AU 100-A DAR 4: The Medieval Era

[Morrissey]

Noble difficulty

DAR1
DAR2
DAR3
DAR4
DAR5
DAR6
DAR7


This is going to be short. I also didn't take any screenies, so you'll have to use your imagination. In fact, my DARs are going to get boring from here to the end, due to very little of interest happening.

On the first turn of the medieval era, I build the Hanging Gardens! This gives me a great artist and I also get a great scientist for discovering... that tech that brought me into this era.... it escapes me now (makes a mental note to make better actual notes for future DARs). Both of these complete great works, well the scientist builds an academy. Not sure how great that actually is, but there you go.

As I said in my last DAR, my plan is to now build lots of units (workers and military) as I'm weak in both areas.
Finish Notre Dame in 1190, this is in the same city as both the Pyramids and the Hanging Gardens (Phili.), so fear impending doom for that city.

Genghis makes peace with Hats, then a few turns later comes to be to demand wine. I refuse, thinking he's not going to declare (his previous war didn't seem to do much but reduce the number of units each side has), but then he declared war! The nerve of that man! Start to worry a bit, but after 6 turns of him not sending any units my way, relax. There's a Mongol city (Old Sarai) which boarders on the edge of my empire, so units setup around there. The only other way to me is via sea, through Hats or Isabella, both of who aren't crazy about him. Phili is safe for now.

Nothing much happens in this war during this DAR, Genghis sends a few units over, which I kill.

Meet Liz in 1370 and enter the Renaissance in 1400.

Screenie taken from my DAR3 report to show layout of empire.

[Arrian]

DARIII/IV (Prince Level):

I didn't really have a classical era, b/c of the Oracle CS slingshot. My medieval, however, lasted a while. My notes got REALLY bad at one point, as you will see:

775bc – Convert to Confucism. TERRIBLE NEWS!! The ivory city spot has been taken by Spain. Arg!

… (massive note gap)

25bc - Priesthood + Meditation to Bismark for Sailing. He wouldn’t throw in archery, damn. No other trades make even that much sense. Barb city down by the furs captured (my 3 chariots vs. 2 archers. Lost a chariot).

note: clearly I'd gotten alphabet by now...

25AD – CoL to Ghengis for Math + Archery.

500 AD – Great Library complete. Hapt is in a GA. I rush the Kong Maio w/my only GP to date.

820 AD – Philo discovered, Taoism founded in NYC. Switch to Pacifism. I’m getting worried – Khan and Isabella are both annoyed with me now, having demanded several things (each) from me. I refused. They have closed their borders, cutting my missionaries off from the rest of the civs on the continent. I hope I have enough military (damn Isabella for getting that ivory before me!!). I basically have two barracks towns (which is better than usual for me) and I've built a decent mix of units. But if somebody comes at me in earnest, it could be dicey.

840 – Literature and CoL to Egypt for Monarchy, Monotheism and 40 gold. Not the best trade ever, but it’s the best I could do.

1210 – Contact with Elizabeth of England. [note: clearly I'd gotten to Optics] She has a couple of techs (music/drama) on me and I have a bunch on her. Ghengis is back to cautious with me after years of trade. Isabella still hates me. Borders back open w/Mongolia. Coming up on Nationalism… decide to use a great prophet + great scientist for a GA.

Shortly after this, I discovered Nationalism, thus entering the next era.

-Arrian

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by Arrian

… (massive note gap)

-Arrian

Just keep hitting Printscreen whenever anything happens, and you'll get a pictorial log in the screenshots folder. It doesn't work on the diplo dialog screens though, which is a shame.

[Cort Haus]

edit : double post

[Arrian]

Originally posted by Cort Haus

Just keep hitting Printscreen whenever anything happens, and you'll get a pictorial log in the screenshots folder. It doesn't work on the diplo dialog screens though, which is a shame.

I know. Now that I know how to save & name screenshots (the naming is key b/c it can tell me what I was up to at the time), I'll have an easier time of it. Keeping my note log was more difficult, because ALT+TAB takes a while on my comp... particularly getting back into CIV.

