Interesting Augustus start [IMM, Pangaea, no hut/event]

[noidroid]

I played this game for a bit and kinda butchered it. I'm interested in how other people would approach a start like this with Augustus.



Played to 400BC:

Spoiler :

It is an unaltered pangaea map but we end up in an area that resembles more of a snaky archipelago start. I was having a tough time finding a good balance of water wonder building(GLH/Colossus), rexing(inland and island), and expansion via war.

I got the iron hooked up pretty late but I was able to trade for ivory so a construction rush on pacal seems like a possibility. I just kinda feel like I'm moving in slow motion with a start like this, especially compared to IMM AI with more standard pangaea starts.

I didn't play long but here's where I decided I was butchering it and to ask for advice:



I think settling on the wine was solid, leaving room for the GP farm right below. My second city was on the stone which I also think was decent. Unfortunately a barb city popped up NW of the stone site and kinda messed me up. I waited to trade for iron working instead of researching(I never play the romans, this was probably a mistake) so I didn't get prats hooked up in time to take it. I built the GLH, was working on the hanging gardens and teching to the colossus. None of which were helping my construction "rush" plans.

Bleh, that save is pretty embarrassing. Believe it or not I can beat IMM pangaea, but I was just plain lost in this game.

**edit - I ended up bailing on the 400BC game and replaying it: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=11799001&postcount=11

*edit - oh yeah it's std/normal size/speed, forgot that in the title.

 

[Revent]

You've got GLH. Settle those island cities? I seen an unclaimed clam right now. I see an easy diplo very possible here. Dogpile Pacal and Izzy, get lots of diplo points for war (whilst being Jewish). AP win

Your tech rate doesn't seem bad so to speak. Still think it's winnable

 

[noidroid]

Yeah it could definitely be going worse. It just feels really slow to me, I'm a little lost without a cottaged bureau capitol for research and it feels like I missed my window for early war(lack of forests to chop is cramping my style as well).

I have no interest in AP cheese, I don't find it at all fulfilling or helpful for improving my game. Though UN diplomation is sometimes acceptable

 

[lymond]

If you are enticing folks to play along, it's best to post just a screen shot of the start as opposed to the spoilery shot above. Most prefer not to be spoiled if they are playing a game. Otherwise, if you are just asking for advice on your current situation, then nevermind. But the posting of a start save makes me think the former.

 

[noidroid]

^ good call, I'm new to the interactive aspect of this forum but have been lurking for a while. I did intend to encourage people to play along, I have a feeling I'll be restarting this game due to botching a few key aspects.

Spoiler :

Namely my lack of inland settling due to slow prats and poor fogbusting

 

[gspchamp999]

1AD

Spoiler :

Settled on the wine as well and 2nd city was on stone too. Stone city did not need warrior because Pacal was fog busting the east, so that warrior went NW to fog bust. 1 warrior sent east of capital to fogbust.

Got ~50 fail gold from GW in my 3rd (cow) city and then it built only settlers for a while. Got some fail gold from Hanging Gardens in capital.

Got GLH and Pyramids.

Tech was something like BW, Agriculture, Sailing, Myst, Masonry, AH, Writing, Math. Trades are shown in the screen shots below.

Declared on Isa when I saw Kublai could be bribed, then brought Monty in as well.

Spoiler :

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Will take a look at your save in a few.

 

[noidroid]

@gsp: wow, thanks.. very helpful

Spoiler :

Did you go GLH/Mids back to back in capitol at two cities? Wait till 3rd/cow city was settled? Or whip the cow city settler into overflow for a wonder? I settled the two peninsula cities way too soon, I saw the copper and nice GP site and foolishly hurried it.

I'm not a big mids guy so I didn't even attempt it. I see the settled engineer in the capitol, I take it you plan to settle a number of guys there with rep running? Like I said, I almost exclusively do the cottage/bureau thing so that type of capitol did not occur to me the first time around.

Is that a fake war you've started against spain? I don't even know where she is and I'm curious what kind of offensive force you could have at this point in the game. I was thinking jewish or no religion and attacking pacal all the way.

