Dr. Nomadic's Archipelago Venture

[novice]

If you really want a game set up in your favour, play Willem of the Dutch on an archipelago map. Creative, Financial, and once Steam power comes in you build dikes everywhere for +1 hammers from all river and water tiles. You could probably go up two difficulty levels for this variant.

[Dr. Nomadic]

Oh yeah, Willem. But I WANTED TO PLAY AS AN AGGRESSIVE LEADER AND BREAK MY FINANCIAL CURSE AT THE SAME TIME!!!

BTW in most games of Civ4 I've noticed that financial civs just don't do well, and have some sort of curse. Examples:

-In my Chinese game in Warlords, Wang and Ragnar did horrible in the early expansion phase Wang eventually had to exit the game (Korea didn't even have the privilege of being a vassal state!) while Ragnar lost a lot of cities to me (culturally, of course), which went on to build spaceship parts.
-In one game of BtS as Darius, I got killed by Gilgamesh.
-In my Roman game, I took down Ragnar with Praets and Axes and then later on Willem did EXTREMELY well for himself, snapping up the free GPs at economics, physics, and communism (okay, I wasn't chasing any of them), and ALMOST getting the free tech from liberalism (I tied with Willem by going into caste system in a golden age and hiring scientists everywhere for max science output, which obviously handed me the free tech). He even beelined for mass media and rocketry and built Eiffel Tower and all the late game happiness wonders...except his diplomacy was horrible, and his Hindu buddy Shaka declared war on him and captured a city, and then me (Julius Caesar), Greece (Alex), and my German vassal (Fred) went and gobbled up Shaka's empire and proceeded to do the same to Willem. He had a DP with Izzy, but all it did was prevent Alex from doing to much damage to him. He even built the Eiffel Tower in a city a few turns before I captured it. And then he didn't even have the privilege of being a vassal like Shaka and Fred; Fred just did the favor and captured Amsterdam, ELIMINATING HIM FROM THE GAME WHEN HE LOOKED LIKE THE BIG THREAT TO WIN FOR A GOOD WHILE!!!
-In my Malinese game, Saladin built a big stack and I quit the game while watching him bombard my capital down. (bad sportsmanship, I know)
-In my Arab game, Pacal got diplomatically isolated and was always a few techs behind me.
-In my current Viking game, Hannibal has been...okay you don't need to know more, and Pacal hasn't exactly been doing well either.

[Dantski]

Honestly if you want feedback on random games, posting on CFC is where you want to be, not here.

[Dr. Nomadic]

Sure thing. I'll be back when I do my reckless expansion variant.

[Speaker]

Honestly if you want feedback on random games, posting on CFC is where you want to be, not here.

If you post screenshots and/or save files, people might actually be able to give you concrete advice. But large blocks of text are pretty meh.

[Dr. Nomadic]

I'm so sorry guys. I have screenshots, but I haven't uploaded them to Photobucket, and I'm planning on creating a website for hosting the report. In the meantime, here are some things to report:

-I'm gunning for Conquest victory right now, currently in the year 1913. Cathy is down to her last city (ironically, she declared war on me and not vice versa at first, then she lost her capital and I sued for peace, then I came back to finish the job, and while it was slow going at first due to lack of a good navy, it's going quickly now). Similarly I've been burning down lines of Mansa Musa's cities (including the Islamic holy city! Sorry!) to get to Timbuktu...
-...which has tons of wonders in it, including most recently the late-game happiness wonders and possibly Cristo Redentor (can't tell if it's there). And yet Mansa Musa lacked steam power when I declared war on him (and he had radio). I'm sick and tired of the AI beelining for mass media, and even then if he built the UN I could easily vassalize somebody and win backdoor domination that way.
-Uhm, I popped an unguarded hut in 1850. Unfortunately, the hut could only yield a piddly 37 gold.
-On my morning session I was getting horrendous combat luck, at one time losing three battles in a row that had over 70% odds to win, and even sometimes losing battles at 85% and 95% odds. When I came back today things have been going a bit better.
-My humongous fleets of ships of the line have literally been able to bombard city defenses from 60% to 0% in one turn, freeing up my cannon for collateral carnage and infantry to face easy battles (95% odds at worst). Am I experiencing the Sirian Doctrine?
-Partisans have been getting super annoying. And, uh, at one time I razed a Malinese city, and then not too long afterwards a barb city popped up at that location. Ugh.
-Pacal is playing a 2CC. Priceless stuff!
-I'm sitting at 40% science and yet I'm #1 in GNP. WTF?
-Cities that I founded started out 99% foreign, and displayed "we yearn to join the motherland" happiness. That's just STUPID.

Alright, meanwhile, just some random stuff to show our tech situation and provide more info:

THE RACCOON CITY TIMES
We have encountered setback after setback, but now our great Viking dictatorship is showing our true might, displaying the world's greatest soldier count for a long time now and finally getting over the hump of the islands, establishing a solid navy for island hopping. The evil Russians, after their original aggression, have been pushed back to an offshore colony, the last hideout of their glorious leader, who shall be caught and detained for questioning and then sent to rot in jail somewhere (probably Vice City, formerly known as Moscow). General Eugene's plans for action include razing the last Russian city and then basing off at HALO (formerly known as Yakutsk) to prepare for the assult on Mutal, the Mayan capital which contains the Statue of Liberty and the Pentagon, before suing for peace. Meanwhile, our other army is about to land on the Malinese home island, where we can hopefully take Timbuktu and extort the secrets of Communism for peace. So far, we have only planned on settling new lands that have luxury resources, and nothing else. And we must pray that the Communism is an effective govt., because it seems to go well with Fascism. We also happen to be in the midst of a golden age at the moment, which is of course really bloating our GNP and production, both of which are top in the world (production by a significant margin). The Malinese have advanced technology that we can't even contemplate, such as "electricity", "radio", and "mass media" but they can't match the sheer production capacity of our Norse dictatorship. Support the conquest campaign!

[Dr. Nomadic]

It was more brutal than expected (and Mansa turned out to have ARTILLERY, geez), but Russia is destroyed and Timbuktu is mine. I was extremely lucky to get a great scientist to lightbulb physics so that I could extort artillery from Mali. Except that I had to vassalize him to make the deal. Yikes. He also gave me a junk ice city in the south as part of the peace treaty, which I really hate...yeah, I'm gonna sell the city back to him. Then I had to give him assembly line and combustion in exchange for artillery and communism (should've probably asked for electricity too, but oh well). I think 12 infantry and 8 artillery is enough forces to begin the assault on Arabia/Aztec, with the same being true for Maya (STILL playing a 2CC).

Okay, now I'm researching biology to trade to Mali. My research rate is sad stuff, but I'm #1 in GNP in spite of it (gotta love playing financial civs). Oh yeah, and my capital is stuck at size 10 (it can get to size 12, but then it can't work its best production tiles), but is a production powerhouse. State Property cut a significant amount of expenses, and...since I captured Cristo Redentor, maybe it's time to switch to universal suffrage and buy some buildings? Nah, maybe I should amass my forces first.

[Dr. Nomadic]

Well, next plan is to upgrade troops/ships and make sure that I have 12 infantry and 8 artillery in each invasion force. Gee, I wonder how this is gonna go? I am also thinking of revolting to universal suffrage and buying the Globe Theatre and West Point after I sail all my forces into their missions. Oh, and Mt. Rushmore! Let's not forget about that! Unfortunately I don't see myself returning for a good while, but I may be wrong.

EDIT: Well, let's build Moai Statues in the capital as well! And I just realized that I captured the Kremlin, so I can buy stuff @ two-thirds the cost! I don't usually have control of that wonder (AI seems to prioritize it for whatever reason), so that's definetely cool.

[Dr. Nomadic]

Okay, I somehow found time yesterday and now my GNP is twice that of Mansa Musa's...that's what happens when you buy lots of stuff. I bought the Globe Theatre, West Point, Mt. Rushmore, and Wall Street (which required a mass bank-building program), and I hand-built the Moai Statues (at the capital) and the Forbidden Palace (in former Moscow). Also I renamed Timbuktu Hyrule, in honor of the Legend of Zelda series. And...Hyrule actually has control of its fat cross already, as Mansa left a lot of settled GPs in the city who are giving me culture (since I own The Sistine Chapel). It makes no sense that captured wonders don't give culture while captured specialists do, but whatever. Also Mansa Musa built the Eiffel Tower in his Versailles city, but that's a matter for another time. What I know is that I should stay away from Mass Media (obsoletes Apostolic Palace) and Computers (obsoletes Spiral Minaret, Angkor Wat, and University of Sankore). It's 1936 and I'm still not in the modern age yet. Yeah, that's new!

[Dr. Nomadic]

Saladin has lost Mecca and Damascus, and Pacal has lost Mutal. Unfortunately Saladin didn't want to capitulate, so maybe taking the third city (Medina) on his home island will help?

And where are the replies? My text is much smaller now, so...yeah.

EDIT: Oh yeah, my vassal built the UN. Good heavens. If I vassalize somebody I could probably take backdoor domination!