Nobles' Club 265: Lincoln of America

[AcaMetis]

The Nobles' Club series started out as a way for Noble-level (and below) players to improve their game. Most of the original participants now play at much higher levels, so this has become a way for advanced players to help others learn to play better. You can play your own game at any level and with any mod, but it would be nice to comment on the games of other players and give them advice.

Our next leader is Lincoln of America, whom we last played in NC 217; we last played the Americans under Washington in NC 241. The Americans start with Agriculture and Fishing.

• Traits: Lincoln is Charismatic and Philosophical. Charismatic gives every city, Monuments and Broadcast Towers +1, and decreases the exp required for units to level by 25%. Philosophical gives all cities +100% generation and a +100% bonus to Universities.
  
• The UB: The Mall, a Supermarket with +20% and +1 with Hit Musicals, Hit Singles and Hit Movies. Generally regarded as a useless UB that comes far too late to make any sort of difference, it nevertheless manages to be a welcome addition to a rush-buy strategy for it's increased gold output, or a standard Caste/State Property hammer economy to help offset Emancipation anger.
  
• The The Navy SEAL, a Marine with 1-2 First Strikes and a free March promotion, allowing the unit to heal while moving. Usually dismissed as irrelevant since few games ever reach the era in which these guys show up, Navy SEALS nevertheless set a new standard for terrors from the sea that Ragnar's Berserkers only manage to reach due to taking City Raider promotions into the gunpowder era.

And the start:

Spoiler map details :

Pangaea, Temperate Climate, Medium Sealevel.

Spoiler edits :

A few resource swaps were done to give AIs nearby strategic resources and to make the odd unworkable fish workable. Gotta love the old "Fish only workable from a tile blocked by a Mountain" trick .

The WB-saves are attached (zipped; they are bigger than standard saves). To play, simply download and unzip it into your BTS/Saves/WorldBuilder folder. Start the game, and load your favorite MOD (if you use one, if not, check out the BUG MOD), select "Play Scenario", and look for "NC 265 Lincoln Noble" (or Monarch, etc., for higher levels). You can play with your favorite MOD at the Level and Speed of your choice. From Quick-Warlord to Marathon-Deity, all are welcome! We stuck with the name "Nobles Club" because it has a cool ring to it.

Spoiler what's up with specific difficulties :

In each scenario file you can select your level of difficulty, but that doesn't give the AI the right bonus techs by itself. Use the Noble save for all levels at and below Prince. The Monarch save gives all the AI Archery. Emperor adds Hunting; Immortal adds Agriculture; Deity adds The Wheel.

Spoiler for players on Monarch or above :

You should add archery as a tech for the barbarians (if you don't, the AI will capture their cities very early). This cannot be done in the WB save file and must be done in Worldbuilder as follows:

Spoiler how to add techs to the barbarians :

1. Zoom in all the way so you can't see the rest of the map.
2. Use the CTRL-W key (or the menu) to enter the worldbuilder. Avoid looking at the mini-map in the lower right corner.
3. By default you're in "player" mode (look in the box in the upper right; the icon that looks like a person should be selected). You'll get a drop down menu labeled with your leader's name. Barbarians are at the bottom, so cover the rest of the list with your hand if you don't want to see who else is on the map. Select "Barbarians".
4. Select the "Technologies" tab in the box on the left.
5. Find Archery (the arrow head icon; 8th row, 3rd column from the right) and click it.
6. Exit the worldbuilder.
7. Zoom out again after the map fades, and start playing.

If you're playing at higher level than Monarch, consider also giving them Hunting at Emperor, Agriculture at Immortal, and The Wheel at Deity.

Spoiler huts and events :

Note: The standard saves have no huts and have events turned off. If you want tribal villages and random events, choose the saves with "Huts" in their names. If you want huts but no events, select the Huts saves and use Custom Scenario to turn on the option that suppresses events.

 

[AcaMetis]

To SIP with the pigs, or to trust the game knows what it's doing and settle on the Plains Hill. That, I'm assuming, is the question.

Or do the experts have a different idea in mind ?

 

[Gressulf]

In one of my recent games...

Spoiler Screenie :

The game told me to settle the hill with the blue circle. After investigating, I would gain no additional resources by settling the hill (even looking in WB), but would lose one gold (there is another gold 2N of current Settler position, and the Crab.

