GOTM-09 First Spoiler

[Cactus Pete]

Vynd . . .

My east coast shipyard is already at maximum production.

 

[MrRudy]

Decided to post my start as well. This is my first (except for the test games) emperor game as for some other people here.

Moved quecha 1W. Should have probably moved it 1N - then I would definetely have settled 1N because of additional gold and more forest. Well.. initial position wasn't that bad, too. Initial goal was exploring the distance between my oponents and try some worker steal. Actually I didn't expect opponents to be so far - this spoiled my tactics a bit that I used in my test games. Anyway I stole a worker from JC (which was eaten up by barbs on its way home - jummy! ) JC already had 2 cities founded. I decided to criple hime a bit - destruction seemed over my capabilities.

Fearing of barbs being quite aggresive at this level I built loads of quechas to fog bust which more or less worked fine. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to build Oracle ( I even didn't start to build it). It also seemed that all wonders were built quite successfully by other opponents. The only wonder I wanted to build badly was Great Library which I also missed.

Considering my failures at wonders, I decided that the only way to keep up with the rest is to expand as much as possible which might work with Financial trait. By 500 AD I'm having 7 cities with consideration to expand even more. I'm badly behind Gandhi, but a bit better than JC. The sad thing is that I'm unable to keep my tech rate above 30-40% due to maintenance. Well... building courthouses already for FP.

I have founded 2 religions (Hinduism&Confu) which I switched from time to time to expand the borders for the cities with different religion. JC&Gandhi - they both are running Buddism which keeps me cautious with Gandhi and annoyed with JC.

Seems that I'm slowly loosing the game.... I did a bit better in my test games. But I'm not going to give up!

 

[voek]

Playing Contender

Was nicely suprised getting the Inca's at Emperor, since I have played them a couple of times before. Seeing the starting location I smiled and prepared for an early rush.

Founded Hinuisme, for the happy faces and civic bonuses, gambled it might be a dominant religion. It wasn't since Ghandi founded Budhisme...

I moved my capital 1 tile N, for the two goldmines.

Although I intended a quechua rush, I changed my mind after some exploring with my initial quechua. I moved it south, seeing the equator. Founded a scout when I was about to finish my first quecha. Distance seems striking, so my second build was a worker. Exploring North with my new quechua.

Second city covered the bronze, did not need Stonehenge since I had religion. Went for Orcale, didn't bother for CS (seemed a bit of a gamble) and took CoL founding religion. Spread it a bit for monastary's but I hinduisme was spreading faster by itself and infected Ceasar, so it became my state religion.

Biggest problem I faced was not having very good production city's. I did had my capital (always busy doing other things) and I made the Heroic Epic in the bronze city since production was nice with good food. Backside it was in the north of my empire...

I build up peacefully, whiping a lot, since hammers I lacked, but food I didn't. Ceaser expanded quit fast North, but I let him since he was my friend and Ghandi was growing faster.

Bribed Ceaser into a war with Ghandi and joined him when he asked. Still having few city's (usualy I conquer them ) and a small army. Attacked with axes and swords, killing two small city's. Got CS meanwhile and pumping out some macemen and went further, even when Ceaser declared peace. I continue to conquer Ghandi and whiped him out later.

Ceaser remains.

I am confident a diplo or en emergency space vic will work.

Edit: Most curious of this game I find I almost run the entire time at 100%, because I get loads of money by trading (even losing 150 a turn )

 

[Sheijian]

Mhmm, my first real Emperor game (except of a few test games) and my first official GOTM. So far I have done only one win on Monarch while being comfortable on Prince. Also I never played on epic speed, always on normal.
Nevertheless I play contender: I want the "real" thing. ;-)

So my first priority was just surviving which worked astonishingly well, much better than in my test games, probably because of the good starting position.
However, Epic speed killed me almost: I never got a feeling for what is good or bad production or research speed; everything seemed to need soooooo long. So I missed the Oracle, the Great Library, Confucianism and for the most time BC I had only three cities:

The capital (founded in place), one at the gems SW and one S at the river with iron and corn.

This worked well quite a while, I was even sometimes before Caesar in score or similar to him, a bit behind Gandhi.

