Conquests 01: First Spoiler. End of ancient age.

OK, decided to go for Conquest class seing as this was my first GOTM and I thought the extra scout might give me an advantage.

I was wrong. It took me 3 turns to found Hattusas on the NE river. I then proceeded to make Hattusas a weak settler factory by deforestation to aid granary production. Whilst this was happening, I went goodyhut popping, I got 3 techs, some gold and a city in some jungle south of Hattusas (just my luck!).

I have expanded well and penned the Arabs in the north coast, with no resources. We had a small skirmish right at the beginning of the game, but neither of us could really be bothered since we only had warriors and were still expanding.

Took control of horses to South West, and may have overextended myself since the Sumerians now control the desert patch wst of hattusas, but we'll see. Babylonian's declared war on me, so signed an MA with Arabs against them. Have just wiped them out.

Control most of the iron on the continent so thats good. Am well away tech-wise and also control the GL and have built my FP, which is nice. I entee the MA around 200AD, pefully by the end of the Middle Ages I should control the continent.

Nothing else to say really except, ainwood, i really hate you for giving us this map! And I bet the other civ's are sunning it on some paradise continent! Can't wait to find out, then take it from them!

Bremp
How did you manage to get Code of Laws and Philosophy to 1500BC?
If not from hut and not from AI?

This sure is an interesting game! As well as being our first Conquests game there are quite a few challenges in the map which make it more difficult than one might expect of Regent level. The challenges include finding a location for the capital, a low food region (forcing careful expansion and tradeoffs between settlers and workers), and no nearby horses for our UU. It will be very interesting to see what different approaches people have taken to these things and how they fared. I don't know whether my approach was anywhere near optimum. It might have worked better to go for Pyramids, to go ICS, to build some granaries, and to not try for early horses. We'll see as the reports come in!

Opening Moves

As planned pregame I moved the scout NE,N to the hills, and when he saw nothing moved the worker E, and when he saw nothing moved the settler N.

In 3950 I moved the scout N,NE to the gold mountain. This revealed some grassland on a river. That was much better than the start position but still not great - a food bonus would be much nicer. So I moved the worker E another tile before committing the settler. Nothing there so I moved the settler N to the mountain, following the scout.

In 3900 I moved the worker N, then moved the scout N then W to a mountain and saw a hut. (I moved the scout W at this point because he'd still have time to go north and east before the settler caught up, wanted to check as large an area as possible.) Still no bonus in sight so the settler moved N to the gold mountain, heading for the grass.

In 3850 I moved worker N then moved the scout N,N - if there were cattle even that far north I'd walk the settler to them. But no luck. So the settler moved NE to plains on a river beside grass. He'd settle there if nothing better showed up next turn.

In 3800 I moved the worker N, then moved the scout E,E to check the area the settler could reasonably reach. Nothing there. So that was it, the settler founded Hattusas at his river-plains location.



In hindsight I was in too much of a hurry to find any acceptable start location. As I write these notes I see that I should have considered moving the settler one more step north. That would have given Hattasus a BG tile and after border expansion the sugar tile.

My initial build sequence in Hattasus was scout, settler.

Exploration and Expansion

My first scout continued clockwise around Hattasus till he was south of it, then headed south. My second scout headed west and when he encountered the coast went south.

In 3100BC I popped a settler from a hut far south of Hattusas. It was a difficult choice whether to return him to the home region or settle where he was. I decided to settle there, on the coast beside gems. The walk home was just too long when I allowed for going past home to reach grassland.

The first settler I produced went northwest from home to settle on plains beside another river, claiming 2 BG tiles. By the time I produced a second settler in 1990BC I'd explored most of our continent and had traded for The Wheel. There was just one source of horses that I might claim without fighting, far southwest of home:



Horses seemed especially important in this game, to build Three-Man Chariots. But sending the settler on the long walk to claim those horses would cause my already sluggish expansion to become even slower. And would as a side effect keep my research rate slow. I decided to sacrifice expansion and go for the horses, trying to claim them before Sumeria got there. I claimed them in 1500BC but it was of course a long time (410BC) before I had the horses connected by road.

