Emperor Cookbook I: Ghandi

ChromiumL

Warlord
Joined
Jan 29, 2008
Messages
263
This game has been completed! See EC II for the next game with Mehmed II!

The Emperor Cookbook is a concurrent succession game series to help readers learn how to play and win at Emperor level in Civilization 4: Beyond the Sword, v3.17

This is the 1st game of the series.

Some of you may be familiar with the previous Monarchist Cookbook games. We decided to raise the level of difficulty to Emperor. Because we are always playing from the best save, this difficulty should be approximately equal to Monarch level difficulty.

For more information or to discuss the format, please visit the Monarchist Cookbook Bullpen.

========

For those who have already downloaded the save--it was accidently posted with huts still on the map. Please ensure that you are playing from the save called: EC I--The Beginning 2 (4000BC)

Our first Emperor Cookbook game features Ghandi. We will be playing at Emperor difficulty, Epic, with a Fractal map. Huts and events are disabled for this game, as they tend to make things more random.

Here is the info on our leader, his unique unit and building as well as our starting position and settings:

Spoiler :



UU:



UB:



Starting position:



Settings (the map is fractal):





========

Round one lasts from 4000 BC - 1500 BC.

Please play this Round and submit your Report into this thread by next Wednesday (the 22nd) if possible.


IMPORTANT: Please do not discuss opening strategies until after you have played and reported Round 1. Before that please use spoilers.


At the end of your Round, please remember to name your save with your name, game and Round # & game date (i.e. "EC1 Round 1 MyName BC-1500.CivBeyondSwordSave"). (And please don't forget to attach it to your Round report, either! :lol:)

========

Roster:

YOU! - contributor, voter - our most important fixture, the readers who follow the threads and play along.

Now that we have upped the difficulty level, we will return to the 'best ball' system of selecting and playing saves. What this essentially means is that after we have completed each round, everyone will have a chance to vote on which save is in the best position. The winning save will be used for the next round.

If there is any player who is strong at Emperor+ level, it would be great to have you post your saves to show us how it's done. However, I request that any of you who realize your round was far superior remove your save from the voting. This rule is intended to ensure that the game doesn't get into a overly strong winning position after only a few rounds (because what fun is that? ;)).

Voting Rules:

1. You may NOT vote on your own save (but you are encouraged to state the strengths and weaknesses of your save)
2. Only those who have posted a round may vote (those who are shadowing are always encouraged to express their opinion!)
3. Don't vote on a save that has voluntarily been removed from the running by the person who submitted it.
4. At the end of each round you can vote on 3 saves for first, second and third place. I believe that these votes should be made publicly in order to allow for as much discussion as possible. I strongly encourage you to explain why you are voting for a particular save. This is one of the best ways to learn, and that's what this game is all about! If you feel uncomfortable voting publicly, PM me with your vote.

After a couple days for voting and discussion a winner will be declared and we will move on to the next round.

=======

A special shout out goes to r_rolo1 who provided us with our first map!

=======

And with that, let the Game begin...

========

Intrathread links (ToC): (note, the turn sets are subject to change, this is a tentative schedule to get this first round underway, we are still trying to find the best length for each round)

Round 0: The starting save (this post)
Round 1: 4000 BC - 1500 BC- Mr. Morph
Round 2: 1500 BC - 400 AD- Monsterzuma
Round 3: 400 AD - 1100 AD- Soirana
Round 4: 1100 AD - 1500 AD - Game Finished--Soirana gets a victory!
Round 5: 1500 AD - 1700 AD - upcoming
Round 6: 1700 AD - 1820 AD - upcoming
Round 7: 1820 AD - 2050 AD - upcoming
 

Attachments

  • EC I--The Beginning2 (4000 BC).CivBeyondSwordSave
    26 KB · Views: 468
My save has events and huts on, is that correct? The screenie says they are off.
 
HELL ON RANDOM EVENTS THEY NEED TO DIE.

Oh wait. I'm sane on strategy and tips. Right. Signing in, but HOF gauntlets are extremely distracting right now...but I'll try to do everything because I like civ a lot :p.

I win consistently at emperor, not so at immortal (three times total now)...so I doubt I'd qualify in that "too good" range...hopefully in a month or two :lol:.
 
