Diamondeye
So Happy I Could Die
Okay, so basicly, I am attempting Monarch for the first time ever in Civ4, and I thought it'd be a good idea to do this the same way as the other writeups there are out here, especially Mad Scientist's RPC games, as well as the Paradigm Shift. Bit by bit with lots of discussion and advice.
Also, I though this might be a good chance for the players currently playing the Nobles' Club games to join in on discussion and perhaps learn something. Also, with my every move examined in detail by the sharper people out there, I can learn to combat some of my mistakes as well, and it'd be great if I could cash in my first Monarch Victory aswell.
So, anyway, here goes:
Game settings:
Okay, random civ, 7 random AI opponents on a large Pangea, all victories enabled, epic speed, and the only toggled option is "permanent alliances"".
We press start and here is our glorious leader in this game:
Suryavarman II, of the Khmer. Quick analysis of traits and Uniques:
Creative is a great trait, especially because I tend to avoid the religious techs, including mysticism, and therefore I tend to have some ery culture-weak cities. Also, the cheap buildings is a handsome bonus; libraries, theatres and colluseums.
Expansive is a little bit more mediocre, adding 2(?)
to evert city we own aswell as granting +25%
when building workers. Fine, but nothing spectacular.
The ballista elephant is one of the most heavily discussed UUs in the game. It is a normal War Elephant with the ability to always attack the mounted units in a stack when not attacking cities. Very nice, but as Ivory is rare, we might not be able to use these babies
The Baray is the Khmer replacement of a standard aquaduct, with a very nice bonus of +1
.
The synergies of these four things are not to be underrated. If you have Ivory, you will earn +1
as it is a luxurious resource. Since we are Exp, it will most likely be that limits our city sizes early on.
Also, both the UU and UB require Construction, a tech that also unlock the catapult unit, which is the first siege unit and the harbinger of many a protective civilization (how I love to knock in Sal's door with these babies!).
And, as if it isn't enough, Construction also unlocks the Coluseum building, which adds another +1, which we can put to good use, and the hammer cost is even halved because of the creative trait! This is definately a good tech to get our hands on asap.
Other than that, we start with Mining/Hunting, a nice workertech combination that allows direct access to the oh so crucial Bronze Working. Only problem is that the worker techs are a little bit food-poor, so unless there are any deer, we might need to tech a worker tech or two.
But these are mere speculations! Nothing is decided until we see the start screenshot! So we go on and...Look here!
I say, what a catch! In the BFC of the current settler position, we have 3 riverside Ivory as well as a riverside Corn! Our scout can see another food resource, Banana, on the coast to the east. Furthermore, it might look as if there was a resource on the hill the scout occupies, as it is the only revealed, non-forested tile in the start BFC.
So, what are people saying? Settle in place? Perhaps a scout move first, W-SW to get a better look at surroundings?
My personal idea would be settle in place, start worker immidietly while teching Agri/BW/Wheel/Pottery. After finishing worker build order would be something like warrior/warrior/scout(?)/worker(chopped)/settler(chopped)...
Discuss!
Also, I though this might be a good chance for the players currently playing the Nobles' Club games to join in on discussion and perhaps learn something. Also, with my every move examined in detail by the sharper people out there, I can learn to combat some of my mistakes as well, and it'd be great if I could cash in my first Monarch Victory aswell.
So, anyway, here goes:
Game settings:
Okay, random civ, 7 random AI opponents on a large Pangea, all victories enabled, epic speed, and the only toggled option is "permanent alliances"".
We press start and here is our glorious leader in this game:
Suryavarman II, of the Khmer. Quick analysis of traits and Uniques:
Creative is a great trait, especially because I tend to avoid the religious techs, including mysticism, and therefore I tend to have some ery culture-weak cities. Also, the cheap buildings is a handsome bonus; libraries, theatres and colluseums.
Expansive is a little bit more mediocre, adding 2(?)
to evert city we own aswell as granting +25% when building workers. Fine, but nothing spectacular.The ballista elephant is one of the most heavily discussed UUs in the game. It is a normal War Elephant with the ability to always attack the mounted units in a stack when not attacking cities. Very nice, but as Ivory is rare, we might not be able to use these babies
The Baray is the Khmer replacement of a standard aquaduct, with a very nice bonus of +1
.The synergies of these four things are not to be underrated. If you have Ivory, you will earn +1
as it is a luxurious resource. Since we are Exp, it will most likely be that limits our city sizes early on.Also, both the UU and UB require Construction, a tech that also unlock the catapult unit, which is the first siege unit and the harbinger of many a protective civilization (how I love to knock in Sal's door with these babies!).
And, as if it isn't enough, Construction also unlocks the Coluseum building, which adds another +1
, which we can put to good use, and the hammer cost is even halved because of the creative trait! This is definately a good tech to get our hands on asap. Other than that, we start with Mining/Hunting, a nice workertech combination that allows direct access to the oh so crucial Bronze Working. Only problem is that the worker techs are a little bit food-poor, so unless there are any deer, we might need to tech a worker tech or two.
But these are mere speculations! Nothing is decided until we see the start screenshot! So we go on and...Look here!
I say, what a catch! In the BFC of the current settler position, we have 3 riverside Ivory as well as a riverside Corn! Our scout can see another food resource, Banana, on the coast to the east. Furthermore, it might look as if there was a resource on the hill the scout occupies, as it is the only revealed, non-forested tile in the start BFC.
So, what are people saying? Settle in place? Perhaps a scout move first, W-SW to get a better look at surroundings?
My personal idea would be settle in place, start worker immidietly while teching Agri/BW/Wheel/Pottery. After finishing worker build order would be something like warrior/warrior/scout(?)/worker(chopped)/settler(chopped)...
Discuss!
This will speed up the construction of your worker 
![[pissed]](/images/smilies/pissed.gif "Pissed [pissed]")
when settling 1 away from a good [read "food"] resource means totally screwing up positioning on a good expansion city.
, then go away 
). The green city is backfill with stone and a safe copper resource.
