Seeking feedback on my current game

[TRJS]

Hi all,

I am in the middle of a Prince level game playing as Augustus on a Standard Continent map at Epic speed.

Attached is the save file.

I am about to declare on Louis in a matter of turns but thought I would seek some thoughts on the state of play.

As you can see I have already taken out Russia and Egypt with France the only civ left on my land mass.

Have just met the Americans and Germans whilst also winnin the circum race.

My feeling at this stage is my economy is not ideal and I am unsure if I should be direct my workers to build alternatives to the farm/mine/cottage layout currently in place.

With regards to my pending war on France, we are at equal tech levels but I am confident of gaining a couple of his cities due to well promoted Praetorians supported by trebs, pikes and pending knights.

Your feedback will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

TRJS

 

[Cam_H]

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TRJS,

Good work on dealing with Egypt and Russia - it's certainly given you a number of excellent cities to build from. You've clearly exploited your Praetorian to good effect.

I guess the two issues that I am a little wary of are;

1. City Management

I think that you're suffering a bit from lack of clarity on which way to go with your cities' management. You're attracted to the 'Farm Economy' as you have the Forum unique building, you're running the Caste System and entrenched in Pacifism. A problem however crops up in that you're also running a 'Cottage Economy', and have difficulty in reconciling the two, which has led to numerous cities not growing to their potential, or growing at a snail's pace. This is not to say a 'hybrid' of the two can't co-exist, but where you're at is not quite extracting the best out of either or a hybrid.

I am also mindful that the roles of some cities also appear a bit muddied.

Some discussion points:

Memphis;

Cottage heaven! You've got a food resource and bags of grassland that have been cottaged pretty well to the maximum. This city will continue to grow, because there's a net food surplus. Unfortunately, this rate of growth will be painfully slow at a net growth of +2 per turn (or give up working your Mines). Personally I would have chain irrigated from the south west past the Dye, up and then around to the Rice. This will pump up the population, and get those tiles to the north east in business. Furthermore, you're on the brink of , so a Grocer and an Aqueduct (rather than a Buddhist Missionary) are your builds here.

Neapolis;

Your unit pump should be all about maximising ... that's and ... therefore not Cottages and not Specialist Scientists. Despite having two food resources, this city is not working its mines and needs irrigation to work more of its tiles.

Rome;

OK, we've caught this city at a weird moment with a lot of chops coming in (although I'm not sure why). You're in Bureaucracy, which gives you and bonuses, but you've opted to use this city as a farm. Again, tiles aren't being worked - including a resource. Despite the Heroic Epic, I would look at alternatives to pop your future s, and focus on exploiting Bureaucracy. The build you want here is a Grocer - which I appreciate has only recently become available - you'll get a Stupa, but it seems a waste. I am not sure how you have 'normally' managed Rome's citizens, but note that there are undeveloped Cottage tiles.

2. War on France

Louis is killing you in the PowerChart and 'London to a brick' he will be getting Musketeers fairly soon. Your units are dispersed and bordering on becoming obsolete. He's also two technologies up on you, albeit you are 7-ish turns off parity.

If you intend to war with him in the future, consider cancelling the resource deals you have going with him - you don't need the cash that much.

Personally I don't think that you're ready for him, and capturing two or three cities, while possible, may cause more longer term problems than they're worth. I would look at holding off now for a more decisive strike at him later on.

With that all said ...

I think that your game is fairly strong, and with an increased focus in specialisation and mindfulness of growth requirements of your cities, I think you're well on the way to a good victory.

Agree or disagree - I hope this has given you some food for thought.

 

[Ecofarm]

Nice work, Cam H. It pains me to see Rome not working those hammer tiles. I only wish there were more hills, with all that food. A couple watermills later will help, but it will never be much of a production city without elite workshops.

.02

 

[csar508]

what program do I use to open the file?

 

[OTAKUjbski]

what program do I use to open the file?

Make sure you have the Warlords expansion before you try to open his saved file.

I stole this from the War Academy @ http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strategy/city_specialization.php :

Feeding your City

This part of the strategy was given to me by Wreck, so I can't take credit for it. I will try and explain it though.

