Nobles' Club 230: Churchill of England

[AcaMetis]

The Nobles' Club series started out as a way for Noble-level (and below) players to improve their game. Most of the original participants now play at much higher levels, so this has become a way for advanced players to help others learn to play better. You can play your own game at any level and with any mod, but it would be nice to comment on the games of other players and give them advice.

Our next leader is Churchill of England, whom we last played in NC 202; we last played the English under Victoria pretty recently in NC 226. Blame the fact that Mao was up earlier . The English start with Fishing and Mining.

• Traits: Churchill is Charismatic and Protective. Charismatic gives every city, Monuments and Broadcast Towers +1, and decreases the exp required for units to level by 25%. Protective gives all Archery and Gunpowder units a free City Garrison I (+20% City Defence) and Drill I (+1 First Strike chance) promotion, as well as a +100% bonus to Walls and Castles.
  
• The UB: The Stock Exchange, a Bank with an extra +15% generated over a standard bank. Banks are rarely build buildings as they are somewhat expensive (200 on standard speed) and maintaining 100% slider isn't hard to do when you can build Wealth, sell resources and excess techs, or just punch money out of weaker civilizations. That said, if you're planning on going conquering a few Stock Exchanges in economic backbone cities will keep your economy safely afloat. Unless you send an army that would make Genghis Khan faint to take over an amount of land that would make the Romans call you completely crazy, of course .
  
• The UU: The Redcoat, a Rifleman with +25% vs. Gunpowder units in addition to Mounted. These guys have an edge against the most common unit types they're likely to fight against, including their intended counter unit, making them an all-around excellent unit to use in their era. Rifling is a lengthy detour from getting "any" decent attacking unit on the way to Cannons, but Redcoats do have an advantage in that they can be drafted, and Banking is on the way to Rifling.

And the start:

Spoiler map details :

Fractal, High Sealevel, Rocky climate.

Spoiler edits :

A few resource swaps were done to give every AI a nearby strategic resource.

The WB-saves are attached (zipped; they are bigger than standard saves). To play, simply download and unzip it into your BTS/Saves/WorldBuilder folder. Start the game, and load your favorite MOD (if you use one, if not, check out the BUG MOD), select "Play Scenario", and look for "NC 230 Churchill Noble" (or Monarch, etc., for higher levels). You can play with your favorite MOD at the Level and Speed of your choice. From Quick-Warlord to Marathon-Deity, all are welcome! We stuck with the name "Nobles Club" because it has a cool ring to it.

Spoiler what's up with specific difficulties :

In each scenario file you can select your level of difficulty, but that doesn't give the AI the right bonus techs by itself. Use the Noble save for all levels at and below Prince. The Monarch save gives all the AI Archery. Emperor adds Hunting; Immortal adds Agriculture; Deity adds The Wheel.

Spoiler for players on Monarch or above :

You should add archery as a tech for the barbarians (if you don't, the AI will capture their cities very early). This cannot be done in the WB save file and must be done in Worldbuilder as follows:

Spoiler how to add techs to the barbarians :

1. Zoom in all the way so you can't see the rest of the map.
2. Use the CTRL-W key (or the menu) to enter the worldbuilder. Avoid looking at the mini-map in the lower right corner.
3. By default you're in "player" mode (look in the box in the upper right; the icon that looks like a person should be selected). You'll get a drop down menu labeled with your leader's name. Barbarians are at the bottom, so cover the rest of the list with your hand if you don't want to see who else is on the map. Select "Barbarians".
4. Select the "Technologies" tab in the box on the left.
5. Find Archery (the arrow head icon; 8th row, 3rd column from the right) and click it.
6. Exit the worldbuilder.
7. Zoom out again after the map fades, and start playing.

If you're playing at higher level than Monarch, consider also giving them Hunting at Emperor, Agriculture at Immortal, and The Wheel at Deity.

Spoiler huts and events :

Note: The standard saves have no huts and have events turned off. If you want tribal villages and random events, choose the saves with "Huts" in their names. If you want huts but no events, select the Huts saves and use Custom Scenario to turn on the option that suppresses events.

 

[AcaMetis]

That seems like a straightforward case of moving 1W and settling the plains hill, though probably after moving the Warrior 1SE and checking to see if the empty grassland tile doesn't have something that'd justify settling the ivory instead (I doubt it, maybe if it's Corn or something, but no harm in checking before moving the settler ). Or do the experts have a different opinion?

 

[elementoffear]

That seems like a straightforward case of moving 1W and settling the plains hill, though probably after moving the Warrior 1SE and checking to see if the empty grassland tile doesn't have something that'd justify settling the ivory instead (I doubt it, maybe if it's Corn or something, but no harm in checking before moving the settler ). Or do the experts have a different opinion?

