Epic 13 â Potluck BtS
This was the first game ever for me in BtS and actually I just got a copy the same day I started the Epic. So I signed up for the event before even having the gameâ¦and frankly it probably was the main reason to buy the expansion in the first place.
My save file was named Portugal, so it was Joao II for me then. He is Expansive and Imperialistic, starts with mining and fishing, has a UU called the Carrack (Caravel) and a UB called the Feitoria (Customs house).
To be honest, this would not have been my top pick, but now I just had to make the most of it. The Carrack is in my opinion a very powerful UU on some maps, but on others, e.g. Pangaea totally useless. It has an additional cargo space and can also carry military units, so it is a small scale galleon in that sense. The Feitoria has equal problems. On some maps it is very useful as you get an additional commerce for every water tile. So letâs hope for a suitable map for the Portuguese.
My goal in this game will be just to win. Try some new things when they come along and have some fun. Thought about going for the Apostolic victory, but I think I will save that for a private game.
Game on!
The starting position is not too bad silk, corn and clams as bonuses and being costal with a fresh water lake it seems to suite the Portuguese just fine. I suppose the additional warrior is not standard for BtS, so thanks to Sullla for that. This means scouting will be more efficient.
I start with agriculture and a worker for the corn and a couple of turns later both my warriors pop a hut and both get a scout. Wow! On the other hand it seems like we are at the end of a peninsula and its really time to get those scouts out before they get blocked by cultural borders.
I kept on scouting and popped a huge number of huts. Got a map, a warrior, some gold, hunting and a couple of hostile villages. Hammurabi was the first neighbour to be found and he was quite close by. Axe rush I immediately think, but then I remember the rule about not declaring war before 1000 BC.
Next I went for BW because I wanted to build the Stonehenge and I had a lot of forest to chop. Stonehenge for the obelisks as they get obsolete very late in the game. And as it happens we have copper in the BFC of Lisbon. This is probably the fourth RB event in a row with copper close to the capital!
Stonehenge completes 1900 BC and then I two cities are founded in the direction of Hammurabi. By 1000 BC I have scouted most of the continent and met all seven opponents. The continent is quite big and sneaky. There might be some other continents on this map! I make a note to beeline to optics as soon as possible, to get some use of the Carracks.
I had put together a small stack of five Axes and declared on Hammmurabi in 1000 BC. My warrior had been checking out the development in Babylon and he only had two Bowmen and and warrior in the city. Well, little did I know that Bowmen are the Babylonian UU and get some extra strength against melee units. This was a make it or brake it situation and a decided to gamble anyway. My first two Axes died but then the next ones won their battles. The last Axe just had to remove the warrior and Babylon was mine. In his other two cities Hammurabi only had one warrior each, so they were pretty easy to capture. In 775 BC the Babylonian civilization was gone.
After this my economy went really down the drain, and my research rate was set to 0% with a surplus of two gold. I disbanded a couple of warriors, but my rivals were out teching me at a furious pace. My research was set for currency and it would only take 567 turns to get there. I noticed that the pyramids were still not built and as I had stone connected I started building them. In 395 BC Zara Yaqob completes the pyramids and I got 448 gold and was able to deficit research currency and start markets in every city.
After this I got my first prophet from the Stonehenge and light bulbed theocracy and Christianity was founded in my newly acquired barb city Hsung-Nu. I started trading my new technologies and soon got to par with all the other AIs, except for the Dutch Willem van Oranje. His empire was very small, but somehow he was the tech leader for most of the game. I wonder how this was possible with just four cities!? Sure he had a loot off flood plains and a financial trait, but still.
In 260AD Suryavarman II all of a sudden declares on me. His first few units were easy to fend of, but then he started to assemble a lot of units outside the city of Dur-Kuligalzu. They were all coming in small stacks and just became a huge stack on a forested hill outside the city. I was producing defenders in every city and sent them for defence to Dur-Kuligalzu. In vanilla the AI would just have attacked with the smaller stacks or tried to pillage, but here it felt more like Suryavarman was going to play safe and attack first when he felt he could take the city. Fortunately I was able to sign peace before the massive attack ever began.
Things went pretty smoothly for a couple of hundred of years and in 900AD I had built my first Carrack. And so I went exploring the seven seas. Got the circum navigation bonus of course and found a decent size island just straight up north from my capital. There was a barb city there already, but I felt pretty comfortable that I could get the whole island for my self.
Spotted that the Great Library had not been build yet and thought of giving it a desperate shot. I mean it was not like I would need astronomy anytime soon, because of the availability of the carracks. Lost it though with a couple of turns left in 1130 AD.
The next turn Zara Yacob decides to get in the ring and declares. Again nothing but a couple of units to fend of and peace was declared quite soon.
I found another smaller island just north of the western part of the main continent, but decided I would not try to settle that one, because of maintenance costs. I was already bleeding at 30% science and had not invested anything in the espionage slider the whole game.
