BOTM 49 First Spoiler 1AD

[kcd_swede]

BOTM 49 First Spoiler - 1AD

Reading Requirements

Stop! If you are participating in BOTM 49 Legend of the Sampo, 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, OR
• You have abandoned your game and will not submit.

Tell us what happened up to 3000BC, first:
Did you find a good place to settle?
What were your first 3 technologies researched? Why?
What were your first 4 city builds?

Then tell us about your game up to 1AD.
How are things going? Seen any action yet? How do you like your neighbors?
What were your goals to this point, and did you acheive them?
Have you come up with any creative ideas or strategies specific to this game?
Did you find the Sampo?
Anybody ragequit?

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.

 

[nocho]

Settled 1NW. Obviously only sub-par land around and found us to be boxed in by AIs that were probably designed to not be too easily rushable, one with bowmen, one protective, one skirmishers. Then again, obviously the situation screamed for a rush. Went BW and AH and after some thought decided to go for a chariot rush against spanish babylon. Their bowmen only have a plus against melee obviously and besides a city at the horses looked much better than a city at the bronze. Riverside and insta-connected to the capital so no need to build roads.

Tell us what happened up to 3000BC, first:
Did you find a good place to settle?
What were your first 3 technologies researched? Why?
What were your first 4 city builds?

No!
Mining, BW, AH. Why? Wanna kill some one!
Worker, warrior, warrior, rax IIRC.

Somehow while setting up the city at the horses still had some spare time in the capital before mass-producing chariots, so built SH there, we're charismatic after all, so nice enough wonder. Then chariot spamming started and with about 10 or 12 declared on Babylon, which was up to 3 cities by then. Conquered it all without too much trouble. Got the jewish holy city in the process.


Later found a city on the western coast near the oasis to have a coastal town. Obviously there was a need for a navy with the Toku Malinese accross the pond. I also did find Sampo, but the 2 lonely chariots were surely not enough for the 3 archers. However, nothing compared to the rather frightening content of the other barb city in the NE of the western continent!

The Babylon campaign gave me a level 4 unit, so enough reason to pursue aesthetics and then literature for the HE, which was built in Babylon. The capital built GLib and was busy with NE at 1AD. Hoping to pop some GSs here. So far got 2 GPrs courtesy of SH, the second at low odds. Both were settled, some extra hammers didn't hurt and the cash was good too (superior to founding the jewish shrine). Oh, and in representation thanks to the mids that I chopped out in Babylon with the stone nearby.

So 6 cities at 1AD, the plan is to go and kill Darius and Sitting Bull next and later Toku for conquest. I'm thinking that had I been more serious about it, the eastern hemisphere could have been entirely Finnished by 1AD already.

 

[Orion071]

I decided to settle 1NE to get the Wines and save the river for my other cities. I didn't realize that would put me in the corner of the map. Quickly saw how boxed in we were and figured my move was a good one since I had some space to settle other cities.

I went Ag -> AH -> Mining -> BW to find Horses and Copper for rushing.

My first Scout got eaten by a Bear so my builds were Worker -> Scout -> Warrior -> Warrior -> Settler -> Settler. Both HC and Izzy put down cities in between their capitols and mine, but I was able to grab 1 city by the Horses and Iron and another south of my capitol to grab the Copper and that was it.

I built up some Chariots and when the Copper came online I got some Axes. HC founded Buddhism and Izzy Hinduism. I was waiting for one of them to spread to me and then I would attack the other. Well Izzy's religion got to me first, so I rushed HC. I took out his second city pretty easily, but his Holy city capitol was much harder. I lost a ton of fights at 80+% odds and had to fight a pillaging war of attrition before I could finally take his capitol just before 1 AD.

So at 1 AD, I'm in a painful war with HC. I have 5 cities and Darius and Toku are running away in tech. I never even bothered to see where the Sampo was.

