Random Sid

OK, i feel there is something that i should do before i finally convert to civ4

This is going to be a Sid game with completely random settings (except for the map size which will be standard). But i'll not play a start if it seems too easy, i.e. a start with a food bonus or an archipelago map with me statring on an isolated island.

I am going to play aggressively right from the start. There were quite a few Sid games done before where the human player expanded peacefully and traded/stole/bought/got via GL slingshot the techs necessary for space or diplo win (or artillery&factories for easy military victory over the AI). I don't want to play such a game because it is too uncertain. The neighbouring AI civ may decide to attack you and then you are toast. I want a win that does not depend on luck (or at least not that much). This means that i'll have to keep a decent army right from the start. Given the fact that the start will be without a food bonus this means that i'll have to go for an ultra-early archer rush. Here you may say that it also depends on luck greatly, but it is not true. Compared to expanding peacefully the human player has much more control over the situation and knowing AI you can almost certainly tell how many units are needed to guarantee capturing a town. In the beginning the AI keeps 2 spears in each town except maybe the capital. And a stack of 10 archers will capture such a town with almost 100% propability. Actually i would often use 7 or even 5 archers, but in this game i'll not take any chances, at least not in the very beginning.

I'll play the game by the GOTM rules, which means that i might use evil things avoided in SGs like RoP rape, breaking deals and some other dirty tricks. There is one thing that i'll not do though - I will not use the GL elevator which means that if i capture the GL city before education i have to raze or gift it on the same turn. This just seems too cheesy to me. On Sid it is very difficult to conquer new territory and in the same time keep up in tech: you can either expand and fall behind in tech or keep up, but without expanding. GL elevator simplifies things too much.

OK, here is the start:



This is the 3rd start i rolled. The first one was aztecs near a river and a game forest - too easy . The second one was a very crappy start as Korea, but i soon learnt that i am alone on a small island and abandoned the game. I played several turns in this game and the start looks ugly enough and i already met 2 civs from my landmass, so i'll be playing it.

So i am the inca - expansionist (not a great trait for Sid, but can help a bit with early trading) and agricultural (a trait that is great for almost anything). The UU is absolute rubbish, but comes early and may be helpfull for boosting production during an ultra-early archer rush.

And i am going to try an archer-rush. Without a food bonus there is no way i can even remotely get close to AI expansion. My only chance at this level is to hit them early and hard during their expansion phase. A non-scientific and non-militaristic civ would be a perfect target because they just start with warriors.

BTW, speaking of AI civs: F10 reveals that my rivals in this game will be Arabs, Indians, Chinese, Japanese, Vikings, Zulu and Koreans.

Wow this will be a tough game me thinks. I only have vanilla so will never be able to try it myself, but HAVING to go for the ultra early archer rush I would find difficult on diety so this will be a great game for me to lurk and learn.

OK, more then 30 views and nobody said that i'm crazy, so it is time to start playing .

4000BC - I move my scout to the northern hill and worker to the BG. I saw a freshwater lake, but there is only desert around it and i dont' want to move away from my BGs and forests even though that with AGR trait deserts are not so bad and growing faster is tempting. The main criterion here for me is the number of turns needed to get my city to 10spt and after a short calculation i find that this numbner is smaller if i settle in place. I should note here that the site near the lake may be better if i decide to launch my GA now, but the difference is not so great, so i decide to save it for later when i'll need it to catch up in techs. I also considerd moving towards the coast to get contacts sooner, but it would require wasting a turn and would place me 1 tile further from the most propable location of my archer rush target which wastes another turn, so i settle Cuzco in place and set research to Alphabet at minimum and start building barracks. Worker begins mining the BG next turn. Scout moves north hoping for contacts. Setting research to Alphabet was a bit of a gamble: i need warrior code for my archers, but i really hope to trade it from the AI. Masonry is quite a rare tech and i hope it'll have some trade value. Bronze Working will be very usefull too. Normally i don't like building spears, but on Sid level you often want the AI to attack you to get a better kill ratio. Here is how things look like after the city is founded:



As my scout explores he sees mostly deserts, plains and mountains, but also some rivers and floodplains and even the super powerfull FP wheat tile. This could be a great place for a settler or worker factory, but i am going to think about worker and settler factories after the archer rush, i need to cripple my neighbours first so that i actually have some space to expand to.

