Orion071
Home School Tutor
I played a bit tonight, but I wasn't able to finish the round. I want it to end with the destruction of France. I'll wrap it up tomorrow and post the full update then.
Orion's Home School 2: Nobles in Space
- Thread starter Orion071
- Start date
Deriem
Chieftain
Oh, how you mock me! Make a post filled with nothing but spoilers and promises!
You're keeping me on the edge o' my seat, here! Eagerly awaiting the next update!
Orion071
Home School Tutor
ROUND 4 (340 AD - 1120 AD)
The goal of this round is pwnage of France and complete control of my continent. I'm researching Machinery for Macemen right now, and a combo of Macemen and Catapults should be more than enough for France. Louis does have Swordsmen and Axemen, so he won't be a complete pushover like Gus was.
Turn 196: My Workers are Farming the 2 grassland river tiles of Debre Berhan. With no real food source, this is the only way to get it to grow quickly. Once it's up to speed, then I can cottage those tiles. Everyone is building a Forge right now. High production is always a plus for any city, even my science ones. I don't really have a "pure" science city though - all of my cities have some pretty good hills too.
Turn 197: My last Missionary coverts Debre to Confucianism. Now all of my cities have the state religion.
Turn 200: The Colossus is built is a distant land. My Scout comes across an elusive creature - the French Worker. If you want to see mismanagement of tiles, just look at France in my last save. He's working more unimproved tiles than I've ever seen. One reason may be the Barbarians. Since I have the Great Wall, every Barbarian on the continent is making a beeline for French territory. Not just Warriors either, I've seen Axemen and Swordsmen. Louis must be having trouble fighting them off.
Turn 201: The Forge is done in Aksum. It will finish the Mausoleum of Maussollos in 4 turns (I started it a while ago). I whip a few Forges in some other cities. Machinery will be done in 3 turns and I want them to be working on troops. Plus, they were only working Forests anyway. I have 7 Workers for my 7 cities and it doesn't seem to be enough. I'll see about getting some more.
Turn 204: Machinery is done. I'll go through Aesthetics and Literature so I can get the Great Library. Meanwhile, Barracks, Catapults and Macemen are the way to go.
Turn 208: Aesthetics is done and Literature will only take 2 more turns. My army is rounding into shape. I'll most likely have 2 SoD's and initially attack 2 cities. Then they'll merge and take on Paris.
Turn 210: Literature is done and Aksum starts the Great Library. Its vast production power will complete the wonder in an amazing 8 turns. Next is Compass and Optics. I want to see what the other continent is up to.
Turn 217: I'm ready to attack. Time for war!
Here the first stack, attacking Tours:
The city is defended by an impressive stack of 3 Archers, 1 Swordman and an Axeman. Here's the stack that will take on Lyons:
Lyons has 2 Swordsmen and an Axeman. Notice it has Walls and is on a hill. My Spies will try to incite a revolt there to make the assualt much, much easier.
Turn 218: The Great Library is complete. I switch Aksum into super-science mode for a while and start a Monastery. Tours needs a round of bombardment to finish off the cultural defense.
Turn 219: I'm ready to assualt Tours. 1 last Catapult bombardment eliminates the cultural defense. He's added a Chariot to the mix. I use one of my Catapults to soften up the defenders:
He dies, but he weakens every defender. I decide to hit them with another Catapult:
More collateral damage, but the defending Axeman wasn't wounded any more. I check my 2 Macemen and the City Raider one had the best chance to win at 88.7%. He succeeds with minor damage. The other Maceman is next:
No problem, he wasn't even damaged. My Axemen have a slightly worse chance, but still pretty good:
I have no problem attacking at those odds. He wins, but is heavily wounded. My last Axe is only a CR I, so he has an 81.7% chance. I'll still go, even at those odds. He wins, but I'm out of attacks now. I'll have to wait another round to take the city. Slightly annoying, because it does give the defenders a round to heal a bit.
After all of my attacks, I use my last Catapult to attack again. The defenders are already sorely wounded and my attack can't do any more damage. But a successful combat round will cause my Catapult to retreat and get 1 XP. One more cheesy win like that and I can give it the important Accuracy promotion.
Meanwhile, my second stack is ready to take out Lyons. The odds are much more in my favor here, since I have a bigger stack and he has less defenders. My Spies strike the first blow:
Um, or not. I had 2 Spies, each with a 74% chance, and they both failed. Yikes. It will take a long time to bring down those Walls now. I hit it with my 3 Catapults, but they only take it from 50% to 38%.
Turn 220: I send in my Catapult again for another cheesy win at Tours. Now for the real troops:
Both Macemen had >99.9% odds, but I used the one that needed that last XP to promote. I'll give him Medic I so I can heal a little bit faster.
One last attack to clear out his Chariot and the city is mine:
The money allows me to upgrade my CR II Axe to a Maceman.
Meanwhile, over at Lyons, the garrison has expanded to 2 Swords, 2 Axes and a Chariot. I bombard with a Catapult and decide to suicide the other 2. The both have terrible odds and die, but they do a pretty good job with collateral damage. My CR I Macemen have a decent chance:
He wins. The second Maceman have an even better chance (85%) and wins too. The third one is attacking a Swordsman, so he has the best chance of all (96+%). The wins easily. My Axemen clean up the last 2 badly wounded defenders and the city is mine:
This fight earns me my first Great General. I'll make my Medic III unit as usual. I don't plan on a lot more fighting, so this will most likely be the only General I get this game.
Turn 222: Optics is done. I upgrade a Trireme to a Caravel and load my Scout into it. They're off to seek out new lands and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before...
Drama is next for me. I'm already seeing red faces in my cities. I need Theatres and the culture slider to combat them.
Turn 225: Drama is done. I immediately bump up the culture slider to 10%. Some of my unhappy cities start a Theatre. I also get a Great Scientist. He'll lightbulb Philosophy for me. Normally, I love doing this, but I'm in no hurry to get Philosophy. I don't think anyone will beat me to it. Instead, I'll build an Academy in Aksum. Now it's really humming along in science.
Next will be Music and its free Great Artist. I want my recovery period from this war to start with a Golden Age. So I'll have to keep the Artist around a bit before I start the GA.
My SoD has reached the next French city. It was weakly defended and easy to take out:
I was all set to raze the thing and rebuild it 1S until I saw it had the Fish in its BFC. I guess I'll just have to build the Maoi Statues there to use all of those water tiles.
Turn 228: My stack has reached Paris and I start to bombard the cultural defense.
Turn 229: A smaller strike force takes out the city of Avignon:
What a horrible location, and directly on Horses too. The city was razed. I'll build a better one 2E, 1N of its failed location.
Turn 230: Music is done and the Great Artist is mine. He'll sleep for a while until I need him. Next is Paper, on the road to Liberalism. I'll grab Astronomy with Liberalism this time, because I'll need to be able to open trade with the other continent.
Each turn, more and more units are appearing in Paris. So instead of waiting until the entire cultural defense is gone, I stop at 30% and suicide 2 Catapults. This weakens the defenders enough to give my Macemen excellent odds. Unfortunately, there's more defenders now than I have troops, so I'll have to finish it off next turn.
Turn 231: Well, there was a lonely, wounded Spearman left in Paris. It was easy pickings and the French capital is mine.
Turn 232: I've reached the New World! And it has its natives...
Wow. Kinda backwards, huh? I Open Borders so I can drop off my Scout while the Caravel continues to explore.
I also meet Hannibal, who is the founder of Hinduism and is in much better shape than Sitting Bull. He even has Horseback Riding and Monarchy, 2 techs I don't have. I'll trade with him eventually, but first I want to meet the other 2 civs and see where the friendships lie. If there's an even more powerful civ than Hannibal, I don't want to accidently make them mad before I even meet them.
Turn 233: Hannibal comes begging for Compass. I say no and now he's Annoyed with me and won't trade his 2 techs. *SIGH*
Turn 234: I meet a guy who claims to be Kublai Khan, but he looks suspiciously like Qin to me:
No, I'm still not used to the picture switch. He's also Hindu, and has the same techs for trade as Hannibal. If everyone is a big happy Hindu family over there then that could be bad for me. I'll be the hated infidel. OK, maybe not bad, just irritating.
Turn 236: Last is Peter, the highest scoring civ of the bunch:
Hmmm, he's Hindu too. Paper is done and I switch to Theology. With the whole other continent one big happy Hindu bunch, I'd better build the Apostolic Palace on my side and make it Confucian. No need to let one of those bozos win a cheap AP victory by giving me a Hindu city.
I trade Aesthetics to Peter for Monarchy and to Qin (OK, Kublai) for HBR. When you trade a tech, trade it to as many civs as you can. It limits the trades the AI can make with each other.
My stack finally reaches the next French city:
Orleans is nice because it's built directly on Incense for +1 happy everywhere.
Turn 237: Hannibal beats me to Theology by 2 turns. Well, Christianity wasn't really the point anyway, I just want the AP. Sitting Bull declares on Kublai Khan. Sitting Bull hates me becuase I traded techs with Khan. Guess I know what side of that war I'm on. Of course, both AI's will ask me to join their side even though there's nothing I can possibly do until Astronomy. Is my Scout going to take out a few cities? The Caravel can't even pillage!
Turn 240: Theology is done and I begin Education. It's going to take a while because I'm down to 40% science due to war weariness. Louis still has a few cities left.
