Emperor Cookbook - Napoleon!!

Gumbolt

Phoenix Rising
Joined
Feb 12, 2006
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Location
UK
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, v3.19

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/Emperor level difficulty.

Our Emperor Cookbook game features Napoloen. We will be playing at Emperor difficulty, Epic, with a standard sized 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 :


Our Fearless Leader:
nap4leader0000-1.jpg


UU:
nap3uu0000-2.jpg


UB:
nap5ub0000.jpg



Starting position:
nap6start0000-1.jpg


Settings :

nap2settings0000-1.jpg






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Round one lasts from 4000 BC - 1500 BC.

Please play this Round and submit your Report into this thread by next Sunday (the 27th Sept) if possible.


IMPORTANT (changed): Please use spoilers if you want to discuss opening strategies prior to starting the round.

At the end of your Round, please remember to name your save with your name, game and Round # & game date (i.e. "EC2 Round 1 MyName BC-1500.CivBeyondSwordSave"). (And please don't forget to attach it to your Round report, either! )

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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).
*NEW* 2. For your vote to count as winning save you are expected to have voted for 3 other saves where possible. There is an element of fair play expected from those that vote and tactical voting is to be discouraged.
3. Only those who have posted a round may vote (those who are shadowing are always encouraged to express their opinion!)
4. Don't vote on a save that has voluntarily been removed from the running by the person who submitted it.
5. 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.

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A special shout out goes to Soirana who provided us with the map!

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And with that, let the Game begin...

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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- Playing
Round 2: 1500 BC - 400 AD- upcoming
Round 3: 400 AD - 1100 AD- upcoming
Round 4: 1100 AD - 1500 AD - upcoming
Round 5: 1500 AD - 1700 AD - upcoming
Round 6: 1700 AD - 1820 AD - upcoming
Round 7: 1820 AD - 2050 AD - upcoming
 

Attachments

If you spot anything I have missed or should be included let me know ASAP.

Apart from thats lets all have some fun with the French and the new cookbook over the next coming weeks.
 
Should be fun. I'll try to play this either today or tomorrow. Gumbolt, can you please turn the resource bubble on for the screenshot.
 
A good suggestion. Let me do that. Image has now been updated!!
 
Taking a break from learning Immortal. First save: 1500BC.
Spoiler :
Settled in place. Research order was Animal Husbandry / Mining / BW / Mysticism / Fishing / Pottery / Writing / began Sailing. Built a worker first, grew until size 3 and built a settler. Chopped Stonehenge in Orleans because I think it's a pain having to build Monuments everywhere and being Charismatic it makes more sense.

Three cities are up: the capital and two more. Have two Settlers on their way and have made a suggested dot-map of the already explored area. I think it may be a good idea to build the Great Lighthouse here because almost all cities will be coastal. I suggest settling the clam/oasis/gold city next to block Willy.

Apparently, we're the only ones with Writing. None of the AIs we know has Open Borders.

Bad parts about the save: little exploration and bad spawnbusting.

Screenies:
Nappycook1.jpg


Nappycook2.jpg


Nappycook3.jpg


Nappycook4.jpg


Nappycook5.jpg


 

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kossin EC-1 to 1500BC
Spoiler :

Not really proud of the start but still learning so...
Sent warrior north looking for seafood, alas there was nothing so settled in place.

Research went AH>Mining>BW>Fishing>Sailing>Pottery(Should have taken Myst here I think)>Mysticism>Masonry>Start on Writing.

Went worker first. After improving the cows he built roads awaiting BW. Not convinced I did the best choice here. Grew to 4 while building warriors and then went second worker to chop out a settler. Stole a worker from WvO to the east which was escorted back safely, choked him for a while so he didn't settle towards me. A warrior died attacking one of his scouts. Won't listen to Attacko again, I tell you!
EC40000.jpg


I got down 4 cities, and starting GLH next turn in Paris.

4 Cities
10 pop
11bpt (+1 gold)
3 workers
2 chariots, 3 warriors
Met: WvO, Mao, JC

Empire
EC10000.jpg

Known World
EC20000.jpg

Techs
EC30000.jpg


I realize Rheims is in the wrong spot. That's a Creative-Addiction mistake -_-


 
Spoiler :
This is my 1st Emperor game and thought I'd give it a go(with some persuading from Gumbolt;))

Settled in place, built worker,warrior,warrior,settler,worker,warrior,warrior,settler,worker,settler,worker,warrior x3
Techs AH,mining,bw,myst,fish,writing,sailing
Settled 4 cities and starting on chariots for a barb city. Will settle the gold for a blocker

Civ4ScreenShot0007.jpg
 
Heres my go at it, though I'm going to shadow the game I'll provide a save to check out.

