Sisiutil
All Leader Challenger
All Leaders Challenge Game 18, Take 2: Spain/Isabella
Played with the Beyond the Sword expansion pack
Played with the Beyond the Sword expansion pack
Pre-Game Thread
ALC 18 First Game Thread
Starting Position (this post, below)
Round 1: 4000 BC to 2825 BC
Round 2: 2825 BC to 825 BC
Round 3: 825 BC to 65 BC
Round 4: 65 BC to 640 AD
Round 5: 640 AD to 1310 AD
Round 6: 1310 AD to 1460 AD
Round 7: 1460 AD to 1710 AD
Round 8: 1710 AD to 1838 AD
Round 9: 1838 AD to 1938 AD
Round 10: 1938 AD to July, 1950 AD
Postmortem
The idea of the All Leaders Challenge is that I'm going to play a game with each of the Civ IV leaders. With the help of all the posters who participate, I will attempt to make the most of the leader's unique characteristics: traits, starting techs, unit, and building. Aside from the leader, the other game settings are (mostly) kept constant for the sake of comparison. I will post the saved game files, screenshots, and status reports here as the game progresses. Everyone then has a chance to chime in with their strategy ideas, or voice their frustration (or glee) when I make a mistake.
Everyone is invited to offer opinions and advice, and to make your own attempt at playing the same game. But if you do play a "shadow game", I kindly request that you refrain from posting spoilers--i.e. any facts or even hints about the map, opponents, and so on--before I'm there myself. I'm trying to play the game as authentically as possible.
In this ALC game, I'll be playing as Isabella, leader of Spain. I'm playing the game using the new Beyond the Sword expansion pack. The difficulty level is Emperor, the map is Fractal, and the speed is Epic. The game is being played with Solver's unofficial patch for BtS, including the fix that prevents the building of Military Academies before they're actually functional (with Military Science).
Yes, it's time to move up a level. And Isabella again? Well, the first ALC 18 game ended with the Apostolic Palace win, which was, frankly, cheesy as all get-out. Granted, it was a very high score, but there are better, more honourable ways to win. Furthermore, we never got to see Spain's unique unit or unique building in action, so that's the aim of this game. Since both UU and UB lend themselves to war, that's what we'll be looking to do, aided by Isabella's Spiritual trait for adopting "war civics" in a flash. I foresee a domination win by Spain's holy crusaders.
Here are all of the game settings:
And here is a look at the starting position:
Heh, that's funny. I passed up a start with gold in the capital's BFC in the previous Isabella game because it was at Monarch level. Well, this is Emperor, kids, and I'll need all the help I can get. The flood plains and grassland river tile(s?) look good for cottages, there's a couple of hills for production, piggies for food, several forests for chopping, an empty grassland tile that may hold a strategic resource--I think it's a no-brainer to settle in place. Oh, and a lake, if we want to research an early religion right off the bat. Gotta love Spain-on-a-lake.
The Warrior could pop that hut once Madrid is founded, or leave it for a border pop. I think the first build should be a Worker to mine the gold, but that would require researching Mining first rather than a religious tech. Then again, religion was the focus of the previous Isabella game. If we want a religion, we could probably easily get Judaism once the gold is on-line. Whaddya think--go for the faith or go for the gold?
Keep in mind this is a fractal map, so there's a chance that we're isolated. That would mean a priority on the naval techs in order to see Isabella's armies in action. I didn't have this map checked for isolation because, well, this is a juicy-lookin' start. Besides, Isabella's UU and UB show up late enough that we should be able to still get some use out of them even if we have to cross a body of water to do it.
Isabella tells me she thought the previous win was cheesy as well. Not enough bloodshed for our girl's taste. We aim to fix that this time. Lock and load, gang, Izzy's goin' huntin'.