The key to getting your city to thrive is to give it just enough food improvements (farms) to grow to maximum size. Everything else is excess and will take away from the specialization. (The GP Farm is the exception)

Every population point in your city consumes 2 food. Fortunately, every population point (up to 20) provides a new worked space in your city's fat cross (workable area around the city) and that in turn provides more food. When you start a city, you get 2 extra food from the city itself (called +2F) plus whatever food is in the first space highlighted or "worked". Usually that is +2F or +3F as well. Ideally, if every square around your city was +2F (grassland), then your city would grow to full size, because every time your city would grow, a new worked spot would provide +2F to cover the -2F needed for the higher population. You would always have the +2F surplus that's given to you when you start your city. (-2F for a population of one, with a +2F for one worked spot plus the +2F from the city itself)

I hope that makes sense!​

Neapolis' tiles, for example, can only yeild 34 if they are ALL worked (36 once the farm is irrigated under Biology), making 4 tiles completely unusable even at maximum population (18). Even then, you need population 20 to work every tile, so you'll likely find your cap closer to 16.

Chain irrigate and bring in some farms.

I'm not sure if by design or by accident, but Rome and Memphis should eventually grow past population 20 pretty easily -- albeit very slowly.

I have a tendency in my cities to put extra farms up in the beginning just to grow my cities a bit faster. Then post-Emancipation, I'll replace a lot of them with cottages.


Other than that, Cam_H already hit the other big point of city management, Health, so ... yeah ... hopefully that helped.

 

[TRJS]

Cam_H thanks for the valuable feedback. It is very enlightening to have someone critique a game like you did and will help me now and in future games.

I have just played some more of the game taking on board your tips.

Improved Rome, Mephis and Neapolis worked tiles which should see their populations grow to work the appropriate tiles. Had never really chain irrigated before and I can now see its worth.

Held off the war with France but continued to build up my military. This was just as well because France declared on me a few turns later. My own build up allowed me to repulse their attack and even take one city before peace was re-established. Louis even gave me 590 gold for his mistakes.

One annoying factor was Louis beating me, in the middle of the war, to Liberalism. He now has a tech lead on me.

I met my last neighbour, Mansa Musa, who has made some nice tech trades with me. He shares an island with Cyrus and this seems to be holding him back a little on techs. Often when I meet him later in the game he has a much higher lead on me.

Well, thanks Cam_H and OTAKUjbski for your feeback.

Have attached the latest save if your interested.

Cheers,

TRJS

 

[Cam_H]

Glad to be of help!

Memphis, Rome and Neapolis were used as examples I guess to highlight the importance of food and the structure of a specialised city. Planning for chain irrigation is typically an important step.

As hinted at before, when leaders get their Unique Units, they're often looking for a fight (I dread having a strong Russian neighbour in the Industrial Era!). I'm not sure if he did use his Musketeers or not, but in my experience it's at least one to watch. Well done on repelling his force and turning it back on him, and you don't have to carry that "You declared war" negative modifier for the bulk of the remaining game (which may be handy, it may be worth nothing at all).

Just be wary of trading too much with Mansa ...

I look forward to downloading your game.

 

[TRJS]

In case your interested Cam_H I finished the game last night.

Managed a Diplo victory by wiping out the French and making buddies with Cyrus and Bismark. We all ganged up on Mansa to ensure he didn't tech too far ahead. Built the UN and Cyrus and I managed to vote me the win.

Will post the final save when I get home tonight if your interested .

 

[Cam_H]

Sounds great ... well done! Good work on getting rid of Louis.

 

[TRJS]

Attached final save for yor interest.

You can see that Mansa was heading towards space but with Bismark and Cyrus attacking him he was slowed a little.

 

[cabert]

Good advice from cam as usual
Congrats for the win, TRJS.
You may be ready to play at prince with a "normal leader" (= anyone but Rome ), if you use the specialization tips you got.

 

[Cam_H]

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TRJS,

Congatulations again. You must have been pleased to grab Lyons - Notre Dame is a great WoW when you're on a big landmass such as you are. Good effort too on engineering the anti-Mali dogpile.

There are a few city management issues and Worker action activities where I still have some concerns. For instance; Neapolis with no power plant {and despite the anti- role of an Unit Pump, there's a darn good tile not being used given that you could easily raise the population to work the tile} ...

... and Orleans' workers building railroads when there's numerous undeveloped grassland tiles ...

... but when you've got one of these ...

(Image of Diplo win announcement)

... do these, and other similar micro-management slips really matter?

I'm hearing what Cabert's saying, in that Augustus is a leader who is comparatively strong. I'd certainly encourage you to experiment with leaders with different offerings (than a 8

Classical Era unit plus other handy attributes!), but regardless you should be rightly pleased with what you've achieved with this game.

Well done again ... keep on Civ'vn!

 

[TRJS]

Thanks for the tips Cam.

Am midway through a game as Alexander and finding things very different.