Epic One - killara's Report

[killara]

Hello all. Well, like so many before me, I have decided to de-cloak and stop being a lurker, and post my first post at any of the Civ sites. I have been following not just the epics, but also the discussions for years now, even remembering the Civ 3 want list discussions, and I’ve been playing since Civ 1 – although I am still awed by so many other regular players (I still find the moderate levels difficult!) Lurking here is almost as addictive as Civ itself!

Civ 4 is definitely my favourite of all the previous Civ titles which is actually the only computer game I’ve bought and/or play. It’s the reason I never got a playstation etc … why waste game time when you could Civ instead ? ;-) Each time I’ve bought a new computer ‘just happened’ to coincide with the release of each new Civ title – it’s not even used for anything else now I’ve finished studying! *grins*

Why de-lurk ? Simple – the Realms Beyond attitude to how a game should be played – without the use of exploits, with set variant guidelines that give the game a different approach (although this can be frustrating), and the better attitude to learning and teaching … yeah – even if it is only a computer game – it’s still a huge amount of fun. Thanks all.

OK – enough self indulgence – to the game …

This was my first attempt of Civ 4 at Prince difficulty … and after playing a few easier levels I know 3 things:
1) I’ve way too peaceful a player / builder style (still have that Civ 3 mindset).
2) Barbarians are horribly annoying in Civ 4.
3 ) The AI is much better at war now.

So I knew I would have to build an army from the beginning, and being Prince I went into this game fearing what the AI would do (fear in this case a positive as I used it to ensure I could, at the least, defend myself).

Being France – Louis XIV – meant creative: expanding borders (a wonderful way to claim territory and block opponent movements) and industrious: (cheaper wonders & even if the movies flicker badly :-( I’ll still own them ;-)) so they were both traits I’m comfortable with, so thanks for the nice start.

Honorable rules – no problems – it’s how I normally play (keeping out of everyone’s way) – well – until I can steamroll over them later in the game (and in this game I’ll just have to wait until asked or they start the war – no issues there). ;-)

In some ways I think I’m too passive – I mean in this game I created no aircraft of any kind, and only 3 offensive naval units – and only built a total of 13 tanks/modern armour and the same number of mech infantry (although most of them were paid upgrades). I do not dare play multiplayer!! *laughs*

But of course, maybe I could say I wisely built only what I needed to do what I had to do. Showing all the hallmarks of *coughs* pure *coughs* genius. ;-) *rolls eyes*

The start: And this is probably where I took the most time wondering what to do – 1st epic and all. The game was definitely approached differently to a single player ‘at home’ game. Or am I just playing as I now should, because it was taken more seriously ?

Stone, cattle, silk to the north-east & jungle visible in the distance west, south AND east … settler currently on a grassland hill. Instant first move is the warrior NW (more central to the settler than due N) onto the hill for a better view as more information is needed for the decision on the place to settle the capital. The ocean appears, as does corn, spotted off to the NE. *scratches head & thinks*

Pik 1 – The first big decision – where to found the capital ?



To me – the choices for the capital are (as indicated by the 2 yellow arrows):
1) where is (no lost time), or,
2) move 2 spots NE to the plains-hill for better (+1) shield (hammer) production from the 2nd turn (worth a lot over a whole game) and also to get that corn in the city radius.
None of the other spots were considered – either being too close to jungle, losing valuable forest AND a turn if built there, or on the resource themselves (better value if worked instead).
Note: Yes, I do often ignore the blue circles. ;-)

After long and careful thought I chose to build the capital were I started for the following reasons: no lost turn, but more importantly, leaving the capital there, other cities would be positioned further away and so not near that surrounding jungle (ha – little did I know). It will be interesting to see what everyone else chose … and how important that decision became. *nods*

4000BC – Paris founded – Research began on Animal Husbandry, for the cows, then heading to Masonry (for the optimistic chance of an early wonder – Stonehenge and/or the Pyramids – who can resist the lure of the stone ?) and then Archery (the fear had to be kept at bay. ;-)

Warriors were the first builds – to explore – and pop huts – no knowledge, obtaining a scout, another warrior and some gold. Workers will start when Paris is a bit larger. So I scout around, learn I’m at the western end of a land mass with lots of jungle (yeah – I’d forgotten we were playing Tropical Pangaea). Meet my two closest neighbours – Aztec Montezuma and Mongolian Genghis Khan – both Aggressive – and yes the fear grows (they’ll both get free promotions and cheap barracks – ouch). Honorable is the only way to play with these neighbours!! *grins*

As I explore the local territory, Paris’ border expands, and a idea forms … I only need one other city – to the SE, and closed borders, and I can settle at my own pace (and avoid the Civ 3 ‘expand or die’ mindset which just causes bankruptcy in Civ 4). I now have a plan. :-)

1550BC – I found city 2 – Orleans – just where I wanted (unfortunately no hill) … but it is just on the southern coast, within reach of a few nice resources (Dye & Cattle), and when my border expands I’ll have the western lands to myself (hopefully) … and I honesty didn’t mean to trap those foreign scouts / warriors. *winks*

My other fear – the barbarians – were ALL kept at bay by having enough warriors (3 ) on lookout duty in the western badlands (jungles) – keeping it almost all visible so none could appear. I’d rather have no ‘free’ *coughs* barb city than the problems they could cause – especially with those aggressive neighbours on the other (Eastern) side.

I ignored religion in the tech tree – the 2 early ones had already been discovered, so I just concentrated on infrastructure – noting happiness was going to be an issue. Hmmmm … maybe a religion would cross the border one day soon!?

1225BC – With only 2 cities, but the stone now linked & quarried, I complete Stonehenge – yay – although I now realise this creates Great Prophets – and without founding a religion I cannot use them except to add a super citizen. In this game that will definitely be a powerful use. :-)
Note: India and Mongolia are both now Hindu – I’d like some of that too. *nods*

Time for city 3 – Lyons – let’s be greedy! ;-) So I head NE – out of the lands I’ve already *coughs* ‘claimed’ as mine (the west badlands) – to make a grab for even more! – for that corn and the pigs – only to find a new Mongolian city (Beshbalik) nearby. I swear at Genghis (but under my breath as I’m honorable). The next best site is the defensive hill on the coast – and still in reach of both, and if my creative border expands to capture those pigs before Mongolia – is that my fault ?? *coughs* it’s honorable – honest – and a archer to defend ‘my’ land claim later on is also honorable, I’m sure. :-)

880BC – City 3 – Lyons founded on a hill on the northern coast.

This city is going to be a front line city – with BOTH Aggressive civ’s adjacent – I know it and so start protecting it accordingly with archers (their city defense bonus is so good, and the unit balance is so well designed I now build units in Civ 4 I.used to ignore in Civ 3 – it also helps they can be upgraded for ages).

360BC – I’ve 3 cities with well expanded borders, no barbarian problems, and I’ve worked out where to place my next 7 cities (‘Dot Map’ ™ method – although those signs you can add in-game need to be saveable *nods*).

220BC – Aztec Monty builds a city (Texcoco) adjacent to my NE city 3 (Lyons) – warning bells sound in the distance. Iron is visible up there. I’ve still just archers – and they’re solely on city garrison – I don’t even order swords and axes even though I’ve iron connected next to Paris (nice) – I’ve other priorities – wonders, then settlers and workers. Orleans has jungles adjacent & these need to be cut – and roads built to make a nice killing zone (just in case mind you – I’m sure that’s honorable too). ;-)

160BC – The Pyramids are mine!! OK – am I prioritizing wonders a bit too much ?? *laughs* When you mention ‘passive builder strategy’ I’m right there. 3 cities, 2 wonders and a nice closed borders position. I change civics to Representation (for happiness – really nice) and Slavery (just in case it’s needed – although I don’t really know how honorable slavery really is ;-)) I actually didn’t use it in this game as it’s not really honorable, nor does it agree with the ‘not starving/reducing pop variant clause’ – but really just because there was no emergency situation where the people demanded it! :-P Civ 4 does have the same ‘just one more turn’ ™ addition the other Civ games had – the mark of a great design – and the other reason I don’t sacrifice my people, I’m always too distracted by the next turn, then the one after that, then … and before you know it, the damn thing is built – by itself! *laughs*

Pik 2 – the French Empire in 120BC after the anarchy finishes.



