ALWAYS WAR,MONARCH.

[col]

So good he said it twice.

[Col.Tarleton]

I've not played AW in conquests so not using walls and cats might be made unescessary by 1 or 2 armies.In PTW,however,walls and cats are a must.We need a kill ratio of at least 10 to 1,you won't get that by attacking out of cities.
The key to winning is to defend as cost effectively as possible whilst building infrastructure in our back lines,if we have any.
By all means pop the hut with a city.
If anyone can survive through the middle ages without walls and many cats,they're a better man than I am,Gunga Din.

[ProPain]

Played a few test scenarios yesterday evening. Avoiding early GA essentialy comes down to luck. I had a worst instance where I was discovered by the AI in turn 3 triggering GA in 8 or something. I had a best instance where I made it into the MA without any problems whatsoever: became monarchy and triggered my GA when I wanted. Missed GLib by 1 turn, but I had some civ unrest so would easily have been possible to build playing carefully. I was only discovered by 2 civs although playing pangaea settings. Didn't build any walls or cata's either, but I was extremely lucky to have only 2 civs who discovered me. As I said, that was my best instance.

observations
- Rapid expansion is not as feasible as in a normal game, settling without an escort is a no-no after the 2nd/3rd city. One settler fac turned out to be enough because it was difficult enough to keep up building mil units. Quite an adaptation from my usual playstyle where I try to spread out like a weed.
- Archers are nice to fend of those early attacks, horsies are better. I think chariots and HBR are quite important. I'd say Col Tarlt. is right and cata's will be very usefull especially once the spears and swords come your way. This takes awhile however so I still think monarchy shoudl be a priority.
- Build rax and units. The usual 'bare backbone' army isnt gonna cut it here. 2 enkidu warriors and 2/3 archers for frontline cities are necessary once the ai start sending troops. I hace to say the monarch AI isnt too bad. I rarely saw more than 3 units from civ approach at the same time. Also they send warriors in the beginning that basically only fortify/pillage when they see an enkidu
- Temples are really usefull for frontline cities, the expanded border gives better defense options. Road your terrain and you can effectively attack anything and retreat before it even reaches your city.\
- workers: I build a friggin' army of workers. Basically because I had to chop a lot of jungle in some games, but the road network that you can build fast is invaluable.

[Col.Tarleton]

Very nice piece of testing.P.P. I suppose that we'll just have to play it by ear,delaying the G.A. as long as possible.

I think that Banzai has already left on holiday and won't return for a couple of weeks.

Can you take the game,Matrix?
We've not heard from Beam,lately,his expertise is sorely needed on the subject.
I still think that walls and cats are the way to go but we'll see how things turn out.I normally build walls as soon as a new city is founded.
We could go for the polyetheism gambit on the way to monarchy.
Getting this 1st will give us a free tech and perhaps an S.G.L.

[Beam]

It is my first Always at War ever so my thoughts are not exactly based on experience but on reasoning.

First of all it is key to decide if we want a run on Monarchy or the The Great Library. There are no shared techs in the path to both. Although we don't have Alpha TGL should be possible if we can get Philo first. Much cheaper to research compared to Lit. and we can choose Lit. as free tech.

TGL is a timecritical goal, the other ones are less time critical, i.e. we could research Warrior Code or IW before heading to Monarchy.

With respect to walls and cats I usually prefer and approach of keeping the AI out of our terrain and in that approach walls are basically useless because if everything goes well the AI should never reach our cities. Based on that I have a preference for PP's approach but as said that is based on reasoning, less on experience.

One observation from the previous SG, PP and me more or less have the same approach to warmonging so that could explain my pref. in this game. I certainly plan to play a couple of testruns.

[ProPain]

We can prebuild for great lib while researching for monarch. i think we can mangle alpha & masonry from some AI civ. Maybe even writing which leaves us close to lit after finishing monarchy.

[Banzai]

I'm not gone yet, but I have no time to play.
Matrix, go ahead and take it!
One thing I would like to say.. Ur will grow before the granary will finish, resulting in an empty granary. If we delay the growth by only one turn we get that right back with a half full (or is it half empty?) granary!

See you when I get back in June!

Have fun,
Banzai

[Matrix]

Played. Will post later, as I'm wanted for a card game downstairs.

[Matrix]

3000 BC (0)
Deselected wheat tile.

2950 BC (1)
Selected wheat tile.

2900 BC (2)
Granary done. Ur will grow next turn. Next: Enkidu Warrior for military police and as defense for the settler after him.
Tax/Sci/Lux: 1.7.2, because of maintenance.

2850 BC (3)
Ur hits size 6.
T/S/L: 1.6.3.

2800 BC (4)
Warrior done. 1.7.2 again.
Settler in 4 turns.
Mountain tile used instead of wheat, actually because I didn't thought of the fact that Ur is built next to a river. But I doubt whether we want Ur to become larger than 6. Worker done with road. Mines now.

2750 BC (5)
Zzz.

2710 BC (6)
Zzz.

2670 BC (7)
Zzz.

2630 BC (8)
Settler done. Heads for the dyes and is accompanied by a warrior.
1.8.1.
Ur grows next turn. Next: another settler.

2590 BC (9)


2550 BC (10)
Sumer built. It doesn't need a warrior for military police. Yet I'll keep it there; who knows who may drop by.

2510 BC (11)
Settler done next turn.

2470 BC (12)


2430 BC (13)
Lagash built. 25 gold from the tribe. (Phew!)

2390 BC (14)
Ur finishes warrior. Next: worker.

2350 BC (15)
We see a yellow border!


Good time to hand it over to Beam.

http://www.straland.com/junk/2350BC.SAV

[ProPain]

Matrix,
A few questions:
- Why didnt you settle Sumer on the hill next to the river? Better defense, a river and leaving a spot east of ur for a city on the river in the jungle.
- Why did ur drop back to 4 when it build that settler, should drop to five as it can grow in 2??

I'd rather have we retreat that enkidu back in Lagash, the less we know from the map the better.