Deity Isolation Workshop (Stan/Norm/Fractal/NH/NE)

[Pedro78]

@krikav

Spoiler :

I imagine that it makes a whole lot of sense to farm almost everything and replace with cottages only when population is saturated

With infinite worker turns, this is the optimal strategy. But on this map worker turns are limited and the benefit from farms is not that great.

I guess you have to install civ and show how it's done.

I probably won't replay this exact map (I don't have as much time as I used to, so I'd rather play something new), but if you have another one in the same lines (or not) I'll try and give it a go sometime soon.

 

[krikav]

I played on from an earlier save about right before starting pyramids, to save the bother of different barb spawnings and such.
Now I went sailing before pottery and settled the island quicker.

Spoiler :

Micro was perhaps a tiny bit more sloppy this time around (even I have troubles keeping up motivation when replaying multiple times. )
I settled most of the cities a tiny bit quicker, and GPgeneration is slightly less off. But when it comes to tech I'm abit more behind here.
That whale city I think was not good at all this close to optics but what suprises me more is that the other cities are not yet at health/happy cap either.

@Pedro78
Is there any map in this thread that you recommend in perticular...? I saw that there was a Kublai map but it had low sea level and that I find tricky.

 

[Pedro78]

Is there any map in this thread that you recommend in perticular...?

The Boudica map is definitely a benchmark. Not a very hard one when you know what you're doing but both Lain and I broke our teeth when we first played it (while Rusten got a pretty convincing win). It's also a map that I've replayed multiple times.

 

[krikav]

The boudica map, T135 optics

Spoiler :

I recall that I at least started this map way back, and I did glance abit at the discussion in the thread as I played along.
I did fall into the "Dry rice" trap though, and I probably was abit too ambitious in settling cities quickly.

Had the settler for Isca done waaay to early, but didn't settle untill I was sure it wouldn't interfere with optics date and for the cash needed to upgrade that trireme.

Had 4 cities and 3 libraries up T79, and somewhere around there I got very confused about how I would be able to expand more (wanted more cities), and also get existing cities large enough while also getting 3 GSci in time.
Then I read up on the thread and saw that the consensus was that probably skipping academy was wise.

I'm not sure that it was best, capital did get alot of commerce with all those wines improved and a academy might pay of in the long run.
But it was very comfortable not having to streach everything to the limit getting those 3 scientists out and instead just comfortable producing two while growing and expanding.

Now I'm entering the really interesting part, where possibilities to screw up are much larger.
I'll whip 3 caravels so I can go W, SW, SE and E at the same time as tundra indicate I'm way up north.
Some lovely fish island in the south too that trireme+scout will check out first.

Wonders seem to go pretty fast. I know Joao is in the game (Saw his name in the thread) and I also think Ragnar but I can have mixed that up.

 

[krikav]

Anyone else playing abit of ISO fun?

Spoiler Up at T146 :

Saw two islands when moving southeast, one has double fish but in second ring. Moving down to settle those two now.
I love to go and settle some astro-land, getting some domestic offshore islands are nice for when most AIs go merc, and more cities are more cities...
Sometimes I think that I go abit overboard with this though, and that I delay other ventures that could be more fruitfull.

It feels like a somewhat safe way to play though, if I can't manage to steal someone elses land at last I have more myself.

Got a whole lot of trades before breaking monopoly on astro.
First AI I met was Sury in his caravel and that made me abit sad, But then I stumbled on gilgamesh who was lacking compass.
Then Saladin who was lacking compass+metalcasting.
Delayed astro-bulb for a turn or two to set up some bartering between them and Joao, (got feud+currency from saladin/gilga which I in turn sold to Joao as he was lacking them.
Also got a map from some of them and saw China culture, but I avoided meeting them before finishing these trades so save abit WFYABTA with him.
Met Ragnar last with a scout.

Traded away astro with gilga for cs+engineering, thought about getting philo to broker that to the ones who where lacking it, but I don't have much use for philo and I wanted to swap civics to bur asap and start some cs-farming.
Guilds got up for trade just this turn when I almst had given up hope so I have just traded astro for guilds with Qin.

Religious divides are complete, I don't think I have ever seen something like this.

Ragnar doing his usual thing... Major risk if he goes on a rampage.

Getting a GSci out pretty soon, not sure whats the best use though.
Likely bulb chemistry..? But I think a GA would be very nice too as I need to swap to vass/slavery pretty soon.

 

[krikav]

T161 Boudica game

Spoiler Questions and thoughts regarding trading away monopoly techs, and fleet buildup in relation to steel (drydock) :

I did end up putting a bulb into chemistry, and swapped back to vass/slavery after I had borderpop in the double-fish island.
I'm making my way to steel now and building some random units. Should probably start to count how many I have of each.
Did get a dun in capital so the muskets I build there start with guerilla (Want them as stack protectors and try to find landingspots on hills).
(Think this is a trick I read off you somewhere @Pedro78)

The problem lies in that cash is running dry. I'm almost out of black areas to scout and my map trades are getting down to 5-10 if that.
The last turn or so, Ragnar and Gilga put up PP for trade. Did check last turn and this turn and noone of them seem to be going chemistry.
Feels like it would be almost insanity to give away chemistry then, as I could hold monopoly on it for a long time if I don't.
But with 12 villages and 12 towns, PP would be pretty neat to get as I'm trying to go to steel asap.

I don't know who would be best to hit yet, but I'm thinking that it would be really nice to go for Qin, his best cities are pretty nearby and he is strong.
Gilgamesh looks nice too and has built alot of wonders.
I have tried to refrain from trading with Joao to try keep him behind, thinking that I can take him next if I lose steam against my first target.

Bonus question...
How do you manage the fleet-buildup?
With agg leaders, I often find myself being a cheapscate and building just so few galleons that I can possibly get away with first, and then try to rush forth a few more after steel so I can get them with drydock bonus.
Often this results in my army standing on my continent eager to fight and looking with disbelief at my incompetence.

 

[krikav]

@BornInCantaloup Thanks for the feedback! Good points!

Spoiler :

I have played on abit longer, and have mostly done what you adviced.
Phased out building of maces/pikes and only building trebs now, some coastal cities have started building wealth (rolling onwards overflow for drydocks).
Have started some workshopping, perhaps a swap to nationhood/caste later on could be good. Ships get their two promotions from drydocks anyway.
The land is food deprived, especially now since I crammed in more filler cities. Just having food enough to support drafting might be difficult.

Have only breifly considered Sury, he is so far away! Will consider him more.
At T169, still noone is going chemistry and I have monopoly. Did not do a trade for PP.

Noone is plotting still, but Ragnar looks so dangerous... I'm trying to tell Sury&Qin to build more units but they do not listen.

 

[krikav]

T187, I got a foothold on the main continent. Keeping Joao behind, but things are somewhat messy.

Spoiler :

I did build 6 galleons prior to drydocks, just to be able to take a quick bite.
Stod safely on this hill and shot down his reinfocements for a few turns.
I did scout him quite abit but he didn't have much units at all.
After this though, I had a hell on the sea as I got my hands on economics and swapped to free market+caste and didn't whip, so I had way to few frigates and got my seafood on the frontier island pillaged. >_<

Ofcourse Qin pulls rifling out of thin air and ruins all fun. >_<
Ceasefire after this, not sure how to make more progress. Have some friendly AIs and have waited a long time for some yummy trade, but that doesn't seem to like it want to happen.

Have 4 privateers at Joaos place making things sour for him. Killed 14 carracks so far and likely got 200 plunder gold. But now I have to circle the island staying clear of two of Ragnars frigates. :<
But Joao is abit behind.
Have gotten some diplo hits and w/o religion I think I can only have ragnar friendly, Noone seem to have any beakers into steel yet.
I did give Gilga steel in hope that I could get some bunnyjumping trades through, but got stuck after I got nationalism, constitution, lib, economics.
Noone is giving me replacable parts or military science.
Rangar have been plotting for a while, and I forsee a future where he makes vassals of his entire continent.
Sally is likely to roll over Gilga soon too, but Gilga has cannons and cuirs and I have been holding of peacemaking there in the hope that they will trade armies with each other.

