King of the World #5: Isabella

Round 0: Hola!
Round 1: The Slavering Horde (4000 B.C. - 3475 B.C.)
Round 2: Onward, Christian Soldiers (3475 B.C. - 2125 B.C.)
Round 3: Isabella REX (2125 B.C. - 1350 B.C.)
Round 4: Wonder Pig! (1350 B.C. - 850 B.C.)
Round 5: Backstabs All Around (850 B.C. - 215 B.C.)
Round 6: Veni, Vidi, Vici (215 B.C. - 115 A.D.)
Round 7: Buildup to War (115 A.D. - 520 A.D.)
Round 8: Building the Stable (520 A.D. - 805 A.D.)
Round 9: The Golden Age (805 A.D. - 1100 A.D.)
Round 10: And Then There Were Seven (1100 A.D. - 1220 A.D.)
Round 11: The Kingdom of Heaven (1220 A.D. - 1510 A.D.)

The King of the World series focuses on the Earth18Civs map, highlighting the unique challenges and opportunities presented to various Civilizations in their real-life contexts. In this game, we will be playing as Isabella of Spain:



All right. I'm trying Epic speed on a probationary basis. My time to devote to this game is limited enough, but it's the "cool" thing to do, so I'll give it a try. I'm sticking to Monarch for this game, though. Isabella's in a fairly tough spot, and after that Mansa Musa game, I don't want to be overwhelmed again just yet. Also, Choose Religions seems awfully appropriate for Spain. Sadly, that eliminates any possiblity of us getting the cool splash page with the little globe.

So, Isabella. Spiritual and Expansive. Spiritual is, of course, a great trait, though one I don't tend to make great use of. I don't "dip" into civics like you're supposed to as a Spiritual leader. Maybe this game will give me the chance. Expansive is nice, I guess. Quicker workers and granaries, and a little bit of a health boost. The trait combo seems nice for getting some infrastructure up and running quickly.

I honestly haven't played as Spain since the Conquistador turned into a Cuirassier replacement. They were a great Knight, but now I'm not so sure of their utility. Military Tradition is normally a backfill tech for me, coming well after Rifling. I guess I'll make it a priority this time around. The Conquistador in its current incarnation doesn't sound like a game-changing unit, but it seems like it could be useful with a proper beeline.

In addition, Spain has the Citadel, a fantastic UB. Beefed up Siege and the normal Trade Route, Culture and Espionage bonuses, along with the (meh) City Defense Bonus. The only problem is that these bonuses will keep us away from Economics, a way too useful tech which comes way too soon for comfort.

But, in Earth18Civs, Leader and Civ are only two pieces to the puzzle. Let's check out the lay of the land:



The computer version of Isabella, as we all know, loves to settle in place and be forever consigned to obscurity and mediocrity, bolstered only by her religious fervor. There's something to be said for imitating this, seeing if it can be done.

The common strategy, though, is to hit the coast, settling two or even three cities on the Iberian peninsula. This allows for proper growth and, more importantly, a navy. And what's Spain without her Armada?

So, I'll open the floor to discussions. Where should we plant our cities? Should we shoot for an early religion (which seems awfully appropriate) or focus on Worker techs to improve all of Iberia's juicy tiles? And should we buildup to ruin Louis' day, or should we instead race for north Africa?

how about founding madrid 1E and then founding a second city to claim the crabs and fish off the west coast (ie, portugal)

1E then chariot rush louis and julius(or is it augustus?) sounds like a good plan... Can always backsettle the portugal later...

Settle in place and chariot rush France?

More serioulsy, you could settle 1E, 2SW and W-NW, and have 3 cities in Iberia.

1 SE is better. Just because the AI is stupid, that doesn't mean you are forced to be as well

1E so you get the extra hammer from the plains hill and are able to work the fish. (Though you'd have to sail around Iberia for that... )

And so, Barcelona becomes the capital of Spain...

Found on the Nile!

Crap that the readers picked Spain.. would have made a good colonial game but we just had a successfull one of those... and you already settled N. Africa too... and had Madrid in that game--- hey, what the hell? You were Spiritual too? Come on!

I hear you, Quotey. Don't worry, though. I plan to throw a few twists into this one

Settle 1E, pump out two settlers and see if you can build up an army to take out France. With that much land in Europe under your control, you should have enough resources to settle the islands and the coast of Africa closeby.

.. and an early religion would be nice if you want to try and get your religious activities to support your economy. Might be a nice way to show off that facet of the game.

r_rolo1 said:

1 SE is better. Just because the AI is stupid, that doesn't mean you are forced to be as well

Click to expand...

How exactly is SE better than E? E get clams which SE doesn't get and more land tiles...

less mountains and one more hill

you gain wine + plains hill and lose 2 plains(one riverside) 1 riverside grass(all with forests) and clams... Also you get +1 hammer for settling on the plains hill.. 1E is ALOT better...

1E

Hold alt and click warrior.

Attack france when you have 5. Use the survivors and newly produced ones to take rome. If you're quick maybe you can get germany too.

Once you're sure you have enough to finish off germany switch to workers and start pounding those out. Tech worker techs first, then wonder techs.

Use your abundance of marble/stone/hammers to get whatever wonders you feel like, then walk all over the rest of the world at your leisure, because you have the best cities in the world.

Are you sure that you want 2 extra mountains in the starting BFC? This will be your capital, remember?

Lol the warrior rush seeems like abuse but it should work perfectly fine indeed... Settle on plains hill work most hammer heavy tile(probably the cow after borderpop and just a 2H 1F tile before.. Taking out france then rome then probably germany should work fine... This even allows you to research a religion(although as you waste one turn on settling on turn two you'll prolly miss it

Also mountains and ocean tiles are almost the same so yes... they don't matter

On this map by default izzy will win buddhism and sal will win hindu (he has an oasis).

If you control izzy and move, monty is very likely to be the one who wins buddhism.

When I did that settler challenge of founding all 7 religions in one city, I went for buddhism first with sal, which of course screwed the settler AIs over since the other civs that have mysticism to start all seem to want buddhism.

Either way, a warrior rush will kind of preclude buddhism or hindu - although you can easily get a later religion after claiming whatever religion you want.

IMO you want masonry early if you do it to take advantage of oracle/mids etc. You'll have the resources and hammers to shoot these out FAST.

It's pretty fun to use paris to culture-flip london, especially if it isn't even yours . The city wonderspams very nicely.

So a Warrior rush of Paris is possible? Hmmm.... I haven't had a super-early rush in a KoTW game yet (unless you count that abomination of a Roman war in the Germany game). That might be fun, especially considering what a thorn Louis can be.

I would bet more on chariot rush both louis and JC

Warriors versus archers sounds awfully painful indeed. Chariots though .. mmm, flanking promotions ..

Unlike normal monarch games, scenario games the AI does not have archery to begin with.

That means it isn't warriors vs archers. It's warriors vs warriors. If you wait for anything else, you will hit into archers usually.

Any civ on this map can warrior rush at monarch, with the sole exceptions of Japan and (ironically) Inca.

As izzy? Oh yes, it works. I've taken most or all of europe multiple times.