The Emperor Series #03: Asoka

[Gwaja]

Welcome to the 3rd game of "The Emperor Series" hosted by... ME! ^_^

The idea came upon as a gathering point for any players interested in having fun or improving their games on Emperor level maps. Sharing of ideas, suggestions, advices, and criticisms are welcome and appreciated here.

I ask that everyone, including myself, give the community an update of our experiences in spoiler tags, except for the very 1st discussion on where to settle our capital city at the start of the game. Feel free to be as detailed as you want.

All maps have been checked and verified to make sure that we do NOT start isolated or semi-isolated.

Preferred Checkpoints:

Turn 100
1 AD
1000 AD
Liberalism
1500 AD
End of Game

Please note that "Choose Religion" setting is turned on for the variety in dominant religions differing from game to game.

Okay! Let's get started! Ready to school the Emperor AI? ^_^

Here is our leader this time around:

Spoiler :

Our game settings:

Spoiler :

And here is our starting position:

Spoiler :

Two corn tiles visible, one wet, and one not. We are not riverside, but we are next to a freshwater lake, giving us the freshwater bonus. There are lots of forests around, and some hills as well for early production. The land looks drier to the south, and wetter to the north.

I was not going to start this game for at least another week, but the interest in the Washington game is rather low due to the map being obviously too friendly towards Cultural Victory. We haven't had a game where we had a lot of tension from the AI, in terms of land grabbing, and having warmongering neighbors on the same continent. That's all about to change in this game! ^_^

Prepare yourself for a dog fight! It's going to be challenging and fun at the same time, and the map is ripe for domination and conquest! Isn't that the sort of things you guys like anyway?

Starting save file can be downloaded HERE!

 

[itsnotme]

What's the map type? Fractal?

 

[Gwaja]

What's the map type? Fractal?

It's Big & Small, as shown in the 2nd screen shot.

 

[TCMIV]

Played 95 turns, really fun map Some resource/AI related spoilers inside.

Spoiler :

Went with agriculture first for obvious reasons, followed by BW due to the huge amount of forests here. Scouting was somewhat tough because the AI seem relatively far away, I grew to 5 while building 2 warriors after the initial worker.

Saw no bronze, but I 2 pop whipped a settler and took a bit of a gamble by settling just SE near some more FPs and a corn, despite being unable to see the southern area at the time. Worked out fine though, decent city spot with lots of food and hills.

I thought about going AH next, but with the vast open land in which I'd found no AI borders, I went with hunting->archery to secure my borders. Found the stone further south and went masonry next, and then AH.

Settled my 3rd city on the stone and started GW in my second city while chopping 'mids in my capitol. Got GW in 1080BC (seems late?). I already had decent barb protection but it was fast with stone and it saves money from having my spawnbusters pulled back in. 'Mids came in 1000BC after a lot of chopping.

Swapped to rep and got a library up quickly in the cap, ran 2 scientists asap. Mansa soon got alpha, so I went down the aesthetics route to try and get a trade in. Also settled another city at the fur/crab/horse site further south.

After aesthetics I put 2 turns in to alpha and traded for it from Mansa, then traded to Alex for IW/Sailing. Not bad I'd say. Everyone hates Mansa, but I only took a diplo hit from Napoleon (not sure why?). Worth it I think since I met him last.

Pretty much working on settlers/workers for a while, finally saw Mansa's borders and he's closing in to the northeast. Might try to take some of the dyes and the rice/gold and then just backfill, should also check out the island to the SW to see if it's free for me.

Gotta work on some diplo somehow as well, lots of nasty leaders about. Should be a fun next round

Took a few pics here if anyone cares to see them.

 

[dualmaster]

To 1AD:

Spoiler :

Had a little trouble at the start as I couldn't find where anyone was. We have tons of open (and good) land around us. I settled the second city for horses so I could get chariots out in time for barb defense. The placement was less than optimal but I needed the horses fast. Turned out barbs did almost nothing on this map. With all that open land I figured Stonehenge wouldn't be bad for all the free border pops. It did mean I popped a GP first which is less than ideal. I just settled him to help the expansion (I really don't want my own religion or anything like that).

A look at the land:

Spoiler :

I have 8 cities (one was a barb city I took down with chariots). In a few more turns I'll have the other barb city and then I'll focus on settling out the remaining land. I expect to get 12-15 cities without a war.

Tech:

Spoiler :

Tech is looking very good. I have currency (monopoly), grabbed CoL early on a trade (cheap courthouses) and Monarchy on a trade (HR for boost). With these 3 techs my economy is doing pretty well (break even at 50% ). Not bad considering I have 8 cities already.

