Josh's Civ 4 memoir

[vanrober]

Turn 63

Several turns without coming by. Josh asked me to play this weekend and gave me some info about what he wanted. 

Right now the power is good enough, and we should keep up on expansion right now. I dont agree with some of the decisions of Josh, for instance, he is building a library on the capitol with just 3 pop and no granary there. I think investing on the granary should be much more important than a library. Right now the city is getting 16 commerce at most (when the city gets 5 pop and some cottages) and the library would mean 4 beakers more, which is not worth for 90h, for this turns at least. Getting a granary and growing fast to keep up on expansion should be the key i think.

   

The plan for the following turns is to chop some settlers out and keep up the farmers gambit. Get as much land as possible fast while getting currency and then CoL to dont get into bankrupcy. The gold should help to that matter. Also starting already building cottages around the capitol that will be shared with the cities nearby so they are not unworked any turn. The plan on my head makes sense.

The sad part is who are the neighbours...

We have TBS as China next to us, on the west. One of the best players of the game if not the best, and one of the best civs too. Also a good leader. I am afraid of those OP xbows in a naval invasion.
On the East Commodore found us on first place so we think he is our neighbour of the west. Also a good player but his combo is not as afraid as TBS. 
Also on the East appeared Tarkeel, so i think he should be after Commodore, he has just played on PB58 but he is doing really great there with Amica's help. Being farther makes me less afraid than the 2 of our first ring neighbours. 

I ve seen now that we met superdeath but im unsure from where and when, so i cannot make any guess. Ofc he has a really warmonger trayectory with the exception of one game. I guess that he is even farther so i dont want to warry either.

Demos are not really good but i guess they are not bad either we are on the middle more or less

       

[klops]

thanks for the update

kinda offtopic but... I just wondered about the spanish translation of the game, seen it here the first time.
I only have basic knowledge but what about "energía", is that a good/correct therm?
Asking because it's totally off in German, where it says "electricity". Energy is also used to describe a "drive" or willpower to do something, so it's probably meant this way. Is that a usual therm regarding civ-strength? Forza(?) comes to my mind first, but like I said... no conoces conoco/conosco   ... no puedo recordar muchas palabras
just curious

[vanrober]

thanks for the update

kinda offtopic but... I just wondered about the spanish translation of the game, seen it here the first time.
I only have basic knowledge but what about "energía", is that a good/correct therm?
Asking because it's totally off in German, where it says "electricity". Energy is also used to describe a "drive" or willpower to do something, so it's probably meant this way. Is that a usual therm regarding civ-strength? Forza(?) comes to my mind first, but like I said... no conoces conoco/conosco   ... no puedo recordar muchas palabras
just curious

I like this kind of topic so dont worry at all.

Power is a really hard word to be translated. In spanish we can use that word as,
-Electricidad, The house lost power yesterday- La casa se quedó sin electricidad ayer.
-Habilidad/Facultad/Capacidad, He has the power of making everyone believe. Tiene la capacidad/facultad/habilidad de hacer a todo el mundo creer.
-Poder, Politicians have the power. Los políticos tienen el poder.
-Fuerza, That army used everwhelming power to defet the enemy. Ese ejército utilizó una fuerza abrumadora para vencer al enemigo.
-Potencia, In a physics sense, Like this machine has more power than this other. Esta máquina tiene más potencia que esta otra.
-Energía, The power of this battery is really low. La energía de esta batería es muy pequeña.

Im already used to read Energía when you read Power on Civ, this translation is already done on BTS, and its not that bad. The correct one should be Fuerza Militar or something like that, but is even longer.

In spanish of Spain we say "conozco" but on South américa several countries say "conosco". Just tring to help you remembering some words. Anything i can do to help you on this lenguage, make me know!!

[klops]

uh, that's detailed, thanks!

