Perhaps jumping straight into an AW Epic after a long break and playing it in a single session until 3am wasn't such a great idea. At least that's my excuse for playing the game one and a half times.
The first playthrough was abandoned around 370AD, when right after I captured first major Native American city, my army got wiped out by British SoD. I might have survived a lot longer, but playing a 3CC empire wasn't very fun, so I went back to change the biggest strategic mistake of the game: my reaction to seeing Dog Soldiers. (Of course if I was more familiar with BtS I would have recognized the danger as soon as I saw Native Americans, but I didn't want to reload that far.) My original plan was to rush Toku with Phalanxes. I abandoned it as soon as I saw his UU, but first time I continued to lazily research economic techs, eventually getting to Construction. The second time, I've immediately inserted HBR research, quickly secured horses, and converted planned Phalanx rush into HA rush. So instead of forever staying at 3 cities I've eliminated Toku in 320BC, and eventually won Conquest victory in 1706AD. (Domination would have been faster, but 1706AD is still not too bad.)
If you will accept shadow report of my second playthrough, I'll post it tomorrow. Otherwise, there is not much to say about my original failure.
The first playthrough was abandoned around 370AD, when right after I captured first major Native American city, my army got wiped out by British SoD. I might have survived a lot longer, but playing a 3CC empire wasn't very fun, so I went back to change the biggest strategic mistake of the game: my reaction to seeing Dog Soldiers. (Of course if I was more familiar with BtS I would have recognized the danger as soon as I saw Native Americans, but I didn't want to reload that far.) My original plan was to rush Toku with Phalanxes. I abandoned it as soon as I saw his UU, but first time I continued to lazily research economic techs, eventually getting to Construction. The second time, I've immediately inserted HBR research, quickly secured horses, and converted planned Phalanx rush into HA rush. So instead of forever staying at 3 cities I've eliminated Toku in 320BC, and eventually won Conquest victory in 1706AD. (Domination would have been faster, but 1706AD is still not too bad.)
If you will accept shadow report of my second playthrough, I'll post it tomorrow. Otherwise, there is not much to say about my original failure.
