Monarch Student^ XXXIV Stalin

BigTime

BigTime

Prince
Joined
Jun 18, 2009
Messages
556
Location
Chapel Hill, NC
Sorry for the delay, but welcome everybody to the 34th edition of Monarch Student Prime! Our glorious leader this week?

Civ4ScreenShot0199-1.jpg


Everybody's favorite communist, Stalin of Russia! Stalin is a rather average leader, being aggressive and industrious. Aggressive obviously gives his units an extra lift and industrious allows him to get up some wonders as well. A well rounded warmongerer-builder, and a fairly decent leader.

His UU is the Cossack:

Civ4ScreenShot0200-1.jpg


Cavalry that gets bonus against mounted. While it's not nearly as good as it was in vanilla (18 str) it's still a solid unit. Curassiers are the only thing that give cavalry trouble pre-rifles, and this bonus takes care of that. Pretty nice UU, but not overpowering in any sense.

His UB is the Research Institute:

Civ4ScreenShot0202-1.jpg


A lab that gives +2 free scientist. Nice for a late game Space Race push, but really comes too late and provides too little to be of value. One of the weaker UBs...

The Start:

Civ4ScreenShot0198-1.jpg


No complaining about the start at least. Marble, wet corn, even gold! Great start for an industrious leader.

EDIT: Oops forgot to mention, it's a standard fractal map.

Huts and Events are OFF, add events in the custom scenario if you wish. (just make sure to cover the top part with your hand so you don't see the AIs )

And a cut-and-paste from Meatbuster's Monarch Student games:

Save the file and place it in your Documents/BTS/Saves/WorldBuilder folder. Then unzip it into your Documents/BTS/Saves/WorldBuilder folder. Then use Playing a scenario to play your desired level. Or use custom scenario if you want to remove huts and/or events.

Recommended Checkpoints:
*1000BC or 1AD
*500AD
*1000AD or Liberalism
*Victory!

Please remember to put the journals of your adventures inside spoiler tags.

For Monarch+ players please try to add archery back to the barbs in WB. If you don't, AIs will capture cities with archers very early in the game, which is no fun. If you prefer easymode barbs, that's fine too, just don't go wondering why an AI captured a barb city in the very early BCs!

Thanks go to TMIT for making an excellent map creation guide and to mjg5591 for getting this series back on track!
 

Attachments

Ooh, monster start. I will get to this (I have a soft spot for old uncle Joe), but I started MS^ Roosevelt today so I'll play that one first.
 
Spoiler :
With my new found civ knowledge(videos on youtube) I saw an early engineer possibility and 800bc I got lucky. Made 2 towns and got 20 xbows now, pummeling Suleiman. I gave Zara ALL my tech(5 good techs) to war with Freddy(they still warring :goodjob:) Island is quite large and I have 3 workers. Good fun tho
 
Seems like a pretty nice starting position. SiP, then put out Workers. Started on Agri for corn, then go for BW to start chopping out those forests.
 
Spoiler :
Sorry for double post, but may as well put up checkpoint. 950 BC. Zara to the direct east of me, seems to be expanding pretty rapidly, and quite worryingly towards me. Frederick is just north of him, and Suleiman north of that, but I haven't seen as much of them.

Tech went Ag - BW - The Wheel - Masonry - Pottery - AH - IW, and then backfilled a couple of things afterward. Still in the middle of Metal Casting, not sure where to go next, whether to continue and go for Machinery and then Gunpowder, or switch back to Writing, and go for Construction (lots of elephants about) followed by Engineering.

Settled one city NE near to a couple of elephants and some horses, with intent for military production, and looking to settle another E on some copper to block Zara's expansion, and get the copper before he does.

But then, I'm awful at this game.
 
