AU102 DAR 1 - 4000BC to 1520 BC

[ZargonX]

Post your DARs for this first stretch of time here!

[Arrian]

Well that went badly, in keeping with my day in general:

1) The Yankees lost. Badly. To the Orioles.

2) My slow pitch softball team lost our first playoff game 4-3. Nearly every line drive we hit was directly at a fielder. That sucked.

3) Last weekend I left my CIV & Warlords CDs at a friend's house. He mailed them back to me. I should have received them by now. I have not.

Since I have an extra CIV CD (my courtesy beta tester signed-by-Sid copy ), I decided to try my hand at AU102. I got my ass kicked. I know I've fallen into a pattern with CIV. I know this is bad. Breaking out of it is another matter.

I moved 1 tile west and settled, so as not to waste a floodplain tile. I ordered up a warrior and went for fishing. As soon as I was done with the warrior, I built fishing boats, going for vertical growth. Tech path after fishies, IIRC, was pottery, BW, writing, hunting, archery, mysticism, meditation, priesthood, CoL... you see where this is going, don'tcha?

Anyway, I popped a scout from a hut and this helped for a little while, until he got eaten by a panther. I got some gold from huts, and met a bunch of nasty AI civs. I do recall, at some point, thinking "hey, this isn't all THAT crowded." Silly me.

My 2nd city was not built where I wanted it. The Inca built a city exactly 2 tiles from where I wanted it 1 turn before I could get my city down. Nice neighbor for the Mali - the archer-killing, religion-founding, aggressive Inca. My 3rd city wasn't where I wanted it either, as the french beat me by 1 turn to its planned site.

At this point I was saying nasty things to the computer screen.

I did, in fact, pull off the Oracle CS slingshot. Yay. But the fact that I built both a granary AND a library (poprush assisted, of course) in Timbuktu slowed my settler production and ultimately hurt me more than those builds helped. I coulda ditched the library, at least. My 2nd city, stupidly, also built a granary before getting around to a barracks and units, leaving me rather weak.

A few turns after I hooked up iron, the Inca came for me. I was able - barely - to fend them off for a while, but then Monty decided to join in the fun and I knew I was beaten. That actually takes me up to 25bc.

-Arrian

[notyoueither]

The 'Problem' of Great Starts

I looked at the start, wanted to move one tile West to keep a fp, but didn't want to risk losing the only plains hill in sight. So I settled where I stood. Arggh! another plains hill 'over there'. Oh well.

I went BW first, as I wanted to max the whip and there is a lot to build to get this site 'maxed'. I also was going to have a few warriors while waiting to grow to whip size, so slavery was needed before cottages.

By 3500, I see the neighbours are rather close and of the nasty sort. I'm not sure if this is going to be doable.

Tech went BW>Fishing>Pottery>Hunting>Archery>IW>AHusb>Writing.

Have built warrior x 2, worker x 2, work boat x 2, granery, barracks, skirmisher. I'm going to whip through a second skirm into the first settler.

My strategy is going to be to cozy up to Capac (road to aid spread of Hinduism) and target Monte after 3 cities built. I want to get the gold, a city for the sheep, and one on the S coast to use the iron. Then units and bonking time.

[Smellycowsquid]

Went BW, Hunt-Fish-Arch- then I forget.

Built a couple of warriors, then a fishing boat- worker-skirm, settler- settled 1 of the sheep. I played far ahead 820 A.D.- and am at the top of the score. (After a great war with Capac-which I won)

[V3nom]

difficulty: emperor


When I downloaded this scenario I had already decided to do a skirmisher rush on my nearest/scariest opponent after a detour through fishing to help with some later pop-rushing. To suit this setup I founded my city one tile west on the grassland (same as alot of people).

However by 3840bc this plan had changed hugely as my first two huts (the one to the east which my warrior grabbed, and the one to the south that my border expansion popped) yielded masonary and mysticism. Realising the potential I abandoned hunting and archery in favor of Polytheism and monotheism. (although later hunting was grabbed from another hut)

To best exploit this tactic I was forced to put off my first settler so my capitals initial build order was: warrior, workboat, workboat, settler, settler.

Polytheism I suprisingly managed to grab first (I was predicting I'd miss it but manage Judaism) and after that monotheism was always a sure thing. With two religions founded in my capital (not an easy thing when you dont start with mysticism on emperor)

From here I headed towards a typical CS slingshot in my research: pottery, writing, priesthood, (pause for bronze working) and code of laws started just before the time for this DAR expired.

on 1520 precisely I founded my third city. Cities 2 and 3 were both founded in hilled areas but with access to plentiful food (flood plains for one and an oasis for the other). My second city had produced a warrior (since he was protected by my initial warrior which had then gone to protect my second settler) and was working on my first worker. My third city, despite the fact it was going to be a production city later got straight to work on a library so that I could get an academy in the capital asap.

