For optimum effect you want Code of Law(10) first so that you can pick Repulic(28) as your bonus tech. Else you delay republic by further ~30 turns. You donnot want this to happen.
Right! -- But exactly that happened to me, when I played MPorciusCatoCivver's start position...!
![Wall Bash :wallbash: :wallbash:](/images/smilies/wallbash.gif)
It looks like, this start is not as easy as I first thought?! The main problem is that the capital has no food bonus, and it takes quite a while to set up the second town as a 4-turner: it needs a temple in addition to the granary, and a worker (which also has to be provided by the capital, so takes a while before it becomes available) for improving tiles at the opposite ends of the BFC...
![Frown :( :(](/data/assets/smilies/frown.gif)
(With pre-knowledge of the map, I could have walked the initial settler 3 tiles to the spot with 2 cows, but that felt like cheating, I wanted to play the game under as close conditions to MPorciusCatoCivver game as possible, as otherwise the results cannot be compared.)
Anyway, here is what happened:
- In the beginning, I tried to set up the core quickly and dash to Republic. When I finished Writing, Persia demanded that and, when I refused, declared war, which provided some welcome war happiness that sped up research. I also prioritized roads to the two reachable lux resources. I got an SGL for Code of Laws. At first I wanted to use it for the Pyramids, but that would have triggered a very early despotic GA (Egypt is religious and industrious, both of which are covered by the Pyramids), and I wanted to avoid that, so I took the Oracle instead.
- Indeed I managed to reach Philosophy in 950 BC (which is actually quite close to the 1000 BC I predicted in my previous post), selected Republic and expected to revolt right that interturn... --- but nothing happened!! No free tech! Someone on the other continent must have popped Philosophy from a hut!? I can't remember ever missing the slingshot in an Emperor game with a start location as good as this one! This of course was a major blow to the initial growth phase. I hand-researched Republic and revolted around 500 BC.
- Meanwhile I had also completed my war preparations: a road up north to Zululand, a first wave of archers and a number of chariots and horsemen. So I attacked in 470 BC, took the first town with archers (wanted to avoid the GA for as long as possible, as my core towns were still rather small, size 5 - 7), but then both spearmen that protected my stack were killed by Impi (the Zulus use Impis with an A-value of 1 as attackers??) and the next defender in the stack was a chariot (why not an archer?!), which actually defeated the Impi, so I had the GA a bit earlier than I wanted: 450 BC
- This of course allowed for a big army to be assembled quickly, but the downside was, that I stopped building settlers & workers: during GA you want your cities as large as possible, to get the most benefit.
- Initially, the war proceeded quickly, 3 Zulu towns taken by 330 BC, the 4th in 230 BC, but then my progress stalled, as a) I reached the well-defended capital and b) Intombe flipped back to the Zulus (they had built Artemis and acquired quite a bit of culture), and I first had to retake it to re-open the road for reinforcements.
- Then the war dragged on longer than I wanted, with an unsuccessful assault on Zimbabwe, and war weariness started to become a problem. I had to raise the lux slider to 70%, and in the end even to 80%. But I did not want to make peace, before I had taken the two main objectives: Zimbabwe with the Temple of Artemis and their dyes resource.
- Zimbabwe finally fell in 10 AD, flipped back in 70 AD (while I was waiting for a last missing road segment through the jungle to be completed, so that my chariots could finally pass it on the way towards the dyes town...) The dyes were then taken in 130 AD and Zimbabwe was retaken in 170 AD, at which point I made peace and got two more towns in the peace deal.
So this shows, that an early war with chariots can be successful: I acquired 8 Zulu towns, another lux resource and Artemis. The Zulus are now weakened so much, that they will not pose any threat anymore in this game. Artemis has a very nice synergy with the Oracle I got from the SGL (two free happy faces in every city!), which together with 3 lux resources will allow me now to take up fast research again. I have three turns left on Chivalry, and the fighting with the Zulus netted my two Armies, which I left empty so far in anticipation of Knight-Armies. With two Knight-Armies and lots of chariots and horsemen for upgrade, I will then be able to quickly capture the rest of my continent (Osmania and Persia). But even though the strategy was "successful", this game also clearly shows that it was
not the best strategy for this map! As justanick already pointed out, on this map (with all neighbors being relatively far away), it would have been much better to first concentrate on filling and improving the available space and then engaging the Zulus much later, perhaps even with Knights against Impis.
Another noteworthy point of this game was, that I was quite lucky with my scientific friends: when I reached the Middle Age in 290 BC, I first made peace with the Persians (who gave me 2 of their towns in the process... very competent strategy by the AI: declaring war on me, then sending warriors and archers in piecemeal from the other end of the continent all the way to me, just to get them slaughtered and then giving me two towns to I would make peace again...
![crazy eyes :crazyeye: :crazyeye:](/images/smilies/crazyeyes.gif)
), and then gifted the last ancient age techs to them and to the Ottomans. One got Monotheism, the other one Engineering, so I researched Feudalism as fast as I could (during GA I had built a handful of libraries in my core cities), and then traded for both. Now it only remains to complete Chivalry, and this will probably be enough for a domination victory before 1000 AD (provided the Lighthouse gets built by the Osmans, who started it quite early, and provided the other continent is safely reachable by galleys + Lighthouse. Unfortunately, I have completely neglected the overseas exploration so far, something I would not do in a normal game).
So with a bit of luck, I think that domination victory can be achieved around 600 AD, despite the fact that this strategy clearly was not the best in the given circumstances. Attached is the 170 AD .sav, if you want to try your hands at it, and a 90 BC screenshot of my empire for comparison with your attempt. Note that my first-ring cities are much bigger (size 6-8 as opposed to size 1-2 in your case) and much closer to the capital and therefore much more productive, which is reflected in the overall progress: 2 turns left on Feudalism, as opposed to 3 turns left to Republic. Second ring is already started, but of course still far from complete.