So I wanted to write up a brief post-mortem now that I've read all the threads and given it some time to sink in. I think this game had a lot of interesting choices, so I wanted to take a look at the key decisions I made and decide what made sense and what I would do differently. One thing that I've come to realize is that I was in a much stronger position than I realized. I previously had been very gloomy about long-term prospects in this thread, and I'm realizing now that was very premature. I think this tends to be a common problem too - I think players write off games as "done" much too quickly sometimes because they have only their own biased perspective and the demographic screen. So someone like me sees Serdoa running away and doesn't recognize the stuff that screen doesn't show, like:
1) My rapidly maturing cottages
2) My rapidly growing cities due to my emphasize on unlocking happiness
3) Serdoa's pretty hefty investment for very little payoff in his war with Commodore
4) I had the largest standing defense military of anyone that wasn't using those units in a hot war.
5) The fact that I apparently razed Serdoa's planned GLib city which I didn't realize.
I figured my chance in the game was a longshot, but upon seeing my economic recovery coming along and drastically improving demographics, I had at least upgraded it to "small but remotely reasonable chance of winning." After reading the other threads though, I'm convinced that my chance of winning was actually pretty high. By pretty high, I mean in the 50/50 ballpark. Serdoa still had a very large lead, but I was gaining ground at a non-trivial rate. The problem was still that he was likely going to clean up a lot of the "first to" bonuses, but if I ever caught him he'd be in trouble as my land and infrastructure seemed to be better-developed. I'd also switched recently to running max EPs on him all the time which would be a hassle for him since I was getting up a round of Courthouses. So the game was in question is my point and I had a prayer at winning. So with that in mind, I'd like to figure out what went right and what went wrong.
What went right
1) My moves regarding the islands I think was a strong decision. It somewhat slowed my growth curve (big part of why people kept pace with me), but it helped keep me afloat in tech - both pillaging the towns and settling two islands. I would've settled for a third (north phants) had I landed GLH btw.
2) Reaching for elephants I think was a sound decision. If the weird Serdoa/Commodore war hadn't quite happened, Commodore would've had awfully early Phracts and I would've been the correct option without them. So in a vacuum, I think this decision was sound. Also, it forced me to settle east which I think had the best land.
3) My emphasis on getting boats in the water and owning both of the mini-oceans was really key. Commodore got burned because Serdoa boated him. In my spot there (after pillaging Brian's town and his seafood), I put two galleys at the end of the canal so it would take considerable force to kill them both, and I would get advance warning. I was also soon to put a Trireme there. In the southeast I also pushed several boats into the water and kept a sentry on Lewwyn. These two spots were the most vulnerable to attacks, so defending them like I did allowed me to be a bit more free in pushing out settlers.
4) Worker hordes - I "overbuilt" workers in this game, which really was what I needed to keep up with the fast REX pace and to ensure I always had improved tiles to grow onto because cities grew faster than normal. It was clear at the end that I had vastly more improved tiles than anyone else, which is why I kinda-sorta-maybe had a shot at catching Serdoa.
5) Currency and MC bulbs - Currency was a key shot in the arm, and the ability to build wealth was really helpful a few times. These two decisions really helped keep me mildly relevant tech-wise while I pulled together some sort of economy.
6) Early tech path - I prioritized Currency, Maths, Construction, and Calendar while ignoring the whole religious branch and the top Lit/Music/Drama branch. Because tech was an issue for me early, I had to pick and choose. My route got me early Maths chops, elephants, and tons of happy (from bunch of Calendar sources + market), so I believe I chose correctly here given my circumstances.
7) Not bothering with Pyramids. Crazy talk right? I still think this map is built for Mids, but I would have never won this race because I would have been too slow getting IW + Masonry, so it would have been a waste. Gameplan would have been better off grabbing the two wonders that would have complemented my Joao traits. Speaking of which.
What went wrong
1) Stonehenge. Granted, this cost me very little because I saved my chops, but I still only missed it by about 2t (or 1 1/5th to be more precise). The reason for missing it was because it was an after-thought for me - I could've easily built it earlier. However, by the time I got around to trying I missed it. I built a Monument in almost every city, so Henge would have EASILY paid for itself and then some. My already strong expansion pace could have been MUCH better had I built Henge. This ws just pure
for not prioritizing it when I should have recognized that a) I lacked the tech speed to get a religion and b) I had excess hammers.
2) Great Lighthouse. I could've easily avoided losing 4 forests if I'd actually micro'd carefully. Thankfully I've learned that lesson. Also, higher prioritization of this wonder should've been no-brainer. I'm highly confident that keeping up with Mids with GLH + cottage spam would've been REALLY easy. Doing it without GLH made it much more challenging. Again, lots of
here.
3) Not building more wealth than I did - I can't help but feel I didn't do this enough given my abundance of hammers and mediocre finances. I never have a good feel for when this is appropriate.
4) Not pushing south for marble - MoM would've been a nice wonder here (mostly for denial and some for myself), but I don't think I was going to get a chance because I was so far behind almost everyone on settling marble. Now, this is kind of a case of competing priorities as I got other valuable stuff instead (like some amazing eastern land and Brian's bananaland), but I'm thinking this would have been more valuable. Serdoa was probably going to get this which would have been really significant for him.
(comments, agreements, disagreements, and other additions to either list are of course welcome)
One thing I wasn't sure how to classify was Hanging Gardens. It would have been a boon for me, but I don't think I could have gotten it, and I didn't want to waste building an Aqueduct for a wonder I didn't think I could get. I'm not sure on that one overall. Regardless though, I definitely learned a lot in this game and had quite a bit of fun doing it. Thanks Seven for a fun design, and thanks to the other players for a fun game.
