Start to familiarize myself with the game. Begin by looking at research.
We have just started a min science gambit on Theology. While it is a must have tech, it is also one the AIs really really like. We are powerful enough that a 70 % research will get it for us in just 10 turns. Same amount of research would get us Engineering in 9 or Chivalry in 8. We would have a moderate chance of getting a monopoly on Chivalry, but I do not think we would want that tech until we have a large load of HOrsemen. Knights are an expensive build. I will probably go min research on Engineering, as we have libraries coming online soon that would make research more efficient.
Just check AIs before committing myself. Find that Alexander of the greeks would give us two workers for 150 gold and Currency. Deal. Oo, NIce, He gets Engineering as his free tech. WONder if we can afford it, and wonder if theer is something out there to get us back the price of it. I assume someone of the AIs almost all of whom are out of Ancient ages are researching Theology, and I stop research. ( Will see if lone scientist in a backwoods cabinet can make some progress. )
I will wait for engineering to become a twofer or threefer and start a prebuild for Leos in our best shield city.
We can coax Engineering out of Alex for Monotheism, Republic, Theology and all our gold. I think this is a bit much, as I cannot get anything other than gpt back from teh other civs.
If Kiev and St Petersburg are to become powerhouses, Granaries would speed up this process, since we do not have enough workers for them to grow fast. Switch to granaries.
Rush the libraries in MOscow, Sevastapol and Sverdlovsk, so I can start making some workers again. Rush it in Vladivostok also, because it is cheap. Also in Trondheim. This city has great food potential. ( Compared to our jungle cities. ) Will use it to make workers once lib is finished. Also, finally rush granary in Sevastapol. Send a swordsman I found in Sverdlovks on an intercept ( by way of Dnepropetrovsk, got move four out of him. ) Rush the Courthouse in Novgorod.
Wake a worker irrigating near Trondheim. He will join the road crews instead. Odense is set to worker.
IBT: Celtish settler/spear pair retreats. Cannot have that, that is our slaves... Some warrior/archer pair is to our north as well. LeaderBait.
MOscow Library->Settler. Trondheim Library->Worker, Novgorod Courthouse->Forbidden Palace (67). Sevastapol Granary->Worker. Sverdlovsk LIbrary->Worker,
Vladivostok LIbrary->WOrker
130BC(1) Eburacum is autorazed after our swordsmen kill off the two spears. ( No losses. ) We capture a worker at least. Time for a quick settler.
The dilemma, send our workers to improve the last couple of squares in our core, or send them to start clearing the jungle. *shrug* Will try to do both, so as not to lose to many worker turns moving on roads.
Those workers already in core improves core, workers at borders clear jungle, with priority on thos jungle sectors near our core. Capture two slaves by killing a spear guarding a settler.
Fishing with our elite swords against a warrior.
Ivan the Terrible comes along just as we start to build a second Palace. He will be there for the opening day. To bad it is lots of jungle before he can get there.
Promote a horseman to elite on another warrior. I honestly think Forbidden Palace is better for us than SunTzu. If it had been an early Leader, so Pyramids had been out there, then it would have been a hard choice, but Forbidden Palace will
help immensely.
Checking Diplomacy, I see China is behind and have somehow acquired some gold. I will trade them Monotheism for their gold. Monotheism to China for 160 gold. Engineering has been traded around a bit, and Greece has catched up in tech. No matter, I will wait for brokerage, or some 6 turns more. Need Engineering so I can see when invention comes on the table.
MM Odessa for an extra coin. ( Yes, you may call me a miser
) Shave three turns off of Marketplace in Minsk at the cost of some growth. Minsk does not have any aqueducts, so growth is not really important at size 6.
IBT: Sign a RoP with the greeks to get rid of the annoying message while exploring their shores. This could probably be renegotiated for some money since we have a larger area than them.
Notice that Celts have a RoP with Vikings, as they are using their roads to great effect. Luckily our horse retreated from the archer attack.
Moscow Worker->Worker, MM Moscow to +10 fpt. Unfortunately we will only get +6 Shields per turn. ( or 9 with a mined hill after growth.) But we ought to be able to make three workers every four turns. I set it for 10 shields instead of 10 food.
Egypt starts SunTzu.
