[NFP] Shadow game - help me beat Emperor

[Noble Zarkon]

Many people on here say this game is too easy at Deity but I struggle to win above King and I'm not alone! So my aim here is play this game very slowly step by step, explain my reasoning and have you guys correct it / make suggestions as needed. I hope this will help not just me but others as well.

I would ask if anyone plays along that you put all information related to things I've haven't found in spoilers please.

I've disabled most of my mods but the ones I've left on are:-

• Polite City States (stops City state borders expanding)
• Real Great People (moves the Gt Prophet to the right of the screen!)
• Work Ethic fix
• Sukritact's Simple UI Adjustments

Settings are:-

• Gathering Storm
• Random Leader
• Emperor
• Standard Speed
• Continents Map
• Small map size
• Disaster Intensity 2

The leader I was assigned is Cleopatra and here is the start, more thoughts in the next post.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Initial thoughts:-

• We're on a plains hill so settling in place will get an extra hammer which is good.
• Lot's of riverside and flood plains tiles which is great for Egypt.
• Not a lot of hills.
• Tundra to the SouthEast, perhaps think about Dance of the Aurora and a religious game??
• There's a nice Harbour spot next to the two fish.

Tentative plan would be to settle in place, build a scout whilst working the honey to grow, research AH.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Reserved for game summary.

 

[Home on Lagrange]

There are miles better Civ players than me out there, but seeing how I've made the step up from struggling on Prince to consistently winning on Emperor by lurking on the forum and reading lots of great advice, maybe my perspective would be useful.

I would move the warrior two hexes NW first but unless that shows a good reason not to, I'd settle on the other side of the river where the warrior is in the screenshot. My thinking for that is:

- We get a +4 harbour location and at least 3 sea resources in range. The plains tile next to it would be a good location for the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus too.
- Once we hit population 2, we can work the 3F 1P honey and the 1F 3P hill which is as good as two 2F 2P tiles. - It won't be too long before we can get 5 production out of the starting tile with a lumber mill, which is useful because this looks very flat.
- The wine on the hill will be workable faster if we move towards it - and whatever's in the fog of war to the west is going to be better than the bare tundra we're moving away from.
- There are very few chops around - if we need to chop out a unit/walls, I'd rather have the option to chop the forest on the hill.
- Since we're playing Egypt, we don't take damage from floods so we have no reason to avoid floodplains. I'm not sure if the city centre tile's yield will go up if the river floods - if it does then that's another benefit to moving.
- Settling on the hill would give barbs extra visibility of our capital and their camps seem to spawn more in tundra.
Given that Sphinxes give +2 appeal which offsets the penalty from floodplains, we have some coastline and no space for mines/quarries, I'd be tempted to take Earth Goddess as a pantheon and try to get a monumentality classical age.

Looking forward to trying this start after work - I haven't started the game yet so hopefully nothing needs to go in a spoiler.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Thanks for the thoughts, settling on the only hill in sight did give me pause

I was thinking about the Govt Plaza where the warrior is and the Harbour next to it but I could settle where the warrior is and have the Govt Plaza next to it giving the Harbour +6 adjacency I think??

Earth Goddess is an interesting thought, understanding and managing appeal is something I need to get better at!

Unless anyone chimes in otherwise tonight I'll move the warrior along the river as you suggest, I think that's sensible.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

The plains tile next to it would be a good location for the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus too.

I could settle where the warrior is and have the Govt Plaza next to it giving the Harbour +6 adjacency

Forgot you mentioned the Mausoleum, hmm that's a good shout as well.

 

[MrRadar]

I'll give it a spin as well. I'm not sub t200 victories guy and I like to take scenic routes, but I win my deity games
I'll only use the Work Ethic fixing mod, as it is the only one required to load the save. It is entirely up to you, of course, but I would also suggest disabling Polite City states. You can use their border expansion to your benefit, claiming additional strategic and luxury resources as their Suzerain and upsetting AI expansion.

As for settling plans, my thoughts were exactly like @Home on Lagrange's. Production is so scarce that it is better to leave that forested hill alone for the moment.
I would also leave pantheon and wonder plans for a bit later, we need to see more of what's around. Riverside tiles will be more likely filled with districts, I don't see many opportunities for sphinxes. And I doubt the capital will have the Government Plaza. Second city somewhere upstream might be more likely candidate. Capital's production being so dismal, maybe it is better to bang out a campus and a harbour (pray for a close natural wonder) in it first.

I think first scout, then probably builder. Maize is close and farming it will boost irrigation, which is good, as there is wine around. At least honey can be improved faster with only AH.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

would also suggest disabling Polite City states

Can you disable it after a game has started??

 

[Noble Zarkon]

I'll only use the Work Ethic fixing mod, as it is the only one required to load the save

I guess you can based on this!

 

[MrRadar]

I guess you can based on this!

Yes, disabling the mod and reloading the save should do the trick.

 

[Archon_Wing]

The start really lacks food, so it'll be difficult.

