Monarch Student^ V - Justinian

Since the previous map was indeed killer, (hey, I had difficulty retrying it at Monarch,) Justinian will be given an easier time.

Justinian is Spiritual and Imperialistic. Imperialistic gives you more Great Generals and faster Settler production. "Production", meaning hammers, so this trait favors building Settlers in high-production cities rather than food-rich ones. Spiritual means faster temples and no anarchy during civics changes.

Byzantium's starting techs are nothing to write home about: Wheel and Mysticism. Mysticism MIGHT give you access to an early religion. On the other hand, if you research Fishing for this coastal-looking start, you'll be just a hop-skip away from Pottery.

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m131/robo_mike/civpics/MS5-1.jpg


Cataphracts are often compared to War Chariots and Praetorians, but are not as used. Maybe it's because Gunpowder is just a hop-skip away from Guilds. So in this game, Uncle Justin encourages you to beeline Guilds for some hot Cataphract action... long before you get Cavalry to replace them.

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m131/robo_mike/civpics/MS5-2.jpg


Despite its name, this UB isn't about hippopotamuses. It's about horses.

The Hippodrome is a vastly improved Theater, as +1 :), +1 :) from horses and +2 :) more for every 10% on your culture slider can be helpful to combat war weariness. For leaders who are trekking the Aesthetics line instead of following Uncle Justin's advice, Drama is just a hop-skip from Literature.

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m131/robo_mike/civpics/MS5-3.jpg


Map Settings...
Map: Standard Fractal
Oppnents: 6
Sealevel: Medium
Climate: Temperate



In my test games, what can make or break the difficulty of this map, are the religion/s of your neighbors. And watch out for the guys and gals from faraway lands. Better hop-skip there before they tech like crazy.

Also, I gave you more horses than you'll ever need. Don't worry. :D

Finally, forgive me, for I changed someone's color to green. Again, too similar to player's color.

Today's start is "almost coastal":
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m131/robo_mike/civpics/MS5-4.jpg


The Worldbuilder save is below. It is perfect for Monarch or Emperor starts, and... "okay" for other levels.

To play, unzip the worldbuilder file and place it in your Documents/My Games/Civilization 4/Saves/WorldBuilder or Documents/My Games/BTS/Saves/WorldBuilder folder. Start the game by choosing Single Player -> Play a Scenario, where you may adjust the speed and difficulty to your liking. Or Custom Scenario, if you also wish to turn off huts, barbarians or events and adjust other settings.

Let us compare strategies and progress with other players as well as learn to play. Win or lose, for better or worse, feel free to report on your glorious exploits. Perhaps other players can give you advice on your game.

Please keep your reports in spoiler tags. It's better that way. :D

Recommended Checkpoints:
*1000BC or 1AD or 100AD
*800AD, 1000AD or Liberalism
*1200AD or 1400AD
*Victory!

The save is below, feel free to... uh, hop-skip to it. :)

Hmm... Settling in place seems highly unlikely. I guess I'll move the warrior 1 NE to see what's up there and then move the settler on to the corn to see what's below. I'm guessing that I'll probably settle 1E of the corn, which loses the wine but picks up the crabs.

This is another leader I can't remember the last time I used, so I look forward to it. Spiritual is fun, and I'm not completely against founding an early religion, but without fishing to work those crabs from the first turn, it will be take a lot of turns to do so. Maybe I'll look into capturing a holy city early on...

I think I would settle 1W for instant early production.

This should be interesting. Any time the randomiser has given me Justinian I have completely failed to get off to a good start and I ended up quitting after getting into a hopeless position. His starting techs are problematic, plus the urge to try for a religion usually doesn't help speed things up either.

This time I shall do better!

1SW gives you the most river tiles and food sources, but I would move the Warrior 1N or NE first.

my 1st MS game, so thought I'd try it out. Sorry, missed the 1000BC save! Settled 1SW and started fish>mining>ag>ah>bw>writing>sailing>mason>alhpa>currency
warrior,wb,(finish)warrior x3, settler,worker,settler,worker. Found Wang to the NE and Osaka to the NW.

Built GLH around 625BC
Teched up to Alpha and traded that around for Construction. With cats/swords/spears/chariots went on an Osaka rampage, kicking him off the continent in 1000AD. Washington vassaled to Wang around 1AD, thank god we're all Buddhist, thank you Osaka for wonderwhoring a little
http://i409.photobucket.com/albums/pp175/cripp777/MS%20Justain/Civ4ScreenShot0009.jpg

Land at 1000AD
http://i409.photobucket.com/albums/pp175/cripp777/MS%20Justain/Civ4ScreenShot0008.jpg.

Now it time for recovery, have to keep an on Wang, has has Guild which I need. I'm 4 turns from Lib. Someone take a look at my save any give me some tips please!

I'd settle 1W no doubt unless the warrior reveals something amazing. Shall play this tomorrow!

I'm nearly 100% certain that I'm going to settle 1W and do a settler-first start, tech towards BW, then spam workers and settlers big-time.

@cripp:
First of all, you have an iron grip on Liberalism, so you are in a very good position. However you seem to lack techs to counter the Knights. And you don't even have Macemen. Engineering is a long way off for you, perhaps going to Military Tradition for Cuirassers (it's sad to skip Cataphracts) or Gunpowder are fast ways you can get a defense in case of a remote Wang backstab. Alternatively, try trading out Paper for Metal Casting and Machinery and Engineering. (I doubt you can get anything good from Isabella.)

As for Liberalism: Military Tradition, Constitution, Democracy and Astronomy are your picks now (get a few techs first). Steel is an eternity away, you can't afford to wait that long.

edit: Can settle a good spot south of Agra. Also I'm surprised you didn't improve the gold after all these years.

Immortal/Normal No Events

I was pretty unconventional in this one so far.

25 AD



Settled on the plains hill. Opened AG (popped it from the hut a turn or two later), Fishing, mining, hunting/archery (lul!), animal husbandry, sailing, masonry, bronzeworking. I was able to make a lot of interesting little early trades.

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20Just/Civ4ScreenShot0000.jpg
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Obviously gunning AP here. However, I've decided to use it as a safety valve and try winning with military. GLH fueled the expansion, I build 0 cottages in this entire game, deciding to rely on AP :hammers:, the ridiculousness that is the GLH + trade routes, and whatever tiles I get. I do not attempt to run specs off farms (that's weak), instead just mass producing infrastructure and flinging the few techs I get my hands on around as trade bait.



