AU502 DAR 1: 4000BC - 2150BC

[Aqualung71]

Originally posted by Makahlua
First off - though I've played quietly, this is the first time I've dared to post a DAR.

Welcome to AU Makahlua!

[Conqueror]

Ha. My first try on a DAR also Did play some PtW AU's and the Power of Seafaring, but never posted anything in these DAR's before. I'm just bad at keeping track of things while i play.

OK. Lets give this a try:

Demigod - 1.15 patch - AU mod version

Didnt keep such detail as most of you have (years etc) but i'll report about things in general.

Capital placement: spotted a corner of Oasis behind the mountain, so i moved the settler NW to get the Oasis in city radius (because Agricultural civs have +3 food from irrigated Oasis under despot)

early exploration and development: first off, i built few warriors, then settler. continued that cycle. tried to build settler always the same turn when pop hit 3. didnt bother with granary as i saw the Iroquois, German and Sumerian units swarm nearby after few turns and was afraid about running out of space.

Exploration didnt go well - i popped 4 huts - 3 had barbarians in them and one maps Also i lost 3 exploring warriors total to barbarians, so as you can see i still have lots of unexplored space. Demigod barbarians are TOUGH. Almost feels like they have attack/defense bonus against human

Iroquois want Alesia After i found my 2nd city, Alesia, on top of Incense, the Iroquois seemed to move a stack of 3 warriors towards it. I had 2 warriors nearby and scrambled those to fortify in Alesia.

When Iroq. stack was next to the city, i made a deal with them = all my GPT for Alphabet and Masonry + some of their gold. I then traded these techs to German and Sumeria and gained tech parity with them. If Iro's still attack next turn, thats their loss.

Well - ofcourse Iroquois attacked next turn. Both of my defending warriors were promoted to Veteran and Iroquois lost their 3 warrior stack (finally some luck).

After they heal i move all my 6 warriors in 2 stacks southward where evil Iro's came from and manage to destroy one of their cities (losing 2 warriors). After this i see a stack of Iroq archers and quickly sue for peace before they get too close.

Warrior counterattack paid off - they are willing to give me Grand River. That reveals to be along the southern coast when i get it. Its size 2, so i immediately rush a Curragh for some exploration.

Future plans: get some exploration done and get rid of the pesky barbarians. No other plans at the moment

Sorry about the bad quality of the 2150 BC screenshot. I have big resolution and the image gets distorted when resizing it to 800.

[Jawa Jocky]

Stock rules on Monarch

I have discovered I enjoy C3C more on the Monarch level. I feel confined when playing harder levels because I’m always trying to optimize everything. On Monarch I can play quick and sloppy which makes me feel free. So for me AU502 needs to be about fun.

Now the one thing that would make AU502 suck would be no Iron. So my opening strategy tweak for the course is to “REX by the Highlands”. I will gain control of every hill and mountain I find to increase my odds of having Iron. And I’ll start by moving the settler to the Southeast. If I wasn’t gunning for Iron I would have gone Northwest, but other than a solitary Mountain the North just looks too flat.

Entremont is founded and I become very pleased with my decision to go Southeast. I have tobacco, incense, and 3 potential Iron sites within my city radius. I start building a warrior and set research to 100% on Mysticism. My 1st warrior starts hiking the hills to see what is around. A cow by a lake (with hills and mountains) is quickly discovered and the location of my 2nd city is planned. After a 2nd warrior Entremont builds a settler and it wanders off to “Lake Cow Pie Fields.” Our new city builds a worker, a Granary, and you should know the rest of its building cue. Our capital keeps pumping warriors and settlers (without the benefit of a Granary) and squeezes in a temple and barracks.

I quickly discover silk (with hills and mountains) and decide it’s worth the slower expansion to found a city in the jungle. My 4th city is another luxury jungle city that doesn’t help my REXH cause, but what the hell I’ve secured a 4th luxury.

I believe my 40 turns ends before my 4th city is actually founded, but I didn’t write much down (or remember to take screen shots). My contacts and tech trading is nothing special and research continues full speed toward polytheism. My “REXH” strategy has netted me 15 tiles with Iron potential so I’m happy with my start. I won’t fix what isn’t broken so I’ll continue to REXH and research quickly to gain Monarchy. I also promise to remember a screen shot for DAR2.

