Adventure 2 - killara

[killara]

The Deep Frozen Aztecs (a loss, but not a death ;-))

Adventure 2 reports before Adventure 1 ? Confusing. *nods*.

Pre-game thoughts, as this is where all the differences in games will probably originate. Tent City has already been founded, on a lake but not on the ocean – I didn’t realise this until way too late. :-( So using water tiles is probably a good strategy whilst the place will be swarming with barbarians.

As this WILL be a horrible game – at a difficulty never played before – and with one of Aztec’s starting technologies being Hunting then Archers are the way to go and only later will Spearmen be used.

The problem is Mysticism – is there ANY chance of snagging an early religion ??

OK – let’s start what’ll probably be a short game. But it’ll be a War game played by a builder. *grins* [Edit: I should have stuck to that plan! I am way too passive. *sighs*]

4000BC – Change first build to Barracks (due 10) Research to archery (due 8 ). The Defense Gambit ™. With that mountain guarding one approach, we only need to defend Westward, but it also limits our exploration. So less need to build Scouts – more for early defense.

3290BC – Pop 1st hut – get a scout !! – Barracks definitely the correct choice! ;-)



We’re at the TOP of the World – with a single access only – very defensible & explains the blackness above us. *laughs*. Revise plan for Science – need sailing now. *nods*

3760BC – Pop 2nd hut – get another scout !! Gold would have been nicer. Least I get to explore early. :-)



3680BC – Learn archery – notice no Religion has gone – wonder who my rivals are this late into the game. Forgot – Dumb. Greek, English, Malinese, Arabian, Roman, all size 2 except Rome – must be a horror site. Good. :-) Oh – I’m size 1 also & not even on the board. :-( Try for Hinduism anyway.

3600BC – Pop 2 more huts. :-) Mining and a Map. Nice. (The Mining makes up for trying to learn Polytheism).

3480BC – Meet Roman Caesar – 1 set of scouts dodge a bear, another land by some wolves, but win.

3200BC – Found Hinduism! *dances* Build Archer – start on another. Research Bronze. Defensive Gambit – remember? ;-)

2960BC – 2nd Archer … Worker – I need a worker … all else can wait. Rome has some beautiful Southern lands too. *envy*

2800BC – Meet the Malinese – and I’m now in way behind 3rd place. Was to be expected. Will I be able to dig my way out of last place ??

2720BC – Rome has a 2nd CITY ?????? Crap.

2600BC – Bronze Working – revolt to Slavery – 0 turns Anarchy – Ohhh yeah – Nice. Go for Meditation. *laughs* No Bronze nearby at all. Horrible. Archers it will have to be.

2200BC – Meditation – Oh – It must have already been discovered. :-( Roads next. Help move the Settler out when it finally gets built. Ha ha ha.

1840BC – Only one Scout left of my 3 originals. Barbarian cities have appeared. Get Wheels. Iron Working is needed. Swords & Jags please. :-) Meet the English Victoria who’s almost double my score and way in front of everyone else. Already!

1760BC – Barbarian city – Hmmmmm ….. maybe I should use their cities instead of building Settlers ??? They always do seem to place them nicely. ;-) New Plan. Swords – Oh … I’ll need Iron first. Oooops. LOL. *waits* Only 23 more turns! Yuk. So slow.

1720BC – WHAT ??? Rome has 3 cities ????? *Sighs*

1760BC – Barbarian city needs to be neutralized – archer will distract on forest hill (as arrowed). ;-)



1560BC – Meet China. Now way way behind in 5th place.

1480BC – Stonehenge – whilst I was waiting for Iron Working. Well – I’ve a religion and Great Prophets could be fun. Archer next. Barbarians in distant parts are guarding huts. Can’t do anything with a Scout. :-P



1200BC – All my Scouts are now dead. A Sad day indeed as I won’t be exploring the world anymore. Until I conquer it. *hee hee* [Edit: yeah – ha ha indeed]

1080BC – Open borders deal with England, then others. Build Monastery, start on Settler, who’ll arrive two turns after Ironworking, so deciding where I build.

875BC. Iron Working arrives. Ohhh CRAP!!!!. The barbarian city has it. *Swears violently* Before I panic and think about resigning … I wonder what the Jaguar can do … can I use the Copper way away south and build down there? What’s that?? Jaguars don’t need Iron to Build ?? Really??? Cool. Ahhh … that’s OK then. Time for WAR.

825BC – City 2 – built to take advantage of the lake – but I haven’t been doing that have I ?? Hmmmm – too many choices. :-(

700BC – learn Masonry, Fishing next. After that Sailing. And Animal Husbandry as I build up Jaguars to attack that Barbarian city.

