Zalson plays one turn at a time [COMPLETE]

[Zalson]

This weekend I'll try to overview all my cities. DAMN THE PEANUT GALLERY DULL SPEED AHEAD. T-Hawk's patient constructive criticism will be heeded, of course. I have not built any more lighthouses since he mentioned it being a bad choice in Damascus over 200 turns ago. 

That's probably going a bit far.  The very most consistent rule of thumb in Civ4 is "It Depends".

I suspect you now have some cities which do want to work coast tiles, enough tiles per city for lighthouses to be valuable.  On top, I suspect your alternative options for hammers are generally lower quality: you spent the last 200 turns building the best things, after all!

I shall now build walls and castles in every city to ensure that I have a place to store adult diapers.

[Zalson]

I’m getting to the point in the game where Free Speech is looking like an attractive option (although i am not sure I need the commerce). Bureaucracy is giving me 64 commerce a turn, which means I need 32 towns to make free speech the better option. I think I have at least 60. So I’ll use Liberalism to grab Rifling next turn. 

That also means that I probably want to alternate between universal suffrage and representation — I am not sure. I definitely need the happiness in Najran until I can get a synagogue up there.

Anyway, that’s all thought that doesn’t particularly matter.

t227

Naturally, I have forgotten to take before and after pictures of the effect of the forbidden palace in Beijing. It think it is pretty safe to say it was significant.

Research starts on Astronomy. I need galleons. I should have started this earlier.

Anyway, here’s my city overview. Feel free to nitpick.

Note to self: you have around 43 cities. That means that rep/merc gets you +129 beakers turn, +86 hammers a turn, and +43 gold per turn (angkor wat priest). (The statue of liberty is worth it).

Mecca



A commerce powerhouse, Mecca is going to finish the bank — then it will probably just build riflemen/cavalry.

Medina



A cool 100 gold from the Temple of Solomon and the religions buildings are nice.

Damascus



I will probably give one of the mines to another city for a bit. Or let it grow/starve.

Bagdad



Building a grocer because I didn’t want the hammers to go to waste. The hamlet and the grass farm will become watermills with state property.

Najran



A commerce powerhouse that will really benefit from universal suffrage. I’ll add a colosseum and a jewish synagogue.

Kufah



A top hammer producer. Angkor Wat will be very useful. Alas for that annoying cottage.

Basra



A sub-optimal heroic epic. After taking this screenshot, i converted it to a galley.

Heliopolis



A commerce powerhouse. The grocer is a holdover.

Thebes



I am building the harbor to give me 2 more food. DON’T JUDGE THAT BAD CHOICE. Going for a merchant.

Thebes probably should have given up more tiles to other cities and focused on running more specialists as opposed to building so many wonders.

Memphis



Another powerhouse. Building a stable because I somehow forgot to put one there.

Ideally, Versailles would go in Thebes but that’s 800 hammers I can’t spare.

Elephantine



I whipped the crap out of this place to take down Qin, probably unnecessarily. 74 turns of whip unhappiness. I switched back to the bank since I’m going to 0% science next turn.

Alexandria



This should have been my heroic epic city.

Pi-Rameses

I’ve never really known what to do with this city (apparently so much so that I forgot to screenshot) It only has 63 turns of whip unhappiness. 

Khurasan



Founded for the marble, I should have built this one earlier than I did. In general, that’s a pretty big theme.

I will put lumber mills on those forests, eventually. The missionary is for a new city I founded this turn. (I will show)

Anjar



This’ll finish it’s barracks (it just whipped the university) and then will just churn out riflemen. EDIT (no it won’t. I’ll provide one rifle but then build wealth.)

Fustat



A late add that is very productive. I really should have founded this once I got calendar IW. I mean, I think I did, but I would have been productive before then, too.

Aden



Probably shouldn’t have founded this one as quickly as I did. Also, should not be building a grocer. I’ll whip it and then just build wealth.

Yamama



A too late moai statues. I wish I had realized how much more effective a 2 pop whip was for building stuff.

Muscat



Another too-late placement. Going to chop out the statue of liberty here.

Mansura



Founded far too late compared with some of the other cities. Like Aden. Ugh.

Bukhara



Whipped the market this turn. Now, it will just build wealth.

Fez



This was originally a hammer only spot. then I realized that it’ll get a decent amount of commerce from the water tiles so I added a Madrassa.

Shiraz



I should have founded this one before Aden. It’ll give galleons to the war efffort until I run into Caste System/State Property.

Hangzhou



The first Chinese conquest. It’s creating a Jewish missionary for … a city that needs it (the city north of Shandong that hasn’t been founded yet).

Once it finishes the missionary, it’ll build horse units.

Merw



Whipped the stable which should overflow into the barracks. After that, just growing onto tiles and building horse units. The cottages are remnants of Chinese occupation.

Beijing



Considering it has an academy, it’ll get the research buildings. Then, units.

Guangzhou



Probably shouldn’t be building the university here but, meh. Once it finishes the university, I’ll have it build me some galleons.

Chengdu



Still need to do some cleanup down here. But this one’s just going to be on units from here on in.

Balkh



2x whip the lighthouse next turn into a forge. Then: units (maybe science).

Mosul



I should stop building monasteries since I do want state property. So, I switched to forge.

Aydab
Same thing here. Switched into the forge from a monastery.

This guy will get all the science buildings and a courthouse and then just build wealth.

Bayt Ras



A courthouse and then this’ll be a ship builder.

Suhar



whipped the temple although I maybe should have waited for next turn. It’ll get a forge next (or a light house? not sure).

Tianjin



Double-whip into a temple. Then the barracks and stable and horse units. (EDIT: probably galleons, actually)

Taif



Adding a granary and then a forge and then wealth. Or a Madrassa and then wealth?

Macau



There’s a missionary incoming. It’ll get a temple and then it’ll get a forge and then that’ll be it. I am going to forgo that final x down there.

Shandong



Hoping to 2x whip the granary into the temple. Then this can just build wealth.

Hama



I am a little offended that Qin didn’t pick this spot. It is amazing. Lighthouse follows the queued items, then forge. then all the buildings.

Tabuk



I should have grabbed this one earlier. WAAY earlier. Granary + temple + lighthouse and then: wealth.

Sana’a



Same thing: granary/temple then wealth.

Shihr



Lighthouse first. Then grow while building granary to temple into build wealth. (Also, founded T227)

Tripoli



I am embarrassed that I didn’t manage to get the gold mine improved. Same build order as Shihr

Also founded T227. This one gets the new missionary.

T228

Chemistry on 0% science.

Observatories, at this point, are probably not required. I actually didn’t think about them at all before researching astronomy. That said, I am going to add them in:

• Mecca
  
• Damascus
  
• Baghdad
  
• Najran
  
• Heliopolis
  
• Thebes
  
• Yamama
  
• Beijing
  

Since all those places are producing over/around 100 beakers and have decent hammers. They’ll return the investment very quickly.

Got visibility on Ragnar:

He has:





Not a lot.

Oh and he and Shaka are at war.

Make resource trades with victoria and shaka to give me some extra happy. I’ll still need the synagogues and colosseums for when war is declared.

T229

Goodbye fair Bureaucracy. Ye served us well.

Le before.



Le after.



Free Speech is worth 27 more gpt via commerce, and 44 gpt in civic cost savings. I’m just happy I remembered to take before and afters. 

Other than that, it is just: keep up the shuffle. I’ll go Theocracy in the next 5 turns. Which means I’ve gotta finish all my buildings by then! I don’t think I want state property before the Statue comes in.

Oh, and meet the little Tunis that could.



Chop into the light house and then go granary/temple and then wealth.

T230

We’ll finish this monster post on a round number.

Chemistry comes in. I started scientific method and then realized I’d prefer to have the monasteries around for as long as possible. So let’s get democracy first. And then I remember Military Tradition.

I’ve also got Angkor Wat. Which means everything gets max priests first, then merchants. And, oh yeah, every city has a temple and most have Madrassas. :D

Ragnar and Shaka both generated great generals last turn. So that should lead to an easy conquest. Shaka unfortunately (for him) founded a city on fur. So that’s the first city I am going to take from him.

Upgrade notes:

• 550 for frigates
  
• 1960 for macemen (so 2 turns of gold for these ones)
  
• 36x for camel archers.
  

I’ll need 25 galleons for the initial attack. I think I have something like 5 currently. I’ll want the 50 units I have now, plus probably about 10 more cavarly (thanks autocorrect) units and probably 15 cannons. Actually, don’t need that many cannons. I can brute force the inland cities. I will want cannons for Victoria but I can take down Ragnar and Shaka without them.

I do not have that many galleons. I need to get more.

[Zalson]

T231
Military Tradition comes in.

Let’s think tech goals:

Democracy is one of the Statue (but holy crap: how is it 1500 hammers? Sheesh! Each chop is going to give me just 75 hammers. That’s … only 20 forests.

Muscat has 7 forests for 1/3 of the build. So, I’ll need a great engineer, more than likely, to build it. I don’t think I will be able to pay it back. Which pushes democracy down the list (except that Universal Suffrage will be more valuable that representation, simply because I’ll have fewer specialists with State Property).

Democracy
Steel
Scientific Method
Communism
Physics (airships)
Steam Power (?)
Biology (?)

Steel can give me dry-docks which my shipbuilders desperately need. So, let’s get that. Then, democracy

I don’t know if anything more is necessary. I don’t need the Kremlin because I’m so far ahead. Really struggling to see what else I want to get. In that case, these observatories were probably not required.

5 galleons in position with 6 in various queues.



Spies infiltrate Nidaros. 1 will head over to Uppsala so I can, hopefully, bonk it into rebellion when I attack.