[Fosse]

Blast all of you and your SGLs. I haven't been the first to a tech in half an age!

I'm thinking about all that I've learned from these forums... How many games I spent at 10% research when I'm at the cap, how many settler pump opportunites I missed... how many elites I let die in foolhardy battles. I might never be the micromanager that some here are... but I can definatly say my game is better!

[Aqualung71]

Originally posted by Fosse
Blast all of you and your SGLs. I haven't been the first to a tech in half an age!

You're not alone there Fosse, although I might have had half a chance of an SGL if I'd picked my tech choices a little better!

Still, playing at demigod I've given up the brief fling I once had with SGL's (2 in one AU501, but hardly any apart from that). Not to mention that I avoid goody huts like the plague.

So add this to your list - players at emperor/demigod popping techs and settlers from huts. Blast you all!

[Conqueror]

Uh oh - Iroquois move stack of 4 archers next to Alesia. I manage to rush a spear and move 3 warriors there before the attack - but no luck. Iroquois archers win battles 4-0 and capture Alesia.

1550 BC - Game Over. No Gallic Swords built.

This is embarassing, i havent lost Civ3 SP game since.. hmm.. ever Besides the SID level tries. And few early Deity games with vanilla. C3C or new AU mod (or both), are really adding the challenge.

This really is a learning experience I'll restart from 4000 bc and deal more carefully with the Iroquois.

[vmxa1]

Sorry you got the short end, but the AI can smack you if it goes for the throat early with those bonus units.

Better luck on the next run.

[Madine]

I think I have only beat monarch once. I have to admit, I looked at some of the threads, so I have a little advanced knowledge.

This is my first game with AU. I think its great that there is a cooperative effort to put together a well-planned mod.

The luck of the Irish gave me an extra settler right away. At 2150 BC, I have 4 cities.

So far I have encountered the Germans, Sumerians, and Iroquois. No wars yet

I have bronze working, alphabet, pottery, warrior code, ceremonial burial, and mysticism. My tech plan is to get monarchy, as I expect to be fighting. I'm sure someone will want to pick a fight around the time I get GS

I hope the screenshot looks decent. I noticed I forgot to build mines. Guess I shouldn't be civing past my bedtime.

[Aqualung71]

Conqueror, the community will shed it's collective tear over your misfortune, and then quickly ask "did you learn something?"

I could (would) have suffered the same fate when the Iroquois declared on me in 2750BC, if it hadn't been for their plain stupid war tactics (and a touch of RNG luck). They had 3 warriors surrounding my only town, defended by 2 regular warriors IIRC, and they each proceeded to attack and die, 1 each turn for 3 turns, by which time I had built a spear and another warrior.

[vmxa1]

Madine save the pic as a jpeg and you can post it inline:

[Madine]

Thanks for the tip

[Chemical Ollie]

My first AU game in a year and my first CIV3 game in over a month. I have mostly been visiting the OT forum the last year. I picked Monarch level, which I normally find challenging enough, but in retrospect I would probably had done well on emperor as well. This was a little too easy.

Moved settler SE and build capital. Irrigated sugar, which provend to be a mistake under despotism.

Building order: warrior (scouting) - warrior (defending) - settler - warrior - settler - ...

2nd city founded on jungle square by the eastern cow lake. I didn't remember if it was possible to plant cities on jungle, so I took a chance and it worked. City 2 started to build a worker, then warriors and settlers.

Wasn't lucky with the huts. One map and then only barbarians, who killed some of my warriors.

3rd city on the river to the SW, by the coast.

Made contact with Iroqis and Sumerians and traded some tech. Beelined for Monarchy, which gave some tech for trading, and fit well into my later war and GA plans.

This first part of the game was only peaceful expansion.

[ducki]

This was a little too easy.

When you get to the Post-Game Thread, if you have any suggestions on what would have made it more challenging at your normal level, please let me know.
Thanks!

[vmxa1]

Ducki, I think the game is suppose to be easy at Monarch.

[Andydog]

This is the first game I've tried from the AU threads, I only came across them recently. It all looks pretty hard core really, so I didn't really know how it was going to pan out. In the end it was a Space Victory in 1870, with 4039 pts.

