CO-1. Emperor, Continents, Epic. Just win

I've taken the first 20 turns now, and I don't think I've ever been this lucky, getting 2 techs from huts. After moving the Warrior east and the Settler west we only picked up 2 desert tiles. I went for the cottage approach to our starting techs, so went for the Wheel first and then Pottery.

Turn 0 (4000 BC)
Washington founded
Washington begins: Worker
Research begun: The Wheel

Turn 1 (3960 BC)

Turn 2 (3920 BC)
Tech learned: Hunting
Tribal village results: technology

Turn 3 (3880 BC)

Turn 4 (3840 BC)

Turn 5 (3800 BC)

Turn 6 (3760 BC)

Turn 7 (3720 BC)
Washington's borders expand

Turn 8 (3680 BC)

Turn 9 (3640 BC)
Tech learned: Archery
Tribal village results: technology

Turn 10 (3600 BC)

Turn 11 (3560 BC)
Buddhism founded in a distant land

Turn 12 (3520 BC)
Tech learned: The Wheel

Turn 13 (3480 BC)
Research begun: Pottery

Turn 14 (3440 BC)
Tribal village results: a little gold

Turn 15 (3400 BC)

Turn 16 (3360 BC)

Turn 17 (3320 BC)

Turn 18 (3280 BC)
Washington finishes: Worker

Turn 19 (3240 BC)
Washington begins: Warrior

Up next: Mutax for the next 15 turns.

What's our starting continent look like so far?

Sorry, forgot to put a screenshot up I was in a hurry. It looks like our early expansion will be limited by the desert to the South west, so I can't see a lot of good spots ATM

Yikes! That terrain is pretty dismal. Hopefully once we knock back a bit more of the fog of war things will look a little nicer. The stone does make a pyramids gambit a possibility though.

Great luck for us on the GH's though. Hunting & archery aren't bad techs to have - I almost never research them, but getting them for free that early in the game is nice. It also gives us a fall-back if we don't have copper for axes.

HOLY CRAP!!! 4 whopping resources i have no idea how you guys are going to manage this one.

With that terrain I definately think we're going to need an early wonder, but the question is would the Pyramids or Great Lighthouse be better for the number of shields? With that massive desert going mainly for coastal cities is an option.

Getting the Pyramids could work here, but I'm not sure if there's really enough food to take advantage of Representation properly, which considering their cost I think you have to be able to do.

And I'm praying for copper in our capital's radius ATM. I don't often think about this, but if there's some nice terrain to the west would moving the palace be a possibility here later in the game if we conquer some cities? Or would it just be unnecessary?

There is likely a seafood resource to the NW. I don't think I've ever seen a starting position without two of something close by. Could also be up in the tundra tho (silver or deer or furs).

I think the map generator might be programmed to automatically give you at least two resources in your starting location's radius. That probably means that there's Iron/Copper/Horses there, that we just can't see yet

Hum. Lots of deserts around and not much resources.

For Mutax's turn, I suggest going for mining after pottery and maybe building a road instead of a farm until pottery is researched.

Relocating the capital sounds like a good idea in the long term. I tend to be a bit too much warmonger in the early game to think about wonders, but that leads to practically no great people, so I am not against the idea.

I opened the game to get a closer look at the map and I can see a few things that do not show up very well in the screenshot: We can see the coast around every toundra tiles W of the fishes, so no toundra resource there. There is a river 3 tiles south of the pigs across the desert. The tile W of the pigs looks like flood plains, but it is actually a desert.

Colony did not move the units on his last turn and if I recall SG rules, he was supposed to.

Normally I don't think too much about building early wonders either, but I don't think we'll be running out of space to settle for a while, and founding cities across the desert will cost a lot in distance maintenance. And we have stone quite close, making it even easier to choose.

fbouthil said:

Colony did not move the units on his last turn and if I recall SG rules, he was supposed to.

Click to expand...

Oops

Sorry about that

lol, no need to apologyze since you are the one who played one less turn than you should. Actually, it kinda means you apologized to yourself!

So I have finished my 15 turns, here is a summary of what happened early in our kingdom's history:

Preturn (3240 BC)
Worker starting farming a flood plain

T2 (3160 BC)
Warrior defeated a lion

T7 (2960 BC)
Pottery discovered, started researching mining

T8 (2920 BC)
Warrior defeated a panther, promoted to woodsman 1

T10 (2840 BC)
Farm done, work started on a cottage on F. Plain

T13 (2720 BC)
Warrior defeated a lion; First warrior recruited at HQ, fortified in the city, and started on an archer

Here is the layout of our land as of 2600 BC



So far we haven't met any neighbors, we most likely are isolated on an island ourself. The land looks marginal, with a big swath of desert to our southwest, so this game might prove to be a challenge. Since there is no immediate pressure on land grab, we can focus more on wonder strategy, pyramid, oracle, and the great lighthouse are all good early candidiates. As for the second city location, I suggest we settled near the stone and on the coast. We should research masonry so that we can build a quary, with double production speed and chopping from two workers, we should be able to grab the pyramid. Then with the first engineer, we should be able to use him to rush the great lighthouse or the great library.

