dsplaisted's first Summary

[dsplaisted]

Well, Adventure 10 was my first realms beyond game. I'm not quite sure if the deadline for reporting is midnight tonight or tomorrow night. I think it's tomorrow but just to be sure, here's my game summary:

My plan was an early conquest victory. I should probably have beelined towards iron working but I wanted to get my resources hooked up so I didn't go straight there. Then, when iron was finally revealed, I apparently didn't look closely enough in the south, and I didn't see the iron on the plains there. So I ended up settling my second city by the iron up north. I wanted to get the gems and the cows also, so I had to build an obelisk and wait for the border pop to hook up the iron. This really slowed me down, and by the time I got to Madrid it had enough defenses that I ended up waiting around for catapults to take it. On the upside, I did pull off the civil service slingshot.

Anyway, I captured Madrid in 125 AD (my first city), and the war with the various opponents dragged on until 1645, when I won a conquest victory.

Here are the thoughts I wrote after completing the game:
It took a lot longer to wipe out my opponents than I had initially planned. By the time I was ready to attack, I found that Isabella had enough defenses that I had to get catapults before attacking. I could have gotten Praetorians much earlier if I had not had to wait for my second city to border pop before getting iron. I think a stronger move would have been to found my second city south of Rome, near the River. I would have had access to iron at least 20 turns earlier. Had I done this, I might not have been able to pull off the Oracle / Civil Service slingshot. Still, I feel like I would have been able to pull off an earlier win.

Based on what I’ve learned, my plan for Epic Six (Always War) will be to start conquering earlier, at some cost to my economy / research. Will this be the right decision? I’ll have to play to find out, and you’ll have to wait for my report.

Daniel

[Atlas]

Congrats on reporting your first RB game and a win too.

[dsplaisted]

Well, I don't think I'm going to have the time / initiative to write up a nice report for this adventure. So posted below are the notes I took while playing the game. They are pretty detailed but probably not too interesting to read. I will try to have a more cleaned up report for Epic Six (Always War). I just have to force myself to do that report before starting on Adventure Eleven (divided we fall).

Later I will probably post some pictures from this game.

