King of the World #5: Isabella

I think you've got enough for a future war with Rome. 3 cities is fine.

I'd recommend teching to Bronze Working to be able to defend against Rome (correct me if I'm wrong, but Berlin has copper, right?). Then take sailing and eliminate Lizzy. My experience is that she is a very easy kill on this map.

You are definitly going to need bronze working to fend off rome and even then shock axes are stil dicey against Praets. Perhaps you should try spreading chritianity to Rome to avoid any unnecessary headaches. As far as settling there is still a good spot on the baltic with fish and cows and a river, that should be your next city. Then settle scandinavia with an eye to destroying Lizzie next.

If you can convert Julius, and turn him into your attack dog, wouldn't wars to the east and south become incredibly attractive?


Waldo

In this round, we spread ourselves a bit thin.

I started out by scoffing at the proximity of the Russian border and founding Warsaw:



It's not an exact placement, but close enough. Should be a decent city, with fish, cows, and (wink, wink) a very good possibility of horses.

With the Galley completed, its first task was to ferry Barcelona's garrison over to check out the north African goody hut:



Experience. I'll take it, I guess.

1750 B.C. brought bad news, as the mountain shield that protects the Iberian peninsula proved to be a mixed blessing:



Hopefully this doesn't become a recurring problem.

Paris, though, quickly cast aside such worries, building a curiously pagan monument in the middle of our Christian empire:



And immediately began on a Lightouse. The GLH will be huge for our economy.

By 1475 B.C., our greatness was properly recognized by the convocation of Saints:



We're big, but thin. Our "garrisons" consist of one Warrior unit per city. Hardly enough to withstand a proper invasion, much less conduct one of our own.

Indeed, Julius Caesar, recognizing this fact, came by demanding tribute:



He's Christian, so that helps. He's still a loose cannon, though.

Finally, in 1350 B.C., we established our north African presence:



And that was where I stopped. Berlin just produced another Settler, which I think should be used on a backfill-type city in Lisbon or Copenhagen. Our army is practically nonexistent at this point, though Bronze Working is being researched and Chariots are being built.

Here's the world as we know it:



The Diplomatic situation:



Hatsepshut is a heathen follower of mysterious Islam, and Mansa Musa is undecided. Everyone else follows the One True Faith.

Science:



I'm thinking Priesthood once Bronze Working completes. I'd like to get some Temples up, for happiness, culture, and Priest specialists.

So, obviously, military is an issue. I'm working on it, making Berlin pump out units, though it's just getting started. And Caesar, our biggest threat, is Christian and his tribute of beef bought us 10 turns of guaranteed peace. Catherine might be a concern, though. Especially considering we have the -1 jilted marriage modifier.

Thoughts?

I started out by scoffing at the proximity of the Russian border and founding Warsaw.

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More like Riga.

Lone Wolf said:

More like Riga.

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I know! That was the exact city that jumped out at me when I consulted the map. But, honestly, two hundred turns from now, when I've got cities all over the place, "Warsaw" is going to jump out at me a lot more than "Riga" is.

ToA and the Great Lighthouse? That'll be a insane boost if you get it!

Yeah, you'll want priesthood quickly so you can run a prophet in Paris - otherwise (IIRC) the odds will favor a GM rather than a great prophet. I'd probably settle conservatively with a backfill city too - while it would be nice to block off Scandinavia, you're currently running the serious risk of either Catherine or Caesar declaring war, so you don't want another hard-to-defend city. In fact, if you haven't already, you'll want a unit keeping an eye out for any military buildup in Rome. Should make it clear that I only win about 50% of Monarch games, though, so don't take my advice too seriously!

Side note - I'm loving choose religions on the earth map...

Is it legal to found "Copenhagen" (more like Kiel) 1S of the pigs in Denmark? That's 2 NW or Berlin, which is normally too close -- but London is 2 NW of Paris. Have the rules been changed on the earth map to allow closer city spacing, or is an exception made only for the London-Paris pair?

