NC XVIII: Willem

More uneventful gameplay, the aforementioned invasion of Ethopia didn't happen, though I do have a small stack in AA.

Amsterdam finishes a certain project


And then I expanded out a little to the west.

You may notice the small orange dot moving west on the mini-map, that's my circumnavigation bid right there.

I plan on building one more city to the west, where I can snag the stone.

Then maybe another city on the Southern peninsula to grab the wine and copper down there.

I decided to settle on one of the silk tiles. I figured it might be useful to be able to access the whale with another city later, and it didn't appear to make much of a difference in terms of water or land tiles, so I figured I'd give it a try.

I decided after scoping part of the island out that my plan would be to try to go for the great lighthouse, and then pile a bunch of cities on this island and possibly the island to the south. I couldn't see what was there initially, but saw a lot of fish and other seafood around, so figured I was somewhat isolated and able to rex like crazy with GLH and financial. Would attempt to get a tech lead and then maybe go for a bunch of privateers and east indiamen in the mid-game. Got this random event:



And decided it was worth it. I dealt with a little unhappiness in Amsterdam which probably stunted me a bit, but once I get these cities growing in caste, with all the seafood, I should be able to use HR for happiness and not worry about health for a long, long time. Here's Amsterdam after that event.



Also got a stupid slave revolt, so decided to tech code of laws and monarchy to be able to get rid of the stupid revolts and get rid of unhappiness. While I like whipping some early infrastructure, I figure all this seafood means I need to have a bunch of GP farms. I kept seeing a bunch of barb galleys roaming around (which I hate almost as much as global warming), so I had to waste hammers on two galleys to try to keep the peace. Will come in handy though, as I move a settler to the south island. Started spamming settlers in Amsterdam. Founded Utrecht second to the south, which will be running a lot of specialists soon. Founded the Hague third for the copper, and then Rotterdam and Nijmegegegegegegen for the horse and pigs. I'm now finally seeing the benefits of the GLH with 5 cities, and just produced one more settler. My economy is still humming, so I figure maybe 3-4 more settlers, a couple of workers, and then start teching like crazy. Here's my empire, I'm stopping for tonight because I nearly killed my arm playing that Sitting Bull protective powerhouses game for about 6 hours straight the other night.



A great merchant is coming soon, I'm debating at this point whether or not to use him, or just save him. With the financial trait, I don't really need him yet, and this map just seems ideal for Sid's Sushi later on.

A more eventful round. We make new friends, and promptly some new enemies. More peaceful nonsense!

Land ho!... Alas it is unoccupied. Future colony me thinks.


Shortly thereafter we meet... GIGGLES!
Hi Giggles, how ya been?


I found Maastricht. And then the Goths promptly show up.

And ignore the undefended city.

Zara builds the cool-kids clubhouse.

And naturally becomes the Pope.

Apparently the world IS round


So we head South and run into...

Well . .. .. .. ..

Shortly thereafter we make more friends:


Looks like Sally and Wang are already fighting because Sally asks me to declare war. Uhhh, pass.

And of course


The empire in 1605


The diplomacy screen, most of the world is ignorant to the others.


And the tech situation:


Most of the world is lagging behind me and Zara. I'm gonna snag engineering from Giggles and then proceed to put on the afterburners for Liberalism, probably end up getting Astro and settling that small island east of Sumeria.

I decided to take a shot at the Pyramids and rerouted my settler to a site near the stone. I also switched techs from IW to Math for better chopping. Utrecht was becoming a good production city and I assigned it to build the Pyramids.

I completed TGL in 1475 BC and got this quest on the same turn:



The Pyramids were completed in 600 BC:



After Math and IW, I went for Calendar, but switched to Currency instead, expecting to generate a Great Merchant:



I had already to use him to bulb MC, on the route to Optics:





In the mean time I was building Pyramids-Aquaduct-The Hanging Gardens and I made sure to settle another city just before completing it in 185 BC:



After Calendar I teched CoL in 50 BC and that marked the end of the BC era. I have 3 good specialized cities:

Cap:



Production:



GP-farm:



I'm using Rotterdam as the GP-farm, because it has a clean GP-pool and Amsterdam has better land tiles. The plan is to go for an early Optics, to get the whale online and to use the Great Scientists to bulb Astronomy. For this, I need to get Alphabet out of the way first and I hope Zara will tech it. If not, then I'll tech it myself or try to contact some other civ with my caravels.

