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Emperor
Space
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Sep 2002
time: 05:59
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Please post your DARs in this thread for 4000-1520BC
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Caligula 37 AD
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Chieftain
Oslo
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Nov 2005
time: 11:59
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Many were the times young Gaius had thought to himself “what a lovely place, why don’t we stay here? Why not set up our camp permanently? Why do we always need to move on so soon?”
But every spring was the same. His grandmother Manzanares “The Precious Queen” as she called herself, decided to move the camp and for eight moons every year they would wander until they found another place suited for winter camp.
Gaius knew this had to change. The winter had been hard, many did not make it through. The old lady was ill, some said it was the moist air from the close river that made her sick, some said it was the gods disfavouring the old lady and her never ending journey. Their winter camp had just barely been saved from the flooding river. Some said this was a sign of pleasure from the gods sparing their lives, some said it was an ill sign.
Awaiting the Queens recovery, Gaius and the rest of the scouts were sent out to find a safer place for the camp. Their spring journey would have to wait until she recovered or died. The place they found was amazing.
Only two days march north, there is a small hill overlooking the river. One day farther north are cows grassing, the river makes a curve in the south between here this site, and now that the water has returned to normal level we found the ground is very fertile there. To the east are forests, and beyond the forests there are more hills. To the west the camp will overlook the flooded river plains, and beyond there is desert, a small forest and another hill. Gaius’ report to his grandmother sparkled her eyes.
The camp was quickly packed and moved to the hill Gaius had found. The Precious Queen was now very weak. Just barely did she survive the short journey. Finally arriving she was awestruck. “This is the place, Gaius. This is what the elders talked about. This place is our Shangri-la. These lands shall be ours for six thousand years like the tales of the old has foreseen.
My travel is now over, Gaius, I will rest here. You my grandson shall rule the Spanish tribe when I am gone. You see now why we always needed to travel every summer. My quest was to find this place for us to settle down, now we are here. I would like a grand temple built here in my memory. That will please the gods, and it will please me amongst them”
The Queen died shortly after. The men in charge of pleasing the gods, decided to name the settlement Madrid in her honour. Gaius took upon himself to rule the Spanish as his grandmother had wanted. “Caligula” he was called, a nickname he hated but could not rid himself of. He spend a lot of gold to please the gods, and many discoveries did he make in his studies of the gods and the afterlife. Long was his reign.
The death of the Spanish Queen and the settlement of Madrid marks the first event in the tale of the Spanish Empire
4000-3960 Settler moved two tiles north. Started Stonehenge and Polytheism. The site is superior for early slavery and later commerce. To bad its not coastal as later cities with Harbours will take the best trade routes.
3520 Hinduism founded, started Meditation. A gambit for both the early religions
3460 Buddhism founded elsewhere, Meditation dropped, beeline for Monotheism.
Sometime in between Stonehenge is finished, a settler and a warrior is made and sent east (lousy notes and few screenies)
2000 Monotheism discovered, Judaism founded in Madrid. Beeline for Pottery, then for Code of Law and a slingshot with Oracle to Civil Service.
1560 Barcelona founded on the coast ca 10 tiles west of Madrid.
Oracle and Code of Laws timed to finish 750BC. Oracle had to be delayed for some turns to make a warrior when the barbs came. One village was destroyed delaying COL.
725Confucianism founded in Barcelona. Entering Classical era. Oracle 1 turn from completion.
Gaius' report to the old hag:
 Attachment: civ4screenshotgaius.jpg
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Morrissey
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Chieftain
Under my duvet.
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Feb 2003
time: 10:59
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OK, long time lurker, who only comes out of his shell to post his poor attempts at AU courses is here! Hurrah!
A few weeks ago, I played a stonking game of civ where I managed to get Hinduism to every city on the map (except to the Japanese, naturally) and everybody, including Isabella who was Buddhist, was pleased or friendly with me (except the Japanese, naturally). I won that game quite early via a UN vote by keeping research at 100% for most of the game and still having a positive cash flow. I thought I'd try to go along similar lines for this course. Nab an early religion, spread it like wildfire and please everyone as best as I can. Also ramping this up a notch to Prince.
Founded on the spot and send the warrior north. Get Masonary from the first hut and a scout from the 2nd. Send scout west and warrior heads east.
Found Buddhism, so start researching 'worker techs'.
