Pre-Game thoughts: I agreed with Magic Gorter to play for EC this time. I've mainly studied and practiced EC on larger maps. On smaller maps, early disasters can befall an ICS player (like me - in GOTMs 83 and 86) so I resolved to play a bit more cautiously starting around 1500BC. Also, the "lean" approach of Grigor, solo, la fayette, zenon .... (eg, almost every EC player except me) seems to work faster on small maps. So, I resolved to curtail growth at approx 12 cities and build a minimum number of WoWs, trying to get 3 flotillas out ASAP. No trade, no ship chains, attack with ellies or even horses ASAP.
Unfortunately, this was not a typical small map. You can't send out flotillas until you can find a useable coastline [black-clicking is no help this time], and get a few settlers there for ports, and probably you'll also want roads to the ports. So, I had to adjust, and went above my 12 city limit, but I only built one WoW [Marco's is required with restarts on] and only one barracks.
4000BC: Babylon (1). I'll use the size-one trick. I thought hard about moving NE onto the river first for the +1 arrow per turn, but decided that arrow couldn't help with taxes [I always start at 60% taxes, to IRB ASAP] just science. Another idea was to look for a special first, but I didn't like the odds.
3400BC: Settler born. Also, I shift my worker from forest to rivered grass and get my first beaker of the game. Most players worry too much about early beakers, for monarchy, but for me, growth comes first.
3350BC: Ur(2)
2800BC: Nineveh(3) from Babylon's second Settler.
2650BC: Ashur(4).
2450BC: First warrior (unusual for me this early), mainly to explore a bit, but also for a little defense.
2400BC: Curr->Monarchy. I've had science at 40% until now, and can expect monarchy in 7 turns, 2050BC, which is an oedo year. OK. But I raised science to 60% and moved some workers onto ocean tiles, to get it in 3 turns instead. This delays a settler birth by 2 turns, so it was a tough decision. Monarchy isn't very urgent in this situation (no specials to boost, no support problems) but it will add +4 food per turn, which is slightly better value than half a settler.
2250BC: Monarchy (adv + govt) -> Trade. Hut = weeds; I was not very lucky wrt huts in this game, but it could've been worse. For example, I got a few barbarians but they did no damage.
2100BC: Ellipi(5).
2000BC: Akkad(6) and hut = 50g. Stats = 1S, 1w, 57g, 6.5adv. 7 cities next turn.
As you can see, I find the early game very interesting. The rest seems more routine...
1800BC: First road (Grigor says none before 2000BC!)
1500BC: 3 roads, 9 cities, hut=barb, no AI contact.
1250BC: Contact. Germans offer 100g for peace. OK. Got their map too, which shows that land mass 1 is HUGE, and that my port (Akkad) is not going to be very useful in getting to the center/east parts of this flat map.
1200BC: But a settler has moved NE and builds another port Lagash(10) on ocean 1. Also Kish(11) this turn.
1150BC: I sneak attack Berlin with 2 horses and defeat the Germans. I like to defeat 1 civ quickly when restarts are on, to see where they will pop up. But this time, I don't have Marco yet [nor much mobility], so I can't see the respawn, much less kill it off quickly. So, my timing here wasn't perfect. Nippur(12).
1000BC: Nearest city info -> Tronheim isn't far from the ruins of Berlin. But I've already built Nippur not far away, so I've already ruined that respawn zone. More bad timing. I have 8 settlers [unusual for me not to make cities with them ASAP, but these guys are busy with roads, ports, etc needed for EC]
900BC: Marco! I delayed this a bit, thinking I could find the AI's without it on a small map. But this map is like a maze, and my ships needed directions. By luck, I stumbled onto New York this turn, so I DID actually get decent map info without Marco (too late). The US map showed that Carthage was especially hard to reach. I didn't bother to get the Carthaginian map (maybe a small error).
But at least now I have clear plans for conquering the 3 AI's. I'm at peace with the US, building canal cities etc in their homeland, in order to reach Washington ASAP. I have a flotilla heading for Tronheim, and all extra elephants aiming in the general direction of Carthage (much of the map in between is still black). I'll supply more info if anyone cares, but the rest is a fairly routine conquest-by-ellies.
625BC: Tronheim and Vikings down - no respawn.
525BC: Sneak > Washington. Bribes. US mostly down.
500BC: US down, respawns as China in a new zone (of course) to the north.
475BC: I lost 3 elephants at Carthage [vs a legion + a phalanx on a river], slowing me down a bit.
There were about 6 more respawns, but all in the same zone, so I finished pretty quickly after gathering a second force at Carthage. With the -50 point barb penalty, only the 20 points from Marco kept my score above zero.
(so no early/non help)
(by boat)
