eo2: Flailing Around in the Dark (or, war for fun and profit)

I vote we just stay in place, maybe try and get city two on the coast. One turn can be a lot in Civ4.
 
lurker's comment:
I think the turn is worth losing to give the city access to the sea. It held true for Civ3 and I think still holds true here.

Unless, that is, you want to grab an early religion. Then one turn may make or break that goal.
 
Another thing to keep in mind is that this is a pangea map, so navies won't be as important. It'd still be nice to build a lighthouse, a harbor, and potentially one of the coastal wonders, but it seems likely that we will find ourselves in the position of pushing inland rather than building along the coast.

And pindicator raises an important point -- do we want to go for a religion? The main conquest-specific advantage I see is the ability to spy on our neighbors. Of course the shrine income is also nice, if we ever get a Great Prophet.
 
I think we should go for one of the later religions, probably Christianity. On Prince the first few religions will likely fall to the AI spirituals and their enhanced science. Christianity could be useful to seal of a flank with freindship until later in the game (nothing like backstabbing civs that love you) if we can spread it there, and the free missionary is quite useful. Another useful thing about Christianity is it unlocks at the same time as theology, the ultimate war time religious civic.

I still vote we settle in place, we'll also get to that corn slightly quicker.
 
Also we want to start getting a few cities fast, so we can gain momentum. If we do it right, an early war will put out AIs fast before their cities gain defensive bonus. If we do it too late, we have to try and get the catapults which may delay our conquest while we researching for it(construction).
 
4000BC (1): Scout reveals that it is in fact the coast, not a lake. I decide to send settler NE to flood plain to make room for a coastal city south of current location. Settling reveals horses south and stone and cows north, all outside of current radius (corn and wine still in the radius though). Start work on Ag and warrior.
eo1_shot002.jpg

3960BC (2): ...
3920BC (3): ...
3880BC (4): See some tundra, we must be near the southern end of the world.
3840BC (5): Spot whales and gold. I've never actually hooked up whales before.
3800BC (6): Find some maggots, I mean sheep.
3760BC (7): Meet Mansu, our first victim is very close.
eo1_shot003.jpg

3720BC (8): ...
3680BC (ST): Fred shows up from the NW. Agriculture -> Mining.
3680BC (9): Somebody founds Buddhism.
3640BC (10): ...
3600BC (11): A village gives our scout experience.
3560BC (12): I promote scout to Woodsman II -- now he can move fast in clear land and trees, and should help defending against animals.
3520BC (ST): Meet Izzy, coming form the west.
3520BC (13): Karakorum: warrior -> worker.
3480BC (ST): Meet HC, who is the founder of Buddhism, in the NE (past Mali).
3480BC (14): ...
3440BC (15): Meet Tok east of Mali.
3400BC (ST): Mining -> BW (perhaps an axe rush on Mansu is in order...)
3400BC (16): ...
3360BC (17): Scouted as much of Timbuktu as I can.
eo1_shot004.jpg

3320BC (18): Have yet to see an animal or barbarian.
3280BC (19): ...
3240BC (20): I spoke too soon.
eo1_shot005.jpg

3200BC (ST): We survive panther attack.
3200BC (21): Send scout to wooded hill to heal next turn. Safer there.
3160BC (22): Scout heals.
3120BC (23): ...
3080BC (24): ...
3040BC (25): Karakorum: worker -> barracks. Scout back in action.
3000BC (26): Find Japan.
eo1_shot006.jpg

2960BC (27): ...
2920BC (28): ...
2880BC (ST): BW -> Archery.
2880BC (29): No coppper anywhere in sight. :(
2840BC (30): Hinduism is founded somewhere.

Summary: I've indicated two possible city locations to our south. There will be a little overlap, but they should be pretty good cities and close isn't such a bad thing when our victims counterattack. In the wide-angle screenshot in the next post, you can also see just how close Mali is. Too bad about the copper, as an axe rush is out of the question. If one of the next players is feeling ambitious, an archer rush is a possibility (or chariot/horse archer once we get those horses hooked up), just keep in mind that Mali has skirmishers and don't try it without overwhelming force.

The save.
 
I think we should get a city in two tiles up from the cows on the left incase we need access to that sea later on. Your two sites are safe early bets as they will require less defense.
 
Blast! This computer program is not co-operating!!

