BOTM 89 First Spoiler to 1AD

[kcd_swede]

BOTM 89 First Spoiler - 1AD

This is the thread to discuss how your game went up to 1AD (not later).

NOTE: SPECIAL POSTING RESTRICTION: Do not divulge the name of any leader(s) you may have met, or their specific locations. Just refer to them as "met an AI opponent" traded with an AI opponent" killed an AI opponent, and so on.

This restriction is to prevent the disemination of info which could influence your game after 1AD!

Which landmass did you choose to start on?
What was your strategy (why did you choose that landmass)?
Where will you go from here?


Reading Requirements

Stop! If you are participating in BOTM 89 then you MUST NOT read this thread unless EITHER

• You have reached at least 1AD in your game, OR
• You have submitted your entry, OR
• You have abandoned your game and will not submit.

Posting Restrictions

• Please do not discuss anything that happened after 1AD.
• Please do not discuss modern era resource locations (Copper and Iron are OK).
• Please do not divulge your final result if that happened after 1AD.
• Please do not divulge the names and locations of any AIs AT ALL!
• Do not post any savegame file from the game. Discussions and screenshots are fine as long as they do NOT reveal any AI; but not actual games.

 

[Deckhand]

BOTM89 1AD first spoiler.

Which landmass did you choose to start on?
Went for Food Island as Food seemed to be pre game discussion consensus. In hindsight, the descriptions referred to our whole continents. Happy resources might have been better? Dropped units off as soon as I could and galley went west to explore. Settled on Plains Hill.

What was your strategy (why did you choose that landmass)?
REX supported by high food capital to churn out settlers.

Didn’t see any point to keeping neighbors (if any) alive as trading partners at Noble [nor do I want them destroy to destroy any forests (Environmentalism is my favorite civic after all) ] = chariot rush.

Reasons I play the Civ IV xOTM include

• the community
• a reason to finish the game
• for the variety

Speaking of variety, I don’t think I have a good feel for AI tech & wonder pace. I jump from vanilla to warlords to BtS and all different levels. And xOTM is all the Civ I play. And of course, the leaders and maps are all so different. Anyway, we went from “easy” Deity to hard Noble. My tech pace seems a lot slower this game.

Colossus will be powerful with all the lakes on our landmass and not sure how far I can push the Oracle so I Oracled Metal Casting.

At 1AD:
Crazy Wonders: Oracle (1360 BC) , Great Light House (525 BC) , Colossus (175 BC)
BIAFAL: Stonehenge (1800 BC), Great Wall (1600 BC), Arte’s Temple (1000 BC), Solomon’s Temple (500 BC)
all of my cities are named town (Crazy Town, Pony Town, Whine Town, Copper Tone, etc)
Six cities, population: 7, 6, 5, 4, 1,1
65 commerce per turn 60% science = 56 bulb/t and breaking even with 26 expenses
Techs: Writing, Metal Casting, Iron Working and everything to their left (except not Archery nor HBR) plus Code Of Laws and Theology
edit: took CoL to get a religion to help with Happiness

Two Great People: Great Prophet bulbed Theology, Saving Great Scientist (this Great Scientist was a mistake, I juggled order of Great Person generation to ensure I got the Scientist, then realized what I needed first was a Prophet)

Where will you go from here?
Bulb Civil Service with Great Prophet if I can get one
Then Get Monarchy to enforce happiness.
Planning to take Astronomy from Liberalism.

 

[WelshGandalf]

Settled on the hammer spot. Ummm boy, there sure were a lot of hammers there!

I built the Pyramids in 1250BC or something like that, without whips or chops. Crazy.

Tech progress is pretty bad, but I did Oracle MC and then bulb Machinery with the great engineer I got from my early Pyramids, and started building crossbowmen to go and meet my neighbours, which was the plan all along. I have met >1 neighbours and explored quite a bit of the landmass. Hard to concentrate on building crossbowmen when I can see all those shiny wonders I can build in super-short periods of time.....

Dunno about you guys in food land, but there sure is a lot of a jungle over here.

Thanks for another fun/wacky setup, I do enjoy them

 

[Deckhand]

...
Dunno about you guys in food land, but there sure is a lot of a jungle over here.

We have lots of tundra forests and plains forests. And desert.

 

[enKage]

I chose food start with a plan of BC Astro.

I did it, though I have only 10 cities max 5 sized. (3 scientists burned for optics and astro and still have 1 idle and close to next.

I decided not to go Caste, just max library scientists. I have all the landmass for myself as dog soldiers are great at this difficulty level (and I needed Bronze anyway for chopping GLH and whipping).

GLH saved me from being a bunkrupt

A little late I found out I can release a colony to speed up teching, Now it is not worth it.

