Sirp's Training Day Game for Aspiring Monarchs

Got it but I am at work for the first time since last Wednesday. (for the most part anyway)... I doubt that I will play tonight but I have tomorrow off and will play then =o)

Thanks!
Lisa
 
More comments on Stormrider's turn....good job on unloading the galley. This is always an important thing to remember when transporting units by ship. Always consider unloading them if the ship is about to be attacked. On the topic of transporting by ship, it wouldn't be bad to get a galley with a settler up to those furs in the extreme north. That'd give us a fourth luxury. We could rush a harbor up there, and have them online quick, or just build roads up there. The Aztecs also have a supply of furs, and we may decide to attack them. But having that supply of furs would give us a monopoly.

We still want to try to settle all that land in the north-east if we can. Deny babylon as much of it as possible, and stop any other civilization from getting colonies there. We need our settler/worker factory to remain just that for a while to come. I already mentioned it, but I'll reiterate: a marketplace is good for a city that is size 7+. While Sparta is a settler/worker factory, it will stay at sizes 4-6. It doesn't need any of that infrastructure until we're done churning out settlers and workers, and that's a while away yet. Your infrastructure-focus was good Stormrider, but you went a little overboard on it, we're still in expansion mode! Other than that your turn was pretty solid. A good trade with Rome, you cemented our technological advantage, and catapulted us into the Middle Ages - which we want to keep Babylon out of as long as possible btw, as they are scientific, and we don't want our monopoly on Monotheism broken.

Matt_g and Renata's suggestion of moving Xoch is a good one, however it'd be one space south-west, to be on the coast and on fresh water. If we couldn't move it and keep it on fresh water, there's no way we'd move it. Don't be worried too much about our deficit guys, we have some cash in the treasury, so we can afford to run deficits for a while. The increased growth rates of our cities now we're in Republic will let our cities grow to size 12, and generate much more commerce, and cover the deficits. Remember that we DO want to irrigate lots of grassland now. Also don't be afraid to use the luxury slider. Having to use it means that we're getting bigger cities, and bigger cities means more commerce. I have little doubt that building the Forbidden Palace real soon would cement us as the most powerful civilizaton on the earth. Shaesha: good luck!

-Sirp.
 
Do we want Sistine? We should start now, if we do. (Actually we should've started a while ago, but anyway. ;) ) With at least one other civ in the middle ages and numerous ancient age wonders still available (GW, HG, Lighthouse) we may not get it, but at least in the early middle ages we're not likely to lose the shields outright.

Any other wonder building suggestions? We have Sun Tzu's coming up in the near future, and Leo's, Copernicus, Bach's + Smith's available down the road a bit.

Renata
 
If we want a wonder, Athens should be in a fine state to get it. However, I don't think we even need to start building it now. Athens can afford to build a cathedral first, as it shoots up to size 12, and then build it. Unless AIs on other continents have gone after that line of research pretty aggressively and/or have some pretty big cities, I'm confident we'll get it.

-Sirp.
 
50BC - Those barbarians did a number on Troy and they are still coming. Athens
finished their Market place, started them on a Cathedral. Corinth finished their
library changed them to Swordsman. Changed Delphi from Marketplace to Galley.
Herakleia has finished their temple. Started them on Barracks. Thought they
could work on troops for the southwest of our little empire. Changed Thermopylae
from Marketplace to Forbidden palace. Changed Knossos to a temple. Changed
Thessalonica to worker so we can get some roads going in that area up north. Got
rid of the entertainer in Herakleia. Also took care of the entertainer in Athens.
Got Athens to a surplus of 5 food.

IT - Troy was attacked by the barbs again. Sparta finished Marketplace - changed
to Settler. Thessalonica finished it's worker. Leaving it set to churn out
another.

30BC - hmmm when i am reviewing here i don't see a 30bc... I think it must have
been finishing other stuff? I dunno...

IT - see above.

10BC - Moving horseman up north to help with the barbs and hopefully find their
little camp.

