A Tribute to the 20th Anniversary of Civilization 4 - A Casual Player's Tour of Earth 18

[Harv]

A Tribute to the 20th Anniversary of Civilization 4 - A Casual Player's Tour of Earth 18

Today is October 25, 2025 and I understand this is the 20th Anniversary of Civilization 4. I also understand October 28 will mark the 20th Anniversary of the Earth 18 map. It is unbalanced, but incredibly fun. It appears there are multiple recent posts dedicated to the Earth 18 scenario, and I feel a little bad about adding yet another one, especially when repeating a game that we have played here before.

However, I often have trouble finishing a game and posting and blogging helps me focus, as if this is the only way. The game provides many distractions. We are supposed to have a goal and a plan to reach that goal

Hopefully, this will read like an After-Action Report. Eventually, the format will find some consistency.

It is the same map and same settings all the time. For the sole purpose of amusement, we will choose:
Difficulty: Emperor
Speed: Epic
Raging Barbarians - Because I find them amusing. If we see a horde coming in, we will take pictures.
Aggressive AI - We are not certain exactly what it does, if it helps or hinders the game.
Choose Religions - We are hoping this adds variety.
Random Events are ON. anic:

The level of challenge will vary with the Civilization we are playing. Some of them will have a small hump. Some will have a large hump and then it is all downhill.
Here is an index of Civilizations. I will try to add links as I go along.
1. Hatty of the Egypt
2. Asoka of India
3. Qin of China - The Han Dynasty? I will look it up.
4. Alex of Macedonia
5. Julius Caesar of Rome
6. Cyrus of Persia
7. Toku of Japan
8. Fred of Germany
9. Genghis Khan of Mongolia
10. Louis of France
11. Saladin of Arabia
12. Izzy of Spain
13. Lizzy of England
14. Cathy of Russia
15. Mansa Musa of Mali
16. Wayne of the Incan Empire
17. Monty of the Aztec Empire
18. Frank of the USA

For general planning, we will try to put the Victory Conditions in an order of priority. Then people can remind us of our priorities. The list is in a nominal order where the priority is to achieve a silly high score.
1. Conquest - We have Vassals ON. This might result in an earlier victory than 2.
2. Domination - This is the most likely road to the highest of high scores.
3. Religion - This is a possible route. Then we are sending Missionaries to the other world.
4. Space Race - This means we punted on the game.
5. Diplomatic - We simply do not play a good diplomatic game. If we are playing this well, then nobody will like us.
6. Culture - I understand this has to be planned very early.
7. Survive - This is worse than 4 above.

We believe the general strategy will fall into three Play Books. These are:
1. European Playbook
2. Asian Playbook - Never Fight a Land War in Asia
3. New World Playbook
4. We will notice that Mali does not seem to fit in any of these categories.

We have not detailed these yet. We might edit it in later or index it. We will also try to link some interesting discussions as we encounter these situations. So far, when I say European Playbook or Asian Playbook, then we believe once we achieved that objective, then the rest of the game will look the same. So the European Playbook means we control all 6 European Civilizations. The Asian Playbook means we have a large position in Asia.

I also forgot how to change my Avatar, but that will not be necessary if we are working on this list right from the top.

Added our game list.
Game 1 is complete. The start can be found in the very next post. The result was a Domination Victory, but featured an exciting finish featuring an attempted Aztec counter invasion of Spain. How cool is that?! Turn 364. Score 279903.
My rating: A Tier, Mesopotamia Playbook.

Game 2 is current. The start is in the link below.
Our guess is our rating will be C Tier, Asia Playbook.

 

[Harv]

Game 1 Session 1 - Hatty of Egypt

Here are the Game Settings for QA Purposes:

Spoiler :

Here is our Leader:

Spoiler :

As well as I understand the Traits, Hatty is:
Spiritual - Free changes of Civics is fun and we should take advantage of this. We also get a Discount on some Religious Buildings.
Creative - The early game is nice, because of the free culture. Later we have discounts in Libraries and Theaters.
War Chariot - This unit will win us this map!
Obelisk - Hatty is Creative, but not Charismatic and there is usually no point in building a Monument. This makes the Obelisk very situational. In our case, this situation is we stumble upon a Religion and we can quickly build a Great Prophet and build our Shrine and make Great Profits.
The Wheel - This is an amazing Starting Tech for this map and our Civilization.
Agriculture - This is another amazing Starting Tech.

Here is the start:

Spoiler :

Before we forget, we will post an Initial Save. We also renamed it in an effort to avoid resetting the 4000BC Save.

The last time we moved and founded Hatty-Tusa and started the Hatty Empire. We did not observe a significant difference between that and our normal start. We scored a little over 200k in that game. There is nothing wrong with our current starting position, the Lower Nile River.

Our general plan is:
1. Take out Sal, because we can. It does not matter when we do it, just that we do it. It gains us Mecca and is our best chance at an early religion. It is probably best that we take him out early.
2. Take out Chrys. This will eliminate a lot of competition for Mesopotamia, which is the prize in our game. He also has access to Iron and this will solve one of Egypt's early game problems.
3. Settle Assur and form our version of the Assyrian Empire.
4. Attempt to build the Great Lighthouse, most likely in Mecca.
5. Build a Shrine in Mecca, assuming Sal founds Islam.
6. Settle the rest of the Nile River.
7. Choose some city sites in Africa. We are looking for the Gold, Silver, and Gems.
8. Commit an ecological disaster as we cottage up the Congo River.
9. Everything after Step 3 is most likely a side quest, given the objectives we listed in the initial post.
10. Follow the Asian Playbook - Never Fight a Land War in Asia. We have not defined this yet, but we believe with such a massive land position, we will resemble China.

