Immortal Game Report: The Code of Hammurabi

Foreword:

Inspired by some discussions on this board, I decided to make another Immortal report. I usually prefer peaceful play unless it's inevitable, so I'm going to try to play the opposite in this game. It will be a learning experience for me and if it turns out well it could help other players on this forum as well. The idea will be: Ruin my early economy trough war and then see if it can be recovered. Once (or IF) I recovered, it's time for another war. Basically I'll try to aim to war as much as the economy allows me to. This game isn't aimed at "optimal" play, as not every starting position asks for warring. It'll be about how to recover from early warmongering. Let's hope we get some inland start with a military resource.

The leader of choice is Hammurabi. I never played him before but his agg/org traits make him a good candidate for this game, while still keeping it somewhat challenging. The main reason being that he doesn't have a good attacking uu which would probably give me too much of an advantage.

Let's get this thing started..


Overview:

Session one: 4000BC-1560BC / 1560BC-325BC / 325BC overview
Session two: 325BC-475AD / 475AD-760AD / 780AD overview

Settings:




Traits:



Hammurabi seems like a very solid and all-round leader. On top of the cheap barracks, we get free CombatI melee units and gunpowder units. It doesn't only give us an extra edge in battle outcomes but also helps us to get a higher power rating to keep the AI's of our backs.

His org trait asks for high cost civics such as vassalage and theocracy, which goes well with our plan here. It will also help our fight against the economy crash. CoL is an obvious priority for those cheap courthouses.

Mid to late game those cheap factories and drydocks are welcomed as well. And if you consider the UB (+2 health), it all makes sense.


Unique Unit:



Not a bad UU. Not too great either though. With +50% against melee, they're a great unit for early defense. And I'd assume they do pretty good against axes in non-city offense. If we can't find any copper or horses this uu should serve it's use.


Unique Building:



+2 Health on a colosseum. It's not a bad UB, happiness and health at the same time assures growth for sure. As said earlier, it will help us eventually for mid-late game prod cities. Though the question is in this game: Does it serve a use early game? I'd assume there's more important things to build if we go warring.


Rules & Other info:

I will start the game right now and will play with what the map generator gives me. I will not regenerate a bad or a good start, HOWEVER I will regenerate an isolated start since it would make this game rather pointless. I can win at a decent rate at this level but I've had my losses. If I would end up losing, I will keep playing till the bitter end. I will by no means: Reload to get a better result, retry certain sessions, enter world builder or participate in any other form of lameness for that matter.

A last note before I start the game. Suggestions, criticism or just plain comments are highly welcomed by anyone of any skill level. However I will probably have longer sessions compared to some other threads on this forum, hence there might be less "outside" input over all. But please don't let that hold you from giving suggestions, I've gotten some valuable suggestions in other threads in the past. I'm far from perfection so don't be shy.

Final .. final .. final note, I do not like long discussions about starting positions. I will just settle in place unless I can see the whole BFC and a huge advantage in moving. So I will settle right away and get going till I reach a resting point. This could be the early BC's but it might as well be at liberalism.


ps: Forgive my flaws when it comes to writing in English and while we're at it, forgive me my future typos.

For those interested.


Starting pos:


Save: 4000BC Save

Nice, what a coincedence, I was just about to start a game as Hammurabi myself today. The starting pos looks like fun, maybe I'll do a shadow game, good luck and looking forward to the read

Now that looks a awful start to go warmongering: lots of woods, 1 food resource and a lot of sea ( hopefully you're not in a small island.... even if not isolated it would be a logistical nightmare to do a early or classic war )

I played out a bit from the start position. It's brutal. And you would have had to war on this map anyways

Disagree about the start being bad for warmongering rolo, woods are good for a quick production boom to advance in a war and irrigated wheat+3 hills (2 of them plains) are also really good for production.

The Code of Hammurabi: Session one.


And we're off ..



4000 BC: The rise of Babylon.



As I posted the starting position earlier, I won't post it again. I moved the warrior south, which is pretty much the only way he could move. It reveals one of the reasons why the blue circle is advising me to settle on that plains hill.

