Deity Challenge #38 - Ashurbanipal, Pangaea

It seems as though it has been several months since the last time there was a Deity Challenge, so I am submitting the original save from my latest game as the Assyrian civilization. It's a standard Pangaea map with all standard settings. There are several unique luxuries to settle near, but the ai's are going after those same locations. The calender luxury is covered by jungle, so you cannot put off bronze working if you decide to settle in place.

Also, if you decide to play, please post about your tech path/build order/policy selections and your VC. I don't have a recommended victory condition because I haven't played more than 100 turns into this game.

Settings
Map -Pangaea
Size - Standard
Civs - 8
City States - 16
BNW with all DLC
Quick Combat and Quick Movement are selected
Mods-none (Except the EUI, but I don't think that will mess with the save)

Starting Location

Enjoy!

I'm really interested to see how people handle this map. It feels more like G&K than it does BNW. And by that I mean early aggression and forward settling by the computer.

Will I need the continents map pack in order to play this?

geolawyerman said:

Will I need the continents map pack in order to play this?

Click to expand...

I don't think so. Is that the scrambled map pack dlc? If it is, that is the one bit of dlc I have no interest in purchasing.

Thats pretty awful map ...
And you gotta be really aggressive, if you wanna have cities

Here is what I did:

1. Got a worker from Rome.
2. Got a worker from Ife.
3. Then I met Alex, and saw a settler and a worker heading my way. I took both, but had to give up on the second worker, so I save the scout for later use.

Took liberty, as its better with all that jungle, but I had to build a settler before I took the free one unfortunately.

One settler is in place to settle, the second one should go to the coast for the hill near the pearls. But do we need a 4th city I wonder? There are no hills that can be settled near the Shoshone (excl. the one in the middle of the jungle, near the bananas ...). With Assur being on flatland he'd attack it I guess, so it doesn't really matter if I put a second expo on the coast near him ...

@dragonxxx, I want to see an update to your game. Where did you put those next three cities?

So my second game didn't go quite as planned. I tried to settle on the bare hill tile. Might have to start over.

A "meh" kind of start if I ever saw one... will wander around a bit.
btw I HATE Shoshone as a neighbor

hicks53081 said:

@dragonxxx, I want to see an update to your game. Where did you put those next three cities?

So my second game didn't go quite as planned. I tried to settle on the bare hill tile. Might have to start over.

Click to expand...

You have to start over, even if you claim the settler back, it will be a worker
I'll continue with the game later on, don't have the time for it now. If I manage to get some happines and create wars (Shoshone vs Rome) and (Russia vs Greece - this one is guaranteed, Russia already asked me to declare on em ), think I'll do OK.

Worse possibility is both Greece and Shoshone declaring on me, what would be the end of everything. Alex covets my lands even before settling second city, so he has to go before he becomes dangerous ....

dragonxxx said:

You have to start over, even if you claim the settler back, it will be a worker
I'll continue with the game later on, don't have the time for it now. If I manage to get some happines and create wars (Shoshone vs Rome) and (Russia vs Greece - this one is guaranteed, Russia already asked me to declare on em ), think I'll do OK.

Worse possibility is both Greece and Shoshone declaring on me, what would be the end of everything. Alex covets my lands even before settling second city, so he has to go before he becomes dangerous ....

Click to expand...

Are you sure about that? I know that if you claim someone else's settler, it becomes a worker, but I'm pretty sure you can reclaim your own settlers back. I may be wrong, I may have to test this.

No, not sure about this, have not lost a settler since many months But anyway, if you lose it, and take it back several turns later you will be so far behind and its rather pointless to continue.

That didn't really take long

He was not even coveting my lands. Thats 6 CB, 2 Spear, 2 Sword, 1 Warrior + one CS that died, 3 pathfinders that I saw some turns earlier + god knows how much more.

If I had a wall instead of the 4th settler would not make much difference. I am not sure if hill would save me in that situation too. Thats simply too much to handle at turn 63.

