Going for a military victory, probably Domination
Don’t have a firm grasp of scoring yet, so I imagine a high-ranking score is pretty unlikely!
Founding Rome (and the first really tough decisions in this game)
We were in a great starting area with all the commerce bonuses, but a step SW to the plain/hill with my warrior revealed a wheat. And unlike the corn in our starting area, this food bonus was on a river, which would give an additional +1 food due to being on fresh water. That would make the tile better than the corn by one hammer before civil service was discovered. That benefit, along with the extra shield we would get by settling on top of the plain/hill (thankfully pointed out by DaveMcW in the pregame thread), seemed to justify two moves with the settler. Rome would miss out on the sizable commerce bonus of the gems, but that seemed to be offset by getting the worker one turn earlier, and the city producing two additional shields at size one after the first tile was farmed. A 33% increase in total food/hammer production seemed a pretty good tradeoff.
Exploration (aka, Useless Huts and the Death of Four Warriors)
The first hut was as good as it got for the poor Romans, yielding 51g. Next came a map, which revealed many, many tiles out to the west of the hut. Nothing unusual about that, except that all those tiles happened to be ocean. Handy knowledge, that.
In 3320 our first brave warrior spotted a third hut, which was stolen by a Greek scout dashing before his very nose. To make matters worse, the scout established “diplomatic” relations with some inane, belittling comment. As the disheartened, angry warrior moved to occupy the insolent scout’s tile, the scout departed. No doubt running from the hidden bear that promptly made a meal of our sullen warrior.
Subsequent warriors (which I had never expected to need vs. animals on Noble level) popped an additional warrior (who died a few turns later to a barb), and experience of woodsman level 2 (which didn’t save afore mentioned warrior—fortified in the jungle—from the attacking barb warrior). Two other warriors were also eaten by animals.
Expansion
Rome’s initial builds were: worker (3440 bc), warrior, warrior, settler (2720), settler (2480), warrior, worker. The animal problem was, of course, what led to all the warriors. Otherwise, I would have left that duty for my second city. As a result, Rome was size 3 by 2920 bc, and I had never intended it to be above size 2 during early expansion. This additional size wasn’t bad, per se, but with the way things worked out, I probably would have been better off founding my first city near the gems, so that extra population point could have worked something more useful than a silk/grass/forest tile or an irrigated grassland.
My second city was founded 2S of the gems, in a location that claimed many, many hills as well as two corn tiles (one after expansion). I intended this city to be a production center early, and a leader farm later in the game due to all the extra food.
The third city was founded directly on top of the stone. That one was probably the easiest decision regarding city location of my entire game. Stone in the desert isn’t a very good tile (0f, 3h, 0c), so founding the city on it would actually improve it. The tile was also the only location which could utilize the fish. A worker accompanied this settler down, and immediately chopped two forests (for 60 hammers each), which completed Stonehenge.
The fourth city was founded on the east coast between the two sugar tiles, and the fifth was founded down south in a location that claimed the copper and the sheep. This city would later become the best hammer producer in the empire, and it built the Pyramids with the help of a few chops. I expect the Pyramids are very important when going for an early domination victory: the techs which allow access to the three best government civics aren’t available until far too late in the tech tree.
Here are the stats (and a screenie) of the empire in
1000bc:
5 cities
18 population
7 workers (who have been chopping down forests as fast as their little axes can go)
10 warriors (and 1 body brutalized by a barb club, 3 skeletons picked cleaned by animals)
1 barracks
1 Christian Missionary
5 granaries
The Oracle
Stonehenge
Score: 544
Tech Progression and Reasoning
I still have much to learn about this game—especially regarding tech research choices. I decided to include my reasoning here in hopes that others might do the same. (Or at least mention their key tech goals and why)
3600 bc, Agriculture; chosen in order to increase Rome’s worker/settler production capacity by 75% at city size 1)
3080, Bronze Working; all-important ability to chop forests for quicker settlers and workers
2760, Masonry; stone has been spotted, which means that if we claim it, Stonehenge can be built with 2 quick forest chops (60 hammers each with stone). Also need this tech for the Pyramids, which I consider the most useful wonder in the game. Early access to Representation, Police State and Univ. Suffrage are very powerful.
2520, Wheel; roads aren’t really important yet, but I will need Pottery soon.
2320, Mysticism; for Stonehenge and its handy, early border expansions
2080, Pottery; granaries are great for faster growth, especially the 30-hammer granaries expansionists get. Until courthouses are available, every future city will build a granary first.
1800, Polytheism; really wanted to get Iron Working here, but the free tech from the Oracle is very nice, so decided to go for it. I’m still working out the best tech to acquire with the freebie (Dave’s Feudalism sounds like a powerful and better option), but I decided I would try for Theology for the extra +2 experience points and Christianity. Code of Laws would be my fall-back tech if someone got Christianity in the meantime. Since I didn’t utilize the Theocracy civic until much, much later, this was likely a poor choice.
