AU 601 SP Version DAR 1A: Up to 2150 BC

[nbarclay]

This thread covers the first part of what is the DAR 1 period in the multiplayer games. Describe how you managed your upstart civilization the first 40 turns of the game. Are you following any special strategies due to the rule against capturing AI cities? What lessons have you learned so far? What are your plans for the next 40 turns?

Players involved in MP games should not read this thread until they have the entire Pangea revealed and have entered the middle ages.

[nbarclay]

AU Mod, Emperor Version, Greece

Since I played Rome in the MP version of AU 601, I've decided to have a go at the SP version as Greece. In particular, I was interested to see how my REX as Greece would compare with what I did as Rome.

I decided to take what would have been a considerable gamble (but with a big potential payoff) in an MP game by starting off with a worker and a granary in Athens, researching Pottery at maximum as my initial tech. I used one chop to finish the granary a couple turns earlier than I could have otherwise, leaving a mined bonus grassland unroaded in the process in the interest of speed. Another chop sped up my settler, but I ended up building the settler a turn later than I should have because I forgot I was working with a three-turn growth rate instead of a two-turn rate. (I've gotten too used to agricultural civs where an irrigated grassland along a river does provide two-turn growth, and I got careless.)

In the end, Sparta was founded in 2670 BC. It is located where it is in order to take advantage of the irrigated cow one turn out of three, when Athens doesn't need it. In the meantime, Athens cranked out another worker to chop another forest tile for Sparta to work and is now building Greece's first warrior.

[nbarclay]

By 2150 BC, I had three cities and a settler had just been completed and started his way to found a fourth. My one and only scouting warrior unit headed due east until he hit water and then headed north since that looked like the more likely direction to reach the rest of the pangea.

[b]Comparison with my MP Game as Rome:[b]

Comparing this game with my MP game as Rome, I'm in the same place in number of cities and in just having built a settler, and also in number of workers. My second city in this game is a bit farther along, but I'm way behind in exploration and contacts and also a couple of warriors behind in production. (Actually, I'm three warriors behind in production, but barbs from a hut killed one of my warriors in the game as Rome.) In research, I'm just a hair ahead in this game, but the lack of easily accessible luxuries is likely to shift the balance there as well.

Factoring in a couple micromanagement mistakes I made in this game but almost certainly wouldn't have if I were playing it MP (where I spend more time being careful with each turn), I ought to be at least one turn ahead of where I am on my capital's growth curve, and I ought to have one more warrior than I do in terms of production. And if I'd wanted to play this REX essentially the same way I did Rome's, I presumably could have. So I think Greece and Rome have fairly comparable starting positions up to this point - the catch being that Rome has a flood plains with wheat that Greece doesn't, and that difference is probably going to make itself felt over time.

[Mountain Sage]

Nathan,

One quick question. Since not many players have posted yet in the SP section and there are several threads for SP, would it not be more 'practical' that each SP player has his own thread, from beginning to end, as the other MPs?

Sorry about you having already begun posting...

[nbarclay]

Mountain Sage, I addressed this issue in the main SP thread instead of here so we can get input from people who might not be ready to look here yet.

[Mountain Sage]

Emperor, stock rules, Rome.

Foreword: as a mostly PP player, I’m always frustrated when it comes to fights. I don’t build enough military units, use the wrongs tactics and even the AI regularly manages to outsmart me. Besides that, I believe I never played a Pangea game in Civ3. This is why I took this opportunity to throw overboard all AU 601 rules and get some experience.

Imperium Rex: This is a tale of murder, rape and despair…

The man had been watching the small band of Rovers for quite a while.
How they scouted the surrounding countryside, chose what appeared to be the best spot on a hill far above the seasonal flooding and the pesky mosquitoes.
How they built a few crude huts.
How they cut trees for a palisade as protection from men and wild beasts.
How, exhausted at last, the new dwellers retired into their respective huts for a short night’s sleep.
How, at last, his time had come.

