Welcome to the 31th edition of the Lonely Hearts Club for BTS. In the Lonely Hearts Club we explore strategies to cope with one of the most dreaded situations in Civ IV ( possibly the main reason for reloads after the military collapse one :p ): starting in isolation....

For the 31th game in BTS the choosed leader was Bismark of the Germans:
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x257/r_rolo1/LHC%20BTS%20XXXI/Civ4ScreenShot0086.jpg

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x257/r_rolo1/LHC%20BTS%20XXXI/Civ4ScreenShot0087.jpg
Today , and after having being beaten badly in last LHC twice ( all to the same AI... that is what we get for letting a Fin AI with a UB that boosts trade routes to get the great lighthouse :D ..... the second attemp I got the G Lighthouse, but Han blitzkrieged Fred and I couldn't simply compete with his land :( ), I looked to the LHC game list and I noticed that there was no German in the list.... That had to be corrected, since the UU/UB are both poised for the late game. And I decided to choose Mr Iron Chanceler, for obvious synergy reasons ( the Ind trait halves the price of the UB :D and the expansive trait helps seriously with the :yuck: ).... and seeing Panzer rolling is cool enough, regardless of bein Fred or Biz commanding them :p

Anyway, Ind/Exp is good starting combo ( one of the favourites for OCC ) and they both help during all game....

His UU
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x257/r_rolo1/LHC%20BTS%20XXXI/Civ4ScreenShot0088.jpg
There is nothing in this game like seeing a huge modern age battle with both sides fielding loads of tanks, planes, gunships . And that is clearly the scenario for the German UU ( too bad that we rarely get the oportunity of making a battle like that with a AI :( )

The Panzer is a beefed Tank that has a 50% bonus vs armored units. My opinion is that it got a little beefed with BtS, because gunships got pushed to a later tech.... Anyway it is a very strong unit by it self and it even has nice odds vs Modern Armor ( in fact the only units that put Panzer at bad odds are mechs and gunships ( and a odd Anti tank, but they can't outmove a Panzer ) and you can get Panzers earlier than this two. In spite of this unit not being better than a normal tank except vs other tanks, the fact that LHC normally push decisions to later makes conditions for the profitable use of this machines that shine in post-Industrialism wars

His UB
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x257/r_rolo1/LHC%20BTS%20XXXI/Civ4ScreenShot0089.jpg
Assembly plants are a factory that can hire 4 engineers instead of 2. The bonus is not big, but given that they are designed for a post biology world ( where suposedely the food is not scarce, thus making relatively easy to hire 4 specialists ), it surely helps to transform food in hammers when slavery is dated and there are no more mines/workshops/watermills/lumbermills to work. And in late eras hammers are power, given that most late ways of win are very hammer-heavy .........

As you can imagine, given the more prolonged nature of the LHC games, this UB will probably shine more here than in a normal game.

The start (for reasons that I'll explain below, the warrior may not be exactly in that spot in your game ):
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x257/r_rolo1/LHC%20BTS%20XXXI/Civ4ScreenShot0085.jpg
I hate coastal starts when I'm playing a civ that starts without fishing :( Especially when there is 2 seafood there. Atleast starting with hunting will surely help to get AH early for pasturing those pigs.....

And that patch of land east seems to be a island..... Interesting :p

Regarding the saves: given some complaints about the efects of the AI starting without archery in high levels ( giving a unfair advantage to AI that have early UU and/or have early warmongering tendencies ), I decided to make 3 WB saves ( all in the same zip file ). The WB saves are equal except for the fact that one of them ( labeled Monarch ) has all of the AI with archery as starting tech ( corresponding to a game started in Monarch ), one ( labeled Immortal ) has all of the AI with archery,hunting and agriculture as starting tech ( corresponding to a game started in Immortal ) while the last is the corresponding to a game starting in Noble ( labeled Noble ). All WB saves are playable in all levels, but ( for a example ) if you use the Monarch one the AI will start with archery ( and archers ) in any level. This has only a slight effect in the human directly ( mainly via the garrisons of barb cities ), but has a huge effect on the AI gaming in the outer lands ( avoiding scenarios like Pacal, Shaka or Sitting Bull to take all the barb cities and becoming moguls ). I strongly recommend the usage of the Monarch save if you want to play in Monarch+ and the Immortal at Immortal/Deity.... All the speeds are working well ( no more games ending in 1900 ) The saves are zipped... you only have to unzip this to the worldbuilder saves or for the PublicMaps folder ( either one will do ) and load it from the scenarios.
Any problem PM me...

P.S WB saves are crosscompatible between 3.13 and 3.17 if they don't have No Espionage ticked. No problem with the patches here :p

Again a small request ( not mandatory :p ) :

We ask the participants to do, if possible, a write-up with the victory save and a description of your game ( strategies, techs researched, wars,...). All the info should be in spoiler tags ( to not disturb other people's games ). If you want ( we would like to :p ) post reports at this moments of the game:

Checkpoint 1 - when we have explored the island and are aware of what resources it has. Its not so important when this is, but this is a time to discuss city sites etc. Don't look into a checkpoint 1 spoiler until you have reached this point yourself.

Checkpoint 2 - first contact - when we have met all the other AIs. At this point we can discuss our strategy to get to this point and our plans for dealing with them.

Checkpoint 3 - when we are committed to a victory condition (or at least think we are).

Checkpoint 4 - Victory (or defeat).


The last words are to wish good luck to all :goodjob: . And let the games begin!



P.S We don't have any kind of problem with defeats and reruns. Just play and enjoy ;)

going to play on Prince ... just started playing Monarch so i'm not sure enough that i want to dare that one yet

Mon/Epi 1365AD

Quickly build the Glight, missed S/h by one turn. Expanded to the insense, then focused on the islands, settled both.
http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/oo214/KingMorgan1/LHC-Bis-Sisands0000.jpg
Have not developed the main island yet am about to REX the rest of the lands, shaka and sal have been having a war or two, both are backward. Have lib to complete in 1 turn, am thinking might complete and build Taj, instead of heading to Chem.
http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/oo214/KingMorgan1/LHC-Bis13850000.jpg

I think i will invade shaka and sal with tanks, might as well make use of the UU. Aim for conquest or space victory.

Blah blah blah UU blah blah blah UB blah blah blah.

German Civ sucks, but is made up for by strong leaders. Signing in, EMP/EPIC. Hopefully I don't get wtfpwned by FILE DELETION this time :lol:.

why are you playing emperor tmit? (and why are you not on msn?).

For those that already got to SciMet
I'm sure you already seen some wierd concentrations of oil :p Sorry :blush: ..... suposedely it was meant to be oil in the tundra square, but not in the plain hill north of it. I had corrected that, but it looks that I uploaded the wrong files :(

PRI/EPC 835AD
Started out by building Berlin 1NW because i saw grassland sugar (cottage till i need them), started with warrior-Workboat-Worker-worker-settler and with techpath fishing-mining-BW

i'd actualy go on a limp and calling our islands fairly nice ... loads of riverside grassland north of berlin which just begs to go heavy Cottage, a fair amount of happy resouces (along with a silver which i popped at Berlin) so happyness is no problem ... looked abit around with a second workboat and decided that the islands south of our main island was big enough to warrent GLH so i took a wager for it and chopped it with no problems ... basicly settleing up and rushing towards optics so i can get to know someone ... haven't even learned Mystitism or Alphabet yet :lol:

but something funny happened fairly early ... Izzy found out that she didn't like her starting spot and exited the game fairly early :) ... she stamped out at 625 bc

http://xs432.xs.to/xs432/08436/civ4screenshot0001764.jpg
saved after discovering Arabia which lives not that far away from me and is Buddism head ... and go figure ... the zealot doesn't have Alphabet either


used to play large or huge map so its a fairly little map for me to be tossing around on

save (http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=192519&stc=1&d=1224979391)

GARBLE GARBLE GARBLE Green!

Emp/epic to check II @ 1310 AD. I got bored and automated workers in the BC's lol what. I think I'm doing ok though.

Well, I popped archery from a hut, and was going for GLH. I reached ALL THE WAY OVER TO THE STONE ACROSS THE ISLAND and settled on it, which of course sailing gave me instant access to. Grabbed stonehenge by pure luck (got it pretty late), then GLH (which I got early), then pyramids so that I didn't have to tech monarchy. From there I went hammers/settled specialists in capitol and REXED LIKE HELL, showing some strength in the EXP trait and whatnot. I continued to pick up wonders too due to trait combo and (if one settles the islands SE to take advantage of trade routes) access to both stone and marble.

GLH and rep eh? It just got silly from there. The global tech pace was terrible, wars and idiots. Hey rolo, did you put this cast here on purpose :p???

Anyway I'm @ around 15 cities or so and in a very stable tech position, though everyone hates me kind of. I will win lib, get into FR before anyone gets astro that can invade, and start putting up some defenders since at the moment my capitol has spare hammers. Longbows everywhere should do the trick. If I can get to lib, democracy, and rifling without getting declared on, this world full of idiots is in trouble. Since Sal/shaka are closest I'll probably dial their number first. I'm so far ahead I might self-tech banking to get those up for some nice $$$ buy war. we'll see.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/lhc%20bismark/1310north0000.jpg

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/lhc%20bismark/1310central0000.jpg

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/lhc%20bismark/1310south0000.jpg

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/lhc%20bismark/1310tech0000.jpg

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/lhc%20bismark/1310capitol0000.jpg

Yes I'll have another go..I can't resist. Still haven't finished the last 3 as yet, don't know If I ever will. Maybe when I'm bored.



http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk264/IPEX-731BA5DD06/CIV%204%20PHOTO%20SHOTS/Lonely%20hearts%20club/31%20Bismark/MainIslandmass0000.jpg

I've only explored the 'main' Island mass, 3 happy Gems, Incense and Sugar with a couple of health. I have my wall Street city planned to go by 2 grassland gem mines and rice, Moai statues and capital/Ironworks. Berlin, Hmm that'll be a science centre by default.

I'm going specialist economy, Great lighthouse/stonehenge and try for Pyramids with stone.

Settle off shore islands (where else) for extra trade route income, and go for a late game panzer rage.

Yeah rather late, been taking it easy..too easy...

20 Great Generals born by 1458 :eek: 20 of them....:lol:

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk264/IPEX-731BA5DD06/CIV%204%20PHOTO%20SHOTS/Lonely%20hearts%20club/31%20Bismark/Shaka-eriesed0000.jpg

Here's one reason why...Our friend and ally Shaka khan...Did Ole Salad bin in in 1040 ad. Built the Apostolic palace as well, as I've got no religion...just sad I am.


http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk264/IPEX-731BA5DD06/CIV%204%20PHOTO%20SHOTS/Lonely%20hearts%20club/31%20Bismark/TechsDammHyana0000.jpg

Met all remain civ's, won the circumnavigation bonus, through map trading and 1 turn of actual sailing. :lol::p Kick arse.

Seems like Izzy got boxed into the Eastern end of the Island, Hyuna is actually fighting someone, just had a GG born, the 20th. Seems like they are all backward, EXCEPT DAMM HYUANA....

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk264/IPEX-731BA5DD06/CIV%204%20PHOTO%20SHOTS/Lonely%20hearts%20club/31%20Bismark/4idiotsinarow0000.jpg

Got this map off Hyuana for the sum of 135 gold and a 50 gold gift to soften up for trade.

I'm going to have to try to get them all into Hyuana...as they seem Hindu and he's gone free religion (sherwadogon pagoda) would explain that. Looks like Liberialism is gone.

I'm still settling my planned cities as of now...very slack.:mischief:

Green Emp/Epic

1899 Diplomation

1390 is late for lib but the AIs we have on this map are weak techers:

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/lhc%20bismark/1390libwin0000.jpg

From there I teched PP to democracy, then grabbed banking/eco/corp, then rifling.

$$$$$$ buy baby!

I declared on Sal just before 1700, but there was a PROBLEM. Taking one of sal's land mass cities made me a land target for shaka, who ALSO DOWd me! I was up against 2 fairly large SoDs due to this. I had to adjust by camping in my captured city, letting the idiots throw themselves into drill promoted rifles. It was really ugly how many units the AI lost to doing that. Shaka took peace, I took one more Arab city and:

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/lhc%20bismark/1748salcaps0000.jpg

Capitulation. I was originally planning to wipe sal out, then cap shaka, but shaka's interference convinced me to flip this policy. I banged out the techs for infantry and went after Shaka:

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/lhc%20bismark/1804waronshakalandandsea0000.jpg

Infantry vs muskets is a bet I'll take...I even had spies (and with jails, the EP was enough to drop defenses). It didn't take long to wipe shaka off the map.

Now the fun part: NOBODY HAD INFANTRY EVEN THEN! I went for izzy who was close:

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/lhc%20bismark/1849dowizzy0000.jpg

And turned her into AC

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/lhc%20bismark/1858izzyisnowcaesar0000.jpg

This made khan a land target to another AI, and when I dow'd on him it was a very fast cap. One thing of note: IF YOU MAKE A COLONY, YOU CAN NO LONGER LIBERATE TO CAPITULATED AIS ON THAT CONTINENT. I didn't care though. I liberated them to my colony and figured they'd just flip.

