GOTM 09 Spoiler 1:

Reading Requirements

You must have a of the majority of the starting continent (know the cultural boundaries of other civs.
You must have reached at least 0 AD.

Posting Restrictions:

No discussions of events past 500 AD.
No screenshots of anything not on the starting continent.


How have you managed with this emperor-level game? Are you surviving, going strongly? Just holding on?

Entry class: Contender
Game status: Conquest Loss
Game date: 670 BC
Base score: 170
Final score: 270

Barbarian's Like Hinduism
My limited experiences on Emperor (ie, none) were shown when the barbarians started raiding my lands...

Founded Hinduism, and thanks to many fogbusting Quechas, had no problems with barbarians until shortly after building Tiwanaku near the Iron to the south. Patrolling Quechas and Archers did a good job keeping barbies at bay, until 2 axemen decided to show up. The first axeman came from the NE, and after killing my 2 archers patrolling the lands around Cuzco, he attacked the Archer on garrison duties in Cuzco. And the Barbarians had control of the Hindu Holy City... :blush:. Then another axe came from Tiwanaku's SW, and wandered in an undefended city after killing 2 Archers on the hills outside the city.

Ghandi and Caeser had no effect on my puny existance.

Hopefully I can do better next time.

I'm definitely not playing this one very well...

I don't like the leader much at all. I'm not usually a huge early war monger (I prefer a civilized war with catapults :D ) With an aggressive trait and the earliest UU possible, this civ screams for an early rush.

I gave it better than even odds that we would have another civ close by so we could use a quechua rush. I was hoping this was just another way of giving an improved starting location to temper the emperor setting. Obviously, this was wrong! It actually didn't change things for me much. I had decided that if I didn't run across a civ before the first Quechua was built I was going to abandon the rush and go for the CS sling.

Well nobody within a country mile of us, so off for the cs sling (although I did steal a worker from caesar. pissed him off for thousands of years and I couldn't get it back to my area anyway :wallbash: ). Plenty of research due to all the cottages on the floodplains. In fact, I got to CoL very fast and production was the major bottle-neck for the CS sling.

I was beat to the oracle by a good number of turns, so I had to rethink things. I decided to go heavy builder mode. Popped out 2 or 3 more cities (including one next to the iron to the south) and invested in enough military to keep the barbs at bay.

as of 500ad the biggest problem is I can't build nearly as fast as ghandi (score wise I am tied with caesar and about 60% of gandhi. My plan, such as it is, is to try and take cats + maces and thin gandhi a bit. I'll need to prioritize engineering because the war will be miles and miles away. I haven't yet figured out if I'm going to keep cities I take even. Hmm. Probably best to come up with a more concrete plan before acting lol.

Bottom line: Continents + all civs at least a millenium from the capital means Hyuayna has pretty much a wasted trait (aggressive) and a nearly wasted UU (yeah yeah helpful against barb archers, but how hard is it to research archery?). This fighting with 1 trait tied behind my back is hard!!


GS

This is my first real try at Emperor, but I've been decently successful at Monarch. I'm playing contender. And I'm planning on a cultural victory, which I've also never tried before.

I thought about harrassing neighbors, but aborted that plan when my first quechna was killed in the jungle by 2 panthers I couldn't even see. I settled in place, even after I saw the additional gold north. Not sure if that was best because it was quite a while before I put cities to work those other two golds. I founded Hinduism, built several Quechnas, a worker, and put my 2nd city next to the horses to the north east. I made hooking up the horses a priority which really helped against the barbs. At 500AD I had about 10 cities, three of which I took from barbarians, and I plan on building two more.

Interestly in the early AD's I got a message that a civ (I guess I can't mention) was destroyed on the other continent. It has me a little worried about what's out there. Was it barbarians? Is a civ running away out there?

On my continent, Caesar and I are about even in score. He settled all of the jungle with cities I can't think will help him at all. Ghandi has a decent lead on us, and founded Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Confucianism (I think, can't check now, maybe even Judaism). Point is, he's rockin' with the old time religions. Would be interesting if the other continent was all tao. I might have to make an effort to get my religion there.

I just got Islam spread to me, so my plan is to spread that around and build some cathedrals in my three cities. I'm picking the capital, the city I mentioned by the fish, corn and horses to the north east, and a city I built to the south, east of the iron which is working all the floodplains down there. I feel I have a better than average chance at winning, but like I've said I'm charting new territory for myself.

We've all been friendly on my continent. I've only been threatened twice. Both C and G are Buddhists. If I can get it spread to me I might switch, because Caesar thinks our close borders spark tensions. I have several open cities and don't know what's taking them so long.

Also, I've only built one wonder, the Hanging Gardens. I have a couple in the works, but I'm not optimistic. I don't think I'll need them.

Well, that was a rambling post...

I don't like the leader much at all. I'm not usually a huge early war monger (I prefer a civilized war with catapults :D ) With an aggressive trait and the earliest UU possible, this civ screams for an early rush.


I can't wait to if anyone tried an early rush. It seems to me the other two civs are too far away. I didn't even map out their territory until horse archers. Plus, I tried to take an uncultured barb city on grasslands defended with 2 archers, using a chariot and well promoted Quechna and my odds for the quechna were around 60%. I think you would need quite a stack, and I don't think it would help your game too much.

@ Azzaman: tough break with the barbs. I felt like I was walking the line with my troop strength, but the first axeman came fairly late in my game. I only had one tile pillaged, and that was when a barb spawned in a one tile fog of tundra to the north. I'm thinking Caesar was hit by barbs hard in my game because his starting position looks good, but he was lagging in score for most of the early game.

Like other posters, I was prepared for an early rush or at least a worker steal, but after 17 turns when my first quecha was finished and I had only seen a Gandhi scout and no sign of any cultural borders I abandoned that idea, and started building a worker. That I had as a focus point in this game - to have plenty of workers. I usually don't build enough and many of my cities after the first three are hampered initially by a lack of improvements.

Cuzco I founded 1 NW of the starting spot, not because of the extra gold (I went warrior SW with it's first move) but because I wanted to get one more city in that could use the floodplains and be a Commerce central, while the capital was to be more focused on production. It turned out there was plenty of Flood Plains along that river for both a Commerce city and a future GP Farm further to the SE (founded as 5th city at the only jungle free grassland spot along the river). Tiwanaku was founded N,NE of the Iron (Joy! I was getting nervous without copper!) and Macchu Picchu out at the eastern coast, slightly north of the captial, and Ollantayambo between the copper and iron to the NW from Cuzco. Those more northernly cities probably saved me from a lot of barbarians, not too many showed up and except for one situation where 4 archers approached from different directions simultanoeusly I was never in danger. That I managed to survive that attack thanks to the Quecha archer bonus, and actually never researched Archery (traded for it later).

Early research path was
Poly (wanted a religion, and got it)
Mining (gold)
AH (sheep for both Cuzco and Tiwanaku)
BW (copper, but no)
Wheel (hook up gold)
IW (needed metal - would have delayed this a bit if I had copper)
Then I went, in turn, for Monarchy (Hereditary Rule and wine), and the Alphabet (to be able to barter for some techs, primarily with Julius since Gandhi was running away a little in score) . I was consistently 100-200 points behind Gandhi in the beginning, with Julius comfortably behind me.

General targets after building my first four cities (including Cuzco) was a moderate-to-fast peaceful expansion to the jungle belt, building up my economy to keep up in tech, get Optics and find the other civs, then focus on a little military and start a succession of quick wars with Gandhi to eat up his territory a few cities at a time, using the fact that Gandhi is peaceloving and do not like long wars. I was not close to have a force ready at 500AD though, so that's for the future.

Barbs turned out to be much less of a problem than expected. After hooking up the Iron I quickly built a few axemen, who then had to sit idle for almost their entire existence. I had hoped to get a level 4 unit for HE from barbs, but that had to wait for a while.

Wonderwise I've built Hanging Gardens and Great Library, netting me a Scientist that built an Academy in Tiwanaku.

I returned to Civ4 and GotM at the end of June to be pleasantly surprised that a patch had come out removing chopping as the only way to play the game. Rushed in Junes GotM but this is my first write up since March and I'm back into enjoying this game and this monthly event :)

On to the game at hand. Well, I've never wanted to restart more because I played this probably as stupid as it gets. I committed to genocide, and was too bullheaded to back down just because they weren't within a thousand years march. The sweating began when I was already up to my 8th Quechua and I still hadn't found any enemies...

My god! How far was Ghandi! He was the first I found with Romans only a turn or so later. I stole Ghandi's worker but quickly realised the distance back home was well beyond range to bother. I kept it there instead and waiting for reinforcements to chain in, starting a second war and taking one of Rome's workers on the way, escorting it towards Delhi as well.

When the third Quechua arrived at India I pillaged all Delhi's resources and then struck Bombay yet further west taking it with the 4th arrival. Here, looking at that raze/occupy screen for 20 minutes, I made a crazy choice. I figured I had invested so much by now that it was all or nothing, so I occupied it taking on the chin the I think it was 12gp/turn distance penalty.

It was all or nothing now so I switched to maths intending on chopping an army at Bombay to finish the job (Delhis culture too high to do this with just Quechua). In the meantime, Ghandi made peace and I marched everyone over to Rome who was encroaching on Ghandi and took one of his new settled cities keeping it and then destroying another (his 4th and 5th) only to see Praetorians marching out of Caeser's 3rd city Cumae to my utter dismay. Time for peace with Rome!

I got maths as my research dropped below 50% from 2 distant cities and was struggling back at home with my 2 cities there inundated by barbarians, the undermanned army earning every coin of their pay.

I took a third city on the east side of Delhi just as Ghandi was linking up iron there, and built a settler in Bombay planting it for the iron on the coast far west of Delhi. See how stupid I am playing at this point!?! Mad chopping of axes and swords, I was quickly facing total bankruptcy. Rome kept spreading so I decided if I didnt cut them off now I was going to lose even if I recovered financially, so made peace with Ghandi and sent everything at Cumae which I could now see was Caesers only bridge to the mainland. I destroyed several more of his outlying cities adding to my coffers and took Cumae at a more reasonable man cost than I anticipated.

Then it was peace with Caesar and marching the army back to India to finish them once and for all. Ghandi went down to the veteren army fairly quickly now and I spent some time consolidating my forces and settling another city back at home. Here's how the scattered and ridiculously expensive empire was looking at 245AD:

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i127/MiseryMachine_2006/Civ4ScreenShot0015.jpg

Caeser's iron cut off, the final war on Rome went fairly quickly, with Rome itself captured on the final date of this spoiler:

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i127/MiseryMachine_2006/Civ4ScreenShot0016.jpg

As you can see Rome still got away with one settled city to the west. Without giving away much, I continue on from this point to finish him off (keeping that city too) and begin seriously spamming settlers and workers across the entire continent, now entirely mine, to where I am currently at which is around 1000AD...

I settled in place, and started churning out some quick quechas by using the forested hill, after making 3 I switched back to growing the city while the first guys went out scouting for the enemies, knowing that I was north of the equator I sent them all southwards, and the roman civ was soon found, put the first of the arriving quechas on guard outside Rome, waiting for something to happen, and soon a settler guarded by an archer came out.
Declared war, killed them, and escorted the new worker home, then fortified a couple quechas in the jungle outside Rome while I made a few more to actually get the city.

Due to the long distance, this took a while, and I lost one of the quechas, resulting in a settler+archer team breaking out of my blockade, and founding a city a few squares southwest of rome, actually a good thing, since it meant it was fewer defenders IN Rome when my army arrived.

Captured Rome, had some losses, so two more quechas arrived to take out the last Roman city, being on a hill with 2 or 3 archers in it, I needed some power, and finally captured and razed it. (not in game atm, not sure on dates etc).

Only after Rome was mine did I map out the rest of the surrounding areas, finding the Indians and (incredibly late) building a city to hook up copper, actually I got iron before copper, I captured 3 barbarian towns (and one later after this spoiler period), all fairly nice situated, and not needing razing.

Apart from one or two archers, and a chariot, I had nothing but quechas until very long into the game, the Romans was dead, and Gandhi wasnt exactly very threatening, I took his religion and traded some with him, and hes a good buddy.

Barbarians was actually an extremely minor problem for me, I did loose one or two quechas, but I never saw a barb axeman or anything mounted at all. The only higher ones was a trio of longbowmen in a city I captured later.

Loving this game sofar. I almost always practice with Inca on emperor, so this should be the game for me. But before I always played the Inca on Terra map, which is stacking the odds a lot more in favour of the Quechua's.

I also hope that this game will show to the GOTM staff that not all emperor games are equally difficult. In my opinion the previous emperor game had some deity qualities to it. And when they said "now we will do a game at Warlord-level because obviously many people are not ready for emperor" I thought it was in questionable taste. :mad: ;)

I made a funny mistake early on. I had seen the first Roman scout coming from the South-West. Then I saw the first Indian scout coming from the South-East. As I moved my Quechua's to the South-East, I encountered two more Indian scouts. Then I met a purplish city border and a juicy archer in grassland. I like to see beforehand what my odds in battle are, but then you have to declare war first. So I declared war on the Indians using the alt button and the list of leaders. Turns out the civ I had met was the Romans instead of the Indians, the Romans being dark-purple and the Indians light-purple. And they were in opposite spots from what I had assumed from the scouts. I still didn't realize what was going on, so when I wanted to attack the Roman archer and the question came "do you want war with the Romans" I clicked "no" and then it began dawning on me what had happened.

Luckily, being at war with a civ that I couldn't fight yet didn't hurt me too much. The next turn of course I also declared war on the Romans.

(uhm.. playing contender)

I took Rome from the Romans, which made them in effect Antiums, and made peace. I razed one Indian city and a lot later I managed to take Delhi from the Indians (the Buddhist holy city, in the beginning it had beaten Cuzco to Buddhism by one turn). Also made peace with what was left of the Indians. I needed them for trade and fighting the barbarians!

After that, my problem was that I didn't have any copper or iron. The Indian city that I had razed turned out to have had copper, but I didn't know that at the time. I should say that with the Inca's I never build any settlers. I was relying on something I read in the pregame discussion : that when you don't have mined copper or axemen (the details of this are a bit hazy) the barbarians won't have axemen either.

When the Romans built Neapolis next to iron, I had to first prevent them from mining it, and then take the city myself. After that it was very important that as soon as I had mined the iron, it would be available to far-off Cuzco. This worked out beautifully, because I researched Sailing just then, and Neapolis was by the sea and Cuzco on a river.

Phew to fase one. My next task was to race towards Optics, in order to meet more civs.

This is the first time Ive played at this level and the first GOTM. I regularly win on prince though.
I had no real strategy going in other than found Hinduism right away, which I did and find copper asap. My research order was:
Poly
Mining
BW
Wheel
AH
Fish
Masonry

My build order was
Quesha...then grow to size 2
Worker
Worker(chopped)
Settler(chopped)

I knew where I was on the map, but had sent my initial Quesha north to do a circle around so I would have a better idea where the first settler was going. When I saw the clams, I moved into that upper area even more. When BW came in and I saw the copper near the clams...it was an easy choice. So the second city...Tiwanaku was founded 1E of the copper and eventually had Copper, Iron, 2 Clams and Marble in the cross. I didnt have to waste time researching Archery because of the copper...that helped.

After I had pumped out some fogbusters and Axemen. I put out a few more settlers. Machu Pichu was the 3rd city being founded 2E of the Horse on the coast. It had Pigs, Fish and Horse in the cross.

Ollantaytambo followed next being founded north of Tiwanaku. It was founded 1W of the deer giving it Deer, Wheat and Crab in its cross.

The barbs had founded a city near the Gems. I sent a couple of axemen over there to get some XP until it grew to size 2. Took the city of Mauryn and kept it since it would have Gems, Pigs, Stone, Floodplains and hills. This would be a monster city.

I believe I ended up with 9 cities before 500AD. I never even tried Oracle or Stonehenge. With all the barbs, I never got a chance to go on the offensive and really couldnt see how it could be done till I read Armageddons post....well done dude.

Ghandi was Buddhist and the Romans were Confused....lol. He founded Confusedism. At this point, he had asked for open borders, which I conceded to. He sent a confused missionary to me. Within a few turns, he was annoyed....so I switched and became confused as well.

At this point I had 3 religions. So, I had to pick some sort of victory...didnt see Domination or Conquest as an option. Diplomatic?....I would never have enough. Space?...Ghandi was getting further and further ahead in techs and score. So it was at this point I decided to go for a Cultural win. I have no idea if its gonna work....especially after I checked out the requirement. Im used to 25000 points for cultural.....it was 75000...OMG.

I gotta tell you, at 500AD, Im not happy with some of the choices I made. The only upside is, I didnt lose 1 man or pillaging to barbs. I allways had the high ground or forest.

A disappointing start --moved quecha sw and then founded 1w. Went for Hindu and missed. Found Gandhi late and Caesar very late--lost my quecha going his way and he must have lost his scout coming to me.

Had not met Caesar and decided Gandhi was too far away for a quecha rush and went builder instead--tried CS sling and got it 985 fortunately. However, I had not gotten out a settler and this left me hammer poor basically all game. Got a rush of barbs that I mishandled and lost a newly founded city by the iron north. Not sure if it was because I was late to hook up metal but no axe barbs.

By 500 AD I am about to eliminate the barb threat to the north and teching along nicely although my expansion is slow and despite good relations with both almost no tech trading. So generally unhappy with the way I've played but decent prospects anyhow--not sure if it will be a later war or just a peaceful race. Am very curious to hear how the quecha rushers do--so far it seems pretty well.

Well this is definately the strangest game ofCiv i have ever played. Our start location had 5 floodplains, and a sheep and a gold. Then there were two more golds directly above our capital. Also, this is the farthest i have ever started from my opponents. I expected alot of barbs because of all the empty land, but I only faced 7 or 8 of them, and not a single axe!!

Anyways, at 500AD i have 8 cities, with one more just about to be founded. Benn completely peaceful, playing it safe because this is my first emporer game that isnt on a tiny or duel map. I think i am well on my way to a space victory.

My third GOTM, I'm normally doing alright on Monarch, but not quite up to Emperor standards, I picked contender anyway.

The plan

After playing a few test games with the same settings, I made a few decisions for this game. I won't be going for an early rush with quechuas or even attempt to steal a worker. It's too much of a gambit, besides, crippling a neighbour early would slow down tech research after alphabet, which is not a good idea on a continent map at that level. My qechuas will be used for exploring the immediate area, fog busting, and protecting my early cities since barbarians start popping soon on emperor. I could easily manage the CS slingshot in my test games, even a late one, so I'll try to pop a settler and a few units and go for that then research military techs and take over my nearest neighbour while I still can. Beyond that, I have no idea.

I will also grab either hinduism or buddhism, since the incans start with mysticism, I may as well ease my early expansion.

The starting position looks pretty promising, flood plains for cottages and food, a nice gold mine for early research, forests to counter the health malus of food plains, sheep and vines. Almost the perfect place. I see no reason not to settle in place, so I'll do just that.


The early years - CS slingshot

Hinduism or Buddhism ? Since most AIs seem to go for Buddhism, I pick Polytheism as my first tech, and begin a qechuas to let my city grow before a worker. After that, I'll research mining for the gold while I build a worker, then animal husbandry for the sheep and hopefully horses nearby for chariots. Following that, I'll research the wheel for roads, pottery for cottages, then most likely straight to Code of Laws for the slingshot while my capital builds qechuas, a settler then the Oracle. No Bronze Working yet unless I really have to (ie, if I find no horse and barbarians are too threatening), I don't want to chop because of health concerns, and pop-rushing is counter productive with cottages to work.

It all went according to plan:

3490BC Polytheism (founded Hinduism)
3220BC Mining
2740BC Animal Husbandry (horses spotted north-east)
2530BC The Wheel
2320BC Pottery
2140BC Priesthood
1900BC Writing. My settler founds Tiwanaku north east on the coast, near horses, corn and fish. Should make a half decent production city. It will build a few units for protection, and barracks.
1090BC Code of Laws (+Confuscianism)
1060BC The Oracle is built, Civil Service discovered.

Thanks to the few qechuas (and a couple chariots) strategically positionned to minimize fog, I had few barbarians to deal with.

I met Julius after a long while (thought I was alone at some point), it appears my civilization is in the northern part of the continent, separated from Julius by thick jungle. Amazingly, I wasn't behind him in score, he probably started surrounded by jungle. I didn't explore far south though, and quickly set my qechuas in a protective ring around my capital. My other neighbour(s) will find me.

I spotted nice areas for further expansion near my capital. Flood plains for cottage spam, stone SW, and marble NW.

The Bronze and Iron Age

Time to prepare for war, it's going to happen soon or later (though with all the jungle, rather late than soon). I'll research Bronze, then to catapults, iron working, and maceman. My two cities will produce workers and settlers, military units, as well as a library in my capital, which should keep me in the race along with bureaucracy. I'll delay alphabet a bit, not much point yet with just one neighbour contacted.

940BC Bronze Working. No bronze nearby I can see.
880BC Masonry
745BC Machu Picchu is settled on the cost south west, near the stone, flood plains, sheep, and gems just outside the fat cross. Should make a good commerce city. I'm building roads toward a barbarian city NW near the marble, and chariots to capture it. I'll soon find out there's copper there too.
715BC Mathematics
475BC Construction.
355BC Iron Working. Iron will be spotted next to the barbarian city.
325BC The barbarian city, Thracien, is captured, I thought the city would be razed since it was at size 1 but it just wouldn't grow and I was bored waiting. Turns out I captured it instead, weird. It's got copper, iron, marble, and 2x clam.
175BC Hanging Gardens built in my capital. That'll help with growth.
160BC Ollantaytambo settled north on the coast near horse, deers, and gold. I wanted to make it a production city, which was my first big mistake in the game, not enough food around to grow and mine the hills.
40BC Metal Casting
25BC Hindu Shrine built in the capital.

Circa 0AD, I still haven't been contacted by another civilization, I'm still ahead of Julius in score, he hasn't expanded toward my borders yet, and I'm starting to think it's just the two of us on the continent. I was foolish enough not to explore to find out. Big mistake as it'll turn out.

I have two commerce cities with my capital along with three peripheral cities, two of which with decent production, access to strategic resources including horses, copper, iron, stone and marble. Life is good so far. Maybe I should have shot for alphabet earlier though ...

Before the game started, I decided to attempt a cultural win. All of the test maps I played were geared towards perfecting an early strategy for a cultural victory. My goal: found as many religions I can and spread them among my cities. I wanted to build culture early through temples and monastaries (and eventually cathedrals) from all of my religions without revolting to one particular religion until I was ready to farm great artists.

Observing we were in the northern hemisphere, I moved the quecha SW and decided to move the settler N to eventually take advantage of the floodplains with another southern city. So I settled N and, to my surprise, found more gold. I focused on Hindu (and got it) then grabbed mining for the gold and rushed to pottery and writing. Pottery allowed me some cottages. After learning that Rome was too far south, and loosing my first quecha to animals in the process, I scouted NW of the capital and decided a city there would severely fog bust that penninsula. I founded my second city to take advantage of the marble, copper, fish, and (to my surprise later) the iron. I quickly researched Masonry and then founded the Jewish holy city. Having the marble, I rushed to build the Oracle and research CoL, thus founding Confucianism. I was easily able to pull of a CS-slingshot.

I then pushed for the Great Library in my capital and was succesful there too. I founded my third city to the E of the capital to take advantage of horses, wheat, and one other water resource. Then, I planted my fourth city to the S to take advantage of floodplains. All the while, I focused on founding more religions and spreading temples.

Since I'm not sure where this update puts me on the timeline, I save the rest of my discussion for the final spoiler thread.

Edited to add that I'm roughly equal in score with Ghandi and we're both miles ahead of Ceasar at this point in the game.

My initial plan was to use Quechas to steal workers and ambush settler, go quickly to iron working and rush nearby opponents with swordsmen. Focus on cottages around capital and settler 2nd city in good spot and third on iron (ignoring copper if possible) generally this worked though the nearest rivals were so far away that it worked a little differently.

Intial tech path was Poly (got Hindu)- Mining – Wheel – pottery – BW – Priesthood – IW

Build was Quecha - Quecha - worker - Quecha - Quecha – Settler


Sent first two Quechas SW and SE. Took a long time to find Gandhi and JC in south. Got a worker steal on Gandhi and use a third Quecha coming down to escort the worker back? Sent 1 Quecha on a pillaging raid on Gandhi which though it netted only about 40 gold, was very useful. I lost one Quecha to Gandhi and a second to animals. I made a big mistake not checking a barbarian archer, which actually was two archers and I lost my second city to the north near the gold.
Made peace and completed a settler ambush a bit later, again escorting the settler back.
I settled my third city near the iron, repopulated the second spot. Produced a bunch of swordsmen and crippled JC, taking Rome, keeping him off of iron and razing his second city. Made peace with JC and went back an attacked Gandhi again, this time taking two cities and razing a couple more.

Though I was not able to eliminate the CIVS in these wars it has put me in a dominate position on my continent at 500 AD. Now putting together cats and macemen and filling in the wholes that the barbs have filled. Cottages in the Cuzco have paid off and has me doing OK with tech though I would guess I am behind the other civs on the other continent.

I have built no wonders except the Hindu holy city.

I'll post an actual spoiler in few days, in the meantime i would like post those considerations:
1) OK, we got a good starting area for Emperor, but the northern side of our continent is poor of resources, or better not so varied.
2) the distance from our opponents is sideral, i've seen the posts of other palyers who performed a quechua rush ... good job, but i guess they'll pay it, and a big price for it.
3) I can't talk about the other continent in this thread, but just this (i hope is not spoiling, in this case i apologize): if our continent is hard to emperor level, the other one arises the difficulty to deity, no less ... i'm curious to read the other players opinions in next spoiler.

Only one note about my game:
i settled 1N for better health (less fp, more forests), not researched early religions, popped a goody hut :), one goody hut, could you believe? gave me some money.

Playing contender - 1st emperor game (aside from test games for this GOTM).

Early game summary: almost identical to Equendil`s (see his post above).

Slight differences: quechua moved N and as more gold was revealed I settled 1N. Focus on city growth to size 6 - 4 cottaged fp`s + 2 mined gold. Net result: playing OCC-like got an Oracle CS slingshot 1300BC. :goodjob:

My initial plans were like everyone else, steal a worker or maybe quechua rush if a close neighbor shows up. Not the case, they were too far away. :(

Even then, I tried to steal a worker but 2 quechuas were killed by animals or barbs while on sentry near the neighbors. So, our island remains peaceful as of 500AD. At least I could trade some tech from Alphabet which I discovered 850BC. Tech-wise I discovered Machinery 190BC (macemen!), and Optics 155AD. Not bad, but the settling of my land was too undeveloped, so the 1st caravel was still 2 turns to get ready at 500AD, as shown in screenshot. :blush:

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From Demographics screen I was 1st in GNP, but 5th land area, 6th Mfg goods and 7th pretty much everything else, but I guess there is still hope for me :rolleyes:

Barbarian activity much lower than in my test games. Up to 500AD I killed 18 archers, 7 warriors and 4 animals. Lost only some 4 quechuas, a chariot and a macemen (taking a barb city NW).

Contender

The highlight of my game so far was when our initial Quechua popped a hut at the south polar sea for 60 gold. He died on the way home.

Cuzco was founded in place. I think working a second gold would have been suboptimal for lack of food. It's a close call though.
In contrast to many others, I researched Animal Husbandry before Mining, which produced the CS slingshot as early as 1270bc. From there, it was a race with Gandhi for top score. He has more land but we have far better commerce. Rome is dead last on our continent.
I'll have to start building an army soon though, since the space between north and south is getting filled up now.

Technology
4000bc Agriculture, Mysticism (starting techs)
3460bc Polytheism --> Hinduism
3010bc Animal Husbandry
2740bc Mining
2470bc The Wheel
2260bc Pottery
2110bc Priesthood
1900bc Writing
1270bc Code of Laws --> Confucianism; Civil Service (Oracle)
1180bc Fishing
1060bc Bronze Working
910bc Iron Working
865bc Masonry
835bc Meditation
760bc Monotheism
625bc Monarchy
580bc Hunting
550bc Archery
505bc Sailing
385bc Alphabet
235bc Metal Casting
160bc Mathematics
55bc Currency
65ad Theology --> Christianity
245ad The Calendar (Rome)
260ad Literature
410ad Divine Right --> Islam
500ad Paper; starting on Education

Religions and Civics
2920bc Hinduism
1240bc Burocracy
595bc Hereditary Rule, Organized Religion

Cities
4000bc Cuzco (sheep, gold, 2 wine)
910bc Tiwanaku (2 clam, copper, iron)
760bc Machu Picchu (pig, fish, horse)
280bc Ollantaytanbo (corn, iron)
25bc Corihuarachina (crab, deer, marble)
80ad Tartar (pig, gems, stone) (barbarians)
420ad Scythia (deer, gold, horse) (barbarians)
In 500ad, 3 settlers are nearly done.

Cuzco
4000bc Founded in place
3670bc =2
3400bc =3
2950bc Worker
2680bc =4
2530bc Quechua
2470bc =5
2200bc Worker
2110bc Quechua
1870bc =6
1270bc THE ORACLE
1210bc Quechua
940bc Settler
900bc Quechua
775bc Settler
685bc Worker
565bc Granary, =7
400bc Library, =8
310bc Settler
250bc Swordsman
205nc Quechua
175bc =9
85bc Hindu Missionary
70bc Quechua
55bc =10
20ad Forge, Great Prophet -> Kashi Viswanath
50ad Quechua, =11
140ad Aqueduct
170ad Hindu Missionary
200ad =12
290ad Market
455ad Academy (Great Scientist from Machu Picchu)
470ad THE GREAT LIBRARY, =13
500ad Working on the National Epic

My official game ends quickly
Discover the 2nd gold square.
Settle Cuzuco 1NW to work both squares
build 2 or 3 Quechas
worker
settler.
Tech: Poly, Mining, Bronze Working, Masonry, Wheel, Animal
Found 2nd city on river to south, bad health because of swamp and FP, so it builds a worker.
Cuzuco builds 1 more Quecha than starts on Stonehedge
Beat of a couple barbs, than Archer makes a beeline for Cuzco, despite
100% archery, 25% city, 60% culture, 25% fortify Archer overcomes 3 to 6.2 odds takes Cuzuco.

I quit.

Started a 2nd unofficial game, will post on that soon.

contender

I settled one north after seeing the second gold. I found Rome and India but as no immediate worker steal presented itself, I brough the Quecha scouts home to fog-bust.

Creating my second city at the really great copper/clams/marble and later iron spot was a no-brainer despite the extra distance.

So times it is better to be lucky than good. I was a little slow getting my fog-busting network up and had a close call with a barb axeman vs archer for my capitol.

I didn't do anthing spectacular in this game. No CS slingshot or major wonders. I used my early military to capture a couple barb cities to the south. I had the military to attack my neighbor but held off due to the maintenance costs.

Results: A pretty lackluster start with me behind in score and tech. The issue is still in doubt. ;)

Pictures:
1) my close call;
2) the northern half of my fog-busting network. (I didn't have a single barb from the north after the first one. I had the very little problem from the south either as I had a similar network there.)

This is my first game at emporer (apart from a couple of practice starts on a file of my own construction to get the feel of it before opening the real game) but I'm playing contender.

My main goal early was simply to survive until AD, and see where I'm at, and what I can do. Not a high goal, but I've achieved that much...

Being well warned by the pre-game discussion that barbs would be a serious issue, I went military, military, and dug in to live through it.

Initially, hoping to find what is often the case and see several gold together, I moved the quechua 1N and spotted the second gold, so moved the settler 1N and settled there to get two golds in, without losing the sheep.

Tech-wise early, I went mining-hunting-archery-wheel-BW-AH-horse riding-writing-alphabet. Mining didn't need to come in that early since I didn't have a worker to work the gold for a little bit anyhow. I was wanting archers to deal better with barbarians, and hoping there might be copper nearby. When I found no copper and spotted the horses near Cuzco, I went that way and the horse archers turned out very valuable indeed. I deliberately steered clear of founding religions, and I've also resited converting when religion found its way into my empire. I wanted the other civs getting ticked off at each other, not me.

Early exploration was all over the place - my initial Quechua suffered two panther attacks and one lion attack within two turns, the third attack killing him. Other quechuas I got out finally located Caesar and Gandhi, but I didn't have the grunt to take out a city with a quechua rush I judged, and besides, my calculations of the maintenance costs were kind of scary. And on top of that I was bent on playing conservatively to survive and see what happened remember?

My early builds were Quechuax2, Archer, barracks, archer, worker (whipped), archer. I got the gold and sheep online, then hooked up the horses to the east of Cuzco just nicely one turn after reaching horse riding, and started pumping out horse archers.

I did not build settlers early. I was just about feeling like I could branch out with a settler or two in 1200BC when the barbarians started coming in hoardes. I had fog busters out, but that just meant I met them further away. I had hill defense promoted archers sitting on the gold mines and the sheep pasture, so they survived without any plundering, and all barbarians died without inflicting and serious damage, but it was pretty constant for nearly 1000 years from 1200BC and I didn't get much else done.

I found just one hut to the south east of Gandhi's area and scored 102 gold from that (owee!!) and that kept my research at 100% for a while longer than otherwise.

I got alphabet ahead of Gandhi and Caesar and that was useful for a while, picking me up quite a few of the techs I'd skipped.

If I'd gone for an oracle slingshot, I probably would have got it if I'd survived the barbarians as well as the Oracle wasn't built until 520BC in my game. I was expecting it much earlier.

My second city was Saxon, a barbarian city to the south west of Cuzco near the stone and gems and flood plains down there. Once I got horse archers coming out, I sent them down there and stormed that city in 280BC, then turned them north to take out Zhou in 130BC, another barbarian city built on the copper and iron to the north west of Cuzco. Around 200AD I settled Tiwanaku north of Cuzco within range of the third gold, the deer, furs and horses, then about 400AD I took out Ghuzz, another barbaian city to the south east of Cuzco. I have just those five cities at 500AD.

Techwise I'm up with Caesar and Gandhi, and "power"-wise also. Caesar has praetorians all over the place though so I'm not about to take him on until I have maces and cats. I have construction, but not yet CS or machinery at 500AD.

So I achieved my first goal for the game, surviving to AD, I have a small empire with several really good commerce spots, so maybe space race victory is on the cards. I'll need more space first though I think, so war with Gandhi or Caesar may be necessary to put me in the hunt there. Cultural victory is out of the question, and domination and conquest are looking difficult given the obvious advancement of the civs over the sea (judging from religions founded and wonders finished) Time is very unlikely at emporer unless all the other civs hit each other over the head so hard so often that they never research enough techs to bulid space ships.

So I might see what I can build in the way of an economy, then see if I can cripple Gandhi or Caesar a bit and get myself a bit more territory/hammers/commerce and see where I get to then...

I started by moving the quechua SW, discovering a second sheep that I had confidently predicted would not be there in the pregame thread. Settled in place anyway, and started on mining for BW, and a quechua.

In 2800 BC, having met Gandhi and Caesar, I found Rome, with a unescorted worker outside. So I declared, and eventually got the worker home. I sent more quechuas to Rome, and ambushed several archers in the forests outside the city. I discovered a second city on a hill to the SW, which made it too expensive to attack. While I blockaded Rome, the second city sent a settler to the iron. By this time I still had not found the copper, so went for IW, and realised the danger of Cumae supplying iron to Rome. So my efforts went on taking Cumae, and sealing Rome off from the rest of the continent. But three quechuas with 60-70% odds each were not enough.

So the war with Rome continued without a break for a long time, as Gandhi extended a lead.

In 1060 BC, my focus on Rome cost me my second city. Two barb archers closed on Cuzco, so I moved my only other quechua over from Tiwanaku (by the horses) to help. A barb warrior appeared by Tiwanaku, and I could not get back in time to save the city.

In 940BC it got worse. I was one turn from CoL, and 2 from the oracle, when it was built in a foreign land. But I still got to CoL first.

Later I lost a quechua blockading Cumae to a scout, and I was then removed from the iron. So I made peace, to await macemen.

By 500 AD I was last in score, despite crippling Caesar. Gandhi lead by a considerable margin. I barely knew where Gandhi was, and was needing to use my new macemen to finish off Rome, and then turn on the pacifist.

Once again, I need to wait for overwhelming force before attacking cities, rather than hoping that I can scrape though.

------------------

This is the first time I've played on Emperor (I think I've got the hang of Monarch level now). I'd read so many scare stories about hordes of axe-toting barbarians that my start was fairly cautious and in many ways quite confused. Bizarrely, I don't think I saw a barbarian axe-man near my borders.

Despite seeing the extra gold to the north, I founded in place as it had more food available. Early builds were mostly quechas. My research path was

Mining
Animal Husbandry
The Wheel
Bronze Working (my fairly brief notes have several swear words here as there wasn't any bronze in sight. I had almost discovered the copper in the Northwest but my wandering quecha had been killed by an archer nearby. That's been my only combat loss so far)

Hmmm. No copper, and potentially lots of axe-wielding barbarians due to appear any moment. I pondered whether to go for hunting->archery and horse-back riding or iron-working. Going for horses would have been the safe option, but it was also somewhat out of the way on the tech tree. In most games, I end up trading for archery and horse-back riding. With Caesar about, I decided I would want iron to build crossbows sooner rather than later, so went for iron.

Iron working. Hooray, the gamble paid off; there were two lots of iron in view. I founded my second city 4S of the capital, near an iron deposit. At this point I made sure I had a few axemen to defend my territory... which seemed to deter the barbs from coming near me... erm, I think I was lucky not to be attacked much, though it did mean I couldn't get a unit up to 10XP for the Heroic Epic.

Writing. It was after researching this that I realised I hadn't researched pottery yet... ooops.
Pottery. Essential for getting lots of lovely commerce from my first pair of cities.

After this I stopped taking notes.

I had decided not to go for a religion, though I could have founded Hinduism, I think. Gandhi got Buddhism and it quickly spread to Caesar. By 500AD, both of them were Buddhist but not a single religion had spread to any of my cities :eek: despite having open borders for ages. If I can get Buddhism, we can all be happy and peaceful and share techs without fear...

By 500AD, I've founded 6 cities and taken one from the barbarians. The barb city was between the sheep and copper in the North... could have been much better placed as it missed one of the clams, but in the end I decided to keep it. I founded Huamanga at a fairly poor site in the North to grab the deer and fur (no religion so I really need more luxuries). There's room for one more decent city up there, by the crabs, wheat and marble... after that, I expect all my new cities will be in the South. I've got my eye on the flood plains in the Southwest as a great site for a commerce powerhouse.

The worry is that I'll be unable to expand much further South. I need a few more cities if my tech pace is to keep up with the AIs.

I've not built any wonders or got any great person points yet... I figured I wouldn't stand a chance with the early wonders so I didn't try to build them. I'm looking to build the Hanging Gardens in Cuzco once the stone is hooked up. Hopefully this'll generate a great engineer in time to build the Great Library (my "crutch" wonder).

I'm ahead of Caesar on points, and we're on good terms at the moment, which is handy as I'm pretty sure he has iron hooked up. Gandhi is well ahead of both of us though. I don't want to disturb the peace on our island in case the other continent streaks ahead... so it's looking like an attempted spaceship launch, with Gandhi likely to be my opponent.

Screenshot from 260AD (the turn I captured Khoisan and founded Huamanga)
134905

Only my second real Emperor game (first was the previous GOTM), and I still am not very comfortable at the level. After much testing, I came to two important conclusions:
1. The CS slingshot is at least a 75% proposition with this map setting.
2. I need a good tech start, or once I am contact with civilizations on the other continent, I am hopelessly behind.

These two observations convinced me to attempt the slingshot, so off I was…

I founded in placed and stared on Poly for a religion which I got and followed this up with AH for the sheep. First builds were a pair of Quencha, and along with my starting Quancha, these ran into scouts from Rome and India. Did not find their actual cities until much later, long after I had abandoned any thoughts of a worker steal or quench rush.
After AH came mining and pottery, timed with a pair of workers to begin rapidly hoking the resources, and building cottages. A few more Quench were built while I research Priesthood and Writing, on route to a straightforward CS slingshot, which I completed in 1120 BC. After that, I founded cities near the horses, and in the SE floodplain as a future GP farm.

By 500 AD, I am struggling along at 2nd in score, but am at least in touch of leader Gandhi. I still have the tech lead thanks to being first to CS and alphabet, and of course, having not yet seen anyone from the other continent, I have no idea how I am faring in the greater scheme, so only time will tell.

