SP8 - Slaves of the Pyramid PTW 1.21f Emperor OPEN SG

After having lots of fun in my previous open SG, the pointy-stick Aztecs, I'm starting another one: "Slaves of the Pyramid".

Level: Emperor
Civilization: Egypt
Settings: Pangaea, small, 80% water, normal, 5 billion years.
Rivals: 5 random

We are the arrogant and highly cultured Egyptians, who gather together to build a mighty structure known as the Pyramids, at our city of Giza. We see no reason to build other cities, and so we may never build settlers.

However, we do want all the world to acknowledge the might and power of the awesome Pyramids, and as such our aim is to win by conquest or domination.

We must build the Pyramids in our only city, Giza, as soon as possible. I will construct them on my first turn, and then hand over to the next player to prepare the Egyptians for war.

We want to test out the power of War Chariots in this game. As such, we must refuse to trade or research Horseback Riding until it is the only technology in the ancient age that we don't know of (and even then we can delay getting it).

The world is ruled from the Pyramids with an iron fist. As such, we may never use any form of government other than despotism.

Rules Summary:

- we may never build settlers
- we must build the Pyramids immediately
- we are encouraged to use lots of war chariots. We are industrious so we can road/cut jungles and mountains quickly.
- we must win by conquest or domination.

EDIT: - each player plays 10 turns +/- 2.

Hopefully this'll be lots of fun!

Our starting location:



-Sirp.

we may never build settlers

Well you definitely make this one tougher then the Aztecs!
Getting a second productive city will be a major challenge.

(1) 4000BC: Move the worker south onto the mountains to check things out. The mighty river known as the Nile lies to the south, by it is very fertile land! We will found our city of Giza there.

(2) 3950BC: Worker and settler keep moving south.

(3) 3900BC: Giza founded. Worker moves onto most fertile tile. Research set to The Wheel @max.

(4) 3850BC: Worker starts irrigating.

(5) 3800BC: Ottoman spearman comes along. Our first warrior is still 8 turns off. Osman has Bronze Working, we have Ceremonial Burial. No trades are possible.

(6) 3750BC: irrigate -> road. Osman has two workers for sale now, but won't give one of them up for CB.

(7) 3700BC: The spearman goes away.

(8) 3650BC: Giza grows. Lux -> 10%. Worker road -> another time to irrigate.

(9) 3600BC: blah.

(10) 3550BC: ...

(11) 3500BC: Giza builds warrior. He goes exploring and another is ordered. irrigate -> road.

(12) 3450BC: A french warrior shows up from the east. They are up Alphabet we are up CB. No trades can be done. Giza grew this turn. Lux -> 30%

(13) 3400BC: Giza borders expand. Worker goes to improve a bonus grassland.

(14) 3350BC: We meet an English warrior in the west. Trade Alphabet + 10 gold for Masonry + CB. Hmm...the Ottomans won't give us much for Alphabet, they must be near to discovering it themselves. I sell CB to the French for 10 gold since they'll probably get it soon anyway.

Giza Warrior -> Warrior.

(15) 3300BC: Blah.

(16) 3250BC: ...

(17) 3200BC: Giza is hit by dreaded disease. It begins construction on the Great Pyramids.

We meet a Japanese warrior in the north. They trade us The Wheel + Bronze Working + 10 gold for Masonry + Alphabet. Then we trade The Wheel to England for Pottery and then Alphabet + The Wheel + Pottery to Osman for Warrior Code + 10 gold. Research -> Math.

There is a source of horses to the south-west, right on the Ottoman border. We don't know of any other sources of horses.

(18) 3150BC: Disease hits Giza again.

(19) 3100BC: ...

(20) 3050BC: There is a source of horses to the north-east of Giza, in unclaimed land that we should easily be able to put a colony on!

(21) 3000BC: blah.

(22) 2950BC: We are the 'least happy' nation in the world.

(23) 2900BC: ...

(24) 2850BC: More horses to the east of Giza.

(25) 2800BC: Pyramids due in 'only' 62 turns.

(26) 2750BC: ...

(27) 2710BC: ...

(28) 2670BC: The Ottomans now have Mysticism for sale.

(29) 2630BC: ...

(30) 2590BC: Pyramids due in 48 turns...

(31) 2550BC: ...

(32) 2510BC: Growing to size 6, the Pyramids are due in 36 turns.

(33) 2470BC: ...

(34) 2430BC: nada.

