Nobles Club IV - Frederick of Germany

[Diamondeye]

Ok, I am ashamed to say I have never used an SE, but I think I get the idea, so I'll try until I fail.

A few simple rules of thumb to get you started:
-Every city must have atleast 1 food resource, preferably more, improvable before calendar. Preferably, it should be able to generate at least +4 at size 2, +6 :food is preferred.

Every city should have a library.

Every city, once at pop 4 (or 5) should run 2 scientists.

Workers should, primarily, be building mines, farms, roads, pastures and camps. as few cottages as possible.

Tech priotities:
Code of Laws: Caste System, as well as Courthouses
Bronze Working: Slavery for whipping until CoL, chopping libraries and settlers/workers.
Masonry(?): Pyramids is a good addition to any SE.
And ofcourse food workertechs like fishing, agri and AH.

Try not to build more than necessary concerning buildings; granary, library, courthouse, maybe barracks. Then units.

 

[Groogaroo]

I have made a dotmap built over your own ideas, with the corrections from above plus a finishing touch, take a look

Great! Thanks

Those suggestions make alot of sense!

 

[Krick19]

Thanks a lot, that'll help, but what is a commerce city supposed to have?

 

[Diamondeye]

Thanks a lot, that'll help, but what is a commerce city supposed to have?

Well, basically, as I see it, a SE is ideally either running 100% fueled by merchants, artists and prists or 0% to support scientists researching, the latter being the most popular. If you are running the latter, a commerce city needs; granary, courthouse, market, grocer, bank, culturebuilding(?), and ofc later on happiness and health when that is an issue. And it should be working as many cottages/highcommerce tiles as possible. But even these cities benefit alot from one or two good food ressources.

 

[Jaaboo]

Diamondeye, I'll post a map of my game later. I actually have progressed a bit more than Groo and have 6 cities already placed. Some (all?) are probably suboptimal, but they're there (see spoiler).

Spoiler :

3 of them are Pacal's.

 

[Groogaroo]

Krick, if its your first attempt at an SE it might be worth having a peek at this

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=197818

Its a pretty generic/basic guide but should give you some pointers.

 

[r_rolo1]

Diamondeye, you forgot a SE type: running spies for both and ...Probably even overpowered...

But a commerce city in SE should have merchants and priests slots ( merchants can be via Caste, priests not ) and cash multipliers ( besides the omnipresent granary and courthouse... ) and enough and to run the show.

 

[Diamondeye]

R Rolo, commerce cities in Scientist SEs wouldn't want to pollute the GP stream afaik? I tend to either avoid merchants at all or nearly only run them to keep a commercebased science working.

 

[King Billy]

My first session! Im going slow so i can get advice as we go along...

4000bc - 2000bc

Spoiler :

Hey there! Welcome to Bizarro’s Wig Emporiu…erm…Germany!



Here are the game settings, specifically I’m using Noble as it’s what I’m used to along with Epic speed and the choose religions option (to make things more tasty!)

I notice I have two of the civilisations I REALLY hate in this game, crazy talking skull guy and crazy twitching tech guy.

I’m doomed before I even begin…

…I smell it.



Starting techs…hunting (distinctly unimpressive) and mining! Yay, gotta love shiny rocks!

I’ll try a limited SE with a possible Pyramids gambit if there’s any stone at all, which I never seem to get. I’ll also try to keep the higher cost civics up and spam courthouses to keep the economy floating.

Hopefully I can get a peaceful victory.

Not likely with a guy in the game who likes to skin and eat people and possibly talk to their bleached skulls! Let’s hope we don’t meet him.



Decent start I guess, seafood though so I’ll need to chop up a few workboats/workers/settlers to keep my normal start accelerated like I’m used too.



I decide to settle after moving my scout, can’t see any benefits of moving at all that would justify a wasted turn.



I pop a hut to the east and get a tech for once, the wheel! That’s pretty handy I guess.



I research BW so I can start chopping, hopefully I get some copper (especially if I meet crazy talking skull guy. Seriously, is it just me or does he look up to it after addressing you?!)



Bugger.

No seriously, I’m doomed.

