WOTM 31 First Spoiler

[leif erikson]

WOTM 31 First Spoiler 1AD

How is your game going?

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• You have reached at least 1 AD in your game, OR
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• Please do not discuss anything that happened after 1 AD,
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Where did you settle?
How have you expanded and where did you go?
What tech path did you take?
Have you decided on a victory condition?
Hope you found your Horses?

 

[kcd_swede]

I settled in place. Lots of food there. Nothing better visible on t0, even after moving the scout.

Tech path: AH>wheel and then whatever else... I wasn't paying much attention after that.

The congestion was ungodly... I see orange borders as soon as my own borders pop to the full BFC. And pretty much all the AI meet me in like the first 10 turns. The meek shall NOT inherit THIS earth, I think.

I built worker first, maybe a warrior next, then 5 Immortals. (I kept building Immortals up to 7, but it was with this first 5 I went on my first expedition).

The orange Celtic guy (Brennus?) was just too close for comfort. He's founded Hindu and Judaism in his capitol (Carthage?), and is setting out with a settler escorted by 2 archers when I hit him. 5 Immortals (unpromoted) at the walls of a 40% culture city defended by 3 archers + 1 archer whipped (all unpromoted). Do you feel lucky today, Cyrus? I do.

First Immortal kills (about 20% odds). Second Immortal withdraws. 3 and 4 die (I guess they weren't THAT immortal after all). Five kills at 83%. Next turn I double promo Imm #1, promo Imm # 5, and kill the last two archers at about 63% odds each. Carthage is mine. But now he settled Utica on top of the copper next to my BFC. He's at size 1, so no whipping . And 0% culture defense. Imm #6 and #7 kill Utica and it autorazes. I take a break... here I am sitting very nicely... with enough space for 2 more cities (one on coast near copper with 2 clams, and one up by the dye in the jungles). Still firmly in last place, though.

A GG is born and he makes one immortal into a Supermedic.

Shaka or Bismark has to be next, because they are the ones boxing me in. I'm really afraid of those Impis... but Shaka has no metal. (Leif was kinder than we have a right to expect, in that regard).

Cranking out Immortals, a couple axes, and a lone spear... I take on Shaka (sans seige -- Real men don't wait for seige. ).

This went real well also. Got more RNG luck than I deserved, to be honest. Maybe Immortals just get a hidden benefit against archers that is not included in the odds calculation? Anyhow, by 1AD all Shakas cities that I can reach without a galley are mine. Ulundi nets me the Great Lighthouse. Shaka has one pop1 city that looks like it is on a 1tile island. I give him peace for all of his tech. 3 important techs, but I forget which. Currency and HBR were among them, and it was either poly or Med the other one, iirc.

Now its 1AD, and I am dead even with Bismark and the others... even very very briefly in 1st place in score. Now its recoup, rebuild, get to construction for cats/war elephants, and find another victim.

I'm feeling like this might be my first Warlords victory above Emperor level.



But it won't be easy, because the rivals to the west had much more room to expand, and have been in peace (and I with nothing to bribe them to war). As long as they let me pick them off one at a time, I should be fine, though.

Of course, I could go space or UN or something else at this time, but I have all those high promoted units, and I'd hate to see them get bored.

Wish me luck (since I sem to have already gotten more than my fair share of it, I think it could run out any time now... but there's only one way to find out. )

 

[leif erikson]

Of course, I could go space or UN or something else at this time, but I have all those high promoted units, and I'd hate to see them get bored.

Wish me luck (since I sem to have already gotten more than my fair share of it, I think it could run out any time now... but there's only one way to find out. )

OK, Good Luck.

 

[shyuhe]

I took the challenger save since it doesn't look like we're isolated. Oh boy.

Hannibal settled the wonderful gems city, then promptly founded two religions there I eventually declared war on him with 6 or 7 immortals, but his city was on a hill with 40% culture. Got luck and took it with 2 losses. I moved on to Carthage and captured that too. Hannibal had a northern city west of Ulundi so I grabbed that - it was the Jewish holy city. That had spread to 25% of the map so I adopted it and got very good visibility.

