IO6 - Math is for the weak!

[Horgh666]

Lurker comment:

Interesting game, I'll be following this closely. A shame the corn is dry... but hey, at least you have floodplains.

 

[IdiotsOpposite]

Hmm. I played a similar game, and it turns out that I didn't even need spies. I rushed to Buddhism, based my economy off of that, and in general boomed into an empire. I even had time to found Stonehenge. Then I grabbed a few worker techs then I beelined to Guilds. Turns out I didn't need siege either. Barracks+Stable+Vassalage=Win (Maybe we could throw Theocracy in there too). Trust me, it's fun to have units coming out the gate in 1 AD with the equivalent of 14.4 attack. And in addition to that, after Guilds you can immediately Gunpowder, then backfill for the rest of the requirements for Riflemen.

All in all, I think this will be a fun game for us.

 

[BobRoberts]

That does sound amusing if we can get it firing right! Big stompy highly promoted cavalry sounds awesome!

Glad to see Byz out and about.

Likewise I'd kinda lean towards start 1 as well - it's rather strong and this variant could be quite tough... might help.

Don't fancy start 2 much.

3 could be cool if there's another food lurking around in the vicinity...

 

[AntiTwelve]

We're going to need strong commercial centers to make up for lack of wealth production. Start 1 has my vote, so does byz. Were we still voting on that issue? No matter, I'll have more to say after the opening turns.

 

[IdiotsOpposite]

So here's my plan, which sort of models the plan I tried earlier (albeit on a lower difficulty). I'll play the first 25 turns, then someone plays 15, then 10. This will get the opening turns over faster. I'm planning on rushing Buddhism if I can, then going for Agriculture, Pottery, and then Mining-BW. However, I'm not used to playing solo on Monarch (I'm always in an SG ), so does anyone with experience know if Buddhism is possible?

 

[woopdeedoo]

I agree with start 1. Also, since we start with Mysticism, I'm sure we can grab Buddhism.

 

[neilmeister]

Hey IO,

Happy to be lurking...... start 1 looks best... by far.

You will get Buddhism, if you want it. Bigger question is why would you want it ?

 

[IdiotsOpposite]

Hey IO,

Happy to be lurking...... start 1 looks best... by far.

You will get Buddhism, if you want it. Bigger question is why would you want it ?

Because I checked, and without religion our best economy will probably be the religious one. And fortunately for us, religion and math don't mix.

 

[BobRoberts]

It's a minor crapshoot on Buddhism. Can be done, but might fail if there's an AI with the right setup out there.

Religion wise, I've had more joy on Monarch+ going for Code of Laws via Oracle or bulbing Philosophy (that one is not so hot in this game!) if I want religion, generally safer and lets us get those important worker techs much faster... or let one spread to us, let the owner build the shrine and then we nick it.

There's plenty of other approaches that should work for us. Lots of cottageable floodplains, which can really deliver. Caste System and merchants...

 

[MatrixTheKitty]

going for Code of Laws via Oracle

lurker's comment: Ooh, we did this in 8 City Challenge, worked well. I'm having problems remembering to play when it's my turn in that, though, so I don't think I'll be playing in this, IO. But I will watch!

 

[woopdeedoo]

Well folks, since we have our start, maybe we should decide tech path? I think going for meditation first is the way to go. Although we dont have many trees near our start, I still like beelining to BW. Slavery is really nice for an early rush but I also think we need chariots etc so AH is also a priority in my mind. Thoughts?

 

[BobRoberts]

Sounds a good idea to get thinking!

Think the big decision is whether to go for religion first.

Given we have no starting food technology, then I feel that going religion first will really slow up growth and is a big waste if we lose it - which we may well do at monarch. My strong gut inclination would be to go worker techs first and then grab the Oracle and get the 'safe' Code of Laws religion.

I think agriculture + worker first would be really strong given our start - the corn is great and can irrigate a flood plain or two early to spur growth.

