Charlemagne Emperor Cookbook!(EC)!! Let the games begin!!!

[shyuhe]

I may shadow this to try the settler first -- religion approach.

 

[Ignorant Teacher]

@Ignorant Teacher

Spoiler :

Nice gambit, looks like you'd be ready for major ReXXing, combined with the silver you did NOT hook up I think I'd let Aachen grow and whip the unhappiness away rather than stagnate it. Nice exploration of the mainland. I think Settlers+Workers would be better than Chitchen Itza now but that's just me.

Spoiler :

Chicken Pizza is there just because I had to place something. I had put the worker to sleep and then the borders popped. Sometimes I do really stupid things. He's on his way to the silver. Regarding the whip, you're probably right. I just feel uncomfortable when I see the red faces and tend to avoid it.

 

[MaximumPain]

@MaximumPain

Spoiler :

Good job getting Chariots out, should be easier to deal with barbs. Wayyyyy too many roads! Vienna is a terrible location for the city, and why is Nuremberg soooooo far when there are better spots nearby? (pigs on a lot of green river land!) Your round is a bit behind others as you didn't hook up the silver yet which is a source of great commerce this early in the game. Not sure why Aachen isn't working the grass cows, you can always 2-whip it on a worker/settler on 3-whip a library in a few turns to get rid on the unhappiness.

Spoiler :

Actually Most of my critical resources were improved but the last wave of barbarians burned it down including the silver. Also I had to whip a few chariots to deal with it so that hurts as well. I dont think the northeast city is to bad of a spot with the two game, silver, fur and some hills to work later. Also the roads are for military mobility as much as for hooking up cities and resources the workers that built that road to Nuremberg would not have been able to work closer to the home land due to the hordes that were swarming around. Thanks again for your critique Kossin its going a long way to making me a better player. Oh yeah and the extra roads around Prague are because I had trouble making the river work for me to get the horses hooked up to the capital it just wasnt working until I made the full road.

I will have to look at the other saves later on tonight.

 

[CBPE]

@CBPE

Spoiler :

Very very good exploration - the best so far that I've seen. Despite that, the silver still isn't hooked up! OTOH, you've got stone now, but it kinda seems late for any of the early wonders. You do know that the wall-whip trick does not work as in 3.17, correct? Paired workers often waste turns so watch out for that. Can't figure out what the road-to-nowhere is for by Vienna.

Spoiler :

Yes, the silver was a mistake, I've considered to get it late 'cause there were several good spot to settle instead of that tundra that I hate. But, seeing the others saves, it would help a lot with economy.
I have no idea what wall-whip trick is....
I'm building walls in Prague only 'cause I was 1 turn to a Chariot before the horses' pasture was destroyed and I didn't know what to build meanwhile the workers repair it.
P.S.: Sorry, what does OTOH mean?
P.P.S.: the workers in Vienna are hooking the wine (yes.... a bit early )
They are waiting the border pop to farm the rice and they didn't know what to do!

 

[Gumbolt]

@ kossin

Spoiler :

Thanks for your feedback
Scouting: I had terrible luck here. Already mentioned two dead archers. On top of that, my starting scout died while standing on a forest w/ woodsmen I promo.

Roads all over the place just because workers had nothing to do. Yes, I myself dont really understand how it happened with Agriculture Will try to do better next round.

Among my other silly mistakes made here, the save is really from 1550 B.C. as kossin pointed out. Shall I play it more and update attachment or leave it as is? Sorry about that

If you can play 2 more turns it might help your save but I am happy for you to leave as is. Did you post the save?

 

[Groogaroo]

I remember when the Monarch Cookbook series started, I was still struggling on prince back then and once I was ready for MOnarch it went up to Emperor! Finally I feel I'm at a point where I can take part in one of these.

Difficulty wise I'm fairly comfortable at Monarch and struggling on Emperor although I have one (rather dubious) win under my belt now.

Unfortunatley I messed up at around 2675 BC...

Spoiler :

I got fooled by this map... after initial exploration and seeing alot of land around that could be cut off I settled my first new city to the south assuming this was the direction of the AI (This is where I first met sitting bull's scout). Soon after I realised I'd been had and that I should have settled to the north to cut of my neighbours.

Having settled a distant city cutting of absolutley nothing (except for my economy ) I decided to call it quits here. If I was playing a normal game I would have carried on but with the cookbook format in mind this is hardly the greatest of starts.

Just goes to show you should never take things for granted in this game.

So I won't be submitting a save/vote for this round but I'd like to pick up in the next round... if thats within the cookbook rules.

