Early Landing Comparison Game #2

[Elephant]

I doubt I will come close to your landing dates in this or any EL game; getting below 1500 is my current personal goal, and this comparison series has been very helpful. Thanks for moderating and commenting extensively on our different play styles. I hope to post my To-1AD log next week; I want to switch back to the CFC GOTM before that deadline just to apply some of this stuff. I am weak on building caravans in Republic, on planting cities deliberately to supply high-demand commodities, and on streamlining the tech plan. I probably use Monarchy and Marco Polo as a crutch too much, but it did come in helpful in this game as there were less shields from forests than there were from mined hills in the previous. I also take 5-10 minutes to think out, execute, and log a turn, and am mostly playing late nights (10pm-1am). Looking forward to reading your EL Guide.

[rjmatsleepers]

I've just read Solo's "Early Landing Gude". It is brilliant

I can't imaging there is much to add to it, but I suspect that some of our clever players will find some new twists.

Well done Solo!

RJM at Sleepers

[Zenon]

I finished my log now. I had to reconstruct some early parts, but all major events should be accurate:

BC
3950 Zimbabwe founded Southwest of starting position (3 specials, 2 shared with future SSC)
3800 Ulundi (SSC) founded
Alphabet
Code of Laws
3050 Writing
2500 Ceremonial burial
2150 fourth city at 4 specials site
2050 Monarchy
1650 Map Making
1600 first contact: Spanish, peace, exchange techs: Bronce Working, The Wheel, 5th city founded
1250 Mysticism
1200 First trireme
1150 continent 2 discovered
1000 Carthaginiens, peace, give techs, share maps, no tribute; Spain: give techs, Alliance, share maps, gift 150g (the first and last time), they are not my key civ, Germans are Northwest of Spanish
950 Currency
850 Barbarian Cardiff discovered
725 Trade
525 first barbarian attack
500 spanish warrior tips hut, 4 barbarian horses are loose, close to the first barbarian uprising, contact the Germans, peace, tribute 150g (2 times 25 g later on)
450 Philosophy; Medicine; decide to build Colossus first, Chinese are allready building it for a while; first delivery: copper to Seville 84g
425 barb horse bribed, barbarian leader 150g,
400 Finally the Sioux, peace, give techs 150g tribute, abandon plans für MPE,
300 Republic discovered, exchange Masonry
280 Russians discovered, peace, exchange Seafaring
225 Republic, Shakes
exchange Horse Riding
150 Banking, Barb leader 150g
125 Ulundi size 8
100 gold to Utica 216 g,
75 Building
AD
20 Ulundi Size 12
40 Mathematics
100 Astronomy
140 Copernicus; discover University;
180 Theory of Gravity; Carthaginiens announce engineering
220 Chemistry; exchange Engineering
260 Sanitation
320 Iron Working, Newtons College, SSC does not go beyond size 15, should have build a courthouse, I wait for democracy,
380 Democracy discovered, Democracy
420 Bridge Building
440 Gunpowder
480 Navigation
500 Explosives
520 Ulundi Size 21, again no further celebration, Physics
560 Barbarian Cardiff bribed, 364 g
580 Steam Engine
600 Railroad
620 Industrialisation
640 Magnetism
680 Economics
700 The Corporation
740 Refining
760 Metallurgy, with the railroad to my Eastern harbour finished one turn deliveries are now possible from the SSC to Utica
780 Electricity
800 Engine
820 Steel
840 Automobile, Ulundi superhighways; Tugela destroyed by barbarian attack
860 Feudalism, no exchanges possible on this tech path
880 Electronics;
900 Conscription; barb fregate threatens Ulundi, all landing fields blocked with trucks and dips
920 Chivalry, barb fregate sits and waits
940 Leadership, carthaginien explorer tips hut near umfolozi nova, 4 knights are loose
960 Nuclear Theory
980 Tactics
1000 Mass Production, barb attack
1020 Machine Tools
1040 Flight; barb leader 150 g
1060 Radio
1080 Miniaturization; first airfreight delivery copper from cardiff 587 g
1100 Advanced Flight; oil airfrght 711g
1120 Computer; Ulundi laboratory
1140 Rocketry, exchange ceramics with sioux
1160 Spaceflight, barb fregate outside Ulundi destroyed
1180 Nuclear Fission, the barb revenge comes the next turn, Swazi, one of my airfreight colonies completely destroyed by barb surprise attack, three dragoons came out of nowhere and attacked the same round, a musceteer, a dip, an engineer, the airport and 2 freights lost, a supported transporter loaded with 3 freights from other colonies due to delivery next turn was also lost, instead of accumulating shields and gold for the launch I have to fight to keep my tech pace 
1200 Nuclear Power
1220 exchange Communism with Sioux, Plastics
1260 Laser, Apollo, exchange Polytheism with Carthaginiens
1280 Superconductor
1320 Fusion Power
1380 Spaceship (15-3-3-1-1-1)launched, 215g left, surprise attack by Carthaginien Bombers
1382 Espionage
1386 Mobile Warfare
1389 Caralis captured, the Spanish are quiet now
1395 AC landing