I went for Inca, who had monty and lincoln as voluntary (!) vassals:

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/lhc%20bismark/1893dowhcandco0000.jpg

Having gifted GK techs, the former punching bag for this alliance quickly took back some cities. I grabbed one off monty too, and then:

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/lhc%20bismark/1899UN0000.jpg

Yes, idiot HC build the UN, with nobody but sal even near mass media (I stopped teching after arty, probably could have stopped at ass. line). HC built the UN so that he could lose, I guess. I'll take it!

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/lhc%20bismark/info0000.jpg

$$$$$ buy, as usual.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/lhc%20bismark/score0000.jpg

This game got really easy after getting GLH/mids...not surprising. It got stupid once I realized which AIs were in the game. Very fun though.

Monarch/Epic Checkpoint 1 and 2 (different spoilers)

Checkpoint 1 (Map at 10AD, Whole area possible to travel pre optics explored and locations of early strategic resources revealed)

Ok, isolation. I have to say previous LCs for me hasn't worked that great, but this one seems to be going in the right direction.

I decided to settle Berlin 1 east of startposition.

The goodie huts did help me along quite nicely. I think there was only 3 goodie huts and guess what, all of them gave me a tech each. I have never been so lucky before. I gained Agri, AH and Writing from the huts. If you don't believe me I have screenies to show for it.

Initial research up to 10AD went fishing, BW, Wheel, Sailing, Masonry, IW, Pott, Myst, Meditation, Priesthood, Math, (CoL from Oracle), Calendar, Poly, Mono, Aest.

First builds in Berlin where Worker, WB, Warrior, Worker, Settler, Axe(x2), WB, Lib.

I went for early wonderhogging here, claiming TGL, Oracle and Pyramids. CoL gained me a religion, to bad I'm not likely to pop a prophet anytime soon.

Maps of the islands with settled cities and suggested citysites, next segment will show I didn't settle them all as I planned here, but sort of.
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d143/Elenthrial/Civ4ScreenShot0028-4.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d143/Elenthrial/Civ4ScreenShot0029-4.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d143/Elenthrial/Civ4ScreenShot0030-3.jpg



Checkpoint 2 (1170AD, I've encountered I believe everyone, not quite sure though, some thoughts on VCs included)

So, it's been a pretty good game so far, I will not give as detailed research and buildplan now. Researchwise I focused on gaining important economical techs before pursuing optics. Military techs I discarded for now, no real threats for a while yet.

So I researched Literature (to get GL), Music (for the GA and a golden age), Currency, Civil Service and then jumped to the optics race.

I gained another 3 wonders this time, got to love being industrious. GL, The Parthenon, Colossus. I only missed out of ToA. The rest I didn't bother with, no need for them in my gameplan. Angkor Wat is in process of being constructed, I do believe I'll be able to claim it.

Oh yes, I got another religion, Taoism from Philosophy. Angkor Wat may give me the opportunity to use some priest to get the prophets I want for my shrines.

Economy is set as a SE with some tradebased help. Civics currently is Repr (from pyramids), Bureo, Caste, default and pacifism

The unknown world has let me know it existed way before I met any of them, GGs where born all time time all over the place. And soon I knew why.

I first ran into Sal, he shared continent with Shaka. The other direction gave me contact with Hyuana, Monty, Ghengis and Izzy. With that lot combined it's unevitable that there's some early warring going on.

It also shows in the techrace, I'm ahead at this point, only lacking a few which I'll be able to trade for when the time is right.
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d143/Elenthrial/Civ4ScreenShot0067-2.jpg

I did win the circumnav race just some turn after the above screenie. (got to love gaining maps for just 60gc or a very low end tech, the AI do value their maps way to low at times.)

VC, still undecided, AP is built and I'm pretty sure it's Izzy that's responsible for it. If not Izzy, there must be an unknown someone still out there, possible in the southern region of the world somewhere. I may go for domination this time, if I can keep this techlead it should be quite easy, culture is another option if I start focus on it very soon. Space I just did in the NC and that'd be repeating things again, so a quicker win this time, please. Diplo, perhaps with the UN, we'll see if it goes on that long.

@TMIT

135 infantrys built...amazing.
Do you used draft or only rush buy (I suppose you had a proper HE city)

Cheers,

Raskolnikov

@TMIT
I liked the Orange Monty :p

Too bad that you haven't got to tank warfare :(

@TMIT

135 infantrys built...amazing.
Do you used draft or only rush buy (I suppose you had a proper HE city)

Cheers,

Raskolnikov

Nope, no HE. That's pure cottage spam market/grocer/bank $$$ buy, using theocracy for the 5 xp. Also, I upgraded a lot of rifles to infantry, so I actually fielded closer to 200 (edit: 193 to be exact) across the game ;).

Rush buy has an interesting window - market/grocer/bank is available early, far earlier than hammer multipliers. 3 gold turns into 1 hammer. A town, with 7 gold (@ 0% science) and its base hammer under US, will put up 2 food and essentially 3.333 hammers (but multiply those 2.333 by 100%!). State property workshops are more efficient, once you have the hammer multipliers. However, those come later and take time to set up. Also, $$$ rush applies these considerations to allow the ENTIRE EMPIRE to hit post-industrial hammer output in the mid-renaissance, of course at the expense of tech.

So basically, any time I realize I hold a tech lead and a decent # of cottage cities, I start putting the gold multipliers in cities instead of more science, allowing for devastating blows in the mid-late renaissance or early industrial periods. If the AI tech pace is on the slow side, this will end the game outright, but it's good for a civ or two down regardless, assuming one reads the opportunity for it. It wasn't just the infantry/rifles though, I had to field a navy too! Although about half the galleons were put out in my wonderspam capitol since it had spare hammers for a while after astro.

Thanks for answering TMIT,

I think I will try a game based on rush buy off line as I seem to rely mostly on whip and normal hammers... but your numbers are amazing... 200 infant without HE...wooha

Cheers,

Raskolnikov

ditched my prince game and started a Monarch Marathon ...
with those enemies i'm not really feeling in danger of being ditched far behind in a tech race (well HC could prove a problem)

TMIT, how do you change the colors of the Civs? I cant stand the gray Germany or the white English. Jaoa and Zara are also kind of hard to see sometimes as well.

Byzans is along with Portogal, Ethiopia and Aztec the hardest to spot on the map

Bleys , you know enough about WB save editing to do that by yourself in here ;)

In case you don't remember.....
Go to the part where the player stats are ( you know, flag, name of the leader , ... ) . There is a line there that governs the color(s) of the civ. Choose one from the possibles ( I'm still trying to find the file that has them defined..... I know which is but I'm really lazy today :p ) and enjoy

And be sure to use all caps - the stupid thing is annoyingly case sensitive. Even BLACK is possible, and one of my favorites to use ;).

Hi all. Monarch, normal speed. Not too sure what constitutes stage 1, but here's me after scouting the land.



http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=192706&stc=1&d=1225140764

Not advancing very quickly, hada bad run with the barbs. First lost my scout to fauna, then a warrior, then a barracks trained axe to barb warrior attack ( I had 50% defense in jungle too !) and finally I got the 4 spear barb assault - for some reason they bypassed my outer cities where I sent my defenders and attacked my capital - had to whip out an extra defender, but all OK now.

I was probably teching slowly anyway but still hoping to get out great library and bulb my way to liberalism - might have to do it without religion though, not sure if this is competitively feasible, looks like coliseums will be needed and the state religion becoming football !.

Hi all. Monarch, normal speed. Not too sure what constitutes stage 1, but here's me after scouting the land.



http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=192706&stc=1&d=1225140764

Not advancing very quickly, hada bad run with the barbs. First lost my scout to fauna, then a warrior, then a barracks trained axe to barb warrior attack ( I had 50% defense in jungle too !) and finally I got the 4 spear barb assault - for some reason they bypassed my outer cities where I sent my defenders and attacked my capital - had to whip out an extra defender, but all OK now.

I was probably teching slowly anyway but still hoping to get out great library and bulb my way to liberalism - might have to do it without religion though, not sure if this is competitively feasible, looks like coliseums will be needed and the state religion becoming football !.



This is why I often play with barbs off, they're not balanced to starts (and they're an annoyance). I don't ALWAYS play with them off though, and when I don't my tech resembles Snaaty's walkthrough - early archers fogbusting all over and leading/defending city sites. I always play with events off though...I don't like that in marginal situations they can cause you to lose outright (and believe me, it's happened to me and it happened to godonut in BOTM 10).

That aside, 4 cities isn't enough at that point - you want to be closer to 6 unless you put up a key wonder or three. Even with an uprising, with spears 2-3 archers would put them down quickly (3 will beat all uprisings, often even HAs). Definitely prioritize more early workers/settlers ASAP.

Checkpoint 1 (late, ~900 AD) (Immortal/Normal)

Settled 2N and started building wonders. GW and Pyramids before the second city, which was on the pigs.
Missed the Great Lighthouse by a bit.
Third city was down on top of the Marble.
Got Great Library and Parthenon in capital.
Settled fourth city over on top of the incense.
Went hard for Engineering, stopping only for Writing, AH and Iron Working to settle the Gems city. Missed the Colossus.
Still missed Notre Dame. Building both the Great Library and Notre Dame is my Lonely Hearts series holy grail. I always try and never make it.
Lost a couple Triremes to barbs before I finally finished circling the islands some time around 900.
Around that time I was building a Settler for the rice/river spot north of the capital, and a small stack of Axes/Trebs to take a barb city that appeared to the northwest on Pig/Fish/Copper and farm a level 4 unit.

Great people were:
Spy, settled
Scientist, Academy
Artist, saved
3 Scientists, settled

Checkpoint 2 (1300 - 1440)

Sent my Caravels out around 1250, met everyone, got circumnavigation. Traded mostly with Saladin, who was most backward. Monty was master of Isabella and locked into war with HC, and Shaka was locked in with Saladin. Also traded a bit with HC, second most backward, earning me the emnity of Monty too.

Astro 1440. I'm nowhere near Liberalism but it looks like the AIs are pretty far too. Taoism didn't fall until 960. I'm still in Slavery.

http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee216/athenai777/CFC/lonelyheartsclub-31-checkpoint-2.jpg

@Bleys
All possible combos for color schemes ( color for the flag + color for the symbol in the flag ) are in Assets/XML/Interface/CIV4PlayerColorInfos.xml. The colors used there are defined in CIV4ColorVals.xml in the same folder. Have fun :p

Thanks mate. Changing them in those spots will change them for all my games, without having to edit WB files, right? Is that what you did TMIT? Or did you edit this games WB yourself with colors so their wouldnt be any hard-to-spot culture? I remember one LHC as KK I think, and SB was the big cheese on the other continent, and when I took it, I couldnt tell my own land from SBs, a real PITA. In fact, I never finished that one.

In here you can change in the WB using those files as template , but for the other games you can change in Assets/XML/Civilizations/CIV4CivilizationInfos.xml ( OFC with the usual procedure of editing a copy and placing it in costumassets ;) ) using the same template.

Yeah you can do the customassets thing. I actually just open the WB save, and hit playercolor in the find thing...the first one it takes it to is my civ, so I don't even know what other civs are.

I just pick colors I like, without regard for anything else :p.

Just a last thing: if you change the XML, the game from this WB still will have the normal grey borders ( WB has preference over XML in this )

Cool, I may just change a few civ colors. I really wish there was an in-game option to assign different colors to any leader you want too. In fact, I think it would be really cool if you could pick the color of any civ when you meet them.

BTW I am playing this game, heres a brief report, sorry its sucky, I just havent been in the mood to do write-ups lately, so I rarely take any screenshots.

Emperor, Epic, through 1500 AD:

I built the GLH, Colossus, and GL in Berlin, as well as a couple other Wonders. I didnt settle the marble in time to get the Oracle, and someone got the MoM insanely fast in my game. This was the very first time I played at Emp and had a lead when I met the other AI civs. I actually settled the small island between me and Sal, then Shaka and Sal DoWed on me (pre-Astronomy) and took it, LOL. Kinda funny. I got Lib pretty early, and took Steel. I just finished up Astro myself, I am in a Golden Age where I swapped to Nationalism and drafted a pile of Rifles, so now I am going to go wipe Sal and Shaka out with my Rifle vs Longbow advantage. HC is the only AI anywhere near me, he is actually teching quite well, he's already past Astronomy, and Sci Meth (I am teching that now). I am going for a Conquer victory if I can, I should be able to take Sal and Shaka with Rifles and Cannons on Galleons, then I will look for Infantry and Artillery to take out HC, Monty and Izzy. GK is already a non-factor, Monty vassalized him before I even met em.

I will try to remember to take a few screenies over the rest of the game, I know I like those "heres my SoD, and the cities its going to crush" pics best when I read other reports.

