BtS Monarch Attempt: Catherine

[emes]

Hi,

Here are reports of progress:

1. 4000 BC - 2775 BC
2. 2775 BC - 485 BC

My name is Michal and I'm a Civ addict, from the first release of the Queen of Games

After spending a lot of time on Noble, I finally achieved first victory on Prince (Mongols, Space Race, after conquering whole continent). My apetite is growing quickly, so I decided to give Monarch a try.

Being fresh on this difficulty level, I decided to ask you for help with my Monarch attempt. All suggestions are welcome, as I really want to master Civ strategy.

The plan

I didn't choose victory type I want to achieve, but I'll be steering towards Conquest/Domination or Space Race if for some reasons I fail to conquer the world.

The leader I choose is Catherine. Why?

• I could play Mongols or some other powerful conqueror, but I don't want to be limited by dependency between particular resource and UU.
• She's Imperialistic and it should help me with effective warfare.
• She's Creative, so I can skip Monuments and claim the land quickly, grabbing resources. Also, nice buildings can be made for lower cost.
• I'm not experienced in civic shuffling (I know, it's not good) so I skip powerful Spiritual trait. To feel limitations of Monarch, I skip also Expansive.
• She starts with Mining, a straight way to BW and early war resource.
• I just like the color

The map size is Standard, Big and Small to have a chance of making contacts before Optics but still have some level of isolation and avoid difficult diplomatic relations on the beginning. The speed is set to Epic, I think optimal for warfare and making chance to survive some minor mistakes.

I'll be playing BtS with HOF mod (not an attempt to beat records, I just like the enhancements of this mod).

Here's the setup:

I think everything's clear. So, off we go!

WHOA! Whole lot of high-commerce seafood around! Also rice for filling up bellies and some candy for inventors of Calendar. Great! My whip is getting hot!

Looks like an island a bit, but in the N there's a river, giving hope for some bigger piece of land.

My first impression is to settle in place, research Fishing while building a Warrior. Then I'd build Work Boats and grab some Clams, while learning BW to make my people working really hard!

But there's a Scout too. What he can see around may change the plan, but it seems clear that first destination would be hills on E. Settling N doesn't make sense, on W it looks like a woody peninsula (small chance for any great resource there) and only E is a mystery...

Let's think about it and make action tomorrow

 

[Beatrix202]

Settle in place, Get a clam or 2 while you're exploring and then chop/whip a settler which will be easy since you're imperialistic and get a 50% bonus from the chops.

 

[BalbanesBeoulve]

That's a GP farm if i ever saw one. Later on you'll definitely want to move your capital to take advantage of bureaucracy though.

 

[Beatrix202]

Ya thats true, plenty of food, some river tiles and enough production for you're basic buildings.

 

[Charou]

You might consider, sharing the clams with another city if you don´t make this city your GP farm.
either way it´s a long way before you have enough happiness to work all those food tiles.

 

[emes]

Settle in place, Get a clam or 2 while you're exploring and then chop/whip a settler which will be easy since you're imperialistic and get a 50% bonus from the chops.

I forgot about this Imp advantage! But I hope it won't be neccessary to chop before Math.

You might consider, sharing the clams with another city if you don´t make this city your GP farm.
either way it´s a long way before you have enough happiness to work all those food tiles.

If the opposite coast is accessible? Why not. I think claiming 2 is enough to have food and extra resource for trade in exchange of some happiness goods.

So, I'm gonna move scout on E hills, settle in place.
Building: Warrior > Work Boat > Work Boat (whip) > Settler (whip overflow from WB) > Warrior > Worker
Research: Fishing > BW > Writing (to get scientists and run SE ASAP)

 

[emes]

So, the first turn goes on:

Turn 16: a Scout in NE met Wand Kon's Archer. Damn Protective!
Turn 17: Hinduism has been founded in a distand land and my Scout spotted Wang's territory in the North.
Turn 25: Buddhism has been founded in a distant land.
Turn 31: Researched BW and switched to Slavery. Copper is in my range, but very close to Wang's borders. Look at this:

I have to hurry up to get it before he does!

Turn 42: researched Agriculture.
Turn 48: Wang Kon switched to Slavery. So we both know what's going on. I whipped a Settler.
Turn 49: Settler is ready to go. The terrain around is nothing special, not to say it sucks a little.

I added the resources which are off-screen. The red dot is where i plan to build Copper City. The other ones are sites to consider as a location of third one. I hope AH and IW will show some good resources around and make the decision easier.

None of them look wonderful. The brown one seems to be a good spot for cottage city - maybe a future capital

And this is overall view. Looks like we are two on a continent:

The first plan is to:

1. Settle on the red dot
2. Build a warrior to protect capital, then switch to Worker and whip him ASAP
3. Connect the copper
4. If there are Horses, place 3rd city
5. Start producing Axes. I'll need many of them to get rid of Wang.