Meet Freddy to the north east.
Madrid reaches size 4, so change from Stonehenge to Settler then worker, to continue with Stonehenge afterwards.
Barcalona founded on the northeast floodplains. Starts on barracks straight away for defense.
Stonehenge built, second settler started.
1520BC - West searched, nothing interesting there. Just north and east to look at, although they seem like dead ends to me. Plan to open boarders with Freddy and send a missionary over there as soon as I've built a monostary as soon as I've built a second settler.
Attachment: au101 dar1.jpg
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Emperor
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Jan 2002
time: 05:59
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Apolyton University: long time no see! 
Here's my version, Immortal difficulty.
The are a bunch of cool things to do with Religion in Civ4, but the absolute coolest is founding them all and laughing as the rest of the world flails about godlessly (until I rescue them, of course!). So I tried for a denial strategy.
I figured the best way to do this is just to let the capital grow while researching the first three Religions in order. Building a Worker would require researching something for it to do and halt my growth, two factors that would hurt my chances at grabbing all three Religions. Mind you, at Immortal difficulty I'm confident I can get one of the first three Religions no problem - it's largely a matter of luck for the other two.
3640BC: Mediation (found Buddhism)
3240BC: Mining from Tribal Village
Mining was a nice gift because it's a prerequisite for Monotheism. I could have switched over to a Worker here and used Mines to power out my first Settler, but again this would have hurt my research. From what I could tell the map is not very crowded, so I had time to expand.
3200BC: Polytheism (found Hinduism)
Yay! 2 out of 3. I picked up a free Scout from a Tribal Village somewhere along the line, who in turn revealed another Scout. This allowed me to grab quite a few more huts than I would normally be able to against the Immortal AI and all it's free units. Unfortunately, all I got was Gold, maps, and Barbs.
2920BC: Masonry
2480BC: Monotheism (found Judaism)
Well well, so far so good. The next logical step was to build the Oracle and take Theology for free. I would then have to research Code of Laws the hard way, but it's 300 or so Beakers cheaper than Theology so there's no reason to complain. On Immortal the AI builds the Oracle very quickly (and also Stonehenge), so it's best to just complete it ASAP and make sure to have Writing; if you get greedy and wait for Code of Laws or Monarchy, the AI almost always beats you to it.
2240BC: The Wheel
1960BC: Pottery
I had a Worker by now and those Flood Plains were just screaming for Cottages. I decided against using a poprush strategy because I was not in the mood to figure it how best to make it work out right.
I also build a Settler and founded Barcelona before proceeding to the Oracle. I needed a second city to pump out units while I was building my Wonder; with so much empty land and only one AI to chase down the Barbs, I would need some adequate defenses of my own.
In terms of research, what's of note is that I skipped Agriculture, despite starting next to Corn. All the resource would have done is permit my capital to grow faster (and maybe completed a Settler one turn faster), but would have ended up unused as I hit my Happiness cap. I could have positioned my second city to overlap and make use of it, but I preferred to expand toward Germany instead of away.
1800BC: Priesthood
I immediately switched to the Oracle and did some calculations. Since I did not have Marble (no time to hook it up), I had to come up with all 150 Hammers the hard way. The best I my capital could output without starvation was 11 Hammers per turn. 15 turns seemed like a long time so I put on my micromanagement hat to see if I could do better.
Option B was to build a Temple before the Oracle, allowing my capital to grow one size large and thus work more Hammers. Unfortunatley, the final build time for the Oracle ended up being the same as just going for it outright.
Option C revealed itself when I realised that I had a full Food box which I could convert into extra Hammers by starving my capital while building the Oracle. I would not be able to sustain 15 Hammers per turn without eventually starving and losing a population. So Oracle in 10 turns was out of the question. However, I could do 15 hpt for 6 turns, then 12 hpt for another 5. I calculated it and it turns out I had just enough Food for this to work.
So here's where I'm at at 1520BC, 5 turns from the Oracle...and my fingers crossed!
Last edited by Dominae on 03-05-2006 at 20:32
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Jon's Dar I : Religious Beginnings
4000 BC to 1520 BC Prince
Objectives and personal limitations
1: Found all 7 religions. I'll consider it a defeat if this fails.
2: Convert as many neighbors to my state religion as soon as possible.
