News: COTM37 Pre-Game Discussion

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civ_steve

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COTM 37: Sumeria



OK, circumstances are not optimal. Still trying to get moved and restore some form of fast internet connection. But I believe I can get COTM37 out, so here it goes:

Going back to some of the early contests of the C3C era, we revisit Sumeria. The Enkidu Warrior replaces the standard Warrior, getting you a very cheap Spearman that starts the Golden Age. At Emperor Level, you might need that early GA!

Here is the COTM37 game info:

Civilization: Sumeria
Rivals: 9 pre-selected.
Barbarians: Restless
Difficulty: Emperor
Land Form: Continents, 60% ocean, Small map.
Geology:4 billion years old, Normal and Warm.
AI Aggression: Normal.





Conquest-Class Bonuses:

  1. 2 Bonus Warriors
    50 Bonus Gold
    Added Tech: Warrior Code

Predator-Class Equalisers:

  1. Don't Know BronzeWorking
    AI Bonus Support Increased to DemiGod
    General Aggression Level increased one level to More Aggressive
 
9 rivals on a small map :eek:
We might indeed see some despotic Golden Ages this time... :D

No luxuries or bonus tiles around :( Not even a BG :gripe:
How shall we keep our ladies happy? :confused:
 
An impressively featureless start. Ainwood would be proud! Sumeria are AGR and SCI though aren't they? So we get that +1fpt for all towns founded on the lake. I guess the point of having no bgs or rivers is that lots of our tiles benefit from an early golden age...

There is a shoreline on the other side of that hill, presumably the sea.
 
I'm no civ expert, so I don't know what I should do here.

I'm settling in place; no point losing fresh water. Should city no. 2 be WW, to get the fresh water, but be only 2 tiles away from capital?

Also, I am working the forest first. It has me grow in 10 turns, and I am producing 3 shields per turn. My strategy, since cramped map, is to make 2 Enkidu's for MP, and 3 to kill my nearest neighbor. Then I will make a settler.

At least civ_steve gave us wet map. (more fresh water) Thanks!
 
Measured in RCPs (i.e. the way game measures when calculating corruption) WW is 3 tiles away from the capital. If that makes you feel any better about it. :)
If I don't find any rivers nearby, I can see myself settling four towns on that lake, but your point about the wet map is a good one - there must be some more fresh water somewhere.
Another good thing about warm and wet is that it is a difficult combination for the AI, which is not very good at dealing with (i.e. avoiding) jungles.
 
killerkid said:
My strategy, since cramped map, is to make 2 Enkidu's for MP, and 3 to kill my nearest neighbor. Then I will make a settler.
Click to expand...

That would make for a very small empire during your golden age if your Enkidu wins a battle. Ouch. ;)

I also plan on settling 2-3 more cities on the lake even if early exploration reveals more water nearby. Cramped map after all and I want to be pumping units ASAP. Chopping some of the plentiful forests will help the initial production significantly. Building a couple of early additional workers to speed the chops are a high priority for me.

I will definitely try an early offensive rush at a nearby civ but will attempt to delay a golden age until I have a few more cities.

Debating whether a cheap AGRI granary will be worthwhile in one of the lake cities. Perhaps if a food bonus is found in the fog... :dunno:
 
PaperBeetle said:
So we get that +1fpt for all towns founded on the lake.
Click to expand...

Do we get the extra food if its a lake???

I don't remember offhand and I don't have Civ in front of me to test it out. According to the agricultural trait info I could dig up online, we get the bonus if the city is on a river. I'm not sure if the bonus extends to any fresh water source.
 
Yes. We get the bonus on a lake, as well.

Sumeria starts with pottery and bronze working, so IW would be a reasonable thing to go for for a monopoly. Maybe alphabet.

Such a small map makes the slingshot a bit of a gamble, too.
 
Othniel said:
Debating whether a cheap AGRI granary will be worthwhile in one of the lake cities. Perhaps if a food bonus is found in the fog...
Click to expand...

I notice you are checking things and that is a very good thing to do.:) I would point out that granaries are not half-price for agricultural civs. The civilopedia does say they get agricultural buildings at half-price and I would certainly expect a granary to be one of those, but unfortunately it is not so. I was pretty sure already, but double-checked a random start to make sure.

