Deity Isolated = Nightmare?

[Fippy]

I think today i got my funniest Iso map ever, well it's isolated unless a miracle happens i guess

Start before settling

Spoiler :

ugh? But wait until you see this..

Spoiler :

Should be more motivation now, and i promise there's more good stuff close.

Maybe somebody wants to join, it's always something different with no AI contact.
Very strong leader (Gandhi), his awesome fast workers and very very good land should make up for some of the pain

(standard settings with normal speed, no huts & events. 1 less AI than normal on 6 continents, i wanted Iso for a change)

Hmm i forgot mentioning it's BAT..well this great mod can use some advertisement anyways.

 

[Fippy]

Stuff until 1440BC, i think i never did that before (why it's such a funny game, at least in my eyes :b)

Spoiler :

First an overview of the promised goodieness.

Spoiler :

Second city by sheep and horsies (will explain the tiles soon lol), always good having something other than warriors against barbs here. Chariots can defeat everything but spears, and fortified warriors can usually manage those..so i skipped Archery for now.

Spoiler :

3rd city, i found that location best despite food in 2nd ring.
Can take gold off Delhi for a while (building monument), fish 2 fps, some wine and more gold.

Spoiler :

Tech path was something like hunting, AH, BW, wheel, sailing, pottery, masonry, writing, maths..

Delhi did grow to size 4 for all good tiles (where all those warriors you see later come from..and some SH failgold) before my first settler, i wanted to speed expansion up with chops instead of not working any gold early.

So why the funny commerce tiles with 2 gold, and what's so funny anyways..
I started thinking about GLH. But somehow 2 golds got me thinking, maths first before chopping much? Now that's very risky, turn 64 GLH worked and i thought "if no GLH, i at least spent no forests, get some failgold, and maths will be great for catching up with expansion with so many forests".

So this turn, in Delhi..

Spoiler :

115h in GLH, getting 10h this and next turn = 135 + 2 pre-chopped maths forests = 195 + working 2 forests next turn and starving = 200
Removing 1 commerce? Ouch..

Spoiler :

Next turn

Spoiler :

Barb defense, looks like Roman legion formations

Spoiler :

 

[Fippy]

My's handy hint (copyright Lemon Merchant):
Don't waste time researching Agriculture, in India we eat only animals.

Nap earlier was bad, more playing instead of sleeping..
but The Longest Journey Dreamfall (ty Lymond!)

 

[shakabrade]

I will definitely join this as I like playing Isolation.

I posted shadows for at least 5-6 deity isolations in LHC (Lonely Hearts Club) and can say that with GLH, it is piece of cake, definitely not a nightmare.
Especially if there are some islands accessible for 2 trade routes.
If you avoid religion, diplo is also piece of cake, and with SPI trait, you can adopt anything with almost no penalty.

We have Fast Workers for efficient pre-chopping (you get 2 worker turns per forest!!!), gold tiles (too bad I spolied this for myself) for fast research to compensate for lack of neighbours and for fast GLH techs, Philosophical for a quick Astro bulb and we also don't waste a turn of research and production when switching to slavery (ok, maybe a slavery could wait GLH to finish with food so scarce). Also we start coastal. With 1AI less, early wonders will be less contested and early tech trading slower.

Therefore I will not go for GLH , as it is probably the most OP wonder for this kind of map and to add some variety (result will definitely be worse, as pursuing GLH is low risk and optimal for this map). Except if there is coastal August Caesar on the map who will get GLH before you actually put a real attempt into it, so that is fine too.

My, I am really looking forward to playing alongside seasoned veteran and can't wait to get back home.

 

[georgjorge]

@Fippy:

Spoiler :

Maths before building GLH? Just when I thought the strategies in this game were getting a bit stale...very nice surprise.

@shaka:

It might not be Masochistic Deity but still fun, pity I already looked at the spoilers.

 

[shakabrade]

@georgjorge

Yeah, this one will be fun, barbs being a random element.

Personally, I like spiced up games because mistakes in my play get less attention and I get a bit of awe insteead. Just attention wh**ring, I guess.

 

[Fippy]

@georgjorge i think you could still play despite looking at spoilers, you would see the land after couple turns of wandering around yourself.
We can take things easy in fun games

Shaka, yep it's not too high on the difficulty ladder i think (thread title was just for fun)
GLH makes for good times later, but i think if stone is available Pyras are stronger in Iso.
Happy Cap can be one of the limiting factors without trades, and you want plenty scientists for bulbs towards Astro usually.

So you hear it guys..easy Deity game, join in
Bat Mod here if needed http://civ4bug.sourceforge.net/BATMod.html
Could you really skip a great mod from this lady?

 

[shakabrade]

@Fippy

GLH makes for good times later, but i think if stone is available Pyras are stronger in Iso.
Happy Cap can be one of the limiting factors without trades, and you want plenty scientists for bulbs towards Astro usually.