To 1390 AD - lib/circumnavigation races settled, show on my plan for victory.



I hold the monopoly on Theo long enough to pick up AP and hagia sophia (I've not built many workers in this, relying on careful micro, minimal roading, and the whip to allow adequate expansion + the wonders). I then trade it around for lots of gold and key economy techs. I go literature just for NE + trades and then for civil service, and then finally to divine right (which I use as an amazing trade chip to pull me things like guilds, engineering, machinery, paper, and philosophy). I miss out on spiral by 1 turn thanks to Asoka...the only reason I traded DR so early was that wang requested it and would probably have declared on me if I didn't accept and get him back to pleased (the fruit built paya and went early FR grrrr). Nevertheless, I got my beakers worth off of it, and I can always TAKE spiral (and sankore for that matter) later.

I also lose lib by 1 turn and never see the light of day in the circumnav. race. I have decided not to colonize that significant landmass to the east, instead dealing with my neighbors.

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20Just/Civ4ScreenShot0011.jpg
http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20Just/Civ4ScreenShot0012.jpg
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I am backwards in tech somewhat. However, I figured it better to clear wang's stack and start on a few of his cities NOW, before he gets rifles. My production base is amazing and after rifling I will go state property for workshops to push it over the edge. Although my opponents will get rifles I'll have a huge production lead on wang before he gets them and he now has no SoD. I'll probably kill him off completely, take Asoka's mainland cities+capitulation, then turn on freddy. From there it's just going to be a mass cavalry + airship capping spree. Some of the guys on the other continent (maybe even fred) will get infantry but with my production it's not going to matter.

Well if nothing else this map is in fact a lot easier than the last one. A LOT easier.

Well if nothing else this map is in fact a lot easier than the last one. A LOT easier.

High level maps that give the AI tremendous amounts of land for a given world size are troublesome.

While on noble or even monarch this issue isn't as pronounced, the AI can expand very quickly on the highest levels. A human with proper micro can keep up, but runs into a critical problem: keeping up results in total crash when keeping up requires double digit cities and there isn't much commerce to be had. Because of this, the AI is virtually guaranteed a marked land advantage on land-only maps of a given size. It's still possible to overcome it for very good players, usually by grabbing a quick tech lead using a smaller empire and then going to town on the AI to make up the land deficit. Although this is somewhat uphill due to a massive AI production lead, it will still work.

Nevertheless the game is not, and can not be 100% balanced between map types. I'm led to believe that the likes of fractal, continents, custom continents, pangaea, donut (with water in the middle), or something that has a mix of land and water is the best balance medium...with the AI being unable to truly cope with watery maps and having a big advantage on land-only ones.

This map does feel pretty easy on the surface but there are some things that make it feel that way to those who are experienced, such as:



1. Ability to use a culture pop to gain trade access (and possibly even settle) the landmass with izzy/etc.
2. GLH opening, with lots of AI trade routes and even an island available to pump up the value of trade routes
3. Triple AIs that tech well but do not declare at pleased on our continent.
4. Not shredding yourself rushing PRO wang kon, but instead expanding adequately with plenty of room.



However, whether those reads are hard or easy for someone depends on their experience. It felt pretty easy to me too, but I wouldn't be surprised (nor should someone feel bad) if we see a couple people stumble or come out semi-flat here. The leader himself is after all somewhat unconventional.

Weird how everybody is finding this one easy. I cruised through the Toku game but I am continuing my run of bad luck here with Justinian and am tempted to throw in the towel. Wang is such a financial, gold-in-the-BFC, settler spamming monster that there is no room left for me to do anything. I got off to a pitifully slow start, as I always do when I try to play the Byzantines.

Also, a couple of curiosities - the default speed on this map is epic, which totally throws me as I'm not used to the pace of it; and even though I turned off huts, they are still present to torment me with their cruel malice. :(

You can't turn off huts via clicking the box in worldbuilder games, you have to literally find/replace the goody hut thing out of the text file.

Default speed is epic but you can play any of course.

Although others found it easy (and I'm doing well), I did comment that some people would probably come out flat in a game like this ;). Different skill sets shine in this game vs the last one (which I was out of town for so just read).

Default speed is epic but you can play any of course.

Sure, but I wasn't expecting epic speed and didn't feel like restarting...which was silly as it would have taken about ten seconds. :crazyeye:

Justinian seems to be a problem for me, I have never done anything but fail horribly with him.

Maybe I'll persevere and see if I can dig myself out of it. It's probably not as bad as I think. Will post my poor start later anyway, for comparartive purposes.

Monarch/Epic: Sometime before 1AD (I forget where I left off.)

Okay, I settled 1S, which picks up the pigs. As it turns out, this may be my only commerce city for a while. The rest of the southern coast line is nice, and I mapped out about eight cities to pick everything up to the edge of the jungle.

And man, that's some thick jungle. When I left off, I was about to go for iron working, since I've got no copper and would like to settle at least one city on my own up there before Wang takes it all for himself.

NOT sure how I'm going to finance this empire. It has been pretty easy to settle everything I want, but mostly I'm looking at cities that have lots of nice hammers and enough food to feed them.

Justin's traits are an odd combo, aren't they? Fast settlers, generals, and temples. Weird. I guess the best thing to do is attempt to take advantage of the anarchy free civic changes.

@cripp:
First of all, you have an iron grip on Liberalism, so you are in a very good position. However you seem to lack techs to counter the Knights. And you don't even have Macemen. Engineering is a long way off for you, perhaps going to Military Tradition for Cuirassers (it's sad to skip Cataphracts) or Gunpowder are fast ways you can get a defense in case of a remote Wang backstab. Alternatively, try trading out Paper for Metal Casting and Machinery and Engineering. (I doubt you can get anything good from Isabella.)

As for Liberalism: Military Tradition, Constitution, Democracy and Astronomy are your picks now (get a few techs first). Steel is an eternity away, you can't afford to wait that long.

edit: Can settle a good spot south of Agra. Also I'm surprised you didn't improve the gold after all these years.


Thanks, I'll play this out just a little more, but may do a replay and keep my tech path better organized. Plus keep my resources better in check.

TMIT - I state this map is A LOT easier but of course if someone struggles that means very little. Games vary a lot even between players of the same map and difficulty based on how certain early wonders and religions fall. A few things seem to hold on this map however -


Mainly that Asoka grabs an early religion along with Issy and one of the two are likely to grab Judaism. The only other AI with a high chance *normally* to grab a religion in my experience is then Liz. So the human has a very good chance to be in a religious group hug on a very green continent.

