Hi everyone, its my first post so be gentle.

I used to play Civ 2 on a creaking old machine - and I would always win a conquest victory on some horribly low difficult setting, each game following almost the same pattern each time. I had to bypass Civ 3 because I didn't have a machine to run it, but my new computer and Civ 4 are a perfect match.

So far I've gone for all the victory paths except conquest and domination, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. From struggling with the new, more advanced Civ on Warlord - I've learnt many things from reading reports, Sulla's walkthrough and anything I can find really. Now I can win nearly all of my games on Noble - which is still a poor show, but at least I'm making progress.

One problem for me is that in every game I play, without exception the city producing by far and away the most Science and Commerce is my capital. My Capital also has the most GPP, so it tends to the national epic. Can you see where I'm going with this?

My Ironworks city is never the capital, as I seem to be able to pick a location for the second, third or forth city with sufficient resources to really turn it into a shield monster. In one game as JC I was producing 1 turn tanks and modern armour in Antium - forge, ironworks, factory and power plus a stupidly good location (a few floodplains, and pigs) let me have a minimum of citizens farming while the others would concentrate on working the mined hills, and the nearby stone quarry.

Even this doesn't always seem effective though, as you can lose population points by having mines instead of windmills in the hills, and therefore have less people working. What do you suggest? A mix of windmills for less production with food, or just windmills to keep production with higher food, or just mines?

Either way, I feel confident with getting one city that can roll out anything pretty much instantly - but I would still welcome a few pointers.

My real concern is the way my cities invarably end up producing less beakers, and less gold than my capital, which already has my national epic - and so cannot accomodate both Wall Street and Oxford.

How do you turn a city into a bastion of intellect, or a goldmine? For the most part I understand that commerce is converted into beakers in a ratio equal to that of your science slider - so are the two intrinsicly linked? Will the highest city for commerce also be, by definition the highest beaker producer?

If so - how can I design a city for this purpose, what kind of land should it have, and so on. Obviously I know about the acadamies, libraries, universities and so on. I try to get them in all cities (not acadamies, they will only go in cities already producing a lot of beakers) - but still it is always my capital.

And if the highest in beakers is not always the highest in commerce - how do I design the two seperate cities to fulfil these goals?

Thanks for taking the time to read all of this - and remember, be gentle!

Tom

I decided to make the Diplo win with less than 40% population my goal for the game. So I worked pretty hard at making nice with my neighbors, except where that proved to be impossible due to religious differences (Isabella, who founded Buddhism and Judaism), Saladin (Confucianism, Taoism and Islam) and Hatshepsut (Christianity). I myself went for and got Hinduism after an early hut popped mysticism for me (I hadn't planned to try for an early religion at all), and later spread it to most of the rest of the civs. A great prophet from Stonehenge did for the shrine in 700 BC.




China, France, Inca, and India were all Hindu at one point or another in the game, all without my prompting. (Just a few missionaries for the latter three, who had been religionless until I met them. Hinduism spread to China on its own.) Montezuma was Christian at the time I met him, but still amenable to trade, and I made nice with him for a while, which turned out to be a mistake when it came to my overall goal. But that's for later. Mali died early at Monty's hands, and I never met them.

There was so much space around Moscow in the early game that I was very grateful for all those chokepoints, so I could station barb-targets there. I never so much as found a single barb city to attack or capture, and I didn't war against any other civs early, but the barbs alone got two units to ten XP by 500 AD. Here's one of them.



Here's the state of the world in 500 AD. You can see I've carved out a decent chunk for myself. Mali's hurting, Qin is expanding down on to the islands, and the whole west of the western continent is nothing but barbs.



Stonehenge got me a prophet for the Kashi Vishwanath in Moscow in 700 BC. (I had tried for Oracle, too, but it fell early in my game, before 1000 BC.) So my religious income was up and running. I was sending missionaries to Qin on a regular basis to try to solidify him as a Hindu ally, since the rest of my continent was hopeless. By 1000 AD I had a total of 12 cities converted.

1000 AD map:


Just prior to that, in 920 AD, I had decided that Isabella had to be removed. It was a very wishy-washy effort, though, and I didn't really get anywhere. Until, ironically, Isabella must have bribed my only ally, Qin, into the war against me! Well, I had bunches of units moving past Qin's Xian the whole time, so I just redirected a few and took the underdefended city before he could get many units there. I really thought that was the end of any diplomatic hopes, but surprisingly it wasn't. Qin remained friendly after peace was declared, and I didn't even get any negative relationship modifiers out of it. I guess that makes *some* sense, since it was he who declared on me rather than vice versa. Izzy and I went back to a nominal peace for a while. Meanwhile on the other side of the world, Monty was making short work of Mali's stunted empire.

Here's the world in 1500 AD, the same turn that Mali was destroyed.


I declared again on Isabella in 1680 AD, and this time I was ready, with Qin to back me up, even (not that he did much). I took all of her home territory up to Saladin's borders, stopping after I took Madrid in 1818 AD. (I later lost one of my acquisitions to Saladin in a flip.) After that, it was just the runup to Mass Media and hoping against hope that enough of the other civs would vote for me. I had done a lot of things right in that effort. I had gotten to the religionless southern continents first, and spread Hinduism to all three civs there, so they all liked me from the start (though the advent of Free Religion (which I didn't buy into, of course) put a dent in things). I had maxed out most of the possible positive relationship modifiers with all of them. However, I had made one big mistake, prompted in part by a misremembering of the rules. I had thought that the farmer points for health bonuses were scored at the end of the game rather than at 1000 AD. And there were several new health resources available in all that empty space out west and north of Montezuma's barb-city razing spree. So I sent a couple of settlers over there to grab two -- and that meant I had to make nicey-nice to Monty.

