Note: these are game reports, they only make sense if you play.
Starting in the desert sucks, it's worse than frozen tundra because you get less food and luxuries. If you have to choose between being stranded in the middle of Siberia or the Sahara desert~
The deities answered my prayers, and found me a wetter land to settle. Unfortunately, it's all hills and jungles, without rivers, so it doesn't solve my food shortage.
Since this is not planet of the monkeys, I cannot feed my empire with just bananas either. We are a civilisation, here to build great thing (Note: spearman from ruin upgrade).
Well okay, marble helps us build great things, except how do you settle there?
2840BC: popped sailing out of ruins.
2640BC: met Geneva (cultural, gems, neutral) in the North.
2520BC: Calendar completed. My settler is 1 turn to completion.
Maps of explored region:
My tech tree: pottery, animal husbandary, mining, sailing, calendar.
This is my 1640BC picture. I've opted for a conventional start of sticking my initial cities together. This is generally efficient except for the sake of the social policy I need to build monuments, even though I won't be working tiles in the 2nd ring. I also want the Arabia UA to kick in earlier. Also, in reference to my previous post, I switched to wheel before writing. I really need trade route income.
Some turns later, I get a golden age. They should be awesome but getting it this early is a total waste. I only have 9 total population and most of my tiles only produce hammers or gold, not both. I felt like I just took someone home and then had a case of premature, *sigh*
The year is 850BC and this is my tech-tree. So far I still have not met any maritime city-states or players. I won't take astronomy though, I want a good economy first. Plus I have plenty of luxury resources already.
650BC: my great scientist finally arrives. I take civil service with it, propelling me to the medieval era. It's just the most expensive tech, and I'm short on food. It's not illegal if I don't take education with it.
625BC: Here's the policies I took [I was 4 culture short last turn because I forgot to gift the cultural city-state when I had the gold]
My intention in this game is to highlight the money side because I fail to see why naval abilities belong here at all. To be realistic though, I think most players would not give up +3 hammers per city in the BC era so I have to reflect more mainstream playing styles. I did build a couple of workboats and settlers for holding until I get the policies, but only for a few turns. It's just a substitute for sloppy micromanagement on my part.
The above is the state of my kingdom (calling it empire is a gross exaggeration). It's small, my people are happy, but I really need start building this place up. I've been struggling greatly just fighting the nasty barbarians!
For research, I just finished mathematics, which is useless by itself, but I really want to get Machu Pichu. I know it's emperor but the sheer massive number of hammers should allow me to complete it. AI can tech like crazy but I've noticed they are not good at production.
First off, some maths: if I have 15 cities, my next 3 policies will cost me 835+1280+1815=3930. Assume a monument plus temple in each city. I get my next 3 policies in 53 turns. Since it takes time to set it up, I think I'll get all my policies right before the game ends, a hundred turns or so. As for the sprawling setup of my kingdom so far, that is definitely not my style or intention. I'm just being plagued by barbarians to the point that it feels like a civ is attacking me.
600BC: I am also beginning to meet some neighbours. Persia in this case.
575BC: Met India, signed PoC. Persia offered mutual open borders, I refused. You don't open borders when you're too weak to even fight barbarians.
450BC: Not really an event, but I lost my spearman against swarms of barbarians in the South. Not happy losing elite units like that. *sigh*.
300BC: Capital started on Machu Pichu. Will take 40 turns, good luck. By the way, in case you are wondering how much it is, I'm currently earning 4.5 per city because they are 2 pop each. Sounds pathetic but I'm sure in the future it will be 20% of a much bigger number.
250BC: Met Germany. No, I'm not signing PoS against India. In fact, I'm trying not to declare war on anyone this game.
75BC: Met Greece. I looked at his cities and he looked weak. If it's just a bad start then it's fine, otherwise it means that someone out there had the strength to beat them up. That's not cool.
25BC: India asked me for gold resources. What choice do I have? Piss off my only friend?
1AD: Took trade unions. I save~um~3 gold per turn! Woohoo! I also don't like the game stating it as "0AD". There's no such thing! 1BC, then 1AD, no zero in between!
225AD: Rome met me via a trireme. So I can circumnavigate the globe without ever researching astronomy, awesome. I also met France, but they only have 1 city! Still it's a very big city. I wonder what they are doing?
I also feel that this game is very slow-paced. Nobody even declared war on each other, that's the amazing thing. This game is extremely peaceful. The question is, why is my development so slow then? I'm not sure if it's the terrain, the other continent sure looks very green to me.
275AD: Met the United States. Now I've met all the great empires across the oceans, I will stop. State of the union:
I am stopping because I need to decide what to do with my money.
a) First off, I have settled on all the luxury resource types on my own continents already, further expansion will only be on good land. I have 1 settler just completed, none in progress.
b) I have 1108gold in my treasury. Why didn't I gift a maritime city-state? Because I only found one out of dozens earlier! Not only that but they are hostile, and they have gems which my current ally already has. Most of the rest are military. My current ally is also exactly on 60 influence. So city-states are one way to go.
c) Another way to do it is to buy bazaars, sell the spare resources, earn money, then do it again. A bazaar costs 580 gold, I can sell a resource for 250-300 gold, or equivalent GPT. A bazaar also generates +25% gold income but that's only 1 or 2 GPT. I could do it now, I could wait for mercantilism in 17-20 turns or I could build those things. But most of my cities are already building colleseums except 2 that just finished their previous project. Those +3 hammers are a real life saver!
d) I can throw all my money away for research agreements. It speeds me up but also speeds everyone up.