In Iso, happy cap is almost always a problem, but can always be solved, that's where Hereditary Rule comes into play, or Representation. What is often a problem you can't really solve is health. Your food is not diverse enough and Aqueducts are too expensive.

Mids are a great wonder indeed, but can be too expensive even with stone and cost you a lot of REX. I would almost always want GLH with island city or two over Mids with stone. However, if you land late Mids, around 1000BC, they are more valuable as you actually have cities which can utilize Represenatation. Bear in mind that you usually need to whip Libraries in food rich but commerce poor cities for Rep to be useful. That adds to the cost too. In parallel, those cities could work 3-4 mines with that food and produce comparable bpt or wealth without any infrastructure.

With HR you can run more specialists as happy cap is no problem and can get almost the same bpt while getting more GPP. Depends on happy resources and health available of course.

But that was just comparison with GLH. Mids (with stone) get you techs with Representation and later, units with Police State. Useful whole game!

tl dr
GLH with islands > Mids with stone > GLH, no islands > Mids, no stone

All IMHO, ofcourse.

 

[Izuul]

Spoiler :

1760BC barb spear is fun

Is that really a spoiler? I'll spoil it in case you are serious although it will still be in your reply.

 

[shakabrade]

1760BC barb spear is fun

Spoiler!!!

 

[Fippy]

They always come early when you are alone lol.
Alone in the dark..let's get a spooky mood into this thread again

 

[shakabrade]

1760BC

Spoiler :

Lost one warrior at 13%, and 2 at 30% (chance for Barb attack).
As per my understanding, 3 defeats in a row like that happen in 1.2% of attempts.

Anyway, carrying on. I guess map is not to be revealed to me yet...

 

[Fippy]

My's handy hint:
मेरा आशिर्वाद है कि आगे जाकर तुम बडे कम करो

Spoiler :

Gandhi wishes you good luck!

 

[georgjorge]

Fippy convinced me, I'll join!

1600BC

Spoiler :

Nothing spectacular...made a lot of Warriors, lost two of them at low odds to Archers but also killed two Spearmen with them while defending. Got a Chariot as well.

Great Lighthouse the old-fashioned way without Maths in 1600BC.

I briefly thought about going for both GLH and Oracle (Metal Casting) with the double Gold. Still thought about it when Oracle went some time before 2000BC. Hi Isabella?

 

[Fippy]

Good to see you joining @gj (we need a shortcut for your name ).
Sounds like you guys had much less luck with early barbs than me.

Imo there are no real spoilers for them btw, they will come and they will bring Spears early in deity isolation.
Has not been different for me in any of those games.
It's just funny how i rarely see early Axes at all when i have some chariots..almost like they know!

 

[georgjorge]

aaaand to 1AD

Spoiler :

Isolation makes it easy to fall into a routine - another city, another workboat, repeat...

Things of note: Besides the Great Lighthouse I also landed the Collossus without even trying 250BCish. Good: more commerce from the sea. Bad: Managed to just about throw off my Great People calculations with the extra points in the capital so instead of a Scientist to bulb Machinery I got a Merchant to bulb...Currency. Not useless but not great either.

The barbs don't appear anymore, though I still need to get a chariot from 8 to 10 XP.

EDIT: and to 560AD

Spoiler :

Astronomy!

Good: nobody else has it, and my beakers almost double with that tech (not to mention resource trades)
Bad: I have 9 cities, and some AIs have twice that. None have below 12.

 

[Fippy]

Still busy with Botm 109, that's a long game
If you guys also want to play a deity gotm game (i know gj already did ), not too late.
Has that nice bonus of getting State Property from the start (or this would be reaaaally slow lol).

 

[Izuul]

Well I've played to 760 AD

Spoiler :

17 cities, just got Astronomy a few turns ago, I've met everyone, and I'm getting about 525 BPT at 100% slider, but even with some nice resource for gold trades I'm still running a pretty big deficit. Have a great merchant a few turns away from Constantinople where I'll hopefully get some nice trade mission gold.

Willem and Izzy are willing to trade techs, but nobody else is. I'm 2T from CS and might be able to make a play at Lib. Philo is up for trade, Paper will probably be for trade as well, and then I would just need Edu and Lib. I haven't really thought about how to win the game yet. That's for another day.

I have pics that i might post later.

 

[georgjorge]

@Izuul: How did you ever

Spoiler :

fit 17 cities onto that continent? I made 9, and have place for 2 more. I'm genuinely curious!

 

[shakabrade]

@Izuul: How did you ever

Spoiler :

fit 17 cities onto that continent? I made 9, and have place for 2 more. I'm genuinely curious!

Spoiler :

I have maybe 15. There is space for more but no need. How do you not have space?