Lonely Hearts 4b - Imperial Frederick

I

InvisibleStalke

Emperor
Joined
May 24, 2006
Messages
1,329
Location
Auckland, New Zealand
There has been interest in playing Lonely Hearts on Emperor, so I though I would run a start for this in parallel. Actually this looks like a pretty good start - it might be a nice step to ease into Emperor.

Rather than run two Roosevelt games, I thought I'd go for Philosophical as a comparison. Both leaders are organized so we can explore that trait, but we haven't really explored an isolated SE.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/91972/Lonely_Frederick_BC-4000.CivWarlordsSave



Look at that. A stone hill start. And four seafood and sheep. Definitely an awesome SE start. Settle in place for me. No question about it.
 
Who-hoo. Very nice emperor start. I'll give it a try during weekend, pyramids are must. City square yields 3 hammers, and worker won't have anything to improve before AH/BW, maybe this is the time to go settler first?
 
That does look like a promising start--although I am a bit trepidatious about the emperor level difficulty.

I'm currently sitting on a Roosevelt isolated start--I will be going on vacation next week, and don't have time to play and write this week. I'll try this one as well when I get nack into town (sometime after the 8th of July). I'll post Lonely Hearts 4 then.
 
That's a lot of food which means a lot of specialists. I wouldnt know what to do with all those guys.
 
Its an embarrassment of riches. I've thought a lot about the tech path for this game. This is what I want to try and pull off - any feedback is very welcome.

- Fishing (build warrior, convert to fishing boat once I get the tech)
- Bronzeworking (for defense if I can and slavery). Once I have a couple of fishing boats built, aim for settler.
- Masonry (start building great wall and pyramids, with GW first or possibly both at once.) Aim is for second city to have high production and get the GW up as quickly as possible for defense.
- Animal husbandry - get those sheep going
- Writing
- Mathematics (build hanging gardens. I usually miss this, but I hope I can pull it off by going to maths much earlier than I normally do and stone will help a lot).
- Alphabet
- Mysticism, Polytheism, Literature (hopefully I will pop a GE from my earlier builds to rush the great library)
- Drama (use culture slider for happiness)
- COL, switch to caste system
- Civil Service, lightbulb towards liberalism while self researching towards optics. Hopefully get taoism.

Maybe this is too ambitious for Emperor. I'll have to see.
 
Damn that's an amazing start. Wow!!! The concern has to be peaceful emperor AIs teching like crazy overseas...

I would say your tech order looks just fine, just fine. Except, what about the wheel and agriculture? Otherwise your selections, order, and rationale all look good.
 
futurehermit said:
Damn that's an amazing start. Wow!!! The concern has to be peaceful emperor AIs teching like crazy overseas...

I would say your tech order looks just fine, just fine. Except, what about the wheel and agriculture? Otherwise your selections, order, and rationale all look good.
Click to expand...


I guess they will get fitted in when I need them. And pottery too - just for the granary. Agriculture may not be needed for a while - I won't be building any farms in my capital. The wheel will be needed for bronze if I find it, otherwise it might wait until I discover some happiness resources I want to hook up - I should be fine for health for a while.

I'm going to avoid starting any religions except mainly Taoism. I don't really need them for happiness if I am going to run Representation and use the culture slider. Hopefully the AIs will have a few holy wars going.
 
4 hills + 5.5 food resources (oasis) = hotness. Although looking at the map, it might be worth it to move 2E so that you can find a city on the grassland forest and give it two fish and some hills. 2 fish + sheep + oasis (and you can get AH fast) means in the early game your capital will be happy capped rather than food capped.

I would go bronze-->fishing and start with a worker. Work the oasis and time your chops so that all the hammers go to fishing boats. I think it's best to get your capital to max happy cap ASAP and crank out fogbusters/settlers.

You also are on the coast, which makes going for a Great Lighthouse/Colossus economy an attractive choice; GL produces a merchant who can bulb Metal Casting; Berlin has SO many shields that forge + Colossus can be built very quickly. Depends on the shape of the island tho.
 
Not sure I can get the stone wonders and GL/Colossus though. GL is definitely out for me - sailing can wait and it won't give me benefits until I have astronomy which is too long. Colossus disappears with Astronomy but I will be working a lot of water tiles so that will be worth it. I don't think I want to build my game around it though. Hopefully someone else will try it for comparison.

I like the stone hill for settling. 3 shields immediately and no need to hook up stone - thats a big plus. I'll go with my plan above and see what happens.
 
Checkpoint system
------------------

I'd like to propose we check in at the following checkpoints (using spoiler tags as we aren't all playing at the same speed). Posting saves is helpful, but not essential.

Checkpoint 1 - when we have explored the island and are aware of what resources it has. Its not so important when this is, but this is a time to discuss city sites etc. Don't look into a checkpoint 1 spoiler until you have reached this point yourself.

Checkpoint 2 - first contact - when we have met all the other AIs. At this point we can discuss our strategy to get to this point and our plans for dealing with them.

Checkpoint 3 - when we are committed to a victory condition (or at least think we are).

Checkpoint 4 - Victory (or defeat).

If you disagree please let me know.
 
Sorry, never mind.
 
OK, my first checkpoint. Its a little late - 640AD, but I pretty much just followed the plan I had earlier.

Spoiler :

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/91972/Lonely_Frederick_AD-0640.CivWarlordsSave



I have just teched to Optics. My tech rate has dropped while the capital builds caravels. I'm pretty happy with the tech position at this point. I need to get civil service, but I have two save great scientists for lightbulbing.

What I am not happy with is the rest of my cities. I am running caste system and pacifism so that capital is a research and GPP monster - I think I was clocking up over 120GPP per turn. But the rest of my cities feel underdeveloped. I can pop borders with caste system but it is taking a while for granaries etc to come online.

I think I will need to switch back to slavery at some point soon and develop the rest of my cities. At the moment I am thinking:

- build caravel in capital then switch back to scientists
- build another in my second city
- I need to get currency, civil service, construction and calendar ASAP. Hopefully I will be able to trade for some of these. I might have to chance missing liberalism to get the others.
- I badly need more cities. I have two settlers built. One will settle a NE island, the other will settle between my city and the barb city to the south.
- I want two more settlers after that - another city in the extreme sw and I am not sure about the last.
- Once I have popped the borders of these new cities and they have some pop, I will switch to slavery and get some granaries and courthouses in. In the meantime I may have to run merchants to survive.
- Hopefully at the same time I can tech to Liberalism and take Astronomy. I think there is a gamble as to whether that will succeed on Emperor.

I'm pretty happy with the early wonders I targeted. Got the GE for the GL. Got the hanging gardens - but at the time I only had three cities. Love the great wall for an isolated start. I send unescorted settlers out - but just move one per turn in case barbs are close.

Drama hasn't been as helpful early as I thought. I am spending too much on maintenance without currency and cottages to be able to use it much. Hopefully it will be more useful once my cities grow, but I wish I had prioritized calendar or currency instead.
 
This game looks like fun. Haven't looked too closely but there is a gambit with a philo leader to delay academy and go straight for GW. If that is done early enough then you can use the eng for pyramids. Then use the next one for the GL. The downside is you don't run scientists until u have GL. If the continent is any good then the start is really too strong tho.
 
Spoiler :
Diplo victory in early 1800s AD. I moved settler 2E, built Great Lighthouse + Pyramids + Colossus (big mistake, I think Hanging Gardens or Great Library would be better. Met the other continent. 3 Hindus (August, Wang, Carthage) versus one Judaism (Wash+Vassal'ed Mansa) and one Islam (Ramsess). Was hugely behind in tech, but once I got astronomy my economy shot up. Bribed Ramsess to attack Washington, while Augustus went after Carthage himself. Wasn't sure what to do so decided for default Space Race plan: Computers-->Rocketry.

