Pong 2-3: Full Report of Greece (Nate)
This game was exceedingly frustrating. It has one of the best beginnings that I've ever seen in a multiplayer game, but it quickly takes a turn, just before we quit, that sucked all the air out of this one for me. I learned a valuable lesson about the invisible rules of the game, but it probably cost me this match.
Settings: 5 AIs, 2 humans (Nate and Joe), Standard size, Fractal map, Quick speed, Balanced starts, Standard all others.
Civs: All random
Mods: None
Settings: 5 AIs, 2 humans (Nate and Joe), Standard size, Fractal map, Quick speed, Balanced starts, Standard all others.
Civs: All random
Mods: None
Game opens and I'm dealt Pericles of Greece. I've never played him before so I really have no idea how his abilities work. His focus on culture is interesting, and I'm excited to play a cautious and defensive game to see if I can take advantage of them.
My start is decent. There's a nice mix of yields, but I'm not thrilled with the number of luxuries nearby. It's okay because I'm planning to play relatively tall though.
Build order: scout, scout, slinger, builder, slinger, settler.
Tech order: Mining, Animal Husbandry, Pottery, Bronze Working
Civics order: Code, Foreign Trade, Craftsmenship, Early Empire
I rush a bunch of scouts and pop a ton of huts all over the continent - perhaps something like 6-8 by the time I'm done.
Early on I meet Gilgamesh nearby. His personality is pretty strong. He is obsessed with his allies and will not only go to war for them, but he gives his allies a share of the experience in combat and can auto-attack anyone at war with them.
I find Joe on Turn 15. UGH, he's insanely close to me. This game is going to be tense and violent almost immediately. I hate early combat so much, and Joe loves it and is very good at it. Almost every game we play he spams hordes of archers and gains a superior position. I don't consider this type of game fun so I very rarely participate in early archer spam (even against the AI).
But the fact that Gilgamesh is between us complicates things a lot. If Joe befriends Gilgamesh quickly, he could use him against me the rest of the game, and it'll be really difficult to break them apart. It seems that I have a bit of a diplomatic advantage on Gilgamesh though.... because Joe hasn't met him yet.
Well this is interesting. On turn 17, Gilgamesh declares war on the nearby city-state of Buenos Aires.
More surprisingly, in just a scant 3 turns, Germany has managed to conquer them. The game is afoot!
On turn 21, my God King has developed a pantheon - I select Religious Settlements since I expect to play tall and am really close to Joe. This pantheon should help my borders expand faster, which is more important than other bonuses to me right now.
On turn 23, I discover Carthage in the northwest corner of the world. This is exciting - Carthage is one of my absolute favorite city-states in the game (and cultures in real life). They grant a +1 trade route per encampment making it very profitable to build a military economy. This seems like a perfect theme to focus my strategy around.
Loving that extra wildcard. Greece is pretty sweet.
Turn 28 - I saw Joe moving a settler into the sweet spot between us, and I'd gained enough favor with Gilgamesh that he was willing to declare a joint war on Joe with me. My thinking at the time was that 1) This entrenches my relationship with Gilgamesh, who will probably be my ally the rest of the game; 2) His warcarts are pretty powerful and will likely threaten Joe if he he does actually try fighting him; and 3) I'll probably get some experience awards just for being nearby the fighting. This felt like a good idea so I committed.
(I still think this was a good decision, even knowing what comes later.)
This is where I want the boundary between France and Greece. In this plain, I should be able to manage anything Joe sends at me, and the river will provide added defense. It's a bit further east than I would have liked, but it feels like a safe line to draw so I do it.
Starting around turn 29, a bunch of barbarians start hitting me in the backfield, delaying my ability to send anything to the plains of Corinth.
Gilgamesh is working on settling nearby. This is fine and preserves the line that I'm hoping to draw.
Turn 35 - The settlers of Ur continue on their way.
And I've got more problems at home; from the north this time.
Turn 35, as usual, Joe is leading, despite the fact that I have a higher population, more tiles, and way more eurekas from exploration. I have no idea how he is doing this.
Turn 37 - A french scout draws near.
Turn 38 - Sumerian warcarts are pretty. Especially in the desert at dusk.
Turn 41 - The Greek world such as it is.
Turn 43 - Gilgamesh is keeping the faith.
