[BTS] BOTM 208: Dutch, Monarch - First Spoiler - 1AD

[kcd_swede]

BOTM 208: Dutch, Monarch - First Spoiler - 1AD


Use this thread to tell us what happened in your game, up to 1AD
Did you settle in place?
Which terrain did you seek out and settle?
What is you strategy?
Reading Requirements
If you are participating in BOTM 208, 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

 

[nocho]

Did you settle in place?
Which terrain did you seek out and settle?
What is you strategy?​

​

Settling in place was a bit problematic. I chose to head for the inland sea quarter and settled for, and on, a flood plain spot that had crabs, cows and some mountains. Not stellar, but workable. At least the land around was fine enough, some nice rivers and such. I ended up expanding into a good part of the fantasy part of the map, especially near where the galley started. To the west I was able to get until a vital horse resource. 3 happy resources for now (silver, gems, elephants) and will shortly hook up calendar resources. I've got the GLH and the Pyramids, tech isn't very fast though, I'm at currency and calendar, currently half way CoL. Maybe tech brokering makes this slightly slower than normal. Will soon go for construction and HBR to have some fun. At 11 cities, numer 12 will be settled in 2 turns. 47 pop, 8 workers, need more of those. Looks like a nice game to get to space, though not expecting a very fast date.

 

[krikav]

Pardon me if I extend abit over 1AD, but my game was... Abit slower than I guess most others are.

Spoiler Game :

As I mentioned in the starting thread, I had plans to wander into the rainforest, finding my fortune as far away from the fantasy madness as possible.
Even though some nice villages provided me with a map, things where not looking that great.

Tbh, I should have cut my losses and just settled here. The deer alone could probably have made it possible to reach IW in a reasonable time with creative library. But thats not what I did... I continued to wander.

There was no land prepared, so I had to fight for Wangs spot it seemed. I prayed for horses, but there where none.

I stole his worker as it approached the rice, and built myself some warriors. Scouted his land with the stolen worker while my own improved my land, found a hut that gave me writing! Nice windfall!

I pushed my luck abit and ran for a hut Wang was approaching, no luck here!

I prayed for horses and there where none, I prayed for copper and there where none.
Then I prayed for iron and sure enough there was some iron. But far away.
Here I got peace for free with wang, and I whipped a worker and chopped a settler and my warrior army rushed out to explore the rainforest.
Then I disbanded them to get techrate up again.

For some mysterious reason, my cities are still connected even though I can't get OB with Wang. But I'm not complaining.
Had to 1pop a axe here to survive.

Eventually I managed to get to wang. Crashing into his holy city culture against protective fortifed archers where tough but numbers work.

I'm not last in the scoreboard!
This should be salvageable, just have to cottage up abit.

I went for alphabet to get some trades, the only thing I got was math once everyone had it.
Wang stole math from me the turn before he died too.

 

[WastinTime]

I think Fantasy ended up being the best place to start cus you can access everything else.
I spotted a plainshill with +5 food and gems. I wasn't sure if I shoulda gone 1N to get the crabs, but then I ended up with Iron. (Note: the gold appeared randomly )

Fantasy isn't all that crazy. As you can see the tundra/oasis is nice. And you get a nice mix of stone, marble, calendar resources, fur, etc.

Then it was easy to settle the coast of the Inland Sea. Works well with GLH and Colossus.

Huts: i got 47 gold and then a completely useless, free Mysticism.

Barbs are very annoying on Deity.

 

[kcd_swede]

Popping gold... must be your lucky day!!!
"Fantasy isn't all that crazy."
Since this is a spoiler thread...

Spoiler Map settings :

Fantasy map script has 3 alternatives for resource placement: rational, irrational, and crazy. I selected irrational. So you are right... not "crazy".

 

[Pangaea]

Did you settle in place?
Which terrain did you seek out and settle?

SIP wasn't an option. I went for the inland sea area SW. But it did feel awkward to keep sailing and sailing because I didn't see something all that jazzy. Eventually settled near some seafood and cows. Wanted to wander inland and hope for a better spot, but didn't dare. It was already T5, and there was no guarantee of food down there. Not a stellar capital, but not bad either. Shame about losing riverside, because I ended up with some health problems.