110BC(2) Ivan is a true hero, and builds himself a Palace in Novgorod. Rush worker in Vladivostok. No new techs on the stage. Kill a Celtish warrior.
IBT: Moscow worker->Worker. We complete Forbidden Palace in Novgorod. Set to Barracks. ( Lots of shields, and little food. Time to build something. ) Odense, worker->Worker
Vladivostok worker->Worker Egyptians change their mind, they now build Hanging Gardens. As do the Ottomans. English Complete the Great Lighthouse. Greeks start SunTzu.
90BC(3): Remove the second warrior from our core cities. They are sent to jungle cities to relieve the swordsmen guarding these interior cities. Swordsmen are needed at the next front.
Our income has jumped from 63 to 85 gold per turn. Rush Granary in St Petersburg so it is finished before growth.
Buy worker and 31 gold from Ottomans for Republic. Wonder a bit why the Ottomans are furious with us.
IBT: Celts show up with four horsemen and a warrior near Yakutsk
Trondheim grows due to culture. Moscow worker->worker, Kiev Granary->Horseman ( will be at ten shields after growth.)
Celts start Hanging gardens, and The Chinese to. Would be nice to fish out a leader now and kill SunTzu.
70Bc(4) Move workers to jungles. Do the roading first, since I would like to save teh 20 gpt our 10% lux costs us. ( Roading to gems.) veto that as I discover we already have roaded gems. Set workers to clear instead.
Scandinavians will poach jungle from us. Should probably have rushed Moldes library as well, so jungle would have been covered in our culture. Very well, can use their city as marker for where rubber or coal is
A Celtish settler/warrior pair steps out of the fog right next to our elite sword
. Rush a settler in Trondheim. He will cover a gap at the former Celtish city.
Nice settlers give us two new slaves.
And then there were two,
as our Elite horseman finds another hero withing our ranks. Peter the Great is sent home to build Sun Tzus. Hurry a Granary in Kiev so it can build SunTzus next turn.
Shift the scientist from Odense to Bergen. Still do not believe I will get the tech, but just for safety sake. It is not like a SCientist in a corrupt city costs us anything.
Deciding what to do with this settler takes some thinking. I can see three options for him. ( First was a no brainer.)
1) Build an army to enable Heroic Epic, and even better chances of leaders
2) Rush SunTzus. There are only two wonders on the table right now, and if we can kill the cascade we would have an excellent chance of getting Leos with a prebuild.
3) Rather be safe than sorry, and save leader for Leos.
IBT: Our Heroic Horsemen are unfortunately exposed and killed. Trondheim, settler->worker. Kiev Granary -> SunTzu. Sverdlovsk, worker->worker
50BC(5) While thinking on how to use leader, I sell the courthouse I rushed for a couple of hundred coins for 10 fresh coins. Having thought about it, I do want to be safe. It wold hurt a lot to miss out on Leos.
Instant barracks in every city is very very useful, but it is hard ( read expensive ) to investigate the cities building SunTzus to see if building it would break the cascade. If we did not break the cascade we may very well miss Leos,
and if it is one wonder during Middle ages you want, with the upgrade tactics, it is Leos. I will Let Peter stew in Kiev until we can build Leos.
In order to get Invention as fast as possible I will research it ASAP. ( To minimize period we cannot get leaders.)
Egypt,Greece and England all want our treasury and 11 gpt for Engineering. We can self research it in 5 turns at a cost of 160 per turn. Even at fourth it is cheaper to buy.
I trade Engineering and 40 gold from Egypt for 35 gpt. ( Likely this will help keep her from going at war with us for the next 20 turns.) Quick check reveals that INvention is NOT out there.
Ouch, it is expensive to research. I can get invention in 15 by going -29 gpt. This may be a bit too much, as I didn't statr the research right away. Some AIs may very well research this.
Alea Jacta Est som någon sade en gång i tiden.
Watch in horror as a regular warrior on a hill redlines one of our elite swordsmen.
IBT: Moscow Worker->worker ( At size 5, I cannot produce worker in one turn, I set it on 4 spt and 10 fpt instead. This will make a full food bin at size 6 and a worker in two. )
Seavstapol Worker->worker ( Produces one every fourth turn. )
30BC(6) Lots of workers are now chopping jungle. Trying to keep them in multiples of three wherever I can. Clearing before roading unless there already is a road.