Turn 45 - The first sign that things are going to go badly. My hoplite finally gets to the plains of Corinth to discover something is besieging Ur. Ugh. Joe's inevitable horde of archer spam is probably ravaging the town already. That's fine - so long as he stays on his side of the river, I should certainly have city walls up in time to hold the line at Corinth.
Turn 46 - The French horde takes Ur and my expeditionary force is caught in the open. I was merely sending them out to investigate and hold the line, but I made a big mistake here. I misread the Hoplite bonus as +10 strength to the hoplites 25 instead of 15. So I wrongly assumed that I had a 35 strength instead of 25.
Turn 47 - I try to show Joe that I'm not going to press the attack and retreat south toward Corinth. And this sets the stage for a grave mistake.
Turn 48a - A horde of French archers and warriors appear from all corners. I tried to soften them above and below but nothing I threw at them counted for anything. There is apparently this rule called Support that I didn't know anything about, and when units move in formation it grants enormous bonuses to each other. As a result, my piddly missile fire (that was supposed to create a defensive line, not attack him) was worthless and my forces were exposed and in trouble.
Turn 48b - This screenshot is confusing a hell because both Greece and France are light blue, but my warrior on point is completely annihilated, my hoplite is destroyed, and my archer barely gets out with his life. The expeditionary force that was supposed to be an imposing deterrent and draw a defensive line is basically wiped out and now Corinth is in trouble, all because of an invisible rule that I knew nothing about since it isn't visualized and isn't adequately explained in the combat windows.
My ancient walls go up but they don't do anything to his warrior, which completely heals this turn. Everything I tried failed and his horde is overwhelming. The walls seem to be completely worthless at slowing his advance, and I'm pretty sure I've not only lost the expeditionary force, but Corinth as well.
Yay archer spam.
I honestly have no idea what to do now. I completely misunderstood how hoplites and unit support work, and I'm probably going to lose the focal point of my entire strategy, Corinth, over this. I still have access to a couple of good Military city-states, so I'll probably be able to mount a counter attack eventually, but Paris is still miraculously better than all three my cities so it's going to be long, difficult slog. I'm still diplomatically more popular, but even if the AIs disliked him, I'm quite skeptical that they'd be able to threaten him.
I guess my plan is going to be to spray and pray. Hope that the walls hold long enough for something useful to arrive in time to drive him back. If he takes Corinth, I'm going to have to start over again strategically and look for another advantage as a minority power. If I hold Corinth, that front is going to be tense and hot for quite some time.
Coda
Joe and I found an extra hour to play out the finale. Unfortunately, it went about as well as I had expected.
Game restarts in the Medieval period.
Turn 49 - the horde advances and I try to cut down whatever melee forces I can. It's completely ineffective. The damage barely weakens his units, who pillage my farm and heal entirely. All hope is lost. See it play out over the next few screens.
Turn 50 - One of the primary sources of my losing, and the ability for support/flanking, is unlocked, far too late to help anything.
Turn 50 - This was all the damage that I could do, which was nothing.
Turn 51 - Again, it's difficult to see because our civs are practically identical colors, but the horde has surrounded Corinth and a swordman comes out of the darkness to the east.
I've invested so much in Corinth that losing it feels utterly crushing. There's no way I could come back from this so I quit. Joe wins the first 1v1 Pong.
Victory: Joe, France, turn 51.
I learned a lot of valuable lessons this game. First, how to read the civilopedia entry for unique units. (the bonus is included in the base strength.) Second, about the incredible abilities of Support and Flanking.
He had way, way more archers than I had any idea, which was a genuine mistake of intelligence, but the arrangement of the jungles and forests made discovering that information really difficult. I don't think there really was a way for me to have any idea before it was too late. I suppose that I should have expected him to go full archer spam as soon as the declaration of war happened. I wouldn't have so I assumed that he wouldn't, but I forgot that early warfare is his favorite part of the game and he is really good at it.
Analysis
Thinking on this now, I'd like to believe there is something I could have done to stop the invasion. I don't really care that he took Ur, but I'm not sure there is a way to stop archer spam in this game. I had believed walls pretty much put a stop to it until catapults but clearly this was pre-Civ6 thinking. Would cavalry be able to run down a horde of archers? No. The support defenses would mean that they'd cut one unit down and then lose the entire attack in the wave of arrows of the counterstrike. I guess the only way to stop a horde of archers is with another horde of archers, which makes positioning matter. This sucks because I really hate ancient combat and archer spam, but for now, it really seems like the only way to survive the early eras against a human. I'll continue to think on this as we play more.
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