My allies down south didn't take too kindly to that, and by the time I noticed, I was up to -4 on that "trading with my worst enemy" modifier with Asoka, forever costing me his vote. I had Qin, though, and Huayna and Louis, so I figured I was still in with a shot when the UN was completed in 1933 AD. I wasn't. In the first vote for diplomatic victory, Monty was my adversary. Huayna and Qin voted with me, but Louis did not. Help! Why? I looked at his modifiers -- that -2 from trading with Monty was doing me in! Even without that, though, I was in possible trouble. I had less than a quarter of the world's population, and Hatshepsut, Monty and Saladin were all looked to be larger than any of my allies except Louis. None of them were ever going to vote for me, safe to say. There was no way I was going to *lose* by diplomacy as long as Monty was the other option, but I wasn't going to win, either. And meanwhile, Saladin had completed the Apollo program! I didn't have an infinite amount of time to play around.

The situation got even worse in the next vote, when all of a sudden Louis was my opponent. My (nearly) loyal ally! Ack, I needed his votes!



What to do, what to do? I decided I had to take some action to try to counteract my negative modifers with Asoka and Louis. And to get my population up (but not over 40%), so maybe I could do without one of them in the vote. And to get more serious about getting that spaceship built head of everybody else, just in case. So. I had already been building up some military in Bryansk, my little fishing village north of Old Mali, as deterrence against Monty getting antsy. I was far ahead of him in tech -- I had tanks and bombers coming, and he was stuck with rifles and cavs. I determined that I would go to war with him, try to get my allies to join me, and hope that that would put me over the top in the voting. I figured I had *just* enough production to handle that and a spaceship build at the same time. I had been neglecting my farmer aspect a bit, so I still had plenty of high-production cities that could crank out spaceship parts quickly.



The war got off to a great start. I easily captured an isolated Aztec town in the northwest of the continent, and my main force (about a half dozen tanks and a couple of mechanized infantry supported by quite a few bombers) started hammering at Timbuktu. Then, however, I noticed *this*:



Errrr. Hem. Urk. Monty had been at war with a couple of the southern civs on and off for years (hence the "worst enemy" problem in the first place) -- something tells me his shipping couldn't quite keep up with his production. Eeep.

That's the stack on the wooded hill, by the way -- the cav stack by Timbuktu is only one or two deep. I captured that city and started hammering away at the big stack with my bombers. It took turns upon turns to start getting their strength down. And I still had to bring several units out into the open to get slaughtered a couple of times to start actually taking them down -- since Saladin wouldn't open borders to me, there was nowhere safe I could attack from. And I didn't dare let the stack heal and come up next to any of my cities.

The stack eventually broke, with about half of it retreating to Djenne, where I had to beat them down in that city. I estimate there were more than 60 units to begin with. Once I had Djenne, though, that was all she wrote for the Aztecs.

The diplo situation, on the other hand, was still unhappy. Louis, despite his increased pleasure with me, continued to be my opponent. Huayna, on the other hand, had actually *liked* Monty, and once actually abstained rather than vote for me. My sole glimmer of hope was that with Louis kept at war with Montezuma, Saladin was catching up in UN votes. If I could just hold out long enough for Saladin to overtake him, I had a chance.

With another election due in 1883, Saladin within one vote of Louis in the previous election, St. Petersburg holding at one turn to go on the last spaceship part, and Monty down to just his capital, I made peace as insurance against losing Huayna's vote again. Asoka had every tech, and could launch any turn. This had to end soon. I held my breath as the vote came up. And ... it was a secretary general election. Aarrrggh! And Saladin had actually lost one vote relative to Louis over the past four turns. Double aaarrghh!

I played one more turn, sort of wondering what to do, before taking a break to think about it. And then inspiration hit and I smacked myself upside the head for being stupid through four or five elections. When I restarted the game, I did this:


Tlacopan was size 11 or 12. That *had* to do the trick. And Asoka hadn't had the last spaceship tech for all that long; surely I could afford to wait three more turns. Surely.

The vote came up again in 1987. I was still at only 36% of world population.



Louis, Huayna and Qin: my boys came through! They love me, they really love me! *stage sob* Oh, and there were 75 Hindu cities in the world at the end of the game. :D

Final map:


I absolutely loved this game. The large map is right up my alley -- discovering huge new continents relatively late in the game is such fun. This was also the first Prince-level game that I had control of the whole way. It was never in doubt that I would win, despite very sloppy play at times, just whether or not I could do it by my desired method. So it was gratifying to see that I've definitely improved. And I had a great time figuring out how to take down Monty's monster stack, and how to win the way I wanted to. And ironically, it actually helped a lot scorewise me to "have to" attack Montezuma. I hadn't paid all that much attention to the scoring as I went along, and hadn't realized that I was comparitively very short on soldier points. Only the attack against Monty put me above 50 points in that category. My subtotals were (assuming I added right):

farmer -- 140

priest -- 217 (er, just a tad bit overboard on those missionaries, perhaps )

soldier -- 65

Plus 20 points for the victory and 20 pts for Diplo-without-40%-pop for a subtotal of 422 points. I'm not a Tzar-the-great this time, but maybe next go-round.

The scoresheet, replay and four saves (500 AD, 1000 AD, 1500 AD and 1988 AD) are in the zip files, as are screenshots associated with civics changes, which didn't fit easily into the writeup. Monotheism was learned in 375 AD, civil service in 1050 AD and communism in 1760 AD. I traded for Monarchy late, in 1160 AD, and I'm almost 100% sure I revolted immediately, but I only have a screenshot of the subsequent anarchy screen. So I'll need a ruling on whether that's sufficient proof of prompt revolution to Hereditary Rule. The scoresheet assumes that it is; please change it if necessary. I hope that's enough information for verification; I think everything else is easily detected from the saves. Oh -- my highest-XP unit at the end of the game is in the city just west of the Aztec capital.

