Epic 4 - Qwack

[Qwack]

To keep it simple: Heres another unfinished game by Qwack which couldnt be finished because it took so much time .

Will I ever complete one of these epics? Only time will tell... One thing to keep in mind, I wrote the first 2 parts of my report a few weeks ago when I was expecting to finsih it. YOu will notice the level of detail drop off from about 2800 BC because I wrote that part right now 8)
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Report:

The basic settings which should be noted are the difficulty, the world size, and the variant rules. They are Deity, large map and raging barbarians. I think just from those 3 settings you will have a pretty good feeling of what this game will be like. A true grind and a true test for even the top civ4 player. Here’s the civilization we will be playing as in this game.



I haven’t played JC much at all so far, but as far as I can tell, he seems to be like a very strong leader for a high difficulty game like this. Expansive and Organized are probably 2 of the traits which are extremely weak at the low difficulty levels, but gradually improve and can be called 2 of the best at the higher difficulty levels. The biggest strength of Julius Caesar however, lies in its overpowered unique unit. The praetorian is basically a swordsman with 25% more power. It has a huge lifespan, and will probably be a strong unit until Maceman or Crossbows start showing up, which is usually around the same time. And here is the starting position:





According to Sirian, the first barbarian units would start showing up in 3400 BC. This is an extremely early date, and so I seriously thought over my starting strategy here if I was to ensure survival in the early game. There were 3 options in my mind as far as what to do at the start of this game.

Option 1: Move the settler to the gold hill tile and settle on top of it. The benefit of this option is that it yields us a HUGE 2,2,2 tile right from the start of the game, and will give all our stationed units the +25% bonus. It would also move us into position to grab those rice into our capital. It would also eventually give archers that strong +50% bonus as well. The disadvantage was that we would lose our best tile, and possibly the one tile which can help us get our research up and hopefully get somewhat caught up with the AI’s.
Option 2: Move the settler to the pig’s hill tile and settle on top of it. The benefit of this option is that it gives us the defensive bonuses again, but we would lose the important Pigs tile. I eventually eliminated this option because when I was making my game plan, I had thought that moving to the pigs hill tile would give us 3 food. I eventually ended up testing this in worldbuilder and it turned out that it actually didn’t give 1 extra food.
Option 3: Probably the vanilla move for most games, settle on spot. The basic advantages of this move are that it won’t cost us a turn at the start of the game. We have protection from the river from 3 sides, and we hold on to the 2 strong gold and pigs resources.

Eventually, I ended up going with option 1. I simply could not pass up on the defensive bonus the hills provide after reading all those warnings Sirian posted . I felt this game will rely on maximizing everything you can with the very little you will have. Moving to the hills gold tile will work in good synergy with a beeline to archery. It would cut down our research time to archery by a few turns with the 1 extra gold, as well as helping build early army with the 1 extra production. The early archers would get the hills bonus to beat off most barbarins. This seemed like a good gameplan to me on paper, but obviously, being good on paper doesn’t mean being good in practice.



Like I promised, I ended up moving my settler to the gold hills tile. It will be interesting to see how many others actually end up making this move. I would also be interested in whether or not Sirian made this move in the Start file with help. The first thing ill do when this game is over is open up that start file with help to see what exactly Sirian did :P.



And ofcourse, Rome was founded in 3970 BC. I immediately started the Capital on a warrior. Most likely, 99% of the people who participate will go warrior first :P. and if someone can actually survive without going warrior first… hats off to them. I actually maximized growth at the start however, instead of going after production. My belief was that we want as little warriors and as much growth as possible before archery came in. I pretty much thought 3-4 warriors would be enough to hold up all the barbarians until archers show up. In 3790, we get some cottage luck. A scout is popped from a hut. This is absolutely huge because I wasn’t going to use this scout for scouting, but instead for fog-busting and reducing the barbarians.



In 3730, the borders of Rome expand, and the hut which was 2E of our capital is popped by the expansion. We get 39 gold. It might not sound like much but gold will be useful to run 100% research here on Deity level. Especially with the huge penalties and upkeep costs the human has to deal with. Hunting comes in 3700 BC, and I automatically set research onto Archery. Buddhism is FIADL in 3670. Wow that early. A couple of turns go on quietly, my Scout is in fogbusting position… and then… it happens. The Barbarians are coming. O_O



Instead of simply positioning all my troops in my city and fortifying them, I was sending them out to hills or forest-hills to bust the fog. And this turns out to be very useful, because one of my warriors finds an important hut in this game. Here’s what I’m talking about.



