RB2a
Speaker (Captain)
Voodoocat
Snaproll
-Angelus-
Skyfish
Sebmono

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2a_-_Settings.jpg

We are RB2a of the Malinese Empire!
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2a_-_Mali.jpg

Here is our starting location.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2a_-_Real_Start.jpg

As I'm learning the game, I like to take a medium view, high enough to see the land around me, but low enough to enjoy the new visual details. This picture was taken at about 4-5 clicks below globe view.

4000BC (1): In my limited Civ4 experience so far, this looks like a pretty nice start. We've got corn and a couple grasslands, which should take care of all our food needs. There are three wine resources within the city limits, and we're even on the coast. I expect this will be a powerhouse city for production, with three hills and a bunch of plains.

Just to be sure I'm not missing anything, I move the warrior onto the hills south east, revealing three Ivory resources. With no really good reason to move apparent to me, I found Timbuktu. Clams are revealed in our city radius, and pigs nearby to the northwest. This looks like a great start!

I select a warrior to build, work the corn tile for growth, and start research (manually clicked F6) on Mysticism--due in 6--to hopefully found a religion after that.

3960BC (2): I decide to explore in the northeast direction. Since we have some coast to our west, east seems as good a direction as any. I love not being able to tell where you are on the minimap!

3920BC (3): Wheat is revealed 4 tiles diagonally from Timbuktu. This sure is a resource-rich start! I wonder if this is an annomaly or what we can expect, but 3 turns in and I already see 10 resources!

3880BC (3): Make that 11, as I find more pigs.

3840BC (4): I see a hut, err village, but with only 2 turns on Mysticism, I don't want to risk popping it from the hut. I'll wait until I start my next technology.

3800BC (5): Borders of Timbuktu expand, revealing two more huts, err villages. Note: With Mysticism due next turn, I don't have to turn down the research slider to maintain efficiency, like in Civ3. Excess beakers/food/shields err hammers get carried over to your next project. My warrior climbed up a hill, and saw some ice further north, so we're likely near the north pole. He will circle back southward now.

3760BC (6): Mysticism comes in and I start work on Polytheism. I'm guessing (I may be way off here) that Meditation is usually researched first by Spiritual Civs, so we probably don't have much of a chance at it.

3720BC (7): Step into the hut, err village and I do get a technology. But it isn't the one I'm working on (Polytheism). It's Fishing. Beggers can't be choosers I suppose. Timbuktu grows

3680BC (8): Buddhism is founded in another land. With Polytheism due in 8 turns, I'm not sure we have a chance at Hinduism either. Timbuktu grows to size 2, with a few food saved from the last turn. That's a nice new feature. I pick a high-commerce wine tile, sacrificing a little growth for a chance at Hinduism (shave a turn off Polytheism--due in 7).

3640BC (9): Exploring.

3600BC (10): Exploring. Find some sheep to the East.

3560BC (11): Warrior is due next turn, so I mm a bit, making sure to emphasize commerce. Poly is now due in 3.

3520BC (12): Warrior trained, heads northwest to explore. Start work on a barracks. I ultimately plan to complete a worker next, but I can get started on the barracks in the meantime. Marble discovered to the East.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2a_-_Hindu.jpg

3480BC (13): Discover Polytheism and found Hinduism. Warriors keep exploring. Switch citizens in Timbuktu back to an emphasis on growth (in my own mind, not using the governor), and start work on Agriculture. I was considering Meditation, to build a hindu monastary, but I'm guessing we'll need to pop out a worker before a missionary and he ought to have some sweet farm-building skills.

3440BC (14): Southern warrior sees a pack of lions and moves into the forest for a defensive bonus. Northern warrior approaches a hut, err village.

IT- Warrior successfuly defeats lion, losing 0.6 of its health in the process.

3440BC (15): Village provides maps. Oasis and incense to the south.

3400BC (16): Exploring.

3360BC (17): Warrior destroys another lion without a scratch and now has 5 exp.

3320BC (18): I take the Woodsman promotion, which I think is more useful than city raider (attack a city with a warrior?!) or a strength upgrade at this point. One more promotion and we have (basically) a strong scout.

3280BC (19): Exploring.

3240BC (20): Fortify in the forest, with another lion in range. Timbuktu grows to size 3 and I switch to a worker--due in 10. The barracks is in the queue, to be returned to at a later date.

IT- Warrior defeats lion without a scratch and upgrades again. He is now a "Woodsman II," which means he can move twice if he steps into a forest or jungle. So you'll likely want to make your first move into a forest/jungle and your second step anywhere else, trying to always keep a forest/jungle within 1 tile for the next turn.

3200BC (21): Exploring.

3160BC (22): Finish Agriculture, start Hunting, to move us toward our unique unit, the Skirmisher, an archer replacement with archery. Another priority tech is likely animal husbandry. A cow is revealed in the south. Pup a hut and get a free scout.

3120BC (23): Exploring.

3080BC (24): Scout gets 36 gold from a hut.

3040BC (25): Borders of Timbuktu expand.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2a_-_Monty.jpg

3000BC (26): See green borders and meet Monty.

IT- Wolf attacks our Woodsman II warrior and we win.

2960BC (27): Discover Hunting. I really have no idea what to work on next. We'll need Animal Husbandry soon to tame those pigs, but we have nother tiles that will need attention first (since the pigs are not in our city radius). We will also need Archery soon to make our Unique Unit. But I ultimtely choose meditation, so we can think about converting Monty to the "true path." Well, hopefully we can actually reach him. He may be on another continent.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2a_-_Cathy.jpg

2920BC (28): Nope, he's on our continent. Also meet Cathy and say hi.

IT- Woodsman is critically injured (0.7 health left)but defeats a panther.

2880BC (29): Woodsman heals. Scout scouts.

2840BC (30): Worker is trained and begins a farm on the corn. I think the two-step workers is one of the best improvements in the game. It definitely relieves a lot of tedium. Timbuktu production is up to Voodoocat. Barracks is currently queued up, but feel free to change as you see fit.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2a_-_2840bc.jpg

Just Win Baby! (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2a_BC-2840.zip)

2640 (5): We discover meditation and I start research on animal husbandry so we can grab that bacon soon! The farm is finished and we are healthier than ever. After a tight bidding war, Maliburton gets the contract to retrieve ivory for the Great Piano small wonder. We'll place it on I-70 at mile marker 112 in Indiana for people to see when they're driving through to someplace else.

2600 (6): Greetings Asoka, leader of the Indians.

2540 (7): So Alexander... sup continent buddy.

2480 (9): We meet Tokugawa and will soon begin trading our ivory for a nintendo.

2400 (11): We discover Animal Husbandry and start research on Priesthood. Soon it will be temple-time. Work on the barracks is complete and begin work on a Settler. City size is now 4.

2320 (13): Tokugawa can't stand to cut into profits so he adopts Slavery.

2240 (15): Cat seems to think forced labor is where it's at as well.



Let's Roll (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2_BC-2240.Civ4SavedGame)

Saved Game - 1680 BC (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2_BC-1680.Civ4SavedGame)

Well, it's been a long time since I've played one of these - not since 1.29f! I hope I can still manage. I'm still learning the ropes on Civ4 - hopefully I don't screw up anything TOO badly!

Pre-turn - 2240 - Surveying the area, I notice that Timbuktu has 3 wine, a corn, and a clam, but just misses the pigs and the ivory. A settler coming soon - I have that always unenviable position of deciding where the second city in a succession game goes! Is there a choice that causes more consternation among SG players?

Turn 1 - 2200 - Priesthood comes in, and I need to decide what to do next. Learning this new tech tree is going to take some time. I consider Monarchy very strongly because it lets us produce wineries, which we need. Unfortunately it would take us 30 turns, so I put it off. Pottery for granaries and cottages? Bronze working? Nah, I don't see us having to deal with war soon - our neighbors seem to be clustered together kind of far from us. Monotheism for another religion and oraganized religion? I decide on pottery. With our civ traits, cottages seem to me that they'll be very useful since we get an extra gold from each one. I send the worker off to start on a road south leading to the next civ site (I made a dotmap- will show when I plop that city)

Turn 4 - 2080 - Just waiting on the settler and research to come in, our warrior in the south encounters bears! :eek: I move him into a nearby jungle to let his woodsman 2 upgrade defend. I hope it works.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b364/Snaproll/RBC2a_bears.jpg

Turn 5 - 2040 - We defeat the bear but are reduced to 1.2/2. I decide to keep exploring.

Turn 6 - 2000 - Settler done. I start a warrior because there are a whole bunch of animals around our lands; I will send it to the new city. I'm moving the settler south to the yellow dot, in range of both cows and fish. This should be a great city site, I predict. THe green dot to the east is where I propose the next city - it's on the coast and within range of sheep, fish, and marble! Unfortunately, it's placement there misses the ivory. Any suggestions?

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b364/Snaproll/RB2a_2240BC_dotmap.jpg

Turn 8 - 1920 - Pottery discovered, and I start on monotheism. Wait, it's making me do masonry before I do monotheism??? But masonry doesn't have an arrow leading to monotheism??? I'm CONFUSED?? :confused: Can someone explain? Djenne is founded in range of cows and fish, and the worker is headed towards the cows to put a pasture on them.

Turn 10 - 1840 - Finish pasture on the cow. I have Djenne working on an obelisk because it needs a border expansion to get the fish, and when the pasture finished it's time to complete the obelisk changed from 30 turns to 10 turns. Masonry comes in, monotheism started

Nothing much happens for the rest of my turns. Timbuktu is working on a settler, Djenne is working on an obelisk, and we are working on monotheism.

Enjoy!

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b364/Snaproll/RBC2a_1680BC.jpg

RB2a
Speaker (Captain)
Voodoocat
Snaproll
-Angelus- (UP)
Skyfish
Sebmono

Guys, sorry, but as I said earlier, and it kills me to do this, I'm going to have to pass until I can get the game when it comes out here in the UK. :( Im away from home until then anyway, so I'm not going to be able to play until the 7th November probably. :sad: Luckliy we have 6 in the team now, so you should manage fine without me. Also, I'm going to be out of touch this week, so I'm going to have a lot of reading to do when I get back! :crazyeye:

Looks like we've got off to a reasonable start, but you can tell we're new to this game, as none of us are quite certain on which way to go, but hey, thats the fun of it! The dot map's not like the one I came up with... but its probably a bit better, especially concidering the upkeep cost of cities in civ 4.
Anyway, Good Luck guys :goodjob: See Ya when I get back!

Argh my fingers are itching already!

Wait, it's making me do masonry before I do monotheism??? But masonry doesn't have an arrow leading to monotheism??? I'm CONFUSED?? :confused: Can someone explain?

lurker's comment: If there is an icon in the top right corner of a box in the tech tree, it means that technology is a prerequisite. Example:
http://img425.imageshack.us/img425/121/req8db.jpg

I think those dotmaps are too widely spaced. Ivory is a GREAT resource and we are going to skip those tiles?

In any event, our next city should go between the pig and wheat to the northeast (one tile below them, forming a triangle between the three tiles). With two loaves of bread in just those two tiles, there will be plenty of food and with several hills and forest, it will be a production powerhouse. That could easily produce all the military our fledging Civilization will ever need.

RB2a - 1680BC (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2_BC-1680.Civ4SavedGame)

Speaker (On Deck)
Voodoocat
Snaproll
-Angelus-
Skyfish
Sebmono (UP)

So this means that Skyfish is up next. Has anyone seen him around past day or so?

Skyfish lives in Europe and won't have the game until November 4th. You're up Seb.

Turn 1 (1640 BC): Not much going on, explored some with 2 units in south and set workers to build road between Djenne and Timbuktu. Cities develop better when connected like this.

Turn 2 (1600 BC): Montezuma adopts slavery, road is finished. By the by I changed the research over to archery so we could have skirkishers available at any point, they are a sweet special unit, from there I go to writing so we can start getting diplomatic and then eventually trade techs.

Turn 3 (1560 BC): Nothin.

Turn 4 (1520 BC): Settler finished, moving to place that Speaker suggested, that could be a monster city, afterwards we can build one that can use all four of those ivory. Gotta say, I never thought I'd see sooo many together. Obelisk finished in Djenne and so did archery so I started construction on a skirmisher there, we're starting to get some barb activity in the north. Also started work boat in Timbuktu so we can get those clams.

Turn 5 (1480 BC): Calling scouts back in, nothing else to discover, still one mystery civ. Building mine on hill south of Timbuktu.

Turn 6 (1440 BC): Nothin.

Turn 7 (1400 BC): Uh-oh, one spot away from settling the new city I see two barbs!! Gonna keep the settler away and try to have my wrrior solve the situation. Pop of Timbuktu getting close to the unhappy level, we should watch that growth and cut it off when appropriate.

Turn 8 (1360 BC): Nothin.

Turn 9 (1320 BC): Ok, the two warriors are heading to take care of the barbs, the skirmisher in Djenne is almost done, work boat in Timbuktu is done and now sitting on top of clams ready to be setup next turn, started a skirmisher in Timbuktu with another work boat qeued behind that to use the fish by Djenne. Settler is in the woods just north of Timbuktu, waiting for the warriors to clear out the barbs.

Turn 10 (1280 BC): Finished writing, started Bronze working, setup fishing boat on clams, lotsa food (with lighthouse we would get a whole loaf!). Good Luck!!!

P.S. How do you change the color that you draw in with strategic mode?

Not a "got it" quite yet. Will play after work.

Wow the turns go quick ;)

Sorry guys I wont be able to play before Nov 4th as Speaker said.
Please skip me in the mean time :)

@Skyfish: If you'd like, I have no problem letting you and -Angelus- play 15-20 turns when you get back to catch up. Special circumstances...

A few musings about city placement:

I agree that missing out on the ivory was probably not the best choice. I didn't quite realize that they were so useful until I looked at them again. I wanted to bring up a few points for discussion, however:

At least based on my first impressions, there seems to be much less of a need to not "waste tiles" close to the capitol. In civ3, you wanted to utilize every tile close to the capitol if you could, because corruption ensured that the tiles close to the capitol were the most useful. However, in Civ4, corruption works differently. At first glance, it seems to make sense to "skip" tiles close to the capitol that aren't anygood, and concentrate more on optimal city placement. Hence, I chose the coast for the sea access and the access to two food bonuses. It seemed to be a good city sight, whereas fitting 2 or 3 in the ivory/sea/food bonus area would provide 3 medium strength cities instead.

Obviously, things are different in Always war if you need quick unit support. I also wanted to settle to the south first, because we can build "outside in" and grab a lot of land before the AI gets it. I think the rest of our settlers should go south too - I would've sent the 3rd one a little farther south too.

Anyway, we are all just learning, and I may be way off with all this. If so let me know, I can take it!

At least based on my first impressions, there seems to be much less of a need to not "waste tiles" close to the capitol. In civ3, you wanted to utilize every tile close to the capitol if you could, because corruption ensured that the tiles close to the capitol were the most useful. However, in Civ4, corruption works differently. At first glance, it seems to make sense to "skip" tiles close to the capitol that aren't anygood, and concentrate more on optimal city placement.
I agree here, except in this case, they are VERY useful tiles.

Snaproll, you make a good point about building from the outside in, in Civ IV I've noticed that it is a crucial strategy to block off penninsulas with city territory as often as the chance presents itself because of the revised borders system. However in this case I think it'd be more omportant to get another strong city since the AI is remarkably far away from us (all that jungle and whatnot) and since we seem to be slightly lagging behind other civs at the moment, we could use a food heavy research city to boost our way along. Still, normally I totally would've gone for a southron blocking city.

By the by, do we have any diplomatic preferences with the AI, i.e. Do we want to give out Open Borders or not? Just curious

Got it. Will play tonight.

1280BC (IT): Adjust Timbuktu for growth. I'd like to pop out a settler and a worker from there this turn if possible.

1240BC (1): Hold off on our next city until the second warrior can arrive. I don't want to leave our game up to the chance of a single dice roll. There are two Barb warriors there too...

IT- Catherine offers open borders and I accept. India founds Judaism :lol:

1200BC (2): Skirmisher completes, start Hindo Monastary in Djenne. I'd like to get some Missionaries out, but Timbuktu will be building settlers and workers for a little while here. Found Kumbi Saleh between the Pigs and Wheat, one row below them. I toyed with moving it one tile to the east to be on the coast, but decided against it, seeing as we will have several coastal cities over there already, and right now only have 1 coastal tile where we sit. Normally it's bad to put a city one tile away from the coast because you get coastal tiles without being able to develop them (lighthouse, etc.), but 1 tile is no big deal.

IT- Defeat first warrior without a scratch and promotes. I take Combat I. There are at least two more milling around. But we should be fine.

1120BC (4): Barb warriors keep retreating. I'll send some Skirmishers after them. We have two now. Start another worker in Timbuktu.
1080BC (5): Finish Bronze Working, start Monotheism, for the Organized Religion civic. 25% production bonus for buildings in cities with the state government. Now we have to spread the government to Kumbi Saleh. We have several copper resources nearby. Decide to pop out one more Skirmisher from Djenne to protect it and Timbuktu from this side. Monastary goes in the queue. What a great feature!
1040BC (6): Sign Open Borders with Caesar and Tokugawa.
1000BC (7): Shuffling troops around. The two warriors return to Timbuktu, with one on the way to Djenne.
950BC (9): Whack a barb with our Skirmisher.
925BC (10): Monotheism comes in and I switch to Organized Religion. Start research on Monarchy so we can build wineries. Aztecs form Tlatleco right in our backyard between the ivory and incense. :smoke: We'll nab that city for sure and will certainly convert it to Hinduism.
900BC (11): Play one extra turn to even out the date.

Conclusion- Fairly boring and straight forward set of turns. Not much going on really. Djenne probably doesn't need the monastary anymore, now that we are in Organized Religion. But we may as well finish it for the culture and science boost and in case we want to switch out of Organized Religion. Keep an eye on maintenance. We are losing money fast. We need to figure out a way to get a shrine in Timbuktu so we can make some money from our religion.

Also, beware of the Barbarian state to the Northwest of Timbuktu.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2a_-_900bc.jpg

RB2a - 900BC (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2a_BC-0900.zip)

I believe Skyfish is going to get the game before -Angelus- so I'll switch them in the order.

Speaker
Voodoocat (Up)
Snaproll (On Deck)
Skyfish
-Angelus-
Sebmono

Wow, that aztec city sure showed up quicker than we expected, huh? We need to grab that marble quickly.

I'll play tomorrow night since I'm getting a new video card tomorrow. It's pretty annoying not seeing the hammer and commerce production.

Fingers crossed, I should get the game today (Wednesday) :D

Dink Dink Skyfish!

I got the game :D
You can slot me in when you want..

Skyfish, why don't you go ahead and play right now. Voodoocat hasn't claimed an "I got it" yet, so feel free to take it if you can play right now. Play 15 turns if you'd like!

Skyfish or Voodoocat. Whoever claims it first can play.

Got it :P

Typing more because I must have 10 characters in this post.

875: Skirmisher done, working on a settler to grab that marble. Worker building a cottage East of Timbuktu.
Promote the new skirm to guerilla i and the one in the field to drill 1. I also allow him to heal. Worker from kumbi saleh starts work on the wheat
850: Wanderin'
IT: Cat has declared war on Asoka! I love when the AI fights :)
825: Wander
IT: Barb warrior attacks vet skirm and we easily take care of business.
800: Hinduism spreads to kumbi saleh. I switch around the tiles for commerce in timbuktu since it won't change how fast the settler comes
IT: Barb warrior attacks again and that first strike really seems to kick the crap out of warriors.
775: Worker heading toward the hills to build another mine for timbuktu.
Monestary built. Change production to missionary
750: Farm is done. Worker starts road
725: Asoka wants open borders. what the hell. We can try spreading religion
IT: Guerilla skirm defeats barb warrior. Promote to guerilla 2
700: Worker is threatened by presense of barbarian. Moving southwest to start a mine.
IT: kumbi attacked by warrior and we make quick work of him. We enter the classical era with the discovery of monarchy! Start researching alphabet.
675: Wander
IT: Build another skirm. Change to granary for now.
650: Found Gao Next to the ivory. Building Obelisk for now. Sent worker over to grab the wines for Timbuktu. Sending new skirm towards the barbarian city.

You may want to change the working tiles around in Timbuktu. You also can decide to build the granary or not.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/Civ4ScreenShot00002.JPG

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2_BC-0650.zip

I'm going to slot Skyfish in ahead of Snaproll. Enjoy!

Speaker
Voodoocat
Skyfish (Up)
Snaproll (On Deck)
-Angelus-
Sebmono

OK I got it !

These are my absolute first turns in Civ IV I have only played like 30 turns in a solo game jsut to get the hang of the interface, my only prep
has been reading some of Sullas walk through and the Cuban Isolationist.

We are ahead in score but indeed our economy is not looking to good. Whats our strategy anyway ? Well I think for now we need to get rid
of that Barb city in our backyard but we cant really afford to let our guard down on our borders with the nasty Aztecs...Lets see if I can set this up.

1-650bc : Right, the Man says we need some shrines, and after going through an extremely badly translated manual and remembering some of Sirian/Sulla
reports, we can only get a shrine with a Great Prophet. I see we can complete the Oracle within 9 turns at the cost of 1 turn to Alphabet.
Heck I go for it. I switch Granary to Oracle.
Wow this is so tough, if we had placed Gao just one tile more to the East I think we could have kept the Ivory *and* grab the Marble.
Not a real problem now has we will grab it with cultural expansion...Hope we are not going to lose the race to Oracle in the
last few turns though ;)

2-625bc: There are 3 barb units in the village, I regroup our 3 skirmishers for an attack on Bulgar : do we get to keep this city ?
This would be way cool...
I have no idea where our other scouting units should go so I bring back one warrior towards Gao and send our scout towards Rome who
now leads in score.
Worker builds Wineries Timbuktu.