I wrote stuff as I played, so here it is:

4000bc – moved settler 1 sqr south to get the extra hill and grassland while retaining the tobacco and sugar.
3950bc – Settled in the river fork.. view expands.. bugger about all this jungle, but like the look of that incense to the east. Set science to 100% and head straight for Iron Working.
3900bc – Worker starts mining tobacco next to the river.
3600bc – 1st warrior is completed and heads east to find a suitable 2nd city site to make use of that incense.
3450bc – Warrior discovers primo site next to small lake and cow! All right! Boarders have expanded so worker heads north to mine shield grassland.
3400bc – Warrior goes NW to mountain and spots the goody hut NE of capital. I think I’ll save that for now in case I can pop it by founding a city up there somewhere.
3350bc – 2nd warrior complete, push him off NE - I saw a bit of dessert and river up there and want to see if there are floodplains to be had. Switch production to settler.
3000bc – Wow, plenty of floodplains alright! Found a nice 3rd city site. Popped a goody hut with my east wandering warrior but got barbarians. Manage to kill them all.
2950bc – NW warrior meets an Iroquois warrior. Iroquois offer 10 gold for Ceremonial Burial but predictably they aren’t interested in trading for Alphabet. I tell them to take a hike.
2710bc – 2nd city founded and production set on temple to get those boarders going. Capital is a few turns off Barracks as are a bit worried about those Iroquois. NW and E warriors have found coastlines – NW going N and E warrior going S. The Iroquoi warrior is following me N. Bugger this jungle but in the later game this land will be primo.
2670bc – Meet the Germans. They have The Wheel and Warrior Code, but I have nothing, so offer them 1g as goodwill. God knows why. Warrior heads E along the bottom of Germany’s boarders.
2430bc – discover the Sumerians. They trade Alphabet for Ceremonial Burial. South warrior discovers dyes – and sees that the Iroquois are very close indeed…
2270bc – discover Iron Working. Head for Philosophy. Wow, Iron right next to my 2nd city, awesome! Worker has nearly completed a road to the 2nd city, he can just continue to that iron. Capital has completed a temple (for culture and happiness) and is a few turns away from my 3rd Settler.

More to follow in DAR2. No screeny just yet, but there are a few to come

[Chemical Ollie]

After the easy Monarch win, decided to I replay on Demi-god (a first-timer) and that was quite different. The other tribes showed up in great masses after just a few turns. Luckily, they left me alone and started beating on each other instead (passing through my land on their way). I was able to build 10 or so cities, build at least 20 Gallic swordsmen and introduce monarchy before Sumeria attacked. By then, the other tribes were far into the middle ages, while I was still researching literature or something. I could just forget building a wonder by myself.

Sumeria had no resources at all, but still put up a formidable fight with longbowmen and that defensive warrior unit of theirs. I had an outstanding kills/death ratio for my Gallic swords, but the number of cheap units the Sumerians could pump out made it a long meatgrinder war. On top of that, their cities had so large population and so much culture that their kept flipping back both once and twice. I got some nice wonders throught the conquest, like the Pyramids, Temple of Artemis and Knights Templar.

Now I have almost finished them off, but I think I will have a tough time to make any further progress. I'm still in the ancient age, while the other tribes will enter the industrial age any turn. I have nothin to trade to get their techs. Conquering the Great Library in Salamanca could be an option, but if there was a war I would be toast against their hordes of cavallery and riflemen.

I think I will make a third replay on Emperor instead.

[Rhothaerill]

Originally posted by Chemical Ollie
Now I have almost finished them off, but I think I will have a tough time to make any further progress. I'm still in the ancient age, while the other tribes will enter the industrial age any turn. I have nothin to trade to get their techs. Conquering the Great Library in Salamanca could be an option, but if there was a war I would be toast against their hordes of cavallery and riflemen.

I think I will make a third replay on Emperor instead.

If you have contact with a lot of civs and CAN conquer the city and grab the Great Library before you get education you will automatically vault yourself back into tech parity. The way it works is that even though the Great Library ends with education, it doesn't actually end until the end of the turn. Which means you'd also receive every single tech known to two other civs you know BEYOND education as well before the Great Library expires. It isn't documented as such, but I've seen it done before.

[Catt]

I played a quick game (tried to make it quick, anyway) and finished late last night. I'll post DARs tonight or tomorrow. In the meantime I read through all the DAR threads to see how others played the game out. Lot's of fun!