Only have 7 cities at 1AD, which feels very little. Have had to deal with a whole pack of barb axes too. Can't recall seeing so many so early before. Have had to kill more axes than warriors+archers combined. So that is part of the slowness I suppose.

What is you strategy?

Not die. Genghis is right next-door, and he's plotting war. Think we had a peace treaty from a demand of his when he started plotting, but I don't believe that protects me. Only gives me time. Much more likely he will declare on Wang though, which most of the map hates. Monty is already at war with him. I adopted Genghis' religion, which he oddly founded, so we are pleased now. Confu would have been better as it spread to all of my cities, but it's too risky. Will have to build some missionaries once I feel we can spare the hammers.

Have expanded more towards the Fantasy area too, though slowly. Recently settled near the iron + gems, but very annoyingly jungle soon after spread to the gems.

Feels like I'm just fumbling about, unsure how to proceed, what win to go for, whether to go into military planning mode, all that jazz. So I've been unfocused I think. Have cottaged up a bit, though (went early Pottery, before Mining-BW), and am working on Colossus. Not great on a map like this, but it should still help us out. Also Oracled CS, which definitely helped. Have recently done Compass and lined up Optics, for the whale, but it kinda feels like a stupid choice here with such a map. GLH hasn't gone yet, so maybe I'll take a very late stab at that, though it won't help all that much really, so maybe kind of a waste. That said, the lake is pretty big, so potentially many cities can be on its shores.

Totally forgot about no tech brokering. Traded for Alpha once Wang did it, and was then going to trade it for IW and suchlike, the default play really. But next turn it was still in the "Can't trade" column, which had me confused for a second. Felt pretty dumb when I realised what was going on Later, I was going to sell Mono to Wang, but suddenly he didn't like that, because he was just one turn from it (Not in our interest). Oh well, everybody else have it anyway, but you go dude.

Tried to snag barb city in the SW somewhere near the horse, but Monty had come down there with some jaguars, so there was no chance really. But I hope that city can cause some issues between them down the line, since they are in different religions and don't like each other all that much.

Spoiler :

Oddly enough we only have trade routes with Genghis, all the others are too much inland I suppose.

Unfortunately the starting warrior died in T7 or something like that. Popped a hut, two angry barbs came out, and quickly killed him. Bad news. Maybe that is partly why we've had some problems with barb axes.

 

[MarleysGh0st]

I'm playing the contender save. I started off to the southwest toward the inland sea, but when it appeared like that would be a long way away, I decided to settle on T3 on the Fantasy peninsula with two seafood. It wasn't a terrific site, but when I found copper in my fat cross, I felt better about my choice.

Goody huts gave me some gold, experience for my warrior, and a scout. The scout went exploring for more huts, but found a bear, instead.

By 1 AD, I only have five cities. Barbs have been annoying, and now Hannibal, Monty, and Genghis are all plotting. I gave in to Monty's demand for tribute, so at least I'm not his target.

 

[mscellaneous]

Playing the contender save, moved towards inland sea area. Very fun game so far!

Spoiler Settling :

Both warrior and settler moved inland while the galley scouted the coast. Settled on T5, a great riverside spot with wet corn, plains cows, 4 FP and lots of forests.

Warrior managed to pop 3 huts (2x gold & Masonry) before he was eaten by a pizza lion!

Spoiler Up to 1AD :

No close neighbors so took my time scouting and settling prime locations first. Grabbed Mids and Oracled CS. Genghis went into war mode, was prepared, but luckily he went after WK. Only 5 cities but a nice capital

Spoiler Plans :

With horse hooked up and a source of iron secured a Cuirassier domination or conquest victory seems most logical.

 

[WastinTime]

A couple games back I was kicking myself for not getting GLH, so this game I got it, but now I'm kicking myself for that. Someone was gonna have to build it very close to me. Why didn't I just plan to conquer it (and Colossus)? I'm just not thinking lately.

