Tricky start (imo) I have struggled with - little help?

[Gumbolt]

I think you jumped quickly to turn 192. Not sure what you did to grab the captured Russian cities. I assume Beserkers and catapults? However Russians had knights and elephants? Lots of unknowns here with no save.

Looks like you took Oracle and Monarchy.

Your city count is double your closest rival. So you should not be losing this now.

A slower approach would of helped you learn more here.

 

[sampsa]

I think the map served it's purpose.

 

[Build2Much]

@Gumbolt I took notes but just felt that part was overkill - not sure if you saw or not but I replayed the T51-T94 section (the Barb attack and road to Monarchy). In neither version did I get the Oracle, and I was actually still missing Writing in v2 but that was a much better position - I had been able to keep settling cities up the river all the way to Crab & Silver during that time and had 8 up and running with double the cottages the second time through. A wise player had told me earlier in this thread that fogbusting with cities is always a better play

The next 100 turns was me continuing to settle towards Peter, razing a barb city and settling on coast instead (but losing a spot I wanted to Peter), Settling another city to box him in. Taking a final Barb city to put me at 14, scouting him out and realizing he had all his units way down south because he didn't like Wang Kon who settled 2 cities in Russian lands. I beat him to Engineering, had enough units and Cats, big whip of Trebs and went for it. Was pretty quick, he had left some forested hills about halfway into his territory and I was able to hit his stack with cats from there to soften him up, my reinforcements kept moving down and I made it to Moscow, which was the goal, although even getting halfway down would have been worth it because of the happiness resources that were there.

edit: Just looked it up to jog my memory - I built Longbows off some of the whips (and then Whipped longbows in captured cities) because he had so many hills available on my path and they protected my guys, plus had woodsman promotions on barb fighters. Lost 4 Berserkers on the way down, promoted 4 axes or swords to replace them. Most of my lost units were Cats in open field and then I threw a ton of Trebs at Moscow because I was almost out of Cats and I was ready to end the war.

My struggle on this map was getting to T100 in a good enough position. How I had tried to play it previously (and even my first time through turn 51-94 with help) I wasn't strong enough and fell behind. This time I had taken (and started developing) enough land.

 

[Build2Much]

So I had previously done one of these threads and while it was different (isolation that time) it was similar in that there was no happiness, barbs were an issue, and a financial leader (Hannibal) which is a combo that creates a starting environment I clearly struggle with a little bit still. The good news is that I'm much better at transitioning from the start to the later part of the game at this point and as we all know, it is tough to beat CR3 Amphibious Infantry hiding on boats with overwhelming air support. Game is almost over now.

Spoiler quick synopsis :

Ran the back-to-back GAs which fit perfectly together and reached State Property on T210, 1500AD. Teched my way to Flight and Infantry peacefully. There wound up being a 3rd GA in 1650AD because I couldn't help myself.

I prebuilt my navy of Galleons and Frigates to upgrade when the time came so I could concentrate on Carriers and Planes once I hit flight (1675AD).

I know this is not usually wise...but I actually skipped rifling intentionally and let Peter get it for me, traded for it 3 turns after I got flight.

Started teching towards tanks once I had fighters, reached Industrialism 3 turns after my short war with Zara.

War started 1755AD, ended 1785AD. Upgraded most of my Frigates>Destroyers but didn't bother with the Galleons. Had 12 full carriers of fighters and just went down the east coast, bombard with destroyers, bomb with fighters, kill units with CR3 Amphibious Infantry from the boats. I took only 1 city at the start that I could defend with guys from the mainland, kept leaving 1 guy in the other cities and moving on so I didn't have to leave my boats (and my Woodsman3 Medic3 GG who was hanging out there with them). When I reached Aksum I took that and Laibela on the same turn without a threat of a counter attack, which allowed for some movement and I could mop up the rest with Cavalry, Cuirs, Knights after hitting them with the planes.

Next up is Wang Kon once I have about 30 tanks to dump in Seoul (should just be a couple of turns, Moscow is 1 turning them and I'm building them in any city with good production). He has planes and infantry, should fall very quickly. His culture is strong, so I will wipe him off of his peninsula. After that we move to Hammurabi who doesn't have oil. I did just stop automating my workers, have a tedious turn coming up next where I will double check that biology isn't going to force any cities to grow into unhappiness, just to practice that.

And a couple photos if this is interesting to anyone following

Spoiler the pics :

Maybe finish by tomorrow, definitely by this weekend. Fun map, which I knew it should be, once I could get past the beginning.

 

[Gabethebabe]

I am reacting to OP. Better late than never.

Settle on the plains hill obv.

If no tiles of consequence are revealed, this capital screams shipping. Grow to size 4, whip 2 pop away for a settler or worker.

Second observation: don't build a barracks this early, you need early warriors to fogbust and identify settling spots. I would grow to size 4 building warriors, then start a settler, 2pop whip the settler and now you have time to build that Barracks, while recovering from whip anger. At level 4 you can switch to a settler again. By the time you whip your second settler, whip anger will have gone.

After BW I'd beamline Pottery to get out those riverside cottages.

After that Writing and with two Corn you can support 2 scientists immediately to build that Academy.

 

[sampsa]

My struggle on this map was getting to T100 in a good enough position.

It seems like the game was a breeze after you found a better way to play in the first 100T. Let's try to recap a bit.

• Very good land, lots of 3 cottages (FIN!) and enough to support. Your aim should be simple - expand quickly to 4-6 cities to work good tiles. Have enough units to defend your empire from the barbarians. I tend to ignore AIs nearly completely in this type of game as I am confident I will run away with the game at some point on immortal, often even on deity.
• Maybe you Build2Much buildings in general? Low -cap means granary is not useful. Library is expensive and doesn't often feel urgent if 1st GS is philo bulber. I tend to not go for academy, but of course it's a possible play (it's just that the payback is worse than most bulbs/GMmissions). Thus maybe you overvalue writing? With such land the only problem you have is -cap to work more cottages - meaning that monarchy is a very logical play.
• How many cities you expand to in this phase depends on what is available. You can settle more land peacefully or you can start planning how to take cities from AI.
• After you have a tech lead and lots of pop you are ready to capture stuff from AI. How exactly you do it depends. Cuirs tend to be a good solution no matter what traits or uniques you or other civs have.

Of course it's possible to go for an earlier rush, but to me learning how to SimCity better will take you closer to beating every immortal map and beating easy deity maps. Skills you learned in this game are mandatory to master if you want to improve. If you axe rush you will eventually learn how to axe rush, which is sometimes useful.

I suggest your next forum game to be a non-FIN leader and hopefully with not so outstanding land (food+river).

 

[Build2Much]

I Build2Much of everything (and realized it which is why I started posting some here), I can't help myself. So proud of myself for not building a single world wonder in this game and not even building the National Epic, yet still running 3 GAs off specialists just using the available food!

Bad habits probably at least in part stem from playing a ton of Roosevelt at lower levels because I thought it was making it a little harder on myself in the early game, limiting the early rush opportunities - Organized (passive poor man's financial) and Industrious (cheap forges and wonders) means I just got away with building anything. I almost never play pangea maps and I like the late game so I would just cruise to boats and planes with Marines and Tanks. Once I decided to play immortal is where I couldn't get away with building everything and started to hit a wall.

I posted this because I knew the land was good and I should be winning this map, yet I was getting stuck for no reason other than me not making good choices. I definitely got better and playing the T51-T94 stretch twice in a row was eye opening.