Welcome to the new MS game, this time we play the Chairman Mao.
Average traits, good starting techs, interesting UU and boring UB.
The leader:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0000-65.jpg

The UU is a crossbow replacement with an extra first strike and collateral damage:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0001-62.jpg

The UB is a theatre with a +25% :culture: bonus:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0002-62.jpg

The start:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0003-60.jpg

Barbs, events and huts are enabled, so play custom scenario and disable them if you wish. EDIT: you can disable barbs and events only.
Let me know if the WB save has problems.

You can't disable huts via custom scenario. Well, you can, but it doesn't do anything. To get rid of them requires (easy) WB editing.

I probably won't bother with that stuff though. Signing in.

Where's the food? Oh well. At least we get flood plains. I'm thinking AH ----> BW and then either archers or pottery depending on nearby resources. Edit: of course getting mysticism sooner if we need a border pop.

Oh right, huts are generated with the map.

Average traits? Well, they're not the very worst, but let's be honest, he's one of the weaker leaders.

I'll sign in for this one too. I'm in the middle of a Monarch game with Justinian, but I'm getting bored with it. I never even got to use Cataphracts. :(

I've been shadowing a few of the recent games to get my skills back after a year hiatus from Civ. I might try a low # of cities with either a EE/CE diplo or culture win. Very dependent on the neighbors, but we do have good cottage spam territory with the fp and expansive offsets the :yuck: a bit.

Emporer diff / epic

edit: also looks like coast to the east, so I might scout a turn or two before settling and hope for seafood.

cas

Yes, I think he's one of the worst as well, but didn't want to foment another "who's the worst" debate right from the start :lol: .

My game to 10 AD, epic speed, Emperor:



techs: ah - myst (hut) - masonry - wheel - pottery - writing - fishing - alpha - IW - sailing - currency - math (stolen) - CoL - hunting and meditation (Joao) - poly (Bis) - priesthood (gift from Joao) - archery (stolen)

4000 - settled in place

3825 - hut 75 gold

3800 - first AI is Joao

3650 - hostile hut

3625 - warrior dead to hostile villagers

3175 - mysticism from hut

2600 - Shangai, future Moai. Now I'm asking myself why I didn't settle 1 W. Oh well:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0000-66.jpg

2200 - GW done:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0001-63.jpg

1800 - Guangzhou:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0002-63.jpg

1475 - Nanjing, to block southern land for two extra cities:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0003-61.jpg

410 - Mehmed shows himself via workboat.

395 - GSpy settled.

350 - Lame event with Joao:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0004-59.jpg

305 - Pointy hat Bismarck is the next AI.

155 - Mathematics stolen from Joao.

125 - Convert to Christianity on Joao's demand. He's pleased now, but I'm Mehmed's worst enemy.

80 - Priesthood succesfully begged from Joao. Thanks.

5 - Archery stolen from Joao.


Empire at 10 AD, with future city plan. I think I'll use the NE clam/cow city as a ghetto GP farm:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0005-58.jpg

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0006-59.jpg

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0007-58.jpg

Techs:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0008-53.jpg

Diplo:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0009-55.jpg

I'm focusing my EPoints on Joao now, to steal more techs.

Emperor/Normal

- Workers automated from 4000 BC on
- Governor always on
- No Events

To 1 AD

Settled in place, was deliberating a couple moves actually, like north for hammers or whatever but I just plopped down ultimately.

At first I play like Qin

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/Monarch%20student%20mao/Civ4ScreenShot0000.jpg

I settle the NW copper site, then work to block Joao.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/Monarch%20student%20mao/Civ4ScreenShot0001.jpg

Like so.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/Monarch%20student%20mao/Civ4ScreenShot0002.jpg

Confucianism

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/Monarch%20student%20mao/Civ4ScreenShot0003.jpg

I spread it to Joao and I get into HR shortly after to get him to pleased. I'd been building archers to defend myself prior to that but he never went for it. Not a lot of room but I will kill Joao after milking the tech trades from him.

To 1922 AD Diplomation

I just backfilled more cities, meandered toward lib and got it.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/Monarch%20student%20mao/Civ4ScreenShot0004.jpg

Focus some EP on Joao, crank some cuirassers from workshop hammers. He goes the military science route. Did you guys know? Even grenadiers kind of suck vs cuirassers if you use spies to kill D.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/Monarch%20student%20mao/Civ4ScreenShot0005.jpg

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/Monarch%20student%20mao/Civ4ScreenShot0006.jpg

No surprise caps

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/Monarch%20student%20mao/Civ4ScreenShot0007.jpg

I take all his mainland cities. Joao was actually pretty tech-strong since I trade whored with him at friendly, and he took 1 of khan's cities and settled 2 cities on a tiny island. I took peace, and instantly resumed trade cheese

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/Monarch%20student%20mao/Civ4ScreenShot0008.jpg

I refuse a demand from GK because I intend to attack him. I was a little surprised at his idiocy.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/Monarch%20student%20mao/Civ4ScreenShot0009.jpg

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/Monarch%20student%20mao/Civ4ScreenShot0010.jpg

That...still has all his units on it :lol:. He had a lone galleon flee after everything else was sunk.

I head his way, and see his navy in port. Of course I launch an amphibious attack then.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/Monarch%20student%20mao/Civ4ScreenShot0011.jpg

After doing that I drop the survivors into the city and try to heal there. GK slams a couple sets of units there but I still had my GG cavalry in the group too, and we all know how double digit protective infantry fare against pre-industrial troops...

I was mounting another invasion on him, but to my surprise...

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/Monarch%20student%20mao/Civ4ScreenShot0012.jpg

Ok. Louis was headed culture, but not too close yet. I decided since Toku attacked and capped bismark that I'd go for toku, who was close to but lacking assembly line. I kill a lot of units early in the war:

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/Monarch%20student%20mao/Civ4ScreenShot0013.jpg

But even after tremendous headway, the ugly bull shift cap mechanics rear their head:

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/Monarch%20student%20mao/Civ4ScreenShot0014.jpg

Like hell you are moron, die.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/Monarch%20student%20mao/Civ4ScreenShot0015.jpg

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/Monarch%20student%20mao/Civ4ScreenShot0016.jpg

After Biz caps, toku finally does. It was tempting to finish him off, but domination would have been a pain against advanced louis (though I could have insta-burnt his coastal culture crap) or mehmed. Mehmed had built the UN, but as you can see it didn't matter who did.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/Monarch%20student%20mao/1922UN0000.jpg

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk134/themelnteam/Monarch%20student%20mao/stats0000.jpg

@ Ai Shizuka

You're not blocking/settling enough cities again :(. The copper city makes sense, but why not block more land against one of the game's fastest REX guys with cities 3 and 4? On normal with auto workers I was able to do it, so I'm guessing it would be easier on epic with micro if you prioritized it!

I won't be surprised if a lot of players just axe him off the map, which is also viable.

Okay, this is my first time to ever post one of my games on this forum, so any comments from the veterans are appreciated.

Monarch-Epic to 10 AD:

Decided to settle in place, teched AH->BW->Wheel. My warrior explores to the west and finds this guy before the first border pop.
http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/8617/joaomn3.jpg
I decide right then that I'm probably going to axe rush, since I don't feel like trying to out-REX Joao. Meanwhile, where is/are his scouting unit(s)? I took a goody hut from right next to him and went on to take all the others on the continent (I assume, since I never saw him exploring around) for one scout and a total of 304 gold.

I settle 上海 next to the copper, and it's going to work Beijing's cows at least for the time being since Beijing has plenty of farmable land.
http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/3605/firstcityit9.jpg

After that, I just get another worker or two and chop/whip up some axes. This should get us started.
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8836/downz5.jpg
中国加油！ Think I caught him by surprise?
http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/5918/onearcherne9.jpg
Of course he whips up another archer the next turn, but it doesn't matter. I attack across the river, and my first axe actually defeats the fortified archer while my second loses to the new archer, and the third takes the city.

I decided to raze it because I wanted it 1N to work the gold and make room for another eventual city to the south. But I still get two workers for my trouble by cutting off their retreat (they had been pasturing the cows). 前进 to Lisbon!
http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/269/lisbonti9.jpg
I find three archers defending Lisbon and just smash right through them. On the same turn, the single axeman I had sent to scout the city to the north finds it also defended by a single archer so he attacks at ~60% odds and wins. Joao 死了. That was about the easiest axe rush ever. What had he been doing all this time?

So now with the continent to myself, it's time to REX. Rushing was a little risky because I didn't know if that was going to leave me isolated, but thankfully I meet a work boat pretty soon.
http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/1846/mehmedue9.jpg
Not that I'm ever happy to see Mehmed, but at least I know that the land I can see to the west leads somewhere. Pretty soon after that I meet Tokugawa, and he settles the land I can see, so I guess he's my closest neighbor. He founds Confucianism and it spreads to me, so I adopt it even though it pisses off Mehmed because I don't think I've ever tried to get Toku friendly, so that could be interesting, if not the optimal way to play. He's a terrible trading partner, so my tech situation is pretty bad. Here's my empire at 10 AD:
North
http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/2761/northhe0.jpg
And South
http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/782/southgl9.jpg
9 cities with room for two or three more. Happiness is an issue, and looking at it, I think I really should be teching Monarchy right now instead of Mathematics. I also have a small barb galley problem that needs addressing. I'd love a more useful trait than Protective about now (and my UU isn't likely to see any action), but overall I like my situation. I've got my own big continent but I'm not isolated, and I'm hoping Mehmed and Toku will bang heads while I peacefully tech for the next dozen centuries or so. I've gotten Toku to pleased and open borders, so I should get a work boat through his territory and see if there's anyone else over there, because I highly doubt he has open borders with anyone but me. 不错。 :cool:

Monarch - Epic - To 10 AD

This round was all about sacrificing the present for the future.

I settled in place, I'm not crazy about the starting location, but it isn't terrible. My warrior scouted around, picking up hunting and some gold from huts. He revealed that we're on a relatively small island with one of the best REXers in the game, that's going to get old fast.

I researched AH and BW, then got a settler out to claim the north west copper. Joao has to go, and fast, so I settled with copper in the first ring. Then I started pumping out axes. By the time I was ready to go around 1500 BC, Joao had settled 2 cities, although they were lightly guarded.

