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Game #19 - Sumer/Gilgamesh
Game #19 - Sumer/Gilgamesh
In the next ALC game, I'll be playing as Gilgamesh, leader of Sumer. The purpose of this thread is to discuss, before the game, how to best exploit that particular leader's characteristics, which is the main feature and purpose of the ALC series. Just so we're clear, I'm playing with the Beyond the Sword expansion pack with its most recent official patch (3.13) and with Bhruic's unofficial patches as well. The difficulty level will be Emperor and the speed is Epic. Here's the fact sheet:
Traits: Creative (+2 culture per city. Double production speed of Theater, Coliseum, and Library.) and Protective (Archery and Gunpowder units receive Drill I and City Garrison I automatically; Double production speed of Walls and Castle).
Starting Techs: The Wheel and Agriculture
Unique Unit: Vulture (Replaces Axeman; Strength: 6, Movement: 1, Cost: 35; Unique Characteristics: +25% versus Melee units (25% less than the Axeman's regular bonus))
Unique Building: Ziggurat (Replaces Courthouse; Cost: 100; Requires: Code of Laws; Unique Characteristics: 20 hammers cheaper than the courthouse, only four are required to build the Forbidden Palace.)
This is the first ALC game to be played with one of the new BtS leaders, and Gilgamesh may be one of the best of the lot. His characteristics make me think he's a natural warmonger--this despite the lack of traits like Aggressive or Charismatic.
The most obvious evidence in favour of this is the unique unit. Vultures have one more strength than the Axemen they replace; the price they pay for this is a loss of half the 50% bonus regular Axemen get versus melee units. I should think, though, that the increase in strength more than makes up for it, especially since the Vulture is most likely to be going up against Archers, the AI's favourite early defensive unit. And that's the key, I think, with Sumer: you want to get to at least one AI rival before they make the transition from Archers to Chariots, Axemen, and the like. I'm looking, then, to perform an early rush with Sumer. However, that's made additionally challenging because of the starting techs. I'll have to research both Mining and Bronze Working and claim a source of copper in order to start building Vultures. Since Sumer has an early UU, I'll probably ask Welnic to check the start to ensure I'm not isolated.
Not that the starting techs are anything to disparage. The Wheel and Agriculture are both very good, very important early worker techs. Having them in hand means Gilgamesh can pursue a strategic tech like Bronze Working without sacrificing early development too much. I may start by building a Worker first, especially if there's corn, wheat, or rice in the capital's fat cross, since the Worker will therefore have plenty to do as soon as he appears.
Gilgamesh's Creative trait also lends itself to early land grabs, and in more ways than one. With Creative, you don't have to spend hammers on things like Monuments or Stonehenge. You can put them into barracks and units instead. The cheap libraries argue in favour of a specialist economy this time around.
I'm less enthusiastic about the Protective trait, as are many Civ gamers. As I've maintained before, this is a trait that suits the AI more than the human player. In the early going, it will be tough to make the most of it. Hunting and Archery are low priorities compared to Mining and Bronze Working for the UU. I'm kind of hoping for a campable resource in or near the start to justify researching Hunting--either that, or some good luck with goody huts.
I'm also not that impressed with the unique building. The Ziggurat makes Code of Laws an early tech priority. I'm tempted to try to build the Oracle, but Gilgamesh already has many other early tech targets (Mining/BW and possibly IW for the UU, Hunting/Archery for Protective Archers, Writing for cheap Libraries). It's nice that they're cheaper than Courthouses, but I don't see a big advantage to only requiring four (is that map size dependent, by the way?) to build the Forbidden Palace. I mean, usually I want to have quite a bit of territory before I build the FP to justify it. In many games I don't build it for quite some time, until some distant conquest is finished. I guess we'll just see how things pan out in this game.
EDIT: As several people pointed out below, Ziggurats are available with Priesthood. Well, that changes things. It means that the game's first maintenance-reducing building (and espionage-enhancing one, too) is available much, much earlier. Suddenly the Ziggurat looks more attractive.
Overall, then, Gilgamesh seems like a mix of strength and weakness: good starting techs, a strong early UU, and the Creative trait; but combined with a so-so UB and the weak Protective trait. It falls to us to make the most of the former and see what we can get out of the latter.
Now, we also need to discuss a couple of other game elements.
First off, what map type should I play? We haven't tried the new hemispheres map yet, so I'm thinking that one might be worth a shot.
Second, should I play with any of the optional game elements on? Aggressive AI in particular, since I'm planning on warmongering? I myself am leaning away from this for this game. My reasoning is that this is only the second ALC on Emperor, and the first one with all the AI changes in the new patch. The AI may be tough enough as it is without loading up on units to boot. I'd rather save Aggressive AI for the next two games (Ragnar and Shaka), which will both be played as Aggressive leaders.
However, I'll definitely consider turning the "choose religion when founded" option on, just for flavour. What does everyone think?