Now THAT was my idea of a fun game! Intense from the word "Go!" Chubby did a masterful job of turning an early defeat into a benefit - by taking himself out of the fight, and playin' feeder. Most beneficial! I think he's gonna be hearin' me scream "MORE FOOD! NEED GOLD! CRAP! OUTTA WOOD!" in his sleep!
As to "letting" me take Shang, I felt it only fair, since I'd just received them from the Random Gods in the previous game, where Hemmie conveniently dropped! Now THOSE were teams! What was it? Shang, Assy, & Yam against Carth, Palmy & Rome? Something like that. LOL!
So, since I had just "lost" shang (I think Hemmie pulled the plug deliberately) , I "demanded" them again.However, I was in an early panic - I knew very soon my economic bonus was all but gone, since (once again!) berries were nowhere near my TC. This is disappointing on Gigantic maps, but on LARGE? It was ridiculous. (The first berry patch I found was probably as close to Kurtie as it was to me). Kurtie was on my immediate left (and, even better, in a valley!) My wood situation wasn't too bad, though. Not close to my TC, but I had at least three forests (so I spread out, to avoid disaster - a wise move that paid off much later).
I built a forward barracks near the center (which went nearly unused), and then built two (and later, a third) rax on top of a hill overlooking poor Kurtieville. As I was preparing a club rush (and thus, VERY low on food), Chubby told me he was tooling, and B_Tim followed him. I was nowhere near it! :-(
(Hmm.. it wasn't really a RUSH, as it came so late!) Still, I knew I had the advantage of location over Kurtie, so I began sending clubbers in. I had already scouted his TC, (VERY close to my rax!), but I soon spotted a slain elephant at about 5:00, so I sent my clubs there. Jackpot! Found both his hunters AND his woodies! Yee-ha! I sent several more clubs there as Kurtie tooled (while his villies fought bravely against my clubbers), and I sent a few more to beat on his houses.
I was a little worried, since he would soon have tool troops (assuming he had any food left), and I was probably only at the 200 food mark at this point. I shifted some woodies to hunting, and was soon in tool myself. Kurtie sent a few axers into my town, and, unbeknownst to me, some builders - he built rax (and later, a nearby TC) in my town.
In my travels, I'd uncovered 3 of the artifacts - B_Tim (I think) had the other (which I took from him) and we were on the way to winning by artifacts! Unfortunately, w/ only 835 years to go, the very spot I was gonna wall them in was where Kurtie had built in my town (which, of course, I didn't know - DOH!). I managed to get a couple arts away, but he had one. This battle (and later, ruins), continued to jump back n' forth (they never had all, but had to keep stopping us from winning either way).
Another point of note was I noticed I had one very wounded armascout villie standing west of Kurtie's old town (which my now-axers were reducing to rubble), near a small opening in the forest (west of Kurt & south of dis.) I built a series of ranges & stables there. This would prove the most beneficial act of the game for me. It was an easy spot to wall in. I was soon in bronze, and had another TC there, complete w/ two gold mines, some berries, and plenty of wood, w/ some space to build a temple and a seige workshop.
As I was working there, I moved my tool army, now equipped w/ slingers, into dis's town. I managed to dissuade his vills from completing a wall. Also, I believe he learned the hard way bowmen and towers don't match up well vs. slingers! A couple of scouts also got axed, and I busied myself in tearing down discipletown. I should point out that both Kurt and disciple were stuck at the bottom of deep valleys.Meanwhile, Hemmie had given Chubby the business. Kurtie almost ruined things at this point, as he nearly dropped, but was somehow saved by the Sync gods, and we continued. I used my tool army to overrun dis as I bronzed (dis was in already in bronze at this point), and followed w/ a few camels and cav. I also found some Kurtie refugees there. It was going very well, and I began to clamor for tribute to continue pressing the advantage. I'd nearly eliminated two opponents (or so I thought at the time) and was probably suffering from an acute case of cockiness, when Hemmie's Yam comps arrived to set me straight.
It got ugly in a hurry. Hemmie had quite a large army of them. Neither camels nor cav do diddly-squat against them but die, so I started to make stonies - then realized I hadn't put anyone else on wood detail! Luckily, chubby had nothing to do but mine & chop, & he began to give me spare res as quickly as I could wail for it - doing a great job of supplying whatever I needed to continue the fight (I got quite a bit of res. from Tim as well).
Unfortunately, Hemmie stalked his compy way thru dis's town, and found my forward base. He destroyed a couple buildings there, and the TC, but moved on thru Kurtie's old town to my original base. Luckily, my vills were so spread out, he didn't really do much damage, but he did have me on the run. Meanwhile, I saw that Tim had loaded up on Hittite cats, but wasn't doing anything (that I could see) w/ them! I SCREAMED for his help - "for the LOVE of god! Move yer f'ing cats!!! HELP ME!!!" I guess that finally did the trick. His cats arrived and made green mulch outta Hemmie's comps.Realizing I'd spent too much effort on my military, neglecting my economy (almost the exact opposite of my typical game), I built several new TC's, and soon had gold flowing. But I needed to continue to press Hemmie, and stop Kurt & dis from rebuilding, so I was constantly low on food. Thankfully, Chubby tribbed me nearly 700 food! So I was able to iron. I had already wiped out Kurt's Gedntown base w/ just a few axes & a camel, and I soon found him in other areas (southwest of me, nw of dis's town, and east of hemmie's town). Kurtvillies breed like rabbits! I now went heavy into HA's, as Tim provided the bulk of the seige, w/ Chubby still feeding away (yee-HA!). This worked very well, indeed. Hemmie (along w/ disciple's displaced townsfolk) had walled in, but was no match for the Hittie cats. I also brought in some ballistas and a priest or two for support, spending the bulk of my economy (and Chubby's!) on the HA's. Once we overran Hemmie, they threw in the towel (though Kurtie, fought on for a bit against overwhelming odds! A great game.Love to hear this from the other perspectives!