NCXXIX Stalin

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Prince
Joined
Jun 30, 2008
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Ireland
Hello everyone, its getting to the weekend again - time for te next instalment of the Noble's Club, NCXXIX. For this instalment I have chosen Josef Stalin, of the mighty Soviet Empire

"If the opposition disarms, well and good. If it refuses to disarm, we shall disarm it ourselves." Joseph Stalin.
Stalin is both aggressive and industrious. He is also the only aggressive leader to start with mining, giving possible early access to BW. The other Russian starting tech is Hunting.

The russian UU is a beefed up cavalry unit the cossack:

And the UB is the Research Institute, a lab replacement with 2 free scientist specialists:


Moving on now we have our start:
Spoiler :


Now I will cut and paste the standard doctrine that TMIT stole from Bleys:

There are no hard and fast rules here, fun and learning are our primary goals, but we do request that you update your progress at various points in the game, using the Spoiler feature of the boards.

Tentative posting updates are suggested at:

4000 BC (starting thoughts, no spoiler required for that discussion)
1000 BC or so (how you decided to progress up the early tech/build paths, which AIs you have met, etc)
500 AD or so (after establishing some cities and a possible plan of action)
1200 AD or so (mid-game, Lib race, wars or peace, or whichever happened or didnt, met other continent if applicable, etc)
1600 AD (or when you have decided on a course of action and a specific victory condition)
End of game (Victory!!! or defeat, no shame in losing, especially if you tried a higher level. Learning is what we focus on, not fastest win or biggest empire)

Remember, these are only guidelines. What we really want are your thoughts as the game goes on, so if your strats don't fall into line with those dates, feel free to adjust your reports accordingly.

We also welcome players to ask for specific game advice, as we have a number or stronger players who lurk and help out with solid tips, and of course, we help each other. Replies to specific questions should also be in spoilers, with a simple "@" in front of the person the answer is directed towards.

Special Thanks go to Bleys and TMIT, who really made this series a great one, r_rolo, mapmaker extraordinaire, for his maps for most of the series (and the one I learned from!), and all of you for playing.

The WB-save is attached (zipped, they are bigger than standard saves). To play, simply download and unzip it into your BTS/Saves/WorldBuilder folder. Start the game, and load your favorite MOD (if you use one, if not, I suggest checking out the BUG MOD), select "Play Scenario", and look for "NCXXVIII Gandi". This allows you to play with your favorite MOD at the Level and Speed of your choice. From Quick-Warlord to Marathon-Prince, all are welcome! We stuck with the name "Nobles Club" because it has a cool ring to it.

Also, it should be noted that although this is a "pre-Monarch" oriented series, you are welcome to play it at levels above Prince. However, the AIs will NOT get their full set of bonus techs. The main difference is Archery, which the AI normally gets for free at Monarch and above. The main affects of this are in the AIs starting units (warriors instead of archers) and it also creates a tad "slower" AI, since they now have to tech Archery themselves.

In addition, because of the variations of using the Scenario menu, your starting Scout/Warrior may not be in exactly the same spot as the one shown.

And the WB save attached:
 

Attachments

  • NCXXIX Stalin.zip
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I just might try this. I've played CIVII to the death, played some CIVIII and just got BTS just a few weeks ago. I started at noble to get the hang off it but I can't beat it :(. Maybe this'll help me!
 
I just might try this. I've played CIVII to the death, played some CIVIII and just got BTS just a few weeks ago. I started at noble to get the hang off it but I can't beat it :(. Maybe this'll help me!

Welcome to CFC:beer: And welcome to the NC. Post up screenshots of your game along with a little report of what you did (in spoilers;)), and attach a save. Others and I would gladly give you advice and pointers on your game. Its what the NC is about, learning to beat noble/prince difficulty and beyond. Good luck, and most of all, have fun!
 
That's like the king of annoying starts. BFC gold but go 1 off coast? Risk losing food to head riverside? Or drop south to get riverside and food and leave gold to a 2nd city? I'd probably do the 3rd.
 
When I put together the save I did so without gaining any knowledge of the map. Its one of those starts though, thats why I didn't regen. I'll say this (I started on prince difficulty):
Spoiler :
The map is fun, and allows for a few different approaches:)
 
When I put together the save I did so without gaining any knowledge of the map. Its one of those starts though, thats why I didn't regen. I'll say this (I started on prince difficulty):
Spoiler :
The map is fun, and allows for a few different approaches:)

Indeed. And here goes nothing:

Spoiler :
I started off by settling in place. That seems to be standard fare for me. I started off by teching Agriculture to farm the corn, but about two turns later I got Bronze Working through a hut! A few turns after that, I got fishing through a hut! Unfortunately I didn't have any copper so I had to keep going from there. I met a few guys and discovered that we share a continent with four other civs, not bad. After teching Animal Husbandry, it turns out we have a horse fairly nearby, which can be had with a city with cows. I build that and start spamming some Chariots out.




Next, I decided to go after Cyrus. Of the AI's, his power indicator was closest to mine. I thought that might present a challenge, but...nope!




One civ left on the map and then I'll wonder-spam and REX!




With that out of the way, I've conquered my entire continent and am now isolated. Time to gear out the REXing, etc. There's a stone above my capital which will be nice for getting some wonders. I had prepared a dotmap but forgot to post a screenie of it, you can see parts of it in each screen. I'll try and post that up if I go back to my game today.
 
That's like the king of annoying starts. BFC gold but go 1 off coast? Risk losing food to head riverside? Or drop south to get riverside and food and leave gold to a 2nd city? I'd probably do the 3rd.

My instinct is that you punt the river - push the scout to the hill NW of the settler, and if there's nothing macho to the west, move the settler one east, and settle next turn.
 
Played until 150AD Emperor/Normal

Spoiler :

Man, normal speed is a different game! I saw the research rates and thought "Boy, this is swell!", but then it was already 1AD and I was the last in power, with Genghis in WHEOOHRN, Huayna pissed because of religion and me without knowing what to do...

I stopped right after Genghis declared. Think I can fight him off, but let's consider this a defeat. I should play this one level down, i.e. Prince, not the level that is still hard for me.

Genghis' stack:

 

Attachments

  • NCXXIX Stalin AD-0150.CivBeyondSwordSave
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Uh, what is this...?

Spoiler :
Did the AI leave a sign on their continent? I didn't put that there...



 
Spoiler :
That means that civ had an event which upped the production of the tile (like tin sales are booming.)
 
Well here goes I'll give this a go I have had the game for about 1 month but don't get to play that much
 
Spoiler :
That means that civ had an event which upped the production of the tile (like tin sales are booming.)

Thanks.

Spoiler :
I played this game up until like 750 AD but then got really bored. I've circumnavigated the world, have filled my continent with cities (15 or so) and am teching at like 300 bpt (at 50% slider). When I met Carthage, I already had over 2000 points in my score and he was in the 600's. Same with the other two civs. Kind of boring at that stage.
 
Thanks.

Spoiler :
I played this game up until like 750 AD but then got really bored. I've circumnavigated the world, have filled my continent with cities (15 or so) and am teching at like 300 bpt (at 50% slider). When I met Carthage, I already had over 2000 points in my score and he was in the 600's. Same with the other two civs. Kind of boring at that stage.

What speed/difficulty? On marathon speed, that can always be an issue, considering how unbalanced the the unit hammer scaling is, not to mention the triple lifespan of the half price unit. Looks like you should be playing a level or two higher.
 
What speed/difficulty? On marathon speed, that can always be an issue, considering how unbalanced the the unit hammer scaling is, not to mention the triple lifespan of the half price unit. Looks like you should be playing a level or two higher.

That's at Marathon/Noble. I'll try Prince the next game.
 
@war ensemble

BUG mod keeps track of all events and marks them like that, for you to not stumble over suspicious tile yields ;-)
 
@war ensemble

BUG mod keeps track of all events and marks them like that, for you to not stumble over suspicious tile yields ;-)

Thanks, still trying to get the hang of everything in it!

Spoiler :
Here's my dotmaps:






And my cities:

 
Here's my game, to 50AD...

Spoiler :

I gambled and moved 2 west, paid for and scored quite a nice capital city I think. Planned out the locations of three more close cities and set about founding the second (south), tech'd AH and got the horses right in my second city, score! It would seem though that I should have capalised on the horses at this stage, when in fact I continued my expansion and slowly worked up to building horse archers. Just in time too, damn Genghis declared war only a turn or two after arranging an open borders agreement.

I really liked how things were going up to this point, although Huayna was expanding a bit quicker than I'd have liked.

Here are some screen shots:



Below: The northern most city was a barb city I captured with one chariot, nicely located too.




I am tempted to redo this and do a bit of a chariot rush at the start, see how things pan out then.
 
This is my first noble's club try, had a bit of trouble loading the file but finally got started!


TMIT had it right when he said that this was a frustrating start.
Playing at Prince, normal speed... this is my game up to 875 BC

Spoiler :


I decided to move 1E and settle there... didn't want to lose the gold for the first city. Went Ag -> BW

lots of floodplains on this map!



only 3 cities so far, and with stone in sight i might be able to wonder whore, but we'll see. I went for Monotheism, but someone got it before me, so I decided to chop the Oracle in Moscow to found Christianity. since none of my neighbors have a religion yet i'm going to push it pretty hard...


 
@qnl
Spoiler :
I wouldn't have bothered chasing the religion. The time would have been better spent getting the economic and worker techs. HC, one of your neighbours had founded Buddism, and is sure to shrine it, and spam missionaries to everyone else. Also, you will have a beautiful shrine to conquer when you get a military advantage. Instead of chasing a religion you should have rexed and built an army, as Genghis Kahn is a neighbour, and he is a rather aggressive AI.


Now onto my Checkpoint 1 emperor lite/normal to 25AD.
Spoiler :
I decided on a peaceful ReX, as there is a lot of quality land surrounding what is a bad starting capital. Good bureaucracy capital, with all that grassland riverside though:D. No copper, but horse, so I had to go archery. My scouts popped exclusivly cash, which I am quite happy about. I went early IW, as plenty of jungle, and gems too. At closing of save GK has gone Wheoorn, and I am likely target, due to shared borders, so re enforcing the border cities asap. I hope to get calendar asap from trading CoL to Cyrus when done, HC oracled it, and I hope he keeps the monopoly on it. The tech situation is as follows:


The diplo glance:


The Info tab:


And the cities I have:


Time to prepare for war, as GK has construction, and is planning to attack someone. If he asks for a tech I know for definite it will be me. I'll give him what he wants, and then I will whip as much troops as possible to protect from the inevitable invasion to follow the peace treaty.
 
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