Grumpy Old Men AWP Hub

[ThERat]

started the following game: went for hub since highlands is a bit weird
standard size, epic speed at prince

played 40 turns to get over the press enter phase waiting for a worker
popped map, experience and 100gold from huts

went for fishery and built work boat, then AH for the cows
ran into Khan and started a worker
scout was then killed by a bear

after AH went for BW due in 5 now
we have cows pasture can build a camp on the phants and mine gold. I think the start is not bad

our capital


our 'hub', hope the shape will make defense easier later on



save


Roster
ThERat
grs
Greebley
T_McC
knupp715


SG Stuff

Be nice. You have 24 hours for an "I got it" and 72 to play. If you need a one day extension, then mention this before the 72 hours are up. Players can work out skips between themselves, just post a message to the thread. If you can't play within 72 total, switch places or ask for a skip. You gan go over 10 turns if in the middle of a pitched battle you do not feel can be easily handed off.

 

[grs]

Got it. Not sure if I will play tonight, but I will have a look at least.

 

[Shillen]

Sorry to leave you hanging, but I'm not going to play in this. I'm really tight on time nowadays and I've been finding myself getting frustrated at the RNG when I play civ4 lately. (GOTM3 was a very frustrating experience that I quit shortway into). Since it is a game and is meant to be enjoyable I feel I need a break from civ for a bit. (The name of this SG is quite ironic, btw.)

 

[T_McC]

Perchance, might there be a spot for me?

 

[knupp715]

Since Shillen dropped out I would be happy to join if you would have me.
I've been waiting to get into an AW sg.

 

[ThERat]

sorry to hear that Shillen, a break might help and you will be back refreshed. I understand you comment about the RnG, it is frustrating often.
And welcome 2 new members of the grumpy team


Roster
ThERat - just played
grs - up
Greebley - on deck
T_McC
knupp715

what I forgot to mention, we are in the northeast corner of the map I think. Thus the narrow strip in the southwest is our connection to the other Civs.

 

[T_McC]

Yes, "new" member.

This looks like a terrific start. Four pre-Calender lux (we'll be trying to get Monarchy early anyway, so Wines are good) and two food boni at the capital means we should be able to run at size 7-8 on Prince. Or maybe the math is completely wrong. It's still a good-looking capital.

The negative I see at first glance is that there isn't a particularly good-looking spot immediately SW. That and too many of the health resources are seafood. We should be able to defend the resources at our capital and north, so maybe we will get all three seafood.

I suspect we'll have to build a lot of boats anyway. My first thoughts on a gameplan are to plug the choke to our land to create a single-city front, play defense there and take to the seas to go on the offensive against 1 civ at a time. Each civ should have its own spur, so it should be possible to play offense against 1 civ at a time via amphibious assault. Ideally, we would only add a single city to the front lines for each spur we conquer.

The shape of the map should also make it a long sail for anyone not in an adjacent spur to reach us by sea, so the lions share of the enemy troops should be coming by land. Sounds like we may need a steady stream of suicide Cats, a Medic or two, and Walls ASAP in the choke city.

Do we want to let the capital grow large before a Settler (so easier to produce troops), settle a 2nd/3rd city (likely N) before heading for the choke, or try to build up a stack of units and head for the choke immediately? I can't look at the save on this computer, so I don't have a great idea of where the choke city should be founded. First guess: 1 SW of the Pigs. I think that site allows us to completely block access to our lands with the city and a stack of units in the forest. But I can't tell from the picture whether there are any Hills in that area to found on.

Which German are we? I'm assuming Bismarck, so maybe the Marble would be particularly attractive. Stone would have been better. Not sure whether there are any must-have wonders based on Marble.

 

[T_McC]

Heh. A 50-hammer Oracle could be attractive, as would a 120-hammer Great Library.

 

[grs]

Yes, we are Bismarck. I will explore the backyard tonight. I would settle a second town soon, or at least as soon as we have the first archer to protect it.

 

[grs]

2360BC: Start camp on the ivory.

2320BC: Warrior - barracks.

2200BC: Bronze Working - Archery.

2080BC: Start to mine the gold.

1925BC: Incas declare war. Archery - the wheel.

There are 2 bears north of us. The Incas came from the south, but vanished. It may have been a risk not to chop the racks, but mining the hill was too tempting.