For our first two objectives, we will have to build our war chariot machine. We will found Memphis 1NE and build it as follows:
(2, 1, 9) - Memphis - Our format is (net food, production, commerce)
(3, 1, 1) - Wheat Farm
(2, 1, 1) - Marble Farm - We will change this to Marble Quarry later.
(-2, 3, 1) - Horse Pasture
(-2, 3, 0) - Desert Mine
(-2, 3, 0) - Desert Mine
-----------------------------------
(1, 12, 12) - Size 5
(-1, 12, 12) - We will have a health penalty of 2 until we conquer Sal.
(2, 9, 13) - This is an alternative where we build some food in case we need it.
(0, 11, 12.67) is our expected average if we calculated it correctly.

We are not sure how many units we need to take out Saladin. We believe this is two times the number of defenders. We are also playing with Raging Barbarians and will need at least two units staying behind to defend Memphis.

 

[Harv]

Navigating the Bronze Age

Civilization 4 calls this the Ancient Era. I like to call it the Bronze Age, because the technology list features Bronze Working and many of the years correspond to the Bronze Age.

We will list them in order of the priorities we named earlier. We also made dividers based on objectives.

The War Chariot Machine:
1. Agriculture - It is the best and we already start with it.
2. The Wheel - We need this for our plan and we already start with it.
3. Hunting - We need it later, but we will run the newbie play and collect our discount for 4.
4. Animal Husbandry - See 2 above.
5. Mining - We need this because we are building 2 Desert Mines above.

Flood Plains Cottages:
6. Fishing - We need this, because Sal has 2 resources we need. It also provides a newbie play discount on 7.
7. Pottery - Granary will be built after 2 in the plan above. We also plan to cottage all of those Flood Plains.

The Great Lightouse:
8. Sailing - This is one requirement for the Great Lighthouse.
9. Mysticism - This is situational if we need to build an Obelisk. Discount for 10 below.
10. Masonry - We have several resources and we need this for the Great Lighthouse.

The Whip Economy:
11. Bronze Working - We do not need an early whip and plan to whip Granary then Settler for 3 in the earlier plan.
12. Writing - Library might also save our economy and we have a creative discount.

These might wait for the Iron Age if we can get away with it:
13. Archery - We did say if we can get away with it. We should be able to build Axes and War Chariots and therefore do not need Archers.
14. Meditation
15. Polytheism
16. Monotheism
17. Priesthood - While we have Marble, we have different plans. RIP Oracle.

We define the end of the Bronze Age and beginning of the Iron Age when one of these events occurs:
1. We research our way into the Classical Era. This is most likely Mathematics.
2. We can see that one of our opponents has Alphabet.

We believe the first objective in the Iron Age is dealing with the aftermath of the Bronze Age Economic Collapse. Suddenly technology is very expensive and at the same time, our economy has collapsed and we need some method to get to some key technology like Currency. In our case, we are likely to try Mathematics to Currency and try to trade for Alphabet and backfill the rest of the Bronze Age technologies above.

 

[Harv]

Game 1 Session 2 Turn 30 3250BC - A War of Opportunity

T0 4000BC - We settled Memphis 1NE and we setup up a Worker and Hunter according to our list of priorities.

Spoiler :

Early Exploration:
Our Warrior started in one of the worst possible starting positions for our planned exploration path. However, we tried anyway.
T5 Map from the Ruins of Jericho. It showed most of the Arabian Peninsula.
T9 85g from the Ruins of Hattusa. Somehow we won the race here.
These are the two huts we can pop that guarantee no Barbarians. There is no such guarantee for Lake Chad. It is possible that Mansa pops a Horde of Barbarians who make a beeline for Memphis and give us an embarrassing early finish to our game.

We have 85g to show for our early exploration. It is okay, not terrible. With this mission completed, we set up a position to watch Saladin.
T13 we encountered a Lion and let it attack us. We won, took 14 points of damage, and claimed an Experience Point.
T18 our observation position was set up.
T27 Oof. A bear appeared in sight. So far it has not charged our position. We believe the fight will be very even.
T30 Saladin's first Worker appeared and this grants us our opportunity.

Enemy Leaders Encountered:
Let's just be honest and call them for what they are - Enemies. Some of them we might work with for a while. However, we have to change our general mentality towards AI Enemy Civilizations.
T4 Saladin of the Arabian Empire.
T8 Alexander of the Macedonian Greek Empire.
T18 Julius Caesar of the Roman Empire.

It is very unusual we did not encounter Chrys. His Scout must have moved a different direction.

World Religions:
T14 Buddhism - We are guessing Asoka won the race to Meditation.
T19 Christianity - We are guessing Izzy won the race to Polytheism.

It looks like Saladin did not go for an early religion. We believe he is very likely, because he has a research advantage.

Production in Memphis:
T18 Worker 1 Memphis
T26 Wheat Farm (3,1,1)
T28 Size 2 1/36
T29 Warrior 2 Memphis

Technology:
T10 Hunting 4x27 = 108
T28 Animal Husbandry 10x27 = 270

We stopped the game at T30 because this opportunity presented itself.

Spoiler :

We are not prepared for such an early war, but we have been preparing and the opportunity presented itself. Of course, this gimps Saladin very early in the game. We will find out very soon if he has Archery yet.

 

[Harv]

Game 1 Session 3M Turn 50 2750 BC - There Shall be Peace in our Time

Mulligan count: 1
We will take a Mulligan to fix two things:
One is we started a road and this could have been a mine about 2 turns earlier.
The other is we traded 2 Warriors for 1 Archer which is actually very nice.

The exchange of 1 Saladin Archer for 2 Hatty Warriors still happened.
T43 Saladin attacked our stack or 3 Warriors on the Desert Sheep Hill and won. RIP Warrior 1.
T44 We counterattacked with Warrior 2 and lost at 88% odds. RIP Warrior 2.
We play Axis and Allies Online. We are used to losing such odds.
We counterattacked with Warrior 3 and won. Then peace was brokered and we took it.

So the difference this Mulligan makes is we have our setup 2 Turns earlier.

T30 We DoW on Saladin and captured a Worker.
Arab Worker 1
T31 That Bear reappeared. Can we escape! We did not take a picture, but it was possible the bear would block our path back to Egypt.
T32 However, we did escape.

Memphis Production and Growth:
T34 Size 3 1/39. Marble Farm. (4,1,1) still seems like decent yield.
T36 Warrior 3 Memphis and this time we sent him after the Arabs.
T38 Horse Pasture. (-2, 1,1) Memphis Economy is we trade 1f for 1h. However, we are going for growth right now.
T39 Size 4.
T42 Road access to Horse Pasture.
T44 Size 5. Warrior 4 Memphis and we sent Warrior 3 to go attack the Arabs.
T47 Mine Complete.
T50 Mine Complete. War Chariot Machine Complete. War Chariot 1 Complete.

Technology:
T39 Mining 5x27 = 135
T47 Fishing 4x27 = 108

T45 A Mediator negotiated a peace with the Arabian Empire. We got what we wanted, which was the Worker and moved on. Maybe they will send another Worker. Then we will start another War and this time we will be prepared with more War Chariots. They will not be prepared. Maybe they will build some Work Boats for us.

Spoiler :

We stopped here, because our War Chariot Machine is complete.

Spoiler :

We looked at Saladin a bit. He starts with:
Mysticism
The Wheel

We believe he has researched the following:
Hunting
The Wheel
Fishing
One more Technology We are not great at calculating era score yet.

 

[Harv]

Game 1 Session 4M Turn 65 2375 BC - RIP Chrys

This is also a Mulligan Session, because we reloaded in Turn 56 to fix the order in which we build Roads, in order to get a Road built one turn sooner - or at least save a Worker Turn.

It appears we are doing things in a slightly different order, because we took the Random Event peace with Saladin seriously.

On T50, we turned out to be the 3rd wealthiest Civilization in the entire world.

T56 we defeated a Bear with War Chariot 1. This makes no difference because War Chariot 1 died later in the game.

T59 we declared war on Cyrus!
Persian 1 Worker captured.
Pasargadae captured. We will rename it in the next Session.
T60 Persian 2 Worker captured. We found their extra Settler pretty early.

T63 This is our second Event. We picked up a turn or two on Bronze Working.

Spoiler :

Enemy Leaders Encountered:
T52 Cyrus of Persia. It is very unusual that we encountered him so late.
We believe we are 4/14 on the Continent.

Production in Memphis:
T54 War Chariot 2
T56 War Chariot 3
T62 War Chariot 4
T65 War Chariot 5

Technology:
T59 Pottery

T65 Persepolis was defended only by an Archer and a Worker and we had 3 War Chariots in range. So we attacked.
War Chariot 1 34.1%. RIP. 1.9/3.0 Persian Archer.
War Chariot 2 87.8%. Victory.
Captured Persian 3 Worker.
Captured Persepolis.
RIP Chrys.

Here is our Civilization.

Spoiler :

With this Victory, we should grow Memphis to Size 6.

Or we can keep building War Chariots in an effort to take out Saladin. We have not yet decided.

 

[Harv]

Game 1 Session 5 T72 3200BC - RIP Saladin

Apparently this is a very short Session. 7 Turns.

T71 We declared another War of Opportunity on Saladin!
Arab 2 Worker captured.

Enemy Leaders Encountered:
T70 Catherine of the Russian Empire. We are told that she is a backstabber and that means we have something in common.
T72 Frederick of the German Empire

World Wonders :
T71 The Great Wall.
Stonehenge is also complete but we missed reporting that somewhere.

T70 War Chariot 6

T72 we attacked Mecca and they were underprepared.
War Chariot 2 11.5%... and they actually won! 8XP.
War Chariot 4 76%... and they lost. RIP.
War Chariot 5 for the Victory. We will take it!

We have destroyed the Arabian and Persian Empires both. This should make us the masters of Mesopotamia, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Nile River, all.

Spoiler :

We have achieved 1 and 2 in our list, albeit in reverse order. As a bonus, we have achieved these objectives much earlier than planned. This means we can slow down our unit production and move on to our next objectives. These are to form the Assyrian Empire, settle the Nile River, and build the Great Lighthouse.

In order to get to 7 on our list, we will have to start building ships and exploring Africa.

 

[Harv]

Game 1 Session 6 Turn 89 1775BC - Forming the Assyrian Empire

This Session was multiple takes, because the micromanagement was intensive. We eventually concluded that we were never going to get it perfect.

Enemy Leaders Encountered:
T84 Asoka of India

Production:
T73 Warrior 5 Persepolis
T82 Warrior 6 Mecca

T79 War Chariot 7 Memphis
T80 War Chariot 8 Persepolis
T88 War Chariot 9 Memphis
T88 War Chariot 10 Persepolis

T74 Granary 1/4 Memphis
T79 Granary 2/4 Mecca
T84 Granary 3/4 Persepolis
T85 Granary 4/4 Uruk

T87 Settler 2 Memphis

Technology:
T73 Bronze Working 12x27 = 324
T82 Sailing 10x27 = 270

Turn 89 we founded Assur.

