Superslug Monarch #1 Attempt 2A

[superslug]

Okay, I know I already started a thread about my current endeavour to sack EMan's score, but that thread got cluttered full of notes from false starts and sleep deprived babblings.

I've started this thread because I have a game that finally has actually met my criteria:
Domination limit: 4438 tiles
Map: Warm/wet/5 billion/archipelago/sedentary barbs
AI: Eight. I chose 7 scientific (excluded Russia and the Ottomans to make life easier for my Cavalry) and threw in the Mongols for the fun factor.
Wonders possessed: Pyramids, Temple of Artemis and Leonardo's Workshop.

I can't fit my whole empire in one screenshot, but I hit H and zoomed out for this one:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/SuperslugMonarch600adScreenshot.jpg
(Ignore the two columns of smoke, there are occasional turns where I forget to scroll through F1 for happiness. )

My last standing criteria was being able to attack with Cavalry by 1000ad. As of 600ad, I have Cavalry already!:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/SuperslugMonarch600adF3.jpg

Now that I'm at a four turn tech pace (barely, but I'm there) I've decided to go ahead and forge ahead with research before attacking since I can get to Steam Power before 1000ad. Whether or not I'll have coal immediately, I obviously don't know, but I'll be able to trade maps by then and can hit whoever I need.

For some huge mappers, waiting for RR before the Cavalry blitz is habit. For me, it's a drastic departure from my usual playstyle, but the circumstances seem appropriate, so I'm going to give it a whirl.

Since I'll be going in with RR available, I've changed my mind about keeping cities. I know plan on burning the AI bastards to the ground. For one, it's more fun. Secondly, I'm not playing someone Industrious, so the free workers will come in mighty handy.

For the time being, I'm going to let all my current cities finish one more Horsemen each and then switch them to Wealth as they complete the units. This will help me save up some cash for the mass upgrade right before I commence with hostilities. At that point, every town will alternate between Settlers and more Horsemen.

Final tidbit for this post, my 600ad F8 screen:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/SuperslugMonarch600adF8.jpg

 

[superslug]

1070ad: Rights of Passage agreements come up for renewals and I let them expire. Due to proximity, possession of luxuries, small size and general patheticism, Korea is selected for the first execution.

 

[superslug]

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/LastChatWithKorea.jpg

 

[Svar]

It looks like you starting position has 2 cows in the first city. That has been my requirement for my present 20K culture fastest finish wins in regent on standard worlds playing as the Persians. I kept some maps with only 1 cow just to practice on. After settling some of the 2 cow starting positions and finding a third cow inside the 21 tile city border I decided to pop all the remaining 1 cow starts to see what developed. The very first 1 cow start that I settled revealed an additional 2 cows within the 21 tile city border. From now on I keep all 1 cow starting positions even if I need 2 for a good start. I had another 1 cow start that had a FP wheat within the 21 tile border after the city was settled so it is worth the look. About 90% of the 1 cow starts only have the 1 cow but it only takes about a minute to check.

 

[Darkness]

Great screenie superslug!

 

[superslug]

Originally posted by Svar
About 90% of the 1 cow starts only have the 1 cow but it only takes about a minute to check.

I don't even check those, I just ditch them and let MapFinder run more. Speaking of which, I've already set the program to start generating maps for my next game. I don't know if I'll use them, but if I accomplish what I'm trying (#1) then it's a clear indication it's time to move on to higher levels.

Originally posted by Darkness
Great screenie superslug!

I thought so. What's ironic is that there's some folks down in OT and Site Feedback probably wondering the same thing...

1080ad: I really should have done my homework on the Koreans before invading. It turns out they were the ones that had build Knight's Templar and one of my Cavalry stacks got viciously counterattacked by a fair number of Crusaders (all dead now, but so are some of my guys).

On that note, I've changed my mind about having towns switch between Settlers and Horsemen. All native cities will now focus exclusively on Horsemen and I'll keep towns rather than raze them. Occupied towns will focus on Settlers. This will reduce city replacement as a priority, but for now securing the map is what needs to happen.

I've also decided I may eat an extra anarchy and jump to Communism. I gifted the remaining Scientific civs up to IA, and sadly no one generated Nationalism, but I hope to trade for it as soon as someone researches it. I'd like to try it out...

 

[superslug]

OH MY FREAKING GOD!

As stated earlier, this is the first time I've waited for Railroads before starting my wars. I can't believe what I can do with troop movements within one turn now! I just spent 45 minutes manually moving my workers to construct a railroad from a pile of Cavalry to the current border just so I could sack one more city this turn...

I also see why some of you all's turns take two hours...I can't believe I've been missing out on this all this time...

 

[superslug]

1100ad: Even after realizing I should've done my homework about the Koreans I still didn't investigate them. I took Sun Tzu's Art of War in Pyongyang. It'll be handy to have though...

