[BTS] BOTM 276: Shaka, Immortal - First Spoiler - 1AD

[DynamicSpirit]

BOTM 276: Shaka, Immortal - 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 276, 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

 

[LowtherCastle]

Well, my gameplay has been pretty lame as of late. War mongering, REX, worker stealing, have all been exercises in futility. I don’t think that really changed in this game but the reason I’m posting here is different. The way I played this one so far has likely been very different than people who settled in the starting area. So I’m curious to see how you folks have gotten on.

I didn’t like the starting area even though there was lots of forest and I assumed there would be copper as there indeed was. So instead, I moved north and settled on t6, 2 tiles north of the stone. Not really too great starting place because there weren’t enough floodplain tiles. And only one lame food resource. So I decided to focus on building the Great Wall so I could REX without worrying about all the barb invasions. I probably made the mistake of researching animal husbandry first because I think it would’ve been better to beeline masonry and pottery. But my basic tech line was:

AH-MNG-MYST-MSNRY-TW-POTT

The reason I added mysticism is that after some turns I decided to go ahead and throw in Stonehenge. So basically my strategy was more builder than warmongering obviously. I didn’t even build a second settler before I completed both Stonehenge 2280BC and the Great Wall 2080BC.

The basic problem with my strategy was how piss poor the flood plains were along my river. That was a severe handicap, but I went onward anyway.

At 1AD, I have seven cities, 41pop, 101 raw bpt at -62 gpt. 100% research slider. I have copper, ivory, and in 1t iron. Also gold and I have SoD on the doorstep of beautifully settled barb city Aryan which will give me gems, 2 pigs, rice and bananas! This will be my southwestern outpost for an attack on Hannibal along with a western outpost to his north if/when I capture barb Kushans.

I researched alphabet along the way and I am two turns from completing metal casting.

Zara has the tech lead with Col, Mono, Monarchy, and who knows how close to Feudalism, but JC is on the Feud path and is 8t from acquiring it so Zara sooner. Parity with other AIs.

So far no wars by any player in my game but all players have a worst enemy who isn’t me.

I assume players who settled in the starting area declared early on Hannibal. I’m curious how it has gone for you. How is your economy?

 

[nocho]

Like Lowthercastle, I started wandering north with the settler, but not quite as far. I decided to settle on the PH 2N of the banana, at least it had the extra hammer and fresh water through the lake. Quite a tough game, with little commerce and happiness, I think the stone resource has made it playable, for me at least. I built the Great Wall just as a rather massive barb wave was coming into the borders. I proceeded to build the Pyramids too, which gave some breathing space with happiness through representation. I got a GE, which I decided to settle, also for the extra science.

I also got a nice barb city at the double pigs/banana/rice, Hannibal was so nice as to soften up the barb defenses. Anyhow, also just 7 cities and 34 pop, partly being cautious not to expand too quickly. I've teched Aesthetics to backtrade stuff, but only just reached currency as most notable tech. However, the AIs aren't very advanced either. Julius is at 12 cities already and only second on the leaderboard to Zara with 10 cities. While building wealth in my 3 main cities can sustain 80% science now at 87bpt.

Hannibal would be the first natural target, but I don't think it will happen very soon yet.

 

[Jimmy Thunder]

I took a big gamble in my game, which almost paid off nicely, but I didn’t quite have the finesse to get through the barbarian phase of the early game unscathed.

I (like others above) decided that I didn’t want to be stuck in the corner and that there must be better spots out there given the known quantities of the Oasis map script. Moving closer to an AI should also help for early trade and establishing borders that I can later backfill to the starting corner.

I took the risk and walked my settler a long way northwest to find the next “Nile” over. I understood that I would be guaranteed to find flood plains and wheat, with the chance of gold, ivory and stone. Ended up finding a good-looking spot with floodplains and ivory, but it did take me quite some turns to get there.

I researched an extreme Alphabet beeline, taking only the Wheel, Pottery, and Writing – since my new capital location could advance without the other worker techs. However my warrior defence/fog busting was not up to scratch (losing my scout with a bad roll early didn’t help either).

Ended up losing one size 1 city, 5-6 cottages, two farms, and the same ivory camp twice to barbs before I properly secured the border with archers. Could have been a great game otherwise, but I’ll play it out to see what I can salvage from my “meh”.

Obviously with this going on I didn’t get Impis out - so missed playing around with worker steals, denying AI metal and other choking strategies. It would be great to read stories from those that did.

 

[antimony]

I just settled on the PH NW of starting position, city 2 north of rice, figured I could go AH-Mining and make a few farms/mines in starting area. I think the mistake was to go BW before Fishing-Wheel (fishing is worth it just for the lakes I think, paying for itself by the time you get pottery). This delayed pottery (around T60) and my cheap granaries quite a bit, but it picked back up by the time I got Alpha around T90, not before chopping Pyramids in capital. Also got Great Wall after Pyramids, was planned as fail gold build but nobody got it and barbs spears/axes were starting to show up.

