Nobles' Club 397: Hammurabi of Babylon

[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 Hammurabi of Babylon, whom we last played in NC 337. The Babylonians start with Agriculture and The Wheel.

• Traits: Hammurabi is Aggressive and Organized. Aggressive gives all Melee and Gunpowder units a free Combat I promotion, and gives a +100% bonus to Barracks and Drydocks. Organized cuts Civic Upkeep in half, and gives a +100% bonus to Lighthouses, Courthouses and Factories.
• The UB: The Garden, a Colosseum with +2. Consider it an Aqueduct that costs 20% less while providing +1, which can be stacked with an actual Aqueduct when the Industrial Era rolls around and Coal Plants generate inordinate amounts of .
• The UU: The Bowman, an Archer with +50% vs. Melee units. Melee units make up most of your opponents during the era in which Bowman are relevant, so especially with an AGG Barracks to back them up these guys will keep you well safe against barbarians. Both the regular kind and the uppity neighbour kind .

And the start:

Spoiler map details :

Fractal, Temperate climate, Medium sealevel.

Spoiler edits :

Strategic resource swaps, some seafood was moved, your starting position was buffed slightly, and a few AI starting positions were swapped.

Spoiler isolated? :

Semi-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 397 Hammurabi 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.

 

[chinemol]

SIP would annoy me if for later irrigation purposes alone, but has cottages to build aplenty. Maybe 1N or 1W if going for that area
PH favours quick expansion and possitions us closer to a flood plains. Organized makes TGL an option as well

warrior in an unfortunate possition

 

[AcaMetis]

Oh, right, I completely forgot to analyze the start. Sorry, got still distracted with something, so experts, take it away .

 

[Build2Much]

I’m leaning towards SIP - 2 food sources, 10 river cottages, 3 potential mines, wish there were more forests, but I could also cottage almost immediately? Another city 1s of the cow would irrigate rice/corn with 1 farm. River looks like it extends S + W to help with working all the cottages.

I haven’t really played w/ Hammurabi much, but I have played organized quite a bit. I’m guessing that if you go straight for pottery you have to get to the happy cap asap and then slow build settlers/workers?

 

[sampsa]

On first glance I heavily lean towards ph. Very strong city early and can move capital later if the game will be long. For example 1W of current location, which also has enough to make building the palace easy.

 

[Fippy]

Coastal isn't always important and i think settle on rice would tempt me the most.

 

[soundjata]

Coastal isn't always important and i think settle on rice would tempt me the most.

Yes with the advantage of 1 full turn! (settle on T0) compared to SOBCPH (settle on blue circle plains hill TM)

I can't find any significant drawback. It doesn't kill any fish that SOBCPH would get. (but we all know the blue circle never indicates seafood don't we?)

 

[sampsa]

Yeah I don't think coastal is worth anything really. Downside of settling on rice is that you lose the rice tile and the ability to share corn comfortably with a cottage city (i.e. block the spot 1W of settler). If that is worth 1T, hard to say.

I guess the biggest point of on rice is to keep capital river cottages.

 

[drewisfat]

I do believe coastal is an advantage on fractals, just like not being coastal is an advantage on pangaea. A big part of that is keeping the GLH option alive. Hammurabi's traits are AGG/ORG which is decent for GLH in terms of barb defense and saving 30 hammers, though he has bad starting techs for GLH and glh attempts preclude early AH. Given the big river system to the left I'd probably settle on rice.

Could make an argument here for spending a turn scouting with settler 1S and warrior NE + N.

 

[sampsa]

Ah yes, it's fractal!

 

[Build2Much]

I’m probably going to start this morning. Let me see if I’m thinking clearly:

If I SIP, better extremely long term once I get big and am not whipping. Will be a slow worker, max +5 food early unless I farm river tiles, working mines can get production but would be at the expense of working cottages. Most commerce potential long term here. Once I have pottery hard to whip here. No/few roads may be needed.

If I settle PH, faster worker, +7 food at size 3 with AH, lose almost all cottage tiles and fresh water. Almost no commerce available (unless working water tiles). Roads will be more necessary.

If I settle rice (I hate dry rice, didn’t consider settling it until reading the thread), faster worker, +6 food w/AH, 2 riverside mines available (commerce), lose fresh water but immediately hook up rice. Some roads needed.

