Immortal Cookbook III: Saladin of Arabia

[DanF5771]

Hmmm, the 18-civ save can't be loaded with the 50-civ dll (it doesn't matter whether teams/players 18-49 have been deleted or not). So right now I think the only "interface" between the two versions is WB.

The map looks balanced, a strategic resource is within reach.

 

[carl corey]

Gotcha. I installed the 50 civs version thinking I'll try a slug-fest with more than 18 civs on a standard map at one point, but that won't come very soon. So I guess we'll play from this save and I'll just reinstall the normal 18 civs patch.

Sorry Ras to have bothered you with a save that won't get played. Although if anyone's interested I could post it in the thread, or send it to him by email.

 

[carl corey]

DanF5771's corrected save has been inserted in the first post. Thanks for doing all the work.

 

[Soirana]

Spoiler :

I had some fun playing. Still can't perceive myself playing immortal seriously. I actually managed to expand to three cities (besides settled 1W ) and to build Stonehenge before BC1500.

When despite emergency axes barbs shredded me to pieces. Well, i lost city on marble to barb warrior (okay that was injured half hitpoints axe, but c'mmon axe against warior). Western one (pigs +corn+riverside grassland) got something like 6barb archers and some wariors stream in three turn window. I probably could hold that one but some barbs cut road towards capital and copper.

Well, learned that good(or at least any) fogbusting is better then stonehenge.

Edit: Couldn't you play once in a year on epic speed. Going both difficulty up and faster speed is not that easy...

 

[Gliese 581]

Fun game though I don't know if I agree that the start is balanced, I think it's very powerful.

 

[Monsterzuma]

Here's a slipshod attempt at round 1;

Spoiler :

Started by building Stonehenge to spend the hammers gained while growing the capital on something worthwile (warrior army didn't qualify).

Settler right after 2-pop whipping SH; tech Masonry and start the great wall. Meanwhile the second city builds a worker while working a copper tile. Wasn't too concerned with not being able to cottage the 2nd city cause it could contribute to worker production as it was.

Finished the Great Wall just in time for the barbarian invasion... I tried to shoot for the Oracle but failed it. Next was to settle next to Stone and build the Pyramids @ +/- 17 turns. Succeeded there and switched to Rep.

Teched Pottery in between, Aesthetics as first "big" tech. Started on the Parthenon, now +/- 6 turns away from completion. Literature is also in at this point. GLib buildable in +/- 15 turns. Currently teching Alphabet for tech trades + ability to bulb Philosophy when a GSci pops up.

Working Madrassa scientists + priests in 1 city, cottages in 2 others, grassland mines in the capital. Capital can work scientists + priests for a total research rate above 80 bpt.

Beaker rate: +/- 56
No of cities: 4
Wonders: Stonehenge, Great Wall, Pyramids, 6 turns to go on Parthenon
Great People: settled GPriest + settled GSpy in capital

 

[Diamondeye]

Listed in Monarchists Cookbook Bullpen, thanks for the notice, CarlCorey.

 

[Olodune]

I'm certainly feeling a little rusty, but how could I pass on Saladin?

Up to 1ad

Spoiler :

Mecca founded 1E

Early Tech:
Ag->Pottery->AH->Mining->BW

I like Hemisphere scripts, and expect a lot of land area. This means a strong economy is important (to support a land grab) -- since we have food and a nice river early pottery seemed good.

I should mention that barbs have been a horrendous pita: by 1ad I've killed:

Naturally that had a huge impact on my ability to scout and expand quickly. Oh well.


My second city went to the NE marble, so Mecca could build the oracle:

Monarchy seemed vital since there are very few happy resources within a reasonable radius of our start. Maybe 'mids would work as well, using the southern stone.

Mecca used HR to get up to 13 pop by 1ad, mostly working commerce tiles. The GLib will actually only take 12 turns since the marble will be (re)-connected next turn (barbs).

The stunted empire:

Some summary info:

Tech Trades: None (no one has alpha)

Tech Researched: Literature, IW, Monarchy

Religion: Confu (with both Sitting Bull and Rags)

Wars: A quick Rag on SB at around 900bc

Wonders: Oracle, Glib (in progress)

Army: 10 axes, 11 warrs

GP: 1 GPriest (idle), could be used for a Theo bulb, or GA

The plan from here is to get CoL->CS for a very nice Bureaucracy capital

 

[Sleepless]

Very poor attempt to 1AD Only playing as a shadow game so don't have to worry about any votes.

