CO-3: Immortal Emperors

Yeah, I know the title's awful

Version: BtS 3.17 with Solver's latest patch (v0.19). I also use the BUG mod
Leader: Zara Yaqob
Difficulty: Immortal
Map type: Hemispheres
Size: Standard
Speed: Epic
Opponents: 6 random AIs
All other options are the standard options.

Victory condition: Any, the aim of this game is to try and get some experience on Immortal and to get used to the jump from Emperor, as well as to get some good strategy discussion going, which will hopefully be more useful than what you'd gain from a standard SP game. So anyone who wins reasonably regularly on Emperor should fit right in.

Here's the start (I use Blue Marble, so I've left the tile output icons on):

I'm leaning towards settling in place, looks like the capital could be a good production city. As for research, I'd have thought Agriculture, then BW would be a good start.

Rules:

* 24 hours got it, 48 hours to play
* Discussion is very important, don't just rely on the autolog report if you use it.
* Try to include pictures/screenshots so that the discussion can be useful.


Roster (full):
Colony
Sweetacshon
Ralph_Jackson
Stuge
RRRaskolnikov

Turns per player should be 15 each for the first round, and then 10 turns after that, although if there's a major decision involved (going to war for example) that can be flexible.

Been a long time since I hosted an SG, so I hope I haven't forgotten anything important.

Edit: Going out for a bit, I'll check back here in a few hours.

So I can't actually see the starting pic... Is it just me?

Randomish immortal with Zara - OK, I'll take on the pain if you can rope a couple of others in.

Can't see the picture either but a nice random no twists immortal game sounds good so count me in.

Ralph

Oops, must've missed something, here it is, I'll edit it into the OP too:



I should probably mention now that I've only won 1 Immortal game before, and that was with Hannibal on an Achipelago map, so not exactly the hardest of settings

Good to have you both onboard though. 1 or 2 more and we should be ready to go.

I'd like to sign up. However, I'm in the current SGOTM so can't use solver's mod. Is it okay to tag along on BtS 3.17? I think the saves are compatible.

Hi ,

I 'd like to sign up if you would have me...
I can win consistantly in emperor/marathon and I have some immortals wins as well (marathon again).

Cheers,

Raskolnikov

stuge said:

I'd like to sign up. However, I'm in the current SGOTM so can't use solver's mod. Is it okay to tag along on BtS 3.17? I think the saves are compatible.

Click to expand...

If you download the installer (here) it gives you the option of installing it as a mod. I unchecked the box that prevents units without native collateral damage from getting barrage promotions. I checked and the saves aren't compatible.

RRRaskolnikov: Good to have you here.

Now I've managed to upload the screenshot without breaking the link what does everyone think? I'm beginning to be tempted to move 1S, but it loses a turn, and all those hills might not be much use in the early game, although it would give us the river.

Durn. Looks like I missed the boat.

One south only give us the ability to build levee late game... I prefer in place to avoid losing a turn now...
i don't see a clear advantage moving but I could be wrong...

Cheers,

Raskolnikov

OK, I'll do the mod thing.

About settling, move the scout 1SE first and get back to us with a new screenshot if anything remarkable shows up.

Where we are feels "good enough" with food, hills and trees so don't see enough to warrant moving...

In terms of general strategy my priorities at immortal are pretty simple for the first turns.

1. Manage your military strength, if you are too weak the AI will have you.

2. Block off space (you cant afford to settle it all but you can often block off space for future sites WABOL).

3. Avoid the irresistible lure of "shiny things" (AKA wonders), other than chopping in the GL.

4. First trade milestone is aesthetics

Cheers

Ralph

Will be lurking, this is beyond my level of skill I think, even with a leader as easy as ZY...

I'll settle in place then, provided that moving the scout doesn't reveal anything like gold or gems. Ralph, I agree with your general plan, although I tend to build up my military to keep the barbs away as much as the AIs on Immortal, and I've never been a big wonder builder anyway. One of the main problems I have is that even 3 cities early on costs a lot in maintenance, I find that balancing the early expansion with keeping up a reasonable research rate is much harder than on Emperor (I also have a smaller problem with WFYABTA and AIs pulling away in the early Renaissance, but that's weak diplomacy more than anything).

