WOTM 36 First Spoiler - 1 AD

[babybluepants]

WOTM 36 First Spoiler 1AD

How is your game going?

Reading Requirements

Stop! If you are participating in WOTM 36, then you MUST NOT read this thread unless EITHER

• You have reached at least 1 AD in your game, OR
• You have submitted your entry

Posting Restrictions

• Please do not discuss anything that happened after 1 AD,
• Please do not divulge your final result if that happened after 1 AD.
• Please do not discuss the location of resources that may not show up before 1 AD.
• Do not post any savegame file from the game. Discussions and screenshots are fine but not actual games.

 

[kcd_swede]

Game is going so-so. Translation: I'm accomplishing what I set out to do, but am probably setting out to do the wrong things.

I think I did SIP this time, getting the extra hammer from the elephants and having the pigs. Anyhow, I met Napoleon early and I did not want him as a neighbor so close. So having gone AH first (to get pigs), I see that I need a settler to get horses for war chariots. So that's what I did. Mined the marble for very nice production rate. But I got REX-happy, and settled two more cities before taking on Nappy. I got all his peripheral cities pretty quickly, but Paris was defended by 8 archers and had 60% culture defense. I had only about 8 WC's at the time. So instead I pretty much pillaged him to the ground. I took a cease-fire to prevent WW from stifling me, while beelining alphabet.

Eventually, he sent out half his archers to try and settle near iron, so I broke the cease fire and was able to wipe out archers outside the city and then overwhelm the remaining defenders and eliminate him.

But of course, now it is about 1 AD, and I am losing 5gpt at 0% research, with about 9 cities (having kept most of France's cities). With alphabet, building research everywhere, I will just be able to get CoL before my money runs out and units go on strike (and since I'm Monte's worst enemy, that would not be too healthy). I regret pillaging those cottages in France, now.

Alpha kind of sucked because nobody will trade with me anyhow... since they just don't like me enough (Shaka) or would never trade with their worst enemy (Monte). The only religion on the continent is Bhudism, shared by those two, but I cannot convert because not a single one of my many cities has it. I can't grow for happy caps are low without monarchy, and no lux trades available.

The other continent must have good techers, and is getting all the religions and wonders. So even though I'm biggest, its no easy haul from here, even if I can recover my economy.

Sigh. I'm still thinking I should win the game... the land is more than good enough... but no impressive finish this time, I fear.

 

[zamint3]

SIP and research AH.
Memphis SE with gems, rice,dye and ivory.
Heliopolis NE with horses, gold, pigs, corn, 2 grass hills and 4 plains hills This will be my military production center with one GG already settled and HE in 6 turns.

Similar story as KCD with Nappy only I keept only the closest city and raze the rest, pillaging the improvements financing my research, enough to have alpha before I make peace for 6 techs: (Mysticism not shown in the screenie)

Spoiler :

Meanwhile Montezuma had declared, attacking with archers .
I planned to do the same to him as I did to Nappy, having nice trade routes along the river with Shaka and being one turn from currency, my economy would be in shape for more war..

What happens, that turn Shaka DOWs - but OK he's coming with archers too, so I don't worry to much. I detour my razing WCs in Monte land towards Shaka and plan a surprise attack on his nearest big city, only to find out that he now has HAs.
My 8 WCs flee north razing one other city and pillaging a lot, but in the end they all die.

Back home more trouble arise, out of the fog comes an upgraded Shaka Warlord HA. I almost panic and put all my cities on Spears, when I realize that I don't need HBR for WEs in Warlords , so now Shaka is going to pay............

I hope to take Monarchy from Montezuma in a peace deal soon.

Stats:

Spoiler :

 

[dima42]

SIP, research AH.

I did a very belated War Chariots rush; declared on Napoleon in 1060BC and finished him in 475BC; kept all four cities.
In 125BC, I declared on Shaka, and have thus far taken three of his cities. My plan will be to leave Shaka with one crappy city so that Monty will trade techs with me.

My tech plan was as follows:

It was pretty obvious to me from the start that Alphabet was going to be worthless and Math/BW was a necessary combination. So I did that. Then I realized that my tech pace will entirely be determined by when I meet the other continent, and whether I am able to trade with them. So I beelined optics using a specialist economy from the library scientists. Unfortunately my warring was expensive (I did not realize the immense pain of war weariness on quick). I am still 13 long turns away from being able to pop Optics.

