Murky Waters wins a space victory in 1670 AD!!!
General Strategy Considerations
We decided that we would cottage our capital, not build forest preserves around it, because:
- Cottages will produce more base commerce, which gets the Bureaucracy bonus, compared with National Park scientists, which don't.
- If we went with preserves, then it would become a super-city as soon as we get Biology, but we couldn't pair National Park with both National Epic and Oxford. This way, we get two super-cities after Bio, the cottaged capital and the NP city.
- Going with preserves would allow better early-midgame production. We guessed that the stronger late-game research would be more important than this.
We took Civil Service from the Oracle. Although there was some discussion about a beaker difference in favour of Electricity, I think we chose to chase Civil Service because in the early game, gaining turns is more important than gaining beakers. CS would have taken around 7 or 8 turns to research by hand, but in the end, Electricity took just two turns.
We also focused on getting a huge empire, at the expense of early and midgame research. This was to make the research phase at the end go as quickly as possible. We'll find out whether this paid off when we can read the other teams' threads.
We wanted to use Liberalism to slingshot Assembly Line, and only then begin intensive research, but maintenance costs turned out to be too high, and we needed State Property before we got anywhere near AL. This plan was thus aborted, and we used Liberalism for Communism. Just imagine what would have happenned if we had been able to attack Shaka when we planned to. Would we have gotten to Comm. in any reasonable time?
I will be very interested to see how other teams deal with this.
Estimated launch dates through the ages
We made our first serious estimate at around t120, after we had started the war against Shaka, and guessed that we would need a 5-GP Golden Age. Here are our predictions from then on:
Code:
Turn | Predicted Launch Date
120 | t170
135 | t161 -------> No 5-GP Golden age required
143 | t154 -------> No 4-GP Golden age required
Actual date: t153
Turnset log
Turnset 1, played by LowtherCastle: 4000 BC - 3100 BC.
Pre-Play-Plan Turnset report
After some discussion, the scout moved NW-SW, revealing tundra and ice to the northwest, so
Murky Waters was founded in 3940 BC, one tile south of the starting location.
A worker was built and the scout revealed marble among the plains, before finding several food resources (rice, clams, pigs, fish, cows) to the south, and eventually a barbarian "battleship" (actually a highly promoted galley
).
The borders of a barbarian city are spotted across the water.
Techs learned:
Agriculture, Animal Husbandry
Turnset 2, played by ZPV: 3100 BC - 2500 BC.
Pre-Play-Plan Turnset report
Exploration continued, as the scout went south along the coast, meeting
Joao II of Portugal. A Settler was built in Murky Waters at size 3, allowing lots of overflow into a Library.
Techs Learned:
Writing
Turnset 3, played by klarius: 2500 BC - 2020 BC.
Pre-Play-Plan Turnset report
Frozen Fish was founded 3N of Murky Waters in 2500 BC. A Library was built in MW, and two scientists were hired immediately. The scout found some Portugese land, where Joao was being attacked by some highly promoted barbarian warriors. The team agreed to go for a Civil Service slingshot with the Oracle.
Techs Learned:
Mysticism, Meditation, Priesthood
Turnset 4, played by FiveAces: 2020 BC - 1540 BC.
Pre-Play-Plan, part 1 part 2 Turnset report
Discussion rises, as the team debate which techs to research, and what date the CS-slingshot should be. We agree on a variant that gives Bronze Working and The Wheel before CS, and a second Great Scientist. This carried some risk, because it delayed the Oracle by a couple of turns, but it sped up our early development substantially.
A Great Scientist was born in MW in 2020 BC, and he created an Academy there in 1960 BC.
A worker built in Frozen Fish completed a road to Murky Waters, giving a trade route.
Techs Learned:
The Wheel, Mining, Bronze Working
Turnset 5, played by jesusin: 1540 BC - 1060 BC.
Pre-Play-Plan Turnset report
A second Great Scientist was born and settled in Murky Waters, in the run up to the CS slingshot. With the aid of a little chopping, the Oracle was built in 1240BC in MW, and we revolted to Bureaucracy and Slavery in 1180BC. Meanwhile, our second city built a settler, and
Marble was founded 3 west of the capital in 1120BC. Immediately after this, an Airship was built to aid exploration. We met
Hammurabi of Babylon at this time, on the very same turn he met Joao.
