The 'I Suck At Civ' Series

[Vox de Villainy]

Greetings from a much-maligned yet much-motivated Machiavelli hopeful!

Like many CIV players, I stand on the brink of a rather steep precipice. On the one hand, I have grown far too comfortable with the paltry challenges of Noble; every spaceship that penetrates the heavens or city I burn or diplomatic master-play I make does little to entertain me; I can do little to stifle a yawn as my legions trample Mansa Musa into the dirt for the thousandth time. This malady is matched only by my severe ineptitude at playing with the big boys on Prince, which so often portrays me a mere philistine; a weak monarch calmly piling library on temple and watching my happy little Artist Specialists frolic whilst Shaka starts putting those Ikhandas to good use, or me a grunting, ignorant, knuckle-dragging caveman beside my more cultured and civilised neighbours.

Thusly, in light of my own lasting languour towards stepping up to the mark, and somewhat lacking skills, I have chosen to feed off the minds off the collective, to have them pilot me, aid me, save me! Having learnt a great deal from frenzied readings of Sisutil’s ALCs, Neal’s King of the World series and madscientist's baffling scribblings, I feel ready to take the plunge!

Now, with that lengthy introduction out of the way: I’m a player between Noble and Prince deciding that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and starting my own series.



Now, the settings!

The map type shall be Tectonics, of Standard size, with normal 'Aridity' and an apparently earth-esque 70% water. The Leader and Civilisation Choice shall be a ballsy Random and this if, of course, Beyond the Sword 3.19.

I believe a reasonably advantageous move would be to select 'Ok' and begin, are we all in agreement?

Here's the start. We're playing Sitting Bull, who is the leader of Bugger All, yet according to Civ the champion of something called 'The Native American Empire'.
We start with Fishing and Agriculture, which aren't great for this start, and our traits are the juicy Philosophical and the less-juicy Protective.

This is Prince, so we might be able to unleash the Hounds! Or should we focus on peaceful expansion via REX? Do we settle in place or gallivant across the plains for some esoteric reason? Or do we cry and re-roll?

Thank you, ladies and gentleman, for your attention and your advice.

EDIT: ...and I post in the wrong forum. Buggery! I'd be much cheered if a mod were to move this for me.

 

[Yared]

Send Warrior to scout NW. Also, it'd be much easier for us to see if you'd turn on the resource button.

 

[kristopherb]

Comrad I whould move your settler so you have access to the sea. and still have acess to the other reasourses in your fat cross.
I agree im on that apex of Noble prince too. i think i may post one of these myself.

 

[99wattr89]

Send Warrior to scout NW. Also, it'd be much easier for us to see if you'd turn on the resource button.

He has three silk (1 square NW, S and SE or settler) and a cow (1 square NE of settler).
I'm amazed that you find that hard to see.

 

[andreasb]

I'd say you either settle in place, or move to the plains hill NW for the production bonus. I would not move to the coast since that means losing the cow, which is a powerful resource. If you do move to the plains hill, you could settle a city later by the coast as well anyway.

Edit: Tip is to download BUG mod which is really helpful when you move up in level.

 

[Yared]

He has three silk (1 square NW, S and SE or settler) and a cow (1 square NE of settler).
I'm amazed that you find that hard to see.

hahahaahahaha no I can see those perfectly well. I'm just saying that as his empire grows bigger and bigger it'd be much easier for us (I'm assuming he'll be posting screen shots because not everybody have updated to 3.19) to see every resource.

ADD ON: Three cows in a single tile in the middle of nowhere can be hard to notice in a 9-12 city empire.

XTRA ADD ON: I would settle 1W. Access to 2 rivers (at least with a 1 tile road), all of the 3 visible hills and still keeping all of the resources in the BFC.

 

[r_rolo1]

Move warrior to the plains hill. Post screenie

Oh, and you can ask a moderator to move this to the thread you wanted to post in the first place

 

[Vox de Villainy]

Behold!

Our intrepid Warrior takes a jog to the top og tonder hill, revealing Wine and Floodplains to the north.

Whilst this doesn't help us overmuch with the where-to-settle dilemma, there could probably be a powerful food - and thusly specialist-heavy - city location for later.

