Pre-game analysis
- difficulty: noble => this will be my third game on noble difficulty; mostly playing warlord, so I will probably learn something new in this game
- map type: shuffle => nothing to tell; obviously need to explore to see what map type has been chosen
- cold: lots of ice and tundra, less food?
- small world with 4 opponents: maybe space is limited so settle aggressively?
- Persia: UU is immortal => 50% vs archery units, ideal for early warfare and capturing cities; but need to find a âhorse resourceâ
-Cyrus: expansive and creative => very good traits for a large empire and aggressive city placement
conclusion: I decided to try for domination or conquest; Iâm a builder at heart and thus far never tried any of these victory types
Fist part:
I looked at the starting location and decided to pop the hut first which gave me a map. I saw that the initial starting location had cows, so I settled in place.
I ordered up a worker first so it could immediately start improving the land. With agriculture and hunting as starting techs, I could keep the worker busy for a while. I started research with animal husbandry the be able to put a pasture and the cows and to search for horses.
In 3840 BC I meet Montezuma, the Notorious N.U.T.C.A.S.E.
This is not good. I foresee a war! And there is lots of jungle, ideal terrain for his Jaguars.
In meantime I explore further and pop two huts which gave me gold and one another scout. This second scout got eaten by a lion after it had fought a wolf. I decided not to heal the scout and continued exploring. First lesson learnt: let your wounded units heal. Itâs a dangerous world out there!
3480 BC: Buddhism is FIDAL and itâs not Monty. Another spiritual civ on the map?
My next two techs are The Wheel and then Mining to see if there is copper nearby. Need to know where to put my second city. After the worker, I build a warrior for defense and to let Persepolis grow a bit.
3240 BC: I make my acquaintance with Tokugawa, the xenophobe. Two aggressive leaders on the same continent, coincidence, I think not.
Next tech on the menu is Bronze Working. I took many notes at the beginning of the game (production, techs and such) because I read many reports stating that the early choices make a big difference later on. So I wanted to compare these choices with those made by others.
A bit later my second scout became an appetiser to another lion. That was my last scout, but much of the continent was already explored, so no big deal.
<insert screenshot 2720 BC>
Following techs: pottery => archery => masonry
After my capital grew a bit, I decided it was time to expand with a second city. Looking at the map, I noticed that the much needed horse resource was not nearby. The only possible solution was to put a city right between Tenochtitlan and Kyoto.
<insert screenshot horses>
This would be a nice city location with cows, horses, coast,⦠But the placement was very aggressive (between our two warlike friends and a long way from the capital). I chickened out and placed my second city SE of Persepolis near the others cows and near gems. This was meant to close Tokugawa off and prevent him from settling further north. In the meantime there appeared iron near Persepolis (that was good!).
But Tokugawa still decided to settle north and founded Tokyo next to Pasargadae. For my third city I doubted between the location east of Persepolis, near the stone and wheat or the location to the west where there was copper, gold and rice. Normally, I would have opted for the second possibility but I very much wanted to seal off Japan of expanding to the north.
<insert screenshot 3 cities>
Japan also settled the location near the horse resource I spoke of before. That meant no horsies and no immortals for me.
975 BC: Persepolis build Stonehenge. Monty founded Hinduism and Judaism fell shortly after. If I wanted to found a religion, I needed a Great Prophet as I neglected that part of the tech branch. Stonehenge would help me with thatâ¦
900 BC: Japan founded Edo right under my nose directly south of Persepolis (near the rice resource and the little lake). That city had to be removed some day. It was ruining my⦠uhh⦠view!
675 BC: A barbarian city spawned at the location where I wanted to settle near the copper, gold and rice to the west. I capture the city easily with one axe vs. two warriors. Hittite is mine (didnât need to build a settler for that one!).
My cities grow fast and by 650 BC I get to see this:
<insert screenshot 500.000 people>
18 uneventful turns later, there were already 1 million Persians under my leadership.
25 AD was yet a very eventful year: Confucianism was FIDAL, but more importantly both the Pyramids and the Oracle were build in far away lands. I was also building both and missed them both by a few turns. Lots of cash tough.
I managed to nail the Parthenon (200 AD) in Pasargadae which was already putting a lot of cultural pressure on the whole of Japan. Its placement was ideal. Japan was build like a sickle around this city.
