Nobles' Club 355: Louis XIV of France

[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 Louis XIV of France, whom we last played in NC 302; we last played the French under Napoleon in NC 353. The French start with Agriculture and The Wheel.

• Traits: Louis XIV is Creative and Industrious. Creative gives every city +2 for free, and gives a +100% bonus to Libraries, Theatres, and Colosseums. Industrious gives a +50% bonus to all Wonders (World and National), and gives a +100% bonus to Forges.
• The UB: The Salon, an Observatory with +1 free Artist, providing +1, +4 and +3 GA . Not a bad bonus for cities facing cultural pressure, but your Great Person Pool will never be free from Great Artist pollution again.
• The UU: The Musketeer, a Musketman with 2 instead of 1. If you're attacking someone with Mounted units and are afraid of Pikeman sniping the strongest units in your army, bring along Musketeers as stack defenders. They can keep up with their allies on horseback. Somehow .

And the start:

Spoiler map details :

Fractal, Rocky climate, Medium sealevel.

Spoiler edits :

Strategic resource swaps and very many unworkable seafood was moved.

Spoiler isolated? :

Not isolated.

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 355 Louis XIV 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 what is demigod :

The difference between Immortal and Deity difficulty is akin to the difference between Noble and Immortal. Players eventually reached a point where Immortal was too easy, but Deity was still out of reach, and so neither difficulty provided a fun experience. "Demigod" is an otherwise standard Deity game where the AIs are only given their Immortal level starting units, in an attempt to bridge the gap.

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]

Seems straightforward enough. We're (I'm assuming) going to want to settle the Stone, 2 capitol tile and keeps the dry corn in range, so the Warrior should move south to check the empty tile 1S of corn to confirm we're not moving away from something critical (mind, I've no idea what would qualify as such). If the tile is clear the Settler moves 1E towards the stone, end turn, settler settles on the stone T1. Not sure what's in the fog, but it'll have to be enough.

Alternatively you could use the settler as a scout, moving 1SE and moving the warrior 1NE? Not sure which is the better move, but it is an option. Do any experts wish to weight in?

 

[Tecumseh1]

Not an expert, but I would move settler 1S + 1NE on T1, and move warrior 1E or 1 NE. Settling stone most likely. But tile 2N of settler is likely to be a horsey in my experience

 

[Tecumseh1]

T56:

T1 I moved settler 1S and warrior 1E. Plains cow 1S of corn moooo. Makes me want to settle 1N of corn on T2. So moved settler back. But T2 there is gold! Without gold I think SIP is best, then go mining->masonry->AH. Can delay BW in that case and use super production capital to build more settlers/workers. Then focus commerce to north/rivers with second city. But given the gold, I settled on stone. Rest of map/characters are not super interesting. Boudica close so glad I found horses to the west. Settled 3rd city to west near horse/corn around T52. Now need to backfill the south area which also looks good with wine and incense. Build some HAs in preparation of probably standard lib game for cuirassiers? Unless cave women attacks me early. So good to build HAs in preparation. Oh, and of course going for pyramids with the double bonus.

 

[konata_LS]

Wanted to take break from the Joao NC game, so I played this Louis map for a few turns. I used to play a lot of culture games as Louis when I was kidding around warlord level (built most of wonders then got destroyed by warlord AIs Shaka or JC ).

Agree about moving the warrior 1S. That unforested tile looks very suspicious . Stone settling is surely tempting, but what if there is a gem 1S of the corn? Missing such a resource would be sad. But if warrior move shows 1S of the corn is spice or sugar, or just a bare grassland, I'll probably settle on the stone.

From T0 to T32

Spoiler :

Warrior moved 1S and found a plain cow . SIP seemed obvious . The plain cow in the capital's BFC: best resource, always wins .

The first tech was AH, just to improve the plain cow tile : +1, +2, +1 with pasture. Later on +1 with supermarket.

T3 demo showed the second largest civ had 18000 territory, which meant there was at least another CRE civ. It also told us that Hammi was in the game (on Emperor Hammi has 20000 soldiers)

T32, a warrior in the forest was killed by a lion

Well...it's time to pause the game and throw a tantrum .