Tryn's Monarch Game #3

Showing what I do, looking for input, advice, criticism, etc etc. Feel free to shadow if you like!

Settings:
Fractal
Standard Size
Ancient Start
Normal Speed
Toroidal Wrap
!Permanent Alliances Enabled!
Random leader, random opponents





Save is attached! A note, I play all my games with the BUFFY mod (the one used for HoF / GotM BTS games), not sure if that causes any issues with opening it or not.

i would send the worker 1SE on the gold, if no food is there i will settle in place. its a good start with 2 corn and a gold. looks like it would be a nice bureaucratic capital with the riverside grassland. not much hills though for production

your traits are perfect for your start i would go BR than pottery

Great capital. Two irrigated corns once your borders pop, plus gold you can work early due to food surplus. Looks like your close to the ocean as well. You already have agriculture which is a huge boost, you won't have to waste ~12 turns waiting to be able to improve your food. Maybe want to tech BW right of the bat so you can clear them forests. Won't shadow this game, but it looks like it could be good.

Zip zip!

Settled in place because I saw no reason to move (other than possibly taking advantage of the river for levee, but not enough tiles to be worth moving all the way to the coast, and no way I'm going to move 1S or SE and be 1 away from the coast with un-lighthoused ocean).

Went with BW first, hoping for nearby metal especially after I met this guy REALLY FREAKIN CLOSE!


Teched: BW -> AH -> Wheel
Built: Worker -> Worker -> Warrior -> Warrior -> Barracks (in progress)

Not stuck alone with Stalin. Instead, sandwiched between him and Justinian, even better! Copper available up north, but holy moly is that a horsehockey city site. Still plan to REX at this point, throw out 3-4 cities ASAP and probably use one to grab that copper.

Quick dotmap done in-game, going to keep playing but would appreciate feedback on improving city location choices!

sure you dont want to rush Stalin. you get some nice horses for a early rush unit. i would build up a chariot army as quickly as possible(or horse archers if you can tech horseback riding in a reasonable time) put your army into position but have 1 or 2 units to sweep in a pillage the copper if he is using it. he cant have to many spear men by that point. Stalin inst very trustworthy and blocking him will force you to build crappy cities to the north east.

i see a nice commerce city on a river 1NE from the fish. and a production city on the grassland hill that will have corn fish wine and stone, although i would scout the fog of war to the north to make sure there isnt anything else better.

rush first build cities later

if your alone you might want to be thinking about religion. stalin isnt gonna give you one so going for COL might not be a bad idea or bulbing phi.

oh forget my last post this changes things. dont rush its time to rex. build the wheat horse and wine city first to block Justinian because he expands like mad. than build the fish cow and silk city to block Stalin. than you can deal with the rest.

you can place the copper city 1N of the dear or im thinking 2S of the copper. either way its not going to be a good city and you will need to border pop it to use the copper. at least you have copper

im sure Justinian has founded a religion so adopt his when it gets to you. if no one else is there its a matter of time until Stalin would join you, so war might not happen for a while but i would keep a strong force near Stalin just in case.

arnt you glad for the protective trait now

blue_7 said:

arnt you glad for the protective trait now

Click to expand...

Yes indeed, I plan to make use of it, especially given the turn things have taken since my post up there Stopping here (Turn 70) for the night, but let's review!

Teched: (Wheel) -> Hunting -> Archery -> Fishing (this probably could have waited) -> Pottery -> Myst -> Med -> Priest -> Writing -> Iron Working (in progress)
Met: Tokugawa (east of Stalin), Roosevelt (somewhere around Toku), Shaka (south in the jungles)
Built 3 cities, 4th in the works shortly for the copper.
Built the Oracle (just this last turn) for CoL => founded Confucianism and switched to it. I'm sure it will piss off Justin, but I'm ok with that. *turtle turtle*

I think I'm off to a decent start, but this is a point where the game could get away from me very quickly if I'm not careful and especially if I don't have a strategy! I'm *thinking* more expansion, turtle defense just in case Stalin gets pissy, and then pick one of my two close neighbors to punch in the face and steal all their land. I'm a bit jealous of Moscow and all those flood plains and food resources, PLUS copper!




Save attached.

IMO, you should go for the pig horse sight, chariot rush stalin (they get a boost against axemen, dontcha know) and expand to your east. Pick up the Horse/Fish/Wine sight if you can. You most likely have more civs to your west, thus less room to expand. Also, Justinian is generally more willing to trade (Stalin trades tech pleased and above, justinian annoyed and above) won't declare on pleased and doesn't have ideal land position. Stalin is not only aggressive and obnoxious as a neighbor, but also useless as he's too busy building wonders and units to be an effective techer.

I'm probably too late anyway, but hey, thought i'd put in my two cents.

with gold and horses in BFC you could think about HA rush.

fish+corn prod city - ok

pig i would move 1N to get pigs in first ring, you get 1grass+grass hill, instead of 2xplains (horses you dont need since their are cap BFC)

wheat+horse+wine seems like lost cause and at first sight it doesnt look that hot.

fish+cow+silk site is questionable, if you will go HA rush I would probably stick with those 2 west sides + cap. if not then yes it could be good city.

to north maybe deer+copper+fur, but generally that city would suck. Maybe worth to wait for iron? but since it's not good layout to self tech...

