Epic 13 - timmy827, Portugal

[timmy827]

Well, this is a number of firsts for me. My first RBCiv game, my first time posting a game summary of any strategy game I've played, first time finishing a non-OCC game of Civ 4. I guess I have a short attention span and need something like a report to motivate me. As I look back on my notes, I realize that I'm not very verbose, apologies to those who would like more detail.



Start: Settle in place. Decide to do WB first, research BW.

3700: Warrior west of Babylon pops hut for map, can see corner of Khmer empire. As I thought, all the civs are new. I wonder if they randomized the starting locations of the non-player civs?
Anyways, I'm gonna get hemmed in by Hammurabi; hope there is some good land from that island tip east of Babylon.

3300: Another hut...I'm wondering if the other civs had starting warriors/scouts removed? I'm surprised to find these huts much closer to the AI's than my start.

2875: Meet the Dutch, historically my archnemesies. This is a real long continent.
2825: Lisbon size 4, starts 1st settler. I curse as I switch research to wheel, realizing that I need to connect resources.

2050: 1st 3 cities are settled. Boy, I hope horses don't show up outside a fat cross when I finish AH. Also, I'm peeved to see Stonehenge finished on the turn I get my quarry done; usually my experience is that wonders come later than usual. Decide to try for GW, I want to check out the Great Spy abuse (currently I'm not worried about barbs at all; with such a small peninsula it'd be easy to just fogbust it all.)

1975: Ah, horses to the south, so that's why the blue circle was there. It's not a big loss, would've had to settle on top of the horses to get the silver and fish; and w/o early war on I don't think I need horses right away.



1225: 1000 is coming earlier than I expected; I get ready for war against Babylon. 4th settler built (started a while ago, didn't want hammers to decay) but going to hold him until after war (no good city sites to my west, unless iron turns out to be there.

1225 again: With a groan as I wait for the game to load, I remember Babylon's UU is a bowman. I look it up and it has +50% vs. melee, sounds like a great way to impede an axe rush. Oh well.

1000: War declared; I have 7 axes + 1 spear in stack with a few more coming. Luckily, there's only 2 bowmen in Babylon, and Hammurabi decides to switch religions instead of whipping another defender...Oh well. Capture it only losing 2 axes, nice.

800: Babs gone. Raze and rebuild one city.

275: Currency done, researching COL. Have traded for all the religious-side techs, including cheap ones like Med and Priesthood. My thinking is that I'm gonna get far ahead of the AI's and WFYABTA won't be an issue. On second thought, gonna do Construction 1st, get cats, then research COL from my Khmer plunder. This is so much different from how I usually play, but being on the end of this peninsula I didn't have much choice for peaceful expansion.

100 AD: Finished Calendar, working on COL. My spy to Pacal to steal techs was caught, damn. Stack ready to invad Khmer. Should start on Hindu missionarires since it won't make sense to stay Jewish after. Or maybe no religion?
Poor Khmer still doesn't have IW (iron inside his territory) Traded him some copper before I realized that I shouldn't (pre-alpha, didn't realize he didn't have it). At last glance ~4 turns ago had two units in capital.



War goes smoothly starting with capital capture (also Jewish holy city).

430 AD: Khmer has been finished pretty easily. I'm again going severly into debt; currently I can't quite sustain 40% (and I want two more cities). I decide to raze and refound the other Khmer cities, but I don't build the settlers soon enough and Justinian puts that stupid city to the west. The plus is that I should be able to take it (and the other small city near me) with spearmen alone; he's a little too chariot happy.



Plan is to raze the three southernmost cities + Antioch (or maybe take Antioch and gift it back) Refound 1s of angora, 1W2S of the farthest SW city, and somewhere NE of that same city to work iron, gold, and can't remember what else (or the exact location) since I turned the resources off). That will give me 9 cities; rather a lot, but if I don't resettle Justinian will soon anyways. My core cities are running low on improvements to build; I will have a good supply of luxuries and health bonuses so the plan is to stop whipping except in the new cities. I have quite a crowd of workers (10 total) that will help chop everything to aid the new cities.
Techwise I'm doing ok, almost done with CS. Plan is research compass (harbors are cheap and I got the great lighthouse from Khmer capital), hopefully trade CS for both MC and machinery (don't know if any AI's will get it though) and beeline to optics for the UU. I hope there is some other land somewhere but from the size of this continent I think not. Shame, I really fancied a historical colonial epic war against the dutch.

