GR28 - AWM vs 30 civs, Pangea

[Sashie VII]

lurker's comment:

I'm not at a computer where I can load up CA2 right now

I am The cost for WC would be 209.

 

[Northern Pike]

Thanks.

 

[Greebley]

The problem is that you really need offense earlier than you can get Swords - or at least in these large games with slow tech. The AI will come walking all over your lands and pillage them. Also if you don't have iron close enough by you then have to get WC anyway because you can't push back the enemy with just Spear.

I have gone for IW at minimum and it can work, but it is more of a gamble. I would tend to do it if there are a lot of hills nearby.

 

[darski]

lurker's comment: signing in ... love to read SG's

 

[Greebley]

hmmm. Wonder if Commando Bob forgot he was up. Guess I will pm him.

 

[ThERat]

yes, do that. I could play anytime

 

[Northern Pike]

hmmm. Wonder if Commando Bob forgot he was up. Guess I will pm him.

The odd thing is that he did write his pre-play strategy post. But perhaps the occupations of the season swept him up after that.

 

[vmxa]

Lurker:

Have you guys noticed any funny gold numbers in your games? I just noticed Russia, in my current game, has over 15K in gold. It jumped up from 9k in 1295AD to now (1320AD). No one else have even 50 gold.

I am wondering, if there is bug in these large maps. I had recently played AoI I and II and they had a really bad gold issue. Persia, 2 towns, had hundreds of thousands and in AoI II someone had several million.

I cannot say Russia could not have 15K at this point, but it seems unlikely. They have been at war with me since very early in the game. I have not kept close tabs, but I do not remember anyone having more than few hundred at any point.

 

[Greebley]

yes, do that. I could play anytime

Well given that it is so early in the game its not likely he played only part of a turn. It has also been the full week.

ThERat, If you can play and there is no message from CBob yet, then post your got it and take the turn. Commando Bob can play when he is back with us.

Commando Bob, if ThERat hasn't posted an I got it yet, then you can still take it. Just repost your got it.

 

[CommandoBob]

Sorry, guys, Christmas got a bit hectic, more hectic than I expected. We did some remodeling in the den, which meant tearing out one pantry and adding two new ones. My son led the way in building the new ones, then came Christmas and family time, and then, Sunday night, after my son and his wife left, our water heater started to leak. A friend and I plan to put in the new one today, when he can get free from his work.

I never had a chance to get back to this game after my strategy post.

I need to be skipped this round.

 

[ThERat]

Played 15 turns as there is nothing much happening

Switched to min research and granary, that was helped by a chop. Got us a settler that formed Tatu near the ivory.

We are now building a rax in Tatu and an archer in our capital. Suggest to insert a worker after archer before next settler

 

[Greebley]

Agree on the worker. Daeron, you can also play 15 if things remain unexciting.

Roster:
Greebley
Commando Bob
ThERat - Just Played
Daeron - Up
Northern Pike - On Deck

 

[Daeron]

Ohh, nice timing for my first turn. You might have to wait til 2010 for me to finish. I'll see what I can do.

I agree on the extra worker. Though it looks like we need to take risk after risk to get this location started.

What's the idea with the scout at the north, keep going north until it fights water or more likely another civ? I have to say I'm a bit reluctant to go north, since east the scout can at least also scout decent settling locations for us.

 

[Northern Pike]

Yes, the worker is a good idea.

I'd just pull our scout back to the capital for now. We can see enough of the map, for this stage in AW.

 

[Daeron]

I've only played into my 9th turn so far, this is only my first AW game an with no rivers. So I'm not that confident I'm making the right descisions on settling locations, or proper use of the SF.

We have a settler ready to get send whereever.

Spoiler :

Fire up Civ assist, check things over.

Science: 10 % (BW in 15 turns)
Lux: 10 %
Income: 3 gpt (38 in the bank)

Switch capitol to build worker (1), Ta-tu is building barracks (8) and press enter.

