GR15 - AWE on Ultra Huge Map

[ThERat]

since my computer is acting up every time I start it, I'll post what I played until I had to go to see a doctor...

Pre-Turn
the game is immense, the first IT is always confusing as you don't have the feeling for what is going on
start to MM really properly, we can employ far more scientist and reduce the research time
we get steam now in 3 iso 4 at the same research

defeat a lone LB

IT an exposed e knight gets attacked, goes to red and produces a MGL only to be taken out by the next knight
a big stack of lone slaves gets caught by German knights
America lands a warrior next to empty Moscow

1.1540AD
Germany and America seem to have Mil Tradition now, we got to be a tad more careful with exposing our units
defeat the warrior, defeat a knight and get all those workers back
defeat a musket in Los Angeles

then a lot of unit move about on automove

start to attack Cuszco taking out 2 muskets
defeat 3 units and raze Nasca for 36gold and a few slaves
found Blue Sky

defeat a musket in Riobamba and kill 4 strays
succeed to found a city, but in a real awkward place, it seems someone is fighting and razing cities somewhere

our frigates in the east discover a black border, maybe Zulu?
try to assemble a force of 2 galleon and 2 frigates, which will then meet our other frigates

IT nothing but a few enemy units roaming around...

2.1545AD
kill 7 wannabe intruders
defeat 2 units and capture Riobamba

defeat 5 units and raze the Incan capital including ToA
found New Nemausus

defeat 3 units and raze Los Angeles, will turn towards Germany since they got some cash
found Too far North

in order to make sure this is not a fake continent, need to sail closer, meet indeed the Zulu
what??? they don't even know literature they have 16 cities and have 2 luxes, this must be something bigger
sail south and spot a reddish border...will avoid them for now and send over our first army

in the west, we spot brownish borders, could be India...this passage looks closer actually
avoid contact for now, but we should know what techs India has as a possibe competitor [32-1]

IT steam is in, next electricity in 10 (Irather feel safe than sorry)
opening the first city screen reveals we got no coal
that's truly amazing

3.1550AD
as the turn starts we can say hello to 12 new Civs
those contacts must have been traded around

grouped according to luxes (I assume these are on either continent)

other side
France 23 cities, up nationalism, down steam
Iro 25 cities, up nationalism, down steam
India 16 cities, down steam
Ottoman 16 cities, down astro, banking
Arabia, 15 cities, down ToG, magnetism
Persia, 18 cities, down ToG, magnetism
Carthago, 18 cities, down steam
Spain, 12 cities, down physics and metal, banking

not really known, whether on our side or overseas
Sumeria 6 cities, down magnetism
Babylon, 17 cities, down physics and metal

potentially on our continent
Aztecs, 30 cities (!!!), down physics and metal
Egypt, 15 cities, down physics and metal

luckily most enemies seem to be on the other side of the world
now, let's look for coal
spot a good place in fact for IW, we have a settler nearby luckily
we can actually found the city (called ironworks) without razing an enemy city

defeat 4 units and raze Machu Picchu
found Mittenwald
start to attack Juli and Vilcas

start to rail, but since there were still a lot of workers on goto moves, it's all a little messed up

IT an Indian frigate dies attacking our brave caravel
the interturn is already a little slower

to be continued

 

[vmxa]

I would like to see us build a string of towns across the face of the mountain range. Once the rails run to them we do not have to worry about units sliding through those mountains and coming out of the fog.

Then we do not have to have sentries to expose the mountains. I would expect we have another 5 civs to deal with on this contient, yet to be met. That will mean a lot of fighting.

I do not know if SGL's are on or off, but it makes only a small difference as the AI can use MGL's to rush great wonders anyway.

RP next is not a bad idea, as it does not delay the ToE any from the original plan. Electricity does little for us right now as we will not be running water to places anyway.

Most of the workers will be needed to rail and only the crews making roads to new sites will be doing much of anything else for some time.

 

[vmxa]

The automove units are not going anywhere near the front. They are either workers moving deeper into the core or cavs moving towards the east, but not near the front. IOW they are in no danager and will only be moving 2 or 3 turns.

 

[ThERat]

4.1555AD
continue with the intercontinental railway, trying to connect towards the northwest first
capture Vilcas, keep it as well to form a block through the hills with Vilcabamba
2 units later and Juli is razed
found Volcanic Soil and go with vxma, closing borders rather than having too many loose cities that can easily get attacked

march towards 3 more Incan cities, they won't last that much longer

defeat 2 pikes and raze Bremen
found Far west cow

we also meet Portugal (via communication I reckon, seem on the other continent as well)

send the first convoy over, 3 frigates + 2 galleons filled with Cav army + 1 cav and 2 explorers (it will take a while

though until they reach Zulu land)

lose 2 cav fighting knights on plain...bad RnG

5.1560AD
we meet Byzantines, few cities, seemingly on the other continent and backwards
we are now at war with 21 Civs

defeat 4 units and capture Ollantaytambo, it's nicely together with the other 2 cities, we can keep them for now
defeat 3 units and raze Andahuaylas -> found Golden Angel
defeat 4 units and raze Ica, found Multiple Fish

Incas have 2 cities left now

connect the rail all the way to Hills Advocate, this should help to plant settlers faster and easier soon

IT Incas desperately charge towards the captured cities...


