T98 Science Victory with Cooked Settings

[Minou]

T22: With 5 Warriors smashing Bradford, the city easily falls. Sadly it is empty, but on the plus side our capital is so close that moving Liang in is enough to easily keep the city loyal. Renamed Fort Oscar, the city has nice potential thanks to a second ring horse and the ability to eventually work two wonder boosted tiles. For now the city will start a Palgum to get the Construction boost plus a nice boost to the cities development.

Off to the west, our Galley was hoping to snatch up another Builder, but it sails away. One Warrior and the Galley move into position to hit Leeds next turn. Meanwhile, Himoko uses charge #3 to send a second envoy to Brussels.

Checking the info bar, England is currently at 143CP. We smoked a Warrior in Bradford, so their real total is now 123. Currently 3 Warriors, a Scout, and a Slinger are visible meaning there are probably 2 additional Warriors, one slightly wounded, somewhere to the south.


T23: England makes one attack, foolishly banging their Scout against one of our Warriors on a forest hill. Their CP remains at 143, indicating they must have popped another Warrior to replace the one killed in old Bradford. Our Galley hits Leeds for a decent 38 damage and the Warrior follows up with a pretty bad roll, dealing another 24. We can’t siege the city due to the four ocean tiles, so it will be a tight race to take it out before our units suffer too much damage to press the attack.

Himoko uses charge #4 to gain control of Brussels. This reveals another Hero, Beowolf. Beowolf is very strong as he can kill units inside cities making early conquest much easier. However, he can’t hold a candle to Hercules so we can ignore him for now. If the AI actually used Hero abilities we might have to take him just to deny them such a strong weapon, but alas the AI seems capable of using Heroes only as normal melee units (not sure if they ever even make a district with Hercules).

We get +1 happiness from Brussels ability for having Maize hooked up and can accumulate more for Stone and Wheat soon. Brussels has 5 Warriors we can levy, but they are fairly scattered across the map so it will take a while to get them into position for another attack. Finally, shared vision with Brussels reveals Hatusa, with a Mysticism quest. That’s great luck, since we will have 25f for a Pantheon in just 2 turns.

On the domestic front, SWF completes allowing us to hire Magnus in the capital.

Finally, the Stone Face Clan spawns near Brussels. They are selling Spears, which is very nice. Babylon can really abuse cheap pre-BW Spears because one kill by the Spear unlocks the ability to upgrade it to a fearsome Pike!

Civics: State Workforce (no boost)

 

[Minou]

T24: Apologies for the lack of screenshots of the English front the last few turns. Between turns, England suicides its Scout, redlining one of our levied Warriors. That Warrior will have to sit out the attack on Leeds this turn, but another one marches up into position on the narrow two hill front outside the city. Given the terrain, our hired Galley is key, taking the city down to 117 health. Without the Galley we’d probably have no shot at capturing the city.

The big domestic news is that we get a Pantheon his turn. With Religious Settlements and God of War gone, I think the best choice is God of Craftsman. Production is going to be important for the next 20 turns or so before chopping completely takes over, and this Pantheon will let us get some powerful 2f/4h/1f Horse pastures going quickly. The utility will grow as we unlock Iron, Niter, Coal, etc. Scoring a pantheon boosts Mysticism giving us a much needed Hatusa envoy too, which shaves the time to Mining from 13 to 10 turns.

Inspirations: Mysticism

 

[Minou]

T25: The hired Galley hits Leeds for 39 and a levied Warrior follows up for 26. The city should fall next turn. Our exploring SK also makes our first barb kill, knocking off a Scout and putting us 1/3rd of the way to Bronze Working.

At T25, we can look at the relative impact of the special modes. Barbarian Clans has been amazing, solely because that purchased Galley is the only reason we can capture Leeds. Secret Societies has also been superb. Even though we haven't even joined an SS, the free Governor Title let us get Amani out early, which revealed Himoko and in turn allowed us to invade a neighbor already. Heroes and Legends of course provided Himoko. So far Corporations and Monopolies hasn't done anything, but it will be nice to get a Honey Industry in the capital eventually.

 

[Minou]

T26: Some unexpected news: An unmet player has been defeated! That's really early. I wonder if it was a City State or AI - seems unlikely a CS could be taken down so quickly since they start with walls, so some AI Civ probably got rushed bad. Another news item says an unmet Civ completed the Etemenanki. We were never going to invest early hammers in that wonder anyway, but it would be nice to capture later in the game.

