For those without the game, this is for you

[Zany]

Here is where I am at in the tech tree

EDIT: Right now I am researching Monarchy, then I will go back a bit and research Metal Casting. Also, in Civics, I had the option of changing to the Caste System, but I didn't need it and it would only cost more in upkeep. The newest option is certainly not always the best option in Civ IV.

 

[Zany]

Here is a global view

And here is a zoomed-out view where you can still see details on the map

If this screenshots could only be bigger...

 

[Zany]

Hey, I just reached a half million people. I am way ahead in population and land area, and somehow, just a little behind in total number of units. Right now I have stopped producing settlers for a little while, even though I have the perfect opportunity to. That is going to be a big rookie/newbie mistake, once they can build settlers they will. It is still tricky to get a hold of expansion in Civ IV, but it in general is a better and more refined system.

 

[Zany]

Next turn Judaism spreads to a Mongol city, and I meet the Chinese, and then Judaism spreads to a Chinese city.

CivFanatics forum is running really slow (or just slow for me playing Civ IV). So, I will save up all my screenshots and write down all that happens so I can take a break from the game and fill you in on what has happened. So, I'll be back in a while with lots of new screenies and info on what has happened.

 

[Corbeau]

::wakes up:: ::yawns:: ::stumbles over to computer:: ::checks thread::

Hey, wow, he's playing again already. Too bad I have to miss out part of day due to classes. Anyway, I agree with the majority of lurkers that military buildup is a priority. Preferably units that upgrade to Redcoats.

I'd also like you thank you, Zany, for doing this. It's great therapy for those of us unfortunates who don't have the game to be able to suggest courses of action and make comments. Keep up the good work! ::

 

[BorgeoisBuffoon]

Just wanna point out that you seem to be doing well and this is fun to read through!

 

[Zany]

Here's what has happened since my last post less than an hour ago.

1: I meet Huayna Capac. He founded Buddhism, and suggested open borders but I declined. He is on a bunch of islands southwestward, so he will likely try to send a settler to MY coasts soon. So I turn down his offer of open borders.

2: I cancel open borders with France. They have been sending lots of scouting units through my territory.

3: Christianity founded in a distant land.

4: Second great prophet born, so I let him discover Theology with no risk of discovering a second religion. I then switch to Theocracy.

5: Judaism spreads to Shanghai, a long way away.

6: Next time I speak to Kublai Khan, about stop trade with Napoleon, he has converted to Christianity. But then I see that little star right next to the cross, so he founded it.

7: I go back to Napoleon and ask him to stop trading with Kublai.

8: I cancel my open borders with Kublai Khan. He is just building the Keshik now (in the diplomacy screen, leaders brag about their strongest units). By the time I am ready for war, the Keshik will be obsolete and the Redcoats will be ready. France will be a barrier between me and Kublai, and I can build up a fleet so I can land at the end of the Mongol Empire and open up a second front.

9: I sign open borders with Qin Shi Huang, as he has converted to Judaism. Being on another continent (or possibly archipelago, as continents are farther apart than this), he is a strategic ally. Using France as my own walls, I can invade Mongolia and then I can use China a launching pad to a war with Huayna Capac in the future (hopefully fresh off a Mongol victory with many Redcoats mobilized).

10: Two Mongol axemen are trapped in by borders, so I sign open borders with him just to get them to leave. Later on, they still don't leave but just scope around in unclaimed territory. Luckily they aren't escorting a settler, or I would have to go to war early.

11: I finally get to sign open borders with Napoleon again. His feelings were hurt from before.

12: The Hanging Gardens are built.

13: I reach a million pop.

14: Coventry is founded. This screenie was a taken a while later. That general area is where the Mongol axemen were trapped.

15: Warwick founded.

 

[Zany]

Here's what's next:

I am building another settler, then there will be room for only two more cities. Those I will put off for a while. I am just finishing up a few aqueducts to keep my cities healthy, a couple workboats to get some fish and clams, and a library because York is a some sort of "center of research". I am starting on a catapult and a couple horse archers, then I will build the last couple defenses for my cities (each one must have AT LEAST one archer and one spearmen). Then I can keep churning out offensive units and a few transports to ferry my invasion force on over to Mongolia.