6.1565AD
Germany now knows nationalism, this will make taking their cites much harder
we get a new foe, Mongols as well, they have only 10 cites and none of the luxes...so it's not clear where they are

set up the attack on the 2 remaining Inca cities
am again able to found a city without razing another
manage to raze Konigsberg, still merely defended by 3 pikes
move towards Hamburg, that already has rilfes...
found Sneak In

defeat 3 units and raze Detroit, due to the raling, we are able to send settler all the way to the front
thus found Carmaker Town

IT in a last effort Incas attack our towns but lose

7.1570AD
2 more Civs join in, Scandinavia and Korea (17 + 18 cities)
both could be actually on our continent judging from the luxes

Hakodate is raze after killing 3 units
take new Orleans, which means

found Wheat eater to extend our front towards ex Inca. We should try adn connect those to block off the enemy completely
abandon the too squeeze New Lindum and refound to get close to the other side

start project coonect the west, somehow get contact to Hittites, backwards most likely on the other continent

IT Germans attack Wheat eater but retreat

8.1575AD
defeat 4 units and raze Cincinnati, found Almost Coal
defeat 3 units and raze Phila, found Fabelwesen
attack Atlanta and defeat 2 units for now
abandon new Orleans to finish that barrier by founding named city

while charging into American land, run into an English worker
they got only 7 cities and are really backwards, no issue here

I hope that barrier can help to stem the inflow of units that will surely come with all those new Civs we met

IT German knight attack a stack of workers and defeat all 3 cavs covering them
(that's the risk of roading near the front in such a rush)
see the Americans running about with a settler pair, a clear sign some city has been razed

9.1580AD
found Here comes the Flood
defeat 2 units and raze Atlanta, found New Lindum
defeat 3 units and raze New York, found New Glanum

continue to rail and defeat some insurgents, many elite wins, no MGL ???
relatively little enemy activity now..guess the next player will get it

IT it takes now quite some time...between Germans and Americans is a huge time lag

10.1585AD
defeat 5 units and raze Munich, found Goblins Forest

we now have 147 cities and employ around 220 scientists
electricity is done in 2, RP will help us a lot

we do have some more slaves coming back with so many cities razed
there are 5 settlers next to our capital, would keep the stockpile there

 

[ThERat]

save

and some pictures
the wall vmxa and myself thought about independently

the whole planet as we know it, our first convoy will need a few more turns to
reach the shore

many new 'friends'

 

[vmxa]

This is why the RP was worth going for, those infantry can cover those workers with little danger and free the cavs for action and armies.

 

[Greebley]

We ARE going for RP. It requires electricity.

I got it since M60A3TTS is busy until Friday.

 

[Northern Pike]

I hope you're feeling better, Rat.

I like the idea of building walls across our continent with new towns, but there's no reason to stop where we are. The next wall can begin at the river's mouth nine tiles NE of New Nemausus, and proceed NW from there, with almost every town (there would eventually be nine) a good science farm.

There are full food boxes which should be skimmed for workers all over our core. Fisher Town, Forest Gump, Arausio, and the capital can do this right now.

 

[ThERat]

we should be able to finish RP around the end of the turnset of Greebley. If we continue to grab more towns and get more scientists, we should be able to reduce research-time a bit.

By the way, if you wonder about one settler at a weird place near our front, it was a misclick, I accidentally pressed E and the settler ran to that spot, covered him with a musket.
We have a constant need for settlers, luckily there are now 5 waiting at the capital and with rails, we should be able to settle fast.

More slaves are joining from the front and maybe we don't need more workers. Our unit support is still pretty high.

oh, thanks NP, have to work today, though I am still sick...but classes can't be cancelled that easily at the end of the semester

 

[M60A3TTS]

So are we going to bypass industrialization and go RP>med>sci method?

 

[vmxa]

Now that we have met all or nearly all of the civs, we should be able to get a good idea of how they are doing in research. We can then figure out if we can afford to do Ind before going for the ToE.

We need to then figure out the point that the prebuild needs to get started. The next save should give us the read we need.

 

[Greebley]

So are we going to bypass industrialization and go RP>med>sci method?

I would rather not if we can help it. I think we need to evaluate this at the end of my turnset - Is TOE in risk? If not Ind first is much superior - TOE gets us Hoover. I prefer to have already built the factories when we get it.

I will try to remember to check out the tech at the end of my turns so we can decide.

 

[Greebley]

I checked the tech situation in 1605 and no civ has Med or Steam. We will have plenty of time to go for Industrialization first. I strongly recommend we go for Industrialization after RP.

Our science is extremely fast with the large number of science farms we have. I have zero worries of missing TOE.

 

[vmxa]

Then it sounds like all we have left to do is to figure out when and where to start the pre.

 

[M60A3TTS]

Last time I looked, Alesia was the prebuild site.

 

[vmxa]

It has been and may still be, it depends on how many turns out we want to start. It may be that a lesser city would be fine.

 

[Northern Pike]

Ideally it's two pre-builds, of course--ToE and Hoover.

 

[ThERat]

Alesia should be the prebuild for ToE (using the army built) and another for Hoover. Alesia was building an army during my turns since I had such lousy leader luck.
But, we must time it right and it seems there are still some turns to go with RP/Ind/ etc to cover first

 

[Greebley]

I am up to 1625 AD and hope to finish up tomorrow. With this many units it takes me time to play out a turn.

We will get RP for my last turn (1635). I have been building workers so when we get it we may be able to finally update the core.

Your discussion reminds me - I will try to determine the best town for the second prebuild. I railed Alesia to exactly 40 shields so it is early to start. I will rail the second town as well so it is ready.

BTW assuming we are going for Ind first, we have another prebuild which is Univ Suff. The AI won't finish it before we get TOE.

 

[M60A3TTS]

Do we really need US? That's one wonder I'd rather the AI waste shields on. I don't think a cascade is an issue either.