An In-depth Analysis of the Thought Process in Playing an Immortal Game

Index:

*1. 4000BC-975BC (Wonder Fever: 3 cities settled; small war with Spain; built Stone Henge, Great Wall, Great Light House and Pyramid)

*2. 975BC-75BC (Celtic War, 1st GG, 1st GP, Taoism, Tech trading, GL, NE and HE built)

*3. 100AD-1070AD (Research, Liberalism, Great trade mission, Celtic Vassal, WWI)

*4. 1200AD-1360AD (The Inter-Continental Railroad; Military Build Up; The Outbreak of WWII; The Trap)

*5. 1370AD-1410AD (WWII Heats Up: Battle of Madrid; Vienne The "Meat Grinder")

*6. 1410AD-1515AD (WWII Continues: Battle of Wonson; The End of Brennus; Battle Of PyongYang; Assembly Line; Uneasy Peace)

Many new CFC members have posted questions about how to balance the various aspect the the game, I would like to share the most fun games I have ever played here and hope everyone including myself can learn something from it. I will post sections of play, and give everyone a chance to offer his/her own opinions about how the game should be played. Though this is Immortal level, but the general strategies and the thought process can be applied to alll levels of playing. This game is by no means a "guide" or "walkthrough" or any kind, but it will offer most of my own thought process based on my experience and understanding of the game. It surely can be played in many ways, and I invite all interested to give it a shot.

Settings: Warload 2.08/Immortal/Pangaea/Normal Speed/Standard Size/Defaults
Civ: Inca (Industrious/Financial)
UB: Terrace - replaces granary, +2 culture
UU: Queshua - replaces worrior, free Combat I, 100% vs Archers
Tech: Agriculture + Mysticism

Here is the starting loc and 4000BC save. I will post my starting thoughts and moves in the next post so everyone can chip in ideas.



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HC is built for CE and this flooplain start is wonderful for that ( for SE too: so much food...). I would settle in place ( bounus from the fish and of the river, a plains hill) unless moving the warrior S,SW or SE reveals something else.

P.S: Plan to grab that gold

I'd probably settle in place. Since you have quesha's there is not an immediate barb threat. This means Wheel-Pottery while starting with a worker is an option.
If you get 2 cottages up early + fish connected research is doubled so further ancient age research won't be a problem anymore. With also gold in sight this definitely not a start to gamble on a religion.

If moving the quechua SW doesn't reveal much, I'd probably settle 2E of the settler's start position. Burns a floodplain and a turn, but brings the gold mine in the BFC. If there's seafood to the west, a quick second city can grab it.

the question is, quecha rush someone before or after you get out your second city? workersteal? I would go wheel -> pottery while building quechas aiming to worker steal. The capital just dont have the hammers to get the fish worked before you get those hills mined or you get he whip active.

Incas are my favorite civ. I think I posted an emperor game with them a while back. I prefer fractal over pangea though to give some uncertainty to the game.

I'd move 2E to get the gold into the picture. Fish, gold, floodplains = very powerful capital.

I also agree with everyone else that a worker steal is probably the way to go.

Floodplains+cottages+Fin trait.....very interesting. Not to mention the stone along with Ind trait. I see a Pyramid coming, anyone else? Yes, I agree with everyone to settle in place. It's coastal and you got 2 plain hills and 6 floodplains in total. Health might become a bit of an issue, so I would just ignore the gold because there's more floodplains around it and let my next city grab it.

With Mysticism & the Terrace, which do you go for first, a religion or pottery? Id think you should prolly try to snag a religion since your second city which would need the terrace most wont be up for a while... ?

Love the 2E position for capital placement, move warrior SW first just to be sure.

Interesting no one has mentioned that beatiful patch of stone under my settler's foot. Stone+Industrious! (Edit: isnotme beat me to this line )

I thought about settling 2E to grab the gold. But as someone already pointed out, it burns a turn and a flood plain.

But if settle in place, i get a +1 with stone, and will be able to use it as soon as i get Masonary. It seems this capital will be low on prod, so 2 in center square will be a nice boost for early worker, boat, and settler builds. With Fish+floods, I should be able to food-build worker/settler fast to claim that gold. Coastal is great, that fish tile gives 5+3
So I chose to settle in place. Hoped it gives more res.



