AU100-A DAR Index

[Cort Haus]

We can use a thread to post links to our DAR segments, together with a little summary. This makes reviewing one persons game easier, and hopefully an overview of all the games.

[Cort Haus]

DAR 1 - Opening
DAR 2 - Rest of Ancient Era
DAR 3 - Classical Era
DAR 4 - Medieval Era
DAR 5 - Renaissance Era
DAR 6 - Industrial Era
DAR 7 - Modern Era

Level : Prince
Opening : Oracle -> CS Slingshot
Outcome : Diplomatic Victory, ~1924 vs Germany
Friends : Egypt, Germany, England
Enemies : Spain, Mongolia
Religion : Discovered Confucianism but never converted. Built shrine and spread to England & Egypt for income.

Wars
First Mongolian : Defend and Pillage, allied to Egypt & Germany (took one city which was a salient into my territory)
First Spanish : Defend & Choke, allied to Germany
Second Mongolian : Sledgehammer & Destroy, gifted cities to Egypt & Germany
Second Spanish : Sledgehammer & Capture Cities, then let Germany destroy, allied to Egypt and Germany

DAR1 Builds : Worker, Warrior, Worker, Warrior, Library, Settler
DAR1 Techs : Animal Husbandry, Mining, Writing, Mysticism, Meditation,
The Wheel, Priesthood, Bronze Working (from hut), Code of Laws

[DeepO]

Good idea!

I'll edit my DARs in here once I get around of finishing the game. It takes for ever to document everything, however it is worth it...

Maybe a good idea to include in your summary which religions you got too. They say a lot of the path you took.

DeepO

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by DeepO

Maybe a good idea to include in your summary which religions you got too. They say a lot of the path you took.

Done. And wars.

[Arrian]

DAR I

DAR 2

DAR 4 (there is no 3)

DAR 5

DAR6

DAR 7, Part I

DAR 7, Part II

Level : Prince
Opening : Oracle -> CS Slingshot
Outcome : SS victory, 1963.
Friends : England was the one constant. Bismark was generally pleased w/me. Egypt liked me until I killed them. Mongolia went from annoyed to pleased to cautious to pleased.
Enemies : Spain, Arabs.
Religion : Founded Confucianism and Taoism. Only ever built the Confucian shrine, and only really tried to spread Confucism, which I did fairly successfully (including every English city). Was partly thwarted by Mongolia's LONG useage of theocracy.

Wars

1) Spain. She attacked me. I killed her invasion force, razed a city and captured another. Then I made peace for ~500 gold.

2) Arabia. Faux war. The Mongols destroyed Arabia proper, but Saladin had 2 island cities (sugar island) that Ghengis just couldn't seem to deal with. Probably b/c Ghengis had only 2 coastal cities (one of which was garbage), and they were pretty much as far from that sugar island as possible - to the extent ghengis even had a galleon, it would've taken a while to bring troops over. Anyway, Ghengis asked nicely, so I agreed, never intending to do anything about it. I made peace not too long after.

3) Egypt. I invaded with Tanks, Infantry & Bombers against Rifles, Grenadiers & Cavalry. Captured 6 cities, razed one. Egypt destroyed.

4) Those two cities were still around after I had destroyed Egypt. I had a tank with 15/17 XP. Saladin had sugar. Killing him was easy. It was kinda like going out of my way to destroy an ant hill in Africa [/Contact reference].

DAR1 Builds :

Worker
Warrior
Settler-scout-settler*
Warrior
Settler
Library-oracle-library

* - start settler, switch to scout, back to settler

DAR 1 techs:

Animal (got from hut part-way through)
Wheel
Mining
Hunting
Writing
Beeline to Priesthood
Code of Laws

Hut results: maps, tech (Animal), gold, gold, gold, gold (the latter ones coming MUCH later on islands).

Things I thought I did well

Oracle CS slingshot.

Expansion vs. Consolidation/buildup. I feel my empire was never over-stretched (I briefly hit 40% science and rebounded quickly) due to expansion, and I think I did a good job of growing vertically as well as laterally.

Early defense - I identified Mongol Keshiks or Spanish WE's as early threats and forced myself to build some spearmen to go along with other units.

Warfare in general. I fought off the Spanish attack and put a hurtin' on Isabella, and I crushed Egypt.

Exploration, 2nd expansion - first to circumnavigate, settled 4 nice cities on islands.

Spreading my religion - Confucism was spread to all English cities, gaining me a good ally/trading partner. I also spread it to southern Egypt and a few Mongol cities before the Mongols closed their borders & adopted Theocracy.

