BOTM 22 First Spoiler - 1 AD

BOTM 22 First Spoiler

Reading Requirements

Stop! If you are participating in BOTM 22, then you MUST NOT read this thread unless EITHER

• You have reached at least 1 AD in your game, OR
• You have submitted your entry

Posting Restrictions

Note the early cutoff - 1 AD, not 500 AD.

• Please do not discuss anything that happened after 1 AD,
• Please do not divulge your final result if that happened after 1 AD.
• Please do not discuss the location of resources that may not show up before 1 AD (Iron is alright to discuss).

Where did you settle and why?
Was your UU of any use on this particular map?
How did you get along with your neighbors?
Oh, and... did you survive this far?

Niklas said:

• Please do not discuss anything that happened after 1 AD,
• Please do not divulge your final result if that happened after 1 AD.
• Please do not discuss the location of resources that may not show up before 1 AD (Iron is alright to discuss).

Where did you settle and why?
Was your UU of any use on this particular map?
How did you get along with your neighbors?
Oh, and... did you survive this far?

Click to expand...

I'm playing the Immortal Save and have played to 25AD.
Something happened at 25AD that really frustrated me, oh well.


Where did you settle and why? - in place
Was your UU of any use on this particular map? not yet, but I am so behind I think I may go to war with catapults (I don't have construction yet) and UU
How did you get along with your neighbors? Peace. I did not open borders until very late. I put cities at the blocking points and didn't open borders until most of my area was settled. I'm at 0% science and using 5 science specialists for my teching.
Oh, and... did you survive this far? yes, not too hard with adventurer save. I'm not worried about surviving, but winning is a whole other challenge. edit, ok, I should worry about surviving; new plan: survive

Why no stone? That was mean. Went for great wall, but failed to get it.
Building duns (walls) everywhere, stone would make it Much cheaper.
Opponents too far to rush. And Protective, what's with that?
Seems like you can never trust a map maker.

The area that can't be entered is cute.
I'm thinking I could get a settler there by putting one in England and closing borders. Or maybe a barbarian city will be founded and I can flip it. Otherwise, a paratrooper can't found a city nor develop a resource. But I'm assuming the area will count for a domination victory. (LOL I am so far behind on power and tech it is rediculous.)
EDIT: well, It does a very nice job of blocking the AIs and their borders off from us. The area is useless jungle surrounded by mountains. Production would be very slow. It's still in fog.

Oh, and No Religion at all between Celtia, England and Germany. (what's with that?)
I was researching drama with hope of bulbing philosophy when taoism was founded far away.

edit: ok, home now, here is the screenshot I took
I'd just founded my second city, in SW corner to get silk and block. Scout defending when barbarian warrior attacks. My warriors and axemen were just a bit too far away. Barbarian loses with odds 70% in its favor.
ok, guess I shouldn't complain about whatever else happens (but see above)

I'm trying the immortal save also. I survived to 1AD, and have 5 cities. Will soon get CofL for courthouses. I've got cities placed at the mountain border plus I grabbed the gems site. Now to fill in the back area. I'll have 10 cities, then.

I settled in place and the UU was only useful for barb hunting. Both neighbors are at pleased thanks to Judaism founded by Churchill.

BOTM22 - Contender Save

Initial thoughts: The Contender save for this one is at Deity level. I can say I'm pretty intimidated by that, having only recently scraped together my first Immortal win. The advice out there seems to be if this is too high, take the Contender save and just try your best. But since I might have a chance of winning the Adventurer one I'm going to go with that.
Soon followed by: Actually, scrap that... I'm not sure I qualify for the Adventurer save - lets try Diety!

We have Boudica - nice trait combo, and the Gallic Warriors should work out neatly on this Rocky global highlands map. I'm certainly more of a builder, but that probably won't cut it this game. And Guerilla3 swordsmen sound like a lot of fun to play with.

Some goals for this game:
1. Play with my military
2. Survive up until the first spoiler at least
3. As for victory condition... I'll see how things go...

*** Session 1: 4000 BC -> 3520 BC ***

Scout moves 2NW, and doesn't give me any reason to not settle in place.

Two corns... I think worker first and Agriculture will be my opening builds and tech.

Seems we are in the NE of the island. So I'd like to expand to the SW initially.