Discussion covered a key point at this stage,
it takes fewer worker turns to chop+improve in one go than to chop and improve separately. Someone notices that jesusin is an anagram of jeniuss. As a native English speaker, I fail to see the significance of this.
Techs Learned:
Mathematics, Code of Laws, Civil Service, Pottery
Turnset 6, played by Gnejs: 1060 BC - 720 BC.
Pre-Play-Plan, part 1 part 2 Turnset report
Our Airship scouts the barbarian city, which turns out to be a behemoth called Atlantis, on a 1 tile island in the middle of the sea. It has many buildings, including Palace, Castle, Granary, Trading Post, Lighthouse, Levee, National Park, Globe Theatre, Heroic Epic, Barracks, Ikhanda, Drydock, Wall, Dun, Red Cross, Dike, Forge and West Point.
Our glorious redlined scout was sacrificed to a barbarian warrior, in a time-honoured tradition. Needless to say, the plank was walked by Gnejs.
The airship scouts some more, and meets
Shaka of Zululand, entirely by chance. We explored a patch of sea and one tile of the other continet, and Shaka moved a unit there IBT.
. The airship rebased in Ulundi, now known as the home of the Pyramids, since Shaka built them in 960 BC. From Ulundi, the airship met
Huayna Capac of Inca.
We researched Alphabet in 960 BC, and found that Sailing wasn't tradeable, but Iron Working was available. Immediately, we revolted to Confucianism to help our ailing happy cap.
We were in Settler spam mode, and prepared settlers for several sites, as you will see in the next turnsets. However, we were afraid of the barbarians. Klarius helpfully told us that they strongly prefer to land next to a city, however. This meant that if we didn't settle within one tile of the coast south of the ice, the marauders from Atlantis would leave us alone, and continue to harass Joao. We also took this into account later with our dotmaps, limiting the barbarians to a single possible landing tile, which we fortified with crack troops.
Techs Learned:
Alphabet, Iron Working, Archery, Sailing
Turnset 7, played by Erkon: 720 BC - 400 BC.
Pre-Play-Plan Turnset report
This was a time of extravagant building for our civ. How appropriate that Erkon took the helm for these turns!
Our exploring airship met
Wang Kon of Korea and
circumnavigated the globe, giving all our ships one extra movement. Two cities were founded;
KonTiki, on the island to the east, with fish, sheep and furs. gave us a much needed happiness resource, and had several good tiles to work. In the south, we planned our city locations, to work all the good tiles, but stay safe from the barbs.
C1, the first of these, was founded by Erkon, with Uranium, Iron, Wheat, Cows, and too many plains tiles to count.
Techs Learned:
Currency, Paper, Polytheism
Turnset 8, played by ZPV: 400 BC - 80 BC.
Pre-Play-Plan Turnset report
Discussion reached its peak during the run-up to this turnset, mostly due to LowtherCastle being on holiday. In the end, we decided we would found 4 more cities on the mainland, in the south ASAP.
Fine Leg (known as C3 in discussion) was founded 1N of the southernmost wines, with Rice, Cows and 2 wines. On this spot, there was only one tile where the barbs could land, and we placed a couple of maces there, for barbs to suicide amphibiously. This had the dual benefits of reducing the barbarian threat and giving our units experience, and ultimately allowing us to build the Heroic Epic. For the rest of the time, settlers were being built, and moving into position. Education was the research target during these turns, but with hindsight it might have been better to try and lightbulb it with a Great Scientist. Worker actions were co-ordinated so that enough forests could be chopped to build 6 universities in 2 turns when Education was researched.
Techs Learned:
Masonry, Monotheism
Turnset 9, played by LowtherCastle: 80 BC - 230 AD.
Pre-Play-Plan Turnset report
We researched Education in 1 AD, set tech to 0%, and traded for Construction. We kept research at 0% until we had built Oxford University. Two more cities were founded,
Mosquito Ranch in the far south, with Fish, Clams, Pigs and a number of lake tiles, and
Flood Plains on the south-west coast, a fast-growing city with no food resources.
