AU 100-A DAR 1: 4000 BC - 1520 BC

[nbarclay]

This DAR ("During Action Report") covers events in AU 100-A from the beginning through approximately 1520 BC. As examples of things that could be interesting to include, consider the following questions. What research strategy did you use? How did you manage growth, production, and tile improvements? Did anything interesting happen in regard to relations with other civs, barbarian activity, and so forth? Which of the civilizations you've met are following what religions, and have you established or adopted a religion yet? (When you open negotiations with an AI, there is a religion symbol in the upper left corner if it has a state religion.) Did anything else interesting happen? And perhaps most importantly of all, did you learn any interesting lessons?

DARs can take any form you want: a story, a timeline, answering some or all of the above questions, or whatever other form you might prefer. It is best if you try to make your DAR interesting for readers, but a dry, "just the facts" approach is acceptable. Screenshots of any especially interesting events and/or of your status at the end of the reporting period are always appreciated.

Please state what difficulty level you are playing on at the beginning of your first DAR, and it would be useful if you remind people in the later DARs as well. (I often use the "subject" field for that purpose.) Knowing the difficulty level people are playing on is especially important in regard to figuring out whether differences in AI performance and behavior in different games might be due to differences in difficulty level.

For those not familiar with Civ IV screenshots, hitting shift-PrtScr while playing causes the game to capture a screenshot and ask what file you want to save it to. The game then saves the file as a .jpg that can be edited with other software. As I recall, Apolyton has a limit of 800 pixels image width if a file is uploaded as part of the message posting process, which would require editing the saved file. Larger images can be handled by uploading the image to Apolyton and incorporating a link into the message, but since I've never used that process, I'm not prepared to explain how to do it.

[nbarclay]

This is going to be my first complete game on Prince difficulty level, assuming I finish it. I’m still relatively early in the process of learning Civ IV since Amazon was slow sending my copy and then I had to get a new video card because a bug in the game bit my old one.

---

In the year 4000 BC, Lord Nathan, leader of the American tribe, came up with a new idea. Always before, the Americans had been wanderers, drifting from place to place as the seasons changed. But the land around had more food than even the oldest member of the tribe could ever remember seeing, with vast flood plains and a field of corn. The American people could live there forever and never worry about starving.

The first step in the new project was to train a group of workers to create a farm for the corn and irrigate the flood plains. With pigs in sight across some water, Lord Nathan decided to order his wise men to investigate better ways to care for animals.

America’s scientists finished studying Animal Husbandry in the year 3520 and started studying Mysticism with an eye toward perhaps someday developing a religion. The first group of workers started their first farm in 3400, and Washington started work on a band of warriors while the city grew.

As time went on, Mongol and German scouts reached the fringes of Washington. The city finished its band of warriors in 2840 and, now with a size of four, prepared to start sending out settlers. New York was settled in 2400 as an American warrior encountered the Spanish. In 2080, another settler moved out too quickly to be escorted properly or to retreat if it encountered barbarians and was killed by barbarians who happened to be in exactly the wrong place, forcing Washington to shift production from a worker to a replacement settler.

In 2040, America’s gamble delaying research into The Wheel in order to try to establish Judaism succeeded and the Jewish faith was founded in New York. Research shifted to The Wheel. Boston was finally, albeit belatedly, founded in 1720 BC.

By the year 1500, America had researched Animal Husbandry, Mysticism, Polytheism, Masonry, Monotheism, The Wheel, and Writing (or perhaps was a turn away from Writing). Its next projects would be Mining and then Alphabet for tech trading. Relationships with all of the other civilizations were at +1, although Isabella’s Hindu religion would become a problem when America decided to bite the anarchy bullet and officially make Judaism its state religion.

F9 Status:

As of 1400 BC, I’m first in crop yield and land area, fourth in GNP, fifth in Mfg. Goods, and seventh in soldiers. (I didn't think to check at exactly 1520.)

Things to think about:

1) Since settlers are more costly in Civ 4 than Civ 3, protecting them is more important. Some risks may be acceptable, but not nearly as many.

2) Irrigated flood plains can be really handy for cranking out settlers, and the fact that they provide a gold as well as food is handy for research. It was the gold from the flood plains that caused me to decide that pursuing Judaism was worth the gamble.

---

The screenshot below is as of 1440 BC.

[n1gHtmAr3]

it is my first time in AU so i'm just curious, do you want the reports to be a post in this thread or just make a new thread for it?

[Sirid]

NOTE: Sorry this is so long, but brevity's not one of my strongpoints and there were a lot of details I wanted to include. I'll try to make my next DAR shorter.

I begin by looking around to see what my surroundings look like. I noticed quickly that the starting location is in something of a hammer/shield poor area, but was heavily packed with food resources (with two floodplains tiles in the initial 9 squares and 3 more after border expansion). Deciding not to waste any time, I founded Washington on the first turn, hoping that all that food would help me pump out a settler in a relatively short time to get a production city going. Meanwhile, my warriors visit the small tribe near the city and collect 56 gold to add to the treasury. Things are off to a decent start. I open the tech tree and select Mining, set Washington to work on a Worker, and end the turn. My goal with the techs is to gather more productive technologies before making the run for a religion (in this case Mining because I want to set up a production city pretty quickly) - I've found in most of my games so far that I can do fine without grabbing Hinduism and Buddhism so long as I work in one of the later religions into my strategy at some point. In the meantime my Warrior heads to the East/Southeast into the hills to find a suitable location for that production city.

Mining is researched in 3720 BC and Animal Husbandry is selected in order to take advantage of the Cattle and Pigs near Washington in addition to causing Horses to appear on the map. My warriors haven't had much luck in heading south (aside from spotting the cattle), so I decide to turn them west upon hitting the tundra so that they can loop around Washington and hopefully find some decent city sites in the vicinity. A second tribe south of Washington nets me 33 more gold, so things are looking good financially.

After a run in with a wolf I find a plains-heavy region southwest of Washington, which is also adjacent to the coast. For lack of a better choice I mark this spot as my next city site with the strategy layer and keep my warrior moving. The Worker in Washington is finished in 2400 BC, and is sent to the southeast to build a farm over the corn there.

3320 BC brings some bad luck when I run into a village of hostile barbarians. After I end the turn they attack, but the American army proves the victor! My warrior gains a rank and I select the Combat I promotion for him (not really enough large patches of forest to justify a Woodsman I right now). The same turn, Animal Husbandry is discovered and The Wheel is selected as next on the agenda. Time to start planning that new city.

3000 BC brings the discovery of the Wheel and Mysticism is next. The next turn a second warrior is completed in Washington and a Settler is selected. Although it's a risk to send it out into the wild on its own leaving Washington undefended, this is Noble and raging barbarians isn't selected. I decide to take the risk for the sake of exploration and send the warrior north to search the more equatorial latitudes.

In 2760 BC I learn Mysticism, opening the way for some culture generating improvements and wonders. Now I could take a big risk and research Meditation, which would grant me an early religion (Buddhism) along with the benefits that it entails, but there's a good chance an AI may snatch it up before I get there. Since this is a learning experience I take the risk and go for it.

I meet my first AI in 2720, the Germans, and sign for peace. The Mongols encounter me next in 2680 and I sign for peace with them as well. In 2560 my warrior gains experience from a tribe and wins a lion battle a turn later, allowing me to give him the Combat II promotion and letting him heal. 2520 sees the founding of New York in the area I described earlier; the road is completed the very next turn and New York is added to the American trade network.

Bad luck on the next turn - a foreign civ founds Buddhism, and just one turn before I get to it! Ah well, I can still use this situation to my advantage. When I discover Meditation, I begin research on Priesthood, which is a relatively cheap tech. My goal now is to make a break for Confucianism (Code of Laws) then head back towards the cheaper techs to catch up.

My exploration has revealed a plethora of production friendly tiles to the northwest of Washington; I switch work back to a settler and prepare the available worker in the area to start heading northwest. In 2360, my explorers find the Mongolian homeland, which is a pretty fair distance away from America. A bit later in 2240 my warriors find soldiers from Egypt and Arabia, adding to my list of contacts. The same turn I discover Priesthood and queue up the following techs: Hunting, Archery, Writing, and Code of Laws. The first of these, Hunting, is discovered in 2120.

Boston is founded in the northwest in 1960, near a production rich area that should pay off in the future. Because the city is right next to the river that leads to Washington, it's already connected to my trade network so a road isn't necessary. Time passes, and in 1680 BC I discover both Writing AND the Spanish homeland in the east. In 1640 Washington breaks into unhappiness because in my haste to do other things I never actually managed to garrison it with a unit. So I change production to a warrior.

As of 1520, the American Empire has three cities, is on the way to researching Code of Laws, and things seem to be going well. My closest neighbors are both a pretty fair distance away, and America is tucked in its own corner of the continent, so there shouldn't be many territorial issues anytime soon. According to F9 I'm 2nd in population, 1st in land area, 3rd in crop yield (I must need to build more farms), 5th in gold, and 5th in production. I'm also first in score with 287.

