Immortal University XXI: Asoka

TheMeInTeam

If A implies B...
Joined
Jan 26, 2008
Messages
27,995
Hello all and welcome to the Immortal University! This series was started a long time ago to move a group of the forum's players to the next level. Are you ready for the U?

This is the 21st in the storied series.

We will uphold the university's traditions...smacking down the hapless AI!

Our leader this time around:

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People like him a lot. At least a lot more than Stalin. Great traits that are versatile enough to be strong in any situation, a top UU, and an average UB make for a good combination overall.

Here's the start:

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Oop, looking good until the starting screen at least :p. As usual you get the first start I generate. Hopefully there's something worthwhile in the fog (aka not plains cow). Huts and events are off by default (this is a game comparison and learning thread, after all), although if it bothers you terribly you can add the latter back. I reserve the personal right to point and laugh if the vedic aryans knock on your door though.

To play, just extract the WB save file into your worldbuilder saves directory, then play it. Use custom scenario if you want some extra settings to tickle your fancy. This series was designed for people learning immortal, so most people here will be at that level or trying to attain it, although deity players are welcome also. Hell, if you want to play this on NOBLE, go ahead, but I'm not peeling off the AI bonuses. The intention of this and any other game thread I post is to get better. Play whatever level you need in order to improve. Just remember, there are immortal bonuses and that's not going to change unless you WB edit it.

If you are aspiring IMM+, try to remember to add archery back to the barbs in WB. Every time you don't, a deity AI will kill a kitten, although there are a lot of kittens so it's not the end of the world if you prefer easymode barbs ;).

I do request people to list their difficulty and speed. In terms of updates, well nobody follows that anyway. Post in the manner you feel comfortable. Typical comparison dates are 1 AD, liberalism, and victory/defeat, as well as any major events. If in doubt, go with that.

Without further ado, the ZIP file:

View attachment IU XXI Asoka.zip
 
Hmm interesting start, or not. It's pretty straight forward, warrior scout the west title, as it's the only one that can have a food source on it, the rest is forest. Even without an additional food source I see little reason to move the settler. No immediate source of money for faster early research means that an early religion (Hinduism) is unlikely, would probably go for hunting or agriculture if we have corn to the west. If there is corn I would probably build a worker first to hook it up quickly. Followed by either Hunting or Bronze Working. With all that forest chopping out some fast settlers/workers seems like a good idea.
 
couldnt have wished for a better start....

Ah well, lets see what this game will bring, been looking forward to this tbh this week :)
 
Hopefully there will be some close neighbors because we have lots of forest to chop and workers to steal.
 
what is the true power of the UU btw?
 
3 movement instead of 2 which leads to a lot of saved turns and expedites everything, including chopping, which makes rushing with Asoka and Gandhi very powerful!
 
Likelihood for me would be settle in place. NE tile looks like a resource and with the forest deer, I would go hunting first. The rest depends on the surrounding area.

Tech path would be Hunt, BW, then towards pottery/other worker techs as needed. With no money from huts :( I would probably tend to put some very early cottages down on the river. It all depends on what we find though. Still I was looking for another game to play. Thanks TMIT :)
 
Hunting->BW

Was thinking the exact same thing.

My concern is that our other food resource is a plains cow and that our other car is a Prius.
 
On the upside Forest Deer is the best resource in the game to work at start of a game since it's 4 hammers instead of 3, the only thing missing is a plains hill to settle on for a +2 boost. Well I guess you could settle on a plains hill stone and work forest deer with an expansive leader, but let's not get carried away. :p
 
I lost in a very unlikely manner in my first try at this...

IMO the map is very winnable. I'll throw up some screens. I am sick of losing every other IU though so I'll probably go it again.

Retired mid 1860's.

Spoiler :


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I had no trouble expanding, teched OK, and got GK to friendly.

Problem is, GK ABSOLUTELY SMEARED EVERYONE. I didn't care about him winning space...he won diplo also the second he called it.

I was a little surprised at his research speed but I guess the strong start and successful beatdown of other computers did it.

On my end, I executed a nice, minimal loss roman extermination, but it was too little too late. I should probably have dogpiled on GK first opportunity, but I really wasn't expecting him to just smear everyone so quickly...!
 
Immortal/Epic through 260 BC and what will be the end of the game

Spoiler :


I went warrior, warrior, warrior, warrior, warrior, worker, warrior, warrior, settler, SH, settler, settler, Pyramids. 1st warrior found Ghengis and stole a worker then camped out on a forested hill for a very long time delaying his expansion for what seemed like over a 1000 years.

Capital was at 3 pop with half growth to 4 pop when worker got back and I started my 1st settler at 5 pop around 2880 BC. I settled the plains gold hill city first, followed by the stone city and then the pig/silver/copper city. Mids finished around 1300 BC and then max emphasis on Axe from every city.

Tech path went agriculture, hunting, bw, wheel, masonry, ah, writing, asthetics, trade for alpha, currency, col - next would be Literature.

Khan had some early problems with barbs who settled the horse city and had a few axe and 2 archers there for a long time before he finally conquered it which worked out well for me because Khan had no metal and no horses when I attacked. I had around 15-18 Axe with reinforcements on the way. Oddly enough, I lost very few due to him having rather low culture, 20% in most cities with nothing more than 2-3 Archers in his cities. I captured Old Sarai and his capital, Razed 3 others, and left him with one city and sued for quite a few techs.

I've been researching at a deficit from conquered gold in conjunction with Representation scientist and building research. As an odd twist this game, in an effort to speed it up =) , I have never researched Pottery, and still dont have it. Not optimal I know, but hey, all you have to do is automate workers and they build FARMS, mines, roads, and luxuries - exactly what I want with my warmonger strategy. I haven't had to sell techs for cash yet but I will very soon to keep research at 100%.

