[BTS] Work-Boat-first start? [Monarch][BUFFY]

[Qactus]

Things are going quite well! Got 5 cities, all (except Bjergvin) have Barracks, Monuments and Granaries (the ones that have acess to seafood also have trading posts). Fog busting is coming along nicely, Archers for happiness, Open Borders with everyone and Clams for Sheep with Saladin. Waiting on Horseback Riding, in the meantime - Catapults.

Spoiler :

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Usually what you want immediately after the Great Lighthouse is to set up an offshore city. Even that one tile island to the north is fine and will give a massive trade route boost to 4 (?) of your cities.
If there's time you might sail around it and check if there's a better island behind it, otherwise just settle on that one and observe your empire's bpt upon settling

 

[Gumbolt]

Not sure where you are heading with your game. 5 cities by 375bc is okay but not great considering you went GLH. You are building 2 catapults but would ideally need 4-5 cities whipping units here to start any war. With so much unhappiness it makes it tough.

You need happiness and you skipped calendar. If you had expanded more aggressively could you of taken the western corn site? Then you had more calendar resources to east. Construction here feels wrong with so much unhappiness. You played too many turns and somewhat lost focus. What was your plan here apart from reach 5 cities and build GLH?

I think hard REX with coastal cities was right move here and beeline calender for happiness. Use your finacial traits and trade routes. Some of your trade routes are still 1C so that 1 tile island city could of helped give every city a 2C trade route. You also had options for jungle cities too. Bananas and dye resources? Play to your strengths.

 

[SlimJim01]

Usually what you want immediately after the Great Lighthouse is to set up an offshore city.

I always wondered what to do with those cities. You have to whip basically everything, unless you get those Easter Island head things and those are spent better elsewhere. Do you just build them and forget about them?

If you had expanded more aggressively could you of taken the western corn site?

Reloaded the save and did that. Came down to the turn. Got 7 cities now, so that's pretty good! A barbarian barge came in and destroyed all my Clams though. They should be all up and running in a turn or two.

Spoiler :

 

[Gumbolt]

Better on city numbers. No city garrisons in cities is hurting you here. You need city guards at size 3-4. 2 warriors for 7 cities is not enough.

Fish clams/copper site should be grabbed. You need to explore more to East. You need to find more happiness resources. That or trade for monarchy.

Long term you need to try and keep Celts happy. Something still feels slightly wrong here.Think you are probably making a lot of mistakes here. Happiness is likely killing your progress.

 

[Gumbolt]

Had a quick play around. I think you could of spammed 10 coastal cities by 300bc easily. I probably would of taken clams/fish before corn. Then rexxed hard round the east grabbing the coastal sites. 2x Island cities for 2c trade routes. I think your early scout could of safely covered a lot more ground here. Libraries could of been skipped too. Smaller capital was acceptable. I whipped capital a few times at size 6 for OF in GLH. I don't think I played that well to do this.

As Sampsa said GLH and expand, expand , expand. Metal here would of been useful for barbs. Let Celts grab all the jungle. You will be double their size by 1ad. Won't post save as spoilers.

I think take more advice and leave posting of saves to smaller periods. Your saw how Sampa used the new city to do settler in 10 turns. Whipping settlers at size 4 with 40+ hammers works well. Use overflow to help with warriors and further settler. You don't need too many workers here.

You can road calendar resources before it comes in. Manage your whip anger and hook up ivory.

So your 300bc* challenge is 10 cities including 2 island cities. Calendar and maybe IW may be needed.

You didn't need the 2 barracks on your game.

 

[sampsa]

I guess part of the issue in these shadow games is receiving many different ideas from several strong players. In reality you can choose only one strategy. I would say you should close to never be building libraries (or other buildings than granary+barracks) and catapults at the same time, at least for me that's an indication that you are not sticking to the strategy. I also wouldn't go for GLH first and then cats, though monarch does give you a lot of leeway.

 

[SlimJim01]

So your 300 ad challenge is 10 cities including 2 island cities.

Wait, 10 cities by 300 AD or 300 BC?

indication that you are not sticking to the strategy

Wasn't the strategy settle cities, wait for the Celts to settle a bunch of land and then steamroll them with Elephants and Catapults?

 

[Gumbolt]

Sorry i meant BC. 300ad would not be very challenging. Ultimately you want to make your financial and extra trade routes pay off. Trade routes can be so powerful on maps like this.

 

[SlimJim01]

Sorry i meant BC. 300ad would not be very challenging. Ultimately you want to make your financial and extra trade routes pay off. Trade routes can be so powerful on maps like this.

Alright, sounds interesting. I'll do my best, then report back.

 

[SlimJim01]

So, uh, been a while. But I did finally finish the game and won!
Once again, the trick was: When in doubt, build more cities. Otherwise, build more cities.
Here are my post-game reflections:
Sampsa mentioned that I shouldn't be building Libraries. And I remember multiple people saying I shouldn't building so many buildings. So, I decided to investigate. According to this post, most all buildings are trash (with exceptions). That's... not really cool. Yeah, I know it's not optimal. But I do feel like we're starting to optimize to fun out of the game. I personally like a bit of struggle in my games. Keeps it engaging and fun.
Speaking of struggle, I decided to not build any Windmills and stick to Mines. I have concluded that Windmills are infinitely better. Yeah, they're not good early game, but when you get Environmentalism? Mmmmmm, good stuff.
I'm also running into an issue with Slavery. Early to mid game, it's fantastic. It's the best even. But late game? I was barely using it. Granted, that might have been because of my tendencies to build as many buildings in every city, causing all cities to have abnormal amounts of production. Most of the production heavy cities only took 3-4 turns to make something, and it really wasn't worth sacrificing the population. I do wish Emancipation was a bit more enticing.
I am always making a lot of money, perhaps I should try giving the gold-for-hammers option a shot.

 

[sampsa]

I personally like a bit of struggle in my games. Keeps it engaging and fun.

Well, you are playing monarch, so I think it's fair to say that you haven't optimized too much yet.

 

[sampsa]

Also, libraries aren't bad in general, but if you are going for war, you should be building units in every city.