We then met
Stalin of Russia a leader with few redeeming qualities. His main quality was that he had a little gold to trade to us.
Just for laughs, the barbarians were the first to Philosophy, and founded Taoism in Hun, a city south of Shaka. Freekin' builders!
They also decided that they wanted to attack Shaka, owner of The Great Wall, so they airlifted no fewer than FIFTEEN CR3 macemen to Hun, where they sat uselessly, glaring at Ulundi. Barbarians should not really target the home of the GW.
Techs Learned:
Education, Construction
Turnset 10, played by klarius: 230 AD - 470 AD.
Pre-Play-Plan, part 1 part 2 Turnset report
This was a key turnset. In the wise words
of our captain, one of the most important in the game!
Progress was fast, as we traded for Monarchy on the first turn, built Oxford on the second (260 AD), got a 10XP unit by fighting barbs, revolted to HeredRule and OrgRel, and built the Heroic Epic in C1. We decided that we would start a golden age for the building phase when we would train as many paratroopers as possible. For this, we needed the free Great Artist from Music. To increase the effect of this, we traded for Calendar, and started the Mausoleum of Maussollos.
Techs Learned:
Monarchy, Aesthetics, Literature, Music, Calendar, Gunpowder
Turnset 11, played by jesusin: 470 AD - 710 AD.
Pre-Play-Plan Turnset report
We settled our last city for some time,
SW Clams, with fish, clams, and a number of plains hills to be windmilled. Hammurabi built the (Christian) Apostolic Palace, something that would later give us some headaches, as he would try to pass resolutions against us. We built the MoM in 530 AD to compensate.
We started a Golden Age using the free Great Artist from Music, and discovered Rifling in 620 AD, and started to build up our force of paratroopers. The plan was to overrun Hammurabi and Shaka as quickly as possible, and reevaluate from there. Meanwhile, KonTiki, our island city, would build a couple of paratroopers to paradrop onto the other continent, and try to capture the lucrative barbarian cities there.
Techs Learned:
Rifling, Compass, Optics
Turnset 12, played by Gnejs: 710 AD - 900 AD.
Pre-Play-Plan Turnset report
The focus here was to get Astronomy as quickly as possible, so we could capture Ulundi at the earliest possible date. To do this, we traded for what little gold the AI had, but we needed 10 gold more for Astro in 800AD. We begged for 10 gold from Shaka. He gave it to us. Unfortunately, this gave him a peace treaty, so we had to delay our attack on him, and instead focus on the deserving-to-be-punished Hammurabi. This was a big setback, and we felt very doubtful about our chances after this, due to our units being in entirely the wrong places. We also struggled to capture barbarian cities in Europe, because units from Atlantis were being airlifted to replace the ones we killed.
Techs Learned:
Astronomy, Engineering
Turnset 13, played by FiveAces: 900 AD - 1020 AD.
Pre-Play-Plan Turnset report
We captured the barbarian city with silks to Stalin's west,
Libyan in 920 AD, and then
Declared War on Hammurabi in 940 AD. He tries to pass a resolution to make us stop the war against him - we defy it because we want to build National Park in Babylon. We also
Declared War on Shaka in 1000 AD, and captured
uMgungundlovu that turn.
Babylon fell to us in 1020 AD
Techs Learned:
Chemistry
Turnset 14, played by Erkon: 1020 AD - 1180 AD.
Pre-Play-Plan Turnset report
We discovered Biology in 1020 AD, so Babylon could start the NP as soon as it came out of revolt. We managed to capture
Dur-Kurigalzu,
Akkad, and
Nippur before we would have to decide what to do about the next AP vote. In the end, after a long saga of will-we-won't-we drama, we accepted Hammurabi's capitulation, before the vote was allowed to pass. Was this a wise move? Probably not. The next turn, we had a serious case of "Why didn't we think of that last turn" syndrome.
We captured
Ulundi in 1140 AD, and transported most of our paratroopers to Africa to continue the campaign against the Zulus.
Techs Learned:
Biology, Feudalism, Drama, Theology, Steam Power
Turnset 15, played by LowtherCastle: 1180 AD - 1340 AD.
