Prepare to cringe - bad maps (deity)

[coanda]

Oof. Fractal, high sea level, end of peninsula, no non-seafood resources. That's definitely a "wander west hoping to find a better choke point" start to my eye.

Edit: Epic, too! I might well go 4, 5 turns before settling in that case if I still wasn't seeing the land open up.

 

[Pedro78]

Oof. Fractal, high sea level, end of peninsula, no non-seafood resources. That's definitely a "wander west hoping to find a better choke point" start to my eye.

Edit: Epic, too! I might well go 4, 5 turns before settling in that case if I still wasn't seeing the land open up.

Yeah my first instinct was Scout 2W. If nothing is found then bite the bullet and settle on the PH. Moving West blindly risks running into a big patch of desert or something.

 

[Fippy]

@Pedro78

Spoiler :

Looks like the real problem is no copper. Axepult would play into Alex´ strengths and can outsmart an AI with a resistant stack that can take hill cities without much trouble, while HAs are a luck game where you prolly need 5 tries before one somewhat works.

 

[CarpoolKaraoke]

@Pedro78

Spoiler :

Looks like the real problem is no copper. Axepult would play into Alex´ strengths and can outsmart an AI with a resistant stack that can take hill cities without much trouble, while HAs are a luck game where you prolly need 5 tries before one somewhat works.

T64:

Spoiler :

I think this map requires a lot of luck, but starting with horse is a pretty good deal. I'm playing with complete knowledge of the map, and reloaded if I've lost a 70%... but.....

Here's me waiting for the worker steal on the copper

Here's me panicking because the fields are swarming with archers and somehow there's a spearman already.... does he have iron???? At 2360 BC????

Was just running away from the spearman and pillaging, but Beshbalik had 2 archers and 1 moved out....so I took the gamble and razed the city, losing 1 chariot.

I proceeded to move the remaining two chariots towards the back side of Karakorum, where I know the iron is. The tile was mined, but didn't have bonuses, so I guess he doesn't have Iron working yet.
I pillage the mine anyways, causing the 1 spearman to chase my chariots backwards

Here's where I got incredibly lucky. Genghis decides that since my chariots are no longer near cities, it's fine to send out his archers on the offense. Thankfully, I'm now chopping away chariots as his archer stack moves towards me.

On the same turn, my offensive chariots move back. The scout has died to block the spearman RIP, but because the AI has terrible understanding of double moves.... Turfan only has 1 archer in it!!

All his defensive archers are dashing to rebuild New Sarai!!

Combat log for taking Turfan:

Fight stats from double dashing - losing 2 chariots.

Unfortunate I can't hold it, but I can raze it and send a settler with an archer trailing, and there it is, @Fippy 's copper.

Phalanxes arrive in the nick of time, and we're in business

I think I would declare this map now...winnable?

 

[sampsa]

You are an animal

 

[Fippy]

Tried the chariot choking thingy too..went okay.
No cities captured or razed, but plenty of his archers (+1 axe) killed.
Lost i think 2 chariots vs archers on flat ground..had to happen at some point, no reloads.
He had copper improved before i could get my first chariot out, no worker capture opportunities.

Ran out of time now, work calls.
Some interesting options..most of my chariots have to heal otherwise 5 could take out his 2 archers in Besh, maybe they can catch more on open field later.
Decided i cannot keep this up forever with just building more units (and hoping he doesn't pack Besh again would be luck based), workboat + settler now to at least get clam city.

Spoiler :

 

[Pedro78]

Spoiler :

Agreed that no copper is the biggest issue.
I'll be honest, I dismissed the chariot idea (too) quickly when I saw that GK's first two cities were on hills (in both my attempts he settled like in Fippy's game).
I still think that the only way this can work is if you manage to take a city and secure copper (& even then it's still a grind and anything can happen), + if he happens to have BFC copper you're toast. So it requires a large amount of luck, though it might still be the best option if HAs just won't cut the mustard.

@CarpoolKaraoke your position definitely shows some hope, but with GK about to start spamming Axes/Swords & no forests left you still have tough times ahead. If you manage to make peace one trick is to 1pop whip Turfan until it's unhappy at size 1, then gift it to GK & take it back on the same turn with a chariot.