I've started lurking around again now that I've got some time to actually play Civ, so I might give this a go. Going to be strange playing without random events though.

I do win a lot of the games I start on Emperor, but there are some weaknesses in my game that stop me from getting any higher ATM (only won my first Immortal game a few days ago, and even that was on favourable game settings) so I'd assume I'm not in the too good category for now.
 
After reading this forum I finally decided to join in.

But huts are definetely on. I would say one particular is rather hard not to pop;)
 
That is actually my fault :p

I forgot to clean the huts after cutting the hut option...... ;)

I'll post the save here as soon as i finish the report of DMI XII

EDIT : Here it is .ChromiumL should post this one...

And sorry for the inconvenience ;)
 
Sorry about the hut problem. I would appreciate it if we all started from the save with no huts so that everyone has a fair start.

The new save is posted above. You should ensure you are playing from the save titled: EC I--The Beginning2 (4000 BC). Or you could just get it from Rolo's post ;).
 
Axe or sword rush!

Hmm...although that could also be horses possibly. Hmmm Hmmm Hmmm. That also assumes we have someone to rush, we'll see.

I'm pretty tempted to be an idiot face and gamble on religion.
 
Took long enough to get a cookbook for this difficulty :mischief:

Signing in. I am winning about 50% of my games on Emperor. Strangely, this is one of the few leaders I have not played in my trek from Prince to Immortal (where I can't cut it :p)

Good luck to everyone.
 
As I had just finished my last game - beaten on Monarch - and for my first attempt at Emperor, I hope I haven't done too badly. I'll stick a report up tommorow for everyone.

On a side note, can someone tell me where the default folder is for the BUG Autologger to create logs please so I can stick it up as well.
 
Round 1:

Spoiler :
Short writeup as it was pretty uneventful.

Found a bunch of neighbors, Shaka's capital is just south of us, it has SEVEN FOOD RESOURCES - not to mention a bunch of hills.

Shaka has no copper or horses yet and has a few archers out scouting my lands (he is just about to settle a city near his copper)

I have 10 axes out, probably get another 3 in the next two turns. Am ready to declare on Shaka in about 4 turns. Plan to beeline for his capital, it is on flatlands - then raze his copper city and any other cities I can. Will probably get his copper city and a city he built near some more corn/pigs (another excellent spot for farming GP's)

I have a large amount of gold in my kitty and found marble, plan after war is to rex into Shaka's lands and tech Aesthetics/Lit and build TGL. Will use Bombay for GP farming (Shaka's capital would be better but it has super production and will be my HE/Ironworks city.

England is just behind Shaka but I should have enough land to rex into. IMO this is a very good starting position and there should be several strong saves posted.
 
Hi everyone!:)

Sign me up too!
I will try to play this week end...

Cheers,

Raskolnikov
 
Spoiler :
Nothing special, basic tech and building lines etc. There is space for 6 cities, so I skipped the early rush and found 4. When the gold mine is build, economy is just ok. I think. A major setback was that a worker was killed by a barbarian spear. :mad:

edit: spear also destroyed my corn farm.

View attachment 191548
 
keep in mind i am reasonable monarch player and on emperor i usually get serious problems.

I've spent roundin heavy chopping mode and economy is. Well, not in negative numbers :rolleyes:.

I also played from first save so tried replaying repeating myself. Especially dumb parts and tried not using knowledge of things.
Spoiler :

settled in place, despite temptation for early monument for second border popup:crazyeye: went worker first.
Techs - Agriculture. After i had hard time but decided on BW, cause no horses would probably require archery, and in such case i might start going for hunting first.
Well, I did know where copper is, but i did same in first game.
After that it was wheel-pottery-writing.
Looking at fact i have built zero granaries and recently landed first cottage... Yeah, seeing horses could have been bright idea.
Worker actions were farm corn, farm grassland (yeap i probably farmed horses or iron, although idea was i needed food for growth) which luckily was not copper tile:rolleyes:. After that i mined sheep (which is still in that poor state) and started chopping.

that is me farming probably recource tile while being 0.2 of Shaka:D


And mine research evaluation. Guess that has not improved much.


The poor state of second city.

Somehow i feared Shaka too much to waste time on monument and farming the cows. It did remained in that state for quite a time.

