Hi Everyone,

Well the "Monarch Student" series seems to have taken on a life of its own! It started as a group of us hanging around after the "Noble's Club" finished. Like party guests that didn't know when it was time to go home - we stuck around with lampshades on our heads and Civved until the sun came up.

The "series", such as it is, is aimed at Prince or Monarch level players. However, the game can be played at any level or speed - you choose at the beginning.

The idea is that we'd have a pretty standard game, with what looked to be a pretty basic start and a "mid range" leader - not too powerful (i.e. not Financial, not Roman), and not one that would require a particularly unusual strategy to succeed.

If you've never posted before, come on in and join us! I have yet to win on Monarch - so there's definitely no shame in failure here. And I would say that any progress I've made in getting better in this game has been through playing along with other people in this forum. It's the best way to learn and it's more fun in the bargain. So - Stuck without anything to do tonight? Credit crunch hit hard? Wife or girlfriend nagging you? Dog run away? Russians (or Ukranians) turned off your gas? Never mind that bollocks - Here's Asoka!

Our Leader (Spiritual/Organised - starts with Mining/Mysticism):

http://i347.photobucket.com/albums/p459/gcm4738/monstu3asoka-1.jpg

Our UU:

http://i347.photobucket.com/albums/p459/gcm4738/monstu3uu.jpg

and our UB - it's like a happy jail! or a happy tomb! or something... :confused:

http://i347.photobucket.com/albums/p459/gcm4738/monstu3ub.jpg

Special thanks to Single Malt for providing this map. I can guarantee this much - this will not be a boring game... Can you say Vindaloo baby! :devil:

Our start:

http://i347.photobucket.com/albums/p459/gcm4738/monstu3start.jpg

It's a standard, fractal map - nothing weird. Random opponents. Everything else set at normal - barbs, huts, events, etc. All victory conditions enabled. I think I've got the World Builder save right but let me know if it doesn't work for you.

Suggested format for this series is copied from the great Noble's Club series now hosted by TheMeInTeam:

Update your progress at various points in the game, using the Spoiler feature of the boards.

Tentative posting updates are suggested at:

4000 BC (starting thoughts, no spoiler required for that discussion)
1000 BC or so (how you decided to progress up the early tech/build paths, which AIs you have met, etc)
500 AD or so (after establishing some cities and a possible plan of action)
1200 AD or so (mid-game, Lib race, wars or peace, or whichever happened or didn't, met other continent if applicable, etc)
1600 AD (or when you have decided on a course of action and a specific victory condition)
End of game (Victory!!! or defeat, no shame in losing, especially if you tried a higher level. Learning is what we focus on, not fastest win or biggest empire)

A special thanks to TMIT, Bleys and the others who take the time to set up games for us, and to all the more experienced players who post help and suggestions. And also thanks to Ai Shizuka who posted the first game at my urging and gave me the guts to put up a second one. And to those of you guys who played and posted on number II and asked me to do number III. This one's for y'all.

Enjoy!

heavy forested start looks great for REx or good ol' axe rush.
but i am confused on where to settle.
no food in sight - there must be some right next to where we can see
position is 3 tiles of coast - isn't it bad?
but moving a settler is risking to lose the food source, for we know not where it is.
i'd suggest first to move warrior SE on top of plains hill - maybe we see smthing.
i'd also move settler N to look around - if food is near, settle hilltop, if not - return and settle in initial place.

The hill top will give +1 production. Also help reveal a lot of map. Also when you go to move settler it may reveal a blue square.

For me this is a BW beeline and chop like crazy. prolly move capital later pending how bad the terrain is.

Monarch, Epic, No random events, to AD55

I settled in place. Build order was worker=>warrior=>warrior=>settler. Techs were Agri=>AH=>BW. BW finished towards the end of the settler. My explorations revealed Shaka very close by, and an army of axes was chopped/whipped. Shaka was removed at 1250BC. I kept his cap, and one other city, autorazed and resettled (on the bronze, to get both food resources nearby) the other. Further explorations revealed that Our Island is fairly cramped.
Piccie of my empire
http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm20/xl_single_malt/MS%20Asoka/empire55AD.jpg
WK is seriously encroaching on my territory. Unfortunately, I need to wait till maces/trebs, as hawachas have too good a survivability rate versus classical units.

I am quite advanced for this early part of the game, helped in part by clever gold trades, and a near miss on the 'mids
http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm20/xl_single_malt/MS%20Asoka/techs55AD.jpg

I have a fair number of cities
http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm20/xl_single_malt/MS%20Asoka/da55AD.jpg
The Zulu cap is food poor:eek:

And the power ratings
http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm20/xl_single_malt/MS%20Asoka/power55AD.jpg
My axe rush was extremely efficient, as When it was over I had 3 units left, including the two city garrison units.

Plan of action is get my economy in tip top shape. I am currently in heavy deficit research, but at this stage 100+ :science: per turn cannot be sneezed at:). Then Wan Kon will be fully removed, after which I will Remove Hammy or Pacal. Probably Hammy, as he ain't too happy with me, being Hindu. If I can I will have the island to myself before contact with the other continent.

monarch,marathon, to 50BC

i didn't like the start, so i decided not to raise level
moved warrior se, settler n
nothing good revealed, in order to have cows in BFC settled in initial position
(so, lost 1 turn for useless movement - negligible on marathon)
popped hut for 123 gold, and then a scout came from the west
200558
then an archer comes from the north:
200559
hell, this psychopat must not be allowed to live
i guess i should go sharpen my axe (if i find one)
met also this gui
200560
and this
200563
researched agri + bw
once i had BW copper popped right under a mine in Delhi's BFC.
so situation was crystal clear - either i kill shaka right now, or he kills me a bit later
i chop-whip 3axes and DoW him
200566
surprisingly, his has barracks built and 2 C1+CG1 archers in cap. i lose 2 axes to no use and decide not to risk the third. instead, pillage his mines. continue whipping-chopping-tactical maneuvres, and, finally:
200567
that's also hammy to the east, but he's not that shizophrenoid after all (well, of course he is, but compared to shaka he just a peaceful lamb)
pacal is quite a warmonger and backstabber too, as i remember, but gladly there are no his borders anywhere near me.
as i had jumbos in BFC, i headed further research straight to Elepults.
I planted cities on marble, stone locations, but was beat to Oracle, 'mids and henge, sadly. At least i managed to build GW
200564
and HG.
200568
Maybe will steal smthing from Ham, who's going to have a lead (he has 'mids and representation)
i remember that wang always teched very fast in my games and is damn protective with these walls everywhere and tons of CG3 longbows behind them, so i decide to smash him immediately with elephants (as a sign of gratitude for spreading buddhism to me.)
200565
Well, real life Ashoka also had changed his ways much once he saw the light of Buddhism ;) )

Now elepult war with koreans in progress, and they will barely survive it. It would be nice to extort some techs from them for peace, but repetitative DoWs would ruin my diplomacy and make me a pariah in the buddha bloc.
We shall see.
save follows
200570

So many forum games popping up lately, so I'm back in Civ mode again.
I like Asoka, I consider him one of the 2nd-tier leaders, right behind the most powerful ones.
And this looks indeed like an interesting game.

Monarch/epic, to 10 AD:



Tech path: agri - bw - hunting - wheel - ah - pottery - writing - alpha - currency - fishing (Wang) - IW and archery (Hammurabi) - CoL - sailing and meditation (Hamm) - math - masonry (Wang) - construction - calendar (Hamm) - researching philo

4000 - settle in place and 120 gold from the hut

3775 - First AI is Wang Kon. I don't remember him causing a lot of trouble in my previous games. He usually techs quite well, like any other financial leader and doesn't declare war at pleased. Fav civic is Caste System.

3725 - Two more AIs in the same turn and I'm not overjoyed. The first is Shaka (no need to introduce him).
The second is Pacal, a spoiled brat in my experience. Doesn't produce a lot of units but likes to build a huge empire if left unchecked. Declares at pleased and likes Hereditary Rule.

3150 - BW reveals copper in Delhi's BFC. Both Wang and Shaka are very close and the rush target isn't that hard to choose. Shaka is going to be completely blocked by me and Wang in the western corner of the continent. Not that he needs any specific reason to declare war anyway, but still.

2775 - The last AI on this continent is Hammurabi, the most reasonable of the aggressive leaders. He likes bureaucracy, doesn't declare at pleased and seems to be quite far away. I think he will be my future best bud for this game.

1875 - Ready to declare war on Shaka:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0000-19.jpg

1950 - And the unpronounceable city is captured:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0001-19.jpg

1350 - Ready at Ulundi:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0002-18.jpg

And Shaka is dead. Sigh of relief throughout the continent:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0003-18.jpg

1125 - I finally found my second city:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0004-18.jpg

875 - Barb city captured:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0005-17.jpg

750 - Vijayanagara founded. Forgot the screen, it's 4S-1E from Delhi and claims marble, jumbos, iron and fish.

470 - Another barb city captured. They settled it on the copper, wich isn't too bad, as it claims both the cow and the rice:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0006-17.jpg

215 - Pataliputra founded, future Moai city:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0007-17.jpg


Empire's core:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0008-15.jpg

Old Shakaland:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0009-17.jpg

Southern barrens. I hope to beat Hammurabi to the deer/wine/cow city:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0010-15.jpg

Tech situation isn't bad. I'm usually behind at this point:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0011-16.jpg

Cities. This is my main issue in this game. All my cities look very...hybrid. I still need to pick my super-prod city:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0012-15.jpg

Glance. I'm still in no religion, waiting for Hammurabi to ask me to adopt Judaism. I have a -1 with Pacal from declaring on Shaka and -1 with Wang for border tension.

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0013-15.jpg


Not sure about the future plans. This continent looks big enough for an early dom victory. The obvious target is Wang, probably with elephants and catapults, followed by Pacal, who looks to be badly boxed by Wang and Hammu.

I've completely ignored wonders and great people so far. Still need to pick a good GS farm.


Overall, I bet Shaka isn't going to see the Anno Domini in any single game of this installment, but I think the other 3 AIs will provide some very interesting and variegated scenarios. Good map.

monarch/normal to 1400 AD

Gambled on losing the cow to settle 1N on the plains hill which seemed to work out well. Gave room for a decent coastal city to claim it and the other two good tiles down there. Axe rushed shaka obviously -Probably should have gone quicker since he just had just built a 3rd city, but it was fairly easy still. I built Stonehenge, and almost got the Oracle too - i saw Shaka had no copper and figured i'd could take a little extra time.

After shaka was gone i built the pyramids and joined hammy and wang as Hindus. Took out Wang a couple thousand years later with maces mostly, taking him as a vassal with only a few not so good cities in the center of the continent. He'll be a nice buffer for when i go to fight hammy. Waiting to recover from war weariness and for a few cannons (5 turns left for steel), then should be able to take the rest of the continent. Hammy's capital looks very tempting - hindu holy city and all.

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0001.jpg

Hope our continent is big enough for a dom victory so i dont have to build boats.

Here's the tech situation.

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0002.jpg

Seemed like an easy map. The easy rush giving us 4 gold tiles total and gems helped the research a lot. I usually never build pyramids since it seems like i never have stone -so im sure they also helped. Tech-wise the AI's were very slow this game. Did a decent amount of tech-trading early to catch up, but basically have had to self research everything for awhile now.

Welcome to the forums Tempesta:beer:, and welcome to the Monarch Students.
In retrospect I agree that the map is easy. I should have gone with my instincts and swapped Pacal with Shaka (starting location swap). Live and learn.:)
Edit: spoiler for people that have played the start:)

Hmm, will grab this in the morning. I need to redeem myself after losing this month's BOTM game (Hammurabi on Epic/Monarch) via culture, because I wasn't paying enough attention while I was aiming for space. :blush:

Well I'm at 10 AD. I can never remember when I'm supposed to stop and post... I oughta read my own freaking suggestions about that.



Looking pretty good so far. My first round can be summed up as... Two winners, two losers and a dead guy in a hindu lovefest.

Ok I've been proved wrong many times here before by predicting what people would do to win. And they've won and I've lost, so that shows you what I know, but is there *anyone* - Anyone at all out there - Who did not rush Shaka??? Copper in your capital BFC, sitting on a river, and Crazy Shaka next door? If this isn't a textbook case for axe rushing, I don't know what is.

Someone above said this was an "easy" map. And it would appear that way to me too. Resources galore. So many good city sites you can't hardly rush them all in time. I'm at 8 cities and building 2 more settlers. Calendar comes online this turn and then it's Katie bar the door. If I can't get my first Monarch win on this map... I oughta go play World of Warcraft or something.

In my game we're all Hindu so far. Lovefest going on. Someone's got Judiasm though, and I see a potential switch coming because Wang and Pacal are both boxed in with 3 or 4 cities (losers). Hammy and I are at 8 (winners). Everyone's getting along so far, but my money's on a Wang/Pacal blowout fairly soon. I got the food/starvation event with Wang so that netted me +3 diplo on him.

I got the stone hooked up and built the 'mids and Hanging gardens in Delhi. That plus 2 scientists running and a GS or GE is going to pop in 3 turns. I'm hoping to get Lit and the GLib if it's a GE that pops. Although I really could use metal casting for the triremes and forges...

The only bad news really is I'm behind 4-5 techs or so at this point. Construction's out there, Aesthetics is out there along with a few of your minor ones I haven't picked up yet... archery, polytheism... I think cause it's a hindu lovefest the AI's are trading generously with each other, and I haven't joined in yet. Soon, though, soon... All cities defended + I've got a nice wee stack of CRIII axemen from Shaka/barbs ready to form the base of a nice army. Lost one galley to the barbs so far and can't really work the seafood tiles until after metal casting... But all in all looking pretty good so far.

Must remember to keep checking WHEOOHRN for signs of trouble amongst the brethren.

Map note: I used this map as received from Single Malt. As far as I know, he did not make any changes to it (other than the civ colour). I made exactly one change to terrain. See if you can spot it! (Hint: It's not shown in the picture below). I'm embarrassed that I did it now because there was no reason to. See I didn't really look all that carefully at the map, cause I didn't want to spoil it. Here's what I knew about it: Copper was near (although I didn't think it was in BFC). Shaka was near. That's about it. So I made one tweak to try and provide a tempting alternative to Shaka axe rush... But in the end is there really anything tempting enough to sway you - the ardent player - away from a Shaka axe rush?

Empire core:

http://i347.photobucket.com/albums/p459/gcm4738/ms310ad0000.jpg

Monarch/Epic/No random events, to 235AD.


Dropped one level for a relaxing wonder-spamming game.A start is nearly ideal, good production capital and both Marble and Stone available.

Settled on place and built something like worker, warrior, Stonehenge, worker, settler.

2225 BC: second city. Stone and gold, automatically connected to cap via river.

200618

After stone was connected, Cap built The Great Wall (not really needed here but was cheap), couple of more workers and a settler, and started The Pyramids.

