Looking at all of these PRC's, I'm seriously tempted to play one out myself. Since Justinian has never been done before, he's the one I'm gonna do.

Settings:
Normal Speed
Monarch
Huge Pangaea
12 Civs (18 is just too much)
Choose Religions

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0066.jpg

Rules:
1) We must found Christianity, convert to it and stay with it as a state religion for the entire game. That means NO Free Religion allowed.
2) We must try to convert every city in the world to Christianity. If civs of other religions adopt Theocracy, they must die by the end of the game.
3) Only civs with a different religion or pagans (no state religion) can be declared war upon. If a pagan civ converts to Christianity, we must stop the war immediately.
4) We can only open borders and trade with (resources, techs, gold) with civs with Christianity as their state religion.
5) Embargoes may be signed against anybody
6) If another Christian civ declares war on us, we can defend any way we see fit.
6) We must build the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.
7) No city razing is allowed.

The Start:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0067.jpg

I'm gonna need some help here for sure. I can usually beat Monarch, but these rules make it a bit tougher.

Looks like some interesting conditions, I might even try to add the AP if you can. Plays right into your "plan".

I will be lurking (although I tend not to offer much in the way of strat in these, I lurk in LOTS of them, heh)

No city-razing is going to hurt. What victory do you expect to be going for?

You might even want to try this one on Marathon. If you can get Cataphracts early, they will dominate the medieval battlefield until grenadiers arrive. By playing on Marathon, you will increase the amount of time Cataphracts will dominate. I can't overstate how good they are, with a strength of 12, they dominate all units except for war elephants and pikemen, where they have an even fight. If you war consistently, though, they'll be so upgraded nothing can touch them. I once played a game where I had about five Cats that each had over 50xp.

Couple of potential snags in the set up. If you don't found the first religion then an AI could adopt Christianity before you (I don't know if they're allocated randomly in choose religion). If you can't open borders with a non-Christian civ its going to be difficult to convert anyone peacefully.

Good Luck!

Justinian is a slow starter with the wheel and Mysticism. You are going to want agriculture/AH pretty fast which will put mining/BW on the back burner. Then there's also defense if you have no horses nearby, hunting/archery.

And that still leaves getting Christianity! Still one thin at a time, I suggest settling in place and teching Agriculture/AH first.

I'll be lurking!

Revision of Rules:
Open Borders may be signed with everyone although trade is still restricted to those with Christianity as state religion. I need to be able to send missionaries in.. completely forgot about that.

Also, building the AP should probably be done, but does not have to be. After all, the real AP is in Rome, not Constantinople.

One thing in the game that bugs me though is how the diplomatic religious bonus "we care for our brothers and sisters of the faith" increases over time. If anything, it should start high and decrease to account for the fact that all major religions in the world have branched out (i.e. Byzantines became Orthodox while the West became Catholic).

Couple of potential snags in the set up. If you don't found the first religion then an AI could adopt Christianity before you (I don't know if they're allocated randomly in choose religion). If you can't open borders with a non-Christian civ its going to be difficult to convert anyone peacefully.

AIs that have a preference coded will select that religion, else they'll select default to that tech. There are a handful that prefer Christianity, but many of them do not start with mysticism and are thus unlikely to do it (do hope that izzy isn't in the game though, or you're likely starting over). Other threat may be charlie

That said, it's almost easier with choose religions off, and an oracle shot for theocracy (or a simple bulb with either an artist or prophet). Done quick with a lot of opponents you'll even be able to spread it ASAP with that missionary.

Note that a lot of victory conditions are actually open, since if you vassal someone you can instantly force-convert them (both into christianity and even out of theo, though if it's their state religion you won't care on the latter) and spread religion.

This looks very annoying as it's huge and normal speed. I had the "fast" game speeds because they screw war over, although normal is bearable at least. Fireaxis may as well have not put quick in the game it's balanced so crappy.

And here we go...

Round I: 4000BC - 1560BC - - - Rise of Byzantium

I settle in place and the hut pops and gives me a map.

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0000-3.jpg

I popped 5 more huts in the game and got a total of 82gold, 2 scouts, and Priesthood. Really had bad odds against barbs and lost the starting warrior and both scouts to animals. Warrior was on a hill defending against a bear and lost. One of the scouts was on a jungled hill defending against a lion and lost and the third scout got slaughtered by a wolf.

Anyways, on to the game. This was good:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0002-4.jpg

.. and it meant this was almost guaranteed...

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0004-3.jpg

Soon after I met a neighbour to the east.. Josef Visserionovich Dzugashvili, better known as Stalin, the greatest atheist of all.

