Early Landing Comparison Game #1

[solo]

Welcome back Dr. Spike,

It's never too late to play any comparison game and post results, so have fun with this one and the next. You may even have a chance to play #3, where you pick between a medium and large map, or even play both.

[DrSpike]

I finished this game last week.....game 2 is underway.

The final landing date was 1576, an average date.

However given that this was the first ELG I have played in a long time I was always doing stupid things that added a few turns..........especially at the end when I realised the landing time was average and got a little sloppy. I spent about 8 turns on the spaceship.

I will post my 1AD shortly.........having analysed the games here now (especially Solo's) I believe my 1AD is several turns ahead of Solo's game, though I'll wait to see if he agrees before asserting that too strongly.

My late game trading blows, to put it mildly. This is what I will work on most before game 2 gets too far.

Quick Summary:

Republic: 1450BC
Shakespeare's: 350BC, start celebrating; SSC 21 in 60AD
Cope's: 1AD
Colossus: 300AD
Demo: 460AD
Ike's: 520AD

[DrSpike]

I have spent a while the last few days looking at Solo's log and thinking about questions that troubled me during the game.

First off let me say for this game I think you immediately shoot yourself in the foot by going Monarchy. I am not overlooking the fact that Monk kicked my ass, but that fault is with me, not Republic.

With this land early Republic (if competently played ) will win every time. On a random map start it would be different though, and perhaps this is something to bear in mind. I also find myself wondering whether some tweaks to early republic might help these no huts games..........since early trades with the AI can be critical.

The next point that occupied me was "how many trades". Early trades bring huge rewards, but so do the wonders that your early caravans build. In my game I went for an early wonder approach, as can be seen from my ST in 350BC and Cope's in 1AD. I was 2 trades behind Solo at this point, but I had enough money to improve Rome, which I think is the critical point.

After that I needed to make up the trades, and Colossus and Ike's came much slower.........the Ike's time is close to Solo's. So was there a benefit to the early wonders? Upon analysis I think yes.......but it's far from clear, so feel free to disagree.

[DrSpike]

Some saves.

Early city location. I packed 'em in tight, for speed rather than defence capability, and the nice sites on the rivers. Veii needed irrigation to boom to 7, which never happened, so it stayed at 4. I don't consider this too important.......the tight pattern helped my early game.

[DrSpike]

One at a time?

Ok, next is just after ST, with booming underway.

[DrSpike]

I wont do 1AD since I have to upload these individually. 60AD after reaching 21 in the SSC seems better. Because the SSC was quite early here I didn't really make a great job of improving it in time.

[DrSpike]

Next shows the delayed date by which I built Colossus.......I think my caravans were better spent trading and using the proceeds to improve the SSC, which had everything up to stock exchange very early.

[DrSpike]

Last save is 520AD, just as Ike's is built. My lead over Solo (if it can so be called) peaks here, with 3 techs difference.

From here on in it's downhill. My late game trading was rubbish, so it's back to Solo's trade threads for advice there I think.

I did the same as Solo and Monk with 3 routes to the Mongols getting the railroad bonus (3 routes at 38 after Superhighways ) from a station city. But I winged it a bit on unblocking, left too much to chance, and paid the price. So many trades went tits-up at the last minute.

Also Barbs hassled the Egyptians a lot more in my game than Solo's and the Egyptians only had 1 good city to trade with for a lot of the game. This didn't help my cause, though I did try and turn it to my advantage by bribing Tenochtitlan which the barbs took.

Still, many lessons learned........[Arnie voice] I'll be back [/Arnie voice]

[DrSpike]

520 attached this time I hope.

Phew, I hope my +8 doesn't break any records.

Any comments appreciated from players that participated in this game.

[solo]

Dr. Spike,

You are one of many that outplayed me in the beginning of this game!

How to use caravans early on is a balancing act, since you want to do everything at once: make some cash and also build those SSC wonders. I usually send the first few caravans out for trades since I'm almost always hurting for cash. For trades, I use up the caravans with the best paying commodities I know I can deliver in time for their demand bonuses, and use leftovers for building wonders.

In my most recent games, I've gone to Trade earlier, to make the most out of pre-Renaissance trading opportunities. Once ST is built to ensure SSC growth, I've found that the beaker bonuses from trades add more early science than earlier science wonders. The extra cash from more trades helps a lot too.

After looking over your game, I think you have already figured out what went wrong in the second half of your game. Part of the problem was due to poor luck in not having more Aztec cities to trade with, but missing demand bonuses probably hurt you the most, since even the lowest bonuses double the payments and beakers received. In the second half it's all about accelerated trade and getting many instances of two advances per turn.

Overall, an excellent first effort, especially with your start, which was right on track! I think you'll be closing in on the 1000 AD barrier fairly soon in future games.

[DrSpike]

Yes I will do better next time.........it was most annoying to have such a great position as late as 500AD and still not manage an impressive time.

I wonder what was possible with a well played late game.......I think a 1200 landing was feasible.

[Scouse Gits]

Very well played DrSpike! Of all the ELGs so far this was the most frustrating ... like you I should have landed much earlier.

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SG(2)