Shoshone Deity Huge Empire Challenge Series!

thanks, it's interesting to me too!

From the looks of the poll everyone wants me to pick the less optimal science route and build many more cities. This should make it a fun series, so we'll have to see if I actually win! I think I will though if I'm careful. You hardly need to play optimally to win SV on Deity, just survive and do well. I think on huge they'll finish slower too due to the 20% base science increase, we'll have to see...

Now that we've decided on the plan next video will be out tomorrow!

Back with Part 7! Today we continue to settle, fight the Huns, and our religion starts to spread! The results of the poll were unanimous. I will not be playing this optimally but instead build the biggest empire I can!

Part 7: Spread the Truth!

Looks like I have some catching to do up with the videos. Thank God it's the weekend.

Hope you enjoyed! If you guys have specific comments or suggestions for the series please leave them on the videos, I check that pretty regularly!

So...I need some advice from some other people who know about recording. I got the weird crackling when I talk again on the recording for Episode 8 just like #5. It seems really random whether or not it happens. I record my voice and desktop sounds in a separate file using Quicktime as I've found it improves the performance of my recording software OBS. About 3/4 times the audio for my voice is crisp and clear but sometimes it just isn't. Yesterday I recorded 2 new installments to the series. The first has constant crackling feedback as I talk and is annoying as a result and completely unfilterable as it only happens as I talk (I've tried everything). I don't want any more vids messed up by this problem, as it sucks to talk for 40 minutes and then find it's garbage.

I'm considering getting a new microphone as I'm tired of this. Anyone got a suggestion? Should I stick with headsets like my current turtle beach Z22 or get a stand-microphone?

Part 8 will come out soon. This evening maybe!

Aaaaand Out!
Part 8: More Cities!!!

On the plus side I noticed and fixed the resolution mismatch and my videos no longer have black borders

Turns are beginning to slow down for me as my empire grows but I'll try to keep it a bit more rapid! Thanks, really enjoying this series! And I'd love to hear you guys' responses as things are starting to get going! Things get pretty hairy by the end of video 9 just as I predicted would happen building a giant early empire. We have some neighbor jealousy problems starting up! I'll put it up tomorrow morning

Part 9 is out! The title should be self-explanatory

Part 9: Backstabbers!

On your playlist, there's a 10th video but it's private. Is this intentional?

that's probably the one I just uploaded queued for tomorrow morning! I didn't realize scheduling videos they still showed up in the playlist though...in any case it'll be up tomorrow morning once I get time to review it and make sure it uploaded ok.

It's been out, forgot to post! Today we build up military and rebuff the new attackers to our empire! Lucky us they love to attack Agaidika which has gotta be the best fortress city site in the empire! We are SPARTA!

Part 10: 2nd Siege of Agaidika

Omg, these are awesome. I watched all 10! Lots of learning going on! Keep it up!

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thanks so much! I'm glad you enjoyed them!

Part 11! A lot of management as we grind our empire back into gear after the hasty wartime economy.

Part 11: Stealing Renaissance

Part 12 is finished. Our science dramatically improves as we begin to beeline the industrial era and rebuild our happiness! I tried something a little different with some added background ambience, tell me what you think of the experiment! Between turns is starting to slow down even with my 16 GB computer due to recording at the same time. I may start skipping them if they get any worse.

Part 12: Rationalizing

So now that between-turn times are getting longer I had 2 ideas. Would you like me to either:

A) Skip them except for when it matters like war
B) keep the between-turns but talk out loud. I can either plan the next turn or talk about other things then the game. For instance: civ 6 opinions, my love of Alpha Centauri, make jokes, etc.

I just noticed Turn 150 took me 10 minutes to finish, yikes! Microing happiness optimally to preserve rationalism bonus is important but maybe not so important to do on-camera, you guys can tell me if it was too much to show. I have been going through and checking the micro on cities between every recording so I have less of the to routine stuff on-camera, but this is how I play, rather slow compared to other ppl I've watched. I have never been a quick player

Love the background ambience. Adds flavour. Those hard-panned mosquitos in the headphones are good as real!

These are lengthy, but I love all of the talking; more than the play even! Could you put a timecode marker for people who want to skip the between turns but have commentary for those who appreciate it? I'd really like if you filled the time with more general tips for players--comment on the unit placement of the AI, or their rates and locations of expansion. I also like seeing all the microing because that's a large area of learning for me. I've learned I build too many buildings and develop tiles too quickly. I have learned to use the diplomacy and trade dialogues to discern intentions of opponents. I've learned that closing borders isn't to prevent a stab in the back, but more to block missionaries.

You do a great job of explaining your decisions most of the time, but if you kept in mind that players who find the videos most enjoyable are probably looking to improve their play. If you could more often explain why you opt for building one building over another--or make any decision when presenting us with the options--that'd be great. For example, I've learned that most players prefer hill-tile cities--and I get that it's for production--but I still don't understand why. I have always figure that the more food on the settlement tile the better, so long as there are production tiles that can be worked once the city starts to grow, but clearly experienced players think otherwise. I'd love more analysis of global politics/conflict.

Great to hear the audio quality improved!

Some things I appreciated:
- when you explained your defensive strategy for your road network
- when you analyze next settlement sites
- when you explained radaring
- when you explained your plan to defend Agaidika using terrain and beelining/upgrading to xbows
- when you explained your tech plan with rushing Industrialization and your spy/steal plans

Really enjoying the series. Thanks danaphanous

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The clip is recorded from the Australian seashore and the native birds. I liked it as well.

I'm glad you are enjoying the series so much! I also prefer to keep the between turn times and will work on using them to talk out plans and discuss global politics and such then!

Having played for many hours I think I forget what might need explaining. I didn't realize people would want to hear me talk through the pros and cons of buildings. I don't know that I'll do that every time as it will slow down episodes even more, but I can do it a few times and rediscuss if I make an uncommon decision! A few decisions are flippant but the majority I made for good reasons that I can explain.

I thought I talked over hill settlements in an earlier episode but I can talk over it again in episode 13. There's actually a really good reason why settling on a hill is better then a high food tile and it has to do with the base yields of cities. Cities will always have a minimum of 2 food and 1 hammer on the base tile. If you settle on terrain with higher hammers or food then this it takes this higher base value instead. But because the cities automatically get 2 food but only 1 hammer it ends up better to settle on tiles above 1 hammer. Say, hypothetically, I have a cow and a hill to settle on. If I settle on the cow I have a 3f1h base tile because the city added 1 hammer to make the tile have at least 1 hammer on the base. And I grow quicker true, but I still have to place my citizen to work another tile. All other tiles are 2 food grassland or hammers from hills. So my total output of the city is 3f 3h if I work the hill (barely growing) and 5f 1h if I work grassland (lots of growth but terrible production). Now, imagine I settle on the hill instead, my base tile keeps the 2h from the hill but also adds 2f to make it a 2f2h tile. The terrain has improved by 2 food as a result rather then just 1 hammer in the case of the cow. Now I can work the cow. My yield is 5f2h, already better then the fastest growth I could from settling the cow and double the production. This is why hills are better. Because you still get 2f from the base tile but extra production even if you work pure food tiles. This allows you to grow at max rate while still getting ok production. By setting on a hill you improve the potential of the entire area. There's another reason why I settle on hills as well and that is for the 50% city defense bonus. In a game where I expect to be attacked I settle a city like Agaidika (now Helm's Deep) because I know it will be easy to defend. It's not just because of observatories. If I can make a border city target that is easy to protect I am safer and can kill more enemy units and use it as a distraction.

Thanks for that!

I recognize I'm one viewer. Your audience may be much more experienced than I am, and watching less for learning and more for entertainment. I'm approaching it as a tutorial rather than just a LP. But that may not be your intent. All good! Looking forward to how it's going to go down with the Americans and Ottomans after Korea, Spain and the Mongols become an afterthought! (Oh, and Venice, who already is!)

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me too! It's been far too quiet, even the wars against me have been so uneffective I sometimes forget I'm at war! Definitely looking forward to ideological world wars. I've got a gameplan for the changing political landscape and plans for further expansion. I'll talk over it in the next episode! Thanks again!

Having just started recording civ there are only maybe 10-15 regulars at the moment so your opinion matters a lot! I'll try to strike a nice balance. I know that docbud and yung.carl also mentioned watching so I do want to be efficient enough to not annoy the experienced players even though this game is for fun and not for efficiency. I'd like to maintain my 8-10 turn/episode rate, but until someone else comments with an opinion I'll go with yours

Part 13! Discussing the long-term plan, wheeling and dealing in politics, and planning the downfall of my neighbors while industrial grows ever closer. Lotta talking.

Part 13: Joining the Trio

That was great! Thanks for the shout-out!

It's amazing how my play has improved over these 13 episodes. In particular I loved the introduction, with your foreign affairs overview and plans over the short-term and long-term. Learning how to manipulate the geopolitics is the piece I've found most useful. I like to play wide like you do, and the ways in which you can redirect aggression have been really helpful.

Those mountain passes are a dream, eh? Incredible natural defenses on your eastern border.

That was really strange how the Mongols retreated... looked like you were going to have a fight along that river defense. I was sure we'd get some combat in this session... maybe Spain brings the fight in the next ep.

Looking forward to #14!

yeah, tbh I think I scared them off as soon as I made a defense pact with America. They retreated turn or two after. Shame, I was really looking forward to implementing the river defense strategy I'd been planning. I was SURE it'd be a battleground. Usually from my experience that doesn't deter the AI from actually attacking but I'm sure America is an intimidating ally to be on my side. He's the new tech leader having entered the industrial 10 turns before even me and has a massive empire and army. I'm just hoping he didn't enter via industrialization like me.

Those mountain passes and the way I was able to befriend the southern civs have put me in a rare position where I can get away with a light military. It's not every game you have such beautiful terrain to work with. Helm's Deep was literally an amazing spot AND great for defense, often you have to give up some yield to get a good defensive border city like that.

Part #14 is recorded and should be finished and up by tomorrow! I have to take a trip this weekend so there will be no vids saturady/sunday, probably monday morning for part 15.

watching #13 as we speak. i'm enjoying the series. i also loved the in-depth intro where you talked about your plans and foreign relations. always good to hear other players' thought process.

some things i just had to mention: how come you didn't build national college in the cap? because of the lake victoria growth? i think it's pretty negligible actually.

also i would personally never ever build walls for defense. if i get walls i rushbuy them. building them does literally nothing if you don't get attacked, building units can be used for tributing, doing cs quests, killing barbs, exploring and getting up your military score, therefore lowering the chance to get dowed. of course, in my opinion, building units also has the added advantage of making your empire that much more defensible. a single crossbow is more effective than city walls in my opinion.

i would have much rather prioritized trade routes over walls and forges. a trade route can give you four food or hammers (even more dep on era), a forge gives you 1 or 2 hammers and a prod bonus towards units.

personally i am fine with the size of your empire. settling cities past t150 i think will only slow down your victory time by a lot. remember, you might never ever get ironworks or hermitage just because of that late settlement. i am all for expansion, that is what this series is about, isn't it? but i think since it is too late to settle more cities you should rather go for violent expansion, korea and spain look like nice land.

^^^
Thanks for the feedback! You are right, of course, on most things. I think I had a good reason for NC choice though:

At the time when I chose the location site of my academy my capital was not growing due to all the settlers and I had lake victoria and higher potential production down in the 2nd city. So I had planned to build NC there ever since the academy. I had a few previous games where I tried to build NC in my capital on a large empire and it took far too long due to the capital having poor production. I had thought this would be that kind of game and Te-Moak would be able to build NC a lot faster as well. In the end though it turns out Moson Kahni had ok production so I probably could've chosen either. I tend to place academy and build NC is whatever city I think will grow the tallest in the empire and have at least ok production from these past experiences. If at all possible stacking pop in the capital is more efficient though since it partially controls the gold from all your city connections--so doing the reverse and running writer's guild in Te-Moak probably would've been a little better in hindsight.

You are totally right trade routes are far better then walls or forge. I only considered early forge in cities with 2 iron, but I aborted the 2nd forge in favor of other things. I forgot I had another trade route to build after I queued up the trade boat. Silly me! I think forge in Te-Moak was ok choice though. I have the food to run both iron and it took some turns off NC as well as giving that city an edge on building troops.

I'm aware the walls give no overt bonus. Part of the reason I built them was for theming. It felt like what my empire would do expecting multiple-front wars, but practically, it's a bad decision. That said, with my economy as low as it is, I was thinking I would rather not go into debt for walls so I just built them ahead of time planning to put the gold toward troops if a war happens down south. I probably should have just invested in economy with a market in those cities instead though.

I agree about the size of the empire, I may take your advice, we'll see. The thing is, I've always wanted to play a game where I fill in effectively around myself with cities both small and large ones. Like a real nation. Not just the best spots. It will no doubt hurt my victory time but with order less so. I'm about to get the 33% cost reductions on buildings and the 25% cost reductions from commerce and if I get Big Ben too, as we discussed in the other thread, I can buy building for only 27% of their costs and get little cities up to speed. There is also a tenet in order that lets you settle cities at population 4. I looked it up and on huge the science penalty is only 2% per city so you can get away with this a bit more. There are a lot of details though such as needing even more workers. I am probably giving up many national wonders though, you saw the costs on NC already. We'll just have to see how the experiment turns out! It'd be fun if I launched the spaceship with an empire of size 20, but that might be unreasonable. I'll have to watch the AI tech rate and stop if I feel settling is causing me to fall behind. In a normal game you'd never settle after industrialization, which I'm getting in 4 turns but I'd like to push the envelope a bit.

If you notice other suboptimal plays though continue to mention them! I'd love your opinion as I try to optimize playing an empire of this size! Obviously I desperately need to grow the little cites so they stop hurting me and I need to dramatically improve my economy and gold input. Any thoughts? I had thought to build a lot more markets/banks soon and keep trade-posting jungles.

Part 14 is out! Just turns from industrialization, we tech onward. New sources of happiness cause a growth boom in the empire, the second Mongol war heats up with overwhelming public support, our heroes are ready to fight! But then the world fair distracts everyone...

Part 14: Fair Fighting!