Monarch Student^ VIII - Bismarck

Meatbuster

Meatbuster

formerly Robo Kai
Joined
Dec 6, 2005
Messages
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Location
Philippines
This week, we feature Bismarck of Germany.

Bismarck is Expansive and Industrious, which results in +25% production for workers, and +50% production for Granaries, Forges, and Wonders. Does quick workers and fast granaries translate to even faster wonders? We're about to find out.

Germany starts with Hunting and Mining... but do you go the usual Bronze Working first? Or Fishing for work boats?

MS8-1.jpg



Panzers are tanks that are good against other tanks, period. It dominates its era when it comes out... or rather, used to, as Anti-Tanks were developed in Beyond the Sword. Too bad. It also comes quite late, which means it's another one of those UU's that people tend to forget about.

MS8-3.jpg



The Assembly Plant, another late UB. It's a factory that builds faster with Coal and lets you assign 2 more engineers than the usual factory. Wait, what? That's it?

Is BtS being really cruel to the Germans? Now, Industrial Parks already cover the engineering needs of most cities.

If there's any consolation, a good combo with Assembly Plant is a high-food city, or Sid's Sushi so you can max out the allocation of engineers. After all, you might need that Great Engineer to make Mining Company... and fast!

MS8-2.jpg



Map Settings...
Map: Global Highlands
Oppnents: 6
Sealevel: Medium
Climate: Temperate
Continents: Normal
 
This is the start:
MS8-4.jpg


Spoiler map hints, spoiler and comments :
Don't get cocky with the Industrious trait and your wonder resource. You can still be outbuilt...

Expand like crazy, but keep your military up!

Also, one of your neighbors today is one of your distant penpals from MS^ VII. If he made your life a living hell there, perhaps now is your chance for revenge.


The Worldbuilder save is below. It is perfect for Monarch or Emperor starts, and... "okay" for other levels.

To play, unzip the worldbuilder file and place it in your Documents/My Games/BTS/Saves/WorldBuilder folder. Start the game by choosing Single Player -> Play a Scenario, where you may adjust the speed and difficulty to your liking. Or Custom Scenario, if you also wish to turn off barbarians or events and adjust other settings.

Let us compare strategies and progress with other players as well as learn to play. Win or lose, for better or worse, feel free to report on your glorious exploits. Perhaps other players can give you advice on your game.

Please keep your reports in spoiler tags. It's better that way. Perhaps decades from now, your descendants will still be playing this save. So let's keep them in the dark so they can enjoy!

Recommended Checkpoints:
*1000BC or 1AD or 100AD
*800AD, 1000AD or Liberalism
*1200AD or 1400AD
*Victory!

This week, we have no huts. However, you have a choice between two worldbuilder saves in this zip file: do you like Stone or Marble better? (If you pick the Stone save, it will replace the Marble on the starting screenshot.)

If these zip and/or worldbuilder files don't work again, please don't hesitate to notify me. :D I'll be awake for the next hour.
 

Attachments

Edit: Well, up to three forum games have been recently started. Oh well. :lol:

I'll be out for the next few days, so I won't be able to check or play SG's. I'd better post this one and get it out of the way. :D

I'll wait for someone to test the save though.

Edit2: Oh yeah, when you're posting your awesome write-ups, please feel free to note which resource you picked up.
 
This week, we have no huts. However, you have a choice between two worldbuilder saves in this zip file: do you like Stone or Marble better? (If you pick the Stone save, it will replace the Marble on the starting screenshot.)
Click to expand...

How innovative!

I know I said stone in the bullpen thread, but asking me to actually choose is another matter. I might have to flip a coin.

I'm playing this sucker on (gulp) Emperor. Wish me luck.
 
Heh I hope you enjoy the map anyway if you're on Emperor.
Soo... did you finish the last one?
And the important question: do the saves work? :D
 
I will try this map I think. But because taking screenshot is a chore on my computer and writing what I do not really easy or pleasant for me, I won't really participate.
 
Meatbuster said:
Heh I hope you enjoy the map anyway if you're on Emperor.
Soo... did you finish the last one?
And the important question: do the saves work? :D
Click to expand...

Yep, finished the last one. Need to post the last of my Napoleon diaries.

Saves work fine for me, at least the stone one does. I went for stone after all.
 
Murky I don't follow. For marble you list a wonder of marginal economic value overall and one that has no wonder boosting resource.
 
Lansky said:
Murky I don't follow. For marble you list a wonder of marginal economic value overall and one that has no wonder boosting resource.
Click to expand...

The Great Lighthouse doesn't get the boost but the temple does. The temple by itself is marginal but combine with extra trade routes becomes more powerful. You could more easily build both with the marble setup than with the stone setup.
 
Murky said:
The Great Lighthouse doesn't get the boost but the temple does. The temple by itself is marginal but combine with extra trade routes becomes more powerful.
Click to expand...
ToA isn't really that useful for a commerce economy because it's additive, so it's only +100% of the base trade route value. Given how trade routes scale, you're pushing 2 base commerce per turn by the time ToA obsoletes.

Basically, with GLH, it's roughly 3-5 free commerce per turn, depending on the number of trade routes you have.