--------------------------------------------

[nbarclay]

Originally posted by n1gHtmAr3
it is my first time in AU so i'm just curious, do you want the reports to be a post in this thread or just make a new thread for it?

There is one set of DAR threads for everyone, so post your first DAR to this thread, your second to the next, and so forth.

[nbarclay]

As Sirid's DAR points out, one of the drawbacks of such a food-heavy starting position is that it's easy to outgrow your happiness if you aren't careful. One way to handle that situation is to focus cities that have a hard time not growing quickly on building settlers and workers, thereby taking advantage of the fact that building them suspends growth, and use other cities where excessive growth isn't a problem for building military units.

That's essentially the Civ IV version of the old settler/worker pump concept from Civ 3. Even the best pump in Civ IV (which the capital pretty much is in this game if it's used correctly) is only about half as fast as a corresponding Civ 3 pump, but since civs aren't supposed to build as many cities as quickly in Civ IV, that's fine.

[polarnomad]

(Difficulty: Noble)

I seem to always have difficulty starting when a leader that is chosen does not already have Mysticism. I never know whether it's better to forego other areas of research and try to go for some form of religion, or forget religion and develop my cities instead. In this game I intially decided to ignore religion.

I moved my settler over one tile to the east as I wanted access to the hills and trees for chopping. Some flood plains could still be accessed and the corn would be available once the Washington's borders expanded. The silk left me somewhat neutral since I knew it would be a while until I discover the calendar anyways.

The three nearby villages share maps twice (coast and ocean to the south, and then coast and ocean to the east), and give me Sailing.

My first warrior opens up some of the map to the east, then gets killed by a lion. I produce 2 scouts but both get killed by the same bear just turns after leaving Washington. The result being that I don't have much detailed knowledge about my surroundings, and waste time producing scouts that could have been put towards producing a settler.

I quickly make my way to Bronzeworking for two reasons. I want to chop some trees to help production, and I would like to see where there might be copper before I found another city. As it turns out, in the area that I have uncovered, copper is not revealed anywhere...

I build a settler and simultaneously research animal husbandry. Since I don't have copper, do I AT LEAST have access to horses? The settler is built before Animal Husbandry is discovered. I leave Washington unprotected so as to provide the settler with an escort.

I set about producing the Stonehenge in Washington (2000BC) and decide to help it along by chopping some more forests that have grown, which at this point won't help too much with only one city and second on the way, but what the heck!

Initially I thought I would settle near the pigs to the west with access to the coast, but as I'm moving my settler, I am confronted with the same bear (now over a millenium old) that mauled 2 of my scouts. We play cat and mouse for 3 turns and then I am shocked to find myself with 2 lions and the bear on 2 sides! Feeling doomed, I hit enter.

1 lion leaves (must have picked up the scent of a nearby female), the bear moves to where I want to settle (bastard has some previous life score to settle with me) and the 2nd lion attacks... I breathe a sigh of relief as my warrior prevails.

The next turn I discover Animal Husbandry and horses are revealed near the cows to the southeast. So I change my plan and head there and settle New York (perhaps the bear knew about the horses and was just trying to keep me from making a mistake... Thanks... um, buddy). When the borders of washington expand for the 3rd time all the wild animals are caught north of Washington, since for some reason they never seem to have their passports handy.

New York is founded in 1880BC.

Really late into the game I figure perhaps I still have a chance at Monotheism. Research Polytheism, Masonry, and then start Monotheism, but the very next turn... Judaism is discovered in a distant land. So now I have no religion and only 2 cities! This a terrible start.

So I switch to Ironworking in 1720 (which also means that my next DAR is extremely short) and with a scout built in New York I head out to uncover some of the fog of war that remains in place...

Oh, during this time I have met Saladin, Bismark, Isabella, and Hatty.

My main thoughts about this are:

1) I took too long to produce settlers, possibly aggravated by moving my settler over one tile (less flood plains) to the east on turn 1.
2) I should have stuck to my initial thoughts about ignoring early religions, rather than making a last minute bee-line for monotheism, wasting precious turns and not getting it anyway.
3) I just had some piss poor luck with those bloody animals...

[polarnomad]

(wanted to edit previous post but actually quoted myself here)

2nd post deleted

[teriakiburger]

Eh well time for my first game on monarch difficulty, plus I never tried the normal game speed always done epic before so it should be a learning experience.

Teriakiburger has been foiled into trying to shape the dim-witted and lazy americans into a semblance of a civilzation. The gods have seemingly blessed the other civilizations, with the americans coming from the short end of the gene pool.

So Washington is layed to rest at 4000BC, and the nearby villagers in pity fill our empty coffers with 57 gold. Demands placed for a worker to till the fields and with warrior reports of 'hills' we go for mining. Our warrior scouting the lands, sees some useless pigs and cows rutting about which we promptly ignore. The village to the south pities us again with 54 gold.

In 3680BC mining is ours, and we want something to do with this metal, so we pursue bronze working. The enterprising warrior has discovered beavers and some ice flows. Some wierd chant of buddhism echoes over the land.

3480 disaster is at hand when a pride of lions spots our warrior on the southern plains, some how the clutzes pull through.

3400 the workers finally lift up their skirts and get to work. Our warrior takes cover in the forest to heal, as we start plans to build a new city. While waiting they hear of hinduism on a bird song. The next village gives us again gold, 75 of it!

Our farming of the flood plains is done, and so we find timber with bronze working. The research starts on stacking bricks, they call it masonry.

Contact made with the Mongols, they did not seem entirely pleasant, so once the settler is finished a warrior is ordered. Our worker starts to seed the corn plot, in 2720 we finish up the masonry and start on mystism. We start on another warrior to explore the lands, as we need garrisons in the city.

In 2680, New York is founded with stone and pigs in sight on the plains coast. A worker is ordered to help the city grow, with our first worker heading to help the clear the forest.

Wonderful Isabella, the buddhist, is spotted by our warrior in 2640. By 2480 mysticism is ours so we start on meditation. After our 2nd worker is made in New York, we start on the Pyramids, a crazy scheme with 150 rounds to complete.

The Stonehenge is started in Washington, after a warrior is made in 2240. In 2200, the swamp life causes some unhealth in Washington at size 4.

Ahh robes are in fashion as Priesthood is ours in 2040, so we begin to research how to scribble in Writing.

A shocker in 1960BC, as we are rated 6 of 7 as most powerful, we hang our heads in shame


But at least Washington has completed the Stonehenge, thru the power of wood, a warrior is ordered up to escort the next settler, as barbarians have been spotted.

Also we twiddle with Washington as it trying to skyrocket to size 6 which would not be good.

New York decides to shift gears towards the Oracle instead.

In 1840, we start on settler #3 in Washington. Our warriors hear again a faith of Judaism has been founded, and we meet Hatchesput in 1720 BC, claiming to be the founder of Hinduism.

Bad luck in 1640 when a barbarian warrior kills my warrior by attacking across a river, for revenge detach my warrior from Washington.


Writing is finished and animal husbandry research is started to use those pigs.

And again in 1520 BC lose a warrior to a barbarian, not my day.

New York's boundaries have expanded so my worker begins to start on a quarry.

So let's see where I stand at 1520 BC.

GNP is #2, Mfg Goods is #7, Crops are #2, Military is #7, Land Area is #1, Population is #3.

I am 3 turns away from completing the Oracle in New York, and 3 turns away from a settler in Washington.

Lost 2 warriors to barbarians which hurts, and no source of bronze on the map yet.

At least at 263 points I am in the lead.

[Fireb]

Objective - First time on emperor. Lets see how long it takes before I'm overrun either by hordes of rampant barbarians and the marauding AI's.

Plan - Diplomatic victory. On this difficulty level, I'll have a hard time overrunning a single civ, let alone the whole world. A space race seems equally daunting. I'll need to found a religeon (judaism looks like the best thing to go for), and spread it fast and far, then use the income to fund my research (beeline to the spiral minaret, then UN), and survive long enough for me to build it (UN) and claim victory.

Game start - Nice growth position, will make a fantastic great person zone if I can get health/happiness resources. Not much in the way of production, so looks like I'll need great engineers to do the building for me.

Starting warrior heads north. Washington set to building warrior.
City expansion makes money from the hut.
Starting warrior runs into goody hut, and 2 hostile warriors leap out. I kill one, then my warrior dies.

Warrior built, building another warrior.
Warrior #2 explores south. Moves into a forrest, gets attacked by a lion, and a wolf in the same turn. Wow these animals are rampant on this level. He defeats both, and gets promoted to woodsman #1. He moves south, and finds a hut and this time gets money. As it's tundra below me (therefore no ai's there), he then heads north-east.

Warrior #3 built. Washington size 3, can't grow bigger without unhealthiness/unhappiness. Building a worker. Warrior #3 heads west. A few turns later, he moves on a hill. He gets attacked by a lion, kills it, then by a wolf (same turn again), and dies. Warrior #2 (woodsman) spots a bear, and so moves onto a wooded hill. The bear attacks, and dies. Haha.

