Immortal University X - Alexander the Great

[patagonia]

@ JBossch

Spoiler :

The only way I can think of is to culture bomb to gain control of the ocean tile for yourself. That'll give you intercontinental trade routes instead of HC and allow you to explore further.

 

[silverbullet]

I am surprised there aren't more posts on this thread. I thought Alex was a popular leader.
I haven't had time to play it yet, but I am looking forward to it.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I've been distracted...still have my APG game too ----> been putting off immortal due to civ struggles though it seems I've sorted some of my problems out so I'll give it a whirl soon.

 

[JBossch]

sort of a spoiler if you havent played at all:

Spoiler :

I got bogged down in an elephant war and a horrible tech-rate. It might still be winnable since I had largely cut Charlie down to size. I just didn't really consider it post-worthy.
I would really like to see how some of the experts handle this one though.

 

[Rusten]

Surprised too. I haven't had time yet due to a music festival this weekend but I'll get started on it soon-ish.

 

[slobberinbear]

Giving this a go. I'm a Monarch player, so this should be interesting. Alex is very strong, though, in the early game. Love the Phalanx.

Rambling log through 25 B.C.:

Spoiler :

I normally settle on the first turn, but the discussion intrigued me so I scouted for a turn first -- glad I did. I ended up moving the settler on the hut for some gold, and on turn 2 the scout uncovered the pig tile, allowing me to settle 1E of the original location to get the ivory, pigs, cow, and the mystery plains tile. Since we start with hunting, i'm techhing AH first and building a worker.

Charlie is to our south through the jungle isthmus. Our first victim? He's founded Buddhism and sent two scouts by our land ... suggesting he is on a peninsula and blocked off.

No copper or horses nearby. Switching to Archery. Stone is on the map for possible Great Wall, but don't think I can get there in time.

Settling the fish/elephant site to the west / southwest, as it's the only area I can work immediately ... after archery I'm going for the wheel and pottery to get some cottages going ... will also need mysticism soon.

Charlie is to the south / southwest ... i'm going to try to beat him to the gold site if possible ... fingers crossed. Settler making a mad dash south, using warriors and archers to fogbust along the way. Made it!

Charlie cuts off gold city Corinth from Athens with city in the middle for corn/dye ... will have to connect by sea and get iron asap.

Settled the clam/fp site to the west and the original corn/dye spot to block Charlie. It will be a good city after I raze his abomination ...

Economy in the crapper, praying for cottages and scientists to take off...

We meet Huayna, who is on an island to the SE.

Teching IW. First scientist in Athens, settled there.

Gold hooked up! Athens happy cap is 7 (4 + palace + elephants + gold). Working 4 FP, elephants, and 2 scientists there.

Athens has iron, thank jeebus. One more reason I'm glad I moved where I did ... the iron would have been outside the BFC had I settled in place ...

Iron hooked up. Second GS in Athens, built an Academy. Production city Sparta starting on military buildup. Going for construction to go against Protective Charlie ... I may need HBR for elephants here if Charlie gets to Feudalism soon

 

[silverbullet]

JBossch: put your response in a spoiler please, and specify the year.
Thanks

 

[patagonia]

I am surprised there aren't more posts on this thread. I thought Alex was a popular leader.
I haven't had time to play it yet, but I am looking forward to it.

I picked this one up, but my game's not been going well so far.

I'm looking forward to seeing how other people approach things though.

 

[tycoonist]

i hate all philosophical leaders with the following exceptions: elizabeth, lincoln. that is all...

 

[mboettcher]

i hate all philosophical leaders with the following exceptions: elizabeth, lincoln. that is all...

Have you ever used Freddy? Very, very effective leader and great synergy with his civ. Lincoln's synergy can be debated but at the same time it probably helps him because he can provide strength for early and mid game so you can hit the ground running late....

Go alex btw.


Anyway my advice on this game. Attack Charl early and often. Make him weak before he can horde any landknechts. Plus Axemen uniques are very effective with aggressive.

Also I'd try for the oracle and grab either metal casting or more likely code of laws for caste system (flood plains/caste system/philo trait combo: effective). This way you can maintain teching with GP farming while use your other cities to produce troops and war without too much stagnation of economy.

