Adv 40 - Cult of the Iron Hammer

[Olodune]

Variant Rule: After 0 AD, you must reduce your science slider to 0%. It must stay at this setting for the rest of the game.

This is a very flexible variant that should allow for a variety of playstyles. With the difficulty set to Monarch neither an espionage nor a scientist specialist game will be much of a challenge -- those are solid economies that are fully viable up through Immortal play. Since many of my recent games have had a militaristic focus I'd also like to play a builder game for a change. So here are the full constraints that I wrote up before downloading the save.

1) After 0 AD, you must reduce your science slider to 0%. It must stay
at this setting for the rest of the game.

2) You must never hire a scientist specialist. The Representation civic
is forbidden

3) You may not steal any technologies. The espionage slider must remain
at 0%.

4) No invasions. You may not attack an enemy unit or city within their
cultural boundaries.

The goal was to add enough constraints to enable an economy that I have been wanting to try: the hammer focused economy. Basically the goal is to get technology from building "research" in production cities. As for most economic-builder games the "no invasion" rule is required to prevent a pseudo-domination victory. Space is the goal.

Luckily, the leader for this scenario is well suited for a hammer economy. Augustus Caesar is industrious (for cheap forges) and imperialistic (great for claiming as much land as possible, peacefully).

A few other random thoughts I had before starting the game:

- Science buildings are largely worthless (I actually build a few libs in border cities for their culture). The hammers saved from avoiding libraries/universities/observatories/oxford can get converted to beakers.

- Clearly I must have Alphabet by 0ad, to enable hammer->beaker conversion!

- Farms, mines, and workshops are the crucial tile improvements.


Several key early technologies are Alphabet, Metal Casting (for our cheap forges -- the only economic multiplier building until Assembly Line!), Code of Laws (for caste system -> +1 workshop hammers), Civil Service (chain irrigation and bureaucracy), and Guilds (+1 workshop hammer). With these in place each grass tile can be a 1/3/0 tile; trading one food for 3.75 beakers. Compare this to a representation scientist with a library and you get the same result! Of course those scientists also provide GPPs ...

In mid-game game Assembly Line (+75% production!), Chemistry (+1 workshop hammers), Steam Power (levees), Biology (+1 food farm -> more workshops), and Railroad (+1 mine hammers) will (hopefully) give enough production->beakers to get the Romans to Alpha Centauri.

The Cult of the Iron Hammer is Founded as I settle in place. Bronze Working is researched to allow efficient settler whipping.

Seeing Stalin's border close by meant I used my first settle to push towards him:



And the second to claim a nice resource rich location to the west:



Since I knew I wanted early forges and I have an industrious leader, the oracle seemed like a good move:



Having had luck stealing a city spot from under the Russian's nose, I was also pleased to get this gold location close to Gandhi:



By the 1ad shutoff I have metal casting and alphabet, as well as a good chunk of land. So far so good:



The successful expansion continued as I managed to seal Hammurabi from the north of his peninsula. Capturing a useful barbarian city in the locale:



Many turns of empire building followed. By 1200ad I finally broke the 300 beakers/turn threshold while researching Nationalism. Since I had built the Mausoleum of Mausollos the Taj would be great to have. Especially since most of my tiles are 1/3/0, so a golden age would be a full 33% increase in production->beakers!



Rome is still my best "science city"



Amazingly, I was the first to limp to Liberalism. Ok. I had thought I would really struggle with tech until Assembly Line.



Since I had not heard much from the other continent I wasn't too surprised to find Isabella a little backwards (Justinian was doing a bit better than this sad performance )



By 1500ad I've actually managed to put a significant tech lead over everyone except Hammurabi, who was my only occasional tech trading partner:

[Olodune]

A big decision point in this game was whether to go for state property or corporations. Because of all my workshops state property could handily beat a single corporation, but a strong food corp + mining would probably come out ahead. The only problem was neither Sushi nor Cereal Mills had much of a punch. However, in the south of Isabella and Justinian there were a handful of unstettled small islands. I could potentially add 5-7 more sushi resources. So an expedition is put together (a cool side-effect of a hammer economy is that impulsive builds come together quickly).



The detour to Astronomy had a second nice benefit too



I claimed almost all of my goal islands, except this one, which I missed by a single turn:



Finally I get some multipliers This should help.



Rome is Rising



After building factories + coal plants and spreading Sid's Sushi + Mining the tech pace really picked up. Passing 2k beakers/turn:



Diplomatically the game has been really simple. Hammurabi is my Jewish Friend. Judaism is the AP religion. Isabella/Justinian/Genghis are all irrelevant. The only active diplomacy had been stopping Stalin/Gandhi wars, usually with the AP. Gandhi was the victim, but eventually vassalized Genghis and then actually declared on Stalin in the early 20th century. He'd sack St. Petersburg (and lose Bombay).



Meanwhile I build a spaceship, winning an easy victory in 1926.



Yes, my MFG curve was higher than the AI's



A fun game! After getting Assembly Line the AI didn't have a chance, especially since my whole economy could be transformed into very efficient troop generation should the need arise. While certainly not competitive with a standard game, a specialist economy, or an espionage economy, at least a hammer economy is viable -- even without warring.

[athlete4life10]

Great game. I had no idea a "hammer" economy even existed let alone be useful.

[sooooo]

Great

I was hoping someone would try this method

[T-hawk]

Luckily, the leader for this scenario is well suited for a hammer economy. Augustus Caesar is industrious (for cheap forges)

Something just clicked for me here. I've always felt that the Industrious Forge was the best half-price building in the game, and just put my finger on why.

Ind Forges are actually even cheaper than half price. A normal forge costs 120 hammers and an Ind Forge costs 60. But the forge immediately starts working on the *next* 60 hammers produced by the city, for which you actually get 75. So the Ind Forge nets out to 75 extra hammers available over a standard forge, as if it really cost only 45 base hammers, or 3/8 of the standard cost.

Organized Factories have the same effect, although slightly less because you'll already have a forge which dilutes the multiplier, and comes late enough that it doesn't much matter.

Organized Lighthouses can behave similarly too; if completing it 5 turns sooner earns 5 extra food, that food translates back to ~10 hammers via whip, as if the lighthouse cost yet 10 less hammers.

[Sullla]

Right, but by that logic, what about the food saved with the Expansive granaries? Hard to measure because of the effects of different sizes, but I'd wager it's pretty substantial in all cases. There's a reason why many (most?) people consider the cheap granaries the best half-price building.

[Dr. Nomadic]

I personally consider the industrious forge to be the best half price building, but expansive granaries are hardly behind since I build them in every city. But the industrious forge quickly translates into more production period, so...

I should really play as an industrious leader sometime. Maybe for my fifth game (already planned on Asoka for fourth, as I like the spiritual and organized traits, plus I get to play as my country!).

Finally...it is certainly weird to think about Rome and Byzantium in the same game. Not to mention the Byzantines being such religious zealots.

[Olodune]

A reason why a double speed Forges look so good is that the payback is in the same units that were used to build it: hammers. Expansive granaries can also be +hammer buildings due to the whip, but the return depends on population and cap space. Forges are also interesting in that they provide extra happy faces with those rare metals -- non-industrious forges with no rare metals are not exactly a stunning build option.