Well to start I am noob, but I lurk these forums pretty well and I know a few of the tricks, just can't seem to get them down to an art! I am struggling on Noble right now, but it is getting OK if my start is decent, so I thought I'd try this WOTM as the starting location looked pretty good, even tho raging barbs is scary to me! Here we go with my story!
PS, how do I get to the 'event log' screen that I have seen screenshot here before? That would help me a lot as I am not a good recorder!
Settled 1s of start, I liked the extra production and thought 3 food would be plenty to get my capitol running great. I was happy at all the plains hills that the southern location revealed.
Researched AH > Fishing > mining > BW > Myst. Ignored early religions as I plan to own all the holy cities eventually and found confucanism anyway. Want to get a feel for my neighbors before choosing sides.
Built in Capitol Warior > Worker (chop) Worker (chop chop whip) Settler > Settler >Work boat First city 1N of horses and next settled on the forest to the east where the stone (and shortly copper) would be in range. None of my 2 newfound cities will be production monsters, but the capitol will do fine with all the hills and food to support it. Started hooking up resources starting with horses and then stone, and all the food. Not many trees left after all the chopping for workers settlers, but I hope the early start will prove helpful. Left a few spots for chopping wonders as needed. Other cities chopped workers and then started with chariots to begin my conquest! Capitol built Stonhenge as soon as myst researched, and then another workboat. Continued with chariots in all cities, not worried about barracks as the hardy ones will all soon get promotions by earning them!!!!
Back to beginning... I had started my warrior exploring and found all civs in good order, but not a single goody hut was popped, came close once tho! <in a Sean Connery voice> 'Do you have the beast in your sights? It should present no significant problems...' Then a quick scout rushes in and takes it right out from under my nose!!!
First war
Continuing, my warrior is finally caught in the open by a barb warrior, and even with my upgrades and full health, he handily kicks my tail! But I was already on my return trip to the motherlands, as most of the continent had been scouted already...my second warrior was busily scouting my victims and Peter was just much too adjacent to be complacent, so he must go. Had 4 chariots ready and 2 more on the way, so I dow'd on Peter and moved up next to Moscow. 2 archers but no workers in sight...Lost only 1 chariot taking the city! Kept it as my GP/science city. I knew the general location of St. Petersburg and had spotted a settler escorted by an archer heading E a few turns before I started the war, so even though I had a decent war machine going and had fully healed my stack
and rcvd 2 new arrivals, I was a bit concerned about trying to get 2 more cities. I headed off SSW and found St. Pete with 1 archer and 2 warriors!!! Still no workers tho
Took St. Pete with no losses, thank you for retreating Mr. war chariot!!! That 10-20% was working nicely for me! Kept St. Pete also, as it had 2 ivory, rice, and a happy recource. My stack was pretty good, I had 5 full chariots, so I left the wounded one in St. Pete to heal, (had moscow defended by a warrior!) and turned my stack east in search of the new russian city. Found it with 1 archer, 2 warriors, and a worker (only 1 worker
) Took it down and razed it with another retreat and no losses! Location was decent, but I didn't need the drain on my economy yet, and I had hoped to get 3-4 workers in the russian war, as St. Pete would need a lot of jungle removal eventually! The Russians are now dead so I am sitting pretty with 5 cities, 4 decently improved, 1 with almost no improvements and a lot of jungle... But as for city location, we are spread out pretty bad , forming a crooked 'T' which leaves me worried about barbs and maint. costs will be coming on hard! Got a few hundred coins to keep the teching going good, so back to scouting and building.
In the meantime and beyond...
Researched to Priesthood and then to ironworking (to clear jungle) and timed writing to finish just as I completed the oracle! Took CoL to get started with courts in my empire, and I wanted my own religion to spread because Washington, Shaka, and Qin were all without, and Saladin got Hindu and Liz had budda. Peter...oh well, no matter what he had! Founded Conf in my stone/copper city and sent the missionary to Capitol as happiness was beginning to be a concern. I had started Pyramids in my capitol around the same time as oracle was started in my horses city, so I diverted my workers to chop the last of the forests to speed this along as it would be a nice addition. When the oracle finished in the horses city, I built a few axes to defend around the homestead and started the great wall, suprised that it was not built yet and expecting to have my efforts turn to cash shortly, which proved true. My stone/copper city had been making workboats to hook up the seafood in my cities, so when that was done I started spamming missionaries, converting as soon as the free one got to my capitol. As it turns out, Washington and Qin both converted to my religion before I could get it spread to my own cities. The Great Prophet from Stonehenge made his special building and my economy was getting a little better as a result, but still a lot of micromanagement was required to keep science high and production steady. I finally built granaries and barracks in my capitol and Horses cities, and built granary in the Stones/copper city.
