[BTS] BOTM 132 - First Spoiler to 1AD

[kcd_swede]

BOTM 132 - Ragnarök - First Spoiler to 1 AD

Use this thread to tell us what happened in your game, up to 1AD!


Were you pre-game settling plans working out as you hoped? Anything tricky come up?



Stop! If you are participating in BOTM 132, then you MUST NOT read this thread unless EITHER

• You have reached at least 1 AD in your game, OR
• You have submitted your entry

Posting Restrictions

• Please do not disclose ANY events or information gained post 1 AD.
• Please do not reveal your final result if that happened after 1 AD.
• Please do not discuss the location of resources that may not show up before 1 AD. (Iron is OK, coal and oil are not)
  
• Do not post any savegame file from the game. Discussions and screenshots are fine but not actual games

 

[High King J.J.]

Nice one KCD. Give us an always war -neighbour with horses and deny us any metals to make spears. Oh well, at least I won't be spending time on this any more. Maybe it's good that you stop being an mapmaker.

 

[nocho]

Nice one KCD! The lack of any bronze in the known world and horses only off-shore was a bit cruel, but being nervous about Mongol horses I bit the bullet and self-teched IW. I was on time to settle on top of it at the site on the peninsula north of us and then had spears ready just when Khan appeared with a sizeable chariot stack through the south. I stuffed that southern passage afterwards with 2 spears, eliminated a Mongol city on that peninsula with stone, pig and fish as it was only defended by chariots and then resettled it and then also stuffed the northern access wiith spears, so for now it looks safe.

By 1AD at 11 cities for 42 pop, only 5 workers though. Went for Stonehenge early and then GLH. As the Oracle was available late, built that too, but only for CoL. Self-teched monarchy for much needed happy. Currently I'm in a GA and with some wealth doing a reasonable 190 bpt sustainable, will convert to confu soon. CS is due in 3 turns. With marble and stone will likely wonder-spam a bit more, although mids have gone somewhat earlyish for monarch at 750BC. So far only met the Dutch, uncharacteristically he hasn't been very useful for trading yet. Spotted Humbaba on the Sumerian island/continent.

 

[kcd_swede]

Metals was on purpose... being a Viking is not supposed to be easy. Originally, the southern passage was closed, so only amphibious dangers... but that got boring. Being a Viking is not supposed to get boring.
The horse/bronze situation should have been an early discovery since you were at war with Mongols. I figured most would go for Iron, others would Oracle Feudalism, or at least go to the island and get some horses. Even spamming archers should get you to longbows (in play-testing it did). The south passage was pretty far, and in play-testing it took a LONG time for Mongols to find it, so you had windows of opportunity if you looked hard enough for them (quickly enough). Anyhow, judging by High King JJ's reaction, I'm glad I at least put back the iron that I originally deleted. I did not do it to be kind... it was simply a selfish impulse to see some of you experts play with some berserkers. BTW: Once you get those babies up and going berserk, this one should be a cake-walk.

 

[High King J.J.]

In my game a Mongol scout actually found my capital (or the borders of it anyway) before I had explored the south passage. By the time I could see iron and maybe colonize the northern peninsula the Mongols had chariots there and a stack of them approaching from the south. At that point it was no use trying to whip archers in the cities. But you obviously made the map for the experts and people who love early wars. I'm neither. Enough said.

 

[Pangaea]

Wooh, finally got to 1AD. Great map so far. It feels more like an SGOTM than GOTM, and that is definitely a compliment. It looks bloody massive though, pun intended

In the start, my scout went NW-NW, and spotted the coastline. With great risk of killing seafood, it was a no-brainer to settle 1S on plains hill. 2nd city went NW for the clam and such there. Surprisingly the non-riverside grassland is interpreted as riverside, probably because of the freshwater lake, which the game sometimes misunderstands. Great here though, as that meant at least one good cottage spot for the capital.

The Mongol scout found me early too, very early (think it was T18, as I made a note of it at the time). Figured the scout was pre-placed (sounds like it wasn't?), because I thought the land was blocked off, but eventually I located him through the ice. No copper in sight was a bad omen. Glad I at least spotted horses, although it was far away. Once I traded for IW (didn't self-tech it), I spotted it on Kublai's side, and decided to plant a city on top of it. Ferried an archer and settler over, and soon after a spear and another archer. Had already settled the horse-island, so iron city borrowed the improved fish. That meant I could pretty quickly whip a spear, so it's never been in danger. A stack of 6 chariots went back and forth without attacking, so I decided to counter them with spears. Only two left now.