Wow, what a start, 2 Fish, stone + rice. I see myself getting many stone based wonders, winning the liberalism race and etc... already!

Anyway here is my new plan:

Get 1 worker and 2 fish boats ASAP. 2 Fish+1 Rice = 15+7+2 = 6 turns/settler or 4 turns/worker.

My plan was let the capital grow to 4 pop cap, then build settlers, and then get Masonary to grab as many early stone wonders as possible.

* Tech path: Fishing(FB)-Mining-BW(see copper and chopping fish boats/wonders)-Wheel(road to new cities)-Pottery(for terrance in new cities)-AH(see horse)-Masonary(use stone for wonders)...

* Build order: Worker(farm rice, mine), FB, FB,(grow to size 3), Quecha(grow to size 4), worker(or steal), settler...

Next priority is to scout for a nice spot for a production city to help with the early wonder building. 1st Quecha to explore areas to the south and hope to steal some workers

This is a great start, i thought it would be best to play it safe by quickly settle 3-4 cities, grab Stone Henge, Great wall and possibly Pyramid and Great Light house.

I found that The Great Wall is sooo nice to have on high levels since the AIs will always have more units than human early on, and fighting early wars means fight many battles in my own territory. So having the GW is like getting 50% of the Imperial trait and will give me so many more GG points.

The capital looks great for a GP farm, so having Stone Henge in it helps a lot with that early Prophet and poping borders for new cities. With Stone, can prob build it in less than 5 turns.

Inka is not typical immortal game. No way

Mutineer said:

Inka is not typical immortal game. No way

Click to expand...

What do you mean? Is Inca too good or too bad for Immortal?

I have almost played all leader on this same settings, but this is one of the best.

I agree with Mutineer, financial is already nice, quesha's are huge since barb problems are much reduced. It also meant there was no need to claim gold super early, if an Ai settles there before 2400 you just take him out with quesha's. You also got a very good start.

I agree with your general plan (would prioitize pottery more) but i wouldn't build stonehenge (pollutes gp pool + we have terraces to do the culture) and i wouldn't build GW (unless you plan a pyramids gambit) no use for it with quesha's, in the early game fights against AI's should never take place within your borders.

Dirk1302 said:

I agree with your general plan (would prioitize pottery more) but i wouldn't build stonehenge (pollutes gp pool + we have terraces to do the culture) and i wouldn't build GW (unless you plan a pyramids gambit) no use for it with quesha's, in the early game fights against AI's should never take place within your borders.

Click to expand...

Henge is the best wonder for early culture, it is dirt cheap(<5 turns in this game). And I could use the early GP to bulb a religion, or the 2+5 a settled GP gives is great for my capital since it is low on production.

I also planned on Pyramid and Great light house, that means my focus on the early game is on building the wonders, expand with great protection the Quechas give, and lay a solid science/growth foundation for the game, so probably will fight many defensive battles in case I steal a worker or 2. So Great Wall is integral part of my plan.

The capital is so food rich, Pyramid/Representation allows it growing fast, work scientists and be a science super city. Great light house gives it +2 trade routes, later compounded with Beuracracy, you can immagine its potential.

I emphasized 2nd city as production city so after the early build phase, I will be able to build units quickly and take some neighboring AI cities without cripppling my economy/research.

The most likely plan I drew was:

* Stone Henge + Great Light house in Capital
* Great Wall + Pyramid(potentially) in 2nd city

It sounds like you're going on the SE path? If so, Pyramid+Rep=super science capital under Caste System.

itsnotmeee said:

It sounds like you're going on the SE path? If so, Pyramid+Rep=super science capital under Caste System.

Click to expand...

I do not think in terms of FE/SE/CE.

Here was what i thought:

If I got Pyramid/Representation, my happy cap +3, and I will benefit immediately from running scientists(who give more and than early cottages). So what should i build on those flood plains to allow me to get there fastest?-->Farms.

After I reached happy cap and specialist cap, maybe i will convert some farms to cottages to leverage the Financial trait.

