Prepare to Die #3: Elizabeth No BS Edition

[Gwaja]

Which techs need to be added for barbs? Is it only archery and hunting?

Those would be Hunting, Archery, The Wheel, and Agriculture.

 

[sampsa]

Re my T74

Spoiler :

I don't think I'll last more than 10T there. I don't think it's impossible on deity, but it's very hard and requires some luck not to get dowed early. Can't try again now, but I will later. And then have my revenge on immortal if it just doesn't pan out...

 

[Gwaja]

@sampsa

Spoiler :

What do you think the only reliable way to stay away from being DoWed? Is city gifting the only answer? Hard to try not becoming a lands target on this map.... otherwise we get boxed in and have nowhere to go

 

[sampsa]

@Gwaja

Spoiler :

Yes I think it has to be city gift, probably two. My vision is that you get two pleased dogs, ignore third. Eventually you will get attacked by the one you ignored and optimally then bribe others in even to avoid the mad dog doing the same.

Issues are: getting enough for city gifts, actually having locations to gift, not getting dowed before gifts, not getting dowed before alpha. Capital is very strong so I think if you survive the BCs with a reasonable position there is a chance of success.

It is also possible this is all just a dream and you just have to go construction and see how it goes.

 

[jnebbe]

here's something you can do lol

Spoiler :

obviously you'd never do this unless you had map knowledge but its something
gold+ivory+beaver nearby so monarchy seems unnecessary, ragnar also has very nice land so i guess settle the ivory and continue warring. should be able to comfortably take over the continent, whether you can recover in time to stop the other continent getting a culture victory or something I don't know

 

[Gwaja]

@jnebbe

Beautiful! I love it! Just like how @Fippy toyed around with my maps I dedicated to her in the past. ^_^

 

[antimony]

Spoiler :

I tried to rush construction on deity. Ag-Min-BW-Pottery, chop fish boat, chop + 4->2 whip first settler (York on T36 same position as @sampsa), 2nd worker and clam boat after, cottage York, 4->2 whip granary in London and later chop 4->2 whip library just after T50 writing. (Maybe losing some commerce to too much whipping here.) Plan to bulb math T60 to allow researching masonry-hunting-archery in the meantime, also building a settler for northern 3rd city (1E of sampsa's Hastings for more chops). But anyway Alex DoWed me on T58 so that wouldn't work...

I think T70 construction is very feasible if you're lucky to not be DoWed by then, but without copper and depending how many swords Alex has by then it might still not hold

On immortal it would probably work, though other options open up as well, I would consider rushing Alpha and bribing them against each other with techs.

 

[antimony]

Alternative attempt on deity

Spoiler :

Figured I might as well try IW after Pottery and it turns out we do have capital iron, so I tried going for swords and researching Alpha to bribe someone. I built up a bit too much military pre-alpha and anyway nobody DoWed until T80 (maybe because of that), so the economy is bad, but I was able to counterattack Shaka and take Ulundi T91 (amazing capital), and get Alex to pleased and beg hunting for a peace deal. Also Ragnar founded Confu which will help.

 

[awost1]

Spoiler :

im crazy so I decided to make this my first immortal game. Capital is cool, so I decided to go bw first and then cut out for boats while I went to ag. After that I chopped a settler (3 total forests used) and decided to go wheel>pot>myst>writing>alpha.

The net of this was I got to settle York with knowledge of the copper, and the chopped/whipped myself culture there to be able to get the fish/copper/rice coast settle.

I got alpha but couldn’t get iron working from Alex because his tech path was trash and writing didn’t help. I probably should have traded him writing for some stuff so I could do alpha for iron working.

Alex is somehow my friend at the moment, but then Shaka declared on me at 1000bc right after I bulbed math.

This is a nasty map. Now that I’ve read spoilers I’ll try again tomorrow. I felt like my play was pretty strong, with some great whipping because this capital is a good whip spot. Maybe I’ll beeline IW tomorrow and just try that out.

