Sadly, this particular scenario didn't call for an insane parody of a report like last time, so this time my report will be shorter and more practical (probably to everyone's relief =) ).
My thoughts at start: Since we can build banks and markets and stuff in holy cities, logically we'd like to have lots of holy cities to be able to build lots of banks, especially as we need a certain number to build wall street. Thus it is actually not a bad idea to try to avoid hydras. The biggest benefit of multiple shrines in 1 city is to stack them all under wall street, except if we don't have the banks, we can't build it anyway. Also, state property would take care of most courthouse problems if we get that far. It will turn out that I never get wall street or state property, but oh well.
4000 BC: My first decision is where to send my warrior. Ocean has potential to have fish resourses, but fish tech is not likely to be extrordinarily valuable on this map and there are other things I'd rather worry about, so I maybe wouldn't want fish even if I had it in the starting BFC. I decide to see what I get from the plains hill to south, before choosing whether to move my settler. My assessment of the plains hill is that I've seen more spectacular starting sites, but it should still be fine and better than the starting location. Even a couple of spaces down might save me a bit of distance upkeep later on (we are clearly at the top of the map) and I hate settling on forests, not to mention that the sea would be a waste of good capital squares.
3960 BC: Settle on plains hill. Research hunting, start building stonehenge, till scout becomes available. Normally I wouldn't beeline hunting, but this map has a lot of land to explore and lots of huts and domination requires knowing what to dominate. I risk losing an early religion or two, but that's an acceptable risk in exchange for all the hut tech.
3920 BC: Village give me a map, revealing gold in the middle of desert. I can actually stretch to work both it and a floodplain (barely). Gold is always an attractive target for an early city because it will pay for the city's upkeep, meaning I get to found another city without wrecking my economy.
3760 BC: Hunting comes in, switch to meditation. Warrior circling from south to west to get me view of surroundings.
3480 BC: Buddism founded in distant land, so I switch to polytheism. Drat. Spot yummy fish to west, which of course I will end up never settling.
3400 BC: 2 scouts deployed, start settler in Mecca. The scouts were absolutely the right move, but the settler was a mistake, as I end up switching in warrior and worker, which are both delayed by turns of settler.
3360 BC: Napoleon shows his ugly face.
3320 BC: Put warrior in ahead of settler. Decide not to be reckless. This is noble, but barbs can be scary.
3280 BC: Encounter Catherine.
3080 BC: Found hinduism. Now for a few worker techs. Finish off meditation (1 turn), then work on agriculture.
2960 BC: Meet frederick, founder of buddism. Pest.
2920 BC: Meet Washington. Stick worker in ahead of settler. *Sigh*
2800 BC: Agriculture arrives, start research into mining, mostly to get to bronze working.
2600 BC: Mining in, start bronze working.
2200 BC: Bronze working in, start masonry, let's grab another religion. Revolt to slavery and start mining bronze near capital. I ponder an axe rush. However, I end up not doing one because I'm just slow and anyway, don't have close neighbors yet. I'm sure that someone will better manage their build queue, settle in Cathy's direction next to lots of choppable forests, and remove her from the game, before I've even started my war with France.
2040 BC: Settler completed, resume work on stonehenge. In hindsight, I probably should have spent those shields on expansion and gotten an earlier start on the Oracle. Not that the extra prophet points hurt, but the oracle could have given me my first prophet or two soon enough and having another city or a worker or two out there earlier wouldn't have hurt. I probably didn't expand because there just weren't any city sites around that screamed "Settle me! Settle me!". They were okay, but without much in the way of rivers or specials, getting them up and running could have been a bit slow. There were some food resources out west, but they were just a bit too far for me to want to grab them immediately. I never did. Cathy and the barbs got there first.
1960 BC: Medina founded near that gold to the south.
1880 BC: Masonry discovered, let's go for monotheism. Start chopping a couple of forests to hurry stonehenge.
1520 BC: First to Monotheism is...ME! Judaeism founded in Medina, complete stonehenge. Hmmm, maybe pottery for some cottages?
