The Nobles' Club series started out as a way for Noble-level (and below) players to improve their game. Most of the original participants now play at much higher levels, so this has become a way for advanced players to help others learn to play better. You can play your own game at any level and with any mod, but it would be nice to comment on the games of other players and give them advice.
This week's leader is Bismarck, a solid leader who doesn't get much attention- all the better to make a Noble's Club with! And here he is, in all his pickelhaubed glory:
EXP means more
and therefore bigger cities, as well as double production for the two food buildings- Granary and Harbor- and IND means 50% faster wonders and 100% faster forges. Since the Granary and Forge are must have buildings for a city, Bismarck should be able to have large and strong cities up quickly and use those on wonderspamming or unitspamming.
The start:
4 food tiles, 3 of which are seafood, for an expansive leader... very nice.
Juicy map spoilers:
Finally, a cut and paste of our standard doctrine:
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, where you're thinking of putting cities, 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 and TMIT, who really made this series a great one, r_rolo1, mapmaker extraordinaire, for his maps for most of the series, and all of you for playing.
The WB-saves are 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, check out the BUG MOD), select "Play Scenario", and look for "NC43 Bismarck Noble" (or Monarch, if you want the AI to start with its usual Archery bonus tech, or Immortal for Archery+Hunting, or Deity to add Agriculture). This allows you to play with your favorite MOD at the Level and Speed of your choice. From Quick-Warlord to Marathon-Deity, all are welcome! We stuck with the name "Nobles Club" because it has a cool ring to it.
IF YOU ARE PLAYING THE GAME ON A DIFFICULTY OTHER THAN NORMAL, you'll have to make some changes. I seem to have made a mistake by leaving the speed locked at normal. You can fix it by going into your BtS/saves/worldbuilder directory and opening the save with a word processor, then replacing "MaxTurns=500" with "MaxTurns=0". Thank you CivilizedTiger. Sorry for the mistake.
This week's leader is Bismarck, a solid leader who doesn't get much attention- all the better to make a Noble's Club with! And here he is, in all his pickelhaubed glory:
EXP means more
and therefore bigger cities, as well as double production for the two food buildings- Granary and Harbor- and IND means 50% faster wonders and 100% faster forges. Since the Granary and Forge are must have buildings for a city, Bismarck should be able to have large and strong cities up quickly and use those on wonderspamming or unitspamming.- His UU: the Panzer.
The Panzer is a tank with a 50% bonus versus other armored units. It is a UU that attracts very mixed reactions. It comes quite late into the game and most people consider it useless since enemy tanks shouldn't be defending cities. I personally think that it's decent, since it cannot be assumed that all wars will consist of utterly smashing the AI in their cities and having no trouble at all, and enemy tanks could still be stuck in their cities anyways.
- His UB: the Assembly Plant.
The assembly plant is a factory that produces 50% faster with coal and allows 2 more engineers. More engineer specialists means more production and more wonderspamming potential. Unfortunately, it comes late in the game. However, a fast-producing factory that adds versatility can't be a bad thing.
The start:
4 food tiles, 3 of which are seafood, for an expansive leader... very nice.
Juicy map spoilers:
Spoiler :
Finally, a cut and paste of our standard doctrine:
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, where you're thinking of putting cities, 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 and TMIT, who really made this series a great one, r_rolo1, mapmaker extraordinaire, for his maps for most of the series, and all of you for playing.
The WB-saves are 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, check out the BUG MOD), select "Play Scenario", and look for "NC43 Bismarck Noble" (or Monarch, if you want the AI to start with its usual Archery bonus tech, or Immortal for Archery+Hunting, or Deity to add Agriculture). This allows you to play with your favorite MOD at the Level and Speed of your choice. From Quick-Warlord to Marathon-Deity, all are welcome! We stuck with the name "Nobles Club" because it has a cool ring to it.
IF YOU ARE PLAYING THE GAME ON A DIFFICULTY OTHER THAN NORMAL, you'll have to make some changes. I seem to have made a mistake by leaving the speed locked at normal. You can fix it by going into your BtS/saves/worldbuilder directory and opening the save with a word processor, then replacing "MaxTurns=500" with "MaxTurns=0". Thank you CivilizedTiger. Sorry for the mistake.
My marathon game would have ended kind of abruptly if I hadn't made that mistake. 
), but if I can just get through to currency I can build wealth to carry on. A number of great cottage sites so I'll be spamming them to get back on track.