Thanks for the game, Sirian, and thanks to Griselda for posting this for me.

Resigned in 1595 AD,

Final score:
76 farmer points - 6 cities founded, 1 city reaching 15 by 1500 AD, 10 health resources and 3 of the civ changes
112 Priest points
26 soldier points - all my high XP units were killed, so 5 is the highest XP I have.

Total Points - 214

Full write-up here

This report in pieces, due to length and screenshot density.

EDIT: I think the screenshots *ought* to be working, but I can only see half the ones in the last post, and none before that. On the other hand, there's no differences in the links that I can see, so maybe I'm just having a caching error. Can someone else let me know whether they can see my shots, please?

Pre-game Analysis:

Starting from the top of the list, the Farmers' scoring looks potentially tricky to get 150 points on. You'll need a good 6-7 (ed: uh... no) cities minimum to 15 by 1500, since not all of them will be able to get to 25 by game end. Anticipate 15-20 for health resources, maybe more if the Soldier side of things goes well.

Hereditary Rule adoption and retention looks good, as Universal Suffrage isn't likely to be all that important since a lot of farms are more likely than cottages so cities can hit 25. Representation may be missed if we're making full use of Philosophical, particularly since big cities do lend themselves nicely to specialists, but that will just have to be compensated for, I think. Significant use of Hereditary Rule can pretty much compensate for times when Police State would be desired, if the economy is well enough built to stand the military cost. This is only Prince, though, and since this game is coming fresh of the back of a Catherine Great Plains warmongering game on Monarch, that makes the unit costs seem nice and friendly here. I'll probably go with Hereditary Rule.

State Property seems like a bit of a no-brainer. If the Soldiering goes well, we'll want it anyway to cut costs.

Bureacracy and Organised Religion, though, look like potential false savings, to me. If I can get 150 points anyway, I suspect more points can be gained from Soldiering under Vassalage and Theocracy than will be lost for not using Bureaucracy and Organised Religion. Even so, it makes sense to switch to them when they come available and then see how it goes.


Priests:

By comparison, this one looks easy to get 150 on, which has to be the first target. If a lot of people can get 150 on each, which I suspect they will, then every point matters, but we shall see how that goes a little later.

Basically, founding a religion (early or mid) should be worth about 140 points by the end, at my count, assuming any even vaguely decent attempt at spreading it.
10 - founding
25 - switching immediately. This is why it can't be, say, Islam, or another religion will have spread first. The mid three may also be in danger of this, of course.
20 - building the Holy Shrine. Getting one prophet is not hard, even before 1000AD.
20 - 10x2 per city at 1000AD. Conservative, I think. Certainly a decent effort can get more than that. But how much would it cost elsewhere?
25 - 25x1 per city at game end. Again, conservative.
20 - 2x10 per rival that converts. Two out of Nine should be doable, absolute minimum.
20 - percentage of world religion in 1500AD. This might require a little effort, but can probably be balanced against the city estimates.

And addition religions, similarly, will probably be worth another 20 or so apiece without any notable effort.

In other words, Priest scoring is a really easy source of *lots* of points, even well beyond the 150, if an effort is made, ONLY IF I can found an early religion. If not it will be a lot trickier, and potentially require a very inconveniently timed war of conquest. So founding a religion must be my first priority, ahead of all other concerns, most definitely including worker techs. Unfortunately, starting without Mysticism, this could easily take me all the way to Monotheism, which is a nasty slowdown on everything else.


Soldiers:

Personally, I reckon this is the tricky one, having just playing a very soldier-oriented Russian game. I destroyed 3 entire civs, and I'm not sure I scored what would translate to 150 points.

Capturing many cities before 500AD is tricky. It may well be an actively good thing that we have Raging Barbarians here, so that we can get a few city captures from them! I expect I will actively be leaving areas of fog for them to spawn in.

Capturing cities before 1500AD still requires doing it without Cossacks, except *possibly* with a serious beeline and a very good commerce civ beforehand. I beelined pretty thoroughly in my last game and got them in about 1550.

Lastly, while Cossacks can simply roll over anything before Rifles, and frankly don't need a whole lot of help to manage them either, if they're after 1500AD, a *lot* of conquering will be needed. Only so many cities will ever be capable of reaching size 25 no matter what, so the majority of cities will just be worth one point at this stage.

Which means... many of the points will have to come from units. One point for each xp at 500ad, and one for each at game end.
20 for the first one is optimistic, but 40 for the second should definitely be doable if I pay attention. I managed to get one to 50 in the previous game, after all.

So this all looks like targetting one conquest push before 500AD, ignoring the 1500 AD line most likely, and then massively pushing Cossack conquest. If that gets started before 1500, so much the better, but probably it won't.

Even with that, a *lot* of cities conquered may be needed. Even if I conquer the world, there will be maybe 100 cities total on a large map. And the additional conquering has to be set against the diplomatic agenda, as well, if that is pursued.

That would do it, but I'm not so good at warring, so I have a better chance of scoring points against the other players competing in a fastest-finish for something else. On the other hand, that's only 25 points at *most*. It's worth less than, for example, conquering another civ, or getting another couple of cities out to size 25, or spreading the religion a lot more even, potentially. It's certainly worth less than doing all of them. Those points may well also be a false target.


