Many leaders Game 6 Emperor Spaceman

This turnset was extremely boring and it could be resumed in one word : barbs. But first things first....

I got this early in the turnset.. always good to know that you suck

And it was time to correct a thing or two. First the civics:

And researched archery.... I simply hate archers but barbs are already around here and it will take 15 turns easily until my first axe is online ( whip/chop monument ,wait for border pop , make mine ,make axe ) and by that time my cities could be smoking ruins.

And the fact is that barbs came in strength.... QSH has the GW and that doesn't help a bit, but the pure sheer number of warriors that appeard indicate that we have a large landmass. Soon archers appeard as well but well placed warrirs with cover can take them with some ease.

Finally another civ appeard from the midst:

Another Ind civ It looks that i took the best aproach of not even thinking on wonders ( I wonder if Biz is being hammered by barbs as I do... )

Despite the barbs, I managed to sneak a settler to this spetacular spot:

This will be a heck of a city when it becomes fully online

But there is someone playing religious this game:

I wonder who.... It is early for a self researched Christianity.

Now part of my share of bad luck ( besides the Glighthouse BIADL )

This didn't helped a single bit ,as well as the 2 slave revolts I had in capitol ( quite a drag when we only have 2 cities )
And the last tech of turnset ( acheived via Maths, Currency ):

Research was set in MC but I'm not sure of that... Monarchy would be helpful, but it is a long derail and IW for jungle clearance would be good as well

Regards

The barbs really delayed my rexing, but the situation is stabilizing and I expect to spam settlers in next turnset... Now that I have CoL, things will be far easier and there is prime cottage land for settling.

My goals for this set were further expanding and build up my military. Let's see how I've been doing in this part of the game...

After 10 turns into the set Alphabet came in. And that was the tech situation:



Hm, I'm doing well so far. Time for some trades:



Iron is just below my designated city spot. Nice ! And there the city goes. This will be my main military pump once it is developed...



All those comments about wonder building and Cabledawg notching three wonders changed my plans somehow. As any good dwarf would say: "That cannot be bourne !" And obviously the Pyramids are a must have for the Legendary Builder himself...

We noticed the year 100 AD. And after some chopping (glad I picked up Math in the trades ) and some whipping...





A nice one ! Still you can't have everything, and the AI reminded me they can build things too:



So much for Colossus plans. Ah well, Pyramids are better to have anyway .

500 hammers are some settlers who could have been built. That may bite me later on as both Qin and Bismarck are rexxing towards me already. I wouldn't have thought Bismasrk is coming so far south that early though...



He stole the only horses in my area. Not good.

Meanwhile I've settled my South:



The 2nd time the poor people of Constantinople have to perish for a great wonder:





2 free Representation Scientists ! Yay !

Things are heating up soon I guess. The Chinese are settling at my borders and will complain about that later ("Our close borders spark tensions". Who told you to settle so close ? Go figure !). Both Qin and Biz are Confu still. And they are twice as powerful than me already. Not good.



Another city for Silver...



The stats:



I hit the Medieval Era with the discovery of CS in 800 AD and revolted to Bureaucracy. Despite I'm very happy with my GNP I'm very anxious with my soldier, production, pop and land count. These Emperor AIs will shoot past me in no time I fear. I'm researching Feudalism now (6 turns) to get me some Longbows. Must. Survive.

Imhotep

P.S.: Techs learned: Alphabet, Iron Working (trade), Sailing (trade), Meditation (trade), archery (trade), Mathematics (trade), Monarchy (trade), Currency, Civil Service, Feudalism (currently being researched).

P.P.S.: My goals for next round:

- Build up an army
- Survive
- Tech towards Liberalism

Plan: REX n Steal. Trade stolen tech. Hope to pick up a religion, and build the odd wonder (where possible).

Report:

No chance at Hanging Gardens: China built it before I could ‘learn’ Maths from him (BC275). Oh well. Shortly afterwards, my Spies saw a Settler pair that was heading south from China to claim Horse/Banana. After some indecision because of the problems from close borders, I decided to compete for the horses:




After the Great Spy had scouted China (my spies needed to get into position and then wait for the max discount) he infiltrated Beijing in BC100. The next turn, Maths was stolen, but the Spy was caught, yet not identified. Could have been worse. I trade Poly and Maths to Bismy for Monarchy a few turns later.

