[BTS] BOTM 297: Kublai Khan, Prince - First Spoiler to 1AD

[kcd_swede]

BOTM 297: Kublai Khan - First Spoiler - 1AD

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

Did any of the Four Horsemen cause you trouble? How about the confusing combination of leaders and civilizations? (For the record, I chose your leader and civ, but I allowed the computer to randomly select those for the AI.)

Reading Requirements
If you are participating in BOTM 297, 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]

Did any of the Four Horsemen cause you trouble? How about the confusing combination of leaders and civilizations? (For the record, I chose your leader and civ, but I allowed the computer to randomly select those for the AI.)

I'm not sure if this is a copy error from a previous game thread but I haven't seen any Horsemen and wasn't particularly confused by Napoleon of the French, SB of the Native Americans, Ragnar of the Vikings nor Elizabeth of the English.

I went ENE with the settler and settled there, nice spot with the extra pigs and wheat, so our Mongol tribe didn't have much to complain about food. Of course the lack of happy resources was more reason to complain, so it was this typical game of building workers and settlers to avoid growing into unhappiness, thus treading a fine line economically, if not outright ruining the economy quickly, by overexpanding. At least with creative the cheap libraries helped and I think I realized more or less in time I had to get Hereditary Rule asap to grow into some cottages and more scientists.

So as I crawled to Monarchy, I assembled an army of axes for Napoleon and conquered his 3 cities, the conquest cash helping out a bit with the teching. After Monarchy I even self teched Archery for cheaper patrol duties. So that allowed me to grow, and by 1AD I have 11 cities and 62 pop, the capital is size 12, so not too bad. I have settled 1 city on SB's island in the south on top of elephants for my only happy resource so far. Unfortunately the Oracle went earlyish for prince (975BC) but I did get the Great Lighthouse which I built in Paris (late, 100BC). While my tech progress was lamentable, it does look better from here, I got to alpha and mathematics and am 3 turns from currency. While I can only maintain 20% slider at breakeven, I do get about 100 bpt with building research (soon wealth) and a number of scientists hired.

So I met 4 of the 6 AIs, one dead now. The two others must be the religious nutcases, as they have 4 of the 5 founded religions, only Liz founded confu, but the other two known AIs are as pagan as I am still (no spreads yet), which is odd at 1AD. The 3 known AIs have 4, 4 and 3 cities, so they must have their own troubles growing. The land is pretty massive, so it seems we can have fun with this game for a while.

 

[kcd_swede]

Yeah, cut/paste from a previous game, but cool that it keeps players guessing.

 

[LowtherCastle]

I love this game but will save the details for the final spoiler.

Settled same as Nocho. 1AD I have only eight cities and have not gone to war with Napoleon. My original scouting was quite successful, but strategically, though I saw Napoleon‘s cultural borders. I didn’t check out his capital early on because I wanted to really know where I wanted to settle my second city. Thus I didn’t really know anything about Paris and somewhat later on made the mistake of assuming it was a junk city because Napoleon was progressing so slowly. I actually didn’t even meet Napoleon until turn 75! I think his early Scouting units got killed or something. This misconception about his capital and dissuaded me from attacking him early on, and I just focused on building quality cities, and getting the great lighthouse (900BC) and the Oracle.

Like Nocho I quickly realized the necessity for HR but perhaps unwisely took MC from the Oracle (925BC!) because I wanted triremes for this nautical layout. Monarchy in 450BC.

4t from Currency but no Alpha. I’m amazed at Nocho’s research rate at 20% (furiously scribbling notes)! Wow! So that’s a hidden benefit of early REX. Got it. You’re welcome, Nappy.

I’ve settled two offshore cities, one including the pigs and ivory, another on a one-tile island. My second strategic stupidity was forgetting that with No Vassals there’s no colony expenses so I decided not to settle SB’s island more. Sigh.

Also only met 4 AIs. Nappy still hasn’t met Ragnar or Lizzy!? Maybe because I refused OBs with Lizzy. Don’t want to encourage her to circumnavigate…

Btw, I kept my far east copper city offline so it could build axes while my other cities spammed warriors pre-HR. I had to not explore the jungly southern coastal tiles for this reason. By then I assumed the mapmaker had not put any happies or stone or marble there, so at least I got one assumption right.

 

[tlhingan]

I'm more used to playing on Noble, so I overexpanded to 7 cities and took centuries to research Sailing which helped a bit. I unfortunately let Napoleon expand to 6 cities, and copper, and have not yet met Liz. Have met Ragnar but not found him yet. Break-even research would be about 33% at this point, so I can get Monarchy in 4 at the cost of about 150 gold.

 

[pmarc]

I settled in place but got to bronze working and animal husbandry before fishing. I settled cities 2-4 around the capital to share tiles due to lack of initial happiness: east for wheat/pigs, north for sheep and river, south sharing clams. Got Oracle for Monarchy in 1040BC, then Alpha and Currency for trades. Kept settling the land east until I bordered Napoleon. Started a war with catapults and axes around 350 BC, got him down from 5 to 1 city by 1AD. I missed Confucianism by a turn, but founded Taoism with a Great Scientist bulbing Philo.

I didn't plan for GLH due to not having that many coastal cities (I just got my first settler towards the south of Sitting Bull's continent now, aiming for ivory), but making a late attempt to chop it in Paris after seeing all of Napoleon's cities are coastal. 12 cities with 44 population in 1AD, getting Civil Service next turn.