[SPOILER] Close to Win

[Charriu]

T238:

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That's it folks. This is the last turn of my capitol. Jowy attacked last turn and only lost 1 rifleman and some cannons. Now of course I may still survive thanks to my last iceball city up at Mr. Cairos, but let's face it this is my true elimination.

Here are the graphs one last time.





Oh and my plan with my galleon so far worked:




But of course Jowy isn't stupid and had one unit left in his city. Still it's only one. I took my <0.1% chance with my axe and lost to know ones surprise.

[Charriu]

As expected Jowy took AquaticGhoul this turn. With only my joke city surviving I consider this the true elimination of mine. So no reason to wait with my analysis.

I will split my post-game analysis into multiple post:

1. City placements
   
2. Tech-Route
   
3. Problems and obstacles I ran into and their cause
   
4. Summary
   
   

So first of all City placements. I looked for some older screenshots of all my cities and will go through every city in the order of their settlement/conquest

For a better overview, here is a map of my empire at (almost) the hight of its extension.

T0 AquaticGhoul - Capital:

Not much to say about a city placement that wasn't decided by me. Great capitol nothing more to add:

City Rating:







T31 BerserkHalfling

I think this was a good city placement and the best second city that I could found. Keep in mind that the north was the best place to found a second city as this was the only aread that could share a food resource with the capitol, while also having a food resource of its own in the BFC. Added bonus is that it connected stone, which was very important in this game. Now while the city placement was good, there are two things that I could have done better in the cities development. Research Sailing sooner and build a lighthouse here and build Moai here soon. Instead like so many players before me I waited too long with Moai for the right city.

City Rating:  







T38 CommandoPygmies

Now here we have the first really bad city placement. I think I know and understand how it came to this city. At the time I was really afraid of an early Holkan attack by AT, whom I presumed a nearby neighbor. That's why I wanted to to settle copper next. I also wanted to settle close by my capitol to share resources and to keep the early city maintenance lower. Lastly because I am PRO I wanted to settle as many cities as possible to benefit from more trade routes. Now this is what I knew about the area back then:




In retrospect it would have been better to settle 1E of the copper, which would have brought corn into the first ring and would have brought me closer to settling the SE towards Jowy. In addition this city would have been coastal and I would have been able to settle my island sooner.

City Rating:








T51 DiplomatKobolds

This city was always meant as a stepping stone towards the floodplains valley to the west and it fulfilled that role excellent. It helped growing cottages for the capitol had its own "food" resource in form of a farmed floodplain. Now was this an awesome city. No it wasn't, but at the same time it wasn't total garbage. By the way I had planned to build some lumbermills here along the river to make this city into an actual production city, albeit a small one.

City Rating:








T64 ExploringFauns - Military Headquarter

This was a great city and the main military production city just as I had planned it to be. With the pig and the floodplains there was enough food to work all those hill tiles. Loved it and one of the best results of the early conflict with Mjmd.

City Rating:








T73 - FlyingBarbarian

Even though it didn't have a food resource this was an awesome second commerce city. Now if only Mjmd didn't settle his stupid city to the west, Flying Barbarian could have been even better.

City Rating:








T81 GoldsmithSkags

Did exactly what it supposed to do. Securing the north, while serving as a production city. With corn and copper in the first ring and on a hill. Only downside was that I wasn't able to chop the jungle sooner and build more farms via bureaucracy.

City Rating:








T91 HillStormGiants

This turned out to be a bad city, but not because of the city placement itself. That would have been good with clam in first ring and cow in the second ring. The only problem here was that Jowy pink dotted me. It looked like he actually aimed for my HillStormGiants spot so I was actually lucky in getting that.

City Rating:   because of Jowy







T95 ImperialRatmen

It had a food resource in its first ring and another in the second so it can't be absolute garbage. Still I was a bit disappointed by it, mainly because the other tiles were lacking somehow.

City Rating: 









T98 JuvenileWizards

I had plans to build more farms here and make this into an actual GP farm. Only problem with this city was that it lacked any hammer tiles. Luckily it was in reach of the copper. Still I was a bit unhappy with it.