San Fran will be my military pump:




Calendar stolen perfectly in BC25. There’s more than one way to REX:




Surprisingly, Huang showed no interest in this city. Spy completed rumbled in the same year This was a busy year for China: he completed the Colossus and MoM Currency completed in 175 by our very own egg-heads. Huang’s at it again with Parthenon in AD200: is he going cultural? In between his wonder frenzy, I stole Aesthetics and Metalcasting. Huzzah! Started Statue of Zeus: Beijing is going for it, too, but I can see his progress and I’ll beat him to it.

In AD300, I find out why Bismarck is so backward in tech: he’s been working on Feudalism. He won’t trade it, but never mind. For my part, I start Literature as China is ignoring it. Construction stolen in 350AD. Huang turns up to demand Currency in AD400: but of course, good Monsieur. Plus 3 diplo makes him pleased. SoZ completes in Atlanta (to avoid GP pollution in DC). This can act as a war deterrent, as well as a handicap during wars, I think.

I was wondering how to dotmap the east when Bismarck rudely disturbed me by slapping down a city: looks like I’ll have to get moving to grab the best sites:




Another German settler group is spotted in 475. Bugger. The whip cracks:




But I wonder why Bismarck settled there? I’d expect Houston and Atlanta to flip Hanover in time. Annoyingly, I’d been having to do a lot of important research myself: CoL came in 520, then onto CS…

Great Library in DC in 560AD. God bless you, Huang, for ignoring Literature! A Spy got thorough busted in AD 600, dragging relations back to cautious. Bismarck is unhappy about close borders.




This time, I’d sent a chariot into Germany to give me ample warning of the approaching settler party.




As if to rub in how backward my neighbours are, Joao has Optics (and therefore Machinery) and CS, too. Get a grip, you two! Bismarck’s backwards might have a lot do with the fact that he’s not chopped the huge amount of forest at Berlin. Odd.





Hehehe. Though it’s not all smiles for me: China has claimed the horses and is sending a Great Artist towards the city. If he bombs then Seattle will be a bit of a busted flush, and might even cost me more close border penalties


The Empire:




The Good, The Bad and The Ugly:




End of Set Thoughts & Outlook: the set went pretty well, though I could have got Pigs/Copper before Germany. Bismarck is teching at Prince pace. Weird. China is teching like he’s going for a CV, which is not exactly handy for me: firstly, it means he’s learning less than useful techs for me (how inconsiderate!) and, secondly, it could put my victory in doubt because the extended Space Race will give him time to go Legendary. I’ll have to keep a close eye on him.

In the short to medium term, I have some power and relationship problems with my neighbours. With Christianity and Taoism being founded overseas, it doesn’t look like I’ll be sharing a religion with Germany and China anytime soon. Add in border tensions, spy anger, and my lack of power, and it’s imperative to get military out ASAP.

On the plus side, I have a GE that I’m saving to hurry Taj. I had planned to rush it in Atlanta, but I’ve since decided on NE for DC, so I’ll spam in the wonders there. CS completes next turn, so BUR will be adopted for a good boost to my Thief Economy. Speaking of which, we still have a fair bit in the tank: all EPs are on China, and all those courts are giving me a good amount of points, even without using the slider.

And in fact the rex wasn't that spectacular, a mere four more cities, couple of settlers out and about, one site guaranteed, another a bit more speculative.

The Plan
Survive, complete Glib, bulb philosophy, start on liberalism, expand.

The Reality
A surprisingly quiet turnset in fact. Didn't fight a single barb. Bismark is being a bit of a nuisance, refusing to tech trade and rexing into the central jungles. He's now cautious with me due to close borders. Qin is pottering along quietly and is pleased with me.

I did indeed get Taoism from philosophy (lightbulbed 100bc). Not that unusual. What is unusual is that it was the first (and probably only) religion on our continent so far.

So the other continent has the early religions. Couple of GGs have appeared which suggests they've been having religious wars over there which can only be a good thing for me. No sign yet of Apostolic Palace despite Christianity being discovered in my previous set.

