Now for something completely different.

[Hauptman]

(no not really, from me it will always be warmongering)


So my plan. The Ottomans. I love them, their UU and UB both are among the best in the game. But. The big but. You need to use it in a certain way.

Well what I need is massive tech, wich I can instantly turn into hammers when the time is right. The best way to do that is with specialists. One of the 2 Ottoman leaders just happens to be philo. Perfect.


I unfortunatly have to regenerate maps until I get a decent philo start, wich should include an awful lot of food. Other resources are optional, but stone makes things much easier.



Should suit me just fine. Both fish and stone. Perfect.

I spend the early turns getting the fish under use and some workers to get them hills mined.

After cranking out 3 settlers (imperialistic makes this a bit faster) then begin work on the pyramids. A must when using specialist economies. Just for kicks I have a small city start the great wall, and supprisingly It succeeds in finishing it, even at size 3.




After completeing the pyramids and a library my capital is well on its way to being a tech hotbed.



I tech for code of laws, but do to early worker techs, I fail to gain the religion, but it still pays dividends through trades.



Then I tech for Civil Service. A long one, but once my great scientists start comming It speeds up a good amount. I took a moment before to get Aesthetics and literature so I could build the parthenon and great library, wich will help a huge amount in the long run.



They both finish a turn apart.

Then after CS its on to paper, the specialist economy starts paying off well, and the GS are pooring in, making tech rates move real well.




After paper, I am now able to go after education. You'll notice I havent even touched the lower portion of the tech tree beyond iron working.



Once education finishes, I am now able to go after something sweet.




A couple of trades gets me some useful techs, that I really should have gotten sooner.



Then once gunpowder finishes I have the super weapon.



Now I gained this tech when the rest of the world was learning mideval unit techs. My neighbor Darius was one of the most advanced and actually had knights. But with my single unit I was able to conquer him, then monty without that whole mucking about with rock-paper-scissors style combat. When my one unit is specifically designed to kill every other unit on the map and had no weakness. Ahhh what a pretty war that was.

[Guynemer]

That sounds like a fun one. I've never tinked with the Ottomans much. I think I'll try that next game.

[Fleme]

Will you post updates? I'd love to see how it went on from that last screenshot. Did conquering the Buddhist holy city help your economy? With a map that big and having that many buddhist nations I'd assume it was a huge help.

Good plan, that. Would love to see how far you got with Janissaries.

[snoopy369]

Janissaries and Oromo Warriors are some of the most fun units in the game, and really cool because they are improvements over a pretty boring unit that's not used much

[Fleme]

I tried this. Finished Gunpowder research 555 AD (Marathon speed, Monarch) I researched Liberalism and took Gunpowder from that.

Going to wage some war when I wake up Brilliant idea, this. The AI's are just about to get Feudalism. Noone has Guilds or anything. I guess I'll take like 30 turns of buildup and go take them out one by one.

[Aro]

Level, size, settings... Please?

How about the 4000 BC save?

[Fleme]

I'll assume you mean his and not mine

Either way, my game is on a Large Pangaea map with +3 the default number of AI's on Monarch level. No Tech Brokering, Permanent Alliances, Choose Religions, Lock Modified Assets.

I'll post a save if it was my game you were interested in and not his.

[Aro]

Post a save, please... I'm interested in any game where I can learn something.

But I'm not so skilled.. I just play on noble, and not so well. I'm planning to move one level. Suggestions, advices, tips?

[Aro]

In fact, I'll start a "help thread" about my first game on Prince. A "how to..." thread. How to specialize cities? How to plan an early war? How many units in an archer rush?

Not a Deity challenge, not even Emperor (or Emporer)...

A Prince challenge!

[Fleme]

Oh ok. You can download my initial save here and for comparison my current save here

As for the start; I moved 2 tiles west and settled next to the river, having Rice, Pigs and Stone in my BFC. Built 2 warriors. At size 3, I built 2 workers and a settler who settled northeast on the choke point. Capital started building Pyramids. Secondary city builds a warrior and a work boat, then starts on the Great Wall.

