My first full game on Noble

[KROL]

Alright, so here's what I have so far of my first full game in Civ4. The first game I played was on Settler, and I abandoned it at around 1100 AD because I was winning too easily. Then I started several games on Noble difficulty level, playing through to about 1000-500 BC before abandoning each one, just trying to get the hang of the beginning of the game, and learning various important lessons in each one.

On my fourth try, I came up with this game on Noble difficulty level. Game speed is Normal. World is Continents, with normal sea level, 4 Billion years old, temperate climate, etc.

I turned on "No Barbarians" and "No City Razing" for the sake of learning. My next game will have those options turned off. I am Kublai Kahn of the Mongols, because I wanted that Culture bonus so my cities would easily get that initial expansion without needing obelisks.

If anyone could give me any pointers or advice, either general or specific, it would be much appreciated. I think my strategies and line of thinking are pretty good so far, but I probably need some fine tuning.

*************************************

After seeing my starting location, I made the risky decision to beeline straight for Ironworking. I researched Mining, then Bronzeworking, then Ironworking. I wanted to have an early military edge against my opponents, because my goal is to win by Conquest or Domination. Unfortunately, this made it so that I couldn't utilize the resources in my starting city for QUITE a while. My first city, Karakorum, had access to cows and rice. It's surrounded by grassland, along with some hills and a couple plains.

When I discovered bronzeworking, I was dismayed to learn that I had no copper near Karakorum. I had to send this settler northeast to found the city of Beshbalik, and then I had access to the copper.

I didn't save the game at all until about 1280 BC.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/109743/Christopher_Olsen_BC-1280.Civ4SavedGame

As you can see, I now have access to the copper. Bronzeworking made it so that I can chop-rush construction projects. While Karakorum is working on city improvements, Beshbalik is churning out a nice army of axemen. The axemen are severally making their way east to take on the Spanish.

1160 BC

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/109743/Christopher_Olsen_BC-1160.Civ4SavedGame

My army of axemen is about to attack Barcelona. I'm almost done researching masonry, and once I've got that, I plan to build a city just east of Beshbalik to take advantage of that stone resource. As I recall, I had already built my third city, Turfan, to make use of that iron resource just north of Karakorum.

900 BC

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/109743/Christopher_Olsen_BC-0900.Civ4SavedGame

I've already taken over Barcelona. It fell pretty easily. I just discovered pottery, and that'll be very useful. At this point, I'm going to start building cottages in my cities to try and up the commerce.

750 BC

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/109743/Christopher_Olsen_BC-0750.Civ4SavedGame

I'm currently using my axemen to pillage all the improvements around Madrid. Pretty soon, I'm going to assault the city.

125 BC

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/109743/Christopher_Olsen_BC-0125.Civ4SavedGame

My first assault on Madrid failed MISERABLY. I took my remaining axemen and retreated to Barcelona, then started building a force of swordsmen to give my army more of a city-killing offensive punch.

25 BC

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/109743/Christopher_Olsen_BC-0025.Civ4SavedGame

Madrid fell pretty easily with those swordsmen. I now have six cities, and I'm doing well. As you can see, I have a small force of swordsmen coming from Karakorum to set up on the west border of the Japanese lands. They have a long journey ahead of them lol

125 AD

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/109743/Christopher_Olsen_AD-0125.Civ4SavedGame

I'm now attacking the Japanese from the west. I am also currently working on assaulting Toledo and Seville.

250 AD

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/109743/Christopher_Olsen_AD-0250.Civ4SavedGame

After some stiff resistance (as I recall) Seville fell to my army and I captured it. Little do I realize that Seville will end up being a very valuable city for my empire.

350 AD

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/109743/Christopher_Olsen_AD-0350.Civ4SavedGame

I just razed Toledo to the ground, which is interesting, because City Razing is turned off. I don't mind, though, as I already have enough cities.

500 AD

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/109743/Christopher_Olsen_AD-0500.Civ4SavedGame

I'm attacking Cordoba right now. Within the next few turns, it will be captured and Spain will be annihilated. It's a shame. Isabella is such a hottie

1000 AD

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/109743/Christopher_Olsen_AD-1000.Civ4SavedGame

I just captured Tokyo. It was a rough battle, but it's mine now. I'm starting to utilize catapults, which will be instrumental in my war against the Japanese. Throughout the war, my catapults and swordsmen end up being able to EASILY take city after city after city. Within three hundred years, Japan will be destroyed utterly.