Turn 243: My stack reaches Rhiems:
What a horrible location. Yeah, it gets the Corn and Iron, but it is directly on the Spices and only hits 1 of the available 5 Floodplains. I raze it so I can rebuild 1SE of where it was. The new spot will make a great GP farm.
Turn 244: What a shock. Khan wants me to join in his stpuid war. The others dislike Sitting Bull more than Khan so I agree. I get a -1 hit to Hannibal so now he really hates me.
Turn 245: My stack needs a lot of healing before I can move on.
Turn 248: As I move towards the next French city, I grab a bunch of Workers outside of it. I'm not a big fan of the new AI where Workers are concerned. They seem to think it's OK for you to grab them all and they do little to defend them.
Turn 249: My troops are outside Marseilles. I don't have any suicide Catapults left (just the 1 Accuracy Catapult), but my Macemen still all have a 95+% chance to win. They do and the city is mine:
Well, it was mine, I razed it. My economy is pretty shaky right now, and I didn't like the location much either. Yeah, I got another Great General. I'll settle it in my capital so it can produce level 3 units right away. Also, the GG still gets +3 beakers from Representation.
Turn 250: Louis built a new city right in the path of my Macemen. Even worse, the only defender is a Chariot because the Archer couldn't get there in time:
Yeah, not so smart. The city auto-razed and I move on.
Lalibela produces a Great Scientist. He can finish off Education for me, but I'm so close right now that it's not really worth it. I'm turning Lalibela into another commerce city by chopping all of the Forests and turning them into Cottages. So, I use him for another Academy. It will be worth it down the road.
Turn 255: My forces finally reach Louis's last city. I shouldn't have too much trouble taking it out next turn.
I haven't really been talking about my cities much. I'm really focusing on commerce right now. I'm building and working Cottages in my core cities. The cities themselves are making sure they have my key buildings: Granary, Courthouse, Theatre, Library, Forge. A few of my cities are working on Markets as well. I only have 1 of the 4 happiness resources that the Market boosts, but the +25% gold works great for Aksum and especially Addis and its Shrine.
The newly captured cities are working on growing as well as getting those key buildings in. I have an army of Workers trying to improve the terrain around them. It's terrible. My plan is to get Courthouses in them all and put the Forbidden Palace in Orleans. That should help my economy a bunch. Ending this war and taking off the 30% culture slider will help a lot too.
The goal of this round is pwnage of France and complete control of my continent. I'm researching Machinery for Macemen right now, and a combo of Macemen and Catapults should be more than enough for France. Louis does have Swordsmen and Axemen, so he won't be a complete pushover like Gus was.
Turn 196: My Workers are Farming the 2 grassland river tiles of Debre Berhan. With no real food source, this is the only way to get it to grow quickly. Once it's up to speed, then I can cottage those tiles. Everyone is building a Forge right now. High production is always a plus for any city, even my science ones. I don't really have a "pure" science city though - all of my cities have some pretty good hills too.
Turn 197: My last Missionary coverts Debre to Confucianism. Now all of my cities have the state religion.
Turn 200: The Colossus is built is a distant land. My Scout comes across an elusive creature - the French Worker. If you want to see mismanagement of tiles, just look at France in my last save. He's working more unimproved tiles than I've ever seen. One reason may be the Barbarians. Since I have the Great Wall, every Barbarian on the continent is making a beeline for French territory. Not just Warriors either, I've seen Axemen and Swordsmen. Louis must be having trouble fighting them off.
Turn 201: The Forge is done in Aksum. It will finish the Mausoleum of Maussollos in 4 turns (I started it a while ago). I whip a few Forges in some other cities. Machinery will be done in 3 turns and I want them to be working on troops. Plus, they were only working Forests anyway. I have 7 Workers for my 7 cities and it doesn't seem to be enough. I'll see about getting some more.
Turn 204: Machinery is done. I'll go through Aesthetics and Literature so I can get the Great Library. Meanwhile, Barracks, Catapults and Macemen are the way to go.
Turn 208: Aesthetics is done and Literature will only take 2 more turns. My army is rounding into shape. I'll most likely have 2 SoD's and initially attack 2 cities. Then they'll merge and take on Paris.
Turn 210: Literature is done and Aksum starts the Great Library. Its vast production power will complete the wonder in an amazing 8 turns. Next is Compass and Optics. I want to see what the other continent is up to.
Turn 217: I'm ready to attack. Time for war!
Here the first stack, attacking Tours:
The city is defended by an impressive stack of 3 Archers, 1 Swordman and an Axeman. Here's the stack that will take on Lyons:
Lyons has 2 Swordsmen and an Axeman. Notice it has Walls and is on a hill. My Spies will try to incite a revolt there to make the assualt much, much easier.
Turn 218: The Great Library is complete. I switch Aksum into super-science mode for a while and start a Monastery. Tours needs a round of bombardment to finish off the cultural defense.
Turn 219: I'm ready to assualt Tours. 1 last Catapult bombardment eliminates the cultural defense. He's added a Chariot to the mix. I use one of my Catapults to soften up the defenders:
He dies, but he weakens every defender. I decide to hit them with another Catapult:
More collateral damage, but the defending Axeman wasn't wounded any more. I check my 2 Macemen and the City Raider one had the best chance to win at 88.7%. He succeeds with minor damage. The other Maceman is next:
No problem, he wasn't even damaged. My Axemen have a slightly worse chance, but still pretty good:
I have no problem attacking at those odds. He wins, but is heavily wounded. My last Axe is only a CR I, so he has an 81.7% chance. I'll still go, even at those odds. He wins, but I'm out of attacks now. I'll have to wait another round to take the city. Slightly annoying, because it does give the defenders a round to heal a bit.
After all of my attacks, I use my last Catapult to attack again. The defenders are already sorely wounded and my attack can't do any more damage. But a successful combat round will cause my Catapult to retreat and get 1 XP. One more cheesy win like that and I can give it the important Accuracy promotion.
Meanwhile, my second stack is ready to take out Lyons. The odds are much more in my favor here, since I have a bigger stack and he has less defenders. My Spies strike the first blow:
Um, or not. I had 2 Spies, each with a 74% chance, and they both failed. Yikes. It will take a long time to bring down those Walls now. I hit it with my 3 Catapults, but they only take it from 50% to 38%.
Turn 220: I send in my Catapult again for another cheesy win at Tours. Now for the real troops:
Both Macemen had >99.9% odds, but I used the one that needed that last XP to promote. I'll give him Medic I so I can heal a little bit faster.
One last attack to clear out his Chariot and the city is mine:
The money allows me to upgrade my CR II Axe to a Maceman.
Meanwhile, over at Lyons, the garrison has expanded to 2 Swords, 2 Axes and a Chariot. I bombard with a Catapult and decide to suicide the other 2. The both have terrible odds and die, but they do a pretty good job with collateral damage. My CR I Macemen have a decent chance:
He wins. The second Maceman have an even better chance (85%) and wins too. The third one is attacking a Swordsman, so he has the best chance of all (96+%). The wins easily. My Axemen clean up the last 2 badly wounded defenders and the city is mine:
This fight earns me my first Great General. I'll make my Medic III unit as usual. I don't plan on a lot more fighting, so this will most likely be the only General I get this game.
Turn 222: Optics is done. I upgrade a Trireme to a Caravel and load my Scout into it. They're off to seek out new lands and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before...
Drama is next for me. I'm already seeing red faces in my cities. I need Theatres and the culture slider to combat them.
Turn 225: Drama is done. I immediately bump up the culture slider to 10%. Some of my unhappy cities start a Theatre. I also get a Great Scientist. He'll lightbulb Philosophy for me. Normally, I love doing this, but I'm in no hurry to get Philosophy. I don't think anyone will beat me to it. Instead, I'll build an Academy in Aksum. Now it's really humming along in science.
Next will be Music and its free Great Artist. I want my recovery period from this war to start with a Golden Age. So I'll have to keep the Artist around a bit before I start the GA.
My SoD has reached the next French city. It was weakly defended and easy to take out:
I was all set to raze the thing and rebuild it 1S until I saw it had the Fish in its BFC. I guess I'll just have to build the Maoi Statues there to use all of those water tiles.
Turn 228: My stack has reached Paris and I start to bombard the cultural defense.
Turn 229: A smaller strike force takes out the city of Avignon:
What a horrible location, and directly on Horses too. The city was razed. I'll build a better one 2E, 1N of its failed location.
Turn 230: Music is done and the Great Artist is mine. He'll sleep for a while until I need him. Next is Paper, on the road to Liberalism. I'll grab Astronomy with Liberalism this time, because I'll need to be able to open trade with the other continent.
Each turn, more and more units are appearing in Paris. So instead of waiting until the entire cultural defense is gone, I stop at 30% and suicide 2 Catapults. This weakens the defenders enough to give my Macemen excellent odds. Unfortunately, there's more defenders now than I have troops, so I'll have to finish it off next turn.
Turn 231: Well, there was a lonely, wounded Spearman left in Paris. It was easy pickings and the French capital is mine.
Turn 232: I've reached the New World! And it has its natives...
Wow. Kinda backwards, huh? I Open Borders so I can drop off my Scout while the Caravel continues to explore.