Our units roll very poorly, hitting Leeds for a mere 33 (Galley) and 22 (Warrior), about the lowest possible damage given the CP differential. This leaves the city at 33HP. An average roll for our second Warrior would be 36, but he also whiffs and does only 26 and ends up redlined right next to an English Warrior who will surely kill him between turns. All in all, a terrible run combat run! Our only bright spot is killing the Slinger closer to the capital.

Magnus arrives at the capital but since Mining is still 8 turns away he languishes without anything to do yet.

Himoko uses charge #6 to send a second envoy to Hatusa, but annoyingly an AI has sent their Amani there so it will be risky to try levying their army.

 

[Minou]

T27: Port Oscar is taken at last, at the cost of two levied Warriors - one killed between turns and one sacrificed to soften the city up so the Galley can capture it. At least the Galley gains a promotion. We capture another Builder inside the city, but it will be hard to improve the terrane with so many English Warriors swarming. At least the first Builder can hook up the Wine this turn since he is already on the tile.

And what's that in London? A Vampire! Our Galley can hit London from the sea, but we will probably need to either add Archers to the mix or upgrade some Warriors into Swords to crack that last city.

Our new city, renamed Port Oscar (all the cities are named after pets BTW) has a Monument, which we should start repairing ASAP. Since Magnus can't do anything in the capital, he can slide over to keep the city Loyal. As our first port city, it looks like a good place to plan a Harbor and the Mausoleum (which we will build with Imotep if possible).

Down south, Himoko used charge #7 for a third envoy to Hatusa, which gives us control of the city and reveals the Twins. Since we haven't had a chance to hook up Horses yet, Hatusa will also provide a free 2 each turn.

 

[Planktonic]

Minou, this is a marvellous thread that I'm following with great interest. I really hope you will see it through.

ATEX' previous thread about a sub-100 turn SV was already incredible, but to see it explicated turn by turn is really great.

I can hardly believe that you're at turn 27, just got a third city, only have science = 2.4, but will reach SV in 71 turns.

 

[Minou]

One of the things about Babylon is that science per turn barely matters. In this game I only got up to ~500spt even at the very end, but most of the tech tree is completed by boosts or pillaging. In addition, as Babylon tribal villages can be incredibly valuable as they can contain boosts (or even two boosts) for Future Era techs which give you the tech free! That's one of the reasons I chose Continents and Islands instead of Pangea. I ended up with about a dozen huts to pop in the final 10 turns. Read on to find out if any of them were lucky.

 

[Minou]

T28: Political Philosophy is in, before T30! Of course we want to run Oligarchy for the combat boost since our whole army is melee units. We can slot Liminati to bring the English cities up to full Loyalty quicker, slot Urban Planning back (this won't effect the Settler production plan sinec overflow with the +50% would be lost, and Charismatic Leader since we don't need Diplomatic League at the moment.

Himoko proves her worth as Scout by meeting Scotland who buys Cotton for whopping 173g/3gpt! The gold allows us to buy a Builder to hook up the Cotton

Meanwhile England marching a Settler around - wish we had not lost those two Warriors and could press forward quicker to steal it. The Galley gains the Helmsman promotion. Bizarrely, it turns out our captured Builder can embark? We don't have Sailing yet, so this is odd - I wonder if capturing a Builder from an AI that knew Sailing means it can embark?

America has started snooping around out capital, so we can hire a Spear from the Stone Face clan to guard against any surprise attack.

 

[Minou]

T29: Not a great turn militarily. We lose another levied Warrior to England, and America looks likely to attack as another Warrior marches up to the capital. Fortunately we have 279g in the bank if we need to purchase reinforcements for defense thanks to meeting Spain this turn and selling them the freshly improved Cotton from Fort Oscar for 208g.

We also finally hook up the mega-Horse tile, which is worth 2f/4h/4c/1f/6g thanks to the wonder adjacency plus God of Craftsman pantheon. We can rush another AI with levied Warriors boosted by Himoko and Oligarchy, but we will want to rush out a Horseman squad over the next dozen turns or so.

