Nobles' Club XLIX: Churchill of England

[CivilizedTiger]

@dalamb

Spoiler :

I don't think I'm good enough for the higher level I'm playing. I just got bored of noble earlier, but I still make lots of mistakes. And I can be wrong. For instance, I'm retrying this game, because I'm unhappy with having no GS in the 300s BCE.

Anyway, at prince it might be possible to chariot rush, in which case racing for the green city is better. The reasons why I took the blue first is that I'm biased towards BW, and I had a neighbour to the east who was close to the copper as well, and I got AH too late to know of the horses. I actually found about the resource after the city was already settled.

 

[dalamb]

Missed Stonehenge, so backed up to try again:

Spoiler :

This time when I finished chopping the 2nd worker, both chopped Stonehenge as soon as possible, and in 2225 BC I whipped it for 1 loss at size 3 with 22 hammers to go. I got the marble online just after finishing Priesthood in 1625 BC, and Oracle'd Metal Casting in 1300 BC.

Once I got Writing in 1400 BC I turned off research until I finished a library in London, then researched Aesthetics as trade fodder (a new concept for me, first tried in this game). When I finished that in 650 BC, here was the tech trading situation:

I'm not sure I thought through the best series of trades. I wanted to keep Metal Casting a monopoly tech, but it turned out not to be possible (I think). So I did the following trades:

That immediately allowed me to use the stonehenge/oracle-generated Prophet:

London and York both had Judaism, spread by Hammy's nice missionaries, so I revolted to Judaism then changed civics for two more turns of anarchy (3 total):

I then had London build a monastery so I could send a missionary to Nottingham (so Theocracy would work there), which as the Christian holy city wasn't going to get auto-spread of Judaism.

As of 650 BC Hammurabi's defenders in Babylon were fairly weak, but I only had 2 chariots I could have used against him.

With the trade of IW I found the iron NE of London and figured I could hook it up faster than Nottingham's copper. So I postponed attacking -- only to find in 335 BC, when I had 6 chariots (several with Flanking II) that he now had significantly better defenders:

So I started building some axemen -- the first Combat I/Shock, and now starting some CR II. I'd appreciate advice on how many I'll need to finish off Hammy. He has only 2 cities, while Sury has 3:

The known world:

Here's the rest of the situation in 305 BC:

Spoiler :

Relative strengths among those I have enough espionage with; Hammy is close to my own strength at the moment, but with all 3 of my cities pumping out units, that should change. I need to direct some EP against Sury to see how strong he is, before he becomes my next target.

Technology:

Since Sury has literature I suppose he might be trying for the Great Library, but if he does then I can just take it from him, and if he doesn't I'll have time to build it in London while consolidating after my first two conquests.

The diplomatic situation:

 

[drlake]

Yeah, I'm guessing it'll take some chopping to get Stonehenge out, but probably worth it this game. If I were going for culture I'd pass on it, I think, since my understanding is that when it becomes obsolete, the monuments it creates all disappear. Conversely, monuments that are built normally remain and keep giving their whopping +2 (after 1000 years) for the rest of the game. It's a minor thing, but if going culture it seems worthwhile.

 

[dalamb]

Yes, the stonehenge monuments go poof with Astro -- but do you need Astro in this game? I'm hoping to avoid it.

 

[drlake]

@dalamb

Spoiler :

Good lord, that starting situation sucks! When I went for Stonehenge, I missed it (it got built in 2600BC) and I was hopelessly pinched in. When I ignored SH, I still got pinched in and my warring ability is apparently sucky enough that I can't pull off an early war against Hammurabi. I may try again, but I was stuck with three cities at 1AD, and unable to make ground against Hammurabi so that game is done.

 

[Costen]

I'm gonna try this on Prince/Epic. Never done Churchill or England before, and rarely pangea, so it will different. I usually have trouble on early game defense so pangea is tough for me.

Gonna Make a work boat then worker, and BW then mysticism.

 

[Costen]

multiple posts

 

[Costen]

multiple posts

 

[Costen]

I dont know why this is making so many posts..

 

[Aus]

Difficulty - Emperor
Speed - Normal

4000BC - 1A.D

Spoiler :

Early exploring revealed a lot of very close AI's, settling some key cities quickly would be needed. Babylon to my south means rushing wouldn't be easy due to Archer UU. I worked plains hill to build workboat, grew city, next workboat. My early game was quite sloppy micromanagement wise and if I had of stopped and taken my time I could have been a lot more effecient.

By 1A.D I have only 5 cities though room for 1 more. A couple good early/mid game production cities mean war is quite likely when I find the right moment. The global tech pace is fairly quick and I don't have as much commerce as I would like (overall only 35 bulbs/turn).

