epic 3 - cultural ...w/o wonders

[mihau]

Almost without
...and almost without victory too.

Part 1
How to choke with France

I have a personal prohibition against exploiting the AI in the opening turns for workers. The AI has an achilles heel in the opening, before it gets metals or horses connected, (...) Beating on it when it is incapable of effectively defending itself feels like beating on a cripple, at least for me, and I get no joy from doing it, even though it takes a lot of know-how to get the most out of it.

When I read THIS in Sirian's report I almost felt ashamed I did what I did.
I not only stalked the AI REALLY early, stole his worker, but also used it against the AI...!


I'll explain as a warmup to the report:
I stumbled upon Paris early, by early I mean in 3100BC !! And it was Luis only city.
On the pic beneath U can see a situation when I already made a move:
move 1. I attacked a worker while he worked the dye tile.
move 2. My just-captured worker had a normal (fresh) move so ...I moved him to the hill tile - without any protection!
lets call the move Devoted Worker ™
(...in Polish the word "to devote" means also "to sacrifice")
move 3. Louis has sent one of his 2 archers OUT OF THE CITY - just what I wanted him to do.

I expected to lure one of the 2 french archers out of the city and I did what I did NOT expect was that Luis wouldl stupidly move the worker to the tile I wanted to take (back to the city) what he did in move 4.



at this point I moved 1 tile N, taking the worker back and placing myself for the attack - I wanted to attack Paris defended by 1 archer only.



With Quechua (I can't spell the name...) +100% vs. archers I had about 50/50 chance. Good enough if I can take down 1 AI with a starting unit
I expected Luis to attack me from the hills but insted he mowed to dye tile ... ...I could use some exp to my Quesomething.

To my surprise AI got a 2nd archer unit in Paris
Frontal attack was now out of the question since I can't expect my Qsomething to be full power after the first attack and with this second arch on my back I would got
I have made a second Devoted Worker ™ attempt




but AI resisted
...so I have made the worker more tempting - moved myself further away - like before when he attacked
at the same time I moved the worker to the tile without a road so AI would need 2 turns to get back



still in vain
I called for reinforcements (2xQ)
Taking attacks from Paris improved my Qsth.s units so I took Paris (2 defending archers) when 2 had 2 levels of city attack:



I can say I was lucky, but as U can see those Qs were quite experinced - Luis was throwing loads of archers agains them
In fact 1 Q unit I lost at this point was the only unit I lost entire game .

BTW: all above was a strategic misteake but this is in fact most interesting part of my report.
I should have let France grow and take those cities just before 1 AD.
Not razing Paris was a misteake too since the distance gave a -10$ maintanace which was a killer in the early game.

I don't know if Devoted Worker ™ move was exploited by anyone but for me it was a This Epic Discovery.


Quick summary before Full report:

Cultural victory - 2042
5AD population - 584k
1502AD population - 5954k
Modern era 1868
Biggest city: GREAT BABYLON 35

[mihau]

Preagame:

Conditions:

Civilization: Inca ----> Spiritual, Aggressive

World Size: Large
Opponents: Egypt, France, America ----> not crowdy, not many religion founders...

Map Script: Archipelago
Landmass Type: Snaky Continents
Sea Level: High -------------------> probably 1-2 continents, long ones

Climate: Tropical -----> jungles to be cut,

Rules: No Barbarians ----> no point in escorting settlers, 1st warrior: scouting




Largest Population in 1AD
Largest Population in 1502AD:
Largest Fully-Fed City at game's end:
Fastest Your Civ Reaches Modern Age:


Comparing variang goals to possible victorytypes (conquest, diplomatic, cultural) I can see a pattern.

1. Going for biggest city U need to be sure it won't get attacked (like my 25+ cities in epic 2) so U can't war at the games end ---> conquest is out

2. The best way to get population early is to spam settlers and/or conquer cities - this can complicate Diplomacy, but having big population can push U through 40% or even 60% limit --> diplomatic is an option


3. Cultural is the safest and it can help with GPPs for G. merchant. But building wonders and settlers at the same time is a misunderstanding...
Religion is the option and starting with Mysticsm can help. Cultural is definately the option to consider and effort is needed right from the beginnig.

4. Time - if above fails...



Desired gamestyle.