 

[tycoonist]

nah, its a personal thing. i only like lincoln and lizzy cause they have great second traits.

 

[Rusten]

Up until 225 AD.

Spoiler :

Settled 1SE as there were no resources to the west/north and we started on floods. Got pigs in my BFC so that turned out great although 1E would've been even better; I'd get iron later on.

- Research went AH -> mining -> BW -> archery.
- Got my first setter out on turn 40--I scouted that gold cluster (and Charlemagne) and wanted to make sure I'd get there first. Settled Sparta 1E of the marble turn 46 / 2160 BC.

I continued settling towards Charles in order to get as many cities as possible. At this point I thought he would be my only contact so I wanted to keep him small thus I settled Corinth in-between Athens and Sparta in the blue circle turn 63 / 1480 BC.

However, shortly after I noticed this:

It wouldn't surprise me if it was there before I settled Corinth as well--I don't know. At any rate I urgently whipped a settler in Athens to be able to get trade routes to HC. Having a 2nd AI around is pretty big too in terms of tech trading--especially as Charlemagne failed to found any religion; I'd never get him to friendly. Fortunately Charlemagne valued other city spots more so I managed to settle there (1E of horses) anyway. I successfully get trade routes to HC after the first border pop (and vice versa).

Standard continuation. I chop the GL 125 BC and follow up with the NE in Athens. I've cottaged the city so far, but it will probably run some specialists anyway--especially with Oxford's Uni.

After researching currency I decided to go for music. Given that I'm not spiritual that GArtist could prove very useful for multiple civic changes, I can postpone CS for now. I successfully get to music first in 100 AD.

Next up is a second wave of expansion to the NW. There are some good spots there but I didn't rush into settling them as there is no opposition. Athens/Argos will make some settlers while Sparta will start getting workers after growing. I can't relate to this map being hard as some of you thought; there's lots of room to expand and plenty of commerce resources. Charlemagne isn't that aggressive either and you can just convert to his religion when he founds one. In my game he recently founded Christianity--I might trigger my GA soon to swap into a religious civic, a religion and HR/CS. I'd save 3 turns of anarchy with that. As long as I befriend Charlemagne the continuation shouldn't be difficult.

 

[JBossch]

@Rusten:

Spoiler :

I settled in nearly the same places as you and about the same times, except that I did not get a city south of the gold spot. I beat charlemagne to the spot for corinth by one turn and his settler just went straight there. I was stuck with charlie and HC until 1200AD.
I think getting that city was game-breaking.

 

[patagonia]

@ Rusten:

Spoiler :

Good work aggressively settling towards Charlie. I think beating him to that marble was huge; I got to the gold/pigs, but his culture already covered that tile.

I think the problem I ran into was only meeting Charlie and HC and the two of them being worst enemies, making trading difficult (Charlie teching much faster than me didn't help much either; I think I need to work on my early beaker output).

 

[Dirk1302]

Until +/- 1870 AD

Spoiler :

I played this one until approx 1870 AD, i agree with Rusten that in itself this is a very easy map with all the room to settle. I had invested a huge amount of energy in the Deity Pangae challenge a game that resulted in an incredibly tedious modern war so i played this one quick and rather sloppy.

I imposed a limit that i'd only build cottages if i couldn't build a a pre CS farm and that i wouldn't chop TGL. Not to happy with that seeing this start which screams cottages on FP's, oh well. First i moved the settler onto the Phants, this turns out to be a terrible spot so i move it back. One turn lost. Explore the map and settle my most southern city 1E of marble also catching 2 gold.

I only have trade routes with Charles, moreover Charles takes forever to research currency so i finally researched it myself around 400 AD, research is a meagre 60 bpt at this point but at least i have scientists enough already to bulb all the way to lib once i get to CS. Reach lib around 960 AD, take Nationalism and start on Taj Mahal, i have settled most of the island by now and my game's beginning to look ok. Get constitution and also Oxford around 1150 AD, research is ok now. I reckoned it was too late for a cuirassier rush on Charles, he's the world leader in power and he has lots of cities, not sure but i think he would get something like Rifling or MS stopping the rush. Not all the land is developed so i choose to build up slowly.