That's a good point - I'm never fond of settling merchants, but as fast as I think I'm teching, should be able to hit economics and liberalism. Probably is smarter to settle him, or even send him over to Zara for some gold

I played pretty lazy this round - think it's because I was really tired last night after staying up late about 5 nights in a row thanks to some of these other games going (the Toku one and Sitting Bull). I've completely ignored units, and don't have a military city or a super production city. I hope that's not going to come back to bite me, because right now I think my tech rate is pretty strong, so the next round if I focus on production and finding the other civs, will probably be ok. I spent all my time this round trying to build settlers, workers, and warriors (to raise the happy cap using HR). Settled one city on Zara's island, figuring he'll be a target of mine when I'm ready to take over the world, which will probably be soon after I get east indiamen. I didn't pay much attention to my cities, except to make sure I was getting scientists going in most. Teched metal casting, then up through currency and civil service, and then started the beeline to liberalism. I got a random event about settling 10 landmasses - since I think I'm on 4 already, I may go ahead and try to do that. Haven't seen that one, so not sure what the reward is...hoping it's something useful for naval fleet.


Got a couple of scientists, used one for Amsterdam's academy, and the second to bulb half of education. I assume I'm way ahead to liberalism, so I diverted along the way to try to get the economics GM. Here's my empire, 10 or so turns from liberalism - a lot of cities, but still running 50-60% science without a hitch, thanks to financial and GLH. I don't even have that many courthouses built yet. I didn't settle the great merchant - still saving him. If I get the economics GM as well, I'll probably send one somewhere for a truckload of gold later. It was probably a mistake not to use that first GM yet, but I guess if I use him mid game, I can get 3000 gold in a trade mission vs only about 1300 earlier on. I don't really like to settle GMs, and it seemed like such a pain to send him somewhere, so I have him sleeping, which is probably not the best approach, but oh well.


Here's Amsterdam:



I decided to make it my Moai city, because it has a lot of water and will become a great hybrid city once built. Should have plenty of production and plenty of GP points. Haven't really focused on anything, not even a victory condition. As always, when I'm on a water map, I think about culture with sushi. If I take over Zara's land without a hitch, I may go that route. Still haven't built a single cottage yet. I'm actually considering trying to see if I can win the game without one cottage - maybe that's a neat twist to add. Not really necessary to have cottages given the map. Anyway, like I said, i've been lazy this round, so it'll probably come back to bite me. I have almost no units, so at this point, I may just wait until I can get ifles/cannons and try to beat up Zara with those. If I can beat him up while teching to medicine, can get sushi and then have ridiculously huge cities (I count 21 seafood resources between me and him). We'll see.

I keep teching ridiculously thanks to all my ocean commerce. I tech to 1 turn before liberalism, and then beeline to economics. I pop a GM in the interim thanks to my GP farm in middelburg, and another when I hit economics. So I decide to keep 1 for sushi, and start sending the extra merchants on trade missions to Zara. Turn back to liberalism, and realize I'm the first to hit liberalism too. Finish this in Amsterdam, thought I may as well build since I have confucianism almost everywhere.



I'm sure Zara is way behind me in tech, and I meet Joao, who also appears to be way behind. I hadn't teched the line to astronomy (possibly wasting some of the east indiaman's limited time), so I pick nationalism, start taj, and start the astronomy beeline to get a few indiamen out. I then start the rifling beeline. I figure with longbows defending, I just need to get a small army of rifles over to wipe out Zara, and have a ton of land to tech to the late game. Looks like a sushi game - in the next round, I need to start thinking more about hammers though, because my production is still really weak. I tend to really struggle with production on water maps, I think because I'm lazy about it and lazy about building workers on those maps. I should have more workers at this point. So far, my smart moves have been to build GLH and divert to economics for the extra GM. My dumb moves have been too few workers, not focusing on production, and not using my first GM earlier. The next round will get interesting - it looks like I'll have time to play it tonight. A few more pics of where Joao and Zara are at





Here's one of my merchants on his way to pick up more gold. I have another one coming in 7 turns (thanks to two GP farms and pacifism). Also shows my launching city to take Zara.

I started this round by settling my 7th city near the spices:



The barb galley became a real nuisance when it destroyed my trireme and galley and started pillaging the coastal resources. I had just switched to caste system and couldn't whip another trireme to get rid of it.

I made sure to build 7 libraries to complete the quest:



While running 5 scientists in Rotterdam I teched Compass - Machinery - Optics. I generated my 2nd GP. One of the 2 Great Scientists I'm going to use to bulb Astronomy.

The spices and whale gave me the extra happiness I needed and for health I could always build harbors and get +50 trade routes revenue as well.