Worker #1 built. Building a settler. A few turns later I run into the spanish. Grr, why couldn't it be a peaceful civ, like Hatty or Gandhi...never mind. Next turn the Mongols (another nasty civ!) and Saladin appear. Looks like it's crowded somewhere. Hopefully not too close to me.

Circa 2000 BC: Settler #1 built, building warrior. Settler heads north and founds New York on a hill, next to lots of resources. Looks like there will be marauding barbarians, judging by all the animals there were (now gone). New york building a warrior too (those animals kept me from exploring anywhere!). I discover judaism. Phew, I didn't fancy having to go for one of the later religeons, particularly with Isabella and Saladin about.

Warriors explore a bit more (finally, a bit of peace!), a couple of barb warriors are defeated, my warriors keeping to forests whenever possible. Washington now size 4, and won't get any bigger until a civic change. Another settler is built, and heads for that stone, with ivory and wheet close by too. Founded 1 spot from the shoreline, decided resources now were more important than trade later.

Future plans - 2 more settlers being built, the plan is to use them to take the land between me and the closest civs. All the civs appear to be in the northeast, which is very good, as I can then build cities west and south at my leasure (excepting barb cities of course). Researching hunting, then archery. There are 4-5 AI warriors patrolling around my cities, and whilst they're keeping the animals/barbarians away (thanks guys), I think I'll need good defences earlier rather than later on this level. The initial plan (spread judaism, give in to all demands made of me and go for a diplo victory) remains unchanged. Later on I might team up with an AI to make them like me more, and increase 'friendly' population. Other than that, I'll be playing defensively, building extensive cottages and a large empire (might as well make use of the traits!).

[vovan]

I start the game on Noble difficulty. The warrios get some gold from the village nearby, and the starting location looks good enough from the get-go to found a village there immediately. Starting to build up some defences right away. On the research front, our first order of business is mining. Another tribal village in 3760BC gives us more gold still. Yay. Mining is finished the next turn and work starts on hunting. By the time we get it, we also finish a warrior in Washington. Research starts on the wheel, and Washington starts producing a barracks, waiting for one more population point to roll in before starting on the first settler. My reasoning here is that we will have to wait for the population increase the same number of turns as we would shave off the settler production with the extra production. Hence, it strikes me as a good trade-off, as, overall, when the settler is produced, we have a stronger city.

One of the huts provides our warrior with experience, and we promote him to woodsman 2 so that he can explore faster. In other news, we invent the wheel, and start work on animal husbandry. My score is now 120, and I still haven't met any neighbors? Man, either I have been playing real crowded maps up till now, or this one is really empty.

Incidentally, just as I type that in, I meet a Mongolian scout the next turn. It would appear that Genghis is the one that founded Hinduism. Even though he claims his horde can beat my horde any day of the week, we decide to defer the final judgement of that for now.

As luck would have it, in 3040BC, our warriors are put to the test, as they find themselves surrounded by lions and bears. They survive the attack of the bears with 0.6 strength left, but fortunately, the lions decide to forego the easy pickings that our warriors represent, and just move on into the jungle. The warriors take the opportunity to haul their behinds off to the nearest forested hill and station there to regroup. In the mean time, we discover Animal Husbandry and start on Archery. You never know with Mongols around when you'll need some forces. We also notice that we have some horses nearby, and that would be a good thing.

As we discover Archery, I'm getting impatient for that settler! Looks like he'll come around next turn though. Research starts on pottery, us being financial and all. As the settler in Washington is built, work starts on an archer.

Soon enough, New York is founded to the south-east of Washington. I also meet Saladin, Bismarck, and Isabella, the founder of Buddhism. As Pottery is discovered, we start work on Bronze Working. As the Archer is produced in Washington, the city also grows to size 4, and that seems like the prime opportunity to starting building that first worker. That and we also run into Genghis' borders, and into Hatshepsut's scout. Hey, looks like this continent is not so empty after all, just that we have some room to expand here. Only thing that slightly bothers me is the tundra to the south. It means we'll have to push expansion to the north, straight into Genghis. And that is unnerving. I'm a lover, not a fighter.

As the scout is finished in New York, work starts on a worker there, too. With the invention of bronze working, we start on Masonry. And find also that there is no copper whatsoever anywhere in sight. Maybe we should go for iron working and hope that resource.

As Washington builds a worker, we decide to concentrate on growing it another point, and then building another settler. In the mean time, it resumes construction of the barracks. As Washington increases its population adn we switch production to a settler, and Masonry is founded and research starts on iron working, our scout is killed off to the south by the barbarians. Quite a pity that, even though he pretty much explored everything there was to see down there.

Towards the end of the first report period, we discover another Spanish city quite close to us and decide that it really is time to found a third city to the north of Washington to cut off a nice chunk of the continent for us to settle at our own leisure.

This is how the world looks like at the end of the first report:



And this here is the resource map. We got quite a bit of stuff to go around, but no copper whatsoever:



Also, in case someone cares for a save, it can be found here:

http://apolyton.net/upload/view.php?....Civ4SavedGame

[Swissy]

Noble Level:

Founded city on spot as nothing looked better.
Find Mining in first hut
3360 BC found Hinduism in Washington
3280 BC meet Gheghis Kahn of the Mongols
Find Masonry in hut
2720 BC Meet up with Bismark of the Germans
2480 BC found Judaism in Washington
2400 BC Meet Saladin of the Arabs
2000 BC Meet Isabela of the Spanish, she don't like me as she founded Buddhism
My lucky day, Horseback Riding in a hut!!!

Washington size 7 Stonehedge in 2
New York size 2 settler in 13
IronWorking in 9

F9 Stats: GNP 2, Mfg 7, Crops 1, Soldiers 3, Lands 3, Pop 1, Aprv 7, LE 7, I/E 1

I pretty much have entire map revealed upto the Mongols in the north and the Spanish in the east. I have tons of room with sufficent rivers to burry the other civs in tech research. Looks like no more huts, but I'm quite satisfied with three techs, 72 gold and no barbs from the huts I did pop. Went for Stonehedge to try and snap up a couple more religions with Great Prophets. As long as I have metal I see no problems dominating this game.

Techs Research Order: Mysticism, Polythesim, Hunting, Wheel, Monothesim, Pottery, Bronze Working, Iron Working.

[Dubhghlas]

Looks like a trend has developed. Most everyone is founding New York to the SW. I didn't; I'll post the DAR tomorrow, but I went for a try at cutting off the obvious source of furriners to the NE. Hopefully, I can have the whole damn area to myself, though it will cause friction with someone, most likely the Mongols!

[V3nom]

I played down to Monarch difficulty this game as I wanted to test out the effectiveness of heavy pop rushing as opposed to the treecutting everyone seems to be so fond of. I'm hoping to pull off the Civil Service rush AND get the Pyramids AND not dent my expansion by doing so... easy as pie eh? :P

please be gentle, this is my first DAR so any advice or critisizm is appreciated. Comments like 'just go away' will be considered as well
--------------------------------------
Game starts at 4000bc (big suprise eh? :P) and I found washington on its starting square and immediately head to mining and then bronze working. I que a worker and then warrior in my capital and set emphasize food on. When completed the worker will devote himself entirely to irrigating crops and floodplains.

My warrior heads north and lets the border expansion pop the goody hut (this way there's no risk of it being a hostile village) I end up getting a few gold from it and my warrior pops another to provide me with a scout.

a groan of annoyance escapes my lips as my scout provides dinner for a wandering bear. However my warrior bravely holds off a pack of lions so it wasnt a completely loss. a girlish squeel of delight escapes my lips as my warrior discovers mysticism in a village (and also gaining me several strange looks from people wondering why a 20year old man is making such high pitched sounds).

Washington hits size 5 as the warrior is finally produced and I set it to crank out a settler, something that will take only 10 turns (less once I get more irrigation set up). I send the little man on his way unprotected but knowing he's going to a relatively safe area, I then switch to slavery so that I wont waste any turns with my new city in anarchy.

During all this the wheel, pottery and writing. are done and I pop rush a granary into my capital before starting on another settler to avoid going above the now reduced happyness limit. 8 turns later the settler comes out and is sent out on his own and after playing hide and seek with a warrior is founded on the spot I want him to. A library is started and then pop rushed into my capital before two scientist specialists are assigned to ramp up my research and get me an academy.

-------------------------------------
At 1520 (turn 62):

*3 cities.
*2 workers.
*1 library and 1 granary in the capital.
*the wheel, pottery, writing, mining, masonary, bronze working, mysticism, polytheism and priesthood all researched.
-----------------------------------------
f9 stats:

*Land area - 1st
*crop yeilds - 2nd
*population and GNP -4th
*life expectancy & soldiers -6th
--------------------------------------------
screenshot including planned places for next cities:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...enShot0006.jpg

---------------------------------------------
Conclusions and thoughts for the next period:

-Pop rushing is indeed more effective than I thought. Without a granary you basically turn every excess food into a shield (very close to a 1:1 ratio). with a granary suddenly every excess bit of food becomes 2shields.

