RB1 - Let's get started

Lurker Comment:

There is at least one lurker here! SGs have done more for my love of Civ than anything else A good SG, to me, is one that has good characters - just like a movie. Looking forward to the rest of this game!

 

Not sure why your reputation would sink because other people can't play? I think you've done a great job so far, not your fault that people's computers break and whatnot.

 

... if it ever arrives!

 

A good captain would inspire his troops to play .

We'll finish this thing even if it turns into me and Sciz playing hot potato with ourselves. You wouldn't abandon me, right Sciz?

Subs? Anyone? Civ 5 is awesome, really it is. We are having the time of our lives. Someone for the love of all things good and true help me out here !

Darrell

 

Okay, since regoarrarr's turns got cut short I decided to play until turn 120 (from turn 105) to get the ball rolling again. I hope no one minds

So I start on turn 105 with a settler to place. I look around and figure that down in the south east is the best spot for now:



It's got a river, it's on the coast, it's got a happiness resource we don't have yet (dyes), and decent food through the deer and wheat.

On my way there, guarding the settler with a warrior, we run across an archer, which is quickly killed.

On turn 106 archery is completed, and I start on The Wheel, which is completed on turn 109. Now we can start hooking up our cities to Washington for some good gold per turn.

On Turn 111, we strike jackpot:



Stockholm, one of two maritime City States on this continent, wants a barbarian encampment destroyed! And it's right next to where I was planning to plant our next city, making it a perfect target. Stockholm is currently allied with India, but destroying this encampment should help us take over that alliance

I destroy the encampment and net us 50 influence for Stockholm. I then notice we have a big sum of gold lying around, and gift Stockholm 500 of that, giving us 70 more influence for a total of 120/60 influence, and allied status!



4 food per turn in Washington, 2 food per turn for the other cities. Not that much yet, but as we progress along the ages we'll get more, and if we manage to ally ourselves with Genoa as well (currently allied with Persia) we can double that amount. Now our cities can grow! We also got a source of furs from Stockholm, getting us +5 happiness

Finally on turn 113 I found Boston:



On the following turn mathematics rolls in, and can you spot something else in this picture?



Yep, our second great scientist was born in Washington

I use it to bulb Civil Service, because it is such a slow tech otherwise and it will really help us grow, we do have tons of river tiles.

Here is Washington just after bulbing CS:



Good food!

After mathematics I wasn't really sure what to research, but I start on currency. Markets are decent for the +25% gold, and a mint will be nice to have in Cinci.

On turn 117, we connect Cincinnati with Washington, giving us a noticable rise in gold per turn:



I started working on a route between Washington and New York as well, and we should do one to Boston as well when a worker is freed up.

One worker started building a trading post on hill near Cinci (not a river tile) because I wasn't really sure what the popular thing is to do with hills atm. If you want to switch the improvement to a mine instead, go right ahead.

On turn 119 Bismarck declares war on Darius, nothing to worry about there.

And finally on turn 120, here's the overview of our lands:



A small summary of the city production:

Washington finished a worker and started building a swordsman (i'm assuming we will gold promote them to longswords when we start attacking England)

Cinci finished a work boat, which created the second fishing net, then built a lighthouse (which makes the fish 4f/3c) and then also started on a swordsman, as I want to see some action soon!

Boston is working on its first building, a monument.

And New York finished its monument and is building a library, for the lack of a better option.

Our scout is healing up outside New York after getting hit by a barbarian archer. I moved one of our warriors northeast from Washington because I saw a barbarian archer around those parts and I was afraid it would attack/pillage New York, so the warrior is there just in case.

Our happiness is getting close to negative, since both Boston and Cincinnati will grow soon, so we should buy that dyes tile near Boston and hook it up asap for the happiness.

 

I would never abandon you darrell! Oh captain my captain and so on and so forth!

Edit: Also i should probably start resizing my images.

Oh and also if we need more happiness after the dyes we could look into allying/destroying dublin for their ivory.

 

Great news on Stockholm, looks like excellent progress. I'll give sunrise089 24HRs to slip in, otherwise I'll claim it.