And the war continues...
As my chariots scouted some more, I found that Shaka had an enormous work force on his borders, and he was constantly annoyed at me! I dow'd on him and razed both of his expansion cities and stole 4 workers losing NOTHING! I was an idiot tho, and forgetting about all the barbs, I sent the workers fleeing across the open country towards my homeland with no escorts, just simply on 'go to' orders. I only lost 1 before turning them around and keeping them in Qin's city until I'd finished my war with Shaka and could get them home safe. I pillaged all around Shaka's capitol and probably could have taken it out, he had 4 archers up against my 6-7 promoted chariots, but since he was so far away I didn't think I could keep the city and if I razed it, my rivals would certainly move in and get that much more powerful, so I left zululand a shell of it's former glory, and took my shiny new workers home to chop some jungle! Only sore point in this war is that Shaka would not give up Horseback riding for peace!!! And I don't think he even has horses nearby!
I give him peace for free.
War again you ask? Of course!
Saladin is now revoking our open borders agreement and on the return trip home from Zulu he converts to judaism and I notice he has 2 holy cities (4 total cities) and still hasn't hooked up iron or copper, both of which he has access to and techs for (I've since self-teched alphabet, so the trading frenzy began shortly before I dow'd with Shaka) I get my settlers home and position my chariots of doom at his borders with an eye on the unimproved resources of copper and iron. I waited for workers to spread to the scene and start mining, while allowing the war weariness to fade from my peoples minds. The barbs must have been hell for Saladin, because as I watched and tried to coordinate my attack, several barb archers and warriors popped out of the dark and it only took a bit of shuffling on my part to ensure that they all beelined for his cities he he he! This what was keeping his workers hidden so long, and when the waved finally subsided I dow'd on him focusing on his capitol, stealing 3 workers from the onset of the war and even catching an uninjured archer out of the city on a barb mission I guess?! His capitol had just 2 archers and 1 warrior, but one of the archers had about 5 promotions and the other was no rookie either, but after suiciding 2 chariots and having 2 retreat at .4 health, my last 2 chariots took the city down to just 1 warrior without any damage to themselves. I took the holy judaism city next turn with ease, and started the healing process while getting a tech (forget which) and cash for peace.
Build Build Build This city is a nice location, denies Saladin access to Iron, but is a barb magnet, and quite a distance from my capitol as well, adding a little tail to the bottom of my 'T' pattern of cities. My army of workers has almost finished chopping jungles and connecting resources, and I have a nice highway between my cities, so the move on my new city (which I renamed 'hybrid', for the economy I will run from it) and begin extending the roads and farming/cottaging hybrid. In the meantime, Pyramids completes and I chop the great library in Moscow (which came equipped with the great lighthouse!) and decide that St. Pete will also be a hybrid economy city, but it's growing very slow due to the lack of food.
The tally as it stands... Like I said, I am not a good recorder, but it is close to 425ad and I am first in score, culture, production, food, and close to the top in cash. Power is still really close to the top, but starting to get edged out by Liz and Washington. My closest rival (washington) is pleased with me, and so is the 3rd place rival (Liz) My score is almost double my closest rival, I am close to 800 and he has around 410 or so. Liz is a few points behind him, and the rest of the civs are in the low 300's and 200's. I am ahead on techs as well, but that is from almost constant warring for cash to keep the slider high, and since I believe the age of the chariot is finished I will need to think hard about where to go next with this game. I have CS now and don't remember where I went next, I think I am picking up some lower tech that the Ai's neglected and I really need. This is, by far, my best start ever on prince, as I have never even gotten a win on Noble!
