AU 100-A DAR 2: 1480 BC Until Start of Classical Era

[DeepO]

Originally posted by Fosse
I sell Alphabet, the only tech I have on him, to Saladin for Meditation and Sailing. Not the best. NObody else will trade anything after that. Oh well. I start Priesthood, with COL queued up after that.

Fosse, never trade away your alphabet! It doesn't matter that you won't have sailing that early, but you're giving away the edge you have researched. Aim for CoL, and sell that to everyone, or use some other tech. But don't sell alphabet! With the AI not trading amongst each other, you have all the time in the world to pick your best trading partners. Once they get alphabet, the fun is gone, and you have to outresearch them again to stay in front.

DeepO

[Makahlua]

Well this one is short. *does the 'I got iron!' dance!* Oh, whoops, classical already? :x

/me zips over to DAR 3

[joncnunn]

I would agree, with Deep O, the AI is very slow compared to a human reseraching the alphabet.

I do however note that if many AIs found different religions their religious conflicts will greatly decrease tech sharing [even while at peace.]
But if pretty much everyone adopts the same state religion then techs will spread rapidly post-alphabet.

[kptb]

The race for CS

Noble difficulty


Ancient I
Ancient II
Classical
Midieval
Renaissance


The second part of the ancient era is mainly a game of patience and exploration. We finish mediation in 1440 BC and begin priesthood. The year 1400 sees Washington finish our first archer, we will sleep more soundly now. A new worker is commissioned and Boston is founded on a hill north of Washington. They will recruit a new archer unit there. Our new worker is ready in 1200 and Washington will construct the oracle. We agree to open our borders to Saladin. The same agreement is reached with Genghis Khan in 1160, who then demands that we cancel our open borders deal with Hatshepsut but we deny this request (1000 BC).
Finally, in 925, a new settler is born in NY and an archer is begun. We will escort the settler to a place further north of Boston to cut off expansion of several civilizations. Boston finishes its first archer in 900 BC, none too soon, as a barbarian warrior is defeated at Boston in 875. Boston will provide another settler to our burgeoning empire.
In 850 BC we enter the classical period with the discovery of code-of-laws, which was begun in 1320 BC. We found Confucianism in Boston and decide to switch to that religion. After the anarchy we will research masonry.
We are currently first in GNP, third in area, fourth in population, fifth in food and goods and sixth in soldiers. New York will build an archer in 3 turns, a new city will be founded in 5, if everything goes as planned. The oracle should be finished in 8 and Boston’s settler in 12 turns.
The oracle has me worried a bit ….

[Blake]

Monarch Difficulty


Forward City has been founded.

Wait? Have I just commited one of the Civly Deadly Sins of founding a city one tile inland and not on a river? Yup. But the spot is just too good, consider that I don't have the stone henge, this city is perfect for cranking out units, it wont get a border expansion for a long, long time. Where it is situated it can grow to size 4 and work the Copper Mine, Cows Pasture and 2 Hills Mines, making for a nice little unit pump! I'm uncertain what it's long term fate will be, I could build a lot of watermills, workshops and lumbermills and come State Property it would redefine It's Hammertime!, or I could place some cottages and use the strong base production to quickly build libraries and stuff. There are options.


Guess what I'm going to do?
If you guessed "Kill the big meany barb warrior!" you'd be half right, as I end the chariots turn and let the barb attack, promoting the chariot to Combat1 Heal1 so it can heal the incoming horses.


But ofcourse I really wanted that tasty worker. Genghis just keeps serving them up!
Be a good boy Genghis and go build yet another worker rather than a settler or defenses.
Speaking of defenses, I get a peak at his city and he only has 2. This is probably because he's too busy building workers.


I found philly and my borders are sealed! nothing gets through and I didn't even need a border expansion. I'm feeling quite secure right about now, with my sealed borders and a Capital ripe for the taking.


Rather than leaving Mongol territory, my Chariot Harrasses His Horses. I'm not a fan of pillaging at all, since I'm taking the city I want it nice and built up, but I really don't want my Mongol to train anything fancy, so the pasture gets pillaged.
I also notice that a filthy Arab has set up shop about where I was going to found a city. Don't get me wrong, not all Arabs are filthy, but this one is, and he has beard-lice. I think I'm going to kill Genghis and Saladin, building a Forbidden Palace up there somewhere to keep the upkeep under control.
Meanwhile I'll make kissy-face with Isabella by adopting the same religion when it becomes possible to do so, Isabella makes a reliable ally, and no-one wants to make kissy-face with mr BeardLice.


In my heartland, I've been training horse riders, on barbarian warriors... next turn I'll have 4 Horsemen, 2 once promoted and 2 twice promoted. These will be the Four Horsemen of the Mongolian Apocalypse.

My capital is popping out a horse every 4 turns, so the 5th should arrive in time to resume defending my heartland from the barb menace.

Incidentely, Genghis KILLED my chariot, he did this by throwing 2 archers at it. Since he lost an archer I consider this a fair trade, as there's a good chance of losing a horse when attacking an archer in a city.



The rename unit feature is extremely useful. Well, maybe not. But it's fun!

I can predict this will be a long report, with me researching many ancient techs, so split over 2 posts it will be.

[Blake]

Part 2


There are times for war, and times for preparing for yet more war.

Since in Civ4 it's impossible to extort much tech out of the AI's, I can't afford to neglect my economy and research. Thus I'm making cottages and building a library in my Capital, I will then create 2 scientists, I'll also do this in New York, these scientists will crank out Great Scientists and I'll use them to make Acadamies in several of my cities. I will continue to wage war from my newly conquered cities while my core fuels the expansion. This should work particullary well with Washington, Organized to keep expenses down, and Financial to keep income up. While Washington may not have warmongering benefits, he IS the best leader to leverage a very large empire.


The 4 Horseman and an Unnamed Horseman are outside Mongolia HQ. I have 3 ready to attack this turn, and since there are only 2 defenders, I will do so. Worst (plausible) case is I lose two horses and kill 1 archer with the 3rd, then next turn the 2 fresh horses finish off the last archer.


In this game, it usually pays to prepare for the worst case. War and Conquest are no longer with us, leaving only Famine and Death. The survivors names are somewhat inappropriate I feel, considering the outrageous success. Two horses is a small price to pay for such a fine city. Genghis still lives, as I expected he would. I have no idea where his city is though, I'll probably declare peace once I have Alphabet and can extort something from him.

At this point I'm at a crossroads, I can either continue to wage war against Issy, Saladin or Hatty, or I can solidify and conquer the barb cities that have popped up in the westlands. I decide that the quicker I put down the barbs, the quicker I can focus my full attention on the other Civs. The horsemen are working out fine, so I'll continue to pump them out from a couple of cities. I'll conquer the barb cities and found atleast a couple of new cities in the westland. Once I'm secure, I will turn my attention outwards and Crush the Arabs!.

For now, immediate priorities are hooking up some Luxuries, I see Fur and Gold in the westlands, and later ofcourse Monarchy will enable the wines.


Putting my plan in action, I conquer Nubian with four Horsemen, killing 3 archers and losing one horseman, this is about to be expected.

The next turn Mathematics completes and I enter the next age at 400BC.

--> Onwards! Onwards!

[Artuero]

Artuero DAR 2: Noble

AU100A - DAR 2

As you may recall, when 1520 B.C. came to town, the Americans were pretty well along, having captured Madrid and wiped out the Spanish and hosting the three world religions created so far. They have three fine cities (well two fine cities (Washington and Madrid) and a newly founded New York). Research has been deep but not wide resulting in a lack of knowledge regarding various resources. And despite the early conquest of Madrid (with a City Raider II warrior, then the entire American Army), the civilization is very weak militarily.

1360 BC – Stonehenge, the first world wonder, is created in Washington. I have continued to let my warriors scout rather than come back. It is a matter of time before I pay for this and I think I need to recall them now.

1160 BC – Completed the great road project, connecting Madrid, New York and Washington. I now have an income of three gold per turn but my science is down to 70%. Strangely enough, I get another warrior from a village.

I notice that it appears that another civilization has started a city to my north. It looks like a barbarian city. That could be a benefit for both gaining experience and providing a buffer against Khan. As it turns out, Angle is located there. I could be in trouble because my warrior visited that location to fend off a Barbarian warrior threatening Washington and is now stuck near the Barbarian stronghold.

1040 BC – Washington trains a settler. Settler moves west in an attempt to create a strong front line across more or less Washington’s parallel.

975 BC – Settler discovers another Barbarian city to the west and diverts to the Northwest and founds Boston.

875 BC – Classical Era upon discovery of alphabet.

This is a very short report because the classical era came so quickly. Based on trading via the alphabet, I have now a commanding tech lead, with wirint and alphabet over the others who have sailing (Bismark and Saladin). My military is still weak, but better than before (6 warriors).

The interesting thing about this period is that the Barbarians have set up two cities near me. That helps me in three ways. First, if I build a decent army I can get them experience through fighting barbarians. Second, those cities provide a buffer for the time being between AI civilizations. Third, I can eventually take those cities for my own.

