Rule Britannia!

Few ideas:

I'd settle on more city north near wheat on the river and possibly one more south to grab both whales and spices. With 4 unique luxes, some circuses, colosseums you can grow your cites fairly big.

Don't think trireme snipe is gonna be easy. Since Carthage is probably spamming quinqueremes (few of them will be watching her Cap.) and forest elephants it might be a good idea to kill her on land. Couple of pikes, warrior and 3 trebuchets (longbows) shall do the trick.

Or, guard your wonderful chokepoint and leave her be for now while you concentrate fully on discovering Education, Compass and Navigation.

Second option will lead to a faster finish time i think.
 
Has dido got a second city you ask? Go to trade with her, and click on 'cities'. This will tell you how many cities she has other than her capital, and their populations.

Is her capital on the coast you ask? Very important as an inland city will tell you it's at least continents. Now you have writing you can trade ambassies (not sure if she as it yet tho), which will let you see her capital, and save on a little scouting. You can then also see the wonders she's working on and her capital population, city defence and religion.

What else did you plan to do? Optics. Not required super early, you've no fish, and no need to embark units yet. I'd take a couple others (e.g. bronze working to remove the jungle on your gems, maybe construction to turn archers into comp bowmen that really rip up barbs and civs in the early game) before pushing up to philosophy asap-ish.

HG? Yeah, maybe. I'd want to get a load of comp bowmen, but others may well advocate this, especially as you've chosen tradition for the wonder bonus. I'd prioritise NC, and maybe even Heroic epic (!) but HG may well be very viable.

War now or later? Depends how many other civs you can find for trade. Don't see why you can't start you ranged off on experience soon though.

Demographics: Don't worry about anything except literacy, you're placed just fine. If you're over 10% behind the literacy leader it's hetting tough, but otherwise no worries!

Now you have a warrior and an archer, they work great in tandum to clear barbs like the ones to the south, or farm them (maybe like the ones in the north?).
 
III. When Worlds Collide

While Elizabeth was busy tearing her hair out after noticing that Robert has run away, things were happening in the world beyond her:

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Elizabeth merely laughs when told that the greatest library in the world has been built. After all, what use is a library when you are confronted by giant wooden houses? A way of finding a proper guide to write terms of surrender, perhaps?

As well, wanting to gain the gems south of London but being blocked by a plot of jungle, Elizabeth commissions the arm-less (no pun intended) scientist, A. Dork Heatlr, to discover a metal hard enough to cut through the dense undergrowth:

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"Behold My Wits" also has run through a cul-de-sac in the southern waters. Elizabeth therefore ordered her pride and joy to explore north instead, mapping out the waters around Ragusa.

Meanwhile, the worker team was ordered to farm the land around London to speed up growth:

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The second trireme in the capital finally finished construction and was named by Elizabeth as "Dido's Death." Following that, Elizabeth ordered her capital to build a... a... Well, she can't really recall.

(Really, I forgot what I built next, an archer, I think? :mischief:)

The scouting party (which apparently told that Robert planned to stay in the Carthaginian court for another, oh, I don't know, 9 months to see Dido's gift to him? :lol:) finally reported back to Elizabeth that Carthage indeed IS coastal:

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True, the fact that Robert fathered a bastard child annoyed (infuriated, even) Elizabeth, but since Carthage is coastal, she can get her revenge later.

However, what made Elizabeth even more curious was this:

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"Aha!" she exclaimed, "Signs of another unknown civilization ready to bow the knee to me and shower me with presents of extreme value! Send a trireme to greet these miserly barbarians!"

Sure enough, a few turns later:

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Elizabeth greeted the old Austrian empress who was so fat that the mere sight of her made Elizabeth cringe. However, she IS clothed in a beautiful white dress, which Elizabeth absolutely loved. "Hag or no hag, this woman knows style," Elizabeth whispered to her Secretary of State. Perhaps she can align herself with this hag of infinite grace and voracious tendencies...

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"Mhm, that's right, bow your head to the demands of your future queen!" Elizabeth thought to herself.

The acceptance of an English embassy allowed Elizabeth to magically see the Austrian capital:

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A turn later, A. Dork finally found a way to remove the deep jungles surrounding her highness's precious gems:

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As a reward, Elizabeth commissioned him to find a way of making her carriage move faster. Apparently, getting her peasants to lift it on their shoulders is too slow :p

"Dido's Death", meanwhile, reported that a second city belonged to the Austrian hag:

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The extraction of the southern gems finally began:

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On the 56th turn, the people began revolting amongst themselves, asking for a way to equally divide the 3000 cows between them. Some said that they will form a committee and see to each person's needs, while some believe that they should first divide them equally THEN buy and sell as necessary. Others believed that the cows were sacred and that they shouldn't be treated as commodity. However, with a bit of help from subterfuge, Elizabeth managed to convince them that God allotted her to evenly divide the cows. What did she do? Why, give every family a cow. That adds up to about 2700 cows... What about the rest? She gets to keep them, of course. Why? Well, because she's the queen:

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Following that, she told the people that Almighty God wished them to enjoy the cows: otherwise, why would He have given them any in the first place? Therefore, Elizabeth proclaims that it is noble to own cows, but most importantly, to make them reproduce as to get more. How can they do that with one cow? Simple: they buy one cow of the opposite gender from her but the first three calves are given back to her as payment and the fourth given to her priests as a 'sacrifice' to the God of the Open Sky:

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Well, dear reader, tell me what you think Elizabeth actually did to the fourth cow :lol:

Meanwhile, the "unknown" build was finished and an archer begun in its place:

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Ah, so that's the build I forgot:a library.

Just off the coast of Wittenburg, Maria Theresa's vassal, "Dido's Death" found a very large crater. She would use that to bury the corpses of Maria and Dido one day, she promised. The thought of that alone made her (and therefore her citizens) happy:

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A temple to the false god, Artemis, was built on the 59th turn. However, Elizabeth didn't mind: she had to learn to count herself. Does she really have 500 cows or were her advisors lying, keeping 250 with them and only 250 with the queen?

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Several turns after that, Elizabeth met a man who she thought looked stupider than Robert and Dido:

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I mean, come on, yellow robes? Is the man a coward or a feather-head?

However, though inferior, Elizabeth could use with some knowledge as to where the Yellow King's lands lie:

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Ignore the date on the above photo, it was taken sometime after the embassy was accepted

A holy mountain was discovered in the 62nd turn, making most of Elizabeth's people in need of a pilgrimage:

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She didn't allow them, of course :lol:

In the meantime, another archer battalion was recruited in London. It was kept as a homeguard, then the training of a settler expedition begun:

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After thus, Elizabeth found herself wishing to sleep. However, she surveyed her (future) lands:

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And her tech situation:

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Yes, she truly is the Queen of Backwardom. But that will all change, once her dashing archers, who wield bows as long as they are tall, and ships that fire big, lead balls in a cloud of smoke enter world... and of course, when Robert decides to come back :lol:

Analysis follows post
 
Alright, situation is still quite flexible, however, peace until SoTLs come seems appetising. I took monarchy for the gold and happiness bonus, but considering that I wish to go for the hanging gardens (hence mathematics), it seems to be the wrong policy obtain. If I recall correctly, though, stone gives a boost to wonder production so I can just settle a second city north, tech masonry and hook the stone/marble up (thus making stone circles as a pantheon actually look juicy...) Overall plan now is to expand to three cities, do a strict beeline to education, build oxford and take Nav as the free tech, all the while building galleasses, readying for upgrade.

Wonders that I have my eyes on are HG and... well, oxford and NC, but those don't really count. Therefore, next techs would be Masonry (if stone provides wonder bonus)>Calendar>Philo>Trapping>HBR>CS, but order is changeable. As for city sites, I think I can manage one up north to hook up stone and marble and another south to hook up spices.

What do you guys think?
 
I would have done things a bit differently. I would have settled 3 more cities quickly (before t60) while building some archers for defense. City sites would be obvious - NE coastal river, NW coast and S spices/whales. NC after 4 cities, then either beeline for Navigation or take a diversion for Machinery to take out Dido with longbows. IW fairly early to find the iron since it is likely you will need to settle additional cities to get enough for SoLs. On King (and usually even up to Immortal difficulty) all it takes later is 10-12 frigates (SoLs) and a couple of privateers to conquer the rest of the map.
 
Next important tech for you is philosophy (can get away without construction before that on king easy). Even before SoTL's galleases look good, but I might make my first targert Austria as it's closer to London by sea. Also a runawy austria is a huge pain (actually can you scout to see if you can go round Carthage to the south? It would put her back on the list :). Is SoZ/GLight built yet? If so, go to diplomacy screen and click on the 'relationships' tab to find out who has which wonder - it will help decide who to kill first :). You could build a couple more archers, upgrade to comp bows and take the second city while you wait for compass (would need optics for the crossing if going for austria) England has early advantage in that an embarked scout is quick enough to take the city wothout being shot at, as long as you shoot her tri/quinqueremes. If you don't want to be so daring, save up money to buy galleases (consider barracks, and possibly HE - At some point you want to hit IW, but can be after compass), then buy and build a tonne on hitting compass.

SP's - Should have taken aristocracy. Not so bad, just get it next time and you still catch some of HG and all of NC. Then it's tradition finisher. If your next tree is commerce LHS, try not to go too quick on culture - try to break into medieval (theology) just beforehand. Did you take legalism after building a monument? if so, drama will give you a culture boost so plan for that. If you can work the artist specialist you could stack with HG and have a GA quick enough to help you build uni/oxford quick while you research astronomy. Would also aid with money for ships.

