Calling all CE enthusiasts

[Jet]

Hmm.. never mind.

 

[Kennigit]

Spoiler :

Well, I've played to the 1500 mark, and I'm starting to get sloppy and seem to be getting worse, or atleast I'm not where I want to be. My war with ghandi went well, but I was shocked to see he had gotten rifles when I showed up at his capital. When I started war, he didn't even have gunpowder. I want to take Delhi, but I might just settle for peace, regain my gnp, and start at him again with next unit jump.

 

[InvisibleStalke]

Up to 2000 BC, first checkpoint.

My opening strategy plan was to settle in place, pottery first then head for military techs.

How did it turn out?

Spoiler :

Pottery first is awesome - three cottages now producing 10 coins and +3 food is a good start.

No copper though. And no horses either. I had the choice of archery or iron. Decided to play safe with archery. Noone is close and I need to settle some cities. I am aiming for Priesthood and Oracle to try and snag COL. Then Alphabet, Literature while I build cities and Great Library. Then its straight for Construction and a cat rush - probably on Ghandi.

 

[Jet]

^-- Interesting. Post your save!

 

[Kennigit]

Spoiler :

Ok. I'm done. Really was an awful game as far as the way I played it, but hey, its Monarch. After I got acouple more of Ghandi's cities (to bombay), I just got my GNP up and had it as 2x Mansa Musa's. I ignored Cathy and she declared war on me, pillaged a bunch, really pwnt me, but I got peace by giving her Bombay. Still 1rst in GNP, and eventually sloppily work my way to a space race. Cathy, of course, declares war on me again later, but I expected it. I had a defensive pact w/Roosevelt, and I just let him do the fighting. I had also much earlier gotten Hannibal to war with Mansa, and he killed Mansa successfully. Realy late space race, but I'll take it.
If I had gotten a defensive pact with roosevelt before 1rst war w/ Cathy, this would have been prevented.

Although since its only Monarch and you can afford to be lazy/sloppy, I think this still showed the basic outline of a CE. From what I see, it usually follows 2 ways-
1. Early war. Get more cities to develope w/ cottages and work your way up in GNP and/or more warfare.
2. Just do decent at start, get an edge on tech at some point (even if its over just the weaker computers), and get military tech and go to war then. I should have gotten gunpowder with Liberalism in 840 AD, and used that edge there. This is difficult at high difficulties, since you can't really gain that edge

 

[InvisibleStalke]

^-- Interesting. Post your save!

I'll post when I played something more substantial. In the meantime heres a more detailed description.

Spoiler :

Capital has three cottages, pigs and a hills mine. Settled a second city by the marble and rice. Techs are Wheel, Pottery, Mining, Bronze, Animal Husbandry, Archery, Masonry. Now researching up to Oracle, hopefully not too late. Planning to grow and whip a second settler in the capital, and build a worker in city 2. Have two archers and will build another in capital soon.

 

[mice]

Edit, not so important.

 

[Driftwood]

I'm enjoying this game. You found an interesting start. Here's my game at 2000 BC.

Spoiler :

Here you see a screenshot of my budding empire. I've numbered my improvements in the order that I built them. Those numbers only apply to the cottages and pasture. In my timeline I will give a bit more detail about when I built roads.

If anyone that has played this game were to look at the screen in 4000BC, they would tell you that you have an excellent start. The mix of food resources, hills, and floodplains will make for an extremely powerful capital. The only problem is that we are the Vikings and there is no shoreline in sight. I settled in place, as I'm sure most people will, and started exploring. It didn't take long to realize that there actually is a shoreline quite close by. Unfortunately, it is bordered by desert as far as I can tell right now.

I headed south with my scout and popped the nearby hut. I got a map from it, which was actually a good thing since it revealed quite a bit of land and made it clear that the land immediately to our south would be a terrible place to put a city before I get a sizable work force. The map revealed another hut south of the jungle, so I sent my scout down there to get it, revealing the rest of the shaded spots as I went. The second hut gave me Mining! That's an awesome break for sure. I also found India's capital as I began to circle around the jungle and head north. I made my way to the hut to the east of my empire and it gave my scout enough experience to get woodsman II. Too bad a barbarian archer killed him soon afterwards.

The cattle, rice, and marble to the east of my capital made for a choice spot for our second city. I haven't determined where my third city will. go. I'll have to give that some thought. The quality of the land around our capital is top notch, but the land in our area of the continent is merely decent. This indicates that going for an early bureaucracy would be a wise decision. The proximity of marble to our capital means that building The Oracle is a no brainer. I'm thinking that I should get Code of Laws as my free tech, but since this is a monarch level game and I have quite a bit of commerce in my lands it might be worth researching Code of Laws myself and getting Civil Service as my freebie. It isn't possible to make a final decision at this point in the game.

