Tried something different (Imp1)
Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 8:48 am
Started a new game today, and decided to see what would happen if I spent as little money on tech upgrades as possible. Some thoughts:
- I was hamstrung by a glitch: when two major powers both hit dark green diplomatic relations at the same time with a minor nation, neither power can successfully invite the MN into their empire. As a result, I didn't have my first colony until about 25 turns past the first AI that did.
- I accidentally forgot to constantly be transporting more food and pumping out a labor force. I reached a point where I couldn't handle all of the resources minor nations wanted to sell me. It's important to have merchant marine for two reasons early:
- Be able to trade with all of your trade consulates; and
- Take everything a favored nation is selling, preventing other major powers from building relations with them.
The latter is very important, because if you can buy every last resource a minor is selling, you don't need to use anything except a 5% subsidy to out-compete other MPs.
- The AI is weak when it comes to invading from sea. Ordune and Kem were both at war with me, and they both had better armies and navies. But, they both always tried to invade the same province in the same turn. With only the military units I started the game with, I was able to repel them both for a good decade or more. I could minimize my military, spend everything on my navy, and then use a victory fleet to blockade their ports until they have no navy or merchant marine and are forced to beg for peace. In the meantime, I've protected my trade vessels by wiping their navies, I've bolstered my trade fleet by capturing theirs, and I'm also turning a profit by capturing their trade goods. Unless a human player shares a border with a major power, there is absolutely no reason in Imp1 to have military units instead of naval units against the AI. This of course is different if the opponents are human.
- I don't like how tundra works. Nations to the extreme north/south on a map will have large amounts of it, and it seems to take up prime terrain estate that would more likely have useful resource tiles in the warmer climates. In our game, we might need to make sure this doesn't happen.
- I was hamstrung by a glitch: when two major powers both hit dark green diplomatic relations at the same time with a minor nation, neither power can successfully invite the MN into their empire. As a result, I didn't have my first colony until about 25 turns past the first AI that did.
- I accidentally forgot to constantly be transporting more food and pumping out a labor force. I reached a point where I couldn't handle all of the resources minor nations wanted to sell me. It's important to have merchant marine for two reasons early:
- Be able to trade with all of your trade consulates; and
- Take everything a favored nation is selling, preventing other major powers from building relations with them.
The latter is very important, because if you can buy every last resource a minor is selling, you don't need to use anything except a 5% subsidy to out-compete other MPs.
- The AI is weak when it comes to invading from sea. Ordune and Kem were both at war with me, and they both had better armies and navies. But, they both always tried to invade the same province in the same turn. With only the military units I started the game with, I was able to repel them both for a good decade or more. I could minimize my military, spend everything on my navy, and then use a victory fleet to blockade their ports until they have no navy or merchant marine and are forced to beg for peace. In the meantime, I've protected my trade vessels by wiping their navies, I've bolstered my trade fleet by capturing theirs, and I'm also turning a profit by capturing their trade goods. Unless a human player shares a border with a major power, there is absolutely no reason in Imp1 to have military units instead of naval units against the AI. This of course is different if the opponents are human.
- I don't like how tundra works. Nations to the extreme north/south on a map will have large amounts of it, and it seems to take up prime terrain estate that would more likely have useful resource tiles in the warmer climates. In our game, we might need to make sure this doesn't happen.