So i decided to start a random game and share it with the fourm. Cyrus, i have very little experience playing with cyrus, in fact i have never played a game as any of the persian leaders so i decided to give it a go. Chr and Imp are a decent trait combo, good for warmongering, and a UU that is a chariot with a 50% Bonus against archers, This makes early war a good call. So here is the start, settings and save, feel free to play along...

Here is the start,Any suggestions as where to settle?
http://i993.photobucket.com/albums/af56/Svhussey_2010/Civ4ScreenShot0797.jpg?t=1293979592
And the settings:http://i993.photobucket.com/albums/af56/Svhussey_2010/Civ4ScreenShot0798.jpg?t=1293979595
And the save:

that 1E PH seems interesting. retains 3 hills, pigs and cow.

^yup

hard to ignore the bonus on setting on PH hill. even more so with imperialistic .

What if the scout revels another resource in the west? It looks like there are floodplains over there aswell. And as for the opening builds, Im guessing worker first?

Whilst there may indeed be FPs to the west (you can just about make one out), don’t forget that moving to the W to settle them / it will take a few turns. FWIW, I’d be more interested to see whether all that white to your east just beyond the hills is desert or FPs....given that this will be your capital, my guess is that much of it is FPs. As a result, I think you’ve two choices: (i) send the scout SE, NE to check some of the land to the east and then decide where to move your settler or (ii) move your settler to the PH for a better look. Personally, I’d move the settler to the PH for a good look and then send the scout W, NW to check out the FP in that area. Other than that it looks like worker and AH IMHO.

I love the Persians. Given that you're playing epic speed, if you get horses you're going to have some fun. You should be able to take out two civs without much of a problem.

Settle: 1E on the plains hill.
Tech: AH (for pigs and horses), the Wheel (for immortals), Mining (for mines), BW (for chopping), Turn off slider.
Build: Worker, Warrior, Settler, barracks, (warrior), alt+immortal
Steal: Worker with a warrior, you can stay at war, but after stolen worker, get out of there and let civ continue doing what it was doing.
Second City: Hopefully to the south to claim the pigs and horses down there. If there's no horses near the pigs settle the horses wherever they are (if no horses, start a new game, :mischief:).
DoW: When you have ~5 immortals go take a capital. Send reinforcements as necessary to take the second (and third) city. As soon as first civ's capital is taken, DoW on second civ while choking any source of copper as you do NOT want them getting spears. Continue to build immortals until you have two enemy capitals and good second and third cities (raze bad ones).

After this you should be in pretty good shape. You'll want to get some cottages running to slowly tech to Code of Laws and Currency. After courthouses are built expand like crazy. Any win from there is pretty easy.

Go get em.

@benginal

I already tried this map twice for some lulz, rest in spoilers



i tried 2 approaches.

1st try - I lost scout in the north and didn't find the horses, so decided on peaceful expansion, totally crashed economy with 6 cities, but the land is pretty much cottageable to the east and north and west, so maybe the recovery option is there.

2nd try - I knew about the horses, so I went with 2 city rush, took out Mehmed (taking his 2nd city was a mistake), then came for the south west neighbor, which is actually Gilgamesh without copper.
Both cities settled on hills... I WBed some immortals to see how quickly they go down, well actually if I managed to get there 11 immortals in one pack instead of 5 in 2-3 small stacks I would manage to kill him.
What's worse, the distance is so bad that I totally crashed without hopes for recovery.

I decided I don't like to play against creative civs (try 1), without creative (try 2) and just hate the game right now :-).

If you do just halfrush (taking out Mehmed), which is safely doable you end in semiisolation with creative civ.



edit:


Maybe with the Fin/Org variant it would be much more fun this map

yey these are my everyday settings. Gonna give this a try after work.

It's just me vs barbs on this continent at 800BC :lol:


Settled 1W to get FPs and another grass hill, typical Persian opening: AH> wheel> mining> BW. Settled 1SW of horses, *immortals after rax in both cities. Killed Mehmed (kept his cap and the pig/silk city), rushed Gilgamesh with about 10 immortals (to start), but by then I had a settled GG and was producing 5XP units. I promoted a couple to F2, the rest combat. He had 3 cities on hills, but I took them all - immortals totally rock. :cool: I kept his cap and a wheat/fish city to the north. That gave me 6 cities, plus a settled the copper/pig city E of Persepolis, since I knew I'd have to deal with barb spears sooner or later (I already took 1 out with immortals, losing 1). I've played to 95BC so far. After myst, pottery and writing I went math> alpha (bulbed)> currency> CoL and founded confucianism. I guess I'll take a shot at the GL next (which means another city to grab the marble NE of Uruk). Darius would have been less painful financially, but it would have been tougher to take out Gilga - I had around 70% of my immortals with 3 promos by then. Plus the extra happy cap is nice with CHA.