Shaka is my neighbour, but for long time he did not seem to have anything but archers (obviously no bronze or horse), so he didn't seem like a threat he normally is.

1375BC: third city. 2 Fish and 3 hills.

200619

1075BC: The Mids:

200620

800 BC: 4th city. Connects Marble, one fish resource.

200621

450 BC: 5th city. Cows, hills, a river and Calendar stuff.

200622

140 BC: The greatest wonder:

200623

65 BC: 6th city. Another production city. I have no else kind of cities than production cities.

200626

5 BC. Temple of Artemis was built (it was available late in this game:). Shaka has metal now, so I traded military techs from Wang.

200628

10 AD: Parthenon was built and was the first wonder built in other city than Capital.

175 AD: Mauseleom of Maussollos, Another very good wonder.

235 AD: Position seems quite solid. Perhaps the only weakness is that I still have only 6 cities and there's not many good sites left. Teching speed is decent c. 250 bpt per turn (when switching to a tech mode with all caste/representation scientists) and since my all cities are production cities, it should'nt be hard to build a decent size army quick. Perhaps i'm going for trebs/maces and attack someone (Shaka perhaps to best target since he is disliked by others).

200634

200637

To 25AD

Rushed shaka because it was too convenient.
Early game:
Agriculture-BW-almost hunting (delayed so I could build a warrior instead of spearmen)-animal husbandry-wheel
Build:
Worker-worker when farm finishes switch queue to warrior and grow, mine hill, at size 2 switch back to worker (note: I know I won't be growing to size 3 anytime soon while building the barracks, so workers chop instead of improve). settler (aided by Chop 4x) barracks axe*
I settle the (no monument) bronze cow site, partially to deny shaka, partially because it's good production. Improve bronze first then chop then cow. Other worker is busy chopping grassland forests for axes then building a road toward shaka. Attack with 9 (whipped last axe from city 2), there's late axe from capital to deal with counterattacks.

Capital switches to settler because shaka is hemmed in and we still want to block the AIs (wang kon).
Attack capital, first 4 die, next 4 clean up. remaining 5 should be enough to finish his expansion. Tip: since his expansion is on a hill, I promote combat 1 for suicide attacking (math: 50% archer bonus, 50% from hill/archer, 25% fortified > 100%, so combat 1 10% > cr1 20%). City is razed because it will not be productive until iron working, which I plan on trading for. Got another worker.

The REX: axes switch to fogbusting duty. Settler from capital (remember the transition?) settles towards Wangkon, the horse/cow on the coast.
http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn333/vicawoo/Civ4ScreenShot0050.jpg

The important part of REX is production and not crashing your economy. I have 2 golds and there's another 2 golds east. Basically I can take land as fast as I can without crashing my economy. My secondary city and capital are pumping settlers, shaka's capital is going granary/library of course, then pumping settlers. Cottaging river grasslands at my capital.
Next city is double gold rice horse to the east. I improved the cow earlier at my capital's border pop so it doesn't waste turns on unimproved tiles.
http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn333/vicawoo/Civ4ScreenShot0052.jpg

Next city is fish city
http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn333/vicawoo/Civ4ScreenShot0048.jpg
I do this because it takes awhile to get a non-capital seafood city online, especially if it needs a monument, and I want GP sooner.
Next city, I survey land to the northeast and east. Barbarian city has popped up, I sent a city raider 2 axe to try to take it. There's fair odds my axe will die, but it takes out one, heals, takes out second, and is in position to take the 3rd
http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn333/vicawoo/Civ4ScreenShot0049.jpg
There's some terrible desert to the east, and further to the east, hammurabi's taken the useful land, so no point in blocking. To the northeast, there's a lot of jungle, which i don't mind the AI taking so they can improve it for me without my paying maintenance for it. Wang kon won't take shaka's second city site very soon (or so I thought, he settled close to it), and the fish city north of shaka's capital won't be settled soon. I take the iron/cow/sugar city to the northeast and a wheat/cow/calendar city near hammurabi.
http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn333/vicawoo/Civ4ScreenShot0047.jpg
I don't encroach upon pacal too much, because he's smallest, hammurabi's the off religion of wang kon and pacal, and I want him to be fighting for land with hammurabi.

The marble north of the fish city gets settled next in case hammurabi sends an aggressive settler.

Economy/tech: after the rush, it was pottery-writing. I then tech alphabet because there are 3 players, 2 of which are fairly peaceful, financial and willing to trade, and it's monarch so they don't get alphabet that fast. I get fishing and masonry for writing, 1/3 researched iron working for writing and something. Hold onto alphabet monopoly to slow AI until wang kon offers me mathematics. I have 3 economy cities, my capital who's priority is to grow to happy cap with cottages, shaka's 2 gold capital, and the 2 gold city to the east. They get library/markets. The rest of the cities stay small and build workers/settlers, although some are transitioning.
alphabet/currency/code of laws. Nobody has aesthetics (not sure about other continent), so I go for civil service for my anarchy-free bureaucracy capital. Switched to caste for a few turns to border pop two newest cities, although I am not using slavery much.
I have 3 happy resources (gold/gem/ivory), so I don't need hereditary rule. I'm not running specialists yet, so there was no need for pyramids, and I haven't border popped to stone yet.

I have the land I want, so soon it's time to fully switch to builder/war mode. I'm spiritual/organized, so I can trade for monotheism and run organized religion

Tech
http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn333/vicawoo/Civ4ScreenShot0053.jpg
I have 50% more land then the next largest rival, tech lead over everyone, I can probably grab great library, good diplomatic situation and a scapegoat rival who's the largest threat. Wang kon and pacal are clearing jungles for me for later and teching so I can backfill.

First round (4000BC - 925BC)

Settled in place.
http://i390.photobucket.com/albums/oo348/photobucketgm/Monarch%20Student%20Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0184.jpg

Met Wang Kon :
http://i390.photobucket.com/albums/oo348/photobucketgm/Monarch%20Student%20Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0186.jpg

Met Hammurabi :
http://i390.photobucket.com/albums/oo348/photobucketgm/Monarch%20Student%20Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0191.jpg

Met Pacal II :
http://i390.photobucket.com/albums/oo348/photobucketgm/Monarch%20Student%20Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0190.jpg

What about Shaka ? Well :
http://i390.photobucket.com/albums/oo348/photobucketgm/Monarch%20Student%20Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0194.jpg

He will be sorely missed.

I then proceeded to plant two more cities and draw a dotmap:
http://i390.photobucket.com/albums/oo348/photobucketgm/Monarch%20Student%20Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0195.jpg
http://i390.photobucket.com/albums/oo348/photobucketgm/Monarch%20Student%20Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0198.jpg

An easy start : with a civ starting with mining, bronze in the BFC and a huge expanse of forest to chop, Shaka's fate was sealed. None of my three neighbours is very aggressive and I have a lot of land to play with. When all my Gold resources come online, my tech rate is going to soar. Looks like a fun game :D

Monarch/Epic to 535AD - closer to the target date this time!



A peaceful round of building. Everyone is still Hindu. No one is WHEEOOHRN. I've expanded to 10 cities, with no more room for expansion. That's ok as I could stand to get these ones up and going.

Made a couple of trades to backfill needed techs. Luckily everytime I managed to get something the AI doesn't have, someone will trade me 3 other cheap things for it, managed to beg metal casting off Hammy. But I'm still struggling to keep up tech-wise. That should start to come back as I do a little less whipping this coming round.

Have popped 2 GEng so far. One used to build the Shwed Paya (not in Delhi - don't want to pollute my GP farm) the other just build the GLib in Delhi. I switched to pacifism to juice the GP rate. I'm really starting to put some pressure on a couple of Wang's border cities now. Have just built first trireme - so starting to send those out with fish boats. Researching CoL for cheap courthouses. Mostly building markets right now.

Military is starting to look a little long in the tooth as other AI's have Feud and Construction. I will need to make sure and not fall behind too far - although everyone's still looking like getting along.

Overview and then techs... Need to see if I can get something for MC off Pacal...

http://i347.photobucket.com/albums/p459/gcm4738/ms3ad535overview.jpg

http://i347.photobucket.com/albums/p459/gcm4738/ms3ad535techs.jpg

to 1100AD:


400: Shaka declares on Wang
445: The Sistine Chapel
700: Notre Dame (I rarely get this wonder, AI prefers Engineering)
860: University of Sankore
910: Declared on Shaka. He is weak in this game, boxed in a rich but too small area.
200643
1060: Liberalism. Took nationalism. Not Alphabet at this point :) AND I realized just now I had skipped Monotheism and Organized Religion too even when I've been hindu for >500 years and it's in all my cities. Quite big mistake...
200644
1100: Shaka is dead. His land is quite rich but unfortunately don't have any new health resources. I have plenty of happiness, but low health cap keeps Delhi small (yeah, I forgot to build Aqueduct too..).
200649
200645
200646

I actually played this before LHC. This wasn't a major choke job like that was. Probably because I went monarch/normal standard here.

1780 UN win.

To 1 AD

Stonhenge.

Aggressive placement.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/Monarch%20student%20III/1840asmidgeaggressive0000.jpg

And here come some axes.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/Monarch%20student%20III/925BClateunplannedaxerush0000.jpg

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/Monarch%20student%20III/725BCaxerushworks0000.jpg

Those are his only good cities for now so I take peace.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/Monarch%20student%20III/1ADeastblockhammygoforbarb0000.jpg

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/Monarch%20student%20III/1ADwestpostShakarush0000.jpg

Cover some ground to the east too. MMMM cities.

This position is quite strong so I know I'll win.

The rest.

Mostly a cottage spam game. I used delhi for hammers, made a few other hammer cities.

Mids goes late...to me. I had things blocked so I figured it's worth a shot:

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/Monarch%20student%20III/225ADlatemids0000.jpg

Same thing with Hanging gardens.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/Monarch%20student%20III/640ADlateHG0000.jpg

Some war. Good. Distractions.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/Monarch%20student%20III/1000ADwarstirs0000.jpg

I jump in.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/Monarch%20student%20III/1120ADdowshakaagain0000.jpg

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/Monarch%20student%20III/1150Lib0000.jpg

Not much bulbing here. It wasn't in danger. I just took nationalism because we have marble. Taj was easy too.

I unlocked HE taking a barb city and put it in capitol too. I had such a force that i was going to attack prior to having any rifles, since my power was well above WK's...but...

In 1480 he decides he never wants a peace of me.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/Monarch%20student%20III/1480JustbeforedeclaringonWK0000.jpg

Ok.

I was actually getting rifles online. So the game ends in true vassal abuse fashion.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/Monarch%20student%20III/1505DoWpacal0000.jpg

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/Monarch%20student%20III/1540Pacalcaps0000.jpg

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/Monarch%20student%20III/1575DoWhammy0000.jpg

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/Monarch%20student%20III/1625hammycap0000.jpg

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/Monarch%20student%20III/1780UNwin0000.jpg

Much nicer than that !#@$% immortal game :(.

Hey. First post for me here, and I would like to jump in. Just won my first prince game a couple of days ago, thanks to this forum. So, here is my game until about 1000 BC

Start:


http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo237/Nurgle84/Civ4ScreenShot0000.jpg

I decided to not settle in place, but get the bonus hammer of the plain hill. I lost the cows, but will utilize them later with another city


Until 875 BC

http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo237/Nurgle84/Civ4ScreenShot0001.jpg

Second city about to be founded in the year 2700. I am definitaly a REXer, normally playing Charlemagne. But organized is great ability for this. Will have to think about another leader.

http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo237/Nurgle84/Civ4ScreenShot0002.jpg

Alphabet is ready and already sent away for new techs.

http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo237/Nurgle84/Civ4ScreenShot0003.jpg

My realm at 875 BC. Enough settling, let the battle begin.

Part II, monarch/epic to 1160:




Techs: priesthood (extorted from Pacal) - hbr - monarchy (Wang) - CS - feudalism (Hammu) - paper - edu - lib - nationalism (free) - mc, compass, aesthetics and polytheism (Hammu) - machinery, literature, drama, monotheism (Hammu) - guilds

205 - First to philo and Taoism founded in Ulundi.

220 - I beat Hammurabi to one of the few decent sites left. He will settle 3-4 cities around Varanasi:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0000-20.jpg

445 - I finally decide to convert to Judaism to please Hammurabi.

860 - Ready to declare war on Wang and he bribes Pacal. I'm Pacal's worst enemy:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0001-20.jpg

870 - Cheju captured:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0002-19.jpg

880 - I bribe Hammurabi vs Pacal.

890 - Hammurabi completes...the Pyramids. Wonders are going very slow in this game and I'm not helping in this regard. Didn't build a single wonder so far.

950 - P'yongyang captured:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0003-19.jpg

1000 - Hyangsan:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0004-19.jpg

1100 - Wonsan:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0005-18.jpg

And Wang is sued for peace:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0006-18.jpg

I'm still attacking with axes, cats and elephants. Need to stop and get some maces/knights/trebs.

1160 - Free tech from Liberalism:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0007-18.jpg

And end of this round.

Continent. Wang has 4 cities on this side and 2 more behind Pacal's land. Pacal is very small, I think I'll wipe him right after Wang:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0008-16.jpg

Western Korea:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0009-18.jpg

Techs:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0010-16.jpg

Glance. Hammurabi loves me for shared religion and wise civic choice (bureau):

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0011-17.jpg



Future plans.
Easy Taj with marble.
I'm teching to economics now, to get the free GM for Sushi later. Hammurabi is friendly, so I can trade to get maces and trebs to finish Wang and kill Pacal.

Overall, I'm playing very poorly. Zero wonders so far, zero great persons and all my cities are some kind of hybrid. Still have to build the Heroic Epic and pick a decent city for the Ironworks.
But I think I'm in very good shape anyway. Wang and Pacal are easy pickings and the tech situation is good.

Chose game settings: Monarch/Epic

Settle in place, start BW immediately (all those yummy forests!). Warrior pops Hunting from the hut!

And later, got another lucky pop: Masonry! :eek: We may want to disable those next game....:mischief: :lol:

So we meet Korea, Babylon, and Maya. Then we have to go and meet Shaka. Ooh boy, that guy's a pain in the arse!


Well, explore, lots of good stuff ALL over the place, start expanding, and what do you know but Shaka is right next to us and the only way he can expand is towards our borders. Yeah...that's not gonna work for me.

Thanks to this handy random event, I can easily deal with the archer-on-a-hill city that popped up closest.
http://www.trynthlas.com/civ/MS3-Asoka/t50-cover-event.jpg

Time to die!
http://www.trynthlas.com/civ/MS3-Asoka/t88-dow-shaka.jpg

http://www.trynthlas.com/civ/MS3-Asoka/t104-shaka-dead.jpg


After that I built another city to capture the gold and horses, but had some bad luck with barbs and lost it. It's rebuilt now, and here's the status of the world:
http://www.trynthlas.com/civ/MS3-Asoka/t124-world.jpg

I see we're getting more people who are comfortable with the WB and changing certain things...like colors :goodjob:. Red and black so far...