For those that already got to SciMet
I'm sure you already seen some wierd concentrations of oil :p Sorry :blush: ..... suposedely it was meant to be oil in the tundra square, but not in the plain hill north of it. I had corrected that, but it looks that I uploaded the wrong files :(

@r_rolo

When I saw the line above the spoiler and didn't open the spoiler I was worried that you would say something like "sorry, missed placing an oil for you". Now that I've reached sci meth and found the plentiful supply I did dare to open the spoiler. Thanx for the plentyful supply, although oil will probably make no or very little difference to the outcome of atleast my game. ;)

Hi all. Monarch, normal speed. Not too sure what constitutes stage 1, but here's me after scouting the land.



http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=192706&stc=1&d=1225140764

Not advancing very quickly, hada bad run with the barbs. First lost my scout to fauna, then a warrior, then a barracks trained axe to barb warrior attack ( I had 50% defense in jungle too !) and finally I got the 4 spear barb assault - for some reason they bypassed my outer cities where I sent my defenders and attacked my capital - had to whip out an extra defender, but all OK now.

I was probably teching slowly anyway but still hoping to get out great library and bulb my way to liberalism - might have to do it without religion though, not sure if this is competitively feasible, looks like coliseums will be needed and the state religion becoming football !.



@Negator_UK

Some general thoughts and suggestions.

Looks to me you're teching too slowly. Do you have any libs up in Berlin and Hamburg? With the food available to those two cities you should be able to support atleast 1 scientist in each to speed up early research quite a bit.

City placement, you got two, fairly slowgrowing, cities in your initial four. With this being in isolation (we know that don't we, because of the series theme) it's safe to do a bit distant settling than keeping everything close to Berlin.

Munich has no food resource, if I see correctly it's 1 of the river, putting it 1W would still make it coastal and have river access. But I would have waited a bit with settling it, maybe as 6th-8th city or so.

Cologne, in the middle of nowhere, only calendar resources available. Sure they'll make a farm a bit better than normally, but still, I'd have waited for almost calendartime before settling that one.

The tip I can give is to play the map accordingly. You have explored the island. There's pretty good cityspots up north that claims both food and stone for example. With sailing, you'd be able to connect the cities without having to wait for a road to connect them. Spreading the cities out would also make the barb problem easier to handle, you'll quicker remove the fogcover for the whole island and then barbs is no problem anymore.

With the gems being in the jungle zone IW would be a priority here to be able to start settling the middle of the island where there's room for some very strong financial centers with the gems and lot's of cottageable space.

Emp, Epic, 1500-1700 AD:

Changed gears, took peace with Shaka and Sal for now, and rolled my army over to the other continent, and wiped Izzy out in about 10 turns. That got me a bunch of decent Wonders, including the AP, and a city with an incredible amount of GGs, Madrid. Check this out:

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj80/Bleys_bucket/Civ4ScreenShot0030-1.jpg

Crazy eh. Now I wish I had not built my HE yet, LOL.

Anyway, my plan is to take out this continent, including HC, and hoping that Shaka and Sal dont come for me. Despite drafting over 40 Rifles (3 from each of 14 cities), and building 15 cannons, I am still only .8 Power with Sal, and .7 with Shaka. Neither has Rifles yet, and I am almost to Infantry, but the last thing I need is those 2 landing on me. Luckily, neither is in WHEOOHRN, so I should have time to take out Monty and his vassal, GK. It would be very difficult if Shaka and Sal DoW on me now, I have plenty of Galleons, but as you all know, Madrid to Berlin is a 5 turn ride, even with the Circumvent bonus. Next report soon, very cool game. These AIs are fun to play against.

Hi

Noble, Marathon 1744 AD checkpoints 1-3ish.

Game started out promising very first goody hut was BW at 3970bc :). After that is was gold gold gold so bank acct was full, bronze in bfc so right off bat we are rdy to build barbie handlers and to wonderwhore and expand.

My tech tree was like AH, AG, Fishing Sailing, Masonry, Wheel, Pottery,Writing, Machinery, Math, Aesthitics, CoL, Lit, or something like that. It was enought hat I was able to get, 'Mids, GLH, Collossus, ToA, HG, and GL, and even SoZ early on. First GP was a GM and he bulbed Currency. Second GP was a great prophet and he went on to build a shrine in Hamburg which is Confusist holy city.

Missed out on Oracle but didnt even have a chance at that somehow Oracle went FAST. I mean FAAAAAASSSST it was built even before stonehenge. Only way I can figure it is if Izzy after teching Poly for hinduism got Preisthood from a hut like RIGHT afterwards and started working then and there or something. And got it done VERY early. waay before 2000BC and I think before 2500BC even.

That might acct for why she got swallowed by Gehngis waaaay early. When I finally got a look around that continent, Izzy is gone and ONLY spanish city is Madrid. SO it looks like Izzy spent whole time on Oracle insted of expanding and got it built just in time for Ghengis to wipe her out :/.

Well anyways I was able to expand pretty easily with money from huts and wonders and shrines fueling economy for most part. I settled out my contient without much problem. Barbies werent that much of pain since with BW right off bat my fogbusting axes had no problems with barbie spears and archers and warriors. No Barbie axes or swords showed up for some reaon but by then they all had combat1,shock from killing the spaers and archers so they wouldnt have been a prob anyways. ANd I didnt bother with workboats until after I could build triemes so barbie galleys werent much of hassel either.

I also settled two islands south and rinky dink island north.

I managed to win lib race. And as soon as I had tech lib I switch to free religion and then upgraded some triemes to caravals and went out to see the world. Met the other civs and even won circum race. I seem to be teching ahead of everybody. I founbd another lil islad to my west and have 4 cities there.

Around this point in game I decide to invade contient with Salad and Shaka. Shaka makes it easy since he declares on me for NO reaon. He cant even get galleys over to me so no way he can attack me but I took Astronomy with Lib race tech so I CAN get to him if I want.

By Time he attacks I alrdy teched steel and am on way to Mil Sci, so I am building muskets and cannon then Grens and caravals and frigates to go say hi to SHaka and show him why it not nice to pick on girls.

But then Surprize surprize that ^^*(&)*_ Monty DoW's on me for now reason and starts ending gallys to that lil 4 city island just north of his continent. He even takes one of the cities.

Now in Long run startegy wise. I SHOULD have just ignored Monty. I mean those 4 cities on that island have NOTHING to offer cept counting toward land and pop totals. They dont have much resources (at least none that I can see rep idnustrial techs anyways) That I dont already have and they sooo brand new that they cost more in maintainance than they really woirth at this point.

Smart move would have been let Monty take those cities and deal with maintance cost and building them up, keep focus on building invasion force for shaka, Take him out then Salad and once THAT all done THEN send a HUGE force to go take back cities and make Monty pay for being a big jerk.

Only problem with that startegy is I HATE losing cities grrrr. Besides it would just be cruel to let thoise poor citizens suffer under Monty's rule after they got used to living under my benevolence :P.

So stack that wa smade for Shaka instead gets sent west. rertakes my city. Raises two of Monty's cities to make sure his culture doesnt push into those islands anymore so his galleys cant get there and just to make him pay for annoying me hehe.

After that he willing to offer me HC's old cap for peace. I take it and give Cuzco back to HC since he so tiny it wont make diff to give it back him and will hopefully cause monty some [probs :) and I dont have to worry bout defending it.

This is point whre I left off pretty much. I am teching towards rifling. Most of first big stack I am leaving on that isaldn in case Monty or Gehngis decide to try and take em again.

Which means I need a new stack to go after Shaka. But I am thinking Shaka can wait. Salad is closer and he have AP city. So my plan now is rebuild a new stack. Raze Medina the AP city right off the bat so I dont have that headache to mess with. Take out Salad and then Shaka. After that its see how close I am to dom win. If I still need more land and pop then it Monty's turn. If I take him down after controlling the Salad/Shaka continent I should have dom win.

Diplowise I am shaka's worst enemy now though I have NOOO idea why. Only negative was this war spoils our relation ship hit and HE started it :/. Monty hates me too mostly cuz I raised two of his cities but again HE started it NOT me :P.

Ghengis is actual pleased with me which I am hoping will keep him off my back. His worst enemy is Shaka and I hope it stays that way till after I get control of Salad/Shaka Continent.

Here is pic of my empire so far:

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll203/KaytieKat91/lhcbizzy/mainemp.jpg
My main empire

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll203/KaytieKat91/lhcbizzy/lilemp.jpg
Lil isand off to my west.

Demographics:

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll203/KaytieKat91/lhcbizzy/demos.jpg

Ahead in most categories excpet power but I am number two and catching up. And ghengis is number one and he is at pleased with me and hates shaka more and is way stronger than the other AI's so hopefully he will pick one of them first before me if he is feeling froggy.

I THINK I might have a chance if I can take out Salad and Shaka and then get that contient working for me. I just have to make sure I have a few cities on their contient before they get astronomy so fighting will stay their and leave my home cities alone. And if monty doesnt get stupid again of gehngis dont backstab me. Biggest if is Gehngis since we all pretty much KNOW Monty being a stupid is pretty much his AI prime directive but I dont think he will be that big a prob.

Kinda funny how just ONE resourse is making all the diff. IF I had Horseys ANYWHERE isntead of messing with Mil Sci and Steel and now getting to riflles I COULD have just belined Mil Trad after gunpowder and been ALL over Salad/and Shaka with curiassors while they still just had muskets or less and game would be pretty much over by this point but NOOOO :P none not even ghengis will trade me horseys for ANYTHING ::pout::.

Oh wells I am sure Salad has horseys somewhere in his empire so I SHOULD be getting some soon and by that time I will be using Cav instead of Curriasors :)

Well anyways thats my sitch and my plan for what it worth at this point. Wish me luck :)
Kaytie

Hi

Noble, Marathon 1780's AD checkpoint 4 resigned :(

Grrrrr stack I sent after salad was NOWHERE near big enough. I sent a stack of 30 at medina. Like 12 cannons and 9 grenadier, 9 rifles. I probably needed at least 20 more nonseiges units to have taken medina. and at least 10 more on top of that to survive long enough to get back out after raising it and then a loong wait to heal to go after mecca by which time Slaad would have had bigger.

Meanwhile Shaka and Gehngis and Monty dow'ed on me. And it not so much the Dow's hurting although they might once they get astronomy but losing the resources fro gehngis. That Hurt bigtime. Plus I just dont have the production unless I whip/draft units until all my 20 pop cities go down to nothing and even then I would have a stack big enough to START but not anywhere big enough to finish.

Salad has curiassors and everybody is speeding to astronomy.

I guess biggest problem is I am just sucky at handling low production/low resource situations. Sugar is ALL I really have to trade. I got lucky that ghengis needed clams and pigs but lost those when he dowed so that hurting. MY best production cities werent THAT good to begin with but with pollotion and sad faces shrinking them they now even worse.

Not to mention that I was basically running SE so that mean I NEED semi big cities to do much and without the resources to suppoert em they not getting big enough.

That plus just being overseas warfare just killed me cuz those extra units dont count the 10 xtra galleons needed to ship em off. I dont know. It just took me FOREVER to get that stack I did get plus the navy to support it and it was like only half of what I needed. And THAT is assuming salad didnt get any bigger while I added all that. If I start from save and this time wait till I have 60 plus units and navy for em Salad most likely gonna be even BIGGER and so will everybody else so I will need an even bigger stack by then and in time to get that they will get bigger and on and on.

Only OTHER start I can think of is I had one GM saved I COULD beeline eco and get two GM's. Then beeline to assembly line and use GMs on missions to Ghengis's cap and mass up grade to rifles. That seem ONLY chance to have but that assumes noone will DoW me until then and that dont seem likely since Shaka and Ghengis and Salad all in wheooh and Shaka no longer Ghengis's worst enemy. So I just call this a loss. It seems like no way for me to win and at best just long grind of delaying ineveitiable.

Well anyways hope everybody else does better. maybe I can do better next game :)
Kaytie

immortal, normal. Played till 1595 Checkpoint 3.
I felt like a wonderspam game so I decided to give this a go.
Settle in place, tech fishing, ah, bw:), then beeline GLH while founding city 2 in a crap spot up by the stone to go for 'mids. Get them both then add parth, GL, Col, Uof S. (First GP was a merchant and being indu I bulb MC).
The AI war a lot and are backward--I bulb tao in around 800!.
I go the lib route and take nat-Taj. Mongols have vassaled inca and Izzie, Zulu have vassaled Sal.
The AI are really backward and there's way too much land (I even have pretty good relations)--don't think I'll bother to finish this one.

Hi

Noble, Marathon 1780's AD checkpoint 4 resigned :(

Grrrrr stack I sent after salad was NOWHERE near big enough. I sent a stack of 30 at medina. Like 12 cannons and 9 grenadier, 9 rifles. I probably needed at least 20 more nonseiges units to have taken medina. and at least 10 more on top of that to survive long enough to get back out after raising it and then a loong wait to heal to go after mecca by which time Slaad would have had bigger.

Meanwhile Shaka and Gehngis and Monty dow'ed on me. And it not so much the Dow's hurting although they might once they get astronomy but losing the resources fro gehngis. That Hurt bigtime. Plus I just dont have the production unless I whip/draft units until all my 20 pop cities go down to nothing and even then I would have a stack big enough to START but not anywhere big enough to finish.

Salad has curiassors and everybody is speeding to astronomy.

I guess biggest problem is I am just sucky at handling low production/low resource situations. Sugar is ALL I really have to trade. I got lucky that ghengis needed clams and pigs but lost those when he dowed so that hurting. MY best production cities werent THAT good to begin with but with pollotion and sad faces shrinking them they now even worse.

Not to mention that I was basically running SE so that mean I NEED semi big cities to do much and without the resources to suppoert em they not getting big enough.

That plus just being overseas warfare just killed me cuz those extra units dont count the 10 xtra galleons needed to ship em off. I dont know. It just took me FOREVER to get that stack I did get plus the navy to support it and it was like only half of what I needed. And THAT is assuming salad didnt get any bigger while I added all that. If I start from save and this time wait till I have 60 plus units and navy for em Salad most likely gonna be even BIGGER and so will everybody else so I will need an even bigger stack by then and in time to get that they will get bigger and on and on.

Only OTHER start I can think of is I had one GM saved I COULD beeline eco and get two GM's. Then beeline to assembly line and use GMs on missions to Ghengis's cap and mass up grade to rifles. That seem ONLY chance to have but that assumes noone will DoW me until then and that dont seem likely since Shaka and Ghengis and Salad all in wheooh and Shaka no longer Ghengis's worst enemy. So I just call this a loss. It seems like no way for me to win and at best just long grind of delaying ineveitiable.

Well anyways hope everybody else does better. maybe I can do better next game :)
Kaytie

@Kaytie

Looks to me you did pretty well initially. Then perhaps you got carried away a bit. As you yourself noted, that far of island next to Monty might have been better leaving alone for the time being (or making a colony out of it). Thus the only focus you'd needed to start with was Sal and Shaka. If you had taken their continent, then you would've had a bigger productionbase to go after ghengis, Monty and the rest as the final push for domination.

The other trouble with that far of island is that you put four cities there. Had you kept it to three, it'd been a far better economical deal. Colonial expenses sky rockets with the 4th city, with only 3 it's manageable.

But from your first post you're in a victory position anyway, perhaps replay from there and focus on Sal and Shaka and leave your faraway position to either a Colony or let Monty take it. Taking Sal, don't rush to Medina, make a foothold on an easier city first. Let Sal deplete his troops on your defenses in that city, then go on the offensive.

It's always a bit more difficult to learn how to invade a different continent, the best is to do it after flight so you can ship in troops with airports as well as with transports. Take one city, make it yours, perhaps make peace for 10 turns to ship in more troops and then redeclare again and it may get a bit easier, or just as I suggested above, dig in, bring plenty of good defenders in the initial stack.

Monarch/Epic Checkpoint 3 or something ~1700AD (just a very short update)


As I'm at work now it'll not be a fancy thing with screenies and the rest, the final update will have to cover that.

Right, it's a good game. I'm way ahead in research to everyone, at this point I have rifles, going on combustion and then to assembly, perhaps a detour to communism as economy is starting to be a bit of a trouble.

Well, I decided to jump at Shaka when my friend Sal called me up and asked for help. It was easy, at that point I went in with grenadiers, Cannons and Muskets against his HAs, Axes/Swords and Lbows. A walk in the park, I quickly secured half of his cities as my own. Then he decided to capitulate to Sal just when I was prepared for my final rush.

So, a bit of a disapointment there, nevermind though, Sal was to go anyway, but I'd rather saved him for a bit later after getting HC and Izzy in place as their techpace started to catch up a bit, now I may be forced to go with Panzer against rifles instead of Inf against Muskets/Lbows, well, no real worries there, though they'll most likely give some opposition on the big sea at that point so I'd better focus more on protection for my transports.

Well, I took the peace for about 5 turns before I had a good enough stack ready at Sals western border, declared and started walking over the opposition again, Shaka went quickly, is now erased from the earth. Sal bid a bit better opposition and it didn't help that our shared religion and friendship started to amount some unhappiness quite quickly in my cities. And he did also manage to get Camelarchers a few turns into the war and I was sloppy, so I didn't secure his horses as first priority (Rifles has a very easy time against HAs, quite easy against Camel Archers but I did loose some more troops than expected)

In a few more turn their continent will be all mine, then I need to get economy back on track quickly for the final push towards domination. I'm guessing I'll go from Izzys side of the continent and move eastward. I recon she'll be a quite easy psuhover, Ghengis a bit harder but more backwards, Monty is Ghengis vassal so he's no real threat and finally HC, who is the most dangerous over there so I might not need to take him on if I leave him for last.

Hopefully, i can push out a few GMs which would really help the economy, all GMs I've gotten so far in this game has been used on trading missions, finansing my warcampaign.

Well, that was the short recap from last post, to noones surprise my goal is domination, I could settle for a conquest if I can get everyone to capitulate quickly, but I guess I'll reach the domination limit way before that happens.

Just wanted to add some more in depth analysis of the situation, as I see it



http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk264/IPEX-731BA5DD06/CIV%204%20PHOTO%20SHOTS/Lonely%20hearts%20club/31%20Bismark/Gottalovethis0000.jpg

Seems like I won't have to worry about that continent for quite a while.

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk264/IPEX-731BA5DD06/CIV%204%20PHOTO%20SHOTS/Lonely%20hearts%20club/31%20Bismark/Ohyeahidiotsfighting0000.jpg

Looks like they are doing my work for me, in slowing down Hyuana, who'd have to be going for Gunpowder.

Further strategy is to Grab astronomy off Liberalism, tech nationalism and build the Taj mahal.

I actually got to build the MoM rather late, I teched Currency oh..700+ and realized it hadn't gone, I"d settled marble by this stage so I grabed it. Built Notre Dame for the +2 happy, Hagia Sofia for the Great engineer points and grabbed the Parthenon, to go with MoM and a golden age.

Once I built Wall street city over by the 2 grassland gem mines, I had 2 Prophets to settle straight away, I'd have had up to 4, but I settled 2 in Capital as I needed gold at the time, but those 2 extra hammers certainly add up


I still need to settle more cities, Iron worKs for 1, build MORE WORKERS, and spam watermills all over.

I've generated 1 Merchant, who's settled into wall street, along with 2 Prophets, I've 1 great engineer cooling his heels, Proberly use him for Mining corp, Civ jewelers, I'll spread all over other AI's, and Sids Sushi will all go into Wall street.

Plan is to take over Shaka, whos' getting 2 dangerous with all that land, and move onto a conquest victory.

Good tips dub, but there is one thing:
@Kaytie

The other trouble with that far of island is that you put four cities there. Had you kept it to three, it'd been a far better economical deal. Colonial expenses sky rockets with the 4th city, with only 3 it's manageable.

Its the third city that make its colonial expenses jump WAY WAY up. All "other landmasses" should be limited to 2 cities wherever possible

Good tips dub, but there is one thing:

Its the third city that make its colonial expenses jump WAY WAY up. All "other landmasses" should be limited to 2 cities wherever possible

Ah, yes, my fault, thanx for correcting me Bleys :)

Good tips dub, but there is one thing:

Its the third city that make its colonial expenses jump WAY WAY up. All "other landmasses" should be limited to 2 cities wherever possible

I never got to communism in my game...so no state property...

Colonial expenses can be significant but that doesn't mean it's not worth it to go past 2 cities (excepting small islands where the option is 2 good ones or 3 moderate ones or something). Having completely wiped out shaka and holding on to ALL of his cities, my income went UP with just courthouses, commerce multipliers, and the forbidden palace!

I'd have kept izzy's stuff too rather than making a colony (she had versailles), but there's some cryptic vassal rules. If an AI shares enough border with another AI, it is considered a "land target" to that AI, and this drastically increases the odds that it is willing to vassal. Basically, I liberated the Izzy cities to make GK capitulate more easily! I'd have just left Izzy there, but she didn't want to communicate :rolleyes:.

I never got to communism in my game...so no state property...

Colonial expenses can be significant but that doesn't mean it's not worth it to go past 2 cities (excepting small islands where the option is 2 good ones or 3 moderate ones or something). Having completely wiped out shaka and holding on to ALL of his cities, my income went UP with just courthouses, commerce multipliers, and the forbidden palace!

I'd have kept izzy's stuff too rather than making a colony (she had versailles), but there's some cryptic vassal rules. If an AI shares enough border with another AI, it is considered a "land target" to that AI, and this drastically increases the odds that it is willing to vassal. Basically, I liberated the Izzy cities to make GK capitulate more easily! I'd have just left Izzy there, but she didn't want to communicate :rolleyes:.



I agree with you completely, might not have been clear from my post, what I did intend to say was an early expansion to a different continent may be a though economical strain to the early economy, thus better to keep it small in such cases, like two cities. When you are so far in the game so you start invading, most likely you'll be able to support the additional cities, if nothing else with the spoils of war until enough infrastructur is whipped into place.

SP is "the easy way out", but it's not always necessary. On this map, I didn't switch into SP, the overseas trade benefit made up quite alot of the negatives, just whip out a harbour and courthouse (and if possible custom houses) in the newly conquered cities and they'll start contributing to instead of draining the economy. In my case though, I had my research mostly based on specialist and settled gps so I could afford running 0% science and still have a good researchrate.

The last words are to wish good luck to all :goodjob: . And let the games begin!



P.S We don't have any kind of problem with defeats and reruns. Just play and enjoy ;)

I am curious... is there any way to play these games using HOF-mod? I understand it wouldn't be viable for submission to anything, but the exotic advisers tend to make life easier.

You can use it with HoF... this is a WB save after all: unless the mod takes units/terrains/game options/LH out of the regular game , the regular WB saves are usable.

@TMIT

Well you were right about me being slow, but then that advice was good last time you gave it too :)

Not too sure about turning off barbs completely, civ wouldn't be civ without barbs (but then there is Monte I s'pose). But the 4barb event is daft - still it encourages me to build military units, and its thanks to barbs that I can build HE at the moment (haven't done yet though).

I built one wonder - GL - but missed liberalism (in 1310) by about 10 turns. Missing both of these normally loses the game, but only missing one ? well I'll find out.

@dubrown

Looks to me you're teching too slowly. Do you have any libs up in Berlin and Hamburg? With the food available to those two cities you should be able to support atleast 1 scientist in each to speed up early research quite a bit.

I'm afraid the speed thing is all too true...


City placement, you got two, fairly slowgrowing, cities in your initial four. With this being in isolation (we know that don't we, because of the series theme) it's safe to do a bit distant settling than keeping everything close to Berlin.

Good advice, will take it next time :) Although I was settling close to keep maint costs down and my tech up...

Munich has no food resource, if I see correctly it's 1 of the river, putting it 1W would still make it coastal and have river access. But I would have waited a bit with settling it, maybe as 6th-8th city or so.


The theory was to use grassland farms for food - there was a distinct lack of food resource in the middle of the isle.
Cologne, in the middle of nowhere, only calendar resources available. Sure they'll make a farm a bit better than normally, but still, I'd have waited for almost calendartime before settling that one.


Thats a Roger too...

The tip I can give is to play the map accordingly. You have explored the island. There's pretty good cityspots up north that claims both food and stone for example. With sailing, you'd be able to connect the cities without having to wait for a road to connect them. Spreading the cities out would also make the barb problem easier to handle, you'll quicker remove the fogcover for the whole island and then barbs is no problem anymore.


There's not much to anticipate with a warrior beating up your axeman.. Not sure about the 4barb event. Still Fogbusting is something I did a bit of by putting an axe in the jungle, he's now woodsman III :)

With the gems being in the jungle zone IW would be a priority here to be able to start settling the middle of the island where there's room for some very strong financial centers with the gems and lot's of cottageable space.
I probably settle the gems too late in hindsight, but the lack of food resource put me off them...



@ALL

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=192960&stc=1&d=1225396671
http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=192961&stc=1&d=1225396671

Well I'm down ,but not yet out and I'm teching reasonably quickly at the moment. I usually lose to some hi-tech or hi-culture swine from positions like this, but will play it out and see.

One question.

From my tech list above whats the opinon on my trading away education and the other stuff. All of my techs seem to be owned by at least one other civ, do I trade for some gain now ? or try to maintain my shaky lead over the neanderthal end of the spectrum as long as possible (BTW Izzy doesn't like me).

Emperor/Marathon Checkpoint 1 up to 1100 BC

Decided to settle in place, 1W is a good spot too, plain hill and no tiles in BFC on different landmass, but I want to keep the production potential, because I want to spam wonders. Started with Fishing/BW/Sailing/Myst/Masonry. The huts popped for 400 gold total, the scout found stone too far away from the capital, but I cant resist. Settled the second city on the stone. A forest chop gives 60*2.5= 150 Hammers. 5 forests in the capital for 1/2 Pyramids, 2 forests in the second city for The Great Wall. The religions were founded very early. 3600BC Buddhism, 3500BC Hinduism, 3000BC Judaism.