-I am unsure if I'll get the pyramids or the oracle, I should be able to grab 1 but I dont like my chances of getting both unfortunately. I am currently unsure of which city is going to build what.

[chriseay]

DAR 1: 4000 BC - 1520 BC
DAR 2: 1480 BC - Beginning of Classical Era
DAR 3: Classical Era
DAR 4: Medieval Era
DAR 5: Renaissance Era
DAR 6: Industrial Era
DAR 7: Modern Era

4000 BC: Washington was founded on the spot, and my warrior is used to pop the goody hut. This being a low difficulty, warlord, the villagers provided me with a worker! This is an excellent turn of events, probably completely ascribed to the fact that I am playing on warlord. Research is begun on mysticism in order to try for some religions, while a warrior is queued up to be built.

3720 BC: My warrior is scouting to the east, and finds elephants and stone near the coast. This will be taken into consideration for a new city. I always plan my cities around resources. I don't know if this is the optimal plan, but I feel that resources provide the most for each individual city and for my empire as a whole.

3560 BC: My warrior pops another hut, and this time the villagers are hostile. I guess it's a little karma coming back at me. Hopefully my warrior will be able to fend them off. My second warrior is finished in Washington, and fortified for defense. A settler is started.

3520 BC: My warrior defeats one barbarian, but loses to the second. I will have to build another warrior or two to scout now, as well as protect my settlers with the barbarians running around.

3360 BC: I found Hinduism in Washington.

3120 BC: My first settler and a warrior are sent to the Southwest, towards the pigs and the coast. I want to found a city by the stone and ivory in the east, but it is too far away right now.

2960 BC: I grow in Washington and start on a settler. I considered a worker, but I don't think I need one quite yet. My second city hasn't been founded and the free worker I got is working the tiles I need for Washington. I think after this settler I will build a couple of warriors, one for scouting and then a worker before I build another settler.

2880 BC: I found New York, with the pigs and a river in it's radius. It is also a coastal city, something I like to get as soon as possible. I start on warrior, with a worker probably to come next.

2720 BC: I found Judaism in New York. I am very far behind on other techs though, and I am questioning why I beelined for Judaism. I will switch civics and switch to a state religion now. I start on research for the wheel so I can connect my resources.

2480 BC: I finish the warrior in New York, and I send it exploring. There is another hut to the south, so I send the warrior there.

2440 BC: I discover the Wheel, and start on Animal Husbandry. I want to be able to use the pigs by New York as soon as it's borders expand.

2400 BC: I get a map from the barbarian hut. I want to settle in the south, with furs, stone and fish around. I wish I had explored here first, though it looks like I have this area to myself, so I can take my time. I also meet the Mongols, who are scouting and come upon the northeast border of Washington.

2200 BC: I found Boston by the ivory and stone, and realize there is also wheat in the radius. I will need to hook up these resources and also the city to my trade network.

2080 BC: I realize that I will need to rush infrastructure in both New York and Washington so I decide to forgo Hunting and Pottery for now, and research Bronze Working. I will continue on the worker techs after. I pop a hut, and get a free tech: Horseback Riding! I would have waited quite a while to get this tech, so it is nice to get it for free.

1800 BC: Bronze Working finishes, I switch to slavery and start on pottery. If I'm going to be pop rushing I'll need the food stored by granaries to get my population back sooner.

1680 BC: I have pop rushed a Hindu Missionary in Washington to take care of a few problems: I needed my state religion in New York, and I had both unhealthiness and unhappiness in Washington. The missionary can help me with both problems. I also send a settler to the southeast of Washington to enclose the southern portion of the continent past my borders. Hopefully this will allow me to expand at my leisure.

1560 BC: I found Philadelphia, cutting off the southern portion of the continent.

At this point I am doing well, but I regret my choice to go for Judaism after my unlikely win of Hinduism. It was a tech I didn't need at the time, and it actually set me back, because I didn't get the benefit of state religion in my second city until I built a missionary in Washington. This is because I founded New York too quickly, which I will remember if I go for more than one religion in future games. It is important to get all the holy cities in the capital if possible.

My goals moving forward are to expand to the north and west until I hit other civs, and then to take the land to the south that I have blocked off. The view of the American empire, circa 1520 BC:

[Aeson]

Started this one up figuring to focus on economy as much as possible. The first hut gave a Scout, which was very helpful. Founded Orangesodia on the starting tile after debating whether to move towards the Hills or not. Decided to use the Capitol as a Food/Commerce pump and mostly build Workers and Settlers there.

Started out on the Wheel and a Worker.

The Scout paid off quickly, grabbing Animal Husbandry, Mysticism, and 86g in total from huts. Also made contact with everyone pretty early on.

After the Wheel finished, it was right on to Pottery. The Worker farmed and roaded the Corn, then built 3 Cottages on FP for my capitol to use. In the meantime I researched Writing.

Happiness has been a bear, limiting my cities to size 3 and 4. At first I was heading to Drama and/or Calendar to address the happiness concerns, but after I got Mysticism from the hut, I decided to try for Confucianism and the Oracle. By this point I hadn't seen the AI doing too well, Stonehenge wasn't even built yet. I guess the AI didn't get the extra starting units? (Which explains the number of huts I was able to grab too.)

I had Open Borders with everyone after Writing finished. Ghengis and Saladin didn't like Hatshepsut, and so I ended up having to cancel the Open Borders. Since then Hatshepsut has been stuck on "won't talk" mode. That's a pretty steep price for cancelling a deal.

My first Settler went SE and built inbetween the Cattle and Horses on the coast. Started an Obelisk to expand to the Horses, then right in on the Oracle. Second Settler went W and settled on the coast next to the Lake, within range of the Pigs.

2 more turns until Code of Laws. 12 more turns on the Oracle. Bismark built Stonehenge a few turns back, and I can cut the build time down by about 4 turns once the Horse Pasture is finished, so I think I'm probably safe. In a regular Deity game, I don't think there would be much chance to get the Oracle after having built 2 cities and 2 Workers, with no chopping so far.

Barbarians have been a bit of a nuisance so far, but one good thing about Deity (especially if you have open borders with everyone) is that you're pretty well defended early on by your neighbor's exploring unit spam. So far I've only had 3 Barbarian Warriors invade my territory. Each time I've been able to defend with good odds and 2 Warriors. Can't wait for the Chariots to feel "safe" though...

------------

Techs:

Animal Husbandry (hut)
The Wheel
Mysticism(hut)
Pottery
Writing
Meditation
Priesthood
Code of Laws (2)

[Cort Haus]

DAR 2 - Rest of Ancient Era
DAR 3 - Classical Era
DAR 4 - Medieval Era
DAR 5 - Renaissance Era
DAR 6 - Industrial Era
DAR 7 - Modern Era


OK, nice river and insane amounts of food, but very few production tiles on the first spot, so move East to include hills in the city radius.

Choppers could get in trouble here, as there's -1 health from the floodplains that needs 3 forests to counteract. Not to mention a the sparse hammers that would be left if hills weren't in radius. So, Bronze is not yet a priority.

I'd like to try and use the CS-Slingshot here, to see how it compares with other starts, which means library, scientists, acadamy, code of laws, Oracle, Civil Service free tech. With such a high-food start there will be an early settler while thse hills are mined. So, mining is needed by the time the first couple of farms are done. Of the starting techs farming will be immediately useful, fishing not so with the inland start. Fastest route to library is via animal husbandry, which is now more valuable post 1.09, to see where the horsies are. Fast growth and low health make a case for an early-ish wheel to hook up the corn, though -1 food from exceding the health cap by one will probably be OK.

Another route for this capital with this leader might be a settler-worker-GP factory, and/or with cottage-spam topping. Org + Fin = affordable expansion.

----




Hitting the hut opens up a map to the North East, including an excellent-looking coastal-river site with Ivory (early luxury) and a hut. Washington is founded with the hills in radius, starts on AH and builds a worker while the warrior heads SE into the darkness before turning NE towards the hut, discovering a source of Stone en-route. Two city sites identified and it's only 3880 BC. Who said maps suck? Yeah, we all did, I know, but this time not so bad. The city radius expands revealing pigs and cows to the south. Make that FOUR probable city sites noted, and its only 3880 BC.

Arriving at the second hut - and another map! This time showing territory to the north and the east and OMFG there be Spaniards! A lion too, but happily the other side of the river, and the warrior survives. After some pondering over the geometry, the tiles for the ivory and stone cities sites are decided.



