Tell us the story of your first 1.2 game

MutilationWave said:
Deity - Charlemagne - Rome -> Mongols - Fractal - Longer Ages

Part 3:
I'm going to start off with some roleplay I did in another thread. Sometimes I'm thinking like this while I play and it makes it more fun for me.

My poor, culturally and scientifically backwards people were devastated by the power of the horse. They adopted chariots to fight back, but they saw that the power of well-trained and armed horsemen could defeat chariots with ease. Since they never reached this level of training or weaponry in game, in my narrative they focused on honing the tactics, armor, and weapons between ages, so they start exploration as Mongols, ready to bring the fight to the technologically advanced people that had harmed them in the past. They don't have much in the way of gold, treasure, or resources. What they do have is an army of vicious psychopaths on horseback, bent on revenge for their people's past suffering.

So my first try with Mongolia. 53 gold in the sack. I started and looked at my cities. Over 100 turns to growth in the capital. Over 50 in my other two cities that I saved with economic policy, and over 20 in my towns. I was very discouraged and honestly I got pissed and shut the game off.

I decided to try again yesterday. I was going to ignore that crap and go for it. So yeah I could probably have destroyed the homelands when I started with 3 mid-highish level and two level 1 Noyan (Mongolian unique general), full of Coursers. But I was gunshy and I wanted to explore. I'd done so badly in the first age I hadn't even seen the south of homelands. I did carry over the max 500 influence, was gaining 40 per turn, and I'd reached 50% off befriending IPs. So I got right on making friends, starting with a scientific and then a military. I wanted to get one tech per suzerain, so I waited a turn between the first two. No cultural available, a ton of economic, which in my opinion are the least valuable.

I had swordsmen enough to send one to every settlement. I left my two level 1 Noyan at home for defense. Noyan are nuts for exploring! They have 4 sight range. I think it's funny how I can send a bunch of men on horseback across the ocean in an army but I can't send a single unit until a century later.

I only had access to the west coast, so I fanned out the Noyan and built two settlers and four cogs, one of which I sent along the top of the homelands to check out the other ocean. I saw a pretty good settle spot right away on the west, but it only had one treasure resource so I moved on. I checked the other islands, no treasure resources, I hit the mainland of distant lands and there were no treasure resources. I sent one settler and a Noyan that was a few points from leveling up back to that first spot, there was a hostile military independent power on the same island.

I explored more, bought merchants and got trade routes going, settled an island with a natural wonder and two camels, I couldn't resist. Soon I was slightly over 100 production in Roma. The growth problem was fixed with +6-7 wharfs and +10-12 gristmills. I have to shake my old ways. I used to build farms where I was going to put my urban districts so I could lose them. Can't do that effectively anymore. In fact farms are awesome! Still take care not to fall into the fishing boat trap unless you intend the settlement to be a town forever. Towns are better now too.

Once I got my old settlements up to date I had Roma start pumping Keshigs and Knights, one turn each. I bought a bunch of the Ortoo unique improvements. They are incredible. They are better than railways. If you space them four tiles apart, your 5 movement cavalry will be reset to 4/5 movement when you reach one. You can move across continents like this in a single turn. If I'd known what they were I would have planned them better but it still ended up incredible.

I finally found two treasure resources, already settled by distant lands civ, which were destroying me more than usual in science and culture. Everyone was. Finally I get to the very tip of the landmass and find a perfect spot. Three treasure resources plus other good stuff. I'd just passed by two of Trung's settlers so I thought I'd never get it, but I bought a settler on the closer island and went for it.

Back home I set up my two level 1 Noyan on the small battle lines of my former enemies' lines. I brought back a level 8 to run the main battle line. I set up Knights and Keshigs alternating on the small lines, and a full line of Knights backed by a full line of Keshigs on the main line.

The spot I was racing for got settled several turns before my settler arrived. But not by Trung. It was Augustus, my first enemy from last age! The bastard settled exactly on the tile I would have. I was amazed. So I gathered a couple Noyans and three cogs and went to take it. This set off the first world war.

