Monarch Student XV - DeGaulle

[dirtyparrot]

Jeez, these MS come quick. I haven't finished Sitting Bull yet.

 

[Ai Shizuka]

1 per week

 

[dirtyparrot]

That probably means that I'm just taking too much of my sweet time playing this game.

 

[Tempesta13]

Emperor/Normal to 1 AD

Spoiler :

I decided on trying to move 1 NW to settle - gained 1 riverside grassland, but lost the riverside grassland i settled on (original spot was riverside plains) - so basically lost a turn and gained nothing. Oh well. Research AH for the cows. Then mining-bronze working.

Settled 1st city on the copper, 2nd city up north to claim/block some land.

3rd city to get horse/cows/stone and also block - looks like i'll only have 6 cities, maybe 7 here but not really in a position to rush at this point. Might be tough later.

1st GP made an academy in Tours. I planned to move the palace there - would have gotten more early beakers to put it in the original capital - but i'm hoping it will pay off later after bureaucracy. I probably should have just tried to get another GS later to put an academy there.

Here's the empire at 1 AD - basically all 6 cities - have room for another crappy one, but this is pretty much all i get unless i go to war.

Here is tech:

to 1000 AD

Spoiler :

About to get Parthenon and Colossus. Wasn't aiming for them but saw they were available and ended up getting both. Might help me out a bit.

Tech looks pretty good:

Mehmed declares on saladin. I decide to bribe Bismarck against Mehmed on the same turn. I gave up a lot, but i had a decent stack of catapults and elephants and mehmed had decent land, and wasn't building units.

He asks me to help and i accept - i was pretty much ready anyway.

Here's my stack. I would have liked to get more, but figured it would do. He might waste his units on Bismarck/Saladin.

Right at 1000AD i take a city - it had taken all my hills with culture, so it will help my existing city in addition to giving me my 7th city. Mehmed didn't have feudalism when the war started - Bismarck was the only one with it so i figured he woudn't get it. Now all of a sudden everyone has it - figures. Suicided all my cats - probably should have saved some - took the city without losing attacking units anyway.

Here is tech - i haven't been going for lib, but it looks like i could still get it. Will probably tech education and lib next.

I'll try and trade for feudalism from Joao. Maybe then i can go for engineering for trebs. Otherwise i can just build 4-5 cats quick and might be able to go take another city. Edirne is on a hill but the capital isn't. I'm hoping to get those two cities before the end of the war. I can probably whip/build 4-5 cats in 2-3 turns. Don't usually fight a war in this stage of the game so it's something different. Isabella also joined in vs Mehmed so i'm getting diplo bonuses for Bismarck, Sal and Isa for this. Also haven't built a single courthouse yet which is also something different. Such a small empire, and my capital is right in the middle so they wouldn't help as much as usual.

 

[Lansky]

Immortal Epic
To 25AD

Spoiler :

Settle in place. I can deal with one useless coast tile in exchange for a river and a nice number of hills. Land in the immediate area is pretty freaking nice in general, especially the flood plains area with little desert. Only AIs met for a long time are Mehmed and Bismark. No clue where Bismark is at first and since Mehmed is a diplomatic pushover once he founds a religion – and he always founds a religion – I quickly claim the northern edge of the floodplains and forgo any military resources for a while. Build Pyramids in Paris and fail the Great Wall in Orleans purposely netting some really nice gold. Deficit research with this gold through Mathematic in order to double up on GE wonders.

Continue to improve the land, or more specifically building a ton of cottages, while expanding when I feel comfortable. Just have a handful of coastal sites to settle that are already blocked off. First GE is settled in Paris – it will be my production city. Tech is going at a decent rate without any bulbs and get to Literature/Currency in the BC’s. 6 cities at the turn of the century though they are beginning to be marginal spots. Will likely only settle one more city to the west of Paris on the river/coast. Also, no I have not swapped civics yet Paris will be happy in a turn or two once a camp goes up on one of the furs.

Immortal Epic
To 1090 AD – Lib

Spoiler :

In 145AD I get my answer. . . JOAO! Trade him Currency for a ton of random backfill.

Wonder-wise in this period Glib goes down in Paris along with UoS and SP because it took 7 turns in 910AD. Worried Orleans is going to fall behind in the culture battle to the north the 2nd GE insta-builds The Parthenon there, a few quicker scientists would be appreciated at this point anyway as Orleans and Lyons need Academies for all the soon to come towns.

In 700AD Mehmed finally builds the Temple of Solomon. Judaism is the dominant religion on the western side of the land mass and is likely in the 20gpt area. I want it. Thanks to the Parth and the NE finally going down Lyons/Paris spit out GS’s within 10 turns of each other. The first bulbs Philo while the second puts an academy down for Lyons.

In 1050AD after delaying just a few turns in order to open up Printing Press I take Lib and swap civics around.

The currency bonuses give the stagnating economy a very nice shot in the arm. About 90bpt all said and done. Paris has been building random available wonders – hence SP – and with one turn remaining on AW someone else completes it netting me almost 700g. Time for a bulb assisted push to Steel to take down Mehmed.

 

[Crusher1]

gonna pass on this one cause I saw the start ^^.

 

[KaytieKat]

Hi

Chuck one of the ldrs I like to play plus he has squirrels in his start so I am trying my 2nd monarch game.

Monarch, Marathon, 160 BC

Spoiler :

I spread out as fast as I could. I probably cost myself 1 or 2 xtrs cities cuz I WASTED a whole bunch of turn trying for gw and missing it by THREE turns grrr. But I did get mids done and I got out 5 cities so I have six counting my cap. Here is my empire so far.

With only 6 cities it means my overalll standings kinda sucky:

I know know I need waaay more units. Actually I need waaay more everything. Here is tech sitch:

Honestly it doesnt LOOK all that bad. I whored out alphabet and currency to get lots of backfill and if I hurry I MIGHT be able to get something for CoL too. ALthough since I never good with this kind of thing for all I know sitch could be dismal and I just dont know any better but at least my ignorance not making me as scared as I probably should be.

Diplo sitch is both good and bad. Good is EVERYBODY except meh is buddhist. Bad news is NONE of my cities is buddhist so I cant convert. But hopefully being athiest will mean everybody will hate Meh more since he hindu. SO far every body just cautious with me except for Rags. SOMEHOW he as at pleased with me. Dont ask me how. So nobody in wheeoh at the moment. ALthough with EVERYBODY all chummy so early it look like I cant count on wars to slow down the AI's which is probably gonna be BAD later one.

Right know is plan to somehow get into position to attack Meh before gunpowder. My plan is after col to go for construction and hbr and use cats sword and ellies to get him and then see how I am after that. No idea if that a good plan or no but it best I got since I DONT want to try and take him when he have Jannies going.

I also have two other questions. My first gp spawned, An engineer, What should I do with him? Whip the aquaduct in my cap ASAP and then rush HG?. Save him for something else Like maybe GL in lyons? he can only bulb mc right now which seems kinda of a waste. If I bulb him at ALL it probably be machinery, like after hbr and construction go for CS and then try and bulb machinery asap to maybe get maces and crossbows a lil sooner?

Speaking of CS, somehow I am wondering if moving palace to lyons might be better once I can switch to beauracracy would that be a good move or not?

And final question. I THINK I might be able to squeeze in 2 more cities. Any of theese spots worth it?

Maybe the Maui one at least? I am not sure about the other one since it wont have ANY food at all so maybe it should just be wasted space or maybe 1 south? I probably should have planne dmy cities better but I am very sucky at dotmapping and BAT mod STILL not updated with newer version of BUG so I cant use that dotmapping function yet grrrr.

Anyways thats where Im at right now. How bad is it?

Kaytie

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Immortal/Normal

1906 UN victory (the diplomation kind)

Spoiler :

As I'm prepping for war against mehmed...he ended his war w/ bismark (who is much stronger) and apparently WANTS two enemies.

Too bad for him I've already begun to rush buy cannon. It's musketeer and cannon vs greanadiers, cuirassers, muskets, and trebs etc. Basically, I'm @ a tech deficit!

