How about a Deity SG for a newbie or 2?

[voodoocat]

Well I was hoping to have at least 1 person who has defeated Deity on the team.

I tend to do a lot of micromanaging, war, and trade. Every once in a while I do forget to check F1 and see if cities see if cities are going to go into disorder in my own games... never in a SG though... 10 turns go fast until later stages

For the other people on the team:
What kind of wins have you had at emporer, what strategies do you use?

 

[q33555]

Domination and Diplomatic are my two win types at Emperor. My usual tactics are to try and expand as quickly as possible at the start, running a bit of a farmers gambit unless there is another civ a little too close.

If I need to go to war I always try and do it with a horse/knight/cav stack depending what era I'm in.

Other than that I try and keep it quite fluid and play it by ear.

Where I probably need to improve is diplo. I think that is where I fall down in deity games as I seem to fall waaaayy behind in tech and can never catch up.

On micromanaging, I'm sometimes pretty lax in solo games - but agree that in an SG it shouldn't be too difficult to keep on top of everything in only 10 turns.

When do you think we're going to start? Holidays are now over and I'm back at work tomorrow so will have slightly less time on my hands.

 

[voodoocat]

I work too and there was no break for me... I have played the first turns and plan on posting the report this evening.

Speaker: are you around?

 

[Speaker]

I've beaten Emperor by Diplomatic, Space, and Conquest and I have since stopped playing Emperor and only play Deity now. By reading Sulla's training day game as well as several of the RBE threads, I have learned how to keep up with the tech on Deity. As long as you put science as low as you can, adjust the luxury rate to keep everyone happy without using entertainers, you will be fine. You just need to meet as many tribes as possible to lower the cost, and then pay for techs and broker them to the worst tribe. Really pretty basic stuff, and I'm sure you guys know it, but I just thought I'd throw it out there anyways.

 

[Speaker]

Yeah I'm right here.

 

[voodoocat]

Yes, those are the type of trades that keep you alive on the higher levels. Even if we don't get a veteran to Deity, I think we have the skills to beat it...

I will post tonight and speaker is on deck.
I won't have any NFL playoffs to watch this year cause the Broncos aren't in em...

 

[voodoocat]

Ok, here we go... good lands are plentiful.

4000BC (1) - Our settlers notice off in a distance the coast of a water body. We sent our worker forth to check on the coast discovering the sea of Istanbul. This city will include game on forest, a cattle on grassland, and be built on a river
3950BC (2) - Better news yet... Istanbul settled; has 1 wheat on river/bg and another cattle on grass. I move our worker out to improve the land to the north on bonus grass. Science 90% for Pottery in 20.
3900BC (3) -
3850BC (4) - Worker starts on mining bonus grass
3800BC (5) -
3750BC (6) - Istanbul builds warrior for exploration
3700BC (7) - Warrior begins exploration south of istanbul
3650BC (8) - Worker heads towards wheat to improve it
3600BC (9) - Warrior gets 25g from village
3550BC (10) - Exploring
3500BC (11) - Warrior built in Istanbul, another warrior started
3450BC (12) - Borders expand and population increases. Luxury tax set to 10% and workers are now utilizing improved bonus grass and wheat. Warriors find incense to the north.
3400BC (13) - Worker completes irrigation of wheat. sent towards cattle to improve.
3350BC (14) - 3rd warrior for mp built. Production set to barracks as hold for granary. due in 3 turns after setting sci to 100%
3300BC (15) - Exploring
3250BC (16) - Exploring
3200BC (17) - Pottery discovered. IW being set at min science 6gpt. 10% luxury for new citizen.
3150BC (18) - Exploring and building mine on cattle
3100BC (19) - Exploring
3050BC (20) - village pops nothing. Worker on his way to clear the forest on the game square.

Here's the screen (no dot map):

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads3/voodoocat-ottoman3050bc.sav

 

[Speaker]

3050 BC (0) Surveyed empire. Citizen moved from game to Cattle tile for an increase by one in food. Worker should be concentrating on second cattle southeast of Istanbul instead of taking five turns to clear forest, which would also waste the shields gained from forestry. With second city to go south of Istanbul near the third cattle, the road toward that future city would be started as well. Decided to bite the bullet and waste the three turns required to move the worker down there.

3000 BC (1) Both warriors sent onto mountains to explore. Eastern warrior reveals another wheat. Worker moved toward cattle. Citizen moved from wheat to game for one turn: Istanbul still grows in one turn but gains two extra shields gaining one turn on the granary which is now finished in 5 turns instead of 6.

2950 BC (2) Istanbul grows to size 4, requiring an increase in luxury to 20% to stay happy. Warriors continue to mountain hop and worker continues on his way toward the cattle. Let's try not to waste worker turns like this if possible.

2900 BC (3) Warriors continue to explore and worker finally arrives on cattle.

2850 BC (4) Warriors continue to explore. Worker begins road.

2800 BC (5) Warriors continue to explore, worker continues to build road. Istanbul micromanaged to produce one extra gold but still grow and complete granary in one turn.

2750 BC (6) Istanbul grows to size 5 requiring an increase in luxuries again. Slider now set at 6.1.3. Worker finishes road and moves southeast. Western warrior finds the coast. Eastern warrior finds another wheat. Istanbul micromanaged to grow and finish a settler in 4 turns.

2710 BC (7) Worker begins road toward second city site.

2670 BC (8) Warriors continue to explore and still have not found another tribe. This has me a bit disappointed as we have a lot of money (99 gold with +5 per turn) and could have bought and traded for several techs by now. I fear we may be pretty far behind when we finally make contact. Worker keeps working on road.

2630 BC (9) Worker finishes road and warriors continue to explore. Finally make contact with someone, the Germans to the northwest of Istanbul. As I feared, they are far ahead of us, already having Alphabet, Warrior Code, Ceremonial Burial, and Iron Working as well as 4 cities in addition to their capitol. The positive of being relatively isolated is that we should be able to build a lot of cities, especially with Istanbul being so food rich and having a granary. Trade 2 gpt and 85 gold to Germany for Ceremonial Burial.

2590 BC (10) Worker begins road and warriors continue to explore. Istanbul grows to size 6 and finishes settler, dropping back to size 4, and the slider is readjusted to 7.1.2. Istanbul set again to settler and should be able to produce settler after settler for some time with proper micromanagement. It has a surplus of 5 food, so it grows to size 5 in 2 turns, producing 14 shields at 7 spt. With the new citizen then placed on the second cattle, Istanbul will produce a surplus of 6 food for growth in 2 turns and 8 spt which will complete the settler in two turns and start the cycle again. Warriors continue to explore and at the edge of the fog of war, the eastern warrior spots a red border (Rome), and the western warrior spots a teal border (China). The completed settler has started to move toward a spot in the south which can be chosen by q33555.

The next 10 turns will be important in establishing contact with Rome and China and hopefully brokering contacts and/or tech, and continuing to pump out settlers. Securing and bringing online the incense north of Istanbul should be a priority. At the end of my turn, The Ottoman Empire has 22 Gold at +2 per turn with IW finished in 27 turns. Good luck to q33555.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads3/speaker-ottoman2590bc.sav

 

[voodoocat]

I think with all of the wheat we have, a worker farm would be ideal. We already have a great advantage being industrious and a good worker base would put us in a good position.

I'm thinking a core city that will start towards that goal from the moment it is settled. We can leave the strong culture to our border cities.

 

[Speaker]

I agree. Istanbul will be building settlers very quickly now, and since we are so far behind in tech, we'll have to catch up by expanding fast. A worker farm will help us speed the settlers to their sites. Let's get a proposed dot map soon if possible.

 

[q33555]

So xmas holidays are over and I should be at work. Instead I’m sitting at my computer coughing and spluttering and with a streaming nose . To try and cheer myself up I load up PtW and, with some trepidation, take up the reins on my first ever SG.

Pre-turn: review the scenery - looks like a very good starting position. I can see the northern Chinese border but cannot see the Roman border in the east (and I did look good and hard!). Check F11 to see who we’re up against - well the list is Germany, Rome, China, Zulu and Japan. Hmmmmm, at least 5 of the 6 opponents are militaristic, could get interesting later .

(1) 2550BC: Decide to send the settler SW to settle the square between the cattle and the 3 bonus grasslands. Is also on an inland sea so no aqueduct needed. E Warrior moves north and can now see the Roman town of Cumae. Caesar is annoyed, has 5 cities has alphabet, WC and IW over us, but we have masonry. I hold off making any deals until we have contact with China to bring the prices down a bit. W Warrior moves towards Chinese border, but cannot make contact yet. Notice that China appear to be on a separate land mass to us.

(2) 2510BC. W Warrior can now see Nanking and shouts across the water to hail Mao. Mao is cautious, has 4 cities and is up alphabet, WC and IW. Make a visit to Ceasar he now offers us alphabet for masonry and 20g or IW for masonry, 2gpt and 10g. Given that we’re 15 turns into min research into IW, and I don’t want to completely cripple our economy just yet, I take the alphabet deal.

I MM Istanbul as the AI chooses to place the 5th worker on the forest instead of the cattle (we’ll all have to watch this every time Istanbul grows to size 5). Lux increased to 30%.

(IT) Germans commence the Pyramids - they are now building the Pyramids and the Colossus.

(3) 2470BC. Edrine founded. Warrior is ordered up first, it will then be set to churning out workers. Worker starts irrigating cattle square outside Edrine. MM Istanbul to get additional gold but still grow and produce settler next turn.

(4) 2430BC. Istanbul produces settler and another one is ordered. Lux back down to 20%. So where to send the settler? After much deliberation I decide to send him north to snag the incense in the hills. Two main reasons for this, I want to decrease our reliance on the lux slider and also as we’re on the southern edge of our continent we should start pushing north straight away and (hopefully) can fill in southwards at our leisure.

New techs discovered this turn, the other civs now have:
China: Wheel, WC, IW and Myst
Germany: WC, IW and Myst
Rome: WC and IW

I spy a chance of a 2for! Don’t stand a chance of getting the wheel at monopoly prices so I get mysticism from China for 5gpt and 9g and then pass this on to Rome for WC and 11g. This leaves us with 15g and -1 gpt but we will have our 3rd city shortly so should be ok.