@Fippy Not sure about WB+Settler vs more chariots, because everything seems to rely on taking Beshbalik. Curious to see what tricks you come up with.
Btw I noticed in my game that the tile 1SW of Athens was considered a river tile, is that cos the river is coming out of the lake? Not getting the road movement bonus there was a bit annoying.

 

[Fippy]

Yup same..the river connection near Athens was annoying.
You are prolly right about more units instead, i just didn't believe in taking a hill city with them at that point while i need 3 or 4 turns of healing.

 

[CarpoolKaraoke]

@CarpoolKaraoke your position definitely shows some hope, but with GK about to start spamming Axes/Swords & no forests left you still have tough times ahead. If you manage to make peace one trick is to 1pop whip Turfan until it's unhappy at size 1, then gift it to GK & take it back on the same turn with a chariot.

Spoiler :

Oh, I've killed him. He didn't have Iron working for awhile, and now I'll sit on his Iron. I speed played the rest of it to prove the conquest point - mind you, I completely butchered the economy-side of play for the reasons shown below - I played on default settings... (no tribes, events, normal speed, tech trading on). You'll see why it sucks for me in a moment.


But as for the war, He's panic sending units between cities -it's shooting fish in a barrel.

I don't need Catapults. He will spam chariots instead of archers due to strength coding. He's got 3 jungle cities at this point, so I thought I'd let him cut some jungle down for me. It's bad though, 550BC and he doesn't have alphabet. I gain nothing from this conquest. If I were to replay, I'd get alphabet and squeeze out techs here.

I limp to currency without building more units before declaring war again. I chose Construction because I had already gotten masonry and thought it was cheaper than getting calendar for 2 happiness (via Odeon) on this map. The Mongolian empire is 1 city on a southern iron with no food.

Bigger problem is that I left tech trading on and got nothing for it. I grab calendar and Iron working to upgrade this terrible land, and someone already has Liberalism. I guess it makes sense, they're trading like fiends....meanwhile if you look in the bottom left corner, there's a clue as to why Liberalism might be gone.

Stalin got capped by Ragnar. Kind of bullfeathers. They've probably been sprinting this whole time. It's still winnable, but I have some huge tech misplays.

 

[CarpoolKaraoke]

Tried the chariot choking thingy too..went okay.
No cities captured or razed, but plenty of his archers (+1 axe) killed.
Lost i think 2 chariots vs archers on flat ground..had to happen at some point, no reloads.
He had copper improved before i could get my first chariot out, no worker capture opportunities.

Ran out of time now, work calls.
Some interesting options..most of my chariots have to heal otherwise 5 could take out his 2 archers in Besh, maybe they can catch more on open field later.
Decided i cannot keep this up forever with just building more units (and hoping he doesn't pack Besh again would be luck based), workboat + settler now to at least get clam city.

Spoiler :

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I think your start was unfortunate in the sense that the city you're attacking is named Beshbalik...not Turfan. I'd re roll that upon seeing 2nd city settle.

 

[CarpoolKaraoke]

Spoiler T145 :

Replaying my war with the tech path to Alphabet instead of Currency. Taking 10 turns of peace to acquire the following:

Then I used 2 more great scientists on Compass, and Optics, while slowly taking cities for gold. Limped my way to first contact building beakers:

Trading for Construction, Currency, Mysticism, and 60 gold. It's a bit rough, but the score comparison is promising. I think another scientist will get me Astro and then I will finally have full investment over the continent. No liberalism teched yet this time around.

 

[krikav]

@Pedro78
Just saw you where back on the forums, I'm on hiatus atm.
I had problems earlier with not being able to search or see your forum posts since you have some restriction activated.
Can you add me as a friend or something?

Sorry for posting here, the same restriction makes it impossible to PM you as well.

 

[Pedro78]

@Pedro78
Just saw you where back on the forums, I'm on hiatus atm.
I had problems earlier with not being able to search or see your forum posts since you have some restriction activated.
Can you add me as a friend or something?

Sorry for posting here, the same restriction makes it impossible to PM you as well.

Hi krikav, been a while.
I updated my privacy settings, should be good now

 

[Fippy]

Sorry i forgot to report after ragequitting when 10 chariots didn't manage to take that city against 3 archers
Maybe i will try the building up route instead while plundering his stuff sometime.