[BTS] BOTM 206 (Vikings) First spoiler - to 1AD

[kcd_swede]

BOTM 206: Roede Orm, Prince - First Spoiler - 1AD

The wailing and knashing of teeth may begin...
Did you survive and thrive under the onslaught of barbarians?
What are your plans for the neighborhood, and how are they going?
Use this thread to tell us what happened in your game, up to 1AD
Reading Requirements
If you are participating in BOTM 206, 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

• Do not disclose ANY events or information gained post 1 AD.
• Do not reveal your final result if that happened after 1 AD.
• 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

 

[Qactus]

This game is very confusing

"Greetings, Vikings. We're the Viking Empire and we demand you cancel your deals with the vile Vikings!"

"Right, glad you asked. We can stand them either. Just to be sure, you mean the orange Vikings, right? Oh, the purple Vikings? Right, they're even worse! I can't imagine why we had deals with them in the first place."

 

[WastinTime]

Deity save.
Great Wall was easy to get (~T50) before barbs became a problem.
So I haven't bothered getting horse, copper, or iron. And no archery. I traded for Ivory, so the standard elepult will do nicely.
With the safety of the GW, I chose to expand and didn't go for G.Lighthouse. Probably a mistake.
Oracle went T100 (probably also a mistake that I passed on this) Deity Oracle is usually T50-60.

The Great Spy from GW is wonderful for exploring. I was able to find Fur to settle and meet everyone. Mapped most of the 'old world'.
And it means Espionage VC is an option.

 

[LowtherCastle]

This game is very confusing

"Greetings, Vikings. We're the Viking Empire and we demand you cancel your deals with the vile Vikings!"

"Right, glad you asked. We can stand them either. Just to be sure, you mean the orange Vikings, right? Oh, the purple Vikings? Right, they're even worse! I can't imagine why we had deals with them in the first place."

No kidding! Even worse for me is all those names. Who the heck is that? Oh, he declared war on her. Wait, who? On whom? I finally figured it out but only because the military advisor showed some units in sight. Hovering over the unit, I could see the name. Okay, she got DoWed...

 

[nocho]

Chicken save, prince.

Settled in place after the scout discovered the fish. Tried to get Stonehenge early after the stone got connected but got beaten to it in 2240BC which I thought was earlyish for prince. Got Great Wall, later followed by GLH and the mids. Traded for priesthood so tried for Oracle as it was still open, but also got beaten to that with 1 turn to go. At 1AD I have 10 cities and got horse, bronze and iron secured though not all connected. Still happy to have those for later, all the strat resources seem to be awkwardly located or just far from home. 38 pop which is not great, but there's not that ample food, nor of course much happy to speak of. Still got to settle the furs. At least representation alleviates happy issues a bit. Used the GSpy for a golden age, maybe should have saved for later. Lot of land here, not sure yet what VC to go for.

Wondering whether some of the AIs have been jacked up slightly, the American Russian had more cities when I met him which was somewhat surprising given raging barbs and prince.

 

[Seraiel]

Deity save.

I wanted to try out the famous @WastinTime Warrior Rush, so I worked maximum tiles. Lost 5 Warriors to Animals, lost my home capital though defended by two Warriors to Barb Archers.

TY for the game.

Seraiel.

 

[Seraiel]

 

[kcd_swede]

Sorry to hear about your early loss. Just curious... since Agg AI make lots of units, and their archers will have a couple promo's from raging barbs by the time you find them... how many warriors did you make for the attack force?

 

[Seraiel]

I thought Prince starting units, so Warriors.

 

[greatbeyond]

I didn't have nearly the problems with the Barbs that you had. I built TGW in 1520BC which I thought was rather late and barbs were manageable until then.

 

[Pangaea]

Did you survive and thrive under the onslaught of barbarians?
What are your plans for the neighborhood, and how are they going?

I wondered what would happen here, if the barb would bust the Cow before he was thrown out.

It was fine, nothing happened. It's really funny to be able to settle right next to a barb, and then see them go *poof* and disappear. There are piles and heaps of them around, so am very glad I built the Great Wall in this game. I didn't in a recent BOTM with raging barbs, which wasn't a great idea...

Built Great Wall + Mids + GLH in capital, so future great people will be whatever. First one was an 80% GSpy, which was fine really. Thought about settling him, but then recalled that they are totally invisible, making for a great scout.

REXed to 12 cities. Thinking about moving the capital. Spot in the above image is hardly great for Buro. Nice hammers tho, so it's pumping out some workers now.

Confusing with all the Viking civs, but I like the theme

Edit: I had a bad misclick when intending to put down a sign somewhere, and almost sent a Great Scientist into the JAWS of a barb axe. Thank goodness he wasn't able to move one more tile, because he was routed right through that area

Warrior died, but that's okay. Should have waited one more turn before moving out.

 

[Pangaea]

Deity save.

I wanted to try out the famous @WastinTime Warrior Rush, so I worked maximum tiles. Lost 5 Warriors to Animals, lost my home capital though defended by two Warriors to Barb Archers.

TY for the game.

Seraiel.

Why did you try that here?

Huge distances, and on Deity (even if not starting with deity units), they're bound to have 2-3 archer defenders super-early.

Hope it goes better in 207, if you are playing that one too. Because with two concurrent BOTMs, they probably won't release a new one for about 3-4 weeks.

