[BTS] BOTM 235: Suryavarman II, Deity - First Spoiler - 1AD

[kcd_swede]

BOTM 235: Suryavarman II, Deity - First Spoiler - 1AD

Which save did you choose?
How are things looking by 1 AD?

Use this thread to tell us what happened in your game, up to 1AD
Don't post about stuff that happens after 1 AD.

Reading Requirements
If you are participating in BOTM 235, 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

 

[Xcalibrator]

I settled on the PH NW of the corn. Currently 5th of 7, ahead of the stunted kingdoms of Japan and Korea (7 and 6 cities, respectively) but at about half the score of leader India, who has something like 17 cities. My tech rate could be described as sluggish , although I see in retrospect that I could have done some things to improve that. City maintenance is a killer, and I need to get CoL/courthouses ASAP. I'll be able to bulb Compass in a few turns and then hope to trade for a few techs. I have 13 cities (middling) and am trying to grab good islands, but it's slow without the circumnav bonus that I missed. I've also missed out on any Wonders. Nearest neighbors India and China are both Buddhist, like me, which at least means I should be safe from attacks. In fact, there haven't been any wars at all. Islands are nice for research, but I guess I need to concentrate on making some of my mainland cities into production centers so I can someday build a conquering army. You gotta have dreams, right?

 

[kcd_swede]

Ha... yeah, I was surprised nobody mentioned the "big map maintenance costs" in the announcement thread... but some things you either gotta already know or figure out on your own I suppose.

 

[MirrorGuard]

, I was surprised nobody mentioned the "big map maintenance costs" in the announcement thread...

Someone did, but in an implicit way.

How many land tiles are there on this map? That low sea level is really scary.

Usually I use 1.1% -9 land tile as a reference value for a standard game. Larger map is usually harder. When I settled in T1, iirc the land area percentage was 0.45%...

City maintenance is a killer,

Guess you will soon find out what's the real killer.

 

[Implo]

I also settled on the PH NW and got Asoka 2nd city next to me.
Saw the double deer, was thinking about skipping agg og and going straight for BW. Did not...

Then Asoka got religion and a holy city in 2nd city.. No way I could manage peace for long with that on my boarder.

Then temptation lead me into stealing 2 early workers from Asoka on the beaver tile.
The extra workers combined with slowing him down (he was seeming like he really could outproduce me.) seemed like it was worth the risk.
Could easily have lost me the game.

Had a Nail biter until I managed to get up a couple axes and spears. They were easy to chop with 3 workers and 2 cities.
Went past his 2nd city which was heavily defended hill city and saw his capitol was low on defence.
Terrible war luck.. and managed to just barly take his cap with 2 spears left. Which was ok, since he had cariots. Then Cease fire peace.

2nd phase
From what i could se he had the good land. He also build the SH. Not important since CRE.. but a wonder is a wonder I guess. And I kind of like agressive culture

Decided to go for Horse archers. and clean him up or at least take a couple cities.

Had a really tempting situation where i could "snipe" his new capitol (2nd city, now holy city) guarded with a lonely axe. I had a chariot and a Wood II axe. That both could reach on the turn of declaration.
That premature and greedy attack obviously had to fail.. so I lost both guys and had to emergency whip chariots. 2 turns later I got 3 and managed to take the city. He did not reinforce.

Took 2-3 more cities and managed to bribe the chinese in on the war. And I took peace a little later.
Then I waited for what seemed like forever (probably 15-20 turns) and stacking units on Asokas boarder to be ready to take a couple key cities in a nice swoop.
Semi ok exceution. Lost a lot more than i was hoping. Peter suprisingly went to war againgst asoka and caused some disturbance.. I got some more cities. and Asoka capitulated to the china rather quick. Kind of poor results.. but im now on par with the biggest guys on cities.

3nd phase
With the early semi successful fighting I managed to get some capture gold and early tech to Hereditary rule, the MoM and Glib.
Now its tech, infrastructure and golden ages time!!

The game seems to be in ok shape. Got 10- 12 cities. plan is to go for curri now and take maybe peter then tokugawa.
The tech pace seems slow on the other guys.

 

[High King J.J.]

Still alive. Dead last of course. 9 cities and some land blocked off to settle once I have enough cottages for the maintenance costs. Very much behind in science. Asoka of course holy citied butt-head-ism on the second city next to my capital, that seems to be nearly universal experience. At least butt-ism spread to me so I'm not worst enemy of Asoka or anyone yet. Several civs are plotting war.
Kind of boring to exclusively try to claim land and not get bankrupt while India settles everywhere. Once someone decides to wipe me out I guess it's over, right now I'm getting some + relations due to being no threat to anyone. Did I say I hate deity level games?

 

[MarleysGh0st]

I took the Adventurer save. One settler went to the PH, while the other one settled S of the starting position. The Great Spy went exploring, uncovering a great deal of the map, until I accidentally clicked on the button to start a golden age in 325 BC.