By 370BC, my cutoff date for this thread, I had 13 cities and my minimap looked like this (cropped to remove info sent back by galleys ):



Research

I decided to go for Republic as quickly as possible. At Regent level I could count on the AIs to lag behind in research so I'd get there by researching Writing, then Code Of Laws, then Philosophy. And, assuming I got to Philosophy first, that would allow me to take Republic as a free tech.

I started research on Writing at 100%. I didn't notice that anything was wrong for a while, until I was well advanced toward learning Writing. It finally dawned on me that it was taking a long time to learn and that I might have been better off using 50 turn research for it. (Due to the huge map research speed setting.) Oh well, I got there in 42 turns and perhaps that was for the best anyway.

I stayed at 100% research and learned Code Of Laws in 1125BC (29 turns) and then Philosophy in 875BC (10 turns.) I was first to Philosophy and got Republic as my free tech.

Along the way I'd popped five techs (Ceremonial Burial, Bronze Working, Warrior Code, Mysticism, The Wheel) and traded for four (Masonry, Iron Working, Horseback Riding, Polytheism.) I gave a number of techs to my rivals during this time to encourage them to research new subjects.

I revolted immediately upon discovering Republic and got a 3 turn revolution! I don't remember ever before having such a fast one. At least there was one nice effect from my slow expansion and low number of cities

Next I researched Map Making, and after that Literature. These were both unusual choices for me. Usually I get Map Making from another Civ by the time I want it, and usually I have higher research priorities than Literature. In this game the research pace was so slow that I figured I'd best get Map Making myself in order to get some galleys out exploring, and I'd best learn Literature in order to speed up my research rate with some libraries. I learned Map Making in 650BC, Literature in 490BC.

I traded for Mathematics, Currency, and Construction (I partially researched this but a rival learned it first so I got it via trade) and entered the Middle Ages at 370BC.

QSC Status

At 1000BC I had:
8 towns
no improvements
2 settlers
5 native workers, 3 foreign workers
3 archers
5 warriors
1 scout
299g in treasury

For a change of pace I didn't have any galleys exploring before 1000BC and thus my QSC timeline doesn't contain anything outside the scope of this spoiler. So I've uploaded my QSC timeline here for anyone who is interested.

This being my first time playing the GOTM and my first time playing on Regent level im doing pretty bad.(Ya im kinda a noob; ive played 5 chieftan games to get used to game and about 3 warlord games) I have not gone to war with any nations at the moment but i think that i may be invading the arabs to my north since there position is easily attackable and they dont have iron. If i can manage to take out the arabs then ill have the northern half of the continent. Unfortunately i was not able to complete the Pyramids, but i did get the Great Library which helped to get my science up. I have no source of horses and desperately need them for 3 man chariots, though no one is willing to trade with me Well thats what i can remember from whats going on. Next gotm ill remember to take notes and screenshots.

I see I founded Hattusas in the same place as SirPleb, which gives me some satisfaction. I wish I had founded in the same place as Bremp though, with those lovely flood plains. His game looks amazing.

It is very interesting how different Bremp's map is having travelled south initially, compared with the map for people who went north. Bremp's tech progress was pretty spectacular too. In part, the extra growth from going south may have helped this, but even so it is impressive.

Edit. Having founded in the same place as SirPleb, I have to say how impressed I am that he managed to get 8 towns and 2 settlers out by 1000bc. There is very little food around. I will be giving his qsc a good look.

It is interesting to see a couple of people who seem to be following DaveMcW's Free Tech Tricks article, to get republic as the bonus tech from philosophy!

It is also somewhat of a relief that most players seem to have got at least one settler from a hut. The random element of settlers can be unbalancing, so I (and cracker) had a tendancy to remove goody huts from near the starting location. The other trick is simplky to make lots of goody huts to incease everyone's chances!

Was this map specifically designed to scare off newcomers to the GoTM!?
If so, its worked extremely well...

Thank you and good night

ya those goody huts were a pain in my game. I got "maps of there region" which showed everything i already knew cept like1 or 2 tiles. I got 2 free techs which was pretty nice. And i also got another "maps of there region" which didnt really reveal anything. I didnt get any free settlers! Im so unlucky

Not at all! I t was designed to give people a (relatively) painless introduction (being on regent level), but still give enough challenge to the very-good players.

