FFH style ALC game

[Senethro]

Wow, in general thats just a very good terrain. I'll dot up in a bit, but my first reaction would be that you can support a resource based economy by dropping cities beside those Gold and Incenses. By this I mean you can use the low difficulty level and commerce resources to delay getting good government/econonmy techs in favour of military. Meanwhile, you can get Ancient Chants, spam cities towards your opponents, then Bronze working to defend yourself with Bronze Warriors, then Code of Laws for Aristocracy lowered maintenance and Flood Plain/Grassland farm based economy. After that, a quick hop to Stirrups, followed by Order religion, and use the Confessors to stop your Horse Archers going obsolete for longer. Depending on the breaks, an Axeman rush to steal outlying cities from your neighbours may also be feasible, but taking capitals with only axemen may be too expensive.

 

[readercolin]

There are three spots where I would look at putting cities.

The first spot is to the north of your capital, 1 southwest of the gold. That would give you gold, rice, and cows in your BFC, and with only a little bit of overlap with your capital, and taking advantage of all that forest for production - and don't forget lumbermills at archery.

The second location is probably better to get after you grab bronze working, and that is south of your capital, 1 southeast of the bannana's. That would give you bannana, cow, 2 dye, and standing stones, with 1 square of overlap with your capital.

The third location is to the west of your capital, 1 north of the gold. This location would give you gold, corn, reagents, and the mirror of heaven, again, with 1 square overlap with your capital.

None of the locations that I said do well for specializing a city into a specific path. However, this early in the game, I generally feel that it is most important to grab commerce resources, as well as decent production and food. Usually it is more midgame that I start to specialize cities into specific paths, as early on, you can't afford to have a city with high production, but no commerce, as it will crash your economy. On the other hand, you also can't afford to have a city have lots of commerce, or lots of food, but no hammers, as it can't meaningfully add to your production for a long time, and you can't afford to have a city that is a drain on your defenses.

Now, if you want, there is one more option that I see available as plausible. 2 east and 1 south of the tomb of Sucellus would give you a city with little food (you would need some workers to chop and farm soon), but LOTS of hammers. This doesn't fit my bill as an ideal city, as it adds nothing to your commerce. But, with all those hammers, it gives you a second city that can quickly help you warrior spam to smash the sheim asap. Considering the closeness of your cities, it is a viable alternative. But, it will also significantly inhibit your early growth if you can't force out the warrior rush quickly. Due to the somewhat low production of your capital (its decent, if you work the copper, but not great), it isn't really a great idea to try to warrior rush from just there. Alternatively, you could settle the spot I just recommended, and have that city spam warriors while your capital spams workers and settlers to settle more quickly AND have defenses. Personally however, I would probably save that spot for a 5th city.

-Colin

 

[Eshnunna]

that's a hell of a starting position !!
And very *epic* exploration, well done.

Err.. I think this situation screams for the early death of your neighbor (which I find much too close for a Huge map ?!?).
Simply build a bunch of warriors while researching bronze working (fast thanks the gold !) and building roads towards her

With a bunch of aggressive/raiders/bronzed warriors, taking her capital and burning the rest will hardly take longer than constructing a settler...

Reason for rushing ASAP : sheaim tend to get annoying with pyre zombs. And you're Hippus !

 

[JFSebastian]

Ya, she is begging for a rush. Having copper end up in your fat cross is just too perfect. Hopefully you can capture her workers too.

 

[Emptiness]

I recommend building a settler first. Agrarianism should be switched to asap, to help reduce its build time. When complete, I would settle on the coast 1S of the wine to the NE of the Capitol. This spot has access to wine, gold, cow and corn, and leaves room for a future city to be placed N of the Capitol without overlaps of the BFC of the Capitol, the proposed 2nd city, or Galveholm.

Next I would build a worker. A second worker before the settler won't be very helpful, as you are running out of tiles that will be worked but are not improved. (That second gold does need to be mined, before the second worker is complete. After building the worker you'll be switching to building warriors, and will need non-farm tiles to work so that your growth doesn't continue.) After the second city there will be plenty to do, including connecting the cities and improving the tiles around the second one.