225BC – These Jaguars are draining the treasury. Balance in all things I see. Hmmmmm. Down to 60% research now as I popped no gold earlier. :-\

75BC – Great Prophet, build Hindu Shrine. Research now breaking even at 70% - Well – I do only have 2 cities. Maybe I should spread a religion ?? :-)

50AD – Notice the barbarian city with 4 Archers is now WALLED & at 50% Defense. I’ve surrounded it with 5 Jaguars and 3 Archers. Order the Attack!!! I capture it. but lose 4 Jags in the process. *Phew* Oh, but research can go back up with less troops to support. *laughs*



150AD – Build 3rd City (so it’s my 4th) for the Silver Resource.

450AD – First Hindu Missionary arrives in Rome. We both convert to Hinduism. China was already there. Friends I now have. Big powerful friends. :-)

500AD – Finally Meet Greek Alexander. He is so far ahead of everyone it’s not funny. Hmmmm … Game plan now to survive to watch someone Launch the Spaceship ?? *laughs*

660AD – Half a Million Souls

860AD – City 5 built – ensuring no border conflict with Rome. :-)

1120AD – Realise I’m now so far behind in Technology, even with tech trading, that it’s only a matter of time before advanced troops wipe me out. No idea what else to do. Hmmmmm. It will be interesting to see what everyone else did. *nods*



1140AD – 1 million Souls & then found a fishing village just south of the Capital.

1400AD – Captured an Eastern barbarian city with Jaguars – no losses. :-)

Unfortunately there was a glitch with the ‘print screen’ function and no more piks are available, but it’s all downhill from here anyway. :-(

1450AD – Build another Eastern town, pop a hut guarded by Archer & get Compass. Saladin’s obviously used a Great Artist on a captured barbarian town in the East taking most of the available remaining land. *sighs*

1510AD – 2 million souls – still way last in the rankings.

1806AD – Complete the Colossus. *smiles*

1814AD – learnt Gunpowder … clicked on the tech for the UN – it’s 10 techs away – I think the UN is my only way to win … I’ve two friends China & Rome – who are No. 2 & 3 in the world – my opponent England will be No. 1. It is do-able. *hopefully* Even if I am currently 7 techs behind the other civs. *LOL*

I need – in order:
Calendar (1)
Optics (3 )
Astronomy (11)
Paper (3 )
Printing Press (9)
Scientific Method (14)
Physics (24)
Electricity (29)
Radio (39)
Mass Media (23 )

Time to seriously trade, starting with the lowest in score (why give advantage to those already ahead?):

Saladin: Can’t trade
Alex: Paper/Calendar/Optics/220g = Military Tradition
Mansa Musa: Won’t trade tech even though they look available
My Friend Julius Caesar: Coal + 8g/turn = Silver – Won’t trade tech
My Friend Mao: 3g/turn = Marble – Won’t trade tech
Victoria: 14g/turn = Deer – Can’t trade tech

Now I can research at 100% & a 12g/turn surplus. Nice trading. Hinduism is the widest spread of the religions at 35%.

Now the tech need is:
Astronomy (11)
Printing Press (9)
Scientific Method (14)
Physics (24)
Electricity (29)
Radio (39)
Mass Media (21)

Back to the game.

1834AD – After Learning Astronomy Alex swaps Printing Press + 500g for it. I slide into 2nd last place for the first time ever – above Saladin. *grin* But more work to be done as we’re both way way behind. *nods* Visit the others but none need Astron – Hmmm … Alex has either already traded it around or they knew it ??

1856AD – Scientific Method – trading time again. Nothing doing – AND they all seem to have Physics. Yuk. Plod on I shall.

1864AD – Find out why Saladin is doing so badly, Alex is wiping him out with VERY advanced troops. And Mao completes Broadway. :-( Well – I might vote Mao in and claim a Hindu block win. Ha ha ha … Yuk.

1878AD – As I slip back to last place again Caesar offers Physics (with 6 turns to learn) as I’m so backwards. I accept. But Mao ends his gold for my Furs and I go into negative gold per turn at 100% – not critical yet, but it will need to be watched. The lack of cottages in this game has definitely hurt me.

1908AD – Mao builds Eiffel Tower … he’s obviously one step closer to the UN.

1912AD – Electricity. 25 turns to Radio. So I’m 25 turns plus the time it took Mao to build Eiffel behind. *laughs* but thankfully I’ve had a peaceful game … good neighbours make good walls. ;-)

1918AD – Victoria (score leader) completes Apollo Program.

1920AD – Munsa builds a SS Casing. *Oh* Whilst Saladin gets swarmed over by Tanks and Gunships. Thank goodness it’s not me. I’d last only a few turns!!! *gulp*

1937AD – Radio, Mass Media in 13 turns … knowing Hollywood was completed last turn. So the UN is due any moment now, but only England has it. Will they build the UN ??? That’s the deciding question. Saladin is destroyed and his land shared between Alex and Mao. I will no longer come last in this game. *cheers* Then a Great merchant appears from the Colossus. Send him off on a trip.

