The Devel's Workshop 1a - Beyond the Veil (After the Slingshot)

[Velociryx]

Power comparison.....

[Velociryx]

The power of the "cash lock"

[Velociryx]

1734 AD - Paying the Aztec a visit.... (note the research level and profits per turn....)

[Velociryx]

Assets of the Empire.....

[Velociryx]

Final Demographics....

[Velociryx]

And the victory dance....

[arvcran]

Brutal !! :-D

Am still curious to know what that thought was near the beginning of the game when you were eyeing the Antium Bronze site. (or did I miss it?)

I will have to make better use of trading techs in the future and using the statistics to leverage cash flow while maintaining research leads.

Very nice workshop indeed.

Thanks Vel!

[Velociryx]

Glad you enjoyed! As to the "unusual thought" that would be in the placement of Antium itself. I broke the "golden rule" of city placement by NOT placing my second city on the coast.

On the other hand, by placing it in an unorthodox position, I snagged the copper early, without having to resort to putting the settler further north, in the less-attractive city site.

-=Vel=-

[xxFlukexx]

Man, you know I read this and for the life of me I just don't get it. Maybe it's bad luck with the map generator but my experiences on Emperor are just nothing like this. I mean I didn't see you mention barbarians once except for that early archer and late on another archer, that's it just 2 archers? I didn't see much warrior fog removers either, did you barely get any barbarians before you hooked up copper? That getting BW in a hut and finding copper early also has me going nuts, man what luck, I can't even remember the last time I got my initial warrior up to Woodsman II, and he fights exclusively on +50% defensive terrain. You got Iron in your cap as Rome, man oh man, I'm pulling my hair out here Vel, how the heck do you get such great maps. And I'm not even mentioning other stuff like Monty, Tokugawa, and Napolean on a different continent, Isabella is kind of bad, but not when she attacks you early on like an idiot (if she had waited until she got Conqs....) How are you able to trade with everyone during the Renaissance, don't they make demands and stop trading with you (especially when no one is following your religion for most of the game) Man, how does Spain attack India instead of you, I think I remember 1 game out of 30 where an agressive civ declared war on someone other than me first.

I've been trying a few continents games to see if I can get an easier Emperor experience and all I've been getting are alone starts or basically me and 5-6 others on one big continent ala pangaea. Man it seems so easy when I read posts by you Vel, but then I start a game and man AI builds Oracle by 1400 BC (new record for an AI I've seen) oh no 4-5 barbarians by 2000 BC, oh no no copper and starting next to Alex, etc. And how did you get so much open land to be settled? In my last game I got 3 decent cities, but that's it before I got completely boxed in(by 2 creative civs even worse yuck), I could've gotten a 4th city but it would not have had many workable squares.

Although my first and only Monarch/Marathon game was extremely easy, maybe that's the case. Or maybe it's because I am trying to win a game as Mao instead of my favorite Civs. I was going to post my recent loss(did alright actually) but got sidetracked by this post, hehe. Now it's all 1:45am and I have to work tommorrow and all, maybe Ill post it like tommorrow night, because I need help and I'm losing my mind.

Oh yeah, great post and all that. Dunno how someone would screw up on that map, but it is still an excellent read for anyone who is having trouble on Monarch and below.

*anxiously awaits the bad start workshop*

[Velociryx]

Hiya Fluke...nahhh, there were a couple more issues with barbarians, but none of them were particularly noteworthy, and the Archer at the city site was definitely the most "nervy" of the bunch (cos had that attack failed, I'd have been sorely set back).

The only other one that sorta-kinna had the blood pumping was when 3 warriors and 2 archers showed up at the same time, but even that wasn't too bad, since the attacks were not coordinated, so really...nope. No serious barb troubles to speak of. Couple of attacks before the copper, and a few more afterward, but the attacks that came afterward definitely weren't worth mentioning.

BW from the hut...TWICE no less! I know....that one has my head spinning, but it's not the first time I've gotten lucky techs like that. In my second play-thru of the AU 100 course, I got both bronze AND iron from huts....now THAT kicked!

Warrior promotion....most of the time (maybe six turns altogether where this wasn't so), 50% plus defensive terrain is where my warrior STAYED. He rarely left the forest, which heavily weighted the fights in his favor of course (which was all part of that particular plan... )

Monty/Toku/Boney all on other continents....that was just a pure lucky break, no doubt about it! Bunch of raving psychos....