2220BC:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0000-6.jpg

1960BC:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0001-4.jpg

1670BC:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0002-4.jpg



http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0003-3.jpg

1560BC:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0004-3.jpg

1260BC:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0005-3.jpg

Got 2 slave revolts in 3 turns:mad: fortunatelly I had enough gold to pay, so I'm very pleased to:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0006-3.jpg

The capital pops a great prophet. The GPP pool will be unpredictable as I plan to run a lot of scientists soon, so I decided to:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0007-3.jpg

The dot map:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0008-2.jpg

The plan is to settle aggressive the western area next, explore the land southern and northen from the mailnland. The Hanging Gardens and The Great Library for Berlin next.

Checkpoint 2 1300AD or something:

Well, a picture is worth 1000 words, so I'll talk with pictures:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0009-2.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0010-2.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0012-3.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0013-3.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0014-3.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0016-3.jpg


http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0017-2.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0018-3.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0019-3.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0020-4.jpg

The increased visibility from Optics, gave me immediate contact with Sal. And few turns later with Shaka. The both are pagan and in war(what a surprise:lol:) Sent immediately missionaries to both, before Sal's borders pop. With touching borders religions may autospread, without Astro(not exactly sure). Anyway I don't want Christianity, or Isliam spread to them.

After Astro met all AIs, It's like "Lawless Bismark and the battle of the idiots" :lol: 2 ultimate zealots, 3 ultimate idiots and Huayna. Crazy game, ah forgot to mention, that Spanish civilization was destroyed 200, or 300AD.

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0023-4.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0024-4.jpg

Lol, they are so advanced...:lol:


Ah and I have Spiral Minaret too, that's why I researched DR.

double post/deleted

Chekpoints 3 and 4 Conquest victory

I am now pleased with all, except Monty, but he is Huayna's vassal, need only +1 with Huyana for friendly and once Khan revolt to free religion I'll be friendly with him too. So peaceful victory is possible and easy, military oriented victory too. Now decided to pay honor to german's UU and UB and win conquest with panzers, not that I'll meet any tanks. So

Liberalism: Got bored to wait for an AI to compete for the race, so I finally took this:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0025-3.jpg

Some more wonders:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0026-2.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0028-3.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0029-3.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0030-3.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0031-3.jpg

and

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0033-3.jpg

for no WW war (jails+MR+PC)

and

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0032-3.jpg

This is the first time I see a healthy C2 marine to lose against catapult:eek: I can imagine the picture, the sodiers come from the ships and are all killed with rocks :lol:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0035-2.jpg

next

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0036-3.jpg

and sorry Khan:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0037-3.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0038-2.jpg

This one was great. Panzers versus longbows

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0039-2.jpg

And the vengence against Shaka, who declared a suicide war to me before, after nuking him to death:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0040-1.jpg

and

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0041-3.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0042-2.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0043-3.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/semirami/Civ4ScreenShot0044-2.jpg


Recap: Super powerful capital. Food+Hammers+Ind+Stone+Marble. It has 11 great person settled. All great persons were produced there. 6 settled scientists, 2 prophets, 2 engineers, 1 merchant + the shrine with the first prophet and 2 academies for old and new capital. 6 GP for 3 golden ages and I still have 2 fortifyed scientists and 1 spy. Crazy AIs, If Huayna was with Mansa and Haty, instead of Khan and Monty, the game would be very different. I would miss the most wonders and will find a huge tech lead, instead of huge tech hole.

Monarch/Epic 1875AD Domination Victory


In my short recap that I named checkpoint 3 I was in the middle of getting rid of Sal and Shaka. That one went easily, but took some time due to traveling all over the continent, the lack of horses on the mainland did drag things out a bit, with some cav, it'd gone pretty quickly.

Well, anyway, I didn't bother research MT anyway so even with horses I only had knights...

Now, here's the strategic situation after Sal and Shaka been expelled from the world
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d143/Elenthrial/Civ4ScreenShot0086-1.jpg

As you can see, it looks pretty good, will likely not be too hard to invade the other continent. For some strange reason I still don't know I did research Communism at this point instead of Assembly line. I may have figured I needed SP for a while but it was quite unecessary, economy was pretty good anyway, 0% on the scale but rep + Caste and lot's of scientist was all that I needed. I had to run a few % culture as ww and with democracy spreading on the last continent, emanicipation unhappiness was forming.

Anyway, to make a short story longer, I had now decided to invade the last continent at the point I gained Inf. But a few turns before this happened
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d143/Elenthrial/Civ4ScreenShot0092.jpg

Well, looks like it's Khan first then... My destroyers made short work of his invasionforce of galleons, caravels and a few frigates. I sent over my "not quite finished" invasion force, figuring it'd be enough.
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d143/Elenthrial/Civ4ScreenShot0096.jpg

And one taken city later the tech that secured my victory was finalised and some thousands of gc later my invasionforce looked quite alot stronger
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d143/Elenthrial/Civ4ScreenShot0098.jpg

Ghengis was soon beaten and capitualated.
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d143/Elenthrial/Civ4ScreenShot0101.jpg

Now, a few turn from Artillery but I did only wait long enough to heal up my troops before
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d143/Elenthrial/Civ4ScreenShot0103.jpg

It did went quickly here as well, Izzy had Cavs as strongest troops, but for some reason she didn't have many landtroops, but her navy of frigates was enormous, I guess I killed atleast 40, they're no match from Combat 3 + Blitz destroyers, unfortunately I did loose 1 when she suicided a bunch of them against a wounded destroyer I left in the wrong place...

When Madrid fell Izzy was finished, she'd gone for culture but only Madrid had reached legendary, a pretty decent collection of wonders here, actually her other cities had quite a few wonders as well, guess she was the wonder hogger this time (I didn't bother much about wonders after the early era...)

Taking Izzys land and popping the borders was all that was needed.
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d143/Elenthrial/Civ4ScreenShot0115.jpg

And some final statistics
The world at the end(I figured this was the easiest way to show it)
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d143/Elenthrial/Civ4ScreenShot0116.jpg

some small diagrams
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d143/Elenthrial/Civ4ScreenShot0117.jpg
And more numbers
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d143/Elenthrial/Civ4ScreenShot0118.jpg
Note the amount of frigates killed below...
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d143/Elenthrial/Civ4ScreenShot0119.jpg
And did we do well?
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d143/Elenthrial/Civ4ScreenShot0120.jpg
Atleast decent.


To recap, a good game if I may say so myself. Rep + Caste kept my research up during all this conquest, no need for SP here. To be fair, I had some cottaged cities + wallstreet city to help as well. After Forbidden palace on Shaka and Sals continent economy became good again, I almost exclusively built economical beneficial buildings in all those cities (except a few where they'd settled quite alot of GGs for me...)

I guess in the beginning, the lucky break here was the GLH, settling the nearby islands for overseas trading, the tradeincome combined with specialist made me keep up and get ahead in research. Also, it'd been quite a different game if Shaka and Monty hadn't been on their respective continent, with all the wars they initiated, the AI was slow researching. I guess had it been Asoka or Mansa or even Zara instead of Monty on the south continent, I'd been behind in tech when I met them.

Immortal 1953 Diplo (dom) victory.

Well this one was a complete gimme. I began by teching fishing and starting on a warrior. My first hut popped fishing and I swaped to a WB and BW. After that it was WB -> worker -> settler. Tech ran BW -> Sailing -Masonry -> Poly and then I was going to try for Judaism (stone, industrious begs for a RE with a shot for an early AP win) when some AI got it early (at the time I knew I most likely had one "normal" religious civ, HC or Izzy based on the fast Hinduism founding, and most likely another fanatic due to the early Judaism). Instead I then went for priesthood and worker techs.

I settled on the incense with two seafood in the BFC. Cap was going to wonder whore so I chopped out SH and then built GLH (islands make this huge), Oracle (took MC), and Colossus. My Woody II scout popped IW from the final hut. I then found cities: up north at stone/fish (iron not in the BFC), on the first island south at the clam, on the second island south on the river hill next to the marble, and at the rice/single gem location. A barb city pops at the Cu, seafood/gem location just to the north of that and I raid it with swords. The MS are built in my second city. I fail to nab the mids but meh, my economy is rocking regardless.

My first GP is a prophet, I bulb theo. Tech is out to Lit (I nab TGL), I finally get Monarchy for DR, then out to Philo (I miss the religion, get AW), I bulb most of DR (build SM in cap, Verseille next to the marble) and then on to Paper (I build UoS), Edu, (90% of lib), Nationalism (I build the Taj), Lib finished (take Constitution), I go back and research currency and calender, then on to Democracy (I nab the SoL with my second city).

Most of my cities are devoted to ringing my island with cities where ever there is a food surplus and then getting up religious buildings and my lovely cheap infra buildings. I place a third city on the tip of the southernmost island. When culture allows me, I send a settler off to the island next to Saladin and settle the centre of the island (Saladin's border pops before I can pop mine to claim the clam). Just as a note, I was sorely tempted to break isolation early by settling at the eastern most point on the mainland and then using the culture to bridge out to the fish; I don't know how much work it requires but is it possible to check for locations where cultural bridges are likely?

Shaka declares war and I have to whip a spear on the only city he can attack. I divert production into getting up 6 swords, 2 axes, and 6 spears to stand off his assualt (mostly HA and pults when it finally lands).

By the time the Incans and Mongols meet me, I'm the tech leader outright (Saladin is the leader; I knew this was easy when I saw GG after GG getting popped in the early eras). Unfortunately for me, Saladin has chosen me as worst enemy and every so often suicides his navy into mine I cannot keep up with his naval production (I'm cottage spam everywhere except in the capital, in my second city, and in the final mainland coastal city I founded on the plains square on the river with no resources - future IW city). This is annoying as I can throw back his assualts, but I can't stop my boats from being burned.

After Demo I settled the nothernmost tip of the northern island (I'm hoarding a GM and GE for Sushi/Mining or Sushi/CreCon; my three RE wonders also mean that even marginal locations are viable for me) and one inland city using the two sugars and having access to most of the remaining river squares. Saladin manages to finally take a city of mine after blowing through a few dozen curis (if I can reopen borders with the Mongols and Zulu I might be able to pull off an AP win; if not it's a one tile city right next to a wonderpumped capital and I can vote it back to myself at any time).

I tech out railroad and then bid goodbye to the GLH to found mining in my MS/WS city. I try vainly to get missionaries to everyone for an AP win, but HC spreads Christianity to all his cities and I've backed the Aztecs in that feud (Monty is garbage, but huge with a Mongolian vassal). Early AP win is out the window (I have 4 theocracies, 2 of which don't like me and the simplest method would just be to lose cities). Shaka declares war and throughs away hoardes of caravels (I get a great general from the fight, but my frigates get killed by hoards of caravels). I really want to go slap around Izzy, she's skipped rifling, hates everyone, and is going for a cultural win with only LBs and a few Muskets guarding her. I dick up majorly by not noticing that the Arabs were due to strike again and that they just had gotten combustion. My wooden invasion fleet dies to Arab destroyers. Tech has been out to medicine, then out to assembly line, then industrialism and flight.

I end the Arab war via event, and now I have infantry. It is a quick war against Izzy, I take Madrid (stocked with good wonders like Broadway and the MoM) and 4 military instructors; Izzy capitulates (I later trade her into Christianity). About now I opt for a conquest/dom win. Truthfully it would have been far superior to tech out to space; I have both Mining and Sushi, I have buckets of resources, and it will be a royal pain to kill off Monty or Saladin but Saladin has been an annoying priss. So I opt to begin by hitting Shaka with Panzers. He starts with rifles (and one city he took from Izzy before I bribed him to peace out), but gets infantry right after I land. I had intended to airlift in my invasion forces, but my settler is killed by Zulu forces when I accidentally offload it with some rail pillaging Panzers (they die to hoards of cavalry. This gives Shaka another 20 turns of freedom as I now have to build up a naval invasion force and divert my IW city to build CG III infantry to airlift.

Eventually I take four southern Zulu cities in addition to Ulundi in the north and get Shaka to Capitulate (I had actually only wanted a city in the south which I could access by sea that also bordered the Arabs; aside from Ulundi). I rush built three airports (having liberated two cities back to Shaka), and then invaded. When I hit Saladin has rocketry, flight, and no industrialism. I grind him down with mass airlifts of panzers; he refuses to surrender even after I sink his navy (twice), take half his land, and have 3 dozen Panzers roaming freely. Tech for me has been radio -> genetics -> composites (3GD in my IW city where I also nabbed Pentagon) -> laser (bombers weren't cutting it and I wanted MSAM/MA). Saladin manages to prolong his defeat by finally getting Adv Flight up. This costs me a half dozen turns from healing as I've already got enough tanks to take all his land and have begun stockpiling panzers and other units in Madrid. Idiot refuses to capitulate even when he retains only one tile of land and has 3 units defending it.

After that I just overrun the Mongols and Aztecs until I get the option to vote myself into victory.

