BOTM 220: Saladin, Monarch - First Spoiler - 1AD

WT: “Love events (the way the game was meant to be played,) so I'll have to play this one.”

I don’t wish on anyone the hurricane I got in my capital destroying my granary and forge relatively early in the game. Granted, first time I ever got that, but that was pretty devastating, especially considering forges are dubious at best to build at 120 hammers. I built this for the colossus and fortunately it wasn’t destroyed until after I completed the colossus. I have no idea what would’ve happened to my colossus build if the forge had been destroyed one turn prior to completion.

 

yeah, I also got an event that messed up my game substantially - barbarian uprising (4 swordsmen) that I get every BOTM with events on ;( I have been doing pretty good defending, but decided proactively attack the stack since swordsmen get +10% city attack, but overloooked that they were on a defensive terrain ... Long story short, lost the city for a turn and Hannibal immediately conquered it. Got so mad that I DOWed him immediately even though I was meticulously and for a very looong time preparing to attack another AI . So voting for no events next time.

 

When I get Barb uprising it seems to invariably be four Horsemen.

 

Hmm, I guess I've been lucky; no events of much importance--spoiled food or something. Got the Horse Whisperer quest, which I ignored.

I settled on the sugar. City2 went down south, NW of the copper; City3 further south, N of the wheat on the coast; City4 to the NE on coastal tundra with the 2 crabs; City5 to the ENE on the isthmus, NE of the iron--that'll eventually be my Moai city. I have 24 pop, but I've been whipping recently to prepare for war against Sitting Bull, who is the most tech'ly backward. I plan to attack in two turns, initially with around 7 cats, 4 WEs, and a couple of axes.

All civs have 5+/-1 cities, and scores of 542 (Byz) to 449 (Port) not counting Sitting Bull with 415. I'm doing OK on tech but have no Wonders. Portugal got the GLH in 700, and Byz got the Oracle (1000) and Mids (175). Considering this is only Monarch, it's been a rather slow start. Yes, the land is not very good, but the AI have to contend with that too, and seem to be handling it well. Not sure what victory I'm aiming for. This is a pretty big map, and with growth and teching being fairly slow, I'm not sure I'll have time to finish.

 

I settled on the sugar and teched Fishing, Hunting, AH, Bronze Working, Agriculture then Sailing and Masonry for the GLH (which I managed to build in 825 BC). Then I think I went Pottery, Writing, Alphabet. The Monarch AI was pretty slow to expand so I was able to get Medina and Baghdad even at a very leisurely pace (Medina was my first city; I settled Damascus before Baghdad). I had no interest in the foodless plains to the southeast, I was digging coastal sites. I liked the Madrassa culture! I was building a stack to take Chinook from the barbs but I wound up flipping it, and it looks like I had already won that rice tile from Hannibal by this point too. I chucked the Moai statures in Baghdad just for the culture. All four of us on this continent were happy Buddhist friends. Was happy to have six cities by 1 AD, 77 beakers per turn is probably not stellar, but I felt pretty comfortable with the game at this point. Not patting myself on the back too much since it's only Monarch.

 

I took the challenger save which might have been abit too cocky considering the start is rather slow.
Was worried when I saw there was practically no good city spots around at all, but I liked the wheat down south.
However... once my settler was out and marshing south there Sitting Bull stole the wheat.... So I decided to make a huge gamble which did work out!

Game:

Spoiler :

This brown yuckyness everywhere is hurting my eyes.

Whipped one worker and put overflow into a third to get the nasty desert stone improved in time and chop out a massive culture generator.



Built a madrassa early too and it didn't take long until henge was up at 16 culture per turn.
I ran two scientists and prayed and got a scientist at 20-30% odds or so. Bulbed math with this guy. My plan was to come at sitting bull early, his capital was flatland and likewise some other strong city down south, and his hill cities where with T0 access so I figure it would be doable to attack him even though he is crazy with his build unit probability.


T90 Sitting bull builds GLH in his capital, and the cultural metropolis Medina influences the citizens of Poverty point so much they start a revolt against their cruel leader who deprive them of cows.
Was abit worried about Sitting Bull getting angry and declaring on me before I was ready, but T96 he demanded crabs, thereby securing a 10 turn peace treaty.

However... just some turns later Hannibal starts to plot. I was hoping it was on sitting bull since he was his worst enemy, but it wasn't.


Swapping to police state here to get the elephant out w/o a barracks. And some units are hurrying up too.
He didn't come right away which was nice of him.

Nice nice!


He comes in with one sword.
But more was just around the corner.
Mainly archers in the first wave which got me a GGeneral.




