WOTM 56 - First Spoiler - 1AD

[Deckhand]

WOTM 56 First Spoiler - 1AD

Reading Requirements

Stop! If you are participating in WOTM 56 Uncle Joe Stalin of the USSR, then you MUST NOT read this thread unless EITHER

• You have reached at least 1AD in your game, OR
• You have submitted your entry, OR
• You have abandoned your game and will not submit.

Posting Restrictions
Please do not discuss anything that happened after 1AD.
Please do not discuss modern era resource locations (Copper and Iron are OK).
Please do not reveal names or locations of civilization not accessible by galleys.
Please do not divulge your final result if that happened after 1AD.
Do not post any savegame file from the game. Discussions and screenshots are fine but not actual games.

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So... where did you settle? Why?
Did you have any trouble with Barbarians?
Which Wonders did you build? Which did the AI?
Have you uncharacteristically opened borders with any AIs? How are they getting along?

 

[Xcalibrator]

Golly, first to report? I'm still alive, although I had some serious doubts about that for awhile. We'll discuss that later.

At 1AD I have a grand total of 3 cities and 17 pop , two of them settled and one just captured from the barbs: SIP, north on the isthmus with rice and 2 fish, and east with clams, 4 sugar, and horses. I'm about to capture another barb city to the west with gems, marble, cows, and iron.

Techwise I'm making 68 bpt @60% and have the 3rd column plus Writing, IW, Alpha, Math, Calendar, Construction, and Currency. Next turn I ought to be able to trade Currency for CoL, Lit, MC, and Monarchy and clean out the AIs. I've met all of them but haven't been very good about getting trade routes going, not that it's a problem yet with only 3 cities to my name. Open borders with everyone, even the naughty one.

The stone was, of course, irresistible so I got the Great Wall 2320 BC and Pyramids 1720. Sal got the Oracle 1480 and Hattie just got the Great Lib. Obviously I failed to settle the western marble site in time; the barbs beat me to it and by the time I marched my settler back east the corn/floodplains site in the south had been grabbed by Sal. That might not have been a bad thing because...

Shaka DoWed me in 725 BC. I was first to Construction a couple turns later but mostly I just built axes. I could see about 4 fair-sized stacks coming toward me and I nearly cra..., well, I was afraid. My world wonders had bumped up the capital's culture to 60%, though, and my axes defended bravely. Final tally of losses was 1 axe, 1 spear, 2 cats (me) and 8 swords, 4 axes, 9 impi, and 2 archers (him). By boldly (ok, luckily) wiping out his last 4 units I was even able to extort HBR for peace in 225 BC. Since then I've been deploying my new army against the barbs, who've settled a number of nice cities to my west and north ripe for the taking. The spat with Shaka also gave me a Great General whom I've settled, and I got a couple axes up to 10 XP to unlock the Heroic Epic. I settled the Great Engineer I got courtesy of the Wall and Pyramids GPPs and am hoping for a Great Sci fairly soon.

Apart from that one little (very) scary part this game has been easier than last month's Emperor WOTM. I thank you and your "walls" for that, Deckhand. Some AIs are glaring at each other but no fisticuffs. My short term plan is to clean out the barbs and then go after somebody. Not sure who yet, but Hattie's tech rate is making me a bit jealous--keep her alive for trades or knock her down to size? Decisions, decisions...

 

[nocho]

Stone and masonry were a blessing so far. Got GW, SH and mids in the capital and by 1AD also landed GLib and the National Epic there. Both great people I popped were priests, which I settled. Obviously would have preferred a GS somewhere, but with representation, an attempted rex and wonders to build, the gold, hammers and beakers of them weren't too bad either.

Got 8 cities at 1AD for 37 pop, 4 barb cities are in sight to be captured, 2 of them likely by flipping them. Tech is up to literature, currency, construction, calendar, monarchy and metal casting. The odd one out is CoL, but is now highest on the priority list with my expanding empire, immediately followed by CS.