Spoiler :

I settled 1S in hindsight I think 1E would have been much better and from there things just got much worse.

My tech rate has been abysmal, Techs went Agr, Hunt, AH, Archery, BW, Masonry, Writing and Pot. I think that is as far as I have got. Should have gone for writing and pot much earlier. By the time I got around to it my tech rate was a joke and with all the barbs running around (Great Wall would be a huge help on this map) everything is going much slower for me than it should.

Positive points. Not many!!!

I built the Pyramids. Rag and SB have had a short war which I'm hoping will start again soon and thats about it. Lots of land still to settle although the jungle to the North is not very appealing, not many resources or rivers. Lots of desert to the West.

I was planning on going for the GLib (have to now after nearly fininshing Aesth, at least I've unlocked the HE for future wars which I can see happening).

Current Lands.

 

[CellKu]

As I wanted to join this game, here is an attempt up to 1AD:

Spoiler :

Capital: settled 1E, built an academy there
Cities: 5, most have basic infra (granary, monument, madrassa, Damascus still building madrassa, Najran pretty new)
Pop: 18
Rex: got Gem-city in the north (try to trade IW asap after alpha to improve the gems), will go west now (where I see barb borders)
Workers: 7
Troops: 4 Warriors
Wonders: GW (just in time before a massive barb rising), Parth, GLib
Techs: don't remember exactly, I think: Ag-Min-BW-Mas-Pottery-AH-Writing-Aesth-Poly-Lit-Alpha
Tech speed seems to be rather slow everywhere. The Oracle went somewhen around 500BC! (should have tried building it!). And nobody on my continent has alpha so far.
Religion: adopted Confu (from SB)
Other civs: long war between SB and Ragnar. SB is Confu, Ragnar pagan.

The Empire:

And the Capital:

I am not sure whether I will find sufficient time before Xmas to continue. If not, I will shadow it.

 

[shyuhe]

I should title my save "Saladin the wonder whore"

Spoiler :

I settled in the spot, then settled city #2 and #3 in quick succession around 2000 BC. #2 went to the stone to the south and #3 to the bronze to the east. I then built the GW, Pyramids, and ToA (was hoping for cash). I'm currently running a haphazard madrassa fueled SE. I think philosophy for AW will be very powerful with representation + the UB.

My research has finally started to pick up again (I didn't get writing until about 1000 BC) and my GNP is #1 in the world. Just got the triple gems city and will soon start rexing into the jungle to claim more land as I tech currency.

I'm in a fake war with SB right now. Ragnar is doing most of the warring and I'm just sitting tight. If we need peace, I can always give SB alphabet. But I haven't seen any troops heading in our direction yet so I've left it as is.

I also got a GSpy which I settled. I thought about sending it after Ragnar but he didn't look to be teching particularly fast. Plus the 6 beakers from settling was nothing to sneeze at.

 

[Gliese 581]

Round 1 to 1 AD:

Spoiler :

Techs: Ag, Pottery, AH, Hunting, Archery, Mining, BW, Masonry, Med, PH, Writing, COL (via Oracle), Fishing, Sailing, Alphabet, IW (trade), Aesthetics, Poly, Lit.

4000: I decided to settle 1E to get riverside and 2 FPs. I start on Worker + Ag.

3600: Ag -> Pottery. With the FPs and having The Wheel as start tech I decided to go for early pottery.

3520: Meet Ragnar's scout from northeast

3440: Meet SB's scout in north, coming from west.

3200: Pottery -> AH.

2720: AH -> Hunting, no horses so I go for archery.

2680: Finish my 3rd warrior in row after the initial worker and grow to cap of 5, start on settler.

2520: Hunting -> Archery.

2320: Archery -> Mining, finish Settler start on archers/workers.

2280: I settle Medina. Fast access to marble which is good since I planned for Oracle at this point and I get to work all FPs since I also want a city to get the 2 fish in the south.

2160: Mining -> BW.

1960: SH BIDL.

1840: BW -> Masonry.

1680: Masonry -> Meditation.

1600: Judaism FIDL.

1520: TGW BIDL.

1480: Med -> PH.

1360: PH -> Writing, start on Oracle.

1160: Writing -> Fishing.

