So much of the pre-talk, let's get this game started! Here are the years 4000 BC to 1880 BC or the turns 1 - 163!
First we got the starting scene:
I though about SIPing or settling 1 NE. 1 NE would give a 2 Hammers plains-hill as a center-tile, which is a bigger bonus than most of you would imagine. 1 Hammers more or less can be 5 turns on a Settler on Marathon. I couldn't decide, therefor, I asked my girlfriend. "Get all the gold which is better as a mid to late game perspective or get a faster start?" You have to know, that my girlfriend is the goddess of Civ. No kidding, when I tell her "I need to win that fight or the game is over" I win it, when she's away I don't get any maps, the moment she comes through the door, 7 Gems or quintuple Gold. She's a very good gamer herself, she always goes by intuition. Don't believe me? I'm really not kidding, she was one of the best Ministrels in DAoC, and she told me "get all the gold, throw away the game if the early game fails, if it doesn't, it's gonna be awesome :> " .
Having also little to zero experience with Egypts War Chariot rushes, I didn't question that. (This was the 3rd or 4th game I played with Ramesses, the 1st one was the 7 Gems start which can be found in
The Awesome Starts Collection's thread. I screwed up that one, but this start equal at least. 2 times wet Corn turns the city into a Worker / Settler powerhouse, and with the Hammers from the 3 Golds, the city would also be able to produce a ton of Chariots very early.
That was basically the problem I had with the 7 Gems start, it just had too little production to rush successfully.
With this start though, I'd find out, that my girlfriend, the goddess of Civ, was totally right with grabbing all the Gold, because
2 cities would be all I'd be wanting for the beginning. This is a mistake I often made in my earlier games, too much REX leading to too late rushes. It works with Rome, because Rome is IMP and because IW comes later than AH and because Praets even beat Longbows, but for Egypt, Settlers are enormously expensive while War Chariots are extremely cheap and effective. It's much better to let the AI settle the land and only grab some horses and after that build WCs.
I would not be able to grab that third Gold with a 3rd city (2nd city grabbing some Horses) and still produce a decent amount of War Chariots, that's why I SIPed.
The Research went to Mining followed by BW! Why BW and not AH as a followup? Researching BW gives a production bonus due to early chops, researching AH makes sure you get some Horses. I'm a gambler so I decided for the more powerful less safer tactic, get 2 Workers, chop out a Settlelr, settle Horses, chop out a dozen of War Chariots, finish the War Chariot quest that one gets in 90% of the cases with Egypt, and produce tripple promoted War Chariots with the power of Vassalage!
Oh, I'm spoiling too much already, but
this is actually the Truth and Dare tile of this Episode. Having such a tremendous start I decided for both, for the truth (Oracle -> Feudalism) and the daring part (getting 12 WCs before finishing Oracle! ) .
Most of you would call this a really
crazy gambit, and I tell you, it is, but that's the great thing in a HoF game, there's no pressure to beat that specific map, if it fails, one can let Mapfinder run over night and one will get another great start and can try again! Just to make sure, for Oracling Feudalism, one needs to research Monarchy. One needs Writing and one needs Oracle + Monarchy and that all before T150 which is at 2000 BC, because on Marathon Deity, Oracle gets built at a latest of 1800 BC! I've already left out the Industrious Civs to create greater chances for myself, but let's do this
step by step:
T1: The Capital after the SIP
Buildorder Worker -> Worker. Why Worker -> Worker? Because I have 2 Corns to improve from the start, I have 3 Golds to mine, and I'm going to have lots of Forrests which must be chopped as fast as possible to get the 12 WCs! Therefor Worker -> Worker = logical. Of course, I also want to Oracle Feudalism, meaning I should focus Research and let the city grow between the Workers to get the Golds online asap, but getting a huge production was the greater good I thought!
