NCG 3: The Rebirth

NCG 3: The Rebirth

Round 1: Below
Round 2: 2560 BC to 1120 BC
Round 3: 1120 BC to 140 AD
Round 4: 140 AD to 980 AD
Round 5: 980 AD to 1232 AD
Round 6: 1232 Ad to 1973 AD
Well, here we go!


Welcome to the NCG 3, or Noble Challenge Game. This is a full-fleged game played out for all to see at the noble level. For the third NCG, the pre-gamers have come to a consensus that our leader should be Ghandi, and that we should aim for a cultural victory. Those of you who take my initial save and play it out are kindly asked to refrain for giving us hints or spoilers without spoiler tags.

First, a little on our leader. He is Ghandi, of the Indian Empire, and he starts out with Mysticism and Mining. His traits are Spirtual and Industrious. Thus, we have no anarchy, 50% wonder production, and half-priced temples and forges. Religion is going to play a critical role in this game, and it is likely that we will use an Angkor Wat powered priest economy, along with some artists for extra culture and GA's. Wonders will also be important, as most of our strategies will involve a few wonders. stone would be very nice indeed.

Enough talk. Here are the settings:
Thumbnail 1

and a look at our start:
Thumbnail 2

Well, I see hills, so that will let us take advantage of mining. the dearth of resources in the BFC leads me to believe that there may be Iron or copper hidden in the hills, so we'll watch that. We're also slightly under the equator, and I see flood plains nearby.
Our initial tech path may look like this: Agri, BW and then masondry, along with a run down the religious paths.

I'd get a religion in the bag before teching agriculture myself, +5 culture for the capital basically from the word go. With all the grassland and near rivers you can cottage the capital big time, build a shrine, and go Wall Street there later.

Why couldn't we start 1N of the warrior?
I agree, a religion first, then agri and bronze.
We probably have bronze/iron and Horses in our BFC.
Where shall we move our warrior?
1NW or 1NE?

Probably 1NW with the warrior. I expect there will just be desert to the north, although you would reveal 2 more tiles in the fat cross if you go NE (assuming settling in place).

You could also go 1SW with the warrior, because settling 1SW might be an option too, you lose a plains hill, but get the grassland next to river that the settler is standing on now. Not too much food potential here at the start though.

the save is wrong. Its from the russians.
so NW or SW?
I'm thinking of settling in place if we go for an early religion. Those hills should help to get those wonders while we use some forest for quick settlers.

Never having gone for a cultural victory, I'll make general suggestions at least.

1N of the warrior would be optimal for the early-mid game. You can work 2 FP tiles for quicker growth, and still have plenty of grassland and hills for production/cottaging/farming, depending on your route. You do, however, lose a turn, which in running for an early religion can cost you.

As for tech path, meditation. Try for Buddhism (you will still have 1 to work on if you go 1N), and if you lose, you've already started down the oracle path, which can net you Confucianism later. After meditation, probably agriculture for growth and then BW. If BW doesn't turn up anything in the vicinity, AH, as horses are likely considering the location. Otherwise, finish oracle path and head for alphabet.

Although settling 1N of the warrior gains 4 useless desert tiles (well, the desert hill has its uses), those would be the last 4 tiles to be worked, which would take most of the game to get into the rotation. Meanwhile, there's 2 FP and 7 or so grassland tiles, plus 2 grassland hills and 2 plains hills.

It would make for a stronger early-game city than late-game city, but for a start that's more important, imo. The lack of food in the current start is depressing, as growth is going to be slow, whipping not as useful, and you won't be able to work as many hills eventually anyway.

I say get the FP. NW of the warrior is risky. If the warrior shows there's good land to be had, go for it, but it wastes yet another turn and the quality might just not be worth two lost turns.

A request: could we use the "show grid" and "show resources" options for these in the future?

And, yeah, the save needs to be fixed, but I'm glad it's vanilla so i can actually look at one finally!

Surely the warrior is going to go on a wander anyway looking for huts, so I wouldn't say NW is a risk. Even if an amazing site is seen you can just plonk the second city there.

EDIT: I realise you are talking about settling 1NW of the warrior, so ignore that bit.

I don't think we'll get beaten to an early religion on Noble level, so I would go Polytheism first since that opens up literature for Great Library.

Sorry guys, I can't figure out how to get the right file attached in the right way, so you will have to wait until after the warrior moves.
Yes I will turn those options on, DNK. Pardon me.
So, I think I'll move the warrior, then come back to you guys.

Well, I decided to move the warrior NW, and look at what he found...
Thumbnail 1


well, ghandi doesn't start with fishing, so the water isn't much help. the sheep could be useful for early growth, but I would need to move the settler into the black fog in order to disocver what's there.
oh, and BTW here's(hopefully), the save.

You could move the settler 1SW and see what that looks like, you could always settle there if you see any other resources (I said 1SW wasn't bad either because you settle on a plain rather than a grassland forest, losing a plains hill though), if you were thinking of settling 2W to get the sheep and the vimto.

EDIT: That looks bad though because you would have 3 coast tiles and no lighthouse building ability. So that's probably a daft idea. East of where the warrior is now looks better and better now, more floodplains, if you wanted to move. Settling in place or 1SW looks OK to me as well.

I would settle in place. I move the settler only in the case I see something outstanding. The capital place usually is special. There are many tiles around the settler we cannot see and there are resources we cannot see too.

I agree to found an early religion. It's nice to have at least three religions in a cultural game. We need them for the temples and Cathedrals. I think Polytheism is better then Meditation, because Poly leads to Monotheism. I would try to found Judaism too.

We need Masonry for Judaism. I think the Pyramids is a nice wonder to have, because of Representation (the great artist farm will generate research) and later Universal Suffrage (to rush buy cathedrals - we can sell some techs for the money).

I'm assuming this is a Vanilla Civ4 game.

Settle in place, it's the most prudent thing to do.

Found a religion, I personally don't think it really matters which one you choose, if you pick Meditation you can beeline to Philosophy with a GS, if you pick Poly, you can rush the GL.

But What'd I'd do with Gandhi is Oracle to MC for Cheap Forges, you are Industrious after all.

All the flood plains to the north could be a good cottage city as your Number 2 big one. Also at least one hill for production too. I'd settle in place and look to grab that floodplain spot soon.

oops, sorry, experimenting with uploading my screenshots...

BTW does any one know how to do them?, the screenshots of the next round are too big to be attached, so any help is apperciated. as soon as I get that info, the update will come.

Use Photobucket or ImageShack and put the link between

thanks...update following shortly...

Round 1: 4000 BC to 2560BC
I decided to settle in place:

Looks like some wheat was hidden in the black fog. Good; that will help power our specialist economy.
I dithered a while, mulling over Buddhism or Hinduism. I decided to go for polytheism for two reasons. One, the AI is much more willing to part with meditation than polytheism. Second, I usually prioritize the Great Library over all else. Finally, I usually bulb philosophy on my own with the GS's I produce from the GL, so no big deal on getting a jump start.
Our First goody hut gave us this:

Excellent! that's on the path to Judaism, so we may have a shot at that.
Buddhism was founded in 3670 BC:

and the next goody hut had this to offer us:

This reveals that we're very south of the equator, so that was useful.
And here come the rivals:

I never get along with Peter. He’s just a real pain to me, so I may eliminate him soon.
Then in 3490 BC...


One down, two to go!
From another goody hut:

Now, I didn't reload at all, but I swear I picked up those two techs legit! Trust me on this. ?
More of our rivals showed up to join the party.




I stopped once I got BW. Now here's your dotmap!

I was thinking with priesthood we could found Confucianism and access our cheap building. We have copper in our capital's BFC, so the wheel is probably next, followed by pottery to open up metal casting for later on. Our second city will most likely be Sweet Golden Cow Corn, an excellent 2nd city. After that thought, most of the city sites look unappetizing.
Here's the save. I await your comments.

Settle 1E of where the warrior is. You will be able to use the floodplain then, which is the same as a farmed grassland tile, without the work. Plus the +1 commerce will mean that you can research meditation in 10 turns or poly in 15 turns. Produce a warrior or something to allow the city to grow, then produce 2 workers, get then farming the floodplains and whip/chop the patheon.

Research wise i would go Meditation > argi > AH with maybe some more in there as well.

Oh well. looks like you posted the next round while i was writing this.

Any way. i agree the sugar gold cow corn city would be great. 1NE of the gold would give you 2 floodplains, gold and corn that you could work before your second city's borders pop. After that maybe a cow/fish city or an elephat/rice city on the east coast.

which warrior? I have 2
Agri is already in the bag. I don't know whether we'll have enough ime to get both the oracle and the parthenon, althought hte parthenon would help with GA's and Gp in general.