This is my first GOTM and my first epic emperor, the other emperor-games were on normal speed and I sucked. Although I was quite successful in monarch, so I'll try contender. I wrote this down while playing.
4000 BC
I decided to settle on this plains/hill for the bonus and build my first city for the gold.
3490 BC and I missed hinduism for 2 turns. Till now I was quite sure the AI researches buddism first...did they change that in the last patch? They discovered it before buddism!
Anyway, I immediatly switched to Mining+BW.
My worker is ready in 2 turns. I built him to farm the floodplains. At least for the moment... later I'll spam cottages.
Next stop: settler, so I have to take care of my one and only Quecha. ^^
2980 BC
my Quecha was eaten by bears! Tip: Don't scout the northwestern woods, they're doomed!
2500 BC
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads12/airnygotm09screen00.jpgI build my 2nd town near the gold and discovered BW, so I could see the copper in the doomed forest. I have to think:"Was this evil thing planned by the mapdesigner?" Next tech is the wheel.
2470 BC
first barbarians encountered! I never played emperor on epic and only some starting games on normal speed (which I lost quickly). But I'm prepared cause I produce Quechas in both cities.
2170 BC
The Quechas are ready and I defeated that barbarian warrior. I work the gold now and my worker speeds my 2nd settler up.
1990 BC
pottery is coming in 7 turns, my settler is ready earlier and I'm thinking of a nice destination. Seems as if I will go further away from home. Directing south should protect me some territory against the enemies. Btw my 2nd city is great! It built Quechas and will now expand to size 2 with a barracks in progress.
1780 BC
phew! the archer decided not to enter my settlement. I hope the citizens of Macchu Piccu don't get too sick. It's all for the money!
1750 BC
I go for writing-alphabet. I just realized I won't get any early wonders, its too late for that. So I'll try to expand like hell! After I got alphabet I won't need/have much more research for a while.
1240 BC
Stonehenge was built somewhere and Writing finished last turn. I can get 80-90%research and got alphabet in 26turns. Met with Ghandi (HE has hinduism) and Caesar, made open borders of course. I was surprised they only have 2 cities.
1090 BC
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads12/airnygotm09screen02.JPGI built my next city near gems+stone. My research is down now, but only till I get gems and a road.
985 BC
omg, I almost lost the game! There were 2 warriors 2 squares from my upper unprotected towns and I only had ONE hurt warrior. So I switched to slavery and pop-rushed 2 Quechas. Cities saved, economy hurt.
850 BC
I didn't scout AIs' borders yet but an barb axeman visits me... they are a big trouble for me!
730 BC
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads12/airnygotm09screen03.JPGIs this "barbarian invasion"? I had 2 Quechas with +35%vs.melee protecting against that axeman. The first died ofc but the 2nd had an attackchance of ~64% but I even fortified. In 6turns I got alphabet, till then I'd have only Quechas IF I continue this game... btw it was again an attack from the doomed woods!

I made a lot of mistakes this time... these self-reporting games are educational! ;)

PS: Sorry for the german language...I'll change that next time.

I played in Adventurer, as I've barely moved up to Prince with a win or two there since just buying Civ4 a few weeks ago, and an Emperor game would be a bit beyond me.

While the extra bonuses helped, I suspect that I should have scouted a bit more with my second settler, as after scouting a bit I discovered a few much better city sites farther away from where I founded Cuzco east of the northernmost sheep tile. I didn't try for an Oracle CS gambit as I was scared of a) barbarians and b) losing out due to a tech race, but after my current position I feel that I should have at least tried. I don't think an early rush would have worked very well as animals/barbarians killed about five of my early scouters, even on the best forested hill terrain.

I kept the area behind me to the north busted with plenty of Quechuas, and scouted the entire starting continent, including Gandhi and Caesar's land in about 185 AD (no fog left.) I managed to keep up in tech, mostly by researching 'side paths' until about the time of Optics, at which point Gandhi ran away with the building scheme - his stacks and stacks of wonders, religion (it took a while for it to spread for me, as I didn't go for an early religion, feeling I'd be out-teched), and developed land flattening me in GDP.

Tech path: Animal Husbandry -> Wheel -> Pottery -> Archery -> Bronze Working -> Masonry -> Monarchy -> *. Going here for resource discovery/improvements/barbarian prevention, and finally happiness.

In my game, the Oracle was built and Confucianism founded in 1000 BC (in 'A Distant Land.) I'm not sure if I could beat that on my own - I tried to balance military tech to deal with barbarians and Caesar, who likes to smack me around or at least try to in most single player games if I don't garrison my cities respectably. The barbarians for the most part weren't allowed to menace my cities, with me finding strategic hills for them to bait them with a nice quechua/archer cmobo, but I probably spent too many resources fog-busting, and I poured way too much into attempting to take a barbarian city next to my coastal pig source. I'm curious as to whether people who went for CoL slingshot rather than early cottages/worker development succeeded for the most part.

In summary, the early bonuses helped me a lot, but I failed to balance early expansion with barbarian prevention and tech progression well enough at this difficulty level. Having access to an early religion (Judaism didn't spread from Gandhi to me until after 0 AD) or tech lead in at least one direction would have helped me get a military advanced enough to make a dent in Gandhi or Caesar. More on that in the next spoiler - as it stands at 0 AD, I am slightly behind in tech, but massively behind in terms of overall population and infrastructure in city buildings. I think he managed to get massive libraries online, as at a certain point in the game he just jumps way up in research and stays there, able to research every available tech line before I can trade away techs, even the lesser researched ones.

Its 640bc and I'm 5 turns from Code of Laws. I expect to found Confusianism. I founded Hinduism, but its not spreading as I'd like it. My initial build was Quecha, barracks, Quecha, worker, Quecha. I explored south and met my neighbors. Julius is in a jungle and is expanding slowly. Gandhi is in a better area and expanding quickly. I stole a worker from him. The resulting war was settled before the worker was escorted home. Unfortunately, the escort, 2 star Quecha, was killed by an unpromoted barb warrior while he was on a jungle hill only a few squares from home. Ack. I was tempted to reload. If it wasn't a GOTM, I probably would have. I done know the odds on that battle, but I think they should have been in my favor. I only have two cities at this time. A settler is headed to the copper. I needed to exterminate a barb city first. Another barb city has cropped up to the west. That's OK. You can guard barb cities. I've built enough Quechas, and I hope to have copper hooked up soon. I like the map. I think I can spread out comfortably and get enough resources to be OK. I don't plan on building into the jungle very much. I'm hoping that J and G will squabble over that land.

My notes are sparce until 1100ad, so I'll pick up in the next spoiler.

Playing it safe for an early tech lead is my strategy in this - my first - GOTM. Having played emperor for the last eight months, I’d learned that continents games often have their own dynamic: As I wrote in the pregame-thread (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=179408&page=8), “you may well dominate your continent early, but to win the game, you need be stronger than the guys on the other one as well. And if they are harmoniously researching and trading while you are bashing each other's heads in, you will be locked out of the tech-trading game by the time caravels show up.” With this in mind, I stayed well away of founding religions, building wonders and trying anything that might make potential early trading partners into enemies and focused on riding out a conventional tech-lead to be first to caravels, contact the other civs, trade more tech and find out what kind of game was shaping up for the second half as early as possible.

The starting loco with its rich supplies of food and hammers, plus gold was ideal for a conservative builder start. I explored NE, found the gold and settled 1N – kind of an odd location and probably not ideal, but I wanted to have both gold mines, ample food supplies to work the mines and minimise low-yield tiles further out.

My first build was a worker, to irrigate and mine; my tech-path BW – wheel –pottery for early gold hookup and maximum growth. Meanwhile, my quechua swung round my city in a semicircle to the north , then went south along the hills and coast to the east. It soon dawned on me that this was not your typical emperor start, with so much empty land and no other civ in range. I met Ghandi in 3070BC, but didn’t make contact with Caesar until 955 BC, because my early exploration stopped along the jungle belt, where I withdrew my quechua along the eastern coast for fogbusting.

Around 2500 BC, my capital was at pop 3, my worker had set up two floodplain farms, and a goldmine while my city had churned out three Quechuas in succession. I got my first settler underway, aided by chops. Research was focused on writing, for open borders and a library. Meanwhile, my four quechuas were out fogbusting and exploring the north where, much to my relief, I found copper and thus a site for my second city. Barbarians were never any issue; I stuck to the hills and picked my battles; didn’t lose a single unit until 400BC.

The settler came out in 2080BC (next builds: granary, library, both with poprushing), Tuwanaku was settled - on what later turned out to be the iron lot -in 1990BC (build: obelisk). It’s cultural expansion in 1270BC allowed me to connect the copper by 1060BC. Meanwhile; I built one more workers and a barracks in Cuzco, to get an axeman and answer the barb question once and for all. After writing and open borders, I threw in fishing to be able to work the coastal ressources for Tiwanaku, then went on to research Alphabet.

In 955, I traded Caesar mysticism for hunting, the wheel and writing for animal husbandry; then Ghandi pottery and bronze working for archery one turn later. I think this is probably my personal best for early tech-trading on emperor. Cuzco was at size four, working two FP-farms and two goldmines for a whooping 31 beakers/turn. My peaceful atheistic tech strategy was working out: I continued down the religious path and got to monachy in 565BC, which I traded Caesar for iron working; making him pleased due to fair & forthright trades.

Also, I founded Macchu Picchu on the corn to the NE and builT an obelisk to capture a maximum number of ressources, which are noticeably scarce on this continent. Also, I want port-towns on both coasts, to get my caravals off in both directions and hopefully nab me the circumnavigation bonus.

Rather embarrassingly, I then losT my fourth city down the river to an axeman, one turn after settling. I felt so secure with barbs that I decided to chance founding with the garrison trailing two steps behind the settler – stupid and unnecessary, but fortunately I am so strong and far ahead in tech that I can take the hit. For revenge, I took over Cehalis, a barbarian settlement down SW with access to both floodplains, hills and some bonus ressources in 5 AD and razed Khoisan to the north.

Tech-wise, I researched up to COL, then metal casting and finally, to compass (40AD). Conveniently, Caesar converts to judaism in 235BC, while Ghandi stays buddhist. This is what I have been hoping for: Let’s you two fight …. hehehe. In 140AD I offer Julius COL and metal casting for a war on Ghandi, and he accepts. This is perfect, as Ghandi has been spreading quickly across the south and Julius is danger of falling behind. What I want is for both of them to burn units so they emerge equally weak and quarrelling for a long time, while I pull further ahead.

In 320AD I traded compass for mathematics from Ghandi, then discovered CS in 410 and revolt to bureaucracy. With the founding of a further settlement down the river, my empire is now up to five cities. Thanks to the whip, they are all equipped with granaries, some with libraries, forges and all are pushing for courthouses. I am trailing in score, but my neighbours are far behind in tech and at each others throats while I am gunning for machinery and, finally, optics. I expect to set out to the far shores in the late 500s and look forward to more trade, and finding out who I am really up against soon.

EDIT: Some typos

Jorunkun,
Looks like you had really good non-warmongering start short of losing that 1 city.

See how stupid I am playing at this point!?! Mad chopping of axes and swords, I was quickly facing total bankruptcy. (...) Here's how the scattered and ridiculously expensive empire was looking at 245AD:

Come on, be easy on yourself - you pulled off the most successful early rush posted so far. Wouldn't have thought this possible, to be frank, so congrats.

Since I played a strategy diametrically opposed to yours (peacful building and gunning for tech) I will be interested to read your next post, see where you stand once the other civs are found.

Bonne chance,

J.

Jorunkun,
Looks like you had really good non-warmongering start short of losing that 1 city.

Thanks, I guess I did - but then the lay of the land and great distance to JC and Ghandi helped a lot. I like playing it safe, especially when the starting loco allows for it so conveniently as this one did. The barb capture is unforgiveable though - I pride myself on my barb management skills and haven't lost a city to them in ages, so this really hurt.

Really looking forward to the writeups in part 2 - some surprises ahead methinks ... ;)

J.

As of 500 AD, I sit with the world's best economy.

I settled to get 2 gold mines, which was very useful in getting an early religion, and began a quecha rush by heading south and east. Hello JC. Goodbye JC.

The pivotal point that I an recall was my quechas finding JC quickly and eliminating him when he still just had Rome. I had enough quechas left over that I was able to destroy G's capital city and worker-steal, which crippled G alot.

I expanded very slowly, as I found I did not have to rush things since I had crippled one opponent and destroyed the other. My research stayed between 50-50% and according the the demographics screen, I was tops by 500AD. Let's see if I can hold this.

I was also very lucky in that I produced my first HA with a barbarian axeman 2 squares from my capital.

It continues on. I really did not help myself much in this time period by weakening the other civs as I fought back massive waves of barbs. However, things calmed down as G settled more. The barbarian hordes left me with massive amounts of experienced HA's, Q's and Archers. Q's upgrade to macemen...hehehe. And barbs were just founding cities at 500AD, and well, they're founding them right where I would have settled.

I've yet to meet anyone else from the other continent, but I am hopeful that with a continent of my own, when the time comes to strike, I shall be ready.

I built the Oracle for the MC sling, and founded buddhism

Interesting to read these posts. I have played the game quite differrently from, and not nearly as well as, many.

I thought going for the Oracle and the CS slingshot was too big a gamble (which it seems it wasn't), and then I both failed to found a religion and to apppreciate the utility of getting to Monarchy quickly (and with it Hereditary Rule). As a result, I was unable to grow my cities. On top of that, while I was congratulating myself for keeping the barbarians in complete control, one of their galleys came by and pillaged two crab nets from a critical city (and I need all the growth and commerce I can get). Never had the barbs do that to me before. Is that just my inexperience?

Now I find myself ar nearly 500AD with the Romans eliminated and the Indians weakened, but I am a long, long way from Astronomy. I have no trading partners, and I am still without both Metal Working and The Calendar (and all those expensive techs that must follow). As I do every game, I will try to dominate the world, but that is going to be a real challenge from here.

Hi all,

I have split this spoiler in chapters, and hided them in spoiler tags to keep this post from occupying too much space. After playing a couple of trial games (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=4342793&postcount=105) to work out how to play the first 100 turns, I loaded the contender save with the aim to achieve a very early CS slingshot (never tried before).

