Initial Plan and Victory condition goal
My initial plan is to use the Romes traits to grow a large civilization and attempt to gain a domination victory using Praetorians as early as possible technology wise. My practice games indicated that I should be able to win around the time that gunpowder units became available. My Praetorians would get promoted to Macemen and Grenadiers as required.
To fuel a quick expansion, I planned to chop forests without remorse. I won't even make a settler until I have 3 workers chopping.
Assessment of starting area
I settled Rome one tile to the east of the starting location. This got me next to the gems and still allowed me to still found Rome in 4000bc. The initial starting area was not as food rich, or as heavily forested as I would have liked. This slowed me down and forced my expansion and city placement in less then prime locations. The initial area was very gold rich especially the gems grassland. I had planned on not making any worker improvements until I had chopped all the forests, but the bonus of +5 gold per turn for 4 worker turns was too good to pass up, so my first worker moved onto the Gems and mined before I started chopping.
Starting moves and builds
The immediate surroundings contained around ten forests. I wanted to convert those forests to hammers as quickly as possible. To this end, building workers was key. Each additional worker meant 7.5 hammers/turn. (30 hammers, 4 turns to harvest, 1 move, 3 chop). I planned on not building a settler until I had three active workers and scouts to protect them. While this delayed my second city, it gave me the critical mass to chop a settler in 4 turns.
Build order was as follows: Worker (no chops), Worker (one chop), Scout, Worker, Scout, Settler, Granary. This just about used up the initial ten forests around Rome. I did no special switching between workers/settlers and units in order to get food to grow. In fact, my goal was to complete a granary before Rome grew to size 2. It finished the same turn as I grew, and like CivIII, I did not get to use the granary and lost out on 12 or so food.
Research and goodie huts
My goal was to get Bronze working at the same time as my first worker so I could start chopping. Then I wanted Hunting for scouts, Wheel for roads and later to get Pottery and Mysticism because I planned to build Stonehedge in one of my first few built cities. The cultural expansion from Obelisks in every town really helps while chopping forests and avoiding animals. Because my early cities would spend so much time building workers/settlers and not growing, I wanted to get Granaries as soon as possible and minimize the cost to grow in food.
I popped a good number of huts, six total and received 2 maps, 100? gold, 1 experience (on warrior) and 1 tech (Sailing)
Research order was Bronze working, Hunting (for scout), Sailing (hut), Wheel (need for pottery), Mysticism (need for Stonehedge), Pottery (Granaries), Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Archary, Masonary, Iron working, Writing (1360bc, last tech before 1000bc)
1000BC stats
Game Score ~ 500 (518 on 950bc)
7 cities
14 population
2 granaries
1 barracks
1 lighthouse
Stonehedge
5 workers
3 archers
2 scouts
2 warriors
Here is a picture of my starting area at 950bc (missed my 1000bc save!).
StanNP
My initial plan is to use the Romes traits to grow a large civilization and attempt to gain a domination victory using Praetorians as early as possible technology wise. My practice games indicated that I should be able to win around the time that gunpowder units became available. My Praetorians would get promoted to Macemen and Grenadiers as required.
To fuel a quick expansion, I planned to chop forests without remorse. I won't even make a settler until I have 3 workers chopping.
Assessment of starting area
I settled Rome one tile to the east of the starting location. This got me next to the gems and still allowed me to still found Rome in 4000bc. The initial starting area was not as food rich, or as heavily forested as I would have liked. This slowed me down and forced my expansion and city placement in less then prime locations. The initial area was very gold rich especially the gems grassland. I had planned on not making any worker improvements until I had chopped all the forests, but the bonus of +5 gold per turn for 4 worker turns was too good to pass up, so my first worker moved onto the Gems and mined before I started chopping.
Starting moves and builds
The immediate surroundings contained around ten forests. I wanted to convert those forests to hammers as quickly as possible. To this end, building workers was key. Each additional worker meant 7.5 hammers/turn. (30 hammers, 4 turns to harvest, 1 move, 3 chop). I planned on not building a settler until I had three active workers and scouts to protect them. While this delayed my second city, it gave me the critical mass to chop a settler in 4 turns.
Build order was as follows: Worker (no chops), Worker (one chop), Scout, Worker, Scout, Settler, Granary. This just about used up the initial ten forests around Rome. I did no special switching between workers/settlers and units in order to get food to grow. In fact, my goal was to complete a granary before Rome grew to size 2. It finished the same turn as I grew, and like CivIII, I did not get to use the granary and lost out on 12 or so food.
Research and goodie huts
My goal was to get Bronze working at the same time as my first worker so I could start chopping. Then I wanted Hunting for scouts, Wheel for roads and later to get Pottery and Mysticism because I planned to build Stonehedge in one of my first few built cities. The cultural expansion from Obelisks in every town really helps while chopping forests and avoiding animals. Because my early cities would spend so much time building workers/settlers and not growing, I wanted to get Granaries as soon as possible and minimize the cost to grow in food.
I popped a good number of huts, six total and received 2 maps, 100? gold, 1 experience (on warrior) and 1 tech (Sailing)
Research order was Bronze working, Hunting (for scout), Sailing (hut), Wheel (need for pottery), Mysticism (need for Stonehedge), Pottery (Granaries), Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Archary, Masonary, Iron working, Writing (1360bc, last tech before 1000bc)
1000BC stats
Game Score ~ 500 (518 on 950bc)
7 cities
14 population
2 granaries
1 barracks
1 lighthouse
Stonehedge
5 workers
3 archers
2 scouts
2 warriors
Here is a picture of my starting area at 950bc (missed my 1000bc save!).
StanNP
. True story. I got a Great Prophet, and had a choice to either join him to Rome for a production and economic bonus, or use him to get very close to obtaining Divine Right (and, therefore, found Islam). This was a HUGE choice for me, because either choice was fairly valid so-in desperation-I decided to flip a coin. It came up tails which, in this case, meant I used him to rush towards divine right!! Thats what I love so much about this game-fewer anal micromanagement actions needed, but a lot of high-level strategic choices!
). At one point I thought I might lose a city (my iron resource city) but walls and a lone city garrison archer saved the day. When Alex couldn't take the city he pillaged the iron resource. Wow, this is a great move on the part of the AI because now I couldn't build Praetorians. Not only that, but I tried to replace the mine and road but Alex would have none of it. I wouldn't get my iron resource back during this entire war. I did manage to fend off his first wave thanks to another tip gleamed from the 
), while I popped Hunting ( 
).
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