Game plan: early conquest
Settle default starting position.
Reveals marble just outside of working radius.
Start worker (due in 12), Agriculture (due in 8) for corn
Plan to research Bronze working next to find copper
3920 BC – pop goodie hut, get map. Looks like I’m on the edge of it.
3800 BC – borders pop
3680 BC – Buddhism FIDL, wolves headed my way. I think they won’t enter my cultural borders. If I’m mistaken, this could be a short game indeed J
3520 BC – Worker completes. Start work on Warrior. Working Corn tile for faster growth.
3480 BC – Goodie hut, pop hunting (yay). Contemplate switching production to scout, but decide against it (I want to go NW, and there’s a lot of hills / forest, so the extra movement won’t help me much). Growth, Warrior, and Bronze working all due in 7 turns.
3400 BC – spot Izzy across a lake.
3320 BC – Hinduism FIDL, looks like we may have Spain on a Lake ™. Izzy has Buddhism, no Hinduism though.
3280 BC – Warrior defends wolf attack without a scratch.
3200 BC – Finish Bronze working and warrior. Start Animal husbandry and scout. Don’t see any copper. Send warrior out scouting (still no capital defense.)
3120 BC – Pop goodie hut in South, get experience.
3080 BC – Meet bismark, finish scout, start barracks. Upgrade warrior to woodsman II.
3000 BC – 2nd warrior defends against wolf on forest hill. 1.2/2 health, 4 turns to heal.
2960 BC – Meet Victoria.
2880 BC – Finish Animal husbandry, start Iron working (18 turns). No horses visible. I begin to wonder if this is a map with no strategic resources… Find german capital to the west.
2840 BC – 2nd Warrior finishes healing, move, and discover bears. I’m on another forested hill, hopefully I’ll be ok. Scout walks into a dead end with Izzy’s culture and mountains blocking the way.
2800 BC – Warrior dies L
2720 BC – Rome grows to size 4, Advisor complains about lack of defense in Rome.
2680 BC – Finish Barracks, train warrior. I’ve run out of resources that my worker can connect, and I can’t build roads yet. I decide to build a mine on the Forest SE of my capital. This will take 7 turns with the forest chop. I switch one of the plots rome is working to the lake to improve the research time for iron working. Warrior build time is 3, I should be able to squeeze two of them out before starting on a settler which will get the hammers from the forest chop.
2640 BC – I finally spot some horses. They are way off in the west. I then notice that Izzy has some right at her capital that I didn’t see before.
2560 BC – Finish Warrior, start another one. Woodsman warrior defends against lions and wins without a scratch.
2480 BC – Woodsman warrior defends against Bear, and wins. A lion will attack next turn if I stay put. I don’t. Warrior finishes, start settler. I still don’t really know where I’m going to found my second city. I’d like to grab a copper or iron, but I don’t see any copper and I can’t see iron yet. Iron working will finish around the same time as the settler, though.
2280 BC – Finish Iron Working. Spot some iron up north.
2240 BC – Woodsman warrior finds gems near iron. I think I will settle on the sugar to grab the cows, the gems, and the iron. A forest grew 1 tile N of Rome. I was eventually planning to put a farm there to irrigate the corn.
2200 BC – Finish settler, start warrior
2160 BC – Finish warrior, start worker. Wheel is due in two. After that I probably need to get mysticism so I can build an obelisk in my second city. I won’t be able to access any of the resources before a border pops. After that I probably want pottery for the granaries. I revolt to slavery now.
1960 BC – Apparently I’m the least advanced civilization L. Hopefully this is because I’ve researched the more expensive iron working tech.
1920 BC – Scout successfully defends against wolf. Finish Mysticism. Start Pottery. Finish worker in Rome. I don’t really want to build more warriors, since soon I’ll have praetorians. Stonehenge is still available. I’m not sure if I want to build a worker or Stonehenge. I found Antium up north. I can build an obelisk there in 10 turns, or finish Stonehenge in 9 in Rome. I decide to skip Stonehenge, since there’s nothing else I really want to build in Antium now, and someone else could grab Stonehenge first. I need to build a road between my cities and more workers will help with that too.
1840 BC – I’m scouting, building roads, and building an obelisk.
