The other day I finished the space game I played for practice, I called it L12b. Obviously there was L12a (and a bunch of games before these two), which I played until t178. I need to make the most of this experience and write down a few things. Getting a map good enough for BC landing (at least ten turns sooner than in the game mentioned) will probably take some time, anyway.
1. Leader.
It seems that creative is much better than industrious. Even 15 turns to get second ring is a lot, 10 with the Stonehenge is tolerable. Cheap library in the capital cuts several turns to Math. It also makes library good for wonderbread (135 base hammer cost) and it is worth building everywhere, as long as there is enough food. With Ramsesses every city I capture early must have food in the first ring. Otherwise it will be a dead weight. Even if I capture it early the Stonehenge alone does not do the job, need either religion or a monument. No wonder Wastintime called Terrace the best unique building in the game. Without it you either need a creative leader or a ton of luck. Conclusion: stick with Hatshepsut.
2. Opponents.
In the last game they were:
Mansa. The best teching partner.
Peter. The best techer amongst bad guys, low trech trade threshold, excellent source of workers. Can be a bit of trouble maker if gets metals early.
Elizabeth. Very soft, excellent techer. Getting her to trade something can be difficult, but this is not a problem with my new approach to diplomacy (see diplomacy section for details).
De Gaulle. Great hate magnet, a bit weak, makes peace very quickly, the best provider of free workers.
Darius. Same as Elizabeth.
Frederick. Same as Elizabeth.
Gandhi. Same plus he spreads his religion and loves to build wonders. Can be a bit of an oracle threat.
Asoka. Same as Gandhi.
Roosevelt and Lincoln. Two more good guys.
Cyrus, Joao, Justinian, Victoria - imperialistic guys, though only the former three tend to settle a lot of cities.
I tried Suleiman but he builds too many units as soon as he gets hold of metals. Recently I have replaced Roosevelt with Willem, he is a better techer and can be bribed only at friendly.
3. Diplomacy.
My new approach to diplomacy is very straightforward: kill them all. Although I should not finish AIs off before I get their techs, if they have any. I don't care for maintaining relationships because by the time AIs get techs I want there are hardly any of them left alive. Besides, there are easier ways of getting what you want.
For example, if someone's got CoL, I can reduce that AI to 1 island city, make them create a colony, move that colony to another island, kill the master and vassalize the colony. Now they will trade anything unconditionally.
Another good way to get technologies from AI is extortion. At this point in the game I am already working on the domination limit, hence there are about a dozen of size 1 cities meant for repeated gifting and recapturing. This is enough to get nearly full value of a tech such as Calendar or CoL in a peace deal, without any actual fighting.
How to avoid a dogpile
Effective way to do it is to bring more AI's that can be bribed into war only at friendly. I had a few: Elizabeth, Darius, Gandhi, Cyrus, Justinian, Lincoln. And I am going to use Willem in the future.
Giving techs to potentially bribable AI's so your target has nothing to bribe them with is another good way to avoid unwanted wars.
Begging or demanding some gold or resource for 10 turns of peace is effective, but is guarantied to work only once.
Another failproof trick is to give the AI that may cause trouble 3 or 4 cities, declare war, recapture the cities, make peace next turn. You get 10 turns of peace like with beg/demand but at the cost of loosing foreign traderouts, which may hurt in the early stages of the game.
4. Map.
Big and Small is great, in particular it has a whole lot more Sushi resources than Terra. But the latter with flat worldwrap would enable me to expand much faster than I can do it on B&S. I think huge Terra can be a thing because with significantly lower distance maintenance and greater amount of forests I could expand faster, have more workers and chop so much more aggressively than I do on a large B&S; wonderbread may become obsolete with most of the failgold coming from forests. Lack of islands available early in the game can be a problem. Three more AI's that can build useful stuff for me are allowed on huge.
5. Corporation spread.
Find a good city for headquarters. It must have a few strong cities close by to kick off the spreading process.
There are three stages: before Kremlin, from Kremlin to Assembly Line and past AL.
Stage 1
Spreading during this stage has to be planned very carefully.
There are a few simple ways to prepare two executives (320 base hammers in two turns). With 50 production and a forest only 130 hammers overflow is required. Thats chariot+settler or forge. Or chariot+forge+settler for 220+ overflow if there are no forests left. This is all done during slavery window right after first golden age ends.
I would not bother building courthouses but a few are required for the Forbidden Palace, build them in cities that will be first to receive Mining inc.
Stage 2
At this point there are a lot of cities that can spread. There is no need for a very detailed plan, just make sure that there is always some choice.
Kremlin makes everything so much easier because it makes whips 134 base hammers, 90 for cold whip. No chain is needed for 130 overflow. If there is no time for preparation or something goes wrong, an executive can whipped for only 2 pop with forge.
But this is where the Strike begins. Overflow gold from workboats and war chariots is the most straightforward way of paying for spreading. Missionary gold is limited as it requires Organized Religion.
Only five turns of slavery. Everything has to be prepared for the next ~7 turns (until AL). That includes at least 35 Mining executives, 17 Sushi executives and gold for spreading.
Plans for BC landing
Game L13a
Through turn 95. One AI down. Sailing and Pottery.
Planning GP farms
The Pyramids failgold plan
Timeline for L12b
1. Leader.
It seems that creative is much better than industrious. Even 15 turns to get second ring is a lot, 10 with the Stonehenge is tolerable. Cheap library in the capital cuts several turns to Math. It also makes library good for wonderbread (135 base hammer cost) and it is worth building everywhere, as long as there is enough food. With Ramsesses every city I capture early must have food in the first ring. Otherwise it will be a dead weight. Even if I capture it early the Stonehenge alone does not do the job, need either religion or a monument. No wonder Wastintime called Terrace the best unique building in the game. Without it you either need a creative leader or a ton of luck. Conclusion: stick with Hatshepsut.
2. Opponents.
In the last game they were:
Mansa. The best teching partner.
Peter. The best techer amongst bad guys, low trech trade threshold, excellent source of workers. Can be a bit of trouble maker if gets metals early.
Elizabeth. Very soft, excellent techer. Getting her to trade something can be difficult, but this is not a problem with my new approach to diplomacy (see diplomacy section for details).
De Gaulle. Great hate magnet, a bit weak, makes peace very quickly, the best provider of free workers.
Darius. Same as Elizabeth.
Frederick. Same as Elizabeth.
Gandhi. Same plus he spreads his religion and loves to build wonders. Can be a bit of an oracle threat.
Asoka. Same as Gandhi.
Roosevelt and Lincoln. Two more good guys.
Cyrus, Joao, Justinian, Victoria - imperialistic guys, though only the former three tend to settle a lot of cities.
I tried Suleiman but he builds too many units as soon as he gets hold of metals. Recently I have replaced Roosevelt with Willem, he is a better techer and can be bribed only at friendly.
3. Diplomacy.
My new approach to diplomacy is very straightforward: kill them all. Although I should not finish AIs off before I get their techs, if they have any. I don't care for maintaining relationships because by the time AIs get techs I want there are hardly any of them left alive. Besides, there are easier ways of getting what you want.
For example, if someone's got CoL, I can reduce that AI to 1 island city, make them create a colony, move that colony to another island, kill the master and vassalize the colony. Now they will trade anything unconditionally.
Another good way to get technologies from AI is extortion. At this point in the game I am already working on the domination limit, hence there are about a dozen of size 1 cities meant for repeated gifting and recapturing. This is enough to get nearly full value of a tech such as Calendar or CoL in a peace deal, without any actual fighting.
How to avoid a dogpile
Effective way to do it is to bring more AI's that can be bribed into war only at friendly. I had a few: Elizabeth, Darius, Gandhi, Cyrus, Justinian, Lincoln. And I am going to use Willem in the future.
Giving techs to potentially bribable AI's so your target has nothing to bribe them with is another good way to avoid unwanted wars.
Begging or demanding some gold or resource for 10 turns of peace is effective, but is guarantied to work only once.
Another failproof trick is to give the AI that may cause trouble 3 or 4 cities, declare war, recapture the cities, make peace next turn. You get 10 turns of peace like with beg/demand but at the cost of loosing foreign traderouts, which may hurt in the early stages of the game.
4. Map.
Big and Small is great, in particular it has a whole lot more Sushi resources than Terra. But the latter with flat worldwrap would enable me to expand much faster than I can do it on B&S. I think huge Terra can be a thing because with significantly lower distance maintenance and greater amount of forests I could expand faster, have more workers and chop so much more aggressively than I do on a large B&S; wonderbread may become obsolete with most of the failgold coming from forests. Lack of islands available early in the game can be a problem. Three more AI's that can build useful stuff for me are allowed on huge.
5. Corporation spread.
Find a good city for headquarters. It must have a few strong cities close by to kick off the spreading process.
There are three stages: before Kremlin, from Kremlin to Assembly Line and past AL.
Stage 1
Spreading during this stage has to be planned very carefully.
There are a few simple ways to prepare two executives (320 base hammers in two turns). With 50 production and a forest only 130 hammers overflow is required. Thats chariot+settler or forge. Or chariot+forge+settler for 220+ overflow if there are no forests left. This is all done during slavery window right after first golden age ends.
I would not bother building courthouses but a few are required for the Forbidden Palace, build them in cities that will be first to receive Mining inc.
Stage 2
At this point there are a lot of cities that can spread. There is no need for a very detailed plan, just make sure that there is always some choice.
Kremlin makes everything so much easier because it makes whips 134 base hammers, 90 for cold whip. No chain is needed for 130 overflow. If there is no time for preparation or something goes wrong, an executive can whipped for only 2 pop with forge.
But this is where the Strike begins. Overflow gold from workboats and war chariots is the most straightforward way of paying for spreading. Missionary gold is limited as it requires Organized Religion.
Only five turns of slavery. Everything has to be prepared for the next ~7 turns (until AL). That includes at least 35 Mining executives, 17 Sushi executives and gold for spreading.
Plans for BC landing
Game L13a
Through turn 95. One AI down. Sailing and Pottery.
Planning GP farms
The Pyramids failgold plan
Timeline for L12b
Spoiler :
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