Nobles' Club 286: Alexander of Greece

Small update... 1280 BC.

Spoiler :


Civ4ScreenShot0097.JPG


To be completely honest, I am not too happy with my city placements. Might have been better settles, but it is what it is.
I decided to take a small detour into Mysticism seeing as Ragnar is pretty close, and also to be able to grab that gold to the west earlier.
I have teched Writing, and will now chop/overflow the Library in Athens.
Argos is unhealthy at size one? Bah, let them eat cake!

Edit: Of course Ragnar founded Judaism and the Holy City happens to be the one right on my borders... Sparta and Corinth are now preparing for war!
 
Last edited:
@krikav
Thanks for the insights. I think I might try the double worker strategy and see how it works out.

Makes sense to me. I think I'd have to work some suboptimal tiles to get out a single warrior before settler otherwise.
 
350 BC
Spoiler :


I took Birka and Uppsala from Ragnar, but Hatty is starting to become a huge pain in the ass with her War Chariots and Creative trait. She is spamming War Chariots and Settlers, which could prove to be lucrative targets for my war economy. Hatty does like me though, the only problem... I don't like Her!

No one is going for Alphabet though, so it looks like I will have to self-tech it.

Spoiler :

Civ4ScreenShot0098.JPG



 
I just started this, and when I did I realized that there is a spot that completely flew me by in the pre game discussion.

Settlement 1S keeps all 3 corns and still leaves a spot open to share all 3 corns.
Thats likely better than gaining a cow, since AH might be aeons away, while agriculture is the first tech.

Hope I haven't fooled anyone too much with this oversight. :)
 
I was initially skeptical about phalanxes, but wow they're a good unit. I'll try and get a report up later.
 
@krikav I chose to get that (at least 1E of that) with my 2nd city, could be good as a capital though since...
Spoiler :
2N1W will leave your capital with NO hammer tiles, but you do get Banana.
However you also have to consider that 1S can spoil any potential seafood to the east, which
Spoiler :
is non existent, but we don't know that T0/T1



As for my progress... 1AD

Spoiler :

I was annoyed by Hatty's presence, so I went to war. Quickly took two of her cities within two turns, and did a Cease Fire.
The city further south has The Temple of Artemis. My plan is to gather my troops and go for that before declaring peace and getting some techs from her.
I got a Great General and decided to settle him in one of my unit producing cities. That will give me CR2 troops right out of the gate (in 2-3 turns), which beats a super medic by a mile IMO.
Currency finishes in one turn. Next up is Aesthetics and Literature. I want to chop The Great Library in my capital. If anyone thinks this is a bad idea, let me know. Maybe I will pick up construction beforehand to wage some further war.

After that CoL and perhaps bulb Philosophy.

Civ4ScreenShot0099.JPG


 
Last edited:
Progress update, for those who cares :D

600AD

Spoiler :

I declared again on Hatty after healing my troops (level 2 Medic is more than enough). While I was warring with her, Ragnar declared on me, but Phalanxes have been serving me so well. Unless the AI has Horseback Riding, there is NOTHING they can do when they try to attack. What a unit, Axemen on steroids if you ask me. Hatty was begging for peace after I took her city with The Temple of Artemis, so I gave it to her and focused my attention back to Ragnar. Took another two cities from him, and then some techs for peace.

In the meantime, I built the Parthenon (because why not), and The Great Library finishes in my capital next turn. Heroic Epic will also be done next turn in my main hammer city.

I have Calendar - Currency - Monarchy - Construction researched. Going for Music next for the free Artist. Economy is in shambles though, so if you have any tips, it would be helpful.

Civ4ScreenShot0101.JPG


 
@Gressulf On the economy, my recommendation would be to focus. Are you going back to war with catapults or are you teching?

If going back to war then key is to keep the capture gold rolling in. I would focus on COde of Laws as this could well be a game where courthouses / forbidden palace comes into play.

If planning to tech, then the catapult builds can go and then one trick is to avoid building the heroic epic yet, but take it out of the queue for now and put hammers into it in other cities for failgold.

Another thing to consider would be whether you can get a great prophet for a shrine. Not sure if this is doable with the great library coming on line.

Are you trading resources for gold?
 
@Nick723

Thanks for the comments. I relaxed a little, and teched.
Spoiler :
Got Music and the GA from that, used it for a Golden Age and switched into Bureaucracy and Caste System (might have been a mistake). I also picked up Metal Casting and Paper and have two Scientists in hand for Education bulb... Only problem, in 900 AD (before I even had Paper), someone teched Lib. Seeing as this is most likely a Continents map, and I am not a stable Immortal player, I think I will give this game a rest for now (and as I wrote this, one of my mines discovered gems. Gave me a morale boost!). Other AIs with me already have Longbows, so Phalanxes are kind of out of shape :D

I did the Heroic Epic failgold thing. I built it to max in two other cities so far. Depending on how much I get from that, I could go on a teching spree.

I am also close to getting a Great Prophet in the city I captured which has The Temple of Artemis, so I will use that to make the Holy City. Lets see.

Looks like Willem is going for Hatty. I think I will ride his war train.

Spoiler Empire Status :

Civ4ScreenShot0102.JPG



 
Last edited:
Deity t179 update

Spoiler :

So I literally libbed communism after double-bulbing astro, before swinging around to self-tech MT, and still had enough time to knock around a few heads. Carthage is down and I captured like 10 wonders from the city; meanwhile Gilgamesh is on his way out. Willem will probably go for physics and then assembly line before rifling or something. I already have electricity, though.

Spoiler :

20210930003610_1.jpg


 

Attachments

  • For Alex AD-1190 GO TO BED.CivBeyondSwordSave
    307.9 KB · Views: 28
Last edited:
I looked at that start and thought "if that's not enough corn to give deity a go, what is?". Having played uber carefully (or maybe just slowly) over the week, I'm now in uncharted territory and would appreciate some feedback.

Deity T90 NHNE

Spoiler :


Settled 1s to share the food and move away from the jungle.

Went agriculture, mining, BW, TW, pottery, writing. I met Ragnar turn 4. I don't mind him as a neighbor. He's easy to get to friendly through HR and shared religion. You just need someone he hates more to stop him attacking you early.

Hello Hatty. I checked the diplo screen and felt much safer. I met Willem and felt slightly less safe.

I went worker, warrior, whipped a second worker at size four. Overflow into settler. Back to warrior which I finished with a chop and overflowed into settler along with the chop from the brand new worker. Finished the settler. Barbs weren't a problem at all so perhaps a settler before worker number 2 would have worked. I was mainly worried about getting enough warriors out to fog bust but perhaps I didn't need to be.

I saw the copper. I settled the copper. Hatty settled next to the copper city. I understood why people were talking about phalanx. I knew what I had to do.

I chopped everything and, after some incredible combat luck and ceasefire cheese, I find myself here.

It appears Hatty doesn't have any metal, so she's a sitting duck in flatland cities. But Memphis is blocking my reinforcements/allowing them to be teleported through abusing ceasefires (delete as appropriate). My inclination is to leave it and continue exploring around Thebes, take anything I can on flat land and come back with catapults for the rest or leave it to Ragnar who decided to provide me with some - thus far - ineffectual military assistance.

My main concern is my economy. It's T90 and nobody has alpha (on our continent at least). I can get it with my capture gold in six turns but it feels like a waste to self-tech it. I thought about bulbing maths but I've only just built libraries and I can see that Ragnar is researching maths. Also, that's only helpful if somebody else has alpha because more production isn't really helping me at the moment. I could go the classic aesthetics route but I worry it's too late. I have gold and marble (once I have masonry) so I might get some fail gold once I can get the cheap religious techs required? Or is it too late for that? It could be a while to get those given my economic plight, although more capture gold could be on it's way. I'm also desperate for happiness so getting monarchy would be rather good.

During the wars, I've also settled two cities. I settled them both partly because Athens was growing in to unhappiness so when it got to size six I whipped settlers into phalanx. Consequently, I settled the cow and flood plains city. This was to stop Ragnar settling in my face. It's doing decent work now despite my people still not knowing which end is which on a cow and being horseblind. The other city is to the north of Athens and was settled to share some of the food and work cottages for the capital. However, I wonder if I shouldn't have bothered and they explain my economic situation. Thoughts appreciated.
 