1360 BC: Finish worker in Mecca, start on another settler.
1320 BC: Get pottery, start on writing.
1120 BC: Looks like sea extends along top. Ponder naval invasion of Cathy, because it would be funny on this map. Nah.
975 BC: Writing, select priesthood. Will try for oracle.
925 BC: Okay, now for code of laws to do the religion hog thing.
875 BC: Damascus founded on coast to get sheep and clams. Oh, I guess I actually will need fishing.
825 BC: Catherine converts to hinduism. Maybe I should too so my back looks less attractive. I don't yet though.
725 BC: Whip oracle, get first prophet. Build kashi Visweth.
700 BC: Oracle give me theology, (Should I have bulbed with prophet and maybe get divine right? Er, no, need monarchy still...) Christianity founded in Damascus. I now have 3 cities, each with a religion. I guess I can put markets anywhere I like.
625 BC: Numerous dead lions later, My 2 scouts + warrior finish exploring the whole map, except for the ocean (for some reason, they refuse to swim). They head home for fogbusting duty. 228 gold left from huts and at -1 gpt now on 100% science. We're good to crush Napoleon.
525 BC: Code of laws discovered, get hydra in Medina. Wish I'd managed to get a 4th city. Oh well.
475 BC: Finish fishing, start on alphabet.
225 BC: 2nd prophet. He can lightbulb civil service. I guess that is supposed to be a good idea, so I do and promptly switch civics. I'd like to pretend that I'd planned it this way, but it just happened.
200 BC: Alphabet in. Trade Theology to Catherine for everything she's got (4 techs.) Start Math for catapults. Napoleon attacks Fred. Slow military buildup. Axe crawl anyone?
50 BC: Math in, start construction.
1 AD: Napoleon demands Math. I'm under 10 turns from invading him and he's at war with frederick. So, why would I give him stuff?
75 AD: Construction in, start on metal casting.
250 AD: Napoleon is being a really pushy settler, putting one all the way up near the sea and trying to box me in. That's okay, he has to pay upkeep on it and anyway, my army just headed for his border to start removing those annoying cities. Still, his obnoxious behavior has greatly increased the probability of my taking all his cities and sticking his head on a pole. Okay, so I probably would have taken all his cities anyway to achieve domination, but the odds of my doing so are now about 120%.
275 AD: Frederick asks for help against Napoleon. I agree and declare war. 1 turn earlier that intended, but what the heck, it's not like he can't see my army on his border.
300 AD: Metalcasting arrives. Will cue up forges. Select drama for cheap theatres and fast culture.
375 AD: Ohyea, I'm at war, I should switch to theocracy. I do.
400 AD: Capture Rheims. Should probably have burnt. It's not a horrible spot, but it's poorly placed with respect to my cities, causing a bunch of flood plains to go to waste. Oh well, not like there's a shortage of land on this map and I don't really have a settler on hand anyway. Besides, I'm not much into moving cities (which is probably why I didn't remember to have a settler handy or decide to burn beforehand).
425 AD: Okay, set research to monarchy.
520 AD: Another Prophet-lightbulb divine right to 6. I don't build a shrine because nothing has spread much and war makes me too busy to help spread it.
560 AD: Ohyea, I need a religion for theocracy to work. Switch to hinduism. Now Cathy will like me. She still makes my shoulder blades itch though. And yes, I made this same mistake of forgetting religion in Epic 11. And probably in a few other games too.
640 AD: Found Islam in Rheims. Okay, let's go Philosophy. I wanna be a religion hog!
800 AD: Washington beats me to Taoism by 1 turn. Oh well, 5 religions isn't bad.
820 AD: Down to 70% research from captured French city upkeep. Advancing on Paris, starting to send out more missionaries to boost income. Research on Feudalism.
