Spoliers for AU 401: They came down from the Mountains

[Nor Me]

Researched Republic in 725BC. I was into it by 670BC and started on currency. In 570BC, I got currency but again the Ottomans beat me to it. I was able to trade for Construction and polytheism. Although everyone else was still in despotism, the Ottomans had feudalism.

Although I only had a couple of swordsmen and archers and 7 horsemen, I decided that peace would have to end some time so I declared war on the Indians in 530BC.

Immeadiately, I signed an alliance with the Babylonians. In the 2nd combat, I got a leader. Traded Republic and 35gpt(to cathage) for Monarchy, Feudalism and Engineering. I started researching invention in the hope of building Leo's and having a large(40 or 50 odd) horseman upgrade which could be game-winning. But I still need to road the jungle:

[Nor Me]

Hoping to get another leader before a decent FP spot, I rushed Sun-Tzu's in 490BC. It didn't get rid of the AI prebuilds however as the Hanging Garden had not yet been built. Liturature had not even been discovered.

In 410BC, I triggered my GA using an Impi. Only an ancient UU can give you a non-despotic GA much before Knights. This GA allowed me to build enough horseman and have enough commerce for a decent Knight upgrade.

In 290BC, I got a second leader which was saved for a decent FP spot.
At that stage I was still along way from completing a road so galleys were used to attack the Indians near their capital (even on a pangea they can be very useful.)

190BC Invention, traded for Literacy and Monotheism. Chivalry started. Zimbabwe was 1 turn from the Hanging Garedns when Invention was discovered.
150BC FP in Bombay. While that's a decent central position, the game was going to be effectively over by the time a second core could be built.

In 70BC, I discovered Chivalry. I had 53 horsemen by then but Leo's was still at least 5 turns away.The Indians were down to 1 city forcing me to sign peace. China still didn't have feudalism and were small enough to virtually eliminate before Knights.

I suppose it's time for a screenshot. FP in Bombay, yellow spreading like the plague:

[Nor Me]

In 30AD, I made peace with China for a city putting them down to two, one of which is on my island (which wasn't worth colonising. On the same turn the Ottomans declared war on Carthage. Neither the Ottomans nor the Germans had Iron hooked up and their war with Carthage could delay this indefinately.

At this stage, I only had 48 horsemen and 7 of those were elite
In 70AD, Leo's was finally built. 43 knights headed through Carthaginian territory to enlighten the Ottomans.

In 90AD, I decided that some science might be a good idea and started researching Gunpowder in the hope of getting a lead on where the saltpetre was hopefuklly stopping somone from linking it up. I had Chivalry and the Babs had Theology. The Ottomans,Carthage and Germany had neither but everything else. China and India were now irrecoverably behind.
In 110AD, I signed an alliance with Carthage against the Ottomans. They didn't manage to hook up the Iron. So this is a 190AD minimap:

[Nor Me]

In 210AD, despite our alliance, Carthage wanted to be the next target. Well that's O.K. by me. I got gunpowder and set science to 0%. Who needs cavalry or Education? I think that some rushed Knights might be more useful.

The mercs prove to be able to inflict some losses and to cause cities not to fall unpredictably. But by this stage, it's not going to effect the outcome of the game.

In 280AD, the Babylonians complained that they weren't invited and tried to gatecrash the party. Everyone will join the fun eventually so they might as well give me negative war weariness. Republic is good even for rabid warmongers.

By 310AD, I have a decent portion of the middle of the map:

[Nor Me]

The Babylonians did have pikemen which slowed me down a bit.

In 340AD The Germans eliminated the Carthaginians. Not to be outdone, in 360AD, I eliminated the Babylonians and Ottomans. I then declared war on the remaining Germans, Chinese and Indians. None of these had pikes. In 380AD, the Indians were eliminated.

That turn I took China's last city but they had a settler/spearman pair that I couldn't get a Knight to. In 390AD they founded a city and got lots of free units! I'd not seen that before and the bastards were able to take Carthage for a turn depriving me of the HG!

[Nor Me]

But by 420AD, it was all over and I had a conquest victory.

[Nor Me]

Now that was fun . As has been said before, if you're sufficiently far ahead all you have to do is build units.