The completion of Animal Husbandry reveals horses south of the capital. Mining next,as the warrior heads north and gets 46g from the 3rd hut. The worker completes and starts farming while a warrior is built. Mining completes, and Writing started. I want to get all those hills mined up asap for the library build. The warrior completes and a second worker is ordered (6 turns, with the Corn and 1 mine being worked at size 3). Meanwhile the plucky exploring warrior finds the Mongolian border. Marvellous - Isabella and Genghis as neighbours. All we need now is Montezuma. 4th hut gives a warrior

There's a lot of empty land around - so it might get a bit barbtastic - at least by non-raging, sub-monarch standards. The 2nd worker completes in 2720 BC, with 2 turns till writing so a 2nd warrior is ordered. More Horses and several Wines are revealed to the north. Writing completes in 2640 BC, Open Border deals are signed with the various AIs, and Mysticism is ordered. Washington starts on its library, but maxes out on food first to get the pop up so as to use those nice mined hills.

When it gets to size 4 the library is 9 turns away. A 5th hut gives 40g, and after Mysticism comes some serious agonising over whether to go for the Wheel before Meditation or not. Hooking up the corn for a health-up and starting a road out to the Stone site would be nice, but I don't want to delay Code of Laws too long. Eventually I press on through Meditation towards Priesthood.

Meanwhile my second built warrior (first garrisons) explores south, and picks up another warrior from the 6th hut. Sweet, my adventurers are reproducing! One of the northern warriors, on his way home to help guard the fort meets a bear NW of Washington and decides to give it a Wide Berth. Those 3-strength mofos are not to be met anywhere but wooded hills, in my experience.

The Library completes in 2200 BC. Now to build a Great Scientist for the Acadamy. At size 4, with 2 scientists, it'll take 20 turns for a settler, so I max out food for two turns to get size 5 before starting it. This shaves a turn off the settler (now 17 turns) and add 1 bpt, but delays the academy by two turns. The scientists will take 17 turns to bake their cake too, so that'll be a Big Day With lib & scientists, I can grab The Wheel in 4 turns and do so.

In 2000 BC a 7th hut gives Bronze Working, and a potential commerce city site staked out in the tundra with furs, fish and stone. At this point Mechiavelli describes our Civ as the 3rd largest in the world. After the Wheel comes Priesthood, and during all this time my exploring warriors have fended off countless animal attacks. I'm being careful to avoid flat ground wherever possible and particularly to avoid bears, so as to maximise survival-chances. IN 1880 BC the Corn is roaded, and the 1 extra food from the health point (begone, green face of ague!) shaves another turn off the settler.

In 1800 BC we start on Code of Laws, and start meeting our first human barbs. Luckily on wooded ground, and both fights are won. The AI's are all busy adopting Slavery at this point, wheras the poor dumb human player has never used poprushing in Civ 4 and still thinks it'll bugger up his cities like it did in Civ 3. Another thing the AI's are doing is getting Annoyed with Hatsheput. Dunno why, but I'm already in Genghis's bad books for refusing to break off deals with Hattie. I've heard she's a good ally, so I snubbed the nasty Mongolian.

1560 BC and my 8th hut finally gives barbs - and lots of them. Farewell, sweet warrior, you served us well. On 1520 BC, our last turn of this DAR and the settler is ready next turn, with the Great Scientist arriving in two.

Military - 2 Worker, 4 Warriors (2 from huts)
GNP - 5th
Mfg - 7th
Crops - 5th
Soldiers - 7th
Land - 4th
Pop - 5th




Builds

Worker
Warrior
Worker
Warrior
Library
Settler

Tech
Animal Husbandry
Mining
Writing
Mysticism
Meditation
The Wheel
Priesthood
Bronze Working (from hut)
Code of Laws

[polarnomad]

Originally posted by Cort Haus
I'd like to try and use the CS-Slingshot here, to see how it compares with other starts, which means library, scientists, acadamy, code of laws, Oracle, Civil Service free tech.

Hi Cort. Could you please explain your strategy in a bit more detail? I'm left scratching my head... CS-Slingshot?

[monkspider]

Prince Difficulty

I founded Washington on the suggested spot. After that, I built a warrior for exploration, and started researching hunting. My intial plan was to go hunting first for scounts, and then mysticism-->Polytheism.

After building a warrior, I built a scout and managed to located Ghenghis Kahn in the Northeast. Mongols, right next door eh? Greeeaat.

I then researched the wheel, and animal husbandry. No one had discovered Judiasm yet, so I thought I would take a crack at that. I reasoned that. After building my scout, I took an unusual step and started building a settler instead of a worker. I didn't see anything particularly interesting at the time for my worker to do, but this was a step I had some reservations about later. Time will tell if this was a prudent move.

I continued to explore, and thanks to a lucky warrior-in-a-hut, i managed to explore the better part of the continent, as far I can tell.

By 1480, I discovered Judiasm, and was in 3rd place with a settler on the way. I was quite pleased in being able to discovered Hinjewism, and I hoped to spread some rellgious love to my neighbors soon.

I plan on making a run at Stonehenge, with the help of some stone to the east. It may be difficult however since Washington is not exactly overflowing with production. But those great prophet points would really help right now.

WHen I discovered monotheism, i had the choice to switch to organized religion. I opted not to at the moment, as I wanted to strengthen my finances, and ensure strong research and expansion.

Several things I have noticed, there is a lot of open land to be claimed, and I plan on using Washington's traits to control as much of it as efficiently as possible.

[monkspider]

oops forgot the screenshot.

[Velociryx]

Mine seems to be a slow, plodding sort of game thus far, but I will duly report my findings so far:

* 4k BC - washington founded in the starting spot. Settler begun. Map from village showing excellent lands, eastward. Yummy. Begin by researching Wheel.

3800 - 1st border expansion

3640 - The wheel is mastered. Straight on to Pottery.

3600 - Buddhism founded....elsewhere.

3280 - Pottery is ours...now researching Mining. Hut reveals 2x Barb Warriors. We kill one, and the other one gets us. We are now reduced to sitting and waiting for things to come to us.

3160 - Hinduism is founded, but not by us.

3000 BC - Mining is ours, and we set our sights on Bronzeworking. Washington's settler completes, and that city begins working on a Worker.

2920 - New York established on a plains hill (8-8-8-9) North of Washington. Begins a worker.

2680 Germans find us.

2520 Mongols find us.

2480 Bronzeworking is ours. Now our attention turns to Writing.

2440 Worker completed in NY. Begin a Warrior. Workers go farm some corn.

2400 - Washington's worker completes. They too, turn into corn farmers in the immediacy (that's two tiles producing a total of 12 food for the empire, btw....before we even GET on the subject of FloodPlains!....NICE).

2200 - Barbs spotted in the west. Prolly the same sap suckers that killed our starting warrior. We re-arrange some production to speed the completion of our warriors.

2040 - Barbs defeated west of washington. Promotion - Woodsman I. We heal.

2000 - NY's warrior completed (fortify). NY begins working on a barracks to give us that first, freebie promotion (Vel's philosophy...build it once...build it well).

1960 BC - Writing is ours! Forest growth near Washington. Washington's warrior completes, and that city begins work on a Library. Cottage completed on NY's singular floodplain (they'll get more once we have a border expansion).

1920 - More barbs appear out of the west (and slightly north).

1840 - Barbs attack us cross-river before we are fully healed, and defeat us. Washington contingent moves out to engage them.

1760 - Open borders with Mongols and newly met Spaniards. Barracks completed in NY (begins another warrior). Washington contingent defeats the barbs and begins moving southward, toward the goody hut that got revealed with the latest washington border expansion.

1680 - More barbs appear, this time, due north of NY. The move off in another direction the following turn, and we vow to follow and find them.

1520 - Another Warrior from NY (Woodsman I promotion), heads north in search of barbarians.

Washington garrison pops a hut and gives us a Scout, who moves south into the Tundra to explore and push back some more of the fog. Plan is to return Washington garrison home, beginning next turn.

F9 Stats

4th in Gold and Hammers
1st in Food
7th in Troops
4th in Pop

Assets:
2 Workers
4 Warriors
1 Scout

Production
Settler (9)
Library (1)

Techs in-hand:
Wheel
Pottery
Writing
Mining
Bronze Working
Mysticism
Meditation
Fishing
Agriculture

Priesthood in 5

We'll see what that gets us in the coming segment....

-=Vel=-

[Taian]

4000BC - Found Washington on starting square. Plan is to pursue mining and bronze then wheel and pottery. I'm choosing not to go after an early religion; normally I DO pursue at least one of the early religions but I'm not sure I can still pull it off on Monarchy (usually play Prince) so I'll take a different route and maybe pick up one of the later religions.

I must say, I like the loads of food kicking around. With the Americans starting with agriculture, priority #1 is getting a worker out and hooking up that corn. I also want to try a bit of a gambit that I haven't used yet in my other games but looks like it may be promising in this one. My initial builds are going to be a worker while I research mining and the first bit of bronze working and then follow it up immediately with a settler. I know that will slow down growth of the capital early on but combined with a chop during the settler build, it should allow me to get 2 cities up and running reasonably quickly. Anyway, that's why the mining/bronze path for the first 2 techs. The wheel/pottery path is to let me get cottages up on the flood plains as soon as possible. With the other American trait, financial, putting a cottage down on the flood plain turns it into a 3 gold generator very early on which should add up to allowing faster growth overall during the early game.

