Played as a shared civ co-op on hardest. On the first try we were taken by surprise at the strength of the computer attack (phalanxes, heavy cavalry, chariots, elephants) early in the game and were taken out. After getting established with the map and expected attacks, we were ready on the next start. We elected not to use the full tech tree (you lose your civ's attributes which we wanted) for defensive purposes. The map is well constructed to give maximum defense choke points which you'll need to utilize in order to save your butt and achieve victory. The onslaughts are relentless, especially by red, and you'll need to rebuild your choke point defenses more than once. Chris has set the computers' resources quite high, which lets it launch attack after attack. Yellow was the weaker and wasn't too much of a problem taking out, but red was relentless, completely eradicating our strong foothold on their side of the map. My partner quit shortly after this, and alone, on this setting, well I gave up, Just couldn't be everywhere at once. I'd go home, manage all my resources, churn out militia, go back to my forward base only to discover more damage than expected. Spend time rebuilding defense (most certainly don't want them through) get ready to launch an attack then have to run to the other pass to defend, go back to my attack launch point to find most of my attack group DEAD! And this is only red doing this to me! I'm not a real pro at this game but I'm no slouch either and it was on the hardest setting. Maybe if it wasn't so late and a better frame of mind. This is a real changeling scenario. If your goin it alone, try it on moderate. If you consider yourself a hot dog, try it on hard or hardest and if you can beat it on those settings (without checking the map out first) I recommend scenarios by "hamlet" and myself "frink".
[Edited on 12/30/04 @ 01:58 AM]
skald
Posted on 01/27/10 @ 12:37 AM
EDITED: To remove snarky comment.
Frink is noted for his very hard, possibly unwinnable scenarios himself. If he couldn't get past this one, that's an indication. I tried it and of course got wiped out. The Editor shows P1 starts in Stone Age with almost nothing and the other players, allied together against P1, start with 50,000 resources. Previous experience tells me that a number of computer players with unlimited resources allied together against a stone age human with no resources is pretty much unbeatable, although I have managed to win scenarios like that if it's a free for all with the CP's attacking each other as well as me.