1080: Fishing -> Sailing. Finish Oracle, pick COL. The reason for this is that neither Ragnar or SB who are the only ones on our continent from what it appeared, has gotten a religion. With the madrassa and spiritual cheap temples it's also easy for us to generate a GP and found a shrine. When religion spreads in the other two camps this should provide a great source of income it will also help me get Ragnar to friendly along with HR. Confu is founded in Medina, I spread it to Mecca with the missionary.

925: Sailing -> Alphabet.

875: Settle 3rd city.

600: SB converts to confucianism.

575: Alphabet -> Aesthetics. I go for the GL next. I trade with SB.

500: Ragnar converts to confu.

425: SB threaten for Med, I accept. Ragnar is WHEOOHRN.

375: Ragnar DOWs SB. I decide to cancel OB with SB to reduce the risk of demerits. Ragnar is all that is needed for trade routes right now.

350: 4th city. In hindsight I should have put it 1W or 1N as I wasn't ready to run caste for an artist at this point and it's unlikely I can settle all the land in this area anyhow so the wasted grasslands to the east won't matter.

275: Aest -> Poly. A GP is born in Medina and I use him to build the shrine there.

175: Poly -> Lit. Found 5th city. This will be a good target for Moai and is probably a good idea for the NE as well, don't you just love having both marble and stone? (6 specialists at size 10 working fish and fp cottages).

150: Jew Shrine BIDL.

1AD: Finish Lit and round.

Empire shot:

Rest of the continent, Ragnar NE, SB NW.

I found the gems relatively late in my scouting, it's not yet taken and I have a settler en route as you can see.

Capital is building a Madrassa. I've put research to Monotheism next (although not before taking pics) which will make Monarchy (a priority tech) cheaper and which will coincide with Mecca growing to size 7 at which point I can switch civics to both Slavery and OR and whip Madrassa with OR bonus then start on GL and get the production bonus going the entire time there as well.

Medina, building monastery here turned out to be a little superfluos at this point but I didn't decide on going for OR until at the end of my set. Shrine good for 6 gold but hopefully the AI will start to spread it actively once their war stops. I don't know yet if I want them to continue fighting or not, I could bribe for peace a couple of turns ago and probably still but held off for now.

Techs, can trade for Maths with Ragnar but that would give me demerit from SB:

Demograhpics:

Priorities right now is getting Monarchy for HR since happiness is badly needed and CS to run Bur.
I'm also thinking of getting more priests though (after an academy for the capital) and maybe try for the AP with a theo bulb. With cheap temples the AP+UoS would be an awesome combo and help me convince my neighbours to stay in my religion (esp if SB don't manage to found christianity before me or someone on the other continent).
Damascus GSs are only temporary to ensure Mono is in 2 turns from now then it should probably switch back to production to utilize all of its good tiles.
Oh and I forgot to mention I've unlocked the HE (twice).

 

[carl corey]

Looks like I won't make it for this round. I'll let you vote starting tomorrow morning and I'll try to get in a shadow game just to see how things are going and only look at your saves afterwards. Good luck everybody!

 

[Gliese 581]

The question is if we vote if we don't get more saves. We only have 5 saves submitted thus far. Perhaps we should convert it to an immortal university games where everyone is free to run from any save, unless we get a few more by tomorrow?

 

[obsolete]

Alright, saw this on the forum tonight so I just gave it a shot now. I'll be back in a few hours to read over how everyone else did.

Spoiler :

2680 BC
This was really weird. I ended up making StoneHenge, before TGW. This is because of Saladin’s really weird starting techs.

And masonry will kick in right on time. I guess I should eventually start researching food techs for the corn and cow now since this is hemispheres-map and I probably wont be able to trade for them for a long time???

2120 BC
The Great Wall ready for completion. Now I can pour more materials into infrastructure instead of defense for a while.

1400 BC
Damnit, we popped a G-Spy. Oh well…sorry guys.


1360 BC

I whip city down to 1 pop just to make sure we don’t lose the Oracle race. Haha!
I chose Iron Working, partly because its very expensive.

Note: If we were doing Emperor, I’d have researched Writing first, then used it to take Aesthetics instead.

750 BC
Stone-City is founded!

After fog busting in a counter clockwise order around the capital, I froze my warrior there for the longest time to make sure nothing else settles there like barbs to mess up my future plans.


625 BC
Ragnar attacks SB!


400 BC
We keep getting warnings of enemies spotted hear Home! I don’t know we get this warning when I have TGW???

Oh, and we pop a Great Priest. Yipppeeeee!