Ragnar declared war on me but he never sent any units except for a few archers in the beginning. I think the lack of OB prevented him from sending his rather large stack towards me. Phew! I counted about 20 units in his stack around 500 BC. Took peace though and avoided that bullet.

I had been building immortals non-stop at this point so I tried my luck on Shaka as well, grabbing two cities from him before taking peace. Now I'm building up peacefully a bit before I re-declare on Shaka to finish him off. He's an entire era behind in tech compared to the others so he's a non-factor at this point, but I want his land.

Incidentally, Bismarck's score is almost 2000 already Stupid wonder whore...

 

[leif erikson]

Incidentally, Bismarck's score is almost 2000 already Stupid wonder whore...

"Wonders won are sweeter than wonders built." an anonymous Civfanatic.
(Can't remember their name?)

Good luck with the challenger save.

 

[neilmeister]

Got off to an amazing start.

Settled 1N, to avoid the large number of sea squares. Instantly regretted it seeing the stone just out of the BFC. Anyway, was very happy to see the horses . Was 3 turns into teching Writing when I realised I had missed Wheel, so I went back and got that.

I had only built 2 Immortals when Shaka built a city on the Clams/Gems/Copper site. uMbom....something was exactly where I wanted city 2 anyway, so I was very happy with this. The turn after it hit pop 2 I attacked and took the city. Next was Carthage, then Utica with Dye/Elephants. I kept pumping Immortals and they we swept up towards Ulundi. Took this and OMG, what an awesome GP farm. Finished Shaka by taking his last city on the NW coast of the little peninsula.

All of my sacrifical Immortals lost, everyone that attacked above 50% won. This included the very last Shaka Archer, which my super-medic attacked at 55%. (I don;t think I will ever do that again). Killed about 4 CG1 Archers in open ground

Net result, 1 holy city (Hindu), no wonders but I had 6 cities, and I had only built 1 myself, for the gold, and this was still about 500BC.

Decided to turtle up and go for space......

 

[mushroomshirt]

I decided to go with the flow and warmonger this game - so far so good. Settled 1N like neilmeister.

I used my immortals to rush Hannibal and Shaka. Horse archers were coming on-line near the end of the Zulu war. Shaka built the pyramids for me which I love. I almost never build the pyramids in my games for some reason - I probably should - but I love to conquer them. I instantly switched to my favorite civic Police State to churn out immortals / horse archers.

Have razed 1 of Rangar's cities (I decided to avoid Bismark for now since my navy sucks). Haven't scouted his land out so I don't know where his metals are coming from. Would really like to pillage that to avoid his spearmen.

I'm teching toward guilds to try to finish everyone with knights.

I have never won immortal level before so keep your fingers crossed for me!

 

[lymond]

Where did you settle?

I settled 1 N. I whipped my scout around the desert tile and liked what I saw, plus less sea tiles. Figured I might grab the fish with a 1 tile city later if needed. Overall, I think 1N made for better production/hybrid cap.

How have you expanded and where did you go?

I expanded mainly via conquest - taking out Hannibal and Shaka fairly early - at 1040BC both Zulu and Carthage are dead. I built only 2 settlers so far to basically fill in cities I razed earlier to put them in better spots. Oh and 1 barb city conquered that spawn near gems after I took Carthage.

What tech path did you take?

AH>Wheel>Mining>BW>Pot>Writing>Myst

Have you decided on a victory condition?

Not really...right now I'm thinking a renaissance war to finish out, but just about anything is open at this point. Interestingly, after taking Shaka/Carthage out, all other AIs were Bud so I switched to Bud.

Hope you found your Horses?

No, where are they?!!!!


It didn't take but a few turns to realize that we were in pretty cramped quarters here. Interestingly, Hannibal really didn't expand that fast but Shaka expanded like a freakin weed. He plopped down a city on the copper right next to me just as I'm about to attack Hannibal.

I sent a couple of Immortals out immediately - no barracks - to choke Hanny. Ended up killing two of his archers escorting a settler over to the gem site or copper site where Shaka settled the turn after. Continued building IMMs - in fact, I don't recall ever building a warrior - maybe one. Carthage fell easily - only having to take 1 city to destroy that empire.

