BOTM 109 (Mao Deity) - First Spoiler to 1 AD

BOTM 109 - First Spoiler to 1 AD

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Stop! If you are participating in BOTM 109, then you MUST NOT read this thread unless EITHER

• You have reached at least 1 AD in your game, OR
• You have submitted your entry

Use this thread to tell us what happened in your game, up to 1AD!

Any trouble with barbarians?
How many different islands have you settled?
Find any other civs?


Posting Restrictions

• Please do not disclose ANY events or information gained post 1 AD.
• Please do not reveal your final result if that happened after 1 AD.
• Please do not discuss the location of resources that may not show up before 1 AD. (Iron is OK, coal and oil are not)
  
• Do not post any savegame file from the game. Discussions and screenshots are fine but not actual games

"Welcome, Mylene. I am Mao, ruler of the great chinese.. (bla bla bla)"
Pleasure, i guess. I wonder where we are here..1 big island? Many islands?
Let's send our warrior east and find out.

Gold, more gold! Hmm should we settle in that forest..
"Yes! Move out."
And so, after wandering 1 turn the great city of Bejing was founded.
Without considering the local fauna..

Time went by quickly, and warrior scout found some nice fishing grounds.
Along with some mooo, and more gold.
"Rest a bit in the north east, please. Rumors of roaming barbarians reached my ear,
and if possible i want our close lands clean to settle".
(An archer was built while growing Bejing after worker first)

"My! when will we switch into State Property, best civic in the world and i didn't give this for.."
Patience, we will do that after our first settler. I want to add Slavery as well.
Or will we whip our settler..hmmmm all that gold makes me think what works best.
(I was looking for opportunities, but ended with not whipping and waiting until i think size 5)

And so 2160BC, Shanghai was founded..rather late.
Cows or fish in inner ring?
"I like cows more, they make funny sounds. Let's send our worker there also.
And we will need a monument soon."

Around that time, pottery was finished. Granaries are one of Mao's strong points.
(one of the very few strong points...sshhh!)
..and Bejing started on one, before further settling projects.

"We should research sailing next. The Great Lighthouse would be awesome here, and we could...."
The Great Lighthouse has been built in a faaar away land! 2120 BC.

Okay..so now we have sailing already, what do we do.
"I suggest we settle on that island west of Bejing.
No barb troubles, nice clams..nice trade routes..and nice beach."
(No barbs was the main reason, they started making trouble east )

So now we we have the galley, let's go exploring. South.
"Yep, Captain? What did you find?"
"Blue culture! I think there's someone who wants to speak to you and.."
*rude interruption* "Behold! I am Pacal, tiny but greedy ruler of the Maya and we will sacrifice you all..unless you want peace?"
Indeed, and let's not tell him that we will hurry towards that double fish island quickly!

(this was so very important for my game, whipping a monument first in Nanjing
covered an ocean tile and connected us via coast. Trade routes, 2 happy res )

I teched Metal Casting after the basics like BW, Pottery, Myst for monuments and writing.
In fear of barb galleys, with so much food being coastal. And maybe forges (+1 happy with gold).
Not too sure about that move, but 1 Trireme was badly needed soon at double fish island.

"Should we start trading with that weird little Maya Man?
Technologies, i mean."
Good idea, Alpha next. And yep it was good, got maths among some others.
Hmm if he trades, he must know somebody else..
(Lonely AIs only trade few techs like Monarchy)

Not much time passed until a green work boat was spotted in Maya waters.
(i still wonder how, no open borders. I sent the first galley + 1 warrior scouting).
"Well hello there! I am Joao, the greatest seafarer alive. Want to share spooky tales, or want trouble?" Tales please..for now.
"Let's find him if possible, we cannot trade resources yet and the routes are unknown."
(I did not find Joao, Islands..*pulls hair*)

"They don't like each other much, and somehow he saw how we gave Pacal Alpha and.."
YOU are our worst enemy now, chinese trouble makers!
Whatever.. (he was plotting for many turns now, no open borders with Pacal i think he cannot reach me).

His anger was reduced over time, and i used both for trading.
When they both got Aesth, i thought about Music.
Really tempting, GP points were the weak part of my early empire besides Bejing creating 1 GS for an academy.
So i traded for it, beakers output was nice with double gold, Academy and foreign + island trade routes,
and after some bibbering i got the great Artist for a golden Age
Luckily Pacal did not put much Espio into me, and i saw he's not teching music.
(I was half way CS before that plan)

After some fiddling around, cities were ready to run specialists (CoL was available for trade earlier), HR, Caste and Bur was planned,
but CS was 2 turns away..i started the golden age anyways, happiness was a problem and especially those island cities had nothing to do
without running specialists.

