Epic 26: zeka's Game

[Sullla]

zeka asked me to post the following report, enjoy!

I’ve been lurking the MP RB games in the forum but haven’t had time enough to post comments or playing games due to college tests during December. I even started to play Adv40 , 41 and 42 but had not the time to finish them.
Now, at vacation, I had time and desire to play this challenging game on immortal with almost absence of diplomacy. We are Victoria of England and have to win by space without starting diplomacy, though we can receive diplomacy. Financial is very good for long games but imperialistic is poor. If I was Elizabeth I would’ve appreciated it.


GAMEPLAN

The map script is Big and Small, so expect many water tiles and coastal and island cities. This means 2 wonders are especially important: The Great Lighthouse and The Colossus. Of course Pyramids, Oracle, Hanging Gradens and Great Library are also important, but we are on immortal difficulty, so Oracle falls way early, Pyramids is too expensive for non-industrial leaders (I will try it if I have stone) as it is for HG (have to build the useless, at that time, aqueduct also), but TGL is possible. So the wonders I will try to land are, in order: TGLighthouse, Colossus and TGLibrary.
The early goal is to expand fast and hard, which is possible with TGL, to grab as many resources I can get. Happiness and Health are going to be a pain in this game since resources trading are forbidden (that is, I can’t ask for resources and the AI never (?) initiates diplomacy for resources). Technologically, I have to beeline Sailing after worker techs and then Monarchy. Currency and Code of Laws are also important for the economy. If possible I’ll try to found Confucianism, though I’ll not make a hard effort into this.


THE GAME

The starting screenshot looks promising: corn, cows, flood plains, many hammer tiles (important for the wonders) and clams. It’s somewhat obvious to move the settler 1N, since it grabs clams, most people will try TGLighthouse, it gets more grass river tiles and the hills south of the original city site would be useless without the necessary food. So the no brainer settler move is done and the warrior moves SW revealing spices, which is nice. London is founded on turn 1, build is set to worker and research to Bronze Working. England starts with fishing and mining, so I can research BW from the scratch. The 1st worker will chop the 2 forests north, 30 hammers will build a work boat to get clams and the other 30h will go to another worker, built at size 2, who will help to farm the corn, the flood plains and build some mines. The warrior scout finds wines, which is great since I’m going for monarchy and sheep later, but also many plains tiles, which is bad short-term. Long-term it is good since production will be important for the spaceship construction and I can get some workshops there.The warrior makes a circle in the peninsula revealing horses and clams and start to explore north.








After BW, research goes Agriculture, AH, Wheel, Pottery, Sailing. Since we have small terrain south, 3 warriors are enough to cover the fog from barbs, and they are easily built with that many hammers in the capital. The problem is to the north, but I will make a gamble and try to defend the first rounds of warriors and archers with my warriors, until I found the 3rd city getting horses. Actually we don’t have copper and I founded the 2nd city on the coast to the right sharing the corn and the farmed fp from London plus getting another fp and some nice grass river tiles. It will become a commerce city later, although it cannot grow too much until corporations.





The scouting warrior meets Saladin, founder of Hinduism, which is great I may get a religion soon. The land which separates our continent is full of jungle and hills, and have few resources: besides of other spices it has rice and fish. A nice city spot is marked for a possible city sharing the capital clams plus lots of grassland and 3 food lakes after a lighthouse is built. The jungles must be cleared though, so IW is especially needed also.
London started TGL at max size (5) around T90 receiving 3 forest chops and completed on T105, despite of being interrupted for some warrior builds needed for the barb war. York made a settler at size 4 for 3rd city near the horses. Nottingham was founded on T101 getting horses and clams… Not a very good city since it gets a desert tiles and many plains tiles but it is important for the horses. A monument is immediately chopped and the turn after the city receives a free hinduism spread, boosting the culture for 2 per turn. On the downside, the city will be stagnating for the 5 turns, when it will receive a work boat from York for the clams, since it will be working a forested plains hills until that.