 

[LowtherCastle]

Oops...I got spoiled. At 1 AD I had not even settled or captured a coastal city, so I was guessing that the other land was reachable only by Astro. Now that I learned here that's not true, it changes everything. No point in going on...

Hint for the future: In the past, these spoilers have sometimes forbidden revealing info about anything beyond the homeland, for example. That would have prevented this.

 

[SilentWatcher]

Wow bit cramped! never played a small map before. Took some huge risks early on that seem to have paid off. Rushed out a couple of poorly defended settlers to grab what land was available. After reading an excellent guide on synergy decided to play to my traits and go for the pyramids, as all gov civics and no anarchy would be an advantage. Never bothered with pyramids before as it seems a huge investment early on when normally im rex ing. So far am taking the cultural route, and being nice to everybody to stop them attacking. Realise that war is inevitable in order to win and will take that on soon. Probably dow isabella as she has +10 hots for me and will prob still be civil even after i kick her butt. Im not particularly good at civ4, Had civ3 nailed. Could win at emperor every time with random starts and pre determined win condition. When i finally kicked it on diety I put it down and picked up civ 4 which is much more subtle and complex.. and more enjoyable. just need a few more decades to learn it fully!
As of 1ad i have 3 and a half cities a cultural lead the pyramids and swed and nearly enough military to bite a lump out of isabella.

 

[kcd_swede]

Oops...I got spoiled. At 1 AD I had not even settled or captured a coastal city, so I was guessing that the other land was reachable only by Astro. Now that I learned here that's not true, it changes everything. No point in going on...

Hint for the future: In the past, these spoilers have sometimes forbidden revealing info about anything beyond the homeland, for example. That would have prevented this.

I actually gave a bit of thought to that. I judged that telling people not to reveal anything not reachable by galleys (the standard condition) would not have prevented this, since the whole map was reachable by galley. If I instead tried to prohibit revealing anything about other landmasses (on a Great Plains map!), it would be giving away information about the map to folks who don't even enter the spoiler thread because they haven't started playing yet. In the end, I decided to let people reveal whatever they find by 1AD. If you haven't figured out that galley access is possible by 1AD, well... you need to scout better.

BTW... have you seen my sig?

 

[MarleysGh0st]

Reading reports like nocho's, I think I'm still doing something wrong.

I settled NW. My first three techs were Mining, Bronze Working and the Wheel. I rarely go for the religious techs first and there didn't seem to be any other food resources nearby needing exploiting. My first four builds were a worker and three warriors.

By 1 AD, I've settled three more cities and completed the Oracle, but because I've forgotten about Math, I can't get the CS Sling, so I settle for Philosophy and Taoism.

In 1 AD, at the same time nocho is talking about conquering the eastern hemisphere, I declare my first war against Sitting Bull. Hey, I'm not going to collect my shield awards by being too hasty!

 

[adrianj]

I took the Contender save and started out with settling 1NW. Food poor capital city, and soon realise that my capital is lush by comparison to other sites nearby .

My tech path early on went something like Mining-BW->AH. I wanted to reveal horses and copper, both of which were happily close, and I settle cities next to each.

With AI so close I'm of course dreaming of a rush. I scrape together something like 5 axes and a couple of chariots and it is enough to overcome Sitting Bull's hilltop capital which I keep. But my gosh! what a dump! It is the Buddhist holy city and has gold, but no food whatsoever. With two other SB cities razed (one on the coast, both rubbish terrain) SB is removed from the game.

I go in to some sort of strange teching period here, where I'm actually half of the way through Horseback Riding (still dreaming of rush, this time Horse Archers) before I come to my senses and go toward Alphabet and Currency first. Not building any wonders at all - I hope my neighbours will build some for me.

Way down south I spot a barb city that has a fish resource and two ivory tiles. My SB war vets quickly take it, and I'm very pleased with it.

My thinking at 1AD is to tech to Construction (I have HBR) and claim this continent with Elepults.

