I am still a “noobie” and this is my first ever Emperor. My goals were:
1. Be the first to Circumnavigate the globe, 2. Build a strong navy, and 3. … wait, just kidding (j/k). My first goal was to avoid getting myself into a situation where I figured I might as well replay ‘cause I had made so many noob mistakes. SO, for starters, I decided I’d better go with the Adventurer Class (AC).
NOT as EASY as …
4000 BC I begin by thinking I’ll just play like I was on Contender with bonuses … but it doesn’t work that way. I tried to determine how I could best utilize my free worker and keep it busy until …
TEMPLE of SID MEIER
Between bouts of cursing and blessings of the gods, as the early map unfolded I went from despair to euphoria and back again… I had thought about moving north to settle 1N, 1NW. If I had moved my settler, I would have spied the stone and settled on top of it. Thus, ensuring some early ‘wonder’ful production. On AC level, I had the gold in the hills 2N, so I couldn’t go S: thus, I settled in place. Later, when the copper shows up in the 2S hills, I build altars in the name of AC and Ainwood in the Temple of SM.
3970 BC I debated starting research with the Wheel to make sure my worker stayed busy, but I elected to go with AH instead, and since I had Archery in my hip pocket, I built an Archer first, skipping Warriors for the rest of the game.
By
3520 BC I finished AH and had met HC, GK, Lizzy, & JC. Wow! The neighbors had all dropped by to say hi and I had barely a hut to entertain them in yet. Since I had mining, my worker stayed busy …. Duh … mining. [he wanted to hang around unemployed and hunt & fish, but I found him a real job in the mines].
By
3070 BC I had finished BW and met M&M (makes five so far). Changed production to Settler periodically when my capital wasn’t growing, and also inserted Barracks into the que (Remember AC started with an extra Archer and worker, along with the normal Warrior and initial Settler).
By
2830 I could put my worker on the road gang (finished the Wheel), and I had met Washington.
I did very little scouting, just along the coast SW and a clockwise route a few squares out and down SE. Why scout? Everytime I turned around there was a new Civ… there goes the neighborhood. And, I hoped to be sending Axemen in scout’s clothing around to visit neighbors with a little ‘pointed-stick diplomacy’ soon enough.
Circa
2560 I had researched Pottery and could start on Granary. Now I would research Writing (ca.
2140 BC) and Alphabet (ca.
1180 BC). As I have done in my few learning games where I was not a spiritual leader, I completely skipped religion (and those much pre-game-show discussed “slingshot units” – j/k).
Ca.
2620 I had founded my second city, SHANGHAI, to the east 1N of the two gold mines. At Shanghai, I started immediately on what would be the ONLY worker I would build in the game, I think (the rest I capture while at war). But, I never ever seem to build enough workers. Since I did not have Mysticism (and detest building Obelisks because of their short life span), after the worker, I had to build a library.
1750 BC Stonehenge was built far away, and by my calculations this noob would have fooled around too long and not have completed it if I had taken that course. The ORACLE was completed elsewhere ca.
1240 in my game I think.
Circa
1660 BC Founded my third city, Guangzhou 5S right between the cows and horses (since I wanted them in my inner ring because I haven’t any obelisks to build).
ALL THAT SPARKLES IS NOT GOLD (GYM City in South with Gems)
During this time I was building Axemen (usually with City Raider- CR1) in assembly line fashion, with an occasional Archer (given garrison I –G1). I had visions of early warmongering like you experienced gamers out there. A funny thing happened on the way to war though, I found a Barb city and that was my first “war.” Gained a little experience and captured and kept “Bantu”, down on the Gems in the south above Liz’s English Island Getaway. I started to rename it “Mao’s GYM” but I didn’t ….
Completed Iron Working ca.
910 BC and Math ca.
700.
CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS
About this time, Lizzy settled a city about 8S & 2W, and threatened to block the mountain pass at 7S, 1W. Besides, I had seen Axes for sure in Genghis-ville, and he was trailing in score; hadn’t seen any axes in England yet. I decided I must take her out, although I wasn’t ready for war. DOW’ed her in 685 BC Destroyed this size one Canterbury without losing an axe. Pillaged toward London.