4000BC - 0 Spawn many cities. Build farms. Capture cities (Being aggressive helps. Quesomething helps in early war)

0 - 1500AD Capture more cities. Build more cottages than farms. Build libraries.

1500AD - ... Stop going for population. Invest in cities with growth potential, beeline techs for modern age


BTW: Somebody will probably finish before 1500AD so don't make modernage a prio.


Since there are not many AIs to find religions I will try to take them as it is culture w/o wonders.

[mihau]

With the religious goal I start with moving Q. on the hills and ...seeing nothing interesting. With the settler I took the same spot as Blake and settlet 1 tile W from the starting position. Now I think it was a misteake, but then I wanted to have +1 commerce from the river for religious research.

soon:
Buddism on deck
3 villages gave map, 62 gold and mining

3280 - Louis met via warrior
3160 - worker built
3190 - Hindu FIDL ---> first strategic failure, 8 turns to build farm :o ?

3100 - found Paris - look the first post to see detials of warfare I violated a desired path - Luis has to little cities to provide me with extra population

2710 - got a warrior from the village. My first warrior guards Louis and healing.
2530 - My 2nd Q stumbled on a french "scout" I will take the hoot right from his nose



2200 - In honour of the game sponsor I have named a city after Him.

This is the closest spot I ever settled but I want new units fast
1960 - Judaism in Sirianum
1300 - Stonehenge BIFAL
475 - Oracle BIFAL. Louis down. I captured a 2nd worker from French.
385 - Pyramids BIFAL
265 - Confucianism in Paris. I am on the edge od bancrupcy - conquering Paris makes =8 upkeep cost, as you can see I have made cottage on the wheat (I don't want Paris to grow... :/ ), all the cities run commerce now, Taking Paris seems a shot in the foot ...

5AD - 584k pop

35 - Great Lighthouse BIFAL
290 - Christ FIDL - 11 turns before I did
350 - Tao FIDL
1154 - My first wonder: Chicken. (pretty useless)
1166 - Grat Lib. BIFAL
1424 - Hanging gardens in Paris Just what I needed before 1500AD.

I have great financial problems. AIs overtake me in research, wonders, army ...everything. I am running 0% science for some time. Pretty depressing. I stop growing because I can't afford maintanance. Paris is one of the reasons. Number of cottages is another.

1502AD - 5954k pop

1571 - Frank has beaten me to liberalism :mag: 12 turns
1655 - Founded GREAT BABYLON - city to be the biggest.
1849 - lost by 11 turns to Statue of Liberty :mad:



This is a cutie: a HUT, and with a tech!! in XIX century...

1868AD - Modern era

1887 - Eiffel Tower BIFAL, 15 turns before me
1889 - I decided not to take the risk and payed for finishing R'n'R
1939 - someone bilt UN, I abstain (and I will till the games end - U won't get my vote)
1944 - Satelites - not much territory left - I better start building units ...
1945 - I can forget about reaching Internet before Frank, I have 30+7 turns to do it and Frank will have it in Washington in 26 :/
2000 - I have SDI.
2030 - Washington (Frank) has achieved legendary culture. BTW Frank is makin Future tech 8...
2042 - this is the Year of Legendary cities: first was the Thebes (Hatty), but 2 following were mine


LEGENDARY CITIES with 3 wonders only :
1. CUZCO ---no wonders
2. PARIS --- Hanging Gardens, RnR
3. SIRIANUM --- Chicken



Phew, the biggest city of size 35, was established in 1655AD. It used EVERY turn to grow to its size . PERFECT TIMING The city has potential for 36 byt it wolud need a bit more luck with G. merchants to keep it without starvation.



Here U can see the city a turn before growth nearly struck down by dreaded

GLOBALWARMING.
U can also see the spot + not the best one as I could see in other people reports.

When I was making a pregame analysis I remember stating about trying to establish more than 1 city for growth - rules do not say that the Player can score for 1 city only! ...but I FORGOT during the game :lame: :lame: :lame: .

*what if I end up my game in anarchy state?? no starving citizens...!

Only cultural victory was possible for me, I was too weak to conquer, not popular enough for diplomaic and last in points for time... It was close not to win at all.



I could be squeezed all the time, I stopped settling new cities after 1500 to leave ground for AIs not to trigger agression.