Monarch Student XII - Mehmed [Archive] - Civilization Fanatics' Forums

Phil725

Mar 19, 2009, 06:27 PM

Emperor - Epic - 10AD

Trying emperor again. My last few games have gone well. I've gotten them to the point where the win is clinched, but maybe this time I can actually get to the victory screen.

Settled 1N. I actually popped a map that showed me the land to the SE like someone mentioned before, but it was nothing special. My warrior went off to the left and popped AH from a hut. This was a huge break. With no animals around and copper close, I probably would have put this off for a while. This would have changed things a lot.

I met the neighbors, Hammy and SB. All I have to say to the people that axe rush every game is have fun with those neighbors, at least there's no Gilgamesh. I settled my second city to the SE claiming horses and wheat in the first ring while teching off HBR. You can see where this is going.

I got a barracks and stable up in my two cities and started cranking out HAs. I pretty much completely deforested the capital, but that's a small price to pay. I was ready to go at 1000BC.

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/SBWar0000.jpg

SB may have scary archers, but unfortunately for him, horse archers don't fear anything before longbows. 200 years later, the Native Americans are a thing of the past.

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/SBDead0000.jpg

I should have waited for that city to grow to 2 pop, but he had a lot of defenders and settlers walking around, so I just wanted to get rid of him. My flanking HA actually won on a very low % when I was just trying to retreat.

-13 gold at 50% slider wasn't a big enough crash of the economy for me though. I mean, if you have a stack of veteran HAs, are you just going to use them for HR garrisons? Hammy was teching along pretty well, although he wasted the Oracle, taking CoL when he was 2 turns from teching it manually. I spent a few turns reinforcing my SoD and getting SB's land productive, and eventually I was ready to declare on Hammy ~400BC.

I blitzed in and easily took Akkad first turn. It's a great city with a lot of flood plains, not to mention a courthouse already there. From there I moved on his capital. This was actually a huge mistake, it was guarded by 2 spears, a sword and a bowman on a walled hill. I got my first GG for a super medic after Akkad, so I could have waited for him and rehealed the rest of my stack, but I decided to move quickly. I was ready to throw a brick threw my screen after 3 straight HA's didn't land a hit, but I got bailed out by winning a 3% and a 20% battle.

I saw a nice gold mine to the SW in Dur-K~, so I healed my stack and moved down there. Hammy's pretty much crippled at this point, and the city was only guarded by an axe and a bow. My 20exp+ HAs just ran over them.

My economy was very stretched at that point, so I looked at what I would get for peace. Not surprisingly really, he still wouldn't give me CoL for peace. I decided to teach him a lesson. He had two more cities on the peninsula, one guarded by a HA, another guarded by a bow. I quickly raze them both and bring him back to the negotiation table:

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/HammyPeace0000.jpg

Note, this is actually from the first time I tried for peace, so I actually got CoL a few turns later.

Hammy had bribed Musa into the fight somewhere. He never sent a stack, but he did have an annoying exploring skirmisher that parked himself on a hill until I gave him 5 gold for peace.

I teched off currency a few turns after taking peace with Hammy, and along with quick 2 pop whip courthouses everywhere, my economy went from losing gold at 100% gold to being fine at 50%. Here is my empire at 10AD:

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/SBLand10AD0000.jpg

SB's cities are all pretty nice. His old capital looks to be the best candidate for a GP farm with all that food. Taoism also got founded there, so maybe that will even lead to a nat epic/Wall Street combo if I don't capture a better shrine. The 5cpt from being a holy city also means that the marble will be mine when I start building the GLib. Our initial land:

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/MSXII10ADC0000.jpg

Not much there really. I need to get some cities down there to claim those happy resources, although I have HR now. Istanbul is a nice hybrid capital though. And Hammy's land:

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/HamLand0000.jpg

I took a barb city a few turns ago, could have put it off a little, but why not. I may need to redeclare on Hammy to get rid of the culture pressure on Babylon. Hammy is down to 2 cities (3 if you count that crappy city he just settled that's guarded by a bow,) and I doubt he has any production. Still a lot of land to settle to the west there.

And techs:

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/MSXIITechs10AD0000.jpg

Somehow I'm the tech leader, Keshik economy to the fullest I guess. I traded HBR around for alpha (researched 3 or 4 turns into it,) math, meditation and sailing. And once someone builds MoM I'll be able to get calendar off of Cyrus for alpha and something else. I didn't want to trade currency to Musa, but I needed monarchy pretty badly. I should have a clear shot at the GLib, no one else has aesthetics, and I have marble.

Musa is teching the best, and has the Hindu, Jewish and Christian (next turn) holy cities. On the other hand, Cyrus has a ton of land, but is backwards. I'm not sure which one I should wipe with cuirassiers and which one I should wait for cavalry.

Anyway, the game has started pretty well, hopefully I can finish this one up with an early domination win.

Lansky

Mar 19, 2009, 06:27 PM

Regarding said early resources:

For clarification I've never been sure do chariots count as melee or not? Either way a very large group of them still work against bowmen :lol:

Sian

Mar 19, 2009, 06:36 PM

Monarch - Marathon - 2300bc
settled in place and started researching mining, very early i saw that we had bull and Hammu as nextdoor neighbours so choose to run a Chariot gambit wishing for horses ... luckily we had them so i send chariots directly down 2SE to Babylon and waited on his secondary bowman leaving the Babylon, and it left my direction ... took the chance hit since i figured that it would proberly settle so i couldn't take Babylon on first turn of the war and declared with 5 Chariots ... Bowmans are good against Axeman but they can't handle a couple of C1 Chariots very well, not while sitting alone on a hill ... Babylon is mine and i plan to continue my Chariot army redirecting and reenforcing it and kick Bull the same way before he can get around CGIII archers

played slightly futher 2110bc
hightened by the succes on Hammu i choose to try the same attack on Bull while he only had one city defender ... while i couldn't see he city i was trying to circle around, with my slightly reenforced (up to 5 again) chariot group, to see if i could get a open gap while waiting on him building the first city ... he builded it and i entered seeing only a archer and a dog soldier (worse than useless against chariots) ... one chariot died knocking the archer down to pitiful ammounts and the other two had a field day eating the dog soldier and the archer ... quickly looked around finding Property point giving it the same love autorazing it ... 2110bc and 3 capitals, which was owned by prehaps the hardest leaders to axerush ... pretty decent time if you ask me

Lansky

Mar 19, 2009, 08:43 PM

Immortal/Epic
175AD

Overall not nearly as bad as I would have thought initially

No huge surprise that due to the wide open spaces I peacefully expanded for a good long time. This period lasted until around the completion of Animal Husbandry at which point the massive empire of two cities began to build chariots. Workers chopped out chariots as tech after the obvious BW opening followed by writing was followed by HBR and Archery. These two techs allowed the building of mounted settlers.

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/Civ4ScreenShot0004.jpg

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/Civ4ScreenShot0005.jpg

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/MehTech.jpg

Tech rate has actually been decent due to the massive building of research combined with Caste System and the massive amount of food in places other than where our starting location was - for example Sitting Bull's capital... 4 FP, 3 Clam, 1 irrigated wheat.

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/FOOD.jpg

Actually as I was posting this I realized-

I finished researching Currency and really should be building wealth and jacking up the slider. Also should see if merchants in a few of the cities would be more beneficial than scientists. Micro! AHHH!

Tempesta13

Mar 19, 2009, 09:20 PM

Emperor/Normal to 1 AD
First few turns made it look to not be a good game for me at all - but things ended up going well. To start it off, i decide to settle 1N - move the settler and his turn is over. What? Forest pops up a second later...

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0175.jpg

Bad luck i guess. Then i discover my two immediate neighbors - both not the easiest to rush and both pretty close. I get a blocking city to the east for sitting bull. He has plenty of land the other way so i figure he won't be too mad at me. My warriors scout much of the map without dying.

I don't want to mess around vs protective archers - sorry hammy - i see bowmen just get bonus vs melee, and i have horses in my capital. There we go.

Tech was mining/bronze working/AH/myst/pottery/writing I think. Not the fastest chariot rush ever but i think it will be enough. He has 2 cities, and i'll scout with my worker (who is roading there) to make sure it's possible.

