AU506 - DAR1: 4000BC-2150BC

[Dominae]

This is the DAR1 thread for AU506: The Power of Early Warfare. This DAR covers the first 40 turns of the game. Use this thread to discuss your first moves, and/or post a complete log.

Here are some questions you may want to think about:

1. Where did you found your capital, and why?
2. How many additional Scouts did you build?
3. What have you done so far with respect to early warfare?
4. Anything about the map that concerns you?
5. What research path did you take, and why?
6. Most importantly: you got Game?!

[Krill]

Stock C3C, Emperor.


4000BC - scout 62, worker 8, settle the town of Mountain Kiln. Build scout, research CB, 100%

3950BC - scout96, sees coast...You bastard Dom!! worker roads

3900BC - scout pops hut, get alpha !Yay!

3700BC - meet mongols on the mountain 22221 of Mountain Kiln. I have everything they have, plus alpha. got maps from the goody hut sout of the capital. yeah, real nice...

3650BC - get 25g from a hut. This is becoming annoying.

3450BC - so far I have just built 3 scouts. I am producing 5 spt, 4bpt, and 2fpt. I start a granary, to aid growth, and then a barracks with the immediate aim of wiping the mongols out, or at least beating them to a bloody pulp to make me feel better...

3400BC - meet both the Aztecs and the French. france have BW, Masonry and CB, and won't trade for pottery and WC. this is going to one bloody kill fest, and I think I am going to be the one hurt...

3300BC - free settler north of the gret northern desert. I'll move it south and settle it among the northern forests, where there are bonus grasslands a plenty ...

3250BC - meet the mayans, and I trade alpha for BW, Masonry and 20g

3200BC - meet the Chinese, I have every thing they have, and alpha and CB

3150BC - meet babylon, I have verything they have plus alphs

2950BC - Settler the Training Grounds 998 of Mountain Kiln. Builds a barracks, then a feww warriors for Mp duty, then archers.

2630BC - Meet the Indians, and trade Masonry, 21g and 2gpt for IW, which I then sell to France for the Wheel and 30g, to Babylon for 25g, and then I seel the wheel to India for 66g. So I actually gain 4g from the Indians in total. Jez, the AI can act stupidly sometimes...


The Iron is 66333, horses are 22223 and 11144. Now I know where to place my next few cities, to grow towards the Mongols (my archer rush target) and to nab the resources.


2550BC - sell IW to Mayans for 25g.

2350BC - Sell Wheel to Mongols for 25g.

2310BC - Indians have Myst.

2150BC - Indians, and the Aztecs, have HBR as well.


I am 15 turns from writing, at -7gpt, with 117g in the bank. I am planning on archer rushing the Mongols, followed by pruning the Aztecs, if I am in a position to do so. I built 3 scouts right off the bat, so that I can meet all the civs and get into the trading loop, so I can know where my surroundings are and where the resources are hidden (when the techs arrive), and finally to get as many goody huts as possible, to maximise the chances of getting a settler and or a few nice techs as trade bait. It worked...



The reason why I did not follow my original plan is that there is absolutely no water any where near me (well, apart from two inlands seas...). I need the archers to get me near to some fresh water, and to get me some nice land, that I might be able to palace jump into...All I need now is a decent gov to fire my GA in...

[Krill]

The pic...

[Krill]

The save...

[joncnunn]

Jon's Dar for AU mod Monarch level 4000 BC.

4000 BC Founded city. You have a luxary in your trade network!

Got a bunch of goodies, founded two cities, got contacts with all but one civ

2150 BC Traded with Aztecs, aquiring Horseback Riding

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1. Where did you found your capital, and why?

In place, possibility of irrigation problem west if not founded on the hill. (That was before I realized that the lake I saw was salt water.)

2. How many additional Scouts did you build?

2 Back to back, as first builds.

From Goodies:
25 Gold, Warrior Code, Settler [founded Ivory City], Mystism.

3. What have you done so far with respect to early warfare?

Found 6 of the opponets and have build a Horse City and have settler in route to Iron City. Baracks and a couple of Imp built, one fought a barb but wasn't promoted.

4. Anything about the map that concerns you?

That inland lake is full of salt water.

