Adventure 44 by seifer_md

[seifer_md]

Adventure 44 – Oh Mista Hart!

Summary: Conquest Victory 1505AD, In-Game Score: 7492, Hall of Fame Score: 223067.

Hi all! This is my first attempt at playing in and writing a report for a Realms Beyond event. By no means do I consider myself a pro at Civ4, but by writing a report I hope to improve my ability through some reflection on how I played, and maybe a little constructive criticism if I’m lucky! =) Here goes:

The first thing that caught my eye about this event was the choice of having seventeen opponents on a map size meant for two. I couldn’t help myself so I decided to load up a custom game with similar settings and unsurprisingly I realised this map scenario was going to be very, very cramped. Under the victory conditions Ruff had removed domination. I took this as a hint that this event was meant to be won conquest style. Besides, destroying seventeen other civilizations on a small map would have to somewhat satisfy my desire for world domination.

The choice of Gilgamesh for the leader seemed more than capable for such a task. Being creative would surely be quite beneficial on a map where civs would be border to border from the very start. Faster production speeds on libraries should hopefully give me an early tech advantage as well. Protective seemed not as important since I knew I would be the aggressor 95% of the time. Lastly, the additional rule of only one type of unit per unit type reduced my flexibility but as I didn’t see much need to be defending or counterattacking in this game, I don’t think this will be too limiting on my success.

The Sumerian UU is the Vulture which will be good for an early warring advantage, and their UB the Ziggurat will be very useful on a duel-sized map with large maintenance costs. Additionally I have access to the UB as early as Priesthood. Starting with The Wheel and Agriculture meant my workers would likely have something to do from the get-go, but no Mysticism and seventeen other civs meant that the early religions were all but impossible. Playing on emperor also meant that happiness was likely to be a limiting factor in my progression.

So my initial game plan was to get bronze working, hook up some copper and go on a rampage with my Vultures. After claiming land/cities from a few civs this would likely give me a production advantage and a platform to then go forth and conquer the rest of the world. Here’s our start:





After moving the warrior to pop the hut (gold) I instantly made contact with Wang Kon. This was going to be a very cramped map indeed! I chose to settle in place since the plains hill would provide extra production and there were plenty of food resources available from this position. Uruk started on a worker, and Animal Husbandry was my first tech choice to hook up the cows for a strong growth and production tile.

I quickly made contact with Stalin and Justinian over the next couple of turns, and together with the Korean’s these were my initial neighbours. Animal Husbandry completed, revealing horses next to my capital. Already having The Wheel meant chariots were a prime candidate for my early rush. I next chose to follow Mining --> Bronze Working so I could pump out some Vultures.





Buddhism was founded in 3720BC and the following turn Justinian converted. I knew an early religion was out of my reach, but a less passive approach meant I could likely steal that religion from my unsuspecting Byzantine neighbour. I moved my warrior up onto the gold hill after seeing Moscow produce a worker. The corn just south of Moscow would surely be first priority of this worker and this allowed me the opportunity to steal it if the opportunity presented itself.





And sure enough it did. Moscow only had two archers defending their capital and experience told me that the cautious AI would be very unlikely to take back their worker. Thank you Stalin! :neenernee Moving the worker back to my territory and my warrior further north through Russian territory I came into contact with De Gaulle. I wasn’t afraid of losing my warrior since I intended on switching my melee units over to Vultures hopefully as soon as Bronze Working comes in. After completing the initial worker I set Uruk to build a barracks while I grew. Since it would be largely producing military units the promotions seemed like they would be very useful. 2960BC and I discover Bronze Working:





Hmmm no copper in my borders... I could go on to try my luck with Iron Working, but remembering I read to expect twists in this game I began to think that if we wanted to build Vultures we would have to take copper from one of our neighbours instead. Fortunately my scouting of Russian territory revealed copper just NE of Moscow. At this point I decided that Russian was to be my first target.





After completing a barracks and an archer for defence, Uruk produced four chariots ready to take Moscow. Stalin still only had two archers and two scouts at this point. I sent in my warrior first followed by my Combat I chariots.