I build Glib at 75B.C and still have to get my first GS. Working 2 scientists in capital gives me a lot of GPP so I am hoping a couple quick GS can get me in a strong position tech wise. I lost the race to the Parthanon by 2 turns but it gave me my current pile of cash which has boosted my tech speed. Between the current cash and the imminent GS's I can feel my tech will become strong.

Biggest concerns at the moment are the cultural pressure on my borders and trying to setup an economy that can compete with this global tech pace. If I can get a good tech situation to war Babylon I will do so. My empire is fairly secure due to religion.

View attachment 252076

 

[Aus]

Difficulty - Emperor
Speed - Normal

1AD - 1000AD

Spoiler :

900AD Lib
Current plan is to get Rifles, draft away and wipe out Gilgamesh. He has nice land, very little cultural pressure on his cities from other AI and by capturing his cities I still only have 1 point I am likely to be DOWed from (this time Cathy).

He DOWed me, I am just turtling in my borders teching away. He is at war with a lot of the Hindu world (I lost Palace by 3 turns but it was Hindu anyway). As you can see from the pics I am teching away nicely for this stage of the game and I feel that my rifles will be very effective.

My game is still quite sloppy micromanagement wise as I can't really be bothered putting effort into it today.

View attachment 252081View attachment 252082View attachment 252083

 

[TheDanish]

I never finished the last NC game, but I'll give this one a go. Took a break from Civ for a bit, so maybe this will be a good start again.

Plenty of food, decent production, access to the water, and a hill to boot. Why not settle in place? Probably going to cottage spam the capital and swap to Bureaucracy when I get it too.

Never played as England, should be fun!

Spoiler :

That Marble is just the icing on the cake . I spoiler tagged this since I forgot if the Marble was visible from the start or not.

 

[CivilizedTiger]

I think I'm giving up, or maybe going lower difficulty
and @drlake

Spoiler :

Yeah, the situation is rather annoying here. I've attempted this 4 times already. In one try, Montezuma attacked me, in another, Ragnar, and in the last, the most annoying, because I felt it was going best of all tries, I got attacked by Cathy. I had all my troops on the border of Hammurabi, because I was planning an attack, and I suddenly found myself with Cathy's stack near my production city.

That's just too annoying. What am I supposed to do? Keep warriors in the territories of the other players just to see what AIs past of them are doing? Because the only way I could have anticipated Cathy's attack would have been by having a few warriors in Gilgamesh' territory. And did I mention military troops cost a lot of upkeep?

Oh, and yeah, I was at war most of the game in all but the last try, because so many AIs will always war and you'll get requests to join in from both sides. Refuse too many and you're toast.

 

[TheDanish]

To 1000 BC:

Spoiler :

Got to 1000 BC once and restarted, since I kinda messed up. I'd planned to make war against Hammurabi, but I knew his Bowmen would make it hard, so I tried to link up Horses for some Horse Archers to bypass their melee bonus, but that slowed me down in techs. Abandoned the game since I felt like I screwed up royally.

New game, I've got three cities running: my capital, one to the southeast, and one to the west. I think I've got time to set up another one in unclaimed territory, and then one more on the peninsula to the north. There are too many civs for my taste, but we'll see how it plays out.

View attachment Churchill.CivBeyondSwordSave

 

[drlake]

OK, time to try this again...

 

[TheDanish]

Spoiler :

Oof! I'm not sure I'm quite ready for so many Civs in one game (Noble level, at least). Makes it difficult to keep your borders safe, especially on Pangaea. At around 300 AD Catherine declared war on me, and apparently Sury was her buddy, so he did too. Thought I would be safe, considering her borders were nowhere near mine, but I guess not.

I saved the game, but I'm still debating whether or not to continue. I've already learned quite a bit about proper tech trading, and some stuff about diplomacy.

 

[dalamb]

Sounds like this was tougher than I expected. I shudder in my boots at what might happen as I advance into the AD's.

 

[drlake]

It's going OK the third time around. I've managed to stay the tech leader, and am gradually expanding now that I've taken three cities from my neighbor (not naming names, rather than putting in spoilers). World War II has broken out (or is it III? I dunno...). There really isn't much room to expand for most of the civs, resulting in a VERY different game than I'm used to. I'm not sure what year I just logged of in, maybe 500AD, but I think I may be able to win this yet (Monarch/Epic).

 

[vranasm]

Hmm tried it...but am too much boxed in for my liking.

Spoiler :

And to worst no copper, so no early rush available :-(

 

[dalamb]

@vranasm:

Spoiler :

There is copper off to the east; a couple of us put our 3rd city there. No really early rush, but I'm about to try a 300-or-so BC attack with axemen.