Stone does not have a wonder bonus, only marble (but I think you have some anyway). However the marble bonus is only for the city so will not aid london.

At some point you might want a second city, though it's not mandatory (don't do it while building a NW, else you'll need to immediately buy the building or lose the NW. You'll almost definitely also have to buy a uni for it), in which case NE river is the best place.
 
If you want to start taking cities, those city-states up north could be good
 
I also would have tried to play along the lines Red Rover suggests. You've had plenty of excess happiness for many turns and could've sold a lux for enough added cash to buy a settler and then settle on or improve that lux and do the same again, likely selling horses and if happiness permits the next lux.

4 city tradition is very strong and for me is an easy crush of the AI's playing Emperor if I get a good map and still a win even with the worst maps. You've got a very nice map her for England.

I'd settle my first city south towards Dido as you can certainly be ready if she attacks early and you want to force her to expand southward. Then you have easy access to Carthage and can leave her with some horrid and pillaged minor city so as to avoid war monger hatred from eliminating her if you wish.

And..oh I forgot to tell you that I'd also have left you for Dido, and not just bcuz the Carthaginian weather is much better :rolleyes:.

I know you want to have Robert drawn and quartered, but I fear that by the time you take Carthage, he'll have escaped to the warm "embrace" of Maria.
 
Oh ya nielkaz, I'd kind of assumed OP'd been doing it - sell your lux's till you're only a couple of happy - you can sell each to friendly civs for 240 gold. You're most of the way to your first golden age, which ideally you want to be hitting just after education to build uni/oxford superfast, but you'll be hitting yours far too early atm (second one will be too late). Sell your lux's, and use them to buy/upgrade units and/or buildings required to build national wonders, or city states. That or settlers, but you've already gone down this path, at this point I'd settle a maximum of 1 more city before oxford.
 
Oh ya nielkaz, I'd kind of assumed OP'd been doing it - sell your lux's till you're only a couple of happy - you can sell each to friendly civs for 240 gold. You're most of the way to your first golden age, which ideally you want to be hitting just after education to build uni/oxford superfast, but you'll be hitting yours far too early atm (second one will be too late). Sell your lux's, and use them to buy/upgrade units and/or buildings required to build national wonders, or city states. That or settlers, but you've already gone down this path, at this point I'd settle a maximum of 1 more city before oxford.

Wait, this idea of selling lux resources.... You guys do it even if you only have one? (I know I have 2 gems, but the other one is still unworked)
 
Yes, we'll sell lux resources when we only have one in early situations where we can afford to lose 4 happiness. You get the lux back in 30 turns if needed anyhow. You also can sell strategic res for 45 each..ie 225 gold for 5 horses for 30 turns. Of course, this assumes that a horseman rush doesn't fit into your immediate plans, and certainly it doesn't yet in this situation.

Often I am able to buy all 3 settlers following a build order similar to Tabernak's 4 city Tradition.

.. neilkaz ..
 
...umm, yeah, sorry for taking a long time to reply, but I have assessments in two weeks' time and I probably wouldn't have enough time to be able to continue this. Anyway, thanks guys for reading and for allowing me to pick up whatever advice that was posted over the past few weeks: I most probably wouldn't be able to finish this, but if I do get in the swing of things afterwards, then why not?

Thanks again once more :goodjob:
 
Something I didn't see mentioned on this thread but that I've been playing with with great success is a Longbow rush. It's somewhat similar to the Chinese UU rush, but in this case you start with extra range instead of extra attacks. Use naval or horse units to help your long range units spot and you can warmonger early effectively while building up bonuses on those massed Longbows. In fact, you can get that 2nd attack per turn on your fourth bonus and suddenly have some very formidable ranged units as you head into the Industrial era when you'll have to stop building them. But at that point they upgrade to 2-range Gatling guns. Not quite as nice as three-range, but still pretty handy to continue a Domination advance. Around this time you should be able to convert to heavy naval production on most maps and start spamming Ships of the Line. Ideally you'll get a domination win before your opponents advance too far technologically, probably not beyond the early modern era.

I've had great success with this on several maps at Prince and am getting ready to try it on the next level up.
 
Awww... I just found this and I realized you stopped without finishing :sad:
I was enjoying reading of Elizabeth and her dreams of conquest and of her jealousy of Robert, who ran off with Queen "Die-do."

Was looking forward to the day that you buried Die-do in the Barringer Crater (of course, Elizabeth would have called it Gloriana Crater after throwing that Barringer buffoon in the tower). :lol:

I'll have to get more creative when I play and have a running story like this, very entertaining :king:
 
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