Nobles' Club LXXII: Ragnar of the Vikings

Archipelago script, Archipelago subtype. This map type has lots of small to medium islands. Civs usually start on their own island, but sometimes the script merges some islands into mini-continents with multiple civs. Sometimes it's possible to circumnavigate with galleys, sometimes not. Occasionally I've seen an isolated start (ie where you can't reach any other civs pre-astronomy). There are also lots of places for barbarian galleys to spawn, since you need galleys to cross to other islands to set up your spawnbusters.

1. Zoom in all the way so you can't see the rest of the map.
2. Use the CTRL-W key (or the menu) to enter the worldbuilder. Avoid looking at the mini-map in the lower right corner.
3. By default you're in "player" mode (look in the box in the upper right; the icon that looks like a person should be selected). You'll get a drop down menu labeled with your leader's name. Barbarians are at the bottom, so cover the rest of the list with your hand if you don't want to see who else is on the map. Select "Barbarians".
4. Select the "Technologies" tab in the box on the left.
5. Find Archery (the arrow head icon; 8th row, 3rd column from the right) and click it.
6. Exit the worldbuilder.
7. Zoom out again after the map fades, and start playing.

We are stuck on a small island but there is an island to the south and one to the east but Zara put a city on it. No worries, HA's and Elephant's are on their way. You shouldn't have edited a metal into worldbuilder. Horses and Elephants are more than enough to get Zara. Nidaros has trouble with over-expansion anger untill Monarchy.

I've done a quick play through, up to turn 76 (975BC):
I just did what lymond suggested. And Stone shows up!
I went Mining/Bw/Wheel/Pottery/Writing/Sailing/AH/Archery/HBR/Math/Construction.
Closest targets: Zara and Darius. Zara is near us to the southwest, and probably has some decent land, which I'll scout next. I'm getting started on a stack of Galleys and soon fill them with War Elephants and Horse Archers to go for his land
Darius is far to the the east and seems to be almost as far north as we are. I'll just ignore him for now.
My city sites:

I improved the stone only for the production really. I don't plan to build any wonders.
And the save for those who would be interested:

Reached Liberalism, got nationialism with it and now researching constitution for rep. Backtraded most tech and gunpowder, I'm probably going for mass cavalry to own the rest of Zara and Kublai.

Oh wow, jumbos. Whoever we find it's time to lay the smack down.


SIP then WB first working highest hammer tile to get it out ASAP. First techs are Agr -> AH -> Wheel -> Mining


3600BC: Hinduism is founded.
It also seems we're on a small island. Archipelago maybe to suit Ragnar?


Yay ponies! The stone to the east also suggests pyramids. GW shouldn't be a problem with the small landmass.

Decided to go for 2 WB in a row since there is no chance of invasion. Plus, a worker wouldn't have been able to do much.
3480BC: Hinduism is founded.

BW before Sailing to get prechops ready for the massa mount of galleys we'll be needing.
2800BC: First worker built. Got him imrproving the horses first, then to chop forests.


2520BC: BW discovered. Revolt slavery later.

Mysticism after Sailing since we have 1 Settler on standby ready to be transported away. We need those monuments for border pops.
Trading Post before any naval units obviously to get the free Navigation I.


1800BC: Our first neighbour. Zara Yaqob. He's creative so borders are going to be a problem. His galley came from the north suggesting he chained islands.


1640BC: Our second neighbour found. Agg/Cre poses a threat so I keep my eye on him. He is south of our second city...


Same turn Uppsala is founded. Chose this site to get the clams, sheep and jumbos while maintaining island expansion. Monument built off the plains hill.


1280BC: Haithabu is founded 1S of the stone. It's cramped, but it takes full use of the fish.

850BC: Alphabet finishes, so we look at our rivals tech.

KK has IW which is good, so we'll come back to him later when he has something better.

900BC: Revolt to slavery to whip the library at 1 turn remaining to use the overflow to get a second galley out quickly.

725BC: Haithabu's borders pop and I can see where Zara is. I'll send a galley over to explore and potentially marked a new target to rush.


475BC: KK demands Writing, I accept wanting to keep diplo peaceful.

For the next few turns I basically expand quickly while building galleys and key infrastructure such as libraries and granaries.


325BC: Birka is founded north near the tundra next to fish.

275BC: KK wants Maths for IW. I manage to get Archery off him as well. Good trade I suppose.

75BC: Metal Casting self teched. Building forges perhaps everywhere and hiring engineer to hopefully build pyramids or hanging gardens.


25BC: Bjørgvin is founded at the copper island. I see Zara is preping axes with about 4 cities. Rushing is held off with main priority being defence and expansion.

1AD: Time to stop. I have 5 cities which I personally think is a good achievement for also having to work with transportation and finding land. Zara is becoming a slight threat. KK seems to be not expanding towards the marble which I want to claim quickly and perhaps build the Great Library. Stonehenge, Great Lighthouse, Oracle and Great Wall have all been built. I only care about the Great Lighthouse, but I can live without it. I have about 10 cities planned out with markers. Researching machinery to get some more improvements.