And by the way, this is sort of off-topic to my game, but here's some info on Caravels. They can only carry non-military units (like spies and missionaries) and can enter foreign territory without declaring war. I might use that against Kublai Khan, or to bring missionaries to China or Inca-land.

 

[FeelGood]

It`s fun to read your experience ... but the screenshot is "a little too small". Would you please expand the size a bit. I don`t know if it`s my browser problem (firefox) but really I can`t see much from the picture. Like the others, I`m too eager on any news while waiting for my copy. But, with small size, I can`t really satisfy my hunger on civ 4 screenshot.

You can just use irfanview. Use alt print screen then paste into irfanview. Scale a bit and then post. You can also host it outsite civfanatics if bandwidth is the problem. Just my suggestion! Really no offense .

Anyway, I`ll be following your journey everyday!

 

[TreeFoot]

well your game seems to be going well, thanks for keeping us posted!

 

[Zany]

FeelGood, I also use Firefox. And the problem isn't with CivFanatics, because I upload them on photobucket.com first then post them here. The problem is with Paint, that is the only program I have. If you, or anyone else, knows how to make a sceenie in Paint bigger, I can make them huge for you all. If so, I can fix ALL of the old screenies to be much bigger.

But for now, here is an update on the game with crappy, little screenies.

1: I meet Asoka. Nothing special, except when I first saw the leaderhead months ago, I thought "Asoka's a guy, not a woman!". And the only animation for Asoka is holding his hands together, other than that he just keeps closing his eyes.

2: Newcastle founded. Soon I will have all the cities I need, build up their defenses, and start churning out offensive units. I already have 3 horse archers, 2 catapults, 1 crossbowman not in a city garrison (crossbowmen upgrade to Redcoats), and 2 galleys being built. Rather than ferrying them across in a steady stream, I shall build up a large fleet, load all by troops but for a few, and then have Napoleon join my war. I will send a few of the fasted mounted units up to the French-Mongol front and help out there, distracting Kublai, then ambush him on another front.

3: Kublai Khan switches to Theocracy. So, only Christianity can spread, not Judaism. There will be some unhappiness in his Jewish cities at first, but soon he will have a very stable empire.

4: Napoleon begins a Golden Age. I better save up my next Great Prophet and my second non-prophet Great Person. If it is a Merchant, Artist, Scientist, or Engineer, I will need to use him right away, so it will be a while before my first golden age (you can have multiple golden ages). But by the time of my golden age I will have Redcoats, an army and navy built up, all my cities built, and the Keshik will be obsolete!

5: Taoism founded in distant land. Where could it be?!

6: Asoka demands I cancel all deals with Kublai Khan (apparently Asoka, owning the holy city of Hinduism, has really gotten off on the wrong foot with K.K.), so I do. K.K. is stuck with those two axemen again in unclaimed territory. I have already sent out some horse archers to intercept them once the war starts, and then I will send those ones to the French front while my invasion force prepares to depart for the heart of Mongolia.

7: France gives me Wines. I am more powerful than Napoleon, but for some reaosn when I asked for Wines he just gave them to me.

8: England officially holds 2 million people now.

9: Judaism spreads to Xian, at the other end of the world in China. I have so far only built one missionayr (another is being built in London to convert Paris), and it converted Orleans, which was right near the heart of Judaism! The natural spread of religion may not be perfectly balanced in Civ IV.

10: I change to Vassalge and Serfdom.

11: Oxford founded.

 

[TreeFoot]

oooh, keep up the good work!

 

[FeelGood]

If I`m not mistaken, you have 8 cities. Can you explain a bit about your economy ? How`s maintenance, upkeep and unit upkeep ? How much gold is your civ getting per tun ? How`s you research going ?

