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I've been lurking the forum for many months now and have learned alot, thanks for all those tasty threads guys ;p. I beat the game pretty consistantly on Monarch but I haven't ventured higher yet, mainly due to my aversion to extensive warmongering. I'm a peaceful bean-counter by nature though some threads in this forum make me feel pretty inadequate ;p. But I'll get to the point. This turned out longer than I had expected, please bear with me.
My last game on Continents I started on a nice medium sized, resource-rich island and decided to play around with a few different starts. The goal is to grow as much as I possibly can horizontally while still executing CS sling. Actually, the final goal is to achieve Spaceship victory (more precisely research the entire tech tree) in as little time as possible. I will describe my start in detail, some of my opening moves and some of the things that still escape me. For this thread I'd like to focus on specifics as much as possible.
I started as Augustus (alas for Catherine in Warlords
), Monarch, Normal Speed. Rome is coastal, two Clams, three flood plains, 2 plains hills, rest is forest plains and grass. As I said I replayed the start several times so for the purposes of this discussion please assume I know I'm on the island right away and fast expanding and fast teching is my goal.
I have several excellent 2nd city prospects. Number One is landlocked site with 6 hills, Corn and Pigs slated to be my hammer city. Number Two is a coastal site with Clams and Pigs it will likely be my GP pump. Number Three is an amazing 3 Gems + 2 Sugars grassland but it is completely covered in jungle, it will have to wait.
First order of business in Rome was easy, build Work Boat and research Bronze Working while emphasizing food. Let the city grow to size 3, whip the boat. Next research Wheel + Pottery asap. ((I still have CS slingshot in mind and I set 1200 BC as the cutoff (it could lose but chances are good)). Now I have my first dilemma: another Boat or Worker (Settler) or Warrior. Another Boat seemed the best choice but I also realized it doesn't have even short-term flexibility of a Worker (duh) meaning that it can only improve one tile while Worker can improve many. So immediately the choice isn't obvious, what would you do?
I went with second Boat while letting my city grow abit more, I'm still waiting for Granaries and Cottages to become available. The plan is to work both Clams, cottage flood plains and get mines up on both hills to use when I'm building Oracle. My capital will have all the food, production, commerce and more importantly flexibility I'll need early on.
I switch to forest tiles for a couple of turns to finish up my Second boat around the time I get Pottery. So far I'm about 30 turns into the game. Techwise, no more time to waste, I'm going Mysticism ->Meditation ->Priesthood. Now my first real hard choice: Granary or Worker or Settler. My population is overgrown and ready for whip again. My 4x player instinct is telling me to go Settler but I also need to complete CS sling and second city will not contribute to that immediately (and may slightly detract). Also, once I have Priesthood I will need something with more hammers than floodplains to build my Oracle
so Worker can't be put off too much longer either. I still only have one Warrior but I can always tag one at the end of the whip order. And Granary is a must very soon too. What would you play?
I went with a Settler, I'm seeing how far I can push growth and still get CoL in time, not worried about Oracle itself, plenty of forests around if need be. I settle the coastal site with Clams and Pigs and get it working on a Boat, I'm hoping that little bit of income that comes with Clams will somewhat offset maintenance.
New build order choice now, Granary or Worker next. I need to get those cottages asap but I also need to stop city growth for a few turns while unhappiness goes away. What would you play?
I whipped the Granary, get a Warrior right after it and started on a Worker. After he pops out I start on the Oracle, it's around 1800 BC, I'm about 15 turns away from CoL. Worker goes to mine the hills (and chopping forest on that hill). Whip unhappiness is fading but I'm still only working food tiles so I'll be overgrown soon. Second city whipped the Boat and started on Granary, should I have gotten Granary first there?
As soon as my city overgrows and gets unhappy I put in another Settler and after a couple of turns poprush him too. My working is chopping down another forest to make up for time lost on Oracle. I will have to drop my research to 80% or below but I almost have CoL.
I get CS slingshot complete in 1120 BC two turns after my already risky planned date. Too close for comfort, in truth I got lucky there. I have 3 cities each defended with a warrior (I need more defenders asap, barbs are coming). My capital is pretty robust and my expansion cities are growing fast. I could really use more workers if I could squeeze them in somewhere and I also need a Library asap. Perhaps I should've whipped a Library instead of my 2nd Settler but as I said the goal was to see what I could get away with, I didn't have Writing just yet at the time anyway. What could I improve?
Now for some more general questions. Should I have gotten my first Worker sooner, i.e before my first Boat? Should have even tried to go Settler first? Given my ultimate goal of blowing through the tech tree as quickly as possible in the relative safety of an island, should I even have bothered with CS slingshot or focused even more on expansion? Alternatively would it have been better to grow vertically longer given that I didn't *need* to land grab, land would still be there when I needed it. My own reasoning was to get as many cities on the ground fast, get them growing sooner and get them to start contributing beakers sooner but I don't understand the game's math enough to be sure.