Conclusion:

Whoa. There was a lot of that. Anyway, expand as much as possible in the very early running given that a religion has to be the first tech target, then if possible get a small war underway before 500AD. Sit back, build upwards, and spread the religion(s) until 1500AD, at which point retool for Cossacks, and kill things until enough points are gained.

So how did it go?

Grab a screen of the abuser and send it to SUPPORT if you see this happen.

TEAMKILL video


KoP

Ok, it's first time for me to write a report here. I found this game really interesting to play. I'm playing with the italian localized version of Civ4, so my screens are in Italian language. But If you know the game, it will be not very hard to understand all the stuff. So... Let's start! Scoring will be added at the end of the game. I will add screens as I upload them.


[4000 b.c.] Moskow placing!

I was really tempted to move my settler to the right side of the river... If I do so, the forest will be spared form the "city founding" and come to be chopped later in the game. But If you take a carefull look at the map, the tile at the south of the barb town will be lost forever... Finilly I've just decided to build-on-the-first-spot! Well... my decision was rewarded with some gold from the barb-village, a pig, a fish discovered but left for some future use... So far: two pigs and two fishes and one rice found by the scout! Fat russians! Moskow set to build a scout, started mysticism tryng for an early religion!



[3880 b.c.] Free Masonry

Got a free tech form another barb village in the south! Cool! Maybe I can beat some spiritual civ at least on giudaism!

[3880 b.c.] The first meeting

Qui Shi Huang met in the south! You will be the first to be converted!

[3680 b.c.] Mysticism

Got Mysticism. I was tempted for a gambit and give a try for the "three headed hydra". But thinking about the other spiritual civs, going for Polyteism!


[3600 b.c.] Buddism founded!

... In a distant land... Ok, my conservative move was right! Finished a scout (sent to the north), going for "a piece of stonehenge" till size 3. In the south the scout got some exp from another barb-town.

[3480 b.c.] Budda-spain!

A map from another barb-town show me the "spain on a lake with a cow tryng to build up an hydra"! Oh my god! My scouts in the north found a really icy place.



[3360 b.c.] Isabella!

Hi, Isabella, queen of the cubans... ehm... the spanish!

[3320 b.c.] Induism founded!

Beated on the second hydra head... Argh! Switched Moskow to settler. Gold from the people-of-the-river! Drawn my first dot map:




3160 b.c.] Got polyteism... 4 turns later! Tryng for monotheysm. Got a warrior form another barb-town. Sent back to defend Moskow.

[3080 b.c.] Got animal breeding from a barb town.

[2920 b.c.] Got gold from YABT (yet onother barb-town)

[2880 b.c.] Got gold from YABT (yet onother barb-town)

[2600 b.c.] Monotheysm is mine! Russia has a faith! Switched to the new faith and to Organized Religion. Started fishing

[2480 b.c.] Settler recruited at Moskow. Started a worker

[2440 b.c.] Saladin the hindu! Damn... The first three religion on my continent!

[2400 b.c.] St. Petersbourg founded on red dot! Set to build a warrior for self-defence.



[2280 b.c.] Fishing discoverded. Reserching the wheel. A scout this 5 xp was sent to a barb-town, to get... Another 5 xp! Super-scout!

[2120 b.c.] first signs of barbarian activity. Archers are a priority...

[2080 b.c.] One of the glorious russian scouts was killed by barbarians... Sigh!

[2040 b.c.] I hate these situations... I've just finished the worker... And I cannot send it to the pigs due to that stupid barbarian warrior from the north!

[1960 b.c.] I'm the glorious richest civilization. Wheel discovered. Start to get my reserach to bows & arrow. Super-Scout sent into the mouth of a pack of wolves (but super-scout survives!

[1680 b.c.] Moskow get a work-boat, start an archer. Archery discovered, start farming.

[1560 b.c.] Judaism spread to St. Petersburg

[1480 b.c.] Moskow trained an archer. Finally continues Stonehenge (ok... A Settler maybe is better, but I really want a little more culture...)

[1440 b.c.] Super-scout killed in action. Farming discovered. Starting bronze working.

[1160 b.c.] bad news from the chinese border... I foresee a war in the future



[1040 b.c.] Lovely! Copper right on the left of Moskow (I freeze remembering 4000 b.c. when I was tempted to build Moskow right in the same place!) An ancher sent to protect Moskow's Pigs. St. Petersbur is build up an army of archers to protect us from the raging barbarians! Barbs everywhere! Argh!

[1000 b.c.] Stonehenge is mine! Moskow start barracks



[950 b.c.] Quin ask to speed up the conversion of his cities, asking open borders. I agree!

[825 b.c.] Navigation discovered. Started Iron Working.

[800 b.c.] Peking converted to the True faith! Finished an archer in Moskow. Started an Axeman as a front-liner in land grabbing.

[625 b.c.] Oracle built in a distant land. Novgorod founded at green dot and started to build a Barracks.

[600 b.c.] Research set to 90% to reduce deficit.

[550 b.c.] Rostov founded at Yellow dot set to barracks too.

[500 b.c.] Judaism spread to Novgorod. Confucianism founded in a distant land. Point check: no cities captured from barbarians or rivals. Most experienced unit: archer, 8 xp.

[450 b.c.] Iron Working discovered. Entering in the classical era. Judaism spred to Rostov. Reseaching writing.

[425 b.c.] Contact with the Jumbo-City of Nanjing. Defended with a warrior? Time for a war ahead! Start to think about cranking out tons of axemen.

[400 b.c.] Stonehange pays itself by popping out Moses. Moses Pays itself popping the Temple of Solomon.

[250 b.c.] Nothing very important 'till now... build archers and settlers. But now, as I found Yaroslav' on the souther island, Saladin start a war versus Isabella! The first holy war on the continent!

