Archive Bingeing: picklepikkl plays the oldies

[Mardoc]

Pickle,

Do you want feedback as you play? I can see an argument either way. With feedback, you can learn as you go, before errors get compounded. Without, you can compare yourself to the reports for Epic One.

Plus, sometimes it's annoying to have your every decision second-guessed

@Hesmyrr and Qgqqqqq: Thank you very much for the advice! The specific issue I'm having is that Dropbox URLs are formatted like this:

Code:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/abunchofnumbersandletters/filename

One would expect that the "abunchofnumbersandletters" bit would be constant for things in the same subdirectory, or at least things uploaded in the same batch. But no, they are not, which means that instead of simple copy/paste of some BBCode where I can change the filename slightly for each screenshot, I must instead grab each screenshot's URL individually from Dropbox (and add the ?raw=1 query strings each time). It's self-evidently not an insurmountable problem, but it's annoying.

Dropbox also has an option for 'get public link', which in my experience produces things more like:

Code:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16549110/PB32%20T24a.JPG

[greenline]

I don't think it was the best idea to found Lyons as your third city. It's so far away from your other cities that it will take ages for workers to get there and connect it with a road and stuff. If you wanted horses the city that shares the pigs with Orleans would have been a better choice imo.

[Qgqqqqq]

What Dave said.

[Hesmyrr]

Only rule I am aware is that having tile visibility prevents barb spawns. Pretty sure there are other intricacies but this fact alone should allow you to set up barb-free sentry network.

[picklepikkl]

@DaveV: I was very excited for a moment, and then realized that only old Dropbox accounts have access to public folders without paying money

@Mardoc: I'm happy to have feedback! I'm already not a good comparison for the Epic One reports -- after all, I had the benefit of seeing the plains hill start before playing it myself, not to mention the ten years of theory between then and now -- and in any case I'm playing this for primarily my own edification and the community engagement. Enlighten away!

@greenline: Yeah, being unable to share tiles was a real pain, as was having to detail military to fogbusting in the hopes that barbs wouldn't wreck my trade. But hey, I'm learning!

Anyway, this session was very long, so I'll probably split it into two or three posts for readability. Onwards!

-------

I sent my spare Warriors out on fogbusting detail to my west coast. Once Masonry came in, I start saving up gold for my run to Iron Working and start Paris on the Great Lighthouse. Turns of working a 2/0/1 tile instead of a 2/0/2 tile have paid off, and my cottage has reached phase 2.



In preparation for lots and lots of trade routes, I sign open borders with the Mongols. I’ve already given up on blocking them entirely, and this might help prevent an attack. Nobody else seems to have Writing. I should defog a sea route to Alex if I can -- gotta get that foreign trade.



It appears that my dilemma about where to found a city in the center of the peninsula has been solved for me -- the barbarians have settled. I’m going to whip the lighthouse in Orleans and overflow into a chariot to scope out the situation, leaving my western warriors where they are.



I get about 72% odds on the warrior in Ainu. This is not what I would call fantastic, or worth taking with my only chariot -- I think I’m just going to let Ainu sit until I have axes and swords, and make my fourth city the location to its southwest, with fish and soon-to-be-dejungled rice.



I successfully complete The Great Lighthouse, the game’s first wonder… though I’m actually not getting full benefit out of it, simply because I don’t have enough cities on my network! (There does not appear to be an appropriately embarrassed smiley.) Oh well, more incentive to defog my route to Greece and get my expansion back on the go. There’s also another barb city on my peninsula, Thracian 2N of the plains cows in my southeast. That does sort of screw up my planning -- in the Calendar era, I’d have liked a city 1W of the one-tile lake nearby, to grab the bananas and the dye, but I was by no means married to it. This one has two Archers in it instead of Ainu’s two Warriors, so it will be a much harder nut to crack when I get around to it!

Meanwhile, Gandhi has adopted Organized Religion, indicating that the Judaism founding I recently saw was him. Gandhi has claimed all three early game religions! I wonder if that means that some of the later ones will actually be relevant in this game?

I let Paris grow into unhappiness so that I could 3-pop whip out a settler just as Iron Working finished. And… let’s see here!



Two obvious sources of iron, both outside my current borders, one near where I would have founded Paris if I hadn’t moved! Bit of a doozy here. I really want iron, so I think I’ll settle the southeast site; I have chariots to provide escorts. As for tech, I seem to have two obvious choices: Writing for Libraries or Mysticism/Meditation/Priesthood to try to snag the Oracle and take Metal Casting. I think I’ll go the latter route -- in this version of the game, it appears Creative does not boost the speed of library construction, while Industrious will give me those half-price forges, which will accelerate future infrastructure. Alas that I do not have the resource doublers for either Oracle or Colossus!

