[BTS] BOTM 254: Zara Yacoub with Noble Donuts... First spoiler to 1AD

[kcd_swede]

BOTM 254: Zara Yacoub, Noble - First Spoiler - 1AD



Yada yada yada... didn't you win yet? No? Then tell us what's wrong. LOL
Use this thread to tell us what happened in your game, up to 1AD

Reading Requirements
If you are participating in BOTM 254, 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

 

[Powerfaker]

Ha, first to respond here

Took Contender, cause not a fan of Deity. Glad I did, this is a nice map for self expansion and development.

Moved the scout 2N, looking for a place to settle more inland. Noticed another wet corn and plenty of green river, so spend 2T to settle on plains forest.
More green river all around and plenty of food, really nice for a lot of settling.

I chose to delay mining the copper till I had some warriors out. Then I kept a 4th city (NE of cap) disconnected so it could keep pumping the warriors, which it is still doing at 1AD.
Noticed soon that happy level was going to be strangling. After worker techs I went Monarchy first for HR, then headed for Calender. I Oracled Currency because I forgot you need Sailing for Calender. This all helped a bit to raise population, although just one city to produce warriors is quite tight to supply the empire with garrisons.

At 1AD I just went from >60 to 52 pop whipping settlers. 11th city just founded, 4 more settlers on the move. And I'm standing at the gates of Aztec capital with cats and axes, I will have it in 2T. It has Buddha shrine and SH. Currently also working on forges. The price of all this is that I do not have Civil Service just yet, that will take another 5T. My GP generation still needs to take off too. I'm going for the long game, for sure not conquest/domination.

 

[Conquistador 63]

SIP.
At 1AD I have 9 cities and 45 pop.
Oracled Currency and have up to CS, Calendar and Monarchy (traded), will have MC in 2t.
We will declare on Bismarck (Babylon) this turn, with Cats, Swords and Axes.
Met all the 6 AIs.
I’m going for space race VC (again!), so I’m spamming cottages on most of these green riverside tiles.

Nice to play an unusual mapscript and also those crazy special settings!

 

[nocho]

My game is similar to those of Powerfaker and Conquistador63.

I also noticed the extra wet corn with the scout going 2N, so I ended up settling 3N of the starting location. Of course a very nice green paradise all around us, with plenty of rivers, so the game is really screaming Space to me. Given the lack of any accesible happy resources though, I also went quite quickly for Monarchy and also refrained from connecting copper. I only connected it when I got IW in trade and seemingly had settled on top of the only iron in the wide neighbourhood, so that was the end of spewing cheap garrison units. By 1AD I do have 27 warriors however, so not too shabby a job on that I think.

By 1AD I'm at 12 cities with 67 pop. I got a city into the wormhole in the centre of the donut to get silver and marble, later will aim for gold/gem/hits too. My last city went directly north of Fred's horses, should steal them culturally soon enough. Creative has its advantages.

I've got 13 workers, one of which I stole early on from Bismarck, but thereafter he never dared to get a worker on his borders again. I also Oracled currency, wasn't quite sure whether the CS sling would have been available and currency is always nice to get. Thankfully SB teched alpha for me, that helped. It seems that techwise I'm exactly where Conq63 is at, I got CS, Calendar, Monarchy and 2 turns from MC. Doing about 150 bpt sustainable, a GS for an academy should be born in 4 turns from now.

Unlike the previous speakers I haven't geared up for war yet, too busy expanding, but soon my focus will go to annexing our german neighbours on both sides I guess.

 

[Frederiksberg]

Very green map!

Settled 1W on top of copper. Not ideal because I got almost no warriors built before they got obsoleted. And the map was lacking early happiness resources. Trying to make the best out of the circumstances, I built two very early axes and sent them to the Aztec capital that was defended only by warriors. The capture ended the Aztec civilization and Tenochtitlan became my third city. Researched and expanded for a while and built the GLH and the Oracle for Feudalism. Then HBR to build an army of horse archers that could deal with the pesky Babylonian bowmen. Captured Babylon and another Babylonian city, four cities remain. The Japanese and the Mongols have become peace vassals. I'm considering going for conquest, though conquest with vassals on is a victory that can be manipulated heavily via city gifting. So maybe not.

At 1AD the Ethiopian empire consists of 10 cities with a population of 66. Tech is up to Feudalism/Aesthetics, currently researching Civil Service

 

[Fine_Distinction]

I am also doing quite well - difficult not to do with such a generous map and enjoying special map touches, thanks @kcd_swede.

I solved unhappiness problem a different way - got an early rep. Required a lot of sacrifices early on, but seemed to work quite well and march with going for space.

At 1AD I have 10 cities and 60 pop (and 'Mids), Civil service, calendar, construction, monarchy , getting MC next turn. Sustainable research is at modest ~130 but should be better soon, will get Great Scientist next turn, one settler on the move and each city can grow at least +1 within the current happy cap.

I also settled 2N, I initially considered bullying engineering so I delayed fishing, but crab city was too tempting to put away for that long. on the other hand, I intentionally delayed settling the crab/copper city until I did not needed warriors any more, in the test games I always accidentally was connecting copper and ending up with a bunch of unneeded spearmen, which was super annoying so just decided to wait it out in the real game.

Sadly, I will not be able to finish, I am leaving for the 2 week vacations tomorrow, I somehow thought the deadline was end of August. But very fun game anyway and an amazing land to settle.

 

[kcd_swede]

I am glad you enjoyed the game so far. I think you have your priorities very correct. And don't worry about the game... we'll make more. Have a super fun and relaxing vacation, and hope to see you on the other side!

 

[Fine_Distinction]

I am glad you enjoyed the game so far. I think you have your priorities very correct. And don't worry about the game... we'll make more. Have a super fun and relaxing vacation, and hope to see you on the other side!

Yeah, the vacations are looking exciting but I am a bit mad I played that one so slowly - only got to 200AD now - since it seems to be going very well and will be interesting to compare with the Monarchy-based approaches. OTOH, when I have read carefully others' accounts, everybody is doing very, very well, it is unusually good map + Noble diff.