Noble's Club XIII - Alexander of Greece

Hello everybody, TMIT takes a break from messing with AI XMLs to present the 13th installment of the Noble's Club series!



Our leader is Aggressive and Philosophical. This match of traits allows for some economy (especially early) and some warmongering! The UU is an axe without the normal chariot vulnerability (and with all the goodness of normal aggressive combat I). The use of the UB will vary depending on the player, being a Colosseum replacement that gives culture, allows artists, and gives from hit singles.

And the start:

Spoiler:



I was seriously ready to regenerate the map 30 times if I had to, but this was the first start I got! After looking at the map in general it passes IMO.

And here is the standard cut and paste of our Club Doctrine(ME STOLE YOUR DOCTRINE, BLEYS!):

There are no hard and fast rules here, fun and learning are our primary goals, but we do request that you update your progress at various points in the game, using the Spoiler feature of the boards.

Tentative posting updates are suggested at:

4000 BC (starting thoughts, no spoiler required for that discussion)
1000 BC or so (how you decided to progress up the early tech/build paths, which AIs you have met, etc)
500 AD or so (after establishing some cities and a possible plan of action)
1200 AD or so (mid-game, Lib race, wars or peace, or whichever happened or didnt, met other continent if applicable, etc)
1600 AD (or when you have decided on a course of action and a specific victory condition)
End of game (Victory!!! or defeat, no shame in losing, especially if you tried a higher level. Learning is what we focus on, not fastest win or biggest empire)

Remember, these are only guidelines. What we really want are your thoughts as the game goes on, so if your strats don't fall into line with those dates, feel free to adjust your reports accordingly.

We also welcome players to ask for specific game advice, as we have a number or stronger players who lurk and help out with solid tips, and of course, we help each other. Replies to specific questions should also be in spoilers, with a simple "@" in front of the person the answer is directed towards.

Special Thanks go to Bleys, who really made this series a great one, r_rolo, mapmaker extraordinaire, for his maps(and the one I learned from!), and all of you for playing.

The WB-save is attached (zipped, they are bigger than standard saves). To play, simply download and unzip it into your BTS/Saves/WorldBuilder folder. Start the game, and load your favorite MOD (if you use one, if not, I suggest checking out the BUG MOD), select "Play Scenario", and look for "NC XIII". This allows you to play with your favorite MOD at the Level and Speed of your choice. From Quick-Warlord to Marathon-Prince, all are welcome! We stuck with the name "Nobles Club" because it has a cool ring to it.

Also, it should be noted that although this is a "pre-Monarch" oriented series, you are welcome to play it at levels above Prince. However, the AIs will NOT get their full set of bonus techs. The main difference is Archery, which the AI normally gets for free at Monarch and above. The main affects of this are in the AIs starting units (warriors instead of archers) and it also creates a tad "slower" AI, since they now have to tech Archery themselves.

In addition, because of the variations of using the Scenario menu, your starting Scout/Warrior may not be in exactly the same spot as the one shown.

View attachment 190332

TMIT's Map Tips with early game spoilers/strategy (for those moving up levels and whatnot)

Woo, will play maybe tomorrow.

Cool, I am glad to see these series being kept up. I know I am the 2nd worst procrastinator on the boards (rolo claims to be the worst, I might argue it sometime, you know, later, heh)

I have been wanting to play a full blown War mongering SE on Emperor, and this clubs game are just the ticket, the Mids tend to go much later in these "Emp Light" versions. I am currently in the middle of the COOLEST Emp game I have played so far, actually, Hannibal, and yeah, I got the GLH, conquered the Mids/ToA/Colossus from Sury, hate sharing a landmass with that alien, heh, had 5 islands just the right size for 2 cities, etc, so I am dominating, but Cyrus and Catherine both got BIG chunks of land themselves, so its going to be fun to try to take em. I JUST popped Astronomy from a hut, too! (first time ever!) so I am loving the game. But I am planning to play this right away. Report . . . well, I get lazy, honestly, I have actually been playing the LHCs and even the Immortals, but I rarely feel like writing them up anymore, dunno why. I will try though.

Oh, TMIT, you forgot to change the one "variable" in my "Doctrine", heh, I am sure you will spot it right away now that you know its there. BTW, one thing I WILL try to get too is linking up the newest editions in my PYL and NC bullpens. I promise that one.

Well, back to my Maces + Cannons vs Long Bows, 4 turns to Rifling, then 6 more to Nationalism (on Epic speed, heh, yeah, huge tech rate for 1250 AD, Cothons + GLH + Colossus = Win, took Steel from Lib, just popped off a 15 turn Golden Age, circumvent bonus with Galleys, have marble and stone on island, life is good)

Yes yes, it's 13 now, not 12 in the save .

I'm doing this on QUICK actually, emp difficulty as a little diversion from the 2 immortal games I have running (I might procrastinate, but not in Civ IV...all will be finished).

I'm trying to shore up my early game tech power regardless of REX or war or even wonders, because honestly I'll need it no matter what moving up unless I get ivory hahaha.

Greece is an interesting Civ to play. I think I'll actually give this a go this time. Chiefly because the SGs are stalling...

After banging my head against the wall last night practicing openings on immortal, my frustration brings me back down to emperor to get an idea of the kind of progress I've made. I'm doing things a bit differently this game.

Emperor/QUICK (note: I've changed my civ color to black, but otherwise it's the same as everyone else's )

To 1520 AD



View attachment 190343

To 1735 AD

Emp/Quick

If you want cold, hard facts as to why quick sucks, then here you go.

I do have a victory plan though.