Spoiler The Hill :

Turned out that the Hill had Copper

Might be another case of the game telling us that there is either Copper or Iron at the Blue circled PH and not that we should settle there.

 

[Pangaea]

Might be another case of the game telling us that there is either Copper or Iron at the Blue circled PH and not that we should settle there.

The game doesn't know about that at this moment, so shouldn't take that into account. I know I've seen threads where this myth was talked about, and cleared up by code divers.

Think I'd just SIP here, after moving warrior to one of the hills.

edit: Actually, maybe just settle on the wooded PH instead.

 

[Gumbolt]

Played up to 1080bc.

Spoiler Spoilers to 1080bc :

Moved warrior NW and moved settler to settle both food resources.
Techs AH, mining, the wheel, BW.

Played a rather risky start. Stole a worker from Hammy. He sent a bowmen at my capital and my warrior somehow beat it. I did have a second warrior ready if it lost.

Before BW I road and mined the hills and settled 2 more cities. Built barracks everywhere and spammed about 19 chariots. Lost 9 of them. I think HBR would of taken too long.

Initially his capital had 1 defender. Next turn 4 bowmen. Which I lost 5 chariots taking out.

His final city on hill had 1 defender. Lost 5 chariots. First 2-3 did no damage. Luckily I took the city before his 3-4 roaming bowmen got back to the city. Two had been escorting a settler which I captured as a worker in his final city.

Captured SH so somewhat happy here.

A gold resource appeared in my capital too 1160bc. Hammy has cottaged all the flood plains too. Plus he has a gold resource too

Now to work on diplomacy. Overall looking pretty strong start to work from.

I think I play too aggressively on this game but it seems to work land wise. Otherwise pretty sure I would be boxed in here.

 

[Gressulf]

The game doesn't know about that at this moment, so shouldn't take that into account. I know I've seen threads where this myth was talked about, and cleared up by code divers.

Think I'd just SIP here, after moving warrior to one of the hills.

edit: Actually, maybe just settle on the wooded PH instead.

Alright. I am still puzzled as to why the game would recommend that I settle on that hill though as there are no benefits whatsoever? Maybe the game think it will facilitate settlement of my other cities?

OT: I was thinking the same thing as Pangaea here, settle on wooded PH might be a good option. Would kill a forest, but... oh well.

 

[Pangaea]

Alright. I am still puzzled as to why the game would recommend that I settle on that hill though as there are no benefits whatsoever? Maybe the game think it will facilitate settlement of my other cities?

Not sure what that circle takes into account, but it's more often than not totally bonkers. It's better to simply turn off the feature tbh. The situation is that when the game suggests to settle where I had planned, I start to look for downsides I hadn't considered

 

[Gumbolt]

The ai often settle on resources. Which is probably linked to this. I wouldn't overly focus on them. There will be a code and no doubt @elitetroops will know.it. He seems to know every bit of code on this game.

 

[Gressulf]

Playing on Immortal.

Spoiler 1720 BC :

Settled on the forrested PH. Did the same as Gumbolt; Stole a worker from Hammy. Then made peace.
Teched AH - Mining - Wheel - BW - Writing. Built a bunch of Chariots (about 8-10) , settled New York (before finding copper, but thinking I would get the gold and some FPs when I took his Capital) and took Hammy out. He was nice enough to cottage all the FPs, and build a second city with Pigs and Wheat.
Before drawing his last breath, he managed to take my northern city. Had nothing in it but some hammers into a workboat. RIP Hammy, you were the best.

 

[Gumbolt]

@Gressulf

Spoiler Thoughts :

Very nice effort. I probably could of gone chariots much sooner. I chopped out a lot more forest. I knew the hill city would be a pain. Least I can take out 1-2 of the barb cities. SH will be nice here.

Plains hill start would of been quicker.

My captured Babylon will take 10 turns to become useful

Fact you have taken out 2 holy cities will make diplomacy much easier.

Game should be pretty easy here on in for you.

Did you remember to add archery back to the barbs?

 

[Gressulf]

@Gumbolt

Spoiler Thoughts/Response :

I am sorry, what do you mean by SH? I cannot for the life of me figure (remember) what it is.
In any case. After I stole the worker I noticed Hammy really lagged behind in settling his second city, so when I saw we had horses, I just went for it. I was hoping I could catch him before settling his second, but just missed it by a turn or two.

I did not even pay attention to the holy cities; I noticed Hinduism, but completely missed Judaism. Thanks for pointing it out.