Pre-Play-Plan Turnset report
Morale is low, but is raised by our capture of 13 Zulu workers, and all of their cities. Oh no, it did not take 8 turns, but just 5 turns for us to capture
Nodwengo,
kwaDukuza,
Ondini,
Nongoma,
Nobamba, and
Ndondakusuka.
Shaka was eliminated in 1280 AD Wediscovered that colony costs were high, and would become higher still, so we researched Liberalism and took Communism, rather than a more expensive technology. Meanwhile, we were preparing for the research phase of the game, and preparing for a thrid war. We considered settling a junk city to give to Huayna Capac, so he would meet Joao. That would mean Joao would trade Philosophy to us. However, this was unneccesary, because
HC peacefully became our vassal. This meant he met Joao, who didn't think Philosophy was a monopoly any more, and traded it to us. We entered our end-of-game Golden Age at this point, using 2 Great People. We also settled a city to the south of our capital, near Atlantis. Due to being the Greeks, this city was called
Athens
Techs Learned:
Printing Press, Metal Casting, Philosophy, Liberalism, Communism
Turnset 16, played by ZPV: 1340 AD - 1450 AD
Pre-Play-Plan Turnset report
We re-entered builder mode, as we settled three cities near the start of the turnset,
Morocco, in northern Africa,
Suez on the isthmus between Africa and Asia, and
Launchpad Tower on the river in Europe. We also captured the barbarian cities
Hun, (Taoist holy city in Zimbabwe),
Assyrian in Spain, and
Atlantis. We built the
Hanging Gardens in MW, for the bonus population in all our cities, and strove to research as quickly as possible, thanks to State Property removing most of our maintenance costs. For no particular reason
, we
Declared War on Joao II in 1420 AD, capturing
Guimaraes in the south with 3 seafood and cows,
Lisbon and
Faro on the East Coast. During these 8 turns, the research rate skyrocketed from less than 1000bpt to more than 2500bpt, allowing many technologies to be researched in just one turn each.
Techs Learned:
Guilds, Banking, Economics, Constitution, Corporation, Assembly Line, Electricity
Turnset 17, played by klarius: 1450 AD - 1530 AD
Pre-Play-Plan Turnset report
We captured a number of Portuguese cities (
Braga, Evora, Santarem, Lagos and Oporto), and despite some stiff resistance in the last of these,
Joao capitulated to us in 1490 AD. This was in spite of the disorganized mess (all those paratroopers all over the place
) that had been left by the previous player. We even captured
Easter Island Egg, the second barbarian city that existed at the start of the game. On the spaceship front, things went extremely smoothly, and we built the
Apollo Program in 1520 AD.
Techs Learned:
Industrialism, Rocketry, Steel, Railroad, Radio
Turnset 18, played by jesusin: 1530 AD - 1610 AD
Pre-Play-Plan Turnset report
LowtherCastle observed that we could MM our cities to give us more than 5000bpt, so we set ourselves the target of 1 tech/turn from here to the end, and launch one turn after all useful technologies are known.
However, thanks to excellent play by jesusin, we were able to outperform even this target. 3 Great Scientists were able to lightbulb the entirity of Computers, and thanks to starvation of cities by hiring scientists instead of working useless food tiles, we researched 9 techs in 8 turns, with thousands of beakers to spare.
Techs Learned:
Combustion, Plastics, Satellites, Composites, Fission, Computers, Fiber Optics, Fusion, Genetics
Turnset 19, played by LowtherCastle: 1610 AD - 1670 AD
Pre-Play-Plan, part 1 part 2 Turnset report
To get things finshed off in one night, we handed the reins to our fastest player - the one who believes in no MM at all, leaving all the city builds and worker actions to the governor. In a bizarre run of form, the governor builds the parts in cities with high production, and everything is timed perfectly. In 1630 AD, the Giant Metal Thing (TM) was sent to the stars, while the now infamous governor farmed over all our towns, to let our population grow as much as possible.
This was all forgiven when the spaceship arrived safely at Alpha Centurai, and much rejoicing was had when AlanH confirmed that everything was in order.