Ok, I'm new to this, so don't expect anything great. I'm doing this in hopes that I can help the newer players and the veterans can help me in return.

Unlike the normal games posted here, I played the first round already. Hopefully that isn't too much of a problem.

So, I'm playing small tectonics with 6 AIs on Emperor. Here are the settings:
http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc19/bzill/GameSettings.png

I'm playing with no technology brokering.

To jump right in, here is the start:
http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc19/bzill/Start.png

I like this starting position a lot. I have a couple of river tiles, plenty of hills, plenty of food, plenty of trees, and I get to start on a hill.

Well, playing as Egypt, I can't complain that I have an excuse to research Husbandry first. Generally, I prefer to do that anyways.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc19/bzill/Thebes-1.png

I settled in place and discovered that cows and crabs were also in my fat cross and two goody huts were within reach -- I won't wine about that too much. I also found a fish resource outside of the fat cross, so that is a potential location for Memphis.

Needless to say, I'm going to research Animal Husbandry first. I'm also going to start production on a worker since I don't have fishing. I'll probably research fishing after Husbandry and before Mining and Bronze Working. It's looking like I can use Thebes for anything right now.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc19/bzill/Fishing.png

I investigated the goody hut to the north and received 84 gold and then decided to try to get the goody hut to the south before doing any more exploring in the north. That turned out to be a good decision because I popped fishing.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc19/bzill/Isabella.png

A few turns later, I discovered Isabella while exploring. I couldn't ask for a better neighbor. I need religion and I could tell by the look on her face she was dying to send Buddhist missionaries my way. Not to mention she likes to build an early wonder and if I have horses or Copper near, I'll plan on borrowing it from her. Additionally, if I don't have anything near, she can be a great ally.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc19/bzill/Peter.png

There is good news and bad news. When I had finished research on AH, originally, there were no horses in sight. However, the next turn I stumbled upon some horses in Izzy's backyard. I fear that the horses are going to get sucked up by Madrid's holy cultural boarders if I don't act quick, though. The bad news is that Peter is close by and, based upon previous game play, I have a feeling that we won't get along so well.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc19/bzill/Gilgamesh.png

A few turns later I discovered that Gilgamesh is close by. I have mixed feelings about that.

Production on my worker finished and I started production on a work boat. I'll let the population grow to three and then build a settler to attempt to grab the plot of land over by Izzy's.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc19/bzill/Izzyprovestheworldisround.png

More good news bad news -- bad news -- Izzy is Cristopher Columbus on steriods; apparently she managed to prove the world is round in 33 turns (it's a small world, afterall). Good news -- I found clams over by the horses that I probably won't get to.

I think that the spot 1NW of the corn is a great location for Memphis. That is the area I have been referring to a bit.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc19/bzill/MansaMusa.png

I escaped a near death experience with a wild bear and found Mansa Musa is also near. I won't mind having a tech whore with which I can trade.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc19/bzill/BronzeWorking.png

I finished research on Bronze Working and suffered a gaffe with Mansa. My assumptions that Copper or Iron would be near proved to be accurate. Unfortunately, the Copper is just out Thebes' fat cross and the presumptive fat cross of Memphis. Fortunately, I'll be able to snag it in 25 turns when Thebes' boarder expands.

Because I'll be able to have Copper hooked up in 25 turns I'm not going to settle somewhere just to get Copper a little bit sooner. I need to finish some work boats in Thebes so that I can whip Axemen out faster anyways.

I decided to research mysticism since I'm going to need to build an obelisk to expand Memphis' boarder ASAP. After mysticism I'll research writing so that Izzy can merrily spread Buddhism my way -- we all know she can't wait. If she doesn't, I'll beat the crap out of her. I also want to get the Alphabet in a reasonable amount of time so that I can sue Izzy after I rough her up a little.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc19/bzill/Cyrus.png

I settled Memphis over by the horses and started work on an obelisk. Additionally, I finished production on another work boat in Thebes so that I could take advantage of the other seafood resource. Then, I started production on another worker, since I don't have any other good tiles to work and I'll want to do some chopping soon. I also found that Cyrus is somewhere on this continent.

Originally, I planned to research the Alphabet as soon as I finished writing, but I decided to take the route of researching Meditation and Priesthood first. I took a look at Thebes and it had way too many hammers and I knew I could get the Oracle if I chopped it. Additionally, Izzy was busy founding a religion and she settled two other cities, so I knew I didn't need many Axemen to steal Madrid from her. I figure that I'll have enough Axemen chopped and whipped to get the job done before I even finish researching Priesthood.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc19/bzill/Izzywar.png

As soon as I could get five Axemen together, I declared war on Izzy. I know she'll have a high defensive bonus in Madrid due to the culture, but I seriously doubt she has many archers defending it.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc19/bzill/Madridismine.png

Fast forward 4 turns and Madrid is mine.

This is where I am going to end this turn and allow criticism.

Now, I'm wondering what I should do from here. I wanted to sue Izzy and keep her weak. I planned to make Buddhism my state religion that way by the time the war is over she'll be my best

friend anyways. I don't know if that is such a good idea, though. Perhaps I could keep no religion for diplomatic reasons. I started work on a baracks in Madrid and the Oracle is set to finish the next turn. Presumably I'll get the Oracle. I'll be able to either take Sailing, Pottery, Horseback Riding, Hunting,
Monarchy, Polytheism, Masonry, Metal Casting, Iron Working, or Code of Laws. I snatch Code of Laws nearly every time I build the Oracle; however, granted that I already have a religion and

Thebes is a potential production powerhouse, I'm wondering if I should take Metal Casting. Furthermore, Horseback Riding is not a terrible option at this point. I could trade it away for a lot of techs since no one will have it and I have horses. Nonetheless, Horseback Riding still is not a very high priority to me at this point. Additionally, since I missed the Great Pyramid, Monarchy is rather appealing since Thebes could have an enormous population in a short amount of time.

I really like the neighbors I've been dealt. I took full advantage of Izzy and if I can convince Cyrus and Gilgamesh to take up whatever religion I end up with, I'll be in really good shape. However, I want to get rid of Peter ASAP. I feel like Mansa is going to be a lot of fun since I'll be able to trade techs with him for the foreseeable future. There is still one neighbor that I don't know of, but I'll find him soon enough -- Hopefully it's not Zara or Jao. I feel like I'm in pretty good position to win any way I want from here. I could pull of a cultural win easy with a great capitol a conquered capitol, which happens to also be a holy city, and another city that has adequate amounts of food for artist specialists. I have Copper and horses, so depending on what I do with the tech from the Oracle I could probably conquer another
civ or two before those wear off, putting myself in a decent position to win a
Domination/Conquest. As long as I can keep Mansa under control, I should be able to win a space race. Finally, with neigbors like Izzy, Cyrus, Mansa, and Gilgamesh I could possibly win a diplomatic victory if I can spread Buddhism like wildfire.

Religiously Peter and Mansa have already taken up Judaism. I can keep good relations with Mansa even with a separate religion and I don't plan on having any kind of relationship with Peter. I feel like regardless of my religious decision putting Cyrus and Gilgamesh at odds with Mansa and Peter is a good day for me. Either way, I'm going to pump out a few missionaries and send them to Cyrus and Gilgamesh.

Economically I think I can run a decent priest economy until I pop out a prophet for a shrine (or two depending on my decision) from Thebes, then, when I finish some libraries, I could go for scientists. Madrid has plenty of food around for a nice science city. Hopefully Izzy is hiding some marble in or around her empire. If that is the case, I can wonder spam Thebes easily.

Please comment on my play so far and give me some suggestions. Thank you.

Before I look at anything I think I'll shadow it. It's really cool that multiple emperor/epic players are stepping up and posting games. No tech brokering might make it interesting, I've only played with it a few times (same goes for tectonics map script).

One of my times with tectonics I accidentally set the climate to "arid". Land was pretty awful, but it was awful for everyone (which favors the player :p).

As TMIT said, it's always nice to see people of about same level with me posting games. I won't play it, but will lurk for sure. I've recently started using no tech brokering too, and I like it so far. I prefer bigger maps, though, as I usually play on large with low sea level.

I would have placed Memphis 1S of it's current location to get more land tiles and the spices to the FC, while keeping coastal, clam and horses.

BTW, I find it quite weird that you went for axe rush, despite rushing for horses and having a great chariot-based UU. I don't know what's optimal here though, because I didn't play it myself.

P.S. More screenies of the surroundings please, and less of the leader faces.'

EDIT: P.P.S. It's Ramesses, not Ramses ;) .

Before I look at anything I think I'll shadow it. It's really cool that multiple emperor/epic players are stepping up and posting games. No tech brokering might make it interesting, I've only played with it a few times (same goes for tectonics map script).

One of my times with tectonics I accidentally set the climate to "arid". Land was pretty awful, but it was awful for everyone (which favors the player ).

In the few tectonics games that I have played I seem to be getting really good maps. Perhaps I'm just getting lucky, but I used to love fractal and now, because of tectonics, I won't even consider it.

As TMIT said, it's always nice to see people of about same level with me posting games. I won't play it, but will lurk for sure. I've recently started using no tech brokering too, and I like it so far. I prefer bigger maps, though, as I usually play on large with low sea level.

