WOTM 12 First Spoiler

[ainwood]

WOTM 12 First Spoiler

Reading Requirements:

1. Must have reached at least 0 AD (or been defeated prior)
2. Must have contact with all civilizations on the starting continent, and know the locations of their cultural boundaries.

Posting Restrictions

1. Please do not post any details about any events or any land mass aside from the starting one, or any that can be reached by galleys. Discussions of "in a far away land" are fine.

 

[Orion071]

Here a full day and no posts yet? Is everyone playing BtS instead?

Well, I decided to give this a try even though I'm incredibly rusty and Emperor is 1 level too high for me. I settled in place and went Workboat -> Worker -> Warrior -> Settler. Settled by the Rice, Bananas and 2 Gold mines. Got another city to grab the Dye and Horses because I was worried about Barbarians and there wasn't any Copper around. It's a slow-growing city and I'm afraid it was a bad move. I had to divert to Iron Working for metal units and founded a 4th city south on the coast by the Rice, Cows and Iron. Finally, I knew it would stretch me thin, but I really wanted a city west by all of the Floodplains, Cows and Marble.

I thought that I could handle 5 cities that early, but apparently not. I'm teching so sloooooooooowly. My slider was around 30-40% and I had to go on an all-out Cottage spam to not go broke.

I was pretty good friends with Khan because we were both Hindu (he founded it) and apparently Alex was jealous. I saw a stack of 5 Archers heading my way (?!?) and sure enough, he declared war on me. My floodplain city had a Sword and a Chariot in it and luckily he didn't attack it right away. I was able to get a 2nd Sword and 2nd Chariot in there and wiped out his stack. I guess Alex doesn't have metals because all I saw were Archers and the occaisional Chariot. Scary. I had a wandering Chariot up north and he pillaged all sorts of Alex's stuff before he got taken down. I must have taken out at least 15 improvements with the one Chariot. That was my only offense and I made peace as soon as I could. Soon after that, Alex became Hindu and we all lived peacefully.

I'm only slightly behind Khan in techs and Alex is further behind me. But I saw a list saying the three of us were the bottom 3 in techs in the world. Great. I'm expecting Destroyers from the other continent to show up and wipe us out any minute now.

 

[Harbourboy]

Similar story for me. I settled 1 over to get the gold. By 0AD I had 3 cities and was building lots of swordsmen. Decided to attack Alexander in about 400AD and took one of cities.

Like you, I am just waiting for the destroyers and gunships to show up.

 

[da_Vinci]

Hmm ... the first 284 turns in my autolog are one huge continuous list, with no turn or year markers 284 was the first turn after my first save and resume ... anyone else have that problem?

Settled north to put one gold in capital. Lack of early copper led to a search for iron, and less than ideal city placements. All in all, a confused start.

Decided to focus on military buildup and by 410 had a nice mix of cats spears, axes and elephants and went after GK, who was huge by then, and leader on my continent. Problem was, 485 Alex declares on me on the other front.

For how that turned out, see the final spoiler.

dV

 

[Harbourboy]

Not much action going on in this game. Is everyone playing BtS? I got it two weeks ago but still haven't installed it yet, because I'm too busy catching up on things like WOTM12......

 

[Jimmy Thunder]

Well, I decided to give this a try even though I'm incredibly rusty and Emperor is 1 level too high for me. I settled in place and went Workboat -> Worker -> Warrior -> Settler. Settled by the Rice, Bananas and 2 Gold mines. Got another city to grab the Dye and Horses because I was worried about Barbarians and there wasn't any Copper around. It's a slow-growing city and I'm afraid it was a bad move. I had to divert to Iron Working for metal units and founded a 4th city south on the coast by the Rice, Cows and Iron. Finally, I knew it would stretch me thin, but I really wanted a city west by all of the Floodplains, Cows and Marble.

My city placement was basically identical to this, with much of the same thought process… hmm nice 2nd city with gold and food resources… need those horses to fend off barbs and tickle-up these aggressive neighbours… wow that marble flood plain city is nice… ok need to secure that iron too.

I took an opportunistic jab at GK, I think to either kill a settler or capture a worker and that really put a strain on my economy. Luckily I had just enough units (mostly suicidal chariots) to take out his decisive cities and really hamstring his little civ. I kept two coastal cities with decent resources in the fat crosses, one had the Pyramids.

Alex declared on me just as I entered cottage mode, but was pretty weak with only archers to begin with. I couldn't do too much to Alex but I killed his attackers and menaced around in the jungle that he kept trying to put a settler in.

