Outside the box. Shred the box.

100 BC space win on a huge chieftain. Darius. Yeah Darius. Hagia Sophia in 2430 BC. Huts obscure planning on which tech the Oracle will be used. We used it for music so that the artist could bulb theology. Early civics were caste and OR. No slavery. Culture options put lumber on sale for a frenetic chopping spree. A religion was spread to high food cities for GP production. 7 AI cities participated in specialists. Conquest was done by 2300 BC. We were pushing 60 cities by 1600 BC.

With starting cities having 2 workers each, expansion means new cities can be founded with a worker. General build order was worker chop worker chop courthouse and then some food and cottage. Construction came from huts and the sports league fired. So some cities were founded and went worker chop worker chop coliseum.

No wonder fail gold as that would slow expansion. Wonder failing really hurts with no trade possibilities. Darius doesn't need it. By 1600 he had generated enough cash to self tech feudalism. And that while amassing 60 cities! We finished the wonders we wanted ASAP. A 1580 sports golden age fired and the Hanging Gardens fetched mercantilism within 10 turns. However, at factory time the Notre Dame produced fail gold to keep the slider at 100%. The factory bonus was a decent substitute for tech trading.

To get to the other side of a mountain, consider building a fort:

 

Working on a small highlands at warlord level. Game plan is something like 12 cities by turn 75 followed by a REX. Trial game did that and the REX got to 39 cities by turn 112ish. 75BC. Darius' immortals are effective at keeping pony losses down. There's enough puddles that the Colossus is good. Cylinder or flat? Good question.

 

Had the marathon event golden age come up for the first time. I think a border pop in between turns did it. A warrior got encircled by it and promptly pillaged a tile before the in-between-turn segment ended. My previous game (warlord) was a 5 golden age game (no academy) and I was wondering if 6 was possible. Seems like 7 is now a consideration as the map seed also has the sports league event. It's not clear if 6 are fully useable. Probably a short 8-turn golden age can produce a merchant GP for a guilds bulb. So the marathon event can be triggered by declaring a phony war when an AI warrior is around? Just wait for it to pillage something?

 

Working some more on solving the warlord small standard map. I want to do better than my 1260 AD time, like 1200 AD or better. Tech costs are comparable to large/huge chieftain maps. Asoka has done those maps by 1050 AD and 1100 AD. And with only 28ish cities and state property. But those games were with an inland sea where every worked tile is probably riverside. The small map is trickery needing a highlands map for its size. I'm also aiming for a corporate game with 40ish cities. It might take two phases of expansion.

28ish cities by 500 BC played much like the Asoka games followed by a slower expansion to 40 cities. The delay can cater to 4 cities building 4 settlers, 4 cities building universities, and 4 cities building banks. The capitol is not included here for abstraction. 5 building are needed for Oxford and Wall Street. That is 3 smaller cycles of 4-city expansion.

I have a test game where Darius teched the religions ASAP and got an early CoL and Hagia Sophia. There was also a shrine and academy in this game. At 250 AD its a dead heat with the 1260 AD game. Maybe its slightly better as there was 5 turns of non-golden age civic switching. Hut luck was slightly worse too. Colossus doesn't seem necessary with the financial trait. But an early Moai city could work well in concert with an early cottage city. Fewer worker turns to worry about. Maybe a start with a 3rd or 4th settler from huts might do it. Hagia seems useful in keeping engineer points rolling in without worrying about the Hanging Gardens. Its never too early for the Hagia.

 

Had a test game where Guilds was Oracled in 250 BC. A merchant would have been useful as would a golden age. But Gandhi had built Stonehenge and it took too long to get there. The new wrinkle is 5 golden ages using a city with Stonehenge/Temple of Artemis/Oracle as an early golden age generator. Caste looks better than slavery since that obviates a market. Also slavery leads to early ADs with a lower tech rate and significantly fewer tiles worked. It just isn't possible to catch up with the more caste oriented approach.