---

Thanks for reading and participating!

Edited to add some stuff 8:30 EST

Oh yeah forgot to mention I was getting two free heavy cavalry every 10 turns from Charley. It really helped to bolster those lines.
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Awesome story!
 
MutilationWave said:
I'm curious why do advanced start? For many people antiquity is the best part of the game, me included. I'm just curious what the appeal is. It's like driving someone else's car.
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As William Cowper said "Variety's the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavor"

I like challenges!

It's a feature of the game that I am interested in.

Sometimes I want to play a shorter game. It might be because I only need 1 or 2 more levels for a Momento I want, or i just want to try a certain Civ or Leader without committing 10 hours to a full game.

All of the above.

Firaxis touted this as a feature and from my experience the feature doesn't work very well. Pre-patch it had its problems and now post-patch it is worse. It's kind of like Firaxis forgot about one of the advertised features of the game. In fact, from the way they worded it, I thought we would have seperate victory conditions for an Exploration Age Only mini-game, (or even an Antiquity Age only game). Maybe that was more wishful thinking that explicitly stated.

I don't want to turn your 1.2 thread into a late Age start thread. I just wanted to tell the story of my post 1.2 experience. I wish they gave this game mode more love though.
 
sixty4half said:
As William Cowper said "Variety's the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavor"

I like challenges!

It's a feature of the game that I am interested in.

Sometimes I want to play a shorter game. It might be because I only need 1 or 2 more levels for a Momento I want, or i just want to try a certain Civ or Leader without committing 10 hours to a full game.

All of the above.

Firaxis touted this as a feature and from my experience the feature doesn't work very well. Pre-patch it had its problems and now post-patch it is worse. It's kind of like Firaxis forgot about one of the advertised features of the game. In fact, from the way they worded it, I thought we would have seperate victory conditions for an Exploration Age Only mini-game, (or even an Antiquity Age only game). Maybe that was more wishful thinking that explicitly stated.

I don't want to turn your 1.2 thread into a late Age start thread. I just wanted to tell the story of my post 1.2 experience. I wish they gave this game mode more love though.
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This thread can wind whichever way it wants, I'll keep posting stories and I hope other people do too. Thanks for the explanation. I've said it before but my ideal civ game would be just as long but end before mass production. Especially mass production of firearms.

I hope they fix advanced starts, but I'll just put that in the pile with the rest of the hopes for now.
 
My first game I decided to take the devs' advice and dropped down to Immortal to see how it played. Rolled random because I usually do and got Rev!Napoleon as Aksum. Tried going for Wonders but didn't get the cultural golden age (I never seem able to get the 7 wonders, especially at Deity, not sure if I'm doing something off). Had friendly relations with my neighbour Amina, and unfriendly relations with Isabella of Carthage (I settled a natural wonder) and Frederick of Rome (is just a jerk). Ibn Battuta was also present, but had a bad capital spawn and so didn't really affect the game much. Eventually got the 3-v-2 Izzy, Freddy and Ibn vs. me and Amina, but was quite capable of crushing most opposition and accidentally went up to 13 settlements at one point. The unhappiness crisis hit and I lost all but my 2 cities to revolt and had to retake a couple of the good ones before the age ended. With a strong start I sailed through Exploration as the Chola and was so far ahead I decided to call it a day and try again at Deity.

I haven't yet played Rome as Augustus, so decided to give that a whirl and spawned relatively isolated, but for a few independant powers, which made me very interested in an early Legatus. I had no problems with forward settling and was able to fill a section of the map with just my own settlers/Legatii(?). Revolutionary Napoleon decided he didn't like me much, but Simon Bolivar loved me, and we had an early alliance. With Gate of Nations, military aid and a lot of legions, Napoleon was destroyed before the end of the era. Happiness crisis hit again, but I was much more stable this time around and ended the age on 10 settlements, including Napoleon's old capital. I played the rest of the game reasonably aggressive, everyone on my continent was friendly with me, so Exploration and Modern involved punching the new world powers a bunch.