London built a settler after TGL and Hastings was founded on T113 grabbing fish and wines. It will be a nice powerhouse later for spaceship building. Canterbury, another good production city was founded on T143 getting sheep, a flood plain and many plains tiles.








While that, chariots were built for the upcoming barb axes, Sitting Bull was found by an exploring work boat, and Monarchy (need HR and wines) was researched through Poly and Monotheism (for Organized Religion). IW was set next due to lack of copper and need to clear those jungles for the next cities. A barb galley in London seas pillaged the clams. Iron was found on the desert tile under Nottingham. Coventry was founded getting an important incense, fish and clams. Cathedrals will have special attention in this game, as it gives 3 happy faces (with incense). Warwick was founded near the lakes north of London after IW was researched.








The first Great Person born would be a GMerchant (79%) or GScientist (21%). Unfortunately it was a GM and it was settled in London. Uneventful turns while researching Calendar, Aesthetics, Literature and CoL until founding of Newcastle getting rice and fish (Globe Theatre city later), and losing TGLibrary for 14 turns. Oxford is founded as the final land grabbing between me and Arabia.











Again, not much happened the following turns while researching Metal Casting heading to Colossus, which I lost for 17 turns on T214. The exploring work boat to the east didn’t found coast connection to further east and it was sent home. I’ll have to research Optics to meet the others AI so. While heading to Liberalism, a couple Great Generals are born in a distant land and Sitting Bull offers the first trade of the game: Alphabet for Aesthetics and 110 gold. I declined it as I wouldn’t gain any benefit from alphabet at the cost of 110 gold. Five turns after Saladin offers a decent trade: change of construction for currency. Island cities were founded to the south getting mostly seafood resources. It turns out I’ll be heading for Sid’s Sushi and more island cities later. The food from the corporation will turn into production later as it will be possible to work all those plains.





I was the first to research Liberalism and picked Nationalism as the free tech. No surprises here, look at the most common screenshot:





An expansion of borders in Dover (the 3 fish city) founds Hammurabi, who was way better than Arabia and Native America: he was leading my score by almost 50% and had more techs than I had.





The second trade accepted was came from Saladin again offering a change of Feudalism to Civil Service. Until now, no resources were traded. Here is a screenshot form London on T262 after it built Oxford University (Oxford was not a really good commerce city to deserve its university):





Note that it hadn’t an Academy yet, which was only possible on T271 from a GS born in Coventry.
Later on, Taj Mahal was built (even I don’t know it was a good move, as it is too expensive) and the other AIs were met after I sent caravels. They were: Montezuma, Peter (vassal of Montezuma) and Louis XIV. Even world maps were traded with Hammurabi. France was at the 2nd place in score and had most of the world wonders inside Paris. Russia had a good start with gold, flood plains and ivory, founded Buddhism and landed Oracle, but Montezuma crippled Peter all the way, making him his vassal. Louis XIV and Montezuma had a good land, but Hammurabi was the AI to be beaten in this game.
After the discover of Astronomy, I sent settlers for island cities grabbing seafood resources, but forgot to sent settlers to get other important resources such as gold and silver on available areas between AIs’ territories. I did sent those settlers as soon as I realized it, but was only able to get furs on icy Saladin’s land to the north. Again, happiness and health will play an important role in this game.
The technologies I needed now were printing press, democracy, biology, medicine and corporation. The first 3 important to boost the economy growing cities and cottages. Medicine and corporation for Sid’s Sushi of course, although I delayed corporation the longer I could, since it invalidates the trade routes from The Great Lighthouse. Besides the long term plans, not much to report during this time… :zzz: I was hindu, such as my nearest neighbors, and had not problems with war, more fishing villages and filler cities were settled, some open borders and some other trades got signed, some tributes were paid, and war was the law at the other side of the world. Highlights for a crappy fishing village settled on the of the ice, although it had whales, which was very important for happiness. Civics were Universal Suffrage (for production and gold rushing buildings in fishing villages), Free Speech, Emancipation, Communism (more benefits from workshops, production and maintenance costs than the +1 trade routes from free market) and Pacifism (since most cities, mainly fishing villages, were hitting the happy cap and I had to stop growth with specialists). Communism and Physics were researched with priority to get the GPs for golden ages, mostly for civics changes.

