A Tale of Two Continents

This is a tale of my first win at Prince level with Civ IV. Since I saw a post about easily wining a duel at Immortal level, I thought I’d try it at Prince. Played as Gandhi while the AI turned out to be Louis XIV. So, the game type was “Duel”, custom continents, with random number of continents. No barbarians. Epic speed.

It turns out that there were two continents: India alone on one and France alone on the other. India had two small offshore islands; France had one (just ice surrounded by water).  After development, India had 50.5% of the land, France 49.5% Discovery of the other continent had to await Optics and the use of Caravels.

The long development era was fairly tedious. I wound up with 11 cities and three of the religions along with their shrines. France had 11 cities (including one on the ice flow) and the other four religions with their shrines. In each nation, each city had all of that nation’s religions. I thought I’d been doing pretty well, but when France discovered me (!) they were ahead in score (about 100 points – I’m referring to the score at the lower right of the screen), had about 5 more techs than I had, and of course had Optics before me. (I was just getting it). France got significantly more wonders than India. Indeed, Delhi was only 5^th of the top 5 cities, with French cities taking spots 1 to 4. Contact was made in the early 1500s.

There Will Be War

At first, India tried to compete peacefully with France. However, it soon became clear that a war eventually was imperative. First, France continued to increase its lead in score. (There were moments of hope. In 1645 and again in 1696 India passed France’s score, but then France began to clearly pull away.)  Second, in terms of culture of cities, Paris beat Delhi; Lyons beat Bombay, and so forth. It seemed likely that France would walk away with the win if India did nothing. (Indeed, much later in the game I was worried that France might still get a culture win when Paris reached legendary culture – the first time I had seen this.) Louis never permitted Open borders or traded world maps.

Of course I focused on navel and military research, and explored the French continent with a caravel. The French did not come exploring, having turned around once they found the India continent. As a result, India got the navel movement bonus for circumnavigating the world. I needed Galleons to invade, and so bided my time, driving for tech and building up military units.

By the time I felt ready to invade it was the early 1700s. My first expedition had two frigates with four galleons carrying 11 units. Louis’ attitude was never better that it was just before the invasion – “cautious”. Different state religions, you know.

Grim Times

At first things seemed to go well. I picked a coastal city to target (Chartres), and landed near it on a forested hill. I captured two workers. No reaction! My frigates bombarded its cultural defense bonus to zero as my land forces advanced. (Chartres was on a plain and so had no other terrain defense bonus). Despite losing two horse archers who were pillaging along the way, the rest of my units (we’re talking mace men, swordsmen, longbow men,  pike men, and catapult here) were able to take the city. Good results on the score: I went from 100 points behind to 400 points ahead!

Then the roof fell in. A massive number of French units (including many knights and catapults) counter-attacked the next turn and wiped me out, retaking the city. India was back to being 100 points behind in the score. More worrying, I had denuded India’s lands of units for the invasion. If Louis could get his forces to India, he’d win. A long period of fairly grim times resulted. Here are some of the factors involved:

• Louis would not make peace for a very long time, so war weariness became a problem.
• Louis got Democracy and switched to emancipation, so India had additional unhappiness due to that. Several cities had angry citizens, and production suffered. India had to switch back to slavery in order to rush some defensive units when it seemed warranted. It seems that it’s the angry citizens who get killed.
• My units left at home were poor quality for the time: archers, some warriors (!), a few mace men and swordsmen. To get the money needed for upgrading, I was forced to reduce research at a time when I was already critically behind in tech. Archers were upgraded gradually to longbow men, spears to pike men. Later on the upgrades went further to Grenadiers and Musket men.
• India went on a crash program to build frigates, but there was an endless period of high vulnerability.

France Misses Her Chance

During this difficult time, France did launch two invasions. Had she targeted my poorly defended island city off the East coast, it would have fallen. Instead, Louis landed just three units off Calcutta, a large and comparatively well defended east coastal city. I was able to counter-attack and kill them off with the only damage being a few pillaged tiles. (BTW – by this time all the workers were just sitting fortified in the center of India since there was no work for them to do. The damage was quickly repaired.)

More frightening was the invasion on the West coast, near the new capitol of Jaipur. This was enough after the first invasion that India’s units had all healed and gotten back into their reserve position near the continent’s center. Bad timing on Louis’ part. Still, it was disaster enough for India. My main fleet (two frigates and two galleons) chased after the French fleet  (same composition) that had landed the 6 unit invasion force. The navel combat was in French waters, and India’s forces were all sunk without the loss of a single French ship. Alas!