I see we're getting more people who are comfortable with the WB and changing certain things...like colors :goodjob:. Red and black so far...

hehe, I read above (or in another thread) how to do that, so I snuck into the WB save and just changed my color without peeking at anything. ;)

Its possible to re write the entire map just from the WB save, Or put in Boudica of the Romans, or whatever.

Its possible to re write the entire map just from the WB save, Or put in Boudica of the Romans, or whatever.

You can even put sid in if you want. Takes a bit more effort though...the thing is case sensitive so you have to be extra careful to include everything it needs, give it the correct team assignment, define a viable start location, etc. Easy once you're used to it, but a bit more advanced than adding a color ;).

To 40 BCLike most everyone else, I rushed shaka. As soon as BW popped, I upgraded a warrior to axeman and choked him in ulundi until backup could help. Luckily for me, it was early enough to not get any "you declared on our friend diplo hits. Boy was he surprised when his stolen worker all of a sudden had three movement points:lol: need I mention fast workers ROCK!

Wang, Hammy and I are big hindu pals. I've got a crap load of happiness resources but not a lot of food. Ulundi kind of sucks right now. I think I'll chop a wonder after I get civil service there so I can string some farms around and work those gold mines.
My Tech order went AG-->BW-->roads-->hunting for ivory-->animal lovin for cows-->pottery for granaries and cottages!!-->masonry for mids-->writing-->IW-->aesthetics-->polytheism-->Trade for fishing, archery, sailing, priesthood, and mono-->literature-->metal casting-->trade for alphabet, meditation, math, and calendar-->40BC I finish researching Code of Laws. N

Now I need to decide whether to go for theology, which would be great trade bait and give us hindus the opportunity to build the AP, and in turn give me part a. of the religious building wonder economy quadrifecta of the AP for hammers, the university of Sankore for beakers, the spiral minaret for gold and the Sistine chapel for culture, Orrrrrrr… Go for civil service for bureaucracy in delhi, which will be a superb commerce center as well as allowing me to grow some of my other cities to a very large happiness cap…

I’m not used to standard sized maps, I usually play large, so grabbing wonders is a little bit easier, so I think I’ll go with Theology.

Things that are awesome:
Fast workers
the river that Delhi is on
the spiritual trait
6 happiness resources
Gold mine-powered research

Things that aren’t awesome:
The lack of food resources

off topic question, how do I put thumbnais in spoilers?

Life is good. Continued expansion, tech lead (small) on the AIs, built the Oracle. Switched to Buddhism to make Pacal and Wang happy with me, and now we all hate Hammy together. I think I'll probably be killing Hammy after there's no more room to expand, which will be a medieval unit war, I'm guessing.

Oracle->CoL
http://www.trynthlas.com/civ/MS3-Asoka/t136-oracle.jpg


That city on the copper west of Delhi is an actual barb city :p
http://www.trynthlas.com/civ/MS3-Asoka/t174-world.jpg

http://www.trynthlas.com/civ/MS3-Asoka/t174-tech.jpg

http://www.trynthlas.com/civ/MS3-Asoka/t174-demogs.jpg


Going to pause here. Any tips, thoughts? Gwynnja, damn you teched fast!

To 1820, near victory, game abandoned...


More wonder-spamming:
200677
200678
200679

Delhi starved badly after a Factory and a Coal Plant:
200680

Finally backstabbed my friend Hammurabi:
200681
200682

After Hammu and Pacal were capitulated The UN was built and...

200683

Annoingly one vote from the victory.

I built a new city to grow my population. Next voting:

200684

..whatever, abandoned a game cause it's not so challenging anyway. :crazyeye:

This was probably easier Monarch start than average. Start was so production rich, and Shaka was efficiently blocked by strong, protective Wang, so his Ikhandas didn't have much use.

200685

@Trynthlas
Re: Fast Teching. I don't think I teched all that fast, although with the gold mine in ulundi and the two in the city west of the capital I was able to maintain research at a decent level. I let Wang and Hammy do a good deal of my research for me; the AI doesn't prioritize aesthetics, literature, or metal casting, so I researched those three techs and for them I received in trade monotheism, fishing, archery, sailing, priesthood, alphabet, math, meditation, and calendar. Hammurabi is Friendly with me and will continue to trade techs without going into wfyabta (I think) and wang will be soon too if I can persuade him to go to war against pacal with me. If I don't kill hammy and wang and keep them at friendly they should continue to trade with me all game long. By the way, how do I change my civ's color? red fast workers look weird

Part II 875 BC - 25 AD


As everyone else:
http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo237/Nurgle84/Civ4ScreenShot0009.jpg

http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo237/Nurgle84/Civ4ScreenShot0011.jpg

Traded some techs to backfill some stuff (Archery, Sailing, Polytheism etc.)

The new lands:

http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo237/Nurgle84/Civ4ScreenShot0016.jpg

The old lands

http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo237/Nurgle84/Civ4ScreenShot0017.jpg

The power graph

http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo237/Nurgle84/Civ4ScreenShot0018.jpg

@Trynthlas
Re: Fast Teching. I don't think I teched all that fast, although with the gold mine in ulundi and the two in the city west of the capital I was able to maintain research at a decent level. I let Wang and Hammy do a good deal of my research for me; the AI doesn't prioritize aesthetics, literature, or metal casting, so I researched those three techs and for them I received in trade monotheism, fishing, archery, sailing, priesthood, alphabet, math, meditation, and calendar. Hammurabi is Friendly with me and will continue to trade techs without going into wfyabta (I think) and wang will be soon too if I can persuade him to go to war against pacal with me. If I don't kill hammy and wang and keep them at friendly they should continue to trade with me all game long. By the way, how do I change my civ's color? red fast workers look weird

Ah, I have not capitalized on that tech trading opportunities enough, I think. Thanks :)

I'm not sure how you can change the color during the game, but the WB save is just a plain text file, if you do a search on your leader name there's a player color attribute.

I should've taken better notes this round. 1200AD and everything still cruising along...



The hindu lovefest holds. No trouble on this island. I've just built my first two caravels this round, so time to find the other AI's and hopefully get that +1 movement bonus. At the rate I'm going international invasion looks like the best option! Hammy's getting ahead of me a little points-wise cause he's filling in any available space with cities - and I'm occasionally whipping still which keeps the pop down. Tech trading continues unabated. I'm right in there with Wang, Hammy and Pacal - who's been good for some tasty trades.

What else... Popped 2 more GEng's and a GSci. One GEng stockpiled. For what? Dunno. Statue of Liberty? Kremlin? Hermitage or something to maybe look at cultural victory? The other GEng built AP in my "holy city" the one with Shwed Paya. I kinda forgot about the +2 :hammers: for hindu buildings when the AP got built so I'm finishing off cheap temples now - which I shoulda done before anyway probably but because there's so much :) resources I haven't needed 'em. Playing on this map almost feels like moving down a level. GSci bulped philosopy ("bulped" - I love that - Someone misspelled it in a post I read some time ago and now I always think of it as "bulped" hehe) Built UofSankore in Delhi the hard way and more GP's on the way.

Picked my production city and built HEpic.

What else?

It's been a little hit and miss getting the votes in the AP cause we all love each other just that much :yup: But with spiritual I can switch to Wang and Pacal's fav civs just as the vote comes up and get a bonus in time for it to matter (except 5 turns to switch back tho...)

I'm in with a shout on liberalism now - although last GEng would've been better as a GSci to bulp Edu - but well there you go - I can't really complain - he'll be good for something.

Upgraded military to longbows/maces to keep pace with the rest of the happy hindus. And that's well... it really. Next round should get a little more... violent perhaps?? :trouble:

Overview, then demographics, then techs...

http://i347.photobucket.com/albums/p459/gcm4738/1200adover.jpg

http://i347.photobucket.com/albums/p459/gcm4738/1200addemog0000.jpg

http://i347.photobucket.com/albums/p459/gcm4738/1200adtech0000.jpg

Until 1000 AD


http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo237/Nurgle84/Civ4ScreenShot0000-1.jpg

http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo237/Nurgle84/Civ4ScreenShot0005.jpg

Some techtrading and... some more tech "trading" :D

http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo237/Nurgle84/Civ4ScreenShot0004.jpg

Doesn´t help him in the long run

http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo237/Nurgle84/Civ4ScreenShot0006.jpg

The realm at 1000 AD

http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo237/Nurgle84/Civ4ScreenShot0007.jpg

http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo237/Nurgle84/Civ4ScreenShot0008.jpg

So, I have the feeling, that I am a bit slow compared to the other players here. My next target would be Pacal, as nobody likes. He is the only non-believer on this continent. The AP is close to completion a fresh army of Elephants, Catapults and Swordsmen are ready for some action.

40 BC to 560 AD
150 AD finished Theology first. Started Civil Service.
340 AD finished civil service. Now what? Compass is good trade bait.
410 AD finished Compass started paper. Hopefully I can trade it for machinery
460 AD Wang wants to trade music for civil service. No thanks, I’ll wait till he has Machinery.
480 AD Wang beats me to Hagia Sophia by 3 turns… Damn. 1392 Gold will fuel some research for a while though.
505 AD Finished Paper. Only Pacal has machinery so far, dammit and he wont trade it. I’ll research Philosophy now I guess, Maybe by the time I get it wang or hammy will have something decent worth trading for.
545 AD managed to snag the mausoleum. That’s good for a 24 turn golden age on marathon!
560 AD Philosophy is in. Hammy and wang seem to be falling behind in tech. Do I plow on towards liberalism or research machinery and optics and see what else is out there? Since none of my neighbors are threatening me in the liberalism race, I’m going with the latter.

To 1806 (domination victory)

Decided to attack Pacal first and get him out of the way. Finished him off in 1600, only losing a few troops - so after a few turns of healing went straight after Hammy.

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0003.jpg

Tech-wise i'm still running away with it...

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0004.jpg

Took Babylon in 1700 - lots of good stuff in there.

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0005.jpg

Take Borsippa a couple turns later and capitulate Hammy, leaving him only a couple island cities. Looking for a domination win, but doubt our continent is enough, even with a couple islands it might be a little short.

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0006.jpg

I ended up putting Moai and Ironworks in that city claiming the cow that would have been in the Caps BFC - here it is about to finish SOL for me.

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0008.jpg

I was 2% short with the land i had for victory - too bad since i was hoping it would be enough and didn't really hurry my army overseas as soon as i could have. Would have been nice to win in the 1700's but oh well. Willem was the easier target, took a few cities, then he capitulated after he lost Amsterdam. Victory came on the next turn, since i was now well above the land requirement.

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0009.jpg

Highest score i've ever got, i believe.

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0011.jpg

I attached the 1700 save. If someone has a chance, i'd like to get a few tips. Probably not the best game for my first posting, since it was won so easily - usually monarch is much harder for me. Also, since i was way ahead most of the game i played pretty sloppy.

Things i know i could have done better or need help with...

1. Didn't run too many scientists in the beginning despite having Mids. High happy caps kept me growing cities for awhile, and being ahead in tech already i didn't really try to get extra beakers.

2. Didn't use the whip all that much - again, with the high happy cap this game i didn't more growing than whipping. In games like this when you're not bouncing off the happy cap right away - should i try to whip a lot anyway?

3. National wonders are always an issue - i usually just build national epic in my cap when it builds the GL. I waited a LONG time to build Moai, and that's one i never am sure where to place. Ironworks went there as well. I didn't use the National Park this game - but normally i will use that pretty effectively i think. Oxford went in the cap (i usually am really good about getting this up - i think it was built around 1200 AD this game) Wall street went in the unpronounceable Zulu city. Which ended up looking like this at the end.

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0013.jpg

4. Also, i NEVER build the globe theater. I know it is very useful but just never try using it. Whipping out lots of units helps a lot i'm sure - had more than enough production this game though. If i had of built it in this game, which city should it have gone in?

5. General city placement... any cities look like they were settled in the wrong spot?

6. Usually don't change improvements - meaning i barely use chain irrigation when available, and don't really ever switch a farm or cottage to a windmill or watermill later in the game. Any cities that look like they really have the wrong tile improvements?

7. Automated my workers later in the game since i was so far ahead. I know this isn't good to do usually. Also didn't have them railroad all the mines/lumbermills, but i usually will.

8. Civics are tough for me - when, if ever, in this game should bureaucracy switch to free speech, and representation (with mids) switch to univ. suffrage? I stayed with rep the whole game, which im sure wasn't optimal, and switched to free speech at a time when it hardly changed my beakers and income, maybe slightly up in one, down in the other. This mean it was a good time to switch? Too early or too late? Went to free religion right before i was going to attack hammy - the last hindu civ, meaning my religion had no more use for diplomacy - is this the right play? Stayed in merc. for most of the game, since everyone was in it until towards the very end. When i went to free market, beakers/income were about equal. Again, this mean it was a good time to switch?


1700 save included if anyone wants to load it up and give tips

Part III, epic, 1160 - 1716:




Techs: guilds - banking - eng and optics (Hamm) - economy - printing press - rep parts - gunpowder - music and theology (Willem) - chemistry - steel - constitution and astro (Willie) - sci meth - physics - corporation - democracy (Will) - biology


1260 - Made peace with Wang at the end of last round, but I'm still at war with Pacal, so Uxmal is captured:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0000-21.jpg

And peace with the skinny boy. Not enough siege to keep going:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0001-21.jpg

1280 - Nice event in Varanasi. I pick the Great Artist to fight Hammurabi's culture:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0002-20.jpg

1300 - Good news:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0003-20.jpg

Bad news: Wang vassalizes to Hammurabi. This is very unfortunate. Wang is my main target at this point and I don't want to fight on two fronts with my best bud Hammurabi. He's no pushover like Wang or Pacal, so I'd have to build a couple big stacks to deal with him.

1345 - I meet Elizabeth. She's very backward:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0004-20.jpg

1355 - Wang beats me to economics by 2 turns. Annoying, but I managed to get a Great Merchant anyway, so Sushi will be mine.

1365 - Last AI, kinda backward. Willem and Elizabeth hate each others with a passion:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0005-19.jpg

Same turn, Willem circumnavigates the globe.

1445 - Re-declared war on Pacal and Mutal is captured. Hindu shrine and a few wonders inside:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0007-19.jpg

1475 - Chichen Itza:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0008-17.jpg

1495 - Excellent news: Wang breaks free from Hammurabi. I decide to quickly finish Pacal before turning back to Wang.

1510 - Lakamha:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0009-19.jpg

1525 - Willem declares war on Elizabeth.

1535 - And Mayapan:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0010-17.jpg

Pacal still has this city:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0011-18.jpg

But I don't have a fleet and I have to quickly attack Wang, or he may vassalize again to Hammurabi. Pacal doesn't look amused:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0012-16.jpg

Stupid way to get a -1 with everyone, at least I get a few votes for a possible UN win.