(35) 2390BC: We reach the fabled lands of India in the north. They are primitive, but we do sell them knowledge of the wheel for 10 gold, knowing that their use of it would never rival ours anyway.

(36) 2350BC: Giza reaches size 7.

IBT the Ottomans dare threaten us. Threaten us mind you, telling us that we must give them 22 pieces of gold or risk being 'flogged' over the head, neck, and shoulders! We give the evil man his money, and vow that when we have our horses dragging our chariots, after the mighty Pyramid is built, we will seek revenge over him one hundred fold.

(37) 2310BC: We hear news that the English are attempting to build their own Pyramid. How dare they! Meanwhile an English warrior approaches Giza in a way I don't like the look of. Luckily our second warrior is about to arrive back in Giza.

(38) 2270BC: the English warrior keeps on coming.

(39) 2230BC: The English warrior is next to Thebes now, on a hill.

(40) 2190BC: The Engish warrior wisely withdraws.

(41) 2150BC: ...

(42) 2110BC: Iron Working has been discovered and sold around. The Ottomans now have Writing. The Japanese settle a city close to Giza. Math is due in 7 turns

(43) 2070BC: Reaching size 8, we abandon growth until the Pyramids are complete. They are now due in 19 turns, and will be less with a few more mines built.

(44) 2030BC: ...

(45) 1990BC: Completing a mine, the Pyramids are now due in 15 turns.

(46) 1950BC: The Ottomans found a city east of us, siezing one source of horses. There is just one source of horses left unclaimed. We are ranked as the least powerful civilization in the world. They are yet to feel the power of the Pyramids!

(47) 1910BC: ...

(48) 1870BC: ...

(49) 1830BC: We discover math and trade around for easy tech parity. We have some iron in Giza's radius. I turn research off. We want money to support our mighty chariots that we will soon construct, and once they see our awesome power, all our enemies will give us the technologies we want!

(50) 1790BC: Pyramids due in 10 turns now.

(51) 1750BC: ...

(52) 1725BC: ...

(53) 1700BC: ...

(54) 1675BC: ...

(55) 1650BC: ...

(56) 1625BC: The Ottomans found another city to the west.

(57) 1600BC: Ok does our worker hook up the horses, gems, or iron? We'll probably want to pop out another worker once the Pyramids are done. I go for the iron at this stage. If we mine that, it will give us lots of shields during our Golden Age.

(58) 1575BC: Hmm...a Japanese warrior is wandering through our territory.

(59) 1550BC: ...

(60) 1525BC: this says it all:

Giza switched to a worker, which can be vetoed by the next ruler, but I suggest at least one, probably two workers. Then a barracks. We want to get a colony on the horses asap, building barracks in Giza at the same time. Then we want to start churning out war chariots. We should be able to get Giza at the 10 shields per turn mark, while getting high food pretty easily. If we can get it to 15 spt, we could consider getting a few swordsmen, especially for the early combat which will be with nearby enemies. We want to get a city with a source of horses asap, so we can guarantee ourselves a permanent source. Iznik could be a good target for this.

Good luck to the next leader, whoever it may be!

-Sirp.

The world:



The Game

Shall I go second again? "Got it"

Preturn: I see the English and Japanese have this silly idea of sitting on top of horses.

1500 BC (1): Giza’s cultural influence expands, nearly pulling in the horses already. The other civ’s might be too wary to settle so close to our magnificent Pyramids and will let us keep our horse colony. Giza worker->barracks. Worker is sent to build a pen around the horses. MM to get barracks in 3 instead of 4, reduced growth temporarily.

1475 BC (2): Osman has Map Making, we’ll beat it out of him soon. Osman has a spear/settler near ‘our’ horses.

1450 BC (3): ….

1425 BC (4): Iron connected. Giza barracks->swordsman. It’s at 15 spt.

1400 BC (5): ….

1375 BC (6): Bad news, the Ottomans build a city on the horses as my worker is standing on them ready to build a colony. They’ll definitely pay for their insolence. Giza swordsman->swordsman.

IT: Japanese warrior shows up at Giza, I go to demand that he pays us for allowing him to view our splendid Pyramids but he has no money at all.

1350 BC (7): ….

1325 BC (8): Giza swordsman->swordsman. England and France have Map Making now.

1300 BC (9): Giza grows to 9. Still at 15spt but can work a floodplain now. India gives us their worker for Mathematics and 21 gold.