Now this is a tricky decision. The fact that I have a forested start but have no forest on that hill, is indicating there is a resource there. There's a few things that bother me. One is that if I settle in place, there seems to be no way to grab that fish resource unless there is land 5 tiles west of me (which I doubt). Second if there is indeed a resource on that plains hill, do I want to settle on it or not. So we got 2 options:

Settle in place:
+ We get fresh water bonus.
+ We can possibly work a 6 (!) hammer plains hill sooner or later.
+ We grab coast tiles only, which give more commerce then those nasty ocean ones.
+ We can work the riverside wheat for 2F/1H/1C right of the bat.
- We quite possibly waste a fish resource.

Settle on the hill:
+ We gain a valuable food resource that would go to waste otherwise.
+ We get 1H for free right of the bat and once we discover what resource it is, it will be 2H for free. These early hammers can be very valuable to get our first units/workers/workboats out.
- We lose hammers when it comes to the maximum amount of prod possible.
- We gain a plain tile by moving.
- We gain 2 ocean tiles.
- We waste a full turn.

Well, this is very debatable and people might lynch me for doing this but I will settle in place. The early hammers from settling on that hill are very appealing but we don't know what's in the fog, for all I know there could be a gem resource hidden there! (yea right )

So we settle in place and Babylon is ready to rock!



We pop the hut with our borders and we get a map. I can't say I'm too excited about that. The map reveals ... nothing but ocean to the N/E of us. Well that's rather lame.

More importantly, it seems like a pretty strong capital spot. IF we would've moved we would've missed those pigs and that clam that were hidden in the fog. Let this just be one of the reasons why I'm so against moving the settler in general.

Now this starting position is rather odd, there's only one way to go and that's south. I'm starting to worry a bit, the generator didn't put me on some ******ed small island did it?

I could build a worker first but the only thing it could do is farm that wheat till I get BW. So I opt for a second warrior to ease the search for an early rush victim. Oh yea I forgot to mention we start with agriculture and the wheel, which are pretty nice starting techs imho. So the priority now is BW so we can start chopping and make some tiles more productive and to map the bronze resources. So I start the research on mining. I work the riverside wheat to produce the warrior.



3760 BC

I switch my worked tile from the wheat to the pigs. As you saw above, the warrior would've come a few turns before the pop went up. I like to start producing a worker right when I get my 2nd pop. By switching the wheat (2F/1H/1C) to the pigs (3F), I will get pop 2 in 4 turns and the warrior in 3. It's not perfect but it's the closest I could get.



3680 BC: The annoying German.



Buddhism has been founded and we finished the research on mining. We continue with BW.

We run into Bismarck. And he's annoying me from the turn we met. He will grab that hut before I do, the bastard. Haven't I suffered enough by getting that lame map from the capital's hut? Well at least I'm not isolated, that's something.





3600 BC

Babylon is almost pop 2. Our second warrior was made a turn ago. I still needed a turn to get to pop 2 so I spend 1 turn into another warrior before we could start making the worker. We'll have the worker around the time we research BW. Though I want to work the wheat before I start chopping.

(I will put inside city screens in spoilers to somewhat counter image heavy posts.)





3400 BC: Shiny things.



We discover a site with 2 (!) riverside gems. Well that is going to be mine. If the AI somehow beats me to it, he'll have to pay for it ... with his LIFE! But we'll have to scout this area a bit first so I can decide were to settle exactly. Also considering the idea of this thread, I can't forget to scout the land for some AI's to attack.

Map overview:




3320 BC: I got feathers on my head.

We meet Bull, his scout came from the south. So we somewhat have an idea where he is situated.



3200 BC: More shiny things.



Look at that. Gems, Ivory and gold .. so many happiness resources that could be grabbed with just 1 city. I marked the place I want to settle, it's going to have some early growth problems but once I can get some farms in the jungle area it should be a pretty nice city.