@BornInCantaloup
I really feel the lack of production. I kind of want to just swap to slavery again but not sure that would help. (A momentary bliss but then darkness I would assume.)

Kind of thinking that it was too ambitious to try to take on any of the big AIs and that I should just have gone for Joao.

I think that in the situation I now find myself in, I should just continue to build the best units I can, and stock up in my foothold and wait for Ragnar to drop his hammer and see if I can piggyback and get myself some fragsteals.

Taking a break here now, want to check out the new NC227 Stalin game.

 

[Fippy]

I would go for Grens (self-tech), with Boudi they should also be good enuf on defense.
Qin has no hill cities, just need something better than Muskies.

Also no more hammers into Frigates, more Cannons & Maces (for upgrades),
you can transport everything while at peace
Plundering everything around Nanjing (only corn for Bactrian) for more gold is good too.

Ofc you could also switch targets, Qin doable but all depends on Rags i guess.

 

[krikav]

Thanks for advice @Fippy!
It feels like it takes so long time though! Think it was 9 turns for mil/sci at 100% research, and I can likely afford only 6-7 turns or so.
But you are likely spot on with boats.
I likely would have continued to build way more boats, as I felt good claiming superiority at sea, harassing Joao with privateers (so fun that he is absolutely commited to not getting chemistry).
That I have allready gotten some drydocks also makes it easy to fall into a trap. "Oh, this city has a drydock, I should build boats so I don't lose the bonus."
Building boats that you don't need... well thats really losing hammers.

 

[Fippy]

7 turns, could be worse ~~
Frigates are good units, but feels like you have enuf (or will after completing those started) to protect those short sea ways, not like Qin has many coastal cities left.

 

[Pedro78]

Did get a dun in capital so the muskets I build there start with guerilla

That's a fun detail, assuming every musket comes from your capital. Depending on the timing it might have been superior to spread confu and switch to theocracy.

A couple of quick comments on your game:

Spoiler :

I think there is a lot of room for improvement in your pre-Optics play. Some detailed insights on how you handled the first 80 turns or so would probably help. On this map, Optics can be reached around 300AD with 6 developed cities, an Academy and possibly a 4th GS on the way (gives a lot of flexibility in the middle game). It's all about having a structured early game with good micro. I know this sounds like harsh criticism, so if you post a few early saves I'll have a look at them and give you some feedback.
(The mistakes virtually everyone makes are: not enough workers early on, not enough chopping, bad writing-timing, bad monarchy-timing.)

From the very quick look I've had at your middle-game write-up, a few general notes:

• The ideal war-prep timing goes like this: you get 10 cannons out on the turn you reach Steel (pre-whipped trebs), load them up in your navy along with your other troops and launch the attack immediately. This means everything should be ready on the turn you reach Steel. Reaching such a situation might take a bit of seemingly counter-intuitive play, but it'll allow you to attack sooner on most maps. Emphasizing production is A LOT more efficient than emphasizing research, so production should almost never be a bottleneck. The "let's build one pike here, one treb there and I'll count units once I reach Steel" *strategy* only works if you already have a winning position. (To be fair, you're still playing a lot better than I did when I first played this map)
• Maybe it's been covered before and I missed it, but not going for Joao first seems weird. He's just so weak!
• Did you make several switches in and out of Caste? It seems pretty bad unless you combine it with workshops + drafted rifles which are not a good idea on this map.

Have 4 privateers at Joaos place making things sour for him. Killed 14 carracks so far and likely got 200 plunder gold

I like this idea. In general, finding sensible uses for dubious builds such as Duns or Privateers tends to make the game more fun.