It is now 1040 BC. I have gotten my first scientist, built an academy in Babylon and I am planning to move my Capital there. Bad move? Maybe, but looks like a much better spot, at least commerce wise. I managed to take a barb city in the north, that had quite the amount of resources;

Spoiler Barb City :

This could be an above average Capital in some games, apart from the jungle that is.

Now I just have to combat the usual fatigue I am experiencing at this time in the game. I am starting to lose interest. Also, none of the AIs have Alpha, which is a bit annoying. I have been waiting for trades for quite some time now and I am starting to think I will have to self tech it...

 

[Gumbolt]

SH is stone henge.

 

[Gressulf]

Of course it is

 

[dorhin]

Spoiler Until 1 AD :

Went for a HA-rush against Babylonia and managed to take him out completely. He had copper in only one city which I conquered first, Bowman didn't pose too much of a threat then.
Luckily the Holy romans traded me currency 1 turn ago, otherwise I would probably have gone broke. Currently trying to get my shattered economy back on track and tech to either engineering or steel, perhaps also cuirassiers.
There are 4 more city spots that I could fill, undecided yet whether this is a good idea (probably not). I am also not really sure which religion to switch into, budhism just spread to me.

 

[Gressulf]

So I played until 125 BC before I fell asleep at the keyboard...

Spoiler 125 BC :

I moved my Capital to Babylon, just a much better spot for it IMO. Better food, better commerce, better production (it actually has Iron as well).
I also built an academy there, and settled one scientist. Then in 150 BC I completed The Great Library there as well.
Was building The Parthenon for fail gold purposes, but I am seeing now that it will be completed next turn, in Washington... To complete or not to complete...? I say complete.

Other than that, I will fill some areas with cities. Will probably play the Lib race and go for Cuirassiers. The usual. Think I will go Music next.

Surprisingly... SITTING BULL is tech leader in the game, and Joao even with 10 cities is lagging behind.

 

[Gressulf]

1765 AD Domination Victory. Doubled my best score on Immortal, which is a nice bonus.
I would say it was a really fun game. Liked the AIs in the game as well. Highly recommend.

 

[Gumbolt]

Finished this off.

Spoiler To 1350ad :

Almost took out Persia with Phants and catapults. Left him with one city. Kept SB at pleased all game. He got to 12 cities and did not do much else.

Got to Lib and Cuirs a bit late. Not helped by taking machinery off Persia for peace. (Couldn't bulb lib.) A plotting Holy Roman empire declared on me at point I got cuirs. I had delayed his attacked by 10 turns by making a demand. His stack was of no good against me. He had also taken Persia as a vassal.

At this point I completely took out the 4 remaining Ai to the east. With Persia the first to go. Then HRE, JoaII and Sulie. Settled 6-7 cities near end. Probably should of razed more cities near the end.

Thank you for a fun map. Need to stop abusing phants on these maps. SB was only too happy to trade away ivory on this map which made life much easier.

I think at point where I had 17 cities before cuirs attack game was almost won beyond a slight AP scare.

 

[Tecumseh1]

Sorry bumping old thread. Playing old games out of boredom lately.

I also considered the 2 plains hill options but after moving warrior northeast decided to just SIP. Looks like northeast is also coast and there might not be seafood.

350 BC immortal:

Went AH - Wheel - Mining - BW. Horses so considered early chariot rush on Hammi but I can't seem to time that correctly on immortal so decided to go for more reliable HA rush. Got 2nd worker out before settler because there is so much to chop and wanted cottages up asap.

Around T50 sent a chariot east to scout and found Darius close by! He had an undefended worker on the border and I couldn't resist. So DoW on him around 2000 BC. Stolen worker would help with production effort. Got couple more chariots out and decided to terrorize and pillage his land, which helped fund the research to HAs. So he was stuck on 2 cities and not able to get metal and it didn't cost me much extra unit cost to keep him contained. Even picked up a 2nd worker from him while waiting him out.

The attack took a bit longer than I planned since he managed to build walls. I didn't wanna go crazy with units though and only built ~8 HAs for the whole war. He dies at 350BC. Already got library up in northern clam city and plan is to bulb math and go construction next. Will go for Hammi. Catapults + horses will be no match for his bowmen. He does have metal but nearby and hopefully he doesn't go for iron working too soon. Teched Sailing and going for Alpha now while waiting for math bulb.