The two brothers were so exhausted that they did not even hear him entering the hut, a darker silhouette in a dark night.

When the other Rovers left their resting places in the early morning light, they saw the massive man sitting in front of the brothers’ hut, his hands resting on their severed heads.

He looked at them intently, under his heavy brows and chilling pale eyes, and before any of them could utter a single word, he spoke softly to them: ‘my name is Psychopaticus Maximus. Together, we will rule as far as the eye can see, and even beyond. Follow me and you will drink rivers of blood. Betray me, and I will drink yours’.


4000BC:
‘No, no and no!’ Shouted Psychopaticus Maximus. ‘We need to research useful things, warrior things, glorious things. Let’s find a way to preserve our lore and my name forever!’ ‘Writing, you said? Yes, it sounds good. Oh, and forget your plan for a Granary’ he added with a vicious smile, ‘That’s for sissies. Let’s build a big hall where we can train our fighters!”

This is how Rome’s first build was a Barracks.

3600BC:
‘Brutus and Rufus, I am well pleased with your training and loyalty’ Psychopaticus Maximus told them one evening, ‘You will become my bodyguards, to protect my precious life every moment’.

Barracks completed. Started on two Warriors as MP.


3250BC:
‘Ah, and it even floats?’ looked at the small craft, no really bigger than a nutshell and looking even comical with its high mast. ‘Go afar, brave sailors and bring back riches and plunder!”

Our first Curragh sails the Seven Seas. A second one will shortly follow.


MS comments:
As the founding spot looked very promising, with its cow, silk and forests, I decided to start researching Writing in 50 turns instead of Pottery, for several reasons. First of all, I wanted Writing as a trading tech later on, when the first contacts would be made. Then, I wanted to beeline for Philosophy (another potential trading tech) and grab a free tech. I was not in a hurry to build more cities right now and I wanted to stabilize later Rome between size 4 and 6.

As a militaristic civ, I went for Barracks immediately, as I wanted vet Warriors against Barbarians and wanted to give them better chances of bopping some Settler’s teams. Research in 50 turns would give me gold enough to pay for several of them and to run a deficit when I would be researching Philosophy at 100% science. This is also why I put my first two Warriors as MP, in order to run 0% luxuries.

Finally, I thought that on a Pangea map, two Curraghs would be as efficient in discovering the other civs than several Warriors sent any which way (well, almost).

2900BC:
‘So you wanted to get rid of my… tyranny?’ Psychopaticus Maximus mused aloud, savoring every single word. ‘Unfortunately for you, you were no quick enough, not ruthless enough, not killers enough.’ Psychopaticus Maximus looked at them with contempt. ‘You are not even worth the blood running in your veins. I will use you as an example for others, ah, liberators. Guards! Bring me their right eyes on a golden platter, and put their stinking bodies to some use!’

MS comments:
Our second Worker is completed and starts mining a hill.


2800BC:
‘They call themselves the Celts, and this so-called Brennus is their leader? Well, well, let’s squeeze them dry before we’ll spill their blood’, Psychopaticus Maximus said with an evil grin.

MS comments:
Contact with the Celts: traded Alphabet, WC and 15 gold for Pottery and CB. They have BW and Mysticism.
We started on an Archer, followed later by our first Settler. Still no Barbs showing up


2510BC:
‘Big cows with horns inside their mouths, you say?’ Psychopaticus Maximus sounded genuinely amused. ‘Ah well, I don’t know, let’s call them Oliphants, yes, sounds good. At least they will make an imposing sacrifice for our god, Zeus.’

MS comments:
A very Roman god, isn’t it?


2430BC:
‘Your all good boys and girls’ Psychopaticus Maximus looked fondly at them, especially at the pregnant young women. ‘Go forth , multiply, and remember who your Master is.’

MS comments:
Vei founded. A military city.