Turn 6 my scout sees a bear! Looks like I'll have to tread carefully, although this is hard around all these hills. A panther and lion show up shortly after... oh man. The scout ducks into a forest and defends well against the panther. Next tech is Mining. On turn 12 my worker is complete, and I'm going to stop here put together a quick test game of my environment - figure out how to best settle a few cities before the AI boxes me in.

*** Session 2: 3520 BC -> 2800 BC ***

Back into it. My short term goals are to settle 3 cities, and claim a metal. My capital I want to grow to size 3, so that it can work the two corns and the gold. During that time I'll build a warrior to fogbust future city sites, and build a second worker to aid in chopping all this forest.

I meet Churchill. Him being Protective makes for an annoying target neighbour. My scout is working its way south very slowly, as I don't want to run into a bear or lion. He gets lucky on one occassion defending against a barb warrior from a forested hill, claiming woodsman2 promo. By 2800 BC I have 2 workers and I've finished Bronze Working and I'm building a settler. That's very generous - copper is in the capital's BFC.

** Session 3: 2800 BC -> 1760 BC ***

Next tech is Animal Husbandry, since my next city is going by those sheep, and sharing the copper/corn. Actually... I'm tempted to settle city #2 all the way down south a bit, for claiming a good bit of land. Maybe city #3 can go there... time will tell. Will I end up kicking myself when Churchill claims it?

2640 BC settler is built - I've decided to send it down south. I don't want to risk Churchill claiming that good land. Also switch tech to the wheel - I need it more to hook up the copper.

2440 BC I settle city #2 with corn/dyes/silk. It'll end up cottaged probably. I revolt to slavery now (should have done last turn before city was settled). Capital is size 4 working corns, gold and copper. Building a 3rd worker, I figure I need more improvements before expanding too quickly.

Barbs are a menace. I lose one battle at 75% odds, which results in my copper being pillaged. Capital is building 3rd settler, and research is Pottery.

I meet Frederick as well. I might see if I can get Churchill into war with him, and I'll probably side with Churchill.

In 1760 BC city #3 is founded on the coast with horses and pigs. I have 3 workers and 4 warriors. I've achieved my initial goals of 3 cities and connected metal. Time for new goals...

*** Session 4: 1760 BC -> 1000 BC ***

I learn fishing, which completes the set of worker techs. New goal is to tech to Aesthetics and see what's for trade. Hopefully alphabet is available and I can trade things around and pick up Iron Working. Although with all this land, I'm not 100% sure I need Gallic Warriors despite the hype.

I gift Churchill my gold to try get him Pleased, which will make me feel safer.

My exploring warrior finds a nice city site SE down the coast with gems and clams. I think I'll claim that soon for city #4. I'm a bit short on workers at the moment though. Churchill beats me by 1 turn to writing, and we sign OB.

Stats at 1000 BC: 3 cities (pop 7, 5, 3), 3 granaries, 3 libraries, 5 workers, 24/507 into Aesthetics, 155 gold in the bank. Churchill and Fred have 6 and 7 cities respectively, but I'm feeling ok. Churchill just founded Confucianism, which will hopefully spread to me, and we can be friends.

In 950 BC Ive connected the horses. But still not really planning a war. I'm building the occassional axe just for barb protection really, since my power is pretty insignificant compared to Churchill it wouldn't deter him at all.

*** Session 5: 1000 BC -> 500 BC ***

Still working on Aesthetics... I'm not sure its the best way to go since I only have 2 trade partners, but we shall see. I've identified a few more city sites which I'd like to get settled fairly quickly before Churchill takes them.

850 BC city #4 is founded along the SE coast claiming clams and gems. It's not much before the borders expand, so a quick monument chop is in order.

I'm actually running out of things to build in my cities, so just building units by default. I kind of wish I'd gone for alphabet now so I could at least build research.

750 BC I complete Aesthetics (noone has Alphabet ) and Confucianism spreads to me, which I convert to for some immediate diplo bonuses with both Churchill and Fred. Fred has built the Pyramids as well - so far I'm pretty much ignoring world wonders... although I might start building statue of zeus just as an alternative to building wealth. It works fairly well, and I'm doing the same with Shwedagon Paya - although I wouldn't mind actually getting that one.

500 BC I pop my first GS. I decide to build an academy in Vienne instead of Bibracte since it has more commerce from cottages, etc. I'm also thinking of moving the capital there.