I lost two chariots against each archer at 17% odds, but the third and fourth both won at 68%. This was perhaps a little risky but my archer was there for backup with more chariots being produced back home. After taking Moscow I also came into contact with Isabella and Cyrus.





Moscow came out of revolt and its road connection was being severed by Byzantine culture. Worse still, I couldn’t get cultural possession over the copper resource. If I wanted to produce my Vultures it appeared like there was no other way than to take out Justinian first. Taking Buddhism also wouldn’t hurt.





I declare war on Justinian and move my chariot stack up to Constantinople. The 40% culture defence makes Constantinople a harder target than Moscow so I send six chariots this time. Annoyingly the culture becomes too much for Moscow, and on the turn I begin my attack on Constantinople, Moscow flips to the Byzantines Grrr....





Fortunately I manage to take Constantinople and with my surviving chariots I move to take Moscow back. This seemed like a stupid waste of time on my behalf, perhaps I should have whipped a library straight away in Moscow for instant strong culture production. I also realised that taking cities meant that I would always be facing an uphill battle with the neighbouring civ’s culture. Regardless I took back Moscow straight away and the Byzantines were destroyed. During the war I also met Hammurabi over to the west and Pacal to the north.





As you can see Korea was pretty quick to fill up the land I had taken from the Byzantines, and just to make things more frustrating, despite Moscow popping its borders, I was still losing possession of the copper tile this time to the vile French. We’ll they needed to be wiped from this world anyway... Uruk built The Oracle in about 5 turns with marble hooked up, and I chose Monarchy as my free tech. Playing on emperor, and there being a lack of happiness resources about, I thought the happiness cap would be a strong limiter on my civ’s development. After revolting to Hereditary Rule I let my cities begin to grow.

I focused Moscow’s production on culture producing buildings, and after watching a French worker place a mine on the copper, the tile finally flipped over to my control. I could finally build my Vultures and start ripping some of these slightly more developed civs apart.





With construction and now catapults to aid my Vultures I next turned on Korea. They really did fold like a house of cards. For the first time my losses were minimal, and Uruk popped a Great General which was added to the city for units with extra experience. I also used this opportunity to tech trade some techs I had missed, including Monotheism for Organised Religion. Buddhism had spread into Moscow so the production bonus would soon be felt in all my cities. This was also the only time I traded for techs in the game as my science rate was just too superior for the other civs that had stuck to their single cities.

In 725BC I declared war on the French.





They had a few axeman running around but couldn’t do much due to my numerical advantage. I then met Boudica, the holder of Hindu holy city. Turns later I also declared war on Hammurabi. His Bowman put up more of a fight but in the end it was the same old story.





Uruk popped a Great Prophet which built the Buddhist Shrine in Constantinople. Things were going swimmingly and I was about to turn on my next victim when I was offered an opportunity to taste some of my own medicine.





Up until this point I had written off the AI civs. I did not expect the AI to attack, let alone actually pose a threat. Boudica reminded me to pay a little more respect, as she had caught me with my pants down. Pretty much all of my cities only had an archer for defence, and this was more for military police than actual defence. I guess Boudica realised this and after sending a stack of units (Gallic warriors and axeman) she bypassed my border city and went straight for Constantinople.





I took back Constantinople the very next turn. This really should have been avoided but I thought I had enough to defend and I wanted to keep my attacking units for my original plan to attack Pacal.





Despite being at war with Boudica I continued with my conquest over Pacal. The free Great Artist from Music helped with some cultural disputes. Moscow popped a Great Scientist which built the academy in Uruk, The Great Library was also being built in my capital. Since my military units were tied up throughout this game and pretty much every tiled had been improved, I used my workers to do my scouting. Although obvious from the start, there was at least another continent to this map with the other civs, and most interestingly it appeared that the continent I was on did not contain iron – so I guess no knights for me then.

I had discovered Civil Service and Machinery by this point and upgraded all my Vultures to macemen. With this new found military advantage I began my storm on the Celts.





Vienna fell, followed by Bibracte and Tolossa, destroying the Celts from the game.





At turn 150 I took a screenshot of the demographics and you can see I am miles ahead in just about every aspect.