Diplo:

Spoiler :

I've been playing nice with JC so he is pleased with me. Mansa has 4 worst enemies . Alex and Sully are busy fighting each other. Tech pace is pretty slow except for Mansa who is teching strong as usual, so I decided to slow him down a little:

Spoiler :

I just popped a GS for an academy in the capital which should become a nice bureau capital. My focus for the coming turns:
1. Finish settling my land
2. Plenty of workers to develop land
3. Spam warriors for HR boost before hooking up the iron
4. Get a scout out to see what the world looks like
5. Tech: Going literature (GLib should be easy), Calendar (2 extra resources), Civil Service (civic+spread irrigation). Might go music somewhere there to try and nab the GA.

If I can stay out of wars this looks like it should be pretty easy.

 

[TCMIV]

To 350ad

Spoiler :

After trading around aesthetics I grabbed currency and Lit followed by CoL. Settled another couple cities on my outer borders, but it's getting tight. Got a surprise in 75ad . . .

Spoiler :

Well, as you can see I'd started GLib, without really considering parthenon at the time.

Spoiler :

but things changed Instead of diluting my GP pool in the capitol, I used it in a new city to fight back JCs culture, and it worked quite well.

Traded CoL for math, and a couple other minor techs I'd skipped. Went compass next and chopped GLib now that math was in.

Spoiler :

At this point I'm locked in to back settling my land pretty much, French have taken the barb city to my east and Mansa snuck a terrible city over there as well. Might settle the dry rice, but it's a pretty terrible spot for a city . . .

Gonna take the barb city near the iron and raze it, resettle pigs/iron. After that maybe another city on the sheep island, awful land though. I'll be around 10 cities (really wish I'd settled towards JC/Mansa earlier, oh well).

Tech at 350ad

Spoiler :

JC got a really late Oracle for Feudalism, I shoulda watched for that :\ Makes a war against him pretty much suicide for a long time. If I do go to war it might be with Sully as he seems to be on some kind of peninsula alone, every other Civ came from the east as far as I remember. Mansa is an easy target but shares religion with Jc so I'm not so sure about a war there.

Comments welcome

 

[Capellan]

1650 AD. I think I might be in with a shot at my first Emperor win.

Spoiler :

I settled 1W to be riverside. Levees are in my future, with any luck

I sent the warrior out to scout. He had a short but interesting life.

My second warrior took up his job, and the neighbors started showing up. Five in timely fashion, with the French being laggards:

In 1160 BC, I got a late - but very welcome - wonder.

This would not only keep out the barbs - it expelled an archer on the turn it was built, in fact - but would also give me a leg up on espionage since it would almost certainly pop a GSpy.

I expanded southwards, since the north and east seemed to be more crowded. Had 6 cities of my own by 1 AD, and shortly afterwards, I picked up a 7th from the barbs:

The gold from grabbing this city allowed me to dial the slider up to 100% science, which was very welcome. 4 turns later CoL would come in. I didn't get there first, or anything like that, but it would be a boon to my economy nonetheless!

Every now and then the neighbors would pop around for a cup of tea. T for technology, that is.

I said yes to everyone except Mansa. The Malinese were universally hated, and I had as little to do with them as possible.

My cities at 200 AD:

As usual, I'm running a mostly cottage-based economy. When I need extra hammers, I'm using chops and the whip.

The tech situation at 200 AD was not too bad:

Mansa running off with the lead as usual. The main thing that caught my eye, though, was Rome. They seemed to be struggling, and they lay just to my north.

I was currently a non-entity in the international scene:

But at least I wasn't Mali:

Southern empire at 200 AD:

And northern:

I have troops en route to that barb city (see the axeman under the banana?) and soon enough:

The next thousand years was spent staying under the radar, and building a large stack of maces and trebs.

We both had engineering, guild and machinery, but Rome lacked CS when the war started, so no maces for him. My army was also newer in general, having been built rapidly over the preceding turns. Only my CR3 swords were long-term units.

I grabbed the two border cities, then went north to Arretium. Alas, Caesar had built castles. Those take some time to knock down with trebs - even when you have as many as I did. And he was starting to field maces. Given that his power level was still higher than mine, and that the tech advantage was gone, I took a peace treaty.

But only so I could restore the tech advantage. A short time later, with spies encamped to cause city revolts, and riflemen added to my back of tricks (upgraded from my best CR units), we went for round 2.

