MM7: Slicing Samuri

[bed_head7]

Since a lot of us don't have much to look at (ie don't have game) lots of pics of stuff that was usually considered not worth posting in a Civ3 game might be appreciated here. You can't go wrong following Sirian's example in most respects, and the Cuban Isolationist game is packed with pictures.

Thanks!

 

[eotinb]

Since the order is all out of whack due to who does and does not have the game, I'll go ahead and get it. And great idea on extra screenies, bed_head7. In the same vein, I think a litle more explanation of what we are doing and why would be good -- things that may seem obvious to some of you from your SP games may come as a nice surprise to me, etc. and it will be nice for any lurkers or team members who don't have the game yet.

As for future cities, I'd like to push east and claim the choke ASAP, especially since the east part of our penninsula is pretty resource rich. With the way borders work in civ4, we shouldn't have much competition backfilling.

Edit: Something I want to ask the rest of the team about -- what's everyone's evaluation of the cost/benefit of putting roads everywhere a la civ3? Obviously the lack of a commerce bonus makes roads less of a priority, as does the fact that workers have 2 moves. In my two SP games I have tried both extremes -- roads just connecting cities and roads everywhere. Min-roads works pretty well but you need to be conscious of rivers (no surprise there) and I think that in some cases it may make sense to have a road running alongside both banks of a river. Max-roads is nice if you fight a defensive war against the AI, since you can attack from inside a city and then retreat back to its protection with 1-move units. But I also found that max-roads can get a little visually confusing and I have moved onto a tile I mistakenly thought was roaded more than once (although I'm sure that will change once I get used to the new graphics).

 

[MeteorPunch]

Pushing east sounds good. There is a "distance from capital" fee, but it is not bad.

Long term: We have horses and elephants. We need to build cities, research, yada, yada, and start churning out some chariots and horse archers. Right now I think chariots are much better because they cost half as much, but are almost as strong. Although it seems I heard somewhere that there are hidden strength modifiers which make things more powerful than they seem or something like that.

Chariot - 4 Str, 2 Move, 25 shields
Horse Archer - 6 Str, 2 Move, 50 shields

That's my (probably wrong) opinion, but really I think we are just winging it.

 

[regoarrarr]

One thing I noticed in my SP game is that you can't use units to block chokes! Multiple units can occupy the same square. The only way that you can block chokes is with cultural borders (and even then you can't have open borders or they can just walk on in)

How did you get the screenshots to save in-game?

 

[MeteorPunch]

How did you get the screenshots to save in-game?

The PrintScreen button on the keyboard. Civ 4 creates a screenshots directory in C:/Documents and Settings/yourname/My Games/Civ4/screenshots

These can be .tga, .jpg(by default), and .bmp

I can't find where to edit the quality though.

Roads: I don't know the answer to this. I'm using about the same amount of workers as Civ 3 and roading everywhere out of habit, but it's definitely not necessary.

 

[grahamiam]

roading is fine if we don't have the worker improvement tech yet. it'll help the settler get to where he has to go faster and help the worker come back to the resource square faster to improve it later. however, roading all over the place isn't necessary.

 

[eotinb]

Enjoy.

Pre-turn: Not sure why two settlers are in the queue, although I agree that one makes sense at this point. By the way, thanks for leaving so many pre-turn decisions for the next player, it's nice to have options. Since we don't have Bronze Working, we can't chop yet. Even though it won't finish in time to help with this settler, I swich to it because we will need it before Animal Husbandry (and shouldn't lose progress towards that in the meantime) -- also it's nice to know where the copper is. After reading RB1, I decide to this would be an excellent opportunity to play with the city governors. I tell the mayor of Kyoto to emphasize food, since that will be the fastest way to finish this settler. I'm curious though if the gov is smart enough to know that food=shields (hammers, whatever) when building a worker or settler. Start farming flood plain and burn work boat harvesting clams (gov switches to clams tile from 3 hammer forested plains hill -- good for him). Settler now in 10 and BW in 11.