I upgraded a trireme to caravel and loaded an explorer to set out to the west. I met Hammurabi and he didn't have Alphabet yet, so it was a good thing I decided to tech it myself.



There is a chance I'll pop Astronomy from a hut, so I'll wait another 15 turns to generate the next Great Scientist, before starting to bulb Astronomy. This means I still have to avoid Meditation (next bulb: Philosophy) and CS (next bulb: Paper). I could tech part of them in preparation for Liberalism or go for Aesthetics - Drama for the cheap theatres, which I can use to generate happiness.

I now have a decent empire of 8 cities, but not a lot of units:

I decided to tech Construction instead of Aesthetics - Drama, because colosseums are also half price. The same goes for castles from Engineering (because I have stone) which will net me another trade route. I also backfilled some techs with Hunting - Archery to be able to build x-bows and took Mysticism and a big chunk of CS in preparation of the Liberalism path. In 775 AD I finally generated my 2nd Great Scientist and bulbed Astronomy:



I completed CS on the next turn and Meditation the turn after that. Taoism hasn't been founded yet, so I have a chance to found it in 7 turns. I'm also 1 turn away from completing the circumnavigation.

Now that I have switched from a SE to a TRE, I don't need caste system anymore, so I'll probably switch to Bureacracy and Slavery and will settle the land to the west. I have made some good trades which enable me to grow my cities bigger.

Ugly round with two modern wars at tech parity. Not pretty.

Not reporting the tech path. It went from Steam Power to the modern military techs (adv flight, robotics and stealth).

1873 - I get a Great Eng. He will found Mining Inc.

1903 - Mining Inc founded in Rotterdam, future Wall Street city. This city will generate over 400 gpt at the end.

1904 - My pal Gilga declares war on Hammurabi. Good, Hammurabi is my next target anyway and has defecated a few junk cities on my western coast. I hope for Gilga's request for help, to get the extra bonus.

1916 - Gilga didn't ask for help yet, so I declare war on Hammurabi on my own.

1917 - And capture the first of his 3 junk cities:



1920 - Erech captured.

1922 - And Kuthal:



At this point Hammurabi has submarines and I don't have oil to build modern ships, so I get some cash for peace. I have Uranium, but need fission to enable it.

1926 - Wang breaks free from Saladin.

1934 - Fission done and I finally can build modern ships.

1940 - Wang capitulates again to Saladin.

1944 - Ready to declare war:



And Dur-Kurigalzu is captured:



This war is very important to secure an oil source, or I will soon face tanks with infantry and cavalry.

1946 - Akkad captured and Hammurabi has tanks.

1947 - Hammurabi suicides some outdated junk (cannons and maces) at Dur-Kurigalzu. I kill a lot of defenders at Babylon, but don't have enough units to complete the job.

1948 - Babylon captured and it's a wonder jackpot:



Hammurabi still doesn't want to capitulate.

1949 - Nippur captured and it's enough:



And I finally have my oil. Don't know if TMiT did it on purpose, but the lack of oil made things interesting.

1951 - No nukes resolution succeeds.

1959 - Saladin (my next target) declares war and captures Babylon:



Oh well, this way I don't get the diplo penalties.

1961 - Babylon recaptured. My stack was almost ready when Saladin declared.

1962 - And I head straight for Mecca. Looks like Saladin has some spare Great People:



1970 - Medina captured.

1975 - Baghdad captured.

1977 - Najran captured and Wang breaks free again.

1978 - Khurasan captured and Saladin is done:



Not many details about the war vs Saladin, but it wasn't pretty. He had Mech Inf right from the start, when I only had tanks, anti-tanks, infantry and artillery. I slowly upgraded everything to modern armor and mobile artillery during the war.

Both Hammurabi and Saladin had the tech advantage to win (Hamm tanks and battleships vs my arti/inf and destroyers), but they probably didn't have the production power to pump out modern units.

Back to the events, Gilga drops to pleased when I accept Salad's capitulation, but I can't stomach more modern war and I need his votes for a diplo win. So I switch to HR to get the fav civic bonus.

1979 - And a year later I get the win. Didn't have to wait for the full shared civic bonus, as he was only 1 point from friendly. Notice Zara's votes. He starved his two cities to 1 pop with defying unhappiness. He defied every single civic change resolution:





Demographics. Life expectancy of 49 years in 1979 :



Power:



Stats:



And score:



Techs at the end. Some SS parts built already by a couple guys:



Babylon:



And Arabia:




A win, but I'm definitely not ready for Emperor. Research rate in this game was pitiful and the war vs Zara very sloppy. Could have wiped him earlier, with 6-7 galleys loaded with swords/catapults. I don't like modern wars and I'm mildly satisfied with the outcome of this game anyway.

