DMOC's Immortal Game #2 - Boudica

My game IS COMPLETED. Here are the rounds played:

Round 1: 4000 BC to 2800 BC (49 Turns)-Floodplains Galore!
Round 2: 2800 BC to 1850 BC (39 Turns)-The Expansion Phase
Round 3: 1850 BC to 1025 BC (34 Turns)-A Failed Gambit
Round 4: 1025 BC to 65 BC (51 Turns)-The Arms Race
Round 5: 65 BC to 385 AD (31 Turns)-Our First War
Round 6: 385 AD to 990 AD (46 Turns)-On the Road to Liberalism
Round 7: 990 AD to 1455 AD (67 Turns)-Glory of Riflemen
Round 8: 1455 AD to 1580 AD (26 Turns)-CHINA!
Round 9: 1580 AD to 1798 AD (74 Turns)-A Dream is Made True


Hey, all.

I've decided to try and fire up another online game right now with a different leader, as the Darius game is no longer saved on my computer as I had to restore it and reinstall the game.

So I decided that I wanted to try a military game, so that I can hone my military skills and garner some great advice from you guys. For that, I chose Boudica (Aggressive/Charismatic), who likely has the two best military traits together. Her unique stuff, though, doesn't seem that appealing to me. The Dun, which replaces a wall, gives a free guerilla promotion to those units who can receive it while the Gallic Warrior is an ordinary swordsman with a Guerilla promotion.

The map settings are:



Note: There is a mistake-this map is on normal aridity not arid like dispayed in the screenshot. Also, there are six other AI's so there will the standard 7 civs in this game, including me. All other options in the "options" column are left blank.

This game is played on the 3.17 Patch and also on the TECTONICS PANGEA MAP SCRIPT!

I wanted to test out this tectonics map script so I thought of trying it out.

By the way, here's the start:



First start I generated. Pretty awesome start in my opinion, especially with the gold. Unfortunately, Boudica is not Expansive and those floodplains (11 If I counted correctly) will cause FOUR unhealthiness. I would have preferred an all grassland-forest start to be honest since Boudica could really use the chops for military.

So my plan is to tech Mining > Bronze Working > Agriculture > Wheel or Animal Husbandry. Start warrior in capital, then switch to worker at size 2. Boudica starts with hunting and mysticism. OR (alternative plan) I could tech to pottery for cottages.

I will move the scout 1 southeast, then 1 southwest, and likely settle in place.

And my long term goal is to win a domination or conquest victory.

Your thoughts, please. Save is on bottom.

Personally I would move the Scout 1N,1NE or onto one of the hills to open up the map a bit more with the visual range. Settling in place will pop the hut anyway (hope for a map!)

AH definitely as a priority along with Wheel. Pigs would give you a health bonus to offset the flood plains though you would want more food resources to balance it out more.

Good luck...you're going from one of the strongest leaders in the game to one of the weakest. Highly promoted units are great fun but I believe that (largely from my experience in RBCiv's always-war game with Boudica) the extra promotions do not make up for the extra units or higher-tech units that an economic trait would help obtain.

Maybe move scout west to the gold hill? I would consider settling 1W to get an extra plains hill for production, and leaving some FP for a 2nd city allowing you to avoid some of the early health issues.

Crowqueen said:

Personally I would move the Scout 1N,1NE or onto one of the hills to open up the map a bit more with the visual range. Settling in place will pop the hut anyway (hope for a map!)

AH definitely as a priority along with Wheel. Pigs would give you a health bonus to offset the flood plains though you would want more food resources to balance it out more.

Click to expand...

Maybe I will move the scout your way. I will think about it. But do you think AH and Wheel should go before Mining/BW or after?

timmy827 said:

Good luck...you're going from one of the strongest leaders in the game to one of the weakest. Highly promoted units are great fun but I believe that (largely from my experience in RBCiv's always-war game with Boudica) the extra promotions do not make up for the extra units or higher-tech units that an economic trait would help obtain.

Maybe move scout west to the gold hill? I would consider settling 1W to get an extra plains hill for production, and leaving some FP for a 2nd city allowing you to avoid some of the early health issues.

