AU601: Aqualung71's DAR

[Aqualung71]

Monarch level, AU mod, versus Paddy the Scot

Well Alexman pronounced the curse, and as one who not only voted for the Greece-Rome combination but actually suggested it in the first place, I was bound to draw Rome.

And so yes, I did

Settled on the starting location. Worker moved to the Cow. Hardly worthwhile exploring for a better one, since we are on a river with cows next door. So didn't waste 2 worker turns by sending him to the mountain. It's also what I would call a favourable coastal start, since the inlet we are next to means that 2/3 of the tiles are land based. Moving inland was therefore silly, since you would have to move 2 tiles inland to avoid the "non-coastal city with crappy 1 food coastal squares" syndrome, and also forgo the river. So any move would most likely have taken 2 turns and with highly questionable benefit. Besides, the gold mountain next door is highly appealing, 2 BG are not too shabby and 3 grassland forests to chop are useful!

Started building a Curragh for exploration, though I may yet swap to a Warrior since only one other civ is seafaring so we may not find anybody too early with a Curragh

[Aqualung71]

Played up to 3700BC with Paddy last night - a good start.

My worker began by roading. Irrigation would have given me growth one turn sooner, but I wanted to get a leg-up on research. This was probably a mistake

Pottery being researched, since not many civs have that and I like to build early Granaries - particularly when there are not many humans around to threaten my capital Will probably then move on to Writing for the Philosophy play - again, only one other civ has Alphabet IIRC. The Wheel would also be a good choice.

First Warrior went off exploring and found the Silk and goody hut.

I don't generally like starts that are cramped into a coastal corner, since you can't optimise expansion efforts and distance corruption becomes a problem earlier than it otherwise would....but we shall make the best of it and forge a strong Roman Empire yet!

[Aqualung71]

Not much to report tonight - I went out, so we only got 2 turns in, up to 3600BC.

Worker has finished irrigating the cow and has moved to the BG to mine and road.

But my roving warrior has uncovered a veritable treasure trove of delights.....wheat, flood plains, and Ivory to top it all off....plus a nice gold hill And here is the frustration of PBEM - I can now see my next 5 city sites, and we're only 8 turns into the game!!!

I had started on a Barracks as a pre-build for a Granary, since I'll have Pottery in 3 turns, but with all that nice food-rich land I am seriously considering breaking one of my usual rules and building a settler first, and maybe even another worker before the Granary!

Caesar shall sleep on that important decision!

[Aqualung71]

Went out again, sorry Paddy. But still, we managed to play to 3350BC.

Discovered Pottery, the Wheel next, for trade purposes. My warrior popped a settler, which made it easier for me to decide to switch my Barracks prebuild over to a Granary instead of a settler.

Meanwhile, the new settler is headed towards flood plains no. 1 , which though further from the capital than I would have liked for my second town (6 or 6.5 tiles), also has a wheat resource which means we can use it to grow quickly and produce a couple of workers early.

Rome is now at size 3 and will have it's Granary completed in 8 turns. With the nearby flood plains, extra workers will be vital in this game, so the bonus settler is a major early advantage once he gets to his designated breeding grounds ;

We're also benefiting from playing at Monarch level, which has allowed us to send our second Warrior out exploring and leaving only one at home with a pop of 3, and not having to use the luxury slider. Bottom line: this obviously helps with research.

Short term priorities from here - meet some nearby civs to hopefully bring on trade opportunities and reduce research costs, connect silk resource for happiness and settle bonus settler town. The Ivory keeps looking at me seductively, but it will have to wait. Mathematics is still a long way off

[Aqualung71]

After a couple of weeks break, Paddy and I got together and played this one hotseat until about 3am one night We made it to 690BC, so I'll post all that happened here......not much, since we're both the peaceful friendly tpyes, not like Dom and Krill

Settled town of Veii from our popped settler in 3100BC, by the western flood plains. Worker will now road south and west towards the new town. Granary nearly completed.

We soon completed the Wheel, met Carthage and traded for BW and Masonry. Writing would be next, which we completed around 1910 and traded around for IW and CB, now having also met the Celts. We chose to research CoL next, hoping to be far enough ahead of the AI (and Paddy!) to still get to Philosophy first and take Republic for free. We discovered to our pleasure that Iron was readily available next to our “free” town, and that Horses were not too far away.

By 1550BC we had discovered CoL, and also picked up Mysticism and HBR in trades. Philosophy would be next and we had also met Egypt and the Germanic Tribes. Iron had been connected and our first Legionary’s were being built.

