AU601: Dominae's DAR

[Dominae]

Krill you should not be reading this!!!



Setup:

Rome: Dominae
Greece: Krill
Difficulty: Demigod
Rules: Stock
Conquest: Only human opponents' cities

Strategy:

Coming soon!

Other:

Current Year: 1425BC (Turn 64)

[Dominae]

Turn 1: 4000BC

Here begins the tale of Antoni and his ravishing/brilliant wife Domina.

In the beginning, Antoni and Domina, hand in hand, looked upon the land, and judged it to be good.

"We shall move our intrepid settlers to the north-and-west, so that our grand capital of Rome be founded upon the backs of bovine beasts", decreed Antoni.

To which he added, as though in explanation: "Never will our people be far from a glass of milk, or a good steak". Antoni then placed his fists upon hips, drew a great breath, and let it out slowly as he smiled to himself in satisfaction.

Domina, impressed by the size of her husband's chest but not that of his brain, replied carefully: "Oh Toni, you wonderful man, your vision extends well beyond that of mere mortals. Indeed, our lowly subjects cannot, as you can, pierce their gaze through the forest trees at the wonderful cattle beyond. They have faith, but paradoxically also need confirmation: let us therefore send a band of workers over there, to assuage their fears and calm their doubts".

"Fine, but they had better return soon: all this hard work makes me sleepy, and I shall soon feel like a nap".

And so the workers set off to explore the bovine grazing grounds. Upon their return, Antoni was fast asleep, and Domina had already drawn up millenia-spanning plans for a great capital city. And so Rome was founded, right where Antoni lay, snoring loudly, oblivious.

Worker moves NW onto Cattle; Settler founds Rome

As described above, I was quite happy with the starting position: hopefully the Greek one would not be so good in order to compensate for the mismatch in civ traits (Militaristic is not so great in this scenario).

I sent the Worker off onto the Cattle, because no matter what I was going to do with my Settler I knew I wanted to improve that tile first, and my Worker just might discover something my moving. The Worker in fact revealed nothing special, so, seeing no good reason to move the Settler, I founded Rome immediately.

Rome begins Warrior

I spent a bunch of time figuring out what I wanted to build first. I considered these three options:

Curragh
Settler
Warrior

I like building a Curragh right away on Pangea maps because you're almost guaranteed to meet all the other civs with just that one unit. However, doing so would have wasted Shields, so I decided against it. In general, in the first 30 turns if a production item is going to overflow by 3 or more Shields, I'll reject that option and look for something else to build.

Because of the growth provided by the Cattle tile once irrigated, it just so happens that Rome would reach 31 Shields the turn it would grow to size 3. Settler-first is actually quite a strong play if available, providing that your second city-site has high Food potential as well. Its seems dangerous because you're defenseless for so long, but against the AI it's not actually a big risk since it will rarely attack you in the first 30 turns or so. I decided against this option here as well, however, because I could see no other bonus Food resource for my second city to exploit. The Granary-first plan would therefore allow for the fastest growth.

So I did the boring thing and queued up a Warrior first. At this point I was leaning toward Warrior-Worker-Granary as a queue, depending on how fast I could research Pottery; without anything more expensive than a Settler to prebuild with, I need to make sure that I would not accumulate over 30 Shields before acquiring Pottery. A quick calculation revealed that it would indeed work out.

Research Pottery with 100% Science

Here's the breakdown of starting techs in this game (from my notes):

Alphabet, Warrior Code *
Alphabet, Bronze Working *
Masonry, Ceremonial Burial
Bronze Working, Ceremonial Burial
Pottery, Warrior Code
Masonry, Bronze Working
Pottery, Ceremonial Burial
Alphabet, Masonry

Alphabet: 3
Warrior Code: 2
Bronze Working: 3
Masonry: 3
Pottery: 2
Ceremonial Burial: 3
The Wheel: 0

From this I reasoned that the chances that I was going to run into the only other civ with Pottery (the Celts) were rather slim, so I would need to research it myself to get it in a timely fashion. I also reasoned that with only one other AI civ starting with Alphabet, my shot at hitting Writing first was rather good. The tech path choice was therefore easy make: Philosophy beeline after a quick dash to Pottery.

That's about it for the first turn.

[Dominae]

I'll try to finish the rest tomorrow night (we're already at Turn 21!). Hope this is entertaining for some of you...

[Dominae]

Turns 2-5

When Antoni finally woke up, Domina decided it was time for a rest. She knew it could not be a long rest, for her plans needed constant overseeing to make sure everything turned out just right. Plus, Antoni had a terrible way of messing things up when she was not looking.