So, a bit of a risk in neglecting to get a warrior built to supplement the first one that I went out exploring with. However, barbs don't usually appear quite that early and, with careful movement (one space at a time for the settlers), I should be able to avoid any wild animals while I plop down that second city. Then I can put out a few more warriors to help patrol the borders.

3720BC - Mining.

3560BC - Spanish found Hinduism.

3360BC - Egypt founds Buddism. Appears the gambit to avoid an early religion is paying off. There's no way I would have been able to get to either of those that fast.

Sometime in here (don't remember the exact date) I got a scout from a hut. Sweet! Time to kick the exploration up a notch. Moved him two squares and...a lion appeared beside him. Poof! Dead scout. Stupid wild animals

3120BC - Bronze Working and revolution.

3080BC - Adopt Slavery. I'm planning to try and control the unhappiness and unhealthiness with some selective pop rushing...especially for libraries and possibly markets early on.

2800BC - New York founded.

2720BC - The wheel.

2480BC - Pottery. Cottages will start to go down very shortly hereafter. Since there is still a number of turns left before this first block is done on the report, a few of the cottages should be able to make it to hamlets.

2160BC - Writing.

1960BC - Boston founded.

1640BC - Mathematics and entered Classical era.

1520BC - Spanish found Judaism.

Cities:
Washington - Library, 2 hamlets on flood plain, 22 science per turn
New York - One hamlet, one cottage on flood plain. Constructing library. Will pop rush it once able, 10 science.
Boston - Nothing of note, 2 science per turn. Using this one as a troop station. One AH is researched, will put a pasture on its cow.


Techs:
Mining
Fishing
The Wheel
Agriculture
Pottery
Bronze Working
Writing
Mathematics
1 turn away from Animal Husbandry

I want to get towards Calendar asap but I will probably make a detour to Currency first to get both markets and the +1 trade route and then go for Calendar.

Units:
4 Warriors
2 Workers
1 Settler

Contact:
Mongols
Germans
Egyptians
Spanish
Arabs

In the screenshot I've noted the locations for my next 3 cities. The #1 site is about to be taken care of and I want to try and get the other 2 up and running relatively quickly as well.

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by polarnomad


Hi Cort. Could you please explain your strategy in a bit more detail? I'm left scratching my head... CS-Slingshot?

Complete Code-of-Laws before building the Oracle and you can take Civil Service as a free tech and switch to Bureaucracy for a super-capital.

[lockstep]

Decided to move the settler one tile to the east because I want (semi-)high production in my capital. Washington is still founded in 4000 BC - 2-movement-settlers are one reason why I'm in love with Civ 4 . Build queue: worker/warrior/settler - without agriculture as starting tech, I'd build the warrior first to grab more huts, but right now I want to irrigate those flood plains.

Exploration with my starting warrior reveals a potential city site to the east with stone/wheat/ivory . I like to build Stonehenge even when I have no stone to expand my borders quickly, but with stone it's a must-have, and the Pyramids become also tempting.

Research order: Animal husbandry (to see where those horses are), then mysticism - masonry - polytheism - monotheism (for a chance to found one of the early religions). Hinduism is founded by someone else while I'm still researching AH (I nearly expected this), then also Buddishm while I'm still trying to figure out mysticism (well, too bad), then also Judaism only four turns before I get monotheism ( ).

Contacts: Bismarck, Saladin, Genghis Khan and Isabella - in short warmongers and religious fanatics. Saladin and Isabella have already founded a religion - I might as well forget about a diplo victory.

New York is founded in 2360 BC near the stone and immediately starts building Stonehenge - my first worker had been standing idle for two turns to start the stone quarry ASAP.

Results of further exploration: Lots of good city sites in the vicinity! I choose the horses/cow site to the southeast for my third city - Boston is founded in 1960 BC and starts working on a barracks. Washington produces another worker, then switches to the Pyramids.

My hut results have been extremely pleasing so far: One warrior, five experience points, one tech (sailing) and a total of 207 gold! This will allow me to keep the tech rate at 100% for quite some time.

Research, part two: The wheel (I need to connect Washington with stone to speed up the Pyramids) - mining (to get some hammers out of those Washington hills for the Pyramids), bronze working (to chop some Washingon forests for ... I guess you knew already).

The general situation in 1520 BC: 3 cities with 9 pop points, two workers, a couple of warriors. According to F9, I'm everything from no. 1 (population, land, mfg. goods) to no. 7 (soldiers), with an average rank of 3.

Some details: New York should complete Stonehenge in five turns, notwithstanding the fact that I didn't road the stone until now because I foolishly assumed that ressources within the 9-tile-city radius are automatically connected . Washington's growth has been stopped at size 6 - everything above that would result in unhappy citizens. (I really miss my early temples.)

[Dubhghlas]

Edit: Noble Difficulty (I'll pay for that, later! )

Beginning

It is the Year 1 in the history of the Scottish people. Dubhghlas of the Scots has wrested control of his clan away from the loutish brute who ruled through fear of his club. Too bad he didn't understand the subtle concept of not looking at a loud noise when confronting someone with a smaller, but quicker club. Mourned, he was not.

Dubhghlas has a unique idea. From his agile mind has come the idea of staying in one place to grow food, rather than moving around in the hopes of finding food. If you take care of the grasses, they will grow tall and you can harvest their seeds more easily, then store them for the winter. The trees will provide the basics for huts in which to huddle during the winter months. The local animals can be hunted for their skins and meat, as they always have, but there will be no more peripatetic efforts to find the next ripening berry, the next stream of fish. People can wander, but there is no place like “home,” he thinks. He hopes he is right.

The clan has come out of an area of desert, by moving towards the setting sun over a range of hills. There is a strong river, along which grasses and reeds grow in profusion. Although the area is dry, the river provides life. And in the near distance there are forests of green. The area looks likely to support the clan. Although there are a few local humans, the area is relatively unpopulated; the fierce tribes they ran into in the direction of the rising sun are missing. The order goes out: begin to build a camp, a camp that will not move.

Dubhghlas and his warriors visit some local residents. They have no helpful advice, and are unwilling to join the crazy Scot in his unusual plans. They are, however, willing to offer some pieces of gold in order to be allowed to remain unmolested in the area; perhaps at a later date they will join the Scots in their camp.

And, so, the Year 1 ends with the building of the Camp. Someday in the future, for obscure reasons known to none, the city founded on this site will be known as Washington. The women are sent to begin tending the river-side grasses, with the hope of collecting seeds for planting more grass in the coming years, and watering these grasses in times of less rain. The young men and boys are set to learn the use of clubs and hand axes. Because scouts have seen large amounts of wild pigs in the area, Dubhghlas sets some of the men to the task of figuring out if the pigs can be kept in some way, so that they can provide a ready source of food. He doesn't know the term “Animal Husbandry;” he simply knows that pig ribs are “good eats.”

First Contact

Four hundred years have passed since the Scots clan settled by the River Dubhghlas and started to make a permanent home there. The years since have been kind to the clan. Explorations to the lands of cooler air show that there are many animals to be found and used. Eventually, though, the lands get quite cold, difficult to live in, the clan thinks. Wolves and bears roam the area, and constant vigil is needed.

The home city has grown. Fully five handsful of hundreds live there. A permanent mud building houses the clan chief and his family; the Dubhghlasses are living well and their building draws awestruck praise from those few wandering souls who stumble upon the village. Grasses are still farmed along the river, and the nearby forest is used to help make sturdy homes for the members of the clan, along with useful implements. The current chief wonders if the strange pods made by worms that inhabit the trees can be somehow turned into something to wear, or at least tie things up; the pods are made of a long, thin, strong thread. For a long time, no one dared leave the village that far to work, but after some two hundred years, the power of the clan's prestige kept workers safe even when not on nearby lands.

Just within the last few years, this turned out to be a good thing, when contact was made with a scouting party from a tribe that calls themselves the Mongols. They came out of the lands towards the rising sun, and although they spoke of friendship, the clan worries that they may be fierce warriors at heart. Still, they agreed not to attack members of the clan, and the Scots agreed not to attack them. However, the clan intends to expand its base of warriors, just in case, and will send some out to explore the lands down river. Rumor of a very large body of water that can't be drunk brings curious looks from the young warriors of the village.

The clan almost has the knack of keeping the pigs and cows captive and alive. It was not an easy skill to learn. There are wonderful beasts down the river that run swiftly and are strong enough the clan believes they could be ridden; the current Dubhghlas intends to capture and train them for riding; he imagines putting warriors on them and making swift progress from place to place. They would be unstoppable. He calls them horses, because a horse is a horse, of course, of course...

Expansion

More than a thousand years have passed. The Scots clan's leaders claim it is the year 1520 since the founding, but not all believe that an accurate count has been kept. No one yet has thought to write things down. The Dubhghlasses still run the clan; they keep the oral history, the traditions of the clan, and the really good ribs.

