King of the World #5: Isabella

Warrior rush france.
Chariot rush rome then germany. (rome first since praets will totally pwn your chariots while axes from germany won't.)
Then either kill lizzie or spread your religion (juadism and/or christianity.)

A short round, but we've already lost a race and made our first A.I. kill!

I started by founding the capital 1E:



And I'm once again on a "historically accurate names" kick, so our capital is Barcelona. We'll found Lisbon later

As you can also see, we've started on Polytheism (against my better judgement, but, then, we are Isabella) and popped a Scout from our Portuguese goody hut. That's usually a good thing, but as Spain, it's a bit of a downer. We've also started pumping Warriors.

A few hundred years later, Islam was founded in a distant land:



So that's probably Saladin. Luckily, it was taken with Meditation.

With our four Warriors ready and heading to the French border, I started on a Work Boat to work the northern Clams. Maybe that's a dumb move, but it's our only chance for an early improved tile.

In 3500 B.C., it was time to pull the trigger. My unwashed masses leapt into foreign territory, eager to rape and pillage. I was to receive two unpleasant surprises:



First, we were indeed going to have to make the full trek to Monotheism. Buddhism. Hmm. Asoka usually goes Hinduism, so this was probably Monty. Second, we could have made do with two Warriors.

Paris fell quickly with only one casualty:



So, that's where we stand. We have three unscathed Warriors ready to continue on to Berlin or Rome, or to hunker down and protect Paris. Is three enough to take another capital?

The worked tile in Barcelona will almost surely be changed so that the population grows before the Boat completes. What then? A Worker? A Barracks? A late try for Stonehenge? More Warriors?

And I guess we'll finish Polytheism and continue with Masonry and Monotheism. I can't shake the feeling that we should be grabbing Worker techs, though.

Worker techs first would indeed have been better... also another warrior instead of the workboat could have been a plan as well... Build another 2 warriors then take out rome seems to me like a plan...

Worth bearing in mind that Paris is going to be coming under massive cultural pressure from London (it's closer than would actually be allowed in any other game)...

OFC taking out another 1-2 civs would be best I think. But honestly this would be quite boring imo. I'd rather see you shoot for a wonder (oracle maybe?) and expand towards africa. You can then send out another army later (maces?) for lizzie and when you hit your first "big" military tech (rifling/steel/milsci) you can go on a rampage, taking out one european civ after the other.

Losing the religion is a bummer (well you shouldn't try to found any of the early anyway ) and worker techs are now in order.

Just another thought: Did you consider playing with no techtrading? This would at least help monty, fdr and honey a bit and would make the pace slower.

edit: @Gorrable: AFAIK 2-tile-distance doesn't apply if the cities are on different landmasses.

Didn't know that... guess that makes sense, or whoever played second wouldn't be allowed to settle in place.

Also, I'd like to agree about not rushing anyone else (at least not too much) - if you conquer Europe this early the game is done and dusted. On the other hand, I think Rome is on a hill and has Iron - once Caesar gets Praets he's going to be hard to take...

EDIT - OK, so Rome isn't on a hill. Wonder if I can make 3 mistakes in a row...

Kill Rome

Leave the Romans alone, focus on colonizing Latin America a.s.a.p.!

Build additional warriors and take Rome (definitely) and Berlin (maybe). I wouldn't worry about a religion as yet. You can always pick up CoL or Philosophy for a religion later. If you can have 4 capitol cities, you will be in a very strong position for later.

Sorry to jump the gun like this, but I never realized just how much fun Isabella's position could be.

I started out by changing up the citizenry in Barcelona:



This way, obviously, the Work Boat would complete the same turn the population grew. Also nabbed us a commerce.

I decided that having three Warriors just hanging out wasn't a good idea. It was a waste of resources, and besides, who knows what mischief they might get up to? At the same time, though, I was going to need a nemesis. Call me crazy, but I want a proper war against Rome, not some simple coup. So...



My intent, with three Warriors, was to choke, maybe pillage a few resources. Like Louis', though, Frederick's army consisted of a single Warrior! Well, I guess Paris has that much less cultural pressure to worry about:



Bam, as they say.

All of this early warring gave us a significant leg up on our enemies, but, honestly, I don't want that much of a leg up, and our "army" is pretty much exhausted, anyway. So I called off the dogs.