I had a stack of 4 axes to take his southern city, and my main stack of 10 axes and some warriors to take his northern city on the way to the capital. His southern city was in a good location, guarded by 2 archers. I took it with no losses, but it autorazed. I sent those axes up to the meeting place at the capital. The northern city was guarded by a single archer and in a crappy location, so I razed it with no losses as well.

The combination of extra targets and slow axes led to a very well defended capital. By the time my entire stack got there Joao had whipped a wall and had 6 or 7 archers. Thankfully my axes got the job done. I had extremely good luck for the entire war, losing nothing on the first 2 cities, and whenever I didn't kill an archer I dropped him to very little health. Anyway, no more Joao, so I get the island to myself.

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/JoaoDead0000.jpg

His capital is an excellent GP farm with super corn and 2 seafood. Too bad he didn't build any wonders with his stone.

Very soon after that I got the extra health random event. I contemplated not taking it since we're already expansive, and a reduced happy cap would really hurt rebuilding after a rush, but I took it. I figure you can't pass on that event when you get it. Unfortunately, this event really hurts short term.
I struggled along for a while, getting a few more settlers out and killing some barbs.

Here's my situation at 10 AD, the herbalist unhappiness faded a few turns ago, so I'm getting back to full strength:

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/MSVII10AD0000.jpg

There is a lot of cottage-able land there, Guangzhou and Beijing especially. Shanghai was just to get copper, but the gold makes it valuable short term.

And the Southern lands:

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/MSVII10ADSouth0000.jpg

Mehmed sneaked a settler in there the same turn that I settled Nanjing. He can have that marginal city as long as I get the marble. I think its safe because of the last game I played. I couldn't take a resource in the same position with Zara against a non-creative civ thanks to the inner ring mechanics.

The barbs settled Chinook perfectly, so I'll get another axe or 2 down there to take it before Mehmed beats me to an actually good location. Besides that, I see 2 more city sites, 1E of the bottom silk, and north east of Beijing claiming the 2 food outside the capitals BFC.

Recovering after the initial expansion is my biggest weakness, so the next 1000 years will be a big test of my skill, with my economy extra bad at 10 AD. Techs are very bad as expected, but that's less concerning. I can get a few with aesthetics. Then hopefully I can pull even with philo and education, and then blow by the AI's with extra land.

Mehmed and Toku are Confucian, but not the founder, which means that there is another AI in work boat range. This also most likely means that the 3 early religions were founded far away. Hopefully we get some religious wars over there, since I predict a Confucian lovefest until steel on this side.

Settle in place
Grow to two then build worker with extra hammer with Exp hopefully we have Iron I want to try CKNs

Played until 1000AD:

First thing I did was get the marble hooked up as I was building a lot of wonders. The wonder pace of this game is incredibly slow, I doubt there are any industrious civs. I got the ToA, Parthenon, the GLH, the GLib and I think something else after 400 AD without even trying for them. That was the good news, the bad news is that Toku is a worthless waste of space.

As of 1000 AD I still haven't gotten Confucianism spread to me, or met anyone besides Mehmed and Toku. I can't go searching myself because Toku has me blocked off, and I can't open borders without getting his religion first. I'm really praying for the religion to spread, I have trade routes with Mehmed, so I figure its only a matter of time, any religious civic would be a big boost. That combined with Mehmed being the tech leader (I couldn't trade anything until civil service) has basically made this an isolated start. Thankfully, he's researching everything other than the lib line, so unless there is a less advanced civ beelining it, I should be able to get it, and take the most expensive tech that Mehmed doesn't have and get to parity.

As far as righting the economy, I took it down a little farther by getting the cities I outlined before. The wonders helped my economy out a lot. Closing borders with Mehmed might cut my research in half off of TRE alone. I was going to use my first GS for philo, but since everyone had it already, I built an academy. I got a great merchant in my GS farm at ~3% thanks to the GLH, but I settled him for some needed gold, letting me run the slider higher. My next 2 GS's bulbed philo and most of education right before I stopped. CoL and currency helped my economy, but civil service made the biggest splash. I was able to trade that for HR, calendar, and some gold. Two techs that I should have gotten a long time ago, but this gets rid of my happiness problems, and Bureaucracy is a huge boost.

Here's the tech situation, I'm pretty far behind, but not so hopeless that liberalism can't save me. A monopoly on paper is good news.

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/MSVIITechs1000AD0000.jpg

Toku and Mehmed are both messing with me. They've been in and out of WHEOOH 3 or 4 times each. I'm hoping its another civ somewhere, since either could run me over easily. I got to pleased with Mehmed thanks to a food shortage random event, but he is still preparing on someone from before that. Again, getting Confucianism would solve everything. Sadly the window for using CKN's is long gone, but I think I'm going to kill Toku one way or another strictly out of spite. Hopefully I can get a win here.

Played to 40 AD, emperor/epic:


The axe rush is probably optimal strategy here, even too easy. It's also possible to block the whole southern part from Joao by one city. The AIs don't settle behind your borders even if you open borders until later by galleys.

203799
203800
203801

Blocking left Joao to play three city challenge. Mehmed is in WHEOOHRN and it's very likely me. :mad:

Continuing from my last post to 1000 AD:

My workboat explores west and finds Bismark in 100 AD, and at the risk of angering my friend Tokugawa, I make a couple of trades.
http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/6977/100asb5.jpg
Adding Hunting or Monotheism would have been more fair, but whatever, I really needed Monarchy. I also get a happiness resource from him (Spices for Gold.)
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/7509/100cep4.jpg
No negative diplo from Toku from that (yet), but I notice that Mehmed now has something on his hands. He likes me the least, but I'm not concerned, because with Toku in the way he can't reach me until Astronomy (and when has the AI ever landed a meaningful force with Galleys anyway?).

Later, I make another uneven trade with Bismarck, but Calendar lets me hook up dye and silk. I build the Parthenon and Great Library around this time, and my research is starting to pick up.
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/5594/595yv4.jpg

685 AD- Philosophy nets me Taoism, and I make the switch to Pacifism.
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/63/685bo1.jpg

In 760 I get a visit from Mehmed.
http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/5378/760tj8.jpg
Oh no, really? Well come back when you have more than one, not to mention a way to get them here.

Shortly after that in 790, Tokugawa declares on Bismarck. Pretty soon he asks me to cancel my deals, and I go along with that because I've decided to be Toku's friend this game.

In 820 I get the Horse Whispering quest, which requires 7 stables (I have 0).

In 835 I fail the Horse Whispering quest.

Sometime around here I get a Great Artist from Music and start the Sistine Chapel. I almost never go for a cultural victory, but it certainly seems like an option here with my own continent and China's UB. I'll have to decide soon.

Two centuries after starting the war, Toku asks me to get involved.
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/3711/990vf9.jpg
Sure, I'll fight a fake war for you, buddy. Maybe since we're friends we can help each other out by trading a few techs or resources, too.
http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/589/990bqo8.jpg
Oh, okay. :( He's at +8 diplo, but I guess I'll have to keep working at it. I will get Tokugawa to like me.

The power graph in 1000 AD.
http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/9769/1000anz1.jpg

And the tech situation.
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/3152/1000bvp9.jpg

Obviously I have a lot of techs to backfill (how did I overlook Currency for so long?), but it's also obvious that none of these guys are going to beat me to Liberalism. There are still two more civs out there, though, and for all I know they're Mansa and Huayna, so it's far from a sure thing.

Tokugawa has taken two of Bismarck's cities, and I'm a little concerned about a vassalization if things keep going the way the are. Mehmed could presumably help out his Hindu buddy, but he seems content to just sit there for centuries with something on his hands. In any case, the main decision I have to make going forward is whether to go for the cultural victory or follow my usual plan and go for domination.

To 1907AD


Head for Machinary from Oracle, settle the 2 golds + seafood,

http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/oo214/KingMorgan1/Civ4ScreenShot0074-1.jpg


next city is blocking Joao. he still settles 2 south before my border pop.

http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/oo214/KingMorgan1/Civ4ScreenShot0075-1.jpg

http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/oo214/KingMorgan1/Civ4ScreenShot0076-1.jpg

I spy Japanese, great, just great.

http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/oo214/KingMorgan1/Civ4ScreenShot0077-1.jpg

I miss oracle for machinary by ONE yes 1 turn.

Manually research it, + CS on route to Lib. Have vast stack of Cho Nos, + couple maces

http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/oo214/KingMorgan1/Civ4ScreenShot0078-1.jpg

Joao has archers guarding his cities, :lol: He does have 9 in his capital, easy GG points imo.

http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/oo214/KingMorgan1/Civ4ScreenShot0079-1.jpg

http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/oo214/KingMorgan1/Civ4ScreenShot0080-1.jpg

Nice of him to build the 'Mids and other wonders for us.

Basically long story short, conqued the Japanese with Rifles upgraded/drafted after a quick steel beline. Meggers vassals peacefully. Head to Mass Media after Artillery. Upgrade Rilfles to infantry, take Berlin. Bismark caps. Build UN (GE rushed) win Diplomactic.

http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/oo214/KingMorgan1/Civ4ScreenShot0093-1.jpg

TMiT:


Eh, I know. I guess I'm a bit afraid to over-expand on Emperor.
And the GW is probably a waste of hammers/time on this map. Actually this time I built it mainly for the GSpy, but probably a couple settlers was a better investment.



Axe rush should be easy. Actually, I hope the game doesn't become TOO easy for the axe-rushers.
But then, if the closest target is 20 tiles away: "Game too easy, so much land to settle".
If he's close: "2 early capitals, game too easy". :lol:







Fei Kelei:


Befriending Toku can pay off nicely. He's not the best trading partner ever :rolleyes: , but he's an excellent attack dog. Usually backward, so you have the techs to bribe him. And usually he hates everyone.
Just be sure not to make everyone else hate YOU.

And he signs defensive pacts at pleased.