Sitting Bull founded two cities on this island and captured another two before turning it to a colony. The interesting part was that on that small island there were three barb units in both the barb cities and Sitting Bull founded his cities without any defenders. But the barbs just sat in their own cities and did not capture either one of these cities. Felt a bit strange and also a bit disappointing. I mean the AI clearly is using many innovative new things, as scouting with fishing boats and more cleaver use of units during war time, but then does not take advantage of the most obvious opportunity!?
Well, after having these four cities on the island, Sitting Bull turns it to a colony. This was a nice break for me, as Washington the new leader got the same techs that Sitting Bull had, but he also was happy to trade them with me, contrary to the annoyed Sitting Bull.
Then I got challenge by a quest. I had to build seven colosseums before anybody else. As I already had five build, this was quite easy to achieve. As a reward I got to choose if my colosseums got an extra happy face or +4 in culture. I went for the happy face. I could also had started a golden age, had I build the Statue of Zeus. Events and quests are nice add-ons in the game, but I would prefer to play without them, because of the randomness.
Then I just kept on aiming for a nice space victory. In 1869 AD Suryavarman comes and asks for protection. He wanted to become my vassal. Well I thought, why not. As I have not been playing Warlords almost at all I have little experience of these Vassal States. Well my naive attitude backfired in between turns, as Justinian comes and declares on Suryavarman. That automatically makes me declare on Suryavarman as well. And I can assure you I was no were close to being ready for this war.
Again in the beginning it was quite easy to defend the first attackers, but the second wave and finally the third wave cost me the ex Babylonian city of Akkad. In 1885 the Apostolic Palace voting decides its time to have peace and the war ends right there. Just when I was ready to counter attack and take back what rightfully was mine (or Hammurabis, but he was dead like a couple of millennia ago). I begin to think this Apostolic Palace is a bit overpower, as you can stop wars and make cities change owners and stuff like that.
I could have just kept on going for space, but I had to have my revenge. I just had to have it. In 1900AD I declared on Justinian and took back Akkad. Then I also razed a couple of his closest cities, just to give me an easier cultural battle. In 1913 we were buddies again.
I had finished the Space Elevator during the war, and was building ship parts at full steam when the UN got build. I was the score leader so I got the other spot in the elections and was elected Secretary General with a clear margin. Now in the diplomatic victory elections some of my buddies abstained, but Suryavarman and Justinian voted for me. I mean I just had declared twice on Justinian and he still thought I would be suitable for running the UN!? Well it was not enough, but I felt guilty for treating him badly earlier on.
Then finally in January 1969, on turn 588 I get the space victory! It took quite many turns for the space ship to travel to its destination, but as I had built all the parts, I was sure of victory already earlier.
Many thanks to Sullla for sponsoring and I hope there will be many reports up for reading.
This was the first game ever for me in BtS and actually I just got a copy the same day I started the Epic. So I signed up for the event before even having the gameâ¦and frankly it probably was the main reason to buy the expansion in the first place.
My save file was named Portugal, so it was Joao II for me then. He is Expansive and Imperialistic, starts with mining and fishing, has a UU called the Carrack (Caravel) and a UB called the Feitoria (Customs house).
To be honest, this would not have been my top pick, but now I just had to make the most of it. The Carrack is in my opinion a very powerful UU on some maps, but on others, e.g. Pangaea totally useless. It has an additional cargo space and can also carry military units, so it is a small scale galleon in that sense. The Feitoria has equal problems. On some maps it is very useful as you get an additional commerce for every water tile. So letâs hope for a suitable map for the Portuguese.
My goal in this game will be just to win. Try some new things when they come along and have some fun. Thought about going for the Apostolic victory, but I think I will save that for a private game.
Game on!
The starting position is not too bad silk, corn and clams as bonuses and being costal with a fresh water lake it seems to suite the Portuguese just fine. I suppose the additional warrior is not standard for BtS, so thanks to Sullla for that. This means scouting will be more efficient.
I start with agriculture and a worker for the corn and a couple of turns later both my warriors pop a hut and both get a scout. Wow! On the other hand it seems like we are at the end of a peninsula and its really time to get those scouts out before they get blocked by cultural borders.
I kept on scouting and popped a huge number of huts. Got a map, a warrior, some gold, hunting and a couple of hostile villages. Hammurabi was the first neighbour to be found and he was quite close by. Axe rush I immediately think, but then I remember the rule about not declaring war before 1000 BC.
Next I went for BW because I wanted to build the Stonehenge and I had a lot of forest to chop. Stonehenge for the obelisks as they get obsolete very late in the game. And as it happens we have copper in the BFC of Lisbon. This is probably the fourth RB event in a row with copper close to the capital!
Stonehenge completes 1900 BC and then I two cities are founded in the direction of Hammurabi. By 1000 BC I have scouted most of the continent and met all seven opponents. The continent is quite big and sneaky. There might be some other continents on this map! I make a note to beeline to optics as soon as possible, to get some use of the Carracks.
I had put together a small stack of five Axes and declared on Hammmurabi in 1000 BC. My warrior had been checking out the development in Babylon and he only had two Bowmen and and warrior in the city. Well, little did I know that Bowmen are the Babylonian UU and get some extra strength against melee units. This was a make it or brake it situation and a decided to gamble anyway. My first two Axes died but then the next ones won their battles. The last Axe just had to remove the warrior and Babylon was mine. In his other two cities Hammurabi only had one warrior each, so they were pretty easy to capture. In 775 BC the Babylonian civilization was gone.
