Immortal Cookbook II: Pericles of Greece

[carl corey]

Ok then. I've looked through a few of my replays and indeed there's not much happening by 1500BC. I'd like a second opinion whether this should go up to 1AD (there's no 0 ) or a bit earlier (and when) and then we'll switch. There are three players who've already played this round, I'll ask them to continue playing up to the new date once we decide what it is.

I guess the total number of rounds will decrease on Normal speed. Something like: 4000BC - 1AD - 600AD - 1200AD - 1600AD - 1800AD - victory should be enough. What do you guys think?

 

[Diamondeye]

... Thread has been linked in Monarchist Cookbook Bullpen, Carl Corey has been noted as host and map-provider, and the normal gamespeed option is emphasized.

Good riddance, Immortals!

 

[Gliese 581]

Ok then. I've looked through a few of my replays and indeed there's not much happening by 1500BC. I'd like a second opinion whether this should go up to 1AD (there's no 0 ) or a bit earlier (and when) and then we'll switch. There are three players who've already played this round, I'll ask them to continue playing up to the new date once we decide what it is.

I guess the total number of rounds will decrease on Normal speed. Something like: 4000BC - 1AD - 600AD - 1200AD - 1600AD - 1800AD - victory should be enough. What do you guys think?

If you've checked/calculated the new dates there they sound fine to me. If the game is over quickly then just start a new one as long as there's interest. I don't like to drag out games to long anyhow since it's the first half that is more interesting so for me that's part of what makes me enjoy normal speed the most.

 

[carl corey]

Well, all those dates exist, so at least I've got that part ok this time! I don't mind the game finishing more quickly either. Six rounds means a month and a half, we might even reduce it to five if we find that the pace is too slow. For now, those are new new dates. I'll PM those who've already played round 1 (well, except for you, Gliese, you'll read this right away ) to tell them they have to continue playing up to 1AD.

Diamondeye, thanks for linking to us.

 

[tycoonist]

sorry about the lack of input to the previous game guys. i have just got back from the joshua tree, so i haven't been available for about 2 weeks now.

 

[DMOC]

Round 1, First 100 Turns

Spoiler :

Settle in place, looks like a nice capital to me.

Eventually I meet Suryavarman II (bad), Bismarck (okay), Catherine (bad), Darius (good!), Wang Kon (good! a weak AI!), and Lincoln (good! just as weak as Wang usually is and he's right next to an aggressive Suryavarman).

By the way why does Sury farm his cow?

Anyway....

I researched Animal Husbandry before Bronze Working as I figured there was likely to be horse nearby.

And I was right.

City #2 claims horses


City #3 serves multiple purposes. Blocks sury, a production city, and generates quick Great Scientists for me.


Settled city #4 for commerce, city #5 for blocking purposes and to get another health resource for capital (fish!).

By turn 100:

I have teched (Fish/Hunt) Agri - Min - AH - BW - Pot - Writ - Aest - Myst - Poly - Lit - Priest - Code of Laws (not completed). Techs are listed in the order that I researched them.






oh yes and guess what? Great Scientist #2 will come out of Corinth in....ONE TURN! Maybe Philosophy bulb with Meditation and Alphabet traded or researched or another academy?

EDIT - crap! my bad I thought the first round was the first 100 turns and not to 1 AD...I'll probably play the extra turns sometime later although there's no way I can finish the next 20ish turns by nov 6.

 

[Gliese 581]

Round 1 (4000BC-1AD):

Spoiler :

Techs: Ag, TW, Mining, Pottery, Archery, BW, AH, Writing, Alphabet, IW(trade), Sailing, Maths, Masonry, Construction, Currency (in progress)

4000: I decided to settle in place after moving the scout southeast. After settling I discovered that this meant I missed the wheat but Athens looks like a good candidate for a cottage bureacracy capital and with all those FPs it doesn't really need more food. I'll happily give the wheat to another city in this case.
I started with worker and Agriculture to improve the corn. After the worker I built a couple of warriors then a settler.