This was easy at the end. Only the Carthaginians and the Babylonians had defence 3 units. No AI discovered Gunpowder and the Great Library remained unbuilt. It helped that the AI civs' wars meant that 2 of them were unable to connect their Iron. Spearmen just don't stand a chance against Knights.
I don't even think I was that lucky after the start. I only got 2 leaders out of about 80 elite victories.

There's a thread out there about never losing after an archer rush but this archer rush was so successful it enabled me to walk through the rest of the game.
Did I mention 420AD?

[lmtoops]

Great game Nor Me!!

5 cities with no settler produced, how can someone loose with that head start. Of course you have to have the balls to do the early early war.

[Arrian]

Now THAT's how the Zulu should be played. Day-am!

Good games all, but wow, Nor Me.

-Arrian

[Mountain Sage]

Originally posted by Nor Me
But by 420AD, it was all over and I had a conquest victory.

I spent 12 hours and won only in 1772AD
I *probably* need some more experience with Domination victories

[Dominae]

Nor Me, what kind of improvements did you build, and in what frequency (can you say that in English)?

If you say: "None other than Wonders", you've understood what it is to be Zulu.




Dominae

[Chemical Ollie]

Now that's a nice game, Nor Me. What was your score?


I skipped this game, as I was involved with an epic large map as warmongering Zulus. Now I see that I could have done something similar here...

[Nor Me]

Originally posted by lmtoops
5 cities with no settler produced, how can someone loose with that head start. Of course you have to have the balls to do the early early war.

That depends how late you have those 5 cities. The question is whether I'd have been able to do the same without the free settler in 3900BC.

I replayed the start with the Iroquois and although not getting the early settler made it much worse, I'm still convinced that even a non-militaristic civ with one city should archer rush the Romans before building a settler.

Originally posted by Olaf HÃ¥rfagre
What was your score?

9526 (Only Shaka the Magnificent). A decent early finish but a low landmass standard map is never going to compete with a milked huge map.
I had a histograph screenshot but this page took long enough to load already for its interest

Originally posted by Dominae
Nor Me, what kind of improvements did you build, and in what frequency (can you say that in English)?

If you say: "None other than Wonders", you've understood what it is to be Zulu.

I've seen "and with what frequencies" enough times but never "in" whatever relevance that has.

No! I'm still a builder. After all, there was a large gap between effectively eliminating the Romans and fighting the second war against the Indians.

I thought I'd built too many courthouses because I'd been put off by Despotic corruption since I'd captured medium distance cities early. But looking at it, none is less than 15% corrupt with a courthouse in Republic and from the formula, building a courthouse in Republic is always going to give you at least as many shields and arrows as the switch from Despotism to Republic. So I may have been right.

I've got 5 matketplaces around my core, all put up before the Knight rush for which cash was limiting. I've two temples, one in Zimbabwe which was big early and one in Veii which the Romans inconveniently put between 3 cows with the best city spots not getting them for free.

What were less useful were the libraries. I had 4 around my capital and 5 around the FP. I only researched 2 techs after trading for Literature and one of those was started straight away. Some could have been replaced by temples but I'm too used to libraries being much better from longer games. But then what can 60 knights handle that 50 knights can't with decent reinforcements? A back up cavalry or domination plan might have been more reasonable if resistance was far more than expected. For either of those, libraries would have been good.

I'm still not sure why Konquest02 and Theseus start so many temples in places and times I wouldn't think of in the SG. I had to change a lot to horsemen.

I'm thinking of starting a thread on improvements and why to build them. It might even include a list of them since I've not seen one despite the many lists of civs, their traits, UUs and other units.

[Dominae]

Nor Me, I'm surprised you did not participate in the No Improvement Challenge (NIC) with badams52 and I.


Dominae

[Arrian]

Hmmm.... Improvements and when to build them...

That's worthy of a thread.

I'm still much more of a "builder" than you, Nor Me. Like Theseus & Kon, I bet I start a lot of improvements when you would be pumping horsemen.

The one improvement I spend a lot of time & effort on and am convinced I'm right about is the courthouse.

I build more temples earlier than are necessary (Dominae and I have had a good discussion about that), but that's because I'm almost fanatical about keeping my people happy. I don't think I can or want to change that. NIC, for instance, sounds like Civ hell for me.

-Arrian