Conquest players were given an extra scout to help get to more huts, and to uncover a few more tiles before settling right up-front. I would have expected most players to build at least one or two more scouts, which would have helped with goody-hut collection as well.

Open class

General

This is a designed game, so I expect no unfair surprises. Sure the starting position is somewhat of a shock , but there is a river visible. All is not lost. There must be good land to find and use.

It is regent level, so the other civs won't be much of a threat, especiallly early. We are expansionist, so the barbarians can be ignored. The key to success seems to be careful use of resources.

My time line and my experience with exploration, research and resources are similar to others already posted. The major differences seem to be in 1. starting right away or looking for a better spot, 2. luck of the huts, 3. preferences for war or peace.

Settling

I settled as quicky as possible on the river to the East, 3900 BC. I don't like to wait. This is partly style or impatience, but partly from experimenting with early play. Delaying settlement to look for a better spot seems rarely to pay off beyond one or two turns. It will be interesting to compare results with those like SirPleb and Offa who moved North. Does QSC do this sort of comparison?

Settlers and towns from huts

The huts seem unbalancing in a game with an expansionist civ. (Is unbalancing the right word?) HighDesert got a settler and a town. rrau got a settler in 3950. SirPleb got a settler by the gems to the South. I got a town South of the Sumerians, not useless, but awfully far from everyone else. (actually, apart from what it produced itself, it kept Sumeria from getting horses.)

Food is king



As soon as I discovered floodplain along the river I knew where to build. I kept every floodplain square in use, mostly by three towns on the starting river, but sharing them when appropriate with two neighboring towns. Once I controlled the floodplain, I raced to take as much land to the NW as I could before the Arabs got it.

It seems to me most important to keep good food squares like floodplain, cattle and wheat in use every turn. It seems not so important which town is using them, although I give preference to towns with granaries. I built one early granary, two later using the forests and another one by the mouth of the river using mined hills. All four are along the starting river and produce more settlers than I know what to do with.

Always Peace

I play Always Peace, as far as possible, so a consistent part of my strategy is using warriors, scouts and other military to block rival settlers from crossing my territory. This worked with the Arabs, but is not easy to do with no chokepoints. Fortunately by the time Sumeria and Babylon sent settlers North only desert was left for them.

Screenshots

In 1000 BC I had 7 towns, with 2 settlers who founded towns on the next turn, 16 citizens and the usual military, technology and resources.



150 BC:



My response to the slow tech pace was to slow down. I saw no reason I should hurry, so did not get to MA (and this spoiler) until 370 AD, at which time I had 35 cities, 102 citizens



From looking at others' maps I conclude that the AI always develops the same way. This makes me wonder about wars that are reported between the AI. I don't see my rivals fighting each other much (well - except the Zulu). I would love to see Sumeria and Babylon start fighting, but how can I encourage them to do so?

Frozen settlers

Most interesting happenings in the game so far: I sent a scout to watch and follow the Babylonian settler that was going for the gems. When I got close the settler froze, from 1375 BC to 1050 BC. I don't know why it started moving again.



Later I froze an Arab settler that was moving down the East coast. This one stayed put for a while but moved off when my scout fortified. Both settlers were unescorted. Have others seen this behavior?



Dumb AI anecdote: I watched a Sumerian settler move on the iron and gems in the West. He settled one square short, enabliing me to take the other gems (for a greatly desired third luxury) and the iron. Sumeria still has no iron.




Oh-Oh! Midnight already!