It's pretty far away for a first city but I'm trying to settle aggressively an it should pay for itself with the gold. I can't work those other resources till we get IW.



3120 BC

We run into Charlemagne, his scout came from the N/W .. so we have an idea of where he is placed as well. The only thing I'm not sure about is Bismarck at this point because we met him so early, he should be somewhere close though. (I'm the master of the obvious!)

We finished our worker and put him to work the wheat. Next I build a third warrior for city defense. 8 turns for pop 3 and 8 turns for the warrior. It seems perfect but that wheat will be ready soon so we'll grow to pop 3 before the warrior is finished.




3080 BC: The search for copper.



We finished BW and we don't have to look far for the nearest copper resource. It's right on that debatable plain hill. After working the wheat we'll get that copper hooked up.

The next research will be fishing. This tech has a multiple purpose. It obviously will provide us food but more importantly it will lead to sailing. Sailing enables trade by sea and we will reap the benefit of a cheap lighthouse in the capital (org trait remember?). If I want to settle that gold/gems/ivory city, I can get bronze over there w/o making a long ass road. And the other way around, I can get the gold to the capital.



2880 BC: Plans for attack.



We found Bismarck and he seems the perfect target for our early rush. He's rather far away though. I think in a regular game I would just settle the gems city and rex those southern dye lands. However not in this game! I'm planning to settle the gem/gold city, prepare a bunch of axes and pay a visit to Bismarck's lands.

The northern red cross is his capital, you can tell by the culture pop. We also know one of his other cities, it didn't border pop yet so it's easy to know where it's placed.



2840 BC

Finished our third warrior, grew to pop 3 and the wheat is worked. The worker is placed to his duty on the copper. I start building barracks in the capital, using the wheat, pig and copper hill.

Also we finished fishing, I picked sailing as next tech.



2680 BC

Finished building the barracks. I need one more turn for pop 4 but I want an axe out before I start making a worker+settler. He can assure a safe way towards the gems city.



2520 BC

Finished the axe and we're pop 4. I start making another worker. 5 Turns till completion, I put my active worker to a chopping mission on a grass hill and shave of 2 turns of the worker production. Once the 2nd worker is out, I wil chop more to get the settler out.



2360 BC

Researched Sailing. I was doubting about the next research, AH or mysticism both are needed. We need AH for the pigs and more importantly to get to writing. Writing is needed for a library to run 2 scientist to keep the research going in the early rush. We need mysticism too to put a monument in our future gems/gold city to get to the gold.

I picked AH but in retrospect I should have picked mysticism first.



2160 BC: An unexpected settlement.



I run into a barb city. Well that was soon.. and to be more annoying they made it on a hill.



2080 BC

My settler+worker is out and on the way to settle that gem/gold city. I chopped a workboat and the overflow went into a lighthouse (which we get cheap due the org trait).



2000 BC

We meet Huayna Capac, he came from the south. I'm guessing he's pretty far away to meet him so late. He has hinduism, which is the only religion so far on our continent. At least I'm assuming we're on a continent as I haven't met any other AI's by this time. But let's not exclude anything.


1920 BC

Finished the research on AH and pick mysticism next. We'll need it soon to get a monument.



1880 BC: The rise of Akkad.



Well no one beat us to it. ;p

This is why in retrospect I should have taken mysticism before AH. I have to waste a few turns now before being able to build a monument. That's multiple turns I miss out on getting the gold online. Not a gamebreaking mistake but a pretty stupid one nonetheless.



1760 BC

I timed my build so that Babylon would grow pop 6 on the same turn as it would complete another workboat. I switch to slavery this turn so I can whip an axe for 2 pop afterwards.



1680 BC

Mysticism researched. I chop a forest into a monument for Akkad, we'll chop another one a bit later into barracks. The next research will be writing, we need a library soon if we want to keep teching while having an axe-army.

At the same time, I put the overflow from the axe whip in Babylon into a worker. Bismarck is miles away from my capital, I want a road asap.





1560 BC: Build'em.

The third worker is done and I put my two Babylonian workers to construct a road between Babylon and Akkad. Now it's time to make axes .. and more axes.