I also meet Hannibal, who is the founder of Hinduism and is in much better shape than Sitting Bull. He even has Horseback Riding and Monarchy, 2 techs I don't have. I'll trade with him eventually, but first I want to meet the other 2 civs and see where the friendships lie. If there's an even more powerful civ than Hannibal, I don't want to accidently make them mad before I even meet them.
Turn 233: Hannibal comes begging for Compass. I say no and now he's Annoyed with me and won't trade his 2 techs. *SIGH*
Turn 234: I meet a guy who claims to be Kublai Khan, but he looks suspiciously like Qin to me:
No, I'm still not used to the picture switch. He's also Hindu, and has the same techs for trade as Hannibal. If everyone is a big happy Hindu family over there then that could be bad for me. I'll be the hated infidel. OK, maybe not bad, just irritating.
Turn 236: Last is Peter, the highest scoring civ of the bunch:
Hmmm, he's Hindu too. Paper is done and I switch to Theology. With the whole other continent one big happy Hindu bunch, I'd better build the Apostolic Palace on my side and make it Confucian. No need to let one of those bozos win a cheap AP victory by giving me a Hindu city.
I trade Aesthetics to Peter for Monarchy and to Qin (OK, Kublai) for HBR. When you trade a tech, trade it to as many civs as you can. It limits the trades the AI can make with each other.
My stack finally reaches the next French city:
Orleans is nice because it's built directly on Incense for +1 happy everywhere.
Turn 237: Hannibal beats me to Theology by 2 turns. Well, Christianity wasn't really the point anyway, I just want the AP. Sitting Bull declares on Kublai Khan. Sitting Bull hates me becuase I traded techs with Khan. Guess I know what side of that war I'm on. Of course, both AI's will ask me to join their side even though there's nothing I can possibly do until Astronomy. Is my Scout going to take out a few cities? The Caravel can't even pillage!
Turn 240: Theology is done and I begin Education. It's going to take a while because I'm down to 40% science due to war weariness. Louis still has a few cities left.
Turn 243: My stack reaches Rhiems:
What a horrible location. Yeah, it gets the Corn and Iron, but it is directly on the Spices and only hits 1 of the available 5 Floodplains. I raze it so I can rebuild 1SE of where it was. The new spot will make a great GP farm.
Turn 244: What a shock. Khan wants me to join in his stpuid war. The others dislike Sitting Bull more than Khan so I agree. I get a -1 hit to Hannibal so now he really hates me.
Turn 245: My stack needs a lot of healing before I can move on.
Turn 248: As I move towards the next French city, I grab a bunch of Workers outside of it. I'm not a big fan of the new AI where Workers are concerned. They seem to think it's OK for you to grab them all and they do little to defend them.
Turn 249: My troops are outside Marseilles. I don't have any suicide Catapults left (just the 1 Accuracy Catapult), but my Macemen still all have a 95+% chance to win. They do and the city is mine:
Well, it was mine, I razed it. My economy is pretty shaky right now, and I didn't like the location much either. Yeah, I got another Great General. I'll settle it in my capital so it can produce level 3 units right away. Also, the GG still gets +3 beakers from Representation.
Turn 250: Louis built a new city right in the path of my Macemen. Even worse, the only defender is a Chariot because the Archer couldn't get there in time:
Yeah, not so smart. The city auto-razed and I move on.
Lalibela produces a Great Scientist. He can finish off Education for me, but I'm so close right now that it's not really worth it. I'm turning Lalibela into another commerce city by chopping all of the Forests and turning them into Cottages. So, I use him for another Academy. It will be worth it down the road.
Turn 255: My forces finally reach Louis's last city. I shouldn't have too much trouble taking it out next turn.
I haven't really been talking about my cities much. I'm really focusing on commerce right now. I'm building and working Cottages in my core cities. The cities themselves are making sure they have my key buildings: Granary, Courthouse, Theatre, Library, Forge. A few of my cities are working on Markets as well. I only have 1 of the 4 happiness resources that the Market boosts, but the +25% gold works great for Aksum and especially Addis and its Shrine.
The newly captured cities are working on growing as well as getting those key buildings in. I have an army of Workers trying to improve the terrain around them. It's terrible. My plan is to get Courthouses in them all and put the Forbidden Palace in Orleans. That should help my economy a bunch. Ending this war and taking off the 30% culture slider will help a lot too.
Orion071
Home School Tutor
ROUND 4 - PART 2
Turn 256: Alas, poor Louis, I never liked you anyway:
The city wasn't too badly placed, but didn't fit in with my dotmap of the area. Plus, I want my economy to recover a bit before I start throwing cities around again.
Well, the continent is mine finally. The next round will be a burst of expansion and economy building, as I fill up the entire continent. There's still a good number of resources I could really use around here. Also, I plan on getting Astronomy with Liberalism so I can trade for any excess resources over on the other continent. Since the other side is all Hindu, I'll probably have to go to Free Religion for the rest of the game. That's OK with me, since it's a pretty good civic for research.
Here's a few summary screenshots. First the Domestic Advisor:
There's a few wonders in production. I need the AP to prevent a cheesy Diplo win by the AI. The Hagia Sophia will help my Workers out a lot. There's still so much for them to do.
Here's the other AI's:
Yeah, they don't like me too much, but honestly, I don't care. They're not going to be very helpful. Relations will improve once I drop my Religion, and I'll eventually get a few of them to like me.
Here's a shot of the other continent:
Hard to tell the difference between Kublai and Sitting Bull, but Kublai is in the middle and has a few more cities than Sitting Bull.
Here's the tech situation, and it's pretty ugly already:
Peter is the best of the bunch over there and he still doesn't have Code of Laws, Civil Service, Drama, Music, Compass, Optics, Paper or Education. He is researching Engineering and Hannibal is researching Feudalism. I'll probably chase other techs so I can maybe get those in trades.
Here's the save:
View attachment Zara Yaqob AD-1120.CivBeyondSwordSave
Turn 256: Alas, poor Louis, I never liked you anyway:
The city wasn't too badly placed, but didn't fit in with my dotmap of the area. Plus, I want my economy to recover a bit before I start throwing cities around again.
Well, the continent is mine finally. The next round will be a burst of expansion and economy building, as I fill up the entire continent. There's still a good number of resources I could really use around here. Also, I plan on getting Astronomy with Liberalism so I can trade for any excess resources over on the other continent. Since the other side is all Hindu, I'll probably have to go to Free Religion for the rest of the game. That's OK with me, since it's a pretty good civic for research.
Here's a few summary screenshots. First the Domestic Advisor:
There's a few wonders in production. I need the AP to prevent a cheesy Diplo win by the AI. The Hagia Sophia will help my Workers out a lot. There's still so much for them to do.
Here's the other AI's:
Yeah, they don't like me too much, but honestly, I don't care. They're not going to be very helpful. Relations will improve once I drop my Religion, and I'll eventually get a few of them to like me.
Here's a shot of the other continent:
Hard to tell the difference between Kublai and Sitting Bull, but Kublai is in the middle and has a few more cities than Sitting Bull.
Here's the tech situation, and it's pretty ugly already:
Peter is the best of the bunch over there and he still doesn't have Code of Laws, Civil Service, Drama, Music, Compass, Optics, Paper or Education. He is researching Engineering and Hannibal is researching Feudalism. I'll probably chase other techs so I can maybe get those in trades.
Here's the save:
View attachment Zara Yaqob AD-1120.CivBeyondSwordSave
It seems that you were lucky to open borders with most of the other civs right away.
Normally, when I'm the founder of a religion and I go to another continent there is someone who is already angry with me, and I never get the full picture of that continent.
My question is: Do you find it better to split your army into more than one stack when you go to war?
Normally, when I'm the founder of a religion and I go to another continent there is someone who is already angry with me, and I never get the full picture of that continent.
My question is: Do you find it better to split your army into more than one stack when you go to war?
Orion071
Home School Tutor
ROUND 5 (1120 AD -1290 AD)
Well, I finally own the continent except for a couple of Barbarian cities. But since I have the Great Wall, they can't hurt me. So it's time for some economic recovery and expansion to fill in the gaps. The Forbidden Palace and Courthouses will help a lot.
Techwise, it's the run to Liberalism. I need Philosophy first and then Liberalism to grab Astronomy. Trade with the other continent will hopefully get me resources I currently lack.
Turn 257: I'm moving my troops back inside my borders. Some of the French cities don't have garrisons and are experiencing unhappiness because of it. I'll need a few more cheap garrsion troops.
Turn 258: Paris has a ridiculous number of Forests still in its BFC, so I'll save it for a future National Park city.
Turn 261: Rome finishes the AP. Since I'm the only one with Confucianism, I'm the only one that can be voted as the leader. At least my Temples and Monasteries will get the hammer bonus. A very underrated bonus of the AP.
Turn 262: All 216 votes go to me and I'm leader of the AP. What a shock. Meanwhile, Philosophy is in and Lalibela is the new Holy City. I'm not planning on another Great Prophet, but if I get one, he can always build me another Shrine. Aksum gives me a Great Engineer at only 33% odds. There isn't a wonder that I could really use right now, so I put him to sleep. I'm reminded that I still have my sleeping Great Artist. This would be a good time for the Golden Age to begin.
The Golden Age means it's only 7 turns to Liberalism.
Turn 263: Addis finishes the Hagia Sophia. That will really help my Workers trying to improve all of my cities.