Strangely enough, all that didn't make us the "big cheese":



Must be a REXing Hattie or something.

So... three built Warriors netted us two extra capitals. Not a bad haul. And our lack of Worker techs gave us another juicy prize:



If I'd had my druthers, I'd've founded it in Paris to ward off English culture, but with Monotheism comes Organized Religion, so Berlin started up on a Missionary to at least contribute to French couture.

By 2500 B.C., we have exactly two Worker techs and two Workers. We have Masonry, which is helpful considering Paris' access to raw materials, and we have The Wheel, which will help us to connect our budding empire together:



As you can see, I'm working on a Wonder I almost always ignore, the Temple of Artemis. I'm grabbing it here for a couple of reasons: First, it's a major Cultural Wonder, which is obviously a plus; Second, Trade Routes are always nice, especially considering how big Paris can get, and Third, the free Great Priest will help us get our shrine in the short term, and will be helpful if we run a Religious Economy in the long term.

So here's where we stand in 2125 B.C.:



Techwise, so far we've gone Polytheism-Masonry-Monotheism-Wheel-Sailing. We're now working on Agriculture-Animal Husbandry, to get all these food resources online. Should we be going the Mining route?

Barcelona just finished a Settler, and just started on a Galley. So, what to do with the Settler? We could found Lisbon, or send him off to Denmark or Scandinavia. Or we could simply wait until the Galley is completed and found something in North Africa. Thoughts?

ToA isn't a gimme for a priest (I say this as an AP win whore). It's +3 prophet GPP and +2 MERCHANT GPP. It's actually a useful wonder for fast expansion because either GP can help pay the bills pretty easily, and you will get one fast, but a prophet is only a 60% chance there without further input.

Henge/oracle combo is a guaranteed prophet if you can get both. One by itself takes too long. The game really doesn't want the player to have EASY access to a fast prophet, and for good reason IMO.

Malmo with two pig resources sounds good but I'd first find Lisbon, to keep the upkeep costs down. Then, try pumping out another two to grab the North-African coast and the southern tip of Scandinavia

After all, with religion and the Great Lighthouse goodness, it's good to have a lot of cities.

TheMeInTeam said:

The game really doesn't want the player to have EASY access to a fast prophet, and for good reason IMO.

Click to expand...

Unless you play Egypt, of course

Wow, what good fortune! This is going to be a very strange game -- there will be room for expansion for some of your neighbors, that don't usually get the chance to expand. There's no rush to found Lisbon -- it's a good city, but not phenomenal, and it's in your backyard. And while North Africa is nice, I think Poland, Denmark, and Scandinavia are all better options. I'd say go for Poland -- the spot between the horses, cows, and deer.

Techwise, I think ag-ah, then mining-bw, is the best course of action -- you have copper outside Berlin, and there are tons of forests to chop.

fugazi said:

Unless you play Egypt, of course

Click to expand...

That's true...might as well add Arabia then also .

TheMeInTeam said:

That's true...might as well add Arabia then also .

Click to expand...

But no one in his right mind willingly plays Saladin! Anyways, do expand, expand expand! I'm not sure if this game is going to be challenging at all what with most of Europe under your control

Should make founding Poland first priority, second should be Scandinavia and North Africa (west of the second river with the forest IMO, second Iberian city should be the far SW forest) but before you bother with that one, you should keep pushing into Poland more to keep Russia at bay than anything else.

Caesar should get on pretty good terms with you once Christianity spreads to him, and if you get Poland and N Africa he should be pretty well boxed in. I'm looking forward to the conflict with Russia, Cathy is not going to be a very nice neighbor for long.

Are you roleplaying, Neal? Letting the Romans alive is asking for trouble... don't you remember what happened in Fred's game?

Anyway, you should prepare for some more extra wars... Europe is crampy and hates will go high fast. And not every one loves the religious buddies as much as Izzy ...

One eensy teensy problem with settling Poland, that I can't believe wasn't shown on the closing map screenshot...

Gah, that's very not good.

Maybe try and get St Petersburg? Should be very nice with GLH and cottages.
If not just go for Scandinavia and N Africa, still plenty of room to expand over there before you have to fight, although I don't really feel safe with Cathy so close.