I did some analysis on my game. Major mistakes: no optimal tech path after Monarchy and badly timed tech exchanges, no courthouse in SSC. The first 2 deliveries to the Spanish should have been sent to the Carthaginiens, too. I replayed the part from 1700 BC until reaching democracy just improving these 3 points and saved 7 rounds compared to my game (Democracy in 220 and SSC 6 rounds ahead in size). The tech wonders were only slightly delayed due to more spending on the SSC. After democracy in my game there were alltogether 5 turns without a tech advance, 2 techs a turn were never possible. After automobile the 1 tech a turn pace did work (only one break because of the barb attack). A bigger SSC would have saved some time I suppose. Loosing 2 cities to the barbs did cost one turn in techs and more ressources would have helped building the spaceship a little earlier. But I don´t see what I could have done about this.
After my first try on monarchy in an ELG I am not sure if early monarchy on a medium map is a delay to early republic or not. On a big map I would certainly go for it again. Looking at Scouse Gits log i´d say there are still ressources. I hope he will post his complete log.
Thank you, Solo, for setting up this comparison game. It´s fun. I am looking forward to the next one. Your ELG guide is great. Congratulations on this fine piece of work.

Zenon

[rjmatsleepers]

Originally posted by solo

All,

For this game, I'll be setting a deadline of Sunday, April 6, which is 3 weeks from today.

And will #3 start on the the same day?

RJM at Sleepers

(Who has been getting in lots of practice and confidently expects to land before 1899 this time.)

[solo]

RJM,

I think I'll post the starts for #3 on friday, to give those who are waiting something to do over the weekend. I've decided to post two starts, one using a medium map and another using a large map. Players can pick the one they prefer, or play them both, as I plan to do. Doing this will give those who finish quickly another game to work on while waiting.

Zenon,

Thanks for posting your log. They are difficult to reconstruct if you don't keep one while playing the game. Your analysis is right on. The Swazi debacle knocked a lot of time off what you should have been able to do, too. Perhaps the barbs will give you more of a break in the next game.

[Elephant]

I was frustrated by Barbs as well. Could we consider playing Barbs at Normal level rather than Raging? Less "random" impact, but still present for those who love to kill something; no VP bonus, but we're not playing for VP anyway...
Changing Barb levels might make early Horse tech less desirable...

[solo]

Elephant,

I was also a bit frustrated a few months ago in one very promising game, when barbs swooped into my SSC overwhelming my diplomat before he could react!

A lower barb setting was one of my original proposals, and the reason was to eliminate flukey events like this, but the majority then wanted raging hordes.

