[BTS] My First Emperor Shadow Game

[CGQ]

@CGQ, we had the same tech path, I just never went hunting. After AG - BW - Wheel I went directly AH - Pottery - Writing. I think we settled the pig city in the same place, 1S of pigs, so it wasn't going to be using the deer anytime soon.

As lymond mentioned, getting +4 EP on HC as soon as you meet him is important since he will be a potent rival long-term.

In my experience, it's good to keep conquered cities even this early, unless they're really crappy. Economy will tank for a bit, but you can build cottages and pull yourself back up.

Spoiler Played to turn 106 :

I'm not doing too well

I still don't have alphabet and I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to take me this long. I built cottages but it's not enough and I can't get my cities larger because of unhappiness. I can't build wealth because I don't have currency or even mathematics
Even if I went for math first instead of alpha I'd still be far from currency.

What do I build in cities when I finished all buildings? I have no wonders to build but I have to build something in them. Do I just keep building axes? Workers?
I'm at -4 gold even with 0% slider. What am I doing wrong? I replayed the axe rush to keep Damascus. I really need help. This is where I always struggle in CIV 4, like I don't even know what else to do at this point.

 

[pigswill]

Simply deleting warriors in cities where you have an axe is worth 3 gpt, run scientists and work commerce tiles and you get alphabet down to 8-9 turns. Spare axes should be out spawn-busting not in cities.

 

[Gumbolt]

You built libraries. Why are you not using scientists? You should be running 4-6 of them. You have zero points towards a great scientist.

Your capital at size 3 is too small for this date. Guessing you whipped it? You are forced into building units as you can't build research.

Your units are costing you 4 gold a turn. Consider deleting 2-3 unwanted warriors. Look at dollar symbol icon to see unit costs.

I think you wanted to balance libraries with new cities and run scientists at same time. That gem up north might of been useful.

Your commerce is not great as you have still not established foreign trade routes here. Easiest way on this map will be by workboat. Once the workboat finds an Incan coastal city you will have foreign trade routes. (Sailing needed)

It's all about managing cities, cottages, expansion and science. Getting the mix right!

 

[CGQ]

You built libraries. Why are you not using scientists? You should be running 4-6 of them. You have zero points towards a great scientist.

Your capital at size 3 is too small for this date. Guessing you whipped it? You are forced into building units as you can't build research.

Your units are costing you 4 gold a turn. Consider deleting 2-3 unwanted warriors. Look at dollar symbol icon to see unit costs.

I think you wanted to balance libraries with new cities and run scientists at same time. That gem up north might of been useful.

Your commerce is not great as you have still not established foreign trade routes here. Easiest way on this map will be by workboat. Once the workboat finds an Incan coastal city you will have foreign trade routes. (Sailing needed)

It's all about managing cities, cottages, expansion and science. Getting the mix right!

Thank you for the input!

Here's my next update!

Spoiler Went back and replayed from T81 to T116 :

I whipped libraries, ran 4-6 scientists, worked more cottage tiles, and got alphabet in turn 101! (Last attempt I was still at like 13 turns from Alpha at turn 106!)

I also got a great scientist at Turn 105. I set some cities to build research. Then I teched currency which I think I got around Turn 117. With that, I set some cities to build wealth and now I'm not sure what else to tech.

And this Inca dude is about as much help as a Buzzfeed Article...


Work boats reveal he's way north, so I may be isolated and have a lot of land to myself!

And I found triple gems!


Sadly not a lot of food nearby, and it's a shame there's so much jungle there. Wonder where I could build a city there? That's like 15-20 more beakers I'm sure.

I think I might convert to Buddhism to build relations (brother/sister of faith thing). I don't have it in my cities yet but I do see an Incan Buddhist missionary just east of Mecca.

I definitely have to get monarchy since it's Huya's favorite civic. Might trade for it. Might tech to calendar. There's so many calendar resources in this map, may just go for that, then a few trades later bulb astronomy to find the other AI in a continent.

Should I just self tech to monarchy in the meantime?

 

[Gumbolt]

Much better. Hold onto the GS. Better to bulb? Not sure an academy here is great.

You only have 3 workers? That is why your land is/was so under developed here and before. I would switch Mecca to worker and build 2 of them. A 3rd would also be useful. You have a large amount of hammers in Mecca. Damascas is good for a worker whip. 2 pop takes it below 4 pop so axe can wonder towards barb city.

