Nobles' Club CLXII: Victoria of England

[dalamb]

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 Victoria of England, whom we last played in NC CXXXI; we last played the English under Churchill in NC CXXXVII.The English start with Fishing and Mining.

• Traits: Victoria is Financial and Imperialistic. FIN gives +1 on tiles that already have at least 2 ; IMP gives faster great generals and settlers. The IMP settler production, combined with FIN commerce, might make REXing more viable than usual.
• The UB: The Stock Exchange, a Bank with +65% instead of the usual +50%; it synergizes well with FIN in cities turning commerce into gold.
  
  
• The UU: The Redcoat, a Rifleman with +25% versus gunpowder units.
  

And the start:

Spoiler map details :

Medium and Small, Normal Continents, Islands, Islands Mixed In.

Spoiler edits :

Regenerated twice to get a multi-seafood start. Moved a leader

Spoiler who :

Joao

so nobody had too much territory into which to expand unopposed. Made sure everybody had a strategic resource within shouting distance.

Finally, a cut and paste of our standard doctrine:

There are no hard and fast rules here: fun and learning are our primary goals, but we do suggest that you update your progress at various points in the game, using the Spoiler feature of the boards. You can post as often as you like; here's one suggestion:

• 4000 BC (starting thoughts, no spoiler required for that discussion)
• 1000 BC or so (how you decided to progress up the early tech/build paths, which AIs you have met, where you're thinking of putting cities, etc)
• 500 AD or so (after establishing some cities and a possible plan of action)
• 1200 AD or so (mid-game, Lib race, wars or peace, or whichever happened or didn't, met other continent if applicable, etc)
• 1600 AD (or when you have decided on a course of action and a specific victory condition)
• End of game (Victory!!! or defeat, no shame in losing, especially if you tried a higher level. Learning is what we focus on, not fastest win or biggest empire)

This is just a guideline. If you're trying to improve your game, then posting more frequent updates, in as much detail as you can manage, is the best way to get suggestions from other players. If you come to what seems like a major decision and you want some advice, post an update, regardless of what game-year it is.

We also welcome players to ask for specific game advice, as we have a number of stronger players who lurk and help out with solid tips, and of course, we help each other. Replies to specific questions should also be in spoilers, with a simple "@" in front of the person the answer is directed towards.

Special Thanks go to Bleys and TMIT, who really made this series a great one, r_rolo1, mapmaker extraordinaire, for his maps in the early days of the series, and all of you for playing.

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 162 Vicky 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 Noble. The Monarch save gives all the AI Archery. Emperor adds Hunting; Immortal adds Agriculture; Deity adds The Wheel.

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.

 

[dalamb]

Reserved

 

[dalamb]

Before anybody complains about too much food, read the map spoiler.

Seems to me like London will eventually be a GP farm, after we move the capital somewhere else should a suitable site show up.

 

[Gumbolt]

Looks a fun map. Played up to 1000bc.

Spoiler :

Moved onto plains hill and settled.

Tech order was BW, Sailing, masonry, TW, Pottery, Writing, alphabet. AG/AH was a big no here.

4 cities. 1 settler ready next turn.
GLH, LH and granary built in capital.
Cities may not be optimal but they allowed me to grab the fish/gold. pigs/wheat and some flood plains.

Traded writing for agriculture with Americans. Alphabet for IW, hunting and myst with Americans. Could trade AH and archery for alphabet with Romans but may hold off. hmmm. I think the romans may start plotting soon. See what happens.

 

[dalamb]

@Gumbolt: I'm curious about where you planted your cities. I expect to write up my game, so far, later this morning.

 

[Gumbolt]

Spoiler :

1N of gold.
1E of pigs
1N of iron
fish/cows/bananas city.

Still face a major threat from Romans. Playing on abit.

I doubt my cities were ideal but I wanted plenty of coastal cities and I planned to use no Ag/AH resources early on. Didn't really hold me back.