3640: Ag -> The Wheel. With all the FPs Athens have 4 unhealthiness and so health is going to be a priority which means I want to hook up the corn asap. TW also leads to Pottery which I decided to get early for this game. BW can be delayed a little since there's only 4 forests and all of them will be needed for health for quite some time. The ivory and unforested hills means I can still get production tiles up and running without it.

3280: TW-> Mining.

3240: Meet Bismarck, founder of Buddhism.

3120: Meet Lincoln.

2960: Mining -> Pottery. Meet Sury and discover he's our closest neighbour, just a little to the east.

2680: Pottery -> Archery.

2600: Stonehenge BIDL (Bismarck).

2480: Archery -> BW.

2120: I found Sparta NE of Athens. This will be a good GP/Production city.



2040: BW -> AH. I don't discover copper so I shoot for horses, AH also enables me to hook up the sheep asap.

1840: AH -> Writing. Horses appear SE of Athens so I didn't consider IW here.

1800: TGW BIDL (Bismarck). I adopt Slavery to start whipping (granary in Sparta).

1520: Writing -> Alphabet. None of the others have Alphabet so I start to research it at 0% accumulating gold.

1320: Whip Library in Sparta. Mostly build some archers in Athens and a worker then start on another settler.

1200: Buddhist Shrine BIDL (Bismarck).

1080: Put down the first of two cities to block Sury and aquire horses.



Up to this point my production has been lower than usual since Athens has been focusing on commerce and have not had any chops and few whips but Sparta liberally applied the whip to try to make up for it.

1000: Judaism FIDL.

925: Lincoln converts to buddhism.

875: Alphabet -> Sailing. To enable foregin trade and in an attempt to trade Alpha for IW and part of Sailing to Lincoln.

850: Sury is slower to expand toward me than expected so I found the second blocker to claim clam and stone.



825: Despite several turns of research into Sailing Lincoln is unwilling to trade it and IW for Alpha so I settle for just IW since I'm ready to improve the rice for Corinth.



I discover iron in two places nearby, one of them in a good position.



775: Meet Darius.

725: Sailing -> Maths. I consider getting prereqs for trading for Monarchy next but with a few happy resources, odeons and the like I can grow my cities to a decent size and unlock War Elephants so I opt for Maths instead with a secondary goal of getting The Hanging Gardens.
Meet WK, founder of Judaism.
Athens completes library and hires two scientists to get my first GS.

700: Argos is founded to claim cows and iron before Sury gets it.



650: TOA BIDL (Bismarck). What a hog.

600: Oracle BIDL (Bismarck). Seems like Bismarck is going for a WE, obsolete style.

550: Pyramids BIDL (Darius). Then again, that's a pretty key piece I believe.

500: My first GS is born in Athens and I construct an Academy there.

475: Buddhism spreads to Argos and Lincoln asks me to convert the same turn. I agree.
Christianity FIDL.

450: Meet Catherine who is jewish. Sury converts to buddhism.

425: Catherine demands IW and I acquiesce.

375: Maths -> Masonry. Needed for both Construction and THG.

350: Masonry -> Construction. Sparta starts on an Aqueduct.
I take part in a great work.



175: Darius converts to judaism. I keep OB with him (along with all the buddhists).

100: Confucianism FIDL (Wang Kon). I found my sixth city to get the two silver and crab by the northern shore. I decided to build the city to get Surys silver in the first culture ring to steal it as quickly as possible. Sury's even improved it for me, what a nice guy. I can probably trade it back to him for gold later, it's a win-win situation!



75: GS #2 born in Athens, I settle him.

50: Sparta completes The Hanging Gardens.
Colossus BIDL (Bismarck).
AP BIDL (Bismarck). I vote for Bizzie in the first election and he wins earning me some diplo points. Bismarck built all wonders but The Colossus in Berlin.

25: Construction -> Aesthetics. I finish Construction and put slider to 0% again while teching Aesthetics. A check at the tech screen revealed that none of the AIs has gotten it yet so I think TGL is within reach.
After thinking it over though I decided that teching Aesthetics is probably not the best course of action at this point. I got distracted by the shiny Great Library and failed to consider that I'm not industrous, don't have marble and can't trade for it and don't have alot of forests to chop in any case. So I changed research to Currency next, I'm #2 in techs in any case so massbulbing might not be necessary for a shot at Liberalism or whatever down the line.