*** Session 6: 500 BC -> 1 AD ***

I've kind of lost my goals a bit... I still haven't really decided what I'm going to do as far as victory. Listen to me! I'm actually contemplating it! I think for now I'll press on with my expansion and take the usual science route: CS -> Edu (Oxford) -> Liberalism if possible. Optics for a caravel would also be nice, but it's off the main route for me. Calendar would also be nice to hook up the dyes and silk.

450 BC I found city #5 along SE coast with fish and both gems. Again, not much value until the borders expand... and can't even chop a monument. So Confu missionary is being built.

Finally in 250 BC I finish Alphabet. I trade out Aesthetics to Churchill for IW+PH+15g, and to Fred for Polytheism and Sailing. The next turn Churchill actually gives me Masonry, for free! While I'm at it I ask for some free gold, he isn't quite that generous.

In 175 BC I actually manage to complete Shwedagon Paya... I've never really used this wonder before, what shall I do? I'm thinking either OR or Pacifism will suit me well here. Churchill isn't far from trading Monarchy, so I might pair the switch with Hered.Rule.

That wasn't to be - Fred figured out Alphabet on his own and traded it to Churchill, so I have nothing to give him for it. Revolution to Pacifism, beeline to CS. WOW, Pacifism = Bad idea! unit maintenance has put me at 0 gpt with 0% slider. I'm scraping by on scientists and builidng research. Gems trade to Churchill for some gold helps too.

In 50 BC I've founded my 6th city in the SW corner of my empire, clams+iron.

Situation at 1 AD: 6 cities (pop 7, 9, 6, 2, 2, 1), slider still in the green at 30% which isn't bad. At 100% I'm generating 128 . Researching Maths and quite far behind Fred and Churchill in tech (Mono,Monarchy,Currency,Archery,CoL,Maths,MC,HBR). By points I have 464 vs 992 and 749 for Church+Fred respectively.

The scout revealed pigs to the south so I settled 1sw. I was hoping for more food and wasn't interested in fishing/clams, since I could see that another city to the north would be able to access them later.

Because of the gold, I decided the best way to achieve tech parity would be wkr techs then Machinery bee-line, as Obormot did in a deity-level GOTM an eon ago. So at 1AD, that's where I'm at. Unfortunately, the AIs I know still haven't researched Alpha, but no biggie. I'm building GSes to bulb Optics for a quick caravel or two and then Astro for naval superiority. I expect to be able to achieve tech parity at one of those points.

I have made a serious mistake and at this point expect to have insurmountable difficulties later on. I should have researched IW before MC and stone-aged Churchill. The war economy would have financed my economy and growth, despite the increased maintenance and WW. Now Churchill has 11 cities and will be able to produce units far faster than I can. If he DoWs me, I'm vegie burger. Pity, because otherwise, I've played this just right, better than any other deity game I've played in the GOTM series.

Good luck to the rest of you...!

Took the Diety save...not because I have any chance, but to see how difficult it was compared to my normal level of play.

Plan was to rex to grab sufficient land. Nice map from this perspective, I blocked the Eastern and Western approaches then backfilled, although I missed the Eastern gems site further south which would have been handy.....And what is with the inaccessable mountain valley?

Where did you settle and why? - In place to utlise the gold and seafood. - Plan for capital to be whip/rex centre then science centre to try for spaceship win.
Was your UU of any use on this particular map? - No. - In my games I find the Celtic UU not that great. In this game I wasn't going for a military game so UU didn't figure. Used warriors to fogbust and axe's to remove Barb threat.
How did you get along with your neighbors? - Dandy. - Adopted Churchills religion to keep him sweet.
Oh, and... did you survive this far? - Yes.

Settled in place, was all pumped up for a rush. Found out we were semi-isolated, bummer. Tried to expand instead, four barb warriors and an archer began marching up on me just as I settled my 2nd city. Managed to build one axe, but it, along with a warrior only killed the archer and a warrior. Quit after losing my 2nd city and looking at three warriors vs my one left in the capital, and copper pillaged.

Contender save.

Where did you settle and why? - In place.
Was your UU of any use on this particular map? - No. (I got one barb city, but axes would have done the job as well.)
How did you get along with your neighbors? - Fine. But Churchill becomes less and less happy with my borders.
Oh, and... did you survive this far? - Yes.
Oh, and... are you angry with the mapmaker? - Um, yes. I understand that a BOTM isn't anything like the artificial HoF environment, but honestly...denying us stone on deity is just plain evil. And the abundance of desert instead of any cottageable or powerful SE-able place wasn't actually nice either....