Turn 268: Liberalism, and with it, Astronomy:
I make an Anarchy-free civic switch to Free Religion. I hold off on Free Speech because I don't have a lot of Towns just yet.
Now that I can trade with the other continent and they like me a little more, let's look at what they have to offer:
Excellent. Lots of nice happiness and health resources. Sitting Bull is hated by all, so he's out. Apparently, Spices and Corn are exclusive to my continent and I have a lot of them for trade. They give me Wheat and Clams from Peter, Rice and Bananas from Kublai and Gold and Wines from Hannibal. Kublai really wants Horses because he'll give me Dyes, Gems, Sugar and 5 gpt for them. Can't turn that down.
With all of the new resources, my health and happiness caps have shot up. Once this Golden Age is over, I'll be working max food to grow my cities up to their new levels.
Next on the tech list is Engineering. I want to use my Great Engineer for Notre Dame and +2 happiness for everyone.
Aksum is working on Oxford University. When that's done, it will really be a super-science city.
Turn 271: Engineering is done. Next is Nationalism, so I can continue my Golden Age with the Taj Mahal. The Great Engineer is in Lalibela, so he can complete Notre Dame in one turn.
Turn 272: Notre Dame is finished. So is the Forbidden Palace. Now I'm ready to start expanding again. I have several Settlers in production and others on their way to some useful sites.
Turn 274: Rome gives me a Great Prophet. Rather than build a fairly pointless Shrine, I'll settle him in Addis, my future Wall Street city. With Representation, he'll produce 3 beakers, 2 hammers and 5 gold per turn. Not bad.
Turn 277: Nationalism is done, and so is my Golden Age. Well, I'll have another one soon when the Taj Mahal is done. It will be good to wait a bit until my cities have grown some more. I place a few more cities down. One NE of Aksum by some Sheep and Clams, one NW of Rome along the river by the Horses, and one in the far north that I said would be my GP farm. There's still room for at least 5-10 more cities and there's still some resources I need to claim.
Turn 278: Oxford is done and my super-science city is producing 240 beakers/turn at 80% science. I need to go down to 70% to turn a profit though.
I'm going to stop this relatively short round here. There isn't going to be a lot of excitement anymore, just teching and building.
My tech goal for the near future is Economics. So it's Feudalism -> Banking -> Economics. Then I'll probably run to Democracy. Emancipation will help all of my new Cottages tremendously.
Here's the save:
View attachment Zara Yaqob AD-1290.CivBeyondSwordSave
Well, I finally own the continent except for a couple of Barbarian cities. But since I have the Great Wall, they can't hurt me. So it's time for some economic recovery and expansion to fill in the gaps. The Forbidden Palace and Courthouses will help a lot.
Techwise, it's the run to Liberalism. I need Philosophy first and then Liberalism to grab Astronomy. Trade with the other continent will hopefully get me resources I currently lack.
Turn 257: I'm moving my troops back inside my borders. Some of the French cities don't have garrisons and are experiencing unhappiness because of it. I'll need a few more cheap garrsion troops.
Turn 258: Paris has a ridiculous number of Forests still in its BFC, so I'll save it for a future National Park city.
Turn 261: Rome finishes the AP. Since I'm the only one with Confucianism, I'm the only one that can be voted as the leader. At least my Temples and Monasteries will get the hammer bonus. A very underrated bonus of the AP.
Turn 262: All 216 votes go to me and I'm leader of the AP. What a shock. Meanwhile, Philosophy is in and Lalibela is the new Holy City. I'm not planning on another Great Prophet, but if I get one, he can always build me another Shrine. Aksum gives me a Great Engineer at only 33% odds. There isn't a wonder that I could really use right now, so I put him to sleep. I'm reminded that I still have my sleeping Great Artist. This would be a good time for the Golden Age to begin.
The Golden Age means it's only 7 turns to Liberalism.
Turn 263: Addis finishes the Hagia Sophia. That will really help my Workers trying to improve all of my cities.
Turn 268: Liberalism, and with it, Astronomy:
I make an Anarchy-free civic switch to Free Religion. I hold off on Free Speech because I don't have a lot of Towns just yet.
Now that I can trade with the other continent and they like me a little more, let's look at what they have to offer:
Excellent. Lots of nice happiness and health resources. Sitting Bull is hated by all, so he's out. Apparently, Spices and Corn are exclusive to my continent and I have a lot of them for trade. They give me Wheat and Clams from Peter, Rice and Bananas from Kublai and Gold and Wines from Hannibal. Kublai really wants Horses because he'll give me Dyes, Gems, Sugar and 5 gpt for them. Can't turn that down.
With all of the new resources, my health and happiness caps have shot up. Once this Golden Age is over, I'll be working max food to grow my cities up to their new levels.
Next on the tech list is Engineering. I want to use my Great Engineer for Notre Dame and +2 happiness for everyone.
Aksum is working on Oxford University. When that's done, it will really be a super-science city.
Turn 271: Engineering is done. Next is Nationalism, so I can continue my Golden Age with the Taj Mahal. The Great Engineer is in Lalibela, so he can complete Notre Dame in one turn.
Turn 272: Notre Dame is finished. So is the Forbidden Palace. Now I'm ready to start expanding again. I have several Settlers in production and others on their way to some useful sites.
Turn 274: Rome gives me a Great Prophet. Rather than build a fairly pointless Shrine, I'll settle him in Addis, my future Wall Street city. With Representation, he'll produce 3 beakers, 2 hammers and 5 gold per turn. Not bad.
Turn 277: Nationalism is done, and so is my Golden Age. Well, I'll have another one soon when the Taj Mahal is done. It will be good to wait a bit until my cities have grown some more. I place a few more cities down. One NE of Aksum by some Sheep and Clams, one NW of Rome along the river by the Horses, and one in the far north that I said would be my GP farm. There's still room for at least 5-10 more cities and there's still some resources I need to claim.
Turn 278: Oxford is done and my super-science city is producing 240 beakers/turn at 80% science. I need to go down to 70% to turn a profit though.
I'm going to stop this relatively short round here. There isn't going to be a lot of excitement anymore, just teching and building.
My tech goal for the near future is Economics. So it's Feudalism -> Banking -> Economics. Then I'll probably run to Democracy. Emancipation will help all of my new Cottages tremendously.
Here's the save:
View attachment Zara Yaqob AD-1290.CivBeyondSwordSave
redmosquito
barbarian bear
Thanks for the useful guide. At which difficulty level you play normally
Great walkthrough Orion! I followed your first one and am still learning from them. I've been using the type of aggressiveness you show in the early game and it's paid off quite well in producing a couple of comfortable wins for me at Noble. I'll be ready to try Prince soon!
One thing I've noticed in this game is that you've razed some cities instead of keeping them. No problem, but you haven't been getting any partisans. Every time I raze a city I get either get 4-5 local partisan units or the message that the local populace is fleeing to the capital to form partisan units. These partisan units are a PIA. They don't attack, but they do wander around. And they're always the type of latest tech unit available to the AI civ.
Is there some setting you're using so that you don't get partisan units? What do you do when you do get them?
Thanks!
One thing I've noticed in this game is that you've razed some cities instead of keeping them. No problem, but you haven't been getting any partisans. Every time I raze a city I get either get 4-5 local partisan units or the message that the local populace is fleeing to the capital to form partisan units. These partisan units are a PIA. They don't attack, but they do wander around. And they're always the type of latest tech unit available to the AI civ.
Is there some setting you're using so that you don't get partisan units? What do you do when you do get them?
Thanks!
Orion071
Home School Tutor
Time for me to answer some questions that have built up...
No I don't. But at the beginning of that round, I was only getting the +4 EP's/turn from the Palace. At that point, I figured that I needed all the discounts I could get. At the end of that round, when I was earning +16 EP's/turn, then I could have forgone the discounts and gone for the steals right away. I had a lot more built up by that point.
Normally, yes I like to attack from more than one direction. Does it always work? No. Scouting is very important here. You have to know what you're dealing with. First of all, you have to make sure that the split stacks can still do the job. Then you have to be sure that the AI can't counterattack and destroy one of your stacks. In this game, each stack only had to take out 1 city and then meet in the middle. Then the combined stack moved on to Paris. I knew that the initial 2 cities couldn't withstand my forces.
You can really destroy an offensive by splitting up and having one or more of your groups stall out.
Normally I play on Emperor, but lately I haven't had much luck on it.
I hope I'm not getting sloppy by crushing these Noble games.
That's odd, because until you mentioned it, I'd forgotten all about that event. In my very first BtS game, I razed 3 cities and got that event all 3 times. Lately I haven't seen it at all. I think I've razed a dozen cities in these 2 walkthroughs and haven't seen it. Maybe they toned it down in the 3.13 patch, or maybe Bhuric's unofficial patch of the patch has something to do with it. I don't really have any other info on it.
Regardless, I don't think a few more Macemen would have slowed down my Riflemen in the first game, and a few more Swordsmen from France (or Warriors from Gus
) wouldn't have slowed me down here.
No I don't. But at the beginning of that round, I was only getting the +4 EP's/turn from the Palace. At that point, I figured that I needed all the discounts I could get. At the end of that round, when I was earning +16 EP's/turn, then I could have forgone the discounts and gone for the steals right away. I had a lot more built up by that point.
