So, it's not technically Halloween yet, where I live. Pretend I'm in Germany. It's the 31st somewhere!
Roll the dice. No Raging Barbs as thats a custom choice and I did a quick start. Oh well. One less issue to deal with. Were America, so we have the Navy SEAL as our UU. We start with fishing and agriculture, so we have some good worker actions already. Were the FDR version of the Americans, so we are Industrious (+50% Wonder build rate and half-price forges) and Organized (less city maintenance costs and half-price lighthouses).
(0) 4000 - OK, I hate this choice. Moving the warrior is easy. We have Clams just off the coast. But we couldnt take advantage of them with our city where its started. Getting both the cows and the clams is possible, but not on the coast. [NOTE: What was I thinking when I wrote this? One north of where we started would have been ideal. OY!] Lots of fresh water around, but . I wish I had a bit more experience.
The suggestion is to settle in place which probably means wed get some extra resources by settling in place. But wed waste a flood plain. I dont know WHAT to do. I like the food of flood plains, both for faster growth here earlier and to potentially support specialists later. I eventually move SE to the plains and then re-evaluate. Not a terrible choice -- reveals some horses nearby, a lot more flood plains, gold, and probably some wasted tiles to the NE. <Shrug> Ill settle the plains, though. Were gonna have to make sure we dont overgrow our happiness, though, with Washington, though our health will be bad very soon.
Theres actually a TON of gold in the area, but were not well positioned to take advantage. Hmmmpph. I order up a warrior.
Animal Husbandry, with cows and horses nearby, is the natural first research choice. Were going to do something a bit different, eschew religion for a while, and work on developing a strong, powerful civ based on population and cities.
(5) 3800 - What hut did we pop? Anyway, we get mining. Were going to have some sophisticated workers very early.
(10) 3600 - Just exploring. Small stretch of land to the NW ends early. I seem to explore the wrong way consistently. Washington is size 2 and VERY unhealthy -- were at our limit already. Darn flood plain disease. Well hit size 3 about the time the warrior pops and then Ill do a worker. Theres plenty he can do.
(11) 3560 - Animal Husbandry comes in. And the exploring warrior just found Stone, so I take it as a sign we need to be able to quarry stone and order up Masonry next. What do I know?
(13) 3480 - Warrior finally completes. Hes gonna be in Washington for a bit, but then the old explorer will take over and hell go east, as I think Ive found everything to our west.
(14) 3440 - Put one turn into warrior but switch to worker. Were unhealthy already, but we can crank out a worker fairly quickly, actually. Then itll probably be a settler.
(15) 3400 - Buddhism founded somewhere. Were ummm NOT going the religion route in this opening game. Workers. And settlers once I can get to them.
(19) 3240 - Masonry in. Wheel started. Well need the roads to help with health from the cows.
(21) 3160 - Enter a village. Get a warrior. Im actually extremely happy about that. Were shield/unit poor at this point. Ill use him as another explorer briefly, but he might be best used as a guard for our second city.
Ruh-roh!
(24) 3040 - Lets hear it for the defensive bonus of forests! (Higher than hills this game -- be warned!) Our warrior in a forest defends against the attacking lions. Barely, but we survived. Hell heal. We look stuck on a small island here. This is looking very tough.
(25) 3000 - Wheel and worker come in. Sailing started, as it looks like well need boats sooner rather than later. And the worker is going to go to the cow instead of the closer horse, as it gives more food/shield benefit, which is what we need for more workers/settlers to fill our small island. Not to mention the health bonus, which is like another extra food, since Washington is already unhealthy.
And I screw up and leave the queued warrior from before for a turn before going to the settler we so desperately need. Only one turn, but .
(30) 2800 - Well, I was able to confirm we are on a relatively small island all by ourselves. Just us and the barbs/animals. If we settle reasonably quickly, we might not need too many military units. My fog of war is VERY DARK, so its hard for me to plan much in terms of cities, but we have room for enough for a reasonable start.
So, founding order doesnt matter and Im not the happiest with the dotmap. Its a little tighter than Ive been building before, but I want to not waste squares. And we ARE Organized (10 cities is actually quite a few). If exploration after Sailing shows us good stuff, we can modify. Note: Yellow dot is the NW-most tip of land and might not show clearly. I tried to put up signs, but I dont know how to do that in Civ4. Its said to be possible, but . Any help on that would be appreciated.
In the meantime, I think our worker should road the cows to Washington, then pasture the horses, and then maybe irrigate some floodplains (others will need cottages). I would keep Washington on settlers/workers at size 3 until we get another health resource (clams, rice, fish, sheep) on board to help it grow. Yes, an irrigated flood plains WILL produce enough food for an unhealthy citizen and to grow, but it can take a while. I might be wrong, but thatd be my general approach. City #2, wherever it ends up, should do a bit of military and some exploring ships. Let Washington produce the settlers/workers for now, I think.
Research-wise, I think Writing is a high priority, as that opens up Libraries, which are our only/best source of culture at the moment.
Roster:
Arathorn -- just played
Speaker -- UP NOW -- 20 turns
Arizona_Steve -- on deck -- 10 turns
Reagan
Jaffa Tamarin
And well all play 10 after Speaker, for all time.
