[BTS] BOTM 280: Alexander, Emperor - First spoiler to 1000AD

[kcd_swede]

BOTM 280: Alexander, Emperor - First Spoiler - 1AD



Alexander the Great of Greece at Emperor difficulty level... Medieval Era, Epic Speed
CAUTION: Medieval start, spoiler date restrictions are different... Use this thread to tell us what happened in your game, up to 1000 AD

Reading Requirements
If you are participating in BOTM 280, 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 reveal your final result if that happened after 1000 AD.
• Do not discuss the location of resources that may not show up before 1000 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

 

[ariosto]

I tried several openings in the practice save. There are two strong techs we can research early on: Music for free Artist and Civil Service to get bureau fast. Unfortunately, going for CS first might cost you an Artist (that's what happened to me actually in my test game). On the other hand, Music first felt slow - we don't have good use for GA early on, and I wanted to get +50% bonus from capital chops asap.
Slavery vs Caste is another dilemma. It felt very wrong not to use PHI in first 100 turns. Slavery is very much needed, though.

So I decided on the following opening:

• Adopt HR + CS. Grow Great Merchant in the fish city
• Bulb Civil Service. Tech Music meanwhile
• Adopt Bureau + Slavery

So I got GM T24 and teched Music T36.
Where to put first two cities is an interesting question. Actually, we have to decide between floodplain paradise or bunch of bureau forests.

Spoiler Peace :

It was not an easy decision where to put capital. We have to choose between commerce floodplain paradise and food with forests. I decided that I want bureau forests more.

Explorer moved along the coast to unlock trade routes with Rome. Retrospectively, it was too risky for too little gain - I'd rather kept him home for fogbusting. I was lucky with barbs, though.

The next question is - what to do with hammers? Buildings are so expensive... actually, the only one I can justify is barracks thanks to our AGG trait. Settlers cost 221 - just like two swords and catapult. Does that mean...

Spoiler WAR :

Who should I attack - Egypt or Persia? I decided to go for Egypt for the following reasons:

• Better land between our civs.
• Ramesses builds less units than Cyrus
• I didn't want to compete for wonders with IND civ. MoM is especially important.
• Ramesses kindly sent missionaries to me, so I need less of them to spread religion.

Cyrus has better cities, though.

 

[MarleysGh0st]

I tried the practice save and decided to beeline CS, although at 1000 AD I haven't finished researching it yet. Athens went 1W of the settler's starting position, and I ended up moving the second settler onto the fur at the end of the peninsula, to grab the seafood and be sure of having iron. So far, I've built only one city, Corinth, on the river to the SW.

 

[kcd_swede]

I tried several openings in the practice save. There are two strong techs we can research early on: Music for free Artist and Civil Service to get bureau fast. Unfortunately, going for CS first might cost you an Artist (that's what happened to me actually in my test game). On the other hand, Music first felt slow - we don't have good use for GA early on, and I wanted to get +50% bonus from capital chops asap.
Slavery vs Caste is another dilemma. It felt very wrong not to use PHI in first 100 turns. Slavery is very much needed, though.

So I decided on the following opening:

• Adopt HR + CS. Grow Great Merchant in the fish city
• Bulb Civil Service. Tech Music meanwhile
• Adopt Bureau + Slavery

So I got GM T24 and teched Music T36.
Where to put first two cities is an interesting question. Actually, we have to decide between floodplain paradise or bunch of bureau forests.

Spoiler Peace :

It was not an easy decision where to put capital. We have to choose between commerce floodplain paradise and food with forests. I decided that I want bureau forests more.
View attachment 707194
View attachment 707195
Explorer moved along the coast to unlock trade routes with Rome. Retrospectively, it was too risky for too little gain - I'd rather kept him home for fogbusting. I was lucky with barbs, though.
View attachment 707196

The next question is - what to do with hammers? Buildings are so expensive... actually, the only one I can justify is barracks thanks to our AGG trait. Settlers cost 221 - just like two swords and catapult. Does that mean...

Spoiler WAR :

Who should I attack - Egypt or Persia? I decided to go for Egypt for the following reasons:

• Better land between our civs.
• Ramesses builds less units than Cyrus
• I didn't want to compete for wonders with IND civ. MoM is especially important.
• Ramesses kindly sent missionaries to me, so I need less of them to spread religion.

Cyrus has better cities, though.

View attachment 707197
View attachment 707198

Thank you so much! It is one thing to know what you did, but sharing your thoughts on WHY you did it is so useful to we who try to get better in our decision-making.

Spoiler ruminations of Methuselah :

I came to this CivFanatics way back when I was stuck on Prince difficulty, and was quickly able to be a Monarch player, and with more time and effort even got to the point of being able to win at Deity every now and then. And it was sharing of thoughts like this that helped (plus playing SGOTM's, which unfortunately there is not an active enough community of players to support nowadays). I think we could probably get enough participants for a Duel SGOTM, maybe, at least in my dreams). But for IV/BtS its starting to get lonely, and I am hoping Civ7 is a worthy challenge.