[BTS] BOTM 154 - Hathsie Monarch, First Spoiler to 1 AD

[Deckhand]

BOTM 154: Warrior Queen Hattie of Egypt.

How did you do in the BC years?
Which save did you take? Any interesting events?
What victory are you pursuing?
Remember to "go for the cow!"

Map Makers Challenge: Cow Award

Stop! If you are participating in BOTM 154, 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

 

[Xcalibrator]

I took the Immortal save, aiming for Space and thinking that Immortal AIs would help me with my tech progress. In practice, not so much; I don't know why, but they seem reem really slow. I plan to conquer all but one or two whom I'll leave alone/help or vassalize/direct. Justy looks like a good candidate, and maybe Pacal. One tricky thing is trying to keep the good Wonders out of their hands. I didn't go for the Oracle as I don't have marble--perhaps a mistake. I think the only Wonder I have is the Hanging Gardens.

I settled SW of the corn so I could also get the fish and one gem. Pretty happy with that as it has good food and lots of river grass squares for cottages and levee. #2 went SE on top of northernmost ivory, #3 E on the PH 2N of stone (wanted for Mids fail gold and other Wonders), #4 to the SW coast with rice, 2 gems, and fish (heavily farmed to become Nat'l Epic city), #5 on the NE coast on top of horses and with fish (eventual Moai), #6 to the south W of western dye. At 1 AD that's 43 pop and #1 in score with 657, with Justy in #2. Some AI have some combo of Aesth, Calendar, and Polytheism but I'm overall ahead techwise and will be able to build WEs next turn. I plan to attack Vicky first and then probably Sal. The western civs are bickering among themselves a lot. With such nice land, I expect certain more aggressive players to have 80 cities popuation.

Thanks for the game, DH! I'm enjoying this very much, getting to indulge my inner builder.

 

[lymond]

Monarch save

Stopped at 200BC with 13 cities, as I may not play this game for another week or two

Settled in place. Seemed logical to me, and saved fish helper city. Teched Ag>BW>AH(WCs)>fish>pot>Oracle techs>writing. I may have gone AH first ..I wanted WCs fast.

Build Oracle in Fish/Horse city slowly waiting for CS sling, which I got. Annoyingly Joao built Mids before me, and I don't even know where he is. I could have gotten it too if I just pursued it straight up but figured I was a lock for it and built more WCs and fail gold.

Built GLH in Madrid very fast.

Harassed Sal for some free workers like 3 or 4 times. Meanwhile, built some WCs and took two of Izzy's cities, then peace for some techs and took her last city later.

Attacked Chuck, and took his gold copper city (copper not hooked up), stole some workers, but ceasefired as he had tons of archers in Aachen. Shaka DOWd him shortly after, so I waited a couple of turn for Chuck to move his stuff around. Shaka took some border city to the south, and I swept in at stole Aachen and some other city to the west, ending the HRE.

Now bullying Vicky, preventing here from getting iron hooked up and taking a nearby city. Trying to play around with her archers until I'm strong enough to take here out. Working my way to Eliecats for more damage. Hope to wipe out everyone in my vicinity early (Vicky, SB, Justy, Sal and Louie). May keep Justy around though and vassal feed him.

Of course, I now have Rags and Shaka bordering me to the west. Relations not bad/not great. Probably just keep them bribed on each other or someone else before hitting them. Oh..this game would be so good with Conquest on . Not really sure what I want to do here. Nice culture setup.

Most AIs fairly slow with everything, but Joao seems pretty content wherever he is.

Cities settled besides cap: Horse/fish(NE), Fish/gems/rice (W), Ivory helper (due S), Fish/stone(E), Fish helper(just N)...shortly settle copper helper just E

 

[MarleysGh0st]

I took the Monarch save and settled in place. By 1 AD, I only had 6 cities, 2 of which were captured from barbs.

I'm going for a Religious Victory. I founded Judaism, then used the Oracle for Theology, thereby founding Christianity. At 1 AD, the AP is under construction in Thebes.

Two events triggered barb uprising (Vedic Aryans and Philistines), although I couldn't see where they happened. Vicky did temporarily lose York to barbs, so she might have been the target of that first uprising. Another event helped me spread my religion and converted Vicky.

I almost made it through the BC peacefully, but Sitting Bull attacked me in 50 BC. Not that he's in a position to press an attack...

 

[Deckhand]

Two events triggered barb uprising (Vedic Aryans and Philistines), although I couldn't see where they happened. Vicky did temporarily lose York to barbs, so she might have been the target of that first uprising.

Interesting, I was under the impression the most egregious events were disabled in BUFFY. Not the case for the Vedics it would seem.

 

[nocho]

I settled NW on the coast, at 1AD I'm not quite at xcal's projected 80 cities, just 13 atm. I killed Isabella with WCs and captured half the cities of HRE, including Aachen. No wonders yet, but Hanging Gardens should be done soon. Didn't bother with Oracle until too late, mids were built far off in Portugal. 12 workers who have a lot to do. Tech up to CS, calendar and currency. Forgot to revolt to bureau. If I have the stomach, I might try for my first time victory ever.

 

[Xcalibrator]

I settled NW on the coast, at 1AD I'm not quite at xcal's projected 80 cities, just 13 atm.

D'oh, I meant 80 pop, which I'll bet you have.

 

[nocho]

D'oh, I meant 80 pop, which I'll bet you have.

Lol, 80 pop should be feasible, but I'm quite far from it at 54. Capital doing fine at size 11/12, but the rest is size 5 or less. Maybe been whipping too much or too depended on producing my own workers.