Cumae fell almost immediately:

Followed by Antium, and then the big prize in 1595:

A couple of turns later, JC was willing to capitulate, but I was next to his best remaining city, so I took it.

And suddenly he was "doing fine on [his] own". Huh? You're willing to give up, and then you lose a city, and suddenly you're OK? How does that work?

So I took his last city on the main continent (well, except for one ex-barb thing stuck on the other side of Suleiman). And he saw reason once more:

I've just completed Democracy and switched to US/Bureau/Eman/Free Market/Paganism. I've not adopted a religion because no 2 AIs seem to be in the same one. I'm considering adopting Suleiman's, so as to get him back to pleased with me. He is the only AI with significantly higher power than me (I have 0.7 of his). He hates the French more than me, but I share a land border with him, and I'm not sure they do.

Current tech path is Steel, then Steam Power and Assembly Line. Spam Inf and go kick some heads. Mansa seems like an obvious candidate, as he's been in enough wars that almost everyone hates him. I just have to watch out for a backstab from Suleiman.

 

[vanillasine]

hey, decided to finally join in on one of these games.

Spoiler :

This seems like a generally easy map in terms of expansion. I REXed to near catastrophe (0% science, and +1 gold). Lost alot of time actually getting those libraries up and running, prol should work on that. Finally got aesthetics, traded it around.

what I like:

Spoiler :

The situation is that nearly everyone is a different religion in my game. Makes it unlikely that anyone will declare war on me, assuming that I build more power than i have now (which is what im currently doing).

I am same religion as Romans, however, they don't even have Iron!!! so in any case a praet war is not coming.

I managed to get the elephants with a gamble city to the west (2nd border pop) so I have a good attacker / defender if need arises.

Of course Mansa musa is a tech whore, however, I am a very close second, with napoleon being 3rd.

Assuming that noone DOW on me within say 30 turns, I will have a potent defense force, loads of cities (someone here said 12+ and thats no joke), and should really cruise to an easy victory.

my errors

Spoiler :

For some reason, I thought I was WAY behind on tech, and with my first scientist got compass, which I traded for monarchy and code of law. Not bad trades in general, but really, I was fine on tech. Could've easily made academy, and taken philo with my 2nd.

Gameplay errors included potentially bad order of cities, as a couple of them i planted square in the jungle.. of course now they are very excellent cities, but I wasted a good many turns. I lost some work on hamlets due to barbs, but i connected the horses to the east before the axemen arrived.

50AD:

Spoiler :

tech situation

Spoiler :

 

[Capellan]

I've put a save for my game (2 posts above) here (direct link, so right click and save as if you don't want to go straight into Civ4).

If anyone wants to take a look and give advice, I'd love to hear it.

 

[vanillasine]

I've put a save for my game (2 posts above) here (direct link, so right click and save as if you don't want to go straight into Civ4).

If anyone wants to take a look and give advice, I'd love to hear it.

Spoiler :

you deifnately took a different approach than me. Instead of expanding south, i expanded N and E, and just did enough for romans / musa / ottomans not to attak me. Im probably going to continue peacefully if I can help it.

Seeing the size of your army, you should have no problems going through everyone, assuming Mansa is not advanced too much tech-wise. You say you are worried about the ottoman backstab, but on my map at least, they are confined to the western penninsula, so creating a one city fortress for their possible attack is wise (usually u can tell what they would attack).

anyway, your domination/conquest victory is looking good!

 

[ABCDPuppies]

Played to 1000 BC.

Spoiler :

Early tech was, I think, Ag -> BW -> Wheel -> Pottery -> Writing -> Masonry -> AH. Now going for Aesthetics, should be able to trade Mansa for Alphabet.

Expanded peacefully to 4 cities, with the last coming right at 1000BC. Since a little scouting revealed my secondary cities would need early border pops, I decided on a whim to chop Stonehenge. Maybe not the best move, but I just really hate building monuments. Since I had stone from the third city, I decided to go for Mids after that. No particular plans for war yet -- we'll just see how it goes.

**edit: nevermind the following -- I didn't realize Choose Religions was on. Duh.

Something really weird did happen though, and Monty founded Islam at like 1800BC, as well as Confu very shortly afterward. Has anyone seen anything like that before?! Honestly I don't even get how that is possible unless this game is bugged.

Whatever the case may be, this is where I ended up.

 

[ABCDPuppies]

1 AD

Spoiler :

Not too much to tell. Expanded to 7 cities, will soon capture 2-3 barb cities with the Swords I have been pumping out, and probably settle 2-3 more besides that. This map just has crazy amounts of space.