900 AD: Paris falls.
1020 AD: 28% pop, 18% land. I guess I need a bit more for domination.
1050 AD: Literature, let's try for the Sort of Great Library.
1070 AD: We find Napoleon's workers. 5 hiding in one city in far SE.
1090 AD: Spawn a prophet. He builds the shrine of confusion.
1140 AD: Napoleon defeated. Jerk.
1150 AD: I build the Sort of Great Library.
1160 AD: Forces start wandering in Cathy's general direction.
1200 AD: Switch to pacifism, no wars just yet. Let's get some more prophets.
1240 AD: Cathy is Friendly towards me... I start building some religions wonders in several cities for more prophets.
1250 AD: Start Verseilles in Paris. In my test game (another desert map on similar settings to remind me what I might expect from Noble AIs on a desert map.), I lost it. Let's see if I do better. I notice that Medina, the gold settlement, and Hydra, is actually a pretty crappy town, with almost no food. Was this really the best place for a second city? Oh well, it's a little late to worry about that now.
1330 AD: Another Prophet. He builds the Jewish shrine.
1360 AD: Washington demands I cancel deals with Russians. I refuse. I think I'll kill Frederick and Washington and leave Cathy, who actually likes me.
1390 AD: Set research for Nationalism. Will try to get Constitution with Liberalism
1430 AD: Cathy asks for Paper. Reluctantly say yes. Hey, anything for a friend.
1480 AD: I complete the Spiral Minaret for more religion cash. Yay.
1490 AD: Complete Versailles in Paris, helping my economy significantly.
1510 AD: Start Building Taj in Mecca.
1535 AD: Liberalism gets me constitution, switch to representation.
1540 AD: Get another prophet. Go for Islamic shrine, because it has spread further.
1570 AD: Banking arrives, start gunpowder. Uhoh, the Arabs are thinking about switching to theocracy :]
1585 AD: Chemistry in 5, prophets say armageddon and judgement day are upon us.
1590 AD: Complete the taj. Golden age. Armageddon moves up slightly.
1595 AD: Revolt Theocracy and Nationhood. Start drafting.
1605 AD: Chemistry in, science to 0. Start upgrading.
1610 AD: Camel archer pillaging teams move into Cathy's territory to attack Fred from rear.
1630 AD: Upgrades to CR3 Gren complete. Left some as mace to get to cr3. Massive forces moving on German border. Even the dumbest AI should be able to see this one coming.
1635 AD: 4 Camel archer pillaging squads and a siege army roll over the german border. Second siege army is at the border and will advance next turn. This is possibly the largest multi-front synchronized attack I've ever done. Cathy declares war too for gunpowder. Apparently Fred was dumber than the dumbest AI, as he didn't see it coming: I nabbed a worker on the border. I could have had a second too. But it's not like I need workers at this point.
1640 AD: *blink* Germany has a galley on the north sea. Um...ohyea, I guess they took a barb town up there. It pillages Cathy's fish. I queue up a caravel, which will never be needed as the German galley suffers an accident off in the fog.
1650 AD: Get the great merchant from Economics. Is that legal? Oh well, [In best evil Sith voice] I will make it legal. I'm pillaging more than I spend anyway, so not like it matters much.
1710 AD: Berlin falls.
1725 AD: War weariness. I whip temples and jails. Crank up culture to 20%, 2 german cities left.
1750 AD: Germany has been defeated. Catherine finally got an army together, but didn't get to do much, except take that city in her territory. Oh well, she likes me even more now for helping with our fun little war. 47% territory. Ohhhh Geeeorge, can you guess what happens next? Draft lots of garrison troops.
1802 AD: Learn assembly line. Bribe Cathy with it to attack George. She's actually ahead of me in tech (by physics). Maybe I've been too generous. Start research on rifling. After Cathy and George go a bit, I'll jump in with infantry. Complete the Pentagon instantly with 2 great engineers.
1804 AD: Revolt to organized religion and free speech.
1806 AD: Trade mission to St. Petersburg for 1700 with that economics merchant.
1808 AD: Cathy asks for help against America. I am of course now happy to assist my good friend Cathy in whupping Washington, before she grabs too much land.
1840 AD: Washington dies. At 63.88% out of 68% needed territory. WHen the last few cities come online (hurried a bit with help of 2 artists enroute), I win.
