SGn00b - for those new to SG's

[Admiral Kutzov]

please auto skip me until 12/27/05

IMHO, we should:
1. end the war
2. do some trades for math, but not give away HBR or metal casting too soon
3. take the barb city when it has grown to size 2
4. fill in the east coast with 2 more cities.
5. ramp up for war on Smoke or whatever his name is now.

 

[Pie-es-Tasty]

Save gotten. Will play in probably a half hour.
Nice write up by the way.

 

[chriseay]

Excellent Admiral. Had me laughing out loud.

Change of plans for me, I'll have to be on auto skip from now until the 2nd/3rd of January unless otherwise noted in this thread by me. Hope I can get either a computer at my parents house to play the game, or maybe (with the change of plans) my computer on the trip with me. I'll continue checking in on this thread no matter what.

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

@chriseay, something u should know about me. The bartenders at the skellar used to give me freebies. LoL. Merry christmas.

 

[Sadan01]

Admiral , good set of turns and a unique (great) writeup
Ok, the Roster. I'll do two showing the complete roster and another excluding the skips just to get rid of the mess (wait til you see the full roster and you'll know what I mean). Please change if I have details incorrect. I hope its not too confusing - and we probably should continue to post the full roster so places don't go missing.

Full Roster:
Sir Toma (Reserved - Skip until next post from ST)
pling (On deck) (Pling is away from 24th to 27th Dec and 29th Dec to 2nd Jan)
Chriseay (Auto-Skip until 2/3rd Jan unless otherwise noted)
Sadan01 (Available but time-limited to work-constraints over xmas/NY; should be able to get turns done though)
BeefontheBone
Admiral Kutzov (Just played - Nice Writeup)
Pie-es Tasty (Up Now!)

Holiday Roster
Pling (On Deck - Available until 24th Dec)
Sadan01
BeefontheBone
Admiral Kutzov (Just played - Nice Writeup)
Pie-es Tasty (Up Now!)

 

[chriseay]

Ha Admiral, wish I got freebies at the skellar. I always saved my best antics for the saloon.....extra strong monkeyboys are the best.

 

[pling]

I'm now out tomorrow evening too - so if the save doesn't appear by ~noon (GMT) tomorrow I likely won't have the time to play so will need skipping!

 

[Pie-es-Tasty]

Noon tomorrow GMT? That's like... 6 am for me. I'll be sure to play today! Sorry for the delay (I'm a dirty liar).

 

[Pie-es-Tasty]

Okay here we go (finally). I should really stop posting when I'm going to play, because obviously I'm not a very good judge.

Turn 0 (600 AD):
Look around at everything and form a plan. I’m going to try to capture (or raze) one more Aztec city before declaring peace. However, if any Aztec units enter our territory and are in any position to harm our improvements, I’ll try for peace. A few unmoved units. I move the Horse Archer in Good Enough towards Texcoco, and I move the stack of swordsmen next to it too. I also switch from Code of Laws to Mathematics so we can get catapults later. Hope I’m not doing something incredibly stupid by continuing the war…

In Between Turns: A jaguar attacks our swordsman stack, but he’s repulsed.

Turn 1 (610 AD):
Archer finishes in Good Enough, start on Axeman. Whoa, unpromoted archer guarding Good Enough? Promote him to City Defense II. Move the new archer towards Texcoco. Move the wounded Swordsmen towards our territory. Keep the rest of the stack there. Worker at Guangzhou starts a mine on a jungle hill. Horse archer plunders 15 Coins from the Iron Mine. Move him over to help at Texcoco. Worker at Good Enough finishes cottage, starts road in the same square.

Turn 2 (620 AD):
Nothing much, just continue moving units towards Texcoco. Uh oh, there’s a new barbarian city, right on the ruins of the old one (I think that where the old one was).

Turn 3 (630 AD):
Worker at Ironchou finishes road, starts mine. I just realize the wounded swordsman is a City Raider II. Darn that would have really helped. He starts healing anyway. We’re going to need a lot of forces to crack Texcoco. I’m holding off till the new reinforcements arrive from Beijing and Shanghai. Ivory is hooked up, and I realize there’s no road on our gold mine. Move worker to the gold mine.

