Gunboat Diplomat
Warlord
I'm back. After several crushing defeats on Immortal, I dropped back to Monarch, and scored a few wins with Willem (including one very late game diplo victory that I don't feel I deserved).
Now I have stepped up to Emperor difficulty, switched over to Suryavarman II and rolled this abomination of a start. Normally, I would just reroll and get on with my life, but this time I have decided to see if there's a skill here that I can learn.
Settings: No huts, No events, Fractal map, Emperor difficulty. Everything else standard.
Both of my previous attempts at this map have started with a SIP then tech AH followed by Agriculture.
In my first attempt I was able to pick up The Colossus, which helped my financial situation a bit, but it wasn't enough. By the time I found the other civs, I was significantly behind in tech. I also found myself with periods of time where my cities had literally nothing to build. I ended up having to minimise my hammers so that I didn't end up with too many units.
My best attempt involved an early writing, using my first GS to bulb Maths on the way to currency. I figured that an early currency or alphabet would at least let me turn all my juicy hammers into something useful. I then pivoted to Monarch for the happiness. I did manage to use Liberalism to tech Astronomy in this game, but then had to trade them both away to pick up all the techs I'd bypassed along the way. In the end I was still a hair behind the AIs in tech. Certainly not the overwhelming advantage that I have been led to expect on such a low difficulty.
In both cases, I could not see a clear path to victory.
This is the first map I've stuck with where I don't meet anyone until Optics (I used to play Pangea exclusively), so there are two things I really need to learn here:
1. How to tech at a decent rate with such poor land; and
2. How to leverage that into an intercontinental attack at Astronomy.
What next?
I'm open to running this as a shadow game - apparently I still need the hand-holding. I would also appreciate any general advice on tech paths, building priorities and city placement on this type of map, because I'm sure I'm getting them wrong.
I swear, I'll get the hang of this game eventually.
Thanks people.
Now I have stepped up to Emperor difficulty, switched over to Suryavarman II and rolled this abomination of a start. Normally, I would just reroll and get on with my life, but this time I have decided to see if there's a skill here that I can learn.
Settings: No huts, No events, Fractal map, Emperor difficulty. Everything else standard.
Spoiler Starting Position :
Spoiler Previous Attempts/The Story So Far - Major Map Spoilers :
Both of my previous attempts at this map have started with a SIP then tech AH followed by Agriculture.
In my first attempt I was able to pick up The Colossus, which helped my financial situation a bit, but it wasn't enough. By the time I found the other civs, I was significantly behind in tech. I also found myself with periods of time where my cities had literally nothing to build. I ended up having to minimise my hammers so that I didn't end up with too many units.
My best attempt involved an early writing, using my first GS to bulb Maths on the way to currency. I figured that an early currency or alphabet would at least let me turn all my juicy hammers into something useful. I then pivoted to Monarch for the happiness. I did manage to use Liberalism to tech Astronomy in this game, but then had to trade them both away to pick up all the techs I'd bypassed along the way. In the end I was still a hair behind the AIs in tech. Certainly not the overwhelming advantage that I have been led to expect on such a low difficulty.
In both cases, I could not see a clear path to victory.
This is the first map I've stuck with where I don't meet anyone until Optics (I used to play Pangea exclusively), so there are two things I really need to learn here:
1. How to tech at a decent rate with such poor land; and
2. How to leverage that into an intercontinental attack at Astronomy.
What next?
I'm open to running this as a shadow game - apparently I still need the hand-holding. I would also appreciate any general advice on tech paths, building priorities and city placement on this type of map, because I'm sure I'm getting them wrong.
I swear, I'll get the hang of this game eventually.

Thanks people.