1640, Priesthood; to start Oracle
1280, Monotheism; wanted to get Animal Husbandry here because I now had a sheep city, but no one had founded Judaism yet!?! Had to go for it—missed it by one turn.
Not a big deal though. Mono also enables the powerful Organized Religion civic which allows no-monastery missionary creation (which would be needed very shortly), and cheaper building construction.
1080, Writing; needed to open up Theology for choice as the free Oracle tech. Libraries too.
1040, Theology; see Polytheism above for my reason in choosing it. The Romans switch to Organized Religion immediately after converting to Christianity.
875, Animal Husbandry; need to hook up Sheep for the shield-rich city of Pisae.
675, Iron Working; no explanation needed. I was awfully late in getting this tech (but lucked out in its appearance right beneath one of my cities).
450, Math; decide to get the Hanging Gardens. It’s cheap since we have stone, and 9 extra citizens will be a nice boost for the empire. It will also be needed for Construction and catapults.
225, Currency; to boost the economy. It provided 18 total gold/beakers, which was around a 15% increase at the time. When I built my one-and-only marketplace in my double-shrine city later, it would provide an additional boost.
100, Code of Laws; needed to reduce the expenses (24g) of the empire. Since we would soon be going over 10 cities with the conquest of the Greeks, expenses would go up rapidly without courthouses. Also, no one had Confucianism yet.
1 AD, Alphabet; only picked this tech because I hoped that Firaxis, in the patch, might have changed the fact that an AI will NOT trade a tech if it thinks it has a monopoly on it. They didn’t, so this research was a waste.
Here is a status report and screenshot of the empire at
1 AD:
9 cities
58 population
10 workers
10 warriors
2 praetorians
6 barracks
8 granaries
1 aqueduct
3 libraries
1 courthouse
1 temple
Stonehenge
The Oracle
The Pyramids
Church of the Nativity
Hanging Gardens
Score: 1106
Tech Progression continued
175, Civil Service; several cities needed irrigation to enable more growth. Also, the bureaucracy civic (+50% commerce and hammers in the capitol) is quite powerful.
200, Sailing; time to try and get off this continent, although this is just the first in a line of many, many tech requirements.
250, Calendar; several cities had reached the happiness limit, so plantations would be helpful.
375, Metal Casting; forges, which were immediately queued up in almost every city in the empire.
400, Hunting; don’t remember why I researched this.
425, Literature; wanted to get the National Epic built in my great person city. Wasn’t too concerned with Great Library since we lacked marble. (Although in hindsight I probably should have gone for it)
500, Compass; still working toward Astronomy
540, Construction; this detour from the Astronomy path was required because several cities were ready to start building catapults for the conquest of the Greeks (already had about 12 praetorians).
660, Machinery; back on the road to Astronomy.
740, Optics
760, Monarchy; this little detour was to get another luxury to help combat war weariness during the impending Greek war.
940, Astronomy; finally! We begin an effort to locate the other civs and circumnavigate the globe for +1 movement for our boats.
Religion
I wasn’t going for one of the three early religions in this game, having noted that the AIs usually pick them up very quickly. But, as I mentioned earlier, no one had Judaism at 1280 bc, so I went for it and missed it by one turn. I was, however, going for Christianity and I used the Oracle’s free tech in 1040 bc to get it. I immediately converted to the religion then revolted to Organized religion in order to build missionaries and spread it to all my cities. I was going to convert the Buddhist Greeks as well, but they closed the borders before I could do so (just a few turns after I adopted Christianity).
The holy city got its shrine in 550bc.
I managed to get Confucianism in 100bc, and fortunately, it was founded in the same city that founded Christianity. The Christian shrine was providing me with 13gpt in 350ad, when another great prophet appeared. He built the Confucian shrine, which added 6 gold or so more.
Ah, Noble difficulty level is such a friendly little thing.
Economy
Economics in Civ 4 is another thing I am still learning, so I thought I would post a little economic data from select dates.
2920bc: 12 science (b), 0 gold (g), 0 expenses (e); (Rome grows to size 3) -- really missing those gems about now
2400: 13b, 0g, 2e (Third city founded)
2000: 16b, 0g, 4e (4th city founded)
1400: 15b, 6g, 7e (5th city)
1320: 22b, 8g, 8e (gems finally mined)
675: 26b, 22g, 20e (7th city founded, adding 5 maintenance expense immediately)
550: 34b, 24g, 20e (Church of Nativity)
250: 64b, 25g, 24e (8th city, but 3 libraries now built)
225: 81b, 26g, 24e (Currency discovered. Nice income boost!)