1AD: End of round 1, some screenshots to follow.

Northen part of empire:



Southern part:



Satellite map, east:



Satellite map, southwest:



Shot of Athens:



Techs:



Relations:



Mutually worst enemies:
Sury and WK
Catherine and Lincoln
Me, Darius and Bismarck have no worst enemies at this point.

Demographics:



Looking good economically. I have alot of room to grow and expand and good relations with my eastern neighbours, although Sury and Bismarck are both kindof backstabby. Unfortunately the western neighbours are going to become my enemies unless something changes, putting me right in the middle of religious conflict and other nasty bussiness.
OR should be considered if one wants to cement good relations with Sury. Another option is invasion by War Elephants. That would anger the buddhist block though and right now there's lots of great land to expand to in the west. Cathy might be kept at Cautious by adopting HR and agreeing to her demands. The same might be possible with WK and Caste System.

 

[carl corey]

DMOC, I'm thinking of extending this round if people don't see the posts about the new length. I've already PMed those who have played the round before the modification was in place and I'll send PMs to all those who post old-length rounds to let them know.

 

[ABigCivFan]

1AD

Spoiler :

1480BC, I used my first settler to settle Sparta which is a nice prod city. Since Athens is busy working cottages, i need a prod city as the 2nd city. Stone can wait.

Key Tech path since 1480BC:

1. Alphabet for trading (trade for a bunch of techs including IW)
2. Monarchy for HR. Athens should work as many as Cottages ASAP, so HR is the best way to achieve this early.
3. Beeline COL/CS for Beauracracy (8 more turns).
4. Currency

here is current game state at 1 AD.

5 cities settled, had key health/metal/happy resources, 1 settler enroute to settle aother FP rich city to the West.




Athens. Adding 50% commerce to this city in 8 turns.




Sparta. it has 20 base per turn, building Swords every 2 turns to bust some barbs.

Later it can produce more settler/workers for the empire.



Now I am running HR to grow cities large quickly, 8 workers really help. Sharing Budda with 3 near neighbors, Sury has no major military threat yet. Now completely blocked off Sury to the West.

COL already in, which means i could expand further into south and south west jungles without going broke. It is interesting that we have so much uncontested land this game which really makes this a "builder" game early on.

 

[carl corey]

Soirana, from what I've seen you're doing quite nicely on Emperor in the current Emperor Cookbook. But since you asked, I'll remove you from this game's roster. See you around.

 

[RRRaskolnikov]

Carl is right, you should give this a go...

Cheers,

Raskolnikov

 

[Araneya]

Hello! Is it okay if I join this game? I'm not at all an comfortable Immortal player but it could be a valuable learning experience. I already played the first round (up to 1 AD)

Spoiler :

Excellent start: p-hills for hammers and lots and lots of f-p for food. Ivory for happy and Corn for even more food. Settle in place immedietly.
Ok, since we have production I think going for a weird start.
Start Agriculture & Worker
Turn 3: Meet S-man II
Turn 5: S-man has stone and ivory, hmm
Turn 7: Meet Bismarck and find tundra north of S-man
Turn 9: Agriculture in. Seems S-man will control the passage to the Eastern parts of our world (ie where B came from). Start Wheel.
Turn 10: Scout owns lion in the open. Moves to tundra hill for vision+healing defense.

Turn 11: A forest grows on the non-river p-hill!
Turn 14: Buddhism FIDL (3440 BC)
Turn 15: Worker finished, start scout. Farming corn for food+health (Im at 5 health of 6 already)
Turn 17: Scout finish healing, got hit by a lion earlier.
Turn 18: Wheel in, start Archery.
Turn 20: Scout kills another lion, worker starts camp.