Well I definately agree about going after the Pyramids now we know we're most likely isolated. Would a cultural victory be possible from here? I don't really have any experience with them so I don't know how hard it is without early religions

colony said:

Would a cultural victory be possible from here? I don't really have any experience with them so I don't know how hard it is without early religions

Click to expand...

Pulling off a cultural without access to early religions is bloody difficult in my experience. I don't mean early as in the first 3 religions, just early enough to get 3-4 religions spread around enough to build the cathedrals at a reasonable time.

Of course, that brings up another reasonable strategy: head down the religious path on the tech tree, build stonehenge, and use the GP to found Christianity. Above all, if we're *not* going to found a religion, we need to find a way to keep our citizens happy. Representation can help, and so can temples+state religion.

Anyway, I've got it. I'll take a look at it this afternoon.

A culture victory also depends on whether or not we are totally isolated on our continent, or whether there is a coastal crossing to reach the other civs. If it is the latter than a cultural victory is still a viable option. If we are totally isolated it would be extremely difficult.

If other civs are close by leave cities without any religious influence to 'steal' their religion. It's a great way to spread someone elses.

Hope to look at the save this afternoon, if I have time. Grogs might have already played by then.

Methos said:

A culture victory also depends on whether or not we are totally isolated on our continent, or whether there is a coastal crossing to reach the other civs. If it is the latter than a cultural victory is still a viable option. If we are totally isolated it would be extremely difficult.

Click to expand...

I know you can build a 'culture bridge' and cross a few squares of ocean on a galley. Do the religions spread over that bridge as well? In any case, we probably won't know if that's even possible for quite a while. Unless there's something really close, we won't know if it's even possible until we build a coastal city and send a galley/fishing boat around the continent. Since that will be a while, I think for now, the safest course is to assume we *are* completely isolated and tailor our strategy to that.

That would be premature. You can get an archer out scouting the coast to find seafood, and settle your second or third city there, then whip two work boats (the first for the seafood resource to recover pop quickly) with little effort.

Turn 35, 2600 BC: Everything looks OK.

Turn 36, 2560 BC: Mining in -> BW next (18 turns.)

Turn 37, 2520 BC:

Turn 38, 2480 BC: Our worker begins a mine on the pigs - weird I know, but 1) he has no squares that critically need to be developed right now 2) it'll be several turns before we get AH and 3) we'll be getting 2F+3H+1C from that square, letting us grow while getting 3hpt from a single tile.

Turn 39, 2440 BC:

Turn 40, 2400 BC:

Turn 41, 2360 BC: Washington grows (3)

Turn 42, 2320 BC:

Turn 43, 2280 BC: Mine complete. Washington producing 11/4/14 food/hammers/commerce.

Turn 44, 2240 BC: Our warrior finds a tribal village. Also, there's a section of the continent that's cut off by a mountain - we may not be stuck on an island after all, but we won't know until we get a ship.

Turn 45, 2200 BC: Washington archer -> archer. I pop the GH for 39g.

Turn 46, 2160 BC: I've got a good look at the 'lost peninsula' now. I can safely say it's not a land bridge, just 3 tiles cut off from the rest of the continent.

Turn 47, 2120 BC: Yikes! We've got a barb archer already. I've got our archer just outside our borders and I'm crossing my fingers he'll beeline for our archer. Rearrange tilles in Washington to ensure our next archer finishes before the barb gets there.

Turn 48, 2080 BC: Barb archer moved off. Still, I'm going to hold off on sending our archer our for a while so he's close by.

Turn 49, 2040 BC: Good news! We've got clams near the stone - that makes it a viable city location.

Turn 50, 2000 BC: We've got a barb warrior in sight now. Washington grows (4) I've rearranged tiles to slow growth and increase hammers, but the next player should probably check it and see if it suits their needs.



The barbs have started popping up. This reminds me of that Catherine/Emp/island start that was posted in the S&T forum. I nearly got overrun in that one, so I think we'll need to be very proactive at fog busting. That desert hurts us because we're pretty limited on defensible spots SW of Washington.

Up next: Methos

Got it....

Wow! This is looking harder after every turn! I have won a game by cultural victory, but it was on prince level. In that game, I managed to get all 7 religions, 6 by conquest and one that spread from the other continent. The cathedrals are very useful to get culture.

Besides the capital, I really don't see any good spot for the other 2 culture-building cities. We need cities with both food bonuses and hills. Near the fishes and the stone seems reasonable for small cities, but in the mid-game, they will use a lot of coast.

Anyway, here are some of the other civs from the wonder screen:
- Spanish (mysticism, fishing, conquistador replaces knight): Isabella (spiritual, expansive)
- Malinese (wheel, mining, skirmisher replaces archer) : Mansa Musa (spiritual, financial)
- Chinese (agriculture, wheel, Cho-Ko-Nu replaces crossbowmen): Mao Zedong (philosophical, organized) or Qin Shi Huang (industrious, financial)
- Roman (fishing, mining, praetorian replaces swordmen): Julius Ceasar (expansive, organized)

But, in our position, I am not sure it changes much to know our opponents...