Click to expand...

Yeah, going away from Darius probably wasn't a good idea. But the thing that's interesting on this tectonics map script is that teching is slow (for some reason, even if you have advanced civs) probably because of lots of space for barbarians.

Settle in place, there are horses or iron in that NE plains tile.

DaveMcW said:

Settle in place, there are horses or iron in that NE plains tile.

Click to expand...

There's more than 1 plain tile so we can't be sure. I'm actually thinking of settling 1 east -- I need to free up some floodplains for another city.

Round 1: 4000 BC to 2800 BC (49 Turns)


Okey-dokey, time to start.

I followed timmy's advice on moving the scout on the gold.





The scout found ivory! Awesome. Ivory+Gold+Charismatic means 8 happiness in the early game. Wow.

I settled one west to gain the ivory and also lose some floodplains.



The capital build this round was Worker/Warrior/Warrior/Warrior. I began with a worker and started to research Mining (research was Mining/Animal Husbandry/Bronze Working).

By the way, the capital popped the hut for a scout. Awesome -- these are great early in the game.

On turn 6 of the game, one of my scouts encountered a leader...Darius I (Financial/Organied)! Wow...I hope he's not too mad about me abandoning his game...

Two turns later, I met Mao Zedong (Expansive/Protective) and he's closer, which doesn't fare well for early warfare. I also met Pacal II (Expansive/Financial) who is the founder of Buddhism.

I managed to get a number of huts this round. One of them popped for another scout. (None for techs.)



Meanwhile, Mining was done and Animal Husbandry was up next. I did this because BW wasn't really necessary (2 forests and little need for slavery now--pigs were my only source of food in the capital).



Here's Darius' capital:



After Animal Husbandry was complete, I went for Bronze Working.



I will give you a little micro-report about how I managed my capital. Here it is at size 2 training my first warrior after a worker.



The capital a few turns later with pigs pastured:



At size 3, I began to work for the gold for research. I didn't do it at size 2 since I figured that growth is more important. I was planning on growing the capital to size 4 then make 2 quick settlers (more information on that later).



My worker, by the way, first mined the gold, then pastured the pigs, then camped the ivory, and is currently mining the plains hill southwest of the capital center.

Once Bronze Working was researched, I ended the round.


Current tech choices:



I'm thinking of going Archery - Agriculture - Wheel - Pottery - Writing next round.

My lone scout who survived is currently fogbusting near my proposed city sites:



My current capital:



AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNND the map.



Notice something? No copper. There's also horses but they're a bit far away and in a very ... food-poor region. That's why I propose reseraching Archery first next round to help with barbarians.

As I mentioned before, my plan was growing the capital to size 4 then making 2 quick settlers (maybe a second worker between the settlers) for these sites:



I am thinking about settling city 2 first, followed by 1, and city 3 can wait until I get Iron Working. City 2 should be settled first since it's four tiles away from Mao's capital and I really don't want him stealing a site that close to me. All in all, I like these two city sites since they will be great commerce centers and only one floodplain is lost out of the many that are here.

So that's the round. Do you agree with my tech choices? My plan? My city sites? Should I go for the horses and skip archery? If you have any criticisms or suggestions, please let me know.

Save:

How about skipping archery and going straight for IW? One of the big advantages of the Gallic warrior is no requirement for Iron. With that gold boosting research, you might be well placed for a Gallic rush on protective chinese.

LuCiver said:

How about skipping archery and going straight for IW? One of the big advantages of the Gallic warrior is no requirement for Iron. With that gold boosting research, you might be well placed for a Gallic rush on protective chinese.

Click to expand...

Well, if there's no copper nearby, then you will need the Iron to make them.

I'm a little worried about researching the expensive Iron Working so early, though. And ardchers are a guaranteed safety.

Artichoker said:

Well, if there's no copper nearby, then you will need the Iron to make them.

Click to expand...

No, you've missed the whole point. The UU does not require copper or iron. The only 'risk' is spending an extra 17 turns waiting while you research IW instead of archery. Once you research IW, you have access to the UU instantly. No need to find iron or mine it. You could just crank out a handful of warriors while you research to tide you over.

