Kulkos HOF Attempt

[Kulko]

Hi Guys,

since there is always a bit spare time between the COTMs I thought I start a attempt to join the club.

Since time is a scarce ressource I thought I go for a Huge DemiGod Conquest. Actually its more the empty table and my relative success in the last COTM.

I am leaning towards a knights replacement Civ like the Arabs, Mongols or Chinese.

Unfortunately I have no Idea how to choose my opponents yet. I haver indentified the following criteria:

a) Moderately fast research to Mon + Chiv
b) slow research ever after
c) No UU in the early Medevial

A) means to diversify the starting techs
b) means no Scienties
c) means no Dutch, French, India, Arab, China, Mongol or Japan

I think that leaves about 2 Civs in the game, which is somehow not enough.

So which of these points would you consider the most important?

 

[Chamnix]

I'd say b is the least important. Scientific's free techs at the beginning of the Middle Ages can be helpful to get you to Chivalry, and nobody may have Literature for quite a while anyway.

 

[Spoonwood]

I'd think you'd want China. Cheaper racks gets your armies up faster, quicker promotions to elites speeds things up, and 3 movement riders definitely will definitely help for a huge map.

 

[Kulko]

I started map finder to get me a few maps with the following settings:

Pangea (80% Water)
Cold, Dry, 5 million
No Barbs
China
vs. Russia, Babsy, Mongol, Zulu, Sumer, Germany, Celts, Aztecs

This gives me a free shot at Alpha and Masonry as trade bait. The Celts and Mongols might be a bit dangerous when the time for War comes around, but that should be solvable by choosing the right timing.

I have set MF to give me 2+ Food Boni, River and a really small Dom Limit (< 1750). By the last bit I hope to reduce the number of off-shore Islands to a minimum.

 

[Kulko]

Just played my first attempt and I must say, the choice of Civs is playing out nicely for now.

I got all techs in a timely manner and are still ahead of everybody on the Writing path. I made sure to trade Myst around freely to make sure Poly is available by the time I need it.

The game itself prooved to be a nice start with 6 Cows and 5 game in the core area, and I have 2 Settler factories set up by 2000 BC. The hard part came after trading for Wheel and IW a few turns ago.

Iron is only in the third level, but going a bit out of the way I am sure I will get it secured in a few turns. But there are no horses to be found anywhere. I am still scrambling aroound with a few warriors trying to find one under the black spots, but ist mostly forest/deserst left, So I think that one is lost.

Also my immediate neighbours are Babsy, Sumer, Celts and Zulus, giving me no easy target for a fast AA war to get the conquest started.

 

[Elear]

My suggestion would be to:

A) Build a number of veteran warriors and save up your gold. A warrior will cost 60 gold to upgrade to a swordsman, so estimate how many warriors you should realistically build.
B) Then, hook up your iron. Upgrade all the warriors to swordsmen.
C) Use the swordsmen to attack the nearest source of Horses, regardless of who controls it. Though your neighbors make it more annoying to wage warfare against them, a good stack or two of swordsmen should make this irrelevant.
D) Once you have the horses, get to Chivalry and destroy everyone.

 

[Kulko]

Yep thats what I would do in a XOTM. But when switching from Swords to Knights, I normally have a notable ditch in my progress, due to having to completely rettol my army.

Since this is HOF and I only invested about 2 hours into the game so far, I first wanted to look into one of the other starts MF gave me to see if I can find something more suitable. But I definitely keep the option open of returning to this game and see how it plays out.

 

[Spoonwood]

Maybe you can trade for horses for a bit until you control your own source?

 

[Kulko]

Hmmm might take a push to get the roads set up in 2000BC but worth a thought.

 

[Elear]

That's a good thought. I suppose it's not about winning, so much, as it's about finding the right start with all resources.

 

[Kulko]

Well 1 Score for continuing the game without the horses.

Played another start up to 1800BC and it is looking shaggy by comparision. I am behind 1 City and have not been able to find the contacts as fast, therefore missing out on the juicy Alpha for Myst trade. Thats one for the drains, as horses are again not to be found, but it also left me with the feeling that my earlier try cut a lot of corners so I should continue probably even without Horses.

Will try to put up pictures tonite.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

I usually pick either ultra early UU's (aztecs, zulu, inca), ship ones (england, byzantium, portugal) or cav or later ones (ottoman, russia, germany, america)

That's personal preference - idea is to give them a despotic GA or none, at least from UU.

 

[Kulko]

Thats what you get for being too lazy to post pictures.

I continued playing in 1790 BC and all went well until 1000 BC

I was in 5 turn Anarachy for a monarchy with a SGL waiting for 4 turns until my worker brigade has wormed their way through the russian cities to an unconnected Ivory, planing on a 1 turn colony.

My stack of minor doom (8 SM) has just taken the first sumerian city and prepared for the attack on horse town.

Then Celtia was asking very unpolitely to be handed over Polytheism I think. Since its only demigod and I am playing at highes Kulko Agression Level I refused immediately withou thinking.

2 turns later a lonely celtish warrior disturbed my working brigade just long enough for Russia to finish SoZ on there own, and a troop of horseman are falling in my unprotected flank. Also Sumeria is mounting increasing pressure so I am probably forced to make a armistice on one of the fronts as soon as possible, cutting one of my alliances.