Well, I built the Great Wall, 2 workers and 1 settler before starting the Pyramids, which I missed by 4 turns. Got some 4 cities by 1AD. Both Churchill and Fred have more than twice my cities and score.

The interesting thing is that, although I hardly (if at all) built cottages nor employed scientists, I can can keep up tech-wise: The Great Wall did it's job and granted me the godlike early Great Spy - my only GP so far. The plan is to head for circumnavigation and infiltrate the leader AI with a 2nd Spy.

And after that?
Well, I honestly don't know. Maybe abandon the game. Or does anyone know how to win a deity game with a moderate empire if you haven't invested in either cottages or specialists early on? I don't think I can get enough early gunpowder units to even think of attacking England...and heading for the UN with spies but without research is out of question either.

Contender Save
Where did you settle and why? - In place for multiple food tiles, extra hammer, coast, and fresh water.
Was your UU of any use on this particular map? - Surprisingly, no.
How did you get along with your neighbors? - Very well. Nice to have two continent-mates who are both reliably well-behaved at "pleased." We are all happy Hindus, and that should last through Liberalism and free religion.
Oh, and... did you survive this far? - So far, so good.
Oh, and... are you angry with the mapmaker? - I could never be upset with having enough room to build (especially on Deity), but it was an interesting bit of mis-direction with the unique unit and world type.

Summary:
Prepared initially for expansion by war, then switched to settler expansion after the position clarified. Didn't try for any wonders (and they appeared to be going quite early anyway). Got one Barb city (slightly misplaced but I wasn't about to raise it and risk losing the territory). Built 6th city in 150 BC and concentrated on basic buildings and Libraries to prep the way for universities and Oxford ASAP. Aiming at Space or Diplomatic now, but worried that further expansion will be necessary to have a realistic shot at space. The Deity AIs' productive advantages are just so powerful that I'm afraid that trying to win with only our current territory might be hopeless. Anyone have any insight into this? Can the space race be won in a peaceful Deity game with only 8 or 9 cities?

At 1 AD Civil Service is within sight. Will beeline Liberalism with an eye toward getting Rifling ASAP if getting a jump on Churchill appears possible. Then maybe cannons vs Fred? Would love to claim the whole continent for myself but not optimistic about the chances of success. Or, maybe just stick with a straight-up race through Astro, SM, & Physics to space -- hoping that all the necessary modern resources will be revealed within our territory? Looks like Fred is going to be the big-time population leader in this game so diplo looks difficult right now. We'll see, I guess...

Stats:


Buildings at 1000 BC: 1 Barracks, 1 Granary, 1 Monument, 1 Library.

Buildings at 1 AD: 2 Barracks, 5 Granary, 3 Library, 1 Lighthouse, 5 Monument, 1 Academy



Techs at 1000 BC = 13: Alphabet, Iron Working, Bronze Working, Writing, Pottery, Animal Husbandry, Mining, Mysticism, Polytheism, Fishing, Wheel, Agriculture, Hunting.

Techs at 1 AD = 23: Currency, Construction, Code of Laws, Math, Monarchy, Priesthood, Monotheism, Masonry, Sailing, Archery, + 1000 BC techs.

-----

Unsolicited Advice:
Hellwitch mentioned a walkthrough in the BOTM22 announcement thread that he thought contained some good insights for playing Deity games. I've been reading through it over the last few days and I agree with Hellwitch -- if you are looking for ideas about how to face Deity games then you need to check out these threads. I don't know who Snatty is -- and I don't agree with every little piece of strategy advice he gives, especially concerning the use of great persons -- but he is a wonderful (and hilarious) writer and his threads present a wealth of ideas that you can use to improve your Deity game performance. Check them out! Here are the links:

Snatty's "Don Deity" Game Walkthrough

Snatty's BTS High-level Strategy Article

Where did you settle and why? In place, because it was a pretty nice spot and not worth wasting a turn to try to improve it.


Was your UU of any use on this particular map? No. I captured one and razed one barb city with them, but as other mention, axes would have been enough. No, strike that... Axes were enough. No, strije that... ONE axe actually took a barb city defended by one lone warrior. And this is deity???

How did you get along with your neighbors?

