So whatcha all doing for BG1

[Zevus]

Hmm, I never automated my workers the entire game.



Unhappy citizens? I can't believe you did so well without managing your cities much more closely.



You never can work more than 21 tiles in one city.

What was your reasoning for building the Sistine Chapel?

I'm with you, that also beats my best try to date, but I haven't messed with it since Thursday or Friday. So I guess I'll have to play some more games.

There's like no reason to build the Sistine Chapel as you don't want Great Artists (save the one from Music for golden age if you like). I automate workers quite a bit in "normal" games but I wouldn't in this competitive situation, well, at least until I had railroads built on all mine tiles.

And unhappy citizens? Well, maybe in one or two cities I'll have one unhappy face for a few turns since I didn't pay enough attention..

I see ppl manage to get techs from the AI somehow too, in my first game I tried gifting them all techs but still didn't get anything in return the whole game except stuff like Drama (Feudalism and Construction were probably the only two useful ones). Maybe the AIs I've been playing with aren't so great, so I'll try the others (or I'm researching techs that I should be leaving to AI). Gonna have to give that "Balanced" map a try too, I think... haha.

ed: or maybe the "Lakes" map is just too much land, so AIs expand too much and have horrible research rates? Going to try Balanced or Pangea next for sure..

 

[Shillen]

They don't get a lot of techs. The bigger benefit of giving them every tech you research is to drain them of their cash. If you're getting a tech every 4 turns on average then you can usually sell it for 20-40g to each AI. With 4 AI's that's an extra 20-40g per turn, which is pretty nice. Any techs you manage to get are an added benefit.

 

[Gazaridis]

I still think I did the right thing about rocketry first. Previously I had gone for computers first, and then when I went to rocketry I found apollo program took so long to build production far overran research, as I had to build everything in one go. Getting Apollo on the boil nice and early is useful as it can be done at the same time as your research. I think I did change to workshops far too early which did slow me down though. Apollo program said initially 78 turns to go which panicked me and I changed even some towns in that city to workshops. I also was a little hesitant in the beginning on getting cities and workers out (each city should have a dedicated worker, but if theres lots of forest jungle you need two) which would have slowed me down. I didn't even have a full road network up by the end of the game which when it came to railroading mines cost me turns. There was also still some decent empty spaces which I should have settled in earlier. Apollo first is definitely the way to go IMHO, but don't panic if it takes ages. The taj mahal was a stroke of luck though - up until I got liberalism/democracy I was very wary about just giving techs (I had to get liberalism first) but as soon as I hit that I just gave everything away. I think I flooded the AI with so many techs they couldn't do a thing! I purposely chose no industrial civs (hence Asoka instead of Ghandi) with this in mind, but I didnt have stone or marble. Making sure you have at most one civ starting with mysticism and no industrial civs is very useful. Surprisingly it was frederick and roosevely who helped in the post-democracy techs most, yet they were both bottom of the scores.

As for the game rules, I don't think the map choices should be limited, especially because the multiplayer maps are designed to be fair - which in a competition like this, helps even things out. I definitely agree with you on needing barbarians. It is a bit of a joke having no military at the start. Would it be too much to ask for raging barbs? Perhaps, but it is fun. I might have one last go at a no barbs map then maybe later try a barbs on map to see the difference.

 

[Shillen]

I still think I did the right thing about rocketry first. Previously I had gone for computers first, and then when I went to rocketry I found apollo program took so long to build production far overran research, as I had to build everything in one go. Getting Apollo on the boil nice and early is useful as it can be done at the same time as your research.

I didn't say do computers first. I did rocketry before computers. The important thing is getting factories in your cities. And then after you get the factory tech you're only 1 tech from aluminum and +100% apollo construction so you might as well grab that one while you're at it.