3: Spread as many religions to my own cities as possible. (4+ in all my own cities required before I can win)
4: I shall win the game by a peaceful means (Culture, Diplomatic, or Spaceship)
4000 BC Found Madrid in place. Start reseraching Medition as the cheapest religous tech.
3820 BC: Natives give me 31 gold 
3800 BC: Madrid's borders expand
3640 BC: Found Buddhism in Madrid.  (One down, six to go) Start reseraching Polythism. I figure I'll probably miss it,
but it is a prereq to Judism & Islam)
Convert to Buddhism
3560 BC: Get a map from friendly villagers.
3520 BC: Finish warrior, send it as a scount and start another.
3480 BC: Meet Frederick. There will be peace in our time.
3400 BC: Cowardly Lion runs away from my warrior stacked with Fredricks scout.
3280 BC: Warrior SE kills wolf. New Warrior guards Madrid. Start construction of settler [resources too spread out for semi OCC]
3260 BC: Attack and kill a wounded Lion
3200 BC: Found Hindusim in Madrid. (Two down, five to go) Start reseraching Agriculture. Madrid's borders expand
3100 BC: Kil wolf while defending. Promote to Woodmen I
3040 BC: Natives give me 54 gold.
2920 BC Discover Agriculture. Start resraching Masonry
2840 BC While defending, kill Lion.
2640 BC Discover Masonary. Start reseraching Hunting. Train a settler. Start another.
2520 BC Found Barcelonia [2-2-2-3 Madrid] Start a warrior.
2440 BC Discover Hunting. Start resarching Judism.
2360 BC Hindism spreads to Barcelonia. Convert to Hindiusm.
2320 BC Frederick adopts Slavery
2240 BC Find the German border.
2160 BC While defining, kill Lion.
2120 BC Found Judism. (Three down, four to go) Adopt Organized Religion. Start reseraching The Wheel
1960 BC Livy declares us the most culturalled civ in the world. Invent the Wheel. Start Pottery. Barcelonia expands.
1820 BC Settler trained in Madrid, start a worker there. Warrior trained in Barcelonia, start a worker.
1840 BC Found Serile [7-7-4 Madrid] Start a warrior.
1800 BC While defending, kill a barb warrior. Promote to Woodmen II.
1760 BC Discover Potery. Start resarching A.D.s for those cattle resources. Graniers added to all cities queues.
1560 BC Barb City decteded SW of my empire.
1520 BC Discover A.H. Start resraching Pristhood. Horses one tile west of Madrid's borders. Madrid trains workers and starts it's graneries.
Status Report:
Goal #1: 3 out of 3 so far.
Goal #2: 2 cities have 2 religions.
No progress yet on the other goals.
Key Tactics used in Dar 1:
Unescorted settlers pre barb Warriors and researaching Mediation and Polythesism as the first two techs in that order.
Attachment: spain 1520.jpg
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MadDjinn
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Warlord
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Dec 2005
time: 10:59
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MadDjinn DAR I v2
Prince Level
This DAR I'm going to attempt to work towards a cultural victory again, but I'm going to try to make the connections to the AI sooner, and spread the religions earlier.
I've already 3 spots picked out to host the 3 main cities, so should be focused on having them get all the good cultural buildings fast.
4000 BC -> Classical/Medieval era goals:
1) found all 7 religions
2) build Stonehenge in Madrid
3) secure marble source
4) secure stone source
5) found 4 more cities to block the germans from getting south of us.
6) get the 3 main cities fat crosses 1/2 or better improved (mostly cottages)
we begin at 4000 BC by founding our capital of Madrid.
our starting warrior wanders around (counter clockwise, starting in the NW) and gains 28 gp from a hut, and spots a stone source. 
3680 BC - Buddism is founded in Madrid one down.
Meditation learned, we move to Polytheism.
our warrior meets some friendly people who teach him warrior skills (XP hut)
3440 BC - we meet our first rival - Freddy of Germany. we decide not to kill his scout.
in more wanderings our warrior finds a source of marble
3240 BC - Hinduism founded in Madrid that's two.
Polytheism finished we move to the Wheel.
our starting warrior finds yet more friendly folk who teach him the way of the warrior. he's now a level 4 unit. this gets tested in the next few years by a group of lions. he fights bravely and survives. to find another group of friendlies who pay tribute to his power in the form of 34 gp.