I'd probably move 1w for easier access to the wine and for coastal. Scout (focus growth)---> settler opener as not much to improve. With coastal starts, one side won't have barbs so it's a good idea to get a 2nd city up asap.

 

[MrRadar]

First 11 turns (I was scouting NW, so it reveals what is there 11 tiles away, all pics double spoilered, i. e. two spoilers deep):

Spoiler :

t5 - that's a goody hut! With a jackpot:

Spoiler :

Great, building order plans out of the window

Still t5 - a nasty surprise (for balancing purposes, no doubt):

Spoiler :

I thought I'll scout a bit with the builder, and it brought me dire news - barbs nearby! Final coup de grace to my initial build order plans. I leave the scout half built and switch to warrior.

t8 - First little contact!

Spoiler :

Buenos Aires met, not first though. We'll have someone to deal with.
An industrial CS makes my IZ compulsion intensify. Probably against all reason I make plans for an IZ. The capital will sacrifice something to improve its production in the long term, but as this is Egypt, riverside districts will come up faster.

t9 - crap!

Spoiler :

Barb scout saw me! Note that this is the scout from t5, from some SE barb camp unknown to me. The scout from the camp NW that my warrior approaches was scared away southwards and probably he will also bump into my capital. Good that I switched into a warrior.

next turn I grow into wine and lock to work it, instead of the forest hill, for faster growth

t11 - district plans:

Spoiler :

warrior hit twice, now it will heal for a turn or two and then pick a promotion with the 3rd hit.

Stop for now.

 

[Buktu]

I would definitely settle on the tile where your warrior is as others suggested.
You can also think about a nice IZ along the river. I can see something like 2 aqueducts, 1 dam and your government plaza next to it (all with the 15% bonus prodcution from beeing next to a river). So sth like +9 and power for your whole starting area
Earth Goddess with so much floodplains seems wrong. Even sphinx are not enough to make it worth imo since you can't place them adjacent to each other. With already 3 fishing boat tiles near your capital and a lack of production the bonus production from fishing boats can be a nice option.
Since there is no good spot for a holy site I would most likely skip a religion in this game. There are more important things to spend your rare hammers on this game.

 

[Home on Lagrange]

That's a fair point Buktu, I'd completely forgotten that you can't put Sphinxes next to each other

How do people get those fancy spoiler tags? I'm about to start the map and don't want to inadvertently spoil something (I don't see a way to preview a post before submitting it).

 

[Buktu]

Try this withtout the dots:

[.spoiler]
hidden text
[./spoiler]

Edit: You can click more options in the bottom right corner of your answer. There will also be a preview command.

 

[Bangau]

I too would advice settling one to the west. Start working the honey. You should grow into the wine tile soon and work that one, the 3f1p and the 1f3p tiles for the first three. Build a scout and see what you find.

 

[MrRadar]

How do people get those fancy spoiler tags? I'm about to start the map and don't want to inadvertently spoil something (I don't see a way to preview a post before submitting it).

When you write a post, there are all kind of buttons just above the text box - for formatting, putting in links, spoiler etc. Hover over them and you'll see tooltips. For spoilers, it is the fifth from the right 'Insert', when you press it, you're offered a few further options, including 'Spoilers'. It inserts the code text that @Buktu suggested.
Check how your post will look like with the 'Preview', you'll see it when you press 'More Options' on the right under the text box.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Warrior doesn't reveal much (unless people think moving towards the trees is worthwhile??) so plan is to move 1 tile west, settle city, research AH and build a scout.

 

[Home on Lagrange]

Thank you both for your help with finding the preview

As for first tech, is mining worth considering? Unless AH reveals some horses near the starting location, all it will do is let us build a camp on the honey which won't get us any more production. Moving the warrior did reveal a mining lux plus some trees upstream for a potential second city - and we need mining for our UU.

Following MrRadar's lead, I've resisted my one-more-turn urges and just played up to turn 16.

The game so far:

Spoiler :

- Moved the settler one tile west, worked the honey and started building a scout. When scout finished, started on settler. Warrior circled round the capital to deflect barb scouts (and pushed one into 3 CS warriors, which was quite funny).
- Met 3 city states: Buenos Aires, Hattusa and Caguana. Was the first to meet the science and culture CS but not Buenos Aires so there's an AI up north. Have 1 envoy at all three thanks to getting an envoy from a tribal village.
- Found crater lake with my scout. No AI had found it yet.
- Cleared barb camp NW of capital with help from CS.
- Had a 1000 year flood in the capital which has added 1 production to the city centre, making it as good as a plains hill.
- Got to make some choices about where to settle and which civics to take - just finished code of laws and 4 turns from completing the settler.

Picture:

Spoiler :

The screenshot turns out obnoxiously large so I've got a link:
https://ibb.co/gMPKDrQ

 

[Archon_Wing]

We research mining if we want to boost craftsmanship early, and if we want to sell our first luxury to people.

AH is reasonable for anything else.