It's nice to say it's useful in some games (such as Monarch Napoleon, where I built it in Moscow). But really, it has no synergy with GLH at all.

What it does is put out good cultural pressure (8:culture:pt), and provides sizable GPP (5) for an early wonder.
 
Monarch, going cultural around lib-time:

Spoiler :

Played some last night, started with stone. Built the pyramids, GLH, ToA, and pretty much every other wonder there is. Let SH and GW go though, focused on expansion. Have copper nearby but only use it to fend of barbarians. Also I find gold in BFC, pretty lucky.

A lot of room to expand, grabbed happiness resources and grew like crazy together with Representation. Happiness allowed a lot of whipping, whipped pretty much all infrastructure/settlers before switching to Caste to run some specialists. Also switched to Hindu to keep friendly with the neighbours. Luckily, Toku gets Buddism and acts as everybody's favorite enemy.

Have my first 3 cities produce wonders and going for a cultural win seems like a easy choice. Get some scientist in a few cities, produce massive amounts of GP, wonderspam some more. Obv have massive production on this map and techwise I'm miles ahead and gift techs the few times someone asks me. Declare on Toku a few times when asked, but as we don't have any common borders I never see any troops, and a few turns later they vote stop the war through the AP.

Toku hates me but Hammurabi and Saladin are friendly. Don't know if they declare at friendly but I grab Feudalism and produce some longbows just in case. At this point I'm just running away with the game, win Lib race easily, grab Navigation, produces some Caravels and galleons and discover the others which are VERY backwards. The egyptians have like 1/10 of my score or something ridiculous, must have been totalt destroyed.

Meanwhile I'm grabbing some religions for the +50% culture buildings, spreading Judaism and Christianity like a mad man before I can get Scientific Method. Plan is to go mass media, fortify like crazy (not sure I'm gonna need it though) and just turn on the culture slider.

Not sure I'll play this through as the game feels pretty much wrapped up, overall just a pretty easy setup with friendly neighbours, easy diplo, a lot of happiness to allow growth as well as IND / stone combo. A big red carpet towards cultural if you ask me.

Either way, fun game this far thanks for hosting.
 
Immortal/Normal - Stone

1 AD

Spoiler :


I settled in place. I don't exactly showcase something unique here. I open AG ---> Masonry ----> BW ---> Mysticism ----> wheel ----> pottery ---> fishing ---> writing. This is somewhat important to manage because on high difficulties you do want sufficient commerce to make it to writing sometime this year.

I open up with a worker, then IMMEDIATELY start a settler. After improving the corn and quarrying the stone I settle the double wheat site and irrigate that. I foot back over to wheel the quarry for great wall and pyramids:

Civ4ScreenShot0000.jpg


Other than that, this is an expansion phase and I did what I could to block. Double wheat city winds up being my cottage center since I was using the capitol for wonders + GPP and working in some workers/settlers a bit. At 1 AD I have Gwall/mids and 7 cities, with room for many more.

Civ4ScreenShot0001.jpg


Civ4ScreenShot0002.jpg


Civ4ScreenShot0003.jpg


Drama does 3 things for me:

1. Another :) building is welcome
2. Culture from theaters is significant and will allow me to keep a handle on some of my tiles, particularly gems and hammy borders.
3. It can be used to shop for other techs after partial research.

Obviously I used aesthetics to trade for alpha and iron working, then brokered alpha for some minor techs with sal.



Liberalism and Circumnavigation

Keeping in mind that someone had to go and comment that I tend to be backwards last game X_X, I felt like showing that it doesn't HAVE to be that way.

Spoiler :


First thing I notice is that the trademark MARBLE wonder is still up for grabs, and I manage to beat the AIs to literature. This leads to a few chops then a hefty whip to get TGL. Along with national epic, mids, gwall, and 2 scientists, I have some good GPP now. Unfortunately I get a lot of artists from this rig but I do at least manage an academy and a number of settled specs in hamburg. Perhaps more importantly, these power wonders are denied to the AI.

Civ4ScreenShot0004.jpg


Toku gets antsy, though he's attacking another PRO civ with a similar unitprob and more cities, so I doubt this ends easily for either side. Toku is pretty backwards though so I'll have to monitor the war to make sure nobody gets too outrageous.

Civ4ScreenShot0005.jpg


Late liberalism, beating ram who could also research it though I had a head start. It was a bit tough w/o GS bulbing education or philosophy (only got 1 and wanted the academy) but I managed.

Civ4ScreenShot0006.jpg


Map trades give me circumnavigation

Civ4ScreenShot0007.jpg


So there I stand for now. Oxford will be built rapidly once the last university or two finishes. Then I click the slider on and get around 500 (probably way more during deficit) beakers/turn on a PP ---> military trad ---> replaceable parts ---> gunpowder ----> rifles beeline.

Since I only put cottages in hamburg (I'm not even using the governor in half my cities, it's friggin weird?!) and farmed the rest to whip infra and work mines, I will probably stay slavery and use a combination of whips + just working mines to put up about 30 cavalry. I will betray hammurabi first, with the intention of capturing all his cities on the mainland. Using that land, I intend to carry my advantage over to the toku/sal combo. If sal is not close to rifles, I will hit him first after hammy and cap him. If he is close to rifles, I will go after backwards tokugawa and cap him + gift cities back, for a 2 prong war on sal (distracting and raises his chances of capping due to land target).

