The Devel's Workshop II - Jaguar Rush

[Velociryx]

With fans (Persians) looking on, Team Aztec converges on the last Japanese city.....

[Velociryx]

Massing for the attack.....

[Velociryx]

And of course, the photo-finish.....

[Velociryx]

Notes to "catch up" with the pics above, and then move beyond that point

380 BC - Begin Library in the capitol

320 BC - Enemy archer killed guarding a rice field as we approach Kyoto. It IS more heavily guarded than the others....4 Archers inside, plus a worker, plus a settler. Bonus prizes if we can take the city. We'll have to combine our attack groups to do it, but yes. I don't think they stand a chance.

320 BC - The battle for Kyoto begins.

Three Jaguars fall in battle, but after that, their defenses are softened up sufficiently that they can no longer mount an effective defense. Kyoto folds, and Japan is overrun.

Jaguar rush complete.

But we're not done, cos we're losing 14gpt.

Now, it's time to recover and rebuild.

220 BC - Code of Laws is ours, and we found Confucianism. Two religions on Monarch. Me likey.... This new religion is founded in the former Japanese capitol, Kyoto. We get a free missionary, so we send him to the OUR capitol, to....cross-pollinate, as it were.

Next up, we gotta get alphabet. If it was just us, Persia, and Japan on this rock, then we just killed off a trading partner. Gotta see what sorts of goodies we can gete from Persia.

We're switching to caste system briefly to force an artist in all cities that haven't had a border expansion (which would be all but the capitol, actually), so we can get access to the full fat cross of tiles. Our capitol begins work on a hindu temple.

100 AD - Against fairly long odds, our first Great Person is a scientist! We gratefully create an academy in the capitol. The next two will be prophets, and we'll use them to found our two shrines for cash. It'll be the middle ages before we get them, but when we do.....

120 AD - Alphabet! (don't laugh, I was busy!).....time for some tech trading with Cyrus. Give him Mysticism. Get fishing. Give him Ironworking. Get Archery and Masonry. Researching Literature!

140 AD - Switch back to slavery to start pop-rushing some courthouses. Open borders with Cyrus so we can explore more of the northlands that we missed when all our scouts died. More trading. Give up Polytheism for Sailing....'k. I'm indifferent to it, but it's one less thing to research.

240 AD - Literature is ours! Now after Civil Service.

260 AD - Great Library begun in the capitol

300 AD - Meet Greece! There are more people here than we thought!

340 AD - Meet the Mongols (Ghengis!)

Both Ghengis and Greece are of a different religion. Both are annoyed at us, and neither will trade techs. Dangit! Not that it matters. We're only losing a smidgeon of money at 70% research, and as soon as a couple more courthouses come online, we'll be viable again.

430 AD - Economic viability achieved. +1gpt profits at 70% science.

We're still middle-of-the-pack, but during our economic recovery (and shortly after our open borders), Cyrus caught Hindu feaver and switched, so he's wrapped around our finger. We've got PLENTY of room to grow into tho (and in fact, I'm already making a settler, with a plan to close the borders, waylay the barbarian city near the land bridge, and use it, and my settler to lock down my "portion" of the continent (my side of the land bridge), then settle the coast like mad to keep it all.

After Action Notes and Observations

All objectives accomplished, in what I hope was an unusual/innovative way. We met our main goal well ahead of schedule, and emerged from the economic death spiral stronger than we were before, AND we managed to found two religions while doing it!

I'd call that a good day's work.

[Hauptman]

Please tell me Monty was NOT looking over your shoulder and learning any tips, last thing he needs is to get GOOD at a jag rush.

[Swiss Pauli]

Nice one!

Especially liked the switch to Caste System/artist for a border boost - would never have occured to me!

[Velociryx]

Thanks guys! Glad you enjoyed!

And no...I've got Monty locked in my basement and am force-feeding him some of my disgusting heart-healthy food (which strangely, all tastes worse than the cardboard packaging it comes in). He'll be a drooling, psychotic veggie in no time, and no threat to anyone.