IT - Troy still being attacked. Sparta went into civil disorder.

10AD - Fixed the civil disorder issue. Hooking up wine in the north. Moving
horseman out to find that barb camp.

IT - Sparta is happy again. More barbs moving in on Troy.

30AD - See the barb camp - started irrigating grasslands in Athens.

IT - Delphi finished Galley. Started them on harbor. Rhodes finished Hoplite
started them on Worker. We held our own with the barbs. Aztecs have finished the
Great Library in Tenochititlan. Babylonians are building the Great Lighthouse.

50AD - Blah

IT - Our new Galley took on a barb galley and won! Now a veteran. Sparta finishes
a settler moved them to worker. Mycenae finished their barracks set them to
hoplite. Herakleia and corinth went into civil disorder. Romans are building
the Great Wall.

70AD - I just checked the domestic advisor screen. Everyone is even now. I
should not have any civil disorder. GRRRR! Got the barbarian camp and 25 gold!
Picked up the hoplite in Rhodes. Going for the settler now.

IT - Pharsalos has finished their Temple. Started them on a Colloseum.

90AD - Blah

IT - We got Theology going for education now. ARGHHHH Athens went into civil
disorder. Go Figure. Checked the domestic advisor again. Thermopyla would have
gone into civil disorder, got them an entertainer. Xochicalco had an entertainer
but I put him to work.

110AD - Have the settler and hoplite moving north.

IT - Argos finished their temple, started them on colosseum. Herakleia has
finished their barracks - started them on horseman. Ephesus finished Walls,
started them on Temple.

130AD - Blah

The game

Edit: fixed URL case sensitive issue
 
Shaesha, firstly the saved game location is case sensitive, so the url is http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads3/SP4-130AD.zip

It's fairly obvious that your biggest problem is civil disorder and happiness. Most of your build decisions were good, and you did particularly well in choosing to build a galley in Delphi.

(I have sent Shaesha further advice on how to keep her citizens happy privately...).

Ok, I'm up now, Renata is after me.

Renata, did you want to be skipped or can you play this round? Let us know asap...

-Sirp.
 
130AD (IT): We still don't have those wines hooked up since we need our Rhodes-Knossos road completed, so I get some

workers doing that.

I reorganize our city-working. Considering we're now in Republic, many of our cities are growing far too slowly. We need

irrigation. Lots more irrigation in many of our cities. I change cities which have unimproved grasslands near them, like

Pharsalos and Mycenae, to produce workers. I'm not sure whether to keep Athens going for a cathedral, or get it to

change to Sistine's. If we get a cathedral, we should still be able to get Sistine's, *or* Bach's.

Science rate cut from 50% -> 30% since we can't keep on running deficit science for too much longer, and luxuries up 10%

-> 20%. They will go down when wines are hooked up. Education is due in 15. That's just fine, we're ahead in science.

Aztecs have a trade route with us, but we don't want to trade anything with them right now. Trading for furs is

tempting, since we probably won't get a source online in the very near future, but I decide to give it a miss; we don't

want to pour money into their science program.

I see that the Babylonians have not reached the middle ages, and are still two technologies away. It's best if we can

keep them out as long as possible, as they will (probably) get monotheism when they get into the middle ages, and we'll

lose our monopoly on it.

150AD (1): Sparta worker -> worker. Pharsalos worker -> marketplace. Thessalonica worker -> worker. Rhodes worker ->

worker.

We are apparently the happiest nation in the world!

The barbarian galley is approaching our galley so I sail just past it, and unload our hoplite/settler.

170AD (2): Barb galley attacks ours and we win, taking one damage. Another barbarian galley approaches, we will take

harbor in Troy until we're healed then sail on. I start sending the settler/hoplite pair on foot, and if the galley is

ready to go, it'll pick them up.

Our horseman destroys a barbarian encampment, but meets up with a barb horseman that just might kill him next turn.