Turn 21: Athens grows, mm to finish growth+scout+archery in 5 by working corn and gl-forest
Turn 23: Scout already at 4 xp, owns a wolf. Hindu FIDL (3080)
Turn 24: Camp finishes, so I switch gl-forest to a fp so I will still grow to size 2 in 2 turns, even if I switch to ivory next turn. Start road corn.
Turn 25: Granary will be huge in capitol, with health issues and both corn and wheat nearby. Scout => Archer Archery => Mysticism
Turn 27: Archer+Growth+Mysticism in 5. Let's see what happens when they come in.
Turn 28: New scout gets eaten at 24% odds . I see a warrior near my old scout :-o! It was not long ago I was playing Monarch, not really used to Immortal after half a game. Start farming wheat.
Turn 29: Meet WK. Scout finished healing.

Turn 31: Find a nice city spot with Sheep and Fur that fits nicely with my Capitol. I also have the Wheat+Silk spot with either Cows or Sheep.
Turn 32: Everything finishes. I see that Meditation+Priesthood will take 16 turns while SH takes 17. Would be quite the steal if I could get both^^. So I look in the forum for what is the regular date for S-H on Immortal, since again, im not used to Immortal. I would finish it about 2100 BC probably, which feels a bit late, especially with Hindu Bismarck. So I will not gamble, better to be safe than sorry Archer=>Archer Mysticism=>Meditation Worker starts another farm and Archer start scouting.
Turn 35: And surely enough, at 2600 BC the SH is build by Buddhist Korea. Will be intresting to see what role the religions will have on this game.
Turn 37: Find stone with my Archer. Archer=> Archer

Turn 40: Meditation => Priesthood
Turn 41: Scout gets eaten by Archer in jungle. I hate exploring jungle with Scouts.
Turn 42: Archer=>Archer Also there is a jungle rice and fish near the stone location.
Turn 45: Priesthood=>Mining Archer=>The Oracle due in 15 turns.
Turn 47: I pick of an damaged barb archer with one of my 3 scouting archers. The GW BIDL (2160 BC). Start pre-building another farm while waiting for mining.

Turn 51: Mining => Writing Need it for CoL. Kill a warrior.
Turn 56: My worker is building mines for my two plains hills. One of my archers loses against a barb one at 50%.
Turn 59: Kill a damaged archer. Got 5 xp now on my southern Archer.

Turn 61: In 1560 I build the Oracle and found Confucianism in Athens. I plan on using Bureaucracy later and having a Shrine is very powerful then. So my unusual opening moves are for a longterm plan. Land can always be captured later.

Turn 69: I found Sparta by the wheat and ToA is BIDL (1240 BC). Both cities building an Archer

Turn 70: BW => AH Revolt to Slavery
Turn 73: I 3p-whip an Settler
Turn 74: Doesn't look like S-Man settled the stones yet, I head that way. Athens starts Archer.
Turn 75: Worker finishes G-L mine in Sparta, moves towards future Stonetown. Athens puts some hammers into a Creative Libary (either that or a temple, and I need the research)
Turn 78: Sparta Archer=>Archer until size 3 (2 turns) then start worker.
Turn 79: Found Corinth and start a WB which will be chopped. AH=>Pottery Also seems that I will be able to finish the Libary until my next whip. I want to whip it with my production bonus to it and put the overflow into something. Or I could do it the other way around. Start Temple in Athens.

Turn 80: Judaism FIDL (875 BC) Sparta starts Worker (Seems Wang Kong got it as he adopted Org. Rel. the turn after)
Turn 84: Meet Lincoln and the first GP (a prohet) is born in Korea and WK uses ut to build the shrine. Some barbs closing in on Athens from the west, call back an Archer from fogbusting and the one from Sparta. Copper in the far southeast. 2p-whip temple in Athens.
Turn 86: One of the barb archers kill one of mine at 26% odds, I then kill it with the other Archer I brought here. I build the Kong Miao and meet Catharine (725 BC). Looks like were all on a big continent. Sparta Worker=>Archer
Turn 87: I kill a Warrior. Pottery=>Masonry Start Granary at Corinth.
Turn 89: I lose an Archer and my camp. Move out my last and healing archer in Athens to finish the barb Archer. Start Granary in Athens.

