Nobles' Club 291: Boudica of the Celts

[AcaMetis]

The Nobles' Club series started out as a way for Noble-level (and below) players to improve their game. Most of the original participants now play at much higher levels, so this has become a way for advanced players to help others learn to play better. You can play your own game at any level and with any mod, but it would be nice to comment on the games of other players and give them advice.

Our next leader is Boudica of the Celts, whom we last played in NC 256; we last played the Celts under Brennus in NC 280 The Celts start with Mysticism and Hunting.

• Traits: Boudica is Aggressive and Charismatic. Aggressive gives all Melee and Gunpowder units a free Combat I promotion, and gives a +100% bonus to Barracks and Drydocks. Charismatic gives every city, Monuments and Broadcast Towers +1, and decreases the exp required for units to level by 25%.
  
• The UB: The Dun, a Wall which gives a free Guerilla I promotion to all eligible units (Recon, Archery and Gunpowder-type units, although Rifling will obsolete the Dun, making the free promotion impossible to get for any Gunpowder unit beyond Musketman without upgrade shenanigans). Guerilla II Archers right out the gate are some of the most defensive scouts you'll be able to get, especially in enemy territory during a war, but aside from that this building does nothing that being Protective doesn't do as well.
  
• The UU: The Gallic Warrior, a Swordsman that can be build with copper in addition to Iron, and starts with the Guerilla I promotion for free. The game claims that this "makes it a formidable defender on hills", but Axes generally have a different opinion on that subject. More realistically Gallic Warriors have (easy) access to the Guerilla III promotion, +25% Hill Attack and +50% Withdraw Chance, putting these guys among the best survivors of implausible odds in the game. That this is true for the unit that chooses to forgo a shield, shoulder pads and shirt in favor of sweet tattoos, making them overall less armoured (and just dressed in general) than Ragnar's Berserkers, is something best not pondered too much .

And the start:

Spoiler map details :

Pangaea, Rocky Climate, medium sealevel.

Spoiler edits :

Some strategic resource swaps to give AIs nearby strategic resources, an unworkable Fish was moved somewhere it'll be appreciated, and two AI starting positions were swapped so that a Gallic Warrior breakout/rusk wouldn't require straight up kamikaze tactics. Sure, Guerilla III and AGG/CHA Boudica, but even Monty wouldn't be that suicidal.

The WB-saves are attached (zipped; they are bigger than standard saves). To play, simply download and unzip it into your BTS/Saves/WorldBuilder folder. Start the game, and load your favorite MOD (if you use one, if not, check out the BUG MOD), select "Play Scenario", and look for "NC 291 Boudica Noble" (or Monarch, etc., for higher levels). You can play with your favorite MOD at the Level and Speed of your choice. From Quick-Warlord to Marathon-Deity, all are welcome! We stuck with the name "Nobles Club" because it has a cool ring to it.

Spoiler what's up with specific difficulties :

In each scenario file you can select your level of difficulty, but that doesn't give the AI the right bonus techs by itself. Use the Noble save for all levels at and below Prince. The Monarch save gives all the AI Archery. Emperor adds Hunting; Immortal adds Agriculture; Deity adds The Wheel.

Spoiler what is demigod :

The difference between Immortal and Deity difficulty is akin to the difference between Noble and Immortal. Players eventually reached a point where Immortal was too easy, but Deity was still out of reach, and so neither difficulty provided a fun experience. "Demigod" is an otherwise standard Deity game where the AIs are only given their Immortal level starting units, in an attempt to bridge the gap.

Spoiler for players on Monarch or above :

You should add archery as a tech for the barbarians (if you don't, the AI will capture their cities very early). This cannot be done in the WB save file and must be done in Worldbuilder as follows:

Spoiler how to add techs to the barbarians :

1. Zoom in all the way so you can't see the rest of the map.
2. Use the CTRL-W key (or the menu) to enter the worldbuilder. Avoid looking at the mini-map in the lower right corner.
3. By default you're in "player" mode (look in the box in the upper right; the icon that looks like a person should be selected). You'll get a drop down menu labeled with your leader's name. Barbarians are at the bottom, so cover the rest of the list with your hand if you don't want to see who else is on the map. Select "Barbarians".
4. Select the "Technologies" tab in the box on the left.
5. Find Archery (the arrow head icon; 8th row, 3rd column from the right) and click it.
6. Exit the worldbuilder.
7. Zoom out again after the map fades, and start playing.

If you're playing at higher level than Monarch, consider also giving them Hunting at Emperor, Agriculture at Immortal, and The Wheel at Deity.

Spoiler huts and events :

Note: The standard saves have no huts and have events turned off. If you want tribal villages and random events, choose the saves with "Huts" in their names. If you want huts but no events, select the Huts saves and use Custom Scenario to turn on the option that suppresses events.