Attachments

  • T90.JPG
    T90.JPG
    223.4 KB · Views: 42
  • Alex 0625 av. J-C..CivBeyondSwordSave
    163.4 KB · Views: 22
Is there any hope to save my game? I've managed to not get eliminated (a first on emperor!), but I think I'm too late to prevent the AI from a cultural victory. Still, it feels good to stay competitive until the end of the game!

I'm still struggling with the AI tech pace once the game hits the renaissance. I can hit good timing attacks and eliminate neighbors, but once war gets rolling I have to turn off research to stay out of strike and I can't roll over the map fast enough to prevent a big AI from getting enough of a tech lead to be untouchable. I'm also having trouble with losing my diplomatic standing over time. Kill a neighbor or two and everyone hates you forever :rolleyes:

Spoiler T350 :



Here's the empire I've carved out. I had an early war with Ragnar and took most of his land with phalanxes. Aggressive phalanxes are really good! My economy was in bad shape, but I cranked out great people to bulb my way to nationalism and a golden age. I finished Ragnar off and capitulated Hatshepsut at cuirassiers, and started a massive land war with Willem at cavalry and grenadiers. I got good traction at first, but he's been ahead in tech since the middle ages. Grenadiers stopped being enough once he was on infantry, but had a bit of a second wind once I had cannons and airships. I had to pause the fight once Willem had bombers and jet fighters, which tore up my airships and cannon stacks before I could hit his cities. I rebuilt on infantry, and once again was making slow progress with cannon backup, but I'm stalled again now that he has mech infantry and modern armor available. I'm not quite sure what the threshold is for capitulation, but I suspect the fact that I'm trading 2 or 3 units for each one I kill is keeping Willem in a war he's clearly losing. During this war Gilgamesh tried to backstab me, and managed to knock out Hatshepsut, but an irresponsible amount of drafting plus airship support kept him from taking any of my land, and I was able to buy peace after smashing his stacks.



Regardless, the real problem here is Saladin. He's 25 turns out from a cultural victory, and I don't have the diplomatic standing to cause him any problems. With enough time I know I could capitulate Willem and Hannibal and have a reasonable shot at domination, but I don't think I have the time.


Edit: oops, added the save
 

Attachments

  • Ale_Emp_Sta_NC _Nor_Anc_1930-AD_Tro_Med_Sep-30-2021_11-23-08.CivBeyondSwordSave
    429.9 KB · Views: 22
Last edited:
Deity t186 update

So it turns out I discovered a never-seen-before bug...

Spoiler :

To give my cuirs a chance to heal up, and to dodge the "stop the war" vote, I made peace with Gilgamesh for one turn. During that time, however, it seemed...Giggles called a vote to assign his capital back to him. I didn't dare defy because I was afraid of the unhappiness - but then I got an idea. I voted "no", but in the turn before the results showed, I declared war again. Then this happened:

Spoiler :

upload_2021-9-30_23-47-40.jpeg



Yes - that's right. Uruk was reassigned, but my cuirs healing in the city remained IN the city of a civ I was at war with. They weren't kicked out, because the game doesn't give the two "garrison units" that any player usually gets when a city is liberated. So...all I had to do was walk out and then back in with a single cuir to retake it! I'm not sure if this was intentional, and it may not be since it's such an edge case that there's probably a one-in-a-million odds of this even having the chance to happen, every game.

I don't know if the game would've exploded if Gilgamesh whipped a pikeman or something the turn that he got the city back :lol::lol::lol:.

At any rate - it's 1260AD and I'm closing in on assembly line now. I'm going to see if I can wage one last war against Willem, not to cap him but to ease some of the cultural pressure off my cities; so far nobody has rifling yet and nobody seems to be going for it.

