Aelf's thread reloaded

[ungy]

This is meant to be a complete knockoff of Aelf's thread. Thanks Aelf for the concept(and others before him) and the work in your earlier threads. What I want to do here is continue. I will play a game and use the comments from the community to help guide my decisions. I plan to play somewhat shorter sessions, and like Aelf I will do my best to answer comments but I will make the final decisions.

The leader:

The settings:

The start:

I'm hoping I can lure some of the stronger players out there into commenting.

 

[madscientist]

As someone who joined the forums last May, could you explain or link what Aelf's thread is/was?

 

[ungy]

I picked Sitting Bull because:

1) I tend to be too much of a CE player and I'm hoping to break the mold--hence a phil leader to go with the weak protective.

2) Protective--I'm of the opinion that it pretty much sucks. True if you can make it to rifling you get the promotions but IMHO it is the weakest trait. Maybe it can be useful with the UB.

3) The UU is also interesting. Bad for an axe rush--although the ability to build w/o bronze could make for a really early one. My guess is the main advantage at immortal will be not having to rush to hook up a resource to deal with barbs.

 

[oyzar]

Feud slightshot(use the prophet for theology) and pwn everyone with 5 promotion longbows(although 1 of them will be the useless city guard 1, also probably need cats to work...).

 

[ungy]

As someone who joined the forums last May, could you explain or link what Aelf's thread is/was?

basically he played a game with lots of commentary and pics--soliciting feedback from the community as to how to proceed. The intent was that everyone could learn from the discussion. Probably not the best title (especially since he's not involved).

 

[Zanttu]

Hmm, this should be interesting. I've never played sitting bull, so I'm really interested to see him being played. Philosophical is one of the strongest traits IMO, and protective can have its uses too.. Though protective trait is much harder to leverage. The UU is pretty useless since the AI tends to defend mostly with archers. The UB ... Hmm. Well, maybe not the worst one in the game but I could think many better ones also.. Sitting Bull is a very interesting leader indeed, and as an Emperor player I'm curious to see what you can pull off at Immortal with him.

 

[Sjaramei]

As someone who joined the forums last May, could you explain or link what Aelf's thread is/was?

Just like Sisiutils games, instead of All leader Challenge, Aelf had Immortal Challenge.

 

[shyuhe]

The dog soldier is a great anti-barb unit. It frees you up from having to build the GW. However, you'll probably still want archery if you're going to try to take advantage of protective or the totem pole. I don't play with Sitting Bull much - does the totem pole influence only archers or all archery units?

The feud sling is powerful if successful but it's a pretty big gamble. You have the forests needed to chop out the oracle but you don't even have mysticism...

It looks like there's coast to the east so I'd send the warrior NW before settling in place. The plains tile to the SW probably has horses or bronze. Techwise, mining then AH or BW. I'd go BW if there are no pasture resources in the bfc. Are we going to see an SE or are you thinking more hybrid?

 

[Zanttu]

does the totem pole influence only archers or all archery units?

All archery units get the +3exp.

 

[ungy]

OK- the start. We have irrigated corn--that is great. Lots of forest--also good.
It looks to me like we have forest to S and SSE of the settler. I'm inclined to move the warrior NW to see what's up there.
We have tundra to the N--not great. Most likely either settle in place or possibly 1N. There's the possibility of another resource in the BFC--if so and if I'm correct about the forest to the S then it's either to the N or a strat resource on the plains tile. Either way 1N gets it.
1N loses the turn and the forest, but could be better if the terrian prohibits another city to the N and lets us use some decent tiles that otherwise would be lost.

 

[oyzar]

Just call it something individual, you don't need to go after aelf... Though i guess you might get more readers and comments that way . Settling in place and not popping the hut with the warrior seems like the way to go...

 

[ungy]

Are we going to see an SE or are you thinking more hybrid?

Well let's see what develops but I have the cottage addiction bad so it's hard for me to imagine a pure SE--just want to try and head more in that direction.

 

[madscientist]

Thanks!!


Seams like a decent start, settle in place.

I know you want to go for more of an SE (no offense anyone!!!) but that start scream cottages along the river. Once you have levees and towns, you can be smoking along with commerce and production.

I do not play on Immortal but my guess is the Fuedalism slingshot is tough to get. Well worth trying with those forrests, just be willing to take a lesser tech.

But to me Sitting Bull is the ideal early turtle, with the UU and UB so build up some defense and focus on some wonders.