Churchill founded Confu and that was the only religion on the continent, so it was a love-fest with Fred and Winnie and me. The only neighbors who are jerks are the Barbarian nation (that's their job, I guess), and Hannibal. But Hannibal can't get here from there, so screw him.

Oh, and... did you survive this far?

At this point I still have dillusions that I might actually pull off a win.


Sorry... I have feverishly looked for my screenies and autolog that I know I saved but now cannot find. I went for worker techs, BW and then Masonry to build GW and Pyr. 2 turns into the GW it was BIFAL, so I switch to Pyramids and chopped like a maniac. (Original builds were something like WB>warr>warr>worker>worker>settler). I got really lucky that city 2 had horse, which helped it pump out settlers and escorts that could kill barbs. I DID manage to get the Pyramids, including a 3-pop rush at the end to shave a few turns. Without stone and IND trait, this was my greatest worry and also my greatest success. After the said techs, I beelined alphabet and was able to trade my way to virtual tech parity (some AI had no writing!). All thanks to the gold mine and sea food commerce.

My first GP was a Great Engineer, and he popped the Parthenon, which thus gave me bonus on my specialist economy.

While the capitol was doing that, the other cities were fending off barbs and taking care of the REX, which I did fast enough to push the economy to barely plus money at 0% research. I got the gems in the SE and a city at the SW passage to block Churchill. Winston managed to get one settler through my open borders, but I settled early (not chosen spot, but just hastily setled) to prevent him getting the western iron spot. He found one tile north of the mountains that became dover, which had spice or dye or something like that. At 1AD I think I was at about 6 cities with room for maybe a couple more.

All in all, I feel like I'm doing things right, I'm accomplishing the important aims, and staying competetive technologically. And so of course... I'm firmly in last place, and 7th in every demographic.

Military victory is out of the question, and to be honest I'll never contend in a space race with these deity production and research bonuses. I'm already far behind the leader in culture and with only 1 religion do not see that as winnable before a space launch. Therefore, I will beeline Mass Media and try to wiggle a diplo victory out of that. Its still plausible at this point.

Can the space race be won in a peaceful Deity game with only 8 or 9 cities?

Click to expand...

Sure... that sounds just about right for a Duel or Tiny mapsize.

Adventurer save, and very little experience at the Immortal level.

Where did you settle and why? In place. Initial build Worker/Worker/Settler/Warrior/Warrior. Initial research = bee-line Bronze Working, Agriculture, Fishing, bee-line Pottery.

Was your UU of any use on this particular map? Yes, captured and kept one Barbarian City. Could it have been captured with Axes? Maybe, but it might have taken more and some might have been lost in the attempt. The Barbarian city was on a hill defended with three archers, no city walls. I attacked with five Gallic Warriors that had Combat I/Guerrilla I & II promos from a neighboring hill. Captured the city easily, and two Barb Workers as well. One Gallic Warrior later killed another Barb Archer that tried to get the captured workers. Gave all the victorious Gallic Warriors the City Raider I promo.

How did you get along with your neighbors? OK so far. I haven't had any religions spread to my cities as yet, so that is helping.

Oh, and... did you survive this far? Surprisingly yes I didn't think I would be at this point. The semi-isolated start with no neighbors near by probably helped.

My empire status at 1 AD...

6 cities built, 1 Barbarian city captured and kept.
Economy tanked, Science Slider at 20% and still losing money.
Trying to get some cottages growing, running some Scientist specialists in a couple of cities, but pretty far behind in the tech race so far.

Plan for the rest of the game...

Try and survive as long as possible. Have room for two or three more cities on my end of the continent without going to war. Need to get the economy improved and get those sites settled pretty soon. May try for a UN Diplomatic Victory; all other victory types already look out of reach.

Well, it is my first Diety game and second GOTM attempt after miserably failing with Joao in BOTM21...

Let's start and have a look around - 2 corn, 1 clam and lots of tree-covered hills and grass..perfect setup for a strong production city. Thoughts about spamming UUs early on start creeping in. Can go 1S to also get the pigs, but will lose the coast, so I settle in place. Having 3 solid food sources + a river is more than enough. The pigs might be useful for a further city down south..

The scout ventures south along the coast and soon gets to a tight jungle passage with mountains to the West and gems a plenty...That where we meet Churchill's envoy and after a cup of tea my scout continues South. The passage opens up in a nice valley with a big river, pigs and gold...Churchill's mainland should be close by now...