Spoiler :

Worker and AH first, pottery next for the 2 FPs. Swung my warrior down and around to the southwest. After seeing the horse nearby I can get good production from my first 3 cities and the land sucks so I am going for an HA rush. Now that I've scouted out Van Oranje (lost 2 chariots to barb archers on the way to scout him) I feel good about the plan since hes got much nicer cottagable land.

With organized probably should have went GLh and colossus - saw the island? to the north late which would have helped the trade routes. Also settling down the coast you could end up with 6 good production sites for an elephant and catapult war on mao before he gets his UU.

Civ4ScreenShot0320.jpg

 

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I’m not real thrilled of my round (tons of minor mistakes). Enough bashing of myself (I’ll let everyone else do that :lol:) and I’ll get into the game.

Spoiler :

Moved the warrior 1NE hoping for some seafood, but alas no luck. Decided to settle in place. Paris looks like a pretty decent production site. Sent my warrior exploring to the E.

Tech: Agriculture > Mining > BW > Fishing > Sailing > Mysticism > Writing
Build: Worker > Warrior > Warrior > Settler > ?

3875BC – Met WvO from the E
3575BC – Taoism FIDL (I was in utter shock for a few seconds wondering whether this was some type of super Diety game until I realized that it was choose your own religion).
3200BC – Met Mao from the SE
3050BC – Met Julius from W of WvO
Unfortunately, nobody has founded a religion between the four of us (none of these AI's give huge bonuses for sharing the same religion). There is the possibility of a nice intercontinental trade route if we can finish the Great Lighthouse (21 turns left) and settle that island to the N. I plan to settle hard to the SW and then snag that island.

Regret: should have built that blocker city as my 3rd or 4th city rather than my 1st. Unfortunately, my warriors had been set up spawn bust that location and didn’t have the time to shift their location. Although, truth be told it’s not that horrible given that I quickly whipped a WB and then a lighthouse.


Screenshots:
Spoiler :

The Capital and horse city:

Civ4ScreenShot0005.jpg


Blocker City:

Civ4ScreenShot0006.jpg


Planned Settlements:

Civ4ScreenShot0002.jpg


Military Advisor:

Civ4ScreenShot0003.jpg


Domestic Advisor:

Civ4ScreenShot0007.jpg


Tech Tree:

Civ4ScreenShot0008.jpg



Totals:
Spoiler :

3 cities
9 pop
24 bpt (-5 gold)
2 workers
4 warriors, 1 chariot
21 turns until the Great Lighthouse is completed
 

Attachments

Spoiler :

No screenshots since my printscrn key doesn't want to work :(

4000: Settled in place, thankfully a grassland cow appeared in the bfc. Going to have to farm those floodplains sadly if we want to grow at any kind of rate. Scouted around and its a very unorthodox map, should be interesting =D

2700: Built worker-warrior until size 5-worker-settler-worker-settler. At this point I remembered I was charismatic so could have grown the capital more maybe lol. Teched AH-BW first and sent the first settler down to the fish/clam/cow site which will be our GP farm. There is marble not far below too so GL/NE should be fairly easy to get there.

2225: Settled second city very close to capital to get the horse and banana, will be an ok production city later on even with the worrying amount of desert around it. Teched myst-fish-pottery-writing

1500: Built a couple of fogbusting warriors followed by chopping a library once writing was done, aesthetics is ready to research.

Next I think grabbing the marble is a priority along with the rather odd looking gold-oasis-clams site in the middle of the desert to block off willem. Also I spy an island above the capital which could have some more interesting land than this, will be getting a workboat up there ASAP. Nice map, be interesting to see how others approach it.

 

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I've won all four monarch student's not with total ease but I feel confident so I'm gonna try this and see how emperor goes. If its horrible let me know!!! Anyways here it is.....

Spoiler :

Build order: wrkr/war/war/set(chop)/war/wrk/set(chop)/war/war/wb(chop for 2nd city)/wrk/gran(chop) chariot (currently building)

Research path: AH/min/BW/myst/fish/Sail/Pott/Currently research writing

The empire...
Civ4ScreenShot0123.jpg

Civ4ScreenShot0124.jpg

Civ4ScreenShot0125.jpg

Civ4ScreenShot0126.jpg


Next city site will be the gold/oasis/clam to the East to block willy. Then I think continue down to the SW and try and grab that marble asap. Looking to chop GL if possible in capital. I haven't looked at anyone else's post yet but if anyone has any constructive criticism please let me have it. :)
 

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Thoughts on the games so far:

Spoiler :

I'm not going to get into the individual games yet, but I have a few thoughts on various things. A lot of my observations will be based on my re-playing the round using a different strategy which proved to be much more superior (i.e. teched sailing, masonry, and writing early, had early OB with wb, built the GLH early, horse city was my 2nd city).

1) We should have prioritized the Great Lighthouse more. It seems on this map that the GLH is king on this map. Now, my original save would have most likely still gotten me the wonder, but there are a good number of turns wasted not having this wonder online ASAP. Plus in my shadow game I sent a wb around and had teched writing much earlier to get those extra juicy trade routes. Overall this lets you tech better and expand better.