 

[emes]

Lonely Catherine, without help from other players, did the things as she planned before.

In turn 53 Petersburg was founded, quickly becoming a copper industry center and main army base with it's Barracks.

Only one turn later Russinan wise men discovered secrets of Animal Husbandry, locating Horses near the border of Moscow city.

In turn 56 Judaism was founded in a distant land and in turn 75 some far civilization built Stonehenge, a first world wonder. Great Wall emerged 35 turns later. In these times, Russians founded Novgorod, claiming Horses and becoming a candidate for further Cottage and Watermill based capital. Meanwhile, Koreans gained access to Iron, still unknown to Russians, and quickly built their first Axemen.

A lonely workboat from Hindu Pacal arrived to our southern borders in turn 134.

Turn 139 was a notable year in world's history. The Oracle was built and revealing secrets of Theology, gave birth to Christianity in some distant land. In the same time Great Prophet was born in Seoul.

On turn 140, a Great Scientist was born in Moscow. He may either found an Academy or lightbulb Alphabet. Instant access to tech trading could be helpful, as other civs seem to have very differrent techs researched, but on the other hand an Academy would give a big boost to our science. The bureaucracy capital will be probably in Novgorod anyway, but there's still a lot of time when Moscow academy could give profits.

Now, the time for bad news:

Koreans are stacking army and will probably launch an attack on us very soon! At the moment each of Russian city has two Axemen. In 3 turns there will be a Stable completed in Petersburg (can be whipped) and we may produce experienced Horse Archers or even Chariots to fight against Axemen.

Wang Kon is going to have Construction soon. We need about 25 turns to have it completed (finishing Masonry).

The overall situation is visible here:

The weakness of Russian civ is production. Only Petersburg has some serious hammers income. Other cities are just a big laugh. In a great need, Moscow forests can give a lot from chopping (we have Maths).

Invading protective Wang is beyond our reach for long, I think. But I may be wrong.

I see two ways now:

1. Build academy in Moscow, build some HA and Chariots in Petersburg while researching Construction. Then spam Catapults and attack.
2. Lightbulb Alphabet and trade some techs. Try to get IW and locate Wang's Iron resource. Destroying it would be a first action in war.

Of course I could make a friend of him, found next city, etc. but on such poor land I expect to be lagging in techs very soon.

What do you think?

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

Going after Korea just after he gets Hwacha's on line, that may not be the wisest course.

 

[pigswill]

You've got space for another 2-3 cities. Once the jungle is cleared away they'll be reasonable. In the meantime with a couple of food sources they can run some specialists.
You've got land close to you that you haven't explored so that's well worth doing.

 

[futurehermit]

You waited too long to strike imho. Cathy is a great rush civ and you had copper conveniently located between you and wang. I would've built the copper city probably 1S of the copper and then geared up for war. Maybe I would've built a 3rd city, but probably not, instead prefering to put the hammers into axes and taking Wang's empire for my own.

However, commenting on where the game is at right now, I think you should settle the remaining spots and gun for a tech advantage. Given that Wang is financial with some good territory that means to me gunning for the GL and bulbing your way through liberalism to try and get to your UU. With your UU you should be able to quickly clear the continent (let him settle it for you).

If you want to fight Wang before that (Protective longbows?!) you'll need lots of troops, which means you need to be dedicated empire-wide to whip/chop/building troops--with lots of siege. Engineering for trebs becomes a priority. If you think you could hit him hard before longbows then do it imho, but if you think he'll get to longbows before you can do any serious damage then hold off until you have a strong medeival army or get access to renaissance troops.

 

[BornSlippy]

Interesting thread. Keep going, sir.

 

[Gumbolt]

Your science slider is at 80. Its 500bc and you have 3 cities and your researching masonry.

I see two courses of action.

1. Get building settlers 1-2 and workers to clear/forest jungle and REX!! Theres at least one good city place left and lots of fish to use for growth on east and west coast. Think chopping forest for the workboats may help your capital growth bigtime. The whipping benefit would probably outweigh any forest lost. Cant see any cottages on your map. Without cottages your economy will lag.

2. The Korean cities are great size. Wonsan has lots of flood plains. Although it may take 8-10 axemen to make sure you take the city. I very much doubt the AI would send more than 2-3 axemen at you. Have you got chariots? Wanson should be takeable but use large stack without cats.

General verdict you need a larger empire, with bigger cities, reduce size of korean empire and build cottages.

 

[Gumbolt]

I wonder if building cities on the islands below moscow might help expansion? Are they reachable? Do you have galleys? Changed my mind about wanson. Burn it and build city near the coast by the fish. I think wanson is too close to your city anyway.