Madrid pops out a warrior who heads WSW to find he's beset by lions. he struggles to reach a friendly village, who manage to scrounge up 110 gp for the cause, but then is slain by yet another set of lions. 
3000 BC the Wheel is learned. moving on to Pottery.
2680 BC Pottery is learned. moving on to Writing.
our starting warrior, continues his journey and is beset by wolves at every turn!
2440 BC - Stonehenge is built in Madrid. We find ourselves at the SE part of the world as far as our mystics reckon.
Madrid starts on producing a worker.
2280 BC - Writing is learned, we move on to Agriculture.
as Madrid finishes the worker, it starts work on our first settler.
2040 BC - Agriculture is learned. moving on to Masonry.
2040 BC - the first barbarian warrior is spotted. we quickly recall our exploring warrior back to Madrid to protect it.
once Madrid completes the first Settler, we task the city to start producing another warrior.
1800 BC - Masonry is learned. we move on to Monotheism.
1760 BC - Madrid becomes a refined city sporting +16 culture per turn 
our worker links up the corn in Madrids fatcross and continues placing cottages in the flood plains.
1520 BC - end of DAR. the Settler is now sitting in the correct position waiting for the next turn to build Barcelona.
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Emperor
Maryland Heights, MO
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Sep 2002
time: 04:59
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Fenmoor, you'll need to shrink your screenshot down to no more than 800 width.
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Emperor
The DoD
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Jun 2002
time: 05:59
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Noble Difficulty
4000 BC - I founded Madrid on the settler's starting tile. While going for Meditation first and trying to grab both Buddhism and Hinduism was tempting, I didn't feel safe in that course since Madrid did not have a two-commerce tile I could have it work. Thus I chose Polytheism; it’s only a little more expensive than Meditation, and it is required for Monotheism and Judaism, so if I decide to go for a second religion, I would already be on the path to Judaism.
My first build is a warrior. The only other unit I'd consider is a worker, but I want some more defense and exploration first; and growing to size 2 sooner means a little more commerce.
The citizen stays on floodplains; I want to discover these early religion techs as fast as possible.
3920 BC - My warrior pops the hut by Madrid. I get 38 gold. My warrior will continue north from here. Since I seem to be near the equator, there's no telling which direction holds the better lands or other civs; so I'm simply going to send my warrior away from the capitol in the direction he is already moving.
3800 BC - Madrid's borders expand. Good thing I sent my warrior north, it looks like the south holds tundra.
3680 BC - Madrid grows. I put the second citizen on flood plains.
3640 BC - Buddhism founded elsewhere. Looks like I could have gotten it myself a turn earlier, but it would have been tight, and I have no idea if I’d be successful getting Hinduism afterwards.
My warrior pops a hut up north and gets a map. I can now see up far enough to know there's a big jungle up there... I think I'll have him move back south toward the area west of Madrid.
3600 BC - Polytheism discovered, Hinduism founded in Madrid. Religion! I don't convert though; no need to, I don't have happiness problems and I hope to be getting a second religion.
For the next tech, I decide to take a 5-turn detour to Hunting so that I can build scouts.
3440 BC - Madrid's third citizen is born. I put them on the forested plains hill for three hammers. It'll be a hit to growth and 1 less commerce than I could be getting, but I need to finish producing some exploratory and defensive units so that I can start focusing on using Madrid as a worker/settler pump.
3400 BC - Hunting discovered. I might normally go for mining next, opening up Bronze Working and making Masonry a bit cheaper, but since this is a religion-oriented course I want to get Judaism for Madrid as well. So, on to Masonry! Digging up the earth's riches can wait until we've enriched ourselves.
The new warrior fortifies in Madrid while the city turns to producing a scout.
3360 BC - First contact! A German scout appears along Madrid's eastern border seeking to bring greetings from his master Frederick.
3280 BC - Madrid produces the scout. It looks like my research will be tied up with Masonry and Monotheism for the next 15 turns or so; so instead of going for a worker immediately, I'll go for a 4-turn warrior first; I could then build a worker in 10 turns, still ahead of researching Agriculture. The second warrior can explore for a bit, and will come in handy as escort for my first settler.
My scout heads off east in search of Frederick and city sites.