And this is what it ends up giving me:



This is huge, not only is this 1 more unit for defensive purposes and for fighting the barbs, but its one more unit for fog-busting and preventing barbarians from spawning. Good stuff. Like expected, more barbarians start showing up in 3370. Archery also comes in the same turn, and I switch the capital to an archer pretty much right away. There was a big decision here however. Whether I would start my worker after I have 2 archers, or whether I would risk it with only 1 archer. I eventually ended up choosing to build 2 archers before a worker primarily because this matched up better in terms of having another growth before a worker, and it also meant our first archer would be out sooner. Also, if a lot more barbarians start showing up, the worker will be doing nothing anyways, so I decided to play it safe.

My tech path was pretty much set-up here already. I had thought this over about 10 times before the game and after Archery I was going after Bronze Working. I felt we would have copper in our capital, and even if we didn’t, it should be somewhere nearby. I know this game can’t be so hard that we don’t even have a metal near our capital somewhere… Or could it?? :P

Check out this screenshot in 3310 BC. Fog-Buster, its time to run :D.



Also look at this one. Holy crap. Good thing that archer will be done soon… Talk about being squished.

[Qwack]

Barbarians warriors against an archer fortified in a hill city, Oh yes. I have survived what can possibly be the most difficult phase of the game, defending the empire with only warriors. Now that we have archers, I think we will have a much easier time against all the barbarians. And once the archer kills 10 warriors, it will be an absolute powerhouse city garrison 3 archer fortified in a hill city. Thinking about it is making me all happy inside.

After Archery, I went straight towards Bronze working because if my gut feeling it correct, axeman will start showing up soon, and I absolutely need my own axemen to defend against them and archers. In 2860, my first worker is started, I have 2 archers at this point. I ended up delaying the worker because my move cost me that archer. This was a huge setback at this point, because nobody should have lost a unit so early with the crappy unpromoted barb warriors only showing up..

Bronze comes in 2710, and I find copper to our east. The spot for second city has been decided. It would actually be on the jungle 1west of the copper.



I also finally moved my scout away from fog busting to explore the regions south of Rome, and I find a tremendous spot for a GP farm and whip city.



After bronze I went towards agriculture, this was because I was beelining towards pottery and writing, for cottages and library. My gameplan was to get a scientist out early and build a academy.

Constant micromanagement and moving around the worker smartly allowed me to improve the pigs and build a mine on hills in our capital. Also started a settler while holding archers in the queue. This was because archer in queue does not cost you upkeep. I knew my city garrison 3 archer on a hill fortified in a city will hold off absolutely anything at this point, so there was no reason to build more archers. In 1660 BC, I have killed over 120 units already...



Oracle Bidl in 1230 BC, wow... Antium is founded the next turn. Good stuff, good stuff..



Wheel comes in next turn, and I immedietely set research to pottery. My thinking was that scientists will be our only chance to have even anything close to above pathetic research, so I was going for libraries.

In 835 BC, we are producing 8 research per turn


Aroudn the same time, I ended up deleting some of my warriors to reduce upkeep. My archers were holding everything off and the warriors were just eating up my money.. I had connected my copper and corn in Antium, along with Rome with Antium by 650 BC. Now we were pretty much safe from barbarins, atleast for now.

Cumae was founded in 625 BC, this is a superb city.



Writing comes in 505 BC. I immediately start libraries in all of my cities. At this point I have also built 3 cottages in Rome, which are all being worked. My GNP situation is finally getting above that phase of being dismal, even though it went from dismal to crap. In 325 BC, I pop Iron working with 40% of it left. This was very important and useful.

At this point, libraries in all my cities were completed, and I was running sicnetists in cumae and antium. I started researching the religious path of the tech tree to make a beeline towards code of laws and courthouses.

This screenshot will give an idea of how pathetic I was feeling at this turn. Not only is collusus completed in 220 BC, but a barbarian city has a total of 9 units in it..

Image 17

I was pretty much safe from barbs at this point, and to my surprise, less barbs starting showing up. This gave me a window of oppurtunity to build some settlers and expand towards our south, and I did exactly that. Neopolis, a city which grabs 2 luxuries is founded in 125 BC.



Scientist numero uno is born in 15 BC. I tell him to GO TO ROME FAST, but unfortunately it took him 30 years to get there... Well.. it was worth it nonetheless. Check out rome at this point. YEAAAA, now we are talking.



I was runnign binary science rate at this point, with multiples of 8 research in every city. Heres an example:



Taoism is founded in 185 AD. Sheesh, someone already has philosophy, a extremely expensive tech.. this early? Code of laws finally arrives in 215 BC, and I immedietely start research on Civil Service, going for bearacracy.

The burgeoning roman empire holds half a million people. The only thing this meant to me was that my civic upkeep went up by 2 gold. I immedietely whipped to save 2 gold. I mean... seriously.. how overpowered is whipping when doing so is improving your research rate also...

[Qwack]

City 5.. Pisae, is founded in 320 AD.


3 turns later, city 6, ravenna is founded. I was placing cities to minimize upkeep and maximize immedieate use, instead of planning out cities so that they would be at thie rmaximum when thier up to pop 15 or 20 or something like that..



I had saved all huts up till now, and I finally had an axeman going out to grab all of them. In 350 AD, I pop masonry from a hut. I will be truly happy if somehow I can pop something like philosophy or civil service from a hut

In 365 AD, barbarian galley shows up. More on this in 700 years



And in 380 AD, the first barbarian axeman show sup. The funny thing was that I was expecting barb axeman to show up Wayyy sooner, this was why I rushed to bronze working and foudned my first city to grab the copper. Ah well, better to be safe than sorry.

The situation gets bleeker in 545 AD. After a bit of a break from barbs, a huge group shows up. Uh oh..



I end up surviving this wave, and some more results from the huts. Monarchy is popped in 575 BC. Wowzors, this is absolutely humungoues. I purposely mispelled the word to give the effect of how humungoues this was . What this means is that we can run heridetary rule and beauracracy together!!!! Allowing us to build a monster out of the capital Not only this, but we can build wineries on our 2 wines! A huge capital producing a huge amount of research. I pissed in my pants when I popped monarchy.

On a more serious note, Iron city AKA Arretium is built in 605 AD. Civil service is within grasp.



And civil service is done in 680 AD. WOWOWOWOWOW. I immedietely revolutionize to heriditary rule and Bearucracy. And check out what happens to my research.



Yep, this is nice. I set research on math next for the +50% chopping bonus. My plan at this point was to go math -> construction and start killing some barbarian asses by chopping praets and catupults. Tasty plan

I was also whipping courthouses and libraries in every city. Check out my capital in 740 AD. Nicce



And check out hte demographics. We are third in land area and 4th in demographics. Huh.. we arent 5th for everything? ITS A MIRACLE!



Match comes in 805 BC, and I start researching currency for the extra trade routes, Currency comes in 905 BC, and I put research on feudalism for longbows. I was thinking that I can rush the barbs once I have 10-12 cities.

Heres how our empire looks like in 935 AD. You can see whats doing most of the work.



Feudalism is done in 1050 AD, and right around the same time, horse archers start showing up. No... horse archers are not what I want. They can pillage and can capture workers and all that other nasty stuff. Noes. On a sidenote, liberalism is researched by a distant civ in 1106 AD.

So anyways, heres a screenshot at 1112 AD, the point at which my game is at now. I will definately end up finishing this game, but not anytime soon, and probably after reading others reports, so ill have some knowledge.



Also, remember the galley I mentioned 700 years ago. Well its still at the same spot doing absolutely nothing. It can come and pillage my fish to seriously slow down my GP farm, which at this point was running 2 merchants(market) and 2 scientists. My capital was producing 152 research per turn at this point, and my empire was producing around 200 research per turn, when you take into mind running 1 turn of binary gold every 3-4 turns. I was relatively close to catching up with the average AI GNP,

Nice game, another game which unfortunately I couldnt finish..