You are right to be building more settlers. That gem site would be good albeit you lack IW. I would try and take out that barb city for the Inca's grab it. You have 4-5 spare axes. Use the CR3 axe as this will have 80-90% odds.

For foreign trade routes you wanted sailing before currency. It's worth 12 commerce a turn with currency. More with prolonged peace. Always get the basics sorted.


Cumae can chop that settler. Is a cottage city too late here?

One workboat would of done.

So what is your plan here? If you stay at 6 cities the Ai will just spam cities. Maybe cuirs and rush him? Try for a construction axe rush? He is quite a distance away still. 15 tiles is a bit far.

With 2-3 GS you can easily bulb edu and Lib. Your main issue is happiness. So either monarchy which the AI currently lack or Calendar.

 

[CGQ]

Much better. Hold onto the GS. Better to bulb? Not sure an academy here is great.

You only have 3 workers? That is why your land is/was so under developed here and before. I would switch Mecca to worker and build 2 of them. A 3rd would also be useful. You have a large amount of hammers in Mecca. Damascas is good for a worker whip. 2 pop takes it below 4 pop so axe can wonder towards barb city.

You are right to be building more settlers. That gem site would be good albeit you lack IW. I would try and take out that barb city for the Inca's grab it. You have 4-5 spare axes. Use the CR3 axe as this will have 80-90% odds.

For foreign trade routes you wanted sailing before currency. It's worth 12 commerce a turn with currency. More with prolonged peace. Always get the basics sorted.


Cumae can chop that settler. Is a cottage city too late here?

One workboat would of done.

So what is your plan here? If you stay at 6 cities the Ai will just spam cities. Maybe cuirs and rush him? Try for a construction axe rush? He is quite a distance away still. 15 tiles is a bit far.

With 2-3 GS you can easily bulb edu and Lib. Your main issue is happiness. So either monarchy which the AI currently lack or Calendar.

Spoiler Played to Turn 156 :

I built a couple more cities and more workers but I'm not sure I'm doing too well still. I think I'm falling behind in tech and I may have made a huge mistake going for monarchy when huayna got it before me.

 

[Gumbolt]

Hmmm this is not going great.
You have 7 workers now and 10 cities. Which is a bit light really. This is probably part of the main issue here. You have been catching up on workers for last 1000 years. Your capital is a clear example of this. You have no workers around your capital at all.

Your capital is working 2x unimproved tiles. This comes back to your early game when you really wanted to chop the grassland forest so they could be cottaged or farmed. Sometimes forest cover up good land. At present your capital is not really doing anything for you.
Antium is stuck at size 4. Once it can grow out of unhappines no reason to keep it locked at size 4.
Cumae could use an extra defender for happiness.
Your suffering from barb galleys that have pillaged your sea resources.

Right now it's almost worth whipping a settler to try and gift Incan's a city to get him to friendly. Would get you +4 diplo from trades. Then you can bulb philosophy after drama. Then hopefully trade this for something.

I think you wanted 1-2 more cities closer to your capital. The fish directly east of it might of helped.

This was a tough start due to the lack of grassland around your capital. That mixed in with lack of happiness resources. I think beelining calendar and trying to trade for monarchy might of been better here? Tough call.

Looking back at the 25ad save. You didn't have AI trade routes as you had 2 coastal barb cities on either side of your continent. These were blocking them. That is a lot of commerce to lose over 40-50 turns. Right idea just unlucky.

It's the little mistakes here that are costing you. Razing those Ai cities meant you had to spend hammers rebuilding cities. Instead you could of been whipping workers.

When you have an AI at pleased don't be afraid to beg for 40-50 gold. Also to trade resources. You get diplomacy bonuses for gift or trading resources with the AI. I think this could of given you 1 more happiness.

So playing this map peacefully vs early DOW. I think the DOW could of worked. I also wonder if you had stayed at war till you had alphabet if Sal might of given you 3-4 techs for peace.

No one is expecting you to jump from monarch to emperor and have everything go smoothly. It's better to make mistakes and learn from them. You are slowly getting to grips with many game features. This is a very complicated game and requires a lot of variables to be managed to win on higher levels. It's what makes Civ 4 so great. It's not like Civ 5 where you are constantly wondering which building to build next before you end turn.