250 AD: I receive a great prophet in Persepolis which I keep to use him on a religion. First I had to do some cleaning up in the tech branch (meditation!!!). In 425 AD I use the GP to found Christianity in Susa. I also adopt Organized Religion. Oh yes, I forgot to mention that Hinduism already spread to most of my cities and that I had Hindu as state religion. That gave my some good relations with Monty and Toku which were both Hindu. Alas, it was just temporarily as you will see in the next partâ¦
Second part: the war drums sound...
In 580 AD Monty demands tribute (90 gold). I told him to stuff it and obviously he declares war.
Before I continue with my story about the war, I must tell you a few things about my strategy so far. Remember my pre-game analysis, remember the part where I said I was going to use immortals for early warfare and aggressive expansion? Well, I kind of forgot about that. Iâm a peaceful builder at heart and I couldnât resist to start building a few wonders. Nothing wrong with that. I had stone hooked up, so a useful wonder couldnât hurt right? True, but at some point I had five cities and three of them were building wonders at the same time. It was still early in the game so that were actually my only real production cities. On top of all, I missed two of them! That wasnât a very clever move of me. I should have followed my initial strategy and not something in between. Because I had already started at some point to build an offensive force to take on Japan. They sat idle for ages as I thought my stack wasnât strong enough. Just build some more units you say? Yes I would love to, but for the moment Iâm busy building wonders⦠:crazyeyes:
Yet, I wasnât worried very much by Monty declaring war on me. The units that sat idle on the Japanese border were quickly dispatched to the frontline and put to use for the first time.
During the war I manage to nail one of the wonders I started: the Great Lighthouse in Susa in 700 AD.
<insert screenshot GL>
In 720 AD I start research in construction for the much needed war elephants and catapults! Monty has already quite a few annoying (pillaging) horse archers running around. The war elephants will surely help to counter this. In the same year I also receive a Great Artist from researching Music.
And to top it off, I capture the city of Tlaxcala, a small Aztec city on the west coast.
I use the Great Artist in Arbela for a culture bomb, so the newly captured city of Tlaxcala isnât directly at the Aztec border anymore. I also win some juicy tiles.
The cultural slider is set at 10 % to counter the war weariness.
<insert screenshot 740 AD>
A sneak attack at my copper city is barely beaten of. Darn horse archersâ¦
I must say I had some bad dice rolls in this war, but when Monty attacked Tlaxcala with two war elephants against an archer and two swordsmen, fate turned in my favour. Two elephants dead for Monty, losses on Persian side: none!
Soon afters this, I managed to go on the offence again (after the capture of Tlaxcala I had to dig in). When I reach the city of Thatelolco, I see that Monty has longbows.
No sense in continuing this war as I have not the proper units to attack cities defended by longbows. War weariness is also killing my production. I sue peace for horseback riding (he had nothing better to offer).
I had produced a lot of units during this war with Montezuma. I made a huge jump on the power graph and noticed that I was far ahead of Tokugawa. Time to go back to the initial plan and kick those Japanese fellows out of my backyard! First, I made an âarrogant demandâ for 90 gold. Thank you very much, mister Tokugawa. That money will be used to upgrade a unit for the war Iâm planning against you. A bit later I used a Great Merchant to do a trade mission, netting 1100 gold. After some upgrading of units, I start the war vs. Tokugawa in 1140 AD. The same year I already conquer two cities: Edo and Tokyo.
<insert screenshot 1140 AD>
The war goes well and I hardly lose any unit. The capture of Osaka takes place in 1240 AD. This means I now have âhorsesâ for the first time in this game! Osaka was well guarded but I made good use of the âcombined armsâ technique: war elephants, swordsmen, spearmen, axe men and catapults, all with different promotions. This is something I learned from reading reportsâ¦
<insert screenshot Osaka>
In 1280 AD my âwise menâ discover Civil Service. Now Iâm able to build macemen and I swap civics to bureaucracy.
Japan made a final stand at Kyoto witch is the city that build both the Pyramids and Chitchen Itza. I take the city in 1330 AD. Japan is not destroyed as it seems that they have another city, way down the icy south.
<insert screenshot Kyoto>
I make peace with Tokugawa in exchange for the Compass as it is the only thing he can offer. The effort to destroy Japan is not worth all the war weariness, so I leave them in peace for nowâ¦
<insert screenshot peace Tokugawa>
Third part
I have to pull, what is called on this forum, a Sirian. I heard that's the proper terminology here when you post your reports in different pieces 8)
More to come...
