Paradigm Shift II: Queen of Culture

[Diamondeye]

Suryavarman is everybody's favorite. As long as he is dead/stoneage.

My thoughts would be settle southwards, kill off Shaka asap, preferably before he meets Sury and becomes pals with him.

 

[Quotey]

So is it safe to say this will be a 3C3? A Three City Cultural Challenge?

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Suryavarman is everybody's favorite. As long as he is dead/stoneage.

My thoughts would be settle southwards, kill off Shaka asap, preferably before he meets Sury and becomes pals with him.

Slight problem with that is, Shaka has copper very near his capital, and I can only see horses at the moment, and Impis are going to make short work of them.

The only consolation is that there is a nice 1 tile choke point (with forest) keeping Shaka away from me.

So is it safe to say this will be a 3C3? A Three City Cultural Challenge?

I think this means a rush is on the cards!


After teching the wheel I think I will need archery (to reinforce choke point) then iron working.

 

[Diamondeye]

Some simple math:
A defending archer with combat 1 in a forest, fortified, has a 85% bonus, which results in 5,55 for comparison, a combat 1 Impi has 4,4 and a combat 1 axeman 5,5 . So even without firststrikes, the archers have a marginal superiority over zulu attackers.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Here's my dotmap. I can't really plan on getting more cities up than this before going for Sury.

Yellow - horses, first city. A nice production city.
Blue - nice cottage city, legendary candidate.
Pink arrow - choke point.

 

[Groogaroo]

I'm sure you know what your doing but... I would be tempted to found Blue before yellow as thats likely to be the site that will have the most competition with ole Granma Sury.

Plus, I'm not sure but fortifying a unit on the pink arrow spot... Does that mean Shaka won't attempt to attack you? I heard somewhere that an AI won't attack by land if he can't get to a city without going through a unit! instead they try naval assaults instead??? I'm not sure if thats true or not.

 

[Diamondeye]

Sury has ellies. Fingers crossed fer ya mate.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

I'm sure you know what your doing but... I would be tempted to found Blue before yellow as thats likely to be the site that will have the most competition with ole Granma Sury.

Plus, I'm not sure but fortifying a unit on the pink arrow spot... Does that mean Shaka won't attempt to attack you? I heard somewhere that an AI won't attack by land if he can't get to a city without going through a unit! instead they try naval assaults instead??? I'm not sure if thats true or not.

I heard this too, in madscientist's Alex always war game. I don't know for sure. I need sailing anyway for fast hookup between Moscow and horse city.

I don't think it's a problem if Sury founds the blue city, he's going to get a spanking anyway (fingers crossed).

Sury has ellies. Fingers crossed fer ya mate.

He needs horseback riding and construction. Hopefully he will be dead by then

 

[Groogaroo]

he's going to get a spanking anyway (fingers crossed).

Yeah? and I'm sure I've heard that somewhere before!

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Well, I'm going to give the early REX a miss this game, and go for 6-8 chariots instead I think. We'll see how much he likes that eh?

 

[grandad1982]

It was in Mads Alex game that the AI route finding was disscussed. Didn't do him a whole heap of good that bit of knowledge

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Well, always war is "interesting" to say the least...

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Cathy Queen of Culture - Round 2 (to 600BC)

Well, by the end of this round I will have built no culture buildings except for 1 library. So it's looking good for the culture win!

Scout discovers more seafood to the southeast

Working the new mine speeds up the settler build.

And the worker is off to pasture the cows.

That speeds up the settler build even more

The wheel is finished, I take a bit of a risk and go for Iron Working next instead of archery.

I am relying on scouts to fogbust for the settler, more risk...

But there will be no fog on the way, just have to hope no wolves or panthers are around.

Build a barracks in the capital. It still has no defenders at all...

Settler is on the way to goldhorseville, so I revolt to slavery.

The settler arrives safely. I'd better build a warrior just in case.

Shaka has built a city nearby.

How is the Queen of Culture doing? Mediocre, according to Lord McCauley.

Warrior is done at St. Petes, start on a barracks. My worker is building a road from Moscow to St. Petes.

Barracks is done at Moscow, maybe I should have researched archery. I build a warrior anyway.

Followed by another worker.

Iron working is discovered, we enter the classical era. I go for archery next.

Another warrior for Moscow. You can also just about see that there is a source of iron which my dotmapped city will be able to claim. Sury has built a city fairly near there, but not where I want to build.

Horses hooked up at St. Petes.

Archery finishes, time to get the last worker tech I want to get before going for writing, agriculture.

To be continued...

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Cathy Queen of Culture - Round 2 (to 600BC) part 2

A quick archer build at Moscow, he's going to man the chokepoint between me and Shaka.

Then it's a settler to claim the iron site.

I'm going to speed up the settler with a chop as well. I have a warrior standing where I am going to place the city (not the one on the rice, that's going to St. Petersburg). You can also see my worker building a goldmine near St. Petes as well.

Time to start building chariots and think about bashing Sury.

I need agriculture so I can build a farm here before I can think about working the gold.

Then I get an annoying event, pay 20 gold or else lose the road route to the horses. I pay up. The worker needs to get building a farm.

Settler is finished at Moscow, another chariot. I am researching writing now.

I just stagnate St. Petes until I get the farm built.

I get the city site I was after. Barracks first. This will be a good cottage city and hopefully a legendary city.