I settled the easternmost river almost all the way to the green area on the other side (5 cities) and then a city W of capital for cow, and NW in the desert for that ivory/corn/oasis cluster. 9 cities / 37 pop by 1 AD, a third of the way to Civil Service, with an academy already in capital. There is a chain of barb cities between my land and Hannibal's (same resource-rich area @LowtherCastle mentioned), going for maces to take them, then on to Engineering. Because of the sheer density of barbs, there is less possibility of trade with the AIs, but I am also safely isolated from them. Got pleased by tech trading liberally with most of them except Mansa (worst enemy of the 3 warmongers) and Alex (worst enemy of Hatty and Mansa).

 

[Xcalibrator]

My game is most like antimony's except, as usual, at a lesser level. 5 cities, 24 pop, but I'll have captured and kept a barb city and settled another in a couple turns. Initial settling was on the PH to the NW and I mostly spread north along the river; Hannibal beat me to the nice gems/etc spot to the west. Research went AH, Wheel, Pottery, Mining, BW. Got the GW 1200 BC and Mids 450. Scores range from 818 (Ethiopia) to me (380). I'm about to get a Great Spy from the Great Wall which I think I'll hang on to for a later Golden Age. Egypt is a vassal of Ethiopia, with 4 and 12 cities respectively; Rome has 11.

 

[MarleysGh0st]

I know I'm not an Immortal level player. Normally, I'd take the Adventurer save, but the initial bonus of two workers didn't seem at all comparable to the standard two-level difficulty adjustment. So, if I'm going to lose this game, anyway, I might as well lose at Contender.

I also settled on the NW PH. Expansion was also mostly to the north, and it quickly stagnated my economy/research. After exploring the immediate neighborhood, my scout was assigned to fog busting. As a result, I didn't meet any of the AI until 625 BC. By 1 AD, I've met three of them.

At 1 AD, I have 6 cities and the Pyramids (completed 75 BC). Meh.

 

[MirrorGuard]

At first I moved SE-SE and planned to settle on sugar. Then I realised this is a non-world-wrap map. I didn't want to settle at the edge of the world so I settled on the PH SE to banana instead. My scout survived animal attacks and he promoted to woods 2 which allowed him to move 2 tiles in the woods. I didn't go for the GW nor any wonder, instead I whipped some imps and axes for barb defenses. I got 2 lvl4 imps for hero epic. I took 2 barb cities with axes. Till AD1 I had 8 cities. Techs up to aesthetics, currency, alphabet.

 

[Conquistador 63]

Before I started this game, I checked my latest attempts at IMM level BOTMs, and I can't say I'm proud of them. The last time I submitted a victory at IMM was on BOTM251 playing as the Zulu), having failed to submit victories in the last 3 games at this level.

I settled on the PH 1NW of our settler's starting position. It was nice to discover we had plenty of room to expand before running into our closest neighbour Hannibal, and copper available, so maybe we could have a better game this time.

Sent an impi to explore the map and met all rivals. As mentioned in other reports, Hattie has peace vassaled to Zara. But no wars were declared yet.
However, even without wars we suffered a few setbacks from the barbarians (lost a size 2 city which was recaptured later), until we finally completed a late TGW (850BC). Also got the Mids (725BC).

Tried to balance expansion and our economy, but can't say we're doing great. Tech is only up to Math and Aesthetics (got a late Alpha from it 200BC). By 1AD we have 8 cities and 2 more settlers walking to their future destination. Only 34 pop, and 47bpt at breakeven.

 

[Xcalibrator]

Since nobody has yet complained about evil mapmakers, let me: Where are the freakin' horses?! I want horses! Where are my horses?

Thank you, I feel better.

 

[antimony]

If you look at the map script guide for Oasis, https://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/map-scripts-guide/#oasis , it mentions where in the map the human player spawns and where the horses are. So I think this is a mostly out of the box Oasis map, no evil mapmaker required.

 

[ZPV]

When in doubt I SIP and I was in doubt here so I SIP!

City 2 was on the stone and built The Great Wall in 1720BC
Ulundi built the Pyramids in 900BC.

I didn't have any luck with the mega-gems spot - Hannibal settled the area too early - but I did snag the gems for myself.

Overall, it's been slow but the AIs are just as slow - I have Alphabet, Iron Working, Aesthetics, a few turns from Mathematics.
9 cities, 32 pop, approx 40bpt breakeven but there's a lot of scope for variation with representation.

There's tons of room up to the north so the plan is to keep expanding until it's all full.

 

[MarleysGh0st]

We have horses in reach. The big ones with tusks.

(What other horses would Shaka be familiar with? Certainly not the ones with the black and white stripes. They're nasty!)