Board Game - Coastal Zara

[Patchface]

No new game on the board tonight so I rolled one. Leader is Zara

I am on my 2nd go through. First time the barbs killed me so watch out

 

[Patchface]

Heres the save

 

[RD-BH]

WB>>EraseMode>>Checkmate in 1.

What? I don't like it when you call me stoopid

 

[Patchface]

Ya that was my 2nd go through. First time i was killed by barbs. 2nd try a warrior would have killed my 2nd city so I zapped him

I play to have fun

 

[Prodeo]

Played till 675BC

Spoiler :

At first glance this looked like a crappy map; tundra/ice to the north and blocked by nappy/sury/hatchet in the other directions. However there are some decent sites to settle:






Working the silver this city should be a small net gain, while getting two early happy resources.

Barbs were bit off a hassle, had to delay settling and almost lost the deer/horse site to Nappy:



Luckely we have copper and with some decent fogbustin barbs are now a non-issue. Copper and phants screams elepults. Hatchet looks like a very nice first target; she's also blocked off, so should be a quick lunch. She has stonehenge (free steele's should really help culture turfwar) and being that she's blocked and has stone, she might land the mids which would fuel the rush trough PS (Go you wonderwhore! ).

Meanwhile Nappy Dow'ed Pericles and has taken a city:



Techpad:: farming >> mining >> BW >> TW >> Fishing >> Writing
Set up library in capital (with some delay thanks to the freaking barbs) and ran 2scientist. This turn got the GS and bulbed Maths.

 

[pigswill]

Played to 1360bc.

Spoiler :

Went for early Gwall, built c 2400bc before any settlers, still had time to whip out three settlers for four cities. I'll let the AI fight off the barbs. Probably go for Glib>lib>something depending on strategic resources.

 

[Prodeo]

675BC - 500AD

Spoiler :

Started to built Axes and spears untill I teched construction in 450BC (Traded it for alpha). Chopped out some cata's and once I had a sufficient large enough stack, I switched production to research and got HBR in 125BC. Dow'ed Hatchet in 175BC:

Spoiler :

It was a quick war and in 25AD I made peace for Theology which I traded around (MC, Currency, Monarchy and Calendar) to the Hindu block (MM, Nappy and Pericles).
As predicted Hatchet built the mids which allowed me to switch to PS. Also got the jewish shrine for +13GPT. Got Theology for peace in 25AD. Traded it around to the hindu block for MC, Currency, Monarchy and Calendar.

Spoiler :

Diplo was panning out nicely. I wanted to attack Sury next cause he had the GLH and I had quite a few coastal cities. He was Jewish together with Hatchet, so I could declare without suffering diplo relations with the hindu block (would adopt hindu later on). Monty was the only buddhist around.

The turn after I make peace Sury dow'ed Monty, making him an even better target . I positioned a stack in french territory so I could take out his phant city asap when I declared in 200AD. Again a pretty quick and succesfull war (His ballistas did take out a few of my phants) and left me with Fuedalism and the GLH when I made peace in 500AD.

Spoiler :

Meanwhile I settled the island to the south. Combined with GLH I'm finally back at a positive GPT @ 0% research. There's another barb city on that island which I'm planning to raze asap to be able to settle the fish spot on the island.
Also teched CoL >> trade for Aest with MM >> Lit. Got a Heroic Epic city up and TGL in the capital.
Whipped a library in memphis and ran two scientist (---> 12GPP/turn, with the wonders). In 3turns I'll have a GP (GPh//GS//GE 40%/40%/20%). I'll use the GPh for a GA (MoM is coming in in 5turns, hopefully), the GS to bulb philo or the GE to bulb Engineering.

I'm planning to vassal Monty asap (he's able to research feud) and then Nappy (not so urgent, he's at (his second) war with Pericles (who bribed Hatchet in) and he's totally tech backwards. While getting my cities in shape; forges, monasteries, temples (MM rushed AP with GE) and cheap courthouses) and teching towards engineering.

 

[ben-jammin]

Interesting start. Instantly rules this out as a future cottage bureau capital, but aside from a lack of riverside it's pretty great.

 

[Manco Capac]

Shame there are so many plain hills. More grass hills that start would enter into HoF start category 100%.

 

[ben-jammin]

It's gotta be pretty great for the computer to give you the blue circle in the right place

 

[Manco Capac]

zat true? Man, there is one chance out 1000 it happens. Just as rare as planetary alignments.

 

[ben-jammin]

Well, this turned into my fastest immortal victory ever at 1210. The start is really strong but that's not what did it:

Spoiler :

You actually get very limited land and would have to expand into a lot of tundra if you went with a peaceful expansion. I saw horses nearby and with a sissy like Hatshepsut next door the HA rush was obvious.

Everything just went right in this game. Hatty had horses so I face almost exclusively war chariots, not a single spear. Half her available WCs were trapped up exploring in the tundra and only managed to kill a fogbusting warrior. Left Hatty with one city to get a couple techs for peace as I'd managed to trade HBR for alpha. Did the lit->music path, eventually bulbed philo/edu/lib. At this point Napoleon and Greece had been at war for quite a while and were both backward. I moved my HAs to the other side of the empire and helped myself to Paris where he had just built the Great Lighthouse and another city which I think left Napoleon with 2 cities. Took peace for techs. Settled on the offshore island i'd scouted with a workboat, where I had one of my spots stolen by invincible barb spawn.

At some point I realized Monty was was way behind in techs and gave him alpha and a few other things to declare on Mansa. This war lasted most of the game, and Sury backstabbed Mansa as well.

With stone and eventually marble I built the mids, parthenon, great library, the epics, the taj, tons and tons of fail gold. At some point gems popped by the capital, and the AIs were already way behind in research. Libbed MT, upgraded HAs and elephants to cuirs with a GMerchant, crushed everybody in about 20 turns. Didn't need to tech after gunpowder, I killed a total of 4 pikemen and 3 knights.

I foolishly developed a strong cottage spot where I built the palace but in the end that was a big waste of time and hammers because I didn't need the research.

TL;DR - Ridiculous HA rush + war bribe gimp all the AIs, cuirs win map in 20 turns.

built:

killed: