I'm playing Civ4 BtS for the first time in a good while? What settings do you...

[Dr. Nomadic]

Well, I finished Note Dame in the capital, The Taj Mahal in a border city using an engineer, and The Spiral Minaret in my second city. I then concentrated largely on city infrastructure, and then settled 5 more cities to fill out my territory, resulting in 12. One of those cities is actually an iceball with a crab (which I forgot to connect!), a few water tiles, two peaks and one hill, and the rest is snow! I grabbed Liberalism first, grabbed Nationalism again (and I again had a GE ready to rush The Taj Mahal), and then beelined for economics, replaceable parts (for lumbermills since I left a lot of forest land alone), and democracy, and I started the Statue of Liberty in the capital once that research was done (and on the turn before I trained a camel archer for no good reason). Between beelining for RP and democracy, I triggered a golden age, switched to universal suffrage (yes, I'm aware that I didn't need a GA for that, but I felt like timing it anyway), rushed a lot of stuff (including a caravel in the iceball city to take care of a barbarian galley that was preventing access to the clam tile!), and then went back to representation when 5 turns were up. I also produced three caravels (including the one I rushed, and an upgraded trireme) that went and explored the other continent. Lets see who was there...Pacal II, Zara Yaqob, Napoleon, and Charlemagne. All of them were backwards (Nappy even lacked Drama! Though I did skip Calendar for a long time.) and I traded for world maps, and afterwards sold outdated techs for gold, maps, and even sometimes forcing the AIs into other civics (I had actually switched to serfdom to get lumbermills faster) and telling them to stop trading with each other (to poison relations, of course! Yep, I'm forming a plan...). Only the HRE had gunpowder up on me, and everybody else was completely behind. Of course, the HRE refuses to trade with me whatsoever (it founded Buddhism on turn 8, and then France and Ethiopia joined the alliance while Maya sits in Confucianism by itself), but I got to trade with everyone else right away (though I had to agree to one of Nappy's demands to get him up to Cautious and sign Open Borders. Gee, you've gotta LOVE these demanding Europeans; first Cathy, then Izzy, now Nappy. Good riddance!). I also got up to Friendly with Russia and Spain. I built the SoL on the last turn of the session (BTW a GE only shaved off 13 turns! Man that's an expensive wonder!).

Me and France each have 12 cities, while Spain has 11, I forget exactly how many Russia has (could be anywhere from 9 to 12), Ethiopia and the HRE each have 9, and Maya has 8 (not entirely sure about the last three). I'm #2 in population (stupid Spain), but 2nd LAST in land area (only Russia is doing worse, which is ironic considering one of Cathy's leader traits, no?). I also find it funny that the HRE beat Spain to Buddhism. I wonder if both got it on turn 8, and the game awarded the HRE with the religion? That would be funny (and also a bit of a bad break given my pre-game plans). Izzy did found Taoism though. Naturally I founded Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, but Judaism spread through my continent while the other three religions have two cities each in my empire (and the last two in the whole world!). In score I'm about 2000 points behind Isabella, but a good bit ahead of everyone else. That's actually a bit weird, with an Imperialistic civ being last in land area and a Financial civ being somewhat backwards in tech.

[Dr. Nomadic]

I actually went ahead and built two filler cities (one in former Spanish territory, I believe), and once I had every Renaissance tech I actually turned off research for a while to upgrade some troops (hostile people are on the other continent, remember? Though I did get some defensive pacts via the Apostolic Palace, which might be doing a lot to help ward off aggression). I have already decided my next tech goals:

Medicine - for Sid's Sushi Co.
Combustion - for Creative Constructions
Mass Media - for Civilized Jewelers
Fascism - for the free great general
Industrialism - to enable industrial parks
EDIT: Fission - so that I can hook up my uranium source

After that I really don't know what victory I'd pursue. BTW I got Zara up to pleased, so maybe I could flood his lands with missionaries? I could even found Mining Inc. and spread it to Ethiopian lands to cripple his economy. Then I might be able to win diplomatic victory. Also I could dial up the culture slider to 100% to win by culture. I have more cities than anyone else, so...yeah.

Finally, I just had to ask something: is Willem another Liz or even Gandhi? In my victorious Roman game he asked me for Open Borders at Furious, if I remember correctly! Plus he beelined for Mass Media and Rocketry without having Military Tradition or Assembly Line (his downfall, ultimately, was his ignorance of the latter, though his dikes helped him in his wonder production, argh). And is Zara another peaceful leader?

[Dr. Nomadic]

Okay, Spain completed the Kremlin when I had 10 turns left...on the plus side, I switched to Free Speech and Pacifism, which reduced my finances quite noticeably!(but then again I switched from to High cost civics to No cost civics) I also got my TWO GAs. Well, I'm going to settle one in Baghdad, while the other one waits around for Civilized Jewelers. I built the Hermitage in Baghdad and the Globe Theatre in Najran, and am currently working on Oxford University in Mecca, Ironworks in Medina, and The Forbidden Palace in Baghdad.

In foreign affairs, I flipped and razed the Russian city of Yaroslavl', and Cathy and Izzy both declared war on Nappy, thus cancelling out our defensive pacts. It's only a matter of time until they ask me in, of course. Finally a lesser plan is to found Mining Inc. in my iceball city and spread it to Zara to cripple his maintenance. I also hooked up my coal source. My only sources of iron, coal and oil are on the Spanish border. Great. Just great.

EDIT: I've had three GSs (including the freebie from physics) sitting for a good while. I think I have a use for them now though: I just checked what tech a great scientist will lightbulb now, and it was...electricity. Yeah, that'll certainly help in getting to mass media! The names of my three scientists are Aristotle, Ptolemy (freebie from physics), and Charles Darwin. As I am in the 19th century, I think I'll keep Darwin around unless he really helps. I doubt that a scientist will lightbulb Radio or Mass Media. Since I have a GA on ice he'll be able to found Civilized Jewelers immediately upon discovery of the tech. The corporations system seems underrated to me, but I've never really played around with it. I do agree with Sulla's sayings on the system though (that spreading the corps to every city makes the cities all too generic).

[Dr. Nomadic]

Okay, where are the replies?

Now, I had some ideas for SGs. Largely, the BtS scenarios prove to be quite overwhelming, so maybe we could gather up some guys and play them? My requirements would be "have never won this scenario before," so that it could be a newbies SG. On the other hand, here are some variant SGs that I'd like to try in the regular game:

-Cannot build wonders unless they take less than 15 turns
-No aggression
-Reckless expansion in the early game (I was going to do this myself, actually)
-Cannot build wonders, period (requires that the first variant be done)
-Use civics that I don't usually run (Environmentalism)
-Absent-minded variant (just like Civ3's Epic 48)

If any of these variants sound interesting to you, then please tell me. Also, do you think I should move up a difficulty level for next game?

[Dr. Nomadic]

Well, stupid Pacal declared war on me and captured Aden on the first turn of the war, argh. Except that I took it right back with my cavalry! I then went into Nationhood (initiating some stupidity with civics, as I should have switched to Theocracy as well) and drafted 9 riflemen, who will now go and scatter around my coastal cities. My cities have also initiatiated a machine gun training program, to get 1 MG and 2 riflemen (upgradeable into infantry) into my cities. I then burnt one GS on electricity, and then discovered that you need a GA to reduce the cost of Radio! Okay, maybe I shouldn't have sent my extra to Baghdad...on the plus side, Salamanca is now 50% Arab! It has a garrison of 2 riflemen and 1 pikeman. I also finished Oxford U, Ironworks, and the FP, which boosted me to 1st in score for the first time all game! Excellent. Of course, then I got the news that Spain has captured a French city...well, I'm still 1st in score as of now, but I have a feeling that it aint gonna be for long unless I strike Pacal. Damn, stupid Maya. I actually somehow got him from Furious to Annoyed before the war started, heh.

After Medina pops out a MG, I'm going to start on Broadway there (building a late Industrial wonder without a factory? Ah yeah! But I REALLY lack trading material, so it'll be a good boost). Of course, if Pacal's army dwarfs mine considerably, I'm probably going to hold back on that. Still...

[Dr. Nomadic]

First of all, where are the replies?

Okay, so I've built Broadway, lost the Pentagon to Ethiopia, and...am dealing with health issues. I've decided not to head for the cultural victory, instead going for diplomatic or domination. Pacal's gonna get the hammer! Of course, Medina will be occupied with wonder construction while Mecca will be occupied with Wall Street and Corporate Executives, but oh well.

[Dr. Nomadic]

Well, I got peace with the Mayans after they lost most of their meager attack force. Then later the HRE attacked me, but did absolutely zero damage to my civ. As a matter of fact, Charlemagne gave me 10 gold in the peace treaty! I had half a mind to go and invade his territory, but I just decided to hole up in my land, and go for a cultural victory after all. So after I researched ecology I turned off science (still managed to get rocketry and advanced flight with my representation specialists, heh), went to 100% culture, and...okay, cultural victory in 1981. Man, that's a very cheap way to win, but oh well. For the record, everybody except for Pacal declared on Napoleon at the end, and he ended up becoming a Spanish vassal! In the replay I discovered that he had a successful war against Zara in the middle ages, which must've poisoned relations permanently. Also...bah, there isn't much to talk about. If you want to know more, though, then be my guest. BTW I ended up with 16 cities; I founded one north of former Yaroslavl' and beforehand I flipped Salamanca, which was a production machine! Oh yeah, and I was #1 in all important demographics at the end. I wasn't even last in soldiers or espionage! (that honor goes to Napoleon, heh)

And finally, where are the replies?

[novice]

Well, it's actually a bit hard to follow you. Some suggestions for making your reports more readable:
- Post a new thread for each game
- Start the thread with your game settings (map script, civ, difficulty, variant rules, etc)
- Screenshots say more than a thousand words
- It's more interesting to discuss and thus participate than to read about a finished game after the fact. If you report after the fact you could at least say something about your reasoning.

Finally, remember time zone considerations and the fact that the post frequency at realms beyond is not as high as on youtube.

Cheers

[Dr. Nomadic]

Sorry. Yes, I should probably take more screenshots and chronicle my games. I shall be thinking about that...

However, there was one big point that I forgot; I ended the game with over 1000 gold in the treasury and over 70 gpt at 0% gold (dialed up the culture slider to full, remember?), with more cities than anyone else. How did I do that? Well, I hired a good number of merchant specialists to get a GM for Sid's Sushi Co. (and that was a sound success) and when I fired them I learned that they were helping my economy! So I rehired them, and kept them in quite a bit, mixed up with engineers, artists, and the occasional spy. Then I built Wall Street in Mecca, which considerably helped finances (what with Mecca being the shrine city and all). But nothing beat spreading corporations. Yes, a lot of people talk about how corporations are very crippling to the economy, but here they helped it out tenfold (EDIT: Okay, I was running free market, and I established all three corporate HQs in Mecca, which probably magnified corporate income. Oh well, the system is very underrated, and now I know for sure!). I founded Creative Constructions, Civilized Jewelers, and Sid's Suchi Co. (the three that give culture), and I spread them around. It was too late in the game to do so wholescale (and only my capital was cranking the executives out! But its production was god-awful for some reason.), but it helped speed my victory AND it helped along my economy hugely. Next game, I should probably post some screenshots, if I find out how. Oh yeah, and I ended up first in land area and population despite no city captures. Behold the power of culture and sushi!

Finally, what civ should I play as for the next game? I was thinking Asoka since I missed the organized trait quite a bit (plus I get to play as my country). What map type should I play on? Should I increase the difficulty level? I want some answers.

EDIT: Actually no, playing as Asoka would be a bit too similar to Saladin. I'm actually going to play as Bismarck next, since Expansive and Industrious seem like traits that I would REALLY desire. Plus a German spaceship...I cringe at the idea.

EDIT 2: While I was playing, I often noticed the computer hire spy specialists many times, even starving cities to do so. Yep, Sulla's word is right on this one. It was quite annoying to hire and fire all these specialists (I had one spy hired in my globe theatre/national park city as a free specialist, and that was it, I think).

[Dr. Nomadic]

Hey, where are the replies? I asked some questions!

Okay, now I plan on testing out all the leader traits before I move up a difficulty level.