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Nobles' Club LXXVIII: Cyrus of Persia

dalamb

Deity
Joined
May 9, 2006
Messages
3,161
Location
Kingston, Ontario
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 Cyrus of Persia, whom we last played in NC XXV. The Persians start with Agriculture and Hunting.
  • Traits: Leader is Charismatic and Imperialistic. The combination is good for warmongering: CHA gives faster promotions, and IMP gives faster Great Generals. CHA also improves happiness, and IMP gives 50% faster settler production :)hammers: only).
  • The UB: The Apothecary, a Grocer that gives +2:health:.

  • The UU: The Immortal, a Chariot that gets defensive bonuses and +50% versus archery units. Despite its inability to get City Raider promotions, it is a very strong unit for early warmongering.
And the start:

Spoiler map details :
Pangaea, Standard size, Temperate, Medium seas.
Spoiler edits :
Regenerated to get an agricultural resource in the BFC. Added the river. Made sure there were horses nearby (for the UU).
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 or 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 for most 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 78 Cyrus Noble" (or Monarch, etc., for higher levels)
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
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.

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.

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.
 

Attachments

  • NC 78 Cyrus.zip
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It's been quite a long time since i played my last NC game and this start looks interesting enough for me to try it. So i will defenitly try it!
 
Nice production site. But I fear there's gonna be a bunch of jungle which tends to frustrate the heck out of me.
 
New Noble's Club. Happy day :) Prince difficulty... If this game ends well next time it's Monarch :)

Spoiler :
Finally, a normal map! I decide to settle in place... cause I'd bet a lot of money that unforested grassland is gonna have horses :) Putting my research where my mouth is, I go for animal husbandry to reveal my horses :) 5 turns later I meet , when I met Monte. Ugh, I'm not a fan of early wars. 2 more turns and Shaka shows up. So much for a normal map! Animal husbandry is in, and there are my horses, so on to the wheel. Someone's gonna pay! Long story short a second city is founded near the horses between the Aztec capital and mine, a road is built right up to the green border, and on turn 44 5 immortals make short work of the Aztec capital (3 live to tell the story), and they are no more. Destroyed the turn after I declared. I'm strangely proud of myself. I hate war, but this was so adictive and easy... Tomorrow, Shaka?
 
This looks fun. I'll be playing it for sure (after I wrap up my current game), probably on Emperor or maybe Immortal. A question about WB: Do barbs need hunting/agriculture/TW on higher difficulties, or just archery?

edit: Answered my own question - yes, barbs get the same techs as other AIs.
 
Emporer/normal 1ADView attachment NC 78 Cyrus AD-0001.CivBeyondSwordSave

Spoiler :
Ooo what lovely neighbours.Needless to say they didnt last long,Monty KO first,then Shaka down to 1 city by turn 71.I kept the 4 citys I captured so the economy was on the verge of collapse and game over.

So it was a good thing I built the Oracle in my second Blocker city on Mao,s borders.Took CoL turn 72 and then just as I was running out of money I started running caste and Great merchants.Managed to get 2 out before 1AD.

Tech trading has been a dillema as all the AIs have gone Buddhist so I didnt want to advance them technologically at all,but when I have traded Ive tried to make sure that my next target Mao wont be able to bribe them into a war.

Ive built up a half decent army of cats/phants/archers/spears/axes but need a couple more turns of whipping before im ready to attack.
 
Delamb, in the future, it is best not to go around and tampering with starting resources...
 
Heliac signing up, Emperor / Normal

Looks like Jungle mass to the south.
The river would likely lead to ocean to the north.
I think I'll SiP...
 
Personally I'm a sucker for 3 food capitals. I'll definitely be sending my scout to the east to see if settling the banana is a good option.
 
I'm going to quit this one early while I'm so far ahead...

Spoiler :


Something is really wrong with this deity map, either I"m a god, or somehow my power this early really is stronger than everyone else? And why is it religion isn't spreading to anyone, amoung numerous other strange issues...?
 
Delamb, in the future, it is best not to go around and tampering with starting resources...
Not sure exactly what you mean. If it's in reference to making sure the strategic resource for the UU is nearby, I consider that a feature of NC, not a bug. Sometimes I add it for the first city; more typically it's in a place with decent food close enough for a 2nd or 3rd city.
 
Emporer/normal-LiberalismView attachment 296267

Spoiler :
Taking Lib the same turn the Taj mahal finishes so when I take constitution as the free tech I can switch to Rep/Pacifism without losing turns.Got a couple of spare Great people so I can continue the GA for 16 turns.With a few citys round size 14 this should get me up to rifling pretty quick if I max out the Great people.

At the end of the GA Im hoping I can switch into Nationalism/slavery/theocracy and end the game with a conquest.


EDIT

Emporer/normal-victoryView attachment NC 78 Cyrus AD-1550 victory.CivBeyondSwordSave

Spoiler :
spammed cavalry,but didnt spam enough to take down Lincoln on the 1st go so went for Charlie then Rome.Ended up with a domination before I had chance to decimate Lincoln.Had a couple of nice combatIIIII cavalry too and the west point pumping out combatIII march cavalry.Got a 157268 score.


Where did Saturday go???thanks to Dalamb for that:D
 
Havent played an NC game for awhile, I haven't had the time, not with real life and SC2! Will try this on Immortal/Epic. If that fails i'll do my standerd Emperor/Normal.
I say move scout on jungle hill and SIP if there is nothing intresting from it. 1N is intresting aswell, you get all the spices in BFC which will make this a good cottage cap, but you do loose out on a turn from moving across the river and on the hill.
 
Part 1, to 1440 BC: (Emperor/Normal)

Spoiler :

Immortal rush :D:D:D

I settled in place and built a Worker. I teched AH => TW => Mining => BW. I built 2 warriors and an Immortal, then my first Settler. I followed this up with two more workers in Persepolis, barracks in both cities, and ten Immortals. My possible targets were Monty (west), Mao (south), and Shaka (east). I chose Monty, since Mao has super-archers and Shaka has super-spears.

I attacked on turn 59; on turn 64, the Aztec civilization was no more. Immortals really tear through archers! (Especially when there are only six archers spread across three cities.) I opted to keep two cities, and auto-razed the third.

From here, I'm going to attack Shaka with the rest of my stack and see how that goes. I hope he doesn't have too many Impi...
 
Nice production site. But I fear there's gonna be a bunch of jungle which tends to frustrate the heck out of me.

Jungle's easy to handle—just pretend that it's desert that slows units, except that later you will magically gain the ability to terraform it into a good tile.

So you can settle a poor city for blocking/resource grabbing purposes, and make use of the precious few non-jungle tiles in creative ways. (i.e. 2 grassland farms = 2 library specialists at size 4) Except unlike most marginal cities, this one will be really solid later on.
 
@obsolete and leftajoint are you absolutaly sure you cannot lose from the position you have from your screen shots?(turn 68/74?)

Im not saying your wrong.I just like chess.At Imm/Deity I wouldnt of thought its a clear win from either of those positions(not from the micro i had to do at emporer to keep the empire alive).

thats my way of saying-what am i doing wrong?
 
Hi everyone. Long-time lurker emerging from shadows to join the fun and try and improve my game in process. Mostly I play on Prince but I thought I'll give it a bash as Monarch since I can milk everyone here for advice :)
 
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