The GW has been built. Guess who made it and who's going to own it soon?





2008 AD

Reached max images, tbc in next post.

1240 BC

Nothing much happening, I'm just building axes. Judaism has been founded by Bismarck. Perfect, the last thing I want is to get dogpiled by the AI because I attack one of their happy-happy-religion buddies.



1080 BC: Hit the road.



Finished the road between Babylon and Akkad. In the meanwhile Akkad's border pop was unexpected as I was too busy gathering axes. I use my three workers to get mining+roading the gold asap.

Researched writing and picked IW next. The faster we can work those gems, the better.



975 BC

Whipped a library in Babylon for 2 pop and will run 2 scientists afterwards.



875-800 BC: Payback time.



Hello Bismarck, we decided we had enough of you stealing huts from under our noses. This means war! I have 9 axes in the offense, 1 defense against barb, 1 defense SW of Akkad just in case Bismarck attacks from there.

2 axes, 2 archers and a chariot. Not really impressive and results in:




In the meanwhile there's still axes coming from the capital. But it's such a long walk. I'm using one of my defense axes to scout the southern German city.

As you can see I have 71 gold now thanks to capturing Berlin, I will run 1 turn on 100% gold so I can upgrade that warrior defending Akkad into an axe to speed things up a bit.



775 BC: Next!



I upgrade the warrior to an axe for 80 gold. I leave two non-CR axes in Berlin as defense and hope it's enough. The rest moves towards Hamburg, the holy city.



750 BC



I move bring my defending axe from Akkad in the offense as I could use some back up for Hamburg, which has a sword/archer/chariot now. The next turn the eastern axe will reach Akkad to defend it. There's no way Bismarck could reach Akkad next turn so I can leave it undefended.

Also Bismarck moved a chariot on that hill, which I kill with a CII axe that is SE of it.



700 BC: The fall of Hamburg.



That's a nice city spot. Plenty of food/grassland, plenty of rivers, plenty of grass hills and if you noticed the western mine on the grassland that indicates iron is there. This should be a sweet early (and late) prod city.

You can see that Bismarck put a city SE near the dye. What kind of lame city placement is that? I'm aiming to raze it and resettle more north. But not now, that city can wait as it's cut off now.

Berlin came out of revolt and we can see Cologne now. 1 swordy and 1 archer with only 20% culture, that should be easy. I will move my axes back to Berlin to heal and then attack Cologne.



650 BC

Babylon got into unhappiness due war. I whip a worker there for 3 pop, problem solved. I could use some extra workers anyways, we're one turn away from IW and we got 2 new cities to improve.



625 BC

We finally got IW, let's start mining those gems. The next research will be meditation->priesthood->CoL. I'm prioritizing CoL as we get cheap courthouses and the capital could run some extra scientists in caste system thanks to the high amount of food there.



550 BC



Our axes are healed and start marching to Cologne. Bismarck put some more units in it by this time 1 axe, 1 sword, 2 chariots, 1 archer. Why does he keep putting chariots in his city. They receive no def bonus and they don't stand a chance defending against my axes at this point. I've got some CRII and CRIII axes now.

As you can see I moved every axe out of Berlin. For the fact that Bismarck can't reach it and I'm running a back up axe there anyways.


525 BC: Run!!



Anyone got an idea WHY he moved his units out of Cologne? He didn't even attack my axes .. he just ... ran away?

On another note, take a look at that northern chariot. I have to pull back one axe, otherwise that chariot could get Berlin undefended. The axe comming from the east would be 1 turn too late to intercept.

We got our first gems online. Now Akkad can actually grow, not fast but good enough.



500 BC: Conquering Cologne.



Cologne whipped another archer, making it 2 archers+1sword defending. I sadly lose on of my axes but I win the rest and capture it.

And as you can see we got our first Great General Zhuge Liang. I run him to Hamburg as i'm planning to produce units there. It's a strong city with plenty'o food/hammers and it's pretty central so it doesn't take ages to run my units somewhere.