Since i've warred extensively in the aforementioned game i'd like to make it easy for myself so i build up an enormous stack with some 25 rifles and 40+ cannons. Declare on Charles who has rifles and cavs by now around 1550 AD,1730 AD Charlie is no more, for maximum result i should have declared sooner. I thougt i was winning easily at that time but i see that Justininan will declare on someone and that can only be me since he's pleased with everyone else. I have traded for railroad by now which helps transporting my army from south to north. 1770 AD Justinin and Louis declare on me, i've no trouble defending but all the seafood gets pillaged and i miss trade routes with Justin and Louis slowing recovery from the earlier war.

Sure enough i get peace with Justin some 12 turns later, Louis follows soon afterwards. I finally get to build up the empire but we're in the 1800's now. Justin researches very fast atm , he beats me to comps and also beats me to Internet by 3 turns. This is not terribly important since we're both way ahead at this point. Means i have to research rocketry myself though. I get the empire more or less on line and research approaches 3K now. Spionage shows me that i research every tech twice as fast as Justin so i should still be ok.

In hindsight i'm a bit sorry that i didn't put more effort into this one, it's a fun map to play for a very good result. The self imposed restriction of only farms hurt in the capital, i really had enough food there anyway, same for some other cities. I think playing this way i should have stayed with slavery (had enough GPP anyway) and farm everything instead of going caste and workshops which almost forced me to go with chemistry early as well.

Missing the traderoutes and the ability to tech trade with others is a pity but i don't feel it's gamebreaking. It's just things like lack of MM, bad timing (researching currency and optics too late for instance) that holded me back somewhat in this game.

@Rusten, good move on the trade routes, i saw HC too late. Question on the routes, why do you get trade routes with HC while you can't reach him by boat? I always thought that the ablility to reach someone by boat was the criterium for getting the routes, well i guess i have to read an article on trade routes too (after the culture article).

@Rusten, which musical festival did you goto? I love music and often go to concerts and festivals myself.

 

[Rusten]

@Above spoilers.

Spoiler :

I settled in nearly the same places as you and about the same times, except that I did not get a city south of the gold spot. I beat charlemagne to the spot for corinth by one turn and his settler just went straight there. I was stuck with charlie and HC until 1200AD.
I think getting that city was game-breaking.

That city made things easier for me, but I wouldn't say it's game-breaking. There's a lot of available commerce, land and food on this map so the trade routes aren't necessary to pull off a good game. The more important thing is finding AIs to trade techs with.

I think the problem I ran into was only meeting Charlie and HC and the two of them being worst enemies...

That makes things a little more complicated indeed, but if Charlemagne had a religion I'd just ally with him and forget about HC as he's overseas. Then again if your tech is too slow to get any trading done it might be better to remain neutral.

@Rusten, good move on the trade routes, i saw HC too late. Question on the routes, why do you get trade routes with HC while you can't reach him by boat? I always thought that the ablility to reach someone by boat was the criterium for getting the routes, well i guess i have to read an article on trade routes too (after the culture article).

I can reach him by boat actually.

@Rusten, which musical festival did you goto? I love music and often go to concerts and festivals myself.

Slottsfjellfestival(.no)

 

[Dirk1302]

@Rusten,

Spoiler :

Ah, i assumed you couldn't reach him since there wasn't too much coastline explored. Indeed you have to build the city there yourself since you can't reach the tile where your arrow starts if it's not your own culture (i tried that in my game).

 

[Dirk1302]

Until 1928 AD

Spoiler :

First a screenshot of the stack i sent to Charles 1600 AD.

Got all the techs 1900 AD, i'm a bit worried since my production is seemingly very low and even in GA some of the parts are costing > 20 turns. readjustung city tiles and running GE's instead of GS's partly solve this problem, i convert tiles in the neighbourhood of problem cities to workshops. Launch 1916 AD with a one engine ship
As i arrive 1928 AD Justin is just finishing fusion, the last tech he needs. Could have managed the race a bit sooner if i had researched rocketry earlier, hoped to get it from the internet which i missed.

 

[BurN]

Been a while since I played civ, thought I'd give it a go since I got some spare time atm.