I declared on Shaka about the same time too to raze that copper city immediately since the city had 1 archer in and 1 just outside heading that way. Took them out. Shaka was tricky since he had chariots roaming around. I actually took Carthage and Shaka shot in a chariot the next turn (Shaka had roaded just about all the north and west of old Carthage in what seemed like an unreasonable amount of time), since I had no cultural borders there yet. Shaka takes Carthage but I take it back a turn or so later as I had more IMMs on the way. Still, I was a bit despondent over that quick grab at first.

I quickly hooked up that copper which was now inside by cap's borders to get out a couple of spears. Actually, my IMMs held up fairly nicely against the chariots. For some reason as my troops headed north, Shaka ended up fortify his largest stack in his NW coastal city (horses) and left Ulundi woefully undefended. Really stupid on his part. Ulundi fell like a house of cards. Took a few losses on his last city but finally Shaka was gone. Zulus dead at 1040BC.

Really not wonder focused at all, especially with 2 IND leaders on the map. I did rush out the Great Lighthouse in Ulundi which will be a very nice GP farm.

Went straight for Alpha after writing - running at 0 while getting in libraries to get economy up. I really don't know what else to tech other than Alpha on Warlords since I never played this version much. Anyway, once Alpha was in, I've been able to trade techs around to stay fairly even in that regard, while building up my cities.

After taking Shaka/Hanny and noting that Biz/Rag/Frankie were metaled nicely, I felt the IMM rush was over. My initial thinking here was to get to construction fairy quickly and lay waste. However, once I reached that point, I didn't feel I really had the advantage tech wise to achieve this and relations were pretty good. Thus, I'm focused on just building up my 7 city empire and researching. It appears right now that I'm going to get a tech lead. Rag declared on FDR at 1AD.

I'll likely shoot for Edu/Lib now and use whatever to clean the map. I do need to give the tech path some more thought at this point. Non-BTS always throws my game off - which is not saying much.

Due to this setup and since I'm not a super early warmonger, I could imagine there will be some rather early conquest dates on this map. A part of me wishes I just went all out WAAAAAH!

 

[lymond]

I used my immortals to rush Brennus and Shaka.

Brennus?! Man, I really have to improve my scouting

 

[mushroomshirt]

Brennus?! Man, I really have to improve my scouting

fixed. Glad someone is reading my posts!

 

[Duckweed]

Where did you settle?
How have you expanded and where did you go?
What tech path did you take?
Have you decided on a victory condition?
Hope you found your Horses?

1. SIP
2. 2 settlers to claim the Clam/gem and Rice/Stone site, AIs settled the rest for me.
3. Fishing->AH->Wheel->Mining->BW->Mys->Masonry->Pottery->Writing->Alpha->Math->Currency->Construction->...CS->HBR->...Engineer->rest does not matter
4. Domination
5. A gift from you.

 

[Jove]

Here's what my notes look like when I play Warlords:

2520 BC turn 37 I whip the settler. Held off a turn to gather 10 hammers for an archer. Yeah, I researched Archery first, I want it. Plan to steal workers didn't work out, we didn't have the power, but at least our forces could claim some land to settle. Same diff.

2120 BC- Commit the crime, steal a worker from Carthage in the forest. Archer in 3 in capitol... no, let's look again... archer in 2...

1960 Learn Animal Husbandry. I am glad I have 2 workers!

1800 BC Hannibal accepts cease fire. Worker Steal Success!

1680 Bring Stone online. The Great Wall is still 'on-line'.



1640 Chop a forest for the Great Wall with Stone.
1560 Chop a forest for the Great Wall with Stone.
1520 Opportunity to steal German worker with archer in the NW. Choose to take that risk, we don't like the Germans in our lebensraum anyway.
1480BC The final chop. The Great Wall in 1!

1440 Victory! And 17g from pillaging a German village.
1400 Cash in a stolen worker turn on a road in the jungle.
1360 Bismark has considerable forces, but also has a lot of workers holed up it towns. I think we can force a cease-fire.
1280BC Writing Plunder 6g!
1200 Burn a fp farm. Germany is -2 fpt and ready to talk. Victory persia! Cease-fire Germany!

1120 Stonehenge in Capitol. Found Parsagardae to claim pigs &wtc.
-775 Dow Hannibal again, burn the town he founded on 'our' copper.