I would have placed Memphis 1S of it's current location to get more land tiles and the spices to the FC, while keeping coastal, clam and horses.

BTW, I find it quite weird that you went for axe rush, despite rushing for horses and having a great chariot-based UU. I don't know what's optimal here though, because I didn't play it myself.

P.S. More screenies of the surroundings please, and less of the leader faces.'

EDIT: P.P.S. It's Ramesses, not Ramses .

I found it pretty weird when I was looking back on it. I wanted to get the horses, but the main reason I settled Memphis in that location was for food. I was originally going to place it 1S, but I'm hoping I'll be able to get the spices in another city I can use for a science city. If I thought about it a little more I probably would have settled 1S, but it's too late now.

The leader faces thing I thought was weird, but in the few games like this that I've read it seems that they are always posted, so I did that. I think I probably should have posted more surroundings like you mentioned.

I really like no technology brokering and I'm wondering why it isn't used more frequently.

I thought his name could be Ramesses or Ramses. Wikipedia seems to prefer Ramesses, but my spell check doesn't.

Didn't realize that wasn't a 4k bc save, but I've played up to 10 AD!

I took peace with izzy, since we were down to 2 axes. 1 turn away from oracle completion...no MC as an option :(. I took CoL as I intend to fight more later and spiritual should allow religion swaps so I can actually use confuc as a temporary :) boost until I pick a more permanent religion.

I made liberal use of the whip. We definitely needed more workers, and more military to get rid of izzy. When alphabet finished I traded writing for pottery. I also traded a combination of poly and writing for iron working - we have iron. This is good, because offensively swords are much better vs archers than axes. A CR II sword will tend to have over 50% odds on archers with 40% defense in the city. Nasty. Ok after whipping workers/libraries/military gear up for izzy:

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/yahn%20game/380redeclareonizzy0000.jpg

Stack balance! Also note I am going for aesthetics since that trades well. If I'm lucky I can get TGL but that might not be viable since I'm going to be knocking heads for a little bit.

Izzy wasn't really prepared to deal with this. She got IW and mined iron but we split her empire and I pillaged one of her 2 sources pretty fast. I gradually whipped out more swords/chariots as needed but mostly concentrated on infrastructure. I whipped an unusual amount of temples for me in this game - they're better than monuments and close to as cheap with spiritual.

Here we are at 10 AD:

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/yahn%20game/10adempire0000.jpg

No more Izzy! I'm healing the stack then I'm going to grab a barb city north of thebes - it's coastal and it has corn from what I can tell. I'll probably whip up some catapults and some more stack power and take on Sal...if my economy rights itself enough from the cottages/courthouses. Since I've whipped out a nice worker force and may whip out a few more i'll try to settle some of that tundra with deer etc down there. Hopefully there's some silver for easy :) and commerce also.

Tech situation:

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/yahn%20game/10adtechscreen0000.jpg

No tech brokering definitely slows the AIs down. It actually does a decent job of limiting the AI research bonus. I managed to not fall behind because I kept trading monopoly techs (Code of Laws and Aesthetics) around. Fun game so far, so I'm continuing it.

I'm wondering why you didn't build Memphis one south. It's current position has 4 extra 2f 1c tiles that should never be worked instead of Spices, plains, and grasslands.

Please use jpeg instead of png, it is 10x smaller file size!

cordobas not the greatest city. You have to build a granary, library, and lighthouse before you can run specialists.

And they should make isabella look like angelina jolie. I don't know why this came up.

http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/5508/21633675bq7.png

I'll be able to either take Sailing, Pottery, Horseback Riding, Hunting,
Monarchy, Polytheism, Masonry, Metal Casting, Iron Working, or Code of Laws.

Ummm... I don't think you'll be able to take MC if you don't have pottery already. :confused:

@ TMIT:

how do you have the time to shadow every game on this forum?

I can't believe I made the Metal Casting mistake. I thought I had researched pottery, but I hadn't. Well, that makes my decision much easier. I think I'll get CoL like usual.

@ TMIT:

how do you have the time to shadow every game on this forum?

:p. You'd think it'd be harder with 20/week work and grad school (yes, even in summer :sad:). It's not about having time - rather it's about playing FAST. I have to play fast because I can't let madden skills rust and I have to keep my gpa above a 3.5 haha.

Remember my average game is 3.5 hours - I can easily play one in a day...on days off I will play up to 3. Another function of this is the fact that I'm quite poor (The GA pays for grad school and not much else past food...), limiting my ability to go out. In other words, I do a LOT of gaming, but believe it or not it isn't all civ 4...