Lyon (NE) has 3 archers and walls, barracks are next.
Paris (Capital) has 1 archer, and barracks, and it’s time to expand (settler).
Orleans (SE) has 2 archers, 1 warrior, walls and barracks (worker next).

I have 3 other warriors in the western badlands preventing barbarian uprisings, and my two workers are currently working on Lyon’s pigs. ;-)
Note: The Demographics show I’m first in land, soldiers (this surprises me) and manufacturing, last in population and gold, and 4th in food. And I’ve the highest score – not too bad I think to myself – I should protect these wonders though. *nods*

40BC – Aztec Monty’s city of Texcoco becomes the Confucianism founding city. Tempting. Very tempting! That will be remembered as a profitable future city, should he misbehave. *truly honorable thoughts of spreading the benefits of religion to the French people* Honest! ;-)

20AD – Genghis Khan converts to Buddhism, Gandhi has the founding city but is Hindu – I sense interesting times of conflict over there. *phew*

80AD – 1st Great Person – Great Prophet. With nothing better to do, I add Moses to Paris as a Super Citizen. [Just remembered I could have used them for research too – damn]

Three cities are built in quick succession:

120AD – City 4 – Rhiems – due South on a coastal hill (great production potential, and horses).
290AD – City 5 – Tours – NW coast (good productive site – pigs, fish and rice).
310AD – City 6 – Marseilles – SW on another coastal hill (this is surrounded by a large number of resources – and would eventually be my ‘smart’ city).

These new cities covered a fair amount of the west, and the spare badlands warriors were used as initial defense (they actually remained as my final defense too – never to be upgraded – as surprisingly they were never threatened). Now I started having money issues (Civ 4 makes for a much more strategic game :-) so Rhiems started on the Great Lighthouse (finished in 570AD). My other apparent problem was unhappiness (I’ve still no religion & by now almost the rest of the world has converted to Hinduism!).
Note: In order to increase money I opened borders but had a spare settler in case anyone tried to build a city behind my ‘front lines’ – it being way too expensive to actually use it and build a city now. *laughs*

600AD – Genghis builds Samarqand on the coast – as close to Orleans as is possible – border tensions naturally occur. *growls*

640AD – As I build city 7 – Chartres – to claim the northern islands (hopefully cultural border expansion will do all the work for me) Genghis declares war. Being my first Prince war I don’t do anything aggressive at all. I turtle down and wait … attacking only when he’s in my kill zone (grassland) next to Orleans, or just let him try and take Lyon, my archers stay in the city, the fortified-in-city-on-a-hill cultural-bonus combination is awesome. ;-)
(Alex and Gandhi also have their 1st of many wars – I eventually lose track of who’s fighting whom on the rest of the continent).
I take out Mongolian units, he pillages French lands. I feel I come out of it better.

680AD – I convert to Hinduism (finally it seeps across the border at Orleans).

740AD – I eventually secure peace with my Mongolian brothers of the faith (I’ve 7 axemen and 2 swordsmen now on hand, but this is nothing compared to Genghis’ visible units! He has a wave of filled galleys ready in Sarmarqand – and I fear them badly with my poorly defended coastal cities).

Pik 3 – The world as I know it in 740AD as peace is declared after the Turtle War, in which only Paris was really concentrating on troops.
Note: From the small world map you can see I only sent a single warrior out exploring foreign lands (with a double woodlands promotion that can be enough).



The best thing about the world is that now EVERYONE is Hindu. Very suitable for an Honorable game – and it has to be one of the most helpful things that happened in my game – yes, sometimes it is better to be lucky than good ™. *laughs*

The worst thing is that I can only support research at 40%!! *ouch* :-(
This is where strategy comes into play with Civ 4 – but I’ve no real idea how to prevent this whilst I am still so greedy for land.
Note: America’s Washington has done well whilst everyone else was at war (a lesson I know well) and is now in 2nd place.