 

[Moonsinger]

Waiting for RR before starting to take over the world is a very fine idea (I'm doing it a lot). Because of the railroad bug (if the AIs don't have Steam Power, I won't be able to build rails into their cities), I have no choice but to give everyone railroad in C3C before I start launching my conquest.

 

[fret]

Originally posted by superslug
I just spent 45 minutes manually moving my workers to construct a railroad from a pile of Cavalry to the current border just so I could sack one more city this turn...

I love doing this as well superslug! In fact, I even got a strat in the war academy based entirely upon it!

 

[Svar]

Originally posted by superslug

I don't even check those, I just ditch them and let MapFinder run more. Speaking of which, I've already set the program to start generating maps for my next game. I don't know if I'll use them, but if I accomplish what I'm trying (#1) then it's a clear indication it's time to move on to higher levels.

In last nights session I generated more maps with only 1 cow that I opened today at noon and got 2 out of 13 that had 2 cows in the 21 tile city border. The best
can be seen here. If I treat the sugar as a bonus grassland, I have 2 cows on plains, 4 bonus grasslands, 1 FP, 2 hills, 6 plains, and 5 grasslands. Using my spreadsheet that calculates the 20 citizen shield production for a railed city I get 57 shields before factories. That's pretty high. Without rails you still get 37 shields and if you only have 12 citizens you can get many combinations but 22 shields and +7 food is the easiest for me to get from a spreadsheet that is only interested in maximizing shield production. As an added bonus you get 10 river tiles plus the tobacco and sugar commerce. I never would have looked at this city if I didn't first settle the city.

 

[superslug]

Originally posted by Moonsinger
Waiting for RR before starting to take over the world is a very fine idea (I'm doing it a lot). Because of the railroad bug (if the AIs don't have Steam Power, I won't be able to build rails into their cities), I have no choice but to give everyone railroad in C3C before I start launching my conquest.

Is the railroad bug the fact that when I raze towns the tiles don't keep RR like they used to?

 

[Svar]

Thr RR bug is the case where when you capture a city from a civ that hasn't researched steam power yet you don't get a RR connection you keep the road connection. If you raze the city at least you can build a RR in the ruins, if you keep the city you have to wait until it eventually converts to a RR.

 

[superslug]

@fret: Nice piece!

@svar: I don't trash starts that only have one cow visible from the screenie. What I should've said is that if I don't see another cow/wheat after I drop my Settler, then I delete.

 

[superslug]

1110ad: Two or three Korean towns flipped back, so I hit them again and burned them to the ground. Then I swept up the ashes into neat little piles, poured gasoline on them and burned them again. Then I knocked off the last two Korean cities on the uberisle and completely expelled the bastards from my island...well, soon to be my island.

There are a handful of other Korean towns on another island, and I wasn't going to worry about them, so I called up for a peace treaty. To my delight, I saw that they had Nationalism. The refused to give it up, so I'm going to invade the island and see if I can't beat it out of him.

I'm also going to build a RR south through German territory and start smacking up the Byzantines until they're ready to talk. Their citizens voted to ally with Korea, so their citizens are going to be deprived of their right to vote, as well as deprived of their freedom, their homes, their property, their cats and dogs, their....well you get the idea.

I'll play another turn tomorrow...

 

[superslug]

1130ad: Okay, I finally did some homework on the Koreans and found out what little busy bees they'd been. They still have a dozen minor towns in five different locations in the southern hemisphere, in addition to the settlements on another island.

Since most of the mainland towns are beside Byzantine territory I've already got troops headed there. I'm also proceeding against the island as much is unsettled. I'd rather claim than conqueor in this case.

 

[superslug]

1210ad: The Byzantines wound up seriously outnumbering me and the Koreans were too spread out. I decided to sue for peace, given that war weariness had raised my luxury slider to 30%. The 2gpt penalty for going over the Republic unit cap was killing me!

I shopped around on Nationalism and took the best offer from the Germans. I then researched Communism on my own and initiated Anarchy...

 

[superslug]

Game abandoned...

 

[Darkness]

Originally posted by superslug
Game abandoned...

Why?
You were on a slightly slower techpace than what you'd hope for in a game, but it looked pretty good....

 

[superslug]

The map was awesome but my momentum was completely stalled. It was a tremendous learning experience and I'm firmly convinced that I'd get a better game if I started fresh with the new knowledge and tricks I have.

The main thing that's going to change in my game plan is Republic. I'm going to go with Monarchy instead. The Dutch are nonindustrious, which means I need more workers than I'm used to and the 2gpt was really killing me. Just on a whim I reloaded one of my older saves from this game and switched to Monarchy. The change in numbers convinced me that Monarchy is a much better government to for under these settings.

Considering I rush to ToA right off the bat anyway, Monarchy is only a step further, so I'll be out of Despotism faster.

I'm also going to plan on RR and Communism before initiating combat. Communism will be faster to slide into now that I know Aeson approves of an idea that popped into my head last night...