Bismarck trying to beat the bad guys vol.1

[overdose]

I started an all-random game with Emperor level and normal speed. I have to admit that I already tried to play this map for an hour or so only to be declared war at 2 times by my neighbours and my economy ruined. I guess I played horribly diplo-wise and made some really bad moves too. So let's start again but this time I'll play a few turns in a row and we can do a play-along or something.


Apparently I had already found Berlin in my saved game so we just have to debate about tech-tree and building order.

My initial Tech-tree was Agri-BW and my production order was scout-worker-warrior-settler-warrior-worker since I had Hunting already I wanted to capitalize on hutscavenging.

Worker-Warrior-Settler would be better I guess, any thoughts?

 

[overdose]

Game: Civ4 vanilla
Build: 1.7.4
Civilization: random - Germany (Panzer tank)
Leader: random - Bismarck (Exp/Ind)
Difficulty: Emperor
World type: Shuffle
World size: random - Large
Climate: random - Rocky
Sea level: random - High
Starting level: Ancient
Game speed: Normal

Why would I consider agriculture first: if I'm going to build Worker-Warrior-Settler I wouldn't be able to whip my worker anyways so now he can be put to use. After Bronze work my teching will be situational depending on whether I get Copper or don't etc...

I've only played civ like 10 games so I'm not very good. My Diplomatic skills are awful. I would be grateful for any advice!

 

[overdose]

So I played a few turns ahead, managed to pop 3 huts (150 gold + the wheel) and researched Ag and BW. So now I'm going to whip/chop my first settler, the only problem is that I couldn't find Copper.

Should I try to beat Ceasar before he gets Prats? If so, I should propably search for IW right away. I got a juicy-looking place to settle my second city (stone, cows and rice + protecting river). The only problem is that Ceasar is very close. If I can't wipe out Ceasar early on I got to either out-tech him (nearly impossible) or have good relations with him. So I think that I should neglet Fishing and Masonry for now.

 

[bovinespy]

I can't tell from your screenshots, but if you have horses anywhere nearby, I would grab them with my 2nd city and suffocate Caesar with Chariots. You probably won't be able to take any of his cities, but as long as you pillage his metals while you tech for IW, you should be okay.

 

[Giaur]

I would settle capital 1S to the initial position - more production. Second city directly on rice - great city to construct leeve and I would chop there Stonehenge.

btw. Why Vanilla?

 

[overdose]

bovinespy: I don't have AH so we don't know where Horses are. We could take a gambit and research AH next but if we don't get Horses without 3rd city we're going to be slowed down considerably.

Giaur: Yes that would be a better spot for Berlin but I saved my first game right after I've settled the city so I wasn't able to move it. What's the advantages and disadvantages of settling on a resource? I don't know since I've never done it or heard/read about it. This is vanilla so we can't build a levee + I need culture to get Stone with the ricesettling.

I could always go for SH in my second city with Stone or even Pyramids but I'm not too certain that it would be good enough to postpone a war.

My thoughts about the techs:
Mysticism - possibly if we would want to start building SH without Stone but I think it's not worth it
Fishing - we don't need it right now
Pottery - we don't need it right now
Archery - useless tech in this situation, prats pwn archers
Masonry - we do want the stone and if we want to build Pyramids we should research it right now
AH - we need it for the cow and horses but prats kill chariots too easily, it's worth it if Ceaser doesn't have IW too soon
IW - we don't have copper so we need Iron quite badly

If I was to build the pyramids should I build them on my second city near the stone or in my first city? I'm kinda lost here since I don't have enough experience.

"btw. Why Vanilla?" Because I haven't got the energy to learn about the wondrous new gimmicks of BtS. Some day I'll make the transition..