1842 AD: First culture bomb goes off. 70% territory. Um, I guess #2 won't get there...
The game makes the top score in my hall of fame, and still remains there to this day, beating several more recent emperor wins. I guess I must not have done too badly.
Just like in epic 11, I find that I had a ridiculously small number of cities (3) at a fairly late point in the game when I finally went on the warpath, although with no courthouses and with religion-hogging being a priority in this one, I might not be alone. I think that all the trouble I've had with tanking my economy in various games has scared me away from building settlers. I'm sure that better use of workers and cottages would take care of this. My military strategy is just fine, but I think I need to work on the long-term economic planning thing. Still, even with my city-light strategy, I imagine I won't do too badly in comparison with others, which just goes to show you how awesomely well built civ 4 is compared to civ 3. ICS is no longer the only strategy. No more wonder-cascading, hi we all have exactly the same tech because we all trade with each other for 10 gold AIs. Wonder first, worker first, settler first, scout first, and so on are all viable strategies. Yay Firaxis. Um, for that matter, yay Sulla et. al., who helped Firaxis.
Value of Versailles: Going back to end of game save with worldbuilder, removing Versailles from Paris costs me about -90gpt in upkeep costs, almost 10% of my total, which would drop my research rate to 40% from 50%. However, with removal of Versailles, I might have moved my capital to the central location of Lyons, which would cost me only -23gpt. Now, jump back to my 1725 save (earliest available, seems I played through the rest in 1 stretch). Removing Versailles costs me about -57gpt, but moving capital drops this to maybe -19gpt. Note that moving the palace costs 160 hammers, Versailles costs 800 hammers (actually 400 with marble, which I must have had). Palace would have been completed maybe 20 turns earlier (Lyon and Paris are close to equal in productivity), possibly saving a whole bucket of gold (500+) and if we convert those extra hammers to something useful (like say, 160 gold, or some research buildings which will multiply the city's research or better yet, 10 or so missionaries, at least 1/2 of which might have succeeded for +10gpt w/all merchant buildings?), even with the slightly greater upkeep costs, we probably end up ahead until near the end of the game. But wait, what if we build Versailles AND move the palace to Lyon? It costs us maybe 12gpt more than Mecca. Oops, best have left it where it was. Also, if we try moving the capital to Rheims or Medina, we get similarly poor results. Seems that with Versailles, Mecca was in fact the best place for the capital. To be fair, at the end, moving the capital to Frankfurt and keeping Versailles would have saved 31gpt, above our current placement. Without Versailles, Lyons would have remained slightly better, but the even more centrally located (but otherwise worthless) Stuttgart would have cost us a mere -14gpt more than in the actual game, leaving a 45gpt difference between best ending palace placement with and without Versailles. But, a -20gpt for most of the game is a more accurate estimate. With savings from more efficient use of those hammers, the value of Versailles, although present, becomes pretty marginal. Also, I probably could have moved the palace much earlier than I started Versailles and possibly should have. But then I wouldn't have gotten to build myself a great big hunk o marble. So, banning Versailles might have had little or no result.
Final survey of ending save (several weeks after completion) reveals some possibly weedy moves on the part of the AI governors, most notably 3 merchant specialists (obviously I wasn't paying much attention near the end). However, the merchants were probably compensated for by the assorted other dumbness: Yes, I want you to actually work that silver mine and those towns, not to mention the +5 food 1 commerce floodplains. No, I don't need quite so many !$#@#% priest specialists, I don't care if I'm philosophical and I get +1 hammers from Angkor Wat. The extra food will give even more specialists soon enough, unhealthiness or not, plus I don't have any use for more great prophets. And of course, my workers failed to farm one of those invisible desert corns, meaning I only had 9, but I'll forgive them because it wasn't in any of my cities' BFCs and anyway they managed to road pretty much everything in my pre-Germany/American invasion cultural boundaries, not to mention some areas off to the east that weren't in my cultural boundaries even at the end of the game. Ahh, the joys of 'bored worker syndrome'. Also, I note that I never got state property (avoiding scientific method) or built wall street, probably because some !$#@# religion hogs grabbed away buddism and taoism. Oh well, they paid for it.
