Bede04C-The Griddle (C3C1.22Emperor)

The fat's in the fire in "The Skillet". Hammurabi abdicated and will spend the rest of his short life combing lice from his beard on a mountain......

"The Skillet" is pounded flat and the heat is on......

William of Orange graciously accepts the invitation to lead our tribe and a new world sprouts from the sputtering gobbets.

Variant: One-Built City

The Start:



The Stats:

Barbarians: ROAMING.
Climate: ARID.
LandForm: CONTINENTS.
Map Size: STANDARD.
Ocean Coverage: 60%.
Temperature: WARM.
World Age: 5 BILLION YEARS.

Opponents:
Iroquois
Celts
Rome
Inca
France
Carthage
Greece

The Roster:
scout
el_filet
Bede
Zakahrov
M60A3TTS

(See below for rotation)

I'll be glad to participate if there's a slot open.

checking in

nice looking start. i hope this time there will be some enemies close-by.

Hello again everyone.

Doesn't that start look so much better than the last one?

With a coastal start we can send curraghs out asap and start meeting people.

Welcome M60.

@Zak, you want to build our first boat?

Suggested rotation:
Zakahrov
M60
el_filet
Bede
scout

Fine by me. Any objections to settling on the spot, worker SW to irrigate/road, curragh first build? Not sure on the research path though. I'll check the save now and come up with some ideas.

EDIT: We are Agr/Sea, so we get Alphabet and Pottery. I think we have 3 viable options:
1) Writing at min aiming for a Philosophy slingshot.
2) BW for spearmen.
3) The Wheel as Japan is not in the game.

I think Writing would be best as it has good trade value, which we will need to stay with the tech pace. If we can be first to Philosophy then that would be a bonus.

Please feel free to disagree with me.

Writing first and settling on the spot irrigating our bovine friend's pasture looks good.

Concur on writing, and boats. With the food bonuses available we can really make use of the commerce potential. So maybe the Writing, CoL, Philosophy, Republic gambit will work.

quick post to subscribe

4000(0)- Worker goes SW to cow. Amsterdam founded and the great shipyard sets to work on its first construction. Writing @ 20% giving us +4gpt.
I work the game instead of the cow for the extra shield.

3950(1)- Worker irrigating cow.

3900(2) to 3800(4)- zzz

IBT- Curragh > Curragh

3750(5)- With the Curragh built I switch work from the game to the irrigated cow. Worker roading cow. Curragh heads E.

3700(6)- Amsterdam size 2 (I love the Agricultural trait). Science to 10%, luxuries to 10%.

3650(7)/3600(8)- zzz

IBT- Curragh > Warrior for exploring our surroundings.

3550(9)- New curragh heads W. Worker roading BG.

3500(10)- Amsterdam size 3 plus border expansion. Luxuries to 30%.

IBT- Warrior > Warrior

3450(11)- Send warrior out exploring.

3400(12)- New road built; allowing me to drop luxuries to 20%.
My experience from the last game tells me that commerce is more important than shields at this stage of the variant. I therefore plan to build a road network before mines.

IBT- Yellow warrior appears next to our curragh.
Warrior > Curragh

3350(13)- The Yellows are the French. They have Masonry and 35g. They require Pottery. I attempt to negotiate an exchange of techs, but the price they demand is too high (5gpt + 60g). I will wait.

New warrior is fortified for MP duty. Luxuries to 10%. Worker roading BG.

IBT- French have discovered Bronze Working.

3300(14)- Amsterdam size 4. Luxuries to 20%.
I'm relieved I didn't trade for Masonry as I can get a much better deal for BW.
Trade with French: BW for Pottery + 2gpt + 51g.

3250(15)- zzz

IBT- Curragh > Worker

3200(16)- zzz

3150(17)- Worker roading forest/game.
Northern curragh meets Iroquois. They have Masonry, WC, CB and require nothing.
No trades are possible.

IBT- Worker > Granary

3100(18)- New worker moves to forest/game.
Warrior pops hut > A Gepid tribe teaches us Masonry.
French border spotted, they are not far away.

IBT- Roman warrior spotted near Iroquois cities. They have WC and 35g, requiring Masonry and Pottery.

3050(19)- Trade with Romans: Warrior Code + 35g for Pottery.
Both workers are now roading the forest/game.

3000(20)- zzz

Notes:

Possible trade: Sell WC to French for 98g. Or maybe wait until they have more gold?

Tax/Sci/Lux at 7/1/2 for +2gpt with 68g in the treasury.

2gpt is going to the French for 14 more turns.

There is an ivory to the N of Amsterdam. Statue of Zeus?

Granary in 8. Forest road in 1. Should the forest be chopped?

What are your thoughts on prioritising a road network over mines? I believe the extra commerce will be worth more than extra shields at this point. Also, should we build the Colossus?

The curragh NE of Amsterdam should head E. The other two should carry on along the coast.

Techs known: BW, Masonry, Alphabet, Pottery, WC. The Iroquois have CB. We get Writing in 30.

Amsterdam will grow every 2 turns with a granary.

Roster: (Please confirm)

M60 - up next
el_filet - on deck
Bede
scout
Zakharov - just built some boats

I've got it and can play tonight.