700 Found Ectabana to claim gems, copper, 2 clams. Pillage one of Hannibal's villages for 28g!
650 Hook Copper.
625 Getting some good results from pillaging. 100+g will be possible, and it ain't good for Hannibal either.
-550 Cease fire Hannibal again. We got the copper land, we pillaged well and collected lots of gold. Let's save our happiness and come back with axes. Or go after Shaka...

525 Enter the Classical Era with Iron Working. We are going to steal workers from Shaka next, just attack everyone but Ragnar.
-500 Temple of Artemis in Berlin. Not bad. Dow Shaka

475 Shaka completes the Great Lighthouse.
Burn Shaka's horses and get away!
Our economy runs on burning Shaka's improvements, getting Metal Casting.

425BC Nobama is defended by 2 archers. We have 5 or 6 units on site. The odds are bad at first, but I think they improve real quick. I'm gonna go for it.
Victory! Capture Nobama! The luck was bad though, we lost like 4 units.
Win a great general! I think we'll plop him in the capitol.

-400 We hold Nobamba. Now it is just a matter of time. Casualties, but victory!
-350 We pass Hannibal in score, at last.
325 After all that get a phrophet. Put him on ice until Civil Service.
-250 Cease Fire with Shaka. Oh yeah, we won that war. Got Nobamba!
-225 Sailing, start a trireme in Hannibal's former lands, will get in 3 with a whip and a chop. Whip an axe in Nobamba. We're going to capture Carthage this time.
-200 Dow Hannibal. Lose an immortal killing the axe guarding his Ivory. Too bad, you can't have that buddy.
-175 There is a swordsman, a spearman, and an archer defending Carthage. We can totally take it.
Germany dows us when we refuse to cough up Metal Casting. 'em. Steal one of their workers.
-125 Capture Carthage, pillage 229g!!!! We lost exactly one axeman in this campaign. Yay. That's diplomacy. Hm, we have a prophet, and this is the Buddhist holy city, and we are wildly short on cash, so maybe
we'll do that in about 10 turns?

-100 Another great general is born. We are fighting Germany in our lands after all, so double points, yay!
-75 Use the leader to hand out promotions. We are going to slaughter Bismark's army! Continuing to pillage Hannibal for cash.
-50 Whip 3 more axes. Bismark is going to be surprised!

1AD Continue to pillage Hannibal. No iron for example, and going for the cottages- not bad! He will make peace but we want to wait another turn for the money. Meanwhile, Bismark is losing all his units.

 

[Mitchum]

I settled in place , started building a worker and set research to Animal Husbandry in the hopes of finding horses on the plains tile. Alas, they were not there… but they were on the open grassland tile instead! I see an immortal rush in the near future!!

I got so excited when I saw the horses that I started researching Mining next. I caught myself four turns into it, but the damage was already done. When my worker was done, I still had 3 turns left to finish Fishing, so I was not able to start a work boat right away. Instead, I put three turns into a warrior and then switched to a work boat as soon as Fishing was learned (T17). After Fishing, I finished Mining (T20), the Wheel (T27) to open up the immortals and Bronze Working (T36) to allow chopping.

My worker pastured the horses, mined the plains hill east, chopped and mined the grassland hill N+NW and chopped forests around the capital. Now that I had some hammers in my capital, I was able to quickly finish the work boat and finish the warrior. From then on, it was immortals. By 2000 BC, I had just completed my 10th immortal.

Hmm… What to do with all of these immortals? Well, I met the following cast of characters: Hannibal (T1), Shaka (T4), Bismarck (T5), Ragnar (T7) and Roosevelt (T25). Very nice… and close too.

My wandering warrior found an unprotected worker, which I nicked on T34, starting my first war with Hannibal in 2640 BC. I looked in the auto log and saw that my probability of victory was only 87.8%. I thought the odds should have been 100%??? On T35, I took a small chance and attacked an archer escorting a settler through the jungle with my first immortal (combat odds: 73.6%). It looks like he was heading south to settle NW of Persepolis between our two capitals. Luckily I won the battle. I now had 3 workers and a very pissed off neighbor. Hannibal’s archer came out of the fog along a road and stole two workers back, which he immediately deleted so that I couldn’t take them back. Hannibal’s capital was mine on T44. I waited until I had 5 immortals ready to attack and I’m glad I did because I lost my fourth battle at 70% odds and cleaned up with my fifth and final immortal. One AI down, four to go!