 

[ChrisFromLux]

A comeback here, as the last BOTM I played was BOTM05!

Having read kcd-swede's description "your lands are impoverished and infertile. You will have difficulty finding health and happiness resources unless you can find the Sampo.", I immediately planned to go on an early war or two, in order to grab some juicy AI-capitals, and win a Military Victory of some kind.

I was happy when I found Horses in the immediate surroundings, and the plan was ready: HA-rush!
I'm still looking for those juicy AI-Capitals, though!

I then made a 1st mistake that should pay-back later: I stole 2 of Isabella's Workers, although, with our poor land and my slowly-growing cities, I didn't really need them.
We made Peace soon after, at least ...

After Barracks and Stables in my 2 cities (City 2 NE of the Horses), I mainly chopped out some 8-10 HA's and attacked Isabella. I easily took her 2nd city in the multiple-river-area between our Capitals, and I razed a newly founded city on my borders, near the Copper and the Marble.
I moved on towards her Capital, but was afraid to see 1 Spear, 1 Axe, and 3 other units. Probably due to my early Worker-Steal-DOW!
We signed Peace, which gave my Mysticism, Agriculture and Masonry, at least!

I healed and turned towards Sitting Bull. I easily took his Capital, due to some RNG-Luck (the 1st HA withdrew, the 3rd one won at 8.8%-odds ).
His 2 other cities, on the coast near both Coppers, were taken as well; they should help me produce a few more HA's quicker, and Sitting Bull is dead.

It's 1AD now, and I have 10 HA's waiting to DOW on Isabella a 3rd time.


Problem is that, being food-poor everywhere, I don't build these HA-reinforcements quickly enough.
Add to that my 2nd mistake of not farming the 2nd city immediately, as I was thinking Rush, Rush, Rush!, working the Horses and 1 Hill for the instead of growing first and working more hills!

The plan is to kill Isabella as well, and then DOW Darius, my only friend. He has Ivory in 2 cities though, so I hope that a) he doesn't build any Elephants, having been at peace forever and that b) I can conquer both cities on the 1st turns of the war.

Then I'll turn towards Toku, who, despite being on the other side of that river, is planning war!
I hope he doesn't outtech me ...

I didn't bother looking for the Sampo, after my scouting Warrior spotted that Barb-Ironclad in the Ice ...

 

[zamint3]

SIP
Tech: Mining-Wheel-Pottery, wanted early granaries with this food poor map, and early cottages for the river grass.
Build: Worker-Warrior-Warrior-Warrior.

Planned 2nd city by the copper but a barb archer appeared the turn my settler finished.., instead it was built by the oasis and flood plains to the west, turned out later to be quite good with iron and horses.

Izzi spread Judaism to all my cities, (I converted late) and Darius was my only trading partner so SB was my war target, also I discovered horses very late and I did not want to go after Izzi's Bowmen with Axes

I not very familiar with small maps, and reading this spoiler I see that early rush is the way to go, nocho and CFL.

1AD: 5 Cities, Pop 22, sustain 43 bpt +5gpt at 50%

I have no knowledge of what's on the other continent..



Pictures:

Spoiler :

Empire:

Tech:

Capital:

 

[WelshGandalf]

Decided from the start for a peaceful culture game. This will be tough going though but will see how we do!

Settled 2E1S of the deer. I'm happy with this as it's the top right corner of the map. Went workers, settlers and went to Oracle. I took Monarchy as the wine & HR happiness would be useful, or so I thought. I haven't really needed them though.

Darius has alphabet, no-one does. I have aesthetics and drama on him, he has loads of more useful techs but I don't want to give aesthetics away yet. Settled the other decent city spot we have which I will cram full of great artist points. SoZ comes in in 2 turns (Darius traded Ivory with me, thanks!). I haven't got AH/ag/IW yet (!!!) from the picture above, looks like that city will become even better soon. I settled my great prophet there, gold helps econ and hammers help wonder-building. I should get Parthenon and then Sistine Chapel there, followed by National Epic and lots of great artists .