We should make a dotmap before continuing.

Save.

 

[knupp715]

I quickly threw this together using the in-game line drawer to hopefully throw some ideas around.





Hopefully there will be some iron near us but we will have to wait for iron working to find out. The seas look like they will me important on this map, along with a strong defense in the choke point city. Hopefully the AI's won't throw around as many boats this game as they did in the Overpowered Persians game.

Construction will also be a high priority. We have ivory and should use it to our full advantage.

 

[T_McC]

Can't say anything definite before looking at the save, but ...

What about the second city goes N to the Floodplains/Gems? It should only be a front-line city vs. the barbs and gives us a chance to start working river Cottages right away. Our capital should be good for commerce in the short- and medium term with the Gold mine, but I think we should look for another couple of high commerce sites early and just dedicate them to economy rather than troop production.

 

[ThERat]

knupp I like you suggested sites, I alos think maybe to settle a city in our backyard before settling the choke point.

I rather we develop the land than the sea tiles since the AI galleys can be really annoying.

Roster
ThERat
grs
Greebley - up
T_McC
knupp715

 

[Greebley]

Ok, I got it.

 

[Greebley]

On the city sites, I think knupp's northern site works if we grab the gem and floodplains with a city to the south first. That would be closer to our capitol and thus a better second city. Too big a gap means too many barbs appearing between cities

 

[ThERat]

I looked at the save and it says 606 turns left I stopped at 620 turns I think (assuming we start with 660 turns). Maybe we play 20 turns each in the first round. Then from second round onwards, 10 turns each.
Greebley maybe you can even things out by playing either 16 or 26 turns. Your call.

 

[Greebley]

My plan is to chop trees to get to 3 cities more quickly so we can grab copper with a city between.

Turn 55 (1875 BC)
Warrior loses to: Barbarian Bear (0.36/3)

Turn 56 (1850 BC)
User comment: Bear eats our warrior (yum yum)

Turn 59 (1775 BC)
Tech learned: The Wheel

Turn 60 (1750 BC)
Research begun: Iron Working

Decided knowing the location of Iron is fairly important
Turn 61 (1725 BC)

Turn 65 (1625 BC)
Contact made: Egyptian Empire

Turn 72 (1450 BC)
Hamburg founded

Turn 73 (1425 BC)
Contact made: Indian Empire

Turn 76 (1350 BC)
Judaism founded in a distant land

Turn 77 (1325 BC)
Tech learned: Iron Working

Turn 78 (1300 BC)
Research begun: Pottery

Turn 79 (1275 BC)

Turn 80 (1250 BC)

Notes:
I wanted to try tree chopping to speed up our start. We thus have 2 towns and a settler, 2 workers, 3 Archers from Barracks and a Warrior.

I would ignore the pests in our lands. They haven't gone for towns even defended by a single Warrior (they do move toward an empty one though) so with Archers we should have no problem. Their purpose seems exploratory only. Also I would use units to defend workers so we can hook up the towns and iron or copper.

We may want to continue the chops until we have claimed the choke. I do not feel comfortable that we can keep ourselves from pillaging. Keep the unit count high so we can defend roads if necessary and start clearing out pests.

For the third town I was planning the Copper, Sugar, Pigs (knupp's spot up north).

------------------

BTW, Welcome back to the Grumpy Old Men, T_McC I remember PM'ing the two most talkative players I knew at the time to play AW which was you and Handy for a game with a lot of discussion. Who knew it would start a whole AW series.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Yes, "new" member.

That is funny. For those that don't know. Troy is an original grump. One of the founders of the Grumpy Old Men. Good to see you back.

FYI here is the roster from that first Handy game:
Handy900
Greebley
Barbslinger
T_McC
Ted_Jackson

 

[ThERat]

That is funny. For those that don't know. Troy is an original grump. One of the founders of the Grumpy Old Men.

I am well aware of that and I think we played 1 AW game together, maybe not.
But this is Civ4, there the joke about 'new' player.

By the way, I would have put Hamburg at exactly the same spot

Now we need to hook up iron or copper and get rid of those pesky units there.

 

[grs]

@TheRat: I must admin that I am not used to the turn numbers/dates in civ4 yet. Sorry to cause any confusion, but I though 1900BC was a mark.