 

[Minou]

T30: Mysticism is complete. Himoko uses her final charge for an envoy to Hatusa, and by adding the Mysticsim envoy we finally gain control of the city state. We meet Rapa Nui thanks to shared vision, and they give a Defensive Tactics boost test. That's a distinct possibility with America seemingly ready to attack. We can swap in Diplomatic League to make sure we get a double envoy if that is the case. Gaining Suzerain status over Hatusa also reveals the Hero Arthur. Not interested, but it is useful to keep cycling through Heroes searching for the others we want - Anansi and Sinbad.

Now that we have control of Hatusa, we can levy six more Warriors or 240g and then declare on Spain and boot their Amani out the city state to make sure they can't break our levy. Thanks to the flood of gold from the wonder and luxury sales, our army is up to 18 units!

Our first Settler pops, and heads east for a coastal spot with plenty of chops where we can eventually build Kilwa. The hired Spear will serve as an escort to keep Americ from stealing the Settler, and we can purchase a Warrior to replace the Spear as the capital garrison.

On the diplomatic front, Scotland denounces us and America starts enforcing borders. Our Galley sail west to try and make contact with Korea.

England meanwhile has the ability to start hitting Port Oscar but does not - I think the AI is hard-coded NOT to try and re-take a city immediately, as they never seem to attack a city the player captures for at least 5-10 turns.

At T30, our empire is up to 3 cities with a powerful army (our mass of levied Warriors can hit for 29CP with Oligarchy plus Himoko bonuses). We have an astounding 12 envoys and control 3 city states. Almost all of this is thanks to Himoko, who secured our 13 levied Warriors, met many of the city states, and provide a pile of free envoys.

 

[Minou]

T31: We have no hope of grinding through England's army especially given the Vampire on the loose, so this turn we can kill off one Warrior to gain a promotion and then sign peace. The good news is England will pay a great bounty - 192g/2gpt and 18DF.

 

[Minou]

T32: Our Galley scouts the Korean coastline and spots the Etemenanki. Korea will also send us another 157g/1gpt/OB for Wine - the AIs have been very generous with Luxury purchases this game.

Magnus arrives in Port Oscar, which has just finished repairing its Monument. Mining will complete next turn, and we can start chipping Hercules with the captured Builders!

Finally, we meet Geneva to the south of Korea, and they offer a Games and Recreation boost quest, which is just perfect as Fort Oscar is closing in on the Palgum which will complete Construction and trigger that inspiration.

 

[The Highwayman]

Great work thus far. This is fun to follow. If you were to do a 100% peaceful Babylon science run, would you still campus spam after getting your culture up to speed in order to power through the info/future era techs? Would you do a two campus opening to get a GS for Education and the Astronomy & Printing eurekas?

 

[Minou]

I think a peaceful game would take a lot longer since a ton of science is required for some of those un-boostable late game techs. Certainly in that case I would build way more Campus. One thing about Babylon is that percentage modifiers are better than they seem because they are additive. You start with -50% so let's say you have 100 raw science it is nerfed to 50. But if you can wrack up +50% (e.g. 15% from Kilwa, 15% from Geneva, and 20% from Ecstatic bonus) you go back to 100, which doubles your total versus only giving 75 science if it was 50 science times 150%. So, I would probably prioritize Geneva (totally ignored this game), Taruga, happiness, and especially Globalization. In this game I never even hit Globalization, but without pillage science culture would have run far ahead and this would be a MAJOR priority (especially with 22 total city states).

I would probably use Hercules differently mid-game since there would be more of a lag between Rocketry unlocking Spaceports and Exoplanet Mission. In this game I saved 5 Hercules districts for Spaceports but peaceful I'd probably blow all of his second appearance charges for Campus or Industrial Zones and only save the last round for Spaceports.

 

[Minou]

T33: Mining is finally complete - a real slog with Babylon's 50% science penalty. Between turns, Korea denounces us for our past warmongering. No big deal, as we already sold all our spare luxuries and they are on an island so can't reach us if they decide to attack.

First, the domestic business. With Mining in, we can quarry the Stone in Fort Oscar to complete Masonry. One of our Warriors can also snipe a barbarian Scout to score the second kill towards Bronze Working.

Now for the military develops. Two new wars begin this turn as we ramp up conquest!