Isabella....she's just as bad as the other three, and here, my saving grace was that Ghandi was closer and they were competing for the same turf. Had our physical locations been reversed, I am sure that I'd have been the first target of her anger....no matter tho, when she declared war, my "army" (not counting garrisons) consisted of all of three Praetorians, but we still managed to fight our way to the top of the heap!

Trading during the Renaissance: After those first rounds of trading in the ancient era, I only traded with the AI's sporadically (and mostly to off-load what were, for me, older techs for cash)....there were a few odds and ends I picked up from them (Divine Right, Monarchy, Engineering), but by and large, once we hit the Renaissance tree and beyond, all the techs were paid for out of my own research. There just wasn't a whole lot of tech trading going on....at least not between me and the AI's.

And no worries...the bad start stuff is next on the list!

-=Vel=-

[fed1943]

Beautiful game and beautyful lesson.
The only thing I do not understand:why and what for that west fishing cities overlaping the older?
And,much more important,how is your health now?
Best regards,

[Velociryx]

Thank you, Fed!

To answer the question about the fishing city with the border that overlapped Antium....placing it there allowed me to make USE OF (as opposed to just having them inside my cultural borders), two additional special resources (a fish tile, and IIRC, a silk?). Whenever possible, anytime I can squeeze a city in to actually USE a special tile, I like to do that...very good from an effie standpoint, in almost every case (especially after state property rolls around)

Health-wise, I am on the mend! Got to start cardiac rehab next week, which I am not looking forward to, but the worst of the pain is gone now, and I'm feeling much more like my old self!

-=Vel=-

[Druss]

Really nice workshop, excellent in fact

Ramping up research to stay ahead of the AI is really key on the harder levels IMO, well demonstrated here. I tried Monarch for the first time after reading your first guide on cs slingshot. I Couldn't believe that Monarch could turn out so simple as long as I had the research advantage. If one nation decided to declare war on me -I would simply coerce another nation to aid me through a technology bribe, making it much easier to pick and choose when i where i wanted to fight.

One question, for me the whole G-man production seems to lose its way in terms of which type will pop next after the initial 2 scientist/great prophet. Do you generally keep a close eye on who will pop after the first few? or let the gods decide?

Druss

[mutax2003]

Hey Vel,

Thanks for the informative workshop on CS slingshot, it is quite refreshing to see that you are able to get in the lead in GNP so early in the game. Most of the time my GNP would be near the bottom due to rapid expansion. AI sometimes build Oracle pretty early on Emperor games and found confucianism, so I am wondering what you would do if you get beat to the Oracle. Also, with CS slingshot strategy, you would be vulnerable in the early going, especially if you play against humans in multiplayer games. So I am if you play multiplayer games much? If so, could you do a workshop on multiplayer game (i.e small pangaee, 5 players, all victories enabled), would you go CS slingshot or a different strategy. Basically I want to be able to survive the early going, dominate tech all the way through, and then go on a conquest spree when I have superior units (i.e. nothing fun than to shot knights with your tanks).

Regards,

Mutax2003

[Velociryx]

Hey guys! If I miss a question, just hit me over the head with it next time around, okay...

Re: G-Men...after I get the initial ones I need, I don't really care what type pops out...they're all useful in their way, and I'm just glad to get them, so once the opening strategy has given me my "edge," I just happily accept whatever great people come out of the mill....

Re: GNP and expansion....that's the key for me. I'm not saying I base ALL my decisions around what the stats are telling me, but the fact is that you can dig yourself into a TERRIBLE hole by expanding too quickly, and it can haunt you for most of the rest of the game, so in general, I only expand when the stats tell me it's "safe" (or profitable, or whatever)....otherwise, you run too big a risk of shooting yourself in the foot. Much better to let the AI have that city spot and develop it for you, then you can come take it when you're ready.

Re: Missing the Oracle....yep, had I missed it, I would have reliled on G-Men to assist me in getting a headstart on the techs I needed (esp. CS), or, barring that, just plowed thru it the old fashioned way. Slower, to be sure, which means it would have taken a bit longer to get the advantages I eventually had, but I had so much "downtime" where I was just goofing off in this game that I easily could have spared 75, or even a hundred turns.

-=Vel=-