Anyways, enough ramble for tonight

 

[krikav]

No problem at all with harsh criticism.
Thank you so much @Pedro78

Spoiler :

Learning new tricks is what makes this game so fun. I know I do things wrong all the time, try to correct things myself but it's not easy.
300ad optics with 6 cities is probably doable, I settled a 7th city T108 and got a 7th developed city but likely lost some turns on optics because of that.
I have difficulties not utilizing the power in food sources. So that 7th city was a city on a PH way east, to start flourish on the green sheep, as that food was not needed nor wanted by the other mature cities anymore.
Just taking the citizens of that sheep might be optimal play from the optics date viewpoint, but it's so hard.



The screenshots I already have available, saves from the early game is also attached.

Spoiler Pre Optics :

As I was playing along, I looked at Rustens screenshots (did not open his saves) and took screenshots at the same turns to compare.
I had a different settlement pattern and tech order due to me settling close to rice and teching agriculture though.
Something that I reacted at was that I had basically clearcut everything early, but he had not.
Here is the period after writing, when building libraries and saving cash.

I'm at 4 workers here, will have to look at earlier saves to see how soon I got them, but I did not get more after I had four. They where a tiny bit streched and 5 might have been nice sometimes

Here I have reached metalcasting.

Closing in on optics.

And at optics.

* I don't know the pre-whipped trebs -> cannons trick, at what hammer and to what purpose?
Say I whip a treb at 20/80 (without forge), and the natural hammers of the city is 2, won't I end up the next turn with a cannon at 82/100 and just screwed up my cities whipanger?
Compared to just having a few hamers invested in trebs all over the board, the turn after steel I can then whip cannons everywhere.
What is the gain of pre-whipping? Is it just that one turn saved (which is very good obviously), or is there more to it?
I appreciate that there should be a sense of urgency and that what can make close games make or break is just the ability to streamline the process, shave a few turns here and there.

* "Emphasizing production is A LOT more efficient than emphasizing research, so production should almost never be a bottleneck."
You probably have to clarify that, I don't follow.

* Why not Joao? Because I saw that he was weak, and that he will most likely stay weak the entire game. Especially if I help things along in that direction by cutting him out of tech trades, and screwing him up where I can.
I reserve him for a backup later on, I can allways regroup and go take his continent later on if I fail with toppling someone stronger.
Correct or not, I have no idea. But thats the reasoning.

* Did you make several switches in and out of Caste? It seems pretty bad unless you combine it with workshops + drafted rifles which are not a good idea on this map.
I did make several switches yes.
1.
when I got my hands on CS, and also went into caste by then.
Partially to provide borderpop in the dual-fish island, and partly to rush out one more GPerson (a scientist, that half-bulbed chemistry).

2. Swapped to vass+slavery to whip good units after I got out the GSci.

3. When I got economics I swapped to Free market+caste again, cities that could be whipped was starting to pile up their whip-anger alot, and some of the larger cities ran a few workshops.

I liked 1, and 2 felt necessery.
Don't really like 3, as I only got a marginal benefit from caste, and it made reinforcing problematic.
But I don't know, feel like a whole lot of flip-flopping.


Yes, exploring the world of marginal utility of exotic stuff keeps the game more interesting, absolutely!
But if one does it to the detriment of the game it can make the game very un-interesting too. Not fun losing every game because you are buliding Duns.

 

[Pedro78]

I'll have a look at the saves later this week.

Spoiler :

So that 7th city was a city on a PH way east, to start flourish on the green sheep, as that food was not needed nor wanted by the other mature cities anymore.

Makes sense, but I'd still rather use the extra food to run scientists and get one more timely GS, delaying the settling of the 7th city to post-Optics.

What is the gain of pre-whipping? Is it just that one turn saved (which is very good obviously), or is there more to it?

It's just one turn, which is still a lot, as you pointed out. You have to whip the trebs with 20+ overflow or you'll run into trouble.

* "Emphasizing production is A LOT more efficient than emphasizing research, so production should almost never be a bottleneck."
You probably have to clarify that, I don't follow.

Whipping is extremely efficient. Cottages and stuff not so much. I wouldn't even care that much about the whip anger in the new cities (the ones settled post-Optics): they can always be gifted away and recaptured (which is one of the big advantages of attacking Joao: you can make peace and redeclare for free). In post-Optics isolation, it's easy to get caught up in the "oh, my research is so low!" train and start building observatories, working coast tiles and stuff. Just keep in mind that attacking asap is often the most important thing.

* Why not Joao? Because I saw that he was weak, and that he will most likely stay weak the entire game. Especially if I help things along in that direction by cutting him out of tech trades, and screwing him up where I can.
I reserve him for a backup later on, I can allways regroup and go take his continent later on if I fail with toppling someone stronger.
Correct or not, I have no idea. But thats the reasoning.

Very greedy approach. It can get you in trouble, but can also be very rewarding so it's mostly a matter of playstyle.

I liked 1, and 2 felt necessery.
Don't really like 3, as I only got a marginal benefit from caste, and it made reinforcing problematic.
But I don't know, feel like a whole lot of flip-flopping.

Yup, 1 and 2 were fine, FM+Caste was bad.

Yes, exploring the world of marginal utility of exotic stuff keeps the game more interesting, absolutely!
But if one does it to the detriment of the game it can make the game very un-interesting too. Not fun losing every game because you are buliding Duns.

You should try the Jaguar rush. Pretty tricky and a little suspicious, but works more often than not.

 

[krikav]

T228 (tbc to T247)

Spoiler :

Ragnar went for Qin rather soon, but I tried best I could to piggyback and did get some crumbs.

Both of their stacks died, but now I bribe Sally to leave Gilga alone. Trapping alot of Sallys units.

Same trick. These two cities did not bring me much joy, but they did make life easier for the cities further west.

The last of the privateers are cornered! Carrak kill count 26.

Could not get Guangschou, not enough units myself, and ragnar now one-shots cities.

Attacking safely from Gilgas culture, racking up huge war success.

Alot of grenadiers are guerilla2+combat2+formation so I dared make some effort to get the holy city. Did not see his horde of cuirs before I entered though. I thought he depleted his units defending his iceball city.
Ofcourse now ragnar DoWs Saladin too, and instantly grabs a city of him. :<

I heal with promotions and continue onwards, he hits me again and is now willing to capitulate!
Sury is hammering Joao so I board the boats and try to get there in time.

 

[krikav]

Spoiler T247 :

About the same time I am ready to join in on the fun at Joaos place, Sury grabs a few of his cities and makes him a Vassal.
I can't DoW Sury because of my vunerable cities on his mainland, so I get him busy with Ragnar.
The race is on Ragnar!

I lose a ton of boats to Surys destroyers. Thats about two thirds of my "army". A similar sized stack is stuck at Sallys continent as I didn't have enough boats.

Ragnars stack looks... Abit more impressive.

I got most of it. At least I kicked sury of the island (He had taken Oporto, Lagos, Braga and Evora!)

Ragnar just finished Hollywood, so he will get UN to.
Sury whom just got his first legendary city cries abit though, as he lost most of his other cities that where close, second and third are now at 100+ turns.
Ragnar winning space seems awfully likely now, and it will take quite some effort to prevent that.

 

[Fippy]

Veeery interesting, so do you think Grens was a good pick?
Doubtful that Rags leaves you in peace, with his vassals hating you.
Usually this situation asks for Tanks, but he will have such advanced units by then..any ideas?

 

[krikav]

@Fippy

Spoiler :

Yes, I think going for grenadiers quickly was a good choice! Had I tried to hold out for a RP-trade I would have been in no position to get the stuff I did get.
I did get duns in two more cities too, so almost all new grenadiers got very nice promotions (guerilla2, combat1+pinch at 4xp or guerila2+combat1+2+formation at 8xp, very nice. That I was slow to rifling did have it's merits!

