Josh's Civ 4 memoir. Chapter 2

[joshybravo963]

0% chance? Damn that's some rough odds. Ok so guess will have to aim to survive for as long as possible. He doesn't have gunpowder the last time I checked, I'm sure his priority would be to get the Taj first and then gunpowder isn't far off. 
Why do you say I need nationalism first? Is it to draft? But I will only be able to draft macemen, will that really help me? 
So it I want to ally with bellarch, how should I respond to vanrober?

[civac2]

Drafting macemen is not a bad deal. The question is what kind of weapon your rivals can bring to the table and if macemen are still effective against them. If they are not you need better weaponry over Nationalism.

[Tarkeel]

Drafting maces can be very hammer-effective, and they have a relative high combat strength. When you're facing a mounted army it's good to field varied defenders to force the attacker to split their promotions. Maces can be very effective, especially as they're some of the last units that can take city raider promotion. In PB58 we drafted two rounds of maces while researching gunpowder for muskets.

Edit: Maces also make decent stack-defenders for your catapults.

[Amicalola]

Yeah drafting maces is a good deal, all things considered. It's about twice as efficient as a whipped mace, although the happiness issues are worse. Once we can get to muskets, drafting gets insane.

[joshybravo963]

Ah so we aim to get gunpowder after nationsalism then to be able to draft muskets, sounds like a plan. This turn I will be able to get literacy, building castles everywhere for the extra trade route. Can someone also tell me if building wealth is efficient? should i build wealth to get to nationalism quicker instead of building knighs?

Also big news, vanrober attacked bing. Im sorry bing I wish i could help but im really in no position to do anything! 
I understand this to be a mistake for vanrober since it opens his border with bellarch and puts him right in the fireline to get attacked next and leave me out, so maybe I really can sit pretty for awhile? 

   

Is there anything else i can do to speed up my eco? should I go for universities?

[Amicalola]

Vanrober attacking Bing might be ok for us. Short term it's great, long term maybe we can use it to set up a 2v1. wealth builds are ok for efficiency, some players like them more than others. I like the castle builds, if we are getting foreign trade routes, but wealth is probably better if we're only getting domestic.

[joshybravo963]

Vanrober attacking Bing might be ok for us. Short term it's great, long term maybe we can use it to set up a 2v1. wealth builds are ok for efficiency, some players like them more than others. I like the castle builds, if we are getting foreign trade routes, but wealth is probably better if we're only getting domestic.

Ok so not an emergency now so I won't build wealth, I'll build knights, catapults but not whip crazy? 
What about universities? Yes or no?

[civac2]

In very general terms that do not take your position into account: Universities are terrible by themselves unless you are PHI. Oxford is worth building if you have a strong capital but it requires to make some universities as a prerequisite.

[Amicalola]

Universities are pretty bad, yeah. Maybe one in Rome, with the Bureau bonus boosting both the hammer cost and the research gained, but certainly not more that that.

As to questions like: "how many knights should I build?" These are the kinds of questions that are pretty much impossible for a dedlurker to answer reliably, because they are so contextually dependent. 'Enough to defend from any Indian aggression, but as few as possible over that threshold' is the only helpful answer I can give. To figure out what that threshold is, you need to analyse a complicated series of vanrober's actions and industrial capacity, as well as our own, as well as diplomacy, as well as his likely intentions, etc.... you can see why it's impossible for me to answer reliably.  

Ultimately it's just a judgement call where you take however much time as you want to think about it (some players spend 15 mins, some 2 hours, on lategame turns), and decide on the information you notice. You get a feel for it mostly through experience, rather than any distinct game theory. And those judgement calls are where the joy of civ lies! Or the horror, depending on how good 'x call' turns out to be. We've all experienced plenty of both, I'm sure.

[joshybravo963]

Day 155

Firstly thanks for the answers, ok no universities, gotcha, and some good insight by amicalola, appreciate it. 

First thing I see today is this. 

   

Some some next level strat. Basically forcing me to fight bellarch, vanrober also declared on bellarch and scrolling around I noticed vanrobers stack by bellarchs border. If I decline and try to fight then im sure vanrober will peace out bellarch since bellarch really doesnt want to fight a two front war, and also my defences are not up to scratch, a ton of workers along vanrobers border so I guess i just have to fight bellarch. But when vanrober wins, he will be in a better position than me so what do I do? How hard do I fight bellarch? At some point im sure at some point vanrober will turn around to fight me.
Im thinking try to fight bellarch slowly and take some of the better cities if possible? but prepare also for vanrober.

Up to this point ive been building knights slowly and trying to catch up with tech. I have castles almost everywhere and been aiming for nationalism, so I have philosophy and ive just realised how expensive both nationalism and military tradition is even on this difficulty. It will take me 38 turns to get all the techs including gunpowder. Thats with a couple cities building wealth/ or loot. Im trying to think if its even worth it? Since this war broke out, I dont know how many more turns are left until a winner is pretty much decided, so should I continue with the reasearch or just mass whip knights? Vanrober has already got nationalism and banking, since he is at war with everyone, hes not trading and mercantilism which again is very clever. 

   

Vanrobers going ham with all the wonders. 

   

Current diplo situation.

   

Jack has 2 cities left so I guess bellarch will be moving all his forces back, he lost some troops but he doesnt have all that many, I only have 23 praets, 14 knights, and 11 cats and already beat him in power. Im just hoping bellarch doesnt focus his stack on me and instead goes more for vanrober, but since im his main neighbour maybe he will go for me? I should probably hold back and let vanrober take the first few cities so bellarchs stack is focused on retaking. If i could get blessed isle that would be nice, since it has the moai statues, huge hammer output and would really slow bellarch down. 

   

Josh out.