Immortal University 101 - Julius Caesar

[Robert FIN]

Robert, did you forget to add the correct techs to barbs after you re-uploaded the save? I ran into barb city filled with nothing but warriors. At Monarch + they all spawn with Archers.

Umm.. Nope. I had to do that? In NC, you should self add the techs. Is it different here?

 

[Izuul]

It's the same as NC if you download the zipped saves and load it as a scenario or what-not, but usually for IU the mapmaker uploads the original Immortal save with everything already good to go. Basically you create the game on Imm, keep the original save to upload, then modify for the other difficulties and package those.

 

[Robert FIN]

It's the same as NC if you download the zipped saves and load it as a scenario or what-not, but usually for IU the mapmaker uploads the original Immortal save with everything already good to go. Basically you create the game on Imm, keep the original save to upload, then modify for the other difficulties and package those.

OK, I try to remember in (possible) next time. However, I think that I packaged the Immortal save too, so that's how you can do it other way.

 

[Smilingrogue]

No worries about the techs.I should have checked to be sure.

In other news how does one play maps like this? I am just gobbling up every piece of land that is not occupied by an AI and have a bloated empire with a healthy economy powered by the Great House of Cheese. But I also don't have a bloody clue where I am going with all my cities or how I should win.

 

[UnforcedError]

^^Going for conquest is never bad...

 

[pandamancer]

Lemme try this map.

I have been playing Noble map often. I have no experience in IMM maps. Probably gonna lose but I just want to see how long I can prolong my agony here

How I see the starting location:

Spoiler :

Poor location
*Weak food tiles (Dry rice and cow).
*average hammer tiles (2 hills + cow).
*I think there should be some resource above
*lots of forest (rush AI or GLH maybe?)
*slow growth and research (no seafood)

Leader
*Organized Trait is good because you can expand more and could pay for your overseas cities. Plus faster lighthouse! So GLH should be a must
*Imperialistic is so-so but given the hammer tiles. You should produce settlers with decent speed at size 3 or 4. But since the map is island type I think the fast settler advantage is weaker. Definitely should go to war to profit more.

Starting Techs
*no agriculture or hunting! Oh no, you need to research it by yourself. Agri first
*sailing is one tech away!
*bronze working is one step away!

UU/UB
*Forum is good if you got Parthenon (+75% GPP)! Wow, almost having a minor philo trait. But since you don't have marble, forget it.
*Praetorian - good at offense and defense. Just hope there will be iron.

So wish me luck!

---

Btw I won't be using any Mod. Is that ok?

 

[soundjata]

No worries about the techs.I should have checked to be sure.

In other news how does one play maps like this? I am just gobbling up every piece of land that is not occupied by an AI and have a bloated empire with a healthy economy powered by the Great House of Cheese. But I also don't have a bloody clue where I am going with all my cities or how I should win.

lots of cannons + lots of grenadiers + lots of galleons imo. Conquest like UE said

Edit: Also you should to go CH first in all your cities.

 

[pandamancer]

Hello guys,

I have posted my progress up to 1 AD. Care to comment about it? Am I teching too slow? Am I too slow at expansion? Are my city sites decent?

Spoiler :

The settings are:
-Immortal Difficulty
-Standard World Map Size
-Temperate Climate
-Medium Sea Level
-Ancient Starting Era
-Normal Game Speed
-No Random Events
-Barbarian gets Archery at start

Scores:
Alexander - 564
Hannibal - 532
Cyrus - 487
[Me] - 361

Tech Research:
Agriculture > Wheel > Mysticism > Animal Husbandry > Pottery > Bronze Working > Sailing > Masonry > Iron Working > Alphabet > Mathematics > Currency > Calendar (trade) > Polytheism (trade) > Hunting (trade) > Meditation (trade) > Code of Laws (currently researching)

Religions Present:
All except Islam!

Events:
GLH built at 750 BC
1st Great Scientist at 75 BC

Future Plan:
Build an army to conquer Carthaginian lands.

*note: I do have screenshot for turn 30, 50, 75 and 100 if you are interested

 

[UnforcedError]

^^Since you haven't posted the actual game, I'd say:

Tech pace looks OK at this stage, in fact you probably focused too much on it and forgot to expand. if it's you who built TGL you should focus on settlers, transports and exploration. You want to uncover trade routes and build as many sites as you can possibly get. If you want to attack Hannibal, fine, but you still have room to settle. Forum building in three cities? What do you want them for at this stage?