350 BC
Sitting Bull makes peace with Ragnar!
Temple of Solomon has been built somewhere… anyone have any ideas on who that could be? Hehe.

300 BC
The Pyramids is ready for completion.

Note: mathematics is en route. I am trying to take a shot at the Hanging Gardens since I don’t want our stone to go to waste. While math research is finishing off, I’ll build a library. I was tempted to finish the library first, which is optimal, but not if there is a risk that the Mids would be lost.

1 AD
Hmm. Here you go, an inside shot.

Let me know if you like it.

Oh, and as for other notes… Another settler is on its way to found our 3’rd city. This puts me at the halfway point for my empire goal.

 

[shyuhe]

@all: Don't forget that this map is low sea level.

 

[Abegweit]

I have been having serious Internet access issues for more than a week. Have tried to post this repeatedly. I simply cannot get any attachments, pics or games, to work. Getting a new modem on Tuesday. Hopefully that will solve it. In the meantime, here's the story.

Spoiler :

I'm almost embarrassed to submit this game since I popped Silver in the capital. It was very early too, around 2500BC. To top it off I got Iron as well although that was almost at the end of the round. I'm not sure to what extent this really changed the outcome but it sure couldn't have hurt!

Settled 1S to get off the hill and onto the river. Plus the tiles in the second tier to the north of the start are weak. Wasn't sure what would be on the other side but it would be unlikely to be worse. Turned out to be marginally better. The biggest difference, of course, was that I skillfully avoided building the city on the Silver. What talent!

I started teching Agri-Mining-BW. When my scouting warrior discovered that we had both stone and marble (not to mention copper) in the neighbourhood, I decided to try an SSE/WE so I next went after Masonry. It was about here that I found the Silver. It hurt a bit for those critical early wonders, as it reduces the hammer output of a mine. OTOH, the payback in research comes real quick.

Back to the game. Build order was worker-warrior-worker-Stonehenge. That was triple-chopped, as was the GW after it. Next came a settler to capture the stone, also partially chopped. Then the Pyramids, which were largely built from scratch. On the tech side, I went to AH for the cattle and sheep and then continued on my wonder-hogging ways with Polytheism, Writing, Priesthood, Aesthetics and Literature. Squeezed IW in somewhere. I duly landed the Oracle (took CoL and Got Religion), Parthenon, ToA and GL. Now working on the NE. Also have a couple of turns into the Chicken, which can be claimed at leisure.

Just popped my third GP, a scientist. The others were a Priest and a Spy, both settled. It seems obvious to me to build an Academy with this guy but I haven't done it in case the game is chosen and someone wants to do something else. The AI seems to be teching really slow. I recall Obsolete saying that this happens when you grab all the wonders.

Sit-Rep.

The capital has been wonder-obsessed so overall empire development has suffered. We are weak and don't have enough workers. Fortunately, the AIs are at war so there's no real worries about surprise attacks. OTOH, I have lots of demerit points for refusing to get involved.

Just founded cities four and five, one at the gems to the north and the other at the double-fish to the east. For quite a while we were making money with the slider at 100%. It has just crashed to 30%. We're still doing decent however, due mostly to the five GP hanging out in Mecca. It will soon get better quickly as the gems come on line, the scientists get hired and the courthouses constructed. Oh yes, there's that Academy too.

Still don't know Pottery. Gotta get around to that. At 1AD First, though, Math for the HG. That's due in two turns. Maybe after that. OTOH, Theology beckons. In retrospect, maybe it was a mistake to settle the Priest.



Mecca. Note the silver mine on the starting tile.

Culture Map. There is a road to the northern Gems. One worker is there with another on the way.

 

[Gliese 581]

@all: Don't forget that this map is low sea level.

What are you getting at?

 

[carl corey]

The question is if we vote if we don't get more saves. We only have 5 saves submitted thus far. Perhaps we should convert it to an immortal university games where everyone is free to run from any save, unless we get a few more by tomorrow?

We already had a vote on the rules and no, people didn't want to change to a immortal university format. I'd make this round last longer but it wouldn't be fair for those who tried hard to get their saves in yesterday. People can still play shadows of the first round if they want to and then pick up the best save from round 1 and go from there. I'll make round 2 last longer so that those who want can catch up.

 

[carl corey]

That said, I think I'll give people one more day to submit saves. I probably won't be able to do it since I'm busy this evening, but if others can, I'll accept their saves. Voting begins tomorrow.