Turn 4 (640 AD):
Beijing finishes Horse Archer, starts Forge. After that, nothing really.

Turn 5 (650 AD):
Another yawn.

In Between Turns: Mansa Musa calls us up and asks for Horseback Riding in exchange for Mathematics. We’re almost finished with Mathematics (4 turns left), so I ask to negotiate, and try to get Meditation too, but he refuses, and I leave.

Turn 6 (660 AD):
Shanghai finishes Swordsman, starts on an Axeman. Worker at Good Enough starts farm on jungle square. I will capture Texcoco on my turn!

Turn 7 (670 AD):
Guangzhou finishes Horse Archer, starts Axeman. Worker at Beijing hooks up gold and moves to floodplain to build cottage. I think I’m going to have to attack in the next couple turns.

Turn 8 (680 AD):
In two turns I’ll have enough troops at Texcoco to feel comfortable enough to attack. Nothing else really happens.

Turn 9 (690 AD):
Worker at Ironchou finishes mine, moves to a different jungle hill to build another mine. Next turn we attack.

In Between Turns: Montezuma comes and asks for a Peace Treaty, but that’s just because he knows his city is doomed. Tell him to take a hike.

Turn 10 (700 AD) Last Turn:
Mathematics finishes, start on Construction. China holds half a million souls! Go us! The City Raider II finishes healing, and he’s pretty close to Texcoco, so if I don’t manage to capture it, whoever is next can finish it off.

Attack! Combat I and Shock horse attacks, kills the filthy Axeman! Unpromoted swordsmen takes Combat I and Cover, and charges into the fray. The battle is fierce but our Swordsman wins with 1.4 health left. Other Horse Archer takes Combat III and attacks the last archer. Loses, but the archer is severely damaged. Newly arrived Horse Archer takes Combat II and finishes off the archer, without a scratch. Texcoco is ours!

(I had a screenshot of our glorious capture, but it disappeared)

I move the rest of the troops into Texcoco. I’ll leave it up to the next player whether to continue fighting or to declare peace.

After Turn Thoughts:
We captured Texcoco, and we probably could get another city, but I wouldn’t risk it. If it was just me, I would declare peace, and switch all those Axeman I ordered up to more peaceable things. Texcoco is only costing us 3 gold per turn, probably less once it comes out of revolts. It has access to gems (if I’m not mistaken) so we that’s a good thing. I chose too keep the city because Mansa Musa was right there with a settler pair and would have gotten the spot if we had razed it.

 

[chriseay]

Yeehaw for Texcococo (mmm cocoa). It does look like we should end the war, I think we made enough gains, plus we need to take care of that barbarian city that respawned. Our troops could probably be better used there now than fighting with monty. I will be able to play over the holidays, so if pling can't take it by tomorrow, I'll take it and play probably by the end of the day tomorrow.

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

the barb city is in a good enough place, wait until it is size two to take it.

This is not criticism, but question. Why build axemen when we can build swords?

IMHO, we should:
1. end the war
2. do some trades for math, but not give away HBR or metal casting too soon
3. take the barb city when it has grown to size 2
4. fill in the east coast with 2 more cities.
5. ramp up for war on Smoke or whatever his name is now.

nice set. Monte is not our main enemy now. need to protect the west flanks.

BTW, this was missed before please auto skip me until 12/27

If I can sneak a set in before that I will but otherwise...

@ C - sorry none of my friends are left at the skellar, otherwise, I;d tell em to set up

 

[Admiral Kutzov]

and, while I'm raving in a generally incoherent manner, what VC are we going for? We really do need to decide soon. See Sulla's walk thru.

@ pie and C - if u have been members for over 30 days, IIRC u've hit the magic number of posts to customize your user profiles

 

[pling]

Got it! I'll play this afternoon (I need to get the housework done before I start Civ up, it's the only way ). Yay for Texcoco! I'm with everyone else on the peace now & deal with barbs (once they're big enough) so I shall get on with that

I'll play without patching to 1.52 ... but I would quite like to patch sooner rather than later (it'd be nice to fix the sluggishness in late game, doesn't die but chugs like crazy). I saw somewhere that the saves are compatible, but there are gameplay changes. Dunno what the 'standard' thing is to do in such situations for SGs?

