Raliuven SG2 Demi-God Aztecs

I'd like to see a city N-N-W from Tlatelolco and generally push for more cities westward; filling in the space to the south and east (too close to existing cities, IMO) leaves more room for Greece to expand towards our western border.

We need to expand west, but the barb uprising is going to kill us if we don't get the fog to the east (this part is done) and south busted. Towns work better than units, and one more town plus one warrior will have us safe on all but our western border. The only AA tech the AI lack is currency, so an uprising is coming soon.

Good point about the barbarian uprising. We should put a unit N of the horses, too, to avoid a barb camp appearing there.

There is a town north of the horses already. We want to get some units to the west, too, but I think we really want to spend our cash (on embassies or techs) and have a new city out west for the barbs to pillage

Oops -- I missed that :|

1000 BC (turn0) – Do a little MM between Ten & Calix. Things are looking good. Tlatelolco has SoZ in 25t, growth in 3t. Current investment: 51 shields. I think it will actually build in 20t after growth.

IBT – 2/2 barb horse kills our 5/5 warrior.

975 BC (turn 1) – Ten Barracks >Jag
Teo Settler>Worker
Found Tlacopan in place. Barracks.
Next settler in route.
Lux 0%/Science 100%. Lit in 6t @ -4gpt.
Shuffle some units.

IBT – Joan gives us the boot. Mayans are building the HG.

950 BC (turn 2) – Move units, settler almost to last southern site.

IBT – The Greek are building the HG.
Ten Jag>Jag
Teo worker>settler

925 BC (turn 3) – curragh braves the ocean blue.
MM Tlat to forest until mine builds on grass. SoZ in 17t.
3/3 Jag vs 2/2 barb – flawless retreat.

IBT – 2/2 barb kills 1/3 jag. 2/2 barb horse dies to 4/4 warrior, -1hp to warrior.
Mayan Galley appears on our NE boarder.
Spanish complete ToA.

900 BC (turn 4) – Our curragh survives.
Mayans have CoL. We meet Spain – they are up all techs on us and they have 410gp. Only 8 cities, though.


IBT – Spain tells our ship that their ports are closed. France tells us to get out again.
2/2 barb dies to 4/4 warrior, -1hp to warrior.
Greek build HG.
Mayans build GLH.


875 BC (turn 5) – Ten Jag>settler
Texcoco Curragh>Barracks
Cali Curragh>Barracks
Settler in place at last southern placement.

IBT – barb movements to the NW. Mayan boat is heading towards the Greek.
French build Colossus.
Japanese build the MoM

850 BC (turn 6) – Tlaxcala barracks>Archer.
Found Atzcapotzalco. Worker.
Meet the Iroquois. Finally someone as downtrodden as we are – except they have 15 cities to our 9 cities. We have math, they have CoL, MM & HBR. No one on our side knows HBR, but it won’t be long because the Mayans are scouting towards the Greek. Also, the people on the east don’t have Construction.
The only people we don’t know are the Japanese.

Trade Iroquois Math for HBR & 31gp – all they have.
The most reasonable deal for Construction is actually France – it’s all they have left. I can get it for HBR & 190gp. Bonus is that once I trade it back to the east, I’ll be able to get our gold back from France as a final trade.
I go to Spain first because they are the richest Civ. They will give MM, CoL & 245gp for Construction.
The Mayan’s still need construction, so I trade for Poly & 4gp. All they have.
France is the only person without Poly, so I trade them Poly for 194gp – all they have, including the 190gp they took from us for Construction in the first place.
Since HBR was used in the trade to France, I sell it to the Greek for 143gp.

Total gain: Using Math we got: Construction, MM, CoL, Poly & +396gp. Not bad considering Math was only part of the trade CKS made for poly on his turn 3.

We remain up CoL over our western neighbors. No one has lit or currency yet. Most are up Monarchy over us. Spain & the Mayans are on par with us. The Iroquois are down Poly & Construction.

We have 640gp. Embassies for all would cost 389gp.

The Greek cost 49gp.

Spain costs 46gp.

Mayans cost 63gp.

Iroquois cost 68gp.

Wow, they are far away. It was dumb luck that the Iroquois warrior was standing there!
France costs 64gp.

Only Embassy left is Egypt for 99gp.

IBT – Mayans land a spear/settler pair in our NW. Great.
Greece wants an alliance vs. France. No thanks. I think we’ll stay out of it. Hope he gets some good mileage out of those Hoplites.
Our 4/4 Jag defeats a barb horse and then a barb warrior. -1hp, promote elite.
Japanese horses wander into view. Hello!

825 BC (turn 7) – Gain Lit. Start Republic at max, due in 37t, -5gpt. Japan is actually pretty small – 7 cities. Wow, we are bigger than someone else!
Swap Texcoco to a worker.
4/5 Jag moves onto hill next to where we are going to put a city and sees a barb camp.

IBT – the Mayans move away from us, towards the Oasis. The Mayan ship heads back to home.

800 BC (turn 8) – Teo settler>Library.
Xoc worker>worker
Move settler west.
4/5 Jag vs 2/2 barb warrior – win, disperse camp for 25gp.

IBT – France and Greece sign a peace treaty.

775 BC (turn 9) – Tex worker>barracks.
Teo settler>settler

IBT – a curragh sinks at sea.

750 BC (turn 10) – Leave units unmoved for next player.


Notes:
There are many barracks builds going on – you can treat them as prebuilds if you prefer. We can build horsemen now. We have a settler in peril in the west, but plenty of units can move to cover or attack.

