Emperor games C3C: how to improve your skills

[Mountain Sage]

Welcome back, my friends, to the civ that never ends…

Today, let’s start with one of the new civs: The Netherlands (seafaring and agricultural).
Standard map, 4 billions, temperate, archipelago.
Our fellow civs will be Sumeria, the Hittites, Portugal, Byzantium, the Inca, the Mayans and Rome.
The starting point looks to be a good one… let’s the game begin.

P.S.
The ‘corruption bug’ is quite annoying, especially if you want to expand a bit. You’ll have 6-8 cities with a good productivity and the rest are all 25-shield nominal, 1-shileld effectively. Then you have the diffult choice of building a marketplace in 100 turns, a courthouse in 80, a cathedral in 240 etc. etc.

Ah well, let’s stop complaining and enjoy all these new civs…

[Mountain Sage]

The starting point:

[Dominae]

Re: Emperor games C3C: how to improve your skills

Originally posted by Mountain Sage
The starting point looks to be a good one…

Ah, looks to be!?

I might try this as a 5CC.

[vmxa1]

Welcome back, my friends, to the civ that never ends…

Emerson/Lake/Palmer, thanks for the reminder.

[David Murray]

When I download this, I get a file without an extension called

w,

Is that right???

[vmxa1]

It should say w, 4000bc.sav

[David Murray]

Not only is the start location amazing, but most of the surrounding scenery is gorgeous too. NO JUNGLES or volcanoes!

4000BC: moved settler one square south
3950: Amsterdam founded, research warrior code 90%, 10% luxs.
3500: two warriors built to deal with possible barbarians from hut
3450: culture expands - surprise surprise, unveils barbarians! Luckily I kill two and the other the next turn (but it could have been disastrous)
3250: Amsterdam growing exponentially - have to use an entertainer for now
3050: research bronze working
2900: Rotterdam founded
2850: meet Sumeria.
2800: 2nd settler built. Starting to build granary in Amsterdam
2550: Bronze working researched. Now onto masonry 40% luxs 30%. Met Portugal.
2510: Founded the Hague on Ivory
1990: Utrecht founded.
1870: Researching mathematics.
1650: Founded Groningen.
1400: Founded Arhem.
1200: Researched maths, onto currency.
1050: Declared war on Sumeria! (6 archers, 2 spearmen)
1000: Stroke of good luck, Ur completes pyramids as my troops land next door. Take Ur complete with freshly built pyramids. Life's a *****!
900: Defeated at Lagash. Made peace for only iron working, mysticism, and one gold.

A source of iron lies in my borders.

Future plan: start building Zeus thing for cavalry, hook up iron, finish off Sumeria in the mean time with another round or two of archers.

Am I doing okay? I have to admit I'm not the best player and this is a really easy game with the terrain ... better players will no doubt have done much better by now.




PS yes, I did eventually cave in and buy Conquests ....

[David Murray]

It's now 170AD and I've conquered Sumeria. I have a huge army of swordsmen and I'm ready to plough on through Portugal.

It seems too easy ... also, the tech pace is way too slow. I'm pre-building for the Great Library but I think after literature I will go for the tech that allows me to build ships and look for other civs.

Anyway, in the meantime I will have Portugal. This really is too easy, but it's fun. Thanks for posting the save Mountain Sage, this game is a blast.

[Mountain Sage]

vmxa1: I was young then...

DM: You're welcome. I also built the Cavalry-on-Zeus, just to see if it's worth. Keep us posted. I will post my comments later on, as not to spoil the pleasure of discovery...
Oh, the Dutch are seafaring. This is why I built my capitol on the seashore. Didn't you forget to build something?

Dominae: well, this continent is a bit... cold. But it makes it interesting for people who like to have a wandering capitol

[David Murray]

Mountain Sage,

You're right! But I couldn't resist moving one square south rather than build near the coast so I could get full use of the cows, shielded grasslands, etc. Thankfully I did build one decent city next to the sea so I started building curraghs, looking for new lands to settle while I polished off the Portugese.

