BOTM 90 (Shaka) First Spoiler - 1 AD

[DynamicSpirit]

BOTM 90 (Shaka) - First Spoiler

Use this thread to tell us what happened in your game, up to 1AD! Have you enjoyed rampaging with your impi, or did you go for a peaceful approach? Did you survive the barb onslaught?

Stop! If you are participating in BOTM 90, then you MUST NOT read this thread unless EITHER

• You have reached at least 1 AD in your game, OR
• You have submitted your entry

Posting Restrictions

• Please do not disclose ANY events or information gained post 1 AD.
• Please do not reveal your final result if that happened after 1 AD.
• Please do not discuss the location of resources that may not show up before 1 AD. (Iron is OK, coal and oil are not)
• Please do not reveal names or locations of any civilization not accessible by galleys.
• Do not post any savegame file from the game. Discussions and screenshots are fine but not actual games

 

[WelshGandalf]

Couldn't find copper anywhere, until I saw that one to the east of the Indian empire. Duly settled it, built a big road, and got army-building. Ikhandas are great for helping with maintenance costs. Effectively 25 hammers to save 1g a turn in my outlying cities, and give upgrades to troops - a good deal IMO.

Declared on Indians, gave up when my huge stack attacked the capital and lose the first 3 battles without a scratch (60% & hill). Instead I am almost at Construction whilst pillaging his empire repeatedly. Bit annoyed the Japanese beat me to the awesome barb city on the south coast.

Barbs weren't too much of an issue - I guess because the map is so big.

Have 8 cities altogether. Really lazy campaign, things could be a lot better. I got CoL from Oracle at 950BC almost as an afterthought. No big cities due to issues - though I have silver and will shortly have gold and Monarchy (should've oracled MC after all...).

 

[whb]

Quite a while since I played, but I've now got it set up on PC (rather than Mac) so it seems if I vassal anyone it'll count in the GOTM score this time.

That said, I've played this terribly. It's Prince and I should be rampaging across the world, but instead I've quietly been enjoying settling nice little cities around the place.

I lost an early scout to barbs, so decided to chicken and build the Great Wall so the AI could deal with any of that "rampaging" business.

 

[Deckhand]

...
Declared on Indians, gave up when my huge stack attacked the capital and lose the first 3 battles without a scratch (60% & hill). Instead I am almost at Construction whilst pillaging his empire repeatedly.

Good decision.
I attacked 2 archers in Delhi with 7 chariots. Lost 6 and killed one archer. Next turn I got a withdrawal and a loss against the survivor. Then he built another archer and I gave up.
I was able to capture Bombay (3SE of Delhi) by the pigs. Losing only 1 chariot.
Vijay is 3SE of there and its spearman wouldn't take my bait to leave city, so I finally took peace.

Bit annoyed the Japanese beat me to the awesome barb city on the south coast.

At least that worked out for me. After failure vs India, chariots easily captured Apache (2corn, iron, clam, banana, sheep). My borders haven't popped yet.
After getting it, I was shocked to see 19 gold per turn City Maintenance.

SIP, AH first;
put 2nd city by horses/pigs (so needed to tech Mysticism and build a monument to get borders expanded).
Plan was to use chariots vs barbarians (chariots are awesome (well, not so awesome vs Indians)). But barbarian warrior wave hit before I had the horses pastured. Then I built the Great Wall. 1280BC
Built Oracle in 775BC and took Currency.

Screenshots:

• Lion attacks with 1% chance of victory and leaves my warrior alive with 0.0 health.
• 750BC, I am about to declare on Asoka, notice his stack of 3 spearman and axeman on Hannibal's border. So, I wait one turn and woot, Asoka declares on Hannibal. Good news: I don't have to worry about those spearmen. Bad news: see above
• Barbarians weren't a problem for me. And AIs seemed to spawn bust effectively (I only saw two barb cities). But barbs were a problem for Spain as their 0.0 health archer razed Seville. Oh, got great spy from GW as my only GP - so he is exploring.

1AD: 5 Cities; pop 5,3,3,1,1 AIs have 4,3,3,2,2,2 cities
No Religion All AIs except Isabella (Buddhism) are Hindu. But there is an Incan Hindu missionary on its way toward me.
And no Happy Resources. But borders just popped for copper/silver/pig city so I will have silver soon.
No Impis but 3 swordsmen and building catapults.

 

[Minou]

Wow, this map basically stunned me with is generous terrain - the land was so good I spent Half the game worried I was wasting it by not expanding fast enough or building the wrong amount of Workers. Only hint of trouble came from Barbarians marching out of the fog towards border cities, but they only managed to pillage a handful of tiles.

Perhaps it is foolish to skip Impi-rushing a bunch of Prince level AIs, but I really felt like pursuing a Cultural Victory. After settling, I lost my initial Scout to an animal and two Warriors were also eaten by animals as well and had to heal forever, hindering my early exploration. City 2 (2400BC) was north by Pig, Marble and Spice. City 3 (2000BC) was south by 2 x Corn and 2 x Clam and planned as a GP Farm. The second city popped a lucky Gem out of a mine at some point.

Peaceful expansion proceeded. One peculiarity was that it forever to get foreign trade routes (~600BC because I skipped Sailing and had no river trade capability). Around 500BC and 8 cities my economy had crashed to 0% and I stopped expanding to recover. Barbarian Archers started appearing at 500BC, and shortly after I built my first non-Warrior defender. Got Alphabet at 400AD.

At 1AD I have 10 cities and 3 religions (Buddhism and Hinduism generously sent by missionary, Confucianism founded) and just used my first GP for a Golden Age to avoid revolt turns while switching Civic and Religion. No wonders yet, but Temple of Artemis, Pyramids, and National Epic should all be done soon. Will probably avoid war except perhaps to gain any religions needed for shrines.

One note: I accidentally closed the game at 2000BC without saving and had to load the 2080BC autosave to recover the game (making the same moves). Maybe this disqualifies me from submitting an official game, but I will finish regardless.

 

[TalladegaKnight]

Thank you for Asoka. His workers have proved most useful. 2 move chariots and impis are great pillagers and thiefs.

Anyone lose the Oracle? I took COL from it, but wondered if I could have gotten CS. When I got Alpha, Izzy had all of the Oracle techs.

 

[Minou]

I never tried for Oracle but regret it now.