Borders have expanded enough that I can take the stone resource near Madrid and use it to try for the Pyramids. I am not showing any other wonders in progress, so I may be able to go on a wonder spree.

My technologies have been filled in for the most part, by trading priesthood and polytheism only. I now have all the first level techs and everything except sailing and archery in the second. Beyond that, I have priesthood, monotheism, writing and alphabet. I have begun researching code of laws but that will take a long time (29 turns).

Cities:

Washington (5, working on warrior (5))
Madrid (6, working on library (1))
New York (3, working on library (1))
Boston (1, just founded, working on library (85).

I lead in score (502) of the civilizations I have discovered. Bismark and Khan are tied for second at 313, Hapshepsut at 311 and Saladin at 285. Here is a screenshot of the world known to me:

[MadDjinn]

Noble Difficulty

well, as predicted this one was short.



that's the new map. I'm getting all cozy with Gengis up there, and with the founding of Christianity right next door to him, I think I'll send over a missionary or two to make sure he gets religion, further tying him to me once I also assume that religion. Then some nice trade gifts, and the Mongol Hoardes have a new master. Just point and shoot... then run.

in 900 BC I finished the Oracle, Writing and am close to CoL. once that's done, I'll grab Alphabet and tech my way around for the missing techs out there.

One more city near the mountains/wine region will seal my borders by land... then I'll just need to spam some settlers out there to the key points to try to cover the whole region. this may slow me down some in tech... but it'll be worth it when they all come online.

I'll hopefully get a great prophet soon, and use it to make CS much faster to get. then I'll need to pump out alot more to make the religions happy...

next DAR is skipped, since I spent 0 time in the Classical era.

[rrs_racer]

Monarch difficulty:

DAR2 – until the Classical era (about 1000AD at this rate):

1440BC – Judaism founded elsewhere. Great *yawn*
1360BC – Two workers completed – one more coming. Some serious work about to take place, and some serious cities after that, hopefully.
1280BC – Animal Husbandry discovered. Masonry taken.
Great. There’s a sodding barbarian city to the SW.
1120BC – Masonry discovered. Now we’re cooking on gas.
975BC – Philadelphia founded to the west of NY. Polytheism discovered.
925BC – Atlanta founded near the Ivory far to the east. There’s also a barb city there
825BC – Monotheism discovered. Heading for Monarchy, and Hereditary Rule.
475BC – Finally, Monarchy discovered. Switch to Hereditary Rule to sort out happiness problems, and we’re in the Classical era.

That’s the end of DAR2 – I have five cities, with a sixth coming fairly soon, and things are certainly looking up. I’m starting to get general infrastructure going now as well, with a view to soon having some production with which to build a military.

Going ‘deep’ into the tech tree to get Monarchy was probably a good move, as Hereditary Rule is making a big difference in terms of happiness. Our two size 7/8 cities are now perfectly happy – I was losing 2 lots of production prior to switching civics.

I have also commissioned a couple of specialists in Washington – partially to get a bit of a science boost, but more pressingly to get a Great Person before too long.

No screenshot - apologies - I'll provide a couple at the end of the next DAR.

[dacole]

nobel difficulty

As washington walked around his office in his new toga he thought about the years past, taking a moment to thank Yahweah for his extremly long life. They had been interesting years some bad much good and many interesting things to come.! Animal Husbandry was researched in 1520 and several areas of horses were noted one south of the capital more importantly a way to coral the cows north of New York was found, finally a source of food for this city! Wahington continued building workers, happering it's growth but allowing the other cites to build other things. Several cottages were built around washington to provide trade and income.[IMG]C:\Documents and Settings\Daniel Cole\My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\ScreenShots[/IMG]

Preisthood was researched after animal husbandry to provide a better way to spread the truth of the one true God. Interestingly the plans for something the scholors called the oracle were part of this research. If only I had listened when they told me to build it quickly, perhaps then the eqyptians might not have beat me to it! City was founded south of Washinton to work the horses but soon it was taken by Barbarians that appeared almost as soon as it was founded. Boston was founded on the border with the mongels to insure they didn't advance to quickly and an obelisk devoted to Yahewh was built to spread the word of the one true God. Isabella foolishly ordered us to convert to hinduism she was of course refused. Scholors discovered a way to use symbols to convey meaning allowing treaties opening borders to be signed with other nations except Spain who shall soon be falling to the armies of Yahweh! In 975 rumors reached me that Germay had built a wonder of stone they were calling Stonehenge and that Isabella had switched to organized religon. The first though interesting did not worry him, what was a few stones without the power of the one God behind them? The second was worriseome because it might mean the spainish were about to start foolishly spreading a false religon. In 675 the oracle was built by the egyptians giving them it seemed a direct line to someone surly not Yahweh..had we angered him in some way? But there research seemed to jump ahead in unfathomable ways. The barbarian city to the north resisted our attacks amazingly but more warriors were on the way and if they too fell well the discovery of the uses for iorn would soon see them fall!