(Speaking of things that changed from Vanilla to later editions, my chariots do not have the +100% against axes I’d been banking my early game defense on. So, uh, good thing I’m buddy buddy with Genghis, wouldn’t you say? )



I found Rheims in 745 BC, bringing me up to four cities. I’m considering sending my chariots at Ainu, since it’s still only guarded by warriors, but apart from the jungled rice it really doesn’t have anything to offer me until Calendar. Better to claim the rice and fish spot to the west of Lyons, that I was planning on settling before I decided to go for the iron.

Once Priesthood came in, I swung back for Writing. At this point, I had a choice to make: Monarchy, Mathematics to Calendar, or Alphabet? I decided that Alphabet would be my best choice: tech trading and tech brokering are both options in this game, and maybe I can use that to supplement my other teching. I know that Monotheism is in play, for example, and getting Monotheism on top of Priesthood would add the prereq bonus when I go for Monarchy.

With Writing and then Metal Casting off a successful Oracle, I have a lot of infrastructure to create throughout my nation. Also, now that I have Writing and can sign Open Borders with all the AI, my Commerce is booming -- three 2C routes in every city! My break-even science rate is somewhere around 68%, so after I get some forges up (which will be 2-pop whipped as soon as possible, since nowhere has whip unhappiness), I think it’s time to found another city.

After many turns of being frustrated that Ainu was not growing so I could capture it, I realized that Hills/Jungle/Grassland is 1h, not 1f1h like I’d thought, and since that was the tile it was working, it would never grow ever . I proceeded to park a chariot on that tile to force the city to work something else. Only took me like twenty turns to realize the problem, I’m getting way better at this game!

Meanwhile, the other barb city, Thracian, continues to send archers at me one by one:



I’ve killed one already. They come to pillage the cows, so I attack them on flatland. Shame that mounted units can’t take Cover, but hopefully I can farm my way up to 10 XP like this!

...Also wait, I am a very great fool. Ainu is surrounded by jungle. Its health must be in the toilet. It can’t grow to size 2. I should just attack it, raze it, and use the capture gold to fund my research.

While I gear up for the attack on Ainu, Genghis comes demanding I cancel my deals with Gandhi. Because the one G-man is a lot closer, and scarier, than the other, I oblige. Azteca, Mongolia, and Greece have enough cities between them to fuel my Great Lighthouse-powered trade, for now anyway, so it doesn’t hurt me in any meaningful way.

Two chariots and an axe are more than equal to the task of razing Ainu:



That capture gold should cover any small shortfalls I face on the way to Alphabet.

Meanwhile, I’m scouting out America in my hopes of defogging a sea route for trade, and COME ON THAT IS NOT FAIR:



In this version of the game, Washington is Financial, and he lands in a grassy river valley with copper at his start? His capital is fifteen tiles away from the Aztec start in the west and sixteen away from the Greeks in the southeast, so he’s able to expand into that lovely land basically unopposed! Meanwhile, a scant nine tiles separate me from Mongolia! There ain’t no justice.

(and so I go through the initiation gate that is “bitching about how so much better someone else’s start is than yours,” one step closer to becoming a true RBer)

Anyway, griping aside, if I can’t outtech a Prince AI I deserve what I get. I’ll be curious to see how matter stand once I reach Alphabet.

[picklepikkl]

I found Tours, with Lyons working on a Work Boat for it. I had realized midway through building the one for Rheims that I could have done that, but sunk cost fallacy kicked in. At least it’s not a mistake I made twice. I still have enough in the bank to make it to Alphabet, despite the founding of the new city. Hooray for capture gold!



I have no infrastructure worth building in Orleans, so I’m going to set it to give me a Great Scientist in fifty-odd turns. Lyons, similarly, has everything done, but has higher production potential and less food surplus, so I’ll have it churn 4 xp military for a while. City specialization is how you become a leet player, right?

(god I need a higher happy cap)

With Alphabet in, it’s time to check out what the world holds!



Summary:

There is nobody who is strictly ahead of techs on me. The person who is closest is, no surprise, Washington. We are only ahead of him in beaker count because of the Oracled Metal Casting. What was that I said about out-teching Prince AI? jeez, financial river cottages, gotta get me some of that.

Anyway, let’s make some deals!

Meditation and Priesthood go to Alexander for Polytheism. This reveals that the only person with Monotheism is Gandhi, who isn’t talking to me on account of maybe I cut diplomatic ties with him on recommendation of an insane warmonger one time. Genghis Khan gets Meditation and Alphabet for Mathematics (man, I would love to build the Hanging Gardens, if only I had the happy cap for it!). This reveals that he has a monopoly on Calendar. I don’t feel like picking up Hunting just yet, since I have no need for Archery and might want to build cheap warriors for Hereditary Rule MP, so that’s where I leave it for now. Nobody has tradeable resources for reasons I don’t understand -- has nobody seriously hooked up a duplicate? What are they doing with their worker turns? (Answer: if your name is Washington, cottaging everything and out-teching me) I’d really like to buy Copper from someone so I can get the Colossus even faster...

