AU207: Big Planet - Strategy, Spoilers and Comments

[Dominae]

This is the spoiler thread for AU207: Big Planet.

Until most people are well along in their games, please preface any possible spoiler information with warnings like:

***Potential Spoiler***

And try not to forget to include interesting screenshots with your comments!

Have fun everyone.

[CerberusIV]

An interesting start! I could not get on with AU206 but I like this one.

I got lucky and after a map from the first goody hut got a settler from the second

What does strike me is the need to scout potential city locations. I chose to play as the French and haven't done badly with my warriors but an expansionist civ would do better. Getting a city offset by a tile or two can mean missing a useful resource.

So far it looks like this

[Dominae]

Cerberus, may I suggest you Irrigate the Cattle Plains instead of Mining it? Under Despotism, you get no benefit from Mining such a tile, since it produces 2 Shields already, and you lose 1 Shield when the tile produces 3 or more. I know its kind of weird to want to Irrigate more Bonus Food since you've got a lot of Flood Plains around your capital, but other cities could benefit from an that Cow too.

Other than that, looks like you're doing fine (going for Culture, I see!).


Dominae

[Konquest02]

Dom, I think you're evil... You allowed Egypt as a potential civ choice, yet their war chariot can't reach anyone because of the impassable mountains for wheeled units. Sure, it may be used as a cheap horseman upgrade, but you pretty much nailed their coffin there... By chance they have good traits...

That said, I chose France, but I hesitated for either Russia (exp.) or Spain (challenge). I chose the french over the Carthaginians because of the timing of their GA, which is non-despotic and will probably be of better use for me...

I've played until 370BC and I hate respawning civs... More to come later, probably screenshots!

--Kon--

[Dominae]

Originally posted by Konquest02
Dom, I think you're evil... You allowed Egypt as a potential civ choice, yet their war chariot can't reach anyone because of the impassable mountains for wheeled units.

I know at least a couple of people that will be angry with me because of this, but this was too good an opportunity for me to dethrone Egypt as "the best civ of all time" (general consensus in these threads). In my defense, the map randomly generated the War Chariot-impassable chokepoints, and I considered not including them in the list of playable civs. When I saw that the start location geography made historical sense for Egypt, I almost laughed myself silly and just had to include it!

In spite than the War Chariot problem, Egypt should do fine compared to the other civs.


Dominae

[nbarclay]

And who chose to put the player in this particular starting position on the map? It looks like I have my work cut out for me to see what I can do with Egypt in spite of your scheming.

[badams52]

Looks like this one is shaping up great! I'll look forward to all of your AARs

[BigDork]

Hi everybody...

I have yet to download because I'm currently at work but I think my choice to be the Spanish may have been a good one. If there are as many mountains as I think there may be my UU may be helpful. More so than those war chariots

BigD

[Dominae]

Originally posted by nbarclay
And who chose to put the player in this particular starting position on the map? It looks like I have my work cut out for me to see what I can do with Egypt in spite of your scheming.

Sorry! In all truth, I did not notice that Egypt's could not go very far until well after I had picked the map and chosen the start location. When the time came to select civs, well, the fiendish opportunity was just too good to pass up.

Anyone notice the Easter Egg yet (just one, I tried to leave the map as unchanged as possible)?!


Dominae

[ZargonX]

Whoo! This is one crazy map! Chokepoints galore! Went in as Carthage, and have been off to a pretty good start so far. First hut popped barbs, so that was bad news, but fortunately we escaped with only a small monetary loss. Things picked up after that, quickly founding two cities and making contact with the Babs and the Zulu. Pinning the Babs in their little corner became top priority, and a brief campaign with archers succeeded in doing just that. Knocked down to two cities, the Babs were pretty much helpless while I hooked up an iron colony directly to their north. A few rounds later, and Ur and Babylon are mine, though the Babs live on with a city founded waaaaaaaaay to the west (I have no clue how they go there...). Also managed to wage the whole campaign without mercs, thus avoiding triggering my GA too early. Furthermore, got a GL out of the deal and rushed the GLib, quickly giving me a tech advantage. The only downside to the war was the loss of my newest city to the north to a squad of 3 bowmen that must have been wandering in the mountains for ages. A small price to pay. Pics when I get the chance, and more reports!

[Arrian]

I like the map. Yeah, that's right, I'm playing. Monarch, 1.14 PTW.

Our start position is pretty nice (the core region is solid) but as you all have noticed, there are some nasty mountains & jungle to deal with.

Never fear! Egypt's industrious workers will handle that!

I'm up to 900BC. I started with a pottery beeline & built a granary in Thebes. I built south first to cut off Babylon (prevented them from getting that southern iron source, even). I then built north and west. I have 10 cities, I think. I've secured spices up in the NW jungle near Germany, and another city is next to the NW chokepoint (positioned to get both whales). I have not yet managed a road connection, but I'm working on it.

I have contact with Babylon, Germany, Zululand, America, Japan, and the Mongols (I think, memory is a little hazy on that).

I have reached a crucial decision-making point in the game. Currently, I am lagging in tech (despite being ahead until quite recently), and am 2 turns away from the Colossus. I could, however, choose to use that city for the Great Library instead. Given the map settings, I think I'm going to switch. I'll have to use the Pyramids (or a palace) as a placeholder for now, since I've just begun research on Lit. The city, btw, is west of Thebes on the coast, with 5x bonus grass & a game tile available. Nice place.

The Egyptian military is ramping up. I have several barracks built, and have just started pumping out veteran warriors for swordsman upgrade. The plan for now is to hit Babylon. They are small and weak, and are building the Pyramids. They may or may not actually build them. But what if somebody loses a battle to a bowman? And then proceeds to take Babylon?

Meanwhile, I will do a large WC buildup while continuing to settle the NW jungle areas and connect up my road net... all the way to Germany. I probably can't hit them with WCs before they get pikemen (unless I manage to deny them iron somehow), but I will have credible mobile defense and then I'll shoot for Leo's & a huge upgrade to Knights.

That's the current plan, anyway

-Arrian

[minke19104]

Wassup with the Spanish on the other continent??

They have managed to snatch almost every ancient wonders....

I cleared out the Babylonians, and have managed to block out checkpoints to my "island". Divide & Conquer tactics have been workin pretty well.. Everybody in my continent is fighting each other.. While I REX..

I've made a grave mistake though.. Used Mercs to attack Bab, and gotten a very "unhappy" Despotic GA. I thought I can use the extra production to build Great Lib only to be out produced by 5 turns by the Japs!!

BTW, Carthage rules!! I will post some screenshots when I get home. I haven't played Industrious for quite a while, but their increased workers mean faster road building in preparation for attack.. I keep making roads straight into enemy cities during my invasions to further accelerate mobility.

(Playing Monarch, Carthage, PTW 1.14)

[Nor Me]

I notice in the Cossacks thread that some don't like Russia's traits. However I'm sure that in this game I'll be better off than if I'd chosen the Egyptians.

So I'm playing the Russians on Emperor with AU MOD and PTW v1.14.

There was a debate in the other thread about whether to move the Settler. My answer is a 3950BC screenshot:

[minke19104]

Can you get a settler if you disband the hut by culture?

[Arrian]

You lucky S.O.B.

Nah, seriously, good move. I'd still rather have the Egyptian traits, though.

-Arrian