Competing as a midget (Immortal WT)

[obsolete]

Competing as a Midget * SSE/WE *

Silverbullet recently had his first win on immortal and posted the initial save in his learning immortal thread. Since it is sometimes easier to show, than explain; I decided to do another walkthrough (yeah, I know I'm doing another writeup at the same time).

The way things panned out, I decided to just keep my empire as small as possible, while maintaining the lead. Things went along ok, though I have to confess that as time went on, I began to rush more to speed things up. I stopped focusing. I got too over-confident. I stopped properly managing. I started to hemmorage waste all over. And worst of all, I practically stopped focusing on proper tech path/order because of my laziness/ego. Too much self-confidence can be a very bad thing, and because of this, I actually ended up having to launch my space ship with all but 1 casing (damn AI sabotaged me at one of the worst times possible).

If there is one thing that can be learned here, it is don't get over-cocky near the end. I could have also named this thread (how not to play the end-game).

In any case, this should be a good lesson to everyone, especially myself. But for now, here's a sneak peak for what's to come:

Spoiler :

 

[Fi$h]

Trade Routes!

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Spoiler :

Is that two cities you have there? Or three?

Seeing games like this really makes me rethink managing my economy. I'm pretty good at war - the promotions, positioning tactics, AI baiting, and otherwise abusing their idiocy at war. But THIS, I comparatively suck at . People get well over 1k beakers with like 8 cities, where I wind up with 700ish with 30! Of course, my slider in that situation is !@#$ around 30-40% from all the warring, but nevertheless I'm getting pwnt by other players economically. I'm trying to learn ASAP, so that I don't get pwnt instantly in the immortal U. game.

 

[mystyfly]

@themeinteam

Spoiler :

actually to me that looks like 4 cities

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Oh, you're right. Haha. I'm still impressed.

 

[Nares]

Looks interesting.

I can only imagine what the city you're settling all your GPs into looks like.

 

[BalbanesBeoulve]

What? another financial leader? And one that isn't even industrious or philosophical?

 

[obsolete]

Competing as a Midget -- SSE/WE


Leader:: M. Musa
Speed:: Normal
Difficulty:: Immortal



Disclaimer:
This strategy emphasizes heavily on the fundamentals of SE. If you haven’t elevated your game to that level yet, then good luck to you.

Some Past Walkthroughs indexed here::

Beyond the Sword

• Food Economy Test (HC)
• Without the Mids (Ghandi)
• SSE/WE with a Pack of Wolves (Ramesses)
• The Great Lighthouse (Ramesses)
• Competing vs Darius I (Ramesses)
• The Insane Walkthrough (Ramesses)
• The Insane Walkthrough (Ghandi)
• The Insane Walkthrough (HC)

WarLords

• The Insane Walkthrough (Ramesses)
• The Unreal Walkthrough (Ramesses)
• The Unreal Walkthrough (Part II Ghandi)
• The Impossible Walkthrough (Ramesses)
• The Impossible Walkthrough (Part II Ghandi)

Final notes:
I decided to stick with just 6 cities, hence the title... By no means does this mean you have to; or should. Pick your situational spots carefully.

 

[obsolete]

We begin the ancient Era...
----------------------------------------


4000 BC

Alright, I really do hate ocean-side starts. However the two sea-food will help to make up for that. But then again, it will be a while until i can get them hooked up anyhow. At least I have a river next to the capital and get to start on a nice plains/hill.

 

[obsolete]

3840 BC
We meet Justinian.
-ni

3800 BC
Good news and bad news.
Good news is I got bronzeworking from a hut. The bad news is we were already researching it anwyay, so I still feel I came out behind somehow. If only you could plan for this ahead of time!
-ni

3760 BC
We meet Hammurabi.
-ni

2920 BC
After chopping a second worker, and researching Masonary right after BW, we got a quarry hooked up ASAP and now plan to reap the rewards.

The Great Wall ready for completion.

 

[obsolete]

2800 BC
Stonehenge ready for completion.

Note: Still at only population of one lol.

