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Last night I started a game that was a perfect illustration of how an early strategic error can really hurt you. I was playing on Monarch level, Epic speed, Chinese with Qin.
By the time I had built the settler that was to found my second city, I had contacted three civs. Only one was real close though, Montezuma, who was just to the east. I figured that I would hit him first to knock him back before he came at me so I founded that second city to the east near to him. I placed it on a river. Two tiles to the north were a pair of hills with gold on them. Two tiles to the south was copper. I figured that I would expand the borders of my city and snag both resources. However, that's not how it worked out.
Montezuma quickly established a city to the south of me, three tiles away. He obviously intended to snag that copper by expanding. In the meantime, I had founded a third city and, since I had decided that I was going to hit Montezuma early, I started churning out archers in all three of my cities. When I had nine of them I hit that city and took it without any trouble. He came at me with some archers and jaguar units, but I held him off without too much trouble.
It was looking pretty good at that point, but I had miscalculated. Napolean declared war on me and came at my second city with a couple of swordmen and a spearman. Fortunately, Montezuma accepted my peace proposal but I had to fight on the defensive for a while against Napolean and he did some damage pillaging. However, I seized one of his cities with a force of better than a dozen archers. He counterattacked and hit me hard, whittling me down to one archer in that city while he still had an axeman and a swordman next to it. They weren't up to full strength, but I was sucking air. Fortunately he accepted my peace proposal when I included a tech.
I decided then to consolidate, building obelisks and libraries in the five cities that I now owned. When I had my expansion at the second city, I started mining the copper so I could build better units. I was too late though. Isabella was to the south of me, and she declared war on me, attacking with several swordmen. Since I had been waiting for that copper to come online, I had a weak military at the time and I abandoned the game.
After thinking it over, I decided that I had been guilty of failing to think through my strategic intentions. Since I had decided that I was going to go to war with Montezuma early, I should have placed my second city right next to that copper resource. That way I could have utilized it right from the start. I would have still hit Montezuma, but I wouldn't have depleted my military so much in fighting off Napolean. When Isabella declared war, I probably would have had a force that could have handled hers. If I had really wanted to place my second city where I did, I should have gone for some buildings that would have given me culture in that city, while putting off hitting Montezuma.
That's the intriguing thing about this game. It really forces you to think things through. It's hard to get used to that. In most computer games, you can just wing it, devising a strategy as you go. That's a risky thing to do in Civ 4.
By the time I had built the settler that was to found my second city, I had contacted three civs. Only one was real close though, Montezuma, who was just to the east. I figured that I would hit him first to knock him back before he came at me so I founded that second city to the east near to him. I placed it on a river. Two tiles to the north were a pair of hills with gold on them. Two tiles to the south was copper. I figured that I would expand the borders of my city and snag both resources. However, that's not how it worked out.
Montezuma quickly established a city to the south of me, three tiles away. He obviously intended to snag that copper by expanding. In the meantime, I had founded a third city and, since I had decided that I was going to hit Montezuma early, I started churning out archers in all three of my cities. When I had nine of them I hit that city and took it without any trouble. He came at me with some archers and jaguar units, but I held him off without too much trouble.
It was looking pretty good at that point, but I had miscalculated. Napolean declared war on me and came at my second city with a couple of swordmen and a spearman. Fortunately, Montezuma accepted my peace proposal but I had to fight on the defensive for a while against Napolean and he did some damage pillaging. However, I seized one of his cities with a force of better than a dozen archers. He counterattacked and hit me hard, whittling me down to one archer in that city while he still had an axeman and a swordman next to it. They weren't up to full strength, but I was sucking air. Fortunately he accepted my peace proposal when I included a tech.
I decided then to consolidate, building obelisks and libraries in the five cities that I now owned. When I had my expansion at the second city, I started mining the copper so I could build better units. I was too late though. Isabella was to the south of me, and she declared war on me, attacking with several swordmen. Since I had been waiting for that copper to come online, I had a weak military at the time and I abandoned the game.
After thinking it over, I decided that I had been guilty of failing to think through my strategic intentions. Since I had decided that I was going to go to war with Montezuma early, I should have placed my second city right next to that copper resource. That way I could have utilized it right from the start. I would have still hit Montezuma, but I wouldn't have depleted my military so much in fighting off Napolean. When Isabella declared war, I probably would have had a force that could have handled hers. If I had really wanted to place my second city where I did, I should have gone for some buildings that would have given me culture in that city, while putting off hitting Montezuma.
That's the intriguing thing about this game. It really forces you to think things through. It's hard to get used to that. In most computer games, you can just wing it, devising a strategy as you go. That's a risky thing to do in Civ 4.
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