 

Had a decent trial using hereditary rule instead of representation on the warlord small map. Happiness seemed to be the biggest problem. Well, maybe expansion speed is the biggest. That may mean another leader. Also, the new fangled GP generator worked like a charm. A city with Stonehenge/Oracle/Temple of Artemis produced 4 GPs, one for each non-Taj golden age. A 5-golden age approach is very viable for standard speed. Less slavery was used too which made education a 1-turn tech (no bulb) and electricity a 2-bulb tech. It must be practical to send 2 workers to a new city to chop out a CH and granary. The latent worker is a bonus. Why whip when 12ish turns can produce 2 buildings and a worker at pop one?

 

I perfected the 5 golden age technique in my latest game, an 1190 AD space win on the warlord small map. See attached 1 AD screenshot. The first 5 GPs produced were 4 from Pasargadae and 1 from Washington: prophet/prophet/merchant/engineer/prophet. There is no real need to produce any other GP type other than scientists unless one wishes a food corporation instead of Standard Ethanol. Except for one caveat -- an artist. There is also no need to use the National Epic with pacifism available. Something like 9 cities producing GPs is possible. 2nd caveat -- the city with Stonehenge/Oracle/ToA might produce 2 merchants as its 3rd and 4th GPs. In that case something like Taj/Notre Dame/ National Epic is probably needed. Start the golden age run with the first prophet/merchant. The technique plays itself. Just use a prophet/merchant in each golden age.

In the game played the engineer came via pyramids/forge/Hagia Sophia. The capitol handled the Hanging Gardens. I did not build the Great Wall but rather captured it. All wonders except for the Colossus were geared for GP production or corporate usage. The Colossus was due to the exorbitant number of ponds available on the map.

 

I am currently at a crossroads in a large settler game. RP at 1250 BC. Mining Inc. is possible before 1000 BC. But 55-city settlement was planned for state property possibly before iron working. There is a decided push for the SoL as that would briefly put a GL everywhere until state property. GP production is in high gear but cities haven't really grown enough to max out yet. (Nonetheless, 5 GPs generated by 1250 BC as Darius.) Hence an engineer for the SoL. Mining Inc. looks like a poor corp. But who says we can't do a state property to Standard Ethanol game?

The game plan implemented the 5-GA approach and this game is a very good trial. VERY good. Somewhere in the beginning the marathon GA fired for the AI. As I have plenty of maps that random event should be lurking. e.g. Use a spare settler from huts to trip the marathon GA for a free 16-turn GA. So it seems 6 golden ages are possible. And the status of the coliseum event is still unknown. So 7 golden ages? It would be quite the thing to throw out this game which may be good for a 150 BC space win because a better result may be out there. Argh.

 

Getting around to finishing the settler trial game. Tech speed looks like the record of 60 BC should be beatable, possibly on tie breaks. Production speed is less clear. Maybe a turn or two slower. State property -> Standard Ethanol. Engineer from fusion can yet be used for Mining Inc. It's not clear if that will help much.

I am mapping out 5-golden age strategies for a large map and changes that can be made for a huge map. On huge maps the artist from music can be assumed to be equivalent to getting theology from a hut while the merchant from economics most probably gets used for a golden age. On large maps this usage likely gets reversed. Early Mining Inc. looks feasible on the large maps but on huge it is much less clear. However, Mining Inc.'s founding city can be planned out in advance for options later. Mining Inc. is much less potent on huge maps and isn't really needed for tech speed or production. What is useful is 3 Gorges as that allows for organized leaders to go from building factories straight to building observatories. The building speed for coal plants is too slow on marathon compared to standard speed. Or rather tech speed is too fast.

 

Finished the trial game. 30 BC on large settler. Equaling the record of 60 BC was possible but for a miscounted engine production by 3 turns. Higher score was a done deal too. I will play 2 more games on the bigger maps. Summary of Oracle usage lately: Huge chieftain Oracle -> music; Large settler Oracle -> theology. Huge settler is uncertain as music and currency can both come from huts so music is just theology via bulb. Parthenon and Paya can be used to speed up a machinery bulb. As monarchy is a hut tech feudalism may be possible before cash runs out. Oracle -> guilds? Can a second GP, a merchant, be gotten for a banking bulb? If so that line is huge for Darius. But the prophet points from the Oracle earlier may be better.

It would seem likely that thruster fail gold is possible for spreading Mining Inc. using the fusion engineer. Seems like an obvious idea for a late Mining Inc. But using the fusion engineer for an Ironworks build is easier.