1947AD – With mass media due in 2 the UN election for Sec General appears. Victoria or Caesar – Hmmmm not Mao who’s points leader. Caesar, my Hindu brother it is. Ahhh – then the UN announcement appears – built by Victoria. *laughs* All the while SS Thrusters are being built by everyone. & Caesar ROMPS it in for UN leader. *lol*

1952AD – 1st UN resolution – Free Religion – vote No. I like being able to spy on the AI. ;-) It just succeeds – 3 civs vote yes, 3 no. I wonder if that was done to get a better UN vote for a win???? (by taking away negative religion influences ??) *ponders* [Edit: I don’t think it was by what happens next – shame]

1956AD – 2nd UN resolution – unanimous vote for Emancipation, probably as I was the only one who didn’t have it – Errr… were my people sad?? I didn’t notice. *shakes head* Looks like it’ll be a Space Ship loss ?? :-P

1960AD – Nukes banned.

1964AD – Caesar voted in again.

1968AD – Open markets passed.

1972AD – Universal Suffrage fails. I voted No.

1976AD – Universal Suffrage fails. I voted Yes. Please put me out of my misery.

1979AD – Space Race Loss to Mao. Finally! *grins* 5hrs 16mins, Score 2680, Game Score 1916.



Yes – not aggressive at all, but when was the right time ?? Should I have headed straight for Iron Working and swarmed my opponents ???? Not enough cottages, but where could they have been built ??? However, great use of religion for both income and to make some good friends. Not great use of the lakes and other water tiles. I didn’t trade well enough, nor try to get other civs to fight amongst themselves. At this difficulty it looks like you need to stir every single ingredient into the pot to get success.

Hope you all had better cooking than I.

[VoiceOfUnreason]

FIVE hours? Wow

[Sirian]

Looking at that barbarian city that popped up at the iron site in the west -- and seeing a barb city in that location in game after game -- makes me realize that I would have had that city, too, except I suppressed its appearance by having sentries all the way out there fairly early, and then settling that site for my second city.

Epic One also had some interesting twists for those who suppressed (with sentries) the locations where barb cities liked to appear for many players.


Congrats on survival. No mean feat in this contest, with such a tough row to hoe.


- Sirian

[Sullla]

Interesting call on the barracks build and Archery research out of the gate. It was a tough game, but you may have overestimated things just a wee bit there. You don't have to deal with enormous barb hordes overrunning your civ right from the start of the game, even on Monarch (at least not anymore, it was a different story in one build of the game...)

Wow, two scouts from huts early on. That's a nice break. Then to get Mining too was excellent. At least you had some good hut luck!

That barb city of Liguria popped up real early. 1760BC? That must have been one of the first barb cities on the map. Tough break, since several players were able to settle that spot before it turned into a barb city.

Like Sirian, you didn't found a second city until extremely late. However, not everyone can get away with being as unorthodox/insane as Sirian.

Delaying Fishing until 500BC or so probably wasn't the best. It's the cheapest tech in the game (along with Hunting) and Tenochtitlan really could get use out of those lake tiles. Something to keep in mind for the future, anyway.

Given that the barb city had walls and 4 archers, you were pretty lucky to take it even WITH losing 4 Jags. I've seen much larger forces throw themselves at those kind of defenses and have nothing to show for it. Still, a bold gamble that paid off. Now researching Horseback Riding when you had no horses... that may have been a little weedy.

What did everyone else do? Well, a lot of people struggled too, as this was a very hard game. What I did was to take to the lake early, build the Colossus, and ride a maritime civ to commercial dominance. Tech trading is also simply enormous on this map, I got a ton out of it and some others did even better. Finally, you could have done more with your religion too; I managed to make two allies with my religion, and that shielded me from the aggression that otherwise WOULD have killed me. And there were other paths to victory too, some people did other things too that were equally or even more effective.

An 1806AD Colossus is extremely amusing though. Got that in 450AD in my game, Kylearan had it in 50AD in his game!

Mao launched the same turn in your game that I did in mine. Looking at your last minimap, you actually did a very good job of grabbing the spots in the east. If you had been able to get into the tech trading loop instead of getting locked out of it, there might have been a serious chance to win the game. Take a look at what Sirian did in his game to see what I'm talking about in terms of tech trading.

Thanks for reporting, I hope you enjoyed the game.

[killara]

Yes - knowing what's important and actually acting on it, well - two different things, but so critical, and what I failed to act upon in this game. Huge learning curve - and then remembering what I've told myself to do.

Thanks all for the write-ups, now if I can just remember the things I've learnt when I'm actually playing!! *laughs*