Next turn: Taj Mahal at Alexandria and Oxford at Najran.

[Zalson]

T232
Taj Mahal and Oxford come in.

Najran put out 374 beakers before Oxford (at 100% science, of course). So, yeah, that’s an improvement. (switched off the citizens, might put them back).



I’ll need just about 6,000 gold to get all my units in Mansura upgraded (36 camel archers, 14 macemen). Yeouch.

However, that is only 4 turns of 0% research. I think that’s a fairly efficient use of my commerce: paying for power.

But we’re getting Steel next turn for drydocks. So most of my galleon builds have been converted to wealth builds. They’ll go into dry docks that I’ll whip into galleons. So we should be ready to go to war in about 10 turns.

[T-hawk]

I think that’s a fairly efficient use of my commerce: paying for power.

Yes. When coasting to a conquest victory, upgrading units is pretty high on the list of things to do. Another is cash-rushing units in conquered cities so they appear right at the front where you are.

[Mardoc]

I think 25 galleon loads is a bit overkill .  Probably about right against a human, but AI should be easier to kill than that.  That said, at this point you can afford it, so you can do that if you want. I would suggest you think through your logistics ahead of time - which ships leave from where, with what on board, with what target? Making sure your first ships hit the furthest targets (and making sure your troops are in the right ports when ships are built) likely can make your strike happen 5-10 turns earlier. I don't know what the AI tech pace is, but that could be the difference between attacking muskets and rifles.

On the Statue: I think you were still right when you said this:

Note to self: you have around 43 cities. That means that rep/merc gets you +129 beakers turn, +86 hammers a turn, and +43 gold per turn (angkor wat priest). (The statue of liberty is worth it).

Standard comparison: if you were to build Wealth instead of the Statue, you'd have about 750 hammers converted to 750 gold (copper doubler!).  The Statue produces 258 things/turn. That means your payback period is about three turns.  It's true that you'll have to pick a strong hammer producer and dedicate it to the Statue for a big chunk of turns to get there, but the payback rate is very, very good.  Even if you discount the beakers to zero (to account for leaving Rep or not needing any more tech), payback is still 6 turns. Someplace like Medina could produce the Statue in about 12 turns, which isn't ridiculously long. You may have a better site, that was just the first hammer city I found.

I guess there's a bit of debate whether hammers are worth as much spread out on all your cities instead of concentrated in one spot, but the total amount is so much bigger that I still think it would be worthwhile. Or you could always run Merchants instead of Priests to collect cash for upgrades.

Is the Apostolic Palace still available? You've got so many temples and monasteries that I think it would pay back very quickly as well.

The biggest question on the wonders is whether you have enough time left in the game for them to matter. You probably need to do that logistics planning to know how fast you can get things done. I'd guess you still have at least 30 turns, once you account for sailing time and troops to march.

And of course you're far enough ahead now that you don't have to do everything optimally except as practice.

[Zalson]

Yeah, you're right about 25 being overkill. I think I was still comparing with galleys and their 2 unit load. 20 (60 units should be about right).

Fortunately, all my troops are staged at the nearest point for an invasion (and all my ports are near-enough).

Thanks for reinforcing my math on the statue of liberty. I do think that chopping it is out of the question, though. Not really worth it from that perspective. Kufah is currently the right city for it, although that might change with SP /Caste System (coming in 3).

Alas that I disabled diplo victory: otherwise I probably would have lost the AP to, I dunno, Ragnar or someone (probably not but knowing my luck).

Thanks for the feedback; I really appreciate it. I hadn't really thought about trying for a 3-4 turn war with the remaining parties. Time to start scouting in earnest.

[Zalson]

Thanks, too, for the reinforcement on the value of upgrades, T-Hawk. Thanks to both you and Mardoc for your contributions. I appreciate it!

[Mardoc]

Fortunately, all my troops are staged at the nearest point for an invasion (and all my ports are near-enough).

Moving the troops to the ports before the galleons are built would save you a few turns. At least for the last ships you build - they can sail directly to the target instead of sailing to the pick up point, then to the target.

Alas that I disabled diplo victory: otherwise I probably would have lost the AP to, I dunno, Ragnar or someone (probably not but knowing my luck).

Right, I forgot you had it off. Never mind, then.

[Zalson]

Up to 8 galleons and 5 frigates. I’ll have 7 frigates in 3 turns (once my caravels get back but I’ll also need at least 15 frigates to reduce defenses I think). So naval power is really going to be limiting factor.

T232
Steel comes in and dry-docks go in everywhere.

Start the ironworks at Kufah but I need to figure out the best hammer producer, long term (it’s Kufah). It’ll finish the Ironworks and then scream through the SoL. in the meantime, it’s the slow commercial growth toward steam power to have a fully powered iron works.

Great prophet from Thebes for another 12 turns of golden age because, frankly, why not?

T233
Dry-docks are whipped to completion everywhere. Overflow into galleons.