Monarchist Cookbook Game IV, Mao Zedong of China!

Our Leader:

His UU:

His UB:

And finally, our starting position:

settled in place, sent warrior off exploring. he did a good job before getting eaten by two bears.

techpath: BW, fishing, IW, mysticism, the wheel, pottery, writing (12 turns remain)





two other cities built:
Shanghai: settled on sugar for bonus +1, and it conveniently gets all floodplains, and resources (two gems, pigs, banana) as well as being on a river. looks like a great commerce city, but has also got some production if necessary.

Guangzhou: built mainly for the iron, but also has wheat and bananas.

there is another settler (marked by the sign) but i will leave his placement undecided (i'm not quite sure myself).

looking at the map, you can probably understand why i made IW such a priority.


EDIT:
Pros:
2 strong cities built already, third settler ready to go.
Iron already hooked up to guangzhou, only road/sailing required to connect to capital.
Some fogbusting warriors in place
3 workers out, another otw, gems mined already (not connected though)
Strong economic base: lots of floodplains to cottage and two gem tiles to work.
Forests still to be chopped in capital
Solid teching so far, most important worker techs are in already.

Cons:
lack of roads connecting cities.
only local area has been explored
little knowledge of enemy location apart from alex just to the south

techs: BW->fishing->myst->wheel->pottery->IW-> started writing

Beijing: Settled on place. Built worker first and started chopping to speed up the rest. Built also stonehenge cause i hate building monuments.

Shanghai was found on top of the sugar, it seems to be only spot to cover all resourcers around floodplains without settling on top of them. I have already few cottages up and worker is hooking up first gems in few turns.

I found 3rd city between bananas and wheat and seems that i was a bit lucky and iron spawned into BFC also. My woodsmanII warrior is also located here because barbarian warriors started already spawn near me, he should be able to go scouting again after building some other garrison unit there.

Alexander seems to be below me and wang kon is pretty far to right, they both founded religion.

I did not take screenies underway, only on final turn, so I will hate make due without. Anyway, I quite like the chinese although I prefer playing Qin Shi Huang. Perhaps this game is an interesting possibility to test Maos potential.

The way I see it there are two ways of playing this start; Either the GLH and massive city/harbor spam, or the more inland way, without GLH and more focus on troops and workers. Both ways benefit from Exp, but I choose the second. Perhaps if we had been QSH GLH would've been an option, but we're Mao.

I start out with some scouting, Buddhism is founded so early that at least one AI has picked religion as first tech. Probably Izzy or Monty... Hinduism is founded much later (Cant remember exact turn, check autolog at bottom), so there is probably only one religious freak in this game.

Our land is filled with Jungle so I make IW a priority. Not that it wouldn't be otherwise since we need to get those CKNs rolling!

At the end of my turn, 1525 BC, the situation looks like this:
IMG]http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd53/Lobster667/Civ4ScreenShot0307.jpg[/IMG]

...I picked MC despite the turns, there are no beakers in it yet so it is free to change. The X marks where I want to place the next settler, due from Beijing in around 10 turns. I also have an unpainted map:


An interesting relations screen since we have 3 rivals, Wang Kon (buddhist founder), Alexander (Hindu founder!?), and Victoria, without religion.

Wang has Writing and OB with Victoria, and they are Pleased, while they are both annoyed with Alex and vica versa, due to peaceweight. All are cautious to me (+1 for Peace).



Tech screen. As you can say I am aimed rather straight at CKNs, picking up Pottery for MC and Cottages, Hunting for Archery, Myst for culture and ofc Wheel for infrastructure.

City overview:
Beijing:


... Has a workboat ready, just finished. Either for Nanjing, which is building its WB curerntly, or for third clam which could help once happy cap lifts. No hammers in Settler yet. Worker is roading grassland 1S, there is a road on the mine 2S1E already.

Shanghai:


Building a worker. When I took the screenie I realized that when building workers, it works better like this:


So that's how it is looking now.

Guangzhou:


No culture yet, building a monument. Worker is cottaging the worked floodplain. We dont have AH so no use of chopping pigs (unless we plan to cottage them, in which case FP is still better).

Nanjing:


Building WB, has no monument yet. No garrison either.

Quick recap of PROs and CONs for my save:
Pros:
Already founded 3 cities.
Iron located and ready to be settled.
Massive hammer yield compared to rivals.
No AIs below cautious.
Teching is focused.
Cons:
Poor shape of economy, no cottages up yet.
No knowledge of nearby enemy locations (except where scouts came from).
Only 2 workers out, one otw.
Eventual missbuild in northernmost city, should've been Monument first since we have a WB for it from Beijing.
No tile improvements in other cities than capital.
Teching is not aimed at Calendar which seems to be necessarry early.

Looks like a fine round. I especially like your exploration and settling towards the enemy. Things you should perhaps have given more attention would be primarily teching towards IW even sooner.

Also, two comments on your screenies; it looks as if we are seeing Beijing twice and lacking some other screenie (Shanghai?). And you haven't toggled the "Show Resources" on the overlook pic, it makes it easier to read info out of the pic.

Looks like a nice turnset. I like your teching and I love your city placement (Guanzhou is same place as where my next city should go in my save).

You could add more info on the other civs. have you met any? If yes, who? What are their relations? Religions?

Same comments on city placement as Tycoonist. Also, funny choice about SH, but it seems there are no wonderwhores in the game, so it might be good move. I am intrigued by the decision of building a granary in Guangzhou. Does it have a monument and a garrison unit? Have you got workers enough?

Also, the unhappy citizen in Beijing seems like a mistake, but still, it's two food per turn you are losing. That is something when building workers/settlers.

as to the civs, i have met alex and vicky, both came to me from the south. there has been no interaction between them or us yet. both are at cautious.

a comment on your turnset:
your city placement has obviously been hindered somewhat by lack of knowledge of the gems so your second city is in an inferior place. however, shanghai is a very good city (especially after calendar). curious about your choice of nanjing though: did you not know about the iron at the time? because to me there is no real urgency to settle nanjing whereas the iron is more important and at risk from alexander, so i would have considered it a priority.

on the other hand, your tech path seems very solid and your economy is not as bad as it might be for the number of cities.

Well, i have lately played lots of games with hatty and wilhelm so im used to have creative, so SH was just there to ease my pain

about Guangzhou, well, i have SH so there is monument ( border pop in few turns ) and i put my scout warrior there for garrison duty, but you are right, i should have built warrior there and not tie my woodsman warrior ( i really didnt scout to west at all ).

3 workers, all working with shanghai's tiles. Tho i will need to hook up the iron soon, so i need worker near my 3rd city fast.

Here is how my empire looks like now. I have a warrior + worker + settler going past the barb city to claim the iron(kinda risky maybe but it is jungle most of the way so should be fine), and have capital(which will probably be gp farm with GLib + national epic and such) + a GP city(halfway to it's first GS, first GS likely academy in capital, second GS academy in future capital) and what will eventually be the future capital(insane with tons of flooplains double gems pigs + bannana), this city makes monarchy a priority and maybe i should have gotten it before i got AH(although health is a problem as well and that will allow me to hook up the pigs). I like expansive but haven't gotten much use out of it on this map with all the food... No good spot for HE city yet, but i suppose the iron city can do it if nothing else present itself. Except the current capital and the double fish city(it also used the corn from the capital quite a bit) i'll probably be cottaging over most of the jungle.

really bad luck about that barbarian city mate. it stops the iron being easy to connect, so it will take ages to take out as well.

Nope, not really, it is just defended by warriors so in fact it just saves me hammers as soon as i get hooked up the iron... That worker + settler + warrior team should take out that city easily(by making axes to take it out)...

I settle in place, and send my warrior to scout the surrounding area. I start off teching Fishing, and building a Warrior. China starts with awesome worker techs, but I still want to get those boats out to add some research. Of course, I am immediately thinking GLH with this kind of start, but it kind of depends on the lay of the land.

Turn 8/750 (3800 BC) Fishing comes in, and I start BW. I also switch to a WB right away. I have only invested 9 hammers in the warrior, but I want to get some hammers into the boat while I grow. When I get 9 turns on the boat, I switch back to the warrior to prevent hammer decay. The warrior finishes in 8 turns, I send it to the west to explore, and I re-start the boat, which will not finish before BW, so I can whip it and get an fast 2nd boat.

Turn 19/750 (3525 BC) I meet Alex. Ugh, a backstabber as my closest neighbor. I am already considering making him my first victim. I love PRO Chu's.

Turn 26/750 (3350 BC) Hinduism FIADL, and Alex switches to it. This is OK by me, I havent met anyone else yet, and sharing a religion with him will keep him mildly happy until I can stick the Chu in his back.

The following turn, BW comes in, I revolt to Slavery and get the bad news. No copper in sight. Oh well, I am going to need an early IW this game anyway, so I queue up Hunting so I can get Archery early. Given the land situation, I am going to need barb help.

Turn 37/750 (3075 BC) Hunting comes in and I also whip out the boat. That gives me nearly enough overflow for a 2rd boat as well, and I will grow back my whipped pop back immediately. I start Archery.

The following turn, I get my 2rd boat and queue up a Worker, now that I have 2 Clams to help speed it up.

The turn after that I meed Vicky. Great, another known backstabber. Well, no one wants these to be simple, LOL. I have explored quite a bit by now, though, and have only seen Alex's land. My initial warrior went east and I sent the other one I built west.

Turn 45/750 (2875 BC) Archery comes in, and I start IW. Not going to mess around. I have seen a lot of jungle, and some Gems down by Alex I want to claim ASAP. I have Marble near me as well, but I am not sure it will be much of a help for the Oracle. The GLH is still in my mind, but given the fact that I am still a few techs from it, I may not build any Wonders at all until maybe the GL once I get the Marble. I do want Chu's ASAP, but the GL might be worth it to help push me past Metal Casting and Machinery.

Turn 50/750 (2750 BC) I meet Wang. Hmm, a couple backstabbers and a PRO techer. Shouldnt be too close though, its been a while. I also whip out the Worker into an Archer, to garrison. I can still build Warriors, and will likely use on to garrison Bejing eventually, but I want Archers in my new cities. I just dont trust Alex and I plan to crowd him in the south.

The following turn the Archer is done, and I start a 3rd boat to explore the coast.

Turn 65/750 (2375 BC) I whip the 3rd boat and send it exploring (whip anger almost gone) and start a settler. I have 4 pop in the Cap, so I can whip the Settler for 2 if I wish, but I decided to chop a hill into it so I can get some mines up.


Turn 74/750 (2150 BC) IW comes in, and I start the Wheel. I spot the closest Iron, and its in a great spot! At this point I do a tenative dotmap:


I decide Iron will be first city, and Gems 2nd. I send my warriors back near those locations to fogbust those areas,

The next turn I finish the settler with a chop, and start an Archer to garrison the new city, which will finish in 2 turns. I send the Settler in the direction of the Iron with the garrison Archer, my warrior is closing in to see if the coast is clear.

Turn 78/750 (2050 BC) I now start a 4th boat to grab the 3rd clams to speed up future settlers even more. In a few more turns The Wheel comes in and I start Mysticism.


Turn 86/750 (1850 BC) My Settler gets there, but a stupid Barb warrrior is standing on the hill I want to settle on. He attacks my Archer-Settler pair, dies, and I settle my 2nd city. Myst isnt in yet, so I start an Archer to grow, and can switch to a Monument and whip it at 2-pop when Myst is in.

I also start another Settler in Bejing, however, my warrior I moved to the Gem area found some bad news:


Alex has already poached my original spot, so I will have to settle 1W of my sign.

Turn 90/750 (1750 BC) Myst is in, and I start Sailing. Even if I cant get the GLH, I can still get a regular EXP boosted LH up in Bejing which will boost those clams. I cant switch to a Monument yet in Iron City because I will lose hammers to decay waiting to hit 2-pop.


Turn 92/750 (1700 BC) I whip the 2nd settler out, followed by another Archer again. I need workers now, so after this I am planning to pump out a few. This settler is heading down to the Gems by Alex. I know its far, but I want to claim all that land between our capitols. I send my scouting-warrior toward the cap, and send the settler off to the gems, with the current garrison Archer while his replacement finishes.

The following turn, the new Archer is done, and I start a 2nd worker.

Turn 98/750 (1550 BC) Shanghai goes to 2-pop, so I switch to the Monument, will whip it out in a couple turns, after it gets a hammer or 2.

The Gem-Settler/Archer pair are almost to their spot as well. The next turn the new Worker is done, and I start another Archer, since I have a pop under the cap I can grow, which will be followed by another Worker, then another Settler, worker, worker, maybe an LH mixed in and whipped out in there.

I play 1 turn over, because at Turn 101/750 (1475 BC) I found my 3rd city, and whip out the Monument in the 2nd city. Here are the screens of my 3 cities, as well as a top-view look at the culture. You can see I have found Wangs land in the SE with my Work Boat explorer. Not sure where Vicky is: