Again, providing a somewhat detailed write-up. Hopefully it will provide some ideas to other and looking for analysis to help me play better. The limits I used are no joint wars, no trading works/relics, no trading cities. I’m sure I copied something down wrong; and probably some other stuff worth tracking and some things not worthwhile.
- Where did you settle your capital city? Your second city?
Settled 1 NW on Gypsum – never tried a no fresh water start so thought it would be neat to try after Victoria mentioned it; 2nd city 5NE on river/coast
- What did you research and which policies did you choose and why?
Science: Mining-10, AH-28, BW-33, Archery-35, Sailing-40, Pottery-45, Writing-51, Shipbuilding-65, Irrigation-75, Currency-75, Astrology-80, HBRiding-82, Wheel-83, IW-87, CelNav-91, Engineering-94, Machinery-99
Culture: CoL-7, Craft-21, FT-34, SW-39, MilTrad-45, EE-45, Mys-48, PolPhil-61, G&R-69, MilTrain-73, DefTac-79, Feud-86, Merc-92, D&P-100
- How did you play your governance cards, priorities?
7-Survey/Urban; 21-Agoge; 39-Cons/Ilkum; 45-Maritime; 48-Cons/Colon; 61-Oligarchy: Cons/Colon/Charismatic/Strategos; 69-Urban; 73-Agoge (for Strategos); 86-Autocracy: Cons/Mari/Urban/Serf; 92-x/Maneuv/x/Prof; 100-x/x/x/Maritime; on 61 wanted Oligarchy for war; on 86 wanted Autocracy to have 2 each military/economic policies
- What was your build order?
1-ROME: Scout-6, Builder(Q,Q,F)-14, Settler-21, Slinger-24,27,29,31,33; buy tile for Encampment and place it-33; Encampment-39, Builder-43,48; Settler-58,73; Granary(g)-80, Warrior-77,80,83,85; Horseman-91 (for CS quest), HChar-94,95; Bath-98
26-OSTIA: Slinger-33, Warrior-38, Builder-45, buy chop tile-46, Galley-46,47; Settler-53,63; Builder-72, Warrior-75, Campus-87, Builder(g)-87, CommHub-100
57-LUGDUNUM: Builder-75, working on CommHub
61-MEDIOLANUM: Granary(g)-75, Warrior-78,81,83,86; Builder(g)-86, Galley-88,89,90,90,91; HChar-94,98
69-AQUILEIA: Granary(g)-75, Builder(g)-86, Campus-97
79-RAVENNA: BatRam(g)-98
82-POKROVA(captured capital): Builder(g)-86, Mon(r)-87, Granary(r)-89, Walls-90, WM(r)-92, HChar-96,98; BatRam(g)-98
- Did you emphasize expansion? How many cities have you built/captured in the first 100 turns?
Built 6 - capital, 5 created settlers, ZERO captured settlers; only 1 captured city
- How soon did you build a District? Which ones did you prioritize?
Encampment-39; 2 Campus-87,97; CommHub-100
- How long did it take to find your neighbors? Were they hostile or friendly?
49-Japan(see me), 49-Scythia(see them), 64-Sumeria(see them), 73-Egypt(exchange), 89-England(see me), 96-America(exchange); overall friendly, made friends with those I couldn’t attack within 30 turns that were willing, Scythia currently has me denounced (occupy their capital)
- Trading? Generally tried to keep one of each lux and trade all excess lux for gold; one hiccup was trading all my coffee when I was Suz of Lisbon, then lost Suz, so no coffee dropping two cities from happy to content; 49-Scythia 203g/1gpt; 49-Japan 157g/1gpt; 62-Scythia 180g; 66-Friends Sumeria, 70-Friends Japan; 78-Japan 170g/2gpt & 22g/8gpt; 80-Egypt 180g; 86-Japan 88g/2gpt; England 134g/4gpt & 8g/6gpt; 94-England 89g/7gpt
- Wars? Just one so far, Scythia 76-86; captured capital and received 234g/34gpt/2lux/iron in peace deal
- Did you try to build any Wonders? Nope
- What City-States did you meet and which ones did you cultivate to your side?
