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ALC Game 30: Germany/Bismarck

Benginal

Emperor
Joined
May 31, 2010
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1,178
Location
Raleigh
All Leaders Challenge Game 30: Germany/Bismarck
Played with the Beyond the Sword expansion pack


Germany_Bismarck.jpg

Round 0: Move the Scout
Round 1: 4000 BC to 2520 BC (37 turns)
Round 2: 2520 BC to 925 BC (41 turns)
Round 3: 900 BC to 175 BC (30 turns)
Round 4: 175 BC to 600 AD (32 turns)
Round 5: 600 AD to 1090 AD (29 turns)
Round 6: 1090 AD to 1550 AD (51 turns)
Round 7: 1550 AD to 1816 AD (58 turns)
Round 8: 1816 AD to 1909 AD (51 turns)
Round 9: 1909 AD to 1920 AD (11 turns)
Round 10: 1920 AD to 1946 AD (26 turns)
Round 11: 1946 AD to 1975 AD (29 turns)
Post Mortem

Introduction

The idea of the All Leaders Challenge is that games are going to be played with each of the Civ IV leaders. With the help of all the posters who participate, an attempt will be made to make the most of the leader's unique characteristics: traits, starting techs, unit, and building. Aside from the leader, the other game settings are (mostly) kept constant for the sake of comparison. I will post the saved game files, screenshots, and status reports here as the game progresses.

Everyone is invited to offer opinions and advice, and to make your own attempt at playing the same game. But if you do play a "shadow game", I kindly request that you refrain from posting spoilers--i.e. any facts or even hints about the map, opponents, and so on--before I'm there myself. I'm trying to play the game as authentically as possible.

In this ALC game I’ll be playing as Bismarck of the Germans. Before we start the game, a more detailed discussion of Bismarck is in order.

Traits

Industrious: gives us the ability to build wonders 50% faster than we can normally build them and double production speed of forges. The industrious trait is one of my favorites. I'm a fan both of wonders and of forges and this trait makes them all come quicker. It is worth noting that the wonder building bonuses like marble and stone stack with industrious, meaning that should we see these resources we can build wonders in record times. Forges are extremely useful buildings throughout all of the game. Unfortunately I often have to put off building them longer than I'd like because of their large expense. But at half price, they are much more reasonable. Hopefully, our empire will also contain some gold, silver, or gems making the forge a :hammers: and :) increasing building. Last game I went pretty crazy with the early game wonders. So I think this time, I'll try to build fewer of them and focus more on early expansion. That being said, I think there's a bunch of late game wonders we can go for. And since the Germans are a industrial era civ, it makes sense to build all the wonders that come about during that time ... if we can fit them in in between our panzer builds.

Expansive: gives us many great abilities. We can build granaries and harbors twice as quickly as normal, and we can build workers 25% faster using hammers (the food overflow that goes into workers doesn't get multiplied). On top of this we get a free +2:health: per city which can counter the :yuck: of our cheap forges and awesome assembly plants nicely. This is a pretty good trait when not playing a OCC. We'll be able to grow our cities faster since granaries will come cheaply and we'll be able to improve those cities faster since workers will come cheaply. And a free two health never hurt anybody.

Starting Techs: Hunting and Mining

Mining is a pretty good tech. It's always going to be useful and it's on the way to Bronze Working, which is also always going to be useful. I'm glad to have it. Hunting is more situational. It's nice to have if we get fur, ivory, or deer in our capital's cross, but otherwise it's kind of lame. We'll wait and see what the layout is before we get too high or too low on either of these techs. In general, they're not the two I would pick, but they can be very useful in certain situations.

Unique Unit: Panzer

The Panzer is a tank that gets a 50% bonus against other armored units. It's one of those units that loses all of its specialness on the lower difficulties when nobody else has tanks, but at higher levels I think it might be more useful. But it won't be that much better than the tank given the AIs propensity to build all sorts of useless crap. Finally, the Panzer has a difficult job in trying to replace one of the best units in the game, so while it might not be a great unique unit it's still a good regular unit. I'm hoping they'll see a lot of use in this upcoming ALC and we can capitulate the world with them.

Unique Building: Assembly Plants

This building is a super-powered version of one of my favorite buildings in the game. I'm not quite sure what to say about it except that I can't wait to research Assembly Line and get these awesome factory replacements online. They should help us immensely in our goal of building hundreds of panzers.

Starting Position


In this ALC game, I'll be playing as Bismarck, leader of the Germans, and the man who's boat was really hard to sink. I'm playing the game using the Beyond the Sword expansion pack and its latest patch. The difficulty level is Emperor, the map is Fractal, and the speed is Normal. I’m leaving all the boxes unchecked except for huts and events, both of which are off. All victory conditions are enabled. If you have any questions about why I picked what I did, feel free to ask.

Here is a more detailed look at the initial game settings:

Civ4ScreenShot0000.JPG


Here's a reminder as to Bismarcks's unique characteristics:

Civ4ScreenShot0001.JPG


And, finally, here is the starting position:

Civ4ScreenShot0002.JPG


Hmph. Lots of trees and no food. On the other hand we are only one tech from Bronze Working and Animal Husbandry, so it's not all bad. Also, I'm hopeful that there's something in those grassland squares to the west. I built a ton of early wonders last game, so I think this time I'll focus on expansion, either peaceful or militaristic, I'm not particular.

