All random emporer games

I'm new to lot of BTS stuff and am thinking to play a couple of all random emporer games to weed out fixated thinking and strategies and accustom myself to new BTS before moving on to next difficulties .

Setting

Map : Shuffle
Size : Standard
Climate: Random
Sea level : Random
Era : Ancient

Going to play the first start I get irrespective of starting position , civilization


First start

We start as Lincoln of America Philosophical/Charismatic great SE traits .

 

Thoughts on save move warrior 1 NE to check for other sea resources . We start with fishing so moving settler 1w and starting on workboat . Settling on spices gives 1 extra I think .


Will play around 100 turns and post it today night .

 

Yep, there's a start I would regen. Looking forward to it.

 

Settled in place and start research on animal husbandry while building workboat .

Capital has 2 grassland hills/1 plains hill/1 cow/ 1clam / 1 plain forest for a total of 13 shields at size 5


We get a scout from goody hut . Scout reveals fish+stone+cow in second city . Philosophical +Representation+ SE anyone


Do you want to see a depressing start here it is , not only are we isolated but we have trash territory . It looks like a cold climate start . Hopefully the Ai's have it bad as well.
With this much depressing terrain super specialist city Aka Obslete seems the only way out . There is a glimse of an island at the eastern coast, it either could be isolated allwoing us to settle or has another Ai for trading purpose.

We went workboat+worker+warrior(for fog busting) + workboat ( to scout the island east to us ).

Research Animal husbandry+ Bronze working -- no copper or horses . Still its a small island warriros sould be enough to fogbust.

 

Mystism research was a place holder there . I am thinking of next researching sailing, mystism, masonary so as to connect next city connected while build is after workboat >settler >worker .

We have 3 happiness resources silk,spices , furs
3 health fish, clam and cow .

Health is premier here so settling on coast ( not that our crappy land allows any other alternative ) and building harbor could mitigate it somewhat .

Happiness representation gives +3 in every city . Stonehenge gives a monument in each city which with charismatic provides extra 2 over other leaders.

Regarding cities

2) 1 se of stone would be our second city providing stone fast and will have decent production from 1 grassland hill , stone , cow,plains forest . Since we have a lake we can irrigate 2 grassland and with all excess food can run lots of scientist specialists .

3) 3rd city would be between those clams . It has 1 grassland hill and with stone can get maoi statues fast.

4) 4th city would be a ****** city with fish and 3 furs has no production at all. A few turns of slavery can help it get basic infrastructure but slavery would conflict with 2nd city which requires caste system for mass representation scientists

5) Sonewhere after calender we need a city on silk to get the silk and 2 furs online . It can share the cow from the second city . I think we have fur monopoly so we might be able to share some resources with rest of the world


Goal would be to get Stonehenge, Great lighthouse, Pyramids,Great Library in capital joining all great specialists. Capital could get Oxford / Iron works with all GP. Research towards Astronomy fast to get all those trade routes with Great lighthouse and trade resources . Still need a bit of info about that next land piece to fix strategy.

Will play play till we explore the eastern land with the workboat and then will wait for some feedback from the community regarding strategy .

Here's the save

 

Gave up on the game reason




Holy **** someone founded Confusciasm on turn 62 or 1520 bc on normal speed. The oracle hasn't been built yet . So some AI has gotten a multiple gem start !!!!!!!!!!. when I had such horrible land .

Completed Stonehenge , Great Lighthouse ,Pyramids, Maoi satatues in capital .


Got the health event helping unhealthy capital



That island to the east happened to be a 2 tile island


Going to fire up a new game.

 

Since getting shafted by the map generator in the first game fired up a new game . Not only was my start bad but some Ai got an extremely surreal start that was a pretty much impossible to win game without production tundra squares , poor resources and isolated .

Here's the new start, we're Gandhi of India .



Am going to play sometime tommorow.

 

Wow that sucks As acidsatyr used to say though, some games just are not winnable. Maybe this game would be winnable in the long run, but probably not. Tough one. I would've regenned it at 4000BC

 

edit: how the ... can i delete a post?

 

Well I checked the world editor afterwards , Mansa had multiple gems on a river start. He founded Hinduism , Confusiasm and Christianity without Oracle or prophet . He had 3 cities all holy cities and capital land . I got 2 Prophets joined one and was researching prerequistes to bulb Theology hoping for a post-optics Aphotic palace win when Chrisitanity was discovered. That was the last straw.