Techpath is Agr -> AH -> Wheel -> Mining -> Bronze Working -> Sailing -> Mysticism -> Masonry -> Pottery -> Writing -> Mathematics -> Alphabet

Land




Capital


Tech Screen


Statistics

There wasn't really much to say this game; was very boring. Was too slow to expand because I built too many wonders and so i was stuck to that silly island and some land to the south and east. I'm not sure what possesed me to build Stonehenge (oh this is an island you say?). GLH is sweet.

Also I opened triple workboat; that may not have been the best idea.

Basically the next 2 centuries involved me trying manipulate the AP but failed because Darius and Khan kept jumping to free religion every time the vote come up. After some more missionary spread and spies, I still didn't have enough pop, so I grabbed some land from Hatty, an easy target with some rifles. After some more posturing, Saladin screwed me up and DoW'd, bombarding my cities. Then he took some of Khan's cities, which was bad.

Anyhow, sick of being 10-15 votes away from winning, I switched to environmentalism, and Saladin was distracted since I had DP's with Darius and Khan. Would have won faster had my missionaries had not been ******** when I selected automate. Really? Running in circles to cities that already have Buddhism?

And Darius was stuck in free religion; 100% espionage ftw.

I was not happy about being beaten to every island, I'll give this a second try with expanding in mind. It would have been so much smoother.

Also I somehow didn't adjust and get astronomy fast enough. Lib astro should have been the obvious choice.

I played up to 1100AD or thereabouts and things got from comfortable to sort of worse. At this point i had 8 cities and teching at a reasonable pace although I was constantly running a deficit the entire game. What amazed me was how everyone seemingly had Monarchy, Construction, Currency, Code of Laws, Civil Service and whatnot miles before me. Expansion was poor and I don't know how to do it swifter to get all the good land.

I knew it was a watery map, so decided to go for circumnavigation, the GLH, and the Colossos -- the later made a little harder by having to travel a bit to get the copper accelerator. I also vaguely planned to use the berserkers, but as you can see from my wondering how, it was a vague plan.

I settle in place -- it never having occurred to me that the hill 1N of the sheep might be good, too, freeing up some seafood for the island to the northwest. My initial goals were build the GLH and circumnavigate; I decided not to try to pursue the Oracle (decision likely unaffected by knowing in advance there was no marble nearby and we had an IND opponent - GLH takes a long time, and even at Prince you might only be able to get one of them). I was so focused on circumnavigating that I neglected exploring the immediate area -- possibly because I "knew" what it looked like -- which meant I totally forgot about settling the nearby copper island. Here's the local neighbourhood at 1000BC:

Here's what I should have seen -- and possibly there should be a city on Light Blue to claim the copper.

Chronology:

• 1650 BC: Found Uppsala 1S of the stone.
• 1475 BC: The least cultured. Obviously I'm not leveraging FIN well enough -- should have been able to afford a better tech rate.
  
  
• 1025 BC: start the Great Lighthouse in Nimijen
• 1000 BC: Circumnavigate: 4-move galleys are very nice! First goal met.

Even with some mistakes, I'm fairly happy with this start.

Chronology:

• 975 BC: Haithabu settled on the island just to the south. A decent location, with sheep, elephants, and seafood -- but I think it would have been a lot smarter to settle the copper island, or at least create a third settler very soon.
• 650 BC: Metal Casting from a hut, which is such a big boost it makes the rest of my game completely uncomparable to anyone else'.
• 500 BC: Second goal met.
  
  
• 400 BC: Hinduism spreads to Haithabu and I switch, getting me a diplomacy booth with 3 AIs and a negative with two known targets others.
• 320 BC: Trade for Alphabet with Saladin, which sets up a series of trades:
  • Alphabet
    
    
  • Archery, polytheism, meditation
    
    
  • Monotheism
    
    
  • Priesthood
    
    
• 230 BC: Finish Code of Laws and found Confucianism, but I remain Hindu.
• 185 BC: To my amazement, the Oracle hasn't gone yet -- so I decide to build it on speculation, expecting failure cash. But in 125 BC Zara trades me Monarchy,
  which gives me Feudalism from the Oracle in 35 BC.
• 20 AD: Finally found Bjorgven on the copper island, so late that Saladin beats me to the Colossos in 355 AD.
• 25 AD: Civil Service -- but I can't switch to Bureaucracy because I need Vassalage to build stronger units.
• A few more trades:
  • 325 AD: Theology leads to building missionaries in Haithabu so other cities can benefit from it.
    
    
  • 355 AD: Literature, Horseback Riding, and Construction. A nice war setup from a target friend!
    
    
    
    (He's a target beause of being nearby, but a friend and potential ally because of shared religion)
• 535 AD: Pop a Great Merchant in the capital from the GLH. I still need to decide what to do with him. A Golden Age for a civic swap and increased war prep speed might make the most sense, once I'm ready to build macemen.
• 565 AD: which becomes possible when I finally connect the copper.

Unfortunately the path I took (prioritizing CS and Machinery for Berserkers) means I didn't pursue Philosophy, and Zara gets it in 565 AD. This means he's ahead of me in the Liberalism race; one of the ways to slow down the AI is to get Philosophy first, since apparently they cease to pursue it if someone else gets it.

