Pericles immortal shadow game

[Rapunis]

Hi!

I recently moved up to immortal and have been practicing an interesting map with Pericles. I have tried it around 7 times and I think I won 1 or 2 times. Attaching the worldbuilder save. Would be really interested in your takes on this map and to see how you approach it.

My thoughts so far:

Start seems quite tricky, since worker would have nothing to do at first. Researching animal husbandry just for plains cow does not seem very good. Yes, we've got gold, but the land around seems quite poor. On a high level, I see 2 main strategi options:
1. go for a peaceful start with quick expansion and Great Lighthouse, since you can build several cities on the coast and there are also small islands.
2. go for early war and take out Roosevelt (other neighbour is Gilgamesh, but he is protective and further away).

I have tried to build 3 cities, and go for construction rush, getting a great scientist via library to bulb math. Then, after taking out Roosevelt with axes/swords/catapults, I try to consolidate and go for lib/cuirassiers. The problem is, that I usually can't get economy going fast enough, so that my cuirassier attack date is not very good and I fail to get an overwhelming advantage.

I am also attaching another save of my most recent game from 75AD, after attacking Roosevelt. Would be really interested to get some feedback regarding this save. Like is this position good for 75AD? Am I on track to win or should I have done something differently?

I would be really interested in any tips to improve my game, what should I do better etc.

 

[sampsa]

Attaching a screenshot and an immortal BUFFY save. What is the map script? Looks like fractal from the start.

I am slightly tempted to settle 2N and go worker-settler (working the gold obv) mining-BW. You are correct that SIP and GLH seems like a normal play.

 

[Fippy]

SIP with AH - mining isn't bad imo (scout move shows no new north).
Cows are a power tile that help with otherwise weak ones for settlers & workers
And with gold i wouldn't be worried about that little detour.

 

[sampsa]

T34

Spoiler :

I'm pretty sure now it's a pangaea - well that makes GLH go down in value. Took the risky route and went 2N and stagnated size 1. I'm sure Roosevelt is pretty easy to axe rush from here, but this not the type of play I would recommend in general. That being said the land quality is rather poor which speaks for an early attack.

 

[Izuul]

Food-wise the cow isn't great, but it's a 6-yield tile that's very good for early production. Greece starts with Hunting so AH isn't bad to tech first. The cow will help get a WB built, and the capital won't be bad early with cows + clams + gold. It doesn't look great long-term, but hopefully there's good land to claim.

 

[Gumbolt]

Looking at youe 75ad save


The positive is the Americans are dead.

The land is horrible here.
Capital - Running 2 non food mines. Grassland and cottages was the answer to growth here. 34T growth with 2 mines. 7T with 2 grassland or coast tiles. If need be farm a grassland for faster growth.
Corinth needed the pigs for growth. Size 4 is very small. No lighthouse either. Running mines/1f tiles on low food start kills off any growth.

Too few workers is the big issue here. 7 cities 4 workers and many unimproved tiles. At least 1-1 ratio with cities. More if there is a lot of jungle.

With GLH settling the island city would of been good.

You are not in a terrible situation but the start really hurts you here.

 

[sampsa]

T70

Spoiler :

Attacked with 8 phalynx T65, half of them barracked. Thanks to the lake it was easy to "spy" what he had in capital and I'm assuming it will be 4 archers when I attack.

Was pretty easy and I have plenty of guys left. Research is very weak as I had to drop gold in cap to grow to 3 (now stagnating with cow+copper+gold). Maybe alpha was a bad pick - went that way to extort techs in peace but I'm slow to get there. Probably say sailing would've worked out pretty well. Anyway, should be in the bag pretty much.

 

[Rapunis]

Really appreciate you taking the time to play along and post screenshots, samsa, this is very helpful! I had a few questions.

First, about initial settle, what are the advantages of going 2N? Since it loses the clam tile.

Regarding T70

Spoiler Spoiler :

I would be really interested what are the next moves here. Is it worth capturing Roosevelt's last city or not?

Also, what would be the general strategy going forward from here. Go for economy and eventually cuirassier rush? This is the part where I usually have difficulties executing the strategy and the AI often catch up too much.