[BTS] BOTM 158 Emperor Zara First Spoiler to 1AD

[Deckhand]

BOTM 158: Emperor Level, Zara

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


How did you do in the BC years?

Stop! If you are participating in BOTM 158, 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

 

[DynamicSpirit]

First game I've played for quite a while

I settled in place. Scouting around revealed this was going to be a very challenging starting area, with few good sites for cities, and also few resources. It also became clear that most good places were going to be coastal - something I tend to expect with terra scripts anyway. I therefore decided the great lighthouse was key. but with 8 opponents on emperor level, building it before an AI did time would be something of a risk. So I threw practically everything into great lighthouse as soon as possible, managing to get it in the capital around 1200BC.

At 1AD I have 7 cities, researched to calendar, code of laws, monarchy, and 7 turns away from civil service. I managed to circumnavigate with workboats, and have met all the AIs. On the other hand, there's territory to the west of our own continent that I haven't yet explored - but I get the impression I won't find anything useful there if I do explore it. I'm thinking, I'll probably conquer our neighbours the Babylonians, just because they have horsies. After that, it looks like I'll have to head to the continents to the North to get some fertile land, which is going to mean cross-continent invasions . On the up side, 114 bpt science at 100%, and I'm just 5 turns from a lighthouse-fuelled great merchant, which ought to secure that 100% research for a while. And it's quite nice to be the #1 civ in score on emperor level without any warring

One minor frustration... Three golds by the starting area. The one visible at the start is in the capital's BFC. The other two... I just cannot see a way to sensibly use them. I have a potential city pencilled in 5S of the capital which will pick up both golds and the stone, but it won't have enough food until biology. So looks like both golds will have to go unused for anything except AI trades

 

[Deckhand]

Scouting around revealed this was going to be a very challenging starting area, with few good sites for cities, and also few resources. ..
One minor frustration... Three golds by the starting area. The one visible at the start is in the capital's BFC. The other two... I just cannot see a way to sensibly use them.

I regenerated the map until: an interesting map, with enough food and gold (or gems) in starting area. oops, I didn't ensure the golds were useful. I did notice the island to the north had better city sites.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

I regenerated the map until: an interesting map, with enough food and gold (or gems) in starting area. oops, I didn't ensure the golds were useful. I did notice the island to the north had better city sites.

Ha ha, no worries. Dealing with these kinds of challenges is what Civ is all about. And of course being able to recognise when something on the map that looks tempting is actually harmful! I'll be interested to see what other people made of the golds. Maybe other people came to a different conclusion?

I did actually think about a couple of possible ways of getting them into the BFC's of other cities, but all the ways I could think of meant pretty sub-optimal cities. I was for example tempted to settle on the hill S-SE of the eastern gold. A city there with a lighthouse would have three 3F2C lake tiles to give some food, so you could work the gold with 1F/turn growth. But it would have been a slow-growing city (and with 4 mountains to boot), it would've been a while before I could work the gold, and it would have made it difficult to fit other cities in to take advantage of the corn and furs to the SE - and with so few happy resources, those furs had to take priority. So I was already inclined to just forego that gold. When iron working came in and I realised putting a city there would probably orphan one of the irons too, that clinched it.

 

[Major Tom]

Thanks for interesting map, havent tried tectonics before. I also rushed The Great Lighthouse, teched alpha, currency and MC while waiting for maths coming for trade. While waiting for maths i took a shot at Christianity but missed being first by one turn. Also have 7 cities. With cheap lighthouses and farming green freshwatertiles I have no problem working 2 goldmines and still grow. Have only met 4 AIs, my exploring workboats eaten by barb gallies. Also barb gallies created havoc for me so had a detour for MC and triremes.

Not sure how to do endgame. Space perhaps, cheap libraries, universities, Oxford.. and so on. Maybe.

 

[nocho]

Haven't played for a while, so was eager to try this one out. I also SIPped, second city went on the rice and then also went straight to the GLH, absolutely required on this map. Founded Confu, tech is up to currency, calendar and 3 turns from CS. I have 11 cities, but they're quite small still, so just 36 pop with 6 workers. 3 cities of on the northern island. Barb galleys are a bit of a pain, but luckily they also get distracted chasing enemy workboats. Either space or defaulting to domination are the likely paths forwards.

 

[mscellaneous]

A fun and interesting map. SIP and put my 2nd city also on the rice. Build GLH which works wonders on this map. At 1AD my empire has 8 cities and only 3 workers with another settler and 2 workers being build this turn. Switched to Buro and CS this turn. Running Judaism with most AIs. Hammy is Buddhist though, so I need to think about how to handle that.

Although I haven't scouted much AI land, it seems all AIs - besides Hammy - all are on one land mass. So I'll probably go for Domination / Conquest with Currasiers. There is are horses on our island on the SW.

 

[WastinTime]

I'm using all 3 golds very early.
I wanted fish-clam-rice-gold for my 2nd city, so I moved my setter south for a cow-gold city. but then, before settling, scout revealed a 2nd gold.
Now I had to move south again (and get a PH bonus too). That gave me a triple gold capital, but only cow. My prayers for another food went unanswered.
So at 1AD, my capital sits stagnant at size 3 (cow, gold, gold)

I also went for GLH. 725BC
It might have been smarter to build an army instead and capture it, but I figured GLH could get built on the other side of the world. And Astronomy might be needed to reach it.

Tech
I did Currency, MC, Machinery, Aes, Lit (going to build Parth, Paya and G.Lib)
traded for Monarchy, Calendar, Construction
I'll get Engineering next (or maybe Music's G.Art)
I've been doing 100% wealth for a long time waiting for the AI to give me Construction, etc. so I have over 1000 gold saved up.
Doing 230 bpt.

Barbs settled the corn/marble and I captured it.

10 cities with 11th settling on Stone just for the forests to chop Parth.

I have a huge, fresh army... after taking heavier than expected losses on the barbs.
I will dump them on Persepolis (for pyramids + colossus)
By that time, I expect Germany to finish MoM (they wouldn't trade calendar, so they're working on it)
I'll then go all out for the MoM city.

That should set me up for golden age(s) producing ~10 great people.

 

[Fine_Distinction]

Hi Deckhand, just wanted to thank you for a fun game Work got crazy couple weeks ago so I knew I would not have time to play properly, so just replayed beginning a couple times to get feel for the game. The second gold is not badly positioned, if you do not insist on a coastal city, you can have a nice city grabbing 2nd gold, corn and silk. All in the 2nd ring, but Zara is creative, so not a big deal. Using 3rd gold is a challenge though. I SIP, my second city was on rice, as many others did, 3rd city was 2nd gold/corn/silk, 4th cow/fish further west. At 1AD I had ~7 cities and 140 bpt.