Noble's Club II - Ramses II

Even with ocean tiles? ohhh... never realised this. you learn something new everyday. thanks.

In BtS we ( or the AI ) can traverse ocean squares as long as they are in you cultural borders. You can't go there because Zara owns all the ocean squares you could use to pass there....

OTOH Zara ex-capitol ( Aksum ) had time to get to the 3rd ring most surely... that would put the Ocean tile NW of where your galley is in the the cultural borders and allow acess to that island ( cool feature, no? One of the reasons I choosed this map )

You have 2 options:
-You try to get a Ocean tile to get there witha cultural push
-You get Astro

Either way, remember that with current border configuration, Zara can get to you , but you can't get to Zara ... Unfair, but are the rules of the game

Culture can extend 2 tiles away from the coast, so if there is land 3 tiles away you can make it. I did spot one of Bismarck's workboats in an illegal position in one of my games though, out of cultural borders, I guess that was a bug.

I feel like this game is going a bit Pete Tong - for those in the UK, how appropriate for those who aren't it means going wrong - as I'm hardly producing any research - even though the demo screen says I'm top of GDP. My early rush was probably a bad Idea. Willem is about to tech alpha but I'm sure if I'd left Zara I'd already have a trading partner. I'm finding it hard to think about settling my coninent, and the barbs are sending swords my way now! Sorry War chariots. Looks like I need axes.

Also I lost the mids by like 2 turns! So I reloaded and whipped it out. Naughty but nice!

I think I'm going to farm up my capital for now and run a load of rep priests. Need more workers too.

Argghh. Annoying barbs.

Aye, on certain Islands or Archipelago maps, expanding your cultural borders out into the ocean is the only way to escape your starting island before Astronomy. I believe, though, that culture can only stretch one tile out into the ocean (not 100% sure of this, but there's certainly a limit).

Incidentally, only the owner of the culture can send his/her ships into ocean tiles this way (not sure about Teams/Permanent Alliances though).

This can be quite useful sometimes, since your Trireme can attack with its first move, then use the second to move into an ocean tile within your culture, where it will be safe from enemy Triremes. Also, on certain maps, controlling the only crossing point to an uninhabited landmass can be very helpful indeed.

Finally, controlling the crossing to a rival civ (as Zara does to you in this game) means you can send troops to attack them, whilst they cannot get their troops to you. In this case, if you can't push back that border, you'll have to wait until Astronomy before you can finish him.

Ahhh... so I have you to blame for this map

Seriously though this map has really stretched me, I'm not use to running as large an empire as this, so thanks for the educational experience.

I'm fairly happy to leave Zara with his little empire for a while, he's not reallt a risk and the motherland yearning isn't a big deal yet.

So you went back a couple of turns, big deal. I went back 2000 years to fix my game!!! I feel for you not having the wall, one of the reasons I went back.

Hmmm... Okay I got a bit carried away this round, so carried away that I didn't really write down what I did or take many screenies until the end. But basically, I just built lots of military, I was going to found new cities, but decided I didn't want to delay war with Zara. And why build settlers when I can just take his!

Anyway a 1000 years later I chomped into Zara's land and he only has 1 city left (though the war didn't last a 1000 years mind), heres the map of my new lands.



All this warring and gaining new cities has left my economy abit scraggly, although I do have a nice stash to keep me going after the war while I build infastructure. I am a little behind on tech,



But luckily before I finish of Zara he kindly acepts peace for this deal



Now thats a bit better, although Willem is still ahead.



Though now that I zoom out I realise zara might not be down to his last city, looks like there are some ethiopian cities to the north east (darn!)



Even with all this warring I still managed to squeeze in a few wonders, shwePaya, Great Library and Statue of Zues, but I've really messed up my GP pool. here's the capital. A bit under developed, I need to get cottages up, and grow to the happy cap.



Ummm... Havn't really thought my stratagy through this game, other than bash Zara! Actually this has been a bit of a crazy game for me, I don't normally do much warring. I guess the plan is finish off Zara, build my economy, fill this continent with cities and try and go for a space race!

Thats it for now...

Bye!

. . . Zara didnt get that island, the barbs did (and I took it later, razed all but 1 city) I think because my line of cities was much looser, Helio was next to the gold, 2N of the sugar, and Elephantine was on the coast, with the fish, horses and 1 of the gems. So Zara sent his settlers into the gaps of my line, and got punked by the barbs, who were using those gaps as well to get too Zara. It was a situation I plan to remember for future games. Your game looks much like mine though, and I really started wrecking house once Zara was gone and I was free to REX.

First, my empire:



I finished the Taj a couple turns ago, still in the GA, took Nationalism from Lib, which I won easily as most of the other continent went on the Astro line instead of Paper/Education. At this point, I think I could easily get a Cultural or Space win, but I want to to war, as I tend to suck at modern intercontinental warfare and need the practice. My biggest concern is Joao, his UU can carry troops and he finished up Astro some turns ago. I traded Asoka for Astro, giving up too much but I wanted to get to Rifling ASAP and didnt want to take the time to tech it.

