WOTM 01 First Spoiler

[ElWanderer]

Normal speed feels pretty fast to me. I played through to 600AD in one session.

My initial aim was to see if there was any coast about to found my capital. I wanted Carthage on the coast so I could build the Great Lighthouse and Colossus there. This meant I put it on the South coast, where it's got a limited number of decent tiles.

In fact, my theme for this game appears to be plonking cities in scratchy terrain. Short-term, it looks good (I had 8 cities by 500AD), especially as most are coastal and I built the Great Lighthouse in 300BC. But long-term, my cities aren't great. Being Noble, it doesn't really matter, I guess.

I've kept peace with Wang Kon. Figured I'd rather have trade routes with him for now. Once I get astronomy, he's going down. I've settled the great artist from discovering music first in a border town to try to flip one of his cities (shown in 2nd screenshot).

Comparing my game to some of the posts in this thread, I'm really not doing very well! I've not built the Colossus or got anywhere near astronomy yet. I'm just enjoying a relaxing game... not going to threaten the scoreboard though.

Wonders:
925BC Stonehenge
725BC Oracle (grabbed civil service)
300BC Great Lighthouse
175BC Confucian shrine
500AD almost finished the Great Library

Screenshots from 600AD:

 

[indeliblemerson]

Haven't had a crash in Warlords at all (played HOF mod as well) in this or any other game (haven't palyed many though).

Occasionally, I crash when I try to toggle on the grid.

It seems random. It only happens about 3 times out of 50. Otherwise it is just as stable as the vanilla civ iv.

 

[Thrallia]

ugh...I just had the first crash I've ever had on any C-IV game, warlords or not...it sucks. not to mention I'm not entirely sure how long ago my autosave was. I've never seen any reason to use one, since i don't have crashes. To top it off, I was in the middle of a war...hopefully I can redo things closely enough for it to still count.

 

[ewokimpi]

Contender. I'm a Prince level player. My outcome at this point in my development is always Domnination/Conquest, with Space or Diplo as fallback positions.

My plan for this game was to utilize the starting position to create a wealth generating capital to fund research. The first goalof the research would be to get off the starting continent to meet other empires, and then rapidly build up trade with them while preparing an early invasion. The secondary goal would be to gain a heavy unit to conquer any power(s) that Carthage happens to share its starting continent with.

Initial build would be warriors, then worker at pop 3, warriors, settler at pop 4, library, Oracle.

Initial tech path was to be Agriculture, Wheel, Pottery Writing, for cottages and library, then Oracle/CoL path aiming for Civil Service.

I did not intend to go to war on continent until Macemen, unless an empire was close. Off continent, well, seeing as would probably need Galleons to get there, would likely be warring with Grens and Trebuts.

How did things work out?

Events:

Spoiler :

EwokVille founded, BC 3960. Founded on northwest plains/hill, with Marble, Cow, Wheat roundabout, and four floodplains.
EwokVille grows: 3, BC 3360. Now start Worker, Warriors heretofore.
EwokVille finishes: Worker, BC 3000. Start putting cottages on those flood plains!
Contact made: Korean Empire, BC 2880. I had started to think Carthage was alone...
Tribal village results: a little gold, BC 2280. My gosh, a goodie hut Ainwood did not remove!
Carthage founded, BC 2000. On the eastern river with more flood plains. I'm going heavy research, want money-money-money.
EwokVille finishes: Library, BC 1720. Time to assign science specialists to get an academy in EwokVille.
Utica founded, BC 1280. 3w1s of EwokVille, with Horse and Fish.
Tech learned: Code of Laws
Confucianism founded in Carthage
Confucianism has spread: Carthage
EwokVille finishes: The Oracle, all BC 1000. The Oracle and CoL come in, so:
Tech learned: Civil Service, BC 975. Carthage gets the Civil Service slingshot. Don't tell AU_Armageddon.
EwokVille finishes: The Parthenon, BC 650. A hairbrained idea, trying to push up great people points to lightbulb techs.
Nabu-rimanni (Great Scientist) born in EwokVille, BC 575. I am favored by the RNG. Late compared to some others.
EwokVille finishes: Academy, BC 575.
Hadrumetum founded, BC 475. This was an interesting decision. It is founded 3n1e of EwokVille, on coast, east of river. It is intended as a military city, and will work cow, farmed floodplain, and three plains/hills, with pop 5 for much of the game. The Heroic Epic will be built here.
Euclid (Great Scientist) born in EwokVille, BC 150.
Carthage finishes: Academy, BC 75.
Captured Zhou (Barbarian), BC 100. Out beyond Utica, with Wheat Horse and Cow.
Tech learned: Machinery, AD 0. Oh Boy, Macemen!
Tech learned: Optics, AD 150. Oh Boy, Caravels!
Utica finishes: Caravel, AD 400. Explore off continent.
Contact made: off-continent Empire, AD 475.
Contact made: off-continent Empire, AD 500.