 

[kossin]

Spoiler :

Yes, the silver was a mistake, I've considered to get it late 'cause there were several good spot to settle instead of that tundra that I hate. But, seeing the others saves, it would help a lot with economy.
I have no idea what wall-whip trick is....
I'm building walls in Prague only 'cause I was 1 turn to a Chariot before the horses' pasture was destroyed and I didn't know what to build meanwhile the workers repair it.
P.S.: Sorry, what does OTOH mean?
P.P.S.: the workers in Vienna are hooking the wine (yes.... a bit early )
They are waiting the border pop to farm the rice and they didn't know what to do!

Spoiler :

wall-whip in 3.17 is a trick that used the Protective trait/stone where you overflowed as much as you could by whipping a wall 1 turn from completion +chops to get a lot of overflow gold. -> you could probably use a worker/settler instead (1 turn, let the city grow a size or 2 then resume that build)

OTOH = On the other hand.

When in doubt with worker turns, do something on green riverside land. (cottages/farms)

 

[CBPE]

Spoiler :

wall-whip in 3.17 is a trick that used the Protective trait/stone where you overflowed as much as you could by whipping a wall 1 turn from completion +chops to get a lot of overflow gold. -> you could probably use a worker/settler instead (1 turn, let the city grow a size or 2 then resume that build)

OTOH = On the other hand.

When in doubt with worker turns, do something on green riverside land. (cottages/farms)

Spoiler :

Thank you.
Just another question: obviously the mine is far from the best start here, but do you think is anyway good enough at this level?
I ask this 'cause I've tried some games but I was not able to win on emperor

 

[kossin]

Spoiler :

Thank you.
Just another question: obviously the mine is far from the best start here, but do you think is anyway good enough at this level?
I ask this 'cause I've tried some games but I was not able to win on emperor

Spoiler :

It's certainly winnable - it's only 50 turns in. It may look behind a bit though because others have read the map better so far. Once the silver mine comes in, a few cottages here or there and GPP you'd be fine. It's not that hard of a map.

The big difference for me between Monarch and Emperor was early commerce (or lack of due to not getting the mechanics right).

Like a lot of posters before me have said, Monarch->Immortal isn't that big of a jump once you get the basics. The thing is, a lot of players can manage to win on Monarch despite knowing them so when they try Emperor, they hit a wall.

Just address a few early things and you should have no problem winning on Emperor with good odds. A lot of lost games are lost in the BC era. I'll stop rambling now

 

[Nares]

I may shadow this to try the settler first -- religion approach.

Settler first/polytheism were my thoughts exactly.

Might need to push early archery afterwards.

 

[pigswill]

I have a bit of a dilemma here. I misread the instructions and played up to 1000bc, my earliest save is from 1300bc. On the other hand I think I'm doing ok (ish) so I'm not sure if I should post anything.

 

[Gumbolt]

I have a bit of a dilemma here. I misread the instructions and played up to 1000bc, my earliest save is from 1300bc. On the other hand I think I'm doing ok (ish) so I'm not sure if I should post anything.

Hmmm 200 years is slightly over!! I would still post the save for comparison even if you are withdrawing it. Least people can see it. I wouldnt post the 1000bc save yet though. We want some suprises for next round!! Need to play my round tomorrow.

 

[CornPlanter]

My original post is updated with the new save 1500 B.C., this time really. Things that changed in 2 turns:

Spoiler :

Some of you were concerned about the fate of poor archer. I'm glad to announce that he's sound and well, resting in capital and healing his wounds. Archer in Aachens garison moved to silver hill and defended it from barbarians.

Opened borders with Sitting Bull.

Worker is ordered to go and fix what barbarians did to deers.

 

[shyuhe]

Here's a save. I probably won't be voting so count it as a shadow.

Spoiler :

Settled in place, went settler -- polytheism. Got the religion but no great second city spot. I think my tech order was poly -- AH -- wheel -- archery (this is about when I saw how much land there was to the west) -- agri -- pottery -- mining (now). I have to say, I'm a little disappointed with the settler--religion opening. Maybe I needed to gun for the oracle

The empire:

Hopefully the barbs will go after the protective-archer-on-a-hill city.

 

[pigswill]

Report up to 1300bc (oops).

Spoiler :

Like many people settled one south.
Build order: worker>war*5>settler>worker>archers.
At 1300bc got 5 warriors, 5 archers, 4 workers.
Fogbusted quite a bit. Lost 2 archers but nothing got pillaged which is nice.
Tech order:AH, min, BW, WH, archery>agr>Pots>writing (1425bc).
Founded Prague in 2600 on horse site. Founded Vienna 2075 on fur/silver/copper site. Founded Nuremberg 1425 to south east.
Wonders have gone fairly early: Gwall 2600, SH 2075, Glight1550, ToA1425.

