AU202 DAR Thread 1 - 4000BC to 1520BC

[ZargonX]

Post your game starting DARs here.

[Vaugula]

Epic Prince

This is my first Warlords game, my first game on Prince and my first AU report. It is also the first Civ 4 AU game I have played (the last AU game was Civ 3’s The Power of Seafaring but I didn’t get around to posting a report).

As this course is about naval tactics I am going to try and play a violent game aiming for conquest, domination or diplomatic (backdoor domination) victory. The presence or marble at the starting location tends to encourage the player to go after some wonders (Oracle, GL in particular). This gives me my first plan, use the Oracle to grab Code of Laws because this will help us manage our (hopefully) large empire. The other feature of the starting location is that it has a lot of food and a fair number of hills and forests so it is probably best suited to being hammer heavy. Starting with Fishing and being Financial allows all water squares to yield 3 commerce so we will probably tech ok at the start.

I move the scout 2 S to see what is down there and seeing no compelling reason to move off the plains hill I settle in place. The orthodox starting build with seafood and Fishing is a Work Boat which is what I am going to do here because I am boring. After thinking about it way too long I decide to leave the city working the sugar so we can grow in 11 turns. Set research to Mining because it leads to Bronze (so we can see where our second city might want to go) and Masonry (to allow us to quarry our marble to help build the oracle when the time comes).

In the scout’s travels he finds a hut that gives me gold.


3670 BC Discover Mining and then push on to Bronze. Buddhism is FIDL.

3610 BC I suddenly remember that I wanted to micro Niadros to work the marble tile to get that work boat out faster. The governor wants to work the second sugar tile but that leaves the Work Boat ETA at 10 turns. Microing to work the marble instead of the second suagr drops that down to 5 turns. We are sacrificing 2 food per turn to make this move so that leaves us 10 food in the hole. The Clams will push out 4 food rather than 3 (not to mention the commerce) and so will take another 10 turns to reach parity which I think is worth it (although maybe someone reading this has something else to say on this matter?)

3490 BC We finish exploring the island.

As we can see there is rice, fish and pigs on our island. Hopefully when Bronze finishes we will also have some copper to go and say hello to our neighbours with.

3460 BC Finish our work boat and begin work on a worker. This guy can build some mines on the surrounding hills to give us some production.

3100 BC Finish Bronze but don’t revolt to slavery as there is only 1 more turn on the worker. We pick Wheel for the next technology as it will give our worker something else to do (road towards a city site) and is on the way to Pottery which we want for granaries. Unfortunately there is no copper on the island but we won’t worry about that for the moment because our only threats are barbs at this stage. We need to get some fog busters out there to help curb the bard threat.

3070 BC Our worker completes so we revolt to slavery. We start a warrior in the capital so we can bust some fog towards the site of our second city. Our worker starts a mine to the north of the city.

2860 BC We whip a warrior. The worker moves to the forest SE of the capital in preparation to start a road to the next city site.

2830 BC The warrior completes and we order another one which will complete in 1 turn due to whip overflow.

My settlement plan looks like this:

The eastern city that takes the rice and fish will be the second city. This city could have also been founded 2 N of that position to take in the northern fish but I can see coast up there which can work those fish but not the southern fish so I choose for the city to take in the other fish.

2800 BC The second warrior completes and is also sent off on fog busting duty. Niadros will build a warrior for 3 turns to allow it to grow and then start a settler.

2500 BC Pottery completes and we choose Mysticism to allow for a monument at the second city.

2350 BC The road to city #2 is complete. Hinduism FIDL. The worker is sent back to Niados to build some more mines to pass the time.

2290 BC Mysticism completes and we go on to Masonry so we can build a quarry on the marble. The settler is also whippable so we whip.

2260 BC the settler completes and runs down the road to the next city site. We start a workboat to finally get those clams fished.

2200 BC Uppsala is founded

We start on a monument to get those fish within our cultural influence.