The French did not attack Jaipur but went pillaging northward up the coast toward Bengal. Indian forces were able to counter-attack and eliminate them. There was only one knight among the invaders, which was curious since I knew Louis had many knights.

Eventually Louis agreed to peace, but I had to pay for it.

A New Strategy

By now I was something like 400 to 500 points behind in the score. Angry citizens disappeared with the peace, and productivity soared. India’s frigates began to come online. I had to re-think. If I couldn’t capture the French cities, the new strategy would be to raze them (once war resumed) and escape with as many units as possible to heal and come back and do the same to another French city.

It is well to mention here that, of the 11 French cities, 1 was on an ice island, 4 were inland, and six were coastal cities.

By this time India was upgrading to Grenadiers, Musketeers and Knights. France was only four techs ahead. She seemed to be aiming for techs like Communism and Fascism in order to be able to build the Kremlin, etc. (which she later did.)

The Second War

When India finally resumed the war, some 15 turns or so later, she had 7 frigates. The initial idea was not to do an invasion, but to just stand a frigate off each coastal city (six, not counting the ice island) and bombard its defenses to zero. The frigates would also know which cities were the best and the worst defended. One frigate was put on defense and my two remaining Galleons were safely in port where an invasion force could easily be embarked.

The third (and final, as it turned out) French invasion was the next major action. It was largely a repeat of the 2^nd French invasion – landed on the same part of the West coast of India. Again, the Indian navy was unable to stop the landing of 6 French units near Jaipur. But this time, the Indian navel counter-attack was in Indian waters, with three frigates (the one on defense, and two drawn from their posts off France) and the two Galleons making a sortie from Bengal. The French force of two frigates and two Galleons was sunk with no Indian loss. The French land force was again eliminated.

There followed a long period of Indian frigates bombarding all French coastal cities (and the Ice island too – why not?) The French did not have any frigates in their coastal cities, though there was a huge pile of units with galleons in one of France’s East coast cities. This city had only one tile for access to the sea, and I blockaded it with (soon) two and three frigates. I seemed to have won command of the sea, for now. Louis was still ahead in tech, and I was trying hard to get Combustion so I could get destroyers before him.

During this temporary period of sea supremacy, India captured Chartres, razed it, and evacuated. A second French coastal city met the same fate. Ahead now in the score!  As preparation went on for a 3^rd descent on France, a destroyer came out of a French west coast city and sank the Indian frigate there. Next turn it sank another frigate. Clearly the French now had control of the seas.

I immediately sued for peace, and paid Louis for it – but he agreed.

Inter War Period

By now defenders were machine gunners and riflemen. Attackers were grenadiers, cannon, and Cavalry. I focused on military things like building Pentagon (and later West Point), Heroic Epic and Iron Works. At one point late in the Second war, six of my 11 cities were building factories. These were all done by the time war resumed, which, of course, did not happen until I had built up a goodly number of destroyers of my own. I had thought this would happen quickly, since I now had a large number of technically obsolete frigates to upgrade. However, it turns out that the cost to do an upgrade from frigate to destroyer was 2600 gold. Way too expensive for my blood – I was still using most of my money to upgrade land units as I got better tech. I resolved that the frigates would just be cannon fodder in the next navel engagement, so I’d use them to bombard cities when war resumed. Meanwhile, my coastal cities went on a destroyer building program.

The Third War

When ready, India again descended on France. They had put a new city where Chartres once stood, and India attacked and razed it. This time it was destroyers and frigates that bombarded all the French coastal cities. There was one French destroyer on the high seas as war recommenced. Two Indian destroyers attacked and sank it.

Amazingly, Louis had not built a single additional destroyer during the peace. He instead seems to have built up a large land army. India’s second descent was a complete failure with the French immediately wiping it out. I needed better tech and/or larger landing forces.

A note on navel matters. During the rest of the game, Louis built only one more destroyer, which was blockaded in port along with the only sub he ever built. These units were lost when I finally captured and razed that city. Similarly, though first to Battleships, Louis only built one and it mostly stayed in port. When it did come out (this is close to the end of the game), I sank it with three battleships of my own. With refrigeration my navel units could move another tile, and could chase down anything Louis might have sortied with.

So, one by one I descended on the French coastal cities, always razing them. At one point, Louis’s attitude toward me was -39! In some cases, he would found a new coastal city, and I would destroy it. There came a point during this where I had razed all his coastal cities. French borders still covered almost his entire continent though.

