Bruindane's Adventure II

[Bruindane]

The starting position is disturbing, and I am half-convinced that I need to research sailing to venture past a possible tundra island peninsula isolated by sea and mountain. With my scout I should know soon enough-- meanwhile bee-lining to Iron Working (Mining>Bronze Working) to build an aggresive army of Jaguars for conquest. Scouts shall be built aplenty to find those goody huts and to seek the civ building our future Aztec cities.

Great luck! First hut pops a Scout, and there appears to be a land bridge off the tundra peninsula. The initial wave of scouts discover Animal Husbandry, Agriculture, Masonry, and net 149 gold before being felled by wild animals.

Romans discovered in 3400 BC, quite a shock, need to hit them before they get iron hooked up.

2080 BC, we enter the Classical era with the discovery of Iron Working. Come on Jaguars.

750 Capture of Barbarian City of Mauryan



650 BC Caeser declares war. I am fielding 8 Jaguars, 2 Archers and a Warrior but not in an advanced positon. Caeser's inital attack is defeated, and a long war ensues, mostly centered over the city of Neopolis.

Once the truce of 325 AD is signed, the Aztecs begin construction of their new capitol at Neopolis. I am severely overextended financially due to unit and city costs and I still need alphabet.

1070-1270 AD Second Roman War. Caeser attacks Neopolis aggressively, but with an Aztec Army heavily encamped behind the city walls, the city holds. After some particular heavy fighting, we take advantage of numbers and overrun the nearby city of Arretium. Caeser is happy to then sign a truce.


1600 AD, I ask Victoria for Literature and she gives it to me, happy to help a friend in need. We have the same state religion and aside from minor border tension, have great relations with the most powerful civ in the game.

1610 AD, Victoria declares war on her hopefull ally-- it appears that it be a fight of Jaguars versus Knights & Macemen. Such an unexpected betrayel, by the pleased and recently generous English.

1640 Stunned by the razing of Neopolis, the capitol, the Aztec empire concedes. It was lightly defended as its garrison had moved southwest not expecting an English assault from the Roman border.

Retired 1640 AD
Dan Qualye 629
In-Game Score 450

Edit: Thoughts and Notes

I enjoyed the game though I was severely hamstrung by the lack of commerce and ran at 0% science for long stretches due to unit expenditures. I thought that the early military build would net some nice cities, but the extra travel distance due to terrain created a disastrous war of attrition, as Aztec Jaguars exchanged with Roman Horsemen over the long front. Being a bit more patient on the counter-attack to build mixed forces for defense would have yielded better results.

Early Build & Research Choices

Scout > Scout > Barracks > Scout > Scout > Warrior > Worker > Jaguar (x9)
Mining>Bronze Working>Iron Working>Archery>Wheel

[Sirian]

The really tough thing about Civ4 warfare vs Civ3 is that an AI dogpile is a much more weighty affair. The human still outmatches any AI one to one (even on Deity you can beat them in a fair fight in many cases, if you play it well) but two to one can be a serious affair even on lower settings. You not only have to get the warring right, but get the diplomacy right, too, and that's not always easy! (Look at the lengths I went to in my game to line up the diplomacy in my favor!)

I hope you had a good time. Certainly you won many battles.


- Sirian

[Sullla]

Wow - an Iron Working beeline out of the gate. Interesting stuff. The one drawback is that you go without getting the lake tiles outside Tenochtitlan in play for a very, very long time. Still, those Jags are powerful stuff, so I'll be interested to see how this goes...

Looks like quite a battle for Neapolis there! Back and forth, lots of dramatic stuff surely taking place.

Attacking Rome wasn't necessarily bad, but you didn't settle ANY cities at all other than the first one. You had only the captured cities, and only 6 of them, in 1610AD. Plus, they were scattered all over the western side of the map. That was an impossible situation to defend strategically, and a difficult financial spot too. I think you could potentially have done a lot more with the lake in this game, if not going to the crazy lengths that I did.

Tough break on getting attacked by Vicky. I wonder, how good were your relations with her? The AI won't attack you if you can get them up to Friendly... You did have a shared religion, so that must have been helping, but you have to be careful with trading, among other things. And weakly defended border cities are like an invitation for the AI to attack, even if they are your friends.

Running 0% science for large stretches of time - ouch! That sounds really, really rough. I think you also hurt yourself by delaying a worker for an extremely long period of time and not grabbing Fishing early on. Your capital must have languished at size 1 and 2 for simply AGES as a result. When in doubt with a crappy start like this, go for what adds food above all else!

Regardless, I hope you enjoyed the game. It was one tough scenario!

And I'll echo Sirian's comments about the danger of AI dogpiles. Just look how much trouble I had when attacked by both Arabia and Greece, as opposed to just Greece!

[Bruindane]

Apparently the fishing route was quite successful, though you lose early production. I built 4 scouts and a barracks in preparation for warmongering, hoping to capture 2-3 cities and then worry about financials. I was quite happy with this approach, and I am considering replaying it with a better eye on war tactics.

The mountains and my partial east-west roads prevented a quick assault on Rome itself, which is a key tactical difference with a Pangea map. Distances are deceiving in Highlands, I learned that the hard way.

Appreciate your comments-- and love the reports.