I know that there is a lot of meanings to that word, since English is usually a bit easier or less detailed, it's hard to translate. You partly confirmed my impression. Good to know that not all is lost
Reading Spanish is not too hard for me because I can guess a lot but active writing/speaking is one cosa diferente.
I tried to learn that language at home with an audio disc and some course at uni but never got much more into my head than "donde esta la pharmacia?" and such...
Good to start but really learned some basic conversation in Argentina. 2 weeks intensive course in the city where I met my penfriend and a bit later by a "personal trainer", a woman I met during that holiday, travelled with me and mostly refused to speak english, so I HAD to learn it the hard way
Unfortunately, it's been a few years...

[vanrober]

Ohh i see. Well thats the best way to learn a lenguage!

I ve learnt english, the bit i know at least, on a summer camp where i was the only spanish, so i had to learn it the hard way too!.

Im glad i could help u a bit!

[klops]

[joshybravo963]

Day 74 

Morale is low amongst the American people. I have just realised that i am on a continent with 4 other players, commodore, tbs, superdeath and tarkeel, vanrober tells me these guys are some of the best at the game. My original plan was to tech to longbows, focus on eco, get a tech lead and try to hold out for aslong as possible and maybe be first to conquestedors or cavalry until only a couple players remain, but with so many bloodthirsty mongering players all around me this is not possible anymore, now its either conquer or be conquered, and I am afraid to say that the end seems to be much nearer than we first thought. However I am determined to leave a mark on this earth.

New strats, big brain moves. 
Since I'm the newbie and probably the weakest of the players on my island, I have a feeling I am going to get gang raped first. My only hope will therefore be to hold out long enough against my neighbours tbs and/or superdeath until commodore (who is positioned somewhere opposite me) will step in and put my gang rape on hold , giving me an opportunity to coutner attack and possible gain a couple cities, and just pray that will be enough to give me some more years on this earth. This means i need to militarise as soon as i can. I am unsure of which techs are crucial and how much eco i should neglect in favor of military and trying to "look strong" to delay the innevitable.

Until now expansion was the main goal. On turn 74 im at 7 cities with 2 more about to get settled and 6 workers. I would think this is good but I saw TBS has pretty much the same with much higher population in his cities, so i dont feel so good about this anymore. But hey, our approval rate is 64% and 3rd in the world so we've got that going for us.
   

Josh out.

[vanrober]

Im not low on morale!!

We have still several turns to any serious war, we need to keep going on expansion and growing our cities, we need granaries going and start working cottages, growing pop will allow us to get better production, food and gnp so that our demos get decent. Its going to be hard to stop any war if we keep being bad on demos.

Another option i thought if you fear safety is taking IW next of masonry and then go for machinery, IW will give us gems which will bust our gnp and production if Lew was nice about giving some iron in any mine we have. With that and machinery we could get xbows fast for defending.

I still think its too early and there is so much land still to claim before any real war comes to us. We are finally next to Superdeath so you never know, but i still think we are fine.

I would follow the expansion grow a bit more on cottages, whip mines out and keep going to get currency adn then CoL, with maybe IW before that.

We have 5 or 6 mainland cities more left to get but we should get all the islands we have nearby, it seems the southones are uncontested but the north ones are contested. I would definitely try to get the one with fur so we get better happy.

Try to focus on getting some more workers we are low on those. Maybe making some 10 turns cicly to double whip workers while growing back on some buildings on the capitol could help. Or maybe some untis if you feel disarmed. So i think working 2 scientist in the capitol with that low pop is not worth, that granary fast and cicles of whiping makes more sense on my head.

About the approuval rate. Look at this site a well explained site to read demos. https://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/strateg...explained/
The aprouval rate just have to do with the happy of your empire. Since we are one of the 3 with more it means we didnt whip much and our pop is low since we have so many happy faces in our cities. Which is bad we should be neutral on happy faces at most (ideally, i think).

Lets look close that war between TBS and Commodore, although i think its too early for a real war. Probably is something about boats tresspasing or something like that.

[Lewwyn]

We have 5 or 6 mainland cities more left to get but we should get all the islands we have nearby, it seems the southones are uncontested but the north ones are contested. I would definitely try to get the one with fur so we get better happy.

Do you guys have sailing?

[vanrober]

yeah we do have sailing, you can see a galley being build on post 37!