 

[gspchamp999]

@Noid

Spoiler :

I believe I started mids right after GLH completed. My worker had nothing to do so I built a settler right when my 2nd city was settled and chopped him out (Imperialistic). First tile I chopped was the spice in case Pacal got a border pop, which he eventually did.

Rest scientists will be for bulbs. Looks like I might only get 1 or 2 before lib but techrate is fine with GLH.

I declared one Spain because I saw Mongolia could be bribed. The cost to bribe is extremely cheaper if the person already in a war. I actually couldnt get Kublai to declare with the techs I had until I declared. I chose her because she hates me and I have no idea where she is and Monty could be bribed on her too. She cant reach me because she would have to go through Mongolia.

Pacal demnaded I join his religion so I did. He was the only one I was concerned with when that happened because I had no borders with anyone else.

 

[gspchamp999]

Did you continue on in this map or start over?

 

[noidroid]

I will be replaying this map sometime this weekend, no time till then

 

[noidroid]

Alright, busy week but finally got back to this game this morning. Actually I tried a different open last night, oracle MC and still get mids/GLH, failed.

Replayed this game to 1AD:

Spoiler :

Agri -> BW -> Masonry -> Myst -> Sailing -> AH -> Writing -> MC -> trade for alpha and buncha other stuff -> Aesthetics -> Currency -> CoL -> 1AD
Managed to randomly trade for the wheel somewhere in there, which was nice.

Got GLH, Mids, Colossus in capitol. I know colossus isn't that great for non financial but my island cities will be working plenty of water tiles and I had copper. I wanted a forge in my capitol asap and stupid barb galleys are stupid. Settled first GE, may bulb most of machinery if I get a 2nd and opt for medieval war.

The Empire:





I'm 1 turn away from settling the single fish island. Hopefully I can get that barb city, got a 3rd prat 2 turns away from attacking and don't see any significant AI stacks. I'm trying to hurry up and grab the island spots I marked, those along with the barb city would be 11 peacefully settled spots.

Tech/trades/Rome:



Just finished CoL, just placeholding with CS but will prolly go that way. Pacal teched to Literature and Calander with marble, hopefully he'll build GLib, MoM, and maybe even SChapel by the time I'm ready to attack.



Doing good on happy and health caps, I'd like to trade for construction soon so I can make some jumbos for the hell of it.



Good times. This proved to be a nice spot for early wonder spamming and that lucky silver really helped the tech rate.

Diplo:

Oops forgot SS. Ramses and Monty have been at war for a while. Haven't met izzy yet, need to build a scout and find her I reckon

I've come this far without a religion and don't need the happy. OR would be nice but I've got most of the infra I need in my inland cities so I'll prolly just remain neutral.

The Plan:

Thinking medieval war. I usually prefer to rush someone with HA, cats+something, or knights at the latest.. but that just wasn't in the cards with 10+ peaceful coastal cites available on a pangaea map.

I think passing on medieval war and trying to lib steel/MT to roll several AIs is a good idea as well. In fact I know it is, that's how I usually win on IMM

I've already restarted this game so it's not going to "feel" like a legit win regardless, I may as well keep trying new things and hopefully do better the next time I encounter this situation. So yeah, I need to finish expanding and head towards engineering. Will probably just tech CS and hope for another GE to bulb most of machinery. I should do well against pacal as long as I remember to beg a gold from churchill first. Maybe I should tech Feudalism instead of CS.. with enough trebs I shouldn't need maces, pikes/CBs/Prats will be fine and I guess I'd rather have vassalage(and the ability to vassal Pacal) than bureau. Or I could tech machinery and hope to GE most of engineering instead, that would definitely shave some years off the attack date. Hmmm.

I should also remember to look out for a chance to get kubla into a war, I don't do that enough and it'd be nice to slow the global tech pace enough to maybe still win lib down the road.

Advice/comments/shadows are all welcome, as is playing the map on your own without spoilers.. I still think it's kinda a fun map with this leader.