Shaka had settled uMgungundlovu north of Persepolis near the horses and dye. The city had 2 archers in it and three more were headed toward it (one was escorting a settler). I could have none of this, so I attacked the archer escort on T48, nicking another much needed worker.

By 2000 BC (T50), I have two capitals, 7 immortals, 3 workers and 1 scout and I’m three turns from Iron Working.

I continue my war efforts against Shaka. I captured uMgungundlovu on T54. I then sent my troops north to find that Shaka had two well-defended cities on the peninsula to the northeast. They would have been tough to capture, so I had a series of stops and starts in this war. Each time I stopped the war (Cease Fire, not Peace Treaty), Shaka would send out his settler escorted by two archers. I would attack on the very next turn, taking out said archers in the open land and netting yet another worker. By 1000 BC, Shaka has two not-so-well-defended cities on the peninsula.

On the western front, I declared war on Bismarck on T60. I razed Munich, which was settled on the Iron to the east of Persepolis, on T61 and Cologne, which was settled near the stone, on T75. I also declared war on Ragnar on T71, razing Uppsala on T72.

At this time, I had to adopt a new economy: PE. If you’re not sure what that is, I didn’t know about it until this game. It’s called a Pillage Economy. With so many immortals, I was at -3 gold per turn at 0% science with 5 gold in the bank. The only techs I’ve learned since 2000 BC are Iron Working (T52) and Pottery (T54).

By 1000 BC (T75), I have three cities, 15 immortals, 7 workers, 2 warriors and 3 barracks (I built the barracks rather than more immortals when I was running a deficit at 0% slider and only had about 5 gold left). I’ve received two Great Generals, both of which have been settled in Persepolis (it probably would have been better to settle one of them in another city such that immortals built in two cities would start with 5 experience points and 2 promotions). I now have 368 gold in the bank and I’m running +1 gold at 0% science. I’m currently at war with Shaka, Bismarck and Ragnar. Shaka and Bismarck are down to two cities each, Ragnar has two or three cities and Roosevelt has five. Both Shaka and Bismarck have been pillaged back to the Stone Age. Ragnar and Roosevelt are at war with each other and have been for about 15 turns. I’m hoping that Ragnar is able to keep Roosevelt in check until I have a chance to send a few immortals his way.

I continued my conquest against Ragnar by razing Bjørgvin (T84), Haithabu (T87) and Birka (T88). I faced a fortified and promoted spear in a city on a hill, which took 4 immortals to take down. I also finally got around to declaring war on Roosevelt on T94 and razed New York on T95.

By 500 BC (T95), I have my same three early cities, 27 immortals, 6 workers, 1 warrior, 1 axeman and 3 barracks. I am still running the basic civics, not wanting to waste a turn in anarchy. I got a third great general, which I intended to settle in Carthage. However, I accidentally attached him to the warrior on police duty there, so I promoted him to an axe and he’s on his way (slowly) into battle.

By 1 AD (T115), I have razed Philadelphia (T97), Boston (T98), Hamburg (T99), Nidaros (T108 – Ragnar is out of the game), Berlin (T111 – Bismarck is out of the game), Ulundi (T113) and Chicago (T113). Shaka and Washington both have 1 city each. Everyone else has been eliminated. My goal was to finish in the BC years, but I didn’t quite make it…

Where did you settle?
I settled in place.

How have you expanded and where did you go?
Pointy-stick diplomacy, on wheels, of course.

What tech path did you take?
Animal Husbandry -> Fishing -> Mining -> The Wheel -> Bronze Working -> Iron Working -> Pottery -> 0% research.

Have you decided on a victory condition?
Conquest

Hope you found your Horses?
Yes, thank you!!

 

[adrianj]

WOTM31 - Persia - Contender save

I'm tempted to go for a diplomatic victory in this game, but at Immortal level I think initially I'll just play a balanced game and see how things pan out.