5. What research path did you take, and why?

Researched CB at 100%. That gave me WC fastest since that was the first tech I got form a goody hut before finishing CB. I then persured Horses and Iron.

6. Most importantly: you got Game?!

Yes. Three in fact! :

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Screen shots. Zipped Up. Can't resize them in M$ Paint.

http://apolyton.net/upload/view.php?file=22953_dar1.zip

[Addled Platypus]

at Monarch level

Away I go

Location , Location, Location..I will make the best of my first city
mountains, desert and woods OH MY.....thanks

3950 Ulandi errected
3500 I run into the Mongols
3350 Road to Incense..should I have done it first? before to deer
2850 Meet Maya and Aztecs
2850 Got BW for CB from Maya
2800 Bapedi errected
2190 Meet Babylon

goody huts gave me CB and Myst

Ulandi has barracks and grainary..and now for some Vet Impi!

My scout was on a hill when I meet Aztecs, the boundry goes over the hill, now the Aztecs are still peved at me...fun.The other scout ran into Barbs and is no more. Enough terrain explored for now.

Using the trade screen for Tact Intel...Mongols are definitely the weakest and smallest...

THE MAP

This dictated to me to reasearch map making after findinf coast lines to the East and west and South.

Same for the other civs...connection?, and I am the meat of this sandwhich.

Time will dictate if and when I get resorces.

[Dominae]

Originally posted by joncnunn
And if anyone wants screen shots, you'll need to tell me how to get M$ Paint to produce a smaller file size picture. 4000 BC paint picture is 2.5 MB dispite all the black!!!

I used the XP version of Paint to produce the image of the starting location. Remember to resize it to 800x600 and to make it a JPEG the first time you save it.

[Addled Platypus]

I use Irfan and Adobe paint shop

[Aqualung71]

AU506, Emperor Level
AU Mod - DAR 1/1

Argggghhh!!! I haven’t finished AU505 yet, and here I am downloading the AU506 start

Oh well, here goes

4000BC: Scout sent 6-8, and identifies the coast. No fresh water in sight. Zimbabwe settled on the spot, taking advantage of the instant Incense and the nice Hills defensive bonus, with lots of Mountains around for later shield power, and 3 Game for food. Worker moved 7 onto the Game.

I’ll start researching The Wheel for trade value, and hopefully pick up Alphabet and BW quickly through trade. Building a Scout first to get quick contacts, Warrior next and then a Granary.

3950BC: Worker begins roading Game. Forest chops will start when the Granary is under construction.

3750BC: 2nd Scout pops a hut and gets CB

3700BC: 1st Scout pops a hut and gets an advanced tribe…..yippee, town number 2! Also reveals a Mayan Warrior, who is happy to trade us his Masonry for our CB and WC and give us 10g to boot!

3650BC: Another hut, and this time a skilled Warrior. Worker commences Forest Chop.

3600BC: Warrior completed, commence on Granary.

3500BC: Meet the Aztecs….they have nothing to offer.

3450BC: Meet Babylon. Trade them our CB and WC for BW plus a Worker. There goes Babylon’s chances!

3350BC: Meet the Mongols. They have nothing to offer.

3300BC: Another hut….Mysticism.

3250BC: And now the fun begins. Our mercenary warrior conscript comes across a Mongol Settler/Warrior pair, with two more Warriors trailing a tile behind. Ignoring the diplomatic position of his new tribe and heedless of his inferior strength, he attacks the Mongol Warrior, killing the Mongol and capturing 2 Workers. He is promoted for his bravery by Shaka himself!

It is WAR!

Here’s the result:

[Aqualung71]

AU506, Emperor Level
AU Mod - DAR1/2

3200BC: Meet India, and trade them Mysticism and Masonry for the long desired Alphabet. We now have 7 AA techs and still haven’t finished researching our first one!

3050BC: A Mongol Warrior parks himself on a Mountain overlooking our capital. Our watching Warrior in Zimbabwe has a defensive rating of 1.85 (plus the capital city bonus which I forget) and is odds on to withstand any attacks. We will build more Warriors now, not wishing to generate our GA just yet with Impis.

2900BC: We meet China, completing our knowledge of all civs (yeh, we met France some time ago, but I forgot to note it).