To top it all, I was playing without concentration in the last 10 turns or so, just wanting to see, if the ivory gambit payed of.

 

[Kulko]

I spend the last 7 days to run about 15 different starts.

On Cold and Dry there is apparently only a small fertile area between the deserts and tundras, and even on a huge map it was not easy to find a starting location wihich allows for a productive 1st ring.

Last weekend I finally found one, and it even had a nice 4 cows to start with. I played until 1000BC and so far everything is going according to plan.

The Start

Main Events

I put Alpha on Min research, but this time it didn't go to well. I collected about 400 gp, but the Aztecs beat me by 10 turns to it, and kept the advantage until Writing. To make sure I cover the Slingshot I had to buy Writing from them costing me most of the Money

I managed the Slingshot going for Poly + Monarchy and got about 200 gp back. 3 Turns of Anarchy and I was spending all my money on Upkeep in 1300 BC.

My Settler and Worker Factories has been running full speed and I managed to settle 2 nice rings in the middle of the map. I am surounded by Germany, Babylon Zulu and Mongols and found everybody else apart from the Sumerians.

In 1150 and 1125 BC I received very unpolite requests for Monarchy and declined both. I allied the Babylonians against the farway Aztecs to give both of them their GA. After the mongols declared too in the very next turn I decided to get rid of that monopoly for Math + Mapmaking + Alliance with zulus instead of waiting any longer for CoL.

My first HM had just come of the belt and will be used to drive back the mongolian border a bit and secure my third lux.

The Situation
A picture

Spoiler :

QSC + Turnlog

Spoiler :

QSC:
Cities 13 (1 town)
Population 43

16 Workers
21 Warior
7 HM

Missing Cur, Con and Rep


Events
3200BC cant get Pottery in time and waste some growth switchig to settler
3100BC of course now I meet the mogols.
2750BC Granary built in Beijng
2390BC I decide to buy Wheel for Masonry + 65 gp. Horses are right next to my next town spot.
1990BC Aztec get Alpha I still have 10 turns left.
1625BC Aztecs get Writing I have 9 turns left a decide to buy or 300 gp. Philo at 13
1375BC Frst to Philo, Trade for Poly and choose Monarchy. Revolt IBT and roll a 4-turn Anarchy.
1300BC Monarchy Established
1150BC Aztecs demand Monarchy and declare. I ally the Babylonians agains them.
1125BC Mongols follow suit and declare too. I give the Zulus their golden Age.


Cities:
3950BC 1
3050BC 2
2470BC 3
2350BC 4
2110BC 5
1990BC
1830BC 7
1700BC
1575BC
1400BC 10
1375BC
discont.


Techs
3100BC Pot, BW
3050BC CB
2390BC Wheel
1750BC Alpha, Myst + IW
1625BC Writing, HBR
1375BC Philo, Poly, Monarchy
1125BC Math + MM


Contacts
3600BC Germany
3100BC Mongol
3050BC Babylon
2490BC Russia
2370BC Aztecs
16??BC Keltia

How to go on.
I am very worried about the Sumerians as I expected to meet at least some Scouting warriors by now, although without Barbs the AIs have a lot less reasons to roam about.I have finally reached the sea and prepare one or two Galleys to navigate around the continent and get a final go on that question.

I also have a whole slew of Warriors which are on MP right now, but costing a fortune in Upkeep. is iut cheaper in monarchy to just disband them and eat the lux slider?

Techwise I am going Lit --> Currency and ghope to trade for the rest of the AA techs. Then I will gift up the Scienties and hope top draw both requisites for Chivalry, before the Warring begins in earnest. research will be shut down at this point and replaced by pointy stick if necessary.

 

[Kulko]

While compiling the QSC I realized that Babylon had researched CoL but had found no takers among the AI.

I bought it for Mon + 22gpt + 75gp and ROP.

So now I am only down Curr and Con and Lit is done in 4.

 

[Kulko]

Well Looks like I went one notch too low, or this game would have fit nicely in the actual gauntlet. With my playing speed I need to bribe Marsden to get the Gauntlet info 2 month in Advance.

But back to the game at hand (Huge, DG Conquest as China)

I reached the MA in 650 BC, which doesn't sound very impressive, but I "wasted" some time on Literature. OTOH the AIs took there own sweet time to find Construction anyway.

I gifted up the 4 Scienties drawing twice Feud and Engineering. I ended the trading round with about 600 gp and waiting going 100% for Mono in 19 turns.

I also started building a few libs, but thinking about it, they are probably useless as I will end research after Chiv + Invention. Maybe I can switch them to markets.

This being a HOF game, I took the time to micromanage and improve my core to get as many 2-turn HM Factories as possbile. By now I have a 4-turn HM/Settler, 4Turn HM/Worker and two 2turn HM cities at sizes 9-11.

One of them has just switched to Leos Prebuild, As I think that Wonder will be more than worth the effort.

I am at war with all 3 distant AIs (Russia, Celts and Aztecs) and have allied the Mongols, Zulu and Babylon to protect me from their fighting units. I have also stationed the first 15 horses at various german border cities and hope to start that attack even before Chivalry comes around.