Nobles Club NCXI Julius Caesar

[Noble Zarkon]

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 Julius Caesar of the Romans, whom we last played in NC LXII. The Romans start with Fishing and Mining.

• Traits: Julius is IMPerialistic and ORGanized. The combination is good for warfare, in that IMP gets out those first few settlers faster and leads to faster acquisition of Great Generals, and ORG makes it less expensive to have a large empire.
• The UB: The Forum, a market that gives +25% Great Person Points, a nice boost for a non-PHIlosophical leader.
  
  
• The UU: The Praetorian, a stronger swordsman widely viewed as the best UU of its era.
  

And the start:

Spoiler map details :

Hemispheres, 2 continents, hand picked opponents.

Spoiler edits :

Swapped our starting location with another Civ.

Finally, a cut and paste of our standard doctrine: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 111 Julius Caesar 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.

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.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Reserved.

 

[klonoklown]

Move warrior 1NE, doesn't that tile 1N of the settler look a bit suspicious?

 

[shulgi]

Anybody else considering settling the elephants? after warrior SE

 

[lymond]

Considering there doesn't appear to be any real food I'd probably settle on the marble.

 

[SamSniped]

Spoiler Starting thoughts :

Haven't checked out/played the save yet, but from that screenie, I would probably move the warrior 1NW, and possibly SIP. Seems to be about -10 food from plains/hills, +5 from FP, +2 free from city...farm the floodplains, and a couple nearby tiles, I think that's a good SIP. Note that I was looking at the edges of the tiles to try and see the kind of tiles that were hidden, so +/-2 food on that estimate. Regardless, you can get over 20 pop for some specialists, and with the hills, marble, and elephant, you have enough production. Cottage the rest, maybe, or make a bunch more farms with irrigation; probably the former of those two.

 

[Bisque]

There will be peace in our time!

Spoiler :

Um no, I am afraid not. (played 23 turns, I know someone who is toast.

 

[The Oz-Man]

...this start.

Spoiler :

WHY IS RAGNAR SO CLOOOOOOOOOOSE?

 

[Bisque]

...this start.

Spoiler :

WHY IS RAGNAR SO CLOOOOOOOOOOSE?

Spoiler :

He wont be, for long.

 

[Toxicc]

Joining the popular spoiler discussion I guess,

Spoiler :

Anyone know how to deal with Rags? I've tried HA rushing him but it went really slow and he had too many units. (Emperor diff) I'm guessing the best move would be to choke/worker steal and maybe do a chariot rush, but how well would that work with his capital on a hill in such an awkward location?
By the way, settling 1SW is best I think, but you have little way of knowing that since the obvious warrior move is 1NE. I only know it because I totally mucked up my first attempt.

 

[FlyinJohnnyL]

I thought RobertFin would be in

First

 

[The Oz-Man]

Regarding the nearest neighbor/map:

Spoiler :

I worker-stole from Ragnar and tried for a chariot rush, but his capital is on a hill and he's Ragnar. I tried choking him and going to HBR (fueled by Pottery commerce--second city was on the wine), but I've spent so many resources putting him on lockdown that I'm honestly not in a great position. And with Sitting Bull and Toku as continental neighbors...

...yeah, this one's going to be rough if I keep going, frankly. Rags only has one city, but he has a ton and a half of archers behind a wall on a hill. I suppose if there's iron in the area, cutting him off and going for Praet madness is an option, but I'm already not a fan of this map, to be honest.

 

[Bisque]

Spoiler :

how do I worker steal when the resource tiles he improves are not along the edge and I dont want to go HBR?]

 

[Izuul]

Spoiler :

how do I worker steal when the resource tiles he improves are not along the edge and I dont want to go HBR?]

Spoiler :

Get a Woodsman II warrior from fighting barbs. It's not always possible to do that, but it makes stealing workers pretty easy.

 

[Izuul]

Tough map

Spoiler :

No real trade partners on our continent, and likely no religion either to help boost diplo. No access to metal because Ragnar WILL beat you to the iron unless you have prior knowledge of the map. Also no happiness outside of the one Ivory, so Monarchy is really necessary, but there are so many things that need to be researched here and there's nobody to trade for any of those techs with. Ragnar of course won't do anything until Pleased, so even if you do self tech Alpha, there's really still nothing you can do with him via trades. With no way to boost relations with Ragnar, and the very close borders, it's extremely likely he will DoW early in the game. Maybe some people will get lucky and a religion will be founded on this continent, but that wasn't the case for me. I even gifted him Alpha for the diplo bonus and it still wasn't enough to get him to Pleased.

I've played this one twice so far on Immortal and neither attempt has gone very well. The first attempt i worker stole and choked him with some Woody warriors while teching IW with the intention of smashing his under-developed civ with some Praets. Of course i then found out that the only iron near us was right at Ragnar's 2nd city. He never would make peace after that.

The 2nd attempt i went for Construction, but there are so many things on this map that slow you down, and Ragnar declared on me before i had enough Elephants to fend off his stack of swords, axes, and cats. I think i had 6 Archers, 5 Elephants, 2 HAs, 1 Warrior, and Walls in my city that he attacked, and i still got owned.