2350BC:
‘Xerxes is his name, mmmm, and then Hannibal.’ Psychopaticus Maximus mused aloud. ‘This bit of land is really getting crowded. On the other hand, more civs mean more plunder… Interesting dilemma. I believe I know how to solve it.’

MS comments:
We made contact with Persia. They have BW, Masonry, the Wheel and Mysticism. Traded Alphabet and 17 gold for Masonry.
Carthage contacted us. They have BW, Masonry, Mysticism and the Wheel, as well as Alphabet.
Lacking 3 or 4 techs at this point is not that dramatic, especially that there will be some trade with Writing and the Philosophy.

2190BC:
‘Good work, my sla…, err, my subjects. Ha! Now we can grow faster! But I still preferred a second barracks, you know?’ Psychopaticus Maximus said.

MS comments:
Our Granary is completed in Rome.

[Mountain Sage]

2310BC:
Our glorious empire is still, well, modest. But it will grow, it will...

[Theseus]

Welcome to the Dark Side.

[Mountain Sage]

Originally posted by Theseus
Welcome to the Dark Side.

Don't get excited too soon. My next game with the Greeks (same AU) will be a purely PP game. I will show you the efficiency of mental power over brute force

[Arrian]

The most efficient of all, though, is a mixture of building and fighting (Nathan's borg imitation, for instance).

-Arrian

[vmxa1]

Looking forward to both reports (dark and light side) MS. BTW do you really expect to bop many settlers with warriors from that location?

[Mountain Sage]

Originally posted by vmxa1
BTW do you really expect to bop many settlers with warriors from that location?

My PP rules forbid to do that. It's all diplomacy, you know...

[Mountain Sage]

The Greeks: a tale of Discovery, Enlightment and Research.

After the bloody wars fought by the Romans, I thought a PP game with the Greeks would be a nice change of playing style.


Unfortunately, my neighbours decided I could not play it the nice way and my lovely PP game quickly became a game of utter frustration.

Just some highlights of my frustration (I’m not going to re-write a full DAR):

1200BC:
The Babylonians declared war on us.

775BC:
We made peace with Babylon.

630BC:
Babylon declared war on us (again).

30BC:
With Construction, we entered a new age with Engineering.

400AD:
The GT (German Tribes) destroyed the Babylonians.

650AD:
The GT declared war on us. All other civs joined our crusade against them and we entered our GA.

960AD:
We entered a new age with Medicine as a free tech.

1010AD:
Egypt suddenly declared war on us. Another coalition of the willing…

1080AD:
The Egyptians were just destroyed. We gained a lousy city.

1110AD:
The Romans destroyed the GT.

1275AD:
The Celts declared war on the Persians.

1365AD
Rome declared war on the Celts.

1400AD:
The Persian declared war on us when we refused to give them Electronics. Our ‘brothers’ the Romans joined our crusade. Since the Romans were at war with the Celts, we had to declare war on them and since the Persians allied themselves with Carthage against the Romans, Carthage also declared war on us…

1485AD:
The Carthaginians were destroyed.

1510AD:
Rome and the Persians made peace, so we made peace with the Celts and signed a trade embargo against Persia.

1540AD:
The war with Persia ended. We took the opportunity to fill up some empty space (useless cities, of course).

1585AD:
Another dawn, another era. We are still filling up the vacant places from former cities. Persia and the Celts signed a peace treaty.

1630AD:
The Romans declared war on us and we lost about 20 Workers…

1660AD:
The silly war with the Romans ended after they lost 4 cities and ‘reimbursed’ our captured Workers.

1776AD:
The Celts declared war on us!

1794AD:
The Celts were finally destroyed, but I had to take the last city with Paratroopers, imagine!

1796AD:
Rome declared war on us!

1818AD:
The Romans were destroyed.

1864AD:
The Spaceship is completed. Let’s leave this bloody world forever…

The final pic… the best PP game I ever had.
Next time I’ll play it with only one civ…