---
Learning..perhaps I should have researched animal husbandry earlier to find horses. Strategy of building cities to block other civs seems to have worked though the open borders treaties may have been a mistake hopefully the trade will make up for it. Behind in score as well as research so trade was needed.

need to start wonders earlier!! Even with few cities and perhaps should have built one near the stone first before the horses also defend from the get go?? Though haven't had this barbarian problem before, never actually seen them build cities...and they actually defend them as well as another civ!! Ouch!

Isabella is interesting never had the AI actually ask me to convert before, very much in character for the leader as well (though Isabella as a hindu is almost as funny as leading the Americans in 4000 B.C....)

save is attached.

(Ok why did my image not work..how does one put images onto this site?)

[joncnunn]

Dacole, chances are your screenshot ran afowl the 800 width limitation on images for posting directing into all forums that has been in affect since before I ever logged onto this site.

If you have Windows XP, open the screen shoot you made from inside Civ IV in M$ Paint, select the portion you want to show and paste it into a new file to post.

[Shaka II]

DAR 1
DAR 2
DAR 3
DAR 4
DAR 5
DAR 6
DAR 7

1100BC I’ve discovered writing, so I’m chopping in a library for Rome to hasten my research of alphabet. I decide to attempt building Stonehenge in high production Antium, as I concentrate on building Rome up in size. Newly settled Cumae is working on a granary, a key building for Romans. Unfortunately, there is no culture to expand my border to include the gold resource, but happiness is not yet a problem. Libraries will do it for me, instead of obelisks and temples, unless I get Stonehenge. I now have three archers and one warrior. I sent one archer out to the hillside East of Rome to stand sentry over the wilderness, and serve as early warning and deterrent in case of barbarian attack.



500BC With alphabet discovered, I have entered the classical era, and now have a monopoly on trading tech, though getting fair trades is a challenge. I’ve traded writing for polytheism and priesthood for temples, so I can research monarchy and then code of laws for better civics. Stonehenge went to another Civ, luckily only after a few turns into the build. So, I went over and stole some of Mao’s forest to chop in an axeman. There’s more than one way to get a wonder. I have my granaries in, two libraries, and three barracks. It’s clear now, that Mao must go, since I had my eyes on that river first. My plan now is to crank out axemen and begin the early conquest phase.

[lethe]

1280 - We discover Alphabet and enter the classical era as well as founding Philly.

We offer Writing for Hunting and Mysticism from Saladin.
Isabella sells us Masonry for Writing.
Bismarck parts with Animal Husbandry for Writing.

We can now use the stone spotted to the south, at what might be a very lousy city site. Oh well, better get a city down there anyway.

[xxFlukexx]

Emperor Difficulty

DAR Record, links work:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=4219771#post4219771

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=4219774#post4219774

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=4219779#post4219779

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=4219786#post4219786

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=4221092#post4221092

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=4221125#post4221125

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=4221160#post4221160

1320 B.C. I adopt Slavery and the Oracle is completed somewhere (nice, Mr. AI) Settler is complete and an interesting decision. My first though is to put a city up north with all the flood plains, horse, corn and hills, there's also the stone to the south west, but there's horses and cow plains directly south of my cap. I select to the south, Washington starts a Library(13 turns ugh) and New York is on a barracks

1160 B.C. Boston founded, still running 100% science -4 gpt a turn got 49 gold left in the treasury.

1120 B.C. Iron Working is done, the Classical era is upon us, iron is found in our cap, woohoo that Ãs really lucky considering bronze is very far away. We have Iron + Horses, enough for a death army. We start on Alphabet (19 turns) I would like to get CoL soon, but let's go for Alphabet and try to trade some.

No pics taken here, sorry nothing interesting happened.

[DrSpike]

Monarch

http://apolyton.net/forums//showthread.php?postid=4219881#post4219881

As we left it I was about to start on the Oracle. This makes this a short DAR.

Highlights

1240: Philadelphia founded to the North of New York on the flood plains. Both Boston and New York are producing workers.

975BC: Oracle goes up, revolt, select Bureaucracy and Slavery as civics.

All the other cities are doing libraries.

End with 11 warriors, and 4 workers.