Monarch Student^ XXVII Hannibal

[BigTime]

Welcome to Monarch Student Prime! In the 27th edition of series we bring another great water leader, but also a good land leader!



Hannibal! Great trait set in Charismatic and Financial, allowing you to grow onto your cottages early as well as giving him a military edge with the discounted promotions. A great leader that don't usually see a lot of forum action.

His UU is the Numidian Cavalry:



A horse archer replacement that loses 1 base strength, but has a bonus against opposing melee units. I'm a little iffy on this UU. Horse archer rushes are usually pretty effective, and spears are the only real counter to them, so it gives them that edge. On the other hand, the extra base strength is sorely missed against the likes of archers, especially on hill cities that are promoted. I don't know, it all depends on what you are fighting/

His UB is the Cothon:



A harbor replacement that provides an extra trade route. Usually this effect is pretty minimal, but can net you some GPT, especially if you have some coastal cities. A pretty solid UB.

The Start:



Irrigated corn and rice! With plenty of riverside grassland as well! And even a plains hill! What's not to love? Should make an excellent bureaucracy capital!

We've got us a hemispheres map this time, which is similar to continents but produces more small islands and differing landmass shapes.

Huts and Events are OFF, add events in the custom scenario if you wish. (just make sure to cover the top part with your hand so you don't see the AIs )

And a cut-and-paste from Meatbuster's Monarch Student games:

Save the file and place it in your Documents/BTS/Saves/WorldBuilder folder. Then unzip it into your Documents/BTS/Saves/WorldBuilder folder. Then use Playing a scenario to play your desired level. Or use custom scenario if you want to remove huts and/or events.

Recommended Checkpoints:
*1000BC or 1AD
*500AD
*1000AD or Liberalism
*Victory!

Please remember to put the journals of your adventures inside spoiler tags.

For Monarch+ players please try to add archery back to the barbs in WB. If you don't, AIs will capture cities with archers very early in the game, which is no fun. If you prefer easymode barbs, that's fine too, just don't go wondering why an AI captured a barb city in the very early BCs!

Thanks go to TMIT for making an excellent map creation guide and to mjg5591 for getting this series back on track!

And finally, the save!

 

[drlake]

After a short enforced break from Civ, I'll give this a try before I get back to one of my games in progress.

 

[vranasm]

1S for plains cow seems tempting. Seems like interesting start, will probably try my skills eventually

 

[AbsoluteZero]

SIP is pretty obvious, plains cow can wait for next city.

I'd go AG -> BW -> Wheel -> Pottery and chop and cottage everything.

 

[michmbk]

I definitely wouldn't give up that plains hill plus all the potential riverside grassland to the N, so I'd probably move the warrior 1SW to confirm I'm not giving up anything outstanding by SIP, and then would almost certainly SIP.

If I count right, I have 8 riverside grassland cottages minimum, plus enough food for some plains cottages, and that's not even counting what's to the north. Monarchy and CS are both likely to be huge for economy...I want that cap as big as possible as fast as possible.

 

[i_imperator]

Sigining in Emperor/Normal. I hope hammy is in this map, coz if he is: its payback time, especially after the last MS.

 

[Vaidd]

Monarch/standard through 275 BC:

Spoiler :

Settled in place. Although settling on the riverside would be nice, a plains hill is nicer, and we still have the lake for fresh water.

Initial build: Worker -> Warrior x2 -> Settler.

Starting techs: Ag -> BW for chops -> wheel/pottery -> AH. After that I went for Alpha and made a few trades, but Willem and Brennus aren't exactly teching up a storm. I've had to self-research anything that was important.

I made a bit of a mistake with the second city placement. Instead of settling more rationally near the gold, I moved aggressively to block Brennus from settling the east. The city is OK, but not great. I think if I had settled differently, I probably could have gotten two decent cities in the same space.