655AD: Peace w/Justinian. Managed to raze two more cities (too far away too keep for now) and exhaust most of my units; good for me since they cost $. I plan to finish Justinian with an all-medieval army; I don't see myself having much $ to upgrade (although I will the CR3's for sure). He may have his UU then, but should be so set back it doesn't matter. Of course, he could easily vassalize to someone, then I'd have decisions to make.

Have part-researched machinery; plan is to try to and trade to Dutch when Pacal finished it, and see if I can get anything else for compass. Once I get enough courthouses, I can build FP. Thinking about maybe moving the capital; hard to tell where the eventual center of my empire will be. making a profit at 40%; better than I expected after going to 10 cities. Running two priests in captial in hopes of getting Jewish shrine.



1070AD: Carracks have discovered the islands at the NE and NW corners of the map. I shouldn't have any trouble getting my choice of spots on both. This has taken over priority for now instead of conquering Justinian. He's pretty backwards; even if I wait I should be able to take him out with a medieval force. Or, if my costs go up I may wait until grens/rifles. Plan is to settle both islands, conquer Just, and settle down for an easy space win. Just landed an explorer on the NE one; I've seen one barb warrior (camped out on a hut annoyingly so I can't pop it) but no cities yet.

Dutch have build Apo palace as leaders of hinduism (me and Pacal are the others, a nice situation as we are the 3 most advanced). They won the election but nothing else has happened yet.

Pacal is up to friendly which is great, no more WFYBTA and he has a lot of techs to trade (unlike the dutch I can give him something in return.) Debating how much to trade now as I head for liberalism. Plan is to take astromony as free tech (will need it for the trade routes to my islands. I'm looking forward to the intercontinental trade.), then research economics for the UB, then head to democracy for cottage civics.

Screenshot shows how much health/happiness I have to spare - I really gotta stop whipping. Also got the colosseums quest, just about done.




~1260: Phew, won liberalism race, took astro. 1st city settled on the island; barb city in really annoying place (+ 3 longbows on a hill - not trivial to take out). Think I finally have enough troops to attack. Trading lib to Pacal for banking + gold and to dutch for 550 gold. Now heading to econ. Pacal is researching nationalism;

1370: Got my 5 cities set up on the NE island, 1st settle is headed for the NW. colonial costs are around 5 per city, maybe should've only done 4. Research at 50% with some deficit. Definitely gonna wait on Justinian. Think I'll wait for US + Kremlin beeline to take him out - want to be able to rush buy buildings in the new cities. Won't have any new military techs but he'll be backwards enough to not matter. He did get some event strengthening all his Xbows, will be interesting to see if AI will exploit that by building a lot. Went on a hindu-building binge lately; forgot that U of Sankore wasn't doing much good. Have Spiral Minaret and hindu is the Apostolic palace, so each hindu building gives 2 base hammers, gold, and beakers in addition to their other benefits. It's like the recycling tanks from Alpha Centauri on steroids. If only I were Spiritual.



1455: Man, I'm lucky I've been best buds with Pacal (+6 for both hindu/+6 for running HR civic). I traded both nationalism and const from him, then just finished self-researching democracy. Interesting, I narrowly missed a diplo victory twice thru apo palace (without ever thinking it was a possibility). Pacal + my votes were nearly enough. If I had been finishing Justinian off I just may have gotten it (or farmed over everything and stopped whipping.)
May give SoL a pass. Got 1st city in on the NW island, but was lazy with fogbusting and now there are two barb cities.
Justinian has a stack of about 15 units in his nearest city, so he may be wanting to declare war. However, almost all of them are at most strength 6, and I'll have rifling soon. This is another interesting decision point - I planned to switch to US, FS, Emanci soon (wanted to use Taj GA, but got beaten to it). However, Just declaring war while I'm in anarchy could be a little problematic. Started building trebs as a safeguard.
Plan is to go for rifling, then conqer Just (and maybe a good chunk of holland, who volunatirly vassalized to him) then go for kremlin (although SM would obsolete all my lovely monasteries, so I may wait a bit on that.) I'll look at the land percentage after filling up the islands and the end of that war; domination may be obtainable fairly easily. But it would probably involve taking out Pacal which I'd feel guilty about. If pacal stays hindu, diplo would probably be assured if I convert back to HR at that point. Of course, it may happen well before UN.