3160 BC - Madrid's borders expand. Looks like there may be some good city sites to the northeast I've failed to explore.
3120 BC - Masonry discovered. Next, Monotheism.
3040 BC - Third warrior built, and the worker's up next - a 9 turn build now, with all citizens working floodplains. Monotheism in 8 turns, so the worker will be idle a few turns while I research agriculture.
I send my new warrior on a northeastern heading. I think I may want to place my second city up there.
2960 BC - Here's the situation:
http://apolyton.net/upload/view.php?file=20487_au101bc.2960.JPG
2920 BC – My western warrior (now Woodsman II) pops a hut and gets a second scout.
2840 BC - I start sending the warrior that went off NE back home.
2720 BC - I am the first to Monotheism; Madrid adds Judaism to its religious plate. Again I don't convert the state; I don’t need the happiness bonus so I’d rather have culture from both religions.
Next tech: Agriculture. It'll take 6 turns, so my worker will be idling for 5. Not great timing, but ah well.
2680 BC - Worker produced, Madrid starts on a settler.
2600 BC - My northern scout is getting bogged down in jungle. It has found Frederick's borders though. My, he’s swamped.
2520 BC - Agriculture discovered. Next tech: Mining. I want The Wheel soon, but I don't need roads immediately, especially given how long it takes to farm flood plains; so I'll go open up BW as an option first. My worker starts farming. (I made the mistake here of farming floodplains and not the corn… didn’t correct that until several farms later.)
2360 BC - Stopped by Frederick's borders again, my scout turns back. Is he on his own corner of our continent, or does he control a passage to other civs? If the latter, I’ll have to gain access somehow. The world must be converted eventually.
2320 BC – With Mining discovered, I decide to go for Bronze Working next.
2120 BC - Madrid finishes building a settler. I send it north to claim the stone up there.
2040 BC - Barcelona founded. I start it on a warrior.
2000 BC - Here is the situation.
http://apolyton.net/upload/view.php?file=20487_au101bc.2000.JPG
1920 BC - I discover Bronze Working. Looks like I accidentally settled right by it!
I send my worker up towards Barcelona. I plan to connect the stone and make a dash for Stonehenge; that'll be Barcelona's next build after the warrior. (I wanted the warrior to give Madrid some military flexibility to go for another settler.)
My scout down in the tundra spots a barb warrior. Better get that copper hooked up soon.
1840 BC - Madrid produces a second worker, starts on a settler.
1720 BC - Wheel discovered. Next, Animal Husbandry.
1640 BC - Madrid's borders expand. As planned, this brings the plains cow tile into Barcelona's radius without that city's borders actually needing to expand.
The second worker finishes farming the corn and heads north to connect Madrid and Barcelona by road.
1600 BC - Barcelona's quarry completes. Stonehenge in 19 turns; that should drop once the worker actually connects the quarry.
Meanwhile, a strange thing has been happening with Frederick's scout. It has simply stopped by Barcelona. What's the deal? Is Fred running out of places to explore too?
http://apolyton.net/upload/view.php?file=20487_au101bc.1600.fredscout.JPG
1480 BC - I'll stop here with some significant events:
First, the discovery of Animal Husbandry. Next tech: Priesthood.
Second, the connection of the stone quarry to Barcelona. I will get Stonehenge in 8 turns unless someone gets there first.
And lastly, the production of a settler in Madrid. This one will head east to a site by the marble there. If I can get the Oracle as well as Stonehenge I’ll be rolling in the Great Priest points.
And so, the first age of Spain ends on a hopeful note. I feel like I may be reaching too high at this point, particularly with Barbarians sure to come; but once Stonehenge finishes Barcelona can build some axes, so I shouldn’t’ be too bad off.
http://apolyton.net/upload/view.php?file=20487_au101bc.1480.JPG
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V3nom
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Chieftain
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Oct 2005
time: 20:59
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difficulty: emperor
My tactic for this game never wavered. it was a rush for polytheism and then monotheism, ignoring meditation entirely (getting all 3 early religions on this difficulty is virtually impossible.
due to my strategy a worker first was out of the question because I wouldnt have any worker techs for probably the first 30 turns at least. Warrior first allowed for early verticle growth but that isnt AS important for a religious rush strategy (by the time the city grew polytheism would be nearly done so the 1 extra commerce would make less than a turns difference. Monotheism was always going to succeed with a direct beeline so again the 1 or 2 commerce from a larger city wasnt that important). So I opted for a settler first approach, to help this out I moved onto the plains hill 2N (spend one turn to get a settler out 5 turns earlier and thus have virtually no threat from animals)..