Spoiler :
Well killed off Sully and kept all the cities. Had slider on zero ever since the bc era. The forced war between Freddy and Zara didnt rage until Zara finished settling in my face THEN he built a whole lotta elephults. I shadowed his stack killing German cities but here is where I reloaded(:sad:). Germany vassalled to Zara. I reloaded and traded to get feudal so he vassals to me like he should have(was 2 turns from feudal). I know cheating. Well just me(with my acquired vassal) and a friendly Zara who prob has more land than I do. Think I will have to spend the 500 years building an economy.
 
Immortal fail:

Spoiler :
Just one of those games. I expanded to 6 cities before running out of room, and decided to go with renaissance war. Everyone on my continent was Buddhist, religious tech orgy ensued. Every time I'd try to research something for trade value, one AI would beat me to it and instantly pass it on to the other religious buddies, denying me trades. Zara beat me to philosophy and education, and he won lib in 900AD. He also beat me to the taj mahal by 1 turn :mad:.

Met Hannibal and Ragnar on the other continent, and finally got some trades as they were backwards enough to actually want my stuff. Zara declared war on Ragnar and promptly capitulated him.

Sully went free religion and started falling behind in tech, so I decided to make some cuirassiers and take his land, to help me compete with Zara and Fredrick. That went pretty well until Zara went FR too, dropped to pleased, and instantly peace vassaled Sully in the middle of my war... that's where I quit in disgust.
 
Played up to 100BC now, I think the game's going pretty well this far.

100BC save attached.

(Monarch/Normal)

Spoiler :

This is the most bonkers upside-down game I think I've ever played :crazyeye:

After settling mosCOW in place, I pushed out into the jungle areas first, settling copperCOW, whatnoCOW? and noCOW. That's blocked off q. a bit of land to back-fill. Mysticism was ignored and first-build libraries sprang up. Granaries were also ignored for the longest time, as was military. What on Earth was going on?

The AI were met and we all fell into a Buddhist love-fest. Im thinking AP religion..? :mischief:

Early tech path went AGG->AH->BW->WH->Pott->Writing, bee'd Literature, then MC->Alpha (finally)->Currency.

1st GS popped at 650BC, despite what felt like a lot of faffing about getting there...could have been q. a bit earlier I think.

The four cities now all have forges and will probably all have granaries too before too long :p

The TOA, GLib and Parth are now all built. I'm sitting q. pretty tech wise and have plenty of hammers should I need to produce some military.

I just about managed to frame the 4 cities in a screen grab:

Spoiler :

100bc.jpg




 

Attachments

Spoiler :
Last time I had 1 dead and 1 vassal. minus 50 gold per turn on zero percent. I really had to think... and then it hit me, use the g prophet I got for a golden age. All the while praying Zara wouldnt get me coz he went Christian. My vassal teched as well as me at the start. Anyway I creeped back little gnp step by step and used Germany to tech half my stuff. Gave Germany back all his cities that didnt help was still minus gnp until 1200 odd but I got the Taj for 2nd golden age and it righted itself. Then I just went mental building everything. Now Im attacking Zara(1st turn) he went for all the fancy techs and I just went for cavs. I got loads of em now. Looks like a space win coz building a million boats aint my bag.
 
I don't know whether this should be spoilered or not. Just generated a Great Spy, not entirely sure what to do with her. What's the general consensus for them? Scotland Yard doesn't really seem particularly useful, and the point I'm at, infiltrating cities isn't a priority either. I'm thinking of just saving her till necessary or starting a Golden Age, but I'm not entirely sure.
 
You can either settle if you're running representation, use him for a golden age or use him to steal some techs from a neighboor if you're backwards. It's all situational.
 
Might use him to steal some techs actually, not a bad idea.

Not good news from the front.

Spoiler :
After a promising start, got to 75AD and I'm suddenly last on the score table. My economy is sort of tanking a little bit from over researching, and the tech boom I experienced in the early game has suddenly gone bust. Founded two more cities, one on the copper I wanted to deny Zara, and a further one north on some iron, but as I hadn't really gone for Mysticism, my borders are taking ages to expand and leaving lots of little gaps in my territory.

