[BTS] BOTM 270: Charlemagne, Monarch - first spoiler to 1AD

[kcd_swede]

BOTM 270: Charlemagne, Monarch - First Spoiler - 1AD



Tell us about your game up to 1AD... do you have a plan for victory?

Use this thread to tell us what happened in your game, up to 1AD

Reading Requirements
If you are participating in BOTM 270, 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]

This certainly plays quickly for now. As the scout didn't find anything special to the west, I settled on the marble as I guess most will do. At 1AD I'm at size 13 and of course built a whole lot of wonders. I started with the Great Wall thinking that some spy points in the mix might be interesting for later, but I popped no GSpy yet. I did get three GPs so far, two of which I settled, the third built the Kong Miao. 6 out of 10 AIs are jewish however, so I'll likely adopt that soon. I also got a GS for an academy. Then of course I got a bunch of marble wonders, Temple of Artemis, Oracle (CS), Parthenon, Great Library and busy on the MoM. After getting the techs for CS I went straight to Drama for the Globe, I also got the NE. Techwise doing fine, I'm some turns into Education, with stuff like MC, construction, monarchy in the bag. I got somewhat lucky popping an extra gem on the eastern hill. Genghis declared on me but he suicided his stack against my axes behind a wall, so for now things don't look scary.

As to how to win, I'll definitely try to get a PA, I don't think I ever played with that so I'm curious how that works out. The Khmer look like the most solid AI, so I'll try to work them up to friendly, which I guess is necessary for a PA? Conquest or Domination looks fun to try, although if all my conquests autoraze, not sure how to handle that. Is there a way to get your PA partner to capture cities? I guess I'll find out.

 

[Conquistador 63]

I also settled on the marble and did not regret it.
What I did regret was beelining Alpha (fooled by having 10 neighbors available for tech trading), instead of focusing on getting CS from Oracle ASAP. Ended up losing Oracle by 2 turns (tech rate was the bottleneck). The only WW we built was GLib.
On the bright side, we have a potentially favorable diplomatic scenario to get an early PA. Due to shared religion (Willem's Judaism) with 5 out of 10 AI, and some ongoing shared wars, by 1AD we are already at friendly status with 3 AI.
Techwise, we are up to Education, Music, Drama, MC and Construction (180bpt), and Aachen is currently at size 17.
We will also try for Domination or Conquest, for a change.
Judging from their current performance, I anticipate some frustration with our potential teammate's lack of effectiveness on the war front, though.

 

[Powerfaker]

Back after doing different things in February. I did play most games at least a bit, messed up some starts, had a nice though not very focused game with Victoria, and the Ceasar game is not going so well.
This one was announced early, so I did some calculations in advance. Basically the most efficient seems beelining the big stuff with the fewest possible distractions.

From the start (marble settle):
- Agri/Mining obviously
- Poly/PH/Writing, grow to the max, hurry Library, run Scientists for asap Academy (1640BC)
- Alphabet, needed to get the small stuff
- Oracle CS, buro/slavery 1440BC
- Monarchy for HR (combined with OrgRel ), then on to Literature, Glib 825BC, NEpic 725BC
- Paper, Education 250BC, Oxford 1AD

The usual stats summarized in one picture:

Spoiler :

3 settled GP, one disgusting GArtist, thanks to newly built NEpic at the time.
Downside of focusing on specialists is lack of cottage growth. But most of them will be removed anyway once full power watermills are available.

I was worried about early Oracle date with this map setup. Played 2 example games where it went around 500BC. Glad I didn't get surprised in the actual game.
Lots of red fists and a couple wars. Nothing on me sofar, but I'm pretty sure Toku is on to me, which is why I went Machinery (Maces) . I will probably go Drama/Philo/Music and then Lib => Constitution for Rep, which means i need to have Globe by then. I would prefer Lib => Biology, but WvO probably won't let me.

 

[antimony]

I really focused on science and avoided most world wonders except the great library.

After Agri-Mining, went for Pottery (grew to size 4 building 3 warriors and then a 2nd worker to help with floodplain cottages), then BW and Writing. Used my only early whip and pre-math chop to hurry library (due to 2 gems, the 25% science from the lib itself and early academy are more impactful than cottages now), then Alpha. Wasn't expecting much on the tech trading front but building research isn't bad, also Monarchy could wait after Alpha since I was stalling growth with specialists. Got GS for an academy in 1360 BC.

After Monarchy, priority was Literature (got TGL in 875 BC), then CS (late-ish 450 BC, I actually went Currency before CoL and CS to trade for a few happy / health resources), Drama for Globe Theatre, Music for the free Great Artist (ok that could have waited), MC for the forge since university and Oxford will require many hammers, and now soon done with Education (sped up with my 2nd GS). Got National Epic and almost done buliding the Globe Theatre in 1AD.

Around 1000 BC I started bribing the warmongers with techs so they go after other targets, bribed Aztec against England and Khmer against France, and then 3 other aggressive AIs just decided to pile on Napoleon (see picture below in 850 BC). They didn't attack much in practice though and nobody lost any cities. But it's keeping me out of their focus for now (religion is not really an option for diplo since the world is divided with 2-3 AIs per religion).

Spoiler :