The land to the south is crap-tastic. Once the jungle is cleared, and if I had CS, I suppose I could get a sort-of-decent GP farm going with all the green tiles, but without any hills or rivers, I'm not sure I want to go through the trouble. I think I'll let Willem develop the land, then take over his cities.

Therefore my expansion has been mostly east-west. In fact, it's mostly been just west. My goal is to bisect the continent, then go after one of my neighbors, probably Brennus. I'll probably have to take out Willem, too, just because he's so annoying about getting cultural victories if the game goes on too long. Or maybe he'll be a good UN ally as I go for diplomation. We'll have to see how it turns out.

The great scholar Tacitus tells me that I have the largest civ in the world. Hopefully it stays that way the whole game.

 

[i_imperator]

Monarch/Standerd To 25AD

Spoiler :

I SIP and start on a worker. By builds went worker-warriors-then settler-workers untill i got 7 cities. I also built a granery/library in my cap. Im working on the GreatLibrary and parthenon now.

I teched- AG-AH-BW-Wheel-Pottery-myst-writing-priesthood-monarchy-Asethetics-masnory-lit-math-calender. There is alot of gold on this map and i poped gems in my BFC which is always nice. I went for monarchy early though so i could grow my cap and get a better tech rate. There was alot of barb pressure as brennus built the GW and i kinda neglected my fogbusting, but i got bronze and two chariots so i should be fine.
I spotted a food poor site that had marble and two gold. It was near brennus. This city is'nt great but i should be able to get the Great library. Willaim spread hindu to me and brennus so we are all good hindu buddies now

I probally should've gone for alpha first, the AI's took so long to get it, but william got it first and i made a decent trade with him.

Right now the plan is to grow the cities. I have three production cities and the rest cottaged so its not too bad. I suppose i'll go for lib, or mabey i'll go music and try for culture. Things are looking good, but i probally should've gotten a GP out sooner.



Oh and somebody founded judism, but it was'nt any of the civs i've meet....wierd.

 

[Burning Stone]

My first forum game, and my first attempt to use a spoiler tag. I'm struggling to learn Emperor, so that's the difficulty I picked.

Spoiler :

Initial scouting shows I've got pretty good land around me - lots of riverside and gold - but meeting two AIs quickly means I'm going to have to hurry if I want it, so I decide to go into rapid expansion mode, chopping for settlers and workers. I was very surprised I popped neither copper nor horses in my capital; aren't there supposed to be four resources in the BFC? Founded my third city in 2200 BC - I have one by the northern gold and and by the western. I've encountered many animals and had my exploring warriors eaten, so I don't know as much about my surroundings as I'd like.

By 1000 BC I'm up to four tightly grouped cities based on the rivers around me (one city each to the north, east and west). The economy is ok so far. As far as I can tell, my only serious error was blundering away a worker to a barb. I'm getting a lot of barbs, particularly from the west, where both my spawnbusters were killed, keeping my archers busy.

 

[iggymnrr]

Start looks intersting. The rivers makes me think about keeping levees in play. Classic "wish I were WvO" start. 1S is possible. Moving westwards (N or S) make work too with FP possibilities, may lose cows but tolerable.

 

[Kreda]

1927 Ad Space victory, Emperor/Normal!

Spoiler :

Much easier map than Joao!
I settled in place, although moving the settler was tempting because of the river nearby.
Spamming cottages was an obvious choice on this map, because of financial and all the good grassland near us. I settled the two gold sites first (the one with two gold tiles nortwest of us, and the one with one gold south of it), and I grabbed the copper site to the southeast of us. I captured two barb cities that spawned later on - one was on the east coast, near wilhelm, the other was on the southwestern coast, close to Brennus.
The two other AI's were teching extremely slow, so I had to research most of the techs myself. Still, I won liberalism at ~700AD, and got Printing Press from it.
I decided to take out Wilhelm first - he built the Sistine Chapel and was pissing me off with his culture. I went for cavalry, and since my production was crappy because of cottages I went for democracy for universal suffrage and emancipation, then communism, rush-bought the Kremlin and proceeded to rush-buy cavalry.
With something around 100 cavalry in my stack I didn't have any problem with getting Wilhelm off the continent - I capped him when he had only a few island cities left. Brennus was easy to kill too, same deal - vassaled him after capturing all of his mainland cities.
The game was basically won at this point; I went space but I could have conquered the other continent but I couldn't be bothered with logistics
The winning date was kinda late because everyone (except Mansa maybe) was teching really bad.