 

[AcaMetis]

I'm honestly not sure what to do in this situation. Settling on the Ivory would give a 2 city tile and a free improvement, but ruins an otherwise decent tile (132 IIRC) that Boudica's D-tier starting techs can improve right out the gate. Than again SIP ruins a forest, and there's open tiles to the north-west that could contain even better goodies than a plains elephant tile. That would also be moving away from grass cow, but maybe there's pigs and corn hiding in the fog, and that'd be a fair and forthright trade as the AIs like to say. 1SW doesn't tempt me as much, nor does the PH, since that way appears to be tundra and frankly I like having a ton of improvable river grass tiles in the capital/capitol (my spellcheck still doesn't yell at me, so instead of me flipping a coin just have both ).

What do the experts think ? Definitely SIP, definitely 1NW, see what the scout can uncover first, something else entirely?

 

[civac]

There is a plains hill to the south too.

I would tend to SIP.

 

[Fippy]

Scout nw reveals many interesting tiles, so i couldn't decide before.

 

[AcaMetis]

The southern PH is the one I was talking about. The one in the fog would take two turns to settle and moves away from wet corn/phants (not that the happy matters immediately, but it's something for the worker to do), so I wouldn't move there unless I knew it was an amazing city spot. And, well, scout is out of position to check out the east very well.

 

[Gumbolt]

Pends if you want to go for Duns and hill bonus or just play the map.

Instant ivory +1 happiness and no worker turns required is pretty nice on it's own. Plus 1 production too. Wasteland tile to the south. You would lose the cows but move towards greener pastures. Double movement on hills could get some nice worker steals.

Of course if you don't have copper it's a phants rush on map. Science could be issue. Early BW needed.

 

[Major Tom]

Settling on the elephants for instant +1 happy is not something to care about. How much happiness do we need initially? We are charismatic (+1). Soon there’s a monument (placeholder at least), another +1. In the meantime ivory is improved (nice riverside tile) So +3 happiness before serious growth starts.
Cows are power tiles. Agriculture gives full rebate for AH. Unless scout reveals something special, SIP.

The UU is overrated. In my last two games as Celts I think I built 1. Who priorities teching IW? Also early dun is dependent on teching masonry. Better with mining+BW after food.

 

[civac]

I don't think you can afford AH here. BW is badly needed to remove all those forests. Nevertheless, farmed cattle is still a good tile.

 

[Pangaea]

I'll consider this thread to be dedicated to Lemon Merchant

 

[Pangaea]

Downloaded and started on regular Deity. T0 settle.

Spoiler :

Looks like tundra south, so the PH there is of less interest. It's the wrong direction. Scout goes NW to check out what may be gained by settling on Ivory. Another green cow pops up. I count riverland green, and it seems like a no-brainer to settle on the ivory. Lots of possible cottage land, and a little further away from the tundra. Of course, that could be negative, because barbs are likely to spawn in droves down there, and now we have less fogbusting of that region by the capital. If it spells my demise, it's poetic justice I suppose

 

[BornInCantaloup]

7 happy cap makes me want to get a granary up asap. Skip AH, go BW --> Pottery.
Not sure whether the map is friendly with that idea or not.

 

[Pangaea]

T33. Come on, seriously?

Spoiler :

Started with Agri. Difficult with worker tasks here, but I went Mining-BW. So many forests, need to chop. In the meantime the worker builds a farm next to the corn, and then south of the cow. After that I send him towards the intended second city, east of the city on a PH there. Two dead turns, but I can live with that.

At this point I haven't even met Portugal, but what I first thought was a barb city turned out to be Portuguese culture. So okay, Joao is on the map too. And just before I am to settle city 2, Asoka founds his third city across my capital culture. What the actual feck man?! Makes me want to just give up. Completely surrounded before I have two cities, with Rangar units hovering about too, surely in preparation for stealing a spot over there. Can I win the game with two cities?

Spoiler :

Ruined my floodplains too, the cow-patting twunt.

This looks completely hopeless on Deity. At least with this AI settling pattern

 

[AcaMetis]

This looks completely hopeless on Deity. At least with this AI settling pattern

Needless to say that was not the plan.

Spoiler :

Asoka settling in your face I expected, that's why I swapped him with an AI you've not met yet who is, shall we say, less open to being rushed if that proved necessary. I was not expecting everyone else to move in your direction like that. Joao especially is baffling me with his decision to rush the jungle so hard .

 

[SillyGoat]

Scout NW first, then settle on the ivory for a 12t worker. Ag-mining-bw-wheel-pottery. Celtic starting techs are rubbish.

 

[Pangaea]

Needless to say that was not the plan.

I've played a bit further, to T65, but it is still rather painful. And I was fortunate to beat two different AIs to a city by one turn twice.

Spoiler :

Couldn't get a city on the desert hill like I wanted, but at least I can get a city there at all, on the regular desert tile.