3-600bc : I make use of our trait and swith our civis to Slavery. Never know...

4-575bc : Barracks complete in Kumbi Saleh, I go for a Hindu Temple for lack of a better choice : we need to hook up some horses.
Worker finished mine and now goes to build a pasture on the pigs.

5-550bc : nothing worth mentionning.

6-525bc : Troops almost in place by Bulgar, the barbs have 1 archer and 2 warriors so its not gonna be easy, will need the 1-2 of
the skirmishers to really kick in...

7-500bc : Missionary finishes in Djenne and I go for a settler, we need to grab one more spot south of Gao.

8-475bc : Just before our missionary enter Aztecs borders, Monte shows up and cancels the open border deal. He is agressive and
we need to start building up troops to recapture what is ours (Tlatelco)
We kill barb archers near Bulgar with no loss, we need to move in their borders first before we can attack the city but they just produced
another archer unit we are 1 unit too short now :( I still have to go for it now though...

9-450bc : Alexander comes in and wants us to "cancel our deals" with the Indians, I say no. Its just Open Borders as far as I can see anyway...
We attack Bulgar and kill Archers and Warriors for some injuries, we still have 2 skirmishers and they have 1 wounded warrior
hopefully we can take care of them next turn...
In Kumbi Saleh our skirmishers kill a barb warrior for no loss. We get no promotions for anyone despite those victories.

10-425bc : here comes the big turn : we complete Oracle and I pick Theology as free tech, we will get Christianity next turn :)
Not that I want to replicate the Hydra but religion is the big unknown of Civ IV for us, just like culture was from Civ2 to Civ3, so lets
have fun with Religion for now.
We enter the Medieval Era.
I choose to go to Theocracy civics which seem suited to a build up for war (extra experience for units).
We attack Bulgar and are victorious. I promote one skirmisher to a City Garrison with view to a war vs Montezuma. We capture Bulgar and
get 47 gold which pretty much saves our economy for now.
There is one annoying barb next to our workers building a road, there are defended by Warriors however, should be ok.

Took me almost 4 hours for those 10 turns :crazyeyes: I had to look up stuff all the time plus the game is quite slow when you toggle from
notepad to civ, my laptop is at its limit actually. Looking at it now I have to doubt some of my build choices, especially the settler in Djenne
which will take forever, should have waited to produce it in Timbuktu or Kumbi. We should get Science up to 100% now that we have some
gold I forgot to do that sorry.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2_BC-0425A.Civ4SavedGame

http://img381.imageshack.us/img381/1472/rb2a425bc7bl.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

I see it - will play tonight. Woot on the wonder! I'm a little worried about the agressive civ to our South also - I'll work on bolstering our defense methinks.

RBC2a - 425 B.C. Taking over I notice a few things. That barb city that we captured is just out of reach of the copper. We'll still be able to connect it, which is the important thing, but it would have been nice to raze it. Is that an option? I'm not sure. Having the free city is nice though. Actually, upon further reflection, it is in range of the deer to the north, so maybe it's not so bad. I wonder if it's worth squeezing a half-city in to work the copper. Maybe not in Civ 4.

Despite the fact that my previous dotmap was universally reviled (and rightfully so :p ) I decided to try to come up with a strategy for settling the lands above us. The yellow is stuff we already have. Bulgar really isn't bad now that I noticed that deer. Green dot I think should go next - it pulls in wine and pigs and most of the remaining non-tundra, non-snow tiles. Red will be poor, but gets us our horses and two furs to boot. Good trade material for later on. Blue dot I'm not sure about - can we even settle on a "snow" space? It will work one spot further south (and may in fact make more sense anyway in that spot). Pulls in another horse and two silver.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b364/Snaproll/NorthernDotMap.jpg

Probably more important is getting one more city in the south. If we hurry we can get red dot which will give us horses and that fishy that we missed. I wanted to found on red dot to pull in those silks too, but I am not sure if red dot counts as being on the coast? If not, we'll go with the open red dot.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b364/Snaproll/SouthernDotMap.jpg

I'm going to let some discussion happen about this while I play my turns - there are no settlers being worked on as I take over, so this decision probably won't be mine. I'd really like to hear your thoughts on this stuff!

the red dot would be counted as on the coast, and i think would be the best bet for the next city. it'll ge thorses and clams, a few grasslands and some hills, probably going to be a good production city.

425 B.C. I check things out, notice that we are a Theocracy instead of Organized Religion. I usually prefer organized religion, but Theocracy may prove brilliant if we get attacked. Monty is annoyed at us. -2 for religion, -2 for close borders, +1 for years of peace. We have Monarchy but don't yet have our wine hooked up, I'll work on that. Might be more important to get one of our coppers hooked up though. Horses too. Monty already has horses hooked up. In either case, I'm putting another worker high on the priority list.

BT - Hindu Temple built in Kumbah Saleh. I swith it to a worker (due in 5 turns), and am able to work the coastal tile with no loss in turns on the worker build. It hits me that the coastal tile is producing 3 gold - we are financial! I had forgotten. I've seen it a few places that some feel it's a strong strategy to build cottages with a financial civ, we may want to ponder that. Christianity is founded and it's home city is... Bulgar, our captured Barbarian city! :lol:

Turn 1 - 400 B.C. Sending the Christain missionary to the capitol to get it started spreading. Alex declared war on Asoka - that's far away from us but still interesting. Our Hindu missionary was down by Monty. I'm assuming we are trying to spread to him. We'll need open borders to do so... But it's red. He won't do it. That bodes ill, methinks. I notice that we DO have a winery hooked up already - my fault for not noticing that. :(

BT - We reach 1/2 a million! :goodjob:

Turn 2 - 375 B.C. I decide to send the Hindu missionary to Gao to help it's borders expand and lock up that marble. Worker is headed straight for the copper. It then occurs to me that the copper I'm heading for in the south is in our borders, but actually CLOSER to an Aztec city. If that sucker expands, we might lose it! Fortunately, our barbarian city should expand its borders quickly once the resistance stops, since it's the Christain Holy city! Once it does, we can hook up that source as a backup.

BT - We pull in alphabet, and a pop-up tells me that we are the most advanced civ. Asoka, however, pulls up and asks for theology, for free! We are at -1 with him already. Here's a part where I'm really not sure what the right play is. I decide to decline. He's a reasonable distance away, if this proves to be :smoke: . A try to decide between currency (for marketplaces) or iron working (in case we go to war). I go for iron, just so we can see if we have it or not. If we do, what about an offensive war? We are only 2 techs from catapults.

Turn 3 - 350 B.C. Um, I was wrong about Bulger having lots of culture because it's the Christain Holy city. It has +0... I start an obelisk. Our remaining scout spies 2 Greek swordsmen headed towards the Indians. I pull up the tech trading screen:

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b364/Snaproll/350BCtech.jpg

2 civs have math but won't trade it. Let me see what I can work here - maybe we won't have to self-research iron working after all. I dial up Ceasar first and trade him monarchy for Iron working. Get sailing from Catherine for Meditation and Pottery. I start on Mathematics next, due in 7. We are up alphabet and theology on everyone, and monarchy on all except Ceasar. I chose Ceasar first because his legions are so scary. Lets see... Iron... We have 2 sources - one in the tundra to the north just outside the range of where I put red dot, and 1 one space south of Gao! Nice! I'm starting to think really strongly about a pre-emptive strike on Monty. Thoughts? He also has iron, unfortunately.

BT - A barb archer appears to the north.

Turn 4 - 325 B.C. I spread christianity to Timbuktu and Hinduism to Gao. Osaka will trade Math for Monarchy. Since I already gave up Monarchy last turn I decide to take him up on it, 2 fer 1. Would've been the right thing in Civ3... I start research on Construction, from which we'll get catapults and war elephants. I think you can see where I'm going with this.

BT - Asoka asks for our help against Greece. NO! What's up with this guy? Gao finished its obelisk and I start a... barracks.

Turn 5 - 300 B.C. Worker starts hooking up copper, roading towards iron.

BT - Timbuktu finished Library. I like that - we are ahead of the tech pace and that will help. I start on a temple so that when the city grows next turn we can create a priest specialist to give us some great leader points. I don't want to start any units until we get our resources hooked up. It only takes 3 turns to get the temple. Kumbah Saleh finishes worker, starts a skirmisher to escort our settler when it pops in 3 turns.

Turn 6 - 275 B.C. Ceasar and Tokugawa are up calendar now, but won't trade.

BT - Ah crap. A barb archer outside of Kumbah Saleh pillages one of our pastures. I assumed he was going to attack the city, so I left the skirmisher fortified inside. :shakehead

Turn 7 - 250 B.C. I kill off that archer with the skirmisher.

BT - Turn 8 - 225 B.C. Not much happening, cities are completing current projects.

BT - Timbuktu finished Hindu Temple, starts settler. I should have built the settler first. I think that was a mistake. Djenne finished a settler and starts on a lighthouse. It needs some more food to take advantage of all it's 3 gold water tiles.

Turn 9 - 200 B.C. The settler moves out towards the southern red spot. Worker has finsihed the mine on the copper, starting a road.

BT - Skirmisher finishes in Kumbah Salah, headed to meet with the settler. I start another worker - can be vetoed.

Turn 10 175 B.C. - Move settler, skirmisher.

THOUGHTS: The next player gets to make the final choice - war? Or peace? I've set you up to immediately start a military buildup and take out Monty - both copper and iron are coming online next turn, and construction is due in 5. If we go peace, I'd research currency right after construction and go for marketplaces. We are losing money right now on 90% research.

TOP PRIOROTIES: Connect horses, get one of our workers to fix that pasture up north.

I hope I did ok. Enjoy.

The world:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b364/Snaproll/RBC2a175BC_.jpg

Will it be... war (saved game) (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2_BC-0175A.Civ4SavedGame)

Good turns Snaproll...but did you read my turn log ? ;)

I think we should go for a limited military campaign vs Montezuma but not before
we have settled the south city, connected horses and marble and got catapults.

Sky,

I did read it, I really did. I guess I just didn't comprehend everything as well as I should have. :confused:

I pull up the tech trading screen:
How do you get to this tech trading screen? I haven't found it yet.


Can you please shrink the pictures? The default Civ4 screen snapshots cause a lot of use to have to keep scrolling left to right to left to read the reports.

It's a sub-option on the Diplomacy screen (F4 I think??) You can also see any possible resource trades on another sub-option. I'm at work now otherwise I'd check to make sure.

Good point about the pictures - I'll do that better.

EDIT- I claimed a "got it" in the wrong thread! Oops.

"I got it. It's right up here. I know it. I got it."

*beep beep beep*

"You don't got it."

"No you don't got it. GET it?"

