My First Diety Game

Yeah, the thread title alone is gonna be a shocker--2,500 posts, and I haven't gotten around to Diety level yet??

The fault is all mine, I'm just a lazy bastard when it comes to pushing the envelope. Okay, let's get straight to the action.

Starting parameters: Civ3 PTW. Playing as Ottomans (hey, Persians were the obvious first choice, but that woulda been too easy!), standard size map, 7 opponents. Roaming barbarians. All other map parameters (land percentage, land composition, age, humidity and temperature) are random. Adds more sense of exploration to the game, I've been playing random settings for a while now.

The starting position frankly looks pretty good:



Plenty of grassland, two bonus grass tiles, a cow, a couple of hills. Oh yeah, and it's coastal, too. Hot diggity!

Settler plunks down and sets up shop where he is. After which, I discover....



....that my starting position is even better than I thought! Two more bonus grass tiles, and furs, all within the fat X. Oh, did I say hot diggity???

Starting sequence: I notice that I forgot to name my capital city--and change its name to something suitable: Basketgrad.

Research Pottery full steam. Build two warriors, then start Pyramids as a pre-build for a Granary. Pottery research finishes, and the Granary goes up three turns later. Research is started on (you're gonna yell at me for this!) Ceremonial Burial. Somebody's gonna call that a bad move. However, I always get good results from temples; they allow one more person to work in the city, and the commerce from that one extra tile always pays for the temple.

During this time, the worker builds roads on the cow and then on the BG just above it, then roads up the eastern fur tile. Then he does a chop, which is applied to my first settler just after the granary finishes. Got some nice timing here. My two warriors don't get to explore much; they're mostly stuck on riot control duty. Basketgrad starts building a temple (and finishes quickly; it's got some fast-producing tiles). Iron Working research is started; it will require 35 turns at 100% research, so I do the 40-turn gag.

Barracks is next in the build order. Arab warriors appear from somewhere to the southeast. Dang. I got found out right from the get-go. It gets worse--over the next few turns, a parade of 8 or 9 Arab warriors goes strolling right past my capital city from southeast to northwest. Fortunately, I'm left unmolested--the warrior train doesn't see my capital city.
WHEW.

It looks like the Arabs sent their entire starting force exploring past me, which leads me to suspect they're on a dead-end piece of land. My plan, therefore, is to place my first two cities to block them into their dead end. Spamopolis is founded on the east end of my chosen choke point.

I build a couple more warriors, then start on another settler. Before I can get that settler built, my exploring warriors spot an Arab settler coming my way. That's the last thing I need. All four of my warriors are able to cut the settler off and give me time to found Costa Lotta to get my blockade together:



There, my problem with the Arabs is solved; my four warriors line up from Spamopolis to Costa Lotta, and the Arabs aren't gonna be sending any trespassing settlers through my territory for the rest of the game.

Iron appears in the hills just northwest of Basketgrad! Looks like I just got me a nice new home in the best part of Hotdiggityville! Point Gratha is founded next to it, and a worker heads right over to hook it up. Basketgrad starts churning settlers, building a settler whenever it reaches population 5. A couple of my warriors are now free to start exploring the map; they discover Zulu cities to the north and northeast, and two Persian cities to the northwest. Looks like I'm pretty thoroughly hemmed in.

I've been constantly seeing Arab troops moving around just southeast of me. Nothing but warriors and spearmen. I have four swordsmen and two spearmen at this point; I play a hunch and declare war on the Arabs. My four spearmen move into Arab territory. They kill several warriors, two spearmen, and a couple of archers, and capture two settlers, taking no losses. Four slaves for my work force. The two uninjured swordsmen continue south, killing another spearman and an archer, and delivering a candygram to Damascus:




Right now the scorecard is Ottomans 12, Arabs 0. Just for a kick I say hello to the Arab ambassador, and--yeah, here it comes again--hot diggity! A bit of pointy-stick research pays off BIG TIME!




