AU501 - DAR2: First Dromon

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by cracky
975BC: First Dromon built in Adrianople. I have only three warriors built to upgrade to swordsmen. Constantinople is building a barracks and then swordsmen. I have several cities working on temples, but I think I’ll switch those to barracks and get busy on some Japan bashing. Hopefully this campain will be over before Japan gets map making...

Overview: I have seven cities, ten workers. Almost every worked tile is improved. I’m about to gear up for an elimination war with Japan. I’ll do this before settling the two islands to the west. 14 turns until Monarchy. I have contact with 6 other Civs, and have between a tech parity and a large tech advantage over them all

Again, any and all advice is appreciated. I just recently moved up to monarch after getting a little bored with the easy wins on Regent. So far I haven't quite adjusted to the greater number of units the AI is likely to have on Monarch which leads to under-manned invasions. Hopefully it won't happen this time.

I will look for updates on your game, since we are using similar city spacings on the home island.

Good focus on killing Japan. Your instincts are correct. Get over there.

Do you have a granery in Constantinople? That will come in very handy when you go to settle the Western Isles.

[Catt]

Great read of all AARs! It's fabulous to see so many players playing AU 501, and we seem to have a good mix of difficulty levels and AU Mod vs. stock rules.

I'm skipping this AAR because, though I've a fair number of curraghs out and about, I haven't yet upgraded a curragh / galley nor built a dromon, but I have made contact with all civs. Taking up the tale in AAR 3.

Catt

[alexman]

Theodora’s Smile: Part 3

When we last left Theodora, she had just had a terrible date with Tokugawa, so she decided it was time to start seeing someone else. She sent her Curraghs to the east, and she soon discovered the lands of Summeria in 1870 BC. Gilgamesh, their leader, was not as cute as Toku, but she decided to give him a chance. After all, he already knew how to write, while her scientists were still trying to figure that out. She watched him write (signing the check at dinner), and told her scientists how he did it. A few years later, in 1725, Byzantine scientists proclaimed that they had discovered Writing. Theodora taught Tokugawa how to write (so he can pay for her dinner too), and he was so impressed that he taught her Mysticism and the Wheel.

In 1625 BC, Byzantine Curraghs met the Hittites, who seemed to be in a bloody war against Sumeria. Mursilis and Gilgamesh were probably fighting over her, Theodora thought. That was a nice boost to her ego. She was going to be friends with both of them for now, and then see how it works out.

Theodora’s triple dating worked out quite well. She gave Tokugawa’s Mysticism to Mursilis in exchange for Iron Working, and then sold the same Mysticism to Gilgamesh in exchange for all his cash. She the turned back to Tokugawa and taught him Iron Working in exchange for Horseback Riding and all his cash, and then exchanged Horseback Riding for Masonry with Gilgamesh.

In the end, Theodora was had 209g in the bank. Tokugawa and Mursilis were bankrupt and Toku didn’t even know Masonry. Gilgamesh had 16g and he knew Literature. Triple dating was such a success that when Byzantine scientists discovered Philosophy in 1250, Theodora started another round of trading. She gave Philosophy and Masonry to Japan for Polytheism and all Tokugawa’s cash. She sold Philosophy and Polytheism to Gilgamesh for Map Making and Code of Laws and some cash. Mursilis was too poor and too clueless to provide her with any benefit from trading.

Theodora then had enough cash to establish an embassy with Sumeria. Her ambassador told her that Japan still had no knowledge of Summeria. An exploring Japanese Curragh was sunk by a barbarian Galley just as it was about to make contact with the eastern island.

The age of Philosophy in Byzantium sparked an interest in science, and Mathematics were instantly mastered as a result. But Theodora was careful to keep her friend Tokugawa from learning Math, as she had heard legends speak of the awesome power that comes from solving differential equations using pens made out of ivory.

In 1150 BC, eastbound Curraghs survived a sea crossing and discovered Egypt. Not only Cleopatra was not as cute as Theodora, but she was terribly backwards. She bought Warrior Code for 109 gold.

Despite all this success in her personal relationships, Theodora was beginning to realize that her Byzantine Empire was not as glorious as she had hoped. The largest projects she had managed to fund were a couple of granaries, while other civilizations were completing Great Wonders right and left: France built the Colossus in 2310, the Oracle in 1790, and the Temple of Artemis in 1075. Theodora hadn’t met these famous French yet, but she would be willing to bet that such a glorious civilization was being lead by a woman. The Maya built the Pyramids in 1650, and the Great Wall in 1050, and England built the Hanging Gardens in 1050. "What? Another Gardens fanatic? England’s leader must be another female" she exclaimed. With all her landscaping efforts at home, that sounded like a great Wonder to Theodora! Even neighboring Sumeria and Japan built the Great Library in 1325, and the Mausoleum of Mausallos in 1050, respectively.

