AG1 - I dream of Dromons (deity)

The Byzantines are a civilization with very interesting traits (Seafaring/Scientific) and an even more interesting UU: the Dromon. It replaces the galley and has 2 attack (where the Galley has 1) and lethal sea bombardment.

Goal of this SG is explore the power of the Dromon and the Seafaring trait.

VARIANT RULES:
- We must build a massive fleet of naval units (starting with Dromons).
- We must get the Great Lighthouse. If we don't succeed in building it ourselves, we have to declare war on the civ that has it and capture it ASAP. But we are NOT allowed to break ongoing deals with a civ to achieve this.
- We have to go for Map Making (Writing is our first tech to research). A Philosophy detour is allowed, but then the free tech must be Map Making (if we don't have it by then via trade and can't get it in the turn we get Philo).
- We must constantly be in a genuine war (real fighting) with at least one civ during the Dromon era (which lasts until Magnetism, when The Great Lighthouse becomes obsolete). We may make peace with one civ, but have to declare war on another civ the same turn, unless we are already at war with more than one at that point.
- We must use the bombardment-ability of our naval units while attacking coastal cities. The naval units have to redline the forces inside a city before our ground forces are allowed to attack.
- Our main goal is Domination or Conquest.
- We will use the RBCiv rules regarding exploits.

GAME RULES:
Standard/unmodified. Standard map, 30% land, archipelago.
AI Aggression: normal
Opponents: random
Rules: Standard, all standard single player victories enabled
Barbarians: Roaming
Level: deity

It would be nice to win by conquest or domination before Frigates come in.

This is a deity variant game. I like up to 6 players with at least a demigod win, but 4 deity players

ROSTER:
Aggie
Nad
Grimjack
CarlosMM
Stuck_as_a_Mac
Greebly
Jack Merchant

When the roster is full, I will start with 25 turns. Next up can take 15/20 turns, and the next leader 10-15, then 10 each turn after that.

24hrs to post a "got it" notice, and up to 48hrs after that to finish and post your turns.

EDIT: The roster is full.

You can sign me up, baby

Welcome Nad

ROSTER:
Aggie
Nad
open
open
open
open

This one sounds very interesting, but I'm up to my eyeballs in SGs ATM so I have to pass. I'll be lurking.

Please sign me up Aggie. Nothing like feast nights

Grimjack

Great to have you in the team Grimjack!

EDIT: I updated the roster in the first post. I will start the game when 5 players have signed up.

Actually, I normally avoid building ships like the plague. It would be nice to learn they were actually good for something else than soaking up my available playing time.

I didn't know the bombardment was lethal. Could perhaps be useful together with a couple of strength 4 Cats.

Grimjack

I'm in!

@Carlos, welcome

@Grimjack: I think you will learn to appreciate the power of the Dromon

Sorry guys
Way too busy atm...

Room for one more? This seems interesting. (And put me at the end of the list so I can work on getting my wireless connection up on my machine. (This is being written from my Mac Laptop))

Stuck, welcome

I'm going to prepare the map now and play the first 25. There's still room for one more!

The start looks very good. We start next to a lake and see cattle and a river close by:



I decide to settle on the spot, because we will be able to grow beyond size 6 and have commerce tiles enough. To the north water is revealed. Our island appears to be slim.
First order is curragh and we start researching Writing at 20% (min science, because max science doesn't speed it up).

Turn 1 (3950 BC) Worker start mining BG tile.

Turn 7 (3650 BC) Constantinople: curragh->curragh. Worker roads the BG tile. Curragh goes west.

Turn 10 (3500 BC) Culture expansion gives us a skilled warrior Lux to 10%, science to 10% as well.

Turn 11 (3450 BC) Worker starts irrigating the cow. Laborer swapped from BG tile to tobacco for extra commerce this turn. Curragh still in 1.

Turn 12 (3400 BC) Constantinople: crruagh->warrior.

Turn 13 (3350 BC) Our skilled warrior finds Ivory .

Turn 14 (3300 BC) One curragh finds dark green borders.

Turn 15 (3250 BC) Constantinpole: warrior->barracks. This is meant as a pre-build for the granary. Worker starts roading the cattle.
We meet the Japanese. The have Masonry, Pottery, The Wheel and Ceremonial Burial over us, but they don't have the Alphabet. Still I wait for trading. We might meet more civs which may drp the prices.

Turn 16 (3200 BC) Constantinople to size 3, luxury to 20%. We reach the western end of our island. Lot's of grassland, forests, one ivory, cattle and fish. No rivers, apart from the one close to our start.

Turn 17 (3150 BC) Our warrior to the east spots a second river

Turn 18 (3100 BC) We appear to have discovered the most eastern part of the continent as well. We appear to be alone.

Turn 22 (2900 BC) We meet the Celts, who also know Pottery and CB. But also not Alphabet.
The Celts give us CB, Pottery and 10 gold for Alphabet. Japan gives us nothing Constantinople switched to Granary.

IT: Largest natons of the world screen:

1 - The Dutch
2 - The Celts
3 - The Inca
4 - The Babylonians
5 - The Mongols
6- The Americans
7 - The Japanese
8 - The Byzantines.

So only Babylon is scientific apart from us. The Dutch and Celts are potentially very strong. Most of them have early-ish UU's, except for America.

Turn 23 (2850 BC) Constantinople to size 4. Lux to 30%.
We meet an American scout. This means that America, Japan and Celts are on the same continent. They have Masonry over us, but we have Alphabet. The second curragh finds furs on our island.

Turn 24 (2800 BC) Our curragh sees pink borders on the same island where the other tribes live!! But it is inland and we can't contact them. One warrior returns home. Lux to 20%.

Turn 25 (2750 BC) Worker starts roading the tobacco tile.

So we are alone. That is in fact good news, because we can build our empire relatively undisturbed. Also: we have Ivory! So I suggest the following research path: Writing and Philosophy at max (if possible). When Philosophy is a long shot, we should go towards Map Making at once. After building the Great Lighthouse we should desperately try to get the Temple of Zeus. Dromons, The Great Lighthouse and Ancient Cavalry should be unstoppable.

PS. Getting into a war with Dromons means a despot Golden Age. That's something we have to live with, it's a drawback of the variant.

The map:



The save:

2750 BC save

I'll try to make a dotmap now (my first )

got it

OK, I trust on your wise choices Nad That dotmap can wait I guess.

ROSTER:
Aggie
Nad ---> Up
Grimjack ---> On deck
CarlosMM
Stuck_as_a_Mac
Greebly
Jack Merchant

I will take the last spot if it is still free

Greebly, you are very welcome! I updated schedule.

Beaten to it . That's what you get for working overtime....
Better luck next time !

Jack, for you there's always a spot open! This will be a 7 player team then I guess...

Thanks ! That's another cold Grolsch I owe you then