Demi-God Blah!

How would this game be "salvaged" (were I to be bothered to actually go back to it and bother salvaging it - chances are I will kick off GOTM82 tonight)?

Some history:
C3C 1.22, 60% continents map, standard size, Demi-God, playing more like a pangaea to be honest as there is an easy curragh/galley passage to the other continent. So everyone knows everyone, though I still don't know the Hittites.

Anyway... nice starting location, 4-turner, got into trouble when I brazenly decided to try for the slingshot and failed. Got CoL & Lit as monopolies but those were the last monopoly techs I managed to get.... was disappointed to miss Theology, and extremely annoyed to discover that Printing Press was already known.

Started war with France, going very well thanks with Horses, then Babylon sneak attacks so I have to pull out of French war to defend desperately. Eventually sign peace with Hammy as I'd got Repbulic and really wanted to revolt. Had a Despotic GA during French war.

So anyway... 210AD, way off any monopoly techs, Babs have Pyramids + GLib, Guns almost certainly out there so let's leave France out of the picture for now. My inclination would be: research Chivalry (will be cheap, everyone knows it!), turn off science, spam knights, kill Babylon and take GLib.

If France turn out not to have Saltpeter I'd see if I could take them out as well. Oh and Kisurra(sp?) flipped to them the ibt after I signed peace.

I'll take a look, eldar.

I would say that this is not unwinnable, but requires appeasing Babylon. You can make a start on that right away by dropping to zero science, and using the extra gold to add to the wines, which will be enough to get you a couple of lux's from them. You can then give them an alliance against the Dutch (you have nothing to lose) which they may pay for, and a ROP. The extra lux's will also allow you to drop the slider a notch, two notches if you are prepared to use specialists in your more populous cities.

Doing this should give you something like +45gpt, enough to allow some trading maybe; I note that there is disparity among the AI - try to exploit that.


IMO, the time to attack France is now. They are defending with Spears still, and every unit visible is regular. They are level in techs, so will not have muskets any time soon. Their northern lands are sufficiently close to Ur to give some useful cities in the long-term, and the rest is good quality Specialist Farmland. And the extra towns will help with unit support, which is crippling the economy right now.

I think you need to play the 'long game', eldar. Get a Settler down on those resources - I see Ivory, Iron and Horses, all there for the taking, and all excellent trade bait.

You need some luck with Babylon, consider gifting them regularly - anything to keep them from attacking you while you amass enough gold to upgrade those Horses.

The GL gambit is a bold thought, but may require ROP Rape to get it - Ellipi is a long way from your borders. One thought with that is to not completely destroy France - leave a few cities for a future alliance with Babylon, so that you can divide their strength when you plan to attack them.

Good luck, mate.


Edit: Oh yeah, I'd kill those Library builds; the ones in the West are in corrupt towns (build wealth there - if you are going to take advantage of the tech disparity, then gold is your friend.), and the less corrupt cities would be better building more Horses to replace losses in the French campaign.

I've one final comment:

I've thought long and hard about saying this - it's enough to have me hanged as a heretic - but I'm convinced it's right.

You have too many workers not earning their keep - there, I've said it! Most of your core territory is improved, and you have most workers improving corrupt land in the West. If this was my game, I would join maybe 20 of them to the core cities, saving 40gpt on unit support immediately, plus the extra income from extra tiles worked - this would enable you to successfully take advantage of the tech disparity between the AI. I would be gambling on replacing them with French slaves.

I refuse to admit that it is possible to have too many workers at that stage, but eldar is suffering from not enough citizens so I would... um... join maybe 20 workers to core cities. Get those core cities to size 12!

Chamnix said:

I refuse to admit that it is possible to have too many workers at that stage, but eldar is suffering from not enough citizens so I would... um... join maybe 20 workers to core cities. Get those core cities to size 12!

Click to expand...

It's not so much that he has too many workers, rather that they are not justifying their upkeep ATM; there is a pressing need for gpt to take advantage of the tech disparity.

If he follows my advice it would be a temporary situation as I would expect him to pick up slaves from France. I know it's an unorthodox move, but sometimes difficult situations require unorthodox solutions.