Normally, yes I like to attack from more than one direction. Does it always work? No. Scouting is very important here. You have to know what you're dealing with. First of all, you have to make sure that the split stacks can still do the job. Then you have to be sure that the AI can't counterattack and destroy one of your stacks. In this game, each stack only had to take out 1 city and then meet in the middle. Then the combined stack moved on to Paris. I knew that the initial 2 cities couldn't withstand my forces.
You can really destroy an offensive by splitting up and having one or more of your groups stall out.
Normally I play on Emperor, but lately I haven't had much luck on it.
I hope I'm not getting sloppy by crushing these Noble games.That's odd, because until you mentioned it, I'd forgotten all about that event. In my very first BtS game, I razed 3 cities and got that event all 3 times. Lately I haven't seen it at all. I think I've razed a dozen cities in these 2 walkthroughs and haven't seen it. Maybe they toned it down in the 3.13 patch, or maybe Bhuric's unofficial patch of the patch has something to do with it. I don't really have any other info on it.
Regardless, I don't think a few more Macemen would have slowed down my Riflemen in the first game, and a few more Swordsmen from France (or Warriors from Gus
) wouldn't have slowed me down here.That's odd, because until you mentioned it, I'd forgotten all about that event. In my very first BtS game, I razed 3 cities and got that event all 3 times. Lately I haven't seen it at all. I think I've razed a dozen cities in these 2 walkthroughs and haven't seen it. Maybe they toned it down in the 3.13 patch, or maybe Bhuric's unofficial patch of the patch has something to do with it. I don't really have any other info on it.
Regardless, I don't think a few more Macemen would have slowed down my Riflemen in the first game, and a few more Swordsmen from France (or Warriors from Gus
This has happened to me so often that I didn't realize it was an "event." I thought it was a part of what happened when you razed a city - something new in 3.13. I'm actually a bit loath to raze cities now because of this. I haven't been using Bhuric's patch, but will now just in case. There wasn't anything about it in the patch notes, though.
Unfortunately, I'm not usually at so much of a technical advantage as you are when I go to war. Those partisans can put a serious dent in my plans, especially if it happens on a couple of outlier cities and results in an additional 6-8 units in the AI capital city. Ouch.
Orion071
Home School Tutor
ROUND 6 (1290 AD - 1475 AD)
I've checked my continent and I can see at least 8 more cities that I can build. They won't necessarily be the best cities ever, but I want to fill up as much of the continent that I can. So I'm going to continue my expansion and tech my way to a spaceship victory.
Turn 279: Feudalism is done and I'll follow the path to Economics. Guilds is next. I'm continuing to churn out Settlers and Confucian Missionaries. The rest of my cities are focusing on infrastructure and then science output.
Turn 280: The AP Election comes up again and I win in a landslide. Peter and Kublai both have Confucian cities now. Even if all of the other AI's get a Confucian city, I won't be able to win a Diplomatic victory as long as I have enough votes to elect myself. A good move by the programmers to remove a very cheesy victory.
Turn 281: Hannibal becomes a vassal of Peter. I guess he's worried about an increasingly aggressive Kublai Khan. I realize that Peter has 9 gpt just sitting around doing nothing. Sheep are exchanged for all of that gold.
Turn 282: Guilds is done and Banking is next. It will be done in 2 turns. Yikes. My research speed is frightening and I'm only at 70% science. It will slow down a bit as I add new cities though.
I just added a new city way down in the southern ice. It won't be very good, but it has Deer, Furs and Whales. The Fur and Whales will add +4 happy to every city that has a Market. That's worth it.
Turn 284: Banking is done and Economics will be done in 5 turns. I up the slider to 80% to burn some excess cash. That knocks it down to 4 turns.
I found a city in the north to claim Corn and 2 Silks.
Turn 287: I found yet another city in the SE ice. This one is coastal on a river, and has Deer and Marble. Only a few more cities to go. I drop back down to 70% science until I can get Banks, Markets and Grocers online.
Turn 288: Economics is done and I get a free Great Merchant. He moves towards a waiting Caravel to take him to the other continent. A trade mission will let me run 100% science for a long, long time.
Turn 289: I found yet another city on the west coast by Paris. I need a city on the west coast to make a Caravel. One thing that I hate about the continents map is that you can't ever sail around either of the continents. To get the circumnavigation bonus I need to reach the other continent from both sides.
Turn 292: I finish Printing Press. I'll make a quick diversion to Replaceable Parts and then move on to Constitution and Democracy. Replaceable parts is one of my favorite techs. The increased production from Windmills and Watermills and the ability to build Lumbermills is very powerful. An easy way to defeat the AI's is to out-produce them. More and faster troop production can swing a stalemate war your way. Not to mention that it's on the way to Rifling.
Turn 294: My Merchant reaches the other continent. Peter's cities seem to be the best, so I'll send him off in that direction.
Turn 296: I found 2 more cities. One just NE of Aksum on the coast to grab another Iron. The other is NW of Paris on the west coast to grab Sheep. I only have 2 more cities left and then I'll be set.
Replaceable Parts is done. I'm going to make a quick diversion to Divine Right - not for the religion, but for Versailles. I want to stay in Free Market and not have to switch to State Property. I want the chance to make a Corporation and I can't do that in State Property. Building Versailles in Rome will pretty much make the distance penalty zero in my cities.
Turn 297: BONG!!! Addis completes the Taj Mahal, launching me into another Golden Age.
I start the Golden Age by making a civics switch into Universal Suffrage and Free Market. I'm going to use the money from the Great Merchant to build infrastructure in all of my new cities. Even at 70% science, I'm producing over 900 beakers/turn. Divine Right in only 1 more turn.
I immediately build Granaries in 3 of my new cities.
Turn 298: Divine Right is in and with it is an interesting twist:
Yes, that's Addis Ababa now a double Holy City! It was possible because each time I founded a new city, I had the Confucian Missionary ready. So none of my cities had no religion. It's already going to be my Wall Street city with the Confucian Shrine. Can I somehow get 2 Shrines in the city?
I check my Domestic Advisor. Aksum is actually going to produce a GP next turn, but there's no chance of a Prophet. Next on the list is Rome, which does have a good chance of a Prophet. I move the Islamic Missionary to Rome so I can build a Temple there. More Temples mean I can assign some more Priest specialists.
Turn 299: It seems that all of Russia's cities will give me the same amount: 2550 gold. So I complete the trade route. I use the cash to rush buy a bunch of Granaries and a few Forges too. Next will be a bunch of Courthouses.
A Great Scientist is born in Aksum. It will lightbulb most of Scientific Method. I don't want to obsolete the Parthenon and the Great Library just yet. He'll sleep until it's time to research it. I don't want to irritate KMad by popping him too soon.
Turn 300: Constitution is done and Democracy is next. Emancipation and the Statue of Liberty will both be very useful for me.
Turn 303: I found my last 2 cities in the northern area on my continent. They'll give me more Sheep, Silks, Whales and Fur. The only areas that I don't have now are either icy wastelands or deserts.
There's actually an area in the far north walled off by mountains. I can see a Barbarian city up there, but I can't get to it until I build a boat off of the west coast.
Here's a shot of my entire continent with my cities in place:
24 total cities. And I'm still turning a profit at 80% science. I'm only at 60% right now because I still want to rush buy key building in my new cities.
Turn 305: Democracy is done. I make a final civics switch to Free Speech and Emancipation. All anarchy free thanks to the Golden Age. I'll go for Corporation and the extra trade route before I head to Scientific Method.
Turn 307: Peter and his vassal Hannibal declared on Sitting Bull a few turns ago. Now Kublai asks me to join the fun. Well, there's no reason not to. So now everyone is at war with Sitting Bull. Ouch. Sucks to be you.
Turn 309: Corporation is done. I want to build a few Islamic Monasteries before they go obsolete in case I am able to get the Shrine. So a quick diversion to Gunpowder. It will be done in 1 turn.
Turn 310: Gunpowder is done and I go for Chemistry. After Chemistry will be Scientific Method and Biology.
Turn 312: Chemistry is done. I switch to Scientific Method. I also pop the Great Scientist asleep in Aksum. Now SM will be done in only 1 turn. Biology will be next.
Turn 313: My ships have proven the world is round. Not altogether useful, but hey, why not. Biology will take a whopping 6 turns now that my Golden Age is done.
Turn 315: Rome finishes Versailles. Here's a look at the Financial screen:
You can see that I'm only losing 31 gold to distance penalties. That's not too bad. I should be able to stay in Free Market and not lose too much money.
I'm going to stop here. Things are looking really good for me right now. I'm teching well, and very few of my cottage towns are fully operational. It's only 1475 AD and I'm in the Industrial Age. Can I actually reach my goal of a 1700's launch? Probably not, but you never know...
Here's the save:
View attachment Zara Yaqob AD-1475.CivBeyondSwordSave
I've checked my continent and I can see at least 8 more cities that I can build. They won't necessarily be the best cities ever, but I want to fill up as much of the continent that I can. So I'm going to continue my expansion and tech my way to a spaceship victory.
Turn 279: Feudalism is done and I'll follow the path to Economics. Guilds is next. I'm continuing to churn out Settlers and Confucian Missionaries. The rest of my cities are focusing on infrastructure and then science output.
Turn 280: The AP Election comes up again and I win in a landslide. Peter and Kublai both have Confucian cities now. Even if all of the other AI's get a Confucian city, I won't be able to win a Diplomatic victory as long as I have enough votes to elect myself. A good move by the programmers to remove a very cheesy victory.