There was no way to win a isolated start without production , not even 6 cities and relegion .

 

Yeah, that is b-r-u-t-a-l. Mansa with multiple river gems??? That's insane. It would be hard enough if you had a decent start.

 

Huh, I gotta agree. The map generator has never been so mean to me

 

I tried this game. I'm in the middle and I may get a victory.



I got astronomy from a hut Will post more details later.

 

What victory are you shooting for . Playing through that ****** start really needs courage


From what I can make out from the minimap
1) You have settled 6 cities ..capital and new york are the only decent cities while the rest don't have any production unless you built maoi statues somewhere? . You seem to have a colony city somewhere near Mansa as well
2) You have used the collosus so Oracle> MC gambit? .
3) You seem to have been first at liberalism and took nationalism ?
4) You have settled a colony city means you have astronomy as well?..oh nvm you popped it
5) You have confuce in NewYork meaning Mansa found it in your game as well?.
6) You are researching military tradition so plan is to rush cuirrisars /cavalry in galleons and invade musa or some technological inferior rival?
7) Did you build GW or used warriors fog busting
8) Your happiness cap for capital should be a lot higher meaning you missed Pyramids or was it due to heath?

Am waiting update eagerly

 

I played on till about 1700 AD. I think this game is mostly in the bag unless something horrendous happens. Basically I'm setting up for a modern war to cripple the two AI that are still teching. Or I may just beat on the backwards civ and settle down for an SS win. Either option is open right now and it'll depend on how fast I can get to assembly line/combustion.

First my current tech screen:


And my VC screen:


I've crippled Vicky but haven't bothered to finish her off yet. She has a 1 tile island city and a tundra capital - neither of which are attractive enough to bother warring (and she's a target for her neighbor ). Darius has got himself into an unwinnable war (surprisingly) and MM is just teching alone. I've gone up a different tree from MM but we're roughly even in techs. He may be ahead by a bit.

So I settled on the same square that you did - on the silk. I built New York near the stone/cow and went masonry very early to hook up the stone. I got stonehenge + pyramids early, and also got... the lighthouse (not very useful for this map), hanging gardens (useful), Shwedagon Paya (early FR was very useful), UoS, and the Taj. I missed out on the other wonders as I just wasn't able to build them fast enough. I was close to getting the SoZ (1 turn short).

I played with 3 cities for a VERY long time. I should have gone CS earlier since I was essentially playing a modified OCC game. I put Moai in the capital and later built the NE there as well. New York was a very mediocre city - not much production and not much commerce. However I used it to turn out the few settlers that I did use. Boston was supposed to be a draft city but I realized that I didn't have enough hammers to build the globe so I gave up on that thought.

I made fairly early contact with MM because of Boston's borders - I traded a few techs since I was basically beelining liberalism. I took nationalism off of it since MM finished education and I had traded him philo. I got really lucky and popped astronomy off of a hut (first time!) when I settled the horses south of MM on the ice. I've built almost all of my cities coastal but they're all pretty crappy because they lack production - I wish I were Willem...

Once I got astronomy + MT + gunpowder, I built some cuirassiers and attacked Vicky. She was extremely backwards (no engineering) and only had LB defending her city so I took over the island she had settled with 6 cuirassiers I then took one of her mainland cities and took peace as I was running out of troops (I was basically building all of my troops out of Washington).

I then teched rifling to protect myself (draft rush if necessary) and am now going towards AL/combustion. I will get factories in Washington and NY. Probably also the ex-Vicky lands as that's much better than the tundra crap that I started on. Most of my initial cities are... still building old infra (useless). Since I'm going to be production limited, I will probably wait till destroyers/infantry before attacking Ramses and Survy to pick up more land. I imagine at that point, an SS and/or domination should both be possible. The tech rate is very slow on this map as almost all of the AI started isolated (the pair that didn't were at war). MM has 5 religions so I imagine he'll attempt a radio beeline and shoot for culture. That leaves me with about 100 turns to take out his core cities which shouldn't be a problem at the rate I'm going. I'm still running bureaucracy and will probably run it until the end of the game. I think that's a first for me.

I've attached the save in case you want to look.

 

Washington and NY are the only decent cities. The rest are just filler to make sure the AI doesn't settle anywhere stupid and to pick up resources. Even NY is a marginal city. The colony was to pick up horses.