So I had just bought conquests on June 2 and hadn't played any Civ3 in months so I was fairly rusty and of course this led to some of the large errors I made. The biggest being I stayed in despotism all through the ancient age.
As such I didn't reach the medieval age until about 250 AD. I also didnt move my settler at all and so had a pretty bad start position. As well I let my cities get too large trying to make perfect settler factories before building settlers so I only had 10 cities when I ran out of expansion room and 2 of these cities were way over on the other side of the sumerians due to a pre made city from a goody hut.
However in 80 BC I sent 8 swordsman and 2 spearman up against the arabs and with the help of about 8 more swordsman built during the war I had him down to 2 cities when I ended the ancient age and had pretty much sewn up all the land east of the desert in the middle of the continent. I had also captured the temple of artemis from the arabs giving me temples in all my cities and had built libraries in about 2/3 of the cities so my culture situation was fairly strong. Just as the ancient age ended I was pumping out 3 man chariots to finish off the arabs and in preparation for war against the sumerians which should go well as their iron source is very near my planned avenue of attack and they havent even hooked a road to it yet

Predator
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Hi everyone I'm new here, so glad to join you

4000BC settler and worker move east to the river, scout to the north
3950BC Hattusas founded,built scout, worker move east
start on 50 turns reaserching of Writing

3850BC Scout found Tarsus in the north, built scout
then our scout keep moving north to the sea,and then NE along the coast
the 2nd scout explors east land too, Mursilis doesn't want to see the desert at this time
Hattusas trained the 3th scout and let him move west, then start a Granary, our worker will clear forest to speed it up

3250BC get Ceremonial Burial from GH
then trade Warrior Code with Caliph Abu Bakr
by the way, after scout saw the Arabia capitol, King Mursilis told them to explor south

by the year 2900bc Hittites have learned Bronze Working and Masonry from GH, I was too exiting and forgot to take a note

2710BC Ugarit found by scout in the south , but it was surrounded by jungle
later we got aother two tech from GH , The Wheel and Mysticism

2310bc founded Harran southeast by the river and Hattusha North by the river
1990BC Tyrana founded

the capital and Harran aways build settlers, others build a worker if pop increase
we also by 2 works from other civs, these works are too lazy, so let them join in the capital

then we know the secret of Writing, go on reaserching Polytheism then Philosophy,meybe i made a wrong decision,code of laws would be better,any way,it is history

finally at 1075bc we were undergoing a revolt, and 1050bc Monarchy, our capital was in a long run(74 turns) of building the pyramids, er....we have some forest to be clear and the population is increasing; the small town in
the southeast coast Ankuwa is building The Colossus,if our workers are not so busy,we'll dig some mines there

by the year 1000BC, Hittitis has risen peacefully and we are the most powerful
Treasury: 443
Warriors : 19
spearman: 1
worker: 6
settler: 1
citys: 12
population: 22
---------------------------
then i will reduce expenses and update warriors to swordman, for a war
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By the way, i have some screenshot but i don't how to post them yet . i speak Chinese, so please forgive my poor English expression

ShaoKai said:

Predator
-------------------------
Hi everyone I'm new here, so glad to join you

Click to expand...

Welcome to CFC! That's a couple of people making their first posts in this thread!

ShaoKai said:

--------------------------
By the way, i have some screenshot but i don't how to post them yet . i speak Chinese, so please forgive my poor English expression

Click to expand...

Your english is excellent.

If you have only one screenshot, you can add it to your post in .jpg format. Use the 'manage attachments option' near the bottom of the page, choose the file you want and upload it. A single picture will display automatically.

To display more than one, scroll to the bottom of the page and use the 'upload file' button. This will upload the file to the CFC server.

You can then get the link to it, and display it in the following way:

[IMG]http://Pathtothefile.here[/IMG]

Hope this helps.

First Conquests game I have ever played. Picked up C3C on june 1st, after having discovered Ainwoods coup. I wonder how many of the Cotm players actually waited for Gotm to go Conquests before buying it?

OK, here goes.

Initial settlement
Moved Scout NW/E and after discovering absolutely nothing interesting moved Worker E, Settler moved E in pursuit of a better location. Next turn moved Scout N/NE and spotted dyes, continued E with Worker. The situation now was far from OK for the Settler. Had to consider settling in the area or continue moving for several turns. Decided to settle next turn (3900BC) in the river bend.

First few turns
Started building scouts, to find a potential location for a future settler factory and to get a basic knowledge of the lands. Built three Scouts before turning to improvements. First build was a Granary then I built a Barracks. I wanted to get the town to size 4-5 before starting to build Settlers, due to the low food production in the area. The Scouts successful GH popping did influence my decisions too.