Spoiler :

This puts us at 5 cities and we might have successfully crashed our economy. We are net +7 and grinding our way towards Masonry.

Our forces include:
4/6 Warriors
8/10 War Chariots
6 Workers

This is our empire:

Spoiler :

We said our economy is at about +7. This can be seen based on the screen above, 32 Science, 25 Deficit. Our ideas to rebuild the economy are:
1. We did not research Writing. Therefore, Libraries are out of the question for now. Otherwise 5 Libraries could get us 10 Scientists and that would get us 30 Science to power us through the rest of the Bronze Age.
2. Cottages should help us rebuild the economy. We have claimed a lot of Flood Plains.
3. We are making a legitimate attempt at the Great Lighthouse in Mecca. Memphis might have been a better choice for this, because we can net 12 to 13 Production. However, we chose Memphis to generate more Settlers.
4. We can try to take out Asoka, claim his Holy City and build a Shrine. This will also take a long time to pay off.
5. Open Borders from the AI should be coming soon.

 

[Harv]

Game 1 Session 7 Turn 105 1375BC - The End of the Bronze Age

Turn 95 1625BC marked our defined end of the Bronze Age. We found that Rome could trade technology with us and that means they developed their famous Latin Alphabet.

Our economy started the Session at +7 and grew fairly quickly to +16, then fell bac down to +9.

Production:
T90 War Chariot 11 Uruk
T94 War Chariot 12 Persepolis
T96 War Chariot 13 Memphis
T101 War Chariot 14 Uruk

T97 Worker 2 Mecca
T100 Worker 3 Uruk

T104 Settler 3 Memphis

T93 Lighthouse Mecca
T100 Barracks Persepolis

Eventually the Barracks will come in handy. We were running out of economic power to build more units. They help heal our units if I remember correctly and this will certainly be handy on this map.

Technology:
T93 Masonry 8x27 = 216
T95 Mysticism from Rome for Pottery 5x27 = 135
T95 Archery from Rome for Masonry 6x27 = 162

T105 We founded Thebes, but might study a map and rename it. We are currently at:
6 Cities
8 Workers
4 Warriors
12 War Chariots

8 Turns away from the Great Lighthouse. This is number 4 on the plan we explained.
17 Turns away from the Pyramids. This was not on the plan. So we were planning to fail gold.

Here is the northern part of our Empire:

Spoiler :

Here is the southern part.

Spoiler :

We thought we captured a picture of the Nile River, but we will go back and grab it.

Spoiler :

 

[Harv]

Game 1 Session 8 Turn 113 1175BC - The Great Lighthouse

Production:
T108 Granary Assur
T109 Galley 1 Memphis
T113 The Great Lighthouse in Mecca

Technology:
T111 Writing 12x27 = 324

T112 We sighted our first Barbarian Archer. It is possible they are slowing down a little bit as the AI explores more and builds more cities. It is the Spears we must watch out for, because we have not been building any Axes to counter.

We were also terrible at micromanagement, in that we forgot to sign Open Borders. So we did on Turn 112 and lost 4g worth of opportunity trade. The cycling through cities can distract me enough to forget. We have Open Borders with Rome, Russia, and Germany. The Greeks do not like us.

T113 we built the Great Lighthouse.

Spoiler :

3 of our 6 Cities are coastal. Memphis, Uruk, and Mecca. So that probably means we added 6g to our economy.

We are 9 Turns away from the Pyramids. We will be surprised if we get them.

Our whip cycle should be restarting soon. We believe we have good whips in:
2 Turns for Memphis, because of the Settler. We might reconsider and go with a slow build combination.
1 Turn for Uruk
1 Turn for Mecca
1 Turn for Assur

We should check up on the body count so far. We are showing 43 Warriors killed so far.

 

[Harv]

Game 1 Session 9 Turn 123 925BC - Entering the Age of Iron

This is not officially the Iron Age, but we are defining it differently. We are calling the Ancient Era the Bronze Age, because the years coincide with the Bronze Age and Bronze Working is one of the characteristic Technologies. Similarly, The Classical Era coincides with the Iron Age and is characterized by Iron Working.

Enemy Leaders and Trade Deals:
T115 Open Borders with Asoka
T118 Open Borders with Greece. His units looking around were making us nervous that we would pull off the same nonsense against our Workers that we pull against the AI.
T123 Qin of China. We are now 8/14 Leaders on our landmass.

World Religions and World Wonders:
T116 Somebody built the Pyramids and we lost the race. Given that they also built the Great Wall and Stonehenge, we are guessing this is Louis.
We collected 574g as a consolation prize.

T121 or T122 Somebody else built the Temple of Artemis. We can check quickly if it was Qin.

T123 Somebody founded Hinduism. We might find out in a turn who it was.

Production:
T115 Settler 4 Uruk
T117 Founded Babylon. The locations appear to be more artistic than exact.
T121 Settler 5 Memphis
T122 Founded Abydos. This is a junk location further up the Nile.

T115 Library Mecca
T118 Barracks Mecca. We are not sure how often we will be building units there, but we now have a Barracks.

T116 Barracks Assur
T118 Library Assur

T119 Library Memphis

T120 Granary Thebes

T120 Library Persopolis

T120 Scout 1 Mecca. We decided we were going to try our luck exploring the Ruins of Ethiopia.
T123 We tried our luck and obtained a second Scout.
T121 Axe 1 Assur. We are expanding and growing both and we are feeling some overload at the Nile Front

Technology:
T123 Mathematics 25x27 = 675. This puts us into the Iron Age.