190AD (3): Our horseman somehow survives against the attacking barb one and becomes elite. A barbarian warrior is there,

we'll have to retreat from him. Sparta worker -> settler.

This one jaguar warrior is going right through our territory. We could order him out, but it's only one, and I don't

want to spark a war with Azteca. Not yet, anyhow.

210AD (4): Eretria goes into civil disorder. Ugh. (This is the kind of city that I end up letting go into disorder every

now and again, since it's an outlying colony not connected to our trade network yet, and I don't monitor such cities

every turn). Entertainer set.

Our galley is repaired and ready to recommence its voyage, but it ends its turn next to another barb galley, and this

time those on board can't disembark, since they just embarked this turn.

230AD (5): Barb galley attacks ours, and gets it down to 2, but we win. Sparta builds settler -> settler. Thermopylae

builds the Forbidden Palace! Set to build a marketplace. Our wines are also online, meaning we can cut our luxury rate.

Now is decision time for Athens. It's building a cathedral, due in 1 turn. Does it want to get that, or go for the

Sistine Chapel? Ok, I figure that,

- our happiness situation is pretty good, looking like we're about to get four luxuries online.
- We don't necessarily want to commit our biggest city to producing a wonder which will take many turns. Especially if

we decide to go with a knight war with the Aztecs anytime soon.
- We don't necessarily want to get a cathedral in most of our cities, they're expensive, and we might be able to solve

the problem with luxuries
- JS Bach's is around the corner, and though we might not go for it immediately, it's an attractive option.
- Education is coming soon, and we want Athens to be able to build a university ASAP since it's our biggest science

city.

So, I go for a cathedral, and we likely *won't* go for Sistine's at all.

What do we do with our galley? Keep going or turn back? I keep going, but our horseman whose on the coast rides up the

coast to keep lookout for barbs in front.

250AD (6): Athens builds cathedral -> horseman. Time to get some defense going. Delphi changed to a harbor from

marketplace so we can have a sea-based trade route to get the furs.

260AD (7): Babylon founds the city of Shuruppak on the northern end of the unclaimed land. Thessalonica worker ->

worker.

It seems that the Romans, and thus the Aztecs have obtained the Republic. The Aztecs are now a Republic, and the Romans

are currently revolting.

270AD (8): Athens horseman -> horseman. We can now have Athens getting 15 shields a turn, *and* 5 food a turn.

Excellent. Cutting has also revealed two more bonus grasslands near Athens. Delphi harbor -> marketplace, and it's

growing so quick now that it *really* needs the marketplace.

Our galley arrives by the furs, and I was counting on unloading this turn, but uhh....there are barbarian horses, three of em, hogging the shoreline! Hopefully they'll disperse.

280AD (9): Ack! A barbarian galley comes out of the fog and attacks our 2-hitpoint galley loaded with settler and hoplite ready to take the furs. We win, he wins, uh-oh, we win. Yes! Another galley comes out of the fog and attacks us, I've got that sinking feeling, but we manage to win both rounds and we have an elite galley! Sparta settler -> worker.

Now what to do with our hoplite/settler pair? There's barbs crawling around everywhere up here! I decide to send our galley up to check things out, and it makes sure there are no barb galleys in the immediate area, so we don't *have* to unload this turn. So I just unload our hoplite, and keep our settler on board. The hoplite is next to 4 barb horsemen. If it survives, we can unload the settler next. I also kill a barb horseman nearby with our horseman, which is coming to help out.

Hmm...change Athens to a Colloseum as a prebuild for a university.

290AD (10): Three of the four barbs didn't attack our hoplite! Why on earth not? Just to make things interesting, the Babs seem to have a settler/spear pair heading for the furs. We block them with our horseman. I decide we have no choice but to unload the settler now, regardless of barbs.

Notes:

We would prefer to settle the city *on* the furs and next to the barb encampment if possible. But we would prefer some city than a dead settler, so see what can be done.