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0176.jpg

He founded 2 religions in his capital - and it's only defended by 2 bowmen. This looks good. I got a scientist for an academy in my capital - but i just remembered it was 50/50 scientist/priest. Guess i should remember to check for wonders when i capture capitals... :lol:

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0177.jpg

And it works with a decent amount left over.

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0178.jpg

Barely take the other city. Hammy is gone and it seems i have enough land to play now.

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0179.jpg

I went monarchy early cause only Mansa was going to have it, and i had nothing to trade. Really wanted to get cities to grow. That along with the ivory, and wine helps a lot. Fur and silver are to come soon with the city (my 6th) i just founded. I'm 1 turn from currency. Then i need to focus on getting 3 or 4 more cities down, and taking the barb city all the way west. I finally got iron hooked up and 3 axemen out. I need a few more axemen and a few swords make sure i'm safe (and take out the barbs). They were pretty brutal before i got the south fogbusted. (hence the 2 heroic epic chariots)

Ankara will be used as a production city - i have 2 (at least) 10 xp chariots so it will be nice to be able to build the heroic epic after literature. Not good news for sitting bull i think. Someone just declared a war - forget who, but that's fine with me. Not even sure how much room i have to the west. Need to settle up the land bridge in the middle soon too to make sure mansa doesn't claim it all.

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0180.jpg

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0181.jpg

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0182.jpg

Overall i think i'm in a really good position. A lot better than i thought anyway - with 2 AI's that are tough to rush, and having to go with chariots vs a UU there is a big chance of failure here. I'm glad my chariots came through. Everyone of them that died without inflicting damage scared me a little. I had 2 or 3 really close calls with barbs attacking a lone defender in a city. Really lucky to not have lost one. Hopefully everyone else managed this start ok.

1 thing is for sure, everyone had a 1 turn head start on me!

edit: @phil/lansky
After seeing what you guys did it made me wish i had built some horse archers and taken out sitting bull. For being organized, only having 6 cities at 1 AD is really slow. I can probably cue up some settlers and get up to 10-12 cities pretty quick but i'd rather be growing them now. Also i didn't realize how good of a GP farm sitting bull has there. Maybe i can still take him out early (i have ivory so beeline construction and his protective trait won't save him)

Both your games look really good. You guys are both doing really good in tech even with all that war and lots of cities early. Nice job taking advantage of organized.

nanomage

Mar 20, 2009, 02:30 AM

For some reason i don't know myself, i hate mehmed and his civ :blush:
i realize it's utter stupidity, but i can do nothing :( - except to play this game ))

Fei Kelei

Mar 20, 2009, 03:27 AM

Am I the only one who likes to play Monarch Student games on Monarch? Anyway, Monarch/Epic to 100 AD:

Settled 1N like everyone else. Discovered that I was boxed in by Sitting Bull and Hammurabi, so the obvious thing to do was start whipping and chopping chariots. Can't remember why I chose to attack Hammy instead of Bull (they had both founded religions), but it worked out well. My stack of chariots ran into a city that had just been founded and defended by a single bowman, and my first chariot won with little damage, so the city auto-razed and I didn't even have to pause on my way to Babylon. Babylon, surprisingly, was also defended by just a single bowman (he probably had just sent a couple out with a settler), and apparently he didn't have BW yet because he didn't whip another. I lost three chariots trying to attack that single bowman on a hill with 20% cultural defense, but Hammy died and the Jewish holy city was mine.

From that point I just decided to expand peacefully rather than go after Sitting Bull. I wouldn't exactly call it REXing, since I took the time to build the ToA in Babylon and I never came close to crashing my economy, but I think I'm in a pretty strong position anyway. Here's my empire in 100 AD:

The Ottoman Homeland:
http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/4576/60892864.jpg
I had intended for Ankara to grab that iron along with the clams, but Cahokia being a holy city messed that up. There are also four fur resources and fish down south, so I'll put a fishing village down there before too long.

Former Babylonia:
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/6401/89035411.jpg
I'll probably move my capital to Babylon to run Bureaucracy. The barb city to the southwest was kind enough to have a worker who had already built improvements, so that's a nice pickup. (Also, looking at this picture just now, why am I still building a monument in Konya? I guess I just completely forgot about that city.)

Other:
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/1192/83071081.jpg
I settled Bursa pretty aggressively to block Mansa and grab marble before I had even killed that barb city you can see the ruins of. I'll send my next settler to where my swordsman is standing next to the bananas.

This is a pretty cool map with the whole inland sea thing. Looking ahead, I'm a little concerned about Cyrus because of all the territory he has and how he appears to have semi-blocked off Sitting Bull, who doesn't seem to be doing so great for some reason. For the time being, he's definitely the one I'll be nicest to.

1804 Domination Victory:

Nothing to see here, because I didn't take any screenshots. Basically, I took out Sitting Bull with Trebs and Jannissaries, vassalized Mansa with Rifles and Cannons, and vassalized Cyrus with Infantry and Artillery. Plus I stuck a few units in some Galleons and easily made Stalin capitulate to get to the Domination limit a few turns earlier than waiting for border pops. Got a 120K score for my efforts, so that works for me. Fun map.

assass1n

Mar 20, 2009, 04:05 AM

Emperor/Epic To 1580AD - AP Victory

I don't have many screenshots as usual I just forget to take them
Settled Istanbul 1N and popped the hut which gave a map the second one gave me Pottery
http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/9454/firsthut.th.jpg (http://img9.imageshack.us/my.php?image=firsthut.jpg)
http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/250/secondhut.th.jpg (http://img14.imageshack.us/my.php?image=secondhut.jpg)
Settled second city 1E of Eles and Third right next to SB's capital Fourth went near Pigs-Wheat site
After researching AH I find that we have horses in cap so I sacked Babylon and two more cities and wiped out Hammy who had founded Judaism and was spamming Missionaries instead of troops
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/8291/babylon.th.jpg (http://img13.imageshack.us/my.php?image=babylon.jpg)
MM founded Buddhism SB went Confu(Oracle) and Pericles got Hinduism
Buddhism spread luckily to one of my cities and I converted as later on Mansa built AP
I then teched to Liberalism and took Nationalism
I had GE for Taj and got Gunpowder and swapped to Nationhood and Theocracy and spammed Jans/Trebs
Cyrus meanwhile declared on SB and the turn I got my troops next to SB's city he asked me for help I accepted and he went up to Friendly
Wiped out SB and I had 300 + votes in AP but Stalin and Pericles didn't have Buddhism so I sent missionaries to Pericles while Stalin was in Theo soon Stalin swapped to OR and I was able to get it spread in one of the cities
The vote came up for diplo and I won it
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/3865/vicb.th.jpg (http://img12.imageshack.us/my.php?image=vicb.jpg)
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/559/56634030.th.jpg (http://img11.imageshack.us/my.php?image=56634030.jpg)
http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/3121/foodgec.th.jpg (http://img10.imageshack.us/my.php?image=foodgec.jpg)
http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/3510/powerk.th.jpg (http://img16.imageshack.us/my.php?image=powerk.jpg)
http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/3038/productionr.th.jpg (http://img14.imageshack.us/my.php?image=productionr.jpg)
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/5762/top5e.th.jpg (http://img13.imageshack.us/my.php?image=top5e.jpg)
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/8913/timen.th.jpg (http://img12.imageshack.us/my.php?image=timen.jpg)
http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/583/scorer.th.jpg (http://img14.imageshack.us/my.php?image=scorer.jpg)

Phil725

Mar 20, 2009, 04:14 AM

Emperor - Epic - 1500AD AP Victory.

I started this round by continuing to right the economy, and getting Hammy's cities up and running. Once that was done I decided to put him out of his misery.

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/HammyWar20000.jpg

I almost didn't bring enough units. I took that first city easily, but ran into some bad luck on the next two. Luckily good old Gustavus II Adolphus came threw as my last attack capable HA, and now there is no more Hammurabi problem.

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/HammyDead0000.jpg

I really should have focused on just blitzing MM from 10AD, I could have easily taken him over. I never realized that he was expanding so slowly, he only had 4 cities for a very long time, and he got feudalism late. Anyway, I decided to wait for cuirassiers. On a good note, it netted me some more wonders and shrines.