28-unmet defeated; 32-Kandy; 45-unmet defeated (both now owned by Scythia); 64-Hattusa (98- 3 envoys); 67- Lisbon (91- 3 envoys); 91-Preslav; 92-Geneva, 96-Toronto; Suzeran of none (was Lisbon for a while)
- How were the Barbarians?
9-BE to SE (des-29), 18-BEto NE (des-32), 31-BE to S (des-39); 41-BE to NW (des-?), 44-BE to W (des-52), 45- BE way S of Scythia; the early ones near me were no problem at all-just gave me some experience and boosts; later barbarian quadriremes were horrible – sent 3 galleys in group to W thinking they could handle any lone quad, but ran into a group of 3 quads, now 1 galley sunk, 1 about to be, and the third in full retreat home
- Any surprises? The map. I was expecting something like a continents map with maybe a twist, but this was nothing like a normal continents map. I didn’t adjust fast enough even when I realized it. And the barb quadriremes – messing me up big time.
- Strategy, actions, and analysis.
Initial plan: I was thinking there would be ~3 AIs on my continent. Tried the no fresh was start – hope was 1-2 gold trades in 1st 20 turns and an early warrior/archer rush in 30s for captured settlers and nearest two neighbor’s capitals early; surprise – no neighbors.
Initial actions: Warrior started SW, Scout start N. Didn’t get to E side of island until in the 30s due to getting bogged down in terrain and BE spawns. Decided to settler spam and get some galleys to explore. I stopped at 6 slingers & 2 warriors, built an encampment, made 3 builders for chops/mines/farms, put out 2 galleys, then built four settlers; also decided to get Writing to place Campuses.
My analysis: I believe Rome on coast would have been better start as it would have had forests vice rainforests to chop, so I could have built ~6 galleys between the two cities; I would have understood the environment much, much better. As it was, I shouldn’t have stopped at 8 military – I should have been prepared for finding someone close and built at least 12 total archers/warriors to leave 2-3 on island to protect new settlers while moving to attack as soon as I saw an AI. Also messed up on science – went to Writing first which caused an 11-turn delay for Shipbuilding; great - all my military can stare at each other.
First (and so far only) war: I meet Scythia T49 - they show me their capital (wow, would have been nice to be able to move right away); also meet Japan, but no idea where they are; continue to move galley N around Scythia big island, after Ship T65 I see their cities are still D<20, so start 5Arch/1War that way – more warriors follow with new warrior spam. I also see 2 nice harbors to capture, but didn’t pay attention that the Pokrova harbor was still in construction. When I get it surrounded, they only have 3 warriors in area (one in city) and all cites were still D<20; declare war on T76, kill warriors in open, pillage, and start siege; on T80 warrior in city turns to swordsman and pops out 2 horse archers on same turn, one city D20’s and rest D>30…and horse archers coming from S…then swordsmen from N; capture T82, hold on losing 2 warriors and 2 archers in battles with all military in area injured, some severely. Amazingly Scythia accepts peace on T86 and give me all their gold/lux/iron.
My analysis: Lucky ducky! Delay above led to this.
Other actions to T100: Additional warrior spam; Legion/Crossbow upgrades; lots more galleys to find everyone; HChar spam for Knight upgrade. Forgot to build BatRam’s, so finally buy two on T98. Two armies of land units sailing toward England and Egypt respectively. Barb Quad’s are causing me major issues – total rout of galleys heading west. Now I want Cartography for Caravel strength, Stirrups for Knight upgrades, Math for faster sea movement, Apprentice for +mine production, then more advanced military.
My additional analysis to T100: Besides above, I never got my two harbors for the boost (zero to date), great admiral, and trade routes. Note that all the AI have harbors, but zero encampments, so I kept thinking I’d just capture them. Poor city planning led me to drop a couple Districts on top of improved tiles - on tiles I should have left improved – should have thought that out better. I should have emphasized navy much more – currently just an exploratory force facing evil barbs and not really able to protect my sailing land forces. I don't think I did the no fresh water start properly - pretty much held at size two for a long time and my second city ended up being better quickly.
MAJOR INQUIRY!!: Do Roman auto-roads work across water? For example – if I had built a coast city on the SE side of Scythia’s island that was within trade range of Rome via coast tiles, would the captured capital have then built a road to that coastal city to connect it to Rome? If yes, that road could greatly speed the movement west.