Martin Alvito
Real men play SMAC
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2010
- Messages
- 2,332
Yeah, that can occasionally happen. If Washington or Hiawatha are in the game, they will usually city spam the map to death.
Could I see some pics of some of the games that you've played with this start? It just seems like a very bad BO to me. I play on Deity and I mean I don't see the problem in hard-building Settlers, getting to 4 bases and then growing like crazy. This build just seems like it's begging to screw you over as all of your land is taken from right under your nose. I really don't get why you would put off producing Settlers for so long.
What is your average win turn using this build? My personal baseline is turn 270 since all of my science wins have come under that turn number so far. I'm not saying that that's an amazing feat or anything, that's just the absolute latest that it's taken me to win a science game as any random civ. I realize that plenty of people can post better numbers but I don't tryhard enough to optimize things I guess. I'm just wondering if this is like actually good or if you're making a big fuss over nothing. I've personally never struggled to get my cities going just by producing my Settlers the good old-fashioned way.
Could I see some pics of some of the games that you've played with this start? It just seems like a very bad BO to me. I play on Deity and I mean I don't see the problem in hard-building Settlers, getting to 4 bases and then growing like crazy. This build just seems like it's begging to screw you over as all of your land is taken from right under your nose. I really don't get why you would put off producing Settlers for so long.
Rather makes me think liberty and maybe 1-2 more cities.Also did one odd thing along the way: hard built all Settlers and rushed Workers once planted since the city locations were so distant. Seemed to make more sense under the circumstances.
You guys are telling to use GS for academies until public school, but this is because of deity right? on lower levels or MP is it ok to use GS to bulb writing in order to get GL?
beginner here.
Like the title says it's an adaptation of an old starting gambit where you used to rush philosophy, build the NC then buy 2-3 settlers... the main concept is not really about buying settlers, but the fast NC and only then expand to four cities. Buying settlers just happens to be the fastest way to "catch up" (but not really viable sadly anymore to the same degree). Works absolutely best with Babylon for obvious reasons.
If it's any good? well, it's the fastest way to education for sure. A Babylonian pop 8 capital with academy and NC is turning out 39 science a turn from around turn 50... That's the same science you can get from 4 size 6 cities with libraries for a fraction of the cost and much earlier.
Of course there are problems like you need a good starting location with lots of food and production, and the obvious problem that the good land might be taken by turn 50, but it's not an opening for every situation. On some starts, there is absolutely no problem to found 3 quality cities in the turns 50-70 on deity even on Pangea. Luck of the draw where you spawn really.
I've won a turn 208 Deity Science victory where i opened this way in BNW, my best in G&K was around the same finishing time.... if that's due to the opening, crazy good start (Desert folklore, Petra, mountain) or mass research agreements, no war etc. is another matter, but it's certainly competitive if the land allows you to settle the 3 other cities anyway.
It's still feasible to buy the settlers if you can get an early DoF or two. Or at least 2 of them maybe. Early DoF require the right civ to be near you though.
If your not getting an early DoF, your not scouting enough. I always get 1, I almost always get 2, and very commonly get 3 before ~T66.
I depend on these DoF's to get buy settlers/libraries just like in Vanilla and GnK
Yeah, although it's a double-edged sword. It locks me out of declaring war for 50 turns without paying a pretty big diplo hit for attacking a friend. Maybe it's my playstyle, but I almost always find myself wanting to declare war on a neighbor before turn 100. Of course, this is when I'm not going for a turtle science victory. The problem is, I'm in the habit now of almost always accepting DoF. It's kind of a knee-jerk reaction that I end up regretting sometimes.
Well I tried this strategy...on Emperor...I had the biggest army, but no time for a world tour, and my culture was very healthy.
I guess its time to move up to immortal.