And I really need to focus one of my cities on GScientists. I know a good GP farm makes my games easier, but still neglect it most of the times.


Thanks as usual for this great serie.

settled in place
3655 Mining
3145 Bronze
2965 Hunting
2755 Archery
2430 Sailing
2260 Masonry 2nd city, south with 2 fish
2050 Animal Husbandry
1860 Wheel
1810 Great Lighthouse finished
1720 Pottery
1530 Writing
1510 3rd city, pig+wine and lots of hills, a good production city
1420 Mysticism
1280 Meditation
1250 4th city on the 3 tile island with peak and horse + fish+clam to get a +2 traferoute everywhere
1220 Priesthood
1190 5th city: fish+horse in the northwest, comemrce city
1180 hurrican destroyes lighthouse in Amsterdam, ARGH!
900 Monarchy - revolt to HR
690 Mathematics
590 Horse whisper quest (7 stable, wont finish this one)
500 6th city: nw penisula for the crab
450 Calendar
390 7th city, 1 tile island in the southeast with 3x clam, now two +2 trade routes in every city
340 Iron Working
270 G. Merchant bulbs currency
170 8th city: stone+banana
160 Code of Laws
90 trading Curreny to Zara for Alphabet
1 AD: Metal casting, 8 cities and 1377000 pop
140 Compass
280 9th city: south on the desert hill for copper, incsense silk and fish
330 G. Scientist bulbs philosophy, founding Christianity (i play always with choose religion), convert immediatly, happyness is still low
390 Machinery
505 gift 2 techs to zara to get him to friendly, now i can trade for Construction and Aesthetics
520 Optics, 2 caravels on the way to explore
545 found Hammurabi (7 cities)
550 Saladin (11 cities)
555 Wang kong (5 cities) trade for Poly and Mono
580 Joao (8 cities)
600 I prove the world is round!
615 Civil Service, found Gilgamesh (9 cities), start building maces
635 Hanging Gardens in Amsterdam
670 trade compass to Zara for HBR
675 Paper, revolting to Buerocracy, caste and OR
685 Hammurabi builds AP
690 Quest for 7 forges starts
735 trade for Feudalism
750 Quest for holy mountain (14 religion buildings)
770 Engineering, start building trebutchets
785 trade for Literature
815 trade for theology, Friendly Zara is nice, but he techs too slow, will conquer him soon as long as he is missing Machinery
840 Drama, sell to Zara for 400 gold before i go to war with him
870 10th city: on the west coast, filler city
875 another quest: 7 colloseum, never had that many quests in a game, war with Zara starts
885 1st city of Zara
890 7 forges quest completet, free Engineer in Rotterdam
910 chopped the last forest on my island
935 2nd city of Zara, GG settled in The Hague (building Heroic Epic there)
970 3rd city of Zara
975 trade for Guilds and Music
1000 4th city of Zara
1015 Astronomy, trading silk for other resources
1035 5th city of Zara, trade for Banking
1040 Gilgamehs make colony: Julius Caesar
1045 G. Scientist bulbs part of Education
1050 11th city: filler near the northern copper
1055 Zara destroyed, Aksum has Angkor Wat and MoM
1060 coloseum quest: +1 happy for coloseum

What do i plan next: settling the barbarian island west of my island and make it a colony, then tech to rifling and vassalize the other civs. Noone is close to liberalism, i will delay it a bit to get a big tech form it.

western part:


eastern part:

When last I left off, I was 1 turn from a GP in one city, and 2 turns in another (so I assume the second one will be more like 10 turns or so). About 10 turns from rifles, and about 20 turns from my Taj golden age, assuming I'm the first to it. So, time to start building units that can be upgraded, as well as east indiamen to transport them. Zara is still researching optics, so at this point, he can't stop me on the seas, and it's a question of whether I touch down before muskets or not. If I get there before he gets gunpowder, he's done for sure, because I'm about to have a whole bunch of gold, and hopefully some units to upgrade. My biggest concerns are still about production, and the fact that I don't have barracks in most cities, so my units are likely to have limited promotions..but they'll be rifles against longbows.

