Hannibal of Carthage on Caldera

[Zholef]

It's been a while since I played, so I'll probably lose this, but anyway...

I'll be playing this as Hannibal of Carthage with K-Mod on Emperor using these settings.



Our start:



And for anyone who may want to play along, the initial save in the attachments.

PS: Completely forgot, this is no huts, no events.

 

[Zholef]

Spoiler :

I move my warrior NW, then settle 1NE to gain two flood plains.
This is K-Mod, so I'm already worried about my safety. Seeing the rice, cows and plenty of exposed hills, I decide to tech AG->AH and go worker first.
On turn eight, Sury's scout arrives from the east. My closest neighbor to the west later turns out to be Willem. I place my EPs on Sury for now.
Finished AH and found myself sitting on horses.

AG->AH->TW seemed obvious. Now my rough plan for the future is to build some chariots, settlers and the GLH, but haven't decided on a tech path or where to settle. Opinions?

 

[dutchfire]

Your screenshots don't show up for me, but I can follow the link to see them. Anyone else having this problem?

 

[xploring]

Same here. What is this Caldera map like? Never seen it before. Lot of options for the map which I like. Much more food than expected for Arid climate.

 

[Zholef]

Your screenshots don't show up for me, but I can follow the link to see them. Anyone else having this problem?

Better now?

Same here. What is this Caldera map like? Never seen it before. Lot of options for the map which I like. Much more food than expected for Arid climate.

See here.

 

[dutchfire]

Yes, the screenshots are working now.
Next city 1SW of the rice?

 

[Zholef]

Spoiler :

Next city 1SW of the rice?

Too early to decide that yet. First I have to train the settler and explore some more.
I decide to settle 1NE of the cow and tech Sailing->Writing. Willem gets Alphabet in 2160 BC. I trade him TW for Hunting.

With three chariots at 2000 BC, I feel reasonably safe. Time to decide on a spot for my third city and on what to tech to get into the trading game. I'm thinking maybe Masonry->HBR, then trade for Alpha, but I'm not sure yet. No wonder has been built yet, so I guess I could delay the GLH a little longer, but I'd rather not.

 

[Strickl3r]

Spoiler :

Too early to decide that yet. First I have to train the settler and explore some more.
I decide to settle 1NE of the cow and tech Sailing->Writing. Willem gets Alphabet in 2160 BC. I trade him TW for Hunting.
View attachment 381307View attachment 381308
With three chariots at 2000 BC, I feel reasonably safe. Time to decide on a spot for my third city and on what to tech to get into the trading game. I'm thinking maybe Masonry->HBR, then trade for Alpha, but I'm not sure yet. No wonder has been built yet, so I guess I could delay the GLH a little longer, but I'd rather not.

Spoiler :

Good settle, althought it was kind of obvious that it would be settling on a ressource.

 

[Zholef]

Spoiler :

There's a lot of open space to my east. I pull my spawn busters, hoping for some barb cities to appear, but only one does. I go Masonry->HBR and get a good start into the trading game. Of course I jump at the chance to help out Sury with Alpha. Afterwards I research Currency and beg some money from him. The GLH completes in Carthage. Meanwhile Sury declares war on Darius and bribes in Mao.

At 1 AD I've got 5 cities and am about to take the barb city as my sixth. My economy is strong. I'm good in tech and there's a fair chance I'll complete the Colossus in a few years. Sury is almost at friendly, and I have plenty of space to expand if I want. Too many options at this point for my liking. I have a big treasury. I could try for Music, but Willem has been able to research it for quite a while. Barbs have gotten annoyingly lucky, but otherwise the game has been kind.

PS:

Spoiler :

Little happened from 1 to 1000 AD. In the east, Mao, Sury, Gandhi and Darius were engaged in pointless wars. Bribing Sury on Gandih kept things messy. In the west, Willem did nothing but tech, not even expand. And Bully just sat there, built units with which to stuff his cities, and fell behind in tech. Meanwhile I had space to expand and time to build wonders: Colossus, GLB and MoM. Struck silver in one of my mines and spawned a vassal: Isabella.

In 1120 AD, things get interesting. I snag Lib->Nationalism from Willem and Darius declares war on me by dumping a stack in front of my fairly well defended eastmost city. I bribe Sury off Gandhi and back on Darius to cut off reinforcements. So good to have a friend like Sury! Unfortunately I lose a bunch of units I intended to upgrade with great merchant money to cuirassiers. Shortly after, Willem declares on Sury an takes the city Sury had settled to my west.

In 1250 AD, nothings left of Darius's doom stack except a singular longbow, I complete the Taj and gain the ability to produce cuirassiers.

Next: Switch into slavery, whip an army of cuirassiers and take over Willem's land, thereby eliminating the fastest teching rival.

 

[Zholef]

Spoiler :

Since there's obviously little interest, I'll wrap this up with a short summary.

While I build cuirassiers, Bully demands a tribute of five hundred gold. Foolishly, I refuse. I'm already at war with Willem, when Bull joins in. Cleaning up his stack, as well as one of Willem's that was already half way through my territory on its way to Sury, delays me even further. Meanwhile, Darius and Willem both beeline Rifling and trade along the way. I manage to take but one city of Willem before my cuirassiers face massive stacks of riflemen. Just one more city and I would have hurt his production enough to outproduce him. Diplomacy failure cost me this war.

I change strategy. I had some great people stored up for another MoM powered golden age. Instead I found some corporations and spread them aggressively. The following centuries are full of wars, everyone against everyone. The tech rate drops flat. It takes until 1795 until Willem is finally eliminated by my stacks of cannon, cavalry and infantry.

By 1850, Bully has grown to a 21-city monster. I have a respectable 14, but since he's my neighbor, I'm still worried. Wars, wars, and yet more wars follow. Somehow I manage to stay out of most of the fighting.

In 1890, Sury has acquired Darius and Mao as his vassals. I give him Rocketry and Superconductors for 20 gold, war with Gandhi and Sitting Bull. While everyone else is at war, I use my corporation boosted economy to go for space. By 1930, tides have turned against Sury; it's everyone but me against him, including his former vassals. By 1947, it's everyone except Sury against me, the spaceship builder. The most annoying thing: Bully's spies blowing up my spaceship parts.

Space Race Victory in 1954. It was a tedious, long game, but that was all my fault.