1275 BC (10): Giza swordsman->swordsman. Worker finishes mine on iron so Giza can work the other flood plain now. I declare war on the Ottomans. Swordsman attacks their warrior in the forest and wins with 2hp left, capturing their settler. Unfortunately both Ottoman horse towns are size 1. So I’ll let the next player decide how to handle that.

The Save

Good turn Shillen

I suggest that if necessary, we can auto-raze one of the Ottoman towns and build a colony with one of our new slave workers. Later when the other towns grows, we can capture it.

It'd be great if we could push Giza to producing 20spt in the Golden age, although I'm not sure if that's feasible.

Who will step up next, to become the Chief Slave of the mighty Pyramid?

-Sirp.

Actually I just noticed there's another Ottoman horse town SW of us with expanded borders. Osman sure loves his horses. No chance of autorazing that one. Would take 4-5 turns to get our swords over there though. And then we'd have to join a couple slaves and whip a temple probably. I don't think autorazing and colonizing will work. All the AI's are trampling settlers all over the place. It would just get resettled almost right away. The other option is just to sit there and wait for one of the 2 size 1 cities to grow and hope he doesn't whip it again right away.

I think the ones to the south-west are in range of the Ottoman capital, which would likely be difficult to take though doable with a good few swords.

However I think that auto-razing and colonizing would be an option: we'd just need to garrison the colony with a few swords, and anyone who comes along with a settler would contribute two more slaves to the Pyramid.

After that we could wait for growth of one of the other cities and take it with chariots.

But yeah, in general, auto-razing is going to be a BIG problem in this game.

-Sirp.

Got it.

Upon further thought we know exactly when the northern horse town will grow to 2. On emperor the AI cities get a 20% bonus to growth. That means they need 16 food to grow to 2. I assume that town is working the grassland. That means 8 turns after founding it should grow. It was founded in 1400BC. So it should grow to pop 2 in 1200BC. Therefore we'd want to have our swords in place in 1200BC and attack in 1175BC. We'd have horses in 4 turns, connected in 6, assuming no bad luck with the RNG.

edit: Well Matt's got it already so he probably won't see this, oh well.

Shillen: Good point there, although....do AIs ever rush as soon as they grow? I.e. would they say "omg there's a stack of swords outside the city and we've just grown so let's rush a spear", or would we get at least one turn during which we could attack them at size 2?

I'm not sure about that...

-Sirp.

First to answer Shillen, yeah I never saw your post till now. I also never saw Aydin grow to size 2.

Report:
Preturn: I move our 2 newly acquired slaves away from the front.
In looking over the game I think I will implement Sirp’s plan.
Autoraze Aydin and build a colony, killing any and all settlers who threaten said colony.
Could get ugly.

IT: nada

1250 BC (1) Moving workers

IT: nada

1225 BC (2) Giza, sword>sword. I’m going to hit Aydin when I have 4 swords. Gandi and Liz have CoL now. Bah, we don’t need that stuff! We’re Despots! Why would we want to get closer to Republic? Republic is for wimps I say!
The world shall tremble in fear at the thunder of our chariots bearing down upon them. They will give up their techs or be crushed into the dust!!

IT:

1200 BC (3) Gems are online, but I can’t drop the lux tax. They will allow us to get to size 10 without increasing the tax though. Those spices between Aydin and Iznik sure do look tasty.

IT: Ottoman horse and spear move towards Giza.

1175 BC (4) Giza, sword>sword.
I am going to have to delay the attack for a couple of turns. I need 2 swords on anti-pillage duty. Hmmm, maybe I won’t delay either. Just use 3 swords at Aydin. Kill a spear and move a sword onto our Iron to protect it from being pillaged.

IT:

1150 BC (5) Kill a warrior threatening workers by our Iron. Move 3 swords next to Aydin. Will attack next turn.

IT: Horse moves in to pillage one of our BG’s. Sword takes him out.

1125 BC (6) Giza, sword>sword.
Sword takes out the horse without incurring damage.
Attack on Aydin.
Vet sword vs. reg. spear win losing 1 hp.
Vet sword vs. reg. spear win and promote to elite!
Aydin is autorazed. Slave worker moves onto horses.

IT:

1100 BC (7) Sword takes out another horse. Colony built and horses are online! [dance]

IT: Liz demands our TM and 33 gold. I thought long and hard about this. They have a settler pair right by Giza at the moment. I don’t think she has the balls, so I tell her to stick it, and she backs off!