I got a surprise addition to my empire ~500AD:

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/CultureFlip0000.jpg

Cyrus must be running the culture slider on a negative number or something, that city was there for a very long time at 0 culture.

I got liberalism ~1000AD. I could have put it off to tech off nationalism and take MT, but I think it's probably better to just take nationalism and then tech off MT under a golden age.

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/LibNat0000.jpg

Around 1000AD I started thinking about victory conditions. At this point I could probably win any way I wanted to. Domination is the obvious route, but that would involve invading MM, as well as a giant (albeit very backwards,) Stalin or Cyrus. A war against Stalin would involve ferrying troops, and Cyrus would be able to churn out enough pikes and knights against my cavalry to slow me down more than I want to deal with. Then the AP popped up. MM built it under Judaism, Cyrus was Hindu (FR later,) so I could run unopposed. Get a missionary up to Stalin and Pericles and buddy up with Cyrus for an easy win.

Of course, to set this plan in motion, I need the AP and a friend. Cyrus is easy, I adopted vassalage, and got all the trade bonuses up. As for the AP, I tried to ask MM for it nicely, but he told me I would need to take it from his cold dead hands. Oh well, wish granted:

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/MMWar0000.jpg

I took Gao second turn, and then quickly moved on Timbuktu. Cyrus really screwed up my plan here. MM was sitting at 3 defenders per city tops, but he had to declare on him ~100 years before me, so MM ended up with 3X more units than he would have if he was left to wonder spam like he was doing. Not to mention Cyrus suicided tons of units, leaving Djenne with a bunch of super veteran longbows. I bribed Cyrus to peace before I declared. The last thing I needed was him capping to Cyrus before I got the AP. Anyway, MM reinforced his capital a lot, and to make things worse, it was on a hill. In the end, I barely took Timbuktu. Unfortunately for MM, it takes me two turns to heal my units, but he isn't getting 90% of his production back. Timbuktu:

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/Timbuktu0000-1.jpg

Some nice wonders there, although MoM and the AP are the only ones that actually help. He had the Jewish shrine and the ToA in other cities as well. That Jewish shrine payed for any possible expenses of this war.

After that, it was just a matter of time for MM. I didn't have much of a battle strategy, making this take longer than it should have. I took a city to the east, then the west, then the south, and finally his last city up north:

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/MMDead0000.jpg

MM got a stop the war resolution off before I took him out. Unfortunately for him, he was spamming missionaries at me all game, so I could block the resolution myself.

After that, everything goes on automate while I spam Jewish missionaries. I got one to Stalin easily, but all of Pericles' cities were ~15 turns away by galley, and all had 2 religions. I sent the missionary off on his journey anyway though. After a long time just waiting, my galley finally gets to Pericles. Luckily it spread first try. I probably should have sent 2 or 3, but that would have slowed down domestic spread.

A turn or two later, the option pops up (I voted myself chair earlier.)

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/AP10000.jpg

And as expected next turn:

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/Victory0000-4.jpg

I definitely shaved off a lot of turns and unnecessary micro by going AP instead of domination.

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu184/Phil725/Score0000-3.jpg

I'll definitely take 50k points higher than my second best score for my first official win on emperor.

Fun game, unfortunately I did that thing where I played it too fast though, now I have to wait another week. It's definitely better on Thursday though, more time to play than Friday.

GnafGnaf

Mar 20, 2009, 02:22 PM

Tempesta13

Mar 20, 2009, 03:21 PM

Hey there, after reading alot in these forums and learning a lot thx to various players but i am mostly inspired by sis his all leader challanges and many others. Anyways after gaining a lot of advice from just reading others post i would like to get some hints and tips on my own play so here we go.

Emperor - normal speed - 4000 BC till 755 BC

First i settled in place, didnt see any reason to move and explored the area.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=207708&stc=1&d=1237574233

With the new bugmod 3.6 excellent mod! i made a dotmap. As you can see 2 civilizations are very close two me to the east (right) is sitting bull and to the left is hammurabi.

I used the following research order, mining, AH since i spotted the pigs and the sheep, bronzeworking since there was a lot of forest to chop. Then I started with pottery, switched to mystism for culture and finished pottery. Writing.

I decided to settle the red spot first with 2 food resources this would be excellent for some whiping.

Turns past while the chariots where comming and i signed open borders with hammurabi to found out there is a lot of land in the west. This, the fact that he has a holy city and sitting bull being protective made him a target.

1320BC ankarra is founded to claim the crab (even though i dont have fishing) and claim the wine.

His capital was defended by 2 bowman and the city of akkad only housed one bowman. i waited one extra turn in other to get hinduism spread to my capital. As you can see an other missoniary is underway to inspire my people, unfortuanatly i cannot wait anylonger.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=207711&d=1237574249

I declare with 12 units in total 9 for the capital and 3 for akkad. To bad the missoniary does cost me an attack move. Still i manage to take akkad and i raze it. My other 9 brave chariots move to the capital of hammurabi. As hammurabi doesnt know how to use the whipe, im happy to see that i still face only two bowman. They are dealth with easely and recieve a free worker who didnt move away from farming the land south of akkad a dedicated worker. He may join my work force.

in 925 hammurabi is no more

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=207709&d=1237574233

I played a few turn and went for astetics since it is good to trade it for and i thought the war delayed me a lot so i need to make some nice trading deals. Still at 775BC no one i know has the alphabet, MM must be sleeping or maybe he has some evil plans to rule the world. (also discoverd fishing)

So at 775BC i would like to get some hints and tips my current plan is the following.

Tech to the greatlibary since i have a lot of forest around my capital and then i can cottage it and use the forests to compleet the GL so i get some scientist in. After that my main goal expasion on the west part of the continent and discover code of laws asap. I want to use the edirne as my future gp farm and the greendot city with copper, sheep and corn as HE production city.

overview
http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=207710&d=1237574233

techs known

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=207712&d=1237574249

(i know all start techs except for hunting)

So let me know what you think is best

Get a few more cities down when you can - you can afford a bunch more probably. Try and get iron working and alphabet through trades (someone should get alphabet soon). Might have to put a couple turns of research into alphabet to open that up. Then go for priesthood to open up monarchy trade. Build research when you can to speed up getting currency. Get lots of workers to go with the new settlers.

Maybe put a city where the ruins are first to cottage up those floodplains. Run scientists in hammy's cap to get a great scientist to be used for an academy in your cap. Great library would be nice, but won't really matter if you miss it. Without marble close by i usually don't prioritize it. Expanding quick and growing with hereditary rule is priority here. (lots of workers)

You should be in pretty good shape - taking out hammy is key on this map.

Emperor/Normal 1 AD - 1000 AD
Not too much going on. Just filling out my land and watching everyone else fight each other. I can't really trade too much with the AI's since they are fighting each other and not teching. Refused a lot of demands so i'm not friends with anyone really - but i'm safe so it doesn't matter.

This is the only wonder i built so far this game. Also put the jewish shrine down since a couple AI's were spreading it.

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0183.jpg

Didn't get a scientist to bulb philosophy so i skipped it for other things, but ended up getting there first anyway later. Followed a strange tech path since i'm not beelining liberalism like normal. Got construction first this game(don't think i've ever done that). Decided to go paper/education now - might go for lib just to grab gunpowder free.

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0184.jpg

Have 4 really good production cities set up that can each get a war elephant or catapult in 2-4 turns. Won't take long to build up enough to take out sitting bull. Cyrus hates sitting bull and just fought a war vs mansa, so i'll get brownie points from him probably.

Then i think i'll use janissaries and trebs to attack mansa - who is teching really well as usual, but won't have a big army. I have plenty of techs to bribe cyrus at will against either sitting bull or mansa. Then i'll attack cyrus and have the whole continent. No one besides mansa is teching well, so this should be a really easy game. Don't really care what those two guys are doing on the other continent. Whatever it is it won't stop me from winning. I know they fought a war earlier with each other - they should realize they need to team up, shake hands and start trading with each other.

