Now running God King and Apprenticeship. Thought about switching to Religion also (in preparation for when FoL comes in), but decided against. Need to expand horizontally and garrison my cities.
Took out a barbarian warrior:
And there's a skeleton approaching, which my lizardman should kill next turn. After which, maybe I should think about popping that dungeon next to the capital?
Volantis' Rest will start an elder council next turn, and the capital is started on a 5-turn settler. Going to run 100% gold for a few turns to build an event fund. I figure if I'm actually racing gtAngel for FoL, I've already lost. Maybe the RnG will send me one of those 86gp great engineers as a consolation prize.
Present emphases mean the demographics don't look too bad:
Not too much going on, at least that I can see. Mardoc is still winning. He's had a third city for several turns now. I think the Sidar got their second city recently, too.
I'll have my third city in place soon:
Next turn, the workers need to road that plains tile, and the settler needs to move onto the plains hill. And, of course, I want units on them both. So I turned out both garrisons again: got three warriors and a lizardman to serve as escorts.
Turns out I found a way to make use of the bonus happy from that event after all . Turn after that, settler builds city #3 and the workers finish a winery, giving it a decent food tile to work right away.
Spent the last four turns building an event fund, and now I'm started on hunting. 7 more turns at present tech rate, but that rate should go up fast... probably I'll manage to shave at least a turn off that.
Both cities now grow to the happy cap (3 turns each). The capital will turn out two warriors (I -really- need more warriors), and Volantis' rest will finish up an elder council (not sure that was such a great choice of build, since I've got no shot at an early academy, but I might as well finish it at this point).
I haven't figured out exactly when WotF will come in. But my great commander pops in 15 turns. I'm thinking I might use that for an early golden age: it'll save me a turn of anarchy for swapping religions (which I can do immediately), and another turn of anarchy swapping some civics around. I can do that at the end of the golden age, using the bulk of it to research the requisite techs. Looks like I could go warfare -> cartography for 600 beakers (revolt into military state/city states/religion),
or hidden paths for 739 beakers (revolt into Guardians of Nature). Second one is definitely not worth it: I want to stick with agrarianism for a while yet, and I'm not sure I'll have enough tech power to put out 739 beakers during eight turns of golden age. 600 seems more doable, though.
That'll put me in a good position to grab the GC at military strategy (since I'll be heading to philosophy soon anyway for PoLs). Not that I really want another GC, but it's worth half of a golden age later on. Putting up the heroic epic before teching priesthood was definitely a good move for me in XXIII. Though I'm not sure how well it will work without access to marble.
The only marble I've seen is in the middle of the map with those giants, and I don't think I'll have expanded that far anytime soon.
One turn later than Ellimist (and several turns later than Mardoc). That's okay. I'm betting I get my fourth city up before the Calabim, at least. One more turn to grow to the happy cap, then I start another 5-turn settler.
Check out the bear. It's tempting me away from my cartography/warfare/golden age plan. My lizard is now C3 and has a free promotion, and being able to put a dancing bear in one of my cities sure would be helpful. Also, there's a possible city site to the south which will be viable once I can pasture sheep.
Don't need to decide that yet: hunting -> WotF definitely comes first. Speaking of which, gtAngel got a big score bump this turn. At first I thought this was a tech (in which case he can't have been teching WotF as I was worried), but now I guess it could also be land points. My C&D skills are sorely lacking.
Demos? They look bad right now (3rd place in everything), especially since Volantis' Rest has unrest (my +1 happy face wore off at EOT). Next turn I'll get a warrior there, grow a size, grow the capital, and complete an Elder Council. Lurkers can see the demographics then .
33 gold. Not bad; that's almost a turn's worth of tech.
In foreign affairs: Mardoc built Loki this turn. I assume he'll use Loki to go meet the others; he still doesn't have contact with Ellimist, and Ellimist indicates he doesn't have contact with gtAngel, either. But I should be wary; probably going to need to start giving escorts to my workers soon.
Cities reached their happy caps at EOT. Next turn I'll start a settler in the capital and a worker in Volantis' Rest.
3 more turns to hunting. Looks like I can probably finish WotF in twelve turns. Which is exactly when my great commander arrives. But it's too early for a golden age, right? Right?
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
(May 8th, 2013, 00:23)Merovech Wrote: Pretty good demos for a late-blooming civ.
Things are going okay so far. But things are going to get worse before they get better. Mardoc's got his 18-turn golden age worldspell. And I expect Ellimist will finish Code of Laws any turn now, enabling aristocracy and half-price governor's mansions: his GNP and production will probably explode.
On the bright side, I'm the only Expansive civ in the game, on a huge map with no southern neighbor. So I'm not exactly in a terrible position.
Quote:This turn, we made contact with the Circus, and the Sidar adopted Aristocracy and Apprenticeship.
Sounds like I was totally wrong on the Sidar gameplan. Maybe gtAngel is still heading toward Way of the Forests. But if the Sidar stopped to pick up Code of Laws, we'll surely beat them there.
Capital is building a settler for city #4. Question is: where should it go? I had been planning to send it somewhere ridiculous, that would take forever to develop and cost a fortune. And then I thought to myself: "HidingKneel, why don't you play well instead of badly?" So now I think it's going here:
Can share a farm with the capital and get more food from the banana (and even more from fish, if I ever get fishing) I think I discounted it earlier because I didn't want to lose the sheep, but pastured sheep isn't worth that much and animal husbandry is still some ways away.
Would one tile west be even better? Borrow the rice farm for quick growth? Maybe. But the capital needs at least one of its farms right now (working a lot of plains forests), I'd miss a plains hill, and I'd give up a forest tile.
Plains hill sheep isn't great, true, a size 1 city working it has 3p, 2c, and 3 surplus food. However, that is comparable to a plains hill city working 4/0/1 farm, which has a total of 2p, 2c, and 4 surplus food.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
(May 10th, 2013, 01:22)Merovech Wrote: Why not 1SE?
Plains hill sheep isn't great, true, a size 1 city working it has 3p, 2c, and 3 surplus food. However, that is comparable to a plains hill city working 4/0/1 farm, which has a total of 2p, 2c, and 4 surplus food.
My settler will be out in 5 turns though, and animal husbandry's 15-25 turns away. More importantly: the SE tile can only work one forest, but the sheep hill will be able to work four.
And, as a very long-term point: 1SE means I need four rings of culture to claim that mana node.
Mmm, I forgot that it'll be a while until you can plant your own forests. (The not having animal husbandry for a while doesn't actually matter too much, I think, because you'd still borrow the farm to grow. Heck, you can even mine the sheep for a 1/4/0 tile, effectively a forested grassland mine. Still, lack of forests is very important.)
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
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. Turn after that, settler builds city #3 and the workers finish a winery, giving it a decent food tile to work right away.![[Image: Civ4_Screen_Shot0002.jpg]](http://s21.postimg.org/522b2gkdj/Civ4_Screen_Shot0002.jpg)
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