My military is sad too. I have a few units, but no where near enough to repel any type of invasion, should Joao or SB decide to come calling. So I am in Nationalism now, and I plan to draft a bunch of Muskets, and build a bunch of Knights, in the hopes it will deter another civ from launching on me. My tech pace is reasonable, around 650 Beakers with a few specialists, and with the AP, Agnor Wat, and my UB, I am getting pretty fair production in all cities, even my commerce ones, because of the hammers from priests and Confu temples/monasteries. My next step is spend the rest of this GA in Nationalism and Theocracy and build/draft a decent military, and shore up all my coastal cities while I tech for Rifling and Combustion. I may build 1 more city up on the little island to the north, as I noticed Asoka has already dropped a city on Willems island. I dont want ANY civ, even Asoka (who I am +6 with with despite the religious difference) getting any cities near me,

I have settled most of my GP, bulbed a couple, got the free ones from Music (bulbed Drama), and Economics (settled) so far. I bulbed 2 GSs, settled one, and built an academy with one. I have gotten only 2 GGs, both of which I settled, one in my cap and one in my HE city. My plan is to get Transports, Infantry and Cannons and go a stomping, probably taking out Stalin first as he is the weakest over there. By then want to be in State Property, and plan to put some workshops over the top of a few Farms post Biology. Although, I may just use a Galleon army to take out Willem, havent really decided. I have a few cottages in each city already, not many, but some, especially in the newer SE cities. There is actually more production on this continent of ours than I realized at first glance, and my swarm of workers is very busy. There is a LARGE expanse of forests on the SE portion of our lands, which really get the new cities cranking out buildings fast, especially when I have been in OR most of the game. Once I am done building my Cold War army, I plan to swap into FR and that should jump me over 800 beakers per turn once the Unis and such are in place, and the new cities are up to speed. I am going to avoid Scientific Method for some time, though, it will cost me a TON of hammers and beakers, but by then I hope to be ready to tech through it quickly and on to combustion for Transports. Heh, as I re-read this, its not a very sound plan, but I think I can get away with it, I am over 1000 points ahead of my nearest opponent and have a bundle of cities that are growing very fast. Next update when either someone wars with me, or I load up the transports, whichever comes first!

I picked up from I left off, took out Zara and Willem's cities on my continent. Lost Liberalism because I wasn't going after it, I went after Mil. Sci. and went hunting with grens. With most of my continent (never settled the whole thing,) Willem's and part of Bull's land I went over the domination threshold. I kind of rushed through the rest of this game and forgot to get the screens and all, I had a pretty decent monarch game going with Shaka that was hard to stop playing.
I'm headed off to read all of your reports!

A little more in depth:
I left off at 50 AD with my last update, after making peace with Zara, Willem declared on him shortly after, and I joined in again after I got iron hooked up for the eventual maces. I took Zara's capital and a couple of northern cities before making peace again. Once the ten turns were up, I declared again and FINALLY finished him off at 1100~ AD. Willem had established a couple of cities on the east coast, which were VERY poorly placed, so they got razed and never replaced. I continued east to Willem's mainland and took most of it with maces/trebs that were eventually upgraded to grens/cannons before vassalizing him with just one city left (I wanted to continue the campaign towards the other continent where Bull and Asoka were occupied with Stalin.) I took most of Bull's land with the veteran grens and cannons and that pushed me over the domination limit once the borders popped.
I realize I was lucky to be able to use grens past 1800 AD because the tech rate on the other continent was ATROCIOUS, what with the backwards Stalin beating Asoka silly and Bull stuck with the least land.

You have done a better job settling your continent than me, I'm getting to about 1500 AD still have lots of space! Its a race to see if I can settle before the Ai gets Astro. I too have inadequate troops I havn't built troops since the war on zara, my once stack of doom is spread around all my cities, I too am making a beeline for rifles for defense.

Tech: Finished Math> Currency> Alpha (trade)> Poly> Mono> Fish (trade)> CS> Theo (bulb)> start paper

Founding a city. Think it might be a good science city.


Some trade with Willem


A good deal for the Dutch


Another good deal for the Dutch - I was hoping if they liked me more they might trade some better techs (fat chance)


Willem converts to Conf - an AP partner if I get it...


One of something like two or three slave revolts I had! When I can revolt next - one turns time - I'm switching to cast!


My first site of new land!


I found a couple more cities - forgot the screen for Alexandria


Hanging gardens in Thebes


And the turn I saved a nice little event


Ok my empire






My capital


Citys


The only AI I've met. God I need to explore!


Tech view. Willemwon't trade with me on a decent basis.


Power. I'm a weakling. Hmm need to rectifiy that if I'm going for a millitary victory.


Finally the Demo screen

I can't belive how poor my economy is and I still need to found so many cities! Also I haven't even got MC yet so no cheap IND forges.
Willem is the top AI for techs and he teched lit in about 6 turns. I'm heading for lib as I want to win this race - I'll tech most of it and then switch to the military techs till I see Willem near completing lib.

The island to the north looks like I might put a couple of cities there and then revolt them to a colony. When I go for Willem I think I'll try to vassalise him.