Turn 90: The Warrior pillages the road too, I get my archer back to the city.
Turn 91: Archer=>Settler in Sparta. Kill the last barb in my lands.
Turn 92: The Mids are built in Germany who also have ToA and tGW
Turn 93: Masonry => Mathematics S-Man put down a city near the cows, disabling me from building the city I wanted to build on the gl-hill southeast of the cows.
Turn 94: Granary => Worker in Athens
Turn 95: 2p-whip both the settler in Sparta and the Worker in Athens.
Turn 96: Athens =>Archer Sparta=>Granary New Worker rebuilds camp. Send settler north to get silver and block off S-man
Turn 97: Archer=>Monastery in Athens Korea build tGL
Turn 98: Found Thebes at Silver Crabs location. Start WB in Thebes.

Turn 101: 2p-Whip Granary at Stonetown.
Turn 102: Continue Libary in Stonetown. I think I forgot to mention, I met Darious a couple of turns back. All civs met now, no crazy Alex or Monty, but S-Man and Catharine could maybe decide to do some warring. Maybe Bismarck too. 2 financial, 1 industrious.
Turn 105: Monastery=>Settler in Athens. Hindu spread to Silverycrabs.
Turn 106: Libary finished (got 2p-whip) in Sparta (Granary also finished earlier) I want to pop philosophy with a scientist from Sparta. Start Barracks since it got some production.
Turn 108: Settler 2p-whipped in Athens, I want it to grow so no 3p-whip.
Turn 109: Start Misionary in Athens.
Turn 110: Judaism Shrine built. Mathematics=> Cosntruction

Turn 112: Stonetown Libary=>Courthouse Silverycrabs WB=>Granary Found Corinth again by horses.
Turn 115: I pop Silver in Sparta. I have gifted the different ais some cheap religion techs for no relationboost but so that I can trade with them all at the same time, because I fear if I trade with one then he will sell it to the rest. Now I see WK has CoL so time to trade: I get Monarchy, Iron Working and Alphabet. And time's up!

I read some about Obsolete's WE/SSE and I thought it would be pretty cool tro try something similiar with alot of settled great prophets from the oracle/angkor wat/shrine running tons of 1/2/3(with representation)/6 Priests in the capitol. With all the settled priests and bureaucracy it would probably get pretty crazy.
So with this in mind, I figured I would probably put at least Wall Street there for good and then I should probably get an shrine too. So this plan dictated my early game.

Unfortunatly S-Man II took the Cows/Iron spot, but I figure that I should probably attack him if I should attack anybody, so it isn't lost forever.






Pros:
The Oracle and Confucianism Shrine in Capital
2 GPs coming soon (Prophet and Scientist)
Silver at Sparta
A lot of potential

Cons:
Not a good research rate atm, not many techs discovered
Not that many cities, lost cows/iron site
Weak military

 

[carl corey]

Sure. Everyone can play it.

 

[RRRaskolnikov]

Hi immortals!,

I have played my round... will edit this post tonight with a report and a save featuring...

Spoiler :

the new 007, James "Pericles" Bond

The report…

Spoiler :

I began by a nice move…
With such a nice SP and no AIs met by turn 15, I thought we were isolated… so building the GW was my first priority. Of course it’s a pangea map style with everybody in the same land mass…

Anyways we got it in 2000BC and start the greeks on the spy path…

First techs were: Agriculture, Mining, Masonry, Archery, The Wheel, Bronze Working, Pottery, AH, and Writing.

After that I drop the slider to 0% science to make cash (and then run deficit research with libraries) for quite some turns.

Meanwhile, I settled:
1) Sparta for sheep+wheat
2) Corinth for cows+silk (and iron but didn’t know) + blocking
3) Thebes for cow+horses +another silk

I latter settled Argos for sheep + 2 furs and a floodplain
Finally I whipped a settler in 25BC in Athen to complete Khmer blocking (the settler is heading south right now).

Some words on Athen:
I know I will surely get for going no cottages in this city but I felt this would be more efficient prod wise (as I delayed expansion at first for the GW, I whipped this city hard) and I ran scientists most of the time… and finally I plan to make this city the main GPfarm (it’s not like if my save has a chance )

After this building phase, I restarted the research… tech path:
Aesthetics, alpha (traded), Myst (traded), IW (traded), Meditation, Priesthood, Poly (traded), Monarchy (traded thanks to Poly), Math (traded), Sailing (stolen!), COL (6 turns to go).