Overall, this was a nice, short, relaxing, and fun adventure.
My thoughts at start: Since we can build banks and markets and stuff in holy cities, logically we'd like to have lots of holy cities to be able to build lots of banks, especially as we need a certain number to build wall street. Thus it is actually not a bad idea to try to avoid hydras. The biggest benefit of multiple shrines in 1 city is to stack them all under wall street, except if we don't have the banks, we can't build it anyway. Also, state property would take care of most courthouse problems if we get that far. It will turn out that I never get wall street or state property, but oh well.
4000 BC: My first decision is where to send my warrior. Ocean has potential to have fish resourses, but fish tech is not likely to be extrordinarily valuable on this map and there are other things I'd rather worry about, so I maybe wouldn't want fish even if I had it in the starting BFC. I decide to see what I get from the plains hill to south, before choosing whether to move my settler. My assessment of the plains hill is that I've seen more spectacular starting sites, but it should still be fine and better than the starting location. Even a couple of spaces down might save me a bit of distance upkeep later on (we are clearly at the top of the map) and I hate settling on forests, not to mention that the sea would be a waste of good capital squares.
3960 BC: Settle on plains hill. Research hunting, start building stonehenge, till scout becomes available. Normally I wouldn't beeline hunting, but this map has a lot of land to explore and lots of huts and domination requires knowing what to dominate. I risk losing an early religion or two, but that's an acceptable risk in exchange for all the hut tech.
3920 BC: Village give me a map, revealing gold in the middle of desert. I can actually stretch to work both it and a floodplain (barely). Gold is always an attractive target for an early city because it will pay for the city's upkeep, meaning I get to found another city without wrecking my economy.
3760 BC: Hunting comes in, switch to meditation. Warrior circling from south to west to get me view of surroundings.
3480 BC: Buddism founded in distant land, so I switch to polytheism. Drat. Spot yummy fish to west, which of course I will end up never settling.
3400 BC: 2 scouts deployed, start settler in Mecca. The scouts were absolutely the right move, but the settler was a mistake, as I end up switching in warrior and worker, which are both delayed by turns of settler.
3360 BC: Napoleon shows his ugly face.
3320 BC: Put warrior in ahead of settler. Decide not to be reckless. This is noble, but barbs can be scary.
3280 BC: Encounter Catherine.
3080 BC: Found hinduism. Now for a few worker techs. Finish off meditation (1 turn), then work on agriculture.
2960 BC: Meet frederick, founder of buddism. Pest.
2920 BC: Meet Washington. Stick worker in ahead of settler. *Sigh*
2800 BC: Agriculture arrives, start research into mining, mostly to get to bronze working.
2600 BC: Mining in, start bronze working.
2200 BC: Bronze working in, start masonry, let's grab another religion. Revolt to slavery and start mining bronze near capital. I ponder an axe rush. However, I end up not doing one because I'm just slow and anyway, don't have close neighbors yet. I'm sure that someone will better manage their build queue, settle in Cathy's direction next to lots of choppable forests, and remove her from the game, before I've even started my war with France.
2040 BC: Settler completed, resume work on stonehenge. In hindsight, I probably should have spent those shields on expansion and gotten an earlier start on the Oracle. Not that the extra prophet points hurt, but the oracle could have given me my first prophet or two soon enough and having another city or a worker or two out there earlier wouldn't have hurt. I probably didn't expand because there just weren't any city sites around that screamed "Settle me! Settle me!". They were okay, but without much in the way of rivers or specials, getting them up and running could have been a bit slow. There were some food resources out west, but they were just a bit too far for me to want to grab them immediately. I never did. Cathy and the barbs got there first.
1960 BC: Medina founded near that gold to the south.
1880 BC: Masonry discovered, let's go for monotheism. Start chopping a couple of forests to hurry stonehenge.
1520 BC: First to Monotheism is...ME! Judaeism founded in Medina, complete stonehenge. Hmmm, maybe pottery for some cottages?