Looking at the start, seems like we're around 22spt at pop 12. Don't see a need to chop the forest, with the cow we can mine all 3 plains tiles. Next 10 turns will get the granary in and crank out workers to get us started to max productivity.

Don't think there's much doubt Joan will grab the ivory to our north. About our only chance there for ToZ would be to build a 6-8 vet archer team, prebuild for ToZ, then take whatever town appears and cut over.

Finally, I must confess my addiction to the GLib when the capital is shield rich and our civ starts with Alpha. Maybe writing>lit if it looks like a decent prebuild is available. Know some would rather have the swords for the shield investment.

The save

Preturn: Looks fine. I’ll dispense with logs given the level of activity, and throw in highlights:

Turn 2: Lux tax up a notch to keep Amsterdam happy.

Turn 4: Curragh says hello to Hannibal. We’re up pottery. He has 35g.

IBT 6>7 Amsterdam: Granary>worker

Turn 7: Hiawatha wouldn’t part with CB earlier, but Joan has it now and will sell for 84g. Done. Turn around and sell it to Caesar for 70. Hannibal just learned pottery, so he needs CB also. Still has his 35g. It’s not much, but all he has, so done. A net profit of 21 on that sale.

IBT 9-10 worker>worker

Turn 10: Our curragh SS Minnow finds Brennus. Even on techs. In fact, we’re even on techs with everyone. Mining and roading happening at Amsterdam. And done.

Post turn: 2 more people to meet, Greeks and Incas. No wonders in queue yet. Colossus could be built in 23 if next up wants to change queue from worker. Would actually be sooner with pop jumps and improved terrain.

I'm a big fan of the GLib as well.

Nice start gentlemen.

Roster: (Please confirm)


el_filet - up
Bede - on deck
scout
Zakharov
M60

got it

we can start on the colossus, but it's too soon as GLib prebuilt imo. we can try to net both, but i don't think we can afford the shields for that. we've gonna need an army soon.

2550 BC (0):
4 workers seems enought for now, change to temple


2510 BC (1):
meet incas, tech parity, 3 cities


2430 BC (3):
romans and french got IW, but we can't afford it

2390 BC (4):
iros & incas got IW (now can afford it for all our economy)

IBT:
french built lyon close to us in NW (will grab ivory with expansion)

2310 BC (6):
temple->spearman (i don't like regs, but i want to build the colossus)
buy IW from iros for 104g & 4 gpt
sell it to celts for a puny 30 g (we need the money, run 1.3.6 @-3 gpt until amsterdam growth in 4 turns)

2270 BC (7):
start suicide run (and realize afterward it's toward an already known continent )

IBT:
barb attack
incas pyramids

2230 BC (8):
spearman->colossus (we don't have iron, and there is none in sight. if we let amsterdam grow to 10/11, it can reach 20 spt. we need to wait for some more french expanding before we start conquering anyway)

2150 BC (10):
some exploring

notes:
we can still change to barracks, but i believe we should go for the 20 spt
in that case, make sure you mine the grassland first (unlike me) and don't chop the forest
you can trade IW to celts for wheel (we need to know if there are horses)
started road toward ivory, colony makes sense, even if its only for a short time

That French town is quite far from the others. Knowing the AI's tendency to settle near future resources, maybe there is a coal resource on the hill next to it?

I think the 2 curraghs in the NW of the map should be disbanded soon to save on unit support.

Definitely trade with the Celts for the Wheel. They will learn it soon enough anyway.

Roster check:

Bede - up and got it
scout - on deck
Zakharov
M60
el_filet

Four hundred years of peace and prosperity.

The three curraghs have finished their exploration as all nations are now met. The Dutch hold Writing as monopoly and can get many monies and much knowledge for it if we desire. Our shamans ae working on Code of Laws just as hard as they can, assuming we are going to aim for Philosophy and the Dutch Republic, but the direction can be changed to Literature for the Great Library at no loss. THe Colussus will finish right on time and Amsterdam is only about 10 turns out from 20spt.

Alternatively we could sell Writing for the many monies, and push to Mathematics for the ToZ. There are few resources other than ivory in our little corner of the world and horses in the French homeland. We will have to build some archers to secure the ivory but we can do that while researching maths.

Roster check:


scout - up
Zakharov - on deck
M60
el_filet
Bede

Brennus will give us horseback +86g, then we can get myst from another civ w/gold, etc an added bonus. I like the potential timing of SoZ. We should be able to get a decent prebuild from Pyramids, since only Cuzco is building it, and if it is where it appears to be, we could ride the prebuild all the way. If we mine another plains tile, that get us to 20spt in 5 at pop 11. 2 archers in 4 turns, than an archer a turn for 4 more gives us 6 archers in 9 turns. Then run Pyramids>ToZ build the rest of the way, ten turns brings it home in 19. Changing to math now gets us the tech in 18, we just need a few more gold pieces that we'll get by selling writing. Only thing that stands in our way is if we get hit up for gold that slows research.

...checking in... I see I'm up, but I haven't read the thread yet. Catching up after travelling over the holiday. I'll play this tomorrow night if that's okay.

Edit: Playing tonight...

Edit #2: Started into this last night, but was tired. Will finish my turns tonight.