655 BC Adopted Slavery. Captured Nottingham, SE on the English Isle/Peninsula in
520 BC and ceasefire with Liz was established.
THE LAY OF THE LAND
Every body and his brother had (or
eventually would) come and beg for Alphabet. I refused them one and all; didn’t make me the most popular guy on the block. I have Genghis bottled in off to the W; Gandhi has a long border with me to the east, Liz on the isle/peninsula to the south, and HC is north of me. SO, I wanted to keep them out; I did not open borders with any of those. I did seek to establish open borders with other civs. I didn’t really want the neighbors religions (ah, did I?) since I knew I’d be going to war with them. And I like to know about where their little toy soldier units are when I start a war so that they don’t come in for pillaging from the back side unexpectedly. I did gift Priesthood to GK when he asked; he was the last in score and seemed to be bottled up where I could watch him. Even without open borders, and trading around with enemies, etc. I had decent relations (+1 to <-1> with majority).
445 BC I put a temporary Scientist to work in Beijing, just so I could say I had at least started to work with Mao’s traits (since I had pretty much ignored his UU, and continue to do so).
About
400 BC I got Construction, followed next by Monarchy, because I mistakenly felt I would need Hereditary Rule much, much earlier than I actually did as it turns out. That b.i… witch Lizzy rebuilt a city at the mountain pass (this time she named it Coventry, as if THAT was going to fool me…
and I DOW’ed her to remove it in
415 BC, before it had a chance to become impregnable. I had warned her. Her friend Gandhi went to <-4> with me in diplo, so I feared his reaction. I went on to capture London, and much to my surprise (okay, so I am a noob and hadn’t checked the demographics, cities/wonders….) London had the Parthenon !! Cool. Since so far I was really utilizing the Philo trait to leverage my GPP points in … let’s see… surely somewhere I was running at LEAST a scientist or two? NO? oh well…. Along in here I took Liz’s second capital, York and established a second cease fire. So far, no War Weariness and no significant “We Yearn To Join Our Motherland” (WYTJOM) in captured cities, which I have kept (except for the mountain pass cities which were either razed or size one anyway).
295 BC I finally met the LAST ‘other’ civ – it was Hattie! She and I became buds ( I went under her fav civ- I had no religion).
265 BC Began my first Wonder, the Hanging Gardens at Bantu (old Barb city). I had decided it might work as a GPP farm; okay, so I AM a noob and don’t really know what a GP farm should look like, but it was the first time I had seen a city that I thought I could develop with a surplus of food.
145 BC DOW’ed Liz for the last time, but her friend Gandhi went <-6> diplo because of it. I destroyed the English Civ in 100 BC, and began hurrying what was left of my massive army ( well, would you believe a couple of units, anyway?) back up toward my borders with Gandhi.
55 BC I reach half a million population.
FANCY FOOTWORK
I had the strong hunch that Gandhi would DOW me soon. Besides, who else could be a better second target for my greed, land-lust, avarice and general imperialistic expectations? But, he made menacing drive-bys with a chariot near my northeast, and then actually brought a small SoD near my gold mines with a pillage look in their eyes. I was whipping away, adjusting garrison troops, and I upgraded my lone portable happiness warrior (I only expected to use him for HR happiness) to an axeman. All this seemed to scare Gandhi and he hesitated there at my border for two turns- just what I needed to get my veterans from the English campaign ready to counterattack at Calcutta which was 4S, 5E of Beijing. Gandhi DOW’ed
me in
20 AD I captured Calcutta in
50 AD and barely managed to keep the pillagers in the NE at bay. I reached one million in population by
185 AD and Gandhi paid me a measely $50g & $3gpt for peace with him. While he made no progress, and I took a city, I lost my bid for the Chichen Itza by just a few turns due to my ‘fancy footwork’ preparing for Gandhi’s DOW. I am glad I was right; I would have felt a might bit foolish if I sac’d so many $$$, time, etc. if he had not.
