SirPleb
Shaken, not stirred.
In this game I am trying to use the Palace/rank bug to get as high a score as I can. This bug can be exploited by placing very few cities near one's Palace. This results in a large area centered on the Forbidden Palace which has low corruption. (For a detailed description of this exploit click here.)
Pregame Planning
I planned to start with a "settler flood" while setting up to jump my Palace to a distant location. This should be a powerful combination. A settler flood will not be affected much by corruption - towns can produce workers and settlers as fast as they grow even when largely corrupt. A long distance Palace jump will be easier to accomplish while doing a settler flood - all towns in the initial region will have low population.
After getting a few towns going I planned to send an early settler to find a new Palace location. This settler would move primarily north, south, east, or west to maximize the rank distance (1.5 per step vs. 1 per step if moving diagonally.) He'd travel until he finds a useable location on a distant coast. (Coastal so that a harbor can be built to ensure trade connections with the capital.) Some time later a group of workers would follow and join the new Palace town before doing the jump.
Later in the game I'll try to move the Palace again, to a remote island, using a leader.
I chose to play as the Ottomans because of the Industrious trait (always a good thing ) and their Sipahi. I think that Sipahi will be a well timed unit for the conquest phase of the game. By the time they are available I expect to be able to pump them out in large quantities. They are a very powerful unit for a brief time - if I can overwhelm the other Civs before Replaceable Parts is learned then Sipahi will be all I'll need.
I chose the no barbarians setting. This means no chance of an early settler from a hut and also means a slower overall tech pace. But it will allow me to do the settler flood unhindered by barbarians.
The wonder I most want is Pyramids. I planned to target the Civ who builds them as my first victim if at all possible.
My research targets would be Pottery, Republic, Military Tradition, Steam Power, and Replaceable Parts. I won't worry about other specific techs, those five are the ones which will be important milestones.
Start Position
Settings: Huge, Pangaea, 60% water, Ottomans, Deity, No barbarians, Wet, Warm, 5B years, 8 rivals.
I generated maps for a couple of hours looking for a nice start. Eventually I got this:
and after playing the opening moves it looked like this in 2900BC:
The pair of cattle could be used for one four-turn settler factory, the pair of wheat for another, and the pair of game to the southeast could be used for a two-turn worker factory.
This map looked like a good one to carry on with
The Settler Flood
For a long time I did nothing but pump settlers. The first three towns built granaries. One became a worker pump, the other two settler pumps. All new towns produced settlers as quickly as they could.
Over-production was used to produce warriors. E.g. if a new town produced 2 shields/turn at size 1 and would still produce 2 shields at size two then it would run a production cycle of warrior, settler, warrior, settler, etc.
The only exceptions I made from dedicating all resources to a simple settler flood were:
o A few early warriors were sent out as explorers.
o The 6th settler produced was sent on the long journey to find a new location for the Palace.
o Three settlers were sent out to claim distant luxuries discovered by my explorers.
o One town was dedicated to building Forbidden Palace from 1500BC onward.
After I traded for maps, in 1275BC, here's how my world looked:
The arrow points to my capital. This was a great map for a settler flood - I'd been given the most isolated position! The trick now would be to fill all that nice space before my rivals reached it.
At 1000BC I had 24 towns, 7 settlers in transit, 24 warriors, 14 native workers, 12 foreign workers, and 3 granaries.
To assist my efforts to fill the southeastern region before rivals arrived I fomented some wars in 775BC (described later) and also used my warriors to "reserve" some land until settlers could arrive. Here's a picture of my warriors hoping to stave off intruders in the area west of my capital until more settlers can arrive to fill it:
I slowed down the settler flood after jumping the Palace (described below) in 210BC. I continued it at a decreasing pace until about 10BC. At that date I had 105 towns, had filled most of the start region, and was ready to enter a new phase of the game - the builder phase described later in this note.
Fomenting War
During the settler flood I watched for a chance to stir up wars among my rivals. I couldn't do it in the Map Making trade turn - a few Civs traded Map Making immediately and I didn't have much leverage in that trading session. But in 775BC I was first to learn Polytheism and saw my chance. As well as trading for all known techs I'd be able to buy some alliances.
I declared war on my two most distant rivals, Persia and Celts
I then allied each other Civ against either Persia or Celts. I chose the alliances so that neighboring friendly Civs would not be allied against the same Civ:
Although many of my alliances would not result in direct conflict with Persia or Celts there were two other reasons for making these alliances:
1) The six friendly Civs would now be unlikely to go to war with me, even if my enemies offered them alliances.
2) My enemies might buy alliances with some of the friendly Civs against each other. With luck there'd be ongoing warfare for a fair while.
The plan worked. No one else went to war with me. Persia and Celts purchased a few alliances which started additional wars. Most of these were inconsequential (not between neighbors) but one was quite nice - in 710BC Persia convinced England to go to war with Babylon:
Most of the wars were over in about 20 turns but some dragged on. The last fallout from my machinations ended when Arabia and Celts signed peace in 340AD
continued in next post...