Farm is built at St. Petes, when it grows again I can work the gold.

The iron mine is built, just need a road and then it is axes or swords time.

Relations screen. Sitting Bull doesn't like Sury, good. Sury and Shaka haven't met.

Power graph, me vs. Sury.

Don't get married kids, it will end in tears and then affect your relations with the Khmer empire.

I'm capturing 2 invisible workers here, they have just finished clearing the jungle on the gems. This means WAR!!!!!

2 defenders here, it's not on a hill, which is nice. I'll need more than just 2 chariots to take it though.

My scout goes on a suicide mission to peek at the capital as well. This is on a hill, and has 2 archers in defence. For some reason I am mousing over Hariharalaya though.

Sury builds the Great Wall, nice one! I also kill one of his scouts.

First build of an axe.

Writing is done, I pick alphabet next. Here is my scout getting wasted by an archer.

To be continued...

 

[Jerrymander]

yay war. I do like the Northern checkpoint. It seems the only ancient/classical units that will be able to get through will be Elephants.

Looks like you're totally on your way to a culture win, haha.

 

[Groogaroo]

Oh dear! Here we go again! Poor ole Sury seems destined to be your punchin bag in this series of games. Losing those 2 workers will have really hurt him, are you planning to sue for peace or wipe him out now? It doesn't seem like your ready for a full out attack yet.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Cathy Queen of Culture - Round 2 (to 600BC) part 3

I'm starting to suspect Sury has no metals or horses. So I whip a swordsman.

I get open borders with Shaka.

Another scout bites the dust.

My scout has a look at Shaka's land.

Sury has been busy making or whipping more defenders, and a settler.

Shaka isn't trapped in a corner, interesting.

A quick library in Moscow, then it will be more troops.

I'm going to send an axe to the chokepoint as well. I start running 2 scientists in Moscow too.

Someone builds the Oracle... and Judaism is founded. That's the three early religions gone, I missed the message about the other one.

Cyrus lives east of Shaka. I get open borders with him, he's a reasonable enough chap.

More swords on their way to Hariharalaya. I also attacked an archer with a chariot, it got killed.

I finish off Sury's archer.

A city raider sword has fairly decent odds against the defenders at HH, that's good to know. I don't attack yet.

Novgorod is going to build some archers to hold any cities I take.

Sury moves 2 archers out from HH, fool.

I kill them, and should have enough to attack HH next turn.

I've pastured the pigs at St. Petes now, and am working the gold. I'm building swords and axes in my cities now.

First off I suicide some withdrawal chariots to soften up the defenders a bit.

2 chariots are lost. Then it's swordsman time...

All 3 of my swords win, can the axe take the city?

To be continued...

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Cathy Queen of Culture - Round 2 (to 600BC) part 4

I capture HH and decide to keep it. It can work the gems while Novgorod grows cottages (when I get pottery, of course).

It also has a granary, a building I can't make yet!

I got a great general. I use him to make a medic 3 chariot. The chariot is 1xp away from 26xp now, which is West Point requirement. I didn't build it in my domination game though, and it is even less likely I will build it in this one.

Sury likes sending archers to their doom.

And I like sending chariots to theirs.

I see my chance to get my extra 1xp... I captured another worker as well...

St. Pete's is coming along nicely now.

But I whip some pop down anyway.

Novgorod looks OK as well.

After the whip it's just a turn for a workboat which can get round to Moscow's other side, so I go for that. Oh, and my medic chariot got killed after being attacked by 2 archers from Sury's capital He killed the first without taking any damage, so he got to defend again instead of the wounded axe on the same tile. Not good.

I'm surprised he actually attacked me with 2 archers myself. In a previous game, I moved a medic 3 chariot right next to a Sitting Bull city (that I didn't know was there until it ended its move right next to it) with 2 horse archers, neither of them attacked. I guess Sury is more annoying though.

HH borrows the gems tile from Novgorod. Neither have libraries anyway yet so it doesn't matter who works it. Novgorod can work a farm to speed up growth.

I need some more chariots now.

I'm not getting good odds with my CR2 swords should I choose to attack Sury's capital.

Alphabet has finished, I do this trade with Sitting Bull. I can start cottaging Novgorod now.

This is what Sury is offering for peace. He has 4 cities.

This is my army situation.

I stopped playing there. I picked aesthetics as my next tech but could go maths->construction (need masonry) for catapults, or currency instead.

I don't know whether to try and take Sury's capital before cats. I could always go after the city to the south of HH first instead. Or I could take the techs for peace. What does everyone think?

Save...

 

[Jerrymander]

I think you should take the techs for peace. There's no feudalism, so there's no wory of Sury annoyingly becoming someone's vassal. Once you get catapults, then go after his cities. Alternatively, use spies, since you have Alphabet.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

1 vote for peace then. I might have a look at the city to the south of HH before taking a deal though.

It will take quite a while to amass enough EPs against Sury to get a revolt. I'll have to shift all my EPs onto him I think. He's going to get a Great Spy perhaps from the Great Wall as well, in a while.

Tedch situation, I'm the only one with alphabet, no-one is willing to trade any techs down the religious line yet, and I don't want to give alphabet away for anything less than maths or aesthetics really.

I could do with getting a religion spread to me.

If I research currency I can go code of laws afterwards... thinking about doing that now that the Oracle has gone. I want aesthetics for the Parthenon at some point though (I'll need polytheism as well for that).