BOTM 42 First Spoiler - 1AD

[DynamicSpirit]

BOTM 42 First Spoiler - 1AD

Reading Requirements

Stop! If you are participating in BOTM 42 (Qin Shi Huang - aka simon if you are playing on Windows ), 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

• Please do not discuss anything that happened after 1 AD.
• Please do not discuss modern era resource locations (iron is OK).
• Please do not divulge your final result if that happened after 1 AD.
• Do not post any savegame file from the game. Discussions and screenshots are fine but not actual games.

 

[neilmeister]

Ummm, it wasn't Gilgamesh, or even Qin Shi Huang, instead my game said I was Simon of China.

Anyway, settled in place, and I was quite pleased with this, as city 2 got 2 fish.

Met Joao, and of course stole a worker before I realised we were isolated together. More to the point I stole the worker (coming from the south) and was left standing next to Lisbon that has several Axes in it Spent the next 10 turns having my worker/warrior chased by an Axe. I had to divert my research to get Archery, something I really hate doing, as I was in no position to settle the available Copper and was afraid of retribution.

Oracled CoL, partly to found a religion, and partly as I had left it too late to get much better. Built the GL, before I even had any trade routes with anyone else. Joao caught confucianism, and eventually we became firm friends.

Settled around the coast, and one city in the interior. Settled the island to the north to establish some overseas trade routes and grab Fur.

The Iron is just out of reach, very sneaky, so we had to defeat Joao to get it, who had Copper in his BFC.

 

[Greeder]

As I promised I would tech you what to NOT DO to win.
DO NOT sleep in early game!!! I researched AH first, BW second and was so focused on scouting warrior, that I didn't see Copper nearby for 1000 years. One Thousand Years!!!
DO NOT attack your neighbour, just because you slept earlier. Jao was settling near "my" copper. I had Chariot nearby. So I attacked in 1840BC. My Chariot killed 2 Warriors and I razed his city. But I had only 2 Chariots at that time. It was close call, but I managed to build my 3rd city next to Copper and started producing Axes. But Jao built dozens of Archers and it took me forever to finish him.
The only thing I did right was getting CoL from Oracle. I built also Stonehedge, but just because I didn't have anything better to do. If I focused properly then maybe, just maybe... Ehhh...

 

[euripides]

Hell, I´m stunned by how slow wonders go on Monarch. I will use a spec approach + wonders in Beijing (SIP). the other cities go for production and wealth.
I´ll probalbly bulb my way to rifles, as we have no iron for cannons available...
I have parth and GLib in hands so all is good.
Maybe HA rushing joao was an option (he got mids), but then I could not have stolen techs from him.
BTW got 7 good cities, so dom or diplomination will be no problem I hope.
As none of the more recent wonders went to other continents (only SH and one more i cannot remember right now) I assume a slow techpace with split religions overseas or even multiple continents.

 

[_T_]

Settled 2S1E..I was afraid we might be on tiny island, so left some space for second city 1N of starting position (settled after capital was 5)..tech fish, AH (horses poped out next to cap so i decided that I will run over Jao with horse archers..then BW and went for Horseback R. I was ready to launch Horse A production (having build both barracks and stables in both cities (some chopping involved) but I havent had archery..so 12 or so turns delay..first wave was very succesfull..one HA took city guarded by warrior then I gathered around Lisboa and seeing that there is no chance I pillaged surroundings and went for other cities..one guarded by 2 archers fall to 2 HA and the second city the same (those archers were wounded)..meanwhile I settled next to the south copper and start some Axe..needed to gather my troops I went for peace. After ten turns attack and Lisboa is mine. Jao didnt even had time to build mine on the copper again. So continent is well and secured with all those spare units I could place the barbarian busting guards..have 6 cities..4th settled on the incense east..2 from Jao..
Finished colossus and working on Glighthouse (didnt plan to build, but not much to produce anymore. got writting and building libraries..problem is pop cap..I cannot get past 5.. I thing i will have to get calendar very soon..then optics and then who knows?
really dont know which vic should I go for..

 

[srad]

Settled 1NE - settling in place with the horses in BFC would have been really nice. But without this knowledge I had no idea how to avoid that the worker will spend some idle turns.

1000BC:

Spoiler :

1AD:

Spoiler :

Joao had some problems with his expansion

A bit wonder crazy but it was so easy ...

 

[Xcalibrator]

Bah. I'm having an even slower start than is normal for me. Only 4 cities at 1 AD, although total pop is 27. I wandered more than most, settling SE of the horses on the plains hill. Other cities are 1S of copper, 1S of marble, and up north on the desert with 2 fish (which will be my Moai city); I'll be going into REX mode soon. I've built the Oracle (taking CoL and Confusion) and Great Lighthouse, with Pyramids in 6 turns to get desperately needed happiness. I just got Construction to finish off Joao and will have Calendar in 6 or so turns, which will be a big help. Perhaps I should have taken Monarchy/Hered Rule for the happiness, but I hated to waste the hammers on units and wanted CoL to get at least one religion on my continent.