First Contact

Gotm-09
Emperor – Incas

History of Erkon Capac

4000 BC – (turn 1). I decided to settle the original spot and the map opened up a bit. The arrows on the resources points to the south so my capital is obviously up north, according to a previous post. It was tempting to move Quechua NW to open up the map further, but I will just have to wait for the border increase in about seven turns… I decided to move SW to the hill and hopefully the map will provide info on future movement. It is vital to find the A.I. asap in order to steal his worker…

3970 BC – (2). At first glance, the extra squares did not reveal anything of value. However, after squinting hard on the screen, I noticed water with waves to the NW. The sea? I choose to turn towards the SE instead…

3760 BC – (9). Border expanded, revealing more gold! And pigs to the east. My Quechua has move further south, passing by a lot of flood plains and entered the jungle. Coming closer to the equator. I prefer to move on forested hills since the animals will show up any turn now. A pure diagonal movement would reveal more squares, but I don’t want to risk being attacked by a Bear!

3700 BC – (11). First lion to the north of Cuzco. I’m not worried though, animals won’t enter my cultural boundary. A thought just occurred to me: if I have sea to the west of my capital, it will require less soldiers to protect.

3670 BC – (12). Met Caesar, who invites me to Rome for salad. Well, I can’t resist that offer! The scout came from the south, so I will keep moving that way. And the river, which my Quechua is standing at flows to the west into what appears the sea. My capital had a pop-inc, and I changed the worked tile to 2 flood plains. I need to get to size 3 before building my worker. Since the Romans have a very strong iron-based soldier, I will have to choke him more than I had initially planned. This may have an impact on the tech trade later. But I can’t let him grow as fast as he would do with his expansive trait. Well, when I find out the distance between our capitals, I’ll decide on the tactics. If I can postpone a war with him until I have maceman, I’ve got the upper hand.

3640 BC – (13). Continue south and it’s apparent that I’m close to the west coast of the continent [This was wrong as I later found out]. A rice resource has the arrow pointing north, so the Romans can’t be so far away now. Perhaps they settled on the east coast? Time will tell. 3 turns to Buddhism. In all my test games, the A.I. founded Buddhism this turn or more than three turns later. But the turn isn’t over yet.

3610 BC – (14). Blast! Buddhism has been founded in a distant land! At least it was not Julius.

3580 BC – (15). Met Gandhi. He stole my religion! This complicates things. From whom should I attempt to steal a worker? I need to learn more about the difference between these two civilisations… … <half an hour later> … Gandhi will probably build wonders if possible, while Julius will build soldiers. If Gandhi is free to expand, he will become very advanced. That means that he’s a good tech trade partner. Julius on the other hand, may be very upset if I DoW him, and will not trade tech. If I have the choice I will choke Julius then. Rather a advanced peaceful neighbour than an aggressive neighbour. And if I get Confucianism, I’ll send the extra missionary to him. If he agrees on open borders… I also noticed waves to the east. Could that be the east coast? Then the continent is four squares wide at the middle…

Attempting to steal a worker

3550 BC – (16). Meditation complete, mining next.

3460 BC – (19). Gandhi follows me to the SE. Perhaps he’s not from the south after all? I notice the Roman border to the east.

3370 BC – (22). Quechua complete, worker next. Cuzco just became size 3. Everything is proceeding according to plans (except the worker-steal, which I hopefully can do in a couple of turns). I’m sending the new Quechua to the east to find out if Gandhi lives there, although that’s unlikely due to the waves I detect on the water in that direction. The first barbarian should not show up before worker and another Quechua is built, so I can leave the city unprotected.

3220 BC - (28). First contact with animals (panther attacked, not a scratch on my second Quechua, 1 XP gained).

3100 BC - (32). Another panther, another XP, and I promoted to +25% archer. This unit will be sent to the south and harass Julius, if he eventually expose his worker!

2920 BC - (38). Worker complete, go to the mountains and mine the gold. Julius has sent of a settler stack. Worker is soon bound to show up to connect the cities. I’m getting nervous that a stolen worker will not survive the barbarians on the way back, even with two Quechuas… Julius adopts Slavery. If he can connect Bronze, then I’m in trouble.

2800 BC - (42). Finally, worker shows up. On forest as well. War then. My second Quechua will start moving to rendezvous next turn (still healing from Panther attack). This will be a very close call. Barbarian archers will show up any turn now, and I have plenty of tiles to walk. Should I gamble on leaving a Quechua to choke Julius?

2740 BC - (44). Worker and Quechua is moving away from Julius, two tiles from second Quechua. I just checked my excel chart from my trial games, and detected a discrepancy with the current game. I noticed that the gold mine was complete, but not worked. After the change, my growth, build and research numbers comply to the chart. My borders haven’t expanded as they did in my trial game, due to the lost religion. It’s not as bad since I have the coast nearby.

2680 BC - (46). I have decided to choke with my second Quechua. He just passed the escorting Quechua, who will walk through jungle (75% defence should be enough for warriors as well).

2650 BC - (47). Luck! It happens so that Gandhi's scout is joining me in my walk up north, hopefully busting fog and/or taking barbarian damage.

This is what my capital looked like 2650 BC:
http://web.telia.com/~u40927438/civiv/Civ4ScreenShot0000.JPG (http://web.telia.com/%7Eu40927438/civiv/Civ4ScreenShot0000.JPG)

And this is what Roman Peninsula looked like 2650 BC:
http://web.telia.com/~u40927438/civiv/Civ4ScreenShot0001.JPG (http://web.telia.com/%7Eu40927438/civiv/Civ4ScreenShot0001.JPG)

And the dark jungles in between:
http://web.telia.com/~u40927438/civiv/Civ4ScreenShot0002.JPG (http://web.telia.com/%7Eu40927438/civiv/Civ4ScreenShot0002.JPG)

Finally, Cuzco as of 2650 BC:
http://web.telia.com/~u40927438/civiv/Civ4ScreenShot0003.JPG (http://web.telia.com/%7Eu40927438/civiv/Civ4ScreenShot0003.JPG)

Attempting the CS Slingshot

2530 BC - (51). I can’t believe my luck! I’ve got both Gandhi and Caesar scouts roaming around my capital, keeping barbarians away. And my second Quechua has arrived within Roman borders and took damage from an archer. He’ll fortify until healed, and then I’ll pillage his pig-pasture. Priesthood is two turns away, and I’ll pre-build a Quechua, just in case the barbarian horde pays a visit. The production will decay, so I’ll try to switch between the Oracle and the Quechua depending on the development in the game. (Outside the house, thunderstorms and lightning have begun, further adding tension to this exciting game of Civilization. In order to achieve the Civil Service Slingshot, every turn is important).

2470 BC -(53). Another difference between my test games and the Gotm-09 save: less forest around Cuzco leads to unhealth at size 4, which means that population is stagnant. My worker and accompanying Quechua has stumbled across one warrior and one archer. I retreat SE and hope I can shake off at least the archer.

2380 BC - (56). Another stroke of luck: a forest grows next to Cuzco, removing the health problem (42 turns to size 5). I almost sneaked past the warrior with the worker-stack. I now have to pass open terrain, and I’ll scout the tile with the worker first… No barbarians or animals. Next tile is a forested hill, then I’m safe.

2290 BC - (59). Worker at home and helping building a cottage. My escorting Quechua is on sentry duty to the south of Cuzco. Second Roman archer attacked, and Quechua is now promoted to combat level 3 (Archer + 2 stars). Soon I have to decide if I should let him off the hook, or the relation will never recover…

2200 BC - (62). Writing discovered and got Open Borders with Gandhi. Julius brought two archers towards my Quechua, and although I may have survived, it would take a long time until my unit would be able to start pillaging. So, I sued for peace, since the Quechua will most likely be needed back home and I am satisfied with the harm I’ve done to Julius. His starting position was not very good either, so I don’t consider him as a threat any longer. (I’ll probably have to chew these words later ;-)

1960 BC - (70). Gold is connected and two cottages are built (one is now a hamlet). I was planning to build more roads when I accidentally noticed that a mine on top of the sheep provides two extra hammers! It’s amazing that I never though of this during the hours I spent preparing for this session.

1780 BC - (76). The mine on the sheep turns out to be very productive. The Oracle will finish before CoL is discovered… So, now I have to build another cottage and swap between them.

1420 BC - (88). The peasants gather around the high priest as he completes the ceremony. The Oracle is complete. Still, most of the people still wondered why they had to switch tasks every day. Only the Gods know. Next step: convert to Bureaucracy.

Barbarian Horde

1090 BC - (99). I was halfway into Alphabet and a Settler, when two barbarian archers almost reached my capital. I managed to kill them off, but Cuzco starved back to size 4 since I have to leave it empty. Major blunder. I should have let the barbarian pillage the gold mine instead.

985 BC - (103). Alphabet research. Julius is not very fond of trading though. Gandhi is more open. Traded Animal Husbandry for Writing.

970 BC - (104). Traded away Alphabet to Gandhi and got Bronze Working, Fishing, Hunting, Masonry. Gave away Meditation to Romans in the hope that they would forget the war. No luck. And Julius has two archers stalking my borders.

895 BC - (109). I built a city to the south-east to get the pig and corn hooked up. I also sent my missionary there. A barbarian warrior approached and I moved my defending Quechua into jungle. I lost! Panic!! I managed to get one Quechua next to the warrior, in the vain hope that he attacked him instead of razing my city. And he did! Was that luck or is that the way barbarian works? The barbarians are swarming me, and I didn’t get bronze. The axemen will soon turn up and I’ve got 6 turns to Iron Working. I regret that I didn’t complete the Quechua before the Oracle, and that I built a settler right after. No disaster yet though, but I have to build more Quechuas…

835 BC - (113). Julius demanded Priesthood and I obeyed. He turned Cautious instead of Annoyed, so I think it was worth it.

820 BC - (114). What? No Iron? The closest deposit will not be workable even after the upcoming boundary expansion. In eight turns, Cuzco will have a pop-exp. Then I’ll build a settler. That city will be a good producer, which I need. And it will also block enemies from the south. Hurry hurry.
http://web.telia.com/~u40927438/civiv/Civ4ScreenShot0005.JPG (http://web.telia.com/%7Eu40927438/civiv/Civ4ScreenShot0005.JPG)
If Julius has built his third city, he probably has the iron connected. I traded away Pottery to him for Archery, hoping to improve relations. I don’t want too big difference between Julius and Gandhi to prevent them to trade with each others. I now have seven quechuas and two workers. I think the next unit will cost maintenance, so I’ll build a Barracks until I loose another Quechua.

775 BC - (117). The horde has calmed down a bit, and I’m taking the opportunity to stake the spot for my future city to the south, else the barbarians will steal the spot. I can’t afford missing that Iron.

730 BC - (120). I have moved out a Quechua to reveal the terrain to the west. There is a peninsula with Stone, Sheep and Gems. Nice future city, probably the barbarians will settle there though…

700 BC - (122). Axemen! Already!! My Quechuas will be slaughtered like cattle… At least my Barracks is ready next turn. I need the settler and I need archers. Choices, choices.

670 BC - (124). Wow, my Quechua beat the axeman. I can’t count on doing that again. That must have been a 7.5 vs 4 battle. I just completed Monarchy. I’ve got 29 turns to Feudalism (Longbowman) and 11 turns to Horseback Riding (Horse Archer). Both units cost 75 hammers. If I go for H.R, I can use Archers to defend on Hills, and Horse Archers to hunt the axemen on the plains. And Horses will be in range after the cultural expansion.

640 BC - (126). Traded away Iron Working for Polytheism to Gandhi. I was afraid he had researched Literature or Monotheism, but nothing showed up on the Tech Trade window. I have a solid tech lead, at least on this continent.

595 BC - (129). Another axeman approaching. I rally my defences, and expect to loose the archer (5 vs 4.5 to his favor).

580 BC - (130). Again, the axeman was defeated. The barbarians have built a city to the north-west. I’ll send a Quechua there (to a forest tile) to keep them at bay (and hope they have archers, not axemen)

Advancing the Incan Empire

505 BC - (135). H.R. researched. Monotheism next (to get Organized Religion). Worker is building pasture on Horse tile. I have a couple of fog-busters out and they’re quite effective.

475 BC - (137). I finally converted to Confucianism. I’ll soon settle my third city, and I want the religion to spread without a missionary. I have chosen to settle as original plan, which means that it will take a while to get the iron. Long term this is the correct decision, but what if I really need iron sooner? Again, time will tell. Barbarian activity has dropped significantly. Will there be another wave soon?

280 BC - (150). Discovered Literacy. Started Theology (16 turns) to claim Christianity. My city to the south-east is shaping up as a worker-producer. Plenty of food surplus, but not much production. With cottages on the five flood plains, the city will generate lots of commerce. Health will be a problem though. I chopped a forest to partly build a worker, and I now need to chop the Jungle to reduce unhealth. Machu-Picchu (third city to the south) will turn size two next turn. Still no religion, so iron is not yet within my cultural borders. This city will be a producer, with 5 hills. I have connected wine, horses (Horse Archer in 5 turns), corn and pigs. The barbarian city to the north-west has clam, iron and coppar within the border. However, I may raze it to build a city with marble within the city region. There is a very nice spot to the west with stone, gems, sheep and flood plains. I’ll build a settler after the worker in Tiwanaku. As soon as the Horse Archer is completed in Cuzco, I’ll start building the Great Library. Two scientists and the prospect of a scientist great person (academy) will give me a good boost in research strength.

55 BC - (165). First to Theology. Christianity founded in Machu Picchu. I need another settler and more workers. I have started the Great Library. I’ll chop a forest or two to speed up the building. I’m afraid someone with marble is trying to build it as well. I got a prophet and built the Kong Miao in Cuzco.

