Nobles' Club CXV: Zara Yaqob of the Ethiopian Empire

The Oz-Man

The Oz-Man

Enter: The VAIKE!
Joined
Jun 1, 2007
Messages
929
Location
Dayton, Ohio
The Nobles' Club series started out as a way for Noble-level (and below) players to improve their game. Most of the original participants now play at much higher levels, so this has become a way for advanced players to help others learn to play better. You can play your own game at any level and with any mod, but it would be nice to comment on the games of other players and give them advice.

Our next leader is Zara Yaqob of Ethiopia, whom we last played in NC LXVIII. The Ethiopians start with Hunting and Mining--not the strongest tech list in the world, so you'll probably think "food" for your first tech.

Zara.jpg

  • Traits: Zara is Creative and Organized. Creative gives free +2 to culture in all cities along with cheap Libraries, Theaters, and Coliseums. Organized slashes city upkeep costs and offers cheap Courthouses, Lighthouses, and Factories. It's a powerful pair of traits that allows for fast and easy expansion in the early game.
  • The UB: The Stele, a Monument with +25% culture. Sort of redundant alongside Zara's Creative trait, but it may help a cultural push.
    Stele.jpg

  • The UU: The Oromo Warrior, a Musketman with an extra first strike, immunity to first strikes, and Drill I and II. This is a pretty potent combination on an otherwise weak unit; Oromo/Cannon wars are a good way to crush your enemies. :hammer:
    Oromo.jpg

And the start:
zaranc_zpsdd6574a7.png


Spoiler map details :
Bog-standard Continents map, 2 continents.
Spoiler for edits :
Swapped a rowdy neighbor for a nicer fellow. The other continent was hogging all of the hunting resources, so I moved a few our way... including a fun one nearby.
Spoiler but who got swapped, Oz? :
Napoleon swapped with Mansa.


Finally, a cut and paste of our standard doctrine:

There are no hard and fast rules here: fun and learning are our primary goals, but we do suggest that you update your progress at various points in the game, using the Spoiler feature of the boards. You can post as often as you like; here's one suggestion:
  • 4000 BC (starting thoughts, no spoiler required for that discussion)
  • 1000 BC or so (how you decided to progress up the early tech/build paths, which AIs you have met, where you're thinking of putting cities, etc)
  • 500 AD or so (after establishing some cities and a possible plan of action)
  • 1200 AD or so (mid-game, Lib race, wars or peace, or whichever happened or didn't, met other
    continent if applicable, etc)
  • 1600 AD (or when you have decided on a course of action and a specific victory condition)
  • End of game (Victory!!! or defeat, no shame in losing, especially if you tried a higher level. Learning is what we focus on, not fastest win or biggest empire)

This is just a guideline. If you're trying to improve your game, then posting more frequent updates, in as much detail as you can manage, is the best way to get suggestions from other players. If you come to what seems like a major decision and you want some advice, post an update, regardless of what game-year it is.

We also welcome players to ask for specific game advice, as we have a number of stronger players who lurk and help out with solid tips, and of course, we help each other. Replies to specific questions should also be in spoilers, with a simple "@" in front of the person the answer is directed towards.

Special Thanks go to Bleys and TMIT, who really made this series a great one, r_rolo1, mapmaker extraordinaire, for his maps in the early days of the series, and all of you for playing. Thanks to dalamb as well for busting his tail to keep this rolling.
Click to expand...

The WB-saves are attached (zipped; they are bigger than standard saves). To play, simply download and unzip it into your BTS/Saves/WorldBuilder folder. Start the game, and load your favorite MOD (if you use one, if not, check out the BUG MOD), select "Play Scenario", and look for "NC number Leader Noble" (or Monarch, etc., for higher levels). You can play with your favorite MOD at the Level and Speed of your choice. From Quick-Warlord to Marathon-Deity, all are welcome! We stuck with the name "Nobles Club" because it has a cool ring to it.
Spoiler what's up with specific difficulties :
In each scenario file you can select your level of difficulty, but that doesn't give the AI the right bonus techs by itself. Use the Noble save for all levels at and below Noble. The Monarch save gives all the AI Archery. Emperor adds Hunting; Immortal adds Agriculture; Deity adds The Wheel.

For players on Monarch or above, you should add archery as a tech for the barbarians (if you don't, the AI will capture their cities very early). This cannot be done in the WB save file and must be done in Worldbuilder as follows:
Spoiler how to add techs to the barbarians :

  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.
Spoiler huts and events :
Note: The standard saves have no huts and have events turned off. If you want tribal villages and random events, choose the saves with "Huts" in their names. If you want huts but no events, select the Huts saves and use Custom Scenario to turn on the option that suppresses events.
 