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0185.jpg

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0186.jpg

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0187.jpg

GnafGnaf

Mar 20, 2009, 06:29 PM

@Tempesta13 thank you for the comments, to bad it took quit a while before the monarchy was discoverd.

emperor normal speel 755 bc till i think 1050 ad

Nothing much happend this round, i am still building up the empire with a lot of workers and i managed to get 10xp thx to the barbarians so the HE is up and running, just like the national epic. Got quite a few GP scientist but havent used them for a bulb, since i feel i am quite comforteble with my tech speed and im 100% sure to beat everyone to liberalism. Also i found it to early for a GA since the empire is not even half of what it should be.

Almost everyone is a buddhist so by changing to buddism i could held of military and start with a lot settlers and workers. To bad I neggleted the military so much i had to give away a lot of tech to demanding neighbours even MM.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=207741&stc=1&d=1237590479

I managed to build the GL and i also got the UoS with the last forests. Sitting bull build the AP so besides the hammer i recieve i also get 2 beakers from it. Sitting bull is teching like crazy, you will see in the F4 screen, that shrine is a goldmine for him.

Anyways i am in doubt what i should do now. Should i am for an AP victory? Or should i get to rifles/cannons. At this point though i am convinced there is no way to lose this its only a matter of time.

Here is an overview any (constructive :)) comment is welcome.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=207746&stc=1&d=1237590508

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=207742&stc=1&d=1237590479

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=207743&stc=1&d=1237590479

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=207744&stc=1&d=1237590508

Yes i gave away those horses cheap but there is no danger in selling them.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=207745&stc=1&d=1237590508

what should i Tech next, i was hoping more people had philosophy so i could trade for it.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=207751&stc=1&d=1237592007

Lansky

Mar 20, 2009, 07:22 PM

Immortal Epic
175AD to 1240AD

A diplomatic victory would have been easy, however I've had too many of those lately both in forum games and just in general so I decided it was time to take down my direct rival - Cyrus. This period is the build up.

Research was initially put down to jack squat while getting infrastructure up - i.e. courthouses. Every city, built/chopped/whipped a courthouse. Meanwhile the worker army went about to improve tiles and in some cases more importantly connect the new cities to the internal trade network. Thanks to our leader's amazingly cheap infrastructure buildings we were back up at full speed in no time.

220AD - Meanwhile as I mentioned before Cahokia is a superb GP farm. One of the best I've seen ever quite frankly. Only a couple hills, 1 or 2 plains tiles and all the water tiles are food resources. Good god. Growing out this city along with Poverty Point were top priorities. Cahokia started paying off much sooner than Poverty Point however. Mansa is teching faster than I've ever even seen him tech, but so am I. The lib race is on.

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/BulbPhilo.jpg

775AD - Cahokia pops out another GS after a GM last time around. I have maybe a 5 turn lead on Mansa at best, however while waiting for the GS I managed to tech compass and most of Nationalism. My espionage cuts in and out a lot with him, yet at this point I still have a view of his cities... :confused: This guy gets me a bit of breathing room. Also behind the scenes I begin to build catapults in a few cities that just can't do much right now. I also trade for Drama. A very overlooked military tech :mischief:

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/BulbEdu.jpg

890AD - Really? Its still available and I have stone? Fine just twist my arm. This is actually a huge help for two newly settled southern cities claimed solely to work the fish/fur to the south.

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/890ADeh.jpg

1100-1140AD - The military build up goes into high gear. It starts out in an inauspicious manner. In order to get all the citizens to shut up the Globe Theater goes up in Cahokia. I swear its only to work a lot of specialists.... :goodjob:

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/GlobeTheatre.jpg

Meanwhile I finished education 3 turns after bulbing it, just 4 turns ahead of Mansa. I started to tech Lib and then noticed something intriguing. Good ole Mansa was headed down the Machinery-Engineering-Guilds-Banks-I don't care about Lib path. OH RLY?! I did the only sensible thing. Put the nail in Cyrus' coffin.

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/SteelLib.jpg

Also by now some of you probably could have guessed this was coming.

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/TajMahal-2.jpg

The Golden Age speared headed the military build up. Research was set to nothing and all of the siege and spare troops sent to the front lines for upgrades. Most cities pumped out cannons while Cahokia stopped working specialists and began working every food tile it had. Oh yeah, the draft was on. Every able bodied Cahokian is being turned into a Janisarry. A relatively early draftable UU :bowdown:

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/CivicSwap.jpg

Theocracy was thrown in for flavor since after Cahokia I don't really have a good secondary GP farm as Babylon got cottaged. Once the GA was over Cyrus was getting antsy. While we were pleased with one another I think he senses I have a back stab lined up. This is not his full SoD but its a good chunk of it. I think mine wins the eyeball check.

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/GAends.jpg

Pretty soon I'll pass the paper check too. All in good time Cyrus...

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/CatchingupCyrus.jpg

Overhead look at the empire at the end of this round. Should be a bit bigger next time around!

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/Empire-1.jpg

As a side note I forgot to upload the picture but someone is going for a cultural victory in this game. Stalin! :lol:

Phil725

Mar 20, 2009, 08:29 PM

@ GnafGnaf

Your initial plan needs to be getting that shrine. Maybe finish teching off gunpowder and then go down the lib route. SB's super archers aren't great against jans. SB doesn't have much land, and if he is teching well, he probably doesn't have much defense.

I doubt an AP win is possible, it's hard to win like that when it's built in a majority religion. Whoever you're running against should have enough to block a win.

If I was in your position I would probably go UN. You should be #1 in pop with your's/Ham's/SB's land. If not, you can always take some land off of MM. Anyway, beeline mass media and gift it to Pericles. He builds a lot of wonders, and isn't popular, so you should win easily. Just adopt vassalage to guarantee Cyrus's vote. You should win with ~80% of the vote.

Tempesta13

Mar 20, 2009, 10:46 PM

Emperor/Normal 1000 AD - 1884 (domination)
Started the war with sitting bull around 1200 AD. Took a lot longer than expected to take him out, not cause he put up much resistance, but i didn't have enough troops when i started.

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0188.jpg

This is how things looked at 1600 - i had capitulated sitting bull since he had a couple cities up north. I was getting ready to go after mansa with rifles/cannons. I was ahead in tech and my production was really good. Mansa hardly had any troops so it was pretty easy.

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0189.jpg

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0191.jpg

After taking a few of mansa's cities i switched to state property. It was definitely the civic to be in on this map. Built the kremlin, but never used it. I was getting more units than i knew what to do with at the end. Pretty sure i forgot to ever switch out of bureaucracy to free speech. Was so far ahead it didn't matter too much - i didn't really check my cities much either after the war with sitting bull.

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0193.jpg

Took down Mansa's main cities. He wasn't slowing me down at all - just the 1 movement troops were.

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0194.jpg

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0195.jpg

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0196.jpg

Tech at 1800...
http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0197.jpg

50 years later and russia is eliminated.

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0199.jpg

34 years later and i win domination.

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0200.jpg

Pericles was going to be eliminated the next turn. So i ended up not attacking cyrus like i had originally planned. He just had too much land - i had the army to do it, but it would have taken forever if he wouldn't have been willing to cap soon, which i doubt he would have. Probably could have gone for mass media and had greece build it to win earlier - but i've had nothing but space and UN victories lately, so i was due for a domination.

Lots of rifles, cannons, tanks, artillery will usually win the game:

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu160/tempesta1313/Civ4ScreenShot0201.jpg

It was a pretty interesting map, ended up a little too easy - but definitely a different layout then the "normal" random maps that are always played.

TheMeInTeam

Mar 21, 2009, 02:27 AM

Immortal/Normal

To 1 AD

Now that I got a chance to read the spoilers, it seems I'm one of the minority who opted not to rush. I went bronze before AH (logically, IMO) after settling 1N. I settled copper but was hardly in the mood to rush hammy or SB on immortal/normal with axes. So, I just expanded. Axes kept me out of the minuscule barb trouble that existed (cities fogbust nicely). Killing the AIs will have to come later I suppose.