I usually think a granary is worthwhile and chopping for an early one might make sense as there might be a chance for a bg to appear. It might depend on how close the other civs are. The start does look difficult.
 
If agri civs got 1/2 granaries, it would imbalance the game too much.

A granary is almost definitely important, unless there are hidden food bonuses.

with just an extra food from the bonus, it will take us 14 turns to produce a setter without a granary, 8 with. You can fairly easily build a granary in the time it takes to get to size 3 or 4.
 
@Othiniel- You're right. However, since sumeria can't build regular warriors, and I don't fancy paying twice as much for spears, enkidu are pretty much the only option. I guess I'll prepare for a one city powerhouse

I really think that on a cramped map with emperor AI, an attack needs to be made. Otherwise the AI will have 8-15 cities and you will have 4-6. Adding to this is the shoreline that PaperBeetle pointed out on our west hill, which cuts off our expansion westwardly. A civ might even start 10 or so tiles away from you due to the 3 extra civs. If there is any iron, going for conquest of continent, and then it is decision time.
 
PrinceMyshkin said:
I would point out that granaries are not half-price for agricultural civs.
Click to expand...

You're right. :blush: Thanks for the catch!

I'm still probably going to hold off on building a granary until I see if there is a nearby location with a more powerful food situation.
 
killerkid said:
@Othiniel- You're right. However, since sumeria can't build regular warriors, and I don't fancy paying twice as much for spears, enkidu are pretty much the only option.
Click to expand...

Nice to see you discussing your strategy and it might not be a bad idea at all.:)

Enkidu warriors actually only cost 10 shields, go ahead and build them. And good luck on your game.:)

Edit:I see I might have misuderstood what you meant and apologize if that's the case, good luck.:)
 
I seem to remember reading somewhere that when you give a worker orders to auto-chop a forest, he will select the nearest BG tile if there is one nearby as the initial chop. I ran a random test with 4 chops and in all cases if there was a BG available it was chopped first.

As for me, I'm thinking about settling in place and using a chop to help get an early settler out. I'll use city #2 for a couple EW for scouting and then build a worker or 2 while the capital builds a chop aided granary. I'll check the math tomorrow and see if some sort of settler factory is possible, if not, then I'll probably skip the granary and just build 2 settlers with those 60 shields.
 
@Prince

I don't mind discussing my strategy at all. I probably won't win. (Only have won on Emperor Archipelago maps) :(

What I meant in the last post is that since UU replaces regular warrior, I can't use that for my attack, and spearmen cost twice as much as UU, (Don't even know if spearmen are there) Enkidu are the only way to go, since I don't expand very fast and will need to take a rival out quickly. I am not good at making settler factories.
 
Nope Sumeria cannot build Spears or Warriors, only Enkidu; and they upgrade to Pikes. Bad because now you can't build Warriors for mass upgrade to Swords, which on a map such as this might've been a good strategy.

Hopefully we'll get WC early in trade but I'm not holding out much hope as BW is what every AI who doesn't start with it researches first and Pottery is worth jack.
 
Well for the early rush strategy, why not just research War Code? There should be no problem to research and/or trade it by the time the barracks is finished and there are some tile improvements laid down.
The enkidu sounds like it is going in my just-for-barb-control bag, along with the jaguar and the impi.
 
Small = 80x80; 40% of 6400 = 2560 approx. land tiles.
Standard = 100x100; 25% of 10000 = 2500 approx. land tiles.

So land-wise we have the equivalent of a 70% or 80% standard map.

So it may sound crowded, and sure 80% with 5 civs/continent might be somewhat, but it's not going to as crowded as the set up suggests.

I don't see the barbs being much of a pain though, the AI will head off and make tons of cash for us.
 
Othniel said:
That would make for a very small empire during your golden age if your Enkidu wins a battle. Ouch. ;)
Click to expand...

But you can't compare it in absolute numbers. Relatively, the increase in production and commerce is the same as for a later GA.

:coffee:
 
I think PaperBeetle is right with his WC strategy. My only question is this:
Do we send Enkidu along for defence, and risk a GA, or do we just let the archers fly solo?

A nasty predator bonus would be that towns on a lake don't get the agri food bonus.
 
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