To 660 AD Monarch/Epic :cry:

Actually I wanted to move up but couldn't as I forgot to change the level :D


I settled Beijing here
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/9022/civ4screenshot0001fk3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Then wanted to rush but forgot that it's not in first ring and I need mysticism for monuments costing me I think approximately 600 years
http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/5835/civ4screenshot0002qf7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Think will move palace here while making Beijing Military
http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/4916/civ4screenshot0003cs5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Finally got rid of Joao and settled this
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/5189/civ4screenshot0004dq9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Joao's city it sucks 1 tile from coast but saved me a settler
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/5637/civ4screenshot0005ls2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Tech Board
http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/1995/civ4screenshot0006jt9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
I have a 60xp Swordsman and a 23xp Warrior and Lisbon has a settled Military Instructor so the next one I am building academy with him in Lisbon

1000-1500 AD:

1060- Just as I suspected, Tokugawa takes another German city and Bismarck capitulates.
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/8258/1060up3.jpg

In 1190, the Sistine Chapel and University of Sankore complete on the same turn. It's at this point that I decide on a culture victory, because it just makes too much sense given these conditions. I'm off to a late start on it, so I get to work on spreading my three religions around (I got lucky and Christianity spread to one of my cities) and building temples for the cathedrals. My three culture cities are going to be Beijing, Shanghai, and Lisbon.

Also around this time, I make my very first trades with Tokugawa (maybe ever :D). I don't remember for what.

1220- I win the Liberalism race, take Nationalism, but I build a few other buildings in Shanghai before it starts on the Taj Mahal, since no one else seemed to be close to Nationalism (again, I could have gotten burned by one of the civs I haven't met). I revolt to Free Speech.

1295- Tokugawa declares on Mehmed next.

1345- Toku asks me to join him, and I'm happy to (fake) help again.

1375- My caravel heading west meets Louis' heading east. He's the founder of Buddhism and kind of backwards, but I get a couple of old techs off of him.
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/3521/1375ni0.jpg
I trade for his map and find out that his neighbor is Genghis Khan, who I meet the next turn. That trade also gives me the circumnavigation win.

1400- Tokugawa finally goes to Friendly status, thanks to Mercantilism and our second shared war.

1420- Taj Mahal completes in Shanghai.
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/7200/1420tw9.jpg
A few turns later I pop a Great Scientist when I had been going for a Great Artist, but it's okay because I can burn him to double my golden age.

1425- Mehmed capitulates and Tokugawa is now the master of his continent.

I spend the 15th century in a long golden age, building culture buildings in my three important cities and temples and protective muskets everywhere else. Here's the tech picture in 1500:
http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/8400/1500ia4.jpg

As far as power rating, I'm about the same strength as Toku's two vassals, however, with him Friendly and Louis and Genghis without Astronomy, I have nothing to worry about for the time being. Plus, I'm 7 turns away from Rifling, at which point my power rating is going to skyrocket as I crank out the Protective rifles.

My strategy is pretty obvious: do whatever it takes to keep Toku friendly. He's pleased with Genghis despite different religions (that hidden warmonger respect, right?), so I can afford to trade with Genghis, but he's cautious with Louis and I'm guessing that's going to drop to annoyed, so I'm being cold to Louis as well. As things look now, this should be a fairly straightforward path to a culture win, but plans can always go wrong.

To 1855 cultural victory:

1575- Genghis Khan declares on Louis and apparently bribes Tokugawa to join him even though Toku is 9 turns from Astronomy. I join in another fake war for the diplo. Poor Louis.
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/2813/1580dt1.jpg

1660- Genghis takes Paris. He's way more powerful than Louis, and I expect a capitulation any turn now. Meanwhile, of course, I'm proceeding unmolested toward a culture win, so it's all kind of pointless.

Here's the important part: Toku at +20.
http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/6206/1690zo7.jpg

So can I trade you something for one of those four spices?
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/4279/1690bbi8.jpg
Of course not. And he's not giving up that world map, either. He must have found something really secret :rolleyes:

1708- This is overkill, but I'll take it.
http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/7271/1708sb7.jpg

1718- Genghis makes peace with Louis with no capitulation. Weird.

1748- Tokugawa offers a Defensive Pact.
http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/4876/1748vb8.jpg
Hell yes. Barring a diplomatic fallout with Toku (which would take real talent at this point), about the only thing that could conceivably spoil my win would be a massive invasion by Genghis, and I just made that way more unlikely.

1755- Notice anything strange about this screenshot?
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/1488/1755gt8.jpg
That's right, Tokugawa likes everybody.

Around this time I'm at that point in the culture game where you have to decide when to shut everything down and sprint to the finish. I decide to go ahead and tech to sushi because Biology is going to be quite helpful for my three artist farms, and I have a Great Merchant lying around that I got from Economics.

1802- I finish researching Medicine on the same turn that Shanghai completes the Statue of Liberty. Now it's definitely time to shut things down.

Hey, best friend, can you spare some fish?
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/4184/1816sn5.jpg
Boy, it's a good thing my feelings don't get hurt easily. *sniff*

1832- Genghis declares on Louis, Toku joins in, and I start my fourth fake war just for the heck of it. It's all irrelevant at this point.

1846- Louis capitulates to Genghis. Interestingly, Bismarck sent quite an invasion force down there and managed to take a city before this happened.

1852- Beijing reaches Legendary culture first, and on the same turn a GA pops in Lisbon, which I use to get it to Legendary. Just three more turns for Shanghai.

1855- And there it is.
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/7707/1855gn1.jpg

I'm sure a better player could have won it much earlier with these conditions, but I think I did okay for a guy with virtually no experience in culture victories. They're definitely not the highest-scoring way to win:
http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/8650/scoreqn6.jpg

But a win is a win, and a culture victory definitely calls for a celebratory song:

东方红，太阳升，
中国出了个毛泽东。
他为人民谋幸福，
呼尔嗨哟，他是人民大救星！

毛主席，爱人民，
他是我们的带路人，
为了建设新中国，
呼尔嗨哟，领导我们向前进！

共产党，像太阳，
照到哪里哪里亮。
哪里有了共产党，
呼尔嗨哟，哪里人民得解放！

(Props to anyone who recognizes this.)

Emperor/epic, 10 AD - 1752 AD:




techs: CoL - MC - calendar (Meh) - machinery - monarchy (Bis) - CS - paper - construction (Joao) - education - feudalism, philo, mono (Meh) - eng, theo and hbr (Joao) - aesthetics (Bis) - liberalism + printing press - guilds (Meh) - gunpowder - chemistry - nationalism, drama, literature, compass (Bis) - rep parts and music (Toku) - steel - economics and optics (Louis) - rifling - steam power - sci meth (GK) - astro (GK) - researching railroad

70 - Switch to NSR, Joao still pleased.

340 - Meet Toku.

340 - GS builds academy in capital.

480 - Xian:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0000-67.jpg

1000 - Barb uprising in 1000 AD? They never entered my borders. The first killed my warrior on that SE hill, the other 3 did nothing. Just sitting there, waiting for my spear to kill them (healing between kills).

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0001-64.jpg

1210 - I get Printing Press from Lib. Joao built the Taj Mahal a couple centuries ago and I don't need nationhood at this point.

1220 - DoW Joao:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0002-64.jpg

1230 - Revolt and Coimbra captured. Parthenon inside.

1260 - Revolt and Guimaraes captured. Joao's main stack killed and a few wonders:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0003-62.jpg

1295 - Oporto razed.

1315 - Braga captured and cease fire.

1365 - DoW again.

1370 - Leiria auto-razed (new city founded to replace Oporto).

1375 - AP forces peace. Already defied the first time a few turns ago and I can't deal with more unhappiness. Stupid Toku voted to stop the war and it passed by 4 votes.

1385 - Genghis is the first post-astro AI.

1460 - 470 gold extorted from Joao.

1485 - Bis can be bribed by Joao, so I adopt Hinduism and Nationhood to make him friendly. Then I notice he is not running is fav civic and is still plesed.

1520 - DoW vs Joao again.

1525 - And Bismarck is bribed vs me as predicted.

1535 - Revolt and Lisbon captured:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0004-60.jpg

1540 - Last AI is Louis.

1550 - GM starts golden age and I keep Bis busy on his continent:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0005-59.jpg

1565 - Lagos captured.

1590 - Joao vassal to Louis, so I'm at war with him as well now.

1595 - Joao is dead:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0007-59.jpg

1605 - Peace with Bis.

1615 - Louis gave me the chance to capture this garbage. 2 unclaimed tiles and he still had to settle it:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0008-54.jpg

And peace with Louis.

1675 - GA sleeps, another GP is coming in 6 turns.

1704 - Ruins event:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0006-60.jpg

1714 - GM+GA start golden age.

1736 - Another GM from Xian. Will found Sushi.

Empire at 1752. I'll have to resettle that razed city, after all. There are 4 mature cottages to work:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0009-56.jpg

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0010-45.jpg

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0011-44.jpg

Tech board isn't bad, considering I was running at 0% science at some stages of the war vs Joao. Sadly, the people with something to trade don't want to trade with me.

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0012-38.jpg

Diplo is a mess. People keep adopting stupid religions and switching out of their fav civics. Luckily everyone hates Bismarck:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0013-34.jpg

Future plans: catch up with the new land and go on a vassalization spree with marines. I'm heading to combustion now, to build a modern fleet. Then, straight to Industrialism and spamming marines everywhere.

Monarch - Epic - 1000-1500AD

Early in this round I finally got my religion:

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/Finally0000.jpg

The combination of OR and sharing a religion with everyone was a big boost as expected. I met Bis the same turn. As anticipated, he's the Confucian founder. What I didn't anticipate was that he's been warring with Toku and Mehmed the entire time. He's hopelessly backwards from it, but he actually held his own militarily, and Toku eventually wussed out and voluntarily vassaled to Mehmed.

First thing I did was press on towards lib. I got education done in a few turns, and got lib with no problem, taking nationalism. You can always count on the AI to ignore this line:

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/MSVIITechsPostLib0000.jpg

I backfilled some big techs off of Mehmed, also getting a map. The map reveals that Mongolia and France are the 2 other nations, I think Mongolia is bashing France in though, as there was a lot of GG's born in Mongolian cities. This got me to WFYABTA with Mehmed, which was very surprising since I didn't take any cheap techs, plus I've only traded with him twice for I think 6 techs. He must be in the anti-Musa WFYABTA club with Toku.