We're about to discover Education. The Colosseum in Athens is a prebuild for a university. In most cases, I think we want to keep building marketplaces rather than switch to universities. Universities are a high priority after that though.

Consider rushing the harbor in our fur city (assuming we get it).

I have increased our workers from 20 to 28 this turn. We probably want to slowly converge toward 40 workers or so, but Sparta has pretty much done its dash as far as settlers and workers go I think. It's just about time for us to grow it to fulfill its destiny, becoming the great city it was almost meant to be.

Good luck Renata!

-Sirp.

The Keys to Athens

The Roster:

Matt_g
Stormrider
Shaesha
Sirp <--- just played
Renata <--- UP NOW
CivGeneral <--- On deck

Renata said that she might not have time to play this round. Renata, you have 24 hours to post "I got it" or a skip. If Renata posts a skip, or if 24 hours elapse without her posting anything, CivGeneral's 24 hours for "I got it" will begin.
 
Originally posted by Sirp

Renata, did you want to be skipped or can you play this round? Let us know asap...

Skip me, please. Mid-term was handed out last night. :eek: If my next round comes up after Wednesday I should be able to squeeze it in; if not, I'll have to skip that one, too.

Renata
 
I doubt we will get it back to you before Wed., so you should be able to play, eh!
Good Luck with your mid-term. Let us know how it goes. :)
 
CivGeneral, you are up now!

The roster:

Matt_G <--- on deck
Stormrider
Shaesha
Sirp <--- just played
Renata (skipped)
CivGeneral <--- UP NOW
 
Ive Got it
Walks in to the Room carrying the Deginater Player of the Demogame Text Book

Oye, Ive just heard that I am up :). sorry for the lateness, but I tripped over a Penguin Toy on the way here :s.
 
It's time for another quiz, this one is on Golden Ages. The questions are,

(1) How do you enter a Golden Age?
(2) What are the effects of a Golden Age?
and more subjectively,
(3) When is the best time to enter a Golden Age? When would we like to enter a Golden Age in this game?
-Sirp.
 
1. Have a UU win a combat or Build two wonders that matches your Civ Atributes (ive seen one onder do the same)

2. The effects of a GA is an increace in gpt, food, and Shield productions

3. It depends on the Victory you are trying to achive. If you are going for a Conquest/Domination Type game, its best to have a GA in the early stages. If you are aimong for the Modern age (Spaceship and UN) victory then you would need the GA in the closing end. With Culture you can enter a GA at anytime to help quickly build any Culture improvements.
 
1. What CivGen said except I've heard it said that capturing the appropriate wonder(s) then subsequently building any wonder will also do it.

2. Just shields and commerce, I think (adds one to each tile you're working that's already producing one?), not food.

3. Not in despotism! :) Ok, so it's probably worth it if you have an early UU and plan to use your GA to grab yourself an unbeatable amount of territory. But the benefits are greater if it can be delayed until after despotism, as the tile penalties will no longer apply. Worst time for it would be in anarchy. It would also be useless if it came so late that the game was already won or lost. For this game? I don't think we'll be able to avoid conflict with our neighbors for too much longer, even if we don't initiate anything ourselves. Rome and the Aztecs are both out of room, and Rome is missing a key resource. We would get the golden age then; it would be freakish not to have a few of our hoplites attacked at some point. If not, though, we could start it in the mid-middle ages if we build Copernicus/Smiths, or at the end of the middle ages if we build Smith's/Newton's. I think any of the above would work fine.

Renata
 
One the topic on wonders -
don't forget there are cases of ONE wonders will trip a GA.

China = Great Wall
Egypt = Pyramids

Colussus is the super wonder that helps expansionist, religious and commerical.
 
Dont forget

China = Manhattan too.
England = Lighthouse, Magellans in addition to Colosus (guess having 3 instant GA wonders is to make up for the Man-O-War heh)

And of course our old friend The Internet for everyone.
 
