ALF 7 - Charlemagne of HRE (Emperor)

[Silverbow]

ALF 6 turned out nicely, so if I get this one done, I'll be moving up to immortal.

The record so far:

Monarch:
ALF 1 - Isabella - UN diplomatic win @1915 AD
ALF 2 - Hannibal - AP diplomatic win @1305 AD
ALF 3 - Alexander - UN diplomatic win @1845 AD

Emperor:
ALF 4 - Hammurabi - UN diplomatic win @1828 AD
ALF 5 - Sitting Bull - FAIL
ALF 6 - Zara Yaqob - AP diplomatic win @1806 AD

The map: Hemispheres, with all settings at random
NO huts, NO events, normal speed

The glorious leader:

Spoiler :

Hey look, it's vranasm!

Quite crappy trait combo, blergh UU and powerful UB.

And the inglorious start:

Spoiler :

Nothing improvable right away. SIP seems kinda logical choice. Techs AH -> fishing -> mining -> BW, builds worker then WB? Hard to say.

 

[CreeDakota]

I would guess more seafood to your west in the fog. Pretty good chance of a strategic resource too.

This start seems like a good point to do some calculations (something I never do and stink at) for number of turns to grow/ amount of hammers/ commerce etc for different opening builds. For example what about Fishing-Mining-BW start on warrrior, switch to workboat, finish warrior, worker?

I suggest this because plains cow is a poor tile to grow on (but it is a good tile to build WBs on!) and I would want the higher food surplus soon. If you go AH, Fishing, Mining, BW there is a fair chance you have idle worker turns or be behind on growth compared to working the clams.



Of course you may have a grain to the SW and make these thoughts mute...

 

[Keilah]

could be worthwhile to burn a turn moving 1s, will reveal a sea tile to the west as well as a bunch of tiles to the south, and then you can make a more informed settle decision. Might end up moving back to the original location but you might also avoid a crap capital/find a good one. Expansion can claim the cows/clams if you settle the cap south-ish.

 

[Silverbow]

1S is 1 off the coast and loses the plains cow. Burning a turn going 1W while scout goes SE-S might be more worthwhile. But I still lean to SIP.

 

[Keilah]

Oh i would never settle 1s, but moving there gives you vision and you can settle one of the adjacent tiles without losing a second turn.

 

[Silverbow]

Ugh. I think this might be an isolated start.

I moved the settler 1SW, saw wheat and fish, and used the second movement point to get on that grassland hill 1W of starting position to grab all of the cow, fish, wheat and clams.

Spoiler :

Tech path went fishing -> AH -> mining -> agriculture -> BW

Build path went warrior -> switch to WB -> finish warrior -> worker -> warrior -> WB -> settler -> warrior

My scout scouted out the lands, met no one and either we have TON of land to settle, or are isolated.

Spoiler :

I made a tentative dotmap as to where to settle. The settler is on the red spot right now at the moment of the save.

Spoiler :

Thoughts on the settling (and anything else, especially regarding teching in isolation etc.) would be most welcome!

 

[CivSetä]

Agree red spot first. Chop monument to get horses asap. Dotmap is ok, some might say there is not enough overlap. You can build fillers later after claiming all the land.

Next cities: two other gold cities which will pay the maintenance until COL is online. Then uber-UB will save you from all harm.

Btw, have you thought about TGL? Lots of coast and islands to settle!

IMHO the most important thing to do is scout more and find out whether you are isolated or not. Build 1-2 workboats to check western archipelago!

 

[Shaandore]

It looks like isolation. Definitely settle horse or copper first. You will need barb protection! Spawnbusting such a huge land is not an option for a while. You will need to move your capital, it's on a far end of a peninsula. As for techs - I have no idea, never played isolation since I left noble

 

[Keilah]

perfect opportunity to showcase the rathaus =)

 

[Mylene]

Dot map looks very ineffecient
The (desert) copper spot uses up the cow for a city that has no future ~~
The red spot needs a monument, means it doesn't achieve it's goal as 2nd city to bring in either commerce or barb defense quick.

If you would place a city 3E of your capital on the ph it could use the clams and get the horses online. In addition if you'd place the next city between the plains cow, gold and floodplains it has 3 good tiles to start being useful.