I realise I'm taking a risk here, if I get attacked early I'm in alot of trouble. I'm relying on the AI to be too busy with their passive expansion at this early stage even with increased aggression levels. after the oracle is done my capital will switch to worker production while my other two cities will produce purely military units for the forseeable future.

summary of my position at 1520:

2 clams have been fish farmed by the capital.
3 cities (including capital) founded.
code of laws being researched with an eta of 17 turns.
Oracle with an eta of 19 turns (a turn will be shaved off with a pop rush).
minimal military established (3 warriors)
2 religions founded.

((btw this is only my second ever DAR and first in a long long time so please dont judge me too harshly if I've done it wrong. Also any comments, questions or critisizm is welcome))

[uffe]

The set-up for this seemed so interesting, that I thought I would try my first AU game.

Since this is my first one, I actually kep a quite detailed "log" of what was going on. So, below is the DAR for my early game.

4000 BC
Move warrior to the hill & establish Timbuktu on the settler starting location. Two huts revealed in the vicinity.
Start build on worker and research on agriculture, followed by pottery. The aim is to make use of the financial trait by building cottages on the flood plains...also some farms for getting maximum use of slavery (thus, bronze working is probably next on the research agenda). As usual, I'll be heading towards the CS Slingshot.

3880 BC
First hut (south-east from Timbuktu) gives hunting. Gold visible east from Timbuktu.

3800 BC
At this point I realize the two clams in the sea next to Timbuktu (was I blind?). Doh, definitely should have gotten fishing first. Oh well, that is a couple of unoptimal turns of research.

3520 BC
Get Bronze Working from the second hut. So far met Monty and the little French fella.
Adopting slavery right away. With the spiritual trait, this is a no-brainer, i.e., no need to delay it for the sake of the worker finishing.

3400 BC
Worker finished. Production switched to warrior until I get Pottery (2 turns left), then switch to Granary.
Met Kublai a while ago.

3320 BC
Finished Pottery and switched research to Writing (libraries ASAP for research & GS production).
Also switched the production of Timbuktu to Granary (hopefully my blood-thirsty neighbours take it easy for
a while longer).
Warrior reveals wheat some distance west from Timbuktu, next to the Incan border (met Hyauna just a turn ago).
I'm going to try to get my next city on the beach next to the river so that the wheat will be inside the fat cross.
Worker building a cottage east of Timbuktu...built a road while waiting for Pottery. The plan is to cottage the
flood plains, and whip for production.

2880 BC
The Warrior wins his second battle (lion, panther) & gets promoted to Woodsman I (hopefully getting WM II soon
to speed up exploring).

2840 BC
Finished Writing. I'm going to still build the granary, before the library. Also have to get a defender in the mix,
probably the warrior, that has two turns of building already, before the lib. Switched research to Mysticism
to get to the CS slingshot, but it would seem that I will sidetrack to Archery at some phase...Skirmishers should
discourage the neighbours from attacking, at least a bit. I'm not counting on an early aggresion myself, since
I don't really have much production now (apart from the poping, which is yet to be exploited).

2520 BC
A bit of micromanagement (switching one worked tile between the flood plain and a forest hill) resulted a couple
of turns saving on the Granary (with 1 pop). Still decided to take the risk, and build he library before the
warrior (might skip it, if I research archery soon).

2480 BC
Finished Meditation and switched to Archery. I figure I need to have the second city up soon, so settler will be
next in Timbuktu, and the second city should build some defenders. Also, I'm thinking of bringing the exploring
Warrior back home...after just a bit more exploring (have to see, if I can even find a shortcut back home from the
north.

2360 BC
Finished Archery and switched to Priesthood, even though my capital isn't really going to be ready for building the
Oracle for some time yet. Still, I cannot think of any more urgent tech, so Priests it's gonna be.

2320 BC
The Warrior gets Woody II. At least this speeds up the journey home...I'm getting a bit worried about the defenceless Timbuktu with these guys around me. Oh, also met my new friend, Alex...some lot we have here.

2200 BC
Finished Priesthood and switched directly to Code of Laws. With the Lib and a settler to build before the Oracle,
I figure I'll have to postpone the CoL in the end, but let's at least get it almost done.

1960 BC
Finished the library with a whip of 3 pop and switching to the settler. Timbuktu is hitting the happiness cap at size 4,
so I'll need that gold east of Timbuktu. The location of the second city is now clear (next to the gold), unless some of my neighbours have gotten to the gold first...we shall soon see.

1600 BC
Have to switch away from CoL without even starting the Oracle yet. I think this is one of the worst timings I've
ever had for the slingshot. I guess I'm not coping very well with the low production. Gonna help getting the settler with a chop.
Switching research to Maths for getting the chopping power that can be used for the Oracle, if things indicate so.

1520 BC
Whipped the settler (1 pop) after all, so the chop is going to go to the Oracle, which is now in production (finally).
Barb warriors appearing now...not nice at all with my army of 1 warrior. Going to settle the grass plains next to the
Gold hill.

So that's it until 1520 BC. I've played a bit further, and have to say, that this isn't going too well. I had some clear problems already by this date (slingshot timing, low production, only one city, no army), that definitely affected, how things proceeded...but more about that in the next DAR.

