AU 503 DAR 1: Up to 2150 BC

[Krill]

AU 503 DAR 1 4000BC-2150BC

Monarch

Before I post this, I want to say that alexman is sadistic. Thank you.

I followed the approach of settling on the forest, but I started work on the ivory asap, since I knew I would need all the gold I could get from this start.

I built a chasqui, then a settler, then a granary. This took slightly longer than 40 turns, (until 1990bc), but it was then that I decided to build the pyramids. The chasqui went southeast, along the mountain corridor, that the scout discovered, but he went south west and discovered the Hittites, after making contact with the mogol scout. This brings me to research:

I researched CB, since I thought I might pop a few goody huts, and I would like to get a decent tech like WC or BW. I later met the Mongols and he Hittites. I managed to trade IW, wheel, alpha and BW with masonry, and writing that I researched before the rest. And it paid off big time. I built the pyramids

WITH AN SGL!!

While I had to think about this, since I could also research maths full bore, and get Zeus, but the thought of a granary in every city was too appealing

The settler went to the hill to give access to water, and the deserts will become my immediate base of operations, with another 3 cities planed on the coast.

On pillaging

just to the south of the Mongols I popped a hut that gave me a conscript warrior, and I used him as a shield for the scout. I managed to pillage the cowsand capture a worker (which was recaptured to protect the scout), but that was all. I will have to shortly negotiate peace the chasqui is just a look out since i do not want a GA with two cities

[Sabular]

AU MOD - Regent

This is my first AU-game and I must say I like it very much.

To be honest, my first try on this map was a fiasco, I started building Chasqui Scouts to late and by the time my first Chasqui reached my southern neighbours both the mongols and hittites were already to large for a feasible pillaging offensive from my terrible starting position.
At that point in time I felt the map was misconstructed for the testing of pillaging, reading some DAR's however convinced me of the opposite and I decided to take another try.

With a little bit of prescience, I built chasquis immediately the second time and sent them south as quickly as possible, I was able to raise the second Mongol city, capture the Hittite and Mongol worker and pillage all Mongol and most hittite terrain improvements before enemy military units showed up.
I was uncareful and one of my chasquis was attacked by a warrior, he survived but it netted me a 1 city GA, my empirewide production was augmented by 66%, (from 3 to 5) and I quickly settled my second city.
My Chasquis were able to lead the Mongol and Hittite forces around while never being in danger of being attacked and I knew neither of them would trouble me in the near future so I decide to focus more on expanding and scouting, which resulted in contact with the Vikings.

Despite my horrible starting position, some strategic errors (I completely missed the possibility to build a city in the hills south of the dessert to transport irrigation and would not do so until well in the middle ages) and a super-early GA (which possitively influenced my opinion on this issue, even so, 1 city is too early) I am in a reasonable position and only the Vikings pose anything of a threat.

[Aqualung71]

Welcome to AU, Sabular, and good on you for posting. And well done for going back and restarting, as many of us have with this particularly difficult game.

I too was a bit put out by having my GA generated so early, but then it's pretty difficult to avoid and it's pretty clear that early pillaging is the best strategy in this game.

It would be even more interesting if you could attach some screenies to your posts.

[Bobikus]

This is my first time posting during an AU game. I have played lots of civ, ever since civ1, and have read many of the postings (Ducki does emperor was an outstanding thread).

I am trying this on emperor, which i win about half the time. I usually destroy monarch, but not going to war until late in the game. I have recently started enjoying early warmongering, and am trying to get good at it.

Here goes:
Looked north, with worker...ah wheat. Moved NE to settle on ivory, get wheat, fish, and sugar hill. Immediately built 3 CS, and sent my original scout south around the hill--argh, desert.

Hmm...this is interesting, a road made of mountains for my CS. I have a huge advantage moving through this moutain jungle. Must concentrate sending forces south through the mountain jungle.

Standard scout meets a hittite. Not too concerned about them. Ah, a mongol warrior is moving through my mountain jungle. By this time my first CS was entering the jungle. The Mongols become first priority. I see the mountain jungle as protection, and the Mongols UU could negate my movement advantage. So, I sent my first three CS from where the Mongols came (SE), and decided to continue building til i got to 3 population (25 turns?, argh).

I forgot, I traded the Hittites for Alphabet. I forgot, I am going for the SoZ. I don't have anything to trade with the Mongols, even better. I reached the Mongol territory with my first CS, and he circled their nation, checking it out.

Wow, cows, bonus grassland, rivers...they are a prime candidate for pillaging with 5 roads, 3 mines, and 2 irrigation. Capital of size 3, another small city of size 1. Two more CS show up and stacking up on the mountains to the NE, waiting to pounce. The city's got a spearmen, so i'm not going there.