Antoni, refreshed by his long nap, walked down to the study to catch up on, and possibly improve, his wife's plans. He had barely begun perusing Domina's notes when Manalex, a servant with a secret passion for micromanagement, burst into the royal study and exlaimed:

"Sire, sire, there is a discrepancy between the actual amount of food in our stores and the expected amount based on the harvesting rate of our workers. According to my calculations, summarized in the color-coded graphs you see here, we will be precisly one bushel of wheat ahead by the time our village grows into a full-fledged town. I have yet to discover the anomaly causing this effect, but rest assured that within the next day or so, I..."

Antoni, already bored and musing trumphant battles to come, interrupted: "Yes, servant, your emperor knows these things. Return to your duties and fetch me hot water for my morning foot soak."

Manalex, visibly impressed by Antoni's shrewd understanding of food economics, picked up off the marble floor the charts he had seemingly pulled out of thin air, and scurried off.

Antoni's attention returned to his glorious musings. After his foot soak, he felt quite ready for another nap, but noticed Domina's plans on the table, which he had yet to read. Feeling she could use some help, but really looking forward to that nap, he hurriedly set about replacing all 3s in her calculations with 2s, for 3 was his favorite number, and more occurences of his favorite number could only benefit his empire. Happy with this deed and himself, he dried his feet and leisurely walked up to the royal bedchambers.

---

Worker begins Irrigation

Pretty obvious move, I think, since irrigating first will allow Rome to grow to size two in 6 turns instead of 7.

The little story above describes the PBEM bug where Worker actions actually finish one turn earlier than they do in standard games. Workers get paralyzed on the last turn of their action, however, so do not actually improve the land at a greater rate overall.

In the screenshot below, you can see this effect on Rome's Food box. Normally, Rome would be at 12 Food on the fifth turn, because the Worker only completes irrigating at the end of the fifth turn. However in PBEM the Worker completes this one turn early, at the end of the fourth turn. Circled in red you can see the extra thireenth unit of Food. In this case that Food is just wasted, but further on I use this bug to get some extra Gold (and maybe some useful extra Food/Shields too...I'm not that far yet).

Other than that the turns until I built my first Warrior were quite uneventful.

[Dominae]

Turns 6-20

Domina, furious, slammed open the door to Master Nukular's chambers.

"Greetings, Lady" uttered the aged man as he rose, hauntingly, in one fluid motiong, from a cushion on the floor. "Troubles with Caesar?"

His directness, more than his perceptiveness, bothered Domina. But now, more than ever, she needed him. He was officially her combat arts tutor, but mostly he trained her mind.

She explained to him Antoni's disruption of her plans, and how Antoni's modifications were incomprehensibly awful, and how she could not possibly reproduce her original versions on schedule, and how unfair it was that she needed Antoni because the people loved him.

Hours later, finally calm, she tiptoed up to the royal bedchambers, Master Nukular's special tonic in hand. Even with her husband's legendary constitution, the tonic would prolong Antoni's nap a hundred-fold. And so she would have time to build the foundations of their (her?) empire unimpeded.

The people's love for Antoni could wait.

---

Rethink stuff

As the story describes, I got pretty messed up with my plans here. I had a super-duper queue all set up, with two branching sub-queues depending on whether or not a Forest Chop would reveal a Bonus Grassland. In both cases I would complete a Granary just a couple of turns before growth (which is ideal).

I'm not really sure why this happened, probably because Krill and I had a lightning round where we played many turns in rapid succession and I did not have time to double-check my queues. But a little inefficiency is a fair price to pay for a swift game.

Long story short: for the next 20 or so turns, I was playing the saves almost without a plan/queue, because my first one turned out to be impossible. Exciting!

First Warrior sticks to the high ground

I completed by first Warrior in 3750BC, and basically followed the Mountains tiles to explore (see screenshot). I avoided all the Goody Huts I saw, because I was not planning to build any more Warriors until after a Granary.

What I was aiming for with my first two Warriors was a depth-first search of the pangea continent to find the Greeks (Krill). I knew that all the AI civs seperated us, so I would probably meet most of them on the way. So exploration was a bit more straightforward than it would be in normal games. (However, the map geography did complicate things...but that's much later.)

Workers help Rome build a Granary

After Rome built a Warrior, it popped out a quick Worker (3 turns) to speed up the construction of a Granary. With 4 Food per turn growth a lone Worker cannot possibly keep up in tile improvements. Here are the details:

Worker1:

4000BC: Move NW
3950BC: Irrigate Cattle Grassland
3750BC: Road Cattle Grassland
3600BC: Move SW
3550BC: Mine Bonus Grassland
3250BC: Road Bonus Grassland *Pottery
3100BC: Move NE-NE
3050BC: Road River Grassland *Granary
2900BC: Mine River Grassland

Worker2:

3600BC: Move N
3550BC: Chop Forest
3350BC: Move SE
3300BC: Chop Forest
3100BC: Mine River Grassland
2800BC: Road River Grassland

Worker2 did two Forest Chops back-to-back without improving the tile underneath after each one in order to get the math to work out right for the Granary.

