[BTS] Civ IV Newbie Succession Game - Monarch - Beginning now!

[Molach]

Things to do.

1 Settle the copper, I've a location mapped, that location will be HE military pump.

Opened the save without BUG, so didn't see location mapped. Where did you place it?

[Hart]

Here's a screenie:

Its not a bad spot for hammers.

BTW, Molach's right. We need to discuss more in general. Looking at the save we have a lack of workers for the number of cities we plan to have (early game I usually go for at least 1.5x workers per city, if not more). We need to explore the lands nearer to HC as quickly as possible. And we haven't built a single cottage. As far as I can see we need to secure that copper ASAP, and start whipping Axemen to go take out HC. He's too close which is a real problem, has the stupidly good Terrace UB (and with AI bonuses won't be slow getting them up), and he might even build a few wonders that we can steal (maybe).

Looking at the starting points of our civ, the Incans and the Zulu, there might be a fourth civ on our half of the map. I'm a bit stunned that our warrior has already forged through the jungle. Meeting more civs is great for increasing our research, especially if we are backfilling the tech tree, but right now we need that terrain on this side scouted.

[Dhalphir]

I agree that an early war against the Incans is on the cards. If there is one thing I learned from PB2, its that donut maps really require you to pick a direction to expand and go through any civs in the way.

My next tech thoughts after AH - I was Thinking we could cash out the mistaken 60 beakers in sailing, then fill out some of the religion techs so we can get Monarchy. I don't see a ton of happiness resources around, and none at all pre-Calendar, so I think i am right in thinking we want hereditary rule before our war so that we can continue to grow using our leftover military postwar.

Either that or we could settle the stone and build pyramids, but we might be too slow on that if we have to wait for a third city to get the stone.

[Dhalphir]

Do we want to hit the Incans with axes or do we want to try to be first to Construction and make it a catapult fight?

[Hart]

Axes should be enough at this stage of the game. I'll do some number crunching tomorrow and see how many we can get up around the time HC plants his third city.

[BaII]

Settle copper site, chop remaining forests for an axe army, and then rush HC. I don't think we will have enough time to grab any religions, so for a tech path Priest-->Monarch--->Math-->Currency? or should we swap currency with calender to get more happiness in play.

[Hart]

Yeah, thats about the size of it. Plenty of forests near Aiur and the copper site. HC is willing to sign open borders, so I'll send one of the garrison warriors over there promptly to see how much of a nightmare he's becoming.

As for Tech, our options are Mathematics or Monarchy. I'd argue for Mathematics, depending on the number of turns. We're going to NEED Monarchy soon, though.

All this talk of techs and war is great, but our economy is going to be in the shitter in no time. We need at least 2 more workers if we're going to get an Axemen army out in any reasonable time-frame. Hell, I'd even go for 3.

[Dhalphir]

how many do we have now? two?

what do you feel the best way to get more workers out efficiently? whip them or slowbuild?

[BaII]

We have two cities right? Capital is at the happiness cap, so it will probably whip out a worker, if our second city is size 4, I would recommend another whip.

[Hart]

Chop, or whip. Slowbuilding a worker in a city with no production and that much food is just silly.

I'll have to play the turn later tonight. Got a truckload of coursework to get through.

Edit: After thinking about it, I think Monarchy is probably the best option. Chopping is a limited supply of hammers. Slavery is more efficient and plentiful, and will only become more and more useful once we get Monarchy. Maths -> Construction is a better option once have taken out HC and have connected stone, so we can get the Hanging Gardens. We can grab CoL straight afterwards for Taoism, assuming it doesn't get taken in the meantime. The main problem I can see us having is getting our economy up and running while prepping for a war...