Nobles' Club 386: Julius Caesar of the Romans

[Build2Much]

Just got to 1170AD. Think I did ok so far. Praets still work. Thanks for the comments, I know I wait too long to chop, love a math chop

Spoiler :

Took out Zara south first, went very smoothly. Stone wound up coming in handy - snuck a late Hanging Gardens in (25BC) near the end of that war when I had 10 or 11 total cities

Gilgamesh and Brennus refused to tech alphabet, so tech slowed quite a bit. Brennus is pretty strong, I went with his religion very early and that was probably smart. Gilgamesh built the Parth and MM plus had a shrine, so he was target 2. Just finished that war, wiped him out. Should be able to string together 2 long GAs soon.

I have 21 cities. Bulbed/Teched Astro in 1140, have now met everyone. Not sure why they weren’t exploring from the other continent, I think Joao won Lib in 1100AD. I just circumnavigated with a map trade. Asoka didn’t have Astro and got me guilds, a nice chunk of CS, his map and some coin. They are slightly ahead in tech I’d say, but it’s really close across all remaining civs.

Looks like it is almost possible to win domination just by conquering my continent (55-60% I’m guessing). Should be pretty straightforward from here, my cities all have tons of room for happiness (20+ sizes possible) and I will simply out produce everyone if I don’t mess around. Brennus and I are at +10 relations, so we will just have our stacks stare at each other for a while until the showdown comes. He has barely fought at all though, so he’s lacking any super soldiers, just has one big stack. Brennus and Joao hate each other, so he might even sail his guys away if i trade him Astro!

Edit - and now that the war is over I’m settling that double fish city!

 

[notslin]

@Build2Much What difficulty did you use?

 

[Build2Much]

@notslin Immortal

 

[Build2Much]

1850 Domination

Spoiler :

It really didn’t have to take that long, but I was working on my management of a massive empire.

My prediction on what Brennus would do was correct, we signed a defensive pact and then he sailed his entire army to attack Joao. I was still teching away building silly buildings when I received the gift of Hinduism and a command of a holy war. Bad luck for him (although it took a little more patience since I hadn’t been loading up on newer units yet).

Went with tanks and planes to HC to win the game, but used a Praetorian to take Cuzco, seemed the right thing to do. Kicked HC off that continent and when borders popped it was over. I have 171 tanks, think that is enough.

At end game I have 43 cities, Brennus my Vassal has 10, Joao 8, Asoka 7 (I just took 1). That continent needed someone to conquer the whole thing, they apparently just sat there the whole time content with their situations.

Thanks for the game!

 

[notslin]

Taking some inspiration from @Thrasybulos feedback for settling, and @sampsa's advice about expansion (even though it wasn't directed at me), I think I'm doing better early after a few tries. Below is my most recent one.

T50, PH, Deity

Spoiler :

Cities:

• City 2 (Antium) is settled next to the cow now, unlocking more production.
• City 3 (Cumae) is settled more aggressively on the PH, letting it grow on the corn.
• City 4 (Neapolis) gets two resources.

Tech: I went AH before BW + Pottery, instead of after.

Total population: 4 + 4 + 2 + 1 = 11. Better than before, because one more city, plus Rome is about to grow to 5 and then build settler with chops.

Development: Two workers, and Antium producing a third one to cottage. Took sampsa's advice to not prioritize granaries too much.

Commerce: +11 gold at 0%. That's 5 worse than before because I prioritized production, since I think there was enough commerce with the river.

I'm happy with this attempt. [Edit] I reloaded to avoid the Open Borders with Zara to avoid giving him trade routes.

 

[nmindos]

T150, Emperor. This would be my first Emperor win if things go well...

Spoiler :

Did the double-PH settle thing. Annoyed about Neapolis location, hadn't scouted enough and didn't see the clams.

Used the stone to try for Pyramids, which I just lost out on. Will get a bunch of fail-gold though which is helpful now because i need to get teching again after having....

...Picked Zara as my first target and took some key cities including capital using Praetorians and catapults. That conquest just finished, though I think I'll try to squeeze in taking Adulis once our peace treaty ends, but before he gets longbows out.

Trying to improve my GP game: Picked up a tip recently on this forum to use your first library to start getting out some great scientists ASAP, which I've been doing in Rome. Going to use next one to golden age: changing civics, economy boost, maybe get another GP?

other than that, not sure what my next goal is. Take out the rest of Zara? Take some of Sumeria's cities? Stay domestic and consolidate the recent gains? Decided to spend the next few turns taking out the rest of Zara. He has some cities left on some land to the south that i haven't scouted and I can't make a move on them, but I own the whole south of the continent now. time to consolidate the economy and tech.

Zara had not been heeding the advice of @sampsa and has a million forests to chop, which is great for me.

My core:

The newly conquered territories:

 

[nmindos]

T218, Emperor: not sure what to do next, would appreciate opinions/suggestions from the community

Spoiler :

Conquered Zara by ~T175, he's got small cities left on an island and I didn't have vassalage, so couldn't vassal him. Spent the next forty turns developing the interior and building trebs. Recently started building knights to go after Gilgamesh (the weaker of the two remaining AIs on my continent), then got discouraged because he's got muskets and grenadiers available now. My military ratio (w/ gilgamesh) in the leaderboard is "1.1".

I think the move here is just push to cannons and combine that with all the medieval units I have already, right? Go after Gilgamesh and try to keep it rolling to take out Celts?

Hard to tell the difference on the map here, but Gilgamesh is top-left.

 

[chinemol]

teching while paying for all those units will be hard. I'd say:
-get brennus to pleased and beg so as to have peace for 10 turns (in case your attack gets you to cautious)
-declare on gilga
-try to capitulate him soon as possible
he might get heavy hitters, but he doesn't seem to have many cities and can't produce too much
depending on where he has his stack, wait for him to move into your territory, then pound catapults, wipe the rest. Alternatively, force him to defend a city (the isolated one looks good for this), then same procedure. The first one should be a lot better since he is protective
Soon as you wipe the stack he might offer to vassal. Alternatively, keep taking cities.
If failed, sue for peace, take the spoils and move on.
DO NOT let your diplo with brennus to go down to cautious. Gift him resources, money. get his religion and organized religion if he is in that civic, since he will like you. He does not plot at pleased and can't be bribed if pleased with you