[225 b.c.] discovered writing, started Alphabet.

[175 b.c.] Judaism at Yaroslav'

[25 b.c.] Mahavira born in Moskow. Set to sleep... I don't want Meditation with a great prophet! Yekaterinburg funded in the north.

[50 a.c.] Finally Judaism is spreading to another chinese city

[125 a.c.] Yacutzk funded near Iron.

[175 a.c.] The time of war!

[200 a.c.] What the Hell!!!! Strike!!!!! Oh, damn!

225 d.c.] the battle of Nanjin. Axemen (city rider II) lost vs. Archer (garrison II), Axeman (city raider I) wins against archer. Axemen (city raider I) finishes the work. City conquered.

[275 d.c.] A chinese archer suicide itself against an axeman on the hill.

[300 d.c.] another chinese archer suicide itself against an axeman

[325 d.c.] The battle of Guangzhou. Axemen (city rider II, 4.7 str.) wins vs. Archer. Axemen (city rider II, 4.7 str.) wins vs. Archer. City conquered.



[350 d.c.] A chinese archer suicide itself against an axeman in Guangzhou.

[375 d.c.] killed 1 archer and 1 warrior wandering around in the plains... Lost an axeman in the fight. Arrived in the outshirts of Shangai. 4 promoted archers defending

[400 d.c.] Two chinese archers suicide themself against an axeman on the jungle. Only two archers left in Shangai. Ananda born in Moskow... Another Great Prophet! Sigh!

[425 d.c.] Salidin come to ask help aainst Isabella. I decline. The battle of Shangai: Axemen (city rider II) lost vs. Archer (garrison I), Axemen (city rider II) wins vs. Archer (garrison I), Axemen (city raider II) finishes the work. City conquered.



[500 d.c.] Time for points collection! So far 3 city conquered (Nanjing, Guangzhou, Shangai) Best unit: axemen 11 xp! In the picture you can see the city garrison of Pecking... 4 archers on a hill! the siege will be a bloodbath! A look at the empire: 9 cities, without courthouses... My economy is collapsing! You can see a spanish city too close to my cities and the results of the arabian-spanish wars! the plans for the uture development will be colonize at least followig a line that go south from yakutsk. all the land to the west of that city will be claimed by the russian empire... But for now, I've to restore my collapsed economy!





[560 d.c.] With a really suicidal move, Quin sent two of his archers to defend the city resources... Time for battle! Axemen (city rider II) lost vs. Archer (garrison II), Axemen (city rider II) lost vs. Archer (garrison I), Axemen (city rider II) lost vs. wounded Archer (garrison II), Axemen (city rider I) lost vs. wounded Archer (garrison I), finally Axemen (city rider I) wins vs. really wounded Archer (garrison II) and Axemen (city rider I) wins vs. really wounded Archer (garrison I). City conquered! Peking is no more!



[580 d.c.] Chinese archers going bananas... Russian axemen going to burn the last chinese stand!

[600 d.c.] I really hate you, Qin!



[640 d.c.] the battle of Xian. Axemen (city rider III) wins, without a scratch vs. Archer (garrison I), Axemen (city rider II) wins vs. Archer. city conquered. And barbarian invasion! A barb city to the west... And a horde of troops to the east!



[740 d.c.] Stupid crazy Isabella declares war to me! You have chosen unwisely! I was waiting for the last Chinese stand to grow up to population 2, but now I have to raze it down! Charge! the battle of Chengdu. Ma best hero, Axemen (city rider III) wins vs. Archer (garrison II), Axemen (city rider II) lost vs. Archer (garrison I), Axemen (city rider I) wins vs. wounded Archer (garrison I). Chengdu destoyed. Chinese empire destroyed. Next stop: Isabella!



[820 d.c.] I'm worst than patetic... Sigh! I've to catch out the tech race with my two greats prophets as soon as I can...



[980 d.c.] Finally Saladin stopped the "cold war", asking for right to pass. I accepted for future tech-trading. Trying the first attack to Toledo: great Hero Axemen (city rider III) wins vs. Archer (garrison II).

[1000 d.c.] Time for points collection! So far I have my state religion and I have my shrine. 11 cities converted to my state religion. Yuh-uh!



[1010 d.c.] Second charge against Toledo. Axemen (city rider II) wins vs. Archer (garrison I), Axeman (Woodsman I - damn, I've clicked the wrong icon! - & city rider I) wins against archer. City captured. A screen of the russian empire so far:



[1050 d.c.] Discovered Meditation. Used a Great prophet to get teology. Used the second great prophet to get code of Laws. I really need courthouses!

[1060 d.c.] Peace at last! Isabella come to me asking for a peace treaty!

[1130 d.c.] Finally the barbarian threath is over! The battle of Shita, barbarian city on the hill. Hero Axemen (city rider III - Combat I) wins vs. Archer, Axemen (city rider II) wins vs. wounded archer (garrison I). City conquered.

[1230 d.c.] 100 years building courthouses. Spotted at the border 2 arabian-indu misionaries. Closed borders immediatly.

[1290 d.c.] Hanging Gardens completed at Moskow



[1410 d.c.] The second culture civ. Well done!

[1460 d.c.] Chichen Itza built in St. Petersburg



[1470 d.c.] Revolution to Burocracy, due to Public Administration discovery. Nijran and Kurfa converted to Judaism.

[1500 d.c.] Saladin is spreading his religion too! Novgrod and Yakutzk convertet to Hinduism! Time for point collection and for an overview of the empire! 4 more cities captured (Peking, Xian, Scita and Toledo). My cities larger than 15: none! Boooooooh! Health resources: 15, or 8 if the double ones doesn't count. Percentage of my religion: 21%.

