:

As you noted, Monarchy is usually a good way to fall behind in the tech race, and going for the Oracle instead of the Pyramids is a good way to fall behind in early expansion. But you pulled it out in the end - I think that might be the first time I've seen a player win an election that was called by someone else. (Usually the AIs won't call elections that they can't win.) Congrats on the save!

[T-hawk]

And my playstyle seems to encourage AIs to remain peaceful somehow, don't know exactly why.

Tech pace and AI peacefulness go hand-in-hand. It's a cycle that can go either virtuous or vicious. AIs are most likely to declare war when they know they've got a military advantage over someone. If the player keeps the tech pace going fast, the AIs continually have a larger list of improvements to choose from and will for the most part continue to build those instead of more military. And of course more improvements mean more economy, and the cycle feeds on itself. The converse can also happen - once the world does get some wars started, everyone starts building military instead, and progress crashes to a halt.

On another note, it looks like the "Least Aggressive" setting for the AIs doesn't have quite as dramatic an effect as I'd thought it might. I've heard tales of wins on Sid without ever building a single military unit thanks to the Least Aggressive setting, but based on the results of this game that sounds like far more the exception than the rule. Hmm.

[T-hawk]

I see several reports had references to the inefficient automated workers being union or contract labor. Bunch of Republicans on this board, are we?

This game wasn't the best scenario to try a 20k win. You really do need to be able to optimize your city for shields, even down on Monarch. I guess you probably could've gotten it anyway if you'd taken long enough, but just taking the diplomatic exit was fine. Glad you had a nice vacation, and thanks for the postcards! B)

[microbe]

I think my biggest problem was not going for sanitation asap. In the game I shut off research now and then. I should have kept doing max research all the way.

On the other hand my plan of delaying AI access to Map Making (and each other) was very successful. AI full contact came in 1285AD or so, which was amazing. This allowed me to claim a lot of islands.

In hindsight the best strategy should be a combination of the two. Delay Map Making to the AI until expansion is over (which was 400AD~500AD in my game), then I should let AI catch up and speed up tech pace to get to hospital earlier.