 

[Fine_Distinction]

My first GOTM, having a lot of fun. I have been a casual on and off civ IV players for years, normally playing peaceful noble games out-teching AIs and abandoning them early, when my domination became evident, so this is very new to me. I was trying to channel "Warrior Queen Hattie", built a bunch of WCs and harassed neighbors, but with limited success. The first Isabella's city I got was settled on Stone, no food resources, so I just razed it. Got another HRE city far away ad decided to keep it due to nice resources and pop, but forgot about distance maintenance, so it was ruining me costing 12g per turn in maintenance but gifting it felt wrong. Now I got couple more cities just before 1AD, several still in revolt, 1-2 pop. I have only 10 cities together with around 43 pop, definitely not that great. Expansion is definitely my weakness, I settled in place and settled 2 helper cities before T50, than try to got more workers and cities by conquest with limited success, and finally started to built my own workers.
What are best strategies on map that crowded? Should I raze that Stone city? Cannot image how Lymond can have 13 cities @200BC and among them 6 self-settled?
The only part I feel I did quite well was teching, I prioritized research and just got maces just before 1AD Got also Oracles and Mids, I decided Mids are priority for SPI but then it looked like I can get Oracle relatively safely, so I went for it. Great Lighthouse was built by Vicky, I'll try to conquer it, since my economy is in a bad shape, might be a better deal than researching currency, at least more fun.
I hope that now that I have maces I will catch up, although my production capabilities are limited and I hate whipping, which anyway is more painful now in bigger cities and impossible to whip maces in pop 2s.

How many workers & cities do you guys have? what are you teching? I have not decided for a victory type yet and playing it up by the ear. I feel like I know what to do until about turn 50 (2 helper cities, maximally efficient use of a worker(s)), but getting lost later. Here, I went for the Mids and war techs, trying to not get bankrupt and adapt to the map (Calendar). I was normally playing with tech trading turned off, so not sure what I sure research and what is a chance of getting from AI.

Anyway, I may have trouble finishing this game, just managed to install McBuffy couple days ago, so was rushing through the early turns. Any feedback/suggestions welcome, I hope to become a better player and learn new ways to play civ.

 

[Deckhand]

@Fine_Distinction - welcome to gotm!

I always say gotm is the only reason I finish games. Having the goal to submit and possibly outscore a couple players is a reason to finish.
When I started playing, a friend would prefer to disable tech trading as he hated seeing AIs making trades and getting ahead. From civfanatics I learned that warring and trading are two major areas we humans can out perform the AI.

 

[Fine_Distinction]

T

@Fine_Distinction - welcome to gotm!

I always say gotm is the only reason I finish games. Having the goal to submit and possibly outscore a couple players is a reason to finish.
When I started playing, a friend would prefer to disable tech trading as he hated seeing AIs making trades and getting ahead. From civfanatics I learned that warring and trading are two major areas we humans can out perform the AI.

Thank you, Deckhand, for the welcome, I am having a lot of fun so far, although had many screw ups already. But you are right, in my many years of on and off civ career, I probably finished no more than a single game, I normally get bored much faster. But will be really interesting to compare with other people, different strategies played from the same start, etc. Hope that more write ups are coming.

 

[Xcalibrator]

FD, do you know about the xOTM replay tool? It lets you see when techs were discovered, cities settled, wars declared, etc. The Civ 4 War Academy is a collection of good tactics/strategy articles.

 

[Fine_Distinction]

Hi Xcal, no, never heard of it, sounds like a great tool! I know War Academy, have been lurker here for a while, Civ Strategy and Tips have always been my favorite section.

 

[babybluepants]

Submitted an incomplete game in the 600's BC. I had to put this game aside for two weeks while on vacation, and I couldn't get motivated to continue.

SIP. Killed Vicky first, followed by Louis, then reduced Sal to 1 city. Took one city from Izzy so far. I settled 4 cities and built 1 worker only, captured I think 6 and 8 7 and 9 respectively.

Oracled CS, when Currency would have definitely been better. Also completing Pyramids soon with some fail gold. Both wonders in London - former English slaves have been chopping all those lovely forests there.

Got Vedic Aryans right next to my capital which really set me back. My first stack was 1-2t from attacking Vicky and had to turn back and spend a bunch of turns dealing with them. I hate events.

 

[Fine_Distinction]

Submitted an incomplete game in the 600's BC. I had to put this game aside for two weeks while on vacation, and I couldn't get motivated to continue.

Killed Vicky first, followed by Louis, then reduced Sal to 1 city. Took one city from Izzy so far. I settled 4 cities and built 1 worker only, captured I think 6 and 8 respectively. Oracled CS, when Currency would have definitely been better.

Got Vedic Aryans right next to my capital which really set me back. My first stack was 1-2t from attacking Vicky and had to turn back and spend a bunch of turns dealing with them. I hate events.

What are Vedic Aryans? Seems like your game was going very well in terms of conquest, I also planed to get workers from waring, didn't work well, I realized after 100 turns that I had very few, which definitely set me back. I got 3 barbarian cities nearby, but not VA.

 

[lymond]

What are Vedic Aryans? .

It's an event that spawns around 4 barb units near your border. I think the unit type is random. I too thought that event was removed in BUFFY.

 

[Fine_Distinction]

It's an event that spawns around 4 barb units near your border. I think the unit type is random. I too thought that event was removed in BUFFY.

Thanks, @lymond. Never happened to me, sounds nasty.