Long term I'm hoping to get a large empire early in the game and grow on it until the industrial era when I'll open up a can of whoop-ass with my panzers and take over the world. Sound good?
 
Wow. Horrible start for food - but wonderful for chopping out some early wonders, and production-wise later on. It's a pity you can't move your scout far enough to see if there's any more resources south of you.

But, make the best of a bad world and move nw, then probably sw. Nothing revealed, settle in place - and go fer bronze working asap!
 
Subscribing!

Indeed, this is a horrible start for food... at least for now. However, it looks like the land is greener to the west and to the south.

For the scout, I think moving him 1NW might reveal something that direction, as I don't see any other moves that might make more sense. The land east of the scout looks browner.

I've installed the Blue Marble mod and it sorta helps distinguish the tiles a bit better in situations like this.

I am hoping that there is at least one more resource within the BFC if we settle in place. Unless the scout reveals something awesome, I would just settle in place. Too risky to move... might waste a turn trying to find something.

Benginal... I loved your last ALC with DeGaul. I love building wonders and you showed me how a wonder loving whore like myself can play that way at high level without botching things up. As for your plan.... Bismarck is also industrious though... so perhaps you might not want to skimp out on wonders too much? After all, this is an ALC game. ^^
 
Reading the fog reveals that this is not an all-forest start; You have 2 tiles due west without forests and one more 1S of the cows and at least one of them will have additional food food. Considering your latitude (no visible jungle, no visible tundra), they're either more Cows or alternatively Pigs or even Corn. Settling in place is the best way to go. You can even prove this by moving your scout NW-SW on t0.
 
Fleme, I think you mean 2 tiles west without forest, don't you? I would move scout 1 SE to get a better picture for a start on the plains hill if there is more food to the east.
 
I liked Fleme's idea with the scout.
I don't think to east will be more food (but I usually am totally off with my thinking :-D).

What I would think about you could make 1SE1NE with settler. I would almost bet that 2E it's another hill.
or more conservative 1SE1N with settling on PH if the scout at T1 doesn't show promising food to west.
 
Reading the fog reveals that this is not an all-forest start; You have 2 tiles due east without forests and one more 1S of the cows and at least one of them will have additional food food. Considering your latitude (no visible jungle, no visible tundra), they're either more Cows or alternatively Pigs or even Corn. Settling in place is the best way to go. You can even prove this by moving your scout NW-SW on t0.

Considering your foglook is lending that he won't lose resources on doing so, what's wrong with 1E for the 2h city tile?
 
By east you mean the opposite of east?
 
There could be food lurking in the fog. I say move the scout 1 NW, then 1 SW of that. Settle in place, go BW and AH.

My first impression is that you have an excellent wonderspamming capital there.
 
Great...now Julian Assange is giving Civ pointers...what next? :lol:
 
Great...now Julian Assange is giving Civ pointers...what next? :lol:

Advice??? No you mistake me, I am trying to force the world to behave in the manner I think it should.
 
Good to see another game up and running.

I wouldn't swear off wonders entirely, being Industrious and all. Maybe just pick some that work well together and make the most out of them. See how it goes. Oh, and I see that harbors are discount priced, why don't you build a few of those . . . [insert smiley here]

A variation on a theme: move the scout NW, take a look around, and then move it SW! At least you have the hammers for those cheap workers. Good luck arranging those tank-on-tank battles, I've not managed that yet.
 
I tried this one. Not too hard so far.
Spoiler :

Scout to NW, SW
SIP worker, warrior, settler, barracks, chariot x7
Researched AH -> Mining -> BW -> Ag -> Pottery -> Writing
Settled 2nd City at 3NW 1W on Grassland on River above horse. Built Barracks, Chariot x4.
Once I had 8 chariots, I attacked HRE Capitol = Captured, then Prague = Captured.
Stopped at turn 64, 1440 BC.

bismarksstrandedscout.jpg
Scout got stranded. It got bumped out after Prague's culture border popped.
bismarkcapturedhrecapit.jpg
Captured Capitol.
bismarkeliminateshre.jpg
Captured Prague. HRE Eliminated.
Of course with HRE gone, there is no one to trade techs with, so, I may have just screwed myself there.
We will see if I get too out teched.
 
I guess there's going to be food to your west as just one cow for food is a very atypical start. I'm always tempted to settle on plains hills but there's likely food to your west - I'd say settle in place.

If you want to be certain, move the scout 2W and check what's in the tiles west of the settler.
 
@plasmacannon

Spoiler :

going full isolation in semi-isolation situation is in my experience better. At least you don't compete for land and he won't trade useful techs anyway

 
@plasmacannon

Spoiler :

going full isolation in semi-isolation situation is in my experience better. At least you don't compete for land and he won't trade useful techs anyway


Spoiler :

I met Shaka to my West, but, he won't trade anything. So, my researching alphabet has proved useless so far. He didn't want my aesthetics or currency either, when they were finished researching. I'm on CoL at the moment.
The real pain in the a$$ was losing out on TGL by 1 turn. When, I am not FIN, that is a really important wonder to get. Being IND, and skipping SH and TGW to go for Sailing, I thought I had it. There must be another IND out there. :(
I have my continent almost filled now.
t141 620AD AP is built is built by someone.
t158 960AD - Zara Capitulates to Shaka.
 
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