1540 - Another GM gets 2000ish gold in Babylon. Will be used to upgrade trebs to cannons.

1580 - Ready to attack Wang:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0013-16.jpg

And Ulsan is captured.

1585 - Wang has cuirassiers and captures P'yongyang, defended by 2 puny longbows.

1595 - Liz capitulates to Willem. This guy is becoming quite a power. He blocked Elizabeth in the SE corner of their continent and claimed a huge chunk of land for himself.

1600 - Pusan is captured:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0014-14.jpg

1630 - Seoul:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0015-14.jpg

1645 - Namp'o captured.

1665 - P'yongyang recaptured and Wang is cornered to his eastern cities.

1700 - Zhou captured.

1706 - I get the GS from Physics, used to build an academy in Delhi.

1710 - Parthian captured.

1716 - And P'yongsong:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0016-13.jpg

But he's not dead. Hammurabi's map reveals another useless island city:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0017-13.jpg

Again, I can't be bothered to capture it, so Wang is assimilated:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0018-12.jpg


Continent:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0019-12.jpg

Huge Willem and little Elizabeth:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0020-12.jpg

Tech board:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0021-12.jpg

And glance:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0022-12.jpg


I'm not sure at this point. Willem is huge and I'd need a big fleet to attack him. If I build the UN, he will be my rival for the victory and he has Elizabeth's votes. I have Hammurabi's votes but I'm not sure if those are enough.
Medicine is almost done and I have a GM ready to found Sid's Sushi to push my population (and eventually Hammurabi's) and get more votes.

Another option is a switch to Free Religion to make Willem friendly. I'd lose the shared religion bonus with Hammurabi, but he'd still be friendly. With both the main powers secured, I may peacefully tech to space, but space victories are very boring to me.

Last option is getting Willem friendly and backstab my pal Hammurabi, but I'm not sure if this continent is enough for domination (40% now).

This game is DAMN EASY

let me explain

I met Shaka
Our continent got all 3 early religions
MUAHAHHAA I just have to give in and stay in NSR for the entire game and see them shred each other to bits and pieces
SPIRITUAL > FIN > noob AI go Religion
Shaka is boxed in with 3 crappy cities if he declares I wipe him off the map :D

Should have posted some updates during the game but got a bit preoccupied. I suppose I will just give a quick summary.

Domination- 1780




Axe-Rushed Shaka (9 Axes) - Dead by 1500 BC

I got the pyramids, suprisingly, (wanted the gold) in about 400 AD. Switched to Representation.

I then teched straight to construction and horseback riding. Attacked Wang with Jumbos and a few catapults plus the remaining axes. Wang conquered around 850 AD. I hadn't rushed him because I was wary of him being protective.

I was very slow to expand east towards Hammurabi. I had been focused on the other wars and he ended up taking all of the nice city sites. He had about 6% more land then I. I was annoyed at him so I teched to Bureaucracy for maces. THen I got myself in a, possibly foolish, 600 on and off war with Hammurabi. Switched to police state. I attacked mainly with Jumbos, maces, and catapults. Hammurabi was annihilated in 1700 AD.

I then attacked Pacal with upgraded grenadiers (its nice having CR3 grenadiers), jumbos and cats along with a mad rush of knights. Pacal had very little land and was conquered in 1778. I built several awful cities to control the remaining land on the continent. I was hoping the continent was large enough for a domination win. It was, about 65% of the world's landmass.

I believe I played this game rather sloppily, I was way behing the tech rate that some of you guys had. However, I definitely took advantage of military oppurtunites, even if this left my economy in shambles most of the game. I din't utilize representation well (or at all), and I suppose I could have probably doubled my tech rate using scientists if I had thought about it. Regardless, this was my first completed game on monarch and my first win.

To 1550ADish
As soon as I had a half decent force I invaded Hammy, as he was backward due to over expansion. Took the southern half of his empire, including his shrine cap (the one I want is Pacals, which is the dominant religion). I have just re declared after getting the basic infrastructure into my newly conquered cities (Hammy didn't even have CoL to build courthouses for me). I will take no vassals:). With Hammy dead I will draft the most modern Gunpowder units to invade Pacal, after repairing my seriously ailing economy. Till then I will use him as a trade partner. WK has too few cities to be a threat, so he is last in line. He must also die, as he has been begging me to take him as a vassal.
My empire
http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm20/xl_single_malt/MS%20Asoka/empire1500.jpg
The cities
http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm20/xl_single_malt/MS%20Asoka/cities1500.jpg
The tech situation
http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm20/xl_single_malt/MS%20Asoka/techs1500.jpg
My pathetic best science city, this is wartime tho at 30%
http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm20/xl_single_malt/MS%20Asoka/ssc1.jpg

Monarch Epic to 775 BC. I fear that goody huts made this game way too easy. Maybe I can still lose, but it sure seems unlikely. Luckiest goody hut game I think I've ever had. Details in spoiler:



Here's what I was thinking before I started. I’m spiritual and organized, which means I want civics, lots of them, available to me as early as possible. Need to take advantage of that ability to switch in and out. Building units? Vassalage/theocracy. Building infrastructure? Organized religion. So on and so on. It makes mids and Schwedegon attractive, and also will likely have me looking at feudalism earlier than normal. As for the start, with all the trees, it seems like I have to go bronze working first and chop chop chop. Initial thinking is to go BW, then Ag, then see what I do based on the map.

I move one north and settle – elephants! Construction just became important, especially if there’s someone close. A nice goody hut to start:

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0000.jpg

Oh, but the goody huts only got better. My first two meeting – 10-11 turns in.

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0001.jpg

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0002.jpg

Wang appears to be to the north. I also see stone to the east, with gold. A lot of plains there, but the mids might be a viable strategy with that site. Wang is super close – only about 8-9 tiles away, so I’m thinking race to construction and elephants - he's protective, so may be tough to dislodge early. I then meet Shaka – also close. Thinking building wonders may not make much sense after all. Another nice goody hut.

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0003.jpg

My elephants will be hooked up faster. Shaka is also super close, so it’s pretty clear I need to put wonders in the back of my mind for right now and claim some land. I decide to build two workers to start – I don’t know if I’ve ever done that, but I’m going to chop like mad in the early game. I tech bronze working, and are you serious?!?!? Copper right in Delhi's BFC?!?!? Someone is trying to tell me something. My workers are about to chop out some AI capitals for me. Forget the stone for now. And the ultimate bonus – goody huts are awfully kind. I clicked too fast to take a screenshot, but my scout just popped the wheel from a goody hut. Three goody huts, one scout, and two important techs for me, wheel and hunting. Really not even fair at this point - I feel like this has basically moved me back down to prince for this game. Oh well, this is my reward for all those stupid slave revolts I suffered through in the Joao game.

So copper is hooked up at turn 25 - has to be my record on epic. After worker/worker, I go barracks and then 7 straight axes - chopping the whole time. This is where the fast workers come in handy. They move to the forest and chop the same turn! Awesome - I'm able to chop out an axe every 3-4 turns. Shaka appears to be boxed in and coastal, so he’s the obvious first target. AH reveals horses nearby too – would love to be able to claim the horse and the stone after taking Shaka, but timing will be tight, as we all appear to be pretty close together. I love it – I’ve had two forests regrow already too! This has really been one of the best starts I’ve ever seen – forests everywhere, a scout and two techs from huts, and Shaka boxed in. I meet Pacal as well - further away, and not a concern yet. As I’m scouting, I see there are really some fantastic city sites around here, so this rush needs to go fast - I chop chop chop with no regards to health in the future. And, it’s time:

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0004.jpg

Look, worker steal too – bonus! I rushed Shaka with only 7 axes because I had a barracks chopped out, and look at the turn counter - turn 67 - for me, that felt extremely fast for a rush. I like to have 10-12 axes chopped out by about turn 90 for a rush - since this was so much faster with the free techs and fast workers, I figured I'd be dealing with less defense and fewer cities. And sure enough..

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0005.jpg

Ulundi was easy – lost two axes. He was kind enough to settle a second city – I decide to wait a few turns right outside to see if it can hit size 2 before I take it. A slight risk, but it’s a decent city placement. Not exactly where I would have put it, but not terrible – it will save me some settler hammers. Sure enough, 4 turns later, it hits size 2, and still defended by only one archer. My second axe did this:

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0006.jpg

So I’m done with Shaka. My main decision now is whether to go after Wang right away, or try to block some additional land from him. I was building a settler in Delhi (in case I didn't get any other cities from Shaka), so I guess I need to settle one more city, but after that, I think I have to try to take Wang. The way the map looks right now, if I take Wang, I think I have a TON of space to rex in, so I decide to go after Wang too. While doing that, I teched writing, and again, dropped to 0% research for several turns while getting libraries in. Then went back to chopping axes like mad (those fast workers are really amazing). I took the research slider back up, and went after Wang.

Seoul is on a hill, so I figured it would be a real pain. It was a pain, but I actually lucked out that he was just going to settle a third city. He sent two archers with the settler, and left an axe and an archer in the city. Three archers would have been impossible to dent on the hill in Seoul. He whipped a swordsman before I got there (he must have iron, because I didn’t see copper, and don’t have iron working yet). I took 13 axes to Seoul against an archer, an axe and a sword. I quickly remembered why not to rush protective civs before siege. I was slightly terrified when his archer was still at 2.6 after 4 axes had attacked, but my 5th axe caught a break as it beat down the archer pretty bad on 9% odds. Then it was easy – lost 4 more axes total, but the axe and sword weren't fortified and didn’t have first strikes, so I wore them down. The end result:

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0007.jpg

Three capitals. Now just need to finish off Wang and then it’s economy time. All the gold I have is partially from taking cities, but also from running 0% research for 10 or so turns while building my libraries - it allows me to now run deficit research for quite a while. Back to finishing off Wang - Wonsan

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0008.jpg

it takes some time because he has three archers in there, so I wait until I have 7 axemen ready to attack (all with 2 promotions because I got my first GG, and settled him in Delhi). It's flatlands, so even protective archers aren't that tough on flatlands against CR2 axes. Again, I debating razing, but as you can see it’s one tile from where I marked to be a good city site, so I kept it – again, monarch, I can get away with this, but I’m going to probably have to learn to raze this when I’m ready to move up to emperor. I’m 8 turns from code of laws anyway. And finally, Pyongyang:

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0009.jpg

Again, I decide to keep it – not exactly where I would have placed, but code of laws is close, and I'm organized, so I think I can handle all this - plus it'll actually be pretty good once I tech calendar and IW. So it’s 775 BC, I’ve produced exactly 1 settler, and have 7 cities, and this whole western peninsula to myself – I also stole a total of 4 workers, along with the several I’ve produced, so I think I have 8 or 9 workers right now, but probably will build a couple more, because it's time to right the economy with code of laws, chopped courthouses (yes, I still have more trees to chop), and cottages. I'm still going to be chopping and chopping I think - there's enough health resources to be ok without forests. This is where I stopped round 1. Empire:

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0010.jpg

Sorry that's a bad screenshot - you can't see Seoul up in the north. I was obviously VERY VERY lucky with goody huts, but all those forests and close neighbors, combined with copper in the capital’s BFC, this start screamed chop axemen for about 100 straight turns, which is what I basically did - I felt like I rushed faster than ever though, which was nice - the worker/worker start actually proved very beneficial with all the forests. I managed to fit in a couple libraries, so I’ll start running scientists to keep research ok, but at this point, as long as I tech economy techs, cottage, and fill out my land, it’s going to be difficult to lose. 25 or so axemen got me the equivalent of 5 settlers – I’d say that’s a fair trade of hammers. I only lost 3 total on Shaka, but lost about 13 or so on Wang with his stupid protective trait. Only one more city to think about settling somewhat soon - a super seafood site to the south for more health and food - I can't let anyone else get that site. Then I'll try to backfill 2-3 other sites I identified once my economy is on track. I may also try to get one more city towards Hammy or Pacal, since they'll likely be future targets. I also soon will have stone and marble, and I think I’m going after a wonder next. Considering mids, but may be too late. Also strongly considering Hanging Gardens again with the stone for the free pop in each city.

What’s gone well so far in this game are the goody huts (it almost feels unfair to get the breaks I did in the goody huts – I hope I get those breaks in my first emperor game), and the speed of my rush – the trees and fast workers allowed me to rush faster than I think I ever have, and keep the rush going. I haven’t played India in awhile, but I forgot how much I love fast workers. I have some nice production sites now, so I can potentially go construction for my nice elephants. Looks like this will be a warmonger game for sure - I have plenty of cities and production, and will have great stack composition with horses, ivory and copper. As a bonus, Asoka is well equipped to warmonger with his traits.

@TMIT - could you post your save at the end, or any late game save actually for me? (or any other players who have no prob winning @ monarch+) Like i said in my report i want to compare city placement/nat wonder placement/terrain improvements). I've been reading the forums for awhile and finally decided that playing along and posting will help more than just reading. I think it will help me a lot more being able to directly compare cities.

While i won this one really easily, usually that isn't the case @monarch and i know i need to fix a lot of things before i'd have a chance @emperor.

I did take my time more in this one compared to usual (usually finish in around 5 or 6 hours, this one was over 7) - plus either the pyramids helps way more than i thought (i never build it - but got it in this game due to stone nearby) or settling 1N was a genius move :D that snowballed making this an easy game for me compared to others - i'd imagine i'm around the middle of the monarch pack skill wise... This was the 9th monarch game i've won total after moving up a month or two ago.

Is there a world build thread on here and useful tip on what to do on it?? Trouble is if you look at world builder you know what is to come. Hmmm

It is great to see this series growing.

At times it does make me wonder how many people are really playing a level below what they are capable of. I do think monarch is a highly enjoyable level to play at.

Cant believe so many have taken up this challenge. if i wasnt in the middle of 3-4 games i would of done this.

Part IV, monarch/epic, 1716 - 1854, end:



Techs: communism (Will) - medicine - mil trad - rifling - electricity - radio - mass media - steam power (will) - artillery - railroad - combustion - mil science - assembly line - fascism - industrialism


1752 - Sid's Sushi founded in Mutal.

1796 - Almost ready to declare war on Willem, when I notice he has destroyers. Oversea invasion with galleons/frigates vs destroyers doesn't look very hot, so I change my plan. Willem will be my new best pal and Hammurabi the new target. I hope my continent is enough for domination.

1800 - Switch to free speech and free religion (Willem's fav civic) and Hammurabi drops to pleased (no more shared religion and fav civic).

1810 - The fleet is back and I declare war on Hammurabi. Attack from the south. Varanasi is in a tricky position and I hope to lure Hammurabi's main stack away from my main cities:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0000-22.jpg

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0001-22.jpg

1814 - Hammurabi's stack near Varanasi as predicted:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0002-21.jpg

1818 - Stack destroyed and power ratio up to 1.6.

