AU 601: alexman's DAR

[alexman]

2230 BC

Meanwhile, back home we found Cumae near the ivory, and start a Palace prebuild in Antium.

[alexman]

2150 BC

Aargh! Just missed an opportunity to bop a Settler-Warrior pair, near the Ivory. There sure is a lot of ivory on this map. Hopefully Greece won't have any.

[alexman]

2110 BC

Double aargh! Carthage beat me to Math at max research. Damn AU mod flavors!

Oh well, we buy Math from Hannibal for 23g+1gpt and sell it to Hermann of the Germanics for Ceremonial Burial + 50g. Too bad we haven't found anyone else to trade with.

[alexman]

2070 BC

The roller coaster in foreign relations continues.

We meet Egypt and Persia in the same turn. Three more civs to meet, including Greece.

We give Egypt Math for the Wheel, and we give the Wheel and Math to Persia for Bronze Working and Mysticism. We're almost at tech parity: the Germanics and Carthage have Horseback Riding, but that's it.

We start research on Currency at max science. Maybe we'll get lucky this time.

[alexman]

1950 BC

An update:

The tech pace is quite fast. Persia now has Writing, Carthage has Iron Working and Horseback Riding, and the Germanics have Horseback Riding. We are still at tech parity with Egypt, but for all I know they could be about to get Currency!

There are barbarians everywhere, and I'm not even popping any huts! Somehow I'm not surprised though. Remember that thread where Sir Ralph wanted to play against just barbarians with no AI opponets?

I just built a Curragh to explore the northern coast that my initial Warriors bypassed on their way west. I doubt the ship will find any civilizations up there, but you never know...

I keep reminding myself that in order to take advantage of the militaristic trait, we need to start harassing Carthage soon. Hannibal is strong and growing fast, so I'm afraid that by the time I have built enough non-exploring units, there will be Numidian Mercs running around everywhere. So I'll build more units, I promise!

[Harovan]

Barbs aren't raging.

[Arrian]

Doh, it looked like Carthage was going to be an annoyance.

It's good to see Neopolis founded and started on its granary. You really need a flood of workers.

Good luck!

-Arrian

[alexman]

1870 BC

Yes, so far I'm following your instructions to the T, Arrian! I even built the exploring Curragh in Rome between Settlers.

In the foreign relations front, we met Babylon in 1910 BC. We had Math and they had no tech we didn't, so we gifted them all our gold (56g) to make them like us, and then we sold them Math for all their gold (162g).

The next turn (1870 BC), I noticed that we're ahead of Egypt and Germany in terms of power, so I decided to make some quick cash: We renegotiate peace with Egypt for 40g, and with Germany for 20g.

[alexman]

1790 BC

We finally meet the Celts! I found an elite Warrior of theirs directly north of us (he must be after barbs), so it seems there might be a civ in the northeast corner of the map after all.

They lack Masonry, Alphabet, and the Wheel but they have 60g in the bank. We sell them the Wheel (maybe they'll build some horsemen instead of Gallic Swordsmen, hehe) after the usual trick of gifting them gold before taking it all back. That brings them from annoyed to polite.

Now only Greece is left to meet.

[Cort Haus]

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 ...

I thought it was only guaranteed not to get barbs when no military units are owned, but you already had a warrior. What are the conditions for not getting barbs then?

[alexman]

You never get barbs when you pop a hut by founding a city. And as you said, you also don't get barbarians when you have no military units, no matter how you pop the hut.

[alexman]

1550 BC

The western AI civilizations start to obtain Writing, so I'm guessing that Greece has researched it and is trading it around.

In 1550 BC Iron Working appears on the trading table, most likely from Germany, who suddenly is caught up in tech and has cash to spare. We see a chance to use Iron Working to catch up in the tech race, as well as to transfer some cash from Persia (who likely is in contact with Greece) to our neighboring Carthage.

So we renegotiate peace with Carthage to get a discounted trade for Iron Working: just 152g. We then sell Iron Working to Babylon for Horseback plus 4g, and to Persia for 131g. Now we are missing only Writing and Polytheism. Hopefully we can get tech parity and everyone's cash when we discover Currency, estimated in 9 turns.

[Arrian]

Yes, so far I'm following your instructions to the T, Arrian! I even built the exploring Curragh in Rome between Settlers.

Our minds, be they great or mediocre, think alike. Except about popping the huts, of course.

We had Math and they had no tech we didn't, so we gifted them all our gold (56g) to make them like us, and then we sold them Math for all their gold (162g).

You know, I'm not sure I'd even considered that particular AI manipulation. I've sold tech to AIs for less than it was worth (say math for 80 gold) before. I could easily have gifted them some gold and then got it all back, and gotten a double attitude adjustment out of it. Duly noted.

-Arrian

p.s. Looks like you've got some decent land to expand into to the northwest. A city around about where the large stack of barbs you pointed out earlier might make a pretty good FP spot...

[alexman]

1425 BC

OK, to please Arrian I decided to take a chance and pop my first hut - with a Spearman of course!

Happy now?

[vmxa1]

You think those brave barbs will attack that archer across a river?