Seeing that Pacal has Philo (think i got really lucky with their tech paths..), i also switched into his Reli.

And yep, soon i got him friendly and am 1 turn away from hopefully trading Paper + Compass (for exp harbors and trades) for Philo.

I cannot add Paci, but it's nice for Lib.
Will see how GP generation timing turns out, 1x Edu bulb for sure and then i could use 2 more scientists.

Island maps are very special for planning, nice having SP..all cities are low cost

Logs

My game has been filled with setbacks, many of my own creation. Settled in place, thinking it might take too long to work both Gold with the capital given I was planning to whip Workers/Settlers frequently. In retrospect I think it would have been better to move 1E. Built Worker, 2 WB, Warrior, Archer, Settler. My second city went due east by the Cows/Fish/Gold. I made the error of forgetting to revolt to Slavery/State Property while my Settler was in transit, thus losing a turn of growth in city 2 and I suppose also 1 hammer in the capital from the 10% bonus.

My initial Warrior was cut down by a Barb Archer before reaching the east shore of the island, leaving me in the dark for a few more turns, but the first Archer did a fine drop killing off all additional threats and even got up to 10XP to allow Heroic Epic sometime down the road.

Most of the BC years were spent spamming settlers and exploring with fishing boats, trying to reach the AIs. I think I have found all the uninhabited island to the north that are reachable without Optics, and I managed to pop borders on the southern small island to allow my Galleys to finally reach Pascal. Great Lighthouse was of course a big priority, and getting it late (1360BC) was one great stroke of luck. All of the other early wonders went very quickly.

I was too cavalier about barbarians and ended up losing one city on the western island, and will need to recapture a city on the main island. I accidentally moved a Galley into combat with a Barb Galley that was in the fog, losing it (empty at least). . I wish the game would double check if you want to battle a unit that is invisible at the start of a move so this would not have happen but I certainly could have been more cautious single-moving through the fog. My farthest WB scout was also taken out, potentially keeping me from meeting another AI (won't know, but based on the map shape it looked like he was at least heading in the right direction)

Diplomacy has been horrendous. Pascal only needed Alphabet from me, and would offer the paltry deal of Pottery or Mysticism+Hunting. My next tech was Metal Casting, and he got it a single turn before me, causing another dozen turns of trade drought. Math for Currency was the only decent trade with Pascal. When I finally reached João he of course was angry that I had traded with his worst enemy Pascal, and would not even open borders for juicy GLH trade routes. His attitude eventually softened after he demanded Currency and I handed it over, but that concession left me with nothing to trade to him.

At 1AD, I have 7 cities (2 settlers are about to found next turn as well, and barring catastrophe my Ax+Archer will recapture another city from a Barb Spear. I have 18 techs, up to CoL, Currency, and Bureaucracy will be in soon thanks to a GM bulb, hopefully I will be able to get 4-5 techs in trade for it. My plan is to go to Construction next and try to invade Pascal. It might be wiser in the long run to keep spamming GLH powered cities on uninhabited islands, but the most enjoyment I can hope for in this game now that I have stunted my start is to kill Pascal for being such a crappy trade partner.

Despite my own bad start, I love the concept of a Deity island game with Communism - it is always refreshing to have to re-think strategy given unusual starts!

Two very interesting write-ups! I have added my own to the "retired" section

@Fippy: What are you trying to Lib? I have learnt that on water maps military breakout techs are often not as good as on, say, Pangea. I didn't go for Liberalism but if I had I would have had no idea what to get with it.

Astro i think, i have not enuf GP generation to bulb that too.
Hoping to trade for machinery while i prepare that, then just optics needed
It's an expensive tech without bulbing.

Never having gotten a Diety win without religious cheese, the handicaps on this one made me want to give it a try.

Settled in place and decided 2 turn later that had been a bad idea and wasted the island.

Built archers to make safe the island. Then my workboat found the island to west and wished it had brought a convoy with.

Went AH instead of BW ( I am blaming that on the wine - Jesus it was stupid)

Second city 1 E of second gold.

Got Academy in captial in 1000BC

Traded Alpha, Currency, and Caste to Pacal to backfill. WBs got killed and havn't found anyone else.

At 1AD I have 7 cities on the island - 8 next turn, but I will be broke. Building Courthouses.

Working on CS - but it is too far away.

Huge uphill battle ahead.

Then I read Fippy's post and started to cry...

Aww

No being frustrated, i play Deity regularly so it's nothing special for me
But getting to 1AD with 8 cities means you did fine already, really not just saying that to cheer you up!

I finally got around to start this game. Settles 1E and spent most of my time building settlers. Have 10 cities and 2 settlers at 1AD.

I decided that maybe not researching alphabet was a good idea, but it was not. Pacal finally got it in 1AD. =(