Remind my why I should care:

I take a quick war pause to pick up the kremlin (traded izzy steel to get communism then hammered it out w/ stone and $$$ rush ASAP). That's bad news for the world. I've already got the gold infrastructure in place, and now I have kremlin. Towns are now god production centers. My next target is bismark, the strongest guy in the world in power. It's a war @ tech parity, rifles cannons (and on his side cavalry too). I have a lot of cannons though.

It's a slaughterfest at his border. I killed 70+ troops @ tech parity, probably lost like 12+ cannon though. Now, he just gets swamped by production and folds:

I take a moment after this to $$$ buy lib/uni/salons and speed tech to infantry/arty. Gamebreaking.

First, Izzy.

Then sal using izzy as a launch point

Then ragnar

Why did I go on this rampage? Well, I wanted to get mass media first, then gift it to sal. Me + joao + izzy had enough pop for UN. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be. Joao's start gave him insane tech prowess, and he got UN. I switched tactics to chain capitulation...careful to switch vassals into joao's religion etc. I kept him at pleased until ragnar, and by then it was too late.

Final power:

Really got to make use of IND here. Mids + cottages isn't intuitive but when the time came it gave me an interesting option . $$$ buy the WORLD.

 

[Phil725]

Emperor - Epic - ~1000AD

Spoiler :

Basically just more peaceful teching. I'm amazed at how bad all of the AIs are doing though.

Anyway, I teched up towards lib, and would have taken nationalism ~700AD, except no one even had civil service yet. I decided to tech off nationalism and some other stuff, and ended up taking MT.

Looking at the tech screen afterwards, I'm kind of sorry I didn't try for steel or rifling.

Its after 1000AD, and no one has paper, education, lib, nat or MT. The only people that have philosophy are the ones who had a valuable back fill tech for cheap. The AIs aren't even blazing through the bottom half of the tech tree, Bis is the only one with guilds, and he just got it last turn.

The religious break down definitely helps. Sal and Rag are Hindu, and Joao and Bis are Buddhist. Izzy is too small to matter, and Mehmed is a heathen. And there have been plenty of wars to slow them all down.

Unfortunately, it isn't game over despite that tech situation. I have to raise an army with 2 cities as the only form of production. I planned my cities very poorly, they got me a huge tech lead, but I'm not sure what I can do with it. Maybe I'll try what TMIT did and go with a very early rushbuy approach. The good thing is that I only need ~25 cuirassiers to wipe Bis (who's huge, 13 cities) out.

 

[Nictel]

Spoiler 595AD :

@Monarch, Epic
1000BC: Switch to slavery to prepare to whip an army.

950BC: Settle on the copper.

<Hook up stone and horses, whip some horse archers.>

305BC: Capture Ghuzz

290BC: Mehmed declares and takes the recently settled Rheims.

I do what I can with my horse archers and destroy his copper mine and horse pasture.

100BC: IW and iron in Paris cross! Quickly hook it up.

Meet Saladin and Ragnar


10BC: Meet Issabela

5BC: Issabela declares. GREAT.

70AD: I lose Ghuzz

85AD: In a truly daring raid with 3 horse archers I capture Istanbul

Spoiler :

90AD: I negotiate peace so I can rebuild my army

190AD: Declare again

195AD: Ragnar declares. GREAT.

200AD: Recapture Ghuzz

210AD: Peace with Issabela

400AD: Recapture Rheims

410AD: Negotiate peace, get Math

<Try to rebuild my economy>

595AD: Economy still in shambles. Anyway to turn this around?

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

 

[Gooblah]

Nictel:

Spoiler :

Weird, weird warring, mate. I see that you got doubled-up on by Izzy and Mehmed - it was probably because of your power level. I would suggest heading for Currency(assuming you have Alphabet), building Research to get there. Then switch to building wealth while spamming Workers to cottage everything. When your economy stops sucking, hit the military and spam units until you can effectively overwhelm Bismarck and Mehmed.

 

[Ai Shizuka]

Emperor/epic, 10 AD:

Spoiler :

Didn't build any stone wonder but somehow I'm off to a slow start.