So, one turn in, a great merchant. Not bad on 30% odds. I wouldn't have minded the great scientist either, but this is ok, gold means upgrades or 100% research. And this is nice too...



another GM coming in 7 turns. That'll be 3 GMs in the span of about 15 turns thanks to economics. Rifling, here I come. I decide after that to trade with Joao/backfill so I can pick up theology. If I get Taj, going to need my whipped units to have as much XP as possible. Building barracks and then a few macemen which are cheap to upgrade to rifles, and can at least have CR1. Would be great to get 2 XP minimum on my rifles. Here's one turn before rifling. I just finished about 5-6 maces and have a few catapults too. As you can see, taj is two turns away. In addition, I just popped a GS in my third GP farm, Utrecht, and may use it to make it a 20 turn golden age, in which I can use slavery twice, and whip what I need to take Zara right after, as I tech towards Sci method, physics, biology and sushi.



Success on the golden age, switched to slavery, vassalage, theocracy, and I found this humorous.



Yes, I whipped in all but two cities - one I didn't have enough pop, and the other, I didn't want to lose 5 pop in Amsterdam when it only takes 5 turns to build a rifle anyway. So here comes my army Zara. Unfortunately, he was on to me. I see this.



He's teching to gunpowder and his oromo warriors. So I have to do things faster than I would have liked. I wanted to get a few frigates to bomb, but can't wait...so it's DOW time. Aksum went the first turn after. Didn't lose a rifle, but suicided all my cats. Hoping I can clear the other two top cities, then depending on how many rifles I have left, will either clear the rest, or get peace for 10 turns, then a second DOW to finish him off. I waited 2 turns after the first golden age, and started #2 - time for one more whip and then switch back to better civics. Poor Zara - all he has are caravels, and he must not have the money for muskets yet, because he's teched gunpowder, but I don't see any. I'm glad I went after Aksum first, because that was one amazing city. The rest of his land is only so-so, but with sushi, it'll be pretty good. Frigates have arrived, so I upgraded my triremes to at least be able to bombard a couple of cities. I did end up going for the 10 turn peace treaty, and quickly moved to DOW again. In the interim, he managed to get chemistry (think he traded for it), so he got a couple of frigates. Not enough to stop this:



Finally, since he had two island cities, I agreed to capitulation. However, as I was beating him up, I started to see some economy problems, and realized something, that I hadn't really had happen to me before, and that is that colonial expenses are starting to devastate me. My economy is in the pits - I can't function on 40% research. I don't think I've played on a map before where it's bitten me like it has here. So here's my empire, and I'm taking a break. Will try to pick this up tomorrow and see if I can right the ship, but I actually think that warring with Zara ends up costing me this game. Had I played nice, focused on growing, and teched peacefully to medicine, i think with my dozen seafood resources, could have had about 10 nice cities, and continued to be the tech leader. As it stands now, I'm starting to lose my advantage, and not sure what to do. I've never tried colonies before, so maybe that's worth a try. At this point, I'm thinking it's likely I blew this game, so a break to try to figure it out is probably good for me. Price I pay for playing more on pangaea and archipelago type maps. Here's the empire - anyone with thoughts on colonies or next steps, would appreciate them. I am missing markets and grocers in a bunch of my better cities, so I may try to get those in first to help right the ship.

Ack watery map. Not my best map but here we go. early game seemed routine. I went mining/bw/sailing soing workboat first while warrior went xploring.

Noticed only ONE pre cal happy resource so that looking it gonna be a headache maybe.

After bew was done I noticed copper close so I make a settler to head that way then do some pre chopping while I tech roads and ah, pottery masonry.

I chop glh in first city, chop oracle in second city and pick mc.

My thrid city i jump on stone and go for mids in cap but lose it by about 20 turns . My second city gets colossus done.

By this time I have loong met Zara who keep nagging me for open borders but i keep saying no just cuz I dont want him xploring past me, sides with finanical and col and glh he need the ob for money more than I do.

Somepoint around here I go for CoL and found confusinism

Cuz I missed out on mids I make a priority for calander to get those calendar resources going. I dont do gw but barbies were never a problem. I manage to fogbust good enough so that not only do I not see ONE barbie in my territory I dont even see a barbie galley .

After IU get calendar going I go for CS, then machinery and engineering. My plan was to get to maces ASAP then go pay Zara a visit.

While doing this I manage to get HG and Notre dame all done.

I get a stack of maces and some ships and go over to say hi to Zara. Afterwards I tech compass and optics. My caravals circumsize the globe and on way they meet hammy and giggles. Hammy has ap built but he is jewish and it dont look like he even met Giggles yet so hopefully two other civs founded hinduism and buddhism and hammy's ap religion will juyst be him and thats it and no big ap block to worry bout.

