Game 140

I was in #129 but it seems to have ended and I was automatically put into game #140. Not happy about that as I wanted to join with some friends. I came in as player #180 or so and currently there are four slots left in the game. Trying to use what I learned in my first game to improve my play. Currently part of the British Commonwealth. There are eight civs and five have closed borders. Already three battles in progress.

Anyone else in this game?

First log entry also posted below):Second log:The second morning:After playing the second morning:Here's what I have at 7:58 pm 5/26/11:Here's what I have at 9:01 pm 5/26/11:Here's what I have at 6:38 am on 5/27/11:Here's what I have at 7:30 am on 5/27/11:Here's what I have at 8:11 pm on 5/27/11:Here's what I have at 8:49 pm on 5/27/11:Here's what I have at 7:08 am on 5/28/11:Here's what I have at 7:47 am on 5/28/11:Here's what I have at 10:27 pm on 5/28/11:Here's what I have at 11:21 pm on 5/28/11:Here's what I have at 8:02 am on 5/29/11:Here's what I have at 9:08 am on 5/29/11:Here's what I have at 8:30 pm on 5/29/11:Here's what I have at 8:54 pm on 5/29/11:

I suppose the thing to do would be to join a second game before the first finishes so all friends can get in together. Unfortunately I don't appear to be able to join a second game, I can find the screen that lists current, new and completed games but it only shows my current one (138), all others just have a padlock and are not shown.

Thought I'd keep a log which might help generate some discussion about the game.

I built a guard tower first in an effort to find some water to build houses by. Even after upgrading the tower once the pickings don't seem all that great. Oh, I just figured out this morning what the iron looks like. I thought the iron was depleted piles of stone.

Decided to build one orchard beside the water rather than the garden and half a dozen corn fields I had in the last game. Built a granary diagonally adjacent to the orchard and upgraded to a ginormous granary. Then built six houses for my citizens. Not very high bonus numbers - some 2s. Found out having many houses working only one food resource isn't good. Changed some houses over to workers.

To the market. Bought some luxuries and a great general (less than 900 gold). Production was selling at over 900 so I sold off 300 hammers.

Played some mini-games here and there. Joined the British Commonwealth since they had Hanging Gardens. Started researching ceremonial burial which no one was working on - trying to get the mvp award there. The Brits lost the gardens to the Germans and so I moved there but my production went down. Also had competition for ceremonial burial so I moved back to the British.

Sold off my military units and invested in luxuries spending all the gold and buying what ever lux was cheapest. Did not spend any harvests.

Time for work. I have (at 10:18 local time 5/25/11:

So here is what I have when I log back in after work (8 hours later):

Harvests: 21 (+9)
828 food (+573), 542 hammers (+411), 457 science (+309), 444 gold (+425), 1455 culture (+1042)

Size: 6 (2 farmers @ 7, 11 and 4 workers @ 5,6,6,7) (Note I incorrectly posted this as 3 and 3 this morning.

No idea how the accumulations are calculated.

EDIT: Changed everyone over to farmers and rearranged the houses and cashed in the harvests. Someone has overtaken me on beaker contributions to ceremonial burial so I sold all my science. Sold some excess hammers, too, and bought up luxuries. Won a market game for most luxes (42) and was promoted to duke.

Here's what I have at 7:22 pm 5/25/11:

Size: 6 (5 farmers @ 5, 6, 8, 8, 11 and 1 worker @ 6)
Buildings: modest guard tower, Ginormous granary, orchard, 2 corn fielsd and 6 houses
Great people: 2 prophets, a builder, a scientist, a general and 3 artists.
Army: none
Luxuries: 8 incense, 4 marble, 20 oxen, 15 silks
Harvests: 0
2140 food, 176 hammers, 50 science, 77 gold, 1971 culture

I'm in this one as well, currently in the British Commonwealth as well i'm the culture minister

Here's what I have at 7:24 am 5/26/11:

Size: 7 (5 farmers @ 5, 6, 8, 9, 11 and 1 worker @ 6 and 1 unallocated citizen)
Buildings: modest guard tower, Ginormous granary, orchard, 2 corn fields and 6 houses
Great people: 2 prophets, 2 builders, a scientist, a general and 3 artists.
Army: none
Luxuries: 8 incense, 4 marble, 20 oxen, 15 silks
Harvests: 12 (+12)
504 food (-1636), 1101 hammers (+925), 520 science (+470), 1021 gold (+944), 495 culture (-1476)

Going to build a worker house first. Then an iron forge and upgrade it once. Wow, that cost 600 hammers. Move the other worker house over by the forge. Another harvest came in - have 13 now.

Check the market. Commodities don't seem to have gone up much in price. Food is about 700, hammers and science 500. Time to cash in the harvests. Still need about 3000 food to grow. 21k to buy enough food to grow. 430 from the caravan game. If I sold all my hammers, beakers and luxes and got the current price for all I'd only get 15k. And, I'd get less as the price goes down. Not buying my growth this morning.

