A Cradle 2.0 "AAR"

[EPW]

Hexagonian released a new version of his famous "Cradle" mod a few months ago, and I'd like to share my first experience playing it with the many readers of this forum. I've decided to call this an "AAR" since that's what the civ4 types call these threads over at cfc. I'm not sure what pirates have to do with civ, but whatever floats your boat.

I'll try to update in 50 turn intervals.

Settings:
12 Civs
Impossible
Max Barbs
Pollution on
All sliders at 50% except for Goods, which is at 70%

Here's the start:


Oh Goodie, lots of Grassland Let's see what I get from the hut:



Nice, a slinger!

A great deal of exploring follows, I build 4 nifty scouts and find a number of units and a couple of settlers! We found our 2nd city:



We meet our neighbors soon after:



and we exchange maps:



They aren't doing too badly. They have the same number of cities as I do by turn 25:



We finally finish astronomy, which lets you build stonehenge. Not going to try it on impossible though. Next up is agriculture.

The exploring continues for many turns, and then we finish researching agriculture:



We will need those Projectile Weapons to fight off these guys :



Luckily they wander away after a few turns...

Exploration is very beneficial, we get three techs from ruins over the course of 50 turns:



We also get this guy, who should greatly speed up our efforts to push back the fog:



(The horse, not the scout)

And our empire at turn 50:



A good start I think. My goals for the next 50 turns is to begin terraforming+farms and expand to 10 cities.

[Maquiladora]

Is this thread allowed to have comments?

Anyway nice river. Are those free sailing techs gonna be any use (besides trading I guess)?

[EPW]

Is this thread allowed to have comments?

Anyway nice river. Are those free sailing techs gonna be any use (besides trading I guess)?

Comments are good.

Yeah, the river is nice. I'm not sure about the sailing techs, I'll have to look them up in the GL. Thanks for reminding me to build diplomats.

Update coming shortly.

[EPW]

6000BC-5000BC;50-100turn

The first 30 turns of this session were fairly uneventful. There was alot more exploring and a bit of expanding.

We send out a nomad to found a city on the river, and run into some unfriendlies....



They didn't cause any trouble, I wonder what they are up to...
and at the Minos for completing Stonehenge...

We finish researching Projectile Weapons very quickly, and begin Writing. Shortly after, our explorers find it in a ruin:



And we begin researching Dynasty.

Our explorers meet many new peoples:


We exchange maps with all of them, but the Turkish are by far the most advanced:


Exploration and nomad building continues. We eventually finish researching Dynasty and switch governments:



You can also see our expansion northward.

The next turn we discover waterlifts in ruins(on glaciers ironically enough):


This helps our terraforming/farming efforts which began immediately around the capitol.

We build another nomad in Ancyra, and send him westward...



....And a barb stack of doom shows up. I was not prepared for this this early in the game, I guess I'm rusty.

They easily take Ancyra:


There are a number of skirmishes in my territory with the barbs over the next twenty turns:

I lost that fight...

I final win a battle:


The barbs use Slavemasters in many of their stacks, and their victims are sent to Ancyra. This could be useful when I take the city back.

I do manage to continue my expansion during this phase. This is the city founded by the nomad I sent out just before Ancyra fell:



I begin to build up a stack to take back Ancyra, the barbs out in full force:


Finally, turn 100 arrives. I have just sent out a half stack to take back Ancyra.


The Empire as of 5000BC

I should note that I researched Horseback riding and began Chariots after finding Waterlifts.

The plan for the next fifty turns is to rid our lands of the barbarian menace, and continue our expansion.

[Maquiladora]

That free Writing tech was a biggy.

Are chariots any good? IIRC they're flankers, but they become outdated pretty quickly, no?

[EPW]

They are A:20/R:15/D:10/M:2/C:325 compared to Javelin Cavalry: A:15/R:0/D10/M:3/C:275.

I think that's pretty good, and I'll find out in the next 50 turns.

[Maquiladora]

Compared to spearman I mean, pretty costly.

Strange that their ranged is as good as a slinger too.

[EPW]

Also consider that slingers cost 275 production.

[EPW]

5000-4000BC;turn 100-150

We waste no time in taking back the barb city. It was only gaurded by two warriors and a slinger:



We get the feat of wonder as a reward, not to mention a bunch of slaves:



Over the next 10 turns or so we build up a nice stack and finish off the remaining barbs:



We continue to explore while all this is going on and find four more civs:



The Shang are interesting in that they are on an island:



We begin building the Pyramids 16 turns into the session, 10% production boost looks nice!



In the mean time, Hattusas is terraformed and farmed up.



In retrospect, I see that the farming was a colossal waste of production. Firstly, farms only give +5 food on plains, pastures give +10. More importantly, I can get my growth by slaving barbarians...which I realized when I got my wonder unit for finishing the Pyramids!



The tile imp is great, though destroys 550 pw that I had already used there....

I continue to tech up through this whole period:



There was a brief war with the Minos(orange); I had just made a peace treaty and no trespassing agreement with them when they attacked a border city. They signed for peace the next turn.

Teh empire at turn 150:

[EPW]

4000-3000 BC; turn 150-200

These were trying times for the...blue civ. Three wars, barb incursions, love and deceit...But in the end we pulled through it with the help of a brand new fortification improvement!

But first, lets get the boring stuff out of the way. We meet two new civs:


We also research alot of techs:


Most notably city States and Bronze Working. We are able to upgrade all our spearmen for a mere 6000 gold.

We send out a ship to explore the vast unknown:



He ends up being more trouble than he's worth: causing one war and being darn time consuming to move! (5 move points! Where is the autoexplore button??)

Our army enslaves it's first victims:


And we begin Valley of the Kings in Hattuses!


I should note that we are also working on the Great Wall in Ancyra. (I love the free building wonders)

Hey! I thought we had a peace treaty!



No matter, the no trespass agreement will kick them out....wut!



Yes, they took Malayta. Apparently the No-Trespass agreement expired, or I forgot to renew it after our last little war...

Anyways, I'm not too concerned. In a few turns they will waste a ton of PW building farms around it, and then I'll take it back! In the mean time...



They sally out of the city and are slaughtered by my reserve force...

I don't have a screenshot, but my main army was off destroying a barb stack. We didn't lose any units, but some units took a serious beating.

Teh poor dumb AI, playing into my hands...



Finally, we save up for a new fortification!


We kill that annoying barb stack...


(On a side note, warriors and chariots don't mix)

Finally, we are ready to assault:



They are slaughtered, though I lose one warrior:



God, bloody frenzy AI! Where did these guys come from?



(The brown dudes, not the barbs)

Luckily, they split their stack up the next turn and I destroy them without loss.


The Empire circa 3000BC

[Maquiladora]

3600pw for a fort?! What is it made of gold?

I'm surprised Hattusas isn't growing better too, those early farms were really a rip off.

on the useful watch towers though.

[EPW]

The game was kind enough to forget that I researched City States when I loaded the save....I have to add it with world builder.

[EPW]

3000-2000BC, turn 200-250

This is an era of relative peace. As our power grows, our neighbors are not so eager to invade. However, it is also a time where our neighbors continue to outpace us economically and scientifically. There are still the barb incursions, and as our neighbors advance so do they.

For example, this barb stack is lead by a Praetorian unit:



We lose two warriors in the fight, but they are outdated anyways.



When we research Archery, we have to pay 14,000 gold to upgrade all of our slingers!



We complete the Valley of the Kings in 2520BC, just before our rivals:



This is a great wonder, free apothecaries in all our cities. Apothecaries increase the population limit of all our cities, and the biggest ones begin growing again.

The Minos send a stray stack into our territory. We have already made peace with them, and order them to leave:



Around 2200 BC we finish the Great Wall:



Its not a great wonder for its cost(it took 84 turns to build): it gives free walls in every city, but since by this point you should be able to kill any army before they reach your cities. Walls, do however, give +1 happiness as well which is nice.

By turn 242, we no longer have any enemies. They have no doubt noticed our military build up:



There is some interesting happenings on the other side of the world:


Our technological progress is slower do to more expensive tech costs:



We end this session researching Republic.

And our empire:



Don't worry, the malcontents will be dealt with harshly

[Maquiladora]

Very nice

Is that Apolyton occupying that island and the continent to the left of it? They look pretty big.

Also, barb elephants!

[EPW]

Very nice

Is that Apolyton occupying that island and the continent to the left of it? They look pretty big.

Also, barb elephants!

Yeah , that's Apolyton. Its a very nice island too.