 

[Mickin]

I used to win emp regularly (and get smacked down on immortal) but after returning from a 6 month break I find myself very rusty and having trouble on emp, so I thought this was a good game for me. Feel free to criticize my awful roads and city placement and whatever else comes to mind gogogo.

to 1500:

Spoiler :

Looking at what I've done, all I can think is SLOPPY. In my defense, I was playing this very tired. I did at one point reload after an honest worker misclick (gained no meaningful info) and again because I played to 1450 in zombie-mode.

Poor scouting and I let my horses get pillaged once. Also worker management was pretty bad. I must say though that I haven't played epic speed since I was a struggling noble player years ago so I think the game speed was throwing my worker timing off.

But overall I feel like I'm pulling things together pretty well around 1500 BC and if I was playing this through I would expect to have an OK game from here.

Plans include: Plans include continue expanding SW, currency+sailing for foreign trade route action, getting CoL, and calendar for the (at least) 3 happiness resources it will enable.

 

[lymond]

Note that this is the first time trying out this series and the first time posting images to this forum or any forum. Any advice on getting the images to size correctly would be appreciated.

I'm pretty good at Prince level now and want to move up levels. I've had my eye on this series for a while and while I'll unlikely do that well now it will at least be a learning experience and the challenge will be nice. My goal being to actually get a save worth a vote.

Spoiler :

Interesting map this one. The South West threw me off a bit as I thought there would be someone down there and more land. Turns out were are a little isolated on this side of world. I should have settled the silver city early but wanted to make sure a grabbed the horses and stone to the south as well as block (for no reason it turns out)

An unorthodox tech path for me as I went AH>Archery>Mining>Agr>Wheel> BW. I normally shoot for BW early. However, with Horses in view and a fairly quickly productive city, I held off a bit. Yet I think it cost me the Mids. I generally never tech Archery that early, if at all, but barbs concern me at this level and that turned out to be the case. There was almost no "warrior era" as archers appeared from what seemed like the get go. (I do wonder if barbs change based on a certain tech, i.e., once I tech Archery they will appear immediate even though they do regardless anyway).

A few notes in good old list form:

1) Settled Prague to the Southwest first to get some cottage rocking on the river. Then Vienna for stone/horses. Settle stone first may have gotten me the beloved Mids although not exactly vital for Charlemagne. 4th city finally on silver

2) I actually built no warriors. With archery in quick, I built a few and had no issues with barbs, although there were plenty of them.

3) Coastal barb city to south on rice/pigs should be mine with no problem as well as one to the far south west unless it sucks.

4) I have an archer up north busting the copper/fur for my 5th city. I expect to have that up next.

5) Odd land layout with interesting choke points. Appears you can't reach Sitting Bull except over the ice and lord know what else is going on over there. Probably lay a city up there for blockage and hope there's more seafood.

6) I'm in last place which is not surprising. However, I don't feel badly about the start and think this is workable. Sitting Bull is probably going to have to go


1500 BC screen shot

Spoiler :

By eclarkdog at 2009-12-05[/IMG]

 

[mjg5591]

To 1500BC Round 1,

Spoiler :

Moved scout 2W2S from starting location and saw more food. So I settled 1S. Worker first.

TEch path this round. AG, AH, TW, Pottery, Mining, BW, Writing, Aest (currently),

3675BC Meet SB.

3475BC Budda FIDL.

3400BC Hindu FIDL.

2975BC Meet Ragnar.

2925BC Meet Hannibal.

2625BC Settle Prague. Silver-2Deer city.

2175BC Settle Vienna Horse-Sheep city.

1850BC Judaism FIDL.

1700BC Meet Justianan.

1650BC Meet Roosevelt.

Right now i'm working on warriors to help fogbust the land. We have a nice chunk of land SW. 4 workers for 3 cities.

Screenshot,

Save.

 

[semperus]

Spoiler :

I have to say, I'm a little disappointed with the settler--religion opening.

Spoiler :

Was it the settler first or the religion first you were disappointed with?

I enjoyed the settler first, but can't say the same for religion first. Given that they complete around the same time, you're still miles back on worker techs.

 

[shyuhe]

Spoiler :

Was it the settler first or the religion first you were disappointed with?

I enjoyed the settler first, but can't say the same for religion first. Given that they complete around the same time, you're still miles back on worker techs.

Spoiler :

The combination of the two. As you point out, I'm pretty far back in techs. I think my build was settler -- worker in Aachen and worker first in Vienna while I got some worker techs. The downside of course is that I teched slower since I had an unconnected second city

I went archery much earlier than other games as I'm used to a slightly different timing of techs. I also had not scouted north of the start so I didn't see the silver when I settled my second city. As a result, the second city went near the pig/sheep but I needed pottery or agriculture to make anything out of it. All in all, not very effective. It would have been more useful if it would have let me block off good land, but blocking obviously isn't an issue on this map.