I got 2 great spies: the first one explored and is dispo, the second one infiltrated Sury (closest AI so best for a spy strat).

Religious and diplo situation is messy: 3 religions are currently used so I am still in atheism…

Only one war so far: Cathy has just declared on Wang… I hope he can contain her a little… because I can already see a red border west of Athen…

Military: no comments…
Civics: HR, slavery

So I have 5 cities and soon another one, and the tech situation is under control:



I lack workers (only 6) and my cities are still small… but I put some thoughts on where we could go from this save:

The plan would be to grow Athen as much as possible after COL (6 turns to go, then switch in HR + caste) and then run max number of scientists to bulb paper -> edu -> lib while we stop research after CS (and up espionnage slider). Does someone know if Contitution is bulbable (for jails and rep)?
Meanwhile try to steal the guild path from Sury… and capture some of the barbs city west of Athen before Cathy gets all the good land. Keep nearby AIs happy with civics (HR for Cathy and OR for Sury) and stay alive until we can kill one of those immortals…

Pro: had fun, still alive (I play Immortal in marathon so I was a little nervous at first), original approach, good tech situation
Cons: few workers, cities by far too small (after playing I saw size 13 Athen in ABigCivFan’s save ), no military (“weak” is not the word when you have a one chariot SOD ), exploration could have been better.

A view of the land:



And cities:











And finally the espionage screen (“Sury, Pericles is watching you”):

Cheers,

Raskolnikov

edit @Jet: you should rename your save

 

[Jet]

1 AD

Spoiler :

Seeing the open space, I built the Great Wall right away (Worker/Warrior/GW).

Seeing the nearby land and the many neighbors, I planned for Cultural in Athens, Sparta (1NE of the Wheat) and Thebes, although I guess this save could be used for another victory condition.

The first 2 GPs have been Spies. So far they've been used as scouts. Without the Pyramids and planning for Cultural, I didn't see a good use for settling them.

I built the Statue of Zeus in Sparta for culture and soldiers, and maybe for a later defense benefit.

I settled Corinth for Stone just as Bismark finished the Pyramids (actually one turn afterwards - oops.)

At Aesthetics in 400 BC I made one trade, to Lincoln for IW + Poly, and started Literature. More trades are available now. I wouldn't mind the GPP pollution from the Great Library if we got it. Right now I'm running some temporary scientists in order to rush to Literature.


I settled Knossos for Iron, mainly for the purpose of having a go at the barb cities, and to secure Bananas and Sugar. The closer Iron spot would have been OK with grass farms, but I wasn't sure when Catherine would get to the jungle and take the Bananas and Sugar for herself.

Diplomatically, Confucianism and Christianity have been founded, and the Apostolic Palace is Jewish.

units - 6 Archers, 1 Chariot, 1 Warrior, 7 Workers, 2 Great Spies
forest chops - none yet; haven't needed them and was considering National Park in Thebes
Athens - Granary/Monument/Library/GW
Sparta - Granary/Barracks/Walls/Library/SOZ
Corinth - Granary/Monument/Library
Thebes - Monument

 

[Kaleb]

I've also done my round. I'll post the details later tonight by editing this post.

Ok - finally found some time to write up my report.

Here goes:

Spoiler :

Tech path: Agr > Mining > Wheel > Pott > AH > Arch > Writing > BW > Alpha > (IW) > (Sail) > (Myst) > (Poly) > (Mas) > Math > (Med) > (Mono) > Const > (Priest)

Started building a worker and exploring to the NE with my scout and then looping around in a circle anticlockwise around my start location.