As you mentioned with sailing and some scouting foreign trade and even intercontinental foreign trade is opened up fairly easily in this game along with 3 local AIs that are easy to please and do not declare at pleased. Add in the large swath of resource rich jungle to block the AI out of (even on higher levels the AI seems to expand into jungle as a last resort with the first few settlers) and the game just felt easy.

As you mention though reads like this are becoming easier for me and assuming everyone can make them, or that I will even make them in time, is likely an ignorant assumption.



The last map was frustrating simply due to the rate the AI expands and at least for me the lack of various strategic resources to which the human player could beat the AI to without being lucky.

I guess, despite the fact it will lessen the "standardness" of game settings, I'll just turn off huts in the next game and all games forward, it doesn't seem to benefit anyone much except some people who should have been better off betting on the lottery instead of playing MS^5 - Justinian and popping Scientific Method from a hut. :D

Weird how everybody is finding this one easy. I cruised through the Toku game but I am continuing my run of bad luck here with Justinian and am tempted to throw in the towel. Wang is such a financial, gold-in-the-BFC, settler spamming monster that there is no room left for me to do anything. I got off to a pitifully slow start, as I always do when I try to play the Byzantines.

Also, a couple of curiosities - the default speed on this map is epic, which totally throws me as I'm not used to the pace of it; and even though I turned off huts, they are still present to torment me with their cruel malice. :(
Try building wealth or research. Production is nice but food isn't much in your starting areas. Also try expanding faster. Justinian is imperialistic. If you settle your entire area plus maybe a jungle city or two to grab some resources you should do fine.

Finally if you feel you're losing the tech race, try contacting the other island early. Found a city as southwest as possible.

TMIT - I state this map is A LOT easier but of course if someone struggles that means very little. Games vary a lot even between players of the same map and difficulty based on how certain early wonders and religions fall. A few things seem to hold on this map however -


Mainly that Asoka grabs an early religion along with Issy and one of the two are likely to grab Judaism. The only other AI with a high chance *normally* to grab a religion in my experience is then Liz. So the human has a very good chance to be in a religious group hug on a very green continent.

As you mentioned with sailing and some scouting foreign trade and even intercontinental foreign trade is opened up fairly easily in this game along with 3 local AIs that are easy to please and do not declare at pleased. Add in the large swath of resource rich jungle to block the AI out of (even on higher levels the AI seems to expand into jungle as a last resort with the first few settlers) and the game just felt easy.

As you mention though reads like this are becoming easier for me and assuming everyone can make them, or that I will even make them in time, is likely an ignorant assumption.



The last map was frustrating simply due to the rate the AI expands and at least for me the lack of various strategic resources to which the human player could beat the AI to without being lucky.

Yeah...the last map looked pretty brutal. I already stated why and you seem to agree :p. Non-water maps are just rough unless extra civs are added to compensate. It's kind of like playing deity/huge with 6 opponents...that would be extremely difficult to manage.

As for this:



Mainly that Asoka grabs an early religion along with Issy and one of the two are likely to grab Judaism. The only other AI with a high chance *normally* to grab a religion in my experience is then Liz. So the human has a very good chance to be in a religious group hug on a very green continent.

Fred is christian (which I founded) and has been since the BC's (I initially ran hindu to be part of that group of 3, but once wang went FR I decided to go back to christianity). He never converted to another religion. Later on (still in the BCs) Wang founded confuc. which happens to be his favorite religion. There's a good chance he'd have converted to it if he didn't build paya and go early FR, since Asoka founded hindu and wang has a couple cities with confuc (was starting to spread it).

Unlike our continent, the other one was all buddhist although peace weights and general backstabbing came into play over there.

IMM/Normal No Events

To 1720 AD



Went to town on korea...he got rifles after I took his 2 western cities. I took cease fire till rifling, built some cavalry, then hit again. He vassaled to asoka with 3 cities left (1 on a tiny island somewhere). Asoka hit me with infantry/cannon/cavalry to my cavalry. I lost my 2 western korean conquests, but finally took the last mainland korean city, supermedic healed, then got over there. I killed asoka's stack in the field while it was marching toward a 3rd city (lots of flanking promos followed up by combat II pinch) and took my cities back pretty easily. With painstaking zerging, I then proceeded to take all of asoka's cities on the continent using nothing but cavalry. Wang broke free and I just took him as a vassal (might abuse him for some tech trades later, like steal something he doesn't have from fred and trade for even more for instance).

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20Just/Civ4ScreenShot0000-1.jpg
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War just finished and I've got intelligence agencies and jails going up. focused on fred. Since I'm christian and have the holy city, I can get holy city bonus. I will move my capitol near him and take down a bureau if necessary. I'm thinking somewhere in the neighborhood of 20-35% cost out of 100% to steal then. I am very far back but that might change very rapidly. Will probably change to EP rather than beakers as my multipliers there are going to be 100% in all cities soon and my size should allow me to beat anybody at parity.

The buddhist continent has not been too peaceful with itself and they're throwing hissyfits. I'm at cautious with 2 of them and pleased with the other, but I don't think they can do anything to 50+ cavalry via intercontinental invasions anyway.

Having just axed the culture threat, the only civ left of substance is fred. I have way more cities than him and a solid production lead. He is doing well but is still a long, long way from space. He probably won't survive long after some espionage rape!

For everyone's sake, I added a new save with huts gone, to the second post.
Here's a quick link: http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=228835&d=1253715235

@TMIT:
Awesome bloody wars! Look at all those troops lost. I'm surprised you have much more than that remaining.

For everyone's sake, I added a new save with huts gone, to the second post.
Here's a quick link: http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=228835&d=1253715235

@TMIT:
Awesome bloody wars! Look at all those troops lost. I'm surprised you have much more than that remaining.

It's still 145 kills:75 deaths. Just under a 2:1 ratio, which isn't bad when you get caught fighting multiple opponents in a significant tech hole ;). More importantly, I think it was worth it to get the position I'm in.

Some thoughts:
The difficult parts of this scenario; leveraging the leader traits and making good use of the UU at the critical moment.

It's really easy for the mainland AIs to run away in the tech race. They tend to share a religion and have great lands for doing research.

I've played the scenario a few times already.

Hints:

Settling 1W gives you a great early production capital, but 1S gives you a good food capital for running early specialists. You can do multiple slingshots. In one game, I managed the MC slingshot and generated a GE for Mids. Running Rep+Caste allowed me to compete in the tech race and get Liberalism first.