1075 BC (8) Giza, sword>WC.
Osman is a fool. In what must be a move precipitated by our razing of Aydin, he parades a settler/spear pair right in front of a sword. Silly AI. Add two more slaves to the roster.
Mine on gem mountain finishes. I can get 20spt for the last 2 or 3 turns of the GA by slowing growth. That’s a WC per turn. I make it so.

IT: Gandhi wants 33 gold and our TM. I pay the man his money and add his name to the list. Ottomans are sending archers now. Toku build the Colossus in Kyoto.

1050 BC (9) WC>sword. GA ends. Archer attacks our sword on the Iron. Sword wins without suffering damage.

IT: nada

1025 BC (10) Move a worker and sword onto the furs west of Giza. Need another unit over there. They are a little exposed.
Summary:
Giza is only getting 15 spt in the box at +2fpt. It’s building a sword now. 15spt and building 20 shield units hurts bad, hence the sword. I couldn’t get it to 20spt post GA. We may want to add a worker to it.
A citizen is working the gem mountain instead of the hill or another tile because we need the gold. Otherwise we would have to raise the lux tax to 40%.
We have 2 elite swords now. One of them is south of Giza. He just took out a Ottoman archer. The other is on the ruins of Aydin. Speaking of which there are 2 settler pairs 1 tile away from the ruins. I have 2 swords within striking distance with movement left on them. I will let the next leader decide if he wants to go to war against Toku and Joanie.
No Ottoman cities have expanded borders yet. Edrine did hit size 2 but was only there for 1 turn and I missed the window. Osman is whipping the crap out of his cities. Sorry I only got one WC built. To bad the horses didn’t come online early in our GA.

It's going to be tough without settlers. With Osman in war mode I don't know if any of his cities will ever expand borders or get to size 2. At least not very quickly.

BTW somewhere in there, (about turn 7 or 8) Osman came calling for peace. He wouldn't give us a city so.........no peace treaty for Osman.

Good luck to our next leader, whoever that may be.
Matt

Edit: BTW, if the next leader spots any play on my part, please feel free to away.
It's the only way I will learn.
The game

I know this is an open SG, but since I'm new here I thought it would be better to ask first. Mind if I take a crack at it? This sounds like a lot of fun!!

Hi Despot, welcome to CFC. So long as you understand and can follow the variant rules, and you are confident that you have the experience/skill to play well on the given level with the given rules, you're welcome to play.

Right now though, no-one has played for a while, and the game looks in a bit of trouble, with us still only having one city. If the AIs get to the Middle Ages anytime soon, we could be in trouble.

So, I think I'll take another turn now. I got it.

-Sirp.

Thanks Sirp!

Yes, I believe I can follow the variant rules. Also, I have beaten the game a few times on Emperor, and am winning on deity as we speak (although I have lost a couple...).

Ok take it, but please save me some stinking Ottoman butt to kick...I love wars.

(IT) 1025BC: Ok I think LKendter was right when he said this was going to be pretty difficult

The auto-razing thing is going to make it very hard for us to get a core of good cities.

A second Ottoman city to the west has expanded borders though. I'll try to take that. You did well, Matt_g. Our troops are well-positioned, and simply defending ourselves in a situation like this isn't easy.

A couple of changes I make: I disband the exploring warrior; he has no value now and is costing us gold. I merge a native worker into Giza: I'm going to try to get it to size 12 and 20 spt. I switch Giza to a temple: We need to sneak one in at some point!

(1) 1000BC: Giza grows to size 12 and builds its temple. I reconfigure it, and it is now producing 20 spt, and so can build a war chariot every turn!

I am spreading our swordsmen up near our horse colony to try to convince the Japanese to build a city that is 2 tiles away from it. That will mean that no other civs will build cities right near it, and if/when the Japanese city does expand its borders, we can safely capture it

(2) 975BC: The Japanese do build a city where I wanted them to. Great. We slaughter an Ottoman spearman guarding a settler. Two more slaves for the Pyramid.

I manage to trade the Japanese WM for Math. Now we can look over the lay of the Ottoman land.

(3) 950BC: We slaughter two Ottoman archers, including a first victory for our mighty War Chariots!

Furs are hooked up, meaning we can drop the luxury rate by 1. We would have been at +0gpt this turn, but that boosts us back to +2 gpt. We have a big war chest though, of 294 gold.

(4) 925BC: I leave our horse colony defended by just one sword: the rest are preparing for an attack on Bursa.

