CivSetä demogame on emperor

Here is a demonstration of my strategy explained first time in here. In general my strategy is to rush nearest opponent early, recover, and beeline to Liberalism. Later the victory is guaranteed in any preferred way, domination or space race are propably the two most optimal victories for this strategy.


Settings for this demogame are:
continents - temperate - high sea level - standard size - emperor level - marathon speed


I wanted to give a try to some leader I never play, so I chose Alex. (philosophical and aggressive, starts with hunting and fishing) He does not have mining, so my traditional strategy of getting BW first had to change. His traits support my strategy, aggressive helps on early rush and philosophical helps generating great scientists.

Here we go. Not too good starting size, but will do. Start work boat, as we have seafood and we need time to research mining and BW to chop. Settling on plains hill is a nice bonus. A hut in city radius gives us a map. Looks like we are south of the equator.
My building order was workboat - warrior (who was used to carefully scout northern jungle) - worker - settler - settler - warrior - worker - warrior - barracks - axes. (Production until rush in two other cities: Sparta: warrior - monument (chopped) - barracks - axes. Corinth: barracks - axes.)



Second hut gave us some gold. Nice!



First neighbour appears to be Mansa. He is annoying, because he can tech really fast and he is hard to beat in space race. Usually he is in other continent, which makes killing him hard, but this time it is different. I really hate him, so killing him eventually will make my day!



Second opponent I met was Catherine! I hate her too. She will play nice until an unexpected backstab. She has a very strong early game, imperialistic trait mines fast settlers and creative helps expansion. I'm afraid I'll lose some nice city spots to her.



My scout gets more gold! Some early techs could have been nice, but gold is ok. It allows many turns of deficit spending.



In the same turn my scout was eaten by a bear I met Brennus. I don't know him very well, he is usually an early vassal of stronger neighbour. Why not killing him first if he is near enough? Mansa has skirmishers, Cathy is creative so he is propably the easiest one.



Here is what my scout revealed before dying. Bronze is really close to the capital of Mansa. I'll still build my second city near it if I could. An I did! My initial research order was mining - bw - archery - mysticism (to pop borders of second city to catch copper) - wheel - agr - ah - pottery - writing - alphabet. It always works fine.






I was planning to build build my third city in the river bank next to a ivory resource. But Brennus was a little bit faster, so I had to found Corinth on the shore. It has some cows though, so it is a good library city. Sparta is going to be my military city, altough it does not have as many hills I wanted.




After border pop I started to build axes. I chopped some forest to fasten the process.



Some gems were founded near Athens. What a nice surprice, it allows my cities grow one pop bigger. As you can see I don't have too many luxury resources, so this is a really huge bonus. It helps my science also.



My initial plan was to attack Cathy; she has nice city sites and she is propably most dangerous opponent in a long run. I want to take care of here before I face cossacks.

Next post - early rush

Soon I realized that Timbuktu was going to grab my copper! I was planning to attack Catherine first, but because I only had 10 axes ready to roll and horses not connected, I had to change my plans. I decided to attack Mansa instead. I didn't want to risk by waiting any longer.



Unfortunately he had skirmishers, and he had already built walls in the capital! I had to make a long journey because river surrounded Timbuktu in north, east and south, so he had enough time to build fourth defender, which of course had city defender promotion.



My odds are not high, so this fight is going to be fierce! Future of my empire will depend on this battle.



My first six attackers died, but last four fighted bravely and Timbuktu fell to my hands! I was able to build axes again, which I did immediately, because I needed reinforcements.



Brennus suggested open borders, and I said yes. I don't mind if he founds some cities to southern tundra.



In Djenne my changes were much better. Many men had to die, though, before the city was burned down. It was too far away from my capital and in wrong location, one tile from coast.



Gao has a too big garrison. I'll go somewhere else.



So I captured Kumbi Saleh instead (screenshot missing) and returned with hardened veterans. It's going to be easy. I had to sign peace because I couldn't kill his stack (lost some axes) which threathtened Timbuktu. I didn't want to gamble losing Timbuktu, which has a good production and commerce potential thanks to many forest and river tiles.

I kept Kumbi Saleh also, as it is located on river. It is going to get some cottages soon to fund my research. It always had silk, which I need one day.





I could not kill him, but at least he is no threat anymore.



Here is my empire after war. I rushed libraries in my three original cities and hired some scientists. First scientist is going to born in Corinth, next in Sparta and third in Athens. In my last game I had problems generating great scientist soon enough, so this time I don't take any changes!











Continued in next post

continued from the last post



Resource locations and cultural influence:









I reached Alphabet around 500BC. Because my start was kind a slow, everyone already had writing. I had to decide wether trade it away or not. I would like to wait a to trade IW also, but I don't know. I was hoping that Mansa would trade me also, but it looks like I razed too many of his cities.



I decided to start trading, because I wanted to chop Great Library. I needed mathematics to make it efficient.