1822 - Ellasar captured.

1832 - Kutha captured.

1840 - Eshunna captured, over 30 units killed.

1844 - Sippar captured (40ish units).

1846 - UN lost by 2 turns, but this is actually great news. Hammurabi built it, so it's me vs him and at this point Willem is friendly. I win the secretary election in the next turn.

1850 - Dur-Kurigalzu captured.

1854 - And diplo win:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0003-21.jpg

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0004-21.jpg

Demographics:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0005-20.jpg

Power:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0006-20.jpg

Stats:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0007-20.jpg

Score:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0008-18.jpg

Continent:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0009-20.jpg

Techs:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0010-18.jpg

Glance:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0011-19.jpg


UN by Hammurabi was a very fortunate event. If I built it, elections would have been me vs Willem and not enough votes to win. Probably switching back to best-pals mode with Hammurabi was enough to get it anyway. I don't know if the continent was enough for domination.

Key to this game was diplomacy. I was 100% safe from the main opponent on my continent (Hamm) from the beginning of the game and picked my targets at my own leisure. Totally neglected great persons and wonders, but the land was good enough to get a strong lead anyway.

I don't think this game was too easy. A lot of good land to settle/capture, sure, but nothing overpowered.

Now back to the Joao game.

Monarch Epic 775 BC to 1380 AD. Pretty much in the bag now – I probably could finish this as early as any game I’ve ever played if I really focus from here out. Didn’t focus that hard, yet still really easy. Easy map and popping two techs from huts made it easier still.




I left off having finished off both Shaka and Wang. Again, I got extremely lucky with huts in this game, so it feels like a prince game right now. My short term plans are to quickly right my economy with code of laws, calendar, and maybe currency (need iron working too with all the jungles), and then go after construction for elephants. I’m not going to waste any time at this point – I have the size advantage and need to press it once my economy is in ok shape.

After COL, I decide my economy is in ok shape, and I decide to press my advantage. Settle some more cities, I decide to go after 2 wonders with my stone and marble – mids for obvious reasons, and temple of artemis just because it seemed like so few turns. If successful with mids, goal after that would be to get ready to go after my next target with elephants and cats, ideally before they get longbows. Hammurabi seems like the best target for this, since he’s a different religion anyway. Pacal founded hindu and spread it to me, so I decided to convert. I tech down the religious path so I can get org religion, and then head back for alphabet. Once I hit it, Pacal checks in with me – he wants COL for monarchy. I need hereditary rule, and I decide to do it, and then offer him this:

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0000-1.jpg

Yes, trading alphabet, but I need to clear this jungle faster – speed is key to me now – this allows me to go straight to construction for my Hammurabi-killing elephants. Successful wonder:

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0001-1.jpg

And another successful wonder:

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0002-1.jpg

First great person comes while I’m building my military – figure bulbing is not a bad play, so that’s what I do. Philosophy – done. And here’s the beauty of spiritual – I did a quick switch back to slavery, and whipped in all cities, including this – I forgot I was building this, but since it was close, why not finish.

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0004-1.jpg

Yay – better trade routes. Not only that, Seoul is running merchants to generate a great merchant with artemis and GLH. Everything else is producing units. I actually haven’t decided about whether to DOW Pacal or Hammurabi – Pacal is more advanced, and my hindu buddy, but he also has the Hindu and Jewish holy cities. So I think he may be a better target. With my elephants, it shouldn’t be that hard. It’s turn 185, and I check tech – neither of them have longbows, so I need to DOW fast – catch them with their pants down. I decide to go after Hammurabi – it’s the smart play. He’s behind in tech, and worst enemy of Pacal. Once I take him, Pacal is boxed in, and will be easy pickings for my many cities. So my stack sets on its way. First stop – a barb city with 4 workers – awesome!

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0005-1.jpg

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0006-1.jpg

They are now fast workers. 3 elephants, three wins. A few turns to rest…and hello, Hammy – first city, one casualty:

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0007-1.jpg

Healing for a few turns, and then off to his next city. Meanwhile, my first merchant pops in Seoul – he’s off to Mutal for a trade mission. Pacal and Hammy are worst enemies, so I’m having no worries about Pacal being upset with my war against Hammy. Also, Pacal built the Apostolic Palace – with my size, I won the election by myself. That’ll be a nice war bounty later when I take Pacal. And I move quickly to Babylon:

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0009-1.jpg

Great Wall, Chichen Itza, and Scotland Yard – nice shiny wonders. Thanks Hammy. Perfect timing, because 1 turn later:

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0010-1.jpg

That was worth 13 population – a record for me, I think. I decide Seoul will build nothing but wonders from now on – it starts on Sankore. I’m within about 20 turns of liberalism too. My debate now is whether or not to have Hammy capitulate. He’s ready to, but I have so many units I feel like I should just wipe him out – he’s got 18 turns to feudalism, so I figure that’s plenty of time – he has two, maybe three cities left now. He did have some super cities – Babylon is nice and he settled a beautiful cottage city too. Next up, Akkad:

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0011.jpg

I then race back to Dur-Kurzigalu to take it.

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0012.jpg

That pops my great general – my medic spearman:

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0013.jpg

Quick switch back into slavery – I whip in every non-wonder producing city. Will switch back to caste in 5 turns - this is why I like spiritual - constant switching in and out of slavery. Another wonder in Seoul:

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0014.jpg

And, in 790 AD, I forgot to take a screenshot, but I took liberalism. Went Nationalism and start on Taj in Seoul. In 860, I razed Hammy’s last city.

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0015.jpg

Meanwhile, Pacal has been expanding between my two empires. That just won’t do. I need forbidden palace up and running, but he’ll be next – holy cities are nice. Forbidden palace is built – my workers are chopping EVERYWHERE – ridiculous amount of chopping, but with hanging gardens and all the health resources, health cap is sky high, so who needs forests. Barely micromanaging now, just trying to get some infrastructure down while teching to economics. Getting close to ready to turn on Pacal. Even barbs know how to lay down a decent city on this map – deer, cows, and coastal…sure, why not.

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0016.jpg

And…Taj:

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0017.jpg

Beelining rifling now. Time to take Pacal’s nice holy cities. Apparently I also got the economics great merchant – he’s off for another trade mission.

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0018.jpg

Angkor Wat built in Seoul., just because. In 1300, another quick switch to slavery, and whip throughout the empire. Just as I was about to attack, I saw he was building Spiral Minaret in Mutal. Decided he should finish that first, because I have a ton of hindu buildings. So 15 turns until Pacal dies. I guess I can make my 35 unit stack bigger. He’s teching music, and is miles from any semblance of a decent defense.

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0019.jpg

Yay – stack of doom. This is where I cut off for this report. We’re going straight for Chichen Itza and then to Mutal, for Spiral, and a whole bunch of holy city gold. Going to play a few more turns tonight then go to bed, and finish up tomorrow.

this looks like a great map - maybe a bit easy, but still interesting and not at all boring. jumbos maybe an overkill - it's just to easy to conquer with them.
they are, to say the least, insanely game-breakingly powerful
a question to all - does the other continent (with only 2 civs seemingly) tech THAT well in your games too? it's just crazy - 2civs seem to be teching like, if not faster than 5 on the main continent.
i'd suggest mansa+wangkong would be there, but wang was right next to me... so i guess it is mansa+hanni or mansa+betty... and gold gold rivers and FP everywhere :)


2 SingleMalt
great map - gratitude and respect to you for doing this.

did you mannually add stone to AI's caps? it made quite tough to build wonders

2 gcm

i guess you have added stone and/or marble to provide a wonder-hogging alternative to axe rush. am i right?

this looks like a great map - maybe a bit easy, but still interesting and not at all boring. jumbos maybe an overkill - it's just to easy to conquer with them.
they are, to say the least, insanely game-breakingly powerful
a question to all - does the other continent (with only 2 civs seemingly) tech THAT well in your games too? it's just crazy - 2civs seem to be teching like, if not faster than 5 on the main continent.
i'd suggest mansa+wangkong would be there, but wang was right next to me... so i guess it is mansa+hanni or mansa+betty... and gold gold rivers and FP everywhere :)


2 SingleMalt
great map - gratitude and respect to you for doing this.

did you mannually add stone to AI's caps? it made quite tough to build wonders

2 gcm

i guess you have added stone and/or marble to provide a wonder-hogging alternative to axe rush. am i right?


Nanomage, the only change I made was the pink to red on Asoka.:)

hehe, anyways respect goes to you for picking a nice random map :)
it would be quite silly of me express gratitude to RNG :) :bowdown: :badcomp:

Time to give this one a shot! Downed it and just started it. Let's see if I can keep on improving my spygame with this one :)

I'll be replaying this, despite winning a late UN victory. It was one of my sloppiest games I have played:)

I noticed Shaka was around and guess what? He had to die. If there's <ONE> AI I hate having nextdoor, it's this guy.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=200793&stc=1&d=1232386660

There. One question for other players : did Shaka place his cities in the same spots in your games?

Fugazi
No, I have played out the start a few times and he can have up to three or 4 cities by 1500BC. When rushed, his 2 or 3 cities were in a few differing locations

Monarch Epic – 1380 AD to 1635 - domination victory


I declared on Pacal, took Chichen Itza without a fight (no casualties, and also took a border city with no casualties (Calakmul). Then, my main stack is off to Mutal, and my smaller stack is headed to a culture problem near Chichen Itza, Mayapan. Once I take that city and Mutal, cultural pressure should be relieved and I can mow through the rest of his empire. Mayapan was easy – no casualties:

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0000-2.jpg

And Mutal – war booty – wow!

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0002-2.jpg

Check out those wonders - Kashi and Spiral meant about 100 gold per turn for me. Next up, Lakemba.

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0003-2.jpg

Move down to his last couple of big cities, and decide to steal a couple techs from him before I eradicate him. Divine Right…success. Also switched to slavery again for another superwhip all around. Another meeting as I’m mowing down Pacal’s cities:

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0006-2.jpg

She’s way backwards – not even funny. I steal Music & literature from Pacal while finishing him off. I get all his cities on the mainland, and then I see this!

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0008-2.jpg

I don’t even bother – he can capitulate and have his one lousy one-tile city – I’ll probably flip it anyway. Time to finish fast now – that’s my only goal. I have a tech lead, a ridiculous number of cities, so it’s speed time. I’m 4% of the land area from domination, so this shouldn’t take long – Lizzy is the backwards one on the other continent, so I’m going after her ASAP – she’ll capitulate faster. Hit military tradition, switch to slavery, and turn off the sliders. Now this is what I call maximizing spiritual - switch to slavery, and whip - military production!

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0010-2.jpg

All my gold will upgrade everything to cannons, rifles and cavalry, and we’ll be ready to launch. Stack is on its way:

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0009-2.jpg

I didn't have enough galleons - I left behind about 30 rifles. Didn't matter, because two cities and two turns later:

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0011-1.jpg

And, it’s all done:

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0012-1.jpg

Stats below. My second highest score ever (behind my Julius Caesar Earth 18 game), and my fastest finish by far. My next closest finish was in 1726 in a culture game on prince level. This felt like prince level once I got the two free techs. I will say that my start with two workers ended up working out extremely well, because it allowed me to get axes out super fast to get to both Wang and Shaka – once I did that, it was really in the bag, because Seoul was such a powerhouse city right from the start. I hadn’t played spiritual in awhile, and that reminded me why I like it so much – especially with the synergy of organized. I had also forgotten how much I like those fast workers – they really do save turns in the early game, which is huge.

Granted, this was an easy game overall, but I’m thinking it’s time to give it a shot on emperor – after some initial struggles on monarch, I’ve now won 8 out of 9 games (although 5 of those were sushi culture games, which seems to be my specialty). All with different leaders too, it seems like this forum and these various series of games have helped me learn how to use different leader traits, and to have success in the early-mid game, when it’s most critical. Thinking about maybe using a strong leader on emperor as my next game to see how I fare.

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0013-1.jpg

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0014-1.jpg

First of all - great to see so many new people joining in and posting - Welcome to all you guys!

Second - Forgot to post at 1600AD. But... 1887AD Diplo Victory

:trophy: MY FIRST MONARCH WIN! :woohoo:



After playing most of today and then coming back here to read... My diplo win was along the lines of the others - although not quite as tidy as it took a little longer.

Basically I skipped any curassiers/trebs, etc. in the middle ages. I had 2 Great Engineers stored away. The tech race was very neck and neck at around the gunpowder point, but Hammy had started to slip back a little, so I decided it was time to push hard for rifling and then steel. Used the 2 GEng for Replaceable Parts (double barrel bulp!) to help get there. Then I built a massive army first rifles/cavs then cannon. By the time I had my stack - Hammy had caught up and had them too. But not nearly enough.

As in someone else's game, as soon as I had a huge army, Wang just rolled over! Voluntary vassalage! Ok - I've never had *that* happen before, but I wasn't planning on going for him (yet) anyway, so I accepted. This nearly caused problems twice which I'll explain in a minute.

Anyway so I DoW'ed Hammy and swept straight to the east coast and then south. Took almost all of his land - the stuff that Wang didn't get to first anyway! I'll admit that I didn't know that Wang would just jump in as a vassal and go for Hammy too. I thought maybe he'd "devassalize" or something and become a threat. Instead the only threat he was was to get to Hammy's good cities before I did! I had to laugh when Hammy was on the ropes and then Orange Willy jumped into the act too. Don't think he actually got any cities though. This was around 1700 and Hammy was left with one island city. He wouldn't cough up his only tech - railroad - for anything, so I just game him peace.

He had one really good city up north of Babylon (which had some wonders in it) that culture flipped to Pacal shortly after the war was over. I had Wall St. half built in it when it flipped, as it was my highest gold producing city. Well, when one of your cities flips, you've got a huge army sitting around with a lot of promotions and nothing to do... Wang and I looked at each other and then raced to tear into Pacal like a couple of rabid dogs. He'd take a city, then I'd leapfrog him and take the next one. I had to time Pacal's capital just right - one turn later and Wang would have been the proud owner of Broadway, Rock and Roll, The Hindu and Jewish shrines, and all the other goodies the Pac man stashed in his little corner up there. It took about 10 turns from beginning to end before he was banished to 3 little islands out in the sea. Talk about your blitzkriegs... Anyway so I vassalized him. He didn't take it too hard. Not like Hammy - who was furious the rest of the game. It sure makes a difference that -7 diplo penalty for razing a city.

After that it was pretty much back to infrastructure and teching. We all hit Mass Media about the same time. I'd managed to keep good relations with both WvO and Liz, but in my game Liz got to the north part of their wishbone shaped continent first, so she was my competition. Knowing that Wang and Pac's votes were in the bag, I concentrated on keeping WvO sweet. Luckily Liz had a whopping -6 on the "your spies were caught causing trouble" with him, otherwise a Liz/WvO team could've blocked me in the UN. Then it would've been space: "the *only* frontier". I think I could've pulled space out on this one. Production was through the roof due to levees/factories/coal plants, etc. I had aluminum, etc.