10 BC - (168). My horse archer has moved from the barbarian city and is now exploring the western peninsula, killing barbarians and gaining XP. I brought confucianism to Machu Picchu, and with the 25% production bonus from Organized Religion, the granary will now complete one turn before the pop-exp. Smooth. Tiwanaku is now size 7 and angry. I will change to Hereditary Rule once the Great Library is complete (still 19 turns to go). My fog-busters have removed the barbarian threat from the north-east and north. I have a sentry Quechua at the north-west in the forest. I have not experienced as much barbarians as I would have suspected (or feared) when the first axe-man showed up. I’m running almost 90% research, with Cuzco at 55 flasks. My plans for the future is to build three more cities, and I have to be quick since the Roman border is now within view to the south. Again, I feel the pressure to hasten my actions.

Northern part of the Incan Empire:
http://web.telia.com/~u40927438/civiv/Civ4ScreenShot0006.JPG (http://web.telia.com/%7Eu40927438/civiv/Civ4ScreenShot0006.JPG)

Southern part of the Incan Empire:
http://web.telia.com/~u40927438/civiv/Civ4ScreenShot0007.JPG (http://web.telia.com/%7Eu40927438/civiv/Civ4ScreenShot0007.JPG)

Score as of 10 BC

Gandhi – 522 (8 cities) – 1 religion
Erkon – 500 (3 cities) – 2 religions – tech leader
Julius – 387 (6 cities)

GNP – 1st
Mfg – 6th
Crop – 7th
Soldiers – 7th
Land – 5th
Pop – 6th
Rate – 7th
Life – 7th
I/O – 1st

Killed units:
Wolf – 1
Panther – 3
Warrior – 8
Archers – 18
Axemen – 2
Worker – one stolen

Lost units:
Quechua – 4

Contender Class.

_We moved the starting Quecha SW and, spotting the sheep down there, decided to settle on the forest 1W of the start to get all that food in the capitol's eventual radius. Yes, this did knock us down to 3 forest tiles in our fat cross, but by 1060BC another forest grew in the area to give us the full +2 health bonus. We just left those forest tiles alone.
_Production-wise we went for a worker first, then a couple quechas. We researched Animal Husbandry first, valuing growth as we do, then mining, then on to writing for a quick library, and only then pottery and the wheel. We tested the theory that if you don't research Bronze Working the barbs won't produce Axemen. It seems to be true- we got BW in a trade after learning alphabet around 625BC and saw only one or two barb axemen the whole time, and none before BW IIRC. It's a good thing too, we had terrible luck with our Quechas, the barb archers seemed to kill them at every turn and we kept having to stop what we were doing to produce another. Oh well.
_Of course this meant we didn't have much to do with Ghandi or Caesar. In fact, we didn't locate either of their territories until around 1000BC. By then we'd completed the Oracle (1120) to take the CS-slingshot. Due to miscalculations and without whipping we still had only our capitol to work with at this point, but after learning Monarchy in 805BC it was producing around 60 beakers per turn, And we were sharing the score lead with Caesar and his 4 towns.
_Still, I kind of wish we had a second city by now to pump out some Quechas. Before we could do anything about it Caesar was producing Praetorians and there wasn't much we could do to him. So we made pals with him instead, and at 505BC we finally stole our first worker from Ghandi. Naturally we drew Rome into what would become a series of wars in which Ghandi's land was slowly eroded by Caesar or else pillaged by us while we siphoned off workers and concerned ourselves with conquering Barb villages. We weren't champion fog-busters, but the result might as well have been that we were farming barb towns. By 500AD 4/7 of our towns were origninally barbarian, with some more still out there.
_In other news, we worked toward Feudalism early and got it at about 125AD. I've become a big fan of the Feudalism civic, and besides Longbows are rather powerful this early- we needed defense plus something to smash Caesar with later. We had a prophet for the Confucian special building, but no scientist so far. And at 500AD we are just a few turns away from completing the Hanging Gardens in Cuzco. We plan to have 9 towns when that is done for a decent little boost. See the attached images.
_Overall not a bad start by my standards. I regret not having a second town before the Oracle, that would've really helped. In fact, the second city we did set down should have been in a more hammer-riffic place instead of on that first jungle tile on the river to the SE. It seems that we're growing quite well and are achieving a great economy but are behind the curve in being able to wipe out our neighbors. But I'm sure we'll get around to it :)

Here's shots of my empire and my capitol:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads12/4OTM9-_500AD.JPG
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads12/4OTM9-_Cuzco_500AD.JPG

All I can say is wow!
My first GOTM and certainly well over my head. I have

Oops I hit the wrong button!
Only my 4th CIV game and most certainly over my head at Emperor and still alive. Am playing contender but not sure why. I have learned that I didn't know how to fog bust and almost lost my capital twice. I am hopefully behind in tech so much that Gandhi has twice gifted me techs. Julius refuses to barter although all three of us are freindly. I will try and stay being the poor relative and see if I can survive the duration but don't see anyway I can gain on an overwhelming Indian empire.

On top of that, while I was congratulating myself for keeping the barbarians in complete control, one of their galleys came by and pillaged two crab nets from a critical city (and I need all the growth and commerce I can get). Never had the barbs do that to me before. Is that just my inexperience?

I find this happens just infrequently enough that I never think to produce galleys for protection until it's already too late. I lost the same clam resources you did. Then, a second barb galley showed up on the east coast and pillaged a fishing net before I could get a galley in the water over there. Very annoying!

Vynd . . .

My east coast shipyard is already at maximum production.

Decided to post my start as well. This is my first (except for the test games) emperor game as for some other people here.

Moved quecha 1W. Should have probably moved it 1N - then I would definetely have settled 1N because of additional gold and more forest. Well.. initial position wasn't that bad, too. :) Initial goal was exploring the distance between my oponents and try some worker steal. Actually I didn't expect opponents to be so far - this spoiled my tactics a bit that I used in my test games. Anyway I stole a worker from JC (which was eaten up by barbs on its way home - jummy! :D ) JC already had 2 cities founded. I decided to criple hime a bit - destruction seemed over my capabilities.

Fearing of barbs being quite aggresive at this level I built loads of quechas to fog bust which more or less worked fine. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to build Oracle ( I even didn't start to build it). It also seemed that all wonders were built quite successfully by other opponents. The only wonder I wanted to build badly was Great Library which I also missed.

Considering my failures at wonders, I decided that the only way to keep up with the rest is to expand as much as possible which might work with Financial trait. By 500 AD I'm having 7 cities with consideration to expand even more. I'm badly behind Gandhi, but a bit better than JC. The sad thing is that I'm unable to keep my tech rate above 30-40% due to maintenance. Well... building courthouses already for FP.

I have founded 2 religions (Hinduism&Confu) which I switched from time to time to expand the borders for the cities with different religion. JC&Gandhi - they both are running Buddism which keeps me cautious with Gandhi and annoyed with JC.

Seems that I'm slowly loosing the game.... :blush: I did a bit better in my test games. But I'm not going to give up! :)

Playing Contender

Was nicely suprised getting the Inca's at Emperor, since I have played them a couple of times before. Seeing the starting location I smiled and prepared for an early rush.

Founded Hinuisme, for the happy faces and civic bonuses, gambled it might be a dominant religion. It wasn't since Ghandi founded Budhisme...

I moved my capital 1 tile N, for the two goldmines.

Although I intended a quechua rush, I changed my mind after some exploring with my initial quechua. I moved it south, seeing the equator. Founded a scout when I was about to finish my first quecha. Distance seems striking, so my second build was a worker. Exploring North with my new quechua.

Second city covered the bronze, did not need Stonehenge since I had religion. Went for Orcale, didn't bother for CS (seemed a bit of a gamble) and took CoL founding religion. Spread it a bit for monastary's but I hinduisme was spreading faster by itself and infected Ceasar, so it became my state religion.

Biggest problem I faced was not having very good production city's. I did had my capital (always busy doing other things) and I made the Heroic Epic in the bronze city since production was nice with good food. Backside it was in the north of my empire...

I build up peacefully, whiping a lot, since hammers I lacked, but food I didn't. Ceaser expanded quit fast North, but I let him since he was my friend and Ghandi was growing faster.

Bribed Ceaser into a war with Ghandi and joined him when he asked. Still having few city's (usualy I conquer them :( ) and a small army. Attacked with axes and swords, killing two small city's. Got CS meanwhile and pumping out some macemen and went further, even when Ceaser declared peace. I continue to conquer Ghandi and whiped him out later.

Ceaser remains.

I am confident a diplo or en emergency space vic will work.

Edit: Most curious of this game I find I almost run the entire time at 100%, because I get loads of money by trading (even losing 150 a turn :) )

Mhmm, my first real Emperor game (except of a few test games) and my first official GOTM. So far I have done only one win on Monarch while being comfortable on Prince. Also I never played on epic speed, always on normal.
Nevertheless I play contender: I want the "real" thing. ;-)

So my first priority was just surviving which worked astonishingly well, much better than in my test games, probably because of the good starting position.
However, Epic speed killed me almost: I never got a feeling for what is good or bad production or research speed; everything seemed to need soooooo long. So I missed the Oracle, the Great Library, Confucianism and for the most time BC I had only three cities:

The capital (founded in place), one at the gems SW and one S at the river with iron and corn.

This worked well quite a while, I was even sometimes before Caesar in score or similar to him, a bit behind Gandhi.

I was very defensive, building a lot of fog-busters and acutally had no major problems with barbarians. But I had no major successes, either. I discovered the super-city-spot (crabs, marble etc.) in the NW much too late. Barbarians (axes) already were there and I needed centuries to build an army to destroy them and a settler to found at the better place (the barbarian city was two squares west from the ideal place).

The Iron-Corn city is my military producer, the gem-stone city tries the Hanging Gardens. The capital does research and military and workers/settlers.

I was equal in tech until the ACs, when Gandhi rushed away.

I founded Hinduism, but changed to Confucianism to keep Caesar pleased - that worked, but a short time later Caesar switched to Taoism *grrrrrr*.

At 500 AD I am rushing settlers to get more cities - there are lots of great places N, E and SE of me. But Casear has already cities in the Djungel next to me. As soon as I've got construction and maceman, I plan to go to war against him. Gandhi is far ahead now and when I am big enough to do substantial research myself (if I manage) will be a good trading partner.

I think my chances to survive are 50% - this mainly depends on, if my war with Caear will be successful. As I am better in industrial production than he, I think I may be able to simply out-produce him. All his djungle cities probably don't do well.

My chances to win are minor: Culture is out of question (I havent one GP-point so far and am the last of the three of us in culture). Diplomatic is not in sight. A military victory could work on my continent, but is highly unlikely regarding the whole world. I fear when I am done with Caesar I am too late in the research race for a space victory, but perhaps I am lucky ... let's see.

Well, I'll just try to keep on with the fun and see what happens.

Sheijian

http://gotm.civfanatics.net/common/swordsman_small.gif

Challenger, going for Conquest.

I decided to use a strategy similar to the one I used in GOTM8: rapid expansion, no CS slingshot, use GSs to get Astronomy fast if needed.

I moved the starting quechua 1NW and settled 1N to grab the second gold hill. I am still not sure whether workig a desert hill was a good decision, since it slowed down my expansion. But 8 coins is a very good boost too. Clearly the optimal choice would have been to settle 1W to work the second sheep tile, but unfortunately I moved my quechua to the wrong hill and didn't see it. :(

I built a worker first, then 3 quechuas while Cuzco grew to size 4. Worker improved sheep, irrigated one FP tile, then mined both hills. At size 4 I started pumping out settlers, workers and quechuas. I built no early wonders, just concentrated on growth. Expansion was of course slower then in GOTM8, but I had 7 cities by ~500BC (one captured from barbs, others founded).

My starting quechua moved in a circle around the capital and then went south because I saw tundra in the north. He found Rome and stole a roman worker. I then sent another quechua south to help deliver the worker home. I decided that with such big distance to the AI an all-out quechua rush won't be very effective, but I still wanted to cripple at least one of the AIs to make conquering easier, so I sent a few more quechuas towards Rome. I made peace and redeclared multiple times stealing workers, capturing settlers and pillaging. I even razed their 3rd city that had no defense bonus and then razed it again when they tried to resettle it.

Tech path was straight to Alphabet after learning AH and Mining. I didn't need anything else for quite a while anyway. I decided not to do early chopping since with a commerce-rich start I could get math soon. After Alphabet I went for math, and traded for cheap stuff (wasted several turns on BW before I could get it though). Then I went for Literature to built TGL and NE. The I beelined to Astronomy hoping to trade for everything else, but had to detour to get Construction and CoL.

3490BC - AH
3160BC - Mining
2620BC - Writing
1960BC - Alphabet
1480BC - Math, trade for Masonry, Hunting, The Wheel
1300BC - trade for BW
1240BC - trade for Pottery
1120BC - Polytheism
880BC - Literature
505BC - MC, trade for IW, Archery, Sailing, Priesthood
220BC - Construction
125AD - Machinery
275AD - Compass
290AD - Optics (GS)
365AD - Drama
440AD - trade for Monotheism Monarchy, Currency, Calendar, HBR (other continent)
485AD - CoL

I am planning to get 2 more GSs for free Astronomy and learn CS by normal research (delay it so that it is discovered one turn after Astronomy). Then I'll shut down research and try to kill everybody with maces and cats.

I built TGL (25BC) and NE (due in a couple of turns) in the city south of Cuzco, it is also my only city that has a library ;) and thus it should be able to produce a total of 30 GPP with TGL and NE (2 of them being GA). If I get a GA I'll propably burn him for a golden age. I have also built the Colossus (230AD) for extra coins from sea. I built HE in my pigs/fish/horse town, a stupid mistake: the city is good, but most production there comes from whipping and with HE most units are worth only one citizen, which causes much unhappiness.

Except those few wonders I concentrated mostly on units in the ADs after my cities were equipped with granaries, forges and barracks. I built almost no other buildings, my science is moving fast enough due to fast growth and commerce rich land. I built a road through the jungle and brought cats to kill off the romans that had only 2 cities and no resources thanks to my quechua terrorists. Romans were killed in 350AD, I attacked Gandhi immidiately after that and by 500AD I have already captured several indian cities with swords and cats.