2600IT: Meet the Little Corporal (but don't tell him I called him that).
2560
2520: Reach north coast of landmass and turn east, hoping to skirt just past Incan city.
2520IT: Panthers attack and we win. Wanted to win on offense rather than defense to get more XP but they wouldn't come out of their corner.
2480: Pantera (I renamed the units to make it easier to keep track -- feel free to change back or rename) is down to 1.2/2 so I tell him to heal (5 turns).
2440: Turns out there's nowhere to go in the east, so Woody heads back west.
2400
2360
2320: Kyoto Improver starts roading. Note that this will extend our trade network to the next river over. If we settle our next city along that river, it will be connected to Kyoto for purposes of resources, etc. (although a road would still be nice for troop movements).
2280
2240
2200: Lots of decisions for next taker: finished BW, settler in Kyoto, and worker finished roading.

Summary: I picked Animal Husbandry again but I would only keep that if the next person plans to settle near those cows SE of Kyoto. Any further away and we should have time before we get in place, settle, and make another worker (or move the one we have to the horses, which is the only other pasture-needing resource close by). Otherwise I think sailing makes sense for exploratory purposes (galleys could reach the landmass to the NE, the landmass or masses S, and get past the impassable mountain choke near Pantera's current location), to spread Buddhism along the coasts, and a lighthouse will boost the food production of the clams. I left Kyoto producing the second settler in the queue, but that too can be changed (although until our copper is hooked up or we research Sailing or Archery, I can't see anything that makes more sense). Images follow.

 

[grahamiam]

to keep a little sanity, let's go with this order

Mark1031 -> on deck
madviking (waiting for CIV)
Formula51 (waiting for CIV)
Meteor Punch
eotinb -> just played
grahamiam -> up

got it! will play and post tonight

 

[eotinb]

2520: Go East, young man.

2440: Scratch that, back the other way. The zoom is a little too far out to see it clearly, but if you look closely, you will notice the Incan borders.

This mountain effectively separates the land on either side, kinda odd.

Copper near Kyoto.

The known world.

 

[grahamiam]

question: we wanna convert to budism? or do we already have Kyoto as the holy city for budism? sorry, not sure how religion works yet

 

[MeteorPunch]

question: we wanna convert to budism? or do we already have Kyoto as the holy city for budism? sorry, not sure how religion works yet

I think we need to convert by the time we get our second city. Once we connect them with roads, I think it will spread.

 

[eotinb]

Kyoto is the holy city for Buddhism, but we have no state religion (which is what I think you mean by conversion). Switching to Buddhism will require 1 turn of anarchy and will give us an extra happy person in Kyoto (you can check that in the religion advisor page -- F7). There are other benefits of having a state religion that some of the civics open up.

Edit: Was writing my reply while MeteorPunch wrote his. It will spread on its own via the trade network regardless of if it is our state religion. As far as I can tell, the only advantage at this point is the happiness bonus, which we don't need quite yet.

 

[grahamiam]

ok, so no conversion yet. well, it's very fitting to be Japanese and buddist

 

[eotinb]

Been thinking a bit more about conversion. An additional reason to not have a state religion is relations with other civs. I don't recall if anyone we have contact with has a SR yet. But I think we will want to convert for the happiness bonus if no other reason, and perhaps it's best to do it early -- the larger we grow the more hammers/gold/food we lose during anarchy. And the closest luxuries I see are a bit further down the tech tree (dyes) or across the sea (gems?).

 

[Mark1031]

I would do it early after the settler. We should then get missionaries (I think we need mono and some building) to spread it to the heathans so they will convert. This will give us good relations until we are ready to strike and I think it is easier to keep cities if they share your religion. Also 1 extra happy and hammer (I think) for having state religion.

 

[Formula51]

On CP: We should probably build right in the middle of the 4 resources on our peninsula. Resources are much more important than before. Religion: I agree we should convert early, just not now. Roads: all we need to focus on is connecting our cities, but terrain improvements (when they are available) are much more important.

Mark, we need a temple or buddhist equivalent to get missionaries, or a certain civic (can't remember which).

 

[grahamiam]

we can place it near the bananas and effectively seal off our little landmass. that will get us horses,elephants, and that purple stuff. 2nd city can backfill near the cows (copper will fall into Kyoto's SOI soon enough)

 

[grahamiam]

hmm, eotinb, where's the save?

 

[bed_head7]

So I guess you were lying when you said you "got it" then weren't you?

 

[madviking]

OK, mine works fine...