CTIV-1: The Turtle Game

[ChrTh]

CTIV-1: The Turtle Game

Land Type: Continents
Climate: Temperate
Sea Level: Medium
World Size: Standard
Difficulty: Noble


The Civilization we will be playing is: INDIA (GANDHI)



Here is our starting location:



A Reminder of The Rules:
1) We move very slowly. Look at the CIVFanatics Tech Tree pic. We must research all techs in a column before we move to the next column. For example, we can't research Monarchy until we've learned Iron Working, Metal Casting, and Writing.

2) We tend to hide in our shell. Once we learn Banking, we must adopt Mercantilism and stick with it the remainder of the game. Once we learn Theology, we must adopt Theocracy and pick a State Religion and stick with it. And, of course, No Open Borders. We can not "Dial Up" another Civ, but if another Civ gives us a call, we can trade with them as long as its a single-turn deal (Tech for Tech is ok).

3) We are defensive and long-lived. Starting war with a neighboring Civ is not allowed, however, we can strike back if attacked, and since we're not able to dial up a Civ, we can't ask for a cease fire (although we can accept one if asked)

4) We're not too fond of tourists, so we can't build any Great Wonders (I'd rather use the time to build and check out what the city improvements do).


ChrTh's Rule of Exploits, Etc.: Just Say No


ROSTER:
ChrTh (UP)
BotlGnomz (on deck)
Ucel
mjj55409
scowler
blackluck

Alternate:
Percinho

 

[ChrTh]

Everyone on the roster needs to post a "I'm Here, I've Subscribed, and I'm Loving All That Ivory"

Even though I've posted the starting spot, I won't be playing the turns until next week.

Thoughts:
Gandhi is Spiritual and Industrious:

Spiritual: No Anarchy, Temples at 1/2 construction cost
Industrious: +50% wonder production*, Forges at 1/2 construction cost

*


We start with Mysticism and Mining
Mysticism: Obelisks
Mining: Mines

Starting Spot:
In terms of resources, we have Ivory and Cows right off the back if we settle where we are ... however, it'll take us longer to get Corn in that situation. If we move one tile west, we'll get both Cows and Corn after our first expansion. We'll also be closer to a forest in that case, which is great, since we're surrounded by unhealthy flood plains. However, to use them we'll need:
Corn: Agriculture Tech, Farm Improvement (+1 Health)
Cow: Animal Husbandry Tech, Pasture (+1 Health)
Ivory: Hunting, Camp (+1 )

Hunting and Agriculture we can research right off the back, but we'll have to wait a bit until we can do Animal Husbandry. I'm thinking Hunting (we have enough food, let's go for the production bonus early) > Mining > Agriculture > Fishing for the first round of tech research.

Let me know what y'all think. The warrior hasn't been moved, so we should probably discuss where to move him so that we can make a better decision as to where to settle (we can do that before I officially start the 20 turns).

 

[Blackluck]

"I'm Here, I've Subscribed, and I'm Loving All That Ivory"

Getting late for me, so I'll discuss tomorrow during work the start.
Looking forward to this.

 

[BotlGnomz]

Checking in.
I told you that we shouldn't have done it randomly .
I would settle immediately. I wouldn't even bother moving the warrior. This site has food up the wazoo for a great initial growth curve to max happy and hills in range for shields and the ivory and *explodes*.
Hell, with all the flood plains for food, I would cottage the river grass after the chopping rather than farm them .
I agree with your proposed plan, with the obvious switch of The Wheel for Mining. We already start with Mining, f00.

 

[ChrTh]

Nah, I prefer Random. Although, to be fair, I did reject the first one because it was Isabella and xenu knows there's enough Spanish games going on right now.

Yeah, I mistyped Wheel/Mining. The words are so similar

 

[Blackluck]

I would move the warrior to the eastern adjacent hill to uncover a bit more of the surroundings.

Assuming the warrior doesn't reveal any surprises I'd be tempted to move the worker one tile to the W to pick up some more healthy tiles. With all those floodplains in one city radius, it's going to be difficult to keep Delhi healthy. With this start we'll be able to get a core of 5 cities up and running in no time. We'll have to restrain ourselves from expanding too fast, I think.

Agreed on initial tech choices.

Not being able to build Wonders will be good for me, as I just can't help myself

 

[Scowler]

Just checking in. Will have to look at the starting position later.