Goody Huts galore
After a long row of Gotm's with no or next to no GH's in the starting area/continent this game turned out to be a very different experience indeed. First hut popped in 3850BC with CB, second in 3700BC with 25 gold. After that a virtual flood of huts was discovered:
3550BC WC, 3400BC A Settler, 3300BC Mysticism, 3150BC The Wheel, 3000BC Masonry, 2900BC HR, 2470BC Warrior, 2310BC Settler, 1990BC Warrior.
The huts in this game turned out to be a decentralised Great Library, 6 techs! and two Settler on top of that...
The only thing that kept nagging me was the total disinterest the AI seemed to show for Goody Huts. At least two of them were in extreme proximity to AI civs. One of them just beween two different AI towns.

Tech research
Went for writing in 40, sorry make that 50 turns, another discovery C3C is not like PTW. The first was the time it took to clear a forest. With 50 turns to go before the tech was researched it was not until 1700BC I had it done. Next up: MM also in 50. Tech trading was next to nothing, only Polytheism and Iron Working traded for during this period (QSC).

Other Civs
Met the Sumerians in 3150BC, the Arabs in 3200BC and Babylon in 2550BC. The goody huts did make trading with them less of a factor in my game.

1000BC
8 towns, 18 pop, 2 granaries, 2 barracks, 1 temple, 8 workers, 2 scouts and 14 Warriors.

50BC
In position to attack Arabs. Have 20 Swords next to their borders. This war was basically about horses, they had them I did not. Research now into Construction with CoL and Currency still to go. Am in Anarchy waiting for Monarchy to kick in. Expansion phase is over, I have 19 towns. I am sorry but I have not kept any notes from this period but the war on Arabia was a swift war (approx. 10 turns) with no GLs and only minor casualties. I then turned S and moved my forces in preparation for a war on Babylon.

Management Summary
A lean startup area, had to go for Workers to chop wood for "shields". Built Hattusas to a rather large town before starting to churn out Settlers. The Goody huts did help a lot especially with 2 settlers and 6 techs... Strange behavior by AI vs. goody huts! Planned for a Hittite continent and to avoid a two front war first turned on the Arabs. Getting access to horses was a major concern too.

Initially it wasn't my intention to play the current COTM, I saw the screenshot on the main website and thought it was the next GOTM. Since it seems most of those are emperor I knew with a starting location like that I stood no chance .

It was tempting at first to simply settle at the starting location or move a space or two towards the nearest river. However, the desert to the south would wreck any hopes of having a productive core empire. So it was decided that I would go hunting. Obviously south was out and east or west only would contain more plains. Since I prefer a grassland start I started treking north. My scout moved north and began scouting a suitable start location. At the same time I moved my settler and worker together north. Finally after a few turns I lucked out and found this beaut:



Finally settled at 3750 b.c. I pumped out two more scouts and then a granary. I found nearly all the first teir techs from goody huts as well as a settler to the south. I moved him 14 spaces north since it didn't make sense to me to have an early city that far from my empire. I then began expanding rapidly. I researched writing at 10% research and gained quite a bit of gold.
I decided to go for republic early. Obviously an early war would be out since there was no way I could afford any sort of invasion force as a fledgeling republic right? Well...that was the plan anyway. So I sat there staring at the government change splash screen. Finally I said screw it and went into a 2 turn (jealous?) anarchy in 710 b.c.

Then...something horrible happened. I discovered wheel and saw only three sources of horses. Two of which were on the other side of the continent near sumeria and the third possessed by Arabia. So I thought about going back into anarchy and going despotism while invading the horse land but thought better of it. So I built some warriors for upgrade and horded gold by turning tech off and barb camp hunting. While invading Arabia I had several close calls of going bankrupt but managed to keep afloat until the world was rid of them. After the war I was able to research properly again and reasearched the last two techs and entered the middle age in 300 a.d.