Then build about 12 warriors. Os has got to die. Take 12 warriors and march them to Galveholm (if she has more than 3 defenders then Warcry) and grab that city. It has 4 FP, gold and wine...sound familiar? Your starting city is awesome, so grab a second one. I wouldn't even wait on Bronze Working to do this. She also has a good start, and if she gets Pyre Zombies before you kill her then bad things happen.

As for research I would say finish Ancient Chants, then research Festivals>Animal Husbandry (cow in the proposed 2nd city)>Cartography. You're in a prime position for rapid expansion, now having two cities that can burn out settlers. I'd suggest skipping God King and going straight for City States, plus Cartography will enable Pact of Nilhorn. Stooges are (potentially) more mobile than catapults, and you can put off Construction for a long time if you don't need them. Have the 2nd city work on the Pact (after at least finishing a monument and a market) and then it should be done in time for the next war.

Future research should be Bronze Working>Education>Warfare>Code of Laws>Horseback Riding>Archery>Stirrups. Founding/following Order makes a lot of sense, but researching it shouldn't be an early priority.

 

[Doug Piranha]

I say Galveholm should be your second city. Build a lot more warriors, research bronze working, and kill Ozzy now or you'll be sorry later.

 

[Mu'min]

uummm there seems to be more voices calling for a early rush than a REX.

Bearing that in mind BW is 68 turns away, and i have one spare warrior in my city and two outside and can produce one every 6 turns, and thats working growth tiles. If i stagnant growth, which i will have to do anyway soon i could produce a warrior in 4 turns. in the time it would take to produce a settler (36 turns) i could produce 9 warriors, with agarianism a settler will take about 31 turns or about 8 warriors.

uummm a rush is looking good.

 

[Turinturambar]

Yeah this is marathon on prince unmodded AI with tasunke and a fantastic starting location.
Just build warriors, research bronzeworking and kill everyone. Research festivals sometime so you don't get bankrupt.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

I like to do this once I get a fair bit explored. I often don't fill each spot, but I do regularly wind up settling a lot of the early locations.

The West map is where you should first focus your expansion efforts. Why? You want to get to Yggdrasil first. With the Elohim there you might wind up getting beat, but I'd go so far as to send your settlement warriors there now and your settler there before anything else just so you can settle that spot. Once you get construction you can farm almost every square of that fat cross and with both the pool of tears and Yggdrasil that close the happiness will be through the roof. Almost a PERFECT specialist city. In fact, that city is almost a perfect candidate for the City of a Thousand Slums because one pop will give it plenty of more food (2 food resources) and a bit more production. You'd have to raze the Elohim capitol tho. Your third city should be on that desert next to the mirror of the sun. Park a unit with sentry on that tile for a good barb detection tool.

That said... Look to the North map. Settle the coast at the location directly northeast of your capitol with your fourth city (technically your fifth since you should have crushed Os-G awhile ago). It is a solid location and will give you access to the coast for when you trade for seafaring techs later. You should DEFINITELY warrior rush Os-G ASAP (4-5 should do the trick) and hold that city.

Finally the south is your "safe zone" right now. You're almost guaranteed those spots because there doesn't appear to be any civs in that direction close enough to beat you to the punch. After expanding west and NE of the capitol, Head S (Dye and Standing Stones) and then SE to get the most bang for your buck. As your sixth city, the marble location will be a real boon because it should come online right when you are ready to start building your wonders in the Yggdrasil/Pool of Tears city and start it on its specialist route.

As for tech goals... right now I'd aim for cartography and start pact of nilhorn after you get your third city out if not before. After that, festivals and mysticism to get your economy/tech on track rounding things out with RoK. With those under your belt you can become a true expander. Market, elder council, temple of kilimorph paired with the tablets of bambur from a great priest (first thing you should do when you get mysticism is get that pagan temple pushing one out) and you will be a steamroller. After the initial REX you can build infrastructure before you go full chariot/horseman/horse archer on people and crush the world.

