[BTS] BOTM 214 (Sitting Bull) First spoiler - to 1AD

[kcd_swede]

BOTM 214: Sitting Bull, Monarch - First Spoiler - 1AD

Use this thread to tell us what happened in your game, up to 1AD
Reading Requirements
If you are participating in BOTM 214, 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

 

[MarleysGh0st]

I settled NE of the starting position. Production has been great in this spot, although commerce/research has been slower than I'd like. I finished the Oracle in 925 BC, taking MC instead of waiting for something better that would have required waiting many more turns and possibly losing the wonder to an AI. By 1 AD I have six cities.

If I had to guess what "modifications" our mapmaker applied to our map, I'd say the one that's most affected me so far has been the removal of strategic resources. I researched AH, no horses. BW, no copper. IW, the only iron in sight is next to a Carthaginian city. I decided I'd have to attack Hannibal to claim that resource, so I declared war in 375 BC. I marched a stack outside his city, but my first dog soldier to attack died without even putting a scratch on his city garrison III archer. So, at 1 AD, my stack is still sitting outside his city, waiting for some cats (which I whipped after finally researching Construction in 175 BC) to arrive at the front.

 

[Xcalibrator]

Bad, mean mapmaker! Yeah, no metal or horses within reasonable reach, arrrgh. I took the Deity save and am doing OK, although if somebody decides to attack me I'll be hosed. I settled 1N of the starting position and at 1 AD I have 7 cities and 31 pop. Julius was kind enough to trade me marble so I just finished the MoM and am trying for the Great Library. Great Wall was finished T41 and has been very helpful. The Great Spy from it has been exploring but will be used for tech stealing, probably against Mansa. Next GP was a Great Sci that I used to bulb Compass. Mansa and Asoka are a little ahead in tech but with trades I'm nearly able to keep up. There's been a lot of fighting, but nobody has bothered me yet. I am very nervous, however. Hoping to get Feudalism or connect up some iron (probably way down in the SW) before any trouble starts. I'm 5th in score at 675, with Mali at #1 with 936 and Egypt in last with 512. IIIFFFF nobody attacks me with my pants down this might possibly be winnable.

 

[kcd_swede]

Yeah, no metal or horses within reasonable reach, arrrgh.

Who needs metal when you have dog soldiers and protective archers? You need to embrace the authentic Native American experience.

 

[nocho]

I settled 2N, the FP cow in the first ring making up for settling on T1. However, don't think it gained or lost anything significant. I decided to make a go for SH and GW, even without stone, as all those hammers had to go somewhere.

Went settling all around the cows in the neighbourhood and when iron appeared south, settled a city there. With iron and catapults prepared for Carthage and as of 1AD have nearly eliminated Hannibal, Carthago delenda est. Well, not entirely destroyed, the horses were the whole objective of the campaign. Next turn his last and 3rd city should fall. Right now at 9 cities and 45 pop. Along the way Oracled currency. Seems but for good old Mansa, the plains are not well suited to AI research, they are all rather backward even for monarch.

 

[krikav]

I took the deity save. Went AH->Mining->BW to secure against barbs early on. Dogs are very nice in that regard.

Spoiler Game :

Losing out on horses was abit annoying. Also losing copper with Keshik-friendly next door was abit scary.
He teched very slow though, and didn't connect metal for the longest time, so I felt somewhat safe.
Not having iron either was abit exciting.

I was very torn with how to act. On the one hand I should have hurried toward feudalism to keep safe against Khan, but on the other hand I couldn't let Hannibal take all this territory down here, he would have gotten completely out of control.
So I had to remain in Rex-mode for way longer than I really could afford.

I got this city at 70% odds which was sweet. If I would have died I don't think Hannibal would have attacked right away as his numidian was very wounded. (0.3/5)

And then he comes...
I bribed Hatty+Asoka to DoW him so I got some company.

Out with a warrior to lure him to that tile, so he attacks over the river.

Dogs don't help much against keshiks, but the protective promoted archers behind culture does work wonders.

He came with another attack a few turns later too, but when I managed to limp my way to drama I could trade for Feud.

This turn I got Feud from Julius.

 

[krikav]

I have finished the game, so can't say too much here now.

Spoiler T113 Empire overview :

Had a plan to culture flip that barb city. Didn't work out that great.
Securing iron down here was quite a relief.

Got a decent chunk of okay land and also some of the few health/happy resources there are on this map.
Kind of weird map to play, reminds me abit of borealis with tundra everywhere.

Tech rate isn't that high, so the AIs are suffering almost as much as I do.
I never gave Khan a single tech, he was stuck without writing for the longest time. Serves him right!

 

[krikav]

@Xcalibrator
For the longest time I planned to bribe Khan against someone. But then all of a sudden he got a minority religion autospread and dropped down to annoyed with me.
I coudn't really play any tricks to get him to like me enough so I could bribe him on someone else after that, as that would have screwed up all diplo completely (He was worst enemy of half the crowd).
So I started to build/whip archers and pull home all exploring dogs instead.
Such feisty neighbour.

 

[Powerfaker]

Those waters dividing the map in sections is not normal for Great Plains either right?

Settled 2N to be able to work and improve the FP/cow right away, while keeping the other resources too. Growth to size five, then the cap did non-stop settlers / workers cranking all the way to 1AD pretty much, besides 2 growth moments to size 6 and 7. City2 went NE triple cow, city3 W to cow+wheat, then focused on southeast mostly.
With city4 I snatched the 5-cow site from Hannibal, who had a settler there the same turn. The most glorious moment thusfar. Crucial here was that I kept forgetting to switch to slavery for a long time. I took that anarchy turn after this settler was out.