(5) 900BC: Some Ottoman archers advance. I have to readjust Giza since they could tread on our land and force our workers out, so I move our workers preemptively, and make sure we are still getting 20spt, although it puts us into a temporary 1 food deficit.

(6) 875BC: The Ottoman archers wander around like bumbling fools rather than attack us.

We demonstrate how to do a proper advance, moving toward Bursa. We have four swords backed up by six chariots.

(7) 850BC: Literacy is discovered by Japan and France. The borders of Tokyo (just to the north of Giza) expand. We lock targets on it immediately

Bursa is taken with two swords, without loss.

Iznik (the Ottoman horse city to the east) just grew to size 2. Hopefully they won't whip it; I send our war chariots within range of it.

(8) 825BC: The Ottomans whipped Iznik

Well the city of Uskudar is size 3, so it shouldn't be whipped to size 1. We will take it instead! Seven war chariots move within range.

(9) 800BC: Two chariots take Uskudar without loss. We get an elite chariot.

For peace, Osman gives us Iznik, Map Making, CoL, and some gold. I couldn't get Construction from him. With all these cities being captured, our gpt shoots to +12! Assuming we can hold onto these cities we've taken, we're carving out a decent little empire for ourselves at last!

(10) 775BC: I leave our war chariots where they stand, for the next leader to move. My recommendation is to declare war on Japan immediately and move the chariots in striking range of Tokyo. There are three war chariots in Giza, and another four in the field nearby which can move in range of Tokyo this turn, for a total of seven. That should easily be enough to take the city.

If we can, we'd like to capture at least Tokyo, Satsuma, and Kyoto. We'd love to get access to India, since they're a builder civ and they have the most land of anyone. If we allow them to keep going unchecked, they could propel the game into the middle ages. We could just declare war on India from where we are, to put them in 'war mode' for a while.

We definitely want to strike at France at some point soon, since they're also a builder civ. England doesn't look like it's gotten enough land to be too much of a threat.

Giza is perfectly configured for war chariot production at the moment. One every turn. Keep it that way, although you will have to act preemptively if hostile troops near land being worked on. It's ok to run a small food deficit for a while, as long as the +20spt is maintained. We want temples ASAP in Uskudar and Bursa, especially Bursa, so consider whipping them.

Bursa has enough bonus grasslands around it to be a very good city for us.

Our empire:



Looks just like we founded the cities ourselves, doesn't it?

Good luck to the next ruler, whoever it may be!

-Sirp.

The Game

PS, Despot, you're welcome to take it. Welcome. Sorry for taking it myself, but the game was in a slightly precarious position, us having only one city, at war with an enemy that had six, and I wanted to get us out of the slight rut we were in.

That map sure does look better!
Awesome turn Sirp.
I hope you grab this Despot, and welcome to CFC!
Matt

Thanks Matt

You and Shillen did a great job of setting us up for that.

I'm glad that we finally managed to capture some cities, and getting Osman to give us Iznik in exchange for peace was just great.

I think I've realized what can make war chariots really, really good: if you have a city, like we do, that can produce 20 shields per turn in ancient times, then war chariots are going to be an awesome unit.

You're never going to get 30 shields per turn or more before the industrial age...maybe if you're out of despotism and in a golden age, but that's the only time. So, you're never going to be able to produce swords or horses at fast than one every two turns.

But with war chariots, it's feasible for one city to produce one every turn, and they are also as good as horsemen. That's something that can't be done with any other ancient age unique unit: to produce a top-of-the-line unit every turn. You can do it with Jags or bowmen, but they are hardly 'top-of-the-line' units (Jags are very good, but only because you can get them in masses).

For a city producing 10-14 spt, a war chariot is 50% cheaper than a horseman. For 15-19 spt, it's the same price. But for 20-29spt, the war chariot is half price!

The more cities we take here, the more war chariots we can support. A city every 4 turns would be ideal, since that matches support with our war chariot production. (Of course, some war chariots will inevitably have to...pass on...while taking cities, so maybe one city every 5 or 6 turns).

So, who is ready to become the next Chief Slave of the Great Pyramid?

-Sirp.

A new pharoh has answered the call of the pyramids and takes the helm.

got it!

Sirp, I understand and you did great!! Even the great and honorable Despot of the mighty Egyptians does not feel he could of done a better job.

Thanks a lot, Matt_G! I am happy to have joined, CSC. This place is great...lots of info here.

Well hotrod beat me to the punch. I know hotrod will make the god's proud and rain terror upon the heathens who are trespassing on our lands!