With the central thrid of the map basically for the taking, it should be easy to peacefully expand to some 12-14 reasonable to decent cities (if you're not DoWd like xcalibrator ), not least thanks to the great wall, which makes barbs on this otherwise barb infested map an afterthought. So far it feels easier than what could be expected from fearsome warlords immortal thanks to this. But surely later we'll run into trouble anyway. At this point I was not sure what VC to play for, but probably anything between domination, diplo or space.

 

[Minou]

So far, it has been a very peaceful game thanks to the protective mountain wall - this has definitely made the game easier than expected.

Settled in place and really happy to see the oasis in the BFC as the fog lifted. Opening build was a Worker, a pause to grow to 3 (using the Pig), a second Worker, 2 Warriors, and a Settler. Researched AH, Wheel, BW, and then headed for Priesthood. After seeing the Marble I decided to go for several wonders since expanding too fast would just crash my economy at this level.

My Scout discovered the mountain wall and then managed to contact Saladin (3240BC), Hatty (3120BC) and Alex (3080BC) before being eaten. Second city was founded near the Gems, Cows, Marble, Sugar, and Incense (lots more resources than I expected on this map type). It was delayed until 2800BC because the Warrior fog-busting on a forest hill near the site was killed by a Barbarian Warrior and a second escort had to be sent out.

Great Wall built in 2160BC, which was a bit of a nail biter as my capital only had no one inside and there was a Barb city five tiles to the East (could have whipped an emergency Axman, but it would have hurt). I needed to pop the borders of the second city to get Marble and figured why not just build Stonehenge (1720BC), which costs very little less than a single Monument with Stone+Industrious. Got Pyramids in 1280BC and Oracle (for COL) in 1240BC.

Founded a third city three tiles north of the second city (sharing the Marble) and then started capturing barbarian cities as a cheaper alternative to Settlers. They were fortunately built on decent plots, and I had three of them captured with two more soon to fall by 1AD.

All of the AIs are at positive relations from tech trades except Shaka, who is angry over a trade that occurred with his worst enemy before I even met him. Luckily, I have not even found his borders yet so he must be far away. No one shares my religion, so I have stayed away from switching to Confucianism. The AIs have such a high tech rate that I have been able to get tons of techs for COL and Currency, and have also been able to harvest hundreds in gold from tech sales. Actually switched to US to burn some stored gold on granaries and lighthouses in new cities. Still have no trade routes, as it is taking forever to build the long roads to the nearest AIs.

1AD stats: 6 Cities (28 Pop), 7 Workers, 3 Swords, 5 Axes, 1 Warrior, 2 Chariots, 1 Missionary, 5 Granaries, 3 Libraries, 3 Barracks, 5 Wonders (Great Wall, Stonehenge, Oracle, Pyramids, Kong Miao, Great Library in 2 turns), 67bpt (most cities are emphasizing hammers), 24 techs, 5 strategic / 5 health / 5 luxury resources (about to hook up first Fish, Banana, and Ivory). 84F/46P/14C, 8GPP per turn (1 GP used for the shrine).

 

[Conquistador 63]

Everyone submitting this game earns the hats off award.

I'll try my best to submit this gem of a game. Beautifully crafted and very generous land and resource-wise, giving us a fighting chance on the nightmarish warlords IMM AI.

SIP, got early GW and Mids, and also GLib in the late BC's. Have been lucky to remain in peace so far. I have 8 cities, 35 pop, 5 workers and no army to speak of. Need to address the lack of workers ASAP, and also an army to go get some barb cities. WK already got the southern barb city next to bananas/flood plains. Priorities, priorities...

With the overexpansion research is coming almost exclusively from rep specialists. Settled my only GP (a GE). However, due to liberal tech trading, I'm on parity with the peaceful guys and leading over the warmongers. Working my way towards CS now, but still lack Construction and MC. Planning to go for Dreaming of a space race victory this time.