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20XII%20Mehmed/Civ4ScreenShot0015.jpg

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20XII%20Mehmed/Civ4ScreenShot0016.jpg

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20XII%20Mehmed/Civ4ScreenShot0017.jpg

To 1630 AD

I start this segment by picking up a wonder with an erratic date on most difficulties:

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20XII%20Mehmed/Civ4ScreenShot0018.jpg

I'll take it. It should be somewhat shocking I even bothered to put one in my queue. I'm not known for spamming wonders.

So, capital is usual bur + cottages. Sniped that western barb city and that turned into a GP farm. Everything else? Hammers. I went down toward steel after lib but forget what I took with lib (I actually won it for a change). Buddhism was prevalent and I took it as a state religion to use theo. I got janissaries but they hardly mattered. The cannons mattered a lot though. Betrayal!

Tech Situation:

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20XII%20Mehmed/Civ4ScreenShot0020.jpg

Here goes:

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20XII%20Mehmed/Civ4ScreenShot0019.jpg

Not a slow war.

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20XII%20Mehmed/Civ4ScreenShot0021.jpg

Unlike Hammy, MM gets rifles. I ACTUALLY MICRO WORKERS (jesus, along with a wonder you'd have to wonder if this is really me, but w/e), using them to workshop hammy's land and set it for hammers ASAP. I also wheeze to rifling. MM is a few turns from MGs, but fortunately not infantry so it's mostly rifle vs rifle. What the hell.

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20XII%20Mehmed/Civ4ScreenShot0022.jpg

Bend over, MM

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20XII%20Mehmed/Civ4ScreenShot0023.jpg

Turns out he caps with around 48% of my land. Too bad for him I'm stuffing obsolete crap in his former cities so they don't revolt, and it's more like 45% after they come out. Mine forever.

To 1866 UN win (Diplomation)

Cyrus/SB had dropped to cautious after cyrus went FR. I used the opportunity here:

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20XII%20Mehmed/Civ4ScreenShot0024.jpg

Again, I hammered my way to AL for infantry and set up factory/coal plants LIGHTNING fast, so even though SB had a lead I was set to teach him a thing or two in POWER.

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20XII%20Mehmed/Civ4ScreenShot0025.jpg

Another tech spurt:

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20XII%20Mehmed/Civ4ScreenShot0026.jpg

Arty are a great complement to infantry. And, lots and lots of them are good for a long time, right cyrus?

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20XII%20Mehmed/Civ4ScreenShot0027.jpg

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20XII%20Mehmed/Civ4ScreenShot0028.jpg

Yeah, I took enough of his cities that he dropped out of #2 in pop (became stalin) then capped him. I could have wiped him out, capped the whole world, or whatever due to a mass power lead I'll show later, but I wanted to just get it over with:

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20XII%20Mehmed/Civ4ScreenShot0029.jpg

Pericles beats me to the UN by 1 turn (he was going culture, though his #3 city was under 15000). So I get to win over him instead of stalin. Oh well.

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20XII%20Mehmed/Civ4ScreenShot0030.jpg

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20XII%20Mehmed/Civ4ScreenShot0031.jpg

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20XII%20Mehmed/Civ4ScreenShot0032.jpg

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20XII%20Mehmed/Civ4ScreenShot0033.jpg

End tech picture?

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20XII%20Mehmed/Civ4ScreenShot0034.jpg

Delicious. What's funny is even though the end tech picture looks bad, I am ABSOLUTELY blowing the game out at this point! Haha! I could have won any VC except culture/time.

Valynor

Mar 21, 2009, 06:03 AM

Sorry, I need some help I think.

I'd like to try this map, but I can't load it.
Where do the .CivBeyondSwordWBSave files go?
I can't see it, either in Beyond the Sword/Saves/single/ or in the Beyond the Sword/Saves/WorldBuilder/
Do I need some mod to play?

Thx

GnafGnaf

Mar 21, 2009, 06:46 AM

@ Valynor I dont know if you need a mod, but you just can open the file it self without loading the game. Futher i use bugmod 3.6 you might need it but i dont know.

@ Phil725
Well at the start i gave up hope of getting a great prophet and besides the fact that hinduism wasnt spread that far.

But i did decide i was able to use the janissary to crush SB. He capitulatted after i took his main 3 cities including the buddhist shrine which gave me 40 gold each turn.

Then it was very easy until the end. Land is power, but i didnt have enough power to gain the UN secretary. My sci and production where so high it was easy to overwhelm MM and i borrowed some land from cyrus for a domination victory.

@Ai Shizuka Can you post an other game i really like to see the choices other players make while everyone is able to pick there own difficulty level.

TheMeInTeam

Mar 21, 2009, 06:58 AM

Beyond the Sword/Saves/WorldBuilder/

This one.

No mods needed. Just play it as a scenario once you save it there.

oranje willem

Mar 21, 2009, 09:27 AM

I'm starting to feel comfortable on emperor, but because you said it was a tough start I decided to go for monarch. Didn't make many screenshots, but it basicly went like this: chariot rush hammy, make peace with him, finish him off with elephants and catapults. As soon as i got guilds and trebuchets I blew away Sitting Bull who only had 4 cities. Cyrus who had an insane amount of land by then was my next target. Mansa had a huge techlead, but I was the only one with steel at that moment. Cyrus couldn't handle my canons and it didn't take very long before he was dead. I basicly won the game already, but I decided to finish it anyway (usually I stop when a victory is so clear). Mansa was the next target, my insane production simply overwhelmed him and even before I conquered all his cities I got a domination victory. A little sidenote: I'm not really familiar with corporations, but I made Sid's Suhshi this game and I was surprised by it's power! I should try some other Corporations as well other games.
Edit: Normal game speed

Lansky

Mar 21, 2009, 10:39 AM

Immortal Epic
1240AD-1520AD

1295AD - A few more turns of drafting and Cyrus' time has come. He only has a slight power lead now and his best units are his knights. War is declared and I move my stack just north of the piddly border city he has a large start inside of. Oh did I mention that he was kind enough to leave me a forest to hide in? Such a swell guy. Also get circumnavigation purely through map trading.

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/1295SuicidalCyrus.jpg

This was apparently was his SoD and the rest of his power appears to be from having 5-10 garrisoned troops in each city. The route is on.

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/PowerDive.jpg

The main stack moves up the east coast while new troops are forming a second stack to hit the west coast. After taking Gordium, a well sized jungle city now on amazing land, unhappiness back home begins to mount.

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/SoZ.jpg

*curse word* I knew that and forgot. Oh well gotta push on. He bribes Stalin into war but it's nothing a few drafted citizens and upgraded garrison troops can't handle. After destroying his massive 10 catapult 1 maceman attack force Stalin is broken. He's making Ragnar look like a tech giant here.

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/StalinDown.jpg

Unfortunately to combat war weariness research goes to nothing and the culture slider is pumped up. I'm even building coliseums in larger cities I can't afford to go deep into unhappiness. The economy needs a shot in the arm and Mansa Musa provides it.

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/MansaforPP.jpg

I have a ton of mature cottages at this point and it is a huge shot in the arm since I'm still reliant on drafting so Free Speech is righto out. The eastern stack is progressing well and is one city away from the capital where the nasty SoZ resides.

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/OneCitytoGo.jpg

On the western front it looks very similar. Almost all of Cyrus' jungle holdings are now mine and he's relegated to mostly desert area coastal cities. This second stack badly needs a medic however so the next GG is attached to an old HA sitting around and viola. Speeds up conquests nicely.

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/WesternAttackGoingWell.jpg

Persepolis sinks like a brick. I'm starting to see axemen in garrisons and Cyrus' power score is shot. In fact this is how weak he is.

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/SoZDownMMjoinsparty.jpg

Mansa Musa dog piles him. Mansa freaking Musa. I thought I was the one that was going to get declared on since I dropped to cautious a while ago when I went into FR and received a third -1 for declaring on a friend. Good surprise. Not only do I not have to worry about Mansa yet, I also have a third stack forming in a NW barb city on Mansa's SW flank to "protect" myself that is no longer needed for protection. Meanwhile the secondary stack sacks the new capital of Persia and finds another wonder that was a mild nuisance.