1320 AD

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/109743/Christopher_Olsen_AD-1320.Civ4SavedGame

Japan has now been annihilated and my empire is becoming far too large to manage. My economy is ready to collapse on itself, and I've had to keep the research rate at 20%! I have thirteen cities, and am beginning to think that such expansion was a bad idea

However, I soon become good friends with Saladin. I do a BUNCH of trading with him for new technologies, and this allows me to quickly catch up on some of the techs that I'd neglected. I soon gain Code of Laws, and building courthouses becomes my top priority. I let my armies rest for a while and I spend the next two and a half centuries building my economy and infrastructure. I have an army of workers frantically building tile improvements, and I soon gain access to wine, incense, a plethora of gold, and various other resources. Things are going well.

1515 AD

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/109743/Christopher_Olsen_AD-1515.Civ4SavedGame

1600 AD

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/109743/Christopher_Olsen_AD-1600.Civ4SavedGame

1700 AD

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/109743/Christopher_Olsen_AD-1700_2.Civ4SavedGame

About a hundred years ago, I declared war on Saladin (after getting all the techs I could out of him). At first, things went well. I easily conquered one of his cities. Then I discovered he had a large army to just throw at me over and over. His horse archers and crossbowmen have given me endless headaches today. My pikemen and macemen are holding their own for the most part, but I'm having to fight TOOTH AND NAIL for every tiny scrap of land in Saladin's territory. I've just taken a second city from him, and things are really becoming hectic. He's a tough opponent. Isabella and Tokugawa were pushovers, but Saladin is making me work for it.

After this turn, I intend to make peace with Saladin and focus on building a larger army. If you look back off to the west, you'll see that I've just finished building a fleet of galleons in Karakorum, and they have an army on board. I have them sailing west to try and gain a foothold on the other continent. In the meantime, I'm going to have to build up stronger defenses in Karakorum and Turfan in case of a counterattack from those guys (French, Germans, Egyptians).

So, any advice? Tips, pointers? Critiques on how I could have done better, or ideas for how I should proceed?

 

[Cam_H]

KROL,

I know that you're looking for a comprehensive assessment of your game, but unfortunately I am unable to download your saves until the weekend.

I would however make two observations from your commentary;

(1.) It's good that you recognise that you should play with Barbarians on. They will help keep you 'on your toes' in terms of keeping a respectable level of military through the 'B.C.' years. They can help you promote your units - ideally to 10XPs for the Heroic Epic, and Barbarian cities can often provide you with some early game expansion without diplomatic backlashes.

(2.) Code of Laws not acquired by 1320AD is a real worry. Courthouses and the Forbidden Palace would have helped in addressing the financial hole that was created from over-expansion. If you're planning to take cities - look for Currency and Code of Laws as two technologies that will ease your pain. There are of course lots of other tactics to address ballooning financial woes, but these two tech's should be prioritised in most circumstances (especially as Kublai isn't a financially-focussed leader).

With that said, it sounds as though you're not afraid to get into war, which will sure help as you progress to the next levels. I'm also pleased to see that you've identified your victory ambitions as "conquest or domination" - one difficulty that some players face is that they are not clear on how they intend to actually win the game, which dilutes their focus.

Best of luck - by the sounds of it you're doing well! I'm sure some other kind soul out there will give you some further 'hands on' advice.

[Edit] Oh ... I see that you've already started another thread on the same game. That's a bit of a no-no. That aside, hopefully the comments by VoU and KMC have provided further insights. [/Edit]

 

[KROL]

Yeah, my previous games all had barbarians turned on, but I just felt like turning them off for this one. The one change I'd have to make is simply to keep my garrisoned units updated and to keep some fast-moving units stationed around the cities to prevent pillaging. Other than that, it's all the same to me.

You're right, I'm definitely not afraid of war ROFL. I guess the reason is because I've been playing a lot of Mideival II:Total War lately. That game is all about war, and my strategy there is just take region after region after region. In that game, I only stop long enough to recover my forces, and then I move on.

So I'm still in that "warmonger" mindset, and honestly, that's a fun way to play. I'm having a blast.

Code of Laws - As I recall, I got it at around that timeframe. 1300 AD or so. Before that, like I said, my economy was SUFFERING. I had the science rate at 20% to compensate, which sucked. Once I got it, though, I frantically built courthouses and markets all over the place, and now the economy is back up and running strong. I now have the science slider at 80%. That's pretty sweet. With such a large number of cities, that should give me the research advantage.

To accomodate my warmonger style of play, my next game will be on Marathon game speed, and I'll bump the difficulty level up one more. I'll also turn barbarians on. I just don't want to pamper myself with low difficulty for too long.

I just downloaded the patch (have been running vanilla unpatched lol)

For this game, my goal is domination or conquest, like I said. Considering that it's already 1700 AD, I don't think I have time for a conquest victory, because I still have so many enemies left to fight. Domination victory is still a definite possibility, though. Failing that, I'll settle for a score victory.

In any case, this was meant mainly as a learning experience. I learned from my "research sins" and my over-expansion. However, I also learned how I can compensate for those things. I've also got the basics of the game down, now. However, I still haven't seen a tank lol