[BTS] Ragnar feeling Babylonian

[guermantes]

So I recently made the switch to Emperor, and have to my surprise been winning nine of the ten games I have played. And for the eleventh I rolled Ragnar with the start below, that didn't really inspire me, but I figured I would play what I had been given instead of re-rolling.

And I struggled, but paid more attention to diplomacy than usual and also tried out a technique I haven't particularly used much ever, and to some success. But just as I was feeling that game was going my way and I was in the middle of the scoreboard, I was dogpiled by significantly more powerful AIs.

I felt a bit like Sullla in the 'Babylon Always War' series they just kept on pounding on me. But I will pat myself on the back and say that I did well and got myself out of the mess and finally conquered the map. The score was bad but at least I was named 'Augustus Caesar'.

After the game I wondered why it had been so hard compared to my other Emperor games, so I looked at the starting points for all the AIs and it's not that they had significantly better land than me. Maybe they were just better at dealing with it?

I didn't take strategic screenshots during the game, but I have gone through my saves and will try to account for the game in the spolier below.

I'll also post the 4000 BC save in case anyone wants to try their luck. It would be interesting to know if this was a hard map or just me that botched the beginning.

BTS 3.19
Mod: Better BAT AI 2.1 (build 36-27-36)
No: tech trading, hut or events
Pangea, standard size, normal speed

Spoiler :

Here is the write-up
So I settled in place, and for my next city I went south towards the cows and the corn. Hatty to my east was pushing hard on my borders, settling her second city (Memphis) towards me. This also made Toku start heading up north towards me. Hattys culture quickly claimed my closest source of :iron: and I had no :copper: so I was forced to settle my third city northeast of Nidaros in the tundra to cut her off and then later settle for the :iron: even higher up north.

is post 6 further down you can see an image I missed to upload that shows the precarious metal situation.

My fourth city to claim the horses did not have any food at all, I was planning to use the ::fish:: southwest of the gold for a Moai city on the peninsula further south.

But havin gto settle that :iron: up north gave Toku the opportunity to beat my settler to the peninsula. At this stage war was the only way out. So I went for Tokyo.

Without too much hassle I took Tokyo as well as Nara and Nagoya on the peninsula. All the while I had to build plenty of Galleys and Triremes to fight off barbs boats that were constantly pillaging the clams outside Nidaros.

Joao is positioning himself to become top dog. He vassals Zara.

I decide to grab the lone barb city of Bulgar before advancing into Japan...

...but after moving in on the barbs, Hammurabi declares on Toku from the east, so I have to abort that project and hurry back if I am to vassal Japan successfully. Meanwhile, Augustus have started with his shenanigans, attacking Hatty.

Continuation below...

 

[guermantes]

Spoiler :

All the while I have been stealing techs and money from Hatty using the great spy that I got from building the great wall to infiltrate Thebes. This was the first time I had done this, and it really helped me. Four techs in total and about 2000 . This enabled me to tech at 100 % for quite some turns almost all the way to Lib, which I won to my surprise. I would later find out that Joao had beelined chemistry for grenadiers, so that was probably why lib was still available.

After I conquered Kyoto, Toku capitulated, and I went back to grab the barb city of Bulgar. In the sea to the west you can also get a glimpse of one of those barb boats that were still harassing me. In that shot he is pillaging fish.

Jaoa and Zara has now joined the war against the romans, keeping them in check so they dont grow too much. Then again, Joao is looking to be on the move...

When I won Lib, I was behind in tech, and I did not have :marble: so my usual play to grab Nationalism and go for the Taj felt far away. But then I remembered I had :marble: in the northern ice, without food that I had not settled due to the shortage. And I had the old settler standing around ever since Toku beat me to the peninsula! So I rushed him up there, with a few workers roading, and started on the Taj. This move might have been what saved my game.

At the same time, Joao is making headway in roman territory. He has already taken Arretium and Naples.