After this my economy went really down the drain, and my research rate was set to 0% with a surplus of two gold. I disbanded a couple of warriors, but my rivals were out teching me at a furious pace. My research was set for currency and it would only take 567 turns to get there. I noticed that the pyramids were still not built and as I had stone connected I started building them. In 395 BC Zara Yaqob completes the pyramids and I got 448 gold and was able to deficit research currency and start markets in every city.
After this I got my first prophet from the Stonehenge and light bulbed theocracy and Christianity was founded in my newly acquired barb city Hsung-Nu. I started trading my new technologies and soon got to par with all the other AIs, except for the Dutch Willem van Oranje. His empire was very small, but somehow he was the tech leader for most of the game. I wonder how this was possible with just four cities!? Sure he had a loot off flood plains and a financial trait, but still.
In 260AD Suryavarman II all of a sudden declares on me. His first few units were easy to fend of, but then he started to assemble a lot of units outside the city of Dur-Kuligalzu. They were all coming in small stacks and just became a huge stack on a forested hill outside the city. I was producing defenders in every city and sent them for defence to Dur-Kuligalzu. In vanilla the AI would just have attacked with the smaller stacks or tried to pillage, but here it felt more like Suryavarman was going to play safe and attack first when he felt he could take the city. Fortunately I was able to sign peace before the massive attack ever began.
Things went pretty smoothly for a couple of hundred of years and in 900AD I had built my first Carrack. And so I went exploring the seven seas. Got the circum navigation bonus of course and found a decent size island just straight up north from my capital. There was a barb city there already, but I felt pretty comfortable that I could get the whole island for my self.
Spotted that the Great Library had not been build yet and thought of giving it a desperate shot. I mean it was not like I would need astronomy anytime soon, because of the availability of the carracks. Lost it though with a couple of turns left in 1130 AD.
The next turn Zara Yacob decides to get in the ring and declares. Again nothing but a couple of units to fend of and peace was declared quite soon.
I found another smaller island just north of the western part of the main continent, but decided I would not try to settle that one, because of maintenance costs. I was already bleeding at 30% science and had not invested anything in the espionage slider the whole game.
Sitting Bull founded two cities on this island and captured another two before turning it to a colony. The interesting part was that on that small island there were three barb units in both the barb cities and Sitting Bull founded his cities without any defenders. But the barbs just sat in their own cities and did not capture either one of these cities. Felt a bit strange and also a bit disappointing. I mean the AI clearly is using many innovative new things, as scouting with fishing boats and more cleaver use of units during war time, but then does not take advantage of the most obvious opportunity!?
Well, after having these four cities on the island, Sitting Bull turns it to a colony. This was a nice break for me, as Washington the new leader got the same techs that Sitting Bull had, but he also was happy to trade them with me, contrary to the annoyed Sitting Bull.
Then I got challenge by a quest. I had to build seven colosseums before anybody else. As I already had five build, this was quite easy to achieve. As a reward I got to choose if my colosseums got an extra happy face or +4 in culture. I went for the happy face. I could also had started a golden age, had I build the Statue of Zeus. Events and quests are nice add-ons in the game, but I would prefer to play without them, because of the randomness.
Then I just kept on aiming for a nice space victory. In 1869 AD Suryavarman comes and asks for protection. He wanted to become my vassal. Well I thought, why not. As I have not been playing Warlords almost at all I have little experience of these Vassal States. Well my naive attitude backfired in between turns, as Justinian comes and declares on Suryavarman. That automatically makes me declare on Suryavarman as well. And I can assure you I was no were close to being ready for this war.
Again in the beginning it was quite easy to defend the first attackers, but the second wave and finally the third wave cost me the ex Babylonian city of Akkad. In 1885 the Apostolic Palace voting decides its time to have peace and the war ends right there. Just when I was ready to counter attack and take back what rightfully was mine (or Hammurabis, but he was dead like a couple of millennia ago). I begin to think this Apostolic Palace is a bit overpower, as you can stop wars and make cities change owners and stuff like that.
I could have just kept on going for space, but I had to have my revenge. I just had to have it. In 1900AD I declared on Justinian and took back Akkad. Then I also razed a couple of his closest cities, just to give me an easier cultural battle. In 1913 we were buddies again.
I had finished the Space Elevator during the war, and was building ship parts at full steam when the UN got build. I was the score leader so I got the other spot in the elections and was elected Secretary General with a clear margin. Now in the diplomatic victory elections some of my buddies abstained, but Suryavarman and Justinian voted for me. I mean I just had declared twice on Justinian and he still thought I would be suitable for running the UN!? Well it was not enough, but I felt guilty for treating him badly earlier on.
Then finally in January 1969, on turn 588 I get the space victory! It took quite many turns for the space ship to travel to its destination, but as I had built all the parts, I was sure of victory already earlier.
Many thanks to Sullla for sponsoring and I hope there will be many reports up for reading.