For a while I was very confused as Alex had a decent sized city named Thebes, and I wondered whether Egypt was on the starting continent somewhere and had fallen victim to Greece. Much ado about nothing in the end.

I found it too easy to focus my attention on barbs and my two neighbours and lose focus on what type of game (Victory Condition – if at all) I was concentrating on. My short term goal was to consolidate my economy, chip away at Alex whenever I could and try to get optics to see what the rest of the world was up to.

 

[Mighty Dwaarf]

Similiar start to others, settled in place, 2nd city takes two gold, rice and bananas, build Oracle to get COL and found confucianism in 2nd city, build another settler, spend an age deciding where to put him. Was between the coast NE of capital to grab clams and dye or SW to take cows by river. Hmm.
I decide for NE spot, bad decision.
At this point I had yet to get AH, and IW to go for oracle, would be alright done it before. Hmm, that seems to be a large stack of archers Khan is approaching with towards my northern cities. . It was at this point that I thought I should check what level we were on this month?? Emperor, aggressive AI, note to self, check these before starting!!!!
So many archer vs archer battles later and I had killed lots of the invaders, unfortunately also lost 2 non capital cities but now had control of the area again and had resettled the two city sites tried to get peace but Khan was having none of it when he turned up with Axes and Swords I was in trouble and had to bite the bullet and give up a city for peace. I would have IW soon and was about time converted from hammer orientated to economy as was suffering severely.
IW in so where is that Iron, to the SW where I was going to settle a city, but what is there now a barb city, ok don't need a settler just need some decent units to take the city, ok just need some Iron then. Think this is what they call catch 22.
Ok so things are bad, but at least they can only improve?? at least Alex hasn't attacked yet?? Whats that coming over the hill ..... is it a large stack of Greek archers!!!! Aaaaaaghhh. Many more archer vs archer battles later and the Greeks beaten back and peace negotiated. Unfortunately Khan now had control of the nearby Iron.
So at roughly 500AD after 2000 odd years of nearly constant defensive war. I am in the sorry state of two cities, minimal tech, no strategic resources surrounded by aggresive civs with superior armies. 1 religion but no holy city anymore, but at least I've got some very experienced archers. If I manage to pull this one round I will change my name to Lazarus.

 

[Munro]

Not much action going on in this game. Is everyone playing BtS? I got it two weeks ago but still haven't installed it yet, because I'm too busy catching up on things like WOTM12......

Same here - haven't really started on BtS yet and trying to catch up with WOTM12 (and GOTM22 which I haven't started yet but looks killer).

It's about 300AD and Khan has already attacked me once, but I have only seen archers from him so far - so no drama there. Meanwhile, I can't persuade Khan to attack Alex, and Alex keeps saying 'he has enough on his hands right now' which must mean homework, given his current tech lead. Although I still haven't seen anything except archers from him either - doesn't look like either of these guys had metals in their starting lands.

All the early religions were founded on the other continent(s) but Khan has Confucianism now and has spread it to Alex and me, which may help to keep things peaceful over here for a while longer (yeah, right). I wonder if there have been any religious wars on the other continent though - with 3 different religions over there, that might have helped. Depends which leaders are over there I imagine...

Overall, the start felt a bit muddled as I came out of the gate raring for an early axe rush, then found no bronze, and huge empty lands to settle (but no nearby AI to attack). Started thinking too late about the Oracle, but I have a decent cottage economy established so should be ok. Not going to set any records on this one though...!

 

[Htadus]

Was not going to play this but GOTM22 ended so fast so here's looking at you Toku.

Settled in the starting spot. Went for Hinduism and founded in the capital. Second city on the hill to claim 2 gold...so missed out on the Horses. But nothing to fear....It had the Stonehenge and claimed it the horses for the empire. Was hoping for MC from the Oracle but timed it poorly and got Monarchy instead. Happy to take it since most cities could use some HR happiness. 3rd city was to south where the Iron showed up and built one more city to claim the Marble. Captured 3 more Barb Cities and Razed a few more. Alex is pleased and Ghagis is causious with 6 pluses and no negetives. So he might have to go. The other continent is teching faster so they are friendly and likely science oriented. We are second most cultured and 6th in military. Using GP lightbulbs for trades and catching up tech wise. I think our first war will come when we have the Samurai's....Unless Mongol hords whoose to cross the stepps.

As for End Game......Clueless. May be after the first war, we will deside.