Built GLH in 1600-something. Kublai built Stonehenge and Great Wall. All early wonders went very late, and with Oracle not gone, I had to take the chance on it. Capital wasn't well-suited for it, most forests had been chopped into GLH, but a city further west had several forests, so two workers went to work, with max overflow into it. Had self-teched Alpha, but I was very pleased when it was still possible to Oracle Civil Service. That meant Buro+HR change in 700BC or thereabouts (waited 2 turns so I could do both).

That makes for a nice start. Have 9 cities (3 on horse island, building a settler for a 4th). Doing 250 at 1AD, at -89. Capital is size 12, soon 13. Wouldn't be possible without HR, but there are currently 'only' 3 MPs.

Some chariots snuck through the ice to attack us, around T90. Oddly enough they went through much of the territory, and targeted the second city, forking the capital. None were in real danger, as I had 3 guys in each city, but capital only had 3 warriors (and losing MPs would have sucked). Thankfully 2 brand new archers won, so the problem was removed.

Recently I landed 4 berserkers on Kublai's land. It turned out to be right next to his capital. Light landing force, but I hoped it was possible to snag something. But it's on a hill behind 60% defence (damn wonders), with guerilla archers. Hadn't seen any melee units, so hoped he had no metal at least. Of course, the darn bugger whips an axeman in-between turns after I landed. Slight chance to take it, but it's surely a waste of units. 60% odds isn't going to work with 4 vs 3. Think I'll move them inland and hope for another easier target. Admittedly I could have attacked stone-pig city earlier, but it was size 2 so I wanted to wait, and also strike where it hurts more. Maybe I can take out his horses and metal. Certainly don't want to face up to darn Keshiks...

I've met Willem too, and one more AI. But maybe best I don't mention that? Have also very recently spotted another border, which I think is another proper AI, but doesn't look like I can get actual contact yet. Looks like the map is kind of divided up in two sections. I lost a few explore boats trying to get circumnavigation, but eventually I got the deed done. Gotta love 4-moving galleys

Presumably this game is going to be a mammoth to complete since the map looks rather large. And Gilgamesh does indeed have a very nasty friend..... Literally laughed out loud when I saw that thing. Perhaps best not to say much more than that, as it's not something all will know about at 1AD. Much depends on exploration early, and luck with enemy galleys. And of course luck with what paths you take.

Okay, this got longer than intended. Very fun map so far, but also pretty challenging. Had you removed that iron as well.... dangit. Would be a shame to play Vikings on such a hostile map without a real chance to build Berzerkers.

 

[Pangaea]

Sounds like bad tidings, @High King J.J. Did you lose cities? If things really went south, you can always try to replay the game. Obviously can't submit it then, but as it's a unique map, and challenging, maybe it would be a good exercise anyway. And with map knowledge, you know how to approach it better.

 

[Pangaea]

Great. Need to sit on a donut-shaped pillow for the next 8 weeks

 

[MeowZeDung]

@Pangaea Ouch! And at those odds! My condolences. The RNG can be fickle.

Welp, I have never played an always war variant, so this was certainly a learning experience. I completely underestimated the AI. Once I saw the length of the ice passage and the mountain range blocking the more direct route between Kublai and us, I figured I had until after 1AD easily on Monarch difficulty. Got the GLH, began settling the landmass east of the capital, and just as I was about to plop a fifth city down ~800BC, 4 Mongolian chariots peek over the horizon. With only garrison warriors in my cities, I saw the writing on the wall and submitted my abandoned game.

Very clever @kcd_swede Clever and devious. Still, I'm happy to have played. Now I will know what to expect in future xotm/gauntlets that have always war or something similar going for them. I might even give this one another go just to see what I can do with it!

 

[lymond]

did you mean 800BC?

 

[WastinTime]

Interesting writeups everyone. Quite a few differences.
This is a lot of fun. Nice scenario. Thx for letting us enjoy Berserkers. I probably would have not played on if we had no metal.
I figured the best strategy on a 4 continent map was fast Astro, but to bulb that quickly, you need to avoid Civil Service (cus bulbs go to Paper and Edu).
But I play GotMs for the fun twists and try to stick with the flavor, so I was going to do CS-sling and go berserk.

