[BTS] Starting with C2C

[MattiK]

Couple days ago I found out about Caveman2Cosmos mod and decided to give it a try while I wait for completion ( = updates, expansions, DLC etc.) of Civ6. Oh man, this mod is MASSIVE! It makes greater difference to the BtS than what BtS makes to the vanilla Civ4! And so I'm little lost in here. What I see to pass for manual are the files Caveman 2 Cosmos Readme.* (which I have read partially). But those don't explain some of the new symbols that appear in tool tips. Can you explain me the new symbols in here?

Where in Civilopedia (Sovopedia?) can I find them?

Otherwise I'm currently playing with France. Map size is huge, time is at snail, and settings are at defaults. I've captured raven and it waits in Paris for tech & buildings to maximize its benefits (storyteller's hut and whatnot). Then bear ate my Rock Thrower.

 

[A.Caesar]

Those are: (in order)
Air pollution
Disease
Water pollution
And crime, and they IIRC are in the C2C concepts section.

 

[MattiK]

Spent couple past evenings playing 1 more turn. Almost at 20k BC now. Got visitors by the border from Confederation. I've also made few trackers and send them around to explore along with my slingers. Hunting too while they're at it. Found the Confederation too. One volcano just keeps erupting.

 

[A.Caesar]

I actually haven't played the latest update of c2c, how is it?

 

[MattiK]

I actually haven't played the latest update of c2c, how is it?

Overwhelming! Epic!!
I leave version comparisons to others to explain.

 

[A.Caesar]

Fair enough.

 

[MattiK]

Many turns and years down the road since 50000 BC. Paris keeps growing and developing. Most of the stuff that can be build on Paris has already been built. Subdued animals (including an elephant) have made great deal of additional improvements. See the obsidian tile up north between hill and river? With new city on the hill I have access to coast, obsidian, and stone. It'll make great production city IF I can supply it with enough food. Grapes, barley (or whatever), and flood plains (1 tile only) ought to help with that. But that hill used to be volcano which has erupted from time to time. Would it be too risky to make a city on that tile?

I have strong recon parties going around. I got sick of losing small units to small bands of animals and homo neanth...whatever. So I made 1 stack of doom, which I divided in here to speed up the exploration. That party subdued couple elephants and killed bunch of homo neant* that came in the way, along with whole lot of other wild animals. Tracker of the northern group is total 1337, and when I upgrade it to Hunter, it'll r001z. Still, I'm gonna to need tougher units to boot homo neant* out of the forest villages.

I went for Pictographs because it has building which improves research. Would it be a time to research Tribalism next and start to make new cities? I want that obsidian tile so I can start to make obsidian units. Or would city maintenance be pit for my commerce and thus cripple research?

 

[A.Caesar]

I wouldn't know, they added a lot of things since I played last.

 

[MattiK]

I have made 2 new cities. Orleans provides me Obsidian and Lyons provides me Gold and eventually Elephants. I have connected the cities with Trail Paths. Gotta secure those horses with yet another city. Also city maintenance has not sacked me as badly as I thought.

My warriors armed with mighty Obsidian weapons have vanquished the Neanderthals and liberated 2 tribal villages! See narrow strip of land up there? If I can build a city up there, I can get my boats/ships from one side of the continent to another and also bottle up the Danish expansion (I hope). Gotta hurry, because there already is new Dane city nearby. Tribe is on the way. Speaking of which, does Sailing tech allow trade routes along the coast or do I need to build Trail Path all the way up there? 10 tiles from Orleans man!

See that copper up near the North Pole? It is ONLY copper tile in entire continent! I've located 3 gold tiles and secured 1, but that copper is beyond my reach! Also my small scouting party got bottled up as Danes made new city just by the mountain range. Sucks! There is to hope I can get some Galleys done to bail them out. Or I can just leave them there or delete the lot. Opinions?

 

[MattiK]

I'm making new cities almost as fast as I can. But damn, newest city put my income down to negative. Oh well, it's not too bad. Yet. Maybe I should slow down for now, and develop my cities. Still Tours (2nd newest city) is good addition: by the coast at end of the mountain range makes it easy to defend and first line of defense against Confederate States of America. Oh yes, Horse is a nice bonus which now is denied from Confederation (assuming it doesn't have another somewhere). Lyons location is natural fortress. Palisade or heavier fortification on top of the hill with couple units will block ground access completely over there.

I just set up Marseilles on this turn. Horse and couple Lobsters are nice resources to have, along with something else. Rheims has been there for a while and it allows passage of my boats from one side of the continent to another. It also effectively stops danish expansion towards the South. Aw damn, Aarhus has expanded its borders. After I get some production oriented buildings up, I'll focus on culture related buildings. I've also used Story Teller from Orleans to speed up the process, and I might send more over there. Up North lone Galley has gone to retrieve some of my trapped scouting party and captured animals.

