My First Real Attmept at Noble

[Jynx]

google it, it's a progrsm that's useful for converting images from one format to another

 

[pollock]

Think should build more workers to improve tiles and settlers. Also start an invasion road and post units outside targets land and have a look. Can get open borders and go have a peek but remember to come out and position before war declaration

 

[smackthewise]

Mac has a built in picture editor I assume? You can open your saved images in it and save them in whatever format you wish, i.e .jpeg

My only criticism as others have mentioned is that you failed to improve your sole food resource for ages.
-My first build is usually a worker. Esp if there is an agriculture resource around.

-Research food techs asap, if you have pig, cow, rice etc. Always make sure you have those techs quickly, hopefully before your worker is built.

-Get the axe out, don't be afraid to chop the forests down early game as this is when those extra hammers are going to have the most impact on the game!

-Get some cottages worked sooner. Those 4000 years to the AD's passes quickly, but having a couple cottages worked in the BC's is an important commercial foundation for the empire. This is more important considering your lack of commercial resources like gold.

Another tip is to click the 'Show Resources' Button so we can easily see from the screen shots what is available around you.

If you need help figuring out how to convert images in Mac ask, my housemate uses one so i can check it out.

 

[LeHam]

google it, it's a progrsm that's useful for converting images from one format to another

I'm installing it now.

 

[LeHam]

Think should build more workers to improve tiles and settlers. Also start an invasion road and post units outside targets land and have a look. Can get open borders and go have a peek but remember to come out and position before war declaration

Er--well...you'll see what happens.

Okay, got Ifranview running, and I have everything ready, let's do this.

Section Three:

Gary Ham decides to do as jancarly said and tries to build the Oracle. However, he checks the Technology Screen and this is what he found:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=239619&stc=1&d=1263009791

Seriously, wth was Gary thinking when he decided to research Sailing? Might as well let it finish, though. He also notices that, thanks to his unit upgrade, he has 110 less gold and is losing 2 gold per turn with 23 gold...darn. Also, as Gary has now found out, he can no longer build the Oracle anyway. Oh, well.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=239620&stc=1&d=1263009907

Here is what Gary's Civ looks like in 320 BCE:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=239623&stc=1&d=1263010234

Here are his cities:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=239624&stc=1&d=1263010348

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=239625&stc=1&d=1263010414

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=239626&stc=1&d=1263010513

It also appears his Workers building a Mine near Hamton have discovered a source of Iron!

Gary also meets Justinian I, of the Empire of Rome:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=239627&stc=1&d=1263010793

Gary has finished Meditation, and now researches Alphabet. He wonders if he's going too far in one direction, but he doesn't have any need for religion techs right now, anyway, so why research them? Gary also notices he's last on the score graph; he'd better get moving fast, to catch up.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=239628&stc=1&d=1263010946

Oh, crap. Now the citizens of Hamton want to rise up and form a new civ. Gary tells them "no can do." Should he starve them to keep them quiet??? Gary decides to starve the city down to size so it's easier to manage. Finally, at size two, Hamton calms down and is no longer angry, though there are two angry citizens for "refusing to grant our request!" Well, gee, I'm so sorry if I kept you from leaving my country, making both of us weaker!

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=239630&stc=1&d=1263011064

Gary sees that Victoria is moving an Axeman and a Settler to found another city--Gary can't tolerate her encroachment on his land much longer! GRRRrrr...

Gary finishes his settlers and begins moving them across the land. Victoria founds Antioch, and Gary is so, so tempted to just come in and take it for himself! But he must resist.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=239631&stc=1&d=1263011267

We have to end there for now because I have reached ten posts.

 

[LeHam]

All right, beginning where we last left off...

Gary has his two Settlers together, and now must decide where to settle his new cities. In 5 BCE, he has finally settled Elektros (North) and Urukaoi (South). However, he couldn't settle Urukaoi where he wanted to, BECAUSE VICTORIA SETTLED FIRST! That just F'ing tears it! Time to kick some butt and chew some bubble gum.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=239632&stc=1&d=1263011478

Gary gives Victoria the finger and prepares to attack Nicomedia. Nicomedia is burned down to the ground, and Gary's troops give a triumphant, "Huzzah!"

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=239633&stc=1&d=1263011612

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=239634&stc=1&d=1263011612

Victoria's Axeman abandon Antioch, and Gary sends Stephen Stewarts (Chariot) to take it! He uses two Scouts as bait, and it works! Antioch is burned to the ground! Never has Gary had such great military victories come to him so fast and so easily! He also attacks one of Victoria's Axemen with Stephen Stewarts, and wins!

