View Full Version : The Writers Epic


Jay
Dec 11, 2005, 10:34 AM
Welcome to my first CIV Story - The Writers Epic

First of all I would like to say I hope to finish this game and look back on it as an epic like I used to in Civ3 (Oh that Shaka!). Luckily I have two computers and I can type on this one and play CIV on the other, only problem is I cant transfer the screenshots to here at the press of a button unless I can redirect the screen saves to a USB :)

Anywho back to the game, and here is a simple list of the settings with help from info screen in-game during the first turn

Jay of ******
(*********, ********)

Monarch Difficulty

Standard World Size
Temperate Climate
Low Sea Level

Ancient Starting Era
Epic Game Speed


I chose a random civ as I am happy with anything I get, the lucky civ that is picked is *drum roll*

http://img359.imageshack.us/img359/3470/civ4screenshot00012cq.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Persia! Not sure if this is good or bad. A Review below on the civ as it greatly helps me in game…greatly. You can skip it if you want but im feel it to be interesting :)

http://img359.imageshack.us/img359/9427/flag6xs.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Persian Empire

Starting Technologies: Agriculture, Hunting

Unique Unit: Immortal (Chariot)

Leader: Cyrus

Trait: Expansive

Trait: Creative

Favourite Civic: Representation

Starting Techs:

Agriculture is a very nice starting tech at first glance but once I think about it I realise my strategy will involve a sprawl of cottages, not farms like my first 2 games were :D If there are flood plains spread around my starting position then agriculture will do wonders for me.
Hunting is one of favourite starters next to Mining most probably because I don’t need to research it to get to archery. And the bonus of that starting scout which I feel is always good on standard+ maps. Hunting gives the ability of camps which should help greatly if ivory or deer are nearby.

Unique Unit:

The Immortal, 4 Strength 2 Movement, +50% vs. Archery, 30% withdraw chance and all that for a cost of 25 hammers. While writing this I was thinking what a stupid unique unit, being only a stones throw away from the horse archer with 2 more strength how could I use it? The only upside I could think of is the fact against a archer they have equal strength but also a 30% withdraw chance gain on the HA (Horse Archer). Comparing cost I saw HA is 50 hammers and Immortal 25 (!) so this must be the upside, but is it enough? I hope so.

Traits:

Expansive is considered a fairly weak trait by others but it all depends on your starting position, if surrounded in high food tiles then that cheap granary will be great, plus there is +2h/city which is ok I guess but once environmentalism kicks in it’s a waste.
Creative! The beginners wonder, quick expanding borders made me happy on those first 3 games but im not so much bothered now, I was hoping to get industrious trait and try out the other aspects of the U.N (instead of Victory) but nonetheless I am happy without half speed wonders.


Here is the start position (finally)

http://img359.imageshack.us/img359/419/civ4screenshot00023fr.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Looks Good :D Although I don’t like the look of those desert hills to the east. Lots more grassland to the north I hope or a coast (predictions eh) after all the river goes that way hehe. Plains/Grassland to west and Desert/Plains to the south. Ill explore north just to get the coast filled in then I plan on expanding westward and northward. Whoa all this on a starting position, now I said all that im probably stuck on a island.

I settle on the spot and push my scout southward onto a hill to reveal the distant coast which i suspect circles around the west being there a indent of water in that direction. A goody hut is also 1 tile away and more cattle to the east. My First tech is mining and it takes a whooping 11 turns (epic i guess) after this will be animal husbandry so i can spot out some horses and hook up the cattle in my territory.

The First Turn

I have no idea what victory i should go for, maybe i should go by what comes along instead of saying 'right conquest' or maybe not....

To be Continued

CivFan91
Dec 11, 2005, 12:10 PM
Good start, actually. If you settle where you are, you can mine the hills and it seems that you can expand to the west and have more food-based cities. And if you are careful about health... well, those Flood Plains look good to me. I like. I like a lot. I'll be sure to lurk here; it's interesting.

Jay
Dec 11, 2005, 01:54 PM
Thanks for the feedback C3CFanatic, My next post (due tomorrow) will contain lots of answers of which way i should expand but also raise more questions :) leave you on that hehe

Jay
Dec 11, 2005, 03:11 PM
4000BC-2720BC

The Scout got 91 Gold from the hut and then I sent him westward to scout out the coast. Meanwhile Persepolis creates a warrior which according to the city is 21 turns away (22 during the first turn) :o but will grow in 10. after this warrior comes a worker of course to hook some resources up. 3840BC the scout reached the hill southwest of my town the turn before and sights yet another hut (oh and on the way he got 59 gold from ANOTHER) he walks into and gets a map showing a mass of land to the west! Woohoo!

http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/5163/civ4screenshot00006ir.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

There is ivory, gems, pigs, spices and some dye to the north of the circle the map gave me. I also spot the corn just east of my capitals borders so im plentiful with the food resources so I wont need as many farms and more cottages :)

3760BC and look who’s ugly mug pops up

Did have a screen but it not there :( I met Kublai Khan Anywho :)
He has a lower score than me but that’s just because of my expanded borders for now. Hopefully I will stay above him, I go for the peace option and let him be. The greeting came from the east and I see coast coming round on the south, if I found a coast northward can I trap him? Hopefully yes.

3680BC shows yet again another goody hut giving me 22 gold yet again. At least I know I was the first one there. The feeling of having all that land was short come when I spotted more borders of a similar colour to the far west. This ended up being Huayna Capac

I need to explore to the east but my scout is quite a distance away now so my second city will probably be southwest of my capital….1 west of the hill one would think. Mining comes to a close at 3560BC as also does the growth of my capital which helps my warrior’s progress by 5 turns meaning 6 turns until my first military unit. I take Animal Husbandry as my next tech for 16 turns and notice Khans scouts are everywhere around my capital, 1 south and the other north the cheeky Mongol. Now I have a 95% certainty he is from the east. The next objective of my scout is to find that northern coast! And then only 3 or 4 turns (which means ~12 tiles north from Huayna Capac borders) Roosevelt

3440BC (1 turn after meeting Americans) shows the discovery of Buddhism which reminds me about religion, my plan is to go along with everyone else’s religion and found a later one but not converting too it, causes so much hassle among the AI. As for wonders to I may try for pyramids depending on what position im in when I get to that stage :D

3320BC my warrior shows and then I go onto another being there only 6 turns for growth (size 2 now) and ill switch then to a worker. My scouts search for the northern coast are setback by attacks from wild beasts although I do know there is a hell of a lot of desert to the northwest. I change my mind suddenly with a reminder that I need to explore eastward and finish that warrior before going into the worker. And also you not gonna believe this. Alexander is here

2920BC and Animal Husbandry is complete and onto The Wheel!

Many turns pass with my scout going north…and north…and north now I am starting to think there is no northern coast. 2800BC and Hinduism is discovered by Huayna Capac and I may join that religion later on :) Then! Suddenly I sight blue to the extreme north! Its…its…Alexander’s Borders! OMG! Where the hell is this coast!

Then 2720BC! I walk past Alex’s Borders and finally that poor scout gets a drink of fresh (salty) water that make up the ocean. I can just about fit the journey on my screen.

http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/8009/civ4screenshot00047bf.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Oh and that warrior I got reached a large desert just over them eastern hills of my capital and then some grassland where Khan should be.

Well I think that will do for the update tonight

Here’s a Globe shot with civ locations

http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/7084/civ4screenshot00060oh.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Scores are as follows (2720BC):

Huayna Capac: 122
Roosevelt: 109
Alexander: 108
Jay: 96
Kublai Khan: 89

More to come

Panth
Dec 12, 2005, 06:15 PM
lurk: One of the advantages of the immortal is that it is a very cheap mounted unit. Good for recon, pillaging, and taking out settlers escaping with archer escorts.