About VCs - I'm a builder by nature, so always quick to dismiss Conquest But I think we've left it a bit late, anyway, haven't we? And the only time I've won by Culture I planned that from the start and concentrated on it the whole game, so I'm not sure it's possible now (though that may be merely my inexperience shining through here ). So I'm thinking we'd be going for Diplomacy or Spaceship?

 

[BeefontheBone]

Not sure about a VC, probably an SS but it's low-scoring. Regarding patching, I'd be inclined to finish this off on 1.09 since the release notes for 1.52 suggest the combat has been hugely altered in order to stop the "my gunship was killed by a longbow, ur game is da suxx0rz" idiots moaning, which will probably make it harder to take cities since bombardment will be nerfed. Meh.

Also, the last rosters posted failed to take into account that I won't have access to the game until the 30th.

 

[chriseay]

I think maybe until after the holiday we should just go with a lax policy on the 24/48 rule. It seems that everyone is playing under restrictions. Maybe even a just pick it up if you can play system would work, but I'm not even sure how many of us are able to play right now.

On patching, I'd really like to patch my game, mostly for the reasons that pling cited. I am willing to run the rest of the this SG without if that is the group consensus. There is also the option of making a copy of the 109 folder, and using that for this game but patching the main folder to 152. That's probably what I'll do until we make a definitive decision on patch/no patch.

VC? Looks like space or diplomacy would be the easiest, though I think we might still be able to get culture if we want to. We have two religions already, so we do have a good start on it. I haven't done space in quite a while, so it could be a nice change of pace.

 

[pling]

IMHO, we should:
1. end the war
2. do some trades for math, but not give away HBR or metal casting too soon
3. take the barb city when it has grown to size 2
4. fill in the east coast with 2 more cities.
5. ramp up for war on Smoke or whatever his name is now.

These seemed a nice little set of objectives (though rather beyond 10 turns worth).

Turn 0 (700 AD)
Pre-turn: See that we have an Arab city in our land , still think we need to deal with the Barbs first, will move army back for that and consolidate Texcoco. I negotiated peace with Monty (we didn't need to bribe him, unfortunately we also didn't get anything from him) and I'm switching all those Axemen over to Libraries, I think the research boost will be important and the culture will be useful.
Shanghai begins: Library
Guangzhou begins: Library
Good Enough begins: Library
Ironchou begins: Library
Good Enough grows: 4
Ironchou finishes: Archer

Inbetween turns we get told how we measure up:

Size may not be everything, but ...

Turn 1 (710 AD)
Archer promoted: City Garrison I
Archer promoted: City Garrison II
Horse Archer promoted: Combat I
Horse Archer promoted: Combat II
Swordsman promoted: City Raider I

I promote these guys, fortify the Archer in Texcoco and send the other two (and another Horse Archer) to deal with our barby friends.

Turn 2 (720 AD)
Beijing grows: 9

Turn 3 (730 AD)
Texcoco begins: Archer
Wasn't sure what to build here, but decided an archer would add to defence so we could move the rest of the army out without worrying too much. There's next to no production in Texcoco so we'll need a worker down here later before we can build much.

Turn 4 (740 AD)
I micromanaged every city to try and get every last drop of commerce, now at -4 where I think we can afford to stay for a little. (We have ~300 gold at this turn)
Beijing finishes: Forge
Christianity has spread: Vilcas (Incan Empire)

Turn 5 (750 AD)
Beijing begins: Christian Temple
Happiness will cripple growth soon, so a temple will be good.

Archer defeats (3.00/3): Barbarian Archer
Attack on IronChou! But we survive rather easily.

Turn 6 (760 AD)
Shanghai grows: 4

Turn 7 (770 AD)
Looks like good old Julius got his units to the barb city first, bah.

Turn 208 (780 AD)
Horse Archer defeats (3.84/6): Barbarian Archer
Horse Archer defeats (2.76/6): Barbarian Archer
Captured Angle (Barbarian)
But I got to it before July had a chance! Thankfully it was already size 2 so I could just attack, and Julius was just hanging about for some reason.

Turn 9 (790 AD)
Turn 10 (800 AD)
Nothing to report on these two.

