Civilization Resolution! Part Two

[comatosedragon]

My New Years Resolution: To move up to Emperor dificulty.
I have been playing on Noble now for about a year, and it's time to move on. The only way I feel I can do this is with YOUR help, however. So, I have decided for the first time to post my games here in the forums. I will follow pretty much the the same format as other games I have seen posted here. Starting with my mission statement:

To advance to Emperor!
How will I do this? I will play and post a series of games with the following format:

MAP TYPE: Shuffle
SEA LEVEL: Random
CLIMATE: Random
SIZE: Standard
CIVILIZATION & LEADER: I will play each civilization alphabeticaly, picking the leader based on my preference.
DIFFICULTY: I am starting on Noble, and will advance in difficulty with every two wins. If I have not won two emperor games by the time I reach Shaka, I will have failed in my mission.
MISC - I play CIV IV BtS with the 3.17 patch (and Bhuric's) and the BUG mod.
I will not regenerate the starting location!


The Score :1 - 0


This game belongs to a civ I have never played before (Arabia), whose leader has traits I find fairly weak. (Spiritual, Protective).
The UU is the Camel Archer, a Knight which does not require horses . . . Not sure what I think about that.
The UB, (Madrassa) on the other hand, seems fairly solid, a library with +4 culture, and the ability to turn to additional citizens into priests.

THE MAP!

Well, for those of you who say I got off easy on the first game, I guess you'll like this one! Only one food source visable, but I do have two flood plains. Before I decide anything, I will listen to your feedback and advice as to where I might settle.
Also, since I am a spiritual leader and start with Myst, I should go for a religion, right (remember, this is still Noble). My thoughts right now are to go for Poly and then Mono. Should I get out Ag first though, for that rice? Maybe Poly, Ag, Mono, while building a worker first?
This time around, I'm going to put more weight in you guy's suggestions, as the first game was prety much my usual play style, and now I'm ready to see if I can improve on that. If I win this one, I'm up to Prince!

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I'd move the warrior and if you don't see anything spectacular, settle in place.

What the hell am I saying...I'm just gonna shadow this .

 

[FlyinJohnnyL]

First of all, spiritual is NOT weak, get that out of your head! You'll just have to be more conscious about abusing it. You can change civics every 5 turns. So use Vassalage, use theocracy, use organized religion, use bureaucracy, rep, HR, you get the idea. You can change pretty often if necessary.

Yes, you can get a religion on noble. But you're probably gonna own this game, so why not get ready for Prince and above? Don't go for a religion, they're harder to get at the higher levels. And besides, the other civs will get into religious wars, so you want them founding the early ones. Besides, on noble happiness isn't as much of an issue...and you aren't gonna run any early relgious civics anyway.

Protective isn't my favorite trait, but it's growing on me. I just love promotions I guess. It will allow you to build less defending units. And you can get the extra trade route from castles a little easier in each city. Not to mention the espionage.

 

[Soirana]

1SW was the first idea. It is definetely more floodplains west and these are always wellcome. And that does not cost you a turn.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

1806 UN win.

Spoiler :

Not much in this one to report. The OP is too strong for noble and I might be on a good day.

Arabia, Japan, even a no-trait/uu/ub civ would mop the floor with this map.

Arid = ridiculous FP counts. I did very little that meant effort. I settled floodplain cities after building stonehenge (since we have a ton of room), ignored Gwall since it's noble, shrined judaism since I founded it, and just used monarchy/cottages to fuel decent research even though I was mostly getting prophets in my 2x Fish GP farm.

500 AD



Liberalism in 940 AD



...With 0 bulbs

$$$$ bought UN with a super shrine and sushi gold city and 0% slider cottages. First vote didn't go well.



But Sushi wins the day:



I was JUST about to spread it to sitting bull and washington to push votes even more.

I built the UN. Ragnar was easily #2 in pop (despite never declaring war or making units stronger than archers or chariots for HR garrison, I was #1). I used free religion, and just took advantage of favorite civics for washington, sitting bull, and boudica. I had to gift them techs to get those civic bonuses in a reasonable time, but that just made them like me more .

Much as I love war, I also like the concept of "owning" AI cities in regard to the UN, while barely using any effort at all.

View attachment 199127

View attachment 199128

View attachment 199129

 

[DMOC]

If you want to post larger screenshots, you can use photobucket.com and upload pics there. I remember you saying this but I forgot to answer in the last thread.

I'd settle either in place or a tile SW to get that extra floodplain. It depends on what your warrior sees.