 

[Emperor_ofRome]

Tough initial settling choice, despite the plains hill! Wow. well I'm signing in.

 

[huerfanista]

Emperor/normal, thru 1640AD:

Spoiler :

SIP, went NW for first city (cottages/double gold), then SE and SE to block Willem. Flipped a barb city on the coast to the far SE. Built GW (seemed like a lot of land to spawnbust, plus I had plans for the GSpy ). No early religions on this continent, so I Oracled CoL to found Confucianism. First gp was a GSpy, infiltrated Willem. Built a temple and worked a priest to get a GProphet next, built the confucian shrine. Both Willem and Brennus converted. Brennus daggered me (no WHEOORN, no stack), I bought out with poly after killing a few of his units. Went up thru aesth> lit, built the parth and Glib. Got the free artist from music, used to start a GA civic switch to bureau/ caste/ OR/ HR. Took nat from lib, then went MilTrad> GP. Stole construction, engineering, compass, optics, and banking off of Willem. Then it was up the low road to rifling, with a detour to econ to grab the GM. Upgraded cuirs to cavalry, Taj GA civic switch to nat/ slave/ theo. Took out all of Willem's cities on the continent and then vassaled him. Declared on Brennus and vassaled him when he was down to 3 mainland cities (didn't want to deal with Grens, and I already had his good stuff). Traded for astro and SciMeth from Willem, MilSci from Brennus. Can probably pick my VC from here.

 

[vogonpoet]

Monarch, Normal, Newbie thru to 1870 AD

Spoiler :

and a domination win

Spoiler :

Wow, my first Monarch win. I am beginning to get the hang of bits of the tech tree, although my path still gets lost sometimes...

I settled in place, first two cities claimed the double gold and the copper, then decided to get the GWall in the cap as it felt like I had huge amounts of space. Paid off nicely IMO - Brennus was kept small by the barbs. After the Wall, I built stone henge, it felt pretty late, but anyway, those two wonders made my REX nice and stress free.

I over expanded nicely, but took way too long to recover, need to work on great people production. Anyway, I took Nat from Lib, built the Taj, and had a big stack of trebs and stuff on Brennus' border when he voluntarily vassalled to me. Huh, fair enough - I teched to steel and kicked the Dutch dude off the continent, vassalled him as well.

Meanwhile, the other continents had made contact, and they were pretty far behind in tech, so I built lots of boats, and more cannons, and eventually artillery, and lots of infantry, and killed Mansa, my next closest rival. Actually, I probably way over built my army and navy, but nevermind. After that, I took out Pacal next door and waited for some cities to come out of revolt and take me over the Dom limit.



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[enKage]

SIP is pretty obvious, plains cow can wait for next city.

I'd go AG -> BW -> Wheel -> Pottery and chop and cottage everything.

SIP? no way! Leeves! mega production cottage capital!

 

[BigTime]

Immortal/normal to 1 AD

Spoiler :

Settled in place, opened AG-BW-TW. Went early pottery to start cottage spamming. Land is incredibly good, picked up double gold to the west and then started REXing like crazy. After I opened borders w/Brennus he spread Buddhism to me and Williem, and just like that we are all pleased w/each other. I tech alphabet and none of the immortal AIs have writing







10 Solid cities planned out, more than enough to push me to a powerful tech lead. Going Monarchy- CoL- CS to pump up the economy then straight down to lib. All cottages baby, Demo and Kremlin is going to be the way to go. We have stone so Kremlin should be easy enough.

 

[BigTime]

Immortal/normal to Liberalism

Spoiler :

Continued on with peaceful expansion and teching. No wars on our buddhist lovefest continent, will all the other religions going on the other one. Tech rate was soaring and I could have gotten lib around 750 AD with NO BULBING. Yeah baby.

But, I decided to save Lib for a very nice tech for me:



Used a random Great Spy for a golden age (gotten at <10% odds ) and fired up US/Eman/FS for massive cottage growth and power. Now a beeline to communism for SP and the Kremlin and will rushbuy my way to victory!



Just look at that. Pure beauty.

 

[Fibonacci1123]

Hi All,

This is my first forum game. Monarch/Normal to 1AD

Spoiler :

I didn't see anything worth giving up the PH for, so I SIP.

Tech went Ag, BW, TW - switched to Myst - finished TW, Pottery.

I met Brennus and Willem. From the start, I planned to buddy up with Willem and kill Brennus.

The North has a lot of plains and not much food, I so left it to Brennus. The South is a big jungle. I planned to grab at least one of each Calendar resource and let Willem clear the rest of the jungle for me.

I settled my second city to the West to claim 2 gold and a bunch of FP. I never had any trouble with gold or science

Because of all the jungle and the empty land to the West, I was afraid of barbs. So I claimed copper with my third city. I then started settle cities along the river.

I researched Alphabet and traded it Willem for IW and something small. This was the only tech trade of any significance I managed. The other civs were just too behind in tech.

1000 BC - 4 cities


Willem founded Judaism and hates the Hindu Brennus. I adopted Judaism, which brought Willem to firendly.

I continued to REX and captured the bard city of Saxon. By 1 AD, I have 9 cities and just finished a settler. I am also building up swords to take the barb city to the SW.





I plan to keep pumping out settler until I have all the good land, and then kill Brennus.

 

[Emperor_ofRome]

Emperor/normal to Liberalism

Spoiler :

I decide to settle 1S to pick up the cows and allow for levies. This also allowed for a city to the north to grab the gold. Me meet Willem buried under some jungle and Brennus to the north. We grab three crucial cities and then relax abit.

I pick up my first wonder.



975 BC



We have alot of base production and so grab the Great Library too.



With a break from expansion and lots of Buddhist buildings in place we try and succeed at snagging the AP.



At this point we have grabbed all the cities we want and plan on a cavalry war against my neighbors (both very backwards in comparison at this point). I grab military tradition from lib to aid that path. I was going to potpone lib for longer, but after I saw Washingtons continent (with Mansa Musa in it) I decided to take what I could get now.




My empire at 1120 AD.

 

[i_imperator]

Culture Victory 1880AD.

Spoiler :

I managed to get Parathenon, Sistine, and the great library in Cartage. I really regret getting the Great library though, the RNG kept giving me scientists instead of GA, so i had to reload twice to get the GreatArtist.

I was the first to lib, so i picked Nationlism for the Taj, as i was going for culture.
I aslo ran starvation in my golden ages, so i could get the GA's out faster.

I was running great artists in at least four cities, so that made up for it. My culture was so strong that i flipped five celtic cities and one dutch city. The game was mostly peacefull untill i met the other cointents. Pacal and MM were at war, pacal later vassled.Brennus Dowed on washington and later welliam, MM joined in that war also. Hammy appeared as a vassle/colony. I don't remember who's colony he was. Overall it was a fun, short game.Its nice to try for the builder victories every now and then. I did'nt get a great end score, but who cares i won.

The UN was kinda annoying in this game, MM built it and it switched me out of merc into enviro, which i was using for the free specilist. But the AI's kept defying other resolutions, which was kinda funney, as they had to eat unhappiness for it. I actually got Votes for SecGeneral, so i guess it was'nt too bad.