City Rating:








T118 KeenIceWitches - City of happiness resources

Total garbage city. Only purpose was to connect more luxury resource, mainly whales and for those this was the only possible spot.

City rating:








T120 LavaTriton

This could have been a great Moai city if only it was founded sooner, which is caused by the city placement of CommandoPygmies. Well to be fair at the time I settled CommandoPygmies I still had hoped that the SE was a peninsula. Maybe I should make myself more comfortable with the free flying camera, then I would have spotted that crucial land bridge sooner. But back to the city. With a deer resource and a forest for a lumbermill it had some production going. More important for this city was the island position for trade routes. I also had plans to build the Temple of Artemis here for maximum trade routes + GPs.
By the way if CommandoPygmies was settled E of the copper I would have settled this W of the deer. Same result on the island tiles, but the city would have gained a clams resource second ring.

City Rating:









T??? very late Merchant Trolls

I had plans to settle this city earlier to connect silver and marble for some wonders, but then things happend. I think if CommandoPygmies moved I still would have settled here.

City Rating:


So in the end I settled 13 cities:

7 had a ranking of  
4 had a ranking of  
2 had a ranking of  

All in all city placement wasn't that bad, with the exception of one single city: CommandoPygmies. If I had moved that city E of the copper the whole game would have been better:

• CommandoPygmies would have been more useful
  
• I still would have been able to settle a city 1N of the iron down there
  
• LavaTriton would have been better
  
• HillstormGiants would have gained some more grassland tiles
  
• A better stepping stone towards the landbridge SE
  
• I even wouldn't have lost any city placements as I could have settled a bad filler city 2S of the capitols pig.
  

[Charriu]

So next up would be my tech route. The first time is always the beginning of the research the second the time of finishing it:

Animal Husbandry T0 T11: With only AH resources at the capitol this was a no-brainer.

Mining T11 T17: Stepping stone towards BW

Bronze Working T17 T28: I was afraid of some early Holkans in addition to the usual chopping, whipping, knowing where copper is.

The Wheel T28 T35: Me being PRO this was an important tech. The chariots also turned out to be important for the early conflict with Mjmd.

Fishing T35 T38: BerzerkHalfling needed to connect its food resource. With that BerzerkHalfling was able to contribute a lot more to the empire. Needed.

Pottery T38 T44: Needed cottages, a lot of them. I was also EXP so this added to going for Pottery sooner then later.

Masonry T44 T47: Very important for my celts. With stone in my second city and the Duns being my best way to pop borders.

Polytheism T47 T53: Now here is the first tech that was a mistake. Because I was teching rather fast thanks to PRO I thought I could go for a religion. I eventually needed a religion, but the question is did I need to found it myself. As it turned out Mjmd founded Hindusim while I teched Polytheism, that religion could have easily spread to me at some point and it did to GoldsmithSkags. I could have used Hinduism as my religion. 

Monotheism T53 T58: Mjmd discovered Hindusim shortly before I finished Polytheism. Because I was already invested in Polytheism and had Masonry I thought it was a good plan to go for Monotheism. But what are the gains I would have had with a religion:

Easy border popping: Yes, with missionaries that easy, but with the Duns I already had quite a good way to pop borders.
Happiness: Now this was desperately needed in my empire, but I would have gained that with a foreign religion too
Building a shrine: That would have been great, but I didn't have a great way to pop a Great Prophet soon. Yes I wanted to build the Temple of Artemis, which would have opened up that possibility. But that would have been build later.
Better culture in the holy city: This was definitely useful in BerzerkHalfling.
Additional culture buildings: Useful for the border against Mjmd.

I think I did profit from having a religion, but it wasn't necessary to found it myself or that soon. The problem with going for religion is that it resulted in investing 18 turns into religious techs, while I could have better invested those 18 turns on my way to currency.