Back at home, Theodora kept hiring workers to complete the landscaping of her gardens. At 1000 BC, there were 25 different worker units employed throughout the empire. The great marshlands of the north were being converted to beautifully groomed lawns.

Tokugawa was acting a little strange lately, probably because he was starting to suspect her friendship with Mursilis and Gilgamesh. The situation deteriorated so much that she had to hire 19 Warriors to protect her. Unfortunately, something will have to be done about her jealous neighbor, and soon. She wondered how many Dromons she should need to transport 20 Swordsmen to pay a visit to Tokugawa…

[steven8r]

Alexman, I really enjoy your naratives.

Sure, I get lots of good technical, turn-by-turn info from the other posts, but it's refreshing to read yours.

* steven8r presents Alexman with the 'AU105 Narrative Award' (at least inasmuch as it is mine to give.)

Steven

[ducki]

Originally posted by steven8r
Alexman, I really enjoy your naratives.
Sure, I get lots of good technical, turn-by-turn info from the other posts, but it's refreshing to read yours.

I agree - I wish I had the focus to take my turn-by-turn notes and craft an informative yet interresting narrative, but my time is limited.

* steven8r presents Alexman with the 'AU105 Narrative Award' (at least inasmuch as it is mine to give.)
Steven

I'd also like to award him the AU 501 Narrative Award.
Really great stuff, alexman. What do you do when you're not crunching numbers noone else wants to crunch and turning play-by-play notes into stories? Climb Mt. Everest? Decode the human genome? Build Gantt charts that allow you to do all this great stuff? (Just messing with ya, great stuff, great effort.)

[alexman]

OK we all know that I'm a hopeless civ addict. No need to rub it in!

[Jaybe]

... as she had heard legends speak of the awesome power that comes from solving differential equations using pens made out of ivory.

Especially enjoyed this part!

[jshelr]

This is the only group I've ever been in where I've not felt I was geeky enough

[Krill]

Posting this after Alexman wrote that beautiful article, this is definately going to be boring, and nowhere near his level of detail. (This is because the last article got deleted) After building several curraghs from the towns that were newly founded, I met Japan, who had the wheel, war. code, and mysticism. Then I met Sumeria, who had the same as japan, and masonry, iron working and writing. Seeing as i was researching philosophy, i had nothing to trade with them. So i traded writing to Japan for all of their techs and some gold. When i met Egypt and Russia, i was at tech parity 11 turns after discovering Sumeria. The techs not discoverd were Construction, currency, monarchy, republic, and code of laws.
I proceeded to build up my island, because i had enough time to do it and build up my military if i kept Japan in the dark, who were going to be leaving before they reach the next era.

[Nor Me]

Previous DAR AU Mod, Demigod.

Not much to say in this DAR, I built the Lighthouse, expanded a bit and researched Map Making.

Constantinople built another settler in 1950BC. In the same year, Paris built the Colossus so I started the Lighthouse. Sumeria tried to extort 28 gold in 1750BC so they started a war. I wasn't scared as it was some time before I saw a curragh but they were insulted by a peace treaty for centuries. The Maya built the Pyramids in 1550BC. At that time the Sumerians had literature and I was worried about running out of prebuilds for the Lighthouse in my capital. Luckily the Japanese discovered polytheism shortly after which shows that the AU mod is useful for something. I then had to worry about trading for it but by the time Paris built the Oracle in 1450BC (So that's where the SPHQ is going), the Sumerians had discovered it as well.

I discovered Map making in 1375BC and built the great Lighthouse the same turn using "What's the big picture". My one curragh had looked for a likely sea lane to go north and Constantinople followed with a 2-turn harbour and Dromon.

I had to use archers to deal with the barbarians in the North. They also dealt with those from the other hut.

I started researching Monarchy as I need to attack relatively soon and the Japanese and Sumerians have curraghs wandering around so there's a risk of an early GA.

2030BC H wri for HBR+17
1950BC con buuilds settler starts on col.
1750BC Sumeria declares war after failure to pay tribute!
160BC Japanese Curragh sighted!
1425BC japan accepts writing for poly+31g oracle just built.
1350BC discover Map-mapking. Constantinople reaches 300 shields for GL that turn!

[OPD]

Upgraded first Dromon in 850bc. At which point I've built all the cities I'm going to build and have been building workers instead. Aswell as a good navy.

I have 7 curraghs and 1 dromon and most cities will be building harbours, library, aqua in that order.