Unfortunately the barb horse is where we want to put our city. There’s a Mayan spear/settler pair moving towards the Greek – they are probably angling for the FPs.

We are current on techs with the leaders. We are down Monarchy, but only because I didn’t think we wanted to waste a tech trade on it. We are up Lit on everyone. Currency is still unknown. Embassies with everyone except Egypt and Japan. 355gp remaining in the treasury. Republic due in 32t @ -5gpt, fastest possible.

Sorry, almost forgot the save!

Sounds good. I'm glad we've finally met everyone.

We need to get a military unit SW of Tlatelolco to bust that fog before the uprising.

Any plans to build the GLib, or to capture it?

I don't think the GLib is really necessary, but we might be able to snap it up if Greece builds it.

I got it, but can't play until Saturday if someone wants to pick it up sooner than that.

I was thinking we are teching too fast for the GLB to be of much use excpet, perhaps, to deny the AI. I suppose if we lose on the SoZ we could switch, but as far as I can tell, no one else has ivory - or at least it is not connected. I'm a little uncertain about luxuries in C3C - I would have expected at least 7 resources in a PTW game, but are they more rare in C3C, or is that just strategic resources? We have 4 ivory in our area, so that's at least 50% of the available sources.

Raliuven said:

I was thinking we are teching too fast for the GLB to be of much use excpet, perhaps, to deny the AI. I suppose if we lose on the SoZ we could switch, but as far as I can tell, no one else has ivory - or at least it is not connected. I'm a little uncertain about luxuries in C3C - I would have expected at least 7 resources in a PTW game, but are they more rare in C3C, or is that just strategic resources? We have 4 ivory in our area, so that's at least 50% of the available sources.

Click to expand...

It is a little less I think, so maybe 6 total? Mostly it affects strategic ones I think.

I am thinking we won't need the Library, even if we miss SoZ. The pace is pretty good, we might be close to Education by the time we see any benefit.

Turn Log:


Okay, did not do well on the trading front, we are down several techs, with most civs in the MA already. Got close to nothing for lit. Other people got it before anyone had any money.

We have not seen the barb uprising yet, so maybe we are good. Mostly I think we need to finish settling, hopefully getting that gems to the west. SoZ looks to be ours.

Greeks will be a major pain to attack, great wall and hoplites . We could maybe try taking that maya city by us and then wait and see what we can get for peace.

We just need to keep expanding. There is a nice freshwater lake we can use to the SW to grab the gems; that might be a few cities away, though.

Roster:

Raliuven
creamcheese (just played)
Elephantium (Playing)
CKS (on deck)
__________________

CKS, could I swap with you?

Sure. I've got the save.

Turn 0 (550 BC)
Looks good. Change spearman build to horse.
IBT: See barb horse. Build SoZ. Start FP in Tlatelolco. Worker to harbor in Malinalco.

Turn 1:
Build Tula. Move some warriors and jags around to balance MPs with protection from barbs.
IBT: More barbs show up. Tenochtitlan hits 10 spt so jag to horse.

Turn 2:
Send Tenochtitlan's reg. warrior toward Teotihuacan, so the vet jag on MP duty can go elsewhere. Settler is going north due to barbs.
IBT: Settler to settler, barracks to horse.

Turn 3:
Move settlers & escorts.
IBT: Greeks start Sun Tzu's. Barbs move off.

Turn 4:
Hire a scientist in Tlatelolco. Move.
IBT: Horse to horse.

Turn 5:
Trade lit to France for 12 g and a worker. Build Tamuin.
IBT: Barb kills jag, first AC is built, worker to galley.

Turn 6:
Horse kills barb, promotes to 3/5. See 2 more barbs. Cover with a jag.
IBT: Booted from Egypt. Calixtlahuaca library to harbor.

Turn 7:
Moving towards gems.
IBT: Maya demands 33 g. I consider refusing, but I don't want to have to commit units to the eastern lands, so I pay up. Barbs come out of the fog - 3 attack our AC, but it survives at 2/6.
Horse to settler.

Turn 8:
Horse kills barb horse. AC retreats to barracks.
IBT: Settler to settler, horse to library

Turn 9:
Move.
IBT: Learn the republic. Trade it to Japan for currency, 8 gpt, 7 g. Trade republic, 4 gpt, 170 g to Greece for monotheism. Go to trade monotheism to Maya and hit a wrong key and get dumped out of trading. Revolt.

Turn 10:
Trade monotheism to Maya for feudalism and 120 g. Three more turns of anarchy.
Start on theology.

Initially we are going to be way over the unit support once we get into a republic, but I expect the barbs to kill a few off for us, and we'll be able to pump settlers a lot faster.

Okay, I'm up. Before continuing, I'd like to discuss research. Personally, I favor beelining for Military Tradition and cavs -- the AI won't be able to stand against us once we have them (and Cannons along the way won't hurt, either!).

What do you all think?

We are headed for space. There are three ways to get there: stomp on everyone else, clear our continent, or live in peace. Unless we are going to wipe out everyone, I'd prefer to get education ASAP so that we can build some universities. I find that the AI usually get chivalry and military tradition quickly enough that I don't need to detour for optional techs. That said, I have no real objection to going for military tradition.

Note: we have zero beakers invested in theology, so that isn't an issue with regards to our research path.

I am tempted to go straight for MT, and trade for education. I think clearing our continent is a good idea for space. No real need to invade the other one though. We might have to launch some late game raids for resource denial I guess.