 

[comatosedragon]

[Thanks For The Heads-Up DMOC!]


Okay, So here we are in 2120 BC. I ended up settling in place. After moving my warrior, I still saw nothing, and my fear was that if I did move 1SW (which is clearly the better spot with 4 extra Floodplains) I would miss something in the top row of the BFC. Oh well.

Anyway, My tech order went like this : [I took flyinJohny's advice and avoided the religious techs for now] AG>(to get that rice worked ASAP), Pottery>(to get those Flood Plains cottaged)Hunting>Archery>Mining>Writing>Bronze Working. My thoughts are to now research AH, so as to reveal any horse which may be present, as this map is Majorly lacking in resources.

My build order went worker>warrior>archer>settler. Now that the settler is out, I am building granary>Madrassa.

Which brings us to now. Where do I found a second city? Should I wait to see if horse is revealed (should I have researched AH sooner?)

The best I can come up with right now is 2N of the spices, in order to nab the corn. Bronze does not seem like it will play as big a role in this game as it did in the last.

I have met my former self (washington) to the north, and Sitting Bull across the desert to the northwest.

I'm assuming this is another continents map, but the info screen shows arid climate (really?!!) and Low sea level, so it may be pangaea.

 

[DMOC]

This has to be one of the best maps I've ever seen. Settle on the floodplains and cottage spam to get lots and lots of commerce.

You'll want a production city, though, so maybe 2 north of the spices? It misses the copper, though, so if no horses are available, you may have to adjust.

EDIT: For your FIRST city, settle on the floodplains somewhere. Try to plan out your cities to maximize the amount of FP you get while having a decent number of cities.

 

[lilnev]

I like 1N of the Spices as a cottage city. And possibly 1SW of your present location, claiming seven floodplains = 2.8 unhealth, rounded down to 2. A second worker seems like a higher priority than the buildings right now.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

This has to be one of the best maps I've ever seen. Settle on the floodplains and cottage spam to get lots and lots of commerce.

You'll want a production city, though, so maybe 2 north of the spices? It misses the copper, though, so if no horses are available, you may have to adjust.

Arid maps yield an unusually large amount of floodplains. With all the room this map gives for peaceful expansion it's a great map...for any leader.

 

[Loki Strikes]

This map seems to be REX heaven as it seems that there are endless floodplains leading to commerce heaven allowing for as many cities as one can fit, and with HR you can work tons of floodplain cottages making ridiculous research, I would space or really early diplo win this map as I see no need to conquer to win.

 

[Skallagrimson]

Cottages, cha-CHING.

 

[CreeDakota]

you havent meet any warmongers and allready have archery so I would prioritize getting the FP city sites over strategic resources.

The rest of my post I basically Agree with DMOC:

1st City) Grassland NE of Wine.

Consider Farming one of the FP sites for Specilist City. Might as well use the ability of the Madrassa to the fullest.

2nd City) Corn, Spices, Hills.

 

[vicawoo]

Don't make a granary yet, get a second worker then a settler.

You should have scouted 1NE of wine to see if there's a seafood tile 3E. If no seafood, the best growth/REXing move would be settle 1E of corn, improve corn with first worker, whip monument, flood plain cottage while building warrior/archer.

Need screenshot of south.

 

[comatosedragon]

Here we are in 1 AD.

I switched the build in Mecca to a worker as suggested. Then I built archer, settler, granary, Madrassa. Also got an Aquaduct in there (pre req for Hanging Gardens, which seems like it will be very helpful on this map).

Settled out in the floodplains to the west first, then North for a (not exceptional) production city. Have a barracks up there, cranking out archers.

Cottaging up all the floodplains as you see, and getting ready to settle 2N of the horse for another cottage spam city.

Oh my how the barbarinas have been chewing me up! Lost two units, they pillaged 3 cottages . . . Think I got it under control now, sending more archers south and west to fog-bust.

Now my question is, what should I do with my great prophet? My first idea was to have him bulb Theology, then I realized theology can't be bulbed! So should I hang on to him until I research Theo, (If so, should I then bulb Divine right, or build his special building?); or should I just go ahead and settle him for the gold? I'm guessing that is the wisest move, then just assign another citizen to be a priest, by the time I get to Theo myself, shouldn't be more than a fifteen turns or so away, right? (Also, not sure if you can tell from the pic, but Washington has a Confucian missionary 1N of Damascas.)

