BOTM67 (Sumeria) - First Spoiler

[Conquistador 63]

Fun map, Deckhand!

I settled 1SE and kinda regret this decision. Got a scout, warrior, hunting, mining and 44g from the huts.

With 13 AI's I suspected one of them would get an early Oracle, so after AH/BW I beelined PH. Pacal and WK got Alpha around 2000BC so I was able to trade for cheap techs including Writing early. I got CoL from Oracle in 1760BC, and immediately traded for Alpha. This was the only wonder I built until now.

Expanded to 6 cities in our valley before building an army. Pacal was the 1st target.

By 1AD we had 9 cities (3 Mayan), 44 pop. A settler will found #10 and Pacal's last city should fall next turn.

Making 155bpt/-63gpt@100%, or 77bpt breaking even, 800g in the bank.

I'm planning to go for Fred, Washington, Gandhi and Hatty next. Among these there are Mids, MoM, GLH, Colossus and the buddisht shrine.

Should be enough for a decent but not a fastest space finish - it is very unlikely I can match Mitchum's awesome expansion!

 

[Mitchum]

@ C63

With 9 cities and soon to be 2 more, you’re really not that far behind my 13 cities. To me, the biggest question is about how far and how fast to expand through warfare and how quickly you can get your economy to recover afterwards. If you can balance that equation better than I did, you should be able to surpass my game.

Why do you regret settling 1SE? Was it because you missed out on the PH?

Interesting putting off Writing so long. I guess that enabled you to get the Oracle, something that went before I even started researching toward Priesthood… although, an early, cheap Creative library is always nice. Unless you went straight to CS, the value of CoL was a bit less in this game than normal since our courthouses were available at PH. Was there anything else you considered getting besides CoL?

What units did you use for your first war? Horse Archers? Elepults? This game was really tough to break out due to the logistics of moving units 2 at a time on galleys from our core to either the east or west. It made the early game a lot harder, I thought.

I put a high priority on MoM this game. It’s obviously better if I could have captured it since I often don’t run my first golden age until later, but I didn’t want to risk having an AI on the opposite side of the continent get it, so I built it myself. In my game, Washington got the ‘Mids and Liz got the GLH, so I had to choose one or the other and since I was already headed east, I ended up with the ‘Mids… The GLH isn’t a game breaker on this map but if you can get it early enough, your economy should get a nice boost, especially if you plan to take out all of Fred, Washington, Gandhi and Hatty early.

It will be interesting to see which way you go with the mid and late game with respect to how much warring you do before you decide to stop and corporations vs. State Property.

Good luck!!

 

[jesusin]

jesusin, contender challenger. Goal: fastest cultural victory.

I'm not settling with a single food resource, so started wandering. Ended up settling on turn 3 on the PH 2NE of the start, since several lh powered tiles are as good as another food resource.

With so few good tiles on the starting position (exactly 1), there was no need to grow before starting on a Settler. So my builds were Worker-Settler-Settler. Research was AH-Fishing-Mining-BW.

02 settled on the maximum close by food: on the corn+clams site.
03 built S with cow, horses, gems and marble.

With so few happy resources available before Calendar, I made Pyramids a priority.

04 built NW across the sea, on Furs, with fish and later Iron.

Once I saw Seoul I decided that would be my GPFarm. The problem is I had not made efforts to settle near copper, so I would need a Settler for a useless city to connect it. Not liking the idea, I decided to postpone war a little and research IW first.
Of course, working on Pyramids had war postponed quite a bit too... we all know where this kind of decisions lead later on...

1000 BC Stats: 4 cities+Settler, 14pop, 4workers, 5units(5War), 1 strategic resources, 3 luxury resources, 3 health resources, 0 great persons, 0 world wonders, 0 national wonders, food/production/commerce=49-25-43, 22 bpt at breakeven, 10 culture per turn, 0 great person points per turn, 0 gold, 0Monument, 1granary, 0library. 0 religions, 0/0 cottages used, 12 Techs: BW, Masonry, Pott, AH, Wri, Myst. 0 civs killed. 3.5 hours played.

Traded for Alpha.
05 built E of Seoul, with 1 seafood inside my borders and another inside Wan Kong's.
06 built SE with banana, ivory, dyes and iron. I'll get no access to the S sea, but that's not problem; Seoul is all I need now.

First to CoL
Moai in capital, it looked like a good idea to delay units a bit to get Moai's hammers first.
GS for Academy wouldn't be worth it, bulb Philo to get my third religion (another one has just spread).
Now I have Aesthetics I shouldn't delay Parthenon only to accelerate war, should I?
07built W, copper, silk, spices, stone.
08 will go on the single tile island N. Seoul will complete my 9 cities.
Research part on Construction to get it in trade, delaying war in order to bring a few Cats can't be a bad move, can it?

1AD Stats: 7 cities, 42 pop, 7workers, 21units (4Cat), 4strategic resources, 5luxury resources, 6health resources, 1 great persons, 2 world wonders, 1 national wonders, food/production/commerce=117-52-114, 50 sustainable beakers per turn, 58 useful culture per turn, 16 great person points per turn, 50 gold. 3 religions. 5/6 cottages used, 25 Techs: CoL, Philo, Aest, IW, Curr, Constr, half of CS. 0 civs killed. 7,5 hours played. 10rel*city, 0temples, 0cath


Getting ready for a sea war while you prepare all you need for a cultural victory is not being easy.