Catherine Beyond the Sword

[kvn_m]

Hi everybody. I'm sort of to Civ IV (well, not really, but I've only finally managed to kinda get a good grip on it recently) and I've finished a game in a large, terra, marathon and warlord difficulty using the Romans (the cheap Praets).

Now, I'm trying out Catherine on Prince, trying out how to play Catherine, because I'm really attracted to the creative, imperialistic traits she has that allows me to rapidly expand in the early game.

Does this mean I should like, really ignore the resources and go straight to cottages? Or at least have that prioritized first?

I think I've managed to first destroy my first neighbor using the axe rush method, but what do I do next? When I decide to keep every city (from what my friend told me, the maintenance cost of the cities in prince is still bearable) so I'm getting every single city, instead of just the capital.

But this leads me to my tech level to 0%, and I kinda understand this is the phase where I should probably stabilize myself. Do I need markets? Or should I just only build courthouses?

I'm guessing I should go straight into getting machinery for macemen after CoL and is it another time for me to rapidly expand again after I'm finally able to build macemen? Or do I wait for cats?

 

[kvn_m]

This is my saved game, maybe someone can tell me what I did right or what I did wrong..

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/128374/Catherine_Successful_Rush.CivBeyondSwordSave

 

[mice]

You are actually in the lead techwise. You have alphabet so yuo just need to wait for the AI to tech something useful and you'll be able to trade yuor way to currency, hopefully courts of law.

Unfortunately you pushed it just a bit too far and now you can't tech currency by yourself, which would mean you can build gold to pay the maintenance on yuor far flung cities. with currency this kind of expansin is OK and pays off big time when you start to develop the cities. also charlemangne is gone and no longer a threat.

I'd watch Monty though on your border. Iswitched a few tiles so you are working every commerce tile possible, even at the expense of growth in the new cities. you need to limp through to currency and then build gold and infra , courts primarily.

Trading might get you out of it, if you survive, you'll win. Go into slavery to whip the courts/libraries when they come on line. run a scientist where you can.

 

[xanadux]

It's a pretty big mistake to expand to the point you have to run 0% to cover costs before you have Code of Laws. Although whipping courthouses is an option at that point, possibly a better way to get your economy back and running again is to switch over to caste system (bonus you can't get slave revolt random event in capital), and fuel your economy with merchant and scientist specialists.

If you are running a cottage capital, caste system plus merchants in all these new cities can give you a chance to get some more cottages down and growing. Markets are not really a solution at this point. They are expensive, and 25% isn't a huge boost. They are good to build in higher commerce cities when running a low science slider with scientist specialist fueled research. If you are planning on eventually running a high science slider with cottage/commerce fueled research, then markets don't help much because so little commerce is going to gold.

 

[kvn_m]

do you normally try doing skirmishes of a couple cities, in short bursts then, instead of a full wipe, while waiting for code of law tech to come by?

with the whipping, i'm not really sure how it has a synergy with caste system. even if i had the representation thanks to the pyramids (if), when will i stop growing my cities to concentrate on the science tech?

i thought cottages would be a great way to go, but i guess this means i should generally go for a hybrid economy?

and normally, i'm sort of stuck after i'm done teching CoL. Do you go for Machinery for Maceman then Construction for Cats, or do you at this point, maybe sort of try to rush the Great Library? If I can achieve liberalism, what tech should I try to slingshot that's worth the free tech? If I missed hereditary rule, should I go for that? Should I go for vassalage at this point to increase my army's starting xp? Then to Guilds, then banking? Is there any particular priority, if, since after all, I should eventually get em all?

is Cossack worth it, or should I just... go for something else? ie. rifleman? Then infantry/tanks?

 

[Indibil]

Heh! I just had a similar save today.

I started with Cathy next to Justinian on a sub continent. REXed to 5 cities whilst teching to alphabet. Axe+Charriot rushed him and kept 4 of his 5 cities.

Of course that crashed my economy as having 9 cities by 900BC is overkill, but 100% gold + hired specialists teching to CoL, mass whipping of Courthouses and researching Currency have brought me back to 50% research at 120AD. It'll get better as the two ex-Byzantine cities get their cottages mature and I move my Capitol to Byzantium (which is also cottaged) as my starting Capitol is a Superspecialist city if I ever saw one.

Of course, Justinian building the Pyramids and the ToA in Bizantium was the icing on the cake of that plan.

 

[Gooblah]

Just wondering:
You said you beat Warlord with Rome. Since Praetorians are so overpowered, its like winning a Chieftain game. Unless you're adjusted to Prince, there's a problem.

Anyways, running at 0% science= major problem. Bring all your workers to conqured lands, and -assuming you didn't pillage a whole lot- start spamming cottages. This will increase your GPT by a lot, especially at 0%. once you have 400 gold, increase the slider till you have negative GPT. This will speed up a beeline to Code of Laws. Once CoL is grabbed, adopt Caste System, and start building Courthouses in all cities. Start replacing cottages with farms, workshops, etc.

 

[mice]

do you normally try doing skirmishes of a couple cities, in short bursts then, instead of a full wipe, while waiting for code of law tech to come by?

with the whipping, i'm not really sure how it has a synergy with caste system. even if i had the representation thanks to the pyramids (if), when will i stop growing my cities to concentrate on the science tech?

i thought cottages would be a great way to go, but i guess this means i should generally go for a hybrid economy?

and normally, i'm sort of stuck after i'm done teching CoL. Do you go for Machinery for Maceman then Construction for Cats, or do you at this point, maybe sort of try to rush the Great Library? If I can achieve liberalism, what tech should I try to slingshot that's worth the free tech? If I missed hereditary rule, should I go for that? Should I go for vassalage at this point to increase my army's starting xp? Then to Guilds, then banking? Is there any particular priority, if, since after all, I should eventually get em all?

is Cossack worth it, or should I just... go for something else? ie. rifleman? Then infantry/tanks?

that's a lot fo questons. about the cities, before CoL/currency, 4 is a good number. After that 6-10. If you push it out to 10 you may have to build gold in some of them. In your save you grabbed a couple of good cities, but then went on to keep the tundra cities. Should have razed those.

Personally I dont prioritze Great Library. I'd rather go after construction to start building cats so i then have the option to attack again.

If you keep your expansion reasonable, you cvan go cottages or scientists depending on the terrain.

 

[kvn_m]

hmm. i just won a game using Cahterine in BtS, with this setting: Terra, standard, epic, prince. Well, I guess I was really on the edge every time. After my first neighbor elimination, the second neighbor elimination started off with a couple of skirmishes and peace treaties, which rewarded me with some technologies. This happened a couple of times, and that was how I managed to get ahead of the tech with everyone... I wasn't able to take advantage of the tech trading not so much in mid-game...

From the replay that I watched, I saw how the AI built many more cities than I do, and at a more rapid rate. By the end of the game, I've only ever built 5 cities... I guess I'm not sure when to ever build another settler once I've rushed my 2nd neighbor. Always captured cities instead of founding, except one, which I wanted to be another GP farm city...

I ran a hybrid economy, btw. Managed to rush the Great Library, and the Parthenon.