From there assembly line + combustion/flight should give me the nuts and bolts of an intercontinental invasion force. Hopefully Sury (who I've not met but can see due to map trades) can hold off Hannibal + vassal ram enough that I don't have to try to gain footing with a super power over there. If I do, I'll probably side with hannibal and force someone crappy to build the UN after running FM/FR/using fair trade to make hannibal like me.

And yes, as of right now I'm sitting on a tech lead, thanks to a combination of using those annoying settled great spies to some effect by stealing 5-6 techs off hammy, denying the AI wonders, and winning liberalism. I will probably lose it capturing land, only to either regain it or just end the game after that.

 
TheMeInTeam said:
Immortal/Normal - Stone

1 AD

Spoiler :


I settled in place. I don't exactly showcase something unique here. I open AG ---> Masonry ----> BW ---> Mysticism ----> wheel ----> pottery ---> fishing ---> writing. This is somewhat important to manage because on high difficulties you do want sufficient commerce to make it to writing sometime this year.

I open up with a worker, then IMMEDIATELY start a settler. After improving the corn and quarrying the stone I settle the double wheat site and irrigate that. I foot back over to wheel the quarry for great wall and pyramids:

Civ4ScreenShot0000.jpg


Other than that, this is an expansion phase and I did what I could to block. Double wheat city winds up being my cottage center since I was using the capitol for wonders + GPP and working in some workers/settlers a bit. At 1 AD I have Gwall/mids and 7 cities, with room for many more.

Civ4ScreenShot0001.jpg


Civ4ScreenShot0002.jpg


Civ4ScreenShot0003.jpg


Drama does 3 things for me:

1. Another :) building is welcome
2. Culture from theaters is significant and will allow me to keep a handle on some of my tiles, particularly gems and hammy borders.
3. It can be used to shop for other techs after partial research.

Obviously I used aesthetics to trade for alpha and iron working, then brokered alpha for some minor techs with sal.



Liberalism and Circumnavigation

Keeping in mind that someone had to go and comment that I tend to be backwards last game X_X, I felt like showing that it doesn't HAVE to be that way.

Spoiler :


First thing I notice is that the trademark MARBLE wonder is still up for grabs, and I manage to beat the AIs to literature. This leads to a few chops then a hefty whip to get TGL. Along with national epic, mids, gwall, and 2 scientists, I have some good GPP now. Unfortunately I get a lot of artists from this rig but I do at least manage an academy and a number of settled specs in hamburg. Perhaps more importantly, these power wonders are denied to the AI.

Civ4ScreenShot0004.jpg


Toku gets antsy, though he's attacking another PRO civ with a similar unitprob and more cities, so I doubt this ends easily for either side. Toku is pretty backwards though so I'll have to monitor the war to make sure nobody gets too outrageous.

Civ4ScreenShot0005.jpg


Late liberalism, beating ram who could also research it though I had a head start. It was a bit tough w/o GS bulbing education or philosophy (only got 1 and wanted the academy) but I managed.

Civ4ScreenShot0006.jpg


Map trades give me circumnavigation

Civ4ScreenShot0007.jpg


So there I stand for now. Oxford will be built rapidly once the last university or two finishes. Then I click the slider on and get around 500 beakers/turn on a PP ---> military trad ---> replaceable parts ---> gunpowder ----> rifles beeline.

Since I only put cottages in hamburg (I'm not even using the governor in half my cities, it's friggin weird?!) and farmed the rest to whip infra and work mines, I will probably stay slavery and use a combination of whips + just working mines to put up about 30 cavalry. I will betray hammurabi first, with the intention of capturing all his cities on the mainland. Using that land, I intend to carry my advantage over to the toku/sal combo. If sal is not close to rifles, I will hit him first after hammy and cap him. If he is close to rifles, I will go after backwards tokugawa and cap him + gift cities back, for a 2 prong war on sal (distracting and raises his chances of capping due to land target).

From there assembly line + combustion/flight should give me the nuts and bolts of an intercontinental invasion force. Hopefully Sury (who I've not met but can see due to map trades) can hold off Hannibal + vassal ram enough that I don't have to try to gain footing with a super power over there. If I do, I'll probably side with hannibal and force someone crappy to build the UN after running FM/FR/using fair trade to make hannibal like me.

And yes, as of right now I'm sitting on a tech lead, thanks to a combination of using those annoying settled great spies to some effect by stealing 5-6 techs off hammy, denying the AI wonders, and winning liberalism. I will probably lose it capturing land, only to either regain it or just end the game after that.

Click to expand...

Good Lord! What time is it in Florida? I'm just having my first cup of tea for the day!
 
I have a very erratic sleep pattern, a holdover from before I went on thyroid replacement. I can pretty much change sleep schedules on a whim now because I didn't have a circadian rhythm for about 6-7 years.

It's 4:30 AM when I posted.
 
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