Sisiutil
All Leader Challenger
Update: October 19th, 2006
Since I was getting close to my 20 MB file attachment limit, I have decided to remove all the saved game files from this thread except for the initial save. I have archived the files, so if you want them, send me a PM.
- Sisiutil
Okay, enough talk, let's get to it.
Pre-Game Thread
(1st Round: to 3600 BC)
I've started my Montezuma game. But rather than just blazing through it and reporting back, I thought I'd take full advantage of the forum and all you wonderful people. I'm going to just play a few turns of this game each day and post my progress here. I'll also post screenies and saved game files (at the bottom of the post). This isn't a succession game, but you're welcome to try the same start and report back on your results.
(Edit: To jump straight to the game post-mortem, CLICK HERE.)
I'm asking you folks to weigh in and give me your opinions on how to progress. I'm looking to learn and improve my strategy and tactics, obviously, as well as having fun. I thought I'd post a handful of turns at first, but move through the turns faster as the game goes on; those first few turns are very important.
So here goes:
Civilization/Leader: Aztecs/Montezuma
Difficulty: Prince
Speed: Normal
Map: Continents
Climate: Temperate
Sea Level: Medium
Map Size: Standard
Vanilla, I know, but I figure then we can focus on standard strategy rather than whatever curve ball some variation throws at me. I was tempted to choose a fractal map, but since installing the 1.61 patch, the Continents map always seems to place me on the biggest continent with three or four other civs. That's ideal for Monty, because I figure I'm gonna warmonger, so I want a lot of victims within easy reach of my Jaguars.
So here's the opening position:
Not too shabby! Plenty of forests for chopping, a river for commerce, a food resource within the first ring...and oooh, look, a goody hut, right beside my Scout!
The goody hut yeilded 50 gold, and I took the starting position. I used to go find coast for my first city, but lately I've realized there's a definite advantage to hiding your capital inland, away from prying eyes aboard galleys and caravels. Plus I've found that the higher the level, the less you can afford to delay building that first city.
You'll notice I decided to research Meditation and go for Buddhism off the bat. A bit of a risk, I know, especially at Prince where the AI has an immediate tech advantage. But it might be early enough so it's not THAT big an advantage. Plus I'm hoping the other spiritual civs will go after worker techs at first, or go for Polytheism since it opens up a Wonder. Also, Meditation will take me 8 turns, Polytheism 10. You'll notice I don't have a commerce boost in near Tenochtitlan to speed that up. The spices are nice, but I can't exploit them until I get Calendar--and that's not going to be a high priority tech for me. I'll have to trade/extort for it most likely.
In terms of an overall tech strategy, I'm thinking of jumping back and forth between religious and military techs. I'll have to research Alphabet too, but once I do, I hope to get most of my civilian techs through trades or tribute.
I'm also going to build two more Scouts. This will give Tenochtitlan time to grow a little. Plus I figure I'm on a big continent, and I need to get out there and find all my victims quickly. On top of that, the Scouts +2 movement means they could find more goody huts than the competition, and they'll get better results from them. I hope to get a tech or two and/or gold to fund my initial research.
I send the Scout off to the Northwest, and a couple of turns later, guess what? Another goody hut! Look what I popped this one for:
This just confirms my decision to build Scouts. A few more huts like that and I'll be saying, "Who needs cottages?" Yes, there's also ivory and silk up there, and a river, and the coast. (War Elephants! Woot!) Possible second city, probably on that plains square--though the two desert tiles kind of suck. Maybe the hill to the plains tile's Northeast would be better--depending what's around it. But then I'd miss out on the Elephants...
Meanwhile, Tenochtitlan's borders have expanded to the full fat X:
Okay, so there's a cow tile there, but outside the city's workable area, and it's on a long strip of coastline with a bunch of desert to the South. Ugh. Oh well, Animal Husbandry is not a big priority just yet...
I turned the Scout South; I decided to send the next one North to explore that area. In most of my Prince-level continent games, I find myself tucked away in one corner of the continent. I haven't seen snow-capped trees or tundra yet, but I've got a gut feeling there's more action to the South.
Turns out I'm right:
I've met my first target...er, closest neighbour. Hatty can be pretty easy to get along with, I've found. This would be good, as her War Chariots have equal strength to Axemen (and close to Jaguars) if they catch them on open ground--which, with that +2 movement, is likely. I'll either have to counter her War Chariots with Spearmen, or wait until I have a much better unit. My free Combat I promotion could help, though, along with an additional promotion from cheap barracks. All that could make an early war against her feasible. And she may not have horses...
Anyway, I'm getting way ahead of myself.
Now, which way should that Scout go? Hatty is obviously somewhere further East. Do I go there and find her first city? Nope. I only have a Scout, so I can't do any raiding. Plus I'm still looking for city sites and goody huts, and I'm betting that Warrior of hers popped anything over that way. I'm going to turn my Scout Southeast and beat the competition to that area.
Well, looky what I found:
...and only a stone's throw from Tenochtitlan! (Pun fully intentional.) Both Stonehenge and the Pyramids are distinct possibilities if I plant my second city there. It's a good production site, too: more forests for chopping, hills galore (grassland hills for some food--nice), a cute little lake, and even a river! Those plains/river tiles could eventually get watermills...if the game goes on that long. I'm thinking of that grassland tile by the lake for my second city now. I might put a third over by the flood plains and gold hills to seal off the North from Hatty and others, then backfill it.
And if you were watching that tech bar, you may have guessed that on the next turn...
YES!! The gamble pays off. And having the capital as the holy city is going to help in many ways. However, I haven't adopted Buddhism as my state religion. That would just mess up relations at this point, especially with Hatty, who is also Spiritual and probably working on religious tech herself.
Time to switch to military research. I could go after Polytheism, but was betting another Spiritual civ out there was researching it. In fact, on the very next turn, I was proved right. "Hinduism has been founded in a distant land!". Whoever it is would have beaten me to it by one turn--thanks to the Prince level AI's tech research bonus, no doubt. (I'm pretty sure it's not Hatty--mainly because the little Hindu icon did not appear next to her name.) Anyway, I've decided to bee-line to Bronze Working.
Along the way I built my second Scout and sent him Northeast. I started building my third and final Scout. When he's done I figure I'll start building a Barracks but switch to a Worker when the turns to build him and discover BW match, then chop Warrior-Warrior-Settler.
So here's the sitch at 3600 BC--ten turns in, which is where I've stopped:
Tenochtitlan is about to grow to 2 population on the