Lord Chambers
Emperor
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2001
- Messages
- 1,004
Doh!
Hey, at least you got the leverage points by building that Scout instead.
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Civilization 7 has been announced. For more info please check the forum here .
ALC Game #25: Celts/Boudica, Take 2
- Thread starter Sisiutil
- Start date
azzaman333
meh
Red is the #1 priority, it will be a liability for the least time. Light Blue and Green should be 2 and 3 respectively, and orange is easily the best city to the north.
Personally, I doubt settling the pigs will be profitable enough short term to justify settling it before the AI gets there. Dark blue could be pushed 1W or 1SW to get more coast, but it's the worst site of the lot IMO.
Incidentally, IW looks like a key tech with all that jungle around.
. lolLightSpectra
me autem minui
I have to say, this start looks really good.
ahmedhadzi
Relocation Consultant
Sis, when can we expect the next round?
Perplexity
Warlord
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2005
- Messages
- 103
And this would be my, dotmap, very similar to those already shown:
How do you make a sexy dotmap like that?
Sisiutil
All Leader Challenger
I'm hoping tomorrow night...
Joshua368
Warmongering builder
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2008
- Messages
- 3,072
Matthew5117
Emperor
Half of the fun of these ALCs is waiting around past the due date.
Couldn't have said it better myself.Half of the fun of these ALCs is waiting around past the due date.
This is not true when talking about milk.
With a simple FreeHand MX (Mac) (from the last century, I guess) template. It has a lens effect to control transparency.
This is probably an extremely simple question, but I can't figure it out...How do you guys save the screenshots to create dot-maps. I feel like having an overall plan such as the dot-maps would help my game, but I can't find any sort of save screenshot option.
Also, in my current game I've taken Ghengis' capital and razed two of his smaller cities. Unfortunately my stack is now almost wiped out. All he has left is one viable city and two small crappy ones. Should I go for peace while I rebuild my army or would you recommend keeping the war going while my production cities pump out units? My only worry with getting peace is that I would not be able to pillage his iron/horses. Any advice would be welcome.
We're the only two on our continent if that matters at all.
Also, in my current game I've taken Ghengis' capital and razed two of his smaller cities. Unfortunately my stack is now almost wiped out. All he has left is one viable city and two small crappy ones. Should I go for peace while I rebuild my army or would you recommend keeping the war going while my production cities pump out units? My only worry with getting peace is that I would not be able to pillage his iron/horses. Any advice would be welcome.
We're the only two on our continent if that matters at all.
Sisiutil
All Leader Challenger
Round 2: 2850 BC to 2125 BC (29 turns)
I didn't go too much further this round, mainly because I reached one major and several minor decision points.
I started off feeling nervous about that panther near the intended copper city site, so I inserted a Warrior into the build queue in Bibracte.
Meanwhile, Mansa continued to demonstrate what a tech fiend he is, as usual, by researching Writing long before it was even a gleam in my eye:
Mind you, since he has Skirmishers, he can probably delay Bronze Working, unlike me. And this gave me a good opportunity to scout his land.
Everyone's richer than me too--another consequence of no goody huts. I'm used to having at least 100 gold in the bank by now, especially if I start with a Scout.
At any rate, I finished scouting Mansa's land, such as it is. I was relieved to see he doesn't have something like a gem mine or three to help him out.
Not a bad capital site--not great either, though; I've seen better. And, dear lord, it's one tile from the coast. But it's a holy city, so I really shouldn't raze it. Especially if Islam spreads to everyone like I think it's going to.
Once my Settler was finished, I got to work on a cheap barracks in an attempt to get a little more leverage out of the aggressive trait. A chop for the Settler helped, with some of the hammers spilling over into this, the next build.
My next tech then finished.
As I mentioned, I wanted the Wheel next to ensure I could hook up the copper as soon as possible and get some decent anti-barb units. I apologize to those of you who urged both researching other techs and waiting until Bibracte's borders popped a second time to claim the copper, but my Scouts were already seeing barb Warriors and Archers and I was nervous.
This is Immortal level, after all, and the barbs seem more numerous and also enter your borders much earlier.
So the second city was founded in the spot Gliese and others recommended, to claim the copper as well as the spices and fishies.
The next tech was done soon after this. I actually completed several techs in this rather short round--the gold mine was definitely helping. Of course I can't rely on it forever.