I was very defensive, building a lot of fog-busters and acutally had no major problems with barbarians. But I had no major successes, either. I discovered the super-city-spot (crabs, marble etc.) in the NW much too late. Barbarians (axes) already were there and I needed centuries to build an army to destroy them and a settler to found at the better place (the barbarian city was two squares west from the ideal place).

The Iron-Corn city is my military producer, the gem-stone city tries the Hanging Gardens. The capital does research and military and workers/settlers.

I was equal in tech until the ACs, when Gandhi rushed away.

I founded Hinduism, but changed to Confucianism to keep Caesar pleased - that worked, but a short time later Caesar switched to Taoism *grrrrrr*.

At 500 AD I am rushing settlers to get more cities - there are lots of great places N, E and SE of me. But Casear has already cities in the Djungel next to me. As soon as I've got construction and maceman, I plan to go to war against him. Gandhi is far ahead now and when I am big enough to do substantial research myself (if I manage) will be a good trading partner.

I think my chances to survive are 50% - this mainly depends on, if my war with Caear will be successful. As I am better in industrial production than he, I think I may be able to simply out-produce him. All his djungle cities probably don't do well.

My chances to win are minor: Culture is out of question (I havent one GP-point so far and am the last of the three of us in culture). Diplomatic is not in sight. A military victory could work on my continent, but is highly unlikely regarding the whole world. I fear when I am done with Caesar I am too late in the research race for a space victory, but perhaps I am lucky ... let's see.

Well, I'll just try to keep on with the fun and see what happens.

Sheijian

 

[Obormot]

Challenger, going for Conquest.

I decided to use a strategy similar to the one I used in GOTM8: rapid expansion, no CS slingshot, use GSs to get Astronomy fast if needed.

I moved the starting quechua 1NW and settled 1N to grab the second gold hill. I am still not sure whether workig a desert hill was a good decision, since it slowed down my expansion. But 8 coins is a very good boost too. Clearly the optimal choice would have been to settle 1W to work the second sheep tile, but unfortunately I moved my quechua to the wrong hill and didn't see it.

I built a worker first, then 3 quechuas while Cuzco grew to size 4. Worker improved sheep, irrigated one FP tile, then mined both hills. At size 4 I started pumping out settlers, workers and quechuas. I built no early wonders, just concentrated on growth. Expansion was of course slower then in GOTM8, but I had 7 cities by ~500BC (one captured from barbs, others founded).

My starting quechua moved in a circle around the capital and then went south because I saw tundra in the north. He found Rome and stole a roman worker. I then sent another quechua south to help deliver the worker home. I decided that with such big distance to the AI an all-out quechua rush won't be very effective, but I still wanted to cripple at least one of the AIs to make conquering easier, so I sent a few more quechuas towards Rome. I made peace and redeclared multiple times stealing workers, capturing settlers and pillaging. I even razed their 3rd city that had no defense bonus and then razed it again when they tried to resettle it.

Tech path was straight to Alphabet after learning AH and Mining. I didn't need anything else for quite a while anyway. I decided not to do early chopping since with a commerce-rich start I could get math soon. After Alphabet I went for math, and traded for cheap stuff (wasted several turns on BW before I could get it though). Then I went for Literature to built TGL and NE. The I beelined to Astronomy hoping to trade for everything else, but had to detour to get Construction and CoL.

3490BC - AH
3160BC - Mining
2620BC - Writing
1960BC - Alphabet
1480BC - Math, trade for Masonry, Hunting, The Wheel
1300BC - trade for BW
1240BC - trade for Pottery
1120BC - Polytheism
880BC - Literature
505BC - MC, trade for IW, Archery, Sailing, Priesthood
220BC - Construction
125AD - Machinery
275AD - Compass
290AD - Optics (GS)
365AD - Drama
440AD - trade for Monotheism Monarchy, Currency, Calendar, HBR (other continent)
485AD - CoL

I am planning to get 2 more GSs for free Astronomy and learn CS by normal research (delay it so that it is discovered one turn after Astronomy). Then I'll shut down research and try to kill everybody with maces and cats.