Sorry for lots of questions

Btw, go to here and download. You can do some editing to your pic. Just use jpg, good quality and small. Paint is also quite good in winxp since you can save in jpg and change the size using stretch/skew.

Hope it helps. Keep up the good work.

 

[Corbeau]

On screenshots, what resolution are you running Civ at? I tried taking a screen of my desktop, pasting it into paint (print screen, open paint, paste with ctrl-v) and it comes out at the size of my monitor. Heck, I can't seem to make it any smaller without just cropping the picture.

I am so spoiled with photoshop.

 

[FeelGood]

Corbeau : refer to my post before. Use stretch/skew (ctrl+w) to change size in Paint.

 

[Corbeau]

Yeah. I was just putzing with paint while I wrote that, and didn't check the thread before I hit "submit."

 

[Zany]

First off, now I have 12 cities. I just closed down Civ IV just for a minute so I could update you all. I am getting about 30 gold per turn at my current research capacity (60%, because I'm going back for a couple older techs, I'll have to check which ones). City maintance has been prettty decent. I expand probably a little too quickly at first, but just a couple turns ago the AI recommended I build a settler, it thought it was time for me to expand. But the only form of expansion left is pure conquest.

Now, the game comes with a wonderful feature, an event log. Towards the end of the game I'll go back and write it all down, to clarify the course of this game. Here is some info on what has happened since my last post:

First, Islam (the last religion to be researched/founded) was founded in Lyons. Islam might have trouble spreading in France, it is already Jewish (the state religion) and Christianity from Mongolia is spreading there. Zu Chongzhi, a Great Scientist, came and went, building an Academy for me. Liverpool was founded (I know how to expand the pics now, sorry, this one is still crappy):

That was my eleventh city, and just after that I entered the Renaissance. Then I founded Dover, that will be the last English city ever founded, unless I leave behind a few razed ones in Mongolia. Then Judaism spread to Cuzco through the works of my missionary. It is the holy city of Buddhism and home to Confucians. Then I reached a population of 5,000,000 (the average is around 3 mil). I got another Great Scientist, and he unlocked Education. Then I started trading world maps. Just give me a few minutes and I can take a screenie of my empire and the minimap in the corner, and expanded greatly.

Next on my agenda:
1 - Spread Judaism more into Inca-land. I lost a missionary failing to convert Tiwuanaku. I am building about 3 more and I plan to ship some more over to China, maybe India.

2 - Keep building up the infastructure of the empire, focus on improving the cities. I have an acceptable invasion force now (I can take down the official numbers for you all), but I should focus on just getting to Rifling so I can unlock Redcoats.

3 - Conquer Mongolia! After that, I guess I could finally form a Permanent Alliance with France, that would allow us to share line of sight AND wonder effects. Me and Napoleon are the only ones to have built more than one wonder. The easiest target after that would be the Inca, they are on a secure little continent all to themselves. Then I could use China as a launching pad into India, and then turn my forces on the Chinese. Then I win! And by then, you guys will FINALLY have the game!

 

[Zany]

Let's see how this zoomed-out world view looks, magnified a lot.

 

[Zany]

Oh by the way, some of my states are:

Researching Printing Press, to be completed in 3 turns
50% of the budget is going to research, I have yet to use the culture slider
Treasury contains 450 gold, at +52 gold per turn (I was remembering from a couple turns ago, when researching was higher, then was at 60% getting +30 gpt)
Unit costs - 0, I guess my civics and number of units is low enough I still don't need to pay for maintenance
Unit supply - 0, I don't fully understand the supply concept. It will be interesting in an invasion though, cut off from the empire.
City Maintenance - 47, not bad, but I only have 12 cities.
Civic Upkeep - 28, and I am staying towards the older, less upkeep civics. A civ could double its treasury or go bankrupt late in the game, it looks like.
Inflation - 21, interesting concept, but I still don't understand it.
Total Expenses - 96

Also, it is around 1570 A.D.

 

[TreeFoot]

You seem to be doing great, i'm trying to get mine today, lousy shipping company sent it late!!!