Winning and diplomacy:

The main starting continent is most likely going all be the same religion and most of the leaders won't declare at Pleased. You should be able to pull off a culture, space or diplomatic win without too much difficulty. Rather than attacking the big rivals on the mainland target Izzy or Charlie the go after Gilgamesh. You want Astronomy and Guilds early to accomplish this. Once you've go two or more vassals under your boot, the game is pretty much in the bag.

Wow, this has been a weird game:


Mainly weird due to the most bizarre war/aftermath I've ever had:

So our continent was a giant buddhist love fest, then, out of nowhere, Wang, who I thought was above the pleased threashhold, DOWed me. He had just gotten his UU, but I had about 2.5 times his military might, so it was basically just an annoyance. Captured 3 of his cities, including his cap, then sued for peace, getting 300 gold, and Monarchy.

Immeadiatly after the war, he goes back to pleased, and over the next 500 - 1000 years or so I've asked if he could spare techs for a close friend, and I'm fairly sure he's given me 4 more techs, including HBR, Aesth, Lit, and Feudalism. WTF? I've never had anything like this happen. I'm not even that far behind the tech lead anymore, so I don't think they're pity gifts, and I'm not absolutely overwhelming him in the power graphs...

^
That sounds like Wang is really sorry for his war declaration in the past. He's just trying to make it up to you. :D

IMM/Normal No events

1905 Domination

*Note*: This segment showcases the ridiculous potential of espionage in tech catchup...



The war with Asoka was painful and I had fallen far back as seen in my last segment. However, I had some very important advantages: a strong military, a lot of cities, and state property/nationalism.

After putting up jails/intelligence agencies and using nationhood, I was able to cough up over 1000 EP/turn using the buildings themselves + slider. I focused it on Fred. Now, you might say 1000-1500 EP/turn isn't very impressive. After all, 1 EP is often < 1 beaker. But not in this situation. In this situation...well...the end result is below. In this case, thanks to moving palace and a few extra modifiers, 1 EP was giving me 5 (!) beakers, BEFORE trade whoring a bit with my new-found island vassal using techs I just stole.

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http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20Just/Civ4ScreenShot0014-2.jpg
http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20Just/Civ4ScreenShot0015-1.jpg
http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20Just/Civ4ScreenShot0016-1.jpg
http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20Just/Civ4ScreenShot0017-1.jpg
http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20Just/Civ4ScreenShot0018-1.jpg
http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20Just/Civ4ScreenShot0019-1.jpg
http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20Just/Civ4ScreenShot0020.jpg
http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20Just/Civ4ScreenShot0021.jpg
http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20Just/Civ4ScreenShot0022.jpg
http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20Just/Civ4ScreenShot0023.jpg
http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20Just/Civ4ScreenShot0024.jpg
http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/MS%20Just/Civ4ScreenShot0025.jpg

Panzers aren't fun to fight but I compensated with less tank more infantry+spy. Thanks to stealing fascism I went PS/rushmore/Jail and was immune to WW. Punting Fred off the continent was the last moderately challenging action. Hitting pre-industrialism targets with tanks and cruise missiles (en MASSE) does not make for difficult goings. I'd started building a navy while fighting fred so I just moved troops down and sailed across. Liz was voluntary vassaled to izzy and stayed that way until death. I only captured 2 spanish cities...the instant liz was gone, izzy put up a white flag. Our starting continent + capping the one to the west was enough to win.

It's kind of funny to finish the game undisputed tech leader with 500 beakers/turn, but if one has enough land EP is just overwhelming...

So nobody else experienced the dreaded Monster Wang (:p) phenomenon? Must have just been a freak incident in my game.

In brief, here's what happened:

I gimped myself at the start by trying for, and failing to get, an early religion. Yeah, I know, this was suicidal, but I must have been getting cocky because I haven't lost a game in a while. Then after that I had a slow start, and I think this was partially due to playing on Epic speed. On normal speed I know how fast is fast and how slow is slow, and when I need to get a move on and whip or chop if necessary. In this game, I just hung around doing very little. Even cheap settlers did little to help me, although I got the first few sites I wanted without any trouble.

The real problem was not that I was doing particularly terrible (although I certainly wasn't doing very well), it was more that Wang was doing great. He got the polytheism religion (I was two turns behind him at the time), and just expanded massively. He claimed all the jungle territory very fast indeed, which is really unusual for an AI, and Asoka voluntary became his vassal. There went my plan to compensate for my own inadequacies by picking on Asoka. :(

By now I was massively behind in tech. I abandoned the idea of miltary action, never built any units, built currency, ran scientists and pacifism and turned up the research slider. Managed to narrowly beat Asoka to liberalism and took astronomy. Frederick volunteered to become Wang's next vassal. Tried to use my narrow astronomy lead to finally expand my territory beyond the six cities I'd had since antiquity by settling the barb continent to the east, but, you guessed it, Wang beat me to it.

So now I'm pretty much ready to abandon the game, maybe I'll restart it. I could pick on the Western continent (who are extremely backward and riven by inter-religious conflict), but I have no armed forces at all and poor production so that will take a long time, by which stage Wang will probably be packing his zero-gravity toothbrush for the trip to Alpha Centauri. Alternatively he might sitch to free religion, decide he doesn't like me any more, and then massace my three warriors and two chariots and put me out of my misery. :lol:

Peaceful games suck. I hate harmony.

Kept playing it out. Researched Lib to 1 turn, then tech Nationalism for Nationhood, bulbed Democracy with Lib and did a Rep/Nat/CS/Theo switch. Missed the TM by 8 turns but netted 800:gold:. Used 2 GS to bulb PP, and with some trades got caught back up on techs. Got MT in 1305AD, then went Chem>SM on my way to Communism with a shortcut to Astro. Fred is a techwhore monster here who has the AP which gave back one of my cities to Osaka. Once galleons/frigates in, I'll take out Osaka then reproup and hit Wang as he's getting close to Steel.

http://i409.photobucket.com/albums/pp175/cripp777/MS%20Justain/Civ4ScreenShot0000.jpg
http://i409.photobucket.com/albums/pp175/cripp777/MS%20Justain/Civ4ScreenShot0001.jpg

Hi all,
I've been on Prince for ages, tried Monarch and got caned, moved back to Prince for a month and now I'm back to Monarch and getting caned. I've decided to give the Monarch Bullpen a go to improve my game. This will be my first game so here we go!

