Immortal University XXXV: Justinian

[Tobiyogi]

Second city at T17. Just by looking at the screenshot abvove, I decided to settle on the PH, work the spices and get a settler in 15T. It's a strategy that I'd consider more often in the future, when I play an IMP leader. It worked out great, and it had longlasting effects, for ex. I could get the oracle and lib safely and faster than usual. But I did other mistakes that's why I didn't finish or win that map.

 

[sampsa]

Not sure if that is better than the "obvious" 1S, agri-mining though. Highly depends on the quality of the 2nd city site, I suppose. But indeed, Justinian is just the leader to go for size 1 settler (due to weak starting techs), under certain circumstances.

edit: meant settle 1S, worker first, if that was unclear.

 

[sampsa]

Deity easy mode, T50

Spoiler :

Easy mode, since it's immortal starting units for AI, meaning only one settler. I did remember to add archery to barbs though. Agri-mining-hunting-archery-fishing-(AH). Archery turned out completely unnecessary, oh well. Just didn't want to die to barbs. Saw only one barb archer so far and some warriors. Deleted two warriors in order to not pay maintenance, as barb threat seems to be over and I have two archers. Not sure if also AH was dumb and should have gone pottery, as is weak. Anyway, seems like a safe position and AI is much slower than usual in expansion.

 

[Tobiyogi]

Not sure if that is better than the "obvious" 1S, agri-mining though. Highly depends on the quality of the 2nd city site, I suppose. But indeed, Justinian is just the leader to go for size 1 settler (due to weak starting techs), under certain circumstances.

edit: meant settle 1S, worker first, if that was unclear.

Yeah, worker first is almost a no-brainer. But, I have come to appreciate a lot such an extremely early second city, even if the land is not great. If you look closer at it, the tech-rate is not crucial in the first 50 turns. You will get the most important techs anyway. Two cities means double production. Two workers, two warriors, another settler. It is the snowball-effect. Btw, that's one reason I do not play on deity, because I hate the AI having 2 settlers right from the start. It's just too much.

 

[sampsa]

Well, two cities is not really double production. Here, capital working unimproved corn is +3+2 and 2nd city probably +3+1 at best. Capital working improved corn is +6+2, so nearly the same. So it's not really the amount of cities, it's the amount and quality of worked tiles.

This start has no problems with , that is clear. I had to delele warriors and was pumping out settlers so fast I couldn't afford settling them immediately.

I think deity is easier than it appears at first glance. Just set up your empire properly and it doesn't really matter if AIs have +10 cities 1000BC. They will be your cities soon.

 

[krikav]

Deity is easy IF you manage to handle barbarians and navigate diplomacy and not getting killed early in the game and you manage to get some minimum slice of the available land and you do this all while trying to keep upkeep low and techrate at some decent pace that don't leave you completely in the backwater.

Then it's just a walk in the park!

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Well, two cities is not really double production. Here, capital working unimproved corn is +3+2 and 2nd city probably +3+1 at best. Capital working improved corn is +6+2, so nearly the same. So it's not really the amount of cities, it's the amount and quality of worked tiles.

This start has no problems with , that is clear. I had to delele warriors and was pumping out settlers so fast I couldn't afford settling them immediately.

I think deity is easier than it appears at first glance. Just set up your empire properly and it doesn't really matter if AIs have +10 cities 1000BC. They will be your cities soon.

There's something to be said for getting that 2nd city down fast, as deity AI expand quickly and even one placement can alter how it approaches settling land near you. Issue is doing this and still surviving barbs + potentially hit depending on start.

 

[sampsa]

Certainly, blocking can play a role! Still, usually that 2nd city should be connected in order not to be -negative, so a river or coastal connection would be good. I'd say with the T0 info on this map starting with a settler is not the best play, mainly because the alternative (improving a 6-tile asap) is just so good.

T115

Spoiler :

Game is shaping up great. Gifted a city to Shaka (what else to do with all those ?) and got 8 decent cities up. No need to try to contest the jungle, those cities can be taken via war later. Buddha block is warring thanks to Alex. I think Mansa is fighting with the unmet civ (hindu founder) and Hams got bribed to dogpile Alex. Then there is the Tao block - me and Shaka. Just begged a -resource from Shaka just to be safe, though I don't think I'm the victim (wasn't even a land target 5T ago when he started plotting) and he doesn't like people. So diplo situation couldn't be any better really.

Thanks to Mansa, CoL was easy to get via trade and philo bulb was an obvious choice (425 BC). Now going towards cuirs, being in caste+philo working on . Probably a bulb towards edu and lib.

 

[sampsa]

T156

Spoiler :

Normal buildup towards cuirassier war. One bulb to education, one to liberalism, one merchant mission. Upgraded elephants and HAs. Picked Hammurabi as first victim, as he seemed weakest. He did have some sort of stack fighting with Alex (for Hastings, which Alex had taken from Vic). That stack was wiped out, and now he has nothing (Mari had like 3*longbow and some cats), so the war was a breeze.

Took 4 cities and accepted capitulation. England will be easy to attack via Hammurabi's land.

No idea why, but I went guilds-banking and now racing for economics with Mansa, and I'll likely lose that race. Game will be won though.

I can recommend this in-between difficulty level for people who want to take the step towards deity but are quite not ready for it yet.