Hardly. I skipped the oracle as I wanted the pyramids and stonehenge more. I didn't have enough time for the oracle - I think MM got it with MC and built the colossus.

Indeed I was.

My lucky moment in the game

MM got 5 religions. I was in FR so they just spread to me naturally. I've stayed in FR for the research bonus and to avoid being asked to adopt a religion.

I probably could have rushed MM. In hindsight that may have been a better option... However I still have a military tech advantage against him so I'm not too worried.

I used a single warrior for fog busting and took my chances with one defending axe wandering my lands. I didn't get many barbs as I also fogbusted the western penninsula of the starting island with workers. I had my cows pillaged once and that was it.

There are not many resources on the starting island (2?). In addition I was health capped as well.

 

I decided to jump onboard with a shadow game too, seemed like a fun challenge. The crappy starting position makes for a fun and different game than the standard. Went for the Pyramids and used the GE to hurry GL. Got in contact with MM quite early as I figured there was land where we can spot that fish on the western side of our land. Fish never spawn 2 tiles away from land like that so there had to be something there. Enforced a no-cottage rule upon myself too as I usually play higher difficulties (although I hardly consider it a handicap, it works fine, but makes for a more fun and different game). I will keep the cottages MM was kind enough to grow for me though.

Attacked MM somewhere in the 1500's with a rifleman army (so much later than I usually get them, this start really sucked) and took him as vassal in 1640 IIRC. As a result I now have 2 religious shrines and I expect my economy to boom pretty soon once I get some new infrastructure. Been researching steel for 210 years due to this draft&whip war, total stop after rifling (excluding trading away my former tech lead)!

Current tech situation. At a low point I think as I'm writing this just after the war against MM, should be able to climb to a solid lead again soon.



Game is going well, should win this. If you're looking at the save every tech in the log was gained through trading after rifling in the early 1400's somewhere. Haven't decided what to do after recovering my economy yet. It would be fun to attack Pacal though, but whether it's doable time will tell.

 

That was a good game . You guys inspired me , I dug up my start and played from 4000bc . Built G Lighthouse , Pyramids , Henge , Glibrary and Taj . I had an early contact with Mansa from a work boat and had an early trade economy + SSE .

Taking out Ramesses with Cavalry , Rifles am tech leader much above Mansa .





Got a funny event in the beginning my woodsman 2 scout ( popped from hut) got free Leadership promotion and is supposeldy the strongest warrior in the whole empire



Edit: Will complete the game and post it tomorrow.

 

Summarizing the game from my experience and Syuhe's and Rusten's games . This game was an eye-opening experience.

1)The start is brutal except capital almost all other cities are trash . Even the capital is less than desirable and you start isolated . Playing it like OCC with Representation and joining Super Specialists is the way to go .
2) Maoi+ National Epic in capital is a good combo for Oxford isn't possible with your less than 6 trash cities .
3) Almost all the AI start Isolated as well except for Victoria and Suryavarman who started on a single continent
4) Mostly Ai teching was slow(Exception Mansa ) with no tech partners and everyone going to the same military techs in beginning followed by banking route . Even Victoria , Surya are worst enemies with each other so no trading
5) Mansa was a special case staring with corn, fish , 2 river gems in his capital. When I first met him , he was miles ahead . While his research is just crazy in the beginning in the mid game SSE with representation can easily overtake him . 3 representation scientists equal to 2 financial river gems .
6)Even though his early game research was huge he couldn't leverage it as he had no neibhour to militarily dominate with his tech lead nor did he build wonders ( The great Library etc ) . His research path was dumb as well and he got optics and astronomy very late
7) Biggest factor I think was AI isloation .It doesn't know how to handle isolated starts , spams military ,has no trade routes ,goes for early construction> Engineering path and so on . If all the AI were in a happy continent trading with each other this would have been totally different.
8) After getting Optics, Astronomy and crazy tech brokering with everyone and getting a tech lead ,search for a sorry AI which is backward and take it out with Rifles / Cavalry . Seals will be also be useful late game.

 

I finished up my game with a diplo win. I got too tired to do the domination work (I had to go take out one more civ for the domination - only Darius and Pacal were left). I abused seals in my game. Charismatic seals makes for highly promotoed marines very quickly with march. I basically went along the coast harassing all of the AI cities using a large flotilla. It was quite an interesting map - I didn't expect almost all of the AI to start in isolation!