[BTS] BOTM 301: Santa Victoria, Monarch - First Spoiler - 1AD

[DynamicSpirit]

BOTM 301: Santa Victoria, Monarch - 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 301, 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

 

[Xcalibrator]

I settled 1W. With a good bit of food and not much need for an immediate worker, I let the capital grow for a while as I built a warrior. First tech was BW so I could whip stuff, since we were so short on hammers. Tech order was then Masonry (for stone quarry), Hunting (for fur camp/happiness), Sailing (for trade routes, since roads--and everything else--take so long to construct), Wheel, Pottery, Writing, and Alphabet (1640 BC).

At 1AD I have 9 cities, 2 of which are from the late unlamented Ragnar, and 1 from the barbs across the Channel, by the Bend. 43 pop, no Wonders, although I am very slowly building the Mids in a city founded on one of the northwestern horses. I'm 3rd in score (663) behind the Celts (759 and 8 cities) and Zulus (676 and 9). Greece is 4th with 588 and everybody hates him for some reason. I'll have Lit in 1 turn and am aiming for Music after that, both for the Gt Artist AND the ability to build culture to pop borders in a few key places.

One of which is Rag's former 2nd city, founded near some iron. I naively misinterpreted "no copper or iron within reasonable early reach of your starting area" as meaning out of reach of Ragnar, too. Silly me--never trust a mapmaker! Fortunately, I researched Iron Working in time to reveal its location, which was not initially within Ragnar's culture. But a few turns later his borders popped, and my preparations for war became a bit panicked. I was assembling cats and HAs but needed several more turns to get a comfortable number together, so I sent one archer and 2 HAs to the northeast as Viking workers were building a road on the iron, and then declared war (675 BC). I got to the iron one turn after the mine was completed and pillaged it, but Rags had already whipped one spear. No harm done, though. I lost two cats from the main group softening up his capital, but took both cities without any further losses. Pacal has only 4 cities and will be my next target--it would be nice to have iron hooked up to build an axe or two for stack defense against his metal units, but I think archers will suffice if I stick to forests (of which there are a lot .)

One of my galleys dropped a warrior and our scout across the Channel to explore the south once our island was properly fogbusted; they revealed the entire coastline and have met all the AIs. Not sure what victory condition I'm aiming for, or if I'll persevere to the end, but I'm having a good time so far. Thanks very much for the game, DS!

 

[nocho]

A very jolly game so far indeed!

I settled 1SW and expected Ragnar to move north or east, but he walked south and settled SSE from his starting location. I built a settler at size 3 with the idea of boxing Ragnar in, so I settled a second city on the north coast but to the east near the dye/sheep. Not to be outdone, Ragnar sneaked his first settler through and settled right 3N from my capital on the coast. That earned him to get a stonehenge planted right in his face that I built in London quite soon when the stone was connected (2200BC) and indeed I managed to flip Uppsala by 1480BC, or rather, Ragnar offered me the city as a christmas present after the first revolt (and 98% English culture in it).

My tech path went a bit haphazardly with hunting, masonry, AH, myst, agri, BW, wheel, pottery, but it kind of worked out.

I sent a workboat out to the east that rounded the whole continent with the other AIs clockwise, in the process getting circumnavigation and finding the silver and gold islands near the south pole. I even managed to get a city on the silver island just before the ADs and have a settler en route to the gold island. Also, I got a city on the western tip just accross the channel that quite luckily proved to have iron in the second ring, although by 1AD that tile is getting some Celtic cultural pressure, but anyway, the iron is a welcome counter balance to Ragnar, who is getting increasingly annoyed being boxed in (he's at only 2 cities, but has that eastern iron on our island) and deems me his worst enemy. He really can't know that yet, but the plan is to prove him soon enough that I indeed am. To that end I got construction so the plan is to use cats and melee to take him out.

Tech is at CS, construction, calendar, MC, now on machinery. Beside the Stonehenge I got the Pyramids (725BC) and a late GLH (175BC), both in my second city York, as it is the only city with decent hammers (4 mines). I got a great prophet that I settled in London. At 1 AD I have 10 cities (68 pop), so 2 of them off shore with hopefully adding a third at gold relatively soon. The plan is to get rid of Ragnar, then invade the other continent, either the Mayans first or maybe the Celts.

 

[Conquistador 63]

I settled 1NE, trying to push Ragnar further East, but he went SW instead and settled on the coast.
Early tech path was Hunting, Myst, Poly (got Hindu in London).
Declared on Ragnar t24 just to steal his 1st worker, ceasefired 5 turns later.
I did manage to build cities around his capital and blocked him completely from settling a 2nd one.
I got SH 1600BC, Oracled Currency 750BC, and built the hindu shrine with the great prophet.
Techwise we are up to CS, MC, HBR, Monarchy, Calendar, Construction. 242bpt/-54gpt @100%.
At 1AD we have 6 cities and 51 pop.
What did not go well was my lousy attempt to expand across the channel.
I even settled 2 cities near the NW tip of the mainland, but Brennus did not like having us as neighbors, and sent a decent stack towards us. Knowing I wouldn't be able to hold them, I even gifted him a size 1 city (so I could recapture it later), but he declared on us in 250BC and captured the other.
Judging from the profile of the remaining opponents, it looks like I won't have a chance to pursue a peaceful VC, so the AD years promise a lot of action!