Also, I still don't have Currency or CoL, which means that having 10 cities is very expensive. But that was a sacrifice I willingly made (by doing things like working coast tiles and worthless cottages). My big concern is that I will run out of Shaka cities to kill for money before my economy recovers. I would then probably try to attack Monty, but then I will run out of units .

20BC stats:
10 cities (about to grab 11th): 4 own, 4 Nappy's, 2 Shaka's. Pops 10, 8, 6, 6, 6, 5, 5, 4, 3, 1
-29 gpt at 0%, 128 gold in the bank, 24 bpt from scientists
12 turns left on Machinery, 14 turns left on scientist to pop Optics
49 WC's built, 28 lost, 20 scattered about

Plan from here: well, my game plan has been set by now . Finish off Shaka and Monty with War Chariots, get a caravel to contact the other world, recover my economy, and then pick my choice of victory condition. Aiming for a 1700AD finish, although certainly depends on how advanced the other continent is.

 

[Xcalibrator]

You guys make me feel so inadequate. I didn't attack Nappy until 510 BC and only took 2 cities. I have 7 total (4 settled, 2 from Nappy, 1 from barbs) with total pop 25. Thebes was SIP, #2 to the NE (2S of gold), #3 south on the river (1S of bananas), 4th on eastern coast with Cu, clams, dye. I'm 1st in land but nothing else, and am 6 turns from Construction, at which time I'll go after Nappy again with cats. I got the Oracle in 895BC for CoL and will have the Parthenon in 2 turns. 32 bpt @20%, 2nd in score behind Monte. No matter how this turns out, I think I need to replay the beginning and try to learn something.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

I got off to a decent start. I settled on the Marble, worked a high-Hammer square (a PHFor) and pumped Warriors like there was no tomorrow.

BAM! I attacked Paris with a large stack of Warriors. Down it goes and suddenly I have 2 capitals. For some reason, I feel like an Incan.

Our capital made a Worker and then each City makes a Settler, while I settle-in to defend against the Barbs using my Warriors (actually, I had to rebuild my army of Warriors since I only had 2 left after the Paris massacre).

Napoleon survived with another City and I let him live so that in the future, he could clear the Jungly Bananas for me.


I eventually got a couple of War Chariots out but was unable to stop a Barb Archer from pillaging my Horse Resource. No matter, I reconnected it and started the War Chariot spam again.


Shaka was next--I saw that he didn't appear to have Impis and I wanted him crippled before he got them. I took 2 Cities off of him, razed most of the rest, and left him alive... with a City that had built The Great Wall... and that surely had sufficient Food in order to run some Specialists. Well, as of the end of this spoiler date, he still hadn't generated a Great Person (I was hoping that he'd Great-Engineer-me a nice Wonder), so that plan has so far backfired.


Monte has access to Metals, so Spearmen have started to show their faces. We'll have to wait for the next spoiler to see how well things went against him.


As for my own Wonder attempts: failboat on a massive scale! I tried to build multiple Wonders but started them all too late. All I that I got for my efforts was some Gold. Bah, who needs Wonders, anyway? I have land, and land means power, and power means... well... maybe I can eventually capture said Wonders! "Yes, that will be the plan," I declare to my advisors. "Overseas we must go and take these shiny prizes for ourselves!" Will we be successful? Stay tuned for the next spoiler (and for me to finish the game so that I can find out, too! ).

 

[godotnut]

I'm doing pretty well as of 1AD. Like everyone else, I settled in place, though, since I intend to pursue a space race victory, I wonder if settling south for the gems wouldn't have been better.

I connected marble early to quickly pop out the Oracle, the the Great Library, and the National Epic in my capital. I took Code of Laws to found Confucianism and make progress toward Civil Service. Got lucky and popped a scientist for an early academy. Then a prophet for the holy building and two more scientists by 1AD. I popped Philosophy for pacifism and more great people with the first, and I am saving the other to pop education in a turn or two (almost finished with paper).

Before Oracle, I founded a city to the NW for Horses. It became my unit spammer. It's the only city I settled or intend to settle. DOW on France with 9 chariots, which I kept spamming in city two. Took his three closest cities, including the capital, then took peace for some techs. Monte DOW on me in the middle, which was nice of him. Saved me the trouble. Took his two closest cities, razed another, pillaged, then took peace for more techs.