Drop me from the game, Eo... I'll lurk, I guess, maybe join one of your future games when I get the bloody thing to work right. Sorry for wasting your time. :(
 
@Caltrop: Sorry about your problems.

Roster check:
eotinb (just played)
Axle (up)
nagash_wa (next)
Double Stack
Truronian
 
Got it. Will try to post my thoughts later tonight and to play tomorrow. Right now, I'm off to a dinner. (Yes, I'm living on GMT +1, which explains a slight timing difference).
 
Ok, I'm clearly to tired to play tonight, but I still do a quick sketch of my thoughts. I'll play my turn as soon as possible tomorrow, feel free to do any remarks in the meantime:

- I really like the spot you marked south-east: gold and whales are nice, and it's a good strategic position to counter Mali, so I guess I'll go for that one first. I probably postpone the settler 'til the barracks is finished, since this will coincide with growth.

- From a research point of view, how does animal husbandry-> equitation sounds ?
- We need to do some scouting north west. Maybe a Keshik could do it, once we grab the horse ?

I think I'll be a bit too early for the rush, but there would be some value in taking Mali as early as possible I think. I would rather wait for the horses, but I might be wrong.

Also, sorry for my english, it's not my native language. :/
 
It's a fair hike for our first settler to go to the piggies/corn/fish.. well, not so far after looking at it. I was stupidly counting from the left town sign :)
 
I've come up witha a potential dotmap. Blue and Yellow should be our first priorities, and probably also red (we need to find whats up there).
 

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2840 BC: I get the game. Nothing much to say, I'll let Karakorum grow 1 and finish its barracks before setting it to settler.
(1) 2800 BC I move the scout around Kyoto
(2)2760 BC : I send the worker to grab tthe corn. The scout discovers a hut in the NE
2720 BC : The hut gives us gold. There is a lion next to it. Hope the scout will get away ok (it should, with woodsman and all)
IT: The scout kills the lion. (Woodsman rulez !)
2680 BC : Scout to rest.
(5)2640 BC: Another Lion pops next to the scout. We're done with archery, I go for animal husbandry
2600 BC : We're done with the barracks, Karakorum is now a proud 4-citizens metropolis :) I go for settler.
IT: And here goes another lion.
2560 BC : Scout has to rest
2520BC: nothing
2480 BC
(10) 2440 BC
2400 BC : Karakorum now has corn. I go and grab the horse.
2360BC The scout is almost fully healed, I continue investigating the japanese borders.
2320BC: Japan has horses, here is how kyoto looks.


2280 BC: Animal husbarndry > Horseback riding.
(15)2240 BC
2200BC
2160BC New settler. I send it to the blue spot with the warrior. Start production of a archer in Karakorum.
2120BC
2080BC Worker starts a route to future city site.
(20) 2040BC Mali founded a second city north east of the first one.


Afterthought: Maybe it's worth switching research to fishing, to get a work boat on the fish of our second city. and come back to horseback riding after that.
I should have sent the worker to build the road way earlier, We're losing too much time for the warrior to move to the new spot with the settler. My bad.
I decided to found a city in the northeast because event though the two cities in the south are very good, grabbing terrain to Mali as soon as possible could be important.
We need to investigate our northwest in some way. Sending the scout there will take too much time, so maybe send the archer, I don't know.

The Save
 
Roster check:
eotinb
Axle (just played)
nagash_wa (up)
Double Stack (next)
Truronian

A keshik would be a good unit to send NE, once we finish HBR. I feel like we might get trapped where we are. If that looks to happen, I'd like to get settlements in place to seal off one direction and exxpand through aggression the other way. I think two cities could defend the NW pretty easily while we consume Mali then Japan.
 
Got It. Once I get home from work anyways... will try to play tonight, but might have to wait until tomorrow night. I'm Australia, so it's currently morning here.

Anyways, my plan
- Hook up those horses.
- Grab that whale resource.
- Scout NW a bit.
- Found a city at either Yellow or Red. (or at least start a settler)
- Improve some of the other land around our new town.
 
I've played a few turns, founded 2nd city. Noticed that our 2nd city was getting 0 culture, hence isn't expanding, so decided to stop and ask for advice. (Noob remember) :(

Is it because there is that largish city next to us ? Will it help once the road is hooked up ?

nocult.jpg
 
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