Some whipping in capital (first whip was second worker, second barracks)


Also i met nice barb party
This explains some scouting problem in middle part (i mean black hole between India and Spain).

2k BC some barb cities started appearing:

Now, can some bright map making heads explain why it had warriors as defense? Last thing i needed was easy town for Shaka's troop training.

England obviously teched sailing but failed to get copper behind Shaka.

So Shaka had nearly everything... Except much time left:lol:

Well, that was once more time very dumb of me. You see these Shaka's troop under mine stack? Well, as soon as i declared my stack was one more tile away. Oh, at least that settler was explained how to work under Indian rules. Fast that is.

Still capitol had four more archers. Nearly enough. Nearly.

Our heroic warrior came from behind, took that stupid worker (who suddenly started working fast under India's flag) and knocked last archer.
After that i proceeded onto gems city. Keep in mind with some barb action i managed to make medic II axe. Unluckily my warriors were nowhere close to woodsmen III.

State property:
Remains of Zulu empire

Well, that is one archer defending and two axes going for it. Zulu border popped one/two turns ago so Shaka's copper can not be online.

north (no border pop in Bombey feels so bad)

south
Well, i don't think it will be save you want to play from, but...
At very least Shaka is dead.
Technically not yet. But one archer, size one city and promoted axes coming on him. Also there is enough room to expand (Except fact there is no way to pay for that). Some floodplains in between, keepable barb city which had only warriors as defenders last time i checked it. Also we have gems, which are still under jungle.

Religions: Isabella has Buddhism, Hammurabi Hindu and Juddhaism was found 2400BC (not Issabella as she techs polytheism). Buddhism has 20% influence so Issy is making some missionaries. Hopefully i could get some.

Economics: income sits dead on zero, no libraries made yet. Although there is nice amount of riverside grassland and floodplains to cottage. Also there is five workers (3 ex Shaka's:cool:).
Resource trading - England only. Has clams on offer. Does not have copper. So short visit to London is possible.

Techs: Have no Animal husbandry:( (no horses, no sheep, no cows). Some free beakers sunken into Aesthetics in hopes to trade it some day.
Espionage: Most points are on Issy. Once alphabet is in place, some minor tech stealing is possible.

My previous effort with huts. Boy that was better. Shaka did build Stonehenge. I was already thinking what to do with that prophet:lol: Aslo he was nice enough to cut jungle over gems for me. Mmmm, riverside grassland gems.
 

Attachments

  • Emperess Soira Round1.CivBeyondSwordSave
    95.2 KB · Views: 282
I'd like to join, how long time do we have for the first save?
Do I just post my pretty screenies with text or do I apply somewhere first?

(ooooh I will struggle as I'm used to prince/monarch !tbr)
 
@ andersw:

All players are welcome - just grab the save and play to 1500BC, should be ok if you do it within a week.

Your report can be as short or as long as you like, the real purpose of playing along is to learn how to win at this difficulty.

Struggling is a GOOD thing - I picked up the Immortal Cookbook game, posted totally crap saves, analysed what better players did and why. Managed to move up a difficulty level because of it :)


@ all:

Spoiler :

I am going to use this game to try different approaches/starts - better this than a private offline game as I have a basis of comparison.

I've tried to refine/optimise the original strategy I chose in round one. (my original try is ABSOLUTELY the one that stands for the purposes of voting etc!)

If posting this spoiler is against the 'spirit' of the game then I apologize in advance.

Spoiler :



Basically, I managed to steal a worker from Shaka very early on, take peace and redeclare - which allowed me to skip building a second worker and settle Copper earlier. Teched Ag -> BW -> Wheel -> AH - > Writing, chopped a ton of forests and took out Shaka.
 
I shall watch the efforts of the aggressive souls with interest, but I like to play a peaceful game, so you will see a rather different approach.

Spoiler :
I choose the following techs - agriculture, animal husbandry, writing, bronze working, masonry, the wheel and (currently) part way towards mathematics. I settled my first great scientist (I think this is better than an academy when you have a low science rate). I hope to build axeman and capture the barb city. I think that should give me sufficient space to build all I want.

RJM
 

Attachments

  • RJM -EC1 BC-1500.CivBeyondSwordSave
    103.2 KB · Views: 248
Top Bottom