I wanted to start playing succession games but before that I'd like to try one out on here and get some advice from the community, I'm hoping some of you will be bored enough to comment so this works out, this way if I mess up at least I'm not ruining other peoples games as well.

Map Settings



Leader: Boudica

Traits: Aggressive: Free Promotion Combat I to Melee Units and Gunpowder Units, Double Production Speed of Barracks and Drydock.
Charismatic: +1 :) / City, -25% XP for Unit Promotions, +1 :) from Monument and Broadcast Tower.



Unique Unit: Gallic Warrior: Free Guerrilla I promotion and may be built with Copper.

Unique Building: Dun - Free Guerrilla I promotions for eligible units built in its city.


Starting Techs: Mysticism and Hunting


Difficulty: Monarch

Map: Big_and_Small
Size: Standard
Speed: Epic
Continents Size: Normal
Islands Size: Islands
Island Overlap: Islands Mixed In

All Victory Conditions Enabled

The Game

Turn: 0 - 4000 BC


http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd252/lomonk/Civ4ScreenShot0019.jpg

So what do you guys think our overall strategy should be?

Personally, I'm leaning away from an early religion even though we start with Mysticism, though maybe go for Stonehenge.

It looks like theres Jungle to the North of the Scout and Flood Plains to the East of the Settler and possibly more to the South. The first move is to obviously move the Scout, my first inclination is to go either 2E of its current position or possibly 1SW.

I'm thinking of going Agriculture first, maybe Scout > Worker and running a plains hill to get the scout out asap then switching to the farm once the Worker is done, or would it be better to just go straight for a Worker?



*I'll post the next turn as soon as there has been sufficient discussion on overall strategy and the tech/build orders.*

Note: Please do *NOT* post any spoilers if you choose to load the save!

I wouldn't build a scout, you already have one.
I would go for a worker, and research agri>pottery to cash in on that food resource and put some cottages on the flood plains.

I would ignore any early religion ideas, and focus more on getting BW & iron working.
IMO with Boudica one shouldn't be founding religions, they should be taking them by force :D
EDIT: Sorry, i misread & thought you said you would go for early religion

I would go worker, wwrrior, settler and aggriculture, mining, bronze working. You need to see where the copper is very early, she is Boudica after all

I agree with Indiansmoke. Just farm the food resource and the flood plains, and mine the hills. Food and production are more important at the beginning, Cottages won't make much of a difference yet. Production will help with Stonehenge and maybe a rush, if a neighbour is near.

First of all move the Scout though to better decide where to place your city. Right now I'd move the Settler 1N for the extra hammer.

Long post, sorry. I'm a Celt fan.

If you go worker first, time it so that the worker finishes when when Agriculture is done. You may need to work on a scout first and then swap out to the worker.

I'm a fan of building a second scout. They are so fragile and in BTS the animals mean business. If the second scout gets just one or two more huts, or locates a bronze source sooner than you would have found it with one scout, it's worth it.

So for techs:

Agriculture
Mining
BW
The Wheel
(AH here, if no copper, otherwise after pottery)
Pottery
(Archery, if no copper or horses)
(possibly IW here, if no copper)

Production:

Scout, then switch to Worker so that it finishes with Agriculture
Finish Scout
Warrior until size 2, then switch to Worker (completed with chop/whip)
Finish Warrior
Warrior until size 2, then switch to Settler (completed with chop/whip).
Finish Warrior
Military Unit (Chariot, Axe, Archer)

By then you should have located (a) your nearest vulnerable neighbor and (b) the nearest sources of copper and horses, if any, and will know whether you have a rush option or not.

As far as your military options, don't underestimate the Gallic Warrior. If you can get early Iron Working and find copper or iron, you can do a great rush. Chop/Whip about 10 of 'em, give them the Guerilla II promotion and race across the hills to glory. As long as your foe isn't protective and you do it quickly, you can take out one opponent this way.

Also, don't neglect Archers. In your hands they can be very effective for city and barb defense. Build a Dun in one of your cities and crank out Guerilla II archers. These are great for hill city defense and hilltop picket duty for fogbusting. As a bonus, they can keep up with your Gallics and do garrison duty in your foe's capitol.

Finally, watch your economy. Boudica has no inherent economic advantages (other than Charismatic's ability to have bigger cities), so you will need to raze enemy cities more often than not and cottage like a wild woman.

Well I wanted to make sure settling in place was the right decision so I moved the Scout 2E to reveal what was on the other side, I also moved the Settler 1SW+1N to reveal an Oasis, I decided to move the Settler because it looked like that was a Desert Tile but I was happy to find out that isn't the case.

So I settled back where I was, lost a turn but gained peace of mind. (I'm sure someone will be upset about this decision :crazyeye: )


http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd252/lomonk/ConfusedSettler.jpg


Soon after I popped a couple goodie huts acquiring three maps and 101 gold, we also made contact with our first and only neighbor as far as I can tell, Huayna Capac.


http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd252/lomonk/HuaynaCapac.jpg

I was going to build a scout first, I almost always do and find it worthwhile but it was going to take 23 turns for a worker and the fastest I could get a scout out was 8 turns at stagnant I decided not to sacrfice an extra 8 turns on top of the grueling 23 it would take to complete the worker, so I went with worker first.

It worked out alright, I managed to nab most the goodie huts I believe and since it looks like this is a large island so far there wasn't much point, Huayna Capac was far to the East so I was able to cover most of the tiles we see before he had a chance to get over there.

Heres a Map of the Known World:


http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd252/lomonk/WorldMap.jpg


Currently Agriculture and Mining have been researched, I've constructed a Farm over the Irrigated Corn and a Mine on the Plains Hill next to the River.

I just finished our first worker and started on a warrior till Size 2.

What do you guys think should happen at this point? I'm split between going for a settler now and possibly settling a city down by those 5/Fur then backfilling around the stone to try and block Huayna off from colonizing, this would help us lock in the Western part of the map and give as a good chunk of land. The other option is to go for the second worker which I'm also tempted to do. Theres another option of going for that stone and trying to grab the stonehenge with it but I don't thnk it'll happen at this point, but it's always an option.

The reason I'm leaning towards the Fur/Flood site is because it would be able to support itself and maintain its maintance do to the four fur it would lock in.

So as far as planning what are the ideas for city locations?

What do you guys think as far as the build, worker, settler, warrior? What about the long term? What do you guys see happening? Right now the capital is empty it may be a good idea to get a warrior out but I'm not sure there is an urgent need just yet.

So what do you think? Constructive Criticism is always welcome! :)

EDIT: I was just thinking about the stonehenge and that stone resources and started remembering how much I love great spies via the great wall, any comments on that? I don't think I'd really want to try it but.. it's very tempting, I find early great spies are extremely over-powered.

Might as well start the settler now, but wait until BW comes in to decide where your second city will go.

Your focus needs to be on wiping out Huayna, who will be fodder for your Gallics if you hit him fast.

I would finish BW. If you have copper, settle in a site to work it, preferably somewhere in between you and Huayna. Then go straight for IW so you can build your Gallics and take him out.

If you don't have copper anywhere, I suggest you take archery just so you have some barb defense. Archery is cheap. Then go for IW and pray for iron.

1SE of Wheat imo. Go for stone-based wonders (Stonehenge, GW, Pyramids, Hanging Gardens) while expanding and teching. Consider war once the land is gone not before. Economy is more important in BtS than early rush.