That wasn't a huge deal though, because soon after lib I finished the Taj, and my economy skyrocketed. My cottages in my first cities are starting to mature, and now I have an entire secondary wave of them boosted by emancipation that should give me a huge boost when I switch into FEUSS or whatever. I popped a GA in Lisbon at a 5% chance, which was fine since I was using that GP for a chained golden age no matter what. Lisbon has gotten killed on GS luck, at 97%, 90%, 90% and 85% for each GS, I've gotten only 1, which was used to bulb education. Not really a huge deal because the merchants are arguably better post lib, but the odds are funny to look at.

The golden ages were a huge boost to my economy, I grew all of my cities a lot, and got universities and other expensive buildings up in most cities. Pulling in 500bpt at 1500AD, I feel I'm in solid position for the future. I got a GPro in Beijing from all the wonders, I'll combine that with whatever GP comes out from my farm for another golden age to do a mass civic switch.

As far as bizarre situations go, Toku is the tech leader. :confused: He has PP on Mehmed and all the other techs thanks to being his vassal. I don't have enough of a tech lead to get him with rifles since my cities aren't great production wise. I figure an assembly line beeline may be required. If I can get rid of Toku and Mehmed, the game is won. I haven't met the other continent yet, but if any of them have gunpowder or paper I'll be surprised.

Here's the current tech situation:

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/MSVIITechs1500AD0000.jpg

I can research everything there in 1 or 2 turns except for economics and astronomy. At some point I'll have to detour down the astronomy line, but I have no motivation to do so for now. I would rather sit at pleased/friendly with the Confu club than have to deal with a crazy, full continent heathen Mongolian.

And here is the city overview:

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/MSVIICityOverview0000.jpg

Beijing is my current powerhouse thanks to Bureaucracy, but thanks to some other cities actually contributing beakers, I'm not as dependent on it as I usually am. Xian and Chinook especially are full of hamlets and villages. And will be forces soon. The only major problem I see is no real production outside of the capital. I may have to workshop over some cities that aren't completely specialized yet.

Played until ~1868

This round was all war. I continued teching towards assembly line while massing trebs. Once I finally got to AL, I started building infantry in all cities while teching towards steel. Once steel was in I upgraded the trebs to cannons and got a few ironclads for coast protection. It took a few more turns to get enough troops ready to go, but then Toku was the unlucky target. He really should have helped me more when I needed him...

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/ByeToku0000.jpg

He really had no chance from the beginning. He was in a war with Bis, and had very few troops in general. His two cities closest to me were each guarded by a samurai and longbowman. He got some rifles up by the time I got to his big cities, but a few rifles aren't going to stop infantry. His capital was a decent surprise with wonders, he easily outpaced the wonder hogs. He also got the Colossos and Hagia Sophia in other cities.

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/Kyoto0000.jpg

I should've razed Tokyo because its useless because of the culture pressure, but either way, Toku's gone.

From there I took a short break to heal, and then it was on to Bis. He was really pressing the culture in the big Japanese cities, plus he's pretty backwards, along with taking up a lot of land.

My stack was still very much intact, and I easily took the cities closest to the Japanese land before moving onto his big 3 cities.

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/BisNorth0000.jpg

During this attack my reinforcements arrived to take Bis's southern cities:

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/SecondaryStack0000.jpg

Somewhere in here, St. Augustine gives us some shocking news, were finally Mao the Glorious for something:

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/PowerRank0000.jpg

My forces finally take Munich, the Confucian holy city. I opened up the city to see how much money the shrine is raking in:

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/Munich0000.jpg

Apparently, Bis thought it would be a good idea to shrine the Taoist holy city to get 4 gpt, instead of the Confu holy city, which was spread to every city in 4 empires. Gotta love the AI.

Bis is down to only his capital left. My troops converge, and a stack of ~100 units takes down his 5 rifles to wipe him off the map.

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/Berlin0000.jpg

I was wrong when I assumed that there was no industrious civs in the game, but 2 of them getting bashed in from the start leads to a similar result either way. the MoM is useless now unless I get 3 more GPs that I need, but at least I don't have to fight against the SoZ anymore.

The first city I took in the war had Hinduism in it, which turns out to be the AP religion. I'm not sure if Louis could pull off a cheap AP win or not, he still needed to get the religion to Mehmed, but I wasn't in the mood to take chances. I bought a bunch of Hindu missionaries and spammed them around, so now i can easily block any resolution I want.

I stopped there, I have enough infantry for Mehmed, but I need to restock my siege weapons. Artillery is in in 6 turns, and it looks to be necessary because Mehmed is the only person in the world close to me in tech. He doesn't have AL yet, but he already built Broadway, and is teching very fast. I'll probably run into tanks by the time he's done.

Here are the victory conditions:

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/MSVIIVConditions0000.jpg

No threats at all, this game is definitely in hand. The only questionable thing is if I'll have to invade the other continent or not. Chances are I'll have to take a city or two off of Louis or GK to get the job done once Mehmed falls. GK has had enough on his hands for some 300 years now, but he doesn't even have the technology to reach me. Although it would be funny to see his ships go up against my destroyers.

Emperor Epic to 5 BC. Something really weird happened in my game - to my benefit, but I still can't fully understand it. I can speculate what happened, but it was really strange.



I think this is my second Chinese game on BTS, and the other was back when I was still at prince level, so I imagine this will be far different. In that game I vividly remember beelining machinery and abusing cathy, alex and ragnar with cho-ko-nus. Fun stuff. Hoping for an opportunity for similar abuse here.

The start – well, sure looks like this is what bureaucracy was made for. Tempted to move 1S for the hope of even more FPs, but there’s enough food in place to just put cottages everywhere, so that’s the plan. Start with a warrior until size 2, then switch to worker to get the hammer bonus – I think that usually gets both out within a turn or two of when the worker would have arrived had I started worker first. Start AH, then BW, then went toward pottery to get those cottages going fast. A lot of gold on this map – already found three gold mines. Two are unfortunately right next to this guy:

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

Yuck – he annoys me to no end and is awfully close – I’m already considering early rush. He has a great capital too, it appears, with stone, corn and crab. Pop this from a hut.

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

Why couldn’t that have been wheel or BW. Nice, but not a gamebreaker like one of those would have been. Also got gold, experience, and a map. Joao must have land to the west he’s exploring, because I got all these huts right east of him. Bears are everywhere – I keep having to evade them. Hit AH and BW, and there’s both horses and copper, but horses are far away and copper locations are a bit mediocre. Rush would be awfully difficult I suspect. Here's where something weird happened with Joao though – he still hadn’t settled a second city by the time I had scouted a fair amount of land – I wonder if his settler might have been eaten by animals or something - you'll see why as this writeup develops.

I saw an opportunity out of this – I could really aggressively get some settlers out, and block one, two, or maybe even three cities to the west, claim copper, two gold, and block off the rest of this side to backfill later, so I think that’s the approach. Trying to grow a bit and then rex fast. Second city goes here for copper and two golds.

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

I’m really not sure what Joao’s story is, because he still hasn’t settled anything other than his capital. On turn 58?!?!? I have to take advantage of whatever happened to him, so I’m actively trying to get these blocking cities down. He finally gets one settled, but it seems awfully late for Mr. Rex. If it’s just me and him here, this is going to suck a bit. I’m not really interested in playing a lonely game on emperor. City three goes here, to hopefully continue blocking, and now the economy starts to suck - still adjusting to emperor's early economy problems.

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

You'll see in the shot above Joao settled a city between my two, but I believe once my borders pop, he's boxed in by my culture. It appears to be me and Joao only on this little island, and I think I successfully boxed him in, because he’s not teching all that well, and he demands writing right after I tech alphabet. Sorry Joao, we’re not going to be BFFs. I’m building axes, because I have the only copper on the island claimed, and have blocked him from horses too. So he’ll be in deep trouble - I haven't yet checked to see if he has anywhere west to go, but it doesn't look like he has much opportunity outside of this island. I don’t want to open borders with him though, because I don’t trust him. I figure since he doesn’t have appear to have copper or horses, why not worker steal:

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

I figure this will let me explore his cities without letting him do much exploring. Fourth city goes here, I figure it’s close and can use the cottages from the capital from time to time to keep them growing.

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

That's going to be an amzing site post-calendar. This is what I find from exploring:

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

We are not fully isolated, but I’m going to have to get a galley out to check that out. I didn't do that as of 5 BC, because of barb galleys. Mad about not investigating that, but next round. I then played a fun chess game with Joao. He kept wanting to get workers building around Lisbon, but I moved my axes around and as a result, cornered a worker so his only move is next to one of my axes – two steals!

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

He has no copper and no horses, so at this point, he’s toast. I’ve pillaged him and blocked him in pretty bad, so not much he can do to keep with me. No peace until he’s willing to offer something for it – he’s not yet willing, so more pillaging. I then find out without exploring over there that Toku is on the next island, so it looks like whatever I want to tech, I’ll be teching myself. Good thing I have cottages and gold everywhere. And wow – I completely forgot I was building this, and was really doing it for the gold.

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

How on earth did I get Oracle that late - weird set of AI on this map, I think. I guess Joao will have to deal with protective longbows – I chose feudalism. And the dummy does it again – he lets me box in ANOTHER worker. I’ve taken three from him. I have so many workers I don’t know what to do with them. I’m sure I’m probably harming myself in the long run, but annoying Joao is too much fun to stop. Meet Mehmed, and make a couple deals with him to catch up a bit in tech. I figure he and I will need to be trading buddies. That gets him to pleased, which is important to keep him that way. I manually tech code of laws, and this:

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

I’m beginning to think we have some slow techers on this map, as I wouldn't have thought I'd be first to COL in 260 BC on emperor. And with the help of a few longbows, I finally take one of his cities:

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

It’s not optimally placed, so I’m razing it. He still won’t give me anything for peace – I don’t get it – he’s getting destroyed in this war, but won’t accept peace. Frustrating. Speaking of frustrating, I dislike barb galleys…a lot. They really are the most unfair aspect of civ - pillage my crabs, beat up a promoted galley, and force me to start building another galley and now that I have MC, a trireme or two. This is where I ended up at 5 BC. Empire:

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

This is a little deceptive, because I just finished 1 settler, and am 2-3 turns from another one, to claim my two marked sites to the south, so I’ll have 7 cities in about 5 turns. After that, I'll have 1-2 more sites in between to fill in, and Lisbon to round out my empire. Joao has his one size 12 city, with 10 archers and 5 workers holed up in it. I’ve already stolen three of his workers, so now once I hit machinery and construction, I can take Lisbon pretty easily. Mehmed has been keeping me ok in tech with a few good trades. I figure in the next 50 turns I’ll get enough power to finish off Joao and will also be able to focus on specializing my cities better and starting to improve tech. I've designated Joao's capital for my GP farm, and my capital for my bureacracy site. Short term next steps are to get machinery and civil service for bureau and chokonus.