Regarding Caste System....that's the beautiful thing about Spiritual Civs....make the switch to whatever civic will get you what you need, and then switch back when you're done!

Of course, I DID forget to switch back for a while, and it cost me a few gold (note the dates for switching into and out of).

That, and I didn't even LOOK to see how much research my other cities were pulling down before builidng the academy in the capitol. Probably, the academy shoulda gone in the gold city, but *shrug* I can always play it again from the beginning....

That's something else to bring up. Folks, don't shy away from, or balk at, replaying the same situation a time or two. There's value IN the repetition, in the same way that there's value in repetitions in weight lifting. It builds a different set of muscles, but the effect is the same.

Observe the game, not just on the surface, but underneath (yep, I'm talking about the metagame). Watch for signs and patters to emerge, and take advantage of them. Like knowing that I could leave my capitol undefended to speed the second city along.

Why take the risk?

Cos I KNEW I could. I didn't think it'd be okay, I freakin' KNEW it would.

How?

I.....don't know. Metagame. A feeling. Witchcraft.

-=Vel=-

[Dominae]

As with the first Devel, I played my own version out. I'll post my results later, but for now a question:

Vel, why did you uprgrade your Jags to City Raider (+20% City Attack) instead of Cover (+25% vs. Archers)? Since you were only fighting Archers the whole time, that would have been an extra 5% to each of your attacks...

[Velociryx]

Good question, and not sure....LOL...In part because I wanted a more versatile attack force. Cover would only be effective if all he had defending were archers (which, as it turned out, was exactly so), but I didn't know that going in, so.....

I can tell you that the NEXT upgrades they took were all Cover tho....

-=Vel=-

[Dominae]

Things brings up an interesting point:

To really put the odds in your favor for a successful rush, it's essential to locate the metals (Copper, Iron) and (to a lesser extent) Horses, and pillage/cover those ASAP.

This way you guarantee that the best defenders you will be fighting are Archers.

Just a little trick I learned from MP...

(Vel, I almost forgot: again, another great writeup and tutorial! )

[Velociryx]

An excellent addition to the material here, and you know...I didn't even look to see what resources Tokugawa had. I knew were were doing a Jag rush, and I was so focused on THAT (and the writeup itself), that I didn't look further. A mistake, to be sure!

And I'm glad you enjoyed it

-=Vel=-

[civ4lyfe]

Vel allow me to say thanks.

Your threads are so fantastic, informative, filled with so many great tips, AND entertaining. I have learned more from your threads because they are like an educational game, they keep me interested.

btw do you write for a living? If not, you certainly took some classes?

[Velociryx]

Thank you, civ4lyfe! Just glad that folks are getting some use out of them! That is....a great goodness!

As to the writing, see my sig-line. Three books total, so far, and more on the way. Oh...it doesn't pay much....maybe lets me take the wife out to dinner now and then, but I *do* enjoy it!

No formal writing classes for me tho....just a lot of....shall we say, experimentation?

Not quite true...I took one creative writing class in college. The professor HATED me, cos I was forever breaking the "rules" of writing....

-=Vel=-

[El Conquistador]

Thank you so much, Vel! Most other threads seem worthless compared to yours. The fact that we're all discussing the exact same game here helps alot, as do the screenshots. Keep up the good work!

[vmxa1]

Vel do you have any plans to come back to one or two of the workshops to play farther?

I ask that as I think that Civ4 is a lot like civ3 in that the early part and the end parts are the parts that newer players can pick up the easiest.

It is the middle parts of the game that they tend to get lost. The ends all paly themselfs as you get to a point where you do not have all that many options and if you did get that far, you have a good idea of what you are doing.

The early part is hard for some, but they either get help like this or through trial and error figure out how to get past it. To this day you still can see players post how they struggle after being in good shape early.

Oh I hope you at least got enough for a tip from the Smax book I bought. Funny thing is I no longer had the game, just wanted to read it and lend a bit of support to the efforts.