 

[Powerfaker]

Settled on PH 1S of stone. I bet most people will do that.
Expanded to 4 cities filling SW. Build some wonders next, Mids + GLH, missed Oracle, didn't try TGW, felt like on Prince I could rely on archers, no problem so far. 2nd city PH at the sheep south got Moai.
Started filling up N/NE.next. Currently 8 cities, 33 pop (4 pop whipped settler last turn, 4 more pop will be whipped this turn). Still in the middle of expansion burst.
Finished Civil Service this turn. Currency is in as well. Calendar will be next. Some more happiness would be welcome. Thinking of spreading Confu actively.

 

[krikav]

Spoiler T101 :

I thought I took a huuuuge gamble by not settling on the stone, but ruining the fish was too much to bear so I went on the PH, rather nice with all those fin-lakes!
Didn't take any chances, scout fogbusted up north while he could first, then retreated.
Archery->mining->masonry->TW, workboat first and then two archers and only a worker after that.

I afforded the luxery of one garisson warrior too. Didn't start TGW before stone was connected, even tough I thought that was abit risky.

I felt so glad after landing the wall. Raging barbs are no joke and knowing I could now safely ignore them was such a relief!
Most city spot looked coastal, capital could certainly benefit from a lighthouse and masonry is in so I figured I should try for GLH, so I went sailing rather early.

Admiring my workboat, who I admit felt rather silly after revealing that there was no opening south. :|

One of my two archers felt bold, having fortified on that grass hill 3S of the cows. So it decided to hold it's ground against a barb archer+warrior.
Didn't turn out great.

I couldn't get the pyramids done faster without whip, but I convinced myself that nah... It's safe! Don't whip that pop away!

And got the mother of all jumpscares when I heart a wonder built.
Turns out it was GLH though, phew!

Got a GSpy T83, and I settled him.
6 beakers per turn at a time I where doing 23bpt sustained was nice, and the EPs certainly doesn't hurt either!

Noone of the two AIs I have met (or who met me I should say) had writing before I did, so I figured they where warmongerers and I should go alpha to get some trades going. Just a few turns into alpha I start to get vision of their techs too which was super nice!
Somewhere here I start to feel abit bad for the AIs. There is a huge breedingground up north, and a constant stream of barbs are walking past my cities going south.

Finish Moai and get 374 failgold and at the same turn I pop copper! That was nice.
Trying to get some piece of that sweet carpet of rivertiles closer to the AIs. I do feel abit scared by placing my undefended workers/settlers 1 tile away from a barb, even though I know it's perfecly safe.

 

[krikav]

Stayed up way too late playing this game yesterday, did end up forgeting completely the 1AD checkpoint, so I don't have any overview and situation/plan.
But here is what I had up to T116, hope 1 turn over is OK!
Really fun game, although the names/colors/leaders are a tad too disorienting for me, I'm messing up diplomacy more than usual, and can't really get a good overview, but I guess that is intended. @kcd_swede wants to confuse us.


I like my 1AD situation alot. Landing TGW was huge, although in hindsight I probably played way to careful. Getting by with only warriors before TGW would have been perfecly fine, likewise getting the worker out sooner than I did.
Going sailing that early that I did was probably wrong too, it should have been obvious to me at that point that I would prioritize pyramids, and that hoping for 3 nice early wonders was simply too much.

I like that I have carved out a piece of the juicy heartland of rivers. Cottaging up that will make ragnar a rich vikingahövding.
What I don't like is the complete mess I have made of diplomacy. Not choosing sides and better assess who dislikes who, and figuring out who might be the AI behind the masks.
I have some axes so I should be fine, but still getting some suprise DoW would be annoying and hurt alot.
Not really sure about aggressive AI, does that even do anything?

Spoiler T116 :

T102 I trade alpha for IW+60g with Floki, turns out the only source of iron is way up northeast by a barb city, so I feel extra happy about my copper-pop.

I ran 2 scientists alot in capital. Was on a cycle where I did 3pop whips of settlers and overflowed into moai (trying to maximize overflow here). Got a GEng anyway, was hoping for a GSci to bulb philosophy.
But I don't mind settling this guy either, adding 3 hammers to this city who is shaping up to become a good production city feels nice.

For the longest time, only one AI had math, can't remember who, then between T108 and T109, all of a sudden ALL of them have it.
I break my monopoly on currency to get it too. I want mono now to do a double swap to caste+OR to make sure I can spread buddhism, who seems like the safe bet.
I did get confu, but won't do much with that.

This settler was planning on moving further, but Floki is on his way with a settler too, so I have to settle (heh) for NW here. Kind of sweet to just wander around with unguarded settlers and be able to fell safe when the city is placed, even if it's next to a barb.
Floki has been plotting which scared me abit first, but a turn or so later I met his worst enemy which made me relax again.

It was still nice to see him DoW though.

Floki sends missionaries!

Then the guys start to dislike me because I'm a indecisive coward who doesn't want to get involved in bloodshed.

I ended up settling 1S of the cow instead, there was some wheat I didn't see.
Got that barb city eventually too.

I wanted to delay this build, I had a chop landing next turn, and I had a settler that was moving and ready to settle next turn. But I couldn't stand the idea that I would perhaps lose gardes by a turn, so I did this whip.

 

[MarleysGh0st]

I was the first player to submit my game, but I'm very late posting my reports. Sorry!

So, my first objective was to build the Great Wall, which I completed in 2250 BC. Somewhat later, I tried for the GLH. Just as I finished chopping it, I got the message that it had been completed elsewhere.

At 1 AD, I have 7 cities and all is peaceful.

Now, let me join several others in a complaint. I have no objection if several AI happen to be of the same civilization, but please, please, PLEASE, add something to their names to distinguish them from each other! To have the AI talking about "the Vikings" while pretending that they wouldn't have some way to identify who they're talking about is just stupid.