I had built quite a few wonders by this stage too. The Maoi Statues in Babylon (since it had the most water tiles to work) and the Colossus down in Seoul, the Mausoleum of Maussollos in Constantinople and the Spiral Minaret in Uruk. I was also to go on and build Notre Dame and the Taj Mahal. My first caravel was produced and sent forth to discover the other civs.





At this point of the game Monty was dog-piled by Cyrus, Isabella and Ghandi. It was the Persians that took Monty down in the end. I didn’t know whether to be grateful or not since it did mean one less civ I had to wipe out myself. I had Feudalism but wasn’t prepared to spend my gold on upgrades if I was the only one to be attacking. After grabbing Liberalism I next went towards Military Tradition via Gunpowder and Replaceable Parts. With her units out of position I took the opportunity to attack Spain.





I kept two archers with medic II promotions together with my stack in the hope I could speed up my conquest. Isabella was destroyed without losing a single maceman. I also triggered my first Golden Age with a Great Scientist I had just popped. This was timed with the completion of The Taj Mahal, and together with the MoM I had over 17 turns of Golden Age. I used this opportunity to take civics such as Vassalage for the extra XP since from this point onwards I would only be producing military units.

Over in the east my caravel was uncovering the other continent meeting Suryavarman, Hannibal, Ragnar and Kublai Khan. The good news for me was that these civs were very much in the Stone Age comparatively speaking.

With a strong forward line still intact I continued to press the AIs. I chose to go after Sitting Bull next since Persia had maceman and a large army by this stage. I figured by the time I was finished with Sitting Bull I would have cavalry ready to go.





Cahokia fell easily and I had begun to produce my first lot of cavalry. Although I knew there was nothing to prevent me from assured victory I again failed to respect the AI and was surprised by a sudden declaration of war by Cyrus who managed to capture Mutal since I had pretty much zero defence. Again I was able to take the city back the following turn, I just felt a bit silly. These mistakes I made with poor city defence weren’t too costly since my attacks were never stifled and backline units could always clean up the mess, it was more of a pride thing that left me feeling a bit daft.





Over on the other side I continued to rip Sitting Bull apart by taking Poverty Point and finally Mound City. I also used another two great people to further extend my Golden Age. With Sitting Bull gone Persia could take my full attention. One positive of Cyrus taking Mutal was that he lost most of his units taking and trying to defend it. This left it very easy for my cavalry to move through his lands and take his 3 cities (one of which was Monty’s).





This left only India left on my continent and two turns later he was gone too.





This screen shows my use of archers for city defense (MP) despite being so technologically advanced. Also while taking out the Persians and Indians I was producing quite a few Galleons to transfer my cavalry over to take the other continent.





Kublai Kahn was the first to go.





Followed by Suryavarman.





And Hannibal. Ragnar had two cities but these didn’t last long against swarms of promoted cavalry.





And in the nice round date of 1500AD the final civ was wiped from the world.





Here’s a screenshot of the demographics from the final turn if people want to compare. Since the land in this map was catering for eighteen civs it was very fertile with plenty of resources. It’s probably not often you’ll see such strong demographics.





And sure enough in 1505AD I was informed I had won via a Conquest Victory.

I really enjoyed this game so I want to thank the sponsor, Ruff. After reading Ruff's comments it seemed like a well thought out idea to provide an interesting game. Although I am from Australia, I've never heard of this commercial the event refers to. I am a little under 30 years old though...

[pocketbeetle]

Hi seifer and nice report

You made the right choice of early targets: Stalin and then Justinian.
I got too annoyed at having Korea close by, and failed to recognise that Wang Kon's lack of metal meant he could be ignored for a while.

My only constructive criticism would be to use flanking promotions instead of combat on your chariots. Flanking can be very powerful - allowed me to take out Korea for no losses, compared to your lost 2 won 2 result vs Russia.

And seeing as you beat me in conquest time, I have certainly nothing else to add!

[Ruff_Hi]

Thanks for the report. I liked that you made it especially tidy by your selection of the finishing date ... 1500. Hope you enjoyed the game.