Chances are though that I wouldn't have had the patience and would've had to invade WvO, which would have been long and messy and gotten into another day of playing in my least favourite era.

As it was it wasn't necessary. Was this an easy game? Yeah - I think that map was pretty kind to be honest. Funnily enough - I think the biggest difference for me wasn't the resources... Although the stone really helped... it was the rivers! the +1 :commerce: on every nearly early farm/mine/cottage and the + :hammers: after the levee was a real boost. I could delay building roads and use workers for needed tile improvements... Those rivers were huge. Paticularly the :commerce: though. It was like having part of the FIN trait as well as SPI/ORG.

Things I coulda done better? Oh probably a few things, but this was a pretty tidy game for me. I should have seen the pattern developing with Liz as my ultimate competition long before I did. I still have a tendency to let other strong AI's develop too much after an early rush. Now I'm too worried about the diplo thing to prune 'em back a little. I tend to look at war as an all-or-nothing proposal, but it doesn't have to be. Limited wars, etc. aren't a fully developed part of my playbook yet.

But for tonight, it's just time to enjoy the laurels!

http://i347.photobucket.com/albums/p459/gcm4738/monasokaaugceaser0000.jpg

Nice game Mich. Sadly I opened yours and got some spoilers, stupid me. I think our games look 'quite similar', and I hope I can post the results tomorrow.

Ulundi was the only city I let Shaka build. As soon as BW came in I upgraded one of my warriors to an axe and choked him. he built 4 archers, unpromoted, a settler and a worker before I killed him.

Well I was sick so I called into work today. I felt better later in the day and figured I'd give this a go. I'm in the middle of the LHC-Shaka, but I'm kinda bored so I guess that's why I fired this up before finishing.

Anyhow, got my first ever AP win!, in 1704 And on monarch to boot!
I wasn't even THINKING AP...anyhow, here we go:

I decided to settle in place. I'm always paranoid about moving. Tech order was Agg, AH, BW. My warrior found sites with marble, stone, and 2 gold before a friggin' panther killed him. Poor scouting so far, as I only have the southern area of my capital uncovered.

In 3525, we meet Shaka. Great. And I wanted a WIN this time. 3425, worker is in and we start on a new warrior to replace the deceased. 3325, Hammurabi says hi. Another guy I don't like. This isn't looking fun. 3175, I meet Wang Kon. Finally, someone I can trade/techsteal with.

2750-Whaddya know, something I'm sure everyone who played this loved to find, copper in the BFC. Shaka has to die. If you didn't kill him, props I guess, but shame on you. His name was written right there on the copper!

Lucky for me, I'd already mined it, and with the river, it was immediately available. I also had a settler 3 turns from completion, so I'd have 2 cities pumping Shaka-Killers for me. He only had 2 cities when I hit. I hit the cap first and kept it. NO FOOD HERE, but it should become a decent commerce city. I actually razed his second city, thinking it was poorly chosen, and then ended up re-settling right where he'd built it, oops...

I was kinda on auto pilot for awhile, settling cities to the south. Wang and Pacal seemed boxed in, so I just wanted to keep up with Hammy's REX. Mission accomplished after like 9 or 10 cities.

I suddenly realized that Pacal was religion whoring, so I bulbed divine right with a prophet. Founded Islam, but didn't do me any good as you'll see in the screen shots. I also decided he had to go, and I needed his land, so I invaded with maces, phants, and trebs. He was really no problem at all. I now had a funny hourglass shaped empire though.

I wanted to take out Wang, but wouldn't you know the sucker voluntarily vassaled to Hammy? Damn. So I teched in peace for awhile, won lib in 1300s and took nationalism. This is where the game was won for sure. I had MoM, built the Taj and burned a scientist for b2b golden ages. At this point, Wang broke away from Hammy, dunno why. I built a HUGE force, with 3 stacks, ready to take Wang, when he suddenly volutarily vassalled to me. So I turned the forces to Hammy, and then the AP vote comes up.

I noticed both Hammy and Wang voted for me, so I put the war machine on hold and decided I had to get missionaries to Liz and Willem at all costs. Liz was no problem, I had open borders. But Willem was tougher. I had no open borders. This is where all the recent help I've read about diplo came in. I switched to free religion, Willem's fave, and gifted him some techs since he was behind. This however dropped me to pleased with Hammy, since I had been Jewish with him most of the game. So I switched to bureau, his fave...and then in 1704 the vote came up and Hammy and Wang voted for me! Woohoo. I could've won via dom or conquest pretty easily also. But I'd never gotten an AP win before, so what the hell.
http://i625.photobucket.com/albums/tt335/pbwfed/Civ4ScreenShot0000.jpg

Here are the Graphs:

http://i625.photobucket.com/albums/tt335/pbwfed/Civ4ScreenShot0001.jpg

And the Demographics screen:

http://i625.photobucket.com/albums/tt335/pbwfed/Civ4ScreenShot0002.jpg

Despite having Stone, marble, and pretty much all the resources, I didn't build too many wonders. Got a few in the classical era in the capital just to get some GPP going since I didn't settle a specialist farm for quite some time:

http://i625.photobucket.com/albums/tt335/pbwfed/Civ4ScreenShot0003.jpg

I think going AP saved me about an hour in warfare:

http://i625.photobucket.com/albums/tt335/pbwfed/Civ4ScreenShot0004.jpg

I guess going Dom would've gotten a higher score, but I'll take any monarch victories I can get right now:

http://i625.photobucket.com/albums/tt335/pbwfed/Civ4ScreenShot0005.jpg
And the empire at endgame:

http://i625.photobucket.com/albums/tt335/pbwfed/Civ4ScreenShot0007.jpg

http://i625.photobucket.com/albums/tt335/pbwfed/Civ4ScreenShot0008.jpg

I really worked the Confucian and Hindu Shrines I took from Pacal, although my Islamic Shrine was a waste:

http://i625.photobucket.com/albums/tt335/pbwfed/Civ4ScreenShot0009.jpg

http://i625.photobucket.com/albums/tt335/pbwfed/Civ4ScreenShot0010.jpg

http://i625.photobucket.com/albums/tt335/pbwfed/Civ4ScreenShot0011.jpg

Thanks for hosting it was a fun game guys! Finally had a relatively stress free game on monarch! I haven't had access to that many resources in awhile, it was pretty cool. HR was almost a non-factor in my game.

Someone requested saves a while back. I'll try to get whatever I have left (I've been running a couple immortal games since this so no autos) up like tomorrow or wednesday - I've been a little busy lately somehow.

First of all - great to see so many new people joining in and posting - Welcome to all you guys!

Second - Forgot to post at 1600AD. But... 1887AD Diplo Victory

:trophy: MY FIRST MONARCH WIN! :woohoo:

Congrats! Seems fitting since you started the thread to get your first win. The next one is sure to be harder though (only slightly i hope) so hopefully you'll get win #2! Lots of nice examples on how to play this map - different versions of the axe rush, early dominations, and also an AP and some UN victories. Asoka was fun to play - i think it was my first game with this leader. Organized is great, and spiritual and the fast worker were VERY convenient throughout the game to shave off turns here and there.

Since we had to hook up copper and axe rush west fast, and had to go east fast to hook up gold, i loved having that extra movement for the opening turns. I don't mind playing India at all.
Looking forward to the next game.

On playing this game I will have to say the fast worker is one of the best UU's in the game. The amount of worker turns that they save is not even funny.

gcm4738:



You can tell your vassals wich city to attack. If they have a stack ready and your directions make sense, they'll go for it. Of course, don't expect them to do anything if you direct them to some junk city on another continent half-way across the map.

On playing this game I will have to say the fast worker is one of the best UU's in the game. The amount of worker turns that they save is not even funny.

Speed dependent. They're pretty weak on marathon, and extremely strong on normal or quick. I like them a lot though.

Speed dependent. They're pretty weak on marathon, and extremely strong on normal or quick. I like them a lot though.

Fair point, but now that I don't have that marathon crutch to lean on I am happy for any advantage. Still need war practice at epic, as I still tend to build the same numbers of units for war, and don't really have a feel for the appropriate amount on epic yet. Otherwise I'd be attempting emperor at this stage, but I still have too many marathon habits.

gcm4738:



You can tell your vassals wich city to attack. If they have a stack ready and your directions make sense, they'll go for it. Of course, don't expect them to do anything if you direct them to some junk city on another continent half-way across the map.



How does that work then? (BTW I did realise that "Vassal management" was something I knew nothing about after this game, so I've done some other reading and think I understand most of the basics) But what do you do for this? Click on their units like they're your own? Go to a diplo screen and somehow issue orders to them that way?

What other things do you guys do when managing vassals? I did nothing in this game.

One other random question I can't find a complete answer to... Why are some techs "Can't Trade" instead of "Won't Trade". Is this because the AI only got them this round and can't trade 'em till the next round?

So - For those of you guys (and gals) that have gotten into this series, here's where we're at.

Single Malt has offered to host "Monarch Student IV". I believe he's got a Boudica (AGG/CHA) map lined up for us... So SM: Put it up whenever you're ready or that you judge we're ready!

Someone else has already offered another leader/map which we could use for Monarch Student V, but if that falls through, or if you've got another good idea, post it here! Maybe we can talk Ai Shizuka into coming back and doing a round? Or maybe one of you other guys would like to jump in and host a game? Baby we are Automatic For the People here at Monarch Student.

Any thoughts?

I've been noticing lately that anyone who posts screenshots have a different (and obviously more detailed) UI than I do. I was wondering what it is called and where I can find it. I was looking through the mods section without any success.

I'm running BtS, can't recall which version it is currently at.

On the comments on fast workers (in spoilers because it was relevant to my game but gives up details).

The fast worker made all the difference in my epic game in the first 100 turns. They were instrumental in successfully rushing both Shaka and Wang in the first 105 turns of the game. I had produced 21 axemen by then, because I started worker/worker, and both would move to a tree and chop on the same turn. I believe it was the difference between wiping them both out and stagnating on Wang with his protective trait.

First time i play one of these games, here goes

Monarch, Normal up to 50 ad

I usually loose at monarch so I've made a pretty detailed report in hopes that someone can point out any obvious mistakes.

4000 BC - I settle in place, don't want to risk loosing the cow. Building order will be worker then warrior spam until all special tiles are used. Tech will be agri for wheat tile, then BW for some chopping.
http://nerf.dk/images/monarch3/4000bc.JPG

3760 BC - Meets Shaka. I'm considering axe rushing him given all the forest i have.
3720 BC - Meets Wang Kon
3400 BC - Worker done, starts farm on wheat. Cap starts work on warrior. I will probably keep building warriors until both cow, elephant and wheat is worked.
3080 BC - What a stroke of luck. Copper appeared in the tile i was already mining. This definately smells like an oppertunity to work on my axe rush. I think i'll chop out 1 worker and 1 settler in cap before chopping/wiping axes.
2960 BC - Meets Hammurabi and Pacal II. I now have 3 warriors, so i'll chop a axeman while cap grows.
2800 BC - Axeman chopped. I'm farmin the elephant tile. Tech is so slow!
2720 BC - Second Axeman. I change strategy and go worker now when cap is at size 3. This is just horrible planning on my part :)
2440 BC - Third Axeman. After a worker. Will do another axeman, then a settler. Workers are doing pasture on cow and camp on elephant. Tech path has been agri-bw-ah-hunting.
2320 BC - Fourth Axeman and cap grows to 4. Will chop Settler now. One warrior is moving back to fog bust location of second city.
2240 BC - Tech path is wheel-pottery-masonry now. I'm aiming for pyramids with the stones.
2120 BC - Settler has been chopped, now back to axemen. My aim is 8 (i have 4 now).
2040 BC - 2 new axemen are chopped, 1 worker moving to 2nd city.
2000 BC - Bombay founded right by the two gold tiles with stone and rice in BFC.
http://nerf.dk/images/monarch3/2000bc.JPG
1960 BC - 8th Axeman chopped, i'll move towards Shaka now. Work in cap continues with Axemen.
http://nerf.dk/images/monarch3/1960bc.JPG
1720 BC - I cross Shaka's borders only to find his second city on top of hills :( will move for his capital.
1680 BC - This is almost too good. His capital is only defended by 2 archers. Unless 3-4 archers magically appear i would say this is a sure win.
1640 BC - He whiped a third archer like expected. 3 archers vs 8 axemen should be good odds.. and so it was. Lost 3 axemen. And oh look, what a nice bonus. Ulundi has 2 mined gold tiles in BFC.
http://nerf.dk/images/monarch3/1640bc.JPG
1400 BC - Shakas second city proves to be a pain. It kills off 6 of my axemen leaving a single archer with strength 0.1 left for defense.
1360 BC - My last two axemen succesfully kills the last archer thanks to a city raider upgrade/heal. Shaka is no more. Looking at the world i can see that Hammurabi has taken a massive lead in points. I will focus on infrastructure now.
http://nerf.dk/images/monarch3/1360bc.JPG
1280 BC - Second settler is done. Heading south to claim marble. At this point i'm basically waiting for bombay's borders to expand so i can quary the stones and start chopping the pyramids. I just hope i'm not too late, the early war has set me back some (but should pay off in the long run)
1000 BC - Stones are connected, pyramids in construction. 2 workers head back to start chopping. Math is done in 1 turn so great timing for once :)
875 BC - Judaism spreads to my lands. Brilliant! This will help me stay on good terms with Hammurabi. The two Shaka cities has so far just whiped out monuments.
http://nerf.dk/images/monarch3/875bc.JPG
My civilization so far:
http://nerf.dk/images/monarch3/875bc2.JPG
700 BC - Pyramids completed. Going representation. I have gained a small lead over Hammurabi on points. Still behind in tech I assume.
http://nerf.dk/images/monarch3/700bc.JPG
475 BC - 4th settler build. Settling way down south.
350 BC - 6th city settled. -6 gold per turn now with science at 60%. Should probably stop expanding now :)
50 BC - Metal Casting finally. Yes it was an error on my part not to prioritize this higher. Project whip forges has begun!. My relations to Hammurabi and Wang Kon is good (+6 and +3) but my relations with Pacal II is at -5. I'm not sure how militaristic Pacal II is (does expansive trait make him more aggressive?) but i can probably expect a declaration of war from him any time soon. Perhaps i'll start making an army to beat him to it? yes that's what i'll do. I'll whip some forges and then start production of swordmen. I'll tech construction now for seige. There will be no Pacal III ! In other news i pop'ed a great scientist so it's time to figure out what my SSC will be. My choice falls on Shakas 2nd because of an abundance of grassland, gems, 2x dye, and both rice and cows to keep it growing. I use the GS to create the acadamy here.
50 AD - Pacal II declares war like i predicted. Unfortunately i'm not done with my forges, and with no army to speak off this puts me in a pretty situation.
http://nerf.dk/images/monarch3/50ad.JPG

And here i saved..