Didn't look very closely at that position where I put the game on hold yesterday (Playing the NC Stalin now!), so not 100% sure about what I say now.

Isn't it just ragnars personal attitude toward me+Sally which is important? What his vassals thinks of me I thought was irrelevant.
But yes, just keeping him at friendly toward me and Sally will likely be impossible so he might come after me at some time anyway.

There is no onshore oil on my island. Sally has one source, nothing at gilgas place.
Forgot to check at Joaos island if I got any there, but I was abit worried about the lack of oil.
And even with oil... I'm not sure I have any shot at going head to head with rangar when it comes to units, even if I would catch him at rough parity.
Tanks vs a ragnar-stack of mechinfs I don't think would work out.
For warfare, I think that I probably have to get nukes, but I'm not sure I can get there quick enough. Hard to judge the pace before Joaos cities come online.

I do have Sistine (Uruk), and my mainland do have some cities that are dense with towns by now, so that might be worth considering too.
I have alot of different religions, but they are spread out, but with rushbuy I might be able to get temples/cathedrals in time? Don't have much experience with lategame culture attempts.
I don't think racing Ragnar to space would work, but I'm not entierly sure it would fail either. They do such weird stuff later.

I do have a GEng ready and a GMerch is about 95% done in that dual-fish city iirc.
GEng for ironworks somewhere to have a chance to build manhattan in a reasonable timeframe?

 

[krikav]

@BornInCantaloup

Spoiler :

I think that is a extremly good way to play this map.
I take it that you settled on the wine, and worked a unimproved wine to secure buddhism? Did you see anything in demographics that would justify this move?
Can you construct some T0 justification for that play, or is it only justifed if knowing from T0 that it's iso?

If you just manage to get your hands on Taoism too, you a set of 3 religions which all have their cathedral that can be built with copper, really nice!

 

[Pedro78]

@krikav

Spoiler about your saves :

T32.

• I don't really like SIP (not bad per se, but settling on the wine is superior, especially without map knowledge), but Ag-AH was dubious. AH-mining into a fast Settler would have been better.
• The Wheel before Mining is horrible. That PH-mine is essential.
• I kinda like your fogbusters' positions, but you maybe could've kept it close-packed and built a Settler at size 3 (not 100% sure about the timing).

T38.

• Still not building the PH-mine? The road won't let you settle your first city any quicker and production is currently your main bottleneck (by far)

T43.

• You went for BW before Pottery, which is good.
• 2nd city comes really late due to all the above.
• Still building useless roads instead of the essential PH-mine.
• At this point, another Warrior around Vienne would probably be in order if you want to play this safe.
• I think there are several ways to play the opening turns, namely keep the capital at size 3, working the PH-mine and chopping everything (very straightforward, AH-mining-Wheel-BW) OR going for early agriculture (probably AH-mining-Ag-BW), taking advantage of those winefarms and whipping stuff. Getting both Agri and TW is definitely a mistake.
• The main reason why settling on the wine is superior is that it allows AH-mining-BW, which makes for a very fast start (it may make dealing with barbs a little bit trickier, but with agg warriors it should be fine)

T48.

• Not much has changed compared to T43. I don't like the FP-road at first glance, but since you now have both BW and good food surplus there isn't much use for the PH-mine anymore, so it's fine
• Now you probably want to chop 1NE of Bibracte and 2whip the settler
• Hammers into the monument in Vienna are fine on T48, considering the barb situation. However I don't think it was a good decision when you started on it on T43: an extra warrior might have been useful, and starting on a warrior, then whipping a worker into it at size 2 is quite efficient.

T49.

• Double-chop in Bibracte? No whipping the Settler? You are already close to writing, but have only 2 cities and are still emphasizing commerce over production. This is inefficient.

T56.