And thats kinda where I am at at this point. My stack slowly picking of Zara while rest of my empirt catches up on some missed buildings. Trying to get maces sooo fast though left me waaay behind on lib race though so not sure what to do about that.

Here is my empire at this point:



Close up on war with Zara:



Four of his cities down and his cap next.

My power rating at this point:



Zara dropped bigtime cuz he wasted a HUGE stack trying to retake one of his cities that had two crossbows and an archer in it. I have a mil advanatage at moment both in number now and with fact that he dont have much to stop my maces BUT he is racing to longbows and I AM running out of cats but hopefully I can take his cap be he gets longbows and after that he just a matter of mopping up the 3 or 4 cities he have left at that point.

demographics:



look like somene is making a HUGE empire already I dont think it hammy cuz I already have a bigger power rating so he cant be THAT big yet. It might be giggles since I cant see his power numbers yet or it might be someone else I havent met yet.

Tech sitch:



This is where going for maces SOOO fast and skipping aesthetics and lit might end up costing me. Even Zara is up on me with Theo, Alphabet, and lit, but the other AI"s seem that way to. I techout philosophy but taoism got founded before IM finished. GL been built already and some great scientists already been spawning so odd VERY good Im behind on paper too. So winning lib looks like NOOOO chance at all. Plus a cpl GA also spwned so I bet I am even down music at this point too.

So THAT leaves me with what to do next. With lib seemingly waaaay out reach now my plan is this--first tech out guilds-15 turns in order to get grocers to help pay for overseas empire and get knights started. THEN beeline straight for astronomy and UU which is like 35 turns. Altogther thats about 50 turns. I HIGHLY doubt me getting a GS anytime soon so teching to lib and then taking astronomy would mean teching paper, education, (maybe alphabit not sure if I will need that or not) and THEN lib and all that is probably gonna = 40-50 turns or more and if I lose the lib race which is very likely then I would STILL need to tech astronomy on my own.

So it like guilds/astronomy and DEFINITELY getting both in 40 turns then loading up knights and maces and trebs on east indiamen or going for lib and definitely missing out on grocers and knights and possibly missing out on astronomy too if I lose lib race.

SO I am gonna go for the sure things and tech out guilds then astronomy-- I might end up losing since missing out on lib will probably mean I am gonna end up waaaaaay behind tech wise. but MAYBE by getting to knights and UU early enuff I can get enough of a mil lead on SOMEONE to take them out and summing I can finish off zara that will give me enough land to make up the difference later in game. Or I could end up so deep in a hole game will be unwinnable by then. I REALLY have nooo clue :/.

Is it just me or were there NOOO goodyhuts ANYWHERE on our island? :/.

I figure I'll need to explore with a galley fairly soon, so I teched mining > bronze > sail > hunt (for a scout) > wheel and am now working on pottery. I built a workboat while working the forested hill to the north, then switched to working the crabs and growing while building the 2nd workboat. Once I had both seafood squares to work I switched to worker, who chopped the two forested hills to create my first settler. I just finished building a warrior for that first city and now need to decide where to put it. A galley will be ready soon and a scout not long after that.

I don't see a lot of good sites. I like yellow for the stone; the pigs will let me work it and/or the three grassland hills, so I expect to make this my second city. Light blue gets horses, fish, and two grassland hills. Red only gets bronze; there are no food bonuses or farmable grasslands -- so, without anyone on the same continent to axe-rush I may do light blue for the 3rd city. Perhaps by then my galley will have found some good sites on other islands.

Black seem no good except for the 2 fish; is that useful in the later game if I found Sid's Sushi? I read the "power of Sushi" article long ago but haven't ever used it in a game (and have lost my link to it) so am quite fuzzy on the details of the strategy.

I plan to for for the Great Lighthouse and, if possible, the Colossos -- no-brainers on this map, I suppose.

Go for Astronomy and open borders with Gilgamesh and Hammurabi. You'll get some good foreign trade routes (you have TGL) and you could possibly scout their land before taking it (or trade maps after Paper). Downside is that Astronomy obsoletes the Colossus, so save some money for when it happens.

You don't need the Great Library and/or Liberalism to win the game. Use your military advantage instead.

About those goody huts: I think TMIT took them before posting the map. He just loves those goody huts

Red, blue and black are all good sites. I'm not too sure about yellow though. The pigs will let you work the quarry, but it's on a desert tile and only gives you 3 hammers.

