Zalson Plays One Turn At A Time (DEITY: Loss)

[Zalson]

Inspired by Sullla's excellent AI survivor series, I'd like to try our hand at a ... curated version of AI survivor.

Settings:

Random Leader (!)
Difficulty: Deity 
Size: Standard

Pangaea
Tropical

No Tech Trading 
No Vassals
No Events
Choose Religions
Aggressive AI

Oh, but here's the thing:

Human player will start with deity techs and deity units. So someone (maybe me), can worldbuilder in:

Archery
Hunting
Agriculture
The Wheel

+1 settler
+4 archers
+2 scouts

All on the starting tile)

(delete the warrior/extra scout that's not on the starting tile).

Oh -- and we have to found on the starting tile. Anyone interested? Alternatively, I'd be interested in running this as PBEM on base BTS, but I've never played PBEM so the whole random leaders thing might not work.

My only Deity experience is with Epic 4, which I played as an unreported shadow game.

If no one is interested, I'll start reporting the game here. I've played a couple of these on Emperor (trying Immortal tonight) and the slingshot start makes it quite fun.

EDIT: Here's what happened the last time I did one of these one-turn-at-a-time playthroughs: http://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/showt...p?tid=8164

[Zalson]

Well, there appears to be little interest in an SG, so i think i might do a redux of Zalson plays one turn at a time.

So I'll roll a start and post it tonight. And yes, I am going to give me all the deity starter techs and units. I played a test game and it is pretty crazy.

[RefSteel]

Well, there appears to be little interest in an SG, so i think i might do a redux of Zalson plays one turn at a time.

So I'll roll a start and post it tonight. And yes, I am going to give me all the deity starter techs and units. I played a test game and it is pretty crazy.

I know I won't be able to play SG turn sets (I haven't even been able to participate in the ongoing MoO SG) but I'll be following with interest!

[Zalson]

So I rolled this up...

I'm playing as Alex.



This is the start.


These are the settings.


And this is the Deitized start.

[Zalson]

Some info, in case you're wondering: Deity inflates tech costs 168% of normal.

Now there are no more limitations on tactics, settling spots, etc.

City sites for now:
The 3 peak clam and cow (although that will take AH to develop)
Next to the fish (that will come later though)

I think i'll need some more scouting.

Starting build at Athens is a worker, which I will keep until I get corn online.

[Zalson]

Workers:
The worker is going to farm the corn; after that, i'm hoping it can move to improve a resource at the second city.

Once I farm the corn, I'll pause the worker to grow to size 2. This'll allow me to get the 2nd worker out one turn earlier T13 as opposed to T14. Although, to do that, I'll need to farm the floodplains on T7-12.

For tech:
I think I have to go Pottery first; I'll get a +40% bonus for knowing fishing and agg, and can produce, I think 9.8 beakers per turn (do the rounded values persist?) at 70% science. I think I'll want to go no science for 5 turns to save 35 gold, then I can spend at -3 gpt for 10 turns to get 145 beakers on pottery on turn 15.

Then I'll be able to cottage the the 2 northern grassland river tiles.

Scout moves:
After taking the screenshot, I moved the settler to the plains hill 2W of the capital. There were no additional resources in the water. So I think the settler goes back to the capital and the scouts continue to fan out in all directions. I do have 10 turns until barn animals show up.

If I had to make a decision based on no scouting info, I'd say the clams, cows spot is the best. It can share the wet corn and two cottages with the capitol and means i'd go Pottery - AH, which would allow me to also expand to the pigs in the south relatively quickly

From worldbuilder, I do know that the PH south of the capitol has copper. But I think if I go Mining - BW first, the start is too slow -- better to pick up the necessary worker techs first to power me through the first few cities than to attempt to get my UU off the bat. Although a 0/6 tile is pretty nice.

Since this seems to be a pretty happy-poor start, I'm thinking that I'll need to grab Monarchy ASAP. Which means that I might not want to connect that copper so I can get enough warriors for MP in the capitol. I think I also want a quick Library since, you know, I'm philosophical. A lightbulb path might be a viable strategy as well.

Current micro for first 12 turns (pending second city)

Athens
0 work corn, farm corn 4/60 worker
1 work corn, farm corn 8/60 worker
2 work corn, farm corn 12/60 worker
3 work corn, farm corn 16/60 worker
4 6/22 food, work corn, farm corn, road 1/15 warrior
5 12/22 food, work corn, move nw and road, 2/15 warrior
6 18/22 food, work corn, move sw and farm FP, 3/15 warrior
7 24/22 food, work corn, farm fp, 4/15 warrior
8 2/24 food, work corn and fp, farm fp 23/60 worker
9 work corn and fp, farm fp, 30/60 worker
10 work corn and fp, farm fp, 37/60 worker
11 work corn and fp, farm fp, 37/60 worker
12 work corn and fp, farm fp, 44/60 worker
13 work corn and fp, ?, 52/60 worker
14 work corn and fp, ?, 60/60 worker

Let me know if you have any thoughts, o lurker(s).

[Zalson]

There's a hut in the south, plus 2 in the north. Our costs are out of control!

Here's the total scouted land. I think the best choice is the clams/cows spot.

[RefSteel]

Tiny micro thing: The Settler should not go back to the capital. Going to the forest 1N of the capital instead will let the Settler get to all the tiles it could have from the capital itself just as quickly, but put it one tile closer to the cow/clam region, potentially speeding it to a good site in that direction by a turn. (If there's grain in the southeast, of course, moving directly SE would be better, since it looks like you moved the Settler W to the coast last turn?)

In answer to your question: Fractional beakers persist from city to city, but the overall total is rounded down to the next full beaker (both before and after going through prereq and known tech modifiers).

I don't like farming the floodplains second, although the tech and scouting situation might be such that there's no better option - I would hope that's not the case though: Let's see what the next couple turns of scouting reveal!

Note you're paying unit supply costs for having more than five units outside your cultural borders, in addition to the unit maintenance. (The latter will improve a lot when you settle your second city, I think, though it'll of course be replaced by city maintenance costs. I have no idea what the rules for maintenance are on deity though....)

[Zalson]

Thanks, Ref. I did move the settler back to that spot -- and it looks like the clams/cow is going to be the first city. There just isn't enough immediately accessible.

Played 2 turns today. i did pop sailing out of a hut in the north, which was really nice.

The other nice thing is the land set up that I have here: it seems to be a little isolated which is what you want for a deity pangaea start.



Some views of the north.


And more of the south.

Settler will move to the clams spot next turn and found on the x. We'll figure out the deity costs together, Ref!

[shallow_thought]

Argh, completely missed this starting up! I probably wouldn't have been up for a Deity-level SG anyway, even with the boosted start, and probably couldn't have found the time, so am happy to just read along.

Hmm, Alex for a pick. Could have been worse, could have been better. At least you get one non-free tech, and a relevant one given the coastal start. Doesn't feel like a commerce-rich start, and no extra happy any time soon, but wet corn is about as good a food resource as you could have hoped for.

Will try to get my BTS head back on and be helpful (or at least not harmful) - although I've not even moved on to Immortal yet! Shame that lake up by the second city spot isn't one further south, but it's definitely not worth losing the overlap (and adding distance) just to be able to lighthouse one more tile.