Speak : Are we allowed to check the other teams (RB2c and RB2b) thread or do they have the same start as us ?

i got it
doin the moves tonight

@Skyfish: Different Starts, just same settings. Check away! How are you enjoying the game so far?

Totally lost :crazyeye:

Plus I have no time AT ALL to be able to play solo and learn more about the game, so every move you see here are my real first ever moves...

Turn 1 (150 BC): Started gearing up for the eventual war with Monty. Changed the worker in Kumbi Saleh to an axeman and put another in Timbuktu, as soon as Gao is done with barracks I will throw some military unit i nthere too. Gonna go for currency after construction to help with the money problems, also construction will allow me to churn out some war elephants that will crush Monty, he doesn't even have spearmen built.

Turn 2 (125 BC): Hinduism spreads to Tlateloco, good news for us. I notice a chariot of Monty's, also good news when we get the elephants. I'm going to hold back on the settler building a new city, because that's only gonna make the money problems harder, the maintenance associated with distance and number of cities really starts to add up, especially this early in the game, we may be at a practical limit of supportable cities at the moment until we can get some moneymaking buildings.

Turn 3 (100 BC): Building some skirmishers too, to compliment the axemen force. A few of each, and some elephants will topple anything they have. Some cats as well too.

Turn 4 (75 BC): Nothin much, barb axe movin towards kumbi, will take care of it.

Turn 5 (50 BC): Took care of the barb, got construction started building cats and elephants. I love the smell of elephant in the morning!

Turn 6 (25 BC): Nothin.

Turn 7 (1 AD): Ah the new millenium. Still buildin.

Turn 8 (25 AD): Nothin.

Turn 9 (50 AD): First cat finished, sent worker to repair pasture.

Turn 10 (75 AD): Finished first elephant, going for another. Ok, so as I leave it, we are 5 turns away from currency and have 12 gold in the bank. We'll have to turn down research soon again. The military force we have available for attack (i.e. not defending cities) is as follows:
4 Skirmishers
2 Axemen
1 War Elephant
1 Catapult

And in construction another war elephant, skirmisher and catapult. That will wipe right over Tlateloco and might be enough for Teotihuacan. Good luck ya'll.

Got it.
(will play tomorrow)

Monty's going down! :hammer:

75AD (IT)- Out economy is in poor shape. Research time is really bad. 16 turns for Feudalism? Bleh. I'd like to found another city northwest of Timbuktu near the pigs to be CottageLand. Shuffle a few troops to be ready to move into Aztec land next turn. Veto the Elephant in Timbuktu for a settler (for now).

100AD (1): Wait one more turn for the Catapult.

125AD (2): Wait! We have a settler sitting in Gao! Found cities and deal with the economic aftereffects. That's my motto! Change Timbuktu back to an Elephant, but keep the settler in the queue. What we really need is a prophet to build our Hindu shrine in Timbuktu.

Dial up Montezuma and inform him that, er, his head would look good on a pole. Who says that? :crazyeye:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2a_-_Monty_War.jpg

Here's what the assault plan looks like
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2a_-_Tlatelolco.jpg

Monty has no Cats up here, but I moved troops from different directions, which is why there are two stacks. Notice, however, that each stack is diversified.

IT- Catherine demands Ivory and I tell her to shove off. No guff from you! She backs off but looks uglier.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2a_-_Cathy1.jpg

Hinduism spreads on its own to Edo.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2a_-_Edo.jpg

150AD (3): Djenne Granary => Barracks. Gao Skirmisher => Skirmisher. Skirmishers are our best all-around city defenders right now.

Battle of Tlateleco
Catapult bombards, reducing defense from 20% to 17%.
(I'm not going to wait 6 more turns to attack. You need more than one catapult to properly siege a city! I'm moving a little early in this war. We'll be fine.)
War Elephant d. Archer with little damage.
Axeman d. Archer while readlined.
Capture Tlateleco

Thanks for the City Raider II Axeman. He was the only unit other than the Elephant who still had the edge.

IT- Aztecs move a Chariot (aka Free Upgrade (TM) into range.

175AD (4): Whack the Chariot with an Axeman, and heal the rest of the troops.

200AD (5): Research Currency => Literature. If we properly handle our troops, we should be able to get a level 4, which will let us build Heroic Epic in Timbuktu. And then, look out!

225AD (6): Found Walata (aka CottageLand) next to a barb Axeman, but our level-3 Skirmisher should be more than up to the task.

IT- And he is, defeating the Axeman with nary a scratch.

250AD (7): Timbuktu goes to a Worker. We need more cottages, more irrigation, and more mines. I'd like to try to keep to 1 worker per city. Right now we have 3 workers for 7 cities. Gao goes to a Library because it can work high commerce tiles (Ivory Camps).

IT- Alexander asks to trade Calender for Currency, which I decline. I prefer to trade on my own turn. Is there any reason to change this mindset in Civ4? War Elephant kills a Jaguar on defense without a scratch.

275AD (8): Trade Currency to Catherine for Calender and 110 gold. This will stop the money bleed and allow us to build a plantation on the incense in soon-to-be-captured Teotihuacan, which I move most of our troops toward. Two Skirmishers clean up two Chariots with no difficulty.

300AD (9): Pick Feudalism for our next tech, to unlock the Serfdom Civic. Faster workers will help us tremendously here. Vassalage is another option, but I think we'll be done with the war very soon and moving back to building. In fact, since all our cities but 2 are now working on buildings, I switch back to Organized Religion for the 25% boost.

325AD (10): Bombard Teotihuacan down to 22%. This should be ready to attack in 1 or 2 turns. Pick up 200 gold by trading Pottery to Alexander and Asoka.

Conclusion- Timbuktu is running 1 priest to get a great prophet within Voodoocat's turn. Once we have the Hindu shrine, our treasury situation should right itself. Send out lots of missionaries! Capturing Teotihuacan will also boost our treasury. Tlateleco gave us over 100 gold, so Teotihuacan should have at least that. I left the new War Elephant with movement Voodoocat because that's the kind of nice guy I am. Send it to the Aztec front or keep it in the north for Barb control. The Barbs were a bit of a nuisance over the last 10 turns, and will continue to be until we settle up there. We should consider doing that soonish, since there are Furs, Silver, Deer, Horses, and Iron resources up there.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2a_-_325AD.jpg

RBC2a - 325AD (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2a_AD-0325.zip)

Southern Dotmap:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2a_-_Dotmap1.jpg

Northern Dotmap:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2a_-_Dotmap2.jpg


Speaker
Voodoocat (Up)
Skyfish (On Deck)
Snaproll
-Angelus-
Sebmono

-Angelus- do you have the game yet? Tomorrow is November 7. I remember you saying you're getting it then? Haven't heard from you in a while.

You're able to run 90% science still? Bah, that's not a financial quagmire! Come back and talk when your civ is paying out almost 150 gold/turn in civics and maintenance costs, as demonstrated by the Cuban Isolationists. :)

You're able to run 90% science still? Bah, that's not a financial quagmire!
It's only not a financial quagmire because I just plundered 100 gold from the Aztecs and traded for 300 from backward yet cash-heavy Civs. So yeah, I guess you're right, it's no quagmire. But it will be in 5-10 turns if we don't do something about it. Check back then! :lol:

Wow, I think Sullla just told us that we are doing well. Nah...

I like how conquest is a viable economic alternative in this game. I'm playing a single player game where I'm able to keep my science rate (and tech position) fairly even, as long as I keep conquering cities at a reasonable clip. I did have to pause to build courthouses and the forbidden palace at one point, but I've got lots of gold.

Of course that's still on one of the middle-difficulties. Who knows on the higher difficulties. And I'm Rome, which provided me with the chance to do quite a bit more city capturing than I ordinarily would have before. Got quite a bit in before construction, which seems nigh-impossible with civs other than Rome.

Got it. I'll play tomorrow night. Just got back from a weekend road trip to Zion Nat'l park.

Leftover turn: Sending the war elephant up towards the barbarians
IT: Hinduism spreads to Satsuma. Cat changes to hereditary rule

350 (1): Bombard leaves city at +2%. Promote the 2.4/4 skirm to cover, 2nd skirm gets combat ii. War elephant wins the battle. Skirm loses to archer. 2nd skirm loses. 3rd skirm wins. Axeman marches into tiotihacuan and I keep it. Could have probably saved a skirm had i thought to allow the axeman to attack first.

IT: Japan wants Theology. F#$% that noise.

375 (2): Promote war elephant to march and fortify all units to heal. Barracks finish in djenne and i start a catapult. Worker captured begins work on mine outside of tlatelco.

400 (3): Send catapults, axeman and skirm up to start bombarding.

IT: Lighthouse is done in Bulgar

425 (4): Move catapults closer to Texcoco

IT: Rome demands 150 gold. Yeah right. Alexander converts to confuscionism

450 (5): War elephant wins against archer in barbarian city only loses 1.2 hp. Bombard gets Texcoco down to 12%

IT: Cat cancels open borders. Kumbi finishes granary and starts work on another war elephant.
475 (6): More bombarding. Down to 4%

IT: Heroic Epic built

500 (7): Texcoco falls easily with no damages and it seems like a good location. Destroy barbarian stronghold and earn 17 gold.

IT: Chariot pillages quary near gao.

520 (8): Upgrade warrior in Gao to an axeman. Moses builds shrine. We are currently getting +8

IT: Chariot attacks gao and loses.

540 (9): Worker moves

IT: Djenne builds catapult

560 (10): Nothing much

RB2a - 560AD (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2_AD-0560.zip)
Here are our lands:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/Civ4ScreenShot00012.JPG

-Angelus- do you have the game yet? Tomorrow is November 7. I remember you saying you're getting it then? Haven't heard from you in a while.

:blush: Yes I did say I would have it by now, but that was reliant on someone ordering it for me while I was out of contact with my PC.... and guess what, they managed to conveniently ignore all five of the reminders I'd left them, including a phone call! :mad:

Anyway, the game is now in the post somewhere between Jersey and the UK... so it hasn't got too far to go. I'll be here partying the moment I get the game, so don't worry, you'll know when I get it.

I've been reading through the turns though, and it looks like we're doing a good job - even running 100% science with the upkeep costs of quite a large empire! :goodjob:

Edit: By the way, you can leave out the "-"s either side of my name, they're only there because "Angelus" was already taken on CivFanatics.

OK I got it then :)

Am not sure what to do here as the Cat's last build orders were for military but our forces are way to thin to be able to go on and finish the Aztecs.
I decide to go on with the attack and take the last 2 aztec cities, we have quite a lot of units aand should use them now before they get outdated.
Most of them are not in place yet and I will need a few turns to get them all in place for the final assault. I will also try to get a few cities
in the north even though the Barbs are a problem there with some Axemen running loose...

560AD : Move troops southwards, veto a few builds to get units down south fast.

580AD : Have to use a recently produced Elephant vs a barb axeman in the North. Go for a Longbowman unit to defend our future city in the north.
There is a Gem ressource close to us we need to exploit ASAP.