Spoiler :

Of course he then went south and grabbed the nice wheat+wine spot before I could blink, so then I was out of half-decent spots, and we only have 3 cities

With nowhere to turn, I sent the chopped out settler down towards the tundra. At least this one will claim silver at some point, so it's not entirely junk. No real food, though, which is rather important.

Spoiler :

After this I have absolute no idea where to go. The rest is tundra and pure ice. Okay, I can settle on top of another silver perhaps, and keep it at size 1, but it's still total crap. I don't like this map

At least I can see why Asoka settled in our direction. His land is total crap too! (nice capital aside).

Spoiler :

With tundra and ice south, he had nowhere else to go really. Three holy cities though. WTF. Asoka being Asoka.

This puts me at 1400BC/Turn 65. We only have four cities, of which one is close to total junk, and we have nowhere else to settle that isn't filled with 0-yield ice tiles. Oh, and my only axe just 'farmed' a damaged archer at 99.7% and is mortally wounded 7 places or something. Another archer is coming, but the 1-turn axe (I kept him to prevent more maintenance) should be able to help out, from Bibracte.

Spoiler :

However, we finally managed to limp to AH, so yay? Meanwhile half the AIs have Alpha already, and at least one with HR too. Difficult to see this going anywhere but an early loss though. Four cities is way too little. I just hate to get squeezed for land like this. Makes it impossible. That huge icesheet (barb breeding ground) just made it worse. Not even a fish on the coast, at least from what I can see so far.

It was worth a shot, but this looks futile.

 

[Pangaea]

No, when this spot gets stolen too, I give up. Sorry I couldn't do you the honour of not losing, Lemon Merchant Rest in Peace.

Spoiler :

I have a settler practically done, but that's it. Too late and too crap a map.

 

[AcaMetis]

Spoiler :

I have no idea why every AI in creation decided to settle towards you. Asoka was expected, that's why I placed Asoka there instead of Hammurabi, but these AIs have other land that they can settle. Did barb cities spawn in just the right locations to scare everyone towards you, or something? Ragnar and especially Joao should not be pushing south/south-west so hard.

 

[Pangaea]

@AcaMetis: Huge map spoilers due to WB check

Spoiler :

Since I gave up on this map after losing that iceball spot too, I checked out things in WB. Finally found Mansa, heh. There are two barb cities on the NE tip of the continent, but only size 1 and 2, so probably somewhat recent. Don't know if this tells you anything in particular, but it's what that part of the map looks like on my end, when I gave up in 975BC.

Spoiler :

Actually, seeing the map some more, Mansa has a city named Vandal south of that size 2 barb city, which is a barb name, so it's possible that one was founded pretty early. Strange that Joao went all the way through the jungle, though, when he has fantastic land near his capital.

Edit: there is also city ruins under the marker here, which must mean it was an early barb city that was razed by Ragnar or Mansa. Gao is already size 5, which must take the AI at least 3-4 turns

Spoiler :

Deity is a crazy difficulty level, tho. Some maps simply aren't winnable. Or are only winnable if events go in your favour, which also includes AI settling patterns, and non-early DOWs on the human. It's possible I was simply unlucky here. I don't think settling where I did was wrong, as the capital should be pretty strong, both in the short and longer term.

 

[CarpoolKaraoke]

Spoiler Diety T90 :

Explored NW, settled on Ivory after seeing cow. Met 4 neighbors by T6. Thought with Celtia, I couldn't afford to expand fast without crippling economy, so I went a somewhat unconventional Agriculture/AH/The Wheel/Pottery/Mining/BW/Writing. T33, Asoka settles in my face. Squeezed out 4 cities with 1 food each by forward settling for the wheat, and splitting off the corn. This was enough to breakout, as Asoka is relatively peaceful and busy teching/building wonders. Prime Boudica conquest material:

10 turns later Delhi falls. Pillaging the copper meant I only needed to kill 4 axemen and 2 spearmen - a saving grace when cities have 60% defense:

Sure, it's a bit late to Aesthetics, but now I have 7 cities, the Great Wall, the Colossus, and the Hindu holy city for the cost of 11 axemen (albeit building 20):

I will likely drag the war out for 3-4 more turns (until I tech Alphabet - fueled by conquest gold), and look to maximize extortion from former tech genius Asoka.

 

[AcaMetis]

@Pangaea

Spoiler :

Looks like Ragnar did get blocked by barbs on his south and east at least somewhat, which were then replaced/taken over by Mansa, so perhaps that's why he rushed the west and south so hard. Joao I have no explanation for why he'd settle so far south into the jungle as early as he did. The entire idea is that he'd send his very many settlers to grab the lands east, beating out Ragnar, only to end up with Ragnar deciding to settle the debate with his Berserkers instead.

As always, though, no plan survives contact with the Civ IV AI .