BOTM 38 First Spoiler -1AD

[Skurn]

I started the game with a military victory in mind.
Settled NW of the original location after sending the scout on the hill and spotting the oasis and rice. That was a rather good spot, but the drawback was that the stone was outside my culture for a very long time..
I met Hatty and Roosevelt early, then Gandhi a bit later. At that point, considering the nations and some of the colors I was pretty sure I would find Pericles, Ramses, Asoka, and one of the remaining american leader. Wonder whores, cultural whores, decent techers, but no warmonger.
I decided to go worker stealing on either Hatty or Roose; my explorations went better in the west so I ended up dowing Hatty and taking her worker in 2560BC. I didn't even reach american culture at that point.. If I had seen their land, I might have gone for them rather than the egyptians whose land was so-so. But the jungle in the middle would have been a burden early on..

My tech path was Agri-Mining-BW-AH-TW-Pottery-Writing(1880BC).

I settled a second city toward the egyptians in 2320BC, grabbing cows and a second copper. After building barracks in the two cities, I trained about 10 phalanx and launched an assault on Hatty. I took Thebes in 1520BC, razed her third city in 1480BC, then took Eleph in 1320 BC and Hatty was gone.

At that point with 4 cities and many military units, I was losing gold at 0% science. I finished maths with the gold from city capture (1120BC) and proceeded to whip/chop infrastructure and workers. I founded two more cities in the N-NW to block Roosevelt, Mycenae (950BC) and Ephesus (350BC).
In 650BC I stopped losing gold @0% science. I traded math to Asoka for IW and myst, writing to Gandhi for masonry. My first GS in 575BC bulbed alphabet.

I started working on the Pyramids in my second city in 525BC, but I had no stone, and my economy didn't allow me to build a rather crappy city to grab it. So I chopped a lot, but in the end I missed it for 4 or 5 turns. I started the GLib in Eleph in 25BC after researching Litt. Building Parth too but it will probably fail and cash some gold.

After the initial economy crash following the egyptian conquest, I was slowing getting back in the tech race but was still behind. My plan was to fill my back-land with 3 or 4 more cities, then Roose and Gandhi with maces and trebs.
The gold from the failed pyramids allowed me to boost my science toward currency and COL.

Situation in 1AD : 6 cities / 27 pop / 7 workers / 11 military units (mostly phalanx) / 409g in bank, 97bpt -58gpt @100%, 28bpt -1gpt @20%

 

[ElWanderer]

Situation in 1AD:
Cities: 5 (all self-settled)
Population: 24
Units: 12 military, 5 workers
20bpt, -1gpt @30% science. Ouch.

I settled my capital 2S on the plains hill. I managed to build the Pyramids with the stone, then used the great engineer on the Hanging Gardens (and a second engineer is currently auto-completing the Shwedagon Paya in my second city to fend off Egyptian culture). I think I might have been better putting the hammers into phalanxes though. I'm too timid; trying to expand peacefully meant no conquest gold to offset the silly maintenance costs and having to aim for lots of cultural buildings (I have plenty of border for the AIs to press against).

Hmmm, I'd not realised the "distance from capital" maintenance was so high. I'd not checked the breakdown of costs.

 

[WelshGandalf]

I think the high distance from capital costs are because of the map?

My theory is, the game works out the maximum distance between two tiles, gives a cost for that, and then works out the "distance from capital" costs proportional for that. Because of the toroidal map, the maximum distance is not so big at all which makes all the distance maintenance costs high.

Can anyone confirm or deny this?

 

[Arnold_T]

There are threads and articles posted that would seem to confirm your theory. The calculations are not simple though. For me, I will just need to watch more closely those costs while I'm expanding. I also got caught this game by the distance from the capital costs and my weak economy. before I knew it I was in a big hole, falling behind on tech, and too late to rush. Then I decide to attack Hatty anyway, just to see what happened. Dumb idea! I'm now in a seemingly endless war with her, she's not willing to stop unless I give her a city. Not sure this game is winnable for me now. Maybe I'll just drag Hatty down with me!

 

[Htadus]

OK what is going on with the crazy distance maintanance? It was killing me by the time I had my third city. Only 6 tiles from the capital for the farthest city. Also two of each nation is not helping for careless players such as my self.

