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Predator
I took an unusual approach in this game. I deliberately kept the number of my settlements down. At the beginning of the Middle Ages, I had a grand total of 3 cities on The Rock and 2 more over on The Sandbar to the far east. Only one more was planned, an iron camp. Because of my goal 20K my initial build was extremely slow so I did not pack the cities in. By the time I reached the end of this era, I couldn't see any reason to build fishing villages. They don't gain very much, especially before you build expensive harbours, and would increase corruption on The Sandbar and around my Forbidden Palace, assuming that I ever got enough cities to build it. What's more, if you have the Great Library they aren't even useful for research before education. I didn't even connect the wines. Athens, my culture city, had plenty of happiness and the others could be kept in line with a few MPs.
As my goal is 20K, I was very interested in the discussion in the pre-game thread about the advantages of using your second city to attain the goal. While the Palace pre-build is certainly a huge plus, IMHO it is less important in this game than it would be at higher difficulty levels. There are big disadvantages to this approach too: more corruption in the culture city and a later start. So I decided that Athens would be my Golden Boy. I moved the settler one square to the northwest to build Marvel City on the river and the ocean. So far this appears to have been a good decision, although at the end of the era I was running out of things to build. The worker naturally started a mine.
My pre-game calculations indicated that I could have a warrior, a temple and a settler in that order without loss of shields on the condition that the worker moved from square to square without roading, so I started research on Ceremonial Burial at 100% and embarked on this path.
In 3150BC, I learned Ceremonial Burial. It was time to make a decision about our future. I had almost finished mapping out our pathetic little rock. The only possible land bridge remaining was an unlikely connection to the east - and I would find out about that next turn. It appeared that the only way to grow Athens on this barren islet would be to build one or two cities to throw workers out to develop the land and merge into the capital. Granaries would be needed for that. Furthermore it was also obvious that, barring the bridge, mapmaking would be a priority. Pottery is not only needed for granaries but also for mapmaking so I chose it as my next tech. Actually, this is pretty obvious since the granaries would be useful even if there was land to the east but I agonized over this decision for a long time. The next turn, I was gratified (sort of) to find out that I had been right.
Next I laid out my research plan. The priorities were Literature for libraries and the Great Library, Map Making to get off The Rock and for the Lighthouse (maybe), and Monarchy for Hanging Gardens and a better form of government. In roughly that order. So...
Research order:
Pottery (already underway) for granaries
Mysticism for the Oracle
Literature for libraries and the Great Library
Map making for galleys and the Lighthouse
Monarchy for government and Gardens
If I had found someone, this would probably have changed. Otherwise, these were the plans. As we all know, I did not find anyone so I stuck with it.
After saying just two weeks ago that Republic is always better than Monarchy, I turned about and decided to choose it in the very next xOTM!
Well, I still think that Republic is better in normal games. In certain variants, this is not true. AW is an obvious example. Another might be a 20K attempt made on an isolated rock? Especially when you would otherwise suffer a despotic GA??
My next question was where to place my worker factory. LOL! Since when did one worker every five turns become a pump?
I was tempted to place it n-n-e of the capital to gain a bit of food. Advantages: the city would go on a hill, saving a plain to be irrigated. Furthermore fish would one day be available. In the end I placed it two squares north - on a plain
- so that it could share resources with Athens. In particular, the BG two squares to the southwest would get the granary built sooner. My number one priority was to grow Athens up to size 12. For that I needed a source of citizens.
The granary duly came on board in 1950 BC and Sparta started on the first of many workers to merge into the capital. This slowly drove its own population down as its shield production exceeded its food supply. In 1700 BC, my first worker joined Athens. I believe that, as it worked its way up to size 12, Athens only grew four points on its own and the other seven came from my "worker factory". Sparta also took a moment towards the end of the QSC to build a second warrior for MP duty and another settler.
By the end of the QSC, Athens had reached size 8 and I had just built my fourth cultural building.
QSC stats:
Firaxis score: 107 Mapstat QSC: 1353 (sheesh!)