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0005-2.jpg

And then this guy to the NW:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0007-1.jpg

And finally him even further east of Stalin ...

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0008-2.jpg

There shall be many holy wars between us and you shall be decimated by Cataphracts (or maybe not :( considering how slow I've started off).

After Polytheism, I went for Agri to farm that Corn and then for AH to connect the Cows and find Horses.

I founded a 2nd city that has Gold, Corn, Ivory:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0012-1.jpg

This event just sucked:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0009-3.jpg

.. and then so did this...

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0013-1.jpg

.. man this game is looking BADDDDD... I won't survive till Cataphracts.

After discovering BW, I felt a bit better:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0014-1.jpg

.. as soon as it's connected, I'll revolt to Slavery and whip a few Axemen.

I found a 3rd city to claim the Horses and decide to end here and ask for advice:

My Empire:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0015-1.jpg

Eastern Wilderness:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0016-1.jpg

Northwest:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0017-1.jpg

Cities:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0018.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0022-1.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0020-1.jpg

Woeful Military:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0021-1.jpg

So.. what do I do here? I was thinking of building the Oracle once I popped PH, but with no BW then or even Mining, I didn't feel confident it was the best move.

I would make it somewhat of a priority to befriend Monty before he adopts another religion. He can be a faithful servant if converted to christianity.

Time the anarchy so it ends the same turn as the worker finishes the mine. You don't need to have the copper hooked up before you begin the switch to Slavery.

Also try to make Meditation a priority. Get to Pacal, Monty, and Stalin with missionaries before Saladin does. Hooking up trade routes will help, too, so maybe try to explore the coast between you and the others.

Time the anarchy so it ends the same turn as the worker finishes the mine. You don't need to have the copper hooked up before you begin the switch to Slavery.

Also try to make Meditation a priority. Get to Pacal, Monty, and Stalin with missionaries before Saladin does. Hooking up trade routes will help, too, so maybe try to explore the coast between you and the others.

What anarchy are you referring to?

Sorry, I forgot that Spiritual leaders don't have that problem. I need to read more carefully...

I would try to settle the gold/flood plain site ASAP; it will pay for itself almost instantly with the gold, and obviously make a great cottage city, not to mention the extra resource to trade for GPT or another happy resource. Might need some defense as it will be isolated.

Use the whip and chop as many forests as you can to pump out axemen and settlers. You're Justinian, an imperialistic leader, go grab some land!

I see you're researching writing and while that's dandy, you should focus on something that's gonna give you gold after. Math -> Currency, and or Code of Laws are great. Caste system let's you run any amount of merchants so gold shouldn't be a problem as long as you got the food and happiness resources to run them. Your land doesn't seem very good for a cottage economy, so you might as well go into hybrid mode (part time cottage / part time specialist) and try to get GP for important bulbs. I think merchants will help you a lot if you want to run a huge empire, by getting you lots of money.

Okay, I'm going to stop rambling here. I'll await your next update :D

You have alot of land, horses and copper. You are doing just fine.

Forget the Barracks in Constantinople and finish the oracle, shopping if need be. Take which ever tech you want, get a temple in Constanople next, run a rpiest and get yourself a Prophet for the shrine. Settle agressive to the east as that looks like very good cottagable lands (who's city is that to the east?). One city to get the stone corn as a "bridge" and the rest on those rivers.

Keep enouigh military to repel Aztec attacks and keep Sal off your back for a while.

The Oracle will be good if you can get a good tech with it. What will you aim for? You need two more workers before expanding anymore. A wooded plains hill is a terrible tile to work at this stage of the game, chop the wood and mine the hill while building another worker. Constantinople will make a great production capital with the food, hills, copper and marble. Settle some of your GGs there, build the HE and a stable then your cataphracts will convert the heathens. You have ivory and horses so you can emphasise mounted troops right from the start. Chariots and axes make a great early defence force, then HAs and Huffalumps ready for the cataphracts to dominate the battlefield. Just build enough catapults to reduce defences and soften the defenders; the cataphracts will do the rest, particularly if they're highly promoted.

from the color the city to the east looks like russia

The red borders are Stalin's. I was going to build the temple and run a priest, but I donno if I should try the Oracle now. It's late and it would be counterproductive considering my already weak start even if I get it. I'm low on workers AND military. 3 warriors in 1560BC is bad.

you dont need monuments you have a religion already spreading culture. You need to pump out 2-3 settlers and build up axes.

If your an imperialist leader i normally go settler first at start.

You have marble in your big fat cross of capital. You have no quarry!! You need to work the marble to increase oracle production by 100%. Why waste 15 turns on this!!! I do hope your going to work the copper too with a mine.

Your start screams too few worker. At start more workers than cities is key till you reach 4 or so cities. You may want to set up a settler/ worker pump city till you have 8 cities. Then work more on your economy.

Just had a look at your save. I would change research to Masonry. (7 turns) Capital can build a settler in 7 turns. You need more workers. Once Quarry is built then oracle. You can prechop forest for oracle production. (chop till final turn then leave)

In terms of city placement I dont know why your going for so much overlap. Not needed. Although Adrianople gained the horse resource its built around desert. Once you connect road to this city Christianty will probably spread.


our second city is not working the gold resource on save. Why not?

Finally your capital is a holy city. You need to milk this. Either by spreading the religion or dumping Great priest or Great merchants in capital with longterm view to wallstreet and corporations.

you dont need monuments you have a religion already spreading culture. You need to pump out 2-3 settlers and build up axes.

Correct with the religion giving necessary culture but the last thing he needs in the current situation is more settlers (if that's what you're suggesting). He needs workers to improve the cities he has and then chop / whip/ build more settlers and the necessary military. A few good cities working improved tiles (including some cottages for commerce) is better than having twice as many weak cities working junk tiles. It's better economically and is stronger militarilly.



Your start screams too few worker. At start more workers than cities is key till you reach 4 or so cities. You may want to set up a settler/ worker pump city till you have 8 cities. Then work more on your economy.

He has a happiness of 7 in his capital and 6 in the second city. The capital is size 4 and working 2 improved tiles and 2 junk tiles. He needs to chop the forests and mine the hills and copper so he's working worthwhile tiles. Grassland copper is 2 food and 4 hammers, an astonishingly good tile that should always be mined ASAP and worked for the whole game. He needs a granary, researching Writing without Pottery is the wrong way around. The granary is the best building in the game! The second city has 6 happiness and is size 2 with no granary and low food. That's why he's not working the goldmine, he needs good food to do that and grow the city.



Just had a look at your save. I would change research to Masonry. (7 turns) Capital can build a settler in 7 turns. You need more workers. Once Quarry is built then oracle. You can prechop forest for oracle production. (chop till final turn then leave)

I would still try to get the oracle and getting marble would have helped that but it might be too late now to research Masonary and then develop the marble. However I note that he has already used worker turns building a road to the marble, probably because he didn't have BW to allow chopping and mining :( which would have been much more useful, unfortunately that is a consequence of researching an early religion.

Anyway dankok8, good luck with game, I hope you don't find me too critical :)

Round II: 1560BC-75BC --- Formation of Religious Blocks

Writing-Masonry-CoL-Monotheism-Pottery-Iron Working-Theology
Techs Traded for: Alphabet, Meditation, Hunting, Archery, Fishing, Sailing

All my cities through the round were building Axemen/Workers/Settlers with the emphasis on the first 2 although I think it may have been a mistake since land is running our quickly.

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0000-4.jpg

I knew I needed more workers, but I really really wanted the Oracle even without Marble. If I fail, I'll get some gold for deficit research.

and...

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0002-5.jpg

I took CoL and founded Judaism in Adrianople. After researching Monotheism, I founded Taoism in Adrianople as well. Useless to found these religions, but I can't avoid it. Stalins asks me cancel deals with Koreans which I refused.

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0011-2.jpg

Then I founded Nicaea.

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0012-2.jpg

I did a few trades:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0015-2.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0016-2.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0018-1.jpg

I founded Antioch.

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0019-1.jpg

And then Surya asks me to stop treading with Korea... NO but wow...everyone hates Korea.

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0021-2.jpg

I had my share of bad events.

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0022-2.jpg

I had built a Christian temple in Constantinople right after the Oracle so ...

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0023-1.jpg

.. hopefully this religion spreads now. Not quickly enough!!!

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0025-1.jpg

That's ok .. I had a few axes by this point. Bring it on!!

Another trade and a demand I gave in to.

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0026-1.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0031.jpg

As the round ends, I build Nicomedia.

