Nobles' Club 350: Hatshepsut of Egypt

[GTFGreg]

Damn, that's a lot. I tend to go over 1.0 only if there is jungle to chop.

My issue with workers is that their need happens in spurts: early wonder/settler chops, jungle chops, cottage spam, city spam, wartime road spam. Then windmill replacements, workshops on plains, and finally railroads spam.

Shaving turns off those transitions I find makes a big difference; but the more workers I prepare for them, the more workers I have doing inconsequential tasks afterwards.

I've actually toyed with the idea of a 1.5-2 worker/city ratio until my windmills and roads are up (machinery-engineering), then deleting down to 0.5-1/city (usually running pacifism so the worker unit costs are doubled) and using my first renaissance war to capture the AI workers required to get myself back to the higher ratio for State Property workshops later railroads.

 

[sampsa]

I feel like my standard is something like 0.7 workers/city (though I play only fractal, so often many coastal cities) and I rarely feel like I need more. I try to be very exact in my worker actions though, meaning minimum amount of roads and mines.

This is before state property, at that point the game is usually decided anyway. I don't think windmills make any difference really (before rep parts) i.e. I treat green hills the same as plains tiles - mostly ignore them.

 

[Mr_Trotsky]

Damn, that's a lot. I tend to go over 1.0 only if there is jungle to chop.

Similar, I’d be closer to 1 than 2 for much of the game. I still think 1.5 - 2 is a reasonable recommendation for a player who is learning though. It’s generally better to overbuild workers than underbuild them. Building workers also helps break the dangerous habit of putting buildings in the build queue

Finally, you need fewer workers, the more efficient you become at using them so, while 1 per city might do for you, improving players need more. Better to have too many and one day realise you’re good enough to get away with less than it is to play lots of games working unimproved tiles imho

 

[GTFGreg]

I feel like my standard is something like 0.7 workers/city (though I play only fractal, so often many coastal cities) and I rarely feel like I need more. I try to be very exact in my worker actions though, meaning minimum amount of roads and mines.

This is before state property, at that point the game is usually decided anyway. I don't think windmills make any difference really (before rep parts) i.e. I treat green hills the same as plains tiles - mostly ignore them.

Yeah, does depend on level of micromanagement. Early game I manage up to 1-turn roading when moving to not waste any worker movement. Once I feel the game is decided, I automate everything.

As for windmills, I play financial leaders a lot, so my experience is biased. Riverside windmills get the financial commerce bonus, which is a great early boon.

 

[konata_LS]

Spoiler :

Something along the lines of "oh hey, lots of nice (albeit jungle covered, nothing a couple of extra workers and Iron Working can't solve) land the player can peacefully settle while religiously divided neighbours fail to stop them".

Did not foresee the possibility of the Peter axe rush, or either Willem/Sully not founding their own religion .

Spoiler :

Your plan would have worked if you had put an AI who doesn't plot at pleased at Peter's place, I guess. Peter being boxed in by the human player often leads to a situation similar to AI Alex in your NC 302.

Willem and Suleiman sharing the same religion is definitely one of the worst case, because they trade like crazy leaving the human player in the dust. Even if they found different religions, their attitude would probably stay at pleased, as Willem is not very religious and Suleiman likes HR. In both of my attempts, Willem researched monarchy quite early to improve his win resources.

A noticeable difference between pangaea and continents maps is, in pangaea maps, if the human players crush their economy after an early rush and fall behind, they usually are able to find one or two slow techers to backfill some small techs. Not everyone is advanced as Willem or Huayna Capac, there are usually some Boudica or Sitting Bull who are the same cavemen as the human player. In continents maps however, if the human player is the most backward one on his/her continent, it's hard to find a trading partner before optics. Like what happened in my second attempt, I had nothing to offer in trade with Willem and Sully .

 

[Conquistador 63]

Hi all. First try at this nice concept/series. Thanks for hosting.
Immortal NHNE from BC4000 to 1AD

Spoiler :

I did not rush. Instead, stole worker early (then a few more later) from WvO and tried to choke him for the most of the BC years.
It helped that nobody else shared his religion.
Meanwhile, tried to REX while cottage-spamming those nice riverside grasslands (including most of the calendar resources).
It was a deceitfully challenging start without happiness resources for a long time, but I guess the harder part is nearly over.
Now we have a half decent army (mainly cats) and are beginning the real war, should be able to finish him before he gets LBs.

 

[Gumbolt]

Thoughts.

Spoiler Thoughts up to 1ad :

Spoiler Thoughts :

Early rush here is possible but I didn't like the Russian land that much.

I think i should of built more cottage sharing cities for the capital. Lack of happiness and commerce is a killer here. I rexxed up north and even grabbed the silver city. Should of settled city to grab the 4 lake tiles.

My solution to 0% science rate. Attack the Dutch with WC. War chariots are not that bad even against spears. If you find copper that helps protect them. I managed to capture 3 cities. Took peace for COl and then traded for Monarchy, IW and maths. I can now improve my gems.I used capture gold for Myst/Med/PH.

