King of the World #11: Darius I

[Belisar]

Settle 1N, no need for a junk horse city, then cranck out the immortals, lot's of juicy targets around

 

[Gagonite]

Ah I thought they did.. must only be the Earth 34 Civs Random one then.

Anyways, played as Ireland to 25 A.D. on Immortal..

Spoiler :

Man I'm getting slaughtered in terms of economy, research, and military. Starting out in Ireland is like starting out as Huanya Capac, but with neighbors, and little room to expand. I was lucky to be able to get the two good city spots on the English mainland, and those two cities are doing much better than my capitol. When it comes to the AI (In the old world at least), Rome is on top by far, controlling all of Western Europe and bits of Russia. They also ganged up on Greece along with 1-2 other Civs and vassalized him (Yep, in the B.C.'s even) Pericles is just a pushover compared to Alexander. Egypt is 2nd on the line, and since he's pretty much alone in Africa (Carthage only has 3 cities in Northern Africa), plus the great wall, he can expand like a mofo and not worry about any barbarians. Heck, since Carthage is the only non-barbarian protected civ in Africa, the barbs are kinda funneling his way.

Right now there are 2 major religions: Hinduism and Judiasm. Most of Asia plus Darius and myself are Jews, while everyone else is Hindu's. Its pretty much an even split. Not sure where Bhuddism or Christianity were founded.. but they were founded. Probably Bhuddism got snatched by Pacal..

Oh, and I checked out America in World Builder, Sitting bull controls nearly all of N.America, Pacal's just picking his nose where Neal started him, with only one other city.

Neal's going to have fun this game.. too bad it won't be an epic Persia vs. Greece type of thing after his neighbors are under-foot.

 

[huerfanista]

@Gagonite

Spoiler :

Yeah, the celts get somewhat screwed on this map, with Rome being given all that juicy room to expand. Celts on Earth34 are another matter - I played with the Ireland start location - and I ran over everyone for an 1806 dom win. On the current E18 map that Neal's using, Rome will be a handful! I assume the leader is Julius and not Auggie? (haven't met him yet in my shadow game)

 

[Neal]

re: Leaders- I changed some things around, mostly going with E18 leaders when there's a choice. Rome has Julie, the Celts have Boudica, and India has Asoka, so that should beef up their military abilities a little bit. Greece has Pericles, though, and China has Qin. As you can obviously see, we have Darius as Persia. Oh, and all this talk of "conquering Mecca" or "adopting Saladin's religion" is a little misplaced. Arabia's not on this map...

re: Persepolis- I'm really torn between 1N, 1S and 1W. 1N makes a lot of sense for a rushing opening, but it might be too successful (I don't want the game to be a total cakewalk, even if we're moving up a level).

1S makes some sense long-term, since Plains Elephants are kind of a crappy tile. Not terrible, mind you, but, if you consider that the capitol could be getting +1 if we settled on it, it ends up only being a 1 2 1 tile. For the duration of the game. In addition, it's the only move that won't cost us a turn.

1W puts us right in Hammurabi's grille. It pretty much straightjackets us into making him our primary target, due to the BFC overlap with Babylon, and will keep our two capitols wrestling for the overlap tiles even after the takeover (admittedly, two Plains Forests and a Coast, but still...). It does put us closer for a rush, though.

Hmm... After laying it all out like that, 1S is looking better and better...

re: Rome- Yeah, he's gonna be really strong. That's deliberate. I'm looking forward to an epic clash with a proficient Caesar, rather than some sap playing a two-city challenge on the Italian peninsula.

 

[Gagonite]

@Gagonite

Spoiler :

Yeah, the celts get somewhat screwed on this map, with Rome being given all that juicy room to expand. Celts on Earth34 are another matter - I played with the Ireland start location - and I ran over everyone for an 1806 dom win. On the current E18 map that Neal's using, Rome will be a handful! I assume the leader is Julius and not Auggie? (haven't met him yet in my shadow game)

Spoiler :

Nah its Augustus.. I think. Anyways, he was a monster. Longbows pre-AD and vassalized Greece pre-AD as well. I sent a stack of 3-4 chariots, 1 horse archer, couple Axeman, and like 10 Gaelic Warriors at one of his cities... and they got womped. Might've been the longbow, paetorian, 2 axemen, and spear men guarding a walled city on a hill. If only I could've gotten Guerilla-III Gaelic Warriors! Thats like what, 50% withdraw or some fun stuff like that, plus 50% hill attack? Those kinds of stats are ownage for city-raider type units.

Edit: Nvm, Neal said it's Julius.. I wasn't paying attention.

 

[Gagonite]

Don't worry about it being a cake-walk Neal. You haven't met Rome yet. THE Rome, not the OCC Rome from Earth 18 and 34 maps.

 

[Gooblah]

1S is the best option. Offers the most potential for long-term growth IMO. I've played Persia on Earth 18 a ton of times, and 1S is definitely the best.

 

[SlipperyJim]

... not the OCC Rome from Earth 18 and 34 maps.