Polytheism was done in 3520, Barcelona was founded in 3080 and monotheism was completed in 2720. The nice result of this ordering was that Barcelona got Judaism and since i had no state religion expanded its borders extremely quickly, bringing in marble with no real effort on my part (it was founded 3E,1N of my capital).
After this intial flurry both cities took the time to build a warrior for the protection, happiness and to give them time to grow to size 2. Each then proceeded to build a worker as I quickly grabbed mining, the wheel and agriculture.
from here things diversified in my cities. My capital started alternating between warrior and settler while my second city began working on two temples to allow greater growth (and thus, a faster oracle). I know I'm leaving the oracle rather late because of my religion detour, but I still have enough breathing time doing it now at this difficulty especially given that I have marble (also the fact that stone henge has yet to be completely weighs in my favor as well).
On the research front pottery was skipped altogether, instead I went through priesthood to writting and then on to code of laws.
At 1520 my 3rd city is one turn away from being founded (see map). Some of you may question my city placement and yes it certainly is going to hamper my short term research efforts, as is the speed at which I'm generating cities. However the aim is simple, cut off the french with my first wave of cities from the land below (my third city will get confuciunism, so it will quickly solidify the border), then I have the luxury of building my empire vertically so I can support myself once more and then expand horizontally once more back into the space below. Yes its possible (probably even) that some settlers will be transported in galleys to behind me, but these will be easily to press with culture and in the meantime will help drain the AIs superior economy (because of difficulty level) with maintenance costs.
The plan from here is to use the CS slingshot with the oracle. After that I'll grab bronze working (and possibly iron working, depending on what I find). After this my research will probably start to lag as my cities start to become too cumbersome and are not yet producing enough commerce to make up for it. However I'll use this time to concentrate on my defensive military so the AI doesnt find me a tempting target (war makes it hard to spread religion :P). From there its strikes out to Islam, christianity and Taoism.
Last edited by V3nom on 22-08-2006 at 07:17
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Dubhghlas
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Warlord
Northwestern Ohio
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Sep 2004
time: 05:59
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Ok, I'm behind a bit. I did AU-100 way back at the beginning of the CIV IV AU, but then I got tired of playing and was still all sucked into Europa Universalis, and then into going back to college, so I never progressed. So now, I'm gonna try to progress. We'll see how it goes.
I feel like I should do well with AU-101 because it's using my favorite culture, the Spanish under Isabella. I love playing this religious approach in large measure because I love the bloodless revolutions. So we shall see if I can keep up with this course.
My Goals will be as follows: Found at least four, and preferably five of the religions, and convert each and every other country to my religion. Also, I intend to engage in war only when needed to spread the one true word.
I have agonized over reading the DARs prior to playing this scenario, but have decided against it. I want to compare how I think about the game with how others thought about it. I have, however, glanced through them before posting this DAR.
Noble Difficulty, Normal Speed (man does that make having a long drawn out war hard!)
4000 BC: I consider moving the settler before founding Madrid, but decide against it. It's tempting to move to between the rivers for some defensive protection, but that loses a food unit in the exchange, and I've decided Madrid, with all this food production possible, is going to be a monster sized city, with lots of specialists, rather than a center of commerce, so the more the food the merrier. I don't like the look of things to the West, and my warrior finds that things to the NE may be equally barren. So I'm going to settle right where I am.
Now comes the other big decision, the one that sets in motion my course for the whole game: first tech to research. My goal is to get 4 of 7 religions, but I'm going to have to figure out which of the first two that get researched I'm going to give away, since the chance of getting both is miniscule (Buddhism and Hinduism). Since I've discovered it's about 50/50 beating the AI to Buddhism, and since I'm not producing a ton of beakers at the start, and don't have time to wait to discover how to build cottages, I'm going to go for Hinduism. I've never yet been beaten to it by the AI when playing Isabella, and I think I'll have a good chance of getting Judaism shortly after. From there, it gets interesting.