 

[rfcfanatic]

Emperor/Normal/NHNE

2002 AD Diplomatic victory. Although The Great Abusehouse was worth its name in pre-Corporation game, the late game turned out to be very painful and I almost lost.

Spoiler :

Spoiler victory screen :

The score was not that bad when considering the extremely late victory date:

Spoiler score :

This is why the late part of the game was painful:

Spoiler victory conditions :

It's almost like Azooka giving me a chance by not launching his spaceship and delaying his last SS Casing part. Hatty tried to win as well - via culture.

I did wage a pre-modern Rifle/Cannon war - against Hannibal - between 1650-1850 or so. Complete annexation of a civ so late in the game caused me to fall back in tech so much that I even had to reload from 1860 AD save after doing horribly against Saladin in early 1900s. Reloaded from the save and peaceful recovery in Univeral Suffrage/Emancipation/Organized Religion turned out to be much more useful than continuing the war against Saladin which was characterized by Slavery, UN Emancipation defiance and Frigates/Ironclads vs Destroyers. The renewed strategy after the reload even helped me to build the Internet in 1944.

Soon after I resumed the campaign against Saladin which also caused me to go into war against Cyrus as well because of a defensive pact. In order to capitulate both of them I had to capture all of their cities located on their main islands.

Next I tried to desperately gain a victory before Azooka could travel to Alpha Centauri and only just I succeeded.

By the way, HE city was extremely difficult to locate on this map. Here's Velitrae - a city built on my main island:

Spoiler HE city :

Robert, thanks for the map! It was a really unique experience for me to play such map type. It required completely different strategies I had not tried before.

 

[pandamancer]

you probably focused too much on it and forgot to expand.

Do you think so? I feel that the single tile islands around the map does not contribute much both in production or research. Worse, it will eat up your treasury. Or because JC is Organized so I can bypass this reasoning?

IMO, the only thing that worth settling the islands is when I got rifling (draft) or to add my land area and population for domination victory later on. Tell me if I am wrong.

Forum building in three cities? What do you want them for at this stage?

Building economy so you wont go bankrupt when you attack Hannibal? Or should I wait and build courthouse later on and build Axe/Preat/Spears now?

Additional Questions:
In 75 BC, should I bulb/settle/build academy from my GS? (I built an academy here to leverage my trade route commerce. On the other hand, if I go bulbing at that time that gives you compass)

 

[soundjata]

Hello guys,

I have posted my progress up to 1 AD. Care to comment about it? Am I teching too slow? Am I too slow at expansion? Are my city sites decent?

You can refer to my 75 AD screenshot on page one.

Your tech speed seems ok.
In my game I beelined COL after GLH techs.
Granaries are not that important when you have cheap lighthouses.

GLH at 750 BC. Now that is pushing your luck

Your expansion is too slow imo. (I have 12 cities at 75 AD)
GLH is abusive on this map because every island city (with seafood) is a profit (especially with a courthouse)

Don't forget to try and meet every possible AI and win the circumnavigation bonus with your boats

I second U_E beer that forums are a total waste of hammers. (In my game I did the mistake of building 4~5 of these for absolutely no profit)

You want to build
- work boats
- galleys
- settlers
- garrison warriors
with you mature cities, and

- courthouses
- granaries
- lighthouses
in your new cities

Now that more have played the map, I am tempted to finish my own game.
Where is the time that I need?

 

[soundjata]

Do you think so? I feel that the single tile islands around the map does not contribute much both in production or research. Worse, it will eat up your treasury. Or because JC is Organized so I can bypass this reasoning?

IMO, the only thing that worth settling the islands is when I got rifling (draft) or to add my land area and population for domination victory later on. Tell me if I am wrong.

Single tile islands are a profit. They contribute to research almost immediately and to the war machine after a few buildings.

 

[UnforcedError]

Do you think so? I feel that the single tile islands around the map does not contribute much both in production or research. Worse, it will eat up your treasury. Or because JC is Organized so I can bypass this reasoning?

IMO, the only thing that worth settling the islands is when I got rifling (draft) or to add my land area and population for domination victory later on. Tell me if I am wrong.