I met another neighbour:
Turns out Sitting Bull resides somewhere, I would guess, on that landmass to my southwest, given the where and what of his scouting unit:
Once Bibracte finished building a Warrior for immediate defense (and, long-term, a HR happy point), I worked on Stonehenge for a little while.
I didn't really plan on building the wonder--I have other priorities--but I didn't have anything else to build that would allow the city to grow. Well, i could have built another Warrior or Scout, I guess, but both units are swiftly becoming obsolete. At least with a wonder I'd get a little gold back, and given the usual state of Boudica's economy, that wouldn't hurt.
It now occurs to me that I could have simply build a monument, of course; I almost never build one in the capital unless I'm playing as a Charismatic leader who doesn't build Stonehenge. Then again, some of you might urge me to switch builds and finish off Stonehenge (thought it might be getting late), so perhaps it's just as well.
I then got a very nice random event:
Well, now, that could make things interesting! My Axemen and Gallic Warriors now have a free advantage over all archery units--including Mansa's Skirmishers. Some of you were urging waiting on a rush against Mansa until I had Catapults, but we may want to rethink that.
On the other hand, we might want to give Mansa time to build the Muslim shrine first; also, he makes an excellent vassal, so it may make sense to wait until one of us has Feudalism. But he is awfully close and, I'm guessing, will become an irritant before too long. Thoughts?
Another turn, another tech. I love starting next to a gold mine!
In this game, it's certainly compensating for the lack of goody huts and their many benefits. I resolved to send my lone Worker north to farm the rice tile once he was done another chop.
With my first Combat I/Cover/one-more-promotion-to-be-determined-later Axeman built to fend off any early barb incursions, I decided that I really needed another Worker, especially now that I had a second city.
I'm thinking of building a third worker right after this one, then going Axeman - Settler to plunk my third city down somewhere to the southeast.
I got another random event, a negative one.
I minor irritatant, but the loss of a forest is nevertheless to be mourned for several reasons. Again, normally I pop at least one goody hut for some early gold, and I always strive to ensure I keep around 100 gold in the bank for rainy days like this. I had no such safety net or option this time--perhaps I should have been saving some pennies--so the forest was lost.
I then finished researching Pottery.
I would surmise that my thinking here is obvious. That gold mine ain't gonna pay for everything forever, and Boudica's greatest weakness is in her lack of pocketbook advantages. The earlier I get some cottages laid down, especially beside those lovely riverside grassland tiles, the better. Having granaries to help with whipping won't hurt either.
Speaking of which, please refresh my memory: how many hammers does cracking the whip yeild on epic speed again? I've been playing at marathon speed in all my off-line games, so I'm going to be a little rusty at calculating whip overflow.
I ended the round there. The main decision point is, of course, what to research next. Do I pursue Writing in order to get Libraries and a specialist economy going? (Open Borders would be nice too, though I've lost both my Scouts to barbarians at this point.) Or should I go after Iron Working to both enable the UU and to help with the jungle I'm going to have to clear to my southwest? Some of you urged me to pursue various wonders such as the Great Lighthouse (may be too late for that) or the Oracle, so those are considerations as well.
Other decision points include cities, though I'll grant that not much has appeared that would necessitate any drastic changes to the dotmaps since the previous round. And with the free cover promotion, as I said, military options also deserve some consideration. Is it too late for an Axe rush? Should I forgo that and focus on growth for a while? It doesn't look like Mansa has rushed any settlers into the southeast area, so the pig/dye site may still be available, though I'm inclined to be less aggressive--for now, heh heh--and simply claim the gem/spice/fish and silk/rice sites just about everyone recommended. Why not let Mansa found the pig/dye city and start clearing some of that jungle for me if I'm not going to Axe-rush him?
On the diplomatic/religious front, it looks like a Korian/Ethiopian Confucian block is potentially forming. It will be interesting to see if it holds up, or if Islam will spread to counter it. Either way, we should consider which way we'll want to jump. Boudica is not Spiritual and cannot change religions without suffering the setback of anarchy, so I want to choose my religion carefully. Charismatic means I can forgo its
boost for a while. I wouldn't be surprised to see Lincoln go Muslim, in which case we'd have two religious blocks. Zara and Wang are further from me; my early wars are likely to be with Lincoln and Mansa. Therefore, it may make sense to hold out on converting to Islam (which also seems likelier to spread to me than Confucianism) and wait for Confucianism to show up somewhere. This way I could curry favour with the more distant neighbours. Then again, Mansa will likely have several juicy techs to trade with his religions buddies... hmmm...
