"Haftaab" (Seven Rivers) Emperor 1S, Persian, Rov.B, ON, no
tech/scen. AI gets hbr/walls,2S.
I played for EC, as I often do (I wonder how the landing players will get their beakers on this map?? mainly SSC?). I didn't feel like playing for a high score. Anyway, it is a little awkward to finish a conquest with restarts on, especially under a republic.
The start seemed perfect for the size-1 trick, but I thought a looong time, maybe an hour, about how to do it. Can it pump out TWO settlers ? etc... Finally, I chose a fairly conventional approach. I moved onto the buffalo/river tile, and founded. My first unit was a warrior (not my usual settler). I wanted to start popping huts ASAP. I considered a beeline to seafaring (explorers pop fast) but finally went for the usual monarchy.
I was not too excited about this GOTM at first; restarts on, city walls, slow economy, a huge land mass that makes boats pretty useless, no exploring. But this map does pose interesting transportation problems, which are at the heart of all EC games. There are several reasonable ways to get to the AI:
* by river, but these are not ideally placed
* by the pole
* by roads (and maybe boats across the "X"s)
* indirectly, from good hut results.
I was a little lucky, to get several horsemen and AT's from my first huts, so I relied mainly on the hut method to get to the AI, and to grow my civ and get income. One minor drawback is that you have no control over your civ's science; I was fairly slow getting to monarchy and trade. So, I had approx 20 cities before I could build HG.
3950BC: Persepolis (1)
3700BC: hut = horse
3650BC: hut = horse again (?)
3600BC: hut 25g, and I can RB my size-1 settler.
3500BC: alp->cb, hut = 50, hut = pottery (my only "bad" early hut)
3400BC: hut = AT, Pasarg (2); [I'll omit lesser hut results]
3350BC: Susa (3)
3250BC: hut = AT, Arbela (4). Good start!
3100BC: contact with Spanish; useful for tech after monarchy.
3050BC: cb->c.laws
2650BC: c.laws->monarchy; 8 cities
2450BC: contact with Mongols, 12 cities, first riots.
2250BC: Monarchy, lost a hut-ele to barbs
2150BC: hut = seaf; now the hut-popping rate increases.
2000BC Stats: 17 cities, no WoWs (still researching trade), peace with 3 AIs, approx 13 units.
Plan: I NEED trade, for vans, for HG! The other problem is how to get forces into the Roman/Zulu lands quickly. I plan to send several explorers that direction, and hope for a few AT's or nomads. I also sent some settlers over land, just south of the danger zone, in case the explorers failed (but they did OK).
1650BC: HG! relieves mass rioting. I'm getting AI maps and tech without MPE.
So, no other WoW seems very urgent, but my home cities will slowly build vans for them anyway.
1300BC: Phil and Mono from a hut. Now, we don't need no education. Which is good; huts have totally tech-bombed my civ, so without them, I'm getting an advance like every 50 turns.
1000BC: Pyr, and hut=Feud (not so good for RBing, but now I can build STWA)
1000BC: 35 cities, monarchy. I'm planning to attack the Vikings and Mongols ASAP. That should help me get to the distant Romans/Zulu. The nearby Greeks and Spanish can wait. Probably, the attack order isn't too important with restarts on. I usually want 1-2 quick kills to find out where the restart zone(s) will be. On this map that's fairly predictable - the empty South!
875BC: 2 dips take down the Viking walls, and Trondheim quickly falls. A similar tale occurs at Madrid next turn. The Spanish weren't on my early hit list, but they declared war, and I had the required units nearby. I've been getting gold from tribute, but my economy is pretty weak, and I can only afford approx one bribe per turn. So, my crusaders work to reduce the AI cities to size one, for cheaper bribes. Of course, this slows down the conquest a bit.
725BC: MPE (needed now to find respawns). Vikings down, but respawn as Germans. Mongols finally want war.
700BC: Spanish respawn as Aztecs, on the southern tip.
675BC: Mongols respawn as Indians. 3 civs down in 3 turns! But it'll take a while to get to the Romans, and the Aztecs. I had to kill off 19 AI civs in this game, but almost all the respawns occurred in the western half of the southern zone (I had a few towns in the eastern part). I RB'd crusaders in the nearest Persian towns to try to blanket that zone with units (NOT cities!). I won't report all those little kills.
475BC: Zulu walls down.
450BC: Mike's. Zulus respawn as Babs.
400BC to 325BC: Approx 8 civs destroyed (often just a new settler in the kill-zone) including the original Greeks and Romans. STWA.
xxxBC: Persians learn Bridge Building after trying for about 40 turns, with science at 30. Minor problems with hut-barbs; 8 are in the way of getting to the Aztecs, but I have sent a few ships south as back-up, and they arrive in time to help 2-3 crusaders get to the target.
xxxBC: Aztecs respawn as Spanish, but all respawns were wiped out this same turn. END.
At the end, I had 85 cities (mostly size 2 and 3, unhappy), but not a huge score. Had about 50 crusaders, and 50 other units. Lost about 20. I'm still not quite sure of the best conquest routes, but I took advantage of the north pole to move my units from the Vikings to the Zulus to the Romans. I used the rivers mainly for exploring and growth, sometimes for troops.
tech/scen. AI gets hbr/walls,2S.
I played for EC, as I often do (I wonder how the landing players will get their beakers on this map?? mainly SSC?). I didn't feel like playing for a high score. Anyway, it is a little awkward to finish a conquest with restarts on, especially under a republic.
The start seemed perfect for the size-1 trick, but I thought a looong time, maybe an hour, about how to do it. Can it pump out TWO settlers ? etc... Finally, I chose a fairly conventional approach. I moved onto the buffalo/river tile, and founded. My first unit was a warrior (not my usual settler). I wanted to start popping huts ASAP. I considered a beeline to seafaring (explorers pop fast) but finally went for the usual monarchy.
I was not too excited about this GOTM at first; restarts on, city walls, slow economy, a huge land mass that makes boats pretty useless, no exploring. But this map does pose interesting transportation problems, which are at the heart of all EC games. There are several reasonable ways to get to the AI:
* by river, but these are not ideally placed
* by the pole
* by roads (and maybe boats across the "X"s)
* indirectly, from good hut results.
I was a little lucky, to get several horsemen and AT's from my first huts, so I relied mainly on the hut method to get to the AI, and to grow my civ and get income. One minor drawback is that you have no control over your civ's science; I was fairly slow getting to monarchy and trade. So, I had approx 20 cities before I could build HG.
3950BC: Persepolis (1)
3700BC: hut = horse
3650BC: hut = horse again (?)
3600BC: hut 25g, and I can RB my size-1 settler.
3500BC: alp->cb, hut = 50, hut = pottery (my only "bad" early hut)
3400BC: hut = AT, Pasarg (2); [I'll omit lesser hut results]
3350BC: Susa (3)
3250BC: hut = AT, Arbela (4). Good start!
3100BC: contact with Spanish; useful for tech after monarchy.
3050BC: cb->c.laws
2650BC: c.laws->monarchy; 8 cities
2450BC: contact with Mongols, 12 cities, first riots.
2250BC: Monarchy, lost a hut-ele to barbs
2150BC: hut = seaf; now the hut-popping rate increases.
2000BC Stats: 17 cities, no WoWs (still researching trade), peace with 3 AIs, approx 13 units.
Plan: I NEED trade, for vans, for HG! The other problem is how to get forces into the Roman/Zulu lands quickly. I plan to send several explorers that direction, and hope for a few AT's or nomads. I also sent some settlers over land, just south of the danger zone, in case the explorers failed (but they did OK).
1650BC: HG! relieves mass rioting. I'm getting AI maps and tech without MPE.
So, no other WoW seems very urgent, but my home cities will slowly build vans for them anyway.
1300BC: Phil and Mono from a hut. Now, we don't need no education. Which is good; huts have totally tech-bombed my civ, so without them, I'm getting an advance like every 50 turns.
1000BC: Pyr, and hut=Feud (not so good for RBing, but now I can build STWA)
1000BC: 35 cities, monarchy. I'm planning to attack the Vikings and Mongols ASAP. That should help me get to the distant Romans/Zulu. The nearby Greeks and Spanish can wait. Probably, the attack order isn't too important with restarts on. I usually want 1-2 quick kills to find out where the restart zone(s) will be. On this map that's fairly predictable - the empty South!
875BC: 2 dips take down the Viking walls, and Trondheim quickly falls. A similar tale occurs at Madrid next turn. The Spanish weren't on my early hit list, but they declared war, and I had the required units nearby. I've been getting gold from tribute, but my economy is pretty weak, and I can only afford approx one bribe per turn. So, my crusaders work to reduce the AI cities to size one, for cheaper bribes. Of course, this slows down the conquest a bit.
725BC: MPE (needed now to find respawns). Vikings down, but respawn as Germans. Mongols finally want war.
700BC: Spanish respawn as Aztecs, on the southern tip.
675BC: Mongols respawn as Indians. 3 civs down in 3 turns! But it'll take a while to get to the Romans, and the Aztecs. I had to kill off 19 AI civs in this game, but almost all the respawns occurred in the western half of the southern zone (I had a few towns in the eastern part). I RB'd crusaders in the nearest Persian towns to try to blanket that zone with units (NOT cities!). I won't report all those little kills.
475BC: Zulu walls down.
450BC: Mike's. Zulus respawn as Babs.
400BC to 325BC: Approx 8 civs destroyed (often just a new settler in the kill-zone) including the original Greeks and Romans. STWA.
xxxBC: Persians learn Bridge Building after trying for about 40 turns, with science at 30. Minor problems with hut-barbs; 8 are in the way of getting to the Aztecs, but I have sent a few ships south as back-up, and they arrive in time to help 2-3 crusaders get to the target.
xxxBC: Aztecs respawn as Spanish, but all respawns were wiped out this same turn. END.
At the end, I had 85 cities (mostly size 2 and 3, unhappy), but not a huge score. Had about 50 crusaders, and 50 other units. Lost about 20. I'm still not quite sure of the best conquest routes, but I took advantage of the north pole to move my units from the Vikings to the Zulus to the Romans. I used the rivers mainly for exploring and growth, sometimes for troops.