And finally, a few pictures of how we stand now:

Everyone hates us! Eek! I refused Mali on a demand for Theology somewhere in my turnset but forgot to note when. That may've been a mistake, I think we need friends. Everyone else (except the Incans) is Buddhist, which may well be why we're so disliked.

And I think that as well as our Arab interloper down in the south east there's also an Aztec city, judging by the culture we can see.

So the objectives after I've played are:

1. end the war
2. do some trades for math, but not give away HBR or metal casting too soon
3. take the barb city when it has grown to size 2
4. fill in the east coast with 2 more cities.
5. ramp up for war on Smoke or whatever his name is now.

Not bad for 10 turns

Roster (if we do stick to it):
Sir Toma (Reserved - Skip until next post from ST)
pling (Just played, away now till 27th then 30th-2nd)
Chriseay (Up now!)
Sadan01 (On deck)
BeefontheBone (Away till 30th)
Admiral Kutzov (Away till 27th)
Pie-es Tasty (The one with the time on his hands)

 

[chriseay]

I got it...will play shortly! Question is, who is smoke? Is that the Incans? I'll have trouble following the objectives if I don't know what the hell I'm doing!

I guess we're staying at 109 for the time being?

 

[pling]

Question is, who is smoke? Is that the Incans? I'll have trouble following the objectives if I don't know what the hell I'm doing!

Ah, yeah. I just ignored that bit coz I knew I wouldn't get there ...

Not entirely sure who the Admiral meant, but I'd guess at either the Incans or the Arabs (given that city they've neatly plonked down next to us)

I guess we're staying at 109 for the time being?

I'm guessing so I need work out how to run both versions ... it's awkward with the auto-patching coz means you can't revert easily.

 

[chriseay]

Turn 210 (800 AD)
Beijing begins: Granary
I micromanage our cities to emphasize either growth if they can grow, or production if they can't. The change to the granary in Beijing is because we are still plus 2 on happies, but minus 2 on health. Also, I think we need to add BUILD WORKERS to our goals. We are woefully short.

Turn 211 (810 AD)
Angle begins: Archer
Mali asks for OB's and I accept, we should try to get in somebodies good graces. I also revolt to Organized Religion. We'll need some infrastructure, and we need to spread Christianity a little.

Turn 212 (820 AD)
Tech learned: Construction
I send a HA to investigate the possible heathen Aztecs down south.

Turn 213 (830 AD)
Research begun: Monarchy
We should probably get Calendar after Monarchy, hooking up resources is a goal.

Turn 214 (840 AD)
Guangzhou finishes: Library

Turn 215 (850 AD)
Guangzhou begins: Worker

Turn 216 (860 AD)
Beijing finishes: Granary
Turns out there are no Aztecs!!

Turn 217 (870 AD)
Christianity has spread: Ironchou

Turn 218 (880 AD)

Turn 219 (890 AD)
Tech learned: Monarchy

Turn 220 (900 AD)
Research begun: Calendar

Things we might want to think about include revolting to Hereditary Rule and whether we really want Calendar right now. Also, we should build some more workers and get the spot down south with the HA setlled as soon as possible.

The North:

The South:

The facts:

 

[Pie-es-Tasty]

@The Admiral:
I know about the title and avatar changing thing, I just don't know what to change it too.

And guys, you're pretty much going to have to switch to 1.52, because, (cough), I already patched it. I just happened to log in last night, and "Hey look, a patch!" And I'm not switching back! It's the first time I can run it at full graphics settings with no slow down.

About the new combat, the only change I saw in the log is that firepower (how much damage in HP a unit does when it hits) is based on maximum strength, not current strength. For example:

Old system:
Longbowman: 6/6 strengh attacks Modern Armor 4/40 strengh. When the Modern Armor hits, it only does 4 damage, but the longbow does six.

New system:
Same example. When the Modern Armor hits, it does 40 damage, instead of 4. Less of the "OMG LONGBOWMEN KILLED MY TANK I HATE CIV!!!"

EDIT: Oh yeah and about the Victory Conditions, we probably shouldn't try to over extend ourselves, and everyone hates us, so I think that Space Ship mabye the only way to go here. I think more along the lines of pling, I'm a builder (although I have been playing some warmongerish games to brush up on my tactics).