EDIT: Sorry, it was me that missed it... I just looked and saw the gallic warrior requires copper. I guess I already had copper hooked up the last time I played Brennus!

I almost never post, but I took one look at your land and went

I'd settle the flood plains and then try to murder the persians and see if I could make something of the cows-wheat and sheep-wheat tiles and then I'd just be at a loss for what to do next. I'm watching this closely, if for no other reason than to see how you'd play land like that.

Yeah, the land near my capital seems to be gorgeous. Sadly, there are A LOT of plains and deserts to my east. I don't think I'll be able to get rid of Darius that earlier. Mao, despite that he is protective, looks to me like the better early target.

Plus, darius has horses. Eeek

I'm not the best mapper in the world, but would you not consider the spot that's 1 west of the wheat first (the one to the NE near Darius toward the unclaimed horses)? It might already be taken by Darius, but if you hustle and get it the spot would give you sheep, wheat, horses and wine - plus it's the only place nearby that seems to have any decent forests for chopping. Then settle cities back from there.

Cities 2 and 3 seem to overlap a great deal. Would you consider city 2 somewhere further east? It should have plenty of food with the nearby floodplains.

Not a great deal of production sites - possibly to the north if you think you might be able to make something work there.

With charismatic, ivory, and gold your happiness should be good. With lots of floodplains and the ability to grow your cities, I'd say health might be an early effort. You have cows, wheat, fish, and sheep to get still, and all should help there.

Kev said:

Cities 2 and 3 seem to overlap a great deal. Would you consider city 2 somewhere further east? It should have plenty of food with the nearby floodplains.

Click to expand...

I don't see why that's a problem; there are plenty of tiles for the two cities to work. City #2's current placement has the advantage that it doesn't need a border pop to be useful: e.g. it will have wheat, 3 flood plains, and a plains hill immediately available. (Because of capital's culture) And besides, there aren't very many useful ways to arrange cities that satisfy these conditions:
(1) The fish are claimed
(2) Most of the flood plains are claimed
(3) No city has too many flood plains

But I am rather curious why #3 was chosen on that spot, rather than on the tile to its Northwest. Is the plan to have it assume control of the wheat after city #2 gets its border pop and is working a bunch of flood plains?

MyOtherName said:

I don't see why that's a problem; there are plenty of tiles for the two cities to work. City #2's current placement has the advantage that it doesn't need a border pop to be useful: e.g. it will have wheat, 3 flood plains, and a plains hill immediately available. (Because of capital's culture) And besides, there aren't very many useful ways to arrange cities that satisfy these conditions:
(1) The fish are claimed
(2) Most of the flood plains are claimed
(3) No city has too many flood plains

But I am rather curious why #3 was chosen on that spot, rather than on the tile to its Northwest. Is the plan to have it assume control of the wheat after city #2 gets its border pop and is working a bunch of flood plains?

Click to expand...

Long time poster, first time lurker here.

I agree with this assessment, especially on the placement of City #3. I think 1 tile NW of the originally planned tile will work out better. And this new placement will also have City #3 with that one extra jumbo tile that will not be worked by the capital.

I like the originally proposed tech path. There is no copper in site, and currently there isn't a heap of forest to be chopped, and we don't have an overpopulation issue. Archery should definitely come first, then a straight beeline to pottery. However, I wouldn't put off Bronze Working for too long because eventually we will need to use slavery at some point for some mean whipping action.

I also think that grabbing that horse is very important due to lack of copper and Iron Working being so far off. Archers alone simply won't get the job done. I like the city placement proposal made two or three posts up. Wheat and sheep will more than suffice for the food issue, and the added bonus of wine and horses will be gravy. It also gives us more breathing room and leaves a bit more of land to backfill peacefully.

Look forward to participating more. And please, if I make some stupid or ignorant comments, please feel free to correct me.

