5th Open Game - Emperor start with no happiness resources nearby

The start is actually pretty good, despite the lack of happiness. I'm not building any cottages, not because I feel it will be too easy, but because I am trying to learn a new style of play . We have lots of land around us, and lots of jungle in between us and either AI at this point. Early war would be very hard, so I just expanded and ran scientists. My plan is to take overthe romans mid game with maces/trebs, but I still have lots of land still to settle. I'm not going to save/load at all during this game, so if I end up losing later i'll just post up to that save (so far so good though). What I probably should've done is done oracle --> monarch for early happiness. A high production capital with forests usually does pretty well, but it would've thrown my tech path off a bit. Ideally, I think my floodplain city could've worked some cottages as well. I ended up lightbulbing maths this game, which may or may not have been a good idea. I think this map is better suited for and HE or CE, but we will find out.

Had some luck at the begining. Grabbed Animal husbandry, Pottery and Writing from goodie huts with only one scout. Also grabbed 150 gold. The second city was destined to take marble. Wanted to rush monument but forgot that Bronze working is needed first :[



Oracle is rushed in 1600BC and Monarchy is grabbed. That was mistake, I should have grabbed CoL for additional research.



I slowed researching important techs as: Currency and Calendar. Lizzy had both techs and I expected Ceasar will get them soon. I had had to wait many turns until this happened.



Mansa appeared with caravel in 660AD and he had knowledge of Education. Several turns later Great Merchant was born, I assumed Mansa just grabbed Economics. Before Education was researched, Mansa grabbed liberalism. I managed only to circumnavigate the globe ...


I had no luck at all with Great People. 5 great prophets were born. First to lightbulb Theology. 2,3,4 as superspecialists. 5 constructed The church of nativity. Grrrr. Lost race to Great Library. Some Engineer rushed this wonder far away.

I built the oracle and took monarchy for some happiness, I considered MC for a forge and possible pyramids from that, I think it would have worked as pyramids were in late. I missed the first 6 religions, Islam not in yet, and conf hasn't spread to me either. I did get the GL and liberalism at 900AD. I took nationalism as it was the most expensive (not a good reason). I have just taken a nice gem/dye city from the barbs. But I need to start a war. Not sure who it will be. Or maybe I have enough space already for a victory? Maybe someone with more experience could advise me on this.



It's 1AD and 1 turn before the GL. I think it's quite late but I got it anyway.

I had the same sort of start as Giaur did, popped mining, mysticism and writing + 150 gold, chopped oracle around 1400, had a hard decision then between code of laws and Monarchy, chose code of laws because alpha was near ( i set 2 scientists to work directly after popping writing and building the library) and Lizzy had monarchy so i thought i could trade when Augustus got it too. Ran into the same problem as Giaur did, Augustus took forever to research monarchy so i was saddled with size 5-6 cities for a long time. Should have taken monarchy i don't see the value of col so early Giaur courthouse is useless at this time i think?. I had a very good research position around 500 bc but didn't make much of it in the end, i think i should have geared up for war sooner. At 1100 Ad i've taken on Augustus with some success but economy is in shambles. Still looks not so bad.

I might continue the game from 500bc or 1 ad to see if i can do better than this with more early expansion or war against Augustus. Playing from the point where i'm now will be a huge challenge. Ironically the early research was not the problem, never had alphabet so soon.

I played on untill 1170AD, met the other continent and traded well with them, I really need to conquer england and rome but I don't think I have the military might or skills. I would like to bribe them to fight each other but they have the same religion and I am free religion, I guess I could convert, but that would be 2 turns of anarchy, 1 for religion and one out of free religion. And it might not work. Setting them on(or vice versa) someone from other continent wouldn't be enough as 2 gallions with 2 maces and 2 trebs will not dent their military. I cannot out tech the other continent as the chief whore himself is there. All my talk of possible victory has come to nothing again.

I'm not sure if I will continue this one, I don't have good enough cities. I think the lack of a good copper city and the jungle seperating us from the enemy made an early attack too difficult for me.

I basically lost the game around 1600. MM, Asoka and Wang kon together with financial techy Lizzy have run away completely techwise, around 1550 i was informed that MM had built broadway(electricity) and in 1580 i see Lizzy's Sam inf (Rocketry ) running through my open borders. I saw this all coming so i played rather sloppy but i'm not doing much worse than other games i played on these levels, i have science output of 500 beakers pt and this will go up rapidly once biology (7 turns now) is in. I'm really amazed at the tech timeline here, usually on an average immortal game the Ai's are doing things like electricity and assembly line between 1650-1700, they seem to be 200 years faster on this emperor game. I could take out Augustus any moment but it's just a waste of time i feel, i think i will hit enter to see when MM launches maybe built Scotland yard to follow this proccess my bet = around 1750-1800. So far for me suggesting a difficult immortal game . I will probably go back and try again from 300 bc or even 1000 bc to see if i can improve and with the knowledge of the techy other continent i will certainly cottage the capital this time. I also should have built more workers and settlers and improved the capital more, focused too much on the war with Augustus.Even with the knowledge about the other continent i now doubt if i can win this particular game.

At least the early research problem is solved, with 2 scientists ran of a lib, settling the first gs, completely solves the early research problem .

I cheated at the 1000 AD point as I was mystified as to how an emperor level AI got liberalism in 700 AD. I checked in worldbuilder and found out that the bigger continent had 3 hardcore techers, and the sole holdout was being smashed to bits. Well that explains the furious tech pace that was going on in this game. I think even if we had a financial civ, we may have had a hard time keeping up with the tech pace that was progressing on the other continent.