T-hawk
Transcend
Hi all,
I'd like to share my report of a game that passed the mark of 3.2 million score. The full writeup is here: http://www.dos486.com/civ4/sushi/ . I'll use this thread to give an executive summary of the key points and for discussion.
The setup was a Big & Small map, for lots of tiny islands and seafood resources to power Sid's Sushi. I think Darius is the best leader, for the two best economic traits, solid UB, and fine UU for rushing. I also think Immortal difficulty might be better than Deity. (More details in the full report.)
On marathon speed, build two warriors as fast as possible to start worker stealing. You can get something like five workers by turn 50 on marathon speed. One problem can be making peace with the AIs. It seems that their willingness to make peace is heavily influenced by power rating, so kill scouts whenever you can (they start with three on Immortal), and research techs like The Wheel and Bronze Working for power.
Settle just one city for horses (roll a new map if there are none), and start Immortal rushing. Make sure to cut off copper ASAP if the AIs get it connected. Capture capitals and good cities, but raze anything that doesn't have at least two good resources. I don't think it is necessary to take vassals. Leave a couple AIs unconquered and make friends with them by religion, and just trade for whatever they research. As you expand, do build cottages for economy, and courthouses.
Make sure to get the Great Lighthouse and Colossus. The Oracle isn't mandatory but does help a lot, with Currency as a good target. The Pyramids you'll want eventually too, but capturing them is much better than building. Keep an eye on AI building progress, on the espionage screen by looking at the Sabotage Production number. Other wonders to build later include the Mausoleum, Hanging Gardens. The Great Library is helpful but not mandatory, as are Notre Dame, Angkor Wat, Sankore, Hagia Sophia, and Spiral Minaret. One wonder that can be very helpful is Versailles; you don't want to spend research in that direction, but keep an eye on AI progress (you will have tons of EP from all the courthouses) and look to steal Theology and Divine Right.
Mid game, go for Banking as your research target before Paper and Education. With the Pyramids, you can run Representation and Mercantilism together for 6 beakers per city -- and you get that for *free* rather than 4200 hammers sunk into universities and Oxford. (Do build Oxford soon of course, but it's not essential to get it ASAP.)
Then the next target is Sid's Sushi. That means researching to Corporation and Medicine, most probably using Liberalism for the latter. Use the Economics Great Merchant to found the corporation. While researching, get some settlers expanding out to the islands on the Big & Small map, claiming anything with a seafood resource. A good approach is to build the Globe Theater at your highest food site and use that city to whip settlers while other cities grow vertically.
Sid's Sushi should produce 25+ food, up to 40 if you can control every seafood resource on the map. Once you have Sid's Sushi established, expand it as fast as possible. Whip executives even at the empty box penalty. The limiting factor on speed to the end of the game is expanding Sushi to every city, so the faster you can do that the more score you will get. Each executive takes a turn to load onto a boat and can't spread until the next turn, so the theoretical limit is 5 cities every 2 turns. Hit that limit! And make sure to stay far enough ahead on building settlers so that the executives always have ready targets. Once Sushi is expanded to a couple dozen cities, every city should be building a settler (they come very fast with Sushi food) or whipping an executive.
Fill up the map with settlers. Aim for 120 or more cities. Build as many cities as possible. Don't build one city in the center of an island if you can fit two by building on each end.
Almost every Great Person should go into starting Golden Ages, which are the one use of GP that scales up on bigger maps. A couple exceptions might be the capital academy or a shrine, or maybe bulbing Education. But don't settle any or build more than one academy. I can consistently get up to the 4-man GA, plus the Taj Mahal.
Avoid Astronomy. The unexpired Colossus can earn over 2000 commerce per turn - remember that on ocean tiles it gives TWO commerce because it enables the Financial bonus. Yes, moving settlers around by galley gets tiresome, but it's worth it for that kind of income. Fortunately, caravels can carry executives.
After Medicine, the next urgent goal is Communism and the Kremlin. The Kremlin is godly: it will produce over 25,000 hammers by the end of the game. (100 cities x 6 population whipped per city x 45 extra hammers per pop = 27,000, and each of those factors can go higher.)
Here's my build order in all these island cities. Grow to size 4, whip the granary, and let the Kremlin-generated overflow complete the Organized-discounted lighthouse. Grow back to size 4, whip the Organized-discounted courthouse, and let the overflow complete a police Immortal. (Avoid Horseback Riding so that cheap police Immortals are always available.) Then let the city grow vertically, remember you need the population for score.
These island cities will need markets, grocers, and harbors for income, happy, health, and the merchant specialist slots. The best way to build all of these is not whipping or cash rushing. It's Mining Inc. This corp should produce 20 or more hammers, even up to 40 by buying resources. Whip and spread Mining Inc executives as fast as possible, same as you did for Sushi. Yeah, 3 population for a whipped exec does hurt, but it's much better than whipping 7-10 population for all of those buildings.
You'll need to stay under the domination limit while your score continues to increase. Islands are the priority, since they take only three or four land tiles per city. Give away mainland cities if you must to stay under domination. Build some cuirassiers or cavalry, and conquer back all the border cities you can reach on the very last turn to slingshot past domination.
To crack 3 million score, you need a population of around 4,000 on a standard size map and to win by roughly turn 500 (1000 AD). I have a score calculator here that can help you figure that out. http://www.dos486.com/civ4/index/calc.shtml
Good luck and enjoy!
I'd like to share my report of a game that passed the mark of 3.2 million score. The full writeup is here: http://www.dos486.com/civ4/sushi/ . I'll use this thread to give an executive summary of the key points and for discussion.
The setup was a Big & Small map, for lots of tiny islands and seafood resources to power Sid's Sushi. I think Darius is the best leader, for the two best economic traits, solid UB, and fine UU for rushing. I also think Immortal difficulty might be better than Deity. (More details in the full report.)
On marathon speed, build two warriors as fast as possible to start worker stealing. You can get something like five workers by turn 50 on marathon speed. One problem can be making peace with the AIs. It seems that their willingness to make peace is heavily influenced by power rating, so kill scouts whenever you can (they start with three on Immortal), and research techs like The Wheel and Bronze Working for power.
Settle just one city for horses (roll a new map if there are none), and start Immortal rushing. Make sure to cut off copper ASAP if the AIs get it connected. Capture capitals and good cities, but raze anything that doesn't have at least two good resources. I don't think it is necessary to take vassals. Leave a couple AIs unconquered and make friends with them by religion, and just trade for whatever they research. As you expand, do build cottages for economy, and courthouses.
Make sure to get the Great Lighthouse and Colossus. The Oracle isn't mandatory but does help a lot, with Currency as a good target. The Pyramids you'll want eventually too, but capturing them is much better than building. Keep an eye on AI building progress, on the espionage screen by looking at the Sabotage Production number. Other wonders to build later include the Mausoleum, Hanging Gardens. The Great Library is helpful but not mandatory, as are Notre Dame, Angkor Wat, Sankore, Hagia Sophia, and Spiral Minaret. One wonder that can be very helpful is Versailles; you don't want to spend research in that direction, but keep an eye on AI progress (you will have tons of EP from all the courthouses) and look to steal Theology and Divine Right.
Mid game, go for Banking as your research target before Paper and Education. With the Pyramids, you can run Representation and Mercantilism together for 6 beakers per city -- and you get that for *free* rather than 4200 hammers sunk into universities and Oxford. (Do build Oxford soon of course, but it's not essential to get it ASAP.)
Then the next target is Sid's Sushi. That means researching to Corporation and Medicine, most probably using Liberalism for the latter. Use the Economics Great Merchant to found the corporation. While researching, get some settlers expanding out to the islands on the Big & Small map, claiming anything with a seafood resource. A good approach is to build the Globe Theater at your highest food site and use that city to whip settlers while other cities grow vertically.
Sid's Sushi should produce 25+ food, up to 40 if you can control every seafood resource on the map. Once you have Sid's Sushi established, expand it as fast as possible. Whip executives even at the empty box penalty. The limiting factor on speed to the end of the game is expanding Sushi to every city, so the faster you can do that the more score you will get. Each executive takes a turn to load onto a boat and can't spread until the next turn, so the theoretical limit is 5 cities every 2 turns. Hit that limit! And make sure to stay far enough ahead on building settlers so that the executives always have ready targets. Once Sushi is expanded to a couple dozen cities, every city should be building a settler (they come very fast with Sushi food) or whipping an executive.
Fill up the map with settlers. Aim for 120 or more cities. Build as many cities as possible. Don't build one city in the center of an island if you can fit two by building on each end.
Almost every Great Person should go into starting Golden Ages, which are the one use of GP that scales up on bigger maps. A couple exceptions might be the capital academy or a shrine, or maybe bulbing Education. But don't settle any or build more than one academy. I can consistently get up to the 4-man GA, plus the Taj Mahal.
Avoid Astronomy. The unexpired Colossus can earn over 2000 commerce per turn - remember that on ocean tiles it gives TWO commerce because it enables the Financial bonus. Yes, moving settlers around by galley gets tiresome, but it's worth it for that kind of income. Fortunately, caravels can carry executives.
After Medicine, the next urgent goal is Communism and the Kremlin. The Kremlin is godly: it will produce over 25,000 hammers by the end of the game. (100 cities x 6 population whipped per city x 45 extra hammers per pop = 27,000, and each of those factors can go higher.)
Here's my build order in all these island cities. Grow to size 4, whip the granary, and let the Kremlin-generated overflow complete the Organized-discounted lighthouse. Grow back to size 4, whip the Organized-discounted courthouse, and let the overflow complete a police Immortal. (Avoid Horseback Riding so that cheap police Immortals are always available.) Then let the city grow vertically, remember you need the population for score.
These island cities will need markets, grocers, and harbors for income, happy, health, and the merchant specialist slots. The best way to build all of these is not whipping or cash rushing. It's Mining Inc. This corp should produce 20 or more hammers, even up to 40 by buying resources. Whip and spread Mining Inc executives as fast as possible, same as you did for Sushi. Yeah, 3 population for a whipped exec does hurt, but it's much better than whipping 7-10 population for all of those buildings.
You'll need to stay under the domination limit while your score continues to increase. Islands are the priority, since they take only three or four land tiles per city. Give away mainland cities if you must to stay under domination. Build some cuirassiers or cavalry, and conquer back all the border cities you can reach on the very last turn to slingshot past domination.
To crack 3 million score, you need a population of around 4,000 on a standard size map and to win by roughly turn 500 (1000 AD). I have a score calculator here that can help you figure that out. http://www.dos486.com/civ4/index/calc.shtml
Good luck and enjoy!