First round by Charis, roughly 40 turns
Starting thoughts...
Our starting position is interesting. There's a grass cattle, excellent,
and we're at a potential choke. That's a lake of fresh water to our north
(you can tell from food being 2), and two mined grasslands. On the downside
I can see some forested tundra peeking through to the south. No reason not
to found where we're seated, and start irrigating the cattle.
We're military and religious, with what seems to be an outstanding
early UU, the Gallic swordsmen, so our first priority in research is Iron
Working via Bronze. For us temples are 30 shields and barracks a mega-cheap 20.
With culture linking on, the countries we're mostly likely to start next to
are: Korea, Carthage, Arabia and Spain. The only one with an early UU is
the Numidian mercanary (a REAL bear, we're unlike to take him on).
First unit will be a warrior to scout. If we had pottery and were playing
like farmers, granary would be next. But for us, the warriors we make will
be upgraded into our UU, and wouldn't vets be nice?? I hope to make it an
OPTION to go early limited war or oscillating war - hitting hard and quick
to hurt neighboring foes and stall their growth, without the pitfalls of a
full blown all-war opening. That means: found four strong cities asap,
don't fear having a few extra warriors (proto-Gallics) and be ready to settle
on an iron spot, or fight for it if need be, when we get Iron Working.
(The added details below for trading and management are for the sake
of newer folks or lurkers, please pardon the length)
[0] 4000 BC - Settle where we start and head worker to irrigate then road cattle.
[5] 3750 BC - First warrior out, cattle irrigated, a we grow next turn already.
Tis emperor, so need to kick lux to 20% immediately at size two.
Growth in 7 turns, and either settler or temple in 7, great timing!
Let's get the settler out first. It's 4 shields and 3 excess food right now.
Actually, micromanagement between tree and bonus grass will get growth in six
and the settler to pop on the seventh turn. (Four turns at 3f/4s, then go 4f/3s)
Over the next few turns we explore NE by North, scaling a mountain and swinging
North. Lots of mountains and hills over there, decent chance at some iron.
Then we see plains ivory and a river flowing from a mountain due NE of capital.
If bonus food, a good spot for city two.
[12] 3400 BC - Indeed, there's some wheat there, and a goody hut, and...
a warrior from Spain. We greet the mediterranean fellow, who serves
a woman called Isabella. The Queen is cautious and to-the-point.
Ouch! Starting with Alphabet and Ceremonial Burial, they already have
learned Bronze Working, Masonry, and Pottery.
We also see the new 'contact trading' that civs do, as Spain has clearly
contacted the Arabs and sold them communication to us - for we can
communicate with them. They have the identical list of techs, having
started with Pottery and Burial. "Abu" is annoyed.
Neither have warrior code, and because we come in as 3rd civ, we can get
a two-for-one deal on the code! Let's make our nearest neighbor pay the
most, then sell to Abu. (Miser price for Bronze is 24+2gpt, and for
Pottery 4+2gpt or 22+1gpt. That's a valuation of 18 gold for 1 gpt, so cost
is 60 vs 40. "Base" research cost for these are 3 and 2 (likewise, Masonry 4,
Alphabet 5, Wheel 4, Iron Working 6). That suggests no discount at all for us
having researched about 15% of the needed beakers. Is that true?
(Test: save game, swap us OFF bronze to throw away all beakers, then check
the price. Miser price is way up to 17+3gpt, or 70. Now that suggests our earlier
low prices does reflect a discount for partial research, but it suggests that
there is a premium in value held by the AI for Bronze compared to Pottery.
Could this be correct? As a spearman tech, that's how I would see it
)
I don't like giving our foes archers, but if we fail to trade and they research
it, we'll be totally shut. Can't pass up 2-for-1 deals... So we proceed as follows:
Spain: WC for Masonry and Pottery, flat trade @miser. She's polite.
Arabia: WC is now @3rd civ, worth far less. WC+4 for Bronze Working. Still annoyed.
