While tempted to vary my tactics in this game, and go for a fast library and acedemy then pop my settlers out, as suggested on the pre-game discussion, I ended up using my standard choprush strategy. This was done with a view to domination victory, as this is the only method which is reliable enough, and builds up a big enough score, for GOTM.
My strategy follows some simple heuristics:
- Go for bronzeworking first, then meditation to get obelisk (allows city to expand and more forests to chop)
- Initial military units spiral outwards from the start position exploring.
- First things to build are worker, settler, warrior.
- The first settler goes to a heavily forested area, regardless of other considerations. In this game, the first settler went northwest of London to an area rich in woods.
- The second city then chops chops chops first an obelisk, then settlers and workers which set up home in good city sites near the capital.
- Each new city first chops an obelisk, and all its forests are generally converted to workers/settlers before it starts building other stuff.
- Cities which don't have any forests are used to pump out the warriors needed to guard settlers and new cities.
- Once a city doesn't have any forests and there are no warriors, it's allowed to build up naturally.
- Always keep at least as many workers as you have cities + settlers.
- Keep this going until there's no room to expand anywhere decent.
This lets you expand fast in the initial landgrab phase with miminal loss of population to growing settlers and workers.
Science wise, after bronzeworking and meditation, I beelined to writing (with a brief detour to agriculture if I remember rightly) so I could build a library and set London up with 2 scientists to get the first academy built there. After that came iron working, and next I picked up animal hubandry then began the long haul towards alphabet if I remember rightly.
I didn't build any wonders early, and rather regret not building the pyramids. I was too busy spamming warriors in London to help my cities and settles defend against the barbarian menace.
When cities had finished chopping, the first building to go up was a barracks, to prepare for the warmongering to come.
Workers focussed on connecting resources, connecting cities and building towns, with the odd farm for cities with low food production, and mines built once the cities reached size 3+.
By 1AD I had a good base of 6 cities, in reasonable sites, and was (I think) narrowly in the lead score wise. Most of the cities had access to two or more mined hills, giving the English a solid production base. My economy wasn't so great mind.
At this point, there was no more room to expand - I'd already had to sneak a settle past a barbarian city - and the focus moved to building swordsman and axemen, and scouting the opposition. Isabella didn't seem to have obvious access to copper or iron, and was annoyed with me. Plus, she had the horses we needed. The continent wasn't big enough for the both of us...
All in all I was pretty happy with this start in what was a tricky little position, crowded and with a lot of jungle and awkward geography.
). One was way up in the tundra/ice in the NW, and one not far south of this. I got a completely useless map from the first and met a hostile Warrior in the second, so for sure I didn't get any advantage from this.