Darrell

 

Okay...I played my turns and sunrise089's turns and the other half of regoarrarr's turns. We are up to 146. Same drill as before, give sunrise089 24HRs to man up and take a set, otherwise go for it.

Report in next post.

Darrell

 

(120) Things look peachy so I don't change anything.

(121) Alex attacks Seoul. Workers build raods in anticipation of free happy.

(122) Alex asks for war against Bismarck. Polite decine, but have fun you crazy kid.

(123) New York finishes her Library and starts a Colosseum. We need lots of Colosseums as we need more cities. I think we have built one so far.

(124) Bismarck wants to attack Elizabeth. Hmm...we have a pact of teching with her so I decilne, but 10 turns does feel about right. Currency -> HBR. We want Banking for The Forbidden City.

(125) We adopt Meritocracy for some free happy . Hanoi has it in for KL if we want to march are units god knows where. Our research pact with Elizabeth comes in . We get Engineering for free..not bad!

(126) Sell OB to Bismarck for 50g and upgrade to a Longsword.

(127) Death to Dublin!



(128) Darius and Bismarck make peace. HBR -> Chivalry. Boston starts a Settler, and I start prepping the new city with roads.

(129) Run away! One longsword is not enough to take Dublin when they get an Archer. Washington gets a second sword and starts a catapult. I sell some horse to someone for the cash needed to upgrade to a longsword.

(130) Build a trading post. We don't have any so far .

(131) Gandhi wants to make mean against Alex, but I politely decline. Good luck with that one.

(132) Our longswords move in to finish off Dublin, but...uh...that's a lot of units isn't it Lizzy?



(133) Sure enough she DoWs us. So I run away again.

Things get confusing here as I run out of room to make notes on my napking. Elizabeth asks for peace for some reason in about 10 turns. My units had been taking out a barbarian encampment, but now I march up to Dubline with 3 lognswords and 2 Catapults and do this:



Go kill her . Oh, she has longbows now . Empire overview:



Other than Machu Pichu we are on Colosseums. Then Settlers. Then the world! We want to get Forbidden Palace as well, so I've been heading to Banking.

Darrell

 

Nice. I'll wait until tomorrow evening to play, to see if Sunrise has time to get in and play

Edit: btw did Lizzie lose any units in the short war against us?

 

Nope...silly girl wouldn't go through Dublin. Of course, I removed that buffer . Oh...she has two warriors to our east.

Darrell

 

Are we going to keep Dublin as a puppet?

Also i'm thinking we'll raze pretty much every city except London, since courthouses are ridiculously expensive. Much easier to just create own settlers for England's old cities

 

Yeah, let's raze everything.

As soon as Dublin builds somethign stupid, I'd say we Annex it.

Darrell

 

Okay, i'm going to do the turns now.

 

Alright, played until turn 160.

The first few turns I do a bit of nothing while the peace treaty with england runs out. I put our catapults in place to attack Nottingham over the channel, and queue up a swordsman instead of the Colosseum Washington was building, since our dyes were getting hooked up which meant we didn't need that happiness just yet. Theology is completed, and I start researching physics. Or at least I think it was theology, i kinda forgot

On turn 151 I start assaulting Nottingham with the catapults:



You also see me making a big mistake in this picture. One of the longswordmen is standing next to Nottingham to raze it the next turn. However I became overconfident with the second longsword, using it to kill a warrior nearby, and the next turn it was killed by 3 longbowmen. I underestimated the strength of Elizabeth's army, and paid the price. Our third longsword I had sent east to New York to defend against England's two warriors and a barbarian encampment that just showed up there.

After the longswordman was killed I thought Lizzie would press on, so I plonked down the two catapults just north of Dublin while Nottingham burned down. However for some reason Elizabeth retreats with all three longbows! When she had the chance to kill at least another of my units

So I sit down with my units, and cashbuy a longswordman for 540 (or something, i forgot exactly) gold, which we could easily afford, especially since we were getting close to a golden age, where our gold would quickly soar upwards again. Then on turn 156, Elizabeth does something stupid



She just moves up two longbows and a warrior all in range of my two catapults and my longsword, without harming me at all! No prizes to anyone who guesses what happens next! The two catapults whack the western longbow, and the longsword demolishes the warrior. I was thinking of killing the longbow, which would also be an OHKO, but that would leave the longsword open for bombardment, and it would also enable the warrior to take a bash at our eastern catapult, probably killing it. So i went for the warrior instead. Longbows aren't nearly as strong against catapults as melee units are.

