Crucial Moment - advice sought

[Jerh9e1k5]

This thread has taught me more about CIV than all of the other threads posted thus far. In my games I usually have the exact same situation as the one described in the save game. I also play on Monarch level.

I have been anticipating threads like this one for the last week, or week and a half. Having little time to play CIV myself I couldn't ask for help myself.

Diadem you're spot on about Apolyton University. I haven kept checking it recently for interesting threads but it is very vague because each person gives a short individual DAR. Back in the days of Civ3 there were many threads like this one, and the apolyton university had very descriptive DAR's. If I am recalling correctly the AU used to give a save game on a certain difficulty level and have every one play it out with a DAR report. This was a fantastic way of learning to play. The present method is unorganized.

Perhaps over the Christmas break I'll get some extra time and post a game for review

Happy Holidays Everyone!
Jerh9e1k5

[dacole]

interesting

Thanks for this thread good stuff! Have to check this out when I get time..one question though, does not the drafting like pop rushing take to much away from your population and end up hurting you because you end up loosing production from your city squares? Haven't messed with it much but it seems like the cost is to high..I almost always move to vassalage or serfdom when I can..especially if I'm building a millitary to go conquesting. The extra experience from running vassalage is a wonder, as long though as you don't upgrade the units past combat one until you know what the enemy has defending it's cities. Cavalry with the 25% upgrade vs gunpowder units if who you are fighting happens to be defending with musketmen work wonders!

[heliodorus04]

Dacole, just to bring you up to date on where I went:

Yes, my pop-drafting cost me. It was somewhere in the middle of the early 1900s and I saw "Mansa Munsa builds SS structure" and I didn't have a ton of techs to even get close to that, and I thought, well, I'm done for now.

I had over-drafted, and while I had a massive defense-oriented military, it lacked combat power to project.

I thought about going back to that game yet again and trying over - if I did, I would invade France much sooner with targeted drafting. Again, I tried to do too much (build a nice home island full of happy people, and draft a defense-oriented army) and I lost out. I had MORE than enough troops to do what Vel said - attack the French and stop to consolidate.

I'm pretty happy with Civ4 more than any Civ since Civ1, really. But more so in this game, you have to focus on objectives and not try to do too much at once.

If there was anything "wrong" with that game for me, it was that my home island was a tad small (20 percent more usable terrain would have had me past Mansa Munsa when we met) and perhaps more importantly, a serious lack of luxury goods. I had to trade for luxury items all the time.

So I'm going to start over again soon, I need a little break.

I'm honored that I could be the little (confused) player in this thread through which you guys learned so much from Vel. I agree that this was the most useful thread for me, but then, that would have to be obvious, wouldn't it?)

[Cort Haus]

Despite the scorn and contempt for the AU that some posters are displaying here, many people have learned a lot from it. The idea is to play and document your own game, not just insult those who have played and taken the trouble to write it up.

[dacole]

well..

They need to have a topped thread talking about how things are supposed to work, I'm very confused about it..

Can we start our own AU games? I was thinking about making a message somewhat like this one with the greek world mod just to get advice on ancient era millitary conquest and such...

[Jerh9e1k5]

I do not mean to come off as insulting to anyone participating in the AU right now, if I have I sincerely apologize.

I can see that people are putting a lot of work into what they are doing, I am simply pointing out that it is unorganized. The present system (if I figured it out correctly of course) involves a series of threads for the different time intervals of the game. Then each person posts a DAR of their current game within the alloted time interval. This means that there are a lot of games being followed, with varying difficulties, map types, etc...
With this method it makes the DAR reports a little to general. By posting a start to one scenario and allowing everyone to play out the same game, and then post detailed DAR reports (because everyone that is participating will know what the map looks like, the quality of the terrain, etc...) it can be much more beneficial.

Cheers, Jerh9e1k5

[Diadem]

Originally posted by Cort Haus
Despite the scorn and contempt for the AU that some posters are displaying here, many people have learned a lot from it. The idea is to play and document your own game, not just insult those who have played and taken the trouble to write it up.

It's easy to just call criticism 'scorn and comtempt'. A bit too easy. Noone is saying that DARs are useless. They can be interesting. But it's not as good a method of learning the game as analyzing your own games is.

Compare it with chess. Replaying games of the Great Masters is a good training method. But it's much, much more effective to replay them together with an experienced trainer, who can point out the important stuff. The AU lacks that.

And even more important, if you want to become good at chess, is analyzing your own games. Both by yourself, and together with stronger playeres who can help you.

And imho that is what the AU should focus on.

[Velociryx]

I agree and disagree. Different folks have different ways of learning things. For me, I learn best by reading theory and figuring out how to apply it on my own, thus, DAR's in AU are useful to me. My own writing (and my tendency to focus on theory in broad strokes (strat thread) reflect this.

However, it's clear that some folks need something different, and I think both approaches will have their following.

-=Vel=-

[Diadem]

Originally posted by Velociryx

However, it's clear that some folks need something different, and I think both approaches will have their following.

-=Vel=-

Except that for one approach there is no place in the AU and as a result it's totally unstructured.

So consider this a proposal to change that. You're moderator aren't you?

[Velociryx]

Only in the Candle'Bre forum....but I think we do not need to be Moderators to change this...Helio posted a game-specific question and included a save, and got the information he was looking for.

Others are beginning to follow suit (and I'll be playing the other game when I get a breather this evening).

If the demand's there for a more nuts and bolts approach, then the threads will begin appearing (two so far!)...at that point, all we gotta do is respond.

-=Vel=-