[BTS] BOTM 291: Louis XIV, Prince - First Spoiler - 1AD

[kcd_swede]

BOTM 291: Louis XIV, Prince - First Spoiler - 1AD

Please tell us about your strategy at the start. Did you test play a team game of your own to refresh your memories, and if so did that help you improve your play in the real game?

Tell us if you learned anything unusual, and what you plan to do going forward.

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

Reading Requirements
If you are participating in BOTM 291, 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

 

[Conquistador 63]

I have been unusually busy with RL lately, but couldn't afford to miss this intriguing game setup.

I won't have too much time to play it (much less playtest it before playing the actual save), so I decided to take advantage of the safe environment (no hostiles nearby), our leader traits and the presence of stone and marble to pursue an old fashioned culture victory, which hopefully I should be able to finish on time.

The map layout was less than ideal (no riverside tiles around for cottaging), but we'll have to work with what is available.

A few issues specific to team play surprised me, namely finishing a religion-enabling tech and seeing the new religion appear on one of our teammate cities; also finishing a world wonder enabling tech and seeing our partner starting to build it the next turn, before we even have a chance to try it. Or maybe there is a workaround to it which I failed to use? Like leaving the last beakers to be teched by our partner (in the latter case)? I will hate to miss the chance to build Sistine Chapel.

Anyways, these issues ended up helping me, as getting another religion made Charly send missionaries to my cities, so I didn't need to build some of them myself, and getting WW nice effects as the pop growth from HG without polluting my cities' gene pool too much. Also I'll won't fall into the temptation of building GLib, and its research boost will benefit us anyway.

At 1AD we have 8 cities (2 on the islands), 52 pop. Tried to settle towards Charlie, looking to secure some resources, leaving some decent land to our West unsettled by now. On old school culture games, 9 was the max # of cities recommended, not sure if this concept still holds.

We have Hindu (our religion) and Judaism (Charlie's) on our continent. We built the Mids (adopted Rep) and Parthenon. He has GW, HG, SoZ, and is building GLib.

Techwise we are up to Lit and Currency. Charlie would usually choose to research the tech I was working on, with a few exceptions (he got IW on his own, and now is going for Calendar while I just got started on Music). Oddly enough, he was wise and didn't even tech archery yet.

As I am just starting to build some cottages, economy sucks and tech is highly dependent on some rep scientists. I have no illusions of getting a decent finish date, even more as GPP generation will be much harder with this team setup, but I suppose it will be early enough to survive the only possible threat: an unlikely overseas invasion at prince level.

 

[nocho]

My usual strategy is try to REX while keeping the economy afloat, I didn't defer much from that this game.

Not unhappy with the results, I'm at 13 cities (2 on islands) and 64 pop. I settled in place and soon noticed that resources aren't shared with our buddy when he had a deer that didn't show up in my city lists. So I figured there was no way to get them in trade as we can't talk to him, so then I also made some work of settling towards Charlemagne, specifically getting the furs to his north and getting the corn/spice/incense/floodplain site to his SW. The latter city and a cottageable place NW of Paris are the only non-coastal cities, so I made work of the GLH.

I got that and also built Oracle, Pyramids and MoM myself, as well as Moai in my second city (3E1N from Paris). I took CoL from the Oracle and was happy to see confu founded in one of my cities. It's the only religion on the continent, so it's spreading freely. Haven't had the need to convert yet thanks to rep and 3 happy resources, although Charlemagne obviously has. He did attempt to get buddhism, but abandoned meditation when it was founded somewhere else. He also seemed to be wonder hungry, I guess the marble and stone inspired him too. I was quite unhappy when I saw him build Hanging Gardens before I had the time to, but very pleased when my population also increased when he finished it. He also built Stonehenge which gave me monuments too, so now I'm supercreative with +3 culture from the get-go. Besides he built Chichen Itza. I notice that he has unusual city names, so I'm wondering whether there will be a Burger King on every continent?

Tech pace isn't great for Prince, but of course haven't been able to trade anything yet either. We have CoL, Calendar and Currency, one turn away from Literature. I'm really wondering if it's worth to pursue Music if we both tech it, not sure where the Artist would go. I'm sitting on a Prophet still, I guess I'll launch a GA when I can time it with the Bureau switch.

Very enjoyable game, I see there are nearly 1500 tiles so it will take a while, which is nice. Will later decide whether to go to space or short-circuit to domination/conquest, especially if I find the magic island first.

 

[nocho]

also finishing a tech an world wonder enabling tech and seeing our partner starting to build it the next turn, before we even have a chance to try it. Or maybe there is a workaround to it which I failed to use? Like leaving the last beakers to be teched by our partner (in the latter case)? I will hate to miss the chance to build Sistine Chapel.

I haven't noticed yet that I can't build a wonder if our partner is busy on it, but I'll find out shortly as I want to build GLib which is due next turn. Anyways, in case of Sistine, I guess its effects would also apply to you if Charly builds it, so you'd get the extra culture from specialists, though not the culture from the building itself of course. At least I guess it works like that, as I do get monuments from his Stonehenge and the extra pop from his HG. Likewise, he seems to be in representation from the Mids I built. I don't know though if he gets the extra trade routes from GLH, as he hasn't built a coastal city yet, but I suspect he will.