Agriculture T58 T61: One of the weird things on this map for me, was the fact that I had almost no agriculture resources in my early cities. Now if I would have moved CommandoPygmies I would have needed to research this sooner. And of course you always want to research Agriculture at some point, because one of the hidden factors of this tech is that it allows trading agriculture resources. There are a lot more techs that open up these trading options, but for the most part you always research these early and it doesn't matter.

Priesthood T61 T64: The sole reason going for this was to make Writing and later Monarchy cheaper. Not necessary at the time and was only done because I was invested in religious techs.

Archery T64 T67: I think I was afraid of some early attacks by other players. Otherwise it wasn't needed that desperately, because the Great Wall was finished soon.

Writing T67 T73: Without religion this would have been researched sooner.

Mathematics T73 T87: Without religion this would have been researched sooner and quicker.

Meditation T87 T92: Only done to increase my culture towards Mjmd with Monasteries. Also to spread my religion via missionaries. Necessary?

Currency T92 T110: Without religion this would have been researched sooner and quicker. Currency was so important for me and I neglected it way too much.

Sailing T110 T112: Needed to found LavaTriton and for the lighthouse in BerzerkHalfling

Monarchy T112 T118: Solved the happiness problems for the rest of the game.

Iron Working T118 T119: Hey it has the Gallic Warriors and I needed to chop some jungles

Metal Casting T119 T124: Prerequisite for Machinery.

I did research more after that namely Construction, Feudalism, Machinery, Engineering, Compass, Optics, CoL, Civil Service, Calendar, Paper, Astronomy etc. but with the attack of AT and soon the dogpile with Jowy I was out of the race and the decision didn't matter anymore or where mainly to keep me in the game.

I think the biggest mistake in terms of research was going for religion, which delayed Currency. Together with a better CommandoPygmies placement I could have gone down this tech path instead:

Animal Husbandry
Mining
Bronze Working
The Wheel
Agriculture (For CommandoPygmies)
Fishing
Pottery
Masonry
Sailing (to settle LavaTriton early and Moai)
Writing
Archery
Mathematics
Currency
Meditation (if Hinduism spread to me) or Monotheism (if Judaism was still available)
Calendar (for happiness)
Iron Working

[Charriu]

Problems, Obstacles and their causes:

In this section I want to talk about the big problems I encountered and what I think led to them. There are some smaller issues which I will tackle in the last section.
I will start this section with some smaller problems and work my way up to the big issues:

Problem: Getting more Great Persons

This already was a problem in my last PB40. I think I did a little better this game, but not that much. I did build some wonders, which helped with great persons, but I needed to work more scientist and other specialist. I recently did a test game with CtH in which tried myself at PHI/EXP with the goal of building a working specialist economy. I even made it a challenge run midway to not build cottages there and it actually worked and teched quite well. I think I learned much more from that SP game, which I want to apply to an MP game in the future.

Solution: I think some cities like AquaticGhouls, BerzerkHalfling, FlyingBarbarian or even ExploringFauns had enough food to work some specialist instead of hammer tiles or other stuff. With that I would have generated more GP. I think that SP game I did helped me a lot more in that regard.



Problem: The attack from AT

This was the one event that threw my game off and pushed me down, together with AT I want to mention. I still think it was a mistake from him to attack me. So what led to this attack. For one I had open borders with AT, which allowed him to spy on my actual military, but I needed Open Borders to explore more of the word and for trade routes. I also saw AT as my natural ally against Jowy. The other problem is that my graph and power ratio was inflated. I had built quite a lot of barracks and duns, which both contributed to my power rating and lured me into thinking that I'm even with my neighbors. But my actual unit count was lower.

Solution: Don't invest too much into buildings that aren't that important and focus more units even though the power ratio says even.



Problem: Being pink dotted by Jowy

Very important event that turned out bad for me. The problem here is that I spotted this too late. I think this could have been mitigated by a few things. One cause for this was that I was aware to late about the land bridge towards him.

Solution: Try out flying camera mode to spot unclear stuff during exploring. That could have improved my knowledge of the SE. Also if I settled CommandoPygmies 1E of the copper its third border pop would have encapsulated the HillStormGiants spot. I think with those 2 things done differntly I could have mitigated the pink dot better.