[1505 d.c.] Saladin fund a city right inside my territory. This is almost a declaration of war... Met Hashenput.

[1515 d.c.] Valivostock founded in the "buffer space" between Russia and Arabia.

[1520 d.c.] After a major tech exchange this Hashenput and after the due time between revolutions, I adopt "Hereditary Rule".

[1525 d.c.] Met Huina Capac. Another major tech exchange. I'm back to the tech race!

[1530 d.c.] founded Smolensk and Orenburg, filling the buffer...



[1545 d.c.] Met Asoka. Minor tech exchange... I quite sure that playing exchanging maps, I'll be the first to circumnavigate the world!

[1550 d.c.] Without sending out a lone ship, I was the first! Cool!

[1580 d.c.] Khabarovsk founded in the frozen north.

[1610 d.c.] Great Engeneer in Moskow. With a Great Prophet sleeping here for some centuries this means... Golden Age!



[1615 d.c.] Discovered tipography. Exchanged with Asoka, Hashy & Huainy for 3 other techs.

[1635 d.c.] Met Phil, my greatest opponent!

[1710 d.c.] Met Mansa Musa.

[1735 d.c.] Versailles built in Guanzhou. Changed every city governor to "max production" to start to prepare a war against Saladin. Started West Point in St. Petersburg.



[1765 d.c.] Entering the industrial age. With the discovery of Scientific Method, found 2 oil sources.



[1804 d.c.] Got Communism. Switched to State property. Get another (!!!!) Great Prophet in Moskow, set to sleep. Set Science to 10% to get enought money to upgrade my units.

[1828 d.c.] Moved troops to the border with Arabia. 1 turn to war!

[1830 d.c.] WAR! The cossaks crossed the border with Saladin, attacking Khurasan. The hopeless battle of Khurasan: Cossak (Combat I) wins vs. Longbowman (Garrison II), Cossak (Combat I) wins vs. Maceman (Combat I). City conquered.



[1832 d.c.] The first battle of Najran. Cossak (Combat I) wins vs. Longbowman (Garrison II), Cossak (Combat I) Lose vs. Pikeman (Combat II), Cossak (Combat I) wins vs. Pikeman (Combat II), Cossak (Combat I) lose vs. Longbowman (Garrison I)... Damn... Bad move of my troops the previous turn!

[1834 d.c.] The second battle of Najran. Wounded Cossak (Combat II) wins vs. Longbowman (Garrison I). City conquered.

[1836 d.c.] The first battle of Kufah. Cossak (Combat I) lose vs. Longbowman (Garrison III), Cossak (Combat I) wins vs. Longbowman (Garrison III), Cossak (Combat I) wins vs. Longbowman (Garrison II), Cossak (Combat I) lose vs. Longbowman (Garrison II), Cossak (Combat I) lose vs. Crossbowman (Garrison II), Cossak (Combat I) wins vs. wounded Longbowman (Garrison II). The battle of Seville. Cossak (Combat I) wins vs. Longbowman, Cossak (Combat I) lose vs. Macefighter (Combat II), Cossak (Combat I) wins vs. Longbowman, Cossak (Combat I) wins vs. wounded Macefighter (Combat II), Cossak (Combat I) wins vs. Catapult. City Conquered. Attacking a huge stack of enemy units, in the outskirs of Seville, Riflemen (Combat III) wins against maceman, Riflemen (Combat II) wins against maceman (city raider I), Cossak (Combat I) wins vs. Jumbos (Combat I), Cossak (Combat I) wins vs. Kamel Archers (combat II), Cossak (Combat I) wins vs. Kamel Archers (combat II), Riflemen (Combat I & Shock I) wins against Horse Archers (Combat II). In the arabian turn the riflemen in the outskirts of Barcellona kills a catapult and a macemen, in the outskirts of Seville a wounded cossak was killed by an Horse archer.

[1838 b.c.] The second battle of Kufah. Cossak (Combat I) lose vs. wounded Crossbowman (Garrison III), Cossak (Combat I) wins vs. wounded Macefighter (Combat II), Rifleman (Combat III) wins against wounded Crossbowman (Garrison III), Rifleman (Garrison II) wins vs. Catapult. City conquered.


[1840 b.c.] The battle of Medina. Rifleman (City Raider III & Combat I) wins vs. Longbowman (Garrison II), Rifleman (City Raider II) wins vs. Pikemen (Comat II), ifleman (City Raider II & Combat I) wins vs. Pikemen, Cossak (Combat II) wins vs. Catapult. City conquered.

[1846 b.c.] Moving and healing troops for the past few turns. In the arabian turn I recived heavy catapult fire from 4 catapults to my stack on the hill near Mecca. Now ready to attack Barcellona. Cossak (Combat I) lose vs. Longbowman (Garrison II), Rifleman (City Raider II) wins vs. Longbowman, Riflemen (Combat II & Shock I) wins against Pikeman, Rifleman (City Garrison I & Combat I takes out a catapult, Rifleman (City Garrison II) wins against wounded vs. Longbowman (Garrison II). City captured. Time to pay a visit to Isabella. War vs. Spain. Moving the remainin Cossack trough the border. The Battle of Mecca. Cossak (Combat II) flee after wounding Longbowman (Garrison III), Cossak (Combat II) wins vs. Musketman (Garrison II), Cossak (Combat II) wins vs. Longbowman (garrison II), Cossak (Combat II) wins vs.Crossbowman (Garrison II). Now it's time to send to change the wounded Cossaks from the north. Cossak (Combat II, 16.4 str) wins vs. Longbowman (Garrison I), Cossak (Combat I, 17.5 str) wins vs. wounded Longbowman (Garrison III). Mecca conquered. Arabian capitol moved to my next target: Baghdad!