Welcome to AU to all the first-timers (Makahlua, jim_steer, Conqueror, Madine, and Andydog)! Hopefully it was a fun experience and I look forward to reading your DARs in future AU games, too! And welcome back Chemical Ollie! No welcome for the regulars

@Risa -- rough luck on the opening. Sometimes it just happens, especially with aggressive civs nearby and on higher levels where the AI has lots of bonus units. I'm glad you didn't let it get you down. It happened to me in a prior AU game (damn Germans), happened to alexman in the Power of Randomness game, and has now happened to Aeson twice in AU games! (Between early rushes and exploding volcanoes, it's a wonder Aeson keeps coming back ).

Catt

[vmxa1]

Chemical Ollie try to race to Phil and get Lit for free. Have a prebuild for the GL timed so you can get it. It is harder with a civ that does not start with Alphabet, but I have done it on Sid, so it can be done.

[Chemical Ollie]

Originally posted by Rhothaerill


If you have contact with a lot of civs and CAN conquer the city and grab the Great Library before you get education you will automatically vault yourself back into tech parity. The way it works is that even though the Great Library ends with education, it doesn't actually end until the end of the turn. Which means you'd also receive every single tech known to two other civs you know BEYOND education as well before the Great Library expires. It isn't documented as such, but I've seen it done before.

I know that, I've done it before. The problem this time is that I have to fight my way past one ring of cities to reach Salamanca where the Library is. And they are almost industrial, while I still fool around with spearmen. It can't be done.

[Chemical Ollie]

Originally posted by vmxa1
Chemical Ollie try to race to Phil and get Lit for free. Have a prebuild for the GL timed so you can get it. It is harder with a civ that does not start with Alphabet, but I have done it on Sid, so it can be done.

Not the ultimate choice for the Celts, but probably a good decision in other games.

[Risa]

Originally posted by Rhothaerill


If you have contact with a lot of civs and CAN conquer the city and grab the Great Library before you get education you will automatically vault yourself back into tech parity. The way it works is that even though the Great Library ends with education, it doesn't actually end until the end of the turn. Which means you'd also receive every single tech known to two other civs you know BEYOND education as well before the Great Library expires. It isn't documented as such, but I've seen it done before.

Yah, that is what I've done in this AU course. Marvelous indeed.

@Catt -- Thanks for your kind words.

[vmxa1]

Originally posted by Chemical Ollie


Not the ultimate choice for the Celts, but probably a good decision in other games.

Given the tech problems you are seeing it is the most likely way to get on par. I don't recall what the start location was like in this game, but it not a problem to do it with the Celts in most games.

The only trick is to have a good prebuild and time it with as much of a lead as you can. If someone jumps up with an SGl, there is nothing you can do.

There are only two ways to get in the tech race at Demi, GL or war. War is much harder and may come too late to work.

Well if you get a monoply on ivory and then build SOZ war is fine.

[alexman]

I tried this game last week on Deity AU mod, but I have been too mad to write about it. The plan was to follow my usual approach of REX with minimum military, and let the AI deal with the barbarians, which they gladly did. I figured that the REX would end relatively fast on Deity, and then I could start my serious military buildup.

The problem is that I forgot to tell Hiawatha that the Celts have not been barbarians since PTW came out. So after I plopped my third city on the incense, the damn Iroquois who evidently ran out of barbarians to kill, confused the Celts for barbarians and declared war by occupying my empty city. That fact alone would not have been a really a big deal, except their gazzilion free Warriors rushed Entremont before I could talk to them and beg for peace. Game over.

Reading this thread about how several people had similar luck to mine, I guess the two aggressive neighbors (Iroquois are more aggressive in the AU mod, and the Germans are the usual bullies), along with a start sandwiched between civs made the light military strategy a bad idea for this map.

I am now ready to start another game, since it's been a week and I have somewhat forgotten the map.

[Rhothaerill]

Wow ducki...you got alexman AND Aeson with your map design.

[vmxa1]

alexman, do you think it would have been different if you did not use the AU mod?

[alexman]

Well, the Iroquois would have been less aggressive (2/5 versus 4/5), and perhaps they would not have attacked. But if it weren't the Iroquois it might have been the usual Germans, so I'm not so sure.