Brennus gave me lots of tech. I was no afraid about WFYABTA, because I am propably going to kill him anyway. Or at least I believe Cathy is going to...



After trades:



Fist GS was born in 500BC. He built academy in my capital.



My economy was ok, as you can see I am running on green and slider is set in 30%.



Here are all the cities again. When corinth accomplished GS it started to grow again. You don't need to rush every city as big as it could grow, sometimes other needs have higher priority.

No new techs to trade.



When I reached Literature there was still 7 turns to generate GS in Athens. I decided to keep scientist working, I believe I have enough time to chop GL. And I want GS from Athens, Sparta can support scientists a little bit longer as I don't have anything nice military units to build. I could start Heroic Epic, but I think there is still enough time before Construction.



Cathy traded some spices to me. Nice, my cities can grow one pop bigger now. It helps much!



Aah, Mansa is online again. You stupid friend of mine! I'll take all your goodies and later kick your ass again!




GS was born. Time to work hills.





Corinth hired scientist again. I don't expext any GS born there again, I just want to speed up my research. I have to get CoL asap, I have scientist ready to pop Philosophy. And taoism is not founded yet



I decided to try building Parthenon in Timbuktu. I have lot of forests to chop, and with it I could get even more Great Scientists!



Brennus ask my help. Why not harrash that annoyning Mansa again!





Few turns later Cathy declared war to Brennus. This is nice, I'm safe for a while. I haven't build more troops since the first war, so I was an easy target. Thanks Cathy, you made a right choice!

Men, what is it with people these days. You start with cows, rice and sea food as a philosophical civ. Enough mines to make your capital a production power house and you call it a "not a good starting site". You guys are all spoiled I say Now I hope with the gems popping up you won't complain any more

Nice game so far and I foresee a lot of problems for your neighbours with 2 high production cities. This is going to hurt a lot.

Ok Killroyan, it was a least a decent start...

Here are graphs from 150BC. Catherine is solid leader, we are at the same level with Brennus.













And top 5 cities:



Brennus is suffering...



...but my empire is not strong enough for war. I have to say no to Catherine.



She does not like that, look at her face!



110BC GL is built. Good job, my choppers!



And I lose Parthenon by one turn. I don't mind, actually I started to wonder wether I should complete it at all. I already have a decent flow of GSs and I need gold more. Well, I didn't had to choose! I got more than 1200 gold from it, which allows researching CoL and CS fast.

I made a nice deal with Brennus. I wanted Monarchy for happiness, because I had two wines. Another can be traded for money later.



CoL arrives:



And my waiting GS pops Philosophy:



I was first, so Taoism is founded in Kumbi Saleh. Nice!



Brennus has more problems:



My third GS is born in Sparta. HE is finally started, I need more troops soon! I think I'll have constrution while HE is ready, then I'll start building stack of 15-20 cats.



Not much to trade.



I spread taoism to Moscow. Afterwards I think I made a mistake, I should have sent my missionary to Athens instead and run pacifism - taoism haven't yet spread to my capital! Because our continent did not have any other religion it had spreat fast anyway.



I finally made this trade. I wanted to know where the iron is.



I teached Mansa a lesson and made peace. He gave me nothing.





Cathy needs my help and again I have to refuse. I am not ready for war, as I concentrate on research. Maybe after few hundred years!

Here is the continent around 250AD. No one has settled cities in southern tundra. Maybe I have to do it? Catherine has most of the land, and she is gaining more from Brennus.













Cathy gave me some badly needed money, I was running heavily on deficit.



I finally reached CS.



I switched to Bureaucracy immediately. I delayed revolution for a while, to make all changes at the same time. It saved me some turns in anarchy.



I needed more money to run deficit research, so I had to made this deal.



I have two scientist ready to lightbulb education. It looks like I have a good change to win the Liberalism race!



Brennus ask me to stop trading with Mansa (I had open borders, I wish he would trade with me again one day) and I couldn't say no. I want to keep him friendly, it guarantees that he keeps trading with me.



Cathy is first to get music. Looks like our continent is going better than another one.



Nothing to trade. Catherine has a strong lead.

I decided to rush Hanging Gardens. I could have taken the money, but I think extra health is very useful on emperor. One day I'm glad I built it!





Brennus won't give me construction, even I asked him nicely. What a surprise!



I am not going to be generous either!



Look that face of her!



War time again. I am not going to fight myself, naturally.



My settlers are ready on tundra. I built only the iron city, because I couldn't afford the upkeep of others yet.



Time to lightbulb again.





First on education! Looks good, I have a solid lead on Liberalism. I only need more money to fund research.

Here is my empire when I reached Education. Athens is starting NE, but I think I changed it to courthouse later.



Sparta is building some archers to free my veteran axes from tundra. And I still can't build cats. It will delay my next war, that's sure.



In other cities I'm building courthouses to reduce maintenance. I am going to use whip also to speed up the process.









Finally some decent trades.