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/ChichenItzaArgh.jpg

He finished this the turn before I declared. Not a big problem thanks to cannons but really annoying nonetheless. Well he won't be an annoyance much longer. I split my Persian stacks up and go on mop duty. Zohak is the last Persian bastion left. The workers will do nicely to get some workshops and cottages up in the jungle cities. I normally leave old AI improvements up since its a lot of cottages/workshops normally even if in somewhat stupid manners. This time it is almost exclusively farms. Bleh.

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/CyrusOut.jpg

With Cyrus out of the picture I'm teetering very close to a Domination win but Mansa will have to be wiped out as well. Capitulation might give me enough land but I'm twice his power so I'll just make sure I win.

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/MansaisNext.jpg

He will have rifling shortly and already has MT along with a stock of mounted guards, but we'll have Rifling in ~10 turns and can trade MT from Pericles. Have been trading with him very liberally as it keeps Stalin in check and I have no intention of invading the western continent. I want the doughnut.

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/1520-TheDoughnutwillbeMine.jpg

v8_mark

Mar 21, 2009, 07:52 PM

Monarch/Epic to conclusion (1560AD AP win):

Another 16th Century AP win on Monarch/Epic for me. Pretty extraordinary that there were three such wins in this game, wonder why that was.

Tale of the tape was slightly unconventional. Didn't go for an early rush on Hammy - realized too late that there were horses (didn't get AH until almost 1000BC). Instead went for an early pottery REX to get cities and cottages down. Immediately saw the enormous potential for a bureaucracy commerce capital and plonked down cottages almost immediately on getting pottery. Saw that there were enough resources to get me to size 10 with hammams, so claimed them, got the capital to 10 and didn't bother with the monarchy path.

Took a little bit of a risk with Hammy as I didn't have enough production, and there were two blocks forming; the Jewish Bull/Cyrus/Mansa block and the lone Hindu Hammurabi. But Babylon never went into WHEOOHRN, and consequently never declared. Got up to 8 cities by 1AD, whereupon hilariously Mansa declared on me at pleased (he'd been in WHEOOHRN for ages and ages) and invaded with a sword and two axes. It took me by such surprise that I actually lost a city momentarily; whipped a couple of HAs and all was fine and dandy though. Mansa eventually took peace after I killed a couple more of his units and we became firm friends. Go figure.

Meanwhile, I was flying tech-wise thanks to having 6 strong cities. Had CS by 100AD so went Bureaucracy; then took Metal Casting and Machinery to spam maces. The idea was that I would eventually kill Hammy, who was falling behind - it took a while to amass a respectable invasion force due to only really having one worthwhile production city. Tech continued to rock; went Compass/Optics then Paper/Philo/Education, took a quick detour to Gunpowder for Janissaries (which I had by 800AD) then Liberalism, from which I took Printing Press.

By 1000AD the stack was ready, with 12-15 maces, 5-6 cats/trebs and 5-6 janissaries - it didn't need to be huge, as the best Hammy had to offer were axes, HAs and swords (I saw one elephant before I pillaged his lone ivory source). Eliminated Hammy in short order without any problems whatsoever.

Continued to race up the tech tree and was tech leader by a distance when I realized that the AP offered an easy way to win. So I did the cowardly and cheesy thing, spreading Judaism to Pericles and Stalin just before the vote was due. Bull built the AP and so was my rival; Cyrus, despite having a ridiculous amount of population (not at all far behind me, actually) had to vote for me - as did Mansa. It was enough to win by about 50 votes.

Couple of things that were interesting:
I spawned 2 GPs all game. One was a GS which academied the capital; one was a GSpy which I used for a mass-civic-changing golden age. I also got the free GM from economics (settled in cap for lack of anything better to do with it), and the free GG from Fascism.
That was my first ever AP win on any difficulty. Quite satisfying to be honest; I felt I deserved the victory.
I said to myself before the game that this was a chance for 'promotion' - if I won this game I'd go Emperor for the next one. So it is done. I've been spanked on my previous two attempts at Emperor.

Crusher1

Mar 22, 2009, 01:39 AM

Although I am a steady Immortal player I think it is bad manners to play different settings than the OP set forth :) . After all, what if a Monarch player is trying to learn how to get better and everyone plays on Emperor +. Not very helpful, LoL!

Hammer Economy, Gogogogogo Hammers, Yay!

Monarch/Epic

Tech Path:

Food techs, military, myst, pottery, writing, alphabet, currency, med, priest, monarchy, asthetics to literature, COL (traded), Philo (traded) CS, Paper (bulb), Education (bulb half), MC (+1 workshops), Machinery (Engineer Prereq and PP prereq), Liberalism.

Picked PP as free tech (prereq for RP and its more expensive than GP), Engineering (Chem prereq), Feudalism (traded), Guilds (+1 work shops), gunpowder (Chem prereq). Used 2 scientist to bulb Chemistry (+1 work shops) and immediately used 2 more scientist to bulb scientific method. Immediately started researching Communism. As I was researching communism I got 1 more GS and used him on Biology. Started banking and got another GS who was used on Biology, which I then finished, went back to Banking, RP (we already picked PP free tech), Rifling, Steam power, Assembly line.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s305/cseanny/HE/Civ4ScreenShot0003.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s305/cseanny/HE/Civ4ScreenShot0004.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s305/cseanny/HE/Civ4ScreenShot0005.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s305/cseanny/HE/Civ4ScreenShot0008.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s305/cseanny/HE/Civ4ScreenShot0013.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s305/cseanny/HE/Civ4ScreenShot0015.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s305/cseanny/HE/Civ4ScreenShot0021.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s305/cseanny/HE/Civ4ScreenShot0022.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s305/cseanny/HE/Civ4ScreenShot0023.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s305/cseanny/HE/Civ4ScreenShot0024.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s305/cseanny/HE/Civ4ScreenShot0025.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s305/cseanny/HE/Civ4ScreenShot0027.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s305/cseanny/HE/Civ4ScreenShot0030.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s305/cseanny/HE/Civ4ScreenShot0031.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s305/cseanny/HE/Civ4ScreenShot0033.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s305/cseanny/HE/Civ4ScreenShot0035.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s305/cseanny/HE/Civ4ScreenShot0037.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s305/cseanny/HE/Civ4ScreenShot0041.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s305/cseanny/HE/Civ4ScreenShot0044.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s305/cseanny/HE/Civ4ScreenShot0043.jpg

I have 9X more production than 2nd place. Long live the HE. If you look at my research rate/gpt you'll notice I'm not having any problems researching expensive techs - speed is Epic.

Yes, I am work shopping over the cottages. A HE produces more units than gold + rush buying + Kremlin (i've already posted some screen shots in the HE help thread in regards to this, of course rush buying Nukes is > all) I had 22 workers with 10 cities and 30 workers with 15+ cities. Every city conquered had 10+ workshops, a forge, and a factory very quickly. Smaller cities also received a coal plant because they didnt have to worry about health. A tiny little city working 7 tiles with a forge, factory, and coal plant can produce 60 Hammers a turn on normal speed, or 1 Infantry every 2 turns.

Tempesta13

Mar 22, 2009, 03:35 PM

The OP plays on emperor

Lansky

Mar 22, 2009, 09:46 PM

Immortal Epic
To 1670AD Domination

Just gonna knock this one out quickly as at this point it is very anticlimactic. With twice the power of Mansa I declare and start invading the SW first then when he’s committed to dislodging me from a fortified hill location my two main eastern stacks head in. The first GP since I declared on Cyrus way back when finally arrives, a Great Merchant. At first I start sending him to Cahokia to settle, but then realize that’s largely pointless. He’s stopped and a Golden Age begins.

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/GoldenAge.jpg

Mansa has no hope. None. My 3 stacks ready to invade, though there is some overlap between stacks 1 and 3 via unit shuffling in these screens. Reinforcements are still streaming in to the end.

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/Stack1.jpg
http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/Stack2.jpg
http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/Stack3.jpg

This quickly leads to.

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/Djenne.jpg
http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/KumbiSaleh.jpg
http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/Timbuktu.jpg

He has one city left and while I’m already over the domination limit I figure he’s just sitting there crippled so I do the humane thing.

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/NailinCoffin.jpg

You are a winnar!