2) Lots of potential chokepoints. From the looks of it, there are really only 2 cities that need to be stocked with troops.

3) Do we really need 1.5 workers/turn for this map? Outside the early development of the capital and horse city, we can probably get by with getting those cheap lighthouses up and running.


Future planning:

Spoiler :

Willem is target #1 right?
I'm thinking a Jumbo/Cat attack (with a few HA's and archers mixed in).

Peaceweights should get everyone pleased with us relatively easily as long as we have OB's and trading resources (even if it's our only health resource).
 
Thoughts on the games so far:
Future planning:

Spoiler :

Willem is target #1 right?
I'm thinking a Jumbo/Cat attack (with a few HA's and archers mixed in).

Peaceweights should get everyone pleased with us relatively easily as long as we have OB's and trading resources (even if it's our only health resource).
Spoiler :
AFAIK, peaceweights only work in AI-AI relations. They give a standard -1 to the human. I'll comment more on the rest, now I have to go to work.
 
Oh well played to 1500bc.

Spoiler :


Now that was a map i was not expecting!!! So much desert!!! lol

Now my strategy was to avoid BW and reach aphabet early.

I settled in place.
I teched AH, pottery, writing and alphabet. I worked the cows and built cottages on flood plains. I traded every tech except alphabet with the 3 Ai i met.


I lost a warrior exploring. I am slightly concerned about roaming archers. I do have archer tech now. I just hope no Ai rushes me as i have no military techs hooked up. I have 3 warriors fog busting.

So a few pics.

Tech wise they all need alphabet but they have IW to trade. Willem just traded archery for writing.
napcookbook20000-1.jpg


Capital has a granary and i am working on a library. My second city is building a settler next turn. I could use some culture buildings. I saved a few forest for that.
napcookbk30000-1.jpg


Now for the rather small empire.

napcookbk10000-1.jpg


 

Attachments

Brief comment on my save having viewed the others.

Spoiler :


Having looked at the saves i think not grabbing the horse was a mistake on my save.

Theres some great variations in the saves out there. Wish i had gone GLH. Still doable. Stone Henge was a good idea on this map.

I think i can still grab oracle or GLH but that horse grrrr.
 
Comments on dirtyparrot's comments on the game:
Spoiler :
Thoughts on the games so far:
1) We should have prioritized the Great Lighthouse more. It seems on this map that the GLH is king on this map. Now, my original save would have most likely still gotten me the wonder, but there are a good number of turns wasted not having this wonder online ASAP. Plus in my shadow game I sent a wb around and had teched writing much earlier to get those extra juicy trade routes. Overall this lets you tech better and expand better.
I definitely agree. Most of the cities will be coastal.

2) Lots of potential chokepoints. From the looks of it, there are really only 2 cities that need to be stocked with troops.
Yeah, I'm not sure where Mao and Caesar are, though. Either way, it's not going to be tough protecting our land (unless we do something stupid).

3) Do we really need 1.5 workers/turn for this map? Outside the early development of the capital and horse city, we can probably get by with getting those cheap lighthouses up and running.
I don't know, except for the desert, I've been looking at this map as the cottage heaven. I don't think you can have too many workers.
Willem is target #1 right?
I'm thinking a Jumbo/Cat attack (with a few HA's and archers mixed in).
I suppose. I'd wait for a while though. We've got a lot of land to settle.

Peaceweights should get everyone pleased with us relatively easily as long as we have OB's and trading resources (even if it's our only health resource).
I reviewed my info and definitely peaceweight doesn't influence the AIs relations with the human.



Brief comment on my save having viewed the others.

Spoiler :


Having looked at the saves i think not grabbing the horse was a mistake on my save.

Theres some great variations in the saves out there. Wish i had gone GLH. Still doable. Stone Henge was a good idea on this map.

I think i can still grab oracle or GLH but that horse grrrr.
Spoiler :
You can still settle a horse/banana city. I also think the GLH should be our #1 priority from now on.
 
Spoiler :
A fairly interesting looking map, lots of desert but also easy blocking opportunities.

Anyway my tech path went ah-pottery-mining-bw-fishing-sailing-masonry. Priority on getting bw early for whipping away, and GLH (14 turns from completion minus the hammers from chopping). 2 turns away from writing. My warrior got eaten early by animals :( so there's still some scouting to be done. Barbs haven't been much of a problem so far, but i imagine if there's abit of free space they may have a city up by now.

civ4screenshot0002s.jpg
 

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Lurking this and similar threads, I noticed almost all of you are using the same great interface showing very useful extra game info. Such as turns lasting to the next GP & GG, relative power to opponents, growth in score, many new buttons and even a dotmapping tool if I'm correct.
Can anyone tell me what kind of mod this is and where this can be downloaded? Many thanks!
 
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