In other news I should probably do the work to get Buffy to work on my steam copy of the game… I think I need it now

 

[awost1]

Spoiler :

yeah so next try resulted in alex and shaka dowing the SAME TURN

 

[jnebbe]

t128

Spoiler :

this is my 2nd playthrough since the first t77 save, this time I gifted a city to alex and got him to pleased so no plotting from him. At the moment he is +7 with me from the city gift and +5 from religion. Maybe if I get into vassalage I could get him to friendly.
Recovery after shaka war went better but was still pretty tight. the land is great but the synergy between cities was pretty poor.
I skipped settling the ivory in favor of settling the beavers first and getting a faster attack date with just axes

war is going good and ragnar's already running out of steam. He was expanding like crazy so he didn't have time to make too many units. I had some HAs running circles around him, sniped a few cities when they were underdefended which dragged his main stack away from my stack.


\

What should I use this scientist for? I could bulb alphabet and build research, atm most cities are making units cause I have nothing else to build, but I really don't need that many.
Or I could just save him for astro bulb? If I use him now I'd have to wait till t160 until I have another 2 scientists to bulb astro. That could be shortened if I detour to CoL but that's just spending more beakers away from optics
Golden age for bonus gp and quickly tech alphabet?

 

[Gwaja]

@antimony

Spoiler :

I was thinking just the same with Iron Working. Getting some Swordsmen and maybe a barracks would boost our power a bit which doesn't make us look as haplessly weak which could help avoid super early DoW. I think your position is not bad now. Liz's traits should help with economic recovery.

 

[antimony]

@antimony

Spoiler :

I was thinking just the same with Iron Working. Getting some Swordsmen and maybe a barracks would boost our power a bit which doesn't make us look as haplessly weak which could help avoid super early DoW. I think your position is not bad now. Liz's traits should help with economic recovery.

Spoiler :

I think with the land I got now it would be a good time to make peace and recover economically. Unfortunately Shaka doesn't agree with that .

Techwise I'm thinking Metal Casting or Compass (rather than Currency) might have good trade value next and they are on the road to Astro.

 

[Tecumseh1]

Those would be Hunting, Archery, The Wheel, and Agriculture.

Is that for both immortal and deity? Think I've been doing these worldbuilder games wrong haha

 

[sampsa]

Is that for both immortal and deity? Think I've been doing these worldbuilder games wrong haha

deity adds the wheel

 

[antimony]

Resumed playing this, now on T105

Spoiler :

Settled for peace with Shaka by giving him Ulundi back after the last update, so my net gain was only Bulawayo in the jungle, but at least I got conquest gold + time in peace. With only 4 cities we have to rely heavily on Philosophical, so I ran 2 scientists in London while teching to CoL. Bulawayo built a monastery to spread Confu in preparation for Pacifism.

T104 CoL, trade for Math with Alex before bulbing Philo. Next turn trade Philo for Monarchy with Ragnar, revolt immediately. Can now grow cities and tech CS in preparation for a caste/paci golden age. I think going for Music is too risky and I can afford burning a great scientist on the golden age.

Meanwhile Ragnar declared on Shaka. Unfortunately Alex is not interested to declare on Shaka in exchange for Philo and won't trade his monopoly Calendar or Currency either, so I'll hold on. Breakout plan is Cuirs, I think? Really need to keep them fighting each other.

 

[Gwaja]

@antimony

I will read your spoiler once I return from vacation, but I have a feeling you have made progress. ^_^

 

[antimony]

Continued this recently...

Spoiler :

and I don't think 4 cities will be enough.

After my last screenshot, Alex joins the war against Shaka, but after a while the Shaka vassals the Ragnar. Given that the best breakout plan would have been to take Shaka's cities, that's not possible anymore, and Alex has 8 cities and soon a large elepult army.

I tried the alternate route of beelining Astro and using tech trades with the other continent to be first to Rifling soon after 1000 AD, but even with drafting + slavery + culture slider my 30 redcoats army could only wipe Alex's first stack but not keep up in production after this. There are no weak AIs in the other continents (all 3 at 8+ cities), and the ocean distance to cross doesn't make it a great target either.