4000 BC - Going to settle in place, explore and make friends with our continental neighbor. Going to work on rexing early so I have plenty of space to grow.
 
I see no real reason to move, wet corn, lots of riverside grassland, ivory and even silk eventually. Maybe even a metal with all those hills. Elephants and Catapults anyone? :D
 
Up to 1000 BC

Spoiler :
I met Mansa & Victoria early. From exploration it appears we are the only three on the continent. I'm working on choking Mansa and Victoria off so I can settle the upper part of the continent. I'm learning the finer points of the game and would appreciate any help/suggestions on my moves to this point, research strategy ect.
 

Attachments

@tmorgan

Spoiler :
tmorgan2005 said:
I met Mansa & Victoria early. From exploration it appears we are the only three on the continent. I'm working on choking Mansa and Victoria off so I can settle the upper part of the continent. I'm learning the finer points of the game and would appreciate any help/suggestions on my moves to this point, research strategy ect.
Click to expand...

Early tech path looks decent. I would have preferred that you postpone the wheel until Bronze Working and Animal Husbandry are done. After that, things get a little bit wobbly. It looks as though you got too excited by the Marble.

This isn't a good position for chasing the Oracle -- you have a lot of GOOD land to settle, and you don't yet have any great commerce bonuses to help you get things done on time. In addition to that, your are getting killed on maintenance costs, which means you are late to Priesthood, which means that even with the Marble bonus, your odds of scoring the Oracle are not good.

Box the enemy in is not a bad plan; but it is an expensive one. With this leader, on this map, I think you would have been much better off to try a straight REX. That would probably mean

(a) move Addis Ababa from the coastline to the river, and settle it first. You are going to use the corn and the hills to give you a second settler/worker pump early, and in mid game this will be a strong production center.

(b) secure the gold! Gold mines pay for many sins, especially expanding. The gold mine up north has the pigs and a bunch of flood plains to feed it. The big prize is the plains hill to the south west, that will give you two gold mines + clams + corn. One of the benefits of Creative is that you can grab spots like this early

(c) secure a military resource -- on this map, you can get that copper to your west any time you want. The copper to the south, you may want to race for; especially as this helps complete the box around Mansa.

(d) land -- every food resource on the map gets a city, prioritizing the ones closest to the AI.

(e) Tech - you wouldn't bother with the oracle on this plan, but instead gun for writing (libraries with the gold mines), currency (building wealth), code of laws (cheap courthouses to cut down on maintenance.

My suggestion at this point would be to stop, and figure out how to adapt your current position to something more like the one I described -- ie, how can you get those gold mines in play within the next 15-20 turns?
 
Spoiler :
Oooo, second corn to start us off.

3725 BC- Omg, this land! Gold with seafood, flood plains to the south. Met Mansa and Vicky, bleh. Lots of teching going to happen this game.

Went Agriculture-Wheel-Pottery-Bronze Working to be able to effectively work my land. Second sitting is to be the gold+corn city to the north. I cannot emphasize just how good this land is. REX away cause You know Vicky will.

875 BC, bit late on this update, but I'm just blown away with how good this start is. Just settled my 5th city on the 2 gold + clam's site. And I'm still at an 80% slider on my way to Code of Laws. Hoping to Oracle Civil Service.
civ4screenshot0009w.jpg


650 BC, Founded Confucianism and managed to Oracle Civil Service... :D Early Beauro cap.

365 BC, barbs a bit of an issue. Traded Alphabet and Meditation to Mansa for Polytheism, Archery, and Iron Working.

290 BC, Alphabet and Polytheism to Vicky for Monarchy.

535 AD, I don't feel like I'm playing ideally, there's too much land and the AI's have been able to keep up a bit more than I'd care for. I still have way more cities I can place to my north. Keeping up on strength, but I'd rather remove Mansa as a threat soon. He has Feudalism already.

1200 AD, boring game so far, mostly just teching, probably gonna wait until cannons to blow through my foes, may try to Lib steel. Managed to culture flip Hastings. Vicky has 4 cities and Mansa 7. Still unclaimed land to my north. Mansa's been offering to Vassalize, I've been burned by that before, so no thank you. I want him dead.

1425 AD, declared Mansa. Forgot to beg Vicky for some gold so she declared on me too

Lib'd Steel in 1495 AD. Met Joao and Izzy across the ocean. I'd be terrified to see what I really skilled player would do with this map.