 

[dalamb]

Monarch, Epic, Huts+Events, No Tech Brokering
BC 4000-275

Spoiler :

Thought about moving 1E to the PH but decided to SIP because I like being on a river too much. My game went significantly different from most because I knew where the nearest huts were and went for them, getting more than my share of them, including Metal Casting. Tech path something like BW > Ag > AH > Pott > (hut MC) > myst > masonry > poly (should have gone meditation) > priest > writing > (hunting from JC) > aesthetics > (alpha from lincoln, archery/IW from Julius) > math > oracle CoL (confucianism) > currency > lit, now turned off research to build libraries but aiming for construction. Somewhere in there was Sailing but I forget where. Early build unrecorded but I think it was workboat while working forested PH, worker, warrior, warrior, granary, lighthouse, chop settler somewhere in there, GLH in BC 1375, oracle in BC 725.

I'm going construction to start building up a sword/cat army with some axes for counter-melee troops; I'm 6th of 7 in soldiers and need to be in a position to fend off JC, who has iron and thus praetorians. At least we're all Confucian at this point, so he and Lincoln are Pleased with me; the trouble is JC can plot war at Pleased. The trouble is I don't feel like I have a heck of a lot of capacity at the moment despite being #1, and need also to get more cities. I have 4 to Lincoln's 4 and JC's 6. Maybe JC's extra couple of cities means he has somewhat fewer praets at the moment, but that won't last.

Spoiler current status :

• The continent. Each AI has one more city I haven't located.
  
• My territory.
  
• Charts. JC is far ahead in power.
  
• Demographics. Doing well on several important measures, lousy on troops.
  
• Techs. JC already has construction, so war will be bloody.
  

I'm 1 turn for a GP or GM. The GM would bulb Monarchy at this point; if I self-tech it he'll partly bulb Civil Service. So I need to decide whether to send him on a trade mission somewhere, save him to bulb CS, or take Monarchy immediately. If I get a GP I might start a golden age at some point when I can afford to run specialists in London, but that strategy is more attractive if I had Pacifism from Philosophy.

Spoiler dotmaps :

• The island. These are lousy sites until Sid's Sushi comes along, but I suppose I should settle them before someone else does.
  
• Southward. I suspect a pile of barbarian cities down there.
  

It looks like my initial speculation about turning London into a GP farm isn't going to work out because there is no other decent capital site that I can see. I really want the GLib in London but I think the next step is a military buildup and takeover of barbarian cities before the AIs get to them. I don't think I'm in a position to attack JC until I get macemen and trebs, but I need some base troops before then.

Advice welcome on whether my analysis inside the spoiler is accurate, and what to do from here.

 

[aitkensam]

Immortal to 1170AD

Spoiler :

SIP, WB, Whipped worker, WB, WB, Warrior iirc.

Tech was similar to Gumbolt. Just switched wheel and masonry. I got IW, Ag and AH for Alpha, but traded it to both known civs.

GLH in at 1600BC

Next techs went Curr, CoL (whole island became Confucian & pleased), trade Math, Aes, Lit (Glib 150BC... late), Music ---> Cuirs

Expanded quite slowly to 9 cities...
1st city 3S1E to share clam, grab floodplains. (2000BC)
2nd city 1N of Gold (1000BC).
3rd city on island to north for better trade routes (900BC)
4th 1W of wheat (550BC)
5th INW of marble (375BC) - This prompted GLib plan.
6th 1SW of cow (225BC) - Barb city
7th fish on northern island (50BC)
8th banana/ivory (225AD)

Lib at 740AD, then had to tech gunpowder.

JC daggered (or I missed fist?) Lincoln in 760AD.

I whipped 20 or so cuirs and declared on 16 city JC in 1010AD. Killed him down to 7 cities and vassaled, gave two back.

Meanwhile, met toku and justinian (got world map). Caravel on way to meet others. Also astronomy is in.

Short term plan is to heal then declare and vassal Lincoln then tech a bit further.

Current situation 16 cities (nearest rival (justinian) 11), 3 monopoly techs, only missing banking that AI have.

 

[Gumbolt]

Oh playing immortal. past 275bc

Spoiler :

Romans have 10 cities and have just declared on Lincoln (4 cities). I currently have 8.

Tech rate is much slower than Monarch level. I think i have lost a bit of focus as I was preparing for JC to attack me. (Did not happen.) I may join in his war though as I have 8 spare units. I have construction and I am on the way to CS. 4 turns off. Great library would of been really nice about now.

Probably should of gone aesth route tech wise. The capital would make a great GP farm. Abusing GLH for now with trade routes.

Got a shared religion with Romans now so peace should follow. Although he can plot at pleased.