 

[FiveRings]

Failed on GW and SH, probably due to a long march NE. Got the Mids. 6 cities but dead last in everything that matters, notably, far behind in research. The only hope is to get TGLIB somehow, but this seems to be daydreaming. Will fight to the bitter end - there are some horses around - but everyone will keep his hat on, I guess.

Very well designed game (feels like the SU indeed!, but with quite some food around), thanks!

Summary: 6 cities, Mids, 4 grans, 2 monuments, 3 libs, 3 workers, 3 warriors, 10 axes. 2 turns from Alpha, Math is my top tech.

 

[Falabello]

The beginning and cities:
#1- Moscow 1W (3960 BC) – 1 pig, 1 stone
#2- St. Petersburg 3W (1840 BC) – 1 cow, 1 incense, marble / stone shared
#3- Novgorod 6W (1360 BC) – 1 sugar, 1 gems, 1 horse, cow / marble shared
#4- Rostov NW (325 BC) – 1 cow, horse / corn / marble shared
#5- Yaroslav’l NW (300 BC) – 1 fish, corn / copper shared

The game:
- Lost my Scout to a bear before knowing the surroundings (hills/75%)
- I can see just a part of the wall of mountains, but it seems to me a gift from Deckhand , and it promisses!
- The Great Wall (2200 BC) – this WW saved my skin and my Empire . Soon after I built it, barbarians came. I’d have lost much time preparing units to defend the cities…
- Pyramids (825 BC), The Parthenon (400 BC), The Hanging Gardens (100 BC)
- 1 Great Engineer: Metal Casting to build my forges and trades

1000 BC Stats: 3 cities, 10 pop, 1 workers, 5 Warriors, 1 strategic resources, 1 luxury resources, 2 health resources, 0 great persons, 1 World Wonders (TGW), 0 National Wonders, food / production / commerce = 29 / 20 / 17, 24 bpt at 100%, 16 bpt breakeven at 70% (0gpt), 17 gold, 6 culture per turn, 1 great person points per turn, 1 granary, 1 barrack, 0 religions, 0/0 cottages used, 8 Techs: Writ, AH, Mas, Alpha (7 turns), 0 civs killed, 0:39 hours played, Score: #3 (3 Empires) – 212 / 36,702.

1AD Stats: 5 cities, 26 pop, 5 workers, 5 units (1 Archer, 4 Warriors), 3 strategic resources, 1 luxury resources, 4 health resources, 1 great persons, 4 World Wonders (TGW, Pyra, Parthenon, HG), 0 National Wonders, food / production / commerce = 62 / 45 / 14, 53 bpt at 100%, 19 bpt breakeven at 30% (+1 gpt), 1 gold, 32 culture per turn, 14 great person points per turn, 4 granaries, 2 libraries, 1 barracks, 2 aqueducts, 1 forge, 0 religion, 0/0 cottages used, 24 Techs: Sail, Literature, Calendar, Monarchy, Metal Casting, IW, Construction (14 turns), 0 civs killed, 1:38 hours played, Score: #6 (6 Empires) – 540 / 54,776.

This is my plan to next steps . In this game I abused the tech trading for the first time, but I don’t know exactly how to deal with it - besides, I guess I had a good beginning. Domination or Conquest is something very hard at this level. I’ll try a pacific win … (even knowing that Warlords is impossible to finish pacifically )

 

[Sleepless]

Bit late starting this one so glad for the extra time..

Settled in place after moving the scout. Managed a few early wonders SH, GW and used an engineer GP for the Mids. GLib and NE built by the 2 fish/rice site as a planned GP farm.

Great Wall was very handy as we had a lot of open spaces and alot of barbs. Also our own Great Wall keeping the AI out.

Missed out on the Oracle went circa 1560BC.

Not sure on my 1AD stats but had a few cities aiming to get most of the barb cities as well. Pretty certain I didn't have any trade routes though..