I have my 1st galleon 2 triremes ready to upgrade to caravels and a complete settling set ready (settler + worker + dog protection). Definitely going to commerceland.

 

[MarleysGh0st]

I also went northwest, for the food. I don't often engage in early wars, but in this case, I had the continent to myself by 625 BC.

I built a rather late Oracle in 325 BC, bulbing Metal Casting. Not knowing anything about what's happening in the rest of the world, I didn't think I could delay any longer for CS.

By 1 AD, I've almost completed The Colossus. No caravels yet (and no religions on this continent), so my goal is to explore the world as quickly as possible. I still have lots of land to settle on my own continent, but I don't want to cripple my economy by too rapid expansion.

 

[Deckhand]

1360BC Oracle for me. My post above had the wrong date.

 

[Deckhand]

A little late I found out I can release a colony to speed up teching, Now it is not worth it.

Ah, a very early colony would give overseas trade, other country trade, and be willing to trade techs when friendly.

So, this would be better than having your own island cities?
Any danger of it expanding on our mainland?
I see, that once you have astronomy and trade with other nations it's superfluous.

 

[enKage]

Deckhand, in this case releasing early colony is a bless. Not only you can direct his reseacrh for trade, but also, EXTREMELY important on this continent, gives +1 happiness without the need of going Monarchy (I didnt went ever) and settling distant incense city.

With such food happy cap of 4 and 5 (6 in cap) makes a huge difference

If you didnt go for GLH, you need only 1 island city before currency, and already there is a nice one.

---

I so rarely play isolation, that I forgot about the trick with early colony

 

[yyeah]

I settled on hammers becouse i heard voices in back of my head witch was telling me thats a great spot xD serious i wanted to bulid some wonders just for fun ... and without hurry i build 1200 BC GLH, 825 BC Oracle, 300 BC Piramids, i Oracled Metalcasting i belive nad i think that i bulb machinery with great engi and i bulb civil service with great merchant so i had maces 1AD, and was on my way to conquer my favourite AI opponent xD.
I was planning to go guilds make some horse archers and upgrade them to knights and a yea knight them all xD

 

[Minou]

Headed NE for hammers and aiming for a Cultural Victory. The capital was in the obvious spot, and I settled the northern tip by the Silver next. My one early excursion was to send the Warrior by boat to steal a Worker from Mansa. The Worker was dropped off by the two Gold+Cow spot to prepare the area for an incoming Settler.

Most of the rest of the BC years were peaceful. It took a while to get the economy going but once GLH was finished and the Gold and Silver hooked up, I was able to found Judaism, complete Oracle for Code of Laws and found Christianity as well. I used the Great Merchant from GLH to bulb Currency in order to keep researching at 100%, and narrowly lost Pyramids to Suray.

Around 1000BC I decided to try to capture the Mali capital (which had only one defender) with 5 Chariots and 2 Dogs. A whipped Skirmisher changed my mind and I instead used the units to pillage a large number of improvements, capture a more lightly defended city by the Sugar+Gems, and burn a third city.

Rather than spend time slowly marching units down, I took peace and switched focus to building missionaries. Spreading religions now, hope to get Music soon and slowly start building cathedrals.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

I went NE, to the high food site. That seemed like the standard way to go. Also, Crazy Horse is Philosophical, so running a bunch of specialists makes sense.

Timeline:

t4 found chahokia and start exploring
. Build WB. hunting->AH first
T5 - Find AI Opponent. Determine that AI opponent is unlikely to be helpful, so must die.
t9 - expand. Work forest deer

Plan -

Oracle to Monarchy,
Kill AI opponent with Dog soldiers

3040 BC - steal worker
2840 BC - peace
1760 BC - 3 Dog soldiers and 2 chariots attack AI. Who has 1 warrior. This is what is known as overkill.
1280 BC oracle->Monarchy
625 BC great lighthouse
450 bc coL - Confucianism.
275 BC - build kong Maio.

I don't have my 1 AD save, but at 50 AD, I had:

9 cities, with 12, 8, 7, 4, 2, 2,2, 1, 1 pop.
3 wonders, and building Colosus
Wonders from elsewhere:
Stonehenge 1840 BC
Wall 1280 BC
Kashi Vish 325 BC
Pyramids 150 BC

I had teched to calendar, currency, CoL and was teching CS. Plan is to get to optics and astro and start meeting civs and try to get happy resources in trade (or get settlers there)

 

[High King J.J.]

I went NE, to the high food site. That seemed like the standard way to go. Also, Crazy Horse is Philosophical, so running a bunch of specialists makes sense.

I believe NE is the production site. Perhaps you mean NW?