Monarch - Epic - 1893 Domination Victory

Everything went pretty much as planned. I researched the rest of artillery while setting up 3 stacks to take out Mehmed quickly. Each one had ~30 infantry and ~15 artillery. Mehmed was teching very well, the only problem for him however, was that he teched the wrong things. He started teching assembly line, and since he would have it in 5 turns, I figured it was time to attack. He did a lot of damage with airships and flanking cavalry on my initial approach. Unfortunately for him, he focused his damage on my stack with the super medic. He didn't actually kill any units, and they were fully healed in a few turns. I easily took his northern most 3 cities, as well as the city he settled on my continent with a few infantry and a spy.

Only one city offered any real reward:

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/Samsun0000.jpg

Free happiness is nice, I was hopeful for some more wonders, but that turned out to be it.

From here he only had 3 cities, and his entire army had been decimated. He did have an impressive navy though, I had a few destroyers, but he easily overwhelmed me and did a lot of damage to my coastal cities, pillaging all my seafood and taking down cultural defense. He never did land any troops though.

I took 2 more cities, leaving him with only Istanbul and 2 crappy island cities. GK finally got his forces together to declare war on me. He landed some cavalry and trebs on my southern city, but I anticipated that and had a good defense set up there. He landed a smaller force up near Berlin, but he didn't kill a single unit on either front before I overwhelmed him with troops coming from all over by railroad. I wanted to take the fight to him, but I'm only .3% or so away from domination. I could have waited the 10 turns for Mehmed's big 3 cities to come out of revolt, but I wanted to finish before 1900, so I let him keep his 2 island cities:

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/MehmedCap0000.jpg

And next turn:

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/MSVIIVictory0000.jpg

As anticipated, my power was unmatched once I focused on it:

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/MSVIIPower-End0000.jpg

I was right to skip rifles altogether and beeline AL. I was able to keep my military advantage the entire game. Mehmed was 5 turns away from AL when I declared, 7 turns away before I took his capital, and ~50 turns away after he capitulated. The win loss ratio for my army was excellent:

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/MSVIIInfo-End0000.jpg

110 infantry, losing 8, 65 cannons, losing ~25 before upgrading them to artillery and then I only lost 2. I was really expecting more from these AI's, they were at a tech disadvantage, but none are really pushovers.

And the score, my best so far:

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/MSVIIScore0000.jpg

Comments on the map:

This map is definitely tailor made for an axe rush. I just don't see how you can get in as dominating of a position fighting for good land with an excellent REXer. There is easily enough good land on the main continent to power you to whatever victory condition you want. The tech pace in my game was weird, the AI's were doing very well before liberalism, but when they got to the point where they usually take off (FEUSS) they just stagnated, leaving them as easy targets. Some people may face more resistance, but nothing a good rush can't fix.

Definitely a fun map though, looking forward to the next one.

Michmbk-

Joao did the exact same thing in my game! Not only was he not settling any cities, he wasn't even scouting! I think I probably got every hut (including one that popped 6 warriors, that sucked). I actually avoided war with him for a long time just to see how his little OCC would go. I know I would have been better off taking his cap as quick as I could, but hey, sometimes we say screw optimal and have some fun!

What's even funnier, he wasn't building wonders or anything. I don't know if he just was jonesing to use the carrack or what.

flyinjohnny:


That was so weird - I got every hut as well. Playing at emperor, he should have had an extra settler, which means he clearly should have had two cities up and running rather early. I settled my second city on turn 58, and he still didn't have two as I had several warriors scouting his side of the island.

I agree, optimal would have been to spit out a dozen axes and take him, but I figured I could box him in and peacefully rex while annoying him - no way he could keep up in tech with two cities. That allowed me to settle the rest of my cities at a leisurely pace. Even though it's emperor, it seems really easy so far, as I've started the next round as well. All the AIs I've met are way behind me, and my two main cottage cities still aren't fully mature. I still don't understand how or why Joao wouldn't at least have used his second settler early on - that's why I thought maybe barb animals got it. Very weird game - maybe it was emperor light and he didn't get a free settler at the start?

I don't think the AIs start with an extra settler at Emperor. They should have 2 archers, 2 scouts and the standard settler. Free worker at Immortal and extra settler at Deity.

But probably there is the same issue of the NC games at higher levels, where the AIs still start with warriors. I just generate a monarch game and then save it from the WB.

Ai - is that true? I was going off the BTS reference guide that someone put together, and it says 2 archers, 2 scouts and 1 settler at emperor, but 1 archer extra at monarch. Since it didn't make any reference to settlers at monarch, I assume that meant they get an extra settler.

If that's the case and they only get an extra settler at deity, then the jump to emperor will be hard no doubt, but won't be quite as hard as I thought it would.

EDIT - I just tested with a new game to see what the right answer is - looks like Ai Shizuka is right. The BTS reference guide I was going off of seemed to indicate one extra settler at emperor, but that's apparently not the case. Each AI has two archers and two scouts. So clearly they get more advantage on the goody huts, but if they're not getting settlers, then the advantage isn't quite as pronounced as I thought it would be. So that's actually not too bad - clearly you start a little further in the hole at emperor, but it seems like something that can be made up.

With respect to the current game:


I still can't believe that an imperialistic civ like Joao wouldn't have settled a second city by turn 58. It seems way late - it was turn 70 before I saw a second city for him, so he was behind the 8 ball right from the start.

He was quite slow in my game as well, esp on huts. Probably he starts building workboats when he's coastal.
Still, I managed to let him settle 6 cities :rolleyes:. I'm not playing well. My game is definitely winnable, but I think I'll replay it from the start.
Hardest jump so far for me. Noble/Prince and Prince/Monarch was kinda "Oh, that's it?", but this time I have to adjust a couple things and stay more focused.

Replaying from start, Emperor/epic, to 40 AD:




First attempt was winnable, but I wasn't happy with that game. Very sloppy and unfocused. Looking better this time.

techs: AH - wheel (hut) - BW - pottery - mysticism - writing - fishing - IW - alphabet - sailing, hunting and meditation (Mehmed) - currency - masonry, math and priesthood (Meh) - monarchy (Joao) - researching CoL


4000 - Settle in place.

3775 - Joao.

3700 - Exp from hut.

3600 - Wheel from hut.

3475 - Map from hut.

3025 - Hostile villagers. A single villager, luckily.

2800 - Shangai:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0000-70.jpg

2250 - Guangzhou:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0001-67.jpg

1750 - Joao captured a barb city, but has a single, half-dead archer there:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0002-67.jpg

Sorry Joao:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0003-65.jpg

1700 - Peace with Joao.

1575 - Nanjing:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0004-63.jpg

1300 - Bismarck.

395 - Mehmed.

335 - GS builds academy in Bejing.

245 - Toku.

40 AD - Xian:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0005-62.jpg

Empire is looking better this time, still with a respectable research output:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0006-63.jpg

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0007-62.jpg

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0008-57.jpg

Techs:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0009-59.jpg

And diplo. Joao will forget that city accident quickly, now that I'm running HR:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0010-48.jpg

And capital:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0011-47.jpg

I don't see any reason to attack Joao at this moment. Guimaraes is a nice commerce city and he'll improve it for me. He's blocked to 3 cities and will be pleased soon from fav civic bonus. So he will just sit there with his 3 cities, falling backward and hopefully building a couple wonders for me.
I'll found my last city on the southern tip of the continent and then focus on infrastructures.

I guess he started slow for everyone. I also mentioned in my game how he didn't seem to explore at all, and he barely put up a fight against my axe rush. This was on Monarch, and I suspect with the stone he may have been putting hammers into Stonehenge or the Great Wall before I killed him, but he was still ridiculously weak. If I had to do it again I'd probably do it the exact same way.

Emperor Epic 5 BC to 1425 AD - second straight emperor game that's going really well. I really feel like I got lucky that one civ didn't seem to act the way he ALWAYS does in my game, and therefore wasn't nearly the threat he usually is.



When I left off, I was antagonizing Joao. Trying to get to my chokonus to finish him off while settling the rest of the island before anyone else gets any ideas. Meanwhile, courthouses are needed, badly. Scientist shows up to bulb Philosophy for this in 145 AD:

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

Tech rate is still struggling, and I really need Lisbon and courthouses to start turning this game, because it’s such a fantastic GP farm. I didn’t aggressively rush Joao this game when I had the chance, which was my downfall, but he’s really backward, so he’s not a threat. Hit machinery, get a couple chokonus out, and it’s time.

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

He apparently managed to settle some city off of the island, which is entirely frustrating, but no matter, I have Lisbon. Now time to finish settling the important island spots – two more settlers accomplish that, and off toward civil service, which makes Beijing a super city. Starting the beeline. It’s amazing what a difference a few turns makes. At 5 BC, turn 173, I was parked outside of Lisbon waiting for machinery, with 5 cities (and 2 settlers heading to their new sites. Just 40 turns later, by chopping out 3 chokonus, 1 more settler, and taking Lisbon, here’s the empire:

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

9 cities, and I’m about to try to settle 1-2 more of these sites once a couple courthouses go down. I failed on colossus, which was ok as I needed the gold, and succeeded on this:

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Mao/Civ4ScreenShot0003-1.jpg

That’ll help tech a bit. I decided to start trying to wonderspam in my bureau capital a bit. Meanwhile, since Joao has a city still, I figured I might as well tech trade with him, getting HBR and construction for civil service. Pulling ahead in tech – wonder how the other continent is going, as it looks like things are starting to take off for me. I was really aggressive with cottages, especially around Beijing, and it appears to be paying off. Another wonder in Beijing – it’s producing wonders only for awhile.