Cheers,
Darrel

^
If you're not too confident about your gameplay, you could also try the less difficult Lizzy and Augustus Caesar games. :D

@cripp:
Looks like you're in a pretty good position despite losing a city via the AP. Just build up an army and go for it.

@Nihilzero:
Nope, Wang never gets monstrous in my tests. Usually it's Fred because he's closest to the barb island. I really don't like attacking my religious buddies. Sometimes I just should. :D

@TMIT:
Awesome game. I still can't get over how much troops you built and it's on NORMAL speed. :D I'm amazed.

@TMIT - That's an interesting idea to move the capital super close for massive discounts, especially since the capital location isn't as important in the late stage. How were you able to get so much culture discount though? Does your vassal's culture count as your culture for the discount? Or were you pumping out a lot of culture?

@TMIT - That's an interesting idea to move the capital super close for massive discounts, especially since the capital location isn't as important in the late stage. How were you able to get so much culture discount though? Does Wang's culture count as your culture for the discount? Or were you pumping out a lot of culture?

I took that city initially, but it got flipped. It managed to get a border pop or so before doing so however, and the adjacent cities of mine got pops enough to press it also. The other side's culture still was dominant, but the discount you see was from that turn of events.

I usually can't do any better than a net of -70% or so (some EP spending, and stationary spy/open borders). Having the holy city and some culture available just made the conversion RIDICULOUS. It's a good way for a SP hammer setup to drag itself back into relevance.

Where I struggle, though, is that unlike guys like you or U Sun, I don't usually get state property at 700 AD or something ;).

Edit: Moving the palace in state property doesn't hurt at ALL once you're out of bureaucracy. I'd long switched to nationhood when I moved it, because emancipation :mad: was starting to hurt (and +2 barracks super temples helped) and nationhood has very favorable maintenance. Of course, the whole +25% EP bonus didn't hurt either, especially when the lack of cottages means giving up FS has a low opportunity cost.

There is still so much I don't yet know about this game. Spies? Cruise missiles? Who would have thought that such things could be useful? :p

When I get access to my other PC in a few days, I think I'll post a few saves from my ill-fated game and see what the resident civ experts make of my predicament. To me it's hopeless but an experienced player might find a way to turn things around.

Epic/Monarch

1st Checkpoint


So it started pretty easy for me. I expanded to 6 decent cities sites and was helped by the thick band of jungle in the middle. However, interestingly this happened really early....
http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt232/ethiel/Civ4ScreenShot0127.jpg

Somehow the Spanish were gone by 2650BC....wierd. Anyways, I really didn't have much trouble with Asoka or Freddy this game. The main problem was Wang. Everyone was different religions, but no one ever asked me to convert either so I was just a heathen atheist the entire game! I traded with both Asoka and Fred fairly regularly and neither of them ever even went into WHEORN mode. Anyways here's the empire circa 115 AD and shortly before my war with wang.
http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt232/ethiel/Civ4ScreenShot0128.jpg
http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt232/ethiel/Civ4ScreenShot0129.jpg
http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt232/ethiel/Civ4ScreenShot0130.jpg
http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt232/ethiel/Civ4ScreenShot0131.jpg


2nd Checkpoint to Victory

Before the war with wang.....
http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt232/ethiel/Civ4ScreenShot0132.jpg
Go lib and took nationalism from it. Here's the empire at 1100 AD
http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt232/ethiel/Civ4ScreenShot0134.jpg
http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt232/ethiel/Civ4ScreenShot0135.jpg
http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt232/ethiel/Civ4ScreenShot0136.jpg
http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt232/ethiel/Civ4ScreenShot0137.jpg
So Wang went wheoorn mode and I was his target.....bad mistake. I had even tried to bribe him with civil service to stay out of way, and that didn't even work. Anyways, I bribed Fred to war with me as well which helped tie up his stack for a while. I took his two closest cities and was running out of seige so I peaced for 10 turns then rolled him over and got to use my UU some woot!!! After this personally this was a pretty easy game since Asoka and Fred were such pushover's. I went after Asoka first who only had 5 cities left on this island.
http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt232/ethiel/Civ4ScreenShot0138.jpg
And look at all the lovely wonders Asoka built just for me!!!
http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt232/ethiel/Civ4ScreenShot0139.jpgShe had 3-4 cities left on the small island to the NW so I just vassaled instead of dealing with those. Next, was fred then the island was mine!!!!
http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt232/ethiel/Civ4ScreenShot0141.jpg
And look at all the wonders fred decided to build for me as well!!!
http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt232/ethiel/Civ4ScreenShot0140.jpg

I had to tech lead starting from liberalism, so calvary/riflemen/cannon vs trebs/macemen really wasnt hard so Asoka and Fred went down pretty easy. I met Elizabeth and Gilgi on the other island and they were really tech backwards so instead of dealing with the micro of invading i just decided to space it since i was so far ahead anyways. So in 1915 AD....woohoo I win!
http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt232/ethiel/Civ4ScreenShot0143.jpg
http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt232/ethiel/Civ4ScreenShot0144.jpg
http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt232/ethiel/Civ4ScreenShot0145.jpg

Once I got rid of wang, this was a pretty easy win in my book I think.

Need some opinions on whether the cataphract "rush" will work at this point.



Its 1120 AD and below is the tech situation, my city chart and Gilgamesh's SoD. Gilgamesh has about 100 beakers per turn right now. As it took him 7 turns to get optics. I am in a GA for 3 more turns, and then 2 more coming up. 11 turns for the Taj and 6 for a GM ( at 1% chance I got a GA this turn so I have the 2 GPs I need). I have a bit more production coming online as I'm working food right now before switching to workshops.

I'm not sure its worth going after Gilgamesh unless I can go on to vassalize the entire continent... What do you think my next move should be? I can get chemistry in <15 turns which gives me a lot more hammers. Or I goto cavalry and state property first then attack? Oh yeah - I have 3 GGs settled in the 100 hammers per turn after HE capital.

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm149/grashopa2/Civ4ScreenShot0372.jpg
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm149/grashopa2/Civ4ScreenShot0375.jpg
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm149/grashopa2/Civ4ScreenShot0376.jpg


How I got to this point:

I scouted my continent early, and we have 3 civs that won't declare at pleased. Korea and Germany went hindu, and India was Jewish. The Indian lands are really really good and he has a shrine. Korean lands are ok, and Germany got boxed in badly. I have a lot of hammers in my land, so I decided to spam 6 or 7 cities with +50% settlers and then HA rush India. At 500 BC he had 1 archer in every city and archer axe spear in his capital to go along with being behind badly in tech since he was chopping out the jungle for me. He also had MoM, GLh, and GW :) MoM and GLh were going to be really really good for me.