• Building an extra worker: good
• Chopping instead of improving Vienna's copper: horrible
• Reasonable timing to improve the sheep in city3: good
• Not whipping bibracte: bad
• Not doing anything in Vienna: bad
• Going for Fishing before Pottery: seemingly a good move, but it mostly reflects that the overall timing of your opening is bad. The fact that you don't need Pottery immediately shows that you haven't emphasized production enough from the beginning.
• Actually, Fishing before Pottery is bad, now that I think of it. Because early(ish) Pottery allows to whip a granary in Bibracte and start whipping a bunch of stuff there, further allowing to stop chopping this area and start doing other useful stuff (i.e. the copper mine, chopping in the East, but also cottages). This also saves some forests, allowing to chop a settler (for city #5 or #6, depending on the timing) in Bibracte once you've reached happy cap and are running scientists.

T63.

• Copper still not improved. That's a huge loss in terms of production.
• The chop in Tolosa seems fine, as long as you manage to optimally whip the Granary 3-2
• Whipping the Monument in Vienne is terrible. Not needed at all and you need Workers and Settlers. I'd probably also skip the granary there for a while, just work Oasis + Cottage + Copper and use it as a worker/settler farm.
• You still aren't whipping in Bibracte, which should be done at least once.

T70.

• Writing is in, but no city is anywhere near ready to build a Library and start running scientists.
• You're putting hammers in barracks in Vienne and in a monument in Tolosa, instead of a library in both
• Both of Gergovia's forests should be chopped to speed up development. Building Tolosa's cottage first wasn't good. Tolosa's remaining 2 forests should probably be kept for health purposes (and you won't have much to chop there anyway).
• 4 workers is too little. You're approaching a phase where you want to grow every city to size 6-7 and have at least 4 good tiles to work for each of them. You're also going to build a couple more cities around the time you reach Monarchy, but by then you'll need even more improved tiles for your main cities to work. So you probably need one more worker right now, soon followed by another.
• The main idea behind all this criticism is that you want to uniformise the development between your main cities so you can deal with milestones (writing, monarchy) more efficiently (adopting HR is of little help if you only have one or 2 cities close to happy cap; reaching writing is pointless if your cities can't start building libraries and running scientists). I'm also assuming that, on a map like this one, you want 2 scientists for Astro and 2 more for later bulbing/possible academy. You may only want 3 and have an easier development, but getting that 4th guy isn't that much of a burden and it can be a huge asset in the middlegame.

T79.

• You seem to be doing fine considering your T70 position. However...
• Gergovia looks a bit funny at size 2 (it'll take a while before it contributes).
  
• No 5th city in sight yet
• Scouting is terrible. You haven't revealed the southern fish. As soon as the barbs are dealt with, you should aim to reveal every possible land and sea tile to both find new potential city spots and possible connections with other islands (both of which can be game-changing).
• Even though your cities are underdeveloped, your 4 workers are struggling to improve the land fast enough (not repeating myself, just emphasizing the fact that you need to build more workers fairly early on)
• From now on, the game is fairly straightforward. Most insufficiencies at T79 are direct consequences of earlier inaccuracies.

T93.

• Again, a good continuation from your T79 position, but...
• At this point, you want 2 more cities (not sure if you knew about the southern fish at this point, or if you were deliberately not scouting anything). The next 2 cities bring +2 health everywhere (extremely important) as well as some extra mid-game commerce and production. Your worker count is fine for 4 cities at health cap, but you would ideally have six cities and grow every one of them 2-3 extra pop in the next ~10T. So you're missing out on a lot of development there.

While this is all pretty basic stuff, it's easier to come up with when you analyze a map you've already played than when you're actually playing a new game. Your play here is still quite decent and all the harsh criticism above is pointed at a few inaccuracies that snowball into playing an o.k. game instead of a great one. Identifying these small mistakes and not repeating them allows you to improve as a player. I've currently just reinstalled Civ4 and am trying to find an efficient way to improve my gameplay. Maybe taking a save every 4 turns and then analyzing every single one of them is a good place to start.

Anyways, happy reading