Emperor games C3C: how to improve your skills

[Mountain Sage]

1725BC: with our granary, our capitol, Erin, build a Settler. We MUST get that iron NE!
The other two towns are building barracks. Unfortunately, the military otion is in.
We are also proud to announce the creation of the Royal Dutch High Seas Commercial Fleet.
Techs: with the trading of Writing we achieved tech parity. We are now researching Philosophy in 15 turns. Gold: 173.
Military: 7 Warriors! (we ARE improving).

[Mountain Sage]

1475BC: our commercial expedition is successful. Our valorous Curragh I is set for a fruitful future.

[Mountain Sage]

1025BC: we have now 6 cities (Portugal 5, Sumeria 6, Rome 8) and all the ‘useful’ land is settled. Time to start our military build-up thanks to the iron.
Our Curragh discovered another civ, the Romans.
Techs: researching Construction in 30 turns at –1/turn. 360 Gold. Tech parity with Sumeria, Portugal –1, Rome –3 (good news, they are isolated).
Military: 8 Warriors, 10 Archers, 4 Spears. Almost, my prrreciousss (thanks Arrian!).

[Mountain Sage]

590BC: we are in the middle of the 1st Dutch-Sumerian war. 3 cities have fallen to our mighty troops (+1 destroyed). Temples built in all the captured cities.
Techs: Construction in 7 turns and 445 gold. Parity with Portugal, Rome –4, parity with Bysance (our newest discovery).
Cities: Dutchland 9, Bysance 10, Rome 9, Portugal 5.
Military: 8 Warriors (not upgraded, city police), 9 Archers, 4 Spears, 9 Swords.

[Mountain Sage]

430BC: the Sumerian capitol has fallen (another city destroyed). The war ended (for now).
Techs: Currency in 18 turns. 574 Gold (+5). Parity with Sumeria and Portugal, Rome –3, Bysance +2 and the Hittites (another discovery) +2.
Military: 8 Warriors, 7 Archers, 4 Spears, 12 Swords, 1 Sword-Army. I hoped for another GL but no…

[Mountain Sage]

110AD: another great leap. Still trying to build some city improvements between military units. We got the Sumerian horses. The palace in The Hague is either a pre-build for the Cavalry of Zeus or will be the real new palace (or FP).
Techs: feudalism in 6 turns, 1033 gold at –6/turn. Sumeria +1 (Feudalism), Rome –3, Hittites –3 (isolated!), Inca –1, Maya –1, Bysance +1 (Republic) and Portugal +1 (Literature).

[Mountain Sage]

400AD: another short war. Sumeria is ejected from this island. Strategic decision to take out Portugal (at least from this island), thus our military buid-up. We will move the Palace (or FP) there.
We started to settle some other islands.
Techs: Engineering in 5 turns. 1589 Gold (+17). Parity with Sumeria and Maya, Rome –2, Hittites –1, Inca –1, Byzance +Republic and Monotheism, Portugal +Literature. Strategic decision: we are going for Economics (wih the Swiss Mercs, we don’t need Gunpowder right now).

[Mountain Sage]

400AD: Oops! I forgot the power graph, but this is our economical situation: it shows very well the corruption bug (Ur, 7 shields, 6 lost!).

[Mountain Sage]

BTW, this game has been downloaded 11 times now. How are the others faring? Please don't be shy...

[nbarclay]

I wrote my first few messages while I was playing to try to provide a feel for how my thought processes work, but I haven't posted because I wanted to delay providing spoilers for a little. Starting with my first message, written in 3900 BC:

With agricultural civs, an irrigated cow is sufficient to provide enough food for a 4-turn settler pump or a 2-turn worker pump. Since this starting position has two cows, it looks like there is serious potential for two 4-turn settler pumps or a 4-turn settler pump and a 2-turn worker pump, depending on how many grasslands with shield (or other production bonus tiles) are available.

If I were sure I could get the production for a settler pump reasonably easily there, I would have moved west onto the hill and built my capital on the coast. But the chances of extra grassland with shield tiles are better inland, so I decided to move east instead. That lets me build my second city on the coast, and if the second city ends up being a worker pump instead of a second settler pump, I can live with that. (Yes, that puts my first two cities just two tiles apart, but getting off the starting blocks fast seems worth it.)

After my move, I ended up popping a hut when I built my capital. Before doing so, I set my research to Ceremonial Burial in order to ensure that if I got a tech, it would be one a little bit more valuable. I ended up getting Warrior Code from the hut.

With an agricultural civ and a grassland cow, I normally use my first five turns to build a worker and then start on a granary. That’s a bit risky in terms of what could happen if barbarians show up, but the potential payoff is enormous. (The reason for the second worker is that once the cow is irrigated, my capital will grow every four turns even without a granary, and a single non-industrious worker can’t even begin to keep up with that.)

With my city founded, I started researching Writing at 100% science. Right now it looks like the 100% science won’t do me any good, but with more and larger cities over time, my research rate should get better.