Much has happened. Not too long after the first contact with the Mongol tribe, warriors exploring the lands located towards the setting sun found people who were working the streams and hills to extract metals; the warriors lived with them long enough to learn this new skill. It has not yet been put to use, however; there are other priorities and the clan does well enough as it is, harvesting the grasses along the river.

The clan now works to figure out how to take rock and shape it, so that it can be built with. Mud bricks only go so far; they can be worn down by rain, and by wind. A splendid set of structures could be built with carved rock. Maybe their grandchildren will do such things.

The horses have been tamed, and can be ridden. But they prove of little value for the warriors; clubs are no good when riding, and some other weapon must be developed. The Scots begin to learn that what seems a good idea at the time isn't always helpful without coordination with other good ideas.

However, a big step has been taken. A group of the clan has left the village and has settled in another village, a village that some will call “New York” in ages to come. For right now, it is simply the “Other Village.” The current Dubhghlas clan head sent these villagers to the hills located in the direction of the warmer weather. Scouting parties have already identified many horses, and wild grapes in the area. But the Dubhghlas is thinking more of defense. Already contact with both the Mongols and the Germans has been made; the Germans are even more shifty and bellicose than the Mongols, though again, agreement was reached with their scouts not to harm each other's warriors. These scouts, too, came from the warmer lands, and it is the Dubhghlas' idea to string villages from shore to shore, to the sunset of the great desert, keeping the Germans and the Mongols from settling in the good lands the Scots have scouted further sunsetward. The Dubhghlasses want all the lands between the sea and the desert for the Scots.

And, so, the Scots prepare to send more settlers even further into the warm lands. Some cry that there should be trained those who can work the land better, but the Dubhghlasses do not heed them. Expand and seal off the prime lands, then worry about working them. He who gets there firstest with the mostest seems to do the best in this world.

First Era Ends

Still another thousand years have gone by. For fully 2500 years have the Scots dwelt alongside the river Dubhghlas. Now two additional villages exist: the one someday to be called Boston (maybe because of the beans that grow in the area) now exists further towards the warm lands, between forests and jungles. Trained workers are now beginning to farm the strange grasses that produce what some call an “ear” of seeds near the Main Village. More workers are being trained each day, in the hopes of being sent to the other villages to help out.

The clan now keeps written records. They are crude; mere pictures that represent ideas, but they allow the storage of information for future use. No longer is the untimely death of an elder a loss of knowledge. And the clan works to perfect the pictures, so that they can be written more quickly, and learned more easily. Some even talk of the pictures being just symbols for sounds, though most cannot conceive what this would mean; it sounds like magic for the shamen.

Nevertheless, it may be powerful magic that is needed. The world around them is filled with other tribes that are quite aggressive. The Spanish, the Arabs and the Egyptians have all contacted the Scots. So far, no blood has been shed, but most of these tribes beat on their shields with their clubs and act as if they alone are worthy of being praised. The Dubhghlasses consider themselves fortunate to have settled the lands they have; soon, the lands behind their villages will be safe from the other tribes.

The Scots are a happy, healthy people. They are not the most numerous, or the best at growing food, but they have more land that they control, they believe. And they intend to hold people in awe of them; they are building repositories of written records in each of the new villages. They hope this will bring people to study there, who can help them learn new things, foster new ideas, and cause those who they meet to regard them with wonder. It is not swords OR plowshares that will win for the Scots; it is the hearts and the minds of men the hope to conquer.

[DeepO]

Monarch difficulty, game 32 (+ multiples for test games)

Introduction
I decided to step back a level for this AU course (which I noticed too late, BTW, I never expected it to take of so quickly after the patch!). The reason being that I'd like to show some of the details for efficient play... You need those if you want to compete on higher levels. You can't care about such details when you're constantly battling for survival

But first, a couple of goals. I've been interested in tech beelining lately, so certainly the early game will be focused around that. Comparing my game to others is easier if I try it to an extreme. A Civil Service line is the obvious choice before opening the save, so I'll try to reach that asap. If others have done the same, we can compare strategies easier.

This also means that the DAR structure is going to be a bit limited for me: I'll try to reach the Classical Era around 1500 BC by getting to CoL, and the Medieval era a bit later on. DAR 1 to 3 could be combined in a single post

But those are just empty plans right now... let's see what the map holds.

4000BC Early decisions

The opening shot


A very interesting decision early on. Floodplains and a river, but not much production in sight.

I decide not to move my warrior, but settle the city first. I can see enough of the land, the choice is between where the settler starts, and 6 from there.

3 reasons why I eventually moved the settler:
- I was going to pop the hut with settling the city. Never seen it produce anything bad, but that might be superstition
- 2 grass hills in sight are the only good options I got for production. There is too much food here, you need to be able to balance it. If you go for only forests, you're lacking commerce... a floodplains+hill is a lot better.
- 3 floodplains in sight, but it looks like settling on the starting spot will give you 5 fp in reach. That's going to cost 2 health... I can't lose health, as I want to be able to run specialists early on.



I pop the hut and... yes sir... a scout! Wow! Talk about good luck: This most certainly made the move worthwhile. Now, I've gotten early scouts before, and there is one thing I learned the hard way: They die easily. There is nothing so bad as running into a lion on turn 5, losing this advantage again. So I'm going to be more careful this time, or at least I'll try

The scout, or the hut, give a few more map tiles as well: they show wine up North. I'm sending my warrior to explore it.

I set my city to a warrior first. The fp needs irrigation (a tech I already have), but it is also giving me commerce. I want that to speed research along, so I plan on using up to 2 floodplains while my warrior completes. Only 1 hpt will mean I've got to wait 15 turns, but I consider that an investment. After those 15 turns (14 it turned out), my city will be size 3. That will give me +2fpt and +2 cpt, so I should be able to catch up quickly in building a worker.

Further, I need mining asap. But, I don't have a worker yet, and it will take at least 25 turns to build one. I decide to beeline to writing through the priesthood path: it's the shortest way. I'll need to put mining somewhere in between, most likely after Mystcism and polytheism or Meditation (not sure yet which of those last two to pick).

If I'm lucky (again ), this will give me a religion as well, but there is not much hope for that.

DeepO

[DeepO]

4000BC - 3680 BC: Mysticism
With two explorers, I try to think of a good pattern to explore my surroundings. I don't want the warrior to wander far as I could use him later on. Also, it looks like the South has Tundra right below my capital. I doubt I'm going to see many civs coming from there.

So, my warrior moves up North, to circle around my capital counter clockwise. The scout moves up North as well, but will go clockwise. As I'll probably lose one of them, this should give me the interesting regions first.

In the South, I'm going to run into barb problems. Tundra always does that... I need a warrior there as soon as I can spare him. For the moment, I'm safe though.

The wine sites turns out to be an excellent one: it has 3 wines, and a wheat. It also has a plain/hills tile, however I'm not sure this will be the perfect site for the city. It's obvious I need to settle right next to the wheat: the wheat near my capital will not give his health bonus until I road it. The other one is one the river, though, and help my capital without a road. I'm not planning on the Wheel anytime soon, so this means that the wheat near New York gives it health to Wash, but not the NY itself. But that's okay, NY will be small at first.

My scout explores to the east, and finds more maps from the hut. A nice patch of resources there, with 2 elephants! So far, it looks like I'll go for the wine first, then hurry to get the ivory. I may not go for hunting soon, but war elephants are incredibily useful.

My warrior up north moves to a cow resource (trying to find another city spot), and discovers a hut. But first... Mysiticsm completes in 3680 BC.

3680 BC - 3320 BC

The scout discovers 56g in a hut in 3680 BC, but the warrior spawns 2 hostile warriors in the other hut. Bye bye warrior. So much for my grand circling explorer strat The scout returns home sooner, going for the cow down below, and trying to circle through the tundra to the East.



After Mysticism, I'm wondering on which religion to take. I've seen many times, that the AI tends to favour Meditation if it starts with Mysticism, in which case it will finish by the time I get mysticism. If buddhism would get founded, it happens a bit later. And founding both very early on doesn't happen many times.

I decide to minimize the risk: I'm starting on Meditation now, with the option to switch to Polytheism in case Buddhism would get founded within the next 3 turns.

As it turned out, I gambled right: Hinduism gets founded in 3480 BC, 5 turns after making the choice. Buddhism would have been founded before that, so there is a very good chance I'm getting it now. It'll always bring tension and anticipation to go for one of the techs, even if the real focus here is writing


It's time to start to think about specialisation of cities. Yes, they haven't been built yet, but I pick priority in locations depending on why I need a certain city, and very rarily because it will unlock a resource.

As I get a better feel of my capital, I see that more than in other CS-beelines, it's going to be hurt for production. Without a granary and slavery, or chops, this means it will be good for building settlers, but won't have time to do so. it certainly won't have time for building warriors.