As for cologne, it can run some scientists with the fish+banana but it think it has some nice production possibilities too if I'd workshop those plains. But that's for later though.


475 BC

Healing my units in Cologne. There's a few more cities up north we could take, though there seems to be a lot of plains and I spot desert too. Those might not be worth to keep.

We researched meditation and continue with priesthood.



425 BC

Errr, let's forget about those northern cities for a bit. Bismarck is starting a counter attack. A couple of random axes and a small stack with 3 chariots and a spear. I move my defending axe from Hamburg towards cologne, I might need back up there. It leaves Hamburg undefended and in unhappiness but I can whip an axe for 1 pop there next turn.



400 BC

I lost 2 axes defending Cologne, dammit! I clean up some wounded units and Bismarck's desperate attack has been halted. But I'm running out of units and I might have to sue for peace soon.

My GG arrives at Hamburg and I settle him.



350 BC

Researched priesthood and picked CoL next.



325 BC: Peace.



Yup I sued for peace as I don't have the units to do a decent attack atm. And as you can tell from the screeny, I think I did a good job on killing our economy by getting -1gpt at 0% science. Mission accomplished.

325 BC: Post war overview.

City overview:

Map overview: (with resources)


Map overview: (w/o resources)





Well I think I did a pretty decent job putting our economy to ruins. It wasn't that hard if you consider how far away Bismarck's cities are. In the next session I'll probably be chopping/whipping libraries in the cities where I can run scientists (Hamburg/Berlin/Cologne) and tech our way to CoL. Then we whip/chop some courts and our economy should recover some. I think maths->currency is a good choice after that. We can probably trade col for maths.

Now for the whole capital issue. I really don't like Babylon as a future capital, I would want to place it in Hamburg once we start switching out of SE to CE. For now Hamburg is a pretty decent gp farm and prod city, so I'll wait with cottaging anyways. (not that we even have pottery at this stage )

There's a few options for Babylon's future use. I could put the GT there for later drafting if I ever find the time to build enough theaters. I could build the NE there for GP's. I could build the Moai Statues there and it could be a sweet naval prod city.

Suggestions are welcomed.

Diplo situation. I think Bull is south of us considering we met him rather early coming from the south. HC is south as well but I'm not sure where exactly, we met him pretty late so he should be far away. Charle, I saw some units in the north of Bismarck so I'll just assume he's up there somewhere. So we more or less know the geographic position. Now for diplo itself, Bull and HC are hating on each other even though they're both hindu. Charle is neutral to everyone at this point, I might have to be careful for a dow from him sooner or later. We'll see where his likes/dislikes go in the future.

The barb city is just a pain in the ass. I need to raze/replace it sometime but I don't want to waste my axes on that hill+archer city. Also I need to pull my empire out of this ditch before thinking of settling more cities.


The end ... of session one.

Well, this map would force you to fight the way out anyway....

Well , you have enough money to get to CoL ( 61 + ( 58*(-1) ) = +3 ), but I would think Currency before CoL ... Currency brings the possiblity of extorsion, tech per money ,building wealth and Markets ( cash bonus + merchant slots ) and a extra trade route... I think that it would bring more to the eco than CoL right now....

nice job crashing your economy I think you would have had to war even if you didn't have your mission on this map. There's just no way you can fit more than 3-4 cities on that crappy penninsula without warring. And even if you do that, the land's so bad that you wouldn't last long (not many hills).

How are you going to tech up to Col though? Do you have enough libraries up that you can power through with just scientists? The cheap courthouses will sure come in handy if you can get to them soon.

You also got a lot of really good land if you can get enough workers to clear the jungle. warring. I'll post my shadow game results once I catch up.

Looks like a good start you got there

The BC Invasion:

Beautiful walkthrough... very detailed, just the way I like it =)

At 1760 BC, you wrote you rushed an axeman for 2 pop... Should not you have waited to put a few hammers into producing an axeman and then poprushed?

pretty lucky start position u got there. copper in capitals BFC, hills and forests for hammers great for early axe rush. And you met almost all civs already. this can be nice for domination, or diplomatic victory.

great walkthrough btw, waiting the next part!

r_rolo1 said:

Well, this map would force you to fight the way out anyway....