I don't know if Rome is strong, or I just got lucky with a strong ally, but if anything it felt easier on the new patch with good growth throughout an age. There's a little trouble getting a settlement started, but once it hits that tipping point it feels like growth comes easy. I really like the diversity of new resources, though treasure resources feel harder to come by now - I'm rarely finding a spot that has more than 2, and even finding more than 1 is difficult. I want to try out one of the big growth civs next, probably Khmer because I've had more than a few abortive games with them and it'll be nice to see what they're "supposed" to look like.
 
I had two civs from the center of the map forward settle me into the corner I spawned in. 15+ tiles away while everything around them was wide open. They then proceeded to be upset with me for their actions...
 
Not my first game but I tried a game as Ben Franklin/Greece and was going well, working on my 9th wonder, all ready to go to war and capture a couple of cities, but on the turn I finished iron working the era score went from 93% to 100% and the age of antiquity ended! only 1/3 in science and 2/3 in trade and 1/3 in military. I definitely was expecting more than that, but the AI advanced so fast that it ended super early. Will have to reconsider my approach I think.
 
Continuing on from my earlier post…

I ended up taking Carthage (still in Antiquity) and then the crisis period hit. The independent powers one.

So while my army was still up north, new powers started going to work on my southern cities and towns. One town got taken then Machiavelli took it. I considered going after him but didn’t have the manpower.

Rolled over into the Exploration and took Hawaii for something new.

Napoleon was down to one city and both he and Machiavelli were hating on me.

Got a couple of ships out and started on settlers for distant lands then Machiavelli DOW’d me and took a town.

Yeah… Nah…

Built some units and over-liberated. Trung Trac and Confucius allied with me and went after Napoleon. Badly. He had one city and they couldn’t or wouldn’t cap him even though its defences were down. Sent a lone horseman up and took it from the water…

Machiavelli was also consigned to history and Trung Trac and Confucius waved me onwards.
 
And here's how it ended... Confucius was ahead - like way ahead - in science and culture most of the game but seemed unable to convert it to pursuing a victory.

Screenshot 2025-04-27 094609.png

Screenshot 2025-04-27 094621.png

Screenshot 2025-04-27 094643.png
 
RaidandTrade said:
And here's how it ended... Confucius was ahead - like way ahead - in science and culture most of the game but seemed unable to convert it to pursuing a victory.

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You crushed it! What difficulty did you play? I always have at least two civs on runaway science and culture, and if Confucius is in the game he's always one of them. I think it's overtuned AI advantage, because when I conquer their cities in exploration they still have mostly antiquity buildings, while making it nearly impossible for me to get wonders and being a tier ahead in military. I don't mind the military part, I love a hard fight, but make it make sense with the buildings. I don't care if they cheat them out.
 
MutilationWave said:
You crushed it! What difficulty did you play? I always have at least two civs on runaway science and culture, and if Confucius is in the game he's always one of them. I think it's overtuned AI advantage, because when I conquer their cities in exploration they still have mostly antiquity buildings, while making it nearly impossible for me to get wonders and being a tier ahead in military. I don't mind the military part, I love a hard fight, but make it make sense with the buildings. I don't care if they cheat them out.
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This was Deity, which shocked me as I was expecting a beasting.
 
Well, there's still an issue with loss of trade network access following age shifts. I have a couple of connected distant lands towns in my current game. One town, Seattle, has a fishing quay that opens onto the main ocean, while Juneau (about five tiles away, connected by a road) has a fishing quay that opens onto an inland sea. During the previous era, I was able to use all of the resources in Juneau just like any other town in my trade network. The treasure fleet from the silver resource was useless, though, so I just deleted it after it spawned. Now that we're in the Modern era, none of those resources are accessible to my trade network (wine, fish, kaolin), even though Juneau is still connected by road to Seattle and is listed as a connected town in the menu. Moreover, I can't use the local resources within Juneau after building a port and adding resource slots that way. I can't even edit the fish that are slotted into Juneau's one usable resource slot, and swap in the wine.