1720 BC – Finish pottery. Set research for Meditation (5) -> Priesthood (5). I’m going to see if I can get the oracle, maybe even us it for civil service. I find a goodie hut but it looks like Victoria is going to beat me to it.
1680 BC – Finish Worker in Rome. I’m at my happiness limit but I decide to build a granary. I’m working 4 of the 5 water tiles to speed up my research. It looks like Victoria didn’t go for the goodie hut. I go for it and get… WRITING! This makes me happy J I switch to a library at Rome. Finally something I want to build!
1640 BC – Bismark asks me for open borders. I take it, since it will let me scout his lands. I go ahead and sign open borders with both Izzy and Victoria also.
1520 BC - Finish Meditation, start priesthood. Finish obelisk, start granary in Antium. 10 turns till border pops and I can get iron. Scout Izzy’s capital. Has pasture built on horses, only 2 warriors on defense.
1480 BC or so – Finish road between Rome and Antium. Start building road westward to speed conquest.
1400 BC – discover Pristhood. Start Code of Laws. Play around with production at Rome, and decide to get Masonry (3 turns) first so I can hook up the marble to speed up the oracle.
1280 BC – discover Masonry. Start Code of Laws
1240 BC – finish Library in Rome. Start oracle. Switch to max commerce in Rome until marble is hooked up.
1160 BC – Find another goodie hut with my woodsman II warrior! The villagers were hostile L I thought they were going to attack me with even odds, but before my eyes a forest grew where the hut had been. Finish hooking up marble. Running max science in Rome puts me at 12 turns for code of laws and 18 turns for Oracle.
1120 BC – Woodsman II warrior successfully defends against attack. Finish Granary in Antium. Start on Barracks. Antium’s borders pop, start on mine. Rome grows into unhappiness. I had to let it do this if I wanted to run max science. When I hook up the gems, the citizen will become happy anyway.
1040 BC – Finally spot Vicky way off in the southwest.
950 BC – Code of Laws and Oracle both due in 7 turns. I’m planning on taking Civil Service with the oracle. Checking the tech chart, for a second it looks like this will obsolete my Praetorians (with Macemen) before I even get the chance to build any. But thankfully the Macemen also require machinery.
I hooked up the iron a few turns back, but am still building a barracks in Antium. I could have gotten Praetorians 20 turns earlier if I had founded Antium next to the iron (10 turns for building an obelisk, then 10 more to wait for the border pop). Hopefully it was the right decision to wait—for the trade off I’ve got cows and gems within range of Antium.
I thought about expanding south and grabbing the gold and second iron, but I think I’d rather go conquering if I can. If I conquer a capital it will be a better city site. Also, I’m about to hook up gems and found a religion, so I won’t be so pressed for happiness.
875 BC – I hook up the gems. Rome is no longer unhappy. I accidentally cut down a forest by Rome that I had just meant to pre-chop, so the oracle is now due in 1 turn. I got lucky there, code of laws isn’t due for 3 turns. I switch to max commerce but the oracle is still due in 2 turns. Switch Antium to max commerce and code of laws is now due in 2 turns also.
825 BC – Finish Code of laws. Found Confucianism, in Antium no less. Finish Oracle, grab civil service. I have entered the medieval era. I think I skipped right over the classical era. Start research on mathematics. Finish Barracks in Antium. Start Praetorian in Antium, granary in Rome. Send free missionary to Rome.
800 BC – I left my woodsman II warrior on a hill to get attacked by a barb, and he dies. Stupid move!!!! I should have stuck to the forests.
775 BC – Spread Confucianism to Rome. I am building a road towards spain.
750 BC – Finish granary in Rome, start Praetorian.
725 BC – Finish first praetorian in antium, start another.
675 BC – Whip praetorian in antium.
650 BC – Praetorians complete in rome and antium. Seems like a good time to switch religion and civics. Victoria completes Stonehenge. Revolt to Confucianism.
625 BC – Isabella cancels open borders, one turn before my scout would have peeked at her capital. L Revolt to Bureaucracy.
600 BC – Government reestablished. Praetorians making their way towards Izzy.
576 BC – run into some warriors on Izzy’s border.
550 BC – Izzy founded Cordoba and pushed some of my units out of the way. I kill a warrior and advance on Cordoba.