Anyway, when all’s said and done, I decide to research to Calendar. I have silks, dyes, and sugar. While maybe Genghis Khan could come around on trading it to me, I’d have to give up Metal Casting for it, and then he’d be sure to trade it around, since I also gave him Alphabet. Whatever, I can do it myself in like 14 turns.



I get a Great Merchant in Paris. It seems that in Vanilla, it requires two Great Persons to start a Golden Age. My second one, the Scientist, is earmarked to become an Academy down the line. So what do I do with this guy? He can bulb Currency, at 858 beakers; he can become a super-specialist; he can do a Trade Mission. Using the queue trick I found on CivFanatics, the most money I can make from a Trade Mission is 1350 ducats. Dividing my bpt at 100% science by my gpt at 100% gold indicates that my current science-to-ducat ratio is about 1.3, so the 1350 I’d get from the trade mission is worth about twice as valuable as the raw beakers from bulbing Currency by enabling deficit research that much longer! My decision is made: Harkuf is off to Washington DC.

Calendar comes in at 25 BC and I finish the Colossus at the same time. My economy is about to get some serious boosts, between Colossus commerce, Calendar enabling growth beyond size 4, and the trade mission, so it’s time to expand again, this time to the former location of Ainu. Research is on Literature -- I’d like to grab The Great Library in Orleans, to further accelerate my Great Scientist’s birth, and with my three Calendar luxes incoming in four turns (I had two-worker teams ready to go for each of them, and the jungles/forests pre-cleared), Hereditary Rule is less pressing of a need.

5 AD seems like a good stopping point, so let’s do some overview of mighty France:



Paris has just 2-pop whipped a Settler, and with 3 luxuries coming online in two turns, is free to grow, though I’m not sure what I ought to be working here -- I know that I want to invest in my future commerce potential and work cottages, but those 2/0/3 and 3/0/3 coast tiles are just so delicious!



Once Calendar luxuries are in, I will let this city grow like a weed, working food and coast, and whip out anything it actually wants. Academy-fuelled Bureaucracy sounds like a good short-term goal, and a Great Scientist provides half of that.



Lyons is on military duty for the time being. I’m narrowly first in Soldiers, but I am definitely not a high-quality tactical player. I hear quantity has a quality all of its own, though, and once I widen my lead I will feel more comfortable ignoring my next-door neighbors’ wild demands and aligning myself with the peace bloc where I more naturally belong.



I have nothing interesting to say about Rheims.



Baby’s off to such a good start! This city has terrible production potential -- it’s going to need the whip for its infrastructure -- but that’s fine! Between the plantations and the Colossus, I should see a lot of commerce out of this one.



Overview shot of mainland France. “fc” is for “filler city,” whereas “c” is my next target. It’ll be inland, so it won’t benefit from my Wondrous package, but at least its improvement plan is simple: farm the rice, plantation the other stuff, cottages errwhere.



What my galley found to the north, with snarky captions. Nothing I feel like grabbing anytime soon -- I’m already set for stone and iron, so the best sites I could reasonably take are “two fish and literally no land tiles” and “one fish and literally three land tiles.” I’d actually really like the crabs and silver site, but I feel my odds of being able to settle it and be comfortable if I had to defend it are slim. Maybe I take my next settler and a bunch of the axes from Lyons and go grab it? The metal luxury would be really nice…

-----

I probably won't get another chance to post until Saturday, so feel free to dissect my every error ! Been really enjoying this; thank you the people in the welcome thread who suggested it!

[Miguelito]

How about getting lots of horse archers and conquering Mongolia? (the irony!)
Also, you got some nice coastal heavy cities there, decided on a moai spot yet (sorry if I missed it)?

[picklepikkl]

How about getting lots of horse archers and conquering Mongolia? (the irony!)
Also, you got some nice coastal heavy cities there, decided on a moai spot yet (sorry if I missed it)?

Alas, the first Epic was played under variant rules that prevent me from waging offensive war. It would not be honorable, you see!

It's also on Vanilla, and Moai is an expansion feature (which is a real shame, because I have Stone and, as you point out, I have a lot of water).

[Khan]

This is fun to read. Thanks for the nice reports. There was at least one other guy that seemed to be in a similar boat to yourself in terms of experience. Once you've completed this, maybe you could look to start a PBEM to see how that goes?

After Montezuma and Genghis most (not all... ) of the players on this site are a lot more passive!

[DaveV]

@DaveV: I was very excited for a moment, and then realized that only old Dropbox accounts have access to public folders without paying money

Oh, sorry about that. I saw the text about the public folder requiring a premium version of Dropbox, but I clicked the link and it looked as though it would work for me. I didn't think that it might be due to me being grandfathered into public folder access due to signing up many years ago. I sympathize with your unique link problems, but can't recommend a better picture host because I'm still using Dropbox.