Which means I need a barracks city, and I need one now. That's going to be my first priority: to find a site which needs not a lot of improvement to become productive (as I can't spare my worker: it has to stay close to Washington). The elephant patch looks good, but needs a worker before it can blossom, and masonry as well. Plus, there is something awkward about it: it's very difficult to fit in an excellent city, while you can cramp in two moderately good cities if you want.

So, the wine city is going to build our military, probably be our only supply of units in a long time to come. It only needs a farm on the wheat, after which it can use forest/plains and forest/hills to get a good production going. The difficult thing to do is going to have discipline: I can't build a wonder there, no matter how much I want it, as it will mean other cities which are not ideal for it will need to build units.

The alternative would be to build the Oracle there, but my capital makes a poor barracks city. I can't wait for city #3 to be a barracks city, too high risk.Further, with the wine, and eventually the founding of confucianism there, it can later switch to more commerce... but by the time I'll get monarchy, I hope I've got another city to become a barracks city.

(BTW, I tend to draw out plans for each city, with very little broad cities, or cities that get founded just to fill a gap until about 6 or 7 cities large. Focus makes cities efficient, if you don't know what you're going to do with a city, you probably don't want to settle it)

One thing though: it looks like the plains/hills tile would be ideal for the wine city, but that would give me less production, and will take part of the capital's tiles. I don't need the production that fast, so I want to go for the grass/hills tile instead. It doesn't look like my capital is going to run as a GPP factory, which means it can use all the tiles around it. (cottages on fp )

As to the elephants: maybe I can have a coastal city there, going for the great lighthouse. It looks like it is going to have a lot of production down the road.

DeepO

[DeepO]

Micro managing:

With my capital only needing 1 more turn to grow to size 3, and 2 more turns before completing my warrior, I decide to take a peep. There is still some micromanaging that can be done in CIV, even if it is a lot less common than in Civ 3.

As I suspect, I can set one floodplain to the silk: it gives both warrior and worker next turn. I still keep the 2 commerce, which is important too: I need to get to Meditation asap,
and can't afford even a single lost beaker.

In 3440 BC, my first warrior is built. I start to work on a worker the moment my capital hits size 3, with 3 more turns before meditation.The worker will complete in 10 turns time (so 10 turns after you could possibly get it when going worker-first). My capital is giving me 12 bpt.



The scout discovers another hut to the South East, and I move my new warrior down there as well. I spotted a lion and some wolves down there, maybe I can get some XP before bears appear.

3400 BC: the scout discovers 34g, spots the wolves. It moves towards some forests for protection. The lions have been sighted again as well. It kills the wolves the next turn, and gets a Woodman I promotion. And heal that last 0.1 as well...

3320 BC - 2320 BC
Budhism gets founded in 3320 - BC. I start on mining. I don't have my worker yet, but it will be close... but it can irrigate fp while waiting for mining to complete.

I kill the lion, discover another hut with the scout (38g plus a good city site close to sheep. But also wolves next to it), and move my warrior to the large part North East (which my first warrior was going to explore, before it got killed). There, it finds another hut giving maps, but dies by the lions next to it (didn't spot them before). Ouch. My only military unit right now is a scout, and I'm building a worker

The worker completes (right before mining, but I decide for some farms first, it's better for commerce), I start on a warrior to get to size 4 before starting on a settler, and start on a warrior. After it completes (timed: exact size 4 again), I start on a settler. The warrior stays near to Washington this time: it can sniff out the wines site but that's about it. I need him before I can get to size 5 in Washington. Running unhappy citizens is very seldomly worth it...

I also start on writing, after priesthood is discovered. Apart from the mining detour, it has been the fastest possible path to writing: the lowest beaker count, and as much commerce as possible.

I discover writing in 2320 BC. I still need 2 more turns on the settler before I can start on a lib. My worker has completed 2 farms, and will complete a mine in 2 turns as well. Only after the settler completes am I going to need that mine, so that is also pretty nice. I haven't improved the wheat though, and I want to get another mine first.



2320 BC - 1520 BC
As I spot a barb warrior and a bear, I decide to build a warrior before the lib. Technically, that puts me back 3 turns on my path, but I can't risk it: 2 cities, protected by 1 warrior while barbs start to attack? Better not.

Also, I haven't met anyone yet: I suspect them on the North East (as I more or less covered South and the West, I can see coast everywhere because of the maps), but the rest of the explored land hasn't seen a lot of AIs yet. I'm going to see more barbs there.

First problem, though, is the wines site: I carefully have to move there, as there are 2 bears and panthers nearby!

Then, I make a mistake. The settler was ordered to move onto the hills a couple of turns ago, and the warrior ready to scout it out first. But because of me not paying attention, the settler moved onto the hills before the warrior could... right next to bears. I moved my warrior on top, but lost.

I decided this was a bit much for a simple mistake: so far, nearly everything had gone perfectly, now I both lose my first settler, but also my only military unit who was acting as scout... as it is a learning game, I reloaded, and moved my settler onto the plain hills instead. I could have moved my warrior to the same spot, but as I knew I was going to lose him, I decided against it: with the settler taking the plains/hills, the warrior would be safe from the bears.

A cheat? Perhaps. But I'm not going to crawl out of that hole for my first demonstration game It was a genuine mistake: I would not have lost the settler if I would have moved the warrior before the automove of the settler. And I normally always do that.

Turns out the bear decided to take a turn, and it headed up North. Next turn, I could move settler+warrior to the right spot anyway. Upon settling, my warrior went after the bear, circling towards the elephants in order to make sure my next settler wasn't going to have the same problem.

2080 BC: I settle New York near the wine. It starts to work on a warrior, and the wheat. My worker arrives the next turn to start on the farm, after it has 2 farms and 2 mines on grass/hills near Washington. The wheat near Wash is still not farmed (which, in hindsight, might have been a mistake, but I felt I needed the commerce more)

Also, this same turn, I encounter Saladin. I encounter Bismarck a turn later, and Hatshepsut 2 or 3 turns after that. I sign OBs with them all.

After I built a warrior (which stays at home this time), I start on a lib. It completes in 1680 BC


Now, I've got to choose. I start on the Oracle, of course, while still continuing on CoL. I normally would run 2 scientists to get the academy asap... however here, I need production more. So... only 1 scientist (more later, once Oracle completes), CoL in 14 turns, CS in 18 turns... good My capital is making 17 bpt, which is decent. Compare that to 2 bpt from New York, which even works a river tile. At this stage of the game, your capital is always going to do 80-90% of the research work, unless you're able to have gold or gem mines in other cities (and these require extra food too).

1520 BC


My capital is running at 17 bpt, 8hpt. CoL in 10, CS in 14 turns.


My tech path... next tech is one page away Now of course, if you go for a more flat approach, you can have more techs. If you go for more expansion, you can have more commerce too. But this tech chart looks so empty because I've been investing in getting an academy + CS... I intend to double my beaker output soon.

Build paths:

Washington:
- warrior
- worker (size 3)
- warrior
- settler (size 4)
- warrior (necessary but not intended)
- lib (reaching size 5)
- Currently Oracle (with 1 scientist, eta 14 turns)

New York
- warrior
- currently barracks (size 3, 7 more turns)

I'm 4th (out of 5) in score, 6th in GNP, 2nd in production, 2nd in area. This seems to be going the right way..



[edit: read the next part here.

DeepO

[DeepO]

Aeson, do you always space that densely on deity? I try to spread my initial cities out as much as I can, backfilling later. Do you feel so pressed up there that you want a closer spacing, eyeballing AI cities for expansion?

DeepO

[Aeson]

A few reasons.

Barbs. Animals are everywhere very early, and there's no bonus against them. Sending a Settler out of cultural borders, even with a Warrior escort, is a big risk. Being able to settle the turn you move out of cultural borders means no risk from animals.

Barb Warriors show up rather quickly, invade pretty early, and so cities need to be able to help each other defend. This game seems a bit off, as the Barbs took a long time to start with Archers. Normally Deity Barbs would have been to Longbows by the same time. (And possibly built a Wonder. ) Guess it has to do with the scenario.

Health/Happiness limitations. Cities aren't getting very big early on. So to use all the good tiles, need to space closer together.

Maintenance. Need every last drop of commerce just to stay in the tech race, especially early on when 2-3 gpt can mean the difference between being hopelessly backwards or keeping up (ie. getting monopoly techs to trade around). Closer spacing means less distance maintenance. Every little bit helps early on. Later on when/if I have more cities, the number of cities maintenance factors in more, but by that time I can have developed my economy to be strong enough to offset it. Especially true for ORG/FIN.

Pushing into AI's borders ticks them off, so I like to delay border tensions as long as possible. In most cases it's better to have a couple less cities and not be at war until a viable military can be built up.

Also, it increases warning time early on. If I had built N or NW, I probably would have lost that city later when I was attacked.

It's hard to even have half the military the AI does and still stay in the tech race. So everything you have has to be defended by a military that can't hope to compete numerically. That means keeping cities closer together so their garrisons can support each other when necessary, and so that your main force can cover them all.

Basically it comes down to sacrificing some long range potential just to have a chance to survive.