LBD Challenge #1: Happy Gorillas

[futurehermit]

Round 2: 3200BC-1120BC: All Hell Breaks Loose!

Ok, things hit the fan here this round!!!

First, we met another civ:

Yep, Cyrus. Bigger continent than I thought...

Then I popped 28g from a hut; then the scout got eaten by a lion

Then I met yet another civ...

Saladin. He's annoyed since he founded Buddhism. Fun fun.

Research: The wheel (to hook up cities to spread religion) and agriculture (growth)

Then met YET ANOTHER CIV...

Hannibal. Dammit. This is what I HATE about the continents map. If I want pangaea, I'll play pangaea. Why can't the generator just put 4 civs per continent. Is that too much to ask?!?!?!?!?!?!?! *end rant*

Then, Ragnar plants a city RIGHT BETWEEN WHERE I WANTED TO PUT TWO CITIES. grrr!!! He's definitely got to go down....somehow...

Research: Archery (defence) + Mining (gold)

Then Vienne is founded....

Yes, not ideal placement, but I want the gold asap and I plan to pop borders before ragnar to get the pigs. I will eventually get around to either cultureflipping or razing his city.

Gold online. +1

Research: Pottery ($$$)

Then Tolosa is founded...

This is where I had planned on building this city anyways. Gotta get the furs online and corn + deer = decent food. Plus, settling on a plains hill = better initial production.

Research: Bronze (adopt slavery)

We don't have copper, but Ragnar does = not good.

Warrior killed by barb.

Research: Priest (temples, makes writing cheaper)

Fur online = +1


Notes

Popped borders first (gotta love religion) to secure us the pigs from near Ragnar's city.

Next settler is built and on way...but to where?!?!?! Need advice.

Any and all advice/criticism welcome! Let's keep the Rolling. Capital already has 7-8 without a monument or temple.

My thought process right now is to get to alphabet-literature. 1) Trade for iron to take out Ragnar. 2) Great Library (We have marble).

Things I didn't do:

1) Found judaism. Other priorities got in the way.

2) Build early wonders. Once Ragnar built that city there I knew there was no way wonders were happening. Plus with all those other civs I just knew we were going to get boxed in. I would've loved to build ToA and/or Parthenon, but alas the land is just not good and the Ragnar situation is problematic.

EDIT: Forgot save again, it is now attached.

 

[cabert]

could you post a city screen please?
(to see how much happiness you have, and where it comes from)
And a landmap with resource pointers?

And the only wonder you need is Notre Dame

 

[futurehermit]

i will try and do it tonight but here is my sense of where our comes from:

3: difficulty level
1: charismatic
1: gold
1: fur
1: stat religion
1: palace or monument (don't have monument in capital yet)

total: 8

yes, the plan is definitely to grab notre dame. i'm thinking CoL-caste system-run some artists-Drama-lightbulb Music with GA.

music is also on the way to this tech I know...military tradition...anyone heard of it?

 

[Killroyan]

Yeah the dotmap with resources would be great but the next city should have a strategic resource such as copper/iron/horses/elephants. Jumbo's are GOOOOOOOOD btw for the extra happy face.

And you get some extra in your cities because the people started to laugh about the big bullseye that Ragnar painted on his forehead and the kick me sign on his back for that insolent action of his by planting his city there. Get some temples going to fight the culture war or just raze the city to the ground.

 

[futurehermit]

Well, I'd love elephants but I don't see any anywhere I'm thinking we'll have to go for iron (trade alpha for it). No copper and the horses are too much of a stretch and chariots kinda suck anyways.

I'm thinking alpha then either lit or col.

Does anyone think we should try to get the GL since we have marble? Or just go CoL and try and get music asap for notre dame?

 

[cabert]

Well, I'd love elephants but I don't see any anywhere I'm thinking we'll have to go for iron (trade alpha for it). No copper and the horses are too much of a stretch and chariots kinda suck anyways.

I saw some west of Vicky.
Maybe you need to go conquer them though.

I'm thinking alpha then either lit or col.

Does anyone think we should try to get the GL since we have marble? Or just go CoL and try and get music asap for notre dame?

If you have marble, go for oracle (still available?)
and Great Library maybe if noone else has it before you finish you first war.

 

[futurehermit]

Yeah, there's elephants on the continent, but they're not close is what I meant. With Ragnar being first priority it will take us awhile to get through Vicky. Oracle and GL are certainly possibilities to consider. Oracle-CoL would be nice cuz then we could run the artists sooner. GL is obviously good.

Does anyone else think we need to get some missionaries out to convert some neighbours before the whole continent is buddhist and hates us?

What about a prophet for our shrine after the GA?

 

[cabert]

Yeah, there's elephants on the continent, but they're not close is what I meant. With Ragnar being first priority it will take us awhile to get through Vicky. Oracle and GL are certainly possibilities to consider. Oracle-CoL would be nice cuz then we could run the artists sooner. GL is obviously good.

Does anyone else think we need to get some missionaries out to convert some neighbours before the whole continent is buddhist and hates us?

What about a prophet for our shrine after the GA?

you didn't say anything about diplomacy yet
who do you want to befriend?
who are you going to kill (ragnar, if i can still read)
who do you expect to be the world's punching bag?