Pregame Planning
I planned to start with a "settler flood" while setting up to jump my Palace to a distant location. This should be a powerful combination. A settler flood will not be affected much by corruption - towns can produce workers and settlers as fast as they grow even when largely corrupt. A long distance Palace jump will be easier to accomplish while doing a settler flood - all towns in the initial region will have low population.
After getting a few towns going I planned to send an early settler to find a new Palace location. This settler would move primarily north, south, east, or west to maximize the rank distance (1.5 per step vs. 1 per step if moving diagonally.) He'd travel until he finds a useable location on a distant coast. (Coastal so that a harbor can be built to ensure trade connections with the capital.) Some time later a group of workers would follow and join the new Palace town before doing the jump.
Later in the game I'll try to move the Palace again, to a remote island, using a leader.
I chose to play as the Ottomans because of the Industrious trait (always a good thing ) and their Sipahi. I think that Sipahi will be a well timed unit for the conquest phase of the game. By the time they are available I expect to be able to pump them out in large quantities. They are a very powerful unit for a brief time - if I can overwhelm the other Civs before Replaceable Parts is learned then Sipahi will be all I'll need.
I chose the no barbarians setting. This means no chance of an early settler from a hut and also means a slower overall tech pace. But it will allow me to do the settler flood unhindered by barbarians.
The wonder I most want is Pyramids. I planned to target the Civ who builds them as my first victim if at all possible.
My research targets would be Pottery, Republic, Military Tradition, Steam Power, and Replaceable Parts. I won't worry about other specific techs, those five are the ones which will be important milestones.
Start Position
Settings: Huge, Pangaea, 60% water, Ottomans, Deity, No barbarians, Wet, Warm, 5B years, 8 rivals.
I generated maps for a couple of hours looking for a nice start. Eventually I got this:
and after playing the opening moves it looked like this in 2900BC:
The pair of cattle could be used for one four-turn settler factory, the pair of wheat for another, and the pair of game to the southeast could be used for a two-turn worker factory.
This map looked like a good one to carry on with
The Settler Flood
For a long time I did nothing but pump settlers. The first three towns built granaries. One became a worker pump, the other two settler pumps. All new towns produced settlers as quickly as they could.
Over-production was used to produce warriors. E.g. if a new town produced 2 shields/turn at size 1 and would still produce 2 shields at size two then it would run a production cycle of warrior, settler, warrior, settler, etc.
The only exceptions I made from dedicating all resources to a simple settler flood were:
o A few early warriors were sent out as explorers.
o The 6th settler produced was sent on the long journey to find a new location for the Palace.
o Three settlers were sent out to claim distant luxuries discovered by my explorers.
o One town was dedicated to building Forbidden Palace from 1500BC onward.
After I traded for maps, in 1275BC, here's how my world looked:
The arrow points to my capital. This was a great map for a settler flood - I'd been given the most isolated position! The trick now would be to fill all that nice space before my rivals reached it.
At 1000BC I had 24 towns, 7 settlers in transit, 24 warriors, 14 native workers, 12 foreign workers, and 3 granaries.
To assist my efforts to fill the southeastern region before rivals arrived I fomented some wars in 775BC (described later) and also used my warriors to "reserve" some land until settlers could arrive. Here's a picture of my warriors hoping to stave off intruders in the area west of my capital until more settlers can arrive to fill it:
I slowed down the settler flood after jumping the Palace (described below) in 210BC. I continued it at a decreasing pace until about 10BC. At that date I had 105 towns, had filled most of the start region, and was ready to enter a new phase of the game - the builder phase described later in this note.
Fomenting War
During the settler flood I watched for a chance to stir up wars among my rivals. I couldn't do it in the Map Making trade turn - a few Civs traded Map Making immediately and I didn't have much leverage in that trading session. But in 775BC I was first to learn Polytheism and saw my chance. As well as trading for all known techs I'd be able to buy some alliances.
I declared war on my two most distant rivals, Persia and Celts
I then allied each other Civ against either Persia or Celts. I chose the alliances so that neighboring friendly Civs would not be allied against the same Civ:
Although many of my alliances would not result in direct conflict with Persia or Celts there were two other reasons for making these alliances:
1) The six friendly Civs would now be unlikely to go to war with me, even if my enemies offered them alliances.
2) My enemies might buy alliances with some of the friendly Civs against each other. With luck there'd be ongoing warfare for a fair while.
The plan worked. No one else went to war with me. Persia and Celts purchased a few alliances which started additional wars. Most of these were inconsequential (not between neighbors) but one was quite nice - in 710BC Persia convinced England to go to war with Babylon:
Most of the wars were over in about 20 turns but some dragged on. The last fallout from my machinations ended when Arabia and Celts signed peace in 340AD
continued in next post...