ducki's Am I Ready for Emperor thread

[ducki]

Pretty self explanatory.
Standard size, Lg. Continents, everything else middle option.
Random civ, got Rome.
It is now 1075BC
I've got a settler two turns from borderlocking my Iron, at which point I'll upgrade as many of my Vet Warriors to Legions and start cranking out Legions AFAP, even to the point of Zero research(after CB is done) and a buttload of Luxury.
Once I have 15 or 20 of them, I'd plan to put the hurt on someone - maybe Egypt(to my West) long enough to take those Ivory away and extort some tech - I'm woefully behind.

I need to keep Settling to the South till I run into Carthage, but I'm not sure I like the odds of Legions vs. Numidian Mercs.

I know I need more workers. I was so focused on Settlers and Warriors/Spears that I only pushed out Workers from towns that either weren't worth doing anything else or that were hitting a growth point between spearmen. My tile improvement/road network is pitiful.

So, does it look like I'm ready for Emperor, or do I need to go back to Monarch and hone my early warfare skills more?
Save available if desired.

[vmxa1]

You have been ready along. Looking forward to the screenies and tales of great doing. Hail Caesar

[ducki]

LoL - I just feel so lost.
Woefully behind in tech, can't keep up with road needs, far behind on irrigation and mines, no temples, few barracks, haven't even tried for a single wonder.
Add to that, now that I've pruned Egypt, my options are either try to Builder my way out of the hole(ha!) or try to take on Carthage(eek!).

Was it you that pointed out in another thread the difficulty of going up a level due to not knowing "where" you're supposed to be? I guess I keep hitting that wall as described above. I just feel lost.

[Rhothaerill]

Took me a while too ducki. The loss of one content citizen took me a little while to get used to. Of course now that I'm used to that I tend to plan for it and forget that not all of the PBEMs I'm currently playing are emperor level.

[vmxa1]

If this is a C3C game, you add in the other changes and it is a new experience.
BTW I was just looking at the game and felt I should be playing as the Romans. I had not used a mil trait in a bit. It sure was not helpful so far. One warrior won five battles and got no promotions.

So you may not like it when you see the broadcast that so and so has finished the Temple of this or that and you do not even have the tech. It can be a bit depressing. At least you will have that curragh out soon and make some more contacts.

[Dominae]

You're ready for Emperor level, ducki. You have/know all the tools to beat it, you just have to use them.

A glance at your screenshot indicates that your city placement could still use some work...You have too few cities and they're too far apart. Also, get off building Spearmen for defense, and build Warriors (to upgrade) for offense. No offense.




Dominae

[Dominae]

While we're at it:

You've put a Mine on the Grassland Cattle tile next to your capital, but Irrigation would serve you much better. If you cut down the Forest around that Game tile and put Irrigation on either of the Cattle or Game, you get +5fpt (Food per turn) in Rome. Throw in a Granary and you've got a "pump" city (which are good).

I can understand you wanting high Shield output as Rome, since you can sometimes surprise your neighbors early enough with a bunch of Archers/Legions. But in general the right play here is to make Rome into a pump city, and let the other cities worry about military.


Dominae

[ducki]

Thanks for the advice.
I never can remember when it's worth it to irrigate and when not to, due to the despotic penalty. I do, however, remember to go back later and irrigate after a gov. switch.

I did smack around Egypt a bit, and Carthage too, now I'm only missing Republic(don't want it) and Feudalism, but nobody's trading. I guess I'll build up a bit and either finish of Egypt or just make lots of horses for Chivalry.

Oh yeah, those spearmen are replacements for Legions that are stuck garrisonning towns.

On city spacing, I argued with myself about that for a long time, but opted for the riverside and lakeside placement over my normal CxxC placement. I wish it was tighter, but I just can't seem to shake my love of freshwater.

Edit: This wasn't to argue with any advice, just a little explanation.

[ducki]

Oh yeah, here's the save for those that like to analyze. Currently in anarchy headed for monarchy.

I'll likely abandon this one once the BETA patch comes out, though.

[geniemalin]

Is there a good thread on city placement and the use of early 'pump' cities? Looking at the comment on this thread, and remembering the impressive 1175BC screenshot of Dominae's from the Smoke-Jaguar vs Sid thread I think I could benefit from some wisdom about how to get many cities + well-developed as fast as that.

[ducki]

There's various views on city placement, but I like to go for CxxC spacing so that a defender can get from one city to the next in one turn via road.

The exception to that rule for me is if I can go 1(and only 1) more tile and get a riverside or lakeside town, avoiding the need for Aqueducts.

In this game, I had to do that several times, to the point that I wish I hadn't done it at all. At Emperor, I don't want size 7+ cities this early because I don't know how to handle them on this level.

Also, in this game, you can see that I've got Viroconium just 1 tile south of Pompeii and 1 tile east of Brundisium. This was purely strategic as I think it's on a hill PLUS there's only one approach that doesn't have a river, an that goes by a mountain and I feared Carthage was going to be gunning for me - he's a tech leader and regularly demands money, which I regularly deny.

All that to say, I go for CxxC with few exceptions and the topic of placement comes up fairly regularly, including my old Regent and Monarch threads(linked from Theseus' "I think I'm Losing This One" thread) and BRC's old threads.

Also, check out "Winning Early, What do YOU do" linked from the topped "MUST READ THREADS", both also from Theseus.

I think "Winning Early" also has an analysis by nbarclay showing that reasearching Pottery first and building a Granary before your first settler results in a minimal loss of time on the first settler while halving the times on every single one after that. You need the terrain to cooperate, though. At least 2 shielded grasslands, mined, to time your prebuild for the granary.

Of course, I'm new to Emperor, this stuff works well at Monarch and below. For me, anyway.

[Dominae]

Originally posted by ducki
I never can remember when it's worth it to irrigate and when not to, due to the despotic penalty. I do, however, remember to go back later and irrigate after a gov. switch.

Generally:

1. Irrigate all Plains.
2. Mine all Grasslands.
3. Irrigate all Bonus Food resources, except Wines or Sugar on Plains.


Dominae