(5) 2390BC. Worker completes irrigation and starts a road.

(6) 2350BC. Istanbul grows to 5 and have to MM to work the cattle again. Lux to 30%. We’re still at -1gt.

(7) 2310BC. Not a lot. Rome now has the wheel. Germany still lacks it. No chance of brokering it at the moment though.

(8) 2270BC. Settler produced by Istanbul, another ordered. Edrine produces warrior, worker ordered. Warrior put on MP duty as Edrine will grow next turn and even at 20% lux it doesn’t put any gold into luxuries. Found Bursa on hill by the incense. Need to get a worker up there ASAP otherwise it will grow too slowly. Warrior ordered up to do a bit more exploring to the west.

(9) 2230BC. Not a lot.

(IT) Roman warrior/settler pair head towards the wines near Cumae.

(10) 2190BC. Not a lot.

When I've worked out how to upload stuff I'll post the file and a picture and give some thought on what to do next.

 

[q33555]

Well, that's not too difficult! Here's the save game:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads3/q33555-ottoman2190bc.sav

And here's a simple dotmap:

I've only put three dots on it so far. The settler is currently heading for the black dot - although this can be vetoed if Skyfish wants.

I'm not sure about the orange dot, this will snag the ivory on a cultural expansion and has no overlap, but is not on a river and, unimproved, is not a great spot.

The green dot allows the city to be on a river and eventually get both wheats in its radius.

However, I think we really need to get some exploration doen to the west of Istanbul (the warrior due in Bursa was for this purpose). Until we know more about what is out there the dot map isn't too helpful.

And so ends my first ever SG turn. I hope none of you think any of my moves were too - but if you do please tell me, I won't get offended .

Good luck to Skyfish

 

[anarres]

Well done guys - this looks good.

I hope you don't mind constructive input, but I would reconsider putting a city on the black dot indicated in the map above. Maybe one below it to get the fish and the harbour.

You could then have another city 2 squares to the right of the black dot. This secong city would also get a fish (and some gold). If you prefer it to be less cramped (I like it compact early), you can always settle the first city 1 square south and 1 south-west of the black dot, still getting the fish.

If you'd prefer not to get this input just say and I'll stop it.

 

[Speaker]

Well done q33555 You have gotten exactly where I hoped you would get. Edrine should be able to crank out workers and I'm hoping that with some irrigation, Bursa can then build warriors for nationwide MP and we'll be in business. Nice work on brokering the trades as well. To Skyfish, I would tend to agree with Anarres and recommend ignoring the black dot for now. IMO, the first settler go to the red dot and the second settler find a nice spot to the west of Istanbul, probably by following the road that's already there. In any event, that is up to Skyfish.

 

[voodoocat]

Red dot is good... The green dot is a bit far away IMHO. Move it one to the west and there is no wastage

 

[Skyfish]

OK guys : got it !

Thanks for sliding me in Voodoocat, will do my best not to disappoint you !

Just bought PTW 2 minutes ago and upgraded to 1.14 just now.

Should be able to crank in some turns tonight, will keep you updated.

 

[q33555]

Must be lunch time in the States!

@Speaker: Thanks for the comments. I've obviously played Civ3 for ages now and do well in solo games, but I was surprised at how tense I felt when playing those 10 turns - knowing you've got a lot of people watching and relying on you to do well adds another level of pressure!

@Annares: I've no problems with you chipping in with comments. Given that none of us have beaten deity before we probably need all the input we can get .

I expected a few disagreements on the dotmap , I put it together quite quickly and as I said earlier I think we need more info about the west before we can make too many decisions.

 

[Speaker]

I know what you mean q33555. Every time Istanbul grew, I was petrified that it would go into disorder. Don't want to waste any turns here for fear of Sulla or Sirian lurking, ready to point out "weedy" moves.

 

[voodoocat]

I wake up and it's lunch time... I go to work at 2pm.

The west would be good lands... and closer to our core.

I definately look forward to hearing some comments. Would get better because of them.

I know it's early to think about FP but with a large core and a 2nd core to one side, we should have a strong set of cities to control.

 

[LKendter]

Every time Istanbul grew, I was petrified that it would go into disorder. Don't want to waste any turns here for fear of Sulla or Sirian lurking, ready to point out "weedy" moves.

Well Sirian or Sulla are by no means the only deity players here, or people who would comment.

I will note a positive comment with the worry about rioting. One thing I have learned about surviving higher levels - one city in riot mode early in the game can really hurt. That might be the difference in snagging one more city, or just losing the race to a critical site (luxuries, resources, choke point, etc).
Deity survival lesson #1: NEVER let core cities riot.

As for comments:
Bursa should have been one left to take advantage of the river - the cost of an aqueduct is added to the city growth, and lower commerce for not taking advantage of the river.
LK36 is proving that commerce is king - Germany is #2 in tech at the moment.

Both yellow are orange dot are one from a river? River cities are very valuable for generating commerce - this is survival for the late game.