I got the Great Library in 100bc in The Ivory Tower (ivory, FP city) which was built as an extension of the academy. I completed Heroic Epic in the City of Heroes (formerly known as London) in 25bc. I then built the Statue of Zeus in the City of Heroes in 660bc to make it even more heroic. That was the end of my wonder-lust for this round.

Qin on the other hand is being an industrious wonderhog which may be why he wasn't competing in the rexathon even though he missed out on the Great Lighthouse (bidl 250ad) and the Pyramids (bidl 450ad).

I decided to switch capital from the City of Heroes to The Ivory Tower, the new palace being completed in 700ad, to give royal approval (and bureaucratic support) to our marvellous scientists who are busy building themselves a university between lectures and experiments.

The Royal Symphony Orchestra became established in the City of Heroes in 350ad, their series of promenade concerts sparked something of a Golden Age which lasted until 500ad.

The State of the Kingdom.
Techs Discovered: Meditation (350bc), CoL (125bc), Philosophy (100bc GS), Currency (75ad), Monarchy (trade), Music (350), Calendar (trade), CS (520), Masonry (560), Paper (680), Education (700 2GS), Construction (trade), Monotheism (trade). Researching liberalism (10turns).

City Roll-call:


A Map (cultured):


A Balance Sheet:


A Demographical Comparision:


Analysis
Still haven't completely explored the continent. I'm not doing too badly for research but as usual I'm a bit weak on military and I've only got five workers. Diplomatically things are fairly straightforward at the moment.

Plan for next round
Get one, hopefully two more cities established. Hopefully I'll get a free tech from liberalism; if so I'll take nationalism then research gunpowder. Build at least half a dozen workers. Build courthouses in new cities, build some barracks, probably build cats while waiting for gunpowder then muskets to boost power rating.
I've still got a long way to go before rifling: MC, machinery, feudalism, guilds, banking, PP and RP spring to mind. If AIs start exploring then I might be able to backfill some techs through trading.
The only wonder I'd pursue this round is Taj Mahal. Must plan ahead for future national park city which will get national epic as late game GP farm, probably aim to put Ironworks in City of Heroes, need a coastal city with decent production for a naval base with dockyard and West Point. Doubt I'll have time this round to build universities though Ivory Tower is the obvious place for Oxford.

The plan was for round three involved more cities, maintaining a small but regular military buildup and hopefully building the Great Library

The round started well when Bizzy finally sent a missionary my way, i don't really want to fight any wars if possible so being the same religion as Bizzy and Qin is part of my overall plan. The missionary spread hinduism in Susa in 225BC So in 200BC we became Hindu.



St Peter popped from Persepolis in 100AD and built the Kong Miao in Pasergadae, the shrine income will be a helpful boost.



The Statue of Zeus was still available so it was started in Susa, again this would be a nice deterent to stop people attacking me and with a little bit of whip it was built in 425AD



The AI had helpfully put a city down in a nice seafood location



In 600AD the Great Library was completed in Pasargadae. the same turn someone founded islam in a faraway land.



A few details of my lands and cities as they stand.





the next round will hopefully see five or six more cities ( i reckon i've got seven more cities sites available) and the development of the cities i've got.

i do need to build my military up a bit further to discourage any aggresive moves by the AI

My plan is to go with a SE for the first half of the game, and ease my way into a CE around democracy.

I've never done a SE or an emperor game, so we'll just have to see how it goes.

I know the general game plan for a SE - build farms instead of cottages to run as many specialists as possible, and build the pyramids at almost any cost, and I know the warring strength that confers, but I don't know what if anything a SE ought to do before libraries, so I'll just wing it.

I'm planning to look for juicy targets for rushes, and plan on looking for two wars during my game. A standard axe rush to grab some land, and a later war with catapults for some more land. After that, I hope to play out a peaceful game.

I may try to grab one early religion.

I think my first 50 turns will be spent trying to set up an oracle - forge - engineer - pyramids move. This ought to free early production for an axe rush.

Well, here goes.

turn 0:
I move the warrior 1 NE, and find nothing of interest, so I move the settler 1NW and settle on the first turn to get the rice, and in the hopes of finding something nice in all those glassland tiles I see on the edge of the fog. But I end up settling one off of the ocean. Doh.