I've throttled Joao at 2 cities (the second buried uselessly in the jungle) and just missed taking Lisbon early on with chariots, but he got a spear just before I was ready. Perhaps not so bad, though, as I've been able to keep him bottled up with only a couple units and have stolen about 4 workers so far with my Woody2 axe. Cats will take care of him soon.

Teching has been slooow with no trade partners--Great Lighthouse seems a must here. I've skipped many techs (Archery, Monotheism, Polytheism, HR, MC, and Alphabet) that didn't seem very useful under the circumstances. Since I'm beelining (slowly) for Astro, the Colossus didn't seem that attractive, and MC wasn't a big draw to start with since we have no gold, silver, or gems. Once I've taken out Joao and have all the Calendar resources hooked up things should speed up a lot but I'm dismayed at my pace so far and have no idea what VC to pursue.

 

[Redtooth]

I forgot to write down anything, so I'm doing most of this from memory/the replay thingy. Settled 1SE I believe and went right for BW, figuring I'd try to conquer a little for once. Founded Shanghai near Copper and a few turns later found that me and Porto were alone and started pumping out the axes. Declared in 900BC, finished him off in 200 BC. Had some issues with bad rolls which elongated the war far longer than I meant, but following it I was poised for having a nice big continent all to myself by 1 AD.

Except for the barbs of course. Somehow they managed to capture a defended lisbon, forcing me back into military production.

At this point I was trying to get caravels to find the rest of the world that I'm sure exists out there. Managed to get the great lighthouse, but that was it in terms of wonders. Slow-going but good nonetheless.

 

[kcd_swede]

rex like mad then eliminated Joao taking all his cities... then continue rex. going for space, won't need another war.

bulbing machinery is becoming my favorite move, esp when playing as cho-ko-nu.

 

[Zechnophobe]

I settled 1E 2S (next to where the horses popped up) since it was a fairly logical path there. First turn decided that since you don't start with fishing, you can't really risk the initial position, so obviously I have to move. That lends to moving Settler SW on first turn, and then seeing the obviously good starting position inland for a turn 3 settle.

Research AH then BW, saw the copper that I had scouted out, and realized it needed to be my first grab. Rexed down the left coast and accross to the east coast. Great LIghthouse, Colossus, Oracle (with marble from east coast area) -> Code of Laws. Things are looking pretty decent, so long as I can keep jaoa friendly a bit longer, shouldn't be hard with us both confucian.

 

[Jaybone]

i'm playing lazy by 1AD, settled like 8 cities, stole one of joao's cities. Will eventually grind him to dust with Cho-ko-nu's, unclear if I will go for space, go for culture or (more likely) go for intercontinental war

 

[cabert]

warrior rushed Joao, got wonder heavy while settling the island + the neighbouring island

 

[zamint3]

Settled in place. Research: AH-Fishing-Bronze. Build: Worker.

Stole 3 workers from Joao and got Archery and IW for peace.

1AD:

Spoiler :

Capital:

 

[WelshGandalf]

I tired to "rush" cho-ku-nu's.
Oracled MC turn 70ish
Turn 87 - Pyramids
Machinery bulbed - 75BC - T112

... but I didn't even have iron. A settler is on his way in a boat to settle the iron on the bottom-left part of the island. Really wasn't the best way to go, but I wanted to try it out.

I then started another game with similar settings, and I got this...
Oracle 1560 BC T61
Turn 86 - Pyramids 725 BC
Machinery bulbed T98 425 BC
... which was much better.

 

[Infantry#14]

Havent played a botm since wotm 7(?) with cyrus. Settled in place, rex a couple cities, but got blocked by Joao. I forgot how many troops monarch ai have, so I created 2 stacks of cats and axes. It was overkill, and I ended up having 1.5 stacks left over after the war. Not sure what to do with them, maybe I'll delete them to save on maintence. Tech progress is very slow for me, and currently beeling for optics to find other ai.

 

[Htadus]

Last minute attempt here.

SiP, worker, 2 WB and another misclicked WB, Settler and several chariot since my warrior was rude to steal a poor portugese worker. Oops there goes my warrior. Wait a minute....that was an axe that killed him. Hummm let see what just happened. My warrior was about pillage that copper but he poped an axe. Hope he has not learned Hunting yet.

My first chariot goes to pillage the copper. What the...the damn axe killled him too. I better get couple more in there. Next 4 chariots managed to pillage the copper and capture the city by killing 2 axes and a warrior and captures a worker. Next time i should whip.

A littler later I realized it is an isolation game. So I settled down to expand slowly and build a bunch of wonders. The oracle for Philosophy (damn for got to switch to Paci), GLH for trade routes, Mids, and several others. 2 turns before deadline, I learned CS and finally getting ready to go exploring. But that won't be for a while. I am not in a hurry to find them since they are not going to be helping in this game much any ways. But I do want to use the multiple oversees trade routes.

Plan is to play a late religious game after launching the space ship and within domination limit and possibly have 2 legendary cities. I will capture the AP after some one else build it. So the near term plan is to get astro(builb long) I intend to bulb my way toward Biology and tech toward space. I intend to do some major warring, the blitz kind.