[1848 b.c.] the Battle of Yamana. The arabian city discovered just a turn before is poorly defended. Cossak (Combat II) wins vs. MageFighter (combat I & Medic), Cossak (Combat II) wins vs. Camel Archer (combat II). City conquered. Revbolted to emancipation to reduce angry faces in major cities.

[1852 b.c.] the barb city is no more.

[1854 b.c. The battle of Baghdad. Cossak (Combat II) wins vs. Longbowman (Garrison II), Cossak (Combat II) wins vs. Longbowman (Garrison II), Cossak (Combat II) wins vs. Camel Archer (combat II), Cossak (Combat II) wins vs. Camel Archer (combat II), Cossak (Combat II) wins vs. Camel Archer (combat II), city conquered. Arabian capitol moved to Damascus, again my next target!

[1858 b.c.] the battle of Madrid. Bored of a two-enemies-war, I try to attack Madrid. Cossak (Combat I) wins vs. Longbowman (Garrison III), Cossak (Combat I) wins vs. Longbowman (Garrison II), Cossak (Combat I) retires after wounding Longbowman (Garrison II), Cossak (Combat I) wins vs. Longbowman (Garrison II), Cossak (Combat I) wins vs. Longbowman (Garrison II), Cossak (Combat I) wins vs. Longbowman (Combat I & guerrilla I), Cossak (Combat I) wins vs. Spearmen (Medic I), Wounded Cossak (Combat II) wins vs. wounded Longbowman (Garrison II). City conquered. Spanish vanquished!

[1860 b.c.] The first battle of Damascus. Saladin finally develope Riflemen. It will be an hard fight! Cossak (Combat II) lose vs. Rifleman (Garrison III!!!), Cossak (Combat II) lose vs. Rifleman (Garrison III), Cossak (Combat II) lose vs. Rifleman (Garrison III), Cossak (Combat II) lose vs. Rifleman (Garrison III), Cossak (Combat II) wins vs. Longbowman (Garrison II), Cossak (Combat II) wins vs. Pikeman (Combat I & City raider I), Cossak (Combat II) finally wins vs. Rifleman (Garrison III), Cossak (Combat II) lose vs. Macefighter (city raider II), Cossak (Combat II) wins vs. wounded Macefighter (city raider II), Cossak (Combat II) wins vs. Camel Archer (combat II), Cossak (Combat II) wins vs. Catapult. Only 2 catapult defend Damascus, but I have no more troops!

[1862 b.c.] Saladin is lost. No reinforcments arrives at Damascus... he is out of Troops! The secon battle of Damascus is quite a collection of XP for my units... Cossak (Combat III) wins vs. Catapult, Cossak (Combat III) wins vs. Catapult. City captured. Arabian Capitol moved to Zapotec.

[1864 b.c.] I give a try to Anjar, defended with a Garrison III rifleman. Cossak (Combat III) retires after wounding Rifleman (Garrison III), Cossak (Combat III) wins againt crossbowman (garrison I), Cossak (Combat II) wins vs. wounded Rifleman (Garrison III), city conquered.

[1868 b.c.] The battle of Bassora, city on the hill defended by yet another Garrison III rifleman. Cossak (Combat II) lose vs. Rifleman (Garrison III!!! I really hate them!), Cossak (Combat III) retires vs. Rifleman (Garrison III), Cossak (Combat III) retires vs. Rifleman (Garrison III), Cossak (Combat III) lose vs. Rifleman (Garrison III), Cossak (Combat II) lose vs. Rifleman (Garrison III), Cossak (Combat III) wins vs. Pikeman (Combat I & medic I), Cossak (Combat II) lose vs. Rifleman (Garrison III), Cossak (Combat II) finally wins vs. the damned Rifleman (Garrison III), Cossak (Combat II) wins vs. Catapult. City conquered. The rifleman in Bassora has won vs. SIX cossaks! Wow!

[1870 b.c.] While another barb town popped in the unclaimed lands, Saladin is planning a full-scale exodus! Caravels spotted here and there. A settler spotted in Harappana, clearly helped by the Incans! Oh! A plan against russina dominace? We have to dismiss him quickly. a fast assault was ordered to capture Harppana and kill the settler. Cossak (Combat III) lose vs. Rifleman (Garrison II), Cossak (Combat III) wins vs. Pikeman, Rifleman (City raider III & combat I, the hero of the chinese war, kills a Longbowman (Garrison I), Cossak (Combat III) takes out the wounded Rifleman (Garrison II). City captured. Exodus plan stopped! Sent a cossak to scout the Arabian capitol for other settlers...

[1874 b.c.] Used a great engeneer to finish in one turn broadway in guanzhou. The first battle of Zapotec. Cossak (Combat II) lose vs. Rifleman (Combat I), Cossak (Combat II) lose vs. Rifleman (Combat I), Cossak (Combat II) lose vs. Rifleman (Garrison I), Cossak (Combat II) wins vs. Rifleman (City Raider I), Cossak (Combat II) wins vs. Pikeman, Cossak (Combat II) wins vs. Longbowman (Garrison I), Cossak (Combat I) wins vs. Longbowman (Garrison I), Cossak (Combat II) wins vs. Macefighter (city raider I). Raised culture rating to 30%... We really need to fishis this war soon!