I go for polytheism first.

turn 13:
I get hinduism, and my warrior gets ganked by a bear and a lion.

agriculture next

turn 18:
Bears eat my other warrior. Great.

turn 20:
Ag in, BW next

turn 33:
BW in and copper is in the BFC. If I'm going to rush, I still need a second city for the great engineer for my pyramids, and I need a target, I havn't gotten any scouting done since the death of my second warrior.

I go wheel next so I'll be ready for a fast rush if possible.

turn 41:
With a bit more scouting, it looks like nobody is close enough for an axe rush.

turn 47:
Barbs kill my warrior.

I've been way too slow in putting out my second city.

turn 50:
I've got my settler in place to settle next turn, two workers out, the oracle started, and an axeman and a warrior for barb defense. I've met Qin, though I still don't know where either him or Bismark are. I've given up on an axe rush, but may pursue a sword rush or war at catapults, depending on how the cards fall.

I'm definitely not playing with the same level of care that I did with MLG 4, making several 1 turn mistakes with workers early, and I didn't have a tech plan all worked out ahead of time. Oh well.



Off to Team Fortress 2 now.

1/ Rex our lands
2/ Build the Great Library
3/ Alphabet for trades, Litterature, CS, Currency and the Lib path
4/ Don't get killed

I can't say that it went bad, though some points are of concern by the end of this turnset.

To start executing my plan, I switched Tiwanaku to a settler production on the pre-turn.

T101
I'm third largest - ain't good when your purpose is to Rex
To speed up the settler in Cuzco, I decide to fire one of the scientists. I still work some cottages though - can't neglect the money to speed the settler by another turn or two.

T104
Jewish shrine BIDL

T106
Qin founds Christ ( rather early ) and converts. Alphabet is done - starting Aethetics.

T107
German settiling party arrives next to Machu Pichu - which is the beginning of my concern.

IBT
Trade IW for Maths with Qin.

T108
More trades :
Mono & Sailing for Maths from Bismy
Monarchy for CoL from Qin

Maybe this ain't the best you can get out of the trades, but those were the only choices

T109
Bismy settles Dortmund to immediate Machu Pichu's east... Up we go for the 'Our close borders...' bull$hit.

T113
Buddha reaches my lands through Bismy - I don't convert yet because of Qin's different religion.

T114
Aesthetics - Litterature
Qin founds Tao... He is the tech-hog up til now.

T115
GS born in Cuzco under a nice name of Arrabiata or something (I must be hungry already ) and burns to enhance the capital research - Academy.

Settling what will become my second 'Our close borders...' bonus:



Still, the site is definitely worth it on the long run (if I'm able to keep it )

T117
Settle Vilcas on another nice spot, and cutting the German ambitions to settle further :



T119
Litterature in, starting the CS

T120
Start the GLib in Cuzco. It will be heavily chopped for a double benefit - speed it up and get more cottaging area.

T122
Settle Vilcabamba to the north - finishing to close my northern outskirts :



T125
Qin builds the Church of Nativity
I just realize how ridiculous my power is compared to my close neighbours. Thank God neither of them is Monty nor Shaka - I would already have been dead.
Will have to work my situation out of this hole anyway.

T127
Settle Vitcos for rexing purposes, though the location could have been better:



T128
Final piece of the eastern empire settled on a very good spot:



T129
We finally reach half a million people in many, many, many cities

T131
This one doesn't have to be presented:



T132
Trade one gold for fur from Bismy - need these trade bonuses as he is already at cautious and twice my power.
I trade him HBR for my Aesthetics also - having horses I might as well use them a little.

T134
Some wonders are down here and there - SoZ, MoM

T138
Settle another very strong spot - 2 seafood, cows and some hills - will either farm the GP or serve as military pump :



T139
Having invested two turns into it, I get Calendar for CoL from Bismy

T144
CS discovered (finally, that's exactly why I love to sling it ) - Currency
Trade my wine for Qin's spices
Revolt to Bureau & Hereditary Rule

T149
Notre Dame BIDL

T150
Currency in.
I started Paper but will switch to Feudalism methinks... Those Longbows will help me a little bit as it begins to feel cheesy.

