Berserks01 - Always War Cultural (Round 2)

[berserks01]

Round 1 didn't go as planned ... to put it nicely I'm ready to kick some serious behind this time around

Settings

Version: Warlord
Difficulty: Prince
Map: Pangea
Civ: Shaka
Speed: Normal
Victory: All enabled

The Variant

(1) Can only win by Cultural

The Roster
berserks01
frankcor
GreyFox
vra379971
Ozbenno
Swiss Pauli

The Start

 

[berserks01]

Do we want the scout to pop the hut or scout on another hill first, and pop it after we settle?

I'd settle in place unless something else pops up.

 

[Ozbenno]

Pop the hut after we settle, as that's the only way we can get free tech.

Warrior is of course the no brainer first build. Mining and Bronze Working the first techs?

 

[Swiss Pauli]

I'd want to sneak AH in first as we want to get an early worker, then mining => bronze.

 

[GreyFox]

Didn't noticed this got started ... anyway, we want to to get iron or copper ASAP to enable our Impi. So, opening moves might be Tech: Mining > AH > BW, and Build: Warrior > Warrior > Worker (at size 2).

You did select "No Tech Trading" this time, didn't you?

 

[berserks01]

Yup, "No Tech Trading" is on

Wouldn't Warrior > Rax > worker (at size 3) be better? or even warrior > worker > rax? that +3 exp could come in handy.

 

[Swiss Pauli]

Remember EXP gives double-hammers for workers so we'd want use that to get improving ASAP. And given we're AGG we'll have better warriors (than most) anyway, and I prefer quantity over quality at this stage as we'll have incoming from several directions.

 

[berserks01]

Good point. Never played with expansive before so I forgot about the double hammers for workers and settlers.

Will have this played in a bit.

 

[berserks01]

Turn 1 - Found Ulundi on the spot, and we have corn and pigs in our BFC. Starts researching Mining.

Turn 2 - Huts gave us a scout.

Turn 5 - Met Alexander.

Turn 8 - Huts gave us AH



Turn 9 - Huts gave 39g. Met Brennus.

Turn 11 - Mining in, starts BW. Met Isabella.



Turn 13 - Bella killed one of our scouts.

Turn 16 - Met Cyrus.

Our current surrounding.



We'll do the same 20 turns first round and 10 turns after.

The Roster
berserks01 - {just played}
frankcor - UP
GreyFox - {on deck}
vra379971
Ozbenno
Swiss Pauli

 

[berserks01]

And here my attemp at dot-mapping the current land as is. The 2 blue dots are really nice sites, but I'm not too sure about purple dot since it has too much jungle.

 

[Swiss Pauli]

Nice start. I so want to settle on those plains river Jumbos!

Any idea where the other civs are located?

 

[berserks01]

Oh yeah, forgot about that.

Issa is west of us. Cyrus is about 5 tiles south of the rice, and Alex is NE of us. Not sure where Brennus is tho.

 

[frankcor]

I'll pick this up and play tonight.

After Bronze Working, do we want to go for Archery? Impi's are good open field defenders but not so hot in city defense, if I recall.

When the worker completes, I'll start work on a barracks and then warriors. Feel free to change my mind.

 

[berserks01]

You'll probably get Archery before thw rax finishes so you can build archers instead

 

[Ozbenno]

We have a fairly exposed capital. Its going to be hard to stop the pillaging without a few cities surrounding the capital for protection.

I'd be keen to get the jumbos settled.

Archery would be good next.

 

[frankcor]

Inherited turn (3240 BC): Not much to micromanage -- I planned to get us some defense and start a settler for Jumbo-Horse City.

IBT: Our scout survived a Panther attack (7 turns to heal).

Turn 1 (3200 BC):

Turn 2 (3160 BC): Bronze Working came in and we have copper in Ulundi's fat cross:


We revolted to Slavery and started working on Archery(6).
. . .
Turn 5 (3040 BC): Ulundi trained a Worker who started roading to the copper site. Oh wait. We didn't have Wheel yet. Changed Archery to Wheel(8). I moved the worker to the copper site and started him working on a mine. We began construction of a ikhanda(7) -- a barracks that reduces maintenance costs by 20%.
. . .
Turn 7 (2960 BC): Ulundi constructed a Ikhanda and started a Warrior(8).
. . .
Turn 10 (2840 BC): Our scout finds Bibracte:


Brennus has copper too.

Our mine was completed. Because it's on our river, no road is needed. Dang, that was a :smoked: move in researching Wheel. Oh well, no need to rush on Archery any more. We stopped working on the warrior and started an Axeman(7).
. . .
Turn 14 (2680 BC): We finished Wheel, I decided to go back and finish Archery(2).

Turn 15 (2640 BC): Ulhundi trained an Axeman. The warrior in the production queue auto-upgraded to an Impi(4).

IBT: We met Hatty/Egypt.

Turn 16 (2600 BC): We finished Archery, started on Mysticism -- our first city will need a monument to pop borders.
. . .
IBT: Our scout survived a Wolf attack -- 1 turn to heal after taking a Woodsman I promotion.

Turn 19 (2480 BC): Ulundi trained an Impi, started an Axeman.

Turn 20 (2440 BC): We are two turns away from Mysticism and 4 turns away from our 2nd Axemen. I haven't whipped to let Ulundi grow to size 3. I suggest we start a Settler when the Axeman is done and go grab that Jumbo/Rice/Horse blue dot. Send the Axeman there to garrison and escort the Settler with our Impi. Then start cranking up an army.

Here is our world.


This map feels good for a culture win -- lots of green, lots of hills. Ooops, forget I said "culture." We have to tame this wild place first. Only then can we instill our Zulu culture upon it.

I feel like I wasted some in this turn set -- sorry 'bout that, team.
Here's the save: AWC_BC-2440.CivWarlordsSave

 

[Ozbenno]

Brennus looks close enough for a axe rush. 4-5 axes and we should wipe him if we move quickly. Do we feel its worth it?

 

[vra379971]

Hell yes! The less Duns the better!

 

[Swiss Pauli]

Looks like Bibracte is on a hill, so an axe rush would be risky.

 

[Immaculate]

Why in heaven's name are you using axes when you could use Impi? If he has no metals, you don't need any axes- they are basically equivalent- oh wait- one zooms across the map and one limps across it. Impi are so mobile that you will continue to find uses for them well into the renaissance. The are better then chariots, HA, and knights for mobility but retain a defense bonus (great for parking on forested hills) and get a bonus against mounted units- they are great choking/pillaging units.

I suggest you send 2-3 impi (and an axe?) to every nearby capital (build only impi once you get two cities up with your special barracks building) and start squeezing them... you don't have to take the capital cities, just intercept settlers, prevent worker improvements and generally harass them. If he has founded a satellite city with no defensive bonuses, it may be possible to raze those. Once you get catapults, send a few of those to actually take the city itself. This sort of strategy worked for quite a few people in the WOTM where we played as the Zulu.