Just my 2 bits tho.

 

[Emptiness]

BW first and a rush is fine. I wouldn't wait on Axemen; rush her with Bronze warriors. With luck and a large attack force it may be possible to save Warcry, which would be great. REX will still be an option after defeating OS, because both the Capitol and Galveholm can turn out settlers quickly. There are lots of good city sites around and except for the Sheaim there doesn't seem to be any immediate competition for them.

 

[heisenberg]

I agree with Emptiness.
No need for carto/Nilhorn imo, takes way too many turns.
Instead you should leverage on having copper and rush bronze-working out--killing off the Sheaim early would leave you with plenty of room for expansion without neighbours competing.

Warcry is best used early especially on warrior rushes. If you do get bronze fast you could even churn out str 5 warriors very rapidly to kill off the Sheaim. Of course, if you manage to kill them without using it all the better~

*edit* just noticed it was on marathon, I suppose in that case you could just do a pure warrior rush if you are too lazy to wait on bronze working. With the production from gold mines you shld be able to churn warriors out pretty fast, and Warcry effectively offsets the 25% city defense bonus her warriors get. (and you do get bonus from combat I aggressive trait)

Tech-wise I'd go with Bronzeworking > Edu > CoL and then possibly animal husbandry > writing > horseback > trade.
You should be pretty safe after you clear out the Sheaim so I guess you could focus more on the econ techs rushing up for an early trade.
Of course that really also depends on your planned religion choice, Tasunke can do pretty well with most religions.
I usually go with Empy though on him personally, Rathas with Raiders can really work wonders stopping AI stacks.
Rushing for Trade then going for Construction both lets you build Chariots/Rathas and to let you spread your farms through the fresh-waterless south if you go Aristofarms.

 

[Eshnunna]

68 turns to BW with a gold mine ?? Hate marathon °-_-
I'd still wait for it though, tis a bit late for a vanilla warrior rush without god king IMO. Unless you want to fire away your world spell.

I'd rather work both improved gold mines + winery to speed up BW and the rush than doing the calendar detour and settling a city inbetween. ~ 10 warriors should do the trick unless Galveholm is on a hill.

The faster you own her city, the less likely she'll spread other annoying crap cities you can't afford to keep.
The war needs to be over ASAP so you can focus on economy and REXing in your wonderful surroundings.

Post-war plan could be :
- calendar for agrarianism when the war is in mop-up stage
- education for cottages on FP in your 2 capitals
- festivals for market-powered REX
- CoL for aristo which suits your land very well (courthouses to be built when REXing loses momentum and your shiniy new cities have grown).

2 first cities should prioritize 2 hammer n food- heavy zones, given the commerce potential of your capitals, in order to pump bronze warriors (most cost-efficient during REX), workers, n settlers.

 

[Mu'min]

Most of you are saying warrior rush or take Gabella out asap. Its daring and not something i would normally do. Considering that the last time i passed her all she had were 3 warriors, 2 workers, a scout and a GBard, and at the time she still had lizardmen sitting in her BFC so everyone was holed up in the city. And she currently has half the production and slightly less growth, so it unlikely she has had time to improve many, if any at all, tiles. And if she has managed to take out the lizard men then that must of cost her a warrior or 2. So we are going to rush her!

So build wise im thinking warrior -> warrior -> ... -> warrior -> worker -> settler ect.

Tech: Achants -> BW -> AH -> Festivals -> Mysticism - after that not sure, i don't have the game open to look at the tech tree.

I like Feyd's city locations, the two just north of the capital, the one to the SE and the one next to the mirror look good. The one to E looks good but slow growing, the rest look like they would be very slow starting. We will have to re-examine the options once we got our first 4 cities up.

 

[Eshnunna]

I'd even skip Achants ^^
(no use until you get another city...)

