Mr. Fisher and Emperor, take 2

[fisherpb]

Based on the support and criticism I received in my last game, I thought I'd give things another go.... same settings as before, random leader on a continents map. This time, I'll be playing it out regardless of how good or ill a hand I'm dealt (no copper? no problem!).

This time, the RNG gives us this:



Our lands:



My initial intentions, barring anything earth-shattering being revealed by a move up the hill adjacent to my warrior, are to settle in place and tech agr > BW. This will reveal copper, allowing for a second city placement immediately thereafter, with hopefully a nearby enemy to conquer revealed in the interim. I intend to build a worker first, followed by a warrior or two as growth commences.

Thoughts?

 

[PaulusIII]

Asoka's actually a pretty good warmonger, though without any help from UB/UU. Spiritual is handy for the anarchy-free civic switches to war civics, Organized helps keep the maintenance of costly war civics and conquests down.

Agri/BW is pretty much the best path here with corn visible, even if piggies pop up near you. Fast Worker first build. I don't quite know whether you want to settle in place (you are 1 tile off the coast, after all) but I doubt any of the surrounding sites is better.

I'm going to shadow this game, by the way. Is the speed Normal or Epic?

 

[oyzar]

Only disadvantage to moving 1s is that you might potentially settle on top of a resource, otherwise it is strictly better than settling in place as you gain river(levee!) and you lose a useless coastal square for some unknown tiles. Your research should depend on what resources you see after settling but from what you see now agri first is probably going to be right no matter.

Spoiler :

actually you end up losing a hill, settling on horses and gaining a corn if you do that, also you get way more riverside squares making 1S an insanely good capital, in place is also quite good though not as amazing as 1S, there is also pigs in the bfc

Normal speed paulus.

 

[Zanttu]

Settle 1S, research agriculture, start building a worker.

 

[jameson]

Moving the warrior up the hill won't reveal any tiles you can't already see, so I'd suggest moving him 1NW instead. I would also consider settling 1S to be on the river for possible trade routes and an eventual levee in Delhi (didn't see the earlier posts making the same suggestion, sorry).

 

[silverbullet]

Scout the coast and see if there is any seafood. If so, settle coastal. This gives you the option of getting the GLH (but some scouting is needed before you decide to do it).
Otherwise, settle 1S, worker first, agriculture

 

[fisherpb]

I opted to chance settling on the riverside plains 1S of start. My initial concern was that i would settle on copper and thus would be unable to take advantage of those extra hammers early-on, but that proved to be unfounded. Additionally, we obtain another corn, giving us two grassland corn and pigs. Assuming it's feasible, I intend to move the capital later on and use this site for a GP farm.

Firstly, I'm greeted on turn 10 by a highly photogenic individual:



Two turns later, the warrior (on a forested hill, no less) is eaten by a lion. Dammit. Meanwhile, we are researching BW, and a warrior is started after completion of our fast worker, who proceeds to farm both corns.

Finally, on turn 25:



I think the best move at this point is to assume Monty is close by and settle the copper ASAP. From that point, axemen will be produced in prodigious quantities, and the threat will be eliminated. Alternatively, I could attempt to manipulate the diplomatic scene such that Monty keeps Mansa Musa in check.

 

[oyzar]

Don't move the capital! This is an insane site for gb farm + cottages... post the save after you are done as alot of things are very unclear from your screenies! Pretty sure you want AH next for the pigs, although with double corn it would probably have been better to research it before BW...

 

[fisherpb]

Why AH before BW? I don't see a benefit in that much early food pre-slavery. I think that early access to chopping and slavery is more important than three additional food... provided you don't know something I don't about horse.

Additionally, I was under the impression that a GP farm capital is sub-optimal for Bureaucracy, which is so powerful as to be an almost must-run.

Save is attached.

 

[oyzar]

You can run both cottages and specialists in that city.. you got tons of food.. Getting AH first means you can improve the pigs as well, and with a snaaty style start(grow to size 5 after first worker) you want to improve as many titles as possible. You can use food to make workers and settlers too, not just for growing... Stop at size 5(hopefully you'll have at least 2 warriors by then), build another worker(who helps chopping) and then a settler or something...

 

[DMOC]

I opted to chance settling on the riverside plains 1S of start. My initial concern was that i would settle on copper and thus would be unable to take advantage of those extra hammers early-on, but that proved to be unfounded. Additionally, we obtain another corn, giving us two grassland corn and pigs. Assuming it's feasible, I intend to move the capital later on and use this site for a GP farm.