2080 BC The workboat is complete and now we start on another warrior

2050 BC Masonry completes and the worker is on hand to build that quarry. We start on Meditation.

1930 BC Warrior completes and is sent off on fog busting duty. Start on a granary. Judaism is FIDL.

1840 BC The final fog buster is in position so we can see the whole island. I call this the poor man’s Great Wall.

1780 BC Meditation completes and we start on Priesthood. Our quarry also completes. Priesthood is due in 5 and then we can start on the Oracle.

1750 BC Uppsala’s monument completes and we start on a work boat

1630 BC We finish Priesthood and start on writing to get the final prerequisite for Code of Laws. Start the oracle in Niadros and set it to max hammers (can’t grow anymore because it is at the happy cap – putting a warrior in the city would raise that though) so it is due in 11 turns. I have been chopping the forest SE of Niadros so that will speed things along.

1570 BC The chop completes and the oracle is due in 6. Writing is due in 7 so we micro Niadros to make the oracle due in 7 too (maybe I shouldn’t have chopped that forest and used the whip instead, oh well too late now).

1510 BC The state of the empire

The worker is helping to chop out the work boat at Upsala.

In hindsight I didn’t need to waste time researching Pottery. I also thought my play was generally sloppy so I hope to improve as the game goes on. Without having met any of the other civs I am not sure how I am going in this game so I think I will need to get Sailing next and go out and discover the world.

[Krill]

Prince Difficulty, Quick Speed (or the "I'm sorry I'm impatiant and want to finish this game in 5 hours" method of winning in CIV)

After looking at the start, I decided that I would want to do five things; get out work boats first and not workers, build the Oracle and grab a tasty tech, and cottage those sugars. The fourth and fifth were long term ideas; see if I could win the game without leaving my home island, and because of this, see how many great scientists I could create.

so, why cottage those sugars? I want to get an expensive tech, either CS or philo from the Oracle, so research is not directed towards calender for a few turns, and asa fin civ those cottages would become 3f/3g pretty quickly, speeding alog research and helping me get techs sooner so I can get philo sooner and not risk the oracle build. Marble will speed up the build but I need to speed up the tech, and this is quicker than working nothing but coast...

I go pottery off the bat and build 2 work boats. I use the marble from turn one because after completing the first work boat the city is using a 4f/3g tile so you gain more beakers than from working the suggar and growing prior to completing the workboat. Unless you slave teh worrk boat, but as you don't have slavery it is a non issue. But bronze working is the immediate aim for some slaving after pottery is complete

After completing the second workboat I grow to size 4 while working on a granary then build a worker and slave a settler, and use the over flow to complete the granary, and follow that up with a work boat while growing for the second cities fish. I settle on the grass hill to the east that has both the rice and fish in the radius. I don;t even have a worker out to improve the city yet, but make it build a monument in 7 turns usinga grass hill forest so I can improve he fish and let the city grow.

The interesting thing here was that by the time I had built the settler I had just finished myst, and noticed that polytheism had yet to somplete. I could use hinduism to pop the borders of my 2nd city...but I'd research it before I planted the city. So I researched up until I was one turn away, and then started researching writing. Unfortunately, the turn I settled the city hinduism was founded by another civ, but I didn;t care; I had my eye on other religions, and doing this would have just been a bonus. As it was the second city was planted in 2200BC (I'll stick to years to give a better comparison)

I slaved another settler for a city right at the south of the island for clams; I know that if I am to never leave this island I'm going to have to use as much coast as possible and have a lot of cities to make scientists in.

Pic of 1540BC

[Krill]

Eh...didn't know print screen did that with dual moniters...

[Krill]

Zargon...would it be possible for you to post the start and end points where each DAR should start and end? I just won the game (without leaving the starting island with anything but boats...) and I need to know where to start and end each DAR and what to reveal in each one...

PS. This game would be a hell of alot easier as OCC.

[Solomwi]

Prince difficulty, default speed (forgot to check and see what it was). Apologies in advance for my slipshod notekeeping. I also didn't have the 1520 BC end point for this DAR in mind, though I'll try to stick to general goals in speaking past that.

