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

[Aeson]

Deity Difficulty

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]

Prince Difficulty

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]

Re: Prince Difficulty

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]

AU 100A DAR 1: Monarch Difficulty

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]

Re: Re: Prince Difficulty

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]

Noble difficulty

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)

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]

Part 2

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]

part 3

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.