Built a museum and upgraded it once. Sold off 500 science. Can buy a great artist for 4225 - just need a couple hundred more. Sell off two oxen and buy the artist. Have enough hammers to upgrade the iron forge.

Here's what I have at 7:58 am 5/26/11:

Size: 7 (5 farmers @ 5, 6, 8, 9, 11 and 2 worker @ 12, 15)
Buildings: modest guard tower, Ginormous granary, orchard, 2 corn fields, large iron forge, modest museum and 7 houses
Great people: 2 prophets, 2 builders, a scientist, a general and 4 artists.
Army: none
Luxuries: 8 incense, 4 marble, 18 oxen, 15 silks
Harvests: 0
1149 food, 88 hammers, 149 science, 99 gold, 621 culture

Where are all the Great People coming from? I thought you needed Artists, and you seem to just have farmers/workers.

Khaim said:

Where are all the Great People coming from? I thought you needed Artists, and you seem to just have farmers/workers.

Click to expand...

You always start with some great people though what you get seems random. I think I bought two great people in the market. Even if you only have workers and farmers your city will still accumulate gold, beakers and culture. I also play the picture swap game to get culture. Culture is usually cheap in the market, too since many people seems to sell it off.

Here's what I have at 7:58 pm 5/26/11:Switched to researching invention. Played the caravan game for 400 gold.

To the market. Marble is over 300 so I sell all 4. Takes me to 2822 gold. Beakers are selling for 500 gold. Tempting. I need about 1600 food to grow. The harvests will bring in 507. Food costs almost 800 so I'd need 8k gold to buy enough. But I have a dowry. I'll look for some food. I found a size 20 farmer That netted me 1000 food so I only need about 550 now. Time to cash in the harvests. Just need 42 food to grow. I can wait abit - maybe I'll play the picture puzzle game to pass the time.

Ok, grew to size 8. Built a house an made him a worker (7). Upgraded the forge and the museum to ginormous. Sold my beakers and bought enough culture to get another great person (a scientist) then cashed another harvest and invested all my remaining gold in luxuries.

Here's what I have at 9:01 pm 5/26/11:

Even though I'm not in this game I'm appreciating the detailed journal. Your style of play is very different from mine.

One thing that I've noticed about the Dowry:
within your own civ, the award is [so far] always 50x the citizen's haul. So an artist at 15 will yield a dowry of 600, and worker at 19 will yield a dowry of 950, and so on.

peter grimes said:

Even though I'm not in this game I'm appreciating the detailed journal. Your style of play is very different from mine.

Click to expand...

I'm still learning the game and I'm admittedly using this one as an educational experience. Not sure if any of my tactics are sound yet. Would appreciate and constructive criticism or alternative approaches. Oh, also, in this game I'm not a team player so this game is not typical - I'm trying to get a feeling for how to grow and use the market, etc.

Here's what I have at 6:38 am on 5/27/11:It looks like my farmer's numbers have all gone up. Not sure why.

Played the caravan game for 390 gold. Did some picture puzzle swaps. Need 4550 culture for next great person. Set research to metallurgy (all by myself on it. and did a few moves in the maze. Need 3600 food to grow. Will get 480 from the harvests. Marble is highest and I have none. Incense sells at 268. I will sell all 10. Get 2461 gold. Might as well sell all the luxuries and see what I get. Silk starts at 189 and I sell 22. Net 3490 gold and price drops to 126. Oxen is 188 and I sell 23.Price drops to 118 and I'm at 11,051 gold. Food costs 598 and hammers are selling for 772. Might as well just switch everyone over to workers, cash the harvests, sell the hammers and buy food. Ok, I did that and rearranged the houses. Harvest bonus is now 70 hammers so I'll cash in the 10 harvests I have.

Back to the market and food only costs 440 so I quickly buy 500. Price is back up to 580. Beakers and hammers both sell for 598 so I'll sell some of each till the price drops below 500. Have over 14k gold now. Buy a couple hundred more food since the price is below 500. Price drops again and I buy 200 more food under 550. Still only half way to growth. OK, price drops and I buy three more. Only 10k gold left and hammers are selling under 500. Leave the game for a bit to let the market settle.

I return a few minutes later and food is still high and hammers are under 400 now. Another harvest came in so I cashed it in. Already spend too much time on this game. Going to buy up food. Over half my gold to buy 800 food. Half of the remainder goes for 300 more. Sell 400 hammers at over 500 gold. Buy 400 more food and the price is up to almost 1000 and I'm a few coins short of making one more purchase. Stopping here. Invest the gold in luxes.

Here's what I have at 7:30 am on 5/27/11:

Where does it tell you the game number?

You get told it when you start, it says connecting to civworld then connecting to game xxx.
You can also find out by going to my games (click on your avatar then go to the throne room and select the icon with the chess pieces).

Here's what I have at 8:11 pm on 5/27/11:Played the caravan game first for about 400 gold. Built another house for a worker. Decide to switch all my workers to farmers (except the ones with 14 and 16 bonus) since I need 5000 food to grow. Build two more corn fields next to the two I already have. (They form a square.) Move the houses around. Upgraded a guard tower to large in order to see if I can better place my houses. Best I can seem to do is 5,7,7,8,8,9,10=54 along with the 14, 16=30 hammers. Cash in the harvests.

Need about 700 culture for another great person so I'll play the puzzle game for awhile. Ok, need for culture - I can wait for that. Another harvest is in so I cash it in.

To the market. Luxuries are i the 300 to 400 gold range. Food and hammers 600s, Beakers 300s and culture 100s. Got another great artist. Sell all my science and make over 6000 gold. Food fell below 500 gold so I bought 600 food, stopping when the price got near 600. Wow, I just noticed your picture swaps rest to zero when you get a great person. Sold 500 hammers getting at least 500 gold each time. Sell all my luxes and 300 more hammers and buy a great prophet for 10k gold. That's it for tonight.

Here's what I have at 8:49 pm on 5/27/11:

Here's what I have at 7:08 am on 5/28/11:My science went down so I must have learned a tech? My farmers are much more productive. Their harvest bonus is 81, up from 57 last night. I also have a dowry available. Need 6475 food to grow.

Made 240 from the caravan game. Built roads under the two iron tiles my workers are working and they jump to 18,19. In the market food costs almost 700 while hammers are selling in the 500s. Sell off 300 hammers and get at least 500 gold for each sale.

Cash in the harvests and still about 1600 food away from growing. Upgrade the guard tower to ginormous but it doesn't show any more area around the corn fields. Build another guard tower and upgrade it to ginormous. Build another corn field. Doesn't seem to help the food production. Found a size 26 farmer for my dowry. That brought in 1300 food - less than 200 to grow. Spent 813 gold for 100 food. Built another granary and upgraded it to ginormous. That boosted production: 10,10,11,12,13,14,15=85 (+4). The further the minions have to travel the less they produce. Ok, the city grew. 8000 food for next growth. Build another farm house.

To the marker and then that's enough for the morning. Sell 100 beakers for over 600 gold and invest all the gold in luxuries.

Here's what I have at 7:47 am on 5/28/11:

Here's what I have at 10:27 pm on 5/28/11:Sold some science and did some luxury trading. Cashed in harvests. Not much into playing tonight. Made 630 on the caravan game. In the running for most food harvested in the market contest. Have another harvest in 15 minutes. Will wait till that comes in and cash it... Ok, so I won and I got promoted to Duke. Sell off the rest of my beakers and buy another lux or two. I've decided to buy luxes under 400 and sell over 600. Also buy food under 500 and sell hammers over 500. That's enough for tonight.

Here's what I have at 11:21 pm on 5/28/11:

Here's what I have at 8:02 am on 5/29/11:Need 2000 food to grow and less than 200 culture for a great person. Have over 300 puzzle swaps so I'll work on the GP after visiting the market. Food and hammers in the 500s. Luxes are expensive - oxen up over 800. Ok, no market plays just yet.

Ok, did some puzzle swaps then I remembered the swaps are reset to zero when a new GP is earned. Why waste 300+ swaps? I went to the market and sold culture as long as I got 90 gold. Will do more swaps then sell more culture. Ok, tired of puzzles and still have 168 swaps left. Have over 10k gold but I sold some luxes at 600+ and bought some food at less than 500 gold each batch. Sold all my beakers. 13k+ gold now. Cashed the harvests - need about 800 food to grow. Played the caravan game for 700 gold, but food costs 900 gold! More puzzle swaps. Sell more culture (@90+) and more luxes (@600+). Get a great scientist with only 10 swaps to spare. Another harvest comes in so I cash it in. Sell another hundred beakers for 282. Need 500+ food to grow. Have 17k and food is selling for 800+. Luxes are all in the 500-600 range so I'm not buying. Might as well bite the bullet and buy the food so I can grow and stop for the morning. Takes me down to 12k gold. Still need 15 food. guess it's bubble time. Ok, got it. Build a house next to the museum and change it over to artist. That's enough for this morning.

Here's what I have at 9:08 am on 5/29/11:

Size 11?!?! Wow! Congrats. I have had a hard enough time trying to get my population up to 9. I blame my land for not having enough water tiles.

Thanks, but to get there I've ignored my teammates. I have no military and I sell all my science. I think the key to growing is not being afraid to spend your gold on expensive food. Taking advantage of the market fluctuations helps.

Here's what I have at 8:30 pm on 5/29/11:Played the caravan game for 480 gold. Cashed in the harvests. Nothing interesting in the market. I have a dowry. Found a 31 farmer for 1550 food. Still need almost 5,000 food. Not much else I want to do.

Here's what I have at 8:54 pm on 5/29/11:

Couldn't access the game yesterday morning and last night I didn't feel like playing. Today the game is gone.