Still losing gold at 0% science.

Up to 11 cities. Russians on 4 cities with a stack of 6-7 sitting by my border. I somehow have 19 War chariots Dutch down to 2 cities. (25 gold upkeep for my army.)

I will likely attack Dutch again once 10 turns is up as i need the wine commerce and capture gold. Calendar would be great for me now but so far off. I can settle 2-3 more cities but economy is tanking.

Spoiler 450ad. :

13 chariots and an axe and i attacked Willem again. This time capturing his capital and razing an arctic city. Lost 8 or so units with 2 spear defenders.. I now have alphabet and calendar. This should help fix my science. Up to 14 cities and still room for 1-2 more. Russians stack still on my border but mainly axes and spear. Ottoman has feudalism now.

On plus side i can improve a lot of calendar resources. 10 or so.

Should probably try to take out Russians for the land.

Spoiler 1090ad :

Up to 17 cities. Capital finally up to size 18. Golden age spent and just taken Mil Tradition from liberalism. I bulbed edu and lib once. Ottoman still has 7-8 techs I need. Archery, constr, HBR, drama, feud, mcahinery and engineering. I can mostly 1 turn tech most of these.

I will roll out cuirs so I can grab my continent. Ideally I want to explore world too with caravels before the AI do.

Should be able to whip out 20-40+ cuirs quickly here with 17 cities.

Spoiler 1410ad :

Whipped out cuirs for the next 25 or so turns.

1220ad Declared on Russians and their vassal Willem. I had 20+ cuirs. Sadly Ottoman got bribed into the war too. Russians had one stack of 6-7 units. I used some cuirs and existing axes/chariots to eventually wipe out. In all fairness I pretty much ignored the stack while I headed to Moscow. Russians only had 5 cities which included a captured barb city. 1250AD and Russians were gone.Lost a border city to Ottoman but took it back next turn.

Ottoman didn't really show up till Russians were wiped out.He did have a stack of 15+ units but mainly catapults, 4 knights and a few other units. By the time this stack showed up I was nearing his capital anyway. SOZ was a really annoying wonder. Capital unhappiness was not good.

Now 1370ad and Ottoman and Dutch both have 2 ice cities. Lost 41 cuirs. Jannisary did not help but thanking he didn't build 100's of them.

I think Pascal is teching like crazy. Only got 11 cities but in war mode and already has frigates.Well ahead of where I would expect the AI at this date.

Up to 35% land/39% pop. With 7 cities still in revolt. I have 30 cities plus 4 tundra cities left to capture. So maybe 42% land? 33 cuirs left but I stopped whipping them. I could cap willem/Suleiman but would rather avoid the we yearn to join motherland unhappiness.

About 7-10 turns behind the suggested 1300ad to capture continent but there is more land here than usual. Hopefully one big naval attack can wipe out Pascal who should have a low peace waiting.

Ottoman 2 final cities now captured. Willem down to 1 ice city.

1410ad
I did get the circ bonus for exploring map, Forgot to mention this. Ottoman capital had GLH which is nice. Need to build ships while I tech to rifles. Steel might be nice too. Do i get communism first? War unhappiness at 5 in bigger cities.

Spoiler 1575ad :

Been a painfully slow game.

Willem dead and I control the entire continent.

Teched for communism and then rifles. Built about 21 galleons and 16 frigates. Once i had rifles/cav I transported my cuirs/cav and landed near Berlin. Pascal declared on Germany a few turns earlier with huge stacks of cuirs/grenadiers.

I took German's capital and 3 other coastal cities at which point he capitulated. I now have about 58% land. Shaka declared on me. Likely bribed in by Germans. If Pascal attacks me now I would struggle. Shaka has a stack of 15 units but 6-7 turns away. He does have grenadiers. I doubt his land % will get me over the line as he is being gobbled up by Pascal's culture. Which means fighting a culture strong Pascal. I need about 30-40+ more units. Or I take the view ignore the stack and snipe the border cities.

 

[Gumbolt]

All over 1625ad domination.

Spoiler 1625ad map thoughts :

All done 1625ad. Pascal left who had not capitulated. Wasted a lot of time on last few turns when I had enough land if Shaka capitulated which he did on the final turn. He did a naval assault with a grenadier and 2 catapults and took a tundra land city but I recaptured next turn. His stack of 15 units died with only 1 unit loss. Shaka had a few frigates which mostly died. He did have rifles and ship of the line but never sent a second stack. On 8 cities which were culture swamped it was never going to happen for him at the end. I needed the German cities out of revolt for land.

Takes a lot of time once you have conquered your own land mass. Would it have been quicker to capitulate the AI on my own land mass and try for a quicker naval assault. I certainly could of been whipping naval units once Ottoman and Willem were almost dead. That slowed me down. Not sure I had astronomy.

My main issue was my economy being dead until around 1ad. I could of focused more on cottages and helper cites early on but grabbing land always feels strong on these kind of maps. Willem was teching so fast early game and beat the other AI to philosophy.

War chariots still over powered on this map. Taking down cities with 40-60% defences with spears/swords.