What do you think about the space between black and yellow? There is a nice spot on the west bank of the river. It enables you to work the pigs and a lot of hills. It does has some overlap with red and blue, but you want a lot of coastal cities with TGL. This means you have to move the yellow spot though. Maybe somewhere below the lake near the stone? The desert tile will give you bananas and spices too. I think you can fit in 8 cities on the part of the island that is reachable by land.

Apart from any future Sid's Sushi benefit, consider the black site as a possible GP-farm. Those fish tiles with a whipped lighthouse will enable you to run a lot of specialists.

I used Sid's Sishu in a recent play of NC V with Hannibal, also on a high coastal resources water map. The food and culture it generates is huge when you have a lot of those resources.

My caravals circumsize the globe

I decided to settle in place, we got 2 seafood, alot of coast and hills for production. It's a bit low on grasslands for cottages but I'm not good with those anyway...

Logging by BUG Mod 3.5 [Build 1459] (BtS 3.13-3.17)
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Turn 0/750 (4000 BC) [27-Dec-2008 09:44:25]
Amsterdam founded
Amsterdam begins: Work Boat (45 turns)
Research begun: Mining (12 Turns)
Research begun: Bronze Working (12 Turns)

Turn 10/750 (3750 BC) [27-Dec-2008 09:52:10]

After End Turn:
Tech research finished: Mining

Turn 18/750 (3550 BC) [27-Dec-2008 09:53:26]
Amsterdam begins: Worker (18 turns)
Amsterdam begins: Work Boat (15 turns)

Turn 30/750 (3250 BC) [27-Dec-2008 09:55:58]

After End Turn:
Tech research finished: Bronze Working

Turn 31/750 (3225 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:00:27]
Research begun: Sailing (15 Turns)

The map at this point with some initial thoughts about cityplacement, screenie from before BW was ready so no resources shown:

So we continue, for a real easy view I continued with the BUGMOD log, it may be alot of text, but you'll more easily be able to follow my thinking as this should be somewhat educational on how to do and how not to do things.

At this point we need to start settling the continent, with financial and coast all around I'm not worried about overexpanding, we can easily support all cities I've planned on this continent, especially if I get the great lighthouse that I aim for. So for a change I disband any early thoughts about SE and go for a tradebased economy with watertiles + cottages to support a high researchrate. This is new for me as I normally always runs an SE in the start and often through out the whole game.

Turn 43/750 (2925 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:03:14]
Amsterdam begins: Settler (30 turns)

Turn 44/750 (2900 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:03:46]

After End Turn:
Tech research finished: Sailing

Turn 45/750 (2875 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:03:48]
Research begun: Masonry (10 Turns)

Turn 54/750 (2650 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:07:10]

After End Turn:
Tech research finished: Masonry

Turn 55/750 (2625 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:07:26]
Research begun: Hunting (6 Turns)
Research begun: Archery (6 Turns)

Perhaps an explanation here, Hunting and Archery isn't really needed at this point but I decided not to settle the copper early so for some defense in case I do get some barbs (unlikely as the whole continent is shorly fogbusted) I wanted archers.

Turn 58/750 (2550 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:08:04]
Amsterdam begins: Warrior (6 turns)
Amsterdam begins: Lighthouse (23 turns)

Turn 60/750 (2500 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:08:42]

After End Turn:
Tech research finished: Hunting

Other Player Actions:
Contact made: Ethiopian Empire


Ah, our old friend Zara is our neighbour, normally a good techer but at this point he's on parity and perhaps a little behind my own research.

Turn 64/750 (2400 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:10:01]
Utrecht founded
Utrecht begins: Worker (30 turns)

Turn 68/750 (2300 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:11:32]
Amsterdam begins: Settler (14 turns)

After End Turn:
Tech research finished: Archery

Turn 69/750 (2275 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:11:56]
Research begun: Animal Husbandry (11 Turns)

Other Player Actions:
Another civilization has been eliminated

Interesting, somewhere someone will have more room to expand, might mean trouble later on.