(image has been doctored to conform to the rules of the GOTM)

Well, first post, first xOTM and first game played in Conquests for me.
I had to note that my tactics isn't well suited for regent level. I noted much to late that I have to do the research myself and should have concentrated more on building early.
Settler moved NE and because the scout didn't find anything really good in the meantime settled there. Build a scout and a warrior then chop assisted granary.
GH's gave several techs, a warrior and a settler that founded the second city in the SW.
As many others initial research to writing on min. That was ok, but I did some more min research after that hoping to get some tech trades, but got only IW and MM much later from the civs on my continent.
The next cities where down the river to the south claiming the flood plains then to the coast claiming also the incense.
Then I made probably a tactical error for regent level. All the forest chops around the capitol gave me a rax and several vet archers (nothing else to do with the shields, while building up pop). So I took a bite on the arabs, captured one settler pair and one city. This did cripple the arabs so much that they didn't contribute anything to research and also didn't settle many cities for me to capture some time later.
At 1000BC I had 7 cities, which I think is quite poor considering that one was a settler from a GH and one was captured.
When I finally could trade for IW I upgraded some warriors and reduced the arabs to one tundra city. I didn't even know by that time that I captured horses, the wheel was not known on our continent. But luckily my first suicide galley made some contact and could trade for some missing techs.
I did go for monarchy, which turned out to be another tactical error (it was ok for that time, but the second anarchy later did hurt).
In 290 AD we finally could enter the Middle Ages. At that time we had 22 cities and getting ready for the assault on the babs (I also urgently need a golden age to speed up research; don't expect the AI's to be of any further help).
I probably go for domination, because I don't have the patience for a good score in any of the long lasting victory conditions. With the AI's so backwards that should happen soon after I can research the techs I need.

Well it took me about 4 moves before I found a place to settle and by looking at where everyone else settled I think I did it in the wrong spot.

I started out by building 3 scouts which was good for me as I managed to get most of the goody huts before anyone else. I managed to search the entire continent very quickly and picked up

1 settler
3 warriors
1 free tech (I think it was the wheel - cant remember)

ended up using my scouts to block the arab expansion for nearly 500 years (heheheh - I am pretty sure that that is not a cheat - can someone please confirm)

Will add to this post when I have some time but here are minimap pictures from 1000BC (QSC) and the turn after the AA (both have been touched up to omit the info from Galleys).

My "empire" at 1000BC



My "empire" at the end of the AA

Since this was the first ever COTM01 I decided to try for something I basically have never done in a GOTM (I could be wrong, I might have done it once with the Zulu), an actuall conquest victory. I have had a domination or two but that was quite some time ago. Anyway Conqest it was, horses was going to be an essential part of that to get that three man chariot going and rolling over my foes.

The game started pretty well thou, I just moved my first settler to the river, not an ideal location concidering all the desert but I didn't feel like stumbling around in the dark. The same or was it the turn after I had founded my capital I got a free settler in a hut. Good start. That desert city wasn't really the best placement for my capital, took a while to start cranking out them settlers. I also got a bit distracted once or twice and instead of building settlers I got spearmen, when will I learn not to play in the AM.

At the time of the Wheel I saw only two horses. One in arab territory the other one way down south near the Sumerian border (SirPleb had a picture of this with a little green circle around the horse, just like him I sent a settler down there to claim it). I also sent a few other settler that way to build me a bit of road of towns to make it part of my fledling empire sooner.

By the end of the QSC I had met my fellow islanders. It was at the beginning of AD that I had started building up my chariot force. The Arabs where getting really annoying making tech demands and such on me. They didn't take my no very well and declared war on me. At which time I started to roll over them. Which in turn was the start of the killing spree that would last for centuries to come.

The arabs where first to go by chariots, sumeria would be next since they where weaker then the Babylonians. When I started to enter the core of Sumerian land they had left the ancient era and was starting to put up Pikemen which where a bit hard on ye old charioteers. But they didn't really have any offense to put up so I roamed free. So we adapted, invented and overcame.

Sumeria had really nice lands, if you forget about the jungle. Babylon on the other hand really had that sand kingdom down to an art.

I settled in the 2nd turn. I definitely wanted to go towards the river, so I sent my Scout NW. then I moved the Worker E, then again the Scout N on the hill, but I discovered nothing of value. Finally the Settler goes NE. In 3950BC, the Scout moves N, E to discover Dyes, that I take as a reason to settle. I start on a granary immediately, boosting it by forest woods (maybe this can be refered to as 'Granary Gambit' ).