TLDR:
We did not win the Pyramids. We got 574g instead. This was enough to take us into the Iron Age with Mathematics.

We founded two more cities. This puts us at:
8 Cities
8 Workers
2 Scouts
4 Warriors
1 Axe
12 War Chariots
1 Galley

Here is the Nile River where it all started. It is not that developed yet, especially as we move upstream.

Spoiler :

Here is the Arabian Peninsula. We should be setting two more sites here. One of them should have the Moai Statues.

Spoiler :

Here is Mesopotamia. This appears to be the area we are developing the fastest.

Spoiler :

 

[Harv]

Game 1 Session 10 Turn 131 725BC - The Source of the Nile

We expanded our exploration of the African Continent and founded another city. We honestly stopped because I wanted to look up some naming ideas for a city at Aden. We can go with Saba, Aden, or be lame and try Arabia Emporion.

We estimated 20 Turns to get to Currency and that will take us to Turn 143. We have a good chance at beating that estimate.

Our economy started at +26 and we crashed it down to about +14 when we started another whip cycle.

We thought we were losing focus on expanding and just building units. However, units are not terrible to build. We are noticing a drain on the budget.

Enemy Leaders Encountered:
T125 We finally met Mansa Musa of the Mali Empire. Perhaps he was struggling against the Barbarians more than usual.

Production:
T124 Axe 2 Persepolis, Axe 3 Assur
T126 Archer 1 Persepolis, Archer 2 Assur
T128 Archer 3 Persepolis, Archer 4 Assur
T131 Axe 4 Persepolis, Axe 5 Assur

T125 Worker 4 Mecca
T127 Worker 5 Uruk
T129 Worker 6 Memphis

T130 Library Uruk

T130 Settler Mecca
T131 We settled our presently unnamed city.

Spoiler :

Perhaps somebody has a history lesson for me.

Here is the namesake for this Session.

Spoiler :

 

[Harv]

Game 1 Session 11 Turn 142 470BC - Techsplosion

Try to focus on the goals. We will make a list shorty and see how we are doing.

T136 RIP Axe 4 - We are trying to train up some Axes. This might not be the best way.
Less risky would be to use them to attack Warriors. Or clear the African Jungle.
T139 Barbarian Axe sighted!
T142 We are hoping they do not yet have Sailing!

The Spread of Buddhism:
T132 Buddhism in Persepolis
T137 Buddhism in Assur
T138 Buddhism in Uruk
We are 3/10 converted. However we decided not to convert.

Enemy Leaders Encountered:
T132 Louis of the French
T133 Izzy of Spain
T134 Lizzy of England
T139 Toku of Japan
We have encountered 13/14 of the Leaders on the Main Continent.

Production:
T133 Granary in Babylon
T134 Obelisk in Persepolis
T136 Library in Thebes

T137 War Chariot in Persepolis
T140 Archer in Assur
T141 Archer in Persepolis
T142 Archer in Assur

T134 Work Boat in Mecca
T135 Settler in Memphis
T136 Founded Elephantine
T139 Settler in Assur

Technology:
T140 Currency 40x27 = 1080
T140 Alphabet 30x27 = 810 from Julius Caesar for Currency.
Not only did we gain the ability to trade techs. We got an extra 50g to play with!

T140 Polytheism 10x27 = 270 from Izzy for Writing.
T141 Monotheism 12x27 = 324 from Louis for Writing, Bronze Working, and 5g.
Louis might have been almost completed Bronze Working or he scammed us. It was the only way we could obtain Monotheism.

T141 Priesthood from Izzy for Sailing.
T141 Meditation from Mansa.
T141 Iron Working from Mansa.
We traded away Mathematics, Masonry, and 70g.

T142 Monarchy 30x27 = 810 from Izzy.
We traded away Mathematics and Iron Working. This was such a sweet trade that she likes us now. This will change when we change religions.
We were really not expecting to be able to obtain Monarchy.

So we are soon able to switch to Monarchy and Slavery again. We can consider Buddhism and Organized Religion, but we have only 0 or 1 cities that will be making buildings. It is only worthwhile if we decide to build the Hanging Gardens in Assur. We are planning to time the switch back into Slavery a little more precisely.

We said we were going to make a list of our objectives and see how we are doing. The list is a shortened variation. Here is the list of checked goals:
1. Saladin. Check.
2. Chrys. Check.
3. Assur. Check. Here is the Assyrian Empire:

Spoiler :

4. Lighthouse. Check.
5. Mecca. This is in reach. We have a Great Prophet in 35 Turns. We just need a plan to obtain a Holy City.
India might provide one such way. We could attempt a lightning campaign.

Spoiler :

6. Nile. Check. We just settled Elephantine. Does this mean the exact same thing as Abydos?

Spoiler :

7. African Gold. We are heading towards a City Site right here.
In fact, we will drop a preemptive Mulligan and make sure there are no Barbarian Galleys.
It's a terrible city site, but we pick up two Resources.

Spoiler :

8. Ecological Disaster. This is within reach, because we now have the necessary technology to clear out the Congo Rain Forest.
9. Distraction. Our current Distractions are settling out Africa, building a Great Prophet, and possibly the Hanging Gardens.
10. Win.

We forgot to show the Arabian Peninsula.