840AD – Monty builds The Kong Miao in Texcoco and converts to Confucianism. That’s an even more tempting city now and I could use a nice income source. Knowing relations will start changing between Monty and everyone else ... eventually there ‘might’ be an opportunity, so I start moving all my offensive units NE (except a small force left in Orleans – I still don’t trust Genghis – and the AI might see those weaker cities at my rear).
Honorably I hold my stack on a hill in my own territory near Lyons and wait. :-)

930AD – Use a Great Engineer (thank you Pyramids – a nice wonder if ever there was one) to complete the Colossus in Lyons (gold ? – yes please).

1015AD – City 8 – Avignon built on the West coast. I had to use my spare ‘defensive’ settler to stop a wandering open borders foreign settler.

The Wars start (but strangely not initially with Monty):
1005AD – Genghis attacks Gandhi (ends 1085AD).
1035AD – Monty attacks Genghis (and this would last until 1330AD!).
1065AD – Washington attacks Monty (ends 1170AD).

Pik 4 – The ‘honorable’ French ‘stack of doom’ ™ – waiting for an invitation to war.



Pik 5 – 1070AD – The peaceful French Empire, while everyone else wars.



Research is up to 60% – not great but just ok.
Note: I’m not really spreading Confucianism in my cities in the anticipation of picking up some money from any religious building in Texcoco – no way – that’d not be honorable would it ?? *winks*

Washington invites me along to the war against Monty and I move into foreign territory for the first time ever in 1095AD (I don’t do this again until 1670AD!) And even now, I only move 1 square *grins* before I’m next to a fully healthy Texcoco – I’m without a single catapult but, being next to a Mongolian stack that’ll take the city if I don’t, I promote my axes and swords before they attack (very useful leaving them unpromoted) and as I capture the city I realise sometimes it is better to be good than lucky ™. *happy smile* And I really like the creative trait’s border expansion of captured cities. Good to be back in my own territory again. ;-)

1095AD – A very good year – I also build the Hanging Gardens in Paris.

1150AD – Somewhat ironicly, after all that effort, I found my first religion, Taoism – in city 8 – Avignon.

Monty won’t negotiate peace, he really wants his Confucian holy city back *laughs* and sends a few organised waves at me, but I have a city on a hill, and he’s got to expose himself on the plains beneath. His units pillage then die, but most simply just die.

As there’s no negotiating with the slightly upset Monty, the honorable thing to do is to end the war as quickly as possible … I’d like the bit of silver he has to the north (I did want to settle there myself but even I accepted it was optimistic in the extreme). It’s a slow advance but I’ve now built horse archers to take out his catapults, and a mixed army to deal with other units.

1165AD – Calixtlahuaca falls and I go to Monty seeking peace – which is gladly given. Time to hunker down and grow a bit. Let the creative border give me silver for happiness and a bit of research to make me stronger. Life in France is looking good.

1180AD – Becancon founded near Paris (slightly SW) – mainly because there was an American settler convoy moving too close to that single vacant square in the middle of MY territory. How dare he even consider that!! It takes advantage of a Banana, Rice, and 2 Dyes, no wonder he wanted it. *smiles*

I now have 12 workers and many are working on clearing jungle – I’d rather have the grasslands beneath thank you very much.
Note: I don’t cut a single forest in my own territory – personally, I almost never chop them but save them for Lumbermills (and their health benefit). [Qn: I’ve found that lumbermills are the ONLY improvement that benefits from railroad, receiving +1 shield (hammer) – is this right ?]

Pik 6 – After the 1st Aztec War – 1225AD.



Yeah – lots of courthouses – finally – I need some money, spare a dollar sir ? ;-)
War does seem to subsidise research – all that plunder!
And lots of influence from Monty’s capital – and somehow I think he’ll still want his lost holy city. Well – time to consolidate helps me more than him. :-)
[Looking at this pik again I realise the Aztec influence is actually residual citizen influence – I wonder how long that lasts ?]