-Arrian

[lockstep]

Originally posted by Cort Haus
Just keep hitting Printscreen whenever anything happens, and you'll get a pictorial log in the screenshots folder. It doesn't work on the diplo dialog screens though, which is a shame.

If you ALT-TAB out of Civ4 in the middle of a diplo dialog and then back into the game, printscreen works.

[Fosse]

760 AD
I enter the Medeival era with Machinery. Optics is next. New York is building Catapults and Elephants. Everybody else is replenishing workers, or squeezing out a settler for the spots of land that are to my NE. Barb cities keep appearing there, keeping AI settlers out, which is nice.

840 AD
I take the lull in action to switch to Buddhism. It'll put me on good terms with my nearest neighbor, and since I'm already Organized it can't hurt to increase those build times. I hope it doesn't mess up my other relations too much. All the AIs keep offering me great tech trades... lots of gold and techs for mine. But, Isabella and Genghis are two buffer states between me and anyone who ever tries to harm me... if they have a beef with my religion they'll also hate Isabella, and she'll hate them!

Meanwhile. I finish a settler to place on the finger of land east of Bosotn, to further enhance potential cultural pressure on Barcelona.

880
Saladin asks me to war against MOngolia. Mongolia has some units near lightly defended cities, Saladin is nothing like a heavy hitter in this game. I tell him no. If Hatty had asked it would have been a tougher choice... I'm glad she didn't.

900 AD
Caravels! WIth the latest tech, my next coastal build will be a Caravel to map the world. I go for Music next, hoping to jump start the culture war with Spain.

1000 AD
Mongolia asks me last turn to quit trading with Egypt... this turn to pay 120 gold in tribute... I relaly don't want another war... But since his war with Arabia drew his troops away from my cities, and since I have some good units up in the former Mongolia... I roll the dice and tell him to shove it. Still don't want a war.. but that's 1/8th of my treasury.

I also discover music... looks like someone beat me to it...


1130
Some exploration reveals emtpy islands to the east, with lots of resources and some huts (I throw an explorer into the queue at New York for the huts). And England to the west. They have nothing I want... but once I get Astronomy things might change. I detour though for Feudalism, Drama, and Civil Service. Gotta keep the military and culture wars going.

1170
Mongols declare war. Earlier than I wanted, but I knew it was coming. Some quick upgrading (which should have been done earlier) and I know I'll hold my cities, and maybe pick up one of the little ones MOngols just founded around my borders, New Sarai and Samarquand. I won't invade their homeland, because I want to be done fighting quickly.

[DeepO]

Originally posted by lockstep


If you ALT-TAB out of Civ4 in the middle of a diplo dialog and then back into the game, printscreen works.

It does? I'm so going to use this

thanks!

DeepO

[Thrar]

playing on Emperor

DAR1.
DAR2 does not exist.
DAR3.

275AD: Saladin founds Christianity. Ok...never mind. Some people will trade Calendar now, but Drama is not enough for them, even though Calendar is already known by all 5 of them.

300AD: Hindu, Confucian, Buddhist and Christian missionaries approach our lands. Looks like Saladin's isolated southern city founded a religion... ^^
Genghis has Literature, that would now give him access to Music.

350AD: Isabella cancels open borders after I refuse to convert to Buddhism. This will end in war sooner or later. Washington got converted to Christianity.

425AD: Saladin: Drama->Meditation, Literature

540AD: Theology researched.
Hatty: Drama+Theology->Currency+Monarchy.
I'm still the only one with Music. Next tech will be Divine Right, hopefully I finally get my own religion.
Before that, I was 6th in GNP. Thanks to Currency's extra trade route I'm now 3rd!

560AD: Washington finally starts on Notre Dame. ETA 72, will increase to 40-50 after 2 more growths, then to half upon getting the stone from that mongol city.
Not many people want to trade with me, the only option would be Music for Calendar with Hatty - no way!

620AD: We just got Judaism in Chicago. 4 different religions now. ETA for Notre Dame dropped dramatically from 70 to 52 after first growth. One more, in 2 turns.

