Warlords Playthrough: Emporer with a twist

OK, I've done the Emporer playthroughs with the Inca and Germany and both were relatively easy wins.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=178442

I've had Warlords for a week or so and have played a couple games. I'm not terribly impressed with the new traits and am a bit peeved they screwed up my favorite leaders - Cathy and HC. I thought I would like Korea but I found the Protective trait rather useless for my playstyle.

I'm ready for a new game but one that is a bit different - No World Wonders.

There are so many people who seem to think that the game cannot be won without wonders and it just isn't true. Don't get me wrong, they can be pretty useful but most are too costly and don't provide a huge benefit.

Any leader suggestions for the new game? The easiest civs for me to play are financial civs that either start with Mysticism or are Creative. Early culture really makes a difference as I hate building obelisks.

I'm leaning towards Brennus, Augustus or Mansa Musa.

Mansa has been done so maybe Augustus?

It's spelled Emperor not emporer.

Hehe, I just thought about doing the same thing: playing a game in which I don't build any world wonders! Good luck with it. I can't wait to see what you can do with it.

If you just got warlords I would nix Mansa Musa and then flip a coin between Brennus and Augustus.
When I did the flip I ended up with Brennus. Obviously the gods of luck want you to play with him as well

Try an emperor win on continents/fractal on non-marathon speed.

monkspider said:

Try an emperor win on continents/fractal on non-marathon speed.

Click to expand...

It'll be fractal/marathon.

You guys are free to suggest a leader other than the 3 I pointed out. I just think that a leader with Myst or is creative makes the early game much easier.

EDIT: Stated a map with Brennus and rolled on hell of a start. I'm not a fan of reloading maps but this one just seems like cheating.

OK, I decided to go with Brennus. I also regenerated the map because with that previous start, it was a guaranteed win.



As promised, it's Emperor/Fractal/Marathon



A more modest start. I moved one square south to get the gems in my cross. It'll be a while before I can mine them however.



First tech was Meditation for some religion and culture. Starting with Myst is better than the Creative trait. +happy and culture. Since Brennus is Charismatic, I'll start at +2 happy. I doubt I'll be building Obelisks for the additional happy face since they expire and the culture isn't necessary.



Finished up Mediation and now the research path will be.... I think I'm going to switch the wheel for agriculture for the corn then go for archery/wheel. I need the wheel to spread Buddhism to my new cities and archers to defend them... Not sure on the right order. We'll see. I could also swap out archery for AH and hope to get horses. Then I could skip archery. I need AH anyway since I see a bunch of cows.

I popped two huts and got two scouts. Would prefer a tech.

Red Peter is to the north and Shaka/Monty are to the south. Hopefully Buddhism will spread south and I can attack north. Both Monty/Shaka are aggressive so I wouldn't be surprised if they start fighting amongst themselves. I prefer to attack them with maces/elephants/cats when they're still stuck with archers.



Here's my southern border. Does anyone know the flying camera command? It used to be Ctrl + Alt + F but that doesn't work anymore. Difficult to take decent screenshots now.

As you can see, this is not the best land to deal with but it isn't too terrible either.

Suggested second city sites? I think I can manage 5 cities with cottages.

This will be my first game with Shaka as a close neighbor. Is he like Alex? What should I expect there?

The flying camera command is still the same, you just have to enable it again in the Warlords' config file.

As for the game, wow, that first start was insane!

I'm glad you managed to get Buddhism; as you said, more happy faces. I'm wondering about the Monuments though. Are you going to replace them with monasteries/temples to get your cities to expand? Otherwise they might still be useful, even if they do become obsolete early on.

I don't have time right now to look at city placements, but boy, does the south suck! Not in terms of resources, you have some there; but look at all that desert! Yuck... I was going to say "grab the stone first", then remembered you're not going to build any wolrd wonders.

uhhhhhhh I play lotsa games w/o bothering to build world wonders? financial/aggressive on marathon, and u found a religion. didnt u already do a report on this game when it was w/ huyana? I mean I like knowing u can beat emperor but unless u just like the recognition, or have a lot of free time wouldn't it pay to be more adventurous considering the time u have to put in?

oh well, good luck.

Shaka likes to go for an early war and then war often. I have seen him in 90% of the games I have played/started. He also likes to get vassal states and unites his religion on the island rather well making it hard (for me at least) to take him apart while keeping other people some what happy with me.