This turn I do not even get a promotion. Celts finally sees reason, and goes to peace with us. They even chip in their three gold for it. They would not chip in Monarchy, but I didn't want it anyway.
Establish Embassy in Istanbul, and that is one culture rich city. at 30BC they have a whopping 481 culture. They have temple,library,cathedral,colloseum and Pyramids to top it off. We had better watch that city should the game take a long time.
They also have two iron and horses as well as Ivory. City produces 13 shields per turn, and have plenty of food at size 7.
IBT: Weird, nada. Nothing. Ingenting.
10BC(7) Start some long term projects with leftover slave workers. ( Doesn't help being the tenth worker in a clearing gang. )
Grant Ottomans ENgineering for a worker and Monarchy. ( Didn't want to part with the 130 gold worker was going to cost.)
I put Sevastapol on a settler instead of worker. See if I can poach something somewhere.
IBT: Moscow worker->worker, Beijing Library->Marketplace. ( Thinking we need money real bad, and there are lots of rivers here. ) Note to myself, send a jungle clearer here, so the river jungle can be cleared.
St Petersburg Horseman->HOrseman. Kiev Horseman->Temple. ( Need happines. ) Odessa Aqueduct->HOrseman. MM for food again.
10AD(8) Found Kursk on the spot where a Celtish city stood. Production set to worker. During diplomacy notice that Theology is out. I do nto know where all the money went. The usual three suspects are all in possession of Theology.
Lets hope our research into invention pays off.
After much fumbling and thinking, I finally discover that ControlFreak was right, irrigating one bonusgrass near Moscow would let us have a stable configuration where we produce a worker each turn.
I do not think I have workers in range, but I will assign newly created workers to this task. Not that I have been a slouch with worker production, having produced 8 from Moscow by the end of my turn.
IBT: Moscow worker->worker, Novgorod Barracks->Granary. ( Was at an evil 7 spt. May as well grow before starting to build units. This is thought to be the unit builder for our western front.) Minsk Market->Worker ( Bleeding off a full food bin. )
English start Sistine.
30AD: Do some tileswapping between Minsk and St Petersburg so that Minsk can complete worker in one, while St Petersburg do not lose any turns on horse, nor on growth. Jungleclearing on river reveals a bonus grass
And another clearing reveals an ordinary grass.
Hmm, sometimes I really think the AIs are cheating. Piss-poor Ottomans somehow have acquired Theology. And Vikings have ENgineering. Vikings do not have any iron, so if they ever get a tech we dont, perhaps it would be time for some pointy stick research.
IBT: Moscow worker->Settler Minsk, worker->Horseman ( Feel free to veto this, Aqueduct and Harbour would be fine choices. also. ) I am thinking on having some 15-20 horses before Chivalry comes in.
Then we could steam roll any two civs for the rest of the techs
50AD We have cleared another jungle square. This will take quite some time before all jungles are gone. Area around our Forbidden Palace is woefully underdeveloped. Think of shifting workers in that direction.
Jave charted all the way around Greek island now, so I do nto know if we can continue to sell maps for some change every turn. Still no sign of any other techs than Theology. We have 9 turns left on Invention. We may want to strike at Vikings before they get invention, since
Berzerkers are quite fearsome even without ships. ALso, we are getting short on defense, as I didn't build any. Thinking being that a good defense is a good offense. Need to build temple in St Pete after this horse, as it would force us to either hire a specialist, or pay 20 gpt in lux tax when it grows.
Look carefully at Moscow. After it grows to size six again, it can now be setup so it produces a worker every turn, instead of 4 out of 5 turns.
I am starting to think we should continue to build workers. There are lots of unimproved squares being worked. I do not think there is such a thing as too many workers in medieval times. If nothing else, we can use them to instagrow cities that produces their first aqueducts.
I am fairly certain I didn't let any GoTos spread into next players turns. I have collected swordsmen to our frontier, and saved our horses in Kiev. Try to get a settler to settle in our former city spot. Ought to be successful now that we can guard with a swordsman.
Also note that it is not too late to change ones mind, and rush SunTzus. No chance of killing cascade though, with Sistines out there as well as Hanging gardens.
Good luck next player.
Save:
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads4/Ender1_Team1_50AD.sav
Build Sun Tsu's now and get another leader for Leo's.
Thanks for the end of day belly laugh!