 

[Zechnophobe]

I was thinking almost the exact as Mylene. I *Strongly* Believe in stealing food from the capital for a city, especially in a situation like this. Either steal the wheat or the Clams. I think the Clams are the better choice since it can work improved horses as its second tile, and get you some chariots to help fog bust and defend.

The other two 'close' sites will take a lot longer to mature.

 

[CreeDakota]

+1 to Mylene's suggest to share some food and to building scouting workboats.

Isolation changes the game alot so learning whether or not that is true would be my +#1 priority.

The obvious downside of isolation is trading but it does allow you to pursue wonders, skimp on military and to settle more slowly than normal since you are not fighting for land.

this also looks like a frustrating situation for barb galleys with all those little islands.

 

[Silverbow]

I did take Mylene's advice and settled the first city near the horse, and also settled the cow/FP/gold spot. But...

I have to apologize, as I actually played out the game in one fell swoop.

You're probably thinking WTH?! now, but let me explain.

I started REXing my land while fogbusting, crashed my economy to the point where I was losing gold at 0% at one point (and that was still before currency!), and once the first of world leaders met me (Napoleon), I was exceptionally behind:

Spoiler :

Things never really got better in the tech department, getting a trade was reason to celebration, and near the end of the game I was always ~10 techs behind everyone. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I was pretty much sure the game was a fail, so I just pushed on, never building units beyond a longbow per city and upgrading some chariots to take a barbarian city on the east coast. I was basically waiting to see who of the warmongers would invade me first and crush my bows with their infantry.

I met the other AIs, which were Shaka with vassal Boudica, Justinian, Sitting Bull and Gilgamesh.

Justinian and Sitting Bull were Christian, SB built the AP, so I converted when Justinian asked me in 1655 AD and spread Christianity in all my cities. At that point, my tech situation was abysmal like this:

Spoiler :

I kept playing on, wondering when will someone finally crush me, but Shaka & Boudica kept warring with Justinian, who capped Sitting Bull, Napoleon was building spaceship and Gilgamesh was wonderspamming. No one invaded me, ever. It was absurd.

Then I won AP election, checked the polls and saw that Shaka and Boudica have no Christianity, but if they did, my votes + Justinian's would net me ridiculous AP win. So I built some missionaries and sent them to their continent. I used one to spread Christianity to Boudica easily enough. But damned Shaka was in theocracy and unwilling to switch. So I gifted him a missionary, wondering what would happen. Somehow, he actually got Christianity spread. I don't think he even switched out of theocracy, WTH!? But I didn't complain, as afterwards the polls looked like:

Spoiler :

So now it was race against time, hoping that SB doesn't get mass media before the next vote.

And then:

Spoiler :

I have never been at war, and the few units I lost I lost to barbs:

Spoiler :

Final demographics:

Spoiler :

Final score:

Spoiler :

And the lands at the end, so you can see where I settled:

Spoiler :

Once again, I'm sorry. This game was utterly, incredibly cheesy and stupid, and I'm still astonished it ended in a win somehow. But on the bright side, it's time for immortal!

 

[lymond]

Yep, you found the way to spread a religion to civs and Theo.

Good cheesy win. I think we'd all like to see you try other victories.

Honestly though, the tech situation is concerning for the move to IMM. Not saying not to do it, but I'd like to see you in a better position on Emperor level.

 

[Silverbow]

I was in better position in the other 3 Emperor games - Zara was dominant, Hammurabi came from behind and terrible land and Sitting Bull was also near the top before being backstabbed by friendly Justinian due to hidden game mechanics I didn't know even existed.

And yeah, this game was a catastrophe in isolation, tech-wise. But I think it'll be more fun and useful to lose on immortal - I still have plenty of leaders left to eke out 3 Immortal and 1 Deity win, so I can afford to lose.

As for other wins, Alex was actually close to domination/conquest, as that 'diplomacy' was vassalage and superior firepower. But I know that diplo every time is boring. I'll try for space or domination/conquest if the Pericles game will lend itself to it. (Cultural win is something I've no skill at whatsoever, though attempting that might be funny)

 

[CreeDakota]

Isoloation is a unique animal and many players struggle under those circumstances.