Arathorn
Roll the dice. No Raging Barbs as thats a custom choice and I did a quick start. Oh well. One less issue to deal with. Were America, so we have the Navy SEAL as our UU. We start with fishing and agriculture, so we have some good worker actions already. Were the FDR version of the Americans, so we are Industrious (+50% Wonder build rate and half-price forges) and Organized (less city maintenance costs and half-price lighthouses).
(0) 4000 - OK, I hate this choice. Moving the warrior is easy. We have Clams just off the coast. But we couldnt take advantage of them with our city where its started. Getting both the cows and the clams is possible, but not on the coast. [NOTE: What was I thinking when I wrote this? One north of where we started would have been ideal. OY!] Lots of fresh water around, but . I wish I had a bit more experience.
The suggestion is to settle in place which probably means wed get some extra resources by settling in place. But wed waste a flood plain. I dont know WHAT to do. I like the food of flood plains, both for faster growth here earlier and to potentially support specialists later. I eventually move SE to the plains and then re-evaluate. Not a terrible choice -- reveals some horses nearby, a lot more flood plains, gold, and probably some wasted tiles to the NE. <Shrug> Ill settle the plains, though. Were gonna have to make sure we dont overgrow our happiness, though, with Washington, though our health will be bad very soon.
Theres actually a TON of gold in the area, but were not well positioned to take advantage. Hmmmpph. I order up a warrior.
Animal Husbandry, with cows and horses nearby, is the natural first research choice. Were going to do something a bit different, eschew religion for a while, and work on developing a strong, powerful civ based on population and cities.
(5) 3800 - What hut did we pop? Anyway, we get mining. Were going to have some sophisticated workers very early.
(10) 3600 - Just exploring. Small stretch of land to the NW ends early. I seem to explore the wrong way consistently. Washington is size 2 and VERY unhealthy -- were at our limit already. Darn flood plain disease. Well hit size 3 about the time the warrior pops and then Ill do a worker. Theres plenty he can do.
(11) 3560 - Animal Husbandry comes in. And the exploring warrior just found Stone, so I take it as a sign we need to be able to quarry stone and order up Masonry next. What do I know?
(13) 3480 - Warrior finally completes. Hes gonna be in Washington for a bit, but then the old explorer will take over and hell go east, as I think Ive found everything to our west.
(14) 3440 - Put one turn into warrior but switch to worker. Were unhealthy already, but we can crank out a worker fairly quickly, actually. Then itll probably be a settler.
(15) 3400 - Buddhism founded somewhere. Were ummm NOT going the religion route in this opening game. Workers. And settlers once I can get to them.
(19) 3240 - Masonry in. Wheel started. Well need the roads to help with health from the cows.
(21) 3160 - Enter a village. Get a warrior. Im actually extremely happy about that. Were shield/unit poor at this point. Ill use him as another explorer briefly, but he might be best used as a guard for our second city.
Ruh-roh!
(24) 3040 - Lets hear it for the defensive bonus of forests! (Higher than hills this game -- be warned!) Our warrior in a forest defends against the attacking lions. Barely, but we survived. Hell heal. We look stuck on a small island here. This is looking very tough.
(25) 3000 - Wheel and worker come in. Sailing started, as it looks like well need boats sooner rather than later. And the worker is going to go to the cow instead of the closer horse, as it gives more food/shield benefit, which is what we need for more workers/settlers to fill our small island. Not to mention the health bonus, which is like another extra food, since Washington is already unhealthy.
And I screw up and leave the queued warrior from before for a turn before going to the settler we so desperately need. Only one turn, but .
(30) 2800 - Well, I was able to confirm we are on a relatively small island all by ourselves. Just us and the barbs/animals. If we settle reasonably quickly, we might not need too many military units. My fog of war is VERY DARK, so its hard for me to plan much in terms of cities, but we have room for enough for a reasonable start.
So, founding order doesnt matter and Im not the happiest with the dotmap. Its a little tighter than Ive been building before, but I want to not waste squares. And we ARE Organized (10 cities is actually quite a few). If exploration after Sailing shows us good stuff, we can modify. Note: Yellow dot is the NW-most tip of land and might not show clearly. I tried to put up signs, but I dont know how to do that in Civ4. Its said to be possible, but . Any help on that would be appreciated.
In the meantime, I think our worker should road the cows to Washington, then pasture the horses, and then maybe irrigate some floodplains (others will need cottages). I would keep Washington on settlers/workers at size 3 until we get another health resource (clams, rice, fish, sheep) on board to help it grow. Yes, an irrigated flood plains WILL produce enough food for an unhealthy citizen and to grow, but it can take a while. I might be wrong, but thatd be my general approach. City #2, wherever it ends up, should do a bit of military and some exploring ships. Let Washington produce the settlers/workers for now, I think.
Research-wise, I think Writing is a high priority, as that opens up Libraries, which are our only/best source of culture at the moment.
Roster:
Arathorn -- just played
Speaker -- UP NOW -- 20 turns
Arizona_Steve -- on deck -- 10 turns
Reagan
Jaffa Tamarin
And well all play 10 after Speaker, for all time.
Arathorn