Comments would be greatly appreciated.

Btw., I know this is a newbie question, but how do you post screenshots here...i.e., I assume that you guys are uploading them to some place, but where?

[Blake]

I'm playing on Immortal difficulty. It's important to note that as a scenario this is not a true Immortal AI - it has the immortal production bonuses but the starting junk of a Noble AI. As such I'd say the difficulty is somewhere around Monarch.

Firstly I move the warrior onto the plains hill, nothing he reveals justifies moving the settler in that direction. I decide to move the settler left, onto the grassland tile and found Timbuktu.

A workable plains hill is revealed, and sheep which can't be worked, but will be good for a second city. It's hard to complain about this capital site.

One of the nice things about floodplains starts is there is no particular urgency to research worker techs - floodplains are darn near as good as improved resources. So I set research to Mysticism. The build is set to a warrior, in my experience when floodplains are available it is best to grow to size 3 before stalling to train a settler or worker.

The God of Random Numbers smiles upon me and I pop a scout from the goodie hut to the west.

This scout proceeds to go pop a hut that should've belonged to Napoleon (if he had his AI starting units, he'd have snapped it up), I get a little cash from that hut.

In short order I meet Napoleon, Monty and Huayna Capac, these appear to be my immediate victims neighbors.

Buddhism goes in 3360BC but in 3240BC I found Hinduism, religion is going to be decisive in getting the violent thugs doing violent thuggish things to each other rather than me, those who share my religion will be much easier to bribe into wars.

My research path so far has been:
Mysticism -> Polytheism -> Fishing -> Bronze Working
Build:
Warrior -> Settler -> Workboat (maxed hammers)

In this case the health penalty at size 3 meant I could’ve easily trained the settler at size 2 instead, or got an earlier workboat to make up the health.


The second city is placed close to the capital where it is quite safe from barbs and such, it has immediate access to 2 floodplains which is important since the worker techs will be delayed more.

Once Bronze Working completes I go for a copper hunt and find the nearest deposit is quite far to the south-west, really too far to bother expanding to especially since the site is not fantastic.

So the city could be founded on the river and work the copper and... what? I really like to have good food at an early city - and since I do indeed have the choice of high food sites much closer to my capital, that is where I'll be founding cities. Mali has Skirmishers for a reason anyway, bang for buck they are in the same league as Axemen.

After training my first workboat I whip out a second, and Timbuktu works the two clams - each yielding 4-0-3, really tremendous tiles. Claiming the nearby gold is going to be of some priority to help out the happy situation.

Of course since I have the two clams hooked up it's not long until the Aztec Mafia turns up and claim that "Something bad might happen" if I don't give them some clams. I wouldn't want anything bad happening, so I go along with this extortion.

I guess then I should mention that I research Sailing after Fishing, the reason being to get some "free" trade connections (no need for roads) and allow my religion to spread. The only coastal trade route turns out to be monty and hence the demand is made possible, but a few turns later Hindusim spreads to Monty and he switches and I follow suite in switching to Hinduism and I have the makings of my first ally (with the additional +1 from being a weenie and giving in to his demand).

My capital, after being whipped down to size 2, was allowed to grow to size 3 and then immediately started on a settler (which would give time for the whip anger to fade) - size 3 is the current health cap, so growing over size 3 is not really beneficial yet (floodplains yielding a net profit of 1 commerce).


That settler is destined to claim the gold mine and the remaining floodplains. I've circled the desirable tiles, unfortunately in order to get all of them in radius it's nessecary to found off the river - White Dot is the only spot which works.

Research has gone Hunting -> Archery, in order to get those nice Skirmishers. Then research is set to Writing to get open borders for income and road building efforts to spread Hindusim.

State of Empire 1520BC:


My immediate priority is more workers and the Timbuktu is about to get whipped to pop the worker out. First priority will be connecting Kumbi then extending the road into France, hopefully gaining Napoleon as a hindu ally (it's not possibly to rely on these jerks to not backstab you just because you're a religious ally, but it makes it infinitely easier to bribe them into wars).

My long range plan (if things go to plan) is to use Monty and Napoleon as a shield against other civs while I destroy Capac. An alternative plan will be to befriend Monty and Alexander, letting Monty fight Boney and Alexander fight whoever he wants, however I suspect that Alex might found his own religion. Capac is going to die regardless, but the quality of the start is enough that it doesn't have to happen urgently, it can wait until construction.


Playing on a bit, Capac and Napoleon declare war on me and I discover just how hard fighting aggressive opponents without aggressive is – I’m usually the aggressive one. This two-front war goes terribly and I can’t bribe anyone in, although I do survive and expand my territory somewhat. One thing for sure, this AU course is no kind of easy.

[wertyu70]

I started this calls and began to write my DAR,
but after some turns I forgot to take down notes,
because I was so addicted by the game...

I played at nobel level (so far I won only a game at Prince Level...) and I find it quite easy (in 1000 BC I'm second, with first GNP, soldiers, pop, I'm back only in production).

I think I will start it again at Prince Level.