Got to pop 2, switched to build worker

3160 - met Bismark (who has founded Buddhism), worker ready next turn
3120 - Met Sury and Lincoln
3000 - Pop 3, 1 turn to warrior and then build 2nd worker
2720 - Got Pottery started some cottages
2440 - Darius, 1 turn to AH
2000 - 1st Settler built
1920 - Sparta founded


1520 - BW, switch to Slavery
1400 -
1040 - Corinth founded
950 - Met Cathy, founder of Hinduism
825 - Alphabet, started trading with Linc first of all
775 - About to found Thebes

525 - Pyramids and Collossus built far away, Confucianism founded
475 - Met Wango
425 - Argos founded

325 - Great Scientist (academy in Athens)
225 - Bis sends missionary, Budd spread in Athens, I convert.
50 - Construction







Early Strategy
I went for horses quickly because I anticipated big trouble with Barbs and Chariots are most handy for protecting your terrain improvements, workers and cities. Sure enough I had swarms of Barbs and the Chariots were really handy.

Next city was going to be my GP farm. 3rd city I went for the rice and stone for wonders. Also wanted a coastal city so I could get a galley out. Might have done this differently if I had seen that fish there before I built!

5 city was for 2nd ivory and just a good spot. There is a barb city to the north (Avar) which I may conquer and keep. 6th city will be for Iron in NW as sadly Sury pinched the good iron spot I wanted in the East.

Planned spot for next city:


GOOD
5 cities all but 1 in very good spots with a 6th on it's way.
Pretty confident I will get hanging gardens, and reasonable chance for theology first (Apost Palace?? hmm).

OK
Economy is ok, can run at 50% but need to boost higher.
Tech position is decent too.

BAD
Sury grabed an important spot that I wanted. Could have managed barbs better as that ended up slowing me down more than it should have.
Not running enough specialists, only 1 GP so far.

Relative positions:

 

[Abegweit]

Please add me to the list of players and of folks posting the details this evening.

Edit: updated with my report

Spoiler :

It seems that just about everyone else settled in place. I chose instead to put the capital on the Ivory. While arguably not as strong in the long term, IMO it has been a better choice through this timeframe. It turned a mediocre tile into a good one, left the flood plain for other use, gave an additional hammer to the capital and immediately allowed it to grow to size six. I am also of the opinion that three good cities are better than one great one although, given the Bureaucracy bonus, that certainly is up for argument.

I trained two workers (at sizes 1 and 3) and three warriors while Athens grew up. My first worker farmed the corn and an FP then built a road. At this point, Pots came in and the second worker was trained. Together they cottaged three FPs. Then one went west to pasture the cows while the other built a fourth cottage over the previously-farmed FP. So the capital settled into a routine of working the corn, cow and the FPs, producing absolutely nothing but workers and settlers with the exception of a one-turn chopped Library. Towards the end, it also worked on a Granary as additional LUXes came on board allowing further growth.

Research order went Agri-TW-Pottery-AH. I took AH mainly in order to work the cattle tile but luckily it also revealed Horses in a useful location so Sparta was built on the desert tile south of the ponies. I continued research with Mining and BW, which was discovered the turn Sparta was founded so I quickly chopped out a barracks and some chariots for barb defense. Next came Corinth in the location where most folks placed Sparta. We revolted to slavery while the settler was on the way to the city site. Research continued with Writing and IW. Corinth chopped/whipped a library and hired some scientists. After a while it helped with the military and worker production.

Here's a picture of Athens as it starts its first settler. At this point, one worker was cottaging the farmed FP and the other was pasturing the cattle. Both then went south to bring the horses on line. Athens next trained a worker to farm the wheat followed by a settler to found Corinth. Note that a warrior is partially trained. I switched to the settler here because the capital, relatively speaking, is in a growth phase. I actually trained the warrior first but only after the cottage and pasture were done. At this point, the capital would have two additional hammers but the same food surplus. This difference meant that the warrior could be finished without either working a weak tile or growing to size seven. It's a small point but the details add up.



IW revealed several sources of ore in the neighborhood, the most convenient being just to the west so Thebes was founded there. It got Athens' cows in order to get some growth capacity. The capital got more cottages in exchange. Thebes, Corinth and Sparta shared duties training military while hiring scientists to speed research and GP production. Corinth pretty much always had two scientists while the other two cities varied depending on need. By the turn of the years, I got three GSs, two from Corinth and one from Sparta. The first was used to build an academy in Athens. The others I saved for bulbing. Here Athens gets its Academy in 675BC.



