1.27
This sure is a challenging map! Like everyone else I found the barbarians especially nasty and the tech pace blistering.
I suspect that the barbarian problem is because we start with a large empty area to our south. Most of the rest of the world turns out to have Civs packed fairly tightly. So most of the barbarian camps are likely to appear in the lands south of Greece.
A guess as to what causes the blistering tech pace in this game: perhaps there were a lot of goody huts somewhere in the world for the AIs to open?
Opening Moves
I moved the worker NE. He saw nothing worthwhile toward the east so my settler moved north and saw the wines. I decided the settler would take at least two more steps. Taking just one step NW would be on a river and would claim both wines but it would waste a BG, and BG tiles looked like they'd be in short supply. More production would be highly desirable. So the settler would take a second step NW - that position south of the forest would still claim both wines immediately and be on the river.
Moving the settler to that location revealed a nice game tile. There was nothing better in sight so the settler founded Athens there. The worker had moved to the southern wines in the meantime and began irrigating them.
My initial build sequence was warrior, warrior, warrior, settler.
Exploration
My first three warriors went exploring: west, south, and north in that order. This resulted in contacting India in 3250BC, China in 3000BC, and all of the other Civs in 2350BC. My minimap at that date shows the paths the exploring warriors followed:
As a result of tech trades made at the same date I'd learned by then that there were horses and iron to the south, as well as ivory.
The land neck northeast of Rome (water on both sides), combined with India and China knowing only each other and my meeting all other Civs via Rome, suggested that the land area south of Athens might be entirely unnoccupied and available for Greek expansion if done soon enough. The only other possibility I could think of was that the water east of Rome was an inland sea and that seemed unlikely - it would be very large if so.
So I continued exploring the area south of Athens to learn more about it. My other two exploring warriors returned home because there was an ongoing barbarian problem - they'd be more useful at home than exploring my rivals' lands.
Early Expansion
Two irrigated wines for Athens was nice for growth but not enough to make a four turn settler factory. Getting more food seemed like a high priority. By the time I finished producing three warriors I'd seen the wheat west of home. My first settler from Athens went there, building Sparta on the tile east of the wheat in 2710BC.
Next I produced a hoplite in Athens - by this time I'd seen a fair bit of barbarian activity and felt I'd need a bit of protection in the home area. After the hoplite Athens built a granary. This would increase its growth rate from every five turns (the current rate with two irrigated wines) to every three turns. I'd have an overrun of two unused food each time Athens grew. So I planned my third town, to be founded after producing the granary and then a settler, to be in the jungle S,S,SE of Athens. Just SW of the start position in 4000BC. A town there could use the southern irrigated wines in two out of every three turns - Athens would use it one out of three turns to maintain its three turn growth rate.
So although a bit complicated in the required micro-management to maximize everything, my first three towns would each have a food bonus, and Athens would also have a granary. Here's how the arrangement looked when I founded Thermopylae in 1725BC:
Research
I decided before starting that I'd go for space in this game. So I wanted the maximum research pace I could get. And after seeing the initial AI tech pace I'd have been tempted to go for space even if I hadn't already chosen it!
I started by researching Writing at the maximum rate I could afford.
When I met India in 3250BC she was already three techs ahead of me and I had nothing I could trade. When I met China in 3000BC she and India were both four techs ahead of me.
When I met Rome in 2350BC I was still four turns from learning Writing and discovered that Writing was already known by a number of other Civs.
I immediately traded for contact with all rivals, for Writing, Masonry, The Wheel, Warrior Code, Mysticism, and Iron Working, and for most of the gold in the world.
It was early enough in the game that I thought there could well be some goody huts left somewhere in the world. So I gifted all Civs up to the same tech level. If any of them popped a hut and got a tech I wanted it to be something new. I set my research to Code Of Laws at the maximum rate I could afford.
I was beaten to Code Of Laws and in 1650BC was able to take advantage of the widespread knowledge of Map Making. I leveraged my maps into a trade for Horseback Riding, Code Of Laws, Map Making, Mathematics, everyone's maps, and nearly all the gold in the world. I set my research to Philosophy at the maximum rate I could afford.
In 1525BC Arabia learned Philosophy, beating me to it. I paid her 164g for it and gave it to everyone except India and China. At this point I'd decided to slow down gifting things to India and China because as my immediate neighbors they would eventually be my first invasion targets.
I wanted Republic ASAP and my rivals would probably research everything else. After some quick calculations I decided to research Republic at the forty turn rate - it was unlikely I could learn it faster at the highest rate I could afford.
In 1075BC my rivals discovered the last required Ancient Times tech. I traded 374g for Construction, then traded around to get Currency and Polytheism, and got over half my gold back too.
I got Monotheism as my free tech. I then gifted Korea to the Middle Ages and she got Feudalism. I traded her Monotheism for Feudalism.
