King of the World #11: Darius I

[Neal]

Round 0: The Scenario (4000 B.C.)
Round 1: Thundering Hooves! (4000 B.C. - 1900 B.C.)
Round 2: Burning Sands (1900 B.C. - 1400 B.C.)
Round 3: The Barbarian North (1400 B.C. - 650 B.C.)
Round 4: The Numberless Nations (650 B.C. - 245 B.C.)
Round 5: More Expansion! (245 B.C. - 235 A.D.)
Round 6: Waking the Dragon (235 A.D. - 860 A.D.)
Round 7: War!!! (860 A.D. - 930 A.D.)
Round 8: A Regrettable Waste (930 A.D. - 1040 A.D.)
Round 9: Slugfest! (1040 A.D. - 1120 A.D.)
Round 10: The Guns of Chengdu (1120 A.D. - 1320 A.D.)
Round 11: Showdown (1320 A.D. - 1470 A.D.)
Round 12: Cleanup on Aisle Five (1470 A.D. - 1700 A.D.)

Greetings and salutations! As most of you probably know, the King of the World series takes place on Earth maps in order to explore our favorite Civilizations in a historical context. In this, the 11th installment, we'll be going further with that context by playing exclusively with civilizations that were roughly contemporaneous. More specifically, we'll be playing on a 14-Civ Ancient map, playing with societies that existed on or before 1 A.D.

We're moving on from Emperor level in this game, so I thought it fitting to play with the master of the Immortals himself, Darius I of Persia:



Darius is Financial and Organized, making him a beast of an economic leader, and his Unique Unit (The Immortal) is a Chariot with a beefy +50% against Archery units, making it perfect for an early rush. His Unique Building, the Apothecary, is a little bit less eye-popping, but still quite useful. It's a Grocer that gives +2.

We begin with Agriculture and Hunting, which aren't an amazing set of traits, but they do give us an immediate leg up on researching Animal Husbandry, and we do start out with two Hunting resources:



So where do we start? We've got Asoka to the east, Babylon to the west, and some free (if crappy) land to the north. I'd like to avoid the AI mistake of founding Persepolis one off the coast, but I'm not seeing a good alternative. Any ideas?

Oh, and here's the Scenario. Changing things over was overall pretty straightforward, but if anyone sees any problems, let me know (Note: The Khmer are present on the map, but were removed for the game):

 

[huerfanista]

Settle 1W on the plains hill wine, grab horses with city2, then rush Hammi for juicy Babylon. If Sal founds a religion, take him as well. In fact, take out the entire middle east! The best situation would be if Sal founds hinduism and Ghandi founds buddhism (sometimes happens in my games).

 

[AndrewN]

Normally when playing Persia I settle where the settler stands, however I can see why you aren't keen on the idea. Your best bet if you want to move is 1N, which will get you horses in the capitals BFC and the only resource you will lose is the seafood.

Doing this will allow you to Immortal rush somebody without the need for a second city. In a standard game India is your target but in this scenario there seems to be a near neighbour to the west.

Generally the starting location is not the best, lots of plains and desert is never ideal, but the floodplains to the west are superb for a cottage economy and expansion in that direction is normally called for.

Do you have any idea which victory condition you are aiming for?

 

[Tyrant Roger]

I would settle 1N to get the horses quickly. The seafood can be grabbed by a much later city. I would suggest a second city to the north to grab the floodplains there. But you must build a barracks and immortals soon o expand into your two nearest neighbors to the east and west. You probably will need to build only two cities before 1 AD; just take the others.

 

[nbcman]

How about founding a city on the plains elephant for an immediate +1 and a city tile with 2 ? Then found a city to claim the horses (maybe 1 S of the oasis for horses, sheep and wheat). The second city cite can share some of the capital's hills tile for production since the cap has 4 mineable hill tiles.

edit: Founding on the plains elephant won't waste a turn either as opposed to founding on a hill tile.

 

[AndrewN]

I would suggest a second city to the north to grab the floodplains there.

There are no floodplains to the north, just desert (at least in the standard world map, it looks like it is the same here).

But you must build a barracks and immortals soon o expand into your two nearest neighbors to the east and west. You probably will need to build only two cities before 1 AD; just take the others.

