Nobles' Club 388: Peter of Russia

[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 Peter of Russia, whom we last played in NC 346; we last played the Russians under Catherine in NC 344. The Russians start with Hunting and Mining.

• Traits: Peter is Expansive and Philosophical. Expansive adds +2 to all cities, gives a +100% bonus to Granaries and Harbors, and a +25% bonus to Workers (note that the worker bonus doesn't apply to excess directly converted to ). Philosophical gives all cities +100% generation and a +100% bonus to Universities.
• The UB: The Research Institute, a Laboratory with +2 free Scientists. A nice boost when going for a Space Race victory, but being the latest UB in the game it'll probably come too late to make a real difference.
• The UU: The Cossack, a Cavalry with +50% vs. Mounted units. Barring the odd UU these guys aren't going to get sniped by another 2 unit until Tanks start rolling around.

And the start:

Spoiler map details :

Shuffle, Temperate climate, Medium sealevel.

Spoiler edits :

A few strategic resource swaps, and more than a few unworkable seafood resources were moved to workable locations.

Spoiler what is Shuffle? :

Randomly chooses between Archipelago, Continents, Fractal and Pangaea style mapscripts.

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 388 Peter 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]

Awkward. First glance I'd actually like to SIP, go Ag -> AH, and send a worker to farm before pasturing the Plains Cows. 4 and double 33 might not grow all that quickly, but it'll get the job done. Thing is SIP can't get EXP bonus from T0, but moving towards either visible forested plains hill is moving away from what looks like better land. Honestly I might be temped to settle 1E into what looks like better land, but than no EXP bonus after border pop.

Not sure how to play this one, including the scout move (2NE to check out what he can of the river, I guess?). What do the experts think?

 

[Thrasybulos]

I'd actually be tempted to try and see whether 2S1E or something 3Eish is interesting, but the scout is in an awful spot for that.
And the reason for that is my newbish self loves natural hammers: 1N would be a great spot for a size 4 production city which could pump workers, settlers, units (2 plains cows + 2 plains hills).
And as the happiness cap grows, it could use the extra pop to work cottages for the capital.
So the capital would ideally be 3 tiles from there...

Apart from that, looks like FPs in the northeast. So 3N1E looks like a great 2nd city spot, which kinda would strenghten the case for SIP or 1E?

 

[Build2Much]

Russians are a civ I really haven't played all that much, so I'm interested! All the plains hills are 2 moves away and off the rivers which I'm really not willing to do. There are "suspicious naked tiles" I don't really want to move away from or on to without a compelling reason 2N1W (where the scout is standing), 1N, 1E (also 2W1S and 2S maybe?). I would also be happy to use a 3H FPH tile to get workers out early. I think I'll move the scout 2NE to see if there is any reason to settle on the river 1N of cow, otherwise SIP. I guess Ag>AH tech start makes sense from there.

 

[sampsa]

Double cow is pretty strong for a hunting starter so I wouldn't try to get fancy. Indeed there is the EXP worker bonus after border pop.

So for me between 1N and SIP and 1N risks losing a resource in three spots and you can check only one -> SIP.

 

[soundjata]

Peter is a nice leader: EXP & PHI can be leveraged early.
We don't lack rivers ; we don't lack forests. What could go wrong?

 

[chinemol]

3rd time's the charm

Spoiler :

1- opened badly looking for a better spot
2- overexpanded and got DOWed for it
3- chill SIP standard. Nothing fancy except city 3 on stone. Built mids. Got barb city on the cheap for once. Empire cuts continent north to south. Don't think I'll chance peace, Kublai is bound to attack at some point. Late for elepult, also going for GLib. So elepult into Engineering?

 

[Build2Much]

I finally got around to finishing this. Fun game! Not sure why I hasn’t used him much before, good leader too. Imm 1892AD domination.

Spoiler :

SIP. I basically settled the river - St Pete 3N1E of Moscow, Novgorod 1SW of stone, Yaro 3S2W of Moscow, Vladivostok 3E1S of Moscow. Got a very late Great Wall 1680BC building for fail gold and Mids 1120BC. With Saladin we basically stuck Mansa in the corner, he only built 4 cities in the mainland, 1 on an island. If he and Kublai had swapped places Mansa could have done very well. I was able to settle from the North shore to the south shore, stealing a barb city from Saladin who had softened them up for me to keep Kublai isolated.

Good exercise in diplomacy - keep Saladin happy, build a bunch of wonders (Mids, TGL, TGW, Parth, MoM, AP all in Moscow). He went to war with Kublai as I was about ready to build units. Jumped in and conquered the continent. Taking the other continent was simple just tedious moving over units on the boats. The Bull had taken both of the others as vassals and he was just right across the water so just had to get his stack with a big landing party. Tanks and planes ftw

Thanks!

 

[jorissimo]

Immortal, T50

Spoiler :

SIP, Agri - AH while cap builds a worker. Worker farms banana, then puts some turns into random farms while waiting for AH to finish. 2 cow pastures, first the riverside one, then horse pasture, then roading towards St. Pete. Settler at size 4 working all of the power tiles. It would have been possible to get a second city with instant trade routes, but I really wanted to block Mansa and settle towards the stone. Spy points on Mansa.

Settlement of St. Pete was delayed by a turn by a barb warrior who just invaded my space rather than attacking my fortified warrior (now in the capital). Had to take some risky battles with my warriors defending on flat forested grassland.

After settler 1, Moscow went worker, settler 2, and then another worker. Tech-wise, I went TW - Pottery, because I had an excess of production but was lacking commerce. BW early wasn't crucial with 4 strong AH hammer tiles. Now I feel safe to REX. Going Masonry now to get the Mids up, which shouldn't take long in Moscow with all of the forest. St. Pete grew on a granary and switched to a worker at size 2, and will whip it as soon as possible. I didn't manage to do the slavery switch before Novgorod was settled. With the marble, I'm thinking of going down the Aesthetics path after Writing. An AH rush might not be bad but I have land to settle and prefer Mids honestly. Mansa is tough with his skirmishers.