Ehhh... why settle 1W? more production for faster worker?

 

[AcaMetis]

221 city tile, yes .

 

[sampsa]

+1 for the rest of the game is nothing to sneeze at. Settling on the ivory doesn't lose a turn and doesn't lose river tiles, but kills a better tile and claims more useless coast.

 

[dr£ddlord]

Turn 57

Spoiler :

Decided to just try and get as much territory as possible after meeting Shaka and Justinian so quickly. Didn't go for the Oracle as a result. Got 4 cities and Zulu has 3. Got Copper and Horse so no lack of strategic resources at this stage.

 

[Snowbird]

I've read some cute but old articles today...

 

[Jellybug]

Spoiler Turn 45 :

Awkward capital with little food and not much room to expand, but holy production. Room for four decent sites here, but not much more. Soon Impi will be using their two moves to run away. Edit: lost seven 80% battles in a row i horsehocky you not I'm going to go cry in my beer

 

[dr£ddlord]

Monarch 1320AD

Spoiler :

Took a few of Shaka's cities, vassalised him. Took Constantinople. Holding it now. Not totally sure about my strategy other than I have a bureacracy capital in Ulundi and I got Liberalism and Nationalism.

 

[Jellybug]

Spoiler AD 1730 :

Boudica has a six galleon raiding party circling my coast and I'm not sure sure where they're going to drop. Chasing them along the coast with my cavalry is like defending the hive against terran bio.

 

[dr£ddlord]

Monarch about 1880AD finished

Spoiler :

 

[Excal]

Immortal Difficulty no huts, no events, normal speed

T75 1000BC

Spoiler :

Tech: Bronze = Copper
Neighbor: Shaka & Justin both very close (but not for long )
Shaka DEAD

 

[WalderFrey]

First time doing this, am kind of a noob

4000BC
I think I'll settle in place cause 3 resources right there, don't think i gain anything spending a turn moving

 

[sylvanllewelyn]

First time doing this, am kind of a noob

4000BC
I think I'll settle in place cause 3 resources right there, don't think i gain anything spending a turn moving

Depends on starting 20 tiles obviously settling on plains/hill does give an extra starting production in the city tile. It's something.

 

[WalderFrey]

875BC (forgot to do this at 1000)

Spoiler 875BC :

So I research Hunting and Husbandry so I can hook up the cow and Ivory, then go for Bronze working and discover the pleasant surprise of copper. Settle 2 more cities 1 near the Wine to the east and 1 where after its first expansion it will have fish bananas and pigs.

I put all my cities where they are touching coast so I can benefit from sea trade routes, I think I want to build a navy eventually.

I think Shaka may be a problem to the south. Don't have a religion yet, but have open borders with everyone I've met now. I think I might want to try and stay friendly with Justinian if possible he might be a good ally.

Suffered a setback when a barb came toward me and my warrior failed to kill him. He ended up pillaging my copper mine before I could bring more forces to kill him. I think I'm gonna make London my production city, York to the east my science city. Not sure what to do with Nottingham to the west. Also made a mistake in my exploration and missed a few coastal tiles on the west peninsula to see if they had sea resources.

 

[elementoffear]

Man, this game is difficult...

Spoiler :

I mean, unless you figure out in like the first 10 turns that you need to axe rush shaka, is there even a different option here? Or is this always the strategy when you have shaka near anyway?

 

[AcaMetis]

Spoiler :

You are Churchill on a Rocky Climate map. Holding him off with a defensive force should be a viable option. I doubt there's any strategy that's better than deleting the biggest (immediate) threat off the map by taking his land, though. Nor do I think that there's many situations where that isn't the best strategy, assuming it's available. I mean, it's not as if he's going to be a worthwhile trading partner (or distraction) in any case, so taking his land is probably the best course of action.

 

[WalderFrey]

Spoiler 540AD :

OK looks like its time for war I am way behind in the land race with the other civs. Gonna see what I can do to take down Shaka.

 

[WalderFrey]

Spoiler 1200AD :

Everyone is Christian but the Celts and whoever else isn't on my continent. Justinian has AP but Zara won the election (I backed Zara). York is in a Culture war with Arianople (the AP city) - need to build Wonders and Culture buildings there just to make sure it keeps access to the rice so I can sustain its science output. Think I'll take 1 more city from Shaka then peace out and concentrate on rebuilding economy

 

[Excal]

T177 1170AD

Spoiler :

built GrLib, Oxford, Taj
failgold Parth, ChickenItza
tech towards Cavs

Cuirs in production
upgrading a few elephants, then attack Justin - he has a sizable army of Cataphracts
basically giving Boudi whatever to keep her sweet