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/Winnar.jpg

Globe Theater + Drafting are something I really need to remember to combine more often. Too many games go by where I don’t even consider drafting. Apparently drafted units are not recorded as being built but these numbers will suffice.

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu326/lanskyj13/EndStats.jpg

KaytieKat

Mar 22, 2009, 11:50 PM

TheMeInTeam

Mar 23, 2009, 12:22 AM

@ kaytie:

You're doing fine. Possibly you could have expanded a bit faster but I won't hold it against someone vaulting +1 difficulty ;)...especially since you still have some fish to settle down south.

The AI squanders its land. Something you'll learn as you go up is that the AI will ALWAYS get a lead on you early ----> only top deity players can play from the front on emperor+, but even on monarch it takes a little while to equalize. As long as you prevent a DoW by surprise (aka your wars are ones you initiate/expect) you can probably out-tech the AI from what I've seen out of you in the past. Anyway, just research some stuff the AI doesn't have and trade it around. You love war so you can dial up war on hammy or anyone really once you have cats (though SB is really annoying to hit pre-gunpowder, and is pretty peaceful).

Ok, out of spoilers...I'll put NC up tonight :p. I neglected it a bit with schoolwork, SGOTM 9 starting up, other series on the forum, and of course being a "youtube start" :lol:.

Please note that in the future, anyone who wants to host a NC can do so also! The series does not belong to me! I'm the 3rd host of it...although I think I might have hosted the most games only due to my game spam power :p.

Tempesta13

Mar 23, 2009, 09:27 AM

Hi

Monarch, Marathon, 570 bc. So how hopeless is it for me already?

Well LHC game is done and since SOMEBODY too busy being a youtube star to get a NC game going--(hehe j/k :P TMiT) I figured I would give this a try. That way when I get whomped and pout and cry ppl will finally stop nagging hehe :P

ANways I settled in place and got a scout from the hut. I scouted round and met some AI's. Seems like I am gonna get boxed in between to AI's who are a TOTAL PITA for BC warring. SB with his uber archers and puppies and Hammy and his bowman :/.

I settled out a smuch as I could:

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll203/KaytieKat91/civalbum2/MonarchMeh/empire570bc.jpg

I have room for one more junk city down south which I am putting off since I doubt it not gonna do anything cept up maintainance costs. SO that means I am gonna have to go after somebody.

I am thinking it gonna have to be hammy. Bowman are bad but SB's archers AND doggies are worse :/.

I got a Gspy from gwall already but havent done anything with him. I figured I would wait and see if neone have any adivce. I am thinking maybe pump out units and spies and then go use em as scout to map out hammy's land, settle him and do the old spy as siege deal on him.--or would it be better to that to sb or better to settle him or send him off after mansa or something to go tech steal? No idea but have feeling if I dont get some breathing room soon this game never even gonna get out of BC's :/

here is tech sitch:

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll203/KaytieKat91/civalbum2/MonarchMeh/techsitch570bc.jpg

Not as sucky as it might have been cuz I went after alphabet and then whored it around for anything I could get. Med, Priesthood, OR, Fishing, Sailing, and IW. Probably should have tried to save it a bit for HR but I was scared they ai's would trade it around. Hopefully once Currency done I can whore that around too.

Demos:

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll203/KaytieKat91/civalbum2/MonarchMeh/demos570bc.jpg

waaaaaah!! Im below average in EVERYTHING :cry:

SO how deep am I and do I have ANY chance of digging out? I think Hammy is best shot especially since SB seem closer to longbows than he is already. So settle the gspy on hammy and use spies and swords to take try and take him out or save the spie and just use the swords? Or go some other way I wasnt smart enough to see yet?Kaytie

It looks like you're doing pretty well- i think you need to figure out when you want to attack hammy before continuing. If you aren't going to attack with swords/spies then you should focus on teching. Right now you have your 3 main cities working on units - but if you have enough to "feel safe" already (only really need a few) then switching over to building research will get you currency sooner. Then you can trade this to sitting bull for monarchy and switch to hereditary rule while just building happiness garrison units as needed until construction. You will also be able to get math (opening up construction) from currency once a 2nd AI gets it and it's open for trade. Probably a 2nd AI will have it before you finish currency anyway so you won't have to wait. You'll need to find a way to get horseback riding as well. With the 2 construction units available you should find a war with Hammy pretty easy. Hard to say which is best without knowing what units he has now and how many swords you have. Also depends on how quick he gets to feudalism.

Maybe assign a couple scientists somewhere too. Early academy helps a lot.

@lansky

Nice game - you didn't even have time to get to state property conquering that fast. I would have thought taking on cyrus that early would be tough (especially on immortal) but janissaries are pretty good. Mansa as usual puts up no resistance.

KaytieKat

Mar 23, 2009, 04:30 PM

Hi

Monarch, Marathon 1165 AD. Im still alive hehe :)

Okies, I decided to go with th ekill hammy plan. So I built up a few more swords and some spies, while I was doing that my gpsy scouted round hammy's land then when it was rdy he settled and then:

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll203/KaytieKat91/civalbum2/MonarchMeh/dowhammy.jpg

The war went ok. Everybody STILL waay out teching me but I managed to kill off Hammy. He had even run off the continent but I chased him and took his last city he made on land off the coast. And soon after met Joey. Since then I been teching and trying to build up the land. I settled a cpl more filler cities to and know thinking bout next move.

I have pretty decent relations with Mansa at friendly and with Cy at Pleased. SB dont like me too much and he is in build up mode. Peri dont like me too much either and is in build up mode too but I still have NOOOOO Idea where he is apparently he not on the continent. Staling kind of non issue since he is waaaaaaay backwards. AP been built and it hindu and spammed missionaries enuff that now I am running it so hopefully that wont end up being a headache for me.

I have teched out gunpowder and am building janisaries. Plan now is to take out SB then after that since both Cy and Mansa like me just shuttle my army over and see what i can take from Joe and maybe find out where peri is and then see where I should go from there.

Here is my empire now:

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll203/KaytieKat91/civalbum2/MonarchMeh/empire1165ad.jpg

Demos:

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll203/KaytieKat91/civalbum2/MonarchMeh/demos1165.jpg

Not as bad as it was but still like it to be better. Least I am above avg in a few categories now :).

tech sitch:

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll203/KaytieKat91/civalbum2/MonarchMeh/techsitch1165ad.jpg

So much for my teching abilities being monarch level hehe. And only reason it isnt worse is cuz I been trading like maniac for as much as I can and my second gspy got settled sb's way and then I stole Engineering, Philosphy, CS, and machinery off him then whored out Philiosphy for all I could get which wasnt much but at least lots of cash so all my swords and axes are all maces now.

And that "will trade" list of mansas a bit decieiving since his asking price for all of that is more than I can afford. It always the "I dont see how that can happen" dealio grrr. I havent tried gunpowder yet just cause I dont wanna let that tech getting spread round just yet, least not until SB is dead.

SO that plan at moment. Add some jannies to my stack and maybe a few trebs although SB built chicken pizza and he have castles so thought of using seige to drop 125% defenses not THAT appealing so spies prolly gonna do most of that and then siege will just be to soften defenders. Hopefully if I can kill him off that mean only ppl who like me will be on my continent and then I will still be far enuff ahead of Joe to take him out pretty easy, And then after that it just depends on how far behind mansa and cy and peri I am by then.

So my economy kinda sucky and my beakers are VERY sucky but I am still in game and have a plan so now whomped yet hehe wish me luck :)
Kaytie

Lansky

Mar 23, 2009, 04:31 PM

@lansky

Nice game - you didn't even have time to get to state property conquering that fast. I would have thought taking on cyrus that early would be tough (especially on immortal) but janissaries are pretty good. Mansa as usual puts up no resistance.

It was entirely because of Janissaries. Without their bonuses he probably would have broken my stack. He was using a lot of archery/mounted units. Wish my offline games looked that good =/ Immortal is still kicking my butt.

michmbk

Mar 23, 2009, 07:48 PM

I am so far behind - with everything going on at work and the NCAA tournament all weekend, I missed both this and the nobles game. Going to try to start to shadow one of these in the next day, but I feel like I'm out of touch after only being away for 4 days! Looks like from the non-spoiler info this was a tough game, so looking forward to how it plays out.

