RK12 - Monarch "just win again"

Ok, after a long absence, (and a new laptop,) I have proven that I can't win on Monarch anymore. Except when it's on Marathon. Which to me, doesn't count.

It may sound selfish but please help me beat Monarch on Epic speed again. (Noble and Prince players are welcome too.)

Variant Rules: None that affects the gameplay. But all rival leaders have been preselected, so let's try to call them by acronyms. (Such as WK or KK or MM.)

What's a good SG turn size for Epic? 30-20-15-15-15 then 15's up to AD, then 10 turns then 5 turns later when empire is gigantic?

SETTINGS
Version: 3.19
Leader: Random (we get Pericles of Greece)
Map: Hemispheres, large, 10 civs
Difficulty: Monarch
Speeed: Epic
Victory: Any, but Time and Space are not recommended.
Special settings: None checked

START (Scout already moved)


I'm worried about the start. I'm tempted to WB it to see if the computers have a dreamstart too.

I would've played on by settling in place, but see that lake and oasis over there. Who's for settling on the incense 1SE.

Roster
Robo Kai / Meatbuster
Shearer 9
Rift
Greyfox
pigswill
pholkhero

I'll give this a whirl if you'll have me. I'm fairly comfortable on monarch. I'll need to be near the end of the roster as I have a lot of studying (and not much time) over the next nine days.

Yo man, long time no see!

You prefer 4th or 5th slot?

Wasn't the last RK RK-11 ? I should remember because I was there

My count is messed up I swear. I just picked an arbitrary number to start heh heh.

I don't think I can fix the title though.

EDIT: Incidentally, I just won a space race on Monarch on Epic speed. I wonder if I should upgrade this thread to Emperor. :|

I'd like to join up here, I'll probably need some hand holding so I just want to throw that out there, I'm definitely somewhere between Noble and Prince. If all the rest are Monarch players and you end up going with Emperor that's cool, I'm sure I can find another game.

Welcome to the game. I expect that super start to have a catch anyway.

Humm... so where should we settle...

A. 1SE (on the western incense)?
I guess the benefits of doing that are pretty obvious: more land, less ocean... the oasis... the inland lake... still being on the shore... next to fresh water...
Drawback is we lose the incense. Which is sort of fine since it won't be useful for a loooooooong time...

B. In place? It's where the circle is!

C. South of the pigs?
More workable land tiles. Almost the same benefits as 1SE but not on the shore so we don't have a coastal city, and we don't take up the incense.

I've never been crazy about losing so much productivity by settling on the ocean like that, so I vote for settling on the incense. I'll be interested to see what kind of resources are going to be there to support a city with that gold.

Long time no see, RK. Why the change to such ghastly aliase as Meatbuster, if I may inquire?

Love to join, but give me some time to do a so-called alt-root (i.e. 3.19 and 3.17 co-existence).

It's not as ghastly as you may think. See the avatar for why.
Besides, Robo Kai came from Guilty Gear, a game I hardly play anymore.
Welcome then old buddy, I'll slot you later in the roster then while you sort out your dual-boot.

edit: You're actually making me regret this name change. I can't tell Thunderfall to change me back, not after a mod gave me an infraction for the dual login and combined my 2 logins and told Thunderfall to change the name...

So I settle on the incense and it seems a good idea as there are clams down south. Lucky!
Start a warrior in Athens to grow it.
I go with the Mining -> BW start.
The start of the game for me is Turn 0, and I will play up to my 29.

Turn 1/3975 BC - Lucky! Free tech, Mining! Bronze Working is next.


Turn 5/3875 BC - Lucky again! Get free scout. Scout split up, one goes north and one south.


Turn 8/3800 BC - South scout runs into a bear...

IBT - ...and perishes.

Turn 9/3775 BC - North scout gets 60 gold from hut.

Turn 10/3750 BC - Run into Wang Kon (WK), who is one of the leaders with a gruesome graphical glitch on my system. Don't open spoilers if you don't want to see a GHOST!