 

[BotlGnomz]

The problem with moving W is that it picks up a worthless desert tile NW of the corn.
I'd like to save the corn for another city somewhere down the line. The SW looks shield-heavy and food light, so if we save the corn for that city, it will have something to feed it while it pumps out the early buildings.
Also, I think we're going to have to win with culture. This flood plains city will be able to feed a hellofalot of Artists.
That is, unless building the Apollo Space Program doesn't count as a Wonder. Then we can just go for Space >D

 

[ucel]

I'm in. We need four Elephants to put on our turtle .
Can we build Shrines? Personally I doubt if we would be able to create any holy city, but I'm asking just in case.

 

[ChrTh]

Also, I think we're going to have to win with culture. This flood plains city will be able to feed a hellofalot of Artists.
That is, unless building the Apollo Space Program doesn't count as a Wonder. Then we can just go for Space >D

Without the ability to grab wonders, I don't think we can win grab a cultural victory, but we'll see.

Is Apollo a National Wonder or a World Wonder in Civ4? If it's the former, then we can build it.

Oh, as for the shrine: yeah, we can build it because the reason I'm avoiding World Wonders is because I want us to work on the normal city improvements (and units) instead...however, with the shrine, the Great Person builds it. Of course, the odds of us getting a religion first is 0.001%, but just in case.

 

[Percinho]

Howdy All, just thought I'd confirm my lurkership. Best of luck, should be an interesting one.

 

[ucel]

4) We're not too fond of tourists, so we can't build any Great Wonders (I'd rather use the time to build and check out what the city improvements do).

the reason I'm avoiding National Wonders is because I want us to work on the normal city improvements (and units) instead...

Ekhm, you mentioned nothing about national wonders here.

 

[ChrTh]

Ekhm, you mentioned nothing about national wonders here.

That's a typo. ...I'll go fix it

 

[mjj55409]

I'm Here, I've Subscribed, and I'm Loving All That Ivory...

I'd settle right where we are. Perfect. Another settler can be moved to the SW to pick up the corn and the hills. A food city, and a shield city.

But, ouch, Ganhdi? And building no wonders? And probably no religion?

Cheers,
Michael

 

[ChrTh]

Everyone's confirmed, so I've changed the roster appropriately.

To be honest, I'm sort of glad we got Gandhi. Let's say this wasn't the Turtle Game--we would be looking at getting 2 religions to start and wonder building in the (future) SW city...this way, we're forced to play the game as if we're Joe Schmoe...with no anarchy. In other words, we don't have an immediate strategy to use based on our leader. I think in the context of this game, that's a good thing.

 

[mjj55409]

I think you're right about Gandhi. This is the point of variant games, isn't it? We can't use the obvious strategies starting in this spot with Gandhi, so we have to come up with something different. A xenophobic spaceship builder?

 

[ChrTh]

A xenophobic spaceship builder?

"That's it, we're sick of you people, we're going to our own damn planet!"

 

[BotlGnomz]

It's what's called a Project.
I think it's only one per nation or team.
So we should probably aim for space.

 

[Blackluck]

I assume popping a goody hut and scoring a free tech outside our 'tree' doesn't result in a loss? (Unless I missed a game setting somewhere that disallows huts.) Futhermore, if there are huts, do we avoid them?
Being xenophobic and all, maybe we want to avoid contact with 'villagers.'

I think winning on points in 2050 a.d. is our best bet.

 

[ChrTh]

I assume popping a goody hut and scoring a free tech outside our 'tree' doesn't result in a loss? (Unless I missed a game setting somewhere that disallows huts.) Futhermore, if there are huts, do we avoid them?
Being xenophobic and all, maybe we want to avoid contact with 'villagers.'

I think winning on points in 2050 a.d. is our best bet.

Let's clarify ... we're not Xenophobic, we're just shy. Like a turtle. We can deal with others (if they ask us first), but we're afraid of commitment. That being said, we can't go to Theocracy or Mercantilism right away because we have to reach them, so there's probably going to be some trading/religion spreading within our borders before we reach that point.

That being said, I want our warrior to scout in a spiral: let's open up all the tiles around our city so we can plot further cities, rather than sending him (say) due East until he hits an ocean or border.

Now, this is a continents game, so there exists the possibility that we're the only civ on an island, in which case we'll be able to build nicely, but we'll be several ages behind when we make contact... but that's ok, remember, the goal of this variant isn't to win, it's to learn.