Civ4 GOTM 54 First Spoiler

Grifftavian · May 23, 2010

Got a late start on this game. Adventurer save.

Moved Warrior 1NW, didn't see anything interesting. Blue Circle showed up 1SW, so moved there and settled on next turn. Started research on Bronze Working, initial builds = Worker/Warrior/Warrior/Settler.

Founded 2nd city on desert tile between Cows & Copper and near Stone. Lost this city to Barb Archer, but took it back in 1 turn with Axeman. 3rd city on north coast.

Boxed in already by Saladin to south and Mr. Caesar to the west

Started building Axemen for REX via War. Scouted Saladin to South, but he has too many cities on hills defended by Archers. Scouted Mr. Caesar to West. He has Archers & Chariots, but I don't see too many Axemen or Spearmen, plus Rome and most of his other cities are not on hills.

After I discover Iron Working, I see Rome is sitting on top of Iron, and I have none. Time to risk a war with Mr. Caesar. I attack Rome with 5 Axemen and 1 Spearman. Rome is defended by 1 Axeman, 3 Archers and only 1 Praetorian. I capture Rome in 1 turn in 275 BC, losing 1 Axeman in the process. Rome had built The Pyramids, so I change Civics to Police State to continue the war.

I rush a couple of Archers to Rome, and sent the Veteran troops to Cumae, JC's only other city with access to Iron. It takes 2 turns to Capture Cumae in 75 BC, and there are no Praetorians in the city.

JC has two cities remaining, but no access to Iron or Copper. I should be able to finish him off within a few more turns. With the conquest of those two cities, I have a total of 7 cities, a nice start to my empire.

Backing up a bit, after I recaptured City #2/Shanghai from the Barbs, I built Stonehenge there (and just missed out on The Oracle). This eventually gave me a Great Prophet, which I saved until he could light bulb Theology, which founded Christianity in Shanghai. Rome had Hinduism, and Cumae had Buddhism, So my plan for the remainder of the game is to finish off JC, then go for a Cultural Victory.

My Autolog thus far...

Spoiler :

kcd_swede · May 24, 2010

While attacking in Roman territory at Rome, Axeman loses to: Roman Axeman (1.00/5) (Prob Victory: 9.9%)
While attacking in Roman territory at Rome, Axeman defeats (0.80/5): Roman Archer (Prob Victory: 23.1%)
While attacking in Roman territory at Rome, Axeman defeats (0.80/5): Roman Archer (Prob Victory: 23.1%)
While attacking in Roman territory at Rome, Axeman defeats (1.70/5): Roman Praetorian (Prob Victory: 22.3%)
While attacking in Roman territory at Rome, Axeman defeats (2.00/5): Roman Archer (Prob Victory: 29.7%)
While attacking in Roman territory at Rome, Spearman defeats (4.00/4): Roman Axeman (Prob Victory: 98.3%)

That's incredible. Why would anyone even attempt to take Rome with 5 axe and a spear and those kinds of odds? I'd have to be very deperate indeed to even try that. Most likely outcome is you lose your army and strengthen the defenders. You shouldn't have expected to win more than one or two of those battles.

And then for it to not only work but lose only one unit dead? You're one lucky dude! Insane :crazyeye:

, perhaps, but whatever works for you. :lol:

Spoiler :

Grifftavian · May 24, 2010

kcd_swede said:
That's incredible. Why would anyone even attempt to take Rome with 5 axe and a spear and those kinds of odds? I'd have to be very deperate indeed to even try that. Most likely outcome is you lose your army and strengthen the defenders. You shouldn't have expected to win more than one or two of those battles.

And then for it to not only work but lose only one unit dead? You're one lucky dude! Insane , perhaps, but whatever works for you.

Spoiler :

What I really mean is NO FAIR! I never get that kind of luck!

Well, I was a bit desperate, boxed in with not much room to expand beyond the 3 cities I had built. All Roman cities were on grasslands or plains. I attacked Rome from a plains hill, and Cumae from a forested plains hill. What surprised me the most was that there was only 1 Praetorian in Rome, and JC didn't build any more Prats before I captured Cumae and his other source of Iron.

How does that old saying go? "I'd rather be lucky than good any day!" Perhaps I should go buy a Lottery ticket tonight. :mischief:

da_Vinci · May 24, 2010

BCLG100 said:
Settled 1S but snatched Sal's worker early on (very early iirc, he had only roaded a couple of places when I did so. This meant that whilst i was flying by the edge of my seat in the war (having no troops at all, I had two workers and settled the copper city during the war, had a third city done before Sal had settled his second iirc.

Thorrez said:
I managed to steal a worker from Saladin so build order was something like warrior, wb, warrior, warrior, warrior, settler.

Reading the other postes it looks like setting saladin back with that worker steal we crutial...

I will have to put together a full first spoiler tonight, given that there seems to have been so much trouble early, and I don't think I suffered from it. The key may well be that early worker steal from Sal, as I did that too.

dV

Kaitzilla · May 27, 2010

Downloaded the Challenger Save.