Well , you have enough money to get to CoL ( 61 + ( 58*(-1) ) = +3 ), but I would think Currency before CoL ... Currency brings the possiblity of extorsion, tech per money ,building wealth and Markets ( cash bonus + merchant slots ) and a extra trade route... I think that it would bring more to the eco than CoL right now....

Click to expand...

Currency is an option. But I don't like teching maths as the AI seems to go for it pretty early. Col is usually a good tech to trade with, I can run caste for scientists in the capital and those courthouses would help a bunch with the high maint I got atm. Trade routes would get me 6gpt extra vs 11gpt saved from courts. But you make a valid point about building markets and building wealth.

I'll be raising the science slider to get to col faster indeed, that combined with some extra scientists once I get libraries in place should do the trick.

shyuhe said:

nice job crashing your economy I think you would have had to war even if you didn't have your mission on this map. There's just no way you can fit more than 3-4 cities on that crappy penninsula without warring. And even if you do that, the land's so bad that you wouldn't last long (not many hills).

How are you going to tech up to Col though? Do you have enough libraries up that you can power through with just scientists? The cheap courthouses will sure come in handy if you can get to them soon.

You also got a lot of really good land if you can get enough workers to clear the jungle. warring. I'll post my shadow game results once I catch up.

Click to expand...

Hm, I would disagree on having to war. With a good rex west and south you can block off quite some valuable land. You'll probably want to war sometime but it could wait till mid/late game. I can agree with you that slow expansion on this map could lead to a very weak game indeed.

Actually getting to col will take some time. I'll be chopping libraries to run 2 scientists and try working commerce tiles where I can. Also Akkad is not far from pop 2 so it can work another gem tile , which would give 7 extra commerce. I still need a few more units though, just to keep my power rating somewhat up and possibly to get rid of Bismark in the near future.

And yes that's some strong cities gained by the war.

VirusMonster said:

Beautiful walkthrough... very detailed, just the way I like it =)

At 1760 BC, you wrote you rushed an axeman for 2 pop... Should not you have waited to put a few hammers into producing an axeman and then poprushed?

Click to expand...

Are you aiming for a 1 pop whip? Id assume not since it would put it back into unhappiness .. if we're talking in terms of overflow maybe. I don't remember the tile set up but I would assume I'd be wasting commerce/hammers switching the tiles. The prod in babylon is rather high and one extra turn is a lot of hammers, which puts it to a 1 pop whip. It might've been an idea to run commerce tiles and lower hammers though I'm not sure if that would've really helped much overall.

Pop costs upkeep and a pop not producing anything due unhappiness is wasted gold even if it's just for 1 turn, correct me if I'm wrong. As said I'm not sure which one would've gotten me more profit. I play pretty rapid and often don't bother with actually calculating hammers/commerce/etc, I just play as it "seems" best. And I'm glad you liked the read.

Rusten said:

Looks like a good start you got there

The BC Invasion:

Spoiler :

I found those gems too, and so I started a settler at size 2 in Babylon and bee-lined IW to be able to use them for war support. My start took a very interesting turn though, just before I was about to attack Germany I noticed that Bismarck had finished both the Temple of Artemis AND the Stonehenge in addition to being the founder of Judaism. as a result I decided to wait for his Great Prophet to spawn and create the Temple of Solomon for me.



I declare war the same turn and reach Hamburg 2 turns later. It's only guarded by 2 archers and an axeman and thus easily taken.



Bismarck had only 4 cities and I went for his eastern one with the fish after and took it without losses. The problem however was that Berlin suddenly now had 60% cultural defense and many many units in the garrison, even some axes as he had the copper city a couple of turns, so I decided to ignore him temporarily and bee-line construction for the final blow (which happened about 400 years later). Those riverside gems really helped out in the war, I always had plenty extra income and could've afforded as many axemen/swordsmen as I wanted to, but I would just lose too much attacking Berlin that way, so waiting was the best thing to do.