The north west seemed like the best place for the next city, maybe west becuase of the stone if you wanted some early wonders.

carl corey said:

The flying camera command is still the same, you just have to enable it again in the Warlords' config file.

As for the game, wow, that first start was insane!

I'm glad you managed to get Buddhism; as you said, more happy faces. I'm wondering about the Monuments though. Are you going to replace them with monasteries/temples to get your cities to expand? Otherwise they might still be useful, even if they do become obsolete early on.

I don't have time right now to look at city placements, but boy, does the south suck! Not in terms of resources, you have some there; but look at all that desert! Yuck... I was going to say "grab the stone first", then remembered you're not going to build any wolrd wonders.

Click to expand...

I don't plan on building monuments. Right now I have ivory + religion and once I get IW and priesthood, I'll have another 2 happy faces. I have 3-4 calender happy resources nearby so I'm planning to gun for Calender.

The south looks bad but it didn't turn out that bad. Lots of animals and some food.

yavoon said:

uhhhhhhh I play lotsa games w/o bothering to build world wonders? financial/aggressive on marathon, and u found a religion. didnt u already do a report on this game when it was w/ huyana? I mean I like knowing u can beat emperor but unless u just like the recognition, or have a lot of free time wouldn't it pay to be more adventurous considering the time u have to put in?

oh well, good luck.

Click to expand...

You sure know how to piss and moan. Brennus is neither financial nor aggressive. The only similarity so far is that I founded Buddhism.

mctavish said:

Shaka likes to go for an early war and then war often. I have seen him in 90% of the games I have played/started. He also likes to get vassal states and unites his religion on the island rather well making it hard (for me at least) to take him apart while keeping other people some what happy with me.

The north west seemed like the best place for the next city, maybe west becuase of the stone if you wanted some early wonders.

Click to expand...

No wonders in this game. I'll watch out for Shaka but as it turned out, Monty already declared on me. I'm still planning to spread Buddhism his way.

I agree the NW looks like prime real estate. Too bad the barbs set up shop before I could get a settler over there.

I would build my first two cities to block in the rest of that land since you start with two nifty choke points at your boarders.

The first I would build one east of the rice to the north west, the second I would build one either south of the oasis or east of the oasis in the south east. I'd lean towards south of the oasis because you can fit another city in that way, and your boarders only have to expand once to stop people from entering your southern boarder.

If you want to be even more aggressive with your early grab, you could continue expanding outwards from those cities before backfilling in your own quiet corner. You'll need your boarders to expand in both cities, but thats nothing a little religion couldn't handle.

The heavy desert / jungle areas in the west make this look like a later backfill strat would complement it. Your western cities would be useless till iron working for that jungle, and desert is going to suck any way you slice it. Maybe wait till calender and then build NE of the clams and make a half-bad city in an fairly bad area.

Pete2006 said:

There are so many people who seem to think that the game cannot be won without wonders and it just isn't true. Don't get me wrong, they can be pretty useful but most are too costly and don't provide a huge benefit.

Click to expand...

The Emperor's Challenge was won without a single wonder except the UN, which I rush bought and which was needed to ensure and speed up the only viable victory for that game. It is very possible, but wonders can give you a clear edge if used strategically.

Pete2006 said:

I don't plan on building monuments. Right now I have ivory + religion and once I get IW and priesthood, I'll have another 2 happy faces. I have 3-4 calender happy resources nearby so I'm planning to gun for Calender.

The south looks bad but it didn't turn out that bad. Lots of animals and some food.



You sure know how to piss and moan. Brennus is neither financial nor aggressive. The only similarity so far is that I founded Buddhism.




No wonders in this game. I'll watch out for Shaka but as it turned out, Monty already declared on me. I'm still planning to spread Buddhism his way.

I agree the NW looks like prime real estate. Too bad the barbs set up shop before I could get a settler over there.

Click to expand...

just my opinion is all.

aelf said:

The Emperor's Challenge was won without a single wonder except the UN, which I rush bought and which was needed to ensure and speed up the only viable victory for that game. It is very possible, but wonders can give you a clear edge if used strategically.

Click to expand...

was there even a perception that u had to build wonders to win games? I am totally unaware of this perception.

Stage 2: Expand and defend.