Meanwhile I am exploring to he West of my capital with a Warrior who discovers some sheep...He is recalled as some barb archer shows up from the south and heads for Bibracte. Our warrior bravely fortifies a forest hill near the capital and the unsuspecting archer falls prey..back to exploring...

So after awhile the situation starts to clarify...lots of mountains in the middle and two choke points West and East..Fred also makes an appearance, but Churchill closes the gap, so I don't have direct access to Fred. Distances are big, so I vote against any early wars, can use UUs as good defenders though, as probably all my cities will be on hills.

Techwise I go agri, bronze and then towards literature. I won't be building an army, but the production power of the capital should not go to waste - i might get a couple of WWs...after building a worker and a warrior I start a stonehenge that is completed 2520 BC...as I will be expanding, a free monument is more than welcome (and that was the only wonder I could build anyway). Now I should get the Great Library...while teching forward, I build a few settlers, workers and axemen.

Where should I settle? well, keeping in mind maintenance costs, some source of money will be best - getting the gems to the South is ideal, as I only need mines to work them (and iron working to clear the jungle) + I will close the East chokepoint. If I manage to go as South as the pigs and gold close to Churchill...that would be brill. Well, I settled next to the gems keeping also the fish source in the cross. Meanwhile a barb city spawned on a hill south of the pigs...tough situation - I have 2-3 axemen there and there are barb archers fortified in the city. I fortify on the hill nearby hoping they'd come out, but no way... However, Churchill arrives in good mood with a few swordsmen and I start dreaming how he would weaken the defences and open the gates, so that I can march in to the throne..Well two turns later Churchill just crushes the defenders as if they weren't archers in a city on a hill, but some warriors out in the plains. My axemen are kicked out of the area..not even tea this time.

Meanwhile in the center...a barb city has appeared near some dye, silk and corn...It is on grass, so 2 axemen take care of the archers. I am tempted to destroy it and resettle on the nearby hill, but will lose the corn, so I keep it.

While I have been busy East, the sneaky Churchill has crept up the West passage and settled on the edge opening into my lands...thats not good news...I quickly settle a 4th city on the coast West of the silk city and, thanks to the automatic monuments, I close off any further expansion plans of my neighbour.

And let's look at the capital - my working bees have built me a Statue of Zeus in 200BC and now is time for quick chop-chop towards the Great Library. That's where we are in 1AD:

4 cities, half a dozen axemen, 2 couples of workes buzzing around, a couple of Wonders and 8 turns from the Great Library. It should be promptly chopped in 3 turns, so keep fingers crossed. If someone beats me to it, I would have chopped half the trees around the capital for nothing...

I am reasonably happy with how things are going, but there are some serious concerns - my score is more than twice as low as Church and Fred...my army is no match and Churchill can wipe me out swiftly...going forward, should try to make friends, hopefully his religion spreads to my lands soon...then we can have tea again.

Welcome to the Forums, defy.extreme.
You are a braver man than I.

kcd_swede said:

Sure... that sounds just about right for a Duel or Tiny mapsize.

Click to expand...

Ha! That's what I was afraid of... Looks like exploring the military option may be the only hope for getting to space then. Sobering challenge...

OK, I've played 'somewhat' past 1 AD , so I guess I can at least post up to that point.

I founded on the starting location - good food sources, fresh water, plains hill for an extra hammer, lots of forest and production tiles, coastal access to build water based buildings and facilitate trade, all in all a pretty nice starting location!

First build was Worker - first Tech was Agriculture (finished right before Worker finished), followed by Fishing to get fishing boats going.

After that Mining and BW. Cool, Copper is close. My poor scout got done in by a Barb Warrior, so I had to build more scouting units and chose Warriors for that task. Sent 2 Fishing boats on opposite trips around the continent, and 2 Warriors to scout the interiors.

After BW, went for Masonry. I was intrigued by the discussion of the Great Wall, so I built 2 more Workers and was planning a 3 Forest chop to finish off a Barracks missing just 2 hammers, and carry over to the Great Wall, but I must not know how these things work that well, cause only about 25 Hammers carried over. With all my futzing around, the AI beat me to it, so I ultimately just got some Gold.

After Masonry, AH to see where Horses are, then Wheel - Pottery - Writing. Horses were close to the SW, so founded 2nd city on coast nearby to gain Horses on expansion, and already had access to Pigs due to Bibracte's expansion. I had met England and Germany already, and England beat me to Writing so I had 1 OB already; signed a 2nd OB with Germany once I learned Writing.