I had about 9-10 cities at the end of BC's including a city on the north island. It built the Moari. The capital have a GP (misclick) and a GS settled, and an Academy. I really should kick off a golden age and change to Philo and Confu.

Every city have or working one a Grainary, Forge, Pavelion and a library. And at least working 2 scientists. I think I made the mistake by not teching Currency but I had a choice of going for currency or CS and 9 more coins per turn would naot have made a significant in my tech rate while CS allows me to farm many more tiles.

 

[vranasm]

started the game today

I don't like fish starts without fishing and don't like to settle on GH, so initial thinking was move 1S and settle there...
To my surprise there was PH 1SE from that spot and the choice was clear.

Settle on PH, worker first while teching AH. AH came in 12 and the worker too. almost ideal timing.

Pretty soon I found Joao and he was too close for me to be comfortable, so I knew I will chariot rush him...

well we got horses in BFC whohoo! 2 chariots did the job.

While preparing for chariot rush I teched fishing and sailing to get cheap connections.

Quickly realized that map maker hates us (no easy happy source) and I started building Mids in the joao capital even without stone (being it on prince etc.).
In capital I built GLH.
Settled the fur island of course and generally tried to rex. Sitting at 7 cities at 1 AD.

I always plan for domination, so being it as it is... Astro+Communism are obvious tech targets to get domination.

 

[jesusin]

jesusin, contender. Goal: fastest cultural victory.

I settled in place and started researching AH and producing Worker.
Explanation:

Spoiler :

Warrior moved NE first and saw nothing. I wasn't losing my 3 food resources for the capital, so I settled in place.

Then I made a lot of numbers to compare
- going fishing first while completing a worker
- going fishing first and interrupting worker to start WB as soon as possible
- going BW first, while completing a worker
-going AH first, then fishing while completing a worker

Only with BW first the Worker wouldn't be idle any turns. But BW option and WB asap option were clearly inferior after 29 turns. AH was better than Fishing in 4 hammers against 1 food, with the inconvenient that the hammers had to go to a warrior and not to the 2nd WB. I thought that I would be needing a second warrior to explore and for police in the capital anyway, so that's what I chose.

Of course the appearance of horses changed it all, but how was I to know?

Then I disposed of Joao in a convenient way.
Explanation:

Spoiler :

Joao borders seen 3400BC, he knows no one else and I have horses in the FC, my decision is clear.

Worker steal Joao 3200BC. Change to building warrior for a couple of turns, just in case his warrior is close to my capital. The stolen Worker comes back home extremely slowly, to make sure of his survival.

Worker improves pigs before horses, for growth. Horses connected 3000BC, but I cannot buidl chariots cause I have preferred BW before The Wheel and not the other way around, because I want my worker(s) chopping and mining. Worker is idle for a few turns.

The Wheel 2560BC. 2 chariots built 2440BC. Revolt to slavery. The fast chariot waits for the slow one (1turn), Joao's worker is cottaging the copper. Lisbon is taken 2200BC, 2 warriors killed, another Worker taken, pop3, corn and clams are improved.

IMO first spoilers should have a cut off date of 2000BC. Isn't there enough to discuss and compare? Such a change would help newcomers to focus more on the all-important early game.


Anyway, I'll complete my spoiler to 1AD for comparability. I had 6 cities and a settler on its way by 1000BC and 9 cities by 1AD.

1000 BC Stats: 6 cities, 17 pop, 6workers (most of them are very young), settler, 7units(2Cha), 4 strategic resources, 0 luxury resources, 5 health resources, 0 great persons, 1 world wonders, 0 national wonders, food/production/commerce=56-40-22, 9 sustainable beakers per turn, 5 culture per turn, 2 great person points per turn, 140 gold, 4monu, 2Gra, 1lh. 1 religions, 0/2 cottages used, 13 Techs: Wri, Sail, CoL, BW. 1 civs killed. 5 hours played.

1AD Stats: 9cities,set, 71 pop, 7workers, 10units (1Axe), 4 strategic resources, 4 luxury resources, 6 health resources, 2 great persons, 5 world wonders, 1 national wonders, food/production/commerce=197-80-182, 74 sustainable beakers per turn, 89 culture per turn, 11 great person points per turn, 200 gold. 1 religions. 6/7 cottages used, 19 Techs: BW, CoL, Mono, Calen. 1 civs killed. 10.5 hours played. reli/city, temples, caths== 5,5,0

Explanation:

Spoiler :

Cities:
03 East, pigs, wheat, marble, river.
04North, 2fishes.
05 West, wheat, clams, copper, sea.
06 Stone, pig, clams, river, sea.
07 in island, fish, 2furs, sea.
08 South crabs, clams.
09 no food, on silk, close to ivory.

WW: Oracle (CoL), SH (just because I could, I wish I had gone for it before, I had already 6 Monuments), Pyramids (key!), GLH (just nice), Moai, HG.

GPS: GS for Academy and GM when I was hoping for a 84% Prophet to bulb Theology.