On other interesting events, a barb city was flipped(!), gems popped in Liverpool , I built The Kremlin in London, and Saladin I signed a Defensive Pact with Saladin (his offer logically).





The defensive pact only lasted 10 turns when Hammurabi offered me to get into the war against France and I accepted it. Sid’s Sushi was founded in Newcastle, which would have Wall Street rushed by a GE later, adding 12 food and 48 culture! Wow, I have a total of 24 seafood resources. Newcastle was chosen because it had Globe Theatre, may food and cottages and hence could hire a dozen merchants. It had few production though so the first executive had to be rushed by gold. I swapped to Free Market.






Peter completed Statue of Liberty, which could have been mine but it was too expensive without copper. Hammurabi founded Mining Inc meanwhile. I had no interest in any other corporations, since there were no sufficient resources to have other corporation. The AIs made some colonies…





Now I had to think about which path to get to space victory. I could go rocketry-industrialism-plastics-composites, computers-superconductors-genetics … With the game variants implying low health, The way that made most sense to me was Refrigeration-Superconductors-Genetics. Supermarkets were appreciated as well as laboratories and 5 thrusters ready to be built since I build the Apollo Program. +3 health form genetics were important also, so went this way.
The Broadway, Rock’n’Roll and The Eiffel Tower to increase the happy cap while researching towards genetics and Rocketry later. I finally captured a barb city Yue-Chi on T407 (1794AD)! It had fish and was worth keeping with it. Canterbury, London, Hastings, Reading and Oxford were the best production cities and here is a screenshot of Canterbury, the Ironworks city.





On T421, while researching genetics, Paris achieved Legendary Culture and this made me look back again at the F8 screen to check the other cities culture points. They had about 25k culture and still had a long way down to achieve 75k, so I was relieved. The true threat really was Hammurabi, although behind me on techs was the closest one. Saladin was doing well also and managed to get some future techs first, such as Industrialism and Plastics. I had the chance to found Aluminum Co. with a GS that would be used for nothing (GA requested 5 GPs already), and since I hadn’t Industrialism at the moment and there was no certain I would have aluminum, I founded it.

Global Warming destroyed a grass town and a plains hill at London. The war with Louis XIV was resumed to some naval battles between destroyers, battleships and guided missiles (of mine).
Hammurabi completed Apollo Program on T448, but I already had built some parts of the spaceship and I was annoying him with civic and religion revolts with spies. I bulbed part of Computers and Fiber Optics with Great Scientists, shortening the victory by 2 or 3 turns. The United Nations was built by Hammurabi on T481, but he hadn’t friendly relations with anyone to win diplomatically. On T486 (1896AD), Louis XIV finally managed to land a (small) stack of artilleries and infantries, which I reduced to dust with bought modern armors.

A screenshot of the F1 screen on T457:





The 2 engines were built, since London and Canterbury had similar production and built they in 10 turns. The spaceship was launched on T493 and victory went 15 turns after, on T508 (1918AD). My slow computer thanks the end of the game! You can note I passed the 15 turns without moving units, so there are many warnings about enemy units in my land. The Score graph shows it also.








Statistics:





CONCLUSION AND THOUGHTS

It turns out that the AI only offers resource trades of the type corporation resource (they) for strategic resource (me).
I’m curious to see what were the tech paths of people for space race.
The difficulty of immortal was increased significantly with this variant. Although, the water-based script map balanced it a little bit. It was a challenging game!
I had never played with Big and Small before. I liked it, even being on the small continent.
One question: How do barbs expand their cities’ borders? I zoomed the city and did not found a monument or library or whatever…
I would like to apologize any English mistakes, since it is not my native language.
I’ll be absent of computers and Internet next 2 weeks. Here in Brazil it’s Carnival and I’ll be travelling. Comments would be much appreciated and responses will have to wait next 2 weeks.
I appreciate the effort of the sponsors for creating these enjoyable games. My thanks!