640AD: some demographics: now 2nd in GNP, 3rd in MFG and food, largest land area and lowest soldier count, half of average! Only 6th in pop, 3/4 of average. Sux.
I'm still the only one with Music, quite confident about Notre Dame.

700AD: another Great Artist. He gives me research on Divine Right now, almost enough to finish it. I completely forgot about the first one... ^^ anyway, I use him for that. Divine Right next turn.

720AD: Islam is founded in Seattle, right opposite of Saladin's christian city. The missionary goes to NY, the other big production city (other than W.). Next will be Metal Casting. Hatty appears to have Music now.

760AD: NY gets converted to Islam. In 4 turns they start with the monastery, another 4 turns later missionaries for all my cities and some neighbors.

780AD: I got the mongol stone from a culture expansion. Also, that city is now rioting to join me. Notre Dame down to 14 turns. I'm first in score!

820AD: I'm the 5th most cultured only. Like I said before, what counts is having culture where it matters. I also just got the 6th religion to my lands: Confucianism. Only Taoism is missing. Mongols get their stone back after the riot ends. It's at 52% only, though, should only be a matter of a few turns.



840AD: Mongols have a culture building near the stone (now 55%)! Increase cultural pressure by 2 more artists.

860AD: Stone at 54%. That's harder than I expected. Metal Casting finishes, now going for CoL (in 4).

960AD: The English meet me! They have caravels. Also Machinery, but don't want to give it to us for anything we can offer.

1000AD: Lizzie: Monarchy+Alphabet(!)->Compass.

1030AD: Mongol stone city flips. Notre Dame in 6.

1040AD: Lizzie: Monotheism+Drama+Music->Machinery+10g
Extremely bad deal, but it's a nice tech anyway.
Just for fun, NY goes for Hanging Gardens (in 11). Can't be so bad.

1050AD: Another bad deal:
Lizzie: Theology->Calendar+10g

1060AD: finish Civil Service, going for Paper. More bad deals with Lizzie:
Lizzie: CS->Optics.

1080AD: Isabella comes calling for Music. I give in.

1090AD: trouble starts.
Both Isabella and Saladin declare war. Genghis declares on Saladin. The only one to worry about is Isabella, if it weren't for that southern city of Saladin. Saladin captures one of our workers.
Research down to 0 to get money for upgrades. Also Culture to 0%, it's not necessary any more. Sell Drama to Genghis for 230g. Upgrade a warrior to a maceman for 190g. Depending on how strong they are, I might face the temporal loss of a city or two - particularly Seattle near Saladin's lonely city and Philadelphia at the ivory are threatened.

1100AD: first combat action: a maceman (last turn's upgraded warrior) defeats a spanish axer.

1110AD: no further enemy troops approaching. Isabella seems rather weak, and Saladin is apparently occupied with Genghis. With 299g in the bank, I turn research back on - for Paper in 3. Hanging Gardens in NY also in 3.

1120AD: more arab units approaching in the south. Research back down to 0% for some more macemen and crossbows (no Feudalism for longbows, and mostly melee units approaching anyway). Isabella is still quiet.

1140AD: Hanging Gardens built somewhere else. I would have finished them THIS VERY TURN!!!
some upgrades lately, nothing special.

1150AD: their axeman kills my maceman. Genghis sends some Keshiks to deal with Saladin's southern outpost.

1160AD: Paper. Start Spiral Minaret in W., may be too late though. An archer finishes of that annoying axer.

1180AD: Looks like Isabella finally got her forces to the border. We buy 10 turns of peace for 50g.

1220AD: Feudalism. Guilds in 10.

1250AD: Peace with Saladin.

1290AD: forced peace with Isabella has ended. I wonder when she will declare again. Research temporary to 90% for Guilds in 1.

1300AD: W. builds Spiral Minaret. Which is completely useless at the moment, since I don't have a state religion or any religious buildings. Guilds also finish. Next will be Engineering, but I'm hoping for a trade opportunity. At the moment, nobody wants to trade. Research to 0%, I need gold to crush Isabella.

