My first early landing attempt.

[connorkimbro]

Yikes, you guy's make me look like i just bought the game. Anyhow, here's my first attempt. . i didn't keep as accurate logs for this game as you guys did, but basically my game went like this. .

founded my first city in 3750 after a few turns of searching, has a river or two, was on the coast, had a whale and gems. It has pretty good potential.

I ran into problems however, since this place was sort of out on the penninsula. . and there were almost no other good city sites nearby for helper cities. i built a couple (3 actually) but none of them ever got past size 2. this hurt me alot i think. not only that, but i couldn't expand further because of two very close neighboring civ's that cut me off while i was founding my first few cities.

Tech wise, i went for monarchy - republic - trade - democracy etc. . , and after some trouble, built a few somewhat decent trade rounds. also used we love the king up to size 8. . built an aqueduct. . we love the king up to 12, build a sewer system, then we love the king up to 20 or so. My other cities, as small as they were, weren't very productive at all, and didn't help me out at all. so. . most of the wonders i had to build myself. . and my SCC, as good as it was at making science. . was only mediocre at production. i got all the science/trade wonders, but not as early as i could have gotten them, had i had the camels i needed to build them right away. early in the game i didn't trade much tech. . just gave it away to keep people happy, later in the game, i traded for all the early techs that i missed. Finally build Apollo in the early to mid 1800's, and now. . THIS is where my production problems killed me, it took me years to build my space ship. i build 15-3-3-1-1-1 ship. . launched it, and it landed in 1930.

I know a few areas where i could have done things better, but what are some thing's i'm maybe not thinking of? Some things i did wrong?

[Jaguar]

What were the other two specials?

[connorkimbro]

didn't have any other specials in the home city but the whale and gems.
btw, this was on a small map, 7 civs.

i just started another game. . had a pretty fast opening game. . but i can't quite get it down to 2 turns a tech. . i'm hovering right around 5, 4 at the least. i need to get that down alot.

the midgame is where i run into the most trouble. right about the time i need to build copernicus, and isach newton, i'm also needing to build aquaduct and colosseum, etc. and then i have even MORE money problems. . what am i doing wrong here?

[samson]

There's half a dozen threads here where Solo, I, and others discuss early landing strategies. Read them.
Try playing some of the OCC fortnight games, if you haven't already. It's great practice. Build lots of freights and have your spaceship finished (virtually) before you get Space Flight.

A launch before 1850AD (250 turns) is good work. Before 1750AD (200 turns) is excellent. And anything before 1500AD (175 turns) is outstanding.

[solo]

In a nutshell, what we are doing is adding a few helper cities to an OCC style game, so the best place to start is with Paul's OCC Strategy Guide. Then try one of these games and follow his log and compare your progress and decisions with his. It's a great way to train, by learning from the first OCC early landing master.

The part of the game where you are having the most trouble is hard for everyone. You have too many things that need to be done ASAP and not enough to do everything you want. Much of your income and resources must come from what the game provides (trade specials, good starting locations, huts, etc.) and from interaction with the AI, by trading techs, and getting tribute and/or gifts. You can't possibly do it all on your own.

If a game does not begin well, try another! For example, early landings are much easier with a SSC having 4 good trade specials and rivers than with the mediocre site that you used to land in 1930. With the start you describe in that game, 1930 isn't bad. You might want to download one of the starts used in a successful game, just to see how much difference it makes. For every successful game posted here, I've had dozens that never got anywhere close, even though lessons were learned from each failure.

Hope this helps.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Hey, connorkimbro, I started a thread similar to this a couple of days ago! Since you had only two trade specials (as I did), I think you did okay up to Apollo. One strategy is, once you get flight, begin stockpiling camels and gold (no more rushbuilding for a bit). Then, when you build Apollo, build the ss parts by first starting a wonder in a city, then send a camel to help, then switch to the part. In this way a size-8 city can generally build a structural in 4-5 turns. When it's time for components and modules, use the same tactic, but now rushbuild with the gold you've been saving (and if you get fusion before you're ready to launch, set your science to zero for more rushbuilding gold). You should be able to get a ship off the ground in 10-20 turns, or even less if you've got the cities, camels, and gold for it.

[Scouse Gits]

Rufus - read the OCC logs - with enough caravans on hand you expect to get one SS bit per turn - city production of 80 helps too...

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by Scouse Gits
Rufus - read the OCC logs - with enough caravans on hand you expect to get one SS bit per turn - city production of 80 helps too...

Agreed, SG -- I've done it myself in OCC. But in the kind of game connorkimbro is describing, you rarely have that kind of extreme focus (hey, wasn't this your point on my thread?). For one thing, in a normal game I don't make an 80-shield city a goal; in fact, in a normal AC game, I never bother with robotics and frequently don't bother with refrigeration; you don't need them, and the added shields may or may not balance the lost time researching. So what I'm suggesting is that you can easily achieve 24 parts in under 20 turns, as opposed to the 75+ turns it took connorkimbro. With even more serious planning and hoarding, and with a big enough empire, you can of course do it in far less.

[connorkimbro]

My second attempt was botched. . it's best not to talk about it.

3rd attempt. . only silk and a whale in my SSC, but some ocean squares as well as a few rivers this time, 2 settlers, and 4 starting techs. . so i decided to give the game a shot. i had more room to expand this time and quickly got 4 decent helper cities up, each with at least a trade bonus (lots of silk around) and some production and food bonuses too. these eventually developed into some nice 8 size cities, i didn't let them get bigger than that. i payed closer attention to beakers this time. . making sure i was maximizing the science as best as possible. i took a more effecient route through the tech tree also, and traded a bit more too, not just with my SCC, but with my helper cities also. I stayed right around 5 techs through the mid game, and by the end got it down to 3 techs a turn. . . towards the end, since i had more cities, i maximized science once i got all the techs for the spaceship parts, had some decent cash rolling in, and proceeded to sell all (of the few that i had) city improvements for extra cash. would let all cities build for a year, and the next year rush by them all. repeat let them build for a year, rush buy again.

Landed in 1849.

Not bad . . but i could get alot better, especially with a better site. I've got a couple things in mind to try too. When i get a game that i'm truly impressed with, i'll post a more detailed log.

btw. . is there an easier way to keep a game log than just writing everything down?

[connorkimbro]

I think i'm getting the hang of this.

Only 1 city. . landed in 1835.

[Jaguar]

Congratulations! You are improving a lot faster than I did. My first diety win was with a great start, and I still ended up landing in 2004.