Finished teching Aesthetics, Traded JC for Alpha and Mansa for Math, then headed down Currency -> traded for CoL -> Civil Service. Didn't grab Literature yet, but may double back for that before Paper -> Edu, or maybe Music.

Ran a couple Scientists in the capital while chopping Mids and was lucky enough to pop a Scientist for my first GP, which went for an Academy. So as it turned out, building Stonehenge didn't hurt me -- and actually it was great to have for border pops in all the cities I am spamming out. Also built Great Wall in my second city around this time.

After finishing Pyramids in the capital I built a couple workers/settlers then Hanging Gardens, leading to popping an Engineer for my second GP. Really not sure what I'll use him for though. Great Library if it's still available? Sistine? Suggestions appreciated.

Eventually Confu spread to me and I converted, since almost everyone seems to be in it except Mansa, who will play nice anyway.

At this point I am the score leader, and only Mansa rivals me in tech. With so much space I'll probably expand peacefully, Lib Military Tradition (especially if I tech Music for free Sistine) and then rampage with Cuirs/Cavalry.

 

[Gwaja]

Woooo... it looks like this map is more popular than the Washington map. I'd better get wrapped up with Georgie soon and get on with this one ASAP.

Besides, I am sure everyone wants to go pirating with Ragnar, right? ^_^

 

[stimpyhoek]

Spoiler :

This is way harder then Monarch, I mean u cannot even tech, seemed normal up to 500bc then my tech died. Told Monty he couldnt have Math so Im quitting now as hes gonna kill me. Got 8 cities tho.(Room for 4 or 5 more) My zero percent research is barely positive and I had to use about 20 warriors to stay happy. If I see land I grab it, on emperor this killed me. Oh yeah and its BS that 7 chariots cant kill 3 archers now. That marble site was so irresistible tho.........

 

[ABCDPuppies]

1010 AD:

Spoiler :

Just Lib'd Military Tradition, Gunpowder already teched and finally traded for Horseback riding, so I can start pumping Cuirs right away. With a decisive lead in tech and 12 good cities, I'd say this is definitely a winning position. Not sure if I'll actually take the time to play it out, but a fun start . I guess we'll see.

 

[vranasm]

^^ interesting ABCD.

I kind of see why people like this map. I am up to 1120 AD and got 18 cities without any war, just took some barb cities.

btw awesome SS of world war

Spoiler :

being so big has some disadvantages too, since I am no way near MT . I would like to go domination though, but have to decide which units first though.

 

[ABCDPuppies]

Vransam

Spoiler :

It's weird that everyone else's games seem to have so much conflict, since mine turned out to be a love-fest with me and all the war mongers in Confu beating up on Mansa and Sully who were each isolated in their own niche religion.

Anyway, 18 cities is a lot! I'm really not any good at managing empires that large. For me, 12 around Lib is about as big as it gets. After that all the worker management and whatnot just gets tedious, and I start itching for war.

 

[Capellan]

@vanillasine

Spoiler :

As of 1820 it appears you are correct Suly did indeed get bribed in on me, but the silly AI hasn't teched Assembly Line, so my Infantry spam has brute-forced Mansa to capitulate and captured 3 Ottoman cities with a 4th soon to follow.

Monty is next. He's researching Fission, which is a scary thought, but he'd be better served pursuing Assembly Line himself, right about now.

This is my game, now. Space and Culture aren't an issue (Mansa was looking for it, but I put a stop to that) and I have two vassals, which eliminates much risk from the AP or UN (I'm the only candidate for the former, anyway, since I own it - no-one is running Islam anymore, which is the AP religion).

 

[dualmaster]

To Liberalism:

Spoiler :

Apparently nobody wanted to build wonders:

Spoiler :

That's the Hanging Gardens in 660 AD!

Took MilTrad from Liberalism and have a solid tech lead:

Spoiler :

Land:

Spoiler :

12 cities, 2 turns from Gunpowder. All my infrastructure is in to whip cuir/cav. Only one AI even has engineering right now. I don't think I'll bother finishing this since it is just going to be another boring cav stomp.

If I were to play this again, it would be easy to do a SSE/WE for fun.

 

[discopants]

I'm still playing Washington, but am probably only a session away from finishing. Its heading to very late game heavy warring, which I usually find to be a drag due to PC slowness with so many units in the late game. As I hate starts like the Washington game its proving to be something of a chore.

This looks like a much more exciting start, solid start with a great war leader. Establishing an empire in the early game is usually my favorite part too, so the prospect of a land grab carries extra appeal.

Will try to get Washington finished up tomorrow so I can get in on this one.