Techs:

Spoiler :

Agriculture, BC 3680.
The Wheel, BC 3400.
Pottery, BC 3160.
Writing, BC 2720.
AH, BC 2480.
BW, BC 2200.
Masonry, BC 2000.
Myst, BC 1880.
Poly, BC 1680.
Priesthood, BC 1560.
CoL, BC 1000.
Civil Service, BC 975.
Sailing, BC 925.
Iron Working, BC 800.
Alphabet, BC 650.
Hunting, BC 625. (why now? who knows?)
Archery, BC 600.
Horseback Riding. BC 500. It's too late. Wang Kon has too many "protective" archers. Maybe I felt needed a unit to fight him, if he attacked?
Compass, BC 375. Back on track.
Metal Casting, BC 225.
Machinery, AD 0.
Optics, AD 150.
Literature, AD 200.
Monarchy, AD 275.
Math, AD 350.
Currency, AD 450.

Initial Build:

Spoiler :

Warrior, BC 3680.
Warrior, BC 3480.
Worker, BC 3000.
Warrior, BC 2960.
Warrior, BC 2800.
Warrior, BC 2680.
Settler, BC 2200.
Library, BC 1720.
Warrior, BC 1680.
Settler, BC 1360.
Monument, BC 1240. (Killing time, I guess.)
Oracle, BC 1000.
Parthenon, BC 650.
Academy, BC 550.
Settler, BC 550.
Baracks, BC 475.

Stats at 500 AD, 100% reseach are:

pop 26, sci 152, 99 gold, 68 food, 67 culture, 10 great person. Research was at 80%, -3, 5 in treasury.
Military was 5 workers, 1 workboat, 1 archer, 3 numidian cavalry, 7 warriors, 1 axe, 4 macemen, 1 trireme, 1 caravel.


At 500 AD, the situation is that war is close with Wang Kon. I'm waiting for a build-up of four or five Macemen to kick it off. Off continent, Carthage has met two unnamed powers. Carthage has a huge bloody tech lead over Wang Kon (who knows what he's been doing?!?!) and also leads the off continent power. However, now my attention becomes split between fighting the was against Wang Kon, and building the tech lead towards invading the other powers.

And dear, oh dear, whatever tech shall I get with Liberalism? I tend to favor getting Industrialism, but we shall see!

Oh yes, Warlords crashed twice during this WOTM. I'm using the HOF mod, and have nVidia graphics card/drivers, don't know if those have anything to do with it. Civ IV v1_61, with or without HOF mods, is perfectly stable on my system, so there appear to be bugs in need of swatting.

 

[Heroic]

This is my first GOTM ever. My background is much more from the online Civ3 MP community (war mongers), though I have been much more into SP with Civ4. So to stay true to my roots on this first run I have been going for Conquest/Domination.

I researched to pottery first to get early cottages on those floodplains, then slavery to pop a granary and library. Did Agr and AH to get the cow and wheat going, and then started chopping forests everywhere to build workers. I built 3 workers before chopping/building my 1st settler. My first warrior started east circles around at next city lengths and head off west. It didn't take too long for Wang to pop up and for me to realize that if I had a neighbor to the west he was not close at all.

I built my cap on the hill to get the cows and marble. Next city was the city to get the north cow and the crabs. I thought for a while about building at the far north mouth of the river to get the +2 health, as potential shields looked about equal and coast looked better. But I finally realized that +2 food is the same as +2 health. Since the health penalty is only -1 food if you go over population. Plus the crabs would grow the city much faster and help rush a granary etc. I got Judaism and Confucianism founded in my cap though before that 2nd city was founded, quickly went into organized religion, and since confucianism spread better for me, I converted to it. Chopped to jumpstart the city.