In the meantime, Athens continued to build cities. First came one on the north coast to block Sury and claim the silver. Two cities to the east claimed the rest of the flood plains. Just before the turn of the years, I founded my eighth to the northeast for the sheep and the furs. Because of the foreign trade routes, new cities are still profitable as soon as they are founded.

Meanwhile, research continued with Aesthetics, Sailing, Math. Here Abe just discovered Alphabet. I took Mysticism off the table and accepted the deal. The shot says I was researching Calendar but I switched immediately to Mysticism in order to trade for techs up the religious line.



I also traded for Poly, Mono and Monarchy. Everything else was self-researched. I went on to Calendar, Currency, CoL and Mediation. On the last turn I bulbed Philo and founded Taoism so I am far ahead in the Liberalism race.

Courthouses are going up everywhere. Two could be whipped this turn - and probably should be. I have just started CS. No beakers are invested yet though. Perhaps Construction would be better for a Sury-smackdown and some Odeons? I'm still undecided about this. It would be nice to get to CS and revolt to Bureaucracy and HR when it comes in. OTOH, while REX is definitely in the cards either way, my three prod cities could easily put the hammer to Sury while the capital continues to build settlers for growth to the south and west.

Throughout most of the game Sury was the worst enemy of two AIs (Lincoln and Cathy, I think) so I didn't open borders with him until very recently. Consequently I don't know much about what lies to the east. My exploration of the south and west, although far from finished, is in much better shape.

Some 1AD shots...

First, the capital. We already have towns on all the FPs and the grasslands are maturing nicely.



Then there's Knossos, the Taoist Holy City. Only 400 years old and already well-developed. This would be good Shrineland if I could somehow produce a GP and some missionaries.



Military. Pretty good for units. I lost a warrior, a chariot and the scout to the barbs. Slightly deficient in workers. Given the amount of whipping coming up, it's not too bad.



Maps. First the north.



Then the south. Lots of good city locations still available.



Relations. The top civs are pleased, the bottom cautious. At some point in the near future we will likely have to choose between the Jewish and Buddhist blocks. But not yet.



Demographics. In the top half in most of the important categories. Second in land. Third in GDP.



Techs. Situation is pretty good. I have been running binary science throughout of the game but the sustainable rate is roughly 80 BPT. The new courthouses should help.



Cities. In a builder phase, as I have been from the beginning. Courthouses going up everywhere

Dang! Wrong pic. I'll fix this later.

 

[carl corey]

Man, I need to read all your reports carefully, 'cause in mine I got into economic troubles and I'm way behind where I should have been in techs. Plus, I had to play one more turn because I didn't want to leave you not knowing the outcome of an interesting "event"... This Immortal business is really hard...

By the way, just a reminder: the round should end "tomorrow" night but since we're probably having players from all over the world, I'll declare it ended on Friday morning at around 8AM GMT. Once it is over you can still post saves as "shadows" (of same length as round 1) but they cannot receive votes. Also, only players who will have submitted a save for round one by the deadline will be included in the final roster for this game.

 

[Berkobob]

Been busy IRL.

Playing my save now.

 

[KingMorgan]

Heres my effort

Spoiler :

Settled 2 SE to gain more forest and less FP, wanted to have a few cities overlapping with cap. First game on Immortal, so i went
Arch,Ag,Min,Wheel,Pot,Wri,AH,BW
built worker, warrior,arch,settler.

Had huge barb problems, lost a few archers, hence a slower REX, lost the iron to Sury. Had a settler dirverted to claim it on the turn i discovered IW, too late by 2 turns.


REX'd and took the Northern iron, south on clams and stone,on the horse and had a settler heading for the pigs and 2 units to take a SW barb city.

Sury DOW. just about to assign scientists all round to make the research. Changed to phlanax and garrisoning, 4 Phl heading to visit sury iron city.

To be honest i did better than i expected, but due to early barbs and Sury it could have worked out alot better.


World view



View attachment KingMorgan_IIMC2_AD-0001.CivBeyondSwordSave