City specialization. I actually had a few cities that were tasked to do basically 1-2 things and they stuck to it all game long. This marks an improvement for me.

Things I thought I did poorly

Early expansion/city placement: I failed to expand agressively enough to the northeast, thus losing the ivory spot to Spain. I also think I built one of my core cities 1 tile over from where it should have been, but that's pretty minor.

Early builds - just one thing, really: New York built two warriors right off the bat, which wasn't bad, but I really should have stuck a worker in-between. My first worker found himself overstretched and at one point I realized I was working far too many undeveloped tiles (2 in Washington, while building a wonder!!).

Early wonders - I failed to get some big-time early wonders like the Pyramids, Great Lighthouse and Hanging Gardens. The Parthenon I knew I wouldn't get b/c I had no marble and no intention of really making an effort for it.

Great People - I got a bunch, having run pacifism and all, but I still find myself getting them and going "oh, cool, I got a great whatever, hmm, what should I do with him?" instead of saying "ok, I should be getting a great whatever soon so I can do X with him."

Civic management - Switching civics in the midst of a Golden Age. Brilliant. Other than that little oops, I thought I did ok.

Things I'm just not sure about

Golden Ages - I triggered three, two of which were from GP. The second, costing me 3 GP, may not have been worth it.

Forbidden Palace placement - I built mine in a city quite close to Washington (Chicago). By then I had courthouses pretty much everywhere, so I'm unclear that the FP really did anything outside of Chicago. Maybe I should have built it in Los Angeles (southwestern penninsula)? Then again, placement may have been largely irrelevant, given the size and shape of my empire. As I've noted elsewhere, my city placement was relatively tight - I packed in 13-14 cities without really pushing to the northeast at all... Washington was quite central to the empire. There was no obvious FP spot. I suppose I could have waited until I settled my island cities and built the FP in what I called the East Indies...

-Arrian

[khearn]

Originally posted by Arrian
Egypt liked me until I killed them.

That would tend to put a damper on the relationship.

[Arrian]

Yup. I was a real bastard to Happy. I wanted aluminium, and I had two choices:

1) Hit the Egyptians, while continuing to pump culture into a city I'd snuck in formerly Arab lands; or

2) Attack & raze a size1 English city in formerly Arab lands and replace it with my own (which would then be surrounded by Egypt/Mongolia/Germany and difficult to defend. This would ruin relations with my best friend.

Egypt had Versailles and was militarily weak.

-Arrian

[g_storrow]

Originally posted by Arrian
DAR I

Opening : Oracle -> CS Slingshot

-Arrian

Sorry if this is a noob question 2 people have mention the Oracle CS slingshot. What is it? And why is it so good.

[sabrewolf]

i think it means taking the expensive tech "civil service" with the oracle.
good stuff: lots of culture from the oracle; free expensive tech; civil service is a core tech that allows new civivs and opens up tech branches.

[Arrian]

Yeah. The slingshot involves getting to Code of Laws before completing the Oracle, so you can grab Civil Service for free. Code of Laws founds Confucism, so there's your religion. It also allows caste system, which is nice. Civil Service allows Bureacracy, which is huge.

One of the ways to do this involves build a library and using scientist specialists to help you get to CoL in time. Using the specialists will get you Great Scientist points and when you get a GS, you can use him to put an academy in your capitol (+50% science. Library is +25%, IIRC. Then bureacracy will add another 50%... it's pretty sweet).

Of course, in order to do this, you will be hampering your early expansion/military.

-Arrian

[Dubhghlas]

I'm guessing you don't do this with Genghis for a neighbor, much.

[Arrian]

Well, in this game Ghengis was a neighbor, and I pulled off the Oracle CS slingshot. I was playing on Prince, so I imagine as I increase in difficulty level this will get tougher and tougher to do, and my military vulnerability while doing it will be exploited more by the AI.

I was not, however, a total military pushover in AU101, even early on. I went out of my way to make my second city a troop-town, precisely because of Ghengis and Isabella (I was actually just as concerned about crusader girl as I was Ghengis, and as it turned out Ghengis never messed with me, whereas Isabella attacked me).

-Arrian

[Cort Haus]

As soon as I saw that Izzie & Gengis were neighbours, I resolved not to take up my state religion. This didn't entirely solve my problems with those guys, as much as help relations with the other civs on our continent, who I allied with in numerous wars against the two belligerants.

In this game there was plenty of land to expand into without drawing long borders with Those Two, which also helped a bit.

[kptb]

My first AU course

This is my first AU course and my first game on noble difficulty. As I expect I will make many mistakes and any comments are welcome.


