NCXXIX Stalin

[joop1212]

I have only played a few games (most at noble), but I never have a very clear win, my last game I even lost. So I give this a try, to learn some stuff and get better.

I play noble at normal speed, this is at 525 BC

Spoiler :

I found moscow at 3880 BC, st petersburg at 2040 BC and Novgorod at 1000 BC
I think I was lucky with the huts, I got a scout, myst, a map, masonry and some gold
My researchorder: agri, BW, wheel, pottery, AH, archery, IronWorking, writing, fishing, alphabet, horse.
In moscow my buildorder was: worker, warior, barracks, settler, granary, worker, settler, greatwall (almost finished, but cyrus beated me), wall, worker, settler
In st. petersberg my buildorder was: monument, Archer, pyramids, archer, settler

What do you guys think about my start? What did I wrong/right?

I have two questions not specially about this game:
how important are forests for health, can I chop them all or is it better to let 2/4/6 forests untouched?
When and how should you use whiping? I never use it.

 

[war ensemble]

@joop

Spoiler :

Welcome to CFC! If you have any questions about the game or the site ask around and I'm sure I or someone else can help you out.

A few things I would've done differently if I were you (while not totally changing your strategy, that is):

Many people find the best starting strategy to be worker/worker/settler, and then build a warrior/barracks to grow to size two or three and work your special resources. I would've started the game going worker/worker/settler/warrior/settler to hook up those three cities early. A good strategy would also be to rely less on wonders--I think Pyramids are too big of a hammer investment this early in the game, even with stone and Industrious.

I think you should've expanded faster. Settling your third city by 1000 BC is usually not a good idea--I had four up in the 2000's BC. It's better to suffer the temporary tech drop because once you work the cottages you'll rise back up to the top. Nice tech order except I would've done AH before Pottery and Horseback Riding before Iron Working.

I think the main things are just expand faster or you might get stuck in by the AI. You're running at 100% tech, don't be afraid to let that drop to around 40% if you keep expanding. Then once CoL and Currency come in you'll be in good shape. I probably would've utilized the horses earlier, but that's preference and not overall strategy.

As for the other two other questions. Regarding whipping, I use it mainly as population control and as a way to circumvent the happy cap. Once my city gets an angry citizen I usually multi-pop whip so I can grow again and still get the production bonus. It's also useful to whip out the last soldier per city when you're gearing up for war after you produced the others. Just make sure to whip after you put one turn production into a unit or you suffer more pop points to complete the whip. It can put you at a huge production strength early in the game, which can be used for early rushes (see my earlier post in this thread for that type).

Regarding forests, I usually chop all of them except those on tundra tiles and/or tiles with camps there. The health is usually not a problem--I'm usually more worried about the happy cap . I usually don't leave any as health isn't a problem but if you see that it is for a city just look at the health ratio in the city and see what the problem is from there and how forests might help you. I prefer to cottage them all.

Hope that helps and once again, welcome to the boards!

 

[Single Malt]

Regarding chopping: Best to chop only when necessary. ie, when building workers/settlers, or vital buildings. Its always good to hurry settlers/workers, cos they stop growth. I never worry about removing all forest, but I try only to chop when necessary. Regarding the whip, as a rule of thumb always try to whip 2 pop away minimum, and then grow back to cap. There is an in depth article in the war academy regarding the whip.

 

[joop1212]

Thanks for the tips, they're very usefull. Next game I will expand much faster.

I continued playing, so here is my next (too big) part, I played till 1700AD

Spoiler :

I found Rostov at 250 BC, Yaroslavl 100 BC and catured Kushans 75 AD from barbs.
The major event was that Kahn declared war on me at 540 AD, we fought a long and bloody war (I killed 56 keshik and 40 Catapults). He captured Yaroslavl from me, I captured back together with 5 of his cities. I always had the better techs and destroyed his ironmine pretty fast after he started to build iron units. I focussed on the war, so my economy isn't very well and the other civs have much better techs.

some other events:
I build 1250 Ad the notre dame, 1420 Ad Huayane Capac became vassal of cyrus (they didn't had a war), 1590 AD Khan became a vassal of me (he only has 2 cities)

The order I got my techs (mostly researched by myself, but some traded ones):
math, calander, currency, metal casting, construction, machinery (by GP), COL, engineering, CS, aesthics, drama, polyetheism, mono, monarchy, feudalism, guilds, theology, music, paper, meditation, philosophy, literature, compass, optics, education, banking, Lib (charlemagne discovers it a few turns before me), gunpower, printingpress.


The current situation:

my first 3 cities and the one I captured first from kahn

The other 2 cities I settled and the one I captured from barbs and some cities from kahn

kahn cities

my bad tech position

I now use the next civics: Representation, free speech, slavery, decentralization, Free religion.


So what's next?
I want to try to get a better tech position by using my economy (and explore the world). And after that choose between space race or another war.


Can you say anything about what I did right/wrong? and/or how to continue this game?

 

[cripp7]

@joop

Spoiler :

Use the ! Start building muskets out of your military city. You should've wiped out Khan instead of vassaling him. Culture pressure from Inca is closing in on your border towns, get building in there. You have a lot of extra resources available, start making trades for pt. You could easily get +15gpt from that.
Other than that, maybe restart and try again. AIs are so far ahead I'm not sure what plan you can take to win.

 

[disturbed1]

I think i will give this a try later. I have a math final in about half an hour, which has been eating up all my time recently, but with that out of the way I will be able to play more. I recently moved up to Noble and have been winning about half the games i play and i really hope this will help me move up to the next level.

 

[macmert]

I would like to ask you something, I recently tried the save, if I succeed I may post screenshots and reports...

But I get a +1 pollution from "features"? What is this feature? it is not jungle, no floodplains... What is causing this?

Also How do you insert spoilers in posts? I couldnt find it...

thank you...

 

[joop1212]

I believe I had the same, I have no idea what those features are, but at my game they are gone.

for the spoiler you can use [.SPOILER] [./SPOILER] without the points. Or try the post reply button (left under the last post) and the button for it is above where you are writing at the right.


About my game, I played a few more turns

Spoiler :

I got a nice tech position again, I got physics first and traded it for 4 techs. And I can research very fast now. So maybe I can win by spacerace (I have never done that before)


Thanks for your help, cripp7 . I agree at whiping out Khan, I can't really use him now :S
Trading the resources I didn't need gave me 30+ gpt
The Incan culture is really a problem, in some cities I build all the culture buildings and start building culture, but he still wins it. Should I give money for culture, I am now running 70% on research (the other 30% becomes gold), should I make it 60% research and 10% culture?

 

[macmert]

Ok now I saw the HUGE button for spoiler, thank you

 

[budweiser]

Spoiler :

I started a game on emperor. I walked 2 tiles NE then 1 tile NE and founded on turn 1. Research - AG. On turn 4 a scout popped BW.

 

[qnl]

hey, when is the next edition of NC coming out?