Stupid AI...send an archer towards me. Two workers being guarded by a warrior within range, and...what's this? A settler and an archer going toward the SW where my first CS is waiting to attack? I can't handle it anymore...i want to wait for that next CS to get here, but I also want to try to raid them now. I would be happy winning only two workers, which i could each way.

Well, I have to attack. The year is 2550 B.C. Oh yeah, I still have one city, but am building a settler to go North to take advantage of the grass, fish, and possibly wheat. I decide to go after the two workers. The warrior is dead, and I got a GA and two workers...woohoo. I won the other two battles...lucky. Then I pillaged all their tiles. Quick war...peace in 2350, they have two cities of size 1, and no workers. Wow, I get The Wheel, Warrior Code, Ceremonial Burial, and 65 gold.

Now I have 4 mongol workers, two cities, 4 CS (I had to use some to take out some Barbarians). I am building a barracks and more CS in my capital. I still have my original scout cutting of the Hittites by sitting on the mountiain so no one can get by. It's only 2310...but this is all i am playing tonight.

I plan to keep terrorizing the Mongols, and start checking out the Hittites...I think I like this early warmongering...(was that mountain jungle road put in there on purpose? oh yeah, how do you take screen shots in this game?)

Bo Beekus

[Catt]

AU 503 – Pillage & Plunder; Emperor; Stock Rules

Part 1 of 7

As I’ve complained about too many times, I have been quite busy in RL for some time now, and though I completed AU 503, I neither kept great notes nor can spare the time for a terribly entertaining summary. Nonetheless, here is what I have.

I selected Emperor due to the reputed difficulty of the scenario and my unwillingness (or inability) to invest a lot of time into the game.

Like many others, Pachacuti moved his worker to the sugar hill, moved the Incan scout northwards, and elected to settle on the forest in order to bring the whale into Cuzco’s range. The initial laborers of the settlement worked the commerce-rich fish as Incan scientists labored on the discovery of Alphabet. Explorations north revealed wheat fields, and Pachacuti established his initial plans – despite the resource-poor start, three fast-moving Chasqui’s would be trained and sent to harass other tribes.

From a small mountain range to Cuzco’s northeast, the Incan scout caught sight of a Viking warrior across a narrow channel. Contact was made and Pachacuti shared the secrets of Masonry and 2 gold pieces for the secrets of Alphabet. Incan scientists worked feverishly on developing a system of Writing to make use of the newly acquired Alphabet.

In 3300 BC the Incan scouting party discovered a small body of fresh water to the south. Pachacuti now knew the initial expansion plans of the Incan empire. A new settlement would first be constructed in the grasslands and forests to the north – sharing the bounty of the wheated plains with Cuzco; a second settlement would be formed in the hills north of Lake Pachacuti and would serve as the spigot to irrigate the vast deserts and plains of greater Cuzco.

In 3100 BC the Incan scout encountered a Hittite scout and Pachacuti again traded the knowledge of Masonry, receiving in return knowledge of Bronze Working and Warrior Code, plus 10 gold.

In 2510 BC the Incan scout discovered the Mongol hordes; Temujin possessed knowledge of the Wheel and Ceremonial Burial, but no trades were feasible as he had also unraveled the mysteries of Masonry. The initial glimpse of Mongol territory convinced Pachacuti that the Chasquis must sabotage the growing strength of Temujin – Mongol lands were much more fertile than the desolate Incan lands, and the extended room for expansion represented a long term threat to Incan glory. Fortunately, the Chasqui attack force had begun its march south.

In approximately 2310 BC, the first blow was landed – the lead Chasqui swooped into Mongol territory and enslaved two Mongol working parties. Two additional Chasquis took up positions in the mountains north of plains studded with Ivory. Temujin then made a strategic mistake – a Mongol settler party, defended by one warrior, attempted to escape to the east of Karkorum. The Chasquis pounced, one falling to the warrior’s club but the second bringing victory and an additional pair of enslaved working parties.

Catt

[Jawa Jocky]

AU503 replay, Monarch, AUmod

My 1st game was actually winnable despite my best efforts However when comparing it to other’s games; I realize I have missed the point of this course. My mistake was simple. I waited to long before starting my pillage campaign, because I was too concerned about rexing to compensate for the less than perfect start.

So Reload.

I have two cities. No surprise it’s the Forest and Hill start (I went North 3 tiles last time and I think it was actually better, I didn’t irrigate fast enough last time and thought this approach would be better). A settler is currently in the works but all the other builds have been Chasqui Scouts. I’m still late compared to others but it feels early compared to my 1st game. I may actually start again since I’m improving every time, but I feel like I should atleast post something.

[Jawa Jocky]

AU503 3rdPlay, Monarch, AUmod

Recap of previous games:

Game 1 was abandoned game after completing a successful “Classic REX” with delayed pillaging strategy, because I felt I wasn’t approaching the course the way it was designed.