Adrainopole has been building 2 turn workers for something like 30 turns now

Also I was kinda lucky with curraghs, my first one made it through the sealand to the Mayans and french. I missed out on the free tech from phil but have more than made up for it with trades to other nations.

As the aztecs have spare ivory I'm prebuilding zeus in my capital.

Having to clear wetland before building cities sure is a pita.

[jkelly]

Very short update

Not much to report, as I got a Dromon pretty quickly after completing the 50-turn Writing project that I had been working on so long.

Japan beat me to writing, but my exploring Curraghs encountered Sumeria and the Hittites only two turns before I would be done with it. With Writing to trade, I was first in tech the turn afterwards.

My Curraghs made their way to my southeastern whaling city, which switched production to a Harbour. I immediately cranked tech to get to Philosophy first, although I imagined the wonder-building civs I kept getting notices about had already got there. It was a gamble.

It paid off in a very big way. Getting Philosophy gave me Mathematics, and one of those techs gave me a SGL! I traded Philosophy to Japan for a tech (HR?) and Ivory, pop-rushed a Horseman in Constantinople to clear out the production box, and used the SGL to build the Statue of Zeus.

I started researching Polytheism, both because Monarchy seemed the better choice for the next few centuries, and because I had been doing very well with the tech-whoring so far. I was hoping to move fast enough to keep Japan penned in.

I knew there was not much chance of getting to Monarchy before triggering my GA if I really wanted to pressure Japan early. I don't know how often I am going to play Byzantium, so I may as well use those Dromons when they're at their peak. It may not be the most strategic decision, but it fits with why I am playing the AU course in the first place.

I upgraded my first Curragh to a Dromon, and started building a fleet of them, as Japanese Galleys were now sighted. A Horseman and Ancient Cavalry invasion of Japan was the next order of business.

[Thrar]

Here's my second DAR. This one covered relatively many turns i think, but the third one is a bit shorter. Here is the first DAR .

2070BC: contact with Japan.

around 1500BC: contact with Sumeria, trade Writing for Masonry and CB to Sumeria, Writing+Masonry for The Wheel and Mysticism to Japan. Sumeria has Polytheism, but lacks The Wheel.

1450BC: completed research of Code of Laws, next will be Philosophy. All land except the marsh is settled (8 cities), there are some barbs around, i have to kill them before i can use the marsh. Constantinople is now a worker pump, everything else builds temples.

This is the earliest screenshot i have from the game:

[Thrar]

and here is the second part:

1375BC: contact with the Maya. CoL for Mathematics, then CoL+Wheel to Sumeria for Polytheism, and Polytheism to Maya for Iron Working.

1300BC: contact with the Hittites. Masonry and Mysticism to them for Horseback Riding and 69 gold.

1275BC: contact with England. They are way behind in tech, but have 107 gold, so i give them Writing.
Established embassies with everyone now. According to F11 i'm #1 in GNP and Mfg.Goods, but only 4th in population. Since i'm larger than the ones i know, the three remaining civs might be quite strong.

1075BC: the Dutch complete the Mausoleum of Mausollos. So much for the CoL gamble. Contact with Egypt, sold The Wheel for 27 gold.

1050BC: WTF?? A city on MY island is flipping to Japan!

975BC: Researched Philosophy. Contact with Russia. They have both Map Making and Literature, plus 197 gold. Philosophy, CoL and Mathematics gives me all of that. Nobody wants to make a RoP with me for free, i guess i'll have to take parts of Japan to get some more land.

950BC: Mayans have Construction. RoP, 44g and Construction for Philosophy and HBR.

925BC: Monarchy and 17g from Sumeria for Philosophy, Lit, Math and IW.

670BC: declared war on Japan to take back Nicaea. Investigators said they have 2 spears; 3 archers and 3 warriors should be enough for that.

650BC: Nicaea taken. Lost 1 archer in the process, captured 1 worker.

630BC: first Dromon built. I researched Republic a while ago, but with my 17 workers and some military for 9 cities, the support cost would kill me. Once i finished developing my island, those workers can be joined into the cities, and then i'll trigger my GA on Japan. This also should give me enough time to build troops for an invasion.
Here is what it looks like now:

[lockstep]

AAR, part 2 (without things like chopping forests and messing with the luxury slider). Actually a little longer - I don't have a 'first dromon' save.