Also that lone plains tile may likely be a hidden resource.

 

[ungy]

Just call it something individual, you don't need to go after aelf......
Though i guess you might get more readers and comments that way .

That was actually kind of the idea since his thread was very popular and I certainly have missed his absence from these forums.

 

[ungy]

OK I move the warrior NW and then settle in place.
Set research to mining-BW.

One important thing I want to mention:
If this is an isolated start I'll reload. Not that it would be unwinnable--just that there is an excellent series of isolated starts which I've played a several of recently and want something different

 

[shyuhe]

I really hate how BTS gives you these forest heavy capitals. I guess we'll be chopping out a bunch of settlers though. You'll want to chop the riverside forests regardless of what you do so that's 6 forests at 20 per before math. Enough to chop out 2 settlers. Now you just need to find 2 city locations

If totem pole adds to all archery units, you can do barracks + pole and rush an AI with xbows (MC oracle + machinery). That'd make for CG1+drill+2 promotions. You'd also be able to rush a forge with MC to pop a GE for machinery. I don't think I've seen a xbow rush in a while now so it'd be interesting to see (philosophical will help speed up the GE - only 17 turns from forge construction!).

 

[ungy]

OK I play a bit.

We meet the neighbors:
in 3800

And a little while later:

This is good. No psychos so far and 2(or more) neighbors is a good thing.

We get $ from the nearby hut and pop $ with the warrior.

I find stone to the E and scout that area a bit but am slowed by a lion attack and bear sighting.

So now I'm at a bit of a crossroads.
The E looks fairly secure in terms of the AI.
There is copper to the E as well but less important now.
Pigs to the W --We meet Darius turn 5 so he's pretty close.
All that forest+ stone+phil makes pyramids pretty attractive.
To get food on the stone I need a totem and I can't get the ivory in. Alternatively I can claim ivory, bronze+stone(w/totem) but no food.
I think I should use the built warrior to scout towards D and try and scout the coast some more so I know more about how to place a city for the stone.

Techwise what do you all think?
I'm inclined to go AH-myst-wheel. There's a decent chance we have horse in the capital.

 

[madscientist]

See what you have to the west before seetling in the east. You may have a nice place to block off Darius.

If you have to go east, I would concentrate on getting the fish/copper as one city, and then fill in the Jumbos, corn, stone as you see fit. But I really do not like your easterly land much except for the coastal fish/copper city.

Finich AH then decide. If you have horse, then the wheel, if not then Myst.

 

[The Rook]

The UU is pretty useless since the AI tends to defend mostly with archers.

I imagine that the UU would be pretty outstanding for a rush. Ok, it is weaker than an Axeman against Archers, but it requires no resources! No requirement to build settlers, no requirement to settle dubious cities for copper (if you can find copper), no requirement to connect the city with roads, no requirement to mine the copper, no requirement to connect the copper mine with a road etc etc. And all this before you have even started building Axemen!. What the Dog Soldier lacks against Archers, it makes up for in sheer numbers (the hammers saved on that resource settler). Not to mention the fact that it has no fear of Axemen/Swordsmen, so if the AI connects copper early it isn't the end of the world. If the AI connects horses, the Dog Soldier avoids the Chariot penalty. Pretty invincible really. Not to mention, as shyuhe says, it isn't a bad anti-barb unit too.

In the context of this game, I would expect a Dog Soldier rush would be viable. Looking at all the forests that want chopping, combined with the corn for the 2 pop whip, you could knock out an army in no time.

EDIT: Having said that, if you only have 2 neghbours it might not be a good idea taking out one, as tech trading becomes impossible.

 

[Winston Hughes]

I don't have any strategy points to add at this time, but I'm looking forward to this. It's about time someone else played a Sisiutil/aelf-style game, and I'm sure you'll do a fine job.

One thing I would say, though, is that you should be careful not to play too quickly (or too slowly, obviously). Getting the first scouting move(s) out of the way swiftly isn't a bad idea. But to capture the appeal of aelf's games, make sure you leave enough time for forum members to follow the game 'live', rather than tuning in to find four turnsets have been played in the 24 hours they've been away.

As someone who joined the forums last May, could you explain or link what Aelf's thread is/was?

You really should check them out.

They were the only threads that have come close to matching Sisiutil's in terms of popularity, depth/breadth of discussion, and the quality of their reports. aelf's detailed descriptions of his quite brilliant diplomatic maneuverings were a particular highlight.