A new Civfanatic's first request

[gamedude14]

Hi. I just joined these forums, but I've been reading Civfanatics long enough to know the basics; welcome to the forums, you won't eat me, and all that. So, I play Civ 5 (obviously, or I'd post in another section) but I am not good enough at the game to get reliable wins without cooked settings on anything above King; I'm mostly a Prince player, though. So, in this thread, I'll play through a Prince game w/pictures/writeup/etc. and see if I can get some Emp/Imm/Deity players to comment on what I'm doing wrong and how to make my military tactics not suck. Also, I've always wanted to be able to post something with this smiley:



Thank you for reading.

 

[gamedude14]

So, here's the game I plan to start and show you: no cooked settings, just a game.

And the start:

Thoughts? (I'll play the first 30 turns in 24 hours)

EDIT: I'll play it 2 hours early due to real-life time constraints.

 

[thadian]

settle first on top of that lux resource so you dont have to wait for plantations to sell it, and settle a second city quickly up in those flood plains... try to get petra and desert faith.

 

[gamedude14]

settle first on top of that lux resource so you dont have to wait for plantations to sell it, and settle a second city quickly up in those flood plains... try to get petra and desert faith.

First city on incense or spices?

 

[thadian]

spices.

 

[thadian]

next city will be east of the incense.

tech order:

pottery, writing, calendar.

build order: scout, settler, shrine, warrior, warrior.

 

[gamedude14]

Thanks. I'll still wait to play for 22 more hours, though.

 

[Halcyan2]

Hmmm, interesting start.

Settling on the Spice is certainly a valid start, though it will cost you two turns. Looks like you have desert to the north, so there's potential Petra fun.

Personally, I would move my Settler Northeast and settle on that flood plains. You're going to get more desert tiles and I would then use my capital for Petra. The potential downside is that there could be an even sweeter desert hills setup even farther to the north (in which case saving Petra for a second city would be even better). In any case, I would go for more of the desert tiles especially so I can take advantage of Desert Folklore.

I would start researching Pottery. Calendar, Writing, Philosophy, Drama & Poetry, and then open up Theology with the Great Library. After that, beeline for Currency and use a Great Engineer from the Long Count to rush Petra.

I would start with Scout, begin Monument but switch to Pyramid as soon as Pottery was finished, finish Monument, Granary.

With the Pyramid, you are going to get an early religion (only possibly beaten by Celts or Ethiopia). Since I settled NE near more desert and I have lots of flood plains around, I would probably choose Desert Folklore. By this time I will have scouted the area out more so I can make a better informed decision.

Useful stuff to know:

- What DLC's are you using? (Especially whether Ancient Wonders is being used).

- Also, generally I think a normal view of the starting position (instead of strategic view) is easier to look at.



Good luck!

 

[thadian]

the place 2 spaces left of your settler in the screenshot would make a nice third city - if you can build trade posts up on those 3 cities + trade luxuries you can build monuments later. this way you can minimize your earlier social policies until a later age and build up culture buildings starting in med. This will let you have about 4-6 policies before you can start whipping out commerce and rationalism policies and have a few left for ren.

If you can't get a naval city, just conquer one.

Edit - if you start with two honor policies (or 3) you can take tradition opener later. You want to try to get opera house/museum from your second policy in tradition. (honor will give you less progressive culture over time than lib or trad. this means you can essentially put off your social policy collecting until later. take the left side of the honor tree, you won't regret it.)

 

[gamedude14]

As far as DLCs, I only have G+K, Korea, and Polynesia--NO Wonders, so I can't build ToA, MoH, or SoZ. But, it means I won't have to go up against some super-growing AI who snagged Temple of Artemis, Fertility Rites, Tradition, and Hanging Gardens.

Also, I always use strategic because my computer's pretty old. I can switch for pictures if you really need me to, but otherwise they'll be strategic.

 

[gamedude14]

OK. I'm going to start now--settling 1 NE, building scout, start monument-build pyramid-finish monument, and go for Theo via GL. Thanks for the ideas, both of you.

 

[Halcyan2]

Good luck! Please keep up updated on how your game is progressing!