525 BC – Finish Mathematics. Start Construction. Finish Praetorian, start temple in Rome. Finish Praetorian, start another one in Antium. Raze Cordoba, kill another warrior. Chop forest N of Rome to clear way to irrigate Corn.
500 BC – Upgrade the Praetorian that razed Cordoba to Woodsman II. This will let me see what Izzy has faster and hopefully be untouchable on defense.
475 BC – Complete temple in Rome. Start monastery. Scout Madrid with woodsman II praet. I’m gonna need city raider promotions to take it, since it’s on a hill and has 3 archers.
425 BC – Moving towards Madrid. The praetorian that is already there kills an archer guarding horses.
375 BC – City raider I doesn’t look like it’s enough, so I move to attack Barcelona to level up.
350 BC – Isabella is the most cultured civ in the world.
325 BC – Finish Praetorian in Rome, start pyramids. I have no idea if I can get this or if I’ll even really try, but I’ve already got a bunch of praetorians. Next turn construction comes in and I’ll build a few catapults, at least. Attack Barcelona, kill archer but redline my city raider I praetorian.
300 BC – Finish construction. Start alphabet. I want hereditary rule for happiness in Rome, but I figure I’ll go for alphabet and see if I can trade. Swap Rome from pyramids to catapult. Attack and destroy Barcelona. I plan to do a lot of conquering and I don’t want my economy mired down with mediocre sites.
125 BC – Catapult is slowly making it’s way to Madrid. Woodsman II Praetorian dies trying to attack archer in forest at 86% odds. L
100 BC – Discover alphabet. Start monarchy. Trade code of laws to Victoria for archery and polytheism. Pyramids expected in 9 turns.
75 BC – Bismark completes pyramids.
50 BC – Catapult finally arrives outside Madrid. Meanwhile, barbarians have started sending axemen. start Praetorian in rome.
25 BC – Praetorian finishes, start settler. I’m planning to settle south of the capital by the river and run a bunch of cottages.
50 AD – I finally bomb madrid’s defenses down to 0%.
125 AD – Finish Hereditary rule. Start horseback riding. Capture Madrid.
200 AD – starting to get war weariness. Swap to hereditary rule to counter. I notice an archer and a warrior heading towards my third city (Cumae, to the south). Next turn I see a barbarian swordsman on his way, which is more of a problem.
250 AD – Spanish units are kind enough to suicide against the Praetorian in Cumae, which gives me enough experience to upgrade to shock, which will help against the swordsman attack next turn. Moses is born in London.
275 AD – Madrid comes out of resistance, starving, with 3 angry citizens who yearn to join their motherland. Once I wipe out the last Spanish city they should be happier J. Whip an obelisk to get horses in range and take care of the starvation. I thought it was going to cost 2 citizens but it looks like it took more. Oh well.
300 AD – Izzy is asking for peace. She offers me monotheism, but no dice. Finish Coliseum in Rome, start catapult. Whipped obelisk completes in Madrid, start granary. My stack arrives at what I hope is Izzy’s last city.
325 AD – Raze Seville. The Spanish Civilization has been destroyed.
375 AD – Finish Literature, Start Currency. Train Confucian Missionary in Rome, start great library. Finish catapult in Antium, start praetorian. Popped a source of copper by Antium. Send Confucian missionary towards Madrid. Looking at it now, it probably won’t succeed, as Madrid is the home of the HinBudJewism Hydra. I fight some barbarians and create another woodsman II praetorian. I was making a road to Cumae, but I realize it’s connected to my capital by a river so it doesn’t really need it.
450 AD – The Confucian missionary actually succeeds spreading the religion in Madrid.
475 AD – Great prophet born in Rome. I see two of Victoria’s cities that are defended by only archers.
520 AD – Demand sailing from Victoria, then declare war. Build Kong Miao in Antium.
540 AD – Finish Currency. Start music.
560 AD – Got horses by Madrid hooked up. Start building horse archers (mainly since they can get to the front lines faster).
580 AD – Finish great library in Rome. Destroy Canterbury.
620 AD – Capture Angle
660 AD – Get a peek at English city of Nottingham. 4 un-upgraded archers, a spear, and a sword. Trade Meditation and Code of laws to Bismark for Calendar. This will mean I can’t build obelisks to pop the borders of captured cities, but I figure I’ll just whip or chop out libraries instead.