Were the civs in the map predefined btw? As its rare sight to see Alex, Washington, Kathy, Pocatello, Hiawatha and Rome in the same map.

piece of beauty

Actually, there are 8 CB, 3 Spear, 2 Swords + the warrior.

This is an interesting game. It's a pretty weak starting location but it appears nobody has horses or iron and we have a lot of it. My gpt is actually pretty high, but I just had to pay Rome like 30+ a turn to declare on Pocatello. Education was really delayed because I had to hit up bronze working.

Nimrud was the second city I founded. I was going to settle on the gems, but suddenly Te-Moak exploded onto the scene. I elected to settle on the citrus instead. That city could have been really nice with river on a hill/gems/truffles/wheat/iron/citrus/horses/stone/fish. I was super disappointed to miss out on that one.

Game notes
-Stole two workers from Poc, 1 from CS and one from barb camp.
-Founded a pantheon, but it was too late to get a decent one.
-I'm allied with two militaristic CS and friends with several more.
-I somehow got blocked off from exploring the south and never got to meet any of those CS's which is kind of a bummer

Tech: AH/Pottery/Mining/Archery>Masonry>BW>Calendar>Writing>Philo>Civil Service>Education

SP: Tradition>Legalism>Landed Elite>Monarchy>Aristocracy>(built Oracle) Patronage>Consulates

I might post another update at 200ish.

Scariest endgame I've ever played.

Early game I wandered a bit, after seeing gems, wheat and citrus, decided to settle on top of the gem... turns out it was a coastline...

Stole 4 workers from Rome, 1 settler, and 2 caravans. Went for 3 cities. Btw Moson Kahni is not size 8, but 18 (you can see the 1 just on the edge of the screen. Ridiculous growth from Pocatello this game. He ended at size 49, 5 whole sizes bigger than my cap.)


Had to block quite a few settlers, but I managed to expand back to that citrus and spice location.



Unfortunately had I known there'd be so much iron, I would've gone earth mother instead. Sun god was good while it lasted on my jungle satellite... bad faith generation from terrain in general so couldn't spread my religion. Hiawatha took Borobudur too... and almost every wonder I wanted... Sistine... Porcelain Tower (my fault for going for Uffizi first thinking no one had rationalism)


Average science so far... Plastics t220 (but dipped down for fertilizer and went up for archaeology first)


Came within a whisker of losing DV to Alex... fun fact: influence from fulfilling CS quests OR giving units via arsenal of democracy is triggered upon the CS's turn, meaning if you trigger them one turn right before the vote, there is nothing Alex can do despite having 10k gold. Here he was just one CS short! (all part of the plan of course... luckily there was one CS he hadn't been paying that much attention too and he had only maybe 13 influence above me, but if I tried to take it, he'd dump all his gold into it)


Victory! Alex now had 40 votes to win but it doesn't matter now.


Didn't bulb a single GS. Not one! Planted them all for historical landmarks.

hicks53081 said:

This is an interesting game. It's a pretty weak starting location but it appears nobody has horses or iron and we have a lot of it. My gpt is actually pretty high, but I just had to pay Rome like 30+ a turn to declare on Pocatello. Education was really delayed because I had to hit up bronze working.

Nimrud was the second city I founded. I was going to settle on the gems, but suddenly Te-Moak exploded onto the scene. I elected to settle on the citrus instead. That city could have been really nice with river on a hill/gems/truffles/wheat/iron/citrus/horses/stone/fish. I was super disappointed to miss out on that one.

Game notes
-Stole two workers from Poc, 1 from CS and one from barb camp.
-Founded a pantheon, but it was too late to get a decent one.
-I'm allied with two militaristic CS and friends with several more.
-I somehow got blocked off from exploring the south and never got to meet any of those CS's which is kind of a bummer

Tech: AH/Pottery/Mining/Archery>Masonry>BW>Calendar>Writing>Philo>Civil Service>Education

SP: Tradition>Legalism>Landed Elite>Monarchy>Aristocracy>(built Oracle) Patronage>Consulates

I might post another update at 200ish.

Click to expand...