I have a nice army of ~10 Berserkers (among others). Willy is almost dead. I captured his Stonehenge, TempleOfArt, and Budda shrine.
~10 galleys with 4 movement each
I circumnavigated long ago, so I can bring new units to Willy's doorstep in 1 or 2 turns.

I'm luring Humbaba around and I should be able to take out Gilga's 2 cities if I want to, and Humbaba will disappear.
The main reason I'm considering it is the Gems, but I also need the cash.

RE: Mongols
Fortunately a scout found me or I would probably not have figured out there was a south passage I also thought there were going to be barbs, so my scout was spawnbusting for a while.
Better late than never, my scout staked out the south passage and saw 4 chariots around T84.
I had to battle them ~T90 with a stack of my own chariots.
Because of my rush to get horses up I settled next to them instead of on the PH. (probably everyone did?)
^^ This allowed me to pop borders with the Oracle in this city to get the Iron with a fort+road, so I have no cities over there.
I tried to tackle the next wave with spears, but after killing one, they ran home.
Now, at 1AD, round 3 just appeared, so I have about 6 turns to prepare for 1 Keshik and 3 chariots.
I didn't think to do this, but I'm pretty sure you can block the passage with 1 scout (where there's only 1 tile) and the AI won't try to come down that way. Did anyone do this? I'd like to know if it works as expected.
I've been stealing workers and killing chariots with spears, but I'm starting to think I should have hit him a little harder.
I told myself at the beginning to ignore the minor civs cities and focus on the real AI.
-------------------
My biggest regret is not doing Monarchy/HeredRule on my own. The AI loves to trade it, so I couldn't bring myself to do it. This is a really slow teching Monarch. I finally have it and will be switching after 1 AD.

I'm chopping out MoM in a couple turns and I'll do a 12 turn golden age to get a few Great Merchants. That should get me to Astronomy....hopefully before I run out of people to kill in the reachable area. I'm just finishing up Compass, then Optics.

When I'm done, maybe I'll play again with HeredRule. Probably right get it after Oracle-CS.

 

[MeowZeDung]

did you mean 800BC?

Yeah

 

[WastinTime]

I'm luring Humbaba around and I should be able to take out Gilga's 2 cities if I want to, and Humbaba will disappear.

Can anyone confirm that Minor Civ units will disappear when the last city is gone? They don't hang around like barbs I hope.

update: yes, they all vaporize.

 

[MarleysGh0st]

Early on, my scout discovered the mountain chain to the west, that blocked my path to the Mongols, so I thought that was that. I never bothered exploring the southern edge of the tundra, and so that sneaky, southern passage was left undiscovered by me for the longest time. Nice trick, kcd! Luckily, after realizing I had no copper, I researched IW early, and my fourth city was settled next to the iron across the northern bay. By the time K.K.'s chariot stack showed up, I had just enough time to defend my cities with spears.

I Oracled Metal Casting (was afraid to wait too long for CS). Willem then beat me to the GLH, but I completed the Colossus in 25 BC. The Mongols must be eliminated before I think of any other targets, but by 1 AD, I haven't yet taken a city.

 

[petersc]

Great. Need to sit on a donut-shaped pillow for the next 8 weeks

Ouch!

 

[LowtherCastle]

Ouch!

Yeah, that's comically outrageous.

 

[Deckhand]

I had my scout watching the southern passage. Was surprised by 5 chariots at turn 100. Exciting and concerning. But had at least 4 archers and warrior in capital when they arrived. GK lost 3 chariots, 1 withdrew and last retreated. So, I won first round.
Had some confidence in defending archers as I've had poor success attacking with chariots myself.

Only four cities:
Settled SW (fish, 2 deer, sheep, crabs); N of Fur; SW of Horse; and just settled between pigs and Iron. (Hoping GK will keep going long way and not notice us there until I have metal).
Oracled CS and built Great Lighthouse.
Otherwise very slow going. Researched Horseback Riding after seeing attacking chariots (considered Feudalism for Longbows, decided against it). Teching Construction now, plan to build catapults and go on offensive vs Mongols.

 

[Deckhand]

kudos to kcd_swede for actually designing and play testing his maps.

Spoiler :

unlike some lazier map makers