My economy is in good shape, thanks to FIN and the GLH: 70%, 462 in the bank, and +4 per turn. My 2nd and 3rd cities have courthouses, helping the economy further.

I have a Great Merchant for a golden age. I also have Calendar and could try to build the Mausoleum, but the best production city (Uppsala) would take 31 turns without marble. I happen to know a place with unclaimed Marble not too far away, but it has an Ethiopian city in one direction and a Mongolian in the other, so might require conquest unless I act quickly. I'm waffling about whether this is a good idea.

I would really like to invade and conquer somebody with Berserkers, which to me seems in-character for Ragnar (even if waiting and promoting them to CR II rifles makes more strategic sense). So I need to pick a target. A historian recently declared me a middle power:

which isn't too surprising since I haven't started grinding out units, other than transport galleys and a few triremes. The detailed foreign situation:Persia might be a good target: fairly weak, and has the Pyramids. However, the Hindu block likes him, so I'd take a diplo hit. Napoleon (the sole Buddhist) is fairly strong and has two of the less wonderful wonders. Hatty is weak and has no friends. I wish I could go for Saladin's colossos, but he's fairly strong and is also Hindu. I guess I favour going after Hatty, then seeing if I'm strong enough after that (and not too tired from warmongering) to go after Nappy.

Sometimes in the xOTM discussions I see people suggestion moving the settler as an explorer for a turn or two. Here it might have made sense to move the settler 1SW 1S to the hill:

At that point (if you don't have hut barbarians to worry about) it would have been sensible to move the settler 1SE, knowing that after than 1N to the forest would still have made sense.



We could have saved one turn by settling 1S of the yellow, which switches one food over to the magenta city and makes the capital less of a potential GP farm.

Aggressive/Financial Lots of trees, so I am going to chop for speed and to clear room for cottages.
Galley is a priority unit. My first build will be a workboat, though. I move the scout W then SW figuring I can go SE 2 moves next turn. I uncover a stone deposit, so I move my settler onto the wine to be able to use the stone. On turn 2 I move the scout SE as planned and find two resources, so I think, on the bright side, that I have made room for a good number 2 city on the south end of the island.

The big question for me is should I go mining/mysticism/masonry and try SH, or do mining/BW/sailing to start chopping and building a galley. Or is there something I am totally not thinking of? I start with mining since that works either way. I guess I could also go for a religion while I build workboats. That doesn't appeal for some reason, not sure.

SIP. I decided to go for the Oracle-MC/bulb-machinery slingshot, so I just built WBs until all 3 clams were netted. Tech path was something like mining> masonry> sailing> myst> med> PH> BW> wheel> pottery. After the 3rd WB I went settler, worker, warrior. I settled my 2nd city on top of the stone and built 'henge working the plains hills. This city also built the Oracle, since I wanted to keep pure GE gpps in the capital. AH> writing> CoL (founded confu and adopted - we're vikings, who cares about diplo? )> math> CS. Nidaros chop/whipped a forge on the 2nd turn after MC came in, then built the 'mids and HG. First gp was obviously a prophet, who built the confucian shrine. A GE was next, bulbed machinery. I Switched to bureau + PS, cranking out zerks in Nidaros in 2 turns without the HE. By 820AD I was ready to declare on Zara:



Pretty good odds with only CR1:


Vassaled Zara, then took out Hattie (neither had feudalism yet):


Popped a GM who was sent on a 1700 TM to Darius ToA/GLH capital (my next target). After feudalism I switched to vassalage and went compass> optics> astro (currently researching). I have 2 caravels out trying for the circumnav bonus (6 move galleons FTW). I already have several CR3 zerks, and can trade Zara for lit (HE in Nidaros, NE in Aksum, which has something like 5 or 6 seafood) and paper (when he finishes it). Astro should lock down the seas, and I plan on having some fun with privateers to deny seafood to the AIs and slow them down. I'll probably switch to caste/Rep and run a boatload of scientists in Aksum to double-bulb education, take rifling from lib, then go for chem> steel FTW. I played pretty sloppy, but this looks like an easy win.

Moved the scout 2W, but discovered no food so I decided to SiP. This was a really good move because I could now put a second city to grab fish+stone. Research went Sailing ->beelined GLH ->beelined Oracle ->Pottery -> Metal Casting (freebie from Oracle). Polytheism was a misplay, but i decided to finish it as I thought that it might be useful for ToA/Parthenon/GLib (I hope I can find some marble). Wonders went really late, so this might turn into wonder spamming fest...we shall see.
Nidaros is building Work Boat, which will explore some nearby lands. Copper is a top priority now so if I find any, I will definately settle it.
Oh and I was very lucky with that Gold near Nidaros
Plans for the near future:

1) Build a Library in Nidaros, run 2 scientists and hope for GS, althought GM isn't the worst GPerson either.
2) Build a settling party in Upsalla.

Not sure about research though. It really depends on whether I can find some marble... I might run 0% slider for a couple more turns.