 

[gamedude14]

I'll post comments throughout but then make a writeup every 30 turns. Found Antwerp and Mt. Kaliash (6 faith) (both seperate) on turn 2. Do either of those change anything?

 

[gamedude14]

Culture ruin gave me Honor opener on turn 9--I'll probably settle Kaliash for city 3 unless anyone thinks it's bad.

 

[gamedude14]

Managed to kill a barb camp for policy 2 turn 21 with my scout.

 

[Halcyan2]

I'll post comments throughout but then make a writeup every 30 turns. Found Antwerp and Mt. Kaliash (6 faith) (both seperate) on turn 2. Do either of those change anything?

Kailash is a nice wonder for Faith. Where is it? (North? South? East West?). Do you have any competition for it? (Is it near another AI or near the borders of a CS)? That determines whether you might want to rush for it or whether you can settle it at your leisure.

 

[gamedude14]

I founded my city 1 tile NE of starting spot.

Met a city state and also found Mt. Kaliash (offscreen down-right) on Turn 2.

Ruins gave me... a map.

Built a scout on turn 7, popped a culture ruin with it turn 9, picked Honor.

Managed to earn Warrior Code by killing barbs with my scout

Put the General in the capital until later.

Met my first leader, and it's not Montezuma!

They are PLEASED to MEET me.
Found London Turn 22; it's southeast (barely east) of Palenque.

Someone else gets a Pantheon; just God of the Sea.

Not Elizabeth, or it would've told me.
This half concludes with me meeting Dido of Carthage; either her or Elizabeth will have to go because I'm definitely boxed in. Part 2 coming as soon as I can get another post to allow for more than the images I have here!

 

[gamedude14]

I find a population ruin! (The Pyramid finishes this same turn) They choose to settle Palenque due to a lack of choices.

I choose to keep building a monument. I started the monument before the pyramid was unlocked.

I meet another city-state, but Dido got there first.

I finish the monument before I get Writing, so I drop a turn or two of production into an Atlatlist. It's special as an archer that doesn't need Archery. (Is it special in any other way?)

I locate Carthage.

When I hit Writing, I switch production to the Great Library; I'm hoping my growth will be enough to let me get Theo and not D+P, but I can always put a turn or two into the Atlatlist while I wait for D+P to finish.

So, as of turn 30:

Palenque:

The known world:

Also, I know what's causing the white gaps around the images. I'll fix it with the next batch, which will be in 2 days.

 

[Halcyan2]

I see two really good locations for cities:

Settling near Mount Kailash is good for more faith, but will likely cause tensions with England.

To the NW of your capital there also seems to be some sweet desert hills near a mountain. That is an alternative option for a Petra powerhouse, though it will undoubtedly create issues with Carthage.

Try your best to reveal all of the terrain near the enemy capitals. That way you can periodically zoom and check to see if they are building any wonders. This is especially relevant since you want to save the GL for Theology, so you want to make sure they aren't building it too!

You may want to buy a Worker (possibly borrowing gold from Elizabeth/Dido by offering them GPT) so you can improve the Incense and then sell that. Or just save up for a Settler.

Also keep an eye out on what Social Policy paths Carthage and Elizabeth choose. Tradition and Honor usually means they will stick to fewer cities. Liberty means they will be expanding more (which means you may need to beat them to some key locations). Honor also usually means more of a military focus so beware that they might be more of a military threat.

 

[GhostSalsa]

Some notes:

Your start was great, even without the move. Maya's lovely shrine makes a floodplain start beautiful: flip to Desert Faith, as others have said.

But, your location gives you no production. This makes an Honor start extremely questionable since Maya synergizes with GL.

I would have said go straight Liberty or straight Tradition. Tradition has the obvious +15% for wonders, but in a flatland start with no deer tile you are even better served by Liberty: one extra hammer on top of five is a 20% bonus. Then snag the free settler or free worker (I'd vote worker here, you need farms to make up for that forest tile you are working).

I love Honor but it is hard to use as a first policy and here is turning the Great Library into a crippling 30-turn project.

I'd say Liberty was the way to go. Just roll over your neighbors with your own settlements. Free Prophet from UA or Hagia would bag you Ceromonial Burial to counter happiness problems.