Succession Game X: Clueless Nubians

[Maquiladora]

Originally posted by Tellius

I usually only upgrade the units in the outer cities. When we have more gold, we can upgrade the others too, or we can keep some to block enemy stacks by using their ZOC and even to sacrifice completely to slow down the enemy's approach.

Another thing to look out for with mass-upgrading is our military support costs. Hoplites cost 3 to support and Spearmen only 1.

In my first game back playing AoM I upgraded around 50 in one go and it killed my production for a while afterwards.

What do you guys think about going over our max city limit and building 1 or 2 cities towards the northeast and the mountain range there?

I would say stick at the limit. Those 2 cities will give perhaps 7 or 8 population after 50-75 turns? Thats probably not worth -2 happiness to all cities at the moment IMO.

[HuangShang]

Personally I would not be upgrading until there was a fight.

[Maquiladora]

Yeah I agree HS. Probably just gradually upgrade garrison on the outer ring of cities as Tellius said, inline with our total production increasing.

[Tellius]

I would say stick at the limit. Those 2 cities will give perhaps 7 or 8 population after 50-75 turns? Thats probably not worth -2 happiness to all cities at the moment IMO.

The main reason I proposed this tactic is not just the increase in pop points, but more the taking of land that otherwhise could be taken by the Byzantines. Nice folks and all, but they are imperialistic contenders
We should go for any and all iron ore deposits we can get our greedy little hands on, and so far, we haven't done so good. The mountains range in the northeast is the best lead we have, even though we haven't actually found iron ore there.

Tellius

[Ekmek]

I'm back but busy catching up on work and school. I should be able to play a turn on monday so if possible I'll fill in on whatever turn is available then.

Tellius did you ever post your new AoM tiles?

[Maquiladora]

Originally posted by Tellius

The main reason I proposed this tactic is not just the increase in pop points, but more the taking of land that otherwhise could be taken by the Byzantines. Nice folks and all, but they are imperialistic contenders
We should go for any and all iron ore deposits we can get our greedy little hands on, and so far, we haven't done so good. The mountains range in the northeast is the best lead we have, even though we haven't actually found iron ore there.

Yeah I noticed Iron Working gives some good advances from settlements.

If we can find iron in that hilly area then I agree, plant a city up there. Then perhaps a second city to plug the gap if we can't build a fort.

[Tellius]

Hi,

Here you go E

http://apolyton.net/upload/view/63108_tiles.zip

Tellius

[HuangShang]

110 "Shang of Huangshang II" comes to fame as the most powerful, righteous, and able official by gaining herbalism and copper smelting from the Byzantine (for monotheism and jurisprudence), with Bronze working promised in a year. Crowded cities begin building apothecaries (notably Misratah, which is already experiencing pollution and is therefore our least happy city).

113 Shang, the King, and the people realizes the dreams of their forefathers with the completion of the Code of Hammurabi, who is honored for his work with the rank of general.

119 Constantine has build the pyramids.

121 game crash. Restart from 110, this time get a settler for bronze working, which I upgrade our settlement to get mobile tactics.

125 The second term of Shang was apparently luckier than the first, and not just because he didn't die in office. Of note is that we have the best calvary on Earth and Hammurabi has his personal army (relatively) ready to hunt some barbarians. Our two southernmost cities now have slaves captured by Hammurabi. Current research is citizenship. My general research direction is for a new government (tribunal, oligarchy, city state) Have fun.

[EPW]

A few questions before I play my turn...

First to HS: Why are you moving a migrant to the iron ore to south?

2nd: We have not yet found any iron ore in the northern mountain range, if we do find any its going to be at least 15 squares away from our nearest city, is it worth expanding there? Also note the Byzantines
have have expanded westward along the mountain range.

3rd: Are there any wonders worth going for at this point? Valley of the Kings is available but its rather expensive and HS has already build or is building a number of apothecaries?

4th: Are better governments our biggest tech priorities? City States next in line, but it doesn't take long to get to oligarchy and republic and tribunal, should we get all four or skip one or two?

5th: Horsemen seem to be the obvious choice to use against barbs, should we mix in horse archers into a stack of 12, say 7 horsemen and 5 horse archers?

[Maquiladora]

IMO we should go for City State and get 5 more cities around our northern border before the Byzantines do.

Apothecaries I don't see their value at the moment, I would rather have forges first. In fact we haven't even researched granaries, we're missing out on +20% growth.

Valley of the Kings expires at the Dark Ages so it's almost not worth it IMO, Hanging Gardens expires at DA too but gives Aqueducts which would boost growth (+15%) for a while.

Ramayana might be a good target as it doesn't expire for practically the whole game (Mass Media), but Ethics probably won't arrive on your turn. Aristotle's Lyceum is a must have but that's a way away yet too.

I'd put Selima on Temple of Solomon, if we get it great, if not then switch to Valley of the Kings until we can get Ramayana.

[EPW]

Also, is terraforming grassland into plains a good idea in AOM? It was a must in multiplayer

[Maquiladora]

Aye it was. As in MP it depends on the situation though. Plains are generally better, but only if we have time to do it.

It's worth considering though that early farms aren't as good in AoM, so that extra production from plains that goes into farms (and mines) for better growth has much less effect, so it may be more beneficial to leave the grassland, to help cities grow naturally first and generate a bit more commerce, and keep production on city builds, especially granaries.

[HuangShang]

Originally posted by Maquiladora
Apothecaries I don't see their value at the moment, I would rather have forges first. In fact we haven't even researched granaries, we're missing out on +20% growth.

Valley of the Kings expires at the Dark Ages so it's almost not worth it.

Yea, I was thinking that Valley of the Kings wouldn't do much good since we would have to build apothecaries later. I wanted apothecaries precisely so we have the room to build granaries. I don't know how bad it is to be overcrowded, but we were taking a (small) happiness hit from pollution too.

We can disband migrants to make border forts, right? I couldn't find it in the GL, but I did see that iron is very beneficial (like horse).

City-state is a requirement for the other governments right? I thought Oligarchy, with only a one unit garrison for two martial law looked good but it has some steep requirements, so I just went for the general direction.

I just queued a horse archer at a city of less production (cities of least production are building hoplites, I haven't upgraded any units) because it costs less (slow cities building expensive things and fast cities building cheap things is less efficient I think). I think if we were going to make Hammurabi his perfect stack It should be at least 7 Horseman then and horse archers filled to a stack of 11. I personally always play with stacks of 11 because then even when it finishes the turn, another stack can separate and walk through the same tile (not that important for the open land of the northwest I guess).

[demon59]

I personally always play with stacks of 11 because then even when it finishes the turn, another stack can separate and walk through the same tile (not that important for the open land of the northwest I guess).

I'm not 100% sure, but I think you need less than a full 12 stack for your Generals to collect POWs.

[Ekmek]

is EPW doing the next turn?