There are now 2 Mongol Archers and 3 Warriors approaching. We may have to give Genghis a tech for peace. . Now that is not very Zulu-like

[Aqualung71]

AU506, Emperor Level
AU Mod - DAR 1/3

2800BC: Our new Archer attacks the Mongol Warrior in our Mountain and dies. Our Warrior finishes him off.

2750BC: Finally we research The Wheel. Move straight on to Polytheism, with Monarchy in mind.

2670BC: Genghis’ Warrior attacks, gets bombarded with arrows and then dies against our supercharged defensive Warrior who is promoted to Veteran status for his valour.

The other Mongol Warrior wisely decides against attacking, awaiting reinforcements.

2630BC: Another hut popped, 25g.

Meanwhile, the main Mongol attack force of 2 Archers and another Warrior arrive in the Zulu mountains. Genghis is happy to talk terms, but Shaka is not interested. Our 2 Warriors and an Archer defending Zimbabwe will be brave enough to hold back the onslaught.

2590BC: As indeed they are. Genghis lost an Archer and 2 Warriors in the attack. Zulu casualties were limited to one Elite Warrior. Our remaining Archer then finished off the final Mongol Archer. The first round of warfare is now complete. Zulus 1, Mongols 0.

Time for a Settler.

Trade Alphabet + 1g to Babylon for IW.

2510BC: First Settler produced.

2390BC: We encounter 2 Aztec Archers and a Warrior heading towards our capital. Montezuma is annoyed with us, so we gift him 20g, then sell him Alphabet for all his gold (now 45). He is now polite.

2230BC: Bought HBR from the Aztecs for IW + 51g. Sold HBR to India for 50g.

2150BC: At the end of the first DAR, we are at tech parity with the Aztecs, Babylon and France, and between 1 and 3 ahead of the rest. We are still at war with the Mongols.

Our fledgling empire consists of:
4 towns
2 Workers + 3 slaves
2 Scouts
2 Warriors
2 Archers
1 Granary
1 Barracks

Now for some comments.

Well, as usual Dominae has put together a subtle and testing scenario. See, the problem with this setup is that it lulls us into a false sense of power and superiority, by giving us an Expansionist civ and several nearby huts to pop, which will give most of us a couple of techs and even a Settler if we’re lucky.

This of course gives us an early tech lead, and combined with the ability to meet all civs relatively quickly, we are able to stay ahead with a little tech trading.

However, this ignores the significant difficulty with which we are faced. We are stuck in the middle of the continent with no fresh water nearby. This presents two problems – the most obvious one being the restriction to our growth, but the more subtle and deadly problem being the lack of commerce. With several potential killer AI surrounding us with fairly good land (eg, both India and the Aztecs have flood plains, all AI civs have fresh water and most have rivers), our ability to keep up in research, particularly on a Pangea where the AI civs will soon catch up with our quick Expansionist-driven contacts, is limited.

This will presumably drive us in the direction the scenario-designer intended us to take. If we build several Granaries and try to out-REX the AI, we will surely fail both in growth and research. The only way to keep apace with the AI therefore is to trim them, and trim them all. We are therefore virtually forced into relatively early warfare (including Impi pillaging and an early GA), or face the consequences of an impotent economy and slow-growing towns. Hence the scenario name…..the Power of Early Warfare.

Again, well done Dom, you evil, evil man

It now goes without saying that I shall retire to my tent and carefully consider my next moves, for I predict that the second 40 turns in this game (DAR2) may be more decisive than we would otherwise expect!

[joncnunn]

I have that, how do you resize and how do you save as JPEG?

Originally posted by Dominae

I used the XP version of Paint to produce the image of the starting location. Remember to resize it to 800x600 and to make it a JPEG the first time you save it.

[joncnunn]

Don't have either.

Originally posted by Platypus Rex
I use Irfan and Adobe paint shop

[joncnunn]

2150 BC Save

[Dominae]

Originally posted by joncnunn
I have that, how do you resize and how do you save as JPEG?

Sorry, I just realised I resized it with MS Picture Manager. Do you have that? Saving as JPEG you can do in Paint; just change the file type (from BMP) in the "Save As..." window.