I have 4 cities total, one is in between the 2 and north a bit and is basically growing cottages with no food source, how great is that. The other is south of the start, growing cottages & grabbing copper, which I have just built. Isabella looks like she is about to declare war on me though, so it's axemen time. A bit sad really as she is +2 relationship with me and -4 with the others (as they have different religions whilst I have no religion).

 

[jesusin]

jesusin, contender. Goal: fastest cultural victory.

Scout W-SW, Set NW to be more centered (I thought we were closwe to the South pole), settle there for the extra 5 hammers towards Worker, losing marble and 3rd ring wines, both 4th ring. Oh oh, it's the NE corner!

I was expecting a map without happy and health resources. That's why I started researching TW, in order to be quick with cottages and grow to max happy size.

Very soon I realized food was our real problem. And not only that, 2 AI were so close that space would be scarce and war a necessity (even though the characteristics of our neighbours).

So:
Tech: TW-Mining-BW
Prod: Worker-Warrior-Warrior-Settler.


Warrior failed to find a worker to steal, that was very unfortunate.

Settler was unlucky too. He wanted to settle just N of Isa, to take the deer there. But Isab took it 2 turns before I could. So then, he moved W to the FP zone, but SB settled ineptly around there. So my options were settling near copper without food or settling by the coast with oasis and FP, which is what I did.

Barbs won some simultaneous battles they should have lost, but it was manageable.
Next city took copper and marble in the SE. Copper connected just before 2000BC.

Dowed Isab to take 2 Workers. Quickly made peace. Everybody has 3 cities now.
Dowed her again, 8Axes took 3Bowmen city just 1000BC.

1000 BC Stats: 4 cities, 11 pop, 3workers, 11units(8Axe), 1 strategic resources, 0 luxury resources, 1 health resources, 0 great persons, 0 world wonders, 0 national wonders, food/production/commerce=27-14-21, 12 bpt at breakeven, 3 culture per turn, 0 great person points per turn, 100 gold, 1Gra,, Monu, Barr. 0 religions, 3/6 cottages used, 8 Techs: BW, Pott, Wri, no Agri, half of Alpha. 0 civs killed. 3.5 hours played.

Alphabet served no purpose, as Toku was the only one with Wri and Maths. Nobody would trade Sailing.

800BC Oracle is gone and I take Babylon. I give Isab peace for Maso+Medi.
Researching towards Cats, while waiting for someone to want to trade Sailing.
SB goes WHEOOHRN 500BC.

I start reconsidering my victory goal. Land is horrible for a cultural victory and Toku is running away with the game. Are his lands so much better?

Missionaries from Dar and SB infect me. The exploring WB has no purpose at all now.
GS for Academy 275BC.
Soon after that I take a barb city in the South with the help of my friends. I thought it was misplaced, cause I hadn't seen the fish.

I have to finally (so late) autoresearch sailing and settle my 7th city N-NW of the cow, in the middle of the other continent.

1AD Stats: 7cities, 25pop, Gal, 5workers, 14units (4Cat), 2 strategic resources, 1 luxury resources, 3 health resources, 1 great persons, 0 world wonders, 0 national wonders, food/production/commerce=76-26-47, 18bpt at breakeven , 24 culture per turn, 1 great person points per turn, 300 gold. 2 religions. 7/11 cottages used, 20 Techs: IW, Alpha, Const, no CoL, no Aest. 0 civs killed. 7.5 hours played. reli/city, temples, caths== 8,0,0

 

[neilmeister]

Settled NW, I was tempted to continue onto the ice, but the lack of any other visible hills disuaded me.

Teched: Agriculture, Mining, BW, AH, TW
Built: Worker, Warrior x3, Settler, Worker.