1390AD: Isabella still hasn't declared. I do it now. Siege on Toledo (from within my borders) begins. Ask Genghis for help, and he joins the war (for free!).

1400AD: Engineering finished, going for Printing Press. Bismarck canceled open borders...I don't like that.

1420AD: Toledo's defenses are down, charge in with macemen (city raider I). Lose 1 maceman, kill 2 longbows, 1 pikeman, 1 catapult, and get myself a scout knight (sentry promotion).
Siege on Sevilla starts, kill some units outside. There's a decent stack left though.

IBT - lose a knight near Sevilla to an attacking macer. Kill another macer with a different knight.

1430AD: kill the whole stack (2 macers, 1 pike, 2 cats).

1450AD: Capture Sevilla, with it comes Chichen Itza. Nice. 1 suicide cat retreated, then no losses in the capture (knights only, even against an injured pike).
Isabella doesn't want to talk yet, otherwise I'd make peace.
Saladin says he has cavalry...not good. Nobody wants to trade with me. Army moves to Seattle anyway, to tell him that I don't like being declared war on.

1490AD: Saladin declares war. Like I feared, he indeed has cavalry.
Peace with Isabella for 300g, 3gpt, world map (my first map trade). Nobody trades with me.
Upgrade some more archers to longbows, but I'll need muskets to defend against Saladin. A suicide knight scouts the south and finds the christian holy city, formerly barbarian.
Saladin has no open borders with Genghis, and is totally cut off from me. He needs to transport over all his forces to reach me. This might be a decisive factor in this war. If I can finish off his 3 cavalry in the south, I may have a shot at the christian city.



1505AD: Discovery of Printing Press starts the Renaissance! And not only that, Elizabeth is willing to trade with me!
Let's see my dear...I'd like to have Gunpowder...ah, that's nice.
Lizzie: Printing Press->Gunpowder+150g. Next will be Nationalism in 10, unless somebody wants to trade with me.
I notice that apparently there's nothing that upgrades to musketmen, so I have to build some new defenders. Saladin is clever, sends a macer with his cavalries. I have to wait for him to attack I guess.

Northern part:


Southern part:




Sucks badly when nobody wants to trade techs. Does anyone else have that problem? Even my best friend, Genghis (at +7), with whom I have several trade opportunities, doesn't want to.
Thanks to his borders surrounding those of Saladin's homelands, I have a good chance at fighting back the invading cavalries and take the southern cities I think. Then I need cavalry on my own to mop up the rest of Spain, or pay Bismarck a visit, or whatever. Research is at 70% with +12, or at 80% with -10.
Statistics: 1st in food and land, 2nd in MFG, 3rd GNP, 4th pop. 1st in score for quite a while, but everyone is very close together, except Isabella since the war. Saladin: 1290 is lowest of the rest, I'm first at 1581.
20% of total land area is mine, next best is Genghis at 16. My pop is 18% which according to victory stats is higher than those of the closest rival, but demographics say differently. First musket in 4 from W., I guess by then the war will be mostly over.

Move on to DAR5!
DAR6
DAR7

[Cort Haus]

Sucks badly when nobody wants to trade techs. Does anyone else have that problem? Even my best friend, Genghis (at +7), with whom I have several trade opportunities, doesn't want to.

I had trouble trading techs (Prince). Saladin seemed the only one who'd trade with me early, and later on Lizzie did some trades. High friendship levels didn't seem to help much.

[vulture]

The Medieval Period, 150-1440 AD, Prince difficulty

We begin to have better trade relations with out neighbours, and have finally reached the point where out cities can start to grow again. We also manage to rustle together a small posse of swordsmen to remove the first barbarian village that has cropped up by the clams in the NW. The village is cleared with no great difficulty, and razed to the ground in 350 AD - it was one tile away from where I though a city ought to be. I'm trying to build the Sistine Chapel and the Great Lighthouse - either would be a great benefit, and since I have a monopoly on theology, I figure my odds at Sistine are fairly good. My cities are beginnig to look slightly more respectable now (having been lacking earlier due to my odd tech research choices), although the capital in particular lacks production. Time to switch to slavery and explore the power of pop-rushing (although in the event I pop-rushed exactly nothing- I discovered that after building a settler or worker, as with other builds, the excess hammers carry over to the next build, except with settlers and workers food is also turned into hammers. This has the result that the turn after you complete a worker, you can actually use a fair amount of food towards the production of a normal build. I built city walls in 3 turns using this method, in a city with 2 hammers production, by putting one turn of work in between each worker or settler).