I have my obnoxious foreign relations advisor executed for....well....being obnoxious. Too bad firing squads haven't been invented yet, had to do it the hard way. I make peace with the Arabs, and make a personal note to declare another unprovoked war on them later to get some more freebies. Meantime, in the diplomacy screen, I notice that all the other civs are working the bottom half of the tech tree--so I go for the top, starting research on Mathematics.

Basketgrad churns out swordsmen every 3-4 turns, popping out a settler every now and then. The territory around my capital is pretty tough, so my next few cities are placed mostly just to establish territory. Up north I found the city of Flipopolis to claim a loose Incense tile--the city is so named because that's what it's likely to do, being right next to the Zulu capital.

Current situation:



I have contact with the Arabs, Zulus, Persians, and Babylonians (who were wised up to me by somebody else--I haven't seen them on the map yet). The Zulus and Babylonians are the two largest civs at the moment, and they ganged up on Persia a little earlier. Couldn't tell what the results were, though the Zulu score took a brief dip. I'm pretty much completely hemmed in by the Zulus. Fortunately, they don't appear to have hooked up iron yet (though they do have one way up north). My plans for the near future include beating up the Arabs, a big anti-Zulu swordsman swarm, and a few units to camp on that iron and prevent the Zulus from getting any use out of it.

Stay tuned for future updates!

Lookin good. I just started my first emperor game. You should check it out and give me some advice.

Ding ding! Time for round 2.



Just about the end of last chapter, I'd finished researching Mathematics. I sell it around for Philosophy, Map Making and Horseback Riding, plus some money. Some of the money goes to building embassies with Persia, Babylon, and Zululand. Persia and Babylon are still at war. The Wonders of the World screen reveals Egypt--but nobody seems to have met them yet.

I'm out of room to expand, so I go all swordsmen and plan on busting some skulls. Research on Literature is started. Around 900 BC, two Arab settler/spearman pairs are spotted moving towards Ottoman soil. Time to form the blockade line again? A couple turns later there's a total of four escorted settlers moving through my personal space, and I decide not to block them. Not out of a kind heart, to be sure. Rather, I'm thinking free slaves....



I demand that the Arabs get out or declare war. Naturally, they declare war.
The four settlers and their escorts disappear instantly.



Then my troops head southeast. The random number generator starts turning against me when I attack Damascus; two swordsmen die before Damascus is conquered and razed. Medina is spotted to the south, and destroyed three turns later. In exchange for not getting wiped off the map just yet, the Arabs are willing to give up Code of Laws, Polytheism, their world map, 200 gold--and the city of Baghdad. At this point I can't even SEE Baghdad, and have no idea where it is--but what the heck, it can't hurt!



Argh.
Baghdad turns out to be on a tiny mostly-mountains island WAY to the southwest. Baghdad will be a one-shield one-commerce city for the rest of the game. It will never be any other use. So I turn its one citizen into a tax collector and set its production to wealth. Hey, 1 commerce and 2 gold per turn is better than nothing.

The world map surrendered by the Arabs reveals a BIG problem. Followed by another big problem.

First, the Zulus have hooked up iron to the north. Suddenly attacking the Zulus doesn't seem such a great idea. Second, there are no horses within easy reach. The closest horses are near Zimbabwe, which means going to war against the Zulus, which as discussed doesn't seem like such a great idea.

So I'm staring at zero Unique Units for the entire game.

While staring at the map and status screens and considering my options, I suddenly notice the trade window is showing horses in one of my unconnected cities! Where the heck did my empire suddenly get horses from???

It's Baghdad. In possibly my biggest stroke of luck all game--the horses are UNDER Baghdad! HOT DIGGITY ^ 3!!! Baghdad is immediately switched over to building a harbor. This will take 80 turns, but it will probably be longer than that before I reach Knights, and certainly before I reach Medieval Tradition for my unique unit.

Very shortly after peace is declared, yet another Arab settler appears, hoping to reclaim some lost territory. Fat chance, guys. The swordsmen in the area block off the tiny chunk of real estate the Arabs have left. Enjoy the rest of the game, Abu--I hope you're good at OCC!



Completion of literature results in a tech that nobody else is willing to buy for more than 100 gold or so. Bummer. I start research on Construction. A few turns later, the Zulus FINISH Construction, so I switch to Currency. A few turns later, the Persians are willing to trade Construction to me in exchange for Literature, my world map, and 400 gold. We shake on the deal. Now all that's left is Currency, and I'm done with the Ancient Age.

My two wars against the Arabs have netted a total of 20 slaves. 18 of these are grouped into 3 stacks of 6 and begin hacking away at the jungles in what used to be Arab territory. A Zulu settler moves into my territory from the other end. I spend a minute thinking how infuriating the AI's are in their persistence with settlers. Then I remember that their persistence gave me 20 free workers. Using two spearmen to form my blockade line from Spamopolis to Costa Lotta cuts off the Zulus from the Arab jungles, so they turn around and go elsewhere. Good riddance. Pretty soon, Shaka, it's gonna be me moving into your territory, and I won't be doing it with settlers, either.

I don't think I'll be able to get back to the game before Friday. Expect some serious violence in the very near future!

Hey,

Really enjoying this read!


Blaze Injun

You'll probably have horses unconnected for a longer time; as you need Astronomy to trade over seas. Unless you can trade with an AI that has the Great Lighthouse.

cool story. Suck about the horses

nice story, good luck against those zulus

good write-up! enjoy reading it!
i always wonder why other people's deity games seem to be so easy. yours, for example, has the Arabs starting at the very tip of a jungle and desert peninsula and providing you with so many free slaves... but i know it's really the experience... haha
it'll be fun watching you fighting against Zulu.. though i hope they hadn't started the war with Persia previously...

The Zulus would have been easier earlier in the game, though Impis and swordsmen together can be a serious problem. Now that we're heading for the Middle Ages, it's gonna get interesting. A run straight to gunpowder and musketmen is looking like a really good idea just now.

While the Zulus are huge on score, they're at the back of the pack culture-wise. They're even behind me. And for most of the game, their capital city has been around size 2. They appear to have a large number of small, poorly-producing cities.

Gaah, forgot to post my world map from the end of last session:



Me (Ottomans) in orange; Arabs are the tiny bit of pink at bottom right; Persians are green, Babylonians in blue, Zulus in black--which doesn't show up very well, they're the huge uncolored-looking chunk in the north, including those two cities smack in between me and Persia.

Baghdad (unexpected source of horses for me!) is that tiny island at the very bottom, below Babylon.

I'll be jumping back into the game later tonight. Stay tuned.....

Looks interesting, I love the captioned pictures

The thrilling saga continues!!! <cue dramatic music>

The general situation is depicted below (approximately, had to grab this screenshot from an old save):



My city of Goobergrad is just off the bottom right corner, but it's size 2 and not doing much at the moment. Note the roads that one worker is building along the desert and hills on the northeast edge of my empire. You'll find out what that's for in a future post.

In 450 BC (just before the above screenshot), Flipopolis had a cultural expansion that gained me a key map square:



That key square is marked with a green O. If I put an attack force there, I can move it to the square with the red X right after I declare war on the Zulus, allowing me to position for an attack on Hlobane with only one turn of advance warning. Further, the attack will be positioned on a hill before Shaka can react. Further yet, the only road to the southern Zulu cities goes through Hlobane; if I cut that road and head south, I can jump way ahead of Zulu reinforcements and take those southern cities with a minimum of resistance.

So attacking the Zulus is suddenly a much better-looking idea than it used to be.

Frankly, not much is going to happen for a little while. I need to clear out the Arabs, build up my forces, and make some other preparations. Flipopolis starts building walls. Probably gonna need them soon. Point Gratha begins building a couple of galleys from which I can hop across the sea to hit Intombe and Ibabago--err, Ibananago--err, IBABANAGO. Geez!!!

In 290 BC, the diplomacy screen shows everybody angry with me. FINALLY.

In 250 BC, Baghdad (the distant size 1 city on the island with the horses) grows to size 2 and immediately goes into civil disorder! OOPS! I kick myself because I'd reminded myself earlier to keep Baghdad size 1. That city has no other use except the horses. So I back up the game to 230 BC.

Then I remember that the years go BACKWARDS in the BC years, and I back up to 270 BC.

230 BC: Babylon and Persia FINALLY have harbors so I can trade with them. The AI is always really slow at getting a harbor up for trading.

The time to deal with the Arabs once and for all has arrived!



A special fate is in store, ironically, for the swordsman who leads the charge towards the city:



I save the game immediately! I'm gonna have a very important use for that leader!


Mecca falls with no casualties to my forces. Guess Abu wasn't so good at One City Challenge after all. Weakest link. Byebye!



Something odd I'd like to mention about the conquest of Mecca: the city had a harbor (visible from the map as the anchor). The first time I conquered the city, the harbor disappeared, causing the citizens to start starving FAST. Curious, I reloaded the saved game from a few moments before, and tried the conquest again--and this time, the harbor remained after I gained control of Mecca. Huh??? (If anyone's got a clue what was going on there, post by all means).

And that's it for the Arabs. I now have only one front to fight on, so those five swordsmen who were so busy in the south can now head north, towards....guess who.....



I'm now up to 10 spearmen and 12 swordsmen, the city walls in Flipopolis are almost done, and workers are building some forts in the hills up there as well. Tomorrow night I'm gonna set up a line of spearmen to keep Zulu intruders out of the hills around Flipopolis, and do some liberating.

For all my efforts, here's how far my palace has come:



The time for serious violence....HASN'T COME YET!! Har har har, I'm such a tease. Tomorrow, definitely.......

<cue Terminator music>

I like the screenshots with the dialog in bubbles.

me to o

Haven't seen those before.

Something I should have mentioned from the start: Space Race and Diplomacy victories have been turned off for this game.

Ladiiiiies Aaaaaand Gentlemennnnn.....
Welcome to the night's premier event! This is the one you've been waiting for! Two titans prepare to clash for control of the world! It's brains against brawn! Skillz versus strength! The smartass against the dumbass!

In the Orange corner.....weighing in with a score of 471.....he's the Mideast Monument.....the Turkish Terror.....he's....
....The OTTOMANIAC!!!

In the Black corner.....weighing in with a score of 1048.....he's the worlds largest empire.....with the largest military.....the biggest muscles and the biggest lips!! He's....THE ZULU!!!

Let's see how our fighters stack up:



At first glance, this fight appears to be a mismatch; the Zulu have a clear lead in all categories. However, you've got to remember that the Zulu are controlled by a stupid computerized AI, so we're going to see a very interesting fight.

Now, let's have a brief background on the events leading up to tonight's title fight:


190 BC: Final preparations in place. Currency 2 turns from completion. Looks like the Ottomaniac (me ) is going to be first into the Middle Ages!

170 BC: Persia and Zulus beat me to the Middle Ages by ONE turn. Damn.

150 BC: Middle Ages for me. Feudalism is my free tech. Persia and Babylon both have Monotheism and Engineering already--looks like all three scientific civs in the game got a different free tech when they entered the Middle Ages. Sweet! Persia gives me Monotheism and 21 gpt in exchange for Feudalism. Babylon gives me Engineering in exchange for Feudalism, furs, and 150 gold. Feudalism causes all my cities to suddenly switch from spearmen and swordsmen to pikemen and MI's. Nice, but requires some annoying micro to avoid wasting shields.

130 BC: Another stroke of luck--Persia declares war on the Zulus! HOT DIGGITY! The timing couldn't have been better. On the flip side, the Zulus picked up Feudalism from somebody. That means a more modern military for him. Could be trouble.

Here's how the Persian/Zulu border looks for the moment:



The ruins are from the previous war between the Persians and the Zulu/Babylon alliance. Let's see if this border changes later.....

All is peaceful as I move my troops into position in the north:



Note the three pikemen guarding the west flank. Forts have been built in the hills, and three workers are finishing up a fort in the mountain tile. Walls are finished in Flipopolis. Meanwhile, to the east, my attack force consists of seven swordsmen, three medieval infantries, and a pikeman.



In the south, I've finished claiming the land in the old Arab Empire. I only have one swordsman defending the area (against possible surprise landings). Need to get some more units down here soon.

Okay, heading back into the game. Updates coming in a few minutes. ME STOMP

<a lot more than "a few minutes" later....>


There's the opening bell, and the fight is on!


Both fighters move to the center, and right away the Ottomaniac goes after Hlobane with a ten-pack of offensive units! Zulu jabs from the side with a medieval infantry, but the pikeman blocks the swing--here's the attack--Ottomaniac's first MI attacks Hlobane, and kills a fortified pikeman! Second MI isn't so lucky, he falls to an Impi. Two more MI's in quick succession, one promotes to elite--Hlobane's razed!! Already Zulu is on the mat!!!


Zulu is right back up again, but the Ottomaniac strikes low this time, attacking New Zimbabwe in the southeast--two quick jabs with swordsmen, New Zimbabwe changes hands, and Zulu is in trouble very early in the fight!

Once again, Zulu is on his feet immediately, but we don't see a lot of reaction from him yet. Some Impis moving in the northwest--one gets dropped by a medieval infantry from Flipopolis. Two Ottoman swordsmen cross the eastern border to look around--and they discover a Zulu road further east that could be used to cut off reinforcements. The Ottomaniac's plan was to take Hlobane and block those reinforcements, and that plan could be in trouble.....

U're insane. I love it

Very nice progression. Way better than most of my games. Almost makes me want to try for a second deity win (yes, I'm that pathetic ).

Can't wait for the rest of the story.

The action is getting pretty wild. That far east road turned out to be what I was afraid of--lots of Zulu troops came south by that route, rolling right over my three swordsmen, and the fight for Ngome is getting REAL messy. It's a city built on a hill, size 8, and with pikemen defending it. I've had several units promote to elite, and the Zulus go out of their way to make sure those units die before I can get them healed up. The last few turns have not been friendly for elite troops.

Oh, and you're gonna love this one! Near Flipopolis, I committed a serious newbie move--I forget to put troops on that incense tile! A mischievous Impi used his first move to get on the tile, and his second move to pillage it. Shaka makes his other moves, the in-between-turn stuff is done, and my whole civ goes into disorder for lack of incense, before I can do anything to stop it! GAAAAAH! I freaking HATE Impis.

The fighting around Flipopolis and Ngome is still raging. Ngome is going to fall soon--its defenders are now Impis, instead of pikemen--but casualties are heavy on both sides. I used my first leader to rush the Forbidden Palace at Goobergrad down south--it's got three bonus grass tiles, and two other good production cities fairly close to it; it will make a nice second production center. I gained a second leader from the battle for Ngome. I'm thinking of using him for the Sistine Chapel.

Since the AI's love to do the bottom half of the tech tree in the Middle Ages, I'm going for the top--unfortunately, the comps beat me to Theology, so I didn't get a chance to trade anything. I was caught up in the tech race for a while, but I appear to be falling behind again.

Final bit of important news: two galleys' worth of troops sailed west from Basketgrad, and were finally able to pillage Ibabanago; an accompanying settler founded Point Blanke just west of where Ibabanago was:


The capture of Ibabanago (before I razed it) conveniently provided some workers to hook up the silk, so I didn't have to ship any workers across. Getting the silk the rest of the way to Basketgrad is gonna take some more work.

No other new screenies for the time being--the areas around Flipopolis and Ngome look pretty much the same as the last screenies I posted. Except messier. More action to follow tomorrow!