Kev said:

I'm not the best mapper in the world, but would you not consider the spot that's 1 west of the wheat first (the one to the NE near Darius toward the unclaimed horses)? It might already be taken by Darius, but if you hustle and get it the spot would give you sheep, wheat, horses and wine - plus it's the only place nearby that seems to have any decent forests for chopping. Then settle cities back from there.

Cities 2 and 3 seem to overlap a great deal. Would you consider city 2 somewhere further east? It should have plenty of food with the nearby floodplains.

Not a great deal of production sites - possibly to the north if you think you might be able to make something work there.

With charismatic, ivory, and gold your happiness should be good. With lots of floodplains and the ability to grow your cities, I'd say health might be an early effort. You have cows, wheat, fish, and sheep to get still, and all should help there.

Click to expand...

I was thinking about settling for the horses, but then I noticed that every single tile near it is plains. I'd rather research Archery and get 2 other floodplain cities. I might be able to get those horses sometime--or maybe I'll capture them from Darius.

For your point on cities 2 and 3 - I'm thinking of moving city 3 one tile northwest.

And happiness will definitely not be an issue at this point. Health and production will.

MyOtherName said:

I don't see why that's a problem; there are plenty of tiles for the two cities to work. City #2's current placement has the advantage that it doesn't need a border pop to be useful: e.g. it will have wheat, 3 flood plains, and a plains hill immediately available. (Because of capital's culture) And besides, there aren't very many useful ways to arrange cities that satisfy these conditions:
(1) The fish are claimed
(2) Most of the flood plains are claimed
(3) No city has too many flood plains

But I am rather curious why #3 was chosen on that spot, rather than on the tile to its Northwest. Is the plan to have it assume control of the wheat after city #2 gets its border pop and is working a bunch of flood plains?

Click to expand...

I chose city 3 on that site because I was thinking about switching the wheat from city 2 to 3 when city 2 is at happy cap and all cottaged, but I am thinking that a city 1 NW would be okay as well. It does overlap a lot with the capital which will definitely have a large population.

Hodory said:

Long time poster, first time lurker here.

I agree with this assessment, especially on the placement of City #3. I think 1 tile NW of the originally planned tile will work out better. And this new placement will also have City #3 with that one extra jumbo tile that will not be worked by the capital.

I like the originally proposed tech path. There is no copper in site, and currently there isn't a heap of forest to be chopped, and we don't have an overpopulation issue. Archery should definitely come first, then a straight beeline to pottery. However, I wouldn't put off Bronze Working for too long because eventually we will need to use slavery at some point for some mean whipping action.

I also think that grabbing that horse is very important due to lack of copper and Iron Working being so far off. Archers alone simply won't get the job done. I like the city placement proposal made two or three posts up. Wheat and sheep will more than suffice for the food issue, and the added bonus of wine and horses will be gravy. It also gives us more breathing room and leaves a bit more of land to backfill peacefully.

Look forward to participating more. And please, if I make some stupid or ignorant comments, please feel free to correct me.

Click to expand...

I have already researched Bronze Working.

And I am thinking of moving city 3...or not...or maybe....

And I do need to research Iron Working sometime. Perhaps after Writing?

...


So how does this sound?

I settle cities 1 and 2 quickly (with extra worker and/or archer between the 2 settlers) and IF Darius hasn't settled that horse/cows/wine etc area, I will settle a city there. I really don't like having a city consist of all plains tiles, though. After Writing, I think I should head to Iron Working. I'm not planning on a peaceful game after all!

And about city 3...

I know that moving it 1NW would gain it an extra Ivory, but Ivory isn't that great a tile to work and city 3 could share the wheat with city 2 if city 2 is at happy cap and doesn't need the wheat tile. Is there another reason why moving city 3 1NW would be better than where it is now?

Yay you play epic too! This means I can shadow the game without even touching WB .

Yes, I'm going to shadow it. I'm a bit strapped for games now and then, and I wanna try some things to see if they're viable at immortal .

Awesome! Now I can compare my game with yours at the end. (Be careful not to post spoilers though, but I bet you knew that already.)

Immortal's still a bit above me, but there's no difficulty between it and emperor. Frustrating really. I'm liable to lose as I've only won once on immortal but we can compare nonetheless .