1360 BC: Finish worker in Mecca, start on another settler.
1320 BC: Get pottery, start on writing.
1120 BC: Looks like sea extends along top. Ponder naval invasion of Cathy, because it would be funny on this map. Nah.
975 BC: Writing, select priesthood. Will try for oracle.
925 BC: Okay, now for code of laws to do the religion hog thing.
875 BC: Damascus founded on coast to get sheep and clams. Oh, I guess I actually will need fishing.
825 BC: Catherine converts to hinduism. Maybe I should too so my back looks less attractive. I don't yet though.
725 BC: Whip oracle, get first prophet. Build kashi Visweth.
700 BC: Oracle give me theology, (Should I have bulbed with prophet and maybe get divine right? Er, no, need monarchy still...) Christianity founded in Damascus. I now have 3 cities, each with a religion. I guess I can put markets anywhere I like.
625 BC: Numerous dead lions later, My 2 scouts + warrior finish exploring the whole map, except for the ocean (for some reason, they refuse to swim). They head home for fogbusting duty. 228 gold left from huts and at -1 gpt now on 100% science. We're good to crush Napoleon.
525 BC: Code of laws discovered, get hydra in Medina. Wish I'd managed to get a 4th city. Oh well.
475 BC: Finish fishing, start on alphabet.
225 BC: 2nd prophet. He can lightbulb civil service. I guess that is supposed to be a good idea, so I do and promptly switch civics. I'd like to pretend that I'd planned it this way, but it just happened.
200 BC: Alphabet in. Trade Theology to Catherine for everything she's got (4 techs.) Start Math for catapults. Napoleon attacks Fred. Slow military buildup. Axe crawl anyone?
50 BC: Math in, start construction.
1 AD: Napoleon demands Math. I'm under 10 turns from invading him and he's at war with frederick. So, why would I give him stuff?
75 AD: Construction in, start on metal casting.
250 AD: Napoleon is being a really pushy settler, putting one all the way up near the sea and trying to box me in. That's okay, he has to pay upkeep on it and anyway, my army just headed for his border to start removing those annoying cities. Still, his obnoxious behavior has greatly increased the probability of my taking all his cities and sticking his head on a pole. Okay, so I probably would have taken all his cities anyway to achieve domination, but the odds of my doing so are now about 120%.
275 AD: Frederick asks for help against Napoleon. I agree and declare war. 1 turn earlier that intended, but what the heck, it's not like he can't see my army on his border.
300 AD: Metalcasting arrives. Will cue up forges. Select drama for cheap theatres and fast culture.
375 AD: Ohyea, I'm at war, I should switch to theocracy. I do.
400 AD: Capture Rheims. Should probably have burnt. It's not a horrible spot, but it's poorly placed with respect to my cities, causing a bunch of flood plains to go to waste. Oh well, not like there's a shortage of land on this map and I don't really have a settler on hand anyway. Besides, I'm not much into moving cities (which is probably why I didn't remember to have a settler handy or decide to burn beforehand).
425 AD: Okay, set research to monarchy.
520 AD: Another Prophet-lightbulb divine right to 6. I don't build a shrine because nothing has spread much and war makes me too busy to help spread it.
560 AD: Ohyea, I need a religion for theocracy to work. Switch to hinduism. Now Cathy will like me. She still makes my shoulder blades itch though. And yes, I made this same mistake of forgetting religion in Epic 11. And probably in a few other games too.
640 AD: Found Islam in Rheims. Okay, let's go Philosophy. I wanna be a religion hog!
800 AD: Washington beats me to Taoism by 1 turn. Oh well, 5 religions isn't bad.
820 AD: Down to 70% research from captured French city upkeep. Advancing on Paris, starting to send out more missionaries to boost income. Research on Feudalism.