This map should be a good and fun one for domination, so looking forward to your progress. I might go for the opposite, a more peaceful game as I am by standard highly aggressive and always do domination. The terrain we captured is also extremely good so maybe I will run a *gasp* CE *gasp* instead of a FE for once!

Click to expand...

Interesting game you got going Rusten. A very smart move to wait for that shrine indeed.



/end quotefrenzy.

Good game so far, and great write-up! I agree on the CoL -> Currency route. You're expansive - the cheap courthouses can be brought up much quicker than marketplaces.

Finished my game, CE and my first space win ever, it's true whether you believe it or not, always hated space, my entire HoF is filled up with domination wins.

It was pretty much what I always thought it out to be - boring. I'm a warmongerer by heart, no contest there. Regret not doing my usual apporach as I wasted a really fun map, think you're going to love this one BurN and the others, especially considering your neighbours.

As to your game; whipping courthouses should be the way to go right now, especially seeing as you're organized. Another tip would be to prioritize the Forbidden Palace as the distance between Babylon and your conquered cities is quite big. I messed up my game and only had 7 cities, pretty stupid by me, you should make sure you get 8.

Looking forward to reading on, your write-up is both funny and good skill-wise, keep it up.

Edit: Just noticed you said you were moving the capital, then Forbidden Palace is obviously lower on the list of things to do. I moved mine as well, to Hamburg actually.

BurN said:

Are you aiming for a 1 pop whip? Id assume not since it would put it back into unhappiness .. if we're talking in terms of overflow maybe. I don't remember the tile set up but I would assume I'd be wasting commerce/hammers switching the tiles. The prod in babylon is rather high and one extra turn is a lot of hammers, which puts it to a 1 pop whip. It might've been an idea to run commerce tiles and lower hammers though I'm not sure if that would've really helped much overall.

Pop costs upkeep and a pop not producing anything due unhappiness is wasted gold even if it's just for 1 turn, correct me if I'm wrong. As said I'm not sure which one would've gotten me more profit. I play pretty rapid and often don't bother with actually calculating hammers/commerce/etc, I just play as it "seems" best. And I'm glad you liked the read.

Click to expand...

I usually play on Marathon, so I can't comment much on whipping at Normal speeds, but spending 2 pop on a single axeman does not make sense unless you want to pay for the poprush penalty. If you had that much extra unhappy population, you could whip a library or planned from the very start not to grow this large anyway... i like the pictures, and i like the detailed early game walkthrough...

Akkad needs a library. It also will give you more beakers if you put an academy there with the scientist youll be getting. It might be worth considering taking Akkad off military builds and put a granary, library and even the palace there.

Hunting is a pretty cheap tech and will give you another happiness with the jumbos.

I wouldnt wait too long after the 10 turns of peace to redeclare on Bizzy. Even if you just raze and pillage, itll get you some more cash.

I like your choice of hamburg for a Military city. As for Babylon, Natl Epic is a no brainer.....the other natl wonder is a toss up between Moai or Globe. Moai might be better as its effects are sooner that globe.

A few suggestions.

Make Hamburg into a hammer powerhouse. early with mines/farmes etc, later with state property this will be very powerfull with watermills/workshops.

About the capital/palace city... put it into Akkad if you want the 50% commerce bonus (3 high commerce titles).
It will take a long time to grow a lot of cottages around Hamburg and Hamburg just screams for IW or HE with watermills/workshops, when going for domination. The rivers will be even more use full for hammers... +1 with leeves. If you move the palace to Hamburg it could be used for the 50% hammer bonus, but there might aswell be other civics to run besides bur.

Berlin would make the second production city with either IW or HE. These 2 cities could produce all the troops you will ever need.

As for Babylon. Run a GP farm for now... as the GP points increase later in the game.... mao would be nice for extra production + no other city really have alot of water titles.