1756, short war against Izzy and others to get her off my continent. A bit behind Joao in tech, but still trying to rebuild after killing Vicky and vassalizing Mansa.

And I let myself get carried away. That war against Izzy ruined any chance at good relations with them. Controlling my own continent wasn't enough to compete with 4 AI's in a Buddhist love fest. Perhaps I'm just tired. Will try again tomorrow and maybe be more aggressive.
 
Would it be a terrible idea to settle 1E to get more riverside tiles? (This just from looking at the starting screenshot, not having moved the scout.)
 
I might give this one a try on emp. Time to take part in a forum game to see just how much I still have to learn! Since this will be only my second emp game, there's a very good chance that I don't end up victorious.

Based on screenshot SIP looks good, unless the scout can reveal something truly awesome in the south.
 
Culture Bomb said:
Would it be a terrible idea to settle 1E to get more riverside tiles? (This just from looking at the starting screenshot, not having moved the scout.)
Click to expand...

I thought the same, or perhaps even on the silk. Unless there is another river just to the west of the settler, settling 1E or 1NE is a better bureau capital.
 
Culture Bomb said:
Would it be a terrible idea to settle 1E to get more riverside tiles? (This just from looking at the starting screenshot, not having moved the scout.)
Click to expand...

I don't know if it was a very terrible idea, but I did just that...

Until 975 BC:
Spoiler :
Met Mansa and Vicky very early, knew they were close. Then I found out that Vicky had really crappy land, so when she settled in the north I quickly blocked her off with my second city.
Spoiler :
civ4screenshot0018u.jpg

Probably not the best possible spot, but it's got food and grassland hills and can work a couple of cottages for the capital, so it should be okay.

Third city went south east, will become a production powerhouse that can work up to 7 PH mines with CS:
Spoiler :
civ4screenshot0019b.jpg

(Also hope I can find some more resources on those hills!)

Settled two more cities, one to block of Mansa and grab copper + corn, the other was a very tight race against Vicky for the Gold + Clam + Corn, which I barely won! :) Vicky continued with the settler to settle behind me next to Mansa. I guess it's good that she grabbed a spot from him, because I believe he will be the bigger threat of the two.
Spoiler :
civ4screenshot0013y.jpg

My economy is obviously down the drain, but I think I can turn it around. A worker will finish a chop for a workboat the turn after I get fishing, then I can soon work those gold tiles. CoL and currency are probably top priority techs atm. There's so much room to expand in the north, haven't even explored it all yet, that I probably won't need to war anytime soon! With only Judaism on our continent (waiting for MM to demand me to convert) I think we can all live in peace for a while.

Seems like this is not the hardest possible start, which suits me fine when I'm trying to learn emp.

Any comments are welcome!
 

Attachments

Yay! Another NC :)

Still have to finish the Sons of Monarchy game from Hell, but will definitely play this. Looks like a pretty sweet start with lots of green and rivers. Depends on what is to the west, but could be a decent idea to settle INE. Will pick up more hills. Not sure I want to waste a turn and pick up that jungle though, so maybe I'll just SIP.

In any case, early-ish construction and ele-stomp? :D
 
Culture Bomb said:
Would it be a terrible idea to settle 1E to get more riverside tiles? (This just from looking at the starting screenshot, not having moved the scout.)
Click to expand...

Not a terrible idea at all, one lost turn is negligible if it gives you a better long-term commerce capital. And from what's visible on the first turn that seems to be the case. Settling on the silk could also make sense, although the plantation is a pretty decent tile in itself for a bureau cap. You gain 1 commerce on the city tile, so you exchange a tile that will be good but not until 100+ turns later for a faster start. With elephants visible, you can already see one way to make the 1 extra commerce from the start work for you...
 
Monarch/Epic - Turn 34

Early thoughts...

Spoiler :
Damn, this is nice land! Several rivers, plenty of good potential sites for cottage cities and riverside production.

I normally tend to favour an early rush and have considered maybe going for Victoria as there is an source of Copper not too far away... But the best thing to do considering Zara's traits is to grab as much land as possible and get cities up and running ASAP. I might see if I can pen her into the top corner of the islands and take her out once we get to Construction (or maybe later, see how the empire expansion goes first).
 
Haha I'm stuck on turn 0 LOL
I read your arguments against SIP and...well, if you SIP you don't loose 1 turn and gain 1 commerce from settling non riverside grassland LOL And you destroy 1 forest.
I moved scout 2S so I can't see if there's maybe river in west. If I don't SIP, I'll probably settle on silk - for one reason: 6 grassland hills (3 of those riverside) vs 3 grassland hills (1 riverside) - assuming there aren't any in west.
If you SIP you can have few more riverside cities E, S, SE or NE.
Is Bureaucracy commerce capitol so much better then 2-3-4 commerce cities around?