Maybe we can re-evaluate this and try a lower setting in game #4. As for game #3, I've already got the starts ready, and promised them today. It takes time to play enough starts until one with a suitable SSC site is found, so it would be too late to try a lower barb setting for this game.

Still trying to prove that you can please all of the players all of the time!!!

solo

[Elephant]

No problem; I understand. Thanks for all the work you do on this. I'm starting to get it through my thick skull; I'm actually going to try to do without Monarchy next time...

[Bloody Monk]

AC Landing 1276

After a long delay, I have been able to complete this one, finally. Here is the Summary...

Summary for Early Landing Game #2

Landing in 1276 after 1240 launch

Governments

Monarchy...................2050b
Republic.......................125b
Democracy...................380a
Fundamentalism..........1253

Wonders

MPE..........................625b
HG............................450b
Colossus..................300b
ST...............................50b
Copernicus..................60
Isaac's.......................320
Leo's............................na
Michaelangelo's..........360
Darwin's.....................760
SETI.............................na
Apollo.......................1160

Post Launch WOWs (9)

Pyramids, Lighhouse, Oracle,
Sun Tzu, King Rich, Magellan,
Tower, Sufferage, UN

SSC stats

size 8.................................1a
size 12...............................80
size 20, 21, 23...................320, 420, 460
max. size, 24.....................620

Techs

Trade.............................1100b
Invention.........................260a
Railroad............................660
Industrialization...............680
Automobile.......................860
Nuclear Power.................1040
Computers......................1000
Flight...............................1060
Space Flight....................1140
Fusion.............................1220
Launch............................1240

Key civ contact 600b

AC arrival 1276

here is the launch save

Monk

[Bloody Monk]

Early Landing Game #2

AC in 1276

This was an interesting and somewhat different game from previous early landing attempts. The huge and all encompassing sprawl of the home land mass with the date line dividing our position from the rest caused some peculiar effects, ie, mooting a possible road/rail connection to an AI. Fortuitously, two AI were on a close at hand, different land mass making for good trade
prospects. Finding colony sites that could trade with the AI, as well as the SSC, was not easy.

I made many early mistakes in sequencing the building of cities, build orders and tech choices. On top of that I delayed for too long establishing colonies and beginning overseas trade. Then I forgot to revolt to Republic until 125b, falling way behind in WLove growth and science. It does no good to have a written plan if you forget to look at it!! This failure to change to the more favorable gov't blunted the positive effects of Hanging Gardens, one of which is to ease the need for temples at a time when cash is so dear. Based on these mistakes, I knew before the calander change to ad years that I would not be a threat to finish first this time.

Based on the discussion after the last game, I built Marco Polo's Embassy as a first WOW. I was very pleased with the benifits that flowed from this choice. The first and possibly non-obvious benifit
came from shaking the tribute tree, which then allowed the rushing of the next two wonders, HG and COL, which were being built by the AI. I was never able to achieve an alliance so the 300-400g in
tribute, especially early on, was very helpful. Knowing the AI reseach all along was also very useful, and many early swaps were made, ~16. Significantly, several techs were swapped for, bypassing their prerequisites until much later, thereby keeping carrying costs down. For example, Monotheism was had without Horse or Poly, and Construction w/o Mason.

One thing that is not often mentioned is AI attitude massaging through regular (every 2-3 turns) contact and map exchanging along with tech gifting when they drop to cordial. These guys were
enthusiastic or worshipful until Launch, for the most part. Of course, immediate key-civ tech gifting was practised to keep a bonus going. Often the multiple was 24 rather than 26 due to
purple having more techs.

Thirty-six turns with "sneaky" AI, after the Launch, is a very long time. For this reason I stayed in Democracy to get Robotics and then Stealth to deal with their antics. Then the gov't was switched to Fundy and their transgressions were dealt with to their extinction, eliminating all but two. Special attention went to purple who were the only possibility to build a rival ship.

With all these advantages, I could have done much better. Blame goes to the driver, not the car.

Here is the pre landing save

Monk

edited for spelling, always spelling!!

[solo]

Monk,

A great start, but you are right about being too late with SSC growth. Still, a fine result. Dare I say good enough to be in first place in the last game?

You, Elephant, SG(2), and others continue to impress me with what you are accomplishing in the early game, and I am going to make some big changes in my early game when playing #3. I've always been a big fan of having embassies, and looking at how well you and some others have been doing with MPE convinces me to give it a try now. The situation in #3, where we are starting on a small continent, should lend itself even more to an early strategy using MPE.

[Bloody Monk]

Thanks, Solo!!

Trying to catch you, we scramble and flail about trying to tweak our game. You look at our failures and say, "Um, I can use that." We will never catch you.

BTW, I think your EL guide should become known as the Solo Codex. It is the "bible" of Early Landing Stategy.

Monk

[Scouse Gits]

1176

Next game I must build a faster ship! 36 years after launching does get a little tedious, though towards the end there was a threat of Nuclear War.

I will pen my thoughts shortly but wanted to post the save file before the deadline

----------------------------------

SG(2)

[Scouse Gits]

Overview of Game #2

In contrast to the first game with its winding rivers, varied terrain and lucrative AI road/rail connections; this one was about fertile grassland, productive forests and deceptive geography - which fooled me completely. I had messed up in Game#1 by not choosing colony sites properly so in the second adventure I was determined to correct this aspect. I didn't! An ancient trireme captain spotted the three-whale location at (24,64), salivated and plonked down a city. Some time later when the first caravan arrived at the SSC the bonus seemed incredibly weak. Only then did this miscreant mariner check his charts properly! Mpondo was indeed on the same continent - oops. By this time founding a sister city in the same region had compounded the error. The game progressed without any colonies, but the situation was retrieved by aggressive trading with the Carthaginians who were on a different continent. Only when Apollo rolled back the unknown were several respectable colony sites revealed near the Celtic lands. With a game strategy dedicated to early ships and four legged explorers this must go down as ironic failure.

It's been interesting to read recent posts about alternative approaches to early landings that I tried as Zulu leader. My cunning plan in this game was to build up a substantial partner city to the SSC. Co-ordinates 11,51 offered a four special city where Isandhlwana was founded. The rationale for this was to unblock commodities locked by trade to AI cities. Whilst it is possible to minimise arrows in home cities to manipulate supply side trade - this is impossible where foreign routes are involved. The idea was to have a powerful second city which would replace AI trade routes. Supply items in Ulundi often presented themselves after its current freight had been delivered overseas. In part this must have been due to the power of the routes to Isandhlwana but it did take time and resources to make the place dominate over foreign trading. An additional sizeable city was useful…but the jury is still out as to whether it's game busting play. Another topic that has been raised is that of the sleaze. My early development reflected an ICS style but stopped short of multi-city madness. Throughout this game I operated with more cities than in the Roman campaign. I felt happier with this situation even though there is an implied commitment to build Mike's if science is ever to run at 100%.

In Game#1 luck seemed to be against me. In this one I received plenty of jam; a quick alliance with the Spanish, a timely Barb King and an AI that coughed up cash like a fruit machine on heat. Such were the mechanics providing the empire with a racing start. One aspect I did enjoy was the concept of Barb Kings by proxy. The lands around the Spanish, Sioux and Germans were awash with red shields during the BC years. As each leader was ransomed by these nations it was time for the Zulus to bang on their doors demanding tribute or begging for gifts. Good reasons for early alliances and late Monarchy.

Game#3 is upon us. Like the rest of us I will inspect my cunning plan store to see what's there. Meantime solo looks down from AC and smiles.

(Full log to follow)


---------------------

SG(2)

[Bloody Monk]

SG(2),

It's even more impressive that you achieved this result without proper colonies. Solo had better beware!!

Very well written commentary; I can almost see and feel the texture of your game.

Good luck in EL3.

Monk