Here are a couple of views of the map to assist with out discussions. First, the northwest, including the nascent Celtic empire:
And now the southeast, whose coastline has been revealed:
There's also a whale tile S of those furs. Just so you know.
I didn't go too much further this round, mainly because I reached one major and several minor decision points.
I started off feeling nervous about that panther near the intended copper city site, so I inserted a Warrior into the build queue in Bibracte.
Meanwhile, Mansa continued to demonstrate what a tech fiend he is, as usual, by researching Writing long before it was even a gleam in my eye:
Mind you, since he has Skirmishers, he can probably delay Bronze Working, unlike me. And this gave me a good opportunity to scout his land.
Everyone's richer than me too--another consequence of no goody huts. I'm used to having at least 100 gold in the bank by now, especially if I start with a Scout.
At any rate, I finished scouting Mansa's land, such as it is. I was relieved to see he doesn't have something like a gem mine or three to help him out.
Not a bad capital site--not great either, though; I've seen better. And, dear lord, it's one tile from the coast. But it's a holy city, so I really shouldn't raze it. Especially if Islam spreads to everyone like I think it's going to.
Once my Settler was finished, I got to work on a cheap barracks in an attempt to get a little more leverage out of the aggressive trait. A chop for the Settler helped, with some of the hammers spilling over into this, the next build.
My next tech then finished.
As I mentioned, I wanted the Wheel next to ensure I could hook up the copper as soon as possible and get some decent anti-barb units. I apologize to those of you who urged both researching other techs and waiting until Bibracte's borders popped a second time to claim the copper, but my Scouts were already seeing barb Warriors and Archers and I was nervous.
This is Immortal level, after all, and the barbs seem more numerous and also enter your borders much earlier.
So the second city was founded in the spot Gliese and others recommended, to claim the copper as well as the spices and fishies.
The next tech was done soon after this. I actually completed several techs in this rather short round--the gold mine was definitely helping. Of course I can't rely on it forever.
I met another neighbour:
Turns out Sitting Bull resides somewhere, I would guess, on that landmass to my southwest, given the where and what of his scouting unit:
Once Bibracte finished building a Warrior for immediate defense (and, long-term, a HR happy point), I worked on Stonehenge for a little while.
I didn't really plan on building the wonder--I have other priorities--but I didn't have anything else to build that would allow the city to grow. Well, i could have built another Warrior or Scout, I guess, but both units are swiftly becoming obsolete. At least with a wonder I'd get a little gold back, and given the usual state of Boudica's economy, that wouldn't hurt.
It now occurs to me that I could have simply build a monument, of course; I almost never build one in the capital unless I'm playing as a Charismatic leader who doesn't build Stonehenge. Then again, some of you might urge me to switch builds and finish off Stonehenge (thought it might be getting late), so perhaps it's just as well.
I then got a very nice random event:
Well, now, that could make things interesting! My Axemen and Gallic Warriors now have a free advantage over all archery units--including Mansa's Skirmishers. Some of you were urging waiting on a rush against Mansa until I had Catapults, but we may want to rethink that.
On the other hand, we might want to give Mansa time to build the Muslim shrine first; also, he makes an excellent vassal, so it may make sense to wait until one of us has Feudalism. But he is awfully close and, I'm guessing, will become an irritant before too long. Thoughts?
Another turn, another tech. I love starting next to a gold mine!
In this game, it's certainly compensating for the lack of goody huts and their many benefits. I resolved to send my lone Worker north to farm the rice tile once he was done another chop.
With my first Combat I/Cover/one-more-promotion-to-be-determined-later Axeman built to fend off any early barb incursions, I decided that I really needed another Worker, especially now that I had a second city.
I'm thinking of building a third worker right after this one, then going Axeman - Settler to plunk my third city down somewhere to the southeast.
I got another random event, a negative one.
I minor irritatant, but the loss of a forest is nevertheless to be mourned for several reasons. Again, normally I pop at least one goody hut for some early gold, and I always strive to ensure I keep around 100 gold in the bank for rainy days like this. I had no such safety net or option this time--perhaps I should have been saving some pennies--so the forest was lost.
I then finished researching Pottery.
I would surmise that my thinking here is obvious. That gold mine ain't gonna pay for everything forever, and Boudica's greatest weakness is in her lack of pocketbook advantages. The earlier I get some cottages laid down, especially beside those lovely riverside grassland tiles, the better. Having granaries to help with whipping won't hurt either.