All told this was a gimme. Too many fanatics with too many differing religions. HC was the only AI who normally techs well and Monty kept mauling him. Stone, Marble, and Cu with an IND civ? Seriously. Space for 5 island cities with an easy start for GLH?

Mistakes made:
1. Not either nerfing Saladin earlier or making peace with him.
2. I always either build too much navy or too little. This game was too little and boy did it hurt when Saladin burnt my Sushi boats while blockading my coast.
3. Not getting a missionary to Shaka when I had the chance.
4. Giving HC my first overseas missionary.


All told I think this was the easiest LHC games I've played, I could have won space much sooner or culture for that matter; but I decided I just had to kill warmongers with massive unit spam.

:mad: I give up...no much hope.

Once Shaka had eliminated Saladin in 1040 ad, he had more land, more resources and just turned into a monster.

Along with Hyuana heading to Infantry and my having to support Genghis with gifted tech's...I can't pull it off.


Shaka's only now just getting his economy rolling, I'm 2nd in production/3rd in army and just falling behind now. Can't trade due to creating another monster on the main land mass. Can't constantly defend against Shaka's maniacal attacks.

I'll start again, and see how it all unfolds.

Oh yeah, Shaka ACTUALLY attacks in TWO places at once, multiple attacking points.

Yes I tried again, and its a huge difference
Our favorite Zealot Izzy, was eliminated in 920BC..good riddance I say

Saladin is actually still in the game, no thanks to Shaka, and I've just had to support him with a gift of Civil service, gifting some iron, and gifted machinery as well, well, i got 20 gold for civil service. :lol:

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk264/IPEX-731BA5DD06/CIV%204%20PHOTO%20SHOTS/Lonely%20hearts%20club/31%20Bismark/Take%202/PostSaladinsupport0000.jpg

The relations on the other continent, well, as you know Izzy has been eliminated. So who do you think is top dog then.

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk264/IPEX-731BA5DD06/CIV%204%20PHOTO%20SHOTS/Lonely%20hearts%20club/31%20Bismark/Take%202/Relationstechspam0000.jpg

Yes none other than our favourate dog soldier. Strange thing is his two vassals are different religions, I think some further fun is install.

I've tried to play this one as a 'wonder spam game, only 2 wonders I've missed out on being the Shrewagon pagoda (completely forgot, once I had a religion) and the MoM (messed about with currency)

I've got all the others, and I have 3 settled great engineers by 1120 ad...:eek:

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk264/IPEX-731BA5DD06/CIV%204%20PHOTO%20SHOTS/Lonely%20hearts%20club/31%20Bismark/Take%202/1stScreen0000.jpg

2 wonders missing are the Apostolic palace and the Great wall. Statue of Zues, Great Lighthouse and Colossus are all built in the city over by the marble, the Parthenon is built in Moai statues, which was going for Sheragon pagoda rather late.

I've wall street set up 2 inland from the Coastal gems, building cottages all over that city, and farms in all others to get pop up quickly, then its workshops/watermills.

I'm still settling a few cities on my own landmass and the out lying islands, mainly for the trade and increased mass.

Genghis is top dog in score, but woeful in tech, I'll actually look to wait for a panzer rush against him.

What a difference this game is compared to the first one. I just hope Saladin can stand up to Shaka, with my boost I hope so. I may even gift a few pike men

Finally Noble/Normal 1949 Dom

I did the WE/SSE route on this, settled in place started fishing>BW>Sailing>Masonry>all the worker techs. Built SH,GW,Mids,Oracle(MC),TGL,Colossus,(missed HG by 2),Chicken Pizza,Parthenon,The GL,Oxford I founded Sushi/Mining Inc in the Conf holy city which had a shrine pumping out big money.
I settled the island a little later than expected, but it worked out. Since I was the first to Astro I stocked up on galleons,privateers,frigates. Loaded up an invasion force to take on Sal, which he capped. Next to Shaka(hate that guy), rifles/cannons vs maces/trebs which killed Shaka. I just kept teching, applying EPs towards Huayna to steal some techs. Beelined to panzers, which by then it was pretty much in the book. 1949
http://i409.photobucket.com/albums/pp175/cripp777/LHC%20XXXI%20Bizmark/Civ4ScreenShot0019.jpg
Capital
http://i409.photobucket.com/albums/pp175/cripp777/LHC%20XXXI%20Bizmark/Civ4ScreenShot0000.jpg
Score, which could've been higher
http://i409.photobucket.com/albums/pp175/cripp777/LHC%20XXXI%20Bizmark/Civ4ScreenShot0020.jpg
Demographics
http://i409.photobucket.com/albums/pp175/cripp777/LHC%20XXXI%20Bizmark/Civ4ScreenShot0023.jpg
Info Screen
http://i409.photobucket.com/albums/pp175/cripp777/LHC%20XXXI%20Bizmark/Civ4ScreenShot0024.jpg
My world
http://i409.photobucket.com/albums/pp175/cripp777/LHC%20XXXI%20Bizmark/Civ4ScreenShot0022.jpg

I need to tighten it up, not being able to set repeating queue's and waypoints slows me down a lot(Firaxis disables the 'sticky-keys' for windows, so I'm just limited mouse or single key on keyboard) Overall it was a lot of fun

Yes, those little black and white vechicles are about to hit the high seas
I've decided to go for a panzer blitz against Genghis, who joined in a dog pile attack upon me, instigated by of all People, Saladin (who finally grew a pair)

anyway, I've a clear tech lead, I've built Industrial plants in my most important cities, and finishing off a few, builds now are;

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk264/IPEX-731BA5DD06/CIV%204%20PHOTO%20SHOTS/Lonely%20hearts%20club/31%20Bismark/Take%202/CityProduction0000.jpg

I'm just ramping up for a rampage across Genghis's lands

Strategically, is this;

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk264/IPEX-731BA5DD06/CIV%204%20PHOTO%20SHOTS/Lonely%20hearts%20club/31%20Bismark/Take%202/Stratergicsituation0000.jpg

Genghis has created a vassal, Ho hum

The tech situation;

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk264/IPEX-731BA5DD06/CIV%204%20PHOTO%20SHOTS/Lonely%20hearts%20club/31%20Bismark/Take%202/Currenttechs0000.jpg

I'm way out in front, no ones even close to combustion, Steel is as far as Monty went, and he was actually going for a cultural victory, till his esteemed master, demanded he research Artillery for him.

Shaka and Saladin are non entities, I'll just leave them be for the moment, Genghis, has to die, I plan to assault Madrid first, take another city above it simultaneously, and culture bomb Madrid with a spare great Artist I have. I will launch a golden age with a spare Scientist, and switch to Vassalage, Theo, Police state. I'll do all this once I have the Great general from Fascism, and set research to zero.

Well, this looked interesting (I love building and peaceful expansions, so these games are great for me), so I decided to give it a whirl. I go with Prince difficulty on the Monarch save, Marathon speed.

General strategy is to become a war machine and invade the other continents. I want religious wars on the other continents, so I won't go for Hinduism, Buddhism or Judaism and only one of the later religions. The starting position is reasonable, though it could be better. I go Fishing first (Clams need to be worked) while my Scout explores the continent. One of my favoured strategies in the past couple of games has been to build Stonehenge and use the Great Prophet from that to lightbulb Theology, giving me an easy religion. Stonehenge would also free my cities up for an early border pop, so I don't need to build Monuments everywhere. I'm kind of piecing the game together after playing through most of it (turned out to be a bad idea), so not everything will be right.

Turn 1: I settle in place (I don't like settling anywhere else, I think you should play with what you're given. Scout to explore. Research Fishing.

Turn 40: My noble scout has managed to map the continent for me:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v469/Zindaras/Civ4ScreenShot0019.jpg
Yeah, I don't know why Berlin is not building a Work Boat either. No dotmaps because I don't like making them (though they would probably help me a little bit). I plan on settling a city on the east coast, one 2N of the Incense, one directly south of the two Gems, one S of the Pigs and then a couple others to fill up the continent. I'm rather disappointed with the production capabilities. It's reasonable, but definitely not the kind of production I would like to use for a mass invasion. Space Race could be an alternative, though I guess you need a lot of production for that as well. However, I should be able to tech pretty well here. There's also the possibility for something interesting on the other islands.

2340 BC (Turn 116): Berlin has finished Stonehenge.

Turn 145: First new city (late for my standards, but I just switched to Prince and I didn't want to miss out on Stonehenge). Hamburg is founded 4N, 2E of Berlin.

Turn 175: Great Wall done in Berlin. That'll keep any Barbs off my back. Great General Emergence is also great.

Turn 180: The Spanish Civilization has been destroyed. Woah. Isabella is a religious nutjob who has the tendency to go mad with power. The fact that she's actually put out of the game this early is kind of scary.

Turn 203: The Oracle is built. I can't get Theology yet (I haven't researched all the prerequisites yet, so I choose Confucianism as my religion for the game. It's founded in Hamburg.

Turn 215: First Great Person, and I get a Great Spy, which is a bit of a shame (I would've preferred a Great Prophet for the Shrine. I settle him, though I don't know if that's the correct choice (if anything, all those nice Espionage Points are going to waste as long as I don't know anybody else).

Turn 241: I found Munich, 2N of the Incense.

Turn 253: Geronimo (Great General) has been born in a far away land. Keeping a lookout for Great Generals is a good idea. It means that the other people are at war. I noticed a lot of Great Generals being born in far away lands, so I figured that the other civilizations were very warlike (or my religious strategy was working out perfectly) and decided that I wouldn't make finding the other people a priority.

Turn 261: Iron Working is in, and I immediately get Iron. Turns out I settled Munich right on top of it. That sucks. It would've been a nice production spot.

Turn 288: Cologne is founded south of the Gems. I plan to build cottages everywhere and let this be my science capital.

Turn 301: I love getting to know what's happening every 50 turns. This time, the Venerable Bede tells us who the largest civilizations in the world are. Bismarck the Pathetic is bungling at last place. Ouch.

Turn 308: Great Prophet. Finally. He builds the Shrine in Hamburg. Every gold point counts. I also have a Galley now, who maps out the islands to the south:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v469/Zindaras/Civ4ScreenShot0033.jpg
I'm thinking 3 cities. One on the nearest island and two on the other, one being Scythian. It's good to see some flood plains, too.

Turn 401: I am, apparently, the most advanced civilization in the world. That is definitely great. I don't want to be too backwards when I meet the rest, and definitely make a couple of important techs first (especially Liberalism).

Turn 424: I build the Colossus in Hamburg. Why? I don't know. In retrospect, it's an awful waste of hammers.

I'm having trouble deciding on my inland cities, so I make up a little dotmap:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v469/Zindaras/Civ4ScreenShot0042dotmap.jpg

Turn 451: Bismarck the Pathetic is the least powerful civilization in the world. To be honest, the power rating doesn't interest me at all at this point in the game, but I do start building a couple more units. I don't want to be too much of a wuss when they meet me.

Turn 469: Mausoleum of Maussollos is built in a far away land. That one really hurts. This was one wonder I was definitely shooting for.

Turn 492: I raze Scythian and found Essen 1N of the Marble. Sure, two cities would've captured all the resources, but a fish and a whale isn't enough to keep a city afloat. Besides, Marble in the first ring means quicker access for whatever wonders I still want to build.

Turn 501: I am the second most advanced civilization now. That's still good.

Turn 519: I make Music first. This gives me a Great Artist, who I put to sleep to use in a later Golden Age.

Turn 525: Statue of Zeus is mine.

Turn 528: More importantly, the Great Library is mine. For some reason, I built this in Hamburg, which was probably a bad decision. Meh, it obsoletes with Scientific Method anyway.

Turn 590: The University of Sankore is mine.

Turn 606: There's our first friend. It's definitely not who I was expecting. Genghis Khan, our favourite slavering horde-leader, finds me first (kind of surprising when you associate Genghis Khan with the Earth18 map, where he just sits there and declares war on everybody. Here, he actually won the circumnavigation race). He has a couple of techs on me, but nothing too bad. Because it seems like I'm falling behind tech-wise, I make a short bee-line for Liberalism first. The free tech will really help me get back into the tech-race. This will also allow me to go Free Religion before sending out my Caravels, which is important because I don't want to get negative modifiers from religion.

Turn 654: I am the first to Liberalism. My free tech is Printing Press (I can't get Astronomy and I personally prefer Printing Press over Nationalism: the extra gold from villages and towns will help, and it usually takes me longer than Nationalism anyway, as Nationalism gets a couple of turns off if you have Divine Right. It is also far more tradable than Nationalism, which is one of the AI's favourite techs).

A couple of turns later, with Optics in hand, I build a few Caravels. They strike out east and quickly find Saladin. A couple of turns later, I get a real surprise. Saladin converts to Confucianism. A double check tells me that, indeed, Saladin is now Confucianist. Apparently, Shaka (his continent-buddy) and he never got a religion, which is surprising, as Saladin usually gets one. But who am I to complain? Besides, Shaka and Saladin are at war, which is always good for me.