Techs: ah - mining - bw - mysticism - hunting - pottery - writing - aesthetics - poly - literature

4000 - Settle in place.

2550 - I find a hut between Meh and Bis. Free XP and HE unlocked.

2525 - Orleans:

1625 - Lyons, future capital:

1400 - Rheims, future HE:

230 - Tours, more cottages:

125 - 1st GS builds academy in Lyons.

Empire:

Techs:

Isa, Meh, Bis and myself are buddhist.

 

[Lansky]

Nictel

Spoiler :

The one thing that stands out to me is that you have HBR before Writing yet you were not the one building up the army and declaring first. Perhaps there were conditions I am unaware of, but HBR is not a cheap tech to grab early so if you go up that line then by all means cram it down your nearest neighbor's throat in the BC's. Horse Archers are kings of the game if you get HBR early.

From here exactly what was already said. You need currency/cottages asap. By no means is this THAT bad. Your army is not on strike and you are not losing gold at 0%. Reprioritize tiles so that you are working higher currency ones. It appears from your screenshot that you are not even actively using the gold mine. I hope my monitor just sucks. I also don't remember the animation but it looks like your workers may be farming the floodplains. If they are it is really overkill - a few cottages on floodplains can still work the gold mine and some specialists(scientists), especially with the wheat.

 

[Ai Shizuka]

Emperor/epic, 10 - 1130:

Spoiler :

190 - Parthenon in Rheims:

205 - And Great Library in Paris:

Now we are talking. Currency done, palace completed in Lyons, Paris running 2+2 scientists. 200 years to go from 37 to 95 bpt:

415 - 2nd GS bulbs philo:

655 - 3rd GS builds academy in Tours.

880 - 4th GS bulbs Edu.

1060 - Sankore. Minor research boost, but it took only 13 turns:

1100 - 5th GS bulbs Liberalism (manually researched compass to unlock it).

1120 - And Lib + Military Tradition:

I realize I've never settled my 6th city . Marseilles founded on the NE coast (crabs), future Moai city.

Empire:

Capital. Will be an amazing city with a levee:

Techs:

And diplo:

Original plan was cuirassiers war vs Meh, but he's researching gunpowder and Janissaries. I think I'll bribe Bis vs something to the east (last time I checked, he could've been bribed vs everyone). Probably Ragnar, and backstab with cuirassiers when his stack is all the way across the map.

 

[Gustave5436]

Monarch/Epic through 1800 BC:

Spoiler :

I considered moving 1 NW but decided to settle in place.

Current state of the empire:

Tech Path:

AH -> Mysticism -> Mining -> Bronze Working -> Hunting

Since charismatic gives +1 from monuments (and I hate building them) I went for mysticism after AH to build Stonehenge which was completed in 2800 BC. Since we're industrious with access to stone I'm thinking of also building the Pyramids in Paris, perhaps I might end up with a GE for the Great Library in Rheims.

Stole a worker from Mehmed early on which helped a bit with my expansion but since I decided not to rush him early on the diplomatic penalty may end up haunting me later.

 

[gskyes]

Industrious and Charasmatic? I don't think I've ever played as De Gaule before. Usually when I pick France I use Napoleon.
Looks like a good production city for Paris. I might give this one a try. Stonehenge sounds like it would be very nice here. Do I have a good shot at it? That may be my opening strategy (not first build, after the first settler perhaps).

P.S. For future games, could you include the starting techs in the post? I like to read the forums while not at home and think about opening moves when I see a start posted. But I can't always remember what starting techs each civ has.

 

[Nictel]

Spoiler 2 turns later :

So two turns later Mehmed and Ragnar declare again, I'm done for. Better luck next time.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Industrious and Charasmatic? I don't think I've ever played as De Gaule before. Usually when I pick France I use Napoleon.
Looks like a good production city for Paris. I might give this one a try. Stonehenge sounds like it would be very nice here. Do I have a good shot at it? That may be my opening strategy (not first build, after the first settler perhaps).