I built TGL (25BC) and NE (due in a couple of turns) in the city south of Cuzco, it is also my only city that has a library and thus it should be able to produce a total of 30 GPP with TGL and NE (2 of them being GA). If I get a GA I'll propably burn him for a golden age. I have also built the Colossus (230AD) for extra coins from sea. I built HE in my pigs/fish/horse town, a stupid mistake: the city is good, but most production there comes from whipping and with HE most units are worth only one citizen, which causes much unhappiness.

Except those few wonders I concentrated mostly on units in the ADs after my cities were equipped with granaries, forges and barracks. I built almost no other buildings, my science is moving fast enough due to fast growth and commerce rich land. I built a road through the jungle and brought cats to kill off the romans that had only 2 cities and no resources thanks to my quechua terrorists. Romans were killed in 350AD, I attacked Gandhi immidiately after that and by 500AD I have already captured several indian cities with swords and cats.

 

[Mîtiu Ioan]

I'm a pretty bad situation - despite a relatively good start.

I succedeed to occupy one Indian city and razed 2 more and also build Stonehenge and Great Library, but get crippled in research compared with the civs on other continent.

More details later.
Regards

 

[Felton]

I settled in place; second city to the east because I could plop it down with access to 3 specials. Third to the sw for the gems. I missed the uber city spot till later because barbs settled there (and otherwise, the barbs were not really a problem since I fortified a few fogbusters). I settled a few more cities further south and a couple north, but I never ventured far into the jungles, even with scouts. I'm lazy, and I figure, correctly, that the AI will find me eventually. No wars. Wars require that you produce alot of units and then make many mouse clicks.
Research-wise I founded Hinduism. The Romans caught it and I slowly spread it to all of their cities. Rome then commenced to periodically attack Gahndi, with little success (or failure). I sat it out every time. By the end of the game I had a -6 modifier with Caeser for not helping him during war time. There ought to be a cap on that. Only wonder I built during this period was whatever that one is that requires the aqueduct pre-build. I do normally try to build the GL, but Ghandi got Lit before me, so I didnt think it was worth the try without marble (I was too lazy to go scout the barb city, so I didnt know it had marble till I made the barbcity taskforce).
So basically, I just cottaged up and sat on my tuckus, and was comfortably ahead in the tech race until my delusions of grandeur were dispelled by the appearance of a boat from the ocean fog.

 

[Canadian_FBI]

like many people in the pre-game thread, i was planning on seeing what i could do with some early quechas. after building a few, exploring every piece of land within six time zones of my capital, and getting eaten by barbarians and animals before i found any enemy cities, i figured that would be a losing cause. i then settled back into a more standard early game approach (for me anyway) with an ultimate goal of a domination victory.

this was only my second game ever at emperor - i've won maybe 60% of my monarch games and my only other game at emperor was the GOTM earlier this year where i lasted maybe 80 minutes and didn't bother to submit it. looking back at my replay once this game was finished, i was terribly slow to expand. even the barbarians founded several cities before i got my first one up in the northwest between the iron and copper. maybe this was because of the epic speed, maybe i just did a bad job in the early game, or maybe in emperor the computer just mauls you early on, i dunno.

i founded another city on the east coast between the fish, corn and horses. then i took a barbarian city with access to gold, horses and deer in the north with some quechas and an axeman. i'd wanted to found a city near the pigs/stone/gems location in the west but was of course beaten to it by barbarians. i intended on taking that city with quechas, but the bastards built walls just before i got there and since it was manned by four archers, i waited for catapults before taking it down. unfortunately that set me back a bit.

there were a couple of things that allowed me to survive in this game, which was really my first goal. first, the barbarians were pretty weak. they took out my scouting quechas, but i can't remember ever seeing any melee barbarians that posed a threat. maybe there were one or two, but overall barbarians were pretty much not a problem.

second, i got the great library in 230 AD. that was my only wonder, and it was huge. cuzco was generating over 2/3 of my science in 470 AD.

third, for some reason caesardeveloped a fear of barracks and melee troops in this game. on the screenshot you can see pisae in the southern flood plain location that i was of course too late to settle myself. it's only guarded by two unupgraded archers in 470 AD, with no culture defense or walls. i probably could have taken it right here with my city raider quechas but i didn't because i was afraid of a praetorian counter-attack. as it turns out, i probably didn't have anything to worry about.

so as poorly as i was doing in 470 AD, and the demographics screenshot shows that that's pretty bad, at least caesar was doing even worse. i figured i could fill in my remaining city locations and take some of caesar's and be in ok shape. i was more or less right.