[darrelljs]

I briefly mention it in my report, but IMO the Clams are an attractive foil. Starting on the plains hill tile let me complete my Worker faster, and get the uber tile that is irrigated Corn online. If it had been Fish, I would have at least simmed out a Workboat first start...but Clam? No way . Compare your turn 36 screenshot:



With mine from around turn 40:



I'm yielding 12/11/4 to your 9/1/5. Of course, you are taking a different approach to the game by going for The Great Lighthouse, so it might still work out for you in the long run. I need to read the rest of your report to find that out .

Darrell

[darrelljs]

Overall, a very well played game !

Monarchy and Sid's were IMO the key to handling the pop cap and you leveraged both nicely. Unfortunately I don't recall my tech path for the space race so I can't make a decent compariosn. It was influenced by my Internet beeline; I'm guessing yours was superior. I certainly like the tech pumping out of your capital in 1170 A.D. A quick question...did you have a Harbor? I would have expected the trade routes to be more valuable.

You mentioned a couple of tech trade offers by the AI, which surprises me a bit. I got several tech demands (quite nice as it kept Sitting Bull and Saladin Friendly) but I don't believe I got a single tech or resource trade offer all game . On the flip side I popped Copper thrice, including two in my Ironworks city . That helped me land The Statue of Liberty and The Internet, as well as one of the spaceship parts.

Darrell

[novice]

Good game Zeka. Darrell, I got five or six tech trades and only played until 1575AD. I researched very depth-first, discovering Biology before Literature, for example. I suppose that may have helped me picking up tech trade offers.

[pocketbeetle]

Definitely a solid game

Seems like the GLH really was important on this map, wish I hadn't missed it the first playthrough.

Darrell:
Regarding the clams, I'm with zeka here in that moving 1N was a no-brainer
I completely agree that the corn is the most powerful tile, but you don't lose it by moving, pick up a bit more river (I think?) and importantly, the ability to build the GLH and Colossus.

CONCLUSION AND THOUGHTS

One question: How do barbs expand their cities’ borders? I zoomed the city and did not found a monument or library or whatever…

Zeka:
How do you know they don't have a monument there? Are you sending in a spy?
Although I admit I've never captured a barb city with a monument or library (plenty of granary/lighthouses).
Maybe it's based on reaching pop 3/4?

[darrelljs]

Actually the best move was Olodune's. He got the plains hill bonus + more river tiles + fast Corn + tGL! But Clam is such a weak tile it really isn't worth moving for, even if you start with Fishing. I think comparing our civs at turn 40ish is evidence for that .

Darrell

[novice]

Zeka:
How do you know they don't have a monument there? Are you sending in a spy?
Although I admit I've never captured a barb city with a monument or library (plenty of granary/lighthouses).
Maybe it's based on reaching pop 3/4?

Cultural buildings are always destroyed when a city is captured.

If you zoom in far enough you can see the individual buildings of a city from the main map. It requires some familiarity with their look. Some buildings are easier to discern than others, aqueducts and the Colossus are fairly distinctive, for example.

[zeka]

Hi, finally I had time and access to computer to answer and comment here.
First, much thanks to Sullla for posting this report!

Regarding the discussion of where to settle the capital, I agree Olodune's move was the best, getting all river tiles there, the hammer bonus and even landing GLH in the 2nd city. It was a risky move though for people approaching GLH. Capital as a coastal city was IMO better in long-term, as it gets all intercontinental bonus from trade routes and more food with clams, which is even more important due to lack of health later on. The coastal placement of the city gives up only riverside hills and +1 hammer bonus.

A quick question...did you have a Harbor? I would have expected the trade routes to be more valuable.
Darrell

If you see the picture again you will notice that harbor is actually being built.

Thanks for the comments!