Rexing did work.
Here is my, quite big, empire :



11 cities settled with a healthy economy to sustain it (40% research in the black, 125 beakers pt).
Cuzco has a nice happy cap of 14, and is already pop 11. Working many cottages.

Now the immediate priority goes to the military.
I need to build it up, or I'll be dead before the end of the next set. Research wise, Paper will be switched to Feudalism and all the borders will be reinforced.
I foresee four more cities inside my lands, after the required military is up.
No wonders.
I'll try the lib-race but it will be really hard. With Qin getting early Philo, it's a difficult gamble. Regardless I win the race or lose it, Education will be of a major boost to my research so I want to go this way. Then Gunpowder to replace the upcoming longbows.

No aggression foreseen on my side, but can't bet the same on my neighbours

Remember, my goal was to rapidly expand, using a pottery-first, cottage-spam approach ot complement an early heavy land grab. Well, things started off okay . .




And I got access to my UB:


However, I didn’t realize the large tendency for barbs at Emperor:


And paid for it:


Still, I expanded, and teched:






Here’s my stats at turn 100:








As far as attaining my goals, I expanded quickly enough . . . a little too quickly, as I underestimated the barb activity on Emperor, and had but the smallest of armies.

My goals for the next set are:
* retake Eridu
* buildup military, and clear out local fog
* further develop my empire

Economy: went up and down many times. But now it's stable and only growing. i got 300 gold Whipped Rathuas around my empire alot though. Renamed my capital to Katowice (my home town) and settled Aachen.

Cities: 12 cities and 3 more to go for a grand total of 15 cities.

Rivals: Qin screwed himself up with the barbs and instead of training troops to get his city back, he built wonders and lost another city ('cept it was razed this time) he later got his other city back though. I don't consider him a threat anymore. I'm more powerful then him to. Annoyingly though, he is becoming a tech and wonder whore.

Bizzy is starting to turtle. He's more powerful then me, has ele's, and got chichen itza. I consider him my biggest threat.

Science: Went up and down as i got more cities and recovered. when i got alphabet (through trade), tech wore qin and bizzy enjoyed trading with me.

Wonders: Got none. I missed out on great library to. Not to sad though. I think i can still win this early with only raw science.

and a pic:



If you have any questions, ask. This turnset's been pretty busy and without the full report you might be missing out on a few important facts.
---
Next round will include:

Settle 3 more cities
then recover economy (the easy part. i only gotta spread budhism)
then train army
then go for liberalism.

And of course the save

A collection of my reports from the entire MLG series can be summed up with the phrase: “. . . and it was going so well.” These 50 turns were no different.

Sure I wasn’t the most advanced nation in the world:


And other civ’s liked to push me around:


but I got my city back from the barbs, though:


And expanded some more:


My military advisors decided that they needed more than one source of horse:


And this pissed Qin off that I was coveting my neighbors equines:


I initially lost Eridu again, this time to China:

But quickly took it back a few turns later.

But the gods were not on my side:






A great general has emerged in Uruk, hopefully he can train warriors who can stand up to China.


As of now, they still want a city for peace, and I’m not prepared to give that up to him.

Screenies:

I see your MLG luck from MLG3 is back
How is it possible ???
Well, I can speak, I think I'm about to get DoWed anytime soon too

Bad luck pholk... But hopefully in my game i won't be Dowed anytime soon. Qin is weaker then me (i love the barbs, is it raging barbs?) and Bizzy isn't much stronger then me.

great job on the rexing -- your doing what i was supposed to do

i'm really surprised @ how much you can steal w/only 20 eps per turn. good rounds.

congrats your 'first time' on emperor is going quite well!!

Bad luck with Qin. As a neighbor he is a nightmare, he hasn't got his nickname "the rat" for nothing. With Monty you'll know he'll declare on you, but Qin likes to backstab the ol' fashioned way.

I see Qin coming after me in my game soonish as he's settled so close that we already have severe border tensions. I don't get those AI - settling close and afterwards complaining. Still I'll need more land anyway to stay competitive in the later stages of the game, so the next rounds will be dedicated exclusively to military. The other players all were much more successful with their land grab. Yet I got all the wonders I wanted for now, time to cleave some skulls (and hopefully not mine ).