Unfortunately for me he kept up with my HA spam by building only units from that point. Then when I attacked someone gave him construction AND ivory. Still I built 40 HAs, lost 18 and built 10 too many. And ugh as a consequence of him keeping up in power with me, he stopped spreading his religion so the shrine is only 10 gpt..

I peaced him out leaving him 5 cities - 1 on the mainland and apparently 4 on an island NW. I'm putting turns into CS before trading it to frederick for aesthetics (hehe) and code of laws. It will take me all of 10 turns to gain tech parity here as I have 3 trading partners and will get Korea and Germany to friendly. My tech path from defeating india was Aesthetics (no one had it at 600 AD) Lit, drama and music.

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm149/grashopa2/Civ4ScreenShot0361.jpg

I noticed the coast off my SW was reachable just after defeating India, so I settled a city and chopped a monument and found the other continent. The great library went at 940 AD :) I actually could have built it myself.

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm149/grashopa2/Civ4ScreenShot0366.jpg

The other continent was very backward - gilgamesh just vassalized England around 1000 AD and was at war constantly from the BCs. At this point I was running serfhood? to get the faster worker times as I was workshopping the heck out of my lands for production once I got guilds and my UU. Then switched to caste to get Korea friendly and a GP for a golden age since I have MoM and would get the Taj first for my 2nd GA.

EDIT - Hehe forgot my first GA was actually from grabbing music first at 1010 AD!

@Grashopa

I found that focusing on getting control of the whole island and getting rid of Wang and Frederick was the difference for me. Once I got the whole island, Gilgi and Eliz were so tech backwards they were no real threat. Once you get the whole island you can chose what victory you want. I didnt want to deal with invading Gigli for the dom victory so I just teched to a really EASY space race. By the end of my space race I was over 3000 beakers per turn running at 90% science and a few cities running 150+ hammers.

@Teelman

Actually I think if I had finished off India's last city on the continent space would have been very doable with just that land. Theres more than enough workshop hammers with the land I have, and everyone is teching so poorly. My problem is all I think about is conquering everyone.

My original plan was to take out Germany first with the UU then see about Korea.. Then I saw how backwards Gilgamesh was. I guess with how many hammers I have it doesn't matter that Korea is at tech parity.

@nihil

Haha I never considered that happening, but in my game as well Germany was significantly boxed in and I could see him vassalizing. With the hammers we start with I figure war has to be in the cards, but India vassalizing to Wang?? I don't know what I'd be thinking at that point.

I wish I had seen the coast to the SW earlier for access to the other continent that is also a game changer that may have helped you some. Hehe I actually accidentally saw it, because I picked up the GLh from India and then went looking for coastal spots.


@Murky

Hehe I pretty much see it as you did now. But am going for the vassalize the other continent option. Missed seeing an easy space after taking out India if I had just cleaned him off the main continent. The city I left him stole 2 food resources from me gimping 2 cities, 1 that could have had some 50 base hammers after chemistry workshops.


Map thoughts

I'm surprised no one rushed India, our starting land was heavy on hammers and the second I saw his capital I knew I had to take it. I actually made a horrid mistake leaving him a city on the mainland. I left it because I saw the aesthetics line had not been researched by anyone and I felt I had to kill off 20 HAs for my opportunity to grab tech parity by the time caste workshops are good.

Either way we have the best starting position by far on this map productionwise early. Top that with India who builds wonders, doesn't build any units and with such good land.. I love maps that I build the HE in my capital.


@TMIT

It never occurred to me how much paya could have hurt me if say Korea of Germany went to FR. I actually built it for cash in my game and Germany got it but remained in our religion. My plan required Korea and Germany at friendly for tech trading past "you are too advanced". Since I went for Philosophy and Divine Right as trades.

Immortal / Normal - 1838AD
It's a nice map. I've been very peaceful until now, but that's about to change. It's even funny - the thing I didn't want to see happening again was being smashed by more advanced troops so I waited to go to war until I completed the Internet. :lol: Now I don't know if I have enough time to win. :D

Philosophy bulb:
http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj01.jpg

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj02.jpg

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj03.jpg

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj04.jpg

Empire in 900AD:
http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj05.jpg

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj06.jpg

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj07.jpg

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj08.jpg

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj09.jpg

Stealing techs to help in my Computers beeline:
http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj10.jpg

As I was there...
http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj11.jpg

Goddammit! WK has Computers too... Let's adjust our builds.
http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj12.jpg

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj13.jpg

A Golden Age could help us complete it faster.
http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj14.jpg

WK was starving Pyongyang to complete it in time.
http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj15.jpg

But...
http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj16.jpg

Which gave us
http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj17.jpg

Current tech situation:
http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj18.jpg

Empire:
http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj19.jpg


Now I want to get Mechanized Infantries (and if possible Mobile Artilleries) because I don't have Aluminum so I'll only have my nice Jet Fighters after running over Korea. (I don't remember if Mobile Arties require Al, I'll check the civilopedia). I want to win Domination, Conquest or Diplomation. Lizzy is trying to have a culture win and has a DP with Asoka, who has a DP with Fred, who has a DP with me.

@IT:
That was a nice haul from the internet, most techs I've got from it was nine. :D It was a close thing there, Wang nearly had it.

@IT:
That was a nice haul from the internet, most techs I've got from it was nine. :D It was a close thing there, Wang nearly had it.

Yeah, he almost got it. I had to revolt P'yongyang for 12 turns in a row. Good thing he was the only guy with Computers.

I don't know why, but I've been having trouble keeping up techwise on Immortal. Until the Renaissance it's not so difficult, but after that their era bonuses kick in and I fall behind. I'm trying to learn what the most effective empire set up would be, which improvements, techpath, buildings, etc.

@IT:
Looks like you downloaded a lot of tech. I wish I could do that in real life. :D

But now you have to stop someone's space launch and Liz's culture victory. Good luck!

@IT:
Looks like you downloaded a lot of tech. I wish I could do that in real life. :D

But now you have to stop someone's space launch and Liz's culture victory. Good luck!

