RevCast Episode 07: "Making Mincement" (Part 1)

Hungry, hungry gamers. Regular co-host Joe "joebreeves" Reeves, returning guest co-host Daniel "DanQ" Quick and first-time guest co-host Eric "ericball" Ball serve as the panel on the seventh episode of RevCast (RC) a podcast focusing on Civilization: Revolution on its various platforms. "Making Mincemeat" (Part 1) is now netcasting with a runtime of 14m59s. The summary of topics is as follows:

- 01m20s | Topic #1
In response to part of one listener's suggestions for show topics, horserushing: defending against the popular strategy.
- 08m52s | Topic #2
The flip side of the same suggestion on horserushing, what civilizations are the most desirable to carry out these attacks.
- 12m57s | Topic #3
An extension of a part from earlier on: advantages to being able to select your defender when attacking.

RevCast is the second spin-off of the Civ strategy-centric PolyCast on which Barney serves as a regular co-host as well; the modding-centric ModCast was the first such spin-off. Unlike either of its older siblings, RC has no defined segment categories. This is the second multi-part episode and, as such, watch for its second part in a couple of weeks time.

I'd like to thank DanQ for inviting me and editting my rambling babble down to coherent sentances. You don't know what kind of work must go into a good podcast until you learn typically Dan edits down an hour recording to the 15 minutes you hear.

I would also like to apologise for my audio quality. I was using a cheap bluetooth headset as a microphone (if I do this again, I'll get something better, I promise), then I pulled a Wilson and lost the high quality recording I made; so Dan had to use the low-fi backup recording.

And for anyone who might want to guest on RevCast - drop Dan a line. Especially anyone who has played multiplayer.

About the Chinese Horserush --

What makes it viable is that with the +1 population you receive as the Chinese, you can get your research and production up quicker.

For example, there are two common ways of the Chinese Horserush; the first one involves putting both tiles on forest while putting the 3rd population tile in the city (or if you have a 3rd forest, on the forest). What this enables you to do is to produce 2 warriors in 4 turns, instead of 5 turns. Added to this, you can then get HBR in 4 turns (instead of 5) if you put all your tiles on Science. This way of the horserush is good as you use your early warriors to beat close barbarians to gain gold and to rush-buy your Horses. This way is slower than the second way to horserush with the Chinese, but it can be faster if you have a lot of close barbarians near-by. On a final note, you can also use your warriors for choke points and to camp on your enemies' forest tiles, meaning they get a huge hit on production (this way also means that if you try to counter with Legions, they will attack the warrior instead of the horseman army if they're on the same square ((I believe)) I haven't done the Chinese horserush in a while, but I believe it works this way).

The second way to do the Chinese Horserush is to start off by putting 2 tiles on forest and one tile on science. Work on HBR and Stonehenge. After the 10 turns it will take you to finish HBR, you will then have accumulated 40 hammers (out of 50) for stonehenge. Switch production to Horses, and you have 2 horses out right away. This way is usually quicker than the other Chinese horserush, but the first one can go faster if you have 2 barbarian villages 2-4 tiles away from your capital, and if you get lucky on the gold.

ericball said:

I'd like to thank DanQ for inviting me...

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You're welcome -- thank you for participating.

You don't know what kind of work must go into a good podcast until you learn typically Dan edits down an hour recording to the 15 minutes you hear.

Click to expand...

More to come in the second part...

And for anyone who might want to guest on RevCast - drop Dan a line. Especially anyone who has played multiplayer.

Click to expand...

Kadazzle said:

About the Chinese Horserush --

What makes it viable is that with the +1 population you receive as the Chinese, you can get your research and production up quicker.

Click to expand...

Ah. Eric alluded to the population bonus, and we talked about improved technological research specifically with paths to Feudalism, but none of us on the panel connected these two dots and came to the basic point that you have noted. We rightly came to the conclusion that we were missing something, and there it is. The detail you went into your further explanation was most appreciated as well.

I have an iPod Touch. CivRev has arrived for iPhone. Therefore, I now have CivRev and have RE-listened to all the RevCasts.

CC: WePlayCiv, Poly

Jaybe said:

I have an iPod Touch. CivRev has arrived for iPhone. Therefore, I now have CivRev and have RE-listened to all the RevCasts.

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-- welcome, fellow Civilization IV and CivRev player.