 

[LowtherCastle]

I’m surprise so many went inland sea, simply because it has so much less land. I went lakes. Crowded! AIs galore.

Buddhism was founded in a distant land in 3720 BC one turn before I settled, 3680 BC. Late start, quite a handicap. That’s the main reason I called my capital Amsterdammit. Nice river, grass river sheep, oasis, tons of firest. Horses turned up just outside my fat cross.

With so many AIs close I should’ve rushed them with chariots. But no Happys, so I focused on selective settling and at this point have six cities. I settled two nice fantasy sites, gems iron clams pigs and gold wine fish clams banana. I also settled on WT‘s Gold Hill for the ivory.

Alex was quickly plotting so I had to pile defenders in my Gold City near him. He was weak and under defend it. Instead of defending myself I should just Stone Aged him.

No wonders, halfway through civil service right now.

I’ve just recently discovered Wang Kon just on the other side of the mountains from me. Again, if I had discovered him sooner I could’ve wiped him out easily. Even now he has nothing but a couple archers here and there. But he has just connected iron so it will be a bit of a struggle for me. But that is my direction. I’m headed west into that glorious rainforest.

That’s really the main reason I chose lakes. I wanted to move toward the rainforest in the mid game.

I haven’t had troubles with Barb’s to any degree. Except my first Barb invasion was a spearman. All I had was a warrior to defend at that point. I was going to lose my copper city for sure. Then a miracle happened. A guardian angel appeared from nowhere, de Gaulle’s axe killed the spear.

Speaking of whom, he has nine cities already. Wang has seven.

 

[LowtherCastle]

I think Fantasy ended up being the best place to start cus you can access everything else.
I spotted a plainshill with +5 food and gems. I wasn't sure if I shoulda gone 1N to get the crabs, but then I ended up with Iron. (Note: the gold appeared randomly )

Fantasy isn't all that crazy. As you can see the tundra/oasis is nice. And you get a nice mix of stone, marble, calendar resources, fur, etc.

Then it was easy to settle the coast of the Inland Sea. Works well with GLH and Colossus.

Huts: i got 47 gold and then a completely useless, free Mysticism.

Barbs are very annoying on Deity.

View attachment 588119

Wow! Three Happys in your capital! Food-less wonder though.

 

[LowtherCastle]

A couple games back I was kicking myself for not getting GLH, so this game I got it, but now I'm kicking myself for that. Someone was gonna have to build it very close to me. Why didn't I just plan to conquer it (and Colossus)? I'm just not thinking lately.

Ha! I channeled my inner WT and chose not to build GLH for exactly the same reason. in my game it’s still hasn’t been built. In fact the only winders built are Stonehenge, Oracle, great wall, Kashi. The Oracle and Kashi were built by an unknown AI.…

 

[WastinTime]

Food-less wonder though.

It was +5 food, which was 'enough', until the gold effectively makes it +3.
Coulda added farm, but I liked working the water tiles better.

re: wonders. I think Mids was built around T70 or so in my game (Deity) -- even before I got GLH. DeGaulle did it. He also had GWall so obviously has stone. That's not a very long trip to capture those from my start point. I'd recommend contender games go get Mids+GW this way.

in my game it’s still hasn’t been built.

Right, no one is settling the inland sea coast. The south-rainforest coast is all still open. Nice seafood and corn there.
Chances are some barb cities might pop up around the sea.

 

[greatbeyond]

Exploring warrior found a hut to the SW of the start only to have 5 or 6 warriors pop from the hut. I had no idea you could get that many warriors from a hut.

 

[LowtherCastle]

Exploring warrior found a hut to the SW of the start only to have 5 or 6 warriors pop from the hut. I had no idea you could get that many warriors from a hut.

lol. Sorry. I haven’t seen that either. I don’t think I’ve ever survived two Barb Warriors popping from a hut.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

I think Fantasy ended up being the best place to start cus you can access everything else.
I spotted a plainshill with +5 food and gems. I wasn't sure if I shoulda gone 1N to get the crabs, but then I ended up with Iron. (Note: the gold appeared randomly )

Fantasy isn't all that crazy. As you can see the tundra/oasis is nice. And you get a nice mix of stone, marble, calendar resources, fur, etc.

Then it was easy to settle the coast of the Inland Sea. Works well with GLH and Colossus.

Huts: i got 47 gold and then a completely useless, free Mysticism.

Barbs are very annoying on Deity.

View attachment 588119

This is exactly where I settled. I hadn't intended to go fantasy - I was thinking more about either inland sea or lakes, but I started by moving the galley SE for maximum land visibility, and when that showed me the hill, I figured I wouldn't lose anything by offloading the settler on it to see the view from the hill - since I could always put the settler back on the boat the next turn. Well plains-hill+tundra-oasis = worker in 10 turns. With gems too, I couldn't turn that down, even though long term it was going to be a pretty poor capital. I also figured that, with gems, financial and lots of coast, this looked perfect to try an Oracle-CS slingshot.

So ignoring the fantasy, my warrior went off exploring to the lakes, which I expected to provide better city locations. Meanwhile, not now having any use for the galley to transport units for a while I sent if off on a complete tour of the inland sea. The warrior quickly discovered the marble to the North, while BW revealed the copper to the West, so my plans firmed up: City 2 to grab the copper and seafood, and city 3 up North to get the marble, stone, cows and corn - which would be the one to build the Oracle. I figured I wouldn't be able to build more cities before the Oracle but in the end did find the hammers to build a 4th settler.

I did it! Oracle-CS in 950BC! Actually a bit later than I hoped - but it worked! Very grateful for having that copper as after about 1200 BC barbs became a menace. Even with a couple of axes, wandering barbs prevented me from hooking up the marble until the Oracle was half completed.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

So after Oracling Civil Service in 950BC, I decided my next priorities were to get the great lighthouse and colossus. I want to go for space, so I need to keep up the focus on anything that helps my science. It is quite late to start the great lighthouse and I don't yet even have sailing: The only techs I'd allowed myself that weren't on the CS path were bronze working (essential with that poor capital to let it build anything) and masonry for the marble. But my earlier galley-inland-sea circumnavigation had revealed no AI appears to have started on the sea, so I should still have a very good chance with the lighthouse.

Techwise, after CS, I researched sailing by myself (took about 2 turns lol) and then went for alphabet so I could backfill in everything else that wasn't on the CS path. That worked pretty well.

In the event, it turned out the next few hundred years after 950AD were mainly spent dealing with the barb waves, but slightly to my surprise I did manage to get both lighthouse and Colossus in the capital before 1AD, helped by the +50% bureaucracy. This means I'm now pulling way ahead of the AIs on science, with 108bpt sustainable on 70% - and 6 turns from machinery means I'll have maces very soon! The downside is that I only have 6 cities - a pathetic number for 1AD I fear - and I still haven't explored that much much either. I'll have early maces but with no idea which AI's land I want ! And with just the 6 cities, I'm really struggling to build all the units I need.

I see Wang Kon has a rather nice silver spot in the rainforest, but he hasn't cleared enough jungle to make it very tempting yet . I don't really know what land the other AIs have,but Alex and de Gaulle are both in the fantasy realm direction, and I'm still not keen on expanding that way because, going for space, I want high-science long-term cities which from experience fantasy realm isn't good for. Fantasy realm is good for getting some resources, but I already seen to have copper, iron, horsies and quite a few happy things anyway so that's not now a priority at all. On the other hand, I've spied a few good riverside sites for more cities in the inland sea area to the SW so may settle peacefully there for now. At any rate, I really need to start rapid-expansion soon!

 

[LowtherCastle]

Excellent Oracle CS date.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Excellent Oracle CS date.

Thanks! I was quite pleased with it in the end, but it was definitely starting to be a cliffhanger the last few turns - would've been a huge setback if an AI had beaten me to it, and I'm guessing after about 1000 BC that's starting to be quite a risk.