Will the cunning leader of Byzantium be able to overcome better prepared AIs? Will there be time to stop three space attempts and one cultural victory? Is Ignorant Teacher eventually going to learn how to play on Immortal?

Learn all that and much more in the next round!

Coming up tonight at about 10pm GMT -3!

IT:


Haha, I rofled when I saw that list of techs. You have some seriously advanced AIs in there. I'd strongly consider shutting all tech in favor of army rushbuy if you're going to go to war (especially since you don't have Aluminum - modern war seriously sucks without it cos of no MAs) since you'll get a ton of techs from Internet anyway.

IT:


Haha, I rofled when I saw that list of techs. You have some seriously advanced AIs in there. I'd strongly consider shutting all tech in favor of army rushbuy if you're going to go to war (especially since you don't have Aluminum - modern war seriously sucks without it cos of no MAs) since you'll get a ton of techs from Internet anyway.


I will. That's what the Internet is for. What I was thinking was more on the lines of building workshops and watermills everywhere and switch to Police State, Nationalism, State Property and Theocracy. (can't go to Caste because of the UN). I have Jails nearly everywhere and already have the MT. Rushmore. With that and the Hyppodromes, I can eat any War Weariness and defying resolution unhappiness they throw at me.

I only have to get to Robotics first because of the Mech Infantries. Regular Infs + Tanks won't cut it.

Do you think it can work? Or is rushbuy a better choice?

I will. That's what the Internet is for. What I was thinking was more on the lines of building workshops and watermills everywhere and switch to Police State, Nationalism, State Property and Theocracy. (can't go to Caste because of the UN). I have Jails nearly everywhere and already have the MT. Rushmore. With that and the Hyppodromes, I can eat any War Weariness and defying resolution unhappiness they throw at me.

I only have to get to Robotics first because of the Mech Infantries. Regular Infs + Tanks won't cut it.

Do you think it can work? Or is rushbuy a better choice?


I'd definitely go rushbuy as that's much faster to set up and that way you actually benefit from shutting tech + Internet. No caste is kind of a bummer for workshops, though I don't claim to know the math behind this all, even though I read Iranon's good recap in the US thread like 30 minutes ago :crazyeye: Aluminum Co is one possibility btw if you end up having MAs staring at you from the other side of the border and can get the GP.

With Jail+Rushmore Police state isn't needed until MASSIVE WW, quite probably involving fighting a huge SoZ army on their own soil. If you get the ball rolling huge unhappiness doesn't even matter that much.

Monarch/Epic 1530 AD

This game has been fun one. I decided to try a different approach, choosing a whole other tech path from the norm that gets to Guilds faster. By going there quicker you have more time to make good use of the UU before it's countered. Pikes are tough, but Rifles are killer. You want to gain as much land before Rifles as possible.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2489/3956220806_32c2609d09_o.jpg

@Murky

1120 guilds then roll :) I think you've won at this point hehe. You should have posted a screen of your statistics - thats a lot of cities to take without losing many units. Nice.

@Murky

1120 guilds then roll :) I think you've won at this point hehe. You should have posted a screen of your statistics - thats a lot of cities to take without losing many units. Nice.


I think the kill ratio for this game is something like 3-1; not counting barbs.

I don't know how to get the kills/lost stats to appear on one screen-shot but the save should be able to show it.

Monarch/Epic: 1782
Another conquest victory via vassalage. The toughest was Gilgamesh. He killed a lot of my units, but I just kept sending in reinforcements. I only had a take 1 city each from Liz and Issy before they capitulated.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2518/3956956511_8d50c3c02e_o.jpg

Score
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2446/3957747168_e3395454a5_o.jpg

The stats screen. Check the save if you want more details.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2641/3957747066_3180b96d93_o.jpg

Immortal / Normal - 1918AD. Thank you very, very much Silu and Iranon!
I had to take a break, but now I think the game is totally winnable. I stayed in US because of your suggestions and decided I had to get Aluminum.

Things started well. No nukes means it's all about tactics, which is what the AIs don't have. :D
http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj20.jpg

I declared war on Wang Kon, but, during the war, something bad happened. I got a bit scared. Why did he change his capital? Are they actually that smart?
http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj21.jpg

Time to sign a peace treaty (I didn't take the city, no point).
http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj22.jpg

I took five cities, stopped when I got my Aluminum to build Modern Armors and my beloved Jets. If I haven't mentioned this yet, there we go: Air Superiority wars are my favorites!
http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj23.jpg

Dealed with the emergency.
http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj24.jpg

Victory Conditions now. Elizabeth was closer, but I payed Isabella to fight her when I started my war with Wang Kon and they're still at it.
http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj25.jpg

Demographics (#1 in Production. Having the Internet, nothing else matters).
http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj26.jpg

Power.
http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj27.jpg

@IT:
Varnansi has crappy land. Did the AI really change the capital to there just to get a safer launch!? We may never know.

Good job beating up Wang and stopping the inevitable space victory.

Monarch/Epic 1530 AD

This game has been fun one. I decided to try a different approach, choosing a whole other tech path from the norm that gets to Guilds faster. By going there quicker you have more time to make good use of the UU before it's countered. Pikes are tough, but Rifles are killer. You want to gain as much land before Rifles as possible.


Thats the best way to use Byz UU. :D GJ

I also tried this game, playing on monarch (my first time) and normal speed.

I settled 1S and started on AG and then AH. It didn't take long to meet the other 3 civs on my continent (especially wang kon), so i decided to build 6 cities fast.

My warrior got some gold out of the first hut but when he got to the second they were hostile and killed him.
After getting a worker out i started on some warriors and one of them got a scout from a hut making it a bit easier to explore.

Nothing much happened after that and i got my 6 cities up and running. My scout however had wandered over to Asoka's capital, and i noticed he only had 2 cities and not much defense. It was a bit late but i decided to do a charriot rush. I left my scout in his capital to check if his defenses didn't get better (they didn't) an quickly build 15-20 chariots.

The moment my chariots left my territory everything went on strike but in the end i got 2 of his cities and razed a 3rd one.

After getting some economy techs i went for guilds and started building cataphracts. Wang Kon lost 3 of his cities before he capitulated.
When i attacked Frederick i already had cannons so he wasn't much of a problem.I took 3 of his cities (Wang Kon got one as well because i forgot to move one of my stacks) and he also capitulated.