I'm a pretty bad situation - despite a relatively good start. :(

I succedeed to occupy one Indian city and razed 2 more and also build Stonehenge and Great Library, but get crippled in research compared with the civs on other continent.

More details later.
Regards

I settled in place; second city to the east because I could plop it down with access to 3 specials. Third to the sw for the gems. I missed the uber city spot till later because barbs settled there (and otherwise, the barbs were not really a problem since I fortified a few fogbusters). I settled a few more cities further south and a couple north, but I never ventured far into the jungles, even with scouts. I'm lazy, and I figure, correctly, that the AI will find me eventually. No wars. Wars require that you produce alot of units and then make many mouse clicks.
Research-wise I founded Hinduism. The Romans caught it and I slowly spread it to all of their cities. Rome then commenced to periodically attack Gahndi, with little success (or failure). I sat it out every time. By the end of the game I had a -6 modifier with Caeser for not helping him during war time. There ought to be a cap on that. Only wonder I built during this period was whatever that one is that requires the aqueduct pre-build. I do normally try to build the GL, but Ghandi got Lit before me, so I didnt think it was worth the try without marble (I was too lazy to go scout the barb city, so I didnt know it had marble till I made the barbcity taskforce).
So basically, I just cottaged up and sat on my tuckus, and was comfortably ahead in the tech race until my delusions of grandeur were dispelled by the appearance of a boat from the ocean fog.

like many people in the pre-game thread, i was planning on seeing what i could do with some early quechas. after building a few, exploring every piece of land within six time zones of my capital, and getting eaten by barbarians and animals before i found any enemy cities, i figured that would be a losing cause. i then settled back into a more standard early game approach (for me anyway) with an ultimate goal of a domination victory.

this was only my second game ever at emperor - i've won maybe 60% of my monarch games and my only other game at emperor was the GOTM earlier this year where i lasted maybe 80 minutes and didn't bother to submit it. looking back at my replay once this game was finished, i was terribly slow to expand. even the barbarians founded several cities before i got my first one up in the northwest between the iron and copper. maybe this was because of the epic speed, maybe i just did a bad job in the early game, or maybe in emperor the computer just mauls you early on, i dunno.

i founded another city on the east coast between the fish, corn and horses. then i took a barbarian city with access to gold, horses and deer in the north with some quechas and an axeman. i'd wanted to found a city near the pigs/stone/gems location in the west but was of course beaten to it by barbarians. i intended on taking that city with quechas, but the bastards built walls just before i got there and since it was manned by four archers, i waited for catapults before taking it down. unfortunately that set me back a bit.

there were a couple of things that allowed me to survive in this game, which was really my first goal. first, the barbarians were pretty weak. they took out my scouting quechas, but i can't remember ever seeing any melee barbarians that posed a threat. maybe there were one or two, but overall barbarians were pretty much not a problem.

second, i got the great library in 230 AD. that was my only wonder, and it was huge. cuzco was generating over 2/3 of my science in 470 AD.

third, for some reason caesardeveloped a fear of barracks and melee troops in this game. on the screenshot you can see pisae in the southern flood plain location that i was of course too late to settle myself. it's only guarded by two unupgraded archers in 470 AD, with no culture defense or walls. i probably could have taken it right here with my city raider quechas but i didn't because i was afraid of a praetorian counter-attack. as it turns out, i probably didn't have anything to worry about.

so as poorly as i was doing in 470 AD, and the demographics screenshot shows that that's pretty bad, at least caesar was doing even worse. i figured i could fill in my remaining city locations and take some of caesar's and be in ok shape. i was more or less right.

Well, just coming off of a couple of Deity culture wins in HOF gauntlet 2 using Huayna, I decided to go for culture here. I decided to take a similar strategy to my Deity wins, i.e. quick quechua rush to grab a worker and a couple of nearby towns (AI capitals tend to be in great locations and make good culture cities). Only change from my Deity games, I decided to try to found some religions since we are on continents.

Problem 1: Went for Hindu since the AI always seems to go Buddha. This time, AI decides it wants Hindu first, beats me by two turns.

Problem 2: :lol: My quechua "rush" becomes a marathon slow walk across the continent. Meanwhile, I am pumping out quechua with no nearby cities to attack. I decide not to try to take cities from JC or Ghandi, I figure the distance penalty will kill me. I'm not going for a military win, I only want 9 cities up near my capital. I do steal an Indian worker and do some pillaging just for giggles.

Problem 3: Oh well, since I have these unemployed quechua hanging around, I might as well fog bust. I think I had 6-8 hanging out on fog duty, and yet for some reason, the barbs came anyhow (mostly from the north, I simply couldn't cover all that territory). I spent many years battling waves of barbs... and not expanding my empire.

Problem 4: After I had figured out how far the AI's were, I snuck in a settler between the quechua. I settle near the stone to the SE to go for Pyramids. However, due to the barb issue, an AI finishes Pyramids before I even start it! Looks like I'll need to get Universal Suffrage the slow way (research).

Problem 5: Since I built my 2nd city at the stone, it means I did not build it near horses. I didn't have any copper near by, and hadn't researched iron. So, quechuas are my only unit... and the barbs decide to stop putting archers up against my quechua. They send a couple of axes. :cry:

Lucky Moment 1: One of the axes veers away from my capital to pillage my gold. I send a stream of quechua to the hill. I think he kills 4-5, but gets wounded in the process. I finally finish him. If he had gone for my capital, I think its game over.

Lucky Moment 2: The 2nd barb axe heads for my stone town. Luckily, its a far enough walk that it takes him a while to get there. If he decided to head to my capital with his buddy, then its game over. He also decides to pillage, and spends a couple of turns pillaging my stone and road... but not attacking my city. I rushed a settler in my capital and settled him near the horses (sub-optimal location, but I needed the horses asap). I managed to get a chariot built before the 2nd barb had captured my stone city. The chariot and a couple of suicide quechua finished him.

Funny story 1: Later in the game (maybe past the spoiler, doesn't matter)... I am trying to be best buddies with JC and Ghandi. My reason... I figure my only hope for a culture win is to forego all military build up and beeline to culture. I've simply lost too much time to this point, I can't waste production. I'm a little nervous about having no military with a monger like Julius as a neighbor, but I figure I need to take chances if I'm to finish culture. Anyhow, I get to a point where JC is pleased, but I have -4 for borders being close. All of a sudden, he puts a small SOD on my border, next to my one-quechua-defended GA farm. I'm thinking I'm cooked, this one SOD is significantly more powerful than my whole empire. He then he proceed to move his stack into my lands (we have open borders). He marches them all the way up the continent to attack a barb city in the far NW corner. I think it must have taken him 15-20 turns to slowly work his way up there. He conquers the barb city, but pillages it! All that effort and years of travel just to kill a barb city??? :lol:

Bottom line, state of the nation:

At the time of this spoiler, I'm still stubbornly trying for culture. However, the missed Pyramids and the many, many wasted turns cranking quechua for barbs has me way behind where I should be. I'm not sure I'll get to culture before an AI spaceship launch. I'm also VERY concerned that JC will eventually decide I'm a wimp and will squash me like an insignificant bug. :sad:

In hindsight, I agree with some of the other posts. This map threw a couple of real curveballs (and this is what I love about Civ! :) ). With the gaps to the AI's, quechua rushing was not a good option for grabbing a couple of culture cities. The distance also meant lots of barbs well into the game. Yep, culture might not be my best option from here, but I've decided to fly this plane into the ground.

This will be my first culture game in Civ4. I liked the culture games in Civ3, but they were completely different. Hundereds of cities and poprushing temples and libraries whereas in Civ4 its all about cathedrals (+50% culture).

I read a number of articles about culture games, especially in the HOF section are great reads. Unfortunately this is not such an optimal map as the ones described in the HOF, but the starting location with 2 sheep and one gold (I moved 1W after revealing the 2nd sheep) and lots of floodplains looked quite alright.

I don't think ther is any use of trying to get the pyramids on emperor with no stone near the capital, so I went for the CS slingshot.

My research was: medidation, mining, AH, BW, writing, priesthood, CoL and CS in 1060BC
Building was quecha, worker, quecha, quecha, settler, quecha, oracle

The situation looks pretty good in 455 AD (the safe nearest to 500AD I have).
I founded 2 more religions (Taoism for pacifism to generate more GA) and Christianity for the Sistine chapel (the 2+ culture per specialist should be quite powerful.
I also finished music as first to get my first Great Artist. Now I am heading full speed in direction of liberalism. Then I plan to shut down research.

These are screenshots from my planned culture cities:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads12/Ronald_gotm9_1.JPG

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads12/Ronald_gotm9_2.JPG

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads12/Ronald_gotm9_3.JPG

and this is a look at my complete empire:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads12/Ronald_gotm9_4.JPG

Quick game for me, settled 1W after scout revealed the sheep, saw the huge commerical potential of the city so I decided on the CS slingshot - was beaten to it in 1500 BC, 3 turns before I would have finished it. Reckoned I had sacrificed a fair bit to get it that early, and when failing to get it I abandoned the game sore loser as I am :)

It remains very unsatisfactory that the slingshot is such an important issue in game where settling one square away has a huge impact on AI choices at the other end of the world.

Settle 1N, because in my test games I see health would be a problem, so the other gold was only a better thing.
Because of that i decided to irrigate all the fp since i want my capital a powerhouse.
started quechua and switched to worker when reached size 2, then quechuas until size 4, settler, more quechuas for fogbusting.
My free quechua went south, discovering stone and gems in his path, arrived in the jungle, continued south, to discover the end of the peninsula.
As anyone knows it wasn't, and I popped a gh with 43 coins in the western coast, 2 turns after meet a Roman scout.
After that, i supposed Rome was close, so drove SE, but i meet Ghandi and went north by the eastern istmus.
No quechua rush possible for me at this point :mad: .

Ghandi took Buddism and another civ (in the other continent) took Hinduism.

My research path was: AH-wheel-mining-writing-poly-priest-CoL
My 2nd city (2050BC), 1S of horses N of Cuzco started with barracks and chariots.
I get Oracle in 1030BC, CS in 1000BC :) , soon revolted, then researched hunting, fishing and alpha.
Good spot for 3rd city, 2 seafoods + Marble, founded in 535BC, revalead to be a strategic spot after BW and IW GLibrary there in 365AD, meanwhile Tiwanaku completed the Colossus in 305AD.
In 205 BC I captured a barb city near gems and stone, found some other cities, Optics in 505AD.

Confucianism spreaded well, with not much help from missionaries, tech trading was pretty good, especially with JC, and peace reigns (for now).
The rest is for 2nd spoiler, or the final.

It remains very unsatisfactory that the slingshot is such an important issue in game where settling one square away has a huge impact on AI choices at the other end of the world.

I agree, this kind of effect is vexing, but I don't think it is determined by moving the settler. I settled in the same place and got the CS slingshot in 1120BC.

My first emperor game. I was scared of barbs. They never started to be a problem.

The beginning:
Cuzco founded 1 NW and build a worker firs and started poly. My quecha went south. Met rome soon and ghandi a little later. Founded hindu but not convert. Ghadi is budhist.
Research: poly, AH, mining,wheel, pottery, BW, ... can't remember

Worker steal:
On his way south, my quecha met animals and later earned combat II and cover promotions - archer's nightmare. he found rome's borders and went for a look. After a couple turns he saw rome's settler and archer. I declared. Archer got killed, the new worker was escorted back home (half way met my second quecha) and he returned back. Killed another archer and signed peace.

This was my relationship with Rome. I killed 3 settlers this way altogether. One for rome's every city. With some chariots and axes rome's not more. Neither my economy. I declared 4 times on them, city by city, war and peace. I managed to extort archery and sailing from him thats the reason.

Build:
My second city was for horses, third for copper, fourth un north with fish and fur. I managed to research CoL and found Confucianism. I'm doing quite good (also i'm impressed with some other posts here). No barbs from north due to fogbusters, some from south. They settled 1 city, which i captured. I build the GL used the GS for academy.

India: Ghandi never wanted to trade techs with me. We had open borders, later shared budhism i have given him aplhabet (nobody else around). I had to get to +11 relations for him to trade. And he offered only poor trades. he had build a big empire so far, has budhism and judaism. He has a weak military. Only 1 archer and spear per city. My armies are on his borders. Next turn i will declare. I just started to love agressive. Experience is coming from barbs. I'm proud on one trade with ghandi. Barbs have pillaged his gold and he was just hooking up horses. I gave it to him for ivory.

My plans:
Destroy gandhi, extort some techs. Find the other continent and we will see how is it going there. Then maybe diplo or war.

I'm playing the adventurer save, something few people seem to be doing, but I believe I need the help, having submitted exactly one win in 6 GOTM submissions.

First, after doing some scouting(moving my archers in opposite directions, my second settler north, my worker south, and my quechua SW, I decide to settle Cuzco in place. I saw all 3 of the gold deposits, but decided that Cuzco's starting position was excellent. 6 FP, 1 gold, 2 wine, 1 sheep, and plenty of hills for production as Cuzco grows.

Second, I decided that I wanted to hold off on founding my second city for awhile, so that I could find a spot that would have good commerce and/or resources for me.

To the W of Cuzco, in the midst of the deserts, I found 7 FPs, stone, gems, and sheep in an area that would all fit into a single fat cross. Because I felt I needed a strong commerce area for my second city, and because of the stone, I decided to found my second city, Tiwanaku, at the nexus of the resources so as to benefit from them all. I also decided to try out a strategy I had thought of, to found my second city when Polytheism was down to a single turn of research left, to give me an instant cultural presence in my second city.

I went for Hinduism because in only about 10% of my games does Buddhism take longer to get founded than hinduism and I always like getting early religions. In this game, Buddhism was founded in 3160BC, and I founded Hinduism in 3520BC so perhaps I could have founded both of them, but I didn't try. In any case, I wound up with Hinduism founded in Tiwanaku and the culture helped immensely.