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

I also have been running scientists in a few cities for a long time – thanks to that, a scientist shows up in Guangzhou – hello education.

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

It’s now done running scientists, and focused on all those nice cottages. Pop an artist in Lisbon, which will help get rid of some of the cultural pressure it’s facing, and then turn it into a powerful GP farm. Sankore finished in Beijing, so I really need to get my Confucian buildings laid down now too. In 990 AD, I’m one turn from lib, and have to decide how far to take it. No one I’ve met even has paper yet, but there is the matter of the other continent. I decide to try for economics first, so I can use lib-nationalism to head down the democracy path. Slight risk the other continent beats me there, but I'm starting to tech well and there's no risk that my neighbors get there before me, so it seems like a reasonable risk to take - Econ is only about 20 turns away. On monarch I know I’d be safe, just don’t know about emperor, but this is how you learn.

Meanwhile, Toku is pleased thanks to religion, so at some point I need to think about using him as an attack dog – maybe right before I switch to free religion and lose the civic bonus with him. Another scientist in Beijing – bulbs part of PP – always a good bulb to me. Joao finds another way to annoy me:

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

Fine – I’ll just take it later. I can’t believe he is continuing to have all sorts of cultural pressure on Lisbon with his stupid city on the other island – check it out – this is about 100 turns after I took Lisbon, and with a settled artist in Lisbon too!

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

I’m trying to get an artist in Lisbon for a culture bomb to take the borders back, but I pull a merchant instead on 20% odds. I was actually rooting for an artist over a merchant – isn’t that a first. When Bismarck (who has Joao as a vassal) DOWed Mehmed, I came up with a nifty idea to beat back Joao's borders. Say hello to my pleased attack dog:

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Mao/Civ4ScreenShot0008-1.jpg

Why do your own dirty work when someone else can for you? He's bordering Joao's city, so of course he'll go for it, right? Bis hates me anyway, and both Mehmed and Toku are pleased with me, so this probably helps diplo overall. Meanwhile, lib success – time for Taj.

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

And how is this for a beautiful move – my bribe paid off perfectly.

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

Joao’s culture city is gone. Now Lisbon will be free to be a powerhouse, and the great artist I was building for with my GP farm will now be saved for a golden age. In fact, I may go ahead and finish off Joao quickly – why not? This was not a good time for Joao to renounce Bismarck’s protection:

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

One turn later, my golden age starts, and Joao is finished. Nice timing. I pop another great artist on low odds, which is slightly unfortunate. So one will be settled in Lisbon, and the other will make this a 20 turn golden age, which is always a nice way to vault ahead in tech. I’ve really specialized pretty well in this game. A super GP farm, four heavily cottaged cities, and three production focused cities. The other 4 or so cities are kind of hybrids, but that's ok.

I got my sushi merchant partway through this golden age, and cut off at the end of the 20 turn golden age. My plan for the next round is to move forward towards statue, hopefully getting emancipation penalty for some civs, and then starting towards key military techs. The only drawback to emancipation is that Lisbon doesn’t have enough key buildings yet for full specialists, but once it builds a bank and wall street, it’ll be ok. Joao settled a few merchants there, and I’ve settled two artists and a merchant, so it’s a great wall street city. The nice thing during the golden age is it confirmed that we’re more advanced than the rest of the world, so not too worried about them right now. Empire at 1425:

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

Thanks to map trading with Mehmed, I can see that Mongolia and France are the other two civs. Unlikely that they got along, so I suspect they’re very backwards. At this point, I just need to tech down the military line, get steel, rifles, frigates and galleons, and then invade, probably starting with Bis since no one likes him. Tech looks pretty good:

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

None of them have nationalism, which means it’s a long way to democracy for all of them. Always a slight fear with Mehmed because he's bound to have a ridiculous stack of both naval units and land units. I may have to make sure I actively scout his land before hitting him.

I do think that after blocking Joao, this did become pretty easy, because I had all the benefits of being isolated (no invasions or backstabs) without the drawback (no tech trading). Like dropping back down to monarch in a way. But it was only that way because I aggressively blocked off Joao, and he was an idiot early on, focusing too many hammers on the great lighthouse. That set the stage for me to block him in. Not to mention he built pretty much all my workers for me.

I just choked the AI and it lost a lot of settlers trying to send them through my blockade I think I had 15 workers while building just two :D

Emperor/epic, 40 - 1400 AD




Amazing how a different early city placement can change a game completely.
In my first try Joao settled 6 cities and I had to take him out in a long and painful medieval war, tanking my economy and falling behind.
This time I blocked him to 3 cities, peacefully teched to renaissance and now I'm ready to take him out in a quick spies/cuirassiers war.


techs: CoL - calendar (Bis) - MC and archery (Joao) - philo (bulb) - aesthetics - polytheism - literature - CS - monotheism (Meh) - paper - education (bulb) - compass (Meh) - machinery + feudalism (Meh) - liberalism + nationalism - guilds - banking - construction + theology (Joao) - hbr + engineering (Meh) - economics - printing press (bulb) - gunpowder - music + optics (Joao) - mil tradition - researching astronomy


145 - GS bulbs Philo

295 - Chengdu:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0000-71.jpg

520 - Great Library in Bejing:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0001-68.jpg

1020 - Liberalism:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0002-68.jpg

1180 - Taj done:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0003-66.jpg

GS bulbs printing press. I have 2 GM coming soon: the free one from economics and another from Xian.

1180 - Meh DoW Toku and Bis joins the war vs Toku as well.

1250 - Economics GM jumps on a galley, heading to Istanbul.

1280 - GM from Xian-->golden age.

1350 - 3150 gold in Istanbul:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0004-64.jpg


Empire at 1400:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0007-63.jpg

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0008-58.jpg

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0009-60.jpg

Capital:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0010-49.jpg

Techs:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0005-63.jpg

Amassing cuirassiers and EP to attack Joao. He has longbows and maces:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0011-48.jpg

Okay, since I don't seem to manage a proper quote -->

@ Fei Kelei: Dong Fang Hong, eh?

Props. We're playing as Mao, after all. (I didn't think about it before, but winning a cultural victory with this guy is about as absurd as winning a conquest victory with Gandhi.)

Emperor/epic, 1400 - 1655:



astro - sci meth - communism - rep parts - rifling - constitution - democracy - chemistry

1450 - DoW Joao and 2 cities captured in the first turn.
Oporto with Spiral Minaret:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0000-72.jpg

Guimaraes, Islam shrine and Scotland Yard:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0001-69.jpg

1455 - Toku declares war and I keep him busy at home:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0002-69.jpg

1455 - GM born in Xian. Will start a golden age with the Communism GSpy.

1470 - Success on this event. The other option was +1 :commerce: from that tile:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0003-67.jpg

1475 - Lisbon has a nice set of wonders:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0004-65.jpg

But Joao is not dead. Lisbon culture flipped Kagoshima.

1505 - Joao is dead:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0005-64.jpg

1510 - Meet Genghis.

1525 - GM and GSpy start Golden Age.

I'm still at war vs Toku:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0006-65.jpg

A few turns to upgrade to cavalry and regroup:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0007-64.jpg

To avoid vassalization bs:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0008-59.jpg

1545 - Last AI is Louis.

1585 - Cuirassiers upgraded, DoW vs Toko again. Nobody likes him, so no diplo hits.

1595 - A lone SAMURAI kills my cavalry at Nara and recaptures it.

Kyoto:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0009-61.jpg

1605 - Completed in Bejing:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0010-50.jpg

1610 - Nara recaptured.

1630 - Lame-ass opportunistic Bismarck declares war vs Toker, down to 2 cities.

1630 - Nagoya captured.

1650 - Toko is dead:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0011-49.jpg

Nice stack there, Bis:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0012-41.jpg

1655 - Another GM out to get some cash at Istanbul:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0013-36.jpg


New land at 1655:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0014-29.jpg

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0015-27.jpg

Techs:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0016-25.jpg

Diplo:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0017-23.jpg

I think I'll adopt Nationhood to push Bis to friendly and be 100% safe at home, board my cavalry and go wipe the cavemen on the other continent. Louis and Genghis hate each other and are not liked by anybody else. They have a lot of coastal cities, so I think I'll go with frigates to bomb culture and cavalry. Should be easy, they are not even close to rifles.

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0018-22.jpg

Edit: Genghis entered wheoohrn mode right when I refused some idiot demand for 2000 gold. He still doesn't have astro.

1665 - 1886, end:



chemistry - steel - physics - artillery - steam + corp (Bis) - rocketry - electricity - fission -


1655 - Didn't notice it, Mehmed vassaled to Bis a couple turns ago.

1685 - Switch to Nationhood and Bis is friendly.

1708 - Def pact with Bis.

1722 - GE born somewhere, will rush the Ironworks.

1722 - Meh breaks free. He's cautious with me now.

1728 - I convert to Hinduism. Now Mehmed is pleased (safe) and Bis is more friendly. I can focus on the idiots on the other continent.

1740 - Apparently Genghis has discovered the secrets of astronomy and declares war. His galleons are defended by caravels:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0000-73.jpg

1742 - "Oh crap" moment. My cavalry is 1 turn late. I upgrade the two defenders in Bactrian to rifles, but GK has landed a lot of junk:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0001-70.jpg

1744 - The idiot bombards Bactrian's culture, giving me the chance to wipe his stack with no losses.

1748 - GK is moving in more garbage:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0002-70.jpg

1750 - GK ships don't make it to the coast. In the same turn Mehmed (vassaled again to Bis) captures a mongol city, so I bribe them out:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0003-68.jpg

1762 - Frigates bomb culture, cavalry attack and New Sarai is captured.

1766 - Ning-Hsia captured.

1770 - Karakorum captured and GK is out:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0004-66.jpg

Cities gifted back, open borders and he's friendly.

1776 - GE rush Ironworks in Bejing.