Speaking of which, please refresh my memory: how many hammers does cracking the whip yeild on epic speed again? I've been playing at marathon speed in all my off-line games, so I'm going to be a little rusty at calculating whip overflow.
I ended the round there. The main decision point is, of course, what to research next. Do I pursue Writing in order to get Libraries and a specialist economy going? (Open Borders would be nice too, though I've lost both my Scouts to barbarians at this point.) Or should I go after Iron Working to both enable the UU and to help with the jungle I'm going to have to clear to my southwest? Some of you urged me to pursue various wonders such as the Great Lighthouse (may be too late for that) or the Oracle, so those are considerations as well.
Other decision points include cities, though I'll grant that not much has appeared that would necessitate any drastic changes to the dotmaps since the previous round. And with the free cover promotion, as I said, military options also deserve some consideration. Is it too late for an Axe rush? Should I forgo that and focus on growth for a while? It doesn't look like Mansa has rushed any settlers into the southeast area, so the pig/dye site may still be available, though I'm inclined to be less aggressive--for now, heh heh--and simply claim the gem/spice/fish and silk/rice sites just about everyone recommended. Why not let Mansa found the pig/dye city and start clearing some of that jungle for me if I'm not going to Axe-rush him?
On the diplomatic/religious front, it looks like a Korian/Ethiopian Confucian block is potentially forming. It will be interesting to see if it holds up, or if Islam will spread to counter it. Either way, we should consider which way we'll want to jump. Boudica is not Spiritual and cannot change religions without suffering the setback of anarchy, so I want to choose my religion carefully. Charismatic means I can forgo its
boost for a while. I wouldn't be surprised to see Lincoln go Muslim, in which case we'd have two religious blocks. Zara and Wang are further from me; my early wars are likely to be with Lincoln and Mansa. Therefore, it may make sense to hold out on converting to Islam (which also seems likelier to spread to me than Confucianism) and wait for Confucianism to show up somewhere. This way I could curry favour with the more distant neighbours. Then again, Mansa will likely have several juicy techs to trade with his religions buddies... hmmm... Here are a couple of views of the map to assist with out discussions. First, the northwest, including the nascent Celtic empire:
And now the southeast, whose coastline has been revealed:
There's also a whale tile S of those furs. Just so you know.
ParadigmShifter
Random Nonsense Generator
Whip is 45 hammers per pop on Epic I believe.
oynaz
Prince
I suggest expanding south-east into the jungle, and let Mansa found some more cities before attacking him him gaelic warriors and catapults. I do not think you can be sure to succeed in an axe rush, even with cover promotions.
OTOH, your axemen can have cover, city raider and combat, annd it would be a pity to waste that advantage.
Decisions, decisions.
OTOH, your axemen can have cover, city raider and combat, annd it would be a pity to waste that advantage.
Decisions, decisions.
azzaman333
meh
Lincoln looks like a very juicy target for a rush. Mansa has copper in his capital, and skirmishers. Don't bother.
Also, Sitting Bull has a border you can just see to the East of Vienne.
Also, Sitting Bull has a border you can just see to the East of Vienne.
carl corey
Deity
You'll probably be building settlers, workers & axemen for a while still, so writing won't do you much good.
Oracle should still be doable as you really have a lot of forests, so you could pretty much insta-build it when you finish researching Priesthood. And since you'll want Metal Casting you already have the prerequisites. The GLH I'd say is very doable. Both, I don't think so, you still need a unit pump so dedicating both cities to wonders might lose the jungle city sites, plus you'd have to go Meditation -> Priesthood -> Sailing -> Masonry. I'd say the Oracle is both more rewarding (as Metal Casting can provide really good trade fodder) and more risky than GLH.
Oracle should still be doable as you really have a lot of forests, so you could pretty much insta-build it when you finish researching Priesthood. And since you'll want Metal Casting you already have the prerequisites. The GLH I'd say is very doable. Both, I don't think so, you still need a unit pump so dedicating both cities to wonders might lose the jungle city sites, plus you'd have to go Meditation -> Priesthood -> Sailing -> Masonry. I'd say the Oracle is both more rewarding (as Metal Casting can provide really good trade fodder) and more risky than GLH.
azzaman333
meh
Keep in mind that Mansa is not expanding, and may have Writing via Priesthood. I don't think Oracle is feasible.