Some more screenshots:
This trading business can get complicated.
The new patch is coming out, I better get started on the game, although my strategy would not be affected by it (thankfully).
The next turns are also incredibly boring: building collesseums everywhere, waiting for the next wave of settlers, libaries~etc. I don't really need tons of new cities, I just don't want anyone settling on the continent. Commerce doesn't force you into a particular strategy, it just greases the wheels (and the palms). I spent it on my old cultural ally and later a research agreement with Rome.
520AD: start spamming my hills with trading posts rather than mines. I know there are gold penalties to rushing certain buildings and units, but the bazaar gold bonus makes up for it.
I also refuse all open borders with anyone. My only exception was with India very long ago, which they never made use of. If you are on your own continent and nobody ever sees you, other countries are very hesitant to attack you. Even on deity I got away with 2 warriors and 2 archers for the whole game because I had my own landmass and never opened borders with anyone.
580AD:
I still haven't discovered Rome, despite them being the first in everything that counts. Maybe I should trade with everyone but them, I should have paid attention.
760AD: France asks for Arabian gold resources again. Why not - they don't have the cash to buy those resources anyway.
1020AD: Persia stole The Porcelain Tower from under my feet! Now I have to build up my capital's scientist points the old-fashioned way, with granaries and watermills.
1180AD: Finally finished a bunch of bazaars. So I went off 4 units of gold, a marble and a dye resource for around 1300 gold plus some gold-per-turn for those that maxed out their credit card debts. I bought the maritime state with it. Now that the good lands are used up, I could benefit from some vertical growth.
State of the kingdom of Arabia:
I also have a size 6 city beyond the Northern desert.
My military is still non-existent but I intend to keep it that way unless I'm forced to otherwise. I think my victory condition is just to bribe out the city states and go diplomatic. It's cheesy but this game is about cash. There's just two problems with this plan. 1) The AI's are out of cash but I still have spare resources. 2) I can't really highlight the power of mercantilism unless I start buying things. There are no discounts for city-states though. I got the cash, what do I buy after I get Big Ben?
I think I know what to do with the money: spend it like it's free. What I mean is every time I hit unhappiness, I'll throw money and make a new building. Let's see how well Keynesian economics fare in medieval Middle East.
Case in point in 1240AD:
I am earning around 100 gold a turn, a collesseum costs 510, gets me 4 happiness. Protectionism will come in a while which nets me even more happiness, and if lucky the forbidden palace as well if nobody beats me to it.
1320AD: got protectionism. First time I completed the policy tree! +7 happiness is no joke. It's even better than meritocracy or planned economy because even small kingdoms benefit. Vertical growth is working well.
1430AD: got Forbidden Palace. I'm now on 15 happiness. Now if only have more maritime city-states~
1490AD: A significant year, because all my trading agreements expire. Here's the resources I have for the next round of the Mecca rounds:
My national accounts:
a) gold for silver with Greece
b) gold for pearls with Persia
c) marble for 9gpt with Persia
d) dyes for 9gpt with Persia
e) incense for 9gpt with Persia
f) gold for 9gpt with France
g) gold for ivory with America
h) silk for 300gold with America
i) gold for cotton with Rome
j) marble for 300gold with Rome
I still have spare shiny rocks left but nobody had enough gold or gpt to give me a fair price anymore, so I'll leave it there.
My people are now at 30 happiness. Which means I will get a golden age soon, except it also means I am under-utilising my potential. The problem is my remaining lands are mediocre, and if I start attacking someone then nobody will trade with me anymore. But I got gold, happiness and hammers to spare, what do I do?
1545AD: I use the great scientist born a few turns ago to pop rifleman. Rome and America are isolated, after all, so no border clashes even after conquest.
Also, both took over city states, so I have a pretext for holy war. The trouble is I only have 6 units of iron resources and no empires have any to spare, so my frigate support will be weak. I could bribe a city-state and get more but that will antagonise other nations that are already allied to them.
1565AD: My golden age has arrived so I think I'll stop at this point. I have two expansion options:
America
Rome
They are both at similar technology. One has ballista and muskets, the other has catapults and minuteman. I have rifles now but so would they by the time my forces land. I do not have the iron for siege support, merely enough for the ships to protect my landing forces from enemy ships. I need to consider which place is easier to attack versus which is the richer target. Rome is slightly stronger in strength but also has 2 city-states subjugated that I could liberate. Of course I need to build up my army first, but I need to decide now so I do not trade with my future target when the next trading round comes.
My decision is to attack Rome because it's got more hills. Yes, I repeat: I will attack an enemy situated in more rugged terrain. My reasoning is that if I don't have siege and naval support, I don't want my rifles caught in the open. There's also two other reasons.
1) Germany attacks Sidon, another city state. I think I might hit them after Rome, rather than America. I need city states get my diplomatic victory.
2) Taking on America will be very, very tedious.