1782 - DoW Louis. He's researching physics and still doesn't have rep parts.

1784 - GK captures Rheims, frigates+cavalry capture Lyons and Avignon. Enough:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0005-65.jpg

1802 - Bis switch out of Nationhood and adopts free religion. He's pleased now. No problem, my plan is almost completed. What plan? Should be pretty obvious from the tech path.

1818 - Bejing completes Broadway right when Fission is done and starts building the Manhattan Project. Research down to 0% and all my cities are building wealth. Hint: I have the Kremlin and running US.

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0006-66.jpg

1847 - Manhattan Project completed and I have some 20k gold:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0007-65.jpg

1858 - I see Bis cities now and he has a huge stack in Berlin. He's researching rocketry and has stolen Electricity, so is a single tech away from nukes. I need to hurry.

1860 - A few turns of rush-buying. Tactical nukes in the japanese cities and ICBMs at home:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0008-60.jpg

12 nukes launched in the first turn of war, to destroy his U tiles, his main stack in Berlin (40ish units) and a few extra cities.

1861 - Osaka razed.

1862 - Nuked the incoming little stacks, but Bis manages to sneak in a couple infantry and captures Satsuma.

1864 - Stuttgart captured and tactical nukes rebased.

1866 - A couple extra nukes on Berlin and Bis is done:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0009-62.jpg

1867 - 3% for domination. Culture slider up.

1868 - Hangzhou, to claim a few extra tiles:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0010-51.jpg

1870 - . .. .. .. ., 0.3% short on domination:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0011-50.jpg

1877 - Still 0.3%, slider up again to research Mass Media. I have a GE ready to rush the UN.

1886 - A border pop somewhere is finally enough. 64.02% :

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0012-42.jpg

Demographics:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0013-37.jpg

Stats:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0014-30.jpg

Power in the last 50 turns:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0015-28.jpg

Score:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0016-26.jpg

Techs. I turned off the slider after rocketry/fission. Didn't even research AL. Cavalry has good odds vs nuked infantry :lol: :

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0017-24.jpg

Wanna be friends again Bis? Look at good old Genghis:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0018-23.jpg

Now something weird. This is Bis' empire. It was completely covered by fallout and he didn't have Biology. Apparently global warming removes fallout:

http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/AiShizuka/Civ4ScreenShot0019-21.jpg

Not posting an overview of my cities, turned into shitholes by some MASSIVE global warming. No less than 4-5 tiles/turn at the end.

Boy, my third round of this game really blew up. I tried for a diplo victory and failed miserably. Now forced to warmonger and I blew a HUGE tech advantage while trying to win diplomatically. Going to suck if I lose this one after being so far ahead in tech in 1400 AD. I'll be warmongering awhile tonight.

1425 to 1908 - diplomatic win. This was topsy-turvy for sure - I thought I was going to lose for a stretch, and then turned it back around.



First things first this round – let’s keep Mehmed busy:

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

I know I run the risk of him vassaling Bis, but they both usually build a lot of units and are decent warmongers, so let them beat each other up a bit. Toku is in WHEOOHRN mode right now, but I figure it’s at Bis and not me since we’re pleased and my tech rate is sky high. I also have a fair number of units as I’ve had to produce a bunch in HR. Then of course, Mehmed converts to Islam – he must have teched divine right, so I lose the religion bonus with him. My whole point of not being in free religion was keeping both him and Toku happy. He’s still pleased, but I have to watch that, because he can be scary late game if you’re his enemy. I’m trying to figure out a possible way to make both of them friendly for a potential easy diplo victory (vassalize Bis, get them to vote for me after gifting UN to Mongolia or France). I may have to run vassalage and mercantilism to get them both to friendly, neither of which are optimal civics for my cottage-laden and coastal empire.

Mehmed soon makes this demand:

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Mao/Civ4ScreenShot0001-2.jpg

Sure – Bis doesn’t have astronomy, and hates us all anyway – why not. Sure enough, Toku DOWs Bis too. So it’s a 3 on 1 dogpile, even though I have no ability to send meaningful units over there. I took peace from him 10 turns later by giving him 10 gold. Fine – meaningless to me, but made Mehmed happy. Rifling in 1515, and still plodding towards Statue, which I finally finish:

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

And who would have thought that Toku might actually beat me to physics – he’s teching sci method before I even started it. I’ve never seen him teching as well as this – he’s actually second in tech right now. Incredible. I guess it did help him that I’ve fed him a number of techs throughout the game. I was going to finish steel, then go down the astro-sci method physics path, but not much point if he beats me.

After steel, I’m now debating whether to go for sushi (I have a waiting merchant) or to go down the state property path, as I do have a number of workshops built in several cities. After counting my sushi resources, I was leaning SP. I figure I’ll tech toward the always useful biology and then decide whether to go state property plus a trade mission, or sushi.

Thanks to a good trade or two, I beat Toku to physics for the GS – he’s not terribly smart as he traded me sci method, so I beat him by 5 turns to physics. Pop a GS along the way, for a third academy. Having the physics GS sleep for a bit as I think I’ll hit communism first for the spy – another golden age might not be bad for another civics switch. I decided on SP over sushi, since it meant SP plus a trade mission and 3000 gold. Finally meet Genghis – he’s a bit backwards:

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

Louis is not quite as backwards, but close. Immediately gift each of them a tech to get them to cautious – they both seem to hate Bismarck as well, which is perfect. Unfortunately, Bis capitulates to Toku, so I really missed my window on a military plan. As you’ll see below, going for this stupid diplo victory really backfired. The plan was to get Mehmed to friendly and gift Genghis the tech line up through mass media, so he/Louis would build the UN.

Very convenient pop of a great engineer – wall street was going to take 60 turns in Lisbon, so that’s a no-brainer. I also use my sushi merchant for a trade mission since in SP, so now way ahead in gold, and even after my golden age ends, and after having switched to vassalage to try to get the civics bonus with Mehmed, I still am in the black at 80%. I’m now building some spies to try to get Mehmed into vassalage with me. In 1744, I start the mass media beeline to gift it to Genghis, although there’s risk in that because Toku is pleased with Genghis. He’s friendly with me, but there’s risk he might vote for Genghis in lieu of me if he got friendly with him too. Finish this in Beijing – mainly because I’m trying to build my espionage up a bit now - boy, did this come in handy later though.

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Mao/Civ4ScreenShot0004-2.jpg

About 20 turns later, my fears on Genghis and Toku being buddies are eliminated, as Genghis backstabs him. Should have known the warmongers wouldn’t play nice in the sandbox. Of course, 2 turns later, Toku wants me to join them at war – fine. The only drawback is that Genghis has about 25 frigates and a dozen galleons coming toward me. Since he doesn’t have rifles, they can’t be filled with anything too strong. I haven’t built any frigates, so I’m sure my seafood will get pillaged for awhile. Neat spy tricks:

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Mao/Civ4ScreenShot0005-2.jpg

Mehmed and I share his favorite civic and share religion now. Then all this bad stuff happens:

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

Mehmed DOWs Toku, and Genghis takes one of his cities. Guess I’m going to have to pitch in, at least on Toku’s continent. I was hoping to avoid war, but I can’t have Genghis beating up my UN vote. So, quickly at least get peace with Mehmed.

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Mao/Civ4ScreenShot0007-2.jpg

This has really gotten risky because Toku is now at tech parity with me – I gifted him steel to help him deal with Genghis and now he’s caught up. Genghis beats up a bunch of my seafood, and I give him 165 gold for peace after awhile. Fine. Next time he tries that I’ll have destroyers anyway. Mehmed switched back to Islam and bureau, so I have to switch him again. Spies steal steam power from Mehmed, and also get him back in vassalage and Confucianism. He stays in vassalage, but converts back to islam, so I guess maybe he needs more Confucian cities – I send a bunch of missionaries over to get him to stay Confucian. I’m going to need his vote to win. If I don’t win diplo, this is going to be a real struggle. I’m used to warmongering, but really thought I could pull a diplo win. Another tech from Mehmed and another switch to Confucianism. Espionage is paying off nicely right now. And an all important wonder:

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

My efforts at diplomatic win were fruitless, because waiting for Mehmed to get friendly with me is taking FOREVER! Mehmed switches back again, catches a couple of my spies for diplo penalties, and I then give up – he’ll never get friendly with me. Time to knock some heads – unfortunately, I missed the great window I had when I was way ahead in tech, and I gave Genghis a lot of techs along the mass media line, which have now made him dangerous.

Finally once the UN is built, another bad break – Toku is apparently slightly larger than me, so he comes up in the UN vote instead of me – he had 194 votes to my 191. Arrrgh. I’m now going to have to warmonger now big time, and I made it WAY tougher on myself because I gifted too many techs to others to try to win diplomatically. Plus – I’m not even sure I can get to nukes in time to nuke the world before a resolution comes to ban them. Ugh – complete disarray. So, steal two more techs stolen from Mehmed – assembly line and fascism - I am abusing espionage right now, and after 5 turns of building cash, it’s go time – going to do this the old fashioned way for awhile. I have no idea who to hit first though. I think I made another tactical error here, because I could have easily hit Mehmed quickly, taken his 4 remaining cities and blew him away, but I opted instead for Genghis, who is huge. After really playing very well the first two rounds of this game, this round has gone terribly.

Further problems - as I’m sending my stack toward Genghis, Mehmed capitulates to him anyway, so I either go 1 on 3 against Genghis, Louis and Mehmed, or 1 on 2 against my friendly Toku and Bis. This is going to be a tedious game to win after my diplo screwups. It looks like Genghis will get assembly line right as I get there, so I might as well try to eliminate Mehmed’s cities first – I think in 10 turns I can pull that off and then have tanks ready by the time Genghis’s fleet arrives. My best shot is to hit industrialism, use the power of cristo to switch between police state and US, and rush buy tanks on the cheap thanks to Kremlin. If I do win this, it will be because of Cristo. Here goes:

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

One city was easy. I then decide that I need some help – let’s make this 3 on 3:

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

And Toku helps me finish off Mehmed’s cities. Hopefully he and Genghis can bully each other too. And Mehmed is done:

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Mao/Civ4ScreenShot0011-2.jpg

I finish off that island, taking back my city from Genghis, and then 10 turns of peace to regroup. Tanks are on their way Genghis. Oh and Cristo is being manipulated big time. 1 turn in PS, free speech, free religion, the next in US, vassalage and theo, and unit rush buys. My production is about to go off the charts. I’m sending my stack first at Genghis’s vassal – no sense going after him until I’ve decimated his vassal first. I have time – no chance Toku could ever win a space race. And after all this, I take over the UN – first shot at diplo:

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

I’m close – just need to beat up Louis and take cities and I will get over the hump. Here we go:

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

Go ahead and counterattack me Genghis – I’m building 6-7 tanks every 2 turns. Of course, me not paying attention allows him to take my Moai city:

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

Frustrating since I had 15 tanks on the mainland ready for any landing. I take it back, take one more Louis city, and get a diplo vote – yes sir!