America declined to declare on us between turns, so we will simply declare on them instead with our Buenos Aires levy army finally in place and reinforced by Himoko and our SK. To bad to miss out on a chance for the Defensive Tactics inspiration (and double envoy to Rapa Nui), but we can't sit around forever. On the opening move of the way, one of our levied Warriors pillages a Trader for 60g and 5 other units start positioning to siege Washington. One drawback is that Cahokia is America's vassal, so their units could cause some logistics issues.

We also Declare on Scotland with our Hatusa levy army. Our units are not yet in place to siege any of their cities, but it's worth attacking early to steal a Builder and pillage another Trader for 60 more gold.

Around T25-T35, Deity AIs tend to start popping Settlers and that is evident right now. England, Scotland, and America all have a Settler on the map, and we may be able to snatch one or two of them if we can corner them in a sieged city or slam their escorting units on open ground.

We can buy a Slinger in cap with pillage loot so we can try for both the Archery and Military Tactics boosts here. The Trader pillaging gives us enough gold to spend 70g on a second horse tile too.

Magnus has arrived so Builders can chop a forest and harvest a stone to get Hercules to 121/140. With Hercules all but secured, Magnus heads over to the capital to help with the Oracle and Liang replaces him in Port Oscar. Both captured English cities are at lightly negative loaylty (-2 and -6) but both will grow in population soon so they should remain safely in our hands.

Techs: Mining, Masonry

 

[Minou]

T34: Between turns, the Star icon indicating a Hero has spawned appears, triggering a minor heart attack. If Hercules was snatched up it would be ruinous for us. Luckily, the message reveals Arthur was taken by an AI out in the fog (also great news, as it sure would be bad for our army if America had grabbed him.

A touch of danger as our capital is actually sieged by America (and hit for 38 damage). There is no real danger through as our Spear, Warrior, and Slinger triple-team one of the sieging units to score the Archery boost too. The situation is actually so safe we can buy a Builder to go hook up the Honey.

On the eastern front, Cahokia's Warrior and America's Scout slam into brick walls trying to hit our Oligarchy+Himoko boosted levied Warriors on favorable terrane. We can siege Washington and hit for 30 damage as well as launching an attempt to take but the Warrior escorting the Settler (which for some reason is just sitting on open ground instead of retreating. On top of that we score a nice 90g by pillaging a mine.

Given the wars have brought us into negative DF territory, we should clear out our 13DF for 26g.

Techs: Archery

 

[EscapedGoat]

Looking forward to seeing the conclusion, seems incredible that a science victory is only some ~60 turns away given the state of things so far - 2.2 science per turn, lol

On a tangent, for a peaceful run, really interesting stuff about the negative science multiplier being additive with positive adjustments. If you could concentrate your science and make a sort of "super science city (TM)", you could largely mitigate the research penalty, here are some modifiers:

Base -50%
Geneva +15%
Kilwa: +30%
Oxford +20%
Turtle corp +30%
5 Turtle product +75%
Ecstatic modifier +20%(?)

Guess this would put you at +130% science(?) instead of -50%. If that city was as coastal as possible for the +1 science per tile from Mausoleum, decent adjacency campus, and scientific city state bonuses, and you concentrate any and all trade routes from this city to a research alliance ally, that would be somewhat optimal (this is largely how the Portugal OCC strat works btw). If you also focus culture for swift advancement first to great library, then to globalization, and plan ahead for all the Eurekas, it's not inconceivable that a peaceful run could be quite fast as well (but not 98 turns fast ). If I find the time, i might give it a shot under some optimal settings for "proof of concept".

 

[Minou]

T35: The Era countdown begins this turn. We blew through 25 Era Score a long time ago, since it is so easy to accumulate ES with all the special modes enabled.

The big news this turn is we summon Hercules! Hercules is hands down the most important Hero in my opinion, as will soon be demonstrated. He helps tremendously in the early game by blasting out districts to speed development, keep pace with boosts/inspirations, and potentially securing a religion. In the late game, he provides free Spaceports. And besides this, he is the strongest Hero with 36CP (40CP with Oligarchy, since he counts as a melee unit). Heroes are especially great fighters because of their teleportation ability, which let's them fly around the map to wherever the fighting is hottest.