4000BC-1300AD

Spoiler :

Tech path: Wheel -> Pottery -> AH -> Archery -> Mining -> BW -> Mysticism -> IW -> Writing -> Masonry -> Sailing -> Maths -> Calendar -> Construction -> Currency -> etc ..

Build order: Scout -> Worker -> Warrior -> Worker -> 2xArcher -> Settler -> Worker -> etc ..


4000BC - Found Athens on ivory.

3760BC - Met Charle.

1760BC - Sparta founded near Charle's capital, grabbing corn/marble/floods. Commerce city.

1520BC - Met HC.

1240BC - Switch to slavery.

1200BC - Corinth founded, grabbing pigs/2xgold. Commerce city.

900BC - Capital, giving some nice early science thanks to floods & scientists.




875BC - Thebes founded, grabbing 5xdye/corn/iron. Commerce city.

750BC - First GS from Athens, constructed academy.

325BC - Second GS from Athens, settled in place.

300BC - Argos founded north of Athens, grabbing fish/corn. Will take over the GPP from Athens once it is more developed. Also Charle founded Christianity and spread it to me. But since HC doesn't have a religion still, I don't convert yet.

200BC - HC adopts Christianity and so do I.

25AD - Calendar to HC for Poly/Med/180gold.

150AD - HC adopts Buddhism.

175AD - I switch to Caste & Bureaucracy.

300AD - Third GS from Athens, bulb phil. Also founded Knossos, grabbing northern pig/iron. Prod city.

325AD - Tech overview after researching paper.




350AD - Bribe.




425AD - Col to HC for monarchy/30gold.

540AD - Mycenae founded, grabbing western fish/ivory. Prod city.

600AD - Phil/paper to HC for MC/Compass/Monotheism/130gold.

640AD - Charle wants me to stop trading with HC, I disagree.

660AD - Charle steals compass.

740AD - Receive between 118-236gold.

760AD - Liberalism but I delay it to pick astronomy. I don't have much to trade so I will have to research the pre-req's myself.




880AD - Fourth & fifth GS. I had one hanging around (forgot) so I have two. I partial bulb PP and keep the other for later.

940AD - Gems in Thebes.

960AD - Finally finish Liberalism and picked astronomy.

1030AD - Met Hammurabi. (conf)

1040AD - HC signs peace with Charle.

1060AD - Met Justinian (Buddhist)

1070AD - Met Mehmed (Hindu). Justinian and Mehmed are at war with Hammurabi.

1080AD - Still have a GS doing nothing, partial bulb Sci method.

1100AD - Justin asks to dow Hammurabi and I agree, he can't reach me anyways.

1120AD - Pharsalos founded 1S of stone. Prod city. (will need biology to get good but I need the stone for oxford soon.)

1160AD - Met Louis. (Buddhist) Diplo doesn't look too good but no one but me has astronomy yet so I'm safe for a while.




1160AD - I gift paper to Mehmed. He's lagging behind and gets him up to pleased. Education/100gold to Charle for Gunpowder/literature. Education to Justin for engineering/drama.

1180AD - Another GS. Bulb another part of Sci method.

1200AD - Reached economic first, I keep the GM for corps later. Tech overview.




1230AD - Finished Taj Mahal in Athens.

1250AD - Settled Ephesus at the westerns clam+floods. Commerce city. Also switch to Rep/FM/FR.

1300AD - Last turn of GA, just finished corporations and it seems like a good time to call it a day.


















Techs look good atm, I don't think the AI will catch up anytime soon.. though diplo can be tricky. I don't want to get dowed by the Buddhist block (mainly Louis being a threat). I could use vassalage+hereditary for diplo bonus but that would hurt my econ.

I'm tempted to get physics though democracy/riffling might be a better option. I still didn't get copper so I think I'll skip SoL.

@Rusten:

Spoiler :

Nice move putting Thebes there to reach HC. I didn't think of that.

@Dirk: Good job on your win.


Edit: Sorry forgot to put till what turn I played above spoiler.. fixed.

 

[Dirk1302]

^Thx, i didn't feel like i played a great game though, just about ok at best.

Spoiler :

You've got good research here 1300 AD, are you planning to attack someone or just quietly tech space. I agree with your comment about Rusten's move, very farsighted that was. Just goes to show how important proper exploration is.