We can wait on alphabet, and switch research to Iron Working.
There is one more choice now... we could swap settler due next turn to Granary.
That would then take six turns to complete, or whippable after two.
For settler cranking, how does a granary rate? Without we grow from 1 to 3 in
about 12 turns and take about 13 to make a settler. With one, we grow two sizes
in 6 turns, and cycling at a higher population size means more shields and we
can produce a settler in about 6-7 turns as well. This doubles the rate of
expansion, at a cost of delaying our first settler by 10-11 turns. If we pop
out this settler first THEN build the granary, it comes in much slower because
we're back at size one and fewer shields. (The agony of this decision is what makes
Civ 3 a great game, and also what makes the opening so crucial.)
Since our goal is 3-4 more cities in good spots, we take the "long term"
view and switch to granary!
[13] 3350 BC - Ah, word of our little civ gets around. With no need for us
to buy communications, we can contact the Ottomans and the Carthaginians.
Ok, so this continent is kind of densely populated.
Carthage is cautious, and like the rest, is only up by 'Alphabet'
The Ottomans are annoyed, perhaps because they lack Alphabet
They both started with similar techs as those already known.
And for the goody hut... barbarians 8-\ We survive, one win, no promotion.
Further NE we hit coast, seeing cattle and wheat on plains.
[17] 3150 BC - Granary done, now growth in 5 and settler in 5, very good.
Swinging back west with the scout, we see the top of the river, and a
second wheat. (So a choice, settle-inward or settle-outward?
)
[20] 3000 BC - the most advanced nations list is: Arabs, Carthaginians, Spanish,
Ottomans, Celts, Koreans, Mongols and Vikings. It's clear we have five on
our continent, and the others are either together in one, or split up.
[22] 2900 BC - Settler is done. Another would take about six turns. The alternative
is a temple or warrior or spearman. Do we feel like farmers or fighters?
Or do we farm first then fight?
Actually, slipping in a warrior in two
for another scout and future Gallic sounds best first.
(The warrior completes in two thanks to food-and-grow calculations preceeding
shield calculations, getting the two extra shields needed)
[26] 2710 BC - Our first founding decision. How far to capital? Several good spots
on river not far from wheat and ivory. Five away, wasting no squares at all,
is on a hill, off the river, but with two good bonus grass in range. Could
get lucky resource in hill/mountain, too early to tell. One past on the ivory,
can't tell if it's on a river due to ivory. In Despotism it shows up as 2 gold
either way. Also, food is very low there. One step further looks good BUT...
it leaves about a two row gap of prime-time near-cap land that is either wasted
or huge overlap. Another step out, eight squares from capital, defines the second
ring, is next to the wheat (no temple needed for the food), on a river,
and catching two hills. The problem, lack of grass means major long term
food problem. 8-\
Given problems in all spots, I take the closer one, and will consider it
a barracks town, not a food town. We found Elesia, and start a rax.
[28] 2630 BC - We disperse a barb camp for 25 gold and promote.
The culture graph is identical, meaning no one has any temples yet at all.
On score, Arabia is on top, Spain next to last near us. If anyone needs to
get our cash it would be weaker far away folks. That suggests Ottomans.
Folks have the Wheel and Mysticism now to supplement the Alphabet.
We buy the wheel off Osmon for 51+2gpt. Knowing horse locations might help.
It bumps him from annoyed to cautious. Spain has two workers for sale (chuckle)
In the old days that would have meant we could cripple her. Now even one is
so expensive it 'cant be done'. (Short of 6gpt which we don't have)
Wait.. Arabia doesn't have the wheel? He'll trade Mysticism and 1 gold for it, nice!
Good shape on horses! Both Entremont and Alesia will have horses in range with
one more expansion.
Hmm, that worker deal is a tough call now. I could contort myself temporarily
for until our third city is founded, which is soon. The extra roads from the
worker would pay for itself before long too. Let's try it (and we are guaranteed
to leave Madrid one worker)
Where to put our next city? The area to our west has a grass wheat, gold hills,
and either: i) fresh water (same as capital), ii) coast, iii) both, but overlap.