But yeah with the commerce->production switch I actually starve my cities for the last 10 turns of the game. If I replace like 3 or 4 farms with workshops and make sure the city has a near full food box before doing so then I can usually drop the production time by 2 or 3 full turns while starving at like -6 to -10 food. Since the box is full the city won't drop any pop points before it completes the part and the game is over.

edit: As for whether to allow multiplayer maps or not...having maps be balanced for multiplayer doesn't mean they're balanced for single player. The balanced map is the best example of that. You're guaranteed to have all the resources within a few tiles of your start location. That's taking a major aspect of the game away right there. Why would people play on other maps if they can have that? In single player the player isn't supposed to be on perfectly even grounds with the AI. If you don't have iron in your start location you go get some or trade for some. In multiplayer good luck acquiring iron from another player who has it when you don't. Good luck getting someone to trade it to you too, when they can weaken you by keeping it away from you. I think balanced maps serve their purpose great for multiplayer but ruin single player games.

 

[Drogear]

This HOF playing is killing me! my back and eyes hurt and I cant for the love of god make a great score like most others have...

Attemt year score
1st 1890 13.000
2nd 1820 20.341
3th 1778 26.949
4th 1708 28.699
5th 1682 32.444

 

[Big_Ben]

You are right, I don't know much about the game. I have only been playing Civ 4 for a little over a week and have only completed about 6-8 games. Played Civ 2 a lot but didn't really get into or have time for Civ 3. So this is really one of the first turn based strat games I have played a lot in about 2 years.

It isn't that hard of a game to master. With this gauntlet game and barbs off it is pretty easy. If it actually involved fighting I probably wouldn't be doing that well in comparison to most of you.

As for the Sistine Chapel, there were times when I had several cities producing wealth because my tech hadn't caught up. I am pretty sure I also put it in a border city to help with the culture.

And not having stone available did cost me a couple of turns. Think about it. I had to chop twice as much to get the wonders made. That means the workers I had chopping were tied up for an extra 10 turns total between the two wonders. The could have put down cottages 7-8 turns earlier than they did. So that cost me about 10-15 gold pieces. The extra forest that were used up could have been chopped to make a couple more workers or atleast 1 more settler. Having an additional city would have definitely saved me a couple turns of tech and added income. The gold lose could have went towards raising my tech level for a turn to get the tech to pop out in 1 instead of 2 more turns. So not having stone DID cost me a couple turns.

As for not managing my cities more efficiently, I agree. I haven't learned that aspect of the game that well yet. I can manage them fine in the early game but once they start getting overpopulated I keep getting them complaining about it being over crowded. I can counter this at the lower levels by introducing happiness resources and happiness buildings, but once they get say 15+ I haven't been able to satisfy them. I don't really want to cap my cities at that low of a pop though, I may try next time.

 

[jeremiahrounds]

I certainly over did the wonders. I was thinking "more wonders == more great people" however at 1150 is the point where you have 100 turns to 1650 (the current goal for me). So really +2 more great people that late isnt worth much in most cases (micromanaging exceptions).

So no more wonders that will be completed after 1150 for me if they are being built almost entirely for great people.

The other thing i can improve is the speed of laboratories. Which might mean trying to build up kremlin for rushing. Overall though my not stopping and queuing laboraties ahead of casings was a major blunder. Going to try to accumulate some cash for rushing those.

Also I would like to know the population size and GNP on your last turn of the current low water mark. To give me an idea of how big your empire was.

I hope to also try a huge empire strats. Just obscenely large empire. See if i can muscle out something ferocious! An interesting sub goal would be to make the goal of "exceed 1000 GNP in the fastest time" (without using golden age)

 

[Shillen]

Well I know in my last golden age my Mfg Goods and GNP were both over 1200. I was also pulling in 3800 beakers per turn. I think after that golden age ended I was still over 1000 GNP and in the 800s Mfg Goods with ~2900 beakers per turn. I'll update this post with exact numbers in a few hours when I get home.

I'm not understanding why my land area was lower, though. Obviously my population must have been much much higher to get nearly double your score. Winning 15 turns earlier doesn't make that big of a difference in score so it must have been population. But how can I have less land and way more population? None of my cities were over size 20.

edit: Actually I think I had one size 22 city, but the rest were 20 or lower. I'll throw up some screenshots when I get home.