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=239635&stc=1&d=1263011719

To wake him out of his overconfidence, Gary sees a Chariot over the horizon. He remembers that he doesn't have any Spearmen to back him up against Chariots. BUT, then he realizes that Phalanxes gain a +100% defense vs. Chariots. As long as he keeps a Phalanx in each stack, and, preferably, in each city, he should be fine on defense. For offense, he really should build some spearmen.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=239636&stc=1&d=1263011824

And so Gary ends for now. Here is his Civ and Victoria's:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=239637&stc=1&d=1263011919

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=239638&stc=1&d=1263011919

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=239639&stc=1&d=1263011979

 

[LeHam]

And here are Gary's cities:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=239641&stc=1&d=1263012415

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=239642&stc=1&d=1263012415

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=239643&stc=1&d=1263012415

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=239644&stc=1&d=1263012415

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=239645&stc=1&d=1263012415

Thanks for reading, and for any advice!

 

[LeHam]

As you can see, I didn't really prepare like Pollock told me too, but by the time he posted his comment, it was too late.

The war seems to be going pretty well for me. If I could wipe out Victoria early on or keep her at bay, that would be great. I just don't like the fact that she has both Imperialistic and Financial as her traits, because I think that makes her very dangerous. I mean, she was already boxing me in when I attacked her.

 

[cherrysnowdrop]

Okay, I am no Civ pro, but I'd like to say a few things if it's okay.

My beginnings look something like yours too, but I do a few things differently (not necessarily better.) I'm addicted on wonders, sick I know, but I hold off warriors and workers quite some time to get Stonehenge and the Oracle done (which means I usually found Christianity since priesthood is like the 4th tech I research.) Maybe you could work on your culture a little, I know it's sacrificing growth and military a little, but I've always found it much more rewarding in the long run.

Founding a few religions is a good idea too, since priest specialists can build religious wonders, increasing your income which has helped me a lot during sliding the research percentage up.

Then I'd forget about war for a while. Actually, I'd completely forget about war. I'm probably the least warlike civer. I hate wars, I hate the way your research focuses on warlike techs, the way you just produce military units and watch peaceful AIs grow and get the upper hand. I'd forget about military units for a while and focus on settlers and cultural buildings or wonders. I did win one Noble game, it was a cultural victory so maybe that's the reason why I'm so crazy about culture.

I'd just leave Vicky alone, there's much more to gain through peaceful relations. Also keeping your relations positive lets you afford to lose a few points when your spies get caught (or not, teehee.) Speaking of spies, increase your espionage output, get some spies and steal Vicky's techs and stuff. Techs are my favorite, I never bother around with unhappiness or poisoning water.

I'd say finish this war quickly since you already have the upper hand and get some techs and gold from her during the treaty, I love when that happens. Sometimes I just declare war so I can get AI's techs during the treaty lol. Know this doesn't sound like the best military advice, but I'm just saying what I'd do

Also, try to get Liberalism, seeing you missed the Oracle. Forget the simple techs (if you have any left) for a while and focuse on the advanced ones, and steal the simple ones with spies. Send two spies to each city, since one will always get caught, but this means that the remaining one'll always carry the mission through.

Maybe time to change civics? I never keep slavery, it can lead to unpleasant events like your city's uprising. You could even save some gold.

Anyway, if you want to weaken Vicky do it through culture! Found some cities real near her and build libraries, monasteries, colosseums, whatever. Annoy her a little. After her cities become really influenced by your civ, send a few spies to revolt the city and really weaken 'em. Maybe you'll even get a cultural win out of it, I find it the most rewarding and pleasant victory.

Gosh, I love spies.

 

[The Soleutator]

So I've completed 2 games of vanilla Civ, and I'm on my third game, with a map of the world. Prior to that, I haven't played for probably 1+ years.

Anyways, all 3 games were/are on noble difficulty setting. The first game was completely unsuccessful--No-one was conquered, but at one point, 4-5 people were at war with me, with no cities being captured. Someone won a space race victory. The second game, I started by rushing the other guy who was on my continent, and he was defeated. This left me very, very behind technologically--I spent the rest of the game catching up, and ended with the highest score, but Ghandi won with a space race victory (I barely had tanks). This last game is a map of the world, with 8 players, and I am dominating. I'm playing as the Chinese, so I started in the far east. Ghengas Khan declared war on me out of the blue, and was defeated. Tokugawa also declared war on me, and was defeated, but I let him live on 3 puny little islands. It is now the 1780s, and me, the Indians, and the Germans are in a mad rush for technology, but I'm considering a domination victory, since North and South America are almost completely unsettled (though barbarians almost have a more advanced military than me).