Turn 680: Saladin asks for aid against the vile Zulu. Saladin has the advantage in score and seems like less of a warmonger (he's mostly the guy you turn to for religious crusades rather than Shaka's all-out warring. Shaka actually declared war on me three times in one game, even though I beat him all three times and reduced him to two cities and being my vassal, until I even took him out of the game completely by out-culturing his capital), so I am delighted to assist. It's not like he can do anything to me anyway. Caravels don't get you very far. A quick check of the power graph shows me that I'm actually a little bit more powerful than Shaka. Building units in a couple of cities really paid off.

In the meantime, my Caravels find the last two civilizations. Here, everything's a lot more like the Earth18 map. Huayna Capac is Montezuma's vassal. It seems like Huayna Capac ends up paying his respects to Montezuma wherever he goes. To be honest, Huayna Capac was always going to be in trouble, being surrounded by warmongers like Montezuma and Genghis Khan.

And that's checkpoint two, so let's end with an overview:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v469/Zindaras/Civ4ScreenShot0057.jpg
The diplomatic web can become so simple when there are only 6 Civs left. Montezuma's Pleased with me, and he's definitely the most important Civ on the map. I also plan on buddying up to Saladin a little. Monty should be enough to keep Genghis Khan off my back.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v469/Zindaras/Civ4ScreenShot0054.jpg
Power-wise, I'm not doing bad. Monty is probably a bit stronger than Genghis Khan, but I can take on the guys on the next continent, and they will be my first objective.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v469/Zindaras/Civ4ScreenShot0055.jpg
Score-wise, I'm even better. Montezuma's 400 points ahead of me, but for the rest, no complaints.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v469/Zindaras/Civ4ScreenShot0056.jpg
And I was afraid I was going to lose the Liberalism race. Apparently, you don't have to worry too much about that on Prince. Shaka doesn't even have Theology yet.

I'm afraid I can't get an easy victory here. Montezuma's better than me on all fronts, basically. I might be able to beat him research-wise to the Space Race parts, but can I produce them quickly enough and keep my borders protected? I am stuck with a bunch of people who like war. A lot. Maybe I should talk to them in the only language they understand: the language of big booms.

Very concise checkpoint Zindaras
Really, you have the ideas all in place.... it is not that common to see that in someone playing prince ( I surely didn't had :p )

I really don't like your green city though :( it is in the middle of the jungle and it has too much riverside tiles to not being able to build a levee. But as long as you have the light blue city you can't have it better .... :(

E por falar nisso, boa sorte :p

Yes the great German Empire has achieved domination

1st up, I didn't attack Shaka or Saladin till the end, I went the way of taking out the top dog, who had me in a power rating of -0.3 when I attacked.

I first went in through Madrid, Seville and Barcelona, to give me the western edge of the continent. Genghis, was limited to 3 movement troop re-reinforcements, so I time to consolidate, and 2 of the cities he attacked were only 3 tiles apart so I could move my main defense to counter the attacks.

One stupid thing the AI did, as none of them ever got to Combustion and kept the oil, OK Monty did for 2 turns, was the constant spamming of Frigates and Galleons, to try take the oceans from my Destroyers/Battleships

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk264/IPEX-731BA5DD06/CIV%204%20PHOTO%20SHOTS/Lonely%20hearts%20club/31%20Bismark/Take%202/Dumbunitspamming0000.jpg

The screen shot doesn't show it, but Genghis, had 10 listed ships and another 20 bulk frigates at the bottom.

Production was just a monster once I started on the Assembly lines, I was actually declared on by all and sundry at one point :confused: Maybe I was getting too far ahead, but medieval troops V's Infantry is no contest.

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk264/IPEX-731BA5DD06/CIV%204%20PHOTO%20SHOTS/Lonely%20hearts%20club/31%20Bismark/Take%202/Powershots0000.jpg

for interest sake, here's a shot of the domination victory screen

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk264/IPEX-731BA5DD06/CIV%204%20PHOTO%20SHOTS/Lonely%20hearts%20club/31%20Bismark/Take%202/Dominationvictory0000.jpg

And here's one of the builds I did in my cities.

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk264/IPEX-731BA5DD06/CIV%204%20PHOTO%20SHOTS/Lonely%20hearts%20club/31%20Bismark/Take%202/buiilds0000.jpg

I deliberately waited till I gained Panda's BEFORE I attacked, I could have done so with Rifles, but production would have been the problem against the unit spam of Genghis.

In order of Elimination it was;

1) Majority of Genghis's empire. Both Monty and Huyanua broke free from vassalage at this point, I bribed Monty into way with Huyanua too keep the both busy.
2) Quick elimination of Monty (I had a 3 person war going, as they either asked me to join, which suited, or I had to take a city to finish another) Monty actually build Versailles for me as well, in the NE Corner of the continent, and I built my forbidden palace in Genghis's old capital.
3) Elimination of the final 3 cities for Genghis.
4) Elimination of Huyanua, I was watching his only source of Oil, right next to a city I'd taken previously, for just this very purpose. Once he got within 2 turns of building a well, war it was.
5) Vassalization of Quin, who was created by Genghis on Island to the NE of the continent
6) Attacked Shaka, in the highly cottaged grassland and floodplains to the SW of his and Saladin's continent. I just sent in Panda's and city raiders/pillagers and left Marines as defence, as they did such a horrible job taking cities.

City raider 3 Combat 1 and Pinch promoted panda's out of the box are par excellence city takers, even without taking down the culture.

Thanks Rolo, Oh yeah, Shaka eventually vassilized Saladin in 1800 I had to support him with gifted iron, tech's and bribing Shaka to make peace.

Thank you, rolo.

I think that having to actually write it all down instead of keeping it in my head really makes a difference. I actually went into this game with a clear strategy in my head (I want to kill stuff with Panzers). Reading threads here definitely helped as well, and I stole a couple of strategies from here (your article on isolated starts was very useful, and I also read Orion's Noble School and Neal's King of the World series, which also gave me some ideas).

The green city is pretty bad, I guess. I always forget that for Levees, you need to be next to the river (I usually play as the Dutch, and I don't think you need to put your city next to the river for Dikes). The problem I had here was that I wanted 2 more cities there to work all those nice grassland tiles, and I think this was the only configuration where I can get two cities there. If I look at the other people, I can see they chose pretty much the same configuration for the rest of the island, only differing there. Some people chose to have more overlap between the two. To be honest, I hate having cities overlap. I always feel like I'm not making optimal use out of my cities).

E obrigado. Mas não falo português muito bem. Sou um studentão internacional (da Olanda. E porque uso Willem van Oranje para avatar). Estudo português 4 horas de semana em semana.

German Domination in 1942? I hope someone appreciates the irony in that.

Anyway, I'm gonna start the game pretty soon. I'm playing Warlords, but figured out that if you replace the ".civbeyondtheswordWBsave" with ".civwarlordsWBsave", it works. I figured this is the perfect time to try, because no BtS civs are in it, allowing minimal modding.

First update sometime tomorrow.

German Domination in 1942? I hope someone appreciates the irony in that.

Anyway, I'm gonna start the game pretty soon. I'm playing Warlords, but figured out that if you replace the ".civbeyondtheswordWBsave" with ".civwarlordsWBsave", it works. I figured this is the perfect time to try, because no BtS civs are in it, allowing minimal modding.

First update sometime tomorrow.

Well it will work....... IF (and this is a big IF )the WB save has no BtS stuff in it. As this are starting positions, the only issue you can get if there are BtS civs/leaders in the map. In here......
You don't need to worry... all civs and leaders are from Warlords or before ;)

P.S The handicaps in warlords are also diferent from BtS... it will not make the game to not work, but it will make the experience somewhat diferent

Today Chermany,

I played 2 starts on this map. The first time I manages to found confuciansim then taoism at which point I stopped figuring I could win with just culture.

The second time I played up until abot 1530 when I circumnavigated and met the rogues gallery. What a group, I was a little disapointed not to see france or russia though.

I built the 3 religoius wonders in Berlin, Stonehenge, Oracle, then Maoi Stautes. I ended up with just metal casting off of the oracle, nothing too exciting. I put the second city up NE by the river. I built GLH and Colossus there. I founded Christianity and the shrine ended up in the 2nd city. I put the AP in Berlin for good measure. Then I just expanded as my budget would allow. I have no happy issues, but Berlin is at size 15 with health issues.

The only one with any techs in this game is spain, they are slightly ahead of me. I just researched economics and am 10 turns away from navigation. I am putting in banks and universities now. It's 1580 now, I feel like I am a bit behind in tech.

Tomorrow ze verld!

Welcome to the Forums Zindaras. :beer:

Thank you, Supr49er.

Until checkpoint 3:

Turn 690: Hannover is founded on the small island north of the main landmass. This will be the last city I found. It's not really that great either, but still, I probably should've founded it earlier.

Around this time, I find out something interesting. See the screenshot:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v469/Zindaras/Civ4ScreenShot0072.jpg

I can't remember how I found out, but this massively changed my strategy. The Zulu have great production cities. I want them. I don't want Saladin to get the entire continent. That would be bad for me. So it's time to take this war out of his hands and put them in mine. I start ferrying units over. Slowly. But, even so, with 4 lowly Macemen, I can take kwaDukuza in Turn 698. I honestly don't know why. For some reason, his main unit (a Maceman) came after one of my Macemen, allowing the other two to deal with the Axeman that was defending the city. And that is worth another screenshot:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v469/Zindaras/Civ4ScreenShot0067.jpg

Notice one really important thing: there are Horses in the BFC. As most other players will have noticed, there were no Horses on our starting island. Access to this strategic resource will allow me to diversify my army immensely. Macemen were far too one-dimensional. Because I was in a fake war with Shaka for ages (I love fake wars), I sue for peace and get a couple of coins off him before his stack is able to retake kwaDukuza. In the meantime, I start building Stables and Knights in the homelands.

Turn 728: With my first Knights arriving, I redeclare and move to Nodwengu, a coastal city. I take it in Turn 730. This will become my Moai Statues city (yeah, I probably should've attributed that one earlier).

At this point, I will admit to reloading. I had the strategy to call off Saladin's horde (to make sure he wouldn't vassalise Shaka) in my mind, but when I started the game again, I got caught up in the moment and forgot. I will admit that I have the tendency to press the "Load Game" button quite a few times over the course of the game (though I resolved to keep myself in check in this one). I think reloading is a good learning tool. As long as you don't go too far back, it allows you to perfect your strategy (I learned the use of Spearmen in a game just a while back, when I was invaded by the combined armies of Montezuma and Brennus and Spearmen turned out to be the only good counter available). I also get really attached to my Great Generals, to the point where I will reload the moment they die (yeah, kinda bad). But, back to the game.

Turn 741: Saladin declares Peace with Shaka. This allows me to take him out of the game at my leisure.

Turn 758: In 17 turns, I capture Bulawayo, Nongoma and Nobamba. Yeah, it's probably not very fast, but I've been trying to speed up my attacks.

At this point, Saladin declares war on Shaka (again). This puts me in the position where I have to rush so that Shaka doesn't become Saladin's vassal. Instead of attacking Ondini, Shaka's northwestern city, I therefore move to Ulundi, the capital, which has a bunch of hills I really want. In turn 765, uMgungundlovu, the last horde to Ulundi, is taken.

Turn 767: Montezuma demands Economics. I give it to him. I can't afford to make him angry. Depending on my chosen victory condition (Space Race or Conquest/Domination), I will need to keep him as my friend.

Turn 769: Ulundi falls. I really rushed this one, taking higher losses than I would've wanted to (cultural defenses were still pretty high), but with 10 turns on the war clock between Sally and Shaka, he could vassalize next turn.

Turn 773:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v469/Zindaras/Civ4ScreenShot0088.jpg

Babanango, the last Zulu stronghold, was taken without much of a fight, as Zulu Longbowmen proved inable to combat German Knights. The city, surrounded by snow and mountains, was deemed useless to the Reich and was burned to the ground, never to be rebuilt again.

At this point, I think it's important to consider what I have. As you can see, I have taken a small score lead on Montezuma with the annexation of the Zulu Empire. My next target is obviously Saladin. Conquer one island before moving on to the next. Saladin also has the Mausoleum of Maussollos, the Wonder he stole from under my nose (I never forgave him for that). I want the Mausoleum. I have been saving Great People in Berlin to pump for a massive double or triple Golden Age (I know it's not very effective, but I just want to see that Golden Age counter tell me I have 72 turns of Golden Age remaining. I'll get style points for it at the very least). So Saladin is definitely going down. In the meantime, colonial expenses are killing me. Montezuma just built Versailles in Teotihuacan (making that city a prime target if I decide to invade his continent), so I start working on the Forbidden Palace as well. Power-wise, I'm nowhere near Genghis or Montezuma, but they're not my opponents, so that doesn't matter. After Saladin, I will be able to pick my win condition at my leisure: Space Race or a more aggressive victory path? More on that later (after all, this checkpoint is about fleshing out your victory path).