Thought a long time about putting the north city at the river mouth, and having the crabs go to a city built 1 tile north of the oasis. If I were going for a peaceful win, I would have done that, and the oasis city would have been my 2nd city. With floodplain cottages in it and the cap early on giving massive growth rate, and with Great Lib to get academies and using oracel for CS, you could seriously rocket in tech. And it could poprush reasonably for its production needs. But, I am not going for a peaceful win (quick diplo), and felt that the mil production meant I needed a better site. But that east wheat city site, is going to be a nice city one day too.

My biggest dilemma was how to handle astronomy. I figured on continents map you would need it to go for conquest/domination. I seriously considered skipping CS, and using oracle for machinery buliding great lib and going straight for astronomy, with a great scientist to speed astronomy. My biggest concern though was that you really have to be careful not to get CS and not to get Theology and not to get much further on the Alpha line, or you can quickly get to other techs that the great sci will give you instead of Astronomy. Knowing that I had 1 civ to kill before I really thought about starting a war overseas, I decied that (1) I needed the war production from bureacracy and (2) I needed the +2 xp from Theocracy to get CR2 for the attack force.

So after getting agr and AH I did the CS slingshot, just enough for Construction, and then started the beeline for Optics then Astronomy. I built only the oracle, and ignored Great Lib. Although great lib would certainly pay in the long run, I wanted to get my catapults moving as quickly as possible against Wang. I figured that as a protectionist those cities would be a pain, and if he got his H'wacha's going, it could be a real pain.

My third city was just NW of the lake SE of my cap. That city got a nasty surprise just before I got Construction - a barbarian axemen. Since I had just finished CS slinghot and was going for construction, all I had were warriors (I ignored the archer/horse line figuring you usually have enough room to see things coming and those are fast techs later), thankfully from a barracks. Every warrior in my empire raced to that city, and I had to pop 1 in the city itself, to make sure I had 2 warriors in there on any given turn so the city would not fall. Luckily I was close to Construction. I lost 4-5 warriors before that cat finally arrived and killed the now combat I promoted Axe. I have since wondered if I would have done better to pop city walls. But, then the axe would have had a 1vs1, and I could have lost the city. Thereafter I went quickly for iron, since my western scouting warrior had spotted from a hilltop another axe heading at me. To defeat it I placed a city right on the hill that chokes the isthmus, and coneniently got the fish as well as the cow. And I sent the cat that killed the first axe to hold it, until I got an axe built. That axe effectively neutralized all threats from the west.

I delayed any other military unit builds until my forge was done and I got theology (a brief interlude on the beeline). I switched from Org Rel to Theocracy and pumped about 4 more cats and 2 maces (CR2 sure is nice out the box as was sentry for the chariot I later did), and sent them on the eastern road I had been building. The cats got ahead of it and scouted ahead for barbs, but the road helped the later maces to catch up quickly. I was headed for the Korean city with all the fish and the iron. I had a warrior east of it, watching the korean's road build ( I wanted to use that road to quickly move at the other cities.)

Before I got to that city however, they founded another one west of it, oddly not on a hill but still on that tundra river. I learned something. My mace and 1 cat were east adjacent to the settler on the turn when korea founded the city. That promptly kicked my mace and cat outside the border (eastward actually). I had a couple more cats, that were moving along the road, that were now on the northwest border of the korean city. I declared war by moving one of those cats adjaced to the city, and (AHA....I did not know this before), my mace and my catapult got put BACK where they had started the turn - adjacent to the city. Is this normal? I did not know that declaring war on the same turn the unit got booted would return the unit to its original pre-city founded position. It was nice though because the catapult and the mace where then able to destroy the city on that very turn!

I continued the march on the iron/fish city, it had a few archers and fell easily against all the catapults and maces. Unfortunately, the road korea built is now culturally claimed by some cultrually powerful northern city. I have a chariot with sentry that should arive and be able to see things soon. But it is going to make a slow advance. I am going to send my workers to build a road through the ice to help the latter troops catch up with the main.

Well on the path to astronomy, and expect a caravel out soon. Might have to switch to a quick alpha for tech trading if I find someone.

As of 500AD that is the state of things.