First, my immediately-set lenger-term goals are as follows:

1. Get exploratory ships out, preferably with trading posts beforehand. This should be self-explanatory. Once my Scout had uncovered the coastline of my island, this was reinforced.
2. Secure the Great Lighthouse and Colossus. Since nearly all, if not all, my cities will be coastal, these are two powerful wonders. Intermediately, this means grabbing Metal Casting with the Oracle.
3. Found a religion, since I've found island maps to be very finicky on whether a religion will come to me. I write off Buddhism and Hinduism from the start, which is good, since both are FIDL before I finish Sailing, my first tech.
4. Get some Berserks. While the limited window of use for the unit isn't a grave concern, since promoting to amphibious grenadiers, etc. is arguably just as powerful as using the original unit, I do want the maximum possible window for building and using them. After reading Krill's report, perhaps I could have built a bigger window by cottaging the sugars and going for CS with the Oracle, but c'est la vie.

I founded Nidaros where my settlers began, and immediately began a work boat and research on sailing.

Technology
After sailing, I decided to go with mining, both to give my future worker something to do and get some production up for the wonders I'll want soon. Also, I wanted to be able to switch from the high food tiles to production in light of the relatively quick bump against the happy cap I saw coming (with this much food, I can manage a health overrun easily enough). After mining, I diverted to masonry to get the marble quarried, then went back on the metal path up through iron working. Once I had iron showing, I snagged the wheel, to road up my small empire, then moved to mysticism and meditation with an eye for the Oracle (and pottery as soon as priesthood was finished to allow me to grab MC). As close as I can tell, at 1520 BC, I was partway through meditation.

Production
After my work boat, I built a worker, trading post, galley, Great Lighthouse, warrior and settler in Nidaros. Since I didn't found Uppsala until 1280 BC, my settler was in progress at the endpoint of this DAR. I probably should have prioritized it before the GL, but I'm a bit paranoid. My Prince excursions in the past have been an exercise in finishing a few turns too late on everything. I'll admit that I'm probably overcompensating for that with my priorities. Still, it felt good to get the GL taken care of. I made one chop to help it along, which put Nidaros at -1 food due to the health cap, but with 2, 3, and 5-food sea tiles, I could easily configure the city to be stagnant with no loss of commerce or production.

Foreign Relations
I've met Alexander, and he seems nice enough. I'll have to open my borders to him when I figure out how. My exploring galley is basically flitting from island to island, and will soon return to pick up my initial scout.

[Guynemer]

This is my first AU experience, so bear with me.

Playing noble marathon.

As it happens, my goals were remarkably similar to Solomwi's. My initial strategy was to explore the sea as much as possible. As it happens, my scout popped a second scout, so I was about to send out a couple expeditions after I discovered sailing.

After sailing, my initial tech goal was to head towards Judaism, which would give me masonry along the way. But, as it happened, no one researched Polytheism until I did, discovering Hinduism in 2515BC. (!) Shortly after that, I founded Uppsala on the southern portion of the island in 2230BC.

Soon after that, in 2065BC, I discovered Bronze Working, and much to my disappointment (but not surprise), there was no bronze to be had on my island. However, there was a deposit on the desert island to the southwest. So after founding Haithabu to the east in 1660BC, Nidaros went right back into producing a settler to found my first overseas colony; as of the end of this DAR, I'm one turn away. In the mean time, I found a more inviting bronze site on a southern island, near some spice; I may settle there instead.

On the foreign relations standpoint, my expeditions met up with Alexander in 2665BC; however, since neither of us yet have writing, further exploration in that area is unavailable.

A few other odds and ends... I did end up founding Judaism in Uppsala in 1795BC, and my scouts popped Archery in a far off northern isle. I'm currently working on Writing, and have just finished Priesthood, so as soon as this settler is done I'm putting Nidaros on the wonder plan: Oracle, Lighthouse, Colossus, probably in that order. Iron Working is my next tech.

[UnOrthOdOx]

Playing at Monarch, normal speed.

I don't do island maps. Have no experience at them. I'll get pics up later.

First of all, look at all the food!

Poprushing, obviously, is going to be a great source of early production.

I have this little canal fetish, and was seriously tempted to move 7 before settling, but you can't pass up the extra hammer of a plains hill.

So, first things first, get boats on those clams. And, research towards bronze to put that food to work.