Very enjoyable game so far, thanks @DynamicSpirit !

 

[kcd_swede]

I settled on the stone mountain, and Ragnar settled on the other mountain in the start screen. I raced through the tech tree a lot faster than Ragnar, or any of the others. It was a really great start spot for being a worker/settler factory while recovering from big whipping campaigns. I refused to open borders and managed to land-lock the Vikings to 2 cities, to my 6. I joined Ragnars religion, Buddhism and we were friends until we weren't. So when I accumulated enough horsemen and catapults, I took them over. Not many turns before 1AD, but ok.

A very fun game! Thank you Santa(Victoria)!

 

[LowtherCastle]

Like Xc, I settled 1w. I simply wanted my capital to have the best available commerce tiles, plus I didn’t want to lose the firs. I was disappointed that the river oasis wasn’t three food four commerce but then I realized that an oasis tile is not defined to have plus one commerce on river. Ragnar also settled somewhere to the south under the two lake tiles.

From there on, it seems my game went a bit differently than the rest of you.

First off, I rapidly realized that we were on our own island with Ragnar so I wanted my second City down south so I could build a galley and expand across the channel. I also decided that I wasn’t going to make the mistake of letting Ragnar compete with me for land tiles, so I basically Stone aged him by stealing his workers. I didn’t count, but I got at least four of his workers maybe five. One DOW at a time. In fact, I’ve only built one worker at this point.

I immediately built a worker because starting with mining I planned to camp the deer and then mine the stone (2f4h1c) to help speed the first settler build.

Tech path: htg-bw-sail-myst-msnry

My wkr ended up chopping a forest down south instead of mining the stone (never happened) because that got that city settled 2t faster.

That city built a galley first which led to rapid discovery of the copper tile which I snatched with my next settler. I also realized Brennus was just to the south.

Naturally I coveted the marble tile as well (to be subsumed with 100 in copper city) but Ragnar’s capital had it in its fat cross. I decided to build Stonehenge in copper city to fend off Brennus culture and eventually get the marble. I also went ahead and built the GW there so I didn’t have to worry about the pesky barbs to the west of copper.

A while before I needed the marble I (mis-)calculated I needed to capture Nidaros so I decided to stop slave-farming him and capture it. Just before I did, I subsumed the marble but I grabbed his capital anyway. He had built a second city STUPIDLY so I went to eliminate it but he had five archers in it . So I ignored it until I saw his worker mining an ice tile with a single hammer on it! I pillaged the 4h mine and later when I wasted that city pre-IW the ice-tile hammer vanished.

After SH and GW in copper city I realized I could get CS with the Oracle but Brennus pipped me by 2t around 900bc!!! Bad luck. Instead I put the chop hammers into TGL. I popped a Great Spy there which I personally love for early exploration and warring.

I did NOT send out an early wb so I didn’t meet JC until the late BCs. I still have not circled the continent so thank you nocho for the heads-up on the silver and gold islands. Hopefully they’re still available. Not to worry though, my GSpy and galley are close to defogging the the entirety.

Having met the other five I discovered none had copper and only Ragnar had teched IW (using the demgraphics screen GNP). Before I could get my horsemen ready, Brennus had iron. I liked his luxury tiles so I attacked him anyway and got his iron before he had too many metalmen. He took MC with the Oracle so I focused on other techs, hoping to get Alpha in trade. Never happened so I snatched it in preparation to DoP for MC and as a prereq for Currency.

As of 1ad I have twelve cities, two from Brennus, with two more coming before I leave him with just one. Bibrachte will whip a ch shortly. I already have 5 cities racking up colonial maintenance which is slowing my research.

Almost done with CS, the Mids in my HE city (east of copper city with marble+many deer+several hills), the GLH in my capital.

I haven’t decided who comes next but the AIs are hopelessly backwards. None has Monarchy or Alpha (I traded for IW with math). I haven’t even bothered to tech constr because cats are too slow. I probably won’t even bother with JC.

No mention of Antarctica!? Though I haven’t spotted the nocho islands my westward traveling galley with scout and +1 vision chariot have spotted distant fish so it may require Astro. Are the southern goodies sushi fish??? Or are they accessible via the nocho archipelago?!

Thx for the xmas present, DS! This game is a blast.

 

[Xcalibrator]

From there on, it seems my game went a bit differently than the rest of you.

Dang, dude, you're like Neo in "The Matrix" where he can now visualize the code and swats the AIs aside.

 

[LowtherCastle]

Dang, dude, you're like Neo in "The Matrix" where he can now visualize the code and swats the AIs aside.