900 AD: Paris falls.
1020 AD: 28% pop, 18% land. I guess I need a bit more for domination.
1050 AD: Literature, let's try for the Sort of Great Library.
1070 AD: We find Napoleon's workers. 5 hiding in one city in far SE.
1090 AD: Spawn a prophet. He builds the shrine of confusion.
1140 AD: Napoleon defeated. Jerk.
1150 AD: I build the Sort of Great Library.
1160 AD: Forces start wandering in Cathy's general direction.
1200 AD: Switch to pacifism, no wars just yet. Let's get some more prophets.
1240 AD: Cathy is Friendly towards me... I start building some religions wonders in several cities for more prophets.
1250 AD: Start Verseilles in Paris. In my test game (another desert map on similar settings to remind me what I might expect from Noble AIs on a desert map.), I lost it. Let's see if I do better. I notice that Medina, the gold settlement, and Hydra, is actually a pretty crappy town, with almost no food. Was this really the best place for a second city? Oh well, it's a little late to worry about that now
.1330 AD: Another Prophet. He builds the Jewish shrine.
1360 AD: Washington demands I cancel deals with Russians. I refuse. I think I'll kill Frederick and Washington and leave Cathy, who actually likes me.
1390 AD: Set research for Nationalism. Will try to get Constitution with Liberalism
1430 AD: Cathy asks for Paper. Reluctantly say yes. Hey, anything for a friend.
1480 AD: I complete the Spiral Minaret for more religion cash. Yay.
1490 AD: Complete Versailles in Paris, helping my economy significantly.
1510 AD: Start Building Taj in Mecca.
1535 AD: Liberalism gets me constitution, switch to representation.
1540 AD: Get another prophet. Go for Islamic shrine, because it has spread further.
1570 AD: Banking arrives, start gunpowder. Uhoh, the Arabs are thinking about switching to theocracy :]
1585 AD: Chemistry in 5, prophets say armageddon and judgement day are upon us.
1590 AD: Complete the taj. Golden age. Armageddon moves up slightly.
1595 AD: Revolt Theocracy and Nationhood. Start drafting.
1605 AD: Chemistry in, science to 0. Start upgrading.
1610 AD: Camel archer pillaging teams move into Cathy's territory to attack Fred from rear.
1630 AD: Upgrades to CR3 Gren complete. Left some as mace to get to cr3. Massive forces moving on German border. Even the dumbest AI should be able to see this one coming.
1635 AD: 4 Camel archer pillaging squads and a siege army roll over the german border. Second siege army is at the border and will advance next turn. This is possibly the largest multi-front synchronized attack I've ever done.
Cathy declares war too for gunpowder. Apparently Fred was dumber than the dumbest AI, as he didn't see it coming: I nabbed a worker on the border. I could have had a second too. But it's not like I need workers at this point.1640 AD: *blink* Germany has a galley on the north sea. Um...ohyea, I guess they took a barb town up there. It pillages Cathy's fish. I queue up a caravel, which will never be needed as the German galley suffers an accident off in the fog.
1650 AD: Get the great merchant from Economics. Is that legal? Oh well, [In best evil Sith voice] I will make it legal. I'm pillaging more than I spend anyway, so not like it matters much.
1710 AD: Berlin falls.
1725 AD: War weariness. I whip temples and jails. Crank up culture to 20%, 2 german cities left.
1750 AD: Germany has been defeated. Catherine finally got an army together, but didn't get to do much, except take that city in her territory. Oh well, she likes me even more now for helping with our fun little war. 47% territory. Ohhhh Geeeorge, can you guess what happens next? Draft lots of garrison troops.
1802 AD: Learn assembly line. Bribe Cathy with it to attack George. She's actually ahead of me in tech (by physics). Maybe I've been too generous
. Start research on rifling. After Cathy and George go a bit, I'll jump in with infantry. Complete the Pentagon instantly with 2 great engineers.1804 AD: Revolt to organized religion and free speech.
1806 AD: Trade mission to St. Petersburg for 1700 with that economics merchant.
1808 AD: Cathy asks for help against America. I am of course now happy to assist my good friend Cathy in whupping Washington, before she grabs too much land.
1840 AD: Washington dies. At 63.88% out of 68% needed territory. WHen the last few cities come online (hurried a bit with help of 2 artists enroute), I win.
1842 AD: First culture bomb goes off. 70% territory. Um, I guess #2 won't get there...
The game makes the top score in my hall of fame, and still remains there to this day, beating several more recent emperor wins. I guess I must not have done too badly.