 

[The-Hawk]

Well, just coming off of a couple of Deity culture wins in HOF gauntlet 2 using Huayna, I decided to go for culture here. I decided to take a similar strategy to my Deity wins, i.e. quick quechua rush to grab a worker and a couple of nearby towns (AI capitals tend to be in great locations and make good culture cities). Only change from my Deity games, I decided to try to found some religions since we are on continents.

Problem 1: Went for Hindu since the AI always seems to go Buddha. This time, AI decides it wants Hindu first, beats me by two turns.

Problem 2: My quechua "rush" becomes a marathon slow walk across the continent. Meanwhile, I am pumping out quechua with no nearby cities to attack. I decide not to try to take cities from JC or Ghandi, I figure the distance penalty will kill me. I'm not going for a military win, I only want 9 cities up near my capital. I do steal an Indian worker and do some pillaging just for giggles.

Problem 3: Oh well, since I have these unemployed quechua hanging around, I might as well fog bust. I think I had 6-8 hanging out on fog duty, and yet for some reason, the barbs came anyhow (mostly from the north, I simply couldn't cover all that territory). I spent many years battling waves of barbs... and not expanding my empire.

Problem 4: After I had figured out how far the AI's were, I snuck in a settler between the quechua. I settle near the stone to the SE to go for Pyramids. However, due to the barb issue, an AI finishes Pyramids before I even start it! Looks like I'll need to get Universal Suffrage the slow way (research).

Problem 5: Since I built my 2nd city at the stone, it means I did not build it near horses. I didn't have any copper near by, and hadn't researched iron. So, quechuas are my only unit... and the barbs decide to stop putting archers up against my quechua. They send a couple of axes.

Lucky Moment 1: One of the axes veers away from my capital to pillage my gold. I send a stream of quechua to the hill. I think he kills 4-5, but gets wounded in the process. I finally finish him. If he had gone for my capital, I think its game over.

Lucky Moment 2: The 2nd barb axe heads for my stone town. Luckily, its a far enough walk that it takes him a while to get there. If he decided to head to my capital with his buddy, then its game over. He also decides to pillage, and spends a couple of turns pillaging my stone and road... but not attacking my city. I rushed a settler in my capital and settled him near the horses (sub-optimal location, but I needed the horses asap). I managed to get a chariot built before the 2nd barb had captured my stone city. The chariot and a couple of suicide quechua finished him.

Funny story 1: Later in the game (maybe past the spoiler, doesn't matter)... I am trying to be best buddies with JC and Ghandi. My reason... I figure my only hope for a culture win is to forego all military build up and beeline to culture. I've simply lost too much time to this point, I can't waste production. I'm a little nervous about having no military with a monger like Julius as a neighbor, but I figure I need to take chances if I'm to finish culture. Anyhow, I get to a point where JC is pleased, but I have -4 for borders being close. All of a sudden, he puts a small SOD on my border, next to my one-quechua-defended GA farm. I'm thinking I'm cooked, this one SOD is significantly more powerful than my whole empire. He then he proceed to move his stack into my lands (we have open borders). He marches them all the way up the continent to attack a barb city in the far NW corner. I think it must have taken him 15-20 turns to slowly work his way up there. He conquers the barb city, but pillages it! All that effort and years of travel just to kill a barb city???

Bottom line, state of the nation:

At the time of this spoiler, I'm still stubbornly trying for culture. However, the missed Pyramids and the many, many wasted turns cranking quechua for barbs has me way behind where I should be. I'm not sure I'll get to culture before an AI spaceship launch. I'm also VERY concerned that JC will eventually decide I'm a wimp and will squash me like an insignificant bug.