I had to use the F1 trick to switch from a Settler prebuild to a Granary the turn I disovered Pottery in 3250BC, since I would have accumulated 32 Shields that turn.

In the last two entries for each Worker, each one is improving the same type of tile (River Grassland). I staggered the Road/Mine orders for each in order to have more "tile flexibility": with one mined and one roaded, I have the option of going for more Commerce or more Shields, whatever the situation requires.

[Dominae]

Turns 21-35

She hated to admit it, but Domina needed help.

Her husband's foul up of her plans had left her unable to get Rome's economy back on track without her full attention. But with Antoni "on a fishing trip", she had a long list of other matters to take care of to run the empire.

After an afternoon's worth of interviews, she had finally narrowed down the field to two candidates for job of planning the empire's economy: Manalex, her husband's servant (which she did not like), who seemed to have an intimate understanding of the details of corruption (which, she had to admit, would prove useful in the future); and a newcomer known only as Clay Bark, who had a shockingly impressive resume (why had she not heard of him before?)

In the end, she hastily entrusted job to both, hoping they would work together well. The German ambassador, she was told, did not like to be kept waiting.

---

3250BC: Contact Carthaginians

I was annoyed that my nearest neighbor was the only other civ with a 3-defense UU; restricting Carthage's growth by force was IMO not an option, since it's not much trouble for the Demigod AI to escort Settlers with Numidians. I would have to super-REX and hope for the best.

I held off on trading Pottery to Carthage because they were only able to give be 20 Gold for it (they were unwilling to part with either Bronze Working or Masonry for it). I was hoping they would get some Gold for Barbs within the next few turns, but got greedy and lost my opportunity a few turns later when Carthage got Pottery from (I assume) the Persians (perhaps through Greece, or more likely the Germans).

As I learned later, Persia and Carthage went to war rather early. Persia crippled Carthage: when I had four cities, Carthage still only had one. This stroke of luck allowed me to expand much further West than I imagine other Romans managed in other universes.

Veii, second city

After popping out a quick second Warrior out of Rome (to avoid being too reckless), I built back-to-back Settlers. In 2750BC, the first one was ready, and I had the difficult time of deciding where to send it (I had actually been debating this very question with myself since turn 1, and still had not reached a satisfactory conclusion). I knew I wanted my second city to be within workable distance of the Cattle Grassland, because I was wanted to take full advantage of that tile (up to then, I was wasting Food by growing 3+3+4 with a Granary). Here are the options, I saw them (see screenshot):

Site A:

The obvious advantage here is that the site is only two tiles distant from Rome. The more subtle advantages is that it's another coastal location so that Rome would not have to build a Curragh, and that it accesses some nice River Grassland real estate (recall I'm beelining for Philosophy).

The big disadvantage is that the city would not do much other than grow faster because of the Cattle. I knew I would build a city there at some point to make use of the Coast tiles, but it was simply not good a site for my second city.

Site B:

This site shares most of the advantages of Site A (apart from being coastal), and would additionally be more productive right away because it accesses more land tiles. Long-term, however, it and Rome would be pretty cramped and would not be able to develop fully, since Mountains and Hills require a lot of Grassland to use effectively.

Site C:

This site seemed the best to me. Adjacent to a lake it would be a productive core city no matter what I decided to do with it early on. It could also access the River Bonus Grassland in case Rome would not need it. The only disadvantage is that it was not coastal, and there are Coast tiles within its radius. However, I would solve this by putting cities at sites A and D.

Off the Settler went, to found Veii.

To my great delight, I discovered two Bonus Grassland tiles adjacent to the location I had decided on (site C). Veii would therefore be an ideal location for either Wonder-building (Statue of Zeus and Forbidden Palace were my two top choices).

Antium, third city

By now, I still did not know that Carthage was not going to expand as Demigod AIs usually, so I cast my net a bit wider in order not to become too cramped for space. The Wheat Flood Plains I simply had to have within my borders, so that's where my second Settler went.

Ideally Antium would be River-adjacent, but due to the presence of so many Mountains I reasoned that the Flood Plains were too important to cover up with a city. So I settled (no pun intended) on the site E, just West of the Wheat.

Antium would serve three purposes: bring fresh water to the Plains, put Silks within my borders, and build Workers. I decided agains a Granary there despite it being flagged for pump duty; a Granary would have taken too long to get going, and with Rome building Settlers every six turns I really needed the workforce.

[Dominae]

Turns 36-40

2630BC: Contact Germans

As expected, the Germans were to be the powerhouse AI civ of this game. As such, I wanted to meet them relaively early so that I could get them on my good side.