Also, because Cuzco has grown quickly from floodplains, I am already working the gold, thus despite having a second city already, and at a fair distance from my capitol, I still have a 90% research rate, and have a positive gpt balance with my empire at 20 GNP.

I built several quechuas in Cuzco, then I built a worker once Cuzco was at size 4, exploring the continent madly for thousands of years.

By 2000BC, I've met both Gandhi and Julius Caesar, and I know that neither founded Buddhism.

Judaism is founded in 1930BC in Madras, and quickly spreads to Julius Caesar. They both adopt it as state religion, meaning I am now at odds with my only two neighbors in religion.

My tech path was always aimed at a CS slingshot, because I felt that Cuzco could be such a powerhouse and I hoped that despite my inexperience at pulling it off, the adventurer bonus would help me do it.

Tech Path: Poly>Wheel>Masonry>AH>Priesthood>Writing>Pottery>BW>CoL>CS Slingshot!!!(1000BC)>Alphabet

CoL was finished in 1060BC, and Confuscianism was founded in Tiwanaku, making it a double holy city.

Oracle was then completed thanks to a long distance chop and a pop rush in 1000BC, delivering CS and Bureaucracy to my empire. At about the same time, I finished rushing a library in Cuzco, and made 2 scientists so that I could get an early GS. Once that was accomplished and the Cuzco National Academy was built, I returned the scientists to the cottages and my researched jumped by 10 points. Apparently having scientists hurt my research, rather than helping it because of the immense commerce production I had there.

I then went ahead and quickly built Stonehenge in Tiwanaku as well, it was completed in 895BC. I then dropped my state religion since it was not going to be adopted by both Gandhi and Julius, and allowing Tiwanaku to gain culture for both religions.

I had only 2 cities still, powerhouses though they were, so I conquered Khazak from the barbarians with my quechuas sometime between 800BC and 500BC. I kept it because I needed a third city, and because it was an excellent city spot, with iron, bronze, marble, and 2 crabs within its fat cross.

I then expanded southward, to prevent being boxed off by Gandhi or Julius. So in 400BC, Machu Picchu was founded near the corn and iron CW of Cuzco.

I have gotten two GPs, one I used for the Confuscian shrine, since it has spread much faster than hinduism has, and the other I used to found Christianity in 100BC in Machu Picchu.

The last city I've founded is Ollantaytambo in 185AD W of Khazak along the coast, for the wheat and iron, although this city placement was probably the result of playing late into the night and not thinking well, or I would have placed it near the two gold I am still not using, but have already mined.

Finally, I researched paper, and traded maps with Gandhi to learn the rest of our continent. Although I do not 'know' where Rome is, It is obviously in the corner of the continent near where Antium and Cumae are that has culture without an obvious city near it.

As of 320AD, I am #1 in GNP and technology, but way behind the rest of the world in every other category. I need more cities, more workers, and I need to hurry up and build courthouses in my cities.

My plans:

Research Machinery so I can stop the growth of Rome
Increase production and food growth in Inca
Hurry to Optics after Machinery to meet the other continent(s)
Build Courthouses in my cities

Adventurer:

Date : 1210BC Score : 213 unadjusted.

Obviously need to play at an easier level.

Contender, going for diplomatic victory.

Well, what I have seen in this game is not really what I expected to see in an Emperor game. The single most strange thing is: the AIs started so slowly!!!

Settled 1N to get the second gold. Went for a quechua first to grow Cuzco to pop 2. Then started a worker. The second scouting quechua took a misstep and was killed by two lions soonly after he left our cultural borders. Without sighting any AI in some 20 to 30 turns, I was sure that worker stealing is not worthy. However, the two gold resources and the floodplain, sheep should make it possible for a single-city CS slingshot. So I went for it.

Early Research path:
Mining-->Animal Husbandry-->Writing-->Bronze Working-->Meditation-->Priesthood-->Code of Laws.

Well, maybe I played a little too safe, but sighting Gandhi is always bad news for one who wanted to pursue wonders (However in this game I later found out that this is ABSOLUTELY not the case). Got Code of Laws in 1420BC and the Oracle followed 2 turns later. That's way too early for me, maybe should have built a settler.

The barbarians in the game were strangely weak. Before I started the Oracle, I got 4 quechuas to defend the corners of Cuzco. I garrisoned on three corners and left one out since there was no improvement and barbarians from there will directly face the Cuzco city, which is perfectly safe against warrior and archers. However, unlike the expected flood of warriors and archers, only 2 archers and 1 warrior showed up and they were killed easily. I never played an Emperor game with this few barbarians.

Anyway, after CS slingshot I beelined for Alphabet and built a Settler to found Tiwanaku on the east coast as my GP farm. Since I didn't have time in Cuzco to get any GS points I needed to start a GP farm immediately to get a GS before Cuzco could accumulate a Great Priest from the Oracle.

After I got Alphabet at 985BC I was shocked to see the retarded status of AI research. Gandhi hadn't even got pottery and sailing, let alone writing. Caesar's done better, he had Iron working and sailing but won't trade. No writing either. Anyway, I only got Fishing, Hunting, Archery and Masonry from trading Writing. Never expected that in an Emperor game.

Next I researched Mathematics and Currency. With Currency I got 190 gold from trading Mathematics to Gandhi. This gold funded my research for a very, very long time since I only got two cities, running at 100% gives only -3 to -6 gpt. Sounds great.

Next goal is to beeline to astronomy. To help the global research speed I gifted Code of Laws (well, he asked for it) and Alphabet to Caesar, Mathematics and Currency to Gandhi (didn't give Alphabet to him since I don't want to race Great Library with him too early), but seems of little help, they still developed very, very slowly. At around 300BC I have already got Metal Casting and still no one will trade me Iron Working and Sailing. I had to build a confucian missionary to spread confucianism to Caesar, trying to get him friendly with me. I didn't want to do that, since it will harm the relationship between the two AIs and may end up in requests to stop trading with one another. Finally I was able to trade Iron Working from Caesar, but had to research Sailing myself. The lucky thing was that by the turn I got Optics (155AD), Caesar also got Calendar, which saved me several turns of researching.

By 335AD I have contact with all civs except one in the world, and was pursuing Astronomy fanatically. I will continue this in the second spoiler.

As of 335AD:
City status:
6 cities. 4 Built, 2 captured from barbarian.

Tech status:
Mining 3700BC
Animal Husbandry 3190BC
Writing 2620BC
Bronze Working 2320BC
Meditation 2110BC
Priesthood 1990BC
Code of Laws 1420BC
Civil Service (Oracle) 1330BC
The Wheel 1300BC
Alphabet 985BC
Fishing (Trade) 970BC
Hunting, Masonry (Trade) 955BC
Mathematics 820BC
Archery (Trade) 805BC
Currency 625BC
Pottery (Trade) 610BC
Monarchy 475BC
Metal Casting 295BC
Machinery 55BC
Iron Working (Trade) 40BC
Sailing 25BC
Compass 50AD
Polytheism (Trade) 140AD
Optics 155AD
Calendar (Trade) 155AD
Monotheism (Trade) 170AD
Literature (Trade) 170AD
Construction (Trade from overseas) 335AD
Horseback Riding (Trade from overseas) 335AD
Pursuing Astronomy now.

Wonder status:
Only Oracle. Building Great Library in Cuzco.

Army status:
2 archers and around a dozen of quechua, 2 caravels. Nothing else since I never saw a barbarian axeman, like I said, very strange for an Emperor game.

Contact status:
+8 with Gandhi and Caesar.
Good with all other civs except one.

Religion status:
Revolted to Confucianism at 70BC to trade with Caesar.
Revolted back to no religion at 170AD to have good relations with everyone.

Great Peoples:
Only 1 Scientist, built academy at Cuzco.

From my notes:

I decided to settle in place.

Techs AH->Mining->Meditation->Priesthood->Writting->Wheel->Pottery->BW->IW

Capital Build order: worker->quecha->settler>quecha>Oracle

Worker built sheep pasture>goldmine>mine>farm>farm>horse pasture->roads>cottages.

Settled Tiwanaku near horses and fish on the coast NE of Capital and used it for more Quechas, barracks and settler.

Completed Oracle for Code of Laws slingshot.

Founded Confucianism in Tiwanaku and spread it to capital with Missionary.

Met Ceasar's scout from the south where I had a Quecha. Gandhi's scout came from the southwest.

No other civs met yet.

Adventurer Game

Barbarians - my goodness they just came in wave after wave after wave!

I'm new to all the Civ games - and have only been plaing on chieftain for a few weeks- so this is quite a stretch.

I couldn't get to the iron in time - so I was fighting off waves (5-6 units at a time at a time) of Barbs. The only thing that kept me alive was the combat promotions, walls and barracks in all my cities. My combat promotions allowed my archers to fight off axeman and spears! I couldn't keep a worker going as the barbs kept killing them and ransacking my mines and fields. (Even with one archer assigned to each worker). I had one of the gold mines destroyed 4 times.

I finally stopped trying, hunkered down inside my city walls making archers (the highest strength fighter I could make) and waited for the Barbs to go away.

The other AI's have been treating me like a charity case and Ghandi and Genghis (!) have been gifting me techs and resources - their puny, tiny neighbor.

Right now, finally, most of the barbs are gone and I'm building cottages like mad. I clearly won't win this game - but I'm happy to have survived so far.

Goal: Fast domination (Contender class)

I started by moving the Quecha SW onto the hill and saw the second sheep so settler went west and settled next turn. Like many others I planned to steal a worker or settler or even try to take out another civ early on, but when there were none for miles and miles I changed course and used the early Quechas I built as fog busters. I found one hut early on (I found another much later which I popped with a mace and 3 warriors popped out almost killing him) which gave me some gold that helped my early research after I founded a second city. I researched AH to use the sheep first, then mining for the gold, followed by wheel to hook up resources, chariots, and connect cities.

Initial build was a worker followed by 3 Quechas and then a settler. I founded Tiwanaku NE of capital near the horse/corn/fish. It built a barracks first and then a couple of chariots. All this early defense and fog busting meant barbs were never an issue. With no one near to attack and only 2 civs on the continent I decided to not attack anyone until Maces and cats so I went into science mode with Cuzco doing a CS slingshot with the Oracle (1330BC) going to Bureaucracy and then following that up with a library, monastery, and soon after that the Great Library (265BC). My first Great Person was a scientist which built an academy and Cuzco was a science monster powering me to the tech lead.

I founded a couple of more early cities Machu Picchu (700BC) SE of capital near the iron and corn. Ollasomething (625BC) SW of capital near the Pig/Gem/Stone. I also captured the barb city Cimmerian to the NW (125BC) near the copper/sheep/iron/clam. These all focused on building barracks, units, and courthouses.

My research was geared toward getting cats, macemen, then caravels. It would probably have been better to focus on caravels and astronomy first which would have enhanced my tech lead even more.

Techs Reasearched:
3460 - AH
3130 - Mining
2800 - Wheel
2560 - Meditation
2410 - Priesthood
2140 - Writing
1330 - CoL
1300 - CS (Oracle)
910 - Alphabet
895 - Pottery (Trade)
895 - Fishing (Trade)
835 - Polytheism
715 - Literature
670 - Masonry
520 - Math
415 - Hunting (Trade)
415 - Bronze (Trade)
310 - Construction
205 - Iron
160 - Currency
145 - Archery
40 - Metal
25 - Sailing
20AD - Monarchy
50AD - Compass
215AD - Machinery
365AD - Feudalism
500AD - Optics

At 500AD I had a nice stack of cats and maces outside of Julius's territory ready to attack.

LOL I don't know if anyone is reading this thread anymore, but I started GOTM last night. I suck :)

I went with adventurer because I've not played Civ4 in ages. I'll give you my notes in a nutshell.... I forgot to pay attention to maintainence costs!!!

I blew off religions because it wasn't one of our traits, went straight to build a military empire. Weee...I battle Barbs...where the hell are the other civs?! Finally I see them way south. Still building my military. I settle most of the same areas as everyone else. Grabbing lots of resources.

Here is the kicker! I didn't pay attention and my costs skyrocketed! I had 0, ZERO, science! I was in trouble! For the longest time all I could produce was military units, as I had no new techs to build anything for my cities! Oh did I screw up! So the only thing I could do was start a war! :)

Ceaser asked me to join war with ghandi, and I was more then happy to. I swept units in. timing was horrible as many units were lost due to no money :( I didn't take any of his cities, but managed to pillage almost all of his lands. Giving me enough money to increase science. LOL, it was my ONLY income for a while!! Pillage for profit! :)

I'm now VERY far behind in techs. I rotate between the bottom 3 scores with Ceaser and Ghandi. Our waring has kept us all down. I'm friendly with everyone but ghandi. He refuse peace :) Buddism spread to me, and I spread it thru all my cities myself. This long distance battles suck.

I'm slowly getting myslef out of the hole now. I refuse to give up. My goal is to make peace with ghandi now, and get myself caught back up in techs. Then destroy ghandi.

By 0 Ad I have about 10-11 cities.
At one point I was 3rd richest with 500g. Yet running at 30% science :(
Oh, and I got the Hanging Gardens. Yeah me!

Just started playing again after 6 months off. I was able to win on monarch without too much difficulty and decided to give the GOTM a shot. I didn't find any copper until I already had my second city down and had learned ironworking so I saw the nice clams+iron+copper spot. I put my third city right there and about 3 turns later a barbarian axeman showed up. Well no use trying to defend against an axeman. I whipped out some quechuas but they can't really do anything against an axe. And then after that axe took my first city a barb archer wandered into the town to garrison while the axe went off to my next city. It took that city as well and then I quit. :) I didn't have archery and no way to hook up one of the other iron sources anytime soon. I might have been able to turn the game around but it's late in the month anyway so I'll just give it a go next month. It's good to be back playing civ. :goodjob:

@Shillen

Sad story. I settled on the copper, maybe that would have saved your game.