Horses and Camels: Northstar vs. Aurorarcher the Awesome

[Northstar1989]

Alright, I'm facing Aurorarcher. Here's what the start looked like after I settled:



And I'm playing as Rhoanna of the Hippus:



The Malakim (Aurorarcher as Varn Gosam) will have a field-day with this start, of course (just look at the number of Flood Plains! And an Oasis to boot!) But the fertile land has a hidden advantage for me- my leader's Expansive trait should allow me to quickly leverage the fertile start into lots of new cities (easily protected by my Horsemen), whereas the Malakim should lag significantly behind in empire-growth...


Regards,
Northstar

[Ellimist]

But the fertile land has a hidden advantage for me- my leader's Expansive trait should allow me to quickly leverage the fertile start into lots of new cities

Definitely! One thing to keep in mind, though, is that the doubler effect from the expansive trait only affects hammers. Any food surplus that you are using to build a settler with will not be multiplied.

[Northstar1989]

Definitely! One thing to keep in mind, though, is that the doubler effect from the expansive trait only affects hammers. Any food surplus that you are using to build a settler with will not be multiplied.

True.

But the +3 Health/city still remains in effect. And there will be at least SOME hammer-production around the capital with all those Forest/Plains tiles and the potential for a Gold mine...


Also, tech-path: I was thinking Calendar --> Ancient Chants --> Education --> Animal Husbandry. Prioritizing Education early because I want to swap into Religion/Apprenticeship at the first opportunity, and should be able to time it with a Settler moving to found a new city around that point... (especially if I build a 2nd Worker before starting on a Settler)

I will also want Education to get some cottages up fairly early- to help keep up with the maintenance costs from the mind-numbing pace of expansion I have planned to take full advantage of the mobility of horses as defensive troops and the usefulness of Financial for maintaining a large empire (although I must say I do think Q's decision to nerf Financial down to just +25% gold and cheap Markets instead of +1 commerce on tiles with 2 or more commerce was rather harsh...)


Regards,
Northstar

[Northstar1989]

Another possible tech-path is Calendar --> Crafting --> Mining (for the Gold, of course). That *might* give me and advantage over Aurorarcher, whereas going for Education early is going to be more his specialty since he starts with Ancient Chants...

Sigh, brain's fried- it's too late for me (I get up at 5 AM most weekdays). Maybe I should churn out my turns against Bob and Mardoc and call it a night...


Regards,
Northstar

[Northstar1989]

OK, so Aurorarcher keeps saying he can't load any of the saves I send him...

I've checked and re-checked my settings. I re-genned the map and re-sent him the save. I tried asking him to re-install Erebus in the Balance (a suggestion which I haven't heard back about yet from him).

*Sigh*, there's nothing more I can do for him at this point. If this duel never gets off the ground, it won't be my fault... It will be due to "technical difficulties" on Aurorarcher's end over which I have no control.

I'll happily keep working with him to try and solve these, of course.

Speaking of which, there's one more option we haven't tried- getting a third party to generate the map for us. At least this way we could confirm that there is no issue with it being my computer that genned the map. Would anybody be interested in doing this? It would be a simple matter- just gen the map with the settings I direct you to (the ones agreed upon and that I've been using) and send me literally the first map that gens (no re-genning for "balance" etc., no matter who the result favors... It will be up to me and Aurorarcher to decide if for some reason we have an issue with the map...)


Regards,
Northstar

[Qgqqqqq]

Sure.

[Kragroth]

Don't set an admin password. You set it when the game loads.

Also post the map settings and civ picks in the game picks theead please.

[Northstar1989]

Don't set an admin password. You set it when the game loads.

I set an admin password the first time around I genned the map (the one shown in the screenshots above). Is there any way to remove it?

The second time, when I genned a new map, I did *not* set an admin password, however, and Aurorarcher was unable to load up the save...

Also post the map settings and civ picks in the game picks theead please.

Can do. Here they are for your reading pleasure, though:

Map: Hall of Mirrors
Size: Small
Climate: Arid
Sealevel: Low
Era: Thaw
Speed: Quick
Landmass Type: Small Lakes
Width Per Player: 24
Map Length: 32
Resources: Disappointing
Climate Zones: 100% Temperate
Capital-Boosting: +1 Food

Difficulty: Monarch
Map Size: Small
Start Era: Thaw
Game Speed: Quick.
Barbarians: Normal
No Technology trading: On
No Vassal States: On
No Tribal Villiages: On
No Lairs: On
No Acheron: On
No Orthus: On
Victories: All


Note that Unique Features *ARE* enabled, but not set to "All Unique Features". So a typical map with these settings will spawn 2-4 of the Unique Features in mirror-symmetry at random.


My Civ: Rhoanna of the Hippus
Aurorarcher: Varn of the Malakim


Regards,
Northstar

[Northstar1989]

OK, so here's the start doing this over again with the map generated by Kragoth:



REALLY not too happy with the way the map turned out (all those Flood Plains are going to massively benefit the Malakim), but eh, what can you do?

I just wish Aurorarcher had been able to load the first map (that I posted screenshots of before). That Gold next to the start would have done a LOT to balance out the Malakim's commerce-advantage...

Anyways, you work with what you get...



At least I started out next to Cotton (for a bit of early commerce). Still, my best bet will probably be to locate the Malakim early, and wipe them out early...

I'll have to keep an eye on the Demographics. If they show that the Malakim DO NOT have more hammer-production than I do next turn from settling on a Plains Hill, then it probably behooves me to try for an early rush using Warcry...

I'm thinking Horsemen would be the best unit to use for that- they have as much strength as Axemen, but their tech-requirements are slightly less substantial... (Axemen require Crafting --> Mining --> Bronze Working) It's a shame we're not playing on Normal game-speed, though, because the difference in time between what it takes to research Animal Husbandry --> Horseback Riding and Bronze Working is only a few turns on Quick... (and this also gives me much less time to take advantage of the maneuverability of Horesemen to choke his cities in prelude of an attack before Aurorarcher could start churning out Axemen in response...)

Just one more way that the "default" settings on Realms Beyond of small maps and Quick game-speed consistently forces a certain play-style... Maybe I'll have to go with Axemen after all...


Regards,
Northstar

[Qgqqqqq]

Realms Beyond doesn't play with small maps. And Quick game-speed is just the only logical route with a turn-a-day pace.

Besides, you were welcome to determine your own settings for these duels.