Thoughts so far: I had a decent start. My axe rush, although poorly planned, worked out great. I had just enough axemen to finish of Shaka. A made a few mistakes in tech aswell. Prioritizing iron working before Metal Casting for instance, and starting work on Hanging Gardens I Delhi.
My economics has recovered just fine so I could probably build a few more cities now. Unfortunately Pacal II has forced me to focus on building an army for the time being.
The war with Pacal II was inevitable and predictable, I was just hoping I could postpone it a few more rounds until i had forges in place to start pumping out units. I'm left with a situation where i can risk it and still continue forge constructions or simply go axemen spamming now.
I have a solid lead in points amongst my known rivals by now, but I believe I'm yet to meet two very strong rivals. In a "most powerful civilizaions" i came in third behind two unknown civilizations :/
I think my strategy with Pacal II will be fend him off and make peace at the first possible opportunity, then go back to expansion/infrastructure.

Gcm, to direct your vassals open the talking head, "let's discuss something else", select "Why don't you attack..." and pick a city.

Same to redirect their research: "We would like you to research..." and select the tech.


About the next game, a couple things. I really like the idea of different hosts for new installments. I'm full back into Civ mode again, so I can easily submit a new game, but if Single Malt has a good map ready, we should definitely use it.
Interestingly enough, I was thinking about an Agg leader for the next game. And the candidates was Genghis, Alex and Boudica.

But I think we should wait a few more days. This one started 3 days ago...maybe thursday or friday, so more people have the time to finish this one.


weevil:

I would settle a couple more cities toward Hammurabi when you are done with Pacal. Hamm can grow quite powerful on this map.
You have the Pyramids, so you can keep your research afloat with specialists.

Gcm, to direct your vassals open the talking head, "let's discuss something else", select "Why don't you attack..." and pick a city.

Same to redirect their research: "We would like you to research..." and select the tech.


About the next game, a couple things. I really like the idea of different hosts for new installments. I'm full back into Civ mode again, so I can easily submit a new game, but if Single Malt has a good map ready, we should definitely use it.
Interestingly enough, I was thinking about an Agg leader for the next game. And the candidates was Genghis, Alex and Boudica.

But I think we should wait a few more days. This one started 3 days ago...maybe thursday or friday, so more people have the time to finish this one.

Ai - Ok - Thanks on the vassal thing.

And about Monarch Student IV and V - I agree with you totally. I'd give this one a few more days. I know I could use a break atm! Need to go back and read some strategy articles and posts to consolidate some of the stuff I've observed/learned/struggled with over the last few games!

Single Malt can put up IV in a few days - maybe ready for the weekend or something. I think it's another fractal. Maybe you can reach into your bag of tricks and pull out another leader (and maybe map type?) for V after IV's run its course. I'd be happy with that! In fact I'm looking forward to stepping back for a couple of games and just playing.

I'll leave IV to Single Malt and V up to you!

So, in the course of things, here's what happened:
- Attacked Hammy, and in two separate wars wiped him out
- Pacal and Wang voluntarily vassalized to me
- At this point I focused on infrastructure, building up what used to be Hammy's cities and improving mine
- Could have gone for a cheap diplo (my 50% pop plus vassals) but decided not to
- Also started prepping an invasion force to go after Elizabeth, who had gotten on my nerves. That ended up not happening until Infantry/Artillery, so my finish date for domination wasn't great
- Another reason my date was slower is that I didn't finish lizzy off like I probably should have, once I was within like .7% of victory I stopped and just pumped culture until I won.

Anyway, here's some final shots!

http://www.trynthlas.com/civ/MS3-Asoka/victory.jpg

http://www.trynthlas.com/civ/MS3-Asoka/final-graphs.jpg

http://www.trynthlas.com/civ/MS3-Asoka/final-demogs.jpg

http://www.trynthlas.com/civ/MS3-Asoka/final-score.jpg

Go with Kublai lets learn to use that Creative trait a bit better

weevil:
I would settle a couple more cities toward Hammurabi when you are done with Pacal. Hamm can grow quite powerful on this map.
You have the Pyramids, so you can keep your research afloat with specialists.


I've had the same thought. The land between me and ham is just not very appealing. Mostly desert/plains. But i guess i could sqeeze in a decent city or two.

I won a domination somewhere in the 1700's. After taking Shaka and later on Wang Kon, I raced to rifling while enduring a few wars with Hammurabi that he started. I beat him back everytime and once my main army was ready, I wiped him out. What follows are boats, a stupid invasion just to claim enough cities to win and tada. This game was 'rather easy', though a careless player might get overwhelmed by Shaka or Hammurabi.

Of note is that my techrate sucked and I'm not all together sure why. I should've perhaps used the whip harder to get all the necessary infrastructure up and running faster, especially in newly conquered area.

I'm looking forward to the next game. Hopefully we can get a leader that ain't as popular and does not have organised or financial as one or both of his/her traits :)

its me that have an map waiting ... is a rather interesting Rangar map :P

PART II
Monarch, Normal up to 1100 ad


50 AD - I decide to continue building my forges. I'll just whip out a few axes if Pacal II crosses my border. Whipping Hanging Gardens.
75 AD - Two archers and a scout is at my borders. No need for alarm.
175 AD - I send a single axeman to scout out what kind of army Pacal II has. The two archers has been dealt with.
225 AD - The axeman scout encounters a swordman + chariot stack. So he has horses, my axeman should watch out :( By now we are pumping out 115 beakers thanks to specialists. Research is going great with 4 turns for the most expensive techs. Have done mediation and priesthood for monastery and temples. Now going for literature for GL. Should probably look at pop'ing a great engineer for that.
275 AD - My axeman scout kills the chariot and swordsman in defense! (on forested hills). Tales will be told of this brave warrior for generations!
425 AD - Litterature researched. Pyramids + Hanging Gardens + Engineer in cap will shortly pop a GE.
475 AD - GE born! Off to hurry GL
500 AD - GL hurried and my axeman scout died to a charriot. A ham has been sent to his widow. Meanwhile Wang Kon has closed Pacal II off. Unless they have open borders i doubt I'll be seeing much to Pacal II. This suits me fine as i can focus on expanding into the last land between Ham and me.
860 AD - Expansion is coming along nicely. Like predicted i have not seen anything to Pacal.
1090 AD - Education done. Started constructing universities to get Oxford. Going for Liberalism for a free tech (hopefully). I've settle a couple of cities towards Ham and have a decent landmass on the continent. I build a small army (2x swordsman and 3x catapult) to take out a barb city down south but Wang Kon took it literally 2 turns before i reached it. Oh well too bad, i missed out on a pretty good city. The army will be ordered north to do some herasement (will need to add at least one war elephant for his chariots tho).

And here i saved..

My thoughts:
Right now I think I've build me a small tech lead and still have excellent relations with my two neighbors. Perhaps i should try a diplo victory :) (never done that before). My plan is to keep expanding (still have room for a city or two within my borders) all the while start exploring for the other leaders. My plan is not to wage war until i have cavalry, my experience on normal speed tells me it's really not worth starting a war at knights because they will basically be obsolete before you have assembled your army.

My Empire so far :
http://nerf.dk/images/monarch3/1100ad.JPG

Power graph (Ham is catching up :() :
http://nerf.dk/images/monarch3/1100adpower.JPG

I'll put Boudica up in a few days. This is still ongoing, and the LHC Shaka too. Funny, now that I have started on Monarch I am winning the LHC games too, at monarch. Before I couldn't even win at noble level:).

Ragnar is not allowed we dont play Fin that trait sucks

Assassin, traits don't matter that much. Its all about going through the civs/leaders available. Why do you dislike FIN so much?

There are, as i see two opinions on the Fin trait
1. - Fin is rubbish and we don't play this garbage
2. - Fin is overpowered and we don't want to play that easy.
In both cases, we don't play them :)
i'd advise pericles for next round, however...
and i'm still to play to the end and post this one :(

its me that have an map waiting ... is a rather interesting Rangar map :P

Hi Sian - Yeah it was you I was referring to when I said we might have another map ready. But since Ai Shizuka decided to come back and put another game up, let's just see what happens with IV and V.

So, as I see it we've got agreement that:

Monarch Student IV: Hosted by Single Malt - Boudica/Fractal - up in a few days.
Monarch Student V: Hosted by Ai Shizuka - ?Leader/?Map Type - whenever IV is looking done.

I trust Ai Shizuka to come up with a leader/map in the original spirit of "Monarch Student" since it was him that came up with the guidelines in the first place!

Remember that when it started, we just thought it was going to be me and him playing "Monarch Student" and we agreed that 1) FIN was overpowered and 2) Praetorians were overpowered. We were looking for an "honest" win - whatever that means.

That being said, we didn't have any idea that it was going to keep going like this. Now that I'm over the hump of my first win on Monarch, what I'm enjoying is: 1) continuing to play the series and share amongst ourselves what we're doing and how we're doing and 2) Playing leaders I wouldn't normally choose for myself.

So after IV and V finish - If we're all still around wanted to do VI we can figure out what leader we want then.

@SM
Fin is boring just +1C on tiles with +2C how boring can that be

I have a nice map with Pericles where I hope we can try the MC/P gambit you want me to host it ?

To 1500AD Epic

I DoWed Shaka left him as OCC then built up hit Wang Kon he capped then went for Pacal
Mutal had about 10 wonders + Hindu shrine
Met other continent Lizzy gotten way too big and both are behind
Going to cap Hammy,Lizzy and Willy and win this one map was so easy
I took Steel from Lib

I've been noticing lately that anyone who posts screenshots have a different (and obviously more detailed) UI than I do. I was wondering what it is called and where I can find it. I was looking through the mods section without any success.

I'm running BtS, can't recall which version it is currently at.

I second that request for more info on the advanced UI. I don't feel like trawling through all the mods trying to find that exact one. Any guidance greatly appreciated!

BUG Mod 3.5

Sorry guys - I had seen the question but forgot to answer it. assass1n's right it's the "Bug" Mod. You can find it here...

http://civ4bug.sourceforge.net/

It adds a lot of useful info and functionality to the UI. I don't even know all the features. I'm still getting used to it as I only downloaded it a few weeks ago.

I also highly recommend the "Blue Marble" terrain mod - which is fairly easy to find in these forums.

Depending on your equipment, I think these mods can slow things down a bit. Or so I've heard people say. I've built this PC to eat Crysis alive, so I don't really worry much about Civ or its mods. Although I will say that it appears there's some sort of memory leak in them as sometimes after a long session - particularly in the late game it takes waaaayyy too long to select large stacks of units. This goes away if I save/quit Civ/restart Civ.

I disagree about FIN being overpowered. ORG or SPI are far better traits. Even CHA. I just find that my games are no different, regardless of whether I plat FIN or not. Give me SPI or CHA ang I will usually have a bigger empire, and bring in more commerce than a FIN leader. FIN is a trait that benefits the ai more than a human.

I'm not going to argue with you SM - in Mon Stu I, I said Spiritual was weak and got my head chewed off! I'm just explaining the original logic behind the "guidelines" that we set up for the series.

In any case, I'm up for any leader at this point. Everyone's got their own opinions on overpowered traits, UU's or whatever. If I really had to think about it, I would say that it's more useful to talk about leaders being overpowered. The combination of their 2 traits, UU and UB. And really then to be truly overpowered you'd have to throw in the map too. i.e. Willem on panagea might not be the same as Willem on archipelago...

And getting back to my Spiritual is weak comment - It also gets down to the person playing. My playing style doesn't suit a spiritual leader as well as some other traits. I have to work a little harder to try and take advantage of it.

I'm starting up a Boudica game today to get ready for IV! I'm thinking that, amongst other things, this oughta be a perfect game to finally get that Woodsman III/Medic III Supermedic unit!

that's an eternal question about either Fin is over or not. I also consider Spi and Org far superior, but Fin too has its paragons.
It's dependant on gameplay and terrain, i suppose - with a huge amount of rivers and love for cottages/mills i may suppose it would overweigh Org at some point.

See we had that debate and the eventual conclusion was that Org saves a ton of cash earlier in the game and lets you run Vass/Paci very effectively where you can warmonger like crazy with PS/Vass/CS/Pacifism
but after you have those Cottages up Fin pays for itself and the best leader is Darius with those Immortals :D
Conquer early with Org helping you along Conquer later with Fin
Also if nobody noticed I have a nice map for Pericles

anyhow it's no point in such an arguement now
and yes, pericles for MSV!

Boudica is ready to go, so say when:)

Boudica is ready to go, so say when:)

You gotta itchay trigger finger Chief? :cowboy:

Wait for 5 days more please too many games to complete
LHC XXVI ,XXVII NC XIX, MS IV

I always like to suggest the weekend, since that's when I usually get my most significant civ time, but I'm actually hoping to get some time to start my first emperor game tonight, so I might be ok with waiting a few days as well. If I can get around to starting that emperor game tonight, I may post it here to get some pointers, which would give people another game to shadow if interested.

I'd say wait for the week-end.

I was thinking weekend too, as the gf is away:)

First crack:

Part I
4000 BC:
Took default start spot. Revealed ivory to north and wheat to east within fat cross. Lots of chop fodder, good deal. Hut popped a scout. Luxury rich with marble to the southeast; decided to push towards founding Hinduism. Lots of jungle north seems to suggest settling to the south is best course of action.

Tech: Polytheism - Agriculture - Wheel - Bronze - Masonry - Pottery - Writing - Animal Husb. - Archery - Meditation

3520 BC:
Hinduism founded in capitol; converted.

2920 BC: Met Shaka...ug. Shaka seems to be an immediate neighbor and found his second city placed near the dye resource north along the river.
2880 BC: Met Wang Kon.
2840 BC: Met Pacal II.
2680 BC: Met Hammurabi.

2280 BC: Copper found 2N of capitol; sweet, already put a mine->road there.
2080 BC: Founded Bombay 4S 3E of capitol to take advantage of the Marble. Already hit my first blunder, should have hit masonry up earlier. Building of Temple of Artemis already started in Delhi.

2040 BC: Hinduism spreads to Wang Kon, he coverts. I need to get Shaka in my religious corner quick.

1400 BC: Hinduism spreads to Shaka on its own - whew, he converts. Need to establish open borders and spam him. Hammurabi founded Judaism, Pacal founded Buddhism.

1320 BC: Temple of Artemis finished in Delhi.


Part II
Techs: Iron Working - Fishing - Horseback Riding - Sailing - Priesthood - Aesthetics - Alphabet - Currency - Monotheism - Feudalism

975 BC: Founded third city 3S 2W of Delhi. Three food resources in fat cross, looking like a decent GP farm. Took this site over 1S 4W also to avoid pissing off Shaka for as long as possible. Time to start crankin a few Axeman out, been concentrating a bit much on infrastructure to this point. At this point the fog has lifted on Shaka's second city due to my culture - it's all Archers. Looks like he just settled 1N 7W of Delhi, close to that copper there, he'll get it soon.