 

[Emptiness]

Yeah, switch to BW and then return to finish AChants. Make sure to link the copper before BW finishes (of course), but the priority should be to get the second gold mined to increase production and research speed. You might consider aborting construction of the last farm FP (which probably isn't needed until you switch to worker/settler construction) to get that mine done sooner.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

After Mysticism consider heading for a "city states" approach and RoK. With all the great land you have available and your impending (after ROK I'd say) Horseback Riding horseman spam and world conquering your economy would be well served by it.

It's very early, but I'm a long term planner (even if my short game isn't the tightest).

So from what I gather your plan is...
1.) Rush Os-G
2.) Use surviving warriors to set up shop at desired locations (I don't think you want to, but I'd seriously consider heading to the Yggdrasil location first and foremost because the Elohim are going to head there if they haven't already)
3.) Get to your population cap with all resources linked, build settlers while switching out for markets, elder councils, and pagan temples (pagan temple ASAP so you can get a great priest in reserve for when you found RoK)
4.) REX to about 5-6 cities total.
5.) ...
6.) Profit.

 

[heisenberg]

Ah, I just remembered one old game of mine when you mentioned RoK.

I'm not exactly sure if going straight for horseback for horsemen really synergizes with the religion. I was never quite a fan of horsemen, even with the horselord trait.
Horsemen doesn't quite bring out the "highlights" of RoK imo besides the gold flow.
I still preferred straight Axes then Chariots/Horse Archers.

Well, for a variation if you are feeling up to it, you might wanna try this for fun if you were going RoK:
RoK > Prophet > Tablets.
Run Engineer from Tablets > Arete > Rush Gal-Dur.
All the while fighting with Bronze/Ironed Axemen.
Hit Currency > Build/Rush Go9
Ravage the world with Str 7 Ironed Mounted Mercs

This kinda allows you to focus your research more on the econ path, and the stuff your cities build too. Ironed mounted mercs would be able to hold out easily till tier 4 units arrive (and are even highly useful too at that stage).

*on a sidenote, I found this strat somewhat "fun" as the Tablets is probably the earliest source of the GEngineer (besides our new favourite friend Baraeke, or Luchuirp's worldspell). Gal-Dur is probably also the earliest "strongest"/game-winning wonder to be rushed. Coupled with the fact that the Hippus gets movement 3 mercs.................. *



*not trying to nitpick though =PP but a first Prophet just for Tablets alone perhaps isn't that effective as compared to a first Sage for an Academy--especially in that commerce rich capital.*

 

[Senethro]

Why even bother with Horsemen? Why not just get Axemen, promote them with City Raider, then upgrade them to Chariots?

Your first war can be with Warriors/Bronze Warriors, the second with Axemen/Catas, the 3rd can be Warcry Chariots and should be able to crush most opposition and fund the hiring of Mounted Mercenaries as fodder for the final war.

 

[heisenberg]

Hehe thats the way I usually do it.
Timing of warcry depends though, sometimes I like to push my luck hard at the start and I need to use it with Bronze wars/axes.

Str 4 horsemen doesn't really cut it at around Emperor and above when AI defenders start getting 2 promos. Str 5 Bronze Axemen with city attack does. =PP

 

[Mu'min]

Why even bother with Horsemen? Why not just get Axemen, promote them with City Raider, then upgrade them to Chariots?

Becuz, Hippus have superfast horsemen a str 4 move 4 unit that can be taking up the flanking route to Flanking III giving them a 85% chance of withdrawing and +100% from pillaging. Plus they start with combat I and Commando allowing them to move on enemy roads. Making them perfect as a quick response unit, in case of sudden invasion, hit and run unit for softting up enemies and the perfect pillager. I had a level 8 horsemen unit once that got transported across the world and ended up next to the calabim. By the time he had single handedly destroyed their civilization he was level 11. He was easily able to hold to their capital as well despite hordes of orcs attacking, thanks to his speed and withdrawal chance.