I could grow Bibracte to 7, building something along the way, then switch to Settler, pop-rush in a turn or 2 and repeat. Got Granary and Library this way, then start on Axemen once Copper was connected. With 3 Workers I could keep my cities pretty developed and roaded.

Founded my 3rd city to the NW next to the Sheep (could share one of the Wheats and the Copper with Bibracte). Sent 3 Axemen SSW to the Silk River where a Barbarian city was already size 5 (Cimmeria); they quickly joined the Celtic empire - one space West of where I would have founded, but it was nice to have the free city.

Barbs founded a City at the chokepoint NW of English territory; this was a great block for me, and since it was loaded with Archers, a bit tough for my Axes, so I left it. My scouting Warrior had completely scouted England by this time, and my Work Boats sailed around the continent, so I knew about as much as I could at this point.

Founded City 5 (counting the Barb city as 4) on coast to SSE near Clams. I wanted the double-Gem/Fish site, and I could see an English Archer camped out right there, so I rushed another Settler and got city #6 founded in 375BC. This is my total city count as of 1 AD.

After Writing I was at a cross-roads in research. I decided not to do my typical Alphabet, but went for MetalCasting instead, figuring the Forge would be very useful for Production and Happiness, and it should be enough to trade for Alphabet if the AI learned that for me in the meantime. This was painful research - thankfully I was getting Libraries up in most cities, so I could run Scientists; my research was usually around 10% otherwise, due to city and unit costs. (A drawback to getting a very distant 6th city founded, but the Gems call out to me ...)

Finally got MetalCasting, and a GS along the way. I held him for later. Still no Alphabet, so that's next. And at 1 AD I have 2 more turns to complete it.

So 5 founded cities, 1 Barb city captured, Horses, Copper hooked up.

My UU - I don't even know IW yet, so no impact. I'm getting along well with my neighbors (except for those Barbs!, but I haven't lost much more than a scout to them). And I've survived this far ... For the future I'm inclined to try for Space just because I'm not a big fan of combat and I know I'd have to do a lot at this level. Peaceful Deity Space ... yeah, right!

Noone else that built the Great Lighthouse? Really? Very good map for it.

Not much time and don't have access to my saves right now so I'll post more later.

Where did you settle and why? In place for obvious reasons.

Was your UU of any use on this particular map? Not really, Churchill is so far off and I didn't fancy my chances against protective archers on a hill. Unfortunately 3XP isn't enough for G3 and theocracy/vassalage aren't available early on.

How did you get along with your neighbors? Peace for now.

Oh, and... did you survive this far? Yes.

Rusten said:

Noone else that built the Great Lighthouse? Really? Very good map for it.

Click to expand...

I went for it... that early wb from Churchill, together with good coastal capital and gold (so I can afford the detour by sailing -> masonry) made it my first target of the game...
I'll post a report today

Cheers

Contender save 1AD

Where did you settle and why? In place, site is perfectly fine, and loosing a turn in normal praying for more food is not my fun...

Was your UU of any use on this particular map? What UU?

How did you get along with your neighbors? very well! OBs, trading a resource each, and accepting the continental faith: Confucianism founded by Churchill... Good thing Fred and Churchill don't attack at pleased (Stalin instead of Churchill would have been evil )

Oh, and... did you survive this far? Yeah!

Oh, and... are you angry with the mapmaker? Actually, I am pretty pleased by Niklas' job (you own me five euros ): Our peninsula is quite easy to block off, and highlands is a difficult terrain for the AIs (which usually perform better in fertile cottageable land).

OK some more details:
Started with agriculture and a worker to improve both corn (yeah a bonus one!), then went for BW to start chopping and see if I'll have barb problems...
Answer is no:

I quickly met Churchill with a wb, so the for the reasons stated before, I started the Great Lighthouse path after a quick detour by The Wheel to unlock axes:


Build order was: worker -> warrior -> worker -> settler -> axe -> lighthouse -> great lighthouse...

Founded Vienne quite late because both warriors quickly fed the barbs, and I had to wait for my axe to reach the site:

It has the four resources, riverside, and corn in first ring.

