Pericles Peninsula

Cannons Win Again

I did not get The Late Game Combat I was looking for. Of course, I am beginning to think that the better one plays, the earlier The Game Ends. So, I should be proud I'm finding it difficult to keep The Game going much past Cannons.

1. Turtle
• Remain Isolated
• A Few Core Cities
2. Cannons
• War prior to superior fire-power tends to be an uphill battle.
3. Win
• Cannons!
• Cannons!
• Cannons!

Combat By The Numbers

Turns: 754
Combats: 379
    Max in a Turn: 19
Civilizations Destroyed: 1 (by others)
    War Vassal: 2
    Peace Vassal: 3
Great Generals: 4

Combat Results

	Win	Lose
Attack	350	11
Defence	13	5

153 Units at Game End
3 Turns from Rifles

Errata

At least two of my competitors had real problems navigating between Continents. Not that they did not do it. But the Troops were not deployed to maximum benefit.

Monty invaded an island, leaving 20 Odd Units stranded... when his fleet was destroyed.

Gilgy invaded Monty, which in itself was pretty good thinking. But this caused him to split his stack, as he garrisoned his new holdings, which were strategically unimportant.

Promotable Spies

I never use the Espionage System for much of anything. I like knowing what my Enemies are Researching. And City Visibility is useful for watching Enemy Troop Movements. But I've only run a handful of Espionage Missions... like, ever, in my life.

Anyway (in LOR), my Defensive Spies got Experience whenever they successfully blocked an Enemy Mission, making them that much better at Intercepting Spies. It was a nice (if mostly meaningless) touch.

Colonizing Captured Cities

Large Empires get killed on Maintenance. And in The Late Game, Captured Cities hardly ever come online. But in This Game, I discovered I can spin Captured Cities off as Colonies. I don't know all the rules. But I think 2+ Cities on a Different Continent is key.

F! Forts

Forts are a pain to make. And since The City Raider Promotion works against them, there's really not much point, as Invading Enemy Stacks are almost always loaded with City Raiders.

Build Small - Buy Large

In the type of Games I play (Waterfall Military Conquest, for lack of a better description), the number of Units becomes a limiting factor. Losing a Stack means losing that many Turns of Production. And by the same token, Building 1 Unit/Turn is better than Building ½ Unit/Turn (i.e. Building a Unit every Turn is better than Building a Unit every other Turn). It simply is... even if that means paying for multiple upgrades, as I'm very often loaded with Cash. Having all (nearly all, or even just the major) Shrine will do that.

And with that in mind, it might be fun to play a Game with either a Friendly Neighbour or a Permanent Ally (run by The AI) at the start. I'll have to think about what this means and whether I will to play Vanilla BTS, LOR, or some other Mod.

Begging Gold

"Hey! That looks like a Stack headed my way. I know, I'll see if I can Beg 1 Gold and stave off the inevitable for Ten Turns."

I think that explains the mechanic. Beg a Gold, Get Ten Turns of Peace.

Invariably (however), a Civilization that was poised to Attack will still be poised to Attack Ten Turns later. Sure, they may Declare on someone else in the meantime. And that may work to keep one safe. And then again, it may not.

Finally, I must admit, that seldom do those Ten Turns make much of a difference unless I pump out The Units and (and this is a big and) World Events conspire in my favour.

In this particular Game (maybe the -08 play-through or whatever) Orange sent his Armada my way. And although I bought myself Ten Turns (perhaps repeatedly), it wasn't enough.

Legends of Revolution is Broken

Certainly, as I play it, on the Settings I used, Legends of Revolution is Broken.

Ruthless AI causes Enemy Civilizations to Over-Build Units, crippling their economies.

While (ironically enough) The AI is not programmed to take The Revolution Mechanic into account. Thus, I was able to witness The Mayan Civilization emerge from a Revolting Aztec Civilization and subsequently eliminate its Parent Civilization (i.e. The Aztecs) from The Game.

Killer Add Ons

Finally, despite LOR's crippling flaws (see above), I really liked the New Wonders, Expanded Tech Tree, and Unit Wonders. This part of The Mod was top notch. And I hope to see more of the same as I explore Thomas' War... or some other Mod that catches my eye.