It's all a little haphazard really. Moscow is churning out military units by the buttload, really just out of paranoia of an attack by Zara, whose growing ever closer, and seems the most likely first target, as Frederick and Sulemain have both converted to Judaism, me along with it. All the other cities are a little stunted in growth, probably due to my inexperience. I can't see this going well at all. Research wise, had to pull the slider right down to bring the economy back up, and have been stuck in Machinery for ages, not giving me a chance to backfill. I'm trying to figure out where it all went hilariously wrong, as I had a fairly confident start.


HERP DERP forgot the save.
 
Spoiler :
Zara war lasted from 1530 to 1565. My army was way too massive so I split it in 3. Now the other continent was in permanent war with Hannibal winning in late 1800s. So a leisurely space. Got 50 million pop in 1700s. I messed up a lt tho not directing my super vassals tech. Only really got genetics off Zara. Teched space all wrong too. Went for medicine then factories then space. Never had a hammer mental 2nd city. Anyway I enjoyed making every city (about 18 i think) at least 19 pop and more. Got 2 corps just for fun. Oh yeah Hannibal attacked with 4 turns left. Was funny watching my vassals boot him off the island. Anyway thx to host. Oh yeah the research institute rocks. And I learned if u do get a decent vassal u can coax em along to be tech maniacs.
 
Spoiler :
As a fellow monarch player I looked at ur early save and was impressed with ur gnp. Ur play to that point looked great. If it went downhill it because ur land grab not backed up with tons of workers. The point at which u continue to expand or declare is really one or the other. Tho ur gnp was so good, if further expansion killed ur tech u could do a golden age to sustain difficult phase. I golden age whenever my game goes into the toilet. Look for neighbours who built wonders too. They will have less troops and more goodies. Good luck.
 
1 AD. Monarch/Normal.

Spoiler :

Been doing the Industrious thing. Sometimes by accident to be honest :)

SIP. Met the neighbors. Ottomans, Germans and Ethiopians, in that order, though it appears the Germans are furthest afield.

Worker and worker techs first. Then mysticism for border pop monuments. Got BW just as I started my first settler. Couple of options to get copper, but targeted a closer, hammer-strong site. Like my 2nd city to have good production.

Stonehenge was a 4 turn build immediately on finishing my settler, so I took it.

001henge.jpg


Pumped several workers while expanding some more, and pre-chopped some forests, allowing me to get the Oracle as a 2 turn build.

002oracle.jpg


Took CoL, rather than MC, for courthouses and a religion. Hoped to get the whole continent happy with me, but Zara founded Judaism next turn. He and Freddy are in that; I got the Ottomans into Confu. I haven't adopted either, though both are in my lands.

GP popped from Oracle and Henge points, so I shrinedd Confu.

004kongmiao.jpg


Started GW in my 2nd city when it had nothing much else to build, expecting failure gold, but somehow:

003wall.jpg


Think it is pretty useless at this stage, as barbs haven't bothered me in ages, but maybe I'll get a GSpy. Could be handy.

Building Shedawon Paya at the moment - might adopt Free Rel. Got other cities getting temples, courthouses and libraries. Have 6 cities with one obvious site for a 7th. No-one has alpha yet; I've got Aesthetics in readiness though.

From here, I'll probably get currency, construction, and then head for maces and aim to wreck someone :)

 
Lurker and first time poster. I'm going to give this a shot. I've gotten where I can beat Prince reliably and have beat Monarch a few times. I probably lose Monarch more than win though. Anyways, update later after I have a chance to play.
 
Lurker and first time poster. I'm going to give this a shot. I've gotten where I can beat Prince reliably and have beat Monarch a few times. I probably lose Monarch more than win though. Anyways, update later after I have a chance to play.
Click to expand...

Same difficulty boat here. I regularly win Prince, and I might pick this up to try Monarch.

I'll probably move the scout 1W then 1NW. If there's no additional food I might consider settling 1S 1SE to pick up the fish.

Tech order will be Agri first, followed by whatever else I need... Fishing is a possibility, depending on the food situation.
 
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