[BTS] Joao II - Diety

[pandamancer]

It's been a while

Deity until 880AD

Spoiler :

After getting Aesthetics, tech wise we are really far behind. Since everyone has alphabet, the next step is to go for currency.



Forgot which AI traded with currency. Planted and gifted Leiria to Stalin so he would trade with me. Researched Literature and got iron working, sailing, early religious techs, monarchy, calendar, code of laws from trade. Still no iron! (There is an iron nearby stolen by Stalin... so close! )

Meanwhile, I noticed that Sumerian empire is growing out of control. Suddenly realizing that I forgot to add barb tech. Oh boy, this is getting harder . Later, I noticed that there are still lands unoccupied in NW. To check, I send a chariot to scout that area. There I saw islands not afar; so an idea came to my mind which is to grab good spots from those island, hoping for iron resource. Indeed, luck shines brightly today.



But wait there's more!


Wait, there is still more??


It seems that the game is rewarding me for my sloppy play

Here is a late Alphabet trade:


Horseback Riding is in. To cuirs or not to cuirs:


Self tech philosophy even though it was researched ages ago. First GS went for golden age. Switched to Paci+Caste+HR+Bureaucracy. Second GS half bulbed education. I did not switch back after the golden age. Third GS almost bulbed LIb. The fourth one mistakenly went to the Academy. In retrospect should save that and wait for another one for another golden age.

I decided that since the tech advantage is not big enough, so I went for the cannon plan instead. After trading away education for construction, machinery, optics, engineering. Finally at 880AD:



I still need steel, after that cannon war here I come!

 

[yyeah]

Spoiler :

They was like, Man take Drama Metal Casting and play the game , they probably miss you since "It's been a while" .

Great move by founding this island city, like rly great.
Cannons are preety good but i dubt that you can roll over everybody with it but yea its a good start. Are you thinking about settling or whatever new world ?
Looks like all AI's are at war thats cool.

 

[pandamancer]

Spoiler :

They was like, Man take Drama Metal Casting and play the game , they probably miss you since "It's been a while" .

Great move by founding this island city, like rly great.
Cannons are preety good but i dubt that you can roll over everybody with it but yea its a good start. Are you thinking about settling or whatever new world ?
Looks like all AI's are at war thats cool.

Spoiler :

Yeah, been busy for a few weeks.

If I get to choose, I will always pick coastal island cities over big chunk of continental land; at least in pre-astronomy. Hence, my preference of archipelago maps over continental ones. IMO, Joao is all about options in mid game. Assuming, I go for the peace route. I would fill up all the coastal islands before settling ng the new world. In the new world, I might set up at least 3 vassals to aid me in tech. The fruits of the new world requires astronomy which is a expensive tech and the payoff is not instant.

I remember that someone made a suggestion to build the palace in the new world and gift/vassal the territories in the old world. Again, this requires astronomy for the luxury and gold trading with the AI. So the advantage of starting new in the "new world" is not really that appealing even for Joao. It might work on lower difficulties but a risky one on deity.

On the side of the spectrum, if I went for war mode. Let's just say we are able to eliminate/vassal four of the AI. The remaining AIs settled on the new world. That is still fine. Assuming you dont get really far behind, invading their old territories or launching a naval assault is still possible. By that time you have grown really big so the 2 unit limitation of carracks is not longer an issue. You dont need astronomy at all. Let the AI give it to you.

In my game, my dilemma is who to attack first. Stalin is the weakest and has that iron resource but he is pleased with me. If I attack him, Gilgamesh and Pericles might backstabbed me. Pericles is the 2nd strongest and I will gain +1 from Stalin. But because my island cities are behind his empire, that means my iron resource will be cut off. I would be needing to eliminate or vassal him or else my iron would still be cut off even if I sued for peace. Finally gilgamesh is the strongest and pleased with me. But he just switched his religion so the relationship might so sour at any time. The advantage of declaring him is that I might remove someone that could be a nuissance later in the game. But that would eliminate a reliable trade partner.

 

[diegobueno]

played so many times and getting rekt on monarch, boxed in, because the save on monarch the pc starts with 3 settlers archer+ techs
lol

 

[NineOneSix]

played so many times and getting rekt on monarch, boxed in, because the save on monarch the pc starts with 3 settlers archer+ techs
lol

Well that sounds a bit rough for monarch difficulty. Considering you know the opposition and the map already perhaps use world builder on turn 1 to get rid of the extra units and tech that the AI is not supposed to have? On monarch they are supposed to have a free archer and a worker if I recall correctly? You could do that while giving the barbs their allowed tech at the same time.