Turn 281: Hannibal becomes a vassal of Peter. I guess he's worried about an increasingly aggressive Kublai Khan. I realize that Peter has 9 gpt just sitting around doing nothing. Sheep are exchanged for all of that gold.
Turn 282: Guilds is done and Banking is next. It will be done in 2 turns. Yikes. My research speed is frightening and I'm only at 70% science. It will slow down a bit as I add new cities though.
I just added a new city way down in the southern ice. It won't be very good, but it has Deer, Furs and Whales. The Fur and Whales will add +4 happy to every city that has a Market. That's worth it.
Turn 284: Banking is done and Economics will be done in 5 turns. I up the slider to 80% to burn some excess cash. That knocks it down to 4 turns.
I found a city in the north to claim Corn and 2 Silks.
Turn 287: I found yet another city in the SE ice. This one is coastal on a river, and has Deer and Marble. Only a few more cities to go. I drop back down to 70% science until I can get Banks, Markets and Grocers online.
Turn 288: Economics is done and I get a free Great Merchant. He moves towards a waiting Caravel to take him to the other continent. A trade mission will let me run 100% science for a long, long time.
Turn 289: I found yet another city on the west coast by Paris. I need a city on the west coast to make a Caravel. One thing that I hate about the continents map is that you can't ever sail around either of the continents. To get the circumnavigation bonus I need to reach the other continent from both sides.
Turn 292: I finish Printing Press. I'll make a quick diversion to Replaceable Parts and then move on to Constitution and Democracy. Replaceable parts is one of my favorite techs. The increased production from Windmills and Watermills and the ability to build Lumbermills is very powerful. An easy way to defeat the AI's is to out-produce them. More and faster troop production can swing a stalemate war your way. Not to mention that it's on the way to Rifling.
Turn 294: My Merchant reaches the other continent. Peter's cities seem to be the best, so I'll send him off in that direction.
Turn 296: I found 2 more cities. One just NE of Aksum on the coast to grab another Iron. The other is NW of Paris on the west coast to grab Sheep. I only have 2 more cities left and then I'll be set.
Replaceable Parts is done. I'm going to make a quick diversion to Divine Right - not for the religion, but for Versailles. I want to stay in Free Market and not have to switch to State Property. I want the chance to make a Corporation and I can't do that in State Property. Building Versailles in Rome will pretty much make the distance penalty zero in my cities.
Turn 297: BONG!!! Addis completes the Taj Mahal, launching me into another Golden Age.
I start the Golden Age by making a civics switch into Universal Suffrage and Free Market. I'm going to use the money from the Great Merchant to build infrastructure in all of my new cities. Even at 70% science, I'm producing over 900 beakers/turn. Divine Right in only 1 more turn.
I immediately build Granaries in 3 of my new cities.
Turn 298: Divine Right is in and with it is an interesting twist:
Yes, that's Addis Ababa now a double Holy City! It was possible because each time I founded a new city, I had the Confucian Missionary ready. So none of my cities had no religion. It's already going to be my Wall Street city with the Confucian Shrine. Can I somehow get 2 Shrines in the city?
I check my Domestic Advisor. Aksum is actually going to produce a GP next turn, but there's no chance of a Prophet. Next on the list is Rome, which does have a good chance of a Prophet. I move the Islamic Missionary to Rome so I can build a Temple there. More Temples mean I can assign some more Priest specialists.
Turn 299: It seems that all of Russia's cities will give me the same amount: 2550 gold. So I complete the trade route. I use the cash to rush buy a bunch of Granaries and a few Forges too. Next will be a bunch of Courthouses.
A Great Scientist is born in Aksum. It will lightbulb most of Scientific Method. I don't want to obsolete the Parthenon and the Great Library just yet. He'll sleep until it's time to research it. I don't want to irritate KMad by popping him too soon.
Turn 300: Constitution is done and Democracy is next. Emancipation and the Statue of Liberty will both be very useful for me.
Turn 303: I found my last 2 cities in the northern area on my continent. They'll give me more Sheep, Silks, Whales and Fur. The only areas that I don't have now are either icy wastelands or deserts.
There's actually an area in the far north walled off by mountains. I can see a Barbarian city up there, but I can't get to it until I build a boat off of the west coast.
Here's a shot of my entire continent with my cities in place:
24 total cities. And I'm still turning a profit at 80% science. I'm only at 60% right now because I still want to rush buy key building in my new cities.
Turn 305: Democracy is done. I make a final civics switch to Free Speech and Emancipation. All anarchy free thanks to the Golden Age. I'll go for Corporation and the extra trade route before I head to Scientific Method.
Turn 307: Peter and his vassal Hannibal declared on Sitting Bull a few turns ago. Now Kublai asks me to join the fun. Well, there's no reason not to. So now everyone is at war with Sitting Bull. Ouch. Sucks to be you.
Turn 309: Corporation is done. I want to build a few Islamic Monasteries before they go obsolete in case I am able to get the Shrine. So a quick diversion to Gunpowder. It will be done in 1 turn.
Turn 310: Gunpowder is done and I go for Chemistry. After Chemistry will be Scientific Method and Biology.
Turn 312: Chemistry is done. I switch to Scientific Method. I also pop the Great Scientist asleep in Aksum. Now SM will be done in only 1 turn. Biology will be next.
Turn 313: My ships have proven the world is round. Not altogether useful, but hey, why not. Biology will take a whopping 6 turns now that my Golden Age is done.
Turn 315: Rome finishes Versailles. Here's a look at the Financial screen:
You can see that I'm only losing 31 gold to distance penalties. That's not too bad. I should be able to stay in Free Market and not lose too much money.
I'm going to stop here. Things are looking really good for me right now. I'm teching well, and very few of my cottage towns are fully operational. It's only 1475 AD and I'm in the Industrial Age. Can I actually reach my goal of a 1700's launch? Probably not, but you never know...
Here's the save:
View attachment Zara Yaqob AD-1475.CivBeyondSwordSave
Orion,
I hate to be a pain, but there aren't any pictures.
And now you have me anxious about what should be there! I bet you did it on purpose just to tease us!
J/K.
Orion, even though I am playing on Monarch+, I am learning a great deal from your games. Perhaps it will be enough to push me through Emperor all the way to Immortal in the next few weeks. I can't thank you enough for your time.
Orion071
Home School Tutor
Orion,
I hate to be a pain, but there aren't any pictures.
And now you have me anxious about what should be there! I bet you did it on purpose just to tease us!
J/K.
Orion, even though I am playing on Monarch+, I am learning a great deal from your games. Perhaps it will be enough to push me through Emperor all the way to Immortal in the next few weeks. I can't thank you enough for your time.
Yeah, I'm having trouble uploading the pictures. When I do these rounds, I type the stuff as I play, and then I fill in the pictures later. I figured that I'd get some grief for the lack of pictures, but you'll just have to wait a bit until I can get them downloaded.
If this thread pushes you through Emperor to Immortal, then can you do a thread on Immortal to help me out? I can't seem to get by Emperor lately.
Hi all,
I just wonder why you did choose astronomy from liberalism : I mean that with such a tech lead you can't fear to loose the race. So stopping liberalism research when you have one turn left, allows you to go deeper in the tech tree in order to catch a more expensive tech ...
It would have forced you to research astronomy by yourself and the shiny ressources trades would have been delayed but it may have been worth ...
Good job
Glouglou
I just wonder why you did choose astronomy from liberalism : I mean that with such a tech lead you can't fear to loose the race. So stopping liberalism research when you have one turn left, allows you to go deeper in the tech tree in order to catch a more expensive tech ...
It would have forced you to research astronomy by yourself and the shiny ressources trades would have been delayed but it may have been worth ...
Good job
Glouglou
Daedal
Prince
I think Orion's trying to keep this game 'real' for those of us playing at Noble and trying very hard just to keep on par with AI research. If he starts toying with the AI that'd just be mean.
Yeah, I'm having trouble uploading the pictures. When I do these rounds, I type the stuff as I play, and then I fill in the pictures later. I figured that I'd get some grief for the lack of pictures, but you'll just have to wait a bit until I can get them downloaded.
If this thread pushes you through Emperor to Immortal, then can you do a thread on Immortal to help me out? I can't seem to get by Emperor lately.
Orion,
I'm still very new here and I've never done a thread. If I did make a thread, I'd probably make a lot of mistakes and be very embarrassed.
I don't mean game mistakes, I'd love to see someone critique an entire game of mine from turn 1 to finish. I mean more like posting things incorrectly, and what-not.Another thing, I've only had the game about 2 months. I still lack experience. I think the reason I can play at such a high difficulty level was because I played CivI and CivII for years. I think I have about 18 years experience between those two, Colonization, Alpha Centauri, Colonization, and other non-Sid Meyer knockoffs. I remember that I played CivI and CivII on Emperor (then the hardest difficulty) and had no issues.
My best game was on an Earth Map, so I already know the terrain and where to found my cities; I played as the Americans. When I saw an English Ship come sailing over the ocean in the late 1400 I chuckled a bit because it reminded me of Columbus. Then I nuked it. Back in CivI you couldn't get pollution on water, this made nuking vessels on water very handy, because there would be no clean-up, and no global warming to worry about.