[1876 b.c.] Broadway completed. The second battle of Zapotec. Cossak (Combat II) wins vs. wounded Rifleman (Combat II), Cossak (Combat II) wins vs. Rifleman (Garrison I),

[1880 b.c.] Our galleon in the south has done his duty. Three cossaks are ready to attack Fustat. Cossak (Combat III) retires vs. Rifleman (Garrison I), Cossak (Combat II) wins vs. Rifleman (Garrison I), City conquered.

[1886 b.c.] the battle of Aden, Saladin Last stand! Cossak (Combat III) retires vs. Rifleman (Garrison I), Cossak (Combat III) retires vs. wounded Rifleman (Garrison I), Cossak (Combat II) wins vs. Longbowman (Garrison I). Saladin survives for anothe turn!

[1888 b.c.] Aden conquered. Saladin destroyed. the war is over!

[1894 b.c.] Polinesiana reached size 2 and was conquered. Went in "worker madness" to spread railroad all around.

[1912 b.c.] Used James Watt to speed up united nations in Moskow. Three wonders buildings all around the empire! Wow!

[1918 b.c.] UN in Moskow

[1920 b.c.] Elected!

[1923 b.c.] Tried a diplo win, just to see how the votes will go.

[1931 b.c.] Eiffel Tower in Guanzhou. Marie Curie born in Nanjing and trigger a golden age!

[1936 b.c.] Holliwood in Damascus

[1937 b.c.] Rock'n Roll in Nanjing

[1967 b.c.] Completed Apollo in Damascus

[1973 b.c.] Internet in Guanzhou

[1976 b.c.] Space elevator in Mecca, Manhattan in Yamama

(continues later... to a space victory....)

The scoring rules didn't capture my imagination, but someone suggested this start looked interesting, so I decided to try it as a straight game. I ran to abotu 1670 AD, realized that I was just going through the motions - just waiting for someone (Izzy) to notice that I was low on military (as usual) and declare war.

This week, I picked it up again, to see if I could salvage anything; and sure enough, when Izzy declared war I was able to smack her around a bit. But while I was worrying at that; everybody in the world wanted me to declare war on somebody else, and since I wasn't willing to be ripped open from the back, my relations with everyone went down the tubes. Qin declared, Izzy had nothing of value to offer for peace, and Saladin banging on the door asking me to take a couple turns of Anarchy, for fellowships sake. Enough.

It also seems that I didn't take notes, so those who care for things like early build orders should just assume that I was flopping about randomly. It's a sadly probable picture.



I got tempted by the possibility of a lock, so I moved the settler prior to founding Moscow - lucking out by picking off the SW fish. Some problems with barbarians coming down the choke, but they stopped trying when I got an archer and an axeman into the trees on the hill... which meant a couple millenia of false alarms as barbarians appeared (and vanished) in the icy fog without ever promoting my units.

Yes, that's "Rockov" just north of Beijing. Not only did I drop a city there (I thought stone might be important), but I misjudge the fog busting of Beijing; so the first city I dropped was immediately razed by a barb axe. So I reloaded the boats and founded the city a second time

Needless to say, it shouldn't be surprising Qin dropped Nanjing on me - though he was almost slow enough to let me get away with it.

One aspect of the opening that I still don't have a firm grasp of is culture, and getting cities to pop. I think I need to write an article on it - just to force myself to learn it. Most of the time, I got after Stonehenge to avoid the whole issue - individual obelisks seem so silly.



Similarly, in this game I'm having a lot of trouble with the whip too - plenty of high food cities to practice on, but I never seem to be done. It seems to take 50 or 60 turns to get all the infrastructure that I "need", and there's always cities at the beginning of the curve - how am I supposed to get to caste system at this rate?

You can see from the map that I missed the whale - on purpose, really. Maybe I need to look more carefully, but whale seems to have a very short opportunity window. Maybe I'm kidding, or taking a weird beeline.

Burgundian is a captured city, of course. And if the timing had been a bit better, I could have used it's hammers to help with the development of Vladivostok.



Here's an interesting gambit that just didn't work. Valencia (under the sheep) was originally a barb city. I captured and razed it because I really wanted the city one dot east - so that I had a seaport, and a window to drop another coastal city to the west (giving me six lake tiles to go with the lighthouse). Alas, I hadn't yet learned to have a few spare settlers near the front, and Izzy beat me to the region. So I built Smolensk, and used that to build the galley and fishing boats I needed, then transfered control of the shared tiles to Orenburg. After dealing with the Black Pearl riding out of the fog, I was able to eventually steal the crab from Basra by running an artist.

A big part of a lot of the coastal play, of course, was the presence of the Colossus in Novgorod. Unfortunately, the colossus makes me averse to researching or trading for astronomy, and without that the fleet guarding the fishing boats becomes obsolete (ok, sure - if you are researching fast enough you can pull out an ironclad). And when war comes, and the fishing boats at the no hammer sites get ripped apart, it takes forever to recover.

Well this is my first RB game I've played. I do something fairly interesting with the Oracle, or at least I hope it's interesting .

This is also the first game I've ever managed to extort a city out of an AI!

My report of Adventure 3

(Note: Also the first time I've ever made a website for anything, I might touch it up with some newfangled non-linear navigation links)

Since Adventure 3 is finally closed, I can ask a question about something that happened.

As you can see from the pic, I have a city suffering from unhappiness as a result of "We Year to Return to Our motherland"



However, the city was founded by me, and never had cultural border contact from any other civ. Is there some game mechanic that I am missing, here. Would the city ever have been danger of flipping? Has anyone ever had a city flip to barbs?

Hi,

you can find the report for my Adventure 3 game here.

My apologies for the short and only sparsely detailed report! This was partly due to the game being not so exciting and partly due to lack of time. My Adventure 4 report will be similarly short, but I promise my next one will be more detailed again!

-Kylearan