Low Sea Zara (Deity Isolation)

[BornInCantaloup]

The urgency toward optics is partially explained by @BornInCantaloup's experience with bulb-paths.

The same thing happened to me on the other map, maybe Monty Island. I wanted to bulb Philosophy and suddenly the game started stacking all those absurd prerequisites

I decided to pick up the pace a little and played to 1 AD.

Spoiler :

First thing to happen is I revolt to Caste, which eases up management a lot. Gondar hires 4 scientists instead of 2.
The Academy is done T97. We up research towards Iron Working (tech path IW -> Compass -> MC).

Spoiler :

By T100, Lalibela and Addis Abeba have grown to cap and hire 3 scientists each.
This all means I am now in a very low hammer eco, with 10 specs hired.
I could get 3 settlers to "conquer" the southern land but it will be difficult to find the hammers for a 4th.
I settle... along the road network :

Spoiler :

On T109, size 16 Aksum gets its much desired Harbour

Spoiler :

Note that I have not erased the mines. This is another consequence of the low hammer switch. I am still stuck on 6 workers and a single one now remains in the North.

1AD situation. I think I can turn up research for Machinery -> Optics.

Spoiler :

Casually have 12 warriors in Aksum Gondar completed its 2nd GP and is now hiring Merchants.
Infrastructure is at a halt but I'm starting to have Villages.

In the south, fortunately, we have Forests to help set up :

Spoiler :

So, the settler for Matara (and its workboats) are all coming from Debre Berban.
Settling silver last may be a pity but it was more convenient on the workers.
Adulis has its Courthouse, so nearly set up. Debre Berban just has the Granary.
I have not yet connected metal, because Hereditary Rule, but I could use some Swords to capture the barb city (terrible placement, by the way ). Qohaito goes Library before Courthouse, because maybe I capture the city with a culture flip rather than swords.
I'm also delaying the switch to Religion. Ideally, I want to be in a Golden Age. I don't think the anarchy turn is worth it when I have HR and no religious civic.

If I want to stay in Caste, now (and I do). Aksum has to give me the Triremes. Maybe Debre Berban can contribute one.

Stats :

Spoiler :

 

[Implo]

Do you want to use all that knowledge that accumulated in this thread with a fresh ISO Zara game? Well you are lucky today!

I rolled this fractal map with random leader. Got Zara and have played enough to confirm rich land and ISO. There is potential for some cool plays on this map with this start! And break out of ISO with some serious umpf! For those interested to compare post your optics and Astro dates. Include number of cities, gold 0 % research, beakers with 100 % research and if you pull of any interesting moves (oracle, skip monarchy, mass settling etc.)

But first.. the early game, secure land and set up shop. Guess I open up the discussion with the good old.. AH or Agg?

The save is in buffy .005 not sure if its possible to convert the save to vanilla?

 

[krikav]

WIth a pack of floodplains, and most probably settling toward the center of the island, moving inlands might be nice... But moving away from two AH resources is hard to justify. :|
Maybe moving settler NE -> NW, ending up 1N of the gold, then we get two scout movements and could settle SW of the gold T2 if no nice alternative turns up.

It's perfecly possible to transform a T0 save to vanilla, just save it in worldbuilder and start a game from vanilla.
Changing from one difficulty level to another adds some troubles.

Transforming games after T0 is impossible without loss of information (plot culture etc).

 

[konata_LS]

The start looks tricky. SIP or 1W might kill a Fish, while moving inland might end up a capital without food resource.

@ BiC mentioned a good point. Before making decision about settling and tech path, probably send the scout to check if there is seafood on the coast?

Not an expert of isolation, but I guess with a leader who has free border pop and cheap lighthouse, even an ocean fish becomes a good resource.

 

[Implo]

From what we can see I think 1W gives the best cap short/mid term (0-100 turns). The plain hill and moving closer to the pig tile reduses the start off improvement from t17 to t14 which is significant.

Going inland and potentially grab more floodplains and a put our cap in a great foogbusterplace might also be good. Health and production might be an issue.. and the fact its a gamble if you dont find anything support like corn or wheat You could move back but a couple turns wandering with settler is quite the investment when you allready have a 4.5 out of 6 capital 1W

The thing thst can change that is if it ruins some good coast spots. Scouting W before moving settler seems like the best use of scout.

Given all this I do think AH first might be the best move. But the pathing for the worker is awkward as @BornInCantaloup pointed out. Maybe this is a great game for the infomus fast second worker.. would probably want to grow cap and improve tiles, get out fogbusters and put chops into settlers.

 

[Implo]

Probably should have mentioned that events are on! I like them and its a fun way to make every game uniqe. Take the good and the bad!

@BornInCantaloup

Spoiler :

Quick 2 settlers to fogbust and then no archery? Interesting. You sure utilize every possible advantage. So nice.


The floodplains land.. can turn into many great cities. And one serious byro cap. Early Monarchy here?

 

[Implo]

@BornInCantaloup

Spoiler :

the northern spot with double fish. I settlede on the elephant making it possible to get a second city and share the fish. The lalibella health consideration is very nice. That something I did not think about to much.. I just grabbed as much Floodplains as possible. And setteled E of the sheep. I also grabbed the Crab city as my 3rd spot. But that city really did not contribute to the empire much except grow a cottage or to.. So definitely going to prioritize 5-6 food tiles further away over measily 4 food tiles close by.

Every 3 FP is on unhealth right?

And overall.. that minimalistic approach to fogbusting with cities etc. boy. you probably save between 3-5 gold pr turn compared to my situation.

Must say it again its so nice seeing the different approaches to a game.

Btw. Turn 50.. what to do going forward?

 

[krikav]

Floodplains give 0.4 unhealth, rounded down.
So 4 is nice, since it's 1.6 and thus 1.
7 is also neat since it's 2.8 and thus 2.

 

[krikav]

Stuck with trying to finish some BOTM games.

 

[CarpoolKaraoke]

So, this map didn't exactly attract the masses, hum ? Maybe it was too straightforward compared with the others ?

Getting banned by BUFFY

 

[soundjata]

Feeling like a good Astro date @BornInCantaloup

Swinging in those Galleons and settling unclaimed land is most often a losing proposition... I think.
Better focus on
1. Accelerating research further (grow moar)
2. Design a way to convert everything into hammers at some point (draft Oromos, rushbuy stuff)

Acquiring the Pyramids via war (Oromo) would be a cool way to enable Universal Suffering without having to wait for Democrazy.
I think you might have a proper amount of cottages to make US viable (requires a few banks and maybe a Confusion Shrine ?)

Step 1 : draft Oromos
Step 2 : take Mids
Step 3 : rushbuy stuff
Step 4 : take Kremlin
Step 5 : rushbuy more stuff
Step 6 : Buy a planet

Does not work if Mids / Kremlin are in the middle of Alaska though

 

[soundjata]

Someone said Oromo rush

Spoiler :

dream is Frigates + Oromos + Maces... If you can double bulb Chemistry.
Otherwise insert trebuchets + more galleons...