We slowly expand and develop, facing only a slighlty tougher challange than usual from barbarian swordsmen and axemen in the south. 820 AD comes around, and we complete the Great Lighthouse. Doesn't actaully make any difference at this point, since with closed borders all our trade routes are internal, and make no net profit.

We continue expanding and aggressively spreading christianity in our cities through the use of missionaries. Still need to improve our defense along the Spanish border before switching though.

In 1060 AD, Egypt declares war on the Arabs. Neither of them are anywhere near us, so it is unlikely to have much effect as far as we are concerned. By this point, America is first in GNP, Manufacturing, food and land area. Things are beginning to look good.

1200 AD proves to be a major year for the Americans. We have all but settled the peninsula, and there isn't anywhere good for the other civs to put down any cities now. We convert to christianity, at the risk of angering Isabella, but we intend to try and spread our religion to her first anyway. We also sign as many open borders agreements as we can to finally end our isolationism and get some foreign trade going. We jump from 0/0 import/exports to 46/43, 2nd in the world. We are 2nd in life expectancy and population, 4th in military power and popularity, and 1st in everything else. We also start to build Caravels to go and find the fabled lost 7th civ, and circumnavigate the globe. We try to trade world maps, but no-one is biting. Most refuse to trade, and Egypt wants more money than we can give her right now. The Mongols refuse to open borders, but we give them a gift of corn for a while in an attempt to sweeten them up. It's probably fruitless: the alliances on our continent seem to be splitting up as Spain, Egypt and America against Arabia and Mongolia, with Germany managing to remain rather neutral (cautious) with regard to everybody. At the moment, I'd rather join the Egypt / Spain axis.

We also decide to have a change of civics, intrducing vassalge, theocracy and serfdom - faster workers and 8 experience for new units will help me explore my military options.

In 1230 AD Genghis once again turns up with a demand for a tech. We again refuse, with a good idea of what is coming. The Mongols declare war. Unfortunately, they are the biggest power after us, and probably have the biggest military. Our border cities have 2 longbows, but precious little else in the area. Scouring round my neighbours for some allies doesn't yield any results. I can't persuade anyone to join in, or even stop trading with the Mongols. On the plus side, his two nearest cities down there both have christians in them, and they are kindly feeding me information. He doesn't have a strong force in the area - only a Keshik and a War Elephant in immediate position to cross the border, and only one more WE, one spear, 1 catapult and 1 maceman that can turn in in the next few turns. I can also try to make use of my open borders with Isabella to attack the Mongols from Spain and retreat across the border to avoid his troops.



The Mongols send 4 war elephant / Keshik pairs into my lands to do some pillaging. These are disposed of for the loss of one catapult, but 6 or so tiles are pillaged and need to be reworked - the loss of two towns is probably the hardest part to replace,sice they take a while to regrow. After this, Genghis is ready to make peace, but I want to do some damage to him first, so I look to attack Old Sarai, although it had 5 catapults and 2 longbows defending it, so it might be a tough proposition. My attack force is 2 knights, 1 war elephant, 1 mace, 1 sword, 1 crossbow, 2 catapults, which probably isn't enough, but we'll see how things go (usually the phrase that comes before a crushing defeat). By 1370 AD we are ready to roll, and as an added bonus get our first great person of the game - a scientist. He'll go to make an academy in Washington. Tech-wise we are also heading for economics, for the free great merchant.