My research path so far:

Started with Myst/Hunting. Went Meditation - AH - Wheel.



I discovered horses nearby so I decided to skip archery. That'll save me some research turns. Horses won't help much against Impi but they are good enough for barb protection.



Barbs settled two cities before I could produce my 2nd settler. That's sort of nice because it kept the barbs in their cities and I didn't have to produce many chariots for defense. I think I only had two barbs attack.



Shaka slipped two archers past me and managed to take one of the barb cities. This is not good. I really wanted that city and it doesn't look like it is in the right location...

Settled my third city but forgot to take a screenshot.



Monty declares in 1525 BC. That's par for the course. I should also point out that I've also met up with Saladin and Alex. 6 civs on this continent so far. 3 aggressive civs and one peaceful researcher. Not sure how to categorize Peter. I haven't played many games against him. Saladin has already founded Hinduism and Judaism. I have to spread my religion before he does.



5 archers against my 4 chariots. I'm glad he hasn't found copper yet. I lose two chariots but hold him off.

If I can hold Monty off, I plan to get open borders with every civ possible but Saladin to spread Buddhism. If a couple have Sailing, I'll automatically get some trade routes. If Shaka doesn't have Sailing then I'll build a road from Vienne to his Northern city.



My third city. Most of the north is covered in jungle. I can use the limited tiles here. Once I get fishing it'll be a profitable city



Fourth city. I can cottage a couple tiles along the river here and hopefully steal the spices from Shaka to use later. In retrospect, it may ahve been better to settle one tile east of this location for less overlap but then the city wouldn't have been able to work some river tiles. I have to survive the present so it isn't the worst decision I've ever made.



He sent 2 other archers after his first attack and I was able to take them out. I ask for peace and he accepts.



State of the Union. I may be able to afford one more city after I research fishing. Then it'll definately have to wait until IW.

Blue dot will probably have to wait until Calender. Red dot as soon as I have the military to fight Shaka. The two yellow dots I'm not so sure about. Either yellow may have some metal but both look like I may have to settle one tile off the sea..

For those keeping track the research path was Meditation - AH - Wheel - Agriculture - Mining - Writing - BW.

My next techs, whether or not I get copper will probably be Fishing - IW - Priesthood. Then I could either go for Monarchy/CoL or Alphabet. If I go straight to Alphabet, I probably won't have anything to trade but Alphabet.

yavoon said:

was there even a perception that u had to build wonders to win games? I am totally unaware of this perception.

Click to expand...

He did mention that he feels that there are people who think wonders are vital and he wants to prove they are not.

aelf said:

He did mention that he feels that there are people who think wonders are vital and he wants to prove they are not.

Click to expand...

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=178023

I see these types of threads popping up pretty often. There are a lot players whose strategies are very dependant on Wonder building.

Congrats on your Mansa win. I didn't read the whole thread but I did read the end. Quite a turnaround.

Janus0 said:

I would build my first two cities to block in the rest of that land since you start with two nifty choke points at your boarders.

The first I would build one east of the rice to the north west, the second I would build one either south of the oasis or east of the oasis in the south east. I'd lean towards south of the oasis because you can fit another city in that way, and your boarders only have to expand once to stop people from entering your southern boarder.

If you want to be even more aggressive with your early grab, you could continue expanding outwards from those cities before backfilling in your own quiet corner. You'll need your boarders to expand in both cities, but thats nothing a little religion couldn't handle.

The heavy desert / jungle areas in the west make this look like a later backfill strat would complement it. Your western cities would be useless till iron working for that jungle, and desert is going to suck any way you slice it. Maybe wait till calender and then build NE of the clams and make a half-bad city in an fairly bad area.

Click to expand...

All your suggested spots sounded good. Although NE of the clams would put the cows out of reach and the city would have next to no production. My spot provides less sea tiles but it can still grow to 10 or so and be able to build a couple structures.

I would have liked to build my third city east in the NW spot you pointed out as well but the barbs beat me to it.

aelf said:

He did mention that he feels that there are people who think wonders are vital and he wants to prove they are not.

Click to expand...

he's gna end up conquering a bunch of em anyway...I dont know, I think anyone who does enough dom wins quickly realizes u dont need wonders. though certainly there are lotsa ppl who try to think up oracle/pyramids strats.

=D