Once my cities have most of their improvements I'll actually get off my lazy butt, get pottery, and make some granaries, lol. Anyways, I have room for about 9 more cities in my land but I plan to switch to a mass Cat/Sword war or Cat/HA war and kill the rest of the continent.

The reason I said to end of the game because it is effectively over imo and I am already well ahead in score for this continent by over 200 points and my land and tech situation is only going to get stronger than it already is over the rest of the guys. Anyways, fun game ;) . I love Asoka - he is a powerhouse with faster workers, Org, and Spi expediting every part of the war process.

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What is SH? Some abreviations...

aH OH, nm, stonehenge
 
I lost in a very unlikely manner in my first try at this...

IMO the map is very winnable. I'll throw up some screens. I am sick of losing every other IU though so I'll probably go it again.

Retired mid 1860's.

Spoiler :


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I had no trouble expanding, teched OK, and got GK to friendly.

Problem is, GK ABSOLUTELY SMEARED EVERYONE. I didn't care about him winning space...he won diplo also the second he called it.

I was a little surprised at his research speed but I guess the strong start and successful beatdown of other computers did it.

On my end, I executed a nice, minimal loss roman extermination, but it was too little too late. I should probably have dogpiled on GK first opportunity, but I really wasn't expecting him to just smear everyone so quickly...!
Spoiler :
How did you manage to keep GK from attacking you? In my game GK was always eyeballing me and I had to scout him all the time. We shared a religion with Joao and were pleased at some point but in the middle ages he attacked and absolutely destroyed me.

I was not able to trade very effectively because GK was in WFYABTA very soon and Joao was left alone - even though him and Peter were worst enemies T one time. Peter declared at me and I was able to repel that attack. I do not see how I was to turn the tide for me since I could not tech as fast as I would have liked, and also I could not keep diplomatic relations good enough to remain safe.
 
@Crusher1

Spoiler :

Why did you opt to go for a warrior first build? Obviously in hindsight with a worker steal start it is superiour but teching Ag first with corn to work I would have went towards worker first build (I actually went hunting, but thats another matter).

I lost 9 turns of growth by starting worker when I ended up stealing one.
 
@ Lciv

I agree. I retetested it and almost every case is always better to go worker first, regardless - but, as you can see from my very first post, when I was at work ^^, I was already planning a Warmonger strategy - after all, that's what Asoka does best.
 
Round 1: 4000BC-1000BC
Immortal/Standard speed/Archery added to Barbs

Spoiler :
Tech path was Ag->Hunt->BW->Wheel->Fishing->Pottery->Writing
Build order was Worker->warrior->settler (at size 2)

4000BC: Move warrior 1S and settle in place, happy to see the corn even if it isn't irrigated.

3760BC: Meet GK

3360BC: Meet Peter

3240BC: Meet Joao. In a risky move I have my unemployed worker scouting the NW coast a bit. I come to my senses when he is almost eaten by a wolf but the extra move makes it fairly safe.

2440BC: Settled Bombay.
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I know I shouldn't be pressing GK's borders but I have to risk it. The spot is too good to give up and can be used as an early GP farm. Must get spears!

2160BC: Vijay-something founded.
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It has a lot of desert but I am trying to box out GK and make full use of the floodplains.

1920BC: I am in the midst of a full fledged barb onslaught. I skipped archery thinking I could hook up the copper in the third ring in time so I am using warriors. Both my food sources were pillaged in the process but I got my third settler out. The fast workers helped a lot as they could dance with the barbs a little and sneak in for quick tree chops.

1760BC: Patilaputra founded.
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One step ahead of GK!

1400BC: SH is finally BIAFAL and I cash in. Research is set to 100% and I have just enough to finish writing.

Copper is hooked up to Bombay. I have been slow-building a warrior there which will now finish as a spear.

1000BC: My border pop in Bombay (which happened a while ago) has taken what is obviously a horse pasture away from GK. Not sure if its his only one or not.
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So this could get ugly if GK goes WHEOOHRN. I really need a religious conflict on my continent but there appear to be no religions thus far. If I can hold him off until I can get jumbos going then he should be no problem. So far, he is not mad about our close borders but I'm sure he will be.
My priorities are:
1) Crank some spears in case of a GK DoW.
2) Settle the copper/pigs/2silver spot
3) Get libraries up, start running scientists, especially in Bombay.
4) Continue exploring, GK's territory (just signed OB's) as well as the land I blocked to the East.
5) Cottage the crap out of the floodplains.

Tech is set to Aesthetics right now for the trade but this route sucked on the last IU I played (Bismarck). Hopefully the AIs won't be so slow this time, although maybe I should try to spy on somebody to find out what they're doing.

Any thoughts?
 

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On Immortal, If i see GK as my neighbor, I would tend to settle the 2nd city as a production city to grab Copper/horse and rush GK. In this game, I would settle the Copper/Pig/Wheat/2 grass hills city as the 2nd city and Axe rush GK, there is plenty of trees/hammers/food in capital and the second city to deliver the knock-out punch to GK pre 1AD.

When the biggest early threat is eliminated, we will have plenty of time to settle and grow those beautiful flood plains.
 
@ Jbossh

If you are going to use only warriors vs barbs then it really does work better imo if you grow to your happy cap and make enough to get some fogbusting done while there are only animals around. I had like 7 warriors doing the job for me. I just stole a worker from Khan and camped out on a forest hill and stopped him from expanding for a rediculous amount of time - which I used to get some good spots before I went for him.
 
Think this game is either get mids, rush GK.

OR, settle 5-6 good cities, turtle as hell, and wait for either phants/cata, or higher tech.

Seems like getting mids and getting a decent amount of cities is a no go, will start tomorrow myself prob.
 
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