[nbarclay]

Dateline: The Hague, 2510 BC

My granary was finished in 3050 AD, thanks to juggling my second laborer back and forth between the second cow tile and the river forest tile until my mines were completed. (I got six food working both cows and four working a cow and a forest, so spending half the time on each balanced out.) My first settler was completed four turns later, with Rotterdam founded on the coast in 2800 BC. Another settler followed four turns after the first, followed by two workers. In 2510, as I was ready to found The Hague, a Sumerian city showed up right next door to where I planned to put it. I went ahead and stuck to my original plan, but this makes the culture race a lot more important for me.

The funny thing is that even though the Sumerians and I can see each other’s borders, we haven’t actually met yet. So far, I’ve been too busy sending settlers into locations I know are good city sites to send out any explorers.

Rotterdam only has the production potential to serve as a worker pump (once its granary is in place), but at least I won't have to worry about a worker shortage.

[nbarclay]

Written 2030 BC:

Perhaps I should have taken some time out for scouting after all. There’s a third irrigable cow near the starting area, although it requires accepting an absurdly cramped city spacing. I also just met the Portuguese; they and the Sumerians have quite a few techs that I don’t, but I got Writing early and started on Code of Laws. I now have my capital cranking out a settler every four turns (with a couple hiccups when I forgot to move new laborers from forest tiles to tiles with adequate food) and Rotterdam a worker every two.

Note that I'm about to found another city by the ivory (and to crowd the Sumerian city even more in the process).

[Mountain Sage]

Nbarclay,
Interesting. 3 players, 3 different starts...

[nbarclay]

(The last message was the last one I prepared "in real time" while playing.)

With a strong REX and the rivers around the starting location, I pulled one of my new favorite tricks in C3C: I researched Code of Laws and then Philosophy and got Republic as my free tech. I started switching governments in 1400 BC.

My REXing was almost over, with my last two settlers on their way to the planned city sites: one by the game tile on the southern coast and the other on the eastern coast hoping to crowd Lagash culturally from yet a third side. I really didn't want to fight the Sumerians in the ancient era with their, in essence, 10-shield spearmen and the golden age that would result from a war. So I decided to have some fun trying to play a cultural game and see wha would happen. Had I been planning a military campaign, the early switch to Republic would probably have been a disaster due to high unit support costs.

[nbarclay]

Over the next few centuries, the Sumerians and my Dutch were the leaders in the wonder race. The Sumerians completed the Pyramids in 975 BC and the Hanging Gardens in 350 BC. My Dutch completed the Statue of Zeus in 925 BC, the Mausoleum of Mausollos in 775 BC, and the Great Wall in 590 BC. (The Great Wall was desired more just as part of the collection than for its actual effects, but denying it to the AIs was also a factor in the decision to pursue it.) Other cultural improvements were not neglected, and the Dutch had almost twice the culture of the second-place Sumerians. (I'd even used gold to rush a library and a temple in Haarlem, my east-coast city, to try to shift the balance of cultural pressure in my favor in the hope of flipping a Sumerian city or two.)

Unfortunately, just before the ADs, Gilgamesh got jealous of the magnificent Dutch culture and sent archers outside Haarlem (which was defended only by a regular warrior). In the attempt to stave off what appeared to be an impending attack, I declared war on the Portuguese and bribed the Sumerians to join me. But the Sumerian attack on Haarlem went off as scheduled in gross violation of the alliance, and suddenly, the Dutch found ourselves with an unwanted war.

The decision to bring in the Portuguese had mixed effects. On one hand, it gave the Sumerians a second front to worry about. But on the other, a lucky Portuguese warrior was able to defeat the warrior defending my silk city on the Byzantine continent.

In the tech race, I had Monotheism and Theology and was three turns away from Education, while the Sumerians had recently gotten Feudalism as their free tech entering the medieval era. Neither the Byzantines nor the Romans (the two off-continent civs I had contact with) had Mathematics yet, but the Byzantines had Monarchy which I lacked (and didn't really care about in any case).

(One other note about the Byzantines: they got in an early war with whatever civ they had shared their home continent with and destroyed its last city just as my galley reached sight of the city's cultural borders. So there was one civ in the game that I never even met!)

In military terms, the Dutch position at the start of the war was interesting. We had seven regular warriors and a conscript from a hut left over from the REXing phase, a few ancient cavalry from the Statue of Zeus, and that was it! (Well, aside from the galleys delivering settlers and workers to some new overseas posessions.) But ancient cavalry are awesome units. Gilgamesh's sending archers to attack one, two, or three at a time, usually unescorted, accomplished little more than to get them killed.

Ancient cavalry were supplemented by horsemen (thanks to a shift of cultural borders that had taken over a horse tile originally in Sumerian territory) and then by swordsmen (including upgraded warriors), and the balance of power shifted. Unfortunately, the expense of the upgrades and supporting so many units cut into Dutch research.

The screenshot below is from 30 AD, shortly after the war started. The Sumerian empire has reached its peak, and for Gilgamesh, it's all downhill from here.