Nobles' Club 340: Gandhi of India

[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 Gandhi of India, whom we last played in NC 310; we last played the Indians under Asoka in NC 325. The Indians start with Mysticism and Mining.

• Traits: Gandhi is Philosophical and Spiritual. Philosophical gives all cities +100% generation and a +100% bonus to Universities. Spiritual allows you to swap state religion/civics without suffering Anarchy, and gives a +100% bonus to all Temples.
• The UB: The Mausoleum, a Jail with +2. Combine it with Gandhi's ability to quickly (and cheaply) swap into Police State to keep your cities functional during a long, dawn-out war, or build them during a Space Race to offset Emancipation unhappiness while boosting your generation.
• The UU: The Fast Worker, a Worker with 3. A very powerful UU in the right hands, these guys can chop forests and improve distant tiles faster than regular workers could ever hope to manage.

And the start:

Spoiler map details :

Pangaea, Tropical climate, Medium sealevel.

Spoiler edits :

A few strategic resource swaps.

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 340 Gandhi 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]

Just realized I forgot to delete huts from the no huts saves, going to fix that real quick...

EDIT: Fixed, worldbuilder files should be fine now. As for the start, settler 1SE seems obvious, and tech path seems like Agri into something else (maybe AH for Cow, maybe Bronze for chopping/whips, hard to say without more map knowledge). The curse of capital Gold is going to haunt this place, so an extra focus on food to keep growth steady while working the rich, rich mines is going to be a must.

At least that's my interpretation. What do the experts think ?

 

[Noble Zarkon]

settler 1SE seems obvious

You're planning to move your settler away from the only source of food we can see? Did you mean SW onto the PH??

 

[AcaMetis]

Meant SW, yes. Should have said South-Weast, really

 

[Nick723]

In before the settle on gold gang take over

 

[soundjata]

By moving SW we chance losing a food tile East. (more cow?)
Hard to balance a know advantage with the unknown

Edit: Warrior on gold on T1 makes the decision smoother.

 

[konata_LS]

As for the start, settler 1SE seems obvious

I think AcaMetis meant 1E, not 1SE. Settling on gold gives higher chance to be the first to reach Meditation . The start is obviously a Stonehenge first start, not a worker-first start . GProphet from SH will build the Buddhism shrine . Moving away from the grassland cow won't hurt: before finishing SH we don't have a fast worker to improve the cow anyway . <-- just joking

If the grassland cow is the only resource in the capital, settling on the PH would be tempting. +1 - from the gold is nice, but judging from the screenshot, the main bottleneck of the growth is probably the low food in the capital . The lonely incense looks a little awkward though,

Spoiler :

In fractal or continents maps, the calendar resources are usually welcome, as we often need optics - calendar - astronomy, especially when we're on the small continent (example: we share a continent with 2 AIs, the 4 others need Optics for contact). But in Pangaea map, calendar - astronomy becomes almost unnecessary. Maybe getting calendar through trade is better than self-teching it in a Pangaea map.

 

[sampsa]

I don't think the warrior can reveal anything that would make me not settle 1SW.

 

[Alexander IV]

Got them, yeah!

Spoiler Deity NHNE 1380AD Domination :

All mounted warfare. HA for Izzy, Cuirs for Willy, Cavs for all the rest. So very important third horses city. Techs were Agri, AH then BW. Paci GA in Buddhism, then OR and Theo in Hinduism. Had to spread it myself from only one Hindu city. Some demanded switches. Awkward DoW from China after my Spanish conquest got me Chengdu, my Heroic Epic city (North from Pataliputra). Bribed Shaka on Willem, Mao on Julius just before hitting Hague. Police State for a long time after taking Ulundi.

Delhicious!

After so many desperate losses I'd been facing - yay!

 

[soundjata]

Deity T87
It is a difficult map...

Spoiler :

For Isabella, who went 2 cities full wonderspam & missionary spam.
Fast workers are so good