NC 237: Qin Shi Huang, First Emperor of China

[Tobiyogi]

Dear Civ-Fanatics, NC-players and regular visitors of the “Dead Oppo(ets)nents Society”,

Our next leader is Qin Shi Huang of China, whom we last played in NC 179. We last played the Chinese under Mao in NC 225. The Chinese start with Agriculture and Mining.

"Tschinn" has a problem with barbarian behavior and dreams of installing a “barb-free” sophisticated society where everyone spends his evenings in the Pavilion, the Chinese theater with an additional +25% .

Task 1: Build a pavilion in 3 cities each

But before China can even think of Music and Drama, a lot of water will flow down the Mekong. First of all, the country must set up its defenses and the First Emperor of China knows exactly what to do. He must finish the construction of a wall, as long and thick as never seen before, the Great Wall of China. To prevent also "barbarian-like" hordes (you know who I mean...) from entering Chinese territory, some border cities will need an additional city wall and a couple of archers on the battlements.

Task 2: Build TGW, build 3 city walls, train some archers (optional)

Our leader traits INDUSTRIOUS (+50% bonus to World/National Wonders, +100% bonus to forges) and PROTECTIVE (Free CG I / Drill I promotion to archery/gunpowder units, +100% bonus to walls & castles) should be very helpful to achieve those goals.

But Qin is also seeking revenge for the suffering barbarian riders caused to his people during the centuries. So he gives order to construct a machine-like terminator-unit, an archer made from iron, with high-frequency-arrows that can even pierce through armor, the Cho-Ko-Nu (Crossbowman with 2 first strikes which causes collateral damage, needs Iron). Qin will send those guys out to conquer at least 2 barbarian cities.

Task 3: Take 2 barb cities with Cho-Ko-Nus

Even though the temptation is huge to burn those cities down, Qin has sworn not to behave like a Barbarian, to spare the population, keep any city and make it Chinese over the time.

Setting: No city razing

Last but not least, in order to enhance Foreign Trade, the Chinese Silk Road needs to be installed rather sooner than later. The land must expand because silk can only be harvested far away from the current borders.

Task 4: Get your hands on Silk and trade it to 1 Civ on the same continent and to 1 Civ "oversea".

Spoiler Map details (can be read by everyone) :

Continents, standard size, temperate, 8 civs, 1120 land tiles (lots of space for barb cities to pop up)

Spoiler Opponents (spoiler alert) :

Hand picked, story-supporting, more or less geographically correct, only 2 guys starting with mining and 1 guy being IND to make TGW more likely to appear in China

Spoiler Hut and events :

This time, there are NHNE at all and only 1 zip-file with 5 WB saves from Noble to Deity. If you want a pure game experience, play along without any restrictions (no city razing being the only one), if you want to solve the quests, play along the same files. I figured that additional random events and huts would be too much with a bunch given tasks.

Spoiler for players on Monarch or above :

You should add archery as a tech for the barbarians (if you don't, the AI will capture their cities very early). This must be done in the Worldbuilder as follows:

Spoiler how to add techs to the Barbarians :

1. Zoom in all the way so you can't see the rest of the map.
2. Use the CTRL-W key (or the menu) to enter the worldbuilder. Avoid looking at the mini-map in the lower right corner.
3. By default you're in "player" mode (look in the box in the upper right; the icon that looks like a person should be selected). You'll get a drop down menu labelled with your leader's name. Barbarians are at the bottom, so cover the rest of the list with your hand if you don't want to see who else is on the map. Select "Barbarians".
4. Select the "Technologies" tab in the box on the left.
5. Find Archery (the arrow head icon; 8th row, 3rd column from the right) and click it.
6. Exit the worldbuilder.
7. Zoom out again after the map fades, and start playing.

If you're playing at higher level than Monarch, consider also giving them Hunting at Emperor, Agriculture at Immortal, and The Wheel at Deity.

Let the Chinese shine all over the World! Good luck, my friend!

 

[Tobiyogi]

Any Civ 4 beginner should note that these tasks have been created for fun. It is not intended to show how the game works best. Playing defensively is in general not a good way to win games. Protective is a poor trait. If you find metal, axes will serve you better than archers.

 

[shakabrade]

I bet 5 sigma that there are Mongols on the map, 50% chance you have put both Mongol Leaders, also, Khmer, Korea, Japan, maybe Russia.

 

[Tobiyogi]

Spoiler Turn 85 :

Difficult to hide that Genghis is there. He was the only one to breach the Great Wall, if we believe in history!
And Mongols are expanding like the Plague.... 8 cities and plotting of course. Probably on Asoka. China has built TGW and the Mids, culture, culture, culture.... India has built the Oracle, if I am very lucky, it was MC, then I can go grab it with the Great Spy.