You know I suck at placing my cities and you know I'll probably mess this as well LOL
 
Fired up the game and wondering about settling. Seems to be a case between SIP and on silk 1NE.

SIP: 3 Grasshills and 5 riverside grassland, plus the silk and elephant. Plus whatever is to the west.
1NE: 6 Grasshills and 8 riverside grassland, plus the elephant.

Heh, actually counting that up and writing it down, maybe I just convinced myself :D The issue, though, is we only have 1 source of food 1NE, and 6 hills. Tough to work that, at least early-ish (but guess we want cottages anyway).

Isn't there something about there having to be two food sources in the starting BFC though? So that should mean another food resource in the hidden south or west. 1NE would lose that. Maybe it's still worth to move though. A little extra early commerce and a rather good bureaucracy capital, even with 'only' 1 wet corn to feed it.
 
Dubioza said:
Is Bureaucracy commerce capitol so much better then 2-3-4 commerce cities around?
Click to expand...

Why not have both? I find that it's usually best to have a couple hybrid (ie. commerce/production) cities in the early empire, but you should also try for a strong bureau capital since you get limited (read: sometimes 1) academies.
 
1 AD:
Spoiler :
Johannes Kepler was born in 525 BC, built academy in capital. Other than that the last thousand years have been mostly about fighting off barbarians and settling a couple of more cities.

Once again I won a tight race and managed to box in Mansa:
Spoiler :
civ4screenshot0021g.jpg

As you can see Addis Ababa had already claimed the marble, this means I will have to go for TGL next!

His settler continued north though to claim the copper in the middle of the jungle:
Spoiler :
civ4screenshot0025.jpg

World at 1 AD:
Spoiler :
civ4screenshot0022.jpg

Made some nice tech trades when I hit currency:
Spoiler :
civ4screenshot0015.jpg

(This one I needed badly so that I could settle Adulis in the jungle.)

civ4screenshot0016.jpg


civ4screenshot0017dn.jpg


The last one is perhaps a bit weak, but since I just traded curr to Mansa last turn, there was a chance he would trade it to her instead.

I'm badly behind in tech right now, but as I get my infra up I should be able to catch up. Have had to spend a lot of hammers on fogbusting and barb defense, hope I don't have to waste much more on that anymore!

Both Mansa and Vicky are pleased with me right now. Do I need to fear them plotting at that level?

I'll get my next GS in a few turns. should I bulb something? Or settle in capital? Or build another academy?

As always, feedback is welcome!
 

Attachments

Dubioza said:
Is Bureaucracy commerce capitol so much better then 2-3-4 commerce cities around?
Click to expand...

Thing is that you don't know how many good commerce sites you will get. The higher the difficulty, the less land you're likely to get and the more efficient you have to be. You can only develop so many cottages so fast, so having overlapping cities develop cottages that will all eventually get a 50% boost is super efficient, far more so than those same tiles being worked for non-capital cities. Then consider that this city will also benefit from an academy (and further great scientists are better used for bulbs and then golden ages) and lots of other infrastructure that is quite expensive (university, likely a market, bank, national wonders) that will benefit from the bonuses. Those are hammers that are generally better spent elsewhere in other cities. A production city, for example, really doesn't need anything except a barracks and a forge, and can contribute to your research rate when necessary by building wealth or, better yet, fail-building wonders with the resource boost.

It's not unusual on immortal and deity if you have a capital with lots of grassland to have it produce the majority of your research for most of the game. Also cottages outside of your capital are less desirable if you're not a financial leader as they don't give you the same early boost. Cottage spam can be viable for a financial leader where concentrating cottages in the capital would be a stronger strategy otherwise. Even for a financial leader, developing cottages around the capital should be the priority for the reasons given in the first paragraph.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

AcaMetis
Nobles' Club 377: Gandhi of India
2 3
Replies
55
Views
3K
jorissimo
jorissimo
AcaMetis
Nobles' Club 376: Cyrus of Persia
Replies
12
Views
1K
soundjata
soundjata
AcaMetis
Nobles' Club 362: Zara Yaqob of Ethiopia
Replies
14
Views
2K
CGQ
CGQ
AcaMetis
Nobles' Club 378: Shaka of the Zulu
Replies
12
Views
581
Mitchum
M
AcaMetis
Nobles' Club 375: Roosevelt of America
Replies
10
Views
1K
pmarc
P
Back
Top Bottom