I will use this for a move to prince. Off to playing

Noble/normal

If there is a reason to settle other than in place, it seems cloaked in a rather clever disguise. Unless the weird rears-up fast this Alexander is going right toward bronze working and if practicable two more scouts.

nobles club played at emperor and prince? what's the point? just make an emperor's club

vicawoo said:

nobles club played at emperor and prince? what's the point? just make an emperor's club

Click to expand...

Absolutely! I think every level should have a "club" or regular series game of some kind. I am certain its one of the best ways to learn this game, a common game where you can compare your strategy to others, and decide what works and what doesnt. Its extra helpful for newer players to see how veterans play, even if its a higher level, because its the same map.

Another reason you see many players "playing up" in this particular club is that we have been around a long time, many of us learning the game through this series (and other series' like the LHC), so there is a lot of nostalgia involved. One of the better features of this series is the concept of "light" versions of the difficulties. I learned Monarch playing these, because without Archery, the AI is a tad slower, a tad less strong out of the gate, etc. Guys like TMIT and schwartz cut their baby teeth in this club, and now are competing at Emp/Immortal on a regular basis.

These boards are the friendliest, most helpful boards of any game I have been associated with (and thats a lot). There is a special brand of people here, helpful without being condescending, regularly answering questions, etc etc. I truly believe that clubs like this are one of the most enjoyable ways to play this game. I play in SGs with my NC mates, and I always love reading their reports in the other series games, like the Immortal University. The main goal of this Nobles Club has not changed, its a place where novice players can, hopefully, feel comfortable enough to ask those questions, post their games without fear of being laughed at for being n00bs, etc etc. Lots of higher level players have lurked in these games, offering tips and advice that makes those novices into strong, solid players.

As a not-yet-Noble player, I really appreciate the comments of the more experienced players.

I usually go Noble/epic and restart (or at least back up many turns) a lot. This time I think I'll go Noble/normal and fiercly resist the restart mania, hoping to actually finish the game. I suppose that means the Phalanx won't be useful for as long but I only warmonger a little in most games.

Actually, Monarch's club would be best. I think that level is a wall for many of us.

There are monarchs cookclub already... There are players at pretty much all levels, this is aimed at noble players...

Well the nice thing about this series is that the save is set up so you can play it at whatever level (and speed, for that matter) you want. Sure, the games will vary wildly because of the level differences, but it's still something everyone can take part in.

We already have an Immortal U, the monarchist's cookbook, and non-level oriented series like PYL and LHC. I play in pretty much everything which is why you see me in here too .

Noble's club was originally meant for primarily warlord - prince level, and as Bleys said a lot of the "high level" players that play in it were around when it started (and not so impressive).

The NC series is open to all though and has been from its inception. I do my best to help players with questions, and other posters do also.

Hello nobles club. In the spirit of helping out civ players, I'll be playing on noble and explaining my moves. Speed is epic.

The slightly different start.


I settle in place. First question, is what techs do I want? Usually you want a food tech first, such as agriculture for an irrigated corn. Not only do you get the +4 food for faster worker/settlers, you'll get to size 2 and 3 that much faster, which means another +1 to 4 production (4 in this case from cows).

If you only have say, flood plains, I would consider growing to size 2 first. If you only 2 food sources, consider just going worker, mine then chop 2nd settler, chop settler with both workers to get a 2nd city as soon as possible.

So I'm going agriculture. What will my second tech be? Mining or animal husbandry? Usually I'll answer this by worker turns. We want the worker to be busy. Usually you will have time to research two basic techs (like (10 to 12) agriculture and (9 to 11) mining) by the time your worker finishes. The worker will take 5+1 turns on epic to build the farm (1 to move). The tech tree says it will take 17 turns to research animal husbandry, likely this will go down a little because of the dual prerequesite tech bonus and because we will be switching to a riverside tile with an extra +1 commerce. 23+6=29, 12+17=29, so we will complete animal husbandry on time. Will mining be on time? Unlikely, 6 turns to make the pasture, so we're down up to 4 turns.

On the other hand, working a gold mine would slow our growth, so we might want to get size 3 first.

If we go mining for animal husbandry, then our worker is busy for an extra >10 turns (building two mines), gold will speed up animal husbandry, and we will definitely not be low on worker turns.

This becomes a question of production over commerce.

Now let's look at our capital some more. 3 plains hills an d grassland hill, decent production, especially with cows. How many cottages can it support? Food surplus of 2 (city) + 4 (corn) + 1 (cow) = 7. We have 8 flat plains tiles we have, so we can support 12 cottages. We have an early happy resource, gold, so granaries are a little better.

What else? There's a bit of coast to the southwest, so perhaps we are in a nice position to choke off a peninsula, some jungle to the south, and cows and wine indicate a more temperate environment. Remember on noble our scout has a free win against a barb/animal, so perhaps he can get attacked by a bear on flat ground for extra exp.

On a final note, we could produce another scout ASAP to try to grab as many huts as we can, an advantage of starting with hunting. Is it worth it? Mathematically yes, but I'd prefer to start with a more standard build.

Part 2: scouting and planning the REX/rush

@ vicawoo New to the community and as an "iffy" Noble player your comment seemed a non-sequitur as surely I will learn from engaging with more experienced players. As proof, I would have opened differently if I'd seen your pre-start analysis before finishing my first round.

1000 BC debriefing

The bronze working, three scout strategy wasn't too bad.

Question.

After my humiliating experience in Lonely Isabella its time to get back to a more comfortable level: The Noble Epic of Alexander.
How to start?