Game 2 was lost due to over-pillaging. It was a “learning experience” that I have analyzed and posted in the post game comments thread.

On to the current game:

The strategy for game 3 was to hit the AI with an earlier (and smaller) pillaging campaign. 4 Chasqui and a Settler were built, with current builds at 2150bc including barracks for a unit pump (for anticipated defense) and another settler to make the lake hill irrigation pass through city. But enough of that lets move on to the pillaging details.

Chasqui 1 started the campaign as soon as he reached Hittites’ lands. He grabbed their worker and pillaged all but 1 tile before getting killed by an archer. With no reinforcements on the way I accepted peace for a tech that everyone else already had.

Chasqui 2 hit the Mongols as soon as he got there. He grabbed their worker and pillaged all tiles in the Mongol lands before getting killed. I tried to get a peace agreement but they were kind of upset and were not interested.

Chasqui 3 was going to hit the Vikings but ends up delaying the mission to help our liberated workers return safely to their new home.

Chasqui 4 was heading South to free up Chasqui 3 so he could go hit the Vikings

Special Notes:

To find out what happens next you can skip over to the end game thread instead of the DAR 2 thread like you might expect.

[Mad Bomber]

AU503-Regent level.

I chose to go the early pillage route instead of the more traditional REX game. Unfortunately I made a nuber of mistakes.

The first was that I placed my capitol in the starting postion when I could have moved one tile NE and had access to the wheat. The second is not building a granary. The former was costly as I did not have anyone working the wheat until I built my second city c. 2100BC, the latter was crippling as I could not get much production from the capitol. My third (and biggest) mistake was attacking a Hittite scout (I wanted all the GH's to myself) and ran right into a warrior that the scout had just popped from a hut the turn before. The inevitable result

[Mad Bomber]

Used the resulting GA to get out a number of Chasqui scouts which would be my only offensive military for much of the game. Soon after the GA, I made contact with the Mongols. I also signed a peace treaty with the Hittites for Alphabet, Bronze Working, and Warrior Code. Then I went a'pillaging against the Mongols.

[Mad Bomber]

So after pillaging all of the Mongol Improvements, but unable to take a city directly, I signed another peace treaty this time getting The Wheel and some gold out of the deal. At 2275 I had a total of three citiies, one of which came from a goody hut. On the brighter side I did have about eight scouts out and about and I would soon find the Hittite and Scandanavian homelands.

[Mountain Sage]

Second try: in the first one, I got to the Medieval Times without any pillage or collective rape, and I realized maybe the game should be played a bit differently. So I went back to the drawing board… and put two constraints on my game: I would not move my capital and would stay in Feudalism (makes it a bit more ‘barbarian’).


From my jumbled notes (‘vanilla’ 1.22, Emperor):

4000BC:
Settled on the spot and started mining the sugar. My scout goes south. Started researching the Wheel as a trade tech.

3600BC:
A friendly Illinois settler wants to join our Despotism. That hill by the lake suddenly looks promising.

3450BC:
Our second city is founded by the lake and starts a worker.

3300BC:
A second hut by the volcano gives us CB. Hittites contacted. They have Alphabet and WC, we have Masonry, CB and BW.

3200BC:
We meet the Mongols. They have Alphabet, WC and BW. Traded Masonry and CB for Alphabet with the Mongols, BW and CB with the Hittites for 45 gold.

2270BC:
Contact with Scandinavia. Traded CB for 35 gold.

2030BC:
We have now 2 cities and Writing is in 6 turns. We already contacted Scandinavia, the Hittites and the Mongols. Our glorious empire looks a bit short of cash but there are some fertile plains and fat cities south of us…

[Mountain Sage]

the economics:

[Mountain Sage]

the Power Graph

[Addled Platypus]

Very evil in design...and makes you rethink everything learned while playing easier levels.

No irragation, little resources, plenty of other civ's plus the hordes. What more can a player ask for...

Just this

With the challenge to attempt to pillage and plunder with slow production and research. I manage a couple of pillages and plunders, but in the end I have to trade for peace.

Had eventually traded to get irragation and much more with the Hittites. Altough still annoyed with me.

Then try to expand, keep the hordes in check, trade to keep from falling to far behind, three other civs expanding in my direction

let's not forget everyone else is out producing in units,advances being built, attitudes usually not niece for long.

I have not had the success of others

So for the next 40 turns will have to be defensive, after a while with a strong enough force pillage on 1 civ, go for the capitol (?) and hope to liberate advances.
If I wait to long, I know I will be overwhelmed by more modern units and eliminated.

Ya Ya Ya... just that easy

[Addled Platypus]

just found ALL the other mods


I will have no life for a while

Will all these work with 1.22 patch?


I would like to take this time to thank all those who make this thread the tops...

THANK YOU ALL