Shaka and I are like Confucian peas in a pod. For now.

 

[babybluepants]

I got off to a decent start. I settled on the Marble, worked a high-Hammer square (a PHFor) and pumped Warriors like there was no tomorrow.

BAM! I attacked Paris with a large stack of Warriors. Down it goes and suddenly I have 2 capitals. For some reason, I feel like an Incan.

Wow! Nicely done. That's 5t per warrior, I guess. How many archers and how many warriors? I actually noticed that he leaves only one archer in Paris during settler escort early.

Shaka was next--I saw that he didn't appear to have Impis and I wanted him crippled before he got them.

This was very frustrating for me. His copper is in a fairly crappy city location, but right next to his capital. In testing he only settled it early 1 in 5-10. I considered moving the copper 1 tile into capital second border pop, but decided against it for a couple of reasons.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

Wow! Nicely done. That's 5t per warrior, I guess.

I don't have the game open right now, but I seem to recall it being 2, at most 3 turns per Warrior. It is Quick Speed afterall. I'm pretty sure that it was 2 turns per Warrior.

As to how many Warriors, I don't recall, but I just kept spamming them... I actually went NE, NW, and only then SW before finding an AI capital, but when I did, I "swarmed" it with all available units.

I'm not sure that this approach paid off considering how I missed multiple Wonders and also lost out on the Gem Resource to Louis' second new City.

This was very frustrating for me. His copper is in a fairly crappy city location, but right next to his capital. In testing he only settled it early 1 in 5-10. I considered moving the copper 1 tile into capital second border pop, but decided against it for a couple of reasons.

Well, Shaka managed to get some Chariots out in my game, as well as City Walls and stacks of Archers in pretty much every City, so he wasn't trivial to take down. As of 1 AD he is still alive and has been allowed to expand to get the Copper within his borders, so there may be Impis to face eventually... but I can't say for certain in this thread.


Thank you for being nice and not putting Shaka's Copper on his capital's City Centre square! I seem to remember one game like that from a while back (maybe hosted by Leif?).

 

[Conquistador 63]

As I expected, fine war stories in this thread. Unfortunately, my 1AD report will be boring, as it looks like it was the only peaceful one. Maybe I was influenced by our leader's name...war didn't seem fit for "Cuteness"...

SIP, hunting/AH/mining/BW/pottery. Seeing marble and gold/gems nearby, flirted with the idea of getting MC from Oracle. But Monty had other plans and finished it before 1200BC, apparently taking Monarchy.

Meanwhile, I did consider rushing France with war chariots, but the initial ones were busy fending off barbs. Later on, a handful of them stopped to capture a barb city on their way, which they achieved, but poorly - lost 2 initial battles to archers on flat ground , which discouraged me to move on to those hilly/walled french cities.

Missed Oracle, missed rush opportunities...what options left? Seeing how much land I had to myself, I decided to REX, while waiting for catapults/elephants to come online. Those were tense years, until I teched Construction and connected metals to the S and SE. I did check for the AI's WHEOOHRN almost every turn (miss Buffy Mod alert icon), but fortunately the AI's swords/spears/axes stayed in their cities, maybe charmed by Cuteness' soft voice... They might regret it in the near future...

Spoiler :

 

[Deckhand]

Let's see if I can play a game in 3 days. Quick Speed Culture Victory should be possible.

3000 BC - one city
Settle in place. Because food more important than gems.
First 3 techs: AH (for pigs), Mysticism (for obelisks), Mining and Masonry (for Oracle).
First 4 builds: worker, warrior, warrior, warrior (to defend against barbs, barb bust, and explore a bit)

second city: Horses, gold, pigs, corn
third city: gems, dye, dye, (iron!)

five cities at 1AD - took two from barbs: bananas, rice, cows and stone, gold

Got Confucianism from Oracle and Christianity from Great Prophet (from obelisk). Monte founded Buddhism and we are now all buddhists.

Missed Temple of Artemis by 2 turns (sh have whipped), but that gave me immediate cash. Built the Parthenon. Zulus have Great Wall, Great Lighthouse, and Pyramids.

Quick culture win should be achievable - if I can keep the bad boys from messing with me.