Even with cottages on the floodplains you'll get to the happiness cap pretty fast with the 2 fishes and rice in reserve, farms feel like overkill to me. As for stonehenge,indeed it costs nothing, on the other hand you're likely to found no more than 2 or 3 extra cities of your own so the benifit is not that great either.If you chop the wonder in capital and later build GL you will get the occasional great prophet which can hurt. It might be a personal thing but founding religions, chopping stonehenge or oracle in capital, things always seem to go bad either relation wise or GP wise for me. An early prophet is ok but an early GS is much more ok for the academy i feel. Needless to say i'd certainly take a shot at the pyramids on this start.

Industrious + stone means Pyramids, man! Pyramids is often game-winning. +3 early without having to build and garrison extra troops is insane, not to mention +3 beakers per specialist (think Mercantilism later on). Assuming you can definitely get it, the only issue is whether you'd be sacrificing early growth and expansion for it, but in this case you don't have to sacrifice much.

I'm a little confused by what this thread is supposed to be ... are you playing this game now or just reporting on a past game of yours and taking pauses for people to chime in on what they would have done?

Everything went according to plan. Warning, Do Not read this post if you are playing your own version of this game.

Read only after you reached 1000BC to compare progress.

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In 3400BC, had 1st chance to steal a worker from Izzy and I went for it.



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This worker made it safely home and start to mine the 2nd plain hill. Here is a peep at 3080BC.



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Copper showed up near capital after BW! look at that cow and copper=Great city! Note the 2 works are ready to chop 2 trees for the 2nd Fishboat, the left over hammer will go toward a settler. This speeds up the opening a lot, i will save 2 trees for a later wonder. I am researching wheel so I can start build roads leading to the 2nd city spot, this can save 1 or 2 turns for the settler enroute. No slavary yet since the capital is at cap, no need to waste that turn yet.



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Here is a view of the capital at 2720BC. Everything went according to plan, 2 Fish boats, rice + 1hill, can you think of a better place to build settlers?



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Here is a shot at 2480BC of the 2nd city just before researching Pottery(for its Terrance), 3rd settler in queue.



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2360BC, I plan to use the 3rd settler to grab the gold, hill and those nice flood plains. Researching AH to work the cow and see horse.



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2120BC, AH reveals horse near gold just after I built the 3rd settler, great timing. Any questions where to send the 3rd settler? 3 cities are close together, low maintainence and easy to defend.



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2000BC start of the wonder fever. Get Stone Henge in 5 turns, any takers? Note still no Slavery since happy cap is at 4, they grow to 4 with/without whipping the Terrance, so let it be and focus on wonders. Only 4 Queshuas to defend.



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1880BC, 1 turn till Henge, 2nd city start Great Wall at size 2 (cow+copper). Note I am reasearching Sailing and hoping to grab Great Light House in capital.



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1640BC, capital build 1 more settler and hoping to settle to the East to share the fish and flood plains, or even that wine.



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1360BC, Izzy decided to teach me a lesson for stealing her worker, sent 4 archers, as soon as I spotted that, i built Queshuas, 6 was all I needed. Too bad the battle had to occur 2 turns before I built the Great Wall

That is another reason the early wonders are so powerful, they pop your 3rd, 4th border expansions SO much faster, which gives you great early warning about incoming enemies so you have more time to prepare for countering the theat.



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1320BC, the battle was over quickly, killed all 4 Archers maybe lost 1
Queshua. Built Great Wall in 2nd city, take a look inside, i was starving it to build Pyramid, i guess it is another form of slavery



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Another shot @ 1320BC, note how just 3 early workers was capable of building a nice 3-city network and those key improvements with perfect timing according to priorities.



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1240BC, felt the time pressure, started chopping to push GLH and Pyrimid in 2 cities.



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1080BC, wonders almost done, 3rd cities building Queshuas w/o Barracks. They will be used to fight Brennus, to the East of Inca, see those nice wheat, wine and cattages? My 3rd settler is waiting after i research Alapabet, and after trading for Iron working to settle the next possible city.



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975BC: GLH built, 1 turn to Pyrimid! a Small army of Queshuas for Brennus.



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So I was lucky to achieve my first phase of wonder pursue, very succesful. Now ready for some skirmish!

Next update will have: First Civic change to Slavary+Representation; War with Brennus; first GG, massive post-Alphabet 1 for 6 tech trading, first GP and much more....