T8 (3880 BC) : Mysticism from a Goody Hut
T16 (3760 BC) : Scout from GH
Picture of the initial scouting:
On the screen, you can also see that I've met Lizzy, Ghandi, Toku and Hatty. That's a good thing I think, I can kill Ghandi first because he builds the fewest troops, after that, I can continue with the harder, because being Protective, Tokugawa, and Hatty should be my techtrade-friend. I met Lizzy later than those three, so I knew that she'd be farther away. I had no idea yet about their ressources, and I wouldn't even know that later, because Ghandi is always the Worst Enemy of the bad guys, so I could not open Borders with him fearing to piss them off.
Regarding Good Huts, I got Mysticism which is ok. If I had gotten it in the 1st two turns I could have made a try at getting a religion, but like that, it's only some Beakers I don't have to research on the path towards Oracle which again is, ok, not op, it's ok. It's also not bad, because reaching Priesthood asap is one of the most important goals early after BW + AH, the earlier one has Priesthood, the less likely the AI is to tech it, thus greater chances at a successful Oracle. I also got a Scout from a Hut, which is something I like very much as I never research Hunting and getting a clearview early is very nice.
T54 (3190 BC) , big jump: The 2nd Worker finishes.
Nothing in between also means that I got no further Goody Hut, so I have 0 Gold . This is not good, I have to keep research at 100% and I also need some if a bad random event comes along, so I decide to build SH for the moment. Ramesses is IND so it's actually better than building Wealth.
While the 1st Worker improves the 2nd Corn, the 2nd one already begins at improving one of the Golds. Here are 2 pictures, one of the city and one of the surrounding land, I've scouting huge parts:
On this map I'm glad that I'm playing Egypt and not Spain, Rome or whomever, there's nearly no room to expand except some jungle. 3300 BC to 3000 BC is the time where Deity AI settles their 3rd cities, so let's look a little further:
T 65 (3025 BC) : Thebes grows to size 2.
Espionage has been directed to Hatty for the moment because I haven't met Mansa yet. I hope this changes soon, Hatty is a decent techtrade-partner but in the early game, there's nothing that's better than Mansa. Hatty started with Marble and researches Masonry so as (almost) always, she goes the Monotheism route. Ghandi has founded Hinduism (which was Meditation, I play with choose Religions to have a bit more of diversity in the game) , he's another candidate at scoring Oracle but he doesn't seem to have Marble, and as I plan on annihilating him early, I don't wanna direct any espionage to him. Mansa, Asoka and WK are the other ones which might research Priesthood early, I have no influence on that, I'm gambling, the tension grows.
Only 8 turns later (T73 = 2905 BC) , Thebes grows to size 3 and the 1st Gold goes online: The power of the 2 wet Corns is really amazing.
T76 (2860 BC) , Darius is the first to Writing:
This develops just like I've told you, Darius always goes AH first for his Immortals, therefor has Writing very early, and getting Writing leads the AIs on the Alphabet-path, which leads me to getting Writing through trade, which is a big part of the Gambit. From experience I know, that the AIs normally need between 30 and 40 turns from Writing to Alpha. This could already be a litte bit early, but from the log I know, that Darius hasn't switched to Slavery yet, so there's a good chance that I'll be able to trade BW + something for it.
T 82 (2770 BC) : Only 9 turns after having grown to size 3, Thebes grows to size 4 and works 2 Golds now.
In addition: All Golds have been improved, just 2 turns before BW finishes, so the Workers will only be idle for 1 turn as they need also 1 turn to move into the Forrests, this is perfect timing, going Worker -> Worker really was the right move.
I have to make a decision though: Shall I continue on building Stonehenge now that Thebes has grown to size 4, or shall I produce a Settler?
Normally, I'd always decide for the safe route, but I'm playing Egypt:
SH is too nice of a Wonder for Egypt who can run 2 Priest-Specialists with the Unique Monument, this might allow me to do something really crazy like Oracling Paper after bulbing Theo! I'm beginning to dream.
Those dreams get disturbed very fast though, because
in T89 (2665 BC) Hammurabi builds SH so I get 152 Failgold .