The Immortal UU is nice, but on Normal speed my concern is if I can get them out with enough time to be useful. Hopefully with this pangaea map there will be at least one neighbour who doesn't have metal.

4000 BC -> 2200 BC
I settle in place, as I don't want to give up the fish to settle on a plains hill. First tech is Fishing, since seafood is the only real resource I have until Calendar. Starting build a warrior until Fishing comes in.

Hannibal is close by to the north. As are gems and clams. Shaka Zulu is in the game as well. I can't say I've ever liked him as a neighbour. Bismarck is also found. Oh geez, Ragnar is also in the game... Did I say I wanted to go for Diplo!!?

After I learn fishing I immediately begin Workboat, and tech towards Bronze Working - I want to be a able to whip so I can get a settler out fast. Nice - Gems city also has copper. I take a gamble sending the settler out unescorted, since I want that site before Hannibal claims it - I am successful, founding the city in 2800 BC.

Next tech is Animal Husbandry to find Horses. Excellent - in the capital's BFC. Further city sites are either average or too far away - so I think I might expand via Immortals now

By 2200 BC I have 2 cities, and 2 workers - time to build/chop an army. Hannibal is the obvious first target, since he has me boxed in almost completely!

2200 BC -> 1000 BC

As far as I can tell, Shaka does not have metal yet. I consider him the biggest pain in the ass - so I'll go after him first. I declare in 1440 BC, razing the first city I attack.

Overall though, it's not going great. I send in a stack of Immortals to pillage Shaka into the stone age. I take peace for a few techs, and SHaka is down to 2 cities. He still doesn't have metal, so I think I'll go for his capital in 10 turns time.

1000 BC -> 500 BC

I'm trying to get some sort of economy together, building cottages around the capital.

I declare on Shaka again in 775 BC. I get his capital and another city up north quite early on, and then finish him off completely in 525 BC. Now, I have 5 cities, but lots of cultural pressure from Hannibal. Should I attack Hannibal? The answer is yes. But I'd like catapults for this job.

500 BC -> 1 AD

Now hypothetically... if I remove Hannibal, then only AI I will share a border with is Bismarck. He is Hindu. I have a hindu city. Yep - I like this plan - I convert to Hinduism and will try very hard to eliminate Hannibal. Unfortunately for me, Hannibal has Feudalism. I'll have to hope he doesn't build too many longbows.

Construction takes a while coming in, and it's not until 1 AD that I'm ready to declare.

Stats at 1 AD:
5 cities, 6 workers.
No wonders.
About 20 sustainable /turn but I have some cash reserves and I'm hoping things will get better once I have Hannibal removed.

 

[cabert]

finally started to play

I settle on the plains hill 1E
saw shaka and hannibal too soon for comfort
I mean their comfort
First wave of immortals went for shaka until I had Ulundi (indeed horses there). I settled for peace when Hannibal settled a city that closed my reinforcement line.
Went for Hannibal then.
Carthage is nice.

gem city + 2 seafood is nice too.

I built all (almost) my units from persepolis, Ulundi built the Oracle (for coL) then the great lighthouse (you need some way to keep the money flowing!)

After that, I can't remember the dates, so won't give away anything more.
I hope to finish tomorrow.

 

[Lexad]

Killed Hannibal fast, then lost 9 immortals to 4 archers in Berlin, killing one. Not this month.

 

[Deckhand]

Steam just finished downloading, and I just played to 1AD. 4000 years.

With Shaka and Hannibal as neighbors, there will be war.
No religion spread to me (for a long time) and no one requested I convert, so I haven't.
Settled in place. Hannibal settled on the copper right next to us.
Waited until I had ten immortals to attack. Took on Shaka first as he only had archers. The Zulus war raged from 900 - 550 BC.

At 1 AD, Hannibal has 3 cities and is up 7(+?) techs on me. I have 5 cities (4 and Great Wall from Zulus). I have been building catapults but Hannibal has longbows. Anyway, he is next.

Ragnar and Roosevelt have been at war. I haven't seen their territory.
Scout popped a hut for 29 gold before being killed by a barbarian warrior.

Teched: Mining, AH, Wheel, BronzeWorking, Fishing, Pottery

Thanks to the tiny map, while the AIs are way ahead of me, they aren't too big.