700 AD – Finish Music. I still don’t want to get machinery as that will mean I’ll have to build macemen instead of Praetorians. Maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing, but I want to head along the top of the tech tree to military tradition and cavalry. So I start Philosophy. I finish my very first archery unit in Antium. Angle comes out of resistance, set it to Library. I got the great artist from Music, and I look at what he can research. If I have Drama (4 turns), Monotheism (1 turn), and Theology (7 turns), and Divine Right (17 turns), he would then give me Nationalism (25 turns). Doesn’t seem like a great tradeoff. I send him to Madrid so if I want to culture bomb, he’ll be closer by.
720 AD – City raider III Praetorian dies attacking Nottingham at 99% odds!! I’m debating starting a war with Bismark while I’m not yet finished with Victoria. I think I’ll hold off at least till I have more units in the North ready to attack.
740 AD – Declare war on Bismark
760 AD – I receive word that Cologne has been sacked by the barbarian state. I decide to go ahead and build the heroic epic in Rome. It’s only 5 turns and I’ll get military units almost twice as fast.
780 AD – Destroy Frankfurt.
860 AD – Bismark kills two of my horse archers outside Hamburg. I finish heroic epic in Rome, start Confucian academy to combat war weariness. Destroy newly founded English city of Coventry.
920 AD – Research Philosophy, found Taoism in Cumae. Start Nationalism. Rome has 3 angry people, I send a newly created Praetorian down from Antium to help out.
960 AD – I’m not doing great against Bismark and now I see he has longbows. I go ahead and make peace for one gold per turn. Unfortunately he wouldn’t give me monotheism or feudalism.
1030 AD – Begin Assault on London. Catapult withdraws
1040 AD – Another Catapult withdraws.
1050 AD – Take and burn London, with pretty heavy losses
1060 AD – I make peace with Victoria. War weariness is getting to me and I need to rebuild my army. I get monotheism and 30 gold. I get monotheism and revolt to organized religion. This is mainly so I can build missionaries in Madrid to spread the religions to Rome to build monasteries to get the research bonus there. I think I may actually attack Bismark next, since I have a stack closer to him.
1080 AD – Pop gems in Rome!
1150 AD – POP ANOTHER ONE!!! Gold near Rome.
1180 AD – Discover Nationalism, set research to Military tradition
1190 AD – Barbarians are getting restless in the south of the map. I’ve got a half-decent stack ready to attack, so I go ahead and declare on Bismark.
1200 AD – Barbarians capture Cumae! I get a peak at Berlin, and it’s defended by only 2 longbowmen and a spearman. Of course, the stack coming for it is fairly puny too. Hamburg is also fairly lightly defended, but I’ve got 5 catapults and 5 praetorians coming its way.
1210 AD – Bismark attacked my stack with a catapult. But he had to move out of the city to do so, so even though it withdrew I can kill it.
1220 AD – I destroy the barbarian city of Visigoth. Now I need to take back Cumae.
1250 AD – Pop a great scientist in Rome. Use him to build academy. The attack on Hamburg is ready to begin. I send in 5 suicide catapults. 2 of them actually withdraw. This clears the way for me to take the city with no further casualties. I go ahead and raze the city.
1260 AD – For the attack on Berlin, I only have 3 catapults. Is that going to be enough… I guess we’ll see. And I take heavy losses but do capture Berlin. Having captured two cities, I think now might be a good time to declare peace and regroup. However, Bismark refuses to speak to me. I take back Cumae, but it needs a library again.
1270 AD – Bismark will speak with me, but will not give me any of his 3 technologies (Feudalism, Theology, Metal Casting) for peace.
1320 AD – Berlin finally comes under my control.
1330 AD – Complete Military Tradition. Hooray for 15 strength cavalry. Start research on Drama (1 turn) so I can adjust cultural rate to compensate for war weariness.
1340 AD – Complete Drama. Start Feudalism. Victoria was fighting barbarians and there’s a weak swordsman I can attack. So I declare on her. I’ve been planning on upgrading my horse archers to cavalry, but for some reason it won’t let me. I check the Civilopedia and Doh! I have to get gunpowder too. At this point I will probably get cavalry too late for them to help me much, but I set research to paper->education->gunpowder anyway. Since I’m now at war with Victoria, my citizens are weary of war. I up the culture rate to 20% to compensate.