We do a little pillaging, and fight a few defensive battles that cost us 1 knight, but him 2 keshiks and a maceman. Counterattacking and pillaging has left our units rather exposed though, and our odds against the city aren't great, so in 1390 AD we are prepared to accept peace along with 220 gold in war reparations from the Mongols. Somewhere in all this fun, Egypt and Arabia made peace as well, so peace reigns once again on our continent. We now have the military to crush and invasion pretty swiftly, and can set about improving our cities again, and trying to establish a tech lead - we are running fairly evenly with the other civs at this point.

We have survived our first war, managed to avoid quarreling with Isabella, although her being the smallest civ possible helps. We were first around the globe to get the bonus movement at sea, and our demographics are pretty healthy.



Now that granaries and grocers are being built in most cities, our happiness and health constraints are over for a while. Genghis has slipped from 2nd to 3rd during our little war, and I'll probably have a shot at taking a few of his cities once I get a few more post-gunpowder units in the field. Isabella would be a much easier target, but she's fairly friendly (by her standards) and much more willing to trade with us. I've managed to get christianity into a few of her cities, and am hoping that this will help her attitude slightly. Germany is my other main evangelical target now.

The state of the world, 1440 AD. Not found England yet...

[DeepO]

Re: playing on Emperor

Originally posted by Thrar
275AD: Saladin founds Christianity. Ok...never mind. Some people will trade Calendar now, but Drama is not enough for them, even though Calendar is already known by all 5 of them.

Thrar: when a tech becomes available is depending on how many people have it, but the price of a tech doesn't go down if you are last to get it.

So, if you want to buy a monopoly tech, there are very few AI willing to give it. It depends on their character: some AIs will give you tech once you would be 3rd to get it. Some when you're 6th to get. Some will never give it, no matter how far behind you are.

Of course, your relation, the impact of a tech (e.g. wonder tech, or leading to a religion tech, or resource tech), and how advanced you are will also be a factor.

Price, OTOH, is purely dependent on diplo stance, impact, and relative tech advantage (might also be score related, but that's more or less the same thing: If you're behind you will be liked more than if you're in front.). It doesn't help to research half of the tech: you won't get a reduction. It also doesn't help to wait until everyone else has the tech: you still pay the same.

DeepO

[lockstep]

Noble difficulty

With my first great artist (Homer), I drop a culture bomb in Atlanta in 560 AD. A few turns later, an American revolt starts in Old Sarai, but Genghis Khan manages to keep the city. In 840 AD, Old Sarai finally revolts and joins America . I exchange wine with Genghis for silk (the very wine within Old Sarai's city radius ).

I make a bid for philosophy to found Taoism, but someone else beats me to it. Isabella demands that I convert to Judaism, I decline. I guess she'll attack me as soon as I show some military weakness.

A potential big mistake in 680 AD: I use a great engineer to rush Notre Dame in Boston, but notice afterwards that he only added 620 shields, which means 2 turns are still left to build the damned wonder. I succeed in the end, but vow to myself to check the 'rush' button very carefully from now on.

With San Francisco (founded 900 AD) and Los Angeles (1020 AD), I complete settlement of the American northwest. I also finally manage to found another religion (Islam) in 940 AD. Should be useful for more gold and happiness, but I guess it's too late to go for a cultural victory.

In 1060, shortly after Genghis declares war on Bismarck, he demands iron - as he is far behind in score by now, I give it to him. Somewhat later, he wants me to join his war. I have been neutral towards Bismarck up to now (also traded a few luxuries), but the Khan is my best buddy in this game. So I declare war on the Germans and send a token war elephant to the front to do some pillaging.

Around 1100, I switch to bureaucracy and pacifism - at this point, I have every tech that the AI's have, and then some. In 1160, I build my first caravel. I'm also able again to run 90% science without a deficit . I build the Spiral Minarett (more cash) and hit the 5 million population mark.

In 1240, my caravel discovers the 7th civ - the English. I also research gunpowder and enter the Rennaisance era.

[lockstep]

I don't have a screenshot from 1240, but here are two shots from dropping my culture bomb to make Old Sarai flip.

Atlanta before:

[lockstep]

Atlanta afterwards: