Well, things went rather well. It's good to be good, but it's also good to be really, really lucky.
Oh, and something to note: our leadername was Administrator, and I only remembered how to change it after I'd played almost all of my turn. We're MM9 ingame now, though my screenshots don't show it.
T0:
Okay... bit of a situation here with a frankish Warrior in our territory. The problem, of course, is they they're significantly more experienced than our bunch. Combat III vs our Combat I doesn't sound too good in the open field. Hmm. So, we have two objectives: keep our horses from being pillaged, and keep the franks away from our cottage-building Worker on our flood plain.
Options:
A: Stay put with our Warrior. We might get attacked in the open which doesn't give us great chances, though our Archer can clean up if need be. However, it's also likely that nappy will try to harass our Worker, and if he tries we can't interpose.
B: Head him off at the pass by moving a tile to the south. If nappy moves onto our horses, we'll wind up with an outcome similar to option A. If he goes for our Worker, we can dance around and force him into the open if he persists or tries to go for our horses.
I choose option B.
Oh, and it's 21 turns 'till HBR is in. Joy.
T1:
Nappy dances perfectly: going towards our Worker like expected, but moving so as to not be able to threaten our horses if he changes direction! Move to interpose according to plan. That woodland defense bonus is big. Our scout spots an Incan scout far to the east.
T2:
Nappy is still moving, but still poses no direct threat. Karakorum Barracks -> Chariot.
T3:
Whoa. Nappy is gone, as in "gone in the opposite direction from us." Fine with me, since that means more time to build Chariots!
T4:
Still no sign of nappy. Maybe he's decided that scouting is more profitable than bugging us.
T5:
Karakorum Chariot -> Chariot. MM to knock a turn off of HBR, since we've grown to size 5 in the past couple turns. Nappy adopts slavery, so that means he has Bronze Working. Sending our new Chariot NE to harass him.
T6:
Nothing but movement.
T7:
Ditto. Approaching nappy's borders though.
T8:
Cottage is done. Begin a road on the cottage tile in case we need some fast response in that direction. Our Chariot discovers that nappy has gems hooked up. Will probably pillage it next turn, and hope that nappy doesn't feel brave enough to hit us with much. Our scout discovers that Rome has horses, though not hooked up.
T9:
Ah, nappy's Combat III Warrior is back, this time far to the south. Not a threat, I think. Karakorum Chariot -> Chariot. Hindusim has BFIADL. Pillage nappy's gems.
T10:
Our pillaging Chariot got attacked by a Warrior (somewhat expected)
and an Archer (a bit of a surprise, and not according to plan!). And our Chariot beat them both (
really not expected)! As you-know-who says, sometimes it's better to be lucky than good!
I take a bit of a risk and scout Paris. Nappy only has a single Warrior for defense. Unfortunately, even after promoting to Shock we only have a 48% chance to win. Not willing to risk it, I back off to heal.
Nappy's Combat III Warrior is heading for our territory again, but we can get a Chariot built before nappy can do any harm.
T11:
Do some dancing with nappy's warrior. Only unit movement for me this turn.
T12:
Okay, this could be annoying. A Quecha appears from the west(!). Probably circled around, scouting. Start a cottage on a grassland river tile, since I don't know what else to do with our Worker. Can't even chop without Bronze Working, and cottages won't hurt. Also move aggressively to block nappy's Warrior.
T13:
Nappy's Warrior gets cold feet and scampers away. Gotta love that forest defense bonus. Back on the northern front, a bit of a dissapointment. Nappy just built an Archer, maybe whipping it. If he hadn't, he would have been toast this turn. A Warrior won't cut it against two Chariots, especially since one has Shock, but an Archer changes the math completely. It's back to pillaging, I guess. If nappy tries to get our pillager, our other Chariot can take Paris. Back south, move to confront the Quecha with our newest Chariot.
T14:
Quecha runs the opposite direction onto the flatlands, and dies with little more than a whimper. Pillage nappy's only farm.
T15:
Nothing but movement. Nappy's land looks rather sad at this point. No improvements but roads, and his Worker is cowering inside Paris.
T16:
Karakorum Chariot -> Chariot. Mostly movement this turn. Sending Chariots out east and west.
T17:
Second cottage comes online. Have reached Izzy's borders now.
T18:
Movement, nothing more.
T19:
A picture says a thousand words:
Karakorum Chariot -> Keshik. Pick Mining next up for research, but I'm handing the game off now so that these choices can be easily vetoed. Getting HBR is a good breaking off point. Currently, we've got units far and wide. I've mostly been thinking about using a Worker supression strategy to slow down our opponents, but another option would be to concentrate force on nappy and finish him off. It could probably be accomplished by the next player, if that's what we want to do. Something to note: Karakorum is at its happiness cap. I've been letting it accumulate food for now, but it's something that the next player should keep an eye on.
Our lands:
The save:
![[civ4]](/images/smilies/civ4.gif "Civ4 [civ4]")
is nothing like it was in civ3. We had massive amounts of units from nearly every AI laying seige to our city. It was rough, but fun.