270AD: Curraghs go into production, war declared on Portugal.
400: New lands to the south-west discovered!
440: Portugal defeated! They had some *terrible* terrain. Looks like their empire will always be the 'poor cousin' of the prosperous one I've built. At least now I own an entire continent to myself.
460: Great library built.

This game is weird. I'm researching code of laws, then republic, then map making. The research time is okay, but I'm not used to such a slow pace! The AI is so weak when it is divided like this that I almost believe it pools its research on Pangaea maps (which are a lot quicker, more brutal and more difficult).

I have the largest landmass with only 34200 square miles, so I'm guessing the other civs are in pretty bad shape ... what do you reckon I should go for? Fill up dozens of galleys (when I get them) with swordsmen and go for a domination, or an all out conquest victory?

This is one game the Vikings with their UU would have been very nice to play with.

[David Murray]

PS how am I doing so far (460AD) compared to you?

[nbarclay]

AIs don't actually pool their research, but they are willing to give each other much better deals than they are humans on higher levels. Especially, AIs are willing to accept a bit less from each other when a fellow AI doesn't have much to offer, but they don't do that with humans. So trading of starting techs, of techs popped from huts, and of techs researched on different branches tends to be rather extensive.

(As an aside, C3C seems to make barbs from huts a lot more likely. I'm a lot more reluctant to pop them now, and some huts near both the Sumerians and me remained in place surprisingly late in this game.)

Also, even when one AI doesn't buy or trade to get a tech from another, just being in contact with civs that already have a tech reduces the research cost. With limited early contact, not only are AIs stuck researching more themselves instead of trading, but they are paying more to do so.

By the way, on Continents and Pangea maps, when AIs are at war, they can still often gain techs researched by each other through a third party. But when two civs know only each other, and they go to war, who are they supposed to trade with?

Nathan

[Mountain Sage]

Originally posted by David Murray
PS how am I doing so far (460AD) compared to you?

I dunno I will check this evening and post some screenshots tomorrow.
Yes, the land east of Sumeria is a bit *terrible*. This will make it interesting on where to build the FP and if to move the capitol.
The research rate is slow indeed. Nbarclay is right, but then you should add the fact that on an archipelago most civs are isolated during the ancient times and therefore there are no tech deals.
This is why I don't build the GLibrary on an archipelago game any more.
The Vikings? Yes I believe so. My next game will probably be an extreme archipelago with the Vikings vs. all seafaring civs + maybe Rome and/or Babylon and a conquest victory. I hope to start it early next week (will post it) but since I'm off for 2 weeks at the end of the year...

[Mountain Sage]

Originally posted by David Murray

I have the largest landmass with only 34200 square miles, so I'm guessing the other civs are in pretty bad shape ... what do you reckon I should go for? Fill up dozens of galleys (when I get them) with swordsmen and go for a domination, or an all out conquest victory?

It depends on your playing style. I went on a *small* conquest spree (just some more islands) to get some future resources and then went on my usual builder's and trader's game.
Then on another island a KAI was born. I even fell 2 techs behind in the MA, got ToE, then fell behind again in the beginning of the modern age I had to steal those two techs (this happened because instead of libraries and universities I built military units).
Now we are starting the space race. As to tip the balance (slightly, of course) in my favor, I have now positioned a transport with marines in front of each of the KAI's 8 most important cities (but only 6 units on each transport ).
Things will become interesting soon

P.S. A builder's approach is *stupid*. Except your core cities, all other have a 20+ shield nominal output and a 1 shield effective output. Temple+marketplace+courthouse = 240 turns The game will be over by then.

PP.S.S. today I like smileys I Xtime!

[Mountain Sage]

Ok, let’s compare our respective achievements and playing styles.

2190BC: the northern part of the land looks quite promising: rivers and floodplains, ivory, hills and gold, wild cows and a few mountains. The southern part looks bleak, but with more ivory and forests. Of course, we are not alone…

Techs: Alphabet, Pottery, W Code, C Burial. Writing in 12 turns. Gold 167 +7/turn
Military: 3 Warriors!
Sumeria: all our techs plus Bronze W, the Wheel and Mysticism. Logical conclusion: we are at least 3 civs in our big island.