Immortal Marathon Runner I: Hannibal

[Fleme]

Good day, forum patrons.

I've decided to start a new game series featuring yours truly playing the generally not-so-well liked game speed Marathon. I see some people calling it too arduous to play while others say it's too easy. I will not comment on either of those as I've always been a Marathon player and this is the way I play. Furthermore, I do not recall seeing any showgames played on Marathon so here we go.

I will not be playing in specific pre-determined turnsets like first to 2000 BC, then to 1 AD and so forth but rather as my schedule allows and I feel like playing. I will, however, attempt to gain some regularity if there's interest in a series like this.

So, to the rules. I will obviously be playing each game on Marathon. The difficulty will be Immortal and I'll attempt to variate the additional rules for each game individually.

For the first installment, Hannibal, the additional rules include:

Aggressive AI
Choose Religions
No Tech Brokering
Random events are on
Huts are on
Large Pangaea with a natural coastline, medium sea level.

I will forgo posting Hannibal's (CHM/FIN) face , his UU (Numidian Cavalry) and his UB (Cothon) as I'm rather sure that the people who follow this forum are familiar with said details.

Here's the start:



Personally I'm leaning towards settling in place. If anything, health always seems to keep me down so I'm all about the fresh water. Furthermore, it seems like the coast goes north so I can settle a city to claim the fish later on.

Edit:

All sorts of feedback is welcome, as are shadow games.

 

[Ignorant Teacher]

Great! I might shadow this. The only thing I'm not comfortable with is no tech brokering. I'd either settle in place or 1W. It's not like 2H from a future levee will change much.

 

[/solar/]

I would vote for settling in place, certainly no other site stands out. A workboat start wouldn't be a bad option. Normally getting a worker first to work the pigs is better, but carthage gets no techs towards AH. I have a feeling it may be slightly better to mine the pigs first, but theres probably not much in it. There is a 3 tile to the north east which would help building a workboat.

Looking forward to seeing how you decide to start this one.


I almost thought I might shadow but aggressive AI! I think I might drop well before the marathon has been run.

 

[Fabio GP addict]

I would vote for settling in place, certainly no other site stands out. A workboat start wouldn't be a bad option. Normally getting a worker first to work the pigs is better, but carthage gets no techs towards AH. I have a feeling it may be slightly better to mine the pigs first, but theres probably not much in it. There is a 3 tile to the north east which would help building a workboat.

Looking forward to seeing how you decide to start this one.


I almost thought I might shadow but aggressive AI! I think I might drop well before the marathon has been run.

Ohhh I just wonder why I can never get such a nice start !! 3 resources and gold . I would settle in place and build a workboat first. Techwise Agri + AH seems to be a no-brainer but I could be wrong.

 

[Fei Kelei]

Cool, I look forward to this one. I tried playing a Marathon game once but didn't make it out of the BCs before nearly dying from boredom, so I'll be interested to see how it plays out.

Hilarious avatar, btw. (For everyone else, "mao" also means cat in Chinese)

 

[Torgny]

I would also settle in place. As you say, the fish can be used for a second city.

 

[kossin]

Settle in place, 1W seems a bit lacking on

 

[fed1943]

1W, as I prefer fish to fresh water.

 

[LuCiver]

1W is the only clear tile in your BFC- probably strat resource. Would be a shame to settle it.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

There are a good # of marathon players. The speed that is almost completely ignored (almost) in SP is quick.

1W is probably a strat resource (hopefully an early one) and I'd worry about health somewhat if you head there. Also a plains tile is crappier than a grass one in general although fish is excellent. However when there's doubt such as here IMO settle in place.

 

[UWHabs]

Great cap, at least 2 other good visible city spots (fish, floodplains/grass/river/hills south). Hope for horses 1W and then have some fun with NC.

 

[Fleme]

I played the first 75 turns to get a view of my surroundings and to conceive a dotmap to follow.

I went ahead and settled in place in hopes of a higher production capital and perhaps a strategic resource on the grass. Furthermore, I love fresh water.

Techpath went BW->Hunting->AH and the initial build of Carthage was a Work Boat, followed by a worker, warrior, a second work boat and as of t75, I've started on another worker. Reasoning behind this is that an Indian (Gandhi) Scout came from the east on t5 and a Russian (Cathy) one from the west and I want to chop those forests to make sure I can get atleast the 7 cities I'm looking to get.

On top of what I told here, on t4 my warrior stumbled upon:



Where we are now:



As you can see, the Russian border is already showing to the west and knowing it's cathy, I'm not feeling too good about my chances but I'll try to settle according to my dotmap nonetheless and I feel that with 2 workers chopping and maybe some whip thrown in I'll be able to claim my slice of land.

Thoughts?

 

[LuCiver]

Push as hard as possible to settle copper-pig-fish site to the NW first. This is a promising first step towards axing Cathy. I would scout out Cathy's borders and a bit more on the west and may consider dropping a third city that way in anticipation.

Gold-wheat-cow-marble is also clearly a great site, but pretty much all your other markers are questionable until you scout more. I hate to settle a city near the fog and then find it is 1 tile off of something useful.

Also, not to nitpick but your images are too large and forcing me to scroll left-right. Can you please re-size before posting? Thanks.

 

[Fei Kelei]

That NW copper/pigs/fish site is good enough to be a capital. That plus the gold should get you off to a really strong start.

 

[shyuhe]

Why tech hunting when you don't have any camp resources?

 

[Fabio GP addict]

Why tech hunting when you don't have any camp resources?

I believe to get the bonus for AH and to allow scouts at the same time

 

[Shafi]

I believe to get the bonus for AH and to allow scouts at the same time

Is that really a good enough reason?

@ JFleme
BTW - Is killing cathy early an option? Or will you be looking to out REX her?

 

[Loki Strikes]

Great lighthouse? coastal start, couple good coastal spots nearby, popped sailing, have some forests and a couple hills, that with the gold will make you a tech juggernaut early game

 

[kossin]

GLH with 3 cities coastal is decent but I'm not sure I'd try it here, there's too much valuable land and with Marble TGL+Parth seems like a good way to pull ahead with several bulbs.

Rushing Cathy is an interesting idea - not too used to Marathon but based on numbers it should be easier than on Normal.

Otherwise, I'd go for Writing next as Sailing will connect your early planned cities and allow foreign trade routes.

 

[oleg1]

Why tech hunting when you don't have any camp resources?

Carthagen has no agriculture as start tech. becuse of this AH is not availbale from the start. fastes way is through hunting.