Too bad, but actually as expected. SH in 2665 BC is already late for Marathon Deity, I've seen 2400 BC as a latest. I'd have loved to score that Wonder too and run a Priest-heavy Economy early, but in hindsight, this was good too, because without Failgold and 3 Golds online, I wouldn't have reached Monarchy in time. Of course I let the city grow to size 5 now, as its Foodbar is already half full, the turns I need for growing will be only little more than the turns I save on the Settler because of that.
Notice though, I'd never do this if I wasn't playing a HoF game, not Worker -> Worker (I'd go Worker -> grow to size 2 because the city has two 3 Food tiles -> 2nd Worker) , neither the BW after Mining (I'd prefer AH to make sure to get Horses if playing normally, you can see that Hatty and Toku already have settled towards my position and that I have very little space to expand) , nor trying to score Stonehenge, nor trying something as crazy as fulfilling the WC-Quest before Oracling something of that size, but this is the fun part of a HoF game in the beginning, one can go enormous risks :> Let's have a look though at the time I needed to play the first 100 turns, I'm a very slow player, and I hate it when I'm not successful:
Nearly one hour played already. I'm sure
AbsoluteZero would already be long into the medievil era, researching something like Civil Service, but I'm especially inexperienced with normal leaders, I really need to think about every move twice, I'm sure the decision with SH alone took me at least 5 minutes. Deciding which Forrests I have to chop took me 5 minutes, because I like to have every chopped tile to be surrounded by 3 Forrests because then there is a good chance, that a Forrest will regrow in the time where I chop other Forrests.
Anyway:
Viccy has also reached Writing, just like Ghandi, but more important: In T95 (2575 BC) I finally finish Animal Husbandary and now can see if there are some
Horses in range: It's time to look around again:
Good news, bad news. Good news is, there are Horses which haven't been settled yet, bad news is, they are
over 10 tiles away from the Capital O_O . It's gonna take forever to build a road there. The site is decent with a source a Food and some Gems, but I need at least 2 more Workers. Too bad I didn't steal any, but I really screwed up some beautiful starts doing that, maybe I have to learn from
Tachywaxon again.
I know for sure that some would give up the start now, but I somehow feel that this start still can make it, maybe I'm just not willing to give up because I don't get dual Wet Corn + Tripple Gold every day and I've got a good feeling about this. The good thing is, that I went Worker -> Worker in the beginning, that I went for early BW and that I had the city fully improved and the Workers rdy to powerchop from the moment BW was there. I let 2 chops go into the Settler, then switch to the Barracks again so the city can grow to
size 5 which it does in T97 (2545 BC) :
The city produces the Settler with lightspeed of 14
and because the 2 Workers are still chopping,
the Settler finishes in T 104 (2460 BC) :
It's not new to you, that my
Research went Meditation . What's new is, that
I finally got the War Chariot Quest! I already was afraid that it might not trigger. About 50 turns left until I want to Oracle Feudalism to produce those leet tripple promoted Chariots...
In T 108 (2420 BC) "Eastern Rice Horses Gems" or "Alexandria" is founded. The same turn, Viccy is the first to Alpha!
Meditation has finished in the meantime and Research has gone to Priesthood to block the AI from researching it, because it's already a "known tech" . Let's have a look if I can trade anything from Viccy:
Too bad, she has BW already, otherwise this would have been my first chance to get Writing. I don't wanna trade Mysticism or Meditation against anything with her, because it's still too early for that, as it could lead her on the path to Priesthood and therefor Oracle.
Important decision: If I still want to finish that Quest and also Oracle in time, I decide that I have to stay at 2 cities, and that I need 5 Workers for them! Plan is that 3 Workers build the road to Alexandria while 2 Workers pre-chop Forrests, so that I can Chopwhip the 12 Chariots in only a few turns. After the road is built, the Horses and the rice have to be improved and new Forrests will become available by the 2nd Borderpop of the Capital, so enough to do for 5 Workers.