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0032.jpg

State of the World:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0034.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0035.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0036.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0037.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0038.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0039.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0040.jpg

A few suprises here:
1) I'm doing quite well in tech.
2) My army is not atrocious - I should be able to defend from a single AI attack.
3) I've converted Pacal and Stalin to the true faith and my next missionary is heading for Wang

A few weak points:
1) Nicomedia and even Thessalonica need some improvements built ASAP and my workers are getting on it.
2) Monty and Surya went to Saladin's block. I still have open borders with Surya.. maybe I can sway him
3) I'm rapidly running out of expansion space even though I have 6 cities.
4) Hammurabi has Theology so he may build the Hagia before me. Midway through this round, I thought Hagia was unlocked by Engineering, not Theology. I really don't wanna stop the game if he builds it. I should simply have to conquer the city that built it and rename it. haha Hammy founded Hinduism so I hope he converts. Should make him an easy target.
5) My economy sucks - I shall chop courthouses early next round and settle 3-4 more cities at the very least.

Your thoughts?

Correct with the religion giving necessary culture but the last thing he needs in the current situation is more settlers (if that's what you're suggesting). He needs workers to improve the cities he has and then chop / whip/ build more settlers and the necessary military. A few good cities working improved tiles (including some cottages for commerce) is better than having twice as many weak cities working junk tiles. It's better economically and is stronger militarilly.



He has a happiness of 7 in his capital and 6 in the second city. The capital is size 4 and working 2 improved tiles and 2 junk tiles. He needs to chop the forests and mine the hills and copper so he's working worthwhile tiles. Grassland copper is 2 food and 4 hammers, an astonishingly good tile that should always be mined ASAP and worked for the whole game. He needs a granary, researching Writing without Pottery is the wrong way around. The granary is the best building in the game! The second city has 6 happiness and is size 2 with no granary and low food. That's why he's not working the goldmine, he needs good food to do that and grow the city.


I would still try to get the oracle and getting marble would have helped that but it might be too late now to research Masonary and then develop the marble. However I note that he has already used worker turns building a road to the marble, probably because he didn't have BW to allow chopping and mining :( which would have been much more useful, unfortunately that is a consequence of researching an early religion.

Anyway dankok8, good luck with game, I hope you don't find me too critical :)

Slow expansion normally leads to the AI gobbling up your land. If your religious the first option is to expand and use your religion to fund this. This can backfire if the AI adopt another religion and you ignore your military. Religious wars are a killer. Early rushes are the alternative to expanding naturally.

Unfortunately I think the early rush chance is nearly gone. Early rushes for me are while the Ai still uses archers around 1500bc to 1000bc. I suspect the Ai will have longbowmen any time soon. Once they have monarchy they normally go feudalism. Also the AI capitals will have 50% cultural defence bonus too by now. Larger stacks are the answer and cats/trebs.

I think more peaceful expansion is neededy to secure key resources and land. The economy can be grown by religious shrines and cottages. I normally find sending missionary to an AI capital allows the religion to expand faster. (You do need to get there first!) I see monty has adopted another religion. Thats never a good thing.

For me capital is a wonder farm. Hook up the Stone and this is powerful. I am concerned at the empires defences. You have no spare force to bolster your cities defences should monty send a stack your way. A chariot rush would cause you major issues.

Problem is you cant do everything. You had a plan. Try and stick to it.

I tend to send missionaries straight to an AI's capital, but the religion in the case of Pacal and Stalin and then Wang does not seem to spread anywhere else on its own and I have open borders as well. For example, Wang's capital is Christian thanks to my missionary and it's his state religion but 1000 years later, none of his other cities have it. Why? Anyway, I did play further and I'll post the next round tonight.

Bee-line guilds and crush people with Cataphracts. That's what they're there for.

Round III: 75BC-900AD --- First Holy War

Immediately as I start off this round, I pull this Mansa and switch to HR.

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0001-3.jpg

Mansa asks for Meditation a few turns later and I give in. Hannibal asks for CoL and I tell him to shove off. Darn heathens want my techs.

I meet the final AI:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0009-4.jpg

I'm not exactly scared. He's never a threat cuz he falls behind in tech even if he is a heathen.

Angora is founded.

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0013-2.jpg

Theology is done, I start Currency and begin The Hagia Sophia. .. and then I accidentally notice this:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0027-1.jpg

Holy . .. .. .. .. Nicomedia must be reinforced. I managed to get 3 axemen in there. Next turn, Monty declares (big suprise :rolleyes:) and...

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0028-1.jpg

...maybe I should have given him CoL. You shall all pay for invading me.

Mansa helped a little...

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0029.jpg

It's still not over...

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0030.jpg

I lost Nicomedia to Monty thanks to my axemen losing to a spearman. :mad:
I took the city back 3 turns later and wiped out Monty's reinforcements that were placed in the city. Take that Monty.