Out on the eastern front, five levied Warriors close in on Washington, setting up the siege and knocking it down to 149. We also have a nice defensive move when the SK deals 34 and takes 23 from a Warrior, thanks to being on favorable terrane and across a river. But sadly, he then moves across the river and ends up stuck right next to a Cahokia Warrior that was hidden in the fog leaving him vulnerable to being taken out. Also on the downside, the American Settler escapes to the east.

On the domestic front, our Settler heading for the coast is annoyingly blocked by a Vatican City Warrior which will slow founding by one turn. I wish domestic units could share tiles with neutral units....There are a few deadlines looming. We need one more Builder to get third mine and complete Apprenticeship so Hercules can toss down a free Industrial Zone in the capital and also to chop Palgum in time to boost Games and Recreation if we don't want to waste some culture.

Our Galley continues exploring and finds the 4th and final continent. That's actually not the best, as now there are no continents left for Sinbad to discover for free gold if we manage to snag him. But, it isn't worth stalling our Galley since we want to keep meeting new CS.

 

[Minou]

T36: We finally get the Honey hooked up which provides another point of Housing in our waterless capital Our first Trader also pops in the capital. We don't really need a trade route that badly, but with Corporations and Monopolies enabled sending out the Trader will complete Currency and allow us to build Industries. The Trader can't set out yet due to the risk from American and Cahokia units wandering in the fog, so we should upgrade our Slinger to an Archer to clear the path. Plus, this complete's Caguana's quest for a 4th envoy. One more and Amani will be freed up to move to a different CS.

Hercules slams down a free Holy Site in Fort Oscar, with free Shrine as well thanks to Babylon's ability. This let's us get the Great Prophet push started in earnest. One GP is already gone (probably due to Stonehenge) and Spain is at 30/60, but only one other AI is producing GP points at all. We should be fairly safe, especially if we factor in a Holy Site Prayers project. We also get a super-pasture hooked up in Fort Oscar for a nice 3f/3h/1f tile.

On the eastern front, America suicides a Scout between turns but then follows up killing one of our levied Warriors. However, our SK miraculously kills a Warrior attacking out of Boston while hanging on with a few HP itself. Them Cahokia for some reason decides not to finish it off, which means instead of being killed as expected our veteran unit gains a promotion. Great luck (plus weird AI coding) there!

On our turn, two Warriors promote and another hits the city dropping it to 120HP. With five Warrior lined up and Homoko in range, we should take Washington next turn.

To the southeast of the fighting, the American Settler and it's escort are still oddly frozen outside Philadelphia. No idea why the Settler doesn't just enter the city. We can promote both of the pursuing levied Warriors and perhaps take the Settler if it stays locked on that tile.

Finally, our Galley keeps rowing and meets Fez (GP quest).

 

[Minou]

T37: A setback on the eastern front as America pops Chariot and kills a Levied Warrior, wending our shot at taking Washington this turn. We should still be able to power through next turn though, barring another popped Chariot or Archer. America also pillages the Cotton outside our capital. This raid triggers a dumb mistake as well - I used the Archer in the capital to shoot at the raiding Warrior, but this blocks the way for Hercules to teleport into the capital to build the IZ. Dumb mistake!

On the plus side, our units in America can pillage a mine or 104g and also a Campus for 49s, instantly finishing Pottery. Now that we have completed the only three Ancient Era techs that can't be boosted, we have to be strategic in choosing something to research that we either need ASAP or won't easily be able to boost. I'd prefer Engineering since we don't want to waste 80 production on walls, but we don't have all the pre-reqs to unlock it so we Celestial Navigation is the best available option - we could boost it eventually but hard-etching will save Builder charges and gold for tiles with ocean resources.

Down on the southern front our first Warrior hits the empty city of Haddington dealing 38 damage.

At last we can found a city with that Settler we popped 7 turns ago. Minou Harbor is a nice city that has both a coastal placement and a good number of chops making it prime Kilwa territory.

The craziest development though is that our Galley stumbles upon the Rock Buzzard Clan, and they are selling Eagle Warriors! This is probably the best possible benefit of Barbarian Clans mode, being able to spend 155g on a strong melee unit with the chance of gaining multiple Builders over the course of the game. I only wish we found them a little sooner, since there is a 15 turn cool-down between unit purchases.


Techs: Sailing, Pottery