The Great Game Guide (ToT)
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Author: Michael Daumen
Strategic Comment: Adrian Bates
Date Submitted: 2/8/01

This guide is to the Test of Time version of Michael Daumen's great little scenario, The Great Game. I have not played the original version and don't know how many of the tips would transfer. Maybe someone could let me know.

It should help players of all levels but primarily those that want to play the English. This is, as far as I am concerned, the more intricate side to play and my favourite. I may write a Russian tips version some time in the future should I feel like playing that side again but with so many other exciting scenarios to try I wouldn't hold your breath if I was you.

1.    General Tips

The following tips work equally well whether you are playing the Russians or the English, the two civilizations recommended.

·         Double Engineer / fortress trick - Engineers has a movement of two. I use this ability in my city sieges. Stop the attacking army and 2 engineers 1 square out of range of the city to be attacked. On the next turn move the engineers first, up to the city walls with their first movement point and with their second command them to fortify. Between the two of them the fort will be completed on the same turn. You can then move your attacking army up to the city on the same turn with no risk of losing the whole lot to a single successful attack from the city's defenders.

·         Siege Guns - Get these. With their attack of 9 and their Ignore City Walls ability they are great against those stubborn cities and with their defence of 3 as well they are surprisingly resilient. Combine these with the double engineer / fortress tip and really lay siege to those cities.

·         Note that aqueducts are not required until your cities reach population 10. Don't go building these unnecessarily early.

2.    English Tips

The following are tips specific to playing the English.

First Steps

Development

·         Your initial goal should be to build up your cities so that they have some spare shield production. Currently very few of them have any spare so you won't be able to wage a war even if you wanted to because you won't be able to support an army.

·          In the first turn stop the cities producing those military units they are currently assigned to build, you won't be fighting for a while and the cost in production shields to support them can cripple a lot of your cities. The military units that you can originally build are fairly useless against cities so you wouldn't be able to use them to expand anyway. Instead change the production to Engineers.

·         Be careful as a couple of your cities, Indore and Jaipur, do not have enough spare food / production shields to support engineers. In these cities I tend to take the production hit and switch to factories

·         Use the Engineers that you build to improve the land around your cities and to establish those few cities you have room for in India.

·         Once you have built your Engineer in each city switch the production to factory. You have the ability to build these from turn 1 so don't hang around lets get industrialised.

·         Don't forget to also change the production in Valleta, in the Mediterranean, to an Engineer. If you build the frigate that is currently being produced you not only use up your last production shield in that city with no way of ever getting any more but you end up with an almost worthless unit.

·         The engineer produced by Valleta should be used to found a city just to the left of Athens where it can collect the fish and mine the hills. I actually mine the hills before founding the city but this is debatable.

·         Once your Engineer from Valleta has founded its city you regain the production shield in Valleta that was being used to support it. This can then be used to build a factory in Valleta and thus get the city back into a productive state. If you had built the frigate you would never have been able to build anything in the Med. again, without buying it from scratch.

Research

·         Your first research goals should be Breach Loading, to allow you to build artillery units, no point in wasting time and production on those weaker cannons when the stronger artillery units are only one technology advance away. Once you have discovered this your goal should be Explosives so that you will be able to build the Suez canal.

Diplomacy

·         You are the defender in this scenario. All you have to do is stop the Russians expanding. It doesn't matter if you do this or one of the other civs does it for you. The key here is diplomacy & alliances, especially as you can't actually reach any Russian forces for quite a while into the game. Well, at least, not in any sufficient numbers to actually make a difference.

·         Your key here is to ally to the Ottoman Turks, if you can bring them round on to your side they can be convinced to wage war against the Russians for you. To a lesser extent this also applies to the Turcomans and the Mountain people although these are both smaller civilizations and can have less impact.

·         To bring the Ottoman Turks inline you can use your huge technology advantage by granting them some of your technical knowledge.

·         The following tip I consider a cheat. I'll explain what it is and then why I consider it a cheat. As mentioned above you do not have to contain the Russians yourself any civ can do that for you. If you just give all of your technology to the Ottoman Turks they will have no problem in containing the Russians for you. However, I consider this a cheat. The English of the period were as expansionist as the Russians and would not have wanted to give all their technology advantage away thus simply replacing one powerful enemy for another. And anyway this trick simply makes the game to easy and not very interesting. I would strongly recommend not using this tip.