I don't want to hijack your thread, I just want to possibly help you by telling you what I did differently. I focused very little on military, except for settler defense in the beginning (and as a result, lost 2+ protected cities to barbarians/Tokugawa). This lack of military was, however, good in that instead of spending time building military, I spent the time pumping out technology and infrastructure (though my worker-to-city ratio was very low). In the beginning, depending on whether I start with mysticism or not, I either start by focusing on building my capital in preparation for wonders (which means getting appropriate resource-acquiring techs) for the capital, or I start with a religion, which makes way for the Oracle, which I prefer to use to research metal casting.

For you though, at this point, you should pursue Victoria, taking and keeping her capital and any other worthwhile cities, balancing your military output and your essential buildings output in your cities. At some point, you may want to shrink her down to the point where she'll give you anything you ask for peace, in which case you should take everything, accept peace, wait 10 turns, and finish her off. After this, you should pump out the settlers (maybe before she is defeated, if you're worried other civs will come in and fill in the cracks).

It looks like you got off to a slightly poor start, since you didn't settle down right away, but you're making a good comeback through military might.

 

[pollock]

Nice job LeHam . Think should send more scouting military units out and workers building roads to meet the world. Its a precursor to world domination

Can go and put blocker cities near enemy civilizations on good places. Itll be a bit expensive but nothing some thoughtless farm/cottage spam cant fix. Then can use these forward bases as staging points to chuck military at them.

Workers, settlers, farms ,mines, cottages, granarys , courthouses, barracks and military should be your bread and butter

 

[LeHam]

Yeah, I did. I think the problem was I didn't notice it would take so long to build the Settler, so I switched production, which slowed me down ~5 turns.

But now, I don't think I've ever had such a great string of fantastic military victories--I mean, two cities down within a few turns of each other using only one unit each, AND with the second city I managed to distract the enemy with two well-placed Scouts, whilst my Chariot charged into the city unchallenged.

I'll start playing again soon, but I've had A LOT of work!

 

[The Soleutator]

Yeah, I did. I think the problem was I didn't notice it would take so long to build the Settler, so I switched production, which slowed me down ~5 turns.

But now, I don't think I've ever had such a great string of fantastic military victories--I mean, two cities down within a few turns of each other using only one unit each, AND with the second city I managed to distract the enemy with two well-placed Scouts, whilst my Chariot charged into the city unchallenged.

I'll start playing again soon, but I've had A LOT of work!

I don't know if this is the best way to do it, but I usually try to build somewhere around 2 warriors (or archers if available), get a worker finished, and possibly a building such as a granary in my capital before building a settler. After that, depending on the situation, I like to build another settler and dedicate the capital city to becoming an early wonder super-city, specifically focusing on the stonehenge and Oracle first. Depending on where I'm settled, the extra working citizen plus a working worker can greatly help settler production speed. Also, the city manager often does a good job of managing your work tiles depending on what you're building, but you may want to adjust it manually anyways.

 

[jancarly]

Hey Leham, great job to create some more space for you own but be prepare to take the land before another AI does.
2 things I'd do:
prevent your people going angry, use the avoid growed button if needed. Otherwise use slavery to whip your buildings.
depending on the city type, i always start with granary, courthouse. I saw one city of yours starting with library? As long as the city isn't big enough a library contributes allmost nothing.

What kind of victory do you want?
So we can give you advice in the right way.

 

[CaptTightpants]

Hi LeHam!

Thanks for sharing your game with us! I'm someone who can consistently win on Prince, and just won his first Monarch game recently.

My comments are basically about your first couple of posts - sorry, I didn't have time to think about the rest, and besides the very early turns are extremely important.

A little more on working the Corn early...
There are several advantages to having a bonus food resource. Specifically, it means that your city's rate of growth is faster: a Size 1 city that is working a 2-food tile, will have 2 extra food per turn. I think this means growth in 11 turns or so. But corn tile means that you have 5-food, so instantly your growing 1 population point every 5 turns!!
Prioritizing food has several benefits for your civ:
* It means that future workers and settlers come more quickly. Remember that excess FOOD goes into the production of these units as well. By working the corn, your Settler would have come much more quickly.
* Whipping production with Slavery - a high food rate means that you can recover that population point in as few as 3 or 4 turns.
* If you have a food bonus being worked, you can work OTHER kinds of mega-tiles without having to worry about starvation - i.e., a gold mine (commerce), or a copper mine (production). (This is another reason why your early worker is important.)
* And of course, having more tiles worked means more of EVERYTHING coming to you faster - commerce, production, etc., etc.

You could pay more attention to chopping the forests around your cities. This is crucial to getting ahead in the early game. Chopping forests on hills means NO loss in per-turn production, because you can replace it with a mine right after. Make sure you save forests for worker and settler production (that way you lessen the time when you're cities are not growing) and for Wonders (for obvious reasons).