Slavery > Pottery after that should be worth considering, we have tons of food and an early happiness resource in the BFC... get those grannaries and make all that lazy food work for us! Plus throw down some cottages - we may never be going civil service, but the palace still makes the capital a great place to focus the economy.

I'd say AH slots in neatly after that - we'd want Hunting to get the ivory online and can see by then whether we have copper or nearby animal resources we want to work... plus it makes writing cheaper, which we'd need for CoL/Oracle and would want anyway.

 

[IdiotsOpposite]

Sorry I haven't been able to post lately, but I've been frantically getting ready for Spring Break. Once I get home, I'll be sure to do a turnset, I promise!

Now where is my ride...

 

[Brian Shanahan]

Sorry I haven't been able to post lately, but I've been frantically getting ready for Spring Break.

Ah, the innocence of youth.

 

[AntiTwelve]

We doing this? I say play the first 10 turns and post, then we'll commit to a plan of action.

 

[IdiotsOpposite]

We doing this? I say play the first 10 turns and post, then we'll commit to a plan of action.

What a coincidence. I'm playing right now.

 

[AntiTwelve]

Great minds, indeed.

 

[IdiotsOpposite]

And now the first ten turns are complete! With village finds, the meeting of Byzantium's traditional neighbor, and our people somehow figuring out how to farm things!

Let us begin, as we must, at the beginning: Turn 0. We start by founding our illustrious capital, Constantinople:

And illustrious it indeed is, with corn and floodplains and perhaps, if the city expands, some rich ivory to decorate our houses to the south. However, our people do not understand what to do with this corn! Therefore, we must research how to more efficiently take the corn and use it for us. And we must hire people to take this corn and harvest it, must we not? Hence, our next course of action:

Yes, that is right. Agriculture and worker. Now, our warrior starts to explore the many villages found around our city. At turn 2, he visits a village and, lo-and-behold...

We got some gold from it! Woot.

In turn 5, our capital expands, and we get another village taken, and apparently they knew a lot about our northwest:

Yay for us! The next village we get gives us moar gold, and we also meet Hammurabi of Babylon. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures for both of these. Yeah, I'm sorry. However, I did get a picture of our people learning how to farm:

And with that, and one more turn (can you really resist one more turn?) I end my turnset. Here's a look at the situation:

It's a rather nice area, I suppose. I have a feeling the pig-wine might make a good city. And just as a checkup, here's what we're working on right now:

So yeah, that's that. Here's the save:

Math is for the weak! - 3600 BC

 

[AntiTwelve]

Our saving grace here is that we're on a pangaea script. Remember, our best and last unit to build will be cataphracts. Maybe attempting this variant on continents will be the next step. But I digress, we're going to need to expand quick and then hit a neighbor hard. Someone with a shrine would be good, because quick expansion without mathematics is not viable economically. We're going to need to cottage the cap. and then focus on production centers, because too much whipping without calendar will cause our empire to stall production and/or break apart.

Perhaps we should go for a religion ourselves, spread and shrine? This will be the only form of income besides those cottages. I'll get some input from our team before I play the set.

 

[IdiotsOpposite]

Our saving grace here is that we're on a pangaea script. Maybe attempting this variant on continents will be the next step.

This is impossible: without mathematics, we can't get astronomy, so all military victories are impossible (unless we get REALLY lucky on getting the larger landmass). Diplomatic victories are next to impossible, although I suppose we could get it to work, maybe. Space victory is clearly impossible. That leaves cultural, with no radio or really much of anything cultural beyond music.

But I digress, we're going to need to expand quick and then hit a neighbor hard. Someone with a shrine would be good, because quick expansion without mathematics is not viable economically. We're going to need to cottage the cap. and then focus on production centers, because too much whipping without calendar will cause our empire to stall production and/or break apart.

I agree with all of this. Fortunately, it IS possible to get currency without maths, and guilds too. So everything short of banking can be used to help us.

Perhaps we should go for a religion ourselves, spread and shrine? This will be the only form of income besides those cottages. I'll get some input from our team before I play the set.

This might be a good idea, but our best choice for that would be CoL/Confusedianism. Although I bet we could do it.