Next I gifted Ottomans to the Middle Ages (for the 1/3 chance they'd get Engineering) and to my surprise they got nothing! It seems the Ottomans have been modified to be non-scientific in this game.
As a final step I gifted Spain, Rome, France, and Ottomans all known tech. That made five strong Civs doing research for me - good odds that between them they'd be working on both Theology and Engineering while I continued my forty turn research of Republic.
Luxuries, Resources, Palace Jump
In 1700BC my second warrior saw the two cattle near the center of the southern region and I made up my mind to go for a Palace jump. Those cattle would make a strong central location for the new palace. And I would of course want the horses west of there, the iron to the east, and the ivory to the south.
My first two settlers had built at ring 4 from Athens. I decided to go for a ring 4 build from my future Palace, and ring 4 from my future Forbidden Palace. This approach would result in a nice build which included the horses, iron, and ivory in the south in the first ring, and which would ensure I would neither gain nor lose anything due to the Palace rank bug.
My fourth settler went south and founded Corinth on the river SW,SW from the mountain and beside both cattle in 1475BC. By founding there first I was taking a small gamble that I'd still be first to reach the horses and iron but it seemed worthwhile. Odds were good of still being first to both of them. Corinth is the planned future home of my Palace though it will be a long time before it and a Forbidden Palace in the original region are ready to make the jump.
My next settlers headed for the horses and iron, then I sent one to found a home for the Forbidden Palace N,N,NE of Athens (this location will be able to use three game tiles), and then one to claim the furs northeast of Athens.
By 1000BC I'd settled one more town to claim the spices near the eastern coast of the southern region. My world at 1000BC:
Barbarians
Barbarians were quite a nuisance. I found myself regularly dodging them and wishing I had more units to deal with them.
I prefer to deal with barbarians offensively. A defensive approach leaves the barbarians free to wander around pillaging and leaves their camps intact to keep spewing out new barbarians. I'd rather attack them.
On this map it wasn't possible to build strong units (horsemen or swordsmen) to attack the barbarians. The units available were warriors, super-spearmen (hoplites), and archers. Warriors are fine for handling barbarians when it is possible to build lots of them, e.g. via a four turn warrior+settler pump. But on this map that wasn't possible. Combining that with the high difficulty level (and thus a low bonus vs. barbarians) warriors seemed a bad way to go. Losses of warriors when attacking barbarians would be too high. Hoplites have no offensive advantage over warriors, using them offensively just means losing even more shields when one fails. To my mind archers are the way to go in this situation.
So after exploring I used my warriors primarily for defense from barbarians, taking advantage of defensive terrain. I built a few (3 by 1000BC) hoplites to handle situations where defense really mattered, e.g. escorting settlers. For the rest I built archers. The archers moved around taking maximum advantage of defensive bonus terrain and attacked barbarians and their camps.
A useful trick in a situation like this with lots of barbarians is to take advantage of the AIs psychic knowledge of barb camps. The AIs always know where all the camps are. Trading maps with the AIs makes the current camps visible to you.
I got ransacked once for 84g and lost a few units but that was it for losses to barbarians in Ancient Times.
I wasn't nearly ready to handle the barbarian uprising which occured in 1050BC after many Civs entered the Middle Ages. There were at least three camps in the jungle and the southern region which would spew out horsemen. Since I couldn't possibly fend off the barbarians I made other preparations for them:
1) I purchased embassies with all of my rivals. This used about 1/2 of my treasury. I then gave the rest of my gold (about 400g) away, dividing it among four rivals, and set my luxury rate to 80%. (Might as well use my income for something.) Now the barbarians can ransack towns without costing me any gold.
2) I moved defenders out of two size one towns in the southern region. Those towns have no improvements yet. The barbarians can ransack them without doing much damage.
By 1000BC one horde of barbarians has already spent itself ransacking Mycenae in the east. The other barbarians remain but shouldn't be a problem.
Miscellaneous
The other Civs seemed to be rather aggressive in this game so far. In 1830BC I saw a fight between China and India - they were at war that early. And in 1050BC I was informed that Arabia and Rome were at war. There might have been other wars before I had embassies, I don't know.
If you'd like a linear (and rather detailed, move by move) description of my game to 1000BC you can download
my QSC timeline here.
QSC Status
At 1000 BC I had:
9 towns
1 settler
7 native workers, 2 foreign workers
3 warriors, 3 hoplites, 7 archers
1 granary
Oooops.
![[ptw]](/images/smilies/ptw.gif "PTW Icon [ptw]")
1.27f - Open
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I guess we know glassworking to be able to do this) we learn WC for 43g +1gpt
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Giving in to demands will keep that particular civ at bay for 20 turns and often turns them polite, thus lowering trading costs. A very normal thing to do on this level and map.