We soon found Babylon and traded for more techs – Polytheism and Literature. We also commenced building the Pyramids, which astoundingly nobody else was building until the 1400BC’s.

We discovered Philosophy in 1075BC and took Republic as our free tech, though delayed changing governments since we were building the Pyramids and so expansion was relatively slow (few settlers being built since our capital was tied up and we only had one other Granary). We also picked up MM from trading along the way.

By 690BC we were 7 turns from Construction with only Currency to go in the Ancient Age, 3 turns from the Pyramids and had started building the SoZ. We were ahead of all civs in score except Persia, and were the leaders in power and culture.

Our next challenge will be to redouble our expansion efforts to ensure Carthage does not get too close, and build our military. We will start by moving a few Legionary’s out towards the Carthage lands so as to bop any Settlers they try to send towards us. Then we will start prodding the AI (specifically, Persia, Egypt and Babylon) towards war with Greece

[Aqualung71]

Here's the view from the domestic advisor:

[Aqualung71]

Oh no, crisis! 670BC and Persia built the Pyramids when we had 2 turns to go. Major setback!!! Now I'm mad. Switched it over to SoZ and wasted about 70 shields.

Now it's time to switch to Republic and get these alliances started against that Greek Scotsman bastard. Stay tuned!

[Aqualung71]

I built an embassy in 650BC with both Persia and Babylon, though neither would accept an alliance against Greece for any price. Better keep making them happy for a while.

[Aqualung71]

We played up to 530BC. I have continually tried to bribe the Persians, Babylonians and Egyptians into war against the Greeks, but they have steadfastly refused. Perhaps Paddy the wise Scot has arranged trade deals with them in anticipation of my Machievellian tactics.

We have just completed Construction and now only have Currency to go until the Middle Ages. We’ve also moved some Legionarys out west to check on the AI settlement rate, but all seems quiet out there – just the lone Carthagian town on the Iron resource (which we plan to surround) and a Persian town that must have been set up via a Galley from across the inland sea.

Build queue is basically units and Libraries, which will allow us to devote less of our commerce towards research, retaining more for the higher support costs as we move into Republic.

[nbarclay]

Why Republic? I could see doing it in SP, but with a human opponent quite possibly lining up alliances against you, and with how low free unit support is under the AU Mod, I can see unit support costs being a huge problem over time.

[Aqualung71]

The simple answer is "because I'm stupid". I had totally forgotten we were playing the AU mod with its reduced support levels (none of my other PBEM games use the AU mod) and by the time I realised it was too late, so I'm going to have to either live with it until Democracy or switch into Monarchy....probably the latter

[Aqualung71]

370BC: The Egyptians called us up for an alliance against the Germanics. It was well past the time for some warring, so we agreed despite not intending to send troops anywhere, in the hope our relationship would improve so we can get them into war against the Greeks. Persia was also at war with the Germanics so we signed an alliance with them. With both deals we netted over 120g + 1gpt from Egypt.

Our AC was wandering around Carthage lands and came across a settler/NM pair. Our policy is to destroy any settlers since we cannot attack AI towns, so we attacked – and hang the consequences. NM killed and 2 workers bagged….though they may commit suicide before they are able to make it back home to contribute to our economy. We also brought the Persians into our war with Carthage, at the cost of Construction, but it made them gracious.

We now find ourselves at war with 2 civs, but not the hated Greeks!

War with Carthage does not concern us greatly. They seem to be a basket case in this game, though I can't quite work out why. Anyway, it will enable us to expand in their direction, and hopefully the Persians will take out some of their cities.

[Aqualung71]

270BC: Carthage is seemingly reduced to 6 towns of 1 population each, though with no apparent significant battles. They must have seriously screwed up their economy!

Persia, Egypt and Babylon will still not enter an alliance against the Greek barbarians, though they remain polite towards us. I wonder what that devious Paddy is up to!

As Nathan has pointed out, we have probably made a mistake in choosing Republic, however the unit support costs are not hurting too much at this stage. Persia has entered the Middle Ages behind us, and unfortunately scored Feudalism for their free tech, which we are also researching. All other civs are several techs behind except Egypt, who are only trailing by Construction.

[nbarclay]

Are you at war with the Greeks? In the current version of the game, as best I can tell, it is impossible to get an alliance against a civ unless either you or your prospective alliance partner is already at war with the victim of the alliance.

[Aqualung71]

Really? Hmmm, I didn't know that. No, I'm not at war with Greece yet, so perhaps I'd better declare war then go for the alliance. Thanks