P.S. For future games, could you include the starting techs in the post? I like to read the forums while not at home and think about opening moves when I see a start posted. But I can't always remember what starting techs each civ has.

Don't forget that such data is available on the forum for all civs under "civilizations" subheading for civ IV.

 

[Tempesta13]

@Nictel

Spoiler :

Early DOW's are tough - perhaps the worker steal wasn't a great idea.

You REALLY needed border pops. You probably couldn't afford to keep Istanbul - especially if you weren't sure you could hold it. You have 7 flood plains that aren't in your culture - 7 cottages on those in the BC's and you'd be getting 20-30 GPT from them. Also in my game i settled a decent city by the seafood to the SE, also using the iron. It can make a good Moai city - with the stone you can build them quick.

Getting declared on in 290 BC is tough no matter what you do though. I settled on the copper (same as you) but it was my 1st city i built. You should be able to get that city settled and build a road there very quick - i know it's tempting to REX out to claim some land but getting copper is priority sometimes. With 5 or 6 axemen built at 290 BC either Mehmed doesn't declare, or if he does you can fight him off no problem.

I'd say replay it and try again. Don't worker steal this time - and settle 1 city to get horse/stone/elephants instead of two. The 2nd one you settled had no food. I'd say settle on copper first, then 3N 2W of Ghuzz, then 1W of horses. That's what i did anyway - maybe look at other games also and see how they did it. Then fill in a city to take the rest of the flood plains - and move the capital there later (save the forests to chop). Get cottages on the flood plains ASAP (maybe farm a couple). You should be able to stay peaceful until you're ready. With ivory, maybe it's best to just get your 6 or 7 cities settled, get cottages up fast - academy/palace in a city north of original cap - and look to attack Mehmed around 800-1000AD with elephants/cats.

@Kaytie

Spoiler :

I put Moai where you had it marked, using the iron also there - made a pretty good city. Other filler probably not worth it. You have way more pop in Lyons than i count improvements - this is not good. COTTAGE! I think it's definitely worth it to move the palace there. It's best to have an academy there too - but by getting a GE first instead of GS it will be tough. You should start concentrating on getting a GS to bulb philosophy pretty soon - that will really help you catch up in tech. Code of laws should help even though Mehmed has it. Try and get at least a couple techs for it. You did a good job REX'ing. Now just concentrate on building that palace (chop the trees), get Moai up, cottage all those flood plains, and bulb philosophy and things will look better. I'd say save the GE for TGL. Things should look better soon - don't worry about the rankings. Oh - and Marseilles, i put it right on the copper and i saw some others did too. Better to do that and get the food i think.

Other than that - i agree with what you're doing. If Mehmed is the only non-buddhist, no one will mind you attacking him. Elephants and cats are a good way to go - in my game he didn't build too many units. If you can get his land (what i'm hoping i can do in my game) you should be in good shape. Get that moai city up, and don't be afraid to use the whip as much as possible to make sure you can produce enough units to make it work. (marathon will really help here though)

 

[Gustave5436]

Monarch/Epic 1800 BC - 170 BC

Spoiler :

State of the empire:

Tech Path: Iron Working -> Writing

Didn't get much research done this round because I crashed my economy with expansion, both peaceful and not so peaceful.

Early city gains went as follows: settled copper city, settled gems/rice city, conquered cow/sugar city from barbarians. At this point my research essentially came to a halt, didn't resume again at all until I built the pyramids and got some scientists running.

For a while Bismarck was in WHEOOHRN mode, and as I was hovering around .7 power relative to him I had to keep building military. When he finally left it I took advantage of my power superiority over Mehmed to raze a city just west of gem/rice (guarded by a single axeman) and capture the horse/dye city SW of Istanbul. Took peace and built more swords, after 10 turns re-declared and am now 2 turns away from destroying the Ottoman civilization.

My position seems very good at the moment. Lots of excellent land for cottaging available, once the economy recovers I think I'll go after Bismarck.

Also I think I'll move the capital to Marseilles (eastern gems/rice city), it seems like it would make a good bureaucracy capital and, especially once I take some of Bismarck's land, is more centrally located