I'll play my turns this afternoon, things should be a bit clearer after having a chance to scout around.

Diamondeye: Don't be afraid to suggest things if you see something obvious that one of us missed. The main reason I chose Zara is that he's got a very good trait for the early game (Creative) and isn't financial. The UU is nice, but I always seem to end up finghting hordes of AI Knights by the time I get to Gunpowder, which can be a bit of a pain.

I moved the scout SE, and didn't find anything useful there, apart from some wheat 2 squares away, so settled in place.

0 - 4000 BC - Settled in place, the hut gave us a map of some coast. A really useful start. Started building a worker and researching Agriculture.

2 - 2950 BC - Popped another hut, got 58 gold

7 - 3825 BC - Another hut, 66 gold off this one. Met Darius' scout too, so no idea where he is.
IBT - Meet Catherine, I found her border a couple of turns later and she's close by. Could lead to being boxed in if she isn't contained early.

11 - 3725 BC - Scout kills a panther

12 - 3700 BC - Buddhism FIDL

14 - 3650 BC - Agriculture finished, start on BW

The map explored so far:


There's Marble close by, and space for a few cities as long as Cathy doesn't go mad. I'm not too sure of the research path, if there's no Copper within a very easy reach then Archery would be useful, or possibly AH for the Pigs and the chance of Horses, although that would be more risky. I don't think we'll be short of early production, and the river should allow a couple of good commerce cities once the jungle's been cleared, but I'm not too sure about the amount of food resources around outside the capital.

Roster:
Colony - Just played
Sweetacshon - Up next
Ralph_Jackson
Stuge
RRRaskolnikov

Hi,

quick comment because I am not at home ...
Well Catherine is a real threat, she expands like a crazy, builds troop, and researchs well... ouch!
As there are not many food tiles outside the cap, we could build cities sharing food tile with Aksum... for example a city with pigs, wheat, and floodplains south west could be nice...

But I think first priority is copper or horses... a detour by archery is worth it if no copper me think...

I will look at the save tomorrow...

Cheers,

raskolnikov

Got it for 15. Without checking the save, it looks like it'll be BW (of course), worker to farm corn, then chop towards settler while building warrior to increase pop. Any other thoughts?

It sounds like a good plan, I expect the plains tile in the SE corner of Aksum will have a resource, but it could be anything. I think a lot depends on whether there's copper within a reasonable distance, if there is then an axe rush probably becomes the best choice. If there isn't then any attempt to control Catherine will have to wait until swords or horse archers, but I expect that I'm thinking far too far ahead here, so I wouldn't mind hearing what the others have to say.

I'd also agree that sharing some of the food resources round the capital is the best plan for now, the cities will be small later, but there are enough hills around that the extra production more than makes up for it. That depends far more on getting an early military resource though, I don't like the idea of giving Catherine all the land to expand into.

I noticed that I was still running v2.xx BUG, so replayed after getting 3. That's how long since I've played a SG. Anyway, the replay was exactly the same as th first run, which was simple considering we only had a scout and a worker.

Anyway, there's not too much to say. 15 epic early turns aren't that exciting. I didn't get very much scouting done, unfortunately, as the scout spent most of it's time healing. At least the worker has completed the corn farm.

Cathy has placed a city to her NE (our NW) as expected - she's going to be trouble (also as expected ). I seem to have lost the s/s for that. Anyway, here's the abridged...

Sweetacshon said:

Anyway, there's not too much to say. 15 epic early turns aren't that exciting.

Click to expand...

True, I probably should've made the first round 20 turns, not much to do early on when BW takes 20+ turns.

Cathy has placed a city to her NE (our NW) as expected - she's going to be trouble (also as expected ). I seem to have lost the s/s for that. Anyway, here's the abridged...

Click to expand...

Time to start hoping for copper or iron I think

Roster:
Colony
Sweetacshon - Just played
Ralph_Jackson - Up next
Stuge - On deck
RRRaskolnikov

Hi everyone,

Cathy has settled a nice city but we can still settle the corn north west of Aksum if we choose to play blocking...
I have yet to do an axe rush at this difficulty but in my experience Cathy is always a pain and will anyways be looking at us in the near future... so if copper in range why not trying to hit her? What do you think guys?

We should discuss city placement after BW is in...

Cheers,

Raskolnikov