Next turn the longbow targets the longsword for minimal damage, but Elizabeth pulls out two more longbows!



For some reason catapults can't fire over forests (or am I just doing it wrong?) so none of the catapults can target the longbows. Our fair little longsword is all alone I decide to gamble and attack the northeastern longbow. I figured the longsword was screwed anyways if Elizabeth decided to target it, so I might as well kill a longbow before the longsword dies. Said and done, the longbow is eradicated, and what does Elizabeth do? Retreats with the other two longbows of course The longsword (we gotta start naming our military units i think) gets bombarded by London, but survives with a little less than half his HP left.

Now Elizabeth wants peace, but I refuse. War until death! On turn 159 physics rolls in, which enables us to upgrade our catapults to trebuchets, I haven't done so yet however. Also we get our GOLDEN AGE! Suddenly we're +67 gold every turn, very nice! I start researching gunpowder, a 15 turn tech, so we can get our unique unit. Though by the time they arrive our war with England will probably be over. After this a few more weedy Elizabeth moves followed, enabling me to kill another two longbows with no losses, and we're looking very good in the war:



Two catapults, four longswords and a great general. One longsword is the one we had there all along, one just returned from New York, one was cash bought, and one was a swordman built from Washington upgraded to a longsword. I left you some room on turn 160 to move around the military units to the way you wanted them. And look, Elizabeth has symbolically placed a settler with its white flag in our viewing range I guess she knows what's coming

Aside from the war not much has been going on. I created a trade route with Dublin, which is building a monument (still a puppet state). Some colosseums were completed, and I started libraries in those two cities (Boston and Cincinnati). Cinci also got a 'we love the king' day for connecting dyes. I haven't started any settlers yet though, for settling England's lands. There is still a half-injured English warrior prowling between Washington and New York but he shouldn't be much trouble. Looking at the mini map, Alex and Bismarck are looking very big up in the north east, let's hope they go to war with each other, warmongers as they are.

 

lurkers comment
ranged combat units cannot attack over obstacles, such as hills or forests, without a special promotion (which artillery gets for free). not sure if it counts as 1 tile extra and longbows could do it though (attack in reach 2 with 1 obstacle).

regarding the longbows: mounted units would have been golden against them as they can attack and retreat afterwards. piles of longbows can be quite deadly, but the AI is not using them correctly.

 

Yeah, Artillery is the first that has indirect fire without a promo I guess. You can shoot 3 tiles even over forests or hills with Artillery. Looks like good progress. I'll try and shame sunrise089 into playing 10 turns, if not I'll play in 24HRs.

Darrell

 

sunrise089 says via IM he will play...let's see .

Darrell

 

Ok, I'm caught up in the thread and do indeed have it.

 

lurker's comment: The problem with your catapult attack, looking at the 2 screen shots and from what I've read, and just general insight.

You need a direct line of sight, through the obstacle to bombard the enemy unit.

i.e. To shoot over a forest, you need a unit IN THE FOREST, with sight on the enemy unit, now you can shoot over the forest. Screen shot turn 156

If your unit is ADJACENT to the forest, but has direct sight of the enemy unit you wish to bombard, you'd think, "yes I can attack as I have an indirect line of sight (around the forest)" screen shot Turn 157

Problem here is, Siege don't shoot around Corners, they only shoot in a straight line. Artillery is probably the 1st unit, that has Directional firing from an observation post (WW1)

Solution, you need a Straight line, or direct line of sight from Artillery weapon, to own unit in/on obstacle (forest/hill) to enemy unit to bombard.

I can't get game, computer won't handle it, it'd be a $800+ game for me to buy, I ain't going too.

Great to watch, I agree with Ruff Hi's comment, easing us Civ IV players in etc. Keep it going.

Love the screen shot/commentary.

Heh heh heh, just having re-read, maybe its Promotion. But I'm sure I've seen other do it on Utube with line of sight only.