Actually, I like 'iii', with the advantage of being able to irrigate the wheat
immediately. The focus so far is strong start, not so much life-at-size-21,
although we're not even close to ICS. One last advantage of choice 3 is that
it, along with our capital being on a bottleneck, form a total blockade
of our 'backlands', if we place two guys next to Elesia guarding the wheat
and horses.
[29] 2590 BC - Phew! We watch our scout get beat to 1hp by barb, then become elite!
[30] 2550 BC - Have you ever been *SO* broke that you pray for a barbarian camp to
plunder the gold? That's how bad a worker purchase sets you back
We're at 0/+0
[33] 2430 BC - Yay a barb camp! We defeat it for 25 gold, and then our other warrior
pops a goody hut with Alphabet! We found Lugdunum, on lake and coast. A granary
comes to mind with its strong food, although a warrior would work.
We see Carthage alone has Math, the others being poor.
[35] 2350 BC - Arabs start the Oracle. (Note of alternate strat for us: start
Pyramids in Entremont, building or whipping temple first)
[38] 2230 BC - Our capital can afford to be temple-less no longer, we pause
popping a settler this turn to start one... The appearance of a barbarian
next turn makes us swap this immediately to warrior (badly needed for MP anyway,
actually)
We see Korea now available in the Diplomacy list. He's got
Iron Working, Writing, Math, Horseback Riding (ow) So does Carthage and Arabia,
while Isabella lacks Writing and Osmon only lists Iron Working.
(I take no action with any of these, leaving it to my successor. I've surely
left us too poor to buy Writing and sell it to the other 2 for techs ;P)
[42] 2070 BC - Going two turns over to clear up that minor fiscal and capital
defense mess, here's our situation going to the next player... (Mid-turn, btw)
Six turns left on the painful 5gpt trade to Spain. After that investment,
the work of the work will go on to Modern Ages
For his next move, decide
between a road, else run him over to the wheat and irrigate it for Lugdunum.
(That's why we're running -1gpt deficit and 8 gp in the treasury)
A settler is in the middle of the map, directionless. Guide his destiny!
Actually, he's on a decent spot itself - on a river, next to gems (nice cash
we could use) and a horse, and three flood plains in range! Overlaps (only)
two plains with Alesia. You can settle there, giving immediately more cash,
or send him further, up to the double wheat about 5 squares NE.
The scout to the NW can fortify on his hill and rest, else go after that camp.
There is a second warrior-scout not far from the settler, who should likely team up.
The worker at Alesia can divert to the new settler to connect him, or make
a road on the ivory for a much needed luxury (and one more gpt there), or
work a bonus grass or go to connect a horse. (Keep in mind we're infantry and
can NOT make use of horse-based units!!)
Military: we have 7 of 12 allowed units, one warrior per city (want a spear
added to each at some point), one barracks in Alesia, and a granary in Entremont.
With the founding of the next city we've got our "base core" on which to grow.
Next up:
Maniac Marshall (Carbon Copy - on deck)
Pardon going a turn and a half extra - if possible, take this turn
plus 18 more, stopping at the end of 1500 BC to keep things even.
The zipped save file is given in the next link - the zip also
includes the 4000BC starting save. Please use format RBP1-Celts-year.zip
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads2/RBP1-Celts-2070BC.zip
Good luck! (You always need that after a 'Charis' start
Charis
. Will probably get my chance to play this tonight or this afternoon, if not you can expect it sometime tomorrow.
But we have silks down there, which we can probably assuredly own (that'll be three local luxes for us with the gems near Camu) Arabia's besieged worker is still hiding in their capitol.
on my part or I was playing around with the sliders before I saved and didn't set it back in the right place. I'm really not sure since I noted putting the science slider to minimum when we started Lit. Good catch, though.