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I think the best move at this point is to assume Monty is close by and settle the copper ASAP. From that point, axemen will be produced in prodigious quantities, and the threat will be eliminated. Alternatively, I could attempt to manipulate the diplomatic scene such that Monty keeps Mansa Musa in check.

You will still gain some hammers from having the capital on top of copper.

Find a different city site for a GP farm and take advantage of the food in the capital to work cottages.

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Montezuma and Mansa will naturally be worst enemies. Don't produce many axemen until you have a clearer picture of the land.

And more screenshots, please! I cannot tell what the capital looks like (it's the most important city for much of the game).

 

[oyzar]

Yeah your screenies are kinda badly placed, you have to open the game and see for yourself... IMO killing of monty if he is close enough is not a bad idea, because even if there is only you and mansa, mansa will still trade with you! I am pretty sure you want to at least generate some gp's in the capital, and if you go for great library it should probably go there and hence end up with the NE as well. But with so much food you can easily work both cottages and specialists...

 

[fisherpb]

Played out to turn 50 for the next set, with some discoveries and annoyances in the process. I began researching wheel to hook up the copper after i settled it. The worker, having finished farming the corn, chopped my grassland hill and mined it while waiting for the wheel to finish.

My capital finishes its warrior, and builds another. The warrior is sent north to scout around the copper, and is promptly eaten by a bear before he reveals any new tiles. Dammit. Queue up another warrior, followed by another warrior.

My worker proceeds, following the completion of the wheel, to road north, in hopes of hooking up the copper. I begin researching animal husbandry, and my latest warrior takes position near the copper. The final warrior begins scouting the western lands. Then:



Very interesting. And, as we will see, I do have horses. If nothing else, a handful of chariots will be useful for fogbusting, if not racing off to slaughter Monty.

As this is occurring, the settler I queued up following my latest warrior finishes, and I settle him adjacent to the copper. I build a barracks in my capital, followed by a few turns of stonehenge (for gold) as AH finishes and my copper is hooked up.

I discover horses on my capital's tile and queue up a chariot as this sitting closes.

The capital:




The expansion:



The west:



The south:




I don't believe anyone is rushable. Consequently, I believe I will produce some anti-barbarian defense, and use my upcoming pottery tech and perhaps another settler to establish some commerce.

From there, I am considering two paths. Tech to monarchy for vertical growth and cottaging, or iron working to quickly settle and utilize the northern jungle. Iron working and northern settling will lend itself to going construction soon afterwards to conquer anyone who may be up there, and thus may be a better option right now.

Thoughts?

 

[vicawoo]

I'd go for the copper.

Normally I trade for iron working on monarch-emperor.

I'd explore north and see if there's an enemy close by before I went iron working. I'd also more strongly consider it if there were gems. Otherwise, just grab as much land as possible.

 

[ese-aSH]

I would not rush, I would claim all those calendar ressources we can see (4 different in sight). It seems there is nobody south of you position, so BLOCK them (very easy on continents). You are organized with an incredible capital, you should be able to settle 3 or 4 more cities without crashing your eco.

Musa is an excellent trade partner in emperor, make sure he does not get rushed by monty (eventually help him against monty), together with him you should take the tech lead over the other continent. Spy him so you dont research the same techs.

 

[oyzar]

Block monty! But you need to find him first, the reward for that quest is nothing amazing(the best is free combat 1 for all chariots i belive, so you don't need to go for it, and certanly not fast, just expand normaly, but you need more workers and settlers, not more chariots!).

 

[KingMorgan]

3 or so new cities, make a nice ring around your capital.

Find Monty and Mansa.

 

[silverbullet]

I would stop the barracks for now and build chariots in Bombay. Research AH before pottery.
The capital is your settler and worker pump in this early age. After you get 2 chariots or so, you can start building only workers and settlers. You can always whip an emergency chariots is too many barbs come.
After the pigs are done, use some workers to chop 2~3 forests to speed up your rex.

All those riverside spots are great. Try to block if possible.
You also need mysticism so bombay can start working corn and grow.

I agree that rush is not on the menu today. There is just too much land to settle peacefully.
If this is the first time you rex on emperor, you will notice your economy crashes much faster than monarch after a REX. Don't worry about it. Make sure you build enough workers (1.5 or 2 per city) so you can improve your land fast and get every new city to profitability quickly

 

[fisherpb]

The only difficulty I see is in making my land profitable if I grab jungle without teching iron working. Unless you're referring to settling just the dye, with the rest being in revealed lands.

 

[DMOC]

You will definitely need to tech IW soon unless you plan on taking the non-jungle land first.