15??: Started war with Justinian and Willem. I foolishly show my noobishness by splitting my main stack in the east. One branch is able to take a city defended by 4 or 5 units easily, but the right side gets crushed by a TON of collateral damage, something like 8-9 cats and trebs, and I lose many rifles and my GG unit. only one of my trebs survives. Fortunately I get another GG right now so I have another medic 3 at the frontlines soon. I reinforce the other half and take the city on the coast which I keep. my 5 rifle/2 cat western force is able to raze another central city; I plan to keep most Byz cities except for 2 in the middle which I will merge into one. My frig shows the next coastal city is only guarded by 2 units and my troops will be there soon; however it has 100 cultural defense so it may take a while to get that down. WW is pretty bad compounded with draft unhappy, another thing I have no experience with. I have almost no theatres so the culture slider won't help much.

1620: Finished war with Just. only one city left, but WW was really bad and my forces not well positioned so I'll leave it. Didn't take capitulation though. Currently up to 34% of land (62% needed) but most Byz cities still in revolt. War was really easy after that one large stack, all other cities had only a few units and no cataphracts, the only unit that really poses any threat at all. Finishing theatres in my 3 big cities (all capitals) helped a lot. Naval transports going up east coast made rest of campaign very fast. Just had many caravels but two frigates were enough to keep the seas mostly clear; I lost one carrack only (and no troops onboard). I about had a heart attack when I didn't notice a lone crossbow headed for my westernmost city, which was only defended by a sword (and that's a border city; capital still has a lone warrior I think). Thankfully it failed miserably despite the +50% vs. melee.

Another great general spawned, held him for a while intending to build a mil academy when I got mil science but then decided to make 2nd medic III for some two-stack action against the dutch. (Watch me lose another stack to obsolete units because of this...) Researched Steel and Steam Power, currently going for RR for troop movement, then corp->assembly line. Will almost certainly stop research there, or possibly even earlier if I don't think war against Pacal is needed.



SS above shows new border with Dutch. Gotta move ASAP to take pressure off these cities. Switched espionage to Dutch; fortunately he has almost no points on me so I should see his research in a couple of turns. Unfortunately, I was slow with the replacement settler and Willem is probably going to found a city in the big gap next turn. Will probably need another settler to fill in more space near all the desert (didn't realize it until now, but that large desert patch is probably a big reason Justinian was so ineffective). Unfortunately I peaced with Dutch separately a while back and took 145 gold; if it delays my DOW more than a few turns it will be real annoying. Of course, the good news is I blitzed the Byzantines in something like 7 turns this round.



The above screenshot shows that unlike Justinian, Willem doesn't seem to have any significant forces. Too bad this is ending so easily - I'm probably not gonna use espionage for much and corps not at all. RR allows mining inc, which would be useful for me as I have many hammer-poor cities, but the odds of me getting a GE to found it before it's over are real low (and the odds that it will make a significant difference practically 0). Maybe I should try to steal Corp from Pacal.

1660: End is clearly in sight. Finished RR, started building the great transcontinental railway. Didn't have to wait too long on dutch. Also, my Buddhist shrine from Istanbul came online, showing me Dutch cities weakly defended. Now 2 of 5 core cities have fallen and I have a stack ready to take Amsterdam in a turn or two. Historically fitting. Willem is researching Steel instead of rifling but has no chance of getting it before he's down to one city. Sadly, the only place he's caught up is Chem so he has some frigates that could disrupt me (although I have a copule ironclads, they are SLOOOOW and will take a while to chase them down) but all he's doing is bombarding a city he'll never get troops to attack to. Turned research off; cities building units but mostly settlers or culture to fill in map. I will probably DOW pacal after dutch, just to avoid him sneaking settlers thru and on the off chance I need some of his land too. He's the most advanced AI but has been going Phys->Elect so he won't be in any better position to defend than Willem.

