city specialization help/general tips

[wdepner]

Hi Everybody,

Again, I was hoping to use the collective wisdom of this forum to improve my game. I am playing a noble game as Mansa. While I welcome any suggestion, I am particularly interested in getting some feedback on my city specialization.

Here are my questions in no particular order.

1.What is your general assessment of my city placement choices?
2.What is your general assessment of my (apparent) city specialization choices? Which cities have the right buildings for the terrain? Which cities have the wrong buildings for the terrain? In which cities should I build what? What should I have built in which cities?
3.What about my research path? I am currently researching gunpowder on the way to chemistry and steel.
4.What else have I missed? What am I doing right? What am I doing wrong for this particular game?

Thank you to everybody in advance.

Cheers,

Wolf



http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/106439/wolfgangdepner_AD-1460.Civ4SavedGame

 

[Cam_H]

Wolf,

Congratulations on being the score leader - clearly things aren't going too badly!

1. City Placement:

There's a fair swag of overlap with your first four cities (only two tiles between Djenne and Timbuktu admittedly) but I've seen the same thing from high level players - so I'll note but not criticise! I would have spread them out a bit further.

2. Specialisation (and other city comments):

The majority of your cities are commerce cities. You're leveraging your Financial trait by spamming Cottages, but your better production cities aren't specialised production cities as such.

Kumbi Saleh is your Heroic Epic city - but there are probably two too many Cottages where there could be Farms, and the city's now close to stagnating. It needs a Grocer to deal with while a Courthouse will get you one step closer to the Forbidden Palace. You're building a Knight - 'good' if you're planning to take Cuman with it.

Djenne is over-Cottaged as well, and has stagnated and can't work the Gold Mine. I possibly would have put a Farm on the Bananas pre-Calendar rather than build up a Cottage.

There are loads of tiles that have improvements on them that are outside any city fat-X, while your capital; Timbuktu, has three pretty good tiles (two Grasslands, one Plains - all three 'irrigatable') that are undeveloped. Timbuktu also would greatly benefit from having Buddhism spread to it.

Tokyo: Fishing Boat!

Goa: Building a Harbor, but you've (currently) got no seafood and it's suffering from - a Granary would be a better deal.

Osaka: Your Jewish city could start spreading the faith, and likewise receive Buddhism. I'm not sure why a Market is underway here.

I would look at settling two cities near the two tiles of Horses to the south and to the south west of Timbuktu.

3. Research Path:

You've had a Great Scientist sitting in Timbuktu for a few turns. Although Taoism has gone, he can lightbulb Philosophy or build an Academy. Liberalism's still up for grabs, and you're in a good spot to get it now that you have Education, although you don't know what stage the unmet rivals are at.

Your science rate is slower than it need be; (60%) given the 61/turn you're pulling in. I'm assuming these may be for Macemen > Grenadier upgrades? Might be a bit too early for that. It might also be to upgrade Horse Archers to Knights - if so, that makes sense.

I would take out Cuman before Saladin does - it's got Corn and Crabs, being two good health resources that you don't have. Kumbi Salah has some troops that could be used for this.

4. Overall:

Things are going well, and your position as score leader is encouraging. Your Cottages will continue to grow into Towns, and I can't see why you won't be able to retain technological leadership. I'd chase Liberalism after you get Gunpowder. Expand to Timbuktu's south. Get a Buddhist Missionary to Timbuktu, and build a Fishing Boat out of Tokyo as priorities. Address stagnation and health problems - taking Cuman will only help. Perhaps a few fewer Cottages in order to address population growth - especially in prospective -focussed cities.

Hope this is of help. Best of luck!

 

[wdepner]

Hi Cam,

Thank you. I appreciate it. It will apply your tips as soon as I get from work.
Cheers,
Wolf

 

[Cam_H]

Wolf,

Please don't feel compelled to follow my suggestions, but I guess at least have a look at them and assess whether they're valid for where you want to take your game.

A few addendums

3.30 am ;

I said Cuman had "Crabs" - I meant "Clams" ... but the issue's the same.

Liberalism

Looking at the Liberalism slingshot possibilities;

• Astronomy is immediately available,

• Chemistry will also require you to finish Gunpowder but also acquire Engineering, or

• Rifling is a longer and decidedly riskier path, but a possibility, requiring you to finish Gunpowder, acquire Banking and Replacable Parts.

Anyway - just some options worth considering.

Victory

Tech' to Alpha Centauri

Your game does seem to be quite well set up for a Space Race win - you can take Cuman, build another city between Cuman and Djenne, and place two or even three cities south of Timbuktu, which should give you the 'critical mass' to get into space quickly enough. Tokyo and Edo seem to be two cities that could make a good contribution to your Spaceship building.

Domination

Your intent to get to Chemistry and Steel however infers that you want to keep the war effort up. Redeclaring on Japan seems the obvious step after you've dealt a bit further with domestic matters - and Saladin won't like it much that you've attacked a Buddhist - you'll need to make a decision on what to do with Arabia;

(a.) United we stand!

Keeping the comradery going with Saladin throughout is somewhat of a gamble - once you're done with your infrastructure fixes, a switch into Theocracy will give you both religion and favourite civic positive modifiers with him, while the extra XPs for your Industrial Age units would be a bonus. You will however have a soft underbelly - Tokugawa has a very long Arabian-Japanese border, and if your relationship with Saladin ever sours, there will be a scrambling of troops to defend those Japanese cities. I suspect that maintaining a Malinese-Arabian pact shouldn't be too hard. In the meantime, just keep attacking the tribes to the west and keep bribing Saladin to join you in these wars.

(b.) There can be only one

Plan B might be to just get rid of your Buddhist brothers once and for all. While you are technologically advanced, I am still wary of your capacity to pump out lots of units quickly. Edo and Tokyo look like good production centres, so (again) I'd forget the Cottages and focus on Farms and Mines - leave the commerce to your Malinese cities. Take out Japan, and see if you can bribe Saladin into a war somehow - get him to burn his troops against maybe Montezuma, and then when they're out of place, come swooping in from behind with the ultimate act of betrayal. Be mindful of the two cities south of Timbuktu - you'll need a force of sorts to take them. Also be mindful of that long Japan-Arabia border in that it might be difficult to hold all cities. Once you've taken Japan and Arabia, you've got two fairly difficult customers in Julius Caesar and Montezuma - both keen on big stacks. You will be technologically advanced, and with Cannons their stacks should be easy enough to take, although you'll need the numeric strength in addition to having the technological upper hand.

Anyway - just some further thoughts. Again - best of luck with it.

[Edit] See if you can meet the leaders of the Persian, Chinese, and Aztec Empires - maybe a Caravel out of Tokyo and/or send a Horse Archer to meet Montezuma and possibly Open Borders? It will help with 'intelligence' incl. trades and war options. Also, you have a Settler that can be used immediately - I'm not sure if he was just built or not. [/Edit]

 

[wdepner]

Hi Cam,
Thank you again. Cheers,
Wolf