PBEM5(Q) Everybody Wang Kon tonight!

[mackoti]

getting more units is better than getting better units. I think.

If you have money to pay for them and cats to do some colaterla : yes if not..

[AutomatedTeller]

Got a little lucky - he showed up with a W3 jag on one side of the world - it didn't occur to me that there would be one on the other side of the world. he sniped a worker near an ungarrisoned city.

Fortunately, he couldn't see that it wasn't garrisoned and I could kill his jag with a couple of horses. Not the best exchange, but it could have been worse.

He also built the great wall, I guess cause he didn't get GG points fast enough in his own land

I plopped down 2 more cities - one for the dye (that's the one he nearly sniped) and one for the marble. I'll post pics and a tech update later.

Have literature and just picked up MC for a forge->collosus. He has MC, so he might be ahead of me on collosus - we'll see.

[AutomatedTeller]

He builds pyramids (to which, I say, "took you long enough")

I'm getting GLib, MoM, Sistine and, I hope, HG - HG is one I really want, if I can get it.

[mackoti]

More than MoM?

[AutomatedTeller]

No - we've been joking about him getting the stone wonders and me the marble ones. HG is nice mainly because of the engineer points, to be honest. MoM is the better wonder and he's several techs from being able to build it.

[mackoti]

In duel i find astists beter , just bomba border city and there you go.

[AutomatedTeller]

It's time for a major update!

First off - I AM THE GREATEST!!



Thucydides said so, so who am I to argue?

I feel more confident about my civ now, actually, for a variety of ways.

City overview:



12 cities in various sizes, all of which have my state religion, so that's good.

if you take a look at my cap



I am in the process of converting this to a GP farm - get the GLib here, NE, maybe build in HG here, depending. Maybe it's a terrible GP farm, but there we go.


more importantly, my resources:

Iron
Copper
Horse
Marble

Missing only stone amongst early resources

Rice
Pig
Cow
Deer
Sheep
Fish

I will soon have crab and corn hooked up, so health isn't really an issue, and if it is, I can make my gardens.

Gold
Gem
Silver
Fur
Sugar
Dye
Spice

That's a damn fine happy cap, which means I don't need hereditary rule (for now, at least). I will research monarchy, though, cause the wines are good for commerce and food.

Watership Down (the new capitol)



I believe this is the first time I've ever moved my cap in a Civ IV game. I really didn't like my capitol as a bureau cap, mainly because you want riverside cottages for the extra bonuses, and this didn't really have many (just 3). This site, however, has lots and lots.

Redwall Abbey (HE city)



This is my main unit pump. I think this is a big advantage for me. It's currently pumping out a unit a turn. Bowmen when I need to build up overflow, HA/cats when I can.

Extra commerce cities:









These guys, along with WD, will be the main drivers of tech.

Coastal wonder/mil city:



Breakfast flock is a going to be a huge combo city for me - it's going to get colossus and maybe the great lighthouse if I choose to build it, plus Moai pretty soon. (I may not get Collosus, but I think I will).

It will also be a secondary unit pump. I don't much LIKE not cottaging so many river tiles, but you have to have production, too. And I can't outslave aztec. Fortunately, slavery sucks for wonder building.

My island city:



I honestly don't know if this was a good idea, or not. It gives me good commerce, itself, plus adds 1 commerce to every city (overseas trade routes), so that's helpful. But it took a useless galley (unless I build some forts and try to boat him) and a precious settler. Well, it gets me whales. So, i guess it was ok? In any case, it's long done.

Southern ice towns:



Picked up for 2 reasons: Silver and lakes. Mainly silver. It will act as a secondary unit city, mainly supporting:



Which picks up marble and crab, the marble being the more important. I wanted to build it further north, but off the hill seemed like a bad idea and settling on the marble meant I got it fast. So, there it is.

And, finally:



My Eastern bullwark against invasion and miltary city. I have walls, a bowman and a spear in there and will add another bowman at some point. It's basically save until construction and he's a long ways from that.

military:



The main thing I am running into is that I don't have enough workers - 10 fo 12 cities. That's gotta change.

It's a defensive force. And I have that useless galley - which isn't costing me anything, so I'll keep it.

I also have a GA from Music:



if you compare this to:



you can see that I am up:

Aesthetics
Literature
Music
Math
Sailing
Calendar
Construction

He is up
Alphabet
Monarchy

And, possibly, Feudalism. Not sure.


Demos:




I have a slight lead in soldiers and I think our militaries are pretty even:

I'm up HE, Math and Sailing (which is 16K) - he's up alpha and the GW, which is 14K, so our tech/wonder scores are similar. He probably has more barracks up than me - I have more walls (1!) than he does, though. I have a galley, he probably does not.

he might have Moai, i dunno.

That said, I need more - but that's why i have 2 military cities

Some turns ago, I was unclear whether I could win.

I feel a lot better about that now.

Things to think about:

1) Do I attack him? it would be from the west (my HE city) of course.
2) Use the GA from music to get a GA and switch to Bureau, or take the anarchy, build MoM and go from there?
3) Great Lighthouse? I figure I have 5 coastal cities right now, 1 of which is an island, so it's 12 commerce a turn. I make 207 commerce a turn now, so it's a 5% gain, which isn't nothing and it's only 200 hammers - less, since it's mulitiplied by 25% for OR.
4) Next city - for stone? Might be nice - get Moai, doublers on HG.
5) Tech path after CS - machinery->engineering? Maces/castles/fast movement? Drama? Monarchy->feudalism? Theology?


One thing I definitely forgot is an overview map:

[AutomatedTeller]

So, he has machinery and can tech guilds, which worries me.

I may have made a major strategic mistake.

I assume that means he has Feudalism, since he doesn't show up as being able to get CS, which requires Math.

Guilds is 1000 beakers, as is Engineering. I can 4 turn machinery and get xbows/maces and then Engineering (castles/pikes/road movement) against knights. I'll get a GA soon, which will help me power through.

ok - a CG2 Xbow is 13.5 on a hill behind walls.
a C1 mace is 12.8 on a hill behind walls, 11.4 if the attacker has shock. In all cases, those units get odds vs. knights (12 or 11, depending on if they have shock) So I think Machinery is the best choice. Heck, a fortified spear gets odds on knight (behind walls on a hill)

And he doesn't have catapults.

So, I think machinery->monarchy (see if he has Feudalism), kicking off a GA along the way, is the right move.

Especially if I get a low-odds engineer and can build engineering - that would kick-ass.

[AutomatedTeller]

I'm getting my next GP soon - it something like:

60% prophet
30% scientist
10% engineer

Engineer bulbs Engineering.
scientist builds an academy
prophet - I dunno.

Theology looks like a nice bulb - have to get monarchy, but that's my next tech target, anyway.
Settling is the other option - RedWall Abbey could use the extra hammers, as well as the extra gold. maces are 46, so 1 turning those needs 23 and we don't have that yet. Knights are even more expensive.

I'm hoping for the engineer - Engineering would help a lot.

[AutomatedTeller]

ok - I can build maces and xbows, and he hasn't overrun me with knights yet, so that's good!

He doesn't yet have guilds, in fact, so he won't be overrunning me yet.