Immortal University XVIII

[sampsa]

Hello all and welcome to the resurrection of the Immortal University!

Double wet corn, should be super easy? You will encounter some problems that I found intriguing. It's a very good map to learn empire build up.

I was shocked how people approached this start 10 years ago, but then again, the understanding of the game has developed significantly since then.

 

[Lain]

When I download the WB save and select Deity, demographics show wrong unit numbers. Can't edit it myself without spoiling the map. Help?

 

[elitetroops]

Help?

Here.

You can edit worldbuilder saves without spoiling the map. In this case the AI also had Immortal techs. Added The Wheel to them all in this version.

Edit: Huh? That's weird.. When I load the attached WBsave, Civ tells me it failed to read it, but then I can still load it and game appears to be perfectly fine..

Edit 2: Ok, it was because the file was open in text pad...

 

[sampsa]

Next youtube game for Lain? Would be fun and educational.

 

[sampsa]

Quiz time!

On which turn is a corn improved if you

a) SIP
b) settle SE
c) settle somewhere else?

Spoiler Answer :

a) 17
b) 18
c) 15

a) 13 turn worker (exp bonus from plains hill after border pop), 4 turns to improve (since the improving starts on the turn the worker is out)
b) settling T1, 12 turn worker, worker loses a turn when moving towards corn
c) settle SW SW on a plains hill on T1, 10 turn worker, improve in 4 turns

 

[sampsa]

T50

Spoiler :

So, I was mostly shocked that nobody settled 2SW which looks like a no brainer to me, 3 turns faster development compared to 1SE and a +1 city center for the rest of the game. SIP feels wrong to me but at least there are two green river cottages then.

I'd say mining-BW is more or less a no brainer too, early chopping is lucrative and with these tiles whipping settlers seems like a good idea too. Fishing would be nice, sure, but there is a LOT of food already. So the first pleasant problem was how to share it all.

I think 2nd city is obvious (settled T31). Coastal fish on the 1st ring, connected to capital via coast. Early should not be neglected! This of course means that after mining-BW next tech is fishing.

3rd city should share corn. Maybe scout north and put it on the coast... Or just ignore connection for now and put some forests into use! I think Oracle makes a lot of sense here (on non-deity) and I think the best tech to take is

Spoiler :

Monarchy. Easy to get (doesn't require writing, which would delay Oracle date) and HR is just a very useful civic with these tiles and high cap due to expansive trait. 3 wines too, which are decent tiles and good trade bait.

So, 3rd city goes 2E of southern corn (settled T37 with the help of chops and a whip). Note also that the city will grab pigs with Oracle culture. Now setting up a worker whip to overflow to Oracle (meaning whip it when priesthood is due next turn). Need to work coast to get priesthood in 3 turns.

 

[Lain]

I went SE

Spoiler :

Not because it's better, just for land grabbing reasons. Had too many bad experiences when hugging the coast.

 

[sampsa]

I went SE just for land grabbing reasons. Had too many bad experiences when hugging the coast.

Makes sense I think, on easier (=non-deity) difficulty levels the game is more like sim city and you should focus more on maximizing your empires capacity than paying attention to the AI. Famous last words.

 

[sampsa]

These are fun. Don't want to necro every thread, so I'll just spam this one.

https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/immortal-university-xii-joao-ii-of-portugal.289467/

Maybe this one would be a challenge on deity for Lain?

T75

Spoiler :

You'll see like T6 that you are very much blocked off, but there's a nice phant on enemy 2nd ring. Worker steal T9, capital has copper, plan is clear. Lucky that events are on, get peace via an event.

Settled 2nd city pre-attack because settlers are so cheap when whipped with an imperialistic civ and because there are some forests to chop. Re-declare T42, a bit bad luck with rolls but no biggie. GG to the rescue, attach to 3 axes for 2*cr3 and a woodsman II to take all the workers.

Then just settle land, take good barb city with cr3-dudes (95% odds ). Planning to take the whole continent at currency. Want him to make shrine first and give me monarchy though.

 

[Lain]

Shame it's Joao, already played him. But why not, after I battled to the death with the Shaka map.

 

[krikav]

After @sampsa 's recommendation I'm having a stab at this game.

Spoiler T60 :

Settled SE to get pig and claim more land.
Had one bazzilion barbs spaned in the area between me and charly, had to resort to settling fish city first (wanted to claim more green land in the middle, but too late.)
Charly founded buddhism and built SH, so his culture will be tough.
He sniped my fb scout by building TGW and teleporting a barb archer upon me. >_<
Techpath mining->bw->fishing->tw->pottery->AH. Wanted to get AH earlier but the commerce situation dictated otherwise.
Had to delete two warriors to save upkeep too.
Didn't see that western fish untill capital third ring borderpop, but that spot was a given city site anyway.
Was thinking about about splitting the pig on two cities to get a few more riverside cottages, but decided against it to avoid bordertension with charly, also would have been lackluster cities with only one food to share.

Have attached T60 save and a zip file with all T0-T60 screenshots. Feel free to ask questions if something is unclear.

NO copper, NO horses. And seeing this is a lain-game I start to suspect that there is no iron either.
Plan is to cottage heavily, go for monarchy for the wine and to get some happines going.
I probably have to send some gift cities to keep more safe while I try to get some kind of edge.

 

[krikav]

@sampsa and T50:

Spoiler :

you had much earlier cities than me, and with map knowledge I think your capitals pos is better. It's only Nobamba that would have been partially contested and I think that would have been easy to get anyway.

Extremly risky to wander to the coast though. It seems like you can work your way out of almost anything, but being really starved for land is a way worse curse than being 5 turns behind, and if this map would have been evily evil, settling on the coast like that could even have costed both the pig and most rivers.

I'll go watch @Lain 's video up to ~T60 now to see what I did wrong.

 

[sampsa]

@krikav My game was on immortal though. Agree that on deity moving towards coast is often too risky, even if it's the fastest start.

 

[krikav]

Spoiler :

Still think it's the best play on this map! Too much of the land in the middle is stinking plains.

 

[krikav]

T60 again, have watched Lains video now.

Lain got a city by them lush green rivers. That would really have been nice.
A chop-powered 2pop whip of the first settler was way faster than mine 3pop whip. Had I gotten that right perhaps I could have gotten the pig-city earlier and avoided alot of barb spawns.
Commerce wise I'm in much better shape though. Don't think min->bw->AH was right here. Like my pottery before AH aproach first better even though it left the pig-city stunted.

 

[krikav]

Did you play this one out @sampsa ?
Also, there seem to be quite a few nice finds among the old IU games.

 

[sampsa]

I browsed through old saves and it seems I played out until 150AD. Nothing overly spoily in the screenshot, but probably you should read only after you have IW.

Spoiler :

Oracled monarchy as planned, went CoL (didn't win confu), bulb philo, start GA, ran merchants so been at 100% slider for the most part. Maynard is drinking tea in Karakorum but will be at least another +900. Pretty weird play going for engineering now, but anything works on immortal I guess. Setting up optics-astro-bulb(s) I guess while taking more cities. Paying 20 per turn for those city garrison warriors, but of course with such cities can whip many swords and stuff to go with trebs. I'm in pacifism for now, but running specs only in Ulundi. Probably should have gone for one GM less and one GS more... Maybe this is the reason I didn't feel like continuing.

 

[Izuul]

Took a peek at this one on Immortal.

Spoiler :

GLH looks very appealing here, but I don't know how practical it is to build. I've played 32T so far. Settled on the PH, teched Fishing > Mining > BW and built WB > Warrior > Warrior while growing to size 6. Just revolted BW and about to 3 whip a settler. This is where the tough choices begin though. I see 5 coastal cities pretty easily, but I'd like to grab the contested pigs spot pretty quickly and i would like AH for that (plus the sheep). The pigs are enough food to support some brown cottages so that + fish and lake tiles are already pretty decent early commerce if i go AH > TW > Pottery. I would also like to know if that mysterious tile is horses or iron as it was not copper.

Monarchy looks very important here with wine and no other happiness resources (aside from the gems that are too far away).

I think I'm just gonna for AH and probably ignore GLH. Seems too expensive and too slow with an OK alternative for commerce.

 

[krikav]

Spoiler T144 :

Apparantly I didn't take any screenshots T60-T72, but I was just going for writing.

A collection of screenshots up until T144 is attached.

Got Buddhism spread relatively early and got gems for trade.
Gifted cities to both fellows techted monarchy->CoL then later some time to CS.
Civic swaps first to HR+Caste. Alot of focus on GPP generation. Capital is set up for burocracy (even hills cottaged).
Academy first, then Philo bulb.
Once CS is in, revolt to CS+Pacifism.
Both Charly and Kublai became friendly rather early, and I traded very heavily with them. I like to to this in continents-style games with the reasoning that it's better if my own continent get ahead.

The cramped Zulu empire.

I think that the utility with astronomy isn't as huge in such a setup as it is if you have more resources so you can trade heavily.
I would get intercontinental trade routes but with 6 cities that also feels pretty marginal.

I really like the two-stage civic swapping, first to HR+Caste and later CS+Paci to minimize turns in anarchy.
Was really carefull to work two cities for GPP constantly, but after those two, cities got to grow untill I had pacifism, only when that civic was in, cities went full tilt with GPersons.
Academy, Pacifism, Education (1), Lib.
I can't remember what the fifth GSci put his bulb into, but I think it was PP, and I self-teched chemistry.

The game-saving capital. It will be completely slaughtered soon though.

 

[Izuul]

@krikav is that a deity game?