i am no CD, and I don't know internal game mechanics, my previous experience is many CIV, CIVII, SMAC, CTP games, and wins on deity levels so as suggested by some, I started my first game on the imnpossible level, gigantic map, with 8 civs... should be hard. 1400AD already, and I am fourth at the moment, and by the looks of it I would be suprised if I don't win this one... and if I do it now... what challenge there is left???

ok, i am playing with the original settings, getting too much money, AI didn't make a decent attack... the best they managed so far is two units in a stack + some 8-9 single units (that became slaves).

I don't use a decent tactic even... just typical for me...expand as much as it goes a t the begining (11 cities) pw 50%... build farms , mines... go after best government - monarchy - republic (at the moment)... I just attacked nearby English (they attacked me first, ages ago-but never mounted a proper attack)

English used to be the strongest ones, of course now when I took four of their cities they are third at the moment... the attack was 12 units stack , infantryman, cannons, and calvary...

Ant that's it, we will see I might loose by the end, but it doesn't look vbery likely. i haven't built any world wonders by now... but it doesn't seem that i am missing much so far because of it... I spent many turns just by building PW, and not touching anything else (I had my build queues already made).

Doesn't seem too challenging to me... for the impossible level, 8 civs, and barbarians set on the toughes as well (actually the barbarians are the biggest threat early on in the game... and it seems that this was the only real danger so far... and by the looks of it for the whole game.

I hope to successfully kill the English off, and the rest should be history. As CD said, there are definitley game imbalances (units), tech tree could be better, and by the looks of it to me CTP I + mods > CTPII.

Ok this might be too early, but this game definitley needs a proper mod.

Just to mention i managed to lose two cities so far, one to barbarians, and one to English (i had two archers in the city - and the English attacked me with one infantryman since I didn't pay attention that particular turn) I got them both back as soon as a brought a couple of units in the stack and attacked. (two-three turns) - and i had another major loss (when i tried an army - and lost- of 8 units-knights and mounted archers against an English city.. which i got now with the stack of earlier mentioned twelve units).

that's the story so far...

answer to the question, is CTPII too easy - yes.

Hope - mods

quote: Originally posted by MarkG on 12-12-2000 04:35 AM btw, i tend to build everything everywhere instead of having specialised cities(therefore i probably dont have the kind of problems you have )...

Me too, I build everything. The build queues don't bother me. But I do have scientist cities where I dump a huge amount of population into scientist specialists. Other cities I plain want to grow, so it's farmer. Front line cities forego growth for heavy duty production (finish that Battleship in 2 turns instead of 4). It's not only more efficient to specialise, but your army hordes are non-stop and you accumulate stacks heck of a lot faster.

Every advanced Civ player ought to be doing this:P

quote: hmmm i dont have specific cities building specific units. if i see that i need, lets say, catapults, i insert(e.g. top of the queue) catapult in the build queue of 2-3 cities.

But that makes your stack build-up so much slower. Say you have 3 cities at the front line. They'll make cannon-fodder units, especially slow-moving ones like Infantry. Then 4 cities behind that will make the "core" of your army, let it be Artillery. Your stacks build up faster this way, than telling every city to build Catapults / stuff. Specialisation is the key.

quote: Originally posted by Dominous Nemo on 12-12-2000 06:42 PM I think they make it simple because nobody wants to play a game that they are destined to loose.

Well but impossible level should be what it says... I would gladly settle for playing on the level below... to have a chance of winning...

We'll wait for Med Mod II...