I also settled 3 other cities of minor early game importance but they will become more prominent for production purposes as the game progresses. My garrisons up to 555 AD consisted of a few warriors, archers and chariots and most of the time my capital was running up to 4+2 Scientists (rushed GL with a lucky Engineer pop) and my secondary city up to 3. I lightbulbed Philosophy, Paper and Education with scientists and built an academy with one and still have one left over.

Got into no real wars up to this point in my game and that can be considered lucky because of my skeleton garrisons but it was a risk I was willing to take and my third city on a hill was able to take the only invasion i ever faced (a wee stack).

My first and secondary city were specialized for Great People production and for that food resources are vital. The capital has Pigs and Irrigated rice while the second city has 2 Clams, both well suited for maintaining a budding specialist economy. With The Pyramids and Caste System the beaker producion was good at all times and my economy was maintained by selling off technologies such as Philosophy (which yielded a total of 3000 gold) and enabled me to run science at 100% throughout the game, mostly even though I'm running a deficit.

City specialization depends on location and on your personal preference. Cities with food resources are natural choices for either production or great people and it's good to make a decision early so you can start reaping the benefits from the get go. My capital for one never ceased running Scientists ever since I got my Library up and the only worked tiles were the Rice and Pigs along with an irrigated Grassland tile. Those three tiles enable 5 specialists. Alternatively, now that I'm going to start waging war I will cease running specialists and start working the surrounding hills for production. Cities that are good for Great People generation are usually good for production too, just depends on your preference and current needs.

But I digress a bit. I will be helping with your Prince challenge when you post it.

[Hauptman]

Teotichihuan gave me a +60 bonus, was very nice indeed, but only had a marketplace built, so my grocer and bank needed to be built yet. (monty didnt have the techs)

Mansa is a tech powerhouse too, he wasnt far behind me getting education but I still had no trouble getting liberalism first for Astronomy.

I stopped the war at the holy city, but it didnt take too long for monty to try and take it back with zero seige units. Needless to say his knights died by the dozens against my riflemen. He capitulated not soon after.

I then vassalized Byzantium and Carthage (both to appease mansa to curry his favor for an alliance).

Mansa however, even friendly with +30 nicities and -3 unlikies still wont even enter a mutual protection pact, let alone an alliance. Boy did they make that harder in BTS.

The game was monarch level by the way.

As for my save, bah you dont need it, was nothing special about my start other than stone, but I wouldnt have started the game without it beeing accesable (cause Imma cheater.)

[Hauptman]

Oh yeh, also, I had actually not worked any cottages at this point. I had built a couple for my northern coastal city but hadnt worked them so going from 30 - 100% tech had a very minor impact on overall tech rate.

Generally I had 3 specialists active in each city with 6 or so going in my capital. That SS was taken when I was trying to get some buildings built, so I was working some hammers. Right now I have so many SS in my cap, that working hammer tiles has a marginal effect.

2 engineers, 9 scientists, 1 merchant, 1 general and a spy, I think is where I'm at at present for my capital.

Generally speaking, that start blew chunks for a philo game. I maxed out at around 180 gp points. I've had cities generate over 300 gp points per turn. This one just didnt have enough food.

[Krill]

Why doesn't your capital have a granary?

[Hauptman]

Originally posted by Krill
Why doesn't your capital have a granary?

If you look at that first cap SS you'll notice it gets like 1 hammer..

It was zero production for a very long time, wich means, no granary, no temple, no lots of stuff. Once I had settled a few GS and the 2 GE that changed. Now it is one of the best production cities I have, as good as or better than my ironworks city. I took 8 turns to build its factory on marathon speed.

[Fleme]

Same problem with my capital. 3 purely food tiles worked and a total hammer yield of 1. I built a lot of improvements by chopping the nearby forests, though.