Some more chops later:

It's hard to read, but it's 1600 BC.

tech path went then pottery -> writing ->med -> PH -> COL.
I had quickly chopped a library in Bibracte and was hoping for a scientist to build an academy, earning gold while doing so. Of course I got a merchant at 40% (but I am quite pleased finally as imho an academy wouldn't have been so hot). So I had put the slider to 100% again, but without the acad, Churchill beat me to COL...
As I didn't want to make a COL <-> alpha trade with Freddy (wanted to make multiple trades), I did this:



And started backfilling. iirc I got IW, monarchy, alpha for it. Fred didn't want to trade math ("We have our reasons", read I am building the HGs...) so I did this then currency, then started CS (actually I detour by AH too at some point).

Meanwhile I was busy making settlers/workers/axes to block those deities:


The report wouldn't be complete if I forgot to show you this:



and this:


With the lack of cottageable land (and lack of mids too), I finally vetoed the academy to found Tao... Hopefully that will delay the AI a bit, and I am planning a big switch in HR/bureaucraty/Caste/pacifism asa CS comes in. Should work nicely with those pleased AIs (thus I am 100% safe even without any military ).

Some stats:
7 cities, 26 pop (trying to improve this )
one settler ready to settle fish/iron in the north next turn
8 workers
1 trireme
5 axes (yeah yeah I know...)
a GM and a GS used for bulbs

and techs:

Not so bad for now...

Overview (you can see the 7th city near the clam in the east coast):


No cottages for now

Plan: reach lib, and meanwhile figure out how I'll kill CG3 LBs on hills behind castle... (space looks hard with this land only)
Bad thing is that I screwed the attack of a barb city (nearly like defy.extreme)... so the HE will be hard to unlock. That was near the gold/pig site, I ended up with an axe C1, CR1 against a fortified archer on a hill. But Churchill was next to the city with a C1 axe... As I was afraid of deity jokes (Churchill taking this city without scratchs), I took the fight at 54% or so and failed miserably Ofc the Bull quickly grabbed the city My back up plan is to NOT fogbust the western coast and that desert island in the east, and play at "hunting galleys" with my trireme... hopefully it will work.
My second back up plan is ofc to build the Globe somewhere.
If I can kill Churchill, this game could end well... always easy to say...

Cheers,
Raskolnikov

Contender save.
Settle in posiition, build worker research mining.
First difficult decision was what to research next. I had not met anyone, and looked fairly isolated, so the quick axeman rush would likely fall flat. Agriculture keeping the worker busy looked unlikely to be bad.
Second difficult decision was what to build second. After some consideration I decided on Stonehenge, a key wonder for charismatic leaders.
Since I now anticipated Great Prophet points, shooting the religious path looked an interesting idea. So I researched Polytheism, hoping for Hinduism expecting Confucianism.
I lucked out, founding Hinduism, did not convert, as I wanted to ensure I was the same religion as Winston.
Time now for the long delayed Bronze working.
Bronze working and Stonehenge arrived on the same turn.
Interestingly my scout had found a barbarian city at the end of the east pass, past the gem mines. Guarded by several archers. Quite tough but I suspected worth it.
Slavery research priesthood, then quickly chop out a second worker, barracks and eight axemen. The muscle came just in time as barbarians started appearing. I found a nearer second barbarian city just before the west pass, only defended by warriors so easy.
Started on the oracle while my army marched along the mountain pass.
Researched Writing next then pottery. Three archers proved no match for six axemen and a third city.
Winston switched to Hinduism so did I
Oracle built, Cod of laws and Confucianism. Built granary then started chopping out settlers like crazy.
Research Fishing and Sailing.
Tech is starting to slow down, when I get my first prophet.. Kong Maio gives my finances a much needed boost.
Built on west pass, the barbarian city was on grassland and I wanted to block Winston on a hill. Next gem mine, and then island.
Meet new friends, Orange is first to Alphabet and get iron working form him.
Animal Husbandry and build city next to horses. Then masonry.
Idiot Winston can&#8217;t make his mind up and switches to Confucianism, I switch too.
Winston is second to alphabet, I really hate to help him but beggars can&#8217;t be choosers. I get a bunch of stuff for COL, and switch to HR and OR.
1AD comes with me 3 turns off mathematics. 9 cities with space for two or three more. Still in last place, but if Winston and Hannibal just give me enough time to build up my economy I fancy my chances. I am getting 14 gold from KM and 12 turns off KV, That financial boost should help compensate for the level in the years to come.