Because of my experience, I understand a lot of old concepts, but there are a plethora of new things to worry about. These new concepts are where you're helping me out greatly. For example, I've beat Monarch without declaring war, without anyone declaring war on me, without using spies, and without building a single naval unit. Well workboats, but they didn't explore. Even with Monty on the same continent as me, I had almost no trouble besting the computers on Monarch. In another Monarch game, I founded all 7 religions, built only two cities, and lost to culture by a handful of turns. Still wanting to see how close I would have become, I played on, and I lost the space race by about 6 turns to the guy who had build the space elevator. I blame this on the fact that neither of my cities could build the space elevator due to their longatudial placement.
What I really need to do is stop reading these forums and just sit down and play. I need the experience to advance. I understand a plethora of concepts, and some are easy for me to execute, while others I simply cannot grasp. Things that I see you, Orion, flawlessly pull off in these noble games.
Okay, enough rambling. Orion, you are helping me out greatly. Thank you and keep up the great work!
Orion71: This game is really interesting to me. I've won a fair number of space race games, up through noble, so I sort of expected this game to look a bit like my games. It sure doesn't, though! In mine (on standard maps) I don't think I've ever had more than about 12 cities. 24 seems immense. And given the date and the amount of intrastructure you have in place already, it looks like a lot are going to be able to produce space ship parts. It will be interesting to see how early you can launch.
How are your defenses at this point? Or are you basically letting that slide while everyone else picks on Sitting Bull?
How are your defenses at this point? Or are you basically letting that slide while everyone else picks on Sitting Bull?
Orion071
Home School Tutor
Make no mistake, my defenses suck. I don't think any of my cities have more than 1 unit in them. Most of them are Archers, with the spare Axeman and Maceman. But even with that, last time I checked I was #2 in power. I guess lots of cities help (population and tech are included in the power score).
It shouldn't matter though. Since we're all at war with Sitting Bull, we're getting mutual struggle bonuses with each other. So my relationships with the other 3 civs are very good. Sitting Bull isn't going to give me any trouble once the others are through with him. Not to mention that you need Astronomy to even build the ships to get to me. Most of the others don't even have Optics yet. When I get Infantry I'll have a city or 2 replace all of my garrison troops with real ones. Plus, I'll have a navy in place to make sure no one ever reaches my shores.
Orion071
Home School Tutor
ROUND 7 (1475 AD - 1704 AD)
This could possibly be another boring round, but it's pretty much a race into space. I don't plan on attacking anyone else, just teching as quickly as I can and launching as early as I can.
Turn 316: I finish my 6th Bank so Addis Ababa can start on Wall Street. If I can get a second Prophet to build the Islamic Shrine, this will be a huge money-making city for me.
Turn 319: Biology is done and Steam Power is next. I want to get to Railroads. The Levee building and Railroads will cause a huge upswing in production.
My cities are still concentrating on infrastructure. I'm rush-buying a Granary or two and some Forges, but for the most part, the cities are on their own. I'm concentrating on research and research-boosting buildings for now.
Turn 321: I get a Volcanic Eruption event. Fortunately, it was away from my cities and I only lose a Farm and a Mine. I've never had that before so I guess it could have been much worse.
Turn 324: Yes! Running 3 Priest specialists in Rome has produced the desired Great Prophet. He moves off to Addis to build a second Shrine there. Now I can spam Islamic Missionaries to all of my cities.
Turn 326: Steam Power is done. I had slowed down research greatly so I could rush-buy a few important buildings faster. Don't worry, it doesn't really take that long for these techs.
Now with Steam Power, I switch every city that can build it to a Levee. Man, what a powerful building this is. It's so strong that if you're thinking Space Race from the beginning, it will affect city placements as early as 4000 BC. Wouldn't you rather have that city on a river so you can build a Levee later? It's a legitimate question, even for your capital.
Oh, and Coal. I have 2 of them, already under Mines! One in Aksum, where VoU correctly predicted there would be no Iron or Copper, and other in the former French lands. Yeah, just 2 for the whole continent. Well, I've only got 4 Oil tiles, and 2 of them are offshore.
Turn 330: Steel is done and Railroads are next. Rome is going to be my Ironworks city. It has lots of Forests and Hills for maximum production. My only complaint is that I can't build a Levee there. I don't like the new map script that gives you a river right up to your capital, but not on it, and then gives you a stupid 1-tile lake. It's like it's taunting you with the inability to build a Levee.
I hate you, evil map generator!! Next time, I'll be the Dutch.
Turn 336: Still not much going on, but I finish Railroad. All of my Workers are on Railroad production now. I want that extra movement and production.
I'm going to research Rifling finally. Then I'll have 1 or 2 cities produce enough Riflemen to be in all of my cities. That should keep my power high enough that no one will be tempted to pay me a visit.
There's no way I want to spend enough gold to upgrade all of my Archers and Macemen to Riflemen. It's just not worth it.
Turn 337: Addis Ababa finishes Wall Street and my income shoots up. Now I can run a healthy profit at 90% science. It will only increase as more and more cities get Islam as well as Confucianism. Paris builds the Statue of Liberty. Since America isn't in this game to give it to, I will keep it for myself.
I'll micromanage my free specialists (mostly scientists at this point) and continue on.
Turn 338: The long, difficult war with Sitting Bull is finally over. He becomes Peter's vassal. Oddly enough, Hannibal breaks away from Peter and is free again.
Rifling is done and I go for Physics and the free Great Scientist.
Turn 343: Physics is done. I check my cities to see where I can get another Great Person. Hmmm, the nearest city is still 19 turns away. Well, I can go for Communism and the free Great Spy. The 2 GP's can launch me into another Golden Age. Plus, it will let me build the Kremlin for faster rush-buying.
Paris finishes the National Park. All of the Forests have Lumbermills on them right now, so I'm not getting the free Specialists. More for my Workers to do...
Turn 344: Hey, I finally see an AI Caravel sniffing around my continent! Unfortunately for Hannibal, the unit that found it was a Privateer.
Stay away from the dark and dangerous continent, guys! I've never traded any of them my world map, so I'm sure they're curious about me.
Turn 346: Communism is done and I get the Great Spy. I burn the 2 GP for another Golden Age. Next is Electricity on the way to Industrialism and Factories.
Turn 348: Ha! Chartes pops a Silver in one of its Mines! I don't have any Silver so that's another +2 happy in every city. Nice.
A couple of my cities have been producing Workers every turn. I'm over 30 Workers and it's not even close to enough. I'm trying to build Railroads, Lumbermills, Workshops, Cottages, Windmills... sigh. Some of my fringe cities still aren't working a lot of improved tiles.
Turn 350: Electricity is done and Assembly Line is next. The extra commerce I receive for Windmills and Watermills adds over 100 beakers/turn to my total. Nice.
Turn 353: Assembly Line is finished. All of my cities drop what they're doing and build a Factory. Yeah, all of them. OK, not my GP Farm, which is having unhealthiness problems and doesn't need a Factory anyway. But I want those Factories built while I'm in the Golden Age.
Next is Medicine. With all of the unhealthiness that Factories cause now, I might need the Hospitals in some of my cities.
Meanwhile, 3 of my Privateers have reached the other continent. There's not much going on there, but they sink a few Triremes for fun.
Turn 355: Medicine is done and I go for Industrialism. I get my first GP out of my GP Farm and he's an Engineer. I don't know what I'm going to do with him. I think I'll try to get 3 different ones for a final Golden Age. He goes to sleep.
An Islamic Missionary converts my last city. Now all of them have both religions and Addis Ababa's Wall Street is fully operational.
Turn 360: Industrialism is done and so is my Golden Age. Next will be Radio. Radio enables two of my favorite modern wonders: The Eiffle Tower and the Cristo Redentor.
Turn 361: I'm going to stop here. It's 1704 AD and I'm on the cusp of the Modern Age. Can I get the ship launched in only 96 years? Probably not, but it sure won't be too far behind that.
Sorry for the lack of pictures in this round. There just wasn't much going on. To make up for it, in my next post, I'm going to show screenshots of my major cities. I'll show how I've specialized them to help you with your own specialization.
Here's the save:
View attachment Zara Yaqob AD-1704.CivBeyondSwordSave
This could possibly be another boring round, but it's pretty much a race into space. I don't plan on attacking anyone else, just teching as quickly as I can and launching as early as I can.
Turn 316: I finish my 6th Bank so Addis Ababa can start on Wall Street. If I can get a second Prophet to build the Islamic Shrine, this will be a huge money-making city for me.
Turn 319: Biology is done and Steam Power is next. I want to get to Railroads. The Levee building and Railroads will cause a huge upswing in production.
My cities are still concentrating on infrastructure. I'm rush-buying a Granary or two and some Forges, but for the most part, the cities are on their own. I'm concentrating on research and research-boosting buildings for now.
Turn 321: I get a Volcanic Eruption event. Fortunately, it was away from my cities and I only lose a Farm and a Mine. I've never had that before so I guess it could have been much worse.
Turn 324: Yes! Running 3 Priest specialists in Rome has produced the desired Great Prophet. He moves off to Addis to build a second Shrine there. Now I can spam Islamic Missionaries to all of my cities.
Turn 326: Steam Power is done. I had slowed down research greatly so I could rush-buy a few important buildings faster. Don't worry, it doesn't really take that long for these techs.
