AU 601: snoopy369 DAR

[snoopy369]

I'm playing the Romans in this game, with kwpulliam playing Homer to my Virgil. I'll post every so often (with several initial posts since i'm starting this thread at 2800 bc) with updates on strategy, discovery, and other assorted stuff.

[snoopy369]

First impressions

My first impressions of this map are quite good. There are several spots to build cities on, enough room between civilizations for me to build at least 7 cities without coming into any conflicts (since we're playing without the option of attacking AI cities), and a good variety of terrain.

My basic plan is to build not with a REX strategy but with a spread strategy. I intend to build 2 or 3 cities at first (beyond Rome) that are in the optimal locations for rapid food/trade growth, and beyond that the next several cities (at least 4 more) will be boundary-establishing, cities that are as far out as I can get. I'm not going to be very concerned with AI aggression (even though i have a fairly aggressive Carthage to my west) because I can retake cities I lost (just not AI founded cities), and as a military civ that's not a horrible thing.

Besides, I need all of the friendly AI points I can get, and yet also need to elite and leader my troops ... which only happens in a war, so basically I need someone to attack me unprovoked.

Once i've established my boundaries I'll follow a loose REX strategy to fill in the available space -- maybe 12 cities total, of which 7 are long-term cities with 20+ growth potential.

My exploring strategy is to explore with 2 war units at first and 1 ship. This means not a ton of goody huts, but the speed settler build requires it pretty much, and I need as many cities as possible.

Science wise i'm going to rush Iron first, and then go to Literacy on the off chance that nobody else bothers to build the Great Library, and as a result have some chance in this game scientifically.

Diplomacy wise I realized off the bat that i'm screwed -- the first two civs that I ran into, persians and carthaginians, are both very hostile and uninterested in trading for science. I hope to fight both of them and find some friendly civs on the other side of the map, but i'm holding some hope for the Persians...

More later...

[snoopy369]

First few turns

I spent the first few turns just making a warrior and wandering about. My warrior (built after 3 turns I think, maybe 4) wandered off to the northwest and found ... nothing, nothing much anyways. Then i built a settler, finished that at 3200bc, and built a curragh.

That curragh found ... Carthage and Persia. Ick, and semi-ick -- at least Persia will eventually trade science for a profitable arrangement. Carthage will only be good for making Great Leaders someday ... ^^

I am currently building a second settler (@2800 bc it was started maybe 2 turns ago) and have a spearman that's wandering SW (via land) to see if it's missing anything. The warrior hasn't found anything yet, and is still heading NW.

[snoopy369]

The Power Push

OK ... so @ 2700 the curragh decided to wander a bit far from the coast ... sigh.

Another one was built after the second settler (that built a city in between veii and rome) was built. The warrior set off 2 goody huts of barbarians ... and found the honorable Germans. We exchanged science, so i'm now back in the front of the pack with science. Finally a logical AI

While i do this, a spearman is wandering out towards the carthaginians... and not finding much but a bunch of luxury resources i won't be able to get ^^

[snoopy369]

Here's a screenshot of 1950. Unfortunately on this turn my northerly warrior died on a barbarian camp... ^^

[snoopy369]

Worked out in 1830 a trade for Writing with the Persians, giving up a little bit much but saves me 12 turns -- iron working and wheel, for writing + 35gp (their whole bank). Nobody else has anything to trade. I'm working on Philosophy (50 turns!! for the moment)

[snoopy369]

to 1600: I've been expanding even more... pretty much focussing on expansion.
(Screenshot)

[snoopy369]

1500: End of the "speed turns" of today (from 2750 to 1500 in one day!!

Had a settler killed because I forgot that it would auto-move *before* the barbarians move, not after like in a regular civ game. (I had a spearman following it, but not automoving.) Piss. Otherwise i'm settling a city by the cow to the SW near the carthaginians. It'll get its own spearman or maybe even two due to concerns of Carthaginian violence (it'll be pretty close to their territory). Otherwise i'm trying to settle to the west -- particularly west of Cumae. Couple of good spots to the west including a second Iron that i'd like to take.

[snoopy369]

Expansion and Contact - and Conflict?

1275: I've been expanding a little bit, and have several new cities either built or about to be built. I'm expanding mostly towards the Carthaginians, probably going to meet them in the middle and hopefully not have conflict right away. Barbarians are still sitting in a mighty annoying spot, but ... eh, we'll let them stew there.

Persians demanded 75 gp and then declared war when I told them no. Oooh, scary. Especially when i have no direct line to them (they're past the Carthaginians)...

I also made contact with my human opponent (well, he fonud me...) We traded gp for science (my gp of course- Polytheism for like 6gpt). He walked through my territory, for which he apologized after I asked him not to. (Then I built a city over his unit. Ah well.)

Attached a pic.