Tempesta13

Mar 23, 2009, 10:10 PM

The nobles club game was just posted so you're not too far behind - no one has posted into the AD's yet there. As long as you get this one done by thursday you won't get back logged too much. This map looked really tough at the start but it ended up (for me anyway) not too bad at all. If you manage the early game and the macro decisions later decently i think it's an "average" game. It's a pretty interesting map - and there aren't 10,000 islands like last time.

_EGO_

Mar 24, 2009, 05:26 PM

I'm downloading it right now to give a try at this... i'll let you know about that (i'm a little unconfortable to be Mehemed, he has kicked me out of the game i've just finished...) :)

KaytieKat

Mar 24, 2009, 05:55 PM

Hi

Monarch, Marathon, 1818 AD

Okies. I killed off SB, then killed off Stalin. I waited a bit to modernize to kill off peri cuz he was teching pretty fast but I finally got him all done. After he was sorted I checked vic conditions:

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll203/KaytieKat91/civalbum2/MonarchMeh/viccon1818.jpg

Close but not quite there yet grrr. UN is built too but I know have too much pop for vote to come up.

I am not saure if border pops will get me it or not:

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll203/KaytieKat91/civalbum2/MonarchMeh/greeklands.jpg

I have feeling even when the last cities come out of revolt and pop Im still gonna be a little short.

Which means I am gonna have to tackle that HUGE Mansa/Cy block up north. And that is gonna be a pain. Techwise they been ahead WHOLE game but I am just now starting to pull ahead but not by much. And in military techs we are dead even so if Im not careful it could get ugly. But I probly better hurry Cy has appolo built but hasnt built any parts I dont think however Mansa seems to have his slider on max culture now and he already has his cap at legendary so if I put it off too much longer he might manage to get a culture win.

So it look like what may happen is I gonna have to try and take one or two cities and just hold on until they pop and if they dont send a counter attack that kills I SHOULD get the dom win. I hope.

My main empire at this point:

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll203/KaytieKat91/civalbum2/MonarchMeh/mainempire1818.jpg

Just building units and infrastructure.

Demos:

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll203/KaytieKat91/civalbum2/MonarchMeh/demos1818.jpg

And least my economy is starting to come together with a VERY late surge. And militray numbers are misleading since Mansa is Cy's vassal attacking one means attacking the other so I am gonna have to fight their COMBINED military which makes us pretty much even at this point.

Tech sitch:

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll203/KaytieKat91/civalbum2/MonarchMeh/techsitch1818.jpg

I actually managed to pull ahead in tech. It took FOREVER tho. And like I said just BARELY ahead by one measly tech.

I COULD try and push for mechs and maybe mordern armor since cy seems to be looking at speace techs now and mansa has his slider at 100% culture. Im just worried if I do that Mansa might get his other 2 cities to legendary so best bet just seems to try and beat them with same tech level units but just makes sure I spam TONS of em.

This is reason why I been shying away from harder levels -- cuz they are HARDER :P sheesh late era wars are SOOOO much easier on noble hehe. But thanks to Mining Inc I do have a hammer advanatge so I should be able to get up a LARGE stack and just swamp em with numbers I HOPE so anyways. But I think its doable and if all goes well it I will win my first try on monarch so wish me luck :)
Kaytie

KaytieKat

Mar 25, 2009, 03:59 PM

Hi

Monarch, Noble, 1841 AD dom win :)

AFter what felt like FOREVER I managed to shuttle over my mian army off of the western cont back to the big cont and got em into position near Mansa's borders:

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll203/KaytieKat91/civalbum2/stack1.jpg

Meanwhile while they were getting ready I got a little stack built up near cys borders:

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll203/KaytieKat91/civalbum2/stack2.jpg

I checked vic con and it seems like all land I already had =62.78 % or something like that out of 64 needed so looked like I had no choice:

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll203/KaytieKat91/civalbum2/dowcy.jpg

I dow and my stacks move in. I take one of cy's cities right off the bat but OF Course since it liek that late in game and EVERY fricking city has like 60-80% culure it is SWAMPED so land 5 doesnt move at all. Plus I accidently moved reinforcements over a hill so they didnt get into city I just took. Which meant very next turn cy takes it back grrrr.

But I retake it that turn and THIS time reinforce it. Meanwhile my stack on mansa's side still hasnt made the trp to mansa cities cuz his culture pushing out 4 tiles grrr.

SO next few turns I take counter attacks from cy naval harrassment on my seafood and stuff like this:

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll203/KaytieKat91/civalbum2/spycrazy.jpg

Most games spies NEVER blow up stuff in cities mostly just tile improvements much less like 4 or 5 all at once. it is VERY annoying.

But slowly but surely I make headway. I hold off lots of cy's counter attacks and then take another one of his cities.

On other side I take one of mansa's cities then my stack make ANOTHER looooong slog through mansa's culture and take another city and after checking vicon:

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll203/KaytieKat91/civalbum2/viccon1841.jpg

It looks like I'm over the top. SO just to get rid of war weariness so it can maybe pad my score hehe:

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll203/KaytieKat91/civalbum2/cypeace.jpg

Even if it doesnt help score at least it got rid of lots of sad faces--cy built the SoZ so ww started hitting hard after a few battles. Then I hit shift return and:

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll203/KaytieKat91/civalbum2/vicnotice.jpg

I get my very first win on monarch on my first try :D

Final stats:

The graphs:

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll203/KaytieKat91/civalbum2/finalgraphs.jpg

close up of power:

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll203/KaytieKat91/civalbum2/finalpower.jpg

Cy was the big boy on block pretty much whole game. Luckily tho for most of game I had him at pleased-friendly. Felt kinda bad backstabbing him but there just wasnt ANY more land left on map not even itty bitty one tile islands off somewhere to settle so I had no choice. Plus it was HIS bright idea to accept mansa's vassalizing to him so that what he gets hehe :P

Final demos:

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll203/KaytieKat91/civalbum2/finaldemos.jpg

Here what my empire looked like at end.

Main cont:

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll203/KaytieKat91/civalbum2/finalempmain.jpg

Little cont:

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll203/KaytieKat91/civalbum2/finalempwest.jpg

My best cities:

My cap:

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll203/KaytieKat91/civalbum2/finalistanbul.jpg

Semi decent sci city but not all that great. Plus I didnt hardly get ANY wonders done so it just BARELY past influential by end of game

Babylon:

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll203/KaytieKat91/civalbum2/finalbabylon.jpg

Thanks to VERY weird combo of Wall street and IW it ended up being my top money and my top hammer city. yeah yeah I KNOW building internet kinda useless but after I got GW done I built ZERO wonders until i manged to build three gorges. That is a LOOOONG time to go without shinies {{pout}}. If it werent for fact that Peri and SB managed to build a few useful ones I wouldnt have had hardly any at all as it was that lil wonderhog mansa built like a GAZILLION of em it seems like.

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll203/KaytieKat91/civalbum2/finalchakoia.jpg

I did manage to make a nice military city. Another city got HE early on and for while wa smy main unit maker but then I got redcross, westpoint, built here and it already had a settled gg so added another one and then gave it a mil academy so it maged to make very nice units out of the box.

And all of that adds up to:

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll203/KaytieKat91/civalbum2/finalrank.jpg

Nice score but I think that mostly from diff level. Im glad I managed to win but it was HARD. Mansa and cy and even peri for awhile just kept teching and teching and it took FOREVER to get ANY kind of lead. I just got lucky and early on I was able to fin a cpl of wars without getting on Cy's bad side. It looked like he just had TONS of spce to settle out. And Mansa was teching faster than me even with LOTS less land it wasnt until he went to 100% culture that I really had chance to get a lil lead.

I think I better go back to prince for a little while till I get the hang of things there. I feel like I still have LOTS to learn before I go permantly up to monarch. But it was interesting trying it out even if it was NERVE wracking just trying to keep up. Maybe after a few more prince games Ill give another monarch school game a try :)
Kaytie