The AI’s love to rebuild ‘razed’ cities, I guess. Now, HC and his Incan settler has built a city that will dissect my newly acquired southern English colonies from the mainland. I realize that sooner or later, he will be my next target. During this peacetime, I am revamping my infrastructure, whipping away, chopping everything not absolutely necessary. I have decided to research down the military track (in this noob’s mind, anyway), and make a dart for Liberalism. Traded for older techs, sold older techs, and ran into an interesting situation …
THE AI’s ALWAYS OVERVALUE WORLD MAPS
Hmmm… since I had not scouted much, I needed a world map. After I got Paper in
290 AD , I tried to beg, borrow, exchange, or steel a map but no AI civ would budge. I finally overvalued it myself and gave up Literature for a map. Then I was able to recover most of my cost by selling my new maps around the AI civs.
CIVICs
655 BC Adopted SLAVERY
350 AD Adopted HR, Vassalage & Serfdom
WHO’s NEXT ?
425 AD DOW’ed HC, and captured Huamanga, that pesky mountain pass city that threatened to cut off my English subjects from their new Despot ruler. In
485 AD I captured Tiwanaku in the north, a few tiles away from the Incan capital. My wars are now fought with War Elephants and heavily promoted Axemen, catapults, a couple of medic Spearmen, and a well-flanked Chariot or two. My garrisons are mostly Archers with G1 or maybe G2, a couple of Longbowmen (upgrades and just now new builds), and an occasional garrison of Axe with C1.
Now as I break at
500 AD, Gandhi is like <-8> because of my war with his new bestest friend the Incans & HC, and my army is split between the north (up in Incanville) and the south (returning from capturing the Incan mountain pass pest pesky city). I hate it when my Stack of Doom becomes a Mood fok Cats (it’s all backwards and split up wrong). SO, I’m expecting M. Gandhi to show up with a DOW again, if he’s brave enough. [hoping I don’t have to eat those words later this month]. I still only have Axemen, War Elephants, Longbowmen, and NO Maces. Skipped Machinery so far, and no one has been willing to trade it to me, so no macemen. Alas, though, I hope to have musketeers soon enough.
The only other war going on (or that I know of) is now between Hattie (who DOW’ed) and M & M (the Dowee). Washington has a funny named city which I presume he acquired courtesy of the Barbs.
PHILOSOPHICAL trait
I used my first GS (ca.
175 BC ) to help me finish researching Philosophy, and as a result, I founded Taoism then. My second GS built an Academy in Beijing. My third GS was born in
440 AD and he applied 2,421 bkr’s to Education. I began researching LIBERALISM (one of my goals) in
485 AD. I’ll be curious to see how others have been able to leverage this trait and where, and what you did, and how you did it on this map….
At
500 AD I am building Heroic Epic at Beijing (capital), and have built Nat’l Epic at Bantu (GP farm), with the HG there.
STATISTICS (for the ‘diehard’ civver in you)
Cities .. 500BC .. 5 AD ... 500AD
Founded 3 ....... 3 ...... 3
Barb .... 1 ....... 1 ...... 1
English .... 1 ....... 4 ...... 4
Incan ......................... 2
Indian ......................... 1
Total ....... 5 ....... 8 ....... 11
Hammers 29 ...... 51 ....... 58
Coins 38 ...... 104 ....... 124
Beakers 45/55 ....... 122 ...... 201
$$$gpt @ 100%
Research <-18g> <-64g> <-74g>
Beijing Size ....... 5 ....... 8 ....... 5(whipping)
Tech pursued ...... Construction ... Civ Svc ....... Liberalism
SCOREs at 500 AD Hattie 1181 [Mao} 1159 Wash 1074 Gandhi 1013 M&M 992 J. Ceasar 663 H.C. 537 Genghis 412 Liz Destroyed
I own 18.46% of the World’s Land (M&M has 15%); I have 16.23% of the World’s Population (Hattie has 18.oo%).
NOW …..
QUESTIONS (You knew there’d be a few from me)
#1 How do you decide to open borders with other Civs, or do you always to get religion, etc.?
#2 Can you get to the Foreign Advisor screen during negotiations to tell who’s friendly with the civ offering you a deal? I am almost sure I did once, but now the negotiating screen covers the icons up at the right top hand side of the screen…. If I close the ‘deal’ screen from the other AI, it’s gone. Is there a way to hot key this or otherwise get to view the relationship information with other civs while having an offer from another AI civ open at the same time?