Problem: Economic break down before Currency

Once again I was surprised by the "sudden" increase in tech cost for Mathematics and Currency. The one thing that bothers me most here is, that I recognized this as a problem early before the game started, but I still didn't act soon enough. I think there are two factors that contributed to this problem. First going for religion, which diverted some precious teching turns towards unimportant stuff. Second building the Hanging Gardens. Building that wonder led me to settle more cities sooner, which increased my maintenance even further and delaying Currency at the time.

Solution: I think if I wouldn't have gone for religion I could have researched Currency sooner and still build the Hanging Gardens and more cities like I did after Currency.



Lastly I also wanted to address Shallows question: What do you think led to you ending up defending with medieval units against rifles?

I think multiple things contributed to this and I highlighted the most important things in bold.

1. I founded CommandoPygmies in the wrong position. I already said more then enough about that.
   
2. I had to start an early conflict against Mjmd. I still think this was the right decision as it secured me the precious flood plain valley. Still this early military conflict was a small bump in the road.
   
3. I got pinkdotted by Jowy soon after that conflict, this happened mainly because I underestimated the map in the SE
   
4. I delayed Currency too much in favor of an own religion. This is one main contributor to my tech disadvantage.
   
5. I built not enough military to deter an attack from AT
   
6. The attack from AT in T120, which turned into a dogpile soon after, was the final nail in the coffin. I couldn't come back from that and this cemented my tech disadvantage further.
   

[Charriu]

Summary:

Here I want to give a short list of the major and minor things I did wrong. I already talked in detail about the major problems in my last post, so I will keep it short. I also want to mention what went right. Destilling from this I want to make a list of things I want to improve in in my next games. Lastly a short list of things I noticed, disliked etc.

Major problems:

• Economic break down before Currency
  
• Being pink dotted by Jowy
  
• Being attacked by AT
  
• Great Person generation
  
  

Minor problems:

• A bit too few workers at times, mainly because I needed to expand fast against my IMP neighbor.
  
• Build Moai sooner
  
• Handling of the second half of early war against Mjmd (lost a worker)
  
  

Things I did right:

• Surviving a 2v1 dogpile somewhat successful
  
• Overall city placement was good
  
• Early successful war against a pink dotter (Mjmd) secured some important city spots.
  
• Early expansion was good.
  
• PRO was awesome for this. EXP was helpful, but the lack of coastal cities hurt a bit.
  
• Celts were an interesting and fun ride
  
  

Things to look out for in the next games:

• Never settle CommandoPygmies again
  
• Try camera flying for exploration
  
• More military, less buildings
  
• Improve GP farming
  
• Give religion more thought, before going for it.
  
  

And lastly some additional things, I noticed:

• I didn't like my city naming scheme. I think shorter names work better for me.
  
• I liked my reporting style, or better phrased it wasn't that time consuming this time.
  
• I improved my planning tool further
  

[Tarkeel]

As a lurker I really appreciated that you clearly indicated what yurn you were reporting from. I also really like when people post strategic overview shots of their empire, and I think this you as a player thinking more strategic as well. As you mentioned your lack of scouting and visibility of your immediate area was an important factor in your early problems. From lurking a few of these it seems to me like the players who are good at early scouting also are the ones that make the right strategic decisions.

On a similar note, I think the city placement discussion would have benefited from posting overview maps (from t100ish?) instead of in-city-shots.

[Charriu]

Thanks I've added the best overview shot that I can find.

[NobleHelium]

Greetings. I am interested in following a game of yours in the future, however I am dubious about that naming scheme of yours. I'm giving it a C-. Naming schemes where you need to smash words together to fit within the character limit are a no-no.

[Charriu]

Absolutely agree. That's the first and last time I chose such a naming scheme.

Would love to have you on board, but don't expect me to join a game soon.

[Jowy]

About 3, the pink dot was actually even further towars you, that was my back-up spot