Teched fishing, then Bronze working to see where I should send my 2nd city. First warrior scouted out Rome completely, looking for a worker to steal, but failed. Second warrior scouted the border of Saladin, and revealed the outline of a hill on his capitol.

I got real lucky Settling my 2nd city, Saladin came wandering up from the south with a settler and archer, and I followed it with 2 warriors to kill it. It walked right past where the BTS AI would have put it, and I grabbed the spot myself in 2240BC. :lol:

I just barely avoided having to warrior rush to get my 2nd city.

Warrior scouting revealed Saladin with crappy lands to the south with cities on hills. Rome had rich lands and a elephant. I chose Rome to attack first, my happy cap was 4 in my capitol and I couldnt let him get to prats AND elephants. Invaded in 1000BC with 9 axes and a spear. I would have invaded earlier, but spying with open borders had revealed Rome with 9 archers and a settler. At 40% defense, my army wouldn't be able to take Rome.

I clobbered his first city, stormed down to Rome and pillaged everything down to dirt, then marched back up and took his second city. I called a ceasefire to heal up and gather reinforcements, then looked at Rome again. 9 archers and a chariot :mad:

I was busy building the mids in my 2nd city, so no more reinforcements. Invaded again from two directions, 5 axe and a spear from the west, 7 axes from the east. I left the western city I took undefended after I whipped it down making axes. I hoped he'd take it back. I couldn't really afford to keep it with no commerce resources and a huge army to support.

At 24% odds, I decided to spend two axes to see if I was lucky and then I'd march over and stomp on Saladin instead. Two kills! 13 vs. 8 now. A quick promotion, and then I could try the dice again next turn. On the next turn, one of his roaming archers takes back his western city, boosting my finances. He also attacks my 7 axe stack with a chariot which fails and withdraws. (Sorry Vanilla chariot) Then he sends out 2 archers to reinforce his second city. :mischief:

WOW WTH! Now its 13 vs. 5 archers and a crippled chariot. What a difference one turn can make! The Roman civ fell in 575BC.

I completed the Pyramids in 500BC and switched to Representation. I'm gonna try for a specialist economy with the philosophy trait. Will do Saladin next, Mansa is a cream puff and the Collosus just got built in Mecca. 1AD, signing out.

Sleepless · May 28, 2010

Not sure if I'm going to have time to finish this one though will give it a go. Bank holiday weekend here and I'm working all of it.

Anyway settled 1S. Managed to settle my second city for the cow/copper then built lots of axes. I could see tundra down near Sal and wanted to go after JG first as I though he would be the biggest problem. Managed to kill him off with a slight delay whilst I got IW from him for peace then once my 10 turns were up finished him off. For monarch AI they seem to be teching quite fast. Then again the AI I have met Mansa/HC/Liz aren't exactly slow. So now heading for currency/constr to get some cats/phants out. Trying to decide whether to go for Mansa or Sal/Liz/HC and keep Mansa for tech trading. Have built the GLh so that helps a lot although I'm well behind the other AI at the moment.

da_Vinci · Jun 5, 2010

RL has been a bit nuts lately ... fianlly getting to describing my game.

Settled on the plains hill on the coast turn 1. Worker and bronze working. I think that with a land food resource, going worker first and considering the seafood as "future food" can be very useful ... so much that early worker can do for you in the game.

Turn 5, (3800 BC) meet Sal ...

Turn 8 (3680 BC) declare war on Sal and worker steal. Lose the warrior to an archer, but since this is Vanilla, the worker had already moved north same turn it was captured.

Impications of this were that I completed the worker but then researched hunting and archery just in case Sal worked up an archer army and came at me.

After worker, builds were warrior x2, barracks, archer x2 ... as Sal would not make peace ...

Finally get peace turn 37 (2520 BC) ... had started settler turn 36 (2560 BC).

The other implication of the war was that Sal did not settle new cities while the war was on. This kept the copper site open for my first settler, completed turn 38 (2480 BC) and settled on turn 40 (2400 BC) adjacent to both copper and cows (Shanghai).

Later settled Guangzhou on the hill between stone and dye ... turn 57 (1720 BC).

Tech path was BW>Hunt>Arch>Wheel>Fish>AH>Pot>Write>Alpha ... done T81 (850BC), then get math, myst, sail, IW, Masonry in trade over next two turns.

Start construction T85 (775 BC, same turn GS builds academy in capital), complete it T95 (500 BC) for an axe/cat assault on Sal ... Mecca will be a nice addition to my holdings for a latter attack on JC I am thinking.

T100 (375 BC) war on Sal ... Medina (his only other city) falls T105 (250 BC), and Mecca falls T 112 (75 BC). Sal is dead.

Researched or traded for Med, Poly, Priest, Calendar, and Monarchy ... and then 1 AD arrives.

Rest in the final spoiler.

dV

Civ4 GOTM 54 First Spoiler

Grifftavian

Emperor

kcd_swede

Jag är Viking!½

Grifftavian

Emperor

da_Vinci

Gypsy Prince

Kaitzilla

Lord Croissant

Sleepless

Deity

da_Vinci

Gypsy Prince

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