The obvious plan of attack is to get Priesthood, then go for writing and build the Oracle, so that the tech I grab with the Oracle will be Theology. Theology is really expensive, so it makes sense to grab it with the Oracle. However, this leaves Code of Laws in peril (the AI heads for it like an arrow). It also runs afoul of the other main interest of the Spanish: the Conquistador.
Conquistadors are wonderful troops to get. But they are tech expensive; 12 techs to research to get to Guilds, and then you have to do three more for Horseback Riding. And even then, you don't have Agriculture, nor do you have Polytheism, Masonry or Monotheism. So I'm going to have to decide if I really want to be a warring Spain, spreading my faith by the sword, or if I want to be a pantheistic Spain, with less emphasis upon fighting. Since the point to the course is to maximize the theology approach, I'll drift much more slowly to Guilds, and focus on getting the religions.
So the plan is this: Polytheism, then Monotheism, then Priesthood, then Writing, enabling acquisition of Theology via Oracle. I'll hope to win the race to Code of Laws, but even if I don't, I should still have a good chance of beating the AI to Philosophy and Divine Right. Along the way, I'll pick up cheap techs that help me expand my cities according to plan, such as Agriculture, and I'll have to find time to fit Bronze Working in there somewhere, so that the damn barbarians don't come and slaughter my city defenders.
Timeline:
3920 - Villagers give gold
3600 - Polytheism; Hinduism; I convert.
3520 - Frederick pokes his nose in. Well, at least it's not Nappy. Fortunately, my first warrior is produced the same year in Madrid.
3480 - Tundra south of me; I'm at the bottom of the world
3360 - Village 2 gives gold (darn). Also, Madrid is Pop 3, so I can start on a worker then settler, and return to Stonehenge when they are done (I always produce workers and/or settlers at Pop 3)
3240 - Buddhism founded elsewhere. Darn, I would have had time to do both. 
3040 - Masonry
2960 - Village 3 yields experience. This is a lousy batch of gifts; and since Frederick has a scout wandering around, and I don't, I am betting I just saw my last village
2880 - First battle, won by my exploring warrior over a wolf unit. So far, have not seen anyone but Frederick and the barbs. Maybe I'm relatively alone here.
2760 - First resource worked (corn south of Madrid). We are gonna farm, farm, farm, baby!
2600 - Monotheism; Judaism; Organized Religion (I adopt)
2440 - First Settler produced, now working on Stonehenge
2360 - Barcelona founded (4N, 2E) To me, this was a no-brainer. It's a hill, it's got fresh water, and it puts that ugly desert square to the SE outside of the cross. Further, I'll need to go this direction to limit Frederick, who appears to be up this way somewhere. Oh, I also get The Wheel (I want Pottery for cottages, and figure I can take the time).
2200 - Barca converts to Hindu
2120 - Pottery (yippee, now Barca can have cottages)
1960 - Mining (I need some hammers for making wonders) I am declared the Most Cultured civilization. Not a shock.
1840 - Stonehenge completed in Madrid.
1760 - Priesthood
1520: Madrid is size 6 now and building the Oracle, according to plan. I've felt I had the time to complete some research into basic techs, because of the long time to the discovery of Meditation. So I've stuck in cottages and mining, allowing my worker to do some improving. This also allowed me to take the time after Stonehenge to complete another warrior for Madrid, and then build a granary. Madrid is now primed to grow, grow, grow.
Barca is size 3, and is producing a settler. I took the time to build walls, here, because I worry that this city will see some barbarian action, and walls plus hill location will be difficult to overcome for those nasty guys. Besides, wasn't much else worth building while waiting for Pop 3.
As far as the world goes, it's looking like a fair starting position. I have only met Frederick, so I am going to conclude that we are the only two on this continent, and that I have the south and west portion to myself, assuming I wall him off to the NE. I already see signs he's coming south along my East side. To the south and west of me barbs keep showing up, so I'm going to have to be cautious about them, but that means I may be able to conquer some barb cities there, later, especially to the West.
I'm going to put a city up by the stone resource in the NW, and one by the marble resource in the East. After that, expansion to the NE will depend upon what Fred does. I will go after Bronze Working soon (I'm working on writing now, for libraries and Code of Laws), so I can find where the copper is. This area isn't exactly resource rich, I'm hoping it does better on the metals.
Oracle is due to be done in nine turns. That will give me Theology, and then I can try for Code of Laws. God(s) grant I get there first!!
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