 

[Tobiyogi]

In my first attempt, I settled 1 SE of the cow, to grab the (wet) corn (as you can see) and both AH resources. It makes a quite poor capitol in the long run though. Really good place to train settlers/workers from, and also to share Corn/Sheep with other places, but not all suited for Qin's favorite civic bureau. This option would lean me towards REXing, and adopting Vassalage rather sooner than later.

Any other suggestions? Someone who went inland with the settler?

 

[Tobiyogi]

Too lazy for posting intermediate results, I could fulfill most of my own challenges (exept the Silk) and went eventually for a relatively unthreatened Cultural Victory. On a map where wonders and religions went very late, that's a good choice. It was a bit a mixture of some conquests and culture pressure. Either way, Chinese are always fun. Btw, I have no idea, where Wang Kon came from, I did not put him on the map?!

Spoiler 1852 AD, Immortal, No tech brokering :

 

[Capellan]

I have no idea, where Wang Kon came from, I did not put him on the map?!

I'm guessing someone made a colony.

I'm stepping up to Prince on this map and may win culture. One of the other AIs is obviously targeting it, though, and has the advantage of being a vassal of the biggest AI on the block. So probably not. I am still very rusty!

 

[Tobiyogi]

Of course, a colony. I almost forgot. That's why, on some maps, there is suddenly a 8th or 9th civ.

I suppose you need one ally for Culture, I had one in a rather hostile surrounding. The AI is very slow in winning culture, even on Emperor/Immortal. Make sure you build Parthenon + Sistine (crucial wonder), have at least 2 religions (3 or 4 are much better for the much needed Cathedrals/Synagogues....) and spend most of the time in Caste/Pacifism. Maybe OR/Slavery in times when you finish the expensive buildings like Universities, Oxford, Cathedrals, Pavilion.... Qin is one of the best for Culture, the UB is exactly made for this, forges in each city help a lot (building wealth in work-shopped state-property cities), +50% on all those National and Great Wonders, enough "oumpf" to defend his homeland.... My only mistake was to finish GL as well, at this point I was not clear yet to go for Culture. GL is okay, but not togehter with NE in the same spot.

Good luck.

 

[Tobiyogi]

Probably there is too much land, at least in one part of the world, that's why a colony appeared. I was thinking that barbs would fill out the space, but I found barely two barb cities reachable for me.

 

[AcaMetis]

As a general rule, any landmass that an overseas AI can put three cities on is a landmass that's going to have a colony on it. AIs really love to found colonies any chance they get.

 

[Tobiyogi]

And how appears the new character? Random choice?

 

[AcaMetis]

As far as I know, completely random. It obviously can't be a leader who's civ is already on the board and I'm pretty sure the game will run through it's full list of leaders before returning one that was already eliminated as the appointed overlord of the newly liberated Zombie Empire...but aside from that, completely random.

 

[Qactus]

Actually, never seemed to be random for me. For example, English will always spawn America afaik.

 

[Qactus]

Found it! For most civs there is a "derivative civ" specified in CIV4CivilizationInfos.xml
If no derivative civ is specified or if it is already in the game, the choice will be random.
America is by far the most common, it will be chosen not only by England but all other old world colonialists as well (France, Portugal, Netherlands, Spain) and also by Aztec, Maya, etc.
Ragnar will also try to spawn America, but since it was already present in your game, Wang was chosen randomly.
Byzantium will spawn Greece, Holy Rome will spawn Germany, Celts will spawn England, Sumeria will spawn Babylon, Carthage will spawn Spain... and so on.

 

[Capellan]

Well lookie there, a 2022 AD Cultural Victory! Could have got there earlier but I kept my culture slider at 70% for a fairly long time so I could turn my rifles and cannons into infantry and artillery. Not that I could have won a war if one happened - I had 0.3 of my neighbour's power - but because I figured it could mean holding out for a couple more turns and that might be the difference between victory and defeat.

As it turned out though, my one and only war was in the past - someone else decided to be a nice lightning rod for me and keep the warmongers busy!

Pretty good grouping on my three cities in the end - only about 5 turns between the 1st and 3rd. My Cultural competitor was still 100+ turns off making his 3rd city go legendary.

 

[Tobiyogi]

It may be wise to go further down the tech tree for a safe culturual victory (on some maps, even musketmen are enough). But here is a lot of trouble. I had a good trading partner which I got Biology from (very nice to run more Artists). I also went Communism and MT (to close a defensive pact). No Infantry though, I thought, Rifles and Cavalry would be enough in the worst case of an invasion.