AU601: Rhoth's Roman DAR (playing against Beta)

[Rhothaerill]

Well I'm obviously late to the party since Beta and I have started this game weeks after some of the rest of the games.

In any case Beta wanted to play the Greeks, so I'm Rome.

First turn I see this map as the rest of the Roman players have. Well, not bad. There is a cow, a river, and access to the sea for the commercial (i.e. starting with alphabet and the ability to build curraghs) Romans. About the only thing that could have made this better would have been either an agricultural civ or another food bonus to make this a +5fpt city. Oh well, it will be later on after transitioning to a new government.

I sent my worker to the cow just to see if there was anything potentially better that way, but there wasn't so I settled. I decided on pottery as my first technology. There was only one other nation (Celts) that begin with it so I didn't want to pin my granary hopes on meeting them first.

[Rhothaerill]

3300bc

After building several warriors and sending them out scouting, along with starting a curragh, my nation is now up to the point of meeting another nation...the Carthaginians.

After finishing up pottery I decided to go for the wheel and not bronze working. There are four other nations out there that begin with bronze working and three that begin with masonry...and Japan isn't playing so the wheel is potentially good trade bait.

After meeting Hannibal I couldn't get masonry out of him, but did get bronze working and 20 gold for my techs. Not too bad. Hopefully I'll meet another civ and get masonry from them, or wait until I have wheel and do some more trading.

Oh, and no I haven't popped the hut close to me yet. I don't like popping huts on emperor level when I have only a warrior for protection. It's too close to my capitol at the moment.

[Rhothaerill]

2750bc

Not a whole lot has happened quite yet, but I did meet with the Celts by way of my northern exploration warrior this turn. Out of the deal I received CB and some gold for warrior code. Not too bad since I also have alphabet to trade to them once they get another tech.

One turn past this point I popped my second goody hut. So far both have been barbs.

[nbarclay]

In C3C, especially at higher levels, it seems like there are not enough goodie huts and too many baddie huts.

[Rhothaerill]

Originally posted by nbarclay
In C3C, especially at higher levels, it seems like there are not enough goodie huts and too many baddie huts.

Yeah, that's why I deliberately haven't popped the hut close to home yet. I don't need barbs messing with my capital before I get more military to deal with them. The two I've popped have both been close to the lands of the other nations. I don't mind it if barbs mess with them.

[Rhothaerill]

2390bc

A few more turns have passed by and I've finally built my second city. It is a camp city a few tiles NE of my capital. I plan to use the city as a military base only so it's building a barracks and soon to begin unit production.

I went through the granary gambit to speed my growth later on and it's starting to work out. At this moment I will have another settler in two turns.

Since the last screenshot Beta has pulled ahead of me in score, likely because I settled a camp instead of a full blown city. But that will change. I also popped a third hut and got my third horde of barbs. I was just about to finally pop the hut next to me, but Hannibal got there first. Oh well, it probably would have been barbs.

Just this turn I also came across another tribe, the Germanics, who are annoyed and already have all the tech I have. My scouting curragh has also been running along the Persian coastline, but I haven't been able to see a unit to contact it yet. I have an exploration warrior over there that should contact them within the next few turns though.

[Rhothaerill]

2310bc

Short update. I met the Persians and was able to trade for masonry. Unfortunately I couldn't trade for iron working, even when I put all three techs, all my gold, and all my gpt on the table. Oh well. So now Persia and no one else has iron working and the Germannic tribes have mysticism, but no one else does.

I also gifted masonry to the Celts, who are still quite backwater, to make them like me more.

My new settler is now heading to my third city site.

Oh, and I popped a 4th hut near the Germannic area. Barbs again.

[nbarclay]

You do realize tha when you buy techs from an AI for gold in a MP game, you risk that your gold might end up in your opponent's hands if he can come up with something to sell to the AI?

[Rhothaerill]

Originally posted by nbarclay
You do realize tha when you buy techs from an AI for gold in a MP game, you risk that your gold might end up in your opponent's hands if he can come up with something to sell to the AI?

I took my gold back a little later by trading off the wheel when I realized I wasn't going to be getting iron working out of Persia anytime soon. I just hadn't updated that far yet.

[Rhothaerill]

1650bc

Since my last DAR I realized that I wasn't going to get anything out of Persia so I traded them the wheel for most all their gold. Upon reflection I would have done that differently by trading the wheel up front and gifting them a tech later to make them like me. But I was hoping to coerce mysticism out of the Germannics and trade both techs for iron working. Alas not to be.

I was researching writing, hoping to get it in time to trade. A few turns before I was about to get it I checked the AI's like I have every turn and discovered that not only had horseback riding been discovered and traded around, but Persia also had writing. Luckily they hadn't traded it around yet. I spent a few turns sweating it out to finish my tech. The very same turn I got it, the Germannics must have received it from Persia so that trade was out. But I was able to get iron working from Carthage for writing and some gold.

[Rhothaerill]

1650bc continued

And then was able to trade both techs for what the Celts had available. I was hoping they'd only take one of my techs for both of theirs, but it wasn't to be. Oh well.

I'm now at complete tech parity with all 4 AI civs I know. Persia has had writing for a while though so I imagine they're going after something big. Instead of taking the philosophy route and likely failing, I am instead going toward mathematics and catapults. We'll see if that will pay off.

Oh, and I have iron, though I'm not sure if I want to hook it up quite yet. I probably will, but I'll just need to be careful with Legions so I don't have someone start my golden age before I'm ready.

[Rhothaerill]

1575bc

Short update as I finally meet the evil Greek nation. I have no techs to trade him, so I guess I'm at parity. I might not find out for a while so we'll see. On the home front, not much else has happened. I'm just working on expanding and improving my territory. None of the other AI nations I know have any techs to trade.

[vmxa1]

Looks like your curragh has been in a few scrapes.

[Rhothaerill]

Originally posted by vmxa1
Looks like your curragh has been in a few scrapes.

Yeah I got caught by a barb galley. I also currently have a few barbs trying to menace my homeland. But they're soon to be "taken care of".

[Rhothaerill]

1325bc

A few turns after contact with Beta of the Greeks, I discover that he is ahead of me in the tech race. He offers me philosophy. Unfortunately I don't have anything to trade him as I'm still working on mathematics...which he ends up already possessing. In the meantime Germany has researched polytheism which they won't give up, and Persia gets philosophy, code of laws, map making and mathematics. I discovered a little later how they did it, since Beta had sent a warrior through their land and the land of Carthage.

In any case I finally finished mathematics and used it to gain philosophy from Carthage.