Next time I will build more Warriors and and hopefully they will respect me more. Of course, I will have a hard time building enough cities to support my units before I run out of room in that case.

In general, I have no doubt that the AU mod raises the difficulty of the game by half a level or so, depending on the map.

[Catt]

DAR 1a – Emperor – Stock Rules

I’ve been pressed for time lately, and decided I’d try to play a relatively quick game (if I could) and looked forward to a “sandbox” game – not UP necessarily, but a game that allowed me to move quickly without too much attention or concentration and still have fun and lots of options. I’ve been playing mostly demi-god in epic games, finding some a real challenge, but decided to step back to Emperor and enjoy what might seem a little less pressure-filled game. I still find Emperor an engaging challenge in certain set-ups, and hoped the game would be engaging but not demanding. Got my wish Since I played mostly straight through, this series of DARs is more of an AAR, but so be it.

On learning of the course focus some weeks ago, I decided on an overall approach well before I say the start, and hoped the map would cooperate with my plans. Alexman summed up the approach to a tee:

Originally posted by alexman in another thread

Religious with a good ancient UU screams for Monarchy. It's going to be my first government for sure.

I plan to slow down the tech rate so that the Gallic Swords last as long as possible. However, I plan to research full-speed up to Monarchy, and then set the slider at 0% until the middle ages. I'll trade as little as possible, and if I'm not at war, I'll make sure other civs on my continent are at war. We will be the most backwards barbarian continent ever!

I didn’t read through in detail the opening spoiler thread or try and track the approaches others were taking with the start opportunities – just went at it. With a look at the start, I decided to move my worker NW to the plains tile for a little greater view, and then moved my settler due north. Without knowledge of how wet the map might be, I wanted to maximize potential city sites on rivers (especially with an Ag civ) and figured that by settling at the headwaters, I’d provide a bit more breathing room downstream. Desert is just about as good as plains for an Ag civ, so the desert didn’t worry me. And since sugar on plains offers no improvement except a road during despotism, I didn’t concentrate on the sugar just yet.

Settled Entremont in 3950 BC and set research to Mysticism at 100% (initially 32 turns). I was pleased to see the oasis to the NW. The goody hut within view caused me to delay a warrior build so as to avoid barbarians from huts when the capital’s culture popped the hut. I started a build on a barracks – I wanted mostly veteran warriors from the get-go for future upgrade – but later changed my mind and switched the build to a granary for greater REXing power. After irrigating and roading the plains tile, my worker moved to the forest for a chop-powered granary build. In 3500 BC we had our initial warrior anyway.

Catt

[Catt]

DAR 1b – Emperor – Stock Rules

Our conscript began an exploration; our worker improved Entremont. In 3150 BC we met the Iroquois – they had Alphabet and both our techs, so no trades (but I wanted a slow tech game anyway, so other than a few initial trades I didn’t plan to trade much in any event). A short time later, in 3050 BC we met the Sumerians. They had Bronze Working and Warrior Code. No trades. In 2630 BC we met the Germans. They had apparently already met the Sumerians, as they possessed knowledge of BW, WC, Alphabet, and Masonry. In 2590 BC our research on Mysticism was completed. I decided to trade for techs to speed our rush to Monarchy. Don’t remember the precise order, but we traded Myst to the Iroquois for Alphabet and 6 gold; traded Alph to Sumeria for Masonry and 6 gold; and traded Myst to Germany for BW (EDIT: We also traded for warrior code in one of these trades, can't remeber which - the "speeding up" towards Monarchy END EDIT). That put us in tech parity momentarily, leaving Sumeria without Mysticism. In any other than a “go slow on tech” approach, I probably would have gifted Myst to Sumeria to speed tech and deny the Germans and Iroquois trading opportunities, but in this game I withheld Myst. Research was set on Polytheism at max research.

Our second city, Alesia was founded in the hills near an incense supply. With a max research approach, I decided to get luxuries hooked up early to ease the pressure on the income stream from luxury slider needs.

In 2230 BC our conscript explorer had explored SE and S, and was moving back N along the western coast. He entered a goody hut hoping for luck but found barbarian savages. Only one attacked, and our plucky conscript survived.

Catt

[Catt]

DAR 1c – Emperor – Stock Rules

At 2150 BC, we had settled only Alesia, but had a settler in position near a small lake and free-range cattle to the SE.

Catt