3600BC - The scout meets Gandhi. I trade Masonry and Pottery for Alphabet. It is nice to gift Masonry to my neighbours ASAP, because often whoever gets masonry first also gets pyramids first. I begin 50-turn research of Writing.

3650BC - On the next turn i see a viking curragh near my capital (yes, they do build curraghs on Sid. It seems that curraghs have a low priority for the AI, but on Sid thay build everything so quickly that they find time even for low-priority things). I get Warrior Code from them and Ceremonial Burial from Gandhi.

2510BC - Only 30 turns have passed and i am pretty much boxed in by the AI. Here is a picture of land that i have explored:



I don't think i would have really had any chance to expand significantly if i went for a farmer's gambit by building my second city near the FP wheat and setting up a settler factory. By the time i would have completed the granary all the land would have already been taken. Not to mention that the land is quite crappy around here. Meanwhile i completed barracks and 4 archers in Cuzco. I joined my worker this turn after some basic improvements were done and started working 2 forested tiles. This was agreat boost to my production and Cuzco is now producing 10 spt and 2-turn archers.



I hope to amass a nice stack of archers and then attack Gandhi. He is religious, so i hope he'll get cultural expansions soon so that i can capture his cities and not autoraze them.

2030BC - The borders of the nearest indian city (Karachi, the FP wheat city) expand and i already have 10 archers. I can't wait any longer because unit support is getting to high: i have 75 gold and -5gpt and the AI can demand gold at any time. I already had to give 24 gold away to Ganhi's demand. Still 13 turns to go to Writing. It is a very important tech on Sid because it allows to make alliances. Vikings already have Writing, Indians don't. I move my stack out of indian land and prepair for decalring war next turn. I want to preserve my RoP reputation for later use.

1990BC - I declare war on India and kill a regular indian warrior with my archer who promotes to elite.

1950BC - I am forced to give 22 gold to Ragnar. Vikings complete the Colossus in their capital. BTW, i forgot to mention the good news: Indians started Pyramids in Delhi some time ago.

1910BC - My Stack of Doom attacks Karachi. I was about to curse the RNG after taking too high losses when this happened:



Well, now i don't know what to do with the MGL. I still have only 2 towns and i don't know when will i get 2 more needed for an army. I also don't have Iron Working and i don't know when will i get it and i don't know if i have iron. And making an archer army seems to be a great waste. Still the thing are going too good for me so far: Gandhi is the best AI opponent (non-MIL and non-SCI, so starts with just warriors, peaceful and REL, which means that his borders expand quickly and it is easier to capture cities. This may also mean more trouble with flips though.) and an early MGL. I even feel somewhat unsatisfied with this: if i ever manage to win this game i'll think that it the game is flawed since i had too much luck in the beginning . The bad thing is that i still don't know BW and can't really defend if Gandhi throws some serious forces at me. But i hope to survive long enough to be able to make peace.

1870BC - Gandhi is throwing a large stack of regular warriors at me. The RNG is not that kind this time and i loose a few archers. Even worth is the fact that i have to stay in Karachi and the town has a flip risk. It is very low according to Mapstat (they didn't build much culture yet and my capital is closer), but still i am quite nervous.

1790BC - Inians continue the siege. My archers are veterans and his warriors are regulars. I get a nice advantage in both offense and defense (because of defensive bombardment), but it is not enough. There are just too many of them. I desperately need BW. Finally in 1750BC Gandhi agrees for peace and i make this treaty:



At the same time resistance in Karachi is quelled and it begins building a worker while working the FP wheat tile. Jaipur, the city i got in the peace deal begins a curragh hoping to get something by trading with overseas civs. There is a piece of blue border visible to the west. Here is how my land looks like now:



Bengal, the nearby city which seems to be as crappy as Jaipur was valued by Gandhi much higher, this means that there is a resource near it. This is good, the city will be mine sooner or later. I hope it is iron .