Spoiler :

Unit Count:
10 Cities
1 Settler
11 Workers

2 Scout
4/6 Warrior
4/6 Axe
7 Archer
13/15 War Chariot
1 Galley

Body Count:
63 Warrior
15 Archer
1 Axe

 

[Harv]

Game 1 Session 12 Turn 153 305BC - The Gauntlet

Happy 20th Anniversary to Rhye's Civilization 4 Earth Map! It was a wild hit for a lot of people including myself. I keep saying it's an unbalanced game but a lot of fun.

We made the following changes:
Hereditary Rule
Slavery
Organized Religion
Buddhism
2/945 Calendar to 0/945 Code of Laws. Our estimate was actually 11 Turns and this turned out exact!

Spain is now cautious of us, which is unusual given that Izzy has the religious nut personality.
India is now our best friend. Two Sessions ago, we were thinking about attacking, because that would also get us a shrine. We decided to conquer Africa instead.
Russia and Greece both dislike us. We discovered later that we are indeed their worst enemy. On top of this, Alexander is plotting.

The Gauntlet:
We spied a few Axes along the coast, but did not run afoul of Galleys. We even sent our other War Chariot to greet it and give it a land escort on the way back.
T148 We made landfall with the Settler.
T150 We founded Ulundi and popped Construction!

Spoiler :

Wonders of the World:
T146 Izzy founded the Church of the Nativity in Madrid.

The Spread of Buddhism:
T144 Buddhism spread to Mecca.
T147 Buddhism spread to Babylon.

Trade and Diplomacy:
T149 Monotheism to China for 70g. We were thinking they almost have it researched.
T150 They asked for Iron Working and we refused. They are too powerful for us to help out.
T152 Open Borders with China. We forgot and it probably cost us.

Production:
T143 Worker Memphis
T145 Work Boat Memphis
T149 Work Boat Mecca
T151 Work Boat Muscat

T143 Settler Uruk
T143 Settler Mecca
T145 Founded Muscat
T147 Settler Thebes
T150 Ulundi founded
T151 Kampala founded. It's an unbelievably junk city and we sighted a Spearman and the first thing we have to do is fight for survival when all we have defending the city are War Chariots.
T153 Mombasa founded

T143 Granary Aden
T146 Granary Assur - We believe it will never grow big enough to matter, but we are making a run at the Hanging Gardens.
T148 Buddhist Temple Persepolis - There is madness to our method.
T150 Barracks Memphis
T151 Granary Abydos
T151 Library Babylon
T152 Granary Elephantine
T153 Buddhist Temple in Mecca

T144 Galley Uruk
T144 War Chariot Persepolis
T150 Archer Persepolis
T153 Archer Persepolis
T153 Axe Kampala. We chopped it out in 2 Turns.

Technology:
T150 Construction 35x27 = 945
T153 Code of Laws 35x27 = 945

Islam founded in Thebes. Most likely this was a weak move, but the lucky find at Ulundi might have made up for it.

Spoiler :

This time we will show off our junk new cities. Ulundi.

Spoiler :

Kampala and Mombasa.
Kampala has absolutely nothing. There is an Elephant and we are more likely to farm it instead.
It will be a Barracks town most likely. Its purpose it fog busting. It's probably an expensive fog buster.
Mombasa missed all of the resources. We decided to get Crabs instead and 3 Lake tiles.
The Gems will need another junk city and the Silver will need an inland city. We have time.

Spoiler :

Here is the Arabian Peninsula where we founded Muscat.

Spoiler :

Our status is:
14 Cities
12 Workers - This count fell behind because we founded 4 Cities in this Session.
2 Scouts - One is watching India and the other is exploring Scandinavia.
1 Islamic Missionary - We will spread to the cities that already have Buddhism. We should start with Mecca.
4/6 Warriors - We lost two way back in the First Campaign against Saladin.
5/6 Axe - We lost one attacking an Archer at 95%.
9 Archers - We plan to fill in our city defenders and replace our fog busters.
14/16 War Chariots - With Barbarian Spears out, they are becoming less relevant.
2 Work Boats
2 Galleys - The African Coastline is slowly becoming safer.

Body Count:
71 Warriors
23 Archers
5 Axes
1 Spear

Barbarian Status:
They continue to pour in from the Silk Road.
With three new cities in Africa, we are expecting more.
An Archer and an Axe are incoming on Ulundi.
Kampala has 2 Axes incoming.
Mombasa appears to be lucky so far, because Kampala and Ulundi took the heat. It has to survive for 8 Turns. Then it will get easier.
Isn't Creative a wonderful trait in this situation?

The Greeks are plotting and most likely it is against us. We are gambling right now that we can finish our campaign in Africa while keeping them at bay. We should send our Indian Scout over to check out Ionia and find their stack. We have the advantage of Construction.

The Russians are not plotting, but we are their worst enemy.

We have been gambling by building a Great Prophet in Persepolis and the Hanging Gardens in Assur. These are our main Barrack Cities. Mecca is also a Barracks City, but we might be using that to build Missionaries instead. We might have a couple more Barracks Cities upcoming.

Except for the Silk Road, the border with India should be secure.

 

[Harv]

Game 1 Session 13 Turn 166 110BC - Survival

Random Thoughts:
41 Views of the 4000BC save and the T72 save? I never imagined this much activity!

We estimate the cost of the most recent city to be 0.4N + 2.5. We are at N=14. This means our worst city costs 8.10g. We already admitted Kampala is hot garbage. Indeed, it only makes 3.00 and we run a large loss. As a contrast, Ulundi makes 6.00. Mombasa makes 7.00. Muscat makes 8.00. However, chopping out an Axe and Chariot in Kampala really helped with survival.

In this Session we can see evidence of weak gameplay as we got distracted by civving. This is where we build our civilization instead of prepare for the next war.