Does Rome always get squished on those maps? I'm playing my very first game on Earth-18, and JC was definitely not an OCC. He had Italy, Greece, Switzerland, southern France, and part of Eastern Europe. Don't get me wrong; Rome wasn't a runaway powerhouse or anything. (That was Saladin!) But JC was holding his own....

Anyway, it didn't help him when the Aztec Tanks came to pay a visit.

Lizzy and Louie both had small -- but well-teched -- empires. Cyrus & Sal were both monsters, but Sal was bigger. Freddy was large and decently well-advanced. Cathy was large & backward. Hatty was Sal's new maid. (He'd captured Thebes and a few other cities, and Hatty capitulated to him.) Mansa Musa was doing what he always does: teching like mad and sucking up to the big dog.

I wonder if my game is a fluke? As I wrote, it's the first Earth-18 game I've played.

 

[Shoot the Moon]

I'd say settle 1N. Your moving up a level and are giving rome huge roome to expand. Not a time to be considering "making it too easy".

 

[Jaaboo]

Yeah I'd go 1N as well. 1S is a good city but you're going to be gunning for Ham & Asoka's lands anyway with better city sites than Persepolis no matter where you settle your capital.

 

[Capellan]

Go 1S and prioritise getting a second city to snatch horses.

 

[CHEESE!]

His Unique Unit, the Apothecary, is a little bit less eye-popping, but still quite useful. It's a Grocer that gives +2.

What wizardry is this? Two UUs? One of which gives health? And is a grocer replacement? What does he attack with, a vegetable?

 

[Neal]

re: SlipperyJim- Julie being a military power isn't totally unheard of, but it is rare. Usually, he's content to wallow in the mountains and watch the world pass him by. Saladin being strong is another unusual, though hardly unique, happening. The usual major powers are Germany, Persia, China, and Russia, with Monty being a backwards bum but a factor due to numbers alone.

re: CHEESE!- Hardee-har-har . Fixed.

 

[IAM]

I'm not that into the early rush thing. My first choice would be 1S. Good Fortune!

 

[CHEESE!]

Jokes aside (a phrase I hate to use), when is the round gonna be?

Will the next game follow the pattern in being a Medieval Earth, or something new?

EDIT1: I just realized, I beat you in posts neal. Ha.

EDIT2: I just realized, the Native Americans have officially beat Persia in the KotW poll! What???!!???!???!???!????!?????!!!!????!!!!!???!!??!??!?!??!???!?!?!?!$!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

 

[huerfanista]

Neal, speeding up your early rush (if you're going to play that way) is not the problem - there's very little copper on the Earth maps (as you know), and I'm not sure there's even a single source in the middle east and India IIRC. So you'll only be facing archers until the AIs get IW. Your problem will be keeping your economy afloat with all of those cities you'll be taking from the AIs. Trust me. 1W or 1S is the best move. 1W gets you an extra hammer from settling on the plains hill, and the phant is a mined grass riverside hill, of which there are very few in the area. It also captures all the food bonuses. 1W gets all the food as well (the clams really help this city) plus the commerce from the wines later on, but settling on the phant costs you 1 and 2 vs settling on the wine and losing 1 turn. 1N is a desert hill, so no bonus from settling it, it has 3 peaks, 2 desert tiles, and 4 desert hills - so settling there will ruin what could be a very decent city in order to get a small boost in speed that you don't really need.

 

[Gagonite]

Does Rome always get squished on those maps? I'm playing my very first game on Earth-18, and JC was definitely not an OCC. He had Italy, Greece, Switzerland, southern France, and part of Eastern Europe. Don't get me wrong; Rome wasn't a runaway powerhouse or anything. (That was Saladin!) But JC was holding his own....

Anyway, it didn't help him when the Aztec Tanks came to pay a visit.

Lizzy and Louie both had small -- but well-teched -- empires. Cyrus & Sal were both monsters, but Sal was bigger. Freddy was large and decently well-advanced. Cathy was large & backward. Hatty was Sal's new maid. (He'd captured Thebes and a few other cities, and Hatty capitulated to him.) Mansa Musa was doing what he always does: teching like mad and sucking up to the big dog.

I wonder if my game is a fluke? As I wrote, it's the first Earth-18 game I've played.

It's definitely rare that Julius gets off the Italian Penninsula.. one time I saw him totally slaughter Freddy and take over his spot as a powerhouse. And in one of Neal's games, (The Freddy one), after Julius lost his home penninsula, he forged himself a nation down in Africa, till Neal came knocking again. Most of the time he'll only have a few cities, such as Sicily and where the Holy Roman's start in the Earth 34 map. Unless Greece beats him to it. Though sadly, Greece is often in just as bad shape as Rome.

 

[DMOC]

At first glance, I would actually go 1W. I'm not sure what kind of strategy I would employ in terms of building just 1 city (capital) or building 2 (capital + horse city) to immortal rush everyone.

I might try a shadow. It's been ages since I've played a single player game.

 

[jamesddd]

hey quick question, how did you customize which civs are in your earth scenario? I can't find a way in the worldbuilder to add/subtract civs

 

[Mansa Musa]

same situation as Jamesddd