590AD : Hinduism spreads to Rome ! Great news ! In the north a barb swordsmen appears and things are getting tricky over there...All barrack cities
go on unit production we have 2 very distant fronts here !

600AD : Troop movements, workers roading, I send a Hindu missionary to Texcoco, the Aztec city next to the gems hoping for a quick border expansion.
See this is where I can see we're still in the "discovery" phase of the game : I only check the Civics screen now and see that we could change quite
a lot for the better. We are mostly building units so I move to Hereditary Rule, Vassalage, Serfdom and Theocracy :D
Quite a revolution ! But since we're Spiritual , pretty painless ;)

620AD : Moving troops. I spot a Japanese galley with a settler coming towards us ! Argh !
Situation is critical in the North where we will need some good rolls to survive the barbs :(

640AD : The missionary spreads hinduism to Texcoco, this should greatly help our border expansion.

650AD : With a wounded Elephant, I am able to bait the barbs in the North: their Archers attack our highly experienced Skirmishers and impale themselves.
The Barb swordsmen move away from our poorly defended cities letting our Elephants get there before they can. A settler moves to the North accompanied
by Axemen.
I manage to build a Civ3 style coastal blockade so that the Japanese do not settle a city in our lands and pinch a source of horses.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2A-JapSettler.JPG

660 AD : The Japanese galley is turning back, they really had the intension of settling on our horses. You will probably have to play cat & mouse with them.
We have a settler accompanied by a City Garrison II Longbowmen going towards the north site with Horses, Furs and Iron.
We have a huge Stack of Doom ;) moving towards the Aztecs. Snaproll can finish them off and start rebuilding.
We need to work on our economy, we have Gems, Dyes, Incense and Furs all within reach ! Once connected they will greatly help us.
In 2 turns you can change back to Organized Religion to work on spreading Hinduism and maybe out of vassalage, to save on upkeep.
Theocracy plus Vassalage has given us double experienced units when coming out of barracks !

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2a-SoD.JPG

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2_AD-0660.Civ4SavedGame

We are mostly building units so I move to Hereditary Rule, Vassalage, Serfdom and Theocracy
:goodjob: Very smart Skyfish! I was hoping someone would take advantage of our trait!

I see it, but am still at work. Should be able to comment / play tonight.

A question or 2:

We are way ahead on tech, and 2 turns from researching Music. I didn't see any notes about this, so I'm assuming someone was going for the free Great Artist? If so, was there a plan for him? I was thinking a culture bomb in one of our new cities to push the other borders back. Texcoc makes the most sense, in which case I can swap off the temple, because we'll get all the border expansion we need.

Depending on how the assault of the Aztec Capitol goes, do you think we should press the attack until they are wiped out, completely? This used to be beneficial in Civ3, and if we have the stack I don't see why we shouldn't do so now. Obviously, that'll be a game-time decision, but just wanted some input.

And just to prove that I really read Skyfish's notes:

660 AD : The Japanese galley is turning back, they really had the intension of settling on our horses. You will probably have to play cat & mouse with them.
We have a settler accompanied by a City Garrison II Longbowmen going towards the north site with Horses, Furs and Iron.
We have a huge Stack of Doom moving towards the Aztecs. Snaproll can finish them off and start rebuilding.
We need to work on our economy, we have Gems, Dyes, Incense and Furs all within reach ! Once connected they will greatly help us.
In 2 turns you can change back to Organized Religion to work on spreading Hinduism and maybe out of vassalage, to save on upkeep.


Noted. :D

I agree. The war went well on the Aztec, and consolidating that land puts us in a winning position. It's time to get our economy and research going, to maintain that lead. I suppose now would also be a time to discuss the big question - what victory do we shoot for? It's always nice to have a goal...

I was thinking a culture bomb in one of our new cities to push the other borders back. Texcoc makes the most sense
That's a very sound plan.

I suppose now would also be a time to discuss the big question - what victory do we shoot for? It's always nice to have a goal...
Whichever is easiest? ;)

We are way ahead on tech, and 2 turns from researching Music. I didn't see any notes about this, so I'm assuming someone was going for the free Great Artist? If so, was there a plan for him? I was thinking a culture bomb in one of our new cities to push the other borders back. Texcoc makes the most sense, in which case I can swap off the temple, because we'll get all the border expansion we need.
Yeah. Sorry about that. I forgot that in my turns report. Can never turn down a free great artist for the culture bomb.

Ok, I'm glad my read on the great artist was good. I suppose it doesn't matter terribly much what our victory goal is - in virtually all cases we need to consolidate our empire and work on infrastructure. That barb sworsman in the north is a bit disconcerting, I'll admit. I hope that our 2 injured war elephants in the area can stymie that threat. Here I go!

Pre-turn - Switch the Jewish temple in Texcoco to a barracks, which it already has a start on. Texcoco only has one-food tiles in radius to work right now, so when it expands it will get a hill with 3 hammers, helping it to get some early production. Man, what an unfortunate site the Aztecs chose for Tlatelolco, one tile off the coast. sigh. That city has a sever food shortage, which will be hard to fix. Djenne is a major powerhouse city. I dial up a workboat to start right after its temple is finished - we have fish in range. I remove the specialist in Timbuktu and manage to rearrange our tiles to get enough commerce to pull in music next turn. I agree with Speaker that we need some more workers, I will try to get some.

BT - Catherine wants to trade Theocracy for Horseback Riding. I refuse. Theocracy is much more expensive than Horseback writing. She is very unhappy with us, though. I dial up civil service next because we are going to need to spread irrigation, soon. Our great artist, Homer, pops up as well.

Turn 1 - 680 AD - It sinteresting that the "Civ3" blockade is totally ineffectual in Civ 4 because units from different countries can occupy the same space (as proved by the newest japanese city in our territory...

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b364/Snaproll/RBC2a/Kagoshima.jpg

Well, it's not a terrible tragedy, as our culture bomb will totally overtake this city. It's still interesting. No tech trades are possible. I start a worker in Walata. I notice that Kumbah Salah is working on a Library. That's not bad, but almost none of it's tiles are producing any commerce at all. It seems like kind of a waste to be putting a library in there right now. To me, this looks like a great wonder city. I look at our options and then notice that we still don't have our marble connected! If we did I would've started a wonder. I'll try to find a spare worker to get that marble hooked up right away. I switch it to an axeman to work on some of these barbs. Djenne, on the other hand, is a great place for a library! I'll definately hook that up after the work boat.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b364/Snaproll/RBC2a/nolib.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b364/Snaproll/RBC2a/djenne.jpg

BT - The barb sword dies attacking our fortified skirmisher. No sooner is that done than an axeman appears out of the north. ugh.

Turn 2 - 700 AD - Our battle force pulls up in front of the capitol

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b364/Snaproll/RBC2a/tenochitlan.jpg

Looks like it shouldn't be a problem. I intend to move one space farther SW to get us in the woods and prevent us from having to attack across the river. Naini founded next to the horses and furs in the north, set to Granary.

BT - Asoka calls up, asks to trade his fish to us. I agree, although reluctantly, as I'm about to hook up a fish resource of our own. However, I capitulate, in the interest of international relations.

Turn 3 - 720 AD - Our battle force moves into position, as does our great artist. Fireworks next turn! One of our workers gets to the marble - I'm going to look strongly at a wonder out of Kumbah Salah.

Turn 4 - 740 AD - Before:

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b364/Snaproll/RBC2a/before.jpg

After! :)

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b364/Snaproll/RBC2a/after.jpg

I don't attack this turn as I use the cats to bombard the city defenses first. A settler is popping out of our capitol next turn, which I will escort using our newly created axeman out of Kumbah Salah. The work boat is done in Djenne next turn as well. I'll probably build libraries in both those cities next.

BT - In an interesting move, the AI sallies forth out of his besiged capitol and attacks our stack. Fortunately, both of his units die, but it was still an intriguing move.

Turn 5 - 760 AD - I use two catapults on collateral damage runs, losing one and having one withdraw. Time for the attack.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b364/Snaproll/RBC2a/capture.jpg

Unfortunately we did lose one of our War Elephants dislodging the spearman, against odds. Shrug. Our capitol already had a library of course, so I start a marketplace instead, and start a library in Djenne. We have an unhappy citizen in Djenne - we still need to get some more of our luxury resources hooked up! So few workers, so many projects! I also remember (a few turns too late) to switch our civics back. Sorry about that guys, we lost a bit of cash for that. My fault, but at least I remembered!

Turn 6 - 780 AD - I move our stack into the city to heal up and prepare for the next target. We have "lots" of unhappiness. I'm not really sure the best way to handle this in Civ4 - with no luxury slider it doesn't seem obvious. Should I run a food deficit to shrink the cities until we can get more happiness online? Suggestions are welcome! Part of the problem is that our higher cost civics included MP happiness, which went away when I went back to the low cost civics. Whoops. That's one to learn from for next time! I start the great library in Kumbah Saleh - it will only take 12 turns! This city is a great wonder city, especially now that marble is hooked up. I wish we had stone - Notre Dame would be great right now.

Turn 7 - 800 AD - The aztecs have a horse archer pillaging around in our south - I don't have a unit available that can deal with him at the moment. I'm getting a spear out as soon as I can. I need to heal another turn before I move out our stack.

Turn 8 - 820 AD - Part of the reason we have such unhappy cities in war weariness, which evidentally got a lot worse this turn. In Djenne we have 3 (!) unhappy citizens now. I decide to rearrange things there to reduce the size of the city... Very counterintuitive. I almost have furs hooked up. That should help at least a little. Awadghost founded in the north in range of two silver, which I'm quickly trying to hook up.

Turn 9 - 840 AD - I move as much of the stack towards the next Aztec city as I can. It may not be enough. If not, I suggest we call for peace and get rid of our war weariness as soon as possible. Cathy has a reasonable sized stack near our territory. I wonder what her intentions are!

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b364/Snaproll/RBC2a/cathy.jpg

Turn 10 - 860 AD - Oh, she is going to declare war.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b364/Snaproll/RBC2a/war.jpg

I immediately call for peace with the Aztecs and divert the stack back towards homeland defense. The defense of our city near Cathy will be tough, but we might hold out. We also might not. I totally didn't see this coming. If we do lose the city we can retake it easily enough. Good news is that with the end of the Aztec war and the hook up of dyes and furs our unhappiness completely disappears. If we can hold out for wone turn, I have a longbow and another skirmisher within range to garrison the city. If we lose the city, we can easily ratake it in a turn or two.

Also, every single turn Kumbah Salah somehow switched AWAY from the great library, so I've had to restart it three times now! Any idea what that's about?

Enjoy. The catherine war will be quite a shock to whoever picks this up.

Here is the save game (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2_AD-0860.Civ4SavedGame)

Nice Job Snaproll. Cathy....chose....unwisely. After Sebmono's dominating performance against Mali, China, and Germany in our co-op MP game, I almost feel sorry for that Ice Princess. But not that sorry. :hammer:

Speaker (On Deck)
Voodoocat
Skyfish
Snaproll
Angelus
Sebmono (Up)

g-g-g-g-g-got it!