There is a huuuuuge jungle between us and WK, so I don't see him invading us soon, or us invading him.

Turn 14/3650 BC - Hinduism founded. Not by us of course.

Turn 17/3575 BC - Julius Caesar (JC) runs into us.


Could be a problem if JC has iron and he's near us. But for now, he might help us get rid of a few lions.

Turn 18/3550 BC - Athens: Warrior -> Warrior

Turn 21/3475 BC - Buddhism founded quite late.

Turn 22/3450 BC - Athens size 3: Warrior (interrupted) -> Worker

Turn 23/3425 BC - Bronze Working -> Agri. Revolt to slavery. No bronze in our immediate vicinity. Uh... Houston, we have a dilemma.

I am going to consider Iron Working now. So far we don't have Copper, and JC is nearby.

Turn 29/3275 BC - End of my shift.

Our world so far:


WK is at the north beyond some jungle.

Current problems:
JC is nearby, no Copper near us so far.

What we can do right now;
Whip worker for 1 population, chop settler while building boat.
OR
Interrupt worker, grow to size 4 while building workboat, then whip worker, chop settler.

Tech?
What should we go for next?
1. Iron Working?
2. Writing -> Alpha?
3. Worker techs?

Shearer9, you are up for 20 turns, once we figure out the copper problem... and maybe the dotmap problem...

Ag>AH seems the obvious move for corn and pigs. If we have horses in BFC then go chariot rush before building a settler. If we need a second city then think about going HbR. If we don't have horses then we need to think about IW (and also need to consider archery for barbs while waiting for iron).

Just seen this, at work now, will try to play later this afternoon. And that is a very bizarre glitch with WK.

I like the idea of Ag>AH, with that and a work boat will give us plenty to whip with. And if no horses show up, IW has to be next. Will be looking to place the next city with that in mind.

I had a whole turn-by-turn summary typed out but then the computer crashed. Here's a basic summary of what happened.

I immediately switched from a worker to a work boat and decided to stick with the Ag>AH route we talked about. Unfortunately this gamble didn't pay off, as you will see.

I kept exploring with the scout and warrior, sending both to the east. The scout found 172 gold in a hut to the east. The warrior fended off a lion at one point but we eventually found Caesar, camped out right next to the bronze:



So that was bad, but I stuck with AH hoping for horses. Agriculture came in after 7 turns:




Work boat was completed and I whipped a worker, who I immediately sent to chop 1 N of Athens. A warrior was quickly completed due to overflow, and the settler began. Once that chop was completed, the worker moved 1 E to chop that hill.

On my last turn, AH came in:


No horses anywhere close, one sort of close to Caesar on the other side of the map but we've no chance at it. It was the only one on the map that I can see. I guess IW should be next, but I'll leave that and a potential dotmap up to someone more experienced. The horses are just above those pigs in the far NE.

Here's our world:


And here's Athens:


Please feel free to offer criticism if you think its due, I'd like to think of this as a learning experience.

Horrible predicament we have here. Let's stick with Iron Working and hope for the best, I guess.

Not a bad turnset though. I can't see any problems yet.

Of course Greyfox and pigswill are up and on deck respectively. Can either of you guys play this time, or should we get a 5th member and let them play now? Or (gulp) is it my turn again?

Do we want to try and set up a dotmap? Can anyone tell me how to do that with the BUG mod? I'd say just spin it off to Greyfox or pigswill, let them play the next turn.

lurker's comment:
I downloaded the initial save and played it pretty far to see if I could compare how I played with how you guys did. It's an interesting map (and I don't mean that all that sadistically either... ) Good luck!

I am 3.19 ready.

Took a quick glance at the save before work this morning, we need a dotmap before proceeding. I will endeavor to produce one tonight. Based on my quick glance, no particular site immediately jumps out yearning "settle me, settle me".

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