·         Be careful not to ally with the Persians as you will have to capture Port Said from them at some point. You need this city in order to be able to build the Suez Canal.

Expansion

·         At all costs avoid war with the Afghans at this early stage of the game, and for the whole game if possible, they are an overwhelmingly war like race. If you get embroiled in a fight with the Afghans it can only distract you from your real foe, the Russians. If you are going to fight the Afghans ensure you don't do it too early. You will be amazed how many units they can produce and how quickly. Also their raider unit is fairly devastating with their (9/1/1) stats and Ignore City Walls ability. I actually managed to lose the game, at PRINCE level, by attacking the Afghans too early.

·         That neutral city on your sub continent, Diu, should be your first target for conquest. However take your time. Don't waste cavalry or even marines against it, they simply don't have the strength to get past those 2 Portuguese infantry (4/4/1) defending it. Instead ferry down the cannon that you start the game with in Karachi. If you use the clipper ship that is also in the same city you can get the cannon there in a couple of turns. This one cannon will be sufficient if you allow it enough time to mend between attacks.

·         Once you have captured this city the neutral cities in the Gulf should be your next target. The three cannons that you start the game with should be sufficient. When you capture these cities don't waste their minimal shield production on producing a defence unit. Instead ferry one up from the Indian sub continent. If you have avoided war with the Afghans as recommended you should have plenty to spare by now as they are regularly created by random events.

·         And here is another reason to avoid war in those early turns. Once you have discovered Breach Loading your Indian sepoys will rebel as soon as you kill one of a number of different enemy units. This rebellion creates a large number of hostile units surrounding your city of Benares. If you are not prepared for this the number of rebellious forces can be sufficient to capture the city. If this occurs even more forces are created. This can create a real thorn in your side. Simply avoiding war with the Afghans and the Mountain people can avoid this event.

Middle Game

Development

·         Once a reasonable amount of land around your cities has been irrigated and you have built roads on the same squares focus on building a mine for each city. A fair number of you original cities in India have a hill square within the city radius that can be mined. Soon each city should have a factory and a mine. Once you have achieved this you finally have an empire that can actually support an army.

Expansion

·         Now is the time to go for the Suez Canal. To build this you have to have discovered Explosives and captured Port Said.

·         You may have to allow Russia's progress against the Turks to determine your timing here. If they capture Istanbul and are making good progress then you may have to bring the process forward moving on to a war footing perhaps before all your preparations are ready.

·         You also need to keep an eye on the Ottoman Turks. If they are at war with the Persians they may well take Port Said before you. This would force you to have to declare war on them to get it back. You must avoid this. If the Turks are attacking towards Port Said make sure you get there first.

·         I use the 2 engineer / fortress trick to good advantage to attack Port Said, although if you are currently at peace with the Persians then you may be able to get away with one engineer. Build a fortress next to the city and then land your attack force.

·         This force should be mostly artillery or even siege guns by now. The cannon can get through the walls but the rate of exchange can be quite painful. Don't forget a defensive unit of some sort, a lancer with defence 4 can save you some units.

·         Once you have captured Port Said give it a four turns and the Suez Canal will appear (if you have already discovered Explosives).

·         Dependent upon how early you have built the Suez canal and how far Russia has advanced you may wish (or be forced, if Russia has already taken them) to capture the two neutral cities in the Med, Athens and Candia. These can act as useful staging posts, not to mention add to your unit production, but don't get distracted, Russia is your goal not expansion for its own sake.

·         Possibly more useful at this point might be to take Cairo. This would bring with it the Pyramids. Owning the Pyramids means that your cities no longer need their granaries. These can be sold for a nicely timed boost to your finances although your limited number of cities limits the amount you will receive.

·         However if the Persians offer peace it may well be worth just accepting it so that your movement of troops through the canal can be assured and you can get on with the job of bashing the Russians.

·         At some point in this middle game you will probably automatically be taken to war with the Russians. This occurs when the Russians kill their second Fortress unit that belongs to the Ottoman Turks. A force is then automatically created for you outside Sevastopol. This is all meant to simulate the Crimean war and is accompanied by some nice context messages. Unfortunately this force is fairly useless. The units created are not powerful enough to actually attack the city. I find it hard to believe that in this war that was famous for its prolonged artillery bombardment of Sevaastopol that Michael decided not to supply your force with any artillery type units. The most useful thing these units can do is try and act as a partisan group behind Russian lines.