The Last Peace

At this point, I wanted to get Marines (to take over the Ice city). I had flight (which Louis did not) but wanted time to build up an air force. Also, I needed to continue to increase the numbers and capability of my ground units. Louis had tanks, and it was getting harder to raze the coastal cities. I had once decided to try to keep a city – but he ran 3 or more cannons at me, then hit with tanks and cavalry. So (after again invading and this time razing it), I once more made peace (being about 1000 points ahead by now). Louis wanted flight but I refused, and it was an even up peace. Actually, it was a truce for ten turns.

Concerning air forces: I eventually had two carriers with 3 fighters each, and four bombers. One bomber and one fighter were lost to SAM infantry. (The bombers were able to reach some French soil from the Indian continent. Later they were based on the laceName w:st="on">ice islandlaceName>, and still later at Chittagong on the French mainland.) Louis never built a single air unit though he did eventually get flight.

Final Battles and End of Game

When war resumed, I had one carrier, 3 fighters and 3 bombers. Also several battleships. Galleons had become transports. I also was now building tanks, but did not do much with artillery. The battleships and navel units did fine for bombarding coastal cities, and the air force took care of inland cities. I now had marines. Attacking units were typically infantry, SAM infantry, marines, and tanks. French defenders were mostly SAM infantry and Cavalry. There were few French tanks. Louis had re-founded several coastal cities, but they were small. He essentially had four inland core cities and the laceName w:st="on">ice islandlaceName>.

So my marines captured the laceName w:st="on">ice island laceName>(here’s one city he can’t take back!) and the bombers were based there. The fighters would hit the target city’s garrison units while the navel forces would bombard the cultural defenses down to zero and keep it there. Then the invasion, capture, and razing. Louis’ central core was still well defended. For example, at one point, one of those cities had 17 cav, 4 SAM infanty, 4 artillery, 3 marines, and 3 tanks. When not otherwise occupied, the bombers could reach one of these core cities, and would attack the units based there.

Very late in the game I established Chittagong on the north of the French mainland. It was garrisoned by 8 tanks, 4 SAM infantry, 1 artillery, and 2 infantry. I put it on a hill.

In two desperation efforts, large French armies came out to attack Chittagong. Between the land defenders and the (by then) two carriers and 6 fighters attacking the French stacks, these armies were eliminated. The French cities were now down to mostly just 2 or 3 defenders, India was 1500 or so points ahead. As the game ended, the Indian forces were pushing through the French heartland and had just captured one of the four core cities.

I felt that, as the Duke of Wellington once said of the Battle of Waterloo, “It was a damn close run thing.”  The game said I had the leadership abilities of Henry VIII. This seemed like an insult to me; Henry is 13^th down out of a list of 20 leaders.

Observations

I’ve tried to sum up the main observations I have about this game thusly:

• Navel combat – you seem to do best in home waters, less good in neutral waters, and worst in the enemy’s waters.
• The maximum damage air forces can inflict on units in a city is to cut all the units to 50% of their strength.
• SAM Infantry success seemed to go in streaks. I might be damaged 8 times in a row, then have no damage 12 times in a row.
• The AI going for lots of wonders was the wrong decision for it. In particular, by going for Communism and Fascism, and then building those wonders, it neglected its military.
• The AI not focusing on the navy was really stupid. A human would not make that mistake.
• The AI would often keep some coastal cities very well defended while others had only 3 or 4 defenders. So naturally I’d go for the poorly defended ones. The defense should have been more balanced. I was bombarding all the coastal cities, so why should the AI prefer to defend some more than others?
• When I invaded those poorly defended cities, the AI didn’t always mount a large counter-attack, even though it had the units for it. When it did, it was successful up till the very last of the game when my air force tore the counter-attackers to ribbons.
• 2600 gold to upgrade a frigate to destroyer seems excessive.

And that’s the story.

 One note to make on your comments about The AI pursuing wonders instead of military: I would think that this is a result of the AI being Louis XIV.  He, being the cultural type of leader, would naturally prefer to build culture to the military.  If you played againsts some other, more militaristic leader, I'm sure the result would have been different.

I think it's right about Louis XIV; he seemed clearly to be going for a cultural win. In real history, France was the big power of Europe in the late 1600s, and the historical Louis was very agressive, constantly fighting wars with his neighbors. But also, France was the leading country culturally at that time.

Wow - don't need marines for amphib assult anymore? I'v got to read the Civelopedia more!