I see no reason to build a second city; worker(s), barracks and attack. We can worry about subtlety later

 

[r_rolo1]

If you want to have a immortal opening, definitely 1 N. Otherwise I would consider settling in the phants

 

[Joshua368]

I vote founding on the elephants 1S, they aren't exactly a great tile and the extra hammer on the city tile itself will make up for it. Then I would settle a second city 1S of the oasis for the wheat/sheep/horses and immortal rush something.

 

[UWHabs]

Definitely 1N or 1S are your best options.

Really, since AI don't start with archery, you'll probably have a long time for immortal rushes, so it might almost make more sense to get a second city to pump out more of them. Plus I think 1S will let you get 2 good cities instead of one slightly better city.

 

[Fei Kelei]

India is much better land than Arabia. I say take out Hammurabi first to get that floodplains cottage site going (even better with Financial), then do a 180 and send your Immortals into India. Saladin will be much easier to deal with later in the game than India would be, plus you can let him do all the work of spreading his religion around and get a nice boost later on by conquering Mecca.

 

[Kev]

Not sure if you'll be able to claim the wheat on a second city 1S of the oasis. Unless I am misreading the screen shot, it seems that it would end up in Babylonia's border and likely would not be obtainable by culture - you'd have to oust the Babylonians from the map.

Still, I would like to see the move onto the elephants. Might wish to build the Moai Statues even in the capital and make it an eventual production powerhouse (with the idea of moving the capital to a econ-friendly city later).

 

[Soirana]

IMO, by leaving that much space for ROme you are asking for trouble.

Since you picked start in tightly packed area and di not give AI their immortal techs i suggest rush left to floodplains, and after rush right to India...

 

[mystyfly]

Settling 1N for immortal rush. Don't do that it'll be Just Another Pushover most likely.

Settling 1W for a good capital and build up for probabely a phant war (and construction beeline).

 

[JammerUno]

One West Seems Best

 

[fugazi]

Settle on the elephant and grab the horses with the second city! Your (and others conquered) capitol(s) will have to pull you forward so you need it to be in the best spot possible.

While immediate immortals will surely reap you 2 or 3 capitols, you can still manage to do that if you grab the horses with a second city and without gimping your capitol

 

[Bowfish]

Wouldn't 2 tiles to West be a good alternative? Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't settling on a forest give the same effect as if a worker chops down the forest, meaning a boost for the first production?

 

[Gagonite]

Definitely 1N or 1S are your best options.

Really, since AI don't start with archery, you'll probably have a long time for immortal rushes, so it might almost make more sense to get a second city to pump out more of them. Plus I think 1S will let you get 2 good cities instead of one slightly better city.

Actually, on Immortal (And I think Emporer), they DO start out with Archery on the Earth maps. Can't say they start out with any Archers though.. not sure about that.

1 N or 1 S would be the best bets.. Long term, 1 S would not only make those coastal tiles useful, but it'd also allow coastal trade routes, building navies, and all those fun coastal buildings. So for a long term useful city, 1S would own.

However, for 1 N you get Horses online much faster, AND you even get a juicy Oasis for some short term quick commerce to boot. Great short term advantages for some long term short-falls. Both cities would be production powerhouses either way though.

Eh.. I vote 1 south personally, because I'm more of an economic person than a warmongerer.

Edit: Bah you put the Native Americans in there? Booo Oh well

 

[Soirana]

On my checking they actually did not started with Archery. Anothe rquestion is how soon they will tech that.

 

[CHEESE!]

Woohoo! First page!

Settle 1N!! 1N!!! Grab Babylon!!! Babylon!!!

 

[huerfanista]

Shadow game, immortal epic, thru 1475BC:

Spoiler :

As you can see, I took my own advice and settled 1W
I honestly can't see why others are advocating 1N or 1S. 1W gets every food/resource bonus except for the horses. Jumbos are a fine tile to work for 13 and they can be developed with the starting techs. This becomes a very strong early capital that was spitting out immortals for me every 3 turns. I'm not an immortal player by any means (monarch is where I usually play, except on the Earth maps where it's emperor these days), but this start/leader is ridiculously easy. Pasargade was poorly placed for my 2nd city (1N of the horses would have grabbed the oasis), but by borrowing the sheep from the capital (which has more food than it needs this early), I have 2 good production cities very early. Babylon was taken first, followed by Uruk. I took peace with Ham and Gil and headed west to take Ashoka's 3 cities in short order.

With 7 cities in 1475BC, my main problem will be keeping from crashing the economy.

@Gagonite - no archery or archers for the AIs in the Earth scenarios. Not that it matters, since immortals eat them alive.