nista - that non-spoiler comment is a tad spoilery

I'd whip that Scout around to the East to peak in the direction to see if the PH is worthwhile. Settling where the scout currently sits is not bad either, although a lot of brown.

nista - that non-spoiler comment is a tad spoilery


How so? It could mean anything, you know. ;)

Well huerfanista and lymond, ye are both right about the spoiler, its not too much of a big deal, but it dose hint that we are semi isolated, Just like the last game i posted:D. I'll post my game later today. I do want to get it done before wensday, as that is when im going back to college.

I played untill 825BC.

I took the advice to settle 1E, and boy was i glad i did, there was floodplains at the east aswell as the west. Plenty of good cottage land. My builds were, Worker-warrior-warrior-settler-barracks-warrior-worker-immortals.I teched AH first. I rushed memhed and took his cap and the Pigs/horses city. Then i regrouped and went after giggles, I took a pretty bad city of his, the one with the hills and IICR Sheep. The reason i did'nt raze this was because he had founded confu in it, so it was a holy city. I had to build more immoratals as he built two more cities after capturing his cap, which i kept. Like huerfanista game, its 825BC and its just me and the barbs. I am going to admit to reloading and WB usage, but that was because i had to deal with random barb crap trying to take my cities. I probally should've set the game speed to normal. Now all i have to do it tech alphabet-monarchy and ICS, and i should be ok. We have marble, so that should help towards building the NE, and mabey the GL or pantheon. Hopefully i will be able to get a few scientists out and run pacisifm/Caste system. I might play a builders game from here and go for space.Here are some pics of my empire and a save if any1 wants a look.
http://i993.photobucket.com/albums/af56/Svhussey_2010/Civ4ScreenShot0810.jpg?t=1294088553
http://i993.photobucket.com/albums/af56/Svhussey_2010/Civ4ScreenShot0811.jpg?t=1294088555
http://i993.photobucket.com/albums/af56/Svhussey_2010/Civ4ScreenShot0812.jpg?t=1294088557
http://i993.photobucket.com/albums/af56/Svhussey_2010/Civ4ScreenShot0813.jpg?t=1294088562

I can't on earth find out how you and huerfan killed that gilg pest... I swear i tried...my latest attempt failed at me throwing Combat 1 Immortals at his capital... lost 10! Immortals against 2 archers there...
did try variant with flanking and it was even worse.

Good job with the war. Immortals are a lot of fun to play with.
Don't underestimate the power of building research. I would spend all your gold (up to 100%) to get to Alpha as fast as possible. Then build research in your cities with the slider off aiming for currency. Then switch to building wealth as your grow your cottages, and whip/build/chop infrastructure.
It's true that barbs are annoying, ;). I usually keep one or two immortals + the warrior garrisons at my home base for barb protection. Since my capital is churning out immortals, I often have a rotation in which the immortals that were defending the capital's improvements get a promotion and go off to the front and are replaced by newly built ones.
Micro tip: Have Pasargadae work the flood plain cottage that the capital isn't working instead of the grassland one it currently is. This will give P faster growth and grow one of the capital's cottages. It's way more valuable to have the capital (which is looking like it will get Oxford and Buro bonuses) have an improved cottage then P.

I can't on earth find out how you and huerfan killed that gilg pest... I swear i tried...my latest attempt failed at me throwing Combat 1 Immortals at his capital... lost 10! Immortals against 2 archers there...
did try variant with flanking and it was even worse.

It just takes a few great generals (I got at least three and settled one and used the others, I lost my GG Medic though.), patience, some re-orginasation of my troops and healing. I also kept building Immortals and allowed giggles to spread his archers/Chariots about, by settling two other cities after i took his cap, his cap only had two archers in it when i attacked it . Proctive archers on a hill are no match for immortals.I had problems with barbs though,as you probally Know.Oh and ironically i got leonidas as one of my GG's!!:D I agree with your post that said that this map, would be easier as darius, but im sure i can pull off a win in this.



Good job with the war. Immortals are a lot of fun to play with.
Don't underestimate the power of building research. I would spend all your gold (up to 100%) to get to Alpha as fast as possible. Then build research in your cities with the slider off aiming for currency. Then switch to building wealth as your grow your cottages, and whip/build/chop infrastructure.
It's true that barbs are annoying, ;). I usually keep one or two immortals + the warrior garrisons at my home base for barb protection. Since my capital is churning out immortals, I often have a rotation in which the immortals that were defending the capital's improvements get a promotion and go off to the front and are replaced by newly built ones.
Micro tip: Have Pasargadae work the flood plain cottage that the capital isn't working instead of the grassland one it currently is. This will give P faster growth and grow one of the capital's cottages. It's way more valuable to have the capital (which is looking like it will get Oxford and Buro bonuses) have an improved cottage then P.


Thanks for all of the advice,and i agree immortals are fun!. Im not too worried about the after rush rebuild,I have done this rush thing so many times that i'm used to it, i just need to keep up with tech and get my cities to redicioulas sizes by lib. I have set my seccond persian city to deal with the barbs,by building more immortals, hopefully i can fogbust and keep them at bay, then i just have to worry about those dumb barb galleys.Its too bad giggles or memehed did'nt build the GW.The isolation factor may hurt me though, i don't play as well in isolation games for some reason.

I can't on earth find out how you and huerfan killed that gilg pest... I swear i tried...my latest attempt failed at me throwing Combat 1 Immortals at his capital... lost 10! Immortals against 2 archers there...
did try variant with flanking and it was even worse.

1-promo immortals will struggle, but I only had 1 or 2 of those in my stack. A settled GG made all of my new units either C2 (mostly) and F2. My veterans from the Mehmed war were C3. I always attack with the weakest units first, clean up with the veterans. He only had a rax in his capital, which I attacked first, so once you're past that it's no big deal.

I can't on earth find out how you and huerfan killed that gilg pest... I swear i tried...my latest attempt failed at me throwing Combat 1 Immortals at his capital... lost 10! Immortals against 2 archers there...
did try variant with flanking and it was even worse.
I once lost 10 immortals against 2 archers twice in the same game. I decided on a new game.

Time for something...a little different.

10 AD



Settled ON the scout since this is epic, there is less penalty for moving, and it guarantees two excellent food resources. 2h capitol and still riverside is great.

Met gilga + mehmed which is never delicious. 30 and 40 unitprob guys and gilga DoW at pleased sometimes. However, big desert belt separating me and gilga and the only resource between me and mehmed that is of interest is the marble.

So I crank out a few blocker-ish cities, pretty much all worker/settler/warrior. Barb regions to the north are a bit expansive; I totally abused spawnbusting with fortified hill warriors in this game.

Opened AH ----> Wheel/pottery ----> mining -----> priesthood -----> masonry -----> writing -----> bw ------> CoL (oracle). My reasoning for pursuing oracle is that the continent had no religion and my initial settlements were already setting up a block. From there it was just peaceful expansion + cottages on riversides. Capitol will be for GPP; I am moving the palace.

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/emp%20cyrus%20space%20spam/Civ4ScreenShot0000.jpg

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/emp%20cyrus%20space%20spam/Civ4ScreenShot0001.jpg

Nobody has alpha yet so that's why I'm headed there. On the plus side, mehmed is pleased and giggles friendly by 1 AD, and neither is plotting (though I'd built some axes to take one of the northern barb cities and defend vs giggles).

I'm going to pursue sistine for sure (beat back creative like LOL sack), and also AP/sankore/spiral.



1883 Space



I missed AP (buddhist) despite 1st to christianity and build it right away, someone must have had an engineer. Giggles got taoism but wont switch for a long time. Lots of tech trades @ friendly with both guys and I can pick up a useful lib tech:

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/emp%20cyrus%20space%20spam/Civ4ScreenShot0002.jpg

This opens not many tech trades, but a LOT of resource trades and valuable routes. Considering I intend to run US/FS/Eman/FM/OR this game, trade routes are nice.

From there, it's coasting. Sistine boosted confucian buildings flip 2 of mehmed's cities and even one of giggles'. They stay friendly, and I deliberately trade with them heavily...after researching military tradition and getting a DP with both. Hiding behind those 2 guys, I had no war threats to attack me directly (them combined was too strong and I kept them up to date militarily somewhat). Having robbed sistine and 3 religions (confuc, christian, islam), nobody had a chance at culture but me. I coasted to space with production automation on, mashing end turn and building the parts as needed. GPfarm cap got me an engineer for mining inc and I spread that to my AI allies to boost them further and hand me a healthy chunk of change in corp HQ. By the end of the game, shrine in confuc was worth 22 gold despite me building only 1 missionary. Nice. I got jack crap from internet; the AI was really slow in this one.

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/emp%20cyrus%20space%20spam/Civ4ScreenShot0003.jpg

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/emp%20cyrus%20space%20spam/Civ4ScreenShot0004.jpg

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/emp%20cyrus%20space%20spam/Civ4ScreenShot0005.jpg

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/emp%20cyrus%20space%20spam/Civ4ScreenShot0006.jpg

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/emp%20cyrus%20space%20spam/Civ4ScreenShot0007.jpg

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss213/CivIVTMIT/emp%20cyrus%20space%20spam/Civ4ScreenShot0008.jpg

Pshh to immortal rushing XD.

Obviously, the whole other continent was so backwards that I could have mauled it with modern armor and my allies would actually have LIKED me for it. GG.

I really fail to see why anyone played this, lol.
You have the best rushing unit in the game, tons of ressources, rivers, floodplains and this is emperor where absolutely nothing could happen to stop you, except if you blindly throw units on a hill city of course (how the .... can you crush your economy even when doing that with this land on emperor?)

I just don't get it sorry, you all prolly did read this forum as much as i and know most things about civ4. When i see this i re-start the game for something that will be worth my time, coz this is what i'd call "tossing".

1-promo immortals will struggle, but I only had 1 or 2 of those in my stack. A settled GG made all of my new units either C2 (mostly) and F2. My veterans from the Mehmed war were C3. I always attack with the weakest units first, clean up with the veterans. He only had a rax in his capital, which I attacked first, so once you're past that it's no big deal.

that's the problem I was so quick with Mehmed that I didn't get GG.
I attacked him in both tries when he just landed third city and wiped him in something like 4 turns. He was at the point very lightly defended (like 5 archers spread over 3 cities).

I really fail to see why anyone played this, lol.
You have the best rushing unit in the game, tons of ressources, rivers, floodplains and this is emperor where absolutely nothing could happen to stop you, except if you blindly throw units on a hill city of course (how the .... can you crush your economy even when doing that with this land on emperor?)

I just don't get it sorry, you all prolly did read this forum as much as i and know most things about civ4. When i see this i re-start the game for something that will be worth my time, coz this is what i'd call "tossing".

Cyrus is obviously a popular leader for the reasons you mentioned, a good UU and he works well with a map that had good terrain.I had never played as any of the persian leaders before this and wanted to give it a try. Anyway, i moved up to emperor about two weeks ago and this will be my fifth win on emperor, if i win it . Emperor is still challenging for me (not as difficult IMO as the jump to monarch). So i decided to do a standerd map and share it with the fourm, just to see what others would do with it.
Don't get me wrong, i understand that you find this map easy, but that dosen't mean that i have to agree with your comment. If its not worth your time because its too easy, just don't play the map, its your choice. Mabey you have a suggestion as to which leader and map i should post for my next game? (I mean, if you want to make things more challenging for the next game).

TMIT: Thanks for shadowing and showing something different! I just have one question about the space race Is it better to try for mining INC than just switching into SP? In my recent offline Space games, i generally go for State Property for the extra production boost, i know Mining can get you a huge amount of hammers if spread correctly but i tend to have trouble getting the GE unless i build the mids or to save one from early on in the game.

I just happened to get the GE, didn't plan on it. Merchant for sushi or whatever would have been fine too.

SP is only a hammers boost if using a significant amount of workshops/watermills, otherwise it doesn't do much for an empire like mine. Distance maintenance wasn't a huge issue for me given the size/distribution of my cities, and I had lots of towns, mines, some farms, some lumbermills but not really any workshops. In my empire free market and environmentalism > state property even without corporations. Which civic really just depends on intended tile improvements.

Mining inc was only ~ 8 :hammers: for me, though that isn't insignificant. I also got considerable gold per turn from it by spreading it to AI I wanted to have more production anyway; a somewhat rare situation. As for the parts themselves:


With aluminum, multiple levee cities, etc it wasn't hard to build parts. I had one engine take 15 turns or something, but most parts were 12 turns or less. The last part I teched, from ecology, took something like 6 or 8 turns and I didn't bottleneck from other cities; it was the last part finished. In other words, like most games space is limited more by tech than production. Even a super production god city would have, at most, shaved a turn or two off of my launch time, making the "production advantage" of say SP (assuming there is one compared to the corps) reasonably trivial compared to tech rate. Mining inc probably only saved me a couple turns, though it was nice to have.