Research

·         After you have developed Explosives and can build artillery units your next goal should be siege guns. These are great units and will be vital to you now that you are on the offensive.

Final Game

Expansion

·         You may imagine, as I did, that the Suez Canal was worth building so that you can move your units from the Mediterranean to your Indian colony. As you play further you realise the flow is actually required the other way. If you have avoided war with the Afghans, you should now be able to move fair numbers of your troops up through the canal to engage the Russians in their homeland.

·         The trick here is moving enough forces up through the canal and to co-ordinate them enough to produce an effective fighting force. Once you start taking on the Russians you will realise what an enormous empire they have and therefore how many forces they can produce. To take this on effectively you need to target your attacks.

·         Your first goal should be to drive the Russians back from any objective cities that they may have managed to take. Tactics for this obviously rather depend on how badly the Ottoman Turks have failed in their task of containing the Russians.

·         To manage a decisive victory you must not only contain the Russians you must take one of their original objective cities from them. There are three of these, Moscow, Tiflis & Astrakhan. Forget Moscow unless you want to repeat Napoleon & Hitler's great mistake. Your best bet is probably Tiflis.

·         By this time Istanbul should be out of Russian hands which should allow you to transport forces through the Straits to land them by Batumi. This can often be quite tricky with the Ottoman Turks blocking the Straits with their own ships. If you have built the Suez canal early enough it may be possible for you to shift your troops overland to attack Tiflis from the Ottoman Turks side.

·         You will find that your allies can be a real pain at this stage blocking your every route into that vital Russian city. However avoid the temptation of attacking these blocking units. Fighting a war on two fronts at this stage will severely jeopardise your chances of that decisive victory.

·         Your best bet to clear a route may well be to station some forces along the route that you intend to use. You will find that your allies forces will eventually move out of your way and you should be ready to take advantage of this situation and move a unit of your own into the space. If you then leave the unit there your allies will not be able to block the route again. You can use even the weakest of your units for this. The only down side of it is that your allies will become wary of you expecting a surprise attack and may well move even more of their units back into the area blocking your way even further. If you can convince your allies to maintain their war with Russia at this stage it will really help.

Research

·         All the remaining research is now at your disposal. However specifically the Steamer unit can be of use in moving enough units up to engage the Russians quickly enough.

·         Don't ignore Revolving Barrels as it leads to Machine Guns which allows you to build the Maxim Gun unit. With its 5* defence this can be very useful to defend those attacking stacks.

·         Steel allows you to build steel mills, another way to boost your shield production.

·         It is quite possible to reach the end of the research tree while playing as the English. Be aware of this and reduce your percentage tax given to research when you have achieved this. There is no point in wasting your taxes on research if there is nothing left to discover.

Development

·         Steel mills should be added to your core cities

·         But primarily you should by now be turning out your attack force.

3.    Russian Tips

·         Playing as Russia your goal is to expand, expand and expand some more. You have a very long way to go! You can just about manage a marginal victory by taking on all the lesser civilizations and capturing their 'objective' cities. Don't miss Rhiyad and Mecca, buried away in the deserts, otherwise all you'll manage is a stalemate.

·         To manage a decisive victory you need to take on the English as well.

·         This leaves time as your biggest enemy. Trying to achieve all of this in the time allowed can be a real problem. The huge size of your empire by the time you are reasonably into the game means that you will not be short on shear numbers of units, the issue will be delivering them to the necessary objectives in the time allowed.

·         With the time limit in mind you must always be expanding in multiple directions at the same time. This may be military expansion or it could simply be engineers laying down railways into foreign lands that you can use later to rapidly re-deploy your army.

·         Unfortunately the AI playing the English are terrible at managing to build the Suez canal so don't rely on capturing this to allow you to transport units to attack India you will have to find your own way.

·         Your empire is going to be absolutely huge (hopefully) so if you are going to keep up the attacking momentum then those railways are entirely vital. (That is, if you can convince the A.I. to actually use them properly. My units kept jumping off the tracks and heading off across the wide open steppes, on foot!)