 

[Mitchum]

Based on the game setup, I also decided on a Culture victory. Although, things aren't going that well in may game so far. The Oracle was built in 1560BC which is really early for Prince. Luckily, I hadn't started building it yet so no major loss other than the potential for a free tech. We were the first to CoL and Confucianism was founded in one of Charlie's cities long ago. It has not spread to me either organically or through missionaries yet but if I'm to win a Culture victory, I think I need some religion... Charlie also aggressively settled toward me rather than some of the juicy spots to his east and south so I had to settle quite a ways away from the capital to secure some of the nice land just to his west. I have one city over there that is in a culture battle with Charlie over a nice grassland deer tile. Charlie has build the GW but nothing else. So at least we don't have to worry about barbs!! So not a great start for a Culture victory but I hopeful that things turn around quickly.

At 1 AD, I have 7 cities (+2 settlers) and 34 pops. I built the Pyramids, Chichen Itza and I'm 2 turns from finishing the HG and 4 turns from finishing the Parthenon. I have Math, Aesthetics, Calendar, Code of Laws and Civil Service. My Representation-fueled research is pretty bad at +84b @ -44g and +28b sustainable. I plan to delay the HG for a couple of turns so that I can found my last 2 cities and get the free pop in all 9. I hope there is no risk of an AI getting the HG this early but maybe it's not worth the risk for a meager +2 pops.

In my game, Charlie has been a bit annoying and hard to control. He does back fill some useful techs but he did tech Hunting -> Archery early which were wasted early beakers. Other than the GW and saving us from barbs, he hasn't been the greatest teammate. At least he's expanding quite well and his research rate is keeping us afloat.

I'll be interested to see if I can turn things around to catch up to C63. I have 0.5 religions while he has 2 religions so I'm in a bit of a hole.

 

[Smiregal]

When moving the warrior east in the beginning i found the eastern corn an decided to move on the Stone for the Extra Fish. Some how I did not contemplate the culturalroute although it is probably the fastest vc.
I decided to go for a great Lighthouse and Pyramid fueld economy. When I Played around with the Team mecanics I tried to help Charlie research, who of course went for meditation and poly early, even delaying my Research for a bit. Unfortunatelly we missed bud. By one turn. Stonehenge went pretty early and when suddenly the Oracle went somewhere around 1800bc I kind of paniced and delayed rexing for TGL and Pyramids whiping workers into them and litteraly choping every available forrest. After that I went back settling. And straight for. Literature. I decided to go the specialist econ route and try to bulb astronomy early. This would be some what successful since reaching the neccesary tecs proves to take longer than I thougt with great scientists piling up in my capitol. After geting to calendar, col (confu) poping in my Lands which helped a lot. I started on the Optics route. To ensure to get confu I delayed the research by two or three turns until it Showed that I can Finish it by my own. After finishing the mom i started a GA (with a scientist ) and I m heading for astro now with 3 scientists left. One for philo and two for astro. Which I probably wont reach before 400 to 500bc . I stoped settling at 9 or 10 cities because maintenance started to ramp up.
At the the end a shout out to my Teammate Charlie who for except two Instances mirrored my tecpath. Making my Astronomy date not Stellar, but considering that I build only around 5 cottages , a least acceptable.
The last shout out goes to kcd of course for getting the game out despite the hindering circumstances.

 

[Mitchum]

To ensure to get confu I delayed the research by two or three turns until it Showed that I can Finish it by my own.

Interesting. No matter what I did with the slider or whether Charli or I put the last few beakers into a tech, he always got the bonus for the tech (e.g., GA for Music, founding a religion, etc.). The only way I founded a religion was to bulb Philosophy...

 

[Smiregal]

Interesting. No matter what I did with the slider or whether Charli or I put the last few beakers into a tech, he always got the bonus for the tech (e.g., GA for Music, founding a religion, etc.). The only way I founded a religion was to bulb Philosophy...

Also interesting: When I bulbed philo it appeared in Charlies Lands. Now I m confused.

 

[kcd_swede]

Learning by doing... I like it. It will be interesting to see what strategy yields the Gold medal. Hard to do with a fastest culture victory, but certainly viable. Keep having fun, no matter what, "May the odds be ever in your favor" as they say in the Hunger Games! And thank you all for reporting what has happened so far, as I am enjoying the game vicariously.

 

[Conquistador 63]

@kcd_swede
FYI, I finished the game and tried to submit it, but it looks like the GOTM page still isn't working.

 

[kcd_swede]

@kcd_swede
FYI, I finished the game and tried to submit it, but it looks like the GOTM page still isn't working.

You can send it to me by PM as an attachment, and I'll upload it for you when the server is up again.

 

[Mitchum]

@kcd_swede I sent you my completed gave via PM as well.

 

[Frederiksberg]

SIP and expanded towards Charlemagne with the idea of settling the best spots in the easter part of the continent. This may not have been necessary since he only settled 3 cities so far and seems content to build infrastructure. Unfortunately, this delayed my scouting in the west and I discovered the spot to the NW with four food resources in the FC very late. Should ideally have been the second city. Research was slow because of the isolation and added cost from the team research, and with no contact with other teams, the GLH was not as valuable in the early game. Settled both islands to at least get a pair of 2 commerce trade routes.

Stats @1AD are 10 cities with 54 pop. Researched up to Currency, CoL and Monarchy (missed the Oracle).