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0041.jpg

My christian buddy Pacal asks for CoL and I give in, but look what he does a few turns later..

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0043.jpg

You shall pay for crossing me!! During this entire time I have been building military anyway possible and have actually been able to expand while killing a few of Zara's units that wandered in. And this was major..

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0042.jpg

This guy joins..

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0046.jpg

Trebizond is settled right against Monty's borders..

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0047.jpg

Then a few trades...

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0049.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0051.jpg

This prophet was settled:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0052.jpg

I decided to test Monty's defense and I thought ok..

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0054.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0055.jpg

Next turn a few more Jags came in to defend and so..

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0057.jpg

Belisarius was born...

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0059.jpg

Signed white peace with Zara and built another city:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0063.jpg

Stalin asked for help and I agreed... why not..?

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0064.jpg

And the round ends with this...

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0065.jpg

State of the World:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0068.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0066-1.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0069.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0073.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0074.jpg

I'm still far away from Cataphracts but that's ok since many AI's are far away from Feudalism. Monty has Feudalism, but there is nothing 2 different units that start with "Cata" cannot solve. :lol: I'm thinking Drama is in order for Hippodromes to further raise by happy cap. Thoughts?

Immediate thoughts, Trebizond needs walls not a courthouse. With stone walls are cheap and that will make defending much easier. It might even dissaude another attack from Monte but I doubt it :rolleyes:

You need to research Horseback Riding next; that gives,
a) HA's which are fast and very useful against stacks with lots of catapults,
b) stables to boost all your mounted troops,
c) since you have Construction and ivory it lets you build War Elephants which are by far the best units available at this time.

I think these religious wars are killing you. That and the fact you only have 7-8 cities now.

Sometimes having a religion does you no favours. Pangea maps can be tough when you have so many Ai's encircling you. The AI's will gang up as the game goes on. Just how strong is the Christian pact?

Hmmm you need defences asap. Also a strategy to stop the Ai choking you to death by continual wars.

Round IV: 900AD-1210AD --- The Calm Before the Storm

I've abandoned this game for a bit because I've been busy, but here's the next segment. My priorities for this round were to build some serious defenses (walls in particular) as well as beeline Guilds.

To bolster my military, I switched to Vassalage/Theocracy as the round began.

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0003-5.jpg

Zara comes in and takes my city.. :mad:.. most of my troops are defending the border with Monty.

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0004-6.jpg

.. that's ok .. I'm able to research faster with less cities. :lol:

I give in to a demand and do a few trades...

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0005-5.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0006-6.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0007-4.jpg

Monty wants.. ?!? No, take a hike!!

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0008-5.jpg

My precious city is recaptured.

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0009-6.jpg

Important trade and scary news..

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0010-3.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0011-4.jpg

.. no .. not my big axe army near Monty, but the fact that Stalin capitulated to him... :eek:

I signed peace with Toku, Zara, and Hannibal for a few gold and the whole world is at peace..

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0021-4.jpg

A few turns later, I gave Toku CoL. Poor guy.

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0019-3.jpg

.. yep.. just Guilds till Cataphracts. A few more interesting trades and developments.. I gave in to Monty and now he's Cautious. I'm just being nice to him till I get an army of Cataphracts and then I'm not holding back any punches.

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0022-3.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0025-2.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0026-2.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0023-2.jpg

I open border with Monty, but he's running Theocracy.. oh well, I can at least scout his defenses.

And then, the hell breaks loose...

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0027-2.jpg

Monty, Stalin, and Toku go after Mansa and Wang Kon goes after Toku. I sell Aesthetics and Philosophy around for some gold to give me money for research and upgrading some horse archers to Cataphracts.

Finally..

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0030-1.jpg

I decide to end there.

State of the World:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0035-1.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0037-1.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0038-1.jpg

.. I'm middle of the pack and my army has not even assembled .. I feel good.

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0039-1.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0040-1.jpg

The World:
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0041-1.jpg

Monty's Lands:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff255/dankok8/Civ4ScreenShot0042-1.jpg

I'm pretty sure switching to Slavery, whipping Cataphracts and then attacking Monty would be good. The outcome of that war will decide this game I think. Even though Monty's cities are all in a straight line, his power is ~1.5 times mine right now so I don't think he will be a pushover. Stalin is weak so I'm not too worried.

An alternate strategy would be to smoke Pacal, take control of the Hindu AP and force wars against Monty through that, but it would go against the spirit of this PRC. + If I leave Monty, he'll be a beast .. Mansa already lost a city. Thoughts?!?