It's exactly as soundjata says wavey. The purpose of TGL is to give you more trade route income in your coastal cities. However, the best trade routes are intercontinental foreign trade routes which is why you want to uncover them and also have open borders with as many AIs as you can. And guess what: you get more trade routes if you have more cities On a map like this, where all of your cities would be coastal and where you can settle tons of little islands which will all provide the intercontinental TR bonus abusing TGL is a given. You'll lose tons of commerce during the game if you only start settling after Rifling. You don't need to be ORG for this strategy to pay off, but of course ORG makes it that much easier with cheap lighthouses and courthouses.

 

[WelshGandalf]

If you get TGL, rule of thumb is you should settle at least 3 islands, no matter how crappy, they will give you a profit across your empire as a whole. Turn your slider to 0% before you settle and after - you can see your gpt will go up for your first 3, almost definitely.

My game at 25AD

Spoiler :

Playing at Immortal which I usually lose at.

SIP seemed best to start... plains hill is nice and chances are there's another resource in the fog - I was right.

Beelined the great lighthouse, built it 1400BC or something like that. Teching was tricky - chose agri then BW to start then was rather aimless - didn't have the wheel for ages for example, and I only had 2 workers until something like 300BC.

Anyhow, eventually I'm at 25AD with 9 cities, plans for 2 more in the near future, 170gpt at 0% slider, Currency just came in which was a huuuuge trade route boost. I'm trying to build the great library in my capital but it seems a long shot. CoL in 4 turns then I will bulb philo, if no-one researches it first. Just got calendar in so silk plus dye will be ready shortly, I need the happy cap boost (though I haven't gotten around to revolting into monarchy yet). Maybe MC after philo - to fight dem stupid barb galleys (grrr).

Found 4 AI's so far, none of them had alphabet so I had to research it myself. Bunch of lamers. Alex has been plotting for ages.

BTW, I've found 2 really silly iron placements in this game so far, bleh!

 

[CrazyAntics]

Why not, starting this one up. SIP.

Spoiler :

Cheeky hidden corn in the fog. I almost settled on rice hoping for some seafood, but the first warrior move saved me some embarrassment.

 

[CrazyAntics]

Oy vey. This map is not so much fun so far. 375 BC.

Spoiler :

Obviously went for TGL. So far, that 24 extra commerce over no having that is keeping the Romans competitive. Dot mapping hasn't been so much fun either, but 5 cities are planned for the mainland, which with my cities on the coast they start with an automatic 6 commerce, so again, not horrible.

What is horrible is my awful fogbusting. That archer is going to be expensive to get rid of. Also horrible is my Capital, which had I settled 1N would've made for a much better city in the future. Finally, a horrible tech path, where I've passed on Alphabet to go for calendar, so the galleys are going out to hopefully find someone who has. Turn 100 with no AH has got to be a record for me.

On the bright side, I'm not convinced the game is unwinnable, so let's go ahead on this one.

 

[Robert FIN]

My epic fail game. Didn't build TGLH... Is this even winnable? I'm in a hurry, so no time for write up ...

 

[soundjata]

Robert Fin

Spoiler :

Pretty sure your game is still winnable.

It was a great idea to start warring with galleys and praetorians. Keep on doing that.

I think you need:
- COL for building the cheap courthouses (especially in conquered cities)
- Construction to help praetorians get cities (aka catapults).

I would probably recommend taking a peace treaty with Hannibal now (try and get calendar in the deal?) and redeclare later, when your SOD is in position.

Consider settling the gold island asap for the happy it provide.

When Hanni is conquered. Consider specializing your cities:
Some of them should focus on expansion
Some of them on military
A few of them on commerce, GP farming

Hope I helped. Good luck

 

[Jelloholic]

Imm, Normall, Lib

Spoiler :

I told myself I'd go for a military victory, as they're less common on Islands, but my god teching so easy...

Agr - AH - BW - TW - Sail I think it went, but the start is pretty standard. Got TGL of course, but the Colossus dropped mega early which was a shame, I imagine someone Oracled MC and got it.

Anyways it's just been crazy expansion up to this point, only Asoka is anywhere decent in tech.

One thing I saw a lot of people doing is filling out the starting island quite soon; I think after the capital, the Clams/Corn and north Rice city the only ones worth settling before you get Calendar. The gold city is much more important, and two additional island cities for trade routes.

Trading with everyone except Persia, who's fighting Alex. Will likely Lib Astro to speed up expansion to the West, and also to connect to Hatty and Sally.

Got the circumnavigation bonus, hoping I can get the Taj before Hannibal, only have @10 turn headstart on him.

I might still go military, but with such a hammer poor map I dunno if it's possible even with the tech advantage; will weigh it up at the end of expansion