The Spread of Islam:
T155 Islam in Assur
T156 Islam in Abydos and Elephantine
T166 Islam in Babylon. We might have missed one.

The Struggle for Survival:
T154 4 Barbarians are charging Ulundi. 2 Barbarians are charging Mombasa.
They run in fear from the Axes from Kampala and have moved on to Mombasa, which seems a softer target.
T155 3 Barbarians are not charging Ulundi. 1 is on Mombasa.
T156 RIP War Chariot 7. They did manage to cut a Spear in half in a well fought battle.
2 Barbarians are now charging Ulundi and 1 at Mombasa.
Can we save Ulundi? We did not show well in the picture, but we have one Archer and 1 Chariot, both wounded.

Spoiler :

T157 Mombasa is saved as 2 War Chariots broke through the Barbarians. War Chariot 3 won at Ulundi against the Barbarian Axeman, leaving it to its own devices against a Barbarian Archer.

T158 Who ever imagined our salvation would come from building the Hanging Gardens? This got Ulundi to Size 2 and we were able to whip out an Axe.
Elsewhere in the world, trouble is brewing. For 15g, we picked up a few turns worth of free happiness, for ourselves as well as the happy couple.

Spoiler :

T159 We reinforced Mombasa with 2 Archers and sent them out barb busting.

T162 We gambled and lost. While we were pushing troops into Africa, Julius Caesar and his Gallic Allies declared war. We saw a Roman stack coming and knew they were going to declare war. However, we took a T160 Mulligan because we were not clear on what happens to captured Workers. We capture workers. They destroy Workers. So we found out and took the Mulligan. The only thing we did different was move our scout out of the way.

Production:
T156 Market in Mecca
T157 Hanging Gardens in Assur

Spoiler :

T158 Thebes Islamic Temple
T158 Aden Library
T159 Barracks Thebes
T159 Lighthouse Aden
T162 Market Babylon
T162 Granary Kampala
T163 Market Memphis
T164 We built our Shrine.

Spoiler :

T166 Uruk Buddhist Temple
T166 Babylon Walls

T160 Uruk Worker

T161 Missionary Assur
T166 Missionary Assur

T155 War Chariot Kampala
T157 Axe Mecca
T157 Archer Persepolis
T158 Ulundi Axeman
T160 Persepolis Archer
T162 Axe Persepolis
T162 Axe Mecca
T164 Archer Memphis
T165 Persepolis Axe
T165 Assur Archer
T166 Mecca Axeman
T166 Thebes Archer

Technology:
T166 Calendar 35x27 = 945

Great People:
T160 Great Prophet in Persepolis
T166 Great General Nebu in Memphis. We should rename him with a more Egyptian name.

T166 If this was not enough, Qin decided to declare war on us, opening up a second front. However, we have no idea where his stack is hiding or how big it is. It means we will have to rebuild our defenses in Persepolis.

Spoiler :

We finally gathered enough forces to take out the Roman Stack that was unwilling to attack Babylon for some reason.

Spoiler :

Horseback Riding is our obvious next technology. We are at war with 3 Civilizations and have build 0 Spears to deal with Chariots. Our War Chariots are better, anyway. However, with Horseback Riding, we can build Elephants.

We expect Alexander to declare war very soon. He will most likely launch an attack on that stack of 2 Axes we used to take out the Romans.

Our status is:
14 Cities
13 Workers
2 Scouts
4/6 Warriors
11/12 Axes
15 Archers
14/17 War Chariots
2 Galleys
1 Great General

What should we do with our Great General? I am thinking we use him claim a free upgrade on a Warrior, then make a super shock Axe.

Rome is willing to sign a peace deal if we want it. We probably do. We checked Qin Technology and we believe he does not have Construction yet. We believe he will be coming with Swords and Chariots.

 

[Harv]

Game 1 Session 14 Turn 172 20BC - The Dark Continent

We are at war with the Romans, but we have no answer for their Legions. It is very strange that we have not seen them yet.
We are at war with the French. They will either come with Chariots or Swords. We can deal with this.
We are at war with the Chinese. They will come at us with numbers. We do not yet have Catapults to deal with this.
The Greeks hate us. We have no answer for Hoplites.
The Russians hate us. They will also come after us with numbers.

Another sworn enemy! Your diplomacy is without equal.

-Warlords 3

We believe Horseback Riding is 11 Turns away. This will provide us with Horse Archers, Stables, and more importantly, Elephants.
Elephants with Combat 1 Shock 1 should be able to defeat the Roman Legions. At least Hannibal thought so.
Elephants with Combat 1 Shock 1 should be able to defeat the Greek Hoplites.
Spears with Combat 2 Formation 1 should provide an ugly fight for the Elephants.
Otherwise, they should rule the battlefield.

T171 The French finally showed up with their stack of Chariots. We smashed all four of them.
RIP War Chariot 16.

Spoiler :

We also changed back to Slavery and Organized Religion and converted to Islam. Looking at all of the red and blue faces and all of the active wars, it appears we have no friends on this Continent.

Production:
T167 Work Boat Ulundi. This is a surplus Work Boat right now. We will find a spot for it.
T172 Settler Mecca

T167 Barracks Elephantine
T168 Library Elephantine
T172 Barracks Abydos
T172 Granary Muscat
T172 Granary Mombasa

T167 Axe Persepolis
T169 Archer Memphis
T169 Archer Persepolis
T169 Axe Assur
T170 Axe Mecca
T171 Axe Persepolis
T171 Archer Thebes
T172 Axe Assur

Technology:
T172 Horseback Riding 25x27 = 675

We made it. We got there in 6 Turns when we projected 11. Metal Casting is next and we are also projecting 11 Turns. It might be longer, because it is a bigger tech and we are expanding our military and boundaries.