Turn 74/750 (2150 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:12:49]
Amsterdam begins: Archer (10 turns)
Amsterdam begins: The Great Lighthouse (75 turns)

Turn 79/750 (2025 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:13:55]

After End Turn:
Tech research finished: Animal Husbandry

Turn 80/750 (2000 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:14:10]
Research begun: The Wheel (10 Turns)

Turn 82/750 (1950 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:15:17]
The Hague founded
The Hague begins: Work Boat (23 turns)
The Hague begins: Worker (23 turns)
The Hague begins: Archer (19 turns)

Turn 87/750 (1825 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:17:00]
Utrecht begins: Archer (37 turns)

Turn 88/750 (1800 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:17:35]

After End Turn:
Tech research finished: The Wheel

Turn 89/750 (1775 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:17:50]
Research begun: Pottery (8 Turns)

Turn 97/750 (1575 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:18:54]

After End Turn:
Tech research finished: Pottery

Turn 98/750 (1550 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:18:57]
Research begun: Writing (13 Turns)

Finally we get our first wonder


Turn 106/750 (1350 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:21:19]
Amsterdam begins: Work Boat (12 turns)

Turn 109/750 (1275 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:22:16]

After End Turn:
Tech research finished: Writing

Turn 110/750 (1250 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:22:24]
Research begun: Iron Working (23 Turns)

Turn 111/750 (1225 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:22:53]
The Hague begins: Archer (37 turns)
The Hague begins: Lighthouse (90 turns)
The Hague begins: Granary (90 turns)
The Hague begins: Library (68 turns)
The Hague begins: Lighthouse (90 turns)

Turn 114/750 (1150 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:24:04]
Amsterdam begins: Library (17 turns)

Turn 119/750 (1025 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:25:47]
Utrecht begins: Granary (90 turns)

Turn 128/750 (800 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:34:56]
Utrecht begins: Lighthouse (45 turns)
Utrecht begins: Library (34 turns)

Turn 129/750 (775 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:35:49]
Amsterdam begins: Settler (12 turns)
Amsterdam begins: Granary (13 turns)
Amsterdam begins: The Pyramids (54 turns)

Turn 131/750 (725 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:36:18]

After End Turn:
Tech research finished: Iron Working

Turn 132/750 (700 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:36:37]
Research begun: Alphabet (25 Turns)

Turn 138/750 (550 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:39:21]
Rotterdam founded
Rotterdam begins: Lighthouse (45 turns)
Rotterdam begins: Work Boat (23 turns)
Rotterdam begins: Work Boat (23 turns)

Turn 151/750 (335 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:44:01]

After End Turn:
Tech research finished: Alphabet

Turn 152/750 (320 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:44:16]
Research begun: Currency (22 Turns)

Turn 153/750 (305 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:44:54]
The Hague begins: Galley (11 turns)

Turn 156/750 (260 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:46:32]

After End Turn:
Antony van Leeuwenhoek (Great Scientist) born in Amsterdam

Our first scientist, did end up as an academy in Amsterdam, perhaps not perfect but I'll have more use from it in the long run was my figuring here, normally I tend to settle first GS and academy with second.

Turn 160/750 (200 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:48:27]
Utrecht begins: Settler (22 turns)

Turn 165/750 (125 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:49:39]
The Hague begins: Archer (6 turns)

Turn 168/750 (80 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:50:46]

After End Turn:
Tech research finished: Currency

Turn 169/750 (65 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:51:14]
Research begun: Metal Casting (17 Turns)
Utrecht begins: Market (57 turns)

Turn 170/750 (50 BC) [27-Dec-2008 10:51:57]
The Hague begins: Galley (11 turns)

Turn 174/750 (10 AD) [27-Dec-2008 10:53:41]
Rotterdam begins: Archer (19 turns)
Rotterdam begins: Granary (45 turns)
Rotterdam begins: Moai Statues (94 turns)

Turn 177/750 (55 AD) [27-Dec-2008 10:54:49]
Utrecht begins: Galley (19 turns)
Utrecht begins: Market (56 turns)


The world at 85AD, we got all the important early resources available which is good, the map however isn't my favourite kind, sure there's seafood, but not enough to really be useful in a full blown SE, but then, we're financial so CE is normally a better route with Fin.



I'm beginning to suspect that Zara and I are isolated from the rest of the world, no further contact made and Zara won't even trade very low end techs. On the other hand, wonders seems to go very slowly so techrate isn't high anywhere which leads me to suspect that most of the rest of the world as well may be isolated from each other. If that's the case, this should be a leasure walk in the park.

Goal at this point? Well, it seems I'll not get any early religions and I haven't focused on cultural so that is likely out. I don't feel like a domination or conquest so that route is for now not the nr 1 goal. This leaves us with Space or Diplo, It was a while since I did a UN diplo victory so perhaps I'll go for that. Space could be interesting as it'd be utilizing the Dutch UB for lategame production. We'll see when I meet the rest of the bunch what I decide upon.

I have just seen the Ai settle a city with 2 warriors. Makes me wonder. This never happens on Monarch settings.