Outriggers are doing exploration all along the coasts. Down the south one has discovered an island and pack of crocodiles (one has escaped outside of LOS). Now closing in for the kill. I consider setting up more cities along the continent's south coast to gain more Elephants and other Commerce/Wealth worthy resources. But city maintenance costs are killing me!

 

[MattiK]

In technological advancements I'm ranked 3rd. Not bad if I say so myself. I have put heavy emphasis on research, and it shows right there.

My empire as it stands now. I have 2 cities with Horses, and Paris has constructed National Horse Breeder. In addition it is my intention to secure all the elephant tiles on this continent, and hopefully leave others on the continent without access to Elephant Riders. For that purpose, Paris is making Settlers and Workers which will be escorted by Hunters to continent's south end. With that done, I can build strong mounted force, and crush all competition. I got Great Merchant, and he got tons of gold from Lakamha. With income at positive right now and deep wealth reserve, I could pop several more cities and develop them for research and production.

I need to examine tech tree more closely and at some point beeline for Iron Working to find Iron sources. If I don't get lucky, I might need to go to war to get metals. I intend to be ready for that with crapton of mounts, archers, and Obsidian Axemen/Swordsmen. And enough (War) Galleys to crush competing navies and fast deliver troops. Mod doesn't tell how many units given boat can carry. How many land units does War Galley take?

 

[MattiK]

Damn! Look at that maintenance cost! At 100% research I'm already at -10 for income. Can't make more new cities anytime soon. Right now I'm researching Ideograms and Pottery will be next (for Granary). Do you have any recommendations to reduce city maintenance cost?

 

[Sun Tzu Wu]

Well done, MattiK!

I have never tried Caveman2Cosmos, but it sounds really great! Because of that, I really can't offer good advice. Sorry.

 

[MattiK]

Here was a barbarian city. It was garrisoned by some 4+ archers. 2 Elephant Riders and as many Horsemen defeated it. As result, I got some captives which I put into good use.

Since my last post, I've set up 2 new cities: Avignon and Rouen. There are some nice resources around Avignon, and I forgot to turn on the resource display to show them. Rouen is by the river. I really needed that for Potter's Hut because of river access. Some good food resources too along with Flood Plains. Paris has some wonder which increases new city pop up to 2 (got it made before Rouen). In addition of that, I used some of the captured barbarians to increase its size to 3 and rest of the captives got an upgrade to Workers. After Rouen completes Stone Tool Maker, it will make Potter's Hut, which makes Granary available for construction in all of my cities. At bottom of the screen, activated stack, is 2 Galleys carrying Settler and companions to small uninhabited continent (or large island) where they shall make yet another city to secure Copper source.

About my economy: almost every city have made some wealth generating buildings to offset massive maintenance costs and upkeep of my numerous units. In addition civic changes have shaved off some of my expenses. I didn't adopt Charity because it would have decreased wealth income in all cities. After I've made city to secure the copper, I might not make any more cities until I find Iron.

 

[Riflin'Joe]

What level are you playing at?

 

[MattiK]

Copper source secured! Workers are already hard at work building a mine on it. Archer guards them. No real reason for that though: animals don't come inside cultural borders.

Jackson sends lots of merchants.

While I wasn't looking, crime in Tours has skyrocketed. After paying attention to crime rates in all cities for several turns, I've noticed it goes up and down before I can complete any buildings that affect to crime.

Confederate States of America needs my help. Should I help or not? I provided help that is highlighted. I can afford it, and I deem improved relations worth the cost.

Some turns later, first war (that I know of) began: Heke against someone else. Also changing civic to Caste System greatly reduced my expenses and income is positive again.

What level are you playing at?

Default.

 

[A.Caesar]

I more often than not send help if only for the diplomatic boost

 

[MattiK]

Few more turns down the road. Nothing interesting happening. This is now boring city development & management. Occasionally Ambusher or the like attacks my unguarded workers which prompted me to have them escorted. One ambusher atack is from Denmark and I consider going to war against it. If it wasn't for the cost & unhappiness: Denmark is the 2nd largest empire right after my own. Otherwise I have stack of 6 Horsemen, which are to serve as mobile fast response force should one empire or another go to war against me.

 

[Sun Tzu Wu]

I'm glad you are still playing this game.

I look forward to your next progress report.

 

[MattiK]

I should go to sleep... Oh, wonder will be completed on the next turn! Just one more turn!

Besides that, I've got beeline for Great Lighthouse. Because I've got large number of coastal cities, Great Lighthouse is major milestone for me. Still ways to go...