Noble's Club VII - Sitting Bull!

[Isikien]

IN THE LAST EPISODE OF DRAGONBALL ZZZZZZZZZZZZ, ISIKIEN NEEDS HELP WITH HIS PRINCE GAME

Till AD 1000

Spoiler :

Yeah heheheheh... uhhhh kinda forgot to spawn bust barbs. Despite all the prior discussion above

Anyways I have to say that this game got pretty confusing pretty fast. Usually I'm not so hesitant in diplomacy on the count of having a billion soldiers to back me up. However, this really turned into a peace game pretty fast. Peace games are not something I'm good at. Moreover I'm torn between making an over strategy towards space or culture, it's most likely the former and I'll re-form my lands to compensate

My original thought was due to the proximity of these two jokers:

That war may occur. I'd have to pick a side. Oh how wrong I was:

Oh god. Three religions, two zealots, and this one's more prone to mass purging.

Worse yet:

Oh god and she's buddhist.

I really suck at diplomacy. The idea is to get the best trading partners, usually via picking a religion. This one's vague, I have a warmonger and a zealot in cahoots, I also have Zara who monopolises techs big time and wouldn't be the greatest trade partner.

At the moment I'm veering more towards Justy. Moreover I have a hunch that Boud and Izzy are behind him, therefore I could ask him to close borders and not have to deal with them. This:

...explains my reasoning. I'm in no shape for a war. Soon after I saw this I did start gearing up archers to place in cities.

The reasoning behind this is my eventual long term plan. Zara usually gets to juggernaught status late game and becomes impossible to take out. At some point I need to take him out. Diplomacy-wise it isn't a bad situation. But my military is nowhere near what it needs to be.

So, I figured, to cover myself diplomatically and get a research boost, I decided to go for asthetics to get the Shwegadon Pagoda for FR. The second specialist I got I used for a golden age, which would help with military and wonder production. At the time I got the Mids and switched to Rep.

Unfortunately Izzy wanted it as well. I told her to go to putney on a pig.

I then noticed soon after:

This is balls to the floor silly. I double my military efforts and spam out garrisons like no tommorow.

Boud luckily had more sense:

What a cow. Needless to say that this REALLY helps me. A world without Izzy would do us good, and I felt with my tech lead I could easily keep bribing Boud to war in the future should she deem Izzy a target.

Finally I picked Justy as my pal. Unfortunately over the long term it was a bad choice,

Justy doesn't appear to have many techs, and is fairly backward.

The lovely maidens seek my attentions with promises of war and victory. I refuse both.

I also got the SP:

I then switched to pacifism. Now I know I'm contradicting my earlier strategy, however, I want to maintain a tech lead. I need to churn through the eras as quickly as possible and PHI settled GS will help me in the long run. As stated I would only usually do this with PHI leaders. I need to leverage that trait.

Augustine remembers the early mistakes of previous 'greatest works' and makes a more honest ammendment. Though I think I'm now regretting not choosing Izzy as a partner.

Ok time out. Izzy and Boud declare peace, the parthenon went at some point which made me a sad panda. I've still got a chance with the great library and hopefully no-one will build it (unlikely). I am now Izzy's worst enemy, I made some fairly bad choices this game and I'm hoping I can pull out of it in the long run.

Tech and relations sitrep

MOI LAND

Help lads, do I wind up my military and attack Zara? Or do I sit (haha) tight and spam beakers till I get to later techs. Should I switch to FR also?

 

[cripp7]

post a save Iskien

 

[Isikien]

Whoops forgot the save

 

[cripp7]

not too bad need to work on a few things, need to work the a little better.
Trades:
Justin- clam>rice, 3gpt>gold
Zara- 3gpt>corn

Builds
Put GLib in the capital
forges before other buildings for the and 25% boost

cities gets buildings, your city get barracks>units
you're in pacifism but only running specialists in one city, better to switch to Organized Religion.
Need CoL for courthouses, usually you'll bulb Philo. What win goal were you planning? space, dom, ect..

 

[dalamb]

Guy's, it's convention to put comments about details the game in spoilers.

 

[Isikien]

Spoiler :

That's what I mean crip, I don't actually know what sort of win I should go for. Space seems to be the best option to plan for long term, late game I may workshop the capital amongst other places and run state property

The definiative goal is taking Zara out. A friend of mine who looked at the save indicates that his lack of expansion means that he's been blocked in by me and justy, which makes him fairly easy pickings. He's also a safe target as it stands since his diplomacy with others for adopting confuscism isnt all that good.

Spain is going to be a problem, I knew not conceeding to her demands would make me Izzy's worst enemy. What's more she's got a opportunist warmonger on her side, easily bribable with techs. This makes me more inclined to switch to FR for safety. What do you think?

 

[cripp7]

Spoiler sorry dalamb :

once you take out Zara and Justin, you have enough of a tech lead and enough land for an easy space win. Just make sure that you have your coastal cities well fortified, in case izzy tries to declare war on you. I'll play it out to see where I get

 

[dalamb]

Prince, Epic, 4000-1700 BC

Just after Alphabet, and once again looking for advice:

Spoiler :

I was very happy with the last hut:

Unfortunately since I needed to get some settlers out and had no coastal cities yet, I didn't go for the Great Lighthouse, and as of 125 BC someone else has built it (and I don't have Masonry yet anyway).

Shortly after Writing I moved through Justinian's territory, aiming to circle counterclockwise along the coast to open up trade routes quickly (advice I got once from TMIT and others). I quickly met Boudica and Isabella. My diplomacy turned out not to work out as well as it could, because when Izzy came demanding in 525 BC:

I decided to stick with Boudica because Justinian was Pleased with her and Cautious with Izzy. Unfortunately I later met Vicky who demanded:

to which I capitulated. However, a little later Justinian went Hindu (like Boudica) and Hinduism spread to me (but I stayed in "no religion" for the moment). So now I'm suffering a -1 diplo hit with Izzy that turned out not to have been necessary given my current situation, and rejecting Vicky to stay on better terms with my nearer neighbours might have made more sense. My scout won't be able to make it back home through Celtia, but maybe by the time I circle back to the east, Justinian's borders will be far enough west to give me a route out.

Here's my current territory:

• North
  
  
• South
  
  

I settled Poverty Point and Mound City first instead of sending blocking settlers south as DampRain suggested, but I did manage to get somebody far enough south to block Addis Ababa in time:

I have a 2nd blocking settler waiting at the western location (magenta). Given that it takes 15t for the border to expand via Stonehenge's monument, shouldn't I be settling that location a while before I spot another settler? For all that time he could move past me.

Here's the tech situation:

I expect to have to play around with figuring out the best combination of trades. I'm currently working on Aesthetics, which someone recommended elsewhere as good trade fodder, but I'd normally have gone math/currency/CoL; which is better?

And finally the known world:

My scout will finish exploring the coast, then discover the interior.

Edit: and I'll build a few more workers; not quite enough at the moment, which is a common failure of mine in the early game.