Spoiler :

 

[obsolete]

2360 BC
City #2 ready to be settled here. I wanted to move more to the left, but seems Justinian had ideas to rather quickly foil my plans. So instead, I'll grab this spot here, and hope to steal his pigs. Maybe I can flip his city peacefully in the not too distant future.

 

[obsolete]

1840 BC
GP pops.
-ni

1800 BC
God damnit! Someone has marble. Oracle was already taken while I was working on it. At least I got 52g for it.
-ni

1480 BC
City #3 going up.

I get to hit 2 goldmines with one stone (no pun intended). Though the lack of food in this spot, with those useles desert tiles are going to be a hinderance, At least I can get a max of two flood-plains if nothing happens on that dark side of them to also foil my plans also.

Note: Barbs stil running about, they haven't figured out yet how to enter past the Great Wall.

 

[obsolete]

1400 BC
The Mids ready for completion. Looks like I really need to get some height to take full advantage of it though...

Note: Stonehenge already at double culture.

Spoiler :

1240 BC
Buddhism spreads to us. We swtich to in immediately to take alliance with Justin.
-ni

900 BC

Aesthetics researched, this propells us into the classical era.
-ni

 

[obsolete]

Trade Routes!

What really sucks, is they don't work so well with mercantilism.

I can only imagine what the city you're settling all your GPs into looks like.

We shall see... step-by-step.

What? another financial leader? And one that isn't even industrious or philosophical?

I'm not sure if that is a good thing, or bad. If the latter, then keep in mind silverbullet is to blame.

Anyhow, I guess I don't mind giving Mansa a try here, as adding different leaders is a good change. I used to stick with industrious so much becuase so many critics kept telling me that the trait was useless in high levels. Then after that was arguement was settled, suddenly industrious is now claimed to be too overpowering. So then I used a non-industrious leader. Now THAT has caused critics to say Philosophical was too overpowering because that was part of Ghandi's trait. But I'm sure I'm going to still get some shots my way because of Mansa too, no matter what his traits.

Anyhow, here is the initial save from silverbullet:

4000 BC

 

[Quotey]

Obsolete, given a choice, settle on the plains hill or off? I'd really say off, but you have enough hills in this situation to perhaps not be bothered.

 

[Killroyan]

I am looking forward to seeing how you got 50 I guess you don't have emancipation yet and are running caste system? Love your games obsolete.

 

[danieldaniel]

Yes Obsolete, industrious has been regarded as one of the most useless traits for a long time in this forums. Your walkthrough games changed that point of view, and now there’re many who consider industrious as one of the strongest traits. You get all my credit for showing everyone how to leverage the industrious trait properly.

What I still find questionable is whether WS is a reasonable strategy for any leader and any situation (ie non industrious leaders, no stone/marble available, bigger maps, etc). This game will be a great to convince those that still doubt (where I include myself) that’s a wrong conception.

One more thing on your game. Why are you delaying Fishing so much? At any rate it would have been the first thing I would have researched. It’s a cheap tech, it would give you a nice boost to setter and worker production and to whipping, plus working the fisheries would benefit from Mansa’s financial trait giving you a small edge on early research.

 

[vanatteveldt]

I find it fascinating that you keep the capital at pop one without working any of the seafood. I know for a fact that I would have research fishing and built one or two boats, and grow to pop 3 or 4 working the stone, plains hill, and fish.

And I would have probably missed all the shiny wonders...!

I am tempted to compare the two strategies and a mix of the two (start with wonders but hook up fish before building new settlers), so obsolote: did you reasearch bronze working -> masonry and build worker/worker(chop)/great wall/stonehenge?

[edit]I just noticed that you got stonehenge finished within 4 turns of the great wall using 1 pop and two chops... that's pretty impressive!

 

[vanatteveldt]

@danieldaniel

it is up to obsolete to answer, but running a SE with stone in the BFC certainly asks for the 'mids if you ask me, and if you can get two workers, the great wall and stonehenge up in 30 turns while still building some improvements I'd say it's a solid start even if you stop wonderspamming after that. not that I expect obsolete to stop wonderspamming anytime soon...