By 1 AD, I have 11 cities. Asoka is everyone's worst enemy, although only QSH is at war with him, in a fight that started in 725 BC. I'm building ballista elephants and cats, and I plan to join the war. Asoka still has more power than anyone, and I'd prefer if one or two more AI joined the war. Otherwise, QSH might make peace and leave me fighting alone.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

At this point, I would like to request a deadline extension, perhaps making it one of those 1.5-month games. Once stacks get really large and once a lot of the map gets revealed, the game can really slow to a crawl, and it may just take that much more real-life time to complete a game of this large-sized map type.

Of course, it looks like some players have already submitted their games. Remember not to talk about how your game ended in this thread, but feel free to say that you think the original deadline should stand in place if you feel that way. Or, support me in my bid for an extended deadline if you want to see how the tale ends (say, by "liking" my message).

I think that there's a good chance to break a BOTM record with this game, but I'll need more real life time to see it through.


Since I cannot post in the Pre-Game Discussion Thread after having started the game, I will respond to Noble Zarkon, here. The concept of the Map Size is that the Great Plains map type is one of the smaller map types while the Archipelago map type is one of the larger map types.

I don't know if we have a good reference on the forum for exact map type sizes, so, let's make up some numbers.

Imagine that we have:
Standard Map Size: Great Plains map type is 64 x 64 squares, while Archipelago map type is 100 x 100 squares
Small Map Size: Great Plains map type is 48 x 48 squares, while Archipelago map type is 80 x 80 squares

I made those numbers up, but hopefully, they represent the idea that playing a larger map type at the Small Map Size instead of at the Standard Map Size could still give us a reasonably sized map when using the larger map type.



I played the Challenger saved game, of course. If the staff puts such a game there, someone has to support their extra effort, right? I really could have used an early Archer for choking purposes. I would be curious to hear how well people used it; for example, did you only attempt to steal a Worker because you had it? Did you then use it to get some early wins so as to get a quick Cease Fire?


I settled to the west to block off some land, but I appear to have run into a similar situation that others had, which was Asoka placing a City on my borders and founding a Religion in that City.

I could not find nearby additional Food sources for founding a second City. What can we do? Settle far away? Not on Deity. So, the 2nd and 3rd Cities shared Food with the capital. Given the low Happiness level, this approach seemed to have worked out all right, and my City count seems to have been on par with that of other players. I fear that I may have missed a good opportunity to block off some land by packing in my early Cities so tightly.


Of course, when Asoka came to Camp the Fur, I was taking that Worker of his, even without an initial Archer. Do; or die trying. He then sent another Worker right next to my Worker-stealing Warrior, as though he had written me off as not being a threat. Thank you; I'll take 2 Workers for the single war declaration.

But, could I get a Cease Fire? No chance.

Thus, it was a fight for survival. With Slavery in Asoka's hands, there was no way that I'd be going in with a small stack. Thus, a stack of 21 Axes and Spears were used to capture his first City.

How could I afford that stack? Riverside Cottages! Those, and stopping research after Pottery and Bronze Working to save up Gold for running a deficit while moving my stack into enemy lands.

It was a long slog. Eventually, though, the AIs came through on Alphabet and I was able to sue for peace for a stack of techs.

Peter was next, and after another long slog, I was able to sue for peace for another stack of techs.

Back to Asoka, or so I thought. Two or three turns into the second war, he Peace Vassaled to Qin. Suddenly, I was at war with an AI who was soon gifted Feudalism (Asoka), along with his super-power of a Master. Oh, what a mess. I reached 1 AD while still in the war, with Qin still unwilling to talk.


It was my own fault, really. I had switched to Asoka's original Religion to buddy-up to Peter while I was at war with Asoka the first time and for the desperately-needed Happiness in a couple of Cities. But, after the first war with Asoka ended, Asoka still had a different Holy City, and during my war with Peter, Asoka had spent the majority of his resources spreading that Religion around and getting Qin solidly on his side.


Thank you kcd_swede, for the foresight to remove the Barbs!

1 AD Stats:
Axes: 27 remain out of 58 created
Spears: 8 remain out of 9 created
Swords: 3 remain out of 3 created
3 Great Generals created
Cities: 10 for me, 6 for Peter, and 5 for Asoka
Have an Academy in my capital and am halfway to the next Great Scientist

One major flaw, in hindsight, is completely missing out on Horse Resources. I see 4 of them nearby, but they are all under control of AIs' Cities. So, no Horse Archers for me!


I will say, though, that kcd_swede was quite generous with giving the AIs plenty of Strategic Resources. Thank you for the Deity-worthy challenge! And, thank you to both of the hard-working staff and the dedicated players for continuing to keep this series alive and kicking!

 

[MirrorGuard]

I don't know if we have a good reference on the forum for exact map type sizes,

I think the number of land tiles serves as a better reference than map size. When the first city is settled, you can estimate the total number of land tiles: 9 divided by the land percentage. For this game,iirc it's 0.045. So a total of 2000~ land tiles, while a standard size, medium sea level Pangaea map has about 750~850 land tiles.

 

[LowtherCastle]

I think the number of land tiles serves as a better reference than map size. When the first city is settled, you can estimate the total number of land tiles: 9 divided by the land percentage. For this game,iirc it's 0.045. So a total of 2000~ land tiles, while a standard size, medium sea level Pangaea map has about 750~850 land tiles.

The interface gives the exact number of land tiles on turn zero Before even settling. Hover over your player name in the lower right corner.