In the meantime Gilgamesh had vassalized Elizabeth. They were backwards in tech on that continent so i decided to attack the biggest one (Gilgamesh). I shipped a lot of troops over and quickly took 2 of his cities. Then i suddenly became a member of the AP because of those 2 cities and they decided we needed 10 turns of piece (didn't matter much to me).
After shipping over more troops i took his capital and took 2 more cities before he capitulated. Elizabeth followed right after him.

After that it was just a matter of rebuilding some of Gilgamesh's former territory and shipping even more troops over. I attacked Isabella, took one of her cities, gave it to Elizabeth and was about to take another when she capitulated.

Btw how do i post screenshots in spoilers? I tried adding some but they just showed as small pictures.

Immortal / Normal - 1962AD. Lost interest and won't finish.
After conquering India my production just got too big for the AIs to handle. The pics will tell it all.

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj28.jpg

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj29.jpg

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj30.jpg

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj31.jpg

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj32.jpg

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj33.jpg

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj34.jpg

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj35.jpg

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj36.jpg

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj37.jpg

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj38.jpg

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj39.jpg

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj40.jpg

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj41.jpg

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj42.jpg

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj43.jpg

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj44.jpg

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj46.jpg

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/bonixavier/msj/msj47.jpg

Sigh. Yeah, looks like you're just stopping one spaceship after another. You will win eventually the question is just when... and the score won't be so hot either.

@nothingontv:
the code is
(address of pic)

We usually upload pics to imageshack or photobucket, get the direct links then put it in image tags as you see above. Try to make your pics not so big though, so it doesn't break the layout of CFC pages. That, or put big images in spoilers.

Monarch 1000 BC:


Settled 1SW after moving warrior NW unto a hut and popping a scout. Continued to luck out with the huts as I pop BOTH mining and bronze working the 2 huts after that.

Started spamming settlers and beelined alphabet, traded for all the techs. Gonna have to build a workboat and start exploring. Not sure where to go next, don't have any stone/marble, nor any copper. Started researching iron working hoping to pick up some iron in my wast empire.

Diplo is ok, have a big jungle separating us and plenty of room to expand so I think I will play peacefully for now. Getting some happiness resources hooked up and discovering the other AI should be the priorites for now I think.

http://i970.photobucket.com/albums/ae182/roberteriksson/MonJustinianBC1000-Overview.jpg

@roberteriksson

Why Nicara on the plains hill? If you do a quick count of food I think you have a max 7 hammers with a farm on the 1 flood plain. The city on the south coast I believe can work all its hills without the flood plain, so Nicara 1E grabbing both flood plains means the most hammers.

And counting off the hammers and seeing as I have horse. I'd be thinking of letting the other AIs clear the jungle for me :)

Also I'd have settled between the cows and wheat before settling Adrianople over there. Thats a lot of food to grow quickly and run cottages around the river. Faster return on investment.

@Grashopa


I guess my reasoning for the placement of Nicara was to limit the number of shared tiles as well as making it coastal. I have some sick need of having coastal cities, placing a city one square from the coast just make it itch all over my body somehow. But I see the logic in placing it 1E, thanks.

As for horses, yeah knowing myself this will probably turn out into a war, most likely sooner than later. As you can see I'm on my way to hook up the cows and wheat right now, and I guess you're right that I could have done that before settling the gold on the west coast. I just didn't wanna risk Asoka somehow settling close there, but I guess he's not much of a rexer anyway.

I'm not sure if this is my first post but here it goes.

Emperor/Epic

1335AD

Moved my capital 1 SE and built 6 cities before doing anything. My 1st goal was to beeline to horseback riding and start building some horse archers. Then capture couple of cities and after that rebuild my economy.

2nd goal was to beeline to guilds, upgrade all horses to cataphracts and conquer the rest of the world.

The game went as I planned. First I built about 15 horse archers and captured 2 cities from Wang and 1 from Asoka. Well Asoka bribed Wang to war against me but his stacks were easily killed with my horse archers.

It was something around 800AD when I got Guilds. I think it took about 15 turns to upgrade all horses to cataphracts but it was worth it. I couldn't believe how strong cataphracs really are. Wang had 100% city defenses and his protective longbows defending but I think I lost about 2 cataphracts/city. Do it fast and your losses will be small.

Frederick was busy building wonders :drool: so he didn't have any military. He had also Chichen pizza but it didn't matter. All his cities had castle and so it was 125% bonus. He was easily conquered. Didn't use any siege or spies just cataphracts.

http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/6442/saari1335ad.jpg

http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/2289/cityplacement.jpg

Statistics 1335AD

http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/4278/statistik1335ad.jpg

techs

http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/3073/tech1335ad.jpg



Victory 1560AD

It was time to do some cleaning.

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/9307/stackofdoom1450ad.jpg

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/4111/victoryb.jpg

wow, thats alot of wonders!

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/83/nowonders.jpg

Points

http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/2932/pointsh.jpg

My 3rd best ever.

Close to domination/diplomatic victory on Monarch:


Got my economy sorted out since last time after heavy rexing. Had a LOT of production and used it to churn out cats and those very nice UU:s. Started by taking out Gandhi and capturing the holy building of Buddhism before vassalizing him; Wang Kon than offered to vassalize even before the dust had cleared from the capture of Delhi to gain my protection.

I gracefully accepted so I could move my troops to his border and launch an attack on Frederick. Captured all of his good cities, vassalized him, so now I got the whole continent eating out of my palm and the guys on the other side aren't even halfway to my score.

http://i970.photobucket.com/albums/ae182/roberteriksson/Just-Map.jpg

I guess I could go for a diplomatic victory somehow (have never done that) or just ship my guys over to the other continent; my cannons pretty much tear through all resistance now. I'm behind techwize, but I got the important ones (i.e. to be able to mount cannons and Cataphracts).

Think I'll call it a win here as my MacBook starts lagging pretty heavily towards the endgame, feels like it's pretty much a done deal. Here's some pictures:

http://i970.photobucket.com/albums/ae182/roberteriksson/Just-VictCond.jpg

I got around 46% of the total population and 38% percent of the land.

http://i970.photobucket.com/albums/ae182/roberteriksson/Just-Score.jpg


The production in this game was just massive, never had anything like it and after rexing and gaining control of half the island, the AI could never match me production wize.

@grashopa

I actually like the placement. To me, it's dictated by grabbing the Gold and Elephants without impeding the potential double banana site to the north.

My cities as of 1AD followed the exact same placement, with a fifth 1W of the Cows at Cows/Spices.

Though I agree that settling that plains hill city after the Cows/Spices city would have been better.