Nobles' Club 325: Asoka of India

[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 Asoka of India, whom we last played in NC 295; we last played the Indians under Gandhi in NC 310. The Indians start with Mysticism and Mining.

• Traits: Asoka is Organized and Spiritual. Organized cuts Civic Upkeep in half, and gives a +100% bonus to Lighthouses, Courthouses and Factories. Spiritual allows you to swap state religion/civics without suffering Anarchy, and gives a +100% bonus to all Temples.
• The UB: The Mausoleum, a Jail with +2. Combine it with Asoka's ability to quickly (and cheaply) swap into Police State to keep your cities functional during a long, dawn-out war, or build them during a Space Race to offset Emancipation unhappiness while boosting your generation.
• The UU: The Fast Worker, a Worker with 3. A very powerful UU in the right hands, these guys can chop forests and improve distant tiles faster than regular workers could ever hope to manage.

And the start:

Spoiler map details :

Fractal, Tropical climate, Medium sealevel.

Spoiler edits :

A few strategic resource swaps to give AIs nearby strategic resources.

Spoiler isolated? :

Not isolated.

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 325 Asoka 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 what is demigod :

The difference between Immortal and Deity difficulty is akin to the difference between Noble and Immortal. Players eventually reached a point where Immortal was too easy, but Deity was still out of reach, and so neither difficulty provided a fun experience. "Demigod" is an otherwise standard Deity game where the AIs are only given their Immortal level starting units, in an attempt to bridge the gap.

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]

The game is recommending we settle the coastal plains hill, and all things considered I'm inclined to agree. Moves away from empty tiles that would have more resources, but A: If they're Calender resources the best we can do for a long time is treat them like discount grassland river cottages (until they later get bulldozed and actually lose compared to a Town), and B: Faster Fast working thanks to the 2 city tile that can still improve the Corn immediately, because Fast Workers have 3 . Warrior can move onto the Rice to check for potentially ruined seafood, but I think the only seafood that could get ruined is an ocean fish that requires directly settling on the rice. Which, eh...I mean Fish a great and all, but I don't know about settling on rice, away from Corn, just to get a Fish. So I think I'd take the Plains Hill even if there's seafood complications.

Of course that's just my take. What do the experts think ?

 

[Mr_Trotsky]

I think my main concern with settling the PH would be that it blocks less land. You get the extra hammer and wet rice in the BFC though so I’d still do it. Maybe warrior 1SW to check you don’t get something 2S of the settler which makes settling the banana better. That seems slightly more likely than ruined seafood changing my mind

 

[Fippy]

Possible seafood ruined doesn't matter i think, on which tile?
Both banana and PH make settling on rice impossible.

 

[AcaMetis]

I think the only seafood that could be ruined is seafood that would require you to settle on the rice to get, and I don't know about settling on wet rice and moving away from dry corn/open Banana just to get an ocean Fish in the capital. Especially when we don't start with Fishing anyway.

 

[sampsa]

On non-deity I think ph settle is clear. I wouldn't pass up on it on deity either, but possibly need to block some land with 2nd city.

 

[Set]

Would the deity players out there consider settling on the Bannana in this situation? +1 food is comparable too (better than?) the hammer from the plains hill and you get to block more land/work more green river tiles.

 

[Mr_Trotsky]

The main drawback with the banana is it misses the wet rice which is the best tile until you can irrigate the corn. Move the warrior 1SW to see if there’s a comparably strong tile 2S of the settler. If so, you can think about the banana for the reasons you gave plus settling a turn earlier and saving a forest. Depends what’s in the fog but I suspect I’d still go for the PH. With enough food, I’d prefer the extra hammer for getting warriors out while growing rather than an extra food but I think reasonable minds can differ.

 

[sampsa]

Yup, misses rice, kills a much better tile (nanners) and keeps a very weak tile (ph). On the good side it does settle 1T faster, blocks a bit more more land and has more river. Still, wouldn't consider it seriously, is just too good to pass up on.

 

[danjuno]

Is it actually possible to have a start that screams PH harder than this?

 

[Mr_Trotsky]

Deity NHNE T86

Spoiler :

Moved the warrior 1SW. Nothing of interest so settled the PH and we get a grassland cow.

Worker first. Then two warriors - switching unimproved tiles to finish the turn we grow to size three. Then settler and another worker and then settler 3.

Agriculture > BW > AH.

Settler goes 2N of cow to get gold and stone. Gold means we can go AH before pottery without tanking the economy.

AH reveals horses next to pigs so third city grabs them.

I think pyramids and getting 6/7 cities was viable but we’ve got horses and fast workers for super pre-chopping so I felt it would be rude not to. Not sure I’ll be able to go back to normal workers now. Also, two of the AI I met seemed to lack metal.

Spoiler :

Then TW>Pottery>hunting>archery>HBR. I went HBR last because I wanted to prebuild archers as well as chariots. Not sure it made much difference.

Meanwhile we’ve met Izzy, Churchill and Qin. Qin is in his own religion and hates Izzy who founded Christianity. Churchill is in Christianity too.

Izzy’s holy city culture and shrine put a target on her back. Not being protective didn’t help her cause either. The downside was that she went alphabet and Churchill could be bribed.

I normally find that the AI doesn’t do very much when it’s bribed in and especially early when it doesn’t have a stack. Nothing I could do other than give him a city either - which I didn’t want to do.

So turn 79 and off we go.

Spoiler :

As expected Churchill is bribed in, probably with alphabet - I didn’t know I was that cheap - but he’s done little so far and I took Barcelona, with its 17 gold shrine, and Salamanca on turn two of the war and Madrid a few turns later. Izzy will now give me lots of cheap techs for peace. Depending on what exactly I can get, I’m inclined to take it and then go and attack Churchill - mainly to get a city or two and then peace - before turning back toward Izzy.

Spoiler :