My Scout explored the area around Hattusas and then wandered a long time SW until it hit the southern coast of the continent. Goodie huts yielded 25g, Bronze Working, a town (Harran, had horses, razed and rebuilt by the Sumerians, later), The Wheel, a Warrior (a few tiles away from Harran, so I got a complete town + unit combination from 2 gh ), I think that was it.



In 1000BC, 8 Swords where already on their way to the Arabian territory. Beside of them I got:
6 Warriors, 5 Workers, 2 Settlers, 6 cities, 11 techs, 45turns to monarchy (obviously, I missed the philosophy trick ).

Wars!
Way back in 1375BC, I made this plan: "Arabs got Maths but I don't want to sell them IW. I'm going to pull my warriors back, build a barracks in Hattusas, connect the iron and attack the arabs ..." From 880BC till 550Bc I brought the Arabs dowen to 1 city in the far north tundra area. that was time for me to make peace for Writing, and settle the grasslands with the settlers I started to produce in the 2nd half of the war, when it was clear the number of Swordsmen were sufficient to achieve my goals.



The most important thing was to connect the horses. One worker digged his way almost all through the continent from above-ementioned Harran, many others had built a connection to the resettled arab horse town. After I managed that all that was built could be broadly described as ... Three Man Chariots! The Sumerians produced Pyramids and Temple of Artemis, instead!!!



After some tech trading with the lushious Sumerians that pushed me into the Middle Ages I declared war on them ... more about my experiences with invincible Enkidus, Wetlands, and mountainious terrain in the next Spoiler!

C3C 1.22f Predator

This map proved to be a real challenge, despite the Regent level.
Challenge #1 - find a good spot for my capital.
Challenge #2 - find a good spot for my wonder city.

It turned out I made OK choices on both challenges, but far from optimal. If I could replay from start with the information I have now I would have played it very differently, somewhere close to Bremp's start. Welcome back btw, and very impressive start!!

With my initial settler I moved 2 tiles before I settled along the river. It turned out that I had at least a flood plain in reach after expansion, but apart from that there was a lot to do for my worker. I popped a settler just after settling my capital and moved it to form my wonder city, south of the gold mountain. Both cities were very low on food, and I had not yet seen any bonuses. With help from woodchopping I finished temple and granaries before trying to expand any further. My start was very slow expansion-wise and at 1000BC I only had 5 lousy cities.

In the tech race I benefited some from huts, which netted me Mysticism and Iron Working as monopoly techs. With good help from the nice rivertiles I researched Writing at max and also did the nice free tech trick. With Regent-level I assumed I could afford to research CoL before philo and it turned out nicely. Around 1100BC I got Republic as free tech and changed immedieately with 3 turns of anarchy. Seems a lot of people in this thread had short anarchy periods, wonder why? After Republic I researched first Literature, to get a Library for my wonder city and then I went for the prerequisite techs for MA. Since I'm so bad at taking notes I don't know exactly when I entered MA, but a good guess would be around 400 BC, since I had to research all techs by myself. My towns was quite well-developed and all of them were around rivers which helped keeping a good tech space (between 6-10 turns for each tech). Barb huts gave me gold so I could enjoy 80-90% science all through AA.

Here is a screenshot from 1000 BC where I am about to finish the Oracle in a couple of turns:


Some stats at 1000BC:
4 warriors, 5 workers, 1 settler, 1 spearman, 2 curraghs
All first level + IW, HR, CoL, Phil, Rep, Myst
2 granaries, 1 temple, 1 barracks

In the late stages of the AA I started a war against the Arabs which I wanted to finish off before they got to Chivalry and also to get their horses when I had researched Chivalry. With my Swordsmen I could finish them quite easy, also generating my first leader which I used to form an army.

Tarsus - my wonder city - built 4 Ancient wonders: Oracle, Mausoleum, Pyramids and Hanging Gardens. Together with Temple, Library, Marketplace and Colosseum it was a quite nice town to live in, but the site where I placed it looks very bad for the future. I will have big problems getting the town past size 12. In my third city I also finished the Great Lighthouse which hopefully will help me on my quest to discover the rest of the world. When I took Mecca I also gained the Great Library which proved completely worthless at this level.