I went for BW first as I had already met several AI at this point, and there was quite a lot of forest, so it screamed for a rush. No copper appeared (I only discovered it when I built my third - really awful - city on the ice), so I decided to go AH next to see if we have horses. Horses appeared right next to my second city . After that it was simply a case of getting to HA's as quick as possible.

It has been really fun, as I haven't rushed this early for ages.

At 1ad both Babylon and Inca's have been eliminated, and Mali (orange) is about to be DoWed.

 

[PattonTwo]

It was a fun try for me while it lasted. I fall into the ragequit category. =( Actually I think my start went well (stats at 1000 bc super close to Jesusin who posted above me) and I chose to attack the Incas.

I moved 2 warriors to cut off their copper and moved my stack of 8 axe and 2 archers to the capital which I discovered had 3 axe. However I found their other 2 cities had only 2 archers (central city closest to me) and Machu Pichu on coast next to copper with an archer and Quechua.

I'm sure if I had moved my entire stack to one city then the other I would have been okay. Instead I left an Axe and archer to watch the capital, an axe and my 2 warriors on the copper and moved 5 axe to take the central city. After my attack I lost all 5 axe and failed to take the city.
edit: After reading the other thread I realized that HC has the Aggressive trait so the Archers had additional city defense bonuses. At least I understand why I lost the fights. Also can add to my list of what I learned from the game...make sure to research traits of neighbors before going to war!

I also lost the warriors and 2 axe near the capital to a smart attack from the AI. He moved his 2 axes out and attacked my units on the plains (winning the heads up axe fight and also taking out my warrior) so I countered to kill his diminished axes and lost the rest of my units to his counter attack.

Here's where no reloading is disappointing. I did learn a good lesson about the AI being a little smarter than I gave him credit for and also about overwhelming force (though I was just reading some strategy articles about not waiting for that one extra unit so that's a coin flip) but one strategy mistake and one back attack sequence against his first city and it was pretty much game over. So I'll have to read the spoilers to see the fun things the map designer had for us.

I whipped a couple more axe but lost the first of my 4 cities. Already dealing with 0 tech research (costs for maintenance were higher than I thought so I guess I should have built only 3 cities) and no money, now with no chance to take one of his cities since it will take too long to rebuild an army and the AI is already well ahead in all categories. So I resigned around 800 bc. I could have played it out but I didn't think I would gain much experience or enjoyment so went for the ragequit. =/

 

[RD-BH]

...Tell us what happened up to 3000BC, first:
Did you find a good place to settle?
What were your first 3 technologies researched? Why?
What were your first 4 city builds?

Then tell us about your game up to 1AD.
How are things going? Seen any action yet? How do you like your neighbors?
What were your goals to this point, and did you acheive them?
Have you come up with any creative ideas or strategies specific to this game?
Did you find the Sampo?
Anybody ragequit?

3000 BC
Settled 1NE for 3x resources in BFC.
Agri>>Wheel>>Pottery
... looked like food/pop were needed
warrior,warrior,scout,granary (grabbed worker at pop 2)

1 AD
Everything slow (poor terrain)
Neighbors are hatin' on each other; no worries
Lost scouts to barb archers south of neighbors
Built 4x cities across top of map
Planning settlers/galley to settle across the pond
Looking at culture or diplo (though its going slow)
Haven't seen Sampo.

 

[Htadus]

What happened to our food? (And in Inca capital). From what I recall, my tech path was major schizo. But early Pottary (2nd tech) just skyrocketed my tech path. If I remember right, I was teching Machinary and claiming land at the cutoff.

Just a side note. I do not think there is any need to have limitations on discussing who you met within the WB distance. I am sorry that LC feel spoiled and will not complete the game (please do finish, it is good to have good players submit) but this map is still a land map.

I for one, am still keeping my planned tech path toward Astro, except now I am heading to bulb Engineering. And Map maker, why him as Mali? Need war just to explore his land. Grrr.

BTW is "V" same as Sampo?