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

Thank goodness. I swear it would have been about 10 more hours of warmongering to finish off Genghis AND Toku. This is much cleaner. I found this humorous:

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

Louis, Genghis and Bis are all furious with me. Awesome diplomacy. Score:

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii402/michmbk/Mao/Civ4ScreenShot0020.jpg

Not a great score, but I will take the win, after having a huge tech lead, then blowing it, then having to claw back to victory. I built 7 chokonus – missed out on the fun of them for sure.

Emperor/Normal to 1 AD
Looked like an axerush against Joao was in order since he was so close. I settled the copper to our West just before he would have - and unless i could get a 3rd city up fast to block him completely (wasn't planning another settler anytime soon) the axerush was the way to go.

Took his capital easily with about 10 axemen - he spammed out a couple settlers before i could get to his 2nd city. Soon enough city 3 and 4 were up for him. I couldn't take Oporto (2nd city) when i got there since he managed to get 8 or so archers in there fast. Went and took Coimbra instead since it was only defended by 2 archers. Sent a couple axemen to scout out Guimaraes which caused him to split his defending archers between the two remaining cities. That allowed me to take Oporto and at 1 AD i'm still waiting outside Guimaraes to take his final city. He's got 8 archers in there so i'll have to build up a bit to take it.

I built Stonehenge in my capital only because i didn't have my copper city connected to the capital yet and already had a barracks so i had nothing else to build. When i got the road finished there was only 2 or 3 turns left so i figured i'd delay the axemen a bit to get it. As soon as i captured Joao's capital i started on pyramids - i saw the stone so i just set the build to mids expecting the gold but ended up finishing them around 500 BC with the help of 3 chops. I'm planning on running 2 scientists in my two capitals so the extra 12 beakers will be nice - and the happiness will really help. Cities are just starting to grow due to representation civic. Lisbon needs to finish up its library first though. I'll want to get monarchy soon anyway for the wine - but toku is the only one i know that has it and he's not likely to give it up.

I just traded alphabet for IW and fishing - now i see that i have two iron tiles that can be improved, including one in the already nice capital. In pretty good shape techwise compared to the AI's i've met so far, which is good considering i've been at war all game. With the continent to myself (once i finish of Joao) i should be #1 in land and pull ahead. Although i haven't seen the rest of the map so our continent may or may not make us #1 in land. Really can't make too many plans without knowing more about the map/AI's.

I plan on cottaging the capital as much as possible for bureaucracy, and making Joao's former capital a GP farm with caste. First GP was a prophet (from henge) who was settled in the capital. If both my capitals pop scientists next i'm thinking about putting up an academy in both cities. Each city has a wonder (henge and mids) so there's a chance this won't happen. I'll have marble soon (when i take Joao's last city) so i should look to get Aesthetics and have a go at the great library. That would also be good to trade for math and sailing, though i'll have currency to trade as well - unless they are researching it now also. I'd like to get a couple workboats out to scout the land to the west and see what we're up against. After Joao is finished off i also need to get a few more settlers out to fill out the continent. Research slider is still in good shape, and currency will be in soon so the economy isn't a problem.

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0080.jpg

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0082.jpg

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0081.jpg

michmbk:


The rival AIs are not random, I've purposely chosen a nice bunch of jerks to make diplo management difficult. Looks like they did a great job screwing your plans :lol: .
Excluding Joao (the obvious first target), all AIs are on the warmonger-ish side of things. And pretty much all of them like to make a lot of requests, giving you diplo hits no matter what you do (with them if you refuse, with their enemies if you give in).

I've considered a "real" diplo win at some point, but then Bismarck switched out of Nationhood/Hinduism and sealed his fate.

Good game anyway, you was in a pretty harsh position.

Emperor-marathon, 1908 conquest.
I have no detailed report for now, but i played slow and so there are plenty of saves.
so if you desire i could make some screenies from them and post a report.
EDIT: Upon reading this, i realize i really should post a report - my game was quite different from others. Well, I'll hopefully post it tonight or tomorrow.
2Ai Shizuka

Starting position is not bad at all - i'd say it's extremely easy due to both JII and copper being temptingly close :) Did you consider replacing JII with Hammy or Giggles?

nano:


Yes, I was putting Gilga there and editing a hill under his capital :lol: .
But then I thought it was a bit too harsh and added Joao, hoping for his usual mad rex. Didn't work out as expected.

Probably Mansa would have been interesting. Not bad as Gilga or Hamm's bowmen, but skirmishers still make an axe rush a bit harder.






edit:


I'm still a beginner at editing/hosting games. Hardest part is to set the right rival at the right position. Too far away and the game is too easy (a lot of land to settle peacefully), too close and weak and you have an extra capital.

michmbk:


The rival AIs are not random, I've purposely chosen a nice bunch of jerks to make diplo management difficult. Looks like they did a great job screwing your plans :lol: .
Excluding Joao (the obvious first target), all AIs are on the warmonger-ish side of things. And pretty much all of them like to make a lot of requests, giving you diplo hits no matter what you do (with them if you refuse, with their enemies if you give in).

I've considered a "real" diplo win at some point, but then Bismarck switched out of Nationhood/Hinduism and sealed his fate.

Good game anyway, you was in a pretty harsh position.



Ai shizuka:


I thought for awhile a diplo win was going to be easy. Once I had Toku at friendly and mehmed pleased, figured it was just a matter of sharing religion and vassalage with mehmed for awhile, because me, Toku and Mehmed were all so big it would have been easy. Then Toku starting beating up mehmed, as did bismarck and Genghis, and they wore him down - I never could get him friendly, so had to war. Was nice to get a diplo win without a single vassal and only one AI who liked me!

Bumping this, in case anyone missed it.

The next leader is Genghis Khan. No, I'm not open to suggestions this time, it's Genghis :lol:.
I'll post the game friday.

Oh man, my wife is out of town this weekend - no better time for a Genghis game! I might have to play that at monarch instead of these last three games I've played at emperor because of the sheer joy that comes with playing Mongolia.

Winning this game at emperor was an eye opener for me that i can compete at that level though. The feralminded games are tailored for success, so I've sort of been expecting to win those. Mao is more of a middle to lower tier leader, so nice to get the W in this one.

Bumping this, in case anyone missed it.

The next leader is Genghis Khan. No, I'm not open to suggestions this time, it's Genghis :lol:.
I'll post the game friday.

ANOTHER keshik tornado? I don't mind :lol:.

Emperor/Normal 1 AD - 1640 AD

Didn't really take screenshots but i'm still going on this game - hopefully i can finish soon. It's going pretty good so far. Basically Mehmed, Toku and Bismarck all had different religions, and were cautious/annoyed with one another the whole game. I was no state religion and had Mehmed/toku pleased so was pretty safe with little/no army.

Finally Mehmed and Toku go after Bismarck (same turn) and he capitulates to Toku after a short war. I decide to do this bribe a little later after i have a decent army of Cavs and some drafted rifles...

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0086.jpg

Mehmed is the better trading partner - and this way i can take down their power ratings just by giving up a few techs. A couple turns later i attack Toku and take his 4 eastern most cities (3 of which are holy cities - with another holy city further west also...) I also took the city he put up way out east on my continent.

I just declared peace in order to build up a bit - he is still at war with Mehmed and has taken a city or two from him. I should be able to finish of Toku no problem and Bismarck will be easy. Then i plan on warring with Mehmed to have the whole continent to myself. That will probably wait until infantry/cannons.

I should have enough land to tech to space - i have won all diplo or domination victories lately so i figure i'll build a spaceship for once instead of messing around with an overseas invasion or UN abuse.

Probably should have built a caravel or two but never got around to it - only just met the 2 other AI's recently. I'm pretty sure i've never seen Toku with 4 holy cities before. Only the jewish one had a shrine in it - maybe the christian one i have yet to capture has one as well.

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0087.jpg

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0088.jpg

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0089.jpg

Emperor/Normal 1640 - 1949 (end)

Finally got around to finishing this game. Wasn't a very pretty game but i'll take it - especially since i lost the last monarch student game on emperor all 3 times i tried it. Won a late UN vote once i finished off Japan and Germany - i had Mehmed at friendly so his votes gave me enough. It felt like i was doing horrible due to the couple poorly executed wars between 1600 and 1850 and the slow tech rate/late finish date - but i supposed that doesn't matter since i was in a dominate position the whole game. Just needed to manage things a little better to take advantage more. There was virtually no tech trading going on the last half of the game either - only between Mehmed and I, and that was only a couple trades - therefore research didn't go very quick until towards the very end when my beakers went up a lot.

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0090.jpg

Even with only a few cities Toku was very tough to kill. I took his 4 eastern cities in the 1600's - but it wasn't until mid 1800's i finally could finish him off. I ended up having tanks when i started the war with just rifles/cavs. Once i got Sid's spread around, and the SoL completed along with factories etc. i pulled way ahead of the other AI's. I need to work on city management in order to get the production i need to finish wars faster.

Here's my oxford/wall street capital, and my heroic epic/ironworks production city...

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0091.jpg

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0094.jpg

Here's the war statistics - i waited way too long to finish off Japan and Germany. I ended up with 3x their power with tanks vs rifles before i finally attacked. Played it too safe for the last war since the first two didn't go as well as i thought they would have.

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0093.jpg

Finally, a world view...

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0092.jpg