In hindsight, I agree with some of the other posts. This map threw a couple of real curveballs (and this is what I love about Civ! ). With the gaps to the AI's, quechua rushing was not a good option for grabbing a couple of culture cities. The distance also meant lots of barbs well into the game. Yep, culture might not be my best option from here, but I've decided to fly this plane into the ground.

 

[Ronald]

This will be my first culture game in Civ4. I liked the culture games in Civ3, but they were completely different. Hundereds of cities and poprushing temples and libraries whereas in Civ4 its all about cathedrals (+50% culture).

I read a number of articles about culture games, especially in the HOF section are great reads. Unfortunately this is not such an optimal map as the ones described in the HOF, but the starting location with 2 sheep and one gold (I moved 1W after revealing the 2nd sheep) and lots of floodplains looked quite alright.

I don't think ther is any use of trying to get the pyramids on emperor with no stone near the capital, so I went for the CS slingshot.

My research was: medidation, mining, AH, BW, writing, priesthood, CoL and CS in 1060BC
Building was quecha, worker, quecha, quecha, settler, quecha, oracle

The situation looks pretty good in 455 AD (the safe nearest to 500AD I have).
I founded 2 more religions (Taoism for pacifism to generate more GA) and Christianity for the Sistine chapel (the 2+ culture per specialist should be quite powerful.
I also finished music as first to get my first Great Artist. Now I am heading full speed in direction of liberalism. Then I plan to shut down research.

These are screenshots from my planned culture cities:

and this is a look at my complete empire:

 

[VerbalKint]

Quick game for me, settled 1W after scout revealed the sheep, saw the huge commerical potential of the city so I decided on the CS slingshot - was beaten to it in 1500 BC, 3 turns before I would have finished it. Reckoned I had sacrificed a fair bit to get it that early, and when failing to get it I abandoned the game sore loser as I am

 

[Ribannah]

It remains very unsatisfactory that the slingshot is such an important issue in game where settling one square away has a huge impact on AI choices at the other end of the world.

 

[BLubmuz]

Settle 1N, because in my test games I see health would be a problem, so the other gold was only a better thing.
Because of that i decided to irrigate all the fp since i want my capital a powerhouse.
started quechua and switched to worker when reached size 2, then quechuas until size 4, settler, more quechuas for fogbusting.
My free quechua went south, discovering stone and gems in his path, arrived in the jungle, continued south, to discover the end of the peninsula.
As anyone knows it wasn't, and I popped a gh with 43 coins in the western coast, 2 turns after meet a Roman scout.
After that, i supposed Rome was close, so drove SE, but i meet Ghandi and went north by the eastern istmus.
No quechua rush possible for me at this point .

Ghandi took Buddism and another civ (in the other continent) took Hinduism.

My research path was: AH-wheel-mining-writing-poly-priest-CoL
My 2nd city (2050BC), 1S of horses N of Cuzco started with barracks and chariots.
I get Oracle in 1030BC, CS in 1000BC , soon revolted, then researched hunting, fishing and alpha.
Good spot for 3rd city, 2 seafoods + Marble, founded in 535BC, revalead to be a strategic spot after BW and IW GLibrary there in 365AD, meanwhile Tiwanaku completed the Colossus in 305AD.
In 205 BC I captured a barb city near gems and stone, found some other cities, Optics in 505AD.

Confucianism spreaded well, with not much help from missionaries, tech trading was pretty good, especially with JC, and peace reigns (for now).
The rest is for 2nd spoiler, or the final.

 

[Jove]

It remains very unsatisfactory that the slingshot is such an important issue in game where settling one square away has a huge impact on AI choices at the other end of the world.

I agree, this kind of effect is vexing, but I don't think it is determined by moving the settler. I settled in the same place and got the CS slingshot in 1120BC.

 

[Khalid]

My first emperor game. I was scared of barbs. They never started to be a problem.

The beginning:
Cuzco founded 1 NW and build a worker firs and started poly. My quecha went south. Met rome soon and ghandi a little later. Founded hindu but not convert. Ghadi is budhist.
Research: poly, AH, mining,wheel, pottery, BW, ... can't remember

Worker steal:
On his way south, my quecha met animals and later earned combat II and cover promotions - archer's nightmare. he found rome's borders and went for a look. After a couple turns he saw rome's settler and archer. I declared. Archer got killed, the new worker was escorted back home (half way met my second quecha) and he returned back. Killed another archer and signed peace.