They Assyrian front is quiet. The Romans should be building their Legions. The French are licking their wounds.

Spoiler :

The Persian front is also quiet. However, we expect the Chinese to show up with a stack of 85 units very soon.

Spoiler :

Meanwhile in Africa, it appears we have busted the entire Continent! The range we chose does not show our fog busters very well.

Spoiler :

For Organized Religion, we need at least 5 Missionaries. Then we can dump it if we are not building enough Buildings to justify the cost. And we should not be building Buildings.

We need lots of Settlers. I have not tried to count how many Settlers. We fought hard for this Continent. Either we settle it or Mansa. We are still committing to the ecological disaster in the Congo, because it is challenging and fun.

Assur will build the Stable and then spam War Elephants. Other cities should be building Catapults.

Our status:
14 Cities
1 Settler
13 Workers
2 Scouts
4/6 Warriors
16/17 Axes
18 Archers
13/17 War Chariots
1 Work Boat
2 Galleys
1 Great General - We did not find time to promote a unit and attack the French. We should have done that.

Body count:
75 Warriors
27 Archers
13 Axes
6 Spears
4 Chariots

After the Congo Ecological Disaster, we should choose our next battles. We are at war with China and they have not shown up with their massive stack. We have no idea how many units are coming. We do not want them showing up on Persepolis with 85 units and our Army is campaigning way over in Carthage. We can settle this diplomatically by settling a quick peace with Rome and France.

We are at war with Rome and Gaul, but Greece is in the way. If we are taking out Rome and Gaul, then we might as well take out Greece. Elephants and Catapults will give us a victory. The terrain sucks. The shape of the land sucks. The best way to attack Greece is by sea. We have 2 Galleys. We should build the Suez Canal and get them into the Mediterranean. We might need more Galleys with a plan like this.

This is not quite the Asia Playbook we were planning. It looks like after we settle Africa, we are taking out Europe.

 

[Gumbolt]

Taking over the European cities is better than settling Asia.
Your unit cost here is 36gpt.
You are well ahead tech wise.
Epic game speed so you should be winning this easily with such a tech advantage.

 

[Harv]

Taking over the European cities is better than settling Asia.
Your unit cost here is 36gpt.
You are well ahead tech wise.
Epic game speed so you should be winning this easily with such a tech advantage.

I actually said Africa, but you graciously thought I meant Asia. That makes my plan even worse than imagined. I was also torn about attacking Asia before Europe, because Babylon is forming a choke point. We will soon have a scout to see what Alex has once again. An unknown I am dealing with is where the Chinese stack is and how big it is. I think it will be about 12 units and they will run through India to get at Persepolis.

On the Tech Race, on the other side of the pond, we forgot to post that the Az Techs have already won the race to Liberalism.

Spoiler :

Happy Halloween! Trick or Treat!

I had to check the tech. Philosophy would have been more believable than Liberalism.

Based on this, the past 20 Turns were a diversion. We sent a bunch of resources to Africa which we don't need and will still be there. We could have researched Construction earlier, instead of Code of Laws.

 

[Harv]

Game 1 Session 15 Turn 181 115AD - They that Take that Sword

T174 we spotted some Spanish units at the border and were expecting yet another war, but it did not occur. They appear to be heading towards India.
T177 RIP Scout 2 died to a Roman Legion. They lived just barel0y long enough.
T178 A Great Mediator granted us peace with Rome. This is much better than a Slave Revolt.

Spoiler :

Religious Wars:
T174 Confucianism founded somewhere in Mali. They discovered Theology. We did not bother to trade.
T179 Islam spread to our new city Mogadiscio.

Production:
T173 Library Abydos
T174 Stable Assur
T176 Market Uruk
T176 Barracks Babylon
T177 Lighthouse Muscat
T177 Barracks Kampala. This is our junk city.
T180 Granary Ulundi

T175 Babylon Missionary
T175 Persepolis Missionary

T175 Moai Statues Aden

T176 War Elephant Assur
T176 Archer Elephantine
T177 Catapult Persepolis
T177 Catapult Persepolis
T177 Archer Babylon
T178 Axe Uruk
T180 Catapult Babylon
T181 Catapult Memphis
T181 Catapult Persepolis

T176 Founded Mogadiscio. It's another terrible city and we did not bother to take a picture of it.
N=15 means our city costs 0.4x15 +2.50 =8.50. Kampala at 4.00 runs at a massive loss.
T178 Settler Thebes
T180 Settler Memphis

Technology:
T181 Metal Casting 45x27 = 1215

Status:
15 Cities
2 Settlers
13 Workers - Most likely we need more, but we will try to get away with it.
1/2 Scout
4/6 Warrior
20 Archers
13/17 War Chariot
1 War Elephant
5 Catapults
2 Galleys

Settling Africa and building troops to conquer Europe is probably a bad plan. This appears to be what we are doing right now.

 

[Gumbolt]

Not sure where i saw Asia. Europe has the best cities. You can settle Africa but I would rather have a captured European capital.

You are waiting for a huge AI stack that is not coming. Your power ratio to China is 1.7. They likely have no stack. Take the 155 gold with 10 turns peace.

Not sure why you have 30-40 units just sitting in 2 cities doing nothing. Delete or use them.

The game is pretty much won really in terms of cities you have. Russia may have 12 cities but many are junk. You can pretty much take down 3-4 AI with catapults and phants.