Take your time Seb. I can't play until Sunday night anyways.

-------------:woohoo:------------------

[party]---------------------------------[party]
---------------:band:----------------

---------------:dance::dance::dance:----------------

:beer::beer:
------[civ4]------

I think you can guess what this means!

Wo0t! Congrats Angelus. We'll slot you in this time around.

Phew, I'm back from a long weekend. Attended the "Cortaca Jug,", also known as the "Biggest Little Game in America."

12,000 fans for a Division III football game :wow:

Cortaca (http://www.cortlandfootball.com/2005Ithaca.htm)

I'm too tired to take it tonight, so Seb has one more day before I skip him.

PS- The Red Dragons (the good guys) won 37-30 in overtime.

I think you guys should go ahead and skip me, I am very bogged down with work (been trying to debug my microcomputer code since 8 this morning). Maybe Angelus wants to take it from me?

I swear I'll be good in a couple days when I'm done laying the smack down on this work.

I don't have time to play tonight, so Angelus, feel free to jump in before tomorrow night. Otherwise, I'll play then. Or Seb can play if he has time before then.

Such a warm fuzzy feeling when you leave a succession game in such dire shape that 5 days later and still no one will touch it :lol:

Just kidding of course. I am looking forward to seeing how the English's sneak attack will pan out though! :hammer:

Got it. :hammer:

860AD (IT): It doesn't look like we'll be pursuing the Russia war after all. Catherine is way on the other side of the continent, and hitting her would require us to send all our troops through Japan, leaving us vulnerable back home. We have no fast troops at this point, and at 2 moves on roads for an infantry-based unit...:rolleyes:

So Instead I unleash the warmongering Caesar and his Praetorians on her pasty white butt.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2a_-_Caesar.jpg

Switch every city that still has room to grow (ALL OF THEM) to max food. Also note that we have several unconnected luxuries--Silk, Crab, Furs, and several luxuries right near our unxepanded borders--deer, silver, incense--that no one has yet done anything about. Not good! The more luxuries we have, the bigger we can grow. GROW GROW GROW. It's manifest destiny.

I am very disappointed that Walata is still at size 4, building a worker. I founded it over 600 years ago, to spam cottages and be a monster science city for us. Right now it has 1 cottage. Not good! I'd veto the worker but there is only 1 turn left on it.

Veto the Skirmisher being produced in barracks-less Tenochtitlan (although the shields sunk into this will come in handy later--sometimes it is better to be lucky than good :cool:).

880AD (1): Civil Service => Metal Casting (for forges). I take a moment to adjust our Civics, taking advantage of our Spiritual civilization.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2a_-_Civics.jpg

Bolster defenses in Teotihuacan which is being threatened by 2 Swordsmen and a Horse Archer. Our strong troops from the south will be here next turn, and the silly English didn't bring any knnnnnnnnnnigets.

IT- In fact, all they do is pillage our pasture. :smoke:

900AD (2): A couple Elephant and Axe attacks later and they are no more. They have ceased to be.

920AD (3): Healing troops and improving the land. Little going on diplomacywise.

940AD (4): La ti da. Slow turns.

960AD (5): Pigs for spices deal with Asoka. We're swimming in happiness and healthiness now.

980AD (6): Metal Casting => Code of Laws. Start Forges in a few cities. We're still at only 60% science, but should be able to get 70% soon.

1020AD (9): Finally pop up to 70% science, as a few more cities convert to Hinduism (multiplied by market in Timbuktu).

1030AD (10): English troops approach Tenochtitlan, which is not as well-defended as it probably should be. I send down reinforcements and pop out another skirmisher, which had been in the queue, and is ready in 1 turn. It should hold.

1040AD (11): Suicide Catapult does some damage to all three English units, and we should be fine at this point.

1050AD (12): Overall, we lose 1 Skirmisher, but defend Tenochtitlan very easily. I take peace with Cathy for now. She's too far to fight right now, and we'll let Asoka and Caesar wear her down. She'll get hers soon enough.

A fairly slow set of turns. I played two extra turns to even out the years. Mostly I Consolidated after the Aztec war, expand our lands, grew our cities, and pushed some infrastructure. Make sure all our cities get Hinduism--each new convert helps our economy tremendously.

Most of our core cities are now building Forges. If we push to Guilds, go from max food to max production, and switch to Vassalocracy (aka Warzone), we should be able to take out India, Japan and the Aztecs in no time. Rome, England, and Greece will be tougher, but that's what Cavalry and Infantry are for :hammer:

We've got the game in a winning position at this point. We' already way ahead, but I still think we need way more commerce to really get an unbeatable tech lead and waltz through the end game. That means cottages, cottages, cottages. We don't have nearly enough of them. And keep trying to get our science level up to 80 and 90%. The better our economy is, the faster we get better troops.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2a_-_Info.jpg

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2a_-_1050AD.jpg

Vassalocracy Coming Right Up! (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2a_AD-1050.zip)

Speaker
Voodoocat (Up)
Skyfish (On Deck)
Snaproll
Angelus
Sebmono

Nice turns Speaker! I thought for sure Lizzy would at least TRY to take our city. Strange, that. Had I known she would be such a pushover I probably would have pressed the attack on the Aztecs.

I tried to hook up as many resources as I could, I really did. I got the gems south of Texcoco hooked up but that involved cutting a jungle, so it took awhile. I find in most of my games that I often have more worker projects than workers, especially in the early part of the game, which is why I had some of the cities building more. Also, you mentioned that we had several resources outside of cities with unexpanded borders that "no one had done anything about". I think you'll find that those cities in question have obelisks, so that's something ;)

Also, I never really expected that we would carry the war to England at this point. I didn't mean to imply that in my post.

As for cottages I totally agree. I guess I'm behind the curve on the cottage strategy, but of course it makes even more sense with a financial civ. I recently learned the hard way about the AI focus on cottages and research (and the power of it) in one of my personal games. Cottages seem to be a powerful option. From my civ3 days I had a hard time believing they would ever trump extra food, so I was loath to put many cottages on grassland, but it seems to be a viable strategy.

As you said, as long as we don't have any MAJOR :smoke: we are in a winning position. I thikn a conquest or domination would be fun! :hammer:

I didn't mean my comments to be an attack on you Snaproll. They are more leveled at the whole group. The unconnected resources were more a result of us not having enough workers for our entire civilization. But this is not Civ3 ladies and gentlemen. Connecting resources is a top priority. Most of our cities were stuck for growth when my turns started, but after connecting and trading for several happiness and several health bonuses, we can now grow each city several sizes.

Cottages are not only a viable strategy, but a necessary one. And we are financial! As soon as a cottage becomes a hamlet, it makes 3gpt for us. That's huge. Right now, we're barely starting to touch one of our traits. And actually, since we were in the default category in many of our civics, we weren't using our other trait either. We should be popping in and out of civics depending on what we are building, and when in doubt, rushing toward technologies that open up other options. Then we'd be making good use of our Spiritual trait.

But despite that, we've got this game easily won. "Just win baby!" That's the ticket. I know this is the first game. We'll have better play in RB4 and beyond.;)

I didn't take them as an attack :) the point of this game is to learn - it's the first time for us! There is always an interesting dynamic in SG's; it is always a natural tendancy to take over a game and wonder why the heck things that should have been done haven't been. I do it as bad as anyone else, maybe worse.

I think we've been doing ok, honestly. We took some time away from worker builds to get the Aztecs defeated, and, as such, we don't have as many workers built as we should. Had we not gone for the early war I'm fairly confident that our lands would be more developed. Everything you mentioned (connecting resources, cottages) all require workers, and time for the workers to do the work. Our workers are working as hard as they can - I doubt anyone has left them idle :D

I agree we need more workers, and more cottages, and more resources connected. I guess what I'm saying is I'm not so sure the rest of us have been ignoring those priorities so much as much as we're working on them as hard as we can, but what's done is just all that's had time to get done! :goodjob:

Just had to give it to me on Lost night :P

Got it. Will play in an hour when the son goes to bed.

IT: Hinduism spreads to Tlaxcala

1060AD (1): Workers begin cottages outside Timbuktu and Walata.

IT: Machinary > Guilds. Timbuktu finishes forge > lighthouse.

1070AD (2): Caesar makes peace with Cat. Monty converts to Hinduism

1080AD (3): Workers toiling away.

IT: Timbuktu lighthouse > worker. KS Forge > worker. Gao Forge > Settler. Texcaco library > forge

1090AD (4): Still workin'. This peacetime makes for some long turn reports.

IT: Timbuktu worker > great library (10 turns). Djenne market > forge. KS worker > courthouse. Tlatleloco forge > horse archer.

1100AD (5): Just worker moves. Building cottages, roads and mines.

IT: Well there goes the great library. Only lost a turn on it. Change to aqueduct.

1110AD (6): Start 4 different cottages.

IT: Bulgar finishes granary > library

1120AD (7): Veto my own decision for the courthouse in favor of a Hindu Missionary in KS. Start work on deer camp and mine for more iron.

IT: Cat wants us to declare war on the indians. I decline. Research complete on guilds > banking.

1130AD (8): Monty declares war on Asoka

IT: Gao Settler > Hindu Missionary

1140AD (9): Sent missionary towards Bulgar. Settler heading north. Scouting with the elephant to see if we have any resources off the shore.

IT: Gao starts work on Courthouse after finishing missionary.

1150AD (10): Alexander joins in the fight against Asoka.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/Civ4ScreenShot00023.JPG

It's time to pass the torch. You're too old to rock. No more rockin' for you (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2_AD-1150.zip)

Got it old man !

Game looks good, no vetoes.
1- Spices from Asoka cancels, we get 5 millions people.
2- We spread Hinduism to Bulgar. Timbuktu finishes Acqueduct and goes back to Great Library even though its already built in Japan, slight bug. I put it on National Epic. Banking comes in next turn : My plan for this round is to be the first to Divine Right, found Islam and then use the Great Prophet we will get in a few turns to build a Shrine.
We really need to spread Hinduism all over the place as its not getting us nearly enough money as it could !
3- We go on building infra with some hindu missionaries and knights thrown here and there. Workers are busy bringing irrigation wherever possible. We can trade back the Spices we lost from Asuka from Caesar, he gets Pigs
for it and he is pleased with us. Cathy makes peace with Asoka.
5- A Great Prophet is born in Timbuktu. We keep him for a higher purpose.
6- Hinduism finally spreads (with Missionary) to Teotihuacan. Kagoshima is revolting, it will soon become ours :)
9- Islam is founded in our newest city in the Ice world. We send our Prophet there and to build the Islamic Shrine. Watch out he is still on its way.
We send the missionary to Walata. Research is set to Paper available in 3 turns.
10- Timbuktu is at size 18 (it was at size 14 when I got the game) and can still grow a lot ! I set it on Bank in 4 and then we should go for a Wonder I say. Notre Dame or Versailles (make use of our marble).
A missionary is in Tenochtilan ready to board the galley we should build there next ;) we have other missionaries spread over our land they should go towards Russia or Rome. Paper is due in 2 turns and we can hopefully buy some maps. We can sustain 70 to 80% science with no loss, our economy is not bad at all. We are way above any other civ, its a walk in the park from here now. Maybe we should agree on an end game ? Military ? Space ? Diplo ?
We should go for Optics and try to discover more of our world. We are still in need of infra and probably should wait for Cavalries to go on the warpath again.
Next big worker project is to bring irrigation down to the South and clear the jungle. We have quite a lot of cottages now ;)

Sorry for the lack of screenies I had some laptop issues.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2_AD-1250.Civ4SavedGame

See it, will play tonight.