This was my relationship with Rome. I killed 3 settlers this way altogether. One for rome's every city. With some chariots and axes rome's not more. Neither my economy. I declared 4 times on them, city by city, war and peace. I managed to extort archery and sailing from him thats the reason.

Build:
My second city was for horses, third for copper, fourth un north with fish and fur. I managed to research CoL and found Confucianism. I'm doing quite good (also i'm impressed with some other posts here). No barbs from north due to fogbusters, some from south. They settled 1 city, which i captured. I build the GL used the GS for academy.

India: Ghandi never wanted to trade techs with me. We had open borders, later shared budhism i have given him aplhabet (nobody else around). I had to get to +11 relations for him to trade. And he offered only poor trades. he had build a big empire so far, has budhism and judaism. He has a weak military. Only 1 archer and spear per city. My armies are on his borders. Next turn i will declare. I just started to love agressive. Experience is coming from barbs. I'm proud on one trade with ghandi. Barbs have pillaged his gold and he was just hooking up horses. I gave it to him for ivory.

My plans:
Destroy gandhi, extort some techs. Find the other continent and we will see how is it going there. Then maybe diplo or war.

 

[Thrallia]

I'm playing the adventurer save, something few people seem to be doing, but I believe I need the help, having submitted exactly one win in 6 GOTM submissions.

First, after doing some scouting(moving my archers in opposite directions, my second settler north, my worker south, and my quechua SW, I decide to settle Cuzco in place. I saw all 3 of the gold deposits, but decided that Cuzco's starting position was excellent. 6 FP, 1 gold, 2 wine, 1 sheep, and plenty of hills for production as Cuzco grows.

Second, I decided that I wanted to hold off on founding my second city for awhile, so that I could find a spot that would have good commerce and/or resources for me.

To the W of Cuzco, in the midst of the deserts, I found 7 FPs, stone, gems, and sheep in an area that would all fit into a single fat cross. Because I felt I needed a strong commerce area for my second city, and because of the stone, I decided to found my second city, Tiwanaku, at the nexus of the resources so as to benefit from them all. I also decided to try out a strategy I had thought of, to found my second city when Polytheism was down to a single turn of research left, to give me an instant cultural presence in my second city.

I went for Hinduism because in only about 10% of my games does Buddhism take longer to get founded than hinduism and I always like getting early religions. In this game, Buddhism was founded in 3160BC, and I founded Hinduism in 3520BC so perhaps I could have founded both of them, but I didn't try. In any case, I wound up with Hinduism founded in Tiwanaku and the culture helped immensely.

Also, because Cuzco has grown quickly from floodplains, I am already working the gold, thus despite having a second city already, and at a fair distance from my capitol, I still have a 90% research rate, and have a positive gpt balance with my empire at 20 GNP.

I built several quechuas in Cuzco, then I built a worker once Cuzco was at size 4, exploring the continent madly for thousands of years.

By 2000BC, I've met both Gandhi and Julius Caesar, and I know that neither founded Buddhism.

Judaism is founded in 1930BC in Madras, and quickly spreads to Julius Caesar. They both adopt it as state religion, meaning I am now at odds with my only two neighbors in religion.

My tech path was always aimed at a CS slingshot, because I felt that Cuzco could be such a powerhouse and I hoped that despite my inexperience at pulling it off, the adventurer bonus would help me do it.

Tech Path: Poly>Wheel>Masonry>AH>Priesthood>Writing>Pottery>BW>CoL>CS Slingshot!!!(1000BC)>Alphabet

CoL was finished in 1060BC, and Confuscianism was founded in Tiwanaku, making it a double holy city.

Oracle was then completed thanks to a long distance chop and a pop rush in 1000BC, delivering CS and Bureaucracy to my empire. At about the same time, I finished rushing a library in Cuzco, and made 2 scientists so that I could get an early GS. Once that was accomplished and the Cuzco National Academy was built, I returned the scientists to the cottages and my researched jumped by 10 points. Apparently having scientists hurt my research, rather than helping it because of the immense commerce production I had there.