Got another scout from the hut, and between the 2 scouts and culture expansion, I was able to know I was secure from Barbs.

Switch to slavery as soon as bronze was discovered. By now having scouted, I decided a religion may be nice to help with the happiness, and it's culture might help bridge any gaps before optics. And down the religion path I went after a quick stop at sailing.

After getting those 2 boats, I took the time to wait till size 4 by building a warrior just to be sure and for policing, then popped out a settler, who went to the desert just N of the pigs in the south, and immediately became the Jewish holy city.

Both cities produced a worker at this point while I researched various things for them to do: animal husbandry, masonry, wheel.
(got to check my notes to continue)

[ZEE]

im playing Prince Level, Epic speed...

well as usual im off to my slow start... i founded my second city where i could use the fish and the rice as well as get production from the hills. i will found a 3rd city shortly, on the south of the island and send out a boat to explore a bit. ive come to realize i have an isolationist-type game, and that is what im used to. so i think over-expansion will harm me a bit, so i will try to build up a few islands of fairly large cities. that way my economy wont be stifled and that will leave me room to conquer OTHER civs cities without my economy going down the tubes. i will probably make a b-line for currency ASAP, as that is the most important tech in the game IMHO. i am currently researching masonry now so i can utilize the marble next to my capitol. as an isolationist/perfectionist, i need my cities to be as productive as possible... as SOON as possible. This will lay the groundwork for my entire civ to come. How i will win will depend on my surroundings, other civs, and potential future resources. For now i will build my cities up as much as i can. im also not a big fan of pop-rushing as it goes against my style of wanting as many population as possible.

next update to come when i hit classical... thanks!
PIECE...

[ZEE]

another update as i hit classical... (sorry but i think this is important ) i STILL have 2 cities but i just got Math... i skipped agriculture altogether as i built 3 cottages around the river in my capitol. i also just built Stonehenge from the chopped down forests. i am now getting agriculture in 5 turns, then i will flip the script and hit currency, then code of laws (and hopefully get the religion.) my capitol has a settler built in 2 and that will be my 3rd city for my continant. then i will explore the seas. my 2nd city just built a granery, and after the work boat and worker will be a powerhouse as well. my 3rd city will struggle at first but the pigs will help it grow...

next update in the renaissance thread...
PIECE...

[couerdelion]

I wonder why no-one seems to be interested in Temple of Artemis if they are considering the Great Lighthouse. These combine superbly in a coastal city and, unlike the Great Library – grow in power as the game progresses.

With regards the Work Boat, the usual thing that I would usually do here would be to maximise production first to get the workboat. After that the 4/0/3 tile beats everything so can grow quickly to size 2 and, while your city would be a little smaller than in the “grow then maximise production” you will have a little more production already towards the second build and a healthy dose of extra commerce too.

But it’s borderline really. The commerce I like in this situation because we want those basic techs quickly.

[Blake]

Emperor Difficulty.

Looking at the Start:

First priority is getting workboats in the water, for yummy financial coast clams (4-0-3). As such my first builds went:
Workboat, Workboat

My tech going:
Mining, Bronze Working. I chose BW early primarily for the chance of getting copper for more production.


After the two workboats I decide to train a 3rd workboat while growing to size 4, this workboat being sent scoutzies. At size 4 I whip the worker. The worker came out on the same turn as Masonry completed, perfect timing, but mainly co-incidence.



MY first screenshot of the game is that of my exploring Workboat meeting a violent, mindless, slavering brute, and a bear. The landmass on which the bear has his den contains gems, and happiness resources are conspicuously lacking from the homeland, so I'll be contesting the island. Alexander founded Buddhism... curious.

Back at the homeland, I grow to size 4.9 while training a 4th workboat, then switch to a Settler. I shamelessly manipulate a bit here, delaying the settler whip until the Priesthood comes in, also ensuring the settler is at 31 hammers remaining, meaning a full 29 hammers going to the Oracle. I thus have a full 35 Overflow going towards the Oracle. This "frontloading" tends to be a better use of the whip than whipping the oracle itself. The Oracle thus started at over half complete (thanks to the marble).

After Priesthood my next research is of course Writing, because for a happy starved start it only makes sense to Oracle Code of Laws to get some sweet religion (Note: Playing on emperor makes an early religion grab difficult). After that sailing is the most important tech for many reasons, for some religious cross-pollination, the chance of open borders with Alexander, for Trading Posts(!!!), Great Lighthouse.... Galleys...

My second city is founded with the fish and the many hills, I was going to found at the more northern site to immediately hook up the fish, but I realized that Conf would do the border expansions for me. Due to a lack of anything to build it starts on a barracks.



Code of Laws is Oracle'd and Conf is mine, I switch immediately so that the Anarchy turn is spent while the capital is unhappy and the missionary travelling. The missionary is put on hold for the time being, until the city needs the happy.

Popping the Oracle (1720BC) was really the most significant thing to happen in the vicinity of 1520BC so there doesn't seem to be much need to post another screenshot. But suffice to say, after bagging CoL my next tech = Sailing.


Explaining my strat:

I think this strat was a no-brainer and others will probably also have performed something like it.
For a start, building a workboat first only makes sense with financial seafood for the taking. Building a second one also makes a lot of sense. This means an extra +6 commerce, fully 66% more than a normal start.
With such a strong commerce start, and marble right next to the capital, it only makes sense to pursue the Oracle and pick up something nice. To me Code of Laws makes the most sense, given the lack of happy resources. However Monarchy and Metal Casting would also be reasonable choices.

Sending a workboat out scouting is good play, it lets you identify critical city sites. If you're lucky it can even circumnavigate.

Final thing is the choice of second city location (and timing), getting that second city up early is important because it effectively doubles your production base (the 3rd city is only +50%, the 4th only +33%...). I chose the maximum production site, that it may provide maximum assistance in building wonders and expansion. If I wasn't going to get Conf I would probably have founded adjacent to the more northern fish.

[joncnunn]

Jon's Dar

Normal Speed Noble w Blake's AI Mod

The Ancient era 4000 BC to 1160 BC

4000 BC Found Nidposin in place.
Start Mystism as a prereq to Masonry to connect the Marble
3720 BC Start Masonry
3480 BC Granted the Wheel by Goody Hut
3360 BC Start Poly as prereq to Mono & Judism
3040 BC Start Mono
2690 BC Found Judism & start Sailing
2360 BC Start Mining
2240 BC Start Agr
2080 BC Start Pottery
2000 BC Found Upsala [NW]
1920 BC Start Pristhood
1800 BC Start A.H.
1680 BC Start B.W.
1440 BC Start Writing
1320 BC Found Haithobu [SW]
1280 BC Start I.W.
1160 BC Compele Oracle. Choose Theology. Found Christanity Enter Midevil era; skipping Classical entrirely

[joncnunn]

In my case with Blake's mod, quite simple, the other AIs far away were way too interested in building Temple of Artemis for me to compete for that wonder.

I started off myself by building 2 workboats, a worker, and a settler before building any military units, gambling [corectly] that a game advertised as "No civ is an island" would have no opponents in my landmass. I just let Blake's mod handle my work force allocation. There's internal logic in it to emp more shields when building a work boat (or granery)

Originally posted by couerdelion
I wonder why no-one seems to be interested in Temple of Artemis if they are considering the Great Lighthouse. These combine superbly in a coastal city and, unlike the Great Library – grow in power as the game progresses.

With regards the Work Boat, the usual thing that I would usually do here would be to maximise production first to get the workboat. After that the 4/0/3 tile beats everything so can grow quickly to size 2 and, while your city would be a little smaller than in the “grow then maximise production” you will have a little more production already towards the second build and a healthy dose of extra commerce too.

But it’s borderline really. The commerce I like in this situation because we want those basic techs quickly.

[couerdelion]

Nice to see you playing Emperor Blake - I thought you'd got stuck on Monarch. Just one detail that I thought was missing - the fog clearing/garrison building. I can see you managing to whip the worker running into unhappiness but after that I think the whip unhappiness and the +6 food you have from the two clams site will create unhappiness at size 3. I'm guessing that you used the whip overflow to build the garrison worker and perhaps then got a second for clearing fog