I think I've learned enough at this point that i could win if i played a 3rd time, but that feels pretty cheesy. Not sure I'm even going to bother.

 

[Quiver]

Hi,

I'm trying this on Immortal, no huts.

Spoiler :

Sent the starting warrior NW and found the cows, but decided to ignore them. Settled on the ivory. Ragnar scout shows up...on turn 3?! Built settler at size 2 and tried to block Ragnar by settling east of capital, just east of the river. This worked, but later, he sent his 3rd settler (for 4th city) through my territory and settled north of capital. His 2nd settler took stone.

Fogbusted with many warriors until horses hooked up.

Ragnar Buddhist (Hindu went several turns earlier), with me and Toku, both "pleased" around 700BC. Went for aesthetics, and finally Toku was pleased enough with religion to open borders and trade alphabet. Can't trade with pagan Sitting Bull because he's Ragnar's worst enemy.

Other continent must be bad too, because I just got a super-late oracle->currency at 650BC. Same turn as SB got great lighthouse. Ragnar got stonehenge early. With Mahabodhi, he has lots of pressure on my capital's southern border.

If someone gets early religion, there's no need for early war here. But if no such luck...maybe city gift?

 

[The Oz-Man]

Well, I managed to get on good footing in my Monarch game...

Spoiler :

In lieu of an HA rush, I just did my same start as last time (going for the spot on the wine for a second city) and went Hunting -> AH -> Wheel -> BW -> Pottery -> Mysticism -> IW -> Hope for Praet reaping.

As it turns out, the wine city had the iron... in the desert hill in the second ring.



I can't imagine beating Ragnar to this iron on any difficulty above maybe Emperor. Even with Imperialistic Julius, Rags is going to want those floodplains.

Having said that, I was able to Praetrush Rags off the planet and cut off Toku and Bull with some well-placed cities. It's now well into the ADs, and while teching's slow (no good trades), I have 20 cities and most of the nice wonders. Everyone on the continent is Taoist, but it doesn't matter because Toku still doesn't like me. But with twice as many cities as my intercontinental neighbors, I should be able to win quickly, then either jaunt off to the other continent to impose my will or tech to space.

No idea how you're going to pull this one off with K-Mod, Zarkon.

So yeah, not a map for trying a new difficulty. I'm succeeding, but more thanks to lucky breaks and a comfortable level than anything.

 

[Robert FIN]

I thought RobertFin would be in

First

That was because of you posted this in middlenight...and I still have to play the Sal game. YOU MUST ADVICE ME MORE IN SALADIN GAME CUZ I'M LOSING!! And do you like my avatar?

 

[RG6EX]

Allrighty, I lost the Saladin game by space race to the celts by three turns. Let's see if I can stay more focused early-game this time around.

Noble + huts. Normal speed.

Initial Thoughts:

Spoiler :

I settled in place. I like the idea of having cities on hills for the increased fortify bonus. Also lots of flood plains which provide decent food supply also begging to be cottage spammed. Marble is nice for the oracle, might try for that fast. Also Ivory for elephants if I can't find any iron for the Preatorians. Settling revealed cow to the east which will provide another decent food tile. Though seeing the seafood slightly further east make me wonder if I should've settled more to the west to enable another city location on the coast. Scouting will reveal that.

1st Update, 600BC:

Spoiler :

I tried to expand as fast as possible and managed to do quite well so far. I've founded two cities along Ragnar's borders to try and box him in a bit. luckily I found Iron near my second city so praetorians are starting to roll out. I Oracle'd CoL and founded confucianism. Made some enemies as Sitting Bull, Ragnar and Tokugawa where all converting to Bhuddism. However, Ragnar soon converted over to Confucianism as it was spreading more rapidly throughout his lands.

After hitting Writing pretty early for libraries I had to backtrack a bit to pick up Priesthood and mysticism for expansion and oracle. The short-term plan is to build up a reasonable force, go for construction for catapults and keep Ragnar happy, despite the close borders. He might prove to be useful in the inevitable holy war we'll have on this continent. I'll probably try to expand as far towards tokugawa as I can in order to take him out soon. Seeing as how the other aggressive civ on the continent is on good terms with me, I might be able to dominate the continent if I get rid of the Japanese...

 

[cseanny]

Played real fast for once on Immortal/normal/no huts

Spoiler :

Ragnar WILL beat you to the iron unless you have prior knowledge of the map.

This just isn't true. I settled on the Marble hill and as you scout you do find some seafood/cows to your immediate west, Ragnar very close south, and lots of FPs everywhere.

Now normally I prefer to play with prior map knowledge but this time I didn't. I opened with a pretty strange tech order but I had planned on settling the cow/seafood city and decided to tech hunt > Ah. So I ended up improving the elephants, and the horses that showed up and immediately went Settler/Settler/worker @ 2pop and would eventually grow to 4 pop and grab one more settler. My 2nd city was on a ph 3 tiles east and would work a ph mine and build a settler. Anyways, I aggressively settle into Ragnar to block land and we have Iron down there.

Settled my 5th and final city (for some time) in the rice/triple jungle city/1 off coast. From there I kept it simple and Praetorian spammed to crush the continent. Haven't abused the game with Rome in a while and now I remember why lol.