Trading Crossroads on Deity- Othniel's Take

My take on this save originated from a Deity game first played by TruePurple. You can read about it here.

After some discussion on how TruePurple could best utilize a really tough start, I decided that I wanted to take a stab at the game, starting with a 4000BC save. It has been been a doozy so far!

I've attempted to stay as spoiler-free as possible by not studying TruePurple's screenshots or uploaded save. That said, I still know before starting that Germany is crouched right at our doorstep to the south, we have Iron nearby, and there is a lot of food-poor terrain to the north, mainly desert and hills.

Also, I don't like Greece! Call it a personal preference thing--maybe the Hoplite just makes them feel like an overly-defensive civ--but I've never cared for them. Alexander's snotty-faced leaderhead doesn't help matters...

Although the Hoplite makes Greece defensively-minded, I'm going to play for Domination / Conquest. Gotta mix it up a little every now and then.

Game Settings:
Civilization: Greece
Difficulty: C3C Deity
Map: 70% Water Continents, Arid, Temperate, 4 Billion years, restless barbs

All other default settings

Opponents: Spain, Germany, Portugal, Maya, China, Zulu, and Mongols. An aggressive lot!

I think the toughest part of this game is the starting terrain. Besides the one river (you can see the FP wheat from the starting screenshot), there is little food help in the immediate locale. I figure the best way to expand will be through the sword, concentrating builds on units over settlers.

Starting Locale and Early Research:




P.S. I recently was introduced to the board game, "Rail Baron". Excellent game if you haven't heard of it and are into lengthy board games! All of my initial cities in this Civ game will be named in honor of Rail Baron.

Disaster struck on my first attempt!

Bismark, that shady fellow, marched a stack of 6+ units directly at my capital and sneak-attacked my in around 3200BC. Needless to say, my one poor warrior garrisoned inside had no chance.

So, this will be even tougher than I had anticipated. Perhaps I gambled a bit in my first attempt by building a curragh right after my first warrior. Bismarck evidently saw me as weak and went for the juggular. It honestly surprised me! I've rarely seen even Bismark be so bold so early...

Ok, for my second attempt, I decided on this as a build order:
Warrior --> Warrior --> Warrior --> Settler --> Curragh

That delays getting the curragh out for contacts, but hopefully keeps Bismarck from picking on me with his huge Deity bonus stacks. And...it worked.

Research to Writing at minimum. Hope to get trade bait for Iron Working.

I think an early Hoplite-induced Golden Age will be unavoidable, so I'll plan for it

NOTE: My writing style is not story-oriented. This will be all about "just the facts, Ma'am". I like the simple, picture-heavy Tales, such as those written by Own, and I plan on doing something similar here. It makes less writing for me, and less reading for any audience.

A few more early screenies:

Settler factory in New York Central and military factory in Rail Baron:



Iron. The veteran warriors sitting around were soon upgraded.



And the situation in 1000BC. Thankfully Portugal was marching back from fighting the Spanish. There are a LOT of warriors in those stacks! Also, I've come to realize that I'm the only one who holds an Iron resource. That was a major stroke of luck! Germany is on the menu...

In case anyone is holding their breath , I'm going on vacation until August 25th and so updates will be sparse for a while.

But note, while things look calm above, all hell broke out shortly after. And I mean all hell...

Man, I've seen this in the other thread, but that is a crappy start location for a Deity game. Good luck.

This is very interesting... I'll be reading. Good luck.

@Othniel: Does Milwaukee Road still get the benefit of the river? I've had a similar position (NW) for a city and it would be interesting to know.

Good luck with the game, othniel.

Othniel said:

I recently was introduced to the board game, "Rail Baron". Excellent game if you haven't heard of it and are into lengthy board games!

Click to expand...

An oldie but a goodie from the stables of Avalon Hill. I always enjoy a "rousing game of Rail Baron", as we always called it.

Good luck with the game, Othniel. Looks like a good start so far, but your teaser indicates trouble ahead. I hope you can weather the storm.

Nice, I'll be watching this thread!

Othniel said:

Disaster struck on my first attempt!

Bismark, that shady fellow, marched a stack of 6+ units directly at my capital and sneak-attacked my in around 3200BC. Needless to say, my one poor warrior garrisoned inside had no chance.