I then went ahead and quickly built Stonehenge in Tiwanaku as well, it was completed in 895BC. I then dropped my state religion since it was not going to be adopted by both Gandhi and Julius, and allowing Tiwanaku to gain culture for both religions.

I had only 2 cities still, powerhouses though they were, so I conquered Khazak from the barbarians with my quechuas sometime between 800BC and 500BC. I kept it because I needed a third city, and because it was an excellent city spot, with iron, bronze, marble, and 2 crabs within its fat cross.

I then expanded southward, to prevent being boxed off by Gandhi or Julius. So in 400BC, Machu Picchu was founded near the corn and iron CW of Cuzco.

I have gotten two GPs, one I used for the Confuscian shrine, since it has spread much faster than hinduism has, and the other I used to found Christianity in 100BC in Machu Picchu.

The last city I've founded is Ollantaytambo in 185AD W of Khazak along the coast, for the wheat and iron, although this city placement was probably the result of playing late into the night and not thinking well, or I would have placed it near the two gold I am still not using, but have already mined.

Finally, I researched paper, and traded maps with Gandhi to learn the rest of our continent. Although I do not 'know' where Rome is, It is obviously in the corner of the continent near where Antium and Cumae are that has culture without an obvious city near it.

As of 320AD, I am #1 in GNP and technology, but way behind the rest of the world in every other category. I need more cities, more workers, and I need to hurry up and build courthouses in my cities.

My plans:

• Research Machinery so I can stop the growth of Rome
• Increase production and food growth in Inca
• Hurry to Optics after Machinery to meet the other continent(s)
• Build Courthouses in my cities

 

[aviator99_uk]

Adventurer:

Date : 1210BC Score : 213 unadjusted.

Obviously need to play at an easier level.

 

[Lawrence]

Contender, going for diplomatic victory.

Well, what I have seen in this game is not really what I expected to see in an Emperor game. The single most strange thing is: the AIs started so slowly!!!

Settled 1N to get the second gold. Went for a quechua first to grow Cuzco to pop 2. Then started a worker. The second scouting quechua took a misstep and was killed by two lions soonly after he left our cultural borders. Without sighting any AI in some 20 to 30 turns, I was sure that worker stealing is not worthy. However, the two gold resources and the floodplain, sheep should make it possible for a single-city CS slingshot. So I went for it.

Early Research path:
Mining-->Animal Husbandry-->Writing-->Bronze Working-->Meditation-->Priesthood-->Code of Laws.

Well, maybe I played a little too safe, but sighting Gandhi is always bad news for one who wanted to pursue wonders (However in this game I later found out that this is ABSOLUTELY not the case). Got Code of Laws in 1420BC and the Oracle followed 2 turns later. That's way too early for me, maybe should have built a settler.

The barbarians in the game were strangely weak. Before I started the Oracle, I got 4 quechuas to defend the corners of Cuzco. I garrisoned on three corners and left one out since there was no improvement and barbarians from there will directly face the Cuzco city, which is perfectly safe against warrior and archers. However, unlike the expected flood of warriors and archers, only 2 archers and 1 warrior showed up and they were killed easily. I never played an Emperor game with this few barbarians.

Anyway, after CS slingshot I beelined for Alphabet and built a Settler to found Tiwanaku on the east coast as my GP farm. Since I didn't have time in Cuzco to get any GS points I needed to start a GP farm immediately to get a GS before Cuzco could accumulate a Great Priest from the Oracle.

After I got Alphabet at 985BC I was shocked to see the ******** status of AI research. Gandhi hadn't even got pottery and sailing, let alone writing. Caesar's done better, he had Iron working and sailing but won't trade. No writing either. Anyway, I only got Fishing, Hunting, Archery and Masonry from trading Writing. Never expected that in an Emperor game.

Next I researched Mathematics and Currency. With Currency I got 190 gold from trading Mathematics to Gandhi. This gold funded my research for a very, very long time since I only got two cities, running at 100% gives only -3 to -6 gpt. Sounds great.