You seem to be doing well so far, although the continent is almost completely dominated by the AI. Games full of wars are fun to watch, plenty of excitement.

Madness! You're actually TRYING to roll a bad start on SID?!?!

I don't know what to do next. Gandhi has units fortified in my territory and my gut feeling is that he'll not move them away, this means that i'll propably be able to make them declare on me and thus continue war when i am ready without a rep hit. But I also don't want to make India too weak because i am afraid that i won't be able to cope with vikings one on one. (And it does look like there are only 3 of us on this continent. The scout didn't finmd anything in the south and this means that the vikings will have lots of room to expand. Dealing with them will be difficult).

1725BC - Against my expectations Gandhi leaves my territory. So i think i'll attack vikings next. The borders of nearest viking city, Oslo have expanded and i'll try to capture it after i get some reinforcements. I have only 6 archers left now and i want to play it out safely. Writing is due in 5 turns and i'll try to bribe Gandhi to get him into alliance agaist the vikings. There is a small chokepoint down there and if i'll be able to control it...

1700BC - Chinese complete pyramids and indians cascade to SoZ (they had ivory). It is both good and bad: fighting ACs with archers is tough, but if i ever manage to capture Dalhi...

1600BC - I learn Writing and begin another min run on Literature which is quite likely to be a monopoly tech even with min research. I estabilish embassy in Delhi and find out that there are 6 regular spears there. I declare on vikings and move my forces to Oslo. Unfortunately i cannot pull indians into the war - it is too expensive.

1575BC - I capture Oslo loosing 1 archer. I can create an empty army now, but don't fill it with anything yet. I do it just to be able to get armies in further battles.

1475BC - Things repeat like in the indian war, but this time i have a spear and i am able to withhold viking attack without losses. I leave a small force to protect Oslo and advance my main stack to Stockholm, another nearest viking city which just got its palace expansion. I also met a zulu galley this turn, but they are too advanced and i cannot trade. Meanwhile Karachi produced several workers and i am connecting my towns with roads.

1425BC - I capture Stockholm loosing one archer. Time to make peace. I get 3 towns and some gold from Ragnar. The towns are crappy and are all located in different parts of the world, i was choosing blindly because i didn't know where they are actually located. But this is good anyway, if i cripple the AI i can grab the entire continent for myself and then i may have a shot at catching up in tech.



1325BC - My curragh meets koreans. They are backwards and still lack Writing! I trade it for IW and see this:



Here is the CAII animated minimap of the game so far:

Stack up units, fortify your cities, and redeclare. Then iron is yours bud.

Yes, that's what i was going to do . The iron will definitely be mine soon, but defending from the indian counter-attack is going to be very tough. They have ACs and they have another source of iron near Delhi. I have already seen a number of indian swords running around and they are going to outnumber me by maybe 4 or 5 times Not only they pay 40% of the price for their units, but they also have more and better developed cities. So far i relied on only 10spt from Cuzco and the fact that they were in their expansion phase and didn't build many troops (except for escorting settlers).

In hindsite i think attacking vikings now seems to be a mistake, propably i should have screwed my reputation, but took care of the indians earlier. Vikings are much weaker and have no iron (but i didn't know that when i chose to attack them) while indians are #1 in score and power (among those civs that i know) and have iron and ACs... This game might be pretty much over after the next war with india.

How did you post that map?
Great story and mad game!

You mean the animated minimap? I used CivAssist II to generate it. Sorry guys that there was no update for such a long time, but that's why i stopped playing SGs - i can find time to play, but cannot do it regulary BTW, i played a little bit further and i got the iron and i am still alive. Will post an update when i have some time.

Well, whenever you find the time for updating, ill be waiting.