Ancient I
Ancient II
Classical
Medieval
Renaissance

[Artuero]

Summary of Artuero’s AU-100A Game (DAR Links at end)

Noble Difficulty

Final Result: Diplomatic victory in 1980 (9528/Shaka Zulu)

Wars

Sack of Madrid (3040 B.C.) results in Americans eliminating the Spaniards sole city and the holy city of Buddhism.

Redemption of Angle (525 B.C.) occurs when American warriors take the city of Angle from the barbarians.

First Genghistic War (150 B.C.-200 A.D.) consists of marauding of American lands by Mongolian forces and ends with Genghis Khan’s extortion of technology from Americans.

Second Genghistic War (1320 – 1540) is another foray by Mongol forces into American lands for pillaging. Pillaging is relatively successful. Khan gets overconfident and sends significant mounted forces against American cities. The cities strong cultural defenses and spearmen’s skills against mounted units break the Mongol attacks. America too weak to counterstrike however and accepts peace and 260 gold from Khan.

Final Genghistic War (1655-1892) spans the entire industrial era and some of the modern era and involves forces ranging from longbowmen and Keshik to cavalry and cannon. The initial phase of the war involves more marauding by Mongols of American lands. The turning point occurs when Americans develop armed cavalry and use it to break the siege of Madrid (1720). Hatshepsut orders Egyptian forces to harass Khan’s rear at this time. Shortly thereafter, American cavalry, aided by a small number of cannon, invade Mongolia and rapidly seize three Mongol border cities. Khan’s remaining three cities are heavily defended but primarily with outdated units. Methodically, America’s invasion force seizes each remaining city. America tries and fails to take Mongol capital of Karakorum twice (1840, 1866) but succeed on the third attempt in 1870. America finally destroys the Mongols at Beshbalik in 1892.

Non-American Wars: The only significant wars that I noted were between Saladin and Hatshepsut who fought two wars in the industrial and modern timeframe. The first war was inconclusive but the second saw Hatshepsut overrun at least three Arabian cities beginning in the 1970s. She likely would have continued if I had not been elected the leader of the world.

Summary of DARs

DAR 1 (4000 B.C. to 1520 B.C.) - The early game was all about religion. The Americans founded Hinduism (3320 B.C.) and Judaism (c. 2000 B.C.), and captured Madrid where Buddhism was founded by Isabella in 3640 B.C. Founded New York (1880 B.C.).

DAR 2 (1520 B.C. to 875 B.C.) – Stonhenge built in Washington (1360 B.C.). Great road project, connecting the three cities of the empire, completed in 1160 B.C. Boston founded (975 B.C.) Alphabet discovered (875 B.C.).

DAR 3 (Classical Era, 875 B.C. to 175 A.D.) – Americans found Confucianism (350 B.C.). First Genghistic War starts in 150 B.C. England builds pyramids in 50 B.C. Egypt builds parthanon in 1 A.D. Americans found Christianity (175 A.D).

DAR 4 (MedievalEra, 175-1160) – Americans buy peace from Mongols by teaching them monotheism (200). Americans found Taoism (500). Great lighthouse built in New York (980). Philadelphia founded (1110).

DAR 5 (Renaissance, 1160-1655) – Americans build Notre Dame (1270). Second Genghistic War (1320-1540). Elizabeth establishes contact with Americans (1540). Mongols circumnavigate globe (1575). Americans still at only six cities when they discover steam power.

DAR 6 (Industrial Era, 1655-1884) – Final Genghistic War begins (1655). Battle of Madrid turns tide of war in favor of Americans (1720). Americans seize five Mongol cities (1730-1870). Americans build Statue of Liberty (1840). Saladin builds Taj Mahal (1870). It is the last non-American World Wonder built.

DAR 7 (Modern Era, 1884-1980) – Americans destroy remaining Mongols at Beshbalik (1892). Revolts in conquered cities of Beshbalik and Karakorum (1892-1898). Americans and English conclude Treaty of Mutual Defense (1898). Karakorum defects to Arabia while Beshbalik revolts but remains loyal (1930). Artuero wins U.N. chair (1955). Seventh Holy Shrine (Church of the Nativity) completed on American Soil (1959). Garrisons upgraded to mechanized infantry (1960). Americans launch worlds’ first satellite (1963). Americans launch their first naval unit (espionage submarine) (1965). Americans complete Apollo Program, joining Germany in the space race (1975). Americans found Atlanta (1978). U.N. vote surprises Artuero and gives him ultimate power over the entire world (1980).

Summary of Final Results