Spoiler :

upload_2021-10-1_0-10-24.jpeg



 

Attachments

  • For Alex AD-1260 TARGET WILLEM NEXT.CivBeyondSwordSave
    327.6 KB · Views: 20
Last edited:
From T75 to T223

Spoiler :

Settings as below, no huts:


The least advanced civilisation - undoubtedly was me :o. 350 BC without IW :hammer2:.


To prevent the strike, assigned the citizens in any tiles which could generate some :commerce:. Chopped libraries and turned some citizens to scientists. Workers built cottages. Slow-tech Maths and used the first GS to bulb Alphabet. Built :science: to finish Currency. Road to Hatty and Willem for the foreign TRs. The economic situation gradually improved after these measures.

Stayed at peace until Renaissance, because there were so many jungles that I didn't want to clean myself. IIRC, from Prince level and above, AI's workers build improvements slightly faster than the human player's workers do. So I'd prefer to let Hatty and WvO build cities, remove jungles for me and send Cuirs to "take over" their lands later. :satan:

Pre-built HAs, generated GMerchants for upgrading units. Attack with Cuirs. WvO capitulated on T207


Hatty disappeared on T223.

After DoW on Hatty, I adopted FR so that Giggle and Hanni would be willing to open borders with me. But Saladin remained Annoyed :sad:.

Tech situation on T223. Hanni was the most advanced:


Had 20 + cities now. Maybe the next tech to research would be Communism, since the maintenance cost was already high. Steel may also be an option, as Cannons and cheap Drydocks are tempting. Or go to Rifling for Cavs + spies...? Not sure :undecide:.
 
@Fabled
Spoiler :

I'll check your spoiler once my game proceeds to the same turn as your game, because I'm still stagnating around T220. But you've mentioned AIs' tech pace out of the spoiler, maybe you feel still a little confused about GPeople management or GAges? With PHI leaders, using GP to catch up in techs becomes important.

The video below inspired me to play this NC and about post-rush recovery, maybe it would give you some inspiration about :gp: generating and usefulness as well. The civilization is Greek, low :commerce: start, but with the other leader (Pericles, PHI + CRE).
You'll see the video settled the first GS (!) and used the second GS to bulb Maths.


@Fish Man
Spoiler :

Nice Phalanxes rush! :clap:

How did you manage to stay out of the strike? I played at Monarch, only captured some cities from Ragnar, and the economic situation was already terrible and couldn't allow me to attack Hatty :sad:. But you managed to rush both Hatty and Ragnar. Did you get Currency or :gold: in peace treaties?
 
@konata_LS

I'll check that video out - thank you! I think I managed the ancient / classical rush recovery well, due in no small part to great scientists. My problem is what to do after cuirassiers / cavalry run out of steam. From what I read, good players simply don't let their games go that long, so I must be doing something wrong.
 
With vassals enabled they chain vassal AIs and use their new attack dogs to help them, often gifting their cities back especially if they are culturally crushed. If that does not work a recovery phase is typically necessary and it's normal some AIs will be ahead of you.

I'm often behind in the modern era after a breakout war. My go-to approach for AI culture victories is to raze one of their culture cities amphibiously with marines. If all of their culture cities are landlocked you are often SOL. There are ways to delay them with diplomacy (pay them to switch civics, in paricular out of Free Speech if possible) and spies. The latter is very painful and micro-intensive and I don't typically have the patience for it but it can delay them.
 
I should spend some time understanding how capitulation works, I usually can't get an AI to vassal until they're down to one or two iceball cities so I often just take them for myself.
 
It's not super common to finish games with cuirs/cavalry for me.
If thats the way it appears, that is a consequence of those games being fun to report. :)
Also, I think thats mostly a pangaea thing, and I rarely choose pangaea when I pick games.

It's very common to have to industrialize, reaching assembly line and building factories/coal plants in strong hammer cities and then going at them again with infantry+cannons and later infantry+artillery.
 
Ah, that's my problem then. I feel like I "should" be able to win pre-industrialization so I grind out slow wars and lose my production base to war weariness. Next time I'll try a land grab at cuirassiers / cavalry, then stop and build back up for the next wave of wars. I imagine the tech disparity will be much less oppressive if half my population is working tiles instead of protesting the war!
 
Top Bottom