Look at that saucy grin and wink! He’s after me!

*sigh*

Time to get my Axemen out.



Pacal, it’s good to see at least one friendly face.

Notice how Pacal and Monty have different religions, this is going to end well.

I’ll need to pick a side I guess, probably Monty’s as I don’t want him attacking me early on. Maybe I can get the holy city once he gets weaker later?





I res BW and fishing in order to pump out two workers so I can chop out even more workboats.



Nearest Copper, could probably snatch it with a third city. I’m a little miffed I can only get one of the two food resources though.



Here you can see where Monty and Pacal are, Pacal is closer but not close enough for a rush even if I planned one. I’m hoping Monty tries to convert me, so that we can both take out Pacal…then of course I can take out Monty and get that religion money rolling in.



Happy dance time! Finally someone I don’t plan to kill!



I get a quest, I may do so if I get horses in a nearby good city location…but knowing my odds…



My scouts get eaten by bears. By scout, you served me well!





I res out AH to see if I have any horses, along with mysticism for a monument on the city I’m about to build as I finally pump out my settler later than usual in 2400bc.



I found Hamburg on the coast, grabbing up a cows/horses/ivory/bananas along with a lot of grassland tiles (near two rivers!). Should be a nice specialisation/food city, possibly my SSC I haven’t decided yet. Next I’ll look for a production city.



As this session ends I res writing to build libraries and in turn start science specialisations when the capitol grows to 5/6. I should note that I haven’t revolted to slavery yet because I have no idea how to really use it effectively beyond shaving a few turns off short term.



My current ‘empire’ at the end of this turnset, along with possible city cites (easternmost being my provisional production city).

 

[Diamondeye]

Sounds good King Billy. You might want to see the dotmapping advice I gave in a spoiler earlier, as it adresses some of the same problems that you face (the dots you place are decent but between two good sites, and I'd rather have 2 good cities than one decent, any time).

 

[King Billy]

Thanks DiamondEye, i'll look up your posts.

I know i've still not got city placement 100%, but i still think my main problem is not knowing how to use slavery, it just seems a waste of population to me at this stage.

Any tips for it?

 

[Jedi James]

Hi all,
First time I am trying to run a SE. So I will welcome any critiques... Initial plan... I am aiming for a Space Victory.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Welcome to CFC!

Late game SE can get tricky so a space win might not be the easiest. I try and get a big tech lead and then stomp everyone myself

 

[Diamondeye]

Welcome, JJ, to CFC!

And King Billy, Voice of Unreason has written a nice article on the subject of whipping, search for "Vocum SineRatio" and you'll find it soon. It is also in the War academy.

 

[Jedi James]

So its bit after 2000BC. I am trying to build the Oracle for the free tech. Then I will beeline Alphabet, and do some tech brokering. That way if I expand a little to quickly and my economy is stifled, I won't fall too far behind in tech. I'm thinking Hamburg will be a good city for specialists... its got plenty of food. How do I attach a screen shot and do the whole "spoil" thing??

 

[KaytieKat]

Hi

grrr this game hates me. I played a lil bit more since my last update here ->>http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6680301&postcount=13

Frst I was off on the year the 1st time then it was at 1200AD NOT 1400AD and NOW it is at 1400AD.

Here is how it is going now it still not pretty though.

Spoiler :

Ok Monty FINALLY let up and decalred peace. I had to give him lump sum of gold and 5 gpt but at least it got him off my back.

That let me finaly dow on Pacal. I managed to take a few more cities and raise some others of his to give me a little more room. Thats the good news. Bad news is looong list hehe.

Monty has gunpowder and is teching chem. Pacal still has TONS of cities left. Including the AP city AND SoZ.

I took Pacals capitol HOPING that would be the AP city at least and maybe even SoZ. But NOOOOOO they are both in city waaaaaay on other end of his empire so to get that city I am gonna have to pretty much take out MOST of his empire on the way meaning SoZ weariness the WHOLE time grrrr.

Not only THAt but pacal IS being a pain with AP he hasnt tried diplo victory BUT is calling viotes for giving back cities I take. WHich of course I vote NEVER which causes TONS of xtra unhappiness in cities I have taken already so they are NOT growing much at ALL.