I usually wait until my city has a lot of bonus food/hammers before I start Settler production, because then Settlers can be made very quickly. For example, if you have a copper resource working and a food tile developed, then those 2 squares alone give you 10 food/hammers per turn towards settler production. When settler production is fast, you waste fewer turns during which your cities are not growing. Then you can do what you really want: Settler Spam!!! Any rapid expansion strategy requires first and foremost having bonus food tiles near your capital.

Don't worry about ignoring a whole wing of the tech tree. In fact, it can sometimes be an advantage. In higher levels, brokering techs is essential to keeping up in the tech race. If you are specializing in one part of the tree, you are likely jumping ahead of the AI in one tech and can get the best outcome: a tech that no one else has. Think about it - if you trade the same valuable tech to 3 neighboring civilizations for one tech each, you're getting 4 techs for the price of one! Sure, each individual trade might be slightly in the AI's advantage, but remember they're not as trade-savvy as you are. And remember - if they don't have Alphabet, then they can't do the same thing! That's why a lot of players like to beeline to Alphabet.

On promoting your warrior to Spearman, I would see this making sense, if a chariot was gunning toward your capital city. I would just make the general point that *everything you do must have a purpose, and ask yourself what exactly you will gain from each action.* If you're thinking carefully enough, you should be tearing your hair out because there are 3 or 4 things you hope you could be doing. (Succeeding at higher levels means being exponentially more careful, and giving up several goals in order to make 1 goal possible, such as beating the AI on a Wonder.) As a result of losing the coin you spent on the Spearman, you hurt your science in the long run. "Deficit research" is done when you set Science to 100% and don't worry about your budget, because you have an excess of coin saved up. So you essentially spent 100+ beakers on your Spearman, which it doesn't seem like you needed because you haven't had a civ with a strong cavalry against you.

Also, early in the game, the military threats against your cities are usually not a pressing problem.

Another general piece of advice is to plan ahead, *taking into account was available to you.* You had corn in your BFC. Also, Pericles' strengths are Creative and Philosophical. Philosophical means you will benefit exponentially from having GP-generating builds, like Wonders, or Temples, etc. You had the stone nearby, so perhaps that should have been an early priority (and therefore also researching Masonry). As Creative, Stonehenge wouldn't be as important as it would be otherwise, because new cities will already have the culture bonus.

Another example: if you generate a map and see 4 bonus food tiles near your capital, think immediately about using that to your advantage (e.g. whipping, and settler spamming). Because you have the Creative trait, you should look for chances to block off your opponents' expansion with some well-placed cities. (And if you didn't have the Creative trait, then perhaps Stonehenge WOULD be a big priority, because it will be put to frequent use!)

(Ramesses wrote a really good article on how to use your Civ traits to think up longer-term strategies: http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strategy/synergy.php )

You say that you really want to build Pyramids or The Great Wall. Again, always ask yourself, "Why?" I usually build Pyramids if I have fast-growing cities and not enough luxury resources to accommodate them, cities that are aching to grow but can't because of happy caps. That way, the Pyramids gives me Hereditary Rule or Representation so I can increase my city sizes. Another benefit is the Great Engineer points you can get (remember! you're a Philosophical civ!!), which you can use to build another wonder, then another wonder, which in turn give you more GP points...

The key to choosing among different alternative actions is to have long-term strategies. Ideally, every action is in service to a long-term goal. For example, when you were building the Barracks, had you decided you would conquer Victoria? Did you have favorable circumstances for war, such as accessible Iron, lots of forests to chop, a Militaristic or Charismatic trait, a neighbor that didn't have military traits, etc.? Even if you didn't, did you have at least decent production to carry out the dirty deed?

Generally, gearing everything in one direction - as opposed to trying to do several things at once - pays back exponentially in Civ. If you had decided to conquer, then that would answer other questions for you, such as whether to prioritize Iron Working, or Construction, or to make a city specialize in production, and so on and so forth...

Also, before declaring war, it's important to do some scouting. Determine precisely how many of each unit you would need to secure your victory in the war (experience helps a lot here). Also, if you can see their sole metal resource, pillage it, and fortify a unit that will withstand their counterattack on top of it!! Hmm, maybe that means building scouts, and prioritizing Writing to secure Open Borders...

Also, making invasions quickly is important when your opponents have Slavery, because they can whip archers. This should also come into play in your calculations as well (i.e. how many turns will it take to walk to their city within their cultural borders?).

My main point is that Civ can be wonderfully complex like chess, in which you're making one move in order to prepare for another, to prepare for another...

I love talking Civ strategy - I haven't been on these forums much, and have only really gotten into the game now, 4 years after buying it! Would love to know if these tips are helpful to you and to other people as well.

 

[The Soleutator]

I love talking Civ strategy - I haven't been on these forums much, and have only really gotten into the game now, 4 years after buying it! Would love to know if these tips are helpful to you and to other people as well.

They certainly have been helpful to me! Thanks for posting.