Space race would be the easy answer, but I'm feeling like a domination or conquest win would be more enjoyable! :hammer:

A couple pictures for the lurkers:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2a_-_1250AD_Info.jpg

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2a_-_1250AD.jpg

Taking over from Skyfish:

We really need to spread Hinduism all over the place as its not getting us nearly enough money as it could !

Check!

I set it on Bank in 4 and then we should go for a Wonder I say. Notre Dame or Versailles (make use of our marble).

Seems like a good plan. My first inkling is Versailles, but I'll take a look at Notre Dame too. Wait - will Versailles have much of an effect if it is IN our capitol?

Next big worker project is to bring irrigation down to the South and clear the jungle. We have quite a lot of cottages now

Check on the worker plan. Things seem to be going swimmingly, I'll try to keep it up!

I already know something about this game that none of the other players do... We've been playing it for a total of seventeen hours and 49 minutes already! :lol:

http://www.geocities.com/pacerdart/SGs/RBD2a/Turns.JPG

Things really seem to be well in order. I check through our civics, and the only one that I consider is mercantilism. Having a specialist in every city would be a nice thing to have for increased great people points and other benefits. However, we are making 8gpt from foreign trade routes in Timbuktu alone. I don't have a good feel for if the extra specialists would make up for that or not. Our trade routes would be swapped for domestic ones. Anyone have a good feel for this? I decide not to after looking through the cities and noticing that most of our smaller cities can only have vanilla specialists anyway. Our civics seem well set up for peacetime - there is a lot of potential for wartime civics too, if needed.

Checking diplomacy doesn't yield much - no one has any resources or tech to trade. I do, however, get Alexander to sign open borders - this must have given us a better trade route somewhere because we gain an extra 4gpt. Maybe we can turn him buddhist too :)

Looking at the wonders, Notre Dame uses stone, not marble. We could get the sistine chapel, which gives us more culture, and Versailles is indeed available. I think Versailles should go further south if we can get it. I'm thinking Spiral Minaret in Timbuktu! It is helped by stone also, but I'm pretty sure we can get it if we go for it. With the world 41% hindu, think of all the cheap hindu temples and associated gold we could get...

Turn 1 - 1260 AD - Aztecs come asking for help in the war against the Indians. No. Tenochitlan finishes library, starts galley for the two missionaries we have there now. Masjid al-Haram finished in the northern iceball city (curse the game for making that our holy city for Islam!) We should build islamic missionaries there to spread to the rest of our civ for more $$$.

BT - Paper comes in, Tokugawa declares war on Asoka. This is wierd:

http://www.geocities.com/pacerdart/SGs/RBD2a/fishboats.JPG

How can that tile have boats on it? Doesn't that mean a city has to be working that tile??? It isn't us, who can it be?? It's A MYSTERY!

Turn 2 - 1270 AD - Teotuheuican (or something) finishes library, starts Versailles (!) due in 22 turns. I think we can get it, and it will help our maintenance costs a lot. This might be a stretch. I hope not. We are way ahead here, lets try and get some wonders! I start research on Optics, after which I think we should beeline to liberalism for our free tech. I'll start us on that path in 3 turns after optics comes in. I don't send our workers to the jungles right away - I see a few resources that need to be hooked up yet. Bank in Gao. Gao doesn't have much commerce at all, so I don't know how useful a market or grocer is at this point. It does have a lot of shields, though, so I start... the Sistine Chapel :) Might as well? Due in 16 turns.

I check around for world maps. The only one willing to trade at first is Asoka - and check this out - he's at war with 3 civs! Guess he's no Ghandi! :lol:

http://www.geocities.com/pacerdart/SGs/RBD2a/Asokawar.JPG

I trade Asoka for his map and get it from him, fair trade. We can see lands we can reach by galley. Unfortunately, no one else will trade maps this turn. Also note what seems to be a large barbarian population over on the new island :eek:

http://www.geocities.com/pacerdart/SGs/RBD2a/Landnear.JPG

BT - Catherine demands 110 gold. We've seen this before! Ugh! Be nice! I refuse, since our relations are already sour. Based on experience from this game, does this mean she's already got another sneak attack coming??? Alex asks for help with the indians. Ugh. We have good realations with both the Indians and the Greeks - no matter what I do will hurt that. I decide to decline, as losing the indians as a trading partner altogether will hurt more than making alex a "little" mad. He gets annoyed when I decline. Sigh.

http://www.geocities.com/pacerdart/SGs/RBD2a/Alexhelp.JPG

Turn 3 - 1280 AD - Djenne finishes courthouse, starts bank.

BT - Compass comes in (on the way to optics). Ceasar and Tokugawa already have optics, won't trade. Bank finished in Timbuktu, Spiral Minaret started, due in 16 turns. However, Timbuktu is set to grow next turn and will get another mined hill when it does.

Turn 4 - 1290 AD - I decide to chop a grassland near Gao to hurry the Sistine Chapel and also get some more food for Gao - it can get more overall production that way, eventually. With the bank in Timbuktu I can up the science to 80% and only have -3 gpt. Who says we don't have a good economy :)

BT - Tokugawa asks us to cancel our deals with the Indians. You know, our relationship with the Indians is hurting us more than helping, I think. He's got 3 civs pissed at him, and if we stay friends with him thats 3 that we stand to lose. I take the plunge, and cut off relations with asoka. Ugh, I hope that was the right thing to do. :eek: Tokugawa adopts vassalage - a sign of aggression...

http://www.geocities.com/pacerdart/SGs/RBD2a/Tokucancel.JPG

Turn 5 - 1300 AD - Kumbah Salah finishes Bank, starts Longbowman. I think we are getting light on defense... The other civs are starting to be belligerent...

BT - Optics comes in, start Education (on the path to Liberalism). We'll need to knock out Philosophy next, then liberalism.

Turn 6 - 1310 AD - Kagoshima revolts and joins us! About time :)

http://www.geocities.com/pacerdart/SGs/RBD2a/Kago.JPG

Timbuktu grows to size 19(!) and reaches its health limit - I set it to not grow any further and add a scientist and an engineer, shaving another turn off of the spiral minaret. Out income is down to -15 already - I suppose because we added another city?

Turn 7 - 1320 AD - Move some workers... Library in Tlateloco, start courthouse.

Turn 8 - 1330 AD - Asoka signs peace with Alex. Kumbah Saleh finished longbow, starts longbow. I think we should keep this city pumping longbows for a while now. I can pump one every two turns with quite a few extra shields.

Turn 9 - 1340 AD - Monty makes peace with Asoka now. Bulgar finishes library, starts bank. Walata finishes courthouse, starts Islamic Monastery - this will be a much better place to produce Islamic missionaries.

Turn 10 - 1350 AD - Kathy demands Theology. She hates us already, so, no. Man is she ever annoying???

http://www.geocities.com/pacerdart/SGs/RBD2a/Theology.JPG

Kumbah Salah finishes Longbowman, starts Longbowman. Naini finishes granary, starts bank.

And that's it! Here's a pic of where we stand:

http://www.geocities.com/pacerdart/SGs/RBD2a/1350.JPG

Executive summary:

I started us on a bunch of wonders. I believe we can get them all. Versailles and the Spiral Minaret are especially valuable to us, I think. My suggestions:

- IF we get the spiral minaret, I'd build hindu temples and monasteries as quick as possble as soon as possible. IF we don't get it, then there's better things to build.

- I think Walata should spam islamic missionaries once its monastery is finished. We may want to throw some more buildings in there, but it's commerce production is low, so I think markets, etc.. are less useful than getting more religious income.

- Tenochitlan is finishing a galley for it's two buddhist missionaries next turn. After that I strongly suggest a lighthouse.

- We should keep checking for world maps every now and then, and I think Djenne can get some caravels out after it's bank. Djenne is still growing but I think its next few citizens should be made into specialists - the remaining tiles it has are low-output.

- Kumbi Saleh should keep pumping longbows, IMO. We are paper-thin right now and it is a great military production city.

- Kagoshima needs a workboat - in fact I probably should have built the workboat before the lighthouse. Whoops. It can produce two, actually, and finally get the northern crabs for us for the health.

- I think we can get Liberalism and it's free tech if we keep beelining for it. Education comes in next turn, and universities and Oxford will become available. I think Oxford would fit well in Djenne. Timbuktu is producing more beakers, obviously, but we might want to put different national wonders there, what do you all think? Djenne is a commerce powerhouse also.
We are doing really well, IMHO. Our infrastructure and economy is second to none. We can win however we want. I'll admit that the way I played these turns probably best fits with a spaceship win, but we are by no means committed.

Here is the save game! (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2_AD-1350.Civ4SavedGame)

I've only read through Turn 2, but I have an answer for your mystery boat. When Tenochtitlan was owned by the Aztecs, its cultural borders included that tile, so they built a fishing boat on it (using a work boat). The graphics are slightly different than tiles being worked, if you look carefully.

- Kumbi Saleh should keep pumping longbows, IMO. We are paper-thin right now and it is a great military production city.
Why are we paper thin? It's great to build infrastructure during peace, but if you don't build any military, Cathy comes and makes demands. We are about ready to switch over to Vassalocracy and start training tons of units. Knights, Macemen, and Catapults, and the game is over.

Wonders? We don't need no steeeenking wonders! :) :hammer:

:lol:

First, we screw up the economy while conquering. Then we fix that, and now we should have been building military the whole time. :crazyeye:

Just giving you a hard time Speaker :lol:

Yes, erm, the ability to mutli-task is key, you see.... ;)

Well, I did start Kumbah Salah building military. After Gao finishes it's wonder, it can pump military too. The Sistine Chapel, upon further reflection, was probaby :smoke: However, those two cities probably have enough production to dominate our neighbors all on thier own. :hammer:

I stand by my decisions on Versailles and the Spiral Minaret, though. the income generated by those two wonders will be substantial. :goodjob:

Income which could be used for a few turns to upgrade our cutouts into battle hardened veteran death machines. :goodjob: :hammer:

Solid turns Snap ! Good move on the Minaret and Versailles I say.
We did need some more infra rounds before turning on the war machine or else we would have had to slow down research big time while invading...
But of course we can turn on the war machine pretty soon to satisfy our favourite Hippo ;)

Facts:

1. Hippos are mammals.

2. Hippos fight ALL the time.

3. The purpose of the hippo is to flip out and kill people.

Are you Ready to Get Pumped? (http://www.realultimatepower.net/ninja/hippo.htm)

Why do I get the feeling we are going for conquest now? :D

Woot, my first turns in the SG finally coming up! I've got the save, I'll try to play tomorrow morning (GMT).