Jay
Dec 13, 2005, 10:05 AM
2720BC-940BC

Hey People! What I realised when I approached 1000BC is that I really have no technology strategy at the moment as I didn’t want to concentrate on military. But not too much off it that I cant take Khan out later (or sooner). I was concentrating on economics techs for my workers but they almost all gone if not all by the time I finish this post.

Anyway the first turn I play after 2720BC the turn I left of my warrior (on a hill) gets attacked by 2 (!) bears which are 3 strength and is killed. Then my scout is killed by…you guessed it a bear. Now I only have 1 military unit in the game :( I concentrate on getting my second city sooner than I get more scouts out as I wanna stay in for score and also make sure I have a fair sized empire too.

2480BC and The Wheel is complete and next up is pottery for them cottages I have planned, it better be this epic speed that I feel so behind in tech or is it just the difficulty. Oh and for a notice this is my first Monarch game ever so I could be slaughtered :D I haven’t been top of the score list for a while either infact I haven’t since I met a 3rd civ. My Capitals borders expand and show lots of jungle north but I do sight 2 stacks of gems which could turn into a potential city being near a river too.

2360BC and finally my worker is finished and starts to hook them cows up so it is a 6 value tile (3 food, 3 hammers) which is a all round great tile. Next turn Judaism is founded and guess who switches to organised religion as well… Huayna Capac which means he has discovered Hinduism and Judaism. He is top of the score list too! Looks like a potential friend : )

Site for my second city southeast of my capital. This gives me the horses and pigs too which give 6 food when hooked up.

http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/7166/civ4screenshot00078qb.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

ECOMONIES PROGRESS: Worker Number: 1
Worker hooks up cows and onto the flood plain. Settler is started. Capital is size 4

The most cultural civs board pops up and im…

http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/7011/civ4screenshot00086aj.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

4th which is OK-ish but I am creative and have no religion unlike Capac

North of my capital I spot a REALLY nice spot for a city, its surrounded by jungle at the moment but if I settled there I could grab bananas, 2 gems, 4 sugar, ivory and cows

This is where all the screenshots are bunged up :D

http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/1306/civ4screenshot00096ys.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

1775BC shows archery being done and now onto fishing for a quick thing of 7 turns (as I said I need a strat for tech) and then I meet Frederick (Germans) located northwest. And also Isabella but I don’t know where she is yet. Later on (a couple of turns after this post) I also met Qui Shi Huang! Does everyone wanna be here?

2 turns later my second city is founded southeast of my capital, I feel too many pics plus the screen I have for it isn’t too informative. You will get a lot more out of the end of post globe shot. 1550BC and archery is finished and onto Bronze Working. Also Capac converts from Hinduism to Judaism as his state religion. Another settler is started soon enough in my capital so I can grab the spot north with lots of luxuries.

Empty turns with nothing happening really except an attack from 2 archer barbarians which took 2 warriors out and I defended 2 cities with 1 archer. I lernt they value killing people more than taking cities, arnt a lucky. He had a choice of walking into my empty city or attacking a archer will more strength than him anyway (injured).

1200BC and Susa is settled, next turn Alexander settles Thermopylae on the edge of my borders literally and my borders held their own :D Bronze working finished earlier and now Masonry to see if I can get in for the Pyramids.

980BC Masonry Finished And I notice this:

http://img457.imageshack.us/img457/1903/civ4screenshot00114fe.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

but unluckily he settled northeast of my capital so I cant trap him properly but no worries Alexander can take care of that. That’s this log for now heres a globe shot and scores. As you can see there is Capac to southwest, Americans to northwest, Germans north-north west, Alexander North and Mongols east.

http://img457.imageshack.us/img457/426/civ4screenshot00137nq.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

And scores:

Huayna Capac: 267
Frederick: 232
Roosevelt: 190
Jay: 190
Alexander: 169
Kublai Khan: 152
Qui Shi Huang: 139

I think im doing OK :)

(Dam Smiley and Image limit)