Ok answers to the quiz...Firstly you can only have one GA per game, so the first condition in triggering one is that you can't have had one before. Anytime you build a wonder, all the wonders you have in all your cities are scanned. Each wonder matches certain civilization attributes. If you have wonders that match both of your attributes, then you get a GA. Note that this means that if you capture a wonder that matches your attributes, and then you build another wonder that's unrelated to your attributes, you'll get a golden age immediately, since the scan is done at the point a Wonder is built. You also get a golden age if you build the Internet (new to PTW), or if your unique unit wins a battle against a non-barbarian unit.

A golden age increases shields and trade by 1 for every tile that is already producing at least one of each. It does NOT produce extra food. Food is delicately balanced in civilization because of the way food works with narrow surpluses. Having a GA produce extra food would lead to insane growth. Note that if you're in despotism, a large proportion of the golden age bonus will get chopped off by the despotism penalty. A grassland with a mine will produce 2 shields instead of 1, but a bonus grassland with a mine will still produce 2 shields, not 3.

CivGeneral, if you're going for a spacerace victory, you do NOT want to hold your golden age off to the end. The building of the spaceship parts isn't that difficult, it's being able to get the economy and technology capable of producing the spaceship parts that's the hard bit. A typical builder's game starts off with the 'horizontal' expansion phase (i.e. getting as much land/cities as you want), then is followed by the 'vertical' expansion phase (i.e. growing all the cities you have). We are now into the vertical expansion phase, with some last lingering horizontal expansion going on. (By contrast, a warmongering approach typically focuses on horizontal expansion all game long, with far more limited vertical expansion). Golden ages do not help that much with early horizontal expansion, which is almost always driven by settlers, not soldiers, because the primary cost in a settler is food, not shields or commerce. They do help alot with either conquest expansion, or with vertical expansion,
through faster building of city improvements. Being in Republic instead of despotism helps alot too. In fact Renata, although a golden age in anarchy isn't pleasant, if you get Republic at around the same time you enter a golden age, it is not worth staying in despotism to get your entire golden age. Better to revolt, lose some of your golden age, and then enjoy the rest of it in Republic. Republic really is that much better than despotism. As for when we want our golden age, right now would be the perfect time, perhaps a little earlier. We're first in GNP and manufactured goods already. A golden age would push us over the top and all but secure victory. So, we want to either get the wonders Renata was talking about (and they are all good wonders), or perhaps fight a limited war against the Aztecs, picking up a couple of key cities along the way. I think we can stick with peace though if that's what we want. As long as we're nice to the Aztecs and Romans, I think there's a good chance they'll leave us alone.
-Sirp.
 
Actually I just noticed this.

we could start it in the mid-middle ages if we build Copernicus/Smiths, or at the end of the middle ages if we build Smith's/Newton's

Actually, that isn't correct. LOGIC dictates that CoP is a Scientific wonder, but the Civ3 gods decreed that it is only expansionist... (same with SETI strangely). Your only remaining pre modern age scientific wonders are Newtons and ToE. (Library, CfC and Longevity are the others). You still have 2 comercial wonders left pre modern. Those are Smiths and Magellans.
 
Hmmm, ty Todd. I guess logic's not the best way to go with these things. :p

Renata
 
I keep missing these quizes.

Just to add my 2 cents: I always aim for my GA in Republic, which is generally in the middle ages. That being said, I am often in despotism when my GA occurs.

We got off to a great start here and are the big boys (and girls) on the block, so our neighbors have been well behaved. I usually do not get off to this strong a start (one of my reasons for a training game) and as a result, any early tech UU's I may have are called to the defense rather early, invoking a GA. This is especially true on my mostly unsuccessful forays into the Emperor level.

My GA's are often squandered building military to defend my empire as a Despot. I therefore never calculate a GA into any strategic planning for my games.

P.S. Since I am usually not 'king of the hill' until much later in the game, let's break the Aztecs soon. They have some nice cities that would benefit us due to their topography and proximity to our F.P
 
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