Yes it was fun playing with Scarab and O Capt last night.
Scarab called me into a 2v2 inland game. One enemy took Shang so guess what civ I switched to ? I am at 3 but my map is lousy. The water north of me is a fishless lake against the side that, thankfully,I didn't dock.Speed is upped to the posted 1.5 and I am wishing I had an easier map to play.Water to the south of me shows only a couple of fish, but continues down the coast so I put up two docks once I solved my wood problem with a wood pit. Moving a couple of my Shang peons towards the enemy camp at 4:30 I encounter and barely escape an angry horde of peons. I also see signs that he was going to do a tool job on me. I had just clicked the bronze upgrade and moved a bunch of goldies to the mine way in back of my camp where they hopefully go undetected. I tried to wall but axers managed to get in. I had 2 scout ships to help a bit, while my peons scattered as I bronzed and made a 2nd and then 3rd stable. Scarab was reporting some minor tool confrontations with the other enemy, but wasn't hurt. My cav's then butchered many axers and some bowmen and down the coast they went along with a few war galleys. I moved a few peons down the coast to move my docks and make forward ranges to add some CA's. The tool rushing enemy was pounded as I kept making military and then tested the guy next to Scarab. He had some defences but not enough to save him and he shortly resigned when my reinforcements arrived. Now it was back the first enemies town and Scarab arrived with his army and it was game over. I admit I was smiling like the Cheshire Cat after that one !
4 points to make about the above game.
1) Never forget the +5 bonus that cav have vs Rax infantry (not slingers or hoplites)We tend only to make camels in ROR because they cost less gold and have attack bonuses vs cav and chariots.
2) My counter attack on the failed tool rusher was clear because he hadn't the time/resources to field any bronze age defences. It was risky to then proceed willy-nilly in late bronze to the other enemy so I brought a good sized army while continuing to pump cav and CA's from my bases. Achievements told me that I should be able to hurt him and I didn't let up once that was the case. My first enemy had been knocked down to less than 10 peons and while some CA's went thru his town on the way to my 2nd victim and shot a stray peon or two. I didn't waste time killing buildings that nothing could be produced from (given his trashed state) Rather than spend 1800 res ironing I simply pressed a winning situation to victory in bronze.
3) Scarab you did fine that game. You were well defended and building up and surely would have come to my aid had I needed it. It is far better to have any ally like that than one who has no defences, no army , and cries when 2 axers show up at 14 min. I look forward to more games with you .4) It can be hard to play under the expectations to dominate a game ! It would have been fun to have a great spot and been bronzed a minute earlier w/10 more total vils. However, one's purpose in playing team games with friends is to try make sure the team wins. In the end it matters not whether, you/I have one peon left and a score of 160, while our ally has a score of 700 just as long as our team won !
I was happy with my play that game, but you'll see, that I lost my luster in the 2 games I played w/ O Capt. It is time to play now, so I will post about those later. .. neilkaz ..
[This message has been edited by neilkaz (edited 03-25-99).]