Nocho and some others are clearly better than I but it is true over the years I’ve learned a number of ways to decipher goings-on in the early game.

Knowing one or more AIs from the start is helpful as is having relatively richer, commerce tiles in the fat cross, such as financial oases.

But I’m an open book. I share any and everything I know because I’m not really a code reader. I’ve learned it all from others. Ask away if you’re curious.

 

[Frederiksberg]

I love how many of the games have panned out differently. That said, my opening was very similar to what @nocho did. Scouting south I saw the 4 food tile and decided to settle SW. Ragnar settled SSE below the lakes as in most games. Having two 4 food and one 2 food 2 hammer tiles, I decide not to build an early worker but simply pump settlers from the capital and box in Ragnar. Settled 2nd city near dyes (like @nocho) and 3rd city north of London to seal the cultural borders. This strategy worked like a charm and when the North Pole was filled up I settled 3 cities on the continent. Then disaster (almost) struck. Ragnar who had 3 cities, one on the continent, showed a red fist and there was no doubt that I was the target having only a single warrior guarding each city. Two turns later he declared war and captured two of my workers that were frantically chopping a forest outside my capital (to prevent attacking units from hiding out there). I managed to research HBR in those two turns and fortunately Ragnar only brought two archers and an axe in the initial attack. A few turns later HA's arrived in my capital and stabilized the defenses, and at 1AD Nidaros has been captured and my stack of HA's and catapults has arrived outside of Ragnar's iron city. Unfortunately, I also lost a newly settled city settled near the Mayans to a small stack of swords coming from Ragnar's continental city. This lead to the following stats @1AD: 10 cities, 77 pop. Research to CS, Calendar, Monarchy. MC in one turn. Only wonder is the GLH, but I'm planning to add the Colossus soon. Haven't explored Antarctica yet because I was preoccupied by Ragnars attack. A WB is making it's way south and will hopefully not encounter any barb galleys on its way.

I like the @LowtherCastle strategy of settling on the continent early. Should probably have done that as soon as the western part of the Northpole was sealed off. That said, there were a lot of juicy spots in the west...

 

[nocho]

Nocho and some others are clearly better than I but it is true over the years I’ve learned a number of ways to decipher goings-on in the early game.

Wow, I'll take the compliment but that sounds like too much praise coming from you! I definitely think that some of those unmentioned others are also better than me (and I'd have included you in that list...), though I probably have improved in the early game over the years, making a point of expanding as much as possible nearly every game. And I must've learned quite a bit from you, and your (former) SGOTM-pals for instance, along the way.

Anyway, it's nice that 20 years later this game still is fascinating, and to know thanks to this forum that I'm not alone in that.

 

[Bemep42]

A short course on how to capture the AI capital at the beginning of the game

P.S. Damn it! I built 5 archers (even 7) and it turned out that 1 was enough

 

[LowtherCastle]

Wow!
So you left two nearby cities empty and sacrificed a warrior to draw out the archer leaving only two warrior defenders for his capital. Where did he send his second warrior before you captured?

 

[pmarc]

I scouted on stone but settled 1W like many others, with the intent of denying Ragnar some of the better commerce land. Because we have so many free "cottages" and all improvements take so long, I just grew with the 4 food deer and the oasis, started research on Bronze Working and whipped a settler at size 4, then did it again to get 2 more cities by T32 (northeast near sheep, south near deer oasis) to essentially block Ragnar to 2 cities. Then I started building some workers for health and happiness resources. After BW I went for AH to look for horses (the game announcement only said no copper or iron...), then settled city 4 near rice, horses and gem to the southwest, and teched Horseback Riding for Horse Archers. City 5 would go in the middle of the northwest forest to chop pyramids eventually. Because of the delayed workers and plenty of oasis, tech was not a limiting factor, so I had plenty of time to tech sailing (before even the wheel), pottery (for granaries more than cottages) and masonry along the way.

I declared on Ragnar around turn 70 and didn't stop warring with horse archers from that point on, eliminating Ragnar (2 cities), Brennus (5 cities, 1 razed), Pacal (5 cities) and now at war with Shaka (3 cities taken, 4 to go). I pillaged Brennus' metal just when he got Iron Working, and Shaka had no metal the whole time, which helped a lot. One thing I learned from Sullla AI survivor is that the AI is fairly bad at using forest-covered cities, they don't chop as much as a human player would, so the AI cities would still be full of forests from which to chop more horse archers, wonders, etc. Maintenance is tough on that map (I'm planning for courthouses and forbidden palace in the early ADs), so the idea was just to keep getting techs and wonders that help the economy. I researched Currency, Calendar, Metal Casting and Code of Laws. The AI were mostly useless for tech trades. I'm at 20 cities and 106 pop in 1 AD, with the Pyramids, GLH (built in Ragnar's city 2), Stonehenge (built by Brennus), Great Wall (built by Pacal), Hanging Gardens, Mausoleum; Colossus to be chopped next turn.