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All Leader Challenger
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Game #17 - Russia/Peter
Game #17 - Russia/Peter
In the next ALC game, I'll be playing as Peter the Great, leader of Russia. The purpose of this thread is to discuss, before the game, how to best exploit that particular leader's characteristics, which is the main feature and purpose of the ALC series. Just so we're clear, I'm playing with the Warlords expansion pack and the difficulty level will be Monarch. The speed is Epic, the map is Fractal. Here's the fact sheet:
Traits: Expansive (+2 health per city, double production speed of Worker, Granary, and Harbour) and Philosophical (Great People birth rate increased 100 percent, double production speed of University.)
Starting Techs: Mining and Hunting
Unique Unit: Cossack (Replaces Cavalry; Strength: 15, Movement: 2, Cost: 120; Unique Characteristics: +50% vs. Mounted Units)
Unique Building: Research Institute (Replaces Laboratory; Cost: 250; Requires: Computers and an Observatory; Unique Characteristics: +2 free scientists)
Peter is Russia's wallflower in Civ IV. When anyone talks about the Russian leaders in the game, it's almost always to sing the praises of sexy Catherine, or, more recently, to give credit to beefy Stalin. Peter is almost never mentioned as a favourite leader in the game--in fact, I get the distinct impression that people rarely play as him. Which seems strange, because he's no slouch. It's probably just because if you select Russia as your civ, the next thing you see is Catherine with those big brown eyes, enticing you with her animated feminine wiles. What computer gaming geek could possibly resist her? Peter just can't compete, no matter how much thoughtful moustache-twirling he does.
All the more reason to make him the subject of an ALC game!
Perhaps the reason for Peter's lack of popularity is that most of his unique characteristics don't bear fruit until late in the game. Take the Expansive trait, for example. With the additional health from not only the trait's bonus but also from the cheap buildings (with the right resources), Peter can have very large cities. However, health isn't a factor for cities until late in the game; before then, it's happiness that's the issue, and Peter has no special abilities there.
However, we can't dismiss Expansive's early-game capabilities too easily. As we saw way back in the Victoria game (played with vanilla Civ IV, where she had the expansive trait as well), the main early advantage of Expansive is the cheap granaries combine with the slavery civic. Having the granaries in place early allows you to whip other things and regain the sacrificed population much soon. Pottery will be an early tech target, as usual.
Expansive also gained another early-game advantage recently, with the cheap Workers. As with Imperialistic's cheap Settlers, though, this benefit only kicks in from hammers, not food. Fortunately, Peter starts with Mining (making Bronze Working a logical first research target), so we should be able to get some hammer-yielding mines going pretty quickly.
Speaking of what to do at the start, I almost always build a Scout first if I have Hunting. I find in those games I usually manage to claim more goody huts than my rivals. The main disadvantage is the inability to steal Workers. Let's also cross our fingers and hope for some campable resources nearby.
Philosophical is one of my favourite traits for that wonderful GP generation bonus. Would it make sense to try running a Specialist Economy again, to refine it even further after its use in the Cyrus game? Education also becomes attractive for the cheap universities (not to mention the Liberalism race), and the GP generation should help in providing a Great Scientist who can lightbulb most of that technology. My favourite wonder, the Great Library, is very attractive for its GS-generating benefits; hopefully we'll have a source of marble nearby, or at least a lot of forests to chop.
Cossacks, the unique unit, were nerfed recently but are still powerful. Getting Nationalism as the free tech from Liberalism would make the most sense, then Gunpowder and Military Tradition. If I can get Cossacks before anyone else, I should be in for a fun mid-game romp. It might also be a good idea to get some early game mounted units some XPs so they can be upgraded later.
The unique building, the Research Institute, comes awfully late and won't be much help unless we wind up going for a space race win. It does have a nice synergy with its benefit (the 2 free scientists), since the RI multiplies the scientists' additional research points in turn. If I'm going after a domination or diplomatic win, however, it may have limited utility.
One more thing: in partial preparation for the Beyond the Sword expansion pack--due out later this month--and just to be a little bit different, I'll be playing this game using the very popular Better AI mod, available HERE. I'm playing all of my off-line games with this mod now, and I get the impression many other people are as well--a better AI has always been number one on most Civ fanatics' wish lists since the very first version of the game. BtS will include it, so it seemed like a good chance to ramp up to the expansion pack without going up a level--especially since most players anticipate staying at their current level or even dropping back one for their first few games with the expansion pack, as many of us did with Warlords.
One of the main things I've noticed with the Better AI is that the opposing Civs build a lot more units and mass them in its cities closest to your borders rather than housing them in a central, useless location like the capital. The Better AI also seems to tech better and be much more demanding in its tech trades. City placement is also noticeably better. If anyone has any other insights into what to expect from the Better AI, please share them.
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resources (with an emphasis on less 