So, this will be even tougher than I had anticipated. Perhaps I gambled a bit in my first attempt by building a curragh right after my first warrior. Bismarck evidently saw me as weak and went for the juggular. It honestly surprised me! I've rarely seen even Bismark be so bold so early...

Click to expand...

It happens. It happened to me, too, on my first attempt. IIRC Bismark sneak attacked my undefended capital with a lone spearman around 3000 BC. I've found that, on Emperor and above, the AI very eager to sneak attack undefended capitals early. But even a lone warrior defending is usually enough to deter that behaviour.

Othniel said:

Ok, for my second attempt, I decided on this as a build order:
Warrior --> Warrior --> Warrior --> Settler --> Curragh

That delays getting the curragh out for contacts, but hopefully keeps Bismarck from picking on me with his huge Deity bonus stacks. And...it worked.

Research to Writing at minimum. Hope to get trade bait for Iron Working.

Click to expand...

I've not done any extensive research on the following theory, but I think if you are paying gpt for techs, the AI much less likely to sneak attack. If they come demanding tribute, they usually will attack if you refuse it though. But it's only a minor pain to pay a tribute of 30 gold to avoid being attacked early on.

Anyway, I played this scenario about 60 turns before being fed up with the lack of production because of the deserts.

Wow, interesting, Othniel. I'll be following this.

I've had Bismarck attack a capitol defended by a single spear before.

It's not uncommon for me to see Germany at war by the year 3000 BC on deity.


btw - Rail Baron is awesome. I've been playing it since I was a kid.

There is a (non-official) electronic version of it.

Aceman101 said:

@Othniel: Does Milwaukee Road still get the benefit of the river?

Click to expand...

I don't believe so.

Sweet! Othniel made a story!

Milwaukee Road is indeed not on the river. I placed it that way to avoid settling on a Flood Plain tile. Food is too scarce for this start!

Update to follow...

Last time I posted, the diminutive Greek empire was at peace and all was ok in the world. This calm could not last forever, though, for Bismarck of the Germans is hardly a fellow to let peace linger. I knew that he needed to be dealt with, and quickly...

The Situation in 730 & 710BC:





Germany has us in a box. We've been furiously making Swordsman and Hoplites in anticipation of war, but it's time to find out a little more clearly what the Germans are up to...





Letting the Germans get the Great Wall would never do!

Feeling that my hand was being tipped, it was time to seize the initiative. We had ~8 swordsman in a stack on the German border, plus a few other various units scattered around. Not overwhelming, but it would have to do.

You evil bastard!

How could you leave your readers on such a cliffhanger?!

Hang on. I'm writing another update as we speak.

Spamming because I've just got to see how this turns out! Good luck.

In 690BC, the sword stack razes Nuremburg and soon after a new city with the thoroughly Greek name of "Burlington Road" is founded in it's place.



But, Germany is strong and it is doubtful that puny Greece can take them on for long without help. We must hire some allies.

Quickly I establish embassies with Spain and Portugal. Angling for a military alliance against Germany, I offer them every last gold piece and technology I can muster...and come up short. No deal can be cut at this moment, so fatefully Greece must go this alone

In around 610BC, we had some good news and bad news:
- Spain is warring against Germany and razed one of their northern cities (still can't get an MA though)
- Germany signs an MA with the Mongols against us. The Mongols are located across the ocean and are no threat...

Situation in 610BC:



Fateful it was that I could not buy an MA with anyone. In rapid succession, two dastardly events occur...

First, in 550BC Portugal signs an MA with the Mongols...against us!!

Their wandering spear/settler pair just happened to be next to undefended Great Northern when this occurred, and on the inter-turn Great Northern disappeared into a rubble heap...one turn before it finished a barracks.



Then, on the inter-turn before 510BC, we get this message:




All four known civs had dog-piled on Greece!!

I had desperately tried to sign peace with Mongols after they made an MA with Portugal, and that unfruitful effort's lack of result came to haunt us as the Mongols signed an MA with Spain. A four-way AI dogpile on Deity--and on a weak starting location--is a serious matter indeed!

Can Greece hang on?

Thank you all kindly for your interest!

Now, Ansar, you can hate me because I won't be able to update for a day or two. I made the latest cliffhanger just for you.