I called for peace right now to TRYT and rebuild so I can make another push. I am thinking MAYBE one or two more pushes and I can take AP and SoZ city.

But right now SoZ is KILLING me WW gets sooo bad ALL my cities go into starvation now. So build up is even slower now that all my cities need to recover lost pop from starving. About the ONLY good thing is Pacals cap is Hindu holy city and since Pacal has a TON of hindu cities I am getting decent gold now but that is bout only good thing.

Pacal is still a problem and while I am dealing with him I have to do my best to keep Monty at bay which is hard since I have NO diplo positives anymore with him ALL the ones from trades, from past open borders, from being past war allies everything are gone when HE declared war on me grrr. I reopened borders and have given him tribute but STILL no positives at ALL. Meanwhile he is PLUS 8 with pacal?? they DONT even have same religion grrr.

Well game isnt AS hopeless as it lokked before but it still not looking good for me winning. My little war pushes with Pacal have dropped him down from 2nd to 3rd putting HC in first. BUT all the WW and starvation has dropped me down to next to last again when I WAS starting to edge past george a lil but now he is ahead agan.

I have feeling this game is gonna be one big looong pain to get an upper hand if it is even possible.

Oh one other thing-- about 2 or 3 turns into my second session an AP vote came up I had THOUGHT the vote was calling to stop war against Germany so I voted yes hoping it would make Monty call for peace. BUT instead it said give a city a took back to pacal which since I voted yes it went over to pacal since he pretty much owns AP votes being ONLY full member so he has like 220 votes out of total 250 or so with the other 30 split by everyone else. grrrr.

Anyways after ALL that fight it took just to GET that city I got mad losing it by a mistake so reloaded my save again and this time when vote came up I voted never. Which has city stuck at 1 pop with all the unhappiness but at least I still own it now.

Although NOW it means that even IF i do somehow manage to win its cuz I cheated

Kaytie

 

[Diamondeye]

So its bit after 2000BC. I am trying to build the Oracle for the free tech. Then I will beeline Alphabet, and do some tech brokering. That way if I expand a little to quickly and my economy is stifled, I won't fall too far behind in tech. I'm thinking Hamburg will be a good city for specialists... its got plenty of food. How do I attach a screen shot and do the whole "spoil" thing??

I attach screen shots using photobucket. Upload your pics there like this:


...and then, when haing found the right one, press upload and it'll be added to your profile. You can now copy the IMG tag into you post like this:


...And concerning spoilers, you simply wrap SPOILER tags (the [ and ] parantheses around, /SPOILER ends the spoiler window again. Try, when posting, to press "go advanced" - you will be given a lot more of hotkeys in the bars, one of the being SPOILER tags.

 

[Solon70]

Thanks DiamondEye, i'll look up your posts.

I know i've still not got city placement 100%, but i still think my main problem is not knowing how to use slavery, it just seems a waste of population to me at this stage.

Any tips for it?

I'm just a newbie, but my impression is that whipping actually works best with smaller cities. The Vocum article says the most efficient whip is actually from city size 2 to 1, although I'm not sure if that's supposed to be a recommendation or just a mathematical observation.

I'm still trying to feel my way, but I basically figure out when to whip based upon two things: (1) the health/happiness cap in the early going, since you might as well whip if your city can't grow anyway, and (2) the resource tiles I can work in a given city, since I don't want to whip so much pop that I can't work the really good tiles any more.

I would think, off the top of my head, that whipping should work best when 10 turns later you'll be at least as big as when you whipped. This suggests that when your city gets bigger and takes 20 turns to grow, whipping really isn't going to be a significant part of your production no matter what you do.

Some of the good players can tell me if I'm thinking about this the right way

 

[Krick19]

Thanks guys. I think it would be wise of me to step down to Noble.

 

[Jedi James]

Spoiler :

OK, Here's around 200AD. Pascal to the North surprise attacked me, but I have not lost any cities. So far only lost a worker and a couple of improvements. My I am trying to encourage population growth in my cities, so I can try to run the specialist economy.

Spoiler :