AU 601: alexman's DAR

[alexman]

This is my DAR for AU 601 - Introduction to Multiplayer.


Please do NOT read this thread if you are playing the game and:

1) You have not yet explored the entire starting land mass.

OR

2) You have not yet entered the Middle Ages.

OR

3) You are jshelr


I am playing against Russ (jshelr), which is always an honor. His DAR has the eccentric title "The Quixotic Adventures of Sancho Panza--A Greek". We are playing the AU Mod, Emperor version.

So here we go.

Doh! Rome!
I hope everyone who voted for Rome-Greece in this game gets stuck with Rome also!


We move the Worker to the cow, which will probably be the first tile to get improved. Nothing screams 'move', so we found Rome at the starting location.

We will probably want to build a Granary soon, so we research Pottery at 100%. The Celts are the only civ with Pottery (Carthage, Babylon, Persia, Germany, Egypt, and of course Greece are the other civs), so it might give us some trade value as well.

We plan to build a couple of Warriors to explore, and then a Settler. The second city will pump military units while Rome will start on a Granary. That's the plan for now anyway...

[alexman]

Well Rome has grown pretty fast with the irrigated cow, so we'll build our first Settler after just one Warrior instead of 'a couple' as I stated above. I wouldn't normally do this in MP because humans who find your empty city are not likely to be as nice to you as the AI, but since we know that the Greeks are not our neighbors, I think the benefits from faster growth are worth the risk.

So far it looks like the first city will get plopped on the plains next to the silks (so that we are guaranteed not to get barbarians from the hut, to take advantage of the grassland two tiles South of Rome, and to speed up the luxury hook-up). This might change as our Warrior explores, of course.

If all goes well, we will have our first Settler in 7 turns, with no shields wasted. We will then start building a Granary.

[Harovan]

Ummm... The Germanic Tribes modified to an agricultural civ have Pottery too and Bronze Working taken away. I didn't mention it in my mail, thought you would figure it yourself.

[alexman]

3400 BC

Well this game is going too fast, so I made my first mistake. I thought my worker would be done with the bonus grassland mining in time to help with the Settler, but my calculations were off by one turn. I should have skipped the road on the cattle tile. Now I have to decide whether to delay the growth of Rome or to delay the production of the Settler. The fast Settler is more important so the new city can start pumping units, so I work the forest this turn to complete it.

Also this turn we met our first AI opponent, Carthage.
We both still have our starting techs and only those. That means they probably haven't met anyone else. They are also probably researching Bronze, and then they will go for Warrior Code, so I will keep an eye on them. As soon as they learn Bronze, I will trade them Warrior Code, otherwise my trade will lose value as they research towards Warrior Code.

Notice the hut near my Warrior. At this point in the game exploration is so important that I will not risk losing my Warrior to barbarians. I will let Carthage pop that hut.

[alexman]

3350 BC: We get Pottery and Carthage gets Bronze, so it's time to trade Warrior Code to them. We give them Pottery and Warrior Code for 35 gold and Masonry.

I'm not holding back the trades in this game like I might do sometimes in SP. I want a fast tech pace. The plan is for the AIs around me to be more advanced than the AIs around jshelr, and Greece to be left out of the trading loop.

Did you notice the Ivory in the screenshot above?
With Masonry and Alphabet, we will now research Mathematics.

[alexman]

3200 BC

We found Veii, and pop the hut. Maps of course.

Here is the extent of our exploration so far:

[alexman]

2850 BC

We are again faced with a decision of shield waste versus growth, and again we choose to sacrifice growth.

I'm not too worried though, because we are already first in population according to the F11 screen. Even better, with the help of a chopped forest the Granary will be complete before the next population growth and we will grow like weeds.

The worker has started the road towards the third city to the north.

[alexman]

2630 BC

Aha! Our second Warrior discovers the borders of Carthage. We need to make sure that they don't steal that ivory. I think we may need some Archers for Settler bopping soon, but there's not going to be much we can do once they start escorting with Numidian Mercs...

[Arrian]

I see a awful lot of food to your west, alexman. 7-4-4 of Veii... mmm, tasty wheat on floodplains. Which is good, because you're going to need a lot of worker-turns to develop all those hills & mountains.

And ivory to the north. That should help balance out the UUs.

-Arrian

[alexman]

2550 BC

Yes, I can't complain about the Roman start, for sure.

In the meantime, our cowardly Roman Warriors continue to avoid the huts.

[alexman]

2470 BC

We plop Antium 3 tiles from Rome, so that the two cities can share the Cattle, since +4 is not a Granary-friendly food surplus...

Also, Veii now has shield production of 3, so it's no longer efficient to produce Warriors. A 20-shield barracks will fit nicely to produce some veteran Archers though.

[Arrian]

Aww, take a chance! Pop a hut or two.

Looks like you're off and running. Veii and Antium will make good barracks towns while Rome pumps settlers with the occasional other build mixed in (curragh?), and then once you can settle over by the floodplains you can set up a 2-turn worker pump. Then you're made in the shade...

-Arrian

[Arrian]

Actually, Antium is probably a good place to build the SoZ. That was increased to 300 shields in the AU mod, right?

-Arrian

[alexman]

2270 BC

Yes, 300 shields and AC with no extra HP.
I might still try to build it though.

Meanwhile, we finally met our second AI civ: the Germanics. They have all our techs plus Ceremonial Burial, the Wheel, and Bronze Working, which is exactly what Carthage has. They must have met.

Where is everyone else? I have 3 Warriors out exploring in different directions...

[vmxa1]

Just getting an AC every 5 turns without having to spend turns building them is very powerful. That is a lot of shields that can do something else.