Turn 783: I get the volcano event near Essen (the small island with the floodplains). I've had this event before, but it was particularly painful this time around, as it destroyed two fully grown Towns. Ouch. On a more interesting note, the Towns actually left behind City Ruins (I've never seen that before), so that I could actually get the "discovery in city ruins"-event. As they say, every cloud has a silver lining...but I still move my Workers to rebuild those Towns.

Turn 787: I whip up the Forbidden Palace in kwaDukuza (it took me 5 population, but they're all Zulu untermenschen anyway >.>). This provides a massive boost in income (130 gold), allowing me to move from 30% science to 50% science.

Turn 803: In the meantime, Genghis Khan has declared war on Saladin, invading and capturing Sarmatian, just south of my little empire. It is quickly retaken and peace is declared.

Turn 814: A new player enters the diplomatic fray. Mao Zedong becomes Genghis Khan's vassal. He controls 3 cities on the small island north of Genghis's main continent.

Turn 819: Montezuma has declared war on Saladin now as well, and captured Sarmatian. Again, recapture follows quickly. I am also in 5 turns of Anarchy for a major civics change (Hereditary Rule-->Representation, Free Speech-->Vassalage, Nothing-->Free Market). Looking back, I probably should've popped a GP for a Golden Age instead, but I was too rigid in my desire for a massive Golden Age.

Turn 845: Montezuma asks for my assistance in the war against the Arabians. Monty's Pleased with me, I want to keep him as my friend for as long as I possibly can, I accept. This has some unforeseen consequences, though:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v469/Zindaras/Civ4ScreenShot0102.jpg
With Emancipation unhappiness kicking in as well (and at a level I'm not used to, +5 unhappiness in my largest cities, while only 2 civs have Emancipation), plus the "we don't want to fight our brothers and sisters of the faith" penalty (which I thought I would only get if I were actually in that state religion...well, you learn something new every game), this throws all my major cities into starvation, as well as losing my 100 science per turn. A turn later, I sprout a brain and put the Culture slider at 20%, but this doesn't eliminate all unhappiness.

Turn 846: Ondini falls.

Turn 852: Medina is taken by my troops. However, annoyingly, the Aztecs have landed and are in the same area as my troops, threatening to march on Mecca and take the Mausoleum. I try to call of Montezuma's dogs of war (if only because I don't want him to vassalize Saladin), but he doesn't want to.

Turn 858: I take Mecca. I have to take some losses because of the proximity of Monty's troops, but I have achieved my major goals.

Time for another interlude. With Mecca taken, my main objective for this war has been accomplished. Now it's simply a question of what to do with what Saladin has left. I plan on taking as many cities as I possibly can. Montezuma can be called off for Steam Power, but I don't intend to give that to him. I will continue the war until Saladin vassalizes (probably to Montezuma). The questions to consider surrounding his vassalization are "when?" and "to who?". Personally, I would prefer to completely take out Saladin and claim the continent for my own. Optimal strategy for that is to give Monty Steam Power and take Sally out myself. However, I must be wary of creating an even greater power in doing so. My solution is to go on with the war and see which cities I can take. If Saladin vassalizes to Montezuma and he retains a significant part of the continent, I will go for the Space Race victory. I cannot afford to declare war on Montezuma, take out Saladin, then invade the main continent. It would be far too risky. As much as I would like to see my Königstigers roll over Aztec/Mongolian cities, we have to be realistic. If the second continent is clean or almost clean, I will attempt a more brutal path to victory, invading the final continent. Science-wise, I'm about as powerful as Montezuma. With 72 (hopefully 96) turns of Golden Age to look forward to, I believe that I will be able to secure a decisive advantage.

Turn 859: I finish building my first Buddhist Missionary in uMgungundlovu. I was kind of surprised when, earlier, I got to vote for the Apostolic Palace Resident. Having only 7 or 8 votes is clearly not enough, so I'm going to spread Buddhism around, for the extra happiness and so that I will have a strong voice in the Apostolic Palace.

Turn 866: Judaism spreads to Nodwengu. Good. There's another +1 happiness for every city.

Turn 867: The Aztecs capture Khurasan, one of Sally's northern cities.

Turn 871: I capture Baghdad after a long, protracted siege. I lose several Trebuchets.

Turn 873: This war has drained my economy. As much as I would love to finish Saladin off, I don't think it's a wise idea. I could call off Monty for 1700 gold, but then I wouldn't have money to upgrade units anymore. I could keep on fighting, but then Monty would vassalize Sally and I'd be farther away from home, and I'd lose a lot, economy-wise. So, with Sally willing to capitulate, I accept. I immediately trade Democracy for Liberalism, Economics and Chemistry. With the war weariness and religion unhappiness gone, I don't need Culture anymore. 20% more science gives me 300 more beakers.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v469/Zindaras/Civ4ScreenShot0110.jpg

The continent is obviously mine. Khurasan is the only city Monty was able to capture, so I should have no trouble with that. I can go to war without having two fronts. Monty also seems to be going for a Cultural victory. I'm not sure, because I've never seen an AI do that, but he has three cities around 30-40k Culture, and I'm not sure if that's a sign of an AI pushing for a Cultural victory. So I basically think that I will go for the aggressive victory. I want to see some Panzers!

I don't know if that's exactly when to put Checkpoint 3, but I think so. Any non-aggressive victory would happen by chance, now.

Let's seen an overview:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v469/Zindaras/Civ4ScreenShot0111.jpg

Diplomacy: not very difficult. Genghis, Montezuma and I are the three major powers. We each have a Vassal.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v469/Zindaras/Civ4ScreenShot0112.jpg

Techs: I have Steam Power on everyone and they have Steel and Military Science on me, tops. Steel will be done in two turns, and then their technological advantage will be minor at best.

Score isn't very interesting, so Power:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v469/Zindaras/Civ4ScreenShot0114.jpg

I'm still a minor power compared to Genghis and Monty, but that doesn't matter, as I've been picking my wars with the smaller prey.

I'm sorry for the wall of text, but I'm really enjoying the game and I have the tendency to ramble on.

Checkpoint 4:

Turn 888: I finally decide to start my massive Golden Age. I'm slightly sad about using three beautiful Great People for this double Golden Age (I love settling Great People), but with 48 turns of Golden Age to go, we should have fun here. It yields me a total of 400 extra science. This allows me to switch to Free Speech and Emancipation, yielding me even more delightful beakers.

Turn 895: Genghis Khan makes life a little bit more difficult on me by declaring war on Montezuma.

Turn 897: Predictably, Montezuma asks me for help against the Mongolians. I, of course, do not refuse. In the meantime, Hamburg spawns another Great Scientist, putting me up to a beautiful 63 turns of Golden Age.

Turn 911: The first developments occur on the other continent. Tiwanaku is recaptured by the Incans after a long Mongolian domination.

Turn 915: I get the mediator event and choose to get peace with Genghis.

Turn 917: I reach Communism as first. The Great Spy settles in Berlin (no more Golden Age for me) and I adopt State Property.

Turn 923: First to Physics and its Great Scientist, who goes to Berlin as well.

Turn 943: I enter the fray once more.

Turn 957: And now I really enter the war. I land my troops near Madrid.

Turn 958: My troops conquer Madrid.

Turn 961: Ning-Hsia is mine.

Turn 966: The first Panzer has been built in Berlin and will soon join the war.

Turn 969: Barcelona falls. However, I'm suffering serious losses in my infantry army, as I lost several 70% chances in a row.

Turn 974: And there goes Samarqand. With Panzers online, nothing Genghis Khan throws at me can stop me.

Turn 975: Montezuma vassalizes Genghis Khan. No reload this time. I want to finish this on my own.

Turn 979: Time to finish this game. I declare war on everyone.

Turn 982: Beshbalik is captured by my small stack (2 Panzers, 2 Infantry with air support).

Turn 983: "Your Charles Martel has killed an Auitzotl". Always nice to see Great Generals duel. My Königstigers, meanwhile, are crushing resistance everywhere as they roll into Karakorum.

Turn 987: Turfan and New Sarai disappear from Genghis's control.

Turn 989: Old Sarai is conquered and Genghis Khan eliminated.

Turn 998: Charles Martel dies with most of my army in a major attack by Montezuma. I cannot hold off this attack, so I ask for peace, giving Montezuma Turfan for it.

Turn 1017: I finally sprout a brain. Noticing that Monty takes 124 turns to research Biology, I deduce that he really is going for a Cultural victory. However, he'll need more than 60000 culture in all three of his cities, so I have some time. In 11 turns, I get Computers, which will finally give me Modern Armor and a military advantage Montezuma will not be able to defeat.

Turn 1026: I moved my science slider up to get to Modern Armor earlier, and now almost my entire army is upgraded. In Turn 1027, I declare war on everyone (again). However, in the first turn, I already lose Karakorum (and two of my Bombers) due to an enemy attack I should've seen coming.

Turn 1027: I recapture Karakorum.

Turn 1029: My first loss of Modern Armor (to an Incan Infantry). as the barbaric Incans run over Karakorum once more.

Turn 1030: Success! Teotihuacan is captured. My Kaisertigers (they need a catchy name) eliminate all resistance even without air support. Montezuma's third city now has 76000 culture, so I've got more time. In the meantime, my Battleship destroys an Aztec Caravel (you've got to love that). Also, Erwin Rommel was born in one of Montezuma's cities. That's not how it's supposed to go.

Turn 1033: Karakorum is recaptured by my force of Modern Armor. It is, however, immediately recaptured (as I was only able to move one tank inside).

Turn 1034: Well, guess what just happened. (Karakorum is mine again)

Turn 1035: I let my new Great General lead a Modern Armor, mistakenly thinking I'd be able to give him Medic III. Montezuma suicides a massive amount of Cannons on one of my stacks, causing severe damage, but he doesn't even try to finish it off. He also picked the wrong stack, as the Marines outside Tenochtitlan were hardly my main force.

Turn 1037: Turfan is captured. Thanks in a large part to brutal bombing, Tenochtitlan is overrun. This destroys a massive portion of Montezuma's army.

Turn 1042: Calixtlahuaca and Tlatelalco fall in the same turn. I have long ago split my stacks. I also have a couple of Mechanized Infantry now, though not too many.

Turn 1045: Phrygian falls.

Turn 1046: Texcoco, Tlaxcala and Tlacopan are all overrun. Montezuma has given up on his Cultural victory, but he can't beat me. He has some Destroyers around my home island and he's putting up a fight, but he can't beat the combination of Modern Armor and Bombers.

Turn 1047: Huayna Capac declares freedom from Montezuma's rule.

Turn 1048: Xochicalco is next.

Turn 1049: Tiwanaku and Parthian are conquered.

Turn 1050: Vilcas is captured.

Turn 1051 (July 1956): The inevitable happens. Bismarck has won a Domination victory!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v469/Zindaras/Civ4ScreenShot0128.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v469/Zindaras/Civ4ScreenShot0129.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v469/Zindaras/Civ4ScreenShot0130.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v469/Zindaras/Civ4ScreenShot0131.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v469/Zindaras/Civ4ScreenShot0132.jpg

Well, that was it. My first victory on Prince, my first Domination victory, my first isolated victory...that was a lot of new things. Pretty mehish score, though.

There were a couple of crucial points in the game. First was winning the Liberalism race, which allowed me to go Free Religion and brought me back to (pretty much) tech parity. Second was the vassalization of Saladin, which was very important. That war could've given Montezuma a way bigger lead, as it was taking a lot of resources. Third was the massive Golden Age, which catapulted me into the tech lead. Fourth was my first massive war declaration, which was my only real major mistake. In the end, I won the war (I eliminated Genghis Khan), but I lost most of my army. My attack on Montezuma was very premature. I thought I'd just roll over him like I had over the Mongolians.

I was really happy Montezuma went for the Cultural victory, as that gave me the possibility for a huge tech advantage (Modern Armor vs Infantry). My first real Modern/Future war (I had never gotten farther than Tanks before) was definitely a lot of fun, though the fact that my opponents had no air support really helped me. It's a shame that the UU turned out to be completely useless, though, as there was zero tank-on-tank warfare.

Now, off to replay some old LHCs.

Nicely done Zindaras. it is really too bad that the AI normally doesn't field huge tank forces indeed :(

And there is no need to get to earlier games now. There is a new one freshly done (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=298423) ;)

Looks like I took a little too long. Oh well.


Update 1: First contact (4000BC to 1382 AD) [Difficulty: Noble]

Well, nothing much happened. Long story short, Founded one east, quickly filled up the islands to the south, then founded cities progressively up the east coast. Began to wonderwhore, building Stonehenge, the Great Library and Lighthouse, the Colossus, and University of Sankore, among others. Founded Confucianism, adopting it immediately. Found Saladin in 1382, where I stopped. Surprisingly enough, I've got a decent tech lead on him.

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/3168/picture2yt5.png (http://img443.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture2yt5.png)
http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/picture2yt5.png/1/w800.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img443/picture2yt5.png/1/)
Founded city due east first, followed by the island cities (Second island then first), then the others.

Save Below.