1 ad: 112b, 24g, 31e (9 cities currently)
375: 152b, 38g, 43e (10 cities, have a market in my double-shrine city (+20g without taxes))
Civics
Revolts occurred in the following years:
1000bc: Slavery, Organized Religion
I adopted slavery just in case I needed to rush a military unit somewhere, but really didn’t need it. Org. Religion was what I wanted for the missionaries and cheaper buildings. I would have revolted 7 turns sooner, when I discovered the necessary technology, but I was afraid an AI might steal the Oracle from me by a turn if I did.
450bc: Representation
Representation is great for the extra happiness, and the three bonus beakers for specialists aren't bad. At some later date I will probably switch to Police State for reduced war weariness and cheaper units.
680ad: Caste System, Bureaucracy, Theocracy
I needed Theocracy so I could get an extra promotion for my units, Bureaucracy for the extra commerce and shields in the capitol, and Caste System…well, I really didn’t need it at that time, but I would down the road when I started conquering cities. Artists are great for expanding borders quickly.
I wish I could have taken advantage of Theocracy sooner, since I had had it since 1000bc. At first I delayed because I needed to get Christian missionaries out, then because I needed to get Confucian missionaries out, and then because I was waiting for Civil Service and wanted to get two civics into one revolt. All those delays were ok. The forth delay was not: I forgot. Uhgh! As a result, I ended up with about a dozen Praetorians that had only one promotion to start with.
Great People
I had three Great People during the scope of this thread:
625bc, Great Prophet, Church of Nativity
350bc, Great Prophet, Kong Miao
900ad, Great Engineer, saving him, probably for Versailles
The first prophet was produced by my city that built Stonehenge—no surprise there. The second 2 were produced by my “Great Person City” with the two food bonuses. It hasn’t produced many though, as I didn’t get the National Wonder built until 860ad, and I didn’t see much reason to slow its growth/production before then. I was shooting for a scientist on the latter two births (> 60% chance), but oh well. I guess I wont be building an academy this game.
Military Promotions
Most of my Praetorians before Theocracy’s +2 experience points got City Raider I for a promotion. Having City Raider promotions seems to be the most powerful to me, especially if those units are upgraded to Grenadiers later. About every 4th unit got a Combat 1 promotion (for later promotion to Medic or Combat II). It’s always handy to have a few units with basic combat promotions, because they make better defenders and more effectively attack units in the field.
After Theocracy, most Praetorians were given City Raider II. I built a few spearmen/pikemen to serve as my medics. I like to choose a weak unit for my medics, so they “sink to the bottom of the stack,” and it is harder for the AI’s to direct their attacks against them.
Catapults were all built after Theocracy, and most got City Raider I and Accuracy. Accuracy seems to be a good promotion, because the biggest delay in taking cities in my games has been getting rid of the city defense bonus. I mixed in a good number of City Raider II promotions and a few Barrage promotions. The City Raider II promotions on the Cats are nice because it seems to make it easier to get further promotions.
I didn’t build any mounted units (yet) for two reasons 1) I usually have terrible luck with them against what I am assuming should be their preferred enemies: archery units, and 2) the Greek Phalanx, which I had already noted quite a few of.
The Greek War
I wasn’t in any hurry to take the Greek’s cities. All capturing the additional cities would have done is stress my economy. He had no useful wonders and I had plenty of room to expand. Ideally, I wanted to attack him a few turns before I was ready to ship units off to conquer other continents. But in 125 ad, I captured a barb city down near the floodplain north of the Greeks. That gave him unhappiness because of our “close borders.” That, along with our religious differences, led him to declare war in 800ad…about 3 turns before I was going to declare on him. I probably should have declared on him sooner, but I got caught up in trying to strengthen my economy.
I beat off his attack (I had many praetorians and catapults in position at the time), then took one city and destroyed another which he had put in a ridiculous location. And that’s pretty much all the damage I could do before discovering Astronomy in 940, and most of the events after that date go beyond the scope of this thread.
Conclusion
I am pretty sure this was the longest summary I have written, and that is saying something.
If you suffered through the entire thing and spotted some strategy improvements or mistakes I made, please post them!
From this point forward, where to go was very tough to decide. Turn tech off after Engineering and Divine Right, start rushing military units and then hope the economy could hold out during a domination victory? Or should Rome keep researching more advanced economic and military techs? I note that I am already WAY behind DaveMcW in getting to Astronomy. I guess I will find out if I made good decisions when the next spoilers are posted…
EDIT: Added revolt to Representation
In fact, he declared on me just single turn earlier than I was planning to declare on him! 
lol: ) brought two galleys with swords and axes and even managed to destroy my mine 
. But the swords and axes found their death shortly and so did Alex himself several turns later. He was nice enough to build some very pretty cities and improve the lands arround them mostly wisely, which is not typical of AI 
.