Now with Steam Power, I switch every city that can build it to a Levee. Man, what a powerful building this is. It's so strong that if you're thinking Space Race from the beginning, it will affect city placements as early as 4000 BC. Wouldn't you rather have that city on a river so you can build a Levee later? It's a legitimate question, even for your capital.
Oh, and Coal. I have 2 of them, already under Mines! One in Aksum, where VoU correctly predicted there would be no Iron or Copper, and other in the former French lands. Yeah, just 2 for the whole continent. Well, I've only got 4 Oil tiles, and 2 of them are offshore.
Turn 330: Steel is done and Railroads are next. Rome is going to be my Ironworks city. It has lots of Forests and Hills for maximum production. My only complaint is that I can't build a Levee there. I don't like the new map script that gives you a river right up to your capital, but not on it, and then gives you a stupid 1-tile lake. It's like it's taunting you with the inability to build a Levee.
I hate you, evil map generator!! Next time, I'll be the Dutch.
Turn 336: Still not much going on, but I finish Railroad. All of my Workers are on Railroad production now. I want that extra movement and production.
I'm going to research Rifling finally. Then I'll have 1 or 2 cities produce enough Riflemen to be in all of my cities. That should keep my power high enough that no one will be tempted to pay me a visit.
There's no way I want to spend enough gold to upgrade all of my Archers and Macemen to Riflemen. It's just not worth it.
Turn 337: Addis Ababa finishes Wall Street and my income shoots up. Now I can run a healthy profit at 90% science. It will only increase as more and more cities get Islam as well as Confucianism. Paris builds the Statue of Liberty. Since America isn't in this game to give it to, I will keep it for myself.
I'll micromanage my free specialists (mostly scientists at this point) and continue on.
Turn 338: The long, difficult war with Sitting Bull is finally over. He becomes Peter's vassal. Oddly enough, Hannibal breaks away from Peter and is free again.
Rifling is done and I go for Physics and the free Great Scientist.
Turn 343: Physics is done. I check my cities to see where I can get another Great Person. Hmmm, the nearest city is still 19 turns away. Well, I can go for Communism and the free Great Spy. The 2 GP's can launch me into another Golden Age. Plus, it will let me build the Kremlin for faster rush-buying.
Paris finishes the National Park. All of the Forests have Lumbermills on them right now, so I'm not getting the free Specialists. More for my Workers to do...
Turn 344: Hey, I finally see an AI Caravel sniffing around my continent! Unfortunately for Hannibal, the unit that found it was a Privateer.
Stay away from the dark and dangerous continent, guys! I've never traded any of them my world map, so I'm sure they're curious about me.Turn 346: Communism is done and I get the Great Spy. I burn the 2 GP for another Golden Age. Next is Electricity on the way to Industrialism and Factories.
Turn 348: Ha! Chartes pops a Silver in one of its Mines! I don't have any Silver so that's another +2 happy in every city. Nice.
A couple of my cities have been producing Workers every turn. I'm over 30 Workers and it's not even close to enough. I'm trying to build Railroads, Lumbermills, Workshops, Cottages, Windmills... sigh. Some of my fringe cities still aren't working a lot of improved tiles.
Turn 350: Electricity is done and Assembly Line is next. The extra commerce I receive for Windmills and Watermills adds over 100 beakers/turn to my total. Nice.
Turn 353: Assembly Line is finished. All of my cities drop what they're doing and build a Factory. Yeah, all of them. OK, not my GP Farm, which is having unhealthiness problems and doesn't need a Factory anyway. But I want those Factories built while I'm in the Golden Age.
Next is Medicine. With all of the unhealthiness that Factories cause now, I might need the Hospitals in some of my cities.
Meanwhile, 3 of my Privateers have reached the other continent. There's not much going on there, but they sink a few Triremes for fun.
Turn 355: Medicine is done and I go for Industrialism. I get my first GP out of my GP Farm and he's an Engineer. I don't know what I'm going to do with him. I think I'll try to get 3 different ones for a final Golden Age. He goes to sleep.
An Islamic Missionary converts my last city. Now all of them have both religions and Addis Ababa's Wall Street is fully operational.
Turn 360: Industrialism is done and so is my Golden Age. Next will be Radio. Radio enables two of my favorite modern wonders: The Eiffle Tower and the Cristo Redentor.
Turn 361: I'm going to stop here. It's 1704 AD and I'm on the cusp of the Modern Age. Can I get the ship launched in only 96 years? Probably not, but it sure won't be too far behind that.
Sorry for the lack of pictures in this round. There just wasn't much going on. To make up for it, in my next post, I'm going to show screenshots of my major cities. I'll show how I've specialized them to help you with your own specialization.
Here's the save:
View attachment Zara Yaqob AD-1704.CivBeyondSwordSave
Orion071
Home School Tutor
Let's take a look at some of my specialized cities.
First is Aksum, the capital and super-science city:
Certainly a nice science total. As a hybrid Cottage and production city, it can have a nice science total and still be able to crank out some wonders. Notice that the Levee provides an extra hammer to an incredible 17 tiles. With the Heroic Epic and a settled Great General, it's probably my best place to produce troops as well.
And you said that I had a poor starting city...
Next is Rome, my best production center:
Rome isn't even maxed out production wise since it still needs railroads on many of its Lumbermills. A nice mix of Forests, Farms and Hills. Eventually, I can even turn one of those Farms into a Watermill for even more hammers. This city will build a lot of my spaceship parts.
Next is the financial center of my empire, Addis Ababa:
Yeah, 200 gpt at only 10% gold production. Shrines are a major source of income. If I was able to spread either of these religions to the other continent, I could easily be pulling 300 gpt or more. Unfortunately, Confucianism has only spread to 1 city overseas.
Here's my GP Farm, Matara:
Yes, it has 3 Cottages. So sue me. This city is still growing and could end up with 3 more specialists than it has right now. As it is, it still produces more than twice as many Great People Points than any of my other cities, even the wonder-filled ones. I went with the tried and true combo of the National Epic with the Globe Theatre as national wonders. Unfortunately, without being in Caste System, there's not much way I can control what kind of GP I get out of the city. I'm maxed out on everything but Artist specialists right now.
All of these cities so far have been landlocked. Let's look at a coastal city:
Here's a city where a good portion of its commerce comes from its massive trade routes. You can see the breakdown of the trade routes in the mouseover. Harbors and Customs Houses really help. I can even add an Airport later for another 6 or 7 extra commerce.
Here's a city unique to BtS, the Espionage city, Paris:
I'm currently converting the Lumbermills over to Forest Preserves. Once they're all in place, I'll get a whopping 13 free specialists (1 from the Statue of Liberty). I think the National Park is an excellent wonder for this type of specialized city. Combined with the National Epic and you could have a great GP Farm without even using a single Farm improvement! If this type of city ends up producing a Great Spy, remember that the Spy can then create the Scotland Yard building for an additional +100% Espionage Points.
This type of city isn't useful in every game. I certainly don't need it. I'm going to move the specialists around and go away from the Spies. I just included it because it's almost never talked about but can certainly be useful in a lot of games.
First is Aksum, the capital and super-science city:
Certainly a nice science total. As a hybrid Cottage and production city, it can have a nice science total and still be able to crank out some wonders. Notice that the Levee provides an extra hammer to an incredible 17 tiles. With the Heroic Epic and a settled Great General, it's probably my best place to produce troops as well.
And you said that I had a poor starting city...
Next is Rome, my best production center:
Rome isn't even maxed out production wise since it still needs railroads on many of its Lumbermills. A nice mix of Forests, Farms and Hills. Eventually, I can even turn one of those Farms into a Watermill for even more hammers. This city will build a lot of my spaceship parts.
Next is the financial center of my empire, Addis Ababa:
Yeah, 200 gpt at only 10% gold production. Shrines are a major source of income. If I was able to spread either of these religions to the other continent, I could easily be pulling 300 gpt or more. Unfortunately, Confucianism has only spread to 1 city overseas.
Here's my GP Farm, Matara:
Yes, it has 3 Cottages. So sue me. This city is still growing and could end up with 3 more specialists than it has right now. As it is, it still produces more than twice as many Great People Points than any of my other cities, even the wonder-filled ones. I went with the tried and true combo of the National Epic with the Globe Theatre as national wonders. Unfortunately, without being in Caste System, there's not much way I can control what kind of GP I get out of the city. I'm maxed out on everything but Artist specialists right now.
All of these cities so far have been landlocked. Let's look at a coastal city:
Here's a city where a good portion of its commerce comes from its massive trade routes. You can see the breakdown of the trade routes in the mouseover. Harbors and Customs Houses really help. I can even add an Airport later for another 6 or 7 extra commerce.
Here's a city unique to BtS, the Espionage city, Paris:
I'm currently converting the Lumbermills over to Forest Preserves. Once they're all in place, I'll get a whopping 13 free specialists (1 from the Statue of Liberty). I think the National Park is an excellent wonder for this type of specialized city. Combined with the National Epic and you could have a great GP Farm without even using a single Farm improvement! If this type of city ends up producing a Great Spy, remember that the Spy can then create the Scotland Yard building for an additional +100% Espionage Points.
This type of city isn't useful in every game. I certainly don't need it. I'm going to move the specialists around and go away from the Spies. I just included it because it's almost never talked about but can certainly be useful in a lot of games.