 

[futurehermit]

who do I want to befriend?

probably not ragnar nor vicky (first targets). obviously not saladin. so everyone else as much as possible i would say.

who am I going to kill?

everyone eventually but first ragnar then vicky i hope.

who do i expect to be the world's punching bag?

well, if I don't convert some people to hinduism, then i expect it would be me

 

[cabert]

who do I want to befriend?

probably not ragnar nor vicky (first targets). obviously not saladin. so everyone else as much as possible i would say.

who am I going to kill?

everyone eventually but first ragnar then vicky i hope.

who do i expect to be the world's punching bag?

well, if I don't convert some people to hinduism, then i expect it would be me

You can convert to buddhism very soon!
Just capture a buddhist city

 

[futurehermit]

Yeah, that's true but Saladin is pretty far away and I think if everyone converts to Buddhism he will start to run away with the game (mega$$$).

That being said, I don't know if we can 1) get the further people away to convert hindu before buddhist; and 2) even if we could convert them dunno if we could keep them hindu...

So, I guess we'll see how it plays out. If we have to convert to Buddhism it's alright I guess, but then we'd have to go and convert all of our cities to Buddhism (lots of missionaries) in order to get the state religion

Decisions, decisions...

 

[cabert]

Yeah, that's true but Saladin is pretty far away and I think if everyone converts to Buddhism he will start to run away with the game (mega$$$).

That being said, I don't know if we can 1) get the further people away to convert hindu before buddhist; and 2) even if we could convert them dunno if we could keep them hindu...

So, I guess we'll see how it plays out. If we have to convert to Buddhism it's alright I guess, but then we'd have to go and convert all of our cities to Buddhism (lots of missionaries) in order to get the state religion

Decisions, decisions...

It's easier to convert your cities to buddhism than to convert other civs to hinduism!
+ you want as many temples as possible! (it's the variant!)
It may be worth to send 2 hindu missionaries to each wanabee friend, just for the trial.

 

[futurehermit]

Yeah, I agree with you. I'm just worried about Saladin getting out of control. He's too far away to trim back. I guess it'll be a matter of whether we can afford the missionaries asap (no other priorities) and how much of a stretch it will seem to be to send them out...

I figure since we have the possibility of a Hindu shrine it might be worthwhile to try and spread the religion so if I get the chance to convert some folks to hinduism I think I might go for it. On a continent of this magnitude that Hindu shrine could add up to some nice $$$ if we can spread the religion around...

 

[Killroyan]

Bump, I want to see some happy people (including me )

 

[futurehermit]

Ha! I'll try and post an update soon I'm still cooling off after my frustration of realizing that this is turning into a small pangaea instead of a standard continents game

I hope people will give me some input into how I should proceed however. I mean, only 2 people have responded since I posted the last update...

 

[Winston Hughes]

Then, Ragnar plants a city RIGHT BETWEEN WHERE I WANTED TO PUT TWO CITIES. grrr!!! He's definitely got to go down....somehow...

hehe, I did warn you about that... After posting my previous advice, I gave the save a try and saw Ragnar do just as I had feared, settling in the same spot as above.

War is the thing. And soon. Either settle the cows/fish site to the south or, if you think you can defend it, the horses site west of Raggy's city. Research IW, pray for iron, and throw everything you've got at the doorstep-settling bastard (or go for cats first instead if you don't want to risk finding no iron nearby). Show no mercy. Wipe him out in a single war. Keep pumping out the units and don't stop 'til he's dead and the north is yours.

After that? Well, I guess just wait and see... but I suspect those are gonna have a lot of WW to compensate for before the game is done.

 

[Killroyan]

Completely agree with Winston. Just hit Ragnar on the bullseye. Build up an army and go go go. Your people and I want to have some fun and some so wipe that smuck of the face of the earth.

 

[futurehermit]

Yep, the plan is to take him out. I will probably go for alphabet with the plan of trading for math and iron. Then research construction and go at him with the goal of taking him out in one war. With so many civs on this huge rock, there's no harm in having one less...

That doesn't mean I'm not still planning on doing everything humanly possible to increase happiness and notre dame is still high on my list of priorities so generating a GA for music is going to be important...

 

[oyzar]

seriously why do you need a GA to get music? Getting extra GA's later on will just pollute your gpp pool. you can just selfresearch it. Getting a religion seems like a good thing from your strategy. Since you say your gonna get sistine chapel and as many smilies as possible(from churches) cultural victory? Ofc getting both toa and GL(lighthouse) would pollute your gpp pool needed for GA's(though it might give you GM's which can let you rushbuild those expencive culture multipliers with US. Brennus also have cheap temples. So early trade route strategy using sixtinth chapel and notre dame along with cheap temples to push for cultural victory?

 

[futurehermit]

I think we decided against cultural victory. I'm thinking if I don't get a GA to lightbulb music the AI will and then we risk losing notre dame and the free GA. I don't plan on polluting the GP pool. I plan on getting the GA once we have caste system (I need to beeline it anyway after lit for courthouses).

Here's how I see things shaking down next round (please comment!):

-Beeline alpha-lit; chop GL (not sure which city, but will pick best one, maybe capital)

-Beeline CoL; run artists for caste system to generate GA

-Drama to unlock Music lightbulb (GA prefers drama first then music)

-Trade for math, masonry (necessary for construction + marble for GL), ironworking

-Construction

After I get to construction, mass catas + if iron, supporting troops (if not, support with archers). Once a sufficient army is built, will attack Ragnar while building Notre Dame.

I will include any other sources of if I am forgetting any.

Please let me know what you think of this plan. It is important that we make the right decisions early on.

I think the play so far has been alright. We have a religion, furs, and gold, so our early is pretty good.