In short, I invite any and all comments that you might have and thank you if you did manage to read through to the end
.
My last game on Continents I started on a nice medium sized, resource-rich island and decided to play around with a few different starts. The goal is to grow as much as I possibly can horizontally while still executing CS sling. Actually, the final goal is to achieve Spaceship victory (more precisely research the entire tech tree) in as little time as possible. I will describe my start in detail, some of my opening moves and some of the things that still escape me. For this thread I'd like to focus on specifics as much as possible.
I started as Augustus (alas for Catherine in Warlords
), Monarch, Normal Speed. Rome is coastal, two Clams, three flood plains, 2 plains hills, rest is forest plains and grass. As I said I replayed the start several times so for the purposes of this discussion please assume I know I'm on the island right away and fast expanding and fast teching is my goal. I have several excellent 2nd city prospects. Number One is landlocked site with 6 hills, Corn and Pigs slated to be my hammer city. Number Two is a coastal site with Clams and Pigs it will likely be my GP pump. Number Three is an amazing 3 Gems + 2 Sugars grassland but it is completely covered in jungle, it will have to wait.
First order of business in Rome was easy, build Work Boat and research Bronze Working while emphasizing food. Let the city grow to size 3, whip the boat. Next research Wheel + Pottery asap. ((I still have CS slingshot in mind and I set 1200 BC as the cutoff (it could lose but chances are good)). Now I have my first dilemma: another Boat or Worker (Settler) or Warrior. Another Boat seemed the best choice but I also realized it doesn't have even short-term flexibility of a Worker (duh) meaning that it can only improve one tile while Worker can improve many. So immediately the choice isn't obvious, what would you do?
I went with second Boat while letting my city grow abit more, I'm still waiting for Granaries and Cottages to become available. The plan is to work both Clams, cottage flood plains and get mines up on both hills to use when I'm building Oracle. My capital will have all the food, production, commerce and more importantly flexibility I'll need early on.
I switch to forest tiles for a couple of turns to finish up my Second boat around the time I get Pottery. So far I'm about 30 turns into the game. Techwise, no more time to waste, I'm going Mysticism ->Meditation ->Priesthood. Now my first real hard choice: Granary or Worker or Settler. My population is overgrown and ready for whip again. My 4x player instinct is telling me to go Settler but I also need to complete CS sling and second city will not contribute to that immediately (and may slightly detract). Also, once I have Priesthood I will need something with more hammers than floodplains to build my Oracle
so Worker can't be put off too much longer either. I still only have one Warrior but I can always tag one at the end of the whip order. And Granary is a must very soon too. What would you play?I went with a Settler, I'm seeing how far I can push growth and still get CoL in time, not worried about Oracle itself, plenty of forests around if need be. I settle the coastal site with Clams and Pigs and get it working on a Boat, I'm hoping that little bit of income that comes with Clams will somewhat offset maintenance.
New build order choice now, Granary or Worker next. I need to get those cottages asap but I also need to stop city growth for a few turns while unhappiness goes away. What would you play?
I whipped the Granary, get a Warrior right after it and started on a Worker. After he pops out I start on the Oracle, it's around 1800 BC, I'm about 15 turns away from CoL. Worker goes to mine the hills (and chopping forest on that hill). Whip unhappiness is fading but I'm still only working food tiles so I'll be overgrown soon. Second city whipped the Boat and started on Granary, should I have gotten Granary first there?
As soon as my city overgrows and gets unhappy I put in another Settler and after a couple of turns poprush him too. My working is chopping down another forest to make up for time lost on Oracle. I will have to drop my research to 80% or below but I almost have CoL.
I get CS slingshot complete in 1120 BC two turns after my already risky planned date. Too close for comfort, in truth I got lucky there. I have 3 cities each defended with a warrior (I need more defenders asap, barbs are coming). My capital is pretty robust and my expansion cities are growing fast. I could really use more workers if I could squeeze them in somewhere and I also need a Library asap. Perhaps I should've whipped a Library instead of my 2nd Settler but as I said the goal was to see what I could get away with, I didn't have Writing just yet at the time anyway. What could I improve?
Now for some more general questions. Should I have gotten my first Worker sooner, i.e before my first Boat? Should have even tried to go Settler first? Given my ultimate goal of blowing through the tech tree as quickly as possible in the relative safety of an island, should I even have bothered with CS slingshot or focused even more on expansion? Alternatively would it have been better to grow vertically longer given that I didn't *need* to land grab, land would still be there when I needed it. My own reasoning was to get as many cities on the ground fast, get them growing sooner and get them to start contributing beakers sooner but I don't understand the game's math enough to be sure.
In short, I invite any and all comments that you might have and thank you if you did manage to read through to the end
.
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