[BTS] BOTM 201 Second Spoiler - 1000AD

[Noble Zarkon]

Use this thread to tell us what happened in your game, up to 1000AD. Which save did you pick? How have the barbarians been? Have you found the underworld yet?

Reading Requirements
If you are participating in BOTM 201, then you MUST NOT read this thread unless EITHER

• You have reached at least 1000 AD in your game, OR
• You have submitted your entry

Posting Restrictions

• Do not disclose ANY events or information gained post 1000 AD.
• Do not reveal your final result if that happened after 1000 AD.
• Do not discuss the location of resources that may not show up before 1000 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

 

[MarleysGh0st]

Continuing with my Contender save:

After giving Zeus a very hard time in the BC, they weren't a factor at all in the AD.

I settled a fifth city and completed the Colossus, before going to war against Achilles in 1000. And I see that's where this second spoiler had to end. Cliffhanger!

 

[Lawrence]

So the big decision this 1000 years is when to attack Achilles. I debated a lot whether I should go early with my swords to try to see if I can luck out and catch him without a phalanx. But scouting galley reported seeing a phalanx . Then I was thinking maybe I can at least take a couple of cities with swords while waiting for my new toy -- the cats to show up? But in the end I decided to play safe and miss out on that opportunity. Still unsure whether that's a correct decision, but I waited turn after turn to research Construction, build a couple of cats and get them to the front line before declaring war on 375AD. I quickly captured 2 cities, but suffered quite some casualties due to not building enough Axes and having an army too dominated with swords. In hindsight, maybe it would be better to build some chariots for defenses against phalanxes? In the end, in 620AD a stray sword from Achilles went upon Halicarnassus where I only had 1 axe to defend. Not to take those chances, my axe attacked first and then promptly died, leaving an empty city behind. I sued for peace.

10 turns later I have a much better balanced army and restarted the siege. This time it's much easier. Persepolis down at 900AD and Ephesus down 980AD. Still 2 cities left from Achilles but both relatively easy to take. Meanwhile I'm building a new army to attack Sarpedon and eventually Hera since I plan to build FP on that side.

Tech-wise, initially I thought I would directly get CoL after Construction, but then I realized that war was going very slowly, so I decided to go with MC instead for Colossus. So I got MC - Colossus built - CoL - Calendar - CS at 980AD. Managed to trade for Alphabet and Monarchy from Hera as well. Tech plan next would be Paper and Education to quickly get Oxford built and get a temporary upper hand on the Cyclopes whom we haven't met yet.

 

[Pangaea]

Continuing from 1AD. We declare war on Achilles in 25AD (who was already plotting on us). We instantly take that city from the 1AD update. It was only size 1 from a whip, which thankfully meant it didn't get auto-razed. Only had two archers. Also caught a worker building a plains cottage or some such silliness. Unlike in the BOTM 200 game, however, Achilles had settled differently, and it ended up being smarter. He apparently didn't have IW yet (no swords), but had improved the copper mine. As a result we faced a horde of spears and phalanxes. Including this obscene sight:

Spoiler :

In the early ADs we actually had the strongest military in the world (don't think I've seen negative GPT in the demographics screen before tho! ), even higher than the unknown one-eyed lot, but taking on this? Give me a break. We move past it. Dangerous and we lost many HAs due spear farming, but think it was still the right move. Eventually he starting taking units out of the city, even trying to capture the city we took from him on T0 of the war. Not pretty, and am definitely glad I spammed units like that prior to the war. We needed them! Presumably he had so many units because he wanted to kill us.

See we lost the GLH in the early ADs. Because the city was size 4, we may have been able to 2-pop it if the OF went into it, which probably means I lost it by 2 turns. The economic situation is... not good, so the gold came in handy tho.

Spoiler :

The bugger kept settling all his cities on hills, which was annoying, but despite quite heavy losses we did manage to eventually overwhelm him. Achilles actually died in the exact same time he did in the 200 game -- in 425AD. At that point Hera instantly closed borders with us, because now we were her worst enemy (it was Achilles). Lost trade routes, so the economy was even worse. Capture gold kept us afloat, and as usual it was a struggle to get to Currency to save our necks. Am glad I held back on city settling earlier.

Maybe it would have been wiser to declare on Sarpedon first, and then deal with Achilles later, but in this situation it may have been dangerous due to his plotting. In any case, after Achilles was dead we move the army over to the other Greek. Not exactly a soft target either...

Spoiler :

Perhaps this was overly risky, but I still moved on with sieging Athens. It's a good city, and would open up the rest of his core. It kinda back-fired, though, when he counter-attacked. Very dangerous situation.

Have already slammed one cata into him here, but didn't dare to risk the second. It would be needed to defend the city, as three units (plus the new Axe) against that stack, even if injured, would be far from a sure thing. Thankfully the city survived, though it was a close thing. A few turns later I got more catas in there, and soon after the first war elephants arrived. At that point it was safe and I could focus more on the offensive front.

On that note, close to taking the city here, but lacked some attackers (everybody have attacked, including the super-medic)

Fast forward a little bit to 1000AD. Athens has been taken and Zeus has more units fiddling about near Mycenae.

Spoiler :

Haven't loaded the save since this, maybe two weeks ago, but from what I recall I had one or two GS ready to bulb Astro, which is probably a good option here given our poor Buro capital. Metal Casting is almost done, maybe we can get there before gold runs out. Would be fun to try to take on the Cyclopes militarily, but don't know if it would be possible. They're blowing ahead again, with every wonder in the world and a tech pace off the chart. First up, however, is to continue the war on Sarpedon, most likely by taking on his capital Babylon. Maybe Zeus will manage to get through in Mycenae, though the AI tend to suck at offensive warfare.