725 BC: Iron pops within Bombay; good deal. Great Merchant pops out of Delhi, going to send it to scout out Shaka.

500 BC: Ok, Hammurabi's pissed, but he's not on my doorstep, Shaka is, I'm keeping my open borders deal, thx.

325 BC: Founded fourth city 1N 5E of Delhi. Doesn't appear like there's any iron or horses for Shaka domestically, so he'll have to trade for it if he wants any. He's pleased towards me so all seems good on that front. Looks like a struggle with Hammy is a matter of time, but I think I can get Shaka to pitch in.

100 AD: Captured Barb. city east of my second city, decided to keep it as it was right on top of some silk and had cows as well.

275: Another Merchant pops; chaching.

400: Settled 6th city 7S 7E of Delhi. Gain control of the iron out there (could probably trade it with Shaka, or see if Wang needs it) and should be able to sustain some decent production. The two Great Merchants have helped me take the hit in terms of upkeep and keep chugging with research at about a -20g/turn deficit. Finshed the Statue of Zeus a turn or two ago.

450: Finished Parthenon in Delhi. I'm now starting to run into Hammy a bit, the barb city I captured is pretty close, and he settled a new city just to the south of said city.

900: Ap.Palace built, Pacal only option. Good thing, I voted for him, patched relations and opened borders. Hammy still pissed.

980: Great Artist pops in Delhi, the barb city I capped is getting squeezed a bit now so I'm going to plop it there.

Part III
1030: Shaka wants to trade dye for my extra Iron. I think I want to keep him docile.

1120: Hammy's empire is huge but I'm now ahead in tech. Thinking a space victory might be the way to go, as long as I can keep sufficient muscle up so that he isn't tempted to attack.

1350: Wang built Sankore one turn before me. A good payday anyway, I'll be able to sink that back into research.

1370: Popped Great Prophet. Built Hindu building.

1390: Met van Oranje. At the bottom of the scorelist. We trade world maps and I get a peek at the MASSIVE English empire. This game might require a few plays to get right, if I go tech I think the Brits will likely beat me there. I doubt at this point a military victory is plausable, and far too late to try thinking about a cultural victory. Maybe I need to beeline to the UN and start greasing palms?

1460: Maybe my idea to keep Shaka's army blunt backfired, looks like he found a different source for that Iron. I should have traded him.

1505: Looks like Wang-Shaka relations have hit a low point and Wang wants me to help with the invasion. I'm not going to take sides for now and keep close tabs on how the war's going, I may land grab later when Shaka's army is a bit softer.

1560: Shaka wants iron again, he must have been getting it from Wang. No way Jose, this may be it for him.

1580: Starting the Mass Media beeline.

1635: Wang-Shaka war went nowhere.

1670: Discovered Sci Method, popped Oil offshore...nuts. Oil for Shaka as well.

1690: Shaka invades me. I might make it....but this could screw me.

1720: War going well enough. Shaka met my giant stack of knights and got stuffed. Uranium pops 1W of Delhi. After moving to Free Religion, Hammy is all cool with me, opened borders. After the war is over I need to spam some Hindu religion around to earn some extra cash. My siege engine is nowhere near ready to invade Shaka back so I think we'll have to draw.

1775: Shaka got his hands on rifles. He won't talk to me, this is going to complicate things.

1795: He'll talk now, gave him a tech for peace. Looks like moving to free religion, while getting Hammy off my back, killed the afterglow for Shaka.

1822: Shaka and Wang are at it again. Thats more of a fair fight. 5 turns away from mass media.

1842: The above war is at a stalemate, work underway on the UN.

I'm going to start a second game on this. I think my current situation is not winnable.

Schetter:


I think in crowded continents like this one you have to carefully pick your side and stick to it.

In this scenario, Hammurabi and Wang are the most reasonable options. They don't declare war at pleased and have good favorite civics.

Trying to please Shaka is pointless, unless you push him to friendly. You are NOT safe from him at pleased, and you are the one blocking him in his corner.
Pacal is a jerk but he's not a factor on this map.
Not saying you MUST axe rush Shaka but, imo, trying to make him your bff is somewhat pointless.

Wag is known to be one of the most coward AI and likely to spontaneously offer his vassalization, so pushing him to friendly may pay off nicely.

Cheers Ai, just getting back into Civ after a long stint away and these kinds of games combined with the ability to collaborate are terribly fun. Will take that into consideration on the restarts - on my third whack on this one.

I've found the axe rush on Shaka is a tough road to hoe if Shaka lands his second city right on top of the copper that pops to the west. In my third try here I made sure to occupy that area with my second city so Shaka is tame at least for a little while, and I'll deal with him later on, hopefully before he can trade for Iron or Copper and starts crankin out impis.

Yeah - The weekend sounds good.

@michmbk - If you want to bang out an Emperor game between then and now - post the it here along with the save. I'd like to shadow that one!


I've played a few starts now with Boudica, and they've seemed a little... slow. Just having a hard time getting 3 decent cities up and going with a settler ready for iron in a decent amount of time.

I think I've gotten too used to EXP or IMP or other things that give cheap workers, settlers, etc. I'm getting caught up getting cheap barracks and the monuments (or SH) up and beelining those Gallic warriors and falling behind early. Not really sure why it seems slow. I'll have to think about what I'm doing (or not doing).

Heh - I did have one start though where I rushed Roosevelt, got a GGen and had a Combat I/Guerrilla I/Woodsman I, II/Medic I, II, III (I think he had Shock as well) Gallic warrior who was 5 XP away from Woodsman III! Definitely going to get that supermedic this game.

@gcm
promote Gallics down Guerilla line and see them withdraw like crazy

@schetter

ARush Shaka isnt hard he hasnt got copper near him and you can wipe him out easily by 1k BC and Delhi can crank out Axes like crazy due to all those hills with irrigated corn/wheat whatever it is and cows

These monarch student games can be played at emperor too as the emperor ai doesn't get any extra units or techs afaik

I've never posted in these kind of threads but felt like now is a good time to start :)

I started this game on monarch because I had failed with a couple of emperor games before this. I've won on monarch before but after a 6 months of not playing civ I thought I have to re-evaluate my skill level.
I settled in place and teched all teched aggricalture and animal husbandry. After that I built my first setler while teching towards bronze working - most of you already know where this is going :D
http://i445.photobucket.com/albums/qq175/Greep/alku.jpg?t=1232617758
This is how things looked before my axe rush... After this I just chopped as many Axes as fast as I could in order to take out shaka. When I had about 8 axes built I went for the city Shaka built on top of the copper. The war was rather easy cause shaka hadn't had the time to connect the copper to his capital and so didn't have any units better than archers.
http://s445.photobucket.com/albums/qq175/Greep/?action=view&current=Axerush.jpg
So as you can see now Shaka was cornered and I only had to finnish him. Shakas capital was a bit hard to conquer but after like 5 dead axemen it finally fell and I didn't have to worry about shaka anymore.
After this I started to expand and at the same time went pretty straight to construction. The Phants are comming! When I finally got to construction my empire was already rather large:
http://i445.photobucket.com/albums/qq175/Greep/0AD.jpg?t=1232618214

After that all I built were catapults and elephats and in 145AD the war against Korea started. I should have done much better in this war but because of my un-organized attack the war dragged on far too long. Finally in 825AD the koreans were no more and my empire was looking good
http://i445.photobucket.com/albums/qq175/Greep/elephants.jpg?t=1232618199
From here on I went for the liberalism race and won it and chose economic as the free tech in order to get a great mechant wich I then used to bulb Banking. Next I beelined straight to rifling and while doing that I adapted to Mercantalism, Vasalage, theocracy and police state. When I finally got to rifling I already had 35 trebuchets ready and was more than ready to take on Pascal and Hamurabi. After about 25 rifles I started the war in 1450AD. In 1535 the whole Babylonian empire was mine and Pascal was my vasal. Actually pascal only had on city left which was on the iland east to our continent. After this I wanted to tech pretty straightly to Infantrys in order to attack Elizabeth on the other continent and secure a Domination victory. When I had my galleons full of infantry(upgraded from my rifles) and trebutchets I got the message that I had won a Domination victory. So my cultural borders had expanded and that was enought to give the victory.

So after 7 hours I had won a domination victory in the year 1710
So thanks for a fun game which unfortunataly was a bit too easy. Maybe I'll need to tackle my next game on emperor...

finally! i did it! just a few hours to finish the game and 4 days to find those hours
here's the report:
to 1375 - domination

elephant war against koreans ended with a treaty to extort smth, do not remember what. i started another one after 10 turns and buried him: 440AD
201096
pacal had longs by then and i elepulted hammy instead.
(he was so nice to build 'mids and SoZ for me) it was a long war, and i researched to longs and maces in process.
201097
860 AD -hammy
next was pacal, naturally. phants wouldn't go (he had pikes) so i switched to vass+theo and amassed some maces
201098
along with warring i was emploing my settled Gspy and SY in cap to steal the paacal's tech lead. i made peace with pacal and Dowed him again several times to extort and steal techs. his tech lead was eliminated the same day as himself.
by that time i found betty and willem. and lost lib race (to beth).
(bah. what? - education? we don't need no education neither. lets research gunpowder instead!)
Awesome - they have teched to parity with me, while they were 2 in continent! But the were weak.
i swapped to FR to please lizzy and attacked willem, weighing in my head whether willem caps first of beth vassals voluntarily.

willem won:
201102
201103
201104
pre-industrial victory, first time for me.
i guess i should play boudicea on Emp

and please, let's start boudica today! we russians have so little time on weekends ;)

finally! i did it! just a few hours to finish the game and 4 days to find those hours
here's the report:
to 1375 - domination

and please, let's start boudica today! we russians have so little time on weekends ;)

By the look of this report I'd say you're ready to try Emperor... 1375?! I hope a few try Emperor so i can learn a little bit from those games - i recently tried moving up and it seems like harder than prince -> monarch was. Economy seems a little harder to manage, and the barbs are significantly worse. (maybe i might try fitting great wall into my strat..) I'm tempted to try MS IV on Emperor but i think it'd just spoil it for me when i get stomped and have to restart and play it out on Monarch...

Is Monarch Student IV planned to be posted for this weekend? Looking forward to the Boudica game - never played her either. She recently backstabbed me in game, so i'm looking forward to getting my revenge on her by playing her poorly in MS IV!

By the look of this report I'd say you're ready to try Emperor... 1375?! I hope a few try Emperor so i can learn a little bit from those games - i recently tried moving up and it seems like harder than prince -> monarch was. Economy seems a little harder to manage, and the barbs are significantly worse. (maybe i might try fitting great wall into my strat..) I'm tempted to try MS IV on Emperor but i think it'd just spoil it for me when i get stomped and have to restart and play it out on Monarch...

Is Monarch Student IV planned to be posted for this weekend? Looking forward to the Boudica game - never played her either. She recently backstabbed me in game, so i'm looking forward to getting my revenge on her by playing her poorly in MS IV!

:D:lol::D:lol:

By the look of this report I'd say you're ready to try Emperor... 1375?! I hope a few try Emperor so i can learn a little bit from those games - i recently tried moving up and it seems like harder than prince -> monarch was...

I may try emperor - I'm sort of holding my own on the "creative trait - Washington - emperor" game right now. Actually, I'm not doing that well, but it's a tough game and I'm not dead, so we'll count that as something. Maybe a few other will try emp as well. Sadly, you learn far more from losing than you ever do from a win. Maybe the best way to be a "monarch student" is to get beat on emp

Just as long as this one doesn't have Shaka in it. I am sooooo tired of that guy.

MSIV Boudica (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=307638) is up.

Cool - Thanks for that Single Malt.

To The End: Diplomatic Victory 1885 AD

Hammy had become huge so I took 3 cities including Babylon and took peace then teched to MM and capped Hammy after Peace expired and won Diplo with Willem helping as Lizzy DoWed him thrice and I jut kept declaring for MMS
No screenies as I am getting black coloured screenshot

1720 Domination Victory

Ok after the initial rush I had a period of peaceful building, and I built a stack of medieval units to smash the Hindu Pacal II. All the while I built cuirassiers and directed my EPs towards Wang Kon.
http://i390.photobucket.com/albums/oo348/photobucketgm/Monarch%20Student%20Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0220.jpg

I then set my sights on Babylonia
http://i390.photobucket.com/albums/oo348/photobucketgm/Monarch%20Student%20Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0221.jpg

I accepted Hammurabi's capitulation once I kicked him out of the continent. I captured a barbarian city, but it seems our starting continent was enough to trigger Domination.

The chart says it all :
http://i390.photobucket.com/albums/oo348/photobucketgm/Monarch%20Student%20Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0224.jpg

And the final score (my highest so far) :eek: :
http://i390.photobucket.com/albums/oo348/photobucketgm/Monarch%20Student%20Asoka/Civ4ScreenShot0225.jpg

Looking forward to play MS IV ! And kudos to the other students :goodjob:

my first post yay!

teched bw and got a hut for roads. settled in place went worker first. first thing i did was mine the bronze then chop ten axes. r.i.p monty. settled a city by the two fish and made that my h.e. city. backfilled all the rest. first spot just north of that i made that my IR city. workshopped the plains mined hills and farmed the grassland.

couldnt rly find a good gp, farm never had one all game. went pure cottage + production in most citys.

soon as i got mace and trebs i made a sod and declared on the korean folk. me, wang and pac r all budhist buds btw. hammy is christian. after i kill wang i win lib race and start teching to rifles. got a decent stack and wiped out hammy, but the dude had the palace which wasnt that bad but i found it funny that he declared on pac took a city and then used the palace to make peace right after. pac had rifles against his elephants,maceman.. but for some reason pac doesnt like making troops.

After hammy died i techd to infantry + artillery with tanks incoming. had a substantial tech lead, build all the happy wonder like rock and roll, broadway, got the dam, pentagon, hollywood.

Met the english and dutch as well. they had as much as 17 gold per turn to trade for extra resources i had. when they wanted tecs i kicked them down, they were so far behind anyway.

Finally after artillery and assembly line i made my final army consisting of about 8 cavarly 40 infanty 20 artillery and tanks, as soon as i had the teck. made battleships to patrol seas and had two sod wiping pac out. he had two one tile island cities, i let him cap when that's all he had left. holy smoly did he have wonders galore.

well, i didnt think my island was enough to get a dom win so i built the u.n. cuzz i was friendly with both english and dutch. i turned slider to 80% just enough to give me positive gold with free speech and while i was waiting for u.n. to build Bam! dom victory. it was kinda late tho, like 1895. Probably woulda been fast if i played epic speed, but i didnt know how to change it :(