Conquest or Space sounds good to me, but IMHO we should wait for cavs, or perhaps later before we go for victory by conquest.

I don't think we'll need to wait for Cavs. Knights, Macemen, and Catapults should be sufficient to get us started.

I agree with speaker. We are so far ahead of the other civs we could probably overwhelm them with chariots.

Facts:

1. Hamsters are mammals.

2. Hamsters fight ALL the time.

3. The purpose of the Hamster is to flip out and kill people.

We could probably overwhelm them with chariots... pulled by hamsters. :hammer:

Sorry for the minor threadjack but.....

Facts:


1. Maniac is a mammal.

2. Maniac fights ALL the time.

3. Maniac is too lazy to use "cool" font colors in this post

4. The purpose of the Maniac is to flip out and kill people who DON'T ANSWER THEIR PM's. *cough* Skyfish *cough*

btw: looking good all

PM ?? What is that ? :mischief:

:blush:

PM - Private Message

I've played my turns, Ill write them up from my notepad ASAP, could someone remind me how to put in Screens and upload the save... :blush: (Its about 6 months since i've played an SG)

Scroll down to the bottom of the page to the red tool bar where it says "upload file." Upload it, and then link it and you are all set!

Thanks, I havent had time to write up my turns yet :mischief: I'm out all night so Ill write them up in the morning, sorry for the hold up.

Initial thoughts:

You guys weren’t kidding when you said we were paper thin on military. It’s hardly surprising we’re getting demands. The way I see it, if we’re going for conquest, we might as well do it with rifles which are just round the corner, as we’re not going to be in a position to wage war any time soon anyway. Printing Press looks like a juicy tech with all our villages and towns so if we go for that after Education and then use Liberalism’s free tech to pop Replaceable Parts, we’ll be 2 techs away from rifling, the other one being Gunpowder, which is cheap. No vetoes, it looks like a lighthouse after the galley in Tenochtitlan (I hate those Aztec names).

Press <ENTER>

1360 (1)

Woohoo, first naval unit. Hindu missionaries board the galley and set off south towards a new land.

IT

Education discovered – we enter the Renaissance! Printing Press ordered up, due in 4 turns. Kubai Saleh – Longbowman > Knight.

1370 (2)

Yawn… Sistine Chapel and Spiral Minaret both due in 4 turns.

IT

Djenne – Bank finished. The Colossus looks nice but it will be obsolete soon. Go for harbour for extra gold + health.

Walata – Islamic Monastery > Granary

1380 (3)

When Rep Parts comes in it will give out workers Lumbermills to build. ATM they are starting to run out of jobs.

IT

Courthouse finished in Texcoco. Lighthouse started – it needs to grow to take advantage of the mined hills around it.

1390 (4)

Tokugawa makes peace with Asoka. Asoka looks like a good target for Hindu Missionaries now that he is no longer at war with everyone.

Alex adopts Serfdom and Vassalage.
IT

Tlateloco – Courthouse > Hindu Monastery
Borders of Teotihucan expand.

1400 (5)

Caesar’s warrior seems to be enjoying himself in our territory. But zooming up close they look a little lost!

Next turn looks like its going to be a good one…

IT

RB2 the Glorious is named at the top of some list… can’t remember which one.

Printing Press comes in – we go to +11gpt and order liberalism

Spiral Minaret completed in Timbuktu!!!

Sistine Chapel completed in Gao – starts a knight.

Knight completed in Kumbi Saleh.

Zoroaster born in Timbuktu

JC completes the Chitchen Itza.

1410 (6)

Mistake – just realised Philos is a pre-req for Liberalism… Oops. Philo is done in 2.

What should I do with Zoro? The chances are the next great person to come out of Timbuktu will also be a prophet. He could build the church of the nativity but I don’t see the point. I decide to keep him, maybe to rush a tech, or to hope for an artist out of Timbuktu and start a Golden Age.

IT

Granary finished in Walata – uni started.

Chuang Tzu born in… somewhere… didn’t look up from my notepad quickly enough.

1420 (7)

Yawn

IT

Philo comes in – liberalism started.
Lighthouse finished in Tadmekka – Granary started.

1430 (8)

Zoro can discover drama…. DRAMA! Who cares about drama! It might be worth taking the one turn to discover it just to allow him to discover something else.

Alex has moved a swordsman next to Tenochtitlan. He’s not planning to attack with one swordsman is he… lol.

I switch to Pacifism

IT

Djenne - harbour > Uni
Bulgar - bank > harbour
Tlateloco - Hindu Mon > Knight
Kagoshima – lighthouse > granary

1440 (9)

GP due in 8 turns in Timbuktu – with luck he’ll be an artist!

IT

Knight trained in Kumbai Saleh.
Tenochtitlan – lighthouse > hindu monastery

1450 (10)

Liberalism due in 2 turns, Versailles in 7.
End of my turns

Hope there were no major :smoke:s

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2_AD-1450.Civ4SavedGame

I took a look at the save, and it looks pretty good Angelus.

A couple notes for Sebmono and beyond:
Three cities are currently building military. After a couple more join in, we should switch to Vassalocracy for the upgrade bonuses.

Timbuktu is at stagnant growth. Let it keep growing, past its health limit. -1 health per turn is no big deal, and there are still a few tiles left for it to work, not to mention specialists after that.

We should probably grab Nationalism with our free tech after Liberalism, bang out Taj Mahal, and use the free GA to build up for war. Engineering is a must-have tech to pick up before war for the +1 road movement.

We'll also need to settle that western island at some point, if we choose domination over conquest. If we wait too long the Barbs over there will have Tanks and Stealth Bombers. :eek: They already have culture! (anyone else see the irony in Barbarians with culture?)

Looks like things are going good Angelus - glad you got the game running!

I know that we have decided to go full out war, but I still think we are missing some good economic advantages here - with the spiral minaret, every hindu temple we build gives us gold, and several cities don't have them yet. Also, Walata is set up to produce Islamic missionaries - with the Islamic holy city we can get lots of gold out of that too.

These seem like priorities to me, and they won't detract from our war effort much. I guess we'll let the next few players decide if they are needed or not - our economy might be good enough.

got it, will play tonight or tomorrow morning

Pre-Turn: Idle worker in Tenochititlan i got going on a plantation

Turn 1: Timbuk finishes university, start knight. finished knight in gao? started maceman. now we have 3 cities doing knights and one doing mace, hope to even out that ratio. will stay with pacifism till great person is done then go to vassalocracy.

Turn 2: got liberalism, took nationalism per speakers advice. researching economics for free merchant before doing engineering. that way we can stack two golden ages once we get the taj. trying to hook up silver in the north

Turn 3: nuttin

Turn 4: work proceeds. sending all military units to the fronts in the south, trying to keep a good mix.

Turn 5: got econ and gret merchant and started on engineering. i will wait to see what the next great person is to decide how to spend him. depending on what techs they offer i might burn one for research.

Turn 6: nothin

Turn 7: ok we now have a great merchant, scientist and prophet. i'm sending the merchant to rome to raise money so we can upgrade our troops. with these upgrades in mind and our current military focus i am bendingresearch to military tradition and gunpowder so we can get cavalry. I'm also switching to vassalocracy as well as free market.

Turn 8: nothin

Turn 9: not much, building troops (with lotsa exp) and sending them down to the front.

Turn 10: not much has changed since turn 7 except more units, taj mahal is gonna be done in 5 so we could start war with the outset of a golden age if we wanted, engineering lets our troops move super fast. remember great merchant heading to rome and two great people sleeping in timbuk so we can double golden age.

GOOD LUCK!!!

Just an FYI, but I am at my parents' house for Thanksgiving, so I'll unfortunately need to be skipped. It took me 7 hours, through rain, sleet, and snow to get here. Civ is not an option--6 year old computer with only 384mb of RAM, and an ATI graphics card ;). Oh, I'm also "dialing in" at 14.4 kbps. :eek: Where am I, 1995?

Speaker (Skipped)
Voodoocat (Up)
Skyfish
Snaproll
Angelus
Sebmono (Just Played)

(I think that order is correct. I'd go back to the previous page to check, but it took me 5 minutes to load this one :cringe: )

:banana: "Peanut butter jelly with a baseball bat!"

I'll get to it this week-end in case we dont hear from the Cat before that :)

I've got it today. Yesterday was quite busy as we were hosting our first thanksgiving for the family.

(1) 1530: Knight in Teo > starting on some catapult production.

(2) 1535: Military Tradition Discovered. Gunpowder is started. Cavalry due in 2 turns!
Bulgar completes barracks > knight, Kagoshima barracks > forge
Harkuf the Great Merchant arrives in Rome. 1900 gold received!

(3) 1540: Tlatelolco Maceman > Maceman, Teotihaucan Catapult > Catapult

(4) 1545: We discover Gunpowder and begin Replacable Parts.
Walata finishes Maceman > cavalry

(5) 1550: Golden Age begins as Timbuktu finishes the Taj Majal. Production changed to Cavalry. KS and Gao finish Cavalry. More of the same coming. Bulgar completes christian Temple and begins on a University. This is a pretty good science city. Might as well make it even better! Tlat finishes another mace and starts work on a Cav. Tenoch finishes barracks and starts work on some Muskets.

(6) 1555: Djenne completes the Univ and starts work on a Cav. Teo cat > cat. Texcoco finishes the lighthouse and starts work on a University.

(7) 1560: Replaceable parts completes and we start working towards Rifling
I go ahead and upgrade our knights to Cavalry.

Look at this culture in the barbarian world.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/Civ4ScreenShot0008.JPG

(8) 1565: Timbuktu cav > cav. I change the production in KS to westpoint. Teo cat > cat. Awdaghost forge > barracks.

(9) 1570: Gao Cav > musket, Teo cav > cav.

(10) 1575: Rifiling discovered and start work on Chemistry. Timbuktu Cav > cav, Tlat cav > rifle. Barbarian galley destroys our fishing boat Tenochtitlan. Walata cav > rifle.

Here's what the barbarian continent looks like. I think we should send over an army and start taking the continent. Some stone would be nice.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/Civ4ScreenShot0009.jpg

Looking forward, domination would probably be the fastest. With close to 20 cavs we should be ready to bring down a fury on anyone we want to at this point. We still have money to upgrade some units.




http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/RB2_AD-1575.zip

Looks like some nice troop buildup Sebmono and Voodoocat. Let's not forget to send along a couple settlers and workers for tactical maneuvers. And the Barb continent is a must capture. That'll help us toward domination significantly.

It's high time we "unleash the fury (Mitch)!" :hammer:

Speaker
Voodoocat (Just Pl