And somewhere here I'm cemented into a perpetual war that will last for ages.
Can't say too much yet but I'm not sure if there will be tears or laughter in the game submitted thread.
Still, the game has posed some formidable challenges and provided ample opportunity for me to make horrid mistakes.

 

Like most I settled on the sugar. Second city went down south next to the wheat on the PH on the coast, before SB might steal the elephants. Third city close to home (3E) and then a fourth to get the bronze. Early on I stole a worker from Hannibal. Seems it pissed him off quite a bit, wouldn't sign peace for ages. When he finally did, I did however decide to try and take him out anyway. As construction seemed to take ages, gambled on just using axes and after IW swords, as it seemed he was missing metals. That worked out quite well, so by 1AD I got 3 of his 4 cities including Carthage, which needed 2 assaults as the first one just failed because of one unlucky combat roll. Just now at 1AD took peace as he was willing to give me construction (and archery) which will be nice to elepult SB next. Hannibal for now is left with a size-1 city to his former south. Also built GLH but missed out on Oracle just as I started on Priesthood. The game indeed is going slow, so I'm happy to at least have the 4 C-s (currency, calendar, construction and CoL) and my 7-city little empire (with a settler on the way), that is looking for further expansion.

 

Are you sure you didn't wish?
I was using the Madrassa to run 2 priests (1st time ever, probably for anyone) to bulb Theo for a religious win.
And, you know what happened. I've played a lot of games with events and never had this big of a disruption. Usually just slave revolts.
I coulda recovered, but I wasn't likely to finish this one anyway. Challenger save too.

 

City1,2,3 exactly like @nocho City4 double seafood, city5 at the copper. Also was looking for a worker steal from Hannibal. Nothing showed up and I didn't keep hanging around, so that went of the table.

My idea was to build Mids and utilize the Madrassa to pump some GP of whatever kind out fast and settle them. Due to expansion workload on a slow map that didn't work out at the pace I hoped (capital had to do everything here). So far a GE 200BC on which I changed mymind and hurried Parthenon, and halfway the next one.

At 1AD 1T from finishing GLib, close to finishing MoM as well + I built GLH. Working on my 3rd ''C'' (CoL). Have a 6th city filling SW of cap. Planning one more at the dye which will allow chain farming towards wheat/ivory city (dye currently inside SB border).
edit: Hannibal trades marble with me , so maybe a good thing I couldn't steal a worker

It's all a bit aimless at this point, mainly because I don't find it attractive to conquer more poor stuff, hence my idea to boost with settled GP.

 

I kind of wish there where some sort of spoiler thread where you could discuss stuff that happend between 1AD and finish.
I hope it doesn't spoil anything for anyone if I just say that I'm having a hell of a epic struggle, horrid mistakes combined with rotten luck in a mixed bag.

I'm up at 1878ad now, and I'm still ways away from winning (or even securing a win!)
If I can get an ambulance this game, it's well deserved.

 

Pretty sure I didn’t…

I’m thinking either Fippy or DynamicSpirit.

 

What I’ve noticed about Deity, and beyond the beginning you’re basically playing a true deity level group of AIs, is that even when you achieve parity or get ahead they can quickly recover and accelerate. Tricky.

 

Yeah, I have oftentimes said that the extra settler is the main factor that deity is so difficult. But trying out some of these BOTM games where it's deity but the AI start with monarch/Immortal/etc units have taught me that I wasn't entierly right in that aspect.

 

Rage quit. I don't like playing deity without luxuries.

 

Played until 1AD. Useless to continue. All others on the landmass are of different religion and mostly hostile, more advanced and have already taken almost every viable piece of real estate within range. So I'm making others happy by quitting. And no, I didn't play deity level.

 

Figure it out. You might be one of the few to win on deity!

 

I take it you didn't get the stone then...?

 

I took the contender save and also settled on the sugar. By 1 AD, I have six cities, including one taken during a quick war with Sitting Bull. (I signed a ceasefire before his dog soldiers gave my axes a headache.) I've built the Pyramids and I've researched all the tech I need for another war with Sitting Bull, this time with elepults. Everyone I know is Buddhist, including myself.

The only significant event for me was the herbalist's discovery, which gave all my cities +2 health in exchange for some temporary unhappiness.

 

Well I feel a little better about quitting my game after reading comments


Tried deity save, idea was to axerush sitting bull to get his ivory and then turn around and elepult hannibal.


Unfortunately triple-upgraded archers are really strong and attack failed, retired here cause my cities have lots of unhappiness, already out of good land and probably behind in tech