I think I’m settling rice and going AH>mining>BW?

 

[aitkensam]

Turn 7

Spoiler :

What a beautiful river!!

 

[soundjata]

@AcaMetis thank you for making a brilliant map for the (T50 spoiler)

Spoiler :

claustrophobics among us

 

[AcaMetis]

Spoiler :

After the oopsie that was the last NC map I may have overcompensated a bit, but than I figured, what's the use of AGG/ORG if you don't have to crack some barbarian skulls to settle a larger empire .

Though that does remind me, I actually forgot one detail about the edits this map...

 

[soundjata]

Spoiler :

After the oopsie that was the last NC map I may have overcompensated a bit, but than I figured, what's the use of AGG/ORG if you don't have to crack some barbarian skulls to settle a larger empire .

Though that does remind me, I actually forgot one detail about the edits this map...

Spoiler :

Last map was not oopsie. It was good. Just very challenging. We need some of those

 

[sylvanllewelyn]

I’m probably going to start this morning. Let me see if I’m thinking clearly:

If I SIP, better extremely long term once I get big and am not whipping. Will be a slow worker, max +5 food early unless I farm river tiles, working mines can get production but would be at the expense of working cottages. Most commerce potential long term here. Once I have pottery hard to whip here. No/few roads may be needed.

If I settle PH, faster worker, +7 food at size 3 with AH, lose almost all cottage tiles and fresh water. Almost no commerce available (unless working water tiles). Roads will be more necessary.

If I settle rice (I hate dry rice, didn’t consider settling it until reading the thread), faster worker, +6 food w/AH, 2 riverside mines available (commerce), lose fresh water but immediately hook up rice. Some roads needed.

I think I’m settling rice and going AH>mining>BW?

I would settle PH because: 1) fractal; 2) aggressive.

I hate settling on food, even dried rice. The risk of not having enough food nearby for expansion cities is too high.

 

[Snowbird]

I hate settling on food, even dried rice. The risk of not having enough food nearby for expansion cities is too high.

That is deeply flawed. Two things to consider:
1.Settling on rice gives faster worker, also +1 food is somewhat better than +1 hammer
2. Dry rice farm is +1 food, so is grassland farm. If the latter is riverside there is also net gain of +1 coin. Total food would be the same - +2 from rice farm, or +1 from center and +1 from farm without resource. One can share the cow if food is such an issue.

 

[redmeat]

Now that's a Hammy feature map!

deity, 800BC

Spoiler :

Settled PH, although I do like settling on dry rice (or sugar) in general. The main reason is mostly idiosyncratic - I am just now introducing barbs to my deity games after a few dozen without, and felt that I might come to value the extra hammer. Secondary reason was guaranteed food sharing in a situation where we are almost certainly going to settle a cottage city on the western green river, possibly including a move of the capital. GLH was not a consideration for me in this case with two forests and two excellent non-coastal city spots visible on t0.

First attempt I got barb spear rushed and lost a city to 2 successive 2-stacks with just a shock warrior and a shock chariot. Had realized that barbs were and issue and was one turn from archery, could have taken the city back, but started over.

Second attempt went archery earlier, but this time it wasn't needed. Just one or two spears and overall much tamer spawns. RNG impact swings are just wild in the barb game in particular.

Second city on the desert hill to share cow and grab horse, third west to share the grains and grab the phants with cap border pop.

Tech path AH, mining, pottery, hunting, archery, BW, writing, myst (was a mistake, thinking at first I'd go COL), math.

First attempt went BW after mining planning to not go archery and rely on chariots. Knowing that I'd go archery made me push it back to fund increased tech load and big expansion.

Mansa founded hindu which is nice and has him pleased. He didn't go alpha yet. Trading is always tough for me in semi iso. With Mansa in particular it's probably wise to run some spy points for tech vision. Didn't do it here, and am regretting it.

 

[sylvanllewelyn]

@redmeat
I played some turns, fewer than redmeat, minor spoilers. No images.

Spoiler :

I also settled on plains-hill because coastal.

I went mining, bw, and settled on top of the copper to the North.

The shared coastal tiles within cultural borders allow axeman production immediately even without roads.

With axemen and cottages, the game was a formality onwards. I placed the other cities a little differently but that's just preferences.