Not a bargain but I have to do it. I need cats and elephants soon.



I want to keep her away from me for a little bit longer. I wish that brennus gives her some headache.



It is nice to trade with them. Brennus is still friendly, so he gives me Theology and badly needed money...



Cathy gives me Ivory. I don't mind trading away marble, hopefully I can capture some nice wonders later! And I want go give her something to build, that theology trade was a nice one indeed!



And I want go give her something to build, that theology trade was a nice one indeed!



I still refuse to help her in wartime.



I end my war because I finally get some money.

I found Brennus wondering on my tundra! Go away, this coast is mine!







Mansa needs some protection. He's going to be a nice vassal for Catherine. No more fake wars against him.



Tech table:



Catherine gives me some money to finish Liberalism faster. Great!



Brennus traded me music:



So here we are, one turn before Liberalism. We haven't heard about other continent, so we can safely assume that we are most advanced. We can safely reseach another tech before liberalism if we want to.

My capital is building University to fasten research even more.



Sparta has just finished forge and is building elephant every 4th turn. Nothing special, I think I have to build cats also in other cities to speed up mobilization.



Corinth is starting to develop cottages. I think I'll whip the forge. I have built too few cottages, I have to concentrate on cottagespam after war or I'm in bankrupt.



Some whip is propably used also here. Perhaps I have to turn this city a military powerhouse also, as it has a decent production capacity.



Kumbi Saleh is allowed to grow peacefully, I don't expect any production. Main focus is on cottages.



My coastal cities do what they can. Thebes is building courthouse, as there is no seafood around to grow.



These two cities have some resources to work. They'll paying themselves one day.

Here is the continent and graphs. Cathy is way too powerful, I have to kill her soon.















And demographics:



Five greatest cities:



Here are my casualities:



And Mansa lost some units also:





So here was the first half of the game. Later I'll go propably for space race victory, or maybe domination if changes are good, I am not going to fight Shaka who has vassallized whole continent. But at this moment we have no idea about other continent, so time will tell what to do.

What should I do now? Maybe I can delay researching Liberalism a little bit and research something manually to get more expensive tech free? But should I go for cavalry or grenadiers? (I think I'll start warring with just elephants and cats, they can do their job even against musketeers.)

I think I made some mistakes on my game. Perhaps I should have moves my capital to Timbuktu to reduce maintenance. There was forests to chop, it would have not taken that long. Another mistake was not connecting horses soon enough, I was surprised when Mansas borders took my copper, and I could not build anything offensive. I was lucky with my axes, some chariots would have made it more safe. I could have lost, but this time I was lucky. I could also get my second GS from Sparta, which would have made it possible to build HE sooner. I had enough GSs. It took some 30 turns to complete forge while I already had construction. It means 10-15 less cats...

Savegame one turn before Liberalism is attached. Any suggestions and comments are appreciated.

Nice game. Just keep playing it. I'm just a Monarch player trying to learn something.

Good write up. Keep it going. About suggestions, build up an army now. You are almost deadlast in that section. Maintenance is killing you so are courthouses up (they are still cheap with Roosie right?)? What about the gazillion furs you are having? Are there any trade possibilities to get some extra cash?

Can't see the diplomatic screen but my guess is building up an army and taking some cities from Brennus otherwise Catherine is going to be too strong. She will outtech and outproduce you without problems. The two size 8 cities from Brennus look tasty and will cost little in maintenance. If you take on Mansa and Brennus then it is definitely a good idea to move the palace to Timbuktu or at least build the forbidden empire somewhere over there.

How serious do you have take my advice? Not too much since I am a Monarch player and can only win 30-40% of my games there. But keep it going.

It's weekend again and time to continue my game. Thanks for advice, I think some serious warring and courthouses is needed.

Propably I'll try to wipe the whole continent away. I'm going to beat that nasty Catherine first, shouldn't be easy but I wish that wars against Brennus has weakened her at least a bit. And I have advantage as I am going to get either grenadiers or cavalry soon. (Haven't decided yet which one to pursue.) I'm planning to save Brennus last, because he is friendly and hence keeps trading with me. I'm not waiting any spectacular trades from him, just something nice. I expect meeting fellow civs from other continent(s) soon, I wish I can do some lucrative trades with them to help my economy.

you put too many screens. It's impossible to watch this thread in my browser

edit: IE

Giaur said:

you put too many screens. It's impossible to watch this thread in my browser

edit: IE

Click to expand...

Are you ok with other threads, I think some of them have as much images?


edit: I checked my photobucket account, it's almost 20 MBs of images in this thread. I can see it is a pain to read this article if you have a slow connection, sorry about that. Didn't have any problems on my fast connection.

I resized rest of the screenshots to a 1024x768 size to make it more easier to read page 2. I play in 1600x1200 resolution, so texts in them appears to be small. Hope you can still see them.

I have to do, the latest post is on the top. Two many objects in one page, but I'll figure it out.