OMG, I have not noticed this with the iron ... These 2 swordsman would not be there if I had not sold him 2 iron ... Guess I will replay that from T44 to see how it goes if I do things a bit differently. Did you make Pocatelo attack someone early?

Pf, so little decisions make such difference in this game ...
I followed kb27787's path, and settled the Gems this time. Its a completely different game :

2 DOFs (Austrian and Hiawatha), my neighbours still hate me, but Pocatelo built Stonehendge instead of millions CBs, and my cities have better protection. And overal the place on the games is 100 times better than the starting location. And it has 3 different luxes + horses, 2 irons, wheat stone + river on a hill , bla ...

I went for +2 faith from quarries. Its a bit slower at the start, but there are 4 pretty workable quarries and one in the desert, that will become good with stoneworks . I should be able to find at least 3rd religion. Non taken for now, and I need around 10 turns, and more quarries will come up soon.

I didnt manage to snag any worker this time, so I had to build two and buy two. I met Alex early, and every CS I met was protected. Still I like it far more for now, at least on T69 I still have capital this time LOL. And I cleared two camps so I even have CS allies, so Alex hates me even more

P.S. DingleBirdy thumbs up for the Thread, finally something interesting to play and having it for discussion somewhere. Its very nice for seeing what the others would do, so you learn something

Awesome job kb27787. That's a pretty scary ending. Alex can become a pain with the city states.

Anyway, so everything about this game sucked.
-I couldn't grow because I couldn't maintain happiness.
-Every time I had a CS as an ally, Alex would buy them out. I could not keep an ally after the industrial era.
-I was the third player to adopt Order behind Rome and Russia, so I wasn't able to get the two free policies that I was expecting.
-Shoshone, Austria, and Hiawatha all took FREEDOM..Are you kidding me? Freedom? Geeze...
-My happiness was -10 a few different times, but I was finally able to bounce out of it.

Obviously since I missed out on those free SP's I was not able to pick up Workers Faculties for another forty turns or so. That obviously delayed rationalism and I wasn't able to finish that tree until t322. Overall it was a very frustrating game. I cannot remember the last time I finished a science victory that late. I might need to give it another go, because I know I can finish this game under 300 if I get to the modern era a few turns earlier.

Also, at one point it looked as though Pocatello was going to to declare war on me. I purchased some uranium from Rome and bought a nuclear missle. Everyone was instantly afraid of me after that. The rest of the game was worry free peace.

Tech: AH/Pottery/Mining/Archery>Masonry>BW>Calendar>Writing>Philo>Civil Service>Education>Architecture>Science Theory>Radio>Fertilizer>Plastics>Satellites>AdvBalistics>Particle Physics>Nano Tech

SP: Tradition>Legalism>Landed Elite>Monarchy>Aristocracy>(built Oracle) Patronage>Consulates>Rationalism>Secularism>Humanism>Free Though>Order happiness>Order happiness>Workers faculties>Order Happiness>5-year plan>finished last two in Rationalism. (Took Nano tech for my free tech and Plastics with Oxford)

Thanks for the game Dinglebird.

End of game screenshot

no specified VC... not sure which one I should go for.

nuked

turn 105 :



I don't know how you guys stole workers from Pocatello he was surrounded by 3-4 pathfinders in my game and workers didn't even approach the borders. But i did steal a worker from Greece at least.

Typical 3 cities Trad start with 1 caravan and 1 cargo for extra food. NC turn 82 and DoFed Hiawatha and Vienna which DoFed together as well. Love triangle that i can use for extra defence. Some turns later some Poc's CBs were amassing near a city and i decided to lure Hiawatha to a war against him.

Lost Oracle by 3 turns Damn Tradition tree was slow to fill. No cultural ruin(only 1 food ruin on turn 1 and that's it) or anything that can boost culture have been built or found. Took 103 turns to fill but if i can get into Rationalism fast and ally a cultural cs i will be fine.

Nineveh and Nimrud have both a lighthouse and a food cargo so they grow faster than the capital. I will surely put the other guild in one of them.