#3 I presume that I should work a cottage with 2F & coins to build it even before a gold mine, since the gold mine has -0- food and might stagnate the city, thus never improving the cottages? How long and how many cottages before you finally relent and work the gold mine? What good is an early gold mine if you keep building cottages to work before it?
#4 Similar to 3 above, when do you forego a cottage (or perhaps other useful tile) to begin the Scientist specialist work?
#5 When good-‘ol-what’s-his-name does his treatise on the most “powerful” civs in the world, what is he measuring for that indication?
#6 How can I print out the Event Log? [Or can I? Does it just have to be reviewed “on screen”?]
Thanks to everyone and I enjoyed all the posts. Thanks for patiently answering noob questions too. I (and others?) have learned a lot. Last but not least, please offer comments on improving my choices, including civics, slingshots, war strategies & tactics, GPPs, etc.
Best regards
Adama,
Military Leader of the Last Remnant of the Human Race
The capital then brought out another warrior (due anyway) who tricked the barbarian into killing himself.
Having tided over the early crisis after stealthily hiding for a few turns, the settler emerged to found Shanghai, albeit a bit late (T 48 or so).
By this time we had also learned to domesticate animals and the cow+horse seemed a very good production spot.
The people were shocked and felt betrayed, but all was not lost as it was only a cease fire and not a peace treaty. Two turns later, our forces entered the borders of Khan's last city - Turfan. This caused some of the other leaders (including Huayna) to look down upon us for declaring war on their friend. The defenders were routed and in 700 B.C, the Mongols were kicked out of the game. However, in a fit of madness,
I decided NOT to raze Turfan. The maintenance cost ruined the economy and we realized that at 120 gold in the treasury, we did not have enough money to complete the research of Alphabet. The people were stunned and there was a sense of depair in the air. After much though, we spent the entire available gold on researching fishing, which was completed in 4 turns leaving us with negligible gold. With the ability to work the commerce rich water tiles however, we started generating a fair amount of gold and alphabet would be learnt soon enough.
We also concluded peace with Huayna, and in the bargain got Meditation and Hunting.
However, we tricked the other civilizations into buying this new technology from us and by 25 B.C, through trading Compass around, we had acquired Polytheism, Priesthood, Archery, Currency, Calendar and Monarchy.
and they revolted to hereditary rule immediately. Meanwhile the men of science learned Metal Casting in 20 A.D. only to see that none of the other civilizations would give us anything for it. We could only get Code of Laws for it but it was still better than nothing and would allows us to build courthouses. We deperately wanted Construction but no one who had it would lend it to us. Not to be disheartened we decided to research it ourselves and in 220 A.D. we discovered Construction. Meanwhile constant army production (albeit at a low production level to help generate gold) had been kept up despite mounting costs of a standing army. We had a sizable army of swords and axes tearing at the leash and catapults would lend us the required balance. As soon as we learned Construction, we started manufacturing catapults everywhere.
. So when he had 5 axmen trained he became mad with war fever and attached the Mongols in 1270 BC. Captured Turfan in 1240 BC and Karakorum in 1030 BC only to lose empty Turfan to a stray Mongolian axe that was guarding the horse pasture in 985. By 950 BC the advancing Chinese captured Turfan and Beshbalik to get rid the world of Mongol herds.
Yes that is what he felt. He loved this feeling so much he said hi to Incans in 745 BC. Tiwanaku was captured in 700 BC and auto razed Machu Piccu in 640 BC, the same year the Chinese learned the Alphabet. An orgy of knowledge was exchanged with other clans, including Alphabet, during the following few years. In 580 BC Cuzco was added to the Chinese empire followed by peace in 505 BC in exchange for Archery and Meditation. During this peace time, The Incan settled a city near an Iron ore in old Mongolian lands and denied access to Mao. His people up roared and he yielded to the peoples will by adding Huamanga to Chinese empire. The ensuing second Incan war lasted for many centuries since Mao just felt so (and could not find 
the last city-The Ice Castle.)
.