 

[jeremiahrounds]

If you pop open that saved game again grab your total population and GNP please. Should be able to figure out if increased population is a factor in speed from that.

 

[panzooka]

i had 8 cities and 670 GNP

 

[Shillen]

Ok I guess I had a couple cities over 20. Here are the screenshots with all the info you could need. All shots are from the turn after victory.

Game settings:

Research rate:

Territory:

Demographics:

Cities:

And a picture of my empire:

 

[jeremiahrounds]

You had 14 million more people then i had I have to believe that implies i need to pickup a couple more cities in my next run.

 

[Zevus]

Finished a new game, launched in 1520 AD for a 60361 score.

Pangea map, temperate, low sea level, opponents Asoka, Washington, Cyrus, and Hathesput. I played as Mansa Munsa.

The Pangea map was definitely a lot better than Lakes and the 10 turns or so of anarchy saved is better than Industrial trait too. You really only need to build a few wonders.

 

[Zevus]

You had 14 million more people then i had I have to believe that implies i need to pickup a couple more cities in my next run.

I only had 40 mil pop. (ed: well, of course this is many turns earlier though too)

http://members.cox.net/darkhosis/civ4.JPG

There are the cities at the end. The research isnt maximized though because I switched to state property at the end so I could get more out of my production cities - inparticularly Gao, where I destroyed at least 6 or 7 towns to make workshops (it was a very good research city before).

 

[Drogear]

Finished my 6th and possible last HOF game this month unless several people bet me at this score.

Played as Mansu who is the very best chooice in my oppinion.
Vs Hap, Whasington, Cyrus and Elizabeth.
Balansed map

Choprushed as an madman thinking that I overdid it having my research down at 20% at lowest but it turned out fine in the end when the cottages got popping making my research precentage raising in steps and I did finnaly get a decent score!

got 3x10 golden age turns after the apolloprogram. Used Thaj Mahal wonder to the the first one
and then my saved great people.

Got a good but not perfect startposition: 1 cow (plains), 2 ordinary grassland hills,
2 hills (plains) with gold. 1 ordinary hill (plains). 4 ordinary floodplains, 4 ordinary grasslands, 3 plains
with wine. Cant remember the rest.

Finished my spacerace in 1505AD
Score 75316

 

[Big_Ben]

1505 is incredible. That will definitely get you top 5, probably top 3. Good luck.

I usually playing games straight though or only take an hour or so break. Of course I quit if I know I am way behind. I just had the most amazing start so far. Have to go to work. Hopefully I can remember everything I was planning when I get back. I am micromanaging the hell out of this game. My only problem is that I have been chop rushing a LOT of settlers and am not 100% sure if I can still get hte pyramids done first. Trying my best though. Will see how well I do later.

 

[Drogear]

Stone resource is an most have. It does not matter how good the capital location is, without it u will be far behind. Other resources like aluminium, copper, plutoniom and such will always appear if u chopexpand 15-12 cites so I never worry about them.

Your capital must be a industious and scientific monster! Im always going for a lighting run for civil service (oracle must be built just after u researched the code of law) to get burecraticy for ind and science. This will greatly help my wonder bulding trouhout the game.

I did one big mistake in my game when I missed to use the workshop/state property to speed prod. This my have set my victory back 2-3 turns! otherwise the 1500AD barrier would have been busted.

 

[Drogear]

Btw if someone could tell me how to post the logfiles I will. Did a quicke glance at the other logfiles and it seems my tactic differ by going for the civil service blitz.

 

[thordk]

with this tool http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=141769 you're able to extract the log from the saves (they're found in your civ4 folder under _Civ4Saves).

just extract the exe in your civ4 folder and run it like this:
eventlog [path to savegame] [outputfile]

 

[Drogear]

thordk: thanks for the help but this is simply not working for me. Might the problem lie in that I installed civIV on a another HD partition?