Nobles' Club 365: Alexander of Greece

[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 Alexander of Greece, whom we last played in NC 286; we last played the Greek under Pericles in NC 322. The Greeks start with Fishing and Hunting.

• Traits: Alexander is Aggressive and Philosophical. Aggressive gives all Melee and Gunpowder units a free Combat I promotion, and gives a +100% bonus to Barracks and Drydocks. Philosophical gives all cities +100% generation and a +100% bonus to Universities.
• The UB: The Odeon, a Colosseum with +1, +3, +2 Artist specialist slots and and additional +1 with Hit Singles on top of what a regular Colosseum gives. If you ever need to solidify your control of a border city, both in terms of happiness and culture, this is the building you want.
• The UU: The Phalanx, an Axeman with +100% defence vs. Chariots. Generally considered a waste of a UU, since the Greek start with Hunting and thus will be able to build Spears in any situation they can build Phalanxes. Still, if you're rushing someone that doesn't have Horseback Riding you might be able to get away with taking an extra Phalanx along rather than a Spear stack defender. Just be sure to use espionage to make sure your target doesn't get HBR halfway through your rush, otherwise you might end up regretting that decision .

And the start:

Spoiler map details :

Inland Sea, Temperate Climate, Medium Sealevel, +1 AI to balance the board.

Spoiler edits :

A few strategic resource swaps.

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 365 Alexander 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]

This one looks like a straightforward case of "just SIP". Like there's all kinds of 2 city tile opportunities here, but only one that ends up with wet Corn in the capitol's BFC, so I'm inclined to assume that one wins by default. It being a T0 settle doesn't hurt either.

At least that's my interpretation. Any daring pioneers wanting to make a case for sending the Scout and/or the Settler out into the darkness?

 

[Thrasybulos]

I like the 2S2W PH better: the view seems nicer, and that's important when playing the Greeks.
At the very least, I'd send my scout to check it out before taking a decision.

 

[Build2Much]

I like the 2S2W PH better: the view seems nicer, and that's important when playing the Greeks.
At the very least, I'd send my scout to check it out before taking a decision.

Totally agree at first glance - if the scout shows food when he gets on that hill I would be very tempted to move there to claim more land since we appear to be very far N already.

 

[chinemol]

don't think I've ever pulled out a decent game off Alex. Challenge accepted. SIP unless scout finds sth awesome. since building TGW with agg seems bad, settling up north anf having one way of barb attack already safe since the start is nice. shame later culture won't cover up much, but short term is the game


played a bit IMM up to T99:

Spoiler :

SIP farming -> mining -> wheel ->masonry. Plenty of failgold from TGW allowed for early expansion. went for pyra on sparta since athens pumped out agg warriors and settlers
T50:

T69: Cyrus plotting. Got some Phalanxes out, he stopped soon after

T84

T99: Took the barb city with minimal losses! bulbed Metal Casting.
Filled the fornline with Cyrus with cities. He will be a problem at construction unless I get him to pleased.
If I were to go for Hatty, I'd gain Tokugawa as neighbour. He seems to be going for her. Has open borders only with ragnar whom he doesn't border.
Ragnar should be plotting on Gandhi, hope no surprises.
Haven't traded tech yet. sitting on MC for now. Only the ussuals are open up for trade at this point

 

[soundjata]

Early worker movement look horrendous though..
6 turns for a farm, then what?

I'd be tempted to settle 2W2S and settler first or something. (scout 2E2S)

 

[soundjata]

T55

Spoiler :

Settler > 2x worker > 4x warrior

Starting now to improve the corn

No happiness resi, stone, what could we do

 

[Alexander IV]

t66, Deity nh ne

Spoiler :

Agri - Mining - Masonry - Wheel - AH - Pottery - BW - Writing, Worker - Barracks - Warriors, but no way that helped to stop a barb archer come and smash my stone, so no Mids, but at least about 150 failgold and nothing to build but settlers and workers. Corinth didn't mean to be that brilliant 1N of the pigs, but I had to wait a turn for a warrior and scouted a tile down south - never returned. So 3 warriors 5 workers and a scout here.

Edit - city points are like somewhere there, not exactly.

 

[a pen-dragon]

Deity, T112

Spoiler :

I went 2S2W, trading the corn for a cow, two floodplains, more rivers, a more central position and settling on the river. Seems to be worth it. IMHO the last two points are the important ones.
AH - Agri - Mining - Bronze. Delayed Wheel due to rivers connecting my empire.
T44, about to found the city NE, wait ... look who beelined Alphabet:

Traded for Wheel, Pottery, later Writing. Now that speeds things up.
T74, got a barb city before Hatty did, was way too slow to claim furs, about to get Ivory. 5 cities, 1 settler, 6 workers. Corinth whipping out a few Workers/Settlers. Not whipping Athens to get a Library done in two turns.

T112, bulbed Philo, on the road to Lib. I could do some micro, but at this point I am too lazy to do so. Cottages coming around nicely, especially around Argos. Should have gone scouting for the last AI sooner.

Hatty has horses for trade, so I will go for Cuirs, prepare by building elephants, trade for horses, kill someone.

 

[Whisker]

Got fed up having my butt kicked at deity, so decided to try immortal for a change.

Spoiler Conquest victory 1836 AD :

Did not really like worker movement options on starting place and wondered South East settling between wheat and green cow on t2. Had some trouble with barbarians early on and got several of my improvements pillaged. Expanded peacefully to 12 cities, and started very late elepult attack against Hatty around 840 AD. Quickly snagged two border cities, sued for peace and repeated 10 turns later. After losing two more cities Hatty capitulated.

Japan had a big stack in a city right next to Egypt's border, so it was only natural to wait couple of turns for my units to heal and then eliminate said stack. Togu usually puts up a big fight, but he also capitulated only after four cities. Repeated process clockwise around the map facing all the time more advanced units, but having enough siege to prevail anyway..Carthage, then followed by India and then Vikings.

After Vikings I brought my stack home trough Maya and Persia territories. I was horrible backward compared to my last two rivals, but having five vassals whose research you can direct makes catching up quite easy. I only needed to research two or three big techs and was able to trade everything else with my vassals.

I upgraded my drafted muskets to riflemen and medieval siege to artillery and then attacked Persia, who had infantry and soon after got tanks and even mechanized infantry. All my vassals kept sending their stacks and Persian kept wiping them out. Meanwhile my huge siege stack moved slowly and took one city at time. After five cities taken and almost 30 turns of fighting Persian finally capitulated.

This left me just shy of domination limit and thus I had to declare Maya also. This point I too had tanks supported by bombers and rolling over Maya cities was a mere formality.
I vassaled the Maya and hit domination limit and same time, Hitting next turn and the game declared I had won conquest victory.

I must say I really dislike the inland sea map script. I either get ravaged by the barbs and get boxed in, or I walk over the map. Those seem to be only way these maps resolve for me.

 

[0urBall]

My first NC entry that I've managed to post. I am only a lowly Noble Civ4 player...


Expanded to 10/11 cities initially, then took out Hatty (poor Hatty) and took some cities from Toku before Vassalising him which protected the east for me. Was gunning for Culture and was ~30 turns away when a Diplo Victory vote came around, as Gandhi had built the UN.

Not sure if I would have won by Culture as Cyrus was Cautious for a looooong time, and he was the Tech leader