2150 BC (cont.): Writing, start Philosophy
2110 BC: Wri to Sumeria for Myst, Mas; Myst to Hittites for 20g; Nicae founded
2030 BC: Embassy with Sumeria for 38g; Ur will finish Pyramids in 116t
1990 BC: Adrianople finishes barracks
1950 BC: Nicae finishes warrior
1870 BC: Sea lane E of Hittites; Adrianople finishes warrior
1830 BC: Barb camp; Border E of Hittites; Constantinople finishes temple, starts Pyramids

This is obviously a gamble, but I really wanted an ancient wonder with a lot of culture (at least 4) per turn. Another option would have been the Oracle, but I'd rather have a wonder that does something. Mausolos was out of reach for the moment. The Great Library (6 culture per turn) was a big no-no for two reasons: a) enjoying its main effect (free techs) would equal foregoing the chance to get SGL's (which is an even worse thing for scientific civs) and b) GL + Great Lighthouse (which I absolutely wanted to get) would mean a GA while I was still in Despotism. So it had to be the Pyramids.

1790 BC: Contact with Egypt, is backward; Alph to Egypt for 60g; Hittites have IW; Adrianople finishes warrior
1750 BC: Barb camp destroyed
1725 BC: Border SE of Egypt
1700 BC: Contact with Russia, is on par; Adrianople finishes curragh
1600 BC: Barb camp; Sumeria has Poly; Wri to Egypt for 14g
1575 BC: Barb camp
1550 BC: Barb horseman; barb camp destroyed; Adrianople finishes settler
1500 BC: Barb camp destroyed; Hittites have HR; curragh (NE of Russia) killed by stack of barb galleys
1475 BC: Japan's homeland is island with room for 5-6 cities
1450 BC: Caesarea finishes granary
1425 BC: Varna founded (on incense)
1375 BC: Nicae finishes temple
1350 BC: Russia has Lit; Amsterdam (Dutch) finishes Colossus
1325 BC: Embassy with Egypt for 46g; Thebes will finish Pyramids in 73t
1275 BC: Landmass in the W (uninhabited) is island with room for 5-6 cities; sea lane N of island; Nicae finishes worker
1225 BC: Caesarea finishes settler
1200 BC: Incense connected; Wri to Japan for Poly, 11g; Poly to Russia for Lit, 46g; Poly, Lit to Hittites for IW, 25g; iron revealed; curragh (N of uninhabited island) sinks in sea lane
1150 BC: Russia has CoL; Adrianople finishes temple; Nicae finishes worker
1075 BC: Smyrna founded
1050 BC: Constantinople finishes Pyramids (-> existing granaries sold); Adrianople finishes spearman
1000 BC: Caesarea finishes settler
975 BC: Philosophy, start Map Making

A tough choice. Because I had got Polytheism from Japan, Monarchy was already a research option. Monarch as a free tech would be a valuable trading item, and would also allow to get out of Despotism ASAP. The Hanging Gardens could be used as a pre-build for the Great Lighthouse while researching Map Making. OTOH, it would take longer to get / change to Republic, which I deemed a better suited government for a tech broker / builder strategy. (Okay, Japan would have to be destroyed, but that's another story.) Also, Philosophy (as in the AU mod) was good enough to be traded for all AI techs. So I opted for Map Making and crossed fingers.

975 BC (cont.): Map Making (free tech), start Republic; Constantinople finishes library, starts Great Lighthouse
950 BC: Phil to Russia for CoL; Phil to Hittites for HR, 38g
925 BC: Horses connected; Hattusas (Hittites) finishes Oracle
900 BC: Nicae finishes library
875 BC: Adrianople finishes library
825 BC: Japanese curragh; Heraclea founded
775 BC: Mas to Japan for 35g; Varna finishes temple
750 BC: Adrianople finishes harbor
710 BC: Hittites demand MM, I decline, they declare war
690 BC: Caesarea finishes library
650 BC: Adrianople finishes dromon
630 BC: Smyrna finishes library
610 BC: Russia and Sumeria have Mon
570 BC: Republic, start Mathematics; Constantinople finishes Great Lighthouse; Adrianople finishes spearman; Varna finishes harbor
550 BC: CoL to Egypt for 56g; Rep to Russia for Mon, 3g; Embassy with Russia for 91g; Moscow will finish Great Library in 17t; revolution (-> 4t anarchy)

Status:
7 cities (30 pop points)
Pyramids, Great Lighthouse
1 barracks, 7 granary (Pyramids!), 4 temple, 6 library, 2 harbor
4 worker, 3 warrior, 2 spearman, 1 dromon

Plans for the future:
a) Change to Republic,
b) Continue exploration (northern sea lane) and tech brokering,
c) Avoid triggering a GA for now, i.e. don't let Hittite curraghs attack dromons,
d) Get a foothold on the Japanese island and get their ivory, i.e. capture Osaka,
e) Build Statue of Zeus in Constantinople and test how strong Ancient Cavalry is in the AU mod.