Just like in epic 11, I find that I had a ridiculously small number of cities (3) at a fairly late point in the game when I finally went on the warpath, although with no courthouses and with religion-hogging being a priority in this one, I might not be alone. I think that all the trouble I've had with tanking my economy in various games has scared me away from building settlers. I'm sure that better use of workers and cottages would take care of this. My military strategy is just fine, but I think I need to work on the long-term economic planning thing. Still, even with my city-light strategy, I imagine I won't do too badly in comparison with others, which just goes to show you how awesomely well built civ 4 is compared to civ 3. ICS is no longer the only strategy. No more wonder-cascading, hi we all have exactly the same tech because we all trade with each other for 10 gold AIs. Wonder first, worker first, settler first, scout first, and so on are all viable strategies. Yay Firaxis. Um, for that matter, yay Sulla et. al., who helped Firaxis
.Value of Versailles: Going back to end of game save with worldbuilder, removing Versailles from Paris costs me about -90gpt in upkeep costs, almost 10% of my total, which would drop my research rate to 40% from 50%. However, with removal of Versailles, I might have moved my capital to the central location of Lyons, which would cost me only -23gpt. Now, jump back to my 1725 save (earliest available, seems I played through the rest in 1 stretch). Removing Versailles costs me about -57gpt, but moving capital drops this to maybe -19gpt. Note that moving the palace costs 160 hammers, Versailles costs 800 hammers (actually 400 with marble, which I must have had). Palace would have been completed maybe 20 turns earlier (Lyon and Paris are close to equal in productivity), possibly saving a whole bucket of gold (500+) and if we convert those extra hammers to something useful (like say, 160 gold, or some research buildings which will multiply the city's research or better yet, 10 or so missionaries, at least 1/2 of which might have succeeded for +10gpt w/all merchant buildings?), even with the slightly greater upkeep costs, we probably end up ahead until near the end of the game. But wait, what if we build Versailles AND move the palace to Lyon? It costs us maybe 12gpt more than Mecca. Oops, best have left it where it was. Also, if we try moving the capital to Rheims or Medina, we get similarly poor results. Seems that with Versailles, Mecca was in fact the best place for the capital. To be fair, at the end, moving the capital to Frankfurt and keeping Versailles would have saved 31gpt, above our current placement. Without Versailles, Lyons would have remained slightly better, but the even more centrally located (but otherwise worthless) Stuttgart would have cost us a mere -14gpt more than in the actual game, leaving a 45gpt difference between best ending palace placement with and without Versailles. But, a -20gpt for most of the game is a more accurate estimate. With savings from more efficient use of those hammers, the value of Versailles, although present, becomes pretty marginal. Also, I probably could have moved the palace much earlier than I started Versailles and possibly should have. But then I wouldn't have gotten to build myself a great big hunk o marble. So, banning Versailles might have had little or no result
.Final survey of ending save (several weeks after completion) reveals some possibly weedy moves on the part of the AI governors, most notably 3 merchant specialists (obviously I wasn't paying much attention near the end). However, the merchants were probably compensated for by the assorted other dumbness: Yes, I want you to actually work that silver mine and those towns, not to mention the +5 food 1 commerce floodplains. No, I don't need quite so many !$#@#% priest specialists, I don't care if I'm philosophical and I get +1 hammers from Angkor Wat. The extra food will give even more specialists soon enough, unhealthiness or not, plus I don't have any use for more great prophets. And of course, my workers failed to farm one of those invisible desert corns, meaning I only had 9, but I'll forgive them because it wasn't in any of my cities' BFCs and anyway they managed to road pretty much everything in my pre-Germany/American invasion cultural boundaries, not to mention some areas off to the east that weren't in my cultural boundaries even at the end of the game. Ahh, the joys of 'bored worker syndrome'. Also, I note that I never got state property (avoiding scientific method) or built wall street, probably because some !$#@# religion hogs grabbed away buddism and taoism. Oh well, they paid for it.
Overall, this was a nice, short, relaxing, and fun adventure.
-kcauQ -kcauQ
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