These mechanics need work. If nothing else, Juneau should have free access to its own resources. But really, since the town is still connected to Seattle, its resources should still be accessible within the full trade network, as they were in the previous age.
 
Yzman said:
How do you get such insane yields? How many of those settlements are cities?
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Probably only about ¼ to ⅓ cities. Shell tempered pottery is insane for gold. Hub towns on home continent for influence. Influence = suzerain for almost every city state and that give you science and culture bonuses. Before ideologies took over the points from culture/science alliance attributes also helped.
 
Exploration update.
After I got a narrative event at the start of the age, where my people claimed having a longstanding tradition against despotism and not being used to having a king, after having spent the entire Antiquity under Ada's despotism, which just threw me off, I waited a day or two until I forgot all about that event and then continued.

Oh, man. I can't remember when I last had so much warfare in a civ game.

But first of all, an honorable mention to Machiavelli, who lived true to his reputation and nicked Spain from Isabella, probably while she was praying for a fortunate transition, so she was left to lead the Shawnee, Xerxes got Mongolia and Harriet went after the money and got Songhai.

I managed to build the bazaars in my cities and refill commander slots with fresh troops, as surprisingly few made it through to Exploration, and then, barely 20+ turns into the new age, the good old barrel organ started its usual melody again: turn after turn DoWs started arriving and within a few turns Ada found herself in a 1v3 position she had before: against Harriet, Niccolo and Isabella.

While just holding the NENW front against Izzy and Nicco, I first prioritized Wasset - the former capital of Harriet. It had 4 walled tiles, but with a couple of cats I was gnawing at it little by little until my push reached the last tile, where a single commander prevented the city's capture. At which point a new wave of Harriet's reinforcements came and pushed me back a few tiles. I responded with more reinforcements, while she walled a fifth city tile. This could have dragged on for another 10+ turns, but at this point she agreed to a peace deal and gave me Wasset anyway. The fighting was good, but the AI's diplomats could have a clearer picture, for their own good.

Wasset was on a shore of a pretty large lake, which Harriet filled with her cogs, but they were just cruising there menacingly, but did absolutely nothing for her war effort. I put one cog there myself, it was never, not once attacked by her fleet.

The healed army then moved to the eastwest to help against Isabella, where I was trying to mount a siege against a couple of Izzy's cities, but it was impossible to approach them through the spam of AI's units. The times may have been Medieval, but the warfare was already WWI style: multiple units were falling just to gain another tile in a vegetated and rough terrain. Defeat enemy wave, advance one unit, if it survives, build fortifications, next turn rotate with a healthy unit, hold and try to advance the line on another tile. Goodness me. And this while stealing time to build the necessary buildings at the home front and trying to balance buildings and units output, so that the actual front wouldn't collapse.

After 30+ turns of such exhausting grind I finally approached the settlements themselves, and then Xerxes, my dear ally fighing alongside, makes peace with Izzy and gets one of the settlements I worked so hard for! What a bastard! I was so downcast that I then made peace with Izzy myself, getting another settlement in the peace deal. Then peaced out with Machiavelli, getting some island colony of his.

Finally Ada was at peace and could do some quiet building. Until after some 20 turns Izzy and Nicco wanted a second round. This was rather short and I took another island colony from Izzy, and white peaced Nicco. Then quiet times again, when I finally started to send out missionaries more.

But then Xerxes DoWed Machiavelli. As an ally, I though I'd just give him a hand, it's just one enemy, after all, and my position was much stronger now. Only it appeared, that it was also Isabella. Next turn Harriet joined in, because tradition. And it all restarted.

But this time it was much easier. I got Isabella's capital. However, she actually sent an overseas invasion force of four knights or so that briefly recaptured the island colony I got from her earlier. I was shocked and had to sent my fleet to restore things to the right order. Then Machiavelli tried to do the same! But now I already knew better and paid attention. AI seems indeed much better with the land forces, however their fleets don't seem to do much yet, even when AI acually builds them.