I need continue warring. Hatty is next of course, now that Rome is busy with Joao. Memphis falls easily and I advance on Thebes. Thanks to the Taj golden age, I have been able to tech to Military Tradition and start churning out cuirs. Zara has broken free by the way...

...but he stays in the war and everybody is pounding on Rome - I am thankful it is not me.

At the same time Joao takes Rome (and loses Naples for a few turn before he reconquers it). Joao is really becoming the top dog now.

I few turns later, I have taken Thebes and Alessandria, after which Hatty is ready to capitulate. This is an advance for me, but also somewhat of a poisoned apple, as we shall see...
But thanks to two shrines in Thebes, I can cash in on 62 per turn - if I remeber correctly I built a bank immediately

To be continued...

 

[guermantes]

Spoiler :

So, me having vassaled Hatty, Joao has also vassaled Rome. The world is at peace...for so long. If Alexandria is to be of any use to me I need to push on towards Ravenna, and try to conquer the old roman lands on my way to Portugal.

But I do not have the time to make a strategy, because the next turn Joao declares on me and the big show-down is on!

It turns out he actually declared on my vassal, and that was good because it gave me seven turns to prepare for his assault. I had a great person waiting so launched a golden age again to get out some troops fast and race to rifling.

You can see his grenadiers up north, as I move on Ravenna. I am struggling to get to rifling here...

After seven turns Joao shows up with cuirs and grenadiers outside Ravenna, which has become my new frontier outpost.

Our military ratio is 0.5 to his advantage, and I am not looking forward to this.

I go zero tech to upgrade to cavs. Good, because he keeps on coming with new stacks all the time, and here is Zara as well, joining in.

As he can't take Ravenna, he starts bypassing me and go for Alexandria instead. Zara too. I am running back and forth, reinforcing and healing, usaing all my trebs to damage before attacking their stacks.

 

[guermantes]

Spoiler :

While I have been climbing slowly towards cannons, Joaos onslaught softens. He still comes along with stacks, but it feels things are going my way.
So I try to break out a group to attack Antium in the south, so as to have more room of manoeuver around Ravenna. And just as I have reduced the walls a new Joao stack turns up...

And then a new a new stack comes along while the first moves on Alexandria.I have to leave Antium and head back north.

The fighting is fierce, but I have a clear upper hand since my forces are more grouped together. However, I am still defending the same spot since 30 turns!!

I clean up what seems to be the last portuguese stacks and move on Antium again. And now the romand go on a counter-offensive...

We can't have that, can we?

The cannons have arrived, and at last I make some head-way.

The next turn, Joao calls a halt to the war with his AP :cheese:. Not that I can't do with a pause myself...

To be continued...

 

[guermantes]

Spoiler :

Well hello, there!! I guess it pays off having been nice diplomatically towards him before he was vassaled by Joao.

At this stage Joao and me are equally strong but again, my forces are grouped and his are spread out everywhere, so this is my game from now on. Ten turns after the AP-decision I go in for the kill, grabbing Rome and Naples on the same turn. Poor Joao, you played so well there for a while.

The first properly Portuguese city has been conquered, and a respectable stack is moving on Lisbon. I'll grab that and two other cities before he will capitulate. He gave me Coimbra, size 12, plus money as spoils.

I quick move into Ethiopia, and he too is vassalled after losing two cities. Hammurabi manages to never lose a city during all this mayhem. But then he didn't win either...

 

[guermantes]

The lost image that should have been posted first.

Spoiler :

This one should have been posted first! It shows the tricky metal situation, my only iron being just under the "Mathematics 4" and the poor city blocking Hatty so as to secure that :iron:

 

[Gumbolt]

Congrats on the win.

I would look at your early game play if you want to move up a level. 3 cities by 750bc is really low. You have gold. Double clams start would of been really slow. Still might of got settler 2400bc?

There is a deer city not settled above the clams. You could of settled on/near horse and HA rushed the Egyptians or Japanesse. I assume you spammed great wall and this slowed your start here? Wasn't really needed.
Are you whipping units/buildings?

If you want advice try posting games without mods. You would get more advice.