Well that are my thoughts. Oh and great scouting btw!

screenies?!?!

just a warning but watch out for justian he tends to backstab me in every game and normaly at the worst time

I would have rushed Stalin. You get horses in BFC, his copper is 3rd ring. Even if Just manages to grab all the land on your left you still have place for more than 6 good cities.

I'd have chariot-rushed Stalin as well. Then Oracle>MC, build a forge and build the mids, use the GE to bulb machinery for early chokonus = ownage.

Some good suggestions, maybe I will replay with an immediate rush As it is, things aren't looking all bad.

Met Ragnar T82. He's wimpy and nowhere close so I don't care.

Teched: IW -> Alphabet -> Math -> Construction -> HBR -> Sailing -> Aesthetics -> Monotheism -> Calendar -> (Metal Casting in progress)
Traded Math & HBR to Roosevelt for Monarchy and Poly somewhere in there.
Sold Monotheism to Shaka for 90 gold.
Built the Statue of Zeus in my capitol (finished T133).

As predicted by someone in the thread here, Stalin was happy building wonders (but also lots of units), however, between him and Justin I chose to attack him. Grabbed my northern copper and started building axes, then catapults once Construction was in.
Declared on T129.
Captured Novgorod (city by the Iron) T131, denying him any more Iron.
Captured Moscow T144, then got peace for some gold and gpt so that I can re-organize my forces and make another push.

I got half a dozen requests from Toku and Roosy to declare on the other one and declined most which just made them both pissed at me. Kind of ridiculous. Finally I agreed to Toku's request, and he proceeded to make peace with Roosy the next turn! Stupid AI...fortunately I just waited a few turns then made peace without doing anything.

Shaka was ahead in score until I took Moscow, which is worrying because he's nasty when he gets big. Justin is getting a tech lead that I'm not sure I'll be able to catch up to, depending how long it takes to scoop up some more of Stalin's cities.

Save is attached, log is split into the replies. Overview screens below.

Your diplo is awesome, you're the worst ennemy of 5 of the 6 AIs
Honestly I would work on that asap, at least Stalin is not a problem.

I agree with above. You have some dang aggressive leaders (minus roosevelt) so you may wanna gift some tech/switch some civics or youre gonna get DOW'd. Multiple times. BTW, I probably wouldn't tech HBR...ever. Unless you wanted to do a horse archer rush, which you didn't. The only time I do is when I want to do a cavalry rush, which isn't often. I usually just hold off and do infantry rush. It's just a waste of turns IMO.

Now the question is do you want to try and mace/trebuchet rush Justinian and try to vassalize/weaken him? He's taking a good tech lead. If you think you can catch him though, you probably just want to improve your diplo (take sides, it's easier that way) and try to catch and overtake justin in tech.

Shadow game thru 1080AD:

Played to the end last night! (just one more turn...)

3 saves are attached for the few points I remembered (or needed) to pause for a second.

Summary:

• DoW'd Stalin again as soon as 10 turns were up
• Stalin goes crying to Shaka about the spanking he's getting (vassaled)
• Shaka DoW's me as a result of ^
• The very next turn (1110AD - T171) I eliminate Stalin
• Send army back across my empire to meet Shaka's incoming stack
• Pop golden age the same turn and convert to Buddhism. Justin likes me now!
• Army is too slow, Shaka takes Shanghai on T179
• I take it back and smash his army the next turn
• One more minor stack comes, then peace
• Various diplomacy efforts to make people hate me less
• That war done and Justin and Shaka are with me so army wanders back over towards Japan/America
• Work on financial situation and quickly recover cashflow and tech rate
• Couple tech trades, but mainly brute force research speed to catch back up to Justin and Ragnar
• A few minor random wars between Shaka and Ragnar, or Shaka and Toku, or Toku and Roosevelt, or Justin and Toku - I joined here and there where it made sense
• Diplomacy block (of my friendlies) ended up being Justin, Shaka, and a moderately-happy Ragnar. Toku was cautious or annoyed the whole time, and Roosevelt hated me (probably because I DoW'd him when asked)
• Lost Liberalism race (of course), but got free GP from Economics, Facism, & Physics
• Justin vassalized Toku and then Roosevelt later - Toku broke free and then vassalized to me voluntarily near the end of the game
• I actually had enough population and good diplomacy that I won elections for the AP and later the UN (which I built). Not enough to win a diplo victory, since Justin (my biggest fan) was the competition
• Skipped any thoughts of later domination/conquest victory due to having to play huge catch-up in tech for a good chunk of time
• DID catch up in tech, and passed everyone else quite nicely
• DID remember to use corporations - Mining Inc (while kind of wimpy on this map) and Sushi (better) gave a nice late game push
• DID win a space race victory!
• DID (mostly due to difficulty level) get my highest normalized score since installing the game again!