I'm leaning towards 1W; keeping the Spices and Cows with a border pop, as well as giving lots of room for grasslands, which could support farms, cottages or watermills, depending on what we want from our capital.

 

[attackfighter]

settle on plains hill and build a worker while teching 2 agriculture

 

[Vox de Villainy]

I start with Agriculture!

My first instinct is to research Animal Husbandry > The Wheel > Mining > Bronze Working > Writing.

 

[attackfighter]

that doesn't make sense, native americans didnt farm...

 

[PreLynMax]

Actually, the some Native American tribes did introduce maize to the Europeans... so they actually did farm.

 

[99wattr89]

that doesn't make sense, native americans didnt farm...

He didn't say he was going to roleplay them.

 

[Yared]

Maize (Zea mays L. ssp. mays, pronounced /ˈmeɪz/; also known in some countries as corn), is a cereal grain domesticated in Mesoamerica and subsequently spread throughout the American continents. After European contact with the Americas in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, maize spread to the rest of the world.

Maize is the most widely grown crop in the Americas (332 million metric tons annually in the United States alone). Hybrid maize, due to its high grain yield as a result of heterosis ("hybrid vigor"), is preferred by farmers over conventional varieties. While some maize varieties grow up to 7 metres (23 ft) tall,[1] most commercially grown maize has been bred for a standardized height of 2.5 metres (8 ft). Sweet corn is usually shorter than field-corn varieties.

 

[Vox de Villainy]

In this round, we had a lovely housewarming party.

We chatted up the lovely, full-breasted Boudica;

...networked the eminent Mr Zara Yaqob...

...and reprimanded Gandhi for stealing our whole 'holy-man-indigenous-resistance-not-actual-leader' motif. The wimpy little poser.

In terms of technology, I followed my intended Tech Path as no-one told me to do otherwise, so we now have Animal Husbandry and The Wheel, whilst researching Mining.

I built a Worker first, who got to work connecting up the cows and perhaps building a farm or two to aid growth in the near future. I'm now working on a warrior to allow said Growth, working the spice tile for the 2f/1p/1c until cows are available.

A sneaky peak at our surroundings:

There's a location to the west for a coastal city that claims Fish, Clam and some hills; albeit not enough for creating any true production city.

There are horses in the otherwise unattractive plains to the west. SE of the horses would gain immediate access, along with later wine, some plains for a modicum of food and several hills for production.

The northern area with floodplains, gold and wine also how a wheat tile to the north. Definitley a strong commerce/food city location, with only one real flaw:

Its proximity to a certain wild and warlike Celtic Queen, who has a certain propensity for smashing heads, with terrifing Aggressive/Charismatic super-troops.

Her closeness to us, and our closeness to Bronze Working leads me to believe a Rush might be possible; her capital is the Buddhist holy city (Gandhi is Hindu) and I could easily pop a Prophet for big bucks later in the game. She's an attractive target in every way save the sheer power of her army. Am I correct in saying unleashing Dog the Bounty Hunter requires Bronze Working but no need for Copper? Should we gear for an early rush?

 

[Ignorant Teacher]

I wouldn't go for a rush. Dog Soldiers suck at killing archers. (you're right, they only need BW) And you have room to settle a couple of cities peacefully. I would settle the plain hills 1N of the gold. With walls and your super archers you won't have to worry about the Celts for a very long time.

You could explore more to the east of the wheat and see if there's any location for another city to establish your borders with Boudica.

 

[Yared]

I agree; don't rush yet. Wait for the riflemen/cannons period.

You could easily fit 2 (or maybe even 3) cities on that flood plains area. After those, I'd advice you to wait 'till after you got IW to rex the rest for optimal city positioning.

 

[mechaerik]

I would wait for crossbows, with a barracks, PRO and the totem pole, you can field some serious power if you get Machinery early enough.

 

[Junuxx]

Be sure to get that gold asap. Easily helps to afford maintaining two or three more cities early on when young cottages still hardly yield anything.

 

[attackfighter]

hey man why didnt you settle on the plains hills.......................................?