Thats along way off I guess as I need astro and by then Willem will have his UU and a good chance of making it hard for me.

Of course I need to find Willem first.

I've got round my problem of where to place cities by think of new settlements as wild west frontier towns - I do a small dot map of where I want a couple of cities to go (not the whole continent) and fog bust the area and keep the military in the area till its ready to push out again.

I feel like IF I win this it won't be to very late in the game.

So next round I guess try to stabalise my economy, REX my land, and try to meet the AIs. Who to do this though? I think I need to run more priests and try to get the RE buildings - already started the AP (will try to chop it out a bit) - and then set up a settler spam city. Also workers. More workers.

So much to do!

Can any one suggest a good way to go from here? Any advice at all would be lush.

Huge lands to settle! wow, there are so many choices to put cities. Copper came in a bizarre spot (easy to reach, but big overlap with capital). And with the egyptians UU, Horses to the south seems the obvious choice.

I popped some warriors from huts, and upgraded some to woodsman II (plus I got free Cover from a random event), so I decided to harass Zara in the North. I stole two workers without any combat. I settled near Pigs/stone to block Zara off and build the mids.

At that point I decided to go for cultural. Core cities were 1.The capital 2.Pigs/stone where I wonder spammed (Sistine, Parthenon and a lot others until SoL) and 3. A GP farm in the East (near that little lake with 3 food resources).

Zara spreaded Judaism to me, and I got Taoism. Build 9 cities, so that's two cathedrals per core city. I flipped loads of Zara's cities (only kept one), so in the end he was left with only cities on the coast he offered to become my Vassal, I accepted if he paid 7/turn. Don't know if that was a smart move, although it didn't trigger any wars.

I think I would have won earlier if I had not used that GP farm to be a core city. Another cottage spam city would have been better I think (probably horses city).

What I discovered:

1)Egyptian UU is huge! Barbs where never a threat thanks to this rolling monsters! Having close horses with the egyptians is almost like going down a level.

2) Didn't really get the use of the UB though. are the priests worth it? I never really run priests specialists, especially if I don't found a religion.

3) Cottage cities over GP farms for culture! GA's can help to boost, but should not be the basis for reaching legendary.

Altogether, it was a bit too easy, no one ever challenged me, let alone declare war. Prince next time!

Any comments are welcome!

Duff deal currency for fishing + 130 gold, you could have got a lot more mileage from that tech

I'm being invaded!!! left too many spaces on my continent and now other civs are settling!

Yer I know. As I was making both of those trades I realised that I was being pretty stupid! Couldn't seem to stop myself though. I was also hoping he'd like me more a sell me some decent techs. He didn't. In fact he just converted to Taoism (he's the founder - also founded Christianity (I think) and he'll probably found Islam as well. So what I hoped would be a loving medium term friendship - you know we swap some books and have a couple of pints (then I glass him) - is in fact a big pile of poo.
It was esspecially silly as I could have teched Fishing in about 3/4 turns.

As an aside between me and him we'll soon control 4/5 of the religions and I bet when I meet the rest of the AIs they'll all be one big happy family! I don't recall seeing any GGs been born so the don't appear to be fighting.

Hello again!

My game is currently at 1780 AD and I'm in an odd situation and need advice! But first some interesting thing that happen inbetween then and now.

Some good news from gibbon, we are the largest civ, yay! I'm just glad they don't do a report for the clumsiest civ!




So Zara had one city on my continent, but he also had a group of cities on an island to our north, I was about to take out the city on my landmass when Willem declares war on me! I was really worried for a second as the city he targeted had only one lonley archer in it. But then I checked out his amazing attack force,



Thats right 4 cats, eh? that must be the most bone headed attack I've ever seen an AI attempt. His cats were killed ofcourse, and through sueing for peace willem gave me his world map and guess what I found,



I really should have expanded sooner. Me and Willy then went through a phase of me razing those coastal cities then him replacing them and so on. In the end I had to start putting cities along that shore even though it started to cripple my economy. It wouldn't be long before the AI's would get Astro so I kept putting up cities as soon as I could, and then...



Too late!

So my problem is what to do with those annoying cities on my continent, I do not have open borders with asoka or sitting bull so they can't expand peacefully into any more of my territory. I don't think either have rifling yet, but I do so taking them out shouldn't be to hard. But I'm not sure if I can afford to keep their cities. Will sitting bull or asoka attempt an attack from their small holdings on my landmass?

Currently my relations with the world is very poor, most people hate me.

I'm currently Converting to a CE becuase I've had to switch to Emancipation, but this is ganna take a while to get those cottages upto towns. I'm still thinking space race, but I think its going to a close call.

Here are some pics of the state of my game,







Any advice, I'm not normally in this position in a game, I normally have fewer cities but actually getting more beakers, Guess thats why I'm a wimp and normally stick to noble.

Cheers,

You seem to have managed to expand better than I have! Need to found so many cities but my economy will tank.
I'll have a peek at your save after I report!

Maybe, but I went to war with Zara later and kept too many of his old cities, my economy was trashed for a long time! also Zara is still alive so the happiness is a problem too. I will read your report when it is up, It will be interesting to compare notes!