I got a bit lucky here, and arranged the following trades:

Alphabet to Germans for Ceremonial Burial and 25 Gold
Ceremonial Burial to Carthaginians for Masonry and 15 Gold

I suppose I could have waited on Alphabet to the Germans, but I figured that Alphabet was Krill's main bargaining chip too, so the longer I waited the trade it the more likely it was that I was going to miss my opportunity (more than usual).

Rome becomes 6-turn Warrior/Settler factory

With 4 Food per turn in Rome, the maximum rate of Settler production is every 6 turns (with a Granary). With the tiles available, however, Rome could easily average over 30 Shields every 6 turns at sizes 3+. So it needed something to do in between Settlers.

I could not figure any way of inserting a 20-Shield unit in the cycle, as this would require Rome to oscillate between sizes 5-7 and there were not enough tiles to do this efficiently without chopping yet another Forest. So it would have to be Warriors. Actually, even if a 20SU/Settler pump were possible (maybe it is, I did not investigate too far), I would have gone with Warriors anyway because: 1) I'm Rome, and Warriors upgrade to Rome's UU, 2) Archers would become obsolete too quickly, 3) Spearmen do nothing, and 4) Rome prefers Legionaries to Chariots-Horsemen.

For the Warrior/Settler pump, sizes 4-6 seemed like the best option, although it would unfortunately cause a lost Shield on every Warrior and Settler. As you can see in the screenshot below, it was not necessary to Mine the Grassland NW-NW of Rome, since the additional Shield would only be wasted (Veii had other tiles it could use).

Since I was going to be producing a bunch of Warriors in Rome, a Barracks would prove very useful. The only problem was that it was going to cost upkeep in a time when I needed every Commerce to rush for Philosophy. But I went with the Barracks plan anyway when I realised that with all the Barbs running around the AIs would be rich and so I would be able to research at a loss once I traded for their Gold.

Rome's queue for this period:

Settler (Veii)
Settler (Antium)
Barracks
Worker (to begin the cycle at size 4 and with an empty Food box)
Warriors/Settlers every 6 turns

2190BC: Contact Persians

This is where I figured out that it's the Persians that were probably beating up on the Carthaginians. Having learned my lession about lost opportunity in tech trades, I practically give Persia Ceremonial Burial for the low price of 27 Gold.

[Dominae]

I've noticed observers are posting in the other DAR threads...I would love to hear comments on my game, too!

[vmxa1]

Well I can say it is beautifully written and of course well played.

[Mad Bomber]

looks like you are going for a tight build pattern, a wise choice considering Germany and Persia are near. I do hope that a city will be built to the north of Veii though (7-8 IIRC) in the near future.

one other thought; less story-line (not that its bad, just distracting) and a little more game analysis.

you are off to a good start, keep it up.

[Arrian]

Are you planning on a city 112 of Rome? Or 22?

Looking good so far.

-Arrian

[crilloan]

Hopefully, Im slowly getting insights that with time will improve my early game.

I suck big time at that

Ive never thought much about lost shields and things like that, timing and stuff (off course I try to time the granary to be ready just before growth)

Is it understood htat it is better to build citys close to each other or do you build closer because it is a MP game?

Do you allways build the granary before the first settler or does that depends on the map?

another question, people refers to directions with 1-3 of vei etc, from were do you start directions?

BTW, I like the storylines (gives context

crilloan

[Dominae]

Originally posted by vmxa1
Well I can say it is beautifully written and of course well played.

Thanks!

...but I want criticism!!

[Dominae]

Originally posted by Mad Bomber
looks like you are going for a tight build pattern, a wise choice considering Germany and Persia are near.

And it's not even that tight yet! I plan on putting another couple of cities around Rome (two tiles North and South).

With close neighbors, especially on Demigod and Deity, you're actually better off spacing cities a little further apart with Settlers 4-8. This way you grab enough land before the AI boxes you in. After that you backfill for your camp towns. As you'll see in my next DARs, I flinged a few Settlers way out, skipping closer sites that I was confident I would get later on anyway.

I do hope that a city will be built to the north of Veii though (7-8 IIRC) in the near future.

For sure...I know the Celts are up there, just now how far. Plus, I've got a Curragh stuck in that lake!

one other thought; less story-line (not that its bad, just distracting) and a little more game analysis.

Hm, I like writing the story bits (I'm not claiming they're all that great, mind you!). They're italicized, so you can just skip over them at your convenience.

you are off to a good start, keep it up.

Thanks!

[Dominae]

Originally posted by Arrian
Are you planning on a city 112 of Rome? Or 22?

Rome 22 (due South) to grab all those coastal tiles. I was also planning on Rome 88, although I may not need it. These will be Commerce cows, as Rome will be hoarding all the land tiles for its productive self.

I've also got plans for Veii 44 (on the Ivory), and Antium 63 (on the Silks).