1370 AD – Defenses of Munich reduced to 0%. I have a decent stack outside. Next turn I will attack.
1380 AD – Finish research on Paper, start on education. Destroy all units in Munich except two catapults. I have two catapults that could attack but I decide not to at 78% odds.
1390 AD – I destroy the city of Dortmund. I had 4 catapults and one Praetorian, against one city defense II longbow and an axeman. I lose 3 catapults but it’s worth it I think. I am about to take Munich but I have to decide if I want to keep it or raze it. I decide I might as well keep it.
1400 AD – Bismark will give me Feudalism, World map, and 80 gold for peace. War weariness is starting to get to me, and his world map will let me know exactly where I need to attack him in 10 turns. So I sign peace. He’s got 2 cities left, Cologne and Essen
1420 AD – Victoria has been attacking Munich, and has killed both of my medics there. I’ve got another praetorian on the way that I can upgrade to medic.
1460 AD – Woodsman II praetorian gets a peak at a fairly lightly defended York. Hopefully it’s the last English city
1480 AD – Victoria comes offering peace. She’s willing to give me 10 gold per turn, but I decline. Finish researching education. Start building university in Antium. Looks like Victoria has another city south of York.
1490 AD – Barbarians have been minorly annoying so I’m sending out some scouts as fog busters.
1500 AD – Finish Notre Dame in Rome. I’m ready to attack York. It’s a city on a hill with a city garrison II longbow. I take a few losses but am able to take the city. I burn it.
1530 AD – I burn Warwick, and have now destroyed the English civilization. I demand 50 gold from Bismark, which he gives me. Then I declare war on him. I advance on Essen and find that it’s only defended by one longbowman… but it’s a city defense III longbowman!
1535 AD – Bismark founds the city of Stuttgart on a hill.
1540 AD – Being an idiot, I advance my two Accuracy catapults on Cologne. Bismark kills both of them.
1545 AD – Bismark has a horse archer and city raider III swordsman coming for Madrid.
1550 AD – I kill Bismark’s horse archer outside Madrid. Bismark’s swordsman attacks the city and dies.
1565 AD – Train my first cavalry in Rome. I raze Stuttgart.
1570 AD – Reduce defenses of Essen to 0%. My odds are still only 21.7% with my City raider III praetorian. I’ve got 4 praetorians though, so I go ahead and attack. I attack with the city raider III, which dies, but he clears the way for the rest to attack with no losses.
1575 AD – I get my first look at the defenses of Essen.
1585 AD – it looks like Bismark may have another city his is sending reinforcements from.
1610 AD – Defenses of Cologne are down to 0%. I’ve got a combat II Cavalry ready to attack with 68.6% odds, so I go ahead. He dies, but takes the longbowman down to 3.4 health. I take and burn Cologne. Bismark is still alive so apparently I was correct surmising that he has another city somewhere.
1615 AD – I find the city of Teoihuacan, which is german. By “find”, I mean “notice on the map.” Looks like bismark took over a barbarian city. Hopefully it’s his only one. Checking the trade screen seems to confirm that it is, as no cities are listed available to trade.
1630 AD – Horse archer arrives at Teoihuacan. Attack and destroy the longbowman. Two more to go.
1640 AD – Attack and destroy Teoihuacan.
1645 AD – Conquest victory win.

It took a lot longer to wipe out my opponents than I had initially planned. By the time I was ready to attack, I found that Isabella had enough defenses that I had to get catapults before attacking. I could have gotten Praetorians much earlier if I had not had to wait for my second city to border pop before getting iron. I think a stronger move would have been to found my second city south of Rome, near the River. I would have had access to iron at least 20 turns earlier. Had I done this, I might not have been able to pull off the Oracle / Civil Service slingshot. Still, I feel like I would have been able to pull off an earlier win.

Based on what I’ve learned, my plan for Epic Six (Always War) will be to start conquering earlier, at some cost to my economy / research. Will this be the right decision? I’ll have to play to find out, and you’ll have to wait for my report.