Next goal is to beeline to astronomy. To help the global research speed I gifted Code of Laws (well, he asked for it) and Alphabet to Caesar, Mathematics and Currency to Gandhi (didn't give Alphabet to him since I don't want to race Great Library with him too early), but seems of little help, they still developed very, very slowly. At around 300BC I have already got Metal Casting and still no one will trade me Iron Working and Sailing. I had to build a confucian missionary to spread confucianism to Caesar, trying to get him friendly with me. I didn't want to do that, since it will harm the relationship between the two AIs and may end up in requests to stop trading with one another. Finally I was able to trade Iron Working from Caesar, but had to research Sailing myself. The lucky thing was that by the turn I got Optics (155AD), Caesar also got Calendar, which saved me several turns of researching.

By 335AD I have contact with all civs except one in the world, and was pursuing Astronomy fanatically. I will continue this in the second spoiler.

As of 335AD:
City status:
6 cities. 4 Built, 2 captured from barbarian.

Tech status:
Mining 3700BC
Animal Husbandry 3190BC
Writing 2620BC
Bronze Working 2320BC
Meditation 2110BC
Priesthood 1990BC
Code of Laws 1420BC
Civil Service (Oracle) 1330BC
The Wheel 1300BC
Alphabet 985BC
Fishing (Trade) 970BC
Hunting, Masonry (Trade) 955BC
Mathematics 820BC
Archery (Trade) 805BC
Currency 625BC
Pottery (Trade) 610BC
Monarchy 475BC
Metal Casting 295BC
Machinery 55BC
Iron Working (Trade) 40BC
Sailing 25BC
Compass 50AD
Polytheism (Trade) 140AD
Optics 155AD
Calendar (Trade) 155AD
Monotheism (Trade) 170AD
Literature (Trade) 170AD
Construction (Trade from overseas) 335AD
Horseback Riding (Trade from overseas) 335AD
Pursuing Astronomy now.

Wonder status:
Only Oracle. Building Great Library in Cuzco.

Army status:
2 archers and around a dozen of quechua, 2 caravels. Nothing else since I never saw a barbarian axeman, like I said, very strange for an Emperor game.

Contact status:
+8 with Gandhi and Caesar.
Good with all other civs except one.

Religion status:
Revolted to Confucianism at 70BC to trade with Caesar.
Revolted back to no religion at 170AD to have good relations with everyone.

Great Peoples:
Only 1 Scientist, built academy at Cuzco.

 

[Murky]

From my notes:

I decided to settle in place.

Techs AH->Mining->Meditation->Priesthood->Writting->Wheel->Pottery->BW->IW

Capital Build order: worker->quecha->settler>quecha>Oracle

Worker built sheep pasture>goldmine>mine>farm>farm>horse pasture->roads>cottages.

Settled Tiwanaku near horses and fish on the coast NE of Capital and used it for more Quechas, barracks and settler.

Completed Oracle for Code of Laws slingshot.

Founded Confucianism in Tiwanaku and spread it to capital with Missionary.

Met Ceasar's scout from the south where I had a Quecha. Gandhi's scout came from the southwest.

No other civs met yet.

 

[NotReady4Purple]

Adventurer Game

Barbarians - my goodness they just came in wave after wave after wave!

I'm new to all the Civ games - and have only been plaing on chieftain for a few weeks- so this is quite a stretch.

I couldn't get to the iron in time - so I was fighting off waves (5-6 units at a time at a time) of Barbs. The only thing that kept me alive was the combat promotions, walls and barracks in all my cities. My combat promotions allowed my archers to fight off axeman and spears! I couldn't keep a worker going as the barbs kept killing them and ransacking my mines and fields. (Even with one archer assigned to each worker). I had one of the gold mines destroyed 4 times.

I finally stopped trying, hunkered down inside my city walls making archers (the highest strength fighter I could make) and waited for the Barbs to go away.

The other AI's have been treating me like a charity case and Ghandi and Genghis (!) have been gifting me techs and resources - their puny, tiny neighbor.

Right now, finally, most of the barbs are gone and I'm building cottages like mad. I clearly won't win this game - but I'm happy to have survived so far.