 

[jesusin]

jesusin, contender. Goal: fastest cultural victory.


Settling

Moved the Scout SE-S to the eastern plains hill, which did not reveal any food. Moved the Settler SW-SE to the plains hill at the mouth of the river, which revealed the Stone. Next turn moved the Scout E-S and revealed the sheep. So I settled 2S of the starting position.

No hills is a problem. Stone partly makes up for it. Not a great sire for a capital, but it's enough.


Initial strategy

Researched AH and Mining. Built Worker and warrior.

Then I was at a key point in the game. I urgently needed Agriculture and Mysticism for my planned second city. I urgently needed Masonry and Wheel for Pyramids. I urgently needed to work towards Oracle... So the decision was clear: research Writing and Alphabet to get all of that.

Built another warrior and Settler. Settled my second city on the wines, with cow, rice, oasis, 5green hills and 1PH, as a hammer city.


I am pleased with my decision to beeline Alpha. I paid a price for it, of course. My second city had only mines as improved tiles to work for a long time. My worker spent most of his time doing nothing at all. But I knew 4 AIs when I got Alpha and none of them had Writing yet, so I got in trades:
BW, Wheel, Myst, Agriculture, Medi, Arc, Masonry, Politeism in the first few turns (just after 2000BC).

My third city was settled North, with corn+2 jungle gems+1FP. It cost an immediate -6gpt (!).

In this period my exploring led me to take 2 decisions:

- There is more marble than tiles in this continent. I won't try for Oracle.
- New York can be improved to a +17 food excess. It's the perfect GPFarm I need for my cultural victory. I will take it.

But since Roo has iron and nobody has PH, I research PH myself and trade my copper for his marble. Oracle built in capital 1280BC for CoL, I found confu. Stone is connected and I start working on Pyramids.

1000 BC Stats: 3 cities, 14 pop, 5workers, 4units(4War), 2 strategic resources, 1 luxury resources, 2+ health resources, 0 great persons, 1 world wonders, 0 national wonders, food/production/commerce=32-20-34, 11 sustainable beakers per turn, 17 culture per turn, 4 great person points per turn, 200 gold, 2monu, Barr. 1 religions, 1/1 cottages used, 19 Techs: Alpha, BW, CoL. 0 civs killed. 5 hours played.


On how I lost the War

Our UU is like a Vanilla Axe: it has no counter. All I have to do is to put enough of them in a stack and advance.

My previous mistakes at war have come from not focusing my whole civ on the war effort, so that I never come to gather the army. This time I wanted a fast and clear victory. So I didn't build another settler for a 4th city. Just units in all 3 cities.

700BC I get Pyramids, revolt to Repr+Castes, hire 4 scientists, but capital pops a GPro first, with which I buld Theology and found Christianity. Then I pop my wanted GS and bulb Philo with it, founding Taoism.

Dow Roosevelt, the weakest one with the fantastic GPFarm. I lose his marble trade and so have to delay MoM and Parthenon. 7Phalanx+Sword+Archer stack takes a Worker. Then take a FP city with more loses than odds would suggest.

Stop building units and go for settlers instead, or Hatty will take all of the available land.

Lose units in the open at ridiculous odds. My 10 remaining units don't dare to attack the 6 units in the capital. Wait and try to lure some of them out. The chariot and a new unit suicide, I attack 10 against 5, the city has high culture (SH and GLib in it)... things are going ok, 5 of my units are ready to attack, only 2 units left defending... I lose all 5 fights, 3 of them over 80% odds. 3 new units in teh city by next turn.


Recovering

Get CS and revolt to Bu+OR. Settle 2 new cities
NE with clams and cows.
E with fish and horses.

1AD Stats: 6 cities, 27 pop, 6workers, 8units (3Pha), 4 strategic resources, 4 luxury resources, 4 health resources, 2 great persons, 2 world wonders, 0 national wonders, food/production/commerce=67-43-151, 73 sustainable beakers per turn, 60 culture per turn, 26 great person points per turn, 150 gold. 3 religions. 8/9 cottages used, 26 Techs: IW, CS, Philo, Monar, Calen, almost Lite, Curr. 0 civs killed. 8,5 hours played. reli/city, temples, caths== 9,0,0

I hope I'll be able to complete Parthenon and MoM.