Small jump,
in T125 (2250 BC) Wang Kon is the 2nd to reach Alpha. I'm lucky, he didn't research Animal Husbandary so I got something I can trade to him. What makes me nervous is that he has Meditation. He could research Priesthood and still get Oracle before me, even without Marble, because I still need 32 turns to Monarchy. Therefor,
I trade AH vs Fishing because I hope to get Sailing somehow which would give me foreigh Traderoutes which again would mean some Commerce fastening up my Research.
Production won't be a Problem with so many Workers, early BW and so many Forrests.
Thebes is shortly before finishing the Barracks and hasn't even started on producing the Oracle yet, because its production is so high, that it can produce it from the scratch in 30 turns!
On the Screen, you can also see the X-pattern in which I chopped the Forrests to give them a greater chance to regrow while others are being chopped, what I described further above, you'll remember, what takes me so long.
You can also see, that I've met all Civs, so this map is one big isle and not multiple ones, which is good for trade reasons.
2170 BC or T133 is the important turn:
1. The Horses go online!
The Workers have chops rdy in just that round. What's bad about that timing, is, that both of them got the chop rdy on the same turn. It wouldn't have been too wrong if I'd had chopped both Forrests at once converting some Overflow that's too much into Gold , but I didn't think of that at that time. Notice now how important that Failgold and growing to size 5 would become?
2. Darius gets Alpha and he lacks a lot basic techs!
Notice that I don't trade for Writing yet, as I know, that I'll get that for Meditation + BW on the next turn. Getting Pottery, especially for AH + Fishing is the best move this turn, because it allows Darius to maybe get Sailing and not every AI researches Pottery so maybe I trade for some further tradegood here.
It's important that I don't trade Mining, because AI always get's Mining from someone else, if I'd trade it, Darius would get BW from someone else denying a big trade in the followup turn.
Things develop as planned and even better: Here are the trades 2 turns later in 2150 BC:
Darius has traded for Sailing and he has got Mining so I can trade Meditation + BW vs Sailing + Hunting!
Same turn, Lizzy has reached Alpha and she also lacks some basic techs:
Ok, I admit, this was lucky somehow, getting all basic techs for just BW and AH, but hey, "fortune favors the bold" :>
In the meantime,
the War Chariot production is running on high speed:
2130 BC: I whip the 1st Chariot 1 turn before Thebes would have grown to size 6! Like that, it can regrow and only looses working 1 Gold for 1 turn.
2120 BC: The first Chariot is rdy!
2110 BC: The next Chariot finishes from the OF of the first one!
2100 BC: I whip the next Chariot in Alexandria!
2090 BC: The 4th Chariot finishes from the OF of the 3rd one in Alexandria!
2060 BC: I chop out the 5th Chariot!
2050 BC: The 2nd Worker has finished another chop for the 6th Chariot!
2040 BC: The 2 chops combined with normal production give the 7th Chariot!!
2000 BC: The 8th Chariot finishes through normal production in the Capital!
1990 BC: The 9th Chariot finishes through normal production in Alexandria!
1970 BC: Another chop brings in the 10th Chariot!
1940 BC: The 11th Chariot again is through normal production!
1930 BC: I whip the last Chariot that's needed for that quest!
!111
That were 12 War Chariots produced in 20 turns! It was perfect (by circumstances) that they were produced so late and in such a short time, because
those troops already cost a decent amount of maintenance lowering my Research noticable:
Down to 50% research! O_O
But it's enough! In 1880 BC I finish Monarchy and the Oracle on the same turn and jump from ancient to medievil times in 1 turn!
!111
Running Vassalage would save myself 6 GPT, that's more than Currency would have brought, but more on that later in the
2nd episode of Replay which is titled "Ghandi says: You can avoid conflicts if you simply aren't there XD. "
Seraiel
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) .
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it sounds like a lot of hard work.
, I must have done something totally wrong one would think ...
and nothing else.
(like 150+ 
All my best games I am just going laaaa di daaa time to fruk the stooofz up, and then at the end I am all like wooooah nice finish date.
.