I finally peaced out with all of them, having not lost territory and gained some settlements, but the cost to that was only one single milestone achieved during the entire age - the military one. Nothing else. One relic short to the cultural one, one treasure fleet short to the economic one, and no 40 yield tiles, as I could not manage a single new wonder, and existing ones were not enough for good adjacencies.

Having picked the British for the Modern, who knows, maybe Ada will finally manage to get a grip on her life and will finally dictate things on the world stage, instead of being made to only respond frantically to invasions on all the sides of the realm.

Btw, I completely forgot to mention the overseas guys. They were Cleo of the Abbasids, Lafayette of the Ming and Pachacuti of the Inca. With Pacha there was an interesting event. I met him with a missionary and got a DoW from him immediately, the war declaration screen came up first, and only then the meeting screen with the greeting options - that was a bit confusing, but I was already so numb to all things war, I did not mind that too much :)
 
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Just finished Exploration in my current 1.2 game, which took quite a while because I was almost constantly at war

First third of the era was all about pushing back a Mongolian invasion, which ended with Xerxes ceding a city that had really good wonders (Mausoleum of Theodoric and Terracotta Army) but was unfortunately placed in an area that was mostly mountains, river and ocean, with a lot of remaining tiles filled with ageless buildings.

Second third was the start of my campaign in the Distant Lands, fighting over some islands with Bolivar, a distant lands civ, which caused three of my homelands neighbors to declare war on me (including Himiko, who had been such a good friend last era), so I had to repel invasions from multiple fronts

By the end of the era I had made peace with everyone at home again, but was locked in a gruelling battle with Bolivar, trying to take his distant lands settlements. Spain's Great People that grant units to commanders in distant lands were instrumental in keeping my army supplied there. Eventually I destroyed what I guess was the bulk of his army, once I took a town (which had three treasure resources but I got too late to cash any in) his coastal city next door had barely anyone left to defend it. My navy dealt with all walls and any remaining units, then my cavalry swept in to take the city.

Was closing in on one more city, when I unthinkingly converted a distant lands settlement I captured, completed the military legacy path and ended the era immediately. Finished the era with complete cultural and military legacy paths, but didn't even hit the first economic milestone.
 
evonannoredars said:
Just finished Exploration in my current 1.2 game, which took quite a while because I was almost constantly at war

First third of the era was all about pushing back a Mongolian invasion, which ended with Xerxes ceding a city that had really good wonders (Mausoleum of Theodoric and Terracotta Army) but was unfortunately placed in an area that was mostly mountains, river and ocean, with a lot of remaining tiles filled with ageless buildings.

Second third was the start of my campaign in the Distant Lands, fighting over some islands with Bolivar, a distant lands civ, which caused three of my homelands neighbors to declare war on me (including Himiko, who had been such a good friend last era), so I had to repel invasions from multiple fronts

By the end of the era I had made peace with everyone at home again, but was locked in a gruelling battle with Bolivar, trying to take his distant lands settlements. Spain's Great People that grant units to commanders in distant lands were instrumental in keeping my army supplied there. Eventually I destroyed what I guess was the bulk of his army, once I took a town (which had three treasure resources but I got too late to cash any in) his coastal city next door had barely anyone left to defend it. My navy dealt with all walls and any remaining units, then my cavalry swept in to take the city.

Was closing in on one more city, when I unthinkingly converted a distant lands settlement I captured, completed the military legacy path and ended the era immediately. Finished the era with complete cultural and military legacy paths, but didn't even hit the first economic milestone.
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Thanks for keeping the thread alive guys. I've been unable to play so I'm like halfway through explo.

Do you get a commander when you capture Terracotta? I think the conquistadores are the most powerful great people. Super jealous of mausoleum, are you going to lean into it and go Bugunda?

I have another question, feel free to ignore. What does your name mean? I thought it was Latin at first but that doesn't seem correct.
 
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