1275AD – Islam is my 2nd discovered religion (and creates my 3rd Holy City: Becancon) and while others wage war I seek peace and the associated prosperity and happiness associated with it. Notre Dame (1280AD) helps (+1 happiness), converting to Bureaucracy (my favourite Legal civic) turns Paris into a production powerhouse, and using my next Great Prophet – St Peter – to create the Masjid al-Haram for Islam is a little amusing (now I just have to spread Islam for gold – a never realized goal).

1345AD – Paris builds the Spiral Minaret (religious gold) and life in France is Good. The people cheer and celebrate. Louis XIV is well loved.

1370AD – Washington circumnavigates the globe and I, isolated as I am, don’t really mind, seeing as we’re all on the same lump of rock. ;-)

1380AD – WAR!!
Monty really wants his holy city back!

I am now strong, fully healed, and ready for him. This time it’s personal, and I’ve a technological advantage (I like that in Civ 4, although I never experienced the tank beats spearman situation, the argument never bothered me – probability always throws a few curve balls – it’s all part of the game that reflects life – nothing’s ever guaranteed *grins & winks*).

The 2nd Aztec War spreads …
1405AD – Gandhi declares war on Monty.

So what am I doing ?
Invading ? nope.
Pillaging ? nope.
Scouting his lands / cities for weaknesses ? nope.
Picking off Monty’s troops as they appear ? yeah – I do admit to doing that.
But I am actually turtling again and concentrating on building wonders *mad laughter* and, even more crazily …
1415AD – Build Rouen in that single desert coastal square S of Orleans with fish and iron in its radius, I now think I can afford another city.

1435AD – Genghis declares war on Gandhi.
AND I get Monty to sign for peace – with just some exchanged losses it’s a very static war – it was just an inconvenient time for me – as I want to concentrate on those wonders (oh, and a Golden Age in peace time is so much nicer).

1440AD – Versailles in Rheims.
1445AD – The Taj Mahal in Paris (a Golden Age during war can be fun, but do I use it for war ? no way – much more useful for buildings that’ll be around longer – yep – passive builder all the way :-)), followed by Ankor Wat (1485AD, also in Paris).

1450AD – Genghis converts to Confucianism – hmmmm, maybe my spread religion for $’s there was a little too effective ?

1505AD – Still chugging along on infrastructure even after the Golden Age ends.

Pik 7 – 1505 AD – My peaceful empire – no military production anywhere.
Note: 4 of my core cities are producing wonders – and as I write this I wonder (no pun intended) just how mad I was playing at the time *shakes head* but boy was it enjoyable. :-)



Pik 8 – The Northern Front & the Texcoco garrison – they did quite well too. :-)



Pik 9 – A look at Paris, happily producing wonders. ;-)



At this time the Demographics show I’m first in everything except soldiers – in which I’m 5th – do I worry ? (I’ll get to it, ‘just one more wonder’ ™).

While wars between the other civs start / end / and re-start I turtle down yet again and build away. A Great Engineer is saved for a future use, and I complete the Hagia Sophia (+50% worker speed) the long way, as although the jungle has all now been cleared – railways will still have to be built one day.

1620AD – Adopt Free Market (nice to have another trade route).

1656AD – Adopt Emancipation (as per variant rules – causing unhappiness to other civs – very honorable *winks*).

1658AD – WAR!!
Monty again!! He really wants his holy city back!

Variant rules said I could defend myself … up to the ‘you have chosen unwisely’ ™ rule. So I enlist my friends Gandhi and Washington to help in exchange for some technology (1660AD). Poor old Monty.

While Washington is immediately effective – scarily so – and takes a city next go, Gandhi just has no luck at all (Alex declares war on him (1662AD) and invades, and then Genghis does the same in 1672AD).

1662AD – Great Artist Valmiki born – will come in handy for a city capture – I’ll culture bomb it out of resistance and expand the borders for my troops to use roads (well, that’s the theory anyway. :-)

Pik 10 – Strategic plans for the 3rd Aztec War.



Monty is a clever AI and uses the yellow arrow approach (keeping to the hill tops), and when he reaches the plains splits his troops into two stacks – but without any defensive bonuses they are in my kill zone and those that survive don’t do much damage. The blue lines indicate pillaged squares, and I limit Monty’s options by fortifying on his other approach – that forested hill north of Texcoco (wow – are they powerful! +75% defense – lovely when they’re used by me ;-)).
My plan for the Texcoco army shown is to follow the red arrows, joining with the garrison in northern Calixtlahuaca, for three reasons:
1) It is a more defensive attack on Teotihuacan (from the hills) and catapults are easy to move right next to the city – my first use against a city with them ever in Civ 4 – nice affect – and I think the bombard and suicide attack is a much more balanced option than the Civ 3 red lining siege weapons. Overall Civ 4 is a much more balanced game. :-)
2) I’ll have no troops behind me with Teotihuacan mine, 2 fronts aren’t fun – especially with the hard to move cultural borders.
3 ) Those caravels Monty has (there’s 4 within that white ellipse) scare me (due to possible surprise troop movement) – let’s take the city and neutralize those. [Qn: Are Caravels unable to pillage ? The Civpedia needs major improvement, it’s the only area where Civ 3 leaves Civ 4 for dead!]
Note: I’ve finally traded maps and can see what the whole world looks like now, I do think I turtle too much, but as can be shown, in Civ 4 that’s a very viable option, although the warmongers must be shaking their heads at my game play. *smiles*

1692 – The plan works and Teotihuacan is captured & culture bombed (not as effective as I’d have hoped – especially next to Monty’s capital – not a single border movement eastwards *oh well*).

Gandhi must be having issues with Alex, he signs for peace with Monty and Genghis. Washington has spent most of this game at peace, yet I’m still doing better – must be the wonders – shields well spent. :-)

Unfortunately I’ve no screenshots from this war as I got the ‘just one more city’ ™ bug, and kept moving my army forward (at the limited speed of catapults) via any available hill or forest. This was my gunpowder era – Cavalry, and Musketeers which were soon replaced by / upgraded to Grenadiers (I am so glad the Golden age is no longer linked to UU battles). This war was decisive in this game and showed me just how important a mixed army is in Civ 4.

My wars are usually long and slow – and Civ 4 really needs to have fully healed units before they can re-enter combat, which slows things even more – generally because I think I build so few military units. My entire army is at the front-line, and I have the bulk of my cities guarded by only a single original warrior or archer. (However, with a watched bank account, and upgrades without barracks (not sure if this is balanced) this is only slightly foolish ;-) Also, in this game, the fact there’s no sea route along the north coast helped).

1708AD – Tenochtitlan captured – and I play ‘chase the Aztec capital’. Now the culture bomb at Teotihuacan covers the countryside. In future I’ll probably play the culture bomb closer to where the final border position will be, such as at …

1720AD – Tlatelolco falls, followed by Tlaxcala (1732AD), and northern Kolhapur (1736AD). The wars with Monty finally end, as Monty is no more.
Note: I almost never pillage either, why bother when you’ll need those improvements when the city becomes yours ?

And you’d never believe that to celebrate peace – I build a wonder! Appropriately, the Statue of Liberty (1744AD) – Great Engineers never go astray. ;-)

Pik 11 – My newly conquered Aztec lands (the scores show how badly war has hurt everyone, except me – as I don’t focus much of my empire in that direction and the gains in lands offset the war losses – and Washington – who’s been very peaceful – and has consolidated his position as my main rival).



Pik 12 – My complete French empire (1746AD) – I did plan on building a city on my far eastern border, near Tlatelolco – to check Washington, but his borders had expanded too much by the time I got a settler there (let that be a lesson in poor culture bombing learnt).



Pik 13 – Another look at Paris, again happily & healthily producing wonders. ;-)



Most of the remainder of the game chugs along peacefully. Well – for me at least *grins* I watch the AI’s fight on and on as I leave them behind on the tech tree. Some peaceful highlights are:

1772AD – Eiffel Tower (love this, especially with the use of a Great Engineer and the other +1 smiley wonders (Broadway – 1792AD) (Rock&Roll – 1820AD) (Hollywood – 1862AD)).

1802AD – Grenoble founded in the northern islands – there’s a few small foreign cities up there now and I don’t want more.

1822AD – I build the United Nations, and go for a diplomatic victory on & off for the rest of the game – I eventually get within 10 points, but never actually achieve it – Genghis and Alex both abstain every vote. It’s harder to change minds than Civ 3 which is good, not that I really try too hard, but for a non-warmonger like me – the space ship seems to be the easiest option. I have read some of the other games people have posted and I am impressed at the different play styles and wins out there!

1855AD – The Pentagon (why not? – better me than someone else).

I use the UN to ban nukes – spread emancipation (very honorable) – and then religious freedom.

Knowing I don’t have the numbers for a diplomatic victory – I build the Space Elevator (1882AD) and labs in most cities, and peacefully work my way to a win. The Three Gorges Dam needs a river [I only found this out by looking at which cities could build it – Is this true ?] and so I begin to build it in Tlatelolco, thanks for the loaner Monty. ;-)

Pik 14 – 1885AD – The Peaceful French Empire – completely railroaded – with all my cities significantly larger than anyone else’s!
Note: Gandhi is now only a single frozen city to the north & Alex still hasn’t finished.



Pik 15 – Paris – My industrial powerhouse: Factory, Coal Plant, Ironworks, 5 (yes 5!) Super Citizens & railroaded lumbermills result in wonders galore: +287 shields (hammers) per turn (nice).



Pik 16 – Marseilles – My intellectual heart with the Globe Theatre (to ignore unhappiness – so the city could grow and grow) and Oxford Uni: +335 beakers per turn (and I was only on 90% research). [I now wonder if I could have set just that city to 100% research – Hmmmmm – I still need lessons in how to manage a city properly]



1894AD – Out of the blue, Genghis declares war and invades. Now I’m not sure if this is a last gasp to try to prevent me from winning – as I’m well on the way. If so, I think it’s a good change to the AI – even if it is a bit late. I’m the only one with tanks (3 ), mech infantry (1 +1 being built) and big offensive naval units (2 +1 being built), and a very nice treasury for upgrades. *huge grin* Which is what I do – on the first turn of war I learn composites *laugh* and I just sit there and spend ¾ of my treasury to upgrade troops (which apart from my 3 tanks – now modern armor ;-), are still at catapults (4) and grenadiers (9). My main offensive units are still cavalry (9) which I’ll use in a critical but minor role in this war as they don’t upgrade – I didn’t research flight).

The war is very one sided, even if I did lose a couple of modern units – wave after wave of nothing more powerful than Riflemen just doesn’t stand a chance. I learn the power of controlling the oceans (even if I did have only 3 offensive naval units – the original Mongolian fleet of galleys (still around from their very first invasion in the 640AD Turtle War) sink fully laden when attacked by a battleship *laughs*). Naval units are also brilliant for bombarding coastal city defenses – and move much faster than artillery (so able to keep up with the faster ground troops).

1896AD – Alex finally razes Gandhi’s last city (Bengal) and India is no more.

After two turns wiping out two waves of Mongol troops on French soil, the Mongolian cities fall one by one – crushed under an honorable French fist ;-)
1897AD – Beshbalik
1898AD – Samarqand
1900AD – Karakorum
1901AD – Tiflis [& the Three Gorges Dam is finally built in Tlatelolco]
1904AD – Old Sarai & Otrar
1905AD – New Sarai
1907AD – Turfan
1908AD – Sanchu & Calcutta (but no India to return it to)
1910AD – Tabriz, a single square island isolated near my northern islands (& from this I learn ANY unit can attack from a ship – not just marines – I’m not sure this is so good, but it was helpful in this case) and Genghis and his Mongolian empire is no more.

Even with the extra population and lands I am 10 points short of a diplomatic victory – Alex still abstains (although how honorable such a victory is as a result of war I’m not sure ;-)). As I’m good friends with Washington and Alex I doubt there will be another war soon, hence I complete the last pieces of my spaceship …

1928AD – Space Race Victory!!!!

13 hrs, 21 mins – a most enjoyable time, and writing this took about the same length, if not longer! *laughs* but it was just as enjoyable (I hope you readers find it so also :-)).

Score: 19,140, Game Score: 6,358 (I have no idea what the difference is, but I’ll take the higher number ;-)).

I’m pleased with this result, my first Prince game, and yes I’m sure others may have finished centuries before me – but … *shrugs* – I’m happy with this game, and now look forward to reading all the other posts.

Pik 17 shows the final game save (1930AD) and the sprawling French Empire.

[Sullla]

Hi killara! Glad to meet you and see you delurk to join in on one of our games. Very nice report too. One thing to keep in mind for the future - your pictures cause the text to wrap beyond what can be seen on a lot of computer resolutions, forcing horizontal scrolling of text. You may want to crop your pictures in the future to avoid that.

Good analysis on the decision as to whether or not to move the settler at the start. I chose to move, but there were legitimate reasons for staying put as well. I hope you find comparing the choices to be as entertaining as I do! You also closed off your borders with the placement of your second city, same as I did.

Sticking warriors on barb sentry was a smart move; I probably should have thought to do that...

Setting up a point city in the northeast to absorb AI aggression (Lyons) seems like a good move too. Getting the Pyramids undoubtedly helped out a lot; I wanted to build them in my game, but they fell SO early to Gandhi, giving me no chance to get them. That would undoubtedly have helped me out a ton, as you did by going to Representation.

The use of the first Great Prophet for a super-specialist certainly provided long term benefit; as to whether or not using it on a tech would have been better, that I don't know. Certainly if you could have grabbed Theology and founded Christianity, that probably would have helped out a lot, but I don't know if that was possible or not.

Nice job fending off Temjin early on! Better to play it safe than risk losing one of your cities. I will say, however, that you were wasting a number of tiles with your city placements. Something to work on for the future, perhaps!

As far as finances go, you need to get cottages up and running and start building some courthouses and markets to improve the research rate. This takes some practice to do effectively, but you'll get used to it with time. This start was a particularly difficult one as far as solving the financial quagmire goes. Using the Colossus to help out your commerce situation was a good move, to be sure.

Taking the Confucian Holy City... that wasn't very nice, was it? But who ever said that being "honorable" is the same thing as being "nice"?

In addition to lumber mills, mines also gain an extra shield from rails. They are the only two.

I think you may have had a little TOO much fun building wonders in this game.

Too bad you couldn't muster enough votes for a UN win. You ended up with the same problem I had: Washington ended up being your main rival, and thus you couldn't count on his votes to put you over the top. Naturally Temujin and Alex were going to abstain... Gandhi looks like he got roughed up badly by Temujin, certainly the opposite of what I saw with an early dogpile on Temujin in my game!

The one big advantage of settling on the starting tile was additional production down the road for Paris, and your screenshot of the city from 1885 certainly demonstrates that admirably. Nice job building it up!

I hope you had fun crushing Temujin's outdated garbage with your armor. I know I would have. Naval units are extremely important in modern warfare, and they can speed up offensively immensely against coastal cities.

Nice job winning the game and reaching the end of the tech tree. Only 3 civs survived to the end of your game, so it was quite a violent world, wasn't it? Thanks for your report, I enjoyed reading it quite a bit, and I hope we'll see you around again sometime.

[Smegged]

Nicely played. It's interesting how similar our early games were, and yet how differently they turned out. I was probably a little too aggressive for my own good. Nice choice of city placements (You had at least 4 of your cities in the same spots as mine).

[killara]

I think I'll spend more time reading everyone's reports than in both playing the game and then writing it up. *laughs* Wonderful way to learn about the game - and so much learnt already.
Sullla - I agree - seeing the thought processes behind everyone's decision making processes is hugely informative/entertaining/a learning experience.
(Note: I'll crop pictures in future - never posted on a web site before)
Smegged - I had no idea there'd be so much difference in the end results of all these games - with identical starting conditions - chaos theory for sure !