6 units with 8 allowed.
Workers: 1
Scout: 1
Warrior: 1
Archer: 2

1, 2310 BC.

Capitol pops worker -> archer
Pull back the scout

2, 2270 BC.

Nothing

3, 2230 BC.

Nothing.

4, 2190 BC.

Capitol archer -> settler
Lux to 30 % to prevent rioting at Capitol.
Worker mining is just two turns slow to get a settler in 3 turns. So I switch to archer to get it in 2 turns, so we can get a settler in 3 turns after. An extra archer for one extra turn of building the settler.
Move the scout to Ta-Tu.

5, 2150 BC.

Ehh, veteran archer suddenly is marching left over the hill. Must have accidently moved him when switching windows.. reload and repeat.
That's the only thing remotely exciting that happens.

6, 2110 BC.

Karakorum archer -> settler
Worker finishes mine, shaves off a turn on the barracks in Ta-tu.

7, 2070 BC.
Ta-tu barracks -> archer
With this lux and the extra barracks, our income is now 1 gpt, that's without even breaking unit support. min-science was definitely the right choice

8, 2030 BC.
Ta-Tu grows and finishes barracks -> archer

9, 1990 BC.
Karakorum settler (the fully granary startled me, I don't remember the last time I had a
capitol that wasn't on a river) -> worker to empty the granary
Not sure whether to move the settler to the hill, to better space the used tiles, or right next to the wheat so it can grow right away. Or rather S, SW, SW from Karakorum, so it can share the game tile. I would actually prefer the latter because we won't need to road any hills.

I'm going to stop here actually. I don't want to make any mistakes at this point of the game. AW is different than I'm used to. I'm thinking either W, W, SW from Karakorum, or S, SW, SW. With my preference for the latter because they can share the game tile

 

[Northern Pike]

I've got it, but I won't be playing immediately, so there's time for all of you to give your opinions on our next tech. The choice between Masonry and IW is far from obvious.

 

[Northern Pike]

View attachment 239049, end of turn

 

[Northern Pike]

1990 (0): We're at 30% lux for some reason, so I cut that to 0%.

We send the settler to Daeron's preferred site S-SW-SW from Karakorum.


1950 (1): Ta-Tu archer --> archer.


1910 (2): We found Kazan, with two BG in its inner ring.


1870 (3): Karakorum settler --> archer (later changed to spearman).


1790 (5): Ta-Tu archer --> spearman.

Bronze Working --> Iron Working. I decide we're near enough hills and mountains to justify this choice.


1750 (6): Karakorum spearman --> worker.


1700 (8): Karakorum worker --> settler.


1675 (9): We found Almarikh on a powerful site with two cows in the inner ring and wheat in the outer. This is mildly risky since the town won't be CxxC with other cities for quite a while, but this position requires some gambles.

Ta-Tu spearman --> spearman.


1625 (11): Kazan barracks --> spearman.


1600 (12): Karakorum settler --> spearman, Ta-Tu spearman --> spearman.


1575 (13): We get our ivory hooked up.


1525 (15): A Zulu scout appears outside Almarikh.

Karakorum spearman --> settler, Ta-Tu spearman --> archer, Almarikh barracks --> worker.


1500 (16): The Zulus are only ahead of us by CB, that we can see. They have four cities, gems, and 10 gold. We declare war, and the long period of peace is over.

In two turns our settler can found our fifth city just SE of where it now stands, in the jungle three S of Kazan. After that we might want to settle at 1 on the screenshot, which isn't a great site but would knit our position together well.

Since Karakorum isn't on water, timing settler and worker builds there to finish as the town reaches size six (rather than seven) works well.

 

[Northern Pike]

The core:

 

[ThERat]

Nice expansion. Too bad we met the Zulu's, they got this painful UU, fast and always out to pillage improvements. For me, they are one of the most painful enemies.

Once we have IW, I would go for maths to grab SoZ.

By the way, since our capital can't grow beyond 6, we should always churn out settlers and workers. I do think we need more workers.