This hammer heavy environment set me to beeline Currency after the worker techs. Wealth building was a mayor leap forward.
Wonders went late, so I tried a late attempt on Oracle into Civil Service. Missed it it by 3T. I did finish HG 75BC. Health is very limiting on this map so an extra point will be very useful.
At 200BC GK DoWed me. He has worst enemy relations with 4 other civs, but of course he picks me. So far he didn't attack unfortunately. He is stuffing up units in the one spot east of the cap I couldn't secure in time. Well, it will be mine soon, now that we have a war going.

At 1AD 12cities/53pop. Have Civil Service and Construction, working on MC towards Mach.
Not sure what vic to go for. Conquering seems the easy or fastest thing to do here (on Monarch). So maybe going something diplo or space. Normally late game the plains areas come to live very much. See if I can put it all to use under such limited health.

Empire:

Spoiler :

North

South

5-cow spot is currently a 3-cow spot. I built HG there, so soon it will be 5-cow again

 

[Conquistador 63]

Contender save. Settled 1NE. Probably going for space, so I opted for a riverside capital (levee).

Initial warrior went exploring N and stumbled upon GK. I definitely don't like having him as a neighbor, so decided to use him as a stone-age worker factory. I got 5 workers in the BC's and it was exactly 0AD when I captured his 2nd (and last) city, removing from the game.

Apart from the Mongolian wars, I focused on peaceful expansion, fueled by cottage-spamming those riverside tiles.

At 0AD I have 12 cities (got 2 from GK), 65 pop, 14 workers, and a small army of swords and cats, whose next task is to capture a handful of wild west barb cities. In hindsight I could have gone for Hannibal instead of GK, his lands look more appealing. But now I have one less threat.

Wonderwise, I only built SH and was happy I got it. However I missed on the Oracle by 2t, my mistake not whipping it when I could. Flirted with the idea of building GW but fortunately decided against it, it would have been a waste.

Techwise I went for Alpha after the worker techs but haven't got much from it thus far (Monarchy and Aesthetics), Mansa is doing poor tech choices. Now I'm some 5 turns from CS.

 

[WastinTime]

Who needs metal when you have dog soldiers and protective archers? You need to embrace the authentic Native American experience.

The evil part was giving our neighbors early chariots which crush our puppy soldiers.
But, they were great for barbs. I beelined Machinery for a flavorful, Xbow/TotemPole rush. Trying out some Drill 3 and Drill 4. Luckily, Mansa found me at just the right time (with Alpha) and traded me IW, hunting, Myst, Masonry, Writing. By the time I hooked up Iron, someone else was able to trade me archery and I was ready to go.
14 cities, 56 pop.

I imagine there would be no way to get Iron with the Deity save (I didn't play it)

@Conquistador 63: Nice worker stealing. I regret not doing that. However!
I did capture the GreatWall and early Pyramids! both in one GK city.
Rare opportunity: I've been running Police State.

Forgot to build Oracle

Using my Philo trait to get a 100% GE for bulbing Engineering in a couple turns.

 

[WastinTime]

the Great Plains map was altered in some rather annoying ways.

I didn't find anything annoying about the terrain. I know it was changed, but not a maze or anything. Did you just mean resources were annoying?

 

[Xcalibrator]

Did you just mean resources were annoying?

Isn't that enough? It is for me!

ETA: "mean resources" is exactly right.

 

[kcd_swede]

I didn't find anything annoying about the terrain. I know it was changed, but not a maze or anything. Did you just mean resources were annoying?

Psyche! Mostly just trying to keep you guys alert for anything, without doing too much work.

 

[LowtherCastle]

I forgot about Dog soldiers and not needing copper… Didn’t make any. As a consequence I didn’t do any early warfare. Did discover both GK and Hannibal early but I didn’t find Hannibal’s horses.

I like this game but I played pretty crappy.

 

[LincolnOfRome]

I settled 1 north and got my worker one turn later than if I would have settled in place. The new location gave access to the river and the FP cow. I went AH -> Mining -> BW. Because dog soldiers need no resources to hook up, I was able to build an attack force of six CR1 dog soldiers by 2200 BC. This was enough to wipe out the Mongols by 1920 BC.

I built Stonehenge, the Oracle, and Mids before 1 AD. After I conquered the Mongol capital, I built a city just south of my capital for the three flood plains. Fortunately, it also had iron. I founded one city just east of the former Mongol capital in a great location with iron, horses, and wine. I traded a horse and a cow to the Romans for corn, marble, and fur. I built another city southeast of the former Mongol capital for stone. I had also conquered two of Hanny's cities by 1 AD. One of them had like 6 cow in the BFC.

My goal was to get CS from the Oracle. I was frustrated a bit because I had a 3/4th chance twice to get a great scientist to bulb Maths, but I got two great prophets instead. I had to delay the Oracle a bit until math was learned slowly. Still, the great prophets did help my early economy so I could keep my tech rate at 100%. I settled one great prophet in my capital and used one to build a Confucianism shrine. Before I attacked Hanny, I converted him to Confucianism so no one would like him. At 1 AD still warring Hanny though I had pillaged walled Carthage's horse and iron so he could only make archers.