EDIT: In KOTW 3 as Toku, you weren't able to put a city 2 SE of Beijing, so I guess London-Paris is probably the only exception. So that means founding on the pigs in Denmark if you want a city there -- I cringe at the forever loss of 3 food.

EDIT 2: So, if you're not going to go into Scandinavia proper, I think you should found Tunis before Lisbon, to block Rome from getting that juicy spot.

Ultimocrat said:

Is it legal to found "Copenhagen" (more like Kiel) 1S of the pigs in Denmark? That's 2 NW or Berlin, which is normally too close -- but London is 2 NW of Paris. Have the rules been changed on the earth map to allow closer city spacing, or is an exception made only for the London-Paris pair?

EDIT: In KOTW 3 as Toku, you weren't able to put a city 2 SE of Beijing, so I guess London-Paris is probably the only exception. So that means founding on the pigs in Denmark if you want a city there -- I cringe at the forever loss of 3 food.

EDIT 2: So, if you're not going to go into Scandinavia proper, I think you should found Tunis before Lisbon, to block Rome from getting that juicy spot.

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AFAIK the rule for city placement does not count when there's a strait of water between the cities.

I think the rule is to avoid "catapult confusion." In other words, a siege engine has to "know" which city is meant when you tell it to bombard, so it can only be allowed to be adjacent to one city at a time. If the cities are separated by water, this confusion is eliminated.

Though later naval units can bombard, too, so there goes that theory.

PaulusIII said:

AFAIK the rule for city placement does not count when there's a strait of water between the cities.

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Yes, this is true.


Don't use your settler for Lisbon, use it for Scandinavia. You don't want to have to capture an English city there.

I think the rule is to avoid "catapult confusion." In other words, a siege engine has to "know" which city is meant when you tell it to bombard, so it can only be allowed to be adjacent to one city at a time. If the cities are separated by water, this confusion is eliminated.

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I thought it was to eliminate the infinite city sprawl that has blighted maps since the dawn of civ ...

Another option would be to scoot the Settler down to Libya and found Tripoli (Kumbi Saleh in the Mali game).

Interesting. I'm kinda sad I missed the first few rounds, but time for input.

1) Rome: One word - choke. Rome and Greece will be competing for the Balkans while Russia scoots slightly southwards. Maintain control of Germany and Poland, and settle one city near Tunis. That'll keep Rome a nonfactor until you have the units to wipe him out.
2) Scandinavia: English turf now that Germany is gone. Put a city in Norway to deter her (unless you have OB, of course).

Conquest order (for now):
1) Greece: Shock Axemen trump Phalanxes (barely), but expect heavy losses.
2) Rome: Again, Shock Axemen. War Elephants will help as well.

As an alternative to the Tripoli idea, perhaps you could settle on the river, 4E of Casablanca. It could share the wheat with Casa, and also have 2 sheep and a fish, and use the marble + plains hill for production.

A scandinavean city will block Liz completely, Julius is already properly blocked IMO, since Greece still is there to his east. AIs won't settle Portugal since it'll be completely in your territory once Casablanca's borders expand. So I'd vote for Göteborg as your next city, 1N of the south Swedish pigs.

Going for Berlin before Rom is something you can do if the goal is to get the German copper ASAP.
But no BW in 1350BC is a bit irritating.

Now, that you have waited that long, might as well finish Lizzy first to secure the Westfront first, then turn towards Rome.
She is a pushover early and an annoyance if you give her too much time to settle in akwards spots.

I would like you to try not to conquer Europe in this game, and go for a more challenging colonial conquest/colonization game.

dutchfire said:

A scandinavean city will block Liz completely, Julius is already properly blocked IMO, since Greece still is there to his east. AIs won't settle Portugal since it'll be completely in your territory once Casablanca's borders expand. So I'd vote for Göteborg as your next city, 1N of the south Swedish pigs.

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I dunno...I've seen Rome put one city at the copper than settle a city or two in North Africa....