Epic 25 - zeka

[zeka]

After some thoughts about settling the capital on the hills for the short term hammer boost or on the pigs to claim fish and couple more hills, founded Athens on the pig as I wouldn’t have to research AH early and could concentrate on BW instead.



Start with a worker and mining for BW after. With the plains hills mined I could build a work boat faster.
Scout goes to the east popping a hut which gave me archery! Later he finds toku’s warrior heading after our capital, so we build an archer and block his way through our borders. A exploring work boat finds crab to the east so I could change the position of the second city from the hills desert to the tundra 2 tiles south, claiming copper, sheep and crabs.



The plan now was to build Stonehenge and later The Oracle, trying to slingshot feudalism, and use the Great Prophet to bulb theology, getting a useful religion and theocracy for the 2XP bonus. Unfortunately I lost Stonehenge by 11 turns in 1725BC, but I managed to complete The Oracle coinciding with completion of monarchy (with the help of some scientists from Sparta and Athens) in 550BC, getting Feudalism!



No classical era to our empire! The first Great Person born was a scientist used for an academy and i never got theology for the 2xp bonus.



I’ve already used this strategy in Epic 14 (Boudica the Great), though thinking now after the game it is much of a defensive way to always war… I could go more aggressive instead and push an early attack with phalanxes. Defending this way would delay the elimination of the nearby civs and increase the tech advantage of Darius and Mansa.

Meanwhile I founded Corinth behind the 2 hills getting horses and clams.



After some turns defending the city from praetorians I pushed further and founded Thebes getting iron, dyes, fish, banana and lots of cottages to avoid economy break.



This city defended big stacks swords axes and vultures from mansa and shaka without losing a single longbow. I used some longbows to attack the nearest toku’s city with a couple of phalanxes and chariots too.





After more defensive turns with even bigger stacks from Rome too in the new city, I could head after Cahokia with a stack of longbows, capturing it in 460AD.



I failed to get The Colossus in 685AD, which would be big for the economy, while I was at 10% research running scientists to research civil service for maces. Native Americans were destroyed in 1420AD and the next target would be Montezuma, who already had knights! Monty suicides a big stack of knights and trebs in my city full of longbows and war elephants, so I could head after Cumae and get it in 1450AD.



A great engineer was luckily born, bulbing Engineering, just when I needed trebuchets to conquer new Roman and Sumerian cities.



Later I captured the roman marble city with the help of trebs but I failed to conquer Rome after (already with musks) and Eridu, the nearest Sumerian city, with a great stack of war elephants and with the help of upcoming Darius knights.





Seeing I was far behind in technology, with darius and mansa already with galleons and researching liberalism around 1600AD. I retired the game in 1680AD as it would take too many long boring turns building and moving stacks, though I think I could win when I’d get cannons. It was a great game indeed! Thanks to the sponsor!

Great Generals: first went to a medic III chariot, about 5 settled in Athens, 2 settled in cahokia and 2 went to maces to get strength VI. I think i had a knight strength VI too.

First Odeon: ~500AD
Highest XP on a Phalanx: not more than 10, as I didn’t use many phalanx, using more longbows instead
Most GG 1500AD: 8
Highest XP total reached on a naval unit: I had a strength IV trireme. It may be around 20XP.
Techs stolen via espionage: None
Retired in 1680AD

[Sullla]

Longbows on the offensive! I love it. Glad you had fun.

[Compromise]

You know you're having a bad day when you have to use an Engineer to bulb Engineering. Thanks for the report.

[zeka]

Longbows on the offensive! I love it. Glad you had fun.

Yeah first time i made a stack of longbows to attack! The initial reasons for slingshoting feudalism were to have a counter unit to dog soldiers and have vassalage early to allow 5XP units. I thought serfdom would come in hand too but slavery was more important to prevent unpredictable attacks.

You know you're having a bad day when you have to use an Engineer to bulb Engineering. Thanks for the report.

I know that, my economy was poor since i kept too many native americans' cities and delayed courthouses.

[Kylearan]

Hi,

nice to see a capital settled not on the hills! Not sure if wasting the pasture and the extra hammer isn't too high a price though, especially as you only gained one extra hill (which you couldn't know at that time, to be fair).

Regarding the sign in your Cumae screenshot, there seems to be a typo: Shouldn't the "w" in "5kn2we1pk1p1l4t" be a "v" instead?

You wrote you used trebuchets - why? Compared to catapults, they are bad when you look at their respective hammer costs, and building more cats instead ist better most of the time. But then I've never used trebuchets much, so maybe in reality they are better than it looks on paper.

Too bad you retired, but I can definitely understand your thinking here. Moving units almost drove me mad in the end!

Thanks for the report!

-Kylearan