Washington has been a good trading partner, got fishing, iron working and masonty for Aesthetics (I had originaly researched Aesthetics because I almost always go for the GL, but I then thought HG was a better choice, at least I got something for the wasted turns). He then offered to trade me Horseback Riding and 15 gold for Mathematics. I accepted, but now I am wondering if I made the wisest choice, even though I will eventualy need Riding for my UU, and the horses I am about to nab.

Sitting Bull asked for writing, I refused. That, coupled with a random event which gave me a -1 relations to him makes me think he way send some Dogs my way soon . . .

 

[UWHabs]

Theology can be bulbed, but you probably need Mono first

I'd save the prophet. If you're first to Judaism, then use the prophet for the shrine. If not, it's worth it to bulb Theo, then use your next prophet for that shrine.

 

[CreeDakota]

Religion from mono is surely gone by 1 AD. But you will probably get Christianity from bulbing theo.

Have you built any other wonders? I agree Hanging Gardens will be useful with all the FPlains.

Three cities by 1 AD seems really slow. Especially with such good land stil around.

I would also try and get a city on the coast set up from easier exploring. I cant open the save to really look around but 1 E of the oasis by the Copper is not a horrible site; work copper wine oasis and then run a specialist or two.

 

[comatosedragon]

Christianity, Islam, and Taoism are the remaining religions. Hanging Gardens is my first wonder. I do agree that 3 cities seems slow, but I did get number 1 on worlds largest civilizations a few turns ago. As far as bulbing theo, in the 'pedia when you mouseover the tech, It does not say "can be researched by a great prophet' like other techs do (divine right, Mono for example); but I thought it should be able to be bulbed too. Have to see I guess, can't recall if I have done it before.

 

[DMOC]

Use the forum search provider and type in "Great People Tech Preferences." You will see an article written by DaveMcW which shows the Great Prophet tech preferences so you can refer to that thread to know what techs you have to research (or "clear") before bulbing a certain tech.

The largest civs means the one with the most land area (I think), not necessarily the most number of cities.

Keep expanding! After Mecca completes the Hanging Gardens (try founding your fourth city before it's complete so that 4th city can get the +1 population boost), I would like to see the city produce: Settler - Worker - Settler. Maybe insert a military unit if needed somewhere.

Just by "eyeballing" the map (I didn't make a dotmap or anything, I just looked at the map), there seem to be a lot of plains hills near the floodplains up north so maybe settle 2 more cities on floodplains, one of them being near many of the plains hills for another production city and another one between that city and your (current) western city for pure commerce. EDIT: 2 north of the horses should probably be your next city, and you're right, it is a commerce city.

Finally, it seems that you don't have copper or iron for melee units if needed. I suggest building a madrassa if you haven't done so already in your northern city so it hits the 100 culture mark quicker and gets copper in your cultural borders. You can also build another cultural building, but the madrassa would be best due to the 4 culture it provides rather than the 2 from a normal library.

If you want, I could try to shadow this game next weekend and see how fast I can expand and maintain a decent tech pace by 1 AD and tell you exactly what I did, so you can use it as a reference for future games where you have tons of land available.

 

[comatosedragon]

Use the forum search provider and type in "Great People Tech Preferences." You will see an article written by DaveMcW which shows the Great Prophet tech preferences so you can refer to that thread to know what techs you have to research (or "clear") before bulbing a certain tech.

This is a very useful article! Thanks!

I suggest building a madrassa if you haven't done so already in your northern city so it hits the 100 culture mark quicker and gets copper in your cultural borders. You can also build another cultural building, but the madrassa would be best due to the 4 culture it provides rather than the 2 from a normal library.

I had thought about building Madrassa up there, but did not want to delay production of archers. But, the more I think about it, you are right. It would be just my luck if Washington settled down there . . .

If you want, I could try to shadow this game next weekend and see how fast I can expand and maintain a decent tech pace by 1 AD and tell you exactly what I did, so you can use it as a reference for future games where you have tons of land available.

That would be very cool. I had actualy thought about replaying this one myself after I finish, to see how fast I could REX; but seeing what you could do with it would be even better.

I am now also wishing I had set up these games in my normal (epic) speed, time seems to go too fast on standard, and I don't believe I have fuly adjusted to it yet . . . (My original thought was if I was going to be playing a series of games, I would want to finish them sooner, but the more I think about it, It would have made more sense to play in the speed I am used to. Oh well. Maybe in Round Three (Which is going to be Montezuma) I will up roll back to epic.)