Timeline:
4000BC: Settled in place and began researching The Wheel.
3640BC: Made contact with India. (I also popped Mining from a hut before this date, but I didn't record the exact time since I wasn't taking notes yet.)
3440BC: Made contact with Russia.
3400BC: First worker produced, started a warrior. (I probably discovered The Wheel around this time, but I didn't write down the exact date. Since I didn't have any improvements yet, I probably got it at the same time everyone else did.)
3280BC: Discovered Pottery, started researching Animal Husbandry. Finished building a road on the land everyone's first citizen will be working and started building first cottage.
3240BC: Made contact with America. (At about this time my city grew to size 2. When my city grew, the second citizen started working the silk forest. I thought this was the best tile to work, also, and left him.)
2920BC: First warrior produced, started a settler.
2880BC: Discovered Animal Husbandry, started researching Writing. Finished building my second cottage and moved worker to the pig hill.
2840BC: Started building pasture on pigs (notice that this is where I started taking better notes. )
2680BC: Finished pasture, began roading pigs.
2600BC: Finished road, started 3rd cottage.
2520BC: Discovered Writing, began researching Masonry.
2400BC: Finished 3rd cottage, started roading cottage.
2280BC: First settler produced, began a warrior.
2160BC: Finished road, began 4th cottage.
2080BC: Discovered Mysticism (note: it took 4 turns to discover Mysticism, so I discovered Masonry 4 turns before this.) Started researching Meditation.
2000BC: Capital's border gets third expansion and now encompasses the cattle and marble.

 

[futurehermit]

Yes, please everyone post your 2000BC saves and only your 2000BC saves at this point. I will play and post on Saturday hopefully and then we can all compare and discuss and move on to the next checkpoint.

 

[Dirk1302]

I've played a good deal further already but i'll post the 20000 BC save tonight.
As for a replacement player for the TESR game (it's the transition game?) i'd be willing to join that game.

 

[Dirk1302]

Here´s the 2000 bc save, next turn building scout was changed to building archer.

 

[InvisibleStalke]

To Driftwood:

Spoiler :

Its pretty unlikely you will get Civil Service as a free tech. There is an industrious civ around and you also need Mathematics. I wouldn't wait too long before building Oracle - taking either COL to get CS earlier is a pretty good move.

If I am going for Oracle on Monarch I like to leave out writing - and research that while I build Oracle. It gets me started earlier and reduces the risk someone else might build it.

 

[InvisibleStalke]

Well, I can't resist posting an update at around 400AD. My games computer isn't online at the moment, so I'll probably post my saves as a batch later. I don't think I am revealing any spoilers that someone who has played to 2000BC wouldn't know - once you have met the AIs the flow of the game is really up to the decisions that you make.

Spoiler :

I love it when a plan comes together...

Got Oracle, COL. Teched to Literature, built Great Library. Ironworking, claimed Iron - just in time though. Whipped some swords and attacked Roosevelt.

My attack stalled a bit after the first city as he had just gotten iron himself and had some axes whipped. I was only a few turns from construction so no problem.

Then with cats and swords, his cities fell one by one. But the spoils of war... I captured the Parthenon, the Great Wall, the Temple of Artemis and the Pyramids! Can you believe it? I love Industrious civs. Preferably next door...

Have CS now and are only a few turns from machinery. And Catherine has annoyed me a little too long now...

 

[Driftwood]

To Driftwood:

Spoiler :

Its pretty unlikely you will get Civil Service as a free tech. There is an industrious civ around and you also need Mathematics. I wouldn't wait too long before building Oracle - taking either COL to get CS earlier is a pretty good move.

If I am going for Oracle on Monarch I like to leave out writing - and research that while I build Oracle. It gets me started earlier and reduces the risk someone else might build it.

Spoiler :

I forgot about the Mathematics requirement. I guess that ruins that idea. I should still be able to get CoL with the marble and a bit of chopping, though.

 

[Agent Cooper]

My 2000BC save:

Spoiler :

First build was worker followed by settler. I researched Archery after AH and Mining, since barbs might come early in a Monarch game. Lots of archers. I'll go for BW/IW next and hope that bronze/iron is nearby for city3, otherwise I might go for a horse resource to the north and try a chariot rush against Roosevelt to the west.

Planning to build The Oracle in capital and GL later. Don't know about the other early 'marble'-wonders though... I'd rather build barracks and military units as things are now...

Cottage_Economists_BC-2000

 

[Kennigit]

I didn't make a 2000 BC save, but my 3rd city was founded in 1960 BC for those who want to compare everyone's games. Can't remember anything else.

 

[DaveMcW]

Spoiler 2000BC :

With 4 plantation resources on my doorstep, I wanted to get Calendar ASAP. This meant having very fast research.

Techs:
Animal Husbandry - from the hut.
Wheel, Pottery - to start cottages
Writing - for trade routes with Roosevelt
Mining, Bronze Working, Iron Working - to whip, clear jungle, and find the copper iron

I built 2 workers before my first settler to get started on cottages/chopping.

Spoiler 1000BC :

The next 1000 years went by fast, and I got Calendar in 975 BC.

 

[obsolete]

Dave, Im wondering if you had to do some extra thinking on that 2n'd city placement, due to the over-lap.

I don't quite like it, but I know you've been around for ages (over 2 years I think since I been coming here), so I know u must have your reasons.

 

[ds61514]

Dave, Im wondering if you had to do some extra thinking on that 2n'd city placement, due to the over-lap.

I don't quite like it, but I know you've been around for ages (over 2 years I think since I been coming here), so I know u must have your reasons.

Don't think of it as overlap, think of it as getting 3 very nice resources in the fat cross.

 

[obsolete]

He's taking 4 tiles away from the capital. That's going to hurt in the later game.