3 cities, 10 pop, 12g
1 granary, 1 temple, 1 colossus, 1 oracle, 1 library
7 techs
4 workers, 2 warriors
Culture @Athens: 424 + 16 CPT
I decided to build the Great Lighthouse before the Great Library, despite the huge difference in their cultural value. There were several reasons for this. First, the Lighthouse would be a far more useful wonder than the Library. It would help get us off this rock, which the Library would not. Getting communication with other civs would be worth a lot of culture all in itself. I would run out of things to build if I didnt find trading partners soon. Secondly I would be more likely to get both wonders by building the Lighthouse first. The AI prioritizes Map making and downgrades Literature. Finally, the Library would provoke my GA and, by building it first, I would probably spend the whole thing in Despotism when I could be using it to build the Hanging Gardens.
In 670BC Athens attained size 12 and was making a nice round 20 SPT.
In 470BC, Persepolis built the Pyramids which provoked a cascade to the Great Wall in Babylon, but it stopped there. Whew!
In 250 BC, I was faced with a decision. Monarchy was due in one turn and the Library in two rounds. I chose to revolt on the inter-turn before the Big Building went up in order to get my GA in a better government. I drew two turns
Unavoidably (I think), Athens starved
but I merged another worker in to bring it back up to 20 SPT. The Great Library came along in 170BC and my Golden Age started.
Corinth and Delphi were founded at a partial RCP of 15 (!) on The Sandbar to the east, popping a goody hut in the process. I got maps. Blech. That was all for the Ancient Era. Five cities. I didn't want to build more to avoid corruption on The Sandbar and later around the FP.
The next research track was a rush to Currency, both to give Athens something to build and for use in trading, should we ever find anyone. In 30 AD we built the Hanging Gardens, the last of the AE wonders. By this time, it became apparent that this was (yet another!) isolated start and that it was time to find trading partners using suicide galleys. I was only 1 turn from currency and didn't want to have to self-search my way into the Middle Ages. I still wasn't sure whether there was a link to lands past the barb islands because weeding out their galleys was slow work. In any case, it was obvious that there was nothing to the east or south.
Two galleys headed out into the void in different directions. One found the Egyptians in 110AD. Cleo knew The Babs and the Zulus. The other died within sight of land
The next turn I met Shaka and waited for the Great Library to boost me out of the Ancient Era. Just in time too, since Athens had already started building a useless Harbour. I drew Engineering as my free tech. Not ideal. Either Monotheism (for Cathedrals) or Feudalism (for the Sun Tzu's pre-build) would be better.
At this point I could see that we had Iron but not Horses. This meant that if we were ever to get away from the Rock and the Sand Bar, if would have to be through the use of swords (or rather MDI). The good news is that it appeared I had found the more backward continent, since the barbs to the west looked to have had an uprising. Furthermore, I only knew 3 civs; 4 were left to be found - another indication that the other continent was likely to be more advanced.
We would have to make the long trek to Navigation (again!), yet start the attack with early MA troops. So I hatched a plan to keep these people in darkness until I finally swooped out of the blue to liberate them. They would go to war with each other while I searched out the other continent in order to find trading partners. Since the Babs were the scientific civ, I decided that they would be the victim. This would slow science down even more. All three civs have early UUs and war would likely lead to despotic GAs. Even better. So I declared war on Hammy and brought the other two in on my side. Monotheism due in 9.
I then moved on to the task of finding the other continent. There would be no more suicide runs, at least not immediately. My galley in the ZEB continent would attempt to find the other when it got close. Others would fight their way through the barbs in case a route existed that way. I also turned off science because of my belief that the others were more advanced. One more cities was planned: on Iron Island past Sand Bar. I wound not even connect the wine because of the effect it would have on corruption on Sand Bar. I have no need for one lux anyway. Athens was plenty happy with all its wonders and the other cities could be kept in line with MPs. Warriors are needed for upgrades anyway.
Culture Builds
3950 Palace
3000 Temple
1600 Colossus
1050 Oracle
1000 Library
610 Great Lighthouse
170 Great Library
50AD Hanging Gardens
Status at 150AD at the end of the Ancient Era
Colisseum due in 2
1652 pts + 38 CPT
Technology
4000 Bronze Working, Alphabet
3150 Ceremonial Burial
2590 Pottery
1910 Mysticism
1375 Writing
1050 Literature
775 Map making
690 Warrior Code
530 Polytheism
190 Monarchy
130 Masonry
50 Mathematics
130 Iron Working
150 The rest of the AE techs + Engineering
Er... How do you know when other people plan to start COTM9?