Turns out I'm not quite to the 1/2 point in turns. Right now it's all about score milking; it will take at least 15 turns to capture and unrevolt the rest of the dutch cities but domination should trigger around then. My next GP from Khmer capital has a 1/3 chance of GE but probably won't come in time.

1724AD: Man, this is turning into a drag. Surprisingly, all the Dutch + Byz land only pulled me to about 56%; fortunately I realize that I was gonna be short in advance and war against Maya without delay. Pacal finally researches Rifling but it is too late, I have way too many units. For the heck of it, I turn research back on to get Cav. On this turn I'm at 61.7% of 62% land needed and well above the pop threshold. Sadly, I almost have enough votes a few turns ago to AP myself to victory but I'm at something like 530/590. I may have been able to do it if I switch back to HR to get relations with Pacal up again, but don't know if it would be enough as I have a lot of "You declared on our friend" minuses with him. Oh well. Picture is my huge stack against a couple rifles and other outdated units.



Some final thoughts as I actually finish my first non-OCC game of Civ4 ever: those revolt periods are really, really annoying. it may be faster to raze cities left and right and rebuild so you don't have to wait. I'm rather disappointed with my performance in the final wars. Clearly it would have sped things up to 1)research cav after rifling 2) stop research earlier; the big RR was built too late to make much difference. Should've gone mil trad and stell after rifling then straight $ for rushbuying. 3) rushbuy more units, especially 4) use more navy. It was real effective against Justinian. I was waiting on ironclads a bit which was silly cause they're so slow, should've rushed them in cities closer to the front. 5) WW is a bitch; I immediately got a ton of unhappy against Just when I DOWd him the final time. Thankfuly he only had one city that took a couple of turns to capture. 6) Should've done more production cities or converted some later on. However, I never got to state property so that might have been hard.



Finally, my impressions of Portugal: 1) Don't really like the trait combo too much. In particular, having fast workers and settlers meant I had my 2nd and 3rd cities founded before knowing where horses were, which was a strange feeling. Thankfully that wasn't crucial. The extra great generals weren't too helpful; the mil instructors weren't really necessary when I was mostly sending rifles and cannon against medieval untis. 2) The UU is, well, ok. It was neat to have such a big head start on securing those two islands; although I'm pretty sure I took astro from liberalism soon after beginning settlement. The reason is that with the GL, astro would allow 4 trade routes in each of those cities and with the new bonus to intercontinental trade, that would recoup the maintenance cost real quick.

Here's the victory screen. The game actually freezes here; I'm happy to get the SS to prove I finished. Thankfully I saved the turn before and it doesn't take long to go back and replay to get the score screen (shown at the end).

And one more thing - now that I've finished a whole game (again, first time it's happened besides OCCs. My very first game was played as Russia back in vanilla; right when I was ready to cossack-rampage I discovered that my video card is completely unable to handle huge maps. The experience of sinking many hrs into that game becore realizing that I could not finish it was real embittering) I'm ready to join the chorus of ppl saying the expansion is way too easy. The AI simply doesn't build enough units; the Bowman should be an ideal axe-rush-stopper but Hammurabi only had a few of them and I plowed right through. Justinian was the only AI to amass a good pile of units and aside from that first thrashing he gave me, I basically took cities as quickly as my units could move and bombard. I know it's only Monarch but I'm pretty inexperienced.

Another note - I didn't save the screenshot, but the unit summary screen showed I got a lot of mileage out of Imperialistic by building ~22 settlers, more than any other unit type (I had more riflemen, but a lot of those were drafted and don't count as built apparently).

Finally, a score screen. Yikes. I feel like I've seen Sisiutil get a domination victory around this year but his score wasn't in the 6 figures.