When Washington went into Free Religion I decided to go for the Diplo win. Bribed Augustus to go into Representation and made lots of meaty trades with Washington. In addition, since I wasn't sure I had the population to win by diplo, I bribed Wang AND Rome to attack Carthage to get some cities and gain some votes; unfortunately Carthage vassal'd to Ramsess (!!!) and I was up poop creak for a bit (that was a HUGE mistake on my part. I didn't need to enter the war because I was friendly with Augustus, but I was just way too scared of losing his vote.) Got Nationhood and started drafting rifleman. Also lost a lot of pop along the way (fish boats). Got Mass Media and built the UN. Turns out all the diplomatic hijinx I pulled wasn't necessary (and was in fact detrimental). I got diplomatic victory on my first try with about (I think) 100 more votes than needed. In reviewing the game, I realized that I could have just traded for world maps and hand-counted all the population and victory would have been obvious to me. I really am a noob at this game, so I'm off to read a diplomacy primer now :p.

Good points:

Moving 2 east. I had space for 4 cities, whereas if I started I would had space for only 3. In addition 3 of them had 2 food resources and the 4th had an oasis. It also let me stay in Representation the entire game, since I essentially moved population away from my capital to my other cities.

Great Lighthouse: let me do lots of early expansion. By 640 AD I had 6 cities + a settler going to the seventh. I also hadn't touched the southern part of the continent at the time. I built like 6-7 more cities.

Bad points:

Newbiness with diplomatic victory. Time to research the xml!
Vassalage. This whole "vassaling a civ brings you into war with the master" is ridiculous. At least GIVE US THE CHANCE TO END THE WAR after he vassals.
Lack of math skills.

 
To ds61514:

Spoiler :

Me, I wish I hadn't built the hanging gardens and had built more settlers early. And researched drama instead of currency. I'm glad that you got a diplo win though - thats what I will probably need to go for. I am scared that my other cities aren't going to pull their weight for production.

Anyway it sounds like a very credible win - diplo is hard - the AIs can throw your plans into complete turmoil. Any advice you can give me would be very welcome - this is my first attempt at a peaceful specialist economy.


To ungy:

That is essentially what I played except with stone I could construct pyramids before I got the engineer. So I built it and used the first two engineers I got on the Great Library and National Epic. The third engineer lightbulbed machinery.
 
Played up to 1330.
Spoiler :

Went on a wonder spree. Built GW, then pyr, beelined lit--Glib. Picked up the lighthouse as well. Beelined lib, and when I was close the AI come calling. I trade for a mess of tech with Rome and Carthage, inc maps which gets me circumnav. I win a close race to lib and can take astro due to tech trades but then MM really turns it on. He builds the SOL in 1260! I'm slow on my continent development as I get really unlucky twice attacking barb city to the south, but I claim the continent and the two islands as well. I have the HE up--capital has NE and Oxford. I think I cruise easily to space victory here--I'll play a bit more just to be sure. I'm about to take emancipation and get the cottage spam going, and the other continent is mostly free market so my trading is really rocking--I think it won't be close(although I am last in score--actually a good thing as if you are in the bottom half you are exempt from WFYABTA with others in the bottom half)
 
Checkpoints 1 and 2
Spoiler :
I don't have all the screenshots, but if I did it would look something like:
(Berlin with Great Wall built and finishing Pyramids)
(finishing lighthouse, "Great Lighthouse BIDA!")
:wallbash:
(Berlin with a settled great engineer)
(finishing Math, "Hanging Gardens BIDA!")
:wallbash:
(Berlin with two settled great engineers)
(finishing Alphabet, "Great Library BIDA!")
:wallbash:
(Berlin with three settled great engineers)
(Mansa Musa showing up ten techs ahead)
("You have been defeated!")
:lol: This one might be worth a replay.
 
Ungy - seems pretty good progress. Let me know how the switch to Emancipation works out. I'm tempted to stay in caste/representation and try out how effective this is late game. If I crash and burn I'll at least know.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

NightOnEarth
[BTS] My new project - not a shadow game
2 3
Replies
51
Views
5K
NightOnEarth
NightOnEarth
AcaMetis
Nobles' Club 276: Frederick of Germany
2 3
Replies
52
Views
8